But They're Suited!

Because Al Can't Hang asked...

2008-01-21T22:25:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I'm still here. Playing poker now and then. Anyway...

Because Al Can't Hang asked

WORST POKER PLAYER EVER

Back at the tables

2007-01-14T18:49:00.000-06:00

Well, after a bit of a break during the holidays, I jumped back into the fray this month. Pokerstars had a deposit bonus that expired on 1/2, and I deposited 400 to get a 100 bonus just before the time limit.

I'm actually suprised how well I've been doing since taking the break. I'm up about $130 in my bankroll from playing .25/.50 and .50/1.00 NLHE earning FPP to get my bonus, and I'm about 350 points into the 1000 I need to clear my bonus.

Maybe taking a break from playing has somehow helped me focus more now that I've returned? Or maybe lots of new fishies have hit the water since the holidays? Whatever it is, I like it.

What I'm Reading

2006-12-04T13:24:00.000-06:00

Time for yet another installment of What I'm Reading. I know you've all been holding your breath waiting for this, so...

This past weekend I went on a bit of an SnG rampage. I played 6 Turbo SnGs on Stars on Saturday (mostly the 3.40/10 player), cashing in 4 of them including 1 first place finish. One of the ones I didn't cash in was when I tried to take it up a level and play the 6.50/9. I bubbled out of that one. Oh, well. Then on Sunday I went at it again, but with less stellar results this time. 5 3.40/10 played, 5 finishes out of the money.

Today while lunching, I was catching up on some older posts at ScurvyDog's Blog (Sounds of a Suckout) that I'd bookmarked in my feed reader, and noticed he'd been playing SnG's lately, too. Here are 3 posts with some great SnG content that gave me something to think about:

Let's Get Grindy (first 3 paragraphs)

Two-Outer Magnet

4th Place, Baby, 4th Place

One thing about my game that definitely needs to improve is my aggression, especially on the bubble. It still surprises me when I bet out in position on a flop I missed and the rest of the players in the hand fold (2-4 players).

I think I'm going to keep banging away at the $3.00 turbos for a bit, as it's less of an impact to my bankroll when variance sends my win rate south. Of course, that wouldn't be as big a deal if I hadn't
1) Decided to mess with real money 2-7 Triple Draw after about 1/2 hour at a play money table,
2) Managed to increase my buy-in by 2/3rds in the first few hands of said cash money game, and
3) Tried to "get back my losses" by losing that buy-in and another. There go my 4th place winnings from the 4.00/180 the other day.

2-7 Triple Draw

2006-12-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

Playing 2-7 triple draw for the first time for real money can be rather high variance.

That is all.

What I'm Reading

2006-11-28T12:50:00.000-06:00

In another attempt to post fairly regularly, I decided to do a regular "What I'm Reading" post. Give some link love to the stuff I've enjoyed, and possibly alert some people to stuff they may not have seen, though I imagine I'm usually last to the party on most (if not all) of this stuff.

Over on CardSquad, Wil Wheaton has a great article on a Barry Tanenbaum article: "Are you a a long term winner?". I haven't read the original article yet, but it sounds good from Wil's summary.

Since I'm at work, and lunch hour is over, that's all for now. I may add more later, or maybe tomorrow.

By the way - has anyone heard of (or used) CheckYourBets.com? If so, how did you like it?

Long time, no see (or poker)

2006-11-26T21:06:00.000-06:00

The fall hit the area, and it was nice to be outside. I took advantage of that. I mostly kept up with reading poker blogs, but didn't play poker or write here (obviously).

About 2 weeks ago I started dipping my toes back in the poker water. I started playing some limit poker at Stars, and did fairly well. Typically ended with winning sessions - sometimes just barely, sometimes doubling up before quitting. One thing about Stars since the demise of Party Poker for US players: there are now LOTS of players that WAY over value TPTK when straight and/or flush possibilities exist on the board. WEE!

Tonight I played one of the 4.00+.40/180 tourneys at Stars. I played a few of those (not sure how many - less than 10) before taking the poker hiatus. I decided to give one a try tonight. I managed to get 4th place for a 57.60 payout. First time I've finished in the money in one of those. I might have to try that again sometime.

Of course, all of the above happened only in my imagination since I live in the USA.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2006-10-03T19:26:00.000-05:00

We all know about the impending doom (or not) of online poker. No need for me to rehash that. I've read here and there about the various plans of various poker sites, etc. I read on CardSquad that Neteller hadn't really said much yet. Well, when I logged into my neteller account I was prompted to review and agree to new terms of use before proceeding to my account. One paragraph in particular has piqued my interest:

12. Other Member Obligations

12.1 You are prohibited from engaging in any of the following:
(i) using the NETELLER Service to obtain a cash advance from your credit card ( or assisting others in such activity); (ii) using the NETELLER Service for any purpose contrary to laws, statutes or regulations applicable to you, including without limitation, those concerning money laundering, fraud, criminal activity, financial services or consumer protection; (iii) sending unsolicited email or similar methods of mass messaging (spam); (iv) harassing or engaging in obscene, rude or abusive behaviour against us or any of our representatives; and (v) tampering, hacking, modifying, damaging, interfering with or otherwise corrupting the security or functionality of the NETELLER Service, or attempting to do any of the foregoing.

And this part:

14. Limiting Access or Terminating your Account

14.1 At our discretion, we may suspend or limit access to your Account (including without limitation, placing a hold on funds in your Account, limiting your ability to send or redeem, transfer or withdraw electronic money from your Account, limiting your payment sources) or terminate your Account, at any time and for any reason, including but not limited to the following:

(g) we believe your Account has been used or allegedly used in or to facilitate fraudulent or illegal activity;

That bolded sections (emphasis added by me) is very interesting. Could that be their loophole to stop allowing US players into their accounts? Anyone know?

What I've read lately

2006-09-14T16:24:00.000-05:00

I'm considering starting a new semi-regular feature here: "What I've Read Lately". A post of links to interesting pokery stuff (and occasionally non-pokery stuff) I've read around the interwebtubes lately. If you have a strong opinion on this, please let me know.

First up in this inagural post:
Grading the WSOP's Cast of Characters: The Newcomers over at PokerBlog.com by Change100. This is a good rundown of some of the new cast of characters from the WSOP main event running on ESPN. I haven't watched the episodes she's mentioned yet - their stored on my Tivo - but she gives me things to watch for as I play catch up this weekend.

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I know I'm late to the party on this, but there is a great series of posts at PokerNews.com about the 2 million chip discrepancy at the WSOP Main Event. It is rather detailed, but if you enjoy that stuff then this is a good read. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Go check it out.

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ScurvyDog has a great post up about the death of poker blogs. Go read it. Now.
Oh, and it looks like there is another no-lose bet available. I learned of it on ScurvyDog's blog, so go check it out there.

Ok, it's quitting time at work so that's all for now.

What a rush!

2006-09-12T22:47:00.001-05:00

I just finished playing another 1.00/45 tournament on PokerStars. At one point, once we'd made the final money list (top 7 pay), I was down to an M of less than 1. Blinds were 400/800 and ante was 50. I had less than 1200 left in my stack. I was about to go out. I had K6o. Table folded around to the cutoff. He raised to 2400. SB folds. All I have left is T366, so I push. Figure I was getting tired and I'd go to bed. He turns over KK. A 6 hits on the flop, and a 6 hits on the turn. A suckout kept me alive.

At that point it was still a 2-3 way battle for who would go out 7th. A couple of other big hands, and suddenly I'm in #2 with 18K chips. A few other big hands, and suddenly it's heads up. I have 61K and my opponent has 6k. I managed to chip them up to 20K before putting them out. First place, baby!

One thing did bug me though. Several times I told my heads-up opponent NH and wished them GL when we'd get all in together. Never got a response. I don't know why some people need to be that way.

Anyway, good night at the tables and a good bump to the bankroll.

The tournament progress continues

2006-09-11T21:19:00.000-05:00

Played another 1.00/45 player tournament at Stars tonight. Made the money again. Not first, but that makes 4 money finishes in a row in that tourney. A few more finishes in the top 4 or so and I'll move up a little in buy-ins. I'm thinking about the 5.00/45 at Stars next.

Poker, poker, poker, poker, poker, poker, poker......

2006-09-09T15:25:00.000-05:00

It's been a slow last couple of weeks on the poker scene. I've played a couple of tournaments on Stars here and there, but for the most part I've been enjoying other parts of my life that have been neglected lately. Like reading (though some of it has been poker reading), and photography (though just beginning so I suck), and spending some time outdoors since some cooler weather has arrived.

As far as the tournaments go, I've been fairly pleased with my results. I've been applying some of the techiques I've been reading about in the books I've been reading (Harrington Vol. 1 and doubleas' book), and it's been working out well. I haven't moneyed in every tournament, but I've finished fairly high when I didn't money. I could probably play in a little higher buy-in tournaments, but I'm really enjoying playing in ones that are low enough buy-in that I can practice the stuff I've learned without freaking out about losing the buy-in.

I think my playing may increase some, so my writing should increase some. Don't give up. Stick around. Hopefully it'll be worth it.

I have "you make the call" type post coming because I really want input from my readers. First I need to figure out which tournament the hand hit in, and get the hand history so I can track down the actual hand and post it here. Look for it in the next day or two.

Semi-Poker, Semi-Life

2006-08-24T21:20:00.000-05:00

I've played a little lately, but very little. Other things coming up have been keeping me away from the tables. Spending a little more time with the wife while she is between classes, doing a few projects around the house, stuff like that.

When I have been playing it's mostly been the very low SnGs at Stars. Typically the 1.00 MTT SNG, sometimes the 1.50 turbo (18 player). Doing so-so. Not too much donkey play, but not winning either. Hitting the money about 1/2 the time, and making the top 10 (out of 45) when not in the money.

Also got a couple of books, so I've been spending my lunch hour at work educmacating myself. Watch out! Book learnin' will make me feared!

I've been reading about the Bash. Sounds like a blast. Wish I could be there, but alas it will not happen. Not that Sooted will be missed. :-)

I need to start commenting more on blogs. I read lots of good stuff, but since I read it all via Bloglines I rarely comment. So if you don't see comments from me, don't think I'm not reading. I am.

Adam LaBare mentions some new fancy whiz-bang software thingy about poker. He's looking for beta testers, so drop him a line.

Hopefully I'll hit a few tournaments this weekend. And hopefully I'll cash out. Slowly building that bankroll.

That's all for now. I humbly thank you for your attention to this point.

Quick update and stuff

2006-08-08T11:33:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty busy with non-poker stuff, but I've been squeezing in some time here and there. No spectacular wins, and no huge losses. Just keepin' on keepin' on. There have been a few bad beats, but when are there not bad beats? At least I found somewhere to post them next time it happens.

So I got this girly chat thingy that all the cool bloggers talk about (the Yahoo one), and only Bloody P (Thanks, dude!) has added me to their list. Not only that, but he's never on when I am (but it hasn't been that often lately). So am I not worthy of being part of everyone else's girly chat contact list? I just want to learn - LET ME LEARN!

Poker Savvy continues to kick butt. I got an email from them about some freeroll tournaments and such. Go check them out. Really. I'd love to get the referral credit, but even if I don't, go check them out. They rock. Link on the left.

Found a hole in my game

2006-07-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

I found a hole in my game. I fold 45o before the flop unless I'm getting in for free on the big blind.

My pocket pair of 9s got beat (made 2 pair, 5s and 9s) by the guy that stayed in TO A RAISE in middle position with 45o.

AAARRRGGHHH!!!!!

Did I miss something?

2006-07-26T17:28:00.000-05:00

I've been playing a little limit hold'em on Stars today. The .05/.10 tables. Did I miss something in my poker reading, or is 7T suited a good starting hand in middle position (UTG +3)? I saw that same thing - 7T suited - played down to the river and either mucked (so it shows in hand history) or turned up several times in the 45 mins. or so I played. What is going on? Or am I the lost one?

New best quote

2006-07-25T15:38:00.000-05:00

I am starting a new feature on this blog - The Best Quote.

The inagural winner of The Best Quote, with a placement somewhere in the template (yet to be determined) until the next The Best Quote replaces it, is from Sir Al Can't Hang in this post:

What's the mating call of a lemur? "But I had odds to call you!"

There is no regular schedule on this. It's not weekly, monthy, or even yearly for that matter. The current The Best Quote reigns until I find a new The Best Quote.

Now go read the post.

Time for a change

2006-07-23T19:52:00.000-05:00

I think it's time for me to go back to PokerStars for a bit. Too many bad beats with people that won't lay down hands have put me into the scared money category. I'm having to play a little over my bankroll at Poker.com in order to earn the comp points to get my bonus money. But I have until September to clear the bonus money, so I think I'll take a break.

My bankroll at Stars is a little bigger, so I can be a little more comfortable with my play there. Plus, I was having a fairly good tournament run at Stars before switching to Poker.com. I think I need to switch back for a bit just for my sanity.

Finally got a girly chat thing

2006-07-21T23:17:00.000-05:00

So I finally got an account on one of the girly chat things. Yahoo messenger. If you want to add me, email me and I'll give you the info.

Man, crickets can chirp loud!

2006-07-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

Yes, I hear the crickets chirping around here. I think I saw a tumbleweed go by the other day. It's been a while since I exposed more of my personal stupidity to the world. I made a comment over at Bloody P's blog and it made me realize how long it's been since I posted here.

Nothing of major importance to report on the poker front. Still plugging away at my bonus at Poker.com. Had a few ups and downs on the bankroll balance, but most of my plays have been good. A couple of donkey plays here and there, but when I get bored, WATCH OUT!

From the stating the obvious department: Playing at a fish tank like Poker.com has its good and bad sides. The stuff people call pot sized bets with TO THE RIVER just amazes me. Logically I know that I need to root on that behavior every chance I get, because in the long run it will make me money. But when you get a $30.00 pot (at the .10/.25 table) sucked out on you on the river because some lemur can't lay down bottom pair then hits his set, well that just sucks. Oh well. Overall my balance is everything I deposited originally plus 1/2 of the bonus money I'd earned so far, so I'm only down 1/2 my bonus money. This after being down so low on a couple of bad beats that I barely had the buy-in for the .10/.25 table. I know - if I'm playing that close to the edge I'm playing above my bankroll. But the .10/.25 table is the lowest that will still give me comp points that I need to earn my bonus. And I'm fine tuning my game hoping to catch that up before I'm done with bonus chasing there. At that point, it'll be back to Stars for a bit.

I really miss playing at Stars. It's still my favorite place to play. But right now the bonus is just too easy to earn at Poker.com to go back to playing for no bonus at Stars. But never fear all you Stars players - I'll be back donking off my chips in no time at all.

Oh, and it's time for an intervention on Bloody P. He thinks you can make beer out of wheat. Wheat is for BREAD! BARLEY is for BEER!

Oh, and a thanks goes out to G3Poker for signing up through me at PokerSavvy, then completing his play requirements at Poker.com. I got a few more savvy points for him doing that, so I really appreciate it. I'm gonna use my points for Amazon.com gift certificates and share them with my wife. That will score some brownie points in the poker department, for sure.

Oh, and if anyone can tip me off to where all the girly chat goes on among the poker bloggers, I'd appreciate it. I'd love to join in one of the blogger micro limit games on Stars that I'm always reading about. If I am worthy of even daring to think of joining. I think it'd be awesome to play with some of the authors I read on a daily basis. I've not gotten comfortable with risking a chunk of my roll on one of those tourneys yet, because I don't think there's hope of me finishing in the money in that kind of field, but I'd love to play some micro-limit sometime. If anyone feels like they can share the info with me, please let me know.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be doing some fishing (instead of feeding the fish) on Poker.com tonight.

--
Play Poker. Get Free Stuff. And send a blogger to Vegas. Check out PokerSavvy

Live poker tournaments are so rigged!

2006-07-13T10:11:00.000-05:00

So I was watching some of the PPT (Professional Poker Tour) last night on the Travel chanel. At a side table there was a 3-way all-in. KK vs. TT (I think, hard to recall), vs. 33. Flop comes AK2. Turn comes 5. River comes 4. So the pocket 3's beat the set of Ks on the river.

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENTS ARE SO RIGGED!

Stating the obvious

2006-07-11T22:11:00.000-05:00

Variance is a bitch. A total bitch. Beat me up some more please.

That is all.

Review of Poker.com

2006-07-04T22:18:00.000-05:00

I've now earned 5000+ comp points at Poker.com, which means I've played at over 1500 raked hands - even more counting those where everyone (but one) folded pre-flop. I've been playing the .10/.25 tables, and each raked hand earns 3 comp points. So I've played enough hands there to give it an overall review.

The software it uses requires you have the flash player version 8 installed. It will install it if you don't have it installed, so that is taken care of for you.

The play seems rather fishy, but beware - there are some educated sharks in those waters. At one table I sat at for over an hour one player literally limped in on every single hand. I am not exagerating. I had my QQ broken by him making a full boat of 9's over 4's on the river. Yes, he played 94o.

The software did have a tendency to make my laptop reboot sporadically. Sometimes it'd be an hour and a half into a session, other times it'd be 10 minutes in - though that happened after rebooting and logging back in. In the middle of a hand suddenly my laptop screen would go blank, then I'd get the "Starting Windows" progress meter on the screen. Fortunately most of the time I was out of the hand, but at least once I had people betting into me when I'd flopped a straight. Oh well.

On a positive note, it doesn't use the characters like Party Poker and others. It lets you have an icon along with your name similar to Stars. This works better for me as I tend to associate the picture with the player. They have a large variety of icons to choose from or you can upload your own.

Traffic is still somewhat of a problem, though. Whenever I logged in they had around 2500 players logged in. That makes for somewhat sparce table selection and when I was multi-tabling I managed to have some of the same players at each table I was playing.

They do have some interesting bonuses. First of all there is a bonus code to get a 100% match on your first deposit. It takes 200 comp points to earn back $1.00 in bonus money, and they'll pay it out to you in $10.00 increments. You also get an entry into a daily freeroll for those that have made their first deposit. The entry is good for a week, and you can use it every day for that week. You also get an entry into a satellite to their WSOP tourney whenever you earn 400 comp points in a 24 hour period. I also managed to earn an entry into a $4k freeroll for the amount of points I've earned, but I don't recall what the requirement was.

Edit: A couple of things I forgot in my first pass. First, when you fold in a heads up situation (that isn't an all-in - not sure why they do that), then you can check boxes to show only one card or both. I like that feature. Also, when you're folded to in a heads-up situation you can select the "rabbit" button which turns over your cards and plays out the board to see what would happen. That is kinda fun, too, in the right situation. (Props to g3poker for reminding me of that last bit.)

Overall I would rate it 2.5 out of 5. The majority of my experience is with PokerStars so everything is compared to it. Stars isn't perfect, so it only rates a 4.5 on the scale. Will I keep playing there? I might until I've earned my bonus money because it is fairly easy to earn. Will I stay there long term? Probably not.

If you want to try it out, go through PokerSavvy to sign up. You only need to earn 1000 comp points (approx. 333 raked hands at .10/.25, fewer hands at higher limits) and you get 750 Savvy points. 750 Savvy points = $75.00 in gift certificates at Amazon.com.

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Play Poker. Get Free Stuff. And send a blogger to Vegas. Check out PokerSavvy.

26 SnG at one time?

2006-06-30T07:38:00.000-05:00

g3poker has a post about a player doing 26 SnGs at once on Stars. Links to video included. Check it.

Poker.com quest continues

2006-06-29T22:44:00.000-05:00

I played about 3 hrs. on Poker.com tonight. First I played the First Depositors $500 freeroll. Played about 45 minutes and went out 34th out of 76. Oh well. At least it didn't cost me anything to enter.

Then I went to the .10/.25 tables. Did fairly well there. Bought in for the max of 25.00 and cashed out for 55.xx. Not too bad. I've also earned 700+ of the 1000 points I need to qualify for the PokerSavvy points. I still need around 15k or so to qualify for my deposit bonus, but less than 300 to get my 750 PokerSavvy points. I'm thinking I may cash them in for a $25 and $50 Amazon gift certs. Get some books on pokerin' or sumpthin. Maybe learn to play good pokerin.

Until next time........

Update to the PokerSavvy freeroll

2006-06-28T21:56:00.000-05:00

I went out 7th out of 36 total entrants in the PokerSavvy freeroll. The top 5 places paid, with first getting 400 and 5th getting 40. The big dogs like BoobieLover, Mookie, and some others. I did way better than I thought I would, but it never feels good to be put out after being the 86% favorite on a hand going into the turn (river?). Anyway a good time was had by all. Or at least it seemed that way.

I still need about 550 Comp points on Poker.com to qualify for my PokerSavvy points. The jury is still out on whether I'll continue to play there after that. Yeah, there's this whole bonus thing, but whatever....I don't like the site that much, but I like it better than some others I've played.

My ring game seesaw continues. I managed to go up $38.00 playing .25/.50 at Poker.com, took a break for dinner, then managed to go back and give it all back before the start of the freeroll. At least most of my losses were bad beats, which at least means I'm not playing poorly or playing bad hands. Always have to look on the bright side.

That's enough pokering for tonight. Check you tomorrow.