Predator314's Poker Journal

2008-11-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

Needless to say, this blog is dead, but not my blogging in general.

My poker blog: http://www.donkatlife.com

My weight loss blog: http://www.pickonthefatkid.com

2008-02-15T21:35:00.001-08:00

Yea! I won the $1 rebuy blogger tourney... 1st MTT of the year.

In more important news, I have a big chipstack with 57 ppl left in the $75 Big Double tournament (B tourney). BBL.

2006-02-14T07:57:00.000-08:00

New Website!

I've moved this blog to a different web host. The new address is:

http://blog.bankrollhelper.com

If you have my site linked, please update your links.

2006-02-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

Snow snow snow. We got a few more inches of snow last night. I was really hoping we'd have a whole winter without this shit. It just makes bad drivers worse. So instead of braving the roads today, I decided to phone in to work. Fuck a bunch of work and snow and Monday.

So instead of work, I clocked into my other job. I fired up 4 tables on Party and proceeded to donate. I decided to move up after getting my bankroll back to healthier levels this weekend. I have a really healthy bankroll for $3/6 and even marginally healthy for $5/10, so there really isn't any other reason for me to play $2/4. I think I just felt more comfortable with the stakes.

Anyway, I had to do some research to find some decent $3/6 tables. I was able to find 3 juicy games and one decent one. I proceeded to destroy one table and then get destroyed on the other 3. Nothing really of interest, just one horrible hand I played. I'm not sure I would have made the mistake at $2/4, but I sure as hell did here:

Party Poker 3/6 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qs, Qd.

UTG raises, 3 folds, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls, Hero 3-bets, 1 fold, UTG calls, MP3 calls, CO calls, Button calls.

Flop: (16 SB) Kh, 2d, 6h (5 players)

Hero bets, UTG folds, MP3 calls, CO folds, Button calls.

Turn: (9.50 BB) 3c (3 players)

Hero checks, MP3 checks, Button checks.

River: (9.50 BB) Ah (3 players)

Hero checks, MP3 bets, Button folds, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.50 BB

Results in white below:

MP3 has Qh Ac (one pair, aces).

Hero has Qs Qd (one pair, queens).

Outcome: MP3 wins 11.50 BB.

Would someone please help me pull my skirt up and bet that turn? Also, the river call was horrible too. I just felt sick in my stomach about that whole hand. It was at that point, I decided, if I wasn't going to play right, then just quit right now. So I got in the groove and ended up breaking even for the session after being stuck a bit.

I'll be playing some more throught the day. I'm datamining the tables right now looking for some fresh fish. I always thought table selection was over-rated, but I'm starting to change my tune.

In other news, this could possibly be my last update at this address. I am moving my blog over to my own domain (for the new project). I'll post a re-director link on this page sending you in the right direction. I'm waiting for the DNS servers to update right now.

I'm going to just leak a little info on my new project. It's going to be a poker community/hangout type site. Some things I plan to do:

- Offer rakeback/bonus/bankroll help plans for various sites
- Poker Chat Room
- Message Boards
- Blog Hosting
- Full Blog Roll with a blog of the month each month
- Articles

I have a lot of work ahead of me before launching the site. I want everything to be as "automated" as possible. So, it will be awhile before it is launched. However, I'm going to go ahead and move my blog over there. You also might have to bear with me as I learn the WordPress application.

2006-02-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

I played a couple more hundred hands this afternoon and ran well. I just wanted to post an update with a couple "interesting" hands.

Hand #1: I got a bit lost on this one and really didn't expect to win the pot. I figured the BB had JJ. Make sure you check what the villians were holding on this one.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with Kd, Kc.

4 folds, Hero raises, 1 fold, Button calls, SB 3-bets, 1 fold, Hero caps, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (13 SB) 5h, 8d, Jh (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Hero caps, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (12.50 BB) 7c (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

River: (21.50 BB) 4s (3 players)

SB checks, Hero checks, Button checks.

Final Pot: 21.50 BB

Results in white below:

SB has Qh Td (high card, queen).

Hero has Kd Kc (one pair, kings).

Button has Kh Ts (high card, king).

Outcome: Hero wins 21.50 BB.

These next 2 hands were against the same retard. The first hand was my first run-in with the guy, so I was a bit lost. The limp-reraise is what had me playing so careful:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9c, 9d.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 4 folds, Hero raises, 2 folds, UTG+1 3-bets, Hero caps, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) 3s, As, Ks (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (5.75 BB) 8c (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (5.75 BB) Jd (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 7.75 BB

Results in white below:

UTG+1 has Tc 8h (one pair, eights).

Hero has 9c 9d (one pair, nines).

Outcome: Hero wins 7.75 BB.

This second hand, I should have capped pre-flop in hindsight. However, I decided, no matter what cards I had, I was just going to check-call down unimproved against this guy:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 8h, 8d.

5 folds, Hero raises, 3 folds, BB 3-bets, Hero calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) Tc, 2s, Kd (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Turn: (4.25 BB) 6s (2 players)

BB checks, Hero checks.

River: (4.25 BB) 9d (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 6.25 BB

Results in white below:

BB has 5c 6d (one pair, sixes).

Hero has 8h 8d (one pair, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins 6.25 BB.

Here's my graph for the weekend so far:

2006-02-12T08:38:00.000-08:00

Well, another 500 hands this morning. Although, not the results I was looking for, I still had a winning session. I was stuck big right off the bat. In the first 50 hands, I had kings cracked 3 times and Jacks cracked once. That's not a good way to start.

However, those hands don't bother me that bad. I even laid my kings down on the turn on one hand with a Jack high board. Nothing really brilliant, I just knew I was beat. One dude called down and I was right, dude had a straight.

I've been working on selecting better tables lately. I took some advice from TeddyFBI that I read in his blog (http://www.zbasic.com/pokerblog.html). He claims his 3.5 BB/100 win rate over hundreds of thousands of hands are due to good table selection and making good laydowns. If you haven't checked his blog, please do so. It's one of the best out there.

Some interesting hands from today.

Hand #1. How not to play pocket kings:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with 5h, 3c.

UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 2 folds, MP3 calls, 2 folds, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: (6 SB) 4h, 2d, Ad (6 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, MP3 folds, SB folds.

Turn: (5 BB) 7s (4 players)

Hero bets, UTG calls, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls $2 (All-In).

River: (8.50 BB) 2c (4 players, 1 all-in)

Hero bets, UTG folds, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 10.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has 5h 3c (straight, five high).

UTG+1 has Tc As (two pair, aces and twos).

UTG+2 has Ks Kh (two pair, kings and twos).

Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

I had to double check to make sure I had a stright there. That hasn't happened in months it seems.

Here's a hand where I was totally lost and played like a fuckin 6 year old girl:
Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Kc.

2 folds, MP1 calls, 3 folds, Button calls, SB raises, Hero 3-bets, MP1 folds, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) As, 3s, Js (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (8 BB) 6d (3 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, Button folds, SB 3-bets, Hero calls.

River: (14 BB) 6s (2 players)

SB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 16 BB

Results in white below:

SB has 6c Ah (full house, sixes full of aces).

Hero has Ac Kc (two pair, aces and sixes).

Outcome: SB wins 16 BB.

Shoot me now. I know I should have saved at least 2 bets on that one.

I'm not sure if I could have done anything better on this hand. It's just one of those things. Villian was a total lagtard. His stats were 50 VP$IP/30%PFR/~3 AF:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Kh, Kd.

Hero raises, UTG+1 3-bets, 3 folds, CO caps, 2 folds, BB calls, Hero calls, UTG+1 calls.

Flop: (16.50 SB) 6d, 3s, 7h (4 players)

BB bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 folds, CO calls, BB calls.

Turn: (11.25 BB) 2c (3 players)

BB bets, Hero raises, CO calls, BB 3-bets, Hero caps, CO folds, BB calls.

River: (21.25 BB) 3h (2 players)

BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 23.25 BB

Results in white below:

BB has 7d 7s (full house, sevens full of threes).

Hero has Kh Kd (two pair, kings and threes).

Outcome: BB wins 23.25 BB.

Overplayed??? Against any other opponent I'd say yes. Against this guy, I figured him for A7 or something like that. Guess I was wrong.

That's enough hand histories for today. I'm going to go watch some bowling. I'm supposed to be sitting in that audience today on ESPN, but snow kept me away. Fuck a bunch of snow.

After bowling, I'm going to wash some clothes, play some poker, and work on my side project. Speaking of the side project, I'm going to try to have a full blog roll. So if any of you reading have a blog, then email it to me (leonardw@gmail.com).

Until then, don't let your meat loaf.

Challenge graph so far:

2006-02-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Here you go folks... an up-beat post. I actually had a good day on the tables. It's been awhile. I've forgotten the feeling. It sure is nice putting 75BBs back in the wallet though.

As you can probably tell, I've fell in love with this Poker Patterns software. It really helps on a downswing. You can pull up a graph of all hands and see the ever-rising slope as the line moves right. And that downswing? Well, it doesn't look so big in the scheme of things.

Here's my graph and stats so far for this challenge:

Hands: 10,453
Pace: -4,547 (ugh)
Winrate: -0.34

2006-02-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

This game is mean as hell. Up, down, Up, down. I'm really starting to loathe it.

Here's my graph for yesterday and this morning. This is typical of most of my sessions this month. Steady rise, then lose a couple huge pots on the river, then up, then lose big pots.

2006-02-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

Yep... this is ulgy:

2006-02-10T05:40:00.000-08:00

I'm about to wave the white flag. Over 1000 hands yesterday and another 90 big bets down the shitter. Hi, my name is Wes, and I'm the biggest fish on Party Poker.

Here's the hand of the day:

I get AK in middle position. Folded to me and I raise. BB is the only caller. He's a loose aggressive nut.

Flop comes 663 (suits unimportant).

He checks, I bet, he check-raises, I re-raise, he caps.

Turn comes a 2

He checks, I bet, he calls

River comes a Q

He checks, I check.

He turns over AQ and takes down a nice pot.

Now, I'm not saying I played this hand great or anything, but I made a decent read based on this donkey's past play. And there's my reward. This is the way it has constantly been since early December and it's really starting to take a toll on my brain and my bankroll.

It looks like there might be some good news on the horizon. Evidently Party Poker has bought Empire Poker. Now I have an account on Empire worthy of 27% rakeback. It would be oh so sweet to see the Empire tables rejoin the Party network and me get my rakeback.

2006-02-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

I came to a realization today. Maybe I haven't been running as bad as I think. I was thinking about my play today and going over some hands. I realized one big thing. I'm giving these donkies way too much credit.

I'm just now going back to the full ring game world after spending over a year playing only short handed poker. I don't think I've fully shifted gears. It all comes down to the fact that I'm making horrible call downs. There's a small... teensy weensy ... maybe even non-existant percentage of players at these low limits with the ability to pull off turn check raise bluffs and river raise bluffs.

My problem. It seems so many times, I'm getting raised on the river. Especially during this run where my dominating hands are getting dominated. For instance:

Let's say I'm on the button with AK. Middle position raises and I 3 bet and we get heads up going to the flop. The flop comes A-x-x. He bets, I raise, or he checks, I bet, then he calls or raises. Flop action doesn't matter. I'm taking control of this hand regardless. Now the turn comes a blank. The action goes check, bet, call. I'm feeling good about my hand. The river comes a Jack. The action goes, check, bet, check-raise. Uh oh. Now we've got a good size pot here. I'm about 99.9% certain I'm beat here. Now I'm about 100% certain, I'm making a crying call here. But honestly, what do I beat other than a bluff? I still think it would be a mistake to fold here just because of the pot size and the odds it is laying you.

Now, let's change the action again. Same hand as above except this time I get check raised on the turn... now it gets interesting. Again, what do I beat here? I have TPTK, but the average and even above average $2/4 players just don't have the balls to check raise me on the turn with just TPGK. I think I should be laying these hands down. The problem is that I'm calling them down, which will cost me 2 more bets just to "be sure". A huge percentage of the time, I was right and just wasted at least 2 bets. Occasionally, I will luck out against them.

I guess it's all situational and depends who you are up against. All I know is that I'm calling down too much when I KNOW I'm beat. What good is working on your reads if you never trust them?

I'm going to work on trusting my reads and not calling down so much.

Yesterday was a decent day. I did decent bowling (shot a 221 in my 2nd game), we took 6 of 8 points to remain in first. I only played a couple hundred hands of poker where I won about 15 BBs.

Some bad news came yesterday. Party shut down my rakeback account. They had closed both accounts and I was told that I could tell them to close the old account. They had none of that nonsense. My only option was to close the new account. So, as the rakeback nazi says, "NO RAKEBACK FOR YOU!".

Tonight, I'll get back on track. I don't have any plans other than poker. I'll also get you an update on this trainwreck of a challenge I have going on.

2006-02-08T06:47:00.000-08:00

No poker content today. I didn't play any at all yesterday. I took a much needed break.

Yesterday was a simple, but decent day. I worked (actually a calm day where nobody bothered me), went to my mother's house and ate dinner, went home and watched That 70's Show and then American Idol (can I have that hour of my life back?), then popped in the movie, Go, and fell asleep watching it.

Lazy days...

I hope everyone noticed the free $50 post from yesterday. I'm gonna keep this blog as spam free as possible. I just wanted to get word out.

I'm actually starting up a side project to hopefully help both my bankroll and those struggling poker players out there who need a boost to their bankroll. This project is still in the design phase, but will be rolled out soon. I'll make an announcement here when it's ready.

I got an email from Belle Rock Casino about my cashout. Turns out I had already wagered like $975 or something like that, so I had exceeded the necessary wagering requirement for a cashout. All I had to do to make it official was deposit $50. So I deposited $50 and immediately cashed out almost $450. Kickass. I hope that doesn't turn me into a slots junkie. Whatever it is, it helped recoup 100 BBs back into my bankroll.

Tonight is my bowling night. So, I'll be tied up with that until around 9:00 or so. Then I'm going to try to get in a few hands of poker. I probably won't get the desired number of hands in because I'll be washing clothes at the same time. I think every piece of laundry I own is dirty. One more day and I'll either have to start re-using dirty underwear or go commando.

Peace out.

2006-02-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

Offer for people that do not currently have a Full Tilt Poker account:

If you do not currently have a Full Tilt account, I will give you $50 if you sign up under my account.

To get your free $50, you must follow these steps:

1.) Click on the banner at the top of the page and download the software
2.) Sign up for a new account
3.) Make a minimum $50 deposit
4.) Aquire 100 Full Tilt Points (can be done in as little as an hour)
5.) Email me with your Full Tilt screen name

or if you would rather have 20% rakeback instead of the $50 free dollars, you can email me.

2006-02-07T05:14:00.000-08:00

Another day, another loss. I had every intention of not playing any yesterday. I just wanted to take a break and clear my head. That didn't happen. I held off until I watched High Stakes Poker on GSN. Then I got that urge. So I fired up Party Poker and proceeded to donk off another 30BBs.

I started off slow, not really getting any cards. I was down 25BBs in about 100 hands. Then I hit a few good pots all in a row and got back to even. I thought I was going to go on a run, but it was just a tease. I got beat to death. It's not really bad beats technically. It's just crap like my Queens getting out flopped by KQ. Or, I'll flop 2 pair and my opponent flops a set, or I'll flop a set and it get counterfeited by 4 to a flush or straight. Just hands where I can lose the maximum amount of money. I'm just cold-decked as hell.

I also tried to bonus whore me some bankroll money yesterday. I deposited $90 into Intercasion to take advantage of their 100% deposit bonus. I tried to work it off playing blackjack. Well, I can only remember the dealer busting twice. So, I busted out there before even working off 10% of the bonus.

However, I also signed up for River Belle casion to take advantage of their free $25. I've run it up to almost $400 playing the Big Kahuna slots. I think I still have to deposit $50 and play some more to be able to cash that money out. Their terms aren't very clear, so I'm waiting on a response from their customer service team to see what is required there. The way my luck is going, I'll never be able to claim that money.

The highlight of my evening was watching High Stakes Poker on GSN. I feel for ya Danny boy. His run of cards is about as bad as mine. I also learned that "Farha" is Lebanese for "Luckbox". I love the show and I have newfound respect for Todd Brunson. His comment on that Sheik fucker was priceless. Something along the lines of "Sheik is an idiot and I think he will lose all his money". Jerry Buss has no business in that game. He's not going to ever get paid off unless he runs into a monster vs. monster hand. I think Jen, Todd, Daniel, and Eli are just waiting on Farha's luck to run out. Sheik's got the best seat in the house, sitting to the left of Farha, but he's not good enough to take advantage.

Tonight, I'm just going to grind out some hands. That's really all I can do. Sooner or later, these cards are going to turn around and allow me to win.

2006-02-06T05:18:00.000-08:00

... with visions of bad beats running through his head.

I've never had a real problem with going on tilt. I get steamed once in a while when the cards are not running right for me, but it's usually short term. And always when I close out my tables and go off to do my own thing, I never think about my bad session again. Not yesterday though. I'm not sure what happened to me. I guess it's just a combination of the insane bad run of cards I had and running bad for a month and a half. There was really nothing I could have done yesterday other than not play.

I played somewhere around 900 hands before I finally gave up. During those 900 hands there were two separate "mouse chunking" incidents. Wireless mice and online poker do not go together. In my computer room, I have a Scarface picture on the wall that I won at a fair. On one hand, I lost a HUGE pot to a runner runner flush and I went off taking my mouse and actually aiming for my Scarface picture. Luckily I missed and my mouse hit the wall just below. Also, my mouse luckily didn't break. Good thing I'm not John Smoltz.

I let yesterday's session get too me too much. It carried over to when I bowled in a tournament last night. I just couldn't focus. All I could think of was the bad cards. Then when I got home, I played some more (like a dumbass), and more of the same happened. That carried over and affected my sleep. I had the hardest time getting to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, one of those hideous hands started streaming through my head. Once I finally got to sleep, I woke up 3 or 4 times to the tune of a bad beat dream.

I'm not so sure why yesterday bothered me so bad. I've had worse days. I was down almost 100BBs at one point. I did get it back to only lose 70BBs for the day though. I guess it's a combination of the pressure of this challenge, the month and a half long bad run, lack of sleep, and who knows what else.

I feel much better today after a good 3 hours sleep. I had told myself to take the day off today from poker. However, for some damn reason, I'm in the mood to play again. I'm not sure why either. I figured this challenge would burn me out on poker for a while. However, it's just fueled my craving to play even more.

There was some good that came out of yesterday though. In my ever advancing old age, I have been trying to keep a positive outlook on life and not let things bother me. If I do poorly in something, at least try to learn something.

For instance, on Saturday, in my big bowling tournament, I had such high hopes of winning some good money. I bowled good in the first 2 games, but just didnt' have any pin carry and didn't score well. However, on the 3-6 games, all the oil had burnt out on the lanes and I just haven't bowled those conditions very often. My scores dipped way down in games 3,4, and 5. However, in game 6, I went seeking some advice from a pro. The dry lanes were destroying me mentally. He noted how good I was throwing the ball, but just wasn't getting it over on the right side of the lane to give it a chance to break into the pocket. After a few pointers, I went out and bowled my best game of the tournament and it felt good.

So what good did I find in the yesterday's poker session? On the tough hands, where I got beat at the showdown or had to lay the hand down, I was 100% correct on my reads. These are just hands that I can confirm what my opponent had (whether he showed, or went to showdown with another opponent or something like that). It was scary. 100 fucking percent I knew what my opponent was holding. You'd think that would translate into a winning session? In all honesty it did. Making those reads saved me so many bets. So a 70BB losing session could have easily been 100 or even more.

I haven't decided whether I'm going to play tonight or not. If you would have asked me last night, it would have been an emphatic NO! However, I'm in the mood right now. Who knows how I'll feel this evening when I get home from work. I'm going to eat with my parents when I get off work, then I'm going home. I'll just "wing it" from there. I know I'll be tuned into GSN at 9:00 though to watch the High Stakes Poker. I love that shit.

2006-02-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

Ever have one of those days when you feel "lost" at the tables? So far, it's been one of those weeks. I couldn't do anything right today.

I'm not going to bore you with details... I'll just say it was the donks' day to win. Let's just show you stats so far for the challange:

Hands: 7,128
Pace: -1,872
Winrate: +0.03 BB/100 (Yeah!)
Days Remaining: 21

2006-02-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

Fuck, what a horrible day on the tables. I got beat to death. I can't say I'm not on tilt right now because I just busted my mouse into a few pieces. Bad cards, Bad Beats, and Bad flops. That sums up this challenge so far.

2006-02-04T07:14:00.000-08:00

I played another 400+ hands after my last update. Here are my stats so far:

Hands: 6,178 (23,822 remaining)
Pace: -1,822
Win Rate: 1.09 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

2006-02-03T22:06:00.000-08:00

I played 1,249 hands tonight. I still feel like I'm running bad, but I won at a rate of 1.98 BB/100 tonight. Not that great. I just keep losing some huge pots when my sets run into 4 to a flush and shit like that. Oh well. I'm off to bed to get some rest for the tournament tomorrow.

Stats:
Hands: 5,746 (24,254 remaining)
Pace: -2,254 hands
Win Rate: 1.29 BB/100
Days Remaining: 22

2006-02-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

I'm going to move up in limits for real this time. I'll wait until after my challenge is over. My bankroll can really withstand playing $5/10 right now, but I'm overhauling my game and paying bills with poker money at the same time, so that's why I've been slumming it at the $2/4 tables.

The problem with $2/4 is that I can make enough money to pay all my bills, but my bankroll just isn't growing. Now that I'm back on the rakeback wagon and playing good poker and getting a bunch of hands in, I'll have plenty saved up to go to the $3/6 games.

One other reason, I've been playing $2/4 instead of $3/6 is because table selection is much easier. Good tables are more difficult to come by in the $3/6 level. However, there are plenty of retards in this world, so I'm sure I can find some decent ones.

I'm going to stick with the full ring game tables for right now. I'm burnt out on short handed play and the swings I endure. I was looking at my stats for $3/6 (full) last year. I had over 110,000 hands at that limit with a 2.87 BB/100 win rate. That's $18,000+. I need to quit cashing out and buying guitars and homes and shit.

So, I'm not going to make any cashouts unless it is an emergency. I want my bankroll to grow so I can play the higher stakes.... where they respect my raises (sarcasm for the humor impaired). I don't know if the $15/30 games are as juicy as they once were, but I want to give them a shot. That's a long way off though and I've got points in my game that still need work.

Here's a long term plan to summarize things:

1.) Finish my 30K in 30 days challenge
2.) Move up to $3/6 and play at least 100,000 hands
3.) Move up to $5/10 (probably 6 max) and take shots at the $15/30.

Right now I'm focusing on figuring out how to squeeze in 25,000+ hands by the end of this month.

This evening, I'm going to hit the tables as soon as I get home from work. I can get at least 2 hours of play in before I hit The Club for some musical goodness. I probably won't get to play any afterwards because I want to get a good night's rest for tomorrow's big bowling tournament. It all depends on how long it takes me to get fed up with the drunks. I'm too old for bars anymore. The only time I go is when there is some good live music.

Speaking of music, I want to plug these guys: JC/BC. They are an acoustical, classic rock cover band. However, some of the members are also part of the rock band, A Noted Author. There are some songs to listen to on the "A Noted Author" page and also on the lead singer, Bob Campion's page.

2006-02-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

Way behind pace, but I had a decent day today. I got in about 730 hands today to the tune of 5.22 BB/100. I really felt like I ran bad today, but I guess I did OK.

I'm playing under my new Party Poker name. The identity will be kept secret. The good thing about this account is .... RAKEBACK! This will help the bankroll big time. I haven't had a good rakeback payout since Party split from the skins. I get 24% on this account. I figure I'll have a really good rakeback payment for February with this challenge.

Here are my stats so far in this quest:

Hands: 4,497 (25,503 remaining)
Pace: -2503 hands
Winrate: 1.09 BB/100

One thing I realized during this quest. 30,000 hands is quite a bit for me. If I were playing full time, this would be a breeze. I could probably swing 50,000 hands.

I'm going to have to buckle down and try to catch up. I'm going to try to double up on my hands tomorrow night. It's going to be tough because there's a band playing tomorrow night at The Club that I'm gonna go watch. Then Saturday night, I'll probably get a shitload of hands played. I'm bowling in a tournament Saturday, but I don't have plans that night and I'll be too tired to want to do anything else.

2006-02-02T05:58:00.000-08:00

Quick update. I'm way behind on the challenge now. However, I have been spending every free moment I have playing poker. But there's already been 2 days in the stretch where I haven't played a single hand and then another where I only got in about 650 hands.

I'm still running poorly. But the games are good and hopefully soon the numbers will turn in my favor. I'm jamming a shitload of money in the middle when I got the best hand just get outdrawn on the turn or river. It happens.

2006-01-31T06:17:00.000-08:00

Fuck me. I didn't play a single hand of poker last night. I had a monsterous headache when I got home and all I wanted to do was sleep. So, I'll just have to make up for the extra hands by playing more hands in the upcoming days.

I knew when I set this challenge for myself that there was no way I could sit down for 30 days in a row and play exactly 1000 hands a day. I just need to get some 2000 hand days in on the weekends and maybe sneak in 1500 hands here and there. So, I'm behind pace, but only by about 800 hands or so. I don't have the exact stats here at work.

I did watch the High Stakes Poker on GSN last night. That is probably the best piece of poker TV on right now. It kicks the shit out of any tournament poker I've seen on TV. Plus Gabe Kaplan is actually a good host.

Some notes of intrest from last nights shows (I watched the re-run of last week too):

- Daniel Negreanu is the man. His reading skills are excellent. I'm not talking about the 9-2 hand either (that was scary), but in particular the way he played the 3-7 offsuit hand and the way he played the K9 suited hand where Barry Greenstein rivered him.

- Jerry Buss is weak tighty. No way he can be a winning player.

- That Shiek guy is in dire need of an ass whoopin'. How the hell does this guy have enough bankroll to be playing that game anyway?

- I think the Dr. guy is one of the fish at the table.

- When Sammy Farha sits down, he creates action. But let's be honest, this guy played like a donkey last night. It's just a matter of time before he gets busted.

- Doyle is a sourpuss. I also have a feeling he's become somewhat of a fish in his old age.

- I think Jen Harman is slightly "out classed" at this table playing No Limit. Don't get me wrong, she's an excellent player, but if they were playing limit games, she would be back even with the field or slightly above the rest.

I really like the cash game on TV thing. I wish they would just stick a camera over table #1 at the Bellagio and let us watch the "Big Game". I would rather see their regular game than just a no limit holdem game. Especially the 2-7 triple draw which I've fell in love with at UB, but try to stay away from it.

I also wish they would give us some more info on the prop bets that are going on.

2006-01-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

Got a few hands in at lunch and won a little bit. This hand was my favorite:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
3 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (3 players) Hero is BB with :kc :8c
Button raises, SB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: :6d :2c :tc (4.33SB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero raises, Button calls.

Turn: :qh (4.17BB, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

River: :ts (6.17BB, 2 players)
Hero bets, Button folds.
Uncalled bets: 1BB returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: 6.17BB

This was my last hand:

Full Tilt Poker
Limit Holdem Ring game
Limit: $3/$6
4 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is UTG with :kd :qd
Hero raises, Button 3-bets, SB Caps, BB folds, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: :2s :3d :7d (13SB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

Turn: :6c (8BB, 3 players)
SB bets, Hero calls, Button calls.

River: :9d (11BB, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, Button folds, SB calls.

Results:
Final pot: 13BB
Hero showed Kd Qd
SB mucks Ac Tc

Normally, the KQ would have been mucked facing 2 more bets before the flop, but the SB was a total LAGtard and was raising EVERY hand.

2006-01-30T05:47:00.000-08:00

Today, the real test begins with this challenge. This will be the first day of the challenge where my job gets in the way. I don't really forsee any problems tonight because I have no plans other than eating dinner with the folks. However, when I get home, I'll fire up Party Poker and get to work.

There are a couple speed bumps in the next 30 days which might make it difficult to get my hand quota in. I have a bowling tournament next Saturday. I think I'll be OK on that one, because I can just play late into the night. I usually do that anyway. Then the week after, I'll be in Parkersburg, WV for the Denny's PBA event. I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. You can look for me on ESPN at 12:30pm Eastern on February 12th. I'll probably be the guy being escorted out by security.

I just need to stay ahead of the game and get extra hands played on the days where I have time. It really doesn't take a long time to play 1000 hands when you're 4 or 5 tabling.

I've got the DVR scheduled to record the High Stakes Poker on GSN tonight too. I caught the tail end of the premier. Then I forgot about it last week. Finally, I got around to plugging it into my DVR to record it. For those of you that haven't seen it, it is a high stakes cash game shown on TV. The week I watched, I saw Negreanu with a million dollar stack. I think it comes on at 9:00pm Eastern.

Lastly, here's an interesting stat from my challenge:

Winrate for my first 158 hands: -20.49 BB/100
Winrate for my last 3002 hands: 2.40 BB/100
Put them together and you get: 1.25 BB/100

2006-01-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Boo yah! Practice and determination finally paid off tonight. I've been saying all week how 2nd place wasn't good enough. I wanted to win that bowling tournament.

I started out slow in the qualifying tonight, throwing 3 splits in the first 5 frames. It was looking grim. Finally, I kept my composure and threw some strikes to finish with a 174. In the 2nd game, I bowled a 220. Good game. I kept a clean sheet in that one. The last game of qualifying... well... I had no ball reaction and bowled a 145...bleh. However, with my handicap, I was able to qualify 4th and made it to match play.

My first match was a good one. I had a few pins handicap on the guy. I started off throwing 2 tanks which left ringing 10 pins. I went a little on tilt. Finally, I strung together some strikes late to come back and bowl a 202. The other guy bowled a 203, but with my handicap, I won.

In the semi-finals, I had to bowl my good friend and teamate. That was a bad beat. I started off strong and finished poorly, throwing a 188. It was good enough to win though as my friend bowled a 171.

In the finals, I got a kid that had beat me before. We were close to even on the handicap. I started off with a split...wait... the 5 pin fell just before the pinsetter came down, leaving just the 7. I then threw a 5 bagger and stayed clean up to the 10th, which I opened after leaving a 10 pin and missing it. I finished with a 203, forcing my opponent to strike out to beat me. He didn't and I am the new king of the hill.

Hopefully, I can carry this momentum into next Saturday's tournament and take home that $1500 prize. Wish me luck.

2006-01-29T15:25:00.000-08:00

Stats update:

Hands: 3,160
Pace: +160
Win Rate: +1.25 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

It's been a pretty good day. I've managed to get myself out of the red and actually have a decent win rate for this challenge. So far today, I'm running like 6.8 BB/100 or something like that. My aces are still getting cracked all over the place. Usually by some donk that will cap the turn with an open ended straight draw.

I'm off to bowl. Wish me luck.

2006-01-29T08:04:00.000-08:00

I've played an additional 502 hands since my last post. And, happily, I've continued my winning ways. I was way up during this session, but then I had aces get cracked twice within 5 minutes. Both to runner runner flushes.

My heart skipped a beat on one hand though. I was playing the bad beat jackpot tables when this hand came up:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Ad, Jd.

UTG raises, 1 fold, Hero calls, 2 folds, CO calls, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Kd, Qd, Td (5 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, Hero calls, CO calls, SB folds, BB folds.

Turn: (6.50 BB) 6d (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO calls, UTG calls.

River: (9.50 BB) Qc (3 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, CO folds, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 17.50 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has Ks Kh (full house, kings full of queens).

Hero has Ad Jd (straight flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 17.50 BB.

I'm not entirely happy with the way I played the hand. In hindsight, I guess I should have 3 bet before the flop. Had it been AJ offsuit, I would have folded. AJ suited is one of those in-betweener hands to me. However, this guy turned out to be a LAG with a good hand, so I could have gotten more out of it. Anyway, I was so excited to see that river card, especially when we went into a raising war. I was screaming at the top of my lungs "QUEENS QUEENS QUEENS". The BBJ wasn't that high, but I would have received about $12,000 if he would have turned over quad queens.

Anyway, I'm gonna go shower and watch some bowling. Then I'll be back on the tables this afternoon. I gotta get my hands in early today because I have a bowling tournament tonight. Last week I got 2nd in the tournament. This week, I'm wanting first badly. Wish me luck.

Stats:

Hands: 2,819 (27,181 remaining)
Pace: +819
Win Rate: +0.69 BB/100
Days Remaining: 28

2006-01-28T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today has been "testy" to say the least. I've played around 1000 hands today. For the first 600-700, I did nothing. I took some hideous beats of the runner runner variety, hit set over set hands, two pair to set, things like that. However, I hit some good pots to offset that run. Then all of the sudden, it's like a switch flipped and I started winning.

Here are some interesting hands today:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (10 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ks, 4s.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 calls, 3 folds, CO calls, Button calls, 1 fold, Hero checks.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 2s, 4h, 4c (5 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 calls, UTG+2 folds, CO folds, Button folds.

Turn: (3.75 BB) 2d (2 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

River: (5.75 BB) 8d (2 players)

Hero bets, UTG+1 raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG+1 caps, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 13.75 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ks 4s (full house, fours full of twos).

UTG+1 has 2c Ac (full house, twos full of fours).

Outcome: Hero wins 13.75 BB.

right...

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with 6h, 6d.

UTG calls, 1 fold, MP1 raises, 2 folds, Hero calls, 2 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (8.50 SB) 2c, 8h, 8d (4 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, MP1 checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls $1.50 (All-In), MP1 calls $3.50 (All-In), Hero raises, BB calls.

Turn: (8.25 BB) 5s (4 players, 2 all-in)

BB checks, Hero bets, BB folds.

River: (9.25 BB) Ts (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: 9.25 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 7h Qh (one pair, eights).

MP1 has Qd Js (one pair, eights).

Hero has 6h 6d (two pair, eights and sixes).

Outcome: Hero wins 9.25 BB.

I love when people get low and just give the rest of it away.

Here are 4 hands that I got consecutively on one table:

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ah, Jd.

3 folds, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, Hero raises, MP2 calls, CO calls, Button calls, SB calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Ac, Ad, Qs (5 players)

SB folds, Hero bets, MP2 calls, CO folds, Button folds.

Turn: (6 BB) 4s (2 players)

Hero bets, MP2 calls.

River: (8 BB) 5s (2 players)

Hero bets, MP2 calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ah Jd (three of a kind, aces).

MP2 has 4d Ks (two pair, aces and fours).

Outcome: Hero wins 10 BB.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (8 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ah, Kh.

2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, CO raises, 1 fold, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, CO calls.

Flop: (13 SB) Kd, Ac, 2c (4 players)

Hero bets, BB calls, MP2 folds, CO folds.

Turn: (7.50 BB) Th (2 players)

Hero bets, BB calls.

River: (9.50 BB) Qd (2 players)

Hero checks, BB bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ah Kh (two pair, aces and kings).

BB has Jh Ad (straight, ace high).

Outcome: BB wins 11.50 BB.

Party Poker 2/4 Hold'em (9 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with Qd, Ah. CO posts a blind of $2.

1 fold, UTG+1 calls, 3 folds, CO (poster) checks, Hero raises, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls, CO folds.

Flop: (6.50 SB) Ts, Ad, Kc (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls.

Turn: (5.25 BB) Qc (2 players)

UTG+1 bets, Hero raises, UTG+1 calls.

River: (9.25 BB) 5h (2 players)

UTG+1 checks, Hero bets, UTG+1 calls.

Final Pot: 11.25 BB

Results in white below:

UTG+1 has Th Kd (two pair, kings and tens).

Hero has Qd Ah (two pair, aces and queens).

Outcome: Hero wins 11.25 BB.

and the next hand was the pocket 6's hand above.

I'm off to watch a bit of TV and relax. I'll probably be back on here in a bit to get a few more hands in.

Stats so far:

Hands: 2,317 (27,683)
Pace: +317
Win Rate: -0.73 BB/100
Days Remaining 29

2006-01-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm playing so good right now, it's unbelievable. I'm still losing, but there's not much that I can do about it. I'm saving so many bets on these losing hands, so the losses could be worse. I have got a bit back from my 60BB slide last night, but it will come if I stay focused like I have been the past 16 or so hours.

I played about 700 hands this morning. The tables were unbelievable for early morning. I plan on trying to play at least 2000 hands today, so I can get a jumpstart on this challenge.

Here are my stats through 11:30am:

Hands: 1,710 (28,290 remaining)
Pace: +710 hands
Win Rate: -3.50 BB/100

Hands that are losing me the most money so far: KQo, JJ, AJo, QJs. Honorable mentions go to AJs and ATs.

2006-01-27T21:01:00.000-08:00

Well, there's good news and bad news. First the good news.

1.) I'm ahead of pace for my 30K in 30 days. I played about 1050 hands this evening. It didn't take that long either. This might be easier than I thought, but I reserve judgement.

2.) There are still TONS of donkeys out there willing to put A LOT of money in the middle with very bad hands.

Now the bad news:

1.) Man did I run bad today. I got kicked in the balls right and left. I won't bore you with the details. I made a small comeback, but still lost about 60BBs tonight. If I'm gonna run 2 BB/100, I need 600 BBs.

I played very well tonight. Probably the best poker I've played in a long time. I made good reads all night long. I also stayed off tilt for the most part, although there was one hand where I almost slung my mouse across the room. I stayed out of "auto-pilot" mode too. If I keep playing like this, I should be very happy in 29,000 more hands.

I might play a little bit more here in a few, but for right now, I'm gonna go relax a bit. Here are my stats so far:

Hands: 1,033 (28,967 remaining)
Pace: +33 hands
Win Rate: -5.90 BB/100

2006-01-27T08:56:00.000-08:00

And so it begins....

In about 7 hours, I begin my quest to average 1000 hands a day for 30 days.

I've been limbering up. I've got the doctor on speed dial in case I need emergency carpal tunnel surgery. It's on now bitches.

When I accomplish this challenge, it will be the most hands I've ever played in one month. It will also be a great boost the bankroll. I'll have $2400 extra money to play with plus rakeback. This will put the bankroll up there where I can comfortably play $3/6 6 max and take occasional shots at $5/10.

2006-01-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

Best hand ever...

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5c, 5h.

UTG calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (6.50 SB) 9d, 4c, 9s (3 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB calls, UTG calls.

Turn: (4.75 BB) 5s (3 players)

BB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets, BB folds, UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG calls.

River: (10.75 BB) 7s (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

Final Pot: 12.75 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 8c Kc (one pair, nines).

Hero has 5c 5h (full house, fives full of nines).

Outcome: Hero wins 12.75 BB.

This guy sucked out on me 23523523525 times yesterday. I got his ass back today. Although, he got me a few times, I busted him in the end.

I had to deal with some asshole talking shit to my fish though. Here's the sequence of events. First the hand:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5c, Ac.

UTG calls, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: (8 SB) 9s, 4d, 5d (4 players)

SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets, Hero raises, SB folds, BB folds, UTG calls.

Turn: (6 BB) 3h (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG calls.

River: (8 BB) 6d (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 10 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 3d 7h (straight, seven high).

Hero has 5c Ac (one pair, fives).

Outcome: UTG wins 10 BB.

The the chat (names changed to protect my fishies):

Fuckstick: Hey [donkey], if you have money to waste, just transfer it to me... you suck a**!

2 hands later, my money man sitting directly to my right logs off.

Me: Hey [fuckstick], how does it feel to be a dipshit?

Readers of this blog, take note! From this point forward, if I catch you berating my fish, I will unleash my vengence on you. Just ask some of my close friends what kind of vengence I can unleash. No information is 100% secure in this world. Don't be surprised to have a Gay Man-whore show up to your office and tell you (in front of your co-workers) that you should get yourself to the clinic ASAP.

That is all.

SO...well... in other news, I'm moving back in tonight. I got the carpets cleaned yesterday and everything in the house looks great. All I have to do tonight is put my bed back together and I'm in business.

Also, I'm starting the challenge tomorrow evening. I've have no plans for tomorrow evening except to play some mf'n poker. So, at 7:00 pm, on Friday, January 27, the 30,000 hands in 30 days with a 2 BB/100 winrate challenge begins.

30K in 30 Days Challenge Countdown:
Hands Remaining: 30,000
Days Remaining: 30
Win Rate: 0.00 BB/100

2006-01-25T11:34:00.000-08:00

How to transfer online funds from one poker site to the next without using Neteller: First, you need to log onto PokerStars and have a good +40BB or better session. Then you quit and try to sleep.

Now here is the tricky part. You must be battling a case of insomnia while trying to sleep in a strange bed. So, get up to get a glass of milk and check out the action on Full Tilt poker. Witness the biggest fish you've seen in a long time sitting at your limit. Then decide to join. Play 50 hands and lose 60BBs to that fish. Go to bed.

Next morning, wake up and log back into PokerStars, then win another 25+BB's.

When all is said and done, you gain a few BB's and a couple extra bucks in rake rebate and a good deal of FPPs.

Next lesson: How to survive a 375BB losing streak without blowing a gasket.

2006-01-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

Things are finally starting to turn around on the poker tables. I got a decent session in this evening, playing 534 hands and winning about 40 BB's. It was a disappointing win though. I was a fucking card rack today. However, like usual, I was getting runner runnered to death.

The games on Poker Stars are fantastic right now. I'm having a hard time playing anywhere else, including sites where I get rakeback.

Here are some highlights from the evening:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ac, 5c. MP posts a blind of $2.

1 fold, MP (poster) checks, Button calls, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (4 SB) Tc, 2c, 5s (4 players)

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

Turn: (5 BB) 4c (3 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, MP folds, Hero 3-bets, BB caps, Hero calls.

River: (13 BB) Kh (2 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB calls.

Final Pot: 19 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac 5c (flush, ace high).

BB has Ah 3h (straight, five high).

Outcome: Hero wins 19 BB.

Stone cold nuts bitches.

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with Kd, Qd.

1 fold, MP calls, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB 3-bets, 1 fold, MP calls, Hero calls.

Flop: (10 SB) Td, 2d, Ks (3 players)

SB bets, MP calls, Hero raises, SB calls, MP calls.

Turn: (8 BB) Qs (3 players)

SB checks, MP checks, Hero bets, SB raises, MP folds, Hero calls.

River: (12 BB) 4d (2 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.

Final Pot: 16 BB

Results in white below:

SB has Qh Kc (two pair, kings and queens).

Hero has Kd Qd (flush, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 16 BB.

I do get lucky once in a while. I was scared to 3 bet on the turn because it was getting beat to death at the time and the guy was playing fairly straight forward, so I had him on QQ.

And now, the not so pretty:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Ad.

UTG raises, 2 folds, Button 3-bets, 1 fold, Hero caps, UTG calls, Button calls.

Flop: (12.50 SB) Ts, 9h, 6s (3 players)

Hero bets, UTG calls, Button raises, Hero 3-bets, UTG folds, Button calls.

Turn: (9.75 BB) 6h (2 players)

Hero bets, Button calls.

River: (11.75 BB) 8h (2 players)

Hero bets, Button raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 15.75 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac Ad (two pair, aces and sixes).

Button has Kh Ah (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Button wins 15.75 BB.

I damn near folded to that river raise, but ... well, I didn't

and finally... my favorite hand of the evening. This guy was beating me to death early, but then I finally started taking every dime he had. This was the nail in the coffin:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is Button with Kd, Tc.

2 folds, CO calls, Hero raises, 2 folds, CO calls.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 8s, 3s, 8d (2 players)

CO checks, Hero bets, CO calls.

Turn: (3.75 BB) 8c (2 players)

CO checks, Hero checks.

River: (3.75 BB) 4c (2 players)

CO bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 5.75 BB

Results in white below:

CO has 5c 9c (three of a kind, eights).

Hero has Kd Tc (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins 5.75 BB.

LOL, then I got a nice lesson on poker in the chat window. I just told him that I stared into his soul. Actually I just insta-called, because I knew he was gonna bluff at it.

So, I have some cleaning up to do tomorrow and then on Friday, I need to rent a shampoo'er for my carpet and it looks like Saturday is the official day for the start of my challenge. Maybe Sunday depending on if everything is moved back to its normal place.

2006-01-24T13:22:00.000-08:00

I went to the house yesterday to check on the status of the repairs. Everything was almost looking normal. So I should be moved back in maybe tomorrow or Thursday. I just have to shampoo the carpets and move the furniture back.

Hopefully this means that I can start my 30,000 hand challenge Thursday or Friday. I have played a little bit today. Maybe 75-100 hands. Just donking around at lunch time. I did win some good pots though.

This evening, I'm in search of a carpet cleaner. Then I'll probably clean things up and hit the sack early. I haven't slept well the past couple nights.

2006-01-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, one more post for the day and it's poker related! Yay!

Every now and then, usually on a monthly basis, I will post my goals for the month and/or year. However, I normally set these goals too high. Now I have become accustomed to not reaching my goals and it does not bother me like it used to.

So this post is to not state a goal, but a challenge. Some sort of motivation for me to play.

My challenge is going to be for the next 30 days, play 30,000 hands of poker. That's an average of 1,000 hands per day for those of you that can't divide. Not only do I challenge myself to get in all these hands, but I'm going to shoot for a 2.0BB/100 win-rate in the process. All of these hands will be played at the $2/4 limit. More than likely short handed.

I wanted to add the 2.0BB/100 stipulation, because I'm trying to actually improve my game and stay out of "autopilot" mode while I play.

Now let's work the numbers:

Goals:
30,000 Hands
2.0 BB/100 Hands

Results if the goal is obtained: +$2400 to the bankroll not counting rakeback.

The extra $2400 plus rakeback will be an awesome shot into the arm of my bankroll. It will also allow for me to move up, and I'll have a since of accomplishment. I won about that much in both October and November, but I was running extremely hot those 2 months and didn't get nowhere near 30,000 played hands for either month.

There's only 1 drawback. I'm not starting the challenge right now. It will probably start sometime this week. I have to get moved back in before I can start.

I just need to start playing more. My motivation is back to play, however, I'm just not making the time to play. I also need to get my brain used to playing 1000+ hands a day. I used to do it all the time, but now it just seems like I'm having difficulties. However, if I want to meet my yearly goal of poker winnings exceeding my salary, I'm going to have to play A LOT more.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I don't intend to cash out any of my winnings this year unless it is for an emergency? That's not a goal or a challenge, just an intention.

2006-01-23T06:38:00.000-08:00

2 for 1 special today:

Post #1: This was supposed to go up Friday, but I got tied up before I could post it

Well, I finally had a winning session of poker and now I'm ready to make a run as a pro. There's a bit of sarcasm in that statement, but also a bit of truth in it as well. I'm capping off a hellish week.

First, on Monday, I have a water line bust in the wall and fuck up my home. That really has nothing to do with work, but it was just an omen for how my week would go. So on Tuesday, I have to go to Richmond, VA. Now, I've been through Richmond and around Richmond, but never actually IN Richmond. Let me tell you something, people make fun of WV, but it's thousands times better than Richmond, VA. That is the biggest scum hole on the fucking planet. Worse than DC (except for the traffic). The business I had to work out closed at 4:00pm just so they could get out of there before the sun went down. In the 3 days I was there, I had about 10 different people trying to bum money, I had some retard at a bus stop jump up and down repeatedly and sing to me, and while I was eating lunch, I got to see the police bash some idiot's skull against the trunk of their car. Superb place, this Richmond, VA.

Also the people I was working with were a bit high strung to say the least. The main woman that I was training was .... let me try to put this politely as to not offend.... A FUCKING BITCH!

I came straight home and hit Monster.com. I actually had a job offer this week, but turned it down. It was a sys admin job for some rocket center about 5 hours away.

Anyway, after having a shit week, I escaped into a little online poker. Even when I was way down at one point, I was at peace. Nothing was bothering me. It's bad when losing insane amounts of money is more relaxing that your job. I guess my tranquility prevailed in the end and I ended up having 2 winning sessions yesterday. Both after being down close to 50BBs in each session.

So, I've been playing without direction or motivation lately. Even though the motivation is rapidly returning, I'm still without any goals to shoot for. So here's the long term goal: win more money this year than my gross salary for my job. It should be fairly easy if I stay motivated. Even after month long losing streak and dropping down to limits less than half what I was playing last year, my overall hourly rate is better than my approximate hourly rate at work (I'm a salaried employee, so I just guestimated the rate). Also, it's not like I'll be stuck at $2/4 forever. Eventually, I'll get moved back up to the $5/10 or even $15/30 games and making some good money.

That goal is a long way off money-wise, but not that far away time-wise. Some obstacles that I see are 1. burnout and 2. summer. I usually don't play that much during the summer, but if I want to achieve my goal, I will need to play regularly all year long, especially now that I'm scraping bottom at the $2/4 games.

Post #2 for today
I played a little bit of poker yesterday despite being fairly busy. I won just a little bit. A win is a win and I'm trying to focus on long term results (hard to do when you're stuck 300BBs). Anyway, I'm quite a bit of poker played the 2nd half of this month. I'm just going to keep plugging until I start winning again or lose it all. I'm still a good ways off from losing my bankroll though. However, I think the poker gods owe me at least one huge winning day soon.

I got the bill for my water damage. $1200. Normally I could just pay for it out of my poker money, but ... well you know... poker sucks these days. So, I had to take it out of my savings account. The good news is that I'll probably get moved back in to my place this week. I have been going over there to play poker because my monitor kicks ass and my parents' monitor sucks ass.

Some personal life tidbits (Felicia, you can stop reading now).

- I got 2nd place in the bowling tournament last night. My highest finish ever. I'm making some adjustments in my game and my consistency is off, but my game is improving rapidly. This time last year, I was averaging below 150. My average now is 181 and rising.

I'm really really into bowling right now and I'm getting un-official coaching from 2 PBA members and a house pro. Usually every time I go to practice, one of these 3 are available to me and I'd like to thank Daniel, Dwayne, and Jason for all their free help. It's starting to pay off.

- Those of you that know me personally, know that I'm a fairly conservative person. I think of myself as more middle of the road that most conservatives, however, there are a bunch of uber-liberal nuts out there that just turn my stomach. The majority of these nuts can be found in Academia, pushing their rhetoric on un-suspecting college students that are there to 1.) Learn and 2.) Drink beer. I heard this story on the radio this morning and it brought a smile to my face. It might be old, but I'm passing it onto my readers anyway:

A Marine was attending a college course between missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The professor, an avowed atheist, shocked the class one day when he walked in, looked toward the ceiling, and said loudly, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform.

I'll give you exactly 15 minutes."The lecture room fell silent and the professor began his lecture.

Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God - still waiting."

It got down to the last minute when the Marine stood up, walked toward the professor and threw his best punch knocking him off the platform and out cold.

The Marine went back to his seat and sat down The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence.

The professor came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the Marine and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you did that?"

The Marine calmly replied, "God is busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to behave like an idiot and say stupid shit. So He sent me."

That story really hits home with me. Although, more than likely fiction, I had to put up with this shit for 4 years. I was even un-fairly failed in class because of my political views when I was a freshman. It's becoming and epidemic in this nation and its unfair.

The problem is that most high school students really don't have any political views when the go to college. The professors know this and like a bunch of vultures, use this as an opportunity to push their beliefs onto the students. I experienced it day in and day out during my years.

In my English 101 class, I had the pleasure of getting a femenist as a professor. Every piece of literature we had to read was about feminism or some sort of babbling about how the male species sucked. Every lecture dealt with the same issues. Finally one day, I got fed up and had a meeting with the professor.

In the meeting, I told her that I felt the class was a load of shit and asked her if she ever intended to let the class view the other side of the spectrum. She basically blew me off as some punk kid that didn't know what I was talking about, so I just laid it out for her. I was going to to do the assigned work, but I was not going to attend any more of her lectures because 1.) She was full of shit, and 2.) I had better things to do with my time. She said that would be fine. Normally, dropping the class would be the correct play here, but it was beyond the drop-date, so this my only chance.

I wrote every paper assigned in the class. I read every piece of bullshit she assigned. Everything was done on time. The only thing I didn't do was sit in her class and and soak up the BS she was putting out. Suprise Surprise, come grade time, I get a big fat F. So then, I went through the whole process of getting my papers re-graded by an un-biased party and filing a complaint with the dean. Long story short, nobody on the faculty would take my side, so next semester, it was English 101 all over with a better professor.

I got a good story about another dipshit professor, but I'll save that for another time. Until, then, peace out.

2006-01-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

I played a decent amount of poker yesterday and today. Overall, I got almost 2000 hands in. All of them at $2/4 6 max. I could have just not played and been in the same place. I started out by losing about 50BBs in the first 800 hands, then I won them all back in the next 200. Then lost another 50BBs, then won them all back again. Break even poker. Good enough for January I guess.

I feel like I should just be racking up. However, I'm still getting rivered right and left. I'm also flopping 2 pairs against sets and shit like that. It's killing me right now. I was dealt Aces 8 times today. I'm getting some good starting hands and they do really well on the flop and/or turn. I can't complain though, I'm playing better and better every day. I've been just a bit gunshy, but I'm starting to get those ever important extra value bets in there on my winning hands.

And to those of you that say that the games are drying up. Well, I got one word for you......HAHAHHAHAHHA. I've seen so much donk action today. The games are good.

Here was my highlight hand of the day. I missed 2 small bets by just calling in the big blind, but it's something I sometimes do to disguise my hand. I also hate AJ, but this one worked out:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is BB with Ac, Js.

3 folds, Button calls, SB raises, Hero calls, Button calls.

Flop: (6 SB) Jh, Kh, Ad (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) Ah (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button raises, SB calls, Hero 3-bets, Button caps, SB calls, Hero calls.

River: (16.50 BB) 4h (3 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, Button calls, SB folds.

Final Pot: 18.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ac Js (full house, aces full of jacks).

Button has 2h 7h (flush, ace high).

Outcome: Hero wins 18.50 BB.

2006-01-19T15:46:00.000-08:00

Well, life dealt me a bad beat on Monday. I came home and could hear water rushing. Bad news. A supply line to my washer busted and made a mess. So now I have to replace part of my bedroom floor and part of the laundry room floor. It's just been that kind of month for me.

On a good note, I actually won at poker today. I was way up, then way down, then ended up 25BBs. Here's the hand of the day:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is SB with Ad, 6d.

3 folds, Button raises, Hero 3-bets, BB calls, Button calls.

Flop: (9 SB) Js, Qd, 3d (3 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Button folds, Hero 3-bets, BB calls.

Turn: (7.50 BB) 9d (2 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB caps, Hero calls.

River: (15.50 BB) Tc (2 players)

Hero bets, BB raises, Hero 3-bets, BB calls.

Final Pot: 21.50 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Ad 6d (flush, ace high).

BB has Th Ks (straight, king high).

Outcome: Hero wins 21.50 BB.

It has been too long since I had one of those.

2006-01-16T11:10:00.000-08:00

Everywhere I go people annoy the shit out of me. It always seems like everyone is looking out for #1 and piss on the rest of the world. It's all about me me me. Did I miss the memo that says you have to be an asshole these days?

The majority of the annoying people I see are on the road. I spend a lot of time driving. I have about a 90-100 mile per day round trip commute with my job. I also travel a bit due to my job. So many drivers are certified pricks out there. I'm usually filled with road rage on a daily basis. The ones that really get on my nerves are the assholes that can't decide whether they want to drive 90mph or 50mph. They are usually on a cell phone paying no attention to the world outside their vehicle. I'm a cruise control guy. I set my cruise on 75mph. So I'm going a constant rate of speed regardless of whether it's uphill or downhill.

The other drivers that I wish I had a license to kill are the ones that think just because the sign says "Right lane closed 500 feet" means they got another 499.999 feet to pass cars. Because heaven forbid they lose those precious 3 seconds stuck behind us lowly safe drivers.

I could go on and on about drivers being dick heads, but you've all been there. Just heed my advice, use your cruise control on the interstate. If you want to haul ass down the road, go ahead, but for the love of God, be consistent! If you're going to drive slow, keep your ass in the right hand lane. The left lane is for passing, not for getting in my fucking way.

Another place that people get on my nerves is the shopping centers. Now, that I'm bacheloring it up on my own, I go grocery shopping about once every week or 2. My frequency has died down lately because of my hatred for putting up with the hassle of shopping. Old ladies are the worst. They have to look through every carton of milk to find the one with the ultimate expiration date, therefore making you wait. Keep your nasty paws off my milk please.

Another group of shoppers that annoy me are the people that decide to congregate in the middle of an aisle and discuss the fuckin' weather, politics, or the old chick with the nice ass bent over checking all the milk expiration dates. It gets horrible around Christmas time. If you're gonna chit chat, at least move to an open part of the store. Get out of my damn way.

I can't remember the last time I went 24 hours without another person irritating the shit out of me. This list is endless:

o The chick at the drive-thru that decides she's going to order $60 worth of food (usually buying lunch for the office)

o The people at the bowling alley that go outside to smoke and stand directly in the doorway so everyone has to walk around them

o The high maintenance customer that feels for whatever reason that they are more special than the rest even though they paid the same amount of money as another customer which never calls.

o Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd

o The whiney brat at the poker table who is so superb at poker that this was the first bad beat he's had in his life

o The 14 year old girls at the mall that dress like hookers and smoke just to be cool (at least inhale)

o Telemarketers and spammers

o The nosey neighbors

o The cocksuckers at the restaraunts who can't go 30 minutes without talking on the cell phone

o TV Journalists that pretend like they care (i.e. Katie Kourek and Matt Louer...sp?)

o The people that will hold up traffic and wait for 5 minutes for the other car to pull out of the parking spot, just so they don't have to walk that extra 20 feet.

o The COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKING SUPPOSED MILLIONAIRE THAT OWES ME $425, but calls me wanting to sell me a cell phone. People close to me know who I'm talking about. Fuck you!

If I sit here and think about it, I could probably make a list a mile long of people that irritate me. It's a shame too. I'm not sure if I'm just getting old or what, but it seems to get worse every year. Everyone is all caught up in themselves. I try to take at least a few minutes out of my day to think about others. It's a good habit to get into. Also, have respect for other people. You'll find, you get treated better by those same people in the long run. When you go into a public place, turn off your cell phone. If someone says "Excuse me", take the hint and get the fuck out of the way. For long time assholes that want to convert to being good folk, follow these tips and you'll be ok. 1.) Take at least 1 shower every day and brush your teeth, 2.) Learn the terms "Excuse Me", "Please", and "Thank you". That's it. The world would be 10 times better if everyone would follow those 2 simple rules.

It's getting so bad, in fact, that I just avoid places where I have to interact with other people. Some may think I'm a social misfit or something like that. This isn't true. I have plenty of good friends and most of them feel the same way I do. Those who don't, still respect my opinion and I respect theirs. This is how the world should be folks. Slow down, yet move at a steady pace.

Just some insight into my brain.

2006-01-15T08:53:00.000-08:00

VARIANCE IS HIGH.... I REPEAT... VARIANCE IS HIGH.

or

I just suck at poker. Played 541 hands today for a loss of $64. I was winning big early in the session. Everything was hitting for me and I thought this was going to be the day. However, about mid-way through the session, Lee Jones stuck it in my cornhole and pushed the doom button on me.

I've been using Poker Tracker to find out where I'm leaking money during this worst losing streak of my life (well over 300BBs at this point). It looks like my biggest losses are coming from beats that I'm taking where I have the villian dominated. My AK hands are losing to KJ, AQ losing to KQ and things like that. So that's good news. There are some other things I need to clear up, but everything looks mostly kosher as far as the way I'm playing. I feel good about my game and my spirits are still high. Unfortunately, the bankroll isn't. Such is life in the short-handed world though.

I've achieved my Silver Star status in the VIP club on Stars, but for some reason, I was thinking the iPod Nano was only 8000 FPPs. I went to buy it and noticed that it was 16,000 FPPs. I'm not sure if it changed from the first time I looked or if I'm just and idiot. Probably the latter. So I still got a ways to go for that.

I also think I'm going to start playing some more full table poker. Maybe a change in the games will spark the poker gods to shine on me for a while. I'll probably go to Party for the full table games.

Some interesting stats from 12/1 through today:

The following long term winning hands for me are losing money during this horrendous streak: AK suited, AQ offsuit, AT suited, QQ, JJ, TT, 88, 77 (big time), and 66. However, over the last 100,000 hands here are the stats for the same starting hands:

AK suited: +0.74 BB/Hand
AQ off: +0.39 BB/Hand
AT suited: +0.43 BB/Hand
QQ: +1.24 BB/Hand
JJ: +1.22 BB/Hand
TT: +0.87 BB/Hand
88: +0.50 BB/Hand
77: +0.12 BB/Hand
66: +0.20 BB/Hand

The above numbers include hands during my losing streak. I couldn't figure out how to get the 100,000 prior to the beginning of the downswing.

Another stat: Over the last 100,000 hands, suited connectors are a net winner for me (+0.12 BB/Hand). During the downswing they are actually still winning (+0.07 BB/Hand) which is surprising to me.

I would really like to know how my numbers stand compared to the others that read this blog and have poker tracker. I would post the numbers on 2+2, but that would be like comparing apples to oranges. Most 2+2'ers play a different style than me. I'm about 5-10% looser on my VP$IP than the average 2+2'er. My VP$IP hangs around 29% and my PF Raise is around 18.5%. The average 2+2'er stays around 21-24% in short handed games, which I think can surely be winning, but not optimal. I rely on position and aggression to win money. I try to squeeze as many bets as I can when I have a winning hand. From reading the Short handed forums on 2+2, they seem to be too quick to go into call-down mode.

Also, I'm talking about the typical 2+2'er. There are a select few posters in the group that play more loose and more aggressive, and make good reads all at the same time. Their bankrolls show it too. These are the guys that I like to read. However, they spend too much time in the OOT forum and not enough time giving me some insight into their games ;)

Lastly, I really need a faster computer. My laptop is fairly fast, but Poker Tracker brings it to its knees. Especially when using the Filters feature using all my recorded hands. I tried installing the Postgresql to convert to that, but something keeps going wrong in the conversion. There's a problem with my database and it takes MS Access to fix it. I don't have Access, but I think we have one somewhere at work. I just need to find it.

2006-01-14T05:33:00.000-08:00

Holy shit, I actually have a LITTLE bit of poker content today. I was going to play some poker last night, but fell asleep very early. As a result, I was wide awake at 7:00am. So I fired up Stars and Full Tilt. I played about 300 hands and lost again. However, I played as well as I could. I just didn't get a lot of hands... again. I only lost like $24.

I started using TiltBlocker again. I'm not sure why I quit using it in the first place. It's amazing how something so simple can help so much in keeping your head on straight. I actually thought I had a big losing session.

I'm going to try to get at least another 700 hands in today. My DVR cable box broke....again, so I have a 4 hour window where I have to be here today. If they are going to have the house call people working on Saturday, why not open the main office, so I can just go there and exchange the box personally, when it suits my schedule? Cable providers, telephone providers, banks, and the post office are all retarded in my book. But that's another post for another day.

Today's poker music: Damn Yankees

2006-01-12T05:35:00.000-08:00

Well, I need to rename my blog I guess. Predator314's Poker Journal is too misleading considering I haven't played more than 2000 hands in the past month and a half. Most of my recent posts have been about my personal life anyway. This one will be no different.

Yesterday was a good day for me. I got plenty of sleep the night before. Also, I did something Tuesday evening that I'm very proud of, yet I can't really tell anyone about it. Let's just say it was was for the good of all mankind. Only a select few very close friends know what I did and they are very proud. The only reason I'm keeping it a secret is because of the fallout that will/could possibly ensue as a result of what I did.

Last night was league bowling night too. I bowled decent the first 2 games, but sucked the last game. My scores were 181, 194, 147. The 181 was actually a crappy game because I had 3 strikes in the first 3 frames, then a 9-spare, then another strike, then I sucked the rest of the game. It should have been a huge score. Oh well, our team took all 8 points and we are a perfect 16-0 this quarter.

I'm attempting to try to make myself somewhat interested in college basketball since it is the only thing on TV these days. I watched parts of the WVU game while I was bowling last night. Then when I got home, I watched some of the Duke/Maryland game. However, it wasn't very interesting and even though I've seen it 298937 times, Meet the Fockers got most of the viewing time.

Tonight, I'm just going to chill out around the house and hopefully get to bed early. I have to go to Mocksville, NC tomorrow for work. I think it's only about 2 hours away from my house. Plus I don't have to spend the night or anything, just down and back. Hopefully my installation will go well and I can get home early.

2006-01-11T05:58:00.000-08:00

I really cannot stand basketball. I do go to a few of the local high school games every year. But that's just because it's my alma mater and I really go to hang out with friends.

Last year was a little different though. WVU faired very well in the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully this year will be much of the same. WVU handed Villanova their first loss of the season.

I'm actually looking forward to March Madness this year.

2006-01-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Is it Friday yet? It's been a bad week so far. Last week, I didn't go to work any. I was seriously sick all week long with a nasty stomach virus. So when I get to work this week, I gotta hear about missing the entire week and how it affects the company. I know how it affects the company. I don't want to hear about it everytime I am sick and don't feel like being at work.

So I'm at a crossroads here. Where do I want to go in life? Fucked if I know. It's really depressing too. The only thing I know is that honestly hate my job.

Reasons for hating my job

o My boss is a prick. He's not ingorant and he's a pretty damn good salesman. However, I just cannot stand him. He has no sense of humor. He expects nothing in your personal life to affect you going to work. He cannot handle pressure at all and it's embarrassing to be on-site with him when he starts to flake out. Worst of all, he is condescending to others, especially people that work jobs like fast food. I refuse to order with him for fear of getting a loogey burger.

o I have to wear a tie. This really isn't a big deal, but it irks the shit out of me because there is no good reason for it. I can understand being dressed up when going to a customer's location, but we do not have customers here. The only people that come into our office throughout the course of the day are the UPS Man, Fed Ex Man, and an occassional salesman.

o My job is mind numbing work. It's not demanding. Some of my responsibilities include setting up new Windows 2003 and SCO Unix servers for new or upgrading customers, coding enhancements, bug fixes, etc to our software package, technical support, on-site training for new customers, and on-site installation of new servers for new or upgrading customers. It's just mind numbing work now that I've been here for 5+ years and know everything really well. The days pass by VERY slow.

o I dread going to work every day. It's literally work making myself go to work anymore. I don't miss a lot of work, but I do use every personal day and vacation day available to me. I've never had a job where I dreaded going in so bad. I need a job where I actually enjoy going in or at least don't mind it.

o The employees. We are a small company and there are only a couple of employees. I'm the newest, yet I've been here for close to 6 years. The other employees here are good people, just not my type of people. There's no chit chat or anything like that. I'm the only one without kids, and if there is any non-work discussion between us, it's usually about their kids. I need someone I can tell a dirty joke to every now and again to break the tension.

o Travel. When I took this job, I figured the travel would be a nice change of pace. We have customers in various states from Illinois to Florida and most states in between. Most of my customers are in the 5-6 hour driving range. Some of the places I've been to are nice, some are scum holes. I live in a rural community and love it. People put down West Virginia, but I think it's a great state to live in. Hardly any traffic, beautful scenery, and it's just a laid back state. However, with that comes some disadvantages. We don't have any major sports teams and there's not much to choose from as far as concerts/shows go. When I go to Atlanta, I'd like to watch a Braves game or a Falcons game. Not with this job. We work from the time we get there, to the time we leave. We are even expected to work on enhancements in the motel rooms at night.

Good Points of my Job

o I don't have to deal with the general public.
o It's an easy job
o Pays good (not great)
o Free health insurance
o Profit sharing

I'm not sure what I want to do with my life. I do know what I don't want to do. I don't want to work here forever. I'm also not sure of what will become of the company once my boss retires. I'd say he is probably close to 60 years old right now. I've been to his house and seen his toys. The guy is loaded. He doesn't finance anything, so he's liquid too. I'm sure he will be retiring soon. One of these days I'm going to ask him what will become of the company when he retires.

Now that I've been out of school for a while, I have a better perspective on what is important. When I was in school, it was all about the money. So that's what I went for and look at me now. Updating this stupid blog, bitching to the entire world about how much I hate my job.

So if it's not money I'm going for, what do I want in a job?

I want to work doing something that I enjoy. I used to enjoy working with computers, but I've grown out of it. If I am to work in a team atmosphere, I'd like to do it with people more like me. At least someone with a good sense of humor and doesn't always have some sort of drama going on.

I'm not all caught up in "making a difference" in the world. I just want to do something that is fun and I get paid for it.

OK, so now that I've pretty much narrowed it down to something fun, let's take a look at my hobbies and how I can maybe/maybe not make a career out of them.

Hobbies

o Poker (of course)
o Shooting Pool
o Bowling
o Video Games
o Golf
o Music
o Movies/Television

Lets start with poker since this is supposed to be a poker blog. I just don't know if I have what it takes to become a professional poker player mentally. I don't think I'd have any trouble making the money to live life. I have a good winrate. I've survived the ups and downs. But how will I react if I have a losing month and my mortgage payment depends on my poker winnings? How long can I do it for a living? I'm 28 now. What will the poker industry be like in 10 years?

I don't have the writing talent of Otis or Dr. Pauly to become a professional poker blogger/writer. These guys have a very special skill that makes their writing stand out. So if I'm to make a living in the poker industry, it would have to be by playing the game.

Shooting pool, bowling, golf: I don't have the talent in any of these sports to play them professionally. I guess the closest would be pool. However, the life of a professional pool player is not a decent one. Sure, you've got the lucky few who thrive on TV and have big time sponsorships. Most other ones make their money by gambling. Pool has also become a "chemical" sport. I'd venture to say that at least 75% of the pool players that make a living at it are also hopped up on cocaine. I had a well known professional tell me one time that when he was on coke, he could spot God the 8.

Golf is fun to play. But again, I don't have the talent. The guys you see on TV are fucking amazing. A couple years ago, I was playing 3 to 5 times a week and was rapidly moving towards becoming a scratch golfer. It was amazing how much my game progressed from the beginning of the year to the end. Of course that will happen when you play over 200 rounds of golf in a year. As far as working for the golf industry, I'm not sure what I would do. I'm sure there are various office type jobs working for the PGA, USGA, etc. I am qualfied to be a greens keeper :)

Bowling: see Golf. Not good enough.

Video games are intriguing. Development of video games is something that I'm perhaps qualified to do. However, I've looked into it and everything I read is pretty much the same thing. You have deadlines to meet, you've always got someone over your shoulder telling you about the deadline and you work very long days. That's not for me.

The music industry is something that I haven't really looked into a whole lot. I love music. I play guitar, but not well. So don't expect to see me on stage rocking out with Ozzy or anything. However, the industry is so huge, there's gotta be a crap load of stuff I could do. One really fulfilling thing would be to help some up and coming bands/artists break through into the industry. I've listened to a lot of local bands. We got some quality talent in this area. Better than 95% of the shit you will hear on the radio. They can write their own songs, play their own instruments, and actually sing. Seems like a winning combo to me. I'm sure there's a lot of politics in the music industry, but I'm gonna check into careers in the music industry anyway.

Getting work in the movie/television industry would more than likely require moving to L.A. Not a chance. I'm sure L.A. is nice for some people. A country hick like me wouldn't last a month.

One job that interests me that doesn't really fit into any category I've mentioned above is teaching. I'm not good with children, but I wouldn't mind teaching high school students or college students. The college professor route really intrigues me. In my college experience, many professors did their job very poorly. All too many times, they ended up pushing their political and personal opinions on your rather than just teaching the damn class. I'm not sure what the deal is, but from the people I've talked to, it's an epidemic across the nation. I have in-depth knowledge of computers, programming, networking, etc. I currently train customers. Why can't I teach a bunch of hippies how to set up a TCP/IP network?

I apologize for the size of the post. I just needed to get some things out of my head. I'm just going polish my resume and get my name out there and see what becomes of it. Sitting here and bitching about it isn't going to help anything.

2006-01-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone wanna help sort these bad boys out? I never thought I'd see the day when my 20GB iPod was full.

2006-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

Book it... finally a winning session. Just barely.

300 hands, +$11. Bah. At least I didn't lose. I did get into that "groove" I usually get into when I'm playing well. I'm just getting "cold decked". Set over set against a LAGtard and shit like that. Hands where I can lose the maximum amount of money. River card kicked me in the nuts quite a few times too.

I feel better about my game right now though. I'm trying to improve my game greatly this year. I'm not going to be able to do it without building a bankroll back up and moving up. I've been drilling myself to put others on a range of hands. I'm trying to make a habit of calling out what I think my opponent(s) have whether I'm in a hand or not. This helps me stay out of that auto-pilot call down mode. I think this can only help me.

Some things that I plan to do that will help me become a better player are 1.) Play more hands. I'm not playing very many hands right now. Mostly because I'm feeling under the weather, but I'm slowly getting back. 2.) Clean up my work space. My computer room has become junked up and I am in the midst of a project to make this room my game room. 3.) Move up in levels. The $2/4 6 max games are a joke. I'm still beating them for 3+BB/100 despite the month long losing streak (I played very few hands during the streak). I'd like to get back to $5/10 6 max as soon as possible.

Also, the quality of the games have gone down lately on Poker Stars. Of course, I haven't been playing much during prime time hours. However, it seems like there are a lot of FPP whores out there tightening up the games. These people can be profitable too, but just not as much. I'm going to continue with Stars until I get my free iPod, then I'll probably go back to Party. I have an account on Party with 25% rake rebate, but have never made a deposit to it. Mostly because Party sucks, but if I move up to $5/10 anytime soon, that's going to be the most profitable place to play. I'll just have to use my debit card to make deposits because of my neteller account being tied to my old account and Neteller won't allow me to open a new account. When I tried, they locked my old account with all the money in it.

I guess I'll just have to play things by ear when I move up. The only places I play that spread $2/4 6 max are Stars and Full Tilt. I do have rake rebate at Full Tilt. Right now my goal is that iPod Nano, but once that is done, I'm just going to spread my money around and look for the most profitable games. Actual table selection. Although I tend to adjust well to tight/loose tables, I need to spend more time scoping out the fish and trying to find a seat where I have position on them. All too often I have the shitty player on my left and that sucks.

I'm out for now. I probably won't get to play any more today. I'm getting ready to go watch some football and bowling. Then I'm gonna go eat with the parents and then I have a bowling tournament this evening.

Tomorrow is back to work with a big stack of shit to do. Then I'm off to Richmond, VA for 3 days. I'm gonna take my laptop with me and try to find a motel with net access so I can play a little bit. I'm really tired of this travelling. Even though it has slacked off lately, I still have to do it. Richmond is not even close to being to the top of the list of my favorite cities. It seems like every time I go there, I get stuck in the ghetto. I just don't like bigger cities. I'm a backward country fucker. Let me be.

I think I'm gonna polish up the resume and try to find a different career path all together. I've come to hate computers with my previous jobs. I'm ready to try something fresh. I just don't know what. Are there any jobs out there where I don't have to work with the general public? Where I can work alone and not depend on a team atmosphere for things to work properly (there's always a weak link in the chain)? However, I would like to work with a variety of people if that makes sense. With my job right now, there are at most 3 people in the office at one time and I just don't fit in. There's no general chit chat or anything like that in our office. I think it's important to work with people you fit in with and can get along with. Just ain't happening right now.

Enough blabbing for now. My poker confidence is slowly coming back. My desire to play is rapidly coming back. It's going to be a good year. I've built up enough of a real life bankroll to not have to worry about cashing out any poker money, so my bankroll should rapidly grow once I start winning again. I'm still going to be conservative with the bankroll. I'm also going to play less tournaments. I'm just not a tournament player and don't have the patience to play it. I wish there were more limit tournaments available online with decent blind structures. I have yet to find one.

2006-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

Hands: 200
Amount Won: $0.00
FPPs Earned: Not sure... 439 so far this month.

At least it wasn't a loss. I'm actually gonna think of it as a win. For one, when I first started, I was getting seriously COLD decked. Insane shit put me way down. However, I scraped back to even.

Now I'm off to watch some football. My picks for this weekend: Skins, Bengals, Jaguars, Panthers. I'm placing a $5 wager on every playoff game. I did the same for every bowl game and ended up just below even on my picks. I also placed a 4 team Parlay for $5 on this weekends games.

I'm gonna watch some football and clean house. Then I'll debate on going out or not. I need to get out of the house. I'm going crazy. However, I still am not 100%. I'm just holding food down these days.

2006-01-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Hrmmm... maybe I'm just not holding my mouth right. Another day of losing. Although not as bad this time. I played around 500 hands and got the win rate up to an astounding -1.93BB/100. More of the same. I have found myself forcing aggression on some hands. I lost a lot of value bets today just because I've been taking a beating and I'm gun shy. That shit will kill you.

January has always been a bad month for me. Last year, it was my only losing month and trust me, it made up for any other losing month I should have had. I'd say the month of January has probably cost me a few truck payments. I'm bound and determined to turn it around. My spirits are high. If anything, I know I'll get an iPod Nano out of the deal.

I'm blaming this session on my listening music. I got the new Seether album and although pretty damn good, it has cost me some money. I'm changing it up. I'm gonna select a little Nugent for my next session.

2006-01-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

Ugh... I should have quit while I was only minus $90.

493 hands
Amount Won: ($303.00)
BB/100 Hands: (15.37)
FPPs Earned: 200

It got very ugly folks. 2 one outters in the same day. That's a first for me.

So it's been over a month since I've booked a win. I'm a little on tilt right now, but I'll get over it. I kinda want to play some more, but I'm a little afraid. So I'll just stay away. Maybe later this evening.

2006-01-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

I actually played poker today. It didn't irritate the shit out of me or anything. It was actually fun despite the fact that I lost 20BBs or so. I would have won had there not been a river card. It ended up plugging me in the ass a few times costing me a couple huge pots. Including a hand when I was holding AK clubs with 3 clubs on the board and no straight flush possibilities. I bet, villian raises, I re-raise, he calls. River brought four to a straight flush. I bet, he raises, I re-raise, he caps. He turns over K spades, 6 clubs for a straight flush.

I actually had a decent amount of fun playing despite the tough beats. Also, I have a mission that will help inspire me to play. I want to make enough FPPs to achieve at least a SilverStar status so I can buy a new iPod Nano. I almost have enough points saved up, by the time I achieve the 1500FPPs to gain the necessary Silver Star status, I'll have enough.

Edit

Stats for today:
Hands: 345 (2 tabling $2/4 6 max)
Amount Won: ($90.50)
FPPs gained: 122

I'll probably play some more later on. I want to average 2500 hands/week. This is a pretty low #, but I just want to ease back into it.

2006-01-03T04:05:00.000-08:00

LOL, I think I'm gonna cry:

Also, if you would, please keep the trapped coal miners in your prayers. Although, not involved in this incident, a large portion of my family is in the coal mining business.

2005-12-29T10:53:00.000-08:00

Another personal post on this site, just to remind everyone that I'm not dead yet. I'm not broke yet either.

I've played very little poker lately. What little I have played has been shitty. It all just seems like work still, so I'll continue with the break until poker becomes fun again.

Christmas:
I had a pretty good Christmas this year. This was the first Christmas in a long time where I really had no idea what I was getting. I turned out getting some good stuff. Some things I got were: Canon PowerShot SD400 Camera with a photo printer, some much needed household items like sheets (flannel!) and curtains, some cool dishes with Pool Balls on them (tacky, but right up my alley) and matching coasters, a bunch of clothes.

I spent Christmas Eve with my parents at their house. My cousin from Tennessee came in for a while. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew visited for a while. I also slept at my parents house Christmas Eve night.

On Christmas day, we opened our packages and had a nice breakfast. Then we went to my uncle's house for dinner. Spent most of the day relaxing watching football and also ripping shit loose on my uncle's pinball machine.

The pinball machine was a bad idea. I used to spend $50-100/week playing pinball back in my high school days when I hung out at the pool hall all the time. They used to give prizes for the high score each week and some of my buddies and I always had a pinball rivalry going on trying to win the prize. Now I want a pinball machine for my place. The problem is that they are expensive and sometimes high maintenance. I'm going to try to buy my uncle's since he rarely uses it and both his kids are off in school. He's also well aware that his particular machine is going for around $2000 on ebay.

New Years
I'm still not sure what I'm doing on New Years. I'd really like to do something different. Last year, I got hammered at a party one of my friends threw. It was a good time. I would throw a party, but where I live, we have pretty strict ordinances on parties and noise. That's one of the reasons I chose the place. Even then, I still don't have the parking for a good party.

So I will probably end up at a bar somewhere, putting up with hundreds of drunk pricks. I really hate bars anymore. I guess I'm just old. If I get drunk, which is very possible, then there is always the possibility of getting into a fight because the common loud mouth drunk annoys the shit out of me. I don't get mouthy when I get drunk... just a bit on the horny side. Which also leads to its own set of problems.

Other random stuff

Since I'm not playing much poker, I'm still spending some of my spare time with my Xbox playing Madden 2006. It's a very fun game now that I've got all the settings the way I want. All my games against the CPU are very close. I still get my ass handed to me online though. I suck.

I've also been playing a lot of guitar lately. I spent all evening yesterday playing my acoustic. I like playing my acoustic more than my electric guitar. For starters it's a better guitar. It's a Tak EF341SC. The same model Springsteen and Toby Keith play. Pretty quality. It's not a Martin, but for the price (around $700 I think), you can't beat it. I'm having some troubles with my Electric though. It's an Agile AL2800. Just a Korean Made Les Paul knockoff. It was actually a decent guitar when I got it, but now I'm having issues with the cheap electronics and it staying in tune. I don't play the electric much anyway, but I'm putting aside some money for this:

It's a beautiful guitar and not very expensive at around $600 after shipping online. It also comes with the SD JB/59 pickup set which I would probably put in any guitar I buy anyway. My friend has the same guitar except he got the one with a natural wood finish and EMG pickups. I'll probably get one of these as soon as I feel my skills are worthy of an upgrade.

Also, there has been quite a few news items that have just pushed my buttons lately.

1.) The RIAA is back at again, shutting down sites with guitar tablature on them. Now I can see them getting upset at the piracy of mp3's. I mean, we are taking money out of their greedy little pockets. However, guitar tabs are usually not the correct way to play a song anyway. Plus, if I learn a song by ear and write it down so other's can learn it to, how the fuck have I stole anything from them? There has to be a line drawn somewhere and I think that line should have been drawn way the fuck back in the Napster/Metallica days. If we keep letting them push us around, soon, you won't be able to sing in the shower without getting fined.

2.) This is a local story. So if you live in WV or drive through WV for any reason, listen up. The WV turnpike has always had toll boothes as long as I can remember. The tolls were $1.25 for a passenger car and $5 for trucks. Starting January 1, the tolls will rise to $2.00 for cars, $7.00 for trucks. That's a 60% increase folks. It will cost me $12 in fares to drive 1.5 hours to the state capital and back home. It costs a tractor trailer $42 to make the same drive. Nobody voted on this except for the dumbass politicians in charleston. And none of them are owning up to voluntarily voting for it. So why the fuck are they continuing with the increase if nobody voted on it and everyone is against it? Somebody is lying my friends. I've sent emails to the governor, the parkways authority, and to anyone else that might listen. They keep taxing and taxing and then wonder why more businesses won't come to WV. I live close to the VA border and I know of quite a few companies in the area that has jumped the border into Virginia just to avoid the excessive taxes. Everyone I talk to complains about these taxes. SO WHY THE FUCK DO YOU KEEP VOTING FOR THESE COCKSUCKERS?

Ok, I've vented. Y'all have a nice New Year. I leave you with some pics taken from my new digital camera:

Me - unshaved

Me - shaved

My pussy - unshaved

2005-12-19T10:52:00.000-08:00

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas. I've got a lot going on this week. I have to go to Morgantown, WV tomorrow for work. Home of the Mountaineers and one of the biggest party schools in the nation. Too bad everyone is done with their semester and there won't be anyone there to party with. I'm too old for that shit anyway.

Still no poker updates. So if that's what you're looking for, tough shit.

I've still been occupying my time with my Xbox, PSP, and Nintendo DS. Most of my time has been spent playing Xbox and Madden 2006. I've played through almost 2 seasons and I've come to the conclusion that Michael Vick sucks. The only thing he's good for is occasionally breaking loose for a long TD run. Last night's real life game against the Bears proved my theory.

I finally got my Xbox online. I had lost the adapter to my Wireless Ethernet Bridge. I picked up an AC adapter at Wal-Mart while doing some Christmas shopping this weekend. Got to play some Madden online yesterday. I took Green Bay, random guy picked San Diego. He started going to Tomlinson every play. I shut that down real quick. However, 5 turnovers later, I lose by 10. First play of the game was a kickoff to me. I take it out past the twenty. First contact knocks the ball out of my hands and back towards my endzone. It's scooped up by the defender for an easy touchdown. It was a fun experience regardless of the loss. I need to find my communicator so I can chat. The dipshit I played yesterday had his on. And he kept talking and talking and talking. I never understood the first word. All I heard for the entire game was just a bunch of mumbling.

Enough of that. Now on to bowling. Last night I bowled the final king of the hill tournament for the year. I've pretty much sucked a big root the past few weeks as far as bowling goes. My little finger injury started the slump. So during a couple practice game last night, the ball was coming off my hand very nicely. However, I wasn't scoring well (just couldn't find a good line to bowl). So I headed into the start of the tournament with mixed emotions.

Things started off shaky as I only threw one strike the entire game. However, I kept the card pretty clean and ended up with a 168. Game 2 started off with 2 straight strikes (ugly ones though). 2 opens in the 8th and 9th frame killed me and I only got a 177. Should have been an easy 200+ game. Game #3 was a little better as I started off fast, then kept the card clean until I opened in the 9th frame. 199.

My handicap allowed me to qualify in the top 8 and hit match play.

In my first match, I get one of the guys I was looking for. My high handicap really puts pressure on the scratch bowlers. So that's who I look for in match play. I don't want to bowl against the crappy players. I want the good ones. They can't afford to mess up against me.

So I had a 37 pin advantage against my opponent right off the bat. Then I proceeded to throw 6-7-10 splits in both the first and 2nd frames. Then I started to turn it up a notch and threw 3 strikes in a row. So down to the last 2 frames, I have a 7 pin advantage. My opponent steps up and strikes off the sheet. This forces me to strike on my first ball in the 10th frame. Talk about pressure. I love it. I take my approach and threw the prettiest ball I've thrown the entire night. It was like that tuning fork going off in your loins shit that Tin Cup talked about. The ball rolls just beautifully over the intended mark, slides down the lane, catches friction and darts towards the pocket. I start my patended walk 3 lanes over because I know it's a beauty and I wanna see it from an appropriate angle. EXPLOSION! Beauty! ... Bah...I left a ringing ten pin.

For those of you that do not bowl, a ringing ten pin is the equivalent of a bad beat in poker. The ten pin is the pin in the back right hand corner. It's probably the hardest single pin spare to pick up just because it's tucked in the corner by the gutter. Your ball also curves away from it if you throw a hook. Anyway, when you bowl a good shot in the pocket, one of the pins (I'm not sure which number) is supposed to take out the 10 pin. If you hit a little light the pin will sometimes hit the side wall and hang up in the gutter, leaving the 10 pin. This I can handle, because it wasn't the best shot. However, the ringing 10 pin is where the pin goes about 100 mph towards the 10 and either shoots over top of it or hits the side wall with so much force, it goes around. However it happens, it sucks and it cost me money.

So tonight, I'm going to be hitting up the bowling alley trying to collect money for a college football bowl game pool I'm running. I'll also probably get a game or 2 of madden played. Tomorrow, I have to go to Morgantown and install a new server. Wednesday night is bowling night, and Thursday night is party time because I'm off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I'm just in the mood to party for some reason.

So this will most likely be the last post I make before Christmas. So I just want to wish all readers a Merry Christmas. I hope everyone stays safe. And remember, even though I'm a materialistic person that loves his gadgets and toys, I do know there is way more to Christmas than Xbox 360's and Tickle Me Elmos. Christmas is about the birth of Christ and that shouldn't ever be forgotten. Without him, the Xbox 360 wouldn't have been invented :). It sickens me that Jesus gets taken out of Christmas more and more every year. So before you start unwrapping your toys, or start munching on the hams and turkeys, even before you sit down to watch a little football with friends and family. Take a few minutes to remember the real meaning of Christmas.

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S

2005-12-16T06:39:00.000-08:00

I still have not played any poker. I just don't have the urge to play. That's a good thing about no being a pro. I can take extended breaks when I'm burnt out and not have to worry about it. It just means less of my real paycheck that I can save.

So, I've been occupying my time by playing video games, bowling, and work.

Bowling is starting to irritate me. I strained my ring finger sometime around Thanksgiving. I think I did it while practicing bowling one day. Over the next few weeks, it grew to about twice its normal size. Of course, my finger wouldn't fit into my balls (that sounds good doesn't it?), so, I was basically just bowling with my thumb and pointer finger. That doesn't help the average at all. My average has dropped 7 pins in the past 8 weeks or so. Not entirely the fault of my injured finger, but it doesn't help.

So anyway, the finger is getting back into shape again. It's almost back to its normal size. I still didn't bowl for shit on Wednesday. I think I put up something like 193, 145, 159 or sometthing like that. 3 days before that while practicing, I played 8 games and 7 of them were over 200.

Bowling is just weird like that. Some days your body will cooperate and throw the ball in the right direction and let it come off your hand consistently. Some days, you just feel like a retard. So, in many ways, it's similar to poker.

As for video games. I'm not a huge gamer. I do own all the consoles except the 360, which I'm sure I'll own before too long. I'm one of those leisure gamers that will pick up a game, not finish it, go buy another game. However, one genre of game has held my attention over the years. Plain and simple...football games. I've played NCAA 06 on the PS2 until my fingers couldn't take it anymore. I'm talking season after season after season with my WVU franchise.

So I purchased Madden 06 the other day for the Xbox. I chose the Xbox version because you could actually play this one over Live and also because the Xbox has a hard drive. Enuff said. Initially, I thought Madden sucked. I liked the idea of the quarterback field vision. However, I just couldn't get the AI set up the way I wanted. It seemed like no matter what I did, it was either way too easy or way too hard. So I was just about to give up and go back to NCAA.

Fortunately, I was able to find some sliders on ign.com's boards that are fantastic. They actually used the Pro level which I never even dreamed of doing because it was too easy. However, after I applied these sliders to my franchise, I'm now 3-5 in my season using the Falcons. All of the games have been decided by less than 2 touchdowns. The stats are very realistic too. These sliders revived the game for me. I like the accelerated clock feature in Madden too.

I don't have much in store for this weekend or even for the remainder of the year. Tonight, I'm going to try to find some Christmas gifts. I haven't bought a single thing yet. I'll probably spend a good amount of time playing Xbox. I just began playing Jade Empire, so I'll probably spend a couple hours on that anyway. I might even throw in a Madden game or 2.

2005-12-12T08:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I would put a small update.

I have been staying away from the poker tables lately. I just don't have the patience for it right now. I have, however, sit down for a couple short 100+ hand sessions. Nothing much as far as results though.

I figure I'll keep with the breather until after the Holidays.

I have spent most of my free time playing video games. As you know, I had been abusing my fingers by playing Mario Kart: DS. Well, after getting the thing online, I've come to the conclusion that I suck at the game.

So I went out and bought Animal Crossing for the DS. It's a cute/fun game, but I don't see me playing it for a long time.

So yesterday, I went to EB Games to take advantage of their buy 2 get 1 free used games sell. I bought 3 Xbox games. I ended up choosing Madden 2006, Jade Empire, and Forza Motorsport. I also went to Roanoke, VA yesterday with my parents to do some Christmas shopping. So I only got to play one game of Madden.

Tonight, I'll probably donate a few wins to some lucky online Madden players via Xbox Live. I wasn't even aware Madden 2006 had online play on the Xbox. So, if you have Live and Madden, look for TitliestProV1 (yes Titleist is spelled wrong... I'm a game donkey). I'm sure I'll be on Forza some also, however, it might be a while before it gets any attention.

After Christmas, I'm gonna buy a new TV. I'll probably never get to play poker again :)

Lastly, I've decided to cancel the essay contest. Too much shit going on with the holidays and not enough interest. So, if you have already sent an essay, I apologize. I'll try to find a way to make it up to you.

2005-12-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

Bah...I'm digging a nice hole to start this month. Everytime I log on the computer, I lose $100+.. This is the only thing good that happened today:

Line Competition Match Match Date Forecast Odds Correct? Result
1 NFL Football Lines Cincinnati Bengals v Pittsburgh Steelers Dec 04, 2005 13:00 Cincinnati Bengals +3 1.8 Yes 38 - 31
2 NFL Football Lines Green Bay Packers v Chicago Bears Dec 04, 2005 13:00 Chicago Bears -7 2 Yes 7 - 19
3 NFL Football Lines Arizona Cardinals v San Francisco 49ers Dec 04, 2005 16:05 Arizona Cardinals -3½ 1.909 Yes 17 - 10
4 NFL Football Lines Washington Redskins v St Louis Rams Dec 04, 2005 16:05 Washington Redskins -3 1.87 Yes 24 - 9

I won something like $128 on that parlay to win something for the day.

I'm still trying to find something good to give away for my essay contest. I want to give a good prize so I can get maximum participation. I may also extend the deadline because of the blogger tournament/gathering in Vegas.

2005-12-03T15:05:00.000-08:00

13 days until your assignment is due. I've already received a couple submissions. I'll be posting the prizes tonight. Stay tuned.

Just got back from my first big singles bowling tournament. 100+ entries. I get 40 pins handicap. I bowl 182, 152, 191, 183, 180, 169. They had a fairly difficult oil pattern set out and when it broke down, it got worse. I was farily happy with my scores, although I played all 6 games with an excruciatingly painful finger. I think I have a cracked bone or something. Anyway, I finished in 20th place out of the 100+ entry field. I can take that.

I think next month I can get in the money assuming my finger feels better. It's hard to get a consistent hook when your finger is throbbing.

2005-12-02T19:05:00.000-08:00

Lee Jones Strikes Again!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t100 (9 handed) converter

Hero (t9315)
MP2 (t2555)
MP3 (t4330)
CO (t3750)
Button (t4340)
SB (t1540)
BB (t1690)
UTG (t4130)
UTG+1 (t1685)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Jd, Jc.

2 folds, Hero raises to t400, 5 folds, BB calls t300.

Flop: (t850) Ts, Js, Qs (2 players)

BB bets t1290 (All-In), Hero calls t1290.

Turn: (t3430) Qc (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t3430) Th (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t3430

Results in white below:

BB has 6h Qh (full house, queens full of tens).

Hero has Jd Jc (full house, jacks full of queens).

Outcome: BB wins t3430.

I'm still about twice the average chipstack at the first break, but that hand would have made me the chipleader at the break.

*** Update ***

Same donkey...moments later:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t150 (8 handed) converter

Hero (t8075)
BB (t2855)
UTG (t5005)
UTG+1 (t6505)
MP1 (t1115)
MP2 (t1480)
CO (t4955)
Button (t2210)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Kh, Kc.

UTG calls t150, 2 folds, MP2 calls t150, 2 folds, Hero raises to t1800, 1 fold, UTG folds, MP2 calls t1330 (All-In).

Flop: (t3580) 4s, 9d, 9c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t3580) As (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t3580) 8d (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t3580

Results in white below:

Hero has Kh Kc (two pair, kings and nines).

MP2 has Ac 3d (two pair, aces and nines).

Outcome: MP2 wins t3260. Hero wins t320.

**Update**
Out in 31st. Hung around near the top. Chip leader got put on my immediate right. He raised every single hand. I get QQ and after 42 limpers, he raises, I go all in, everyone folds to him. He calls and flips over AA. IGHN.

2005-12-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

Where would you go? Essay Contest

Class is in session bitches. Break out the #2 pencils and start cranking out some essays. The top response will get a FREE Prize. I'm not sure what the prize is, but I will try to think of something by tonight. Rest assured, the prize will be absolutely, 100% decent. DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES IS 2 WEEKS FROM TODAY: FRIDAY DECEMBER 16TH AT 11:59 PM EST. Send all essays to leonardw@gmail.com.

In an effort to get some outside reader responses, I propose this hypothetical situation:

Let's say you quit your job to become a professional poker player. Let's also add the facts that you have a huge bankroll and can afford to live just about any place you want. Where would you go? Why? Does poker affect this decision? If you chose your current residence, what would your 2nd choice be? Why?

I'm not going to deduct for spelling/grammar mistakes or anything like that. I will judge these on content only.

Depending on the response, I will probably post all entries to this site and allow readers to vote on their favorite. Then I will give away a 2nd prize for the "Readers' Choice" winner. I will post the essays on this site unless you don't want me to post yours. Also, if you choose, I can keep your essay anonymous when I post it.

2005-12-02T06:05:00.000-08:00

It's on like Donkey Kong..

Ok, enough of the break. I played Mario Kart: DS until my fingers cramped last night. That game is too much fun. And I haven't taken it online yet. I'll probably pick up a wireless router this weekend. However, it has taken up enough of my money making time.

Anyway, I plan to play some poker tonight. I need to get some hands in for the month so I don't have to spend my real work money. I'll probably spend some time on the $2/4 6 max tables. I'd like to play 1000 hands. That's my goal.

I also have set some monthly goals for poker:

1.) Play 15,000+ hands in the cash games: This is the biggie. I just haven't been getting my hands in recently. I think I'm trying to dodge variance or something. Everyone knows that it can't be dodged. Also, 15,000 hands gives me a pretty decent rake rebate for the month as well. I also want to keep track of the hours I put in at the tables, so I can get an average hourly rate. I'm not a pro poker player, so I'm not going to be putting in any insane hours. I just want to get a feel for the number of hours I can put in on a weekly/monthly basis.

2.) Play at least 1 180 person sit n go on Stars per week. These are fantastic. First place in these bad boys is something like $1080. I got 4th in the last one I played.

3.) Work on making better laydowns and reads. I tend to go into auto-pilot mode after a while during most sessions. Some of this comes from boredom, but mostly I think the problem is the multi-tabling. Multi-tabling is great for getting an insane number of hands played, but sucks for helping your game. I think I'm gonna cut down my number of tables so I can focus on reads. I normally play 4 tables of 6 max. I'm gonna drop back to 2 for a while so I can work on my game. This will work out for me better in the long run. I also need to take more advantage of some of the tools available to me such as Gametime+, PokerAce HUD, Poker Tracker, etc.

4.) Clear all my open bonuses. I have $140 left on UB, about $150 left on Full Tilt, and I received and email from Interpoker telling me that I can get a $120 bonus for playing 450 raked hands this month with a $90 deposit. Can't beat that. I'll probably start there first.

Last thing about poker: I plan on becoming a Poker Stars affiliate. Currently I'm only pimping Absolute for their bonuses. However, Poker Stars is hands down the best site on the net. It has an abundance of games running at all hours, great support, and great software. Their only problem is a lack of rakeback.

In other news, one of my Christmas presents came in:

I'm gonna take it to the alley this evening to get drilled. I'll probably toss one game with it to make sure they drilled it good, then back it goes to get wrapped and put under the Christmas tree. Surprise Surprise Surprise on Christmas morning.

2005-12-02T05:54:00.000-08:00

I was reading this blog and found this post which I thought was quite funny:

According to a recently announced Vatican policy, you can't be a priest in my church if you're gay. Well, ok, you can be nnnnnnnnnnn a little gay. I can imagine an interview...

Father Humpsboise : Well Mr. Burghlesturds, your grades are fine, your references impeccable. You appear to be an outstanding candidate. There's just one more thing before we can accept you into the seminary...

Mr. Burghlesturds: Yes?

FH: Are you, you know, homosexual?

MB: Well, yes. But only a little!

FH: Oh dear. Well, as you know, our standards now say that you can be somewhat gay and still get in. So, how gay would you say you are?

MB: Not very. Lightly gay, I would say.

FH: If you were to describe your gayness, would you be more likely to use "fairy" or "raving queer?"

MB: Definitely fairy.

FH: Outstanding. More inclined to pitching, or catching?

MB: Pitching.

FH: Excellent. Pitching is much less gay. Tell me, do you subscribe to Modern Faggot?

MB: Certainly not.

FH: Good, good. Here then is the make or break question: Are you a bone smoker?

MB: Well, yes sir. Although I've taken more balls to the chin than Johnny Bench, I want to stress that I only suck girl's dicks.

FH: I'm not sure I understand.

MB: Only trannies.

FH: I think that might be gay.

MB: No; how could it be?

FH: Well, sir, you are sucking dicks after all. Gargling with cocksnot. All that.

MB: Look: Do they call them 'chicks with dicks,' or 'dudes with boobs?'

FH: Chicks with dicks, of course.

MB: Exactly. So they're chicks, not dudes. So it's not gay.

FH: Yes, yes, I see. Nicely done. Welcome aboard Mr. Burghlesturds.

MB: Good to be here, sir.

2005-11-30T10:47:00.000-08:00

Welp, I've dusted of the Nintendo DS and I'm ready to put it use for the first time since I've had it (bought it when it launched). I bought a copy of Nintendogs Lab and Friends off ebay last night. I also pre-ordered Animal Crossing: Wild World which will be out next week. And tonight I'm heading to EB to pick up a copy of Mario Kart: DS. So I have plenty of gaming ahead of me. I have to bowl tonight, so I won't get to spend a lot of time with MK:DS.

Last night I met with a financial advisor and I ended up buying a few mutual funds. So I should be a millionaire in a few years. That's good news. I'll believe it when I see it. I can also take a tax deduction for the money that I personally put into my IRA which is nice too. Uncle Sam has put his foot in my ass the past couple years.

2005-11-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

No play again last night. I've been battling a cold and just didn't feel like doing anything but covering up and watching TV. I ended up watching wrestling last night just to see the fallout of the Survivor Series and to see what this year's "screwjob" was. For those of you that don't watch wrestling, Survivor Series is the event where Vince McMahon screwed Bret Hart out of his title sending him to the WCW and pretty much ending his career. Ever since then, the event has some sort of staged screwjob.

Anyway, some good points from last night's show:

1.) Vince was in the house. That man is my hero
2.) Shane McMcMahon looks like he will be taking over Raw. Shane O'Mac is cool too.
3.) Kurt Angle is the hardest working player in the business now. Give him the damn title already.
4.) Joey Styles is the best announcer ever.

Bad points:
1.) John Cena. This guy is a joke and I wish he would fade away.
2.) No Stephanie McMahon. She's got some tig ol' bitties.

Enough of that. I'm gonna take a week or so off from poker to work on some other things. First, I've got some things that need fixed around the house. Also, I have a meeting with a financial advisor this evening, so I can set up a retirement fund and not have to sit here at this crappy desk every day banging out blogger posts and COBOL code. Who the fuck uses COBOL anymore? I get a few grand from my job to invest, plus I've taken a couple grand out of the bankroll to invest as well. Better than spending it on any of the Christmas items I listed yesterday.

I've also taken out some money for Christmas related expenses. This means that the bankroll is a whole lot thinner these days. However, I've left enough in there for a good $2/4 6 max bankroll. I hated to do it because I was really wanting to stay at $3/6 and possibly move to $5/10 soon. However, I still have some costly flaws in my game that I should iron out before moving up.

I think I'm gonna take a few days off before hitting the tables again. I've been getting burnt out lately and every time I sit down at a table, I'm ready to go do something else. My mind starts wandering and that can be costly. So I'm gonna go pick up a game to occupy some time this evening. I think I'm gonna grab Mario Kart DS. I have a grand total of about 1 hour played on my Nintendo DS, so I think it could use a little love.

After I regroup and hit the tables again, I'll probably be playing mostly on Full Tilt. It's quickly became my 2nd favorite site. However, my #1 favorite doesn't allow rakeback, so Full Tilt will get my play this month. I have 1 goal for the month: FREEROLL CHRISTMAS!.

2005-11-28T11:47:00.000-08:00

Neteller sucks ass. I tried to make my monthly cash out and when I logged in, it told me my account has been closed for "certain circumstances". So I call them and have to listen to someone ask me a bunch of questions in Engrish. Apparently, they detected my failed attempt at making a new account and closed the old one.

My downswing continues. It's a little frustrating to get check-raised on the turn when somebody picks up a gutshot straight draw and then hits their 4 outter on the river. However, the conservative bankroll approach really keeps me off tilt. I have, however, completely busted out in my UB account. That's with over $140 left in bonus money to clear. I'll probably reload and finish it off sometime. UB is starting to suck since they introduced Royal Holdem. I can't find a regular game during off-peak hours.

I'm going to try and play some hands tonight, but I'm not sure how much I'll get accomplished. I have some chores and errands to run. However, I had almost gotten back into watching wrestling, but its starting to suck again, so chances are I'll get to play some poker.

In Christmas related news, I keep thinking of new shit I want and nobody can afford. I do have one of the items on my list coming. My parents ordered it for me. It's the new Hammer Hawg Wild bowling ball.

Just for fun, here's my Christmas list of shit I can't afford and nobody will buy me:

1.) Miniature Pinscher
2.) 50" Samsung DLP HDTV (I bought one of these a year ago for my folks, awesome TV)
3.) Xbox 360
4.) New Computer
5.) Wireless Router
6.) Hammer Viscious Pearl bowling ball (these things are discontinued and I can't find one, not even on ebay)
7.) Surround Sound System
8.) Dishwasher... She could be blonde, burnette, or red head. I don't care :)
9.) Lawn Mower and weed eater. I don't really want them, but need them.
10.) New Dodge Ram with Sport Appearance package
11.) New Pontiac GTO

I think of new shit and forget old shit every day. Out of the entire list, I expect to get get zero items.

2005-11-26T07:49:00.000-08:00

Not much in the poker world the past few days. I've tried playing a bit, but the post-heater downswing is upon me. Every time I touch my mouse, I lose $100. So I'm gonna try to juke the variance and not play as much this weekend.

I do have some good news. I wanted to place a few wagers on some football games today, so I pulled up intertops. I had $112.50 in my account that I didn't know about. Also there was an additional $10 bonus. Score!

2005-11-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

The heater officially died last night as I got kicked in the junk from all angles. After my little RIP post last night, I almost clawed back to even for the day, but then fell way back again. The slaughter continued this morning when I found a table with a turbo donkey on it, but I was out of position on him and ran into many hands like this one:

Ultimate Bet 3/6 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ah, As.

2 folds, Hero raises, 1 fold, SB calls, BB calls.

Flop: (6 SB) Td, Jd, 5c (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) Ts (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets, SB calls, BB calls.

River: (7.50 BB) 5s (3 players)

SB checks, BB checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: 7.50 BB

Results in white below:

SB has 5h Qh (full house, fives full of tens).

BB has 7d 7c (two pair, tens and sevens).

Hero has Ah As (two pair, aces and tens).

Outcome: SB wins 7.50 BB.

and this one:

Ultimate Bet 3/6 Hold'em (5 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 4c, Ac.

Hero raises, MP calls, 3 folds.

Flop: (5.33 SB) 8s, As, 3c (2 players)

Hero bets, MP calls.

Turn: (3.66 BB) Jh (2 players)

Hero bets, MP calls.

River: (5.66 BB) 4s (2 players)

Hero bets, MP raises, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 9.66 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has 4c Ac (two pair, aces and fours).

MP has 9s 7s (flush, ace high).

Outcome: MP wins 9.66 BB.

So I took a break to run to the store. However, I was determined to get a good number of hands in today, so when I returned, I went right back at it. I was able to find a good $3/6 table on UB with another turbo donkey LAGtard, but this time, I was able to sit directly to his left isolated him relentlessly with 3 bets. This time I was able to take advantage. I also found a $2/4 table on Full Tilt with the same thing. Again, I sit to the direct left of a really loose aggressive donkey and was able to isolate him. Here are some examples:

Ultimate Bet 3/6 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is MP with Js, Jh. CO posts a blind of $3.

UTG raises, Hero 3-bets, 4 folds, UTG caps, Hero calls.

Flop: (10.33 SB) 8h, 4d, 2d (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG calls.

Turn: (7.16 BB) Kc (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero calls.

River: (9.16 BB) 9d (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 11.16 BB

Results in white below:

UTG has 9s 7s (one pair, nines).

Hero has Js Jh (one pair, jacks).

Outcome: Hero wins 11.16 BB.

and

Ultimate Bet 3/6 Hold'em (6 handed) converter

Preflop: Hero is CO with Ad, 5d.

1 fold, MP raises, Hero 3-bets, 3 folds, MP calls.

Flop: (7.33 SB) 2s, Ts, 3s (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets, MP calls.

Turn: (4.66 BB) Th (2 players)

MP checks, Hero bets, MP calls.

River: (6.66 BB) 9h (2 players)

MP checks, Hero checks.

Final Pot: 6.66 BB

Results in white below:

MP has 6s Kh (one pair, tens).

Hero has Ad 5d (one pair, tens).

Outcome: Hero wins 6.66 BB.

I was able to get most of last night's and this morning's losses back just by isolating those 2 players. I won big on both of those tables and won another small amount on my 3rd $3/6 table, but nothing too intersting happened there.

I have to run some errands here in a bit, so I won't be around to play too much this afternoon. However, I plan to come back this evening and put in a bunch more hands. My goal for today is 1000 hands.

In other news, I was able to get a rakeback deal on my Full Tilt account. The coolest thing was that I didn't have to create a new account or anything like that. Full Tilt just allowed me to sign up under an affiliate because I originally signed up straight through their website when they first opened. I'm also able to offer 25% rakeback on Full Tilt if you are interested. You can AIM me (AIM name: predat0r314 ... the "0" is a zero) your email address or send me an email to leonardw@gmail.spamsucks.com (remove the spamsucks. part). I'll get you an offer out.

2005-11-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

R.I.P.

The heater died.

2005-11-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

A guaranteed way to build your bankroll

I have come up with a sure fire way to add a healthy boost to your bankroll. Find an Xbox 360 and ebay that bitch. These fools are paying upwards of $2500 for some packages. I even found one auction where some idiot paid $600 for just the box and another idiot paid over $700 for a gmail email address with the work xbox360 in it.

2005-11-21T11:29:00.000-08:00

A Royal Pain in the Ass!

If anyone has not played Royal Holdem on UB, I urge you to try it out. Then you can experience first hand what a royal pain in the ass this game can be. Thursday or Friday last week, I sit down at a table on UB thinking it was a regular $3/6 6 max game. I hadn't even heard of Royal Holdem at the time. Then I proceeded to get the biggest hands you've ever seen. I'm talking Aces, Kings, Queens, flopping straights, boats. It was unbelievable. Except for the fact that I was taking a beating. I just thought it was a sick form of variance until I figured out I was playing Royal Holdem. I managed to claw my way back to even once I figured out that straights suck donkey balls with a 20 card deck.

So I sit down at a $1/2 Royal Holdem table again today... on purpose. I started out well and was really putting a hurting on the donkeys that didn't know they were playing Royal Holdem. Then one dipshit decided to educate all the newbs that they weren't playing regular holdem. He decided to lay out the rules for them and tell them which hands were good and which weren't. I told him to do everyone a favor and shut the fuck up. There's something wrong with a person when they would rather seem like an authority than actually win some money. I experimented at the lower stakes seeing what worked and what didn't in the game. One thing I did was check/fold any time I flopped a straight (assuming no Royal opportunities). The only winning strategy I could come up with was to just try to find a table with as many people as possible thinking that they were playing regular hold 'em. It doesn't matter what strategy I've come up with. I've played my last Royal Hold 'em hand.

Another bad thing about UB spreading Royal Holdem is that all the short handed games are Royal. None of the regular holdem 6 max games were running. I sit down hoping to spark a table to start up or even play a bit of heads up, but nobody came. Hopefully all the degenerate gamblers don't flock over to the Royal tables.

I did manage to find a $2/4 game running. There was one other guy at the table that was pretty solid. However, he had no idea I was on a rush (non-royal rush). I proceeded to kick the whole table in the nuts over the course of a couple hundred hands. The cards just kept coming. I would show some interesting hands, but UB sucks and I can't get the hand histories. I'm not at my normal computer, so no little programs to capture the hand histories either. IF ANY ULTIMATE BET PERSONNEL ARE READING THIS BLOG, PUT THE MOTHERFUCKING HAND HISTORIES ON THE HARD DRIVE. JOIN THE 21ST CENTURY.

I'm going to try to play some more poker this evening. Hopefully the rush will continue. The bankroll is very healthy right now. I'll probably take an extra amount in my monthly cashout next week because of Christmas. I'll just have to wait and see. I'd like to leave as much money in their as possible because I want to move up to $5/10. However, I'll just keep at $3/6 until after the first of the year so I can improve my game and bankroll. I currently have over twice the size bankroll recommended for $5/10, but again, I'm being conservative. It's so much easier to take a 250-300BB downswing when you're not about to go broke.

I'm gonna try to sign up for a completely new neteller account this evening as well. I have multiple checking accounts, so I figure I can just tie it to one of them and move money around accordingly. After that, I can use my new Party account with rakeback. I haven't played on Party in so long. It has been nice playing on these other sites, especially Stars. I wish they had a rake rebate program. Hopefully the VIP program will be something useful.

Party just sucks balls lately. Their customer service is a nightmare. You send an email and they send you a canned response that doesn't answer your question. You call them and can't understand them. Their software is slow and shitty. Hopefully they will realize their site is becoming a scum hole and they are losing GOOD PAYING customers to better sites. I did read that Empire was suing them for that whole skins splitting fiasco. Good for Empire. Empire and Eurobet had enough business sense to lure the good paying customers away from Party.

2005-11-20T08:06:00.000-08:00

Full Tilt evidently missed the memo that I was on a heater. So I got my ass handed to me early on this morning. However, It's the new "110% Tilt Free" me. I managed to keep playing good poker and turn a horrible session into a 1BB win. After that session, I was only 109% tilt free. But for all you that like the "DEMS QUADS BEETCHES" lovers, here's a hand for you:

FullTiltPoker Game #300141918: Table Mt Hood (6 max) - $2/$4 - Limit Hold'em - 10:54:11 ET - 2005/11/20
Seat 1: jafisherton ($66)
Seat 2: jkocher82 ($0.50), is sitting out
Seat 4: jimmythekid ($87)
Seat 5: WiredAces77 ($145)
Seat 6: Jimbo_Chang ($122.50)
Jimbo_Chang posts the small blind of $1
jafisherton posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to WiredAces77 [Ks As]
jimmythekid folds
WiredAces77 raises to $4
jkocher82 adds $40
Jimbo_Chang calls $3
jafisherton folds
*** FLOP *** [8s Ts Ad]
jkocher82 has returned
Jimbo_Chang checks
WiredAces77 bets $2
Jimbo_Chang calls $2
*** TURN *** [8s Ts Ad] [Js]
Jimbo_Chang checks
WiredAces77 bets $4
Jimbo_Chang calls $4
*** RIVER *** [8s Ts Ad Js] [Qs]
Jimbo_Chang checks
WiredAces77 bets $4
Jimbo_Chang raises to $8
WiredAces77 raises to $12
Jimbo_Chang calls $4
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WiredAces77 shows [Ks As] (a Royal Flush)
Jimbo_Chang mucks
WiredAces77 wins the pot ($44) with a Royal Flush
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46 | Rake $2
Board: [8s Ts Ad Js Qs]
Seat 1: jafisherton (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: jkocher82 is sitting out
Seat 4: jimmythekid didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: WiredAces77 (button) showed [Ks As] and won ($44) with a Royal Flush
Seat 6: Jimbo_Chang (small blind) mucked [Kh Jh] - a straight, Ace high

DEMS ROYALS BEETCHES!

2005-11-19T21:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2005-11-18T21:48:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

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.

2005-11-12T23:11:00.000-08:00

I'm getting very addicted to the heads up games on Ultimate Bet. I just finished cleaning some donkey's account out.

I also played in that monthly Moose tournament today. I didn't last long. Twice I had top 2 pair and ran into a set. It doesn't take long to hit the rail like that.

I've played quite a bit of $3/6 6 max and $2/4 6 max today on Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt. I've cleared about $50 of my $300 bonus on Tilt. I'm also racking up some nice FPPs to use in their store. I want a Baseball Jersey. A good ways to go for that one though.

2005-11-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

Ahhh, back to the cash games. After playing all sit n goes the past few days, it felt good to take some bad beats in a cash game. I've got 2 big bonuses to clear, so I clocked in and was ready for some action. I pulled up Ultimate Bet and saw a heads up table with one guy sitting at it, so I sat down. I also pulled up 2 tables of $3/6 6 max on Full Tilt.

Needless to say, all 3 tables were a donkfest. Let's start out with the heads up match. At the beginning of the match, he kept folding to everyone of my bets and I figured this wasn't going to be such a good game. Then all of the sudden, the full moon came uncovered and the guy turned into a turbo donkey. However, I kept pushing my leading hands, but he kept catching miracle cards on the river to take huge pots on me. It seemed like every time he went for a turn bluff, he would catch his 2 outter on the river. We both started with $150 stacks and it wasn't no time before I was down to $30.

However, I kept plugging along and clawed my way back up to even. I may have even took a small lead. Then he started catching again and put me down to the felt again. I got back to even and repeated the cycle 2 more times. Then something happened. His river cards quit coming and I T-Totally fucked this guy up. He ended up rebuying twice and I was willing to take that money too. I had the guy on major tilt.

I'm still not completely comfortable with heads up play. I need to keep practicing at it. Right now, I'm just pushing the 60/40 edges and staying aggressive. Against a donk like the one I just played, it looks like they tend to fall into a pattern. I was able to pick up on his patterns and take advantage. I realized his patterns and also made sure I mixed things up so that he would not be able to do the same to me.

Also, on my Full Tilt tables, I had one table where I was a very small loser. I was way down on the table, but won a huge pot with aces. Then I had KK beat twice in two big pots where both times aces come on the river to beat me.

On the other table, I dominated from the get go. I took a few beats that kept me from tripling up, but I more than doubled up on that table to make a nice profit for the day.

Fuck sit n go's!

During my session, I managed to clear almost $15 of my $300 Full tilt bonus and about $15 of my Ultimate Bet bonus. I forgot that UB sucks and forgot to have the hand history window up while playing, so I didn't get the stats of that session. However, on my Full Tilt session, I ended up paying $34 in rake. So if you consider the $15 as rakeback instead of a bonus, that's like 43% rakeback. Which is not bad. If they run these reloads every month, Full Tilt may be my new home. The games are really good right now.

2005-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge: Final Results

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 100
Buy Ins: $2458.00
Amount Won: $2443.50
Net Amount: -$14.50
ROI%: -0.59%
Finish ITM%: 38.00%
1st Place: 10
2nd Place: 15
3rd Place: 13

Umm... what a waste of time. More of the same today. Losing every coin flip, losing most of my 60/40 favorites. Kings losing every time (and I had them alot).

Oh well...that sucked, back to cash games and bonus hunting.

2005-11-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge Stats (To Date)

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 84
Buy Ins: $2026.00
Amount Won: $2173.50
Net Amount: $147.50
ROI%: 7.28%
Finish ITM%: 40.48%
1st Place: 9
2nd Place: 14
3rd Place: 11

I played a bunch of sit n goes today and continued to run badly. Somehow I made a small profit, but I took some hideous beats today to put me out of a bunch of tournaments where I should have made the money.

I figure I'll finish the sit n go challenge tomorrow and then head back to the cash games and try to actually make some money this month.

2005-11-10T03:36:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge Stats (To Date)

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 59
Buy Ins: $1351.00
Amount Won: $1453.50
Net Amount: $102.50
ROI%: 7.59%
Finish ITM%: 38.98%
1st Place: 8
2nd Place: 9
3rd Place: 6

I'm running poorly in these things lately. Last night, I bubbled out in 4th place twice with horrible beats. Both times with healthy chipstacks, both times with dominating hands on the turn. Both times, burnt by the river. Oh well. If these hands start holding up, then I'm making some money on this challenge.

2005-11-09T13:07:00.000-08:00

I think I have an uncanny nack for putting weak tighties on Tilt. I do tend to pick on them alot. Sometimes they snap and do crazy crap like this:

Ultimate Bet 3/6 Hold'em (5 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is MP with As, Jd.

1 fold, Hero raises, Button 3-bets, 1 fold, BB calls, Hero calls.

Flop: (9.33 SB) 7d, 7h, 2c (3 players)

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

Turn: (5.66 BB) Ts (2 players)

Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

River: (7.66 BB) 2h (2 players)

Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.

Final Pot: 9.66 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has As Jd (two pair, sevens and twos).

Button has 8h 5h (two pair, sevens and twos).

Outcome: Hero wins 9.66 BB.

I just called this guy down because I had a hunch he was pissed at me always raising his blinds or something like that. I also wanted to show him that I will call his bluffs down. He played some sort of insane bluff a few hands earlier on another guy and ended up hitting a 2 outter on the river to win anyway.

I've finished my old bonus with Full Tilt. I've cashed out and as soon as the money hits Neteller, I'm re-depositing back to Full Tilt for the $300 reload bonus. In the meantime, I'm working on Sit N Goes and Ultimate Bet.

2005-11-07T18:28:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge Stats (To Date): Half Way Home!

I've played 8 so far tonight, so now I'm up to 50.

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 50
Buy Ins: $1108.00
Amount Won: $1273.50
Net Amount: $165.50
ROI%: 14.94%
Finish ITM%: 42.0%
Avg Finish: 4.46
1st Place: 7
2nd Place: 8
3rd Place: 6
Other Place: 29

I might play a few more later if wrestling sucks. Right now the divas are on and I'm out!

2005-11-07T07:02:00.000-08:00

This sit n go challenge is pretty hellish. These things are so mind numbingly boring. It's awful! I guess I'm going to go ahead and finish out my challenge. However, after going about half way through the challenge, of come to this conclusion: CASH GAMES KICK SIT N GO'S ASS!

The competition is pretty soft in these sit n go's, but the bottom line is they just aren't very fun for me. I guess I'll go ahead and finish the challenge though just to say that I did it. It should only take a couple days to complete anyway.

As soon as I finish the 100 sit n goes, I'm going back to short handed hold 'em. Short handed play is just so fun for me. It's an action game, and I guess I'm an action junkie.

I'm kind of at a cross-roads in my poker playing right now. I know the games that I want to play, but not sure where to play them.

Party is on my shit list right now for various reasons. 1.) They should spread 6 max tables at all limits. 2.) Their customer service is down-right horrid. Email them, they send some sort of canned response the doesn't remotely answer your question, phone them... well good luck trying to understand the Jibberese they are speaking. 3.) After venturing into some of the other sites, I don't think that their games are the best online anymore.

As bad as I hate to, I think I'm going to be playing Party all the time when I move up to $3/6 full time. The only reason for that is rakeback. I have a new username set up on Party for rakeback (25%), but I'm still trying to resolve the small problem of getting money into the account. Neteller claims they can do something on their end, but I gotta get my butt into gear to square that situation away.

All that being said, I really don't have a home right now. I guess Poker Stars is as close as it gets, but as you all know, they hate me. In all seriousness, Stars is the best site I've ever played on. They do so many things right. Good, but ugly software and great customer service.

Once I finish my 100 sit n goes, I'm going exploring. There are quite a few online sites that I haven't played at. I haven't played any Prima Sites, The Gaming Club, Any Crypto site with the exception of Interpoker, Noble, Titan, and probably many more.

I can use this adventure to clear a bunch of bonuses as well. Bonuses (bonii??) make being homeless more fun. Here's my gameplan:

1.) Finish my last $20 in bonus on Full Tilt, then re-deposit before the end of the month to take advantage of the $300 reload they currently have going.

2.) Clear my Ultimate Bet bonus.

Note: Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet bonuses pay more like a rakeback program would, so if they keep offering monthly reloads, I wouldn't have to worry as much about rakeback.

3.) Open an account with a new site (under a reputable rakeback affiliate if possible), clear the bonus and evaluate the competition.

4.) Repeat step 3.

I'm excited to see the details of the Poker Stars VIP club that's coming soon. Hopefully that will give me some nice incentive to stay.

Full Tilt is growing on me. The have got great software and seem to have pretty good customer service (even though I haven't really dealt with them). They have good stuff in their FPP store, the action is soft, and they have some pretty decent tournaments. Plus I've made quite a few final tables on their site. They don't seem to hate me as bad.

Bottom line is that Poker Stars has the best chance of being my #1 site as long as they can do something to keep me away from the competition (reload bonus, rakeback, some sort of incentives). Full Tilt comes in a close 2nd, and Ultimate Bet a distand 3rd (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAKE THE COMMUNITY CARDS BIGGER!).

My ultimate goal is to have a good conservative bankroll for $3/6 and $5/10 fairly soon. My bankroll is actually above the 300BBs suggested for $5/10, but I'm being VERY conservative with it because of the monthly cashouts for expenses and I seem to go through very swingy times, where I'll lose 300BBs, then make them all back up with one ginourmous heater (haven't had one of those in a while). But what it all comes down to is that I honestly play better when I don't have to worry about the money.

Enough babbling. I expect to play quite a bit this evening. Hopefully I can get get a good chunk of those sit n goes knocked out before I fall asleep. I've been 4 tabling them. I think I'm going to try 6 or 8 tabling them to see if things get a little more exciting. I'll try to take time to call Neteller this evening as well, so I can go ahead and bite the bullet and start the dance you have to do to sign up with a new Party account.

2005-11-06T15:07:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge Stats (To Date):

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 40
Buy Ins: $838.00
Amount Won: $1003.50
Net Amount: $165.50
ROI%: 19.75%
Finish ITM%: 42.5%
Avg Finish: 4.43
1st Place: 6
2nd Place: 7
3rd Place: 4
Other Place: 23

Found a bit of a downturn in my last 10 sit n goes. My finishes are 9th (with a wicked beat), 8th with KK running into AA, 4th, 6th, 5th with another bad beat, 2nd, 5th with a bad beat, 4th with a bad beat, 3rd with a bad beat, and 2nd with a bad beat (this one was my QQ vs his 10-7 suited which he seemed happy to donk off 2/3 of his stack with... of course, he rivered his flush... all the money went in before the flop).

I've already lost count of my hours, so bleh on that. I think I'm gonna use a little time clock program I wrote for our Payroll system at work to log my hours. It keeps histories for ytd, mtd, qtd, etc.

2005-11-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge Day 3 Results:

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 30
Buy Ins: $568.00
Amount Won: $823.50
Net Amount: $255.50
ROI%: 44.98%
Finish ITM%: 46.67%
Avg Finish: 4.30
1st Place: 6
2nd Place: 5
3rd Place: 3
Other Place: 16

I moved up a bit and played 8 $27 turbos this evening. I still did pretty well. I won 2 out of 8 and placed in the money in half of them. I also logged about 2 hours. Bringing my approximate # of hours to 6.5 with and hourly rate of $39.31. Now we're getting up there. I'm happy with a $40-50 hourly rate considering the limits I'm playing. I'm not sure if that rate is sustainable at this level because I'm not sure how the average winning player's stats look. I don't know if I'm running good, running average, or what.

I'll probably play a few more of these things tonight. I'll update the stats on this post if/when I do.

2005-11-05T05:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, that's not another banner ad for the site. Just the UB logo because I'm gonna talk a bit about UB.

I got wind of Ultimate Bet's 50% up to $200 deposit bonus. I haven't played on UB in quite some time. So I decided to give it a shot. I put in my $400, bringing my UB account balance up to $407 :) Isn't it great to find $7 that you can just add to the bankroll?

So I'm off to clear a bonus. According to their terms, I guess I have to achieve 2000 UB points to clear the bonus. I ended up clearing about 1/10th of that in my short session.

I played 2 tables of $3/6 6 max. I got 2 doozy tables too. The first was full of weak tighties, spouting of some babble about pot odds. This little tirade went on for 30 straight minutes. My other table had 1 big league donkey and 4 calling stations. Needless to say, it was juicy.

So now I'm playing 2 completely different games. On the calling station/donkey table, I have to tighten up and minimize the bluffing. Whereas, on the weak/tighty table, I'm playing almost the opposite. Both gameplans worked pretty well and I had a nice session. Check the stats on this KING donkey:

Hands: 62
VP$IP: 88.71
Att to Steal Blinds: 90.00
Amount won: -$333.00
BB/100 Hands: -89.52
PF Raise: 70.97

I made about all my money on this guy. I couldn't isolate him though, because the other guys were making desparation calls with low suited connectors and shit like that, even to 3 bets. You can lose a lot of money at tables like this, but I got lucky and most of my showdowns were good.

So, the games at UB are getting an A+ so far in my book, but it's a small sample size. UB's interface, however, is horrid. What's the deal with having huge hole cards, but having tiny community cards. I'm squinting just to see the suits. The clanks and clicks that they call sound are annoying as shit too. I have to turn on the iPods to drown out the sounds.

It looks like they are paving the road in my neighborhood, so I think I might be stuck here all day. I might get a shit load of poker in.

2005-11-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

Sit N Go Challenge, Day 2 Stats:

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 22
Buy Ins: $352.00
Amount Won: $486.00
Net Amount: $134.00
ROI%: 38.07%
Finish ITM%: 45.45%
Avg Finish: 4.27
1st Place: 4
2nd Place: 4
3rd Place: 2
Other Place: 12

For some damn reason, my pokertracker is missing 4 sit n goes. I've compiled these stats manually (with help of OpenOffice.org spreadsheet), so there's a slight possibility of some errors.

I took some horrid beats tonight which left me on the bubble all too many times. There are some real donks in some of these things. Others have better players. None have great players. I feel pretty confident in the $16's on Poker Stars. The good players are few and far between.

I played 14 sit n goes tonight. I logged approximately 3 hours. That brings me to a total of 4.5 hours and a win rate of $29.77/hr. Again, not exactly a great win rate. I might try some of the $27's later in this challenge or as part of a new challenge.

2005-11-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

OK, listen up. You'll notice the Absolute Poker banner at the top. This is probably the last time you'll hear me pimp that banner unlike some other bloggers that have to promote their Party Poker signup code every 3rd sentence in all their posts.

Absolute is a great site for the little man. If you are struggling to build a bankroll, use their 200% up to $200 bonus for new signups. They also have tons of reload bonuses.

2005-11-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

Thank the Good Lord... It's finally Friday! Man, it has been a LOOOOONG week. I'm gonna try to work my ass off today so the day will pass by quickly.

I didn't play as much poker yesterday as I wanted to. I had dinner with my Mother last night and spent some time at her house. On the way over there, I got pulled over. The cop pulled out behind me as I passed the gas station below my house. It's about 3 or 4 miles to my parents' house from there. He followed me all the way until I turned into my parents' neighborhood. As soon as I turned, he hit the lights. I got pretty pissed too, because I didn't do anything worthy of being pulled over.

As the cop gets out of the car, he shines his flashlight on my license plate. Uh oh, I knew the problem right then. Actually, I figured it was one of two problems. If you take a look at my truck, you will see the license plate has a smoke colored cover over it. This thing is pretty dark and makes seeing my license plate damn near impossible at night. Also, if you notice, I have 2 4" exhaust tips coming out the back. Those things are no longer connected to a muffler. Straight pipes baby. Needless to say, my truck is pretty loud. Also, I have a very loud stereo system and I happened to be blaring out SRV's rendition of "Little Wing", which in my opinion is far from noise pollution.

Now the cop comes up to my window and asks to see my license and registration. I reach in my back pocket... empty! I check my console, no registration either. That can't be good. I explain the predicament to the cop. He was pretty cool about it. Finally, he just said he pulled me over to ask me to remove my license plate cover. I agreed with him and went on my merry way.

All this brings me to my next beef. I'm a big fan of police officers. They don't get paid nearly enough for what they do. However, during my little 3-4 mile trip with this cop behind me, I witnessed 1.) A car pull out in front of me and then went speeding on, oblivous to the fact there was a cop behind him, 2.) Another car pull out in front of me, then stop dead in the middle of the road for no apparent reason, then finally make a left hand turn with no signal, and 3.) 2 vehicles in front of me not stop at a stop sign before pulling out. However, I got picked to be pulled over because of my license plate cover. Such a bad beat. No ticket though, so I guess I sucked out.

Enough of that little story. Tonight is Friday night. There are no football games of any importance tonight. I do have a few DVDs coming from Netflix. I'll have PCU (great funny movie), Eric Clapton Unplugged, and Alice in Chains Unplugged. I know I will watch PCU and probably AIC unplugged to wind down before I go to bed. Also, I want to buy an Xbox game. I'm debating on a football game or that Far Cry Instincts game. I'm not sure what I want.

Also, on my agenda tonight, I want to play at least 12 more sit n goes. That will put me up to 20% of my goal being completed. I'm aiming for 20, but I'm not sure if I can stay focused long enough to get 20 played. I can sit and play cash games for hours because it's nonstop action. Put me in a sit n go and I do good to stay awake.

One last semi-poker related tidbit: I want a new TV for my new place. I'm really aching to get a new DLP televison somehwere in the 50" range. I bought one of these a year ago, but it was a gift for my parents. I would really like to have the same TV. I can hook my laptop up via the DVI port and play poker in 50" HDTV bliss. It would also be nice to have some HD programming, and I'm going to get the Comcast DVR package. The only reason this is poker related is because poker is gonna be the only thing that allows this to happen. So let's all hope I can run good through the end of the year so I can buy one of these jewels.

2005-11-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Night One of the Sit N Go Challenge Stats:

Summary: Play 100 Sit n Goes and check results
Games: 8
Buy Ins: $128.00
Amount Won: $189.00
Net Amount: $61.00
ROI%: 47.66%
Finish ITM%: 50%
Avg Finish: 4.50
1st Place: 1
2nd Place: 3
3rd Place: 0
Other Place: 4

I also noted by each entry in my spreadsheet of when I have taken a bad beat to get eliminated from the tournament. Tonight, it was all 4 of the tournaments where I didn't make the money.

I learned tonight, it won't take long to play 100. I only played about 1.5 hours. So I'm making a decent hourly rate. Very small sample size we're looking at though.

More to come...

2005-11-03T13:08:00.001-08:00

I've been working on some ideas for different content for this site. As it stands right now, this site just falls into same realm as 938928374928374 other blogs out there. "I played this many hands and made/lost this much money. Oh yeah, all poker players are idiot donkeys". That pretty much sums up 95% of the poker blogs out there. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy many of those blogs. They just don't have anything to really separate them from the rest.

While playing a bit today this hand gave me inspiration for one idea:

PokerStars 2/4 Hold'em (6 handed) FTR converter on zerodivide.cx

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Qh, Qd.

Hero raises, 1 fold, CO calls, 3 folds.

Flop: (5.50 SB) 2d, Kh, Jc (2 players)

Hero bets, CO calls.

Turn: (3.75 BB) Kc (2 players)

Hero bets, CO calls.

River: (5.75 BB) 3h (2 players)

Hero bets, CO calls.

Final Pot: 7.75 BB

Results in white below:

Hero has Qh Qd (two pair, kings and queens).

CO has 5h 2h (two pair, kings and twos).

Outcome: Hero wins 7.75 BB.

As you can see, this guy really just donked it up on that hand. This sparked an idea. How about every so often doing an article called

The Inner-Mind of the Online Donkey

. The title could use some help, but the idea is there.

The basic idea is to take a hand where you are a player at your table really just plain donked it up. Put yourself in the role of the donkey (assuming you weren't the donkey to begin with) and walk through the hand, sharing the donkey thoughts that flow through your mind and why you played the hand the way you did. This can get entertaining. Also, if you would like to contribute, feel free to email submissions to leonardw@nospam-gmail.com. Please remove the "nospam-" part.

Look for the first inner donkey article in a day or 2. I got some other ideas too. They will probably piss off 2+2ers and bloggers alike. Sometimes you'll have that.

2005-11-03T07:32:00.000-08:00

Congrats on the 'Eers beating the snot out of those UConn fuckers last night. That score could have been 80-3 or so had Rodriguez not let up.

I've reached the end of my break. I'm all freshened up and ready to do some check-raising. I got some new goals to share.

Goals: Play 1 more month of $2/4 short. After my cashout last month, I think I'm gonna stay conservative with the bankroll and suck it up at the $2/4 tables for one more month. I'm winning at over a 4BB/100 on these tables, so they are still profitable. However, the play at the $3/6 tables is not any better. The tables are full of donkeys these days. Especially with the WSOP playing on ESPN.

I want to focus on cash games this month. They are my bread and butter. I love the fast limit poker style. However, I've been running good in the $16 sit n goes on Poker Stars too. I want to play at least 100 of these puppies this month. That's right 100 sit n goes. They are boring, they are gay, but they are profitable. That's what poker is all about to me. Fuck the pureness of the game. I'm here to make money.

So I got a nice little spreadsheet all laid out ready for some sit n go crazyness. I have no concept of how I'll end up in my 100 sng challenge, but it will be a learning experience.

Another thing I'm going to try to do is keep a log of all the hours I play this month. I want to try to come up with an hourly rate for my time. I'm not going to set a pre-determined # of hours I want to play. That never works for me anyway. Things have been going good when I play when I want, so I'll continue those ways.

Hopefully November will be good to me this year. Last November was my best month ever. I netted over $20,000 last November.

I'm gonna try to play quite a bit tonight. There's nothing going on this evening as far as I know. So I'll probably settle in after dinner time and put in a few hours at the tables. I'll probably 2 table some cash games on Full Tilt (clearing bonus), while I 2 table the $16 sng's on Stars.

Also, this evening, I need to call Neteller and see what to do about my account and Party Poker. I got my rakeback set up for Party, but I can't deposit because my Neteller account was used on my old Party account. So I emailed Neteller and they said to call them and they can fix it. It will be nice to have rakeback again. Especially when I'm getting ready to hit the $3/6 6 max tables wide open.

2005-10-31T06:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween. I got a bag full of Butterfingers, Hershey Bars, and Reese's Peanut Butter cups to satisfy all these freeloading ankle biters tonight. I'm not sure how many trick or treaters I will get at my new place. Hopefully not a lot.

I pretty much kept away from the poker tables this past weekend with a few exceptions. As you can see, I placed 4th in a 180 man sit n go on Friday night. I donked off almost 2 buyins in the blogger game while playing in the sit n go.

I also played a few single table sit n goes yesterday. I think I played 4 all together. I won 2 and finished out of the money in 2.

I spent most of my weekend cleaning. I did go to a Halloween party Saturday night. It was nothing special. I came home early.

Tonight, I'll take on last day off. I have to go to Columbus, OH tomorrow so I'll be away from a computer tomorrow night. Wednesday night will be my return to the grind. Hopefully this November will be another good month.

2005-10-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

PokerStars Tournament #14392162, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $3600.00
Tournament started - 2005/10/28 - 22:57:53 (ET)

Dear Predator314,

You finished the tournament in 4th place.
A $288.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 154.72 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

2005-10-28T13:56:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday I bowled a 607 series. I bowled 185 in game 1, 224 in game 2, and 198 in game 3. That's my highest series of the year and my 2nd highest series ever. The only other time I broke 600 was a 636 I bowled this past summer in a mixed gender league. But that was on a very easy oil pattern, plus I probably figured bowling a 600 series would impress the chicks :)

2005-10-28T07:48:00.000-07:00

Last night made 3 days in which I have not been a single hand. I feel rested and relaxed. In my last post, I mentioned taking the rest of the month off. However, I think I'm ready to play some again.

I'll just play it by ear this evening to see how things go. I'd prefer getting a few friends together and playing some donkey poker, but if I can't swing that, then I'll probably play in some cash games online and get started on next Month's nut.

It's kind of hard to take these breaks, but I think an occasional break is important. Even when things are going well. My advice to the grinders out there is to give yourself a day or 2 breather every now and then. Don't just wait for the bad times and then walk away.

I had a few movies to watch during my break. I mentioned Starsky and Hutch. Last night's feature was Sin City. I have subscribed to Netflix (for the 3rd time). I love the Netflix service. Some of my coming movies that I'll be excited to get in the mail are all music related: Eric Clapton: Unplugged. The famous concert where he put the MTV Unplugged series on the map. Alice in Chains: Unplugged. AiC is one of my favorite bands. Cut down in their prime by our friend, Mr. Heroin. Lastly is Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985. SRV is hands down the greatest guitar player of all time. The man was a genius.

2005-10-27T10:27:00.000-07:00

Nothing much to report. I have now gone 2 days in a row without playing a single hand. Yesterday was bowling followed by a screening of Starsky and Hutch. The movie was pretty damn funny. I know it came out a long time ago, but I don't watch that much TV or movies.

I had a really good Month of October and that's the biggest reason for my breather. I've already cashed out my money to pay bills, so I'll probably ride out the rest of the month without playing. I feel more rested mentally when I don't play poker. It's weird.

2005-10-26T05:21:00.000-07:00

I didn't play a single hand yesterday. Just took a break from poker. I finally got setup with rakeback at Party. I'm going to make my deposit on there and cross my fingers.

I've also withdrawn a bit out of my bankroll to help cover some expenses for next month. I had a very good month. Hopefully November will be better.