Cooler

Last night, I played Steve's game in Orangeville. He hosts a decent game, with anywhere from 30 to 40 players most times...last night, he kept it to 30 to keep the time frame. Since he'll be heading to Vegas to play a couple of events ($1500) he used the blinds for the events, for practice. Must say, I do like that structure...40min blinds, 4500 in chips. Very nice. I went expecting to play until at least final table...but the poker gods hate me this week.

First level, about 12min in, I get AQ in the bb. Steve raises from LP but I've played Steve enough to know he'll open with just about anything in that position. I cold call him, and everyone else folds. Flop comes down KQ10. I bet out and get raised by Steve. Okay, again, I know he likes to 3bet too, so I just cold call his raise. He could also hit hard too, and I expected to see AK here. Turn comes down a rag that puts two hearts on board, I have the Ah. I check, and he puts out 1000. Thinking I can still suck out here, I call again. The river brings another 10 an now I'm scared. It goes check/check, and Steve shows trip Kings. Yep, he could have anything alright, didn't expect a set though.

About 10min later, I'm dealt KK and raise it to 200. Gets reraised by a guy I've never played before to 650, who just took down a nice pot with AA. It gets folded to me, and I count out chips, and see I only have enough for a bit better than a nice 3bet, so I push all in. Yep...he has AA again. But the hard part was the flop...K10A...I'm out in two hands and have to sit and wait for my ride, who bubbled. With those blinds, it was a long wait. Cooler hands...whatchagointado?

Graham from pokerforum.ca has started up a new site...Fuzion Poker...and has asked me to write some blogs and articles for him. I've written a few already, and he originally told me $10 per post. Anyway, he asks me for an invoice and I email me what I had done. He comes back to me and says since my posts were of good length and well written, he's going to give me $15 per post. SWEET. So I had him do a direct deposit into PokerStars and now I have a bit of a bankroll to play with. Been playing some $3.30 SnG's, and so far got it up to $185 in the past few days, so I'm happy about that. Using the PokerStrategy.com system for SnG's...seems to be working so far.

Haven't played a lot of cash games lately. Been taking a bit of a beating. Was up to about $300 on Titan, but now its down to $250 again. I was play .05/.10 NL but I think I'll move back down for awhile and build up again a bit before I tackle that level again. Its been a battle to keep my cards live, especially in 6man games. Dont' know if its me, the way I'm playing, or just can't seem to get anything to stick for me. Haven't reviewed my Elephant in awhile, so maybe I'll spend some time going over that before I restart too.

Was sick awhile ago, and took some time off work. The one day, I went on Supreme and played a $3 rebuy with 115 players...and won it!!! My first MTT online win, for about $400 in total. Very nice, but I got damn lucky on that final table. More than once too.

Customer golf tournament was this week. Now I've only gone out once before this year, and it really sucked. This was much better, hitting par. Made a beautiful drive on 18, and followed with a 3hybrid to be on the green in two on a par 5. Unfortunately, one of the guys in the group ahead of us saw it, went back to the green, and hammered it back up the fairway at us, buggers. Pissed me off.

Starting the next league season next week. Jesus, didn't think it had been three months already...didn't mean for the break to be that long. Hope I get them coming out again though...could use the practice. Going to be tough financially too...times are really hurting for me lately, but I'm hoping it will come around in July for me again. We'll see.

Up & Down

May was ugly.

I had gone from a nice high and then lose it all, only to rebuild again and again hit a downswing. Not sure what the issue is, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I didn't keep tabs on my performance for the month at all. I purposefully didn't review my data at all for the month, some stupid little experiment of mine that showed me that by NOT reviewing constantly, I easily slip into the old habits...calling OOP, raising weak hands, chasing...things I thought I had a handle on but guess I don't. WAKE UP MAN.

Been home sick the most of this week, and only feel up to playing today, but not cash games. So I logged onto Supreme and played a 3.30euro mtt. Was pretty much card dead the whole game too, until the final table where I picked up some nice pots and make some good moves to stay in the game. And wouldn't you know it...I won it!!! Came out to be just under $400cdn for the win...nice little boost to the old bankroll, thank you very much. Signed up for another one, 1euro this time, and just after the rebuy period, I get AA. Have one limper in front, so I raise it up 6x bb, thinking it should be enough to drive everyone out. Nope, originally limper calls me being oop. Flop comes down 7810, all clubs, and I have the ace of clubs. She checks, I bet out a pot sized raise, thinking even if she has a flush or straight, I still have outs to the nut flush. Turn pairs the 7 and she checks again. I push with everything I have left, she has me covered, its a do or die move. She wastes every possible second and I think I'm golden...she calls...NUT STRAIGHT FLUSH on the flop!!! Slow rolled me bad. Ace on the river gives me a boat but it isn't enough. God I hate being slow rolled.

Still, it was a good day off work all in all I guess. Made some money playing a format I don't normally play which is good.

WSOP is on now. Someday, I want to make it to Vegas...never been...and no better time for a player like me to want to go than during the World Series of Poker. Maybe next year, this year, financially, just isn't feasible. Maybe next year...sigh. Steve is going again, hope he does better than last year. He managed to cash last year, so I'm hoping for a higher position for him. He has the skill, just needs the luck now.

Crazy game this poker. Crazy Crazy game.

Making the best of a slow week.

Haven't had a lot of time to play online this week, but the good news is that when I did, I made the most of it.

With the $75 I had won from PS ($50 for a promo and another $25 for TellAFriend), my bankroll got a very healthy boost that allowed me to play .05/.10 NL. Since then, I've really noticed three things. First, the play at this level is so different than the lower limits. By that I mean, the player skill is quite a bit better. Oh sure, there are still donks, but the overall skill set is higher. Its been a good transition for me so far, but I have to tighten up just a bit more, at least to start off. Played one hand by accident that turned very nice for me though. Dealt T8dd in late middle position, and I accidentally limped in with it after everyone in front folded. Normally, I would fold in this spot, or if I had been in slightly better position, raise to steal the blinds, but I was rushing between tables and hit call instead of fold. Anyway, get like four callers including the blinds to see a flop of 797, with two diamonds. A flop like that, and I'm going to see the river at most times. I lead out and get called by the bb. Turn throws me a brick, 4c, but again I try to take it down here with a 2/3pot bet. I get raised by 1.5times my bet, and I seriously considered folding here, but I have a LOT of outs to fill to straight and flush and call the raise. River comes the magical 6d giving me a rare straight flush, and bb pushes all in on me. Thank you sir. Good thing I hit hard too, because bb had 97 for the flopped boat. Got very lucky, but it feels good to be the one sucking out like that instead of getting beaten up on for a change. ;) I"m sure the bb labeled me with a note right after that hand too, but it didn't do him any good because a few hands later, I felted him again when I hit a wheel straight on the river and took him money again. I'm sure he would have me labeled as a big fish, so I'm sure I'll see him sit on my tables again soon.

I managed to apply some good strong theory to my game and usually ended up almost doubling up on every table I played on this week. Bankroll is at $300 now woohoo!!! I'm purposely avoiding looking at Elephant charts and data this month too even though I'm recording every hand. I want to see what the month end chart is going to look like as a surprise instead of after every session. I found that when I looked at it after every session, I got frustrated more and more, thinking I could have done so much better, and decided I would do it this month only once at the end and then review. Might not be the best decision I make, but I'll determine that next week after I review everything for May. If I had to guess, I've made profit, but it would be rocky up and down, and my personal data will show I'm a lot looser than I think I am, but we'll see.

One of my league players is hosting a game this afternoon, kind of a WSOP warmup for him and his buds who are playing a couple of events this year. Its a $80 freezeout with deepstacks and 45min blinds, so lots of play, and 40 players in total. I've reviewed some of the players and either have played most of them before, or know of them through pokerforum.ca and know they are solid players, so its going to be a pretty good aggressive game. I'm going in with the plan to play a bit looser up front and try to build my stack early, and hopefully change gears after a while and slow it down. Play my monsters aggressively, and try to trap with mid range cards like suited connectors in late position. And of course, there will be a $1/$2 NL cash game as players bust out and if I do get busted out of the tourney, I'm hoping to apply some of the knowledge from PokerStrategy.com to this cash game as well and see what happens. Again though, these guys are very qualified and it'll be a real good test of skills.

Graham, from pokerforum.ca, has asked if I would be interested in updating a couple of blogs for him on a couple of other sites he manages...for pay!!! Says he'll pay $10 per post, and would like to see four to five posts per week. Sounds like a good way to build a bankroll to me. Told him I would be interested, even for a short while, just to see how things go. Haven't heard from him lately though, but it could be fun to do and get a few extra bucks doing it. The best part is they don't have to be very long, mostly just news and views in the poker world. I think I can handle that much so we'll see.

Everyone's been sick here at home now the past two weeks. First, the kid was sick and missed a week of school. Then over the long weekend last weekend, I was sick and never left the house. Then the wife got it and she's been sick all this past week. Seems the only not sick is the dog, lucky her. I think its passed through now though thank goodness, and things are returning to normal...or what is normal for us anyway ;) Mark still has my truck though. He hasn't had a lot of time to fix it lately with everything else in his world so he's asked if he could have another week. I guess why not, at least it will be done and I can feel confident it won't break down on the side of the road anywhere.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll update next week on how I did at the tournament as well as the cash game (but hopefully, I'm in the tournament long enough to not be able to play the cash game).

6 Man games; First Golf game; $50 Promo win; SET Victory!

Found the pleasure of playing 6 man NL tables. Man, the bankroll is growing fast! Took a beating yesterday though, three buyins in less than 30mins, but I hit my stop wall, and quit after that. Looked like it was going to be the same today, but I managed to break even today before quitting, thank goodness. But I have to say, playing 6man games seems very profitable for me. My bankroll on Titan is sitting at about $180 right now, almost ready to move up to .05/.1 NL games, but I want 20 buyins which is $200 before I do that (prefer $250 actually, so not sure if I'll move up when I hit $200 or not). Oh, and I played some .12/.25 cash on Supreme, and doubled up my buyin in an hour AND won a SnG and a Cooler tournament. That roll right now on Supreme is sitting at about $400 euros which is nice too. Mind you, my Party and Stars accounts are still very low...Party I think is at <$20 and Stars is around $50. Will have to work on building them up, but its so hard to find the time to do it. I can only but in a couple of hours a day in, and not every day either, but it seems to still be time well spend if the bankroll continues to grow.

Last week, PokerStrategy held a promo for posting hands for analyzes, and I won $50 to go toward my bankroll too! SWEET! I'm trying to find out if I can combine it with my Tell A Friend bonus too and get all of it transferred before I set it up. Right now its a total of $75, which would be very nice right now. BTW, if you want to join up to PokerStrategy.com, just click on the banner on the right hand side. Signup, take the very easy quiz, and I automatically get the Tell A Friend bonus. If asked, though, tell them STR82ACE sent you.

The league held the Season Ending Tournament last Thursday, and I won it again. Again, made a very mediocre season profitable. To tell you the truth, though, I couldn't help but win it with the hands I was getting. Big pockets when I needed them, and my reads were solid all game. We're on a break right now for awhile, not sure when I will start it up again. I hope the turnout will be better though, this last season was pretty weak as far as turnouts. A few times, it was tough just to get a game going. Hoping for better things for the summer though.

Its Mother's Day today, and I have tried to call Mom a few times, no answer, and no answering machine. Wonder if they had it reconnected when they moved or not. I'll try later again.

Went golfing for the first time on Friday this year. OMG, I SUCK! I barely finished the round, I think I was at 120 when I decided to not score any more. I REALLY need to hit a range and work on my irons and short game. Not to mention, I'm stiff and sore since then too. WAY out of shape, but hey, ROUND IS A SHAPE, right? hehe

Ada just got back from another Scout camp. Rained the whole time, but she says she still had fun. Good. Brenda and I went to see the new Star Trek movie last night. Very well done too. The guy who plays Bones was a dead ringer for Deforest Kelly, uncanny likeness. Close your eyes, you would swear it was him.

Well, I finally arranged to get my truck up to Mount Forest for Mark to work on. Think its going to cost a small fortune, but it has to be done. Ball joints, brakes as required, new brake line, exhaust work, general overall maintenance. I was going to borrow his old Olds for the week, but Shannon offered me his Taurus instead, and its a much nicer ride albeit a Ford.

Next weekend is the long weekend, and I'm not sure what's going on. Might be heading to Dave's for the weekend with my parents and Rob and his family, spend some time with Dad, do some fishing, go golfing, play some poker...just spend time with him. He doesn't have much time left I'm afraid, and only God knows when it will be his time, and I want to spend time with him and have Ada with him again too. He really likes my daughter, they have hit it off so well since she was born. Its really great to see how they interact together. There's something special between them that no one really understands, but I'm very grateful for. I guess the weekend all depends on Dad and how he is feeling later in the week, so I will have to talk to my new boss and tell him it could be a last minute decision. I hope he understands...he seems to, at least.

Anyway, enough for this edition. Not sure when I will post again, might be a couple of weeks. See you then.

A profitable end to April; A profitable OOPS in May

April ended on a high note for me. Sat down for about an hour the other night on four tables and in no time, I tripled up on three of them. I do love it when you hit cards ;) Only hand that cost me was the last one, when my QQ ran into AK and villain won the race.

Wish I could spend more time online and really try to build the bankroll, but all I can do is MAYBE 10 hrs a week. But its a profitable 10hrs a week, so that's positive. My bankroll from the original $50 I got is now at $150. I do like that, a nice positive upswing. The site is great, pokerstrategy.com It has so much info and great information, and it doesn't cost a dime. Win-Win-Win.

Took the kid to a Scout camp last night, and when I got home I decided to play a couple of SNG's on Supreme before I called it night. Was planning on only playing a couple of 5euro shorthanded sng's, but the last one, I misread the buyin and didn't realize it until the table opened up. I took a look at the prize payout, and it said top two, first 175euro, second 75euro. WTF?? Why so much? I accidentally registered in a 50euro shorthanded game!!! Now, I have over 300euro in that account, with about 55euro in tournament bucks. It came out of my tournament buck account, but that still is my bankroll. From the moment I caught my mistake, I started to fire every brain cell in my head to apply my BEST effort to this game. Made no mistakes, was the chip leader for the better part of four levels, then catch AKs in bb. Get four limpers, so I raise it big, 7 or 8x bb. Get one caller, so I'm now oop, but the flop comes Kxx. I bet out 2/3 pot, get cold called. Turn is blank, raise it pot sized this time. After a second, villain pushes into me. I have him covered by about 700 chips, so I call. He shows KQo and I'm way ahead. River is Q!! Damn it!!! Down to 700 chips, with blinds 100/200. But I hung in there, played very well, and take some very nice pots by pushing in position. Before the next level starts, I'm back up to about 15bb, and back in the fight. Finally get headsup with the guy who sucked out on me. Second or third hand in, I'm dealt 99, first to act, and raise it 4xbb. He 4 bets me, and I go all in. He calls me with KQ again, and hits his damn Q on the river again. Sigh. But I put forth my best effort and made an OOPS profitable by 25euros, so I'm happy with the result.

Lesson learned...PAY ATTENTION!! When you're tired, double check the buyin!! Stupid mistake, could have hurt me big time.

Brenda has the place completely converted into a sewing room, making costumes for the kids' play next week. I feel like I have fallen into Zinger Hell!! Pieces of costumes, needles, thread...everywhere you look...lol...but its all going end next week. Play is next week.

Just got off the phone with Mom. Dad is in the hospital again up at my brother's place. Was complaining of bad chest pain, and they ended up giving him about a dozen shots of nitro. Now they say he has fluid in the lungs, so they're keeping him in until that clears up. Hang in there Dad!

April's Graph, Freeroll, and GO BRUINS GO!

My graph to date for April. You can notice exactly when I went on tilt too. I'm trying to reduce the occurrences as much as possible, but its not easy. Overall, the bankroll is growing, but been taking some work to get it there. I build up a nice stack each session, then get a bad beat most times to lose it all in one hand. Then takes a few orbits to get things back under control. One hand today had me tilting...get KhKc on the puck and raise it 4x, get the bb to call me cold. Flop comes down 10J6 two hearts and I'm thinking I'm golden. BB bets out smallish and I raise 3x his bet and he cold calls. Okay, a flush draw, but I have a ton of outs. Turn comes down a garbage 3offsuit and he checks to me. I make a pot sized bet, and he insta shoves into me. I call and show my kings...and he has a lousy AJo, no heart. Yep, Ace on the river and he wins the hand. Sick play. I did give him a note though. Next time, buddy, next time.



I've registered to play in my first freeroll on PokerStrategy on Titan Poker. Its the Silver level game and has a $5000 prize pool, top 100 pay, limited to 1000 players. Filled up FAST too, was lucky to get into it. Play starts soon, less than an hour, so I've logged off the cash tables and getting ready for tournament play now. Different mind set altogether, and need to regroup my thoughts before I start.

BOSTON SWEEPS THE HABS!!! Is there anything sweeter to the ears of a Bruins fan than those four words? I think not. Great job boys...now take it all the way to the Cup! My banner is in the window! Hard to be a Bruins fan in a Leaf town, but I'm not the only one. Seems one of the new neighbors is also a fan. Going to have to get to know them better, already seem to be smart people ;)

It came to me late this week...this weekend is opening weekend for trout fishing. Now how the HELL did I miss that?? I can't remember the last opener I missed. Oh well, never do well on the first weekend anyway. Yep...that's sour grapes right there...damn my poker hobby. The weather hasn't been the greatest either, and I have yet to get the golf clubs out for a round. Hopefully soon though.

Anyway, going to start to get ready for the freeroll now.

My TEN COMMANDMENTS

I posted this on pokerstrategy.com forum, but thought I would post it here. After I was finished with writing it, it sounded REALLY good, and I wanted to post it in my blog as well...

Came upon an epitome tonight.

For the last few sessions, I've been struggling a bit, and really couldn't figure out why. After losing a couple of buyins tonight, I figured I would stop playing and just look at the hands I was playing, so I shut everything down except Elephant and reviewed my play for the last few sessions.

Truth be told, I haven't been referring to the SHC for the past couple of weeks, figuring I had it memorized by now, so its been sitting in my desk drawer. While reviewing some hands, I took it out again, and to my surprise, saw that a number of the hands I played aren't ON the SHC at all, and I just sat back and tried to ask myself what happened.

Without the SHC, I was allowing leaks back into my game. I figured I had it all but under control, but truth is, I was starting to play speculative hands oop, hands not on the chart at all, and over valuing hands I shouldn't have, all because I lost focus on the basic strategy. I noticed that hands I once saw as worthy of seeing a flop BEFORE I started to use the BSS were creeping back into my playing range again. I noticed that raising OOP with speculative hands was actually detrimental to my game again. All the things I THOUGHT I had a handle on are once again coming back to haunt me.

So...in light of my newly re acquired insight, I'm making a few of my own COMMANDMENTS. Feel free to add your own

I Thou shalt not play w/o referring to SHC regularly
II Thou shalt not allow old patterns re emerge and become self destructive
III Thou shall learn the game by applying ODDS and IMPLIED ODDS moreso
IV Thou shall study a new article every day and fully immerse thine self to it
V Thou shall spend MORE time study thine own performances BEFORE playing a session
VI Thou shall post hands on appropriate forums for discussion and evaluation by experts
VII Thou shall come to know how to compress self made videos to be sent to others for review
VIII Thou shall ACCEPT all criticisms of thine actions without question, for thou art still a pupil in this school and need to open thine mind
IX Thou will participate more in forum hand discussions and never stop learning
X Thou will become a true player of the game, realizing that thou will never 'know it all', and accept the fact that it is the true nature of the game to continuously evolve

So help me GOD, I'm going to learn this game better!!