Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Donkaments will be the death of me

As I stated in my list of goals for the year 2007, I need to make a better effort of sitting down in some tournaments and put myself in situations to win a big score. Sooooo, I sat down at the Laptop yesterday with the intention of playing some tournaments. Browsing through the list of upcoming tournaments on Full Tilt two events ended up catching my eye: The nightly 25K guaranteed and the 10$ Double something (It’s basically a set of tournaments that start at 9:00 and 9:02 with some kind of promotions and what not tied into it.)

Time was slightly an issue since I didn’t feel like paying the full buy-in for the 25K, preferring to go the token route instead. I decided to enter one of the double and a two-table 26$ token donk and go.

My run in the double was short-lived. After doubling up my starting stack on the first hand (in a ridiculous one where my ATo became TPTK on the flop, Trips top kicker on the turn and Quads on the river) I promptly dumped 2/3 of my stack pushing KK into AA pre-flop a few minutes later. I was out shortly after when I pushed A9 from the CO into the BB’s AK. Let’s try this one again tomorrow, shall we?

The donk and go went well. I doubled up, again, in my first three hands. I flopped two pair and ended up going all-in against some tool who figured this was a good spot to call an all-in with an OESD. That was pretty much it. I barely played a hand after that and folded my way to a token. Off to the 25K I go…

And this was quite the interesting experiment, I’ll say. Ever played a tournament where you kept winning your races when you’re WAY behind when the money goes in but lose all the ones where you’re a huge favourite? These are usually the nights where you SHOULD be making the money and reaching final tables but, alas, it was not meant to be. I had started pretty nicely, doubling up my stack early and playing some sound focused Poker. That was until I had AA and TT cracked in succession to relegate me to short stack status. That’s when the circus started. Every single hand I ended up pushing with was behind but I kept winning the showdowns. A9>AQ when I flop two nines. 88>99 thanks to a four card flush that I spike on the river. A7> AK when I end up dodging a billion outs for my opponent and hitting a miracle 7 on the river. And yet, even if I’m winning all those races, I really couldn’t get ahead since I kept losing chips at critical moments that didn’t allow me to build my stack. I went out when I pushed A8 into the BB’s AK and no suckout to bail me out this time.

I believe there were 1500+ runners last night, which is a LOT of donkeys. I don’t really have the patience or the discipline to sit down and play such an event properly. Yep, that means the Crack Head Kidtm made an other appearance as I started popping cash game tables open while I was folding myself to sleep in the tournament. At least the cash games went well, I ended up winning a couple of hundreds which easily covered the expenses for the night but still…

Will be doing again for sure, most probably on Thursday. I just need to get into some kind of groove and find out what situation works out best for me as far as number of tournament tables open, limits, etc. Once I get there, I can really focus on winning some serious Moolah.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Quick Weekend Recap

I spent relatively few days on the virtual Poker tables this weekend; I’ve been fighting this nasty flu/cold combo that doesn’t really put me in the mood to do much. The few hours that I played were quite successful so that’s definitely a bonus. The weather has now turned to fully shitty for us Canadians so I expect to find plenty of hours to grind it up in the upcoming week.

I did spend quite a few hours in front of the boob-tube watching the NFL playoffs though. What can I say about the results? Nothing disappointed me more than the Sand Diego Chargers gift wrapping that game to Tom %$#&*# Brady and NE. I mean wow, how many chances did they have to bury these twats? The stupid head butt, Rivers’s HORRIBLE lob pass getting picked, the 4th down pick/fumble when a fucking DROP would have put the game away? By far the most ridiculous post-season display I’ve seen in quite some time.

I won’t say a word about the coaching. I mean you have the MVP of the league on your team who’s carving up the defence at will whenever he touches the ball and you somehow take the ball away from with 4:00 left in the game with possession? And go with an inexperienced QB who’s having a shaky game at best? WTF? That’d be like the Chicago bulls running their offence through Horace Grant instead of Michael Jordan. Geez…

What’s worst? We’ll now have to deal with weeklong media dick riding of Brady and Manning in a ridiculous gag fest of epic proportions. I figure it’s going to be New Orleans-New England in the big game.

I don’t have much about the games on the other side except for this: You have to admit that’s it’s pretty hilarious to hear various media outlets describing the Bears victory as a game Grossman didn’t lose. How insulting is that? Hee!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

1-outered on the river

Seriously, was Tony Romo’s gaffe as big as it gets as far as sports betting goes? If you had some serious money ridin’ on that shit, how pissed were/are you right then/now? Can we say that was the Football equivalent of some dumbass noob spiking his one outer on the river?

Lord knows my drunk arse was laughing itself into a fit when I witnessed the whole damn thing go down. Thanks for the memories Romo, although I’m sad that to say your career is now over. Oh well, at least you reportedly had the opportunity to bang Jessica Simpson which should be worth more than a Super bowl ring anyway. Well, it is to me.

I’ve been playing more and more hands of shorthanded Unlimited Hold’em (50$ tables) and things are going quite well so far. I refuse to say that I’m playing well since it seems the people I am playing against have the collective IQ of a turnip. Yessir, pay me off my obviously slow played flopped nut full after checking-checking and pushing on the river! Of course your QJ is good for all your chips against my kings when I push the flop of rags. And please, keep calling my all-in three bet when the flush card hits on the turn, after giving me unlimited odds to draw on you by checking behind on the flop.

Where the fuck did these people learn to play poker?

I’m playing my NL cash at Titan Poker right now. Lots of players at this level and their talents are, well, nonexistent. I have just about 600$ in that account, I’m hoping to grind that up to a 1000$ before making a move to the 100$ level and start playing some real Poker.

My Shorthanded min-bet game is all over the place on the other hand. It basically seems to be going all this:

Me wins lots of monies at 5-10$
Me loses lots of monies at 3-6$

Is it time to move up permanently? I’m way over rolled for 3-6$ and maybe that has started to reflect in the results. I’ll give it a try and see what happens. It’s a bit discouraging to realise that while I was up over a grand at 3-6$ a month, I am now down 300$ at that level!! At the other end, I’m up three grand at 5-10$. Is it possible to run bad at one level and better at another on the same site?!? We’ll stick with what’s working for now and time will tell.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

The year that was and the year that shall be

Did that title make any sense at all?

So what to say of our dear ol’ friend 2-0-0-6? All in all, I have to conclude that it was a success. My bankroll is now 5X bigger than it was at the end of 2005 and, in the end, that’s really what matters for a poker player. To be on the + side of things when it’s all said and done.

I’d like to think that my play has improved as a whole. I’m no longer a pure pre-flop player. I can now make plays on all streets. I can make the big laydowns, I can minimize my losses and extract value of my good and marginal hands. I can now think the game better, much better, than I could a year ago so kudos on that front also.

On the lesser side of things, my reaction to my first serious downswing (50% of my roll in about two months) was pretty disappointing. I hid and whined like a coward trying to protect what I had left instead of manning up, grit my teeth and dig my way out. I did get out of it eventually, but I definitely set myself back, way back, by being so cowardly. Lesson learned, those who repeat the same mistakes are what we call insane so let’s make sure we don’t end up in the loony bin of Poker shall we?

What now? Optimism. I believe I can make 2007 my real coming out party. This could be THE year where I leave behind the title of small stakes amateur and become a full fledge mid-limit semi professional. All the tools are there; a 5 digit roll, confidence in my abilities, eagerness to improve and the overall discipline to become a better player. To put all this nonsense in goals:

1. Play more hands! So simple yet so hard to achieve. I clocked the month of December at 25K hands, by FAR the most I’ve ever achieved in any month. Not only was this my best month ever financially wise, I also managed to break the 1K in rake back earnings in a month. Now I doubt I’ll ever be able to play that many hands in short little while (I had a bunch of days off in December) but a strict minimum of 15K hands per month and 500$ in rakeback should put me well on my way.

2. Expand my horizons. Which basically means seriously playing NL Hold’em cash games. This is where the money is folks. Now I love grinding the shorthanded limit games but the fact of the matter is there are far more donkeys and far more money on these NL tables. Now I’ve started putting in hours at these tables and the results have been average at best. I’ve been getting stacked a lot by sticking in my money as big favourite lately. Which basically means I’m on the right track and eventually, the money will come. I’ll put a floor of 5k hands a month to start but anything more will be greatly appreciated .Oh yeah, for some reason I’m really attracted to 7 Card stud so I really want to play some of that this year.

3. Play more tournaments. This one is a biggie. This is where the big money is to be made but I am nowhere to be found in these things. Am I the next Hoy, Smokee or Iak? Probably not. One thing’s for sure though, I’ll never come close to these guys unless I get my ass out there and start making moves of my own. And by moves I’m not talking about the occasional ‘Oh let’s sign up for this 10$ donkefest while I’m waiting for the hockey game to start in four hours’. I’m actually talking about winning tokens and playing 13k guarantees and up type tournaments. I actually need to take these things just as seriously as I do my cash games and the results will inevitably come.

4. Play more live. Options are a bit limited here since the closest casino (Where Poker is offered) is about a two hour drive away. I still have access to my fair share of low buy-ins tourneys in various pubs around the city with fairly decent structures but, again, I’m hardly ever around to take a stab at these. An issue here might be my lack of a live roll although that could be resolved quite easily if I simply decided to cash out 50% of my rake-back every month to build a live roll. Something I’ll definitely be taking a look at.

5. Attend a blogger event. This is pretty much a no-brainer. If there ever was a time for me to take advantages of trips and parties like this, it definitely is now. I’m single and I don’t have kids to look after (at least, as far as I know) so the time is pretty much now. Get those benders in while I can and sit back and enjoy the memories later when it’s all said and done.

There, that should be enough for 2007. I’ll definitely make a note of looking back at this list early in 2008 and see how I ended up doing. A toast to a great year!!!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Playtime’s over, time to get back to work

Ugghhhhh!
-------------------------

- Me this morning hitting the snooze button for the umpteenth time while dreading heading back to work.



Fuck you work, you suck.

Kiss my ass.


*Ahem*


Well, it eventually had to happen. Holiday don’t last forever. It was good while it lasted but I was one of the many who was headed back to work after a way too short two weeks of, well, not doing much really. Those, btw, are the best kind of holidays. I pretty much lost the knack for heading out to 1084556 zillions places and ending up coming back more tired than I was before I left in the first place.



With that out of the way, I can say that whatever time off I had was pretty well spent. I did manage to play lots of Poker and wins decent amount of moniez, got my drank on like three gazillion times and I also got to indulge in my fair share of eating binges that would surely send me to an early grave were I to repeat them on many different occasions.


While I truly enjoy the slacking off, the family gathering and the booze, one annual tradition stands out for me whenever the festive season is upon us.

Boxing day shopping.

A lot of people in my surroundings would probably describe myself as somewhat of a tight wad. (That would be putting it nicely, penny pinching, tight fisted c*nt would probably be muttered by some...). The one day where I truly make an exception is December 26. It is but the one day where I’ll gladly drop hundred’s of dollars on stuff that are nowhere near essential, beyond superfluous and just, well, that I REALLY don’t need but hey, I gots to have my fun too.

Two years ago it was a 600$ digital camera that I’ve used maybe twice. Last year I picked up a 700$ home theatre system that I have yet to take out of the box (you see I was waiting to pick up a 50+” Plasma monster to hook the whole thing up but I lost focus somewhere along the way)

This year: Well, I actually was more conservative in my spending. Presenting, the Samsung 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor (225BW) that is now residing next to my laptop.



Pretty fricking gorgeous my friends. I had a bit of a hard time setting it up to it’s maximum resolution (needed to update my stupid video card drivers) but once I got that all figured out, Whoa! My laptop monitor now looks like a Tandy Monochrome piece of garbage standing next to that monster. I have yet to try playing DVD’s on it, I’ll definitely be up to that this week, but yeah, that was my frivolous spending of the year.
I also picked up these Swank PC speakers for 10$ (down from their regularly listed price of 50$). A pure boxing day deal, although it will be nice to finally get the laptop off those godawful internal PC speakers.

What about boxing day 2007? Meh, we’ll see once it gets here.


Thanks for coming. Tomorrow I’ll probably put up a short recap of the year that was and my objectives for the upcoming year. I’m expecting big things for myself in the Poker World for 2007, sort of like my coming out party which I can’t wait to share with whovever is left reading this sorry excuse of a blog.



‘Till next time!!


***Edit****
Wouldn’t you know it, this was actually my centenary post! As in a 100! Never thought I’d make this far to be honest. Hopefully I can reach that X 10 in the upcoming years!