Superbowl semi Chokage

Played 2 tourneys Sunday afternoon, but I still semi choked.


Mansion $100k


Played fairly well, had a nicer stack but then lost a few flips. Dropped down to the bottom 1/4 during the bubble and ITM area. Got it back up to top 20 when it got down to 40, but just ran out of cards. Went out AJ vs AA, thought LP was stealing.

VIP Poker $8k guar
Not sure why I even played this one. I opened up one of my prima rooms trying to waste my "leftover money". Saw a $20 tourney so I decided to play that. Accumulated chips easily, then lost some, then sucked out for a nice stack. When it got down to the bubble period I had a top 10 stack. Chip leader tries to bully me holding 44. I held QQ and took all his chips, making me the chip leader. Wow, I have never played a better big stack in my life. Stealing, raising, just plain old school yard bully. By the time the final table hit I had 20% of the chips. That didn't stop and between me and my nemesis we eliminated everybody else on the table.

This is where I choked, headsup.

I came in with a small lead. Then she took the lead after we both hit the same trips, but she out kicked me. Then my flush > her set. By that time I had a huge lead, she was under 50k, I had about 800k. From there she won every coin flip to draw back even. I couldn't believe it. Now it was approaching 6:30 I had a superbowl game to get to. So I played fast. She hit quad aces on me that took away some chips. I had one misplay where I let her catch a river straight. She would win all the big pots as my aggressive play took every other pot. I eventually lost K5s on a Kxsxs board. Top pair and flush draw lost to her flopped set. Heads up cost me $1.2k Oh well, still managed a decent cash.



Remember how I mentioned how I like to use my "leftover money" in rooms. Saw a tourney on Empire where I was about $5 short. Put my $47 into a 50NL room. First hand I get dealt quad 5s. Hello!!! Doubled up and left. Short and sweet!

New Poker Tracker XL Uploaded

For those who want an online poker tracker / journal excel version, here it is. Full daily tracking by game type, table type, full statistics, bankroll tracking, and more. This should be a fully working version, with only bells and whistles to be added.

Please let me know any suggestions, errors, comments! Feel free to let others know about this if you like it!

Download it here or on the right sidebar. Enjoy!

Getting Started
Most important first step is to enter your balances for each room on the main page (Bankroll) in the "Opening Bankroll" column. This column should reflect your Jan 1 2007 opening bankroll. Now you'll have to play around with the Jan earnings/transactions etc so that your Feb will match up correctly.

Clear out the following:
Bankroll: C39:C76, P3, P4, F28, C31
Jan: I4:M14, O4:S14, X4:X*
Neteller: A6:E41

If you use any other depositing options you will have to create a new sheet and link it yourself similar to the neteller sheet.

I really wish I made this in Dec 06, would have made more sense.

If anybody needs a little help getting started, feel free to send me an email with your stats actyper @ gmail.com or ask about msn.

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!

Happy Holidays!

Hope everybody's holidays have been going good so far!

Haven't really played much poker lately. Played some online saturday, some live with the cousins on xmas day. Will probably hit some tournies tonight.

Got my Nintendo Wii, man this this is awesome fun. Have only tried Wii sports and Super Monkey ball (which is like Mario Party). Haven't even tried Zelda yet. Went boxing day shopping today, picked up some nice clothes which I rarely do anymore. Planned to play lots of poker these next few days, but I don't know if I'll have the time to. Have to clean up the house, its a mess. Plus all these new games and movies I picked up.

For New Years, going to head down to Niagara, play some cash games. Happy New Years everybody! I'll probably only do one more 2006 recap / 2007 goals post by the end of the year. Unless I win big and do a brag post before then!

New look, you like?

Was bored so started playing around with a new look, and in the middle of labeling all my posts. You like? Comments/Suggestions. Am I missing anything?

Your Poker Game is sooo weak ...

It doesn't seem right when poker players say "Momma jokes" at the tables, so in lieu:

Your Poker Game is sooo weak ...

• Moneymaker lols at you
• You can't get staked for a freeroll
• Your card protector hides under your cards
• The only black chips you have are the ones from your dirty hands
• The dealer deals you 4 cards in a texas holdem game
• Your automatically entered into everybody's friends list
• The only button on your screen is "call"
• Party Poker asks you to be their sponsor
• Everybody seems to want to pay for your Red Bull
• You think AT is an automatic 3:2 favourite
• Phil Helmuth invites you to a cash game
• Helen Keller can pickup your tells
• You look for players eating Oreos

Got more? Post away!!!

Fallsview Plans

Woohoo, getting excited. Fallsview might actually become a nice place to play tournament poker. The below is quoted from the Fallsview Poker Manager / Tournament Director.

WPT added events - for the 2007 events I have submitted the following,
regular satellites to start as early as May/June, same as last year. We had over 8000 people play in last years satellites.
super-satellites
a one day $1000 buy-in event, 300 people maximum
a two day $2000 buy-in event, 300 people maximum
the WPT Canadian Open will increase to a $4000 buy-in from the $2500 buy-in and will have a cap of 600 people maximum
the NAPC will remain at a $10,000 buy-in with no cap, I expect it to be the largest event on the WPT in 2007
More days, which should equal shorter days. The 2006 numbers were way above what everyone expected, including the WPT. I know they were long days, but that is a good problem to have.
Again, this is what I have submitted, I won't know for quite some time what is approved. We are also looking at expanding the tournament room to 45 tables from the 30 that we had this year, but it's not as simple as buying tables and receiving approvals. If we do go to 45 tables, those caps would move to 450 from 300, and to 900 from 600, but I do not want to go to 45 tables if we can't provide quality staff.

Daily tournaments - as of right now, I have single table SNG's approved, and am working on getting flexible approvals for multi-table tournaments. Here is tentatively what I am planning to offer:

Sunday - $200 (180+20) SNG - Noon to Midnight
Monday - $60 (50+10) SNG - Noon to Midnight
Tuesday - $60 (50+10) multi, 50 max - 2pm and 9pm
Wednesday - $100 (90+10) multi, 50 max - 2pm and 9pm
Thursday - $200 (180+20) multi, 50 max - 2pm and 9pm
Friday - $500 (460+40) SNG - Noon to Midnight
Saturday - $1000 (950+50) SNG - Noon to Midnight
This is all tentative. Single table only on week-ends, I can't spare more tables. I will begin the single tables (trying for this Monday) and wait for the approvals for the multi-table tournaments on Tu-We-Th. I will post more on the starting chips/blind levels as I finish them , but for the Fri/Sat SNG's you can expect a lot of play. Friday 2K starting chips 30 minute levels (3-4 hours), and Saturday 2.5K starting chips with 30 minute levels (4-5 hours). The smaller buy-in events will obviously be less play, but I do want them to be fair, I hate Bingo.

Other tournaments - I am working on larger tournaments on a regular basis, at least quarterly, but possibly as often as monthly, with buy-ins of $1000 or greater. WPT takes up a lot of time, so these may not happen soon. As for CPT events at Fallsview, that will not happen from the looks of things. The CPT is doing a great job, but we have decided to hitch ourselves to the WPT and intend to continue in that direction.

Last Year of my youth

Today mark the beginning of the last year of my youth. I turn 29 today. Not looking forward to 30. To me, I consider that to be a grown up, I'm still a kid at heart. When you turn 30 are you supposed to stop playing video games, and watching cartoons (simpsons/family guy)? I hope not. :)

I guess the poker gods didn't know it was my birthday, not so nice to me on the weekend. I hate the mansion poker dome tourney. I always make the right reads, but luckboxes always prevail. Frustrating. Plus watching that show makes me more angry that players that bad can make it.

No poker for me this week, some but not much. Booya on tuesday to finish up the Poker Night in Canada league. Hope to maintain my 2nd place for $1250. Fri/Sat night I'll prob hit one of the Mansion $ added tournies, have yet to play one yet.

Oh So Close ...

That jackpot should have been mine!!! To top it off, the 10 came out last. Man what a cooler.

Weekend Results

UB Online Championships Event #1
31/650 - $585
Doubled up early and continued to build my stack. Went dorment for a long period that killed my stack. Ended up losing 99 vs KT on a questionable call by my oponent.

Sun Poker $50k added
About 1.5hr in, QQ < KQ
Mansion Poker Dome
About 1.5hr in QQ < AT, then AK < AJ I think.
Booya Poker CPT Satellite ($1 + WSOP added sats)
Just played garbage. Didn't push with 22 when semi short, would have tripled up.
UB Online Championships Event #3
170ish / 1260
- Never got on a rush. Made some good plays on pots where I doubt I had the best hand. Ended up losing ATs vs A9. Just short of the $, 140. Had 2 board splits where the boards made straights, one AK vs AQ, and the other 77 vs AA after I flopped a set as well.

I think I played well this weekend, good enough to take home some bigger prizes. Didn't get the luck to win. I like the UB tournies, great structures and lots of play. They take quite a long time to play though, so I duno if I"m going to play anymore of them. Probably hit some mansion ones instead.

So you want to win a satellite ...

Last night I played 2 more satellites and won them both, so I figured I'd just make a strategy post about it in case some of you are wondering how I keep winning sats. I think theres 3 stages in a multitable satellite tourney with multiple seat giveaways. For a one seat sat, just play it like you should in a winner take all tourney. Lets call it the beggining, the middle, and the end. A typical satellite should average around 2hrs. Anything more than 3 is just too long, and probably not worth it.

The Beginning - 1st 1/2hr - 45min
Remember how you were taught never to underestimate your opponent. Well throw that away in this case, satellite players are typically baaad. Theres a good chance that you are the best player at that table, so take advantage of it. See a lot of flops, play it hard when you have it, fold if you don't. No tricky plays, no real bluffs, just build your stack as much you can, you'll need it.

The Middle
I don't know what to really say about this section. I think playing tight aggressive is the way to go here. A lot of players still take a lot of chances here, so there will probably be a few suckouts. Thus the need to build a nice stack from the 1st stage. Stay away from the monster stacks unless you have a real hand. Its easy to take $ from them if you do, but if you don't no reason to try. Same thing with the smaller stacks. Unless you are a monster stack, no reason to eliminate the smaller stacks, let the big guys do the work for you. Just play smart poker here, and prepare for the finale.

The End - Final Table
Usually the final table, or the bubble area. Play this like you would in a bubble stage in a normal mtt. Not the pansy way of just trying to make the $, but the play to win way (except not that aggressive). Once again stay away from bigger stacks, if you don't need to pass them in position, don't battle with them. The player(s) to target are the ones sitting on the last few positions for seats. ie) If 4 seats are given, target the guys in 3rd or 4th. Don't play too many hands though, let others make the mistakes, let others be the hero. There are sometimes when I feel invicible, but end up losing valuable chips when I find out I'm not. If you are one of the short stacks, then just go ahead and target anybody with allin moves with decent holdings. Big stacks will be willing to call you with average holdings so it can be a easy double up. The most important thing in satellites is to know how many seats are awarded, and make sure you play for those seats. You don't need to play for 1st, remember that!

I'm not too good with strategy posts, pretty much just rambling off the top of my head. Good luck though, and hopefully you'll be playing on Sunday!

Right now my weekend tourney schedule looks like this:

Friday
UB Online Championships Event #1

Saturday
Poker.com BPT event (Probably won't end up playing again, saturday is my day away from poker)

Sunday
Sun Poker $50k added
Mansion Poker Dome
Booya Poker CPT Satellite ($1 + WSOP added sats)
UB Online Championships Event #3

Play Update

Just an update on what I've been playing lately. Haven't really been into poker this week at all. Mainly just small tourneys and cash games. Playing some Eurolinx, Ladbrokes, and Sun Poker (Pretty much just to get in the monthly $50k added tourney). Playing 2/4 to 5/10 limit, whatever tables are available, just to keep my limit game sharp. Came out ahead for the week, nothing special though. Didn't cash in any of the tournies I played in, though as I mentioned earlier, my mind just wasn't in it. If your not focused, better off just not playing, its cheaper that way.

What I have been into lately is Final Fantasy XII for the playstation 2. Now I haven't played an rpg or a final fantasy game since probably the playstation 1 one. I can't even remember if I enjoyed rpgs or not. All I can say is that this game is amazing! The graphics can rival any xbox360 game right now, and the storyline has been pretty cool so far. Its a nice change from Gears of War and Splinter Cell that I was playing on the xbox360 before. But my xbox is now a brick, and sent it in for repairs. Should get a replacement back this week sometime. Some stupid fall update microsoft sent out corrupted about 1% of xboxs out there. Mine just happened to be one of them. Why couldn't I have won the lottery instead? Oh wait, lemme check my Super 7 ticket.

A satellite entry = $? WTH is going on?

Finally broke my long draught of not being able to turn hard earned satellite entries into significant cashes. Full Tilt FTOPS Main Event. $500 buyin. approx 2500 entries, 1st place paid out $220k. I played 3 satellites to try to get in, all turbos, and all today. A $4, a $100, and a $24. I got in with the $24, though I played good enough to get in all 3. Bubbled both the 4 and 100, the 100 I took some nasty beats.

Onto the main event. I thought I would finish early. Crippled early when EP min raises, i'm on the BB with K6s. I call. K6J flop. I actually put him on aces after but tried to get him to go over top of me. Didn't work and the river was a J, wasting my top and bottom pair.

Got as low as 1500 and was around 2k by the 1st break. Starting was 3k. Gradually built it up, but my biggest chip gainer was 99 vs AJ on a A9x flop. I played differently this tourney, pretty much just solid poker. Didn't play as many hands as I've been playing lately, but I just didn't get any of those suited connectors that I like.

The rest of the tournament I was what Kugr called "The Dominator" Everytime all my chips or all somebody elses chips went all in, I had them dominated. The only hands where i had to play catchup was AQs vs JJ (smaller stack) and my eventual out hand.

Once I got deeper into the $, I ran out of hands to play. When I got placed at a table with a bunch of big stacks, I became hesitant to steal, pretty much just waiting for hands. Never ended up doubling up again, and eventually lost AKs vs 33. Flop came 33x, and i said good night.

Shipped $1,346 though, which is now my highest online cash winning. I'm still noticing flaws in my game though, especially during late stages if I don't have a nice stack. I guess i'll have to practice making it deeper in more big tournies!

Thanks to the railbirds!

GSP = Ship It!!!

George St. Pierre owns Matt Hughes!
Complete destruction. Can't believe Hughes goes down twice cause a toenail flicked his balls. I don't think anybody can take the belt away from GSP!

This Sunday, I Vow to ...

Win or Big $ in one of these ....

1) Poker.com $20k
2) Mansion Poker Dome Seat
3) PokerStars Million
4) Full Tilt Ftops Event #2
5) Some other tourney > $10k prize pool

Time to step it up, I don't want to be satellite king / big game choker anymore. Last night I won 2 out of 5 tournaments I played. Sounds good, but my take home was 0$. Yeah. As much as I hate spending hours and hours playing an online tourney, I do much better in deeper stack tournies with good blind structures. I can't play Tribecca style tournies at all. Big aggressive moves cost all my chips. Last night in the Booya NHL ticket giveaway, headsup was sick. My buddy was I dunno 15:1 underdog. He came back to take the chip lead, then lost it. Eventually was knocked out TT vs Q8 even though he flopped a set!!!

Tonight or tomorrow i'll post up a Casino/Poker hot bonus post, haven't done that in a while.

And before I go I have to do a quick plug for Poker Source Online. On the service/support side, you just can't compare. If you want a good laugh, go read the eCasinoDeals forum, its a complete joke. That scumbag owner has outstanding orders from like May. He barely responds to support posts. But I think this is the jewel. Those who ordered something simple such as an amazon gc have been surprised to see a poker table top show up at their door instead of their gift card! Talk about cocksucking, this guy instead of spending $ to order gcs, he's unloading his excess inventory. Man this guy fattened his wallet the past few months and is going to bail!! I like taking care of my peeps, pso is the same way, this guy is scum. Spread the word!