The Poker Chronicles

Has it been a while?

2006-03-02T23:10:00.000-08:00

Well I pretty much did not play for most of January (how vague is that?). I did play the occasional sit n go but that's about it. I almost let February go by but a $200 bonus at Empire brought me back to life. I had a solid run and I remembered why I enjoy playing so much. Three tabling PLO8, PLO & NLHE was enough to jumpstart me - I'll be back to playing but not as much with the grind mentality. Bonuses have begun to dry up, at least to the point where they made low-limit grinding a possibility. This is good as now I can work on moving to higher limits, I certainly have the bankroll for it, almost $6K, and after about a month getting some solid hours back at 100NL I hope to move to 200NL on a consistent basis. I also want to give an honest try to some WSOP satellites and will move to more consistent $20 + $2 sit n go's.

Anyone read this? Drop me a line...see you on the virtual felt.

Last post of the year

2005-12-31T01:24:00.000-08:00

December has been kind of a strange month, probably why I didn’t get a chance to post anything earlier like I had wanted. I finished off November pretty strong and anticipated that I would not play as much in December with the holidays and friends coming in town and spending time with family. Well, I think I blew past my regular bonus-playing schedule pretty quick, had some decent runs but then a bad one at Bet365. December 18th is the last date I have a record of playing any serious sessions. Since then I played some SNG’s at Bodog, nothing spectacular and then played some low-limit Stud and even some 25NL on Party for old times-sake. I felt like a break from the grind was due and it has been good to take some time away. I’ve been busy with friends and family anyhow but I have managed to sneak some time in playing a new game I hope to seriously take-up more this coming year, Omaha Hi-Lo. I’m playing 0.50/1 Limit to get a feel for the game, I had been thinking about it for a while but my friend Rod jumped into it recently and convinced me to try it, it’s a fun distraction from hold em. I don’t at all plan to stop playing hold ‘em, I hope to move up to 1/2NL in the coming months and NL Hold Em will still be my main cash game, but I think playing other games will only help my Hold Em play and overall poker play – can’t get too stale on one thing. Hopefully I can start to have more success in tournaments as well, tonight I stumbled upon a $5 buy-in tourney on Absolute Poker, with re-buys and add-ons. I did one add-on at the first break but couldn’t get much to play with (feel I always say this) and when I did come across Aces, wouldn’t you know it, it gets folded to me in the cut-off, I raise since I’m short compared to the blinds who have chips to gamble with and no action. More garbage and then I get AQo UTG, I limp intending to raise all-in if re-raised, one guy about 8K over me doubles it early, one short stack pushed all-in for less than the early raiser (earlier this guy calls off 80% of his stack on the turn and folds on the river for $700 in a 5K+ pot!!). I happily reraise all-in and this is how it goes below. Figures, right?

My roof just started leaking, I take this to be some kind of sign.

(image placeholder)

2005-12-31T01:22:00.000-08:00

Read post above to explain the build-up to this hand. Basically, AQo does me in again.

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Back in the day...

2005-11-30T23:10:00.000-08:00

So the year is almost over and it’s hard to believe I’m still in full swing playing poker. It’s been over a year since I started playing on a somewhat consistent basis. At the start, back in September 2004, all my play was at a weekly Sunday night home game with 4 other friend. We all got into it pretty deep and it became sort of a ritual. I remember winning the very first night, playing about 90%+ of my hands (no one ever raised preflop! We were all passive players…) I continued this way for a couple weeks more until I realized I had to tighten up a bit. We kept our weekly game going for a while until we all kind of outgrew it – some of us got tired of the game and some of us couldn’t wait to expand our game; I fell into the latter group thanks to lots of playing at work and then my inevitable jump into online poker. I started at PartyPoker (who didn’t?) and was half-way through my $100 deposit, playing $5 + $1 sit-n-go’s until I decided to try the 25NL tables and managed to win my money back and then some.

I think I intended to write a November recap post but recounting my early poker days seems like enough for now. The bankroll is at a level I never would have imagine back then (nothing to live off of course) but still something to be proud of. I guess I’ll wait till December actually arrives before doing my November recap. GL to anyone out there beginning their own poker pipe dreams.

Warriors

2005-11-29T00:29:00.000-08:00

So the Golden State Warriors are finally looking like a real basketball team. There is lots of speculation and hope for this season. Now there is speculation about a possible trade involving Kevin Garnett. A friend sent me a link to this article where they talk about the possibility of Garnett coming to the Warriors and what that would mean. At one point the articles talks about the Pacers or Pistons and how they might be interested as well, but since they already have team chemistry they might not be as interested in Garnett.

“But those teams have chemistry and a real shot at a title without Garnett, so both might be reluctant to go all-in at deadline time.”

Just goes to show you, poker pervades everything.

Long Road Ahead

2005-11-23T00:18:00.000-08:00

After what seemed like a bad start to the month and just a slow grind in general, things have picked up a bit towards the end of the month. I have added another Prima site and play on these sites is pretty good. The network has a lot of loose Party-like players with reasonable bonuses. Now that the Crypto bonuses have pretty much dried up I may stay at this network for a while. Overall, I feel I have added a notch of aggression to my play which is definitely good. I will need to keep working on it as I hope to slowly move up to 1/2NL in the coming months. I guess one day I’ll just have to sit down at a 1/2NL table and see how it goes. I definitely have the bankroll for it now, I’m a peep over $4.5K and it feel pretty rewarding to look at that number and think how not too long ago, $500 seemed like a lot and the 100NL on Crypto where a challenge. Hopefully, I will be saying the same about my current game, down the road.

I’m trying to make a real effort this time to post a bit, at least every couple of days. If there is anyone who reads these posts, feel free to drop me an email or leave a comment. And good luck on the tables.

What if...

2005-11-22T00:31:00.000-08:00

What if Steve Dannenman had won the WSOP Main Event? I can’t even begin to imagine that unlikely scenario, let alone that he came in 2nd. One of the things that made it somewhat interesting is how Hachem, who at one point was down to almost only 2 million, with other guys in the 15-20 million range, came back to win this. It seemed he played pretty solid and only really tried a move once with his Q7s against Kanter’s wired 9’s. Such a shame how Kanter knocked out Fossilman, had Fossilman made it to the final table (and no doubt he would have, had he picked up that monster pot if Kanter doesn’t suckout) it would have been arguably the greatest WSOP feat. It would have been great to witness that, not firsthand but close enough. Ah, my WSOP dreams will keep waiting.

Been playing a lot on Prima sites, they have a ton of skins and very soft tables. As long as I can keep from losing major pots to these guys chasing down their 7-high flush draws on paired boards, I should be OK. Lately, I’ve been getting an itch to try out another game, I feel my Hold Em game has progressed nicely, there it still a lot to work on but another game like 7 Card Stud might help me to fill in some leaks while learning a new game if that makes any sense. Don’t want to be too one-dimensional. I hear Roy West’s is the book to get for beginners. Hopefully I can pick this up over the holidays.

Party $2,500 Freeroll

2005-11-13T19:22:00.000-08:00

Just played another Party freeroll, did the $2,500 Freeroll and placed 251 out of 2,416 players, top 10% so not too bad. I was trying to play a bit more aggressively since in the past I think I have played way too tight and feel like I waste three hours for nothing. In general I want to work on more aggressive tournament play but it was a bit difficult with no hands at all to begin with and some bigger stacks showing up at my table. Always seems like there are a couple guys who have ridiculous amounts of chips within the first 10 minutes. Doubled up with AJ, raised the blinds and hit top pair on the flop, some guy called with A7s and turned his flush draw but nothing came. Another double up later with Queens then I felt like I might have some shot at placing near the top. Lot of cold cards followed with big blinds that hit nothing but I still had about T5500. I raised UTG + 1 with Kings to 1200 with blinds of 200/400 and got no action. Right after that happened I thought I should probably have limped and re-raised all-in since the table was pretty active and someone was sure to raise. But I couldn’t really call it a misplay and a couple of hands later UTG limps, next guy raises to 1800, I push all-in with Queens again, UTG calls all-in, right away I feel beat, like he has Aces. The initial raiser folds which was good and UTG shows Kings. UGH! The sad part is that he flops a set and I turn a set as well, damn Party. I was over this guy by T533 so very next hand I have As3c, one limper for 400, I push, BB calls and so does limper. The flop brings nothing, but the turn gives me the nut flush draw, bet and call, the river brings the Ace so I feel I may have a shot, then limper shows Ks9s for the King high flush. Well, just two hours spent and it was fun for a while so maybe next weekend.

Artichoke's Freeroll

2005-10-13T23:59:00.000-07:00

Last month I finally got my chance to play in the Artichoke Joe’s Freeroll with the points I accumulated from playing in the Tuesday Limit Tournaments. I started out with T700 and as it turned out it was a limit tournament. Other bigger stacks at my table started out with about T1300. I played in the first session of two at 11am. There were about 80 players and soon enough I was low in chips and picked up KK, raised and got it all-in on the flop and held up. Later on I outflopped AQ with QT and at one point thought I had some kind of date with destiny even though I only had T1000 at this point with blinds about 100-200. I end up busting out in 40thish place set over set. It was still a fun experience and I got a free lunch out of it.

Nightmare Day

2005-09-10T16:55:00.000-07:00

I just had possibly the worst day of cards so far. Since my big Sunday night at Absolute about 2 weeks ago I have not been able to catch one hand or have it hold up. It’s been pretty much losing session after losing session at AP. Today I played in the early afternoon and took down a nice pot early on, thinking that this was going to be a good session. I raise UTG with JJ and some joker decided to call me down with KTs on the button to hit his lucky two pair on the flop. Back down to my buy-in but not too concerned. Then comes an endless string of Q5, J2 and other similar shit hands. Any pot that I enter with position or with odds on good drawing hands, never come through. Down to a little over half my buy-in, folding a lot, get TT in EP, raise, just hoping to take down the pot uncontested as these people should think I have a monster with how tight I have been playing. I get reraised an aggressive player, not on tilt yet so I call hoping to get all undercards or that miracle Ten. Flop: 2TA, rainbow. Thank you for once I will get paid off, check with the intention of raising all in, he bets $1. Very puzzling bet, I decide to just call and push on the turn as this will look like I’m trying to buy the pot and I’m hoping he is slowplaying AK. I push on the turn, he reraises me, no time to think, call all-in, and he turns over AA.

Decide to go back to InterPoker as I have less raked hands to play thanks to clearing some of the WR on InterCasino. Not a lot of action, a loose table with some very loose calling stations. Lose a bit when pushing QQ against 2 loose callers, have to retreat on flop with an Ace because I just know one of these guys called with Ax. A new loose aggressive player joins the table, someone who pushes 2s2c on a Tc8cKcAh board and loses to AhAc. This person is a complete joke, I’m looking at AA and raise early, only get called by this idiot. Flop comes K high, I bet out he calls. Turn brings another K, all of a sudden I feel beat already but I must bet this, come out strong, he raises me, I have to call all-in and feel there is still a chance he is pushing some low pair again or if he happens to have that miracle K, I can for once try to suckout on someone else. He turns over KK.

Overdue

2005-08-29T01:37:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in a super long time. I keep falling back on my word that I will stay on top of my posting. I have to keep this short as it’s late and I’m trying out Blogger for Word, so who knows if this will end up being posted, but basically I just had the best run in a long time, if not ever. I decided to try out Littlewoods this weekend for their 25GBP for 250 dealt hands, no idea why I didn’t try this one earlier. I bought in for about $100 and barely 80 raked hands into it I had pretty much lost my buy-in getting KK cracked twice. This seems to always happen to me with KK. First time against AA and second time against someone’s flopped set. The cards were just not coming and I was super frustrated so I managed to win back my losses and some in the Littlewoods casino, as I had 50GBP waiting to be cleared. I’ve been doing some casino bonuses which have paid off nicely but I would much rather win a modest amount in poker than a big win in the casino. I’ll take casino money anytime but I’m in this in the long-run for the poker. Went back to Littlewoods with my casino profit, managed to finish their dealt hands requirement and again caught much of nothing to make an almost meaningless profit from the poker bonus – but I shouldn’t complain as I came up nicely in the casino.

So, went for one last try at Absolute, had about $66 in bonus waiting to be cleared there. I bought in for $50 at a 100NL table. 2 hours later cash out for about $275. I had an unbelievable run where I finally caught the cards that I feel were long overdue along with no heartbreak suckouts. AA twice in the blinds with people raising/calling preflop and other monster hands to have the biggest poker session to date. The bankroll is happy and so am I.

Poker Prophecy Thinks I'm a Pro

2005-08-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

There's this site PokerProphecy, that basically rates players on their Sit-N-Go stats on various popular sites. Check out their site for 5 free searches. I did a search on myself for PartyPoker and came up with the following stats:

$10 Table: 13 wins / 14 losses / 48.15% wins

Not too shabby. Anyhow, in their guidelines they rate any players with a winning percentage higher than 40% as a pro. I thought this was interesting, for some reason I thought that 40% might be low, I'm certainly not a pro, but I guess by the nature of the SNG with the blinds increasing so fast 40% is pretty good, taking into account the unlucky beats. My stats are probably off since the last 3 $10+$1's that I played I lost. But I'm still happy to see that I'm doing well, I haven't been keep track otherwise so this is a nice way to check up on yourself. SNG's are really fun and I may try expanding to the more occasional $20+$2 or other sites like Bodog.

(PokerProphecy counts a win as just placing in the money, so a "pro" could play 100 $10+$1 SNG's, spend $1100, place 3rd in 40% for 40x$20, win back $800 and still be down $300!...something to think about though I know obviously this will rarely be the case - and I don't know many pros that frequent $10+$1)

No new sites to add, really.

2005-08-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

So two months ago I ventured onto Absolute Poker and found a site with reloads like twice a week and good tables (though sometimes it can be hard to find full ring games going). Last month I ventured onto Caribbean Sun to take advantage of their $50 sign-up bonus and $40 monthly bonus. I cashed out of that site with about $450 so it was definitely a good experience at CS, and 250 raked hands for $90 was not bad at all. This month there are no new sites that I'm going to add, really. Though lately I have been thinking about trying out Bodog solely for their 200% sit-n-go rebate. For example, play a $10 + $1 SNG and for every dollar in entry fee Bodog will give you back 6 players points (for every 3 player points you get a $1 of your bonus released) so you'll be getting back $2. They have bottomless 20% match bonus so I may try it out, as lately the SNG's at Party have been drying up for me after owning them for a while.

Good luck at the tables.

First Royal

2005-07-17T16:33:00.000-07:00

Caribbean Sun has been shining bright on me! Got my first royal flush, won a decent pot and a nice $125 royal flush bonus!

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2 weeks in..

2005-07-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

So the bankroll keeps growing and I have to be thankful to the poker deities - or perhaps just to the hours of experience that I have been logging. I definitely feel that my game keeps improving and I've also been reading some new books, most notably finally picked up Small Stakes Hold'Em by Ed Miller. This book is phenomenal and has given me the conceptual support that I needed to be more aggressive at the tables. I always felt I was leaving money on the table and playing too tight-weak and now I feel I'm on a very good tight-aggressive path.

Already cleared the PokerPlex and William Hill bonuses and made a big deposit at Absolute so I have $126 waiting to be cleared there. Normally I would be all over InterPoker by now as well but they recently changed their rake requirement to $1 so it would take me about 2000+ hands to get the 450 raked hands. So this gives me the perfect excuse to try InterCasino later this month and to instead try Caribbean Sun. With the initial sign-up $50 bonus and their $40 monthly bonus, $90 for 250 raked hands is a nice 2.8x bonus. Wish me luck.

Month in review

2005-07-03T00:55:00.000-07:00

So I did end up clearing that InterPoker bonus only slightly up. The sad thing was that the only reason I was up at all was b/c of the $50 bonus I got from Paid2PlayPoker. If you are going to play any of the Crypto sites, they pay you an additional $50 bonus the first time you clear the PokerPlex and InterPoker bonus, so $190 in bonus money, not bad. Check them out and tell them I sent you!

I also finished off my Absolute bonus, this one was much better and I came up about $100 on top of the $100 bonus so not a bad run at AP. I think this will be my preferred site to play for the meantime. They constantly offer up reloads, like every weekend. I also had some time to hit up William Hill and play a couple of hours there to finish up their monthly bonus (5 pounds/1 hr play, 5 hr max) and made a nice profit on top.

Even with my bad run at IP, I think I will stick to the 100NL tables. I am totally comfortable there now and I feel I have reached a good level of aggressiveness. Bonuses clear much faster at those staked and since I can usually minimize my losses there is only potential to really increase my wins. So unless I run into a huge slump, 100NL is where you will find me. On top of that, I finally counted up the money in my poker account for a grand total of $983!! I know, not much at all to most players but for me this is a nice testament to the time spent on the table, improving my game and definitely feeling like I know what I am doing. I know I still have a ton to learn but I always felt I was on the right path so this helps in the confidence department. Not too shabby for a bankroll that started at $100. Hopefully July will be good to me.

Weekend Update

2005-06-27T00:28:00.000-07:00

So this weekend InterPoker finally had their promo weekend. Usually it happens the third weekend of the month but it came (thankfully...?) in the end. It was $30 for 400 raked hands which clears on concurrently with their regular monthly bonus, making the total bonus for the month a 6x bonus ($120 for 720) which is not bad at all. Based on my previous success playing 100NL at Absolute I started playing 100NL at InterPoker (instead of last month when I exclusively played 50NL), also I started the bonus late and only had about a week and a half to clear the 720 raked hands so I was looking for a faster clearing rate at the higher stakes.

Although not a complete disaster, this has probably been my worst bonus clearing yet, not that I have many to compare. I was up slightly at first but then took some horrid beats here and there. Some people deciding to call raises with 48suited and junk of that sort and then a couple big blind specials where I was actually in the BB and either flopped the nuts (on the flop) but someone drew out on me and another where I had a K high flush to someone's Ace high flush. I really think I should get PokerTracker to plug up some leaks as I'm sure there are some. I'm not down big, just barely ahead but its quite a different experience from last month when I cleared this bonus - I was up about $160 not counting the bonus. Then again I played exclusively 50NL and took my time with it. I don't think I really "rushed" through it this time but I guess the larger variance at the higher stakes just got me here and there. Still have about another $20 to clear on Absolute and I'm up almost $200 there from my initial buy-in so I supposed I should be happy. Only about 100 hands to clear at InterPoker and since that should be easy to clear in the next few days after work, I will finish it off on the 50NL tables and see if I can regain some ground. Update once I clear the bonus...

Feed

2005-06-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

Absolute Poker

2005-06-16T00:28:00.000-07:00

Going along with my newfound fondness of 100NL I started a new site, Absolute Poker. They have a great bonus if you deposit via Neteller - 50% up to $500. since I was new to the site I decided to hit up the 50NL tables first, this was last weekend and I found it strange that there was only 1 full ring table available at that limit (not to mention that they max out at 9). I got in played, and after about 35% clearance rate (rake has to be 25cents or more so $5 pot) I left and checked out the 100NL tables and haven't looked back. I really enjoy the play on these tables and on top of that I am getting about 70-75% bonus clearance. Absolute is a 10x bonus but they make up for it by releasing the bonus in $10 chunks (so for every 100 raked hands). I really like this sytem as well and the cashier section has updated stats on your points and pending bonus.

The play is perfect for me, people with some skill and a good mix of live players may make this my preferred site. Newsflash: folded my best hand ever today, the nut flush. I limped in late position with Ah2h with 5 of us seeing a QhThKh flop. Needless to say my face lit up. BB checks, a bet to $3, I smooth call, button fold, checker raises to $6, bettor folds and I of course call. This check raise definitely caught my attention. On the turn a 5s fell, check, I bet $5 - I know a really small bet for this pot but I want to keep this guy in for as much as possible - he check raises me to $10! I raise it to $15. The river falls another Jack and he goes all-in for $40-something, putting me all in, I had about $30 left and the pot right now is about $55. I thought about it till time almost expired and folded because I put him on the QJ or KJ for the boat. He had been at my table for a while and was not a bluffer and bet his hands pretty well. I felt he had something strong to check-raise twice in the hand and it was a super hard fold but I belive the right fold. Still can't believe I did it but I would do it again given the circumstances.

But there's more money to be had tomorrow...

100NL monkey off my back

2005-06-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

So I completely igonored my last post and have not been keeping up to date on this blog, in fact have been doing a horrible job at it. Well, I've been busy lately with a new job and any free time I have in the evenings I prefer to play poker than write about it. But again, I'll give "good posting habits" a second shot.

So for this month, I have already cleared the PokerPlex bonus ($50 for 300 hands dealt). Seems they went to a raked hands system, to allow players to clear bonus at the new micro-limit tables but a month later reverted so bonus play has to be on at least 1/2 limit or .50/1NL. Last month, I tried to clear the William Hill Poker bonus (another Crypto site - 5pounds for every hour of play at 1/2L or .5/1NL or above) I still did not feel comfortable playing 100NL with all the maniac Euros on the Crytos so I felt this would be a great opportunity to try out 1/2L as it seems this is a popular way to clear bonuses. WHAT A HORRIBLE IDEA. I won't go into details, as it was a while ago anway but I just can't deal with limit play, in fact, I think it's weak and I could be wrong/change my mind but with what little I know now I am never playing limit again. Really made me appreciate NL even more and when I hit up to clear PokerPlex I boldly hit the 100NL tables and for the first time ever playing there, I felt comfortable and at ease with play. I think it was only a matter of time but I'm definitely playing at least 50NL at any site I play but will make more ventures into 100NL.

Online with the Cryptologics

2005-05-16T21:46:00.000-07:00

Lately have been playing a lot on the Cryptologic sites, PokerPlex and InterPoker primarily. I was a Party-only guy when I first began playing and after quadrupling my initial $100 investment I found myself going cold in both the SnG's and my regular $25NL Hold Em games. After losing a bit I quickly cashed out perhaps a bit hastily, mostly from frustration but in retrospect I'm glad I did it and I regret not doing it earlier when I was up more. It's not so much the money that I lost, it wasn't that much, but more so that the more I think about it, the more that money was really doing me no good there. I should have tried other sites, gotten other bonuses...and that is what I am doing now with the Cryptos. PokerPlex had a sweet offer, play 300 raked hands a month and get $50 each month. Play is pretty soft, there are some manic Europeans that like to throw money around and sometimes they will lay bad beats on you but for the most part they give their money away.

InterPoker also has a nice monthly bonus, 100% matching bonus up to $90 for playing 8x in raked hands or 780 hands. Also choke full of loose Europeans. I deposited the $90 and I've almost quadrupled it. About 1/3 through the raked hands needed. Check out this hand:

Game #635110473: Texas Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2005/05/15 - 19:26:07 (ET)
Table "Lantana" Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: Panizzi ($34.25 in chips)
Seat 2: MestariJ ($73.83 in chips)
Seat 3: Ange04023 ($69.47 in chips)
Seat 4: Gsolis31 ($24.25 in chips)
Seat 5: achaean ($53.05 in chips)
Seat 6: bondboy ($129.15 in chips)
Seat 7: dubstars ($24.50 in chips)
Seat 8: lolmtslum ($50 in chips)
Seat 9: ismaskin ($44.50 in chips)
Seat 10: Somatic ($39.80 in chips)
achaean: posts small blind $0.25
bondboy: posts big blind $0.50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Gsolis31 [Ac As]
dubstars: raises to $1.50
lolmtslum: folds
ismaskin: folds
Somatic: calls $1.50
Panizzi: folds
MestariJ: folds
Ange04023: calls $1.50
Gsolis31: raises to $10
achaean: folds
bondboy: folds
dubstars: raises to $24.50 and is all-in
Somatic: folds
Ange04023: folds
Gsolis31: is all-in $14.25
Returned uncalled bets $0.25 to dubstars
----- FLOP ----- [5s 2s 6d]
----- TURN ----- [5s 2s 6d][9d]
----- RIVER ----- [5s 2s 6d 9d][Kh]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
dubstars: shows [6h Qh] (A Pair of Sixes, King high)
Gsolis31: shows [Ac As] (A Pair of Aces, King high)
Gsolis31 collected $49.65 from Main pot

But on the flipside, you have ridiculous beats like this one. Given the flop, why this guy thought his top pair with his lousy gut-shot was any good is beyond me.

Game #458695214: Texas Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2005/05/10 - 01:11:29 (UK)
Table "Pantomime" Seat 1 is the button.
Seat 1: DixeNorms ($88.60 in chips)
Seat 2: iltempo ($22.25 in chips)
Seat 4: Gsolis ($33.75 in chips)
Seat 5: marshal7 ($49.50 in chips)
Seat 6: Graucho26 ($14.81 in chips)
Seat 8: Piete2911 ($34.09 in chips)
Seat 10: Gazza1606 ($45.02 in chips)
iltempo: posts small blind $0.25
Gsolis: posts big blind $0.50
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to Gsolis [2d 5s]
marshal7: folds
Graucho26: calls $0.50
Piete2911: calls $0.50
Gazza1606: calls $0.50
DixeNorms: calls $0.50
iltempo: calls $0.25
Gsolis: checks
----- FLOP ----- [4d 3c 6c]
iltempo: bets $3
Gsolis: raises to $6
Graucho26: raises to $14.31 and is all-in
Chaser71 joins the table at seat #9
Piete2911: folds
Gazza1606: folds
DixeNorms: folds
iltempo: raises to $21.75 and is all-in (why?!?)
Gsolis: calls $15.75
----- TURN ----- [4d 3c 6c][8h]
----- RIVER ----- [4d 3c 6c 8h][5d]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
iltempo: shows [7d 6h] (A Straight, Eight high)
Gsolis: shows [2d 5s] (A Straight, Six high)
Graucho26: shows [As Ah] (A Pair of Aces, Eight high)
iltempo collected $14.13 from Side pot #1
iltempo collected $43.68 from Main pot

Overall, I like the Cryptos a good deal, variance can be high but I guess you have to know when to give it up. I notice I make most of my money by flopping monsters against people who can't make any sort of laydown. I also make a lot of money by laying it down when I'm on the other side of the flop. It's not my usual 'live game' play, as I tend to be more aggressive but online I've noticed that's how the money goes. Not a whole lot of outplaying being done, just knowing when to lay it down or chasing when the other guy has no idea how to bet properly.

ESPN Challenge

2005-05-16T21:27:00.000-07:00

So for those that don't know, up until this past Sunday, ESPN was holding a competition where one seat to this year's WSOP was on the line. It was a 10 week promotion and basically each week you would have a chance to accumulate 30 points to enter a Sunday qualifier. The top 50 from each of the 10 Sunday qualifiers played a final tournament for the WSOP seat. I thought this was a cool contest and played a lot but only managed to play in 3 Sunday qualifiers as I flaked on some and commitments prevented me from playing others. Here are my standings:

Sunday April 10 2pm qualifier 143/1500 (top 10%)
Sunday April 24th 3pm qualifier 43/1500 (top 3%!!) I get a stick of Degree for this one.
Sunday May 8th 2pm qualifier 453/1500 (disappointing considering my pace)

Well, May 8th was supposed to be the last Sunday qualifier before the final tournament but ESPN decided to add a last chance tournament this past Saturday 14th. The catch was you had to get 90 points. Three times as hard, right? But I was on a hot streak and won two of the multi-table tourney's (30 people) and was up to 60 points right away. Anyhow, the last chance tourney came...and went. I had some high hopes since I was on a rush on ESPN but out of 584, I came in 186. Overall, it was pretty fun, and good practice as I'm sure lots of these people play online for real money as well. I'll be awaiting ESPN's coverage of WSOP 2005 with glee.

Artichoke's

2005-05-16T20:44:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking on posts, so I will make a solid effort to keep up from now on. I figure every 2-3 days is a good goal. I know barely anyone reads this but perhaps that will change with time, and with posts.

On the Artichoke Joe's front, I made a return with Rod 3 weeks ago. It had been a while because after our last stop there we decided to take a break from the tournament. Limit tournaments are a different beast and we both had some pretty ridiculous beats there. But I managed to talk Rod into going and after playing no hands the blinds are at 30/60 and I'm in the BB with A7o. I push all-in after a late position raise. I think I'm on my way out when a 7 falls on the turn and all of a sudden I have some chips to play with. I think somewhere along the line I get a low pocket pair which I raise with as we are 4 handed and of course get callers. I keep firing and keep getting called down by one guy who pretty much calls anything, it's limit after all! My 55's hold up and all of a sudden I find myself the chip leader. The thing with this tournament is that obviously AJ's wants to finish it as soon as possible so the blinds jump from 60/120 to 200/400. And of course I have to post the first BB. UTG raises to 800, SB goes all-in and I bow out with J4o hoping to get this heads up and just go all-in till I can regain a chip lead or bust. SB manages to stay alive and I push all-in in the SB and finish a disappointing 3rd place after getting so close to my first win ever at AJ's. It's a winner-take-all single table tournament so $200 is up for grabs. I did get a freeroll and the following week (Tues May 10) I returned with Rod again for my freeroll. Nothing Doing. I'll probably go back sometime but Rod is done with that tourney after too many bad beats and no freeroll. The upshot is that I have 700 points for the FreeRoll tournament in September. It's slightly above average, most people have 500 (you get that for coming in 1st/2nd in any of the tourneys and then 100 points thereafter). So hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in some more points before then.

Odds Pay Off

2005-05-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

Played a $20 NL Hold Em Tournament with some friends this weekend in San Jose. We usually only get together to play about once every month or so but it's always a good time, as everyone knows each other and we always do a pot-luck before hand. One time I brought some KFC and ending up eating most of it as I busted out early and fried chicken seemed to hit the spot. Since then I'm expected to bring KFC every time and I happily oblige. This weekend, a particular hand came up where I was able to make a nice gamble that paid off. I tend to limp in with any pocket pairs JJ or lower (thought this can change at any given moment) although I know lots of people prefer to raise with mid/high pocket pairs. I have my own reasons which I might go into in another post but on this particular hand I was looking at TT. I hit the perfect rainbow flop T92. It gets checked to me and I bet a little less than the pot and get three callers. The turn is a Q, a concern now with a straight draw on the board so after it's checked to me I put in a bet of about half the pot, the reason being that with one card to come, a straight draw is not getting proper pot odds and if someone comes over the top, representing the made straight I could perhaps get away from the hand with minor losses. Well, the next person to act raises all-in and it's quickly folded back to me to decide. I quickly realize that I am up against the J8 for the made straight but here is where the books pay off. Basically, I have 10 cards to improve to a full house so with one card to come I am a 3.4-to-1 dog to fill up. I calculated my pot odds to be a little over 4:1. Also, if I lost this hand I would still have some chips to play with, not much but something to fight with, and lastly there was the slim chance that perhaps I still held the best hand. So with the pot laying me a good price, I knew I needed to take a risk in order to get in the money and I made the call. I get shown J8 and the river drops a Q and I win with Tens over Queens. I definitely think without knowledge of the hand/pot odds I would have had to lay this down. But knowing that I was getting the right price on my money, and considering the other factors I felt it was the right call to make and luckily for me I got the card I needed. I was chip leader after that hand and it allowed me to get in the money where I eventually took third place. Perhaps I needed to be more aggressive as it got short-handed but that's just another aspect of my game to work on for next time.

Online Bonuses

2005-05-02T01:04:00.000-07:00

In addition to playing regularly on PartyPoker I opened up an account at PokerPlex to cash in on their $50 Bonus. Play 300 hands, raked or not, and get $50 each month you do so. After some initial problems, I finally managed to clear the bonus this weekend. Their software is lacking in many areas but tolerable. The lowest NL tables they have use 0.50/$1.00 blinds with a minimum buy-in of $20. It's definitely a different game than Party's $25NL tables with blinds of 0.10/0.25. Anyhow, I'll be going back there every month to clear the bonus but I doubt I will be playing many other hands once I clear the bonus. It's hard to find an open seat sometimes and the program runs slow. But then again, there seem to be a lot of people who like to play their mid/bottom pairs aggressively so who knows. Overall, I recommend checking it out for mostly soft play and an easy bonus.

San Mateo County Poker Meetup Group

2005-04-23T18:38:00.000-07:00

This past week, I found out about The San Mateo County Poker Meetup Group a local group of guys that get together once a month to play different poker games. I joined the group and on Tuesday we all met up for a 7 Card Stud Tournament. It was a good group of guys and it was fun to play another form of poker besides Hold Em. I've added a link to the left sidebar so if anyone reads this they can find out about other Poker Meetup groups in their area. See you at the tables.

ESPN Omaha

2005-04-23T01:26:00.000-07:00

I played some Omaha tonight. Started at $500, ended at $17,000. Holla!

One way to crack Aces

2005-04-22T22:55:00.000-07:00

Check me out. I have the Kings (of course). Flop reads from right to left (must be our Asian blood).

Hand History

2005-04-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Been playing PartyPoker, check out this hand history for $25 NL Hold Em. Why can't this happen more often, when I have more money?

***** Hand History for Game 1893032377 *****
mmtheprodigy has left the table.
0/0 TexasHTGameTable (NL) - Thu Apr 14 05:08:19 EDT 2005
Table Table 37172 (6 max) (Real Money) -- Seat 2 is the button
Total number of players : 4
Seat 1: TMCtitan ( $24.75)
Seat 2: spiritfound ( $47.75)
Seat 3: Gsolis31 ( $16.7)
Seat 6: thegahi ( $74.82)
Gsolis31 posts small blind (0.1)
thegahi posts big blind (0.25)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Gsolis31 [ 9c, Tc ]
TMCtitan calls (0.25)
spiritfound calls (0.25)
Gsolis31 calls (0.15)
thegahi checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7c, 8c, Qh ]
Gsolis31 checks.
thegahi bets (0.25)
TMCtitan calls (0.25)
spiritfound calls (0.25)
Gsolis31 calls (0.25)
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Jc ]
Gsolis31 checks. (Jackpot! Now I'm just waiting for someone to bet out)
thegahi bets (0.25)
TMCtitan calls (0.25)
spiritfound raises (1) to 1
Gsolis31 calls (1) (Excellent, please, someone overcall!)
thegahi calls (0.75)
TMCtitan calls (0.75)
** Dealing River ** : [ Qd ]
Gsolis31 bets (4) (Eh, a scare card for everyone else, I thought I wouldn't get paid off)
thegahi folds.
TMCtitan folds.
spiritfound raises (10) to 10
Gsolis31 raises (11.2) to 15.2
Gsolis31 is all-In.
spiritfound calls (5.2)
Creating Main Pot with $34.6 with Gsolis31
** Summary **
Main Pot: $34.6 | | Rake: $1.8
Board: [ 7c 8c Qh Jc Qd ]
TMCtitan balance $23.25, lost $1.5 (folded)
spiritfound balance $31.05, lost $16.7 [ 8d Qc ] [ a full house, Queens full of eights -- Qc,Qh,Qd,8d,8c ]
Gsolis31 balance $34.6, bet $16.7, collected $34.6, net +$17.9 [ 9c Tc ] [ a straight flush, jack high -- Jc,Tc,9c,8c,7c ]
thegahi balance $73.32, lost $1.5 (folded)

Goob can't have all the fun

2005-04-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Check out this hand. Flop reads right to left. I gots the A7.

Artichoke Joe's 4-13-05

2005-04-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I finally got to use my 2nd freeroll and was hoping to continue my pattern of moving up spots, but it was not to be. I didn't get a lot of great starting hands, won a decent pot with AQ early on but as the blinds started to go up I had to keep throwing away marginal hands. Some hands that did hit I had to chop. Took a gamble once with A3 in the BB with just the SB playing. Flopped a gut shot, checked through, with a Jack on the turn the SB goes all in for 75 more and the blinds right now were at 60-100. So with a 275 pot I put in the 75 to call assuming he had the Jack and hoping that my gutshot with a hopefully live overcard would come through but I lost when a blank hit (now calculating this I was a 5.25-to-1 dog to make the winning hand so it wasn't the greatest gamble but at the time I thought he might also be making a desperation bet with overcards so that Ace high might also have been good). I had to keep folding hands and pretty soon I only had 200 in chips left. I was waiting for any decent hand to raise all-in as every one seemed pretty tight, trying to survive. I finally got 77 and raised all-in to $200 UTG, the SB reraised to clear the field and he turned over AQs as the cards were dealt. I usually have no race luck at the tourneys so I lost to his flush on the turn. Aside from my one stupid gamble not much else I could have done differently so I'll wait till next time for the better gambles.

Artichoke Joe's 3-22-05

2005-04-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

Another late post. So this tournament was the first freeroll I got to enjoy. On our way to the tournament, my friend and I were discussing the merits of low pocket pairs and had come to the (more or less conventional) conlusion that with JJ's or lower, a limp is the best strategy with a large field and with no set on the flop, get ready to jump ship. First hand, 44 UTG, I limp and thankfully get no raises. On the flop I get my set and of course check it through since there was an Ace and someone in LP bets, I just call to induce some overcalls and get one more. On the turn I lead out, LP bettor raises, I reraise, and he reraises back. I simply call, perhaps could have reraised him back but thoughts of a bad beat and also wanting to conceal my hand a bit made me go with the call. On the river, the board pairs, I lead and get a crying call, I show my 4's Full, he shows down AQ. I was up huge and couple hands later in the BB I flop two pair and manage to get more bets. I lose a bit later with pocket Ten's against pocket Queens but I manage to survive and in the end squeak out a 2nd place win for another freeroll and points for the Freeroll Tournament later this year.

Artichoke Joes Part III

2005-03-18T01:28:00.000-08:00

So this all actually happened the week before, March 8th, but I never got around to posting. My third shot at the $25+$5 Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. After getting down to about 200+ in chips get dealt KK. I put in a raise and get plenty of callers. The flop is all unders with a possible straight draw. I am first to act so I figure better to bet and get callers then to check with the intention of raising and just give everyone free cards if they check around. Thankfully, after a caller, someone has to go all in but they can't raise the full amount. It gets back to me, I ask if I can reraise the full amount and do, get same caller. Turn, bet and call. River bet and call, at this point I am concerned for something like low two pair. I show my cowboys, caller mucks his fishhooks. This put me up real nice. Take down a couple more pots. Gets four handed, I look at KK again in the BB. Only small blind calls and I of course put in a raise, I thought about limping but it's limit so what the hell, and of course I get called. Flop is something like 2T6, checked to me, I bet to not give away a miracle card and I get reraised! I am completely stunned and simply call. The turn is a blank and my opponent comes out betting, I call. The river is another Ten, by now I am feeling pretty beat but I have pots odds to call in case my opponent was on a bluff (very doubtful), had only pair of two or sixes or low two pair or better yet JJ or QQ. The worst case scenario was a set of Tens but I was prepared for the worst. He shows T6o for the boat! I was pretty upset when he showed, he had called my raise preflop with a T6o. I lost $480 on this hand and what had seemed like a possible victory now seemed like a hopeless try for third place. Well, I got some lucky cards and was able to outlive the other short stack to get third at my table and win the free roll for next week's tournament. This time I hope to suck out on some other lucky flop.

Lucky Chances, Lucky Indeed

2005-03-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

On Saturday a friend talked me into going to Lucky Chances Casino in Colma. I had never been there but had heard about their 1-1-2 No Limit Texas Hold 'Em table. The maximum buy-in is $100 and apparently this is the only casino that offers this kind of table, I guess you are rewarded for building a good chip stack when people can only buy-in for $100. So I met up with him at LC's, thinking that I was just about to lose the quickest $100 ever. They only have two tables for the 1-1-2 NL so I had to wait a good hour before finally getting my spot, not at the table my friend was at. As soon as I sit down I am asked if I want to be dealt in, I of course reply that I do and a second later the dealer asks me for $6, so like 5 seconds in and I'm already down, sweet. I tried to get a good feel for the table and went in wanting to play disciplined. I picked up that there were a lot of unwarranted raises and lot more calling than I expected. People were raising with unsuited Ax in early position and calling with worse it seemed. I was frustrated as I found myself folding two hands that would have been the nuts on the river (both straights) but I couldn’t call the raises with these kinds of hands, KTo etc. Before I know it, I’m down to about $55 and find myself looking at QQ in mp. I raise to $20 and get 4 callers! I figure one of these people must have an Ace or K and my Queens can’t possibly hold up. I needed the perfect flop and I got it, all under cards with no draws whatsoever. It gets checked to me and I go all as there is already enough money in the pot and I don’t want people drawing out on me. I get two very hesitant callers. The turn is another Q and now I feel pretty good about my hand, one of the callers bets the other one out of the pot and shows T8, he had flopped top pair (8) with a Ten kicker, I was shocked these were the hands that called me. Anyhow, after that win I was well over my buy-in and went on to win a couple of other hands and decided to cash out about 1.5 hrs at that table for $205. I’ll definitely be going back to that table in the future.

Artichoke Joe's Round Two

2005-02-24T01:27:00.000-08:00

This past Tuesday morning I went back to Artichoke Joe’s for another shot one of their weekly tournaments. Again, this was a $20 + $5 Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. Last week I got some poor cards and to make it worse, played some of these poor hands when I really shouldn’t have. This week I was anxious to play more disciplined and wait for my big cards and good draws. I went with my friend again and we managed to sit at different tables this time. You actually start out with $300 in chips. So first hand, BB with A6o. Flop is something like 36J, no flush draw. It get checked around (form the 11 people at the table about half were in this pot). I hit my 6 but I’m not too crazy about betting with mid-pair. The turn is another J, right away I feel like my hand has improved, I didn’t feel anyone would have slowplayed that J, someone in mp bets, get a couple callers, I call. The river is a rag, it gets checked around, I bet, person to my left called me with A5o. I’m not quite sure why he called, probably thought Ace high might be good enough, I guess with all the bets in the pot. So I was happy to finally pop my card room cherry. Next hand, I played only b/c I was the SB, then couple of hands later I’m looking at QJs. I call and get a 3-flush on the flop with overcards. I’m in late position but there is a bet early and a couple callers so I feel with my overcards it’s worth a call. The turn give me a flush draw so now I am even more interested in staying in this hand. I’m about a 4:1 dog to make my flush, the original bettor bets and I call, blank hits on the river and I have to give up my hand. Couple of hands after that I find myself with AJs utg. I raise and everyone folds to me, it was nice to get the blinds but I was disappointed to not get more action with those cards. Start dwindling chips and before I know it, with not many chips left in comparison to some big stacks, I find QJo and flop two pair. Someone has to go all-in but there’s one other guy in the pot, eventually I get put all-in and at the showdown my QJo breaks pockets Aces, but just when I think I have chips to play with, the original all-in shows his straight. I was definitely disappointed, as it seemed everyone else was getting straights with even just one hole card. Well I had chips at least some chips to play with and I find myself looking at AJ again. Get nothing on the flop and by now the blinds have gone up again (start at 15-30, then 30-60, now 60-120). I have exactly $230 left and the BB is fast approaching, see nothing to play with and when the BB finally hits I know I will raise all-in with any face card, I look at my cards and find big slick. I raise all-in, not even enough for a full raise and get two callers plus dealer. Flop complete misses me and people start betting so I figure I’m on my way out. The turn pairs my A and all of a sudden I feel I have the best hand. The guy to my left has to bet all-in by this point and the next guy thinks about his hand for a long time, mentions there are too many bets in the pot and calls, the dealer calls. The river is a 6, the ‘thinker’ bets and dealer folds. I feel pretty good that I have the best hand, all-in to my left shows pocket jacks, my eyes get big, about to reach for the chips and the thinker shows his trip 6’s. On the river!! Man, I was pretty upset, especially that he stayed in when he had to figure he was beat. By my counts there were about 12 bets in the pot when pocket 6 thought about calling on the turn, and I can’t imagine he thought he had the best hand at that point. 46 unseen cards, 2 sixes to help him, he is a 22:1 dog to trip up, the pot is laying him about 12:1. He had no odds to call this! Well, it was definitely upsetting to get AK broken by someone taking a complete gamble, but oh well, I hope to be on the other end next time. At least I can’t complain I didn’t get cards to play with.

First Tournament at Artichoke Joe's

2005-02-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I played in my first card room tournament at Artichoke Joes. They have daily morning tournaments, this particular one was a $20+$5 Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament. I got there with a friend a little bit before the 11am start time, not really sure what to expect. The last person at each table won $200 so naturally we wanted to be at different tables. After we picked our seats we found each other not only at the same table but in adjoining seats. Everyone starts out with about $500 in chips (not entirely sure) and blinds start at $10-15 with $15-$30 bets. Most of my Hold 'Em experience has come from no limit games - my weekly home game and other tournaments I've played in. We were concerned about the limit aspect of this tournament but it quickly became apparent that it wouldn't be a complete No-Fold 'Em event. I didn't get any cards to play with, I folded A2o early on in early position and would have hit 2 pair on the river; sadly this would have been my best hand. My only other interesting draw was when I had A5s again in early position with a rainbow flop of 3T4, I checked this, someone in MP bet with a LP call, and I called. The turn was a rag, I checked again, MP bet, LP folded to me, I pondered if this was worth a shot when all of a sudden the bettor flashed his pocket Jacks. The dealer got mad at him but I definitely appreciated it. This made me consider calling his bet even more since I had an over card with an inside straight draw. If I called his bet I would only have chips left for one all-in so I decided to conserve my chips for a better hand, perhaps I should have taken the chance given my low-stack and chips I had already put into this pot. I was later blinded out. My friend did a bit better and made it past the break but got short stacked and had to push all-in blind, he looked under and had pocket 9's! I was sure he would win this pot as only the big blind and dealer called his bet. He got the most horrible flop, TKJ and sat back as the BB and dealer battled, the turn was a 2s and the dealer bet out the BB, he showed A7s, he had a nut flush draw with an inside straight draw as well with the Q. He had 16 outs (9 spades, 3 A, 4 Q) in the '44' cards left in the deck. He rivers the Q of spades, adding insult to injury. We made our quick getaway but plan to return next week where we plan to play our good draws earlier and bigger cards later in the game.

Another Poker Blog

2005-01-26T23:07:00.000-08:00

Dragonystic's Poker Blog
Yet another poker blog that I found, this one has a lot of other links to poker blogs, guess I have my work cut out for me.

Other Poker Blogs

2005-01-26T23:04:00.000-08:00

Poker Junkie
This is one of the first poker blogs that I ran across, back when I didn't even now that much about blogs at all. I really enjoyed reading about this blogger's poker experiences and this gave me the idea to start my own poker blog.

First Hand Dealt

2005-01-26T22:20:00.000-08:00

This is my first of what will hopefully be many posts about my new unrelenting interest in poker. My aim is to make this a site where others can come to discuss anything poker related; hands to talk about, strategy, books to recommend and perhaps even as a forum to organize home games. I have been playing, seriously, for about 4 months now and poker, more specifically Texas Hold Em, has quickly become one of my main interests. I hope this site will be another medium that might allow me to become a better player as well as anyone who wishes to contribute their ideas/comments.