I got it, I got it good. All I can think about for the past week is the World Series Of Poker and winning a ticket to the Main Event.
There are so many options to, playing free rolls on Full Tilt, moving up steps, entry tournaments with small buy ins. Plus the promotion running on PokerVT.com
Today was a day of small gains and huge blunders however. I played in a 35,000 entrants $1 buy in tournament on Full Tilt which paid out 3 $12,000 prize packages to the WSOP Main Event (ME). I ended up getting knocked out around 998. Not fun to make through such a huge field and then go down with nothing but to have the "dream" continue waiting for the next tournament next week.
I also played in a tournament for members of PokerVT shortly afterwards on Pokerstars, it didn't last more than 5 hands and I was the first person knocked out. The winner of this and next month with points totals gets a seat into a Sit and Go (SNG) tournament on Las Vegas versus 5 other members and 3 professionals with the top 2 from that getting seats into the WSOP ME as well. Bummer... good thing the points are based on cash pay outs and bounties, so if I win one of them and get a few bounties I still have a fighting chance for the month.
I should have just called it a day right there, but the SNG weekly members PokerVT tournament started shortly after that. With the winner of that getting a seat to the above named SNG in Las Vegas as well I just couldn't help loading up a few games. It didn't fair well either, I was in dream land and not playing smart, I took 7th, 7th, 6th in the 3 games I played. Which means If I event want a chance at the seat for this month I basically have to win 4 of the next/last 5 SNG's I play for the month. If not then there is still a chance for next month.
Still a chance for the free rolls I have been playing, I have a few round 2 tickets and might get there that way. All said I figure I have at least 12 different chances to win the seat into the WSOP ME, but today kinda eliminated 3 of them.
On other fronts there is a $100,000 tournament package free roll being offered on Full Tilt to the Onyx Cup and I made it to the final game being played on May 1st... which again causes me to "dream the dream" about what could be, only if, etc.
As far as my 3-5 year plan of making it to the WSOP, it is now 2.4 years since I set that goal for myself and feel okay about how I am doing. I am learning more and more every day/week/month and am learning from most of my mistakes. Now if I can just settle down and focus when I am playing the qualifying games to these huge opportunity tournaments I might, just maybe, could possibly get there this year, earlier than I had hoped for originally.
If you want to see what I am talking about for the PokerVT promotions for the WSOP and want to play in the events check this link out;
http://pokervt.com/2011/news/promotions/poker-vt-2011-wsop-promotion/
and give it a think about becoming a member if you aren't one already.
Cheers and best of luck and the tables and in life!!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
I finally won the monthly sng challenge!
Yes the blog title is true! I did it, I finally did it... Of course it only took like 12 attempts give or take 4 months, meh. A few runner up spots a couple of times, but I finally did it.
Leaderboard (final)
Score Games
falenangel 690 8 ($145)
Bestill7 660 8 ($100)
Punky 650 8 ($57.50)
kwstroud 650 8 ($57.50)
PKJimmmay 640 8 ($20)
dcmaster42 640 8 ($20)
jamesdubec 630 8+1
kinn88 620 8
213v 620 8
oucardkid22 580 8
roxiewells 560 8
sticky 550 8
havemercy 550 8
equity 550 8
Robo2008 530 8
Intuition 520 8
ranchbrat 520 8+1
MxKlptz 510 8
MikeLeeH 510 8
(Of course there were more players entered, but I stopped the list for my blog post at 19 and an old PVT friend Mike)
I imagine this could mean one of many things, either I am actually starting to improve my game a little bit and can start to consider playing a bit higher stakes or I got lucky that everybody else played so poorly.
I do get to have a hand history video review done by Derek, one of the PokerVT pros and get a chance to see if he thinks my play has improved since the last review he did of my play. I also decided to write down all of the different videos that I have "appeared" in on PokerVT and re-watch them a few extra times to see if I can recognize the bad plays I have made in the past more easily now, by pausing the videos every time I get dealt a hand and thinking about, what I would do in each spot if... based on the possible action in front of me.
Either way my confidence is up and I have been breaking even and slightly winning in most sessions of games I have been playing recently and feel I am making a few "smarter" play based on situations. Of course I have also caught myself doing something like deciding if a certain thing happens or plays out in a given hand that I should fold, end up calling, get knocked out, usually in bubble spots, then tell myself "Hay self, I thought we decided we were gonna fold, we new it was a bad call, but then your finger clicked the call button"... What's Up With That!!!! But at least I know it, knew it and should play smarter in the future in turn giving me a better in the money percentage and more money, more money, more money.
I have also put a lot of thought into how much time I have been playing lately, basically not enough. I am simply playing enough to qualify for monthly bonuses on given sites and think that since I want to improve, I want to play higher limits, I want more return out of the game of poker, then I have to give more to get it.
I am also putting serious thought into getting a coach as of late, that being the last few months, however when I finally get around to it, I keep reminding myself that I have yet to even get SNG Wizard and use all of it's benefits first... I am sure that is what any good online poker coach will say to me anyway. So in turn I guess I will need to wait a few more months for the coaching, at least after I feel more comfortable with doing everything I can to improve first before moving on to that next step.
So in a nutshell, I guess I am saying I feel better about my game and decisions, I believe I am playing on a higher level than I ever have before, so goals for the next 6 months include:
1. Increasing my volume of play, back to what it was before 300 games/month in March up to 600 games/month by May and then 900 games/month by July.
2. Purchase and start using SNG Wizard by the end of February, become familiar with it and be able to competently use it by May, and fluent in it by July. Reviewing at least 10% of all of my games played.
3. By July acquire the services of a poker coach to further improve my game.
As long as I can focus on these goals I feel I am providing myself the opportunity to improve my game and make the transition into higher buy ins, as I have been over nitting it up with my bank roll management for way, way, too long.
Leaderboard (final)
Score Games
falenangel 690 8 ($145)
Bestill7 660 8 ($100)
Punky 650 8 ($57.50)
kwstroud 650 8 ($57.50)
PKJimmmay 640 8 ($20)
dcmaster42 640 8 ($20)
jamesdubec 630 8+1
kinn88 620 8
213v 620 8
oucardkid22 580 8
roxiewells 560 8
sticky 550 8
havemercy 550 8
equity 550 8
Robo2008 530 8
Intuition 520 8
ranchbrat 520 8+1
MxKlptz 510 8
MikeLeeH 510 8
(Of course there were more players entered, but I stopped the list for my blog post at 19 and an old PVT friend Mike)
I imagine this could mean one of many things, either I am actually starting to improve my game a little bit and can start to consider playing a bit higher stakes or I got lucky that everybody else played so poorly.
I do get to have a hand history video review done by Derek, one of the PokerVT pros and get a chance to see if he thinks my play has improved since the last review he did of my play. I also decided to write down all of the different videos that I have "appeared" in on PokerVT and re-watch them a few extra times to see if I can recognize the bad plays I have made in the past more easily now, by pausing the videos every time I get dealt a hand and thinking about, what I would do in each spot if... based on the possible action in front of me.
Either way my confidence is up and I have been breaking even and slightly winning in most sessions of games I have been playing recently and feel I am making a few "smarter" play based on situations. Of course I have also caught myself doing something like deciding if a certain thing happens or plays out in a given hand that I should fold, end up calling, get knocked out, usually in bubble spots, then tell myself "Hay self, I thought we decided we were gonna fold, we new it was a bad call, but then your finger clicked the call button"... What's Up With That!!!! But at least I know it, knew it and should play smarter in the future in turn giving me a better in the money percentage and more money, more money, more money.
I have also put a lot of thought into how much time I have been playing lately, basically not enough. I am simply playing enough to qualify for monthly bonuses on given sites and think that since I want to improve, I want to play higher limits, I want more return out of the game of poker, then I have to give more to get it.
I am also putting serious thought into getting a coach as of late, that being the last few months, however when I finally get around to it, I keep reminding myself that I have yet to even get SNG Wizard and use all of it's benefits first... I am sure that is what any good online poker coach will say to me anyway. So in turn I guess I will need to wait a few more months for the coaching, at least after I feel more comfortable with doing everything I can to improve first before moving on to that next step.
So in a nutshell, I guess I am saying I feel better about my game and decisions, I believe I am playing on a higher level than I ever have before, so goals for the next 6 months include:
1. Increasing my volume of play, back to what it was before 300 games/month in March up to 600 games/month by May and then 900 games/month by July.
2. Purchase and start using SNG Wizard by the end of February, become familiar with it and be able to competently use it by May, and fluent in it by July. Reviewing at least 10% of all of my games played.
3. By July acquire the services of a poker coach to further improve my game.
As long as I can focus on these goals I feel I am providing myself the opportunity to improve my game and make the transition into higher buy ins, as I have been over nitting it up with my bank roll management for way, way, too long.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Pokerstars Blogger games are on again!!!
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: XXXXXX 212176
It's that time of the year again for the WBCOOP!!!
Can't pass up the chance to play in some events for free that have way less than 10K entrants per the usual Pokerstars free rolls, that is for suuuuure!!
Okay so I am going to give this event a try, I have been playing alright as of late and have been getting better at the mixed games. If you have a blog and play poker and have an account with PokerStars I highly suggest and recommend signing up for this event. You can also create an account on Stars anytime and if you have a blog sign up for this event.
The field ratio should be small and the payouts huge for ZERO investment.I have been moving away from my addiction to free rolls except when the prize is way worth it.
Cheers and Best of Luck at the tables, I almost missed it, hope I can get in for tomorrow's event!
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Christmas Already? I mean come on.... !
So it's been a little while, short quick update on the past few months.
First my baseball team made some "run good" at the end of the season and actually started winning games. I hit a bunch of triples, which would of been home runs for most of the guys/girls on my team but I was tired as I hit 3rd. Time to hit the bike and get in better shape for next year. We made the finals of the playoffs and lost a close back and forth game in extra innings when our right fielder dropped a routine pop up and both the guys at 3rd and 2nd came around to score. Ugh there is always next year, but I was happy to even make it into the playoffs let alone the final championship game.
Work is good, I haven't gotten into too much trouble and the ladies in the office are a great bunch of women.... Who doesn't enjoy being the only guy on a 15 person team... It helps me get my ass out of bed and into work each day.
Halloween is over and no sooner that the decorations came down do I have x-mas trees and lights and presents out on the lawn being lite up each evening. I asked the Dutch es about it and said "Is it Christmas already? I mean come on...!!!", she replied "At least I waited until after Rememberance Day".... Well I can give her that much and when the electric bill comes in and I hand it to her to pay I will remind her of her enthusiasm to put the lights up so early in the season.
The kids had fun trick or treating and went out as a storm trooper and Annican (sp) Skywalker with full body outfits, masks and weaponry to boot. I got to stay home and answer the door and hand out candy for the evening which was a blast and gave me exercise in between eating candy after each time the bell rang. I have raided my kids loot bags so much that there is no chocolate bars left and they have hidden it away from Daddy in their respective bedrooms.... LOL. It's okay though I made it up to them by buying "on sale" Halloween bags of chocolate each from the store a week later.
For my birthday, November 11th (also Rememberance Day in Canada) the ladies at the office took me out for lunch, my kids made me 15 birthday cards at school, my 15 yr old told me "happy birthday" with some persuasion and my parents bought me dinner and my favorite ice cream along with a crisp $50 bill. They don't "do" cards anymore as they are a waste of money as my mom says.
My dog had puppies, Chihuahua and Shih Tzu mixture and we are keeping one, maybe two if my wife will agree. I promised her I wouldn't ask for sex for the next 3 months if she let me keep them and even have forgone birthday sex to prove my determination. She is sick right now anyway and I don't want to catch what she's got, so it helps give me reason to not have to get to close.... :)
Poker is poker, same old same old, study, practice, repeat. I have been watching all the videos I can on both training sites and participating in the forums, looking at HH's and trying a stab here and there at higher buy in games with mixed results. Some days I just run great and others I run so bad that I almost expect my KK to be rivered by A3o on the bubble of the tournament. But it is all good, I don't usually tilt and when I feel frustrated I simply turn off the games for a bit or for the night.
I gave in and got the 1K Mansion bonus as my bank roll had dipped below 1K and needed the $ to feel okay about playing the levels I was for the buy in to be the right % of my roll. I am going to move up on Full Tilt playing slightly higher and starting December I "may" put more focus on playing at Pokerstars if things continue the way they are at Mansion. I mean I don't get rake back at Mansion and I am basically breaking even and running bad on that site so why not cash out 2K and put the same or more volume in at a site that has better rewards... right?
The World Series of Poker Main Event 2010 Final Table has now come and gone. Congratulations to fellow Canadian Johnathan Duhamel for taking the almost $9 million in prize money and probably double that in possible sponsorship deals over the coming years. I was happy to see the way it panned out and was even happier when Cheong "done blowed up real good" to give him the 6-1 chip lead going into heads up play against Jon Racener.
It makes me pumped even more about building my role and getting to the point of heading down to Vegas to play in the events in the future.
I played a hand at a home game the other night and woke up with AA in the BB with 3 players left, paying the top 3 and everybody had equal chips, but I was slightly covered by both people in the match. the B limps, SB calls I raise the AA, B shoves all in SB folds and snap call.
It turns out he was limp trapping me with Q10o and when the flop came out QQQ it demonstrated what a superb trap it was. I got knocked out in 3rd and made double my buy in back and went outside for a smoke as he commented that he was very lucky. I told him it was a great hand, and 3 handed a very good play to limp shove all in... he smiled and thanked me for my insight and hopefully it will ensure he makes this play many times over in the future. Hopefully.....
Cheers and good luck at the tables all.
First my baseball team made some "run good" at the end of the season and actually started winning games. I hit a bunch of triples, which would of been home runs for most of the guys/girls on my team but I was tired as I hit 3rd. Time to hit the bike and get in better shape for next year. We made the finals of the playoffs and lost a close back and forth game in extra innings when our right fielder dropped a routine pop up and both the guys at 3rd and 2nd came around to score. Ugh there is always next year, but I was happy to even make it into the playoffs let alone the final championship game.
Work is good, I haven't gotten into too much trouble and the ladies in the office are a great bunch of women.... Who doesn't enjoy being the only guy on a 15 person team... It helps me get my ass out of bed and into work each day.
Halloween is over and no sooner that the decorations came down do I have x-mas trees and lights and presents out on the lawn being lite up each evening. I asked the Dutch es about it and said "Is it Christmas already? I mean come on...!!!", she replied "At least I waited until after Rememberance Day".... Well I can give her that much and when the electric bill comes in and I hand it to her to pay I will remind her of her enthusiasm to put the lights up so early in the season.
The kids had fun trick or treating and went out as a storm trooper and Annican (sp) Skywalker with full body outfits, masks and weaponry to boot. I got to stay home and answer the door and hand out candy for the evening which was a blast and gave me exercise in between eating candy after each time the bell rang. I have raided my kids loot bags so much that there is no chocolate bars left and they have hidden it away from Daddy in their respective bedrooms.... LOL. It's okay though I made it up to them by buying "on sale" Halloween bags of chocolate each from the store a week later.
For my birthday, November 11th (also Rememberance Day in Canada) the ladies at the office took me out for lunch, my kids made me 15 birthday cards at school, my 15 yr old told me "happy birthday" with some persuasion and my parents bought me dinner and my favorite ice cream along with a crisp $50 bill. They don't "do" cards anymore as they are a waste of money as my mom says.
My dog had puppies, Chihuahua and Shih Tzu mixture and we are keeping one, maybe two if my wife will agree. I promised her I wouldn't ask for sex for the next 3 months if she let me keep them and even have forgone birthday sex to prove my determination. She is sick right now anyway and I don't want to catch what she's got, so it helps give me reason to not have to get to close.... :)
Poker is poker, same old same old, study, practice, repeat. I have been watching all the videos I can on both training sites and participating in the forums, looking at HH's and trying a stab here and there at higher buy in games with mixed results. Some days I just run great and others I run so bad that I almost expect my KK to be rivered by A3o on the bubble of the tournament. But it is all good, I don't usually tilt and when I feel frustrated I simply turn off the games for a bit or for the night.
I gave in and got the 1K Mansion bonus as my bank roll had dipped below 1K and needed the $ to feel okay about playing the levels I was for the buy in to be the right % of my roll. I am going to move up on Full Tilt playing slightly higher and starting December I "may" put more focus on playing at Pokerstars if things continue the way they are at Mansion. I mean I don't get rake back at Mansion and I am basically breaking even and running bad on that site so why not cash out 2K and put the same or more volume in at a site that has better rewards... right?
The World Series of Poker Main Event 2010 Final Table has now come and gone. Congratulations to fellow Canadian Johnathan Duhamel for taking the almost $9 million in prize money and probably double that in possible sponsorship deals over the coming years. I was happy to see the way it panned out and was even happier when Cheong "done blowed up real good" to give him the 6-1 chip lead going into heads up play against Jon Racener.
It makes me pumped even more about building my role and getting to the point of heading down to Vegas to play in the events in the future.
I played a hand at a home game the other night and woke up with AA in the BB with 3 players left, paying the top 3 and everybody had equal chips, but I was slightly covered by both people in the match. the B limps, SB calls I raise the AA, B shoves all in SB folds and snap call.
It turns out he was limp trapping me with Q10o and when the flop came out QQQ it demonstrated what a superb trap it was. I got knocked out in 3rd and made double my buy in back and went outside for a smoke as he commented that he was very lucky. I told him it was a great hand, and 3 handed a very good play to limp shove all in... he smiled and thanked me for my insight and hopefully it will ensure he makes this play many times over in the future. Hopefully.....
Cheers and good luck at the tables all.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
I want to chop, 8-ways... Mr. Choppy
I had a Choppy short stack at a tournament I played at Caesar's in Vegas this past week... he wanted to chop it 8 ways so everybody got like $220 or so... Ummmm not me thanks!
So the table felt the same and waited it out until the final 4 then it was suggested and agreed to offer the buy in back to 4th as it payed top 3 only... Ummm let's be nice and make it $75 instead of buy in back so they make a $5 profit for the 5 hours play I suggest.
Only one guy at table was even good enough to be considered good... and on break when there was 8 left he and I discussed the chances/odds/skill levels of others at table and decided that if we got heads up we would do an even chop if our chip counts got to be the same"ish".
Unfortunately for him I ended up knocking him out in 3rd when he raised SB and I shoved BB, I won AKs>J10s... Yay ME!
Mr. Choppy was the one who got 4th-buy in back plus $5
Then it was me and the only girl/woman at the final table... HU with me...
She wanted an even chop, Ummm I had her 3-1 in chips so I said I would give her an extra $40 on top of what 2nd paid....She declined/well she said she needed to think about it for a few moments (If we got even in chips I MIGHT chop it evenly-Maybe- I thought to myself).
While she was in thought about my deal I had offered in counter to her even chop... She starts going all in every hand, I fold 23, 49, 72,29 and then call her PF ALL IN w/K8s on the 5th hand of HU, she has 22 both red flop blanks XXXdd, turn 8d, Yay I'm in the lead, river Xd she makes flush and now is slight chip leader.
My wife walks in to the poker room, wants to go for dinner as I have been playing for 5 hours, I look at the Lady and say Okay I'll chop it with you, she smiles and agrees... we chop $520 each.
After wards the Lady says to me, how come you are so calm the whole time, never getting excited or upset, always smiling and happy.... You don't get over excited?
I laugh and tell her that it was simply another game and that I was having fun the whole time... of course knocking out players and making the FT with chip lead doesn't hurt either.
We shook hands, smiled and parted ways after I gave her the side money when the cage paid me 1st and her 2nd and it was a sincerely enjoyable experience.
Nice first trip to Vegas, and won't be my last.... Has rejuvenated my thirst to play in live Casino's and will be making the trip to Niagara, Brantford and Windsor a lot more in the near future....
Cheers!
So the table felt the same and waited it out until the final 4 then it was suggested and agreed to offer the buy in back to 4th as it payed top 3 only... Ummm let's be nice and make it $75 instead of buy in back so they make a $5 profit for the 5 hours play I suggest.
Only one guy at table was even good enough to be considered good... and on break when there was 8 left he and I discussed the chances/odds/skill levels of others at table and decided that if we got heads up we would do an even chop if our chip counts got to be the same"ish".
Unfortunately for him I ended up knocking him out in 3rd when he raised SB and I shoved BB, I won AKs>J10s... Yay ME!
Mr. Choppy was the one who got 4th-buy in back plus $5
Then it was me and the only girl/woman at the final table... HU with me...
She wanted an even chop, Ummm I had her 3-1 in chips so I said I would give her an extra $40 on top of what 2nd paid....She declined/well she said she needed to think about it for a few moments (If we got even in chips I MIGHT chop it evenly-Maybe- I thought to myself).
While she was in thought about my deal I had offered in counter to her even chop... She starts going all in every hand, I fold 23, 49, 72,29 and then call her PF ALL IN w/K8s on the 5th hand of HU, she has 22 both red flop blanks XXXdd, turn 8d, Yay I'm in the lead, river Xd she makes flush and now is slight chip leader.
My wife walks in to the poker room, wants to go for dinner as I have been playing for 5 hours, I look at the Lady and say Okay I'll chop it with you, she smiles and agrees... we chop $520 each.
After wards the Lady says to me, how come you are so calm the whole time, never getting excited or upset, always smiling and happy.... You don't get over excited?
I laugh and tell her that it was simply another game and that I was having fun the whole time... of course knocking out players and making the FT with chip lead doesn't hurt either.
We shook hands, smiled and parted ways after I gave her the side money when the cage paid me 1st and her 2nd and it was a sincerely enjoyable experience.
Nice first trip to Vegas, and won't be my last.... Has rejuvenated my thirst to play in live Casino's and will be making the trip to Niagara, Brantford and Windsor a lot more in the near future....
Cheers!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Vacation!!!
Finally back to work for a year and getting my 2 weeks of relaxation and off time! What am I going to do... well 1st it's off to Jamaica for a week of hot sun, white sandy beaches, all inclusive to ensure I don't go over board spending on meals and drinks with "the Dutch es", no kids!!!!! (Yee haa) - they are spending time with the parents, of course some other kinds of fun including recreational "stuff".
Then it's in the air to fly to Las Vegas for the first time in my life to spend the 2nd week of vacation, again childless (I love them and all, but time without them will be "better" for vacation). The wife is happy about the trip to Vegas even more than me I think.... If that's possible. She expects me to see some shows with her and not just go play poker :(
Things are well on all accounts in life and online, baseball is okay (my team sucks real bad, but I am still having fun playing), however we have yet to win a game this summer and are holding all the victories for the start of the play offs... At least that is what I tell myself to keep the "pain" to a minimum after each loss.
I made the final table in a bunch of Rush poker tournaments on Full Tilt this past week but haven't managed to take one down yet. I find the play is actually softer than a normal tournament with people trying to make plays all the time and 4 betting with hands like J7o. On the tone of poker I have managed to build a bunch of Step tickets that I can use to buy into larger tournaments but have been corrupted by the Super Turbo format that starts with 300 chips, I am almost finding myself not wanting to play a tournament because to make the final table would take over 6 hours and I don't feel like playing that long.
Oh yeah I also came 6th in a 1600+ player field for a $14 KO Super Turbo MTT on Tilt, it was fun, intense, exciting and finally disappointing to not take it down for the victory.
To think I used to play only larger field, slow level tournaments every single night and when I would go to the Casino I would play for an average of 16 hours easy... I hope Vegas will bring that bug back into the picture.
I am ready to start playing larger buy in tournaments, but like I had a hard time "kicking" the free roll bug in the past I am having a hard time taking advantage of the easy low buy in satty's to slowly build my bank roll... actually it's kind of pathetic when I put it into words and read it back to myself. Time to move up and get more money, more chances at being able to play for the bigger payouts and free seats to the Main Event of the WSOP next year and maybe a few others along the way.
I am going to play some satty's at the local Casinos in Southern Ontario and win a seat into a bigger event like I did many years ago and take advantage of all I have learned over the past year online while training and playing more than I had in my first 4 years of poker. The dust I must have building up as far as playing live needs to get cleaned up and I have to get that urge to hit it big again, being comfortable playing small limits is just unacceptable!
Cheers to all, best of luck at the tables!
Then it's in the air to fly to Las Vegas for the first time in my life to spend the 2nd week of vacation, again childless (I love them and all, but time without them will be "better" for vacation). The wife is happy about the trip to Vegas even more than me I think.... If that's possible. She expects me to see some shows with her and not just go play poker :(
Things are well on all accounts in life and online, baseball is okay (my team sucks real bad, but I am still having fun playing), however we have yet to win a game this summer and are holding all the victories for the start of the play offs... At least that is what I tell myself to keep the "pain" to a minimum after each loss.
I made the final table in a bunch of Rush poker tournaments on Full Tilt this past week but haven't managed to take one down yet. I find the play is actually softer than a normal tournament with people trying to make plays all the time and 4 betting with hands like J7o. On the tone of poker I have managed to build a bunch of Step tickets that I can use to buy into larger tournaments but have been corrupted by the Super Turbo format that starts with 300 chips, I am almost finding myself not wanting to play a tournament because to make the final table would take over 6 hours and I don't feel like playing that long.
Oh yeah I also came 6th in a 1600+ player field for a $14 KO Super Turbo MTT on Tilt, it was fun, intense, exciting and finally disappointing to not take it down for the victory.
To think I used to play only larger field, slow level tournaments every single night and when I would go to the Casino I would play for an average of 16 hours easy... I hope Vegas will bring that bug back into the picture.
I am ready to start playing larger buy in tournaments, but like I had a hard time "kicking" the free roll bug in the past I am having a hard time taking advantage of the easy low buy in satty's to slowly build my bank roll... actually it's kind of pathetic when I put it into words and read it back to myself. Time to move up and get more money, more chances at being able to play for the bigger payouts and free seats to the Main Event of the WSOP next year and maybe a few others along the way.
I am going to play some satty's at the local Casinos in Southern Ontario and win a seat into a bigger event like I did many years ago and take advantage of all I have learned over the past year online while training and playing more than I had in my first 4 years of poker. The dust I must have building up as far as playing live needs to get cleaned up and I have to get that urge to hit it big again, being comfortable playing small limits is just unacceptable!
Cheers to all, best of luck at the tables!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Send the cookies!
So I took down the prop bet for May... it was close at the end, but the results basically looked like this:
So since I was the only player to end up with a profit I took it down... Dixie ended up with 2nd as she a) lost the least and b) actually played the full 100 games.
Oh yeah we agreed to make the bet for 100 games instead of 150 since nobody looked like they would have gotten 150 played. I was doing it slow to get an idea of the competition and wanting to play against them in same tournaments to, I feel, increase my chances of being on top.
So I have had 3/4 softball games rained out so far this season... why does it always rain on a Thursday night... Ugh
I have hit the 10K mark ($10,000) with all of my bankrolls combined on all of my sites with an initial investment of $50 per site total of $200 since Mansion poker's $50 start up was provided by Pokerstrategy, link is on the right top portion of my blog.
Most volume currently played on Full tilt and Mansion due to bonuses and rakeback, plus my interest in playing at Betfair and Tigergaming (action poker network) has gone down since Annette_15 left and joined Team Full tilt and the fact that the selection of games on both sites is pretty poor. I might just ignore bank roll management and play higher buy in MTT's on both sites and hope for a big score. On the other hand I might just try and do a crazy bonus whore on Tiger depositing $50 each week for 10 weeks then turn around and withdrawal $1000 and leave my account at a very minimal amount. Yet my "loyalty" to them is the highest since they got me started playing online, winning money, winning 1 year of free training at PokerVT which lead to everything about more sites, more volume, start of training, more $$, more $$ more $$.
I keep watching lots of training videos and playing almost every day, one of my new favorite coaches making videos (I have many of course) is Jonathan Little on Pokerstrategy. I have watched every video I can at my current level and am encouraged to play more to get the member points to watch all of his platinum videos as I am currently only gold status. But hey the membership was free and still is, I can get rakeback at sites I haven't yet signed up to, and after completing a simple test they gave me $50 which I have turned into $1,900 with a Mansion bonus of 3K coming in the near future. Whooot wooot!
No real goals for this month or most of the summer, I plan on spending a lot of quality time with the family, play a lot of poker, build my experience and hopefully my bank rolls then slowly move up the buy in levels. I have been dabbling in the Steps tournaments on Full Tilt starting only at the Step 0, 99 man super turbo (which costs a buck) then grinding my way up the steps, holding at 3 and 4 for the time being. Last week I was at 3 Step 3 and 1 Step 4, this week I am at 1 Step 1, 1 Step 3, 4 Step 4's all for a total of maybe $20 buy in at the Step 0 level. Step 4 is worth $75 buy in so even if I only had 1 I would feel happy about the situation. Oh yeah and I have only been playing the Super Turbo Sng's that start with 300 chips. The way I figure it there is more money in the prize pool, less in rake, hence more opportunity for profit.
Have a great one everybody and best of luck at the tables, and always remember:
Step 1) Study Poker
Step 2) Play Poker
Step 3) ????
Step 4) Profit!
So since I was the only player to end up with a profit I took it down... Dixie ended up with 2nd as she a) lost the least and b) actually played the full 100 games.
Oh yeah we agreed to make the bet for 100 games instead of 150 since nobody looked like they would have gotten 150 played. I was doing it slow to get an idea of the competition and wanting to play against them in same tournaments to, I feel, increase my chances of being on top.
So I have had 3/4 softball games rained out so far this season... why does it always rain on a Thursday night... Ugh
I have hit the 10K mark ($10,000) with all of my bankrolls combined on all of my sites with an initial investment of $50 per site total of $200 since Mansion poker's $50 start up was provided by Pokerstrategy, link is on the right top portion of my blog.
Most volume currently played on Full tilt and Mansion due to bonuses and rakeback, plus my interest in playing at Betfair and Tigergaming (action poker network) has gone down since Annette_15 left and joined Team Full tilt and the fact that the selection of games on both sites is pretty poor. I might just ignore bank roll management and play higher buy in MTT's on both sites and hope for a big score. On the other hand I might just try and do a crazy bonus whore on Tiger depositing $50 each week for 10 weeks then turn around and withdrawal $1000 and leave my account at a very minimal amount. Yet my "loyalty" to them is the highest since they got me started playing online, winning money, winning 1 year of free training at PokerVT which lead to everything about more sites, more volume, start of training, more $$, more $$ more $$.
I keep watching lots of training videos and playing almost every day, one of my new favorite coaches making videos (I have many of course) is Jonathan Little on Pokerstrategy. I have watched every video I can at my current level and am encouraged to play more to get the member points to watch all of his platinum videos as I am currently only gold status. But hey the membership was free and still is, I can get rakeback at sites I haven't yet signed up to, and after completing a simple test they gave me $50 which I have turned into $1,900 with a Mansion bonus of 3K coming in the near future. Whooot wooot!
No real goals for this month or most of the summer, I plan on spending a lot of quality time with the family, play a lot of poker, build my experience and hopefully my bank rolls then slowly move up the buy in levels. I have been dabbling in the Steps tournaments on Full Tilt starting only at the Step 0, 99 man super turbo (which costs a buck) then grinding my way up the steps, holding at 3 and 4 for the time being. Last week I was at 3 Step 3 and 1 Step 4, this week I am at 1 Step 1, 1 Step 3, 4 Step 4's all for a total of maybe $20 buy in at the Step 0 level. Step 4 is worth $75 buy in so even if I only had 1 I would feel happy about the situation. Oh yeah and I have only been playing the Super Turbo Sng's that start with 300 chips. The way I figure it there is more money in the prize pool, less in rake, hence more opportunity for profit.
Have a great one everybody and best of luck at the tables, and always remember:
Step 1) Study Poker
Step 2) Play Poker
Step 3) ????
Step 4) Profit!
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