Multi-table cash

Finished 15th out of 584 last night in the Party 35K guaranteed. That was only good for a little less than $500. Haven't cashed in a multi in a while, so it was nice to get that monkey off my back, but it wasn't high enough to be anything more than encouraged. I never could get anything going once we hit 35 people or so. There was a huge stack opening nearly every hand before me, which forced me to be very selective. Finally my AJ went into a different big stack's KK, and I missed my 3 outer...which sucks as a shorter stack hit their 3 outer on me earlier with K9 against my JJ.

As a side note, the hand for hand play on Party is excruciating, you lose 1-2 levels of blinds, turning it into an all-in fest for all but the biggest stacks. Instead of going hand for hand 10 spots from the money, how about 3 or 5 spots?

Worked out last night for the first time in a while, man are there a lot of hugely fat people in the world, with a majority of the ones (at least at the gym), being women. Makes me feel better about myself. I like to think it helped me play better too, as I felt a little better, and hopefully that helps me make good decisions.

The picture shown is one of a woman working out a few spots away from me at the gym.

Party Acceler-8-tor bonus week 2

Week 2 results: (further explanation to be done later):

Cash Tables
30/60 (273 hands): -$189.29

1/2 PL Omaha Hi: -$192.00

Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (47 played, 8 1st/ 7 2nd/ 6 3rd): +$4495.00
$100 SNG (1 played, 0 1st/ 1 2nd/ 0 3rd): +$191.00

Multi-table tourney's
$100's (3 played, 0 cashed): -$327.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00

Week 2 results: +$1232.71 (plus bonus money - likely to be another 225 or so)


Net Results (for the full 2 weeks):
Cash Tables
30/60 (490 hands): +$249.21
20/40 (111 hands): +117.50
1/2 PL Omaha: -$192.00

Sit and Go's
$500's (9 played, 0-1-0): -3270 (buddy owned 840 of this): -$2430.00
$200's (126 played, 16-15-14): +$4710.00
$100's (1 played, 0-1-0): +$191.00

Multi-table tourney's
$100's (5 played, 0 cashed): -$545.00
$200's (1 played, 0 cashed): -$215.00

Total Poker results: +1885.71
Bonus dollars earned: $215+ this week
Total for 2 weeks: $2100.71 + this week's bonus

Been running really bad, can't believe I turned a profit. When things turn around for me, watch out.

Faith in sports

My faith in the integrity of sporting events continues to get shaken.

NCAA basketball officiating is a joke, favoring the home team nearly all the time. I hate it getting justified as “that’s home court advantage”. How tough is it to call a game down the middle and not get influenced by where the game is at? I continue to see home teams get ridiculous number of free throw attempts vs. visitors. Some of that can be explained off by aggressiveness, but I’m sorry, not all of it.

MLB umpiring was pretty terrible in the playoffs as well. They gift wrapped at least one game to the White Sox with the AJ “dropped” third strike play.

The NFL has been getting worse throughout the years, but the Indy-Pitt game, where the Polamalu INT was overturned was one of the first times I’ve seen what looked like an absolute agenda. Then the debacle of a Super Bowl happened, with the Jerome Bettis agenda.

The NBA has always been suspected of having agendas. The following example is very loosely defined as a sporting event. The slam dunk contest was an absolute farce. It was crystal clear to me that they wanted Nate Washington (another Spud Webb) to win it, to help keep the contest alive. While I’ll agree Iguodala wasn’t very imaginative with his remaining dunks (after the ridiculous alley oop off of the back of the backboard), it was absurd for Washington to win. What is the criteria for the dunk contest, judge the dunk on level of difficulty? Do you incorporate a players height into it? I personally don’t think you should, otherwise a short person should win every time. Lastly, something needs to be done with a system in which a player requires 7 tries before they make it once and 14 tries before they succeed again. How can that not penalize a player?? Without a penalty, I would try to dunk with the ball hanging from my teeth over and over again until I finally made it.

The 3-point contest was also a joke. In the first round eventual champion Dirk Nowitski released his last money ball clearly after the buzzer. This allowed him to make the finals and denied two other competitors the chance. I always wondered why they had officials there during this contest, and after the ref missed this one, I still wonder the same thing. It’s not like he had anything to look at other than his feet when he released and whether or not he beat the clock. There were no potential fouls, no 3-seconds, no traveling, etc…just a joke.

And no, I didn’t have money on any of the NBA events.

I find myself being less and less interested in sports as these things happen.

Just a test

Wanted to test posting images on here, so I figured I'd go with one of my favorite.

Del Taco Trip report

Background:
I was hungry and didn’t feel like cooking. I could throw a pigskin to the Taco Bell by my house, but I decided to make the drive to Del Taco (3 miles). Contrary to my Walmart experience, this required bringing the Ford Road traffic into play.

Parking/Entrance:
Bad idea from the start, traffic was miserable, and I thought about turning around several times. But I stuck it out. Finally I made the turnaround past Ford Road, and was in the second to the right lane. But traffic was so heavy and people were driving like such assholes, I was forced to overshoot the entrance by a 100+ yards. I was able to cut through parking lots and make it in relative short order.

Shopping/Drive thru experience:
The drive thru people are always very pleasant and have yet to mess up my order. I ordered a combo meal, which included 3 tacos and a cheddar quesadilla (plain, I know, not living up to my Mexican heritage).

Eating experience:
Cheddar quesadillas are usually an 8, but this time it was about a 4-5. The amount of cheese on it has decreased each time I have been in there, and yesterday it was reminiscent of a Taco Bell quesadilla, which is garbage. The tacos as usual included real shredded cheese, unlike T-Bell, however, the presentation was lacking as the cheese was not very lovingly distributed throughout the taco. Once the cheese melted, this created the undesirable consequence of some of the taco being a cheese bounty and the rest being cheeseless.

The taco sauce comes in Hot and Mild, actually the hot as a different title that eludes me at the moment. Unfortunately, the hot is in a black package, and the mild in a red package, which is the opposite of what my intuition tells me is correct. Therefore, the first two tacos I ate were with mild sauce until I noticed the error in my ways.

Side note:
I have been to Del Taco 3-4 times in the past month, and it has grown on me everytime. This experience was well below par on most levels. I have changed my perspective on the place to recommending going there, at least for comparison sake. Also keep in mind that on the Fast Food rating scale, all things are compared to Jack in the Box, which I know is an unfair comparison. The number in the paranthesis is the rating I would give based on the work of the past month.

Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3 (5.5)
Shopping/Drive thru experience: 7.5 (8)
Eating Experience: 5 (7)
Intangibles: 6 (6)
Overall Rating: 5.5 (7)

Walmart Trip report

Background:
Yesterday I decided to pick up some new headphones (for my MP3 player) as my last ones had broken, and get a combination lock with the intention of getting rid of all excuses to not go to the gym. On the way home, Target (my intended destination) was not desirable due to traffic. I got off at Middlebelt with the intention of going to Target, but saw Walmart and decided to roll the dice. I tried not to let my expectations get in the way of honestly evaluating my shopping experience.

Parking/Entrance:
Very crowded, and I had to park pretty far back. Not a big deal as the weather was unseasonably warm, and there were actually cars in every spot, as opposed to randomly strewn shopping carts. Entering the store became the first real adventure. There was somebody about 5-10 yards in front of me, and they went through the automatic door. I proceeded to follow and the automatic door nearly closed on me. It literally got within inches of me, causing me to make a retarded jump backwards in order to avoid it. This must have looked rather silly to an observer as it looked like I had never seen an automatic door. This got my experience off to a poor start.

Shopping experience:
The store is dark (poorly lit), messy, and the signs are not very clear to tell you that you are in the right department. I expected the locks would be difficult to find, and they would have been if I hadn’t been lucky and guided by the force yesterday. I found exactly what I was looking for in a reasonable time. On to the headphones, found what I wanted, again pretty cheap, grabbed it off the shelf and it was already open….oops. Fortunately they had one more that was already sealed. I also made an impulse buy of a $5.00 hand AM/FM radio, to listen to at the Kentucky Derby, and the few times where I actually go to Sporting Events (if I so choose to listen). I suspect that if you were looking to purchase any items over $10, this is not the store to go to. If I were looking for any sales assistance I would have struck out like Labelle at a bar not named Kickers, as I never saw an employee in the sales aisles.

It should be noted that the experience would have been more pleasurable had an annoying black woman’s voice not been playing over the PA telling employees to move anything that didn’t belong in their area (of which there was a lot of) to the front of the store for organization.

Checkout experience:
Not very many lanes open, and they had some long lines. I found one at the far end titled “Speedy Checkout”, where I was 3rd in line. It was far from speedy, the scanner wouldn’t work to scan the 1st person’s prescription. Then the 2nd person required a price check on their Selsun Blue. By this point I was fed up with being there, and just paid cash, even though I intended to pay with my credit card.

Side note:
Near the corner of the store, they have a Subway. The décor is a very nice brick, well lit, looks like it belongs in Ford Field, and not a ghetto Walmart. No report on the dining at said Subway.

Overall ratings:
Parking/Entrance: 3.5
Shopping Experience: 6
Checkout Experience: 3
Intangibles: 2
Overall Rating: 4 (I expected a 1)

Party Acceler-8-tor bonus week 1

Week 1 results:
I earned 2500+ points, so with a target of 2000, I should get 20% over my bonus amount, meaning they should give me a $200 bonus for the week.

It's a good thing to, because I ran god-awful.

Cash Tables
30/60 (217 hands): +$438.50
20/40 (111 hands): +$117.50

Sit and Go's
$215's (79 played, 8 1st/8 2nd/8 3rds): +$215.00

Multi-table tourney's
$100's (2 played, 0 cashed): -$218.00

The sit and go results are the most disturbing. After getting off to a bangup start, I got my ass kicked the rest of the week. Some was due to bad play, but for the most part I ran awful. I can't even count the number of 2 and 3 outers hit on me. Normally with that many sit and go's I can expect to make about 2K. Oh well, hopefully next week I'll run really good and make 4K.

Week 1 results: +$533.00 (plus bonus money)

Latest tournament controversy

So it turns out JJProdigy, a prominent online player, won 140K on the big one on Party (I believe) this weekend. The thing is, JJProdigy actually finished somewhere out of the money, but then he won the tournament on his "grandma"'s account, after he took over for her. Apparently he stakes her and then took over for her in this instance. Is the Bush administration writing his responses to?? Does he think everyone is that stupid?

Basically he was playing in the same tournament with more than 1 entry. Not such a big deal until you consider the possibility of both players being on the same table at some point. Then collusion, chip dumping, cheating, sandwiching, etc....come into play.

There are a few posts on 2+2 saying he should lose the money, and I tend to agree. It turns out this practice is very widespread, and sending a message like this would definitely help reduce/eliminate this issue. If they do take the money, they should use this as an example of the consequences of cheating.

Now I don't have the time to e-mail the sites and basically start a crusade against this type of practice, I'll leave that to the people without real jobs, children, girlfriends, lives, etc....

My favorite quote about this practice came from a thread on 2+2. Here is the quote from a poster named Roman: "I personally have multiaccounted in a few tournaments in the past, however I realized this was a mistake and stopped. When I first started doing this, I FTed a 109r on 2 accounts and realized that even though I would never collude, this is a huge problem. It definitely damages the integrity of the game."

Huh???

So you made the final table with 2 accounts, yet would never collude???? Were you playing with split personalities? It would be impossible to not collude in this situation, even with the best of intentions. In the least you would know 2 of the hands at the table.

There is way too much money at stake for this type of thing to not be taken seriously. Otherwise the integrity of the game is ruined. Then all we have is the NFL.

A quick shout out....

....to my only loyal reader.

Happy Valentines Day babe!

The beats keep coming

It's hard not to get discouraged when you take a few bad ones in a row. These were the first two SNG's of the night for me.

SNG 1: Blinds 10/15, I limp KK UTG. MP raises to 60, everyone folds, and I decide to just call and check raise any non-ace flop. Flop comes Txx rainbow, I check, he bets 85. I raise to 250, and he moves all-in. I quickly call and he has JJ. The turn is immediately a J, and I am crippled to 30 chips and soon after am eliminated.

SNG 2: 5 players left, blinds are 100/200, I am in the BB with about 1500 chips and 99. UTG moves all-in (he has me covered). I think for a while and decide that I am ahead of his range of hands (put him on QQ-22, AK-A7, KQ, KJ, with a slight chance of AA or KK), and given my short stack position I call. He has 55. I can barely be happy long enough for a 5 to flop, and I am eliminated from that one.

The rest of the night wasn't as bad (though it was bad) and it set the tone. I played 13 SNG's for the night, with 1 win and 1 3rd. The win was in the last one of the night. Overall very ugly results. But I feel that I was playing pretty well, so I need to press on, as the luck will turn around.

The Nuts!!!

Maybe I missed the memo sent out to the entire poker community, because that's the only possible explanation I can come up with for why people are playing KQ like it's the nuts against me. It's generally an all-in battle involving my ace high, or my pair against their KQ, in which generally they are calling all-in bets that they don't have the pot odds to make. It wouldn't bother me so much if not for the fact that they were hitting them far too often.

I got a pretty good Party VIP offer, so I am focused on getting the required amount of points for my bonus, and plan on doing it for as many of the 8 weeks as possible. 95% of my play has been multi-tabling the 200 SNG's. Made a decent profit, but I feel like it's been a tough week. I've had far too many loss with dominating hands. The worst of which was when I got all-in heads-up to win it with AQ against QT on a Q52 flop. The river T did me in. I'll update these results after Tuesday night's play, when the VIP "week" ends.

I've made back about half of the money I lost on the Superbowl. It feels good to get some of that back this fast, as it was a bankroll setback.

Looking forward to a big, but brief night of SNG'ing tonight.

Super Bowl thoughts

First and foremost I got whitewashed, basically every bet I made lost, which was ugly because I took a lot of proposition bets.

But that game was an absolute abomination, a travesty, a hijacking. The referees did everything they possibly could to make sure Pittsburgh won, from phantom or questionable interference calls, invented penalties to questionable goalline decisions. Several of the decisions were made very late also, in a manner that can only be construed as questionable.

I basically felt like I was watching something scripted, like wrestling. The officiating in the playoffs was horrendous all playoffs, starting with the Polamalu INT that was overturned against Indy, and culminating in the debacle of the Super Bowl. As a Seattle fan, I would be incensed, and as a Pittsburgh fan I would be embarrassed that my team won in that manner. The MVP was Hines Ward, but the entire officiating crew should have gotten it. Seattle dominated the game from start to finish, and save for 3 Pitt plays that totaled 150+ yards, they could have been shut out.

The entire fiasco leaves a very bad taste in my mouth about the NFL. I have never been one to believe in conspiracy theories, but this game really makes one question their beliefs. I hope that the fallout from this forces the NFL (or somebody/something else) to investigate the officiating, and take a hard look at the entire system. The worst thing that can happen is have people give up on this and forget about it. Without the integrity of the officiating, the game becomes nothing more than wrestling. But then again, maybe scripted finishes that satisfy the majority of fans are exactly what the NFL wants....

Another summary post

It’s very tough to update a blog when real life happens…a few random things.

Poker: After some slight losses, I decided that my SNG game had slipped in the past month, probably a result of playing too many multi-table tournaments, and trying to get creative with speculative hands. Since SNG’s are my bread and butter, I decided I better get back to basics. To do that, I started 4-tabling the Party 215’s, with some nice success. I was really rolling along when “Real Life #1” (see below) happened. Still turned a nice profit over a few days.

Real Life #1: Got food poisoning Monday night. I theorize that it came from some lunch meat that might have sat out too long after Abby’s birthday party. I ate it two days after the party. In any case, I was violently ill for about 24 hours.

Real Life #2: Turned 30 last Sunday. Doesn’t feel markedly different, age is just a number. I like to joke about being an old man, but it really is no big deal. Went to the bar to celebrate with a bunch of people. Good times. My GF took me to a great dinner and a comedy club on Sunday as well. Going out again this weekend to close out my “birthday week”.

Real Life #3: Had Abby’s 2nd b-day party this weekend. Really fun watching her open presents, eat cake, etc… She is so damn smart and growing up so fast it’s killing me. At the same time, she’s stepping into her terrible two’s, and can be very headstrong at times. I’m just trying to take it all in stride and not get frustrated, because usually that makes things worse. You just need to change your approach when dealing with a hysterical child. Turn their attention to something else, and their mood will likely change as well.

Sports: Been a very solid week in wagering, top to bottom. Makes up for my lack of success in the NFL playoffs. To build on that topic, I like Seattle +4. They should be the favorite in this game, by 1-3 points. Public perception has moved it to Pitt -4. Great value on this game, as I think the field favors the Seabags.

Random annoyance: I was watching basketball the other night, and the color commentator made a point, to which the play-by-play man said “I agree 110%.” Huh??? How is it possible to agree with someone any more than completely, let alone 10% more???

Adios.

Last few days in review

Been a few days since the last update.

Friday:
After work I got a hot stone massage. Very relaxing, highly recommend to anyone. And no, getting one is not gay. The masseuse said that my entire right side was very tight, except that my left ankle was tighter. I rationalize that my right side is my dominant side and my “mouse” side, and my left leg is my plant and jumping foot for basketball, which I played on Friday.

Played 4 multi-table tourney’s, and took losses in about every way I could, including bad beats and bad play. Made some cash back at 30/60 though.

Saturday:
Drove to Grand Rapids to visit my buddy and play a 21 man tourney, $20 buy-in. Terrible play, but I couldn’t catch anything. Most of the players were unbluffable too, so you had to show the best hand. My demise was when we were down to 2 tables, 10 total people, blinds were 50/100 and I was on the button with 825 left. Folds to me and I move all-in with A2o. The SB (one of the wives, bigger girl who took forever to call an all-in earlier with top 2 pair on a rainbow non-coordinated board) thinks for a while and says that she is making a bad call and calls. The BB folds. I think I’m way behind at this point and she turns over 86s???? Did she think I had 7 high? Inevitably a 6 hit on the river and I was out of the main tourney.

My buddy Mike wanted to play me heads-up, and was very sure he would beat me. I tend to pride myself on my heads up play, so I figured I would handle him. First game was for $20, and after he took an early lead, I out aggressived him and won. Later we played for $10 and I totally dominated him. Then somebody challenged me to a heads up battle for $100…I gladly avoided the $5 buy-in about to start, and played him. I lost game #1 when I got all-in with AA against 64 on a J632 board, when he hit a 5 on the river. I then won game 2 for $100, and also game 3 for $50. I also won a last longer bet in the main tourney with 2 of my buddies for $20 apiece, so when all was said and done I made about $80 for the trip.

Sunday:
Drove home and watched the football games. I thought Indy would roll the Steelers, boy was I wrong there. Somebody should have told the Colts the game started at 1pm and not 3pm. It was a disgrace the way the officiating tried to take the game away from the Steelers. Fortunately Vandershank missed and all was right with the world again.

In poker news, I pissed away about 1K on multi-tables, and a little more on SNG’s. Took a few bad beats, but for the most part, it was bad play. I wasn’t folding when I knew I was beat, and was basically making plays I knew I shouldn’t make. Basically telling me to take a break.

Monday:
Had my daughter tonight, she was adorable as usual. First night in her big girl bed at my house. She woke up a few times through the night yapping away, but I just told her to lay back down and she was fine.

Didn’t play any poker that night, but my girlfriend played a free-roll at school on Absolute Poker. Out of 396 entrants, she finished 4th for $25. At this point she may be the best player of the two of us. At least I can say that I taught her.

Tuesday:
Set up the cake and lunch for Abby’s birthday party on Saturday. Should be a small but fun get together. Played a little cash poker before bed, with a small profit.

Out of shape

Every Thursday is basketball night, so today I am a little bit sore. Played decent last night, but my shot was off (after last week being unable to miss). At least my team won every game. On the basketball court, my neglect to my own fitness has become more apparent. Aside from the overall lack of conditioning, I can tell that the few extra pounds I have put on since high school / college has taken away from my first step quickness and acceleration. This allows a new short term goal…to get back down to my “playing” weight of 175 lbs. That means I have to drop 11 lbs, which I hope won’t be all that difficult, with a little more activity mixed in with some “healthier” eating. By “healthier” I don’t necessarily mean healthy, I just mean less “unhealthy”.

What would a blog be without some reference to poker. I played one SNG last night, of the 1K variety last night on Party. There are a lot of regulars that play in those games, but I checked it out and noticed a lot of players I didn’t recognize, so I decided to join. 45 minutes later I had won the thing for a 4.5K payoff. I guess my read was right, as I didn’t suck out any to win that one.

The month of January isn’t even half over, but it’s shaping up to be one of my best months ever. Hopefully that can continue. I won’t be able to play any next weekend, with my daughters 2nd b-day and my 30th b-day, and I’m going up to Grand Rapids for my buddies friendly $25 game. More for the social function than the money, as I could make (or lose) far more money from the comfort of my own couch.

Taxes and Gambling

Just an example to show how dumb the tax laws are with respect to gambling (as I understand them):

Regular job: Earn 40K
Poker earnings: 10K
Other gambling losses: -5K

Net income is 45K, yet you have to pay state income taxes on the 40K + 10K, disregarding any losses. You are not allowed to net wins/losses, you must declare all wins, and then deduct all losses.

The other problem with this is that in many cases, you lose some of the standard deductions that you would normally get, when your adjusted gross income reaches a certain point.

Hopefully with the proliferation of online gaming, the tax laws are modified to actually make a little bit of sense in this regard.

I imagine that in the end the IRS is screwing themselves, as people who either don't understand or don't want to bother with an "unfair" system don't bother declaring anything.

For the record I do declare my gambling, as much as I disagree with the present system. Dealing with an unjust system sounds like a better alternative then (a) jail time - however unlikely, or (b) a large fine, penalties and interest.

2K buy-in SNG

Two nights ago I played a 500 buy-in Party Step 3 Higher, with the top 2 finishers earning 2K Step 4 Higher buyins. I was one of the lucky 2, and last night I played in the 2K SNG when I saw one filling up (they don't fill up often, I guess a lot of people don't like to risk 2K on an hour of poker).

Played pretty solid, as they normally play very tight, and before I knew it I was heads up. Winner gets 10K, 2nd place gets 5K. 2nd hand of heads up, I am at a 5800-4200 chip disadvantage, and in the BB for 300. SB completes (he hadn't done that all tourney), I have A9 so I decided to raise. I raise to 12oo and he immediately goes all-in. Being in all-in robot mode I called and he unsurpisingly showed me KK. I failed to improve and I was out...at least I got 5K for my trouble. Not bad off of a $500 investment.

I also played the $100 buy-in 35K guaranteed at 7pm on Party. I had built my stack up to about 2500+ a little more than an hour in, and we had lost more than half the field. I pick up AA in the BB. To make a long story short, I get it all-in pre-flop against KK, and wouldn't you know he flops a K. After the turn K I was drawing dead. So in tourney's that I can think of, my last 4 adventures with or against KK are as follows.

1) Full Tilt Sunday special, KK all-in preflop against AA...I lose most of my stack.
2) Full Tilt Sunday special KK all-in preflop against T9...I again lose most of my stack to a straight.
3) 2K buy-in SNG...A9 all-in preflop against KK....I am eliminated.
4) Party 35K guaranteed....AA all-in preflop against KK....2 Kings later I am eliminated.

No problem with incidents 1 and 3...but 2 and 4 smart. And if I am going to lose 2 and 4, at least let me suck out and win one of the others. Sigh, I realize it's a small sample size, just venting a little as a decent profit could have been a huge profit.

In football this weekend, I like the Colts to throttle the Steelers, they did it once before, and nothing has changed to make me think otherwise. The Pit defense just isn't good enough to slow them down. The only reason Pit made it past Cincy is because of Jon Kitna's 2nd half ineptitude.

Year in review

It’s been a long time since I updated this blog…way too long in fact, since an awful lot has happened since then.

So what’s new in life. First off, I have a new girlfriend now, her name is Victoria and she is absolutely wonderful. She is the most thoughtful girl that I have ever met, is wonderful to my daughter, Abby, and most importantly supports me in everything that I do. This mostly refers to poker, whether it be a trip to Vegas or an all-night tournament, she has been very supportive.

2006 REVIEW

So I basically wanted this to be a recap of the 2005 year, to analyze my game on all levels, and set some modest expectations for 2006.

I like to pride myself on playing all forms of poker (at least Hold’em, as my Omaha game sucks right now). I’ve been known to play limit, no-limit, sit and go tournaments, and multi-table tournaments, with success at all levels.

Cash Games

Last year around this time I was playing 3-4 tables at a time of the Party 15/30 game. A definite money maker, but I had been doing that for several months and started to get burned out on it. The up/down swings can be incredible for a game that was as aggressive as that. For the year, about 15% of my poker profits were derived from cash tables. This was very low because of some bad sessions, as well as lack of desire to play these levels. This year, I have dabbled in some 20/40 and 30/60, as well as a bit of 50/100. I am killing the 20/40 game lately, so I think if anything I will play that more than anything else.

As far as Limit Holdem, I don’t feel like I have any weaknesses. I am able to change gears very well between short handed and full table. I would like to improve my shorthanded game to be able to win more hands where I don’t catch a piece of the flop, but who wouldn’t. For the year I would like to improve my discipline in a few different areas. Firstly, improved table selection, and secondly, walking away from an unprofitable table instead of chasing losses.

As far as No Limit Holdem, I have had some very solid sessions at the cash tables, but feel that my game is very weak. I need to be able to get away from big pairs / overpairs when the evidence is starting to show that I am beaten. In tournaments this leak isn’t very costly, as you see more bluffing or raising with just top pair. This is an adjustment I need to make to my NL cash game.

Sit and Go tourneys

Sit and Go tourneys became my bread and butter last year. They accounted for over 50% of my profit for the year. I started at the 100 level, and spent at least half of the year at the 200 level, basically accounting for a huge amount of my profits. But the game got boring multi-tabling, and I looked to improve and move up. I eventually started playing the Pokerstars 500 games, which include several top players, including a few WSOP bracelet winners. I have more than held my own in that game, turning a nice profit. I have also been playing occasionally in the 1K step tourneys on Party, again with some success. As far as sit and go’s, I don’t see any glaring leaks. I would like to improve my bubble play even more, as that is where the money is really won or lost. My playbook used to involve playing ULTRA tight in the beginning, but I have sinced loosened up, even limping (and re-raising) big pairs early on. This has increased my variance, but it has also improved my game and made me more difficult to play (IMO). These sit and go’s are already the biggest online, so I would like to play many more of them and hopefully rack up the profit.

Multi-Table tourney's

The last category is multi-table tournaments. For at least the first half of the year, I didn’t play them at all. The prospect of having to be available for 6-8 hours in a row, with the chance of very little profit to show for it was not all that enticing. But as I started playing them more, I have become re-hooked. First I won a limit (of all things) tourney on Pokerstars for $4200 in June….then in November I won a NL tourney for $11K. In December I had several other scores of 1K and up, and made the money a large portion of the time. The closest I came to a huge score was one of the nightly tourney’s on Party, where I finished 9th out of 1200+, getting me 3700. First place was worth 51K, so I fell a bit short there. A lot of these fields are filled by satellites, and the caliber of player tends to be very weak. I think I am on the cusp of doing something really great in one of these, I just have to be patient as it is VERY tough to win a 3700 person tourney.

Improvements to my game need to come in picking my spots and opponents, especially in regards to re-steals. It would also help me if I was playing and focusing more on the game, as opposed to watching TV, betting on sports, etc….

This year I really would like to qualify/play in one big buy-in event. The ones to target would be the Ultimate Bet (Aruba) tourney, the Pokerstars Bahamas, or the WSOP (in order of preference). I won’t buy-in direct unless something life changing happens (like winning 100K).

Hopefully my game (and profit) takes the same leaps forward in 2006 that it did in 2005.

Some mistakes pay off

I haven't played much online poker lately, since about 2 weeks before the Kentucky Derby, but my fun at 20/40 during the Derby made me want to play some cash games. I login to Party/Empire poker and see they have added more 30/60 tables. 15/30 has been my primary cash game for about 6 months, but with the addition of all the new tables, I figure I can play 1-2 30/60 tables, as opposed to 4 15/30 tables.

Last night I played a brief session, and caught 4 of a kind on one hand from the big blind. While the next hand was being played, I looked at the hand history from the previous hand to see what my opponent had who called me on the river. As this was happening, the action came to me on the table. I accidentally clicked raise, which meant that I was three-betting, after 1 limper and a middle position raise. The BB called cold, the limper called, and the raiser called. My cards for the accident were T3 offsuit. The flop came AT4. I bet out, the BB raised me, all folded to me and I called. There was 480 in the pot at this point. The turn was a 5, and I checked to the BB, he bet, and I decided to call, getting 9-1 on my call. I was pretty sure I was behind, but I figured I had 4 sure outs with any 2, and my T was a likely out for 2 more outs, and the 3 was possibly an out, giving me a total of 7.5 outs (approximate). I called as my 6-1 odds were better than the pot odds. The river was a beautiful deuce, and I checkraised him on the river, for an $840 pot. He had AQ, meaning I did have 9 outs to win the pot.

As a side note, he was really pissed after the hand, and suffice it to say he put a note next to my name indicating that I 3-bet T3o from the SB.

Derby fever

Got back from the Kentucky Derby on Monday. A lot to write about since then.

Was in Cincy for work from Tuesday through Thursday last week, so I went straight from Cincy to Louisville. Doug drove down from Detroit and met me in Cincy and we drove the 2 hours to Louisville together in my rental car. Got in around 830pm and caught the end of Survivor, then Doug and I headed to Mickey D's for dinner and then the bar. We ended up at the same titty bar as last year. We figured we had time to kill until Paul arrived from North Carolina and Sonny arrived from Vegas, both around midnight. This titty bar had two seperate halves. One side was topless, but more like a sportsbar, and the other side was all nude and no alcohol. As much as we both love skank snatch, we spent a majority of our time at the sports bar side, although I ditched Doug whenever the fat chick came by looking for dollars. Doug got stuck giving her $8 or so throughout the night. This chick was disgustingly fat and had no business wearing a tight t-shirt, let alone being topless and in a thong. Absolutely disgusting. Anyways, Paul got in around 12am, and Sonny at 1am. We stayed there the rest of the night and got back around 4am.

Friday was Oaks day, I had some nice success on the Oaks a few years back, cashing the superfecta for $2 with a 20/1 shot in 1st. That got me 1600 that day. This Oaks day started out bad, I was really close to hitting some races, but just barely missing. This was encouraging considering I hadn't bet horses in nearly a year, and my handicapping felt like it was on. I was stuck about 750 going into the 9th race of the day, when I hit for about 700 on a superfecta. Unfortunately this required IRS forms to sign. The next race was the Oaks, and Sis City was a 3-5 favorite (a horse that Joe Torre is part owner of). Doug put a $300 win bet on her, even though I felt like she was extremely beatable. Turns out she ran 4th, and I cashed the trifecta with the longest shot on the board hitting 3rd!!! This again forced me to sign IRS forms, for a cash of about 850. Only one race was after that, and I ended up about 350 ahead for the afternoon.

That night my buddy Eric got into town for his first derby. We decided to drive to Indiana to go to the Caesars riverboat. After waiting for about 2 hours, a spot on the 20/40 table opened up, and Sonny got the next spot. We proceeded to spar for about 2 hours, and played several big pots. There was a lot of good poker going on, more than I can recall live in a while. It was the first time I felt like I could bluff in limit in a long time. I ended up ahead about 800 in poker. Sonny lost a bit more than that, as well as some at blackjack, Eric won at poker but got smoked at blackjack, and Doug lost at poker and at blackjack (notice a theme for Doug...this comes into play on Saturday night).

Saturday was derby day, and it was a rough morning on about 2 hours of sleep, but we were able to get up around 9am and get ready for the track. Doug decided not to go. He was stuck about 1800, and was throwing up in the morning. I thought he would suck it up and go, but he just laid back down. So apparently he came to Kentucky for the titties and the Oaks. I wasn't feeling much like betting, but when I hit the Superfecta in the 3rd race for another IRS ticket (about $800 more), it got me a little more interested. I lost for the next 7 races, including the derby, of which I had no chance to win. I placed bets for Mert and Dave, and their horses were nowhere close (Dave's finished 19th). I actually had the winner on some of my tickets, but the 70-1 2nd place horse was nowhere to be found. The race was such a fluke, with such a blistering early pace that it set up perfectly for the winner. I see very little chance of Giacomo winning the Preakness, but I think many others feel the same way. Going into the last race I was about even for the day, and had a 5-1 shot I really liked. I ended up putting 140 on him to win, and he won in a photo. Following that, the 2nd placer objected to the finish, saying that my horse interfered with him in the stretch. It turns out their was interference, but it was caused by a 3rd horse, so the objection was not allowed. Sonny and Paul caught the trifecta that raise, so it turned out to be a good finish. I ended up +500 on the day.

Saturday night we were exhausted, but found the energy to see some more titties. Went to a dirty place by our hotel, that only had 5 dancers, and left after one beer. Then we went to a new place, that Eric had been to before. I ended up talking to the waitress and paid for Doug to get on stage. They announced him as "The biggest f*cking loser at the Derby." They stripped him down to his boxers, and then whipped his bare ass with his belt. The lashes sounded like they hurt, but as far as I'm concerned, he deserved it for ditching the Derby.

Good time was had by all, I ended up around 1500 or so for the trip, call it 1000 after the money I blew on hotel, beer, strippers, etc....