A Fool and His Money

2006-10-10T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well with the new poker ban I've pulled out most of the money I had in various accounts. I withdrew about $1200. I left $200 in Absolute and $400 in PokerStars since neither of those sites have announced yet what they are going to do.

Haven't really been playing much of late since my back is fucked up again. I had back surgery toward the end of last year and it's been bugging me a bit again when I spend too much time at the a computer. Given that I work in front of one all day long that means evenings are spent doing something else.

The only recent play has been in Poker Source Online's Poker League. Two events in and two miserable showings where I busted in the bottom 1/3rd. Both times I managed to cripple myself running jacks into bigger pocket pairs. After getting crippled and the blinds going up I end up moving in with mediocre hands and losing to even more mediocre hands. Pocket 8's vs. K-6o loses to a rivered K. And the second tourney A6s gets called by pocket 9's & 10's, Ace flop but a 9 turns to send me out.

2006-08-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

Back for my yearly post just so I have a personal log of what the fuck I've been doing.

EQ2 ended up taking over most of my time the last two years as MMOG's tend to do. I think I'm out from under it now and just prepping my account to be sold. I'm hoping to net about $2000 for it but we'll see how that works out.

Been playing some poker again recently. Mainly playing on Asbolute and having not so good luck. Went back to the books and I'm starting over in my studies of the game. Luckily with the rakeback and the bonuses from Absolute I've still managed to grow my bankroll by almost $600 over the last two months. Very odd how pokertracker can show me at almost a -1bb/100 but I can still make money. Gotta love bonuses.

I'm at the point now where I'm debating stepping up. The bankroll is to the point where I should definately be playing $2/$4 or even $3/$6 but I'm still playing $1/$2. I'm concerned about the fact that I'm growing the bankroll because of bonuses and stepping up will start eating into any slight profits I'm showing right now.

I think I'll put in another month or two of $1/$2 and possibly step up after posting a positive month, if I can ever make that happen.

2005-03-10T11:08:00.000-08:00

I'm still around. Still playing some poker here and there. I've mostly been playing live and haven't played much online lately. Just got back from Windsor and sat at a table for about 6 hours. I ended up with horrible starters and the only decent starters I got missed the flop. Over 6 hours I think I pulled down about 4 pots and just say and paid blinds. No real losers and no huge winners. Just an overall $46 loss most of which from the blinds.

I did play the last couple nights on Poker Stars. I still have a $100 bonus sitting out there from back in Dec 04. Playing .50/1 while I try to rebuild the poker bankroll. I was up to about $2000 at the end of last year but pulled out $1500 for christmas.

The first night I went up early and stayed there posting around a $40 win over 2 and a half hours.

Last night I went down early and started with about a $20 loss. I managed to continue to play solid and ended up posting around a $10 win. I'm now about a quarter of the way through the required FPP's to clear the bonus.

I think I'm going to start trying to bonus whore a bit more often. As of late I've been addicted to playing EverQuest 2 and that hasn't been good for getting in any table hours.

I figure as long as I can be picking up a bonus I'm going to try and split the freetime 50/50 between poker and EQ2. At least that's the plan.

2004-10-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

I managed to get some more playing time in this week. I continued playing the 1/2 tables and I did ok this time around. I cleared off the rest of the bonus after staying about even over the 3 hours I played. I did take one horrible beat that would have let me post a nice win rather than a break even session.

I'm dealt Qs-10s on the button. A couple limpers to me and I limp as well. The BB raises and I call along with everyone else. I believe there was 5 to the flop. Flop comes down QQ4. A lot of raising ensues and it ends up capped with 4 to the turn. The turn is a 10, filling me up. Again the pot is capped with 3 going to the river. The river is a J. We cap it 3-ways one more time and of course one of them has QJ for the rivered full house. I had a feeling that J screwed me but I capped it anyway. I haven't had the heart to review that hand yet to see what the third person had. That was probably the biggest pot I was involved in all night and a 3 outer pushed it the wrong way. Then again I guess I hit my 3 outer on the turn to take the lead. Ah well such is poker...

I ended up +$160 including the bonus. Not bad for a couple hours of play. I'll probably be giving back $20 tonight though since I think I'm going to play in the Poker Stars Blogger tournament. Check with Iggy for info.

Now it's on to Ultimate Bet where I have $120 in bonus money to clear.

2004-10-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

I played a decent bit on Friday at .50/1 on Stars and had pretty much a break even session. I think over all after about 2 hours of play I was +$9.

Then I made the step up to $1/$2 on Saturday.

It did not go well.

For the most part the normal hands like top pair or two pair held up the expected amount. However, my big hands all went down in flames. That's not good for the bankroll. I won my fair share of small pots but whenever I was involved in a big pot with a good hand I got beat. I lost at least 3 times with king high flushes. I lost repeatedly on sets to either higher sets or got drawn out on by straights or flushes. I just couldn't get any of the usually big hands to hold up. Overall I lost 40bb or $80.

The play in general didn't seem any tougher than the .50/1 games. It seemed to be more aggressive but that was due to more maniacs. I'm not sure if that's the 1/2 game in general or just that way because it was a Saturday night. If that's the nature of the 1/2 game then I guess I'm going to have to get used to the bigger swings in variance.

I'm going to continue to try the 1/2 game for a bit longer. I'm 400 FPP's into the 600 I need to clear the $120 bonus and I'm still up $20 since depositing to earn the bonus. So, I figure I have some money to play with.

Bankroll (from memory)
Poker Stars: $840 ($120 bonus pending)
Royal Vegas: $370
Ultimate Bet: $200 ($100ish bonus pending)
Party: $70

2004-10-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

From memory the bankroll is as follows:

Poker Stars: $908 ($120 bonus pending)
Ultimate Bet: $220 ($115 bonus pending)
Royal Vegas: $376
Party: $70
Home Game : $180 I think??

I played some more on Stars last night to keep working off those FPP's to clear the bonus. I figure it makes sense to clear that one first since that frees up most of my money to spread back around...

I had a pretty good night again. +38BB at .50/1. A lot of that came from one player in particular who would call people down with anything. He managed to stay afloat for a while given how often low limit players try to bluff. But I managed to catch some hands against him and he as expected called me down to the river.

I'm wondering how long I can ride the hot streak before reality sets back in. I'm 118 FPPs into the 600 needed to clear the bonus and I'm +88bb for the time I've put in so far.

I'm hoping to clear a large chunk of the remaining FPPs this weekend since the wife is heading out of town. I'll have the house to myself from Friday night until Monday night. I have a few chores to do but I should still have plenty of play time...

2004-10-07T07:21:00.000-07:00

I had a chance to play some more on Tuesday night. I was busy yesterday so never had a chance to update.

I played for a while on Royal Vegas and finished off my raked hand requirement there so I can no cash out. I cashed in $200 and I'm cashing out $276 + $100 bonus. After the bonus I'm +176BB after having to play 900 raked hands. Not too bad. The players on Royal Vegas are some of the easiest around. The play is very loose passive. I find it much easier than Party since you get fewer pure maniacs. At Royal Vegas if someone is coming back at you they usually have a hand and you can figure out what to do from there. At Party someone coming back at you means much of nothing most of the time...

I then put in a little more time at Ultimate Bet. I lost about $8 at the tables, and lost a 6-man $5.50 Sit&Go. I'm quickly realizing how long it's going to take to work off my bonus there. The Ultimate Points just don't seem to roll in very quickly. I'm also thinking so far that the players there are much tougher. At a full table I'm guessing that at least half are of the same skill level as me with 1 or 2 of those possibly better. Now I remember why I never finished off my old bonus that was sitting at UB. I think I've improved since then though so I'm going to continue working off the bonus. So far I'm still on the + side from a first and second in the 6-man $5.50 Sit&Go's.

After getting worked a little on UB I switched over to Poker Stars where I have to earn 600 FPP's to clear my bonus. I had a great run of cards on Stars and by the end found myself +$48 and having cleared about 52 FPP's. I actually caught pocket pairs the first 5 hands I was dealt on one table. Of course I only won 2 of them and had to fold after the flop on the other 3 but that still gave me quite a nice start. I definately play better when I manage to post an early gain. I still have the bad habit of trying too hard when I get myself into a hole...

2004-10-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well I'm gonna try this again...

I started playing EverQuest again recently and that game is like fucking crack so I haven't been playing poker very much lately. I have gotten the itch again though so I'm going to try and get back into the game. It helps that I recently got an ass-ton of emails offering reload bonuses. The only bad part was I didn't have enough free cash to take advantage of them all. Time to buckle down and clear some bonuses so I can free my money up to spread around when I get those bonus emails.

Current Bankroll (estimated):

PokerStars: $820 ($120 bonus pending)
Party Poker: $70
Royal Vegas: $370
Ultimate Bet: $220 ($125 bonus pending)
Live: $180

I'm in the process now of finally working off a 3 month old bonus from Royal Vegas. I think I only have to play about 100 more raked hands so that should be gone in a day or two. I cashed in $200 and if things go well over those last 100 hands I'll cash out nearly double that amount.

After that I will start working on the Poker Stars bonus as I can clear 600 fpp's in a week or two and that frees up a good chunk of money to spread around.

My play since the last post has been rather sporadic. I had a rough period where I was getting cold decked and I started playing like crap. I tightened up A LOT and have since recovered. I feel like I'm playing half-way decently again but I need to put in more table time to make sure.

I still feel like I play better in the single table sit & go's but it just takes to long to clear the bonuses playing in those so I'm playing mostly .50/1 limit lately. I do fairly well but it's really hard to put anyone on a hand at that level because people will play anything. The variance at that level is a bitch but I've been slowly chipping up and I think I'm finally beating the rake so all is well.

As far as the Sit&Go challenge as of right now it's a failure. I took the $110 and turned it into $220 pretty quickly. Since then I've been stuck. I still do well at the $10+1's and I'm cashing around 48% of the time with more firsts than thirds. The problem is in stepping up to the $20+2's. I have yet to manage to cash in one of those damn things. I've bubbled in more of those than I care to admit but can't seem to break into the money. I lose a $20+2 drop and back down to the $10+1 and all is fine. I rebuild, take another stab, and lose again. I may have to give up and be happy with the money I'm winning at the $11 tables and quit pissing it away... Either that or double my requirements and take a stab at the $20+2's when I have over $400 and can take a few losses at that level before having to drop back down.

I have a while before thinking about that though as for now I'm bonus whoring the micro-limits...

2004-06-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Well I've managed to get a little bit of poker in lately but nothing really amazing to speak of.

I've been continuing my Sit & Go challenge and played 5 more $11 S&G's the other day. I took 4th, 3rd, 7th, 1st, and 5th. A lot of work for a whopping $8. Nothing much to say about them other than I played fairly well and almost always got my money in with the best of it and got sucked out on. The times I didnt have the best of it were because of opponents playing ridiculous hands and catching cards with them.

I also played in our home game last night. That didn't go very well. There was one player there who didn't have a clue and was playing and calling down with any two cards. I can't count the number of times he turned over a Q or J high after calling the river. And yet somehow he managed to pull cards out of his ass to win the big pots and always had a mountain of chips. I lost to him twice. Once when I made a great read of weakness and from the button made an oversized bet into a 4 way uncontested pot to try and take it down on the flop. Of coure Mr. Maniac called me with bottom pair to ruin the bluff. The other was when I moved in with KJ on a J high all club flop. Mr Maniac once again called and wasn't happy once he saw the cards. Of course he perked up when someone else pointed out that he had a club and I didn't so he at least had a draw. Yep, when he called he thought he had nothing at all but called anyway. Of course another club hit and I lost another big pot to him.

I really hate playing against maniacs when they are catching cards left and right...

2004-06-08T12:34:00.000-07:00

I am now a married man. I know it's been a while since I posted but I really haven't had a chance to play poker let alone post about it. The wedding was great and the honeymoon was even better.

I'm hoping to be able to put in some good poker time soon but now my PC is acting up and I think I'm going to have to format it and rebuild. Hopefully I'll be back up and running soon.

2004-05-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 6 days

Bankroll:
Royal Vegas: $264
Party Poker: $83
Poker Stars: $126.50
Neteller: $680
Live: $118 ("house-fund":$125)

Sorry to the 2 of you who read this that I haven't been updating lately but with the wedding fast approaching I haven't really had much time to play which means I haven't had much to post about lately.

I did get a chance to play in our home game this past thursday and I ended up even. The first game I took third place and got lucky to do so. With 4 left I was the by far the lowest stack and the blinds had gotten so big I was all-in on my BB about 3 orbits in a row. After that I managed to double up when I was dealt pocket A's and got a caller after moving all-in. This put me into third place and the new short stack busted out. After one ill timed bluff on a KKx board with my opponent holding a K I was again cripled and went out shortly after.

The second game I never managed to catch anything and just semi-bluffed my way out when nothing ever came through for me. The third game I played decently well and took second place to get my money back for the night.

On Saturday I finally had a chance to sit down and play online for a while. I had signed up for Royal Vegas back when they were offering the WSOP freerolls even though I ended up missing both. They recently sent me an email offering a 100% bonus up to $100. So, I deposited $200 and now have to play 900 raked hands to clear the bonus. I'm probably about 200 hands in and I'm down $36. I was catching decent cards I just couldn't get anything to hold up. Every time I'd catch top pair I'd end up losing to someone with two pair or a set. I'm pretty sure I can turn that around though as the .50/1 6-max tables are incredibly soft there.

I'm also in the process of starting a $1000 Sit-&-Go challenge that I stole from another blogger (sorry can't remember who.) I pulled everything out of Poker Stars except $110. I'm going to follow the following format playing only No Limit Sit-&-Go's:

Bankroll	Buy-In
$0 - $110	$5 + $.50
$110 - $220	$10 + $1
$220 - $330	$20 + $2
$330 - $550	$30 + $3
$550 - $1000	$50 + $5

I played my first $11 Sit-&-Go and took second place. I had a good shot at first seeing as I got heads up with $9000 vs. $4000 in chips. I kept chipping away and got it down to $11000 vs $2000 but he came back to about even. I chipped away again and got him down to about $2000 again then he started playing the all-in game where he pushed in every single hand. The first call I made a mistake and called his AA with my A7. He doubled up to $4000 and I had to be more careful. He continued to push all-in and blinds were now at $400/$800. After catching no cards at all he had the lead with about $7000 vs. my $6000. I finally caught 77 in the BB and he pushed all in again. I called and he turned over 66. I had him dead to rights until a 6 came down with the flop and I was bounced in second place.

I guess that serves as a good lesson to anyone who finds themselves being outplayed in a heads up game. If you know your opponent is better than you just push all in on every hand and let luck decide the game. Maybe he'll pick the right spot to call or maybe he won't but even if he does pick the right spot a little luck can still win it for you. A shitty way to play but if you know you're being outplayed its one way to take a lot of the skill out of the game.

2004-05-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 11 Days
Bankroll
Poker Stars: $1008
Party Poker: $83
Live: $118 ("house-fund": $125)

As promised here's the trip report from the past weekend.

Friday

I decided to take Friday afternoon off as I wasn't really getting much done at work any way and had a few things to take care of before heading off to Windsor for my bachelor party. I made a quick trip to city hall to pick up a copy of my birth certificate then back home to start packing. Packing took a total of about 20 minutes so I had about 3 hours to kill before leaving.

Of couse I hopped onto Poker Stars to get a little poker warm-up. 3 hours later I was up about $30 and had also cleared my $100 bonus for a nice $130 afternoon. To top it all off I had a total of 2003 FPPs and ordered Theory of Poker with 2000 of them. Not a bad start to the day.

After that I stopped by my buddy's house and 4 of us were on our way to Windsor. We decided to skip Greektown for the night and try and make it there early the next day (like that would happen.) An uneventful 3 hours later and we were at the border. We stopped off at the duty free store to pick up some much needed supplies: 2 cartons of cigarettes, 2 cases of beer, a bottle of vodka, and 10 cans of red-bull. We also somehow ended up getting the following for free: a lighter, a mini bottle of CC, and 3 ham sandwhiches. Interesting promotion that you get a free ham sandwhich with a case of beer.

After checking into the hotel we decide to drink a bit and play some hold-em before heading out to the bars. I played like crap and donated $10 canadian which I think is about $1.86 in US. We play and drink for about 2 hours and head out to Voodoo.

I remember getting there but after that things start getting a bit gray. I think that probably had something to do with the 6 shots of Jaeger and 2 jello shots I did within an hour of walking through the door.

Sometime after Voodoo I found myself at Cheetah's. At this point my whole world was spinning and I wasn't too stable on my feet. I get grabbed by a stripper and get settled into my first lap dance. As soon as the wave of her perfume washes over me I shove her out of the way and sprint to the bathroom where I lose just about everything in my stomach all over a wall and a urinal. Done for the night I head back to the hotel and pray to the porcelain god for a while until I finally crawl into bed and pass out sometime around 4am.

Saturday

Saturday morning I woke up feeling a bit groggy but not as bad as I would have expected. I must have cleared out most of the evil the night before. After a bit of breakfast we head over to Greektown in Detroit since Windsor casino is still on strike. That worked better for me anyway as I finally got a chance to pop my live poker cherry.

We make it to Greektown and 2 of us put our names on the list for some $3/$6. Figures that there were 20 people ahead of us and no one in line for $5/$10. I was a bit too scared to sit in on the $5/$10 though as I didn't have quite enough cash and that seemed a bit too rich to try for my first time.

After waiting 3 hours, winning $80 on a slot machine and dropping $90 on a craps table I finally got called for a seat at $3/$6. I have to say I was less than enthused about my first B&M experience. I sat for about 3 and a half hours and I was playing so tight and my cards were so dead I think I only mixed it up in about 8 or 9 pots where I wasn't the BB. I only won 3 hands the entire time and I left with a $22 loss. The hands I won were as follows:

Hand #1:
Late position I'm dealt As5s and there's 2 limpers to me. I limp, button limps, SB completes, BB checks. Flop comes down AKx rainbow. I'm not a big fan of my kicker with the pair of A's so I just check when it checks around to me and the checks good. Turn is a blank. BB (aggressive player) bets $6, it folds around to me with Button and SB left to act. I decided to throw out a raise as I put him on a K. It folds back to the bettor and he folds as well and I take down the pot.

Hand #2:
I'm dealt AA UTG. I raise and it fold around to my friend J. in the BB who calls. Flop is a rag-filled rainbow. J. bets, I raise, He folds.

Hand #3:
I'm dealt Q2s in the BB. UTG calls. Everyone else folds around to me and I check. Flop is all rags and we both check. The Turn pairs my 2's and we both check again. Check on the river and I win the $3 in the BB.

After being used to the speed of playing 2-3 tables online the pace of playing in a casino seemed way too slow for me. Add to that that I really wasn't winning or losing anything and the whole experience was far from exciting. I will of course try again as I had a really bad run of cards this time around and hopefully the next time I can mix it up in a few more pots...

After the casino we finally met up with the rest the crew and about 16 spent the night getting loaded in strip clubs. I do believe a good time was had by all, especially me as I spent just about the entire night with a stripper in my lap and at times more than one. To end the night we went back to the hotel and 6 of us played a bit more hold-em until I finally couldn't hack it anymore and passed out around 6am.

A big thanks to all my friends for coming and to my best man for putting the whole thing together. A great experience for my second-to-last weekend as a free man.

2004-05-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 12 Days

Well I survived the bachelor party this weekend. Once my brain is fully functioning again I'll post a trip report.

2004-05-05T20:31:00.000-07:00

Bankroll
Poker Stars: $879.55 ($100 bonus pending)
Party Poker: $83
Live: $130 ("house-fund": $125)

Well I managed to post a $13 win tonight after 3 hours of play on 2 tables. The first hour and a half I was getting great cards and was up around $70. Then the cards slowed down and when I did get cards some idiot would river me with his crap hand. Other than my biggest loss which came when my pocket 8's hit a set and then filled up only to have pocket J's do the same. I won't even mention my A's getting cracked by J4 sooted (ok I guess I just did so shoot me.) I don't know what kind of education anyone can get from the following hand histories but I felt like sharing a few bad beats, if ya don't like it then don't read it:

Well the hand history converter seems to be down so I'll have to do a quick version:

Hand #1:
I'm dealt Kc10c in the SB. Opener raises and I call the $1.50. BB also calls. Flop comes down Kd10d2c. I bet out and get raised by the BB, a maniac, Opener cold calls, I reraise, both call. Turn is 9d. Not pretty for me but I bet out. BB folds. Opener calls. River is Qh. I bet and he calls all-in.

He turns over Jh9h for the rivered straight.

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Hand #2:
I get dealt KcJh in the BB. One limper, SB completes, I check. Flop is Jc As Kd. SB bets, I raise, Limper calls, SB calls. Turn is 7d. SB checks, I bet, Limper calls. River 7c. It checks around and my two pair gets counterfeited. Limper shows Ad3s. SB shows pocket Q's.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Hand #3:
I'm dealt KhKd on the Button. One limper to me and I raise, SB calls, BB calls, Limper calls. Flop: 4d4c3h. Checks around to me and I bet, SB calls, BB folds, Limper calls. Turn 6s. Checks to me again and I bet, both call. River 5s. SB now bets and I make the crying call praying he doesn't somehow have a 7. Of course he has pocket 7's for the straight.

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Hand #4: Last one
I'm dealt AcJc in the SB. One limper to me and I raise, BB calls, limper calls. Flop: 8dJh5s. I bet out and bot call. Turn 10d. I bet out again and both call. River 7s. Board isn't too scary so I bet out again. BB calls, limper folds. BB turns over 10c7h for two pair on the turn and river.

-------------------------------------------------------------

If not for all the crap I would have sported a much better win for the night. But I guess I shouldn't complain since a win is a win...

2004-05-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 17 Days

Didn't have a chance to play at all last night. I'm hoping to get a few hours in tonight.

I think the plans for my bachelor party are finally set. We should be leaving Cleveland sometime around 5:30 on Friday night so we'll make it to Greektown around 8:00. I'm a little afraid of what the wait for a table might be like on a Friday night but we'll try the call ahead once we're getting close and hopefully it won't be too long. Otherwise it will be a weekend of craps and blackjack and I'll have to wait to pop my casino-poker cherry some other time.

2004-05-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Bankroll
Poker Stars: $866.80
Party Poker: $83
Live: $130 ("house-fund": $125)

Had another horrible night, down $77. Didn't have the starting cards to play many hands. I played for about 2 hours on 3 tables and mainly paid blinds. I had very few sizable losses other than the following hands.

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PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: UD_Delt is MP3 with J♣, J♥.
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, UD_Delt 3-bets, CO folds, Button calls, SB folds, BB folds, UTG+1 caps, UD_Delt calls, Button calls.

Flop: (13.50 SB) 9¨, 7♠, 7♥ (3 players)
UTG+1 bets, UD_Delt raises, Button folds, UTG+1 3-bets, UD_Delt calls.

Turn: (9.75 BB) 6♣ (2 players)
UTG+1 bets, UD_Delt calls.

River: (11.75 BB) K♣ (2 players)
UTG+1 bets, UD_Delt calls.

Final Pot: 13.75 BB

Results below:
UTG+1 shows A♥ A♣ (two pair, aces and sevens).
UD_Delt shows J♣ J♥ (two pair, jacks and sevens).
Outcome: UTG+1 wins 13.75 BB.

I just didn't believe he had the A's. I should have been able to get away from this one.

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PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: UD_Delt is UTG+2 with Tc, Th.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, UD_Delt raises, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 3-bets, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB folds, UD_Delt caps, MP3 calls.

Flop: (9.50 SB) 5h, Ks, 7s (2 players)
UD_Delt bets, MP3 calls.

Turn: (5.75 BB) 8h (2 players)
UD_Delt checks, MP3 bets, UD_Delt calls.

River: (7.75 BB) Ac (2 players)
UD_Delt bets, MP3 calls.

Final Pot: 9.75 BB

Results below:
UD_Delt shows Tc Th (one pair, tens).
MP3 shows Ah Jh (one pair, aces).
Outcome: MP3 wins 9.75 BB.

I have no idea what I was doing in this hand.

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PokerStars 1/2 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: UD_Delt is UTG+1 with 8c, 8h.
UTG folds, UD_Delt calls, UTG+2 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB completes, BB checks.

Flop: (3 SB) 7c, 7h, 5h (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets, UD_Delt raises, SB calls, BB calls.

Turn: (4.50 BB) 5c (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UD_Delt bets, SB calls, BB raises, UD_Delt folds, SB 3-bets, BB caps, SB calls.

River: (13.50 BB) 4d (2 players)
SB bets, BB raises, SB 3-bets, BB caps, SB calls.

Final Pot: 21.50 BB

Results below:
SB shows Ad 7s (full house, sevens full of fives).
BB shows Qd 7d (full house, sevens full of fives).
Outcome: SB wins 10.75 BB. BB wins 10.75 BB.

Just bad luck here but I got away in time.

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Other than that it was all $1 or $2 losses that add up quick when you just can't win a hand. Once again I think I played trying to dig my way out for too long. I recognized that I was probably not playing my best when I was about $50 down but I for some reason didn't pull the trigger and step away. I gotta figure out how to get through this and back into the win column.

2004-05-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 19 Days

Bankroll
Poker Stars: $943 ($100 bonus pending)
Party Poker: $83
Live: $130 ("house-fund" : $125)

After a good poker day on Friday the rest of the weekend didn't go quite as well. I played about a 2 hour session Saturday afternoon and got killed. I dropped around $60 (30BB). I was getting good starting hands but I just wasn't connecting and if I did hit a flop someone else hit harder. I lost KK to AA twice. Once when the AA tripped up on the flop and slow played me and I tripped up on the river for a nice little loss.

My evening session on Saturday I won a little bit back but just couldn't get anything going.

On Sunday I had the opposite. A poor afternoon session followed by a decent evening session.

All told I lost $40 Saturday and Sunday to put me even for online play over the weekend. I guess that's not too bad since I'm about halfway through working off my $100 bonus now. Once I get through the bonus I'll also finally have enough to use my Frequent Player Points on Stars to order a book. I think I'll go with The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky.

I did notice one flaw in my game that I need to work on. After getting hit by a bad beat early in a session if that puts me in a hole I try too hard to get back out. I start to overplay mediocre hands and convince myself that I'm due to win a pot. That just causes me to throw good money after bad and is something I need to work on. For the time being I think I'll just walk away after taking a beat and wait until I can get back to playing a solid game.

2004-05-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Wedding Count: 21 Days

Bankroll
Poker Stars: $983.80 ($100 bonus pending)
Party Poker: $83.64
Live: $130 ("house-fund": $125)

Yesterday was a good day for poker. I played in a home game last night. We played 3 $10 buy-in tournaments. We started the first with 5 people, the second had 7 people, and the last had 6 people. I took first, third, and first for a nice $60 in profit. Nothing exceptional about my play. I got cards at the right time and made the most of them. I do have a definate edge on just about everyone who plays in our home games as only one other regular is an online player. The rest just don't have the experience yet to know what to do in certain situations. Most of them hold oo to hands like second pair a little too long before realizing they're probably beat.

Which brings up an interesting dilemma... This is a friendly game and we all play more to have fun than to make a profit. The games are as much about drinking and socializing as they are about playing hold-em. Over the past few months I've won over $150 in these games and I don't neccesarily feel guilty about it but I want to make sure everyone else is having a good time as well and no one is losing too much money. At times I feel like I should misplay a few hands to spread the winning around a little more but I also don't want to develop bad habits that carry over into my online play which is all about making money. I'll probably just continue to play my best and either they'll get sick of me playing or they'll take their games up to the next level which will benefit all of us...

Before heading over to the game I decided I would log on and warm up a little bit by playing a quick Sit&Go on Stars. When I logged on I noticed that Stars was offering a nice 20% deposit bonus for a reload. I was a bit worried that it was only good over the weekend though as my entire bankroll was tied up on various sites. Luckily Party came through and I was able to cash out $500 in less than 20 minutes. I was really amazed that they came through that fast. So, I now have a nice $100 bonus to work off on Stars. Hopefully I can get through that in time to transfer money back over to Party to take advantage of the "APRRELEASE" bonus.

While waiting for Party to cash me out I decided to play a quick Sit&Go, it wasn't pretty and I only got to play 3 hands.

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Hand #1 - I think I played this hand correctly. With middle pair on the flop I wanted to see where I was so I raised, with the 2 calls I figured I was beaten and folded on the turn. A bad suckout for the AA and yet another reason to now slow-play Aces.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (8 handed)

BB (t1260)
UTG (t2450)
UTG+1 (t1980)
Hero (t1470)
MP2 (t1470)
CO (t1050)
Button (t1880)
SB (t1940)

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with T:diamond:, A:diamond:.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, Hero raises to t60, MP2 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB calls t50, BB calls t40.

Flop: (t180) J:heart:, T:spade:, 4:club: (3 players)
SB bets t40, BB calls t40, Hero raises to t80, SB calls t40, BB calls t40.

Turn: (t420) 4:spade: (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets t80, Hero folds, SB calls t80.

River: (t580) 9:diamond: (2 players)
SB bets t580, BB raises to t1040, SB calls t460.

Final Pot: t2660

Results below:
BB shows Kd Qd (straight, king high).
SB shows Ac As (two pair, aces and fours).
Outcome: BB wins t2660.

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Hand #2 - This one in hind sight I played pretty poorly. I hit top pair and make a pot sized bet and get 1 caller. I think I have to bet hard on the turn here to take it down but the possible flush scared me into checking. Then a stupid bluff on the river considering low limit players won't fold anything.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (7 handed)

MP2 (t2325)
CO (t3020)
Button (t1905)
Hero (t1265)
BB (t2115)
UTG (t1245)
MP1 (t1625)

Preflop: Hero is SB with J:heart:, K:spade:.
UTG calls t30, MP1 folds, MP2 calls t30, CO folds, Button folds, Hero completes, BB checks.

Flop: (t120) 4:diamond:, 8:spade:, K:diamond: (4 players)
Hero bets t120, BB folds, UTG folds, MP2 calls t120.

Turn: (t360) A:diamond: (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 checks.

River: (t360) J:diamond: (2 players)
Hero bets t300, MP2 calls t300.

Final Pot: t960

Results below:
Hero shows Jh Ks (two pair, kings and jacks).
MP2 shows 9d Js (flush, ace high).
Outcome: MP2 wins t960.

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Hand #3 - This was just a horrible suck-out.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (7 handed)

Button (t2915)
SB (t2580)
BB (t1965)
Hero (t815)
MP1 (t2040)
MP2 (t1770)
CO (t1415)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q:club:, A:heart:.
Hero raises to t150, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB calls t125, BB calls t100.

Flop: (t450) 2:diamond:, A:diamond:, 8:heart: (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets t665 (All-In), SB folds, BB calls t665.

Turn: (t1780) T:diamond: (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t1780) 9:diamond: (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: t1780

Results below:
BB shows Ac 6d (flush, ace high).
Hero shows Qc Ah (one pair, aces).
Outcome: BB wins t1780.

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Once the cashout came through I decided to play a little $1/$2 to start working off the bonus. I'm glad I did as in less than 30 minutes I lost $4 on one table but won $48 on another table. Talk about getting hit with the deck. So, all in all I had a nice poker day on friday showing over $100 in profit between live and online.

2004-04-29T10:17:00.000-07:00

My First Poker Entry

Bankroll
Poker Stars: $445
Party Poker: $583
Live: $100 ("house-fund": $85)

Last night I played in 2 Sit&Go's. I took 2nd place in a $5.50 and 1st place in a $11.

I think I played well in both games.

The $5 I had no cards at all the entire game and somehow managed to limp my way into second place. I need to go back and look at my actual stats for this one but I was playing ridiculously tight and got lucky that no one else was.

The $11 was great. I tripled up fairly early on a big blind special holding 35o when the flop comes down 246 with two spades. After a half pot bet on the flop that got two callers the turn was a blank and I moved all in to get called by pocket Q's and a spades draw. The spades missed so I was sitting with a chip lead of almost double the next person. After that I played tightly until we were down to 6 when I started bullying people around and stealing a lot of blinds. I took a small stack out when I overbet the pot on a semi-bluff, nut flush draw. He moved all in and the pot was paying more than enough to call. He turned over an open ended straight draw and I was actually ahead with my A high. Both draws hit and I knocked him out to put myself up to about $7000. By the time it got down to 3 I was at $10,000 and they were about even at $1500. They were both playing tight as possible to try and eek into second so I just continued to steal blinds and went heads up about $12,000 to $1000.

Poker seems so easy when things are going your way.

2004-04-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Wedding Countdown: 23 Days
Well with the proliferation of all the poker blogs I've decided to try my hand at writing my own. Let's see how long it lasts...

Let's start off with a little background on me. UD_Delt is the name I go by online. It comes from being an alumni of University of Dayton and Delta Tau Delta. I was a founding father of the Delt chapter at UD and that experience shaped me into the person I am today and I still hold it near and dear to my heart. A lot of who I am comes from the 3 years I was part of my fraternity and the guys I was friends with, some of it's good and some of it's bad but it's who I am.

I live in Cleveland, Ohio and work for a large bank doing web development. Seeing as how I'm not usually very busy at work it gives me a lot of time to do other things such as write this blog. Hopefully I'll have the motivation to not only continue to update this but to also make it look halfway decent at the same time. I still have no idea what all I can do with this blogging tool so that will give me something to occupy my time.

You'll also notice, for the time being, the countdown at the top of each post. As of May 22nd I will be getting married to a wonderful woman. As of May 24th we'll be on our way to Jamaica. On May 8th I'll be heading to Windsor for my bachelor party and hopefully we'll be spending some time at Greektown playing poker.

Most of this blog will be about my poker playing experiences as that's really the whole point. I started playing poker way back in high school and have always loved the game. Back then it was a mix of whatever games the dealer decided on, mostly crazy wild card games. We played as often as we could including during study halls and in the hallways after school.

I didn't start playing Hold-Em until about 8 months ago and I blame it all on the WSOP and Chris Moneymaker. Hearing about Moneymaker winning the big one on a $40 online buy-in was more than enough to sell me on online poker. Soon after I convinced the fiancee that playing poker online would cost me no more than what I was currently paying in MMORPG subscriptions. She allowed me the price of a game, $50, and $15/month after that as a bank roll. She got the much better deal as far as my bankroll for live playing and home games, I got to start with $100 but she gets half of what I win each time to put into our "house-fund", of course I get nothing back on the days I lose.

I started off on Poker Stars playing the micro-limit, .01/.02 and .05/.10, games to get the hang of hold-em. At the same time I started reading as much as possible and found RGP. With my limited knowledge of starting hands and a desire to try out everything from Omaha to Stud it took me less than a month to burn through most of my $50 even at the micro limits.

I got down to $6 and decided to give a NL Sit & Go a shot. I managed to take first and decided I was actually going to try and figure this game out before burning through any more money. Reading a lot of RGP and various other websites refined my game enough where I started to become a consistent enough winner at the NL games to start posting a small profit. At the same time I found a post from a party poker affiliate offering $50 free for singing up at party poker. I took a chance on it and he was true to his word so I got a free $50 at party.

As I read more I started playing a combination of NL Sit & Go's as well as limit ring games. Between Poker Stars, Party and a $10 sign up bonus at Gaming Club I managed to turn my initial $50 investment into $1200 across the various sites.

Since then I've read two books, Winning Low Limit Hold-Em by Lee Jones and The Complete Book of Hold-Em Poker by Gary Carson. I've also registered Poker Tracker to keep track of my play. Of course since reading those books and registering Poker Tracker I've been a losing player and my bankroll is now down to $1000. I've still been doing well at the low limit Sit & Go's but the limit game has been killing me.

And so my story begins...