Gotta love aggressive marketing campaigns

I had $11 on pokerstars for the upcoming BPT event. I am waiting on a cashout from the prima site I was playing on, so thought I might play a little nickle dime NL. I ended up losing $4 after getting up alittle bit. I decided to take a shot at a $5 NLHE STT. It became apparent early that I had the most skills at the table (and thats not saying much).

Anyway I ran over the first table, and when it was down to 3 handed one of my opponents ended up getting lucky in a hand I had AJ, and he had A6, he ended up catching the straight on the river. After we knocked out the other played I had him down to 2k, and I had 11k. Somehow he managed to squeekout 2 double ups and was back in it. We went back and forth and I eventually took 2nd. O well I had enough change to live and fight another day on stars.

I watch a movie with my wife. The 40yr old virgin. I thought it was ok, the main character is on The Office, and I enjoy watching that show. So after the movie, I decided to see if there were any low buyin MTT's starting. The soonest one started was 40 mins. I didnt want to wait that long so I sat in another $5 STT.

Something happened early that kinda pissed me off. This idiot was deal AA on the button. the flop was coordinated with a straight and a flush. he ended up losing all but 500 of his chips. and he chimes in "GJ retard, catch aids". What a fucking moron. He managed to pick up some chips and was back in it. And then he lost another hand and told a different guy basically the same thing. I told him he shouldnt be so eager to embarass himself. Then the whole table started ripping this guy. And honestly he deserved it. I suppose he hasnt played much poker. I take solice in the fact that he busted out about 6th. And I busted him with a bad beat if you will. I had a big chip stack and wanted to take a shot at pitting him out, here is how the hand went down.

PokerStars Game #4480795476: Tournament #22297760, Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2006/03/31 - 23:23:21 (ET)
Table '22297760 1' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: tmbgfan (800 in chips)
Seat 2: Wild Billys (825 in chips)
Seat 4: Sid823 (2360 in chips)
Seat 5: aperson (1205 in chips)
Seat 6: TedtheMaster (1280 in chips)
Seat 7: Shark30 (1185 in chips)
Seat 8: Pocahontas (1940 in chips)
Seat 9: scaryjerry1 (3905 in chips)
Shark30: posts small blind 25
Pocahontas: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scaryjerry1 [7d 7c]
scaryjerry1: raises 150 to 200
tmbgfan: folds
Wild Billys: folds
Sid823: folds
aperson: raises 1005 to 1205 and is all-in
TedtheMaster: folds
Shark30: folds
Pocahontas: folds
scaryjerry1: calls 1005
*** FLOP *** [6s 7h 6d]
aperson said, "wtf"
*** TURN *** [6s 7h 6d] [4d]
*** RIVER *** [6s 7h 6d 4d] [7s]
Pocahontas said, "lol"
TedtheMaster said, "hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
scaryjerry1: shows [7d 7c] (four of a kind, Sevens)
aperson: shows [8c 8s] (two pair, Eights and Sevens)
Pocahontas said, "hahaha"
tmbgfan said, "ba-bye"
scaryjerry1 said, "aids"
scaryjerry1 collected 2485 from pot

Usually I dont participate in shit talking, but this guy deserved it. Anyway, the play in the second STT was insane. A 3 way allin and one guy flips over A3o.

I ended up taking this one down, I was unreleantless on the weak players. I had the image of a maniac and was still playing a reserved game. I didnt get involved in the big pots unless I had the nuts. It was refreshing to take down a win. Even at a low level. I might take a few more shots at these over the weekend.

Anyway I now have $33 in my stars acct, $11 in my neteller, and a pending withdraw of $133. The $11 comes from VIP (b/c they suck!) I dont think I will be playing the BPT (unless I cash this week). I just need to realign my priorities. With my limited br, I need to focus on the games that I can beat AND are within my bankroll. I think its ok for me to take shots at $10 STT/MTT's but the BPT field is pretty tough. There is a mix of good players and donks, and its hard to adjust when at the table with both. There is the chance that I will come thru with something this week, but otherwise I am going to hold back from playing for at least a couple weeks.

So my bankroll is about $175. Its enough to work with. I have a small bonus I am going to go whore at titan that is also going to put a little $ back in my BR. Well thats all I have for now.

If you are looking for something to pass the time, check out the online casino below. I signed up and did the $200 free today. Its legit, no deposit required. I played paigow, 3 card poker, video poker and blackjack. Its alright, but I am just a fan of the Player vs Player poker rather than the Player vs. House Games, but hell if you can shake out some extra $ to throw into your poker bankroll, WHY NOT?

Another dissapointing standing in the BPT

I am considering dropping out of the BPT if I dont cash this sunday in the FTP event.

Last night I played and had a player to my left who came over the top of me and pushed for 4-6 consequetive hands. I knew this players range of hands was high. I actually was only in the pot in one of the first hands he pushed in, and everyone folded to him each time he pushed. I picked up JJ and he did it again. I thought about it and decided to call. He showed AQo, and caught an A on the turn.

I had him out chipped, but I was crippled. A couple hands later I picked up JTs and saw a flop for 3xbb. The flop came KQ6 giving me the OESFD. I decided to move for the pot in a 4 way hand. AND didnt improve!!!!!!! I was out.

I have taken some beating in my bankroll, and cashed out from the prima site that I moved my $ too. I just hate their software. it takes up too much space, and makes multitabling difficult. The interface is clunky in NL games, and the traffic is low. I withdrew $133, and have $33 across stars, FTP, and VIP. If I dont cash in the FTP event on sunday, I am going to withdraw from VIP and focus on building my bankroll. I will probably take some shots at stars though playing the 180 man tournaments. I think they are the perfect size, and they are beta testing $4.4 tournaments.

I played a $4.4 last night and the play was terrible, I was cleaning up. I ended up running out of gas at ~35th place. I dont recall specifically how I busted, but I was involved with a hand where I was out chipped.

Regarding VIP Poker, they suck! The BPT event didnt start until there was already 5 mins off the clock. Apparently it was the most people they ever had in a tournament. The structure wasnt bad, but I think the guys at bluff had the most control over that, because it was different than any other tournament on the site. I guess they also raised the blinds the hand before the break... how thoughtful. Definetly not missing out on anything by not playing there.

I am either going ot go back and play on absolute or UB. I can handle their software, and beat the micro NL games. I will be playing the dime/nickle NL games until I can boost the BR.

$200 FREE A online casino! NO DEPOSIT

NO DEPOSIT AND FREE PLAY!

• Players will be given a free account
• Plus $200 to spend at the casino, no purchase required
• Any amount above the initial balance is classified as “winnings” and will be credited to their Real Accounts
• Players get to enjoy free play to the value of $200
• Players get to pocket their wins

blankety, blank, blank

not much else to say.

blanked out in the $3r I played tonight on stars, I was only in for 3 rebuys and 1 addon. Had the misfortune of running QQ into KK that was protected by a big stack in the top 5%. He turned a K and it was ova... I didnt make it 20min past the rebuy. I then signed up for a $10 freezeout, and got bluffed off a hand. then I was short stacked. tried to run with QTs and the bb woke up with QQ. Flopped the gutshot, but didnt complete it.

I'm not going to play anymore tonight. I'm just not feeling it. I think I will take off tommorrow. If I do take a shot tommorrow, it will be in the party WSOP freeroll qualifiers. On Thursday I have the BPT Event #3 to play. It will probably be a small field. I am guessing about 200. Nothing compared to the 2k in the $3r I just played.

I have assessed my bankroll. and after leaving $55 spread around for 5 BPT event buyins, I have $216.04. UUUUHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... but I will work with it. I am just going to implement a bankroll building strategy. take down a couple cashes in some of my BPT tourneys, and move on. I have some freerolls coming up with good prize pools too, so that might give me another boost. Hell I did it once this week, maybe lightining will strike again.

If any of you listen to Cardplayers "the circuit" there are 2 new shows up.

March 28 bankroll.
current - $216.04

My loss last night.

I thought about it a little last night after I played and I think I was really steaming, and as a result tilted off some cash.

I had the sense to step down a level, but not quit playing. So while I cut my losses a little, I didnt step away like I should.

If I play tonight, I am going to play right. I would like to take a shot a at a couple STT & MTT's again since my BR is a little healthier. Definetly not he $33's and $55's that I left on before I destroyed my bankroll. But probably something in the $3-$10 range.

I have had success at the $3r & $5r on stars in the past, and am thinking a bout taking a shot there.

I dont think I am going to play on UB until they finish there affiliate "upgrade". After tonight I will have $ on the sites and ready to go for all scheduled BPT events. I am hoping to make a solid showing in one of the events, and boost the bankroll.

I started thinking about the BPT WSOP seat added events, and am not sure I will be able to play the WSOP or those side games if I do win. My wife is due with our baby around the last wek of august, and it will be dependant upon her health around that time if I can go.

I still havent completely counted my bankroll and assessed the total damage for yesterday, but I am going to have to face my demons later and come up with a damage control plan.

Regarding my rant about VIP Poker, I was just pissed that they wasted my time dealing with the bonus issue. If they would have had a clear statement in the first place, I wouldnt have ever bothered. Instead I spent probably 1-2 hours jacking with them. time wasted. I cashed out $7 more than I deposited on their site, and left enough for the BPT events ($33) so I guess I cant be too pissed. There bonus is still crap though. And when I cashed out they jacked me for a quarter :-p I'm sure its still in my account, but not much use for it there. It's be better sitting in my neteller account, not accruing interest.

bad news for me tonight...

ran like shit on FTP, and ended up going thru over $100, after playing some full ring $25NL, and some short handed $10NL. I also paid back a friend that loaned me $11 on FTP, and registered for the BPT event there.

I left $33 on VIP to play the BPT events there.

I plan on playing a couple small MTT on FTP, but am going to stay away from their cash games.

I am going ot transfer some money onto stars to play some of their low buyin sats, and put the rest of my $ on absolute later this week.

Other than that I am calling it a night. I couldnt catch a hand if I paid off someone...

Anyway I didnt do the math but minus my buyins my BR is about $250.... pretty ugly.... but tommorrow is another day. I think I will focus on 1 MTT, and see if I cant do something with it. Stars is running some $4 180's maybe I will take a shot at one of those...

thats all...

VIP Poker Promo's = Bullshit

This is my blog and I feel like posting a rant.

I downloaded VIP Poker a week or so ago b/c the BPT is having some events there. Well It turns out they are one of hte main sponsors of the tour this year.

I would first like to say that I dont hold anything against the guys at BLUFF, IMHO they are great and I have seen them go above and beyond to help the forum members, subscribers, and players.

Anyway it is pretty custom in the world of online poker if you dont deposit after a few days they will send you an email offering some sort of deposit bonus. I have received all kinds of these offers in the past and they are usually a little better than the "standard bonus".

Anyway I recieved the following email from VIP (note all of my emails are posted verbatim)

Dear Jerry,

I will match your first deposit up to $100.
NBA season is here and this will get you started off right at VIPpoker.

Simply make the deposit and reply to this email so I can issue the bonus cash to your account.

We have different deposit options from which Instant check and Neteller are the preferred methods.

InstaCheck - http://info.vippoker.com/deposit_citadel.asp

Neteller - http://info.vippoker.com/deposit_neteller.asp


If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at anytime.

Regards,

Brian

VIPpoker Customer care

Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691

customercare@vippoker.com
www.vippoker.com

I originally wasnt going to deposit more than the requirements for the BPT, but hought hey if they will match my deposit I would be happy to give there site a chance and play my ring games there. I usually liek to followup on the details of a promo like this before I make the deposit. There is usually a raked hand requirement of some sort prior to being eligible for a withdraw.

So I fired off the following email to them to see what the requirements are.

Brian,

thanks for the offer. Can you explain this bonus to me? would these
funds be available for wagering immediately, or is this a bonus that I
would have to "clear" to become available funds?

Thanks,

I was dissapointed when I received the following response.... GG brian (if there is even such a person)

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for contacting us at VIPpoker.

The promotion that you have received indicates; once you make a deposit
in your Sports-book account that we will match that amount up to
$100.00.
This bonus is not automatically credited to your account. Please call in
or send us an e-mail to request the bonus.

Make a deposit, request your Match-play Bonus and your account will be
ready for use immediately.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us at anytime.

Kind Regards,

Shirvelle

VIPpoker free rolls

Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691

freerolls@vippoker.com

So Whatever, its dissapointing and I thought their email was poorly worded, so I sent this email to them.

I was dissapointed to see that the offer below is for the sportsbook
and not the poker room. The email does not reference the sportsbook
at all. However the poker room is referenced 6 times in the email.

While I do enjoy betting on NFL games, it is currently the off season,
and I have no desire to wager on other events.

I would be inclined to take up a similar offer for the pokerroom, if
it were offered. Otherwise I will only be depositing the minimum
amount so that I can participate in a poker league event that is being
hosted at your site.

If you would like to offer me a pokerroom related promtion I would
happily consider participating,

Thanks.

Then they respond to me and say that I can infact have the bonus as a 100% match and available for immediate play. This how they responded. I assumed that they were probably only going to honor the promo b/c it was porrly worded and they realized their mistake. Kudos to them I thought, its nice of them to do the right thing.

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for contacting VIPsports.com.

We apologize for the misunderstanding. Yes, indeed you can have the promotions in our sports book or poker room. It is a 100% matchplay bonus. In the sportsbook the requirements is 3 times rollover.
The poker rollover requirements is the following; You must accumulate 60 VIPpoker rewards points* for every bonus dollar issued before you are eligible to make a withdrawal from your account.

If you make a withdrawal prior to meeting these rollover requirements you will forfeit 100% of the bonus.

No time restrictions apply.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at anytime.

Regards,

Selvin

VIPsports Customer care

Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691

customercare@vipsports.com
www.vipsports.com - Where the World Wagers


So I made a $100 deposit last night and sent them an email to claim my bonus. here is my email:

Thank you, I am writing to collect my 100% Match-play Bonus as
discussed below. I have deposited $100 into my poker count.

Well they sent me a respons that I thought maybe the indivdual who responded wasnt aware of or didnt read the string of email include in my response. Here is the response I received:

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for contacting us at VIPpoker.

Welcome to VIPpoker and thank you for your deposit.

Once you transfer the $100 from your Sports-book account to your Poker
room,
you will automatically receive the 100% Match-play bonus.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at anytime.

Best regards,

Shirvelle

VIPpoker Customer care
Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691

freeroll@vippoker.com

www.vippoker.com

I thought that this person just didnt read thru my emails so I fired off another email to clarify the situation:

I thought this match bonus was different than your standard bonus, and
would be available for play immediately, and that I just could not
withdraw prior to playing the required amount of hands.

Is this not correct. Is this how the bonus would work in the sportsbook?

I thought you extended me a special bonus because I registered for
your site through bluff magazine and the bluff poker tour.

per the response I recieved from Selvin, it seemed like a different
bonus. Please review his message below and/or foward my email to his
attention.

Thanks.,

No response so I shot them another email:

I am very dissapointed in the was this promotion was presented.

It was my understanding that upon depositing $100 I would be credited
an additional $100 to play with, and that prior to any withrdraw I
would have to rollover the funds. This however does not appear to be
the case.

You should have your sales and marketing department correct their
solicitation material.

I plan on withdrawing my funds from your site and with the exception
of the 3 bluff poker tour events you will be hosting, will not be
playing on your site in the future.

I have played all of the top poker sites, and never been presented
with such a smoke and mirrors type of bonus. Their are other sites out
there that offer a $100 match fo your first $100 deposit that is
available immediately, and then you are required to rollover the
money. For instance www.bodog.com/cp100 They too have a sportsbook,
and that is where I will continue to play.

Regards,

They sent me the following response:

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for contacting VIPPoker.

On transferring money from your Sports account for the first time, you automatically received 100% Matchplay bonus.

On VIPPoker site it states:

How the Bonus Works:

Once you make your first deposit (transfer) to the VIPpoker cardroom, your bonus automatically becomes active and you start receiving credits towards the bonus for each real money raked hand you play.
Each time you earn 1000 credits, bonus money is released for you to redeem.

We are sorry that you were upset but we are one of the top Sports Book in the world and have a lot of Clients.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact us at any time.

Kind regards,

Philip

VIPpoker Customer care

Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691
customercare@vippoker.com
www.vippoker.com

I thought this was a nice touch
We are sorry that you were upset but we are one of the top Sports Book in the world and have a lot of Clients. translation: We dont care if we lose you as a customer because we have plenty of other customers.

At this point I am pretty much disgusted with the experience and fire off this email:

Phillip, or whomever

refer to the email from one of your representatives below that states that I have to rollover $ not clear it at a rate of 60 points per $1 (equivalent to 600 points to $10, not 1000 points per $10).

This is the basis of my compliant. No worries, I have posted my complaint on several poker forums, and unless you follow thru on your offer, other players will know they should avoid your poker room.

Here is the email I received from your representative.

Dear Jerry,

Thank you for contacting VIPsports.com.

We apologize for the misunderstanding. Yes, indeed you can have the promotions in our sports book or poker room. It is a 100% matchplay bonus. In the sportsbook the requirements is 3 times rollover.
The poker rollover requirements is the following; You must accumulate 60 VIPpoker rewards points* for every bonus dollar issued before you are eligible to make a withdrawal from your account.

If you make a withdrawal prior to meeting these rollover requirements you will forfeit 100% of the bonus.

No time restrictions apply.

If you have any further questions feel free to contact us at anytime.

Regards,

Selvin

VIPsports Customer care

Telephone 1-800 769 5685
Fax 1-800 887 8691
customercare@vipsports.com
www.vipsports.com - Where the World Wagers

I posted my issue on the bluff magazine forum when a nother member was asking about deposit bonuses. I was surprised to see the pokerroom manager respond, but he didnt offer to do the right thing and give me the bonus, so I am not too surprised.

If you would like to see that thread here is a link.

Anyway in summary VIP Poker Promo's = Bullshit

On a related note:

the link I mention above to www.bodog.com/cp100 will give you $100 instant bonus on your first $100 deposit. NO BULLSHIT required. I did the promo when I signed up and it was available for play immediatey. You do have to play 250 raked hands before you can withdraw the bonus. but you dont lose it. BODOG has the best customer service of any poker room I have ever had to deal with. Their sportsbook offers great lines, and they run a continuous 10% instant redeposit bonus, and sometimes it is higher.

Hitting blanks in the BPT...

I didnt do welll in the second event of the BPT. I actaully accumulated alot of chips at one point and was in the top 10. I had position on a guy and was dealt AdKd and the flop came out low with 2 diamonds. I had him about 2/3 into the pot by the turn which was a J. I ended up betting out when he checked to me about 900 into a 1400 pot. He had ~1200 in chips and decided to make the push. I called and never filled my flush. He had TT... At this point I was down too about 1800 in chips and the blinds were 50/100. I was in late position and there was an EP limper. I was dealt Kc8c one off the button. I figured I would make the push too pick up the blinds, figuring the only hands that could call are AA, KK, QQ.

Well I was lucky enough to run head first into AA &KK. and it was a 3way allin with me being the severe underdog. I didnt improve and went out~78 of 125. I really try not to gmable like that, exspecially early in a tournament. I made a move at the wrong time, and it didnt work out.
I was messing around on UB since I only had ~$10 on there and played 2 $1 STT's. It was pretty fun actually. I ran over 1 table like a bulldozer (busted out about 7th in the other). By the time I was headus up I had 80% of the chips. My opponent caught a 4 outer for a gut shot straight, and before you knew it we were even in chips I had about a 200 chip lead. I was dealt 66 on the button, and asked her if she wanted to push. She said ok and I did. She showed AJ and caught a J on the turn. I wasnt really concered about taking the time to win it b/c I only had about 3 mins before the start of the BPT event.

My Absolute cashout went thru and I dropped $100 on VIPPoker to get ready for thursday's event. I am not sure who runs VIP or what they are a skin of yet, but there is not much traffic there.

They gave me a 100% match bonus ( I think I am still dealing with suport on that issue) so I decided to play some micro NL. They only had ` $0NL table running so I sat down at that. I also sat at a $25 NL table. AFter my 20 min session I showed a$40 profit.

I am done playing for the night, and done typing. I still want to post some opions on some of the links I have to the right but that will have to wait til later. I ended up blowing thru my $10 on UB, so now I am down to my neteller account and my $ on VIP. Depending on how things shake out with support I will play there for a minute. I will probably redposit back to absolute this week when they offer a reload bonus. I get rakeback there and the tables are relatively soft.

I am just relieved to have some breathing room in my bankroll and am hoping for some good things to happen. I may play on the $0.25 NL tables, since its never been a question of skill and more of a question of bankroll comfort. With a $440 bankroll 5% is $22, which is right in line with my guidelines.

March 26 bankroll
starting: $413.56
ending: $440.25
gain/loss : $26.69 (6.5%)

Ok so maybe I wont give up poker just yet....

I took second place tonight in a $2500 Poker Source Onine Freeroll. It was a small field of about 170. If you would like to sign up for some awesome promotions for playing poker I recomend you sign up for PSO, I sign up for any site that I cannot get rakeback at, and have never been dissapointed. There are several links to the right to their site.

Anyway, I was kind of dissapointed that I couldnt take down first. When we gotto the final table I had a solid cheap lead for first. Before I knew it we were 3 handed, and then heads up. going into heads up I was at a chip disadvantage, and was workign on picking up pots when in position. The other player had been playing a pretty aggressive and semi loose game. and when he had me out chipped 2.5:1 was a recipe for trouble. I tried to be a little more selective in my hands when out of position, and raise when in position. I was still pretty confident in my skills. I thought I finally had him when the last hand came up.

Stage #362059942 Tourney ID 606137 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1500 - 2006-03-26 00:48:30 (ET)
Table: 15 (Real Money) Seat #9 is the dealer
Seat 4 - CRASHPAT ($169572 in chips)
Seat 9 - _NO1UNO_ ($69468 in chips)
CRASHPAT - Ante $200
_NO1UNO_ - Ante $200
_NO1UNO_ - Posts small blind $1500
CRASHPAT - Posts big blind $3000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to _NO1UNO_ [Ac Ad]
_NO1UNO_ - Raises $7500 to $9000
CRASHPAT - Calls $6000
*** FLOP *** [7h 6d 8d]
CRASHPAT - Checks
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $9000
CRASHPAT - Calls $9000
*** TURN *** [7h 6d 8d] [3s]
CRASHPAT - Checks
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $36000
CRASHPAT - Raises $72000 to $72000
_NO1UNO_ - All-In $15268
CRASHPAT - returned ($20732) : not called
*** RIVER *** [7h 6d 8d 3s] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CRASHPAT - Shows [4d 5h] (Straight, four to eight)
_NO1UNO_ - Shows [Ac Ad] (One pair, aces)
CRASHPAT Collects $138936 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($138936)
Board [7h 6d 8d 3s Qh]
Seat 4: CRASHPAT (big blind) won Total ($138936) HI:($138936) with Straight, four to eight [4d 5h - B:8d,B:7h,B:6d,P:5h,P:4d]
Seat 9: _NO1UNO_ (dealer) (small blind) HI:lost with One pair, aces [Ac Ad - P:Ad,P:Ac,B:Qh,B:8d,B:7h]

I wasnt quite expecting that, but it happens. Anyway it helped keep me in the game, and I am happy to take down a profit for the day consdiering how it began. It was really a low day for me early. I have already initiated the cashout from the site, and will use some of my winnings to fund the scheduled BPT events. I am going to continue to play the $0.05/$0.1 NL games and keep a couple extra buyins in my accout. The best part is now I can afford to buyin at max rather than at half.

Hopefully, I can take down one of the BPT tournaments next, or at least one of the other freeroll tournaments I have lined up.

March 25 bankroll:
starting: $145.88
ending: $413.56($400 Neteller, $13.56)
gain/loss : $267.68 (183.5%)

Public Sevice Announcement!

How not to loose your bankroll in less than 4 minutes. Dont run head first into variance!

Here is an example in which to refer too:

I had this file converted over to an animated gif but am having serious trouble getting it to host right... so at thsi point i am going to give up. i might setup a utube account to host my vids in the future.


I am actually comptemplating giving up poker for the first time. I'm pretty disgusted in the way I've ran today, and throwing away my bankroll. I have $13 left on UB and my buyin to the BPT event at sun poker. I have acouple of freerolls lined up, but after that I think I might be done. I am not willing to invest anymore money, and I am not certain I am willing to invest time into freerolls. The play at freerolls is just retarded, and even playing tight and trapping poor players doesnt mean much. here is an example of how i busted out of a freeroll earlier today. This freeroll actually had the equivalent of a $10 per player overlay.



I guess I am just disgusted right now. I know my problem stems from playing over my bankroll. I want to play HU cash games, but the smallest stakes offered are .25/.5. I am not sure how I am going to proceed. I might take a shot at $5 HU matches, or play the penny NL tables. I just dont know at this point.

While I was waiting for my video to convert to a gif and resize I managed to win a little at a 6 max .05/.1 NL table. maybe I will continue to play 1 table at a tiime so that i can focus on my table. I am not into single tabling, but its probably the best thing forme right now.My UB
bankroll is now $17.72 wooohooo only a hundred down from this morning...

disgusting session this morning....

running QQ into AA, and AA into J2 wtf... I have to just laugh at what went on...

I only played about an hour of 5 tables at .05/.1 and ended up losing $36.07 after my cleared bonuses are factored in.... Here are some of my biggest losers... I dont know hat I had any winners... well I did but not enough to overcome the losers obviously. No worries though I am going to take a break from playing the rest of the morning, and when I play later today I am going to 2 table 6 max NL and see if I can work on my short game.

Hand #30429650-8414 at Scotch Plains (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 25/Mar/06 08:23:36
prisonpoker is at seat 0 with $38.50.
dodgeram1999 is at seat 1 with $16.26.
dasghongs is at seat 2 with $8.
Spankologist is at seat 3 with $3.20.
gidget17 is at seat 4 with $5.85.
blackntan is at seat 5 with $3.75.
pokahplay3r is at seat 6 with $16.73.
LYHDTS is at seat 7 with $4.60.
Turn is at seat 8 with $11.65.
gbp000 is at seat 9 with $54.96.
The button is at seat 6.
LYHDTS posts the small blind of $.05.
Turn posts the big blind of $.10.
prisonpoker: -- --
dodgeram1999: -- --
dasghongs: -- --
Spankologist: -- --
gidget17: -- --
blackntan: -- --
pokahplay3r: Qc Qs
LYHDTS: -- --
Turn: -- --
gbp000: -- --
Pre-flop:
Turn has disconnected, is dropped.
Turn has reconnected.
gbp000 folds. prisonpoker raises to $.20.
dodgeram1999 calls. dasghongs folds. Spankologist
folds. gidget17 calls. blackntan folds.
pokahplay3r re-raises to $1.15. LYHDTS folds. Turn
folds. prisonpoker calls. dodgeram1999 folds.
gidget17 folds.
Flop (board: Js 9h 9d):
prisonpoker checks. pokahplay3r bets $3.
prisonpoker raises to $11.85. pokahplay3r goes all-in
for $15.58. prisonpoker calls.
Turn (board: Js 9h 9d 7s):
(no action in this round)
River (board: Js 9h 9d 7s Tc):
(no action in this round)
Showdown:
pokahplay3r shows Qc Qs.
pokahplay3r has Qc Qs Js 9h 9d: two pair, queens and nines.
prisonpoker shows Ah Ad.
prisonpoker has Ah Ad Js 9h 9d: two pair, aces and nines.
Hand #30429650-8414 Summary:
$1.70 is raked from a pot of $34.01.
prisonpoker wins $32.31 with two pair, aces and nines.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Hand #30428564-8019 at Boardman (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 25/Mar/06 08:06:49
FD is at seat 0 with $45.75.
Turn is at seat 1 with $9.35.
misterfive is at seat 2 with $2.90.
Sverker45 is at seat 3 with $9.80.
pokahplay3r is at seat 4 with $9.30.
bob818 is at seat 5 with $10.75.
shellbutton is at seat 6 with $2.70.
Bankers_Hours is at seat 7 with $22.98.
Tblade is at seat 8 with $2.40.
desertmoon is at seat 9 with $5.05.
The button is at seat 7.
Tblade posts the small blind of $.05.
desertmoon posts the big blind of $.10.
FD: -- --
Turn: -- --
misterfive: -- --
Sverker45: -- --
pokahplay3r: Ah Kd
bob818: -- --
shellbutton: -- --
Bankers_Hours: -- --
Tblade: -- --
desertmoon: -- --
Pre-flop:
FD folds. Turn calls. misterfive folds. Sverker45
folds. pokahplay3r raises to $.45. bob818 calls.
shellbutton folds. Bankers_Hours calls. Tblade
folds. desertmoon folds. Turn folds.
Flop (board: 2s Th 7h):
pokahplay3r bets $.90. bob818 folds. Bankers_Hours
calls.
Turn (board: 2s Th 7h Ac):
pokahplay3r bets $.90. Bankers_Hours calls.
River (board: 2s Th 7h Ac Qh):
pokahplay3r bets $3.50. Bankers_Hours raises to
$15.70. pokahplay3r goes all-in for $7.05.
Bankers_Hours is returned $8.65 (uncalled).
Showdown:
Bankers_Hours shows Js Kh.
Bankers_Hours has Js Kh Th Ac Qh: straight, ace high.
pokahplay3r shows Ah Kd.
pokahplay3r has Ah Kd Th Ac Qh: a pair of aces.
Hand #30428564-8019 Summary:
$.95 is raked from a pot of $19.30.
Bankers_Hours wins $18.35 with straight, ace high.
----------------------------------------------------------------

and here is my biggest winner

Hand #30428564-8061 at Boardman (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 25/Mar/06 08:37:13
FD is at seat 0 with $47.70.
Turn is at seat 1 with $9.25.
misterfive is at seat 2 with $3.10.
Sverker45 is at seat 3 with $11.05.
pokahplay3r is at seat 4 with $12.80.
bob818 is at seat 5 with $11.03.
sll65 is at seat 6 with $6.55.
Bankers_Hours is at seat 7 with $35.15.
The button is at seat 2.
Sverker45 posts the small blind of $.05.
pokahplay3r posts the big blind of $.10.
FD: -- --
Turn: -- --
misterfive: -- --
Sverker45: -- --
pokahplay3r: Qh Ks
bob818: -- --
sll65: -- --
Bankers_Hours: -- --
Pre-flop:
bob818 folds. sll65 folds. Bankers_Hours calls.
FD calls. Turn folds. misterfive folds. Sverker45
folds. pokahplay3r raises to $.45. Bankers_Hours
calls. FD re-raises to $.80. pokahplay3r calls.
Bankers_Hours calls.
Flop (board: 5d 2s Kd):
pokahplay3r checks. Bankers_Hours checks. FD bets
$2.45. pokahplay3r calls. Bankers_Hours folds.
Turn (board: 5d 2s Kd 9h):
pokahplay3r checks. FD checks.
River (board: 5d 2s Kd 9h 5s):
pokahplay3r bets $7.35. FD calls.
Showdown:
pokahplay3r shows Qh Ks.
pokahplay3r has Qh Ks 5d Kd 5s: two pair, kings and fives.
FD mucks cards.
(FD has Ts Td.)
Hand #30428564-8061 Summary:
$1.10 is raked from a pot of $22.05.
pokahplay3r wins $20.95 with two pair, kings and fives.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Consequently I only had 11 hands that showed down and were the winners.... and 15 that showed down and were losers out of 333 hands :-(

I'll publish my bankroll #'s after I finish tonights sessions

session review

I had planned on recapping my BPT Event #1 bustout, but didnt get around to converting the video b/c I was playing my the kids. I only played ~ an hour tonight so it was short session. I played a little Heads Up .25/.5 NL and took a small profit. I also transfered some cash to SunPoker ($28) to play the BPT event #2. I registered for the tournament and sat a $0.35/$.70 6 max limit I played a couple rotations and took a small profit. I then sat at a $25 NL table, played well, and took a profit from that game. I turned my $28 deposit into $49.xx so Even after registering for the BPT I am showing a profit.

I then sat at a $.05/.1 NO MAX table. IT was 3 handed and 2 of the players had $100 on the table, I couldnt resist and did the same, Hoping to trap one of the players. And that exactly what I thought happened in the following hand. Until the guy disconnected, I dont know if he did it intentionally, but I am going to ask UB to investigate it. I think that intentional disconnect is cheating plain and simple. I can pull my wifi network card out of my laptop at anytime but I would NEVER do that. I think its just plain bullshit for ppl ot abuse disconnect protections, and if I have the option I will play tables that dont offer it.

anyway heres the hand:

Hand #30429650-7640 at Scotch Plains (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 24/Mar/06 21:21:03
SectorFile is at seat 1 with $124.64.
IDAH0POTAT0 is at seat 3 with $11.05.
ffbigfoot is at seat 4 with $1003.25. <---- Look at this clown
pokahplay3r is at seat 5 with $98.75.
The button is at seat 5.
SectorFile posts the small blind of $.05.
IDAH0POTAT0 posts the big blind of $.10.
SectorFile: -- --
IDAH0POTAT0: -- --
ffbigfoot: -- --
pokahplay3r: 4s 5d
Pre-flop:
ffbigfoot calls. pokahplay3r calls. SectorFile
raises to $.50. IDAH0POTAT0 folds. ffbigfoot folds.
pokahplay3r calls.
Flop (board: 6d 3c 2h):
SectorFile bets $1.25. pokahplay3r calls.
Turn (board: 6d 3c 2h Th):
SectorFile has disconnected, is dropped.
SectorFile checks. pokahplay3r bets $3.70.
SectorFile goes all-in (disconnected). pokahplay3r is
returned $3.70 (uncalled).
River (board: 6d 3c 2h Th 7h):
(no action in this round)
Showdown:
pokahplay3r shows 4s 5d.
pokahplay3r has 4s 5d 6d 3c 7h: straight, seven high.
SectorFile shows Ah Js.
SectorFile has Ah Js 6d Th 7h: ace high.
Hand #30429650-7640 Summary:
$.15 is raked from a pot of $3.70.
pokahplay3r wins $3.55 with straight, seven high.

Anyway my March 24th bankroll:
starting: $129.83
ending: $145.88 ($107.53 UB, $38.35 Sun-excl. BPT)
gain/loss : $16.05 (12.4%)

No good in First BPT Event

I only made it through half of the field in last nights BPT event. I recorded my play so that I could review it and try to adjust.

Unfortunately, I felt that I played well until my final hand. I'll post it on here tonight after I clip it out of the recording. Basically I had AKs in middle position, UTG+1 min raised I reraised (but regretted not raising more) and ended up getting in a 4 way pot (IIRC) I was talking to a friend on IM and knew right then that my hand wasnt going to be good. I hadnt really committed alot of my chips but the pot was almost equal to my stack. It was checked to me and I thought that there was a chance my opponents would fold if I pushed and it would give me a nice chip stack. I really didnt spend enough time analyzing the hand, and it cost me the game.

While, I am dissapointed I feel that if I learn something then its not a complete waste. I have thought about different ways that I could have played this hand, and am going to review the rest of my tournament play. I have several tournaments coming up in the next 2 weeks that I will be playing, and want to be on my A game.

I am comptemplating doing a HU challenge and playing 50 HU matches. Obviously I am not bankrolled enough to play anything over $5 HU matches so te competition will generally be weak.

I have been studying HU play this last week and looking at some pretty solid strategy. I have actually played in alot of HU matchesin the past which you will already know if you have read any significant amount of my blog. However, I usually only play them in small batches.

Heads up play is one of the toughest games in my opinion. You really have to play any 2 cards and learn to recognize and exploit your opponents weakness and tendancies. I know some of the best players started out playing HU matches and it has helped them play a solid game. If you consider that most hands in a ring game end up heads up, having a significant amount of experience with different types of players and situations gives you an edge. Poker is all about getting the biggest edge that you can.

Another benifit of HU experience can be related to the endgame. Having the ability to take down the game is crucial. There is always a significant difference in the prize between first and second, and I could never be a player who plays for second. In fact I am not even motivated just to cash, I would rathe rstick my nexk out and take a shot in order to have a chance at first than to shut down and wait for the $.

I also have added alot of links on my page. I am going to go thru and review the links, and some are going to get the ax. I've listened to several of the podcasts, and quite frankly while some are great acouple of them suck ass. I would pull them off now, but I want the chance to critique them first. It amazes me the amoutn of misinformation being spread by donks about online poker.

Just because you got lucky once or twice and have a online poker account you are not a poker authority! I dont sit here and try to tell people how to manage their bankroll, because I havent done a great job with mine. I listened to one of these podcast about bankroll management and the info they gave was horrible. Another podcast had 2 idiots playing a 30 man $10 sitngo with a bunch of donks. These guys couldnt even offer a valid explanation for the moves they were making and how they came to that conclusion.

MAybe I am biased because I have been fortunate enough to run into a handfull of excellent online players who have helped me see the game from multiple perspectives, and to analyze situations. While I dont do the best job of thinking the situation through, I feel like I am continually improving on that.

I just would like to offer a warning to the people out there looking up free information on the net. Unless you have a reason to give the person offering the advice credibility, scrutinize this "free" information. It may end up costing you in the long run. While you may find the occasional nugget of information, there is a lot of overburden to dig through. What I have learned in the past 6 months is that the players that are winning the most didnt learn how to win from books, the learned from experience and from being able to analyze and remember situations they had been in, as well as discussions with other players about their experiences. A book might give you the fundamentals, but in the long run its only hoing to get you so far.

Thats my rant, now I will step off my pedestal because I am still learning the game myself. I improve my game every session and will eventually be playing with the best of the best, and I am going to let the weak players pay for my education.

I am playing a small freeroll tonight, and other than that I may start my HU challenge. I still have to decide the venue that I am going to play at. I have cashed out all of my funds to my neteller account. UB is having a 100% redeposit bonus still, and now stt's help work off that bonus. They are also pretty quick to cash out these days. Absolute is full of free money, and looking attractive, but they offer deposit bonuses several times a week. I will probably go back to UB, although I am getting discouraged about my rakeback there, they still havent fixed their affiliate system.

Well Thats my epic entry for today. I might post a couple of reviews tonight after I finish my session. My bankroll hasnt changed since my last entry b/c I wasnt including my BPT entry in the #'s and only played a freeroll. I didnt really discuss the freeroll, I held first or second through the entire field only to bubble out in tenth place by making a move on a player who I felt had been bluffing into alot of pots, too bad for me he had toppair this time and called me.

March 23 bankroll
start/finish - $129.83

So I'm packing my bags for Vegas....

and the World Series of Poker! Do you think this will last me long? 4 hunny large should do it right? lots of hookers and blow for me baby!

I was walking through the industrial park near my office and came across this duffle bag. There wasnt anyone around and I peaked inside and about shit my pants. Can you believe it? Ehh dont bother Its only a dream, similar to my WSOP aspirations. They may come to fruittion but I doubt I'll ever run across this much cash in an industrial park and live to tell about it.

Anyway It only a couple of days before I start my quest to satellite into a WSOP event, either thru the Bluff Poker Tour, Blogger Poker Tour, Party Freerolls, or anyone else who is willing to sponsor me. Maybe I should give Golden Palace a call and sell off advertising space on my skull or something.

I played 2 short sessions tonight, both about 30 mins, 4 tabling the nickle/dime NL on UB and Absolute. I finished the first session with a reasonable profit. And was headed into some nice territory in the second session, Until I lost significant amount of my profits getting involved in a hand that I knew I was beat, but was in late position and a big pot checked to me, i took a stab at it, other player came back over the top, but it was only $1 more. here is the hand history.

STAGE #321944654: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $0.05 - 2006-03-21 23:12:12 (ET)
Table: PARROT PL (Real Money) Seat #9 is the dealer
Seat 9 - GENEOX ($4 in chips)
Seat 2 - SPAZTICOLON ($3.80 in chips)
Seat 3 - ADDFUNDS ($4.20 in chips)
Seat 4 - BARACUDDA44 ($3.45 in chips)
Seat 6 - CANTBBEAT007 ($2.10 in chips)
Seat 7 - _NO1UNO_ ($13.25 in chips)
SPAZTICOLON - Posts small blind $0.05
ADDFUNDS - Posts big blind $0.10
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to _NO1UNO_ [Jc 10c]
BARACUDDA44 - Raises $0.20 to $0.20
CANTBBEAT007 - Folds
_NO1UNO_ - Calls $0.20
GENEOX - Calls $0.20
SPAZTICOLON - Folds
ADDFUNDS - Calls $0.10
*** FLOP *** [Kh Qh Jh]
ADDFUNDS - Checks
BARACUDDA44 - Bets $1.30
_NO1UNO_ - Raises $2.90 to $2.90
GENEOX - Folds
ADDFUNDS - All-In(Raise) $4 to $4
BARACUDDA44 - All-In $1.95
_NO1UNO_ - Calls $1.10
*** TURN *** [Kh Qh Jh] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [Kh Qh Jh 5c] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ADDFUNDS - Shows [7h 10h] (Flush, king high)
BARACUDDA44 - Shows [Qc Kd] (Two Pair, kings and queens)
_NO1UNO_ - Shows [Jc 10c] (One pair, jacks)
ADDFUNDS Collects $1.50 from side pot-1
ADDFUNDS Collects $10 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($12.10:$10.60,$1.50) | Rake ($0.60:$0.60,$0)
Board [Kh Qh Jh 5c 8s]
Seat 2: SPAZTICOLON (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: ADDFUNDS (big blind) won Total ($11.50) All-In HI:($11.50) with Flush, king high [7h 10h - B:Kh,B:Qh,B:Jh,P:10h,P:7h]
Seat 4: BARACUDDA44 HI:lost with Two Pair, kings and queens [Qc Kd - B:Kh,P:Kd,B:Qh,P:Qc,B:Jh]
Seat 6: CANTBBEAT007 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: _NO1UNO_ HI:lost with One pair, jacks [Jc 10c - B:Jh,P:Jc,B:Kh,B:Qh,P:10c]
Seat 9: GENEOX (dealer) Folded on the FLOP

This was my biggest loser, I was confident baracuda didnt have the flush which is why I came over the top hoping to push him off the hand. Although looking back I should have realized that he was pot committed to the hand, and I should have let it go.

I made up for that loss with my biggest winner of the evening. I was 100% confident in my read of the player, and my instincts proved correct. I was most proud of this read and the results.

STAGE #321941294: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $0.05 - 2006-03-21 23:08:24 (ET)
Table: PARROT PL (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 4 - BARACUDDA44 ($10.15 in chips)
Seat 6 - CANTBBEAT007 ($2.30 in chips)
Seat 7 - _NO1UNO_ ($6.95 in chips)
Seat 9 - GENEOX ($3.90 in chips)
Seat 3 - ADDFUNDS ($4.20 in chips)
CANTBBEAT007 - Posts small blind $0.05
_NO1UNO_ - Posts big blind $0.10
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to _NO1UNO_ [9s 7s]
GENEOX - Folds
ADDFUNDS - Folds
BARACUDDA44 - Calls $0.10
CANTBBEAT007 - Calls $0.05
_NO1UNO_ - Checks
*** FLOP *** [2d 2c 5d]
CANTBBEAT007 - Checks
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $0.30
BARACUDDA44 - Calls $0.30
CANTBBEAT007 - Folds
*** TURN *** [2d 2c 5d] [5s]
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $0.40
BARACUDDA44 - Raises $0.80 to $0.80
_NO1UNO_ - Calls $0.40
*** RIVER *** [2d 2c 5d 5s] [9c]
_NO1UNO_ - Checks
BARACUDDA44 - Bets $5.80
_NO1UNO_ - All-In $5.75
BARACUDDA44 - returned ($0.05) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BARACUDDA44 - Shows [7c Ad] (Two Pair, fives and twos)
_NO1UNO_ - Shows [9s 7s] (Two Pair, nines and fives)
_NO1UNO_ Collects $13.30 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($14) | Rake ($0.70)
Board [2d 2c 5d 5s 9c]
Seat 3: ADDFUNDS Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: BARACUDDA44 (dealer) HI:lost with Two Pair, fives and twos [7c Ad - B:5s,B:5d,B:2d,B:2c,P:Ad]
Seat 6: CANTBBEAT007 (small blind) Folded on the FLOP
Seat 7: _NO1UNO_ (big blind) won Total ($13.30) All-In HI:($13.30) with Two Pair, nines and fives [9s 7s - P:9s,B:9c,B:5s,B:5d,P:7s]
Seat 9: GENEOX Folded on the POCKET CARDS

Baracudda was just abused over and over on this table. It was funny when he left everyone had some comments about his play.

Infact here is another hand I was involved in with him the previous hand helped me make the call.

STAGE #321947557: HOLDEM NO LIMIT $0.05 - 2006-03-21 23:15:33 (ET)
Table: PARROT PL (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 6 - CANTBBEAT007 ($1.70 in chips)
Seat 7 - _NO1UNO_ ($8.30 in chips)
Seat 9 - GENEOX ($3.80 in chips)
Seat 2 - SPAZTICOLON ($3.45 in chips)
Seat 3 - ADDFUNDS ($12.85 in chips)
Seat 4 - BARACUDDA44 ($4 in chips)
_NO1UNO_ - Posts small blind $0.05
GENEOX - Posts big blind $0.10
BARACUDDA44 - Posts dead $0.15 dead $0.05
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to _NO1UNO_ [6c 6s]
SPAZTICOLON - Folds
ADDFUNDS - Folds
BARACUDDA44 - Checks
CANTBBEAT007 - Folds
_NO1UNO_ - Calls $0.05
GENEOX - Checks
*** FLOP *** [6d 7c 5s]
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $0.40
GENEOX - Folds
BARACUDDA44 - Calls $0.40
*** TURN *** [6d 7c 5s] [9c]
_NO1UNO_ - Bets $0.80
BARACUDDA44 - All-In(Raise) $3.45 to $3.45
_NO1UNO_ - Calls $2.65
*** RIVER *** [6d 7c 5s 9c] [2h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BARACUDDA44 - Shows [6h 4h] (One pair, sixes)
_NO1UNO_ - Shows [6c 6s] (Three of a kind, sixes)
_NO1UNO_ Collects $7.65 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($8.05) | Rake ($0.40)
Board [6d 7c 5s 9c 2h]
Seat 2: SPAZTICOLON Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 3: ADDFUNDS Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: BARACUDDA44 HI:lost with One pair, sixes [6h 4h - P:6h,B:6d,B:9c,B:7c,B:5s]
Seat 6: CANTBBEAT007 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: _NO1UNO_ (small blind) won Total ($7.65) HI:($7.65) with Three of a kind, sixes [6c 6s - P:6s,B:6d,P:6c,B:9c,B:7c]
Seat 9: GENEOX (big blind) Folded on the FLOP

So now I am working on getting some $ withdrawn and deposited for the BPT Events. I also set up a calendar of my upcoming MTT's so that I dont miss any. Several freerolls are coming up, the best part is they have small fields and big payouts. I normally dont play freerolls, but the ones coming up have alot of proift potential.

Anyway I need to wrap it up.

March 21st bankroll
starting: $123.50
ending: $129.83
gain/loss : $6.33 (5.1%)

Now boarding the pokercoaster...

So poker is really a roller coaster, your up, your down, you are anticiapting that next hill, but can never prepare for it. As you climb higher you know its only a matter of time until you get the shit thrilled out of you. Just something I've been thinking about. I love rollercoasters, and poker so I have just thought about how similare they are.

Anyway, I didnt have a necessarily good or bad day today. I didnt play an awful lot. In fact I probably read and caught up on more game theory today than anything. I left work early today to deal with an emergency at home, that involved my plumbing backing up. Terrible, terrible shit. I have never been a plumber and hate dealing with that stuff. I worked several years as a carpenter and could butcher wood all day, but unclogging plugged drains isnt my thing.

I sat around for about an hour hoping it would unclog itself, or at least drain some before I dealt with it. During that time I played $1 6man STT and a $5 HU on UB. I took down the HU pretty quick, and ended up taking second in the STT b/c I was getting impatient, and figured I needed to end it soon. I put in my chips with a openend straight draw, and it was over when I didnt improve.

So after resolving my issue, and eating dinner, I read some more poker theory on some of the sites I frequent. I also initiated a $61 withdrawl from UB. While reading, I decided that in the future I am going to try to post more game theory on my blog, more so to help my own understanding and reemphasize the things that I learn. I am also going to try to nail down 1 oe 2 friends to discuss poker with once or twice a week. I have a couple of guys who I think might work out. They play considerably bigger limits than I currently do, but I think they respect my game, and are interested in talking poker. Of course they may already be hooked up with freinds to talk poker with. I on the other hand dont have any freinds who think about poker as deep as I do, nor as seriously. The guys I do know, pretty much ask me questions but never provide much substance to the discussions. I dont mind talking about poker or teaching these guys, but it just doesnt help me improve my game which is what I am really looking for. I really need someone who is on the same level, or a little below or above, wherewe would both benefit from the discussion.

So I was pretty surprised to see UB processed my cashout request within an hour. Actually I was shocked and thought the email was going to say my cashout was declined. The wording in their email was abit off, but after checking my neteller account my cashout was there.

So I deposited my $61 into Absolute, with the intention of playing the BPT and cashing out $50. I decided to open up 2 AP tables and play them while I played 2 UB tables to see how they compared. The players at AP are weak, and inexperienced IMHO. With the exception of the occassional allin bet by my opponents I picked up 90% of the hands I got involved in. I am finding myself reading other players well these days, and feel like my game is definetly improving daily. I ended up playing mayber 30-45 mins on both sites, I registered for the BPT and still have $2.3 more than I had deposited. I am going to go ahead and withdrawl my funds back to neteller, and get set up on the other sites coming up in the next 2 weeks, but will probably throw some more change back onto AP when they show another bonus. AP has bonuses about 3 times a week, so it probably wont be long. I also get rakeback on AP, so its a +EV move.

Speaking of rakeback, if any of you have signed up for rakeback through my rakrebate link Please let me know. I had one friend whom I knew signed up but I didnt get credit for it. If you signed up and email me at scaryjerry at gmail (dot) com and I get credit I will send you $10 on UB, FTP, or Stars. You need to have $300 MGR for me to get credit. And if I have had people sign up and I'm not getting credit I will probably pull the links. I am a little frustrated by it right now, but its not really worth it to mess with it too much, maybe I will move to another affiliate if I am not getting my referral credits.

If you would like to get set up with rakeback on fulltilt, send me an email, and I will give you a special link through pokerfox.net, if you arent interested in rakeback and would like to play with the pros, sign up through my link on the right.

So today is the first day of spring and we are being forcasted for 6-8 inches of snow! WTF! this isnt minnesota! it was in the 70's this week. I guess there is an increased chance that I will have some poker sessions tommorrow.

Well I think I have ran on long enough, I actually was only going to write a short entry but its turned kinda long. I still wanted to follow-up on some poker articles I was reading earlier before I go to bed.

March 20th bankroll:
starting bankroll:$120.15
ending bankroll: $123.50 (63.3AP, 60.20UB, excluding AP BPT)
gain/loss : $3.35 (2.8%)

There's Something about UB

Cash games... at least the mico NL cash games.

I seem to do exceptionally well compared to other sites at similar levels. I am glad I moved my change purse back to UB, maybe oneday I will move out big racks of chips.

Anyway I played a couple 20-30 min sessions today and grinded out a small profit.

A couple more winning sessions at the $0.10NL tables will pay for my upcoming BPT entries. Unfortunately I am still trying to come up with a plan to move my $ around so that I dont have any stray accounts with $9 in them. The first tournament is on thursday night at Absolute. I think I am just going to deposit $61 use $11 for the tournament and still have $50 available to withdrawl.

March 19th bankroll
starting bankroll - $89.43
ending bankroll - $120.15
gain/loss : $30.72 (34.4%)

The Good, The bad, & the ugly

Well not much is good, except I received some rakeback from rakerebate.net in my UB account. This was a whopping $32 but not bad considering I was only playing $0.01/$0.02 and $0.05/$0.1 NL and this was for the month of Februrary.

The bad is I played some MTT's yesterday. The Bluff Poker Tour is starting up, and I would like to get in a little bit of practice time.

An for the ugly I couldnt place in any of the MTT's. I played 1 $11, and 2 or 3 $5.50's. Setting trapsand getting sucked out on was the theme for the evening.

such as was the case in this hand

Seat 1: deneiro973 (830)
Seat 2: Twinsboy_34 (1,455)
Seat 3: Ship It 2 me (1,755)
Seat 4: FancyFella (989)
Seat 5: ephsx (1,345)
Seat 6: jed5k (1,255)
Seat 7: InYourHead (1,430)
Seat 8: CrotchSniffer (2,313)
Seat 9: seminoleace (3,273)
InYourHead posts the small blind of 25
CrotchSniffer posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to InYourHead [As Ac]
seminoleace folds
deneiro973 folds
Twinsboy_34 folds
Ship It 2 me calls 50
FancyFella folds
ephsx calls 50
jed5k folds
InYourHead raises to 250
CrotchSniffer folds
Ship It 2 me calls 200
ephsx calls 200
*** FLOP *** [8d 9h Js]
InYourHead bets 600
Ship It 2 me raises to 1,505, and is all in
ephsx folds
InYourHead calls 580, and is all in
Ship It 2 me shows [9d Kc]
InYourHead shows [As Ac]
Uncalled bet of 325 returned to Ship It 2 me
Ship It 2 me: nh
*** TURN *** [8d 9h Js] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [8d 9h Js 9c] [Kd]
Ship It 2 me shows a full house, Nines full of Kings
InYourHead shows two pair, Aces and Nines
Ship It 2 me wins the pot (3,160) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
CrotchSniffer: vn
InYourHead stands up
Emory sits down
Emory adds 3,635
The blinds are now 30/60
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,160 | Rake 0
Board: [8d 9h Js 9c Kd]
Seat 1: deneiro973 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Twinsboy_34 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Ship It 2 me showed [9d Kc] and won (3,160) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
Seat 4: FancyFella didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: ephsx folded on the Flop
Seat 6: jed5k (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: InYourHead (small blind) showed [As Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Nines
Seat 8: CrotchSniffer (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: seminoleace didn't bet (folded)

And now I sit with a crippled bankroll. I am glad that I did limit myself to only playing micro MTT's even though the play is so bad. Its going to be typical of what I face in the BPT.

I transfered my $ out of FTP, and moved it back to UB. The bonus $ clears faster at UB, and doesnt come out of rakeback. I also have more statistics on my competitors at UB.

I signed up at 2 sites that I didnt have accounts at and will need rakeback for. I could only find rakeback at Sun Poker so I signed up through the Bluff link for VIP Poker. If you are going to play the BPT and need rakeback for SUN go thru my link on the right for rakerebate.net. Thanks!

Someone asked me about the discussion thread on 2+2 regarding chris ferguson Here is the link. Although I think some of the posters are way off base in the way they think chris approached it.

March 19
starting bankroll - $89.07
ending bankroll - $89.43
gain/loss : $0.36 (0.004%)

They all cant be winners

Well I decided to play somemore last night after my blog entry, in fact I stayed up kinda late playing. I havent played much lately anyway and wanted to get in a good session.

My session was good in terms of length, but not good in terms of results. I played Pot Limit Omaha 8b to switch up my game a little. I am a complete donk when it comes to Omaha 8b, I got quartered so many times, I was not excited about it. I ended up donating about $30 to the various tables I was playing. I guess thats why I hear that PLO8 is a soft game, b/c of players like me who shouldnt be playing. I probably wont play i again until I read up on the SSII chapter. I do know a little strategy, but just barely enough to keep myself interested.

I did play some this morning, just finishing up a 30 min session or so 5 tabling. I think I am going to make that my standard session. It just about the right length, and I can fair pretty well. I did squeak out a small gain, but not enough to offset my losses playing Omaha.

I am going through MTT withdrawl. I really want to get into a tournament, but am going to limit myself to freerolls, and such. Although I wouldnt mind playing a $1-$5 MTT, there arent any on the sites I am playing right now.

My bankroll after my combined sessions stands:

March 18th

starting bankroll : $114.02
ending bankroll: $89.07
gain/loss : -$24.95 (21.9%)

Moving foward

Well, I made some changes to my blog today. I added images for most of the links shown on the right hand side. And adde a couple new links. I placed links for Poker media that I have foun online. This media consists mainly of poker podcasts, I actually have some other medida links that I plan on adding soon too, but havent got around to it.

I have links to upcoming blogger poker events too. 2 items of interest are the $25k blogger freeroll sponseredd by pokersourceonline, and hosted by absolute poker, an the blogger poker tour hostedd by poker.com. I encourage everyone to check them out.

I am still medicated and not of soundd mind. In fact my typing skills are struggling right now as I try to prepare this entry. Thus, I ddidnt play much tonight. I played 2 freeroll tournaments and hit blanks in both.

I spent some time this afternoon talking to an online poker friend about bankroll management, and developing into a successful poker player. I was encouraged to find out that I am not the only one who has had to go through the growing pains of learning to manage a bankroll.

He pointed me to some resources that I may add in the next couple days, but for now I am going to focus on a couple other things.

The bluff poker tour is finally starting back up. I have been waiting on this since January and am looking foward to participating and hopefully taking down the season. I am very psyched about the prospects, and looking foward to starting next week. Unfortunately my bankroll is not quite as prepared, and I am going to have to buckle down and bring it up in a quick fashion. These will be the only MTT's I play besides freerolls, until I get my bankroll up to a healthy level.

I played a couple hands on Fulltilt tonight also, basically just trying to get a feel for the players there. I hadnt played any NL cash games there before this week. I had played 6 max limit holdem 1/2-5/10 up until January, and $33 sitngoes. I hadnt really been playing at FTP much lately though because they deduct bonuses from MGR when calculating rakeback. I'm not sure how long I will play FTP, but for the tiem being it is adequate enough to meet my requirements, which are rakeback and bonus driven.

I also signed up at another site and recieved $10 free, I will be posting a link within the next week, if anyone needs a free $10 to play with. I took my $10 and played %0.05/$0.1 6 max limit, so far I have it up to $14. Limit can be a profitable game, provided I can maintain focus. Focus is a little difficult for me right now though because of my pain meds.

Today is St Patricks day, and I cant even have a nice Guiness :-( from what I understand it would kill off my antibiotics. A serious bummer.

I have been getting a little more traffic on my blog, if anyone wants to do a link exchange leave me a comment and I will get back to you. I am more than happy to direct traffic to others websites.

I also emailed, or attempted to email, Chris Fergusen about his bankroll management podcast on FTP. I directed him to a discussion thread on 2+2 hopefully he will reply on that thread and provide a little insight into how he accomplished his $1 to $25k feat.

Well like I said I am having a hard time focusing, so I am going to wrap it up. I did grind out a small profit today, but am not going to include the free $10 account b/c I have not cleared the withdrawl requirements, so right now it is about as usefull as play $ chips.

March 16th
starting bankroll : $100.22
ending bankroll : $114.02
gain/loss : $13.80 (13.8%)

Still feeling the effects of the high

I withdrew my bankroll from UB yesterday with intention of redepositing and taking advantage of the 100% redposit bonus. Well my withdrawl cleared and I couldnt get a desposit to go thru. So I decided to transfer my funds over to Fulltilt and work on that bonus for a little while.

I didnt play much tonight b/c I have been taking the pain killers for my mouth, but wanted to get refamiliarized with the FTP software and rake/bonuses setup. I had them unlock 8 tables for me too instead of the standard 4. I probably wont play on FTP long, but figured it wouldnt hurt while UB is ironing out their issues.

I am feeling more confident in my abilty to manage my bankroll and it makes it easier to focus on my game when I have such a small amount of my br on the table.

I played some FPP games on stars today, but nothing came of them, i blanked on 2 of them and placed on another, pretty much making it a wash.

I played 128 hands on FTP $.05/$.1

March 16th
starting bankroll : $93.07 ($0.45 already in FTP account)
ending bankroll : $100.22
gain/loss : $7.15 (7.7%)

I play poker at Poker.com

Drugs are g000t

Until I break out into a cold sweat or pass out while playing. Both of which happened today. Well I didnt pass out but I felt myself headed that way so I logged off.

Today I had my 4 wisdom teeth pulled. Its the first time since I was a kid I have had any teeth pulled. They werent impacted so it wasnt a major procedure. One of the nurses asked me if I had ever had NOS before when she was putting the mask over my face. I told he not since college.

Not long after that they injected the knockout IV and I woke up and headed home.

I played for about 10 mins, and decided it would be best if I didnt donate all my $ while under the influence. I was still feeling the effects of the IV and NOS, and had taken some vicodens to help when the stuff they injected into my jaw wore off. I ended up passing out within the next 10 mins.

When I woke up I decided that I might play a little more, but I had forgoten that I had initiated a withdrawl so that I can redepoist and take advantage of the 100% redeposit bonus UB is offering thru next tuesday. I am down to only $9 in bonus $'s. It looks like I have inadvertantly but effectively restricted mysef from playing tonight, or tommorrow.

I had planned on taking some shots at the PP freerolls to WSOP, but an feeling bad and am going to bed. The cold sweets and dizeness are coming back along with some feelings of nausea

March 15th bankroll
start -$79.07
finish - $92.62
gain/loss - $13,55 (17%)

Computer woes

I started playing a couple tables tonight and my pokertracker crashed. I decided that I should probably restart my computer since I hadnt done so in a couple days. When shutting down pokertracker I was reminded that I needed to compact my database. I am not sure exactly how many hands I have in my database but it is a lot, and it ended up taking about an hour to compact. I decided to purge all my results prior to january first. Allin all this truned into a 2+ hour process.

I have to get up early to go to the dentist tommorrow to have my wisdom teeth pulled so I am going to call it a night.

Unfortunately, my ptracker is still purging and I cant access my stats. If I had to guess I probably played 100-150 hands tonight.

March 14
starting bankroll- $67.66
ending bankroll - $79.07
gain/loss - $11.41 (16.8%)

Short session

not much to post about. I only played 164 hands tonight. I have decided it is best to give up the 1¢/2¢ tables, Its just not +EV with the way I like to play. You wont see someone fold a hand when they only have 25¢ on the table.

After my entry I am going to take a shot at a 500 FPP sat on stars. Other than that here are my stats for the evening.

Biggest Loser
Hand #30285762-708 at Carlton (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 13/Mar/06 21:00:37

bstman1 is at seat 0 with $2.50.
rehder is at seat 1 with $4.15.
Tenny713 is at seat 2 with $5.95.
pokahplay3r is at seat 3 with $6.75.
Ski_and_Play is at seat 4 with $21.05 (sitting out).
sburne is at seat 5 with $1.80.
Sarahhh is at seat 6 with $12.65.
beeguy55 is at seat 7 with $10.70.
taylorchase is at seat 8 with $3.74.
pinhi is at seat 9 with $10.50.
The button is at seat 7.

taylorchase posts the small blind of $.05.
pinhi posts the big blind of $.10.

rehder: -- --
Tenny713: -- --
pokahplay3r: 8h 9h
sburne: -- --
Sarahhh: -- --
beeguy55: -- --
taylorchase: -- --
pinhi: -- --

Pre-flop:

rehder calls. Tenny713 folds. pokahplay3r raises to
$.40. sburne folds. Sarahhh folds. beeguy55
folds. taylorchase folds. pinhi folds. rehder
calls.

Flop (board: 2h Qs 3d):

rehder checks. pokahplay3r bets $.85. rehder calls.

Turn (board: 2h Qs 3d 6d):

rehder checks. pokahplay3r bets $.90. rehder calls.

River (board: 2h Qs 3d 6d 6s):

rehder checks. pokahplay3r bets $1.50. rehder
calls.

Showdown:

pokahplay3r shows 8h 9h.
pokahplay3r has 8h 9h Qs 6d 6s: a pair of sixes.
rehder shows Qd Ks.
rehder has Qd Ks Qs 6d 6s: two pair, queens and sixes.

Hand #30285762-708 Summary:

$.35 is raked from a pot of $7.45.
rehder wins $7.10 with two pair, queens and sixes.
----------------------------------------------------------------

Obviously I was overplaying my position and aggression in this hand. It didnt produce desireable results.

Fortunately I only had 2 other losing hands of more than $1 and the total of all my losses was less than $10 including blinds.

Biggest Winner

Hand #30285943-62 at Circleville (No Limit Hold'em)
Powered by UltimateBet
Started at 13/Mar/06 20:56:09

slickster 69 is at seat 0 with $18.15.
tedrhds is at seat 1 with $4.15.
BDaddy696 is at seat 2 with $10.65.
wheelz74 is at seat 3 with $4.15.
McShifty is at seat 4 with $9.30.
pokahplay3r is at seat 5 with $5.80.
steeler8976 is at seat 6 with $8.80.
rush69 is at seat 7 with $9.
waddy66 is at seat 8 with $5.15.
JingleBalls is at seat 9 with $2.30.
The button is at seat 7.

waddy66 posts the small blind of $.05.
JingleBalls posts the big blind of $.10.

slickster 69: -- --
tedrhds: -- --
BDaddy696: -- --
wheelz74: -- --
McShifty: -- --
pokahplay3r: 7d 6d
steeler8976: -- --
rush69: -- --
waddy66: -- --
JingleBalls: -- --

Pre-flop:

slickster 69 calls. tedrhds folds. BDaddy696 calls.
wheelz74 folds. McShifty calls. pokahplay3r
raises to $.50. steeler8976 folds. rush69 folds.
waddy66 folds. JingleBalls calls. slickster 69
folds. BDaddy696 calls. McShifty calls.

Flop (board: 4d Th 7h):

JingleBalls goes all-in for $1.80. BDaddy696 folds.
McShifty calls. pokahplay3r calls.

Turn (board: 4d Th 7h 2h):

McShifty bets $.10. pokahplay3r calls.

River (board: 4d Th 7h 2h 6s):

McShifty bets $.80. pokahplay3r goes all-in for
$3.40. McShifty calls.

Showdown:

pokahplay3r shows 7d 6d.
pokahplay3r has 7d 6d Th 7h 6s: two pair, sevens and sixes.
JingleBalls shows 7c Qc.
JingleBalls has 7c Qc Th 7h 6s: a pair of sevens.
McShifty mucks cards.
(McShifty has Td Jc.)

Hand #30285943-62 Summary:

$.70 is raked from a total pot of $14.55.
$.35 is raked from the main pot of $7.55.
$.35 is raked from side pot #1 of $7.
pokahplay3r wins the main pot $7.20 with two pair, sevens and sixes.
pokahplay3r wins the side pot $6.65 with two pair, sevens and sixes.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I am rather lucky this hand turned out good. I didnt think I was going to scoop after the flush card came. I was certain that MrShifty didnt have the flush, but thought the short stack may have been on the flush draw. Mr shifty had a total aggression of 1.75, and after I hit my second pair I was confident that I had the best hand.

All play 5¢/¢NL
Hands - 164
Starting bankroll - $44.26
Ending Bankroll - $67.66
gain/loss - $23.40 (52.8%)
wins- $17.17
bonus - $6.23
win rate - 52/100bb
VP$P - 15.24%
PFR - 10.37%
TA - 3.83
won when saw flop - 44.83%
went to showdown - 24.14%
won at show down - 71.43%

It was a short but not terrible session. I should have some rakeback in my account sometime this month if UB ever gets their affiliate system straightened out.

anyway just to make it easier for me to track

March 13
Starting bankroll - $44.26
Ending Bankroll - $67.66
gain/loss - $23.40 (52.8%)