So Busy!!!

Well I have been playing as much as usual, but life has gotten in the way of me keeping this updated. My wife is still struggling with morning sickness and this has caused me to be busy helping her and doing more with my son so she can relax. I recently had an article of mine posted on pocketfives and it has been generally well received. It is about getting more aggressive when you play. I have been working on my game and I feel that with this new added weapon of aggression I have positioned myself to win way more tournaments than before.

OK - the updates! I won a $20 rebuy on Poker Stars back in November for $16025! This isn't my biggest cash, but by far the best tournament I have ever played. I truly feel that I dominated this tournament from about 30 people to 1.

A few days after this I finished 8th in the $55K guaranteed $11R on Poker Stars.

Since then on Poker Stars I have gotten close many times with a 11th and 13th place finish in the $20R. I have been playing the $150 Nightly on Poker Stars of late as well, but I just can not get anything going in this tourney. I either get zero cards and have to start stealing way to early or like last night I run into a set with AA and lose the majority of my chips. I think I have become too much of a rebuy specialist over the last month. I need to get my freezeout game back!

I have also started playing more on Ultimate bet. Mostly the $30R at 9pm. I am cashing in this tournament at an insane rate and I have had two 4th and one 5th place finishes already this month in this tournament. It has an awesome structure and with the double add-on I am almost assured to have a top 20% stack after the add-on. So many people leave in the rebuy period and a decent number of them do only one add-on. It is a buy-your-way to a nice finish tournament for sure! I also had the unpleasant experience of finishing 2nd in a $30 WSOP package tournament. 1st paid a $12,000 WSOP ME package. 2nd got nothing - so hard to take!

I am basically happy with my play but I need to fix a few leaks in my game. I tend to make calls of short stacks with marginal hands always thinking they are just pushing with junk. I also use a continuation bet way too much and if a flop doesn't hit me I tend to go after it too hard sometimes losing chips. Late in tourneys I have gotten way too aggressive and I have wasted some opportunities, but these are all things I can work on and overall I am playing much better. I just need to win more consistently for my liking.

With my results of late and my pocket fives article I have had at least 40 people contact me about helping them or going over their hand histories. I would love to help everyone, but with work and a family I just don't have the time. I started looking for someone that I could help out while getting a little something in return. I found someone through pokerXfactor and I have gotten through half of his hand history that he sent me. I think he liked what I sent him and I plan on getting the other half done before I leave for the holidays. If this works out I plan on pursuing this a bit more to supplement my poker with a small steady income from my writing and mentoring. I feel I can really spot things for people to work on, but it takes nearly two hours to properly go through a hand history and write it up, so I doubt I will do to many of them unless people are willing to make it worth it.

Well that is enough for now. I plan on keeping this more updated in the future! :)

Long Time Since Last Post

So I haven't posted in some time for so many reasons. First I have not had a good run over the last month. I was down about $3-4,000 from my MTT play and was getting beat with AA and KK consistently. It almost seemed as though I could not win a hand. I also experimented with several other styles and techniques. Some worked and some didn't.

Another factor for me not posting is the idiotic legistlation the the US government that shut down my favorite site - Party Poker. I am now almost 95% on Poker Stars under lfunk11.

Another factor is my wife and I are now expecting our second child and she has had a rough case of morning sickness that lasts all day. She was hospitalized with our son twice for dehydration so lets hope it doesn't get to that point. I have still been playing, but when I am not working my son takes up all my time since she has been so sick of late.

So recently the cards have begun to turn in my favor a bit and I placed 5th in the Saturday $150 NLHE event at Stars. It was a funny FT since I belong to pokerXfactor and Johnny Bax is one of the "instructors" there and he was at the FT as well. I played well enough, but when I got KK and QQ my hands were not called. So I cashed for $3646 and basically wiped out my negative run.



I placed 28th out of 699 players last night in the $22 rebuy on Stars. I only had 7500 chips after the add-on and only spent $62 on the initial rebuy and the add-on. I moved up to 8th in chips with about 100 people left, but got chipped down and busted out with A9 vs KQ.

Over 322 hands I never had AA, KC, QQ, JJ, 1010, 99, 88. I had 77 and 66 once and I had AK twice and AQ 4 times. So with no cards I managed to get pretty far.

So look for me nightly in the $150 NLHE on Stars at 9:10pm EST and I will be playing some $1/$2NL cash games to supply my buy-ins as well.

Trying some new things.

So I joined pokerxfactor.com about a month ago and it hasn't exactly changed my game too much, but I had a chance to watch a video that sheets made. He has done very well online and I liked his video. So getting through 50% of the MTT field is no problem for me even when I get a bad beat I can usually build my stack back up. My issue is later in a tourney. I am trapped between two styles. The first style is what I used to get the big cashes that I have posted here. I basically play very tight, make smart reads, and wait for my spots. This style gets me into trouble by getting very shortstacked and if I can't get any decent hands then I get blinded down. I will go all the way down to 3XBB. The other style that is played by most good MTT players is to start pushing with mostly any two cards when you are less than say 15XBB. I have played like this recently and I see one advantage. You can build a nice stack and I got pretty high in chips on several tourneys. The problem is that you can get knocked out sooner and you need more luck since if you are called you are rarely more then 50:50 to win. So on one side you need to win some races and get some luck and the other style you need to get the luck in getting decen hole cards that you feel comfortable moving all in with. When I play the tight style it works great when you get decent cards since so many people are pushers. I love raising or calling them with AA or KK.

I think from now on I will mix it up a bit and play the pushing game if I am at the cash bubble and short stacked, but I will play my tight style when there are less than 20 people left.

I got pretty far in the $55K g. $11R on Stars and I was 3rd or 4th in chips with less than 60 people left. I busted at 30 something with AQ vs 99. The pushing style didn't work, but if I won that race I would have been near the chip leader again.

I got 12th in a $30 rebuy on Party.

So I figured out how to play the rebuys and I have done well in Limit tourneys so I need a nice win soon to get my cash reserves built up again. I still have $45K cashed out so I am doing well!

In two weeks my wife and son are going out of town so I plan on using my Party Monster $100K ticket and to play the Stars and Part million tourneys. That weekend will be an insane poker weekend. I plan on playing basically all day and night!

I Guess I Can't Retire!

So I played the $530 WCOOP NLHE on Poker Stars and I couldn't get much going. I eventually lost with AK and an Ace high flop. The other person riased and I went all in. They beat me with two pair AA99X. Pathetic play on my part, but I wanted to build chips since it is easy to get short stacked in these tourneys.

I also played the Party million. I lost with KK vs QQ - more crap luck for me!

A few things...

So I am playing the $530 NLHE WCOOP event this Sunday on Poker Stars. I am trying to sat into it, but if I don't I am playing no matter what. I will also play the Part Poker Million at the same time. I am lfunk11 on Poker Stars

I was really tired last night and I still played. I cashed in the $33 NLHE on Party for a small amount. I went out on the first hand of the Super Thursday with JJ. One caller to my raise. I had a feeling he had a bigger PP, but the flop was 994 and he called my bet. Then a 4 and I thought he might have AK and he went all in. We started with 5000 chips and we each had about 4000 left. It was a complete overbet and even though I thought he had a higher PP pre-flop the overbet seemed funny. Why go all in there? Anyways I called and he flipped QQ. I lost and I normally don't overplay JJ like that, but I hit the same situation the other night but I had KK with a similar two pair board and the guy went all in - I called and he flipped AK. Oh well I was tired and it was stupid.

I played the $10K rebuy on AP and there were about 110 people to start. With about 50 left I was 9th in chips with about 16000. I then went all the way down to 4500 getting blinded down and calling a small bet here and there with suited connectors in the SB or BB. I had nothing to work with and eventually pushed with KJ and AQ beat me with about 27 left. I noticed that I do not get great cards on AP and Stars - now I just might play so much on Party that I forget the MTTs that I am card dead.

Tonight should be better - I got 5 hours of sleep last night (good for me) so I will be trying to sat into the Party Million playing $11 turbo sng (I am 2 for 2 in these in the past) and the $12 double shootous on Stars for the WCOOP.

Another Great Finish!

I messed up the heads up action mainly since it took 117 hands of heads up!!!!! I was so tired and he caught a few hands on me. After a point my hand hurt so bad and I just loss concentration. I am still mad about not getting first!

Oh well this was a limit tourney and I am doing very well in these recently.

Another Win!

Played a $30 rebuy on Party Poker. I was playing on massive Tilt through the rebuy period and I think I put in $210 total after the add-on. Not great play on my part!







I was doing well and then lost this hand with AA.

***** Hand History for Game 5132936841 ***** NL Texas Hold'em Trny:28482132 Level:10 Blinds-Antes(800/1600-50) - Saturday, September 09, 02:50:38 ET 2006 Table Rebuy(822558) Table #2 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 3: player8701 ( 28940 )
Seat 4: Stumbly ( 122715 )
Seat 5: oceanexp ( 43586 )
Seat 8: ETandT ( 87940 )
Seat 9: ratmonster ( 49843 )
Seat 10: dapfunkera ( 55134 )
Seat 7: cane3418 ( 39850 )
Seat 1: CONDOG417 ( 80679 )
Seat 2: dr_nowhere ( 67318 )
Trny:28482132
Level:10 Blinds-Antes(800/1600-50)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ac Ad ]
dr_nowhere folds.
player8701 folds.
Stumbly folds.
oceanexp folds.
cane3418 folds.
ETandT folds.
ratmonster raises [4800].
dapfunkera calls [4000].
CONDOG417 folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 2s, 4d, Tc ]
dapfunkera checks.
ratmonster checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
dapfunkera bets [6500].
ratmonster raises [20000].
dapfunkera calls [13500].
** Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
dapfunkera bets [24993].
ratmonster is all-In [24993]
dapfunkera shows [ Ac, Ad ] a pair of aces.
ratmonster shows [ 4h, 3h ] two pairs, fours and threes.
ratmonster wins 101636 chips

I have been having trouble playing AA correctly. I raise - they fold, I slow play and they catch. So I was down to around 5000 chips and the blinds were at 800/1600. I play great short stacked and got AA on the next hand - I doubled up. I then got to the FT and I had about 220000 chips and the CL had 1250000. Everyone else was around me or lower. I played really tight and just picked my spots. A few people got knocked out and then I started making my move. I had QQ and AA against the CL and min-raised each time when he was the BB. He went all-in each time. I doubled up twice through him! He was very predictable. I went on to win my second MTT and the nice payout.

So I am playing very well right now making some nice moves and great reads, but I have had trouble getting cards. I played the following last night

$150NL - Stars - I have never done well in this, I never get anything to play with and every time I raise - I get re-raised. Had QQ one time and tripled up with it getting lucky, but beyond that my best hand was 99.

$90K g - $30 R&A on Paradise Poker. This is becoming one of my favorite tourneys. I was about 50/150 in chips late, but made a move and lost 1/3 of my stack and then couldn't recover. Still a fun tourney with >$20K 1st prize. It only costs me $90 each time since I usually double up early through someone else's greed. I finished around ~120?

$13K g -- $30 R&A on AP. Another fav tourney right no of mine - I placed 25th with it costing me $120 (double add-on). There is slightly more than 100 people playing this so getting the money is realistic. My problem was dead cards - so over about 150 hands I had the following
AK - onceA10 - once99 & JJ- once

I never had AQ, AJ, AA, KK, QQ, 1010. I rarely had suited connectors and I folded 47 times in a row at one point. I has 8th in chips with about 75 people and dropped to 25th with 25 left when I went in with 44 - lost to 66. I still like this tourney and I will win this soon - the play isn't as good as I have seen on other sites.

$10 r&a - on AP. I finished 12th. It paid top 9 - I think there was about 80 - 100 people to start? I did well, but had some trouble with cards.

$150 Super Sed. LIMIT on Party. - I am not a good limit player, but I played my best in this tourney. I finished around 65 and in the money. I made a stand in the BB that was dumb to lose - it is too hard to bluff in limit and I just messed up, but beyond than I played well - I folded many times and played super tight.

$20 - 180 sng. Short stacked throughout. I think I finished 20th. One of the CL kept raising every time and I made a move with A9 figuring he was weak - he called with 77 and won the race. I made the right read - just didn't work though.

$20K g on Party - got knocked out early. Raised to 175 with the blinds at 20/40 and was called with 55. Flop was 445. I lost all but 160 of my chips thinking I had the best hand.

So I played a bunch of tourneys, but with my cash in the Super Wed I didn't lose too much and if a few hands went my way I would have hit a FT or two. All in all a good night

I played about 1hr of $2/$4 NL on two tables - won $300 - on AP.

Cards Not Going My Way

So since my run of FTs I have not been doing very well. I had the chance to play in the Sunday million on Stars and Party Poker. I won my seat on Party through a $24 sat. so that worked out well. I came in 527/5084 and won $406. I made it about halfway in the Stars one. I played well in both and just didnt get too much to work with. I got knocked out of the Party when I raised to 9000 preflop with Aj looking to steal the blinds and got one caller. The flop came out Axx and I bet another 9000 - the caller raised my last 10000 chips and I called. He had AK - nothing I could do. The blinds were at 1500/3000.

I came in 18th in a $30 rebuy on Absolute Poker, 48/1170 in a $30 rebuy on Paradise Poker.

15/380 in a $40 MTT on Party for $152

Went out on this hand - I would have tripled up and most likely made the FT - ugh

Seat 4: dapfunkera ( $19094 )
Seat 7: helpme01 ( $89460 )
Seat 5: pokerpro341 ( $95104 )
Seat 10: cbz21044 ( $100072 )
Seat 9: pattydan ( $80623 )
Seat 6: atrophy7attr ( $96510 )
Seat 8: BrontoBeat ( $48237 )
Seat 1: MattGuff ( $77360 )
Trny:28221176
Level:14 Blinds-Antes(3000/6000-100)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ad Jh ]
helpme01 folds.
BrontoBeat folds.
pattydan folds.
cbz21044 folds.
MattGuff folds.
dapfunkera is all-In [18994]
pokerpro341 calls [15994].
atrophy7attr calls [12994].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 5s, As, Tc ]
pokerpro341 checks.
atrophy7attr checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3s ]
pokerpro341 checks.
atrophy7attr checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 2h ]
pokerpro341 checks.
atrophy7attr checks.
pokerpro341 shows [ 2d, 2s ] three of a kind, twos.
atrophy7attr doesn't show [ 7c, Kc ] high card ace.
dapfunkera doesn't show [ Ad, Jh ] a pair of aces.
pokerpro341 wins 57782 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, twos.
Player dapfunkera finished in 15 place and received $152

191/2652 in the $20K on Party for $31

This is how I went out - he was 0.1% to win after the flop!

Seat 1: INICII ( $9604 )
Seat 2: non_entity ( $105046 )
Seat 3: jlumper ( $53310 )
Seat 4: CashewLaLa ( $74075 )
Seat 5: woropay ( $33068 )
Seat 6: Cicci888 ( $94267 )
Seat 7: NsideStrait ( $30140 )
Seat 8: voltren ( $30755 )
Seat 9: dapfunkera ( $22391 )
Seat 10: Brian2774 ( $27535 )
Trny:28260394
Level:12 Blinds-Antes(1500/3000-75)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ac Ah ]
CashewLaLa folds.
woropay folds.
Cicci888 calls [3000].
NsideStrait calls [3000].
voltren folds.
dapfunkera raises [9200].
Brian2774 folds.
INICII folds. non_entity folds.
jlumper folds.
Cicci888 raises [82437].
NsideStrait is all-In [27065]
dapfunkera is all-In [13116]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4h, 3s, As ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ]
Cicci888 shows [ 9h, 9s ]
two pairs, jacks and nines.
NsideStrait shows [ Jd, Jh ] four of a kind, jacks.
dapfunkera shows [ Ac, Ah ] a full house, Aces full of jacks.
Cicci888 wins 55372 chips from side pot #2 with two pairs, jacks and nines.
NsideStrait wins 15498 chips from side pot #1 with four of a kind, jacks.
NsideStrait wins 72198 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, jacks.
Player dapfunkera finished in 192 place and received $31.81

Some more bad beats - these are both pathetic plays - they had low pair and gutshot draw

Seat 2: TLT45 ( 4195 )
Seat 4: dapfunkera ( 8465 )
Seat 5: AABowDownAA ( 8923 )
Seat 6: Prettyboy33 ( 21460 )
Seat 7: heatmaker31 ( 32333 )
Seat 8: davidole ( 8603 )
Seat 10: limoguys ( 7838 )
Seat 9: kjpokster ( 13638 )
Seat 1: karbiz ( 5468 )
Seat 3: RJSilver ( 1330 )
Level:5 Blinds(150/300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ad Kc ]
limoguys folds. karbiz folds.
TLT45 folds. RJSilver folds.
dapfunkera raises [1000].
AABowDownAA folds.
Prettyboy33 folds.
heatmaker31 calls [1000].
davidole calls [850].
kjpokster calls [700].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 9d, Kd, Ts ]
davidole checks.
kjpokster checks.
dapfunkera bets [3000].
heatmaker31 folds.
davidole is all-In [7603]
kjpokster folds.
dapfunkera is all-In [4465]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 6d ]
** Dealing River ** [ Js ]
dapfunkera shows [ Ad, Kc ] a pair of kings.
davidole shows [ 9s, Qc ] a straight, nine to king.
davidole wins 138 chips from side pot #1 with a straight, nine to king.
davidole wins 18930 chips from the main pot with a straight, nine to king.
Player dapfunkera finished in 138 place

9 Seat 1: barelyweems ( $4100 )
Seat 2: orsteve ( $6817 )
Seat 3: dapfunkera ( $4493 )
Seat 4: goldenjade19 ( $16732 )
Seat 5: athlete2258 ( $4031 )
Seat 6: SevenJ5 ( $6502 )
Seat 7: sjhamm ( $1930 )
Seat 9: see3poh ( $5938 )
Seat 10: ctuck70 ( $8778 )
Trny:28175042
Level:4 Blinds(100/200)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ As Qh ]
sjhamm folds.
see3poh folds.
ctuck70 folds.
barelyweems folds.
orsteve calls [200].
dapfunkera raises [625].
goldenjade19 folds.
athlete2258 folds.
SevenJ5 folds.
orsteve calls [425].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6s, Qs, 9h ]
orsteve is all-In [6192]
dapfunkera is all-In [3868]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jc ]
** Dealing River ** [ Kh ]
orsteve shows [ 9s, Th ] a straight, nine to king.
dapfunkera shows [ As, Qh ] a pair of queens.
orsteve wins 2324 chips from side pot #1 with a straight, nine to king.
orsteve wins 9286 chips from the main pot with a straight, nine to king.
Player dapfunkera finished in 199 place

So I have had some cashes, but I am down a bit. I hope to score something the rest of the week. I can't keep being this unlucky.

My 15 seconds

Party Poker contacted me about writing up a small bio to appear on their "recent winners" website and to include a picture. They said I would be an "inspiration to others". LOL

Nothing is up there yet, but it will be pretty cool if they do put it up there!

another 2nd Place

I have been busy so these are a few days old.

$20NLHE on Poker Stars. 180 people sng

5 FT in August - $44,626.05 in winnings in those final tables!

A first place win!

I got lucky on one hand 10 10 vs QQ, but after that I dominated the FT and cleared it in about 30 minutes. Everyone wanted a deal and the wanted to see the deal making window. They saw it for about 2 minutes and then I closed it. I was way better than them and steamrolled them for first place!

A Big Payday!

So I placed second in the Party Poker Friday Special for $23,000!

I played it really tight and had very little chips from 100 ~ 20 people. With 20 people left I really started to play well and got down to 5. With 5 left we made a deal.

each got $15K and then we would play for the remainder

1st - extra $11K
2nd - extra $8K
3rd - extra $5K
4th - extra $3K
5th - no extra.

So I got second.

2nd Place for $1944.60!!

This wasn't a huge win, but it was nice. It was a $30NL on Party Poker. I felt I was the best player at the final table, but I really had trouble getting cards so I made some nice bluffs and reads to get to the final 3 and a huge chip lead. Then the eventual winner bet half his stack (about 30%) of my stack. I had AJ and I had money in the pot. I went all in and he turned 99. His 99 held up and then when we got heads up I got A7 with about 250000 chips. I bet out 75000 and he went all in - I had to call. He turns over A9. It comes out X7X, A, 9 and I lose. I really want to win a MTT! Well at least I made up for a few days of losses.


here are the two hands that cost me - hard to fold AJ and just ran into a player getting all the cards heads up. He had so many great hands - I played my but off to finish where I did. I came back a couple of times after rough hands too!

#Game No : 5023427206 ***** Hand History for Game 5023427206 *****NL Texas Hold'em Trny:27817108 Level:19 Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700) - Friday, August 25, 04:04:55 ET 2006Table Regular(809227) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the buttonTotal number of players : 3
Seat 1: SixForty ( $487768 )
Seat 3: cholosychola ( $140730 )
Seat 6: dapfunkera ( $760502 )
Trny:27817108 Level:19Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700)
SixForty posts ante [700].
cholosychola posts ante [700].
dapfunkera posts ante [700].
** Dealing down cards **Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ad Jh ]
cholosychola folds.dapfunkera raises [60000].
SixForty raises [195000].
Your time bank will be activated in 5 secs.
If you do not want it to be used, please act now.dapfunkera will be using his time bank for this hand.
dapfunkera is all-In [684802]
SixForty is all-In [262068]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Th, 3s, 6h ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
** Dealing River ** [ Td ]
SixForty shows [ 9h, 9c ]
two pairs, tens and nines.
dapfunkera shows [ Ad, Jh ] a pair of tens.
dapfunkera wins 272734 chips from side pot #1 with a pair of tens.
SixForty wins 976236 chips from the main pot with two pairs, tens and nines.

#Game No : 5023439257 ***** Hand History for Game 5023439257 *****NL Texas Hold'em Trny:27817108 Level:19 Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700) - Friday, August 25, 04:09:06 ET 2006Table Regular(809227)
Table #1 (Real Money)Seat 6 is the buttonTotal number of players : 2
Seat 1: SixForty ( $1100566 )
Seat 6: dapfunkera ( $288434 )
Trny:27817108 Level:19
Blinds-Antes(15000/30000-700)
SixForty posts ante [700].
dapfunkera posts ante [700].
** Dealing down cards **Dealt to dapfunkera [ Ac 7h ]
dapfunkera raises [75000].
SixForty is all-In [1069866]
dapfunkera is all-In [197734]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4c, 7s, Td ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ah ]
** Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
dapfunkera shows [ Ac, 7h ] two pairs, aces and sevens.
SixForty shows [ 9s, Ad ] two pairs, aces and nines.
SixForty wins 812132 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, aces and nines.
SixForty wins 576868 chips from the main pot with two pairs, aces and nines.
Congratulations to player SixForty for winning tournament Regular
Player dapfunkera finished in 2 place and received $1944.60
Player SixForty finished in 1 place and received $3472.61

Back to posting

My little fit didn't last too long at Pokeranalysis.com. The people there were supportive and the mod in question is just harsh sometimes. Still pisse me off, but oh well.

So I am working my way through some of the vids on pokerXfactor.com. I am applying some of what I learned to my play, but I still think you need to have your hands hold up to win.

Still not doing anything great at poker. I have been playing MTT almost exclusively.

Off Topic

So I decided to stop posting on Pokeranalysis.com after some cold treatment from one of their mods. He was being a bit picky about things so I decided I would just post somewhere else. I like the people there and it is still a good forum so I will leave the link up.

I subscribed to pokerxfactor.com today. It was $149 to start and I think $24 a month after that. JohnnyBax and sheets run it and so far after peeking around I like it. I am decent at MTT, but to win at the higher levels consistently I want to see some hand histories from successful tourney play.

I played last night and didn't do all that great. Made a bit playing cash games and then lost that his morning with a full house to quads. I will post more tomorrow since I am busy today.

Revise my play

So I played pretty well last night and still lost. I made a dumb mistake in a $3rebuy, but that is more of a fun tourney for me. I cashed in the last spot of a $100 NL MTT on Party Poker for about $160. I played in 5 sngs. 3 $100 (2 2nd place finishes for $600 total) 2 $50 (one 3rd place for $100) - so I made $300 playing those 5 sngs. The sngs helped a bit, but my losses playing $100 and $150 MTT can add up. I lost $500 in big MTTs last night not including the fees. I then switched to a cash $3/$6NL and turned $300 into $1000 with two extremely loose players playing. I then lost $800 of it on one hand playing AA vs Q8 he called a raise to $48 pre flop! He was loose and went all in with a Q85 flop and I folded the winner a couple of times to these two players so I called and lost. I then got mad and lost the other $200 going all in pre-flop after he raised for the millionth time and he showed QQ to my 33. I hit a set on the flop, but he caught a flush on the turn. This happens many times where I find these people and they raise and raise with junk and the time I decide to get involved they catch a flop or actually have a hand. I can usually get all the money back in short order since their style lends itself to that, but the one guy busted out after losing $600 and then put another $600 in and built that to $1400 and then lost all of that. The other guy had my money when I left but it was 3am and I had to go to bed. I added both of them to my buddy list so I will look for them tonight.

I am going to only play one MTT tonight and concentrate on cash games and sngs to build my money up a bit. I don't know if I will play any more big MTT on Stars anymore. I hate the 1500 in starting chips. I get 3000 to 5000 on Party and with only 1500 chips one mistake early can put you short stacked for the entire tourney. I love the $3 rebuy on Stars though!

Another crappy night

So I played a bunch of MTT last night

$150 NL Super Monday on Party Poker - lost with 10 10 vs QQ all in with all low cards on the flop. Poor move on my part

$100 NL on Party Poker - I couldn't get away from AA on the first hand and lost to two pair

$30 NL on Party Poker

$150 NL on Poker Stars - got short stacked and total card death

$100 NL on Poker Stars - no cards

$3 NL rebuy on Poker Stars - was in the top 30 of chips in the $3rebuy for a long time, but took a chance on a straight draw and lost a bunch and then just went downhill from there.

I played in two $200 sng on Party Poker. I placed third for $400 and didn't place in the other one.

I played a bit of cash games and did ok - I think up $100 - $200?

I know my problem with MTT is impatience. I will concentrate more tonight and play less tables at one time. I haven't been getting the cards, but I have also been playing too many hands.

Last night and this Morning

So I got home around 7:30pm last night and I was pretty tired. I was looking forward to playing poker, but I should have just went to bed. I played the highest buy-in MTT I have ever played. It was a $215 NL rebuy on Poker Stars. There were several high ranked players there and I had enough to buy in, one rebuy, and the add-on. That is $615! So I played well and build my 1500 chips to over 4000 when I called a few people in the small blind with 67. The flop came 67Q! I checked the flop and the two people behind be checked as well. There was about 500 in the pot and the turn was a 3. Nothing showing so I bet 200 and got raised to 500. I went all in right there not wanting to see the river and got called. I had the two pair and the other guy flipped over Q7! I was going to lose there no matter what, but I was down to about 750 chips. A few hands later I got KK and raised it to 3X BB (300 bet) and someone called. I went all in on the flop and I lost to trip J's. He had 8J and he flop was 67J and the river was another J- oh well I had a short stack and I guess he gambled pre-flop a bit. Well I did a rebuy and the last hand before the break i got 10 10. I raised to 300 and was called and another guy went all in. So I had 1200 left and I called and the other guy did as well. They checked it down and I survived and tripled up. I did the add-on and had over 6000 chips at the break. It was a small MTT (120 started) and it paid at 18. I got up to 11,000 and called an all in of 2000 with 22 taking a chance. He had 88 and won. This was after I folded 66, 44, and 33 to all-in bets. The 44 would have tripled me up to over 30000 when AA went allin and the flop had a 4. So I got blinded down a bit to 6000 and bluffed all in with a A9 hearts with a JQJ flop with two hearts showing. I got called with KQ and no hearts on turn or river so I lost and place 42nd.

I played well and just couldn't get much going - no cards and I rarely hit a flop.

I was down close to $2K last night, but brought it back with some cash games and some play this morning. I am still down about $1200 from last night, but I hope to get that back tonight since I got a decent night sleep.

I also played a $109 NL on Party Poker - made 2 moves and they didn't work - got busted about halfway through.

Played a $22 NL rebuy on stars - didn't make it to the break. Played well and everyone was going all in on almost everyhand with junk so I had 88 late and tried it and got called by 3 people - AA, AK, and QQ. I didn't rebuy - the play was a bit to erratic at my table. Two separate people made at least 10 - 15 double rebuys!

Got busted twice for $300 on cash games. I had top pair once and the guy caught two pair on the turn and I had JJ once and misread someone who had AQ with a Q on the board (bad play on my part).

So my MTT play still costs me a bunch to play, but my $17,500 win 2 weeks ago is keeping me playing them. My cash games suffer when I am playing MTT since I can't really play them at the same time. I like to play 3-4 MTT at a time to allow myself to wait a bit on hands early on.

Back on Track!

Got to my parents house around 12pm and I decided to play a little. I played $3/$6NL and I was on fire! I actually trippled up on a cash game!


***** Hand History for Game 4978978676 *****
$600 NL Texas Hold'em - Saturday, August 19, 02:02:44 ET 2006
Table Monster #1278357 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 3: liya101 ( $1427.96 )
Seat 4: zgagdooms ( $1576.45 )
Seat 5: bfun2me ( $390.56 )
Seat 2: dapfunkera ( $423.10 )
Seat 6: pmin1 ( $275.15 )
Seat 1: cheesycrime ( $600 )
zgagdooms posts small blind [$3].
bfun2me posts big blind [$6].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ 5d 6d ]
pmin1 calls [$6].
cheesycrime calls [$6].
dapfunkera calls [$6].
liya101 folds.
zgagdooms folds.
bfun2me raises [$26].
pmin1 calls [$26].
cheesycrime calls [$26].
dapfunkera calls [$26].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6c, 5h, Qh ]
bfun2me bets [$100].
pmin1 folds.
cheesycrime calls [$100].
dapfunkera is all-In [$391.10]
dapfunkera: lol
bfun2me is all-In [$258.56]
cheesycrime calls [$291.10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]
** Dealing River ** [ 8d ]
bfun2me shows [ Ac, Qd ] a pair of queens.
cheesycrime shows [ Th, Kh ] high card king.
dapfunkera shows [ 5d, 6d ] two pairs, sixes and fives.
The time at which hand ended:Aug 19 2006 02:01 ET
dapfunkera wins $65.08 from side pot #1 with two pairs, sixes and fives.
dapfunkera wins $1203.18 from the main pot with two pairs, sixes and fives.

Also played one $11 sng - first place was an entry into the $100K Party Monster Freeroll of your choice - well I dominated the event and got 1st and the free sat entry!! Top 2000 of the freeroll get an entry into the Monster Million of your choice. The top 1000 in the Monster Million get entry into the final Monster Tournament. That should be over 10 million! The final 6 will compete in person and it will be on TV. I hope to play in a few of the Monster events - I can dominate a $11 sng and will win about every other one.

I made my other $500 back and then another $1100. So I lose $1000 on Thursday and then win $1600 on Friday. Net of +$600. Also got that $100K seat. I only played for about 1.5 hours tonight!

Bad Cards and Bad Play!

I played extremely bad last night and since I also got bad cards I basically lost $200 on two $100 sngs, $200 on $3/$6 NL, and $600 in MTT. $1000 total

Party Poker Super Thursday and made a horrible call with a pair of Q's with QJ and got beat out be AQ to get knocked out. Extremely poor play there.

$150 NL MTT on Stars and just couldn't get anything going. Bad cards here - nothing bad about my play.

$33 NL rebuy on Stars - no cards and some bad play mixed in. I had KK cracked by 43!! He called a 4XBB bet preflop, and a pot bet on the flop only to catch 2 pair on the turn. I then lost most of my chips thinking I had the best hand. I never really got anything going after that and lost about $150 in rebuys and the add on.

$3 rebuy to Sunday Million on Stars - I was playing well and then had a brain freeze with AK and a straight on the board. I thought it would be a split pot since I didn't think the last card (gutshot card to make a straight on the board) would help the guy since I bet big on the turn and he called. Oh well.

$11 rebuy - $55K guaranteed - junk cards

So I think most of my problem was that I was really tired. We just moved into our house and I have been working hard at work and then working at night on the house before I play poker. We are painting the entire interior of the house including the trim and ceilings. We got all new appliances so I needed to hook them up and had a bunch of trouble getting the dishwasher in without leaks! Anyways I was really tired and had 4 tables going and my wife talking to me and I just wasn't in the zone. My advice to anyone is really try to play without distractions and when you are rested - you will be amazed by your play.

So I woke up in the morning still mad about my play and decided to play $10/$20 NL. Now I got myself into trouble in the past when I would lose, get mad, and then try to move up and get the money back. I have played at the $10/$20NL level for about 6 months before, but the swings were hard to take. Anyways I sat at a 6 seated table and basically stayed even and then was dealt AA.

I sat down at the table with about $990.

***** Hand History for Game 4972984234 *****
$2000 NL Texas Hold'em - Friday, August 18, 07:47:15 ET 2006 Table Monster #1278131 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: joecohen18 ( $917.17 )
Seat 2: play2win238 ( $2857.36 )
Seat 3: In_Memoriam ( $2616.50 )
Seat 5: sToP_U_dOnKeY ( $3117 )
Seat 6: korpen ( $1926.25 )
Seat 4: dapfunkera ( $896.65 )
play2win238 posts small blind [$10].
In_Memoriam posts big blind [$20].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to dapfunkera [ As Ad ]
dapfunkera raises [$60].
sToP_U_dOnKeY folds.
korpen calls [$60].
joecohen18 folds.
play2win238 folds.
In_Memoriam folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Js, 4h, Td ]
dapfunkera bets [$100].
korpen raises [$200].
dapfunkera calls [$100].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kh ]
dapfunkera checks. korpen checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 8c ]
dapfunkera bets [$350].
korpen calls [$350].
dapfunkera shows [ As, Ad ] a pair of aces.
korpen doesn't show [ Jc, Ah ] a pair of jacks.
The time at which hand ended:Aug 18 2006 07:47 ET
dapfunkera wins $1246.50 from the main pot with


I played it pretty well, but I wish that K on the turn was an A - I would have doubled up, but I basically made $500 before work in about 20 minutes and made up for about 1/2 of what I lost last night. I do not recommend people doing this since I was in a bad mood and would have called anything post flop with that AA. Thus if he hit two pair or a set I would have lost another $1000.

So I am much better about controlling my emotions playing poker, but I slip from time to time. I still need to work on this, but it is getting better. I was actually able to go to bed last night after my MTT losses instead of playing until I got the money back.

We are driving back to Pittsburgh, PA tonight for my son's first birthday party so I might play a bit tonight when I get there, but I won't be able to tomorrow.

My plans for tonight

Even though party Poker has a great promotion to basically pay me for the Party Points I get, I want to stick with my MTT play. I will play at least one $3/$6NL cash game to get some points, but I am going to play the Party Poker Super Thursday ($162 buy in) since at the final table the prizes range from a few grand to $30 - $40K! I usually do well in the higher buy in MTT so I will try to find one on Stars too. I am still new to Stars so I don't know if they have the same MTT every night or not. Party is standard for what they offer for the most part and I kind of hate that since I can only play after 9pm and I am stuck playing the same thing every night.

My son's 1st birthday was last week so we are driving back to Pittsburgh, Pa to have a big party for him. So I might be able to get the Part Poker Super Friday in if we get there by 10pm. It is a $215 entry fee though so I will see how I am doing. Saturday is out for poker, but I will be right back at it Sunday night.

before work action

So I usually play an hour or so before work. Well Party is down this morning so I played $3/$6NL on Poker Stars. I was up $200 after about 30 minutes, but then I got QQ and a lose player called my raise to $30. Board hit 10KK. I bet $30 - he raise to $120. He was very loose and made some bad bets so I called. He then bet $200 and yes I called (stupid). He checked the river and showed KJ. Now I make bad plays like this every now and then - I decide I have a read on someone and stick with it. I am better at not doing this, but still have my brain farts from time to time. I came back from being down $300 to only being down $70 for the morning session.

Off to work - more play tonight

Well I am back at the tables!!!

Played a little $3/$6NL on Party tonight - won about $200

Played $5/$10 limit on Party - lost about $50

Poker Stars - all MTT

$3 rebuy satellite to Sunday Million - I was dominating and got up to about 30,000 chips and was in 2nd place. Lost AQ vs 99 all in preflop for about 10,000 chips and lost AJ vs KJ all in preflop for 5000 chips. Built it up to 160000 and chip leader. Had KK beat by A10c all in preflop - he caught a flush on the river. Ended up finishing 15th for $134 - top 14 got into the Sunday million! ugh

$5 rebuy satellite to WCOOP PLHE 6 seated event - did horrible and just couldn't win a race or get any cards

$150NL - short stacked for the first 1.5 hours. Cracked AA with 10 J all in pre flop. I was in the BB and only had about 1000 chips and the blinds were 100/200 - got lucky. Then I had 10 10 and pushed to 900 with the blinds at 150/300. Flop was 689 rainbow. I bet out 1200 - SB went all in - I called. He had KK and I caught a 7 on the river. So my biggest MTT and I am getting so lucky. I'll take it! I was down to 1800 in chips and I was in the money so I went all in with A8d UTG with the blinds at 400/800 . The SB raised and the BB went all in - the SB folded and the BB turned over J7 - the A8 held up and I tripled up! had about 4000 chips - got QQ UTG. Blinds at 500/1000. Someone goes all in for about 5000 and then another person who can cover both of us. I call. 10jC and A8o - QQ holds and I triple up!!! Up to this point I never had more than 6000 chips. I played a small stack and played it very tight.

Finished 28th for $392. Had QJ in the BB and the button pushed me all in - I called and he had A6o - he caught an A and I was done. I did pretty well with very little cards to play with.

Full Tilt - $20K guaranteed

card dead. got up to 2000 chips and had KQs broke by KJ all in preflop (he was shortstacked and thus the call) He hit runner runner for a straight. Busted out at 494 out of 1208

For the night I won about $400 total. Not bad, but not what it could have been.

So we recently moved into our new house and today is the day that our internet should be working. I will start playing after 9pm and hope to play at least one MTT and some cash games. Party Poker has a VIP special going on where they will reward you for playing by cashing in Party Points for cash! I figure I can make about $1000 over the next two months doing this and today is the first day to start earning money. So I will playing mostly cash games, but I want to do some MTT as well.

Introduction

I have been playing poker all my life and got started when I was about 7 or 8 sitting in for my mom and dad during family poker games. The stakes were small and the play very friendly so it was a good learning experience. As I grew older I got better and started playing with my own money or money lent to me by my parents - most people were drinking so as the night went on I usually cleaned up and made $5 or $10 for the night. This continued as time went on and as I got into my college years I would play from time to time, but nothing regular. I didn't start playing online until I saw the WPT about 5 years ago. I saw and add for Party Poker and signed up. I started off playing $6 sngs and $0.5/$1 LHE and $25NL. I never really did much for the next two years and only played here and there. I then moved to San Diego and started playing a bit more with all the Poker on TV. I moved up in stakes to the point I was playing $10/$20 NL and $30/$60limit. I played $100/$200 limit once and I was playing with thousands of dollars at a time. I held my own and had some nice swings and some bad swings. Then after my son was born and my wife quit her job I thought I could use Poker to pay some of the bills. I was stressed out and didn't play well. I ended up quitting my job out and San Diego and moved my family to the Philly area. It is much cheaper here and once our house sold in CA we were financially stable and my poker could go back to something fun.

after my house sold and I payed off debt that we accumulated over the years I sat down and made a plan for my poker. I stopped playing the high limit tables and stuck with $3/$6NL as my cash game of choice. I rarely play limit and I like to play 6 seated. I will play sngs and usually play the $109 and $215 at Party Poker. I have played the $530 twice. I came in 4th once and won once ($2500!!). Since June I have been doing much better. I am up about $20K and playing well. I went through a bad spell and lost most of what I initially made (about $3K), but after a nice MTT payoff ($17,500) and some better play I am back up to about $20K.

So with this blog I hope to record the ups and downs of the online poker life. I came up with this idea after reading similar blogs of people I met on pokeranalysis.com

Hope this reads well! I suck at spelling so please ignore that.