Journey of a Donkey

2011 WSOP Main Event Fever

2011-04-10T16:10:00.000-07:00

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!!

I finally won the monthly sng challenge!

2011-02-11T10:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Pokerstars Blogger games are on again!!!

2011-01-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

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!

Christmas Already? I mean come on.... !

2010-11-13T18:13:00.000-08:00

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.

I want to chop, 8-ways... Mr. Choppy

2010-07-31T02:54:00.000-07:00

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!

Vacation!!!

2010-07-18T22:06:00.000-07:00

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!

Send the cookies!

2010-06-03T12:24:00.000-07:00

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!

May prop bet challenge, mid way

2010-05-17T20:44:00.000-07:00

So this is what it looks like for now... With over half the month gone nobody has even hit 50 games played yet. The contest is for 150 games and we are all slacking huge, I mean they are even talking of placing bets on the forum to see if anybody will even complete the 150. I felt like I wasn't doing so good but according to the above chart I am doing just fine, especially considering nobody else is even making a profit. I am going to try and play 10 games a day to finish them off, only thing that will stop me will be pure laziness.

I didn't do so great in the sng challenge this month 4 cashes out of 8 games but I am currently behind first place again and doubt my score can hold in the top 5 anyway.

Lot's of study on videos, watching a couple a night, playing games, reading forums and little sleep. I am looking to going on vacation sometime in the future.
Talked the dutches into letting me take next year's vacation time to play in the WSOP events, and I think my bankroll will allow me to start cracking higher buy in games leading to satty's for tickets to events on all the poker sites.

This prop bet has one thing going for it... building my role and encouraging me to play more.

April over already?

2010-04-30T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well April is in the books, fast month this was. A roller coaster on the tables, I love having days when I think I did bad and find I broke even... Even better I love the days I thought I broke even and actually made a profit.
I am able to get the $1000 bonus on Mansion now, but was thinking in 6 months from now I might be able to get another 1K but if I add all the points together I can get 3K instead. So IF a guy came up to you and said instead of me giving you 1K now and 1K in 6 months how about I just give you 3K in 6 months... what would you say? Hell Ya! Where do I sign up? You wanna move into my garage? So I really have nothing to think about, I mean if I was playing real bad and my original start up bank roll on Mansion from last year of $50 donated to my account by Pokerstrategy (Link is on the right >>) was hurting I would take the 1k now for sure, but I am a bank roll NIT and am playing at a level where I have 200 buy ins so I can easily wait. I have even debated moving up in levels recently.
Last time I moved up in levels my bank roll took a $500 hit in a short period of time so I moved back to the $10 +1 games and have been basically not moving, but slowly digging my heals in and haven't gone down so much but up a little down less. (2 steps forward 1.5 steps back for months now :( )
I haven't played much on Betfair or Tiger or Pokerstars, yet just enough to not get penalties to points or bank rolls... so they are in the same spot they were like 8 months ago, LOL, I suck!
I did come in 2nd for the 2nd straight month in the Sng Challenge put on by Derk, a PokerVT.com Pro, with the same person coming in 1st again. I have been steady but nothing that breaks out and takes the lead. After this month the contest is on hiatus for the WSOP, so that gives me 6 more chances this year to take first. Once I do get first I will only play 7 games a month to give other members a chance to win it as well.
I didn't join the prop bet that some forum members from PokerVT played in last month, my bank roll on Poker stars doesn't allow me to play in $6 Sng's right now nor the 500 games members had to play in the 30 day period, cheers to all who competed and congratulations to Puyan for taking it down. I DID join the prop bet coming up for May though...
Right now there are about 6 other members, the bet is to play 150 games at the $3.25 level of only 45 man turbos on Poker stars. I don't usually play stars except for PokerVT events and free rolls but I can fit these games into my schedule.
Watched a lot of crappy movies this month and a few good ones, I bought Avatar for my kids, can't believe it didn't take down the Oscar in a tone of categories. Baseball season for old folks like myself starts in May. My middle son turns 7 on the 2nd, having a party at the bowling alley with his friends from school and the close relatives.
Watched a lot of training videos on both PokerVT and Pokerstrategy, like over 30 hours on top of what I regularly watch. I found a coach on Pokerstrategy who makes a lot of great reads on hand ranges a lot of solid play.
Been sick last few days, need to take some pills and get the traditional 12 hour rest before going bowling with the family tomorrow... I feel a 120 average over 2 games coming, just toss it straight and hard, straight and hard.... (That's what she said)

March in the books...

2010-03-31T20:43:00.001-07:00

Well March is done and I have increased my play just a little, trying lots of different games.

Played a handful of Mini-Ftops and cashed in 1,
Played a few HU Razz and 7-game matches lately and doing alright (slightly ahead anyway),

Moving up (slowly) to $28 sng's on Full Tilt by adding some to my game selection,
Almost reached the bonus for 1k on Mansion,

Came in 2nd in Derk's (a pro at PovkerVT.com) 10 game sng challenge,
Didn't play in the cash game on Poker stars to be reviewed by Jon E (a pro at PovkerVT.com) leaving a space at the table for other members on the forum who actually play cash games as I am mostly a tournament player,

All bank rolls on all sites whet in a Northward direction,
Studied and watched videos while thinking a little deeper about my play,

Started participating more seriously in forum discussions about hands played and situations,
Had some guilt about not taking down a cash over 1k yet (but it will come in time),

Didn't get into too much trouble at my full time job (always a ++),
Had a run of surprise bills and car problems like I haven't had in over 3 years (like almost 4K which is a lot to me),

Gained about 15 lbs.... (I know, just in time to play softball for the summer ;) ),
Considered joining a prop bet with a pool of $600 to play 500 $6 sng's on Stars for the most profit (but can't my Stars roll is to small-now if it were on Tilt I'd be in in a heartbeat!),

Railed a lot of members and pro's going deep in MTT's which was fun and educational,
Kids are great, family is great, wife is great, poker is great,

Have a Happy Easter weekend everybody!

Owning a SnG on the bubble.

2010-03-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

So I have been playing almost everyday with only 1 day off here and there over about a 6 month period now. Mixing in Sng's that are turbo, super turbo, 1 table, 3 table and 5 tables. Most larger MTT have been specifically satty's or mixed games.
Oh and I also played like 6 of the mini-ftops events on Full Tilt over the past week or two and some Canada/US free rolls on Poker stars.
Trudging along as my bankroll slowly increases, I can't seem to fathom just yet how come it keeps moving up on Full tilt and stays almost the same on Mansion. I do get way more bad beats on Mansion as well as the rake being a tiny bit more as it's $1 for every $10 entry fee and other sites not so bad. Yet I have almost the 480K Mansion points needed to cash in for a $1000 bonus.
Been doing okay in Mixed games too, cashing more than I probably should be while I am learning the games but I don't mind.
I came in 20th place in a 2,015 player HORSE MTT in event #14 of the mini-ftops which was nice, but if not for a few bad flops giving some short stacks hands to beat my KK and AA respectively I would have made the final table and had a chance at the $19K prize for first.

(Now for my pathetic attempt to share/give any kind of Sng advice while I am still learning to play and am NOT a consistent winner.... yet)
Lately I have also been finding myself getting to be the big stack near the bubble of some 1 table super turbos and love when the short stack is to my left. I can fold my small blind into him every round and take turns picking on the other two medium stacks until they get fed up, wake up with a hand or end up as small as the short stack. Even if one of them does wake up with a hand and doubles up no matter because then I can fold the other two shorties and raise the guy who just doubled up for a couple rounds again and make the bubble last longer. A situation came up today that was just that and I had every body at the table to 3 big blinds 2 separate times. Then when one of them finally shoved, I over shoved the BB who was at 1.2 big blinds and he folds hoping to make the money. If the guy beats me no worries I steal the blinds the very next hand, but he didn't and I shoved the next shorty with 2.6 big blinds who folded because the small blind was all in for his last 15 chips. If he hits I still add to my stack and do it again on the next hand, of course he didn't and then going into heads up I had a 10-1 chip lead and then took it down within a few hands.
Same thing happened in a satty to the mini-ftops main event today, I raised like every hand near the bubble (like literally 25 hands in a row) because I was the chip leader at my table and I could! Every body else just wanted to make the money and get the satty seat to the main event and didn't want to challenge me. I got re-raise shoved like 2 times and called very light because I had stolen so many chips from the rest of the table. I was getting like 2K in chips every hand and could gamble knowing they probably had AA or something super strong. When I started bubble raising I was at 22K in chips and the closest guy at my table with 18K was on my exact right and was playing tight passive, so every time he folded I raised, when he limped I min-raised and got heads up for most pots with position or simply took it down pre-flop. By the end when the bubble finally popped I was around 44K in chips, since like 244 players got tickets and the tournament had about 1200 runners to start everybody was happy to fold and fold and fold.

I feel my game is improving more and more, I only owe my skills to the videos, pros and forums that have given me extra insight to my game. Past trainers that are gone and moved on, current ones that still actively help out members weekly and practice, practice, practice. I feel if I was putting in volume of like 3-5K games per month I would be making around $3-4K since I am up about $8K in my last 7000 games over the past year (13 months, baker's dozen ;) ). I see it like this; If I was playing that much volume I would only be improving faster and faster, seeing things more, beats and wins, analyzing hands quicker and becoming way better with practice, on top of the training, forums, books, magazines, blogs and videos that I put my time into every month... I currently only play about 500 games on a slow month to 1000 games on a busy month, so times that by 3-5 and giving myself more time for studying my game and I can only get better, faster and in turn make more money at my most favorite hobby POKER! Currently my full time job puts a kink into that plan though... cheers to hopefully winning a satty into a big event and getting some cards to make a final table, a super large cash and a chance to take a shot at the big times... It's the thought that counts right! Right??

Anyway really quickly back to owning the bubble, one final thought is that when you are in a spot when there are two of you with large stacks and 2 with medium to short stacks, you can put pressure on the other large stack who will only play back at you with a monster. The 1/5 times he does play back at you, it's simple fold, then play the bubble safely but the 4/5 times he doesn't puts you into a perfect spot to start super abusing and owning the bubble setting you up to have a monster stack going into 3 handed or heads up play.
I don't raise every single hand when 4 handed and doing this, or the other players will pick up on what I am up to rather quickly, but to select each middle stack each round, folding for one raising the other and always folding the short stack especially if they end up on your left to eventual chip dominance and a huge advantage to winning the tournament. Most players won't realize that you are doing it selectively and will also put more faith into the raises you do make.

On another note work is okay, kid's are great, LOST rules the T.V. airways and my wife is learning to cook some new meals... well she bought some cook books and is thinking about learning to cook some new meals, it's the thought that counts right! Right??

Who needs memory anyway?

2010-02-23T14:10:00.000-08:00

I was in the pub yesterday when I suddenly realized I desperately needed to fart. The music was really, really loud, so I timed my farts with the beat.

After a couple of songs, I started to feel better. I finished my pint and noticed that everybody was staring at me.

Then I suddenly remembered that I was listening to my iPod .

Funny e-mail I got so decided to share with you all.

Holy E-mail

2010-02-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behaviour that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not."

God thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion."

So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.

When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, it's true.The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good."

God was not pleased. So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good, because he wanted to encourage them, and give them a little something to help them keep going.

Do you know what the e-mail said?

Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

A little message I was asked to pass on....

My Poker Goals 2010

2010-02-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

I have adjusted last years goals to suit this years goals nicely. I accomplished every single goal last year and figure I am going to set the bar a little higher this year. Understanding that I am back to work full time and can really only play a little each night and on the weekends. I do have a family and 3 boys that all want to spend time with me and I with them so I will make sure not to consume my spare time with goals and poker yet still giving me something to strive for.

1. to play $14 sng's to increase my bankroll on FullTilt past $6000 and begin $20 sng's, and progressively increase the limit played by $10 per $1500 increase to bankroll.

2. to play $11 sng's to increase my bankroll on Mansionpoker past $2500 and begin $22 sng's.

3. to play $3 sng's to increase my bankroll on Betfair past $300 and begin $5 sng's,

5. to play $3 sng's to increase my bankroll on Pokerstars past $500 and begin $5 sng's,

6. to play $5 sng's and MTT's to increase my bankroll on Tiger gaming past $1000 and begin $10 sng's and MTT's,

7. to continue to expand my poker skills and knowledge by broadening my chances to learn.

a) stay with PokerVT for the next 11 months and continue to learn, watch all videos 2x, and 5 times for videos about Sng and MTT's, participate in member tournys. Decide after 1 year if I want to continue.

b) learning through PokerStrategy, reading all the articles and materials available to me.

c) to take poker seriously, not just a hobby anymore, expand in as many areas possible and listen to my advisors and follow there advice.

d) to purchase some poker software to expand my ability to play the game. i.e. SnG wizard,

8. begin expanding into 45 and 90 person sng's, play satellites as they have great value and become a better Sng player.

9. to win one of the monthly Sng contests run by Derk a pro with PokerVT.

10. to reread 3 poker books in my collection and purchase 3 new poker books and read them. Also to purchase 2 books that are about life lessons or theory or chance that can teach me and help me understand that little thing called "Variance"

11. to increase my multi-tabling ability, currently 6 at a time, to 10 tables at a time using proper bankroll management and only go out of my super nitty bankroll comfort zone for PokerVT member tournaments or events related to PokerVT.

12. Get away from free rolls unless they are "special events"

13. To take my wife away on vacation to wherever she wants for a week in the summer.

14. To play a total of 3000 games this year, by end of December 2010.

15. To win entry via satellite to a major tournament online.

I hope to become a professional poker player within the next 2-4 years, after building enough bankroll to pay the bills for 2 years and still have enough to play and have a 1 year bad run/loosing streak at the higher levels.
never forget that a sound strategy and ability to encompass as much information as possible into my game play will be my ticket to happiness.

Thinking about poker.

2010-02-13T13:14:00.001-08:00

I hear a lot of crap on some forums about donkeys, getting sucked out on, variance, playing poker against losers or winners. When will it be my turn? Is a question I have heard.

Just some quick short thoughts I have about the whole thing,

Folding 1 pair good/great kicker is tuff, folding AA on a board that either could be crushing you or buddy is straight up bluffing is something learned from experience.

When you are playing a good thinking player then you can give more credit to his moves/play/line and maybe fold some hands.

When against a loose random donkey you sometimes have to close your eyes and flip a coin.

Drawing odds, starting hand strength, putting opponents on ranges, folding winners and bluffing losers are all part of the learning experience we go through while navigating to become a better player.

Taking the risk and getting into events that can give you a chance to be "my turn" are also the next step once you think you have what it takes.

Online tournaments (MTT's) with 5K+ players are also such high variance that you need to make sure you have all aspects of your game worked on... playing a lot of smaller tournaments with less runners, finishing at final tables, working on HU play, high blinds with antes, shoving ranges, calling ranges, positional advantages, studying, practicing are just a small potion of becoming a great player.

Poker takes a few minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.

Don't think that putting in a few months is going to change your game and make you a winner, if you hit a bad streak it's either variance or your play, figure out which.

Playing part time isn't going to get you the experience of an online grinder, playing out of your bankroll is the quickest way to not having any money.

Baby steps, earn the money, move up slowing, pay your dues, it will all come to those that deserve it and trust in your inner voice. (unless that voice lies alot)

Just my 2 cents worth a penny.

Just a small ramble from me.... hope it makes you think a little.

Hand from a recent PVT member Sng

2010-01-28T17:16:00.000-08:00

Does this hand sound about right, or did I play it too weak?

2 people knocked out, everybody playing pretty solid poker in position and out of position.

I had both large stacks to my right and small stacks to my left.

Everybody's VP was under 20 and PFR was under 15 so it was a solid strong game vs good playing members.

Did I simply get outplayed in the following hand? Or is it pretty obvious he has the flop hit real hard?

Full Tilt Poker Game #17942772133: PokerVT (133983758), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:20:49 ET - 2010/01/26
Seat 2: dafalenangel (6,125)
Seat 4: strnr004 (2,705)
Seat 5: dwvw (2,100)
Seat 6: Cratos8 (2,435)
Seat 7: Spadezaspade (5,525)
Seat 9: Aczey (5,110)
Cratos8 posts the small blind of 40
Spadezaspade posts the big blind of 80

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (MP) (t6125)
CO (t2705)
Button (t2100)
SB (t2435)
BB (t5525)
UTG (t5110)

Hero's M: 51.04

Preflop: Hero is MP with A, A
1 fold, Hero bets t205, 3 folds, BB calls t125

Flop: (t450) Q, 4, Q (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t305, BB raises to t610, Hero raises to t915, BB calls t305

Turn: (t2280) 5 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t1120, BB raises to t4405 (All-In), Hero folds

Total pot: t4520

dafalenangel folds
Uncalled bet of 3,285 returned to Spadezaspade
Spadezaspade mucks
Spadezaspade wins the pot (4,520)

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,520 | Rake 0
Board: [Qd 4s Qc 5h]
Seat 2: dafalenangel folded on the Turn
Seat 4: strnr004 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: dwvw (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Cratos8 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Spadezaspade (big blind) collected (4,520), mucked
Seat 9: Aczey didn't bet (folded)

Did I simply get outplayed in the following hand? Or is it pretty obvious he has the flop hit real hard?

I mean if I was in his position and I hit the Q for trips on the flop I would have played it the same way he did.

If I check behind on the turn to see a free river and maybe hit the A then fine, but if I check and miss and he bets huge or all in on the river I almost have to call if I check behind on the turn as if to say "I have nothing, PLEASE STEAL the pot from me!"

He also could have had 44's or 55's with the way he played it.

In hindsight he could also of had JJ or KK or AA but I don't think he raises my turn bet with those hands unless he is absolutely thinking on a super mega game level and simply knows I would have to fold without a Q.

A few replies I got about the hand are this: from sJacob (PVT member)

Sup with flop minraises? This is a pretty weird hand from both of you.

I obv don't know anything about this opponent, but on average I'd expect a c/c if he has a Q, mid pocket pair or a 4. Minraise looks bluffy to me, I'd call it and reevalute, probably call at least one more street. When you 3bet, you can't expect him to call you with a worse hand (although when you min 3bet I guess he can call you with worse). Good thing about flatting is that it will let him fire more bluffs if he is indeed bluffing.

falenangel wrote:

"If I check behind on the turn to see a free river and maybe hit the A then fine, but if I check and miss and he bets huge or all in on the river I almost have to call if I check behind on the turn as if to say "I have nothing, PLEASE STEAL the pot from me!""

But you don't have nothing, you have a decent hand; you want him to try to steal the pot with worse hands.

As played I'd be tempted to call, because he's really not repping that much, it's tough to put him on a reasonable hand... maybe 55 exactly.

And this: from Alternativ (PVT member)

It would be really hard for him to play the hand this way with anything worse. You know how often he is defending his blind? Some PVT members have picked up blind defending from DN and will defend way to wide for their skill level.

I disagree with sJacob on the c/c with a Q, I think a random opponent would c/r most of the time with a Q here.

And your min 3bet on the flop is really wierd, I would never do that. You bet 305 into a 1975 pot. And you build the pot. if you flat, check behind the turn (if he do check), the pot will be 1625 on the river, he is a PokerVT member right? So I don't expect him to overbet, so you can catch a lot ore bluffs in this situation, because he will be bluffing here way more often then he would the way the hand played out. And you can call a lot cheaper. Since you both are so deep I don't think pot control is to bad an idea.

If you flat and he keep firing, you could think of letting your hand go imo.

sJacob wrote:

"As played I'd be tempted to call, because he's really not repping that much, it's tough to put him on a reasonable hand... maybe 55 exactly."

You really think he is bluffing here often enough to make this a call? I really agree with falenangel, a lot of people would play their Q like this. And falenangel has played solid as well, and 3bet flop (even tho it was a tiny 3bet that woulden't make him fold to many hands), and fired again on the turn. This would be a really hard spot for him to bluff. I just don't think he is bluffing often enough here. People bluff way less then you would think.

And this: from puyan (PVT member)

Flat the flop raise and see what he does on the turn. Try and small ball it to showdown. Why go nuts against the big stack when your almost guaranteed money spot? Sort out your reraise sizing too, they should be at least 2.5-3x the previous bet. Min reraises don't work because your not really getting the information you need since the sizing is so small they're never folding to those odds.

My ending thoughts... for now on the hand are:

After thinking it through after the fact I think that I have to agree in hindsight I should have flatted the flop raise and see how much he leads for on the turn. I could maybe have called to river for the same amount that I 3bet and bet on the turn.

The same player also bet huge pot on river in other hands so I guess I was thinking he might shove the river if we got to it and I wanted as much information as possible.

I am really looking forward to the possibility of this tournament being put together by Dixie with all the HH's so I can see what the player had.

Yet I still firmly think he had my AA beat with the line he took even if my line seemed awkward and weak.

Cheers and Shambone

The fun part is, since it was on Full Tilt I am not familiar with the PVT screen name for Spadezaspade and am not sure who it was, but later in the tournament he said that he did have the Q back in the hand posted above.

Just playing 10-20 a day...

2010-01-16T20:48:00.000-08:00

What a time for me to start feeling like playing poker is WORK! I have bonuses on 2 different sites for as much as $450 that I only have until the end of January to play out and the middle of February for the other. I almost decided to play enough to guarantee that I will get $100 of the $250 on 1 of the sites and $150 of the $200 on the other. By playing about 10 games a day on each...???

What am I thinking, it's free money and to give up $200 in free money is just plain STUPID IMO. I am running/have been running not so great and am basically breaking even or losing in SNG's as of the last 2K games or so and have been dabbling in super turbo's and mixed games just trying to change things up a bit. I have a winning session 1 day and a losing session the next. Back and forth for the past couple of months.

I think it's time to admit I have learn to use a new software program. SnG Wiz seems to be the most popular suggestion from anybody I talk to on the forums or who plays online poker. My fear of not getting a new program for fear of incompetence is just plain sad, pathetic and old. I am never going to have a chance at being a consistent winning player if I don't put in the hours to work on my game a become better. I am a poker tool and need to get better and I know I will start having more fun.

I used to take a couple of days a week off and play like 50 games or so on the days I did play. That's like 250 games a week, lately at about 20 games a day I am playing like 140 a week and am needing some time to myself. I don't need the extra bonus, which is small, that is provided by some online poker rooms (for playing everyday) so I think I need to go back to my old ways of 2 days off per week. I am still studying by watching videos and am actually going through PT3 to see what I can work on to become better in given positions with given hand ranges.

I am following a few more blogs and anticipate seeing how some old PokerVT friends and members are doing with there ongoing growth and training in the poker world. Good Luck to all of you, I wish you all the best in your journey!

I liked the movie Avatar so much the wife and I went to see it again but in 3-D and it was worth every penny. Can't wait for the last season of Lost to start up again. Looking forward to a new year with new strides in my poker game. I will post some goals for the year in the next few weeks. I am also going to try and earn a $1K bonus on the Ipoker network.

Plus I have pre-paid for a year in advance until January 2011 on PokerVT as I can't imagine becoming better without at least a couple of poker sites and forums to learn and become better from. I also qualified for the final event of the 12 week +EV tournament they have been running for the past 3 months and am looking forward to a strong performance in a few weeks when it takes place.

Cheers and Shambone!

WBCOOP 2010

2010-01-08T15:30:00.000-08:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! Bloggers can register for to play for free in the WBCOOP, if you don’t have a PokerStars account you can get your Poker Download here.

Registration code: 396376

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.

Like playing the million dollar challenge free rolls to have a shot at Daniel N.

Cheers and best of luck at the tables, I will update my progress along the way.

Here is a cut and paste of the information available about this event.

The WBCOOP returns for 2010!

It’s time for all poker-playing bloggers to put down the keyboard and mouse and get ready for action, because the annual PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker (WBCOOP) is back once again. This time round the seven-day event includes six preliminary tournaments, running January 25-30, 2010. The action culminates with the Main Event on January 31, and you can register for all of the events now. What’s more, the WBCOOP is completely free-to-enter for all verified bloggers.

Every year the WBCOOP gives bloggers from all over the world the chance to play tournament poker for great prizes. It’s the perfect way to challenge other poker writers, and compete to prove that you are the best in the business. This year you can win seats to the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP)*, plus SCOOP Steps satellite tickets. We’ll also be awarding spot prizes during the event for the best live blogs and Twitter posts. See below for more about what you can win.

Simply register as a verified blogger to take part. Once you’re in, use your blog to tell everyone that you’ll be playing, and then keep them updated on your progress. It doesn’t even matter if your blog isn’t about poker or if you’re new to the game - everyone is welcome to play.

How to Enter

For your blog to be eligible, it needs to have been online for at least two months and updated on a regular basis. Blogs created specifically for this promotion, or that only have a few posts, will not be granted entry to WBCOOP. If you have been eligible in the past for WBCCOP but have not updated your blog on a regular basis since the last event, you will not be eligible to play. All decisions about eligibility rest with WBCOOP management and are final.

Visit the registration page to find out how to submit your blog for verification. Once you are registered, you can play in any or all of the free WBCOOP preliminary events and the Main Event.

Preliminary Events

The preliminary tournaments are free-to-enter and run daily from January 25-30, in a range of different games at the times listed below. You can find them listed in the PokerStars lobby, under ‘Tourney’ & ‘All’.

Game	Date	Time
No Limit Hold’em	January 25	17:00 ET
Pot Limit Omaha	January 26	17:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	January 27	18:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	January 28	18:00 ET
8-Game Mix	January 29	19:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em	January 30	15:00 ET

Prizes

Each preliminary tournament will award $6,038 worth of SCOOP Steps tickets, as follows.

Place	Prize
1	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $1,050
2-9	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215
10-27	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33
28-45	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $16.50
46-136	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $11

Main Event

The 2010 WBCOOP Main Event takes place January 31 at 15:00 ET. Find it in the PokerStars lobby under ‘Tourney’ & ‘All’.

Prizes

Place	Prize
1	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $3,150
2-9	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $2,100
10-27	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215
28-45	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $55
46-136	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $22

Spot Prizes

During the WBCOOP, you can also win spot prizes, awarded to bloggers who write the best posts and Twitter updates about the action taking place.

Achievement	Prize
Best Live Event Blogging	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Blogger (three of these will be awarded)	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33
Best Tweeter	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Tweeter (three of these will be awarded)	SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33

WBCOOP 2008

The last WBCOOP took place in 2008, with 369 bloggers from around the world playing in the Main Event. Imric_est took the title, walking away with a PokerStars live event package. Priitk and Lesage88 also won big for finishing in the top three. Hundreds of other players took part in the preliminary events, all of which were free to enter. Go to the PokerStars Blog for full coverage of the 2008 Main Event.

Contact support@pokerstars.com if you have any questions about the WBCOOP.

Took down $20 Horse tournament!

2010-01-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

The title of the post says it all!

151 runners!

I was chip leader from 15 left until 3 handed, at one point was down to as low as 3rd. During HU had the lead then was down to 4-1 disadvantage in chips and made the comeback.

Back and forth battle HU, played 3 handed hold em, then omaha 8.

Went Hu during Razz and finished off the game on Stud Hi.

$906 for the victory.

Studying the mixed games is slowly paying off, had a lot of cashes recently and satty wins but this was my first 1st in a simple MTT with a buy in of over $10.

Most thanks to PVT and Devo for bringing him on and having videos on mixed games!

Cheers!

Sorry Tan, Just short of 1K.... but I am getting to it! LOL and I haven't forgot!

Shambone

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T13:43:00.000-08:00

December was a month of business.

Lots of time at work, with kids, family events, holidays and not too much poker.

I played, I won, I lost and I studied.

I am going to sign up for PokerVT.com for another year starting the 1st week of January.

I may sum up the month better and make some comments about some insights I had in the near future, which also happens to be next year.

I also had another sick amount of 2-3 outs hit on rivers and even as many runner runner hits when I was crushing my opponents on flops.

Most recent movie watched was "Avatar"... I have to say it's a must see.

Cheers and see you all next year, time to have a few drinks and enjoy the evening without any children, they are with my mom!

Home alone with the kids and Poker!?!?!

2009-11-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

Well I learned my final lesson the hard way about playing poker at home when I am left alone with my 2 youngest boys, aged 5 and 6.

It started with my 5yr old innocently trying to install and download a game he wanted to play on his own computer... He come up to me and says "I am waiting for my game to finish downloading". I am like, "What game?, on the Wii or your V-tech?" He replies "On my putercore" I run in to find it downloading some Dora game and find out I have to run it over with new installs and updates to do, then the game starts freezing 5 min. into it every time he tries to play. He decides he wants to play another game, he has the shortest attention span of anybody I have ever come across...

Next I notice after about 15 min. of quiet that something must be up! As the last time I had 15 min. of quiet when home alone with my 2 youngest boys I found them in the bathroom making "potions" with all the perfume, cologne, shampoo, bubble bath, baby powder, dog shampoo, toothpaste, etc.. So I find my 5yr old in my bathroom with my electric razor and half of a Mohawk. Yup that's right, and I know I have too look forward to shaving his whole head before bed as I can't let him go to kindergarten with half a Mohawk. OR CAN I??

The rest of the evening was quite uneventful in the fact that they only got into 3 wrestling matches and tried to feed the fish 1 time when I wasn't paying close enough attention and the dog scored triple extra dog treats. Nobody got hurt from the wrestling and I think I made a total of $40 playing online through 12 different games. So all isn't lost, and it was a quick life lesson about not paying close enough attention to the boys.

Also my half a Mohawk youngest, David Jr., has a rash on his bum, awesome, and I can't find the cream that we use for rashes. Of course my wife hid it since the last time he tried to put it on himself and it ended up all over half his body and walls and doorhandles and bathroom counter, etc... This stuff isn't easy to clean and I can't find out where it is since my wife turned her cell phone off, or left it in the car as she usually does when I am home alone with the boys, nice.

The funny part is, I work with Preschool children and families for my full time job, but my own kids always seem to be more than a handful. They must get it from there mother's side of the family... well actually my 14yr old went through the same kind of things and that is with another mother, so maybe, possibly it could be from my side... like my mom or something and it skipped my generation or just me specifically.

Heck who am I kidding, I am tool and burned my hand on the hot stove more times than I can count... The good part of the evening was that I made hot dogs, microwaved, for dinner, the dog scored half of 1 of mine when I turned my head and we "kicked butt" playing Mario Party 8 on the Wii. The poker was just filler for the supposed down times when I thought I had them set up playing on there computer or watching a movie or playing with the abundance of toys we and my parents and in-laws spoil them with.

Feeling a little sick, headache getting worse, going to drug myself with pills and shave my son's head.... Yeah!

The wife, I mean the dutch es, should be home soon... Hooray!

Cheers all, see you at the tables, and if you have never had a bad run for a month of playing then have a look at my shark scope stats for November on Ipoker "falenangel", if you have then guess what... I finally understand what all the pro's have been saying about variance. I am learning, growing, and trying to work on my game more now than ever before.

"It takes a few hours to learn, and a life time to master!"

Crazy Bubble weekend....

2009-11-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

I think I have bubbled so many times recently in tournaments that when I fart, bubbles spray out of my butt... A great novelty for entertaining guests and my kids of course, but my wife doesn't appreciate it so much.

I am down a little on every site I play on for the weekend, almost proportionate to the amount I play on each site. Like about $200 on 1 site, $100 on another and $20 on another. I can blame it all on the "bubble", I mean I would have been up or at least broke even this weekend if not for the dreaded "bubble".

I have even resorted to playing free rolls on Pokerstars while I watch training videos on pokerstrategy and PokerVT to get my "fix" of poker playing and remind myself how BAD players at the free roll level are.

I played a bunch of $3 games on PS to see if it is just variance, and of course when QQ loses to A8o you know it is just pure luck. Yet that is when the anal bubbles started.

I played in the 25K million dollar challenge as well and broke the 1000 player mark out of 31000 entrants and didn't run too hot near the end, 1 hand which would have changed the game;
I shoved AQo w 10BB's from the BB into 3 limpers and they all called. 1 had J10o, another 78o and the last 66. Needless to say I didn't hit and a 237,000 chip pot went to the "Genius" who called with J10o.
I did a lot better in my last attempt in that tournament breaking the top 100 but it only pays the top 10 out of over 30,000 players.... Why do I even bother? It's free for one, and 1st place pays $20,000 soo I guess I'll try again if they keep running it.

The sickest thing about all this "bubble" crap is I played and bubbled like 9 tournaments in a row at 1 point and a total of about 30 times out of 50 some odd tournaments this weekend on just 1 site alone. I stopped counting the bubbles after I made a post on the PokerVT forum and got some advice from 1 of the pros, Derek Williams, and I realized that most of my plays were okay and that I just need to make more notes on some players and shove a little tighter on the bubble against people who will call with medium strength hands.

It's a good thing the kids were with my mother-in-law riding on a float in the Santa Claus Parade, the largest in Canada for a night time parade, and then spent the night, so they didn't have to endure all my cursing and swearing.
The Queen and I went to a Gala dinner for my work Union and then watched some movies. After which I stayed up late and continued my "bubble madness", cursing and swearing was on the entire menu for this weekend from the entrees, double helping of main course, and some desert with me finally realizing I was kind of tilting when I started calling people "tools" in the chat box, which is not even half of the words I was yelling at my computer screen.

I usually get a "bubble" laugh out of busting other people and them calling me names, so I guess in fairness it was my turn to be the tool of tools and swear while sticking up my middle finger at the computer and calling the online site "rigged"... of course that's only when I get beat.

I know it's not rigged, and I know it's variance and bubbling happens to all of us, it just sucks ass when it happens so often and in a row on all the sites I am playing on.

Okay so I think I got out all of the "gas bubbles" and my wife is begging me to stop as she has run out of air freshener, but the kids are having a great laugh anyway now that they are home, who doesn't love the old "pull my finger" line even if they know what is coming.

Plus I am all out of clean underwear and the Queen refuses to do any laundry tonight...

Bad Beat on Cancer Tourney: Play the Full Tilt Poker Pro's for $10 this Sunday

2009-11-13T21:19:00.000-08:00

Okay so a fellow PokerVT member has put this post up in the forums and asked anybody who can help out to advertise his event. This is a copy and paste of the post he put up in the forum and hope anybody, if anybody reads my blog and they have the time to participate will get involved with this event on Full Tilt and help to put a Bad Beat on Cancer.
Cheers!

Posted by PokerVT.com forum member "fleapid"

"Hey guys,

I've put together a 2nd Charity Event on Full Tilt Poker this Sunday to Benefit Bad Beat on Cancer. The buy in is $10 ($5+5) with the Rake going to charity.

The touranament ID # is 113220604 and the Password is TPTFORBBOC

Tournament Details

Place: Full Tilt Poker
Date: November 15th, 2009
Time: 6:15PM EST
Cost: $10 ($5 entry plus $5 donation to BBoC)
Tourney ID#: 113220604
Tourney PW: TPTFORBBOC

Current Full Tilt Pro's Registered are:
Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Rafe Furst, Lee Watkinson, Joe Beevers, Ross Boatman, Richard Ashby, Marco Liesy, Michael Craig, Amanda 'Mandy B' Baker, and Dave Colclough.

I also have some other pro's that said that they'd join as well (Team Full Tilt guys, Matusow, Cunningham, Lederer and Lindgren have all said that they would join in).

Please help us out by registering and playing in the event. Also, if you could help spread the word about the event if you have a blog or re-post it on any other forums that you're a part of, that'd be awesome. If you need a link, the Twitter Poker Tour Website has the original announcement here: http://twitterpokertour.com/announcements/charity-tournament-to-benefit-bad-beat-on-cancer/

Thanks in advance for your help everyone!"

I love the weekend!

2009-11-13T21:09:00.000-08:00

This month started off pretty bad, dropped a little each day... on Mansion and Full tilt and Pokerstars.

A true downsing, for me, of almost $800, between all sites.

But then today in 12 $11 games on Mansion I am up $192 and in 8 $14 games on Full Tilt I am up $201.

Still down for the month of November so far, but I sure do love playing the weekend donks and taking away there money.

Of course some luck was involved but I'll take it any way I can get it.

For any larger stakes players this will seem like a pathetic brag, for the small stakes players it will seem nicer and not so pathetic.

For somebody like me playing a total of 20 sng's at the $11 and $14 level and making a total profit of $393 it was a sick sick sick 2.5-3hrs invested and an hourly rate of $133/hr a fantastical evening, so I decided to share it with you all.

Now back to watching videos and training more, I re-watched all of Grayson's, Nick's and am halfway through Derk's in the past 4 days....

I know I need to get a life!

Cheers!

November a little slow...

2009-11-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

So I have been lucky enough to get another HH review on PVT... one was a while ago with the Don tournaments and I played like crap in both the tournaments PokerDerk reviewed... total shiat, but I did learn a great deal about my play.

I am a visual learner and a complete tool with computers so this gives me a great opportunity to learn better about myself and my play while getting GREAT advice from a pro/trainer on PVT.
In the past I was in a few with Nick Rainey doing the commentary and providing advice and he was great in a lot of ways, but some of the things he would advise were not quite with me and I couldn't wrap my mind around some of the plays, I am a tool and couldn't get it... yet it did improve my game at the time.
I think for me to become better I need to take a little bit from many different pros and adjust my game to what feels comfortable, but to what also can make me a winning player consistently.
So PokerDerk is doing a 25 part review on a Sng I played in with 9 other PVT members, I got 2nd so I know there will be a lot of review on my play and will get a great amount of insight into fixing some leaks and improving my game. Part 1-7 came out this week, the rest to come in the following 2 weeks. I can honestly say that the new additions in pros/trainers at PVT have been great on the forums, awesome with putting out new video content and really helping to improve my game.

There is also another large 12 week contest for big prizes and I expect to at least make the finals and end up ITM in a bunch of the tournaments, as long as I don't shove 55 into AA each week. As well Derk is running a monthly SNG contest that pays cash to the top 4 and an extra HH review for the winner of which I am currently in 3rd with only 6 games played and can get an extra 280 points if I win the last 2 as you can only count 8 games played a month. I got put out early this week with QQ losing to an all in PF vs AKo. The scoreboard of the top 4 looks like this:
morrent 680 8
Torgo1575 620 7
falenangel 550 6
jujube 540 5

NOW, November so far kinda SUCKS, but it's poker and I couldn't expect to keep holding up all the time like in October. I was also playing a little overconfident lately and probably resorting back to some of the things I was doing when I was not so much a winning player but more of a break even player. So I am down a couple hundred or about 13 buy ins at my current play level. Which isn't so bad and I know it's only a short term thing... heck 4 weeks ago my BR was $1500 less than it is right now so over the long haul I am kicking some butt.

Today was fun too... some member got together on PS and played a 9 man and 6 man cash game. I got in on both and made $30 at the .10/.25NL tables which isn't to bad. Especially considering I didn't have any real strong hands. I never hit any sets, I didn't get any flushes or straights, my highest starting PP ever was only JJ and I hardly went to show down. I used some real good timing tells to realize if I could 3 barrel to make some players fold and if I should just give up on the river since they were calling me anyway. I also got away from some hands PF when I was 3bet with super quick timing tell raises. I think when the HH is reviewed by Jon Ettinger, Soccermom5 on FT, and another pro/trainer at PVT it will show that I played really smart. I won a lot of small pots and slowly grinded my way up to the $30 profit over a total of about 150 hands played. Now Jon might say I was spew crazy or he might say good plays but it's okay either way since I hardly play cash and mostly consider myself to be a SNG and MTT player.

In total now that should make about 8 times I have been in different PVT member videos and gotten advice by 3 different pros/trainers and as I go back and watch the videos again and again I can see how my play has changed and which aspects I have totally improved on as well as which leaks I still posses and hopefully change them so I can increase my win rate and cash rate. In turn increasing my ROI.

All in all the month so far has been "blah" but the great thing about it is it's only November 5th so who really cares yet. It's only 13 buy ins on one site, and 10 or so buy ins on another, so just under $250 which is a small dent in the 5K on the 2 sites combined. I look forward to the rest of the month and hopefully being as successful as last month. Mansion even sent me some extra tokens since it's my birthday month and set me up with another bonus for $50 I can play out, which is kinda cool, heck it's for free so I am not complaining.

Cheers and see you at the tables!

Best Month This Year - October

2009-10-30T22:42:00.001-07:00

The title says it all.... I have turned $50 on Full Tilt into $1500 prior to October.

With 1 day left in the month I am currently sitting at $3800... It has been great, wonderful, awesome, etc... I can't say the same for all site, but I have broken even on Mansion keeping my $50 start up capital floating around $1300 to $1600 and haven't played much on the other sites.

I have been playing to get silver iron man status for my 2nd month in a row and have been still cracking the satty's and playing $11 turbos and $14 super turbos and running pretty well.

I have used a few $26 tokens and cashed 2/2 tries in limit games and played some 7-game and HORSE games and cashed or won the tournament entry in over 50% of those.

I have also been taking advantage of all the super satty's to the FTOPS events and cashing out the T $'s to use in my SNG games. I wish I could show you some graphs or show you results from Sharkscope on myself but am too putercore ignorant for that kind of thing. Plus my PT3 graph actually shows me as a losing player because it doesn't account for satty's. So I use it primarily for stats on other players and hand reviews.

I have also started playing only 4-6 tables at a time and not trying to push my max of 8-9 tables and focus more on taking notes and colour coding other players on Full Tilt so I know what kind of table I am sitting at when I get moved or start up a SNG in the beginning and can make decisions a little quicker in the games.

I have also made time to fit playing some live poker in my schedule and have been faring well in that as well. This past weekend I chopped 1st in a SNG with friends at a local underground tournament where the "regulars" play a lot of cash games and weekly tournament, not just your average bar league donkfest anyway.

I have been watching lots of videos, practicing on ICM, playing lots of games (for me), reading lots in the forums and finished 2 poker books this month on breaks and lunch at work. My game against better players (PokerVT events) has also improved, making me think when I do start moving up in buy in levels I will stand a good chance against stronger players.

I am hesitant about the upcoming FTOPS events though.... not sure if I am ready or if I should wait for the next mini-FTOPS later this year.
I almost joined a few larger satty's and clicked register to 4 $70 satty's and won 2 of them, I woulda won 3 but I played Q3o in the BB poorly.

It was all limped to me 2 other callers and the flop was 336 with 2 hearts, I probably should of led out but I checked. MP limper bet 300, LP folds, I had 700 left (it was a super turbo) and tank called. I should have either lead out or check raised, but check calling was totally the wrong play in my mind.
Turn: was the 5h and I shoved all in, MP snap called and showed 88 with a heart...
River: Heart, I lose

He was probably calling a flop shove, he was probably calling a check shove on the flop, but by playing it the way I did the random generator gave him the hearts as well as his 8's for the win.

Maybe I am being results oriented, I mean I got it in with the best, he was most likely calling anyway and what happened was poker. But knowing the results is not my thinking, instead could I have played it differently and forced him to fold.
Or by having the cards all in on the flop instead of the turn, does he still call? Does the random generator give 2 different cards not heart, heart.... Maybe he still hits an 8 and I still lose.

Am I over thinking the hand and it's just poker and I am not winning this every time anyway. Not sure, but most hands, most games come and go, but this particular hand has been in my head for the past few days and just wanted to "get it out" and see if anybody had any thoughts.

Anyway, my kids are doing great, wife is great, job is great, not sleeping as much as I could, but there is just too little time in a day to play, study, work, eat, do family stuff, read blogs, do forums, watch videos, T.V. shows I enjoy and still fit in time for sleep. I AM a GLUTTON for punishment and sleep always seems to be the first choice to cut back on.

Okay time to take a dose of sleeping pills and get in my weekly 1 night of 12 hours of sleep and wake up in time to play some poker on Saturday and get my silver iron man status for October, of course I left it for the last minute. That's the best part of being a procrastinator, the same as when I was in school with homework or assignments or studying for test, yet I tend to perform way better under pressure.

Always working on my leaks... and I still have a lot!

2009-10-20T20:38:00.001-07:00

Fixing my leaks in a nutshell, on the fly, with a little bit of sarcasm:

Electric shock is almost the same as losing 2 deep stack buy ins in 1 night... lol

Usually the money you lose, the less you gain when you could have value raised, the more you lose when curiosity or getting married to a hand you should fold, going deep in a tourney and losing it all in 1 hand... are all forms of punishment for having big leaks.

I say call a plumber, watch more, study more, put a sign beside your computer screen telling yourself what not to do in big red letters and practice practice practice...

Nothing makes you realize what works best until you do it wrong a few times, in my case about 11 times and then some. Heck I still sometimes touch the burning stove even though I know it will hurt! (But I love that red glow so much, dang stove)

I am sure other people will have ideas but bottom line is you know what you need/want to fix so that's the starting point. After you start to fix those things you'll start to recognize other leaks and work on them too.

Lack of focus, curiosity and stubbornness are born from playing too many hands that look like garbage, if you don't change those leaks you might as well start drinking a lot and raise A3o UTG and tell yourself you have suited connectors.

Just my 2 cents, worth a penny.

Past 5 days some nice profit for me!

2009-10-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

I have been slowly growing my Bank Roll since January and very hesitant to move up in stakes.

When I did move up on Mansion a month or so ago I went from $1700 down to $1100 in like no time at all. I quickly realized I needed to improve, change some things up and drop down to the $10 limit again. I wrote myself a note and stuck next to my computer, "No more games over $10 until BR is back above $1500". Well as of this past weekend I had just reached that mark. I decided I won't start higher buy ins again just yet, I AM a BR NIT and will keep on at the $10 level on Mansion.
I made some good money playing in some 18-30 man Sng's and 9 man's, staying away from playing too many Don's. I play about 10 games a day on Mansion, just enough to keep my bonus status in check and at the end of November I will get a bonus 120K member points. Add that to the 120K I already have and the 20K I will earn over the next 5 weeks and it is enough to trade in for a cool $500.
Without rakeback on Mansion I can't complain about it since I have only gotten $120 in rakeback from Full Tilt and I have played double the games on Mansion so it is almost double the amount of rakeback FT offers. I will simply check with support before I do the trade in to make sure it's not a play it out to get the cash bonus and a straight up deposit into my account.

Well the real reason I felt the need to write this "quick", nothing is ever quick from me, blog was my recent success on Full Tilt. 5 days ago I came in 2nd in a MTT with 355 people, it was a $2 buy in, and paid a nice little profit.
On the weekend I won my 1st 45 man super turbo with a buy in of $14 and got $239 for my effort. I have been doing well at both $11- 9 man turbos and $14- 9 man super turbos as well cash a lot and getting lucky to take some down. My bankroll went from hovering around the $1900 mark a week or two ago and shot up to well above 2K during this run of luck.
Tonight I took down another, BLAM SPAM THANK YOU MAAM, for a cool $239 once again. I looked at my BR on FT and saw a pretty little amount of $2996, soooo close to the 3K mark and from playing tournaments no higher than $14+1 buy in.
I mean I play a lot of satty's and then simply un-register and use the tournament dollars to play my daily 10 games on FT.
I have 3 $26 tokens and have used a few in the past and played the $22 Double Deuce as well but haven't cashed in any of the big ones yet. Last mini FTOPS I played 1 event and went deep but busted just before the bubble, thanks for railing me during that one Nik I appreciate it.

I think I am starting to feel more confident in my game and am considering moving up to some bigger events down the road, but I don't want to play scared and my experience with the $20 and $30 tournaments on Mansion gave me either a reality check or made me a little bit "chicken".
I have tried a few satty's to bigger events on FT and won some $50 entries and cashed out, and even tried some $70 satty's too which I did win one and cashed out the $216 just the same as any larger tournament. With a larger BR now I think I can give it a try I just need some confidence and convince myself I am not going to play scared.
I think I will take it slow, but this is what I have been training for and practicing for these past 10 months. I turned $50 into $2996 on FT and $0 into $1570 on Mansion and $50 into $450 on Pokerstars, Betfair is a measly $140 but still a small profit and tiger (which I have played on as much as betfair) is at $380 agian without depositing in years except to earn extra bonuses but in very small amounts that didn't need to be done as my BR was up to $1800 when I joined PVT.

I am a winning player, I am getting better, I can actually have a chance at turning pro and playing poker for a living some day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

I started out winning live, I still do win when I play live, but the internet has opened up my game and helped me improve so much faster than live play ever could. There are a few things I can attribute the success to.
Of course training and PokerVT and all the forum discussions, reading more books, watching training videos and practicing at the tables.
But more importantly the people who took part in "smacking me in the head" with common sense and helping me to not get upset about bad beats, learn to control my emotions, giving me somebody to look up to and wish I could play as good as them.
Those people will forever be in my mind as the greatest part of my poker learning experience and I hope someday to be able to meet them, take them out for dinner, on me of course, and shake there hand and tell them face to face how grateful I am.
The biggest bummer about it all is none of them live in Canada and I will have to do a lot better and climb a lot higher on the "poker ladder" before I can achieve that goal. Yet for now I know and I hope they know how much I appreciate all of the help they provided me even if it was a little and for a short period of time it meant so much to me.
"THANK YOU"

Cheers and best wishes to you all!
All 4 of you that read my blog and don't find it a rambling bumbling waste of time. This blog has been a part of my learning and I hope it can be of some inspiration to any of you that read it.
If any pros actually take the time to read this sucker I would like think that I remind you of yourself when just starting to get serious about the game, even if I am a late bloomer who wishes he found this game 15 years ago, yet we all have our own life lessons and I have had my fair share, but that's another story!

Double Cheers and Shambone!

Playing lLive at a Casino

2009-10-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Just some random thoughts I had about playing live and things one probably should remember if they are just starting out. Don't make the same mistakes I did:

Yeah I was in the BB and was getting food and drink from a waitress, the action came to me I turned around to look at my cards and didn't have any... the dealer had dealt me in and took my cards back before I could even see them from the BB, always protect your cards!

Plus even if you won a pot, don't toss your cards into the dealer or muck until they pass the chips to you that way you shouldn't have any disputes.

Another time I thought after I bet that nobody had called and tossed in my cards waiting for the pot. The dealer turned and gave them to the guy sitting on there right as they had called but didn't say it out loud only pushed in the chips and they were blocked by the dealers arm so I didn't know they had even called. I lost the pot because of that mistake.

If you get nervous and start feeling sick, like at the final table, just ask the floor man to bring a garbage pail over, you don't want to miss any hands at the final table by running off to puke in the bathroom. Then drink some ginger ale it's good for the tummy and nerves...

Don't ever show any cards unless they pay to see them, no matter how proud you are of the hands you hit or was dealt, even bluffs...

Study other players especially when the do certain things out of the ordinary, if you get to see there cards mark it in your head if it was a bluff or a strong hand and if they do it again in a pot vs you, decide accordingly if you can steal the pot or value bet/raise or fold and be happy you made the right choice based on your reads.

Most people are always acting, if they act strong they are weak, if they act weak they are strong... If they talk like a pro, they might just be, if the complain about bad beats they are most likely a fish.

I usually talk so much I put somebody on tilt, usually the people drinking alcohol, and can take advantage of them trying to play back at me or bust me when I have the nuts or super strong hands when they are super marginal and would have folded if it wasn't for the urge to "take me down, felt me"

Cheers!

This past weekend!

2009-10-18T19:07:00.000-07:00

I play the same on the weekend as I do during the week, tight early and looser late when blinds and antes kick in.

I got 4th in $2 355 man MTT yesterday, I cash in sng's about the same as Friday.

I realize that I am getting called looser on the weekend and play smart in position and extra tight out of position.

I let people steal my blinds early and 3 bet them later on.

There is no real secret except to not let the bad beats effect your game, don't start playing looser trying to incorporate for the donkeys, just play solid poker and the game will even out the chips in your favor in the long run.

I do find when I am doing bad, I play worse and usually need to take a break and walk away. Heck even when I am winning I need to take a break to ensure it all doesn't go to my head.

I don't play 1 specific type of game either, I play 9 man turbos, 9 man super turbos, 10 man Don's, 18-90 small MTT/sng's, and large MTT's. All at the same time, I find that this way there is always something going on to keep me interested and focused as I need to watch the style on each type of game in a slightly different manner and play accordingly.

Not sure if that is wise for other people but it seems to work for me, as I try to figure out which game I should focus more on and specialize in towards the future as I begin to increase my buy in levels.

Also I am a super tight bankroll nit and losing a bunch in a row doesn't hurt me too much so it effects me mentally a lot less as well. With a 1,500 BR on one site and a 2,300 BR on another I am still playing $10 buy ins on both.

I am at the $3 buy in with a $400 BR on another site.

I also go back and watch videos done by our trainers here on PVT when I am going through a losing streak of sorts to help me realize where I am going wrong it it's more than just bad beats.

Wow, I find it's exactly the opposite....

During the week, I break even or win small, or lose small. But on the weekends I tend to do very well throughout each month.

Friday night I was up $190, and Saturday up another $180.

However I tend to only play a little on Pokerstars at the moment since I get rake back and bonuses on Full tilt and Mansion. I save Pokerstars for PVT tournaments and when I have met my daily quota on other sites.

GL at the tables, the variance train is coming around for a one-way ticket to "OMG'sville"

Cheers!

Edit: Sunday was the same, only played a few games a bunch of satty's then unregistered took the tournament $'s and played more sng's.

Then played 3 $14 super turbos, 1 was a 45 man and 2-9 man also 3 $11 turbos all 9 man.

Took down the 45 man for $239 and 1 of the $11 for $49.

$78 invested, $278 won = $200 profit.

That's a total of $570 for the weekend.

Cheers! Variance rules when you suck out.

Came in 11th in the bounty tournament on PokerVT and bubbled many sng's this weekend, otherwise it could have been way more profitable weekend.
Cheers!

Goals Review

2009-10-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

The following were the goals I gave myself back on February 16th, 2009. One month after joining PokerVT.com and Pokerstrategy. I am now going to comment on each goal individually and see where I am and provide the reason, in my mind as to why I have or haven't accomplished them. If not completed is it realistic by year end or was I simply dreaming.

This post is does not have humour in it as I would like but it is a serious look at my poker progress this year, sorry for the boring read.

Cheers!

All input is greatly welcome both positive and negative, I need to be realistic and not a "tool" if I have any chance at becoming a better poker player.

1. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on FullTilt past $100 and begin $2 sng's, and progressively increase the limit played by $1 per $50 increase to bankroll.
Completed, currently playing $11 turbos and $14 super turbos, with a bankroll of $2,300.00 with a couple tokens and some tournament $'s. Over 1,600 games played.

2. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Mansionpoker past $100 and begin $2 sng's.
Completed, currently playing $11 turbos and don's, with a bankroll of $1,500.00. I was up as high as $1,700.00 but was losing at $20 and $30 down to $1,100.00, so I moved back down to the $10 level. Over3,000 games played.

3. to cashout $1000. from my tiger gaming account to get a new computer set up for larger amounts of play and to increase the sites I currently can log into and play on.
Completed, "the old dinasaur" is long gone in the trash and I purchased a new system for myself and my children so they could never use and screw up "Daddy's" computer. I have named her "Bertha".

4. to deposit $50 into and to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Betfair past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
Completed, I am at $150.00 on Betfair and am playing $3 turbos mostly Don's, but I hardly ever play on that site as there is not much game selection. To be honest I only joined Betfair because of Annette, but am slowly losing my "awe" for her and have only played in one tournament with her. She was not at my table either. 50 games played.

5. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Pokerstars past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
Completed, I am at $450.00 and am playing $3 turbos and all PokerVT tournaments that I have time for. Not playing that much only just over 200 games played.

6. a) to play 1-5$ sng's and MTT's to increase my bankroll on Tiger gaming past $500 and begin $10 sng's and MTT's,
Not completed, I have $400.00 in my account and haven't played much at all on the site all year except for member point free rolls. I will be returning to play as the year runs down to build my bankroll a little.

b) I am permitted to transfer funds between poker sites to increase the limit of play on each if I am able to expand my bankroll to over $1000 on any given site, then $500 will be transferred.
Not done or completed, as I have decided that I will not transfer funds between sites because the sites I play little on don't need more money in the accounts and I am debating just playing up to the minimum withdrawal amount and taking out the funds and limiting my play to fewer sites which offer better bonuses.

7. to continue to expand my poker skills and knowledge by broadening my chances to learn.
a) stay with PokerVT for the next 11 months and continue to learn, watch all videos 2x, and 5 times for videos about Sng and MTT's, participate in member tournys. Decide after 1 year if I want to continue.
Completed, I have watched every video on the site, except the math, twice. Some videos I have watched 4-5 times and some videos almost 10 times. I have played in every PVT member tourney I could, and won the leader board in the Sng challenge, won some FNF's and beat a trainer on the site for bonus money. My membership fees are taken care of until January 2010 at the moment. At this point I feel I will be staying for another year.

b) begin learning through PokerStrategy, reading all the articles and materials available to me, taking advantage of rake back programs currently unavailable to me.
Since I already had an existing Full Tilt account I couldn't get rake back, did apply through rake back pros and now receive it through them but I do get rake back on Betfair and will be able to get it on other sites in the future if wanted. I have watched many videos and read many articles. But there are too many videos to watch them all without having playing time and living a life and going to work. They do offer many programs for members to use that assist in improving your game including ICM games which I practice on regularly.

c)to take poker seriously, not just a hobby anymore, expand in as many areas possible and listen to my advisors and follow there advice. To purchase some poker software to expand my ability to play the game. i.e. PT3, Pokerstove, SnG Power tools or SnG wizard, universal player for now.
UMMM, I am a putercore ignorant tool... lol yes I am! I have purchased PT3 and have a great HUD but am not able to use it for all it's other great assets. I got universal player but couldn't get it to work, and out of frustration deleted it from my computer. I didn't bother with SnG Wizard because I was worried it would be the same thing as the universal player. I haven't done table ninja or poker short cuts because I haven't gone past the 6-8 tables at a time and can manage that much on my own without extra programs, for now. I suck with computers and know how to use e-mail and play poker, write this blog, navigate forums and watch videos. Thanks to Derek, PokerDerk, I have recently learned how to send in HH to get reviews.

8. begin expanding into 45 and 90 person sng's as I have done well with MTT's on Tiger gaming which are usually between 30-150 entries.
Completed, I play 45 mans on Pokerstars, 90 mans on Full Tilt, 18-50 mans on Mansion, as well as MTT's on many of the sites when I have time to play for over 3-7 hrs. I also got in a lot of free roll practice as I built my BR

9. to qualify in the top 10 of the SNG 10 wk Contest and play at the final table on PokerVT.
Completed, I came in 1st after the 10 week contest and finished 4th in the final's. I also was only member to win FNF's 2 times and get to play a trainer HU for bonus cash.

10. to not make a fool of myself on the forums or in the chat box on the larger sites now that I have begun playing on them, and hopefully not here on my blog... hehehe.
Not really completed, I am a tool and have made some mistakes, but I call them like I see them. As it turns out I have not been disrespectful and my opinions have been close to accurate about some people as time eventually proved. I also am able to admit when I am wrong, and recognize the need to improve in many areas.

11. to increase at least 1 level of buy in for SnG's and MTT's each 2 months on any of the sites.
Completed, went from $1 - $2 - $3 on 5 of the sites, then to $5 - $6 - $10 on two of the sites, up to $14 on FT.

12. to increase at least 2 level of buy in for MTT's and SNG's for all 5 sites within 12 months.
Completed, as explained above in #11.

14. to reread 4 poker books in my collection and purchase 4 new poker books and read them.
Not completed, I have purchased 3 new books, and read 2 of them. I also purchased "Fooled by Randomness" and "The world is flat" and read 1 of those. I have also started reading more poker articles on line as well as picked up a prescription for 1 year with Bluff magazine.

15. to increase my multi-tabling ability, for now 3 at a time, 30 tournaments a day at the proper bankroll mangement level on any of my given poker rooms, and only go out of the bankroll comfort zone for PokerVT member tournaments or events related to PokerVT.
I guess this one wasn't measurable per say, but I have gotten up to 6-8 tables at a time with comfort and try to get up to 10 at a when the buy in is low. I have played like a super ubber nit when it comes to BR management.

16. when I begin playing larger amounts of money on FullTilt, if possible, look into getting the rake back as I was not aware of it when I signed up a month ago or sign up a new account with a rake back affiliate on a site I have yet to create an account on, rake back is very important.
I get rake back for Betfair through pokerstrategy and Fulltilt through rakebackpros, it took time and patience but it finally went through. I can also get rakeback on any new accounts through pokerstrategy as well.

17. be willing to adjust my goals if suggested by instructers that a different or more realistic approach may be needed, as well as open to criticism.
Didn't get much feedback, but looking back I realize I set my goals very very low and was able to accomplish most or all of them already. Next year I will have to increase the goals I set for myself. I don't know if these goals are appropriate with the long term goal of having a chance at going professional or playing on a professional level in 3-5 years. I would love any and all feedback as pertains to this goal specifically as well as all the rest.

18. at my current account balance level, to also continue to play 10-20 online freerolls per day. At least until all the beginner bonuses for Free tourneys has expired.
Comleted, and after finding out that playing free rolls on Full Tilt actually affect my rakeback I only play free rolls on Pokerstars anymore and have almost completely eliminated my "free roll habit", I do have a very addictive personality.

I hope to become a professional poker player within the next 3-5 years, after building enough bankroll to pay the bills for 2 years and still have enough to play and have a 1 year bad run/loosing streak at the higher levels.
Never to forget that a sound strategy and ability to encompass as much information as possible into my game play will be my ticket to happiness.
I am forever learning and have done a lot to try to improve and work on my game and leaks. I will continue to remember what my main goal is and do everything in my power to achieve the long term goal of going pro in 3-5 years.

Cheers! I do hope to get some input and even suggestions towards other goals that I could give myself to work on in the future and advice where these goals above were pathetic or reasonable and anything else you can think of.

Double Cheers and Thanks in advance!

Revisiting Goals from January 2009

2009-10-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Well it's about time I revisit the goals I set for myself in January or February, whichever, for this year. I have about 2 1/2 months left to try to accomplish what I had set out for myself just 9 months or so ago. It seems like a lifetime ago in terms of how much better I have gotten playing poker but at the same time I have so much more still to learn.
I set these goals for myself when I was still ignorant to how much improving I really had to do. Remember I thought I was a 7-8 out of 10 on the poker scale, but quickly learned from PVT that I was really at about a 3-4. I might, maybe have moved up the scale to about a 5 out of 10 by now but it will be very interesting to see how I have done with the goals I set for myself back at the beginning of the year.
I have learned a lot about studying, playing, understanding the game. Proper bankroll management, to the point of being a "nit" but at the same time have had to move back down buy in levels on 1 of the sites because I started losing too much money when I moved up and hit a bad run of cards and started playing poorly. A couple of the sites I have ignored and hardly played more than 100 games on, it that much. While 2 of the sites I have played over 2K games on and 4K games respectively, which is a lot for a part time poker player, at least I think so.
Some of the goals I may have forgotten about and it is good to review them and see where I went wrong and possibly where I was a moron for even thinking I could accomplish them.
I am also going to have to get back to my "home site" to have a chance to win another free year of training on PVT... Heck why pay for what you can get for free with a little bit of extra effort!
So to make a long story longer, I am going to post my original goals in the forum on PVT and allow other members to have a chance to laugh at me or offer advice, yet it will force me to focus on completing them by years end and move me one step closer to my 3-5 year plan of having a chance at maybe becoming a professional poker player, if there is ever the chance of such a thing happening for me...
I still am a complete computer moron, ignorant tool, who should be using more programs and software to increase my skill, but at the same time I accept my inability to use such devices and try to focus on the things that I can work on to improve my game. Like reading books, participating in the forums discussing HH's, watching videos on poker, practicing and playing many games at different buy levels along with different variations of games on many different sites. On top of that participating in member tournaments against people with a higher skill level than your average player on line which totally forces me to focus and identify leaks in my game and admit them so I can improve as I play against other players. Having some HH's reviewed in training videos have also showed me where I make mistakes and aid in giving me a chance to work on that as well. I realize I am more aggressive than the average bear which can help at times and crush me at other times. Changing gears is a skill I need to work on more as well.
All in all playing on line with way way less live play has been a great learning tool and given me a chance to play and learn so much more than I could have in a brick and mortar casino.
So here I go, in the next day or so I am going to post my old goals and then respond to where I am on each of them with 2 1/2 months left in the year to accomplish said goals. I am sure some will be out of my reach, some unrealistic, some not complete do to being lazy on my part and some surpassed. But by putting them out there for all of the forum members to see, I force myself to work harder and open myself to criticism both positive and negative.
Cheers all!

Grinding, Variance and boy do I need to work on my Game!

2009-10-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

So I was doing well at the $5 Don's on Ipoker, moved up to the $10 Don's and was also doing well... had my $50 starting capital up as high as $1700... but then I tried moving up to the $20 and $30 Don's, BIG MISTAKE!!! I started losing money like leaves blowing in the wind on a fall day. Maybe variance said NO BUDDY you aren't moving up yet... and decided to slap a black ball on any cards I had. The god of the turn and river, usually great friends, joined in to ensure that my hands wouldn't hold up. Plus any of the suckouts I was providing went away and haven't come back for over 4 weeks. I think my dead cat abandoned me for a feline he saw at the Zoo a month ago when I took my kids.
I got as low as $1000 and decided that I am obviously not ready for the jump in games and my Bankroll was feeling pretty sick about the $700 downsing. Now I am back at the $10 games playing both Sng's and Don's on Ipoker and have rebounded back up to just under $1300. I think this time I will wait until I break $2000 before trying to move back up in the buy in levels.
I also re-watched a lot of training videos and worked on an ICM game which hopefully brought my focus back into effect. I still can't work the re-player so review of my HH's is difficult for me at this time.

Derk, a PVT pro, did a review of 2 of my Don games and boy did I play like a fool, fish, donkey, monkey who was just randomly clicking buttons. I am not sure if it was just the 2 worst HH's I sent him or not but I am sure it made me realize I have a lot of work to do if I plan on still playing the Don's. Lot's of forum searching for answers on PVT, pokerstrategy and 2p2 to see what else I can think about and improve to increase my play at the tables.

I saw a few posts from some people I used to think were "idols" and lost some respect for the comments and life choices they made and are making. Also jumping to conclusions about things they didn't have full facts on was just plain ignorance on a level I have seen too often in this world. We all make mistakes, we all make our own choices and other peoples opinions sometimes makes us do or act in ways we might not of if we had only thought about consequences ahead of time. No need for the long/whole story but I am sure you kind of get what I mean.

I am finally starting to fully accept that my brother is gone, for good, for real and am trying to appreciate the things in life that matter most to me... family, poker, food, poker, love, poker, lol.
My wife and my mother want me to try for a baby girl... yes that's what I said a baby girl. I already have 3 boys am still paying of my college loan (still 1/5 left but almost gone) and there is no guarantee that my female sperm will win the race against my boy sperms this time. I guess I am destined to have a big family not be rich, unless I break through in the poker world and enjoy my family time even more, like for an extra 19 more years minimum. My doctor said my chances of having a girl are like 1-4 but no promises since my male sperm obviously swim faster.

I am almost finished reading another poker book by Sklansky and am moving on to one written by Gus Hansen, the great Dane... hope it makes me open my thoughts to ways of deeper thinking about the game. Reading Bluff magazine in spare time (bathroom breaks) and watching many videos gives me lots of thought about how I have been playing lately.

It's almost year end and I am going to have to go back and give those tourneys a few more tries on my "home" poker site to win another year membership at PokerVt :) ... it's hard to complain about things that are free in life, especially when they have been as inspirational as PVT has.
Haven't played much on tigergaming lately and my BR sits around $400, same for Betfair with a dismal $150 BR, on Full Tilt I just recently passed the $2000 mark and have been playing $11 and $14 Sng's with many satty's taking the shot at a few $70 satty's that pay a $216 seat. On Poker Stars I just recently won the PVT weekly Sunday bounty tournament and have just over $400 on it's BR which is pretty good considering I really only play free rolls and PVT events on that site.
So from $50 X 5 sites $250 total I am up to about $4150 in total BR's playing pretty much only part time at nights and on weekends. I made silver iron man on Full Tilt last month for the 15K free roll and made one a day free roll as well which plays next weekend. I came in 19th in the Pokerstars Fox challenge to be on a show with Daniel N, which is just 9 spots out of making a chance to send in an audition tape (so close yet so far). On tiger I am going to win another free year at PVT, I know I will, by the end of December if I start in the next couple of weeks that will give me 10 chances to come in 1st and earn the membership again, last year I won it on the last week in Dec. Betfair doesn't have much to offer and doesn't run many great events or free rolls or anything so I am not going to put much into that site for a while still. On Mansion I almost have enough points to cash in for a bonus $500, so I'll probably do it around X-mas time as a nice little BR boost gift to myself.

Looking forward to next weekend the kids and I are going to Canada's Wonderland, then it's to the parents house for a nice Turkey feast and Pumpkin Pie for Canadian Thanksgiving. Then my younger brother's birthday the week after, then Halloween the week after, then my birthday for and nice cap to the next month or so. Looking forward to lots of food, family and presents.

I want to send out a quick thanks to my friends in other countries... you all know who you are, I appreciate all your kind words and advice during the past while and I wish you all the best. I am also looking forward to a big score soon in a big MTT and plan on sending you some "bonuses" for all your help when I do, Thanks! You are the Man!

Cheers and see you all at the tables!

Hey I think my cat just came back, he smells a little like Cougar... he must have dipped into my supply of Extenze before he took of with some of those cats at the Zoo!

Same old, Same OLD!

2009-09-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

So I have been working full time and playing poker each night for over a month or so now. My Bankrolls are slowly moving up on some sites and slowly moving down on others, not moving at all on a couple sites. Each day seems to be a repetition of the day before...
I finished playing out all bonuses on Mansion and am working on some on Full Tilt now. Playing anywhere from 20-30 games each evening. Watching training videos and trying to play my best. Loving when I suck out and hating when I am coollered. Yet it all seems to happen over and over again. I am around $1600. on both Mansion and Full Tilt, $400 on Tiger, $240 on Poker stars and $150 on Betfair, not sure if I am going to do my regular updates as per the past or just write a simple few paragraphs once or twice a week.
I am going to review my goals around November and try to ensure I meet most of the "realistic" ones that I set for myself back in January. I am playing many different games on all the sites and not really sticking to one type for now, at buy in levels ranging from $2-$14 depending on which site I happen to be playing on.
I am reading Theory of Poker right now and really trying to get a "grip" on ICM and push fold ranges. Not to mention still trying to break my free roll habit, I suck like that. Spending hours and hours playing for such little reward is starting to bother me when if it was a real cash buy in I would be making it to the money so much more since free roll payouts are the worst % for any online poker tournament there is.
My baseball men's 19+ team is out and done for the season. My mixed 35+ team is playing in the Championship game next week. I am also spending a lot of time re-watching lost seasons 1 through 4 in my extra spare time.
Not much more to say except same old, same old...
Cheers Everybody and best of luck at the tables!

Training and PokerVT

2009-08-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

Finding your leaks and working on them is one of the largest assets in becoming a better player that has helped to improve my own personal game.

I used to play 1 table at a time, without any software and just for fun, not caring about bankroll management and thought that I could play as a pro some day from that alone. On a scale of 10 I considered myself a 7-8 and felt I was far superior to anybody I sat down against in live ring games and tournaments.

PVT has shown me how wrong I was, I was actually a 3 out of 10.

I now watch videos weekly, use tracking programs, ICM programs, poker stove, try to work on my leaks as best I can with my limited putercore knowledge.
I follow proper super nitty bankroll management, read the forums a lot and am comfortably up to 6 tables at a time.

Before PVT I played maybe 300 games online in 3 years, since joining in January I have played just over 3500 games online and try to get in at least 100 games per week, along with training and finding and fixing my leaks.

I too work full time and take a few days off for personal entertainment outside of the "poker world" I think my chances of some day becoming a pro are way more realistic than they were prior to joining PVT and the kick ass training it provides.

Also learning from other venues doesn't hurt, training via pokerstrategy and reading poker magazines like Bluff also adds to how much I think and try to increase my level of play. Full Tilt Academy is another place I have recently started to explore. Of course reading more and different books on poker from many authors perspectives was all I used to have, I still do this as well.

Cheers!

13th Update

2009-08-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Well a bunch of the same old same old, playing out bonuses on Mansion and Full Tilt at the moment. Learning that variance is a fickle biatch, played won and lost, played some more, trained, played, trained, played, lost and won and lost some more.

Dealing with the death of my brother and back at work so poker is going slow only able to play in my spare time. A few more weeks left of soccer and baseball and then I will be able to play more during the week on my SnG game. Haven't played many multi-tables as of late and still seem to have a strong addiction to free rolls.

Almost totally quit smoking... NOT, I put off quitting for a few weeks until I can get a grip on life. I played a bunch of Sng's in the Full Tilt madness promotion and found one of the new sng pros from PokerVT at my table, abarone68, dang he is solid and I now I have soo much more to learn and will find that having many different instructors to be very helpful.

Also PokerDerk is starting a new Sng contest for the members and I look forward to playing in some of the games and taking my shot at making it into the top of the members.

Along with the weekly Bounty tournament I believe PokerVT to be a great asset to learning and training while working on my game.

Pokerstrategy.com has also been a great help with the many many videos available and the live coaching that goes on daily. I have also been playing around with some ICM trainer programs they have available to members and feel all of it will totally help to improve my game.

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1581.30, now at $1557.81 with 3 $26 tokens
Tournaments played: Buy in of $8 games or less.
#- 145 (approx.)
$- 55 (approx.)
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 892

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $269.94, currently at $281.12 with 1 Rd two ticket to Free roll.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 50
$- 8
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 192, I don't think they count free rolls

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $163.55, currently at $166.10
Tournaments played: Buy in of $11 or less.
#- 5
$- 3
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 55
SnG total games played in 2009, according to sharkscope-26

Mansion: falenangel, last update $1187.32, currently at $1303.04,
Buy in of $5 or less.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 450 (approx.)
$- 210 (approx.)
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 2440

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $329.74, currently at $416.75
Tournaments played: Free rolls only, member point buy in.
#-4
$- 3
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on shark scope, approx. 115- 165. Over 555 lifetime.

Cheers!

Shark Scope is still not at the top of there tracking games.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 1/day
Hours spent watching other players at my buy in levels: 1/day
Hours spent working on blog: 1 hour in the last 4 weeks
Hours spent playing: 2/day average, if you count the weekend all nighters'! :)

Days off: Wednesday and Thursday.

Still enjoying the junk food of take out and not cooking at home so much. Healing from my pulled leg muscles, as I seem to re-pull them every time I am running to first base or am chasing down fly balls. Looking forward to play offs and my mixed league team has a strong chance of winning it all. My all guy team, well that's another story.

Don't forget if you haven't checked it out to go to Poker strategy, the link is on the right of the blog. They have "free" training and videos, live coaching, programs, rake back, $5o free starting capital as well as many monthly promotions. All of which can only help you progress as a poker player and improve your game.

PokerVT is also a great place to check out as it is continually adding new pros with lots of different insight to playing and improving your game.

My old favorite coach has also started a new training site for free.

Cheers! See you at the tables and best of luck, just not against me!

Only 38 years old.

2009-08-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

I was going to do an update today, but instead I am simply going to do a short blog saying how I am feeling and why.

I am confused, upset, sad, frustrated, disoriented, flustered, in shock, sick to my stomach, unfocused, spaced out and extremely sorry.

I got a phone call from my parents a few hours ago, at around 11:00pm... my older brother went to sleep last night, Friday August 7th, 2009, and did not wake up.

Jonathan,

I want you to know, wherever you are, that I love you and I miss you.
My kids are going to miss there Uncle Jon a lot and I my brother.
You were a wonderful person, a great older brother who taught me a lot about life during some difficult times. We had a lot of fun and memorable experiences that I will keep with me forever.
I would never have become the person I am today if not for having you to be there for me so many, many times.
I know you are in a special place and I will see you again someday.

Goodbye Jon, my brother my friend.

12th Update

2009-07-24T11:21:00.001-07:00

Well not too much to say as of late, played won and lost, played some more, trained, played, trained, played, lost and won.

The hangover was a very funny movie and glad I had a chance to see it at the movies.

Baseball was great this week I played solid and won and went 4 for 4. My legs are feeling better. Kids are away for a week with the parents, thank you for the parents and weekly summer visits, they are having lots of fun at the lake riding the jet ski and playing up at the cottage roasting marshmallows each night.

Almost totally quit smoking, starting back to work full time as of tomorrow, and my brother is still not talking to me re: an argument we had during a home game. Also haven't been invited to that home game in over 5 weeks since the "heated discussion"... lol, I apologized for my part and now he simply needs to take some ownership of his own.

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1258.29, now at $1581.30 with $51.65 in tournament $'s, 2 $26 tokens
Tournaments played: Buy in of $8 games or less.
#- 60
$- 20
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 650

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $263.40, currently at $269.94 with 1 Rd two ticket to Free roll.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 14
$- 3
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 184

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $156.64, currently at $163.55
Tournaments played: Buy in of $11 or less.
#- 5
$- 2
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 50
SnG total games played in 2009, according to sharkscope-25

Mansion: falenangel, last update $1066.94, currently at $1187.32,
Buy in of $5 or less.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 150 (approx.)
$- 65 (approx.)
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 1944

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $323.94, currently at $329.74
Tournaments played: Free rolls only, member point buy in.
#-6
$- 6
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on shark scope, approx. 110- 160. Over 550 lifetime.

Cheers!

Shark Scope is not at the top of there tracking games as it does not show my 2nd place in the $2 MTT for a $240 win, or my razz $1 MTT 4th place for $48 but all is good my bankrolls are still slowly moving up and I am working on my game at a few different levels and trying to get all of my bankrolls above 1K on each site, though it will be hard in the short term on bet fair and tiger since I have been playing very little on them and I will have to select certain larger MTT buy in and hope to score and get a big cash as playing mult table sng's on those 2 sites will be hard as the low amount of members playing on the sites.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2/day
Hours spent watching other players at my buy in levels: 1/day
Hours spent working on blog: 1 hour in the last two weeks
Hours spent playing: 4-5/day

Day off: Wednesday and Thursday. Lots of T.V watching, rented movies and trips outdoors.

Gained some weight recently eating a lot of take out and portions that are big enough for a tiger, but such is life and I am loving it!

Cheers! See you all around.

Bonuses and Training!... Love it!

2009-07-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Well I have received 44, $5 tournament tokens from Mansion on top of the $400 cash on top of the $200 points bonus for a total of almost $800 in the past 3 weeks... of course this is all on top of the original $50 start up capital deposit from pokerstrategy and never having had to put a single penny into this online poker platform myself!!! Check out the link to pokerstrategy just on the right of my blog, it is "sick" worth the time and effort, I mean $50 free USD cash put into a poker room of your choice, rakeback available at many other sites they are linked up with, monthly promotions and leader boards at all of the different poker rooms, free strategy training articles and videos and live coaching sessions, a monsterous forum, great support to get help, free training software programs and much much more, just check out the link on the right hand side of my blog. YOU CAN NEVER GET ENOUGH TRAINING AND LEARNING... ESPECIALLY FOR FREE!!! It's a win win situation and worth the time to investigate a little further.
This month they also have a leader board for members at 3 different poker rooms on top of the regular member leader board. I wouldn't have believed it but at Mansion poker alone I am up to over $1,100. in my current playing bankroll without ever having to deposit a penny of my own money, plus I get rakeback from a few other sites thanks to them.

PokerVT is also the greatest single inspirational training tool I have ever come accross!!! It is totally worth all the money for a year membership and have top notch pros providing videos, forum support, and weekly tournament promotions for all it's members. Without PokerVT I would not have ever considered the fact that I have a chance at actually someday becoming a pro poker player, I would never have started this blog, I would never have given myself goals, I would never have chosen a 3-5 year plan to becoming a poker pro, I would still be playing as if poker was just a fun hobby and withdrawling my winnings on a monthly basis and spending it on having fun in life. Now my chance to have fun in life playing poker is beyond my original expectations and I can place the sole thanks to Daniel, Jason, Jon, Josh, Adam, Nick, Grayson, Bryan, etc, etc... The staff are great, funny and friendly especially Gary, Matt and Lyell which make navigating the forum one of the most enlightening experiences on my journey. Let alone the many members who have tremendous insight into poker theory and continue to enlighten me on a weekly basis. Cheers and good luck to all of them who played well at the WSOP this year, especially Mike Jansen who is going on to Day 5 with over 700K in chips, has made the money and a regular contributing member to the PokerVT forum!!! Go ulitimatemike Go!!!

I went to see Ice Age 3 with my youngest boy and many of his friends for his 5th birthday this week had a great time, also took them to Wild Water Kingdom on Friday which was a great fun time for the family.
I recomend seeing the movie "Knowing" with Nicholas Cage that just came out on DVD this week and think it was a very well thought out movie in the way it was presented to the viewer.

Pulled my hamstring again... LOL at baseball this past week, but had fun, so cheers!

My younger brother is still mad at me for an argument we had 3 weeks ago but whatever... I said sorry and he needs to take ownership for his part too.

As of yesterday I have my current online poker room totals of all my bankrolls, which lest we forget started at $50 for most sites and $100 at betfair, witht he $5o at Mansion coming from pokerstrategy and not my own pocket so here they are!

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1226.74, now at $1258.29 with $63.55 in tournament $'s, 1 $26 token
Tournaments played: Buy in of $6 games or less.
#- 25
$- 5
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 613

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $268.90, currently at $263.40 with 1 Rd two ticket to Free roll.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 8
$- 1
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 180

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $153.85, currently at $156.64
Tournaments played: Buy in of $3 or less.
#- 1
$- 1
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 45
SnG total games played in 2009, according to sharkscope-20

Mansion: falenangel, last update $324.82, currently at $1066.94, 44-$5 tokens.
Buy in of $5 or less.
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 240 (approx.)
$- 130 (approx.)
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 1603

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $317.74, currently at $323.94
Tournaments played: Free rolls only, member point buy in.
#-8
$- 8
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on shark scope, approx. 100- 150. Over 540 lifetime.

Cheers!

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2/day
Hours spent watching WSOP live stream: 1/day
Hours spent watching other players at my buy in levels: 1/day
Hours spent working on blog: 1 hour in the last two weeks
Hours spent playing: 4-5/day

Day off: Wednesday and Thursday. Lots of T.V watching, rented movies and trips outdoors. Didn't go to the batting cage at all in the past few weeks. Also whole bunch of late night poker viewing..., Poker After Dark, live PKR stream on the WSOP! In the past few weeks Jason (Jcarver) and Juan Carlos both PVT pros placed very high in WSOP events both claiming just under 200K for there efforts, Cheers and well done guys. Repeated this stuff as I felt it very important to say congrats to the pros at PokerVT.

See you all at the tables and best of luck, just not against me!

Cheers and Shambone!

Bankroll Nit

2009-07-07T20:36:00.000-07:00

I have been trying real hard to take care of my bankrolls on all the sites I play. I have kept at lower limits and have started learning all of the games of poker a little better. I cashed in a razz free roll on Full tilt, almost cashed in a Omaha hi free roll and Omaha high low split free roll on Tilt as well. I got a round 2 ticket in Omaha high low on Poker stars and am reading up on all the games once again.
Bryan (Devo) from PokerVT has been doing a lot of videos as of late on the different games and it has improved my learning and thinking about those games. If you are going to be a successful poker player you need to learn and become skilled at all the different games in poker.
I am finished playing the Double Up leader board on Mansion for the past 4 weeks and earned a bonus of 35 $5 Double Up tokens which I am waiting to be credited into my account. I started playing normal sit and goes again today and was down at first coming back to win my final 3 games and ending the day a little up. Mansion also credited my bankroll with $400 for getting 2nd on the low stakes tournament leader board in June!!
My legs are feeling a lot better and I look forward to playing baseball this week, along with the 3 more Fulltilt fantasy free rolls I earned placing into via my fantasy picks in the player pool. I ended up the WSOP with 1216th place and feel it was pretty good for not knowing half of the people available. I will be better prepared next year as I pick more and learn more about all the players out there.
I watched transformers at the theatre this week, it was good but not great, I am pretty picky about films and feel it could have been done a lot better with most of the fight scenes being a little fast and blurry in details. My son David Jr. turns 5 next week and we'll be taking him and a group of his friends to a movie theatre party to see Ice Age 3-D, which is what he chose to do over going to Chuckie cheese or any other venue available.
Played some sattys on full tilt and came out $20 tourney dollars ahead of my last weeks total and have decided to keep playing some free rolls as I learn the new games and continue playng my final bonus on Mansion poker.
I will give an update on all my bankrolls later on and decided to do it only 1 time per month instead of weekly or bi-weekly since it takes away from my playing time. In the short I have 2 sites over 1K and 2 sites close to or just over $300 and betfair... well betfair doesn't offer enough variety and tournaments to make it worth playing too much at the moment and took 2 extra weeks just to give me a promotional bonus on there casino. I played Deal or no Deal and made a bonus $8... lol, mostly I have played 6 man sng's and a few tournaments and basically broke even with a small profit.
I am not looking forward to returning to work, period! Not much more to say about that, I have enjoyed all the extra time for training and improving my poker game and was just about ready to start playing a lot more and build my bankrolls.
Looking forward to the new videos on PokerVT especially since all three authors this week are people I enjoy watching, Jason, Tanatloc and Bryan (Devo). On Pokerstrategy I have watched all the beginner and bronze level SnG videos, read all the artilces at the same level and watched a lot of live coaching with certain pros on no limit and limit cash games and tournaments. I am starting into the silver and will soon be downloading the ICM software to pracitce and learn push shove ranges that are correct based on the table image and chip stacks. I almost wish I was still a little sick so I could continue training and playing full time, but I am not and work will be an experience and a half that I will have to get used to all over again. Then play at night and on weekends while squeezing in time for training and giving sleep up for the chance to continue my 3-5 year plan.
Cheers to all and see you at the tables where I wish you all the luck... except against me!

10th Update, moving slowly along...

2009-06-28T18:51:00.000-07:00

Okay the last few weeks have been a blurr... I am sleeping not so well, eating way too much and getting ready to go back to work full time! Watching lots of movies, too much T.V., as many training videos as I can, playing some sports but not much due to my leg injuries and viewing a lot of live streams on the WSOP (especially if it has any of the pros from PVT or Pokerstrategy or pro players that I enjoy watching.

Played in a charity poker event this past weekend $40 rebuy with add on and had 170 entrants, I placed 15th and felt I got "ripped off" by a complaining idiot who waited until the river to claim "false deal" after he saw he had lost. The table then gave him a new burn and turn with a new burn and river his 99 still lost to my 10 10 and I should have gotten all of his chips. This guy just kept complaining and complaining until the table gave in and let him have a split pot. I swear I will never play a cheap, unregulated charity tournament ever again as long as crap like that can go on. In a real casino he would have been bust, sending all of his chips to me and I would have had a comanding chip lead with 23 players left in the event. The same guy bet out of turn later in the event and via the rules the table declared that he was forced to check when it came to him since he played out of turn, he shoves all in on the river and gets called by AQ with the Q hitting the river, the board was 246JQ and he shows K2... then he complains that it was the tables fault for declaring that he had to check the turn and stormed off the table cursing and pointing at me... LOL suck my asss you moronic fool who obviously sucked at poker!

My oldest boy graduated grade 8 and had his ceremony this past week, lots of fun and I am proud of my growing "giant" of a boy. He received an award for his athletic contributions on many different teams and with a 99.9995% in math, which he gets from his father, barely missed the award for mathmatecs.

My younger boys finished a session of swimming, start another this coming weekend and played well during soccer. The coach puts them on at different times to make sure they don't compete with each other and are able to better focus on brining the ball up the field. For some other reason they both want to play goalie and see it as a very important position, however I try to give them both "props" for simply trying there best. They have yet to lose a game this season and I try to have them practice in the park vs each other 4-5 times a week.

School is out now and the family has plans to go on many trips this summer at amusement parks, water parks, camping and the movie theatre. At least one trip per week including soccer and swimming.

I watched a few comedy at the theatre and thought they were all "blah" nothing worth mentioning, and many "blah" rented movies.

My legs are slowly healing and it makes me feel "old" to not have already fully healed. Canada Day is this Wednesday and going to have a lot of fireworks with the kids. Mansion June leader board is coming to an end and I am currently in 2nd, fingers crossed as it's a $400 bonus to stay there.

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed
BB- Bubble Boy. I have stopped counting bubble boy placings, it isn't worth the time or effort.

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1226.74, now at $1226.74 with $51.15 in tournament $'s, 1 $26 token
Tournaments played: I have not played on Full Tilt in the past few weeks.
#- 1
$- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 586

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $262.40, currently at $268.90
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 1
$- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 180

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $155.39, currently at $153.85
Tournaments played: Buy in of $3 or less.
#- 9
$- 4
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 45
SnG total games played in 2009, according to sharkscope-19

Mansion: falenangel, last update $320.82, currently at $324.82
It was a tuff week and a bit with a lot of variance hitting me in the face, but not the kind I like!
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 590 (approx.)
$- 280 (approx.)
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 1361

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $295.09, currently at $317.74
Tournaments played: Free rolls only, member point buy in.
#-21
$- 11
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on shark scope, approx. 90- 140. Over 530 lifetime.

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of ? times in the past week. I have decided to stop paying attention to bubble boy stats... I mean it's basically meaningless. Cheers!

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2/day
Hours spent watching WSOP live stream: 1.5/day
Hours spent watching other players at my buy in levels: 1/day
Hours spent working on blog: 1 hour in the last two weeks
Hours spent playing: 4-7/day

Day off: Wednesday and Thursday. Lots of T.V watching, rented movies and trips outdoors. Didn't go to the batting cage much the past few weeks. Also whole bunck of late night poker viewing..., Poker After Dark, live PKR stream on the WSOP! In the past few weeks Jason (Jcarver) and Juan Carlos both PVT pros placed very high in WSOP events both claiming just under 200K for there efforts, Cheers and well done guys.

Still following Nick Rainey's blog and notice he is doing exceptionally well as of late as well are all of his students. I am happy to see they are improving and proud to have been able to benefit from his coaching skills at one point in my poker experience. I miss Nick's teaching but realize that he is a busy man and we were simply moving in different directions. Cheers to all he does and best wishes in all future edeavors. I am also happy for Jotagran who recently placed 3rd in a large MTT for close to 3K, let alone the success of all the students including Ted and Allan... Super Cheers!

Quitting smoking is what it is, I am on the gum, the inhaller and on my last few days of the patch. It is mostily "mental" and I know when I put my mind to something I can do what I attempt. Hell I quit the "bong" and haven't had a drink in over 7 months simply because I wanted to better focus on playing better poker and felt that it was like training for a sports team. I will not "celebrate" until I have attained my goal of becoming a pro poker player, which is withing 3-5 years from this past January.

Favorite movie watched this week "Land of the Lost" and the Jack Black movie "Year One" (I think that's what it was called), wanting to see the Hangover next time out. I am a celebrity get me the hell outta here was kinda interesting, I totally expected Lou Diamond to win and of course he did... I sure know how to pick the winners!

Cheers and best wishes to all especially if you took the time to read my crappy asss blog...

Shambone to my luck on Mansion, I realize I can still get "tilted" if I lose like 5 bad beats in a row and notice I begin to play stupid cards in stupid position and make stupid plays which add to the losing streaks! Time to take advantage of the "target on the wall" and watch more training videos to help remind me how to play properly and smart. The coolers are the coolers and they don't bother me as much as losing to 2-3 outters on the river!

LOL... New download of PT3 .... AGAIN! It's funny how often they come out with an upgrade, funny and rediculous!

9th Update... Actually 1 week this time!

2009-06-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Still only posting totals, had a rough week or two with Mansion's bonus playing out and hitting an "all time low" but pulled it back up in the past few days. If you played me this last week and had 2-3 outs you would hit. If I had QQ you had KK, if I had KK you had AA. Yet that is what poker is about, and with all the training I have done this year so far I understand that it happens... next tourney.

Pulled my left hamstring at baseball this week just as my quads on both legs had finally almost healed... all that is next is for me to pull my groin and the season will be full filled. Cheers! It hurts worse than the quads and I have to keep my leg up with a couple tensor bandages tightly wrapped to be able to "hobble" around. I am going to the Dr. to have him look at it tomorrow and set my "return" to full time work date.

No home poker games this week mostly just playing on Mansion late at night when the kids are asleep. Baseball was a "blow out" this week losing all 3 games. The kids had a great time at there first soccer game. Swimming lessons are going strong for them too, my wife read some stuff and saw some stuff on T.V. which made her a little "paranoid" and we signed them up for a summer session as well, but they used to get the summer off and swimming lessons on in the winter. Yes we can go swimming in Canada in the winter, it's due to a revelation called "community centers" with indoor "heated" water... Cheers!

Videos for training on PokerVTand some on Poker strategy, as I have moved up a level, "gold" have also taken a lot of my training time.

Movie night consisted of Star Trek which was really really good. JJ Abrams had a lot to do with the production and I sense that after LOST is over this year that anything he is involved in will be totally amazing. I am going to rent Star Trek and watch it again as soon as it is available. Of course I am going to buy the 5th season of Lost when it come out as I missed a few episodes.

David Jr. is set for an operation in October and we are looking into his eye surgery. I finally got my college loan "crap" figured out and received a 10K reduction of the balance due to my grades when I was in school and paying all payments on time for the last 8 years! Cheers

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed
BB- Bubble Boy no money won. I consider bubble boy to be within 1 of the money in a SnG, within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000 and withing 300 of an MTT with over 13,000 entrants.

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1226.74, now at $1226.74 with $51.15 in tournament $'s, 1 $26 token
Tournaments played: Free rolls played 6 and nothing more this week
#- 6
$- 0
BB- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 585

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $273.40, currently at $262.40
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 2
$- 0
BB- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 179

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $132.00, currently at $155.39
Tournaments played: Buy in of $12 or less.
#- 2
$- 1
BB- 1
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 35
SnG total games played in 2009, according to sharkscope-10

Mansion: falenangel, last update $231.82, currently at $320.82
It was a tuff week and a bit with a lot of variance hitting me in the face, but not the kind I like!
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less. It was even tougher to record all the tournaments and game success I was having as I barely broke even, if at all, and thanks to bonuses got extra cash to make my bankroll look as if it was doing better than I had thought.
#- 320 (approx.)
$- 200 (approx.)
BB- ?
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 819

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $289.09, currently at $295.09
Tournaments played: Free rolls only, member point buy in.
#-7
$- 7
BB- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on sharkscope, approx. 70- 120. Over 510 lifetime.

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of ? times in the past week. I think I might stop paying attention to bubble boy stats... I mean it's basically meaningless. Cheers!

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2.5/day
Hours spent watching WSOP live stream: 1/day
Hours spent watching other players at my buy in levels: 30 min./day
Hours spent working on blog: 15 min/day
Hours spent playing: 3.5/day

Day off: Wednesday and Thursday. Lots of T.V watching UFC and deadliest warriors as well as some older movies that were on and a whole bunck of late night poker viewing..., Poker After Dark, WPT championsship and HOCKEY! I am totally unhappy that Detroit didn't take it down, but figured that it would go to 7 games when it was tied 2-2.

Quitting smoking is starting to go well, in fact I am almost mentally at the stage where I am accepting the idea to quit as that is needed before I actually try to quit physically. I have set this Friday as my stop date and am telling as many people as possible as to let them all give me "chit" if I am seen smoking after June 19th.

Favorite movie watched this week "Star Trek", I did watch like 2 rented movies and not some T.V., and of course whatever the wife is watching before she prepares for bed each night, I am a celebrity get me the hell outta here was kinda interesting.

Need to finish watching all the new video content on PokerVT, which is rare to take me so long through the week, and catch up on the strategy available to my new level on Poker strategy for tournaments and SnG's, which will probably take me over 3 months to watch it all and fit it into my weekly routine... just an overload of training videos but I am happy to have too much as compared to not enough. I also have 2 new poker books I still need to start reading. I am almost done reading the end of "fooled" and will start the new books when I am.

Best of luck to all at the tables and I wish everyone and there families total success in all your endeavours. I am also including a few families in my prayers at night and wish your mother's all the best in there recovery!

I wish all the PokerVT and Pokerstrategy members and pros all the best at the WSOP in 2009!

Cheers and Shambone!

8th Update... just over a week but not 2 weeks...

2009-06-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

Lots of playing, finished a bonus on Full Tilt and started working on a bonus on Mansion. Some playing on all of the sites in this time period. Most importantly reaced "club" status on Mansion and am trying for "Pro" status by the end of this month, with a few tournament leader boards which I "think" I may have a chance at getting some "bonus" money along with the current bonus I am still playing out.

I am still only posting totals and even though I won a few tournaments this past week, I am not highlighting which ones they were, I do have records at home though it was hard to keep track of the Mansion tournament totals with my bankroll still slowly climbing without ever having made a deposit myself.

I am up to being able to play 6 tables at a time with comfort. I did try the "free roll game" on Full Tilt and got to get up to playing 7-8 tables at a time, which was difficult to be able to keep registering and playing at the same time due to how quick the SnG free rolls fill up, we are talking Milli secounds.

I am still doing a lot of family time and have only been playing poker late at night when the kids have been tucked in and are happily sleeping. Baseball for me, soccer for the kids and the batting cage which I did far less of due to private functions at the place I purchased my memgership. Along with some home games where last weekend I played 3-$5 games and didn't cash and last night played 2-$10 games and split for 1st in both of them, taking in a cool $50 profit.

Videos for training and some on Poker strategy, as I have moved up a level, "silver" have also taken a lot of my training time. I am about to move up another level to "gold" and am looking forward to all the SnG videos they have to offer, however there is soo much it will take a long time to get caught up.

Movie night consisted of rentals and I was a little dissapointed with the products and really enjoyed the "chick flicks"... NOT.

Getting upset about life's trivial issues is a long term battle but have found interesting ways to block out the "noise" and deal with what comes 1 thing at a time. For some reason I can always find something to get "worked up" about but need to step back and realize that which I have no control over and let things run there course.
Life is a wonderful journey and I am happy to simply play my part, which is to be the best me I can be... and feel I am doing a heck of a job at that.

I am still learning to block chat while playing poker and block avatars on the poker rooms that have them, as well play the best game I can while I learn to become better. Especially this past week which was filled with bad beats, suckouts and variance showing me that my luckboxedness has limits too. I simply think "cool", "that's awesome", and try to "lol" at the situations as I want the "fish" to keep calling me way loose.

David Jr. is set to see the surgeon later this week, and has started showing interest in wearing his eye patch and shoes with the lift which is great and makes me happy that he has concerns about other kids making fun of him, as this is a sigh of emotional intelligence I wasn't sure he possessed. He even yelled at me last night when he was angry that I told him to put some clothes on as he is too old, 4yrs, to be running around in his "pull ups" without PJ's on... lol

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed
BB- Bubble Boy no money won. I consider bubble boy to be within 1 of the money in a SnG, within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000 and withing 300 of an MTT with over 13,000 entrants.

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1092.66, now at $1226.74 with $51.15 in tournament $'s, 1 $26 token
Tournaments played: Buy in of $$7 or less, lots of free rolls to practise multi tabling.
#- 69
$- 12
BB- 11
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 580

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $267.31, currently at $273.40
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 11
$- 2
BB- 3
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 179

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.93, currently at $132.00
Tournaments played: Buy in of $12 or less.
#- 10
$- 6
BB- 1
Sharkscope only seems to record SnG results and not MTT's which I have done well at in my very few attempts.
Estimated totals of all games in 2009- 35
SnG total games played in 2009- 8

Mansion: falenangel, last update $192.41, currently at $231.82
It was a tuff week and a bit with a lot of variance hitting me in the face, but not the kind I like!
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less. It was even tougher to record all the tournaments and game success I was having as I barely broke even, if at all, and thanks to bonuses got extra cash to make my bankroll look as if it was doing better than I had thought.
#- 271 (approx.)
$- 165 (approx.)
BB- 22
Cash games, 0 won - loss hands- o$ loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 484

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $282.07, currently at $289.09
Tournaments played: Buy in of $3 or less.
#-12
$- 7
BB- 2
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on sharkscope, approx. 65- 115. Over 500 lifetime.

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of 41 times in the past week.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2.5/day
Hours spent watching players at my buy-in levels: 1/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 0/day
Hours spent working on blog: 15 min/day
Hours spent playing: 3.5/day

Day off: Sunday. Lots of T.V watching UFC between the USA and UK has been a good watch, and a whole bunck of late night poker viewing... the Aussie millionare, Poker After Dark, WPT championsship and HOCKEY! I am totally routing for the Red Wings to take it down.

Quitting smoking is starting to go well, in fact I am almost mentally at the stage where I am accepting the idea to quit as that is needed before I actually try to quit physically.

Favorite movie watched this week "Outlander", I did watch like 8 rented movies and not too much T.V., except for poker shows which are spoken about just above and whatever the wife is watching before she prepares for bed each night.

Need to finish watching all the new video content, which is rare to take me so long through the week, from PokerVT and catch up on the strategy available to my new level on Poker strategy for tournaments and SnG's.

Best of luck to all at the tables and I wish everyone and there families total success in all your endeavours.

Cheers and Shambone!

7th Update

2009-05-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Mostly serious playing..., for me, Still re reading Chapter 11 through 14 of "Fooled" and feel like I am back to my normal "cluster minded" self. I am over most issues of the past few weeks now and will simply move on.
A simple quote from the very end of the book for you all... "The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behaviour. Good Luck." The quote was soooo good I put it in two straight updates.

I am still only posting totals and even though I won a few tournaments this past week, I am not highlighting which ones they were, I do have records at home and am happy to slowly build points on Mansion and try to earn the bonus. Keep in mind it is the only site I currently play on where I have never deposited any money, ever.
I am up to being able to play 6 tables at a time with comfort, though I find it most profitable to only play 4 and at times add a 5th, if it's a free roll. When I am doing better I will try the "free roll game" and try to get up to playing 7-8 tables at a time, but not as soon as I would have thought, which I am totally fine with.

I am still doing a lot of family time and have only been playing poker late at night when the kids have been tucked in and are happily sleeping. Baseball for me, soccer for the kids and the batting cage have taken up half of any spare time.
Cleaning out the fish tanks and lizard cages was also on the "to do" list for this week.
Videos for training and a lot of reading on Poker strategy, as I have moved up a level, have also taken a lot of my training time.
Movie night was great this week as I took my oldest son to see Terminator and all 3 boys to see Night at the Museum 2, which both happened to be way better than I expected. It's good to have low expectations as in turn it is difficult to be disappointed.
Getting upset about life's trivial issues was and is a long term battle but have found interesting ways to block out the "noise" and deal with what comes 1 thing at a time. For some reason I can always find something to get "worked up" about but need to step back and realize that which I have no control over and let things run there course.
Life is a wonderful journey and I am happy to simply play my part, which is to be the best me I can be... and feel I am doing a heck of a job at that.
I have learned to block chat while playing poker and block avatars on the poker rooms that have them, as well play the best game I can while I learn to become better.
Other kids at school have started being "mean" and making fun of my youngest who was born with Russell Silver Syndrome and hemi-hypoplasia which I didn't expect until at least grade 1. Wow Jr. Kidergarten can be tougher than I had imagined and I have set up a meeting to talk with his teacher to ensure all is done to avoid the kids in his class being cruel and teasing David Jr.

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed
BB- Bubble Boy no money won. I consider bubble boy to be within 1 of the money in a SnG, within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000 and withing 300 of an MTT with over 13,000 entrants.

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $1090.66, currently at $1092.66 with $0 in tournament dollars
Tournaments played: Buy in of $0.
#- 1
$- 0
BB- 0
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 535

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $232.56, currently at $267.31
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 7
$- 3
BB- 1
Cash games, 0 hands- $0 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 172

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.93, currently at $111.93
Tournaments played: I didn't play at Betfair in the past month.
Sharkscope doesn't seem to show any results for me...?

Mansion: falenangel, last update $122.83, currently at $192.41
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 77
$- 47
BB- 10
Cash games, 172 hands- $1.50 loss
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 201

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $263.09, currently at $282.07
Tournaments played: Buy in of $3 or less.
#- 6
$- 3
BB- 2
Cash games, 25 hands- $10.00 profit.
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on sharkscope, approx. 55-105.

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of 13 times in the past week.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2.5/day
Hours spent watching players at my buy-in levels: 0/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 0/day
Hours spent working on blog: 25 min/day
Hours spent playing: 2.5/day

Day off: Monday and Tuesday. Not much of T.V watching Lost is over, sigh. Sarah Conner chronicles... I think it's over, will have to buy the DVD of anything the store sells!
My "self-healing break" continues and is ongoing. Quitting smoking isn't going to well, in fact I am almost stopped trying to quit for a few weeks and am preparing to mentally quit as that is needed before I actually try to quit physically.
My brain is still an over emotional over thinking creation, but I have learned to accept that I am not perfect and can forgive myself for past and present mistakes, I wrote this again for myself to remind me it is true, yet I need to remember it is true and not just type it in the blog.
Favorite movie watched this week "Terminator 4", I did watch like 4 rented movies and not much T.V., except for poker shows and whatever the wife is watching before she prepares for bed each night.
Need to watch all the new video content from PokerVT and catch up on the strategy available to my new level on Poker strategy for tournaments and SnG's.

Best of luck to all at the tables and I wish everyone and there families total success in all your endeavours.

Cheers and Shambone!

6th Update... Weekly Bi-Weekly... Whatever

2009-05-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

Serious playing... a lot of tournaments, for me, but before I get to my bankroll totals I wanted to simply say this:
I have finished and will begin re-reading "Fooled By Randomness". I wish I would have finished it 2 weeks ago, as it may have saved me from getting over emotional about a few issues in my life which all seemed to build up around the same time. I made a blog entry a few days ago and haven't posted it and probably never will.
All I can really say about the last few weeks is reading Chapter 13 and 14 of "Fooled" has helped me deal with some extreme emotional swings, and having the opinion of a person I respect destroy me emotionally. I am over it now and will simply move on.
A simple quote from the very end of the book for you all... "The only article Lady Fortuna has no control over is your behaviour. Good Luck." I will read Chapters 13 and 14 many times prior to reading the book a 2nd time.
My "hero" Nick is no longer a Pro at PokerVT, due to some unforeseen circumstances and I can only hope that he is able to return in the future to the site.

Okay so down to the basics, I have played enough tournaments lately that I am choosing to only post the total amount of games played and my current bankrolls on each site from now on. It simply takes too much time and effort to write down every tournament and buy in level. I do have personal records at home and writing them down has taken a lot of time. I did play out my bonus at Full Tilt and will be focusing on playing out my bonus at Mansion poker over the next month or so. I am up to being able to play 6 tables at a time with comfort and will maybe consider adding a few more in a month or two, maybe sooner.
I have been very busy with family time, soccer and swimming with the kids, fireworks, mother's day, baseball, movie night, batting cage, saving money to pay of the car repairs and focusing on my personal health. Which I am proud to say has almost returned to normal for a 45 yr old. Next step is to get me to the health of a 40 yr old. Yes I know I am 35... however last year at this time I was in the hospital 3 days a week and getting tested for everything the Doctor's could think of. I am on 4 different pills to keep my organs running normal and the fact that I am able to spend so much time on other things than appointments brings me to great joy that I am sure most people will never understand.
Getting upset about life's trivial issues was something I hadn't done in a long time and find it a learning experience to say the least... even if I am ignorant, unstable and a common moron! Cheers to accepting my faults and forgiving myself for my mistakes!

Legend to understand placings:
#- tournaments played
$- times cashed
BB- Bubble Boy no money won. I consider bubble boy to be within 1 of the money in a SnG, within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000 and withing 300 of an MTT with over 13,000 entrants.

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $714.97, currently at $1090.66 with $0 in tournament dollars
Tournaments played: Buy in of $12 or less.
#- 127
$- 31
BB- 21
Cash games, 50 hands- $118 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 533

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $226.23, currently at $232.56
Tournaments played: Buy in of $5 or less.
#- 41
$- 10
BB- 4
Cash games, 108 hands- $13 loss.
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 165

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.93, currently at $111.93
Tournaments played: I didn't play at Betfair in the past month.

Mansion: falenangel, last update $83.00, currently at $122.83
Tournaments played: Buy in of $10 or less.
#- 65
$- 35
BB- 12
Cash games, 1045 hands- $55 profit
Total # of games played in 2009, according to sharkscope- 130

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $256.16, currently at $263.09
Tournaments played: Buy in of $3 or less.
#- 7
$- 3
BB- 3
Total # of games played in 2009- Not able to detect on sharkscope, approx. 50-100.

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of 40 times in the past week.... yowsers, but it was 213 games played and I look forward to the coin flips going my was more often in the future and consider it an "off" few weeks for what I expect out of my play and ability to win tournaments.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2/day
Hours spent watching players at my buy-in levels: 1/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 0/day
Hours spent working on blog: 15 min/day

Day off: Almost the last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Not much of T.V watching Lost is over. Sarah Conner chronicles... I think it's over, will have to buy the DVD of anything the store sells! My "self-healing break" continues and is ongoing. Quiting smoking isn't going to well, however stress adds to my inability and quiting free rolls seems to be just as hard. My brain is still an over emotional over thinking creation, but I have learned to accept that I am not perfect and can forgive myself for past and present mistakes, I wrote this again for myself to remind me it is true. Favorite movie watched this week "Taken", and I did watch like 6 movies and not much T.V.. Completed watching last years HU poker championships, High Stakes Poker of all seasons and completed watching all the new content put out by the pros at PokerVT.com.

Cheers, Yowsers and Shambone!

5th Weekly Update!

2009-05-01T12:07:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 1st DAY OF THE MONTH!!!
Here it is folks... back to playing seriously but before I get to my bankroll totals I wanted to simply say this:
Only 3 more chapters to go... and I will begin re-reading "Fooled By Randomness" I find myself having to read pages over a few times as my brain likes to wounder as well as grasp the entirety of what Mr. Taleb is saying...
I fully understand how I didn't fare well in "High School" and dropped out, but did well in the Social Sector of studies when I returned to College as a mature student, I simply think and learn a different way, and need to apply focus when trying to read words on paper without pictures!
I might be playing Nick Rainey, a PVT Pro tonight for the HU match, and the Final table for the SNG Challenge should play out this Sunday if all the players can agree to a time, if not I am sure it will play out next Sunday.
Best wishes to you all the monkey/bear men... especially those beginning a "new" training... Cheers!
Okay so down to the basics, I haven't done much "playing" lately due to my "break/retreat" lots of family time, lots of "me" time, and lots of training videos. I have decided to slowly break my "addiction" to free rolls and move up in the buy-ins on almost all of the poker rooms/sites I play in, even if my bankroll isn't ready for it. I have bonuses to play out and earn on both Mansion and Full Tilt that will simply expire if I don't so cheers and best of luck at the tables to me. I haven't made a deposit in any site in over 2 months and feel my level of training and understanding of the game will allow me to make this jump, worse to worse I have my $50 deposit rule if I happen to need it.

Legend to understand placings:
1,2,3,- any number indicates the exact place of finish
$- in the money, I got paid but didn't record exact place as it was not high enough
0 - not in the money and not recorded the finish
MTT- multi table tournament
Freeze- no re-buys or add on
DON- double or nothing, top five places all get equal pay out.
HU- heads up
SnG- sit and go
H/O/R/- horse, omaha, razz
FR- free roll
T- turbo
BB- Bubble Boy no money won
R- Rebuy tournament

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $709.65, currently at $714.97 with $0 in tournament dollars
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 2700 entrants-5, 0$ 53rd BB
Freerolls H/O/R, 2400 entrants-0
WSOP satellite free rolls Round 1, 40, 0 tickets
WSOP satellite free rolls Round 2-0, 0 tickets
$.50 MTT's-1, 0$
$1 MTT's-2, 0$
$2 MTT's-0
$2 HU-6, 1$- 1st
$3, 90 man SnG-0
$5 PVT SnG-0,
$7 SnG/T-15, 1stx2, 2ndx2, 3rdx5

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $48.63, currently at $226.23
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 10,000 entrants-0
Free rolls Round 2-0
.10, 10 FPP MTT, 1000 entrants-0
$2 MTT-0
$3, 45man SnG-0
$5 MTT-2, 1$, 15thBB, 5th
$5 HU-0

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.93, currently at $111.93
Tournaments played: I didn't play at Betfair in the past month.
Freerolls, 500-1500 entrants-0
.25 MTT's-0
$1 MTT's-0
$2 MTT's-0
$5 MTT's-0

Mansion: falenangel, last update $59.54, currently at $83.00
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 1500, entrants-3, 1$, 31st
$1 MTT rebuy/addon-1, 1$, 4th
$1 Sng's-0
$2 Freeze MTT-1, 0$
$2 MTT/rebuy/addon-0
$3 Freeze MTT-0
$5 Freeze MTT-1,0$
$5 SnG's-7, 4$, 1stx2,2ndx2
$10 DON-1, 1$, 1st

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $251.36, currently at $256.16
Tournaments played: I only played free rolls on this site in the past week.
Freerolls-3, 2$- 5th,3rd
WSOP free rolls-0, 0$

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of ? at least 4 times in the past week. I consider bubble to be within 1 of the money in a SnG and within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 4/day
Hours spent watching players at my buy-in levels: 2/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 2/day
Hours spent working on blog: 15 min/day
Day off: Almost the last 5 weeks, and Tuesday,Wednesday. Not much of T.V watching Lost was sick and never seems to bore me. Sarah Conner chronicles... would you believe me when I say I missed it this week again! My "self-healing break" started 5 weeks ago and will never end. I am actually trying to give up smoking since I have already given up all the "bad habits" I picked up as a teen. My brain is still an over emotional over thinking creation, but I have learned to accept that I am not perfect and can forgive myself for past and present mistakes. Luck in life is what it is and I will accept it for as much, never taking credit for the luck but always willing to allow it to aid in my endeavors!
Cheers and Shambone!

Training in Poker and the game of Life!

2009-04-29T11:55:00.000-07:00

Well the car is on it's 2nd fix since the accident, the new radiator last week, and now a new air conditioning compressor. Like I need A/C in Canada, but the wife feels it's needed as she doesn't like to sweat. Just over $1,200 so far in total repairs and I haven't even taken it to a body shop to get the new bumper and passenger door fixed. The guy I ran into, with the car, has yet to call me with an estimate of his cost of a new rear bumper and I am sure we won't be getting our insurance companies involved as it is past the time to have contacted them. My friends suggest I don't call him and cross my fingers that he won't be calling me, either due to pure laziness or the fact he may have lost the paper with my information on it. Doing it without insurance will in the long run cost me less as it would increase my monthy payments far more than the damage costs itself.

The retreat I went on a few weeks back has been more than helpful in so many ways when thinking about life, problems, good times and daily routines. I have no control over some things and will just have to get used to the fact that I can be an emotional person... I found out my youngest son, with Russell-Silver Syndrome will need another operation. Not on his left eye but on another part of his body, of course on the left side, as it is smaller than the entire right side of his body since birth and as a part of his diagnosis. The Dr. assures me it is a routine operation and that it is regular for some boys his age and has nothing to do with the diagnosis. He, my 4 yr old son David, loves to talk and tell lots of jokes, just like his father, and I look forward to him being a ladies man in his teen years. The wife and I have done almost everything we can and taken advantage of most resources available to ensure he is almost at the same intellectual level of boys his age, and most of my fears since his birth about his adulthood life are slowly going away.

I am enjoying my break off from the things in life that can consume my inability to seperate my emotions from things I can't control and am feeling more healthy than I have since the age of 18. The Doctors and specialists have done a wonderful job with me and getting my internal functions back to almost normal. I am also happy to say I will not be needing the operation on my small intestine any more and there was no trace of cancer cells in my body. Even my liver and kidneys are almost back to normal. I am almost, I repeat almost looking forward to returning to work and helping other people and there children have the best possible chance at a productive life. The birth of my youngest son was a big awakening and I can have a greater level of empathy towards other parents and fathers who take on guilt when they have a child with a disability. It was real easy to tell people what they need to do, but extremely difficult to listen to those words myself.

OKAY enough of all that and a little about poker, I have been slowly getting back into playing and increasing the amount of games I play per day. Getting away from free rolls and starting to play buy-ins larger than the $1 level.
I have improved most of my online bankrolls slightly and will post some "updates" once I get more than 50 games played. I also came in 5th in a PokerVT event on Pokerstars and will receive an 8% of 2,000 bonus that was put up by our training site.
I have watched all the HU National Championships on utube as well as all the seasons and episodes of High Stakes Poker and am looking into purchasing a DVD on more poker shows, recently I bought a season of the WPT and Phil Gordon's Final Table which were both helpful in my pursuit to increase my game.
This week's new training videos were put out last night and after watching them I also plan on completing the re-watching of all the training videos on the PokerVT home page, I am about halfway through. I have 2 new poker books to read when I have completed "Fooled By Randomness" and some bonuses on FullTilt and Mansion Poker which I need to play out before they expire in the middle of May.
Nick Rainey has chosen 8 students that he will be closely helping to improve their poker game and I am not surprised by the students he picked. They are all great players and I wish them all the best in that pursuit.
The final table for the SnG challenenge will be played this Sunday and if my wife will let my "duck" out near the end of my son's birthday party I expect it to be a great game of solid players, I hope my cat has the potions ready to increase my luck factor as I would love to win and take it down, realizing that if I do it will be a tough battle as all members playing have earned their seats and it will most likey come down to a lot of luck and hopefully me stealing pots when it appears my opponents have marginal holdings.
Afterwards I plan on finding out if Nick is still able and wanting to play me in the HU match from the FNF's competition he was holding recently when I won two weeks in a row, luckily beating the other members who won in the tournaments they played.
I also am happy to say I made my 3rd appearance in a PVT video, for about 5 hands, in the Josh (thenorfman) video. I folded every one and had my blind stolen by spacegravey, the honour was all mine! So a video by Nick, one by Tan the Man and Josh... three seperate videos and nothing that really gave other members a chance to see how I play my game, so no worries just yet about having to adjust my style when playing vs PVT members.
I have also been continuing to aid a few friends with thier poker game with the little insight I can provide into becoming more aggressive. My theory is basically if you can't raise you should just fold! I do enjoy the game very much and find it relaxing in the sense that my focus is soley on the game, while playing, and not on the rest of life's issues.

I missed Sarah Conner Chronicles again this past week and saw a few shows I have been not keeping up with, Chuck and Reaper, both are "good" and nothing is as amazing as "Lost" which happens to be on tonight. Some movies picked out by my wife, and T.V. shows which she likes to enjoy, bonding, also was part of my viewing entertainment in the last week or so.

I have also joined 2 baseball teams for the summer and look forward to playing on a weekly basis, my body just recovering from this past weekends tournament. I am very happy to also be playing with my younger brother and getting a chance to "get to know him again" as adults. I have also decided to quite smoking, as I have done so with all the other bad habits I picked up in my teen years. It will be a slow process but feel that 8 weeks from now my lungs and breathing will finally have a chance to also return to that of an ex-smoker for 18 years and the Dr. says 10 years down the road I can maybe have a set of lungs almost equal to that of a person who never smoked.

Good luck to all that take the time to share in my life and my journey, the topic of my blog says it all... Now more excuses the time is now, and after slowly regaining my health I can begin to focus on the goals I have set for myself in poker... Soon I will have to revisit them and see if I need to put more effort into any given area to ensure the goals are met, though I am positive those of my bankroll, training and increasing my game are coming together and will only grow as I do so with a "clear mind, a focused mind" and a healthier body. :)

Cheers and Shambone! I have never felt so good about life in about as long as I can remember. Even If I was the kid who had to touch the burning stove 4 times to learn my lessons the "hard way".

A letter to some special people!

2009-04-26T19:18:00.000-07:00

I hope everything for you is as great as it has been for me over the past few weeks.

I have been very busy with doing all the things I have missed out on for the past 15 years.

I didn't ever think when I started committing to a "new" lifestyle that I would be able to fill up all or most of my spare time as I have been doing.

With the kids activities, family dinners and physical exercise I am having almost no time to think about the "bad" things that I shouldn't be doing. I also realize that it all was just an excuse I was using to "hide" from my emotions.

I have contacted some old friends and went out with them a few times, trying to do it weekly, and keeping myself involved in the two baseball teams I have signed up for, one of the teams my brother is also on and gives us a chance to still compete with each other and have fun at the same time not worrying about any of life's issues whilst we play. Played in a tournament this weekend and had lots of fun, hitting the ball much better than last year and not falling down on my way around the bases. When I hung out with my friends, they didn't even try to "push" me into my old habits and respected the choices that I have made.

I wish you all the best and hope you are doing well.

My wife has also begun eating more healthy with me, cutting out fast food and has begun working out a few times a week. My body is really enjoying the "energy" and is always craving more "fun", even when I am tired and sore. It has been a roller coaster of highs and lows with wonderful and rough emotions, yet I also realize I might be overdoing for now, but I am not looking forward to returning to work, just yet, and am trying to do as much as I can.

I want to thank you all for being you, and having time to listen to my "rants' while I have revisited my goals in life and I appreciate what a huge learning experience it was for me. You were very helpful in pointing some things out to me, and I will try to take the time to listen to what others have to say first, and respond in kind, making my point and trying not to ramble on, though it is still a learning process.

The holistic approach my retreat provided, members in my group and staff were everything I needed to re-focus what is best for myself and my family.

I feel happy, optimistic, hopeful and grateful to all those that chose to share in being a part of my life.

Talk to you all soon.

I wish everyone and your family all the best in any of your future endeavors! Again Thank you,

David B
falenangel

I have interestingly enough also been helping out some friends improve there tournament game and with great happiness too, as it is wonderful that they feel my opinion on the game of poker is worth listening to in the journey of improving their game as well. Including my brother who has finally realized that he is very predictable with his style of play during home games with our friends and has shown interest in increasing his knowledge, even to as far as considering reading a poker book which I have been suggesting he try for over the last year.

A poker update with bankroll totals will be coming in a couple of days when the new weekly training videos come out at PokerVT.com.

Cheers! and Shambone!

I am sick! and it isn't awesome at all!

2009-04-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been a bit of a blurr, I have been sick and not a good kind either. I think it's a combination severe cold and Flu, I won't go into details but if you can think of it I am experiencing it!
A few friends have been doing well playing poker and I have been actually helping some PVT members work on their tournament game, I didn't realize the insight I can share and how much it can help my learning process.
I am looking forward to more new training videos tomorrow, and wish the best for everybody.
The cat came back and insisted I "ditch" the white squirrel, yet the squirrel has a different meaning to me and my outlook on life, which he, the cat, simply can't appreciate. I put the squirrel on the "shelf" with a picture to look at each morning, and am putting my faith back in the cat.
Nick Rainey at PVT has completed the prop bet and should be returning to having more time for PVT members again. I am still waiting to play him HU for the FNF's from a few months ago.
I played a PVT member, Jotagran, in some HU matches and learned a lot from the experience. Jotagran defeated me 4 - 1 and did so with, ease. I can see where I played some hands wrong and look forward to improving my game for the future.
Just a short blog today as I don't have much energy and my thoughts are not complete and keep losing focus. I will return to playing poker on a larger scale once I start to feel better and can get a full night's sleep.
The PokerVT Bounty tournament was not a waste of my time as I was able to get 15th out of over 90 players and feel I am learning from all of my play. When I get knocked out I either know what I did wrong, or it was a "coin flip" that I didn't win, so having said that I know my game is improving. I also am gonna start to move away from free rolls and focus on cash games. Last night I played the Canada free roll on Full Tilt and got 53rd out of 2700, which in any cash tournament would have been a cash yet not a free roll that only pays the top 27. Though there is a certain comfortability I find in playing free rolls and I won't be able to quite "cold turkey".
Tomorrow training videos and lots T.V., forum reading and chatting with friends. The cat asked he if could go join Landman for an event this Tuesday which my in turn could help score a Final Table and even possibly a win! Good Luck with the cat at your side, yet your skill should get you ITM and TID, go with your "gut" and listen to it.
Bertha is almost completely fixed and is running as good as she ever was, thanks to help from a friend across the sea who's knowledge far surpasses that of mine in "putercore" expertise. Thanks man!
I am sick, I am sore, I am not feeling myself, next post will be once I have returned to better health and can focus on 1 thought for more than 5 minutes.
Cheers and best wishes to anybody who actually reads my blog, and all of the luck at the tables!

Lots of training and Nick Rainey is "godlike"

2009-04-15T09:37:00.000-07:00

I have spent about a week catching up on all the training videos at Poker VT - Home , reading the forum at PokerVT Forum , posting insightful and hunourous comments to lots of stuff. Increasing my knowledge and reading my favorite blogs SNG Nick , not a problem . I am also very pleased to say the NICK RAINEY is almost at the end of his prop bet, both in time yet in completion as well, I have spent as much time as possible watching and cheering him on , without neglecting my family and my health of course visiting the batting cage every other day to get ready for the summer's season playing on 2-3 teams this year.
Nick is a true inspiration and has attracted over 100K in bets against him that I am happy to see him win, when he wins, I think he is due for a 24hr nap, when it's all done and he has been officially declared the winner of course. If anybody actually reads my daily updates and didn't get a chance to see the live web cams you may still have a chance if you check out Justin.tv - sng16k's channel: social work or stickam.com/16ksng , you can also read his updates that aren't on his blog at Nick Rainey (sngnick) on Twitter , it has been a long month for Nick and I am kinda glad I missed the first few weeks at my "retreat" as it can get stressful and tense when you really want a person to succeed and the bumps in the road along the way get you a little worried.
The cat was never worried at all and kept giving me looks from above Nick's monitors whenever I would say or type anything in the chat that sounded to be "not positive". On the note I probably have been very distracting with my chatting, but I am sure Nick has clicked "ignore" and muted me a loooong time ago and am not worried that I am bothering him. The cat too sent me and e-mail saying he misses me and as soon as the prop bet is over will be coming home right away, he is anxious to meet the white squirrel and have dinner with him... this makes me wonder if they will be friends or the natural animal instinct will kick in and provide him with a nice meal and a fluffly new "white" coat..? I also look forward to Nick returning to the land of "coaching" and back to his position of the leader of the Rainey Army/Nick Nation as his students and myself miss all of the attention he gives us in his daily forum posts, weekly videos and competitions as well as his skilled ability to teach us all more. Lest we not forget Nick will be playing for me at the final table as I might of still been away on my "retreat" and will ensure my winning the SNG challenge and leading all other PVT members won't be for not as he will take down a nice place for all my efforts. On top of that I am still gonna finally get my chance to play Nick heads up for the FNF week 3 from a while back for a cool $200.
On another note I have been asked many times by many PVT members to play HU as they want a chance to play falenangel "the guy who beat Nick" and see how there skill matches up, I have played a few and luckily won them keeping my status as a solid HU player. Recently a challenge was thrown my way by a member I consider to have a lot of skill in playing poker and wasn't sure if I could pull of a win vs jotagran as we are probably evenly matched and variance, luck of the cards, may play more of a role than skill.
After much persistence on the part of jotagran and lots of discussion around odds and the amount to play for and how many games should be played we have come to a decision. We will play sometime in the next few days with my $40 vs jota's $50 for a best of 7 heads up match on Fulltilt. I am verymuch looking forward to it as I think we have agreed to make it a monthly event for a little while giving us both a chance to improve our game and play somebody who has shown great skill as a member of the PokerVT community. My cat also sent me an e-mail saying ""if the prop bet for Nick isn't over yet, he will take the "spirit flight" here as soon as I am needed for the game and return to Nick afterwards if the prop bet is still on."" I am pleased to hear that as without my coin flipping bonus of +3.3% I don't see how I can continue to "big talk" my beating jotagran in advance.
The white squirrel is great and all but the cat is connected to insight from the great and late Stu U, the greatest poker player (in my mind) that ever played the game.
My poker bankrolls are still the same as the last update give or take a few bucks but will return to playing cash games this week, as soon as I get "bertha" a few days of "antibiotics" My computer has shut itself down 2 times in the last 3 days even after I had a IT guy look it over. :(
I also got caught up on most of my T.V. shows and am happy to see that Lost is still the best show on the air and look forward to it everyweek, it also happens to be on tonight.
Sarah Conner chronicles has also begun to blow my mind with last few weeks going beyound anything I could have foreseen as a viewer.
We won't talk about hereos as it almost is a a point where I watch it just to see if they can catch my interest again, wishing they wouldn't have had the writers strike "mess it up" back in the 2nd season, though it may simply be the writers trying to live up to the competition in Lost.
Lots of movies watched too many to review, nothing too horrible to mention and nothing too great either, movies of extreme calibur only tend to come along every "blue moon" anyway.
My latest read is currently "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and I will tell you simply this, if you haven't read it go buy it now and you will thank me for telling you when you are at the end of chapter one, I have yet to finish this book but will be re-reading as soon as I have, in spare time and before bed each night, as it is soo insightful it even helped me to understand things I was neglecting and helped to make me realize a few things about myself.
Best of Luck to all and Thank You for helping my poker insight grow soo much since joining PVT to all the staff and pros, especially Nick in his challenge, Jcarver (though he doesn't know I look up to him-his ego is probably big enough as it is) and Grayson a new coach to the team who's training videos are enough to make me need to watch them at least 3-5 times over get all the knowledge.
Also best of luck to Jotagran in our little HU matches as it will be the begining of us both increasing our skill no mattter who wins, even though the cat assures me it's "in the bag".
Thank you to all who have been following my blog since I started out, it is a journey that has been enlightening if nothing else. Like anybody reads my crap! I simply like to believe that maybe just maybe... ah nah.
Yes I will, maybe, be adding Grayson- aka spacegravey, to my blog on the right side as a blog to follow if he continues to provide great insight and in turn becoming a person I greatly look up too and aspire being as good as him. We'll talk about other pros in the future but Jon Ettinger has also grabbed my attention even if he hands the charts to us on a "silver platter" the insight is great and his ability to articulate has been shocking in the least.
Thank you to the "brains" at PokerVT for ensuring the members keep getting great new content, and to all the staff you correctly put together, the team is amazing and I can't imagine my life right now without it all... most likely still only playing at tigergamming, and not involved with PVT. Yet without the "tiger, my cat" I wouldn't have ever found you and seen my true potential.
Time for everybody reading to give yourself a great big and long pat on the back! Cheers and Shambone!

What will I do if I am not picked for the "opportunity of a lifetime"

2009-04-12T22:35:00.000-07:00

What will I do if I am not picked for the "opportunity of a lifetime":
I am happy with life in every way... We all experience life in different ways and all have a story to tell, this by no means anything but what it says.
My childhood was a mixture of abuse, extreme religion and complications sending me to adulthood by the age of 14 without the understanding of what the heck was going on, I had to figure it out for myself with a few "kind" individuals which made an affect on who I am now.
I dropped out of high school 8 times over and lived life to it's fullest, partying to the extreme until the age of 20.
When my 1st son was born I went to college as a "mature student" and now have 4 completed courses amongst them 3 diplomas working with people and helping out the community. E.C.E. with honors, C.W.O.D. and S.S.W.. I help others get through life and difficult times currently working with children with Special Needs between the ages of 2-6 years and the daycare, and at home with the parents.
I love life and people, almost too much putting my life at risk as a youth at least 4 different major times and countless minor times, I am lucky to still be alive... honestly.
I get "addicted" to what I like and do it to the best that I can consuming myself with ways to "do it better", in turn I can tend to forget about myself.
Poker is about myself, I feel relaxed when playing and have only done so for a few years. This site has begun a new chapter in my perception of what I am capable of, with luck still having a factor that is out of my control. In turn it has provided me with life lessons and insight I hadn't thought of before.
I took a retreat recently that aided in listening to others, focusing on myself and practicing what I preach to others on a daily basis.
I could probably write a book, with run on sentences and no paragraphs, that would become a best seller based on my life until now. If I lived it 100 times over I could never expect to be in this spot today at this time doing things I love soooo much.
It's not what would I do if Nick doesn't pick me to advance my poker goals faster, it would be how long it may take me while building my bankroll on my own.
I plan on doing what I have done, and seeing my true potential to the fullest in anything I attempt, I have only attempted poker for 3 1/2 years and in my "spare" time have earned close to 30K- not bad for a hobby.
Kids, family, sports, job, me time and then poker.
This post has created a lot of great discussion and gives people a chance to think and re-think totally what Nick has done for us since day one. I don't want anything on a silver platter and feel more satisfied when i achieve it. Now as far as the "opportunity" goes, it may be a short cut but it will be earned, and as we all move upwards we can thank everybody in our lives for being a part of each of our individual journeys', I thank Nick and all the pros for taking the time to "open my eyes and mind" in newer ways and in turn I will be a better person and able to do a better job helping others.
In fact I was on this journey before the "opportunity" ever came up and had it all planned out in a 3-5 year plan. My blog was solely created as a way for me to track this process. I never wish for a job that I can do have "assssed" and slug through life, I want power over all my decisions and choices and the ability to recognize that which I have no power over.
I will stop there because the short answer is simply I will do what I have always done and do it the best I can. I hope only the best for everyone and say Cheers to those that try.
Earning self respect for myself in every endeavor, I have no quarrels with telling people anything about me or my aspirations as the only true opinion of me that matters is mine own.
When I die I want to look back on my life and be satisfied with all my efforts without any regrets. I know everyone posting means the best and haven't seen any malicious intent, in my eyes, just open minded discussions about poker as a career which many many many of us think about.
Wow do I feel great about this post and my life and am not worried at all about my car anymore,( The trip back from my mother in laws' was an adventure beyond most regular drives. The kids not in the car stayed with nana and papa and the air bags didn't go off. Yes I had a car accident, nobody was hurt and the damage minimal, though my nerves are shot. I am simply thankful all parties are okay. WOW am I still shaking just a little. Nothing the cat could of help prevent, just a part of life that nobody enjoys...No kids in the car, no air bags went off, nobody got hurt, no police needed, hopefully no insurance (depends on the other guy I hit), fenders need replacing and a new radiator causing steam to flow from both the car and my ears along with a bruised ego for not paying proper attention. All in all it was the best kind of crash a person can have where I did drive home and didn't have to wait for a tow truck. I guess that is why they call them accidents)
I love this post and encourage all who read it and has an opinion to write it down as it can only do more to aid in how we all look at this magnificent and relaxing "game", the more you put into it the more you will get back in both the game and in life. I am happy to be apart of the experience and look forward more... with superstitions, luck, random occurrences, emotions, noise and learning everyday something new. Let alone dreaming of something we don't have.... yet.
I have so much more to say but don't want to get "off" topic too much, this blog is supposed to only be poker related and a little about my journey.
We all are "the man"! We all Rule! Long live Jcarver's Angels as well as the Nick Nation/Rainey Army! Daniel Thank You! and Bless Brad "the man with a plan"! The white squirrel and the cat and all those that in their own way guide us towards tomorrow! Time to get back to it, the grind of life awaits me!

I am baaaack! With a new outlook on life.

2009-04-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am both extremely excited and optimistic about the future for myself and people around me. The course was quite emotionally intense and helped me to move on "in my minds eye" to a productive and healthy future. My coach Nick whom I await playing HU for the FNF's wk 3 is currently involved in a prop bet which has secured him a new world record with guiness and a lot of publicity, 16ksng - Stickam, Live Streaming Video, Watch & Broadcast Interactive Shows, Webcam Chatrooms , Justin.tv - sng16k's channel: social work , check it out if you wanna catch it in the final week. If you have Direct TV I hear they have a nice bit on him as well, on top of the many cardplaying sites which have shown interest in his endeavour. I am technically not supposed to be back until the 18th of April but felt the need to post and play a bit on the side until I go back to "full force" training for a month or so.
The course helped me open my mind to nurturing "me" and listening to what I "preach" to others about working through difficult times. It turns out I was carrying around a lot of "baggage" about past events in my life. With lots of talk, insight about dealing with the feeling accompanied with the thoughts I don't know how I was doing as well as I was. I simply needed to recognize that it is okay to not be perfect, and having emotions on such a large scale is due to the build up of not "feeling" the emotions for many years, or thinking that it was wrong to express the emotions in a healthy way. Also beating up on myself, theoretically, for the way I dealt with or experienced past events. Anger, stress, nutrition, sleep, exercise, forgiveness and acceptance were all major parts of the experience. Seeing now how it affected me I can take ownership of them all and have control over my future, abiding random occurences. I also thought I would have read a few books in this period, but ended up not having enough time. Though the book "Fooled by Randomnesss" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is proving to a insightful read, and too has kinda opened my eyes about many parts of the human life. I am looking forward to finishing the book so I can start reading it over again a 2nd time right away as it at times causes me to reflect on my own life's stories both past, present and future this I credit to the above mentioned Nick, the "master" reffered to in past past posts, and current SNG King of the World. I am happy to say I forgive myself for many things and lifting that off of my back has given me extreme amounts of joy and confidence I haven't had since I was a 15 year old "now it all" young man. I can forgive others I have held resentment towards in the past and look forward to contacting some old friends and re-connecting with them, wether positively or negatively I can accept what comes with an open mind. I can recognize what I can and can't control in life and not let those things that are out of my control take ownership of my thoughts, renting space in my brain is no longer allowed. I also look forward to how this will affect my poker game as I feel it will deffinitely improve my ability to not tilt, as well as create extra insight on fixing the leaks in my style of play. I will become more assertive in my people skills and the ability to realize when a battle is not worth enganing in. Life is great and I am happy to be able to start over, again taking some from the book "Fooled" I also realize that if I lived my life over 100 times or even 1000 times there is no chance I would be exposed to half of the things this current life has and would for sure have been extremely successful in whatever I choose to do. Yet this life has prepared me for today and tomorrow and the way I percieve myself and others. I LOVE IT! I am happy, excited, confident, optimistic and lucky to have managed to get this far and still be alive. (The car accident when I was 18 going over a 40 foot cliff and surviving a roof caveing in on me because I was NOT wearing a seat belt is just one of the 10 or so examples I can think of where my life would or could have taken and extreme turn for me, avoiding jail as a youth was yet another). I was always very devoted to anything I tried to do in life wanting to be the best, dwelling on the times I woulda, coulda, shoulda. Not anymore, this is the time for me to again listen to the advice I put right in front of my eyes but never truely listened to, again I point out the title of my blog "No more excuses, the time is now!" Also to have it pointed out to me by many people that I do underestimate my abilities and try to mask my fears with a sense of "knowing it all already", boy was I wrong about that. I forgive myself, I forgive others and I am happy to be imperfect David! Enough "preaching" from me about this, though I am sure anybody who knows me will agree that if I wrote a book about my life it could easily become a best seller without even having come to these new realizations of late. You also may notice a change in my writing as I will try to recognize I love to talk and used to barely listen. I will try to take my foot out of my mouth before putting it back in! I wrote an emotional speach given at the "graduation" ceremony that my late father and family would have been proud of, and saying aloud in front of a group of "strangers" was helpful in ways I hadn't believed possible. I am sure this journey has also aided me in ways I have yet to rexognise.
On a poker note, I did win the HU matches in wk 3 of FNF's and will be playing my "coach/master" of the Nick Nation, or Rainey Army again and this time for a bonus of $200, becoming the first PVT member to do so 2 times when I do win! Currently he is busy with a prop bet involving him playing 16,000 SnG's in a month and clearing a profit of 10,000. He has already broken the world record for SnG's played and is very close to making the 10K mark. It is very inspirational to see him attack such a grand feat and I enjoy all the "fame" he is gathering during this quest. Variance is doing it's best to stop him but my cat felt he didn't need to attend the retreat and has been "with Nick" this entire time, sending me post cards of his progress. (He says that the master need only control his "tilt" factor and keep persistently playing when feeling strong, taking breaks when needed is also a small downfall, but he is working hard to appease the gods of the turn and river) The coin flipping bonus of +3.3% that comes with the cat doesn't hurt either, as was shown to me a few times by the great one in the past few days. I hope the cat comes back the very next day, I fear he may enjoy Nick's company a little more, yet I know he misses my kids and will probably return as soon as the weather warms up. We did have snow just a few days ago, Canada Rules! I am gonna try hitting the freerolls again and see if I can't win myself a seat into the WSOP, and slowly increase my ability to multi-table and eventually move up in buy-ins for tournaments. I jumped in a few $7 turbos and was able to eeek out a tiny profit. I also am happy to say I got a response from Fulltilt regarding rakeback of which I am elliglible to now receive through rakebackpros. This will be an extra for me as I only have learned of it in the pst few months yet have been a winning player consistantly for a few years. On top of the skill increase I get from training at Poker VT - Home PokerVT.com. Lots of training videos to catch up on, T.V. series to watch and many new movies gives me hardly anytime to sign up through late registration for a few "old man" softball leagues for the summer, In Canada this only last a very short time.
I am loving life and feel that I am on a "high" of sorts when I think about how much opportunity awaits me in all my endeavours and lifes journeys. A quick but not ingenuine apology to all those who I have wronged or upset or made feel bad in the past as I was doing it out of a sense of false entiltlemen and truely meant no harm to anybody, I AM SORRY! I forgive myself and hope that you can too. I don't think I have allowed myself to feel emotions in a "healthy way" for over 10 years and am giving myself a 2nd or 11th chance to do better today and not dwell on past. I want to thank everybody who has played a part in me becoming the person I am both from positive and negative life events. I wouldn't appreciate the good so much if the bad wasn't as bad as it was, THANK YOU! I have a list a mile long of things I need to do and don't want to make the post so long as to encourage speed reading and missing the point of this particular post. I do plan on providing regular updates and I do remember this blog was created soley to talk about poker yet I couldn't resist the chance to share with my many readers, all 2 of you, the cat included. Thank You, Thank YOU and THANK you, I have found "my white squirell" and will admire him everyday. Yes to my cat, when you return I have a new friend, a white squirell to keep you company on top of my computer screen.
I woke up this morning and my "miracle" has happened, I can only hope that it happens for all who are reading this too! I have a chance at being a better person and living a better life that I choose not to ignore anymore... Thank You.

See ya in a few weeks!

2009-03-19T01:09:00.000-07:00

Okay so I am 2hrs away from leaving and am both anxious, nervous and excited.
Anxious because this is going to be such a huge step for me to actually focus on all the things that make me who I am and try to improve anything that is holding me back in becoming a better person. Nervous because I am going to miss my family very much and have not been away from them for longer than 5 days ever. Excited because it is such a huge leap for me to take but should be extremely beneficial for anybody who is in anyway a part of my life.
I will miss so many different things and at the same time I will be opening my mind to so many new things. I will also miss a lot of events at PokerVT, but understandably my journey will in the long term make everything better as a whole, which is the main goal.
Thanks to all who have wished me the best on this journey, and I return those wishes to you as well in all your endeavors. Catch you all on the rebound,
David
I am also going to pray for the best possible health for all of our members and there family at PokerVT and please now that my thoughts and prayers are with you.

4th Weekly Update

2009-03-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't play much this week as I am trying to slow down how much I am playing as I start my few weeks off. I also didn't play as many SnG WSOP free rolls as I would have liked because they fill up in less than a split secound and are very hard to get entered into without any extra software to speed up the process and give me time to focus on the games I do get into. I also won the HU matches from FNF's wk 3 and am playing Nick tonight HU for a chance at $200.00. I will put up a quick post with the results before I leave. i have played 565 tournaments since starting at PokerVT, not including WSOP free roll satellites- 113 of them.

Legend to understand placings:
1,2,3,- any number indicates the exact place of finish
$- in the money, I got paid but didn't record exact place as it was not high enough
0 - not in the money and not recorded the finish
MTT- multi table tournament
Freeze- no re-buys or add on
DON- double or nothing, top five places all get equal pay out.
HU- heads up
SnG- sit and go
H/O/R/- horse, omaha, razz
FR- free roll
T- turbo

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $627.15, currently at $709.65 with $4.85 in tournament dollars
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 2700 entrants-8, 0$
Freerolls H/O/R, 2400 entrants-0
WSOP satellite free rolls Round 1, 450/225 entrants only 1st is paid)-88, 2$-1st, 2nd(ticket to round 2)
WSOP satellite free rolls Round 2-2, 0$
$2 MTT's-0
$2 HU-1, 1$- 1st
$3, 90 man SnG-0
$5 PVT SnG-1, 1$- 2nd
$7 SnG/T-2, 0$

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $45.13, currently at $48.63
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 10,000 entrants-0
Free rolls Round 2-1, 0$
.10, 10 FPP MTT, 1000 entrants-0
$2 MTT-0
$3, 45man SnG-0
$5 MTT-1, 0$
$5 HU-2, 2$, 1st,1st

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.93, currently at $111.93
Tournaments played: I didn't play at Betfair in the past week.
Freerolls, 500-1500 entrants-0
.25 MTT's-0
$1 MTT's-0
$2 MTT's-0
$5 MTT's-0

Mansion: falenangel, last update $61.74, currently at $59.54
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 1500, entrants-1, 0$
$1 MTT Freeze-0
$1 Sng's-0
$2 Freeze MTT-1, 0$
$2 MTT/rebuy/addon-0
$3 Freeze MTT-0
$5 Freeze MTT-0
$5 SnG's-0

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $250.56, currently at $251.36
Tournaments played: I only played free rolls on this site in the past week.
Freerolls-5, 1$- 11th
WSOP free rolls-1, 0$

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of 4times in the past week. I consider bubble to be within 1 of the money in a SnG and within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000.

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 3/day
Hours spent watching players at my buy-in levels: 3/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 1/day
Hours spent working on blog: 30 min/day
Day off: Tuesday,Wednesday. Not much of T.V watching Lost was awesome I am gonna miss it . Sarah Conner chronicles... would you believe me when I say I missed it this week! My "self-healing break" starts in 10 hours and counting.

FNF's, Friday Night Fights wk3

2009-03-16T04:00:00.000-07:00

Just a brief update... I played my trainer Nick Rainey HU and was able to take it down with a few nicely timed suck outs, but that is the nature of poker and the $100 prize was transferred to my account by Nick. This was the results from FNF's wk 2. I have beaten Nick in a head up situation at the end of a Sng for first place in the past weeks, yet this was a very fulfilling experience to win in this manner vs my trainer.
I also played out my Rd 1 wk3 HU match vs CarolinaDotty a fellow PokerVT member who won her last longer tournament on Pokerstars and was lucky enought to win that after a hard fought battle and a few well timed flushes and quad Aces. There was no coin flipping in this match we saw a lot of flops and a lot of rivers, playing a form of "small ball" the whole way. I now await the winner of Rd 2 and play them for the chance to then play Nick in another HU match for a prize, this time, of $200. I look forward to all of the matches and the extra bonus opportunities being provided by Nick Rainey and his true kindness and desire to see his students excell. I also want to add that all bonuses paid to members by Nick Rainey for all of his events are out of his own pocket and not provided by PokerVT, so an extra thank you to Nick for his generosity! I was gonna post another shot of my Fulltilt Poker Tracker 3 graph with result of winnings but it looks weird with a long straight line from all the Free rolls I have played as of late and won't bother with it for now. I will however in my next weekly update provide some notes about stats on my tournament play provided by sharkscope outlining my games played vs profit earned...

WSOP Main event race on FullTilt

2009-03-16T02:33:00.000-07:00

WSOP Main event race on FullTilt, is going on right now and in the past 4 days I have played about 90 SnG Free Rolls with 225/450 players which is Round 1 of this event, in each paying only 1st or 1st and 2nd with a ticket to Round 2 of the series. I won 3 tickets out of all these attempts, and lucky I am very comfortable with the play at the Free Roll level because it is filled with bad beats and way loose calls on the way. I am not sure how many final tables I made but it was at least 9 or 10. I will continue to get as many Round 2 tickets as possible over the next few days until I leave for my 4 week "self healing retreat". I hope to get at least 3 more tickets giving me at least, hopefully 6 chances to get into the main event final, or Round 3, which pays a $10,000.00 seat into the WSOP main event in a few months.
Tonight I tried out my first Round 2 event, It was an experience to say the least... I played very solid throughout the entire tournament right up until the hand that sent me packing. I made the final table and the sweet hockey screen and was in 2nd position comfortably. Then it started, and this will be a lesson for me to learn from for sure! I had been given advice by Nick Rainey to just ignore the chat box... infact simply turn it off so you don't get distracted. Needless to say I didn't... and another player was going on and on about how he is a pro poker player and how he is better than everybody, and explaining everyhand to everybody like we were all children who had never played before. Reminding you that this is Rd 2 and you need to have won a 1st Rd tournament to gain entry, so we all have some level of skill. Well this guy just wouldn't stop and the other players were getting on him about it. I tried to chat a bit and get all on a positive note... and this guy starts calling me a donkey and insulting me left, right and centre. Then came my end... I raised from the CU with J10 off, and had been pretty nitty for the past 20 hands since the final table got together. This guy was in the BB, and min raised me... Now I know I should maybe have just let my hand go there and played for a better spot with a better hand... but I was having a strong emotion about his verbal abuse, bosting, bragging and pure childish behaviour, he was deffinitely not a pro player as they would not act in this manner. So with position I decided to see a flop... If I hit strong I can get rid of this guy who was enraging my to no end. The flop is Ah Kh and something else which was meaningless so I forget. But he now checks from the BB, so since I have nothing and he 3 bet me preflop I check behind. Now I have the Jh 10d and think wouldn't a Q be nice, the turn is a 10h giving me a gut shot straight draw still, and also now a backdoor J flush with only the Qh able to beat it, if it hits. So like 11 outs to have the almost the nuts on this guy. He then leads out on the flop for about half pot.
Now this is where I mess up and "donk off" all my chips, true to the chat this guy has been spewing at me! Instead of folding and living for another hand pre-flop, or folding to his bet on the turn, or even peeling a river in hopes of a Q or a heart... I for some reason, without truely thinking it through shove all in, I had decided this guy has 99 or 88 and hated the flop and I can make him fold... Plus I have been nitty, plus if he does call I have a chance to suck out with a straight or flush or 2 pair or trips so in my mind I have like I think 16 outs If he calls and has A9 or A rag. Now what I didn't think about is why he 3 bet me, who was playing nitty, then checks the flop, then leads the turn for a bet that is tempting me to shove. He has to have AK or AJ or AA or AQ or KK and in that case I have only like 7 or 8 hearts which can't pair the board and maybe 2 Q's so back to around 11 outs, with a weak pair. This guy insta calls and shows KK for a set and a nice slow play on the flop. Now I now I made a bad play and I know why I am not holding a ticket to Rd3, and he infact did play that particular hand half well and I got impatient and wasn't thinking it through properly and lost. I can work with that, I can make sure next time I simply fold pre-flop and worse case can fold the turn or call... but shoving is just a real baaaad move on my part, along with not putting him on a real 3bet hand. But then after I am out this guy continues to go on and on and on about how good he is, how he has made 100 final tables and that he trapped me and that I am a donk.... Well I tell ya what I did... I lost it even more, I began to chat back entertaining this guy and all his "BS"... I promised him he would go out in 3rd and get the same as me for his time...Nothing! And after about another 20 minutes... my cat said "hey why don't you just mute this guy"... DING DING DING, a bell went off in my head... If I had muted all player chat from the begining then I don't know this guy is being cocky and talking a lot of smack and belittling other players, and bragging about how good he is. So I pressed mute, and stayed to watch and see who won the top 2 spots to Rd 3 of the WSOP main event race... I also shared with the other players my wishes for them to win, my anger with this player for being a "doink" and my prediction that this guy would end up getting 3rd and nothing for his time, I did tell him I would give him credit if he made the top 2 but didn't feel it was in the cards, even a blind squirel can find a nut and he had that nut vs me when I wrongly said here kind sir take all of my chips please, because he did, and I was out in 7th. Now just somehow make myself feel better I wanted to watch this classless player who had tilted my via the chat box... loose real bad. Then I actually stayed for over another hour watching and waiting and waiting and watching... Praying for another player to bust this guy. By the time of the next break this guy had ticked off the whole table and all I could see was negative comments from everyother player at the table in the chat box, unfortunately this guy had als become the chip leader with the help of another "squirrell nut" QQ, and was a 3-1 favorite to get at least 2nd if not 1st. I then went to the store to get something to help me endure my current mood from my horrible play just 5 spots away from my Rd 3 ticket and chance at a 10,000.00 entry to the main event. I got back 15 mintes a pop and a candy bar later to see this guy in a strong lead with another player and 1 short stack with less than 1/4 of either large stack... I was not happy to view this. I took off the chat mute only to see this guy was still in full force making about 5 comments per hand degrading his opponents and being an outwright top of the line classless player, who insisted he is a pro poker player in the Free rolls. Not much to say except a pro can get straight into Rd 3 with enough weekly player points each Sunday it plays for FullTilt Player Points of equal to 3000 points, which is an easy task for any true pro player... Causing me to doubt this guys statements. Also when and if I do go pro, I will never ever bother with all the Rd's of the Free Rolls to the main event if I could get into the final Rd3 weekly tournament every week without the hassle. O r buy into a smaller event to win a 10K seat. But to show I had some class myself I told "this guy" I was begining to gain a little respect for his play if nothing else, and that I don't feel a pro would behave the way he has but credit for making it to the final 3. Well wouldn't ya know it but my dead cat woke up and said... "I heard a prediction about "this guy" bubbling and wanted to do all I coud to help" I thaked my cat reight away as "this guy doubles up the short stack on the very next hand, then again a few hands later putting "this guy" in 3rd place and my hopes up and running again to watch him get zero for his efforts. Which came but not 5 more hands after that with "this guy" losing his pocket 10's to a A high Nut flush and out in 3rd with nothing to show for his time but a big ty for being such jerk as all the other players did not want to see this guy make it and probably played differently with the common goal of knocking him out of the tournament, Cheers!
I am unable to play any Rd 3's WSOP events, until I get back in 4 weeks as they run on Sundays.
I have learned a valuable lesson on my play at this final table and from now on I will turn the chat box off of viewing other player comments and that shouldn't happen again to make me play bad and give away all my chips. On the same note at least I am learnign and expanding my multi-tabling skills in a free roll so it isn't costing me anything but some dreams each time I don't progress to the next Rd... It would have been nice but there is always tomorrow, this is a challeng to mysel I am enjoying on many levels. With another chance for me to play,and get more tickets and maybe win all 3 levels, getting a main event ticket all from free rolls... wishing I had played that last hand smarter and given myself an a chance to stay in the tournament, but pleased that at least "this guy" didn't get it either.
I will give a short update on these Free rolls and my tickets with my next weekly update.

3rd Weekly Update

2009-03-12T19:38:00.000-07:00

Okay I have learned that maybe I should post less with less words in each post. Just a simple, falenangel's theory of simple, update of the past week and then results on how my bankrolls are doing on each site with game updates. In the coming future I will also be able to use "images" from other sites like sharkscope to show my current results of this year and basically since I began training at PokerVT.
Well I got 3rd in the FNF's MTT on FullTilt which got me $139 and Nick, Stinko_Mikko on Fulltilt and a pro trainer at PokerVT, matched it for another $140 which was a nice bonus for my bankroll. Since this event was a FNF's event and I now get to play for a chance to play Nick for $200 in a heads up match(HU). I also was able to defeat Mrguky for the previous weeks FNF event and get to play Nick for $100 in a HU match , hopefully before I go away for 4 weeks...
I came in 1st in week 7 of the SnG challenge and with last weeks 2nd place finish I am on my way to the final table with 42 points, I will only be able to play in week 8, missing weeks 9 and 10 so I hope my total point score is able to hold up.
I have played horrible poker in every week of the PokerVT Bounty tournaments and this week was no exception... something happens to my mind and I play bad in these tournaments... In the future I will have to treat it as a nothing tournament and not focus on the fact that it is a PVT Bounty tournament and maybe treat it as a last longer to see if that helps...
Can't think of anything else to say except that I have decided it is time to move up in levels and see if it helps or hurts my bankroll... It seems way difficult at the $1 level with the rake being my biggest opponent. Since I have a $50 start up capital at Mansion I decided that this will be my chance to practice this theory on that site...and if I lose it well... It wasn't my money anyway and I only get to keep it if I play a lot or win more than the original $50... so it's time to flip coins with that free $50!
So for each poker room the information is as follows: In total in 2009 I have played over 506 tournaments/Sng's, not including satellite free rolls.
Legend to understand placings:

1,2,3,- any number indicates the exact place of finish
$- in the money, I got paid but didn't record exact place as it was not high enough
0 - not in the money and not recorded the finish
MTT- multi table tournament
Freeze- no re-buys or add on
DON- double or nothing, top five places all get equal pay out.
HU- heads up
SnG- sit and go
H/O/R/- horse, omaha, razz
FR- free roll

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $315.56, currently at $627.15 with $22 tournament dollars
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 2700 entrants-28, 2$-8th,14th
Freerolls H/O/R, 2400 entrants-5, 1$-8th
WSOP satellite free rolls Round 1, 450/225 entrants only 1st is paid)-20, 1$-1st(ticket to round 2)
$0.50 MTT/Rebuy/Addon-15, 4$-1st,1st,1st,17th
$1 MTT's-2, 0$
$1 Razz MTT-1, 1$-8th
$2 MTT's-13, 4$,-1st,1st,1st,2oth
$2 HU-7, 4$-1st,1st,1st,1st
$3, 90 man SnG-41, 9$-2nd,3rd,4th,5th,5th,6th,6th,9th,9th
$3 MTT's-14, 2$-3rd,59th
$5 PVT SnG-2, 2$-1st,2nd
$6 MTT's-10, 2$-1st,1st
$22 MTT-1, 0$

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $43.24, currently at $45.13
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 10,000 entrants-14, 0$
.10, 10 FPP MTT, 1000 entrants-4, 0$
$2 MTT- 2, 1$-268th
$3, 45man SnG- 5, 1$-3rd

Betfair: dfalenangel, last update $111.41, currently at $111.93
Tournaments played: I didn't play at Betfair in the past week... don't know how my account went up $0.52.
Unless I got some form of rake back for the little amount that I did play!
Freerolls, 500-1500 entrants-0
.25 MTT's-0
$1 MTT's-0
$2 MTT's-0
$5 MTT's-0

Mansion: falenangel, last update $51.31, currently at $61.74
Tournaments played:
Freerolls, 1500, entrants-8, 0$
$1 MTT Freeze-2, 0$
$1 Sng's-5, 1$-1st
$2 Freeze MTT-2, 0$
$2 MTT/rebuy/addon-1, 1$-49th
$3 Freeze MTT-3, 0$
$5 Freeze MTT-1, 0$
$5 SnG's-2, 2$-1st,1st

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $248.96, currently at $250.56
Tournaments played: I only played free rolls on this site in the past week.
Freerolls-6, 2$-12th,17th

Between all sites I was Bubble Boy a total of 15 times in the past week. I consider bubble to be within 1 of the money in a SnG and within 10 of the money in a large MTT, or within 50 of the money in a MTT over 3000.
Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2.5/day
Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 1.5/day
Hours spent working on blog: 20 min/day

Day off: Tuesday,Wednesday and some of Thursday. Not much of T.V watching Lost rerun was a bummer. Heroes is slowly losing my interest and the anticipation of Sarah Conner chronicles is slowly disappearing as I won't be able to watch it for the next 4 weeks anyway. 1 more weekly update before my "self-healing break".

FNF's, Friday Night Fights wk 2

2009-03-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

Soo one of the events put on weekly by Nick Rainey and PokerVT are the weekly bounty tournament, Nick's SnG 10 week challenge, the opportunity of a Lifetime and FNF. Now Last week I won part 2 of the FNF last longer in a tournament challenge... which means I get to play mrguky, from PokerVT, in a head up poker game with the winner playing Nick, our "master" in a head up poker game for a 100 prize provided by Nick. This week I was really tired... I played late Thursday night and Friday day leaving me ready for bed at around 4:00pm. FNF started early this week so I decided to try the first couple events on FullTilt and Pokerstars and see how I could manage... well over 4 hours later and a nice run at the title I was awarded 3rd place and a $140 payment for my $3.30 investment. I was more than pleased with the status this cash put on my FullTilt bankroll and just as I was turning my computer off and let any free rolls just play out, as I was a zombie by this point, I see a transfer message on FullTilt... my "master" Nick Rainey was generious enough to match my cash at the final table on FullTilt. A bonus $140 for all my efforts, totally unexpected! As extrememly greatful for this, I quickly went straight to the forums at PokerVT and thanked him for his generousity. Thank You Nick Rainey!
I am so lucky to be going through this right now with support of an amazing team of professionals, support staff and members at PokerVT, who all actively interact in an effort to improve each others' poker game. I am excited to see where I will be 1 or 2 years from now along this journey of becoming a professional or if this has just simply been a real lucky streak as of late and varience is about to pay me a visit... on another note my dead cat says I have been not playing great at all lately and when I improve the results will follow and he says varience is ready to show me what a "hot" streak looks like... Can't wait until I get back from my "seclusion holiday" I will start this part of my journey on March 19th... and don't expext to post on the forum or blog until mid-April, and am better able to apply and focus myself towards the game of poker,
mid-life crisis... nah, I'm too young for that,
regrets about my past... who doesn't have regrets, you just have to make due with what is in front of you now and accept the things of which are out of your control to change,
focus and direction for the future... Yes Sir/Maam, No more excuses... the time is now... I will do everything possible to ensure I am focused without distractions, hence the need for a 4 week break, with no technology, no computers, no forums, no blogs, no online poker... just me time, and lots of time for reading. I hope I can qualify for the final table in the SNG challenge and am able to complete my "me time" in time to play at the final table... If I make the top 8 players with the top 6 scores, I will send a message to Nick asking that the final table not be set until after mid-April if possible.
Well not sure what else to say right now except good luck to everybody in everything they do... my dead cat says... "If you have never been beaten by a 1 outer on the river... then varience owes you a nice one! Cheers!"

Computer Ignorance has crushed me again!

2009-03-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

So installing and downloading all the different communication devices has corrupted "Bertha", she was very unhappy with what I and the store IT guy did to her... the end result is 8 hours of unbillable IT time done and 51 viruses later, plus a follow up visit to ensure the ATI graphic card was working and set up proplerly... To add my headache and resistant nature towards computers has made this a giant mess... ending in only have yahoo messenger, Lindsay Butcher... and AIM, dafalenangel... I had to abort any options to use gmail chat, skype, and windows live/msn chat... Hope it is enough for what I had intended to do... If I am unable to do group chats with fellow members of PokerVT because of this... then unfortunately that may have to wait until I get another computer to help "Bertha", the worst is if I am unable to do a live chat with Nick Rainey as they are all being set up on skype which I can't use on "Bertha"... my dead cat says that this alon would be a solid reason to purchase a whole new set-up or worse to worse just simply pay long distance phone charges for the day to get the benefit of a live interactive Hand History critique being offered to all PokerVT members who complete the SnG challenge whilst trying out for the Opportunity of a Lifetime.
On another note I have yet to battle mrguky head up for last weeks FNF's as a result of all my computer difficulties... we have spoken and hope to get it done before tomorrow evening and the begining of the next FNF, Friday Night Fights tomorrow night.
I also want to just give an extreme shout out to Tanatloc who has been more than kind to me during this begining of my adventure into the online poker world, he is a wonderful man who has taken his own time to help an "ignorant computer user", to enable me to make at least a 6 month jump in my progress and ability to evaluate my game while playing tournaments... Thank You!
From reading Nick's blog the past few weeks I have also decided that a message of utmost importance that I have neglected to mention, Is that I Love my wife very much, If not for her understanding I would not have the chance to at least try to fullfil a dream. Also my loving and caring most important person in the world my MOM... I LOVE YOU... I will make you proud of me somehow... someday... I promise!

I am gonna take a break.

2009-03-04T01:53:00.000-08:00

Starting March 19th, I am going to take a falenangel improvement break.
I am going to go Buddha, I am going with no computers, no phones, not anything until I have read 2 poker books and Fooled By Randomness! As well as deal with some personal issues that need attending to without any distractions of any kind whatsoever. For these purposes anything electronic becomes a distraction. I hope anybody who is reading this can put some faith into my words and understand... as well wish me the best of luck on this, one of many important steps in my journey of becoming a successful human being.
I am sorry if this influences any part of my ability to compete in the Nick Rainey SnG Challenge or the Opportunity of a Lifetime.
If I don't take this necessary step to improving my game and myself as a person... to better focus myself and apply all my learning's to the game, and in the long run getting me to that most important goal the proper way... not half-way like I have been doing.
Thank You Nick, for opening my eyes and mind in ways I never would have done on my own this quickly. Thank You, Honestly.
I also hope I don't miss the final table for the SnG challenge if I am lucky enough to go. I figure this break will take about 4 weeks so I will be back posting more blogs at the end of April.
I am loving my results on sharkscope... too bad I can't post the results on the blog I can only get print outs for myself as I am not a member as of yet, but it looks very promissing!

Communication Overload!

2009-03-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

I have taken the next progressive step in my poker journey ontowards becoming the best I can be.
First of all I have started the Nick Rainey 100 $3, 90 man SnG challenge without realizing it. I was poking around with Poker Tracker 3 and it says I have played over 30 games at this level... I was planning on playing 100 straight and no other games in between but the tease of the MTT on a large scale is far too great. I have been playing around with the $3 games to get a feel for them. I also am enjoying the odds provided in satellite tournaments as it is almost as good as 4-1, in some cases, were as a regular payout is about 9-1 in most tournaments. I have collected $110 in tournament $'s on FullTilt since I discovered them just 3 days ago with PT3 showing that I have 5, 1st place finishes but also shows a negative in profits as I did not win cash, per say... this doesn't bother me at all, though the graph looks "sad" because of the missing winnings!
The next part of my journey was installing communication tools so now I can talk with fellow people in the world through my computer! Mostly I set it up to speak with other PokerVT members and to be able to go over Hand History of each others' tournaments to get rid of all the leaks in our game, by being able to interactively share our ideas. If anybody is interested in chatting with me, my name on AIM is dafalenangel, my name on gmail is dafalenangel@gmail.com, my name on yahoo is Lindsay Butcher, my name on Windows live is not yet created I will come back and edit tomorrow after they let me complete the sign in, my name on Skype is dafalenangel.
I type this with the thought that the select few, and my dead cat says you know who you are, will chose to take this as an opportunity to also grow a life long friendship with a man who may, as well as you the select few, some day become a poker professional... and is genuinely a really nice and caring guy. I am a teacher after all... at least for now.
I also came to a realization about the Opportunity of a Lifetime... It is this... Nick is providing all us members with a chance to really expand our game through extra tasks and interacting with us more than 1 time a week to get us engaged in poker discussion... etc. In turn this is simply strengthening our game as a player expanding how we all look at the game. Wether or not I am chosen as an apprentice does not mean I will not become a professional it just might mean it will take a little longer at my own pace as I increase in levels. But I do appreciate to the highest degree the extra effort that Nick has put forth for all us members so much more now that I realize it doesn't matter if I get picked because I know I will succeed in this journey... it is just a matter of time.
On that same note, I am doing fine at the poker tables and If I continue at the rate I am on I will satisfy all of my bankroll goals that I created for myself in poker for this year by the 6 month mark. If that happens I get to make a new set of goals for the next entire year starting then! Don't worry I won't get ahead of myself... the thing is... I don't think I have been playing all that well lately, yet I am still turning a profit. I can account for many times when I self exploded or made a horrible play that cost me money and as long as I can identify that and prevent it in the future I am halfway thier. Let alone when I start playing to what I or my cat would consider "well".

Satelite Tournaments

2009-03-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

I have recently discovered a form of tournmament I have never really played before because the poker site I used to solely play didn't offer many and if you did win higher up it could take days to fill the large buy in tournaments to continue up the ladder. So this past week I played a $2 satelite on Betfair and luckily won 1 of 2 seats available into a larger $1111 guaranteed event, this was a nice little surprise as I would never at my current bankrol allow myself to play that high of a buy in unless it had something to do with training for future growth in my game. So I then played in a satellite free roll on Poker Stars and won 1 of 50 seats available into the next round on March 14th, my dead cat said to try some on FullTilt since I was having a nice litte run with this new form of tournament. So without even giving it much thought I continued on with my routine of playing lots of free rolls and pumping out as many games as possible and didn't bother with the satelites... until last night. I played in 1 $2 satelite and 3 .50 cent satellites to the 200k gauranteed double douce on FullTilt. I didn't get any entrys into the larger tournament but I did cash 2 times bubbling the entry the double douce.
On to today, I have PokerVT member tournaments on FullTilt at 6:00 and 8:00pm, as well I have a heads up match to play vs mrguky from PokerVT because I won a last longer on Friday Night Fights with PokerVT 2 nights ago, the winner gets to play Nick Rainey for $100 Head Up so I am a bit anxious. So to make for an easy morning I decided only to play a few free rolls and more of the satellites into the double deuce. I started with a $2 freeze out and a .50 cent re buy. I was gonna join more as I got knocked out, but didn't need to... I love my dead cat, I won a $22 entry into the double deuce in the .50 cent tourney as it was a turbo and ended first. I was worried if I won in the $2 tourney that I wouldn't get anything since I was already entered for the 4:22pm double deuce 200k guaranteed... but nope the wonderful people at FullTilt were gracious enough to credit my account with $22 in tournament tokens to be used in tournaments on FullTilt, BAM! I can now use them to play any level... maybe 6 buy ins for $3.30 cent tournaments who knows... I will definitely be trying to play more of these every weekend as they seem to be great for odds at getting paid out a nice little amount for a very small buy in. The only disadvantage is my PokerTracker3 shows it as a loss of money as the tournament dollars don't register as a win but $3.80 cents into $44 in tournament entry's and a chance at the double deuce months before I ever thought I could play in a $22 buy in event is well worth the trade off of my stats looking poor... I hope to be editing later with great results from all of my many big events today, especially a bounty update as my dead cat says today is a nice day to collect a bounty... maybe even 2!
On another note I have yet to begin the 100 Sng challenge and their is a new 500 SnG challenge to start prepating for. I think I might try pokerstars SnG and then FullTilt for the 100 challenge to get lots of practice. Then start the 500 in a couple weeks or so after I am playing more tables at a time.
I am also going to post in the forum at PokerVT about my blog and see if anybody is interested in following along in my journey to become a poker pro, hope they all don't just laugh and think I am a donk playing free rolls all the time. My dead cat has his own opinions on the "donk" comment that I choose not to share at this time or ever. Have a great day anyone who might be reading this!

2nd Weekly Update

2009-02-27T18:02:00.000-08:00

Well to give a quick run down of all my games I went to sharkscope and got a total of games played on Fulltit, Pokerstars and Mansion poker. Tigergaming is of all my own note totals and Betfair is just new so it will take time before information is uploaded to tracking sites so notes are my own for now. However in the past month, or since Jan 15th, with my my notes and the tracking of sharkscope I have played in a total of 419 MTT's and SnG's tournaments on all of the 5 poker rooms I currently am actively using, of those 160 were free rolls.
I have yet to find a site that tracks Tigergaming of the action poker network, If anybody happens to have knowledge in this area of tracking and how to assist me locate any of my past 3 years records that would be greatly appreciated, if it is even possible to track tigergaming.

So for each poker room the information is as follows:

Legend to understand placings:
1,2,3,- any number indicates the exact place of finish
$- in the money, I got paid but didn't record exact place as it was not high enough
0 - not in the money and not recorded the finish
MTT- multi table tournamet
Freeze- no rebuys or addons
DON- double or nothing, top five places all get equal pay out.
HU- heads up
SnG- sit and go
H/O/R/- horse, omaha, razz

FullTilt: dafalenangel, last update $33.00, currently at $315.56
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $5 Sng's, $5 MTT's, $2 Matrix Sng's, $3 MTT's
Freerolls, 2700 entrants-45, 0 $, 22nd, 33rd
Freerolls H/O/R, 2400 entrants-6, 1$, 22nd
$1 MTT's-9, 0 $
$2 MTT's-10, 0 $
$3, 90 man SnG-22, 2 $, 1st, 2nd, 11th x2
$3 MTT's-22, 3 $, 2nd, 5th, 8th
$5 PVT SnG-1, 0 $

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, last update $40.00, currently at $43.24
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $1 Sng's, .25/.10 MTT's
Freerolls, 10,000 entrants-6, 1 $, top 50 advance to next round Mar. 14th
.10, 10 FPP MTT, 1000 entrants-8, 2 $, 205th, 80th,
$1 SnG, DON-47, 29 1st's

Betfair: dfalenangel, start up deposit $98.50, currently at $111.4
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $2 MTT's, .25 MTT's
Freerolls, 500-1500 entrants-6, 0 $
.25 MTT's-8, 2 $, 1st, 8th
$1 MTT's-8, 0 $
$2 MTT's-1, 1 $, 2nd
$5 MTT's-1, 0 $

Mansion: falenangel, last update $45.00, currently at $51.31
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $1 SnG's, $1 HU
Freerolls, 1500, entrants-8, 2 $
$1 MTT Freeze-6, 2 $, 70th
$1 Sng's-37, 18 $, 1st x10, 2nd x8
$1 HU-4, 3 $, 1st x3

Tigergamming: falenangel, last update $225.00, currently at $248.96
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $5 MTT's and under,
Freerolls-37, 12 $, 1st x2, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th
.25/.50 HU cash limit, 50 hands played, profit of $5.20

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 2/day

Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 1/day for a total of about 20 tournaments.

Hours spent working on blog: 1/day

Day off: Monday and Tuesday and some of Wednesday, lots of T.V watching Lost is the top of my list with Heroes and the anticipation of Sarah Conner chronicles growing daily. More updates coming soon!

Shark Scope

2009-02-25T12:16:00.000-08:00

I have visited Shark Scope a few times over the past week to see if they have any information on any of my usernames. I checked all my old names and nothing is in thier database. I checked all my tigergaming and couldn't find it withing their database... which I would somehow love to be able to track my records or ROI for the past 3 years if at all possible I don't know if tigergaming is a big enough known pokersite to be bothered tracking. Maybe if I try table ratings in the near future. I have a lot on my plate with current programs and learning how everything works plus trying to increase my amount of games played in a weekly period.
Well first off when I visited Shark Scope last week I had a fish bowl beside my FullTilt name and nothing beside Pokerstars or Mansion... I thought it a little funny as I only had 1 fish in my bowl rather than 3. Well it has gone awawy and I am happy to announce that Shark Scope no longer has me in the "fish" category. In fact all 3 sites they have me tracked on show a profit of ratio to game played.
Fulltilt has dafalenangel played 152 games, av. stake $1, av. Profit $1, Total Profit $191
Pokerstars has dafalenangel played 102 games, av. stake $1, av. Profit $0, Total Profit $3
Mansion has falenangel played 40, av. stake $1, av. Profit $0, Total Profit $6
Betfair has dfalenangel, 0 games played
Tigergaming has falenangel, no records can be found, can't figure out tigergaming/actionpokernetwork, to search for any database or records. (Any help would be greatly appreciated)

This means I have played over 300 games in the past 4-5 weeks as that is around the time I created these new poker accounts with Mansion, FullTilt and started using an old Pokerstars account again. Wow, for me that is a lot... like average of 10 games a day including my 2 days off each week. Today I have set a goal to play at least 50 games on the different poker sites. My opinion about a certain site being better for me is also gonna get tossed as I find I am playing the same and scoring the same ROI, I just haven't hit a large win on the other sites yet. I need to start playing a bit larger limits before that can happen. Which means time for me to step up my $1 game, or start playing $2 games where the rake will be lower and I will make a slightly larger ROI based on my current results of $1 profit per game at the $1 level.

I imagine these are the proper records and what the stats on my poker tracker should look like but they don't seem to match up. Maybe when I purchase the full package and stop using the trial option my access and user options will increase... maybe I just need Tanatloc? My dead cat says to just pay for the help and get it done faster, in the long run it will be more beneficial to do sooner rather than later. Which is what will occur if I left it totally up to myself to figure out... the later part anyway.

I also tinkered around with PT3 and was able to mange this chart it doesn't show all my games but I haven't figured out the whole thing yet anyway, but this will do for now. I also printed one off of sharkscope to look at it is similar for all the charts just smaller in amount won in total. Edit: I will post my graph every 200 games with my incomplete PT3 stats.

"I coulda been Kramer" The extra guy who was gonna play Kramer when they did a show about the show. The guy who took George's raisins.

10 Week SnG Challenge on PokerVT and FullTilt

2009-02-23T18:41:00.000-08:00

On a different note: To start off I decided to take a couple of days off... the last few days I played so much, over 100 tournaments that last 1-5 hours each, I was falling alseep in front of the computer. I asked my wife to wake me up in 5 hours as I had an appointment today... Well 12 hours of coma like sleep later and 1 missed the appointment. I decided It is necessary to evaluate the amount of time my brain has to relax. I have been pushing it ever since I got this new computer and need to allow myself time to adjust to this new phase of my life. Therefore I will be taking every Monday and Tuesaday as relaxing days... I will only play poker after I have done at least 2 hours of anything but poker and only after I have slept at least 8 hours per day. I think this is wiser than falling asleep while playing 6 games at one time... thankfully 4 of them were free rolls and it didn't hurt my bankroll too much.

Okay now information on the one of the awesome events going on at PokerVT.
It is at the halfway point of the SnG challenge and basically the rules are as follows:
1. Be a PokerVT member in good standing.
2. Participate in weekly Nick Rainey SnG challenge tournaments on Sundays, by posting your FullTilt username on the PVT forum and use special code provided in the forum to enter each weekly tournament. Unless permitted members are only allowed to play 1 game each Sunday. If more than 1 game is permitted on a given Sunday a players point scores will be averaged into 1 score for that Sunday.
3. Scores are as follows:
1st 10 points
2nd 8 points
3rd 5 points
4th 3 points
5th 2 points
6th 2 points
7th 1 points
8th 1 points
9th 1 points
4. Top 6 scores out of the possible 10 weeks will be used to calculate total points for the 10 week challenge, top 8 members point totals will participate in a final table for prizes as follows:
1st $500.00
2nd $275.00
3rd $200.00
4th $150.00
5th $125.00
6th $100.00
7th $75.00
8th $50.00
9th $25.00

I have currently completed 5 weeks of the challenges so right now all of my scores count towards my final total they are as follows:
wk1, 1st-10 points, wk2, 4th and 7th combined- 2.5 points, wk3, 7th and 6th combine-1.5 points, wk4, 1st-10 points, wk5, 7th-1 points. Total current 5 week score for dafalenangel-25 points.

The current leaderboard for the top 8 spots with the top 15 scores listed are as follows:
Candiman01 - 33
Mrguky - 27
FrancoFred - 27
dafalenangel - 25
Mrs_A - 25
MikeLeeH - 25
GingiFu - 24
Win-by-TKo - 23
AbsolutKnuts - 22
Capt Sticky - 22
BudDry1 - 21
Oelgart - 21
phyxsius - 21
RetardDonkey - 20
FaaahQ2 - 19

I actually believe I have a chance to make the top 10 and play at the final table. I need at least 1 more 1st and at least one 2nd place with maybe 3 sixth places to make it. Hopefully I can toss out my weeks with scores of 2.5 or less and improve my total to at least 44 which I think should put me in the top 10. The most a person can get is 60 and I don't think anybody will score that high... and if they do, I shall have yet another master to begin learning from... any pupil who can dominate that greatly would demand much respect from me. My dead cat reminds me that I too still could win 4 more times and get that 60... but I think the competion is bery strong and I would have to get very lucky to pull it off... Maybe if somebody locked up the god of the river in solitary confinement then I might have a shot...Also I consider anybody on the above list as competition for my spot in the top 6... especially RetardDonkey, who is Uncle Scrooge on PVT forums and knows how to exploit my weekness during the game, demonstrated in tournaments past.
Good Luck to all in the final 5 weeks of the competition!

Almost a win...

2009-02-22T20:10:00.000-08:00

I am in 6 of 25 in the $3, 536 MTT, right now, tourney #81092151. If anybody is interested...
I hope I don't jinx anything by posting this ....
Oh yeah on Full Tilt!
Was what I excitedly typed in the forum on PokerVT at the last break before the tourney was over. Hoping to get a few members who had a spare 20 minutes to come watch me before I lost all my chips in a bad play, as per usual, but not this time... my friends Tanatloc, Candiman, Suggs and Olegart all showed up to cheer me on in the chat box... I am sure this created a bit of fear in my opponents as I slowly began to build my chips. At the final table with 9 left I have 9th in chips... my dead cat whisperd in my ear... Hey Dave guess what your free rolling now baby... I took his advice and realised I couldn't do worse than 9th, and it paid the top 54 so I was well into the money and satisfied with my game. The god of the turn had other plans he yelled aloud if you shove it... it will come... and boy did it ever... 3 or 4 suck outs in a row. 1 time I folded 77 with 4 left and 2 players all in... it woulda won and I shrugged and believed my journey to end at 3rd. Then on the very next hand I got the most beautiful 2 cards I had seen in about 20 hands, 10 10... which is huge at 15K SB, 30K BB and 4 or 5K antee. The other short stack went all in... I only had to click call and his 99 wasn't able to touch anything as I said my gg to him and let him know that the FullTilt Valley had his car already started and waiting that he could collect his 3rd place winnings at the cage on his way. The monster chip leader... now with an equal stack size to me said wanna chop? We can chop? it's and extra $75 each garuanteed. My dead cat told me to take the money and run, I said heck no infact I smelt the smell of a poker player who was afraid of the display he had just witnessed as I turned his 4-1 chip lead into a dead even heat. The god of the river decided this was when he was gonna get out of bed and bam after about 30 hands head up... I was getting into my car thanking the FullTilt Vallet for turning on the seat warmers, I do live in Canada.. eh? After I collected my cheque for $249.24 I went straight to the grocery store to stock up on Kraft Dinner. It was on sale... I bought a case of 50 boxes for .55 cents each. Bam! the kids are gonna love me! I am tired now but excited at the same time. I was trying to get in a lot of games today and almost went to play at another site... good thing I do occasionaly listen to the otherworldly advice of my furry friend, after all it was his idea to play this tourney, he even lied to me and told me it was a bounty... In all honest this hand history will be great to review as I spent a very long time as a regular stack just waiting for the right times with the right cards. I had a PR, preflop raise of under 20 and at times under 10 on PT3, most of the tourney and still placed 2nd. Not bad for a TAG who's trying to stop being a LAG. I am so glad that PokerVT crossed my path and I was wise enough to begin this new adventure. Now tomorrow or Tuesday I will start my SnG challenge... I might try to see if I can play 50 games tomorrow at a $1 level just to get a little more pracitce multi-tabling before I tackle the challenge. Worst to worst if I play ten a day I will be done in 10 days. Or if I play 30 a day I am done in 3-4 days, and If I win a lot I could then play the same amount over and over again just as I am sure Nick intended on showing us by putting this challenge in front of us... Better later than never... right!?!!

I finally got over a hump...!

2009-02-22T02:10:00.000-08:00

Well for anybody who has been reading this blog from the bottom up as I hoped you might you will be happy to know that I have finally cashed in my first $3, 90 man SnG on Full Tilt and not only did I cash, you see the river god smashed me half-way through this tournament and probably left thinking he had done his days work on the falenangel. Well while he was eating dinner, or taking a shower I exploded my way back to the final table and took at one point a 2-1 chip lead over all of my opponents, and after some heads up battling with a pretty tuff opponent my friends I took it down. Let me repeat... they shipped the cookies to me! Which feels soooooo great.
I am thinking about not posting anymore hand written weekly results after next week for Fulltilt, Poker stars and Mansion only because I can now post my results from PokerTracker3 for the year. Betfair and Tiger gaming will still be by my personal notes but I think PT3 has made the decision about which sites I will play on for now. When I start playing larger amounts I will consider the advantages of rake back or not. For now I have my sign up bonuses that can make me feel satisfied at all the poker rooms. I am now going to practice my multi-tabling. I can play 4 games comfortably right now, and am trying to add 2 to play 6 at a time right now. I am doing it at the smaller levels because of my bankroll and because I find I make some mistakes when increasing the # of tables at first. However to make sure you understand I was only playing 1 table at a time for the last 2 years and only increased it to 2 tables at a time last month. To say I am at 4 right now is for me... another great step in my journey to feeding my kids kraft dinner with beans, my dead cats favorite meal.
Or kraft dinner and french fries, kraft dinner and hot dogs, kraft dinner and canned tuna... I love I love I love I LOVE MY KRAFT DINNER WITH... MY DAD! In all honesty I ate kraft dinner a lot growing up and I loved it! Tomorrow is the PokerVT's weekly SnG challenge and the Multi Table Tournament, MTT, I will give a update on how they are going soon. Back to the tables!

Poker Programs

2009-02-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

I have completed installing Universal Re player into my computer and can't figure out how to make it run any of my hand histories... lol I am the greatest! I tried tinkering around and clicked on settings and tried importing the hand histories and nothing. One time I thought I was gonna watch a game because it looked like the hand history went in and I pressed play and ... nothing. Sooo I decided to install pokerstove and that was nice, I tinkered around with a few hands and saw how they would manage against another. I think If I am at a final table and have reads on players this tool can become very helpfull. I also tried to instal pokertrace but for some reason it kept going to a dead screen... maybe it is not available anymore or I might need to subscribe to the site to be able to download it. Either way I am anxious to start searching some forums to get an idea about how to run the re player program. I also decided it was also time to download PokerTracker3 and get it free for 2 months before I make the purchace, which I am positive I will do. This will give me an opportunity to tinker around with the program getting a long chance to become familiar with it. I might have to call upon a friend to help me figure out the new software and show me how to use it but again I am willing to pay him for his computer expertise and time, as I am sure it will take more than a 4 hour afternoon. (I'll order take out, his favourit kind and make sure I have lots of pop).
However a little snag while trying to download PT3, it has all these extra click here, apply this, olay to that, preferences change, and when I finally got that figure out now it has to download this thing called PostgrSQL, so I go to that link and then it sayw to have that with vista I need to download Service Pack 1, and now it says that it will take 1 hour to download that ... lol lol lol, this is actually hillarious because I was in need of a little time break from poker before I go back to those $3, 90 man SnG's on Full Tilt and remind varience that it was I who baked him those cookies he loved so much, that bob's his uncle, that training at PokerVT has improved my game and I AM a solid player... also hoping that the god of the turn can cuddle up beside my dead cat and guide me through crushing a few and let me have a string of cashes and even my first victory at this game which had evaded me for long enough. Compared to all the freerolls I have been playing lately it is almost equal in level of skill. So I should in theory be able to do very well at this level, not what I have been able to show so far.
I don't know which poker program to download next, which one is free... maybe I only need to get SNG power tools or SNG Wizard which I believe costs money and if that is the case I will wait a month or so to get used to the programs I just installed, and learn how to use them first. I think I'll wait to get used to the programs I just got first then ask in the forums what would be wise to get next. Cool like right on, I mean honestly... only 38 more minutes on the download for Service Pack 1, then I get to install PostgreSQL which is followed by PokerTracker3 the icing on the cake, the enchelata, the .25 cent bubble gum machine when you were 5 (the big gums that your parents had to bite in half for ya), dairy queen on a hot hot day, PT3 Baby! You all know exactly how this feels for the first time... it's always better the first time. Yeah Yeah!
I am gonna send an plate of Turkey to the god of the river, turkey always makes me tired and want to sleep. Maybe when I get near the bubble he'll be out like a light and I can soar into the final table with some chips... piles of chips... final table... hhmmm donuts... giggidy giggidy, giggidy goo.

EDIT: It is now almost 8 hours since the post about downloading. I have put some programs into the replayer and was able to watch them whil waiting for the PT3 to finish setting up. I then figured out how to manually import all my old files from my crappy old computer. Then I wasted 1 hr importing files from Betfair and Tigergaming... which PT3 doesn't recognize of coure... lol then I finally got it set up to auto import all the files from mansion poker, fulltilt and pokerstars as I type this I notice it hasn't even completed Fulltilt let alone the other 2 sites. I imagine the information will be so valuable to me and very much increase my ability to avoid marginal situations. I also guess this means the Betfair and Tiger will have to remain "hobby sites" and focus on Pokerstars, Fulltilt and Mansion to better track my game and decrease my leaks I figure this thing will take a while to finish getting all the hands and be quicker in the future... though it does please me somewhat to know I played that many hands and that many games for it to take this long to complete the auto import. I will spend the next day trying to multi table and play free rolls. I will pick my favorite ones to play in a few each day... for the glory of it, and then begin the 100 SnG challenge next week. What I might do, as suggested by you know who, is play 100 $1 SnG 1 table first to see how many table I can play at a time and how fast I can pump out 100 games. Maybe even 200 games, then when I feel good about my pace and amount of tables best for me I will attack the $3 on FullTilt. I can currently manage 6 tables at 7 my head starts spinning and I make mistakes I wouldn't if I were playing 5 or 6.

Rough day at the tables

2009-02-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Well I started off well today playing and winning the first free roll I entered, on tigergaming. Then cashing in my 2nd free roll of the day and first on mansionpoker, and another free roll cash back on tigergaming. I won some .25 and .50 cent limit that I only played 50 hands heads up, the guy was way aggressive and I stopped after 50 hands becuase it was just raise after raise after raise. I then played some SnG's on mansion and cashed in a few. Then over to pokerstars for some Double or nothing's which is an easy pay if you play tight. I made my first deposit at Betfair and played in 8 tournaments until I cashed in one. I found the software on Betfair very difficult to navigate and figure out where to find the information on how many get paid in a tourny... gonna need to get used to it that's for sure. Then over to Fulltilt for some more free rolls getting 70th out of 2700, but it pays top 27 so maybe next time. Then I experienced my worst run of memory at the $3, 90 man SnG's I played 6 in a row and got baaaad beat out of 5 of them, 1 time I made a bone headed play and the rest... well I had the best of it going in and I guess in the long run it will even out for me. It just happens to be so frustrating for me right now. I have learned not to yell in the chat box, but need to learn that I am not the only one experiencing this phenomenon. I went over to the forum at PokerVT and without thinking posted a comment about the bad beats. One of the professionals was quick to put me in line and add some focus to my frustration. In the long run I want to be called with weak holdings by my opponents and it's how I deal with the times they do suck out that will make me the better player, when I can keep my emotions in check about things beyound my control. Plus the sample size is rediculous only 6 games, and to win just 1 out of 20 I would make a profit. So I guess I should only worry about it if I get to 20 and still haven't cashed. My dead cat says... "like that will ever happen", I am sure it can and will. I enjoy poker so much and I guess the biggest problem for me... was now... I have to make another deposit to FullTilt if I want to continue playing. LALALALALA , I sure love loving life. Wait until next week when I begin the $3, SnG challenge. I hope the varience was just waiting for me to start the competition before releasing the god of the turn onto my games. I am currently as I type playing my last $1 on FullTilt in a 6 max MTT. My dead cat is laughing at me about being upset and says I am such a luckbox that I should never complain about a bad beat. I hope the god of the turn can give me his blessing in this tourny. I would really like to avoid making a deposit. Not that it means I am a bad player, just that it kinda makes me feel like I am a bad player. Okay so I am leaving the blog to go deposit. Which means I didn't cash in the $1 tournament. I am actually smiling and starting to feel better, that was less than half the time it normally takes before I can start thinking rationally. Right on! Back to the tables! Meow.

My Poker Resume

2009-02-19T19:46:00.000-08:00

This is it, my poker resume for Nick Rainey. I understand that many resumes will be sent in by all the members at PokerVT, as well as the competition for the available spots will be very intense and the decision to select a few this first time very difficult for Nick. So I will as best I can make this short precise and to the point. If Nick for some reason loses all his senses and selects me to be chosen among the many for consideration to become one of the few, then I also submit my blog address, http://falenangel-davidb.blogspot.com/ which was created just a few days ago, and basically with the goal of improving my game, if you ever get the time.
I have never taken notes before now, I have never used computer software focused on poker but am now going to begin looking into that. I have been using a dinosaur to play online which in turn has prevented me from previously expanding on to other poker sites.
I want to be Nero, my dead cat has pointed out that the topic of my blog is "No more excuses, the time is now!", and I have to take his advice and make the best effort that I can. I will now give you a brief, falenangel version of brief, overview of all the information you have requested in your post on the forum for this opportunity of a Lifetime.
To start off, yes I am a PokerVT member and have a membership that is paid full until Jan, 2010. So I will not be leaving the training site for some time, nor do I have any plans to leave. My forum name is, falenangel.
I am 35 years old, have 3 boys (that I know of), I am married and live in Ontario, Canada. I was born in Toronto and have spent the majority of my life in this area. As a teenager I travelled to British Columbia for 8 months to experience life, and then moved all around Canada for 2 years. I returned to Ontario and started College at the age of 21, after never completing a High school education, and dropping out of grade 11. I then received my 2 year diploma with honours in Early Childhood Education, followed by a 2 year diploma for Social Service Work and Community Outreach. I have been working as a Resource Teacher for children with special needs and intellectual difficulties aged 2-6 years old. I have only been playing poker for about 3-4 years and have never been involved in any form of improvement other than playing experience and reading a few poker books each year. My usernames at the poker rooms online are as follows: FullTilt: username: dafalenangel, Pokerstars: username: dafalenangel, Betfair: username: dfalenangel, MansionPoker: username: falenangel, Tigergaming: username: falenangel, if you need to ask any questions please use my e-mial dave.butcher@sheridanc.on.ca or I will see you in the forums.
A brief list of my poker wins worth mentioning are, again noting this is all from memory with no notes having been taken so I may be omitting some events but all stated events are factual:
Online I have won over 100 MTT's and countless SnG's, I believe my ITM ratio is extremely high but have no facts to back it up. I would be curious to know what a site like sharkscope has to say when my usernames are typed in. I have never bothered to go look. Another form of a leak in my game forced on me by my ignorance with computers and not upgrading my system prior to my eyes being open wide by yourself and the many others involved with PokerVT.
Sooo tournaments that I have cashed in live: Mind that the most ever paid for a buy in was $100 SnG at Brantford and only because I had won $900.00 that day at the cash limit 5-10, and the tourny needed 1 more to play. Lucky me! Otherwise the max buy in I have played in live or online was $30.00, until that experience at Brantford, and for an unknown reason never since...
Local Bar in Brampton - Oscar's weekly tournament. Winners get invited to Tourny of Champions. Multiple time winners get extra starting chips. I came in 2nd the first ever Tourny of Champions and took down $900.00. The following year I came back for the Title a nice gold bracelet (for my first and only bracelet to date) and $1500.00 with free re-buys for next 4 months of tournaments. I cashed in 50% of the tournaments I played at this bar, paid top 5 with 36 entrants 2 times a week. Tournament of champions ran every 4 months. That was a fun year or so of my life. I actually believe my strength is in live game play, I have had to adapt to the internet which is way more difficult to get a read on your opponents.
Brantford Charity Casino: Ultimate Poker Championships $100. SnG, satelight victory seat into 1K buy in of the 5 day events.
Ultimate Poker Championships 1k buy in tournament, place I think it was 6th, and got over 6K. I then bought into the 2k buy-in. (I know reckless but I felt lucky)
Ultimate Poker Championships 2k buy in tournament, place in 22nd and got over 4k
Online largest victory: I didn't take records but I have won over $2k one time and over $500. at least 5 times in MTT tournaments with buy ins of $10-20. If I remember any other large events I will edit it in in the future.
I do know my largest cash game win at a casino was $2300. and my biggest loss was $900.00. That is when I was playing regularly live and hadn't had any positive experiences with internet poker.
I will be sending this e-mail on Sunday February 22nd, with the intention of starting my 100 $3, 90 man SnG challenge this comming Monday February 23rd in the evening, eastern time.
What I might do, as suggested by you know who, is play 100 $1 SnG 1 table first to see how many table I can play at a time and how fast I can pump out 100 games. Maybe even 200 games, then when I feel good about my pace and amount of tables best for me I will attack the $3 on FullTilt. I can currently manage 6 tables at 7 my head starts spinning and I make mistakes I wouldn't if I were playing 5 or 6.
I was going to also include a tidbit about my family and history which brought me to becoming the man I am today, however I know that Nick is very busy, and I think what is more important is the man I have become and how I proceed in my endevours from here. I also know that infact I will succeed in this current journy... it is just a matter of how soon or how fast. I have sub-consciously put a lock on the door in front of the journy and Nick has opened it from the inside, I just have to walk through it...
I also know that this will in turn improve my game as I take each next step, and begin to expand my whole outlook, thought process and eliminate those aspects that hurt my chances of being a winning player.
I am grateful that the god of the turn has continued to watch over me with my dead cat always the loving railbird, lookout world falenangel's coming to town!
Thank You Nick, Thank You Very Much!

My Testilmonial for PokerVT

2009-02-19T18:56:00.000-08:00

David Butcher

Personally when I started learning the game of hold-em it was with limit cash games at the local casino. Then I began expanding into no limit through tournaments again at local casinos and bars eventually leading to online poker. I have played no limit cash but the variances are too great for me and my bankroll as it has, until this point, only been a hobby. Then I signed up to Poker VT.

This site, PokerVT, has opened my mind in ways I had no idea.

However... I once thought on a poker scale of 10, that I was about a 7, this site has opened my eyes and forced me realize I am probably a 3, for now, with the chance to maybe get up to a 6 within the next year and hopefully someday an 8.
I believe all the training and videos, interactions on the forum, games and tests, plus the opportunity to not only play with pros in tournaments, but learn from commentary posted along with videos after is a brilliant revelation for poker players world wide.
This is an enlightening opportunity that I would recommend to any poker player who has the desire to improve their game. This will improve your game no matter what level of a player you think you are. If I could send myself a message in the past, it would be to sign up for PokerVT right away! Thank You to all the pros and team at PokerVT for providing such a tremendous, interactive learning environment for poker players everywhere.

1st ever Weekly Update

2009-02-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

Ok I have only decided to start keeping notes in this last week, very poor note taking at that... I am sure it will get better as I progress in my journey. This week I paid $2500.00 to get a new computer for myself and my children. (It would have been a sin to give them my old crappy computer) So my dead cat reminds me of all the effort and cost being put into my new journey so stop being a chicken and JUST DO IT! He also reminds me if I lost all 100 tournaments at the $3.30, 90 man SnG's and never claimed a bounty it would at most cost me $330. So yes I am gonna listen to my dead cat. This weekend I will write and submit a poker resume to SNG Nick for the opportunity of a lifetime. I will begin this coming Monday on the 100 tourny challenge. I have also been neglecting playing enough at the proper levels to give my bankroll a chance to grow, recently playing a lot of free rolls. I will include bankroll updates in future updates. I also do not have any poker software at the moment as it wasn't an option with my crappy old computer, but not with "Bertha", I expect I will be in full use of programs by years end, for now just one step at a time.
Alright this is my attempt at tracking my records of games played in the past week, all done on post it notes and now transferred here to able myself to track my progress.
Legend to understand placings:
1,2,3,- any number indicates the exact place of finish
ITM- in the money, I got paid but didn't record place as it was not worth it
0 - not in the money and not recorded the finish
MTT- multi table tournamet
Freeze- no rebuys or addons

FullTilt: username: dafalenangel,
Freerolls, 2700 entrants-33, 1 ITM 2nd place, 35th, 34th,31st
$1 The Ferguson 1400-3, 1 ITM 83rd place
$2, 45 man SnG-1, 1 5th place
$3, 90 man SnG-3, 0 ITM, 13th, 19th place
$5 PVT MTT-1, 0 ITM
$5 PVT SnG-1, 1 1st place

Pokerstars: username: dafalenangel,
Freerolls, 10,000 entrants-8, 0 ITM
.10, 10 FPP MTT, 1000 entrants-1, ITM
$1 SnG, DON-15, 11 ITM
$4 MTT-1, 0 ITM

Betfair: username: dfalenangel,
I have yet to make a deposit, I only hooked up my new computer yesterday and it wouldn't download on my crappy old comp.

MansionPoker: username: falenangel,
Freerolls, 1500, entrants-3, 0 ITM
Freerolls, 1000, 500 entrants-3, 0 ITM
$1 MTT Freeze-2, 1 ITM
$2 MTT Freeze-1, 0 ITM

Tiger gaming: username: falenangel,
Freerolls, 1500 entrants-10, 3 ITM, 2nd
Freerolls, 150 entrants-17, 8 ITM, 2nd,2nd,1st

Hours spent training and improving my poker game: average of 3/day

Hours spent watching PokerVT pros in online play: 2/day for a total of about 50 tournaments, on and off, some lasted 4 hours, with myself and my dead cat witnessing 22 ITM's. I am proud to be able to say that these are my coaches for my poker journy and am pleased to tell you that Jason, Jcarver on FullTilt won a team title for a side bet in the FTOPS events recently and a 1st in the singles side bet for over 20k, not bad for a weeks or two of poker playing. (not to mention the cashes in the individual tournaments). My other coach is doing extremely well atop the MTT leaderboard and in a close battle for the SnG High limit leaderboard. Not to mention all the many other pros with training available and of course Daniel N who was the reason I attempted to play and win the tourny, after 2 attempts mind you, that got me a free year of training with PokerVT.

Hours spent working on blog: 1-2/day, this will change as soon as I have felt like I got it all out and will only have updates. I am sure to the point I am updating, at times, only weekly. But don't you worry I will make sure all of the content is as dull and boring as possible so after reading part way through it you will fall asleep or click to leave never ever to return...

Day off: Tuesday and most of Wednesday, spent watching horror movies, vacancy the begining which was ok but not as great as a good zombie end of the world type horror movie. Yet it does show a simple plain pervert who stumbles upon becoming a murder and how it could easily happen... right? I also took some time to watch Heroes, Lost, Biggest Loser, Survivor, the new amazing race and some stargate re-runs. I sure am anticipating the continue of Terminator The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Boy do I love lost, it is 1 of the few shows I don't find myself thinking about anything else... until the commercials. Which is also why I buy the entire seasons of my favorite shows on DVD and watch the whole thing back to back. If any of you enjoy a good show with action and suspense with a little drama and you haven't already make sure you checkout the 3 seasons of DeadWood, one of my personal collection.

Opportunity of a Lifetime!

2009-02-18T12:01:00.000-08:00

You know what I love... finishing near the bubble in a over 1200 entrant tourney, last night's "The Ferguson", which I was fortunate to cash in 1 time in my 3 attempts. Last night Pays to 180 and getting felted at 191 with KK UTG while the small blind re-raises with JQc and hits his flush. It feels soo good I want to thank the poker god of the river for allowing me this wonderful feeling once again.
I try to play the smaller buy-ins and am on my way to a bankroll... I am actually a bit nervous about the whole opportunity being provided by Nick. Is this normal?
I have this feeling of asking a girl to dance at my grade 9 first evening event. I am dreaming and have dreamed of such an opportunity for the past 3 years. So why don't I jump at this chance, why don't I send a PM with a resume, why don't I start the challenge right away... I could play 8 $3, 90 and lose them all with no bounties and just put an extra $50 deposit in true. I think I am good enough that I don't think this would happen, so what is wrong with me? Why do I have these feelings of hesitation inside? Am I forever to be a hobby player and work full time at a job I enjoy but don't love? Is there a something to it or am I just afraid of failure... Does anybody else experience this? Or am I just thinking it over too much, my dead cat says I should go for it... what is the worst that can happen... like really... and what is the best that can happen... really... am I that stubborn to want to do it all on my own, or am I just chicken, or is this a phase of realization of some sort that I will come out of being a stronger player or have I hit the "wall" and need to spend some time in "rehab" until I get back my confidence in myself...? Any comments would be appreciated...
What the heck am I talking about? Well one of my instructors on PokerVT has recently put up a post about a SnG opportunity. I will cut and paste his original post and a few follow ups:
Posted by NickRainey, or RainmanNick, :

You are about to have the opportunity to change your life. Please read over everything carefully and if your looking to take your Poker to a whole new level, its time to go for it.

I am looking for 3-5 full time students who will be staked to play SNG's and provided with coaching on a daily basis. We will talk over the phone, online, and whenever the student feels necessary. You can fly out to California anytime to study and learn from watching me and can grind in my office since I have 3 stations of computers and monitors all set up.

To put it in perspective so you understand the value of being selected. If you wanted SNG's to pay your bills, and were willing to pay me to coach you. I would charge around $800/hr. I know that if you were disciplined and determined you would be able make around $100/hr playing and maybe more. Your investment would be returned in no time.

To be considered you must be a PokerVT member and continue to be one in good standing.

Please email me your poker resume. If you have not been playing long or do not have tournament wins online or live that is no problem. Everyone has a fair shot.

Please include:

Brief bio about yourself. Include things you think I should know about you.

Screen names on Full Tilt, PokerStars, Cake, Party Poker or any other sites you play on. Do not be worried if you lost money or have bad stats, I only care about the future.

This is something you need to think about for a few days and decide if it is for you. You should put a lot of time into this email as it is an application that could change your life.

April 11th I am going to announce who the winners are. Remember, this is not something that I am going to put a lot of time, energy, and money into so I expect the selected players to put even more time and energy into it as well. We will be a team of sorts and I expect you to work together and help each other improve.

You might be wondering what the catch is or what am I getting out of this. First off, I enjoy helping people and it would be the nuts if I can help 3 people succeed at something they love to do, play poker. Second, I know that by doing this, my SNG game will improve a ton with all the discussion and analysis we will be doing. And finally, the only financial demand I have is this: if you are selected and your bankroll grows to $100,000 in profits, you hand deliver me a check for $25,000 and buy me a nice dinner. You will never have to deposit a penny of your own money, and if you never make it to a $100,000 you do not have to pay me back or give me anything. Maybe a thank you would be nice, but that's it.

Before posting, sending me a PM or email, please take your time and make sure it is not something that can be easily answered by searching the forums. You would be amazed at the amount of emails and PM's I receive that have no purpose other then to waste my time and it shows me that that person does not respect me or my time.

Feb 18th Announcement

I have received a few emails, thank you to everyone who has sent one in.

Anyone who is interested in this opportunity must complete the following by April 1st.

Complete 100 $3+.30 90 man SNG's on Full Tilt

Before you play your 1st tournament you must PM or email me your Full Tilt name and that you are officially starting. No tournaments will count until I know you have started.

I will be looking at your results as well as how long it takes you to complete 100 tournaments. It will give me a rough idea how much time you will be able to commit to poker.

Every person that completes this challenge will get a nice little bonus from me. You can email me one of your HH from the 100 tournaments and I will do a private video just for you analyzing your play. So if you play 100 tournaments and do not manage to knock out one person or cash one time, your getting something for your $330.

If your bankroll is not quite ready for these tournaments but you feel your game is, let me know and we will see what we can do. $50-100 should be plenty to get you through 100 games. The bounties add up and the fields are pretty weak.

(This has caused me extreme brain strain and am seriously wanting to jump at this opportunity. I have a chance in front of me to do what I want for a living and be happy. So all is left to do is answer Nicks' questions, send a PM stating I wish to be considered and begin playing the $3, 90 SnG's on FullTilt right. So get started right? Why am I so hesitant? Why have I not sent the e-mail to Nick yesterday or now... I honestly can't give an answer to that... I am in brain freeze mode and about to watch another opportunity pass me by without even trying?... No I will not crush my bankroll again, and I will not pass up this chance. The worst that could happen is I lose $330.00 and come decide to train and study harder. Or I succeed and finish this blog less than a year from now stating that this part of my journey is over as I begin playing professionally for a living. Anyway I have a lot of thinking to do and need to prepare for what has already become the most opportunistic month in my poker career. Other than the 2k buy-in with my own money. I almost puked near the bubble in that one, the floorman brought me over a garbage can and everything, I think the other players picked up on it and used it to there advantage. Wow of wow owe wow, I am an idiot if I don't at least try... right?)

Past Tournaments, daily tournaments

2009-02-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

So basically I have played and won many tourny's I stopped counting around 100, and lost track of anything that could explain a win ratio.
I figure since my bankroll management developed itself I have done well enough to take money out of online gambling and show a profit from live poker as well. I have followed my never deposit more than $50.00 a month plan for a few years now. This month I am depositing into Betfair and begining a journey to build a bankroll there so I can play at levels with the pros in MTT's. I currently play only online and a home game with friends that isn't worth mentioning profit wise as it is a friendly game... ( I am up $90.00 this year, lol).
I play around 10-20 free rolls everyday right now trying to add $$ to my bankroll and learning the styles of play and the poker software for all the new sites I have begun recently playing on. I place in the money at least 1 tourny per day which is a low win ratio I know, but they only pay the top 27 or so outta field of 2700, and some sites fields large as 10,000. Luckily I have found some beginner free rolls restricted to new accounts, and a daily free roll that pays top 20 and only has about 90-150 entrants , lucky me!
My personal favorite is finishing 2nd in the free rolls, I love it so much that I do it all the time. If given the opportunity to win it I say "heck No, you can have it sir" and the river god always provides me this wish. Fortunately the other god of the turn is my personal friend and I am able to put this to great use in cash buy-in tournaments.
I have been neglecting my goals of playing many cash tournaments daily, but I have been spending a lot of time learning, reading, watching videos on poker and strategy. Also starting this blog. I don't plan on writing this much in the future as it will just simply be updates and new events.
I have an opportunity of a lifetime in front of my face and have yet to realy truely grasp it, put it into words and describe what it would mean to me. (more on this to come in the near future).

Sooo tournaments that I have cashed in live: Mind that the most ever paid for a buy in was $100 SnG at Brantford and only because I had won $900.00 that day and the tourny needed 1 more to play. Lucky me! Otherwise the max buy in I have played in live or online ws $30.00, until that experience at Brantford, and for an unknown reason never since...

Local Bar in Brampton - Oscar's weekly tournament. Winners get invited to Tourny of Champions. Multiple time winners get extra starting chips. I came in 2nd the first ever Tourny of Champions and took down $900.00. The following year I came back for the Title a nice gold bracelet (for my first and only bracelet to date) and $1500.00 with free rebuys for next 4 months of tournaments. I cashed in 50% of the tournaments I played at this bar, paid top 5 with 36 entrants 2 times a week. Tournament of champions ran every 4 months. That was a fun year or so of my life. I actually believe my strength is in live game play, I have had to adapt to the internet which is way more difficult to get a read on your opponents.

Brantford Charity Casino: Ultimate Poker Championships $100. SnG, satelite victory seat into 1K buy in of the 5 day events.
Ultimate Poker Championships 1k buy in tournament, place I think it was 6th, and got over 6K. I then bought into the 2k buy-in. (I know reckless but I felt lucky)
Ultimate Poker Championships 2k buy in tournament, place in 22nd and got over 4k
Online largest victory: I didn't take records but I have won over $2k one time and over $500. at least 5 times. I have never been one for notes and this is my first attempt to record my efforts. If I remember any other large events I will edit it in in the future.
I do know my largest cash game win at a casino was $2300. and my biggest loss was $900.00. That is when I was playing regularly live and hadn't had any positive experiences with internet poker. That is until I found the Tigergaming.com, and now I am going for it all. No more excuses.

My online Bankroll(s)

2009-02-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

To start off I want to let everybody know that in my daydreams and aspirations to become a pro poker player I realize I have sub-consciously sabotaged myself for the past 3 years. I now understand my error(s) and with the help of added training and extra examination of my game with proper bankroll management I expect this all to change...Thank you PokerVT!
You see every time my online poker bankroll reached $1100.00 I would withdrawl $1000.00 and spend it on... whatever anything but re-investing in poker. Leaving myself $100.00 in my online account to play with. Self sabotage, and I did it again and again and again, in fact over the last 3 years I have withdrawled $1000.00, 18 individual times and spent it on bills, entertainment, anything but poker. So how the heck can I ever go pro if I am self crushing my bankroll... simple I won't!
Unless I change my strategy of which I didn't have much. Imagine grinding out a $100.00 bankroll over 18 times up to the $1100.00 only to destroy it in the thought that "I am great at my hobby, sure would love to be a pro someday". I didn't even take myself seriously, how could anybody else. Below I will list my current bankroll on each poker site I currently play on and will update them monthly to identify any trends. I have never kept strict records, never used poker software, never understood bankroll management, and still managed to make a profit. So with all these added to my life as well as the motivation provided by training at PokerVT and this self documented journey I will be forced to re-evaluate everything about my game. In turn not withdrawling and in fact, hopefully, increasing my bankroll to the point I can consider turning pro (after 3-5 years to not get my hopes up too high).

Betfair: dfalenangel, poker account just created, will download when I get new computer. Start up deposit:
$50.00
Tournaments played: none yet

Mansion: falenangel, poker account just created, Start up bankroll (deposited as start up capital by training site):
$50.00, currently at $45.00
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's

Tigergamming: falenangel, poker account 3 yrs old, Just withdrawled $1000.00 for the last time to buy new computer set up:
currently at $225.00
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $5 MTT's and under,

Pokerstars: dafalenangel, poker account 3 yrs old, Start up bankroll deposit:
$50.00, currently at $40.00
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $1 Sng's

FullTilt: dafalenangel, poker account just created, Start up bankrol deposit:
$50.00, currently at $33.00
Tournaments played: Free rolls, $1 MTT's, $5 Sng's, $5 MTT's, $2 Matrix Sng's

I currently only break my bankroll rules at FullTilt to participate in member training tournaments with PokerVT as the reward of getting advice on my play afterwards is worth the possiblity of having to re-invest another $50.00, as well I have the option to transfer funds between sites if I begin to do very well at one over the others. I will use the 50 buy-ins needed in my bankroll to play at a given limit theory before increasing in limits on any given site.
I only plan on playing on 3 sites primarily in the future, as well as tiger (I will never give up the tiger). By the end of the year as I begin playing more volume I will choose which sites. This will also be a testing phase for me to decide which poker rooms I feel most comfortable playing on. I can allready say that I have 3 pokerooms that I will NOT be playing on ever again, no need to name names right? UB, PP, PP. However I do enjoy the current sites I play on and feel that in the end rakeback bonuses will be the deciding factor... as allways is for any high volume player I am sure.
Soon to follow: results for this year and past tournaments I feel worth mentioning that helped make me believe that I can succeed in poker.
In fact learning what I have begun to learn I don't see how my game can do anything but improve, which makes my toes tingle and my dead cat purrrrrrr. To think if I hadn't won that tigergaming tourny and gotten 12 free months of PokerVT training I never would have come to this realization about how truely lucky I am to understand this game of Hold Em poker. I would forever just be a dreamer... now I am gonna be a doer and make my mark in the poker community. Dream a little dream...

Future updates!

2009-02-16T23:50:00.000-08:00

I will post information about:
1. my current bankroll on all pokersites and live play bankroll and the limit levels
2. discussions about my play and weekly results
3. information and discussion about my new poker guidelines that I follow for SnG's and MTT's
4. monthly updates on my yearly goals
5. new events in my poker journey, training, opportunities, big wins... thoughts from my dead cat!
6. possible links to the tranining sites and poker rooms I play at, and as this becomes bigger maybe even links to help you, the starting player, get free money to begin playing poker online, and possibly also receive a rakeback from some of the sites you play on!
7. any comments or suggestions about anything I have written, regarding my posts, choice of posts, advice to improve my game, goals, etc. please feel free to comment or send me an e-mail, I am very new to all of this and would like my learning experience to be as beneficial as possible for me and any viewers who join me in this crazy and wonderful journey of me becoming a pro poker player... someday... someday soon.
8. FYI, I currently play on Fulltilt, Pokerstars, Mansion, Tigergaming, and soon Betfair! I don't think I will ever play on Pacific Poker , PartyPoker or UltimateBet ever again due to bad experience, though I do have accounts with them. I may consider starting new accounts on other sites when my amount of play increases to the point I won't be able to ignore rakeback opportunities anymore. I currently only am registered to get rakeback from Betfair. Pokerstars and Tigergamming offer tremendous bonus opportunities equal to or higher than 27% rakeback offered at FullTilt, which I am not eligible to recieve because I signed up through a poker friend. (boo hoo)

My Poker history.

2009-02-16T22:55:00.000-08:00

I have been playing poker for about 3-4 years and only seriously for the last 2 months. I have always dreamed of the possibility of turning pro, but have never put the time or effort into becoming more skilled. Except for reading a few poker books that have definitely improved my game. If you go and search my poker results lifetime on any of the given sites which do that, I am not sure what will come up under my name, personally I don't care, I know that I am a winning player NOW and I know I will only get better. I have played on a few sites under the username falenangel, or dafalenangel. In my first year of play I used the name DEButchr.
2004: In the begining I played for fun and lost money... I don't know how much or didn't keep records but it had to be around $3000 dollars as that is what my credit cards were maxed at. I played on Pacific Poker, I think I also had a Partypoker account (am not sure, lost records and partypoker has horrible support and doesn't return e-mail) and local casinos, Casino Niagara, Casino Rama, and Brantford Charity Casino. I then began putting effort into improving my play. It didn't take much and I was a very quick learner. Local bar tourny won 5 times, placed runner up in the Tournament of Champions, $900.00 prize. For the year net loss of at least $3000.00

2005: Opened an account at Tigergaming.com and would only allow myself a deposit of $50 per month. If I lost it all I didn't play for the rest of the month, If I won I didn't need to deposit. It would only be a hobby that wouldn't cost me more than $50 a month. I won about 50 MTT's and many SnG's. Likewise I had $100 per month limit for playing at live casinos, if I won the visits were many if I lost the visits ended until the next month. Local bar tourny won 9 times, played in and won the Tournament of Champions, $1,500.00 and a gold bracelet. For the year net win of about $5600.00, withdrawled and spent on loving life...

2006: Same bankroll philosophy as 2005, but I didn't have a philosophy for limits of play, so I would play $20 tournaments with $50 in my account, I now know now this is very unwise. I also played in a $100 satellite to a $1000 buy in at Brantford Charity Casino, my first big buy in ever! I won the Sng and my ticket to the Ultimate Poker Challenge, made the final table and took over 6k for my $100 investment. I then bought into the $2000 Ultimate Poker Challenge event that weekend. Making 22nd and getting 4k profit for that investment. I spent the money on loving life and left $800 in my live poker play bankroll. For the year net win including online poker withdrawls about $13,500.00 spent on loving life...
2007: Started playing less, spending more time with family and loved ones. Also stopped playing larger buy-in tournaments that could destroy my bankroll, not a great year but with conitued success on Tigergamming I did turn a profit. For the year net win of $3050.00, withdrawled and spent on loving life (I sure love to love living life)
2008: I got sick, I went on sick leave, I spent a lot of time in bed and months at a time not even playing 1 game of poker on line or live. My bankroll sat at about $300 the whole year. I did however win my regular share of tournys I was just playing small levels as I have allways done. By the end of the year I was getting a little better and began playing some, and won a years FREE training with PokerVT in a tournament on Tigergaming. For the year net win of $1000.00
2009: Started training at PokerVT in early January, about a month now, and the motivation and confidence in myself and my game has exploded. Just for starters this guy "Insanocut" from tigergamming has become a pro poker player, I used to battle him 3 years ago all the time at final tables... Why did I spend all my winnings on loving life when I still have this dream, why do I continue to withdrawl and crush my bankroll forcing me to play smaller limits. I have earned over $27,000.00 in the past 4 years playing poker. I sure do love loving life, but hey wait... not anymore, now I have goals, now I have training, now I have inspiraiton (Nick Rainey, Jason Summerville, Adam Junglen and all the pros at PokerVT). I have withdrawled my first $1000.00 this year out of my tiger gaming account leaving the balance at around $200, (what? why? you just said no more of that?) but to purchase a new computer system... no more glitches, no more only 1 poker site at a time, no more freezing up if I have 4 tables running, it's the big time now baby!. Also I can finally be able to download betfair and play with the amazing Annette O. Reinvesting into my poker career, playing on larger sites with larger payouts, training, creating this blog, I am starting my journey and now I have no more excuses. I will succeed, I am putting this out there for the world to see, even if nobody but my dead cat ever reads this! I will have provided myself an opportunity to improve my game. Putting into words, into a blog, creating goals, I am truly beginning a new journey that will one day forever change mine and my family's ability to love loving life.

My poker Goals 2009.

2009-02-16T22:35:00.000-08:00

1. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on FullTilt past $100 and begin $2 sng's, and progressively increase the limit played by $1 per $50 increase to bankroll.
2. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Mansionpoker past $100 and begin $2 sng's.
3. to cashout $1000. from my tiger gaming account to get a new computer set up for larger amounts of play and to increase the sites I currently can log into and play on.
4. to deposit $50 into and to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Betfair past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
5. to play 1$ sng's to increase my bankroll on Pokerstars past $100 and begin $2 sng's,
6. to play 1-5$ sng's and MTT's to increase my bankroll on Tiger gaming past $500 and begin $10 sng's and MTT's, I am permitted to transfer funds between poker sites to increase the limit of play on each if I am able to expand my bankroll to over $1000 on any given site, then $500 will be transferred.
7. to continue to expand my poker skills and knowledge by broadening my chances to learn.
a) stay with PokerVT for the next 11 months and continue to learn, watch all videos 2x, and 5 times for videos about Sng and MTT's, participate in member tournys. Decide after 1 year if I want to continue.
b) begin learning through PokerStrategy, reading all the articles and materials available to me, taking advantage of rake back programs currently unavailable to me.
c)to take poker seriously, not just a hobby anymore, expand in as many areas possible and listen to my advisors and follow there advice. To purchase some poker software to expand my ability to play the game. i.e. PT3, Pokerstove, SnG Power tools or SnG wizard, universal player for now.
8. begin expanding into 45 and 90 person sng's as I have done well with MTT's on Tiger gaming which are usually between 30-150 entries.
9. to qualify in the top 10 of the SNG 10 wk Contest and play at the final table on PokerVT.
10. to not make a fool of myself on the forums or in the chat box on the larger sites now that I have begun playing on them, and hopefully not here on my blog... hehehe.
11. to increase at least 1 level of buy in for SnG's and MTT's each 2 months on any of the sites.
12. to increase at least 2 level of buy in for MTT's and SNG's for all 5 sites within 12 months.
14. to reread 4 poker books in my collection and purchase 4 new poker books and read them.
15. to increase my multi-tabling ability, for now 3 at a time, 30 tournaments a day at the proper bankroll mangement level on any of my given poker rooms, and only go out of the bankroll comfort zone for PokerVT member tournaments or events related to PokerVT.
16. when I begin playing larger amounts of money on FullTilt, if possible, look into getting the rake back as I was not aware of it when I signed up a month ago or sign up a new account with a rake back affiliate on a site I have yet to create an account on, rake back is very important.
17. be willing to adjust my goals if suggested by instructers that a different or more realistic approach may be needed, as well as open to criticism.
18. at my current account balance level, to also continue to play 10-20 online freerolls per day. At least until all the beginner bonuses for Free tourneys has expired.

I hope to become a professional poker player within the next 3-5 years, after building enough bankroll to pay the bills for 2 years and still have enough to play and have a 1 year bad run/loosing streak at the higher levels.
never forget that a sound strategy and ability to encompase as much information as possible into my game play will be my ticket to happiness.