Live Poker Is Rigged

Played in a home game on Monday night. There were nine of us, and we played two $10 games. I went out 5th and 4th in each. We paid top three. In the last, I went out with pocket Aces to pocket Nines when the turn and river brought the third and forth diamonds. I didn't have the ace of diamonds. He had the 9 of diamonds. We had exactly the same chip stack, so it was a brutal beat.

Just a few hands earlier there was an PF all-in between two other people of QJo QJo. The board brought 4 diamonds and someone won what should have been a split. Live Poker is rigged I tell you!

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So I was looking at my stats from the last couple months, and I noticed that I am running at +10 PTBB/100 at $100NL full ring, +0.77 PTBB/100 at $200NL full ring, and -10 PTBB/100 at $100NL 6 max. That pretty much explains my long breakeven streak the last three months.

So I have decided to stick with the proven winner, and I plan on only playing $100NL for the time being. The results have been good so far, as I am up $300 in the last 24 hours (about 300 hands played).

There were two big pots that are included in those recent results. The first is when it was folded to me in the cutoff and I have A9 and decide to raise it up. The Big Blind calls. The flop is A, x, x with two diamonds. He checks, and I bet 3/4 pot, and he calls. The turn is the 9s giving me top two pair, but now putting two diamonds and two spades out there. He checks, I bet full pot and he pushes. I think for a while and call and he has A4 of spades and thankfully no spade came on the river.

The 2nd big pot, I was in the SB with pocket Jacks. It is folded to the button who limps. I raise it up standard and he pushed. I've never seen a limp-re-raise all-in from the button, so I called. He showed pocket 7's and my hand held up for another stack.

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Anyone out there have an open spot on their fantasy football league? I'm in danger of not being in a league for the first time in like 10 years!

Cheers!

Break Even Weekend

Lost a little on Friday. Lost more on Saturday. Won it all back on Sunday. Would have been up a lot more because on Sunday, but got rivered to death in the afternoon. Sunday could have easily been a +$600 day if it weren't for those suckouts.

Played mostly at Full Tilt, and I am enjoying playing over there again. There are a lot more people, and that means there are going to be more bad players. I actually found quite a few fish this weekend. I was able to get a lot of money off of a couple, but the biggest fish sucked out on me a couple times. His stats were VP$IP of 75%, Pre-Flop Raise of 0%, and aggression factor of under 1.00!!! If you look up "donk calling station" in the dictionary, you will find this guy. He was truly horrible. Of course, I couldn't get a hand to save my life against him. The one big hand I played against him, he sucked out on me.

I had AJ in Late Position, and he was the BB. I raised it up standard with AJs, and of course he called. Flop came A, J, x. Top two pair for me, yay. So I bet 60% and he calls (duh). Turn is a King. uh oh. I bet again half pot and he calls. River is another King and my two pair is counterfeited. Check Check. He has AQ and wins with AAKKQ vs my AAKKJ. After the flop, I'm 85% to win.

It's been a while since I've played at a site where I can datamine and really use a HUD program to display stats of my opponents. I am really liking this extra information now over at Full Tilt. Getting an idea if my opponent is a maniac or a calling station is valuable information.

Here are a couple updated graphs of my bankroll. The first is total bankroll, with rakeback, bonuses all included. The last one is just poker starting off with $0 in the beginning of November. As you can see, I was pretty much break even from November to March, then went on a heater in April-May, and from June till now, its pretty much break even again. Uggg.

I Don't Know Why I Even Bother With Tournaments

Last night I played in Five tournaments and two Sit-n-go's.

Number of cashes: 0
Money Lost: -$185

NL Ring Games last night: + $300

I wonder how much I coulda won if I didn't waste my time in tournaments. Too bad they are a good time. Even though I haven't cashed in a MTT in about a billion years, they still are a heck of a lot of fun.

I played the Mookie again last night. First hand I get the hammer and take down the pot with a flop continuation bet. I played pretty well in this MTT. I was actually the chip leader for a while. I flopped a Full House with K8 when I was just trying to steal the blinds and won a nice pot against budman something or the other. When it got down to 2 tables, I was still in the top half, but started to lose my stack on wiffed flops. Then I got it all-in with Pocket Jacks vs KQ and won the coinflip. Very next hand I get Pocket Kings! Too bad someone else had Aces. Yay me.

I made it deep in the Stars Crazy $10 Rebuy. I went out about 40 out of the money. I was actually in the top 75 for a little while. But we had a huge giant stack at our table, and he was 3x BB betting over half of the time. I was card dead, and starting getting blinded down. Chip leader had shown the he is willing to fold PF to big re-raises, so I tried it out with K9s. Too bad he actually had a hand that time, and I lose the 60/40 hand.

I also played in the Paradise $10 rebuy. I was in the top 100 after the rebuy period and my stack stayed about the same all the way until my last hand. I had an M of about 10, and I find AK in EP so I raise it up 3x BB. Button who has me covered by about double calls, but SB min-raises. I push. The button calls for some reason ( I guess a bet, and a raise behind him and then a re-raise isn't enough to make him fold). The SB also calls (He had me covered by only 750 chips). Since one of the others was not all-in, their cards were not flipped over. But a King on the flop gave me hope that my hand was good. They checked it down. The Turn was a blank, and the River was a 4. Guess what the button had? Yep, pocket 4's. He called a raise and a re-raise with pocket 4's for half his stack.

Then I lost in the other MTTs and SNGs. The only thing I remember about the others is I lost KK to A3 sooooooted and lost with two pair to pocket 5's who flopped a 5, and rivered the last one just to rub it in a little more.

Yay donkaments.

Damn Tilt

Ug, Had a crappy session this morning. Got rivered in one of my first ten hands and went on semi-tilt the rest of the morning. I started playing way too aggressive, and got burned big time. Thankfully, the people who got me this morning never had more than a half stack, so I didn't lose the maximum.

So I get Kings and raise it up to $5 on the button. Two callers, flop come all unders with 2 spades, and it is checked to me. I bet 2/3 pot and dude check-raises me all-in. He has the nut flush draw and hits on the river.

I don't know why this put me on tilt, but then I started playing pretty aggressive and started playing hands fast that I probably could have gotten away from. Plus, it doesn't help when donks flop the nuts vs you.

One particular hand, a donk min-raises on the button at 6 max. I'm in the BB with AJ and call. Flop is AKQ. Check, check. Turn is a Jack. I have two pair. He can't have a ten, right? I suppose pocket tens, but what other hand min-bets PF? Of course shortie has JT for the flopped nuts. grrr.

Another hand where there is a limper, and I bet from the button with QJ. SB and limper come along. Flop is A99. Check, Check, Check. Turn is a Ten. Ooo, I have an open ender now. SB bets half pot and I call with my OESD. River gives me my straight with an 8. He bets small again, I raise, and he pushes the rest of his half stack in. He had A9. NH sir.

And then to top it off, I get it all in on the flop vs another shortie with AT on a 34T rainbow flop. He has QTs, and goes runner-runner flush on me. Yay river.

All of those I should have played slower and try to control the size of the pot. Instead I went aggro crazy. Grrrr.

If I get my chores done early tonight, and get the kids in bed before 9PM, I'll probably try and join the Mookie Tournament tonight and maybe a crazy rebuy tournament.

Cheers!

Finally Finished The PokerShare Promo

Ug, I finally cranked out the final 200 or so FPPs over at PokerShare to finish off my PSO promo. I pretty much was even through those last 200 FPPs. I ended up a few hundred I think from playing there, but it sure felt like a grind. The biggest pot I won was with pocket 5's vs a PF dude who had AJ and the flop was AJ5. You gotta like that!

I also signed up at Royal Vegas through PokerSavvy this weekend, and finished up the 250 raked hands requirement. That went by pretty quickly at the 100NL tables (Plus a few hands at full ring 200NL). I ended down about $50 (but for some reason my cashier balance is $100 higher. I'll have to look into that). Royal Vegas is part of the Prima network. PokerSavvy also has two other pokerrooms to sign up at that are the Prima network, all worth 500 Savvy points each ($50). I think I will eventually do those, but I don't think I will continue on and clear the signup bonuses (100% up to 100, 1000 raked hands). I've never been a big fan of the Prima Network. There are usually a good number of 6 max games going on, but it is rare to find many full 10 person tables. And I haven't witnessed too many crazies like at some of the other networks I've played at. I'd much rather spend my time with the maniacs :)

I had a pretty good morning, up about $170 playing an hour or so. I stacked a guy over at poker.com with 86 of spades. I limped in and a whole bunch of other people limped in. Flop was Ah, 9s, 7s giving me an open ended straight flush draw. I bet, other dude raised, and I re-raised. He called. The turn was a blank, but I fired out another pot size bet. He called. The turn was a 5, giving me a straight, and he called off the rest of his stack with A9 and two pair. You gotta play those monster draws fast and build a nice big pot.

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I also have to mention a couple hands this weekend over at PokerShare. As I was clearing my FPPs, there actually were a couple crazy maniacs that sat down at my tables. Their stupidity cost me a couple of really nice size pots. The first one, I had pocket 8's and called a PF 4x BB bet. But the idiot in the blind decided to go all-in, and when the PF bettor called, I had to fold. Idiot had ATo, PF bettor had Kings. Of course an 8 flopped, and I would have won a really nice pot. Over at another table, I limped in with 53s (one of my new favorite hands), and there was a bet. Another idiot goes all-in. I have to fold my 53s, and PF better calls. PF bettor has Aces. Idiot has KJ. There were two 3's on the flop, and again I would have won a nice big pot and cracked aces.

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I've had some friends of mine who read this here blog ask some questions as to what a lot of the acronyms and other poker lingo means. Like, "What the hell does UTG mean?" etc....

Here is a really good thread over at Bet-the-Pot.com that lists all of the acronyms and their definitions. Go Check it out.

http://www.bet-the-pot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13883

Cheers!

Poker.com, Nine Poker, and PokerShare.com Reviews

I had a pretty good night on the tables last night, booking a $300+ win. Most of that coming over at Nine Poker where I won two nice pots with trips, and another with 63s in the SB and flopping a flush. This win got me back above 11k in my "total" bankroll (The one I am keeping track of. My actual bankroll is smaller due to withdrawals). After starting off August on a really bad streak, I am almost back to even when I include bonuses. I hate starting months off like that, climbing back from a loss just to break even.

I finished off the promotions over at poker.com and Nine poker. I still am working on the PokerShare one. Here is a quick description of each of those sites:

Poker.com doesn't get much traffic. In the morning, I'm lucky to find one table going at either 100NL or 200NL. At night, there are maybe 3 total tables at those two limits. There are no 6 max games going (or maybe they are listed somewhere else, I couldn't find any). Poker.com makes up for this by having some pretty crappy players. Made hands will get paid off. The games are really really loose. Usually the tables have a Flop % of grater than 40%. Poker.com has some cool features where you can muck, but show what cards you mucked. You can also show only one (Or none or both of course) of your cards when you win a pot without a showdown. They also have a cool feature where after you win a pot without a showdown, you can show your hand and have the dealer deal the rest of the cards. I of course never use any of these options, because I never like to give my opponents extra information, but the idiots there love it. So you gather A LOT of information on the other people playing there. They all think that showing their bluff, and then having the cards dealt out anyways is sooo cool. So, Poker.com has low traffic, but the software is really nice.

Nine Poker has even less traffic than Poker.com. In the morning, forget about it. There might be one 25NL or 50NL table going. At night, there will be a couple tables going. But the players on this network are even worse. I think I may just leave money on this site, and whenever I am playing at night, open up a 200NL and set mine. I will for sure get paid off. Top pair (Heck, even middle pair) is gold to these fools here. The only thing that is annoying about this site is how you bet. There are Four buttons that are there for your decision making. Fold, Check(Call), Bet (Or raise) Minimum, and Bet Other. When you hit the Bet Other button, the default number listed is pot. It took me a while to figure out how to bet something different, as the slider bar is really weird. It would slide by dollar increments from 1-5, but they when you slide it past $5, it goes straight to $10. Ahhh, I want to bet $7.5! And then it goes in $5 increments after. It took me a little while to figure out that you can highlight the bet number, type in what you want, and then hit ENTER. You have to hit enter though. There is no button to push after you type in , say $12.50. The bet button is greyed out! You have to hit enter. When I figured it out, then betting became more easy, as I just hit the Bet other button, type in $7 and hit enter right away. But I don't think everyone has figured this out. So about 90% of the bets/raises you see on this site are either Min-raise or Full Pot raises. This makes drawing a little more difficult, because you aren't given good odds with those full pot bets.

And finally is PokerShare. I can't wait to be done with this promotion. It takes a lot longer than the previous two. And the players are much better, and much more aggressive. Sure, I'm up a decent amount here, but I haven't really come across too many donks. Plus, there are never any full ring games going (Maybe one every once in a while at 200NL). I need 500 FPPs, and I think I am at about 350-375 or so. The games move really fast though, which is nice (But makes it hard to play more than 3 tables). Also, the software on this site is really similar to the old BoDog software. The card graphics are exactly the same as BoDog.

I'm not sure where I am going to play after this. I played a few hands over at Party Poker, but with this new Monster Promotion and its massive rake, I doubt it is worth it to play over there now. They take an extra $0.50 rake out on each pot! Forget about playing 6 max there. Assuming you win exactly 1/6 of the hands (and just assume only 60% of the hands that are raked) that is an extra $5 per 100 hands! That's 2.5 PTBB per 100 hands! Heck, over the long run, 2.5PTBB/100 is a good win rate. Now Party Poker takes that much more rake off of you. What a joke.

So go sign up over at PokerSavvy and PSO and do the promotions there. Most of them are really easy, and you can make some nice bonus money off of them

Cheers!

Crappy High Cards

I've been looking back on my recent dry spells (not much bankroll movement in last 2 months) trying to figure out what the heck I am doing wrong. One thing that I noticed was that I played hands like KJs and KQo too often. So I am adding another rule to my No Limit Rule Book. A few months back, I started this out with the Number 1 rule: Fold Ax (When x is something other than another Ace or a King) when facing a raise.

This can be further extended to "Any two cards 9 and higher that do not match" I think I fell in love with hands like KTs and T9s, etc... I think it is ok to limp in with these in a family pot, but if you don't hit the flop hard, you should definitely let them go. Another key to hands like this, is to play them with position. Playing hands like this out of position can be a real killer. Ok, so you hit top pair with J9s. Now what? Your kicker sucks. Someone could have a billion other hands that have you beat.

Now at a 6 max NL table, I still like to play these hands in position when it is folded to me. These are the types of hands that I will attempt to steal blinds with when it is folded to me in the CO or on the Button.

Another thing that I am going to start to do more in the future is playing low suited connectors and suited one & two gappers. These type of hands are real easy to get away from if you don't hit the flop hard. Sure, you may flop one pair, but more than likely it still won't be the best hand out there. And if you do hit the flop hard with these hands, you can win some nice pots against people who can't let go of their overpairs/top pair top kicker hands. I've won some pretty nice pots the last couple days with 63s and 54s.

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Nothing too exciting has happened the last two days. I actually lost a few bucks each of the last two days, but nothing major. Probably down a total of $40. I haven't gotten involved in any big pots. The biggest pot I think was one where I pushed hard against a medium stack with Top pair 2nd kicker and 2nd nut flush draw. Dude had middle set on the flop and my flush didn't hit. The biggest pot I won was with Pocket Jacks where I flopped top set. I probably could have played this one a little better. What do you think?

It was a full ring table at 200NL. I had berated the table a little bit for playing like a fixed limit table. Lots of limping, lots of min-betting and min-raising. Most hands had at least 5 people see a flop. If I had a hand I wanted to play, I always raised 4x BB +1 BB per limper, and I won a lot of pots Pre-Flop that way. So I am in the SB with JJ and there are like 3-4 limpers. I raise it up to $12 (a little less than what I had been raising, considering that there were 3-4 limpers). Only person called. Flop came J43 rainbow. Pot was at about $33, and I led out and bet only a third of the pot. I didn't want to slowplay here because I figured that may look suspicious since I had raised PF. He called. The turn was another 3 giving me the boat. This time I checked, and he bet $15 (about $55 in the pot, so under a third pot bet). I probably should have raised here, but I ended up just calling. The River was a blank, and I led out $50 into the $85 pot. He folded. Maybe I should have checked here and gone for the check-raise? I would think a push here would be better then that $50 value bet. A push could look like a wiffed AK trying to buy the pot or something.

I'm still working on this PokerShare bonus. This is taking a little while longer than anticipated. Those FPPs don't rack up that fast. The rake has to reach $1.00 to get a full FPP (you do get partial FPPs for rakes between $0.25 and $0.99)

And the Nine Poker promotion through PokerSavvy is not finished yet because THERE WERE NO TABLE GOING HIGHER THAN $25NL THIS MORNING!! Arggg. There couldn't have been more than 30 people playing real money games there this morning. Oh well. I'll crank it out one of these nights.

Cheers!

Breaking Benjamin

If you are into Rock-N-Roll, and enjoy bands like Nickelback, Linkin Park, etc.. you need to pick up the new Breaking Benjamin album. It totally kicks ass. Actually, pick up all three of Breaking Benjamin's albums. They are one of those bands where you can listen to the whole album all the way through. All of their albums are like that, and this one is no exception to that.

On to Poker content!

I had a pretty good weekend on the tables. I finished off the Victor Chandler Bonus, which was worth a cool $500. I cashed out of there, and started doing some PokerSavvy and PokerSourceOnline promotions. If you haven't done some of these, you really need to. They are so easy. The Mansion Poker one through PokerSavvy is so easy. And you get 900 points (worth $90) in about 30 minutes worth of work. I also did the poker.com promotion on Saturday, and finished that one off in about an hour and a half. I also signed up for their 9poker.com promotion. I only need 250 POP points, and they say that is about 100 raked hands or so at the limits I play. I haven't played there yet, as I had trouble depositing money this morning. Hopefully it will work a little later on in the day.

I also signed up at PokerShare through PokerSourceOnline. This one may take a little longer, but it is worth 9000 PSO points ($90).

In addition to those bonuses, I am also up over $500 for the weekend! Most of that is PokerShare. I hit a couple nice flops, and actually got paid off.

The biggest one was a nice $250 pot on a 100NL table. I got dealt pocket 9's on the button. There was one limper, and I raised it to $5. The BB and limper called. The flop was 4c, 8h, 9h giving me the nuts, but with some possible draws out there. It was checked to me, and for some reason, I decided to check behind too. I probably shouldn't have given a free card here. I think I did that because I didn't notice that the BB had called, and I thought I was heads up. Oops.

So the turn is the 10s. It is checked to me, and I bet about 2/3 pot now. They both call! I figure for sure one of them is on a flush draw. Maybe the other has a Jack or something. The river is the 4h, putting 3 hearts out there, but giving me a full house (only pocket 4's and pocket 10's beat me now).

The BB checks, the limper goes all-in, which is about a full pot bet. I just call, hoping the BB comes along. Not only does he come along, but he min-raises (He has me covered)!! I push the rest of my chips in and he calls.

So on a board of 8h, 4c, 9h, 10s, 4h, and me holding pocket 9's for a full house 9's over 4's, what do you think they have?

The limper shows JQ for a straight, and the BB shows 34 of diamonds for three of a kind 4's! Ha! What the hell is the BB calling that turn bet with only a pair of 4's?

I also won another big pot with 53 of hearts. I limped in (I like playing low suited connectors and one/two gappers. You always know exactly where you stand after the flop. You either hit it hard, or you let it go). The button raised and I and another limper called. The flop was all hearts! 2h, 4h, Jh. So I also had a open ended straight flush draw.

I led out and bet 2/3 pot, the other limper folded, and the PF raiser raised just a little over minimum. I ended up just calling. The turn was a blank, and I checked. He bet a little over half pot, and I just called again. I probably should have raised, in case he has a heart himself and charge him for seeing another card. The river was another blank, and I knew I had the best hand. I took a chance here, and checked again feigning weakness. It worked, because he pushed all-in, I called, and he showed pocket rockets, and I win a nice pot.

So things are looking up here at PokerFool world!

Now go do some of those bonuses at PokerSavvy and PokerSourceOnline!

Domination

I was surfing around last night, looking for updates on the Live WSOP Final Table going on last night, when I ran into a post and a link in a twoplustwo.com thread. Some people were having luck getting a free feed to the PPV viewing of the final table action. Sure enough, I tried it out, and it worked! And I have to say, it was quite entertaining watching the action as it happens. No Commercials, you get to see ALL of the action, etc... It was really fun to watch. My most favorite hand was the hand where Cunningham called Gold's river bet with just Ace High and took down the pot. Listening to all of their table talk was pretty exciting. But holy cow, Jamie Gold dominated the final table play. Sure, he was getting hit in the face with the deck, but he put on a clinic on how to play big stack poker.

Watching the whole Final Table live, with Phil Gorden and crew commenting, is about 1000 times better than watching Dick Van Patton and Chad Normen and the cut down version which will be on ESPN in a few months. I'm gonna have to look for a "copy" out on the internets some where. I hope I can find the right tube.

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I played in a bunch of MTTs on Wednesday night, including The Mookie. I went out before the first break in a wild wild hand. I can't remember if I was the Button or the Big Blind, but I had pocket 3's. Surflexus raised it 4x BB, and I decided to call, since it was less than 10% of my current stack (I had a just above starting stack). Skidoo also called in the BB.

The flop was 3h, 8s, Jh. Flexus bet really small, like only 1/4 pot, and I raised about the size of the pot. Skidoo re-raised all-in (it was only about 250 more than my raise). Flexus then re-re-raises enough to put me in. I probably could have folded with my bottom set here. But I figured that I was probably behind skidoo, but I thought that I was still ahead of Flexus and could win the side pot.

I had a set 3's. Skidoo had a set of 8's, and Flexus had a set of J's. Set over set over set. Damn

I also played in the $10 rebuy at both Stars and Paradise. I had a total of $50 in at Stars, and ended up making it about 75 away from the money. I had an M of about 5 and found pocket 8's on the button. UTG had raised 3x BB, who was also a huge stack, and I decided that this was a decent spot to push. He had aces. I didn't even make it past the rebuy period at Paradise. I didn't get any top 10% hands at all, and the table I was at was playing really slow and really weak. No one was being crazy, so when I lost right before the first break, I decided not to rebuy. There was no way I was going to accumulate chips fast at that table. I also played in a Full Tilt $10 MTT. I made it through half the field but lost most of my stack with AK. A guy who I had coverd by 600 chips called with AA, and another short stack got all-in too with AK. So AA vs AK vs AK.

Then Wed ended on another sour note at a $200 NL table. I flopped a set of 3's and got it all-in with a guy who had an OESD and he hit on the turn.

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On a positive note, I have actually won a little money the last two days (Thursday and so far today), so that is my first winning streak of the month. I dropped below 10k because of Wednesday, but when I get my Victor Chandler bonus here in a few days, that should put me back up above 10k. Uggg, still pretty much break even since the beginning of June. Maybe I'll start playing some more SNGs.

Cheers!

I Ran Into My US Representative Last Week

It's an election year, so the US Representative for my area (Gil Gutknecht) was at the county fair this last week. He was standing around the Milk Booth, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go and talk to him, especially since he voted for HR4411.

So I walked up to him and introduced myself. I told him that I was disappointed with his support of bill 4411. He looked at me with a confused, glazed over look and then turned to his "intern" (Who happened to be a good looking young blond chick. Are you surprised?) and asked her to refresh his memory what 4411 was. She didn't know, so I explained what bill it was.

So he asks, "So, are in favor of online gambling?" and I said that yes, I dabble a little bit in online poker. He then leaned in and looked me in the eye and asked, "So how much money are you in debt from online gambling?"

Ha, can you believe it? I chuckled a little bit and said that I am not in debt, and have actually made a little bit off of poker.

He then furiously wrote my name in a bright red notebook labeled "Evil Doers" under the tab "Aud...." He turned away before I could figure out what that said.

Anyways, I then told him that instead of banning online poker, wouldn't it make more sense to regulate the industry and create jobs and tax revenue from it?

He skirted away from the question and told me that the main purpose of that bill is to "Stop kids from getting a hold of credit cards and racking up massive amounts of debt".

I said that yes, that is a good idea, but outright banning online poker is not the solution and that regulating the industry and making it legal is the way to go.

He then went on to the next person and shook their hand and kissed some more babies. I do have to give him credit though for talking with me and listening to my concerns. I doubt it made much of a difference, but I think it was better than sending a letter and having some intern send me a form letter back.

Cheers!

I Don't Like To Post When I Am Running Bad

That's why I haven't posted in a while. August has not been good so far. I finally had a positive day this morning, and that was with playing only about 40 hands.

It's that damn river again. It's killing me. For the month of August, my Win % at Showdown is below 30%! THIRTY PERCENT!!!!1!

I'm going through one of those stages where is seems everyone at the table can see what I am holding. I haven't gotten any of my sets paid off. And my big pairs either just get me the Blinds, or I get sucked out on and lose a big pot.

I've won only one big pot, and I had to suck out on the river to win that one. I got a free look in the blinds with J6o. Flop comes J, 6, x with two diamonds. I bet out and get called in two spots. The turn is a third diamond. I bet small, more as a blocking bet and get called. The River is a beautiful Jack giving me a full house Jacks over 6's. We get it all in on the river and he had pocket 6's.

This hand pretty much sums up the month I am having:

I have clicked the Auto-post blind button off, as I am about to end for the morning. I find JJ UTG, and decide to limp in. Playing a hand like this out of position kind of sucks. If I bet and am called, and an overcard comes, I could be in a real pickle if I get raised.

My limps triggers most everyone else to limp. That's fine with me, since I am pretty much playing this for set value anyways.

So there are about 4 limpers, and the CO raise to a whopping $3. I don't understand raises like this. Don't do this. If you are going to raise, don't raise like a wussy. Raise 3x BB + 1BB for every limper. So the BB calls, and its up to me. I decide that this is a good time to re-raise, and get all this dead money. It is doubtful the raiser has a QQ-AA hand, so I am pretty sure I am ahead of his range. I bump it up to $15. It folds to a middle position dude who had limped, and he pushes all-in for a total of $60. The initial raiser folds, and it is folded to me and I call. There is no way he has QQ-AA. His range could be anything, because this is a pretty donkish move. So we flip up our cards.

I have JJ.
He has A2 offsuit.

The flop was QJ5 Rainbow.

I lost the hand.

The turn was a 4. The river a 3.

That is how my luck has been this past week.

I have about ten more hands like this I could post, but I think you get the idea.

July 2006 Results

I climbed back from the abyss and recorded a profit for the Month of July. Thanks to July 31, my poker profit hit the black, which I was really happy about. If you break down the month in thirds, I lost $575 the first third, lost $80 the middle third, and made $1,200 the last third.

Again, not much bonus money, as I am working on this big Victor Chandler bonus. Some of that is also due to not playing all that many hours. But, August will for sure be more than double what I did in July.

I stayed away from the SNGs again. I may start to play a few more of those, because they are pretty fun. I plan on having a MTT night again here soon where I will hit up my regular 180 person MTTs and some of the crazy rebuy MTTs.

Total Profit: $538.52

Total Bonuses Received: $298.24

• PokerStars: $120.00
• PartyPoker: $100.00
• WillHill: $18.24
• Paradise: $60.00

Total Poker Profit: $240.28

• PokerStars: -$779.40
  
• PartyPoker: $56.77
• WillHill: -$195.54
  
• Hollywood: -$460.10
• Paradise: -$216.55
  
• Victor Chandler: $1,376.00
• Pacific Poker: -$1.00
  

No Limit Ring Profit: $467.78

• $100NL: $695.09
• $200NL: -$158.31
• $400NL: -$69.00
  

Multi Table Tournaments: -$223.00 (Not one damn cash)

Other (Some 7 Card Stud): -$4.50

Holy crap did PokerStars kick my ass. $620 of that big PokerStars loss was in a three day period. Ouch! I don't think I'll be clearing too many bonuses there from now on. But Hooray for the Tribeca network and Victor Chandler.

Breaking it down by days, I had 17 positive days and 12 negative days, and 2 off days. My biggest win was July 31 for $364. Biggest loss was July 8 for almost -$400. Eeek! Seven days I won over $100, and seven days I lost over $100.

I don't have my pokertracker numbers, so I'll put up a post in a few days with a look at those. I would guess that about two thirds of my play was at the $100NL level, with about half at 6 max. Most of my $200NL play was at Full Ring. I did start to play some 6 max $200NL towards the end of the month.

End of July Bankroll: $11,178.45

Goal for End of August: $13,000.00

Good Luck!

Back in Black

July ended on a high note for the PokerFool. I had my biggest day in the month, and that got me back into the black in my poker only column. With bonus, I ended up $538! Wow. What a turnaround. In the last ten days, I am up almost $1,200. I've been playing a little bit more at the $200 level, and results are looking pretty good. I'll get another detailed monthly recap post up tomorrow.

Not only did the last day of July put me in the black, it also propelled me above the $11,000 mark for the first time. Hopefully I can reach the next thousand point faster than this last one. Yeech, I passed 10k on June 4th, and didn't pass 11k until July 31.

I am almost done with the Victor Chandler bonus which will net me a cool $500. I'm figuring that should take me another week or two. I am almost halfway done with the Paradise bonus too. I'm not sure where I will go after these two. Party doesn't have a bonus offer going right now. I may go back to BoDog and thier 10% unlimited bonus. I may also play a little more at some of the crypto sites like Will Hill and Sun Poker. There also some fairly easy promotions going on through PokerSource and Pokeravvy that I should hit up. I did the Mansion poker sign up through PokerSavvy, and got a real easy 900 points (which equals $90). I'm thinking August will be a pretty heavy bonus month. My goal is to pass the 13k mark by the end of August. I think I can do it.

I only played for a little while this morning, and it was just one of those days. I lost three big pots to some short stacks. Two of them were river beats. The first I flopped two pair, and dude called me down with top pair crap kicker and hit his kicker on the river. The 2nd, I had top pair and got called down with someone holding the nut flush draw, which of course hit on the river. And then in a 6 max game, I flopped bottom two pair, but villain flopped the nut straight. I probably could have gotten away from that one. Oh well, only down $100 from those hands.

I've had some pretty interesting hands lately that could make a pretty good strategy post. I'll have to start working on that, so look for a good strat post this week.

Cheers!