January Recap

Results for January did not end up where I wanted it. Yes I had a big $3400 score on Mansion, but thats about it. Below are my highlights for the month:

• 1 for 10 in Mansion $100ks
• 30% ITM rate for MTTs. All other cashes were pretty minor.
• 30% ITM rate for SNGs
• Negative for cash games for the month playing 1/2NL, 2/4-5/10L. Ahead if I include bonus and rakeback
• Made almost $400 on casinos
• 0% satellite efficiency. Odd, I thought I was good at those. 0 for 5 I think.

Final January profit = $3,200

The recap is a day early but I'm not going to play tonight. Look out for a big update on my poker tracker excel version tomorrow. A lot of ideas popped up during my last few sleeps so I figure I'll do some work and implement them tomorrow.

Costa Rica pics

I spent the first 3 nights in jail.

More pics coming....

Sun > Snow

Costa Rica was awesome! Just got back yesterday from 30deg weather to -10, sweet...

Everyday but the first was 30deg, sunny, no humidity. The first couple of nights we stayed at some ranch in the national park. There we did the forest hike, horseback riding, canopy tours (zip line adventure), tubing, and the mud bath. The hike was dissappointing, 2 hours and not much viewing in terms of wildlife. The best part of that was swimming in a frigid waterfall, scenery was unbelievable. Mudbath/hot springs was a complete waste of time. Horseback riding didn't hurt as much as I thought it would (per the boys) though it wasn't too exciting. The canopy tours was amazing. It was more than just a couple of zip lines, there were numerous! In addition there was a wall climb, tarzan swing, freefall drop, in was a whole adventure! Tubing was a blast as well. Bouncing off rocks in white water rapids, I even wiped out once.

The rest of the vacation we relaxed at a 5star resort. A mixture of on the beach and on the pool. Did some snorkeling, jet skiing, and drank a lot of fruity drinks.

Shitty part of the trip was when our plane for our return trip decides to crap out. Makes an emergency landing in Cancun, tries again and fails. We were at the airport at 11am and sent back to our respective hotels at 5pm. Would have been good if it was still early but pretty much all we got was another night's sleep and free dinner and drinks. Had to wake up at 4am the next day.

I'll post some pictures later.
Make Costa Rica an option for your next vacation, well worth it!!


So WTF happened when I was gone?

• Neteller no longer deals with US players
• US players waiting >1 week for their cheques
• Booya Poker shuts down
• Mansion changes time of its $100k guaranteed, plus no deposit options for us players

Anything else?

Off to Costa Rica!

Heading out to Costa Rica tomorrow. A week of jungle adventures, rafting, zipping, tubing, climbing, and much needed r&r.

One of you better take down a Mansion $100k while I'm gone!

See ya next week.

Mansion no chokage!

Finally cashed in on a mansion $100k after going 0 fo 5 previously. Just scored my biggest tourney cashing to date



I started off with a different gameplan heading in. Wanted to go back to small ball poker as I felt I was playing too big too often. Well it worked for a while as I got up to 3500 pretty early. But then I got into trouble with a smaller stack when AK (trips) ran into a set->fullhouse. At that point I pretty much played for all my chips. Did a lot of allin stealing, and finally doubled up on Q9 vs Ax. From then on I played solid, but not too overly aggressive poker. I guess Harrington style.

Once I caught up to MathP, we swapped 10% of each other. Didn't know he was playing, and when I did see him earlier right when I was going to ask him to swap, I lost my chips. But when I caught up again, it worked out fine. Railing each other I think was essential. We pretty much kept leapfrogging each other until the end. I honestly don't think we might have made it that far without each other giving notes on each player, play analysis, and just making sure we didn't do anything stupid. We ended up never playing on the same table as eachother, and he finished a very good 10th place, just shy of the final table. He made a self admitted mistake in raising allin with a decent stack with AT against the chip leader, who just happened to have AQ. Though based on chip sizes, I think that AQ is the absolute lowest ranking holding that he should have called with, if he didn't put him on an outright steal.

The final table was pretty much a crapshoot. Only 3/9 had an M above 5. The payouts were nice but I played for at least 7 as the payout jumped from 1600->2400->3400 from 9th to 7th. Several allins from players, no big suckouts. Had AK one time where I only won blinds. Was pretty much no flops, all action preflop. I got outed when short stack went allin in EQ. I had him covered by 20k (blinds were 6000/12000 600ante I think) with 80k+ holding 99 so I pushed. Chip leader thinks and then calls with JT. EP flips over QQ. Flop is J78. No 10 on river or turn so i'm out.

I'm happy with my play, though I played a lot more patient game. I still need to add some aggression IMO. One play that stood out, I think 2 tables left, aggressive cutoff raises, and I'm holding 66. He has me barely covered. I couldn't bring myself to pushing back, though even now I think I should have. Another play was I raised with AQ in EP. Big stack SB calls. Flop is 777. He leads out with a 3/4 bet. I think I could have portrayed a big pair there, but I chickened out. This was again with 2 tables left. The thrill of making the final table turned me into a chicken. Not enough practice during late tournies and the excitement of making a bit more money, though nice, is keeping me from winning a big one!

Play Mansion, it is good for you!

Forgot to mention, I dropped almost $800 earlier in one session 1/2 on Inter. Made $200 back later, but this helps!!!

2007 Goals and 2006 Recap

Now that I've recovered from some new year's partying, here's my 06 recap / 07 goal post.

2006 Goals
1) Average $2.5k per month (poker/casino) = $30k for the year
Failed. Ended the year at just under $20k, about the same as last year. This year I did less bonus whoring though, so most of the $ made was actual winnings. I think I actually played less this year, especially cash games. A lot of time was also spent trying to qualify for Goal #2.
2) Qualify for the WSOP Main Event
Pass. Woohoo!
3) Qualify for a WPT tourney or another major event
Pass. Not a $10k WPT event, but a $1k CPT event should count.
4) Win a tourney with a min payout of $2k.
Failed I had a few $1k payouts this year, but my biggest was still $1.5k. Very disappointed here.

Synopsis: Not the result I expected from 2006, but I can't be upset with my results. My cash games, especially the short handed variety, has improved. I've moved up to 200NL, I was primarily a limit and 25/50NL bonus whoring player before. I know my tournament game has definately improved. I'm still haunted everyday about my near miss for the Titan Rio Jackpot ($70k) after coming sooo close. I hit that and I'm sure I would have had a $100k year. My biggest achievement easily was qualifying for the WSOP main event. I had a blast and its a chance in a lifetime for the casual player.

2007 Goals

1) Better tracking. I was going to make my own tracking spreadsheet, but I a am pretty lazy. Plus I downloaded Jester's Poker Tracker Excel version that looks fine.

2) $ Amount. I'm not going to set a $ amount goal this year. I'll express it this way. Cash games I want to move up to $1000NL by the end of the year. I'm ready to play $400NL now anyways so its only 1 more step higher. Limit I'll stick with 5/10. Don't really want to play higher yet. Tournament goals below.

3) Qualify for another major event. WSOP/WPT/CPT. Due to vacation time, I don't think I'll be able to take that much time off work. So no week long ones such as Aruba, Atlantis, WPS, Aussie. WSOP will be tough. I need more vacation time, or just go pro.

4) Tournament Cash winnings. First goal is to get to $2k, then take home $5k, then $10k+. Going to try and play at least 1 $50+ tourney a week. Will continue to improve my tourney skills. Maybe rejoin pokerxfactor, though I probably won't have time to watch the videos again.

5) Omaha/Horse. Learn and get better. Seems like more and more players are enjoying Horse games. I might as well join in the fun. I guess I'm an average Omaha/hi or lo player, I know I have a lot of room to improve though. Maybe I'll buy a book. Dammit just thought of a new goal.

6) Read. I have books galore that I have yet to read or finish yet. I need to goto jail or something. Need reading time.

7) More Live Poker. Port Perry is only 45mins away. Fallsview/Niagara/Brantford are only 1.5hrs away. Yet I don't play much live poker at casinos. I should. Plus more home games as well. Maybe hit some undergrounds.

Synopsis: I pretty much want to be a great poker player. I want to know for sure that if for some reason I became unemployed, I won't give a damn. Becoming a professional poker player definately has its pluses and minuses, but first things first, I wan't to be able to know without a doubt that I have that option. I dont' think that made sense, bleh. As I watch a fellow casino whore, hit21hit, go from casino whore to ranked tournament player, I figure I can do the same thing. Just have to learn from my mistakes, continue to study, and work hard. Wow school all over again, except its fun!