Mixing it Up

The last few days I have been playing on all kinds of different sites from fulltilt to party poker to stars to poker mountain. I have been switching games up as well, limit, nl, omaha, ring, SnG, etc. I played 2 9 player $10+$1 SnGs yesterday and won them both so that helped the bankroll a little bit; lost a bit in some cash games.

Current BR - $255.00

Easter Weekend

Well this Easter Weekend was pretty much a break from Poker. My wife was off work this weekend which so we had a great family weekend. On Friday night we had our regular Friday night softball practice. My daughter is doing fantastic and it looks like she is going to be the starting pitcher for our team. Its kinda hard being the dad and the head coach because you try not to show favortism. I took a hard look at all of my girls and I believe my daughter has the strongest pitching ability (probably because we practice together more then the other girls do outside of practice).

We got up Saturday and had our Saturday morning practice. Being the Easter Holiday we only had 8 out of 12 girls show up so it made it kinda difficult to have a regular practice so we just had a lot of fun and worked on stealing bases, batting, and bunting.

On Sunday we got up and did the Easter basket thing and had a fun Easter Egg hunt for the kids. We then loaded up and headed to the local theater to watch a movie called "The Pacifier". I had preconceived ideas of Vin Diesel in a kids movie, but it actually turned out to be pretty decent.

We got home and my got the kids ready for bed, my wife settled in front of her Sunday night lineup including Desperate Housewifes and some other 'girly shows'. I finally caught up on E3 and E4 of the World Poker Tour. I managed to play about an hour before bed on Sunday and had a pretty good session, up $40.

Current BR - $210.00

Break from Poker? Inconceivable!

I managed to get my BR back down to $175, nice.

I think I may actually be starting to get bored with poker and may take a few days off. Its a beautiful 72 degree Sunny Day outside. I coach my daughters softball team and we have practice tonight. Maybe we'll take in a movie or something this weekend too, who knows! I wanna see that new Ashton Krutcher and Bernie Mac movie, looks hilarious!

Its Good Friday so I'm gonna make it so!

Ho Hum

Finished 29th of 54 in the Negreanu Open. I got my money in with the best hand and got drawn out on the river Had 99 versus A5 and straight draw. the 6 brought the straight on the river and I went home

BR - $214

Grined some limit for $15 profit

BR back to $230

Experiment Gone Very Bad

OK so I had this 'fun' little idea that I would take my $100 bonus and use it as an experiment to sit at a $2/$4 table. I would sit with the $100 for 1 session and if I lost it all I would consider it 'free' money, but the goal was to add some loot to my bankroll. I guess my first mistake was I picked a 6 handed table instead of a full table. Well long story short...... $0 left of the $100 when I was done. I'm not going to go into the bad beat stories and outdraws, etc. I did get outplayed several hands, but several ridiculous calling stations drew out on river on a few hands too. In hind sight this was a stupid thing to do, oh well.

Bankroll back to $225

5 hours - 700 raked hands - $100 bonus

I deposted $500 to partypoker today for the 20% bonus ($235 from my BR) and $265 from pocket) - I 4 tabled $0.50/$1.00 tables for 5 hours and raked my required 700 hands. One huge power session. At my low point I was down $23 and at my high point I was up $42. At the end point of my 700 raked hands I was down $2 so after my $100 bonus I netted $98, a very good day for $0.50 poker!

I am taking the $265 back out of my BR. i plan on pulling my money from partypoker again and going back to work on my fulltilt bonus as crappy as it is.

Current BR -$330

Playing the Bonus Game

So I am at $35 cleared on my fulltilt bonus, $20 of it has been released already. Party Poker has another 20% reload bonus so pulled my money from fulltilt and some from pokerstars and will make a $500 deposit into partypoker once the money reaches my firepay account which will qualify me for a $100 bonus on partypoker after 700 raked hands.

My BR right now after I take out all the money i am using to get bonuses is $235.

Grinding out a Break Even Day

4 tabled at fulltilt for 3 hours. Was down $51 at my worst point, came back and ended up down $3, but got $10 closer to my first $20 bonus, sitting at $14 of my first $20 release.

Current BR - $220

Giving Fulltilt Poker A Try

I grinded out 4 tables on Pokerstars for about 90 minutes and made $13 so got my Pokerstars up to $220.

I withdrew my money from Pokerstars and combined it with another $170 (from my pocket) and made a $390 deposit into Fulltilt poker. I just signed up for this site, they have a $100 matching bonus. I know I know I should have learned my lesson with poker mountain!

I have to say this is one of the hardest bonuses to clear I think I have ever seen. I have a $390 pending bonus. There was only 3 full $0.50/$1.00 games going so thats all I could play at one time. I played for 3 full hours and made $3.50 lol. When it went to see how much of my bonus I cleared, it said $3.92!!!!! OMG! This is gonna take a long time! I am 1/100th of the way there and I just spent 3 hours 3 tabling. At this rate I am looking at 300 hours of 3 tabling to clear the full $390. Crazy!

They release the bonus in $20 increments. I am not counting the $170 I added in my bankroll because I am going to take it back out. I like to keep a few hundred dollars floating in firepay so I can take advantage of reload bonuses and things.

Current BR - $223.50

Sklansky Autographed "Theory of Poker"

Just received my copy of David Sklansky's "Theory of Poker" book from Pokerstars FPP Store. Cost me 2000 frequent player points. I thought it was really cool that David not only autographed the book, he put a personalized message in it. It could possibly be the worst handwriting next to a doctor. It has my name then I believe it says "Beat Poker Stars!" --David Sklansky

I got about 1900 fpp's right now. Not sure if I am going to get another book or use them on WSOP satellite entries.

Just Some Poker

I played in the Negreanu Open last night, there was only 27 entrants this time. I busted out 12th place when I pushed preflop with 66 and got called by AJ. The flop came AAJ! DOH! Runner runner 6s please? Yea ofcourse not. -$11

I also loaned a fellow FCP member $11 to play in the tourny as well and that will be paid back this weekend.

Outside of that I won $20 grinding out some 4 table limit.

This hand was one that just made me laugh. Pay attention to the preflop activity. I reraise with my AA and this guy caps it. I guess I am happy he was all-in or I would have probably been really censored off!

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=43081

Here are the percentages after the flop that I would win this hand ....
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 7s 2c 5d
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Qs Th 15 1.52 975 98.48 0 0.00 0.015
Ac Ah 975 98.48 15 1.52 0 0.00 0.985

Well this goes to show that in poker even a 98.5% chance of winning is still not always good enough!

Current BR - $198

wow, a winning session

Crazy, so this is what it feels like to have a winning session!

4 tabled $0.50/$1.00 for about 3 hours( above my BR limit I know! ), made $30

Current BR - $200

World Series of Poker Freerolls

Just played a 1400 person 40 fpp freeroll to a WSOP qualifier. Finished 399th. I think I am going to try and play a few of these.

Grinding at Lower Limits

Well it sure is depressing to drop a limit and grind out the lower limits to get your bankroll back in line, but that is what I am doing. I four tabled on stars today and after an hour I found myself exactly even with where I started. Well I guess thats better then my recent direction of going negative.

My Bankroll is still at $170.

Inpatience and Had To Drop A Limit

Well this is very embarassing to write, but the point of this blog is to hold myself accountable for my play, actions, and outcomes. It doesnt do me any good to have one thing happen and then write another one to make me feel better or to make others think something happened that didnt.

I am not sure what the deal is, but my play on poker mountain has been horrible. I lost another $120 yesterday which has put my bankroll down to the lowest its been since the first few weeks of this blog which is around $170. I lost $50 playing $25 NL just because there wasnt any limit tables going, I am not sure why I did that.

I then lost another $70 playing $1/2 limit (again because there wasnt any other tables going). I think I felt like I needed to keep raking hands to get this $500 poker mountain bonus. During my play at limit since there is only 1 active table versus I am used to playing 4 and 5 I think my patience wore out on me. I am used to getting 'some kind of hand' every few minutes when playing that many tables. Playing 1 table sometimes you have 30 - 45 minute time periods with no cards and I found myself playing hands I shouldnt and becoming a calling station hoping to catch the inprobable outs. Again I know this is wrong, but writing to hold myself accountable.

I went ahead and pulled my money from Poker Mountain for now. I still have $460 pending bonus there and I am not sure if I am going to work for it or not now.

Since my BR is now at $170 (was at $400 like 2 days ago) I am going to have to drop a limit level back to $0.25/$0.50). Hopefully I can turn things around, because right now I am terribly frustrated with my play.

Current PM bankroll - $0
Current Partypoker bankroll - $0
Current Pokerstars bankroll - $170

Grinding at Poker Mountain & Tourny with TJ Cloutier

Well I got my other $400 in at Poker Mountain.

Didnt really do so well tonight. Played 1 $1/$2 table and 1 $0.50/$1 table. I lost $55 in about 3 hours. I did during that time see 220 raked hands so I got 2 $10 ($20 total) bonuses added back so my Net loss was $35.

I also played my free token for the $25 NL tourny - Road to the Bellagio. It was 10 seated and poker pro T.J. Cloutier was in the tourny. I busted out 20 mins in 8th place when my KK went against a calling station (against all proper odds) to hit a flush on the river.

When listing my BR from now on I am not going to count the $325 I added from out of pocket.

PokerStars - $125
Poker Mountain - $165
Current Total BR - $290 (not good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Fantastic Poker Mountain Support and Bonus

OK so I was so pissed at myself for missing out on a $400 bonus opportunity and with a suggestion from a few FCP members I emailed Poker Mountain Support just asking if I were to make another $400 deposit if they would qualify it for the bonus too. Amazingly enough I got an email back 5 minutes later explaining that the bonus is only for initial deposits, but they would make an exception in this particular case. SWEEET! Ok now how do I come up with $400 more dollars when my entire BR is only $325 and $125 of that is already in Poker Mountain! Since I just switched my funds back to Pokerstars last night they will not let you cash out for at least 48 hours. I am withdrawing my last $75 from Party Poker and going to add $325 from my pocket to make the deposit.

This is going to make my BR $325 more the what it really is, but I will be sure to take this back out after the bonus is cleared. I have a feeling its going to take a REALLY LONG time to clear all this bonus. They release it $10 at a time for every 100 rakes hands that rake at least $0.50. This means to release the full $500 I am going to have to rake 5000 hands. If there are only 1 or 2 tables going at any given time then could take awhile, lol. I usually average 60 hands per table per hour. 5 tabling this is 300 hands (and keep in mind not all of those get raked). I think its fair to say that 50/60 hands get raked so at that rate I will need to play approximately 100 table hours to clear this bonus. Of course I will keep it updated here, wish me luck!

Poker Mountain

Well I blew a big bonus opportunity and didnt even realize it. Poker Mountain has a 100% yes I said 100% matching bonus for your initial deposit up to $500 PLUS they give you a free entry $25 tournament entry into a "Road to the Bellagio" satellite. If I would have realized there was a $500 bonus opportunity I would have deposited the full $500. Turns out I'm just an idiot and now have a $100 bonus pending which is still very kewl!. They release the bonus $10 at a time for every 100 raked hands that have at least a $0.50 rake. From my play earlier I am already 20 raked hands into my first $10 release. I feel like an idiot blowing the other $400 bonus opportunity but oh well.

I want to say again how fast and smooth this site is. The interface is a little archaic and plain, but it is very speedy. The biggest complaint so far is simply the lack of action. I just logged on and there were only like 2 tables on the entire site going. I played $0.50/$1 limit with 6 players during my last 30 minutes of my lunch today, made $10. I laid a horrible beat on another guy. I had 99 and board came A93, turn came 9 for my beautiful quads, and all of a sudden I found us reraising and capping the pot, sweet! the river brought something unsignificant and again we reraised each other capping the pot. I turn over 99 and he turns over AA! My quad 9 takes down his aces full. ZING!

Playing Poker with Daniel Negreanu!

Well the internet is a cool place. Just got done playing a short 30 minute session of $0.25/$0.50 NL hold'em with Daniel Negreanu on Poker Mountain. I try to never play poker at work, but squeezed in 30 minutes and counted it as my lunch break.

First time I have played on poker mountain. Besides the fact there is not much action yet it plays quite nice and fast.

I deposited $100 into Poker Mountain.

Netted exactly $25 profit in this session.

Current BR $325

$125 - Pokerstars
$125 - Poker Mountain
$75 - Party Poker

Back to Stars

Well two major things happened last night, one is I decided I am not going to play PL Omaha anymore (or PL anything) and two is I am moving my ring action back to Pokerstars. I will continue to deposit on Party Poker when there is a monthly reload bonus and I will play the required hands to clear the bonus, but other then that I am going to go back to Stars.

I like the stars interface and game selection a lot better.

I lost $60 Playing PL Omaha. removed $250 from my Partypoker account (leaving $50) and transferred it to my Pokerstars account which was empty after losing the Negreanu Open and transferring a friend $11 to play in the Negreanu Open too. I jumped in a 6 handed $1/$2 (above my BR i know!) for about an hour and went down $20, up $20, etc, broke even. I think played 1 table of full table holdem for awhile and pretty much broke even.

I think I am going to lay of Omaha for awhile even though I absolutely love the game until I can get my BR back up.

Current BR - $300 ($250 on pokerstars and $50 on party poker)

Out Early in the Negreanu Open to Quad 3s

45 mins into the Negreanu Open I busted out 33rd. Had AQ and flop came xQ3 with queen top board so had Top pair top kicker. Got my money in, but faced up against 33 and to boot another 3 on the river so quad 3s versus my Queens and threes

-$11 loss

More PL Omaha

Played about 3 hours of $25 PL Omaha and took an early dive quick, down $100 in an hour. I literally lost back to back $25 pots which tilted me a little bit. I had 9933 (SIK fans gotta love that starting hand) and the board came 379 no flush board. I pot bet, 2 callers, turn 8 which scared me a little bit cause through the straight poss out there and 2 to the flush, but I didnt want to show fear so pot bet again, 1 folded 1 called. River was 3rd flush card, I checked, guy pot bet back at me, I was pot committed so called and lost to the A2 suited flush.

The very next hand I had AAQQ and long story short popped the Ace on the flop but fullhouse ended up winning.

I ended up going on a nice rush towards the last hour getting some good cards and made back my $100 for a break even day which I was VERY satisfied with.

Current BR - $360

The Swings of Pot Limit

So I figured I probably shouldnt be playing PL with a $400 bankroll, even $25 PL. My took my $412 quickly up to $495 which is the highest my BR has even been. 3 hours later I found my BR down to $265. Unreal! Took a $230 loss playing $25 PL!. I did play for another 90 minutes and got my BR back up to $360.00 which still is a $55 Net Loss. I really like Omaha, but not sure if I can continue to play PL or not, may have to switch to limit .

Current BR - $360.00

Uh Oh - More Omaha, I Like It A-lot!

Ok this is gonna be the death of me and my BR i know it!

I just got done playing a bunch of Omaha, this game is awesome!

I lost $40 on pokerstars playing PL Omaha leaving me with just $20 left there so I quit there and logged onto Partypoker to try my luck there.

The smallest Omaha table they have is $25 PL so I plopped down. First hand I took a $10 hit where a FH killed my Ace high flush on the river. I reloaded $10 back and never looked back. I played this one table for about an hour and ended up cashing out when I hit $95 so netted up $60.

This game is brutal though! Amazing how quick you can win or lose large chunks, even with $0.10/$0.25 blinds. I had 2 key hands. One hand I had AAKK and we had preflop raising fest, post was like $23 before the flop with 4 way action. The flop comes KKA !!!!!!!!!!!!! Another guy bet into me and I pushed all my chips, only like $12 more. My KKKK took down his AQo ! like a $50 pot.

Another hand I got 4 tens which was about a $35 pot.

So my Pokerstars BR is now at $20, but my Partypoker BR is up to $412.

Current BR - $432

My First Experience With PL Omaha

OK so I am bored and thinking I want to try something different, why not PL Omaha? Since I have never played PL Omaha nor even really read about it I figured why not play the 1 penny/ 2 penny table so I can 'practice'. I bought in for the full $5 and first hand i have 6673 and flop comes 776. I was like woooohooooooooo!!!! I couldnt believe how fast this 1 penny table all of a sudden had my full $5 all in this one hand! turn comes a T and river comes an A and a guy with 7A in the hole wins the pot! Man its gonna take me awhile to get used to this game! Antoher hand i had 2345 in the hand and there was an A62 on the flop. I was betting like crazy thinking I had the straight. Ooops. What a fun game though! I played for about 20 minutes and lost $10 and quit.

Painful

Just finished a painful 2 hour 4 table session. Lost $45.

Set back down and played for about 30 more minutes on partypoker and got back $25. I played for about an hour for fun with a lot of the FCP (fullcontactpoker) members at a 0.02/0.04 limit table on poker stars. Won about $0.50, hehe.

Then played a HU $10 NL SnG with a FCP member. HU match lasted 41 minutes! I won when he was at 500 chips to my 2000 and he pushes with K3 and I called with JQ. I ended up running a straight for the $10 win.

Party Poker BR - $352.05
PokerStars BR - $59.50
Total BR - $411.55

Short Session

Just played about a 1 hour 4 table session. Netted up $26.
PartyPoker BR - $377.05
PokerStars BR - $50.00
Total BR - $427.05

Blew It

Well I started off doing really well at my 4 table session, up about $70 in the first 2 hours. The cards went south and I gave back that $70 plus another $25 more, ooops.

PartyPoker BR - $351.05
PokerStars BR - $50.00
Total BR - $401.05

Day Off

I worked an 11 hour day followed up by a 3 hour certification course for coaching my daughters softball team. 7 am to 9 pm. By the time I got in and watched American Idol which I taped I was whopped so didnt get any poker in last night. Hope to see some hands tonight.