Getting back on track

So I decided to make the changes I felt necessary to revamp my current poker situation and things have actually been going quite well lately. I'm still grinding out the micro limits but to be honest I think it's better for me in the long run. The few changes I've made are the following.

1. Rearranged my room to have a better office/poker playing setup where I could focus solely on playing poker and nothing else.
2. Stuck to strict BR requirements and have not been getting in over my head.
3. Moved some money to Full Tilt so I can receive rakeback to help out with the growth of a new BR.

I wanna say I've logged close to 4K in hands at the .10/.25 6max NL level and have been playing well. I don't have poker tracker up and running on this computer so I don't have exact numbers to show but I would bet over the 4K hands I've had a win rate of close to 7 bb/100 which is great but over way to small of a sample size to really mean anything. The thing I'm happiest about is the rakeback that is filtering in left and right. I want to say on the month of December I have already amassed $30 or so, which given my BR is HUGE! If I'm able to get a buy-in or 2 every month I will be stoked!

So things are going a little better than the last few posts have alluded to. It still sucks to be playing at suck small stakes when I'm use to playing .50/$1 and $1/$2 but ya know....that's what I get for being a dumbass! Some goals I have set for myself here in the next few months are reachable but will take some discipline and hard work.

Currently my BR sits at a little over $200 on Tilt which is just about 8 buy-ins at the level I'm currently playing. Now I know this isn't the proper BR management I've been talking about but I've beat this level before and know I can do it again. I plan on playing at this level until I reach a BR of about $1200 - $1500. That will then give me roughly 25 - 30 buy-ins at the .25/.50 level which would be my next step. I figure with rakeback coming in and how my play has been shaping up I should reach the .25/.50 level by the end of February. That will take some doing, but I think it's feasible if I put my mind to it. A little more of short term goal is to try and play each and everyday so I can keep my skills spot on.

More than anything I'm loving the new setup in my room where there is no distraction. I have been able to completely focus on each and every table I'm sitting at and feel like I'm back to my roots when and where I first began to make money playing this game I love. More updates to come soon.

I'm back on Titl!

So in an attempt to mix things up a little bit and give myself a change of pace I split my BR across Full Tilt and Poker Stars. I now have about $150 - $200 on each site and can now start receiving rake back again from Tilt! I'm excited to be back on Tilt and hope good things come of this. Oh and I also changed my avatar back the the monkey which is what I began with and just feels like home to me on Tilt.

A New Outlook

My recent downswing/bad run on Poker Stars has got me to thinking about what I truly want to get out of the recreational play I submit myself to on a daily basis. I feel as though I have such high expectations for myself and my results that it's hard to feel good about a win if it's not significant. When I say significant I mean winning 10 - 25% of my bankroll in a single session. At times I've had such good fortune in poker that it makes these current times (when the BR is low and grinding is the way) hard to stomach.

Take for example living on Steak and potatoes and top notch sea food for a given time frame in your life and then abruptly having to scale down your lifestyle to ramen noodles and boxed mac and cheese. This is a major lifestyle change and one that doesn't kill you...but definitely slaps you in the face with reality. Not to mention makes you take a step back and question how you got yourself in this current situation.

My story can easily be followed over the duration of this blog but to give you the cliff notes of the tortuga0981 story...I've always had a passion and understanding of the game, made money, used profit to pay for trips and gifts for others and myself, but in times of vulnerability I've shown immaturity in making bad monetary decisions. Decisions like playing over my head or pulling off money and then with a lower BR continuing to play at the limits I am use to. These are obvious red flags in terms proper BR management and I know this. Why then do I make these bad decisions? Well for one, because I've played above my head many times and won money before.

So what then is this sudden epiphany or new outlook that I speak of? Well a few days ago I was reading two different articles on 2+2 that opened my eyes to what I really should be looking at in terms of where I'm at in my poker career. I was down on my luck and thinking nothing could go my way until I read these. The two articles were by Ireguy and Gigabet and can be found in the links below.

Ireguy's Article
Gigabet's Article

Both of these articles really put things into perspective for and gave me this new outlook that I speak of. Yeah times have been bad, both due to my doings and not, but regardless I know I love the game and can win while playing.

Becoming very discouraged :(

I think since my last post I've depleted my BR to almost nothing. Currently I'm sitting with around $350 in my PS account. I know pretty pathetic for the caliber of player I honestly feel I am.

Things just really haven't been going my way and the beats and unmanageable situations just keep rolling in. I'm now reduced to the lowest of the low limits which isn't the end of the world to me, just frustrating. I've been backed in this corner many times before and have always found a way out, but for some reason I get this uneasy feeling that I'm gonna go busto this time. Thats such a bad attitude for a poker player to have and to be quite honest that mentality probably has some correlation to my recent shityness!

I've spent the past few days doing a lot of forum reading and listening to tons of P5's podcasts. I feel like the game to me just isn't all that exhilarating right now as it used to be. In the past I thrived on those 12+ hour sessions where I would win 10+ buyins at whatever level I was playing at or finishing off that tournament for a nice sized score. These days my time to play is so limited that when I have time I feel like I'm forcing myself to play.

This really fucking sucks because I love poker and the challenging obstacles it presents. I know that this new job that I have is the main factor in my poker demise but monetarily things are going so well for me now that it's taking away from poker.

Who knows what will become of this? By no means am I giving up on poker and by no means have I lost that edge that I used to posses. I think I just need to let everything work itself out. To start anew I plan on having a better outlook on poker and the beats/wins that come my way. I am too young and life is too good right now for me to be stressing and I need to remember that. Having the ability to play online poker with regularity is a blessing in itself, not to mention the success I've had. I need to remind myself of these things and not worry when poker throws a cure ball at me; rather learn how to sit on that pitch and hit it out of the park.

Cash Game Update

I've been trying to get in 500+ hands in a session playing 4 tables...still at $50 NL of course. Things still aren't all that good but then again not all that bad. I haven't been playing on my laptop so don't have exact numbers from poker tracker to key you in on the specifics of how I've been playing. I recently hooked up my desktop to my 42' plasma which is soooo sick. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse so I can play from my couch! Talk about being about as lazy as possible! I don't think it's going to be my primary computer to play on, I just wanted to see what the resolution would look like and try it out. I think I will use this setup for hand/session discussion, video viewing with buddies, final tables, and the occasional session.

So back to the point of this post. I have mixed emotions about dropping down to $50 NL in that going in I thought making money would be like taking candy from a baby but after a few thousand hands I can see that I'm a moron for thinking that. There is no such thing as a free lunch...right? Well here is how I evaluate my play at this level so far. I don't seem to have a problem accumulating money at all, but it's keeping it around that gets me. Like I said in an earlier post, I seem to be spewing chips left and right and more of a conscious effort needs to be put into protecting my stack once I have it.

Let's look at a hand that I played last night.
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 2: cracksito ($193.35)
Seat 3: Neoblitz727 ($50.05)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 ($64.60) -
Seat 5: birdiemobile ($37.55) -
Seat 6: kevark ($66.05) -


PRE-FLOP:

birdiemobile posts small blind $0.25
kevark posts BIG blind $0.50
Dealt To: tortuga0981


FOLD cracksito
FOLD Neoblitz727
RAISE tortuga0981 ($2)
FOLD birdiemobile
RAISE kevark ($4.50)
CALL tortuga0981 ($2.50)


FLOP:

Pot: $9.75
   

BET kevark ($5)
CALL tortuga0981 ($5)


TURN:

Pot: $19.75
    

BET kevark ($8)
CALL tortuga0981 ($8)


RIVER:

Pot: $35.75
     

BET kevark ($25)
FOLD tortuga0981

kevark collected $33.55 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $35 Rake: $1.70

Final Board:
     

Seat 2: cracksito folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 3: Neoblitz727 folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 button folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-17.5)
Seat 5: birdiemobile small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.25)
Seat 6: kevark big blind collected 33.55 - Net Gain/Loss: ($16.05)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Ok, so I call the smallish min raise from the player in the BB and see a flop where I flop top pair/top kicker. Before we continue I want to talk about what I figured for this player's range. Given that he had been playing 24.32% / 12.16% / 2.20 through 74 hands doesn't tell me all that much but for the most part I peg him as a TAG'ish type player. So I give this weird raise the range of 77+,ATs+,KTs+,QJs,AJo+. Having said that how the hand plays out is weird on my behalf. Looking back I feel I should have raised the flop to find out where I stood. My reasoning for simply calling the entire way was to try to control the pot given what I floped (which I thought could was good) against his weird 3 bet pre-flop. But then the bet on the river just reeked of strength and kind of push me off the hand. And not to mention that the river card filled the one card straight if he had been bluffing with 10 10 the entire time.

So I plugged some numbers into poker stove and they basically called me a pussy which is what I figured.
--------------------
79,200 games 0.005 secs 15,840,000 games/sec

Board: 7c 7s Jd
Dead:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 69.488% 65.57% 03.92% 51933 3101.50 {AcJc}
Hand 1: 30.512% 26.60% 03.92% 21064 3101.50 {77+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AJo+}
--------------------
I needed to see the numbers to reassure myself that I knew what correct play was, which I did, but the river bet just kind of scared me. It looked like such a "call me" bet after 1/2 pot sized bets on the flop and river that a fold just felt like the right play.

Let's look at another hand I played.
Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: Alfparis ($69.25) ( 62.11% / 27.37% / 0.92/ 95)
Player Notes: Plays a very wide range of hands pre-flop.
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($92) ( 13.68% / 11.11% / 4.67/ 117)
Seat 4: shanks686 ($47.25) - ( 34.48% / 10.34% / 0.87/ 87)
Seat 5: underdogggg@ ($82.85) - ( 55.29% / 27.06% / 1.33/ 85)
Seat 6: FRUIT_BAGEL ($50) - ( 16.22% / 4.05% / 0.42/ 74)


PRE-FLOP:

underdogggg@ posts small blind $0.25
FRUIT_BAGEL posts BIG blind $0.50
Dealt To: tortuga0981


CALL Alfparis ($0.50)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($3)
FOLD shanks686
FOLD underdogggg@
FOLD FRUIT_BAGEL
CALL Alfparis ($2.50)


FLOP:

Pot: $6.75
   

CHECK Alfparis
BET tortuga0981 ($4)
CALL Alfparis ($4)


TURN:

Pot: $14.75
    

CHECK Alfparis
CHECK tortuga0981


RIVER:

Pot: $14.75
     

BET Alfparis ($15)
RAISE tortuga0981 ($85)
FOLD Alfparis
tortuga0981:


tortuga0981 collected $42.75 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $44 Rake: $2

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: Alfparis folded on the River - Net Gain/Loss: ($-22)
Seat 2: tortuga0981 collected 42.75 - Net Gain/Loss: ($20.75)
Seat 4: shanks686 button folded before Flop didnt bet - Net Gain/Loss: ($0)
Seat 5: underdogggg@ small blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.25)
Seat 6: FRUIT_BAGEL big blind folded before Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-0.5)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

In this hand, the way the cards feel dictated my play on the river. The loose player limps behind me so I make a pretty standard raise from the CO w/ 99. We see an ace high flop and C-bet in position like I would do 100% of the time in this situation. The player calls and I start to think...the turn brings a Jh and we both check. At this point I put him on a smallish pocket pair or a weak ace. So the river brings the 10h filling the heart flush and the broadway straight. This player is not limping KQ nor would he have called the flop with 2 hearts so I'm not scared of a mate hand here. He leads into me for a pot sized bet of $15 but given my rational here he can't call a push. So I push and he folds. Damn poker can be so easy sometimes!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

So I've logged around 1,200 hands @ the $50 NL level and my stats aren't all that impressive. I think I'm basically even over all those hands. I don't want to say that I played bad in those few sessions but I also don't think I played my best either.

Looking back through some of the hand histories the other night I kept thinking to myself "damn you spew chips like a mo fo". And to be honest it's the truth! I think it has something to do with the lower limit play and the monetary value not really hitting home but that all has to change!

In these few sessions I quad tabled $50 NL and didn't really think the competition was all that good but still gave opponents way more credit than I should have. After all this is a $50 buyin and thats pretty freakin low and does attract many of the super donks. I did take some pretty horrific beats in fairly large pots but that only to be expected. I guess I'll just continue to grind it out and see what happens over a larger sample size....hopefully when I approach 10K in hands I should be closing in on my BR requirment of 2.5K so I can move up to 100 NL.

Well it might take a little more time now:(. I got into a heads up debacle last night with a player who pwned the fuck out of me for $500. Yeah it killed me! So my BR sits at 1.3K meaning I need another 1.2k now to reach my 100 NL step. It's so freaking frustrating when I let shit like this happen. Whatever, the cards aren't really falling my ways these days but I know when they turn around I'll be ok. For now I need to stick to my methods and practice what I preach. I'm thinking realistically we're looking at having to log closer to 50K in hands to get to that next level. Thats a shit ton of hands and will probably take me a good 5 months .


Thats it for now. Wish me luck at the tables.

Rethinking my approach.....

I've had a little more time to sit down and get those much needed hands in. Over the past month or so I've been in a rut in regards to making money though. Normally this would be a red flag and would be something I should worry about but things "in my eyes" aren't really what they seem.

My game is by no means "air tight" and I know where I need to improve. I think where my problem lies though is in my indecisiveness to stick with a certain game and grind it out. I'm constantly switching back and forth between cash and tournament play and this really makes it hard to focus on a specific game and work to become the best you can be at that game. I know I've talked in previous entries about this "indecisiveness" and I think it's reached a point where a permanent decision needs to be made. That being said I want to talk about this whole "rethinking my approach" outlook.

I've been a member of cardrunners.com for about 2 years now and throughout that time have learned a tremendous amount of information in regards to the higher level thinking that goes along with poker. I take time to think about the moves I'm going to make and analyze what I think is going on in hands in order to extract the maximum value from each and every pot I play. Here though lies what I feel to be my biggest problem. I'm a low limit player playing with low limit donks and often I 2nd and 3rd level think hands when all I really need to be doing is playing my hands for what they really are. I know I’m better than the average player and that’s not a question. I’ve been a winning player for 5+ years now and I think it's time to get back to the basics.

My new philosophy in regards to poker is going to be to the KISS method. For those that aren't familiar with this, it’s an acronym meaning Keep It Simple Stupid. I want to make it a point to focus on the lower limit short handed cash games, specifically $50NL and $100NL, and try to just grind out 5 - 10 BB/100 hands. In these sessions I’m not going to get out of hand or try to make moves on players and rather play my hands face up and grind out those dolla-dolla bills yo!

Currently my BR sits at 2K and with using proper BR management methods of having 50+ buyins to play at each level that makes me about $500 short of 100NL. So there is my first goal in this new regime!

I hate to say farewell to tournament play, especially since it's been so good to me in the past. But to me cash games are way too lucrative to pass up. I know I'll take the occasional shot at the Sunday Million and that’s fine, but for now I think I'm going to have to switch gears to try and see a steady increase in my BR.

Poker....it's a son of a bitch!

So I've tried to make an effort to find more time to play poker here in the past week and I've actually gotten to play everyday! Now that should be a good thing...right? Well in this limited time I think I'm leaning towards a losing mentality that I need to stray myself from. Knowing that when I actually get to sit down and play could be the only session I get for the next few days or even weeks makes me want to up the stakes and win it all right then and there.

This is poker 101 and I should know better than this. Sitting with at that time a 3K bankroll I thought I could play the $109's and multitable 1$/2$ NL. What in the hell was I thinking? I know these stakes are quite a bit over my head and that I don't have the proper BR to sustain the losses if they do in fact occur. Well they did occur with a nice slap in the face, and you know, I'm glad that I lost what I did. It takes punches in the gut like this for a poker player to realize what really is at stake here...loads of cash! Just to get it out of the way, I lost a third of my BR in an hour playing heads up and 6-max 1$/2$ NL.

Here is my take on the situation revolving around realizing what is at stake when you come to the table each and every day. It's really hard at times to grasp what you are really striving for when it's only numerical values that fluctuate when you win or lose. When I say numerical values, I mean the dollar value in your "cashier". Only being able to click a button and look at a number after winning a tourney or having a great cash game session isn't enough sometimes. If you received checks weekly from your poker site that would be one thing, but it doesn't work that way. When it's you who has to have the will to withdrawal the money instead of gambling with it, it really becomes a test of self discipline.

Getting back to where I was going with this.....I have to constantly remind myself where I started and how far I have come in poker to not let downswings like this bother me. Knowing that currently I'm a winning poker player makes me secure with the choices I make and the way I play. Yes downswings are brutal and take the breath right out of you, but it's how you bounce back from these pitfalls that make you the poker player you really are.

Remember what you are really playing for. Reward yourself when you win with something nice....I've found this to make the loses sting a little less. If you are a constant BR Nazi then what is it all for? Sure winning loads of cash is nice, but having something to show for winning is what its really about. And above all have fun when you are playing and let your talents dictate your moves. Don't get wrapped up in the monetary values or you will turn gray way too soon.

I never have time to play :(

So I finally made the leap and landed that 9 - 5 I was most definitely dreading for so long. Coming off some of my most profitable months of poker (July-September I was up close to 10K) it is now killing me not having the time I was use to having to play. The job was something I had to do given the opportunity, location, my age, and the fact that I've had this degree for 2 years now and really haven't utilized it until now. I'm not going to lie, I like having that stable income and being able to save money, but not being able to play poker as much sucks.

I get off work and get home around 6 every night, missing the early $10 rebuy and the late $5 rebuy. I've lately been stuck in this rut where all I can play is the PCA steps because that all I have time for. It seems like whenever I get home I'm either so tired or not able to get wrapped up in a tourney due to time restrictions, that I'm reduced to playing whatever is available.

I am just now getting settled into the routine that is the 9 - 5, and are now working on plans to get poker back into my life. I mean I have a little over 3K on one site and can't really do anything with it. Some thoughts that have crossed my mind are....

1. Take a few shots at higher buy-in tourneys....i.e. the $162, $22+, and $109 on some of the sites for starters.

2. Maybe try my hand at a session or two of $3/$6 NL or maybe even $5/$10 NL. That shit scares me a lot but I know I am capable of having a winning session there if I put my mind to it.

3. Focusing more on the big tourneys of the week like the Tues. 1K and the weekend majors. If I use my time wisely during the week and satellite into few, you never know what could happen.

This is something I have just been pondering and something I think I am going to try for the next month or two. I just can't have those 10-12 hour sessions where I play 10+ tourneys or 8 table .50/$1 getting in 3K hands a day. I miss those sessions but they just aren't realistic anymore. Well thats about all I have from here but I'll have updates periodically to let you know how things are going.

I'm back!

It's been a while since I've posted due to a lengthy and drawn out move and lack of time to play. I'm finally moved in and up and running with internet and pokerstars! I feel like a woman when it comes to game selection lately. I continue to go back and forth between cash games and tourneys, but I think I have made up my mind do make cash game my thing for a while. It is more a time thing...I just haven't been able to invest the amount of time it takes to play the tourneys I want to.

I have been 6 - 9 tabling .5/$1 and making some good money while getting in some heads up session at the same limit as well. Things have been good and my new goal is to work on increasing my bb/100. I don't want to lie about my current stats so I will get back with more info. Later.

At it again...

So I haven't been able to play much lately because I have a buddy of mine in from Arizona. It's been more of a booze filled week with late night food binges mixed in here and there. Since I haven't been able to get wrapped up in any tournaments due to the time commitment, I've been dabbling in the short handed cash games. I've been focusing on heads up play trying to improve that part of my game.

$1/$2 has been my pick of the litter and has been treating me quite well. I think I have found a glitch in my game that I am now slowly fixing. Take a look at these stats from these my shots at $1/$2 lately.

Game	Total Hands	VPIP	Amount Won	BB/100	PF Raise%	Total Agg.
Hold'em NL($2) 6 Max	1,751	25.01	$1474.75	21.06	17.42%	2.42

I think I've been playing well focusing solely on limited tables and specific players. I also think I've found something that I like in heads up cash game play and I hope in it the near future Stars will open tables that cater more to this.

So after all this I brought my bankroll to a little over 5K and was ecstatic with that progress. Then just last night I knew we (my buddies and I) were staying in for the night, so I decided to play in the 1:00am $109 30K guaranteed. It got around 400 players and paid out close to 10K for first place. I hadn't played a tourney in a while so right off the bat I was playing tighter than my ass hole and wasn't really picking up any cards to make moves. Then a hand came up where yes it was a questionable play but my thought process was to either double up and have some chips to work with or go home.

I was holding 67dd in the BB when it was raised 3x from early position with one caller. The blinds were at 75/150 and my stack was right around 3K. I made the call and flopped the diamond draw. Now normally I would hesitate to stick much more in this pot, but given the action I thought this was a good shot to either win a monster or bust. I checked and 3/4 pot size bet was made and called by the first and second player to act. So here is what we are looking at, 2750 in the pot they both have fold equity and I have the draw. I push on the pot and get called by a monster...a set of tens! Oh but a diamond come on the river and I ship a nice size pot and at that point had a top 20 stack. From there I was able to maneuver with ease picking up pot after pot. I played a great tourney and reached the final table about 4 hours into play. I was 8/9 going in, and the payouts were very top heavy so I was on my best behavior for the first few orbits. I had an action packed table and was able to make some moves to chip up to the middle of the pack. After all was said and done I got all my money in 4 handed with an A9 vs. JJ. I flopped my ace but he turned one of his remaining two jacks and I busted in 4th taking $3,200.

Not a bad day considering I had a great $1/$2 session netting around 2 buy in's earlier as well. Well now I have a pretty hefty roll of $8,700 and are quickly approaching the 10K mark!

Running Good!

I did it again! Last night I played in a few tournaments, one of which was a first for me...the $30 deep stack starting at 2:00am which I chopped 3 ahnded and then won the leftovers. This tourney was a lot of fun due to its structure which was 5K in starting chips and 30 min. blind levels! This was a great structure for me seeing as how I love deepstack tourney play. I was able to actually play poker and and not worry about going broke with one hand or antoher.

Things never really got out of hand and I don't think I ever dipped below the original 5K. My savior in this tourney was the reckless player sitting directly to my right. And when I say reckless I truly mean it...he was open pushing on 250 chip pots with 200 bb's and just min re-raising any pre-flop raises in position. Needless to say he was a great ATM to have at the table and padded my stack many of times. I think at one point he was atually the chip leader after having sucked on Aces when he hit his bullshit two pair on the river. It was just a matter of time with this guy and not long after the money bubble he just handed his chips over to a player with bottom pair.

Something to think about in this tourney was the amount of post flop play and how this benifitted more experienced players. I think I only got my chips all in 2 or three times and that was when were are at the final table. The majority of the time I tried to keep the pots small and chip up without confrontation. My stratagey going into the final table was to sit back and let the hee haws knock each other out given the top heavy pay scale. I did just that and before I knew it we were down to 5 players when a crucial hand came up.

I was in the BB with J7s and it was raised 3x by the button. I made the call and saw a flop of Q23 with two spades. I check trying to peel off a free card but instead get faced with a pot size bet of around 14K. At this point a few things are running threw my mind...first, what hand range do I put this player on? Well, given the structure and amount of chips we are sitting with he has such a wide range I choose to look at the situation this way. It was 14K for me to call, which is roughly a 10th of my stack and I am pretty sure (given the strength of his flop bet) that if a spade comes on the turn I can get all of his chips. I call and the 5 of spades comes on the turn. I insta check and after thinking about it for a while he pushes for around 121K....I call and he flips AdKs. The river blanked thankfully and I get shiped a monster.

So we now have a player on tilt, tortuga with a shit load of chips, and 1st place in sight! Two more players get knocked out that were short stacks and we decided to chop 3 handed. At this point we had been playing for over 6 hours and I was dead tired so anything proposal was fine by me. I think 1st - 3rd initally took 1700, 1200, 780 and we ended up chopping for 1300, 1250, and 1100. I got the 1100 having been 3rd in chips but shipped the remainder of the tourney for an extra $50. When everything was said and done I ws very happy with this tourney not only for the cash but more so for my pacientce and well thought out play.

My bankroll now sits at $5300 and we are looking good for the 10K goal. Here are my stats thus far for July...

2007 July	Prizes	Profit	ROI	ABI	ITM
Hold'em NL	$7,111	$5,616	376%	$20	11/76 (14%)

My Intentions were good....

So I was ready to come home and hit the tourneys running for a good 24 hour period but I ran into a few hitches along the way. First off poker stars was up to no good with their server upgrades so no tourney got started between 11:00 and 8:00! That kind of put a damper on things but I figured I would just get some sleep and in the morning with the $8 rebuy and work from there. Well my buddy then proposed the idea of getting in a round of golf....and I just can't say no to golf on a nice day!

So there I was sitting on the couch watching poker on tv and craving some action. I decided to give a small session of cash games a shot and it wasn't a bad idea. I opened up a table of $1/$2 and a table of .5/$1 and told myself that I was only going to play around 200 hands. This was due to the past few sessions where I had amassed big stacks early and then pissed them all away for one reason or another. Right off the bat I get into the following hand and played it perfectly....i thought.

POKERSTARS GAME #10895436883: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2007/07/12 - 01:15:45 (ET)
Table 'Carme' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: 2hot4allofu ($154.10 in chips)
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($97.50 in chips)
Seat 4: pkaji ($107.15 in chips)
Seat 5: Nataraja21 ($115.50 in chips)
Seat 6: limitpam ($57.30 in chips)
pkaji: posts small blind $0.50
Nataraja21: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [9h 7d]
limitpam: folds
2hot4allofu: folds
tortuga0981: raises $3 to $4
pkaji: calls $3.50
Nataraja21: folds
*** FLOP *** [9c 4h 2d]
pkaji: checks
tortuga0981: bets $5
pkaji: raises $9 to $14
tortuga0981: calls $9
*** TURN *** [9c 4h 2d] [9s]
Drock8d5 joins the table at seat #3
pkaji: bets $25
tortuga0981: calls $25
*** RIVER *** [9c 4h 2d 9s] [3h]
pkaji: bets $64.15 and is all-in
tortuga0981: calls $54.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pkaji: shows [Jh Qs] (a pair of Nines)
tortuga0981: shows [9h 7d] (three of a kind, Nines)
tortuga0981 collected $194 from pot
pkaji leaves the table

So this is about 10 hands in when it is folded to me in middle position and I raise with 97off. The sb calls and we see a flop of 9 high, rainbow. I'm in position and the caller checks so I fire $5 at a pot of $9. I get check raised to $14, and with the quickness of the bet and size of the bet I see no reason why I should be alarmed. I honesty get the feeling that he is simply making a play on the "new guy" at the table. I don't think he would play 10's - AA's this way having 3 bet me pre-flop with a hand like that, a set would have most likely smooth called and over cards like any two broadway is what I put him on. I call the $9 and another 9 peels off on the turn. At this point I'm about 98% I am ahead so I think about how I can milk him for his entire stack. Since I thought about the call of the check raise for a while I got the feeling that he would stick in another bet having shown aggression and dominance on the hand. Sure enough, with the pot sitting at $37 he fired $25 and I again think a sec and just call. The river was a harmless 3 and he instantly moved all in and I called...he flipped over QJoff and I shipped a nice $194 pot!

The session continued to roll as I ended up walking with a little under 2 buy ins. The $1/$2 table had nothing special about it. I three bet with KK's and 10's and won a little from those but other than that I don't think I showed down a hand and walked with like $18 profit.

I am clicking through the tourney tab on poker stars and see that they have numerous turbo tourneys that are starting knowing that they will be over before the server restart. I see that a $5 turbo is about to start so I decide to give it a go. There were 900+ players and first place got a little over 1K. I played it just like a turbo SNG and to my surprise won the majority of my coin flips and got folded to when I pushed. Before I knew it we were ITM and then at the final table. I ended up getting it all in with A9 vs. AQ and finish in 4th for about $300+. So overall not a bad night considering it isn't at all what I wanted to play and wasn't what I was looking for!

For now it's time to get some sleep, I need to rest up for the links tomorrow. Later.

The grind that is poker....

So I've played a few tourneys here and there since my 1st and 2nd place showings this past week. I actually sat. into the Sunday Million and worked up a stack of about 35K, but couldn't really do anything with it and busted in 1456th or something like that.

Two nights ago I final tabled the same $20 freeze out that I took second in and had the chip lead going into the final table. I played an ok table execpt for one hand (which is usually how it goes). We were down to 5 when I picked up AQ in the SB. A player who had been playing pretty aggresive both pre-flop and post flop made a huge raise from the button looking like a blind pick steal to me. I had him out chipped roughly 3 to 1, so I pushed on him and he insta called with AK :(. I lost the pot and was never able to pick up anything else to give me a shot. I busted in 5th bringing home $683.

I think I'm going to play a shitload over the next 24 or so hours since I have the day off. I am hoping for some deep finishes and hopefully a final table or two. I have really been playing well and have now set a goal of a 10K bankroll. I'll get back soon with some reports of how the next 24 hours go.

Back to Back?!?!?!?!

Running good? I'd say so, for the second straight night I final tabled a nice tourney taking second two nights ago and winning last night. I'll give you one guess what tourney it was....thats right the nightly $5 rebuy!

We had our normal 350+ player field paying out 45 places and shipping at least 1K to the top two spots. Coming out of the rebuy period I was sitting with 9K in chips for an above average stack. I was in for only 5 buy ins and had a great read on my table. I played my normal second hour game sitting with well over 50bb's. I sat around and picked my spots well. I flopped a flush in a limped pot with j7ss and got payed off to the tune of a near double up. My big hands that jumped me into contention were the following....

PokerStars Game #10762008804: Tournament #54104847, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/07/04 - 08:26:02 (ET)
Table '54104847 25' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Cold-decker (92055 in chips)
Seat 2: Chripi (96104 in chips)
Seat 3: JimiChang (19656 in chips)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (49869 in chips) 
Seat 5: bananaman61 (72307 in chips)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (121054 in chips)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (30232 in chips)
Seat 8: 10E$UN (46475 in chips)
Seat 9: realmann04 (66267 in chips)
Cold-decker: posts the ante 125
Chripi: posts the ante 125
JimiChang: posts the ante 125
tortuga0981: posts the ante 125
bananaman61: posts the ante 125
Brassass2: posts the ante 125
THE CONVICT: posts the ante 125
10E$UN: posts the ante 125
realmann04: posts the ante 125
tortuga0981: posts small blind 600
bananaman61: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [8c Tc]
Brassass2: folds
THE CONVICT: calls 1200
10E$UN: calls 1200
realmann04: folds
Cold-decker: folds
Chripi: calls 1200
JimiChang: folds
tortuga0981: calls 600
bananaman61: checks
*** FLOP *** [8d 8s 5d]
tortuga0981: checks
bananaman61: checks
THE CONVICT: checks
10E$UN: checks
Chripi: checks
*** TURN *** [8d 8s 5d] [4h]
tortuga0981: bets 2400
bananaman61: calls 2400
THE CONVICT: folds
10E$UN: folds
Chripi: calls 2400
*** RIVER *** [8d 8s 5d 4h] [Td]
tortuga0981: bets 7200
bananaman61: calls 7200
Chripi: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tortuga0981: shows [8c Tc] (a full house, Eights full of Tens)
bananaman61: mucks hand
tortuga0981 collected 28725 from pot
bananaman61 said, "n1"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 28725 | Rake 0
Board [8d 8s 5d 4h Td]
Seat 1: Cold-decker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Chripi folded on the River
Seat 3: JimiChang (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (small blind) showed [8c Tc] and won (28725) with a
full house, Eights full of Tens
Seat 5: bananaman61 (big blind) mucked [Ac 4c]
Seat 6: Brassass2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT folded on the Turn
Seat 8: 10E$UN folded on the Turn
Seat 9: realmann04 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


-------------------------------------------------------------------

PokerStars Game #10762206539: Tournament #54104847, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/07/04 - 08:47:52 (ET)
Table '54104847 25' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Chripi (27687 in chips)
Seat 3: JimiChang (23881 in chips)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (70480 in chips)
Seat 5: bananaman61 (100039 in chips)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (114965 in chips)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (22053 in chips)
Seat 8: All_in_at420 (140683 in chips)
Seat 9: realmann04 (123784 in chips)
Chripi: posts the ante 150
JimiChang: posts the ante 150
tortuga0981: posts the ante 150
bananaman61: posts the ante 150
Brassass2: posts the ante 150
THE CONVICT: posts the ante 150
All_in_at420: posts the ante 150
realmann04: posts the ante 150
Brassass2: posts small blind 800
THE CONVICT: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [9h 9s]
All_in_at420: folds
realmann04: raises 3200 to 4800
Chripi: calls 4800
JimiChang: folds
tortuga0981: calls 4800
bananaman61: folds
Brassass2: folds
THE CONVICT: raises 17103 to 21903 and is all-in
realmann04: folds
Chripi: raises 5634 to 27537 and is all-in
tortuga0981: calls 22737
*** FLOP *** [7s 4s 2d]
realmann04 said, "a8"
*** TURN *** [7s 4s 2d] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [7s 4s 2d 7d] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chripi: shows [6d 6c] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
tortuga0981: shows [9h 9s] (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
tortuga0981 collected 11268 from side pot
THE CONVICT: shows [Th As] (two pair, Sevens and Deuces)
tortuga0981 collected 72509 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 83777 Main pot 72509. Side pot 11268. | Rake 0
Board [7s 4s 2d 7d 2c]
Seat 2: Chripi showed [6d 6c] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Seat 3: JimiChang folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 showed [9h 9s] and won (83777) with two pair, Nines
 and Sevens
Seat 5: bananaman61 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (big blind) showed [Th As] and lost with two pair,
Sevens and Deuces
Seat 8: All_in_at420 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: realmann04 folded before Flop

This was a hand that I can chalk up to good table reads. The player that raised in early position was a loose noob as far as I had seen. I call and it folds around to the player in the bb (who had an identical stack as the raiser) who squeezed on the pot...the initial raiser makes the call right away and I am 100% my hand is good here. The squeezer is capable of this move and the early position player I just gave no credit, plus it was to good of odds to not call.

From there I tried to play small pots pre flop and post flop. I was truly able to raise at will with any two cards picking up round after round of blinds. I had a few key hands late that moved me up the ladder. I think I turned a boat with 74off out of the bb, and flopped quad nines on a three way all in 9 handed. I was basically running well and playing well again. More than anything with this tourney I made it a point to focus on players and their tendencies and was able to grasp some great reads that paid off big time. I chopped HU for $1500 and won the remaining cash bringing my total to $1700 on the tourney.

I am very excited with my play of lately and to be honest can't wait to get back on the tables.

Money in tha bank......

So last night (this morning) I played my normal $5 re-buy and had a great showing but once again came up short(I'll explain). For the entire tourney I was in the top 25 with a well above average stack and was playing really good poker...making moves when I needed to and winning the flips. I believe it was at the 1500/3000 level where this hand went down and put me in real contention.

PokerStars Game #10727437579: Tournament #54104504 $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XV (1500/3000) - 2007/07/02 - 09:04:58 (ET)
Table '54104504 29' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Rickydee4 (30738 in chips)
Seat 2: kito-80 (49917 in chips)
Seat 3: Pigskin10 (21718 in chips)
Seat 4: lucasro (36479 in chips)
Seat 5: drivenes (28942 in chips)
Seat 6: Elvis DK7 (69130 in chips)
Seat 7: tortuga0981 (46734 in chips)
Seat 8: Bubbagump22 (42642 in chips)
Seat 9: tom.dieRaupe (17803 in chips)
Rickydee4: posts the ante 300
kito-80: posts the ante 300
Pigskin10: posts the ante 300
lucasro: posts the ante 300
drivenes: posts the ante 300
Elvis DK7: posts the ante 300
tortuga0981 : posts the ante 300
Bubbagump22: posts the ante 300
tom.dieRaupe: posts the ante 300
kito-80: posts small blind 1500
Pigskin10: posts big blind 3000

Holecards:
Dealt to tortuga0981 [6d6c]
CALL lucasro, 3000
FOLD drivenes
CALL Elvis DK7, 3000
CALL tortuga0981 , 3000
FOLD Bubbagump22
FOLD tom.dieRaupe
FOLD Rickydee4
CALL kito-80, 1500
CHECK Pigskin10:

Flop:
[ 7s 10c 6s]
BET kito-80, 3000
FOLD Pigskin10
RAISE lucasro, 9000 to 12000
FOLD Elvis DK7
RAISE tortuga0981 , 31434 to 43434 and is all-in
FOLD kito-80
CALL lucasro, 21179 and is all-in

Turn:
[ 7s 10c 6s] [9s]

River:
[ 7s 10c 6s 9s] [2h]

Showdown:
lucasro: shows [KdKh] (a pair of Kings)
tortuga0981 : shows [6d 6c] (three of a kind Sixes)
tortuga0981 collected 87058 from pot
---------------------------------------------

From there I chipped up nicely and looked to be heading for a nice final table but a weird tourney situation came up as we reached the final 2 tables. The chip leader was holding a ridiculous amount of chips so the diparity amoungst the rest of us was very close. I'm talking, one hand I'b be in 10th and then after stealing the blinds I'd be in 2nd or 3rd. It was really weird and made it hard to manouver. Anyway, when we were down to 12 I was in the BB, 5K/10K blinds w/ K9off. My stack is 105K and the UTG short stack who only had 5 1/2 bb's pushed. It folded around to me and my thought were as follows....

1) he has roughly 5 bb's
2) next hand he gets hit w/ the BB and is reduced to nothing
3) all that being said K9 is a close call but I think it is ahead.

I call and he flips AA! I left a few words fly and get reduced to 40K. The next hand it gets folded around to me in the SB and I push on this same guy with J5c and get insta called w/ QQ. GG me and I bust in 12th for $50 bucks.


So I head to work having not slept and now steaming over the tough tourney. I keep having to tell myself that I played a great tournament and that one of these close calls has to eventually pan out. So I get home from work around 3:00 and crash until around 8:00. I get some dinner and hit the tourneys right back where I left off. I played in 2 tounraments, a $20 freezeout and a $4 180 man. In the $4 tourney I get one outted after flopping quads...yes thats right you heard me corectlly. We get it in preflop, QQ vs. K10d and I flopped quad Q's and he turned the royal flush. I couldn't help but laugh and having a decent stack in the $20 freezeout I knew I still had something to work with.

Well 3 hours later I am heading into the final table of the $20 tourney with a stack good enough for second place. The final table played pretty tight at first, then one player caught the biggest rush of cards ever and knocked out almost every player with short stacks. I tighten up knowing that top three places get over a grand w/ 1st bringing home $2,700. I had a mediocre run of cards and play them as well as I could and what do you know, I FINSHED IN 2nd for $1700!

So like I've been saying all along, I knew it was close w/ the way I have been playing and I finally got over than hump for a decent sized cash. Something funny about the score tonight is that going in to the tournament I was sitting with $205 in my account and now I have a bankroll again of around 2K! Of course I'm excited and all about the money, but more than anything I now have a huge boost of confidence for my poker playing abillities. I knew I was on the cuspt of something big getting so close so often and now I have the funds to step it up a bit and see what I'm really made of!

Up and Down

So it's been a while since I've last posted and thats manily due to my lack of production. I've continued to paly the smaller buy-in tourneys with a little single/double table .25/.50 every now and then. I wish I had something good to post but I can't get over that f'ing hump and grasp a legit score!

In the past few days I have logged somewhere close to 40 tourneys with the following results. 5 cashes and 2 final tables (both in $4 180 man SNG...8th & 4th). I know these lower buy-in tourneys are such crap shoots sometimes but I seem I should have better stats than that and I will in the coming month. As of now my bankroll is sitting at $450 and my goal for July is to see if I can double it and make the move towards 1K.

My tourney stats for the month of June...

2007 June Prizes Profit ROI ABI ITM ITM%
Hold'em $1241 <$0 -12% $16 21/88 24%

I love to hate tourneys....

So I took a few days off after losing big the other night for 2 main reasons...one so I could cool down and get a clear head and not just donk off the rest of my bank roll and two, because I just wasn't in the mood to play. I'm an advocate of only playing when you truly want to so anytime I have a lack of focus or passion I just take some time off and try to analyze the past few days...poker wise.

Yesterday I decided to dive into some tourney play and had some success in the deeper stacked tourneys as usual. I think overall I played 5 tourneys, cashed in 2 for a profit of just over $20, but had some unlucky situations like always. In the three $4 180 SNG's I just couldn't avoid the bad beats losing with the following hands...

1) Kings to Q8off when I was called down on a board of Q 3 7 5, and the lucky donk hit his trips on the river when another Q fell. gg me.
2) Right after the first break in another I got it all in on what looked to be a squeeze by me with QQ and got called in both spots and was ahead of AJ and 44. The flop was harmless but the turn brought an ace and I was done for. gg me.
3) I think we were in the 4th level and I was sitting w/ around 17 bb's when I was dealt AK in one of the blinds. It was raised in front of me so I naturally re-raise and get pushed on. I call and my opponent flips AQ...NICE! Flop an ace...nothing on the turn...river queen. gg me.
4) This tourney I just got unlucky when my queens ran into aces.

All of these tourneys were nothing though compared to my deep stints in the 15K guaranteed and the $3 rebuy. Coincidentally, both of these tourneys have deep stack structures which I feel gives me an edge. In the 15K I was just a force all the time and basically chip up in every round...no real huge hands only the one I busted with, which was my A10 vs. 55. I was getting blinded away and had to make a move and my hand went unimproved and I finished in 142 out of like 2400 players. In the $3 rebuy I had a monster stack the majority of the time. After the first break I was sitting with my usual 8 - 10K in chips and ran with it. I made the right plays when I needed to and only got the chips in the middle when I was in dominating positions. I think it was right around the money bubble when I made my real move and doubled up with a KJ vs. 77. From that point on I went from just around 40K to 500K in about 35 hands and was sitting in 5th place with less than60 players left. I got a bit pf a cold deck and decided I wasn't going to let myself lose this monster stack so I continued to raise it up trying to pick up blinds and antes. I got caught twice and lost some chips and ended up getting it all with fours vs. jacks and busted in 32 place :(. It was a good run considering there where somewhere close to 3,000 people in this tourney. I played good poker and got to work a lot on 3 betting players late in the tourney who I felt were weak. It worked 100% of the time and that more than anything was the reason for the majority of my chips.

I continue to play well in tournaments and put myself in positions to make big scores but come up short. I've said it before and I'll say it again...with the way I'm playing right now I wouldn't be surprised if I score huge here in the next month. I'll continue to play these lower stakes tourneys and hopefully in the near future I will be reporting something great!

Check This Out!

These are my stats before the my horrid session...

game_level	total sessions	Winning Sess.	$ Won	Hands	Hours	BB/Hr.	BB/100	VP$IP	Ayg. Pot	AP	ASF
NL ($0.50) (6 max)	18	12 (66.67%)	$388.85	2853	25.35	15.3393	13.6295	19.6986	6.2008	5.3551	24.8658

And then my stats after the session...

game level	total sessions	winning sess.	$ won	Hands	Hours	BB/Hr.	BB/100	VP$IP	Avg. Pot	AP	ASF
NL ($0.50) (6 max)	24	13 (54.17%)	-3.75	4842	43.9	-0.0854	-0.0774	19.3515	6.6064	5.3137	25.7375

Make up your mind....

So in the past few years I've gone back and forth between cash games and tournament play and had little success in both but never really enough to keep me locked into just one. With the recent lack of quality finishes in tourneys I figured it might be benificial to give cash games a shot to clear my mind of the methadical tourney play. With my bank roll sitting around $500 I figured .25/.50 would be the right limit for me to jump into. I began six tabling this limit in 1000 hand sessions which would take a little over an hour. Things looked to be going great in the first few session, winning 2 and 3 buy-in's each session. The play at this limit is pretty atrocious and I was able to exploit this inexperience with ease.

I though all was going well and that I was about to hit the 1K mark with my bankroll until last night happened! I was again 6 tabling the .25/.50 and about 400 hands in having an average session...nothing crazy happening and chiping up at each table. I think the point when all hell started to break loose was when this hand occured. To preface my play at this table, something I'm really trying to work on while playing these lower limits is opening up my aggression while in position. This meaning winding my range when opening the pot and also widing my re-raise range as well(in position). So it's folded around to me on the button and I raise it up 4x with QQ
and get re-raised by a maniac playing 57/22/5 in the BB. There was very little doubt in my mind that I was behind so I decide to take a flop and take it from there. The flop comes 6 3 9 rainbow, and he checks to me...I lead for 3/4 the pot and he raises me 3x more(at the begining of the hand we were both playing 200bb's deep) and I push and he insta calls with AKoff and spiked a ace on the river(fuck you Greenstein) to ship him the pot. From there it really was bad beat after bad beat. There were a few miss steps here and there on my behalf, but I wasn't getting out of line and simply put, wasn't getting paid when I made hands!

When the 2,000 hand session was done I was down 6 buy in's and my bank roll was back to where it had begun...right around $450. The crazy thing about last nights debacle of a session was 80% of my losses were on one table. I couldn't leave either, because the player who had all the money was the donk. He deffinetly had my number and beat me in most pots with inferior hands! It was so frustrating!

I track all of my cash game sessions in poker tracker so I'll be able to post some stats here when I'm back on my laptop. I think for the most part, through roughly 3,500 hands I was up $412 with a win rate of 17bb's per hundred hands. This was looking great until this past session and now I think I'm hoovering around even, and maybe in the red a bit.

With my roll back down to almost nothing I really don't know what I want to do? I know I can crush the .25/.50 short handed games, I just had a rough night last night. The only thing is, I can't afford another session like this past one or I'll be googling "how to tie a noose". I think what I might do is grind out the $4 180 mand SNG's for a while and try to get my roll back around 1k and then go from there.

Poker Sucks Sometimes

Played a few tourneys tonight and did not run well. In the $30/5K guaranteed I got into a hand when I was holding JJ in the BB and a player in early position moved all in for $1038 and it was called right behind him. I was about 100% sure I was ahead of the callers range and so I pushed on top and he called right away w/ AQoff and spiked a queen :(. I then took some horrible beats in the re-buy hour of the $5 re-buy and donked off my stack about 5 min after the first break. After all was said and done I played 4 tourneys and had nothing to show for it. Tonight was a bad display of poker on my behalf mixed with some bad luck. I feel when these night occur you need to just walk away and cool off so not to do something stupid like go play a $300 SNG or something. I might come back in a few hours and hit up the $8 re-buy but we'll see.

Getting Close...

So in the past 3 days I've made it to 2 big FT's and taken some horrid beats to bust out in 9th and 8th. The first tourney was a $10 freezeout that attracted 601 players and and had a prize pool of just over 6K w/ 1st taking $1400. I went into the FT with an average stack and told myself going in that I wasn't going to sit around and wait for hands but rather play a LAG style and exploit any small edges I thought I had. Well my game plan worked exactly how I planned and after a few re-steals and maybe 35 hands in I got the donkey at the table to call my all in w/ an A6off vs. my AKdd. This was a huge pot at the time and would have locked down second place for me except for the 6 that spiked on the river. That was quite a depressing card and even more my profit on the tourney was a minuscule $120.

So then just last night I played in the $5 re-buy that starts of 4:15am and was having a great tourney. The re-buy period wasn't all that exciting and after the break I was sitting with 6K in chips and was in for $25. In these re-buy tourneys I feel I have such an advantage over most other players due to stack sizes and their inability to stay away from the unnecessary large pots early. Coming off the first hour most players are sitting 40 - 125 bb's deep which is a shit load of chips relative to the blinds. I feel that most players don't understand this concept and instead feel that they on any given hand all their chips have to be in the middle. Anyways, I'll quit ranting and get back to the big hands of the tourney.

Early in the second hour sitting with roughly 7K in chips I limp 22 from early position for $100 and it folds around to the BB who pumps it up to $300. This is a no-brainier call given the stack sizes and also know that if I hit I can bust him. The flop comes 2Q7 and I check it to him and he bets $450 into $750...I minraise w/ my set and in true donkey form he moves all in for another 4K. I call and the turn and river come Q Q to ship him the pot with a higher boat :(. This was a tough hand and it dropped me down to 3.5K, but not 4 hands later I pick up aces and double back up to around 8K. From here I play some solid poker and chip up relative to the average stack and make the money which was at 27 players.

Once we were in the money I turned it on and pick up some key hands at key times. We got down to 11 players and I was now still sitting with 70K or so and needed to make a move seeing as the blinds are at 3K/6K. At my table we were playing 6 handed when this hand came up...I was in the sb with AJoff when it was folded around to the button who is a known tourney monster who pushed for 60K'ish and I was now put to a decision. My rational here is that being a well known profitable tourney player I know that his pushing range here given his stack and the blinds is so wide that AJoff kills his range. I call and he flips QJoff and I win and 175K pot moving me to 5th place now on the final table bubble. not 5 hands later it is limped from the chip leader and folded to me in the sb w/ 92off. This guy had been limping a lot so I decided to take a stab at the pot and raise it to 30K. Well the BB calls, scaring the shit out of me and the limper folds. I put the caller range on AK, AQ, and any pp given the way he's been playing, all I could do is hope for a monster flop and I got it with a 9 2 10 board! There was about 85K in the pot and I was sitting with 120K behind and figured that on a rag flop like this a push might induce a call from a lot of hands (smaller pp's and maybe even AK), so I push and he insta-calls with QQ. I was in the lead but the turn and river brought an 8 and a J for his one card straight. Lucky for me someone at the other table had busted so I got 9th place money, but the pot I had just lost horribly would have put me in 2nd entering the FT. Oh yeah and first place nabbed $1600 :(.

Welcome

Ok, so I want to start this blog to track how I'm running in tournament play. I'm currently playing on poker stars under the alias "tortuga0981" and try to keep my play limited to buy-ins between $4 and $10 with the occasional $20 or $30 tournament if I'm feeling saucy. Here are my stats so far this year...

Game Type Hold'em NL Hold'em L/PL Omaha Omaha Hi lo Other Games

Prizes $7,647 $0 $0 $0 $58 $7,705

Profit $2,924 <$0 <$0 <$0 $27 $2,834

ROI 62% -104% -100% -109% 88% 58%

ABI $17 $8 $13 $6 $8 $17

ITM 21% 0% 0% 0% 25% 20%

They are so so, but could be a lot better. I had a big win in March that netted me close to $2500, so that was a good day. Since then I have been off and on with FT's here and there but nothing really to show for it. I think since that March win I've been back to 4 big FT's w/ an average place of 7th, so I think we know what I need to work on....closing the tourneys out!

I want this blog to serve as a time line for whats to come. I honestly feel like I've figured out this online poker tournament strategy, and it's just a matter of time before I hit something big and take off. Of recently I've had a bankroll of roughly 5K, but took a trip to Europe which depleted the majority of it. I'm currently sitting with around $500 in my account and want to see it rise back to that 5K within the next 3 months. I know it's possible and I know it will happen, so hopefully this blog will capture it all and become some good reading for others to latch on to.