Battle of Bloggers

I have been very bad in not mentioning the latest installment of the Battle of the Bloggers II.

BBT 2



Thanks to the usual suspects, AL , Hoy , MooK , the Riverchasers gang and Miami Don .

Tonight was the Mook and there was an incredible 114 runners on this Halloween night. A really nice Halloween night here in St Louis, weather wise. I got house duty this year (I think because the weather was nice) while Mrs Wonka took the Little Mermaid and Mouse around the neighborhood although the little Mouse (1 yr old) didn't last very long.

I fought long and hard; but in the end I barely got my money back as I finished 14th. There were three big hands that could have changed the outcome of the game.

The first one came with Astin.

I'm thinking he laid down the best hand; but as he said, it looked a little fishy.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Ring game
Blinds: $100/$200
8 players
Converter

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is BB with :9s :ts
UTG raises to $600, 6 folds, Hero calls.

Flop: :ac :8s :7c ($1300, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $1300, Hero calls.

Turn: :2s ($3900, 2 players)
Hero is all-in $3190, UTG folds.
Uncalled bets: $3190 returned to Hero.

Results:
Final pot: $3900

That gave me a few chips to keep up with the Jones; but I could have been severely crippled..

A little later this hand came up that would have been gi-normous... Obviously, I can't really call this; but I sure should have and almost did pushed over the top to begin with.

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t500/t1000
(Ante: t125)
7 players
Converter

Stack sizes:
UTG: t17636
UTG+1: t32103
MP1: t5199
Hero: t17233
Button: t6148
SB: t13788
BB: t8255

Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is CO with :th :td
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises to t3000, MP1 folds, Hero calls t3000 (pot was t5375), Button folds, SB raises all-in t13663, BB folds, UTG+1 raises all-in t31978, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: t18315 returned to UTG+1.

UTG (dmanns) had KK
and SB (irongilrl) had AA

Flop: :kc :9h :js (t8875, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t32201)

Turn: :ac (t8875, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t32201)

River: :qh (t8875, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t32201)

Results:
Final pot: t8875

DOH!!!! I would have rivered a Straight.

And my final hand was against Schaubs where he went all in with AK and I lost the race with QQ and that is that. As usual, coulda, woulda shoulda.

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No SNGs tonight so the month will will end with a nice net of 0$.

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I've been wanting to talk about this Absolute Poker thing; but have never really gotten around to it. By now, I'm sure that everybody has read all about it at sites such tworags.com and others. While I think it is deplorable at what they did, I have made the decision to keep my money on Absolute at the moment which I'm sure that many people will disagree with. For one reason, all the poker players (good poker players) in the know have probably already left so that has left all the not so good players there. At the stakes that I play 2/4 and 3/6 limit, I really don't have to worry about high stakes cheaters looking at my hole cards. I didn't play whole lot at AP but I did play a little over 1,000 hands with a 5.62 BB/100 hands win rate. So tell me, should I leave... I think not.

What about AP as a going concern. Let's take a look at the numbers per Pokerscout.com


Site History

Date/Time (PT)	Peak Players
Aug 31 @ 9:50 PM	2129
Sep 1 @ 6:54 PM	1797
Sep 2 @ 8:00 PM	1924
Sep 3 @ 7:16 PM	2202
Sep 4 @ 7:44 PM	2158
Sep 5 @ 7:09 PM	2174
Sep 6 @ 7:58 PM	2032
Sep 7 @ 7:34 PM	2028
Sep 8 @ 8:10 PM	1852
Sep 9 @ 7:49 PM	2052
Sep 10 @ 7:49 PM	2226
Sep 11 @ 7:53 PM	2507
Sep 12 @ 7:27 PM	2629
Sep 13 @ 6:58 PM	2678
Sep 14 @ 8:09 PM	2296
Sep 15 @ 8:40 PM	2059
Sep 16 @ 7:49 PM	2257
Sep 17 @ 8:32 PM	2430
Sep 18 @ 9:00 PM	2269
Sep 19 @ 7:00 PM	2523
Sep 20 @ 7:13 PM	2462
Sep 21 @ 8:13 PM	2227
Sep 22 @ 7:08 PM	1902
Sep 23 @ 6:58 PM	2096
Sep 24 @ 7:53 PM	2311
Sep 25 @ 8:05 PM	2453
Sep 26 @ 7:41 PM	2422
Sep 27 @ 7:45 PM	2420
Sep 28 @ 7:05 PM	2345
Sep 29 @ 6:31 PM	2120
Sep 30 @ 7:40 PM	2414
Oct 1 @ 7:27 PM	2341
Oct 2 @ 7:32 PM	2504
Oct 3 @ 8:06 PM	2301
Oct 4 @ 7:48 PM	2622
Oct 5 @ 7:23 PM	2301
Oct 6 @ 8:31 PM	2200
Oct 7 @ 7:31 PM	2447
Oct 8 @ 7:54 PM	2417
Oct 9 @ 7:45 PM	2619
Oct 10 @ 7:51 PM	2795
Oct 11 @ 7:50 PM	2613
Oct 12 @ 7:14 PM	2479
Oct 13 @ 8:09 PM	2163
Oct 14 @ 7:39 PM	2352
Oct 15 @ 8:02 PM	2611
Oct 16 @ 6:49 PM	2593
Oct 17 @ 7:56 PM	2411
Oct 18 @ 7:49 PM	2461
Oct 19 @ 7:20 PM	2310
Oct 20 @ 8:20 PM	1928
Oct 21 @ 7:50 PM	2190
Oct 22 @ 7:43 PM	2490
Oct 23 @ 7:57 PM	2450
Oct 24 @ 6:50 PM	2394
Oct 25 @ 6:53 PM	2345
Oct 26 @ 8:00 PM	2355
Oct 27 @ 8:00 PM	2120
Oct 28 @ 6:40 PM	2361
Oct 29 @ 7:39 PM	2500
Oct 30 @ 7:44 PM	2556

So as you can see the numbers haven't really suffered which is a little surprising. So for now, I will keep my little money that I have on Absolute and will monitor how things go there. The whole thing is just a huge mess.

So, they should do it for today..

Peace!!!

Game of the Year

This week is the week we have all been waiting for in the NFL. The matchup of the year. Of course, I'm talking about the Cowboys / Eagles game with Tony's new contract. OK, while that game is huge to me; I must admit that the NE / Indy game is far more intriguing. Let's take a look at this game in detail to try and figure out who covers the spread.... But, as usual, more on this later.

Let's start with my fantastic night of SNGs. Again, just one set of 6. That would be 0 for 6 with 3 bubbles and 1 5th and 2 others including a 9th.

Bubble 1... 98s see a flop of T73. I push with my open ender against big chip leader in Blind vs Blind. He calls with a 7 and I miss my 14 outs twice.
Bubble 2... Again B vs B and I have J7s.. Flop JT7... again all chips go in with me a 69% fav.. River pairs the T and I am outkicked and kicked out of tourney
Bubble 3... This was OK as I pushed KTo from button and got called by JackAce and I didn't improve

The 5th place was also a little painful.. I open push with AQ on a steal attempt. Unfortunately, I get 2 callers.. One with KK and one with AJ... I get my miracle Ace on the flop and I am looking good. Well, until the Jack comes on the turn. IGHN. Brutal.

Oh what the heck. Let's look at the rest.

8th place: I'm in SB with AT... folded to button who min raises... Boy do I hate min raisers and I go ahead and push.. he calls with KQ. T on the flop. Any guesses as to what came on the river. Q.

9th place.. nothing exciting here. I pushed with TT and get called by JT.. J on flop..

This puts me at exactly 0$ for the month. Nice!! At least there is little bit of rakeback to go with that.

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Now, New England vs Indianapolis

Is there anybody sane enough to bet against the Patriots. The public money seems to be all over the Patriots on them. The opening line was had NE as a 5.5 favorite. That line has now moved to 6 on some sites and even as high as 6 1/2 at others.

BetUS.com is one of the sites that has the line at 6 1/2. So, if you are on Indy, this might be a good place to go. While you are there, you can also play poker and other casino games as it is one of the US friendly sites. They are on the same network as Cake Poker so there may be some rakeback deals out there. I didn't find any at first glance. Feel free to look at the links at the top right of blog for more info.

Back to the game. I'm not so sure NE is the play here.

First, Indy is the defending Super Bowl Champs and they have not lost a game this year either so I'm sure that they have a chip on their shoulder for all the publicity that NE is getting.
Second, they are at home and that has to mean something. Even in Indy which to me is one of the more docile enviornments that I have seen; at least when I went to a Cowboys game there.

Here are a couple of fun facts:

Indy has covered the spread every time at home (4-0).
The underdog in this matchup is 9-3-1 in the last 13 matchups.
The Colts have gone over the number 2 out of 3 times at home and the only time NE didn't go over the number was on the road.

Marvin Harrison is due back for this game while Sammy Morris and Ben Watson are still out.

Now, this IS a revenge game for NE as they lost the AFC Championship to Peyton and the boys; but I believe they have moved passed that.

What we may be overlooking in this game with 2 very powerful offenses is the defenses of both these teams. Indy is actully #1 in the AFC against the pass and 3rd overall in combined defense.

I have said it before and I will say it again. Tom Brady is the Best Quarterback I have EVER seen and that includes Peyton Manning. I've seen my share of great QBs (Staubach, Aikman, Montana, Elway, Unitas a little, Favre and the list goes on) and Tom Brady is second to none.

Having said that, I think I am leaning with Indy and the Under on this one. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind.

I wonder what Miami Don has to say about this game or is still jacked up on his deep run in the 750K. Congrats, by the way, on that.

Have a nice day!!!!

Changes and Home Game with new Table

I finally hope to start making some changes to this here blog. It is a little bland and hope to maybe change the template and/or add some ads in here or something. Change is not something I'm not really used to; but in this case it is much needed.


I missed the MATH as we running a little late with the kids tonight; plus I thought Mrs Wonka wanted to watch some TV. She ended up falling asleep when putting Toddler Wonka to sleep. I had a brief window to make it up here to make the tourney; but I didn't feel in the right frame of mind; plus I had some fantasy implications on the football game so I decided to watch so more of it. In our league, we actually do payouts after Week 8 (1st half) so this was a big week. We have 2 different payouts. 1 payout for our normal schedule which we play 2 games a week (so that we will have played everybody 3 times by the end of the year) and 1 payout that Sportsline calls Breakdown which is as if you played everybody every week. Not knowing for sure, I think I'm going to end up 4th in standings and 3rd in breakdown (out of 12 teams) which are both good for payouts. Something is better than nothing.


So after a while, I got frustrated watching Cutler trying to do something, I came up here to play a set of SNGs.


I went 3 for 6 with 2 1sts and 1 3rd and 1 4th and 2 others.


I was both lucky and unlucky as I was a big chip leader in one SNG with 4 left and got my AA cracked by Quad 7s. By the way, I also hit my set which more or less made it impossible to fold just given the odds. I actually thought he hit a flush on river. Same difference I guess. I went out a little later when my QQ lost to A3 to finish on the bubble. I also got lucky in 2 other where my lower pair hit their set to crack a higher pair. That's poker, they say.


So, altogether, I have now played 165 SNGs with 37% ITM and a 3.6% ROI. I am still enjoying SNGs and look forward to improving my game. More on that later in the week.


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I decided to throw a home together last Friday in celebration of my new poker table that I just got. This was a combo late wedding present (7 years late) and early Christmas present from both my mom and my wife's parents. Take a look:











In the actual game, we had 12 people and played 2 tables until we got down to 9. Some of the monthly crew were there (Pantyman, Bud, Ace, Iceman and Fluff w/ Mrs Fluff), there were a couple neighbors and a couple of co-workers (both current and old). I was hurt really bad when my AT lost to A8 which more or less brought me down to a little over the BB. Luckily, I picked up AA 2 hands later and tripled up. I ended up 2nd with one of my neighbors taking it down when his Jackson Five (J5o) out did my A6s. A little controversy brewed with the old One Person to a Hand rule; but that is the way it goes sometimes in home games. My co-worker, who I will call Zeus tried to steal some blinds and while the BB was deciding what to do, somebody said that you just can't call that and then he went all in. Zeus had 94s and had to fold. Next hand, he puts in a raise with A6o and gets called by Iceman's K7s. The flop brought 2 of his suit and Zeus went all in and was called by Iceman. Doing the math, Iceman was actually ahead and he dead spike a K to put Zeus out on the bubble. You could see steam coming out of his ears and he was gone in about 2 seconds after he busted. He's over it now; but it was fun giving him the business today.

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Really enjoying the 2nd season of Dexter which is on Showtime. It may not be quite as good as the 1st season; but it is starting to get pretty good. Plenty of little twists in this show. I am trying to decide if watching Brotherhood is worth watching even if I didn't catch the 1st season. I ended my Blockbuster Acct before I could watch them.

Speaking of movies, my wife and I recently celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary so we went out for Steak and a Movie. It sure is a lot different eating dinner with 2 young kids. Yep, a pleasant experience. Who'd of thunk we would have lasted 7 years. I think the over/under was 3... days. Anyway, not going to get all mushy here. Not my MO. We went and saw a movie called Gone Baby Gone and I really enjoyed it. I gave it a rating of 9 out of 10. Maybe 8.5.

Well, it is getting late. I see the MATH is down to headsup. Two people that I have not heard of so best of luck to one of you.

Have a Nice Day!!!!

October Winding Down

Where is this year going to... So much has happened since my last post that I could never do justice to it in one post, so I will spread things out over the week.

The theme for the month was Sit'N'Gos. So that is where I will start. At last report I had played 82 of them with a -13% ROI. I am now up to 147. I took about a week off from them to play a few different things. Anyway, I just took a little break to try to clear my head from all the bubbles and normal nonsense.

As usual, things went good and they went bad. I guess the overall good news is that at least I made it back to positive numbers; albeit, barely.

Before I go into the numbers, I will tell you a quick story of one of my SNGs last week. The whole SNG lasted 6 hands which in itself is not unusual... sometimes it just happens; but this one was a little funny. Funny, you say?? Funny haha, or funny peculiar. I will let you decide.

5th hand, I get QQ UTG+1. I do a normal 3x raise and then get raised about 2.5x that by a late position guy. Being that it was early, I could just call; but where is the fun in that. I pushed, he called with AK and won the race. No big deal there. Happens all the time. Obviously, I'm crippled. Anyway, next hand I get AK and of course put in the rest of my chips. The same AK guy from above raises and again we are heads up. He turns over QQ and again wins the race. Now, is that funny haha or funny peculiar. I say.... typical.

So, let's cut to the chase. Here is how things look since my last update.








So the bubbles have definitely decreased. More 2nds than 1sts which is never good; but I'm heading in the right direction.

Again, I have played 147 SNGs with the following results:

ITM% = 37.4%
ROI% = 1.3%

Here is the graph of finishes.

Here is a different kind of look... by Tourney Range. Here are the numbers for tourneys in group of 25 compliments of TourneyManager.

1-25 20%ITM and -34.5% ROI
26-50 36% ITM and -5.1% ROI
51-75 40% ITM and -1.8% ROI
76-100 56% ITM and 30.9% ROI
101-125 40% ITM and 37.5% ROI
126-147 31.8% ITM and -21.9% ROI

Hopefully things can turn back around.

I will just keep it up for the rest of the month; but probably won't hit the 200 that I had planned on playing.

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I did play in a Tier II Token frenzy of the weekend and now have a token for the next Big Game.

I also played in a freeroll today for RakeTheRake.com (One of my rakeback sites). $2,500 was what the winner got. I was top 10 fairly late into this thing; but a couple of position raises with A5 and KTs were re-raised by one of the blinds and I folded both. Finally went out in 31st when my flopped 2 pair was ousted by a 4flush... really a 5flush; but he had the ace. That was definately a coulda, woulda, shoulda.

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New England Patriots. What can you say about these guys other than it doesn't matter who they play or where. It would hard to bet against these guys as they have covered the spread every week. I am very curious where the line will come out on Tuesday for the NE / Indy game in Indy. Talk about no respect, I would bet that NE will be a pretty good sized favorite against the reigning Super Bowl champions. Would you bet against them?

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That will do it for now; but hopefully, more regular posting is on the way.

Have a nice day!!!!

Another Day Another Lost Dollar

Boy, I love Sit-N-Gos...

Here is my very first hand of the night of my first set of 6.

FullTiltPoker Game #3808651608: $10 + $1 Sit & Go (29009732), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:14:56 ET - 2007/10/09
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Kc Ks]
maxwell3000 folds
vivette folds
ganja smkn raises to 60
jdntal raises to 420
Steps25 folds
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka raises to 1,500, and is all in
trojanmana folds
pokaaparty folds
ganja smkn folds
jdntal calls 1,080, and is all in
willwonka shows [Kc Ks]
jdntal shows [Ah Kh]
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ac 3h]
*** TURN *** [Jd Ac 3h] [5h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ac 3h 5h] [9d]
willwonka shows a pair of Kings
jdntal shows a pair of Aces

Here is another hand tha will give you a tone of how things went...

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t25/t50
7 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
UTG: t2860
UTG+1: t1250
MP1: t1660
Hero: t1455
Button: t1885
SB: t1480
BB: t2910


Pre-flop: (7 players) Hero is CO with :6d :6c
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t50 (pot was t75), MP1 calls t50 (pot was t125), Hero calls t50 (pot was t175), Button calls t50 (pot was t225), SB folds, BB checks.


Flop: :9c :9h :4s (t275, 5 players)
BB checks, UTG+1 checks, MP1 bets t50, Hero raises to t200, 2 folds, UTG+1 calls t200 (pot was t525), MP1 folds.


Turn: :6h (t725, 2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.


River: :as (t725, 2 players)
UTG+1 bets t400, Hero raises all-in t1205, UTG+1 calls all-in t600.
Uncalled bets: t205 returned to Hero.


Results:
Final pot: t2725

UTG+1 had Ad9s.

All told I played 13 SNGs will another great result 38.46% iTM and -18.18% ROI. Of course, I will tell you that this doesn't tell the story of how things went. Or maybe it does and I am just a terrible SNG player. Actually, that is probably closer to the truth.

Not counting the last 10-15 minutes because I quit writing things down because is was going fast and furious. I got my money in with the best of it 6 times... I lost 5. I was 2 for 6 on Coin Tosses and 1 for 11 when getting the money in bad. To say that I was coolered tonight would be an understatment. If I had AQ on an Ace flop somebody had AK. If I had JJ somebody had QQ. Top pair vs a set. You get the picture.

To make things worse, I had no wins... 3 2nds and 2 3rds... I had Bubbles so I had that going for me. There are always positives. You just have to find them.


To make things even worse I played 100 hands of limit and my Won $ at Showdown Percentage.... 18.18% The last hand that just made me quit was I had A9s on the button.. Loose guy directly in front of me raises. I 3 bet. We see a flop... J8A.. Turn 9... River 8... He had J8.

So, just for documentation purposes.

82 SNGs
32.9 IM
-13.2 % ROI

I did much better at the $55s than I am doing at the $10s per this oldie but goodie Post..

http://will-wonka.blogspot.com/2005/08/sng-month-in-review.html




UTG+1 showed Ad 9s
Hero showed 6d 6c

New Sheriff in Town

There's a new sheriff in town or should I say in Dallas; but....

First things first.

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

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 2470086

Next, the new sheriff is Nick Folk. How clutch is that guy. Makes a 53 yarder only to have to do it again. Normally, Tony Romo is the man; but obviously, he had some issues last night. He just didn't seem to be zipping it as much as he usually does. Too many lobs. But let it be known right here and right now. Tony Romo is THE Man for the Cowboy's future. We'll give him a pass yesterday; especially since we won.

OK Next, Let me say that first, I am NOT a TO fan. I was against him coming to the Cowboys and wouldn't miss him if he left; but he seems to be getting some unfair treatment with the referees. Tonight there were 3 pretty bad calls and no calls against him that should or should not have gone his way.

First play, makes a catch and they call spiking the ball. Not only was it not spiking; but the ball ended up just a few feet from the referee. Not much of a delay of game in my book

Second, he caught a ball and they called it out of bounds even though it was clear he was shoved out of bounds and would have gotten both feet down.

Third and critically, on the 2 pt try. The cornerback never looked back for the ball, he only stuck his hands up and face guarded him which is a clear interference. NO call!!!!

Not only did he not get the calls; but the MNF announcers didn't even say anything. Again, I am NOT a TO apologist. I think he is a showboat and a time bomb just waiting to go off. He drops too many passess and so on so on; but tonight, he deserved to be defended. There were many scenes where he was upbeat and trying to get people to play. No telling what he would have been like if they had lost that game. Oh by the way, did I mention the Cowboys won their MNF game.

Enough Said.

No Poker SNGs tonight as it was pretty late after the game and news conferences that I watched. I played a couple hundred limit hands for more or less break even.

Have a nice day!!!

Started Good and Ended Bad

OK... Continuing on the SNG Quest for the month. I played 25 of them this weekend. More on this later..

But first I want to rant about one of the dumbest NFL rules that relate to TV Blackouts. Now, I live in St Louis and I am obviously a Rams Fan (2nd only to the Dallas Cowboys). For the first time in many years, the Rams did not sell out in time and the game was blacked out here locally and they showed the Steeler/Seahawk game instead.

I'm trying to get my head around this black out thing and why they do it. Obviously, I understand that they only have 8 home games and they want/need the people to be at the game; but on the other hand, many people can not afford to pay the money for the tickets, parking, concessions, etc... I don't know of any other sport that does it. I know baseball and hockey do not do it. We should be able to see these games.

Secondly, I subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket. In other words, I pay to see all the games and of course they follow the same black out rules. Even worse, I can't always watch a game on the Sunday Ticket Channels if the game is being telecast locally. Again, all for the all might local dollar. I'm just getting sick of it!!!!!!

I'm going to put some thought into this and see how to possibly get a petition going to voice my (and I'm sure many others) displeasure to this idiotic rule. When a team is 0-4 (and now 0-5 and soon to be 0-7), what incentive is there to go and lay down a C note to watch a football game. Does that mean that I don't want to see the game. No, not at all, I'm a loyal fan and will sit through many losing seasons. I know a petition would be of absolutely no good use; but it may make me feel better.

OK, on to poker. We left off after having a terrible start to the month. I played each day this weekend. I set of 6 on Friday and Saturday and 13 on Sunday.

Friday was good was as I was In the Money (ITM) 50% for a 50% ROI (I did have 2 4ths which again really hurts) and Saturday was awesome as I was in the money every time. Yep, 6 for 6 which again got me to within $13 of being break even for the month. So, Saturday was 100% ITM and 145.45% ROI. And then there was Sunday. I should of just stayed and watch the Bears/Packers game as I went 2 for 13 with a dismal -56% ROI.

Saturday was just crazy as I went 9-1 when there was an ALL-IN when I had the best of it, an incredible 5-1 on coin tosses and and even more incredible 5-6 when I was behind. Just one of those days when things worked out although the bad news was that I could only finish one of them out for a win. I also had 3 2nds and 2 3rds.


Here is how the weekend looked.










So for the weekend I was In the Money 44% and my ROI was 17.82. As I mentioned it could of/ should have been much better.





So here is the month to date look.







Which leaves me at 31.9% ITM and -12.3% ROI

We'll see how the rest of the month goes..

And...

The Longhorns did get it done this weekend. They had opportunities; but when ever there was a bounce or any kind of break that comes up during the game, it just didn't go their way. I can't even blame it on the officials other than I'm pretty sure that when the whistle blows and some body plows into your QB from behind, that it is a penalty. Not sure how they missed that one. They sure didn't miss the late hit from a Longhorn player later in the game. Oh well, at least they didn't get embarrassed and they did cover the spread, right GCox. I got your transfer. Thanks.

Have a nice day!!

Bubble SNG Boy

I'm continuing on my SNG Quest this month and so far so bad. Results have been really bad and frustrating. Take tonight for example. I just played one set of 6. 1 1st, 1 3rd and 2 4ths. Obviously bubbling way too much. To further drive the point see the below chart.




Yep, that big bar in the middle is the bubble bar. 25% of my 44 SNGs so far this month have resulted in 4th place finishes..

That's one thing. The other is how I got my money in tonight.

Tonight I got all my chips in as a favorite 6 times (won 5 of them) and went 50/50 on 2 coin tosses. All that is OK; but compared to the fact that I got my money in with the worst of 7 times is alarming (of which I won 2 of them). Of course, these are exact calculations as I just immediately categorize them as I play. Typically, I like to get my money in with best of at a lot higher percentage. DUH!!!!!

My ITM started out at 14% of the first 14 and after 22 I had an alarming -55.4% ROI. YIKES!!! Things turned around and I almost got back to even with making the money 7 of the next 8 tourneys; but then only to follow that with 10 straight out of the money. So after 44, the terrible stats show that I am only in the money 25% and my sickening ROI is -29.3%.

I'm not one to give that easily so I will continue on.

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Back to poker Training. With all the SNG stuff that they have along with Tournamnets, PokerXFactor was the easy choice. I've signed up for a monty and will most undobutedly resign for another 3 soon. So far, I have really enjoyed it. I will wait a week or two to give my full review. Yes, that's right... more on this later.

I've also just downloaded a program called Poker Hound and will give that a gander. It sure can't hurt.

The only thing I plan to buy is SNG Wizard to help with the SNG End Game which I am obviously having trouble with. We will see.

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I would be remiss not to mention that this weekend is the Annual Red River Shootout matchup against the UT Longhorns and Sooners of OU. I'm assuming that both myself and some OU Fans aren't too happy with the state of things in football land; but that doesn't matter because you throw everything out the window with this game. Gary's Sooners are an 11 point favororite and he assures me that number is a little low so we have a little side bet going on the game. The point spread winner will have his next Mookie tourney paid. So G, when you make that player transfer the screen name is W-I-L-L-W-O-N-K-A

Hook 'em Horns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I would also be remiss in no saying...

TONY ROMO is the MAN!!!! The Cowboys run good. Hopefully they don't look past the Bills on the way to the big showdown with the Patriots in a couple of weeks.

Have a good Day!!!!!!

Here we go again...

Well, Let's try this blogging thing again.... Things obviously haven't gone too well.

The month of September was blah... I played 106 SNGs losing a grand total of $14 at 38.7% ITM at the lowly $10 range. It is obviously frustrating not to be able to do better at that level; but bankroll dictates where you play at.

Ring play was an impressive plus $100. Add a few dollars for rakeback and at least it was a positive month.

So the plan for October.... More SNGs... it's kind of personal thing now... I must beat the $10 SNGS... I'm shooting for around 200 of them.

My first set of 6 tonight.... 1 1st 1 4th and the others not so good... Typical to how things have been going though..

SNG #1 8th place TT loses to KQ... he called my preflop raise... I hit my set on the flop... oh but wait the flop was AJT... and flopped straights are apparently gold. Who knew. The boat didn't fill up so I'm gone.

SNG #2 5th My second high nut flush was ousted by the nut flush... lovely

SNG #3 5th JJ lost to 88 DQB What can you do...

SNG #4 1st Wahoo.

SNG #5 4th This bubble went on for ever seeing the shorties over and over again winning. DonkeyPuncher was there to witness the fun and got 3rd after he was sucked out on. I definitely need help on my bubble play. More on that later.

SNG #6 9th AK lost 34 on Ace high flop. He got his second pair on turn and I called his all in like a big dummy.

Given the lackluster performance again this year, I have definitely made up my decision to try a training site. There are many out there. It seems that are two or three clear leaders (that I know of) and they all seem to have their speciality. Any comments on any of these would be greatly appreciated.

First off, I will probably finally purchase SNGWiz as compared to SNGPT.

Next video Training. I think I have finally convinced myself to do one of these. I have a few bucks on Poker Stars and the plan is to use that site to fund my poker training. Hopefully I can make $25 a month on that site. If not, I really have problems.

PokerXFactor - specializing in Tournaments; mostly MTT; but plenty of SNG talk. They have a great Hand Analyzer and the video selection is great.

Cardrunners - Newly re-redesigned website looks great. Seems to specialize in Cash Games. O-Poker obviously likes it.

StoxPoker - seems to specialize in Limit Holdem which is what I presently play most; however, through ThisIsTheNuts, you can get this free if you generate enough rake.

Deuces-Cracked also looks good. Not quite as many videos to offer as the others do.

SNGIcons - specializes in SNGs... but may be too specialized since they cost about the same as the others.

Donkit - also specializes in SNGs. I viewed one of them and I thought it was good. Selection might be the issue here as it looks like they are not adding new videos.

I'm sure that there are others and if you know of any, please let me know. I will keep you updated on how it goes. I really want to get into some NL cash but didn't fair to well this month.

We'll see how it goes.