It's Friday! It's Friday

That's my anthem.....I love Friday's.

The plan for this weekend is poker and lots of it. I really want to start taking some bigger shots especially after reading about these 22 and 23 year olds who have been making the big scores on Pokerstars lately (SenorBeef and AustinKearns). Man could I use one of those nice payday! I am just not sure that my bankroll can handle that yet......

I have just continued grinding it out on Party and Pokerroom this week. Not much to be excited about. Last night, I played in the $33 multi on Party and finished 60th out of >1100 people for abotu $115. I also finished 5th out of 265 in a $11 tourney on Pokerroom for a return of $172.

Old habits are hard to kick

First of all, this past week has been a good week for poker.  I ended the week up close to $1200.  Of course, most of that came from my third place finish in the PokerRoom tourney.  But I also had two first place finish in Party's 3 table sit and go.  All in all though, I didn't really play much poker.  In fact, I didn't play any poker at all over the weekend.  I was so looking forward to hitting the tables this weekend and play in some of the higher buy-in tourneys thanks to my success earlier in the week.  Looking back on it, I wish I would have.  Just finished reading Iggy's post and it appears that it was a feeding frenzy this past weekend at Party.

Now here comes the depressing news....how I spent my weekend.  I was talked into going to Biloxi for a gambling excursion.  Since I don't play cash game poker and they didn't have any tourneys running, I reverted back to my old habits of playing blackjack and craps.  When it was all said and done, I dropped over $500.  Suffice to say that I am not making any such trip again in the near future!!

Near Hit

I am operating on fumes this morning.  I played in Poker Room's guaranteed $10K tournament last night and it didn't end until well after 2:30 in the morning Eastern time.  The good news is that if I was still playing at 2:30....it must mean that I did alright.  The positive side is that I did finally make a final table....the bad news is that I didn't take first place.
 
I am certainly not complaining about my 3rd place finish and $972 prize, but I had every opportunity to win that tourney last night.  When we got down to 4 players, I experienced a connection problem with my internet with the blinds at 6000/12000.  I actually had to reboot my computer in order to get back to the tournament.  Fortunately this happened near a break so I didn't get completely blinded off.  When I came back, I had lost about 1/3 of my stack and was down to $100,000.  However, i got a good run of cards to eliminate another player and was the chip leader with a chip count close to 500K/250K/100K.  I told myself that I will try to avoid confrontations but the cards just kept hitting me so I had to play my hands. 
 
I lost the chip lead when my opponent hit a miracle river card....but I couldn't complain since I had my fair share of river miracles in the tourney.  I was soon eliminated in third place....couldn't sleep for another hour because I kept replaying those last few hands and what went wrong.  It was definitely a bitter sweet finish.
 
So this week has the making of the exact opposite of last week.  Instead of starting in a huge hole, I am now close to the 1K mark for the week.   Hopefully the momemtum will carry throughout the week!

Red Week

Well this week has been all about fighting uphill.  I was out sick from work on Monday.  Rather than do the logical thing and getting some rest, I decided to fire up Party Poker and spend my day playing 3 table sit and go.  Maybe it was the physical state that I was in or just the fact that there are better players on during the day, but I really got slaughtered.  I don't think I moneyed in a single tourney.  I ended the day losing well over $200.
 
The rest of the week didn't treat me much better.  None of my draws got home and it seemed that I got rivered more than I care to recount.  Sometimes, you just have to smile and continue playing your game to get through the slump.  I knew there would be days and weeks like these.
I woke up on Sunday and my account was $450 lighter than it was at the start of the week.  I gave some serious thoughts to packing it in for the week but that just wasn't my style.
 
I ended up winning some of my money back and ended in the red $280 for the week.  A little better but I can't continue having that type of week if I want to play this game long-term.
 
What I really need to do is win another multi tournament.  I haven't achieved that feat in over 2 months.  Haven't even made a final table as a matter of fact....

Reversal of form

In my last post, I went on and on about how well I have been doing in the Party Poker multi table sit and go.  I think I should have just kept my mouth shut.  This week, I have yet to money in any of the eight that I have played.  Last night, I played 2 and came in 6th place in both of them.  How frustrating is that!  Both time, I was near the chip lead and just decided to play passive to coast into the money before making any coin-flip decisions.  That cost me since I wasn't able to outlast the other 5 players before I got blinded away.
 
The only saving grace yesterday was that I also played in 4 $22 single table sit and go.  I managed to finish 3, 1, 1, and 4 on them.  Viva party!

Week ending July 11 in recap

I keep track of my poker session using an Excel spreadsheet developed by a fellow blogger by the name of Chicago Phil. If you are serious about playing poker, you should definitely keep track of the games, limits, and time that you play with profit and loss. This should allow you to spot trends to let you know which games you are most profitable so you can capitalize on that knowledge. Go to Chicago Phil's blog right now and download one if you haven't done so alrealdy...I really like his format.

I treat my poker playing as a second job so I like to see how I did for the previous week. I treat Sunday as the last day of the week. For the week ending Sunday July 11, I made $163 playing poker. Taking a little closer look at the spreadsheet, I see that I made a $431 profit playing the multi-table sit and go (2 first and a third). I lost $160 on single table sit and go and I lost another $108 on multi tournaments and satellites. Not a great week but it sure beats a losing week. Maybe I'll concentrate more on the multi sit and go this week as that's where I have been posting my best results.

A long night

After spending more than two weeks on vacation with the wedding, this was a long week at work. Good thing it was a shortened week with the 4th of July holiday on Monday. Anyways, I had spending most of my time this week playing the multi table sit and go on Party. I cashed a first on one of them but failed to money in about 5 other ones so I am still up a little but not much.

When I got home Friday night, the wife had cooked a very nice dinner for us. I decided that I was not going to play any poker tonight. We rented 50 First Dates and it turned out to be a decent movie. After the movie was over, we went to bed, but after about a hour or so, I just couldn't fall asleep. So I did the only logical thing, I logged onto Party to see if there was any good tourneys starting soon. I decided to play in the $10 multi satellite for a seat Saturday's 200K tournament.

300 people signed up and they gave 12 seats and some chump change for place 13-15. At about 5:00 in the morning, I was still at the table, we got down to 13 people left and only needed one more to get eliminated to get seats. I was short-stacked but there were at least 3 other players with smaller stacks than me. I could have folded every hand and probably gotten a seat. When I got dealt KK, I pushed my whole stack in. Not sure why....maybe it was instinct. Either way, the big stack at the table called me with a K9. The flop brings a 9 and the river 9 seals my fate. Bubble boy, once again! I played 3 1/2 hours to get $60 for coming in 13th. Unreal!

I am back!

Seems like it has been forever since I last posted but I guess it's only been a little over 2 weeks. After 3 1/2 months of wedding planning and 2 receptions in 2 different cities (Atlanta and Albany, NY), we were able to pull it off. Let me tell you that our week of honeymoon in Marco Island, Florida was well deserved and much needed.

Not much poker content to talk about since my last post. Actually, I did end up playing in a live tourney in Atlantic City. In between the reception, we drove to NY and stopped at the Taj Mahal. They had a $65 freeze-out tourney on Monday night. After ponying up the money, the tourney started about 30 minutes after the scheduled start time. There were 177 entrants and first place paid closeto $3400. 17 other places paid.

We each started with 5000 in tournament chips. Less than 10 hands into the tourney, I was dealt AQ suited in late position. I called a standard 3X raise and I was heads up against the raiser. Flop came Q-5-7. He bets into me for 500. I decided to smooth call the bet. Turn came up a blank and this time he bets 1000. I think I should have either raised him here to see where I was or fold. Instead, I mindlessly call again. The river brings the 5. This time, he feigns weakness and checks. I fall right into the trap and bet 1500. He can't get his money into the pot fast enough and turns over QQ for the full house over my two pairs. The only thing that I can't figure out is why he didn't reraise me for the rest of my chips because he had the absolute nut unless I was holding 55 for quads.

Anyway that hand crippled me badly and I was under 2000 chips less than 15 minutes into the tourney. It was now survival mode for me. Our table was the first to break and I got moved into a fairly aggresive table. Sometimes into the third level, I pick up AA and manage to get my stack back to about T3000. Blinds slowly ate at my stack until I get to about T1800 and I find pocket fives in the big blind. Blinds were at 150-300 and there were a couple of limpers already in the pot. I decide to push in. One guy thinks really hard and decides to call. He flips over pocket fours. My hand hold up and I double through. I am not quite sure how but I made it to the first break and there less than 100 of us left. When we came back from break, the blinds were at 300-600 with an ante. I knew that with my short-stack, I had to make a move soon. When I found A6 suited in the big blind, I go for it. Only one other person in the pot calls with pocket twos. Flop comes with a 6 but also has a deuce and my tourney is over.

I had fun but wish I didn't get cripple so early so that I could have played more hands. Oh well, it was a learning experience and I was just grateful that my new bride went along with our little detour to Atlantic City amidst the hustle and bustle of the wedding receptions.

Now that I am back home and getting adjusted to married life, I plan on getting into a more regular routine with posting and online play. See you at the tables!