Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Heeeeee Hawwwww!

I played a few MTTs and SNGs last night. And oh man, did I hee haw it up. I made at least three total donkey plays. And the worst thing about it, is that I knew I was making a bad play when doing it, but did it anyways! So I figured I needed to blog about it so that I can shame myself into never doing it again.

I fired up three MTTs at the same time. The first was a 1000 FPP WSOP Freeroll over at Stars. I figured I'd give one of these a shot. I usually notice that only about 300 people sign up for these, but this one had 400. Oh well. I hovered around average for the first hour. In the middle of the second hour, I started getting shortstacked so I needed to start stealing blinds. I pushed with AJ and got called by AQ and that's all she wrote.

The 2nd was a $20 180 person SNG at Stars. I flopped a set in the first hour with pocket 8's on a 8TJ flop. I bet, got re-raised, and pushed all-in, figuring the dude for a draw. He flipped over Q9 for the flopped nut straight, and I was knocked down to 200 chips. I was all ready to fire up another one of these, but I made a comeback! I tripled up with Q8 against Q7 and AK. Then a few hands later, I tripled up again with JJ! I was right back in it! I stayed at right around average for the next hour and a half. With about 35 left, I was in 17th position.

That is when I went on a donk run. I don't know what it was, but I started getting bored. This is another leak in my game I have noticed when playing in tournaments. After about an hour or hour and a half, I start to lose focus. I guess that is why when I play ring games, its only for an hour at a time. Shorter sessions are definitely better for me.

Anyways, I was playing really tight in this MTT and I was getting bored. I pick up pocket 3's in the BB and called a 3x BB raise. Flop comes 256 rainbow. He bets and I raise, seeing if he has a high pocket pair. Of course he re-raises all-in, so I fold. Next hand, I get K9s and there is a 3x BB bet in front of me. I decide to make another move and go all-in. Of course dude has pocket kings, and I go home now. Two dumb plays in a row for me. Uggg.

The next MTT was a $30 one over at Party Poker. There were about 400 or so players that entered. I played tight in the very beginning. Then I started to get some cards. I doubled up with AK and then started playing more aggressive. With about half the field gone, I was a little bit above average. Then I went card dead. With 65 left (Top 40 paid), I had an M of only about 4. It got folded to me in the SB and I pushed with AQ. Of course the BB wakes up with Jacks, and I lose the coinflip.

Then I also played a couple SNG's. A $30 SNG over at FullTilt, and a 2 table $24 SNG at Stars. I busted out on the bubble in both of them. Holy suckouts. I won't bore you with the details, but in both of them, I got sucked out on, crawled my way back, and then got sucked out again!

And then the last donk play was this morning. I started out with a good session and won back all the money I dropped last night. At a 200NL table, I get pocket Aces. There is a limper in front. I raise to $9 and click the raise button. Nothing happens. I click it again, and again nothing happens. It turns out my cable modem dropped for a few minutes. It hasn't done this for months! Maybe twice a year this happens, and it does it when I'm dealt Aces. Gee, thanks poker gods.

So I finally get re-connected, and I win a few more pots. At the same table, I get pocket Queens. I raise it up to my standard raise from Late Position. The loose Big Blind comes over the top and raises. I don't know why I just didn't call to see the flop, but I made a donkish move and pushed all-in. He called with Pocket Kings. The King on the flop sealed the deal. If I would have just called, I would have never put in another dime after seeing the King on the flop. So I only ended the day up a few dollars.

Doh! *smacks forehead*

I am heading out for a small mini-vacation in a few days, so it will be nice to take a little break from the virtual felt.

Cheers!

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Weekend Recap

Howdy Folks. I hope your holiday weekend was good. The weekend was slightly profitable on the poker tables for me. I am continuing my good streak and have had positive days now for nine days in a row. Unfortunately only a few of them have been big wins, with the majority being under $100. I finally deposited over at FullTilt Poker. I've shown a slight profit there so far, and have cleared $40 of the bonus so far. I'm not sure how much I will play there in the future. As a whole, the players there seem to be much better than other sites like the B2B and Tribeca sits. One thing that is really different there is the amount of pot sized and greater bets. It is really hard to play draws when the players are making pot sized bets. So I guess I'll have to tighten up a little there. But more than likely I'll go to another Tribeca or B2B soon, as there are bigger fish to fry there.

I want to also try playing over at Pacific. I can sign up at Pacific through http://www.pokersavvy.com/ and get some extra bonus dollars through them. I haven't signed up at PokerSavvy yet, so the first person who posts there referral ID in the comments, I will sign up through them.

And as a follow up to my last post about min-raises, is there a new book out, or maybe a post by a pro over at twoplustwo that advocated min-raising? I can't tell you how many times people were min-raising this weekend. It was absolutely unbelievable. At FullTilt, it was either a full pot or bigger bet, or a min-raise. WTF? There must be a new book out or something.

I decided that I am going to start posting some hands from the previous days where I lost the most, and then post some hands where I think I played pretty well. Hopefully this can start a little discussion, and maybe I can get some advice from some of you out there. Also, this will be good for me to look back on in the future.

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

TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
5 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 43.60
CO: 78.70
Button: 58.74
SB: 107.00
HERO: 142.85

Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is BB with 4c 5c
UTG folds, CO calls, Button raises to 3.00, SB calls, HERO calls, CO calls.

Flop: 5s Kd 4s (EUR 12.00, 4 players)
SB checks, HERO bets 11.00, CO folds, Button folds, SB raises to 42.00, HERO re-raises to 128.85 and is all-in, SB calls and is all-in.

Turn: Jc (EUR 218.00, 2 players)

River: 3s (EUR 218.00, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 218.00
HERO showed 4c 5c (Two Pair, fives & fours)
UTG showed Ks Qs (Flush, King high)

It turns out that after the flop, it was almost exactly a coinflip. I'm not too disappointed about my play here though. I could have easily been representing a set or something like that, so basically my opponent was drawing to the flush. And I don't think I could have folded after the flop with two pair. Phil Gorden in his Little Green Book says that you should play bottom two pair really fast. So that is what I did.

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

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $1/$2
9 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $192
UTG+1: $208.45
MP1: $197.25
MP2: $166
MP3: $207.95
CO: $200
Button: $113.35
SB: $264.50
HERO: $160.40

Pre-flop: (9 players) HERO is BB with Qc Qh
UTG calls, 4 folds, CO (poster) checks, Button folds, SB calls, HERO raises to $12, UTG calls, 2 folds.

Flop: 9s 6c 8h ($28, 2 players)
HERO bets $16, UTG calls.

Turn: Ah ($60, 2 players)
HERO bets $26, UTG calls.

River: 9d ($112, 2 players)
HERO bets $28, UTG calls.

Results:
Final pot: $168
HERO showed Qc Qh (Pair, Queens)
UTG showed Kd Ad (Pair, Aces)

Ugg, I hate big pocket pairs in the blinds, as I will be out of position the rest of the hand. I think I should have bet more on the flop. It might have gotten him to fold. Though, his call on the flop with a wiffed AK was pretty loose. If he would have raised on the Turn or River, I would have folded. The River bet was meant purely as a blocking bet, just in case he had something like pocket Jacks or Tens or something like that.

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

Stack sizes:
UTG: 98.65
CO: 102.95
HERO: 95.25
SB: 107.50
BB: 123.75

Pre-flop: (5 players) HERO is BB with Ad Qd
2 folds, HERO bets 4.00, SB raises to $10.00, 1 folds, HERO calls.

Flop: Td 3d 8c (EUR 22.00, 2 players)
SB bets 14.00, HERO calls.

Turn: 7c (EUR 50.00, 2 players)
SB bets 41.00, HERO calls.

River: 4c (EUR 132.00, 2 players)
SB bets 29.00, HERO folds.

Results:
Final pot: EUR 132.00
SB wins: (doesn't show hand)

I played this hand really bad. This guy plays his overpairs really really fast. I'm ok with the call on the flop, as if I hit, I can probably stack him, so my implied odds are pretty high. The turn call was terrible though. Doh! I definitely didn't have odds to call there. As a side note, I did win a nice pot against this guy a little later when it was obvious again he had an over pair, but I bluffed on a really scary board with all low cards and he folded.

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

TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
8 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 102.40
EP: 116.00
MP: 110.65
LP: 66.58
CO: 117.42
Button: 14.15
HERO: 97.25
BB: 97.50

Pre-flop: (8 players) HERO is SB with 6d Td
3 folds, LP bets 2.00, 2 folds, HERO calls, 1 folds.

Flop: Ts 7h 6s (EUR 5.00, 2 players)
HERO bets 4.00, LP calls.

Turn: 4h (EUR 13.00, 2 players)
HERO bets 12.00, LP raises to 31.00, HERO re-raises to79.25 and is all-in, LP calls and is all-in.

River: Qd (EUR 131.16, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 131.16
HERO showed 6d Td (2 Pair, tens & sixes)
LP showed 4d 4s (three of a kind, fours)

Ugg, not much to say on this hand. He min-bet PF, and I probably should have folded this. But I figured it was pretty cheap for me to see a flop. I am really surprised he called the flop bet with three overs to his small pocket pair. And it was just bad luck that he hit his two outer on the turn. Oh well.

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

Here were some of my big hands that I won from the weekend:

TopRankedPoker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: EUR 0.50/1
6 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: 93.20
HERO: 111.52
CO: 103.25
Button: 105.63
SB: 95.50
BB: 131.90

Pre-flop: (6 players) HERO is MP with Ad Kd
UTG calls, HERO raises to 4.50, 3 folds, BB calls, UTG calls.

Flop: 4s 7h 8c (EUR 14.00, 3 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, HERO bets 9.50, BB raises to 19.00, UTG folds, HERO calls.

Turn: Kc (EUR 52.00, 2 players)
BB bets 27.00, HERO raises to 88.02 and is all-in, BB calls and is all-in.

River: Qs (EUR 225.04, 2 players)

Results:
Final pot: EUR 225.04
HERO showed Ad Kd (Pair, kings)
LP showed 5c 5s (pair, fives)

Take that damn Min-Raiser! Nice turn card for me. I know this play has pretty high variance, but this guy was a total donk. Later on in the day, he min-raised me again! And again I took his stack. He's on my buddy list now.

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

Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $1/$2
10 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: $142.91
UTG+1: $223.95
UTG+2: $158
MP1: $221.50
MP2: $427.75
MP3: $176.40
CO: $333.90
HERO: $157
SB: $161.50
BB: $326.75

Pre-flop: (10 players) HERO is Button with Kh Kd
4 folds, MP2 raises to $7, 2 folds, HERO calls, SB folds, BB calls.

Flop: 5s 4s Th ($22, 3 players)
BB bets $7.5, MP2 raises to $15, HERO raises to $40, BB folds, MP2 raises to $65, HERO raises all-in $110, MP2 folds.
Uncalled bets: $110 returned to HERO.

Results:
Final pot: $134.5

I didn't re-raise PF, because sometimes I like to just call with the big pocket pairs. My feeling is that if I re-raise, it is too easy for someone to put me on a high pocket pair, and someone could take advantage of that. Again, we got another min-raiser here, with the PF raiser min-raising the BB bet. And then he min-raises me again after I put in a nice big raise! I think it is definately possible that he had Aces and folded thinking I had a set. I definitely played it like a set. I suppose he could have had Jacks or Queens too. I was pretty proud of this hand, especially since I haven't been playing at NL200 much yet.

Anyone have any comments on the above hands?

Sunday, May 28, 2006

PokerStars Blogger Tournament

Poker Tournament

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Friday, May 26, 2006

Is it National Donk Min-Raise Week?

God I hate the min-raise. And for some reason, I am seeing it even more and more. I've read and have asked many questions and posts on various message boards talking about the min-raise. The consensus is that a min-raise usually means a monster. Especially from a bad player. A bad player will get a great hand, and someone will bet, and the donk will think, "how can I get the most money out of this? I know! I'll min-raise!". But if I see a min-raise from someone I don't have a read on, I get really confused. Obviously, to get min-raised, you have to have already bet yourself. If I don't have a hand and wiffed on the flop, I have no problem folding. But most of the time I have a somewhat decent hand. Or at least a hand with some outs. What the hell should I do? If I just call the min-raise, then what do you do on the turn? Trying to keep the pot small won't happen, because 90% of the time, the min-raiser is going to throw out a nice big bet. What do you all do against min-raises? Do you usually see it as a monster? Do you fold a lot of time against a min-raise? I need some opinions.

So I decided to do something about all these min-raisers. I was going to either Raise or Fold on the flop. No calling of flop min-raises (unless I am on a draw). Here are a couple hands from the last day. One example where I butchered it, and two that I was happy with

Game # 337707873 - Texas Hold'em No Limit EUR 0.50/1 - Table "Montmell"

Players(max 6):

Button (EUR 157.00 in seat 1)
SB (EUR 99.93 in seat 3)
PokerFool$ (EUR 88.95 in seat 4)
UTG (EUR 100.00 in seat 5)
Donk Min-Raiser (EUR 47.15 in seat 6)

Dealer: Button
Small Blind: SB (0.50)
Big Blind: PokerFool$ (1.00)

PokerFool$ was dealt: 9d - 9s

UTG Fold
Donk Min-Raiser Call (1.00)
Button Call (1.00)
SB Fold
PokerFool$ Raise (3.00)
Donk Min-Raiser Call (3.00)
Button Call (3.00)

Flop 3d - Th - Ts

PokerFool$ Bet (7.50)
Donk Min-Raiser Call (7.50)
Button Fold

Turn 3d - Th - Ts - 5c

PokerFool$ Bet (15.00)
Donk Min-Raiser Raise (30.00)
PokerFool$ Raise (30.00)
Donk Min-Raiser All-In (5.65)
PokerFool$ Payback (9.35)

River 3d - Th - Ts - 5c - 5d

PokerFool$ shows: 9d - 9s (two pairs, tens and nines)
Donk Min-Raiser shows: Td - 7s (a full house, tens full of fives)

Donk Min-Raiser wins: EUR 96.80 (with a full house, tens full of fives)
Rake: EUR 0.65

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ya, I screwed the pooch on this one. If he would have had a full stack, I would have folded to his min-raise on the turn. His call on the flop and the min-raise screamed, "I have a Ten!". But I pegged him for a donk short stackie.

So the next two hands are where I took a stand. I said, "Screw you Min-Raisers!"


Game #2491976854: Hold'em NL ($0.50/$1) - 2006/05/25 - 13:47:45 (UK)

Table "Trips" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: Lupfiend ($137.25 in chips)
Seat 2: SB sits out
Seat 3: BB ($158.75 in chips)
Seat 4: UTG ($105 in chips)
Seat 6: Donk Min-Raiser ($98.25 in chips)

BB: posts big blind $1

----- HOLE CARDS -----

dealt to Lupfiend [5h 6d]

UTG: folds
Donk Min-Raiser: calls $1
Lupfiend: raises to $4
BB: folds
Donk Min-Raiser: calls $3

----- FLOP ----- [Kh 6h As]

Donk Min-Raiser: checks
Lupfiend: bets $5
Donk Min-Raiser: raises to $10
Lupfiend: raises to $25
Donk Min-Raiser: calls $15

----- TURN ----- [Kh 6h As][4c]

Donk Min-Raiser: checks
Lupfiend: bets $108.25 and is all-in
Donk Min-Raiser: folds

Returned uncalled bets $108.25 to Lupfiend

----- SHOW DOWN -----

Lupfiend: shows [5h 6d] (A Pair of Sixes, Ace high)
Lupfiend collects $56.25 from Main pot

----- SUMMARY -----

Total pot $59 Main pot $56.25 Rake $2.75

---------------------------------------------------------------------
I decide to pop him back here on the flop. If he had Pocket Aces or Kings, I am pretty sure he would have pushed here, and I could easily let it go. His check on the turn confirmed for me that he wasn't too happy about his hand anymore. And when I pushed, I am definitely representing a really strong hand, possibly Pocket Aces or Kings myself since I raised PF. I bet he had AQ or a Axh. I maybe even got him to lay down AK. And even if he had 66 (which was unlikely, since I had one the the three sixes left), he would have a really tough decision. I then decided to show my bluff and told him to not min-raise me. Showing this bluff I think did two things for me. First, it said that if you are going to min-raise me, you might be playing for your stack. And second, since they now know that I may be willing to play for my stack here, someone with a monster hand will min-raise me, hoping I put in my stack. So if I see a min-raise again at this table again, I can have be even more confident that I am up against a monster. I hope this make sense.

The next hand here is just like the above one, except I didn't show my bluff.

FullTiltPoker Game #663988490: Table Convention Center - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:22:01 ET - 2006/05/25

Seat 1: BB ($465.35)
Seat 2: UTG ($133.45)
Seat 3: OMGitsPokerFool ($205.35)
Seat 4: MP ($208.50)
Seat 5: LP ($197.75)
Seat 6: Donk Min-Raiser ($189.05)
Seat 7: Button ($228.90)
Seat 9: SB ($82.40)

SB posts the small blind of $1
BB posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to OMGitsPokerFool [7d 7s]

UTG folds
OMGitsPokerFool raises to $7
MP folds
LP folds
Donk Min-Raiser calls $7
Button folds
SB folds
BB folds

*** FLOP *** [Ac 4c Qh]

OMGitsPokerFool bets $11
Donk Min-Raiser raises to $22
OMGitsPokerFool raises to $50
Donk Min-Raiser has 15 seconds left to act
Donk Min-Raiser folds

Uncalled bet of $28 returned to OMGitsPokerFool

OMGitsPokerFool mucks
OMGitsPokerFool wins the pot ($58)

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot $61 | Rake $3


Cheers!

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Ummm, Huh?

We interrupt this poker blog for this very important Lost message.



I'm a big Lost fan. I've seen every episode. But yesterday's season finale wasn't very good. And I was really looking forward to this episode.

Things that I liked about the season 2 finale: I enjoyed Desmond's back story. I really like this character, and I hope he is a regular in future seasons. I like how the writers link characters to each other. For example, Desmond's hatch partner, Kelvin. He is the same dude who captured Sayid and turned him into a torturer. I also was really surprised that "Henry Gale" is the leader of the "Others". That was a nice twist. And the little twist about the "Pearl" station being the one that is a farce was a nice touch. And that big stone foot. That was cool, but what's the story behind that?

Things I didn't like: I was really expecting some answers about Libby. They killed her off for christ's sake! She seems to be tied to a lot of people, but instead of giving us answers, they give us more questions. OK, so she gave the boat to Desmond. But WHY!?! What is her story? Is she part of this Hanso organization? And they better not have killed off either Locke, Eko, or Desmond ( I know Desmond's demise is entirely possible). If they kill off Locke or Eko, I'm not watching anymore. And we still didn't find out why the others wanted Sawyer, Freckles, and Jack. And what is up with bringing Hurley, and then letting him go? WTF that all about? And we never got any answers to some of the "super natural" aspects of the show. What's the deal with the monsters/polar bears? And the black fog? And the giant parrot that can say Hurley's name? And also, in the first season, the Numbers were super important. Now we don't even hear about them. Are they just numbers now? Do they hold no significance? Seriously, WTF? No more story on Sayid after he went ashore? Did he just give up? I'm going on TILT! So all we got out of this episode are more questions. Yipee. (<---sarcasm)

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

What bonus should I do next?

I finally finished off the latest Party Bonus. The last 400 hands were brutal. No sets. I don't think got aces. Maybe got kings once. Completely card dead. I still made a good $200 yesterday, even though I wasn't too happy with my play as a whole. I won some pretty big hands over at B2B. I stacked off someone and thier Pockets Aces with 52s. I was in the BB at a 6 max table and villain only made $3 raise and I called. Flop came with two more twos, and he couldn't let go of his overpair. The very next hand I stacked someone else who had pocket Kings when I hit my straight on the turn with 67o. Muahaha.

I also played in a SNG for the first time in a couple weeks. I have been mainly soncentrating on my NL cash game, but I fired up a $27 Turbo SNG at Stars and won the thing. I played really tight in the beginning, and then with 6 left, I got QQ, AA, and QQ in back to back to back hands. I knocked out two peoeple with one of the QQ hands. We all got our money in PF and I was up against 88 and AK. A nice Queen on the flop shipped the chips my way. At one point with four left, I had 9,000 of the 13,500 chips in play. Once it was down to two of us, it got a little bit closer, but I took it down with Q3 vs J9.

I also donated some money at the WWdN tournie. I sat out the whole MTT, and still ended up at around 30th place. Heh. I don't mind donating money to some of the other bloggers out there. I also started playing the $10 Rebuy guarenteed 55K MTT. I was at a nice table for a while and tripled up, but then got moved to a rock garden. I lost a good chunk to a rivered inside straight draw, and then lost a coinflip a little later on. I decided not to rebuy and just end it. I figured it wasn't worth it to rebuy and continue to play at a table like this. It was still level 2 and it was being folded to the blinds every other hand! This is the worst kind table to be at in a rebuy MTT, so I said screw it and quit.

I'm not sure where I will go to next. I am still working on the TopRankedPoker Bonus. But table selection there is bad, so I need to add another site to bonus whore. I am thinking about adding another Tribeca site like VictorChandler. I also will probably try playing over at FullTilt finally. And I may also do a PSO promotion through PokerShare.

Bankroll is above $8,000 now. $9,000 possible by the end of the month? Maybe, espeically considering the TopRankedPoker bonus due on the 30th of this month.

Cheers!

Monday, May 22, 2006

Damn You Random Number Gen.... Oh Never Mind

I was all prepared to write a post complaining to the random number generator about my lack of cards lately, specifically the number of sets I've flopped. But things started turning around.

From Saturday morning through Monday morning, I played 850 hands, and flopped only one set. And to top it off, I lost that hand. Flopping sets on monotone flops sucks. Dude called my re-raise with TPTK and the nut flush draw and hit the flush on the turn. I can't complain about the play there, since I would have played it the same way.

I started off on a bad note this weekend on the poker playing front. Saturday morning I ended up getting stuck about $300. I lost two nice sized pots to my opponent rivering their inside straight draws. And then the above set hand, plus another hand where I donked off some chips chasing a flush draw. But things started to turn around. I made a few dollars back later on in the day. Then made a few dollars sunday morning. And I just finished up a quick lunch session where I have now erased that $300 loss and I am now up $200 since then! Monday's Rock! I have flopped two sets today, both of them with pocket Queens. I won a smallish type pot with one, but won a nice sized pot with the other when someone called my bets with QJ. Thank you very much! I am up just over $400 for the day, which includes a few bonus dollars at WillHill.

I also played some more at the 200NL level. I started out by buying in for $150, and by the time I left, I worked that up to $360. There was one player there who had a VP$IP (voluntarily put money in the pot) of over 70%. I made about $100 of off him on a few hands. Then I made a gutsy call to win a $200 pot.

I had pocket Aces in Late Position. It was folded to me, and I made a standard raise to $8 (4xBB). Only the SB called. The flop came something like 279 with two diamonds. He checked, and I bet about 3/4 pot and he called. Turn was a non diamond blank, and he checked, and again I bet 3/4 pot and he called. Pot was now around $100. The River brought the 3rd diamond. He led out for $50. It definitely looked like he could have hit a flush. But I called anyways and he showed pocket 5's. That's probably a -EV play over the long run, but I trusted my instinct, which told me I was still ahead (though I just called instead of raising, just in case :P).

I've been feeling really good about my play lately. My confidence is rising. I have been making some really good reads, and for the most part, they are right on the money. One thing that I have been doing really well is pouncing on someone who shows weakness. The thing that has really helped me with that is realizing the power of position in NL hold 'em. Say you face a raise from a player and you call with position. A lot of people will fire of a continuation bet on the flop, but there are not a lot of people who will fire a second bullet on the turn if they don't have anything. Or they will fire that second bullet, but it is a real weak bet. Being able to spot weakness like this is such a great skill to have, as you can steal a lot of pots here. It doesn't even really matter what cards you have (though of course, it would be nice to have a little something or at least some outs in case you are called).

Cheers!

Friday, May 19, 2006

AQ = Muck at full table. AQ = gold at 6 max

Ok, so maybe it was gold just for today though. I still don't like AQ, but it treated me pretty good this morning over at B2B on the 100NL 6 max tables. I made another couple C notes this morning, and I am within striking distance of 8 G's in my bankroll. I won two nice pots with AQ off of the same guy who I had pegged for a not so good player. He gave me his stack when I hit TPTK and he had 3rd pair, top kicker. Thanks for calling me the whole way! A little while later after he reloaded, I took another nice pot off of him again with AQ and two pair.

I also sat down at a 200NL table again this morning, this time over at Party Poker. When I start out at a new level, I don't like to buy-in for a full stack, as I want to "test the water" first. So I bought in for $150. I ended up about $55 in about 60 hands, so that was pretty nice. The biggest hand with me having KK and villain re-raising me on the flop, and then he folded after I re-popped it back at him.

I finally hit a set this morning, my first in a couple days. It was with pocket Kings, but I got no action after the flop :( Oh well. I had one suckout, but that's ok. Dude slowplayed his bottom set when I hit top two pair on the flop. I filled up on the river to take a nice pot. Remember, DON'T SLOWPLAY BOTTOM SET! If he would have raised big on the flop or turn, I might have let it go.

There is another Minnesota Poker Blogger that you should go check out. Head on over to RageOnTilt and read about ragecg's poker playing adventures!

Have a good weekend!

Thursday, May 18, 2006

PokerRewards and Doyle's Room Bonus Finished

I finished up a couple bonuses the last two days. I had deposited some money over at PokerRewards through PokerSourceOnline a couple week ago. I finally cleared that and earned a nice $100 bonus (on top of the 6000 PSO points, which equates to $60). I finished up over $200 from playing poker, so it was a fairly profitable stay.

I then I cleared the Doyle's Room bonus for another $135. I love that site. I finished up over $550 there from playing poker. I will definitely be leaving money in that account. I may try another Tribeca site soon, like Victor Chandler. The bonus at VC equates to about 80% rakeback (compared to 100% at Doyle's), and with the "quality" of play there, it should be another good opportunity to make some coin.

I'm still working on the bonus over at TopRankedPoker. I have only accumulated about 1000 VIPs there (which equals 200 Euro). I doubt I will get to the 3000 needed for the max bonus. That's ok, because I am starting to get annoyed with their software. The tables keep freezing up on me, especially when I first open a table. I've timed out a few times holding some nice cards (Aces and Kings) because I can't hit any of the buttons. I'm not sure what is going on there. No other B2B sites do this to me. Also, there isn't a great selection of games going on at one time. There are never any 8 person 100NL tables going, so I only play the 6 max games. So I'll just play there when I can and take my 20 Euro per 100 VIPs when the month is up.

And finally on the bonus front, I deposited some more money over at PartyPoker for another one of their $100 bonuses. I'm about a quarter of the way through this one already. I love PartyPoker. I've probably made almost $1000 from bonuses there!

I had a pretty decent poker day yesterday. I made just over $200. And that was without hitting any sets! I haven't flopped trips for a couple days now, so I should be due soon :) I made most of that $200 from my big pocket pairs holding up, especially pocket Kings. Along with the recent cleared bonuses, my bankroll is now above $7500. I sat down at a 200NL table for the first time the other day over at Doyle's. I am pretty sure my bankroll could support the full time move to that level, but I am going to give a little while longer and maybe get the bankroll to 10k before I do that. Anyways, I started out pretty good, picking up a few small pots. I ended up down though, mostly from my play involving AQ. In about 50 hands, I think I got AQ at least 5 times. I should add this to my rule book: Muck AQ unless it is folded to you in the CO or on the button. Doing this would be +EV I think.

In other news, I noticed that my statcounter hit 1000 last week. It's now over 1100! I'm not really sure what that number means though. I think half of those are from me editing all of my spelling and grammer errors. So to all the 2 or 3 people who read this, thanks for dropping by!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Super Mega Tilt


Wow. I've never been this super mega tilted before. All I can do is just shake my head. The 45 minutes at the tables I put in this morning were unbelievable. I don't really know what happened. It was constant. I should describe some of the hands that put me on tilt. But I am trying to forget them. Runner-runner straight with 68o. Runner-Runner flush with T3s. The same guy. With me betting the whole way. Giving really crappy odds to chase. How do you call those hands PF, let alone on the flop when you have nothing?

I think it was good for me to experience this super mega tilt. I think I handled it ok. It was a good thing that it was before work and that it was time for me to leave. If I am to become a better poker player, I have to know how to handle tilt. It is going to happen. I want people to call me PF with T3s and 86o. I want them to call my flop bets with nothing. And I realize that they will hit every once in a while. I want them to hit every once in a while (preferably not against me) so that they keep coming back to donate their money.

So how much did I lose? $200? $500? Na, even though these hands did cost me a lot, I only ended up down somewhere between $50 and $75. I did win some hands. There was a big hand I won right away, but I don't remember the details, heh. So I guess I can take that as a consolation prize. It wasn't an expensive lesson.

Friday, May 12, 2006

B2B poker sites, Oh how I love thee

I had a great poker session this morning over at B2B. Have I told you how much I love those B2B sites? In a half an hour, I made almost 300 € playing two 6 max NL100 tables. I ran across one guy, who was at both of the tables I was at, who constantly bluffed at me. I don't know, maybe when I sat down, he saw the "fool" in my alias and decided I was going to be the guy he was going to pick on. Most of the time that I raised PF, he would call or re-raise a smallish amount. Then on the flop, if I threw out a continuation bet, he would raise me. The first couple times I folded to his aggression, as I didn't hit the flop very hard. Then, when he kept doing it, I figured that he can't have a hand every single time, so I started playing back at him and re-raising. And you know what, he was folding! And then he still kept bluffing away at me, and I kept on playing back at him. He won one pot off of me when he caught two pair on the river. But most of the time, my hand held up. I made quit a bit of money off of him. I don't know what it was, but people were really trying to bluff me this morning. I won another huge pot against another dude with AQ and TPTK when he tried to push me out of the pot with pocket Tens.

I also won a pot that is now my biggest pot ever. On Saturday, I scooped a nice 200 € pot. Well this morning, I scooped a 250 € pot! Here is the hand:

6 Max 100NL. I have about 150 €. Villain from this hand has 126 €. I get KK in MP and raise my standard amount to 4 €. Only the villain in the BB calls.
The flop is a very pretty K, 7, 3 rainbow. Hopefully my opponent caught a piece of that. Pot is at 8.50. He checks, and I check behind, not afraid of giving him a free card because there are no draws out there and I have the nuts right now.
The turn is the Jack of Spades, putting two spades out there now. Villain leads out for 3.25, about 40% pot. I pop it up to 10. He min-raises! Ooo, he must have something. Right now I am thinking that the Jack helped him, so maybe he has pocket jacks. I decide that I need to put a nice big re-raise in there, just in case he is drawing to a flush with the two spades out there (though the only hand I could see him having for a flush draw would be AK of spades). So I re-raise it up again. And then he comes over the top again with a re-raise. He has just 20 left, so I out him all in.

The turn action looked like this:
Villain Bet (3.25)
PokerFool$ Raise (10.00)
Villain Raise (13.50)
PokerFool$ Raise (35.00)
Villain Raise (85.00)
PokerFool$ All-In (103.25)
Villain All-In (20.75)
PokerFool$ Payback (25.75)

So either I am way ahead and he has one out to 4 of a kind, or he is drawing to a flush with AK of spades and has 8 outs.

River is a blank, and he turns over pocket 3's for bottom set, and I scoop a huge pot. I love winning sets over sets!

So my bankroll is now over $7,000! I'm up $900 already this month. Wow! I'm still working on a bunch of bonuses. I haven't put much of a dent in them this week. And then, Party Poker comes along and offers me another reload bonus! Man, I don't know if I'll have time to do all of these juicy bonuses!

Cheers!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Minnesota Poker Bloggers

Not too much to report on the poker front the last couple days. I've just been grinding out at the ring games trying to clear some bonuses. I finished off the Party Poker bonus for $100 on Monday. And I have 200 more raked hands to go over at PokerRewards for a $100 bonus. Then I have about 5000 more action points to go over at Doyle's for a $135 bonus. I should finish off those this week. And then I am grinding away over at Toprankedpoker. I have about 500 VIPs so far (and up about 300 Euro). I took my first loss there this morning, mainly from the Soko tables. That game is pretty fun. I had some monster draws, but none of them came through. Oh well.

So I thought I would pimp some of the other poker blogs out there from people who also live in Minnesota. There are some damn good ones. And you know why all the Minnesota poker bloggers are so good? Because there is nothing else to do up here. We live in a professional sports wasteland. Timberwolves suck. Twins suck really bad. Wild missed the playoffs, so they suck. The Vikings look promising, but they don't start for another couple months, and they will just end up disappointing us again anyways.

First one is Drizztdj over at Nickel and Dimes. Drizz is one of the best poker bloggers out there and the first one I check in the morning. He posts almost every day and writes some great tales about his life and poker. I'm sure that most of you already visit Nickel and Dimes every day and this isn't new news for you. But if you don't, what the hell are you doing? Get over there now!

BloodyP over at Bloody P Plays Poker is another great Minnesota poker blogger. He's pretty new to the poker blogging scene, having only started back in January, but he is another blogger that I check out every day. He has some entertaining and funny stories about his adventures at the small stakes poker games. Go check out his blog!

Also from MN is Chad over at Pokerama-rama. He's been blogging about poker forever I think. He is one of the first poker blogs that I started to visit almost a year ago. He's a damn good poker player and has had some pretty good advice over at his blog.

Professional Poker Player™ Chris Halverson over at www.chrishalverson.com is another awesome MN poker blogger. He's been blogging even before Chad!

Those are some top rate blogs here folks. Go check them out!

That's all that I know of for now, and I'm sure there are many others. If anyone knows of any other MN poker bloggers out there, let me know.

Cheers!

Monday, May 08, 2006

A mistake turned into a success!

I had a pretty good weekend on the poker tables. I made over $100 on each of the last three days. Most of that was due to me getting back at the tables over at TopRankedPoker.com and B2B. I love those B2B sites. I won my biggest pot ever on Saturday night there. I had limped in with pocket 8's at an eight person 100 Euro table, and some dude raised it up pretty high (I was pretty sure he had Kings or Aces with that raise). There was another caller, and the flop came 78T. I checked and pf raiser bet huge. I of course went over the top all-in, and he quickly called with his pocket Kings. The pot was just over 200 Euro (so about $250).

Here is a sequence of hands that I had over at an 8 person 50 Euro table. I kind of screwed up the first hand by not getting maximum value, but I made up for it with the second hand.

First Hand: I'm in the Small blind with Pocket 5's and just under a full stack. There is one limper, and villain raises it up to 5xBB (to 2.50). I call, as does the BB. Limper folds. Flop is Ace of spades, 8 of clubs, and 5 of clubs. I hit a set, now how do I make the most money off of him? I check, as does the BB. Villain raises it up to 5.50 (which is about 2/3 pot). I call, and the BB folds. The Turn is the 5 of hearts! Bingo Bango Bongo! Quads! I check again, and villain bets 12.00 (another 2/3 pot). I just called (I should have raised him here). The river is the 7 of clubs. So that put out 3 clubs. It definitely could look like I was drawing to a flush, and I just hit it on the river. So that 3rd club is not a good card for me, unless he was going for a flush too. So pot is at 43.00, and I lead out and bet 25.00. He folds, and makes some comment like "nice catch" or something like that.

I didn't play that monster hand very well, and I should have definitely gotten more value out of it.

About 5 hands later, this hand comes up. It involves the same villain, and now I have him covered (my 80 to his 42). I am in early position, and I limp in with the Ten of spades and the 8 of spades. T8s is usually a hand I muck, but this table was playing pretty loose, so I started playing a few more hands. Some other person min bets it after me, and the BB (villain from above) calls, as do I. Flop comes 3 of spades, 4 of spades, and 7 of hearts. Pot is 3.25, and villain in the BB leads out for 2.50. I call, other dude folds. Turn is the Ace of clubs. Villain leads out again for 2/3 pot. And I call again, chasing my flush. I know I didn't have odds to chase, but I think my implied odds were really high. River comes the 9 of spades, and I hit my flush. So there is 19.00 in the pot now. Villain checks to me. I'm thinking of how much I can bet, when the dude says, "not again!" thinking that I chased a flush against him just like the last time. So I decide to over bet the pot and put him all in (so like a 32 Euro bet). Hopefully this will look like a steal. He's probably thinking "If he really did make the flush, there is no way he would over bet like that". So he called and I scooped a nice size pot. Too bad B2B hand histories don't show mucked cards, because I don't know what he had. Pocket 3's or 4's maybe?

He then lays into me about being a flush chasing fool. I then inform him that I had quads on the hand before. I doubt he believed me.

So what did we learn here? Pay attention to your table image, and figure out what the other people think about you. Use that information to your advantage, and you can make a lot of money.

Friday, May 05, 2006

April Poker Tracker Results

I wanted to throw up a little post with a little more detail on April, The Best Poker Month Ever! Mainly so I can look back a couple months from now and say, "Wow, I ran really good here. How did I do this?"

My $50 and $100 NL Full ring numbers don't look too out of the ordinary. PTBB/100 of 9.5 and 4.2(a PTBB is Two Big Blinds in No Limit Hold 'em, so I made 19 Big Blinds per 100 for $50NL, and 8.4 Big Blinds per 100 for $100NL). That is pretty doable over the long run I think. But my 6 max stats! Wow! I've read that 6 max is pretty high variance. Ain't that the truth. PTBB/100 of 49.6 and 38.0!

I don't play too much, so I didn't have a whole heck of a lot of hands in. There were only about 4500 hands here. I also played some at BetFred and Titan, but they don't have pokertracker support. I probably played a good 1200 to 1500 hands there, all at $50NL (probably split between full ring and 6 max) and made $175.83. So that is around 13 PT/BB there.



I'm not really sure what all those numbers are supposed to tell me. I am a TAG (Tight Aggressive)? A LAG (Loose Aggressive)? A Luckbox?

Cheers!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

A little experiment

I have about 700 more hands at Party Poker, and about 300 more hands at Prima before I can collect a $100 bonus at each site. So I am going to try a little experiment and grind out these bonuses as fast as possible. Mainly so I can get back at the tables over at Doyle's Room and B2B, which have been extremely profitable for me.

I will play NL $50 (with maybe a couple NL $25 and a NL $100 thrown in). I am going to play up to 8 tables at once, and play them all short stacked. I will use a slightly modified version of Kill Phil Basic where basically I will buy in for the minimum (or about 30BBs) I will push all-in with AA-QQ and AK, and maybe add a few others in late position if there haven't been any raises. If there are a lot of limpers, I will limp with some mid pocket pairs, hoping to hit a set. If I double up, I will leave that table, and go to another table for the minimum. There is a post over at bet-the-pot.com with other people trying this experiment, and it looks like it is slightly profitable.

I'm thinking I can get through those 1000 hands in a couple hours or so.

Anyone ever tried anything like this? Comments, questions, concerns?

Check back tomorrow to see how it all went down

Cheers!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Tuesday Night MTTs

I was able to play in a few Multi-table Tournaments last night. My stats for the night? ITM = 0%. Yipee! It was fun though, so it wasn't a total loss.

I started out playing in the WWdN tournament. I doubled up in the first two levels to take an early chip lead. I got Pocket Kings from Early position and made a standard raise. I got re-raised a little and I popped it back again and they called. Flop came Jack high, I bet and other dude went all-in. I thought for a while, thinking that it might be Aces. But I called anyways and they showed Queens. I stayed pretty aggressive toward the beginning and was in the top 10 most of the way. I did suck out once and knocked out S.t.B. It was a SB vs BB battle and I raised PF. I hit bottom pair, and bet and he reraised. It wasn't too much more to put him all-in, so that is what I did. He showed top pair. But the turn gave me 2 pair, and the river filled me up. When it got down to 3 tables, I was right around even in chip stack. The table I was at was pretty tight, so stealing blinds wasn't that hard. I raised it up from Late position with K9s. One caller ( I think the BB). Flop came 8,9,K. I bet half pot and villain called. Turn was a 7, and we got all our money in. Turns out villain had pocket 7's and hit their two outer. I'm not really sure why they called on the flop with all overs to their pocket pair. I probably should have bet more on the flop. Oh well.

In the other tournaments, none of my hands would hold up.

In a 180 person $20 SNG, It was down to the final 4 tables. I have an average chip stack. I get pocket Kings and with two limpers in front of me, I push all-in. The BB calls my all-in (limpers fold) with pocket 9's. Ya dude, nice play. At best your looking at a coinflip. Of course a 9 on the flop sends me home.

I played in the Stars $10 $55K guaranteed tournie too. I did well the first hour, doubling up a few times an catching some nice flops. After the add-on, I was a little above par. Then after that, I went card dead. I was always in the bottom 50 people, with an M around 5 or 6. I stayed alive by successfully stealing blinds once an orbit or so. Then I get moved to a new table, and get placed in the BB right away. Thanks! But I get Pocket Jacks. UTG raises 3xBB, CO calls, and I push all-in ( I had doubled up a few hands earlier with TT vs 33, so my M was now about 8). UTG calls me. With what you say? Aces? No. Kings? Nope. Ok, AK then, right? Wrong again! He called half his stack away, with a big stack in the CO still yet to act, with ATo. Ace on the flop and IGHN.

And then, on the advice of Joe Speaker, I played in the Paradise $10 rebuy MTT. I was so unbelievably card dead, it was funny. And the players there are crazy! But I never got cards to get involved in any hands. I got Aces once during the re-buy period. There were a couple limpers in front of me, so I push all-in. Unfortunately, only a small stack in the BB called with KTo. Two tens on the flop, and I lost that one too. I ended up going out later on with AQ vs AJ. I got knocked out the last hand before the 2nd break, and that AQ was the best hand I saw for that entire hour. Ouch.

I hope that I don't sound like I am whining. After playing last night, it is even more evident on how atrocious most online poker players are. I saw some truly awful play, especially at the Paradise MTT. For people that know what they are doing, it is a gold mine out there. You just have to get a little lucky and concentrate on making the correct decisions and hope you get your money in with the best of it. I think I accomplished that for the most part, but things didn't end quite the way I wanted.

There's always next time!

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

April Results

I've been really looking forward to writing this post. April was a good month for the bankroll. It was The Best Poker Month Ever©™™! February and March kept my bankroll pretty stagnant. But in April, I doubled my bankroll from just under 3,000 to 6,000 (remember, this is play money ;D )

Total Profit: $3,185.10

Total Bonuses Received: $1,253.59
  • PokerStars: $120.00
  • BetFred: $250.00
  • Titan: $20.00
  • Martin's: 600.00 € (about $720.00)
  • PartyPoker: $100.00
  • WillHill: $43.59
Total Poker Profit: $1,931.51
  • PokerStars: $870.00
  • BetFred: $118.46
  • Titan: $57.37
  • Martin's: $65.72
  • PartyPoker: $297.62
  • WillHill: $69.68
  • Doyles's Room: $342.89
  • PokerRewards: $109.77
No Limit Ring Profit: $1,103.41
  • $50NL: $458.23
  • $100NL: $645.18
Limit Ring Profit: -$35.00

Sit-N-Go Profit: $575.20
  • $10 or $11 SNGs: $165.80 (1st place in a 45 person $11+1 Turbo SNG)
  • $15+1 Turbo SNGs: $172.50 (Total Played: 12; 1st: 5; 2nd: 0; 3rd: 1) ROI: 90%
  • $20+2 Speed SNGs: $226.00 (Total Played: 24; 1st: 4; 2nd: 2; 3rd: 6) ROI: 42.8%
  • $25+2 Turbo SNGs: -$27.50 (Total Played: 7; 1st: 0; 2nd: 1; 3rd: 2) ROI: -14.5%
  • $30+3 SNGs: $38.40 (Total Played: 5; 1st: 1; 2nd: 0; 3rd: 1) ROI: 23.3%
Total SNG Return On Investment (ROI): 51.3%

Multi Table Tournaments: $287.90 (4th in a 180 person $20 SNG; 7th in WWdN $10 MTT)

There you have it. I was profitable at each poker room that I played at, which is quite amazing to me. Obviously, the big bonus I got from Martin's was a huge boost, but April turned out to be good even without that. Of course I know that these results are not sustainable. Over 50% ROI on SNGs? I'd say 20-30% is the high end over the long term for a really good player. I'm not exactly sure what PokerTracker says my ring game results are (I'll maybe go into that in a later post), but I would guess my PTBB/100 is right around 13 or so, which also isn't really sustainable. Though some where around 10 is doable I think, especially at the limits I play at.

Another thing of note is the number of days where I made over $100. There were 10 days of over $100, with one at 360 and another at 420! Wow! I like those days. I had 22 profitable days, and 8 days with losses.

Hopefully May continues like April, but I fully expect the bad end of variance to kick in any time here. I have quite a few bonuses to grind out this month. I have about 500 more raked hands at PokerRewards, about 700 more at PartyPoker, and I signed up for the 600 € Bonus at TopRankedPoker.com, which gives 20 €€ for every 100 raked hands. So 3000 total there.

Oof da!

Monday, May 01, 2006

Trust Your Instincts

They say that in poker, your first instinct is usually right. I am really starting to believe this. There have been quite a few times I have been playing poker, and I just knew that I was beat, but I couldn't make the laydown. And it always costs me a lot of money. I need to start trusting my first instinct more.

Here are two recent examples of my first instinct being right. One time where I did not trust it, and it cost me some money, and one time I went with it and won a nice pot.

Over at Doyle's Room and the Tribeca network (Home of the crazy players). $100NL full table. I get pocket 9's and limp in from early position, hoping someone behind me raises and I hit a set. Sure enough, the Cutoff raises it to $5. The BB calls, as do I. So about $15 in the pot. Flop comes Q72 rainbow. Dang oh well, I didn't hit my set, I'll check-fold. BB checks, I check, and get ready to fold to the PF raisers bet. But wait. He checks too. Hmmm, he must have JJ, TT, or AK or something like that. The turn comes a 9! Sweet, I have trips. BB checks, I bet about $10. The Pre-flop raiser calls and BB folds. Uh oh. A little warning bell sounds off in my head, and I bet he has pocket Queens and slowplayed the flop. Pot is at $35. River is another Q! WTF?!?! I have a full house 9's over queens. I lead out and bet $20. He pauses for a moment, and goes all-in. He can't have quads, can he? No way he can have quads. The only hand that beats me here is Pocket Queens for quads. He wouldn't have raised PF with Q7 or Q2. Is he bluffing? I'm not sure why I called, when I KNEW he had those quads. I just felt it in my gut. But sure enough, I didn't trust my instinct and called. I figured that the chance of someone getting quads is very small, and if I am beat by quads, so be it. It was a terrible call, and I lost my stack.

Again, over at Doyle's Room, this time at a 6-max $100NL table. There was one guy who was playing a lot of pots, and raising about 40% of the time. He was a maniac. Maniacs are fun to play with, cause if you get a big hand, you can get paid off. I get A4s in the BB. Villain of course raised it up to about $3 (only 3xBB). I called. Flop came 4d, 5d, 6s. Oof, that flop is ugly. I check and villain bets just under pot. I don't know what it was, but I just knew this guy was full of crap, so I called. Turn was 9h. Again, I checked and he bet and I called again. Most people won't fire off a 2nd bullet without something, but this dude was a maniac. I only had a pair of 4's on a scary board, but my instinct told me that it was good. I knew he was full of crap. The river was the 5c. Again, I checked and he made another half pot bet. And again I called. Lots of hands beat me here. But we turned over our cards, and he showed 83o and I scooped a nice pot! An eight and a three! Can you believe it? Sure, he had a ton of outs, but I knew that I had him beat. Usually A4 goes into the muck in front of a raise. But with maniacs (especially maniacs at 6 max tables), you gotta play a few more hands. And this had the extra benefit of affecting my table image. They all saw this play by me, and probably labeled me a calling station. And you can't bluff a calling station!

I know some of you will read this and say, "Doh! What a donk! Fold A4 in front of a raise". But I went with my instinct here, and it worked out pretty well.

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

I had a pretty decent weekend on the tables. I made a little money both at Doyle's and PokerRewards (A Prima Skin). I signed up through pokersourceonline.com at PokerRewards, so I'll get an extra $60 in bonus on top of the $100 for 1000 raked hands. Plus, once I get to 750 raked hands, I can sign-up for a nice $10,000 freeroll coming up in a few weeks.

I also deposited for another PartyPoker bonus of $100 for 1000 raked hands.

Even though I made a few dollars this weekend, I've been pretty card dead. I took a look at my PokerTracker database, and I played about 600 total hands yesterday and this morning. I had ZERO sets in those 600 hands. Mathematically, you should get a set every 130 hands or so. But my last 600 I have had none! Argg!

And with all these bonuses I need to work on, I haven't played too many SNGs. I have played 9 in the last week, and I have three 3rd place finishes. That's it. In three of those, I've been knocked out by quads! WTF?!?!1!

Tomorrow, I put up a post on my April results, The Best Poker Month Ever©™!

Cheers!