After a very up and down weekend that basically netted me down a few SnGs worth of money, I had a very good night tonight.

I sat at a 50c/$1 NL table on stars and a bit more then doubled though when I hit quad kings on the river and had someone raise into me for a near $80 pot.

I then played a 6 top SnG on FullTilt where I busted 4th with a good draw that never made it but only had 12x the BB. Blinds made it to 50/100 with 5 people left.

Another 6 top. I laid low and watched a few crazy people duke it out. I ended up heads up with a 5 to 1 chip defecit but was able to battle it back to even with some smart betting and good hits. Including a semi-bluff where I had overs, a straight draw, and flush draw on the turn and re-raised all in. The other fellow folded claiming pocket 2s. That actually gave me 3 more outs than I had planned on. We were basically even when I had Qs 8h and the flop came K98 of spades. We both got it all in with the fellow having 10s 8d. No spades on the turn but a 10 on the river sealed it for me and I was out 2nd. (88 hands total)

All in all I am pleased with the night. Even though I missed the WWdN event that wwonka ended up winning.

Mookie is having another online event tommorrow on Stars. Hopefully more than 9 will show up this week. He is also hosting a bounty event on Saturday where I am currently first alternate but hoping to join in.

Vegas in 9 days. My first beer since Super Bowl Sunday in- imaging this, 9 days.

Come play with us… 40 minutes to sign up.

PokerStars 9PM, password: “blogsaregay”.

Played in basically 3 SnGs tonight. First two were 6 top ones on FullTilt. 6th and, well, 6th. Mookie had a Virtual Big O game on PokerStars. I ended up 9th when my top AK ran into QJ on a AJJ flop. Ooof. SirFWALGman made an appearance.

Plus side: I made my Stars buyin plus some playing 50c/$1 NL. So really I didn’t do badly overall tonight.

I just watched Top Gear’s Winter Olympics special. Holy Carp! That is some funny stuff. If you can find it, I highly recomend it.

I have moneyed once in the weekly WWdN event a few weeks back but have yet to return to the promised land since. Last week I was busted when my queens ran into kings and SERNE hit quads. I got to about the 50% mark. This week, I just didn’t get any steam at all. I was card dead for a l-o-n-g time and finally busted out when the blinds were 100/200 and I had 1200 or so in chips. My AQ ran into a AK and it was over, 27 of 54. Boo.

Part of my early tournament was distracted by a 6 top SnG on FullTilt that had me either 1st or 2nd in chips (it moved back and forth) and my intent was to win there. I find it really hard to two table SnGs or MTTs. Cash games, to me, are a lot more formulated where players move in and out and progressing blinds don’t happen. I ended up 2nd, but it was an epic heads up battle. One hand of note that I think I played well was AA on the 2nd hand of the event. I raised to 60 (4x BB) and was re-raised to 200. I re-raised all-in to 1500. Normally this would be considered too strong, especially early in the event. That is what I was hoping he would think. He called the bet with 88 and my aces held. This gave me a gunslinging perception with big cards. I bought many a pot when my AX or KX suited didn’t hit on the flop. No suckouts in heads up play, just good bets and better cards for my opponent. That means I have 2 1sts, 2 2nds, and 2 4ths in 6 6-top SnGs on FullTilt. Not bad.

Last Friday was Mookie’s bi-weekly home game. It was a $20 freezeout with 19 players. I ended up 12th. Ick. My 66 ran into Mookie’s TT when we were both really short stacked. Even though he doubled up (and left me with 2BB) he was *still* below average stack. I played solid, it just didn’t work out for me. Next time.

Some friends and I have gone on the wagon after the Super Bowl. Today marks 10 days. Which in itself would not be a big deal but… I also went on a diet and began doing a *lot* of walking. I have lost 6 lbs in the last week. Yikes. And to those who worry about my tolerance fading- don’t worry, Vegas is coming up. I’ll be back in true form the first weekend of March. 🙂

A short update about my play after WWdN on Tuesday.

I have played in a bit of 25c/50c razz. I now am beginning to understand how frustrating this game is. But I like it.

Since I signed onto FullTilt trying to earn my Poker Tracker licence via VPP, I have played in 3 6 top SnGs. I won two and finished 4th in the other. Pretty good ROI. I am in the low $5 ones because I don’t have the bank roll to support higher levels. My bonus will work off much quicker if I play higher levels so I am hoping to get enough bankroll in the next week or so to move up.

Live play at Mookie‘s tonight. $20 Freeze out. Should be fun.

I’m going to try to live blog here… this ought to be interesting.

7:30 – I’m at Table 1, seat 8, but don’t recognize any of the names. 99 people tonight.
7:32 – I stopped playing at FullTilt to concentrate. I was seriously card dead at 25/50 but did OK at razz. I’m working off a 200 point bonus there. It is going to take awhile.
7:34 – First player out. wwonka joined our table
7:37 – my first pot! yippee!
7:38 – second pot! yippee!
7:51 – wwonka is out 93rd. Two pair to a flush. Next hand I crossed over 2k in chips. Good for top 20 at the moment.
7:55 – Columbo777 joined our table- as one of the chip leaders. He is on my left. In fact I have two chip leaders immediatly to my left. Joy.
8:04 – Just lost a fairly decent chunk of chips to Columbo777. Grrrr… Out of the top 20 for now.
8:07 – 2nd kill at our table.
8:08 – Lost *another* chunk to Columbo777 when he reraised me both preflop and on the flop when I hit 2nd pair. Possition sucks.
8:11 – Phluxer raises all in over BigSlickNut’s raise. BSN folds
8:12 – Decker711 is all in and all out (79th). I would have won. Grrrr…
8:13 – Phluxer is at it again. This time with InanimateJ. He gets the win and shows the bluff.
8:16 – Apparently Wil is out.
8:16 – Phluxer is all in and called by Columbo777. 99 v KK, 9 on the flop and Columbo is hurt
8:18 – Longshot1999 is out. All in w/ A9 against AQ – I am moved to table 4. I recognize no one.
8:19 – Wait, Sweet79Chuck is at my table. He is blogging.
8:20 – Smalldog is out when his nut flush draw doesn’t get there. Kaellinn18 is a chip leader- on my left, imagine that.
8:28 – It seems the game has tightened up a lot. I have dumped a bunch of AXo because of low chip stack. I am well below average.
8:30 – We are on break. I am 49 of 64 remaining. and almost a thousand chips shy of average.
8:35 – Blinds are 75/150. I am at < 10BB. Ouch. 8:40 - Columbo777 is back at my table. SoxLover is out 59th. 8:42 - Doubled up with my AA against Kaellinn18's 82o. huh? I am back to just shy of average stack. 8:44 - DavidK is out. when his 88 runs into SERNE's TT. SERNE has to be high on the leader board 8:45 - Sweet79Chuck is all in against thebrux and looses AQ to AK He is done in 54th. 8:48 - I'm out 50th. I reraised all-in with QQ to be called by SERNE with KK. He flopped quads. Ouch. And that my friends is poker in a nut shell. Good night everyone.

After my brisk 4 mile walk tonight I sat down at ye ‘ol computer to play a bit of poker. Mookie is having his Big O online tourney and I have my Limit Challange to attend to.

Cash: Currently playing 25c/50c and am up $6.10.

Tourney:
9:01 – Seven to start. Pays three spots. This should be a wild and crazy event.
9:05 – Just lost a outside straight draw to Weezy. It didn’t get there.
9:07 – lost a chuck to Texicans when my AJo flopped a JQx and a K on the turn. Grrrr.
9:10 – redemption! Got Texicans to lay down when I hit my TP on the river with KJo
9:13 – left the cash game up $5.50, very hard to two table Limit and NL
9:17 – Texicans just turned a fullhouse As full of 4s to aimikes25’s flopped wheel. All the money was in on the flop. ouch.
9:18 – aimike shows true tilt when he bluffs all in with 25c, no callers
9:20 – back over starting chips when I check the BB and flop 2 pair. Also rivered the FH
9:21 – Mike doubles up with 24o against A8. Damn.
9:24 – Mike more than doubles up with KQ against QJ, new chip leader
9:27 – Jim is out when K7 flops top pair but Henry’s 35 flops the 7 high staight
9:29 – Henry drops the Hammer. No one calls.
9:31 – I take out carol when my AA runs into A9d and she hits TPTK. They hold.
9:33 – Joel doubles up off Henry when he turns two pair against Henry’s paired Ace
9:36 – I’m out. I make it 250 (blinds are 25/50). Henry makes it 750. I’m all in for 1700 or so. He calls with KK. I have 66. Ouch. Flop: 6QQ. Wow. Blank. K on the River and I am done.

Back on the Cash game. This concludes my live blogging. Not so hard when you only last 30 or so minutes.

I am making good progress on Phase 2, almost to 20%. 25c/50c is very similar game to 10c/20c in the quality of play. But I suppose that is to be expected with a default $5 buy-in.

One SnG over the weekend. I won, but I am very happy with my heads up play where I was able to apply pressure as needed and get away when I was behind. It worked very well. There was one maroon at the table who busted out early and went on a cussing fit. It was actually a bit entertaining- but after a minute or two it was just plain annoying. I’m not sure if it still works this way- but you can not block a single players chat on PokerStars. Well, you can “block” them, but you get a “***” everytime they chat to the room. I would rather just not hear them at all.

No live poker recently.

I put $20 on the money line for Seattle. Bodog has them as 4 1/2 pt dogs so the money line is paying really well. It’s only money right? Of course the only sports book based bet I personally lost this season was a Seattle game. Hmmmm…

I played in my second live game of 06 and did much better. I think I did one of my best games in a long time. The only mistake I made was trying to bluff our biggest calling station. It basically crippled my chip stack. I was 2nd short stack with 14K (2K/4K) blinds and went in with AKo against a 10K range. He called reluctantly with A5o and hit a 5 on the turn. Damn. Oh well.

After that (it was basically a live SnG so it ended fairly quickly) I headed home to see if I could keep some steam going from my live game. It worked out well. I played on a 3 tables total and cleared near $6 to cross into the next level. On to 25c/50c I go.

It was nice to be hitting sets, flushes, and top two rather than just missing everything. I’m done for the night but will pick up level 2 over the weekend. Exciting.

So in a few of my last posts I commented on how few losing sessions I had. Well, that pretty much ended this weekend. Of the last 5 tables I have sat at I have only had one winning session (it was a pretty good one so my loses are limited). I am not down huge, a week’s worth of winnings. Normal variance – but that doesn’t make it better.

I have learned, or re-learned a few things. The big one is that at these micro-limits you can not bully a table at all. Example: UTG with QQ on a full table. I raised to 20c. A few callers including the SB. The flop is 6-2-K rainbow. SB checks, I bet. One other caller but the SB calls. 2 on the turn. Check-Bet-3rd player folds-Raise. Crap. I knew it. He has a deuce and I am a sucker. A smart player would lay it down figuring I am dead to a Q but apparently I am not that smart. I call. River is a blank, SB leads out, I call. A-2 offsuit. Maybe I am too tight, but I lay down A-2 off in the SB against a raise- especially an early position raise. Even if I do call, I don’t call a bet against the raiser if I hit bottom pair. Now the bad post-turn play is all mine. The check-raise is textbook and I should have saved myself 40c and folded. And my read was solid. So all was not lost. This is the kind of situation in NL that a 4x bet would drive the SB out of the hand and certainly a pot sized bet post flop would.

I did have one really good table last night that I nearly doubled my buy-in which reduced the losses dramatically. I didn’t really change my game too much, it just worked out better. Bless me variance. As of right now I am down to just over 82% of my first level goal. I hope to get there this weekend. I might also try and work off my bonus for Poker Tracker via VegasPokerPro.com. They have a pretty good selection of cardrooms including Full Tilt.

BTW: plumbing sucks. I came home Monday to find my tub faucet would not turn off. It was an expensive learning experience but apparently solder got into the valve and jammed it open.