Bandwagon Jumping

Yep, I can follow with the best of them. I, too, am jumping on the Mansion Bandwagon. For anybody that hasn't heard of it:

Pittsburgh Steelers 2006 Superbowl Champs Promotion
Simply visit the MANSION Sportsbook and place a minimum Point Spread (Handicap) bet of USD 1,100 to win USD 1,000 (or currency equivalent) on the Pittsburgh Steelers for their game on Thursday 7 Sep 2006. (00:30 GMT 8 Sep 2006)
If your bet is not a winner, MANSION will refund your losses of USD 1,100 (or currency equivalent).
This deal is too good to miss. There’s no better way to kick off the NFL season and no better place than at MANSION.


This offer applies to bets placed on MANSION Sportsbook only and is limited to the team and selection specified. Bets placed on MANSION Sports Exchange will not qualify.
To qualify, Players must place a single Points Spread (Handicap) bet of USD 1,100 on Pittsburgh Steelers for their game on 7 Sep 2006
This offer is only available on the first bet placed for this event
To qualify for this promotion you must be 18 years of age or over and have agreed to the MANSION terms & conditions.
The promotion is valid from 25 Aug 2006.
All refunds will be placed into Member accounts within 3 working days of the result.
All personal information provided to MANSION must be complete and accurate in all respects and we reserve the right to request additional information in order to satisfy our validation of this information.
Only one refund is allowed for each MANSION Member, residential address, email address, telephone number, debit/credit card or NETeller account number and shared computer. The refund applies exclusively to the first account opened in the event multiple accounts are opened.
MANSION may at our sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in any promotion or bonus offer.
MANSION reserves the right to withdraw or amend this offer at any time without prior notice.
All decisions made by MANSION regarding this promotion shall be deemed final.
The withdrawal of any promotion funds will be subject to MANSION withdrawal policy.
Offer is valid for limited time period only.
Players that bet both sides of the event with MANSION will not be eligible for a loss refund.



So I did my part and signed up, deposited and bet. Now, the real dilemma starts. Do you hedge your bets? Do you want to guarantee $450ish or try to possibly win $1,000. I would say that there is a 90% chance that I will indeed hedge my bet.

Not too much to report in poker tonight. Fired up 2 $25 Turbo SNGs on PokerStars. I unfortunately got 4th (bubble) when I ran my 77 on the button to the big chip leader who had pushing his muscle around. He min re-raised and pushed on a 8 high board. He called with KK. Oops.

The 2nd SNG went better as I was able to take it down. I happened to wake up with hands when people were pushing/stealing.

As usual, I opened up a 3/6 SH table on Full Tilt and played a whole 12 hands. Did I mention that I got KK twice and they both went to showdown as winners. Since it was late, the goal was just to make enough to cover SNG buyins. Uh, that would do it.

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I watched High Stakes Poker tonight. OK, I am now really, really feeling bad for Daniel N.; but on the otherhand, he is making these calls when he is pretty sure that he is beat. Even the best aren't bullet proof. I bet he saves over $200K if he doesn't make all those calls.

That should do it.

Not that I'm complaining

At the last moment last night I decide to play in the MATH. At first, it didn't look like there was going to be a very big crowd; but ended up with 22 which is a good number. Things are going pretty smoothly and I somehow make it to the final 4... Top 3 pay...

OK.. Intermission...

I also fire up a $25 Turbo on Stars... Again things are pretty good... I'm 3rd in chips and get K7 in the BB... button just calls... 2KJ flop.. I check call.... J on river.... Doh!!!! We get all of our chips in (he was short) and he wins with J7. Fast forward 5 hands and I am now short stacked and go all in with A2... I get called... OK.. no problem... he turns over 55... doh... but wait... 24A flop... nice.. not I have to sweat 2 cards and hope that a 3 doesn't come... Turn... K.. whew.... River.. 3.... What???? IGHN..

Back to MATH... Final 4 seemed like it lasted for hours..... (106 hands out of total 231 for me)... I did get lucky to make it final 4 when my QJ beat bthecloser69's AK. Once we got to 4, I actually won a race against lifesagrind when my 55 flopped a set and turned quads against his KQ. At the time, he was the chip leader and been playing the part of the bully very well. Later on my 66 outraced his AQ as well put me into the lead.

A little later, I get all in with lifesagrind (or should I say he gets all in) with my A9s against his A6o... Nice.... Look like the bubble is broke... 87T... Perfect.... 8 (oh no!!!).... 7.... Unbelievable... Runner Runner Split... Par for the course for me these days.

From there, we all traded chips for a while. We are down to final 3 now so we have monied. I've still sitting in the lead. Lifesagrind makes a call from the button and I will play 3 handed with 42o. BCOHOLIC (sorry, I don't know the link.. let me know and I will adjust) just checks... Flop comes 4T4... SWEET!!!!! Of course I check and it actually gets checked around... Turn.. 2... WOW... you have to love turned full houses... I check again and this time BCOHOLIC bets 800 into a 2500 pot.. lfiesagrind folds and I min raise and BC moves all his chips in and of course I insta call... he turns over 94o and I feel kind of bad that I sucked out on him.... that is until the river.... an ugly 9... Rivers a bigger boat... OUCH!!!!! Maybe there is something to this RiverStars thing...

I lose my ante on next hand and by BB on next hands, I then move all in with 88 from small blind... BC thinks for a little while and calls with 99. Any hope of sucking out of him was dashed on the flop of 9J9... That's all she wrote... Not that I'm complaining, but things could have been a lot better tonight... I could of knocked out both of these guys if weren't for the darn river. Lifesagrind (after surviving that split pot from above) went on to win the thing.... Nice going!!!!!

I also had a table of Full Tilt 3/6 SH going and even though I won less than 50% of my hands at showdown, I did book a small 5.57BB/100 over 160 hands profit which covered my tourney expenses.

That's Poker!!!

What's Wrong with this Picture

First off, many thanks to those that for some reason still happened upon this blog and gave their will wishes. Things are going great with the addition to the Wonka family. She still hasn't quite figured out that she is supposed to sleep at night; but I'm sure that she'll catch on soon. Anyway, I will try to keep the blogging going; but it will have to be a gradual thing.

I wanted to throw out some Poker Tracker numbers from some individual days this last week and tell me what is wrong with these numbers.

VPIP - 32.97%, PFR - 14.29%, W$SD (Won $ at showdown) 62.50%, BB/100 -13.46
VPIP - 30.00% PFR - 25.00%, W$SD 28.57%, bb/100 28.57

Somtimes poker doesn't make sense. Of course, there are many mitigating circumstances that you just can't always decipher from Poker Tracker Numbers.

First off, the first set of numbers were limit poker and the second set were from No Limit. OK, things are falling into place... 2nd.. they were from a small sample of hands... OK, OK, I get it.

After getting stuck $800 after the first week of August, I have pulled above water for the month. The weekend started tough. I played in the Poker Stars Silver VIP 2.5K Freeroll. I don't play much on Stars; but I do play enough normally to get to Silver level. The payout structure isn't all the nice as they are pretty much paying a bunch of places and that is fine as it is a loyalty thing. Anyway, clearly my strategy was to stack up or get out. Worked out great early as I took a few pots. Then I got into my first all-in situation. I had AQo. After the cards were turned over, I was suprised to see somebody had ATo and T3o. Q on flop and I'm feel pretty good... well, at least until 4 diamonds came on board and Mr T3o had the 3 of diamonds. Crippled there and went out a few hands later. Played 2 $25 SNGs... the short of it was that AK killed me and I lost both. My AKs lost to 33 and my 77 lost to AK. The weekend, however, did get better.

This whole WSOP thing with Jamie Gold is going to get really interesting. I can't wait to watch more of the tournament and how ESPN plays it out. I listened to an interview with him on bigpoker.ca. I urge everybody to head that way and listen to it. Wow, this guy has an ego. Speaking of poker on TV, I certainly agree with the consensus that High Stakes Poker is the best thing going. That hand with Hanson and Negreanu was very, very interesting. Anybody make that call that Daniel did? I guess when you are playing Gus, you are a little loose on your calls.

Have a good week!!!!!

It's A Girl!!!!!

Has it really been over 2 months since I last posted. Wow!!! I really have to take my hat off to folks who can actually crank out post after post of good stuff everyday. I definitely fell into a rut both in blogging and playing. Anyway, I am going to try to get back into this blogging thing slow and steady.

Before I talk poker, I have to mention that the stork has delivered a new addition to the Wonka Family. A beautiful baby girl. Of course, I wanted a boy to go along with our 2 1/2 year old daughter and I always thought that I would feel "bad beated" if I got another girl. All of that goes to the wayside once you see a new child for the first time. A healthy new baby girl.... that is the true definition of "running good". I am truly blessed.

So, like I said, I am going to try to get back into this blogging thing for all the same reasons that I did it in the first place. Topping the list is probably chronicling the journey and forcing me to rethink poker stuff. Suffice it to say the "running bad" is my theme of the year. Of course, everything is relative; but when you drop over 7K over 3 months, it hurts. Especially, when it doesn't feel that you are doing anything differently; but guess what... suffer some beats and go bad, you do do things (hehe.. he said dodo) differently whether you realize it or not. Those KJ's or AT's in EP start looking better and better. The grinding goes away and you start looking for the big score. You move UP in limits instead of DOWN to try and make things up quickly. Guilty, Guilty, and Guilty.

Fast forward to now.... Nothing has really changed as let's look at last night. I went an impressive 1 for 5 with KK. Losing to AT (on river), KQs (flush on river), AA (oops) and unknown as I folded on a check raise on turn when there was an Ace on flop. The AA was doubly brutal as there was a 4 flush on board and I had the king only to lose to the Ace, of course.

I did get a chance to play in the Mookie last night. How cool are these things? Running good, running bad, these are always a joy to play. In an all to to not surprising end, I lost to Sir Iakaris when he called my all in with 72o (isn't there a name for this?) and got his deuce on the flop. Well done.. if I'm going to bust in a blogger tourney, this IS the way I want to go.

I'm playing more Turbo SNGs on Stars these days. Had some early success; but now that has also gone the way of everything else pokerwise these days and I am a bit down after a small sample. I'm even a net loser on the HORSE tables and that takes some real doing because people truly don't know what they are doing over there. Of course, I am one of those people.

I probably need to head over to Felecia's blog and read her psychology and poker series which I never did get around to reading; but sounds like there was some good stuff there. OK, I've taken the first step and figured out there is a problem that needs fixing. Stay tuned as I try to fix it.