At least I'm improving!

My last 3 finishes in this thing. 5th, 4th, 3rd...

F*** me, so close, and I easily had the table outskilled too.

Started the tourney off on a good note, doubling up within the first 5 hands with KK vs JJ. Continued to play solid poker and chip accumulation. Took a hit when JJ <> avg through to the final table. Then I just ran hot as hell. Can't remember my first double up hand, just remembered my oponent had squat. Put a beat on the guy who sucked out with that K6 hand, KK > AA. Haha revenge is sweet. Then every time I raised pf, I hit the flop hard. Raise JT, TTJ flop. Raise 7Ts, JQKs flop, etc. Most of those times I eliminated others as well. When it got down to 4 handed, my stack was a bit bigger than the others combined.

When it got down to 3handed I started losing chips. Lost A9s <> AK or else I would have gone headsup which I'm sure I would have dominated. The game altering hand was this. Can't remember action pf, I think I was BB and got in free. Flop comes 98x with 2 suits. SB bets out 3/4. Even though I had him pegged as min bet weak, other bet = some sort of hand, I thought I still had the best hand and could get him off of whatever he had, so I shoved with 97o. He used his whole timebank and decided to call with JT. obv Q turn, and I was hurt badly. With about 12bb left in the BB I decided to get cute with AA and just flat call the sb raise. Flop comes 7 high, he shoves, I instacall. Another miracle turn for this guy and I'm eliminated. So gay, I'm pissed. Really want to go play the Aussie, since that was my original vacation plan from last year. I have 4 more chances left, actually 3 since the last week of Dec headed back to the Mayan Riviera (Mexico) for yet another wedding there. I think my stomach can handle Tequila again, don't think my ass can handle the food though. Anal leakage = -EV.

All my PCA sats are done, and failed all my steps, going as far as step 5 a few times. Just choked when it counted. Got deep in a couple other tournies on FullTilt, a $24 knockout, and the $14.5k guar. Didn't get any big money in those though, about $200ish total. I know I'm so due, till next sunday.

WPT Sweetness

Layla Kayleigh + Kimberly Lansing = WPT Hotties

Sweet Video

High Stakes FTP nicknames

Found this on Highstakesdb, supposdly the Full Tilt Poker nicknames of all the highstakes players.

"888poker" - Chau Chiang
"$tinger 88" - Brian Hastings
"AaronBeen" - Aaron Been
"ActionJeff" - Jeff Garza
"Actyper" - Sick player
"ADZ124" - Matt Marafioti
"AJunglen7" - Adam Junglen
"AK87" - Alex Kim
"All In At 420" - Matthew Stout
"Annette_15" - Annette Obrestad
"apestyles" - John VanFleet
"Arbianight" - Rami Boukai
"Area23JC" - JC Tran
"BABYHAB" - Tuan Lam
"bacina" -
"bad_ip" - Johnny Lodden
"Ballsrider" - David Benyamine
"barryg1" - Barry Greens
"batoelrob" - Rob Hollink
"BeL0WaB0Ve" - Kevin Saul
"BigBadMomma6" - Chris Gantile
"bigfish" - Johnny Lodden/Tore Lagerborg
"BiggestFish" - Ville Wahlbeck
"birdguts" - Gavin Smith
"BlackMetalHead" - Tommy Rau
"BodogAri" - Ari Engel
"Boosted J" - Justin Smith
"Butch Acidy" Joe Cassidy
"CaseyAtTheBat" - Chip Reese
"ch0ppy" - Matt Kay
"CHUFTY" - Richard Ashby
"cmynuts" - Chris Gentile
"-Colossus-" - Same as "Laaur2". Young Norwegian player
"ComeOnPhish" - Paul Lieu
"CrazyZachary" - ?
"crippoli" - John Persson
"CryMeARiver8" - Patrik Antonius
"DaEvils" - Prahlad Friedman
"dazzy" - Dennis Kobbero
"Devilfish" - Dave Ulliot
"DontBluffMePLZZ" - Jerry VanStrydonck
"Durian" - Janne Juutilainen
"durrrr" - Tom Dwan
"Dustin Dirksen" - Dustin Dirksen
"eastsideslim" - Dustin Woolf
"EazyPeazy" - Abe Mosseri
"ecolico" - Freddy Deeb
"ElkY" - Bertrand Grosspellier
"emptyseat88" - Scott Fischman
"eps" - Eli Elezra
"Erik1223" - Erik Sagström
"Exclusive" - Noah Boeken
"ex_Noose" - Riku Vihreäsaari
"Fakesky" - Daniel Alaei
"Fast_freddie" - Mohammed Kowssarie
"fidelio" - Joe Sebok
"FinddaGrind" - Patrik Antonius
"Fossillman" - Grag Raymer
"Frooodo" - William Thorsson
"funku" - Bengt Sonnert
"GambleAB" - Aaron Bartley
"gank" - Brett Jungblut
"Genius28" - Chris Lee
"GigaBet" - Darrell Dicken
"Gobboboy" - Jimmy Fricke
"Good2CU" - Andrew T Robl
"Green Plastic" - Taylor Caby
"Guguguy" - Young guy from Oulu (Finland)
"Gutshot Hansen" - Ilari Sahamies
"H@££INGGOL" - Fredrik Halling
"Hilary1" - Same as "Guguguy"
"hihhuli" - Patrik Antonius
"Holdem_NL" - Tom Dwan
"HOSS_TBF" - Matt Hawrilenko
"howitfellslike" - Rafi Amit
"Icre84U" - Martin DeKnijff
"IDreamOfJenna" - Same as "Guguguy"
"i_grind_on_you" - Fuat Can
"ILARI_FIN" - Ilari Sahamies
"Imper1um" - Sorel Mizzi
"iMsoLucky0" - Jordan Morgan
"iRockHoes" - Scott Augustine
"Isokala" - Ville Wahlbeck
"jennicide" - Jennifer Leigh
"Jew anda" - Todd Brunson
"JohhnyBax" - Cliff Josephy
"jse81" - Chad Batista
"KaiBuxxe" - Nikolaus Jedlicka
"KidPoker" - Daniel Negreanu
"kiiski" - Jani Vilmunen
"KObyTAPOUT" - Jani Vilmunen
"Kris85" - Kristian Kjöndal
"kwob20" - Kyle Bowker
"Laaur2" - Same as "-Colossus-"
"LadyMaverick" - Vanessa Rousso
"LarsLuzak" - 20-year old guy from Helsinki
"Lars-Magne" - Johnny Lodden
"LEGATO" - Bo Sehlstedt
"LFISGD" - Brad Booth
"lilholdem954" - Chad Batista
"liraerik" - Erik Friberg
"livewinner" - ?
"lolmenot" - Johnny Lodden
"looselots" - David Benyamine
"LrsLzk" - Same as "LarsLuzak" obv.
"luckyULSA" - Christoffer Ulsrud
"Luigi66369" - Patrik Antonius
"Macigpitch1" - David Benyamine
"Mafews" - Rory Mathews
"mahony" - Andreas Hagen
"MavFish" - J.P. Kelly
"mig.com" - James Mackey
"Miss Lulu" - Robert Williamsson
"mjorgensen13" - Isaac Baron
"m8kingmoves" - Chad Batista
"Money800" - Chris Moneymaker
"MrCasino" - Graig Gray
"mrnuts" - Thomas Keller
"MrPoker KDH" - Chau Chiang
"MrSmokey1" - Steve Billirakis
"MUCKEMSAYUHH" - Cole South
"_myst_" - Marc Karam
"Nebuchad" - Jonas Danielsson
"neverwin" - Dustin Woolf
"Newhizzle" - Mark Newhouse
"NEW_YORK" - Bengt Sonnert
"Nizot Skizard" - Joe Cassidy/Tomer Benvenisti
"noataima" - Guy Laliberte
"no it all" - JC Tran
"NoMercy" - Isabelle Mercier
"Noose" - Riku Vihreäsaari
"OMGClayAiken" - Phil Galfond
"omgwhatafish" - William Thorsson
"Operation" - Ben Grundy
"Ozzy 87" - Aurangzeb Sheikh
"Panella86" - Jordan Berkowitz
"PearlJammer" -Jon Turner
"p10ker" - Gary Jones
"pokergirl1" - Morten Erlandsen
"Pokerkong1" - Kristian Kjöndal
"POKERPR0" - James Campbell
"Poltergeist" - Ray Dehkharghani
"Profbackwards" - Ted Forrest
"puculucy" - Tom Dwan
"RaiNKhaN" - Hevad Khan
"RealAndyBeal" - Nikolaus Jedlicka
"Rekrul" - Dan Schreiber
"reloadthis" - Layne Flack
"Riise" - Erik Riise
"Rizen" - Eric Lynch
"sbrugby" - Brian Townsend
"SCTrojans" - Scott Freeman
"secret" - Tore Lagerborg
"serb2127" - Nenad Medic
"Shaniac" - Shane Schleger
"SheFaLLs" - ?
"SirWatts" - Mike Watson
"Son-in-law" - Zupin Patel
"Spirit Rock" - Prahlad Friedman
"StandingWave" - Janne Juutilainen
"stevesbets" - Steven Jacobs
"strassa2" - Jason Strasser
"sunnyCR" -
"SuperMazak" - Mats Rahmn
"susisisu" - Thomas Wahlroos
"SxMxF" - rumoreud Michael Mizrahi
"Tay" - Taylor Caby
"TeeDitty" - Tuan Le
"Terken89" - Norwegian guy. Born is 1989
"TerrorOfSweden" - Mohammed Kowssarie
"TexasLimitKing" - Aleksandros Dalaklis
"tex dolly" - Doyle Brunson
"THAY3R" - Thayer Rasmussen
"THE__D__RY" - Danny Ryan
"TheSalmon" - Erik Sagsröm
"TheSea" - Fuat Can
"TheTerrorist" - Mohammed Kowssarie
"TheWacoKidd" - Jared Hamby
"TiLLerMan" - Ian Girdwood
"Till_I_collapse" - Mikko Pispala
"TiltMeNot" - Bengt Sonner
"tina1" - Tobias Persson
"thecranium" - John Hanson
"Tmay420" - Tim West
"Tony G" - Tony Guoga
"Traheho" - Alec Torelli
"t soprano" - Brock Parker
"tunaeater" - Tore Lagerborg
"twin-caracas" - Jorge Arias
"yellowsub86" - Jeff Williams
"UFPokerStar" - Jonathan Westra
"Ugadabugada" - Finnish players account (Sahamies, Wahlbeck, Vilmunen)
"undercover" - Ram Vaswani
"ulle11" - Kristian Ulriksen
"UltimateButt" - Luke Neely
"vietcong01" - Juan Maceiras Barros
"WaterIntoWine" - Riku Vihreäsaari
"WestmenloAA" - Isaac Baron
"Wetoddid" - Luke Neely
"Whitelime" - Emil Patel
"Who is next?" - Noah Boeken
"Willis Fillers" - Robert Willis
"Woolworths" - Young Finnish guy
"zangbezan24" - Sorel Mizzi
"ZeeJustin" - Justin Bonomo
"Ziigmund" - Ilari Sahamies
"zupp_3" - Peter Jepsen
"Zweig" - Prahlad Friedman

Sunday = Most frustrating day ever

Sundays, where some poker players earn their riches, others go busto, and for everyone else it is the most frustrating day of poker.

Here was my day

1) Betfair 1/2NL. +1.5 buyins
2) WPT satellite. 1 seat. 10th. AQ < A8
3) Ftops satellite. Won a seat but had to shove on the bubble with AJs. doubled up
4) Cake $10k. Built up a good stack, then donked it away. My fault
5) PokerinCanada wpt sng step sat. Heads up even in chips, AK < A7 allin preflop
6) Carbon $20k. Wasn't really paying attention to this one and let myself bleed away
7) Cake 1/2NL. +1/2 buyin
8) Pokerstars PCA Step 3. Won.
9) Pokerstars PCA Step 4. Man there are some star studded lineups on sundays. Was about to register then saw the lineup: Timex, SP Ambrose, mig.com, bigjoe2003, and more. Waited for the next one, Timex and bigjoe were at this one. Was top 2 most of the sng. Couldn't knock anybody out when it counted though. 3 handed bigjoe2003 pretty much went allin every hand. Caught him with JJ once and doubled up. A river Ace saved him from elimination from the other guy. Then I caught him with ATs vs 72o. No not really, flopped a 2 and I'm pretty much out by the hammer. WTF!!!! Replay Step 4 for me.
10) Mansion $150k. Was doing ok. Ran into AA and it was goodnight.
11) Cake Aussie sat. Played pretty good poker. When it got down to 2 tables, turned AA into a nice win and 2nd in chips. Lost a few pots and entered the final table 6/10. Screwed up a hand: JT on KQJx board, and found myself 10/10. Tripled up with 88 not long after and I was back in business. Now remember a few posts ago I bubbled this same tourney in 5th. During the bubble we couldn't knock any of the short stacks out, and eventually I found myself 5/5! Oh no, here we go again.
In the sb I find myself with AQo with about 8BB. UTG bigstack raises, I shove, he and he calls with T8. Flop 558. Turn T. Fuck I'm out. River Q. Slam the desk, curse like Mother Teresa, and turn around. But then I look back at the screen and notice I'm still in. WTF!. Have to check the HH and finally realized what happened. Eventually one guy gets knocked out with donkey full house, and I sigh with relief. I eventually run my short stack KTs vs A5o, flop A and I'm out. Happy about the $1500 score, but still looking for an Aussie trip.
12) Ftops $320. Played pretty solid throughout, small ball strategy. Go card dead after the 3rd break. Out hand was UTG minraise, and I call with J8s. Flop AJ8r. Check raise, and he decides to shove. Already had this guy labeled with the donk tag, so I insta call. He flips over JT. ??? Didn't really have too much fold equity. River A and his T kicker is good. He did apologize in the lobby though. Like I care, fn donk!!!!
13) PSO league. Still playing as I type. Not really playing, just donking it up.

So there it is, 8+ hours of I dunno what I would call it.

I like the winner of the Aussie Seat though, rigged!



HH of my PCA seat crippling by the hammer

PokerStars Game #13184118950: Tournament #66900467, $200+$15 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2007/11/11 - 19:20:45 (ET) Table '66900467 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: bigjoe2003 (4260 in chips) Seat 3: actyper (5115 in chips) Seat 7: Dapper Dan G (4125 in chips)
bigjoe2003: posts the ante 25
actyper: posts the ante 25
Dapper Dan G: posts the ante 25
bigjoe2003: posts small blind 200
actyper: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to actyper [Th Ah]
Dapper Dan G: folds
bigjoe2003: raises 3835 to 4235 and is all-in
actyper: calls 3835
*** FLOP *** [9s Qs 2d]
*** TURN *** [9s Qs 2d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [9s Qs 2d Kd] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bigjoe2003: shows [2h 7s] (a pair of Deuces)
actyper: shows [Th Ah] (high card Ace)
bigjoe2003 collected 8545 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8545 | Rake 0
Board [9s Qs 2d Kd 8s]
Seat 1: bigjoe2003 (small blind) showed [2h 7s] and won (8545) with a pair of Deuces Seat 3: actyper (big blind) showed [Th Ah] and lost with high card Ace Seat 7: Dapper Dan G (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

NAPC Final Table set

Here are the official chip counts for the nine-handed final table:

Seat 1 - Kofi Farkye - 1,421,000 redsoxsox - banned pstars account)
Seat 2 - Jonathan Little - 2,149,000 (fieryjustice)
Seat 3 - Cheryl Lynn Deleon - 1,321,000 (local Fallsview player)
Seat 4 - "Action Jeff" Garza - 469,000 (ActionJeff)
Seat 5 - Adam Levy - 379,000 (Roothlus)
Seat 6 - David Cloutier - 1,563,000 (local Toronto player)
Seat 7 - Barry Greenstein - 1,226,000 (lol donkaments!)
Seat 8 - Dale Pinchot - 374,000 (decent live mtt player)
Seat 9 - Scott Clements - 1,095,000 (Big Riisky)

Play will continue until three more players are eliminated, setting the six-handed WPT Final Table that starts tomorrow (Friday) at 4:00 pm Eastern

No WPT Fallsview for me

After failing all my online and live sats, no wpt fallsview for me this year either. There wen't too many online sats this year, plus I missed out on all the Party ones. I hate playing Sunday nights. I did well in my live sats but couldn't close the deal. Yesterday was my final live sat, single table 10 seater, 1st gets the seat. I short stacked myself early, but then doubled up when a shoved with T7 on a double belly buster flop. Increased to one of the bigger stacks with a set of Qs vs 2pair. Lucky for him it wasn't all his chips. Stole a few blinds, and then it was all downhill. Raised in CO with AQo. Button hadn't played a single hand yet, shoves. I so wanted to fold for that reason, but it was only 1400 more to me in a 2900 pot. So I called and ran into KK. Didn't win a hand after that. On my outage hand I raised utg with 99. Had 12bb, so was going to call any rereaise. Call from hijack bigstack. Flop 568 so I shove. He calls and turns over AA so goodnight.

Next year I promise not to wait until the last minute to play these sats!!!!

BBT2

Sick Blogger Challenge! Check out



Full Tilt Poker has given us an $18k Aussie Millions package to give away for our next challenge.
$18,000 Prize Package for you and a friend

The 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event begins Monday, January 14th and promises to be bigger than ever. Play for your $18K prize package, including:

* Aussie Millions Main Event entry worth AUD $10,500
* 10 nights stay at the luxurious Crown Casino Resort
* Round-trip airfare for the winner and a guest from Los Angeles to Melbourne
* $3,000 in spending money
* Winner & Pro golf outings, dinners, winery tours, seminars and a bounty tournament
Pretty god damn cool if you ask me and I was stunned when they brought it up. This was the package I really hoped to give away but thought was lost since I started so late on the planning. An opportunity to send a player and companion to the Land of Oz for 10 days with a $10k tournament thrown in there.

During the original BBT there was some positive and negative comments about the point system plus the number of people awarded points. For the BBTwo you won't have to worry about those points. We will be awarding the Aussie Millions package to the winner of a Tournament of Champions. So if you'd like to win the trip, you have to win one of the events during the eight week run. No worrying about making the points. No worrying about who made the most money during the challenge. Win an event and you are in the TOC and a shot at the Aussie Millions package.

So if you are interested in winning the Aussie Millions package, play them to win them.

But only so many people can win an event during this stretch so what about everyone else? We want everyone to play, enjoy themselves, and have a shot at winning something. Full Tilt Poker has given us the Aussie Millions Package but that's not all they're giving us.

FTP is giving us an entry into their weekly big Sunday guarantee tournaments whic we will reward to the Player of the Week. This is where that pesky point system comes in again. We will be using the same point formula as the last Challenge but this time around only the top 25% of players in each event will receive points. Whoever earns the most points during the week will get a ticket into the FTP Sunday Guarantee Tournament.

The point system will also be used to determine players to qualify for an end of challenge freeroll which is still being worked out.

There are just a couple more things to finalize and we'll get back to you with the details. I have an FTOPS Main Event seat to give away and we're just kicking around ideas of what to do with it. I also have an iPod Touch to give away courtesy of the folks at donkit.com. So many things to give away, so little time to figure out how to give them away.

So there you have it. BBTwo is about to kick off and it's time to reload your FTP account, start firing up those Token Frenzies, and strap in for an 8 week, 27 tournament challenge to see what you are made of.

We are going to kick things off on Sunday, October 21st with the big prizepool in Miami Don's Big Game. The rest of the Blogger Schedule will go as planned except now the Riverchasers events will also be weekly during the challenge. The challenge will run for 8 weeks ending on Sunday, December 16th with another Big Game.



Tournaments:





Tournament: Mondays at the Hoy
When: Every Monday. 10pm ET
Game: NLHE Deepstack
Buyin: $24+2
Password: hammer

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Every Wednesday. 10pm ET
Game: NLHE Deepstack
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Tournament: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour
When: Every Thursday. 21:00 ET
Game: NLHE Deepstack
Buyin: $10+1
Password: Riverchasers

Be careful what you wish for ...

Yesterday was reading a post on 2+2 about a guy on party who was just throwing his $ away, shoving with complete air, and fluctuating his stack from $600 up to $9k and back down to 0 at 3/6NL. After reading that I thought, damn why couldn't I have gotten in on that.

Well yesterday I found a guy on cake doing pretty much that. I catch this guy on air, but proceeds with a runner runner flush on me. Then I have him AQs vs A6o, catches a 6. Then I have him AJ vs 73 or something like that, and catches a river 3 for trips. Goodbye 3 buyins at 2/4NL. I managed to win a buyin at other tables so was a -$800 loss only.

Tourney side was very frustrating. I know i'm playing well in tournies right now, making +ev decisions. Playing the stars $20r, I would build my stack, then lose it all when I have my opponents dominated. Went like that the whole tourney and eventually I couldn't rebuy anymore. Should have had a top 20 stack with about 200 left, but as was the case the whole night, miracles ...

On the other side of variance, I won my small Titan World Challenge tourney. This is the 2nd round now. I already made it through the first round, top 35 advanced from Canada. I think I only played 5/8 events and final tabled 3 of them and ended up 5th overall or so. In the 2nd round top 5 of the Americas advance to the final. This is match 2/8 or so. In the final round first place gets a Porsche Cayman (or $100k cash), easy decision, and the rest (35 players) play a $55k freeroll with each position guaranteed payout.

This tourney was in the background until I realized, hey I only have 6BBs left! So I shove with A5s in the highjack, and the BB uses almost all his time to finally call with AK. I spike a 5 and laugh at his slowroll. From then on I just hammered away at all the small/medium stacks. Since this is a position based tourney, players care more about placing, therefore even small stacks don't play proper stack size ratio poker. I had a top 2 stack with 3 tables left and never fell under that. 3 handed was my favourite though, I think 2nd place thought I was a donk. I would continously let the 3rd place small stack in the game, giving him walks. In the mean time I would chip away at the 2nd place guys stack. He didn't want to play big pots with me at all. By the time headsup started I had a 2.5:1 edge after being even with him 3 handed. Headsup lasted 3 hands after I raised all 3 hands pf. He ended up shoving K3 on me and my A6 held. The porsche will be mine!!!!

Fallsview

Wife and friends decided to do some cross border shopping yesterday, $1.02 USD = $1.00 CAD!, so I said just drop me off at the casino on the way.

Went there mainly for the WPT sats, but since I got there at 10am and sats don't start until noon, played some 5/5NL. I'm really not that good at live full ring. Live players are so bad, and flushes always hit. And what I find the biggest difference between live and online is actual $ amount. These guys don't care about odds etc. You hear the guys at the table say something like I'll call a $45 bet but not a $50 bet, when in both cases it might be the right odds to call. Or this case when one player made a $100 min raise and berated the other player for chasing his flush. Lost about $100 at that table. I like to play big pots and nobody else wanted to play big pots with me :(

The $90 wpt sats were pretty much super turbos. 10 players, 1000 chips, 10 min blinds, and they last about 1hr. Even though they are crapshoots, theres no reason why I shouldn't be able to win about 50% of these. Most of these guys don't know odds, and they don't understand push/fold strategy. Bonehead play on my part during the 1st sat 4handed. Short stack moves allin utg, fold, in the SB I grab a stack of chips and push to the middle with A7o, then after realizing damn I only just called. BB has an easy call now and ends up taking the pot on a pot i wanted to isolate on. Then i made a stupid call with 22 which i lost a flip on, and made me super short stack and eventually out 3rd.

The 2nd sat I won pretty easily. I pretty much stayed as either big or 2nd stack throughout the tourney and just hammered away at the other guys. Got caught a few times, but pretty easy to reload my stack again. Headsup the other guy, winner of the 1st sat i played, wanted me to buy him out. No thanks, I know i can own this guy 9/10 times. HU only last 2 hands, I shoved on him preflop the first hand with Kxs, and the 2nd hand he tried shoving on me with 86o. I had A8s. Funniest thing about this sat was the hilarious lying about hands. The headsup tool told me he folded QQ when the short stack went allin and I isolated with an allin. Another lie by the short stack when he said he folded TT after just calling preflop to my raise. Problem is there was a T on the flop. These tools, why bother lying about hands when you're not going to be realistic with it and really doesn't accomplish much other than to say you are tools.

The 3rd sat I pretty much was card dead. I don't think I won a single hand. Out when i pushed on the button with Qxs and Jx won with a rivered straight.

Had the crowd tell me that at least 8/10 of these guys in the sats were pros, though they all counted me as a pro. Not sure if they were all guessing or they've seen these guys before. No way these guys are pros, and if they are, they would last a session online. :) Live players are so baaad.

Have to head back this friday or next to play my $640 sat. 2table winner gets a $10k seat.

So close ... Mansion

Just missed out on final tabling and the juicier payouts. I think I played pretty solid throughout. As always potential for bubble boy as I reshoved with KK right on the bubble. As soon as I built up an above average stack I was easily the tables most active blind stealer. Only got caught twice, but with these blind levels that still hurt. Whenever the "hand for hand" signal went up I turned it on even more. In the end the blind levels rose too fast, everybody 20BB or less, and I shoved on the button with KQs. Ran into JJ and couldn't hit. I was confident on a big score tonight too.

Other tournaments I got deep in were the Betfair $5k rtr freeroll and the Cake WPT. Betfair crashed 4 times throughout the tourney and finally for good with 10 left. I was 3/10 at the time. I believe the table all agreed on 50% share and 50% chipcount distribution. I didn't mind whatever they voted on, with the structure anybody still had a chance to win. The cake wpt event I played solid until late. Going card dead I didn't have the balls to resteal as I saw too many loose calls. Huge stack tried shoving on me twice and I caught him both times with Arag. 3rd time was not the charm though as he finally had a hand as my KJ < AK. Finished 14th I think. 1st paid a seat to the WPT North American championships and 2-4th split about $10k. This is a relatively easy tourney to sat into, and the actual sat has a very nice structure. 10k starting chip style tourney.

Tournies I failed in were cake $10k (close to bubble, QQ
I'm feeling decent about my tourney game again so hopefully Oct will show some good results. Cash game I'm very confident about. I had a 4 buyin loss one day that was frustrating, but in that case had my $ in while I was ahead in each case. Still want to get to Niagara, other than Cake the other options aren't as appealling. Might have to force myself to go down there and play some live sats. Maybe next weekend.

How much have you lost?

For the Canadians out there, how much have you lost due to the exchange rate? With it hovering around 1.03/0.97, I'm just getting killed. Theres always gripes about having to pay an exchange fee when withdrawing, but I would have been way better off paying that and converting back and forth. This is ugly, in Jan 05 it was 1.23. If I sat with $10k usd then, it would be worth $2kcad less now. This is the real bad beat of online poker!

Sept 20: Now its even money!!! Booooo

Dirty Mexican Fun

Heres a quick update of my Mexico trip to the Mayan Riviera. I'm lazy so it will be point form BBV.

Brags

• Very nice hotel, 5 star resort (Grand Sirenis).
• Crazy xrated wedding involving various body shots, and special sausage shots for the ladies
• Muchos Tequila
• Muchos Mohitos. Used to think they taste like ass juice, but when made with sugar cane, yummy!
• Asking bartender to steal us some bottles of Sauza
• Huge pool with with swim up bar. Plus health drink bar which was refreshing (hang over cure)
• Hot Mexican Pepper sauces
• Nice sunny weather. Only spot showers. Felix missed
• Swimming in a cave with waterfall and jump off cliff. Theres a name for it but cant remember

Beats

• Huge resort = lots of walking
• Food was hit or miss
• No poker room :). Had to own at Dominos instead.
• Pretty quiet resort, about 25% capacity due to hurricanes. Also a brag though
• Beach wasn't that nice. Rocky. Highly rated snorkling was overated
• 2hr bus ride to and from the airport
• Seeing a wonder of the world, Chichen Itza, but only being able to climb one of them

Variance

• Mexican food = My ass, my ass, my ass is on fire. We don't need no water let the motherfucker burn!
• Crazy chicks at the discotheque. Including one who wanted to prove to everybody that she had the cutest cooch.
• Iguanas run goot! I couldn't catch them.
• So tempted to tryout a Mexican taco stand while in town. Locals stuffing their faces, looked so good.

Off to Mehico!

Off to do some relaxing in Mexico tomorrow. Mayan Riviera. Buddy's wedding so a lot of tequila will be involved. Good thing, I need a short break from poker, I run not so good. You know your not running good when your sets are losing, a lot. :(

muchos suckouts

So much for Underground Poker

I was actually planning on playing some underground games too, so much for that idea.

http://www.thestar.com/article/250852

Police smoke out gambling dens in industrial malls, charge unlucky 7Aug 29, 2007 04:30 AM
Curtis Rush
Staff Reporter

Police have charged seven people with running illegal gambling houses as a result of a series of raids in Mississauga.

Culminating an investigation begun in December, the OPP's illegal gambling unit and Peel Region police busted two operations on Sunday and one on Monday, following a July 21 raid at another location.

The illicit gaming houses, set up independently in industrial malls, were charging people fees to play Texas hold 'em poker and other games of chance, according to Det. Staff Sgt. Clint Hunter.

The search warrants were executed at Topflight Poker Club at 125 Topflight Dr.; Pockets at unit 10, 6160 Netherhart Rd.; No Limit Club at unit 8, 5500 Tomken Rd.; and Hollywood, at unit 5, 2408 Haines Rd.

The raids also netted a total of 76 players at the locations, but after being interviewed by police, they were released without being charged.

Police noted that the raids did not turn up any drugs or weapons on the premises.

The OPP anti-gambling unit is part of its organized crime section, which along with Peel, is operated in partnership with police services in Toronto, London, York, Windsor and Ottawa.

Vegas Trip Report: Aug 3-6 2007

I guess I better start my trip report while I have a few minutes here.

Friday night, arrive around 11pm. Staying at Harrahs. We decided to choose I nice cheap package, but also stay on the strip. Location wise, I don't think theres a better location. Tried paying off for an ugraded suite, but I guess there were too many people hanging around, and the desk clerk wouldn't go for it. Alltogether we were in a group of 6, 2 were already here and at Tao, and the other couple were due to arrive, but a delay forced their arrival after midnight. We waited for them and didn't do much that night, just walked up to the Wynn and back. Everyone was tired to they hit the sac, I figured I'd hit the tables. Waited 1/2hr and by that time it was 3am, so I gave up.

I woke up about 4hrs later and hit the tables downstairs. Harrahs pretty much only spreads 1/2NL and 3/6limit. Hit the NL table, but it was pretty dry. I think I lost about $20 after sitting down for a couple hours. We then headed out to the outlets to do some shopping. Looking for a nice money clip, but didn't see anything that caught my eye. Went to the Caesars forums after that and did more shopping. Everytime I go there Pete Rose is always in that sports memorbillia shop. Though last year I also bumped into Mini Me, who is > than Rose. After a whole day of shopping, went back to the hotel and played poker for an hour. I think I was $50 or so up this time.

Dinner was at Mesa at Caesars. Ribeye steak was pretty good, needed to fill my stomach because being a cheap drunk is gay. We were going to head to Pure sat night. Walked over there about 9:45 and stood in line. When the club opened at 10:30, the line was just sick. Huge line, and a huge crowd standing in front. We ended up just juicing the bouncer, $150 for 6. Also had to pay cover which was another 30 bones. That juice was pretty cheap, a lot of people offered a bill just for themselves. Pure is a nice club, especially the patio. I'd imagine any rooftop patio on the strip would be nice, the view is incredible. Started the night off with of course a jaeggerbomb, and a few bones later, the buzz was nice. Spent most of the night on the patio as inside was just rammed pack. Can't remember when we left, not that late. Even though I was nicely buzzed, I still decided to hit the tables. Had a decent session, but of course I decided to retun it all to the cursed Wheel of Fortune. Wow did I lose fast!!! Especially on the giant one, I think I dropped $50 straight without a single win.

Sunday morning poker was where the morons come out. I lost big money either when guys hit, or decided bottom pair was good enough to gamble with. My buddy had one had where a dude who limped in behind everyone, ended up stacking him. Dude had AK and hit trips, while my buddy also had trips. Who limps in with position with AK? Screw breakfast poker, time for some In n Out burger! Was good, probably overated, but was still good and cheap.

Later on the afternoon we watched Cirque du Soleil: Mystere at Treasure Island. Wasn't bad, I think I expected more. Crazy stunts, maybe some accidents. There were some annoying parts, some slow parts, and one really gay scene. 2 body builders got awfully close to eachother. Only paid $50 a seat for them, so it was worth it. Theatre was nice, I don't think there are too many bad seats in the house.

Dinner was da bomb ... Rio Buffet. So much good food, takes a bit of time to make your way from one end to the other. mmm Crab legs...

After dinner deciding on whether to hit a club/lounge or hit the tables. Decided to hit a quick tourney, as I had a 6am flight the next morning. Played a $50 + $40 addon at Harrahs. Structure was quick, but not as bad as some others. Some freeroll type players, some other players that think they're good, generally weak. One hand I push preflop with AK. Get called by 75s and A9? Surprised I held. Lost most of my chips when a guy flat called me with bottom pair on a AQJs board. Not sure how I couldn't get him off his hand. I held Ksx. My out hand was against the same player, he limped, I pushed with 10+BB with 55, he called with QT and I'm out in 15th. Top 5 was the payout. Ended up hit the cash tables after that and made some money, no biggie. By that time I was pretty dead tired, and wanted to crash for an hour before I had to pack.

So there was my weekend, nothing major, good times, and as always VEgas is da shit. Next time I promise to play other casinos, and more tournies. Stamp that in my agenda.

July sucks

Had my worst month of the year, actually my only negative month so far. Just ran bad this month. Had one day where I dropped 4 buyins at 500nl on Betfair. Was also my least played month. Was actually about to win a tourney this month but I runner runner flush killed me heads up. Not sure he was doing calling my allin on the flop with A7 on a Kxx board. He loses that I pretty much win the tourney.

Heading to Vegas on Friday, booya!

Doubt I'll be playing much the next 2 days.

August I might take a break on cash games on try out some tournies again. FTOPS, and start satelliting for WCOOP. Still have to get off my lazy ass and play some live games. Also need to start satelliting for WPT Niagara.

Increasing my odds

I think the odds of me winning next year's wsop main event just went up a few points, well at least my confidence did. For the 2nd straight year a lagtard has won the wsop me, Jerry Yang. I do think Jamie Gold is a much better player than this guy though. From what I watched, this guy has no concept of fold equity, player ranges, and who the hell raises preflop 10xBB?

This guy just made Baby Jesus a very rich man!

Hey if I can take home 8.25 mill, maybe you'll see me in God's house on Sundays rather than in front of my computer.

WSOP Main Event Final Table Tonight!

The final table is set and here are the participants:

Seat 1: Jon Kalmar – 20,320,000
Seat 2: Lee Childs – 13,240,000
Seat 3: Philip Hilm – 22,070,000
Seat 4: Jerry Yang – 8,450,000
Seat 5: Raymond Rahme – 16,320,000
Seat 6: Tuan Lam – 21,315,000
Seat 7: Alex Kravchenko – 6,570,000
Seat 8: Lee Watkinson – 9,925,000
Seat 9: Hevad Khan – 9,205,000

Prize Pool Below:

1st: $8,250,000
2nd: $4,840,981
3rd: $3,048,025
4th: $1,852,721
5th: $1,255,069
6th: $956,243
7th: $705,229
8th: $585,934
9th: $525,934

You can catch it on ESPN PPV today at 3pm EST. I'm probably not going to pay for it, hopefully it will leak out again.

Personally I'm going to cheer for Tuan Lam. Asian dude from Kitchener, represent!

Brief Update

Hey an actual post! I guess like everyone else, summer season is pretty slow and we all get pretty lazy when it comes to blogging. I wanted to play less online poker during July and try to enjoy some sun. Also wanted to tryout some underground live games, but have yet to do so.

In terms of online, this is what I've been up to.

Played Sunday tournies for the first time in July yesterday. I wish I hadn't, its just damn frustrating. Most of my tournies I built up a nice stack early, and just can't win the big pots later on. I'm making the right reads, making the right plays, just not winning the flips or the favourites. No real bad beats, but often just winning the right pot at the right time becomes a tournament altering situation. One play that is really a major pet peeve of mine are those who still love Ace rag! These guys are calling off stacks without odds or stack ratios with that crap, and just seeing that Ace hit on the board makes me cringe. I guess if these guys weren't around a wouldn't have built my stack up anyways.

A couple of those put me on tilt in another tourney. So pissed that I hit the wrong button, ended up minreraising a pot with Q3o. I wish that site had an allin button instead, probaby would have gotten that guy to fold, he only had 55 but it held. At that time I had a decent stack and good read on the table, and could have taken it down.

No more MTTs until august. Nothing major this month anyways, might as well regroup for FTOPS.

For those Canadians with time to kill, check out www.scorepoker.com Easy freerolls to win a trip to Vegas. I usually have it in the background when I'm playing or doing something else. Don't really need to think, just shove when you have something and you'll often get called.

On the cash games side, I've pretty much been on Party working off a bonus. They're not really as soft as I was hoping, probably because its bonus time. I really got to stop chasing bonuses and just play one site and build it up. A free $100 bonus or whatever is fine, but playing against weaker oponents is greater EV. After this party bonus is done, going to stick to Betfair and nothing else. Hopefully I stick to my plans this time. I think I said I wouldn't play any tournies in July = X. I think I also said no more Limit = X.

Still in the red for the month, but hopefully I'll turn it around the 2nd half of the month which should only be cash games. The only other tournament I believe I'm going to play is some Titan world challenge where you can win a Porsche. A $5 league. Already missed the first 2, but you only need to be top 35 to move on. Should be relatively easy. Mondays at 10pm est I think. I missed last weeks because it shows Tuesday on the Titan site. Stupid me forgot Tues 3am BST = Monday night.

Noooooo Limit

I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit ... I will not play limit

June has definately been my worse month so far. My only positive has been my no limit cash games. Limit is just killing me, I have no luck in that game. Even lost to a straight flush last night! I'm down in my omaha cash games, though my last couple of sessions I'm pretty sure I'm making the right decisions, I'm just not benefiting from them yet.

ex)
Preflop: ep pot raise, mp call, I call on the button with AKxx ds
Flop: 985 ep pot raise, mp call. I flop top 2 with nut flush draw.

easy allin?

Omaha is fun, and I do want to improve on it. Still have the Slotsboom and Ciaffone books sitting on my shelf I have to read though. I definately to get more practice on this though.

I'm down on my mtts as well, though its mostly from wsop sats.

Doubt I'll be playing much more with the long weekend coming up, maybe watch some videos, haven't watched as much as I planned to.