Few Tournies

Last night I wasnt in the mood to get my ass handed to me in some cash games so instead I played a few tournies and got my ass handed to me there.

I created this private little impromptu tourney on pokerstars and invited some FCP members. Amazingly we had 30 people show up, not bad for an hours notice. I busted out 15th when I was all in preflop AK vs AA.

I then played 2 $20+$2 SnGs on Pokerstars and didnt place in either of those either.

Tonight is the Negreanu Open and I plan on playing in it.

Current BR - $1505

Seriously?

OK seriously tell me the Poker Gods dont seriously hate me?

I win about $40 @ $2/$4 so I say ok I'll do 1 table session at $5/$10 just to see if if the variance streak has been lifted. Like 4th hand this one comes up.....

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=115752

I mean are you seriously fucking kidding me? I ran an odds calculator out of curiosity and I was 95.7% favorite at flop and still nearly 8% on turn. @$%@#$%@#$%#@$%

I then proceeded to lose AQ with AQT flop T turn to quad tens, then I lost 55 on 256 flop to 34 then lost QQ to KK on blank board. All within 1 hour. Quickest $200+ ever. I swear to God the poker Gods hate me.

Current BR - $1560

Some late night $2/$4 "Fun"

So I decide I am going to hit up my last required hands at Empire to release the $100 bonus. Its around 11:00 PM and I pop open 4 $2/$4 tables. I had my first winning session in what seems like 2 weeks even if it was only $30. I played about a 100 hands so that 'only $30' was really about 7.5bb/100 which is actually crushing the game. Its hard to go from $5/$10 where you lose $30 simply in a round of blinds 4 tabling to where winning $30 in 100 hands is crushing the game. Gotta stay in the mindset of bets not $ and I admit I have trouble with this.

I did clear my $100 reload bonus so along with the $30 session I netted up $130. I did notice a pretty big difference in play at the $2/$4 level then I did from the $5/$10 level. There was a lot more calling on the $2/$4 level and even more interesting alot more calling down to the river then folding to 1 bet which I thought was pretty interesting.

I then went and played a $20+2 SnG on pokerstars and ended up bubbling out in 4th place when I got short stacked and pushed from the button with K9 suited and found myself dominated by KT with no help from the flop, turn, or river.

Current BR - $1783

I guess I really do just suck or something

Well I made it til Saturday night before I started playing a little cards again. I did like I said I was gonna do and dropped down to $3/$6, but I just cant win. First of all I had my math wrong on my bankroll, I didnt have $2310, I had $2110. I played about 600 hands of $3/$6 and managed to lose another $435. There is an obvious leak in my game somewhere or I am playing frustrated and dont realize it.

So my bankroll hovers at $1675 and was at $4200 just a short 2 or 3 weeks ago. Technically I am not even at $3/$6 level anymore and should drop down to $2/$4 if I want to keep proper bankroll management rules.

I got about 150 more hands and I'll clear the $100 empire reload bonus and hopefully my rakeback will be coming at the end of the month. I should be getting a few hundred from that I believe according to my rake stats in Poker Tracker.

Here are my two favorite bad beat hands that I thought I would share this time ...

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=114855

This could rank up there with my favorite of all bad beats just because this guy capped the betting preflop with a pretty shitty hand against my AA, TOTALLY missed the flop, and proceeded to runner runner his 2 pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=114832

In other news I had lunch with a fellow FCP'er on Friday at th Cracker Barrell and we got a chance to talk some poker and stuff which was pretty cool, thanks again for lunch Jeff.

I finished reading my Professor, Banker, Suicide King book and it was very awesome, I highly recommend it. I am either gonna start The Poker MBA or Chris Moneymakers book now, not sure.

As far as the poker thing goes I have no confidence right now so not sure how I am going to proceed on that front.

Current BR - $1675

Day 2 - No Poker (ok almost no poker) /Negreanu Open Updates

I successfully made it through another day without any poker except for the Negreanu Open. I updated the leaderboard as well (link always on right). Yesterday I had another phone call with Daniel Negreanus business team guy Chris and we finalized the plans for the rest of the year regarding the Negreanu Opens.

Next Wednesday will be the last tourny for this leaderboard period. The top 9 points leaders after next weeks tournies will get a free Daniel Negreanu (fullcontactpoker.com) autographed T-Shirt and Hat.

I will start a new leaderboard after next weeks tourny and the stats will be reset. We upped the prizes for the next leaderboard though. The top 9 points leaders after all the tourneys from Sept 1 - December 31 will get their choice of an autographed Daniel Negreanu Chipset:



or a copy of stacked with Daniel Negreanu:



or an autographed Daniel Negreanu Hockey Jersey:



Then we will take the top 9 points leaders from the current leaderboard and the top 9 points leaders from the next leaderboard and hold a tournament of champions. The winner of that tournament will be crowned the 2005 FCP Negreanu Open Champion and will also receive an awesome pair of Oakley Thumps (amazing Oakley sunglasses with built in mp3 playing ear pieces.

---

OK thats about it. I guess I can share my other non poker adventure today .....

OK so I goto the vending machine to get my standard 10:45 AM snack, a large Oatmeal Creme pie. Its like clockwork, a daily ritual if you will. Insert $0.60, punch in C then 6, and bam I have a yummy oatmeal creme pie to eat.

Well this time everything is going to plan, the $0.60 cents goes in, (and before you start jumping ahead this is NOT one of those stories where the creme pie gets stuck hanging by its corner and you have to beat the living hell out of the vending machine in order to get it to fall).

So where was I, oh yea

The $0.60 goes in, I punch the C and right when I go to punch the 6 my finger slips and I accidentally punch the 7. I'm thinking holy mother of God not C7, anything but the damned package of black licoriche that makes your shit turn green when you have a bowel movement.

But whats this???? The licoriche is all gone!? So there I am, stuck watching the little empty slinky coil rotate aimlessly to its next position leaving me with no oatmeal creme pie, no turn your poop green licoriche, NADA!

Geeesh, can I really make it til next Monday without playing poker?

Day 1 - No Poker

Ok I made it 24 hours without playing a hand of poker. My knees are getting a little wobbly and my necks a bit sweaty. Theres a chance im running a low grade fever, but I'm not quite sure.

I am going to be playing in the Negreanu Open tonight since I already registered for it and I cant lose more then $11.

Last night I watched the new episode of Tommy Lee Goes to College, wow that show is funny! 17 more days til my Motle Crue concert!

I'm at the halfway mark of my Professor Banker Suicide King book. WOW did you know that Jennifer Harmon won $9 million (3 sessions of $3 million each) in one week against Andy Beal for the corporation? Thats just awesome.

OK Time for a Week Break

All I can say is WOW I'm done with poker for a week. Maybe the variance Gods are catching up me from my drunken weekend a few days ago.

I just cut my bankroll in 1/3rd. Down $2000 in 10 days. Dont expect any more updates for a few days. I am beyond steamed.

Here are 2 key hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=111514

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=111500

I need to walk away for a bit and come to terms with the fact I blew $2000

Current BR $2310

The See Saw of Poker

Had a rough Sunday night session at the $5/$10 tables, netted down $460. Thats all I got to say about that.

Current BR - $3310

Sat Night/Sunday Morning

Saturday night I played for about an hour at a little private table I created for some FCP (Fullcontactpoker.com) members to have a strategy session. We do a $0.50/$1.00 limit table and always show our hands if we fold someone out. The purpose is not to really make money, but learn from each other. There were about 7 or 8 people playing and I ended up about $19 there. I had 2 people river quads on me during that hour session! Once when I turned a straight and rivered a flush.

I then went on to play the $20 NL MTT on stars which I lost in hour 2 when my AJ ran into AQ on a AQJ board. I then played a $20 HU SnG which I lost in the first 10 minutes when I fell for a good trap this guy set with a chamelon set of twos.

I played about 200 hands of $5/$10 this morning and netted up $125 which was good for a +6BB/100 session.

There will be a $100 empire reload bonus available starting tomorrow which I plan on doing. Clears after 10x hands which is 1000 hands. Code is PLAYAUG and is good from August 22nd - 24th.

Current BR - $3770

2nd Saturday Session

Well its too damn hot to do anything else. I need to mow the lawn, but it feels like its 100 degress + outside so I decided to play another session. I really felt like playing shorthanded, but every other time I played short handed things havent ended up going to well so I set some parameters on the front end. I would play 1 table of 6 handed $5/$10 and sit with $250, if I got down to $100 I would leave, so in essence I set a loss limit. I would also play only premium hands and only raise when I really had the goods. This actually takes away part of the shorthanded games beauty, which is bluffing, but nevertheless this was what I was going to do.

Very first hand I get JJ and it doesnt hold up so I am down to $200 after first hand. I'm thinking this could be a very quick session. Things started picked up and I had my best shorthanded session so far and netted up $215 in just under an hour.

I also got one of my Pokerstars FPP books in the mail today. The Poker MBA by Greg Dinkin and Jeffrey Gitomer. Really cool how they personalize and autograph each copy. They signed this book with my first name and the phrase "Royal Flushes!"

Current BR - $3670

Back to the Grind

OK after my wild and crazy session 2 nights ago I sit down and played my usual game, 4 tabling $5/$10 full ring. I showed incredible patience for the first hour when the deck was spitting in my face with cold cards. I was down about $75 in the first hour, mainly from blinds and no action. The 2nd hour I started getting some hands and flops to match em. I had one really nice button blind steal raise with 47s and flop came down 47J and guy had AA. not sure why he didnt reraise me from the BB unless he was trying to trap, but either way was good pot. I played for about 2 hours on 4 tables and made back my $75 lost in the first hour plus another $95 profit. Just have to remember this is a game of grinding and baby steps.

Current BR - $3455

OK So Maybe Not Hypothetical

(Read post before this one first if you just got here)

OK this is gonna sound completely gay, but sorry to disappoint anyone of you that read this and are expecting me to follow my own advice. Last night was the craziest thing I have ever done ever. I literally was willing to lose my whole bankroll in one drunken blaze of glory, I really was. I have worked over 8 months to build my roll to where it is and I think if the cards kept going bad I would have went bust last night.

I really was down nearly $1500 last night and I really did keep jumping levels. At one point I had my lentire bankroll, my last $2000, sitting at a $20/$40 (50bb). I got really lucky that I didnt go broke and I played tight, aggresive, and actually pretty good for having just drank a 12 pack of bud light within a 6 hour period.

I did have the biggest limit pot of my life, over $800 .......

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=109239

I had never played a $100 SnG before last night, I had never played $400 NL before last night. DAMN alcohol is the devil I tell ya!

LOL I have no idea what to say at this point. I have read every poker book and given advice to many people about bankroll management, playing above your roll, how not to chase money, set loss limits, never play drunk, etc etc. Sorry, dont know what else to say. I did everything wrong and basically got lucky as shit and was able to turn my $1500 loss into a $160 loss.

I think I may be done with shorthanded for awhile, I just need to get back to basic poker and get back to focusing on my goal to $5000. I do know one thing, all this shorthanded play and high limit stuff should bring me some decent rakeback from Jayson Weber, around 28% back so that will be nice when that happens.

I slept 3 hours and got up and was in a business meeting an hour later, what a life!

Current BR - $3360

Hypothetical Post Of Course - 5/10 10/20 20/40, $100 Sng, $400 NL !

Hypothetically speaking; how bad would it be if a person drank 3 beers and lost $400 playing $5/$10 6 handed, jumped up to $10/$20 short handed, drank 4 more beers, lost $1100 more, jumped up to $20/$40 full ring, drank 3 more beers and won $1000, finished the last 2 beers of the 12 pack playing a $100 SnG at 1:30 AM and placed 3rd for $180, then proceeded to play $400 drunken NL at 2:00 AM knowing they had to get up for work at 6 AM

Just hypothetically speaking, would that be bad? No way thats what happened with me last night, but man sure would be a cool blog post if it did.

Current BR - $3520

No Poker / School / Tommy Lee Goes To College

I didnt play any poker yesterday at all, WOW. I had time to play, I just dindt feel like playing for some reason. I opened up Empire and started to click on a table and was like man, I am really not in the mood to do this. Kinda weird, its rare when I dont feel like playing poker.

Life is just really busy right now. Both my kids started back to school this week. My son started the big 1st grade and my daughter has entered the dreaded 7th grade. Getting new schedules arranged is always fun.

Last night was the first two episodes of Tommy Lee Goes To College on NBC. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a big Motley Crue fan. I actually have tickets already for their concert when they are coming here to Nashville on tour September 10th. This is one of those shows that you are gonna realllllly love or reallllly hate, I cant see any middle ground on this one. Fortunately I thought it was funny as hell and laughed nearly the entire show. The best parts were when he was interviewing with the band department for the drum line and when he was interviewing potential new roommates.

I hardly ever watch TV, in fact the only shows I watch on a regular basis are some seasonal reality shows like The Apprentice and Survivor. I have seen every episode of all 10 seasons of Survivor believe it or not, I'm a junkie.

So bankroll stays the same for now, hey at least it wasnt a losing session!

Current BR - $3520

Late Night 6 Handed Poker

So I delve into some late night 6 Handed $5/$10. I ended up having a losing session of $340. Here are some hand histories I was going through that cost me some money last night.

I am going to complete the SB with A4 suited in a short handed game all day long. I especially love the reraise with botton pair on the flop, but he gets lucky on the turn ...
http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107048

Nothing worse then raising a 4 flush on the flop for value, hitting your flush on the river, but getting outflushed. I shouldnt have put in the 3rd raise, lost an extra $20 on this hand then I should have, but either way still sucks ...
http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107050

This is a really good example why you dont call a raise with a weak ace (especially offsuit). I think the time 1:30 AM had something to do with this hand ....
http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107052

This guy had been raising my blind like every hand and I thought I finally had him, flopped the ace, then turned top 2 pair ......http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107053

OK these last two hands I saved are my true bad beat hands, this one really sucked ...
http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107056

And finally the hand that made me throw up a little ....
http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=107057

I guess as 'addictive' as short handed play can be I still have a lot to learn about its nuances and shouldnt be playing it at the $5/$10 level from both a bankroll insufficienty as well as a lack of experience. Looking back through some hand histories I could have saved at least $100 or more.

Current BR - $3520

New 1600 x 1200 Monitor

OK I splurged, I did it!!!!!!!!!!!

I finally bought me a Brand New LCD 21" 1600 x 1200 monitor so I could 4 table my poker games without having any overlap!

OK so that was the dream world version, now for reality ...

I finally bought me a USED 17" CRT Dell M781p monitor that supports 1600 x 1200 resolution. I got it for the bargain price of $15! I found it on ebay and the guy happened to be in this area so I arranged the pick up today and have it all hooked up and its working great!

It's realllllly awesome to be able to 4 table with no overlap.

I started the day off good by playing in a Pokerstars $10 MTT with close to 1800 people in it. First hand I am dealt big slick offsuit and its raised 5X to me. Normally I would reraise here, but its the first hand of a long MTT, I had no read on the table, and didnt want some idiot pushing me back all in for a coin flip or some bullcrap the first hand of the tourney.

I call and the flop comes a beautiful TJQ rainbow. The song "On Broadway" starts going off in my head (poor attempt at vince van patton humor) and I start thinking about how I am going to extract the most money from this situation. I throw out a weak lead betting a little less then half the pot. To my surprise the dude really was a maniac and came over the top all in! I was like WOOOO HOOO and happily call and show my flopped nuts. He turns over a really nice hand as well, QQ for top set. The turn wasted no time and brought a T giving him the fullhouse. So I lasted about 30 seconds and was the 2nd person knocked out of the tourney!!!!!!

I remember so many times playing in these tournies and looking down 3 minutes later and theres like 60 people already out somehow and I would always say, who the hell are these losers and how in the hell can 60 people be out in 3 minutes. Well now I know because I am officially one of those losers!

I then proceeded to test out my monitors new 1600 x 1200 power and popped open 4 $5/$10 tables on Empire. The tables looked so beautiful all lined up in a perfect set of squares. I played for about 2 and 1/2 hours and racked up a winning session of $210.

Current BR - $3860

6 Handed is Addictive

I have discovered my new vice. 6 Handed Poker. If you are an action junkie then this is the game for you. If you cant handle bad beats and ridiculous swings in a session then this is not the game for you. I played about 400 hands of $5/$10 6 handed. I found myself down as much as $300 in a session to up $200 and was just swinging. I ended up pretty much breaking even, actually made $30

Here is my bad beat of the day award. This hand about made me sick, but hey, what are ya gonna do. Technically this isnt a bad beat, but just a brutal battle of two really good hands ....

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=105978

Current Br - $3650

Frustration / Cancelled WSOP Circuit Trip

When you run bad it starts to get frustrating. I had 3 days in a row where I lost $360, $450, and $285 so over a $1000 downswing in less then half a week. It makes you really wonder how you ever won and if you even know how to play this game and can win ever again. I didnt update yesterday, but my bankroll was down to around $3200 at one point.

I woke up this morning and 4 tabled $5/$10 for about 400 hands and had a good winning session of $325. It felt good to win again, but sucks knowing I am still down over nearly $700 in the last 3 days. This is probably the hardest thing to do in poker, is to grind back winnings that you lost.

Its amazing how fast you can lose money through a couple of sessions or even series of bad hands, but its human nature to try to win it all back at once which is usually counter productive and leads to more losses. I even jumped up to $10/$20 for 20 minutes which I have preached on here a million times never jump to higher levels in an attempt to recoup losses, maintain discipline, etc etc. Luckily I didnt lose even more there before I smacked myself around and told myself to go back to the levels your bankroll can afford and play your regular game.

Also since I am down another $700 and the fact I am still a little sick I have decided not to go play in the $500 NLHE WSOP Circuit tourney event tomorrow in Tunica. That trip would take my BR below $3000 plus I just dont feel into it. My temperature is gone, but still kinda 'achy' so gonna save the BR and continue on towards my $5000 goal. $1400 more to go.

Current BR - $3620

Donk of the Day Award

I felt compelled to make an entire post for this one hand. Gotta love this persons turn betting, and all on what? lovely #@$%@$#%

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=104704

Sick

Well running 102 temperature today, not feeling well so stayed home from work. I played a lot of $5/$10 last night and lost another $450 ;/

I played some more $5/$10 today and won back about $110 of it. I also played a $5 rebuy stars limit tourney. 238 entries, top 27 paid, I made it to 25th when I had QK on a Queen high flop board and was up agaisnt QA.

Dont feel like typing too much today.

Current Br - $3488

WOW, is losing 36BB really $360?

Being a poker player I understand you cant think of playing poker as playing with money, but as playing with bets. Well as light hearted as it sounds to say I yea I had a 36BB losing session at $5/$10; REALITY CHECK - you just lost $360 and its not light hearted and sucks very bad!

Swings in this game are kind of intense. I 4 tabled $5/$10 for about 3 hours and was up about $150 in the first hour and then I went on about a 50bb downswing over the next 2 hours. Dejavu started setting in from my $1000 losing session last week so once I hit the - 35 bb mark I blinded out and called it time to end a session.

3 hands come to mind that were just ridiculous. 2 of them were flopped set over sets where I simply got destroyed. First one I had 99 flop 89T rainbow which I was raising like crazy to keep the straight draws paying, ashame other dude had TT. Second hand was the classic KK (me) vs AA (him), preflop capped betting, flop 7KA, #$@%@#$%. But my favorite hand was when I had AQ on the button and raised it up, BB protects his blind and calls, flop beautiful AQ3, he checks, I bet, he raises, I reraise, call. Turn J, he bets, I reraise, he reraises, I call (thinking if he has TK I'm gonna be pissed, couldnt really put him on a set here). River J, he bets, I call and he turns over J5 (wtf!!???). I had to take a 5 minute 'sit out' break after that one.

Last night was also the Negreanu Open. I busted out somewhere around 30th. I'll update the leaderboard sometime tonight.

I got a phone call from Chris (Daniel Negreanus business team guy) to talk about the future of the Negreanu Opens. We talked and brainstormed about some cool ideas and I hope to be able to announce some very exciting news to all the FCP'ers very soon, but for now things are still in 'talk mode'.

I went ahead and purchased Pokertracker with some of my PSO points since this software comes so highly recommended. Party poker couldnt send me any of my hand histories so I will just have to start with all my pokerstars hands and the last month or so of party poker and empire hands which should be a pretty good start. I am still waiting on the email with the registration code from PSO.

I also got one of my Pokerstars FPP books in the mail yesterday, the Chris Moneymaker book (Moneymaker : How an Amateur Poker Player Turned $40 into $2.5 Million at the World Series of Poker). It was pretty cool cause Chris autographed the inside, was funny how he signed "Chris Monemaker, WSOP 2003". I just finished the 2nd chapter of "The Professor, The Banker, and the Suicide King" last night. Its a really great read so far.

Current Br - $3828

Some $10 HU SnG's & Hand History Requests

For a change of pace I set down and played a series of 5 $10+$1 HU SnG's on Pokerstars. I won the first one, lost the second one, and won the final three. Net profit for the 5 games = $25 after the rake, what a jip!

Talk about polar opposite games. Going from playing a full 10 table ring $5/$10 limit game for the last few weeks into a HU NLHE match is a complete change of gears.

Here is the final hand of the last match I played which I thought was pretty cool. It was actually the best match of the 5, we were 26 minutes in when this hand came along where I flopped top pair, turn gave me trips, and the river filled up my boat, but also gave him nut straight he was looking for at the same time. I made a nice weak lead on a 'scary' board and he came over the top for his last few chips so I took it down ....

http://pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=102816

I have no idea what HU stars are supposed to look like, but here were the stats for my last tourney:

PokerStars Tournament #11117780, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$0.50
2 players
Total Prize Pool: $20.00
Tournament started - 2005/08/09 - 23:21:49 (ET)
Tournament finished - 2005/08/09 - 23:47:50 (ET)
1: dna4ever (FCP), $20.00 (100%)
2: H Rolla (franklin),

You finished in 1st place (eliminated at hand #2303828707).

79 hands played and saw flop:
- 26 times out of 39 while in small blind (66%)
- 28 times out of 40 while in big blind (70%)
- 0 times out of 0 in other positions (0%)
- a total of 54 times out of 79 (68%)

Pots won at showdown - 11 out of 21 (52%)
Pots won without showdown - 36

I also did a hand history request with pokerstars and partypoker curious to see if I could get a copy of all my 2005 hands, because I am considering buying pokertracker. Partypoker hasnt responded yet, but Pokerstars send me all my hands which included both tourney and ring games. I have 78,892 hands played at pokerstars alone! I would say I have at least half that or more at Party Poker and not counting the months I spent at Gamesgrid, and all the other sites and PSO sites I played at such as Poker Mountain, FullTilt, Ultimate Bet, Pacific, Noble, Absolute, Bodog, Poker Room, Poker Rewards, Paradise, the Gaming Club, etc. I would say I have probably seen over 200,000 hands this year.

It's my understanding that pokertracker needs at least 100,000 hands before you can establish any type of data reliability. I'll be curious if Party Poker can provide me hand histories, my hard drive only has like the last months worth.

Current Br - $4188

Quick Session / Cleared Empire Bonus

I only had about 30 minutes to play tonight and had a losing session, only $65, but I did clear the $100 bonus so I ended up a +$35 net.

Current Br - $4163

3rd Session Tonight

I couldnt help myself, I had to play a 3rd session tonight, lasted about 45 minutes and long enough for me to see around 100 hands. I made $124 once again playing $5/$10. Good day for poker, made a $361 net profit in play plus the $100 PSO referral bonus for a total net gain today of $461.

I played 441 of my required 500 raked hands on empire to release the $100 bonus so I should release that tomorrow.

I wanted to share two hands from this last session that stuck out to me. One is where I get dealt AA in the SB so I am just waiting for someone to try and steal so I can rereaise, but it folds ALL the way around to me ;/ So I ofcourse raise the BB and look at all his reraises only to suck his ass out on the river, unreal ;/

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=101972

Here is a hand that about scared the total shit out of me. I get deal 44 and am feeling froggy so I call a raise (bad play in itself, but again I was feeling froggy). Flop comes down a beautiful 234, all kinds of action, I'm thinking probably an overpair and maybe an Ace hoping to catch a 5 etc. The turn brings a beautiful 2 filling me up but again brining all kinds of action, surely not 22? WTF is this the river is another 2 leaving a board of 23422. If some dumbshit has A2 or 27 or some bullshit I'm gonna freaking be pissed. When the 2 falls there is a bet and a reraise then to me, GEEEESUS, I gotta call .....

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=101973

Current Br - $4128

Hello $4000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just played another 120 raked hands, about 200 hands in total and racked up a beautiful $182! That makes me hit the beautiful $4000 mark even if it is only by $4 measly dollars and the first BB of $5/$10 I post I will be back below it! $1000 more to go!

Current Br - $4004

The Beginning of an 'Empire'

So I deposited $2000 to Empire Poker and I believe I am going to make this my new home for awhile thanks to a nice rakeback program. Neteller only lets you deposit up to $500 on Empire so I had to deposit 4 times. The first $500 deposit qualified me for a $100 bonus after 500 raked hands, sweet.

I signed up with rakeback through my good friend Jayson Weber. He also moderates the Fullcontactpoker forum and has a cool website at http://www.jaysonweber.com which he calls New Age Poker. There are a lot of cool FCP user blogs there if you get tired of reading mine.

Jayson offers one of the best rakeback deals on the net ...

27% Rakeback for any Total Monthly Rake
28% Rakeback for Total Monthly Rake > $1000
29% Rakeback for Total Monthly Rake > $2500
30% Rakeback for Total Monthly Rake > $5000

I am still waiting for 100% confirmation my rakeback is set up, but I went ahead and deposited and started playing anyways.

I 4 tabled $5/$10 for about 90 minutes. At about the 45 minute mark I was down nearly $225 and I was like geeeez, not another losing session, but I hit a nice little rush of cards including one sweet $120 pot where I flopped a set of 5s against an AK on a AQ5 board. I was able to make back my $225 loss plus another $55. I raked 210 of my 500 necessary hands for the $100 bonus.

Current Br - $3822 (Current high for my bankroll (no jinx please))

PSO Referrals - Thank You!

Thanks to everyone who did a Pokersourceonline referral with me this month. I had 11 referrals pay out 13,500 PSO points today. I spent 10,000 points for a $100 partypoker gift certificate. They were really on the ball today, because I had the $100 deposited into my party poker account in less then 10 minutes from when I submitted the order! Thanks Jay with PSO!

For those that havent signed up with Pokersourceonline (PSO) I cant say enough about it. I completed about 7 of their promotions within 1 month and not only earned a bunch of bonus money from the sites, but also earned enough points to get me an Apple IPOD and a $200 party poker gift certificate.

If you decide to sign up with PSO I certainly appreciate the referral, just enter dna4ever as the source. You can click on the rotating banner link to the right of my blog to go straight there as well at http://www.pokersourceonline.com .

$100 Bonus out of the blue = sweet!

Current Br - $3767

2 Month Hit Counter Stats

I added the hit counter to my blog on June 7th to just get an idea of the number of people who came here to read it. I did a post on July 7th at the one month mark (http://dnapoker.blogspot.com/2005/07/1-month-hit-counter-stats.html) and at that time there was a total of 2,587 page views and 1,245 unique visitors. Now at the two month mark there has been 6,578 total page views and 2,964 unique visitors making this past month have 3,991 new views and 1,719 new visitors. Thats 133 page views a day, or 5.5 an hour, pretty crazy. Now I feel pressure to reach this $5,000 goal because there are like 3000 peeople waiting for me to fail lol

Current Br - $3667

Cleared Party Poker Bonus

Well I finished playing my 700 raked hands on Party Poker and actually had a really good 4 table $5/$10 session. I netted up $285 in play plus the $100 bonus which made a nice 2 hour + $385 session.

I signed up with Empire Poker rakeback program through Jayson Weber so once I get all that set up I will be able to start earning 27% - 30% rakeback on top of my play which will be very cool.

I have 1 heartbreaker hand to paste where I had KK and flop comes down K9Q, a scary third heart (J) on the turn with a reraise from my opponent. Turns out he had AT and turned the straight. Ugly.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=101090

All in all a really good day and have my bankroll back to where it was 4 days before I had that terrible $740 losing session.

Current Br - $3667

I hate fish

Ok I really dont hate fish, but I do, no I hate em, no I like em, no i hate em, $#%@#$%@#%$@#$% DAMNIT Im confused.

I lost about $200 from idiots chasing to the river. I was up about $300 after playing 350 party poker hands but just ran into idiots that called down and hit rivers with absolute crap hands. I really dont hate these people because I know in the long run they are the ones who will pay me off, but kinda sucked tonight cause alot of them were hitting there hands.

I am seriously not going to complain about a winning sesion though, I still netted up $85 and am 100 hands away from clearing $100 party poker bonus.

I 4 tabled $5/$10 for about 2 hours to earn that $85. 350 hands, $85, i think thats still cose to 2bb/100

Current Br - $3282

NWP Tourney with some 'Pros'

Well the folks at NWP (Neverwinpoker) held this little touney called the Jennicide Invitational and invited FCP to it. It was just a $10 tourney, but I have to say was pretty cool as they had their pros play in it. I as usually sucked it up and busted out 49th when my AA ran into JK on a 9TQ flop, ooops.

I recognized a few 'pros'. Todd Witteles (online name Dan Druff) who was sitting to my left. He won 1st place in this years $3000 WSOP Limit Hold Em event, 3rd in the $1500 event, and was ranked #1 overall in the 2005 WSOP Overall Standings. Pretty cool to play with and sit next to WSOP bracelet winner (even if he is a NWP member ;p) .

Another pro playing was Dustin Woolf (online name neverwin and the source of NWP. Neverwin is a well known online pro whose speciality is HU limit. Often can be found on stars $200/$400 or UB $300/$600. He placed in the money during 4 events at this years WSOP including two final tables, 4th in the $2000 NLHE and 7th in the $5000 NLHE event.

Jennicide (another online pro) was playing in the event and I actually saw her flop a royal flush. RIGGED!! Flopping a royal flush in your own invitational, pffft! I believe her real name is Jennifer Leigh and she is often found playing high stakes on pokerstars as well.

Current BR - $3197

Party Poker Reload Bonus

Well my 2 day Party Poker boycott is over because they released their August Reload Bonus. The code is BONUSAUG and its 20% up to $100 for a maximum $500 deposit. I deposited the maximum and have a pending $100 bonus which clears after I rake 700 hands.

I played 250 of those hands tonight 4 tabling $5/$10 and had a really good session, netting up $275. 450 more hands to clear the bonus.

I played a stupid $11 MTT on stars with 1 rebuy and 1 addon and busted out in the first hour when my AQ hit AK on an ace flop so lost $21 there.

I got the Negreanu Open leaderboard website updated today and I also talked with Chris on Daniel Negreanus business team. We have a phone conference scheduled for Tuesday where we are going to discuss the future of the Negreanu Open tourneys. I am hoping to get Daniel to either A) play or B) offer some sort of FCP prizes for the winners. I'll post more next week when I know.

$254 Net Day which is A-OK in my book

Current BR - $3208

Tiny Winning Session and played with Tom McEvoy

Well after losing $740 yesterday I am pretty happy with any winning session, even it it is only $25. I actually won $75 4 tabling $5/$10 limit, but I played the $20 FCP FTP tourney, a $20 Stars SnG where I bubbled out 4th with 88 vs TT ;/ and, and also a $10 stars MTT.

I got totally donked in the Fulltilt FCP tourney. I had QK sooooted and called a EP raise. Flop comes down K5K! Original raiser checks, I bet 1/3 pot, original raiser puts me all in. I think KA is possible, but call anyways. Turns over Jacks and I am way ahead, only 2 Jacks left can help him. Ofcourse the Jack falls on the turn and I am out.

http://pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=99360

I have 3 hands to post today that I want advice on. I am also going to post these on the FCP Strategy forum tonight as well.

Hand #1 - I just couldnt lay these Aces down for some reason. I cant believe there was 5 way action the whole way. The pot got so big I felt like I had to keep calling. I would be interested to hear feedback on this hand ....

http://pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=99414

Hand #2 - I have replayed this hand over in my head a few times and cant see how I could have played it any different other then simply not playing it in the first place.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=99426

Hand #3 - This is an interesting hand where I flop a set but also a flush board flops. I bet it the whole way and run into the nuts. Feedback on this hand would be welcome too. I think if I could go back I would probably check/call the river instead of bet it because the only thing calling me on that bet is a flush I think?

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=99429

As you can see just from these 3 hands I lost like $200 so I did play pretty well to recoop that costs and win another $75, the tournies just brought me down $50.

Oh yea and I also got to play some $5/$10 limit with Tom McEvoy on Pokerstars. I never got into any hands with him, but we played for maybe 30 minutes together before he left after getting his AQ on Q high board busted by AA.

I got my WSOP issues of Cardplayer Magazine and Bluff Magazine in the mail today. Also got my free Partypoker stylish clothing line, wow that was fast! I just ordered that like a few days ago. Got a nice blue polo partypoker shirt, a partypoker baseball jersey, and a partypoker visor.

Current BR - $2954

World Series of Poker Circuit Event

I have decided to have some 'fun' with my bankroll. I am entering the WSOP Circuit Event $500 + $50 NLHE scheduled for August 14th at the Grand Casino in Tunica Mississippi. No I dont have the bankroll for it and yea my odds of making money are probably less then 5%, but it will be cool to play in a WSOP event and Tunica is only a 3 hour ish drive from me. I lost more then the buy-in to this event yesterday alone playing online and I guarantee win or lose I will have more fun at this WSOP event then I did yesterday.

I am getting a T-shirt screenprint with my "ghost" Avatar and it says DNA4EVER. Yea its lame, but oh well. (I put a picture below).

Here is a link to the Tunica WSOP Circuit schedule. Leave me a comment if you will be there on the 14th and maybe we can find a side game, grab a bite to eat, or something. http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/GrandCasinoTunica.asp

NL for change of pace

Well I got fed up with losing $1000 in limit so decided to do a change of pace and set at a $1/$2 NL $200 max table. I played for about 2 hours and managed to net up $260 making todays total loss a measly $740 ish ;/

Current BR - $2929

$#%@#$%

May have to drop back down to $3/$6 if this gets much worse, lost another $275. never lost $1000 in one day before. That definitely is not a good feeling.

Current BR - $2669

WOW - Major Setback in Goal

Well ladies and gentlemen I have officially experienced variance and the worst session of my life. I just 4 tabled $5/$10 for 3 hours and ummm kinda lost ALOT of money. Like ummm $745. I swear! 74 BB loss in 1 3 hour 4 table session, I saw about 1000 hands and it was terrible. I lost nearly every hand I played. This was not fun at all. This session made me wonder if I even knew how to play this game at all. It was just sickening.

Current BR - $2944

Birthday Bash

Ok so I am supposed to be at work every morning at 7:00 AM. Its almost 10:00 AM and I just got here. That should be a good enough summary for how my birthday night went last night, but I assume people like details.

Started off with a nice rib dinner at the local steak house with a couple of Heinekens then off to Blockbuster to rent some movies. The kids got some PS2 games and a couple of kids movies and my wife and I got David Blaine (the magician) movie and we got the Stu Ungar Story - High Roller (cant wait to watch it).

When we got home the neighbors were all kinda outside hanging out so we commenced to some drinking. After going inside we watched most of David Blaine while doing some more drinking.

I feel nice and rough this morning, almost feel a year older, oh wait. ;/

No poker last night because I would probably have had a tough time distinguishing the difference from a club and a spade.

Negreanu Open is tonight on pokerstars.

Current BR - $3689

Birthday Lunch Session

Well todays my birthday and my wife is taking me out to dinner tonight so doubt I will get to play any poker tonight so I played for an hour during my lunch break today and had a solid + $135 session of $5/$10 limit.

I've never really played during the day on a weekday before, but I found the play was a lot better. I guess the weaker players play more at night and more of the online regulars play during the day? Could have just been a fluke tough set of tables, who knows.

Either way I'll take $135 every day of the week! My $5000 goal is getting so close I can taste it. Just have to stay disciplined, play my game, and not doing anything stupid.

Current BR - $3689

58th out of 1812

Played $10 stars tourney and finished 58th out of 1812 winning like $45 ($34 profit), first was $4000. I got to place 1st in one of these big ones and make a big score!

I then 4 table $5/$10 on stars for an hour and managed to win $112. would have won over $200, but one of my last hands i had AA vs KK and flopped a K and spiked a K on river for quads ;/

Dealer: Rounder919 has four of a kind, Kings
Dealer: dna4ever has two pair, Aces and Kings
Dealer: Game #2242726372: Rounder919 wins pot ($167) with four of a kind, Kings
rough one

Current BR - $3554