Happy New Year

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope everyone got what they wanted. As for me, I got a brand new bowling ball and shoes. I'm pretty excited to try them out. I've been an alternate in a bowling league for the last couple years, bowling once every 3 or 4 weeks. I was the only person in all of league still using a lane ball. I would use just my two fingers and no thumb hole and get a nice hook going. Now that I have my own ball, it should be pretty interesting. I even ordered the Full Tilt Retro Bowling shirt from the FPP store. It's pretty sweet. I'll have to get a picture up here some time of me with my new shirt and bowling ball, lol.

The kids had a good time and got way too many presents. They still haven't played some of them. Among my favorite to play with them is Hungry Hungry Hippos, my son's marble tower plaything, and his Geotrax stuff. I even grabbed all of my old transformer toys from my parents house when we were there. I will My son will have a ton of fun playing with those.

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As far as poker goes, I sure am glad December is almost done. The last week or so has been brutal. I think it boils down to me not hitting any of my draws lately, and quite a few set over set hands.

I played tournaments last night and I thought I played really well. I ended up cashing in 3 of the 6 MTTs I played. The FT 50/50 and 28k guaranteed and the PS $10 rebuy (again). I ran so ridiculously bad, it was funny. Every single time I got all-in in these three MTTs that I cashed in, I was no worse than a coinflip. Every.Single.Time. (all of these are all-in PF) here are the results of these hands

Full Tilt 50/50: I went out in 101th place.
- 50/100 blinds: My AK wins vs TT +50 BBs
- 60/120 blinds: My AJ loses vs TT (JT6 flop) -15 BBs
- 80/160 blinds: My AJs wins vs JTs (Blind vs Blind) +32BBs
- 200/400 blinds: My QQ loses vs JJ (J54 flop) -10 BBs
- 400/800 blinds: My AQ loses vs 44 (AK4 flop) -8 BBs

Full Tilt 28k guaranteed: I went out in 123rd.
- 150/300 blinds: My KK loses vs 99 (Q96 flop) -13 BBs
- 250/500 blinds: My 99 wins vs K4 +9 BBs
- 250/500 blinds: My JJ wins vs 77 +7 BBs
I ended going out of the MTT cause some guy thought A4o was a good hand to call PF and flop bets (flop was all rags). I pushed the A river representing AK or something like that and he called with A4.

PokerStars $10 rebuy: I went out in 154th place.
- during rebuy: My AK loses vs 66 (J96 flop) -22 BBs
- 100/200: My AQss loses to 55 on a 9s4s5x flop. -33 BBs (got this one in on the flop)
- 150/300: My A4 wins vs KJ +9 BBs
- 500/1000: My AA wins vs K9o +30 BBs
- 1500/3000: My AJs loses to A8s (Hits flush on river) - 10BBs
- 2000/4000: My AJ wins vs 88 +9 BBs
- 2500/5000: My AKs loses vs A9o (9 on turn) - 12 BBs

As you can see, everyone was hitting sets against me. Out of the nine pocket pairs that showed up when we got all-in, six of them flopped sets. Guess how many sets I had all night?

And I finish this bad beat post with this gem in the $24 KO. I had the worst poker player ever sitting to my left. In the 7 or 8 hands he had been at the table, he had raised every single flop bet from other players. I wasn't going to put up with it, so I pushed over his raise:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 15/30 Blinds, 5 Players

Hero (CO): 2,020
BTN: 4,910
SB: 1,940
BB: 1,480
UTG: 1,750

Pre-Flop: (45) Tc As dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, Hero raises to 105, BTN calls 105, 2 folds

Flop: (255) 3s 7d 2c (2 Players)
Hero bets 240, BTN raises to 975, Hero raises to 1,915 and is All-In, BTN calls 940

Turn: (4,085) Th (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (4,085) 8d (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 4,085 Pot
Hero showed Tc As (a pair of Tens) and LOST (-2,020 NET)
BTN showed Jd 9s (a straight, Jack high) and WON 4,085 (+2,065 NET)


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Have a safe and fun New Years Eve. I went out and bought a bunch of ingredients to make martini's. Mmmmmmm. I can't wait to get home.

Cheers!

My Weekly Post

Man, I suck at posting regularly. I usually come across a few interesting hands every day, but I'm too lazy to type up a post. I'm not really sure if anyone reads my posts anyways. Anyone out there that plays cash games near my limits?

Anyways, I'm still running pretty good. I haven't played as much this month as in November, but I'm making some good money. I'm playing a little bit more at 400NL, especially when there are fish out there. I also transferred some money over to the Cake network, so I am occasionally playing 200NL there too. My 3rd hand ever at Cake, and I made a Royal Flush. And some dude called my river bet! Board had the As, Ks, Js and Ts, with me holding the Qs, and he called my river bet. Ha!

Here is my monthly graph so far. What is nice about this graph, is that I am running slightly below EV for the month!


I played tournaments on Wednesday night, including the Mookie and the PS Blogger Omaha HiLo tournament. I ran my AK into AA to go out about 22nd in the Mook. But I did good in the Omaha game, and finished in 12th. Just 3 places away from a gold prize package worth about $450.

I also did pretty good in both the FT and PS 50/50 MTTs, but unfortunately busted out just before the money in both. I had a really nice stack in the PokerStars MTT, but I lost two coinflips within 10 hands, and went out short of the money bubble. The first was my AK losing to JJ, and then my QQ lost to AK. You gotta be able to win with AK and beat AK in order to make it deep in MTTs I guess. No complaints though, since I crushed the cash games while playing tournaments that night.

I'll try and find some interesting hands.

I've been experimenting with flat calling with AK in position, and have had some positive results. Villain was an aggressive regular.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

BTN: $478.40
SB: $372.80
BB: $198
UTG: $312.15
Hero (MP): $424.95
CO: $156.50

Pre-Flop: Ad Kh dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG raises to $7, Hero calls $7, 4 folds

Flop: ($17) Ac 7h 5h (2 Players)
UTG bets $12, Hero calls $12

Turn: ($41) Ks (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $28, UTG calls $28

River: ($97) Kc (2 Players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $90, UTG calls $90

Results: $277 Pot ($3 Rake)
UTG mucked Qs Ah (two pair, Aces and Kings) and LOST (-$137 NET)
Hero showed Ad Kh (a full house, Kings full of Aces) and WON $274 (+$137 NET)

Here is a nice standard pot against an aggressive player, but it sure is nice to get paid off when you hit your set. I'm not exactly sure if I made the right play on the flop and turn, but the button is super aggressive, and pretty spewy, so I wanted to drag him along for the ride. What do you think?

Since I don't have too many hands at 400NL, this is one of my biggest pots ever.

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

Hero (SB): $400
BB: $612
UTG: $666.50
MP: $140.70
CO: $447.60
BTN: $400.70

Pre-Flop: 7s 7d dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG raises to $14, 2 folds, BTN calls $14, Hero calls $12, BB folds

Flop: ($46) Qh 6d 7c (3 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $32, BTN calls $32, Hero calls $32

Turn: ($142) Jc (3 Players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $90, BTN folds, Hero raises to $196, UTG raises to $620.50 and is All-In, Hero calls $158 and is All-In

River: ($850) Th (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $850 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 7s 7d (three of a kind, Sevens) and WON $847 (+$447 NET)
UTG showed Ks Kh (a pair of Kings) and LOST (-$400 NET)

Cheers!!

I Do Good In These Blogger Freerolls

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

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 096431

Theory of a Deadman

Another Rock concert comes to town tonight, thanks to the new rock radio station. A few months ago, it was Seether and Finger Eleven, last month Disturbed was here, and tonight is Theory of a Deadman. I'm really looking forward to this concert, because Theory's latest CD has been at the top of my playlist most of the year.

Prior to when this new Rock station was here, our town never got any good concerts. We had to go up to the Twin Cities to see anything good. Unless Air Supply and Lord of the Dance is your cup of tea.

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Poker has been going fairly well this month. I'm up a decent amout, and I'm running below expectation, so that is good.


I was finally able to get a seat at a table with a goldmine. When this guy plays, the waitlist goes 30 people deep waiting to get a seat with him. Check out his tableratings page. He mostly plays 2/4 NL, with a litle 1/2 thrown in. He is down 160 THOUSAND dollars since tableratings started keeping track. Wow!


I took about $300 off of him, with most of it coming from this hand:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players

BTN: $1,469
Hero (SB): $484
BB: $749.50
UTG: $212.40
MP: $3,191.05
CO: $1,127.40

Pre-Flop: 9s 9h dealt to Hero (SB)
UTG raises to $12, 3 folds, Hero raises to $52, BB folds, UTG calls $40

Flop: ($108) 6h 3s Kc (2 Players)
Hero bets $80, UTG calls $80

Turn: ($268) Ks (2 Players)
Hero bets $81, UTG calls $80.40 and is All-In

River: ($428.80) Qs (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $428.80 Pot ($3 Rake)
Hero showed 9s 9h (two pair, Kings and Nines) and WON $425.80 (+$213.40 NET)
UTG showed 3d Jd (two pair, Kings and Threes) and LOST (-$212.40 NET)

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Here is another interesting hand:

This guy was a donk, and I went with my read that he didn't have anything. Too bad he gets rewarded on the river. Booo.

Full Tilt Poker, $1/$2 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 5 Players

CO: $201.75
BTN: $205.25
Hero (SB): $207.20
BB: $167.80
UTG: $270.10

Pre-Flop: Qc Jh dealt to Hero (SB)
2 folds, BTN calls $2, Hero raises to $10, BB calls $8, BTN calls $8

Flop: ($30) 4h Qd 7d (3 Players)
Hero bets $22, BB folds, BTN calls $22

Turn: ($74) Tc (2 Players)
Hero checks, BTN bets $76, Hero raises to $175.20 and is All-In, BTN calls $97.25 and is All-In

River: ($420.50) Ac (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: $420.50 Pot ($3 Rake)
BTN showed Ad 4s (two pair, Aces and Fours) and WON $417.50 (+$212.25 NET)
Hero showed Qc Jh (a pair of Queens) and LOST (-$205.25 NET)

Cheers!

November Results

I know I'm a little late, but I've been feeling a little lazy lately.

As I mentioned in my last post, I tried out something new. I didn't do full ring (yuck) or Omaha. I moved down to 100NL and played super lag. I played just over 1000 hands playing about 35/28 or so and I did pretty good, winning about 7 buy-ins or so. And it was actually quite fun to play crazy like that. It is amazing how quickly people start to not give you credit for a hand. I won two 200BB stacks from people with AA when they couldn't believe that I had hand due to my crazy image. I haven't tried playing like that at 200NL yet, but I may give it a try.

November was a pretty decent month. I cleared just over a grand with rakeback included. It would have been a lot better if I wouldn't have played so poorly in tournaments for the month. Just in MTTs (and I don't play them all that often) I lost about a thousand. Yuck. I played two FTOPS events, so that was the big hit.

I played tournaments again on Wednesday night, but I only played four. I cashed in one, the $24+2 28k guaranteed on Full Tilt. I had a good stack throughout, and then with about 100 left, I lost most of my stack with AA vs KQo all-in pre-flop. Flop was King High all hearts, and I even had the Ace of Hearts. Turn was another King, and river was a Queen, just to rub it in.

Anyways, here are my November cash games results. I put in almost 16,000 hands, which is right around the most I've put in during a month.




Anyone else watch The Shield Series finale? Wow, what a great show. If you've never watch The Shield, go start at Season 1 and watch the whole series. Best. Show.On.TV.

Now that The Shield is done, my favorite show that is still on TV is Chuck, on at 7 PM CST on Monday's. This show is freaking hilarious, and if you were a kid in the 80's, you gotta love all the pop culture/video game stuff this show throws in there. Plus, he works at the "Nerd Herd" counter at a "Buy More" store, which is exactly like Best Buy except with the color green.

Cheers!