Crushing the Game

Back to Pokerroom

2006-10-02T13:40:00.000-05:00

So after a 4 month hiatus, I'm returning to the website that got my very first online poker business almost two years ago now. That's right, I did the GOLD reload bonus at Pokerroom. I've always liked PR because of their aesthetically pleasing software and the ability to use the Function keys. The latter is something that I think is highly underrated and I would love to see more sites adopt it. If you don't have a Pokerroom account, this is a great and lucrative time to get one. If you decide to, make sure you sign up through Klopzi. He's been the most supportive blogger to my journey so far, plus his blog is always a great read.

In addition to all this, he officially became a hero of mine when he announced his sink or swim challenge. I have a ton of respect for anyone who chooses to this kind of thing. Now, its not like his house is on the line or anything like that, but it still takes balls to step up a few levels and see if you really have what it takes.

I would like to tell you that I'm almost ready to play 2/4 exclusively, but I just haven't been profitable enough in those games to make myself believe that I can be comfortable playing 5-7 2/4 tables like I am with 1/2 tables. I have the 300BB for 2/4, but I'm going to keep playing mostly 1/2 for the time being.

The best part of this last weekend was finishing 72nd in the Stars 100k freeroll, good for a cool $160. This is the first time I've ever cashed in a freeroll, it was all due to taking advantage of the donks at the right times. Basically 4 all in calls was all it took for me to cruise that far into the money, AK vs. J2 JJ vs. JT AJ vs.72 and AQ vs. A8 with yours truly holding the first hand each time.

My two roommates, who I am happy to say, were corrupted by me into playing online poker a month and a half ago are both doing very well at FT. Its pretty amazing how well two nice guys but fairly inexperienced poker players can do playing as high as .5/1.00 NL. They both have lots of live experience, but neither exactly dominated homegames. It almost makes me want to take on a nickname like Men the Master or something.

mmmmmm, ego
--Alex

Pulled groin, kicked junk

2006-09-26T12:37:00.000-05:00

There weren't too many bright spots in our first flag football game, which ended in a 40-something to 20-something loss. Until that game, I had never felt a "pulled" muscle in my life. I have new respect for all pro athletes that ever missed time because of a pulled groin. It was probably inevitable, what with the mid 40s temperature, slick field, me only having tennis shoes, and a good amount of reckless abandon. It only took one failed cut, and I could feel it in about 5 seconds.

Speaking of being in over my head, I finally deposited onto my Full Tilt account yesterday and began to play some 1/2 and 2/4 along with my usual amount of tables on Stars. A few problems arose pretty quickly.
1. I couldn't find a way to resize FT tables.
2. Suddenly I was playing 9 tables at once, something I didn't really plan on, but kind of just happened.

All last month I've been working my way up to playing 5-7 tables, which I think I can do without letting my play suffer, but it definitely did suffer when I was playing 9, and this all being done on a 15.4 inch laptop screen. Sad to say, this resulted in a near triple digit setback. It was one of those nights where you dread the third suited card coming on the river because you *know* your opponent is on the flush draw. Oh well.

I'd love some feedback on this "play" I "discovered" last night.
UTG or UTG+1 you limp with a small pocket pair. It folds around to the button or CO, who makes the standard blind stealing raise. If the blinds both fold, or only one calls, you reraise, representing enormous strength. Then bet and raise to whatever comes on the flop. I think you will convey so much strength by doing this your opponent, if respectable, will have to laydown overcards or maybe even a middle pair by the turn.

I was 3/3 with this last night.

dont knock it till youve tried it
--alex

4-digit month!

2006-09-25T15:08:00.000-05:00

I am proud and happy and excited to announce that I broke $1,000 for September already on the night of the 22nd. I did this completely at Stars and playing about 85% 1/2 limit and 15% 2/4 limit. I think the total was around 16,000 hands which works out to around 50 playing hours 4-5 tabling on average. I really feel like I have turned a corner because of how consistent my results have been.

As good as my results have been, there are still some things that in my mind are glaring weaknesses. One of them is my blind defense. I really think I need to start folding and raising more, and calling less when I have a medium holding in the BB and I think the person on the CO or BTN is on a steal. I have read a few post about blind defense strategy, including the lawschool dropout's, but I just don't think I'm doing as well as I could. I've even thought about just giving only raising when I have a hand and folding everything else, including suited connectors, small pairs, and other things that I would call a raise with.

I'm currently in the computer lab at the library at school, and PartyPoker happens to be installed on this computer. I've never played at Party, but I just opened the software and I see that there are over 20 tables of full ring 1/2 limit going on!! At 3 on a Monday? Is this kind of thing normal? I would definitely consider playing at Party if the games are good. Can anyone vouch for the quality of the 1/2 or 2/4 games on Party?

They don't seem to list the % Players to the flop like other sites do, that might make it tough to see what tables are the good ones. Bonuswhores.com gives their games a C, and gives Stars a C-. Even if the games are slightly worse than at Stars, I def. would consider playing at Party. I don't get rakeback at Stars, so I wouldn't really miss it if I switched sites.

hmmmmmm
--alex

Medley

2006-09-21T14:36:00.000-05:00

I promise to post more. I promise to post more. I promise to post more.
Seriously though, school really kicked in this last week, I even had my first "late" night (up past 2 am) of schoolwork last night.

Nothing but good news on the poker front however, I cleared the $120 Stars reload almost completely in one session. All this play the past month has earned me a crapload of FPP on Stars, and I am now part of the Gold Star club, how will I contain my excitement. The Stars FPP store leaves quite a bit to be desired in my mind, though, especially compared to Full Tilt. I've bought a book, but not much else really looks that good to me, I really don't want to be walking around advertising thier site for them. I am definately going to try my hand at one of the FPP sats to one of the WCOOP tonight. I think a SHNL or SHPLHE would be best for me, possibly even a PLO8. I thought I saw some sats Stars was running for 650 FPP that gave 1 seats for a $215 event for every 5 entries to the sat? That really seems too good to be true.

If I do win a seat, is it possible to sell something like that? I would probably be willing to sell it for considerably less than face value, because I really don't love tourneys. Its probably not possible, but hey, I can dream.

I've been running well lately, erasing all the setbacks that happened last week and then much more. I've been poking around different blogs to see what people think is the minimum sample size to form conclusions about their long run BB/100, I would hope its not much over 50k, because I would like to be able to make those conclusions pretty soon.

The only way I could be more excited about the baseball playoffs is if the Brewers were actually in them. I am getting sick and effing tired of Minnesota bandwagon jumpers talking about how the Twins are sooo good. One guy actually compared Justin Morneau to Lou Gherig. Well sure, hes only about 500 HRs and 6 World Championships short. Yes Santana is amazing, but 1 pitcher does not a champion make. I'm picking the Yankees, they're offense can beat anyone, save Santana, and their pitching is sufficient. Not to mention they have the human saftey net, Mariano Rivera.

thats all for now folks
--alex

Days off and stepping up

2006-09-14T12:33:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday I did something I had never previously thought of. I took a day off completely from poker. I could have played, I really didn't have a lot to do. I just really didn't feel like playing. That may not sound profound, but if you knew me, that would come as a huge shock. When my friends and I play homegames, they don't even ask me if I can play, or if I want to play, they just tell me when they are playing, because they know I always want to and will always make room for it in my schedule.

I'm absolutely positive this day long disinterest was mostly caused by me having two consecutive losing days. Also, as the cliche goes, it wasn't that I lost, it was the nasty way in which I lost. I should tell you that I pride myself in taking bad beats better than anyone else I know, but there were a couple strings of beats on Monday that just made me want to punch a hole in the wall.

I also reread a few parts of SSHE (the bible, as I call it) on Tuesday, and am happy to say I think there are a few obvious leaks in my game that will be fairly easy to plug, and should show an immediate difference in my bottom line.
One such leak is my play of small pocket pairs. I thought I was doing pretty well mixing it up using the two styles outlined in Hellmuth's book. Sometimes limping and hoping to hit a set, and sometimes raising from any position, then c-betting whatever came on the flop. However, in SSHE, they make the point that small pocket pairs are often only profitable when there are usually 5 or 6 players to the flop, so that you are virtually guaranteed to win a huge pot when you flop your set. Unfortunately, the 1/2 and now 2/4 games I've been playing in at Stars the last few weeks are usually only 3-4 players to the flop. I think this may be pretty big leak in my game that I look forward to plugging.

Another obvious leak I have to plug is learning to fold KK and QQ on the turn. My standard play is to bet the flop no matter what comes with these hands, even if the flop contains an ace. When I get called, and raised, though, I have a very hard time folding, mostly because its "only" two big bets to call someone down. I've realized though that this is definitely costing me a lot of money, especially when I look at my PT stats and money won/lost with KK and QQ is much less than it should be.

So enough about how bad I suck for now. Yesterday and today I've gotten back to winning, although they've been small wins both days. I've been mixing in a few tables of 2/4 recently, and have found the play to be almost identical, if not more loose most of the time. Even with a couple losing days, my bankroll is above the "300BB" recommendation to play 2/4. So for once I am stepping up but I'm not playing above my bankroll.

School is kicking in though, so it will be a little bit tough playing as much as I have been.

hoping your bankroll is growing

Back from the dead, still sucking

2006-09-12T00:36:00.000-05:00

Well I was going to write my first blog post in a couple weeks about how all last week I thumped the 1/2 game at Stars.

I was going to write about how I was well on my way to becoming the next lawschool dropout (even though I'm not in lawschool). I was going to write about my 8k hands last week when I made around 3.8BB/100 and how much ass I kicked and how great I was feeling about myself.

I played as focused as I ever have, I used PT and PAHUD better than ever and it was great.

Unfortunately I completely bombed yesterday, and on into today the shit continued.

I lost around 90 yesterday, and already 60 today, wiping out around 25% of last weeks gains.
The gory details are pretty boring, just the usual beatings delivered by 4th suited cards on the river, paired river cards, and set over setting that hurts just as much in limit as it does in NL.

I wonder if this feeling of loving grinding while I'm up and hating it when I'm stuck is a permanent thing or just something I have to work through.

I'll write more tomorrow, I just have no heart to think about poker right now.

Back to the blog

2006-08-31T09:53:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the little break early this week, I'm done with my summer job and writing a blog entry was one of the ways I passed the time at my desk every day.

So we're all moved in to the apartment in Madison and its actually a pretty nice place for how little we're paying for it. I already got one of my roommates bonus whoring too. He doesn't play limit, and doesn't have a huge bankroll, so I thought SunPoker was the way to go for his first bonus.

As for myself, I am still unsure of what site I want to plant myself at for awhile. I've had continued success at Hollywood even though my bonus is up. I finally got PAHUD, don't ask me why its taken me this long to get it either. Seriously, PT and PAHUD should get together because I can see now that PT is almost worthless without PAHUD.

At Hollywood I've focused more on my full ring limit game than ever before, although occasionally I need some action and jump on a 5 or 6-max limit table. Unfortunately, this warps my PT stats a bit, as I know my VP$IP for full ring is nowhere near the 25% PT says it is. Anyone know if there's a way to separate stats for full ring vs. shorthanded? I don't think there is, but hey, I suck with PT so I wouldn't be surprised if there is.

Once again, if you don't have PAHUD, GET IT NOW!! If you're serious at all about online poker, this program is worth its weight in gold. I'm sure everyone who even reads this already has it, but maybe not.

I don't exactly love the grind of full ring 1/2, but I don't hate it at all either. I think one of the most difficult things to adjust to from NL is the bad habits of playing "speculative hands" like low suited connectors, suited aces, etc. I really don't think these are profitable hands in full ring limit because you can't get paid as well on your "monsters".

secretly and probably foolishly trying to replicate the success of the lawschool
dropout
--alex

What? A Sunday Post?

2006-08-27T13:48:00.000-05:00

So I finished my Hollywood Poker bonus yesterday, with not a minute to spare. With school starting September 5th, I am going to be diving full on back into the world of online poker. I am going to be playing almost exclusively full ring LHE. I am going to start with 1/2, and try to move up to 2/4 by christmas break.

Here's where my reader(s) come in. I have accounts with Party, FT, Stars, UB, Hollywood, and many other online sites already, making me inelligible for rakeback at most sites. So I am looking for any advice as to where the best place to play 1/2 full ring, and where (if anywhere) I could still get rakeback. I am also not adverse to creating a second account to get rakeback.

Any suggestions?
--alex

Unbelievable

2006-08-25T08:48:00.000-05:00

I think Dane Cook said it best when he said "When you're having a fight with your girlfriend, there's one word guys repeat over and over. Unbelievable.... Unbelievable... un-beelievable.... UNBELIEVABLEEE!!!!!!!!

That pretty much sums up my 4 1/2 hours at the casino yesterday, where I managed to drop $200 in a 3/6 game that still in retrospect was a pretty good game. There was one other TAG, three or four loose-passives, one total rock, and a maniac. Unfortunately, the maniac totally had my number.

There wasn't one huge hand that took half of my stack or anything, its was pretty much a steady decline. The nastiest hand I lost was when the maniac rivered the sucker end of a gutshot with 56o against my AA and then when I showed my hand, he told the table that "he put me on Aces, so he knew his straight would be good". When I called his river bet he said "straight" and I said "Yup, you would". That is the single worst complaint or beratement of bad play I have ever uttered in my poker career, I actually surprised myself quite a bit. I am a huge opponent of "tapping the glass" when it comes to "better" players yelling at fish for their stupid and lucky play. My comment didn't slow the idiot down though, he kept cold calling three bets preflop with J7s, which he made a flush with to beat my KK.

Even with all the horrid beats, I didn't tilt at all really. I used to tilt, but I can honestly say that I do not tilt anymore in limit poker. I know I didn't play badly yesterday, it was just one of those days where I didn't hit any draws, or get many hands to play with. Of course I could have played better, obviously. I chased a little bit too much and made a few too many crying calls on the river, which should be eliminated from my game in a few instances.

I don't know though, losing that much money really does hurt, so I may take a week or so off from playing live and ease myself back into the online game, which I have to do anyway because school is starting soon.

Kicking Junk

2006-08-24T08:50:00.000-05:00

So I wasn't planning on gambling at all last night, but when I got home at about 10:15 I felt the need to spend a half hour or so with my recently neglected friend, online poker.

You (the 4 people that read this blog) may have noticed that I really haven't talked about internet poker recently, because I really haven't played any online recently, I've been having too much fun at the casino.

So last night I loaded up a 2/4 O8B at UB and a 1/2 O8B at Hollywood. Both were shorthanded and both were very lively games. It feels good to get hit with the deck.

For the half hour I played, I hit almost every flop. I flopped straights, flushes, full houses and even a few good low hands. One flop was particularly juicy on Hollywood. A2KQ in LP and I raise it up. All call and we have a lovely family pot with me holding a stellar hand. I see the door card is a 2, and am immediately disappointed. However, the next card is also a 2, along with a 2 on the 3rd card revealed!! DQB!!! An Ace on the turn and I have to start raising to charge people for their low draws, when the SB starts reraising me. We cap the turn, and the river which is a T, and he turns over AAxx!!

I can honestly say that I felt sorry for the guy, but you always have to take quads into account especially when playing Omaha.

After a half hour of tearing apart two tables, I doubled my Hollywood buyin of 100, and almost doubled my UB buy in of 140!!. Its amazing how well winning 200 will make you sleep.

It just so happens that this morning at 10 is one of only two times of the week that the casino I go to spreads O8B. I have this incredible urge to go play in it, but its a 4/8 game. Plus, I've never played LO8B live for any kind of stakes. Plus, I am fantastically under bankrolled for it. But, I did have to drive myself to work today, carpool buddy is out of town. Hmmmmm.

Alright I've snapped out of that suicidal idea, but I am still going to try to hit up the 3/6 game tonight.

I don't quite think its possible for me to be anymore jealous of this guy. When he says things like "I don't want to spend my life behind a desk at a job that inevitably kills you inside", its really like hes reading my mind. I really don't have any delusions of being as good of a poker player as he is though. He's still my hero.

trying to stay at my desk
--alex

15 BBB

2006-08-23T10:09:00.000-05:00

If you're wondering, that extra "B" in the title stands for beautiful. Fifteen beautiful big bets. I earned every one of them. It took me almost 6 full hours, but I got there. I was stuck about $100 until the fourth hour, when I picked up a few nice pots when I saw a free flop with A9o twice in a row from the BB. Both times I made two pair and got paid by a bigger ace.

The biggest hand of the night was when I was in the SB and called a raise with 44. This unfortunately got 3 bet and capped by the time it got back around, but the capper was playing his last hand and doing it blindly, plus there were 6 other players who all called the cap, so I called. The flop was an unexciting JT6 rainbow, I checked, the BB bet out, one player folded, the rest called, and I'm getting around 28-1 with an underpair. Somehow mathematically correct. Turn is a 4.

So what would you do? I chose to bet out, which was called by everyone still in the hand. River was another T, which I really didn't want to see. But I bet out still, and two players called, another was already all in, once they just called I knew I had it, and I did.

Other than that I had rotten luck again, my set of threes was beat by a river gutshot, my KK was beat when a fourth spade came up on the river, and general card deadness ruled for most of the time.

Just as I haven't taken too much stock in my losses and small, small wins so far, I'm not overly patting myself on the back for this session. In fact, I hope someday this session is just an ordinary (if not slow) day.

two more days at the summer job
--alex

(Not) Taking my shot

2006-08-22T09:32:00.000-05:00

Read Klopzi, he's got the bankroll, he's got the skillz, and most importantly, he's got the sack. You always have to admire someone who's willing to really "take their shot".

Until yesterday I had never had a problem when I've donated blood. When the lady repositioned the needle in my arm it didn't even concern me, or when she called another nurse (don't actually know if they are nurses or not) over to look at it. Even when I had a half-golfball sized lump rising out of my arm I didn't really worry about it. But when the second nurse said to me "what do you want us to do? do you want it taken out?", that freaked me out a little bit. I'm the old fashioned type of person that likes to leave the medical decisions up to the medical professionals. I really don't even know why they would ask someone something like that.

I'm going to the casino tonight, and I'm not leaving until I've won 15 big bets or lost 30. I'd like to say I'm sitting 5/10, but its just going to be the lowly 3/6 table. The table with 6 players calling two bets preflop regularly. The table with 4+ calling two bets on the flop and turn. The table with 3 or more players going to showdown at least every other hand. The game that Sklansky would have you think a bright 9-year old could tear apart.

heres hoping i get there while the senior citizens are still there
--alex

1.5 BB

2006-08-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

So after the insane roller coaster that I experienced last time at the Pot, holding steady and posting a W, even though it was only 1.5 BB, felt pretty good.

Yea so I only won $9, but I still think I can beat that game. I know I sound like a broken record, but I still haven't gotten cards, and I'm still in the black for 3/6 live.

Last night I witnessed the following:

A 3-bet with ATo, which was followed by a cold call of 3 bets by A4s, A4s flopped a flush , and was called down all the way by ATo.

A woman played 14 consecutive hands, called all preflop bets, and all flop bets, and only showed down one hand, which she lost.

River straights made by the following hands, J3, K4, 58, and of course 72o. People really do chase gutshots for 1 or more bets even on the turn.

When I see things like this, I think to myself, "OK, I know this is a very good game. There is a ton of dead money at the table and in almost every pot. Just sit back and wait for the cards to punish these fish." For the most part, I have been very patient. Occasionally I'll do something stupid like raise with 9To in MP because its the best hand I've seen in 45 min, but come on, people are regularly playing J4s and cold calling raises preflop with total rags!! Alright, no more ranting. The cards will come, and when they do, I know I'll get paid off. The juiciness of the games is just unbelievably frustrating when I have nothing to work with.

anyone else know what im talking about here?
--Alex

Who am I kidding?

2006-08-18T09:27:00.000-05:00

After having some sense verbally slapped into me by my carpool buddy at lunch yesterday, I realized that I am not going to give up poker for any amount of time. I think he may have too high of an opinion of my skill however. Not that this is any huge accomplishment, but I'm regarded as the best player in my group of friends. That's not saying much, but they think I really have what it takes. So with renewed confidence I ventured to the casino last night at around 5:30. If you were to plot my chip stack throughout the session, with time being on the x-axis, it would look like the graph of x^2.

Playing 3/6 full kill, I went from $240, to all in, back to $240. Buckle up, it was a bumpy ride for sure.

Lost JJ to 87o on a flop of JTx, turn was 9.
Lost QQ to KK on a board of all unders.

Then there was this...

Kill pot and I pick up QQ on the button, I raise, two callers to the flop. Flop is 6c 6s 10c. MP bets, other player folds, I raise, MP calls.
Turn is Qc. (Hell.effing.yes.) I bet, MP calls.
River is Jd (I.own.your.ass.) I bet, MP raises, I reraise, MP gets all chatty and talks for about 20 seconds, asking me what I have and all that shit, then raises. I know it, right there, and call just to see it.
6d 6h.

After that, I am actually pretty proud of how well I kept it together. I didn't go insane, I didn't become too timid, I just kept playing my game, but the cards still weren't kind.

So after about an hour and a half, I raised with KJs from the SB with only 24 left behind(not the smartest, I know, but I wanted to build a big pot). I flopped a jack, turned another with a flush draw, and won a pot worth about 60 or so. After that, I didn't win another for another hour and a half. Then finally I picked up aces and kings, and won decent pots with both of those. I also managed to run my only successful bluff to date in 3/6. And after about 7 hours of play, clawed my way all the way back up to $240.

You wouldn't think it, but driving home I felt like a million bucks. It never felt so good to spend 7 hours playing just to break even.

i know i can beat this game
--Alex

A Prickly One.

2006-08-17T09:08:00.000-05:00

So I stand in the middle of an uncomfortable financial spot right now.

I have always liked live play worlds more than online play, and I've realized that since I am currently 15 minutes from a casino, my online game is certainly going to take a backseat. However, in about 2 weeks, I am going to have to pay tuition and buy books, which is going to completely wipe out my live poker bankroll (aka my checking account). I just made a cashout of Neteller of about 80% of my online bankroll, also going to tuition.

So after the tuition check is written, I will be left with about 300-400 online, and maybe 300 cash. Obviously I won't be able to play 3/6 with only 50 big bets to my name. Well, at least I shouldn't. And I really "should" take all my online bucks out just in case of an emergency. And I really "should" just get whatever crappy job I can at school and hump it so I can guarantee I can pay rent. And I really "shouldn't" play any poker, including the super-soft NLHE games that run in the bars at Madison that basically paid my rent last year, because I run the risk of going really cold and going really broke. And unlike Mike Matusow, I really don't relish going broke, I think if I ever did go broke I wouldn't sleep for a couple days. And I will *almost* never, ever, ask my parents or friends for money. And I really don't think its grammatically correct to start a sentence with "And".

Now I do have some amount of gamble in me, but I'm not about to take my tuition money and sit in a 10/20 or a 2/5 NL game at the casino.
So what will I do? Who the hell knows. Maybe I'll play 3/6 tonight and win 2k. That's only, what, 333 big bets? I think I can win about 4 BB/hour, so that's only about 83 hours. That's only 5 sessions of 16 hours apiece. Piece of cake....

And now back to reality.

I've been a winning poker player for about 2 years now, and most of that time I've played higher stakes that my bankroll would dictate. So I'm not really worried about losing money, but like I said, losing all the money I have to my name scares the bejesus out of me.

So again, I'm really not sure what I'm going to do. I may have to just get the crappy job and hump it to save for next semester, which is going to come up faster than I would like it. I don't want to stop playing live poker at all, but I just may have to. I may also have to stop playing online completely. Again, its not that I'm afraid I'll start losing, its just that I literally can't afford to go on an extended cold streak. I also don't think I would be playing my best game if I was playing with, oh, my rent money. That would make me feel like a real pathetic addict, something I swore I would never feel like.

I realize I'm rambling, but this is the safest place to vent these concerns and fears, mostly because nobody really reads this. Hopefully I'll go on some crazy heater soon, I'm not dumb enough to count on something like that, I'm just saying it would be cool if it happened. I'll hate to give up poker for a couple weeks/months, but if the money isn't there, it just isn't there.

This isn't a sob story, by any means. It's not like I'm going to be living on the street or anything like that, I just may have to take some time off because I don't want to run the risk of *having to borrow money*. I'm a college student, being poor comes with the territory.

hoping for a heater
--Alex

There and back again, a busy man's tale.

2006-08-16T08:34:00.000-05:00

Last time I posted I was in our beautiful hotel just outside of Boston, taking advantage of their free wireless internet. Since then, I have had about 1/2 of a normal day. On a connecting flight out to Boston, I lost my drivers license. I found out that not having a photo ID on you when your traveling automatically makes you a terrorist suspect.
I was not able to board the Amtrak to NYC, so we took the Chinatown bus. Which was much cheaper and actually just as fast, so that wasn't a big deal. There were many other times where we were inconvenienced by this but I won't bore you with those details.

All in all, the trip was awesome. The gf was awesome, she kept up every step of the way and didn't delay us too much with "girlie stuff" like excessive preparation before we left the hotel every day. She liked Boston much more than NYC, partially because of our crap-tacular NYC hotel. I should have seen this coming, but I am a trip planning newbie and this place was by far the cheapest hotel in Manhattan. If your going to NYC on a budget, stay anywhere by the Latham Hotel. First off, we noticed the place shares a building with a daycare, is this common in NYC or something? As we were checking in, the person in front of us was checking out. It sounded as if this person had a slight Italian accent, but I can't be sure. Anywho, we heard them tell he manager at the desk "There were cockroaches in the room". To which the manager replied "There are cockroaches all over America." Now if the first comment didn't freak my gf out, the second one certainly did.

Well there were no cockroaches as far as we saw in our room, but the power did go out a couple times for a couple hours at a time.

I did play a little bit of poker at night at our Boston hotel, mostly just clearing the Hollywood bonus, but really none after that until hopefully tonight. I emailed Hollywood support about getting an extension on my bonus there but I guess that's not possible, oh well.
I have played live poker since the trip, however. I played at the local casino, Potawatomi on my bday, and lost about 60 playing 1-5 Stud and 3/6 hold em. I played 3 hands voluntarily in 3 hours of HE, boooring. Even though I had to tell people I lost on my bday, I was still encouraged because of how awful the 3/6 game is there. I played again last night and booked a win that covered my bday loss. The flop rate at this game is about 55% I would say. It's been awhile since I've seen an online 1/2 full ring game with a flop rate even in the 40% range!!

I would say my flop rate in this game is about 20%, which may even be too tight, but I haven't seen too many premium hands in my time there so far. In the game I played in last night, almost everyone, from what I could tell, was a LAG. There was one guy who was maybe 35% VPIP, but other than that, I think every other player was the type who would cold call 3 bets or even a cap preflop from any position holding something like QJs. I know this because a guy who beat my KK cold called 3 bets from the button with 87o and caught a 9 on the river for a filled gutshot while I bet and raised every street. I saw many other hands like this, but it really didn't bother me when it happened to me. I saw other players yell at people who chased and caught with terrible hands, but I still think its stupid to do that sort of thing. I like the phrase "don't tap on the glass" because I love it when people show me ridiculous hands, it's like their telling me "I'm trying to give you my money."

So on Monday night I moved out of my old house at school, which was being lived in by my old roommate and the guy I subletted to. I was the messiest and dirtiest house I've ever seen when I got there. I yelled at them and we cleaned for about 6 hours as fast as we could to get the house in as best shape as possible in hopes of getting some of my deposit back. Note to self, don't live with/rent to people who use drugs excessively.

My new roommate, Erik and I moved into our new apartment on Tuesday, and everything went pretty smoothly. It's kind of a small place, and we will be a little cramped first semester with three guys living in a 1 bedroom apartment.

Erik and I also played in a cash game in a bar outside of Madison on Monday night. He played NLHE, I played in a H.O. game. It was NLHE and PLO rotation. It was actually a pretty tough game during the HE rotations. I sat to the left of one of the best NLHE players I've played with in a while. All but two of the guys didn't know what they were doing in PLO though. One hand pretty much sums it up.

Playing .25/.50 PLO, average stack is about $70 or so, five out of eight players are limping about every hand. I call in LP with 8c8sQsJc and so do about 4 other people. Flop is 6s 8h Js. Bet of $2 to me, and I raise pot. The original bettor calls along with one other, so the pot is around $24. The turn is a beautiful brick, 2d, and when it's checked to me, I bet the pot again, the bettor on the flop calls so quick that I know he must have either 66, or a nuclear wrap/nut flush draw combo. River is the 9s, which I actually dreaded at that point. I had the third nuts, but I thought I might be beat, and checked. This might have been a huge mistake, after all, I could beat all but two hands. For some reason whenever I accumulate a decent amount of chips, which I had by that point, I always am afraid of giving them away and I feel I need to play more conservatively. My opponent thought for a few seconds, and bet out $40. I could feel my heart plunge into my stomach. At this point, though, theres well over $100 in the pot, and after about a minute of thought, I called, and he quickly flips over 10s 4s x x and smiles like he has a royal flush. I felt great about winning such a huge pot, but this guy was a total fish. I think I would've given this guy more respect if the river 9 had given him a straight instead of a 10 high flush. I finished up over $100 and left after about 2.5 hours, not bad at all.

So after that giant pat on the back I feel like leaving work at lunch (after being off for 8 days) and going back to the Pot. I may still tonight.

good to be back, and finally 21!!
--Alex

Live from Bauustin.

2006-08-03T20:27:00.000-05:00

With apologies to drewspop, I had to throw that little jab in the title, being from Wisconsin and having such a vanilla accent, the people in Boston with a heavy accent sound to me like they are speaking another language.

Despite our early departure time on Thursday morning (I didn't even know they had 6 am flights!!) I was able to fit in a good amount of poker Wednesday night. I took 3rd in a 45, which was a pretty good accomplishment because I was down to T400 at one point. I also took 11th in another, going in just an awful way. I was at about T3600, under the average, but still alive, and I got a free look at the flop with 83o. The flop was A83, and the SB bet out. I shoved, he had A8, ugh. Still feeling pretty good about my part in the 45 challenge so far though.

We're staying in a small inn in Brookline, and are about 4 min from a stop on the Greenline (Boston subway branch). The first thing we did today was go to the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum. If you go to Boston and have any interest in art or history, you have to stop at this place. Its basically a 3-story house with enough art and historical pieces to fill a good sized public museum. Dozens of tapestries, antique furniture, sculptures and hundreds of paintings are everywhere in this place. I'm not a huge fan of art but I can appreciate some stuff. It's even got a lot of famous artist's pieces, Rembrandt, Degas, etc.

After that we were starving and walked around the Fenway (neighborhood?, district? not sure what they call the areas of town here. We ate at a place called Thornton's, amazing onion rings.

Well after an early start and a long day, we're heading to bed early.
--Alex

Stud Stuff

2006-08-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

Well the pot in my last post ended up being in the $45-$48 range, not quite sure. But for .50/1.00 Stud, that's about as big of a pot as possible.

Split pair = One in the hole (down) and one up. For example, (KT)K would be called split Kings.
Wired pair = Both cards down. example (99)Q would be called wired nines.
Rolled up = All three starting cards are the same value. example (55)5 would be called rolled fives.
I have also heard "rolled" when talking about making three of a kind whenever you have a wired pair, no matter when the third card comes, as long as it is up. So you could also say that (JJ)T 7 J x (x) is also rolled jacks.

If you've never played Stud online (or live), I'd definitely recommend giving it a try for a few reasons.
1. Its not HE.
2. Most of the players in micro games suck.
3. Its the best way to work off the bonus at Hollywood Poker (I know, I'm shameless).
4. You get more cards to yourself :)
5. You can play H.O.R.S.E. tourneys and not suck at the R.S.E. part
6. It will make you a better HE player
7. Its not HE.

I know what your thinking (besides that #1 and #7 are the same), "but I don't know how to play stud and I'll lose for sure". You may also be thinking "the only people that play stud online are pro stud specialists and sharks and will totally rape me." Neither of these are very true however. Stud is just like HE in the sense that it takes 5 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master. As for the part about stud games being filled with sharks, I've found that most low limit stud games online are filled with people that are either: 1. bored with HE, or 2. really really old. In both cases, they probably suck.

In HE, when a totally meaningless card falls on the turn, its called a brick. In Stud, there really are no "bricks" ever. This can be an intimidating statement when you consider that most stud pots enter 5th street 3-5 handed. You basically have to keep track of every card that's on everyone's board, as well as up cards that have been folded to make the best possible decisions in stud. This kind of makes multi-tabling a nightmare, unless you're Rain Man.

At every stud table you play at, there will be one or two players who will basically see 4th street with anything. Taking advantage of these people, raising after they call the one bet when you have a strong hand, is a great way to get extra money into the pot. These are the same people who, if by 5th street they have a pair or better, will call all the way down no matter what you have showing on your board.

There are a million pieces of advice to give about stud, of which I really only know a few dozen. I am by NO MEAN a stud expert, I just have had more experience than most people my age. If you want much better stud advice than I could give you, read Felicia.

So there ya go, play stud, be happy, and please, spay or neuter your pet.
--Alex

Stud firsts

2006-08-02T10:43:00.000-05:00

While playing 7-Stud at Hollywood last night, I experienced two thing is had never seen playing online stud.

First, I had wired aces and there were two other aces already up by 4th street. While I was disappointed because I would've loved rolled aces, I obviously knew neither of my opponents had aces or aces up. I made aces up, however, and was happily just calling all the way while these two fired away at each other. On the river I ended up making jacks full, and we capped the river. I thought I was ahead the whole way obviously, but it turned out one of my opponent had rolled nines!! I don't think I misplayed calling all the way until the river, I never fault myself for not "seeing" that someone is rolled up. I just was making the wrong play at the right time. Better lucky than good right? (Like I believe that.)
So wired aces with two others out and a nice suckout on 7th, big deal right?

The better hand that I saw didn't even involve me. I just wish I had taken a screenshot.

All you really need is a summary of this hand, because its easy to see how it would have played out.The guy with (QQ)Q as a starting hand made Queens full, and lost. The guy with (AA)A as a starting hand make Aces full, and lost.
Thats right, the guy with (JJ)J as a starting hand went (JJ)J x x x (J). Do I even need to tell you that this hand was capped all the way?

After seeing that take place, I decided it was time for an early bedtime, and that's why this entry is pretty short. I'm leaving early tomorrow morning, but I'm going to try to fit in a few 45s in tonight in between packing.

next entry will be live from Boston.
--Alex

Finally August and the 20k

2006-08-01T09:38:00.000-05:00

Well August is finally here, it looks to be one of the most exciting months of my life. Bday in t-minus 10 days and counting. Also, the gf and I leave for Boston at 6 am on Thursday, thankfully the forecast for Beantown and New York City is pretty mild the whole time we're on the East Coast. Nothing over 85, which is lucky considering both those places (and my current location) are experiencing 95+ degree heat.

I ran in another 45 at Stars last night, tried to run TT through JJ on a J high board, maybe not such a good idea.

I won a 6+.60 sat to grab a seat in the 20k last night on Full Tilt. I gotta say again, I'm digging the satellite/token system. They seem pretty easy when you only have to place in the top 4 or 5. It really feels like a bargain when your playing for a $6,500+ first prize for only a $6.60 entry.

Unfortunately I could never really get anything going in the 20k. I chipped up to about T2000 when my AK took down a preflop raised pot. I went out with about 1,300 in chips shortly after the first break when my AK couldn't suck out against the big stack's A3 (sarcasm). The only glaring error that I made came when I had about T1800. I had AK in LP and didn't reraise when someone raised to 300 and another player called. The original raiser shoved on a 7-high flop and I couldn't bring myself to call even though I was getting about 2.5 to 1. I really felt like he had 88-JJ and just wanted to protect his hand. I still wish I would have pushed back preflop. All in all, I think I played a little to tight and a little too scarred. It was the biggest MTT I've ever played in though, so I think I can do better in the future.

Played some more stud at Hollywood yesterday. I ran pretty bad but managed not to lose too much. Yesterday was one of those days that I could never seem to make a flush or straight, except when I have 4 to it on my board, and check raising the river doesn't exactly work too well on those hands. When it does work, you're probably beat, which sucks.

Klopzi recently inspired me to try my hand at some micro stakes A-5 TDL last night on UB. I only played a couple orbits but actually finished up about 10BB! Chris Fargis watch out!!

I think that's about it for today.
w o r k i s d r a g g i n g b i g t i m e
--Alex

H.O.R.S.E. and Stud

2006-07-31T08:54:00.000-05:00

TripJax: fresh new look, same great content, now with 100% more gay magazine covers!!

Well I'm officially addicted to H.O.R.S.E. tourneys on FT, I especially love the HU ones. I also love that FT runs sats. for almost every regular tourney they have. I just discovered that last part this weekend and I think I'm def. going to try to take that road for buying into the medium-sized buy in tourneys.

I also have to admit that I know nothing about Razz. Can anyone condense Razz strategy down to less than 50 words and leave it as a comment? Thanks.

I'm having a blast working off the Hollywood Poker bonus playing Stud, if you ever wanted to force yourself to learn Stud, there are constantly 2-5 .50/1.00 Stud tables going on that site that are very soft. I've surprised myself with how well I've done so far, mostly because I never learned how to play Stud "right" like I did with HE. When I say "right" I mean I've never read a stud book, I just play like I've learned and how I've observed other winning players play. These games on Hollywood are pretty loose, and can be very passive, so I play pretty tight, and ram and jam when I have a high pair, or 3 of a suit on my board.

I think one thing people leave out of their personal stud strategy that is widely preached in HE is playing in position. I think this may be because position in stud can change on almost every street, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take it into account when you can. For example, if there is a lone ace up on 3rd, theres a great chance he will be high on 4th also. In the same way, if someone pairs on 4th,even if its a baby, there's a great chance they will be high on 5th and 6th as well. These may seem like little things, but it can be the difference between paying 1 bet or 2 bets to see if you make your 4th to the suit on 5th street.

There are about a million things to talk about as far as stud strategy goes, but I don't often see people talk about position so I thought I should throw in my two cents. The best piece of poker talk in Rounders was about stud, but I don't think many people really paid attention.

Mike: "Premium hands. You only start with jacks or better split, nines or better wired, three high cards to a flush. If a bet's good enough to call, you're in there raising. Tight but aggressive."

Thats about as good of a condensed stud strategy that I've ever heard.

If you want to hear someone who really knows what they're talking about, go read Felicia and her archives. Not to be too forward but she took my blogging virginity, she was the first blog I ever read. She was also the first to link to me (search for "newish").

I FINALLY MADE A HUGE SUCKOUT IN 100NL!!
Well, it was a pretty good one for a pretty big pot. I raised 5xBB with TT on the button, thinking I would take it down there with a table full of limpers, but one of them called. The flop was TJQ rainbow, and my opponent bet out. Now, I was fairly sure that if I shoved he would call with something as bad as AJ, and I could just call and see a K or 9 come off, I would never forgive myself for that. So I shoved and he insta called with 89 soooted. Turn 3. River 3 for teh win. I gotta admit i LOVED doing this to the guy, especially someone who calls 5xBB with 89.

3 days till NYC/Boston
10 more workdays left in the summer monkey factory.
--Alex

First affiliate link and a new site

2006-07-28T09:56:00.000-05:00

Well as the 4 people who read my blog might have noticed, I have an affiliate ad up for bet365. I liked bet365 when I did their bonus, I also played around in their sportsbook a bit (they have a pretty good help section for people not familiar with the terminology involved in sports betting, like I was).
Everyone already knows about this guy, but hes a great read and a very profitable player, go check out the law school dropout.

I also signed up at Hollywood poker last night to take advantage of their 100% deposit bonus "5x" . I was pretty happy to discover it used the same interface of Pokerroom. I don't know if they are the same company but I would guess so.

I was slightly annoyed to find out that their points only count hands that you contributed to the pot, so even though there are plenty of .5/1 and 1/2 LHE tables going, they really do me no good when it comes to clearing the bonus. So this bonus will be cleared almost exclusively with Stud and Stud8. This is by no means bad news, as I can play as tight as I want with only a .10 ante and still clear the bonus pretty quickly when I'm 3-tabling.

I also played in a 10+1 tourney with $500 added, there were I think 497 runners so it basically negated the juice as far as EV goes. Pretty good deal, and I managed to double with AA vs. KK in the first 15 min of the tourney. I was about to double again with AK vs. 33 all in preflop when an A showed up on the flop, but a 3 on the turn sealed the deal. Maybe that was dumb to put so much on AK preflop when I was already in the top 20% in chips, but I had about 1/4 of my stack committed with a reraise, so I did have pot odds to call the shove.

Played a little SHNL 6-max on Full Tilt before bed. Took a nasty one with KK vs. TT all in preflop when TT made a straight. Adding insult to injury, the villain told the table after the hand that he never has to get lucky like that because he "plays for a living". Doesn't everyone these days. I reloaded and got it back though, mostly on a bluff on a scary board, I think I may have had the best hand with KQ anyway though.

wireless router comes today!!
6 days till Boston/NYC
14 days till the bday
--Alex

I suck.

2006-07-26T09:37:00.000-05:00

It's not easy to eff-up just about every big NL hand for about a week straight, but I've managed to do it.

My last post I detailed a particularly gruesome screw up, but that was just one of many. Last night I thought my luck was about to change when I flopped top two with 9Ts against two other opponents who I knew were strong (would pay me off). Here's the stream of thought that went with the hand:

Yehaaa, top two pair bitchaaaas!!! I'm raising this idiot's c-bet.

What's that? All in? Of course I'll call, I just outflopped the crap out of you.

What's that? You have the other two tens? Well at least I can bitch and moan tomorrow in my blog about being "cold decked" or some shit like that.

Knowing I suck isn't good enough for me, I need to be told I suck by a group of my peers, thanks to Falstaff and StB my fellow Brew City poker blogger for doing that. Seriously, there is no sarcasm in that last sentence, if you think I suck, or sucked on the hand I described, let me know. I'll take it and love it and learn from it.

Since I've started rereading Small Stakes Hold'em, I think I've found a few serious leaks in my LHE game. The most obvious and most correctable of which is betting weak made hands. When I see a free flop with 93o and the flop comes something like 9c8c5d, I am inclined to bet because, well, I have top pair.
I don't think I have to tell anyone reading this blog all the hands that have me beat on the flop, or hands that could easily beat me on the turn/river. The point is that these hands will almost all call one bet on the flop and alot of them will (correctly) raise me on the flop. I'll often call people down in frustration in these situations (because it's limit and it won't even cost me that much to see their cards *insert donkey noise here*) and be shown something totally redonkulous like someone who played 95o UTG and flopped two pair.
I think this is one of the bigger leaks in my game, but there are a few other things I need to explore.

I started playing LHE on Full Tilt yesterday. I'll probably be playing .5/1 or 1/2 on that site for awhile until I can build my $100 initial deposit up a bit. Feel free to say hi if you see Al_the_Snowman at your table.

so people who went to the University of Wisconsin are pretty good at poker

F*** You Poker

2006-07-24T09:39:00.000-05:00

Well as I've heard other bloggers say, I got smacked around by the poker gods after bragging about my recent winnings. I finally cleared the never ending bonus on B2B, limping to the finish with barely half of my starting stack. As good as the weekend started, it ended just as bad with bad cards, bad play, and bad beats ruling Sunday.

This hand typified what happened on Sunday. I am at about 90 after buying in for 50 at a 100NL table. I raise on the button with Qd9d and get called just by the BB (100% BB defense rate in over 150 hands btw). The flop is KdQh6d. Just about the picture perfect flop for me. I bet it, and get check raised. Hmmm, I call, since it isn't too much more, and the turn is a beautiful 5d. BB bets out now, I think it was 10. I raise him to 35 to go, he calls. Serious warning bells are now going off. The best I can put him on is AdKx or maybe KxQx. The river was 5c, and he checks. My brain, at this point, is screaming to check behind, unfortunately I was thinking with my wallet at this point. Having called that big raise, I know he'll pay me off on the river, and I put out a value bet of 20, and he insta raises my last 15. I call, and he shows KcKs. I got ~~outdrawn~~ ~~outplayed~~ f***ed.

So how do I avoid going broke here? I hate being told to "protect my hand" when I make the nuts or very near it, but maybe that's what I needed to do on the turn.

I also played 3-handed limit with an insane cardrack who capped preflop with ATC, yea I really wanted to put my fist through the wall after I blew through $100 playing 1/2 limit for about 15 min.

I'm surprised I fell asleep after that last night. I think I may take a few days off. Possibly even move down limits when I start my next site, which may be Intertops. I think the total lack of live play this summer has hurt my online game.
I'm itching for live play so bad I'm almost longing for the uber frustrating $25+5 donkfests that happen almost every day of the week around the Madison unpopular-bar/poolhall scene.

Once again, I can't wait to turn 21. My dad, who just learned the term "the nuts" this weekend, has been crushing the 3/6 game at the local casino for about 5BB/hour for over 4 months now, and he doesn't know anything about HE. Ok, so he's a really really good stud player, but if he can do that, I really can't see myself having much trouble duplicating that.

setting myself up for a huge disappointment
--Alex

Unstuck and starting the 45s

2006-07-22T11:16:00.000-05:00

After a week of being stuck at B2B, I broke through last night and plowed to up about 1/4 of my initial deposit today. I also played my first 45 person tourney as part of the 45SnG challenge. I really don't expect to place in this, as I have very little MTT experience, but hey, I know how to play the game. Not sure what I'm going to do after I cash out of this B2B site, there aren't any more B2B big bonuses going on right now that are 5x. I hope one comes available soon because I've really been cleaning house there so far. Also, I've identified a ton of fish and calling stations there and I would hate for that database on PokerTracker to go to waste. Also, there have been more 1/2 limit tables going during more times of the day which I love for bonus clearing. One more thing I love about B2B is that almost all of the NL they spread is 6-max, which I like way more than full ring.

One thing I've realized from playing all this NL is that I suck at bluffing. In limit, bluffing, for me, is easy. I just pick a play, and execute it. If it works, I pick up a nice pot. If I get called, I don't lose much. In NL though, it seems like the amount you have to risk on bluffs is usually more than the reward. Also, with the way online NL players are calling stations, it almost seems to me that bluffing in NL is -EV.

Has anyone purchased these?
They look really cool and I need new headphones for my Ipod but I've read some bad reviews about them recently.

I really need to see Clerks II today but I told my buddy I would play baseball with him and his little brother. Guess I'll have to pony up the whole 8.75 or whatever they want for a non-matinee movie ticket.

I guess that's about it, I'll try to talk about some actual poker next post I promise.
Suggestions for my next bonus whoring adventure?

2006-07-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

Mac Poker

Screw Titles

2006-07-19T09:10:00.000-05:00

So I finally got around to Tivoing episodes of High Stakes Poker. Don't ask my why it's taken me this long, I've been bitching about there not being cash games on TV for 2 years now. I watched my first Tivoed episode last night and I was amazed. I might even start DLing old episodes if I can find them. Mike Matusow had been playing for about 8 hours by the time this episode started and he was getting up to leave, and the whole table agreed to pay him $1000 each to stay 3 more hours. This show didn't really change my opinion about too many people. Negreanu is still awesome, he seems super fun to play with. Jen Harman was unbelievable. She was super aggressive, she took a quarter million dollar pot from Esfandiari with QQ vs. 88. Then when he rebought, she pushed him off QQ on a K-high flop when she had 9-high. She also called him down for a big pot with a pair of sevens on a scary board. I actually did laugh out loud when Matusow told him after all that, "I don't want to help you too much dude, but stay the f*** out of her way." I'll probably never be let into the room those guys play in, much less have the money to play in that game, but I love reading Twenty outs twice and hearing about his play against top pros with tens and hundreds of thousands on the line.

A great post by Klopzi yesterday, very well organized and jam packed with good stuff.

Finally posted a session of 100NL well in the black yesterday. It couldn't have come at a better time, either, as a loss yesterday might have put me at less than 3/4 of my bankroll at the B2B site I'm playing at now. This doesn't sound that bad, but there is no reason at all for me to be stuck at this site in the games I'm playing. I've run into some cold card recently, but I'm not using that as an excuse. If anything, its been my lack of discipline, as evidenced by my VPIP climbing toward 30. Also, I've been paying off too many hands that I know I'm beat on, don't ask me why I do this, from now on though I'm going to try to let myself be bluffed a little more and pay people off a little less. I'm almost done with the mouth watering 400E bonus on B2B, but I do hate their "one free cashout per 30 days" policy. Seriously does it really cost them 10E per withdrawal?

I really, really wish that there were limit games going on B2B at all times, even 6-max limit would be fine. I guess I'll have to wait until school starts so I can play during the day. I can 4-table limit easy peasy, but I have to focus waaaaay too much on NL to be profitable. The problem is is that I've never seen 4 tables of limit simultaneously on B2B at the stakes I want to play at.

I got my copy of Small Stakes Hold'em back from a friend yesterday and I plan on rereading it in the next 23 days. Why 23 days? BECAUSE I TURN 21 ON AUGUST 11 BABY!!! I really don't think I could be any more excited about that. I realize I'm setting myself up for a huge disappointment when I sit down at the local casino and get huge hand after huge hand cracked by people playing T8 soooted, but I didn't have one losing session in the 5 or so times I snuck in before getting caught and kicked out in a very embarrassing manner. I just can't wait to see the look on the manager's face when I come back and am of legal age.

more self reflection on my play to come
--Alex

Slaughtered.

2006-07-17T10:34:00.000-05:00

The limit game was great this weekend, I booked about a $100 profit along with clearing $150 worth of bonuses between Sun and Littlewoods. I saw Falstaff at the tables at Littlewoods, even took a nice pot off him in his first hand at the table with KK when he made TPTK with AQ.

It was so hot in Milwaukee this weekend, I was obliged to stay indoors and play online poker, which I thought I would be happy to do. Despite my successes in limit, I still can't consider it a successfully weekend.

I found a pretty soft 200NL game on B2B late Friday night, and contrary to my usual strategy, I bought in for the full amount. I played pretty tight for the first orbit, picking up one small pot. Then I picked up AK in the SB. I raised and made it 10E to go, the BB called, along with one other MP.

The flop was a beautiful A K 10 rainbow, and I immediately bet out 20, BB raised to 60, MP folded.

This was pretty scary, and a few hands ran through my head, all I could figure was AT, with AJ and AQ all being very much possible also. AA and KK would have reraised preflop, and I thought TT might have even reraised also.

Still, I just flopped top two, am I going to let myself be pushed off this monster? Hell No!!

I reraised to make it 150, why I didn't just go all in I don't know. He did put me all in, however, and turned over the dreaded QJ. As much as this kills me to admit it. I g o t o u t p l a y e d.

I made a small chunk of that back, Saturday morning, playing 100NL and booking a nice 80E profit. Later on Saturday, though, I got punched in the face again. Again with AK, again with flopping and Ace. This time it was against JJ who called my all in on the flop with JJ and hit running spades to beat me. I was so thrilled that this guy called with JJ, because I have another fish to follow all over B2B, but discovering this guy was too expensive (another 100E) for my taste. After thinking about that call on the flop, 70E, the loss now doesn't hurt so bad, because of what that call tells me about the player.

Probably going to play more limit tonight, and start on the 45SnG challenge.
--Alex

Disjointed

2006-07-14T10:09:00.000-05:00

It was nice to see the Twinkies and Liriano get smacked around last night, my MN friends are getting a little too full of themselves for a team 12 games out of 1st place.

At the risk of outing my new favorite site, as jjrok has already partially done, I'm starting to think that Sun might be one of the biggest fish tanks out there. Not only are the NL tables very polarized (either total rock gardens or total nut houses), but the LHE action is very good also. You know your playing in a good game when blind defense against a 3-bet is almost 100%. Average pots in a 2/4 game are in the 20-24 range, which isn't that huge, but there seem to be a lot of pots that just reach that magic $20 mark to clear a full MPP. At a full table, you can expect around 40-45MPPs/hour, which makes the monthly bonus at Sun fly by.

I'm starting to think I have a short attention span as far as poker goes, I seem to be jumping between favoring NL, LHE, PLO8, and Stud games about every two weeks or so.

Time to break the news: The first week of August, my GF will be taking our first vacation together. Airline tickets have been bought, hotels have been booked, daily plans have even been made (feeling waaay more like an adult right now than I care for). We'll be spending 3 days in Boston, then Amtraking to spend 4 days in NYC. I've been to Boston once, and NYC twice, but GF has been to neither. The last day we spend in NYC will be the last day of my life that I will not be allowed to gamble in my home state because of age requirements. Since we are due to get back into town on the 10th at around 11:30 p.m., I just might head right to the casino from the airport :)

Tonight I will either play a lot of poker online, or none at all. I may be going up to Madison for the night/Saturday to sign the lease on the apartment for next school year.

have a great weekend
--Alex

Stepping up the stakes.

2006-07-13T09:26:00.000-05:00

For the first time in almost a week I got in a good amount of hands last night between B2B and SunPoker. I'm almost halfway through my juicy 400E bonus at the most recent B2B site and I'm not up nearly as much as I was at the last site. In fact, I'm darn close to even. The bonus more than makes up for this, but I think that more consistent play is the answer, both day-to-day and playing style.
During the last few weeks, my set-farming hasn't been going well, as there has been a serious drought in Setville. Because of this, I've been playing more by-the-book TAG poker. I've also been buying in for the full amount, as advocated by The new homeowner and The guy whose procreation results would scare the crap out of me. I think switching between these styles will benefit my game in the long run, because they both demand singling out different types of players. As a set farmer, I'm looking for calling stations and LAGs. But as a solid, TAG, I'd more enjoy a table of LAP or SLAP. In one style I'm looking for players who always c-bet, in the other, I'm looking for people who always fold to a c-bet.
I've gotta say, though, that being a TAG is much more frustrating, especially when I encounter the dreaded Rag Flop Push Monkey, or RFPM. I really don't know what to do against these guys. I'll raise 4xBB with AK, the flop will be 4 7 9, I'll bet strong, and RFPM will check raise me huge, sometimes even a shove. I know, I know, I just have Ace high, but I still want to call the RFPM with it. Hell, I would love to "suck out" on them if my hand isn't even good on the flop.

Last night, while playing 100NL, I lost what I think was the largest pot ever without a showdown. I had KK UTG and raised 4xBB, which folds around to the BB, who calls. Flop comes Qh 8d 9c . He checks, I bet 6, he raises to 18. I think about min-raising him, but I'm not even sure if that would give me the info I was looking for, so I just call. Turn is 6c and he thinks for a bit, and bets out 15. This seems really strange to me, and now I min raise him and pray he will tell me where I'm actually at in this hand. Well he wait about 10 seconds and then shoves. With the rest of my stack, I was getting about 2.5 to 1, and eventually, I had to fold. There were a ton of hands I could beat, and right now half of me wishes I would have called. I realize that the size of the pot really didn't even matter, because if I was beat, I was almost certainly completely drawing dead. He could have had Q8 or Q9 and I could have still been drawing live, although still not live enough to be making that call, but he could have easily also had J10. My opponent played it well, whatever he had, but I'm not so sure that I did. I'd love to hear what anyone thinks about this hand, my opponent was not abnormally aggressive or loose either. I doubled up a few hands later with AA vs. QQ so I was back to even pretty quickly.

I've been playing 100NL at Sun for the last week or so, and the $ there are total rock gardens. So I decided to play 2/4 limit so the bonus would turn out to be a true 5x and not a 20x as it was quickly (or slowly) becoming. Wow, I forgot how easy limit is. A brain dead toad (or a psychology major) could play limit without too much trouble. Two of the hardest constant questions in NL
1. When to bet
2. How much to bet
are answered for you (1.ALWAYS and 2.Obvious).
As long as you have a decently thick playbook (what I call the catalog of bluffs I'm capable of) and don't pay off too many hands with just Ace high, this game seems like a bonus clearing dream. 2/4 is much higher than I should be playing, with only 240 (up from initial deposit of 100 YAY) on Sun. But I'm no stranger to playing higher than my bankroll allows, and I have no problem reloading at this site if I bust, the bonus is very good. One HUGE gripe about Sun though, is that they don't allow you to access the %$#**&!}{#(@) CASHIER when your playing at a table!!
I'm MikeD93 on Sun, if you see me at a table, feel free to say high or raise my blind, I'll defend like a fool with ATC (kidding).

I'm doing the 45 SnG Challenge, you should too.
--Alex

No I'm not in Vegas

2006-07-10T08:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry to disappoint, but I would probably just be wasting my time there anyway, they probably card for most WSOP events huh? But while I wasn't competing for a bracelet, I did manage to take 2nd in a shady homegame tourney. We were almost even in chips headsup when my AA ran into the powerhouse Q7 sooooooted. Alright, just leave a comment if I owe you a dollar now.

Anyway, I got a decent amount of online poker in the last 3 or so days. Mostly at SunPoker, where I'm trying to work off their deceptively tough $100 monthly bonus. I like the site just fine, but the people playing at the $/currency tables are rockier than a quarry! So I played a GBP tables are those people are maniacs!!(or is it hooligans?) Either way, doing very well at Sun and at WillHill. I haven't been running too well at the newest B2B site I'm playing at, which is a real shame, because that bonus is the juiciest one I'm currently working on.

Huge ups to Klopzi and JJ for their comments and discussion on buying in short vs. buying in max, its given me a ton to think about, and I've begun to experiment with buying in for different amounts. I'm fairly sure I played with JJ at SunPoker this weekend(who else would have jjok as their name?) but he must have had chat off because he didn't respond to my provocations.

I'm going to try to post at least one specific hand I found strategically interesting every day from now on, I think it'll give me another angle to reflect on how I could have played it differently or not.
I started reading Freakanomics last night, it seems interesting so far and I've been wanting to read it for about a year now.

Starting to get an itch for some tourney poker, maybe I'll throw a few bones into Stars and play the MATH tonight. That is, if it's going on.

that's all for now,
--Alex

Bankroll management, My lack of

2006-07-06T09:31:00.000-05:00

So if anyone would like to suggest a good post/article/whatever about bankroll management that would be great, cus, well, I really have none to speak of. It all started when I started playing online poker at the beginning of June. I first sat down at a 50SHNL table and quickly discovered that the majority of pots were not being raked enough to be counted toward my bonus. So I decided to move up to 100NL.

Keep in mind that my initial bankroll was only 100.

So I know what your thinking, "what idiot sits down at a table thats max buy in is his entire roll". So I did the smart think (sarcasm) and only bought for 50. This is how I discovered my set-farming strategy that has served me so well so far in foray into online poker. I continued to do this for the last month, clearing bonuses and farming sets, and here I am now with a little north of 1000.
I could never really see a reason to stop playing like this, especially with how little respect is given to short stacks in the 100NL games. Once the pot gets to about 25 or so by the turn, my check-raise-with-a-set for the rest of my stack works almost every time, when I have about 35 or so left. I found out that this move is not nearly as effective when my opponent is facing a check raise of 60 or more.

So can anyone make an argument for why I should start buying in for the full amount when I play as tight as I do?

A new chapter in my gross bankroll mismanagement was opened last night, and I blame it on my girlfriend. She managed to get us free tickets to one of the best (and longest) Brewer games I've ever been to. The Brewers won in 13 innings, and we saw it all. That's right, I officially have the coolest girl in the world.

Anyway, I was so pumped up from the game that I needed to play poker (wow I'm addicted). The only game going on B2B was a 4-handed 200NL game. Let me count the ways I screwed up after this.

1. I sat down in the game.
2.I only bought in for 100.
3.I sat in a game that's max buy in is 1/5th of my bankroll.
4.I sat in a game that I had never played before, when I was not in the best state of mind (adrenaline flowing but actually pretty exhausted).
5.I sat in a game that I had not scouted at all.

I realized now that this was all so stupid that I deserved to get stacked, at least once.

However, I was dealt 8h7h in the SB after an orbit and a half. Button limps, BB checks, flop is 9s 10s Qc. I min bet(don't ask me why). BB calls, Button raises to 6.75 (also interesting). I call, BB calls. Turn is the 6h (hellz yea). I check, trying to look as passive as possible, BB checks behind me. Button has had enough, he bets 25. I think for a bit, decide no one has J8, and I shove. BB insta calls *jaw drops*. Button reshoves *jaw detaches, I am a snake now*.
BB folds for 45 more!!! River is 8d, my cards are flipped up, and the pot slides to me. I'm thinking of emailing the site for IWTSTH purposes, but at the time I didn't care. I had just tripled up!!

Anyway, I played one more orbit, won another 50E pot, and went to bed. While falling asleep, I realized how big of an uber-idiot I was for doing all that, and how I should fess up for being such a fish.

As a side note, I've begun reading drewspop, and before the game yesterday I used his link to get some free, easy cash from PokerSavvy, you should too.

I promise not to be a fish tonight
--Alex

I give up.

2006-07-03T09:41:00.000-05:00

Alright NLHE, I tried and tried and tried to hate you. I tried to think of you as an amateur/luckbox dominated game. I tried to think of you as a trend game. But as a poker player, I can't help but go where the money is.

To say the NL games online are soft is like saying Francisco Liriano has potential in the major leagues. When I started my online poker career and this blog about a month ago I thought I would be mostly bonus whoring, playing tight enough to break even at most sites, collect the bonus, and move on. Through a combination of things, though, I have broken through and I think I can consider myself firmly a +EV NLHE player. This hasn't come as too much of a surprise, mind you, as I've been a +EV NLHE player live for about a year now, I just didn't think I would be able to easily make the transition to online. I think I've narrowed down a lot of the factors that have led to my success online.

1. Game selection. In live poker, especially home games, bar games, and American Legion games, there is no such thing as game selection. You often don't know the players well enough if there is more than one game, or there only is one game. Whereas online, with Pokertracker, you can always pick out the softest, juiciest game at that site.

2.Finding a different style for online. I quickly realized that I would not be very successful online playing as a total rock. Doing this in home games is fine, because of the zero rake. But online, unless you catch cards or have a ton of LAG types, you have to play a few more hands.

3. Reading poker blogs. I've become a whore for poker blogs, mostly because of how mindnumbing my 9-5 occasionally is. I daily read all the blogs I have linked, as well as many others. I've recently started reading StB, Dumbasses Trump All, and Quest of a Closet Poker Player. Klopzi and JJ have remained favorites too, partially because they are more on my level.

4. Writing this blog. Writing about my play, results, and other nonsense (almost) everyday has helped immensely. I can't count the times I've written something and immediately had an epiphany about my play, something about seeing it in type always clears things up. Also, the comments that I've gotten from other bloggers like
Felicia and Klopzi have been confidence boosting and a huge compliment in themselves. Although, I would love more advice/critique on my play or writing, you can never be too harsh and I'd love to hear from you, whoever you are.

So back to real poker.
It was another great weekend online, I knocked out the rest of my Stars reload bonus, playing just about every game known on the site. I pulled in some extra dough in addition to the bonus, and even cashed in a couple MTT.
I finished my most recent B2B bonus, and almost tripled my deposit in the process, God Bless Europeans. Stupid B2B for taking 2 full days to get my fundz back to Neteller.
I flew through the WillHill 5-hour bonus. Played full ring NLHE for the first time in a long time. Finished up over 100USD in those 5 hours, God Bless Europeans.

Not all that many interesting hands to report on, but here are a few.

Got stacked with KK vs. AA, then did the same to an opponent about 20 min later.

Got semi-stacked with QdQh on a flop of 9d 4d 2d. He had KdKc, so no bad beat at all, but he didn't reraise me preflop so I really couldn't put him on anything but Adx when he bet the flop strong.

Got stacked with 44 when I got set-over-setted by 99, no biggie.

Stacked an opponent when I set-over-setted him with KK vs. TT. Why do I always feel bad for these people when it happens to me too?

Foolishly got away from AQo preflop against an opponent who I found out was an uber-LAG and raised (that time and every time) with QTo.

All in all a great weekend of poker. I hit the $1000 milestone from my initial bankroll of $100 after a little over a month, very proud of that.

having a little trouble with my TPS reports
--Alex

Too busy

2006-06-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a couple days to anyone who actually reads this. I've been uber-busy at work the last few days and haven't had time to throw some thoughts together. Also, I really haven't played the last couple days as I was catching up with some old friends and spending time with the significant other.

When I last posted on Monday I said that I would post my pokertracker stats later that day. Well that never happened but I did check them when I got home and I'm happy to say that they were much more than I had estimated. In 2,134 hands played at .50/1.00NL, I won at a rate of 9.05BB/100. This was much more than I had anticipated, but it wasn't as encouraging as I thought it would be. I realized this was waaaaay unsustainable and I immediately (and illogically) began to think that I was "due" to have a few bad sessions.

I will step back into playing and starting a new B2B bonus either tonight or tomorrow, but I am definitely going to pore over a lot of PokerTracker stats, hand histories, and player notes before I do so. I plan on using my player notes a lot more when choosing games from now on. I think I have been sitting with too many solid players and need to be seeking out better games. I wish I had notes on all the people on Stars, because I wouldn't mind jumping in between different variations if I found a better group of players playing a different variation. Oh well, there are plenty of LAGs on B2B, I just need to search them out.

Quick strategy question for all of you experienced SHNL experts out there.

I pick up JJ UTG and make a raise, 4xBB. Folds around and both the blinds call.
Flop is Kxx. Blinds check, I c-bet 6xBB. SB folds, BB raises to 15xBB.
I didn't know much about these players, they didn't seem to be too crazy or too tight.
Since I didn't know them well, and the raiser had me covered, I folded.
What would you have done?

--Alex

I think I've got it.

2006-06-26T08:47:00.000-05:00

Jean-Robert Bellande is one of my favorite "characters" ever on the WSOP. The first reason I liked him was because of how cool he thought he was, I really admire people with that kind of confidence. I also liked him because he got to hit Jennifer Harman while playing poker with her. (He also admitted that she was by far the superior player, which I think all but maybe a handful of players in the world would have to admit.) But these reasons are trumped by my favorite table-talk phrase I've heard from a poker player "Good laydown! Excellent laydown!"

My old mantra for online poker was "Playing good cards eventually will pay off". Well, ummm, that didn't exactly always pan out. Its not like I don't play good cards now, I definitely do, but just playing good cards isn't enough to be a winning online player as I once thought it was. I used to trust my good cards to win unimproved too often in the past. I became a calling station when I knew I was beat, which is very expensive in NLHE (obviously). Pride can be the most expensive attribute of a tight poker player, and this is only exacerbated online. This is the point I'm currently trying to get across to my buddy, Jeff (who I think has the potential to become a better online player than live player) that post flop decisions are much more difficult than preflop decisions. There aren't too many preflop decisions to make when you are a tight-aggressive player. That may sound like an oversimplification, but I really don't think so. You can basically narrow your decision down to a few variables, almost analogous to a blackjack table, based on your hand, the pot size, and your position.

All that said, I think I have finally cracked online SHNLHE cash games. I'm at work so I don't have the PokerTracker stats on me right now, but I will post them when I get home. Playing only 50NL 6-max on B2B, I finished my first 2,000 hands yesterday. Because I played no more than 2 tables at a time, this took me about a week of playing to tally this many hands ( I don't have a ton of free time right now). I'm not even sure what a good rate of BB/100 is for this level/site, but I'm pretty sure mine is well over 3. I'm very proud of my play this last week, I'm playing the type of poker I outlined in this post (my first self-pimp!) and the database in PokerTracker I've built up has helped immensely.

If you think that I'm jumping to conclusions and that there is no way I can conclude that I can beat this game after only 2,00 hands please, by all means, let me know. To me, my results seem encouraging, if you think they shouldn't, let me know.

I know I shouldn't have started playing 50NL because my bankroll only started at 150, but I wasn't getting too many "raked hands" playing 25NL in the beginning. So I actually spent about 3 hours "scouting" the 50NL 6-max on B2B and it seemed very beatable. I can't tell you how excited I am with how well things have gone (actually I think I have about 36 times this post already). I'm on a nice little heater right now and I almost wish I could just leave work and go play online. Wow I'm addicted.

I'm almost finished with the bonus on my current B2B site, and with the way things are going I think I'm just going to go right to the next one.

Hoping things don't go too sour
--Alex

Loving Variety, Hating variance

2006-06-23T09:33:00.000-05:00

Despite my lack of a post yesterday, I did manage to get in a decent amount of poker the last two days.

The highlights included....
Winning a 20+2 SnG PLO8 on Stars
Winning two 10+1 HU SnG Stud8 on Stars
Stacking the same LAG two hands in a row in 50NL 6-max
Clearing a 140E bonus on a B2b site

The lowlights included...
Getting stacked in 50NL with QQ when the river gave me a set but it gave my opponent a straight holding 9T
Getting stacked in 50NL holding KT against one of the biggest LAGs I've ever played against, the board was 4K4T 5, he had AA and I didn't see it coming at all, despite how strong he acted. Serves me right for calling a preflop raise with KT.
Failing to cash in 5 MTT events.

Some good play, some bad play, but overall positive results and I'm fairly happy. My bankroll is growing nicely on Stars, mostly due to Stud8 and PLO8, I think I'm a net loser in HE at Stars especially NLHE SnGs. Haven't tried the LHE at Stars yet, but right now I really have no desire to, I'm having too much fun playing Stud and Omaha. I can't help but love PLO8, its such an action game.
Still looking for experienced advice on what to play on Stars. I might give the NLHE there a try, but I'm not sure if my "set-farming" style will work, or if I'll have to adjust my play if I play 25 or 50NL. One advantage of NLHE is that I can multi-table much easier than Stud, which require much more focus to play correctly.

Evidence of the day that "all poker is NLHE". People in Stud games talking about what happened "preflop". I assume this means before 4th but who knows.

Finally running hot

2006-06-21T10:45:00.000-05:00

I ran hot last night for the first time in about a week, if only I had more time to play.

I played three different games on three different sites. However, I am currently limiting my play to two cash tables at a time, total. I feel like I don't have the skills yet to fully focus on more than two tables and play my best game at all of them.

I'm starting to like Stud8 more and more. I played some .25/.50 on Stars for about 30 min, then moved up to .50/1.00, where the play was almost identical. I am not saying I know bad play when I see it in Stud8, but, uhhh, what is that guy doing calling in between three guys who are all jamming when he only has a pair of Jacks in the hole? I played pretty aggressive, and jammed the hell out of most low draws especially when the pot was 3+ handed. Admittedly, I don't have a clue in hell if certain starting hands are good at all. For instance, what about a hand like (K 2) A. My intuition tells me that this is a good starting hand especially if I have at least two to one suit because it has potential to go both ways.
The last hand I played a real kicker too. I started with (2d 3d) 4d and completed, which was raised, and I just called. Then I caught the Ad which was just the perfect card, and the pot was still 5 handed after the original raiser 3-bet and I just called. My next card was even prettier than the last, it was the 6d. Already at fifth street I had a made 6 and an ace-high flush!! Even better, two of my opponents paired their boards and we capped to the river so fast it made my head spin. What made this all scary is that I had two opponents showing paired boards, and two others showing some very good low boards. All of a sudden I knew I could lose this both ways if either of the high people filled up, or if the low people made the wheel. I chickened out and checked the river, but still had to call two bets. The cards were turned up and nobody filled up!! In addition to that, the low opponents were both raising and calling with 7-lows!! I more than doubled up on that hand and decided I should hit the sack after that.

My abbreviated NL session went just as well. Playing 50NL 6 max has been swingier than I would like in the last couple weeks, but last night was definitely an upswing. After having my starting stack whittled down to 30, I found 10 10 in the SB. The button was a LAG who raised every time on the button with ATC. I reraised him, and he shoved. Warning bells and all, I still had to make this call, only four hands dominate me, and I already had about half of my stack in there. The flop comes AA9 and hang my head. When I look at the screen again, expecting to see my money be pushed to my opponent, I see a miracle 10 on the river. My opponent is enraged beyond belief as his A5 is turned up, and for the next full orbit, he talks about the suckout.
The only other significant hand came when I had QQ, and shoved to a reraise. A queen on the flop and as Joe Hachem would say "pass the sugar" . The river was an ace, but my hand still held. This happened just before my Stud8 hand, and also right before bedtime.

This whole heater started right when I got home from work, and sat down at a .25/.50 PLO table. After about an hour of cold flops I was right at even when I picked up KhQsJhJc in LP. Loving all the paint in this hand, I raise pot, and get 3 callers. The flop is like a dream, Ah 10h Js. Let me count the ways I hit this flop. Well, you get it.
I decide I must slowplay this big of a monster, so I check the flop. The turn is a total brick, 6c, and I realize I basically cannot lose this hand. I put out a bet of $4 into a $12 pot. I immediately get raised pot, which is called once and folded to once by the time it gets back to me. I shove, and get two callers. One of my callers has broadway already (like me) and another has a lesser flush draw (idiot). The river is 10s and suddenly there is no chop!! I scoop with my jacks full, and just about triple up.

I realize this is a long (and probably boring) post, but I hope to have many more just like it soon.
--Alex

I've always loved MATH, learning to love Stud8

2006-06-20T13:30:00.000-05:00

I played in my first MATH last night and it was a lot of fun. I got a great welcome from the table which included JJ and Iak, both of whose work I enjoy on a daily basis. My only double up came off Hacker59, who before calling my all in on the flop with KJ admitted it was a "donk call". My AK held up, and hacker still had a lot of chips to spare. I also lost a big pot to Katitude when I was SB with A7s and made a straight on the river, however, Kat already had made nines full on the turn. Short stacked, I was forced to push with 77, which lost to a Barry Greenstein (ace on the river) and IGHN.
All in all it was a great time, and I'm sure I'll do better next time.

After busting out of the MATH, I felt like playing anything but more HE. I rarely play at pokerstars, but I think I might start as I have heard from alot of people and bloggers (does that mean that bloggers aren't people?) that small stakes Stars tables are incredibly soft. So if anyone has suggestions for games have the softest tables for low limiters at Stars I'm all ears. I play pretty much every poker game that would be offered, and I think I am of about equal skill at them all. I have a bankroll of about 200 on Stars currently.

So on to more poker. I really felt like playing alot of hands, and thought a HU tourney might be fun. So I signed up for a Stud8 HU 10+1 tourney. I was thinking it would take a few minutes to get an opponent at such a low-profile game, but one arrived almost immediately. I have played only a few hours of live Stud8 in my life, and have never played on the internet, but I'm a big Stud fan and I like O8B (I know my logic isn't the best) so I figured it would be like a combo of the two.
For the most part I think I was right.
My first opponent was as bad as I was aggressive. Since it was HU I basically mashed the raise button whenever I had 4 to a low, two pair, or any kind of draw. My opponent saw that I was raising every street with only a made low (which I still think is the right thing to do) and began criticizing my play. Since I was so aggressive, he began calling me down with a small pair hoping to get the high, and even started raising on 7th st. with as little as two very small pair. This allowed me to win scoop some huge pots with my premium hands, and we were done with our match in under a half hour.

My second opponent was much better. He constantly reraised when I completed (which I did when I had any kind of hand). He had a very aggressive style also but managed to trap me a few times by checking and letting me fire. Our stacks swung back and forth alot, until I outdrew him for the biggest pot. I had made a wheel by 6th and we had been capping since 4th. On 7th I caught another diamond to scoop against his trip Aces. That left him with just 2BB and I won the next hand.
I really loved the two tourneys I played, mostly because of how decision intensive the game is HU.

Another Brewer game tonight. Rick Helling is back in the rotation so it should be interesting to see how he does after two months off.
After that I'll see you all on Stars tonight, again, suggestions for games are more than welcome.
--Alex

Not a luckbox

2006-06-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

This last weekend I was definitely the opposite of a luckbox. I did the juiciest casino bonus so far, and lost almost my entire deposit plus the bonus. In one hour of play (about 400 hands) the dealer had 27 blackjacks. 27!!! What was worse, was that I had only 4, and 3 OF THEM WERE WHEN THE DEALER ALSO HAD IT. Ok, I'm done ranting about casino cards hating me. How about online poker cards? Yep, they hate me also. I had some winners, one big hand where I flopped quad jacks when some unfortunate fish flopped a set of aces. But for the most part, well, lets just say someone went all in on a board of 2h 5h 10c. I had bet the flop. He raised , I reraised him all in, he called. I had pocket jacks. They show Qh 3c.
Whaaaa?
Turn Ah
River Kh.
Oh yea, he made teh nutz
gg, I'm out of the MTT before the first break.

Ok, so I'm not one given to conspiracy theories or paranoid that people cheat in online poker and can see your cards, or cards that are about to come or whatever, but that one really made me think.
So I'm on a pretty good amount of tilt, and I really should stop playing for a few min (or hours), but there is a 20+2 tourney starting in 2 minutes with 124 or so already signed up. 1st is around 900 or so. I think to myself, "I'm a good player, I could win this". I also think to myself "I'm steamed and tilting right now, I would play like an idiot." I decide to listen to the first voice and before I know it, We're at the first break and I'm 6th out of 73 remaining. What's even better, is that none of the bigger stacks are even at my table. The payout was steep, only 10 got paid (I consider any % <10 to be pretty steep). It was down to two tables, and 3 more till the bubble. I was 4th out of 15 left. I wish I could get the hand history for this but Pokerroom hand history sucks.
I am on the button, the the cutoff raises. Very suspicious of the steal, I call with Q10 off. ( I hate Q10, and have preached against it for years.) There are 3 other callers!! This was a huge pot already to say the least. Flop is 8c 9s Js.
Have I ever told you how much I love Q10?

First position bets, original raiser pushes all in. I look up and thank God for this bounty I am about to receive, and raise all in.
He shows Ac7c.
Turn is 10c. I'm still way good, but I know I'm about to lose.
River is 2c, the lowest card in the deck.

I am really sorry about these bad beat stories, but thats basically all thats happened to me in online poker in the last 3 days because I didn't play at all last night. I plan on getting back on the horse though, and plan on trying to just keep playing my game.

I really really really want to give a terrible, dirty, no-good, very bad beat to someone. Is that bad?
--Alex

Reel Big Fish

2006-06-15T09:08:00.000-05:00

First of all I have to give a HUGE congratulations to my buddy Jeff, who found out yesterday that he got into the UW School of Business. I know it doesn't sound that impressive, but the UW School of Business is one of the more competitive business schools to get into in the country.
Also I have to give a huge congratulations to myself and my wonderful significant other, Kelly, on our 4 1/2 year anniversary. You may think its silly to still celebrate 1/2 years after being together for so long, but hey, we've been together for longer than a lot of marriages.

Immediately when I got home last night I began plowing through another casino bonus, this only took me a little over an hour as I was playing $3 hands. Another $100 shot in the arm to my online bankroll.

Last night I played about 2 hours total of 2-tabling .25/.50 and .50/1.00 SHNLHE. I'm happy to say that my results were stellar. After experimenting with this style of play online and live for the last couple of weeks, I think I am about ready to define it. If I plagarize any book/blog while describing it please let me know immediately and I will list them as a source.

The first part is fairly obvious and something I've talked about before. Finding a table with at least two LAGs(loose aggressive gamblers). The other two or three players at the table don't really matter, obviously the more LAGs the better, as these are the players you will be making money off of. Once you find your dream table, its time to set up your table image.

You want to be seen as a tight/weak player, someone these aggressive players think they can run over all day just by putting constant pressure on you. I like to play medium tight for the first two orbits or so. I give off a weak perception by often just checking or checking and calling small bets with TPTK or something like that. Once a LAG sees you check down with TPTK he will immediately think you are a weak, passive player.

At this point I begin limping into a lot of pots, even with premium hands. To win a huge pot, you need deception. Suited connectors, pairs big and small, even offsuited broadway cards have insane implied odds when you've set up your image correctly with the right type of players at your table. The fact that you're limping in with a lot of speculative hands and then immediately folding when bet into on the flop will only increase your image as a very weak and passive player.

Playing in position is also important for this to work well. When you flop a flush draw in position, you can either call a bet from your opponent, or throw out a semi bluff. I like both of these strategies better than checking and seeing the free card, because if your miss the turn when you bet the flop, you can often use your position to see the river for free (I didn't need to read Sklansky to realize this, but he says it better than I could). When you semi-bluff the flop and see the turn for free, your aggressive opponent will often see this as a bluff, and will frequently bet into your on the river no matter what comes out. If you miss the turn and river, its easy to lay down a nothing hand. However, when you hit the river, and are in position, you will usually be paid off in a big way. When I hit my monster straight or flush (or full house of course), I almost always overbet the river for value ala Fuel 55. I am constantly amazed at how often this seemingly obvious play works. It would seem obvious that I am drawing when I semi-bluff and then check. It would also seem obvious that I have hit when I overbet when the river comes a drawing card. These LAG players must use the bluff-the-river-with-a-busted-draw play so often that they think that is what I am doing.

The kick in the junk of this style is that your stack will be whittled down while you are waiting for your monster hands, and you may lose significant pots when your flop a set and trap like there's no tomorrow. But with the huge amount of internet sites, tables, and players available, you don't have to worry much about your style being discovered. Also, with the way people multi table now trying to clear bonuses, they don't have much time to observe every player individually.

The most success I've had with this style is on B2B sites, it seems like European players are just more loose than Americans. If anyone has comments or critiques, I would love to hear them.

trying to reel in the big ones
--Alex

Another day, another good poker blog

2006-06-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

I've discovered another very good poker blog today. Although, this player is extremely profitable at fairly high stakes online so I probably shouldn't even be reading it as it gives me fantasies of making a living via online poker. That said, Lee's Poker Blog is especially good as a "poker journal", as it is updated very frequently, and almost always includes hand histories and screenshots, which are very helpful.

This makes me wonder how fast people like this build up FPP or VIP points or whatever. And that they would fly through most of the bonuses it takes me hours and hours to grind through. I imagine players like this don't even care about bonuses (but I'm sure they use rakeback), as single pots are almost always bigger than any bonus offered anywhere. Maybe I'll be playing at those stakes in 3 months or three years, it just depends on how fast my bankroll and skills grow. Adding to my bankroll from money made from my 9-5 is not an option though, as for the foreseeable future I see online poker only as a semi-profitable hobby. This may be what's holding me back, but I am starting to take it more seriously now, partially because I have seen how profitable it can be, and how profitable I have been in the past year playing live.

This all may change in 2 months when I turn 21 and can play in the casino, but success or lack thereof in the casino or sudden success online could change all that.

I played a little PLO last night while watching baseball. I flopped Kings full on one of my early hands with pocket KK, I bet out on the flop and got no action whatsoever. Later on, I flopped nines full on a flop of 10d 9d 10h. I was determined to make money on this hand and checked the flop, letting the 3 other players see a free card and hopefully make their straight/flush. The turn was the Jd and I thought I played it perfectly. However, I must have been distracted by the game as I was stacked by J 10 before I even realized I had broken the CFR (cardinal fucking rule) of PLO, NEVER SLOW PLAY BOTTOM SET/FULL HOUSE!!!
I was an idiot, and deserved what I got, I rebounded though, at this soft table and managed to eke out a few E's profit. I'll def. do better tonight, if I decide to play, I might grind through a casino bonus though. I really should be taking advantage of more of these as they are an easy, fool-proof way of padding my online bankroll.

Still grinding
--Alex

Should have stayed away

2006-06-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

You may remember that yesterday I claimed that I was going to stay away from online poker for the most part last night. I should have taken my own advice. I signed up for an account with William Hill, mostly for their 25 GBP bonus per month, and only for playing 5 table hours! Seems like a great deal, so after depositing, I sat down at a .15-25 short NLHE table. After one very uneventful orbit I get dealt KQs on the button and raise it up 4x BB. The SB folds, and I get min raised by the BB, which can mean either he has nothing and wants to see if I am just on a steal, or he has QQ,KK, AA, AK. I call, and the flop comes K 10 5 rainbow. He checks, and despite my brain screaming TRAP, I bet out double my flop raise, pretty small considering the pot size. He waits until his timer is almost at zero, then re-raises me my entire stack. At this point, I'm already pissed I ever played a hand, but realize that I still have to make a desicion here.

Now right here, I'd love to do what Hoyazo does and quiz my readers to the tune of, what did I do? what should I have done? what did my opponent have? I'll let you know next time ;)
However, I won't pretend like I have the readership or writing skills of Hoy and I'll just give you the gory details.

I called.
He showed the Bruson.
River was a 2.
...and in the words of ScurvyDog, "all my chips are belong to Miss Cleo."

The worst part of all this was that I made the right call, but I still felt like a total fish.

I may not play tonight either, I'm trying to hang out with my Milwaukee freinds as much as possible before summer ends and I go back to Madison. But if nothing is going on, I'll try to get my 5 table hours in at William Hill, then hide the icon for the rest of the month.

Hoping the work day flies by
--Alex

Cooling down online

2006-06-12T08:56:00.000-05:00

The problem with my online play has always been
1. Get a strong hand drawn out on
2. Get steamed
3. Playing any two cards, and betting them hard (being a fish myself)

This of course causes me to lose, and even in LHE, a few poorly played hands, or a few outdraws, can offset an hour or two of solid, patient play. While I was almost completely card dead last night, I realize I should have lost less. I've been beating the 1/2 games on Poker Room pretty well for the last week, but last night I lost back quite of bit of the week's profit. I think I'm definitely going to take a day off tonight, I may sign up at a new site for the deposit bonus, but I don't plan on putting in a "session" or anything like that tonight.

Also, from this point on, I swear to myself that I will keep better track of my results: wins, losses, games, players, notes, # of times I cold call 3 bets from the button with 77, etc. I bought PokerTracker last week and still haven't put in the effort of "setting it up". I directed a few of the sites I play at to automatically DL my hand histories to their respective files, but that's about it. On top of the $55 they charge for PokerTracker, this guy wants $20 for an instruction manual? WTF!?!?!

Ok enough ranting, I think I will give 1/2 a few more shots, as I believe I can beat the game, and I believe that last night was just variance rearing its ugly little head. If I chalk up a few more losses though, I'm dropping back to .50/1.00, where I've had almost nothing but success. Also, my bankroll can handle a few more losses at that level.

I've said it before, but live poker > online poker. In the shorthanded homegame I played in on Saturday night, I laid down aces after being raised on a flop of 689. Fortunately, my buddy also showed the table his 10d7d for a flopped straight, everyone was waaaaay too impressed, but I let myself feel a little proud of it. The bigger part of this little story, is that I wasn't mad at him, the cards, or myself. I just got unlucky, I didn't go on any kind of tilt. If only I could do that online.

trying not to be a fish
--Alex

Links 2 Pimp

2006-06-09T09:17:00.000-05:00

So there are a couple bloggers out there who I've recently discovered who are just so informative that I have to pimp their pages. The first is Sound of a Suckout, who can basically teach you everything you need to know about casino bonuses, poker bonuses, and even buying a house. Also, for a low limit player like myself, you can basically live vicariously through his post about playing in 10/20 and 15/30 LHE games. Where the average pot is the average size of my bankroll, and a BB is the size of the buy in for most games I play. It is very encouraging to hear him tell about how bad players still play at those stakes, making my dream of playing at those stakes seem not completely out of reach.

The second one is Hoyazo. I really love this blog because he frequently includes screen shots, and he isn't to shy about blowing his own horn. Also, I love his series about slow-playing. I have slow played since I began playing NLHE, and I was actually contemplating writing a post or two about my strategy behind the slow play (actually I prefer the term trap, but some people consider those two different things). As much as I love the series, I would have liked to see him post a hand were a slow play went awry. Maybe that's something that I can address if I get around to writing a post about trapping.

The weekend is so close I can smell it.
--Alex

p.s. Thanks to Felicia for informing me that PL Stud is played in Europe. Maybe I do have a reason to study abroad now.

Home Game Fun

2006-06-08T08:35:00.000-05:00

So last night I was reading a few blogs as well as MT .25/.50 SHNLHE, when I came across an intriguing one. It was advertising a private tournament on PokerStars, and it seemed to me like a virtual homegame. So I decided to throw some cash back on my Stars account and I signed up for the Mookie. Since getting into blogging I've wanted to enter one of the weekly blogger tourneys. But, about 25 minutes after that I got a call to play in a .25/.50 SHNLHE home game. Perfect! I prefer live poker to internet poker any day, and of course I like winning real dollars over virtual dollars any day.

The game was the usual, as I had played with all but one of these guys before. They call with any two suited, connected, or paint cards before the flop, and check raise every time they flop top pair or better. They might as well play with their cards faceup, because the only time I paid them off for a hand was when I stupidly refused to fold out of stupid, stupid pride in my AK. I did get lucky once to win a huge pot. I called a preflop raise with 33, and when the flop came 636, there was already a raise and an all in for about $14 to me. I pushed all in to the bigger stack, who called. The two other people in the hand held 77 and 88, both pretty understandable plays in my eyes, I just happened to get luck, and neither of them caught on the T&R.

The second biggest pot of the night was a PLO pot I wasn't even involved in. On the turn the board was still unpaired and only 2 to a suit. The river card was the haymaker though, flush card and board pairing. My buddy who was the only other respectable player there, almost immediately called an all in from one of the LAGs, but had forgotten (maybe) that the rock at the table had made a value bet before the donkey shoved. He was right to call the donkey, but the rock repushed, and he was forced to call with the 2nd nut flush, only to be shown sevens full of eights by the rock. This has got to be one of the most painful parts of PLO, the fact that you often have to lay down hands after you make them on the river. This is something that hold em usually lacks, except maybe when you make your flush on the river, but at the same time the board two pairs, or four to a suit comes on the river when you make your straight.

Good players should take advantage of this, though. When you make your river full house, which is also a straight or flush card, it usually isn't right to value bet. I've found its better to make a large bet, especially if your opponent is one to only stay in for a nut-flush draw. Many players aren't able to make that critical lay down, after the pot is so large and they've hit they're hand.

Oh, and I have to tell this story. The game was dealer's choice, so when it was my turn to deal I announced 7-stud. Not a perfect game when we are playing with blinds, but we agree to play it like hold em for the first round then high board bets first on all other rounds look down and see 7s8s Js. I raise. It comes around to a LAG, he reraises, he says "make it $2.50". Whaaa?
I tell him stud is (always) a limit game. He replies that I never announced that it was limit. Again, whaaa?
So I play along and just fold, he shows me pocket Queens. From that point on I announce limit 7-stud, followed by much griping, and attempts to overbet the pot on every stud hand (they kept forgetting).

I guess this NL thing must be pretty popular these days. Makes me feel like a senior citizen.
--Alex

Two bonuses down, hundreds more to go

2006-06-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

Last night I cleared a couple bonuses, one at 66poker.com, and the other at goldenriviera. As my contribution to the people who may read my blog, I'll give a casual review of each new site I clear bonuses at.

Golden Riviera
I played mostly .50/1 LHE at this site, and at these stakes there was a fairly typical 30% to the flop rate. Pretty standard .50/1.00 play too. The interface was very unattractive though, the action buttons are placed right in the middle of the virtual table. The lobby was also ugly, and the tables are sorted in a file/directory sort of way, similar to what you would see if you opened Windows Explorer on your PC. The one redeeming quality of this site was the raked hand total, which constantly updated in plain view on the lobby interface, so you bonus whores know when you can stop.

66poker
This is one of any number of skins on the same network, all of which offer the same bonuses. I played mostly SHNLHE and some PLO (as mentioned yesterday). At this site, you recieve a VIP point for each pot you are dealt cards in which the rake is at least .31E. The SHNLE at this site was the fastest and most aggressive by far of any site I have ever played with. There were always at least two players who I classify as LAG (loose, aggressive gamblers). These are the type that will call any raise preflop, especially in their blind, with ATC (any two cards), and proceed to bet and raise every flop that comes 10-high or lower. When playing against these types, I almost always go into trapping mode. Its the true type of hours of boredom followed by a few moments of sheer terror that NLHE is described as. They will pay off every overpair, so its hardly even worth it to call a raise preflop with a drawing hand, unless you really feel like gambling.
The best part of all this is that they never seemed to pick up on who was trapping them, either that, or they left and another LAG took their place. Either way, they pumped up every pot so much that the 250 raked hands flew by, and I just may keep some money on that site because the SHNLHE action is just soooo juicy.

All in all, I booked a small profit from these two sites, not including the deposit bonuses that should arrive shortly. I don't plan to play on GoldenRiviera any more, but I may play on 66poker some more because most of its players are European and I often play off hours, especially when I go back to school.
An amazing day yesterday, as the new Bouncing Souls album came out, and a Brewer pitcher threw a complete game!! each of those only happen about every year and a half or so.
Any suggestions as to what site I should deposit at next are more than welcome, I'm thinking about playing some NLHE SnGs.

NLHE < PLO

2006-06-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

So I am kind of deciding to take back my promise of not including bad beat stories in my blog. However, I am not going to whine and bitch about them, rather, I am posting them for fellow players to comment on and to give advice. I am not looking for sympathy as I understand full well the phenomenon of short swing variations in the ratio of cards that fall that are beneficial to you vs. the cards that are beneficial to your opponent otherwise known as "luck".

So last night I played about 25 min of NLHE .25/.50 on 66poker trying to clear my bonus, and I ended up dropping 3 whole buy ins (15 Euro) in that time. None we're particularly bad beats or bad plays by myself or an opponent. One buy in lasted only 2 hands, when I flopped an flush with AhTh and my opponent reraised me all in with 99 for top set on the board, which he quickly filled on the turn. I wasn't going anywhere on the flop, and neither was he, shit happens. The third buy in was whittled down to 10Euro before I picked up QQ and called all in on a flop of all unders and was buried when someone flopped a set with 66 in the hole, ironic considering today's date. He pushed me all in after the flop when I bet out about a quarter of my remaining stack, and he had been pushing me out of every pot I put money into, so I decided to make my stand.
I still really don't get it when people complain about how badly their opponents played and still beat them. To me a beat is a beat, being outplayed or outdrawn doesn't make a difference to me, except in the ways I play against that opponent the next time.

So while I knew I wasn't playing terribly, I still had a bad feeling about sitting down at a .50/1.00 PLO shorthanded table. I waited for the BB to come around, and in those three hands I witnessed the player to my right get absolutely hit by the deck. He had, in order, AAAKK, JJJJ, and 7s 8s 9s 10s Js for top full house, quad Jacks, and a straight flush, and he was paid off huge on every one of them. Fortunately, he had money to pay me off on all my hands from that point on, which he did. I played at that super soft table for about an hour and had my buyins from hold em back plus 14Euro extra. WOOHOO!! I definitely think that Omaha is my second best game (1st is 7-Stud, 3rd is LHE). Internet Omaha players seem to be more loose than micro LHE players. They never believe that you could have two big hands in a row, and they seem to always think the second hand must be a bluff, in which case I always try to push as hard as I can for value.

If anyone wants to give me advice on online NLHE, I usually play 6 player tables, either .25/.50 or .50/1.00.
I would definitely say I am TAG, and I sometimes get myself in trouble by slow-playing too much. I have a weakness for suited connectors, especially 9Ts. I also think I may be paying people off too much in NLHE, something I really don't do in LHE. I also always bet flush draws and usually OESDs. If you want to know anything more feel free to ask/tell. I read a lot of online player's blogs, trying to find some good advice, one of my favorites is The Randomness of Hoff. There are a lot of good NLHE blogs out there, but most of them talk mainly about tourneys, which I really am not interested at this time. So if anyone wants to suggest a good blog for small stakes NLHE, or LHE for that matter, let me know.

Feel free,
-Alex

South Beloit Poker, Brewers Baseball, and Ikea

2006-06-05T08:24:00.000-05:00

My experience at the charity casino in South Beloit, IL, went almost exactly as I expected it. They spread 1-3 and 2-5 LHE, as well as 2-5 NLHE with a 100-min, 300-max buy in. They also has scheduled tourneys, and frequent $40 SNGs. It seemed like everyone there was a regular, as almost everyone knew the dealers and every other player. Also, I convinced my buddy Jim to come along, as he had never played live LHE and wanted to start learning the game.

The play there was also as I expected, similar to the low stakes HE games at virtually any other casino. I started out playing 1-3, as that was the first seat open, and did very well, I was up about 40 in about an hour. People were staying in hands way too long and paying bets off with very marginal hands. I was paid off when my ATs made two pair, and I was called down by two people, one who had paired his 9, and another holding pocket 55, needless to say, I thought I was in for a very profitable trip.

After playing for about an hour at 1-3, when a seat opened up at 2-5. I didn't think the play would be much different at 2-5, and I was correct in thinking that. Unfortunately, I went almost completely card dead when I moved to the new table. I didn't play a hand for the first hour, not even in the blinds, as there was a preflop raise almost every hand. When I finally got a hand, I almost never saw a flop, and as good as it would make me feel, I will not post any bad beat stories, but I can assure you there were a few that would make most people explode.

As unlucky as I was, though, I truly feel that I did not go on tilt. I did not berate anyone for their poor play, and I did not start playing too many hands just looking to bust that person. I generally handle bad beats incredibly well, but what was eating me inside was the fact that there were maybe two other respectable players at our table of 8 or 9, and that I knew that I could beat this game if only I had had mediocre cards.
So even though I lost about $90, I am definitely going back again soon, especially because of all the senior citizen regulars and the amount of players who are willing to defend their blind with terrible cards, or call a three bet when they flop a gutshot, and make a myriad of other bad plays.

Now on to more important things.....

On Friday I took a half day at work and hung out with Derek at his new UW-M pad, and at about 5, we headed to see the Brewers play the Nationals. I love going to Brewer games no matter who I go with, but this is almost an ideal group. My two best Milwaukee Brewer-fan buddies, Derek
and Brian (of Brian B's Sports Report), and of course the love of my life, Kelly, who berated me for not being mentioned in my first two blog postings ; )
Despite the Brewers pitching staff taking another beating, the game was still fun, and I beat Derek at the SpeedPitch radar gun( my 85mph to his 82).

So I have to take a few lines here to vent to the world about what in the world is going on with the Brewers this year. First and most obvious is the pitching. While our rotation has been decimated by injuries,with our #1 and #4 starters out at least until the end of June, we have used 3 different pitchers who have never really started games at the major league level. They have had no success at all. As my grandpa says, "90% of baseball is pitching", and this has never been more true than with the Brewers this year. They are 1st or second in the NL in hitting, and dead last in pitching. Even Derek Turnbow has completely tanked. he has blown 4 of the last 7 save chances, and it looks like he has been completely figured out by hitters. Also, the wave of minor league middle relief pitchers has had as little success as the starters have had. The fact that the Brewers play defense worse than my former t-ball team doesn't help either. I think the management needs to take a critical look at the pitching coach, Mike Maddux, the bullpen coach, Billy Castro, and the catchers, Miller and Moeller, to try to find who if anyone is steering the pitchers wrong.

Although the Brewers hitting has been poor lately, that will pick up, it just won't pick up to score the 8+ runs a game the Brewers pitching needs to win games.

Sunday was a very relaxing and lazy day, the only exception was the 8:30 wake up I got from my 4 year old nephew, Owen, and my 3 year old niece, Victoria. Owen informed me that I needed to get up so we could go to the park to play baseball.
Sunday night I was ready to go down to Derek's house to help him put together his new Ikea furniture when my dad asked me if I wanted to go down to Potawatomi (Indian casino in downtown Milwaukee) with him. I said "sure" of course, and we drove down to the valley. Unfortunately, I was in the poker room about 15 seconds when the manager asked if he could see my ID, and that was that. So I ended up going to Derek's after all while my dad played LHE. I had never put together Ikea furniture before, but I had heard horror stories from a few people. Fortunately, it wasn't bad at all, and we had most of it put together in a couple hours.

Here I have to say a couple of words about my dad. Despite being and old man of 43, and a grandpa twice already, he is still very sharp mentally, lol. My dad is by far the best poker player I have ever seen live, and for 25 years has beat every home game he has played in like a drum. However, it is rare that Poto spreads a stud game, and when they do it is a 1-5 spread game. While I take pride in knowing more about LHE than he does, I don't know how long that will last, as he is already realizing a lot of the concepts on his own that I had to read a book to get. Two months and 6 days and counting until I can go to the poker room and play at the same table as my old man.

NEW BOUNCING SOULS ALBUM TOMORROW!!!!

I'll talk to you again soon.
-Alex

Online Poker : The Beginning

2006-06-02T08:32:00.000-05:00

So starting a few weeks ago I decided to take a serious step into the world of online poker, seeing it as a practice ground for my admittedly weak low-stakes limit hold 'em game. I would much rather play live, but unfortunately I am still 2 months shy of the local casino. A friend I met at school this year, Pat, has been very helpful in advising me as far as sign up bonuses and rakeback go, and I've enjoyed moderate success so far playing a few sites with good sign up bonuses. I was thinking about posting my day to day or week to week bankroll and daily outcomes from playing online, but I think there are already enough bloggers that do that. Plus, being a low stakes player ( 1/2 LHE at most) my huge days are nothing to brag about personally.

I really feel that Low Stakes Hold 'Em by Sklansky has been a huge help to my game. Also, one blog I want to mention in particular that is incredibly well written and informative that has vastly helped my play and understanding of poker in general is http://www.felicialee.blogspot.com/

On Saturday I will be going to my first ever charity casino in northern Illinois. I guess I will see if I have enough skill to beat what I've been told is a "buttery soft" 1-3 game. I probably won't feel to great if I drop 2 buy ins or more, but I plan to be a total rock. I probably won't make any real plays the entire night, unless I see an absolutely perfect situation.

Wish me luck while I swim with the fishes.

My first entry

2006-06-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

Hello to anyone and everyone who happened to somehow stumble onto my own little piece of the internet.
This last semester in school (I attend the University of Wisconsin) I took a journalism class and I really enjoyed it. It also led me to discover blogs. Maybe its my nosy nature, but I really enjoy reading blogs so much that I figured it would be fun to start my own. If no one ever reads this I'll be fine with that.

If you don't know me personally I'll run down a few things about myself.
-I love baseball.
-I really don't like school.
-I work at Northwestern Mutual Life.
-I go to UW, my major is Economics, possibly also math.
-I have a great family, and I'm already and uncle twice and a godfather, wow that sounds so cool.
-I enjoy playing almost any card game.
-It's almost impossible to hurt my feelings, so I love extremely honest people.
-I tend to get along better with older people than with people my age.
-I love real punk rock.
-I'm not nearly as smart as a lot of people think I am.
-I think of almost every single daily event as a type of "game" that I can win, lose, tie, or chose not to play.
-I will probably end up mostly talking about poker and baseball in this blog.
-This very well may be the first and last entry into this, but I hope not.

That's all for now, feel free to comment.