Not as much poker this week as I would like. I am up to almost 78% of my stage one goal (note the table on the right side of this page). I did add a losing session, so my record sits at: 18-5 for winning sessions.

I played in a SnG last night and was chip leader until the blinds hit 50/100. Someone doubled up and took over the lead and my AKo lost to his A9o when he spiked a 9 on the turn (we both paired up our A on the flop). I ended up 8th. It was a lot of effort for a 8th place finish. Oh well.

Went to the UT-Texas Tech basketball game on Tuesday. Pretty fun event. We mossied down to half court, 22 rows back. No one came to question us and UT just plain kicked ass. I tried to find a picture but couldn’t, but the UT pom/dance squad is just H-O-T-T. We wandered by the tower after the game and it was still lit from the Rose Bowl victory and got some pictures.

Vegas Here I Come! Watch Out! I will be in Vegas from March 2 to March 7. UT baseball is playing UNLV. My buddy Jason and I are going. We will make at least two of the 3 set. Our sticks will be tagging along to play a bit of golf on Friday. And poker. Yes. There will be poker. And probably drinking. Yeah, I will probably have a few drinks.

So the Pats lost. Badly. Grrrr. Oh well, they didn’t really have the team they had last year and they at least got to the playoffs. After going 3-3 to start that was in doubt. Indy lost yesterday on a WIDE RIGHT kick by the most accurate kicker in NFL history… guess it was not meant to be.

So we have Denver-Pitt and Seattle-Carolina. Hmmm… unless you are from any of those areas, who cares? Oh well. I’ll watch anyway.

I played 4 SnGs this weekend. First one I won in 51 hands. It just blew through. The 2nd one was just insane. All-ins after all-ins. I never really got anywhere and could not figure out the table and ended up 7th. *shrug* One on Saturday, finished 2nd. One on Sunday, finished 2nd but I should have won. I had the guy down to two bets (blinds were 300/600) but he doubled up twice and took me out after a long heads up battle. He played very well, but I am pissed at myself for not sealing the deal.

Cash Game Progress: 57% of the way though the first level. The best part is that I have played 17 sessions at this level and only have 4 losing ones.

I missed the first game of the season at mookie99’s place this weekend. I chose to watch the Pat’s lose. In retrospect, maybe I should have gone.

I have been fighting a headcold- or allergies- for about a week now and it sucks. On the plus side NyQuil gel caps are giving me wickedly vivid dreams.

I am just shy of 20% though my first level of the Low Limit Poker challenge. I have not done many sessions in the last 7 days but hope to do more in the next couple. One interesting hand I had last night was AA on UTG. I raised. A fairly tight player raised from mid-position. I capped. Flop was all unders, Q high, two clubs. I bet. Raised. I re-raised. He capped. Turn is a blank club giving me the backdoor flush draw. The fellow chatted “I hope you have rockets.” I did not reward him with a reply. I bet, raised, called. Total blank on the river. Repeat of the turn bet. He had KK. I think I missed two BBs on this hand by not re-raising on both turn and river. I should have at least re-raised the river. He bounced from the table but came back a few orbits later looking for his money from me. I did not give him the pleasure.

The was no WWdN challenge this week. Probably a remnant of the PCA event that just happened.

I did rather poorly all around actually.

My $5 Lotto parley (I thought it was $4, so maybe a mild win there 🙂 was a bust.

I finished 2nd in a SnG, but busted out early in two others.

I played in a live “Tournament of Champions” deal and made a pretty sick bluff early that got called with a hugely suspect hand. Details as I recall: 7-top table, money has been moving. I raised from the button with AQo. SB called along with one or two others. Flop is all unders, 4-6-10, two diamonds. Checked around to me. I made about a 1/2 pot sized bet. Only the SB called. Another blank, non-diamond. I fire again- about 1/2 sized. Ponder. Call. Non-diamond J on the river. Check. I push. I have probably 1/2 of the pot left in chips. He goes in the tank. For at least two minutes. I know he has at least a piece of it- A-10 maybe? I’m not sure. But I am sure I don’t want a call. Well. He called. Ballsey call but the right one. This is the kicker though, he had pocket 3s. Yep. An under pair. Wow. I didn’t see that coming. I’m not sure how the event went, I have not seen the results yet. But damn.

My biggest gripe of the night? I flopped a flush with an 8 high in my hand. I bet at the pot, but not enough to take it down. Another club on the turn. Crap. Meanwhile, another player at the table was out of a hand and started digging though the muck. What the hell? I had a straight flush draw so I called a small bet. Blank on the river. Dickfer is still digging though the muck. I called him out on it. What? What did I do? “Don’t dig in the fucking muck.” As I mucked my crappy flush. Tool.

Someone at the bar asked if I know a bookie. No, but I have a Bodog account. $50 on NYG -3 and $50 on CIN+3. He gave me cash. Both were busts. I had just over $10 left my buddy put a parley with the over (44) on the NYG/CAR game and CIN+3. Yeah. Missed both of those. I now have $0.55 in that account. Ooops 🙂

That is enough rant for a Monday. I’ll move on now.

So I entered Wil Wheaton’s Tuesday event last night. It starts at 6 for me and the PSU/FSU game comes on at 7, so I figured to be distracted after that.

Wil did not play, something about the Bahamas. Damn him. But we did have 45 players.

I got hot decked early having litterly no less than 3 pairs of Aces, 2 pairs of Kings, and a timely pair of Queens that I made gutsy call with a KKJ two hearts board to take someone out (he was on the nut flush draw and missed). Again, top 10 in chips- I think I made it to third before the ice age came.

My goal was to make final table. I did it last week, and figured I had a good shot by staying in the top 10. But I had nothing- even the semi-playable hands got raised in front of me. I did have one untimely play late when I re-raised from the BB with AKo and was re-raised all-in by the SB. I pondered a long time and laid it down. I still don’t know if it was a good play or not. He was playing very solid poker and I can’t think I had any advantage there. Since it was past the first break and blinds were pretty high I lost about a 1/3rd of my stack. That hurt. Another cold run of cards and I knew I had to make a move to even get to the final table (never mind the money). I ended up all in with KQ against AQ. Not so good. Interlude: How many times do hand likes these hit when the shared card comes out on the board. I know it is a statistical minority, but it seems too often 🙂 It left me with under the SB in chips.

I made the final two tables, and a timely knockout of two players on the other table put me out in 16th. Respectable against a solid field, but not where I wanted to be.

As for my limit challenge goals: just over 12% through the first level. Although, I did about 1/2 of it at 5c/10c on Bodog because I left myself logged in on PokerStars at home… oops. Plus I put money on OSU to cover (which they did) and Texas to at least keep it close (which we will find out about tonight).

So everyone needs to have “New Year’s Goals” and I am, well, no different. So here is the list in no particular order:

• Limit Poker Skills: my limit game was doing well in the earlier part of the year, I moved from 25c/50c all the way to $1/$2. Then it went south. I tried to play through it- no luck. I ended up back in 50c/$1 and am managing to slow the losses. I am going to do a bunch of research and hand tracking. I think I am going to use the The Limit Challenge Structure – High on Poker from HighOnPoker’s Blog. Hopefully 2006 will allow me to improve my game to a point where I can compete at any table I sit at.
• Tournaments: although my SnG results are not pisspore, I would like to move up from the $5 and $10 ones to the larger $20+ games. I also want to play in more MTT events. An ultimate goal would be to qualify for a WSOP, WPT, or EPT event. If so, I would like to make it deep- even if I don’t cash.
• Vegas: I am going to go at least a twice this year. And ultimately, I would like them to be self sustaining. The only thing better than a vacation is a free vacation 🙂
• Live Games: We have a home poker league and I would like to play that more often and with better results. This is going to be more difficult, but I think it will be wise to play against both donkeys and players that have significantly improved their games.

After being at work for 12 hours yesterday, I decided to enter a SnG (or more). Of course I bubbled.

One more. OK, I finished 2nd- great. My end game was not so good though. I need to work on even stack heads up more- I just bled out and got crushed at the end. It sucked.

One more. Damn it. Got up to 2000 or so (7 or 8 people left) and I needed to head to the house- a 10 minute drive from the bar I was playing at. As an aside, having someone bring you beer while you play poker on WiFi may be the coolest thing ever. It took me 10 minutes to get home and I was down to 1500 after being blinded off. I ended up in a battle of the bubble with another short stack and I lost. Damn it.

One more. This one I played pretty darn solid, top 3 most of the way. Got to heads up with a 40/60 chip distribution. Again, my heads play was not steller. I ended up losing with a flush draw and two live ones on the flop against a naked ace. If one part of my game showed weekness last night it was my heads up play.

For the night: four $5.50 buyin SnGs ($22). two bubbles ($0). two 2nd Place Finishes ($27). Total: Up $5. Woot!!

So I signed up for Wil Wheaton’s weekly event again today. Despite the fact that I had to sit out two orbits because I couldn’t get online at 6, things went very well. I was in the top 10 in chips most of the event, chip leader for quite awhile. We made the final table and I was in the top 3 the whole time. What killed me was doubling up Change100 when my AQo ran into 77, I hit a Q but the board 4 flushed giving her the win. Next hand I had 33 and ran into AKo by SeedyV and a K flopped. Oh well. I finished 5th of 60, not to shabby.

I decided to play the WWdN Bonus Code IGGY Invitational tonight. It was a $10+1 event with 70 entrants. My overall goal was to make the final two tables.

I did very well early pushing up into the top 10 in chips. However I ran into a key hand where I pushed a short stack all in with my QQ and was called by another player. The board tripped 8s but there was an A as well. I lost a bunch of chips to 8s full. I hung on until 31st place.

The only saving grace is that I earned my entry fee playing 50c/$1 earlier in the day.

Thanks for a great event Wil. I look forward to playing it often.

This one was a record for me. It lasted just over 1 1/2 hours and 178 hands were dealt. Wow. It was six handed and the blinds were 200/400. It ended when the blinds were 400/800. The amazing part is that there were very few eventful hands. The play was solid- good bets, good bluffs, good laydowns, the whole deal. It is nice to have won though 🙂