Way to forget about the blog.

Well then. I wish I had more time to post, but it's been a willlllllllld couple of weeks.

I paid a lot of school fees with the 7k week. Sadly enough, I wouldn't say I was playing the best poker of my life, as for some reason I feel the best when I get unlucky. Either way, I invested about 1500 in tourneys in June, so a huge net profit of +5500 was nice. Not to mention it was finally nice getting some cashes on pokerstars after months.

Date Tournament/Event Place Winnings
06/21/2006 Hold'em NL $100 6 $1,175
06/19/2006 Hold'em NL $10+Rebuys 3 $5,754
Date Tournament/Event Buyin+Rake Place Winnings
06/17/2006 Hold'em NL $100+$0 16 $340

It was a good feeling after that, but I wanted more. I wanted a win badly. After about 15 tourneys without a cash and LOTS of bubbling, I decided to clear a bonus from FCP. This was teh original bonus from being a charter member when the site first opened. Anyways, I got bored with limit real fast, and jumped into what I thougth would be a MASSIVE overlay. At 7:59, there were 130 people that joined the $50+4 US daily tourney (scheduled to start at 8 pm EST). I'm thinking, ok maybe i'll join, then I read the tag that said "$13,000 Guaranteed". At this point I'm as happy as Phil Hellmuth when he calls an all in with the nuts. I spring out of my chair Hellmuth style and join the tourney.

So I wait, 8 pm passes along, no tourney. I'm freaking out because the only reason why I wanted to play this thing in the first place was because of the overlay.

(130 x 50 = 7500. Pot is guaranteed at 13k so 13k - 7500 = 5500 added to the pot, which means basically 130 people's worth of dead money)

The tourney finally starts at 8:10, and 40 more people have joined, so only a 90 person overlay. That's bearable. I look around for any FCPers from the forum, no dice. I play my usual tight style in the beginning, pick up A-K near the break, double up when I double up from a guy who just cannot WAIT to get it in with a-7. Good job champ. That was the only real pot I played, and I was at 2700 at the break.

Now I was more focused on the travesty that was the $3 rebuy on pokerstars. I was so bitter with last night's loss (101st with 99 paying), that I decided I was gonna get a LOT of chips, and I was gonna cash. Well, no dice. I ended the rebuy period with 3150, after a woeful 1 for 16 showdown ratio (all were all in showdowns), with the 1 win being a SPLIT POT. So $3.30 + 15 double rebuys (at $6 a piece) and an addon means $96.50 invested...in a $3 tourney, with a PITIFUL stack. Words can't really describe how angry I was. Not really thinking, I jumped into a $150+12 tourney.

The only good thing about the $150+12 was that I made the first break. I get 9-9 in the BB, and a LAG raises to 150 (blinds at 25/50), I choose not to re-raise (although I think in retrospect I should've).

Flop comes 10s-4s-3c. I fire out a bet of 200 to test whether he has the 10. He only calls, and at this point I've got him on a flush draw with 2 overcards, as he was a solid player who has got to at least respect me for top pair.

Turn comes the 2s, and my big blunder. I had about 1900, while my opponent had about 1100 in the hole. I decided to play a trap, and check-raise him all in if he bet. He bet 300, and I shoved on him. The more I think about it, the crappier the play gets, because there aren't many hands that he would CALL all in with, that I beat. A lot of hands that I was even or that I was beating, were now crushing me. So why do this? I dont think even a Js-rag can get away from this pot. It was stupid.

Either way, solid player couldnt WAIT to get his chips in with 2h-4h. Board doesn't pair, I'm crippled. I then play good short stack ninja styles until my 6-6 runs into 9-9.

Back to the $3 rebuy, where I manage to double up my pitiful stack with QQ vs JJ. At 6k, I was still half of the avg, which is NOT good. I limped into a pot with Kh-Jh after two limpers, and we saw a flop of 6h-7h-8d. I decided it was time to get all thge money in. Turns out a huge 50k stack loved his q-8 and called the all ins of the BB and me (who both had 6k stacks), the BB had 9-10, and it held up. What a waste of $96.50.

Meanwhile the $50+4 is going well, I bust out A-8 against my A-K, then win a race with A-K vs QQ. With the massive overlay, it was pretty easy to sit back, pick my spots, and steal the blinds, which was exactly what I did. I would go for 3 rounds without seeing a flop, then steal 4 in a row. Then I would sit back for a round, and take 2 sets of blinds. Since there were no antes, there wasn't really much incentive to play outside of the blinds, and the Ms were a lot higher than normal.

With 32 left, and 30 paying, I saw maybe the two worst bubble players in history. A person who did not play the whole tourney was at 10 at the dealer positionw ith blinds of 300/600 at another table. So what do these two guys do with Ms of 8 and 10 respectively? Well, mr 32nd place decided he was gonna push on a K-3-4-7 board against the chip leader, WITH SIX SIX. Chipleader called with the nuts, and boom, he was done. The next guy, decides he's gonna try and push with A-8 on a board of K-Q-J!!! Against a set, that was no good. So a guy with 10 chips, nearing the end, DID NOT PLAY A HAND, manages to secure 30th place and $132. What a disgrace.

What I noticed about the majority of the players was that they had little to no experience playing in this spot. I played really well and doubled up when KK beat down K-J, when someone decided to call my re-raise for all my chips (and 80% of his stack).

I was 5th out of 15, the blinds just go up to 500-1k, I have a decent stack of 22k when the following happens.

I get AA in midpos and it's folded to me. I pop it to 2k and change (to give me an even 20000), and the BB calls. The flop is Qc - 4d - 3h. BB checks, and I bet 2k. He waits until the timelock goes to 0, and pushes all in, I call, and he shows the almighty 2-2. 5 on the turn gave him outs, and 6 on the river gave him the win. If my family wasnt in the basement watching a movie, chairs would've been thrown. As a result, I pretty much had to shut my mouth.

With 10k, still plenty of hope, I push with 3-8 UTG and make the BB fold A-Q (Nice laydown buddy), make more agressive moves, and knock out the FT Bubble boy (or girl), when they pushed with K-Q for 3k and I called with K-J. J on the river, made me feela bit better.

At the FT, I basically just sat around and waited for people to knock each other out. My 25k stack at the FT pretty much stayed the way it was until it got 4 handed, when I was the severe shortstack. I managed to double up with A-T vs A-K, my T hitting the turn causing a very angry camper. That double up helped me survive as 4th place couldnt survive a A-K vs QQ race. We were now 3 handed, and my stack was 60k, still weak compared to the 100k stacks that 1st and 2nd had. A chop was offerred by Chewy, still raging over the beat I gave him. We both said no. Well maybe I should've said yes.

I pick up A-6 on the button and raise it up to 6k (blinds at 1k-2k), Chewy calls in the BB. Flop comes As-8s-10c. I bet 7k and Chewy calls. Turn is the 6c, and he checks and I bet again. Turn is the spade I was dreading and he puts me all in, but by then, the pot is too big, I would've only had 15k left, and I made a crying call for the lose. He had 7s9s for the Flush and the Straight. I was never ahead. Oh well.

So all in all, I wasted $162 on the tourney that was out of my bankroll, $96.50 on a $3 rebuy which I dont think I will ever match, and..........

A decent 3rd Place Cash

So all in all, it turned out quite well. I'm still looking for my first online win since Christmas. They really werent lying when they said a win only comes by once every couple years...

PS. To the few that inquired about the PXF, the deal is off. I dont want to get in trouble for giving my pw to others. I stand by my word that it is a great investment and it is NOT (I repeat NOT a waste of money).

*waits for his endorsement monies*