I'm a Maverick

     No, I've not been hanging out with Palin and McCain. The Mavericks is the name of my CC Fall League team. Since I'm done work for the season and the weather is getting really shitty (it's snowing for fuck sakes! In the middle of fucking October!) I've once again dove headlong into poker and joined the league for it's fall session. Played my first game last week, and won in spectacular fashion. Taking out all but one of my 7 other opponents. It wasn't easy, but the cards fell right for me at the right times and a few tricky moves on my part ensured a few stacks went in when I wanted them to. My second game is this evening, and I hope I can continue to play well.

     I've also been keeping up with my weekly Legion tourney. I've played 9 out of the past 12 weeks, and have cashed 6 in a row with 2 wins. The profit made has allowed me to afford a trip to Winnipeg to play the Manitoba Lotteries Poker Championship near the end of this month. There will be three tourneys held: a $600 freeze-out, a $300 bounty, and the $1100 Championship tourney. I'm only bankrolled for the $300 bounty, but I may be able to play the $600 freeze-out as well, if some things fall into place.

     Looking over my last post, I see I was in the midst of a golf slump. After that tourney ( I did get a "closest to the pin" prize on one of the par 3's. Woohoo) I put in some serious work on my game. I basically re-vamped my swing from the ground up. Different stance, grip, shoulder turn. It took a long time, and it's still a work in progress, but I am hitting the ball so much better. And farther too. Goodbye weak fade, hello high draw. It feels really good to have a 170-180yard approach on a 470yard par 5. Dogleg left? No problems now. I even put my new Taylormade TourBurner irons back in the shed and broke out my old Adams GT's. The TM's are more of a mid-level game improvement club. Wider soles and some perimeter weighting, but in a compact head with minimal offset. My Adams irons are a players iron with a muscleback design. 

     With my new swing plane I am able to close the face at impact to give me that nice right to left ballflight, but the TM irons were foiling that. See, with the wider sole and higher MOI (moment of inertia for those of you who now nothing of golf equipment, or physics) the club would try to cancel out the shutting of the face and that would lead to a straight shot (desirable as well), but a straight shot without much distance. It was like I was hitting it a bit fat all the time. The Adams clubs are responding much better to this action and are giving me a cleaner contact. 

     With my driver, I switched to a right foot back (roughly 20 degrees closed) stance and I am focusing on keeping my left arm on my chest all the way back through the swing with a much more pronounced shoulder turn. This, in conjunction with a weaker, rolled over left hand grip (my right hand is square to the face/target) is allowing me to load up and fire hard at the ball (which is now teed slightly lower and farther back than before) without the risk of my body and arms outracing the clubhead into impact. The result is a flatter angle of attack that comes more from the inside of the ball producing much more speed than I thought I could muster. 

     I'm still not fully grooved in to this swing and sometimes I fall into old habits, but overall I am hitting much better than I ever have before. Too bad the weather turned to shit for the past week or two. I'm hoping to get in a couple of more rounds before the snow is here to stay. I usually try to golf onto early November if weather permits, but it don't look like that's happening this year.  

     It saddens me that I will soon have to put away my clubs, store my cart and spend my afternoons shoveling instead of golfing. I hate winter. Maybe a trip to Florida this winter with Liane and my clubs is in order.......

How's ya shoot? Drunk. :)

    So I just finished my worst tournament round ever. Shot a 112, net 97. Normally I'd be pissed at myself, but instead of slamming clubs and swearing like a sailor, I just got drunk. Well, to tell the truth, I was drink by the 8th hole. I started with a triple bogey, double, double on my first three and just said "Fuck it". Beer cart came around and I grabbed three. Two holes later I grabbed another two. So on, and so on 'till I ended up where I am now: 28 beer and 2 shots of whiskery later. I gotta admit, I feel pretty good about my round though. Except for my longer clubs, I shot pretty good. If it wasn't for my short game I would have done alot worse. I just couldn't hit a drive to save my life. Many holes I went three off the tee. Hitting low snap-hooks or high slices into either the bush or water. Too many lost balls. Ah well. Tomorrow is another day. And it can't get ano worse right? :D

Gettin' Old(er)

     Today is my 28th birthday and I feel old. It's not the number of years, but the number of nagging injuries that are getting to me. Bad left ankle, both knees creak crack and pop at the slightest provocation, my back had been screwed since the day I was born and it's not getting any better. (Though I did get my slipped disk fixed up today and am feeling particularly spry at the moment). Might be just because I've spent the past week in pain on the couch. I think by Monday I'll be feeling a lot better about my age and bodily pains.

     Despite it all, I'm happy. I love my job, even though it is the main cause of my bodily pain, and I love my life. I am where I am because I chose to be here. Not through circumstance, not by chance, but by choice. So I guess I should just man-up, take a Tylenol and get on with my path.

     I'm lookin' forward to tomorrow. Plan is to golf all day with various family and friends. Going to put a case of beer in the cart and just do laps around the course. Then @ 7 I'm going up to the Legion for a poker game and a few more drinks. Then I'm going to party. I mean I'm going to get slobbering drunk. Just shitfaced. It's been a very long time since I've just let myself go like that (New Year's I think... can't remember...must have been :) ) so I'm due for a bender. Then it;s back to reality on Sunday as I'm back to work for Monday.

     Today was a particularly good day. Not only did I get my back fixed up, but I had a lot of fun in my Camaro on my trip out of town. Raced a Challenger SRT-8. Smoked him. Made an 11 car pass on a straight stretch on the 2 lane highway. Damn American tourists driving less than 70 km/h on smooth dry straight pavement. Just a train of SUV''s with boats and nobody wanted to pass the slow leader so everyone had to suffer. Not I though. I seen the long stretch coming up with no oncoming traffic and punched it. Within seconds I went from 70 to 215 (shhh, don't tell anyone, it's highly illegal to go that fast) and blew by them all. Dropped it back down to 95 and cruised the rest of the way home all giddy.

  Now it's time for a Crown and Coke, a smoke and some relax time before some family shows up for some cake. Have a great weekend everybody!

Argh, my back!

      Hey hey. Been awful busy trapping the past month. If I wasn't out on the lake, I was golfing or doing yard-work. Busy, busy. So summer is finally here, wind, rain and all. It's not too bad, just not great. Still getting on some good rounds on the course. Been steady mid 80's, with a few low 80, and a high 90 or two thrown in for good measure.

     Threw out my back on Saturday at work. Bad. It happened while walking over the bog with 5 gallons of minnow's in a barrel on my back. For those not in the know (everybody who does not trap minnows) 1 gallon of minnows is about equal to 100 dozen, or 1200 minnows/gallon. At a weight of 27lbs per gallon, plus water I had about 150lbs on my back which was way too much weight to be balancing myself through sinking muskeg. As I was trying to keep my footing I did a little shimmy and slipped a disk in my lower back. I managed to make it back to the truck, and endure a nearly 3 hour drive back to base (including a lovely flat tire change) on some of the gnarliest dirt logging roads known to man. By the time I got home I could hardly walk, and by the time night rolled around I was in agony.

     Three days later I am finally getting some relief. Took a trip out of town to a chiropractor. Helped a bit. Unfortunately the guy I went to was not my usual guy and since he didn't know my injury history could only give me a standard adjustment. Still going to my guy on Friday though. Get fixed up proper. At least I'm able to walk without too much pain anymore.

     Friday is a big day for me. I'll be turning 28. I know 28 isn't really a big deal, but with the way I've been feeling lately it still feels old. My knees are buggered, my back gets thrown out at least three times a year, and during a recent trip to the optometrist I found out that I am slowly going blind. In my good eye. My right eye has been shot since birth. But lest you all think I'm complaining, I still am thankful I live a good life. I am blessed with great family, a beautiful wife, a great home, a sexy car and awesome friends. Can't complain. Can't walk straight lately, but still can't complain.

     So since the trapping/golf season started I have not played much poker. A few live games at the Legion here and there and a couple of online tournies in the past month. Up a few bucks live, down a few online. Been playing way out of my BRM (read:$10 sng and $5 mtt with a combined Stars and FTP roll which started last month about $110) and I'm only down $20. So, yeah. dumb, but not catastrophic.

     Can't wait for my new grips to be put on my clubs. Got a set of Lambkin's mid-size grips. My stock grips weren't terribly worn, but they were not that good in cooler or we conditions. Which was terribly unfortunate since the season here is predominately cool or wet. The Lambkins are real tacky and a bit softer, with a great feeling grip pattern that should preform great all around. Plus the larger size fits my hands a lot better than standard size. Larger grip = less grip pressure = smoother swing = better golf. Plus I got them in white, so they should look bitchin'. They'll be ready for Saturday. I plan on spending the day on the course with a case of beer in the cart. just doing laps of our nine hole beauty with whoever cares to join me. Then it's off to the Legion for a poker game then who know's what after that.

     That's the plan anyways, I just hope my back co-operates. Chiropractor said with the proper stretching I should be fine to play golf, but no moderate to heavy lifting or prolonged periods in a leaning or crouched position for at least 5 days. So looks like I'm off work until Monday since that is the majority of what my job entails. Normally this would be a good thing, but we are in the height of the good trapping weather and good sales season. Good thing I've been kicking ass the past few weeks and helped get us well ahead on stock. But I still feel bad. Last year, a week from now, I tore a ligament and crushed cartilage in my knee and was off work for almost a month. I gotta take better care of myself.

     Anyways, I've rambled on enough for one post. Have a good week and an even better weekend!

Spring missed it's chance...

     First I want to start off by saying one thing: I will not make a blog post about a politically charged issue while drunk again.

     Now that that's out of the way.... Well we finally got a taste of summer over the past few days here. Spring skipped up completely so far. Went from below 0 and snowing to quick melt and 15+ in the matter of what seemed like a few days.

     Tuesday was a a great day! I went golfing, yay!! Mind you it was quite wet on the course, the greens were closed to play and there was still some snow in the low/shadowy areas I had to avoid, but I still got to play 7 holes. Man, am I ever rusty. These longass winters here are really a killer to my game. Wanted to go out again today and enjoy the 20C weather and warm sun, but had other things to do. Some yard work, some car detailing, and I was also doing more work on the sump pit that I've been installing in my basement.

     That has been a slow process. My basement is dug into clay, and due to the shoddy construction practices of the company that built it way back in the 60's, the weeping tile works like shit. Well, it doesn't really work at all for any real amount of rain. So I broke out a jackhammer and a shovel and went to work. Dug down maybe a foot before the hole was full of water and the sides began to erode out from under the concrete pad. I put my basin in, just enough to get it to fill up with water, dropped in my sump pump and started pumping away. I'm amazed at how much water was under my foundation. The pump has been running for 5 days now, pumping roughly 50 gallons of water a day out of there. Today it was dry enough to allow me to dig down another foot before it filled with too much water to continue. Gotta say, digging through partially frozen clay is a bitch. Now I have 2 or so feet of my 3 foot deep basin sunk into the hole and still pumping water.

     Tomorrow the forecast is calling for a buttload of rain, up to 15mm, so I'm glad I at least have some provision in place to evacuate the water. Still, I hope the forecast is wrong. I still need to dig down at least another 2 feet, widen the hole a bit, place a layer of crushed rock in the bottom, replace the basin, fill around the sides with more crushed, and then finish it with a nice veneer of concrete around the edge. Then all I gotta do is run the hose out my window framing, outside a ways from my house and I'm done. What I have done so far will help tremendously, but I hope the rain holds off a couple of more days so I can finish it properly. Fingers crossed!

     Then, as if rain weren't bad enough, it is supposed to go back to 0 on Sunday and snow a bit. Fuck, I'm so fuckin' sick of that white shit. If the forecast is right it'll be till at least Wednesday before I can golf again. That;s if it doesn't rain or snow again in the meantime...

     Ah well, at least I got to play a few holes and started my tan this week.

Sad ^Times. Sad Times Indeed

     So here we are, three days since the now infamous Black Friday. The day that seen FTP, PokerStars, and Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker get shut down in America by the DOJ and billions of dollars seized.

     

     I won't go into the nitty-gritty of the details, as I'm sure most of you are fully aware of them at this point. But I will go on a bit of a rant to let you all know how I feel about the matter, even though as a Canadian citizen I'm so far completely unaffected by this:

Seriously now. How the fuck did you people let this bullshit happen to yourselves? Don't give me this crap about  not knowing this would happen or how this is all some underhanded government scheme to take your money. We all new this would happen eventually. But that's not what I mean. I mean how did you let yourselves be pushed around by your own government? The very government you elected to see to and protect your interests. 

I mean really. I won't go back too far here, but I'll give a little review on the chain of bullshit that I've seen since, say 9/11. Since that time you have been lied to in order to go to war for no good reason other than to "fight terrorism" (interestingly enough, the same terrorists you went to war to get are the ones you armed to the teeth in order to fight somebody else, then fucked over once they didn't want to fight anymore). You then elected to keep fighting in order to save face. While this was all going on, your top regulatory industries were making a mint by turning a blind eye to what the largest financial institutions were doing and hence throwing your country into a horrible depression that fucked over not only yourselves but many other countries.

Instead of throwing the people who were responsible for the banking fiasco that seen millions of you out of work and nearly as many lose their homes and pensions, you decided to (by total inaction and trust in your government) let them walk and throw billions of tax dollars at the problem. Good idea. Let it happen, forgive the companies, banks and individuals responsible, and give them billions of dollars to start up again, then trust the same regulatory bodies to make sure it don't happen again.

Also while all this was happening, you decided to take it up the ass when it came to anything about "national security". The propaganda that was fed and swallowed to you got you all so fuckin scared that you no longer asked questions when it came to your elected officials. As long as they told you that it was in your best interests you let it happen. No questions, no fact checking, nothing. 

This whole poker mess that you are now in was actually tacked on to a Port Security bill that was sure to pass. had the UIGEA been proposed on it's own, it would probably have been shot down. Instead, by turning a blind eye to everything else, you allowed them to do what they always got away with and paperclip it to a bill that was sure to pass. By spending the last decade just allowing things to happen without question, you all then just fucked yourselves. And who did you turn to after the UIGEA was tabled and passed? The PPA. An organization headed by a politician who works with other current/former politicians. And you think they are really going to do much in the way of helping the cause?? That's like getting grounded by one parent and trying to get out of it by sucking up to the other. It just won't work out like you hope.

Now, before I get all sorts of hatemail, or corrective comments, keep in mind that this is just a broad overview and a rant.

I continue...

So here you are now. Pissed at the government, pissed at Obama, Bush, and the world for slapping you with this injustice. You should all be pissed at yourselves. By allowing this chain of events to happen, you allowed the shutdown of your favorite hobby.

But all is not lost. Sure you can say "no matter who is in charge, these things will happen" or "it's been done, all we can do now is deal with it and see what happens". Bullshit!! You, as a people can do many things to make sure this does not happen again. Did you know that any American citizen can run for public office? Sure, it takes a lot of money to put someone in a high enough office to have any effect, but that cost is a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of getting assraped back and forth by either of the current two parties. Make a fucking stand here people! Petitions and letter campaigns don't work. A call to your local congressman don't work. Know what works? Millions of protesters, millions of united voices, millions of dollars invested into a core of individuals that are chosen by you who actually have your interests at heart. 

Don't just sit there getting fucked and complaining about it, do something about it! If you don't, losing the ability to play online poker, getting on a plane without getting your luggage tossed and a finger up your ass, and eating the foods you want regardless of the trans fat content is gonna be the very least of your worries!

I will leave you with a quote that you might find interesting:

An excerpt from

They Thought They Were Free

The Germans, 1933-45

Milton Mayer



But Then It Was Too Late

"What no one seemed to notice," said a colleague of mine, a philologist, "was the ever widening gap, after 1933, between the government and the people. Just think how very wide this gap was to begin with, here in Germany. And it became always wider. You know, it doesn’t make people close to their government to be told that this is a people’s government, a true democracy, or to be enrolled in civilian defense, or even to vote. All this has little, really nothing, to do with knowing one is governing.

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remote

Now that I'm done ranting and pissing you all off, I wish all of you the best in this difficult time. It is still too early to tell what lasting effects this whole situation will have, but I fear it is going to get worse before it gets better. This has gone beyond poker. This is now in the realm of personal freedom and happiness. And to that end I hope we can all come out of this better then we were when it all started. The US government hay have won this battle, but the war is long from over. Don't give up, fight it any way you can!

End of WInter

     Holy shit, has it really been a month since I last posted?? It's gone by fast for me, let me tell ya. Snow is finally starting to melt, basement is flooding, grass is starting to poke through the snow drifts.... honestly all this should have been happening a month ago.

     So I really have not played much poker to speak of in the past month, save for my league games and going to the Legion every other weekend. Speaking of the league, we won! Team MVP are Cards Chat Winter League champions. On it's way to me is a copy of "Don't listen to Phill Hllmuth" by Dusty "Leatherass" Schmidt, and the $40 prize money is now in my FTP account.

     So all in all I would consider this winter's poker session a success. I made over $1300 profit over 600 games played. Most of these games were single table tourneys at the $2 to $5 level, with a bunch of $1- $5 MTT thrown in for good measure. In all honesty I really never got to the volume level I wanted, not even close, but I am still very happy with the results.

     What I am even happier with is the purchase of my new car. I am now the proud owner of a black 2010 Chevy Camaro SS. This car is a badass, 400hp, leather, sunroof, sweet stereo. It's a beaut! My wife and I have ourselves going got evening drives just for the sake of driving it.

     So, soon will start golf season and I am itching to play. I start trapping on a couple of weeks and am also looking forward to that. Poker will be put on the back burner 'till fall, but I will still play here and there as time allows.

     If there is actually anyone following this, I promise I will update this more often. The past month had been a blur of car shopping, yard work, foundation repair and whatnot. I must be more diligent.

     Here's to warm weather, long drives (both with golf clubs and big engines) and a great summer to look forward to!!

Time to slow down

     So it's been a while since I've updated on what's been happening, but frankly, not much has been happening so there was really nothing to update on. My work season is fast approaching, so I've been getting myself geared up mentally and physically for that. Making traps, readying equipment, exercising, that sort of thing.

     I really haven't played a whole lot of poker. Maybe 15 games in the past week or two. I'm still playing my weekly Cards Chat League game every Tuesday. We had a rough week last week, dropping to 4th in the rankings, but my teammates made a strong showing at the end of the week to pull back a bit, and so far this week we've had a first, third and second place finish in three games to put us back in a good lead. With two more weeks to go, this is going to be a close one, but I really think we got this one. There are only two other teams that are really in contention with us, and all we have to do is finish better then their players and it's in the bag.

     Man, I am soooo looking forward to golf season. It's already the second week of March and we're finally starting to have days that are above freezing. The warm sun in the sky is bringing back fond memories of fairways and greens. I'm already finding myself spending some time in my basement with my wedge, chipping a ball off a piece of cardboard into the wall. Just working on my rhythm, grip, tempo. Aim will come back soon. Can't wait to do some full swings.  I think tomorrow I'm going to get my clubs out of the trunk of my car that I'm storing in my garage and shine them up. I put them away shiny, but I'm going to clean them up again anyways. Put them near the back door just so I can look at them until the day I can use them again,

     Last year I was able to get on the fairway by late April, but judging by the current weather patterns I may be waiting until May to be able to get out. Here's hoping that things get real warm real fast. I'm getting itchy.

     So with that, I end this update, dreaming of making a beautiful opening drive down the first fairway, the warm breeze kissing my face..... ah.... in time.

     Oh, and I really hate that fucking "Potty Dance" commercial.

That is all.....

Feb 21

     Been a while. Not much new to report. Played an assload of MTT on Stars in the past two weeks. So far for the month I have played 28 tourneys for a total profit of $327.16. Since my final table in that $5 hyperturbo I told you all about I'm actually down $50.45 between MTT and SNG. I made the mistake of dabbling in some Turbo SNG and for the first time in a long time I played tilted and got stubborn. Though I must add that $30 of that $50 was lost in one game when a friend staked me, so even though it counts as a loss on my graph, it was actually a break even as the stake had zero make-up. So my Stars BR is only down $20 and change. Not exactly where I want to be, but I'm still not complaining.

     So I took a few days off. I haven't played online since last Wednesday. Played in my regular live game this Saturday. Instead of concentrating on the game, I just got drunk and goofed around. Didn't cash, but I had a hell of a good time.

     I also staked another player in the $22K Double Deuce on FTP yesterday. Worked out well. 50% stake for 1/3 of the profit. My stake made it to 13th place in a field of over 10,000 players for a cool $1100. That netted me $365 profit (after taking off the $11 stake) for my FTP BR. I think I may be going to do this a bit more as so far I've made more money staking than I've lost. But we'll see. 

     So tonight I get back on the horse and play again. I still haven't played any Multi-entry tourneys on FTP yet, so I think I might just try out one or two tonight and see how it goes. 

     Talk to you all later! 

What a beautiful game...

    SO I had a good night last night. Played a few MTT's at Stars. Cashes in 2. One was an $8T. Made $22 in that. The other was a marathon $2 1r-1a. Over 4000 entrants and it went looong. almost 6 hours till the time I busted out in 68th. I know it was a re-buy, but the play was really, well not tight, but non committal. Lots of limping/calling, but nobody was aggressive enough to get it all in. I sat at three different tables throughout the tourney and it seemed that nearly everyone was so passive that nobody wanted to be the one raising/shoving, bur everyone loved to just call along. It was soul crushingly slow. I finally ran out of patience and started getting overly aggressive. Worked well for a while and I had enough of a stack I thought I could cool it for a bit. With that in mind this hand happened to knock me out. had I been aggressive pre-flop like I should have been I doubt the end result would have been the same, but ah well. I was getting bored with it anyways...


PokerStars - $2+$0.20|6000/12000 NL (9 max) - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: http://www.pokertracker.com

Hero (BTN): 262,548.00
SB: 685,786.00
BB: 278,972.00
UTG: 140,000.00
UTG+1: 384,776.00
MP: 537,523.00
MP+1: 396,586.00
CO: 334,609.00

Hero posts ante 1,500.00, SB posts ante 1,500.00, BB posts ante 1,500.00, UTG posts ante 1,500.00, UTG+1 posts ante 1,500.00, MP posts ante 1,500.00, MP+1 posts ante 1,500.00, CO posts ante 1,500.00, SB posts SB 6,000.00, BB posts BB 12,000.00

Pre Flop: (30000.00) Hero has Jd Jh

fold, UTG+1 raises to 27,599.00, fold, fold, CO calls 27,599.00, Hero calls 27,599.00, SB calls 21,599.00, fold

Flop: (134396.00, 4 players) 9h 5d 8s
SB checks, UTG+1 checks, CO checks, Hero bets 72,000.00, SB raises to 350,396.00, fold, fold, Hero calls 161,449.00 and is all-in

Turn: (601294.00, 2 players) 5c

River: (601294.00, 2 players) Td

SB shows 8d 8c (Full House, Eights full of Fives) (PreFlop 19%, Flop 87%, Turn 95%)
Hero shows Jd Jh (Two Pair, Jacks and Fives) (PreFlop 81%, Flop 13%, Turn 5%)
SB wins 601,294.00

     So after that I called it night. This evening I played my regular Saturday game at the Legion. I hadn't been to these for a while, but I decided to start going back. I did start them after all. $25 buy-in, 3K starting stack, 20 min blinds. We usually get 8-10 players and tonights game was a full 10 player table.

     I've been feeling really good about my game as of late and I took that to the table with me tonight. Took my time getting into it, as the game usually starts out with alot of 'family pots' (everyone at the table lips in, nobody folds to a raise lol). During the third level I turned a K high straight against two betting opponents. One led out, the other raised, I re-raised, the leader folded and the initial raiser shoved. I called and she turned up 2 pair. With that double up I took the chiplead and never looked back. After just under 4 hours of play I was heads-up with my good friend Donald. He plays as Skrawn300 on FTP and Stars. Anyways, i had a major chiplead over him, that was soon evened out when he called my 3-bet shove of 88 with Q9. He flopped a straight and we got back it even in chips. After swapping blinds for a few hands he shoved from the button. I woke up with AQ and made the call. He showed 88. I hit the Ace on the flop and that ended it. 

     I've been on such a poker rush the past few days, and it feels good! My rungood has been runnin' good and I've been making a lot of good decisions on the felt. Tomorrow is going to be a good day. There is a $150 buy-in live game at a bar in the next town up the highway and myself, my dad and Donald are all going up. 20K stack, 20 min blinds starting @ 50/100 and top 6 guaranteed paid. The expected turnout is at least 50 players. Gonna be a great day. Super Bowl, poker and drinks. Win or lose, it will be good. 

     So with that, I will say have a great weekend everyone! I'll update again tomorrow night if it's not too late when I get home. 

Quick Update

     Just a little update for you all. Tonight has been a good night. While watching my teammate win her CC League game this evening, I seen the announcement for a $5 buy-in $5K Hyperturbo (blinds double every 3 minutes with early antes) tourney. I thought "WTF, why not" and entered it. When registration was done there were just over 1800 players, and the prize pool was over $8K.

  I ran like god until the last 18 players. I mean like the man himself. I never lost a single hand. Not one. I quickly got my way into the top 100 within the first 10 minutes, By the first break I was hovering between 10th and 25th. Final table was made in an hour and a half. I only lost two hands. The first one was when there were 14 players remaining.  I held A4os in the SB and my opponent held A9s in the BB. I had him just under 3-1 with blinds 30K/60k. I just cold shoved and he snapped. 9 on the flop cut down nearly half  my stack. I built back up, but found myself card dead at the FT. Blinds were 80K/160K with a 32K ante and I was quickly running out of time. I woke up with JQos MP+1 and shoved my remaining 460 or so K and was called by the BB with 10 10 . No Q or J on the board and I was out in 6th for a cool $355.09.

    I thought I'd call it a night after that, but instead I entered a $2, $3K guarantee instead. Long story short I lost to set over set (88 vs KK on a 8JK board) in 115th place for another cash of $4.20.

     Two deep runs back to back. I love this game!

  

Been a While

     Wow, has it been two weeks since my last post? Damn, I'm getting sloppy. So I guess an update is in order.

     Since my last big score, I really didn't play much for a week. Had a lot of car troubles so my wife and I were spending our days travelling out of town to the dealer for repairs, researching new vehicles (time to trade-up) and doing some test driving.

     I have gotten back into playing again during this past week. Started a bit rusty, but I'm back t making headway.

     So far since taking this poker thing seriously, I am proud to say that I have been quite successful, albeit a small success. After 400 games I am seeing a current profit margin of over $900. I say current, because I have taken some hits over this time. I am sitting at over $2300 gross profits, but taking into account downswings and other losses I am still holding over $900. After making a withdrawal or two, my BR is at a comfortable $550.

     Lately I've been playing some $6 Turbo SNG along with my usual $5 18-27 plyr SNG. Still been throwing in a few $2 MTT in there as well. Not doing so good with the $6T. Mostly breakeven, so I'm not sure if I am going to continue playing this game. The $2 MTT has been slightly profitable, but still not sure if it's worth my time. Granted I have made a couple of $100 cashes from these, but those were from regularly scheduled tourneys. The ones I am playing lately are the On Demand games on FTP. Such a donkfest these are. I've had a bunch of mincashes, but overall I'm not very satisfied with these games. I think I'm going to just go back to concentrating on the $5 18-27 player SNG's.

     I have also just started a free trial of Table Ninja. Loving it. It is so much easier to multi table with this program. Especially if I am playing on my laptop, which is what I normally use. A lot easier to keep up with the action by using hotkeys instead of scrolling around with the touchpad. I sometimes hook up a 20" monitor and use a wireless keyboard and mouse when I am wanting to play a solid sesh of 4 at a time for a few hours.

     Ok, enough rambling. Gonna eat some dinner, relax with my wife, play some Halo: Reach with the boys then get back to poker later this evening, probably around 11pm-12am Central time.

     I am also on Skype, so if anyone wants to sweat some sessions with me, I'm devon.buckler. Feel free to call me up.

Yeah baby!

     In my previous post I told you all how I was ITM in a $5K guarantee on Stars and maybe I'll be posting on how I went deep? Well ladies and gentlemen, I went deep. Took 2nd for $600!

     What a night. I initially entered the tourney to kill some time before bed, and wasn't expecting to make it that far into the money. The payouts (as in all MTT) were very heavy on the top end. For example, 9th place was only $45 compared to $800 for the winner. I played a tight, solid game, got paid off big on most of my big hands, and coasted until there were 18 left. Then I started hitting a few snags. JJ lost to A9 aipf, taking 1/3 of my stack. Then all my steal attempts were met with 3-bet shoves from the opposition. By the time we were down to 12 players, I was well below average and sitting 10 out of 12. Still I had a good stack to blind ratio and plenty of patience. I doubled up with 10 players left to put me in 7th with QQ vs AK. Squeaked by the FT bubble with 8BB's. Again the ladies were kind to me and I doubled up again vs A4. (Don't ya just love being called with rag Aces?)

     After I doubled up, I went on a tear. I was not intending to just cash, I was going for the win. I got aggro! 3-betting 4-betting, squeeze plays all over the place. There was one poor player who was on the BB every time I had the Button and I pounded the shit out of him. Every time he stood up to me I had JJ or better. I'd beat him down to almost nothing, he'd double up through another player and I'd beat him down again. Play went from 9  handed to 3 handed pretty quickly. It was probably almost 2 hours, but it felt like 20 mins to me.

     The overall chipleader finally woke up by the time we were 3 handed, but suffered a cooler when he ran his trip 10's into the FH of our other opponent. Soon enough we were heads-up. This didn't last more than half an hour. I was at a 4-1 chip disadvantage. I worked it back to a 2-1 over the course of a couple dozen hands, and was feeling pretty good about my chances to take it down when I ran JJ into KK. K on the flop and it was good night. So @ 5:30am I was $598.75 richer. Had a smoke, took a leak and went to bed. I was still kinda wound up and stoked over the cash that I just layed awake in bed until my wife got up for work.

     So with that last win, and despite of my horrible downswing that I eluded to in earlier posts, I am now sitting at $899.70 profit overall, over 346 SNG and MTT's. So far, so good.

    

     Hey everyone! It's been a bit since my last post. Frankly I really have not played all that much since Saturday. I played a live game Saturday night. 11 players, $25 buy-in SNG. Top 4 got paid. Well 4th got their entry back then the rest of the prize money was split 50/30/20. Anyways, I had a blast. I honestly havn't played a serious live game in months. I mean I've played one or two homegames with family over the holidays, but those games were just fun games with $5 entry to sweeten the deal.

     So back to the live game. Like I said, I had a blast. It was good to see some of my friends again and have a good conversation and some drinks with them. Overall I played pretty good. Took the chiplead with 9 remaining, held it for a little bit, then lost most of my stack against a bad suckout. My 2 pair KJ was beat by a set of Q's. I lost the minimum for the situation though. Built back up again, but I ended up getting a bit drunk and sloppy and ended up in 4th. Still was fun.

     I've only played about 4 SNG's all week, for a loss of about $12. I have a few other things going on right now and poker has been getting pushed aside. I've been making traps in anticipation of the upcoming minnow trapping season, my car has been acting up requiring trips to the shop and I've found myself wanting to study more than play.

     Oh, and I have also played in a couple of Cards Chat Winter League games. So far my team, Team MVP is in the lead after 8 games. It's still very early in the season though so anything can happen. In my last two games I took 7th and 2nd respectively. Oh, I guess I should mention the format: 9 teams, 5 players per team. Each player plays one game per week. Points are awarded based on finish position. My teammate tpb211 has scored himself two wins already, and my other teammates are doing great as well. I gotta say, these games are fun. We're all competent players and these games require the right balance of skill and luck in order to make it very far. A great way to have fun, hone your skills and make new friends.

     As I type this I am in a $2 buy-in, $5K guarantee MTT on Stars, sitting 75th out of 320 remaining. Money bubble was @ 351 players so I'm at least going to break my no-cash streak in MTT on Stars. Mayhaps I'll be posting again tonight about going deep. We'll see.


    

Flu Be Dammed!

     I'm so fuckin sick of being sick. I've been fighting this flu for over a week and I think I'm finslly getting over it. Unfortunatly I have not been putting in nearly the volume I want. I have been playing roughly the same hours, but I can only seem to concentrate on up to 2 tables at best.

     Despite of this, I am still on the upswing, cashing in most of the games I have been playing. Small gains, but gains none the less. I have been on a steady climb since I started after my holiday break on the 5th, and have nearly erased that horrible defecit I incurred just before the holidays. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to add a few more tables and increasy my hourly rate a bit. I am almost feeling like my old self again when it comes to my health.

     So here's to good health to myself and all of you!

Update and Multi-Entry tourneys.

     Just a quick update. I've been slowly climbing my way back up. Playing mostly SNG and MTT SNG in the $5 range. Doing alright. Been sick the last few days so I've been only playing one or two tables at a time. Can't seem to focus enough on 3 or more. Medication is making me fuzzy.

     Looking forward to getting better so I can try out the new Mulit-Entry tourneys FTP is now offering. An intriguing idea. For those of you who don't know (and from what I can figure out ATM) these tourneys allow you to buy in multiple times into the same MTT. You play your different stacks at different tables, and as you get closer to the FT your stacks will merge. So say the tourney pays 18 players and you have three stacks in play. One 2K, one 3.5K and another at 3K. SInce you can't be playing two sopts at the same table your two lowest stacks will be merged and you will aoutmatically be paid 18th place money. If you get to the final table your last two stacks will be merged and ou will get 9th place money. At least I believe this is how it works. Like I said, havn't tried it yet.

     I guess there are upsides and downsides. Downsides: Lots of Reg's buying up spots and sitting on lots of tables making the games potentially harder (not a problem for me though). But I guess the upside would be more fish bloating the prizepool and negating the effect of mulitstack regs.

     Lke I said, could be interesting. Now my only hope is that FTP doesn't make all tourneys into this format like they tried with Rush and On Demand. Call me old school on this, but I still like the idea of having a cap on player entries in SNG's and I'm a believer in "One tournament, one entry". I feel the idea of multi entries kinda negates the whole idea of sites being against multi accounters in MTT. I dunno. Too much Sudafed I think, can't think clearly....

On the up-and-up!

     Well I think I may have put my slump behind me (fingers crossed). In the past three evenings and over 20 games (7 MTT and 13 SNG) I have made a comeback of $100. Still leaves me $150 or so short of my peak in mid December, but I am still more than happy with it.

     Last night and today I took some time to play some SNG Madness. I already told you about my win in last night's session. Todat I played three more. 2 wins and one early exit. Oh, that early exit was horrible. Not by me, I feel I did alright considering the situation, but another horrible call my my opponent ended it for me. Well, you can tell me what you think:

Full Tilt - $5 + $0.50|30/60 NL - Holdem - 8 players
Hand converted by PokerTracker 3: http://www.pokertracker.com/
UTG+1: 2,100.00
Hero (MP): 1,365.00
MP+1: 1,410.00
CO: 1,260.00
BTN: 1,025.00
SB: 2,765.00
BB: 1,970.00
UTG: 1,605.00
SB posts SB 30.00, BB posts BB 60.00
Pre Flop: (90.00) Hero has Jh Ah
fold, UTG+1 raises to 180.00, Hero calls 180.00, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold
Flop: (450.00, 2 players) Jc 3c Th
UTG+1 bets 240.00, Hero raises to 1,185.00 and is all-in, UTG+1 calls 945.00
Turn: (2820.00, 2 players) Tc
River: (2820.00, 2 players) 8s
UTG+1 shows 8c 8h (Full House, Eights full of Tens) (PreFlop 53%, Flop 16%, Turn 25%)
Hero shows Jh Ah (Two Pair, Jacks and Tens) (PreFlop 47%, Flop 84%, Turn 75%)
UTG+1 wins 2,820.00

This was the first hand of the second level. UTG gained his stack by 3 barreling a 10 high board out of the blinds early in the game. I had no previous stats on this player, but at the time he had a VPIP of 65. When the flop came down I seen his bet as a standard c-bet. My first thought was to smooth call, but that would have left me with t945 in a pot worth t450. Still plenty of chips for turn and river play, but I would be committed on the turn anyways, so I thought it was best (and unexploitable) to shove the flop. Even if he folded it would be a 1/3 of my stack gain, which i would have been plenty happy with.

What made me deside to shove was the two clubs on the flop, the fact that I had seen Villian raise UTG twice and show KJ and KQ respectively, coupled with his known ability to barrel the turn, and compounded by me wanting him to get his money in bad if he were to get it in at all. So I shoved. Villian didn't think for more than a moment before calling. Sure enough I got him to get it all in bad, and there came the 2 outer. Mayhaps I could of floated the flop and shoved the turn, as I was pretty sure I was ahead, but I also wanted to make a "don't fuck with me" statement to him and the rest of the table. Also another club would have been a great card for him to barrel the turn with. Or a K or Q which would help many draws that he could possibly have had, or even made him 2 pair. I wonder what he was thinking. "Gee, it's obvious I'm beat. I call!". Nah, more like "I gots cards, I call!" or no thinking at all. lol. Checked him out afterwards. apparently this player has lost 4 figures over roughly 4200 games, most of it @ 5 and 10 SNG. I almost feel sorry for him. But not really.

     Anyways, after another good session tonight, I'm just going to relax, play some XBOX, and enjoy tomorrow with my lovely wife. Then it's back on the climb Monday.

     No title for this post. Couldn't think of anything revelant or clever. Had a break-even night. Played a few SNG's as art of FTP's SNG Madness promotion. Started with 7 $2.25's. Horrible. The play was akin to a bingo game and I was never able to find my rythim, or a decent hand. ended out early in all of them. Disgusted with myself at that point, but eager to shake it off and move on. So I then regged for the $2.25 doublestack tourney. All went fine until I took a punishing beat for 2/3 my stack when my KK fell to J9 suited APIF. Opponent raised 5x, one caller, I re-popped it from the SB to all-in. Origional raiser called and so did the caller. Pre-flop it looke good for me KK vs J9 vs QK. Unfortunatly the turn and river were both 9's. Ah well, I still had just under average stack and I thought I could easily rebuild.

     Then I got moved to a nother table and to my dismay I was sitting between 3 of the top 5 tourney chipleaders. And they were aggro. Still I thought "no problem, be patient, pick your spots and don't challenge the big stacks unless you got some heat." Well, sad to say I got no heat. I mean none, zip, nada. This coupled with the fact that at least one of the leaders were raising/3-betting nearly every hand and I started to get dwindled real fast.

     Now this brings me to something that I have a hard time with. Not being short stacked against monsters, but the fact that I refuse to just shove a 8-12bb stack because "I'm suppost to". I just cannot bring myself to shove with marginal (K10, A rag) hands into stacks more than 5x my own. Esp when they are calling wide trying to take out anyone who tries to rise against them. If i were in their situation, I would have done the same thing. Anyways, I eventually found myself folding every hand from 55 players on until thr bubble which was 36. My intention was not to just fold into the money. I really don't care if I bust first hand or on the bubble. Busting is busting. But like I said, I refused to just shove atc out of, I dunno, pride I guess. I blinded myself down from a bit over 14K until I was 2 off the bubble and had 2.2K, which at that time was just over 2bb's. Sad, I know. Fortunately I did catch a break when I was in the SB and miraculously the pot was not raised pf. I completed with Q 9, and the BB checked. Flop came Q high and I shoved. BB called with bottom pair and I got my double-up and then some with the antes. Now sitting on 6.5K or so, I shoved the button with AK (about damn time!) and doubled up again against A4. The bubble burst, a couple of hands later, but I was still only 16BB's deep. Short by a mile. Folded a few more rag hands and finally looked down to see the two most beautiful ladies I've seen in a long time. Shove it!

     Now this is where you think I tell you about another double-up that catapaults me to the final table. Not so. AK snapped me off with a K on the turn and I made myself a whole .96c. Sad. But then again, any profit is good profit, so at least I got something, if only a small pittance.

     So at that point in the night I was still down about $20. Still feeling good about my play in the doublestack (aside from my unremarkable finish, I did play well and was above average from the first rotation till that J9 beat), and feeling a need for vengance against the SNG Madness, I desided to play one more SNG for the night. But not the $2.25. I went to the $5.50.

     I played tight at first, feeling out my opponents. I recntly re-configured my HUD ans low and behold I had stats on most of the table. Lovely. Started slow, picking up a few small, uncontested pots. As we got down to 7 players I opened up m game a bit. My stats showed that my opponents sitting directly to my right folded over 90% to 3-bets so I took full advantage of that whenever I had A10+, 77+ KQs. Chipped up nicely for a while until finally one player had enough. Too bad for him I had 3-bet JJ to his K10 raise. Poor guy picked the wrong time and went busto. I kept on the aggression through the bubble, raising and shoving wide, (been reading alot on ICM and bubble play and wanted to put that into effect hard). Popped the bubble second in chips. CL on my left was mostly passive but overvalued and Ax hand, and the poor schmuck to my right was too scared for his own good, and I was able to take the chip lead without much fuss. Long story short it was a quick heads-up battle and I was able to end the night where I started it with the big W.

     As well as the cinfidence I got from cashing in a MTT and winning that SNG, I now only need two more wins in SNG between now and Sunday evening to quailfy for the SNG Madness freeroll. I must say I am not doing it just for the freeroll, the money from the wins will be nice too. I also found by applying a more aggressive ICM based approach near and through the bubble, I had more confidence in my plays. I will do good to remember that feeling next time I am the pitiful shorty in an MTT.

     Well, it is now nearing 6am, so I will say goodnight flolks, and good luck!

Back in the Saddle Again (I think)

Well, after a long holiday poker hiatus, I’ve been getting back into the groove. Started slow Monday, just a couple of SNG’s, didn’t play Tuesday, and banged out my first profitable session since December 10 last night.

                I found I was getting (again) too impatient, trying to make things happen instead of observing the situation before me and making the best possible situation. I was expecting all my flips to hold up and when they didn’t, I would make a dumb tilt play. This is odd for me, because usually I don’t tilt. But I suppose that going on a 3 week downswing would make even a Buddhist monk tilt some bit. So instead of going back to SNG, I decided I needed to re-learn my patience so I played a couple of $2 On-Demand tourneys.

I felt the larger fields would help me be more patient and choose my spots more carefully. Apparently something clicked, because in my third game of the night I fell back into my groove. Went heads-up in a 290something player tourney and took second for almost $80, putting me up $70 for the session.

Going in, I admit I was a bit frustrated about busting out of my last tourney to a runner-runner straight to my 2 pair. Got it in good, made my opponent make the mistake of putting in his money thinking I was on a bluff and still got spanked. Oh well, fire up another…

So there I was, still steaming a bit, but determined to put it behind me and focus on the task at hand. I decided to only play this one game (I usually play 3 or more at a time) in order to help keep my composure and get myself back on track mentally. Started off good, picking up a few small pots to build my stack nicely. Doubled up roughly 70 hands in, to 5.2K, which was double the chip average at the time. I was happy, patient and focused. I got moved to another table, and was pleasantly surprised to see a player named dufferdevon. This player is a member of CC so we got to chatting. We ended up making a last longer bet to the tune of $5. At the time he was sitting on roughly 15K to my 5K, but with the blinds only 30/60 the stacks didn’t matter that much and I felt good about my chances.

Not too long later duffer busted to another maniac bingo player at our table and I was freerollin’ the rest of the game. So three short hours later I made the final table as a short stack (24BB’s), picked up JJ in back to back hands, tripled up the first one, busting the shortest stack at the table, doubled up against another player the second one and found myself in the top 3 in chips. The rest of the game went smooth, and I soon found myself heads-up, which didn’t last too long. 13 hands later my opponent min-raised the button, I shoved with AQ (I was covered) he snapped with 88 and it held up. The win would have been nice, but it felt great to get back in the saddle with a solid 2^nd in a MTT.

So tonight is another night, and I think I’m going to play some more MTT before getting back into SNG. Good luck out there everyone!