1 large on the flip side

I knew that my last week plowing through the Full Tilt reload bonus was dreadful, I simply did not know how rough it had been. I checked out my stats for the past few days in Poker Tracker and the numbers were disturbing to say the least: Roughly 800$ lost through 1200 hands (or 135 BB at 3/6 6 max). Shit, that much?

Shitty but this time, I’m taking it all in.

As bad as my first serious downswing was in march (Lost roughly 50% of my bankroll playing games that were above me in more ways than one) my reaction to it was even worst. Instead of manning up and rolling with the punches, I whined and cried like a little girl on this blog and pretty much stopped playing in fear of going broke. Problem is, if you’re not playing, you’re not gonna win it back. As a result, my bankroll stayed stagnant, my game regressed and I set myself backwards in my personal Poker adventure. I am just now, making up for the time and the money that was lost back then. I basically threw away 6 months of this calendar year thanks to my cowardice.

My approach, this time, is completely different. Instead of hiding, I am CRAVING to sit my ass back down at the tables and sling some fucking chips. I simply don’t care if I lose my ENTIRE BANKROLL AS LONG AS I AM PLAYING WELL. Reviewing hands in this downswing has revealed that I’ve been overplaying my over cards way too much. While variance has made me miss 1243425345 flops in a row with AK, I shouldn’t be calling down all the way to showdown with ‘em like a brainless newb for shit and giggles. That’s simply bad play. I also need to do a better job of knowing when to quit. My crack head tendencies simply have to go. I simply can’t believe how often I’ll play and leave when I realize It’s not my day only to come back a few hours later and lose some more. Seriously, WTF?

I am better than this. I am bigger than this. And if I ever want to become someone in this Poker thing, I’ll have to handle taking the losses like a man, stick with it and come out of this shit smelling like roses.

Either that, or I’m simply a degenerate gambler that’s fallen off the deep end and for whom all hope is lost. Either way works for me.

Done and done (redux)

It seems I’m in a bonus clearing spirit lately. I have now completed fully completed the 500$ Full Tilt bonus. End results? 1100$ profit for the good guys. So not only did I end up bringing home the full bonus, I finished with a quite few bucks on the up. And yet...


I’m really not all that satisfied with that tally. Fact is, I was already up a 1000$ with 200$ of bonus left to clear. You can pretty much picture the amount of losing to breakeven Poker that was played by my part over the remaining X hands to finish that sucker off. Bad run? Somewhat. Bad play, most definitely. I was guilty of making a few calls in situations where I simply could not be the winner. And Tilt hit me hard quite a few times also. What can I say, 6-Max is still a new game for me and I’m taking my licks. Again, I’m still grateful to be on the positive side of things rather than on the negative, but there is definitely room for improvement on that front.


On the + side, all that work on Full Tilt will as also netted me over 300$ of rake back. I should be receiving the money early next month. If there are serious cash game players out there who are playing without receiving rake back, I pity them.

Sooo, what’s next for me? For now, I don’t really know. I’m one of those types who’s motivation comes from clearing bonuses and such. I have a reload going on Titan Poker but that site is dying in a hurry. The games are rarely going so bonuses are incredibly slow to run through. We’ll see. I’m taking the night off to figure some things out and we’ll go from there.

Done and done!

As projected, I managed to run through whatever hands I had left to clear the Royal Vegas Poker in an hour flat by three tabling 6 max short-handed tables. I finished the raked hands with a ridiculous 175$ profit. It all comes down to running sick hot. I don’t think I missed a draw last night. There’s also a lot of donkeys out there but winning over 50 BB’s at a 1/2 table is a bit over the top. Gotta take those days when they come your way I guess.

According to Vegas Poker Pro, I should receive my table cover in approximately 10 days. This is an incredible deal that folks simply shouldn’t pass up. There’s a bunch of sites in there where you can claim a prize by playing nothing more than 250-300 raked hands, a 75 minute job if you can handle at least 4 tables. Other than Poker accessories you’ll also find Books, DVD’s, gift certificates, etc. While I am now headed back to Full Tilt to finish the bonus, I’ll find my way to the land of Vegas Poker Pro soon after.

Royal Vegas Poker was my first experience at a Prima site and I guess I found it okay. I don’t think US players are allowed there anymore and it reflected in the traffic (I think the highest I saw was 7000 players). The software was absolutely horrible. I accidentally raised quite a few times in spots where I was looking to fold due to the odd arrangement of the buttons. It didn’t hurt me all that much but I can see how it could become really frustrating. A cool feature of the site is that they hand you over the 100$ bonus from your deposit straight from the top although you’ll be only be able withdraw after you raked in a 1000 hands. That 100$ is still there right now (I withdrew the rest of the profits) and I’ll probably take it to a 5/10 6-max table and swing for the fences. Those things usually never work for me but hey, gotta live a little.

WWDN tonight, I should be able to make it. I donked out it ridiculous fashion last week so hopefully I manage to make amends.

Good luck out there!

Breaking even-ness

The lack of action on this blog is pretty much related to my few forays in the Poker world. I’ve mostly been sitting back and putting whatever hours I can at the tables towards clearing the Full Tilt reload bonus. So far so good, I am, I believe, a few dollars away from releasing 400$ out of the 500$ bonus. Not bad. I should definitely be done before the December 16 deadline.

Things have been somewhat tough at these tables lately. I’ve hit a batch of breakeven Poker over my last 1500 hands. It sucks, but hey, it’s better than losing. I maybe should have tried playing shorter sessions and quit when I was shortly ahead but stubbornness and greed got in the way of that and I lossed most of my winnings in the process. A change of scenery might be in order for me which segues nicely to...

**********

Free stuff!

I received an E-Mail the other day from the good folks at Vegas Poker Pro reminding me that I had some points left in my account. I hadn’t been back there in a looooong while so I was really surprised to see all the new Poker sites that were up there. By browsing through the free gifts that were being offered, my eyes caught a glimpse of a rectangular Poker table cover that would be a nice complement to our weekly home games. Cool. Even better is the fact that all I had to do to obtain said table was to play a measly 250 raked hands at Royal Vegas Poker (or many other sites).

Read that once again!!

This is unbelievable chump change to receive such significant gifts. Any serious multi-tabler would clear this in 25 minutes tops. Hell, I managed to rake in more than 1/2 of that in a hour of playing two micro limit shorthanded tables (and a 72$ profit to boot).

I should have this thing done in a hour tonight. I also have some 900 points laying about in Poker Savy so I’ll be looking into putting those things to use too. Should be a nice diversion before I go back running to the Full Tilt tables.

Good luck at the tables ya’ll!

Donkaments make for late nights and sore eyes

On a whim, I decided to sign up for a 15$ Donkament on Stars last night. I was bored and this was the earliest one starting so I joined in. 3 and a half hours later, I was sent home packing with a payout of 3x my buy-in. Not exactly my favoured outcome but one I will take nonetheless.

It was just one of those nights where I couldn’t really get anything going. For most of the evening I was grinding a medium to short stack. I doubled myself up a few times here and there but was slammed back down whenever I attempted to make moves to give myself a significant stack. I met my demise when I pushed AK into some dude’s KQ where we both flopped a K but he turned a Q to send me packing. If my hand holds up there, I’m looking at making a solid run towards the final table but, alas, it was not meant to be.

I did notice the caliber of play was somewhat more sane. You still see the odd idiot pushing his whole stack in with any ace and a M over ten but other than that, raises definitely earn more respect here. It’s nice to see that re-stealing a button with a pair of 4's won’t be called by that same idiot with K-5s who promptly happens to flop a flush. Nope, none of that there. I guess what I’m really trying to say is that it’s time for me to start stepping up to the plate and play more of these “higher” buy-ins MTT’s (I use the term higher loosely) since I obviously have the money. If I have any hope of making big time money in this, that’s pretty much where I need to be.

Cash games are still decent, still plowing through the FT bonus. I’m think I’m over the 260$ barrier of cleared bonus so It’s now time to take this baby home. The play at FT is standard, you have your solid players but you have WAY more fishes there, thank God, which finally makes it worthwhile to play there. Playing all these hands there has finally allowed me to earn decent rake back for a change. I’m aiming for a 500$ rake back for next month. Won’t be easy but relatively doable.

Niagara Falls was all right, I guess. Didn’t get the opportunity to play any Poker (Travelling with your girl friend will do that to you) but I still managed to get a few hands in through my laptop at the Hotel. I guess I’m really a bona-fide degenerate now. Tsk tsk...

Don’t know if I’ll be able to hit the tables tonight, I really need a good night sleep after last night’s debacle. We’ll see I guess.

Cash games goot, Donkaments baaaaddd

Yesterday shall be referred to as a night of contrasts for as high as I reached in one aspect of Poker (Cash games), the depths that I’ve stooped to in the Donkaments kinda spoiled the night for me.

While the amounts lost in tournament buy-ins is relatively small (I think the net loss was 20$ for the tourneys), the way that I got bounced was quite simply ridiculous. I don’t think I made it past the 15 minutes mark of ANY tournament I bought in for last night.

First up was 10$ 180 SNG on PokerStars. In what was probably the 6th or 7th hand of the event when I flop two pair from the BB holding Q-6 on a Q-9-6 board. Since there’s about a zillion limpers out there, I bet big to pick up the pot right away. I’m pretty satisfied to end up with only one caller. The turn brings a 10. I jam all my chips in to deny any draw that is out there and the idiot calls me and flips up K-10. I guess he figured it was a good time to play for all his chips with middle pair + gutshot. And what the fuck was that flop call about? He rivers a 10 and his trips send me packing. NH sir.

I proceed to grind myself 10$ at the 1/2 6-max tables and buy into another 180 SNG. I chip up quite nicely early against a bunch of idiotic calling station and sit a few hundred short of a double up at the 10 minute mark. It all goes away when I pick up KK UTG and make it 3x the BB at 90 total. Some tool calls from MP before the CO makes it 250 to go. Hmm. I respond by making it 600 and he replies by sticking a 1000 in.

Doesn’t the 4th raise mean Aces?

Yes, yes it does, and when I jam my stack-in I am not surprised to see them flipped up and IGHN.

I am DONKEY!!

Back to the 1/2 6-max table, grind myself another 10$ and givin’ it a final go.

In what was perhaps the 5th or 6th hand of my THIRD 10$ 180 SNG of the night, I pick up QQ in the SB and witness the entire table limp in front me. I jam and I am insta-called by the BB. Shit. Everybody folds and the BB flips up Ah-Kh. With the way my night was going so far, I pretty knew I was fucked right then and there.

BTW, nice call with AK there, moron. Probably some idiot who learned the game from watching WPT final tables where AK is the pre-flop NUTS of PushBot Poker. They do it on TV ya’ll, I’m doing it to!!. Playing for my whole stack on a coin flip in the first level of a tourney is where it’s at!!. Pokr Rullez!!!

Flop brings two hearts. Fuck me, 15 outs to dodge twice. I don’t like this. Turn is a black 9, IS THERE HOPE? Nope, river brings the 6 of hearts and IGHN.

Oh well there’s still the WWDN, where I know I won’t get called by AK in the first level of the tourney if I ever decide to push. I hope so anyways!

Early second level, I find QQ (yup, those bitches again) in EP and make 4X BB to go. I am called in MP by XXX (Name withheld to protect the stupid), and everybody else folds. Flop is Q-10-X rainbow. Hmm, nice. I pretend to be weak by betting half the pot. He calls, I put him on AQ or A10. Turn is 9, I bet half the pot again and he calls. Hmm, I’m a bit confused here but I figure I’m still ahead. River is a complete rag and I bet 2/3 of the pot and he re-raises me all-in. WTF?? I have a hard time seeing how I can fold three queens in this spot, beside most of my stack is already in the pot. I make the crying call and he flips over KJo for the turned straight and IGHN. Dear lord, nice call with a crappy dominated hand like KJ after and UTG raise. I will admit that my milking bets did give him the right price to stay in on the flop but seriously K-J off?. Just one of those nights I guess.

On the + side, I won 350$+ playing cash games so the whole evening was obviously not a waste. But man, do these tournaments beats ever kick the shit outta ya!

So, I left work early today…

Crazy thing, some dudes doing some kind of maintenance work drilled a hole through a pipe that sent water flying through the walls of our work building early this morning. It was pretty silly; I had barely sat down to start the day only to be greeted by the fire alarm. They had us wait outside for a few before promptly sending our asses back home. Hey, I’ll take it!

Since then, I managed to hit the gym early and managed to grind off some more off that ridiculously slow Full Tilt bonus. I have now collected 200$ out of the 500$. I won’t complain too much about the length of the deal since at least I’m getting some Rakeback, but damn, if I manage to complete this thing by the end of November, it would be quite the accomplishment.

Now that all the reservations have been made, I can officially declare that I will be spending the upcoming weekend in Niagara Fall, Ontario! *Cheers* Just a trip with friends where we’ll be hoping to hit a few strip clubs and get in some live Poker action. Now, we (Should really say I) hardly never hear about the Poker scene in Niagara except that the waiting lists to find any kind of seating arrangements at a NL Hold’em table is brutal. I read this particular tidbit YEARS ago so things could have changed by now but I don’t really know. If anything, I wouldn’t mind taking a few stabs at some Donkaments while I’m there.

I still don’t know if I’ll be able to make it to Vegas for the December 9th weekend. I’d love to be there, but my schedule is hazy as @#$% at this point. I’ve still never had the opportunity to visit Las Vegas, which is a travesty that I hope rectify shortly, so hopefully things turns out positively in that regard.

I’m in a tournament playing mood tonight so I will definitely hit up the WWDN. I’ll also sign up to whatever events suits me either on Stars or at Tilt.

Good luck!!

Kickin’ it Live

Tonight will be a special night. I’m heading to a live tournament that will have over 250 runners. This is by FAR the largest live tournament I’ve ever attended.

It’s a charity event. 35$ of the 40$ buy-in will go towards charity. Prizes will be distributed even to Gigli so it won’t be a life or death big time pressure affair but still, pride will be on the line.

The first or second post in the history of this blog relates my first live tournament. The field was pretty big, the stakes were higher and I didn’t have a freakin’ clue about what I was doing. I didn’t know about fishes, donkeys, re-raising, bankroll, pot odds, position, etc. It’s insane how far along I’ve come in two years. I’m not where I want to be right now, but I have a feeling I’m heading in the right direction and the best is definitely yet to come.

I guess we could say that tonight is the night where this whole Poker thing comes full circle for me. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate it than a really nice showing (IE Final table) in this tournament. It won’t be easy but if I can play solid and focus all the way through, I believe I can go deep in this thing. We’ll see.

******

The Mookie was alright last night. I came in 15th. I had built myself a pretty nice stack but I horribly bluffed off half of my stack while the blinds were really big (a beginner’s mistake really) and I finally met my demise when I pushed AJo into FishyMcDonk’s AK and IGHN. On the plus side, I won more money than 1st place at the Mook by playing 3/6 SH after the tourney so all in all, it was a good night.