The Poker Bookie

A journal dedicated to my exploits into Poker, Sports Betting, and Thoroughbred Racing

Name:
Location: Bloomington, Illinois, United States

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Phil Ivey Plays on FullTILT

Not a bad day yesterday -

Fulltilt $50+5 MTT - 4th place - $478.50
Ultimate Bet $40 +4 MTT - 4th place - $601.80
Fulltilt $100 +9 MTT with Phil Ivey - busted out before the money.

play online poker
Play Online Poker

Monday, August 22, 2005

Back Home

I can't believe the week long vacation is now over.

On Saturday, we left Albany and went to Foxwoods Casino to meet up with my wife's roommate from college and her husband. Foxwoods is like 3 casinos in one. It is absolutely amazing. You could spend a week there and not see/do everything. There poker room is also huge. Unfortunately, there were not running any tournaments on the weekend...just some ACT I and ACT II satellites for coupons into ACT III and a WPT event. I asked around to see if I could play the satellites and sell my coupons if I win since I had no intentions of coming back for ACT III. The general consensus was that it would be more trouble than it was worth so off to the blackjack tables we went.

Net profit from blackjack: Me - $0 Wife - $300 HOORAY!!

We had dinner at the Han Garden. Not my thing, but I lived (can you tell I am not a fan of Chinese food?).

The drive back from Connecticut was a little over 14 hours. Today I am just relaxing and playing a couple of tournaments on Full Tilt Poker. It's back to work tomorrow. Fun stuff!

Next trip: Destin, Florida on Labor Day weekend.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Saratoga Horse

Quick update before I head off to the track:

Came in fifth last night in FullTilt's $109 MTT for a payday of $544.

Couple of horses for you today at Saratoga:

7th race - Exchange Bay
8th - My Typhoon

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Turning Stone Trip Report

We made the drive over to Turning Stone casino on Sunday afternoon. It was a little less than 2 hours from Albany. I had previously made reservations through the poker room and was able to secure the room at the special rate of $75. As we were standing in line to check in, I could overhear the receptionist quoting the room rate as $168 to the people in front of us. I felt like a winner already.

We got one of the suite in their newly built Tower Hotel. I must say that I was very impressed. The room was very clean and everything about it was top notch. After settling in, we decided to go downstairs for dinner. As we were walking past the Craps table, I decided to give it a roll to see if I could win the money for dinner. What a great decision that was. I had a nice little run for a $250 profit. Dinner paid for!

We ate at the Forest Grille and both had the filet mignon. The food was excellent and well worth the $120 bill. The only complaint/drawback was that we didn't realize that we were on a dry Indian reservation which meant that we were not able to enjoy some drinks with our meals.

After dinner, I went to try to pre-register for Monday's tournament but they had stopped pre-registering and I would have to do it the next day prior to the start of the tournament. They did tell me that 200 people have already registered and that they would take an additional 100 on Monday. So we decided to spend the rest of the night playing blackjack. I gave back some of my winnings from the craps table earlier but still ended up a winner for the night.

Monday morning, I got up at 7:00 to be one of the first in line when the tournament registration starts at 8:00. I had no trouble registering and paid my $230 entry fee. The tournament was not scheduled to start into 10:00 that morning so I had time to go back up to the room and wake up the wife to go have breakfast.

Of course the tournament didn't start on time. Finally about 10:30, we got started. The structure was not bad. We each started with $2500 chips and blinds were 25-50 with 30 minutes round. A total of 294 people entered with top 25 getting paid. First place money was a little over $16k. I was in the SB on the very first hand and got dealt 45 offsuit. It was a community pot and I just completed the bet. I flopped 2 pairs and won a nice little pot.

I didn't play any big pots and managed to get my chip count up to about $4000 at one point but lost about half of it before the break. After 3 levels, we got a 30 minutes break. There must have been about 200 people left at this point. After we got back from the break, the blinds were at 75-150 and i had exactly $2000 left. I got dealt AQ unsuited and made it $500 to go. It folds around to the button who has me slightly covered and he announces that he is all-in. I think about it for 30 seconds and just felt like he had AK. I think I would have probably called even if I knew that he had a small pocket pair and gambled. However, he would have me dominated with his AK and I would have been in bad shape. I grudgingly fold and wait for a better spot, but now I am in a world of trouble with only $1500 left. Two hands later, I look down and see cowboys. Bells start to go off in my head and I am so proud of folding my AQ earlier.

This time, I make it $400 to go and I get one caller. He is one of the chip leader at the table. The flop comes down rag-rag-J. I check my hand and the other guy bets out $400. I instantly reraise all-in. I turn over my Kings, but I am devastated when he turns over his Jacks for the flopped set. The turn and river was no help and I am out of the tourney.

I entered a $59 single table shootout tournament to win $500 in tournament lammers. After an hour and a half of play, we got heads up but I was a 2-1 chip underdog. The guy offers me a deal to take $200 in cash. I figure that it was a pretty good deal since I wouldn't have to deal with trying to resell the tournament lammers even if I won. I took the deal.

My wife could tell that I was upset from busting out of the tournament and she asked me if I wanted to extend our stay for one day so I can play more single table shootouts. I am not sure how I got so lucky when I married her.

Surreal moment of the trip: Monday night, we were watching the $30-6o game while I was waiting for my name to be called. There was a lot of jawing going on and you could just feel the intensity. The pots were huge. On one particular hand, this guy raised every street with his AJ on a rags board. After the final card is dealt, the other guy slow rolls him with the straight. Initial raiser turns beet red and starts blurting out F bombs. The next thing you know he comes flying across the table and cold decks the other guy. It takes 4 or 5 security/casino personnel to seperate them. My wife looks at me and asks me if we are on the set of TILT. I have never witnessed anything like that. Poker is definitely a contact sport.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

FullTilt Has Been Good to Me

I am currently blogging from Saratoga. New York. I went to the Spa yesterday and had a break even day at the track. Tonight I am heading over to Turning Stone to play in the Empire State Hold'em Championship tomorrow.

play online poker
Play Online Poker

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Not a bad start to the week

Monday - The streak continues. Cashed out for a little under 2K in the 8:00 PM $109 MTT. I wish I could play these every nights but they end too late for me and my sleep has been suffering so I'll take it easy the next couple of days.

Thanks to all the railbirds and well-wishers!

Monday, August 08, 2005

Super Sunday and Week in Recap

Boy was Sunday a long day! I just wish it had been a little longer. :)

After waking up and eating breakfast, I logged into Pokerstars around 11:00 AM. I told myself that i was going to play in the $500,000 guaranteed tourney but I didn't want to buy in directly. I had 3 shots to win a seat in their $11 rebuys turbo (12:30, 1:30, and 2:30). I got warmed up by playing a couple of sit and goes on Bodog.

In my 12:30 satellite, I busted shortly after the add-on break. However, in the next satellite, I finally won my seat to the big tourney at 4:30. So I invested a total of $62 for my $215 seat. I always take an immediate rebuy and an add-on in these things.

I couldn't believe how many people signed up for the 500K. There were over 3400 players and the top 324 was going to get paid with first place taking about 138K, i think. I got some chips early in the tourney and tried to stay out of trouble. At one point, Mike "the Grinder" Mizrachi was moved to my immediate left. Luckily, he was shortstacked and didn't create a lot of problems for me. It's amazing how fast the blinds go up in these things. At one point, I was in 20th place but I went card dead and busted in 218th place. That was good for a $476 payday.

Now on to the good stuff. I have been torrid in the Full Tilt MTT this past week so I decided to buy into the $216 35K guaranteed tournament. It was kind of a last minute impulse decision because I was doing so well in the Pokerstars tournament. I am sure glad I did.
I played at the same table as Jennicide and she was very pleasant....not what I would have expected from the posts about her in the various poker forums. I finished the tournament in 5th place and a score of $3750. This is my biggest cash to date in a MTT.

Total for the week: + $5500.

Let's hope the streak continues.....

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Make it 4

Made another final table on FullTilt in the $109 MTT. I finished 6th when I had to push with a marginal hand because blinds were just too high for my stack. I think the payout was a little over $400.
I came back last night and entered the $163 MTT. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Aaron Bartley was also in this tournament but I was never seated at their tables. I never really got any chips in this tourney but made it down to 13th place. Unfortunately only top 9 paid so it was a good waste of a couple of hours.
Today I am planning on playing the Stars $500,000 guaranteed tournament. I have been running good this week and due to cash in one of these tournaments.

Several people have asked me for the first football play of the season. Tomorrow, I am taking Miami plus the 3 points. Remember that it is still the preseason....keep things in perspective!

I am Beatbookie on Stars if you want to come sweat me.

Friday, August 05, 2005

3 in a week

Three final tables this week alone on Fulltilt. However the only win came last night in the $4000 guaranteed. When it got heads-up, I was a 3-1 chip underdog but fought my way to a win and a $1824 payday. Not bad for 4.5 hours of work.

What has impressed me more this week is how well the wife has been doing. She is becoming quite the tough SNG player. She is up over $300 this week playing the $16 turbo SNG on Pokerstars. Her screen name is PokerEscape. Stop by and say hello if you see her.....just make sure you don't sit down at the table because she will clean you out quick!

Good luck this weekend.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

I am back

Wow! I can't believe it has been close to 3 months since I have posted in this journal.

I doubt that I have many readers left, but let's get it crank up again just in time for football season. I am going to be putting up some free sports picks for those that like to bet on sports in addition to playing poker.

Since it has been awhile, I am just going to briefly recap the past few months:
  • Cashed for a little over $1200 in a UltimateBet $40 MTT
  • Had a nice run playing SNGs on Bodog.
  • Played in a couple of the Stars big Sunday tourneys but no cash
  • Went through a two weeks period when I could really relate to the idiots on Recpoker who thinks that online poker is rigged...I was constantly one or two outed on the river.

All in all, life has still been good. I am leaving next Friday for a week vacation in Saratoga, NY. I hope to play in a couple tournaments at Turning Stone Casino. They happen to be running the Empire State Hold'em Championship. It will be nice to take a break from the laptop and hold some real cards. Besides that, you will find me at Saratoga racetrack betting on the ponies.

Who knows I may even log on and post a few winners. Good luck at the table!