Terrible Weekend so Back to the Drawing Board

Well, any chance of making anything respectable out of this month is all over after this weekend. The only question that remains is how big will the negative number be. How depressing. Again, I won't post everything; but here are the first two hands of the session on Sunday.

Hand #1

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $117.20
BTN: $226.70
SB: $100.00
Hero (BB): $50.00
UTG: $66.45
MP: $95.85

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with Jc 8c
UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, CO calls $0.50, 1 fold, SB calls $0.25, Hero checks

Flop: ($2.00) 8h Qd 3h (4 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.20, UTG calls $1.20, CO calls $1.20, SB folds

Turn: ($5.60) Js (3 players)
Hero bets $4, UTG calls $4, CO folds

River: ($13.60) Ts (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $6.80, Hero calls $6.80

Final Pot: $27.20
Hero mucks Jc 8c
UTG shows Tc Jh (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
UTG wins $25.85
(Rake: $1.35)

Just a little bad luck. It happens. I was 77% after turn. Again, nothing too big.


Hand #2

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: $115.50
MP: $227.45
CO: $99.50
Hero (BTN): $50.00
SB: $79.30
BB: $95.85

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with Ah Qd
UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero raises to $2.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.25) 5h Td Kd (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets $3.75, UTG calls $3.75

Turn: ($12.75) Js (2 players)
UTG bets $12.75, Hero raises to $31.85, UTG raises to $50.95, Hero calls $12.15 all in

River: ($100.75) Ks

Final Pot: $100.75
UTG shows Jc Jh (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
Hero shows Ah Qd (a straight, Ace high)
UTG wins $97.75
(Rake: $3.00)

77% favorite when chips went into the middle. Again, nothing big as we both had hands we were taking to showdown; but two consecutive hands. Really 2 out of 3 as I folded my second hand from SB. That stings a bit.

So, should I have just stopped for a bit after two consecutive river beats on the first 2 hands that I played? Of course not, but this was a foreshadowing of my session as again, I lost 6 buyins. Pretty depressing.

Where to go from here? Take a break? Not likely as I need to get my 200 pts every day for the rest of the month to reach Iron Man level.

Here's what I'm going to do try to watch some videos which I have being very lax in doing. So Stoxpoker and Cardrunners , here I come. Of course reading online poker blogs and of course, I'm going to play poker. Hopefully, these things will translate into more profits at the tables. Let's hope so anyway.

Related to this, I am putting a new poll question to see how you guys handle tough down stretches. Take a look at the upper right and let me know your opinion. If you don't see an answer that suits you well, feel free to leave your opinion in the comments and I will add it to the poll.

Last weeks polled ended in with a unamious 9-0 for people against the final table delay.

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I wanted to mention that I had a few bad numbers on my analysis of playing with Top Pair Top kicker. My filter only returned hands where I had Top/Top on the Turn. I am going to look deeper into this and post more this week. I will have some information on not only having top/top; but what kind of resistance did you get and how did you react to it. Hopefully, it will reveal some good leaks that I need to work on.

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I did have a much better tonight; but the cards were much better. I flopped sets an impressive 22% of the time. Unfortunately, I only got paid off once. Also, the below hand didn't hurt. Why can't I find more of these guys?



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Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $37.80
BTN: $137.15
Hero (SB): $63.00
BB: $26.75
UTG: $71.65

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with Ah Ad
UTG raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, BTN calls $1.75, Hero raises to $9.25, 1 fold, UTG calls $7.50, 2 folds

Flop: ($22.50) Ks 9d 3h (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $11, Hero calls $11

Turn: ($44.50) 2h (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $51.40 all in, Hero calls $42.75 all in

River: ($130.00) 5s

Final Pot: $130.00
Hero shows Ah Ad (a pair of Aces)
UTG shows 6c 8c (King Nine high)
Hero wins $127.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Have a nice day!!!

Top Pair Top Poker and Poker on TV

Last time, I posted about a losing day and I posted about a hand losing with Top Pair / Top Kicker. Our good buddy PokerPeaker commented about overvaluing Top pair top kicker. What is up with that? Who is he to criticize my game. Peaker... why don't you just go climb a mountain or take a jog. I'm sure that you have better things to do than to look at my game. OK, just for kicks and grins, I'll take a look at this a little bit more.

Using my handy dandy Holdem Manager, I took a look at my last 3 months which was about 61K hands.

Surprisingly, it only returned 67 hands. Of those 67 hands, I lost 27 of them, chopped 2 of them and won 38 of them. Anyone want to guess the overall $ Outcome? I'll let you think about it. See the answer a little further down the post.

By the way, PP, I was just giving you trouble. I appreciate any and all comments on my blog; especially the ones which could lead to me playing better. I will say that giving up on Top/Top type hands could lead to fewer losing hands; but as you said, it would also lead to fewer winning hands. I will however give it more thought before I make that crying call or push a hand that might only get called by a better hand.

As a matter of fact, there were a couple of hands 2 nights ago that I might have called or pushed; but decided to lay down because this was on my mind. I can't find the hands at the moment; but I can definitely see the long term benefits of these type laydowns. I'll continue to monitor this. I will say this. I ended up 2 buyins for the night which makes up a little bit from the other night.

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The voting continues to be one sided as everybody still agrees that the WSOP delay is a bad idea. Again, time will tell whether or not this was a good idea. Speaking of poker on TV. The folks over at Poker on TV put out some good stuff. They have a weekly newsletter as well. From them, I learned that the World Poker Tour will be shown on Fox Sports Next year. There is more interesting stuff regarding this on their blog. They also mentioned that High Stakes Poker was renewed by the Game Show Network. More information to follow regarding HSP so that is good news.

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OK, Top Pair Top kicker. I am actually down $118 dollars over those 67 hands. If you just take a look at the hands that went to showdown, I am down $225 over 51 hands. So there you have it and there you are. PP was right. Thanks for the comment.

What are most of the hands that I am losing on? I'm paying off way too many sets. Losing some races that maybe I don't need to take the risk. There were a few suckouts as I was a favorite 4 of the 27 times that I lost when the chips got to the middle. A few river beats like flushes and straights. Anyway, I need to be careful here as this is definitely a leak. Thanks PP for making me look at something that I wouldn't normally have done. Again, I don't want to just eliminate these risks; but it will definitely enter my thought process when it comes up.

Have a nice weekend!!!

Six Buyins and What it is all about

So far, it is unanimous about the Final Table delay of the WSOP as it is 100% against. We still have a few more days to vote on this so please cast you vote in the upper right hand corner to let me know how you feel about the WSOP Final Table delay.

Speaking of the WSOP, I watched most of the first broadcast of the 10K Pot Limit holdem last night on ESPN. Wow, what a great final table. As usual, I had already forgotten who was at the final table; although I do know who eventually wins. You have to feel for Phil Laak a bit as that was pretty brutal. Of course, we do not really know how early both of those hands were; but it had to be fairly early.

Last night was NOT a fun night at all. For whatever reason, I was really tired last night right after dinner. Mrs Wonka graciously gave the kids their bath (it was my night) which allowed me to get a quick power nap in. You really have to love those power naps. Anyway, I got the computer a little after 9PM and right from the get go, things were not going well. Aces and Kings cracked (both on river). As a matter of fact, I am so steamed right now that I am going to post every bad beat in this post to help get everything off of my chest.

OK. Just kidding. What would be the point? To tell you the truth, I was not overly tilty as I typically am during these kind of days. Of course, I wasn't happy; but it wasn't too bad. I will post one hand. This is the hand that really sent me packing. It was not a big hand as it was just over 1/2 of a buyin; but it clearly told me that I need to call it quits for the night.

The Villain in this hand is a 59/5/3.2 guy meaning that he sees 59% of the flops and preflop raises 5% and has a 3.2 aggression factor (which is pretty aggressive).

Full Tilt p0ker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $76.55
UTG: $51.15
Hero (MP): $51.60
CO: $33.85
BTN: $137.45
SB: $6.40

Pre Flop: Hero is MP with Qh Ad
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, CO calls $1.75, 1 fold, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($5.75) 3c Jh Qd (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $3.75, CO raises to $7.50, SB folds, Hero raises to $20, CO raises to $32.10 all in, Hero calls $12.10

Turn: ($69.95) Qs

River: ($69.95) Tc

Final Pot: $69.95
Hero shows Qh Ad (three of a kind, Queens)
CO shows 3h Qc (a full house, Queens full of Threes)
CO wins $66.95
(Rake: $3.00)

This was just typical for the night. Q3 is a great hand to call a preflop raise. Overall, I was down 6 buyins last night. I had actually taken it from 6 to 3 at one point; but thanks to hands similar to the above, I gave it all back over about 850 hands.

So, I did quit playing poker and wasn't really tired due to my power nap so I did something even more dumb. I sat down at a BlackJack Table. Typically, I just play for fun and set the limit at $20; but this time I sat down with $50 and told myself it was $100 or bust. Any guess what happened? If you guessed that I doubled up, you would be..... Right!!! Who knew?

So I called it a night. I am still a little steamed over the outcome as $300 is a pretty big loss playing 50NL. As usual, you second guess yourself and say that you should have quit when you made half of it back, etc, etc...

Before I went downstairs to watch TV, I checked on the baby Wonks. The 4 year old had switched sides and was now sleeping with her head at the foot of the bed. She had gotten a blanket and had covered herself with that. You gotta love it. I then went and checked on the soon to be 2 year old baby Wonka and I did something I had not done in a long time. I stayed and just watched her sleep for probably 5 or 10 minutes. As I watched her peaceful slumber, it hit me right smack in the face. THIS is what it is all about. Who cares if I lose $300 or win $300, it is only money and only a game. As I've said before, I play poker for a hobby. The money is just a great way of keeping score. Anyway, watching her sleep just reaffirmed how truly blessed that I am to have 2 beautiful, healthy girls and a wife that actually puts up with all my nonsense. Again, That is what it is all about!!!

Have a nice day!!!

pokerintensity.com

Poker Portals. There are plenty of them out there and it is sometimes hard to differentiate between the good and bad ones. A new site to me was recently brought to my attention. The name of the site is pokerintensity.com. Is this one of the good ones or just another poker portal.

The first thing I generally look is just the overall look of the site. Does it look professionally done or something that somebody threw together in 10 minutes with a bunch of banners and links to poker sites. From my first visit, I can tell you that site is put together nicely and flows very well.

Next, it obviously needs to have content that is useful to the online poker player. That means that they need talk about poker rooms online. They show reviews for about 22 online poker rooms. They specifically limit the number of sites as ones that they can vouch for such as their pokerstars review. These reviews are very detailed and well written and talk about everything you need to know about the site such as Company Info, Deposit Options including fees, betting limits, game selection, support, bonus options and a complete review. While it is nice to do your own homework, sites such as pokerintensity.com gives you a jump start.

I also like that it has some information about other degenerate activities that poker players (such as myself) often indulge in such as information on online casinos and online sportsbooks. They do have a section on blacklisted poker rooms. I found it interesting that they did not include Absolute Poker or Ultimate Bet on that list. Let me also say for a matter of disclosure that I still play on Absolute so I am not casting any judgements. I'm just pointing it out. As a matter of fact, most of the listed sites revolve around sports books. They might need to re-label that one.

So again, if you are looking for poker rooms online, try giving pokerintensity.com a try as you look for somewhere to play.

They also have a nifty little poker calculator which is always a good tool to have to reference.

This has been a paid advertisement.

Don't forget to vote on the WSOP poll on the upper left.

Have a nice day!!

Tight is Right or is it and This is Awkward and vote on WSOP Final Table delay

I believe I mentioned that I was going to head down to our local Harrah's to play in a $55 Tourney. More on that later; but in this tourney, I was quoted as saying "This is awkward"

So because of that, I didn't play any online poker Friday or Sunday for that matter; but I did get another roller coaster session in on Saturday; but first:

Let's talk about the hand from the last post.

To briefly summarize, I was in the small blind with QJs (diamonds) again. We had a cutoff limper, I limped and and the big blind checked.

Flop came 5dTdKs giving me opened ended straight draw and a flush draw. Fireworks ensued on the flop.

Cutoff folded and BB turned over......

a suited T5 (hearts) making this pretty much a coin toss. I forgot to check this morning; but I believe I was actually a 54% favorite.

The Turn card was the 9s giving me a my gin card.
The River was the Qs and I took down a pot.

I must say that the commenters are pretty good; but the winner this time is Matt from Just Another Donkey as he is the one that called it exactly right this time.

I kind of like doing these and hope that we can more comments like this. Thanks for the votes and comments.

I always like polls so I will do one again today. Today's will simply be a question about whether you or for or against the WSOP final table delay. This time, I will actually vote and say that I am against it.

I'm not putting hand is that nothing really interesting happened. I did run my Kings into Aces and other things like that so I will just post a chart of my day and move on.








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OK, I took the day off and went down to Harrah's and signed up for the $55 tourney and then went and met some buddies for lunch to have our annual Fantasy Football Rules Meeting. How cool is that. It is nearly football season. I love the summer; but I'm all about football as far as sports go. Speaking of sports, I was really pulling for the Shark this weekend. Too bad he didn't have 4 rounds in him.

Anyway, onto the tournament and as usual in these things you have a mix of good and bad. I believe we had 60 people or 80; but I can't be sure. 1st place paid out close to $900 so I could probably do the math if I wanted. Nah.

I got a nice double up early on when somebody decided to push 3rd pair into the nuts. Nothing like the well disguised straight with 65 from the button; however, I gave a bunch back a little later with my AK on K high board was outflopped by K6 when the flop was K6J.

I won't bore you with a lot of details; but I won a few races and my big hands held up and I found my self at the final 2 tables. Of course, poker is all about decisions and not results; but in a Blind vs Blind battle I had AK and raised about 3x and a very solid person pushed me all in and he had me covered in chips. The majority of the people at the table I would have insta called; but I knew he had a big hand as he was very solid. I actually folded as at that point, I didn't want to race for all my chips. Tight is right, right? In retrospect, there is no way I should be folding that. I spoke to him at the next break and he said that he had AK. Oh well, live to play on.

I had a chance to really chip up when I got all in with AQ vs Q9 only to see a 9 hit; but right about then somebody busted from the other table and the final table was set with 5 people getting paid. Unfortunately, I was one of the chip losers. I was able to get the needed early double up and then restole from the chip leader which put me in good shape for a while. We made it down to the bubble and we all decided to pay the 6th place person $10 so at least that person would get their money back.

I was sitting in 4th place probably when this hand came up right as we about to go on break. The short stacked pushed all in from EP. I look down to AJs. I took a while to decide; but with a few people to act behind me, I folded. Someone did call with pocket 7s and out raced the short stacks KQ. The pocket 7s guy said he would have folded to my push. He said he would have even folded to my call. I'm not sure I believe that. Anyway, another Tight is Right move and again, it was not the right move.

The good news is that I made to headsup with a 4 - 1 chips lead probably. I was against a lady that had continually sucked out on people. This is not to say that she was a bad player; but certainly not the best. She actually busted pocked Queens twice. Once with Q9s suited and once with QT that made a straight. She took the aggressive line and was raising everything; but before I knew that, I looked down at none other than 72o from the SB. What does a blogger do? I have no problems folding this; but I had such a lead that I was going to stay aggressive and raised. Well, she went all in for just a little bit more and I can be quoted as saying.... "This is awkward" as I tabled my hammer. Not surpisingly, I had 2 live cards; but could not outdraw her Q9.

She was raising every had probably for 10 to 20 hands in a row. One hand, she said "Ahh.. I'm just going to fold this one." Any guess to what I had? That's Right, American Airlines, Pocket Rockets, Weapons of mass destruction, insert your pocket Aces nickname here. Wow, that's a bad beat. We went back and forth for a little while and the final hand was were she again pushed and I called with Ax and she turned over 57s. I flopped an Ace; but she flopped an open ended straight draw. The straight came on the river and I busted out in second place which paid about $550. A nice finish; but of course I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't finish the deal with a big chip lead.

With that 2nd place finish, it does automatically qualify me to their montly Tournament of Champions which pays out 10K to the winner. We'll see what happens.

That should do it for today. Please let me know your thoughts by voting on the WSOP poll at the top left.

Have a nice day!

More Did I win or lose a buyin and DQB again

OK, let start with the last post. I called a big all in with top pair and flush draw..

So what did he have? He had KK with the K of clubs. The turn was a bad card for me as it paired the board taking away my Jack outs; but the river was a beautiful Q and I took down the pot.

So as it turned out, I was a slight underdog here against the overpair; but in the end I was victorious. So out of the 4 votes, 2 of you got it right.. Congrats!!! In fact, it was a little scary as Klopzi nailed it with his reads and comments. If I didn't know better, I would say that he was watching the hand.

I'll have another one of these below so keep reading. In fact, it will be with the same hand, QJs.

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Well for the 2nd day in a row, I ran into somebody that quad Queens and both times I also had a hand. That has to be bad karma working somehow.

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Last night I was able to finish up a couple of buyins; but unfortunately, that only put a dent into my 4.5 buyin loss from the previous night. That is how it usually goes though as I have a few up days and then a big down day. I will say this. I am not chasing losses anymore. I, for the most part, am sticking to playing around 1000 hands a day which is about the number of hands that I have to play to get 200 pts playing at the 50NL level. This typically takes me about 1.5 hours.

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OK, to our next installment of did I win or lose a buyin.

Reads:

CO: 28/6/1.5 over just 20 hands
BB: 28/16/2.4 over 90 hands

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 Pot Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $77.90
UTG: $50.75
CO: $17.70
BTN: $58.45
Hero (SB): $53.70

Pre Flop: Hero is SB with Jd Qd
1 fold, CO calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero calls $0.25, BB checks

After watch a cardrunners video, I am more away of playing from the SB. So having said that, no need to get frisky and I just call to hopefully see a flop.


Flop: ($1.50) 5d Td Ks (3 players)

Now, that is what I am talking about. You gotta love this flop. Hmmm how do play it.

Hero checks, BB bets $0.75, CO raises to $2, Hero calls $2,

So, I check the flop to see what will happen. Upon further review, I think I should have been leading out here. I want to be building this pot to max value.

So, the shortstack raises and again, I do not build the pot. I called to hopefully price in the bigger stack. Upon review with some other poker buddies, they question this again as I probably need to get my chips in while I am most likely ahead.

BB raises to $9.50, CO folds, Hero raises to $32

OK. No more slow playing. I'm happy to go for stacks now. BB took a long time and finally did the following.

, BB raises to $77.40 all in, Hero calls $21.20 all in

Of course I call.

Did I win a buyin or lose a buy in. Again, feel free to vote on the poll in the upper right hand corner of blog.

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I'm taking today off and going to head down to Harrah's to play in a $55 buyin tourney. I'm curious to see if WSOP final tabler, Dennis Phillips, will be there. Not that he needs to be playing in $55 tournies any more; but Harrahs is his "home base" so we will see.


Have a good weekend!!!!

Another Uninteresting Night and DQB and Vote on Hand of the Day

Blah!

Another breakeven night. I'm starting to get back getting down early and having to play catchup mode. Here is a graph from last night. Oops... For some reason, pictures aren't working today. Anyway, I found myself 3 buyins down after about 500 hands.

1 buyin was attributed to this hand.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 2 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $50.00
BTN/SB: $82.35

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with 9s Ad
BTN/SB raises to $1.50, Hero calls $1

Flop: ($3.00) Qh Qc Ac (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $2, Hero raises to $7, BTN/SB calls $5

Turn: ($17.00) Qs (2 players)
Hero bets $10, BTN/SB calls $10

River: ($37.00) 9d (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN/SB bets $37, Hero calls $31.50 all in

Final Pot: $100.00
Hero mucks 9s Ad
BTN/SB shows 7c Qd (four of a kind, Queens)
BTN/SB wins $99.50
(Rake: $0.50)

DQB!!!!! Unfortunately for me, I had a full house and looked him up.


I was able to work my way back to finish in positive territory; but again, just barely as I finished up $20 again. Again, positive is always better than negative; but I think I need to be more careful early on. I did try to play 8 tables at a time last night. For the most part, I was able to handle the action; but after awhile, I would look and I had been dealt out of a table for missing action and sitting out for too long. I don't want to make the table too small because then the HUD information gets too small. I may experiment some more on this.

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I am trying to make more of an effort on table selection. Of there are sites like tablingratings.com; but what I ended up doing was purchasing a program for data mining (for Full tilt). It is called FT Table Opener from Windy Hill Technology. These are the same people that might the very impressive FT Shortcuts. While I have not ever purchased FT Shortcuts, I have read about it and it is pretty cool. Anyway, FT Table Opener opens Tables based on your criteria. Using that coupled with Holdem Managers Table Window, I am able to make more informed decisions on the tables that I play.

I am still mixing in Pot Limit and No Limit. I should have enough hands by the end of the month to get a true indication of how things compare between the two.

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OK, let's look at my Hand of the day. Maybe I'll start regularly doing this and calling it something like winning or losing a buyin.

EDIT!!! I've added a poll to the right at the top for you to register your vote.

Today's win or loss of a buyin goes like this.


In this hand I will show you how I played the hand; but will not show how it ended up. I'd appreciate any thoughts on the hand both preflop and postflop.


This hand I was 3 bet by a decent player (stat wise). He was a 23/19/5.1 over 592 hands. He 3 bet 8% which is high and squeezed 17% which is high. In other words, he likes aggression.

Full Tilt p0ker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $31.25
SB: $52.15
BB: $50.00
UTG: $64.80
Hero (MP): $50.00
CO: $128.20

Pre Flop: Hero is MP with Jc Qc
1 fold, Hero raises to $1.75, CO raises to $6, 3 folds, Hero


1st decision??

My thinking that this was a big stack; but again this was flawed as I was only 100BB deep.

Hero calls $4.25

Flop: ($12.75) Tc Qh 2c (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $8.50, Hero raises to $22, CO raises to $122.20 all in, Hero calls $22 all in

Thoughts on Flop play?



I will post tomorrow (or whenever my next post is) how the hand turned out. Did I win a buy in or did I lose a buyin? Don't forget to vote on the poll at the top right.

Thanks.

Have a nice day!!!

WSOP November Nine.. Let's Here for the Lou

We are finally down the November Nine in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. And guess what? Somebody from my town of St Louis sits in the lead with a little over 26 Million in Chips. His name is Dennis Phillips. A picture can be found here on ESPN.com. Also, Jamyhawk has link to an interview with him.

He won his way to it via a $200 satellite tourney that Harrah's in St Louis throws a few times a year. I've played in a couple of those; but never made it very far.

I have actually played with Dennis Phillips a couple of times in other tournaments. I remember a few thoughts I had about this guy:

1. Talkative, friendly guy.
2. He had this cockiness about him. At the time, I couldn't figure out if he was good, or he just thought he was good. Obviously, I know the answer now. He was open about talking about his poker scores; but mostly only when people asked him about it.
3. He must be a regular as many people came up to him to talk to him. He knew the dealers.

Anyway, I am psyched that he is in the chip lead and wish him all the best.

What I am NOT psyched about is that we have to wait until November to see it. Dr Pauly puts it best in his post. "The end. The bitter end".

Of course, the WSOP starts on TV this week; but that won't really help diminish the disappointment of this thing not finishing what it started.

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Regarding the hand from yesterday. Where I hit a set in a multi way pot. A loose guy check raises me all in. Truthfully, this was exactly what I was looking for. I did think for a little while; but I just couldn't put him on the straight and called. Of course, he did hit his gutterball with Q9s and I didn't improve. If I had won that hand I would have been up 8 buyins. Instead after this hand and others after that, I only finished up a little over 2 buyins which by itself is a good day; but the thoughts of what it could have been always lingers in your mind.

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Not much going on last night. I did play in the MATH last night as he continued his 6 max shootout type tourney which is right up my alley these days. I can't remember the amount of people; but there were only 3 tables and we only started with 5 at our table. I made it to heads up; but I lost a big hand where I hit top pair with QT (sooted I think... hmm maybe not) and scottc25 had flopped a straight and severely crippled me. I actually then got a few double ups and got some more chips; but called an allin with a very marginal holding and didn't suck out.

I did enjoy that tourney. I will probably play again if he keeps the format the same. I even have another token to use that I won via the 1800 FTP points SNG.

My cash game was nothing spectacular other than it was a roller coaster ride. I think I was up only about $20 which makes for a negative day after you subtract the tourney entry. Oh well.

That should do it for now.

Have a nice day!!!!

FreeRoll Weekend, CRAI decision and Cardrunners

Another weekend of big expactations. I had 3 freerolls that you always hope to run deep in.

FTP Iron Main 20K.. Bubbled the cash. Or should I say 2 from the bubble.

FTP Once a Day 2K freeroll. I won't play in this again as there were 1,000 people in this and 1st place was only $232. Not really worth the time. I'd rather have the 15 Iron Man Chips

I had my TITN 20K freeroll. Out early.. AQ < QTs all in preflop

So, 3 freerolls and no money. Dang!!! Actually, it kind of cost me money as FTP will deduct rake from their tournies. Oh well, It is worth the risk in the iron man as implied pot odds are nice.

--------------

I made a little dent in my losses this weekend. Especially Sunday as I was up nearly 5 buyins in only 550 hands. This hand either catapults to a record day at 50NL or puts a pretty big dent in the days winnings.

First off, the villain in this hand is a pretty(44/16/2.2).


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN): $108.25
SB: $50.25
BB: $95.80
UTG: $55.00
MP: $108.90
CO: $34.50

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with 8h 8d
1 fold, MP raises to $1, CO calls $1, Hero raises to $4.75, 1 fold, BB calls $4.25, MP calls $3.75, CO calls $3.75

Flop: ($19.25) 8c 4d Jh (4 players)
BB checks, MP checks, CO checks, Hero bets $11, BB folds, MP calls $11, CO folds

Turn: ($41.25) Tc (2 players)
MP checks, Hero bets $28, MP raises to $93.15 all in, Hero ???

This either catapults me into a record day in 50NL land or puts a dent in my stack. Thoughts?
I can tell you this. I thought a long time before I made my decision.

------------

I have accumulated about 85K in Full Tilt Points. Not really knowing what to do with them, I decided to purchase a CardRunners membership for 20K points with updates every month for 4500 pts. This is a tremendous idea that CR is doing and I appreciate. We all know, that I have been a loyal StoxPoker person and that hasn't changed. It is just a good idea to get different perspectives from different people. I watched my first video tonight from Raptor (who btw, just got bad beated in the WSOP Main event) and was amazed at his play and poker talk. So, anybody with excess points, I highly recommend it.

Speaking of FTP points, I have played a couple of SNGs using 1800 pts for a Tier One token. I am 2 for 2 so it seems like a pretty good deal.

Have a nice day!!!

Sick Hand

I played a couple hours of break even poker last night. I only played 4 tables at a time plus the Mook. I went out fairly early in Mook. Nothing exciting.

In the cash games, I did crack aces with AK when I hit a straight on the turn. The very next hand on the very same table, I get dealt aces and they get cracked by QTs (all in preflop). Aces were not goot!!! Well, at least at that time at that table.

I did witness a very sick hand. I was not in the hand as J2o is not in my opening range these days. Take a look.


Grabbed by Holdem Manager
NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer Game#7157035039

SB ($90.05)
BB ($41.85)
Hero ($50)
UTG+1 ($46.25)
CO ($21.80)
BTN ($60.75)

Dealt to Hero J:diamond:2:spade:

fold, fold, CO raises to $1.55, call, fold, call,

FLOP ($4.90) 3:spade:T:spade:T:club:

check, CO bets $1.55, BTN calls $1.55, BB calls $1.55,

TURN ($9.55) 3:spade:T:spade:T:club:9:diamond:

check, CO bets $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, BB raises to $10, CO raises to $18.70, BTN calls $15.20, BB raises to $38.75, BTN calls $20.05,

RIVER ($105) 3:spade:T:spade:T:club:9:diamond:Q:diamond:

BB shows T:diamond:Q:spade:
(Flop 23.6%, Turn 9.5%)

CO shows 3:club:3:diamond:
(Flop 68.3%, Turn 2.4%)

BTN shows 9:club:9:heart:
(Flop 8.1%, Turn 88.1%)

BB wins $ 105

Can you say, suck, resuck, reresuck (by another player). Just sick!!!

That's about it for today!!

Have a nice Day!!!

New Banner and Text Ads

A big Thank you goes out to none other than our Wednesday Night Poker Tourney Host, Mookie. He put together a Banner for the top of my blog and he did a great job. I asked him for a banner using the old school Will Wonka and that is what he did. I don't how he does it; but he puts out banner after banner that always look great!! Again. Thanks!!! Let me know what you think of it.

Speaking of Mookie, he posted some of the things going on with Google and their search engines. There have been others that have also weighed in such as Scurvy and Duggle about this topic and I'm sure that there are more that I can't remember at this time.

It just seems a little crazy that they are doing this; but who am I to say. I always think that you should leave it up to the reader to decide what is relevant and not relevant to the search that they are doing. I won't go into much detail here because I am just not that informed on the subject.

One thing I do know is that one of my advertisers requested a single page text ad. In other words, they only wanted the text ad on the main page of my blog. Not when you go to a post specific page or when you are looking at comments. I was stumped on how to do this within blogger; but finally found a way. In case anybody else is looking for this, I will post what I had to do. I found most of what I needed from this link. It basically gave me some code to put into my Blogger template.

I went to the layout of my blog and then clicked on the Edit HTML tab. Right above where the code starts is a box that says "expand Widget Templates". Check this box. Scroll down to the section that includes the code for your Page Element for the section of your blog that has the text links.

There are two lines that I needed to add. See the two lines below that are highlighted red. (FYI.. I had to take the brackets to make the actual code show up on the blog)


b:widget id='HTML2' locked='false' title='WillWonka Partners' type='HTML'
b:includable id='main'
!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
b:if cond='data:title != ""'
h2 class='title'data:title h2
/b:if
span style="color:#ff0000;">b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:blog.homepageUrl'/span
div class='widget-content'
data:content div
b:include name='quickedit'
span style="color:#ff0000;" /b:if/span
/b:includable
/b:widget
/b:section

That's all there is to it. This will show the ads on the main page but not any of the "site-wide" pages. If this helps the sites, then great. I still think it is pretty silly that Google is doing this. Of course, if you use Yahoo or some other search engines, everything is fine. It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

No poker last night so not much to post about. Holdem Manager has put out their second Plugging Leaks article so I will studying that over the next few days. Good stuff!!

Have a nice day!!!

Giving it All Back

It there really a worse feeling that having a successful month or a successful run only to give it all back. You look at your stats and there isn't really anything different with the number from when you had your good month as compared to your current month. I know, I know. It's called Variance. No one likes it and probably more so, even more people don't like reading about it so I will keep this fairly brief today.

Like I said, I had a pretty good month last month. It might be one thing to give it all back the next month; but what about the next week? That's right sports fans, I have given back 75% of my gains from last month in 1 week. That takes talent. That takes hands like this:

NL Holdem $0.50(BB) Replayer Game#1021914847

GRELLBOX ($90.30)
DJ_JIM ($96.02)
BRANDEDFEW ($55.90)
YOADRIANYO ($45)
PROL0UWAY ($97.25)
NEKKOSPRODUC ($51.07)

GRELLBOX posts (SB) $0.25
DJ_JIM posts (BB) $0.50

Dealt to YOADRIANYO 4s 4d
fold,
YOADRIANYO raises to $1.75
fold, fold,
GRELLBOX raises to $5.75
fold, call,

FLOP ($12) 5s 9c 4c
GRELLBOX bets $7
YOADRIANYO raises to $20
GRELLBOX raises to $72
YOADRIANYO calls $19.25

TURN ($90.50) 5s 9c 4c 3h

RIVER ($90.50) 5s 9c 4c 3h 2c

GRELLBOX shows As 9s
(Flop 7.1%, Turn 9.1%)

YOADRIANYO shows 4s 4d
(Flop 92.9%, Turn 90.9%)

GRELLBOX wins $87

Nothing like runner, runner gutshot. Wahoo!!!! That was a day where I found myself down about 4 buyins and built things back up to a little under 1 buy in. This hand would have completed the comeback. It just wasn't meant to be. It was pretty funny because the winner, GRELLBOX, said that I should be cussing him out. I said "no worries". He then says "well, at least cuss out the poker site". Truthfully, you get numb to it after a while and when you are playing 6 tables, you really don't have time to dwell on hands that have already been dealt. You have to move on because there is probably another table where you need to make a decision on and it can't be influenced by previous hands.

OK, I'm human. Of course, I remember these hands; especially when they happen in rapid succession.

Take last night. These two hands happened back to back on the same table.

Full Tilt p0ker Game #7130316566: Table Drew (deep 6) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:52:49 ET - 2008/07/07
Seat 1: egozz79 ($23)
Seat 2: liquidmetal702 ($19.65)
Seat 3: willwonka ($72.85)
Seat 4: Mikeopoly ($50)
Seat 5: ga12step ($52.95)
Seat 6: Dakon ($99.50)
willwonka posts the small blind of $0.25
Mikeopoly posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Qs Ad]
ga12step folds
Dakon folds
egozz79 calls $0.50
liquidmetal702 folds
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka raises to $2
Mikeopoly adds $0.50
Mikeopoly folds
egozz79 calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [7c Ac 9s]
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka bets $3.30
egozz79 calls $3.30
*** TURN *** [7c Ac 9s] [6s]
willwonka bets $8
egozz79 calls $8
*** RIVER *** [7c Ac 9s 6s] [4s]
willwonka bets $10
egozz79 calls $9.70, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $0.30 returned to willwonka
*** SHOW DOWN ***
willwonka shows [Qs Ad] a pair of Aces
egozz79 shows [3s As] a flush, Ace high
egozz79 wins the pot ($44.20) with a flush, Ace high
willwonka adds $0.15
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $46.50 Rake $2.30
Board: [7c Ac 9s 6s 4s]
Seat 1: egozz79 showed [3s As] and won ($44.20) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 2: liquidmetal702 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: willwonka (small blind) showed [Qs Ad] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: Mikeopoly (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: ga12step didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Dakon didn't bet (folded)


Full Tilt p0ker Game #7130333471: Table Drew (deep 6) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:54:04 ET - 2008/07/07
Seat 1: egozz79 ($44.20)
Seat 2: liquidmetal702 ($19.65)
Seat 3: willwonka ($50)
Seat 4: Mikeopoly ($50)
Seat 5: ga12step ($52.95)
Seat 6: Dakon ($99.50)
Mikeopoly posts the small blind of $0.25
ga12step posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Ac As]
Dakon folds
egozz79 calls $0.50
liquidmetal702 has 15 seconds left to act
liquidmetal702 calls $0.50
willwonka raises to $2.75
Mikeopoly adds $0.25
Mikeopoly folds
ga12step folds
egozz79 has 15 seconds left to act
egozz79 folds
liquidmetal702 calls $2.25
*** FLOP *** [9d 5s 6s]
liquidmetal702 has 15 seconds left to act
liquidmetal702 checks
willwonka bets $6.75
liquidmetal702 has 15 seconds left to act
liquidmetal702 raises to $13.50
willwonka raises to $20.25
liquidmetal702 calls $3.40, and is all in
willwonka shows [Ac As]
liquidmetal702 shows [7c 8c]
Uncalled bet of $3.35 returned to willwonka
*** TURN *** [9d 5s 6s] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [9d 5s 6s 2h] [Tc]
willwonka shows a pair of Aces
liquidmetal702 shows a straight, Ten high
liquidmetal702 wins the pot ($38.55) with a straight, Ten high
willwonka adds $19.65
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $40.55 Rake $2
Board: [9d 5s 6s 2h Tc]
Seat 1: egozz79 folded before the Flop
Seat 2: liquidmetal702 showed [7c 8c] and won ($38.55) with a straight, Ten high
Seat 3: willwonka (button) showed [Ac As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: Mikeopoly (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: ga12step (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Dakon didn't bet (folded)

Luckily there were against short stacks; but yep, that is how it has been going.

I will say that last night was the first winning night I have had in a while as I won a little over 2 buyins in about 1 1/2 hours which is about how long I am playing these days. Unfortunately, it doesn't really put a dent into my deficit for the month; but there is still a while to go in the month. All that I can say is thank Heavens for rakeback. That does ease the pain a bit.

That should do it for today.

Have a nice day!!!!

Bring Back June

Wow.. July has started off with a blast. I'm down a little over 7 buyins. I don't know what it is about the beginning of the month; but YIKES!!!! I do have to admit that I wasn't playing my best poker as I was a little distracted with some things while I was playing. With the beginning of the month, many of the poker sites are putting out my promotion type things. Alan has already talked about some of it including Poker Stars. Full Tilt has its normal Iron Man stuff going on along with the mid year bonus thing that was just completed. Finally, Absolute Poker has completely redone their loyalty program. For anybody left still playing there, it's not too bad and it kind of resembles Poker Stars. This is what I was reading while I was playing 6 tables and trying to read the Internet while playing 6 tables usually doesn't end well with me.

Take a look at the hand below. I mean what was I thinking? Of course I have to call the raise (I think). One could say I played this wrong on every street except preflop.


Absolute Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $40.55
SB: $80.07
Hero (BB): $48.50
UTG: $20.78
MP: $102.95
CO: $89.80

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with 6h Kd
2 folds, CO calls $0.50, 1 fold, SB calls $0.25, Hero checks

Flop: ($1.50) 5d 4d Kc (3 players)
SB bets $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, CO calls $0.50

Turn: ($3.00) 3d (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.50, CO calls $1.50, SB folds

River: ($6.00) Ad (2 players)
Hero bets $4, CO raises to $18, Hero raises to $46 all in, CO calls $28

Final Pot: $98.00
Hero shows 6h Kd (Flush, ace high)
CO shows 2d 2c (Straight flush, five)
CO wins $94.50
(Rake: $3.50)

For whatever reason during the time that I had to think about it, I couldn't put him on a 2 of diamonds; but after looking back, it is not too far off. One really bad thing about AP is that they do NOT give you extra time to think (at least as far as I know). It seems like you banked time during the old days. I can't tell you how many times I have timed out because of this. Most of the time it is just that I don't notice it in time.

The bad thing about this is that he took like 10 or 15 seconds to think about it. I guess I could have 76 of diamonds. He said he was thinking about the Bad Beat Jackpot. Of course, even I had the 76 of diamonds, there would have been no BBJ because as far as I know, you have to use both of your hole cards.

----------------

Today starts the first day of the WSOP Main Event. While I am looking forward to following it a bit, there is still a bitter taste in my mouth with the whole delay thing. Oh well, what can you do.

Have a good 4th of July weekend!!!!

June is Over and Blackjack and Euro Cup

For what started out as a ho hum month, things picked up in the second half of the month. Let's start off by getting it over with and looking at the chart:

So as you can see, I was about break even half way through after originally getting stuck a little bit. I wonder what changed in the last half? Let's take a look at the stats:

June 1st thru June 15th:

12,135 Hands

+$141.93

2.56 bb/100 hands

VPIP/PFR/AF (Voluntarily put $ into pot/Preflop raise/Aggression Factor): 21.3/15/2.06

W$SD (Won $ at showdown): 54.3%

June 16th thru June 30th:

9,562 hands

+$810.88

16.96 bb/100

VPIP/PFR/AF 20.6/14.3/2.22

W$SD: 52.8%

You tell me. Those stats look pretty similar. I guess it was just a matter of me winning the big hands in the last part of the month. For whatever reason, it looks like I have become less aggressive and that can't be good... or can it. Maybe at these levels, it is OK to play your cards and wait for the hands and play after the flop. The problem with that is it obviously doesn't prepare me for later levels not to mention that my post flop aggression is not real high.

I'm certainly sad to see June go as it was a rare good month for me. For example, last night on my very first hand I get it all in with pocket Jacks against pocket tens (on a King high flop, by the way). I guessing for the most part at 50NL, people aren't familiar with the OBFV (Overbet for Value) so when he pushed on the flop after I had 3 bet preflop, I was pretty sure I was ahead. Luckily (and I do mean luckily) I was.

-----------------------

I love to play Blackjack; but it has always been one of my Achilles heels as I really chase losses in blackjack. I was glad that when I signed up with Absolute Poker via ePassporte, that they didn't allow you to play blackjack. Originally, I was able to play the fun money tables which was OK by me as I still was able to get a little Blackjack fix; but eventually, they took those away as well. Dang!!

Last week, I noticed that AP added multi player BJ. Hmmm, let me try to go in again and see if fun money is working on this. I click on it and voila, it opened up and asked how much to sit down with. Wait a minute, I must have misclicked on real money and it was letting me play. This can't be good. I can only hope that I stay away or at least define some very strict guidelines. As for now, I am only playing after a winning poker session and I am also trying to limit myself to just $20. So far, I am up about $30; but we all know how that works in the BJ world.

-------------------

So I watched most of the second half of the Euro Cup Final between Spain and Germany. Wow, did Spain really kick some butt even if the score was only 1 nil. I've said many times and I will say it again. I don't think that I could regularly watch this. I just cannot stand on the wimpiness in the game. I used to think that hockey players took dives; but soccer or futbal players take the cake on this one and it is NOT even close. I hate to be the stereotypical American; but it is what it is. I will continue to watch the big matches because that is how I roll. I am a sports junkie.. what can I say?

Have a nice day!!!