Finally Caught my Monster

After 15 tries, finally qualifed for the Party Poker Weekly $100k Monster. I can't remember the last time I've done so poorly (result wise). I think I'm playing fine, its just I'm playing too many of these speed $5+1 were it can be luckfests. I actually won 2 times, but realized afterwards when trying to register for the monster that I had just won a regular sng. Might go back to $20 ones for this promo, as the low levels can get frustrating.

and congratulations to Jamie Gold for winning the 2006 World Series of Poker. $12 million, unlimited sponsorship, and a sick bracelet.

Monster Hunter

Not much poker play lately. Went to Ottawa over the long weekend for a wedding. The only poker play I've done has been chasing the Party Poker Monster. Man I can't win a SNG. I think I'm 0fer7, with 2 headsup losses. I don't think I'm playing bad either, favourite (most of the time heavy) going in, loser coming out. Its been a while since I've gone 7 SNGs without a win. Mostly speed ones, I might go back to normal ones. I joined a holdem one by mistake, should have won that but I laid down a top pair + 4 high flush draw. Would have been good by the river, oh well.

On the Casino front, still doing the InterCasino reload. So far so good, can't believe the millionaires jackpot hasn't hit yet. 3.8 million. Dash Casino was in and out, i don't know how Omenic keeps winning those slots. Haven't hit a good scatter in a long time.

Doyle's room has also opened up qualifiers for the WPT Niagara.

WSOP: The dream is over

After an anxiety filled morning, I finally got started off with my event. Seated with 5 other internet qualifiers (at least) and a no show. No show turned out to be Robert Williamson III. Great guy, chatted it up with all of us. In fact the whole table was pretty good. Had one loose calling station get knocked out by the first break or so. Never had any hands to take advantage of him though. 3rd hand in the tourney I held KK, only to be halted by a flopped A. Played pretty much even poker up until the 2nd break. Then it was all downhill.

My flops weren't hitting, and just lost confidence in my preflop raising. Started trying to see cheap flops too often instead of taking control. This was a big weakness in my game, making $ when I can't find online dummies to donate. I'm sure I'll get more experienced as I play more quality tournies, but right now my aggression level isn't where I want it to be. I don't think I bluff reraised at all tonight, and after I stopped being the aggressor, by big hand raises were getting folded.

One hand that hurt during this downward spiral was cutoff 3x raise to 600, button (me) call with 88, sb raising to 1500, BB fold, cutoff call, I call. Flop 2d4h6h. SB checks, cutoff pushes. That was going to be my move. Both have me covered. At that point I had 5k left. The only hands I could have hoped he had were 33, 55, or 77, or AKQh. I decided he had be beat so i folded, SB called with TT, and cutoff showed QQ. Not sure why TT was played that way, but oh well. Harmless turn, river was the dreaded 8. Man I didn't want to see that.

Final hand for me was me reraising a weak raise with AQ. Turns out the dude was begging for a call as he flipped over KK. At this point I was down to about 2.5k at 150/300 25 ante. I folded 44 to a preflop raise a hand or two earlier. Maybe that was the better hand to push.

Oh well, learned a lot, experienced a lot, and hopefully I'll be able to use it next year or another tourney soon. Have to look at my whole tournament game over again. I can't rely on poor players to chip me up early so I can play my game. All in all, Vegas and the WSOP was a blast, but going to head home soon. Have to check what flights there are.

Insomnia: T - 6hrs

6 hrs to go before I start, and I can't sleep. Didn't really sleep at all last night, but at least i'm not that tired. Went to the Bluff Magazine party at the Hard Rock last night. Good party, lot of pros showed up. Doyle, Lane Flack, Liz Lieu, John Phan, Devilfish, Gavin Smith, Dutch Boyd, and more.. Emeka Okafur of the Charlotte Bobcats made an appearance, he was at least 2 ft taller than the next tallest in the room! Only stayed till like 11 though.

Last few days I've spent it "touristing Vegas" with the wife. Wow, can't believe the amount of walking we did. Pretty much visited every hotel on the strip, made it as far south as NYNY.

PSO party was cool, finally met some faces to match with members! Tons of gifts, cash, and prizes were given away. Open bar and tons of food. Unfortunately, couldn't stay too long, had dinner plans. Went to Circo after, food was amazing. Oysters were the shiznit!!! Treasure Island buffet was good as well. mmmm Crab legs.

Time to go back to bed, lie down for another 1.5 hrs or so.

Hopefully I'll have live updates on somewhere

PSO Forum
Card Player
Pocket 5s Live
Poker Stars Blog

Vegas Day 2

Got internet in my hotel room now :)

Day 2 started off with Onion and I checking out the RIO. All I can say is WOW. The convention was sweet, free swag everywhere, paradise/betus girls :), a lot more booths than I imagined. We left there with more clothes than I packed. The conference center where the playing takes place is massive. Table after table after table. I'm playing on table# 179, day 4. Right on the edge, where I can be the one of the first one's to rush for the bathrooms!

The rest of the day was spent doing a lot of walking in the 100deg heat. Very tiring.

I played a couple of tournies at Treasure Island later. 1st was a $50 stt. Super Turbo. 1500, 10 min blinds. Not much you can really do, but play fast. Went out 5th. Then I played a $60 freezout w/ alternatives. 30 people, 2000, 20mins. I thought the structure looked a bit nicer, but it really wasn't. After an hr, the blinds were 200/400. I got knocked out the last hand before the first break. BB mucked by mistake, so there was a freeplay on his blinds. utg +1 goes allin, has me covered by like 25 chips, and I call with AK. He had 77, and flops a 7. Game over. Weird thing is they started a whole new table for alternatives during the break. So they buyin full, get 2000 chips, and the blinds are 200/400. Talk about crap shoot.

Night time wasn't to nice either. Was overjoyed earlier when I saw the PHO restauraunt right in my hotel! Too bad it tasted more like POO in water. No not that bad, but it would easily be the worst in Toronto.

Played at the Wynn again later that night. Was mostly up, then went down, when boards were flushable, and then lost a $400 pot when dude fills his gutshot on the river. But not after he says the magic words after calling my turn bet: "I think I'm just donating here, I'm tired, ok I'll call" In other words he's saying "I'm a donkey, but because I said I'm tired, I'm not a donkey" Decided to call it a night after that, didn't want to go on tilt. Though I decided to dump $40 into a Wheel of Fortune slot on my way out. Got 4 spins, 25, 25, 30, 50. Not cool.

Vegas Day 1

Quick post, only bought a few minutes!

Plane a little delayed, settled into Imperial Palace at about 1am. Went to the Wynn to meet up with DOnion to play some cash games. 1/3 NL, no max buyin. 1hr in, guess who shows up to play.

Shannon Elizabeth (Pie Girl!) and Boston Rob (Rob & Amber - Survivor)

Holy shit, its pretty cool in Vegas!

Ray Emery goalie for the Ottawa Senators was on my plane as well, I think.

Down a couple bucks for the night, didn't play the deep stack rich kids game. Theres one hand where I should of though. Shannon raised to 9, Rob put it to 45, another rich kid calls, and I'm sitting there with QQ. I folded. Its a fold I dunno if I would have made if alert, but this was on my 24th hr. :)

Should have wireless access at Treasure Island starting tonight!

Will be at the Rio at around 11am, and then I dunno what else is planned.

WPT Niagara Sats now up & WSOP plans

There are now WPT Niagara satellites up on Paradise Poker. $200 direct entry freezeouts as well as $5 r&a satellites to get into the direct entry. Next one is on Thurs at 10pm est.

WSOP plans are all booked. Will be in Vegas Wed 26 night around 11pm. Staying at Imperial Palace for a night. My hotel isn't paid for until Thurs and it was cheaper than booking a thursday flight.

Email or leave me a message if your going to be in vegas!

WSOP I am in!!!!!

Will write about it later, too excited. Was tense. Pushing with JJ gave me a heart attack. Was as high as 20th place. Doubled up late with AA. That was huge. Didn't play the rest of the tourney.

Last day I was planning on playing wsop qualifiers too!

Qualifying is a big waste of time

Failed on all my qualifiers tonight. Waste of money, waste of time. To top it off, on my last qualifier I lost to a 1 outer.

Table "WSOP MAD THUNDER 10 3046168 - 3" Seat 7 is the button.
Seat 1: magking1 (1560 in chips)
Seat 2: _Junior_ (2535 in chips)
Seat 4: Crocko (1015 in chips)
Seat 5: actyper (2955 in chips)
Seat 6: Luckymat (3215 in chips)
Seat 7: Manta_Ray (2645 in chips)
Seat 8: Avasgrand (1865 in chips)
Seat 9: BrianB0ru (650 in chips)
Avasgrand: posts small blind 50
BrianB0ru: posts big blind 100
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to actyper [Ks Kh]
magking1: raises to 300
_Junior_: folds
Crocko: calls 300
actyper: raises to 2955 and is all-in
Luckymat: folds
Manta_Ray: folds
Avasgrand: folds
BrianB0ru: folds
magking1: is all-in 1260
Crocko: folds
Returned uncalled bets 1,395 to actyper
----- FLOP ----- [As 2s Th]
----- TURN ----- [As 2s Th][6s]
----- RIVER ----- [As 2s Th 6s][Qh]
----- SHOW DOWN -----
actyper: shows [Ks Kh] (A Pair of Kings, Ace high)
magking1: shows [Qd Qc] (Three of a kind, Queens, Ace high)
magking1 collects 3570 from Main pot

Anti Kill Phil

Blair Rodman and Lee Nelson, are 2 greedy bastards who deserve to eat shit and die! No just kidding, but their Kill Phil book is turning poker to what what the Anti-Poker congressmen want, a game of luck.

Another WSOP satellite, another disappointing finish. 3rd. 1st place I think got a seat. Who knows if I'm getting anything. Final event of the bluff poker tour. I played pretty good poker, came back from 256 chips after my KK got molested by A2. Was the final table chip leader and continued my aggression throughout. Overplayed my TT against AA when it got down to 3. New I should have laid it down, dude bluffed with small bets, not allin bets.

The eventual winner took me out. My AQ was anally probed hard core by his AJ, when he hit his 4 card flush. This nemesis of mine relates back to my first paragraph. He was a Kill Phil player. I only saw one non preflop allin from him, and that was when he had KK. He won every single allin he was involved in, with several times getting very lucky. Completely took my ability to play post flop away from him. One time I folded 88. Going to have to reread that book to see where I really stood with that hand. Normally an easier fold with respect to the amount of chips involved. The book itself is pretty crappy, though there were some good points in it regarding allin moves. I don't think the authors even use it, but a lot of online players sure are!

This Sunday is probably my last day of WSOP qualifying, going to cut it off then and start my cash game challenge. Pokerstars 150 seat guar $350, Full Tilt 100 seat guar $500, Sun Poker 10 seat guar $140, Ace Flush 1 seat freeroll. Also have that Dream Poker $50k on sun I think. Will play qualifiers tonight, if I don't get in I will just buyin to the Pokerstars and Sun events.

and yeah, I got my 21.com withdraw. Risk free works!

Piece of shit computer

I come home and my main computer doesn't turn on. There was a big storm in my area, might have killed something. The light on my motherboard doesn't turn on. Must be fried. That or my power supply isn't working. Any way to test other than putting my toungue on the end of it? :) Prob my motherboard though. What a waste of $. Stupid Asus, not even 2 years old either.

Blogroll Additions + New Cash Game Challenge (What's my level?)

First of all, if you read this blog and I haven't added you, please leave a message in my comments. There's a few that I've read in the past and been meaning to add, i'm just lazy and forgetful.

Since everybody else has some sort of cash game challenge, I might as well start one myself. It will be 2 challenges mixed into one, and the goal is to find my most profitable level.

The rooms: Either UB,Paradise, Party, or PokerShare
Game Type: 1 NL table, 1 limit table (Not enough action on PL)
The Limit: Starting at $50 buyin.
Moving up: Once I double up on my limit table or quadruple up on my NL table, I move up.

This challenge is for both Full Tables and 5/6 max short handed tables. If I bust, I start over again. I might change my moving up levels, might be too low to moveup, but I also don't want to to be a long challenge or else I might lose interest. :)

Was thinking of doing a sitngo challenge, but I might as well just play Rios or Steps if I'm going to do that.

Almost ready to give up the WSOP chase

MTT last night, 1st gets a seat. 14th place.

Hand Analysis
Me: 6900
Villian: Had me covered.
300/600 blinds

Me EP+2 raise to 2k with AQo. LP reraises to put me almost allin. LP tight player.

Gamble now or later?

MTT just now, 1st gets a seat. 16th place

Me = avg stack. Blinds 100/200.

UTG raises to 500. MP raises to 1k. Me with KK goes allin for 3k. Me+1 calls. UTG calls, Me-1 calls.

UTG = AA, Me-1 = AK, Me = KK, Me+1 = QQ

QQ wins. Was worried that Me-1 could have had AA. Didn't think UTG had AA as last time he did a limp in reraise allin. WTF was QQ doing? Oh well I vowed to play to win and gamble more this one, but I think I should have let it go. Pretty weak field. I should have definately let it go then, I could have outplayed these guys post flop.

My chase is almost over, almost....

To Break or not to Break

Getting frustrated by tourney beats, I want to take a break, but I dunno if I can. That poker.com championship looks too juicy, was planning to go to Australia next year anyways, free would be sweet. I think I've given up on my WSOP goal for this year. Bloggerpokertour result yesterday did it in for me. KK vs 77 had it held up would have put me in 2nd in chips with 22 or so players left. Could have ran the table. Instead it put in in a downward spiral of bad luck. AQ vs A8 did me in for good. Whoopee I get a hat and a shirt, maybe a rubber band to go with it. I think I might still play a Full Tilt 100seat WSOP qualifier though. I also can't take a break as I have to play Dream Poker. I think if you earn 3 dream points or so you qualify for their $15k freeroll. Speaking of freerolls I've decided that I would no longer play anymore freerolls that are less than $10k or they give out a seat. Maybe $5k. I'm spoiled, ungrateful, I'm thinking its just not worth the time unless you win. Unless theres like 20 players or so, then its all good. Sorry for the ramble post, too lazy to format or do any linking. Have a headache, and need to goto a wedding in a couple of hours. Hungry now, cya. Happy belated birthday Canada.

Bluff, Bluff, oh why do I make these stupid Bluffs...

It never fails me that I make 1 stupid bluff in a tourney that costs me a nice stack of chips. Now theres nothing wrong with a big bluff, its just when I bluff when it doesn't make sense to. Either bluffing when theres absolutely no fold equity for my opponent, or bluffing on a board that wouldn't make sense. Did one of each last night, one cost me headsup in a double shootout 1st round, then 2nd I bubbled out of the final table in a 2tabler.

You'll never win! - STFU biatch

Funny end of the night RIO sng I played last night. Down to 3 players left, and I was down to like 2M after the blind change. So I proceeded to do a lot of allins. Some chick then says "You'll never win if you play like that" What? She just put a target on her back. I let her have it, nobody tells me I can't win! I continued to steal her blinds, going allin. Now this chick was a complete useless lucky player. Her stack was completely built up by calling premium hands with Axs and hitting the flush or 2 pairs. If she didnt' have an A, she wouldn't call anything though. One had I had a 44 in the BB. Both limped, I went allin, and she thought and thought, even asked the other guy if she should call with TT. She ended up folding it. I told her there's no way you had TT. She said she swears to god she did. So I continued to berate her some more, what kinda of tard (sorry just watched The Ringer last night) lays down a TT. She then claims shes been playing proffessional for 3 years now. I told her, her husband must be broke now. "Oh he's a doctor" Yes he must be broke now. Eventually the other guy knocked her out, 2 pair vs A high, and then I disposed of him quite handily.

Played 4 sitngos in total yesterday, won 3. Rio, Full Tilt 2table to get a $75 tourney token (which I will use on a wsop 100seat qualifier), and Full Contact Poker Classic qualifier. Donked my way out of a Party WSOP step sng. Couldn't find any mtts I wanted to play so I just stuck to those.

Finally a 1st!! - "In order to live, you must be willing to die"

and this is what I won (never mind the $, it was a $1 buyin cause they couldn't get it as a freeroll)



More importantly is what I learned from my MTT play.

I played this one completely without fear of busting. No prizes that I really wanted to win, and just played it just cause I felt like playing some poker. Though I never had to suckout either. My only close call was a rivered K, AK vs QQ.
Headsup, was probably the best headsup I have seen myself play. Down approx 6:1 I took a Phil Ivey approach. Everytime I was on the button, I raised. My call and fold was about the same, 3 times each at most. Many times I would get the blinds, many times it was call, check, bet, fold. I was reraising him like crazy if he tried to steal my blinds. I'm pretty sure I got him so frustrated that in the end, I never put him allin, always got him to go allin when I felt I had the best hand.

Compare that with my Doyle's room Bounty tournament which I was playing at the same time. Not sure why I played it, just did. I had an ok stack, doubled up once, but still made a questionable laydown which I think turned it around. Now if it was a deep stack tourney, this laydown might not be so bad, but at the quick blind structure of the Tribeca tables, I think I screwed up.

Holding AQ I raised preflop in MP, might have been a limper but he's out of the picture. Bigger stack blind calls. Flop of 9TJ, 2 clubs. Blind puts in a bet that would lead to me being pot committed. A fold puts me at average. I ended up laying it down with the reasoning that the field is so weak, I'll get my chances to win pots later. What I failed to realize was that the blind structure would not let me play too much poker later. If I had doubled up there I would have had a nice stack and the opportunity to dominate the rest of the way.

Lesson learned, and I'm ready tonight for whatever mtt I play. Nothing going on this weekend, have a saturday wedding and a sunday baptism.

"... In order to live, you must be willing to die ..." - Amir Vahedi

I vow not to mix cash games with tournament play!

Mixing cash games and tournaments are hazardous to your poker play. I shouldn't be doing it, but I do it anyways. When I do I start mixing in cash game plays into my tournies and vice versa, and its just -EV. This past weekend was pretty good in terms of cash games, +$500 or so via Ladbrokes & Pokershare short handed 6max games. Either 2/4 or 3/6 limit games and $100nl $200nl. Too bad I could only bust the short stack guys in my nl tables, I guess thats why they were short stacked. I love the Euro centric poker rooms. These two and the B2B network are great for cash games. They bluff for no reason, and its the best feeling when you catch them. My tourney play was non existant, and my sng results were just as bad. Kinda sick of tourney play right now.

Did I skip a chapter?

Good news, I found a leak in my mtt game. Bad news, another waste of time. Once again I final tabled the PokerShare $1500 wsop seat. Once again I blow it, this time in 5th. And once again on a questionable/frustration/impatient call on my part. Final tables, I usually steal a fair number of blinds. Sometimes people fight back, and last night they fought back. And not with baby min raises, they were coming with their whole stack. After two straight unsucessful blind steals with decent holdings, I try it once more UTG with A9s. Another push back, and I decide to call it this time hoping they had a baby A. Turned over 88, and I couldn't hit and was out. I dunno whats wrong with me. I'm extremely confident I can outplay most of my opponents post flop, so why the hell am I risking it to luck preflop?

I got to pickup my HOH vol 2 and reread it again, this time carefully. No point playing these tournies if I'm going to be a donk during the final table. I did get the new HOH vol 3 and the skylansky book in the mail yesterday. One day I'll get reading those. I think I still have about 5 unread books on my shelf.

Have my Lavalife Party Poker final today. Winner gets a trip to Turks & Caicos. Most likely will play for 2nd instead, plasma tv. Trip is cool, but not exactly high on my list of places to visit. Not worth taking vacation time against. Theres also the pocketfives FullTilt tourney. 25 added $200+15 seats for sundays $200k guaranteed. $20 tourney, pass is pocket5s. 8pm est. Will see how many people play before I decide if I want to play or not. Wanted to take Sunday off and read.

I must be a Toronto Maple Leaf fan

The more tournies I play, the more I believe I am the Toronto Maple Leafs of online poker tournaments. I can qualify for any tournament, but when it comes down to the big game, I choke. All that time and $ spent on the subsatellites and the main events gone to waste. Much like watching a season of Sopranos and viewing such a dreadful finale (?) as last night, but thats a different story.

My first tourney was a Poker Share $500 WSOP ME qualifier. Top 2 get seats to the main event, 3rd place gets $5k. Couldn't get into the game, widdled down to low levels, and got frustrated by some luck players who always hit his draw. JJ vs QQ, AKJ flop, this guy kept calling and calling and hit his river T. Ended up in 12th as a result of an impatient call of mine. 6 handed on 2 tables, I was 4th in chips but one of the lower stacks. We just kept firing allins. I held AT in the BB when one of the lower stacks fired another away. Its a call I don't usually make unless I'm a big stack. He turned over 77 and it was good enough. Went out next hand. So no more ME tournies on pokershare, that was the last of the added seats.

My 2nd tourney was the Titan $100k guaranteed. Like the pokershare tourney had no problems satelliting into this one with a $20 sng. Turbo like structures made it hard to play. After the first break the blinds were bigger here than my pokershare tourney which started an hr earlier! No real regrets other than a couple of failed bluffs. Went out with 88 vs KK vs QQ when I was down to 5M or so. Play was pretty weak in this tourney, I dunno if skill factors too much in it though. After the first break, any pot you get involved in pretty much results you in risking 20% of your stack.

With all these tournies my bankroll has remained pretty constant for the past few months now. I think after Feb I was on pace for double my target. Now I'll be happy to just reach it. I haven't played too many cash games lately. Oh well, after July I can forget about the wsop qualifiers and concentrate on making $ again. Taking Monday off from poker again. I think Monday will be permanant day off from Poker. Sometimes Thursday and Saturday as well.