Predator314's Poker Journal

I decided to go ahead and play in the Wil Wheaton tournament on Stars yesterday. I did decent considering the cards I was getting. Boy Genius put a hurting on me early when he dropped the hammer on me and hit a straight. He had me to the felt early. I regained my chips after some strategic all ins and a little luck. Someone else put a bad beat on me later to leave me short stacked. I can't even remember the hand. I finally pushed with something like A8 and was called by AJ.

Speaking of AJ, did I miss that memo that this was a good hand to put all your money in the pot when you don't have to? AJ is a decent starting hand, but it's behind a shitload of other hands. That is unless you're playing me. You will catch that jack or flush or straight or whatever you need on the river.

I played a $11 tournament on Full Tilt last night and made it to the money. I got the minimum again when my AK fell to... you guessed it, AJ.

I did have a great hand that rocketed me towards the top of the chip leaderboard. I had AA on the button. There was an early position raiser. Then a re-raise from the cut-off. I shoved. Both called. Early position turned up QQ, cutoff turned up KK. It was a huge pot.

I've spent a bit today playing some more $2/4 6 max on Stars. I can't get away from this game. It's been a goldmine so far. I've had a couple downward spirals, but that's just because it's a donkfest.

Here are my stats so far at the $2/4 6 max game:

Hands: 14,694
VP$IP: 28.38
PF Raise%: 19.61
Att to Steal Blinds: 32.44
BB/100: 4.43

You can probably do the math to see what kind of boost this game has been to my bankroll. It's hard moving up with that kind of win rate. Although I don't think it's sustainable. I think 3 BB/100 is definitely sustainable at that game though.

I've also been playing quite a few $16 sit n goes on Stars and have been doing good with those. I played a few last night and took 1st, 2nd, and 4th. I played 2 this morning and bubbled out on both. They were much tighter. I got played in my last one. The blinds were at 100/200 with a 25 chip ante (I think) and I was in the big blind with A4 suited. Folded to the small blind who limped. I raised it with up with about half my chips. He pushed. I figured it was a donk play. I called. He had AA.

I'll probably play some more cash games this evening. I'm gonna run some errands now. I'll be ready for the blogger tournament tomorrow. Hopefully Lee Jones will help me win an Xbox 360. I'll take the WPT package too, but my goal is the Xbox.

Mr. Jones over at Poker Stars decided he wanted to turn my doom button on last night. I played 4 sit n goes. I took the big Oh-fer.

All sit n goes were 9 handed $16 turbos. In sit n go #1, it's fairly early. I'm in the small blind with AK. A couple limpers and then the button raises to like 4 or 5 times the big blind. I cold call so I can get away from the hand and fight another day.

Flop: A,K,Q rainbow.

Checked around to the raiser. He bet roughly the size of the pot. I check raise all in. Folded to the raiser who instantly calls with...... AJ offsuit. Total domination.

Turn: rag
River: 10 giving him the straight and giving me the door.

#2. I lose a coin flip with everyone at the table, but the blinds at 50/100. I push with QK on the next hand and triple up. I eventually take the chip lead, but fall to 2nd in chips with 4 left. I try a few blind steals, but the chip leader pushed on me both times. I get pocket Jacks on the button. Standard raise. Chip leader pushes again! I call. He has Queens. I have a bubble finish.

#3. Nothing major happened had happened and the blinds were going up, so I wasn't desparate, but I wasn't going to be able to cruise to the money. I get AK in the cutoff. 2 limpers and a pre-flop raise. I shove. Big blind calls with 6-8 offsuit (m'kay), pre-flop raiser calls almost all of his chips with ... that's right ... AJ offsuit. The turn brought a jack and I'm out of that one.

#4. About the same as last game. The blinds are getting up there and I don't have enough chips to cruise to the money. I get QQ in late/middle position. 50,000 limpers in front. I push. I'm called by A-8 offsuit. The river Ace had me tossing my new Mx1000 mouse across the room.

TILT!

In hand #1, I'm roughly a 5.6 to 1 favorite. In hand #2, I was a 4 to 1 dog, but I can't see myself playing it any differently. In hand #3 I was roughly 2:1 favorite. Hand #4, I'm roughly 2.5 to 1 favorite. I can't complain. Just one of those nights.

All was not so bad though. I did play some ring games on Full Tilt to try to clear the remaining $50 in bonus I have left. I ended up recouping my sit n go losses here.

I haven't played a lot so far today, but this hand sure was cute:



FullTiltPoker Game #260126165: Table Baltimore (6 max) - $3/$6 - Limit Hold'em - 16:07:48 ET - 2005/10/21

Seat 1: grinders101 ($55.50)

Seat 2: bummer56 ($130)

Seat 3: Owen Money ($91.50)

Seat 4: sendit2fbt ($275)

Seat 5: Hero ($205)

Seat 6: Badturn ($101)

grinders101 posts the small blind of $1.50

bummer56 posts the big blind of $3

The button is in seat #6


Holecards:

Dealt to Hero [ ]

Owen Money folds

sendit2fbt folds

Hero raises to $6

Badturn folds

grinders101 has 15 seconds left to act

grinders101 calls $4.50

bummer56 folds


Flop :
[ ]

grinders101 checks

Hero bets $3

grinders101 calls $3


Turn:
[ ] [ ]

grinders101 checks

Hero bets $6

grinders101 calls $6


River:
[ ] [ ]

grinders101 checks

Hero bets $6

grinders101 calls $6


Showdown:

Hero shows [ ] (four of a kind, Queens)

grinders101 mucks

Hero wins the pot ($43) with four of a kind, Queens


SUMMARY:

Total pot $45 | Rake $2

Board:
[ ]

Seat 1: grinders101 (small blind) mucked [ ] - a full house Queens full of Sevens

Seat 2: bummer56 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 3: Owen Money didn't bet (folded)

Seat 4: sendit2fbt didn't bet (folded)

Seat 5: Hero showed [ ] and won ($43) with four of a kind Queens

Seat 6: Badturn (button) didn't bet (folded)

My gameplan tonight depends on the weather. No Rain = Football game, then home to play some cash games. Rain = Walmart to buy an Xbox game and play in Wil Wheaton's tournament on Stars. It's raining right now.

Where to begin. I was counting on a big boost to my bankroll last night, but it didn't happen. Some lucky fucker in Oregon won the $340 Million Powerball.

I've been ripping up the $2/4 short handed games on Poker Stars recently. This has been a really good boost to the bankroll. Add in a multi-table victory on Sunday and my bankroll looks pretty good right now. I think I'm ready to move up.

No "ifs", "ands", or "buts", my next move is to $3/6 6 max on Party. This game is a goldmine. I've played a few thousand hands there and I'm a marginal winner so far. I've run bad a couple times in those couple thousand hands too.

I'm going to make some "preparations" for my move up. I still want to be conservative with the bankroll. I have a healthy bankroll for $5/10 right now, so I think it would be ok to move up without making these preparations. However, better safe than sorry.

In preparation for my moving up in limits, I will do a little more bonus whoring. Empire has a 100% up to $300 going right now, but it's a 20x to clear in 10 days. I think I'll skip that one. However, Pokerroom has a 40% up to $200 reload going on. I think I'm going to start with that bonus.

After Pokerroom, I'm going to whore bonuses and collect a little schwag in the process. Amazingly, there are a few poker rooms out there that I've never signed up for. So I'm going to go to Poker Source Online and collect on some free shit.

I think I'll start out by signing up for The Gaming Club and get some free poker chips. It only takes 750 raked hands. Plus I get a free $50 bonus.

Next, I think I'll go for the Titan and a free set of Copag cards with some chip racks, cut card, and dealer button. Also, Titan has a 100% up to $500 bonus. Not sure how hard it is to clear. We'll find out.

So, I'll probably have those 2 bonuses, plus what little bit of rakeback I get this month. I also have some bonus left to work off at Full Tilt. I guess I should finish that thing before it expires.

I also want to get a Party rakeback deal going. I haven't heard from my Empire affiliate which is supposed to be hooking me up with a deal at Party. However, I have heard from another reliable affiliate that will hook me up with 25%. I think I'll just go with that.

I'm really excited to be moving up to $3/6. Playing $2/4 after being used to playing $5/10 for so many months was getting pretty boring. It's a little more fun playing short handed on Stars, but it's still $2/4 and even with a decent win rate, I'm not making as much money as I want.

Moving up to $3/6 will be a lot better. If I can maintain a 2BB/100 win rate, that's $12/100 hands. So I'll be making roughly $40-50/hour plus rakeback. With my mediocre volume, I should still pull in $600-$700/month.

Also, the $3/6 6 max game is pretty fun to play. Once I move up, prepare for a bunch of posts cussing these 6 max fuckers that donk bet me on the turn and catch their inside straight draw on the river.

Not really much to report. Yesterday, I had that no-sugar hangover I've been expecting. I felt pretty bad all day long. I think I've slept it off. I feel much better today.

As a result of me not feeling well, I played minimal poker yesterday, but had a very good day. I played a little under 300 hands of $2/4 6 max on Stars and racked up. I also played a $16 turbo sit n go on stars while I was waiting for the new WSOP Main Event show to come on and placed 3rd in it.

I got rivered pretty badly in the sit n go. I was the short stack and was dealt QJsuited on the button. I raise. Cold called by the big blind. Flop was Q,3,x. I push, he calls with A-3 offsuit. Turn rag. River... fuckin' 3.

I watched the WSOP shows last night. Nothing too interesting. Phil is pure entertainment though. The AK hand was pure fucking genius entertainment. "HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD CAN MAKE THAT LAYDOWN?". LOL. You the man Phil, you the man. I also caught myself chanting "throw a jack dealer, throw a jack!" when he had the AK vs KJ. How does this prick not get his ass beat? Phil, you're a weak/tight entertainment genius. Keep it up.

I think Marcel Luske is one of my favorite players to watch on TV. His whole attitude about life and poker is just too damn cool. I bet he gets all the pussy back in Amsterdam. Doesn't even have to pay for it! He played some very good poker yesterday in my opinion.

I was suprised X22 didn't get more airtime than what he did. The man is dangerous. It looked like he had a monster chipstack. I think I would have made the same play against Phil with that chipstack. Off course, had the tides been reversed, Phil would have cold called and checked in the dark. I like watching X22 or whatever the fuck his name is. I just wish he would fix that damn nose. It looks like a monkey hung from it for a year or so.

Another thing I've done the past 2 nights is watch a little bit of Live @ The Bike. This is pure fucking genius as well. No soap opera 30 minute timeouts because Matusow said "Fuck". Just pure cash game. It is well done with commentary and hole card cams. I think it said that tonight will be a $5000 mininum buy in game. A game regularly played by Jerry Buss. I'll be tuned in tonight after my bowling league.

In preparation for the Blogger tournament this week, I'm going to work on my no limit tournament game for the remainder of the week. I'll probably play some regular and turbo sit n goes on Poker Stars. I'll probably even play a few mult-table sit n goes. I'm going to work on maintaing focus and spend the "down" time takign notes on everyone at my table. Hopefully I can make this a habit.

That's all I got for now. Keep 'er cool!

Ok, starting to feel the sugar hangover effects. This will be a tough couple days.

On to poker...

You know that great feeling you get when you just have someone's number? No matter what they do, you are one step ahead of them. I had that feeling today against a guy claiming to be 12. He was VERY aggressive, but too loose to be profitable.

Here are a couple hands where we clashed:

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


Preflop: Hero is SB with As, Qh.

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


Flop: (7 SB) 8s, Js, 2s (2 players)

Hero bets, CO calls.


Turn: (4.50 BB) 2c (2 players)

Hero bets, CO raises, Hero calls.


River: (8.50 BB) Td (2 players)

Hero checks, CO bets, Hero calls.


Final Pot: 10.50 BB


Results in white below:

Hero has As Qh (one pair, twos).

CO has 9s Ah (one pair, twos).

Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

Normally, this would probably be a -EV decision to call the river with Ace high, but I was pretty confident with my read.

Hand #2:

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


Preflop: Hero is CO with Qh, Kh.

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


Flop: (7.50 SB) 3s, Kc, 4s (2 players)

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


Turn: (7.75 BB) 3d (2 players)

UTG bets, Hero raises, UTG calls.


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

UTG checks, Hero bets, UTG folds.


Final Pot: 12.75 BB


Results in white below:

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

Outcome: Hero wins 12.75 BB.

In this hand, I purposely overplayed the KQs because I was still confident in the read on this guy.

Last hand:

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


Preflop: Hero is UTG with Jd, As.

Hero raises, 3 folds, SB calls, 1 fold.


Flop: (5 SB) Js, 7d, 7s (2 players)

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


Turn: (4.50 BB) 5s (2 players)

SB bets, Hero raises, SB calls.


River: (8.50 BB) 9c (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets, SB calls.


Final Pot: 10.50 BB


Results in white below:

SB has 8h Jh (two pair, jacks and sevens).

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

Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

This hand pretty much played itself.

The kid is probably a winning player at $2/4. He is definitely one of the most aggressive players I've seen at the tables. He just overdoes it.

Day one of my new lifestyle began bright and early this morning. 6:25am to be exact. Damn, do I wish that I had went to bed earlier. I feel like shit today. I'm working on about 4.5 hours of sleep.

So far as for the diet, I'm doing good. I had some Special K cereal and a banana for breakfast. I had a turkey sandwich on wheat with mustard and some sugar free jello for lunch. Right now I'm munching on some carrot sticks as my afternoon snack. I haven't drank any water so far, but I'm grabbing a bottle as I type this up. I did have a diet Dr. Pepper for lunch because there wasn't any cold water available. That will be the only soda I drink today. It's milk and water from here on out.

It's been easy so far, but I've kept busy today. I had to be at a customer's office this morning. I haven't felt any effects of the lack of sugar in my body yet. However, I do expect to have some sort of withdrawl symptoms. Contrary to popular belief, food can be addicting. At least mentally.

One thing I've decided to do is keep a journal of everything I eat. No I'm not going to post it on this blog, because frankly I'm sure nobody gives a shit.

On to poker. I have no gameplan for this week or the remainder of the month. I figure I'll just stick to the ring games and play an occasional tournament. The tournaments are nice when you win. However, they are B-O-R-I-N-G. My first place finish took nearly 5 hours yesterday. That's with only 50 entries. Now, it was a rebuy tournament. Once we got to the final table, I had a blast. That's just because I had a nice chipstack and could bully people. Let me tell you people. It was truly a work of art how I used the chipstack to my advantage.

I had a friend stop by and sweat my victory. Actually, he came by to pick up his mail and got interested in watching. After about 5 minutes, he said "So, are you just going to raise every hand?". The next hand was something like AJ suited. I raised it again and replied "Scott, when you get cards like these, I'll raise every hand and there's no excuse for losing".

And now finally:

The True Story about My MTT Victory Yesterday

Yes, I did win the tournament, but there was a portion of the tournament that I didn't blog about yesterday. In fact it was a big portion. There were 19 people left in the tournament at the time I started blogging about it.

When the tournament first started, I took a bad beat right off the bat that cost me about 75% of my chipstack. I really went on tilt. So I figured I'd hit the away button and walk away from the game.

I put in a load of laundry and was checking out something on the TV and then the phone rang. I forgot all about the tournament in the process. After I remembered, I walked into my office and saw that I was still in the tournament. I only had 230 chips or so with an average of something way above that.

They were just coming back from the 1st break. I decided I'd just push with any decent hand. I think I pushed with 9-10 suited and doubled up. I worked my chipstack up rather decently after a while. Then I got the pocket 7's hand where I flopped a set against 2 over pairs and more than tripled up. That was my tournament right there.

So to be honest with you, I won a tournament that I forgot I was playing in. Beat that!

I'm currently about 3rd in chips with 19 remaining in a $2600 Empire tournament. Only the top 8 get paid though. Here is the sweet ass hand that put me up near the top in chips (sorry for the shitty hand history, but I can't get the converter to work on tourney hands).

***** Hand History for Game 2854992286 *****
150/300 Tourney Texas Hold'em Game Table (NL) (Tournament 16461095) - Sun Oct 16 12:56:49 EDT 2005
Table $1500 Daily Guaranteed(485330) Table 2 (Real Money) -- Seat 5 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: GodsmackBLS (3693)
Seat 2: Edward57 (2988)
Seat 3: ShiptheChez (4930)
Seat 4: dragan_hemsk (4675)
Seat 5: Dan_Banan (9590)
Seat 6: st0rballe (10631)
Seat 7: Nada10 (7185)
Seat 8: zidane84 (5162)
Seat 9: jamie834 (12870)
Seat 10: biboune2004 (1316)
Nada10 posts small blind (75)
zidane84 posts big blind (150)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to GodsmackBLS [ 7c, 7h ]
jamie834 calls (150)
biboune2004 folds.
GodsmackBLS raises (600) to 600
Edward57 folds.
ShiptheChez folds.
dragan_hemsk calls (600)
Dan_Banan folds.
Nada10 calls (525)
zidane84 folds.
jamie834 calls (450)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 2s, 7d, 8d ]
Nada10 bets (150)
jamie834 folds.
GodsmackBLS raises (800) to 800
dragan_hemsk raises (2000) to 2000
Nada10 calls (1850)
GodsmackBLS raises (2293) to 3093
GodsmackBLS is all-In.
dragan_hemsk calls (1093)
Nada10 calls (1093)
Creating Main Pot with $11829 with GodsmackBLS
** Dealing Turn ** : [ 2d ]
Nada10 checks.
dragan_hemsk checks.
** Dealing River ** : [ Jh ]
Nada10 checks.
dragan_hemsk checks.
** Summary **
Main Pot: 11829 |
Board: [ 2s 7d 8d 2d Jh ]
GodsmackBLS balance 11829, bet 3693, collected 11829, net +8136 [ 7c 7h ] [ a full house, Sevens full of twos -- 7c,7h,7d,2s,2d ]
Edward57 balance 2988, didn't bet (folded)
ShiptheChez balance 4930, didn't bet (folded)
dragan_hemsk balance 982, lost 3693 [ Th Td ] [ two pairs, tens and twos -- Jh,Th,Td,2s,2d ]
Dan_Banan balance 9590, didn't bet (folded)
st0rballe balance 10631, sits out
Nada10 balance 3492, lost 3693 [ Qd Qc ] [ two pairs, queens and twos -- Qd,Qc,Jh,2s,2d ]
zidane84 balance 5012, lost 150 (folded)
jamie834 balance 12270, lost 600 (folded)
biboune2004 balance 1316, didn't bet (folded)

We just came back from the 2nd break and it's hand for hand all the way to the final table. I've been in this position many times before. I think I'm just going to lay low and try to slowly work my chipstack up to a good point.

I'm gonna blog my way through the rest of the tournament starting now:

- I'm currently 2nd in chips with 11904. #1 is on my right.

- I get 79 hearts. 118 limpers, I check in the big blind. Flop came A,7,5, with the 5 of hearts. MP bets minimum. Me and another guy call. Turn is 8 hearts. Now I have a flush draw with a straight draw and middle pair. I think about betting, but decide to check. It's checked around. Checked around on the river and I take the small pot to give me the chip lead.

- I lose a small pot with A5 against AA when he tried to slow play and the board got too scary for him to do anything.

- Tournament play is boring and slow. I was playing some $2/4 short handed on Stars, but decided to focus on this tournament. Not a lot of action so far.

- Uninvolved in a hand, I became 2nd in chips. Dude won a nice pot and took the chip lead.

- I raise with AJ from MP and take the blinds.

- Still 19 players, but there are quite a few short stacks. Avg is 6200, but there are 12 out of 19 below that. Most of those are extremely below that.

- We get one to bite the dust on our table. AJ rivered 2 pair, but lost to a set of 5's.

- Some asshole is stalling even though it's hand for hand.

- I try to steal from the button with KT offsuit. BB reraises 1000, I call. Flop came A,3,5. He checks, I bet 1200 as a stab. He folds. I'm back in the chip lead.

- I raise with QJ offsuit from late-middle position and take the blinds.

- I just noticed that this was a rebuy tournament. Shows you how much attention I paid at the beginning of this thing. Guess what? I didn't have any rebuys :)

- Another one bites the dust at our table. However, I've moved to 2nd in chips with 17 remaining.

- Chip leader went for a blind steal, but I called with QK suited on the button. Flop was all rags. He bet small. I raised and he folded. I'm back in the chip lead.

- They ain't doing shit on that other table.

- Down to 16. 55 lost to 66, I'm 2nd in chips as a result though.

- 15 remaining. I'm 3rd in chips. I'm not losing any, but the 2nd and 3rd place guys are just knocking people out. It's a close battle at the top though.

- Agggh. These people suck. Dude has the damn nuts and a short stack reraises him. The bigger stack doesn't put the short stack all in, he just called.

- I lost a small pot with the chip leader. His J8 beat my KJ. Still 3rd in chips though.

- Down to 14. 3rd in chips.

- Down to 13, AK beat AQ on the other table. Chip leader also had his KK cracked, but lost less than he should have. It's a 3 way battle at the top.

- I just won a very nice pot when I rivered a flush against a couple limpers. One of those limpers happened to be the chip leader with KK. They kept min betting, then I put in a huge raise on the river with the nuts and chip leader called. I'm new chip leader and have almost 2 to 1 advantage on 2nd.

- AK beats A3 and we are down to 12. I'm still 1st in chips, but the gap was closed after that last hand. 4 more til the money.

- I'm 2nd in chips. Chip leader is on the other table. He only has a couple on me.

- Down to 12. 2nd in chips.

- Down to the final table. I'm not sure where #11 went, but I don't care. 2 more til the money. I'm barely in 2nd place behind the chip leader.

- Still 10 left. Things are going slow and I'm card dead. I did get one blind steal with K5 suited from the CO. I'm still 2nd in chips though and the chip leader is on my right and he is a DONK! At least I got good position.

- I regained the chip lead when I caught a king high flush with 4 spades on the board. I should have won more, but I was playing it careful.

- Before I got the above typed I lost the chip lead when 2nd won a hand. However, I regained it by coming over the top of donkey 3rd place with KT suited when he tried a blind steal from the CO.

- By the way, we are down to 9. It's been like that for a while. 1 more til the money. There are 3 extremely small stacks. I'm gonna play it safe. Folded 55 from UTG. Of course the flop brought a 5.

- 2nd in chips again. Damn I'm starving.

- In the money. 8 left.

- Down to 7. I just won a coin flip with AK vs 99. I'm leader again.

- I just missed a chance to eliminate a guy. He limped and I checked from BB with 4-2 off. He had less than 1/2 a bet remaining. I put him all in. He called with KJ and I caught a 2 on the turn. He caught a J on the river.

- I had drifted back to 2nd in chips, but made a move on the chip leader with pocket 6's and it worked out. Back in the lead.

- All in from small stack, 2nd in chips calls, small stack win.

- big hand transpired between 2nd and 3rd in chips. 2nd just took 2/3 of 3rd's stack. Now I'm 2nd in chips.

- Down to 6. 2nd in chips.

- Almost even at top of chips. Had pocket 8's in the small blind. Chip leader limped from the button (he's a donk). I raise to 6 times BB. He calls. I push on a 7 high flop and take it down.

- Empire is getting ready to fuck up. My client is getting very slow for some reason.

- I just lost a pot to the chip leader. I'm still 2nd in chips though.

- Only the me and the chip leader have over 10,000 in chips. He has 59,000, I have 32,000.

- Down to 5 as teh chip leader takes another one out. He's playing every hand and catching cards right now. This will be tough. He's min raising every hand too. I'm gonna get that douche.

- This thing has been running 4 hours and only 50 entries. Rebuy tournaments suck. Even if you don't know it's a rebuy tournament.

- small stack went all in with AJ, BB went all in with 10J. AJ held up. Still at 5 people

- Small stack goes in, chip leader calls with better hand. Small stack catches a boat.

- I take out the 5th place guy when my A7 suited holds up against his K9.

- Down to 4. 2nd in chips. 2 small stacks.

- bridge between me and the chip leader has dwindled to almost nothing.

- I'm new chip leader after I hit a straight against chip leader's 2 pair.

- Down to 3, I'm 1st in chips.

- Still 3 left, I'm still the chip leader and punishing.

- 2 left. My QQ beat 10-10.

- 2.5 to 1 advantag in chips.

- I kept dwindling his chipstack until this hand:

#Game No : 2855117082
***** Hand History for Game 2855117082 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:16461095 Level:13 Blinds (750/1500) - Sunday, October 16, 15:30:01 EDT 2005
Table $1500 Daily Guaranteed(485330) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 1: st0rballe ( $20746 )
Seat 2: GodsmackBLS ( $97754 )
Trny:16461095 Level:13
Blinds (750/1500)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to GodsmackBLS [ Qd 6d ]
GodsmackBLS raises [3850].
st0rballe calls [3100].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, 4s, 6h ]
st0rballe checks.
GodsmackBLS bets [21900].
st0rballe is all-In [16146]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 8d ]
** Dealing River ** [ 8c ]
GodsmackBLS shows [ Qd, 6d ] two pairs, eights and sixes.
st0rballe shows [ Th, 4h ] two pairs, eights and fours.
GodsmackBLS wins 5754 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, eights and sixes.
GodsmackBLS wins 41492 chips from the main pot with two pairs, eights and sixes.
Congratulations to player GodsmackBLS for winning tournament $1500 Daily Guaranteed
Player st0rballe finished in 2 place and received $520
Player GodsmackBLS finished in 1 place and received $780
st0rballe has left the table.
GodsmackBLS has left the table.

Victory is mine!



That's MTT victory #2 for me. Victory #1 came some time last year after I busted out on the 2nd hand of a blogger tournament.

It's time to clean myself up and hit the grocery store. I'm fucking starving.

A day that will live in infamy!



I've embarked on this journey time and time before. A quest if you will. What is this quest you ask? The quest is to clear a Poker Stars bonus without losing my ass! Many times I've went on this quest. Many times I've failed. Not this time.

As you can see from the graphic above, I've cleared the Poker Stars bonus. I've also cleared it without losing. I deposited $600 leaving me a $600 balance and 750 FPPs to clear. I just logged off after clearing the bonus with a $34 profit plus an additional $150 bonus. I guess my letter to Lee Jones paid off. I tell you what, Lee, just for being such a good sport and not turning on my "We hate Wes" button, I'll keep that money on your site and try to build it up.

Here are some stats for my bonus clearing:

Hands: 2,277 all $2/4 6 max
VP$IP: 27%
Att. To Steal Blinds: 31.39%
Won $ WSF: 40.51%
Amount Won: $89.50 (I blew some on a few tournaments)
BB/100 Hands: 0.98 (bleh!)
Went to SD %: 35.83%
Won $ at SD: 54.48%
PF Raise %: 19.38%
Total Rake: 169.00

I also played a few sit n goes and tournaments. So the rake will be higher. It sure seems like I played more hands than that.

Anyway, I've been in a poker mood all weekend. I had a marathon session last night playing nearly 1500 hands. In fact, so far this weekend, I've played almost 3000 hands up through today. 3000 hands of break even poker. It would have been nice, but there was a 500 hand stretch or so last night where I lost around 100BBs.

I've spent most of my time playing the bad beat jackpot tables. They were extremely juicy. There's so many interesting hands that I'd like to post on this site. However, my brain is fried right now and I'm going to take a break.

I'll probably play some more later on tonight. I think I'm going to stick with the $2/4 6 max on Stars. I might just play some tournaments or a few sit n goes. It depends on how I feel.

Mind, body, soul, poker


The Party Poker jackpot is up to $555,000! That's getting pretty large. Let me tell you, the games were juicy last night too. I'm talking some horrible play here. Nothing too unusual.

I finished last night's session with a nice victory. Not the couple hundred thousand I was hoping for, but I'll take it. However, once again, I didn't get to take full advantage of the juicy tables by playing enough hands. I vowed yesterday to play 1000 hands. I got half that. My bad.

It all started with me getting home from work. I was prepared to get some poker played. However, I had 3 shiny new DVDs from Netflix in the mailbox. I gave in to temptation and watched Super Size Me. Pretty good flick that will wing you from McDonald's food. Although I believe it was a bit biased. The dude was from West Virginia which was pretty cool. If I learned anything from the movie, it's that I will never date a vegan.

I also watched part of Oceans 12, but was getting too tired to finish it. So I went to bed.

I had some time to play poker yesterday. I just couldn't make myself do it. I was just tired, my brain was tired, which pretty much put me in a foul/tilt-able mood. That's been happening to me a lot lately.

After watching the movie yesterday, I started thinking. Maybe the reason, I don't feel great anymore is the shitty food I've been eating. I'm out on my own now in a bachelor pad. My diet is for shit right now.

I know one reason that I feel bad anymore is my lack of sleep. Those of you that read my old blog may know that I constantly battle insomnia. I've never been much of a sleeper. However, I'm a night time person, so that is a brutal combination. I like to go to bed late, but I can't sleep good and I'm always up early.

However, I think a healthier diet and exercise, I could only improve my health and general feeling of well being. Here is a list of things I'm doing to try to improve my health.

1.) Cut out all non-diet sodas and limit to 1 diet soda per day

It feels weird to type the word "soda", but I think that's how most of the world knows it. Of course, in my part of the world, we call it "pop". Whatever you call it, I drink too much. I used to drink water all the time. I love water. For some reason, over the past year, I've started drinking more and more soda/pop. So, I'm switching back to water and milk.

2.) NO Fast Food!

This is the biggie. I'm not a big fan of fast food. In fact, I down right hate it. However, it's cheap and easy. Just like my ex-girlfriend. Now, that I'm out on my own, I don't have anyone to cook for me either. I think that if I can get past this hump, then things will pretty much get back to normal. I love salads and they are easy to fix, so I figure I'll start with that. I have some basic cooking skills and a George Foreman grill. I should be able to whoop up a meal that can beat these stats for my favorite foods by fast food joint:

McDonalds: Favorite Meal - 2 Double Cheeseburgers, Small Fry, Large Coke. 1,580 Calories and 62 grams of fat.

Wendy's: Favorite Meal - Spicy Chicken Combo with a Coke. 1220 Calories, 43 grams of fat.

Taco Bell: Favorite Meal - 2 Chalupas, 1 Soft Taco meal with a Coke. 1290 calories, 58 grams of fat

Hardees: Favorite Meal - Sourdough Burger with a Coke. 1801 calories!!!, 97 grams of fat! What the fuck!?! How am I still alive?

KFC: Favorite Meal - Twister Combo with Wedges and a Pepsi. 1080 calories, 50 grams of fat.

Burger King: Favorite Meal - Whopper w/ cheese, Fries, Coke - 1600 calories, 74 grams of fat.

Long John Silvers: Favorite Meal - 2 fish, 3 chicken platter with extra hushpuppies insted of slaw - 1690 Calories, 91 grams of fat!

Arby's: Favorite Meal - Giant Roast Beef with Curly's and a Coke, occasionally throw in some jalapeno kickers - 1161 calories 41 grams of fat, 1470 calories 60 grams of fat with the kickers.

Subway: Favorite Meal - Foot long Subway Club on Wheat (no mayo) with Baked KC Masterpiece chips and a coke - 940 calories and 12 grams of fat for just sandwich and coke. The Coke accounts for 1/3 of those calories. So this is a viable option for eating out. Maybe that Jared fucker is onto something. Cut out the coke, and I got a nutritous meal.

I also kind of like Pizza. Once slice of Pizza Hut meat lovers (my favorite) has 314 calories and 19 grams of fat. I usually eat 3 or 4 slices, so now we're up with the other meals as far as calories and ahead of most of the others in fat.

I knew the numbers were high, but never really paid attention to how high until yesterday. This food is dangerous if eaten in regularly.

So to replace my fast food meals, I'm going to have to cook for myself more often. I love chicken, so I'll probably fix a bunch of that on the Foreman. I also like rice, and salads. I'm not high up on other veggies, but I can stomach things like green beans in moderation.

3.) Exercise

Of course, you healthy fuckers out there know that food is only half the battle. The 2nd half is to get your fat ass off the couch and get some excerise. I'm way out of shape right now. However, I have a health club membership that I never use.

Also, my office where I play poker currently has a desk with my computer and the rest of the room is filled with boxes of shit that I've never unpacked. I'm going to spend this evening cleaning that room out and making room for a treadmill and weight bench.

I do have a friend that is willing to help me with this. I used to go to the gym 5 days a week. I had a friend that went with me all the time. We would work out and then hit the racquetball courts for an hour or two. Talk about feeling great. Unfortuantely, our friendship hit a bumpy road and it sucked going to the gym by myself. A few months ago, I started going back with a girl I was interested in. That shit didn't last long and it sucked working out with a girl too.

4.) Drink a shitload of water

I used to drink nothing, but water. Gradually, I slipped and started drinking more and more soda. Enough where I hardly ever drink water now.

Also, I'm on the lookout for the best price on Fiji water. That shit is the bomb. But the price is higher than camel cock. It's like $25/case or something like that. I tried eBay with no luck. If anyone has any tips, lemme know.

5.) Don't be results oriented

One thing that will drive you crazy in poker and in health is to be results oriented. This should be fairly easy for me. I don't own a set of scales. I don't know how much I weight right now either. The only way I can tell my results will be in how my clothes fit and how I feel health-wise.

6.) Don't treat this as a diet

I cannot treat this as a diet; this is the most important step in my outline. It's more of a lifestyle change. Something I need to burn into my brain. I need my body to know that this is my way of life now. Get used to it. So I'm sure with reduction of calories and suger, my body will go into shock. I'm expecting some sort of withdrawl symptoms. I'll almost bet $5 that I'll have a headache for the first couple days. We'll see.

Well, I guess that's all I have for right now. Hopefully with a healthier body, I'll be able to squeeze in more poker play time which will lead to more poker content on this site.

Quite possibly the worst played hand in poker. I lost IQ points just watching the hand get played:

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


Preflop: Hero is UTG with Th, 3h.

2 folds, Button calls, SB raises, BB 3-bets, Button caps, SB calls, BB calls.


Flop: (12 SB) 8s, 5h, 3c (3 players)

SB checks, BB bets, Button calls, SB calls.


Turn: (7.50 BB) 9c (3 players)

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


River: (9.50 BB) Qd (2 players)

SB checks, Button bets, SB calls.


Final Pot: 11.50 BB


Results in white below:

SB has Ac Qs (one pair, queens).

Button has Td Ts (one pair, tens).

Outcome: SB wins 11.50 BB.

Brides Maids


Yesterday was our big day on the Wednesday night bowling league. We hit the final week of quarter #1 with a 4 point lead over two fantastic teams. Of course we drew the better team. All we needed to do is win 2 games to guarantee our victory.

In game 1 I started off really poorly, opening up in my first 2 frames. I finally get things lined out and finish the rest of the game clean with a couple strikes and a score of 172. However, a couple of our players also started out poorly and never could get things squared away. We lost the first game by 145 pins. Not good.

In game 2 I made an adjustment because I just couldn't get my ball in the pocket. The adjustment worked out great and I cruised to a game of 201. The whole team bowled better in game #2 and we had a nice score. However, the other team bowled their asses off and beat us by like 75 more pins.

At this point, the only way we can win the quarter is to win the last game by about 220 pins. We could also just win the final game and tie for the quarter with that team. We bowled our asses off in game #3. I had another good game and a score of 200 even giving me a 573 series. My best in a Wednesday night league. However, the other team bowled great again. But this time we beat them, but only by like 50 pins.

Ok...i'm pumped up for a tie breaker. I know I got another 200 game in me. Pffft. Remember the other 2nd place team? They took all 8 points against their opponents and squeaked in ahead of both of us. So we end up tied for 2nd place. It's still going to be a decent payday, but I wanted that win.

We bowled shitty in game 1, but games 2 and 3 were above par for us. We just couldn't catch any breaks. We kept tossing up splits over and over. The other team would leave a split and then one of the pins would just fall 5 seconds later. It was like that all night long.

We will win a quarter this year. Our team is too good not to.

Another thing that left a bad taste in my mouth from last night was the sportsmanship of the team we were playing last night. They really had a good time dancing around, hooting, hollering every time they would throw a shit ball and it ended up getting a strike. These guys were all in their 50's and 60's. Our ages are 25,23,28,28,33. Who do you think they cocky bastards would be? I finally got fed up to one point where I just told the one guy "You can dance all you want. You're not beating me tonight". And he didn't. I beat him all 3 games.

On to poker. Yesterday was a great day for me for poker. Not great because I won a lot of money. Although that would have been nice. Just great because of how I handled myself.

Of course we all know by now that Poker Stars hates me. That much is a given. Even though they hate me, I still play there. Right now I'm trying to clear the $150 bonus. I only have a few more hands to do that.

I played 800 hands yesterday. During the first 600 or so, I was getting hammered. You name it, it happened. Bad beats, dead cards, action flops, etc. Just one of those days.

I never tilted though. I did get mildly aggravated at some of the beats I was taking, but just for a minute or 2, then back to poker.

Then something happened. In those last 200 hands, the cards started to fall for me. Before long, I had taken my potential -100BB day and turned it into a +5BB win.

I think my short handed game can only get better after yesterday. Sometimes I wonder if my brain can handle the short handed swings. It's not there yet, but getting there as my bankroll swells. I cushiony bankroll really helps reduce tilt.

Tonight, I've got only one small errand to run, then I'm gonna fire up some poker. The bad beat jackpot on Party is at $475,000 and counting. So I figure I'll 6-8 table the BBJ $2/4's tonight. It ought to be nice and juicy. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky.

I also vow to play 1000 hands of poker tonight. I'll probably split it up and play 2 500 hand sessions.

Myself and a couple other affiliates were able to setup a special deal with Party. We are being allowed to offer deals at Party at this time whereas some other affiliates may not be able to since these affiliates went through different contacts. I've spoken to my contact at Party 3 or 4 times today and he has mentioned that Party is aware of the special arrangement myself and a couple other affiliates have. Before I had asked players to send me a message through my website if you were interested in a deal at Party. In about the last 12 hours I've received about 300 messages and at the same time I've been on the phone most of the day. If you are interested in a deal at Party (even if you have sent me a message already through my website) I ask that you please click on the Request Offer link at the top of this page. Please fill out that form and put Party as the site you are interested in. Also, please make sure that you enter your username at this website and also mention whether or not you have an existing account at Party in the comments section. I will then start getting back to players as soon as I can. Due to the tons of e-mails I expect to receive I ask that everyone please be extremely patient as it may take me 3 or 4 days to send you an e-mail back.

More good news from my affiliate on rake back at Party. I'll believe it when I see it.

In other news, Lee Jones is back to his old tricks. Dealing me KK 5 times yesterday and not letting me win a single one. Pokerstars hates me.

However, I move on clearing that bonus. I'm officially 1/2 way to clearing it. The combination of me not cranking out a large # of hands and having to clear it at $2/4 are making this thing take longer than expected.

To sum it up, I'm down $0.48 and I'm 1/2 way to clearing the bonus. Bah, I was up almost $200 while doing the clearing. Yesterday and today has taken a toll on that outcome. C'mon Lee Jones! You can do it! Let me win for Pete's sake!

I should have everything setup with Party Monday night or Tuesday. Shortly after that I will be able to start signing up players. If you have an existing account at Party there will be a solution. If you are interested in a deal at Party please send me a message through this website. I will then get back to you as soon as possible. Due to the # of e-mails I expect to receive my response time may be a little longer than usual but I will try my best to get everyone signed up in a timely manner.

Some more good news on the rakeback situation at Party. I'll patiently wait. I have a good feeling that this deal won't be as sweet as the 27% I was receiving, but something is better than nothing.

Until that dust cloud settles, I'll continue bonus whoring. I've been clearing the bonus at Poker Stars. I'm about 1/3 finished with it and I'm up quite a bit from just playing. I've been playing $2/4 short handed to clear the bonus. These games are absolutely insanely good. At least they were yesterday. They can be very profitable.

Once I get that Stars bonus cleared, I'm going to work on the Empire 100% bonus that starts today. It takes 1000 raked hands to clear it, but that's nothing. After that, I'll probably go back to Stars and play there full time until the Party situation gets settled. However, I'll probably still play a few tables on the Party BBJ tables. It's almost $340,000 right now.

Tonight I'm gonna watch the main event on ESPN. I also have to run to radio shack and pick up an AC adaptor. I bought a firewire card for my laptop, but it needs an external power supply. What a ripoff. But my iPod is just collecting dust in the corner.

After that, I'll hop on the tables for some bonus whoring and bad beat jackpot hoping. So far, this month has been quite profitable for me, despite losing over 100BBs on Friday night. If I could add a BBJ to my bankroll, that would be SUPER! It's been almost a year since I won a jackpot :)

Trifecta for the day.

Here's a couple interesting hands from my afternoon session. Maybe Lee read my letter already? I'll reserve judgement on that. He has a knack for yanking my nut hairs out.

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


Preflop: Hero is BB with Jd, Js.

UTG calls, 1 fold, CO calls, Button calls, SB completes, Hero raises, UTG calls, CO calls, Button 3-bets, SB folds, Hero caps, UTG folds, CO folds, Button calls.


Flop: (13 SB) 2h, Kh, As (2 players)

Hero bets, Button raises, Hero calls.


Turn: (8.50 BB) 3d (2 players)

Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.


River: (10.50 BB) 6c (2 players)

Hero checks, Button checks.


Final Pot: 10.50 BB


Results in white below:

Hero has Jd Js (one pair, jacks).

Button has 5s Qs (high card, ace).

Outcome: Hero wins 10.50 BB.

Who says only good players play at Stars. Limp re-raising with Q5s? I'm kind of glad he did because it let me weed out the over cards that had originally called.

Here's a nice heads up hand (for me):

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


Preflop: Hero is Button with 8d, 8c. Hero posts a blind of $2.

BB raises, Hero (poster) 3-bets, BB caps, Hero calls.


Flop: (8 SB) 7d, 5c, Jc (2 players)

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


Turn: (7 BB) 8s (2 players)

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


River: (15 BB) 2h (2 players)

BB bets, Hero raises, BB calls.


Final Pot: 19 BB


Results in white below:

BB has Kh Kd (one pair, kings).

Hero has 8d 8c (three of a kind, eights).

Outcome: Hero wins 19 BB.

Nice suckout for my biggest pot yet. Anyone play that one differently heads up? He complained, but there's no way I'm not going to see a showdown with that hand and that board (even without the 8 on the turn).

So, my afternoon session went well today. I played a little $2/4 full and $3/6 6 max on Party and had a nice winning session. Then some $2/4 short on Poker Stars for a nice win.

I'm about 1/7th of the way to clearing my bonus at Stars. I should have that thing cleared either by tonight or tomorrow night. Then I'm going to start on the Empire bonus that begins tomorrow. 100% up to $100.

Just in time for Halloween. Pokerstars is offering a 25% up to $150 deposit bonus. It takes 750 FPPs to clear the whole bonus which doesn't take very long playing short handed 2/4.

I know the folks at Poker Stars will be checking this blog at some point to verify that I have my blogger tournament ad posted. So I'm going to post this letter:

Dear Mr. Lee Jones & Poker Stars:

I've been a good boy this year. I've played on your site multiple times and I'm sure you've made you some money in the past.

All I want is for you to flip on my win switch while I whore this current bonus. In previous attempts to clear a bonus on your site, I've lost considerable amounts of money on your site. Can you please let me win?

If you honor this request, I promise to leave a Poker Stars ad on this site forever.

Sincerely,

Mr Predator314

"Myself and some of the other affiliates are in discussions with Party and we will be able to offer rakeback at Party. I hope to have everything setup within the next couple of days. As soon as I have more details I will let everyone know. "

-- My Current Rakeback Affiliate

Well, I logged into my rakeback affiliates site and was greeted with the above information. So that's good news. We'll see how things work out.

Party must have read my site yesterday too. I had a pretty good day at the tables in some wild games. Those BBJ tables are fantastic. Also the jackpot is nearing $300,000. Which means that the games will just get more fantastic. Now I remember how I ran 3 BB/100 before.

Yesterday I also watched that 18 inning steaming pile of dogshit they called a baseball game yesterday. I didn't get as aggravated with the Braves back in the 80's when they lost 100 games a year as I do now. Win a fucking World Series already. It would be fun!

Due to the marathon ballgame, I almost missed my bowling tournament, but I showed up just in time. This was something new to me. It was a king of the hill format. Everyone bowls 3 qualifying games. They cut the field to the top 8 and then you work your way through brackets like a normal tournament. The good news was that they were using last years handicap which for me is 30 pins lower than this year's handicap. THe handicapping gives you 90% of 220 with a max of 55 pins. I got the max.

My buddy Moose (the guy that bowled 286 scratch last week) and I were on a pair of lanes with 2 powerhouse bowlers. I stunk up the joint in games 1 and 2, bowling a 147 and 148 respectively. With my handicap, it was up to a 202 and 203, but still pretty far out of the running. In game #3, I guess I lost all nervousness, because I knew I wasn't going to make it. However, something happened. I found a line I could use. I rode that line to 7 straight strikes to end game #3. I finished with a 231 (286 with handicap). This boosted me to 6th. I also won the high scratch and high handicap game sidepots. I'm freerolling this bad boy.

In match play, I didn't get a good draw. I was hoping to draw one of the scratch bowlers, but instead I got a guy with just 13 less sticks than me. We both sucked ass in our match. He sucked just a bit less. I went in to the 10th needing 2 strikes and a 6 count to win. I got strike #1. Ball #2 went brooklyn on me and I left a 9 count for a tough loss. It was a pretty shitty game and there was no reason that I should have been in that position.

I do have an excuse for my crappy bowling. The lanes were so dry and I was getting some shitty ball reaction. I'm also not used to bowling across the middle, but my ball was breaking so much, it was necessary.

So tonight, I'm going to play some more poker and try to hit me a bad beat jackpot. Or at least put some bad beats on unsuspecting fishes.

Ugh. I don't know what to think. My initial impression was that Party fucked a lot of people over hardcore by separating their cash game tables from the skins. However, I think it could be good in the long run.

Right now, the tables are overrun with rakeback whores. These are the guys sitting at your tables with a VP$IP of somewhere around 7.5%. Normally this would be a losing to break even strategy. However, with rakeback, people make a living sitting for hours on end clicking the fold button.

Now I don't make a living playing poker. I just use it to help pay bills. I've worked hard on my game and rely on my winnings to make me some money. However, it's nice to have that GUARANTEED money every month. For me, it was usually a $750 to $800 payment every month. Somewhere I gotta make up for that loss of money right?

I've almost fully convinced myself that the loss of rakeback will send some of these rakeback whores back to their shitty jobs and allow one more seat at the table to be open for a LPP type fishy. These additional seats that are open will hopefully make up for the lost wages.

Now, their are some TAGs and winning players that lost their rakeback as well. Some of these guys will be dusting off their resumes. The others will probably trickle back to Party Poker. I don't think this will make that much of a difference at the limits I play.

I think all that Party Poker effectively did was make it impossible for a $2/4 player to be a pro.

I have already cashed out my bankroll on Empire. I have just a few bucks left in that account for some of their tournaments. I put a chunk of money back into Party so I could 4 table the BBJ tables last night. Those things are always full of trout and salmon.

I have signed up for rakeback at Ultimate Bet. I'll probably also sign up at one of the prima networks. The rates are a lot better anyway.

Other than that, I'm just going to keep working on my game. I can continue building my bankroll by actually winning at poker. I've done it before. I am probably going to be doing a lot more bonus whoring too. I think I'm going to start with the Titan $500 bonus. I also haved $50 left at Full Tilt to whore. That should go very quickly. I'll probably do it first. Also, as I was typing this, I was offered a $200 bonus on UB. So that will most likely be my next victim.

My biggest thing though is where am I going to play when I'm not whoring a bonus? I think all roads are leading to Poker Stars. 1.) I love their interface. 2.) The FPPs are actually useful. I can use them to actually enter satellites and other tournaments instead of crappy freerolls where 3500 people battle it out for $150.

I just need to practice better game selection in general. If I find a good game on UB, I'll play there, Full Tilt, there I go, etc.

So in conclusion, you're probably going to read how this is the end of poker as we know it! I think it could be the start of something good.

In other news, I didn't play in that tournament yesterday. I slept late, didn't feel good, and the WVU game was on. I ended up washing dishes and cleaning a little house. I played in a few tournaments. I made it to the final 2 tables of one on Full Tilt for a decent cash. I should have made the final table, but dumbass me takes a stand against the chip leader when he actually has a hand better than mine.

Today, I'll probably get quite a few hands played. I'm going to stick with Party today because the BBJ is over $230,000. I'll just play those tables until the jackpot is hit. By that time, hopefully my Empire cashout will have hit my neteller account. I can then move from there.

Tomahawk Chop Anyone?



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bowling news and a little poker:



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A session with Tilt Blocker 2000!



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

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

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

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

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

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

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