its a post filled weekend

Just got back from a home game withsome friends that live in my neighborhood. It was more of a family gathering but we are pretty close with them. They had a little poker game going and asked me to join. Tiny buyin of $5 6 players winner take all.

It was honestly the fastest live game I have ever been in. first game I won in 5 hands. I actually offered last guy his buy in back I had 250 chips vs. his 45. He took it. First hand I hit 2 pair and a flush draw. Took out 1 player. Second hand I hit a set took out 2 players. Third hand I had TPTK and took out another player. Folded next hand. Next hand another set, game over.

Next game was over in 3 hands. First hand hit a flush took out 2 players. Second hand hit for another set took out another player. I folded next hand and onther player busted someone on a flus draw with his over paid. Next hand I had a straight draw (a ton of chips and a J), other player had a pair of 3's with a draw to a wheel. He moved in, I called and spiked a J on the river. Game over. I offered the other player an even chop since he had more chips than the first guy.

I gave my wife my profits she was too happy to accept. Interesting game for sure.

I hope I am never this successful

poor guy

crushed a sitngo

41 hands and I won :-) It was a turbo, and only at the $15 level.

I watched sheets take down a $500 stt last night on PXF, and decided to try to implement some of the aggression he used.

I doubled up early with KK vs AT, and had the leverage I needed.

I'm going to see about putting it in the PXF replayer and posting it.

I also calculated my ROI since I started playing on stars again. I think I may have missed some #'s though since I put in a bunch of them manually just by going through emails. I am going to ask stars for a July summary on tuesday.

My 3rd place win helped erase alot of my MTT deficit. I was in for $236 in buyins, $54 in add ons, and $23.30 in rake. for a total of $313.30 My cashes totaled $454.66. for a total profit of $141.36. I guess my ROI would be 45.1%. I played a total of 20 MTT's 3 being freerolls (FPP), and the avg buyin of the others being $17 when factoring in rebuys.

I played 22 STT's. 9 were turbos, 1 was a PLO8 turbo, and at least 1 6 man. I think I am missing some STT stats though. #1 I recall playing more than 1 6 man, and #2 my startring bankroll vs my current bankroll doesnt match the profit I am showing. I have little more $ than I am showing in my stats.

My total STT buyins was $267 with $22 in rake. My total cashes was $483.30. For a profit of $194.30 or a ROI of 67.2%. I know my sample size is small, but I'll take it. I have been playing great. and cashed in 12 of the 22 STT's. taking 5 firsts, 4 seconds, and 3 thirds. I did bubble in 2 of them too, which is dissapointing.

After I verify my stats with stars I am going ot post them. I am just happy that I am well above my previous bankroll goal.

made it deep in a big field

feels good to navigate a donkey field :-p I played a $11 MTT, 1350 ppl. I got sucked out on early and crippled. I managed to pull out my nija mask and make a solid come back.

I finished 68. not a final table, but I think I did well given the circumstances. Never had a big stack, usually around avg.

only bummer is I played for 3 hours for $15.26 profit.

o well its all good.

a word of caution, dont request your tournament results for a group of tournaments if you have recently played the moneymaker freeroll. 10k ppl, and they sent me the whole list!

first final table in a while

dissapointed to only take 3rd. I should have taken second at least and had a real shot at first. A couple of races with the short stack changed my momemtum, and took away my chip lead. The big stack slowplayed a set of ducks and got a grip on a lot of my chips.

Anyway its still a nice boost to my bankroll, and cant complain. I guess I should mention this was a $20 20 table sitngo. My best finish in this set of tournaments yet.

My wife is gone for the evening so I will probably play a couple more tournaments, at the very lest some more STT's. My bankroll is adequate to move up now, but I think I will wait a little bit longer.

I did get my STT/MTT history from stars and after I tabulate the play I put in today I am going to keep track of it in the side bar.

hitting a positive ROI

I think my sitngo game has come a long way in the past 6-8 months. during the winter I could win pretty consistantly, but went on a bad run playing $55's. I decided I wanted to switch my game up, and joined cardrunners and started working on my NL cash game.

I think learning a selectively LAG style of play in the short handed NL cash games helped expand my SnG skills. watching MTT & STT videos has helped my game also. I think understanding how other players approach the game helped open my own thinking. I dont think there is a perfect way to play, but there are several successfull approaches.

I have been playing some 10 man turbos, and 6 man Sng's. I'm trying to work on my inflection point play, and heads up play. In the 10 mans I am having success cashing but hitting a lot more 3rds and 2nds than first. I really want to be able to close more frequently.

I am seeing my bankroll grow too through my sitngo play. This is very important right now. Fortunately I am still going to meet my previous goal unless I go on some rediculous cold streak.

I have been taking some shots at the micro level MTT's, $11 and under and $3r & $5r's. No success but I'm not playing in a MTT unless I take down a first. Kind of a way to reward myself and take shots.

I think I'm going to be playing on stars for a while, and am going to request my MTT/STT history for the last couple weeks and keep track of my ROI. I havent been very good about keeping track of this.

I havent been using my pokertracker/pahud. I think it could actually be detrimental to my STT/MTT play. given the different dynamics involved in play, and the way in which the play changes throughout different levels I think it could present information about my opponents that could be easily misinterpretted.

So if any of you know of solid software to track MTT/STT ROI please let me know. I knwo there is some on 2p2 but dont want to try them all if someone can recommend a solid one.

I'll post my results when stars send them to me.

good luck!

Super donkey steaming bubble tilt

havent posted in a while, mainly b/c i have played like shit... well not too bad but not profitably.

really sucked. I bubbled MTT after MTT. Usually getting my hand in with best hand. bubbling sucks, bubbling with good chips sucks worse, and bubbling with the best hand good chips and after 3 hours sucks the most, and steaming off a buyin at a cash game after you bust is the nutz.

Since I played the WSOP 100 seat guarantee I was bit with the tournament but with the high variance associated in MTT's I decided I should work on building my bankroll a little and play some STT's in order to get in the tournament frame of mind.

The skill sets in cash games vs MTTs/STTs are so different I felt like I should get back to STT's.

I'm doing alright in them, making sure my #1 goal is to cash, if you dont cash you dont show a profit. I dont play "scared" though, my bankroll is healthy enough that I have ~40 buyins to the $11's (what I'm playing). Once I am up to ~60 buyins I plan on hitting some more of the low level rebuy guaranteed MTT's and maybe some stud/O8 MTT's.

so thats where I have been. I am currently playing on stars just b/c I feel the competition in STT's is so low compared to FTP/UB. I played a STT the other day and we were 4 handed by the 30/60 level. Incedible!

Still no baby, but its getting close!

Good Luck to my buddy Eric at the WSOP, who starts sunday, and has had some good scores in live vegas MTT's the last couple of weeks.

a new experience

I played aton this weekend, but pretty much ground at even. i hit some bad spots and recouped losses. Fortunately I played on my rakeback account and think I picked up at least one buyin with my play. I'll have to check my stats tommorrow.

Tonight a friend it me up on IM and asked if I was playing tonight. I told him I ws in fact currently playing. I inquired if he was playing in the Full Tilt 100 seat WSOP guarnatee satellite. This tournament is right up his alley and bankroll. He said he couldnt b/c of some family obligations and asked if I wanted to play on his account. I was a little stunned. While I have known this guy online for about a year, and we have played together, done funds transfers, and a couple of other trust requiring deals, I was kind of surprised he offered to stake me in a $500 tournament.

Anyway we worked out the details of the arrangement and I registered to play about an hour before the tourney. The tournament drew in 3050 entrants and paid out 127 12k packages. My friend had already won a seat on FTP so he would collect cash if I won. He told me that he thought the field would be weak, and boy he was right.

I was a little shocked at some of the bad play I witnessed. Perry Friendman was at my table and involved in a hand where the other guy managed to suck out. kind of a funny exchange.
Full Tilt Poker Game #804377130: WSOP 100 Seat Guarantee (4341470), Table 150 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:49:16 ET - 2006/07/16
Seat 1: Perry Friedman (3,470)
Seat 2: xxxxxx (3,525)
Seat 3: xxxxxx (3,960)
Seat 4: xxxxxx (1,615)
Seat 5: xxxxxx (2,770)
Seat 6: RakinEmIn (2,540)
Seat 7: xxxxxx (4,130)
Seat 8: xxxxxx (1,125)
Seat 9: xxxxxx (3,865)
Perry Friedman posts the small blind of 40
xxxxxx posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to xxxxxx [Jh 3d]
xxxxxx folds
xxxxxx folds
xxxxxx folds
RakinEmIn calls 80
xxxxxx folds
xxxxxx folds
xxxxxx folds
Perry Friedman calls 40
xxxxxx checks
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3c Kc]
Perry Friedman bets 90
xxxxxx folds
RakinEmIn raises to 510
Perry Friedman calls 420
*** TURN *** [Ts 3c Kc] [6c]
Perry Friedman checks
RakinEmIn checks
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3c Kc 6c] [Td]
Perry Friedman bets 770
RakinEmIn raises to 1,950, and is all in
Perry Friedman calls 1,180
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RakinEmIn shows [Th Ks] (a full house, Tens full of Kings)
Perry Friedman shows [Ac 5c] (a flush, Ace high)
RakinEmIn wins the pot (5,160) with a full house, Tens full of Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,160 | Rake 0
Board: [Ts 3c Kc 6c Td]
Seat 1: Perry Friedman (small blind) showed [Ac 5c] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 6: RakinEmIn showed [Th Ks] and won (5,160) with a full house, Tens full of Kings

Perry Friedman: nh
RakinEmIn: ty
Perry Friedman: My slow play on the turn cost me
Perry Friedman: Although I am not sure I like playing KT off from middle position :-)
RakinEmIn: was cheap
Dean (Architect): Do my eyes deceive me or is the low stack handing out poker advice?
Perry Friedman: yeah, but you end up putting yourself in a lot of awkward situations
kingweazel (Observer): lol dean
RakinEmIn: thats poker Perry
Perry Friedman: Other than flopping broadway.. what are you hoping for?
RakinEmIn: taking ur chips
Perry Friedman: If you hit your K or T, you can't be too confident
RakinEmIn: short stacked, how can I not take those risks, especially when the playing field is so large?

rakinemin didnt last through the first hour, probably too many risks.

I on the other hand probably played a little too conservatively, combined with being card dead and folding a couple of pocket pairs when the board came all overs I only made it through to about the second hour. I ended up busting about 900 of the 3050.

It was dissapointing, If I would have placed I would have been well into my 10k goal. It was fun though and an oppurtunity I wasnt expecting to have today. i am a little optomistic that my friend will stake me in some more tourney's later. He states that he feels it is +EV given all the times we have railed each other and discussed poker strategy. I'm not the kind of person to ask for something like that though, so we will see. If not I'll still be playing at that level on my own in the future.

Back to perry, I dont really know much about the guy but he is kinda funny at the poker table. I feel for the pro's at FTP. I know its there job to be approachable, but If it were me I'd have to tell ppl to fuck off. So many ppl were hounding him, asking him for autographed pics, and other crap. Like to play the play chip freeroll and just all around dumb stuff. He was very amicable and wit hteh exception of the jackasses he ignored always responded politely.

It was kinda funny though some ppl were complaining about the software running slow and he quiped "Perry Friedman: You should be fine on the rest of the site if you close the tourney". pretty sharp remark.

well i hope your weekedn was good thanks for reading!

im back

i am still alive.

With the exception of the heat I am finally feeling better. Its been a rough month.

I will be welcoming a new child in the next couple of weeks. So my play time will be next to nonexistant.

I have a small goal lined up between now and then. I would like my bankroll to be 20 buyins at the level I am playing. I will call this level 5. In the future I am going to refer to my playing levels by a numeric value, rather than actual limits. Currently I only have 14 buyins at level 5. But feel that I can beat this level and am willing to take the risk. I have decided that if I dont meet my goal, I am going to take 45 days off from poker, and then deposit the difference and resume my play.

I have a longer term goal in mind. I would like to achieve a 10k bankroll by the end of the year (possibly taking up to the end of february, depending on how my playing time is retarded by life responsibilities). I havent dont much number crunching since I have been incapacitated, and dont know how much I will be playing. I think this goal is attainable though.

I want to be bankrolled to play the MTT's that I love and not worry about playing for broke. I also would like to be able to take real shots at the WSOP next year, and to be properly bankrolled to hit the live 2/5 game at the semi-local casino.

So that is my aspiration for the upcoming months. I am going to set small milestones in order to get to that level. I am going to refer to that as level 10 (or X). Basically I need to progress from level V to level X over the next 6-8 months. Hopefully I am able to achieve this by following bankroll discipline.

Chris Ferguson was recently interviewed on The Circuit, and they presented a question to him about turning $1 into 20k. I am glad they did, I almost called in a similar question myself but felt terrible and didnt want to sound like an idiot b/c I was doped up on pain meds. Its definetly worth a listen.

Well thats all for now.

not been around

I have been sick, likely a reaction to some new medication. I have played very little poker.

I did play some backgammon at party gammon last night. I think i'll stick with poker.

I have a lot of things going on this weekend so I doubt I will be playing much.

Since we are half way through the year I plan on setting outsome goals to accomplish before years end within the next few days. Of course we are expecting another child next month so that is going to have a huge impact on my free time.

I'll give it some more thought and post later this weekend.

a little whoring never hurts

Poker Savy is offering a pretty sweet deal. If you sign up for mansion poker and deposit and wager at least $50 they will send you $90 via neteller for your savy points.

Pokersavy is similar to PSO, I have done other promotions through them and they are legit.

The $50 wagering requirement can be met by playing a couple of STT's, MTT's, or ring games, as well as the sportsbook and casino.

It only takes 10 mins and you get an instant return. Additionally the poker room offers a 50% first time bonus. I must admit that the traffic is weak. I already met the pokersavy requirement and am probably going to take a shot at the pokerdome qualifiers.

here is the email I got from poker savy, I think you would need to act fast. I got he email about a week ago. I emailed them last night and they said the offer was still valid.

Hey all,

We wanted to let you know about a huge promo we’re running right now at PokerSavvy. When you sign up with MANSION Poker, deposit $50 and wager just $50 anywhere on their site – poker room, casino or sportsbook – you’ll get 900 SavvyPoints. To give you an idea of how much that is, 900 SavvyPoints are good for an iPod shuffle. Or $90 in gift certificates. And, if you take advantage of this offer in the next week, we’ll even allow you to convert your SavvyPoints into $90 cash via Neteller or PayPal. So you’ll get $90 for what amounts to literally 10 minutes of effort.

so use this Poker Savy link and sign upif you'd like to pick up a couple extra $'s.

dissapointing

made it to final table with second biggest chip stack. went out 9th...

won an 4gb ipod nano, but its not much consolation.

gg me

embarrassing

so yesterday I was playing a little, and found a guy sitting alone. I decided to play some hu nl. I wasnt very lucky and ended up dumping 4 buyins to this guy before the table filled up. It was a 10max table so I didnt really feel like sticking around.

I had a friend come over last night and we sat and shot the shit and drank some beer. I had already been registered to play in a MTT so I asked him if he'd mind if i went ahead and played. It was the BPT final event.

I was running well and catching a ton of hands. In the second hand I flopped the nut straight and pretty much doubled my stack. I had great momentum. I had a couple players at the table gunning for me b/c of my aggressive play. I ended up in second place with 20k in chips, 1st had 21k. third had ~4k. there were about 19 players left and the top 10 payed.

When the tabels were merged i was seated before the CL. I told my friend that I didnt need to get involved in any hands with him, b/c the rest of the table was so short, and I could easily coast to the final 5 or so.

So what did I do? I got involved withthe chip leader several of the next hands and ended up giving him all my chips within 10-15 mins. I also went out 12th place. IT was rather embarrassing.

My friend asked if he could play some and I obliged. I set him up on a $10nl 6 max on UB. I gave him a couple of pointers and answered questions when he had them on how he should play a hand.

HE acutally made about 2 buyins during his 150 hands or so. HE picked up a little knowledge too. Pretty cool IMHO, being able to teach someone how to play. I wish someone was around to teach me when I first started playing.

Today I am playing the BPT event for a ME package. The structure looks good 5k in starting chips, ~40 ppl playing (so it looks now). I'm pretty psyched and hope to take it down.

I'll update later.