2 nights of private tornaments

Last night was The Mookie. My first one since winning it the last week of December. I was excited to get back to the virtual felt with the other bloggers, but I just knew it was going to be one of those nights I should close the lid on the laptop.

My youngest daughter was up all night the night before with an ear ache. I hate excuses, but I also know that when I'm tired, I get a short fuse and do something stupid.

I was getting great cards all before the break. I had AA 3 times. Don't tell Chad. The best part of getting aces is of course getting them cracked. I called an all-in from a stack that wasn't that short, around 1000 chips. What a sight to see...the guy had ducks! Well, 3 of the first 4 cards were also clubs, I had the guy to a one outer...and of course the 2 of spades hits the river.

Shortly after that, I moved to a new table. I got sandwiched between 2 LAG players. I was still pretty much steaming from the aces getting cracked. With Numbono on my left and PirateLawyer on my right, I did something I knew was just plain stupid, while I was doing it. PirateLawyer limps from the button, I complete from the LB and Numbono raises one bet from the BB. We all call. I have 45o and catch a 5 on the flop. The flop has 2 clubs. PirateLawyer raises 2 bets, I re-raise to 1200 and Numbono calls. Did I mention he's also the massive chip leader? Needless to say a 3rd club comes on the turn. He pushes the all in button and I call...I call with bottom pair. WTF! Gawd! I didn't even want to play that hand and now I'm on the rail. Much swearing followed.

Let's move on to tonight. AIPS III Event #1. Limit Hold'em. Need I say more. I ran up the chips early. Moving up quickly and taken some nice pots...the donked it all away. Finishing 140th out of 155. Got a nice pot out of Lee Childs early on only to have him take me out later in the tournament. Not that you'd need to be scared of a guy 195 chips moving them all in when the blinds are 80/160. His pocket 3s flopped a set against my pocket jacks. Gawd! I love limit hold'em! At least I had Columbo on my left for most of the tournament.

I still had fun and look forward to more of these to come! I'm absolutely stoked for June...RAZZ! Next month might be good as well. Stud. I'm beginning to understand stud.

Stay tuned! Tomorrow OhCountess and I head to Fargo! Live poker!

Well...that sucked - AIPS is done

Well, that sucked. After folding almost ever hand in 47 deals, I get QQ. The board has nothing scary...and KK won't let go. D'oh! My AIPS II Main Event is over. I busted in 78th place. POOP!

Good luck to everyone else still in this. OhCountess had a list of things for me to do...thanks for getting rid of my only excuse!

See ya on the felt!

The stars began to align - I got a Satellite Token!

Bourbonators was last night. I'll post about that later...bigger news this morning. First, OhCountess is home from work sick today. She's on the tail end of the flu. She's a nurse and works with people with weak immune systems, so there department has extra tight rules for sick calls...I'm so jealous.

Second, I took one last swing this morning at a $26 Satellite Token. A long hard fought battle and some choice words for each other. The guy that took second and I will probably not be friends in the near future...but I'm registered for the AIPS Main Event! Shamus! Where are you?

My Quest for a token - and a milestone

I'd like to thank Short-stacked Shamus over at Hard-boiled Poker for the plug in his blog today. Funny thing about that, I was actually playing in a $4 token sit-n-go at Full Tilt trying to get me one of those tokens when his post showed up. I sometimes like to read my favorite blogs while playing poker.

Well, that tournament was a complete disappointment. One poor sap at the table just couldn't lose. I minded mine own business, playing quiet sng strategy. I should warn you, that most of this weekend was spent either donking off chips on the one hand I'd chosen to "mix it up," or running AK in 88, when I was all-in preflop. This tournament was no different. My M is fallen to just below 10, I get AK suited, push it in and get called by the poor sap that couldn't lose. His 88 holds up.

So let's do the math. 4 X $4.40 = $17.60. I've won back 2 X $10 = $20. So my grand total for quest for a token sits at +$2.40.

Another snag has also reared its ugly head. It would appear that now OhCountess has to work next Saturday. Ante Up! Intercontinental Poker Series II: Electric Boogaloo Main Event starts at 12:30 PM. Long before she gets home from work. I have no idea how to pull this off. The OhKids have never been big fans of Dad playing poker all day with no other parental figure in the house. Any ideas on how to play online poker with two kids running around the house?

The Milestone:
While Sharkscope has its good points and bad points, it also shows that I've played my 1000 online real money tournament. My results aren't the worlds most impressive and many other bloggers have way more skills than I do, but none the less, I've only made one deposit. Put another way...in 1000 online tournaments, I've never gone broke. I've only made $171. Yep, 1000 tournaments and my average win is 17 cents.

I'll keep reading, keep playing and hopefully improve.

The Hunt For a Satellite Token

I really want to play in the AIPS II Main Event. My online bankroll is hovering just over 3 c notes. So a $26 buy-in seems like a pretty big investment.

As I wrote in "I tried something new and survived," I was going to try and win my way in by getting a satellite token. My first attempt, I finished second and won $10. My second attempt, same result. So I figure that gives me $11.20 more to spend in my quest for a token.

I tried for a third time tonight and busted way to early. I just played it badly. Flopped second pair and a got shot straight draw. On raise, surprisingly low for the pot size, so I called. The turn pairs the Q on the flop. Again, the villain raises, but it's only about 60% of the pot. I just don't feel like he has anything. The river was the J I needed to make my straight. Unfortunately, the villain had JJ for the full house. This devastated my stack.

I really think I gotta figure out how to quit with these momentary calling station plays. UGGG! Anyone got a good way to get rid of a leak?

So the quest for the token now sits at $6.80...one more loss and I'll have to make a decision. OhCountess hasn't given me the day off yet anyways...I think I should clear up that little detail too.

Holidays and Full Tilt Poker

OK...call me paranoid. Tell me I'm thinking like Chirs on Ante Up, but is it just me or do the players and the play at Full Tilt Poker just go goofy on holiday weekends.

When I go through Poker Tracker and examine my results and ROI, there is always a dip over a major holiday.

My theory has always been that the truly casual players become more numerous on these weekends, but why do I seem unable to keep winning at the same rate I usually do? Yesterday, I got it all in preflop late in a tournament with KK to a little pair only to come up bust...3 times! I'd expect to loose this 1 out of 5 times, but each time I had it yesterday...WHAM! Variance. Not to mention, putting someone to the test for all their chips and have them call with 33 isn't frustrating enough.

It just seems like variance gets a boost...where is my foil helmet...I think they are listening.

D'oh! I didn't make it past Scott!

I finished 84th. I really suck at most of these games. Plus the whole limit thing...uggg. It was fun though and Bodie25 is still in it!

I finished 84th...just one spot sooner than Scott.

Next event is the AIPS II Main Event. Time to go win me a satellite token.

AIPS II - Stud H/L

OK...to me, this game can be vodoo to me. But when I hit trip 3s with a good low draw by 5th street...IT HELD and scooped.

Now, I keep bringing in 3 to a flush and the nut low draw...that would be good????

So Chris Cosenza is out and so is Columbo. Can't wait to read what happened with those guys!

It's break time, and I'm still in this. Stud H/L was very good to me. Now...Omaha...a game I suck at. Let me get to razz and hook up with some cards. First time through I never had 2 cards smaller than a 9 at one time...ugggg!

I tried something new and SURVIVED!

I've been reading a lot of other players blogs regularly lately. Many of you guys have a winning track record or at least have won some real cake at some of the bigger buy-ins. According to SharkScope, I've played ~900 tournaments on Full Tilt Poker. But reading your blogs has inspired me to try and join the regular blogger tournaments. Unfortunately, they are out of my usual buy-in range.

A little back story...when I started playing online poker oh so many years ago. I played the play money tournaments. I started winning those very regularly. My wife actually encouraged me to try the real money tournaments. I'd played live poker for money, but mostly just small buy-in home games ($5 and $10). I was also successful at those. Regularly scoring some real money wins. Since I had the OK from the Mrs. to give it a try, I transfered some money up to NetTeller (this is back in the day). One thing about me is that, while I'm not afraid of risk, I don't generally go seek it without preparation. The money sat at NetTeller for a while. $200 just sitting there. I wanted to make sure I moved the money and didn't just blow it into the Ether.

After about 6 weeks of sitting on the money, I pulled the trigger and deposited the $200 into my account. I was now officially vested into playing online poker for money. Now that the money was there, I needed to play with right? Well, no. I played like 2 $1 SNGs and lost them and started wondering if I was doing the right thing. I mixed it up for a while between the play money and the micro limit sngs.

One day, I realized that I was taking down the $1 + .25 45 person SNG on such a regular basis, I was actually profitable. This got both comfortable and extremely BORING!

Well, I moved my game up to the $5 level and found it was harder to make money on the MTT SNGs, but I could cash 40% of the time at the STT. Well we did this for a while and even got to the point where I had double my initial deposit! All the while, I was getting more confident in my game and trying my hand at the cash games. I got to the point where I could win about as much as I could lose between the SNG and the ring game. Nice. I suck at ring games...but that's another post.

I played at the $5 level for about 9 months and notice a real see-saw balance in my account. A lot of the money was being lost in the ring games, and then made back up in the SNGs. But then something happened to my tournaments...I started to suck at those too. I sucked so bad that not only did I lose my run up, but then I lost my seed money as well...not all of it...I was down to $125 in my account. Ugg! I'm not playing other people's money! This ain't good.

I had purchased Poker Tracker real early on and started pouring through the numbers. That's when I noticed that at one time, I was really good at the $1 + .25 45 person sng. Could I drop back down to the dollar tables? What the hell, at least I'll lose money slower. You see, I have a fear of losing my bankroll. I don't know what I'll do if that balance ever hits zero. My live play bankroll has plenty and I could always deposit more, but the point is, I failed. I lost the deposit. Weird? The amount of money isn't a problem, it's the idea that I would be a failure that keeps driving me.

Well, from my low point a couple of months ago, I've grinded my way back to a profit again. My game is also much improved after a period of long introspection. I had started making stupid calls and stupid bets when I KNEW I was behind. But would get mad at the donkey for calling my opening raise. The key to being better than a donkey is not to donk away all your chips being mad at someone.

This weekend, I took my first steps in joining you big boys in something bigger than a $5 or $10 game. I played a $4 Satellite Token SNG. I've never played in one of these before. I figured that if I won it, I was out $4, but I'd really like to play in the AIPS II Main Event. $26 would exceed my bankroll management rules at the moment. I have never played in a tournament that represented more that 10% of my bankroll. So I figured I could give the satellite tokens a try.

My philosophy for this tournament was that while 2nd place paid $10, I am really just after the token. Most of the people in this tournament genuinely seemed, well, weak. They were extremely tight and no one was taking risks. I switched gears and reminded myself that it was only $4 and the chance to play in the Main Event was worth it. I also really focused on this game and paid close attention to what everyone was up to. As it turns out, I battled my way, making some sick calls along the way...cause those all-ins didn't match their play, until I was heads up for the token! Sad part coming...I had this guy all-in several times ahead, and he just kept hitting what he needed. I busted to him and finished 2nd.

According to my calculations, this make me ahead in my attempts to get into the main event. I've made ~$5 trying to get my token. So this should mean I get two more chances at the prize.

How do you figure out this buyin stuff? I'm sure many of you just buy-in. But you micro-limit guys...how do you account for Tokens and buy-in to events bigger than you usually play? Someday I really hope to play Mondays at the Hoy and the Mookie. I'll get my token someday...

AIPS II Event #9 - Let's just start with...

I hate limit hold'em. I play almost exclusively NLHE and Razz. Gawd, I love razz, but I digress. I played in this tournament...the first private tournament I have ever played in. It was being run by the best poker podcast from Florida. Ante Up! And had some short lived fun and even made my way to the leader board for a while.

I moved up in chips quite quickly to start. I was playing tight/agressive poker. I build my way up to #2 on the leader board with ~3500 in chips. And then...I pissed them all away. Mostly because....I decided to be a chip bully...in limit...with little blinds and no hope of winning.

I do believe that had I just stuck to my plan and played patient poker...you'd be seeing my name in lights. Lesson learned...let's hope I can someday learn to stick to my plan.

To be honest...I lost the most money when I had KK UTG and got donkey called all the way to the river by a guy holding A6. He had paired his ace. Why don't I lay these things down? I knew he had an ace I could tell he was keeping the pot small by check/calling...but no...I can spike a K and make him cry...whatever.