Beating the Home Game - Part 2

So I finally broke in the new poker table last night. It was a smaller turn out than I had hoped, and the prize pools were pretty low. Still lots of fun though. There was myself, a former coworker, and two guys from school and one of their friends (who got significantly intoxicated over the course of the evening thanks to a 2-4 of Cap'n Morgans.

We had a warm up game waiting for one guy to show up, and that ended relatively quickly when I got it in with A2 against Q4 and the board ran Q7228. There weren't many huge pots. Almost everyone had a style that was hugely chip-bleeding, and just by playing top pair fairly hard, I got paid off huge. We ended up heads up with me having a 5-1 chip lead or something to that effect.

The second game was much more intense. The prize pool was only 70$, but it was enough for us starving students to put up a good fight for. I got on the ropes twice, running flopped trips into a flush and the same trips with a better kicker. The flush holder and my other school friend were sitting on almost all the chips in play. I rebought and managed to pick a few spots to win big pots .. AT helped me out on a T-high flop where I had massive bets called on the flop and turn and finally folded him on the river.

At one point I actually had a slight chip lead, only to run AJ and AQ all in preflop. That put me brutally short. Fortunately, one of my friends was keeping up his horribly bleeding ways and he bled a lot of chips in my direction. Finally I had him slightly covered and he went all in with K8 and I called with KJ and held. I actually went over the top with my other friend (the monster stack) still to act. He thought for a while and folded A4 face up. He would have won it right there.

Heads up lasted fairly long. I got pretty aggressive and did a lot of shoving over the top of his raises.

The key hand was me holding Ah7h and the flop came something like 6h 5h 3c. My friend lead out with a pretty big bet and I shoved. He called almost instantly and showed 54. The turn bricked, but the river brought the beautiful 3rd heart and I was chip leader.

It ended about 10 hands later when I shoved A7 and he called with QT.

The next game will probably be in a couple of weeks. And if I want people to keep coming, I'm going to have to teach myself the way of losing. Still lots of fun!

That's all for now.

It was bound to come around...

Finally! Phew. Feels good to have that behind me. Just finished a ~short session of 500 or so hands. Won back 4 buyins at 10NL from my mega-slide of the previous few days. Here's a particularly gross hand vs a station.


PokerStars Game #14172636364: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:55:27 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($9.55 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($26.75 in chips)
Seat 3: iron_arm1 ($9.65 in chips)
Seat 4: Qvaff ($5.85 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($20.90 in chips)
Seat 6: Lestardt ($2.10 in chips)
hubmaster: posts small blind $0.05
PUKERCHAMP: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Th]
iron_arm1: raises $0.10 to $0.20
So when a station (he runs 70/0/0 over 80) makes a minraise UTG, u gotta wonder...
Qvaff: folds
crushmastac: calls $0.20
Implied odds since he'll probably let me do it cheap
Lestardt: folds
hubmaster: folds
PUKERCHAMP: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js 6d 3s]
iron_arm1: bets $0.10
crushmastac: raises $0.40 to $0.50
In hindsight, I'm not sure why I raised here. I was fairly certain I was up against JJ+ here.
iron_arm1: calls $0.40
*** TURN *** [Js 6d 3s] [Jd]
iron_arm1: bets $0.10
From a station this just screams monster ... what a freakin' card for me though.
crushmastac: raises $0.90 to $1
iron_arm1: calls $0.90
*** RIVER *** [Js 6d 3s Jd] [4h]
iron_arm1: checks
crushmastac: bets $2.50
I probably coulda got more outta him. Actually pretty disappointed.
iron_arm1: calls $2.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Th] (three of a kind, Jacks)
iron_arm1: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $8.15 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8.55 Rake $0.40
Board [Js 6d 3s Jd 4h]
Seat 1: hubmaster (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: iron_arm1 mucked [Ac Ad]
Well played, sir...
Seat 4: Qvaff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: crushmastac showed [Jc Th] and won ($8.15) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 6: Lestardt (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Here's the other big hands of the day, from smallest pot to biggest.


PokerStars Game #14172344140: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:18:36 (ET)
Table 'Apus' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: skädä ($4.50 in chips)
Seat 2: jtk1113 ($5.85 in chips)
Seat 3: klitschko ($6.65 in chips)
Seat 4: Dudeman IV ($9.80 in chips)
Seat 5: robertateIV ($8.55 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($10 in chips)
Dudeman IV: posts small blind $0.05
robertateIV: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Js]
crushmastac: calls $0.10
skädä: folds
jtk1113: raises $0.10 to $0.20
klitschko: calls $0.20
Dudeman IV: calls $0.15
robertateIV: calls $0.10
crushmastac: raises $1.80 to $2
jtk1113: calls $1.80
klitschko: calls $1.80
Dudeman IV: folds
robertateIV: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Kc 8h]
crushmastac: bets $4
Naaah, nobody's got no K. Proceed with cbet.
jtk1113: folds
klitschko: raises $0.65 to $4.65 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls $0.65
*** TURN *** [Kd Kc 8h] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [Kd Kc 8h 8c] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Js] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
klitschko: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $14.95 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $15.70 Rake $0.75
Board [Kd Kc 8h 8c Td]
Seat 1: skädä folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jtk1113 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: klitschko (button) mucked [7s 7c] Solid... Thanks!
Seat 4: Dudeman IV (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: robertateIV (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: crushmastac showed [Jc Js] and won ($14.95) with two pair, Kings and Jacks



PokerStars Game #14172563965: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:46:10 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($9.45 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($23.30 in chips)
Seat 3: el errante ($7.90 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($12 in chips)
Seat 6: Lestardt ($4.20 in chips)
Lestardt: posts small blind $0.05
hubmaster: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Js 9s]
PUKERCHAMP: folds
el errante: calls $0.10
crushmastac: calls $0.10
Lestardt: calls $0.05
hubmaster: checks
*** FLOP *** [6s 2c Qs]
Lestardt: bets $0.10
hubmaster: folds
el errante: raises $0.30 to $0.40
crushmastac: calls $0.40
Lestardt: calls $0.30
*** TURN *** [6s 2c Qs] [Jc]
Lestardt: checks
el errante: bets $1.10
crushmastac: calls $1.10
Lestardt: folds
*** RIVER *** [6s 2c Qs Jc] [8s] Holy hell I actually made a flush draw??
el errante: bets $1.30
crushmastac: raises $5.70 to $7
el errante: calls $5 and is all-in Snap-call, of course waiting until he was beat to get most of the money in.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Js 9s] (a flush, Queen high)
el errante: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $15.60 from pot
Qvaff joins the table at seat #4
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.40 Rake $0.80
Board [6s 2c Qs Jc 8s]
Seat 1: hubmaster (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: el errante mucked [Ad Ah] Another freakin' AA genious. These guys are showing me major love tonight.
Seat 5: crushmastac (button) showed [Js 9s] and won ($15.60) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 6: Lestardt (small blind) folded on the Turn




PokerStars Game #14172467286: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:33:48 (ET)
Table 'Apus' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Cestades ($7.35 in chips)
Seat 2: jtk1113 ($1.95 in chips)
Seat 3: sxfactor ($10.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Dudeman IV ($13.45 in chips)
Seat 5: robertateIV ($4.95 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($17 in chips)
sxfactor: posts small blind $0.05
Dudeman IV: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ah Th]
robertateIV: folds
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Cestades: folds
jtk1113: folds
sxfactor: raises $1.10 to $1.50
Dudeman IV: folds
crushmastac: calls $1.10 Very loose call, I know. Villain was on the aggressive side and was tilting a bit from getting thrashed in a set over set hand a little earlier.
*** FLOP *** [Ad 3h Qd]
At first I think this is a good flop for me, if he's got KK, JJ, or TT. AK/AQ/QQ has me in a bind though.
sxfactor: bets $2.10
crushmastac: calls $2.10
*** TURN *** [Ad 3h Qd] [Td] Bingo? I think?
sxfactor: bets $7 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls $7 I actually had to ponder for a second here before I made the call. I was praying to see AK and not AQ.
*** RIVER *** [Ad 3h Qd Td] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sxfactor: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Aces) Yesssss!
crushmastac: shows [Ah Th] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
crushmastac collected $20.30 from pot A ~ poorly played hand by me, but I'll take it.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $21.30 Rake $1
Board [Ad 3h Qd Td 9h]
Seat 1: Cestades folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jtk1113 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: sxfactor (small blind) showed [Kh As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: Dudeman IV (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: robertateIV folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: crushmastac showed [Ah Th] and won ($20.30) with two pair, Aces and Tens




PokerStars Game #14172780542: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 05:14:05 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($15.70 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($14.60 in chips)
Seat 3: BloodyyGood ($29.30 in chips)
Seat 4: Qvaff ($4.40 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($24.35 in chips)
Seat 6: Targeteer ($6.35 in chips)
PUKERCHAMP: posts small blind $0.05
BloodyyGood: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qd As]
Qvaff: folds
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Targeteer: folds
hubmaster: folds
PUKERCHAMP: calls $0.35
BloodyyGood: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js Ad Qs] I tell ya, PStars has been making up for the fact that I've whiffed 90% of my flops the last 3 days.
PUKERCHAMP: checks
crushmastac: bets $0.70
PUKERCHAMP: raises $1.80 to $2.50 Ohhhh my. I've run two pair into straight twice already today (smallish pots)
crushmastac: raises $21.45 to $23.95 and is all-in Fugg it. I kick the crap outta AK, spade draw, AJ, QJ, etc.
PUKERCHAMP: calls $11.70 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Js Ad Qs] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Js Ad Qs 7c] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PUKERCHAMP: shows [Qc Jh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks) Poor guy got thrown in front of the dump truck
crushmastac: shows [Qd As] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
crushmastac collected $27.85 from pot Shhiiip! Nice pot for 10NL.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $29.30 Rake $1.45
Board [Js Ad Qs 7c 5c]
Seat 1: hubmaster (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP (small blind) showed [Qc Jh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 3: BloodyyGood (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Qvaff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: crushmastac showed [Qd As] and won ($27.85) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 6: Targeteer folded before Flop (didn't bet)


That is all!

Sick Variance Continues

Yesterday I had a 2 hour session where in the first 50 hands I ran KK into AA ai preflop, and QQ into AA ai preflop. Spent the rest of the session slowly grinding out to get some of it back, only to run AKs into JJ on a Axx flop to get a J on the turn. Poker really hates me right now. The difference yesterday was it didn't tilt me. It sucks how when you get into a horrendous (11 buy-in) slide that you sort of expect these things to happen.

Bllleeeehhljdkghakgjha WTF

Holy hell the last two days have been positively gnarly. And not in the good way. Almost every hand I played today made me feel dirty.

It's bad enough that I got JJ twice, and both times ran it into QQ, but the 2nd time I turned a J only for my opp to river a Q. I mean seriously, why put me through that? I get AQs and raise, see an A high flop, and some twit has smooth called me pre with AK and he lets me bet into him on every street and I kiss another buyin goodbye. Over and over again it was me running good into better, and 2nd best into best.

What REALLY started getting me tilty was the fact that I got AA 3 times and KK twice and ALL 5 TIMES I was in the SB or BB and it folded around. ALL FIVE TIMES. WHAT THE HELL.

So, eh hem, it was a bad day. Thank goodness I (mostly) play within my BR.

I need a shower...

Merry Christmas and such

Hope Santa's good to all of ya this year.

Final Tabled it again .. but ugh

So last night started much like the night before - a rough run on the cash tables with hands that were close and ended up costing me a lot of money, for the most part. There were still a few big pots I took down and good plays I made based on reads that worked out. Either way, I ended up down 40 bucks, so it was MTT time again.

Again, started strong in all 3. I don't remember how I went out on the first two, but I seem to remember one cooler and one suckout and then a tilt shove and blah blah blah. Good times.

Once again, the 3rd one I signed up for was the big weener.

I actually got off to a rough start when I raised AK behind a MP limper and ended up blowing almost 1/4 of my stack trying to convince him his 33 was no good. It didn't work :/

Then I got some help from KK UTG+1 and took it down on a 7 high flop.

The very next hand, I get 88 UTG.

PokerStars Game #14020064678: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/12/22 - 03:55:54 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: RAYHOVA83 (1820 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac (1330 in chips)
Seat 3: SwitchMan70 (9605 in chips)
Seat 4: newp05-33 (4050 in chips)
Seat 5: Tinlizzy49 (1190 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (2800 in chips)
Seat 7: StEal LoOt (670 in chips)
Seat 8: textilex (1470 in chips)
Seat 9: Big Dave B (1465 in chips)
Big Dave B: posts small blind 15
RAYHOVA83: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8d 8h]
crushmastac: raises 90 to 120
SwitchMan70: folds
newp05-33: folds
Tinlizzy49: folds
Love_Juanda: folds
StEal LoOt: folds
textilex: folds
Big Dave B: folds
RAYHOVA83: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [9d 5s 3s]
RAYHOVA83: bets 1700 and is all-in
Um, wtf? This has got to be weak.
crushmastac: calls 1210 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [9d 5s 3s] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [9d 5s 3s Qc] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RAYHOVA83: shows [5c Kh] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Well played sir.
crushmastac: shows [8d 8h] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
crushmastac collected 2675 from pot

Then this hand really got me rolling.


PokerStars Game #14020086101: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2007/12/22 - 03:58:31 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: crushmastac (2600 in chips)
Seat 3: SwitchMan70 (9060 in chips)
Seat 4: newp05-33 (4050 in chips)
Seat 5: Tinlizzy49 (1190 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (2750 in chips)
Seat 7: StEal LoOt (1880 in chips)
Seat 8: textilex (1470 in chips)
Seat 9: Big Dave B (1400 in chips)
SwitchMan70: posts small blind 25
newp05-33: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Kh Ad]
Tinlizzy49: folds
Love_Juanda: folds
StEal LoOt: folds
textilex: folds
Big Dave B: calls 50
crushmastac: raises 150 to 200
SwitchMan70: calls 175
newp05-33: folds
Big Dave B: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [8h Jh 3c]
hootagh is connected
SwitchMan70: bets 150
Big Dave B: calls 150
crushmastac: calls 150
No way I'm raising here. But he's priced me nicely for my draw.
*** TURN *** [8h Jh 3c] [Ts]
SwitchMan70: bets 300
Big Dave B: calls 300
crushmastac: calls 300
I call this somewhat reluctantly. I was getting almost 7 to 1 I think (too lazy to do math right now)
*** RIVER *** [8h Jh 3c Ts] [Qd] ZING!!!
SwitchMan70: bets 800
Big Dave B: calls 750 and is all-in
crushmastac: raises 1150 to 1950 and is all-in
SwitchMan70: calls 1150
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Kh Ad] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
SwitchMan70: shows [8c 9d] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Interesting...
crushmastac collected 2400 from side pot Ship
Big Dave B: shows [Th 9h] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Thankyou for not raising the turn.
crushmastac collected 4250 from main pot Shhhhhiiiiiiiip!


I then proceded to go completely card dead for several orbits, but I still managed to stay in the top 20 for chips.

Finally I pick up KQo in mid position and raise it up getting called by the BB. Flop comes A high with 2 hearts (I have the K of hearts). He checks, I cbet, he calls. Uh oh. Turn comes Jh and all a sudden I have a big draw. He checks, I check behind opting for the free card since I'm pretty sure I'm in a bad spot here where bluffing is a bad idea. The river brings the beautiful 7 of hearts, he checks again, I make a fairly small valueish bet, and he takes his time to fold. That was a T4000 pot that took me close to 5 figures and into the top 5 for chips.

The next 40 hands were awesome. Players started falling left right and center and I ran completely dry. I kept picking spots and watching for the players that didn't defend their blinds and managed to actually chip up to 13K despite being completely card dead.

Then I got a bit lucky when a shorty shoved into me in the SB and I snap-called with A7. He had AJ but I ran a flush on him to take a nice pot and move to 14K.

The very next hand I bounce another shorty when I put him in from the SB with AK and he calls with AQ and I hold. 16K

Then AK whiffed in a massive pot and I dropped 7K to 10K.

At this point I was at a very tight table with nobody having a vpip higher than 30, and most players ran something like 20/5/0.5. Yeah... Unfortunately for me, during the next 10 orbits I didn't pick up one attractive hand with the exception of JJ. But with the table being so tight, I was able to steal and resteal with abandon, chipping back up to 20K without showing a single hand.

The JJ hand happened with about 12 people left.


PokerStars Game #14021196219: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XI (500/1000) - 2007/12/22 - 06:19:22 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: crushmastac (22501 in chips)
Seat 4: Gooseters (9640 in chips)
Seat 5: maryo124 (55013 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (13041 in chips)
Seat 8: ImSoLow (34811 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: mars411 (11911 in chips)
crushmastac: posts the ante 100
Gooseters: posts the ante 100
maryo124: posts the ante 100
Love_Juanda: posts the ante 100
ImSoLow: posts the ante 100
mars411: posts the ante 100
Gooseters: posts small blind 500
maryo124: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jd Jh]
Love_Juanda said, "one more?"
Love_Juanda: folds
ImSoLow: folds
mars411: raises 10811 to 11811 and is all-in
He'd been opening into panic mode with his M getting low
crushmastac: raises 10590 to 22401 and is all-in
Gooseters: folds
maryo124: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 6h 6d]
*** TURN *** [7d 6h 6d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [7d 6h 6d 3s] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mars411: shows [4s Ah] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
crushmastac: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
Love_Juanda said, ".."
crushmastac collected 25722 from pot <------- Ship!


This was by far the tightest final 20 I'd ever had to endure. So when we finally got to the final table, we were well past the blind levels from the tournament I won the night before. Everyone's M was low, but I went on a heater at a good time.

When we got to the final table everyone had 10-45K in chips. I was sitting on 40K with 3 other stacks around mine, and a couple shorter (but not unplayable) stacks.

In my heater I knocked out 3 of the first 5 to go.

First player out was a shorter stack that open shoved A5 into my QQ which held.

A couple eliminations later, I get it in with 88 preflop and win a race vs AJ.

After this we had the tightest final 4 I'd seen in ... ever. I felt great because I had good reads on all 3 of them, and the stacks looked like this:

Me: 125K
ELSO: 62K
Maryo: 45K
LoveJuanda: 36K

Then all hell broke loose.

Every freaking hand I had a top 20% hand. A8, AT, AJ, 88, 55, KJ, etc. I even got JJ, KK and AA. Every time I raised, and every time I wanted to get played back at, I didn't. When I didn't want to get played back at, I did. I ran AJ into AK, A8 into AT, and a bunch of other bad spots. I don't think I got my money in good once.

So in the period of only 20 hands I went from in good shape to win the whole thing again, to being crippled.

The hand that did me in was T7 soooted. Getting a bit tilty, I checked in the BB and saw a 726 flop with 2 spades. He min bet, I raised the pot, he called. Turn was the 3s. He checked, and I decided there was no flush and I didn't want to let him draw with a hand like As Kx, As Qx, etc... So I made a tilty jam that was probably a bad idea, and of course he had As4s for the made nuts and IGH in 4th place and a headache.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my play, and I can only pick out two hands I played badly. I just got unlucky to keep getting top 20% hands and run them into top 10% hands over and over again. It was sickening because all throughout the time I'd spent with these guys in the last 80 hands I had them totally under my thumb.

Bleh.

The 60$ cash was a small consolation prize. I shoulda won the damn thing.

Cya later.

Big Spike, 3rd win in the 4$ 180 man MTT

Yehaw. Today was fun. It started with a rough run on the cash tables where I dropped two buyins. It basically consisted of me making moves with reads that were correct reads, but in 3 cases the aggro-donk had pulled a hand out of their ass. A guy who had been open shoving his 50BB stack with T4, 82, A2, etc made another jam, and I snap called with jacks. He, of course, had red Aces this time and I don't catch up. Similar hands where I ran TPTK into middle set and so on and so forth.

So I decided to go back to my roots and fired up 3 4$ 180-man SNGs. These babies used to be my bread and butter when I had more time to play, and I've won twice, made 2nd twice, and 3rd a few more times for a disgusting lifetime ROI of well over 100%. They've always been the most beatable game I can find.

I started off all three pretty hot. I was above average in chips until about a half hour in when two of the tournaments sucked me out in 60/40's and a 70/30. Oh well. That can be expected in these mine fields. The last tourny was a different story. I started hot and continued to run well for the first two hours.

Early on I coolered KK with my AA. After that QQ won a huge 3-way pot and I was top 10 in chips only 20 minutes in. I stayed there until the final 30 where the game usually gets a little wild. I ran into a bit of a slump getting confused (outplayed) by some guys I shortly found out to be donkeys. I was originally the CL at the table until two players got moved in that both had me covered. One directly on my left, the other directly on my right. I missed a couple spots where I could have won big pots by giving them a little too much credit. The first hand I saw the bigger of the two (on my left) play was KK where he got it in with AQ, A5, and JJ. He held and won a massive pot and I instantly labeled him as a good player.

Wrong. The hand I figured it out on was me holding 77. I forget the details but we ended up in a 3-way pot with a shorty all in. There was 4000 in the pot (2000 main, 2000 side). The flop came something like QJx. I checked, he bet 1000. I was a bit confused, and in a little bit of frustration, folded. He ended up having Ace high and I would have won the side pot (shorty wound up with trip Q's) but it just seemed like a really bad play to me. After that he donked off good chunks of his stack with subpar holdings and more bad plays. He gave me a courtesy double up that put me in the tourny CL just before he busted when my AK cranked his AQ all in preflop.

After that I went a bit cold and lost a few medium sized pots to drop fairly close to the bottom of the pack. Then, with 13 left, I went on a heater.


PokerStars Game #13997455768: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/12/21 - 00:48:15 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bafoon_58 (12039 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (21218 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (10255 in chips)
Seat 6: silent kr (17755 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (7495 in chips)
Seat 8: blamallama (35191 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (20740 in chips)
bafoon_58: posts the ante 75
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 75
ButchBova: posts the ante 75
silent kr: posts the ante 75
jerdood: posts the ante 75
blamallama: posts the ante 75
crushmastac: posts the ante 75
bafoon_58: posts small blind 400
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [As Ad]
ButchBova: folds
silent kr: folds
jerdood: calls 800
blamallama: raises 2700 to 3500
crushmastac: raises 17165 to 20665 and is all-in
bafoon_58: folds
BRICK_ONE: folds
jerdood: folds
blamallama: calls 17165
*** FLOP *** [5d Jh 6h]
*** TURN *** [5d Jh 6h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5d Jh 6h 2h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
blamallama: shows [7d 7h] (a pair of Sevens)
crushmastac: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
crushmastac collected 43855 from pot
blamallama said, "nh"


At this point I was getting pretty aggressive. I always smell blood at the final tables and love to play medium aces since a lot of people end up jamming K-high or with baby aces or worse...

I got lucky here...

PokerStars Game #13997853258: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/12/21 - 01:17:42 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32144 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (15336 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (24121 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (46990 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (48134 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (13198 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (20702 in chips)
Seat 8: elmago (29440 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (39935 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 125
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 125
joe sam1: posts the ante 125
ButchBova: posts the ante 125
imilku: posts the ante 125
gofrank150: posts the ante 125
jerdood: posts the ante 125
elmago: posts the ante 125
crushmastac: posts the ante 125
sayahh: posts small blind 600
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8s Ac]
joe sam1: folds
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
jerdood: folds
elmago: folds
crushmastac: raises 2400 to 3600
sayahh: folds
BRICK_ONE: raises 11611 to 15211 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11611
*** FLOP *** [7c Tc 5c]
*** TURN *** [7c Tc 5c] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [7c Tc 5c 7s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BRICK_ONE: shows [9c As] (a flush, King high)
crushmastac: shows [8s Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
gofrank150 said, "nh"
crushmastac collected 32147 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 32147 | Rake 0
Board [7c Tc 5c 7s Kc]


I'm not sure about my call here. For me at these final tables, it would be pretty standard. But villain was tighter than usual and I doubled him up earlier when he woke up in the BB with AA when I had 8's OTB.

A while later a similar hand comes up against an almost identical opponent.

PokerStars Game #13998076913: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:36:08 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (20944 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (16196 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (78142 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (39609 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (52936 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (62173 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
joe sam1: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
joe sam1: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [6c Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: raises 3200 to 4800
sayahh: folds
joe sam1: raises 11246 to 16046 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11246
*** FLOP *** [Ks Jd 8s]
*** TURN *** [Ks Jd 8s] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Jd 8s Kc] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
joe sam1: shows [Tc Th] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
crushmastac: shows [6c Ad] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
crushmastac collected 33792 from pot
gofrank150 said, "nh"


I was calling for the J on the river, but an A works too :) This is another call I'm not sure about in hind-sight.


After that I kept getting nothing but medium-good aces and pocket pairs.

Here's a nice pot...

PokerStars Game #13998104436: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:38:31 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (17794 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79742 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (36459 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (56086 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (79919 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
ButchBova: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [4c 4d]
imilku: raises 1600 to 3200
gofrank150: calls 3200
crushmastac: calls 3200
sayahh: folds
gofrank150 said, "all skate"
ButchBova: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [9c 4s Qc]
ButchBova: checks
imilku: checks
gofrank150: bets 4800
crushmastac: raises 10200 to 15000
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: calls 10200
*** TURN *** [9c 4s Qc] [Th]
gofrank150: checks
crushmastac: bets 37736
gofrank150: folds
gofrank150 said, "nice bet"
crushmastac collected 44350 from pot
crushmastac: doesnt show hand


After this, the rest of the table really rolled over. I stole pots everywhere until this hand came up.


PokerStars Game #13998179951: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:44:58 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (25538 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (65642 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (35759 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (25336 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (117725 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts small blind 800
sayahh: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qs Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: raises 34009 to 35609 and is all-in
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: calls 34809
sayahh: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6h 8s]
gofrank150 said, "<---- playing this ft like a donkey"
*** TURN *** [Qc 6h 8s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6h 8s 3c] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Qs Ad] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
imilku: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Queens and Eights - lower kicker)
crushmastac collected 73568 from pot


This was an easy call because villain in this hand had open jammed a lot worse than KQ in the last couple orbits.


Then I get lucky again...


PokerStars Game #13998230126: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIV (1000/2000) - 2007/12/21 - 01:49:19 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32388 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79678 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (157934 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts the ante 200
crushmastac: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts small blind 1000
crushmastac: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [9c Ad]
sayahh: raises 30188 to 32188 and is all-in
ButchBova: folds
crushmastac: calls 30188
*** FLOP *** [5c Qd 9h]
crushmastac said, "hah now youre the rack"
*** TURN *** [5c Qd 9h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [5c Qd 9h 8s] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [9c Ad] (a pair of Nines)
sayahh: shows [Ah Kc] (high card Ace)
crushmastac said, "sry dude"
crushmastac collected 65976 from pot


3 handed and with my monsterous stack, I figured I was ahead of his jamming range. I still make this call every day I think.


So then I was heads up with a 3-1 chip lead over Butch. He had been playing super-tight and hadn't put up a fight once for the dozens of times I targetted his blinds at this FT. I figured it would be a pretty simple match. He raises, I fold anything but top 10. He calls, I raise. I get first action, I raise. If he raises, easy toss.

We bounced around a lot with me holding ~190K to his 70K. I was bullying him pretty good and figured he'd hit his breaking point sooner or later. I had to think about calling this one, but I'd never seen him make a limp/jam kind of play, so I figured it was frustration and he thought he was ahead.


PokerOffice always loses the HH's before a table breaks or a tourny ends, but I had A9, he completed, I made my standard 4x raise (3x when I open, 4x behind a complete) and he jammed pretty quick. It was 60K to call and I decided to look him up, and despite him flopping an OESD + his K and T being live, I hold it off and take the whole thing down.

It always feels good, don't it. Historically when I win these things or come in 2nd / 3rd it's because plays like the ones I made here result in me getting it in ahead, and staying ahead. I don't usually have to suck out that often. Hence my concern with my play. The hands will show up on CardPlayer, so I guess I'll find out what the masses think.

Good night!

BR Over 100, Table Selection

I love donkeys. Sure, they suck out on me from time to time, but man, you stick around long enough and they try to unload sooo much of their money on you.

Table selection is something I now realize is a huuugely important skill. Knowing when to leave a table is pretty important too. The last couple days I've ripped up over 50$ of profit and sit at a somewhat decent 10NL BR of 10.5 buyins. I'll admit it, I just finished dabbling in 25NL after 10NL got me up to 85$ yesterday. I decided I'd play one buyin on one table and see what happened. Poker's about having fun, right? Haha... Well, long story short, I picked the perfect table and had aggro-donks everywhere raising their K-high backdoor flush into my A-high backdoor flush, or jamming their 2nd pair into my top set, and so on. Within 30 hands I was sitting on 60$ at that table.

But slowly but surely, the megadonks left, and I found myself sitting with 5 people all running 22/10/1. I packed it in pretty quick after that, after getting whittled to 51$ by playing hands I had no business being in.

This is something I didn't used to do. I loved sitting on a big stack, and it didn't matter who came to replace the donks, I would keep on playing. More often than not I'd leave with a little less than the original buyin I started with, other times I'd leave bust. I'm a stubborn motherfucker. I learned that a while ago.

So now I always look for tables with at least one person running with a vpip over 50, or even better, someone running 60/20/5. I'm surprised at how often I find these people now. And so far almost every one I've run into, I've taken at least half their buyin. There was the one exception from my last post where the 7s2s caught a spade on the turn after getting all in with my AA, but overall, these fishies are paying me off gooot.

I'll return to 10NL after my little bit of fun in 25NL. I actually have enough to take some variance now, which is bound to come around sooner or later. I'm making 22BB/100 hands right now, and that can't last.



Top 5 monies winners
#1: AQo
#2: AKs
#3: Q9s (BB special with an aggrodonk)
#4: AKo
#5: KK

Top 5 monies losers
#1: 84o (flopped straight, ran it into an aggrodonk with flush)
#2: AJs (got overzealous with TPTK vs set)
#3: A9s (tptk into QQ)
#4: AA (hahahaha...7 high flushes rock)
#5: J9o

10NL Exploits - BR is all over the place!

So as lloyd said, I, being the degenerate that I am, have returned to playing poker online .. it's not very often. Maybe once or twice a week. But when I do sit down, I feel like I'm playing well and making good moves, and more often than not, I come away with more money than I sat down with.

I put my usual buyin of 50$ in a month ago. I started with 5$ SNGs, but I just don't think I'm cut out for those things. I got down to 30$ and thought it would be fun to play some NL. Me, being the wreckless fool that I am, took my 3 buyins to 10NL, and very quickly turned it into 60$. Then I was playing yesterday, and these 3 hands happened within the span of 3 minutes.

PokerStars Game #13801628075: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 19:54:52 (ET)
Table Centenaria 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PedritoRico ($7.10 in chips)
Seat 3: IsaW ($12.10 in chips)
Seat 4: DiamondEater ($13.45 in chips)
Seat 5: Noldonur ($11.50 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($9.85 in chips)
DiamondEater: posts small blind $0.05
Noldonur: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Ac]
I dunno what people think about raising AJ UTG, but I definitely include it in my opening range there at a 6-handed NL table.
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
PedritoRico: folds
IsaW: calls $0.40
DiamondEater: folds
Noldonur: calls $0.30
*** FLOP *** [4s Jd 5h]
Noldonur: checks
crushmastac: bets $0.70
IsaW: raises $0.70 to $1.40
Hmm. Rainbow flop. Min raise. Another AJ? KJ? QJ? Couldn't be QQ+ because with my stats on this villain he'd be repumping me pre. Maybe a baby set?
Noldonur: folds
crushmastac: raises $8.05 to $9.45 and is all-in
This was probably unwise. He had a pretty high VPIP, so I decided he had a weaker J. With that in mind, I thought I could stack him right here.
IsaW: calls $8.05
*** TURN *** [4s Jd 5h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [4s Jd 5h 2h] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Ac] (a pair of Jacks)
IsaW: shows [5s 5d] (three of a kind, Fives)
Hmm. NH.
IsaW collected $19.15 from pot


And then this .. Because I was 3-tabling I actually didn't notice the chips hadn't come to me until 2 hands later and I was like "WTF I thought I had 20 bucks here!"


PokerStars Game #13801620175: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 19:54:27 (ET)
Table Alzirr V 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: soss ($5.50 in chips)
Seat 2: donivan72 ($4.35 in chips)
Seat 3: DaneW ($11.10 in chips)
Seat 4: M3n70r ($9.35 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($13.65 in chips)
Seat 6: Aceium ($14.65 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.05
Aceium: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [9s Jh]
soss: folds
donivan72: calls $0.10
DaneW: folds
M3n70r: calls $0.10
crushmastac: calls $0.05
Aceium: checks
*** FLOP *** [9c 7h 7c]
crushmastac: checks
Aceium: checks
donivan72: checks
M3n70r: bets $0.30
crushmastac: calls $0.30
I was thinking about raising the turn, depending on what it came.
Aceium: folds
donivan72: calls $0.30
*** TURN *** [9c 7h 7c] [9h]
Nice turn
crushmastac: checks
donivan72: checks
M3n70r: bets $0.70
crushmastac: calls $0.70
I don't want people to think I have the full house ... next time I'll be raising here.
donivan72: calls $0.70
*** RIVER *** [9c 7h 7c 9h] [8h]
Looks like a pretty harmless river...Oooh, someone could have made the flush! I might get some monies out of this!
crushmastac: bets $1.50
donivan72: raises $1.50 to $3
M3n70r: folds
crushmastac: raises $1.60 to $4.60
Extract from flush
donivan72: calls $0.25 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [9s Jh] (a full house, Nines full of Sevens)
donivan72: shows [5h 6h] (a straight flush, Five to Nine)
Oh. Snap.
donivan72 collected $9.45 from pot


And then this. I was just about to leave this table because we were down to 3 players, but then I find Aces and the aggro-donk on my right gives me play.



PokerStars Game #13801988720: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 20:13:22 (ET)
Table Alzirr V 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: cazpa82 ($5.80 in chips)
Seat 4: M3n70r ($12.55 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($9.45 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.05
cazpa82: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [As Ac]
M3n70r: raises $0.30 to $0.40
DTBM joins the table at seat #3
crushmastac: raises $0.90 to $1.30
Playing them like a man. I guess I could have raised a bit more.
cazpa82: folds
M3n70r: calls $0.90
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 4s]
Pretty safe flop... I'll lead, half expecting aggro-donk to raise (he was running like 70/40/10)
crushmastac: bets $1.70
M3n70r: raises $9.55 to $11.25 and is all-in
Snap call + fist pump
crushmastac: calls $6.45 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 4s] [9s]
Would he make this move with the FD??
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 4s 9s] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [As Ac] (a straight, Ace to Five)
M3n70r: shows [7s 2s] (a flush, Nine high)
Ohhh the 7-HIGH FD! Wow. I guess he had a pair too .. i dunno. Pretty gross.
M3n70r collected $18.10 from pot


That last one put me into a tilty mindframe, so I went out for a smoke, jumped up and down a bit, and thankfully it was -20 (C) outside, so I cooled off pretty quick. I didn't hate the way I played any of those hands (if anyone disagrees, let me know), so I came back in set on sticking to my game and extracting more from the donks.

The hands above (with some other 2-3$ pots lost) dropped me to just over 30$ again. Playing my game I managed to drive it back up to 55$ before the ladyfriend demanded attention. NL is where I think I'll be playing from now on, until I have the time availability to spend 5-9 hours playing MTTs. The feeling of stacking someone is so invigorating.

Flopping / turning sets is gold in 10NL. It seems like it wins you a stack every time.


On a side note, the ladyfriend got me an early christmas present in the form of a 10-seater poker table. I've got it set up in the back room and just need to go buy some chairs before I can call my friends and tell them to come out. Those games will be regularly documented on here. I'm pumped!

That's all for now.

Goin' to the B&M - Live poker is rigged too

Just got back from my first live poker in well over a year. Was out with a buddy who just quit his job and needed to unwind, so we did it up. Sat at a 1/2 NL table with the full buyin and waited to see what happened.

It's amazing, after playing in the rock garden that is PStars 25NL seeing how lose these players are, and how fast the monies move around. I watched the first orbit with no cards, but the second orbit got interesting. I 3-bet with AJ in late position to narrow the field and ended up with position in a 3-way pot. Flop left me with TPTK on a pretty dry board. Much to my horror though, the first preflop caller tossed in 100$ like it was nothing, and the player to her left immediately called. I didn't have much information on either player, so I ended up folding, saying I was probably going to hate myself for doing it as I did so. The flop caller had only 30$ left, so the bettor said she was putting him all in blind. Turn came an A (shit) and the river was a rag. Turns out the biotch had freaking JT soooted, and the donkey to her left had the monster 44 unimproved. So I watched her drag a 300+$ pot that was rightfully mine.

At the time, it was absolutely inconceivable to me that they would both be so weak, throwing such crazy amounts of monies around after I had 3-bet preflop. Afterwards I realized that when I hear all these stories about the 1/2NL donkeys, they weren't lying.

About an orbit later I was in late position again with AQ. Another EP raiser, I 3-bet it, and we saw an ace high flop with 3 players. The EP raiser bet out about the pot, and I hummed for a second before pushing all in, since my instincts were telling me I was miles ahead, as I was in the last hand. The 3rd player folded, and the EP raiser thought for probably 2 minutes before he finally said "Im stubborn .. I call" and showed the monster A7, leaving me waay ahead with 2 cards to come. The turn, of course, was the 7 of hearts, and just like that my 200$ buyin was toast.

I left fairly briskly, but realized I still had 20$ in my pocket, so I thought it would be fun to see if I could get enough for a buyin back, and my buddy took me to a roulette table. After betting everything on red 3 times and doubling up 3 times, I went back to the poker room armed with 160$. This time I was mostly card dead and when I did get hands I either misplayed them horribly, or hit a monster and didn't get any action.

This hand is embarrasing...

Hero is dealt TT OTB. EP raises to 5, hero 3-bets to 25. Three callers. Flop comes A Q x. It checks around, and I make an absolutely recockulously retarded bet of 40$ into the 100$+ pot. All but one player fold. I give up and check the turn/river and buddy shows me a weak queen. I didn't like myself much after that hand, but didn't go tilting and hovered around an 80$ stack for another hour or so. Then I got the word my buddy was driving away, so I reluctantly cashed out and rolled out.

I was definitely comfortable with things by the time I left, and I'm excited to try it again, soon hopefully. Having identified the errors in my play, and assuming I can dodge my next 3-outter, I could/should have walked out with over 700$.

It's so much more fun playing live ... The table talk is very entertaining and the intensity is still there. Plus handling those delicious chips is so much more enjoyable than clicking mouse, clicking mouse, blah blah.

So there is definitely more 2NL in my future. Unless I have a couple good nights early, it'll be shortlived as I can only allocate ~600-800$ for this venture. We'll see how the next time goes!

Oh bloody hell...

Why must poker be so addicting??! I found myself restless last night and ended up staying up for 3 hours playing poker. How, you ask? Well, the original plan was just to download Pstars so I could be ready for the blogger freeroll next weekend, but then I logged in and suddenly remembered - I have 1100+ FPPs, which coincidentally can be used to buy in to tournaments that pay real money. So figured, meh, it'll be fun, help get me prepared for the freeroll, etc etc excuses excuses. *eye roll*

So anyways, jumped into one of the 70 FPP Satellites to the Sunday 100K. Only first place gets the 10+1$ buyin (whoooohooooo) haha.. So anyways, after a tough start with a lot of de ja vous where my QQ was no good against A7 and top two ran into straight and blah blah, my fourth attempt was different.

In typical freeroll style, the first hand saw 4 players all in, and the monster Q7 found a Q on the river to get two-pair against AT (the best hand of the all in .. lol) and right off the bat we had 6 players and one stack of 6000. The big stack had a nasty habbit of open pushing any two face cards, and insta-jamming first and second pair. At first I was a bit card dead but then I found the monster K9 in the SB. There were a few limpers, and since he had ocassionally folded to aggression, I decided to let him do his jamming thing in which case I was going to snap-call. He jammed, it folded to me, and I called. He had the monster QJo, and I actually held to take down a huge pot and the chip lead. A couple hands later I managed to find KK and let him "take control" on the flop as I was again out of position on a Q high flop where he held J7 or some god-awful hand like that. Just like that I'm sitting on 7500 chips and looking down at 3 little baby stacks. The final 3 were surprisingly tight. I managed to get in with one stack who 4-bet jammed his JT into my KQ soooted and I held again to make it 3-way action. Not to long after that the middle stack open jammed (which he'd done a few times in the last couple hands) and the short stack called. I looked at KJ and decided I had to take a shot. Open jammer had 88 and shorty had AQs, but again I turned a king and just like that, I have 11 T$!

I immediately unregistered for the 100 grand and joined into two 5$ 9-man SNGs. A fast start on one table (got AA twice???) and a good start on the other ended with a 3rd place finish in one, during which I 3-bet pre with A6 and insta-called a jam when I flopped 2nd pair on J62. I was miles ahead of his 44, but the turn 5 and a river 3 ended those hopes. Still, almost doubled my whopping 5$ buyin. The second went much, much slower and by the 75/150 level, when these SNGs are typically 3-way or even heads up, we still had 8 players. EIGHT! At that point I had built a little bit of a stack and picked off a few shorties at opportune times. Ended up heads up with a 3-1 chip lead only to run into a card rack opponent. K-high was no good twice and none of my other hands were connecting. The turning point was when I had my shortstacked opponent all in, him with A4, me with K5. The flop brought a K and a 4, but the river brought doom in the Ace of hearts. It ended pretty quick after that.

So I turned 280 FPPs into $22.50 and I actually have real money in my account again - which I'm not sure how to use quite yet. I'll probably just donk around way out of my bankroll and try to get lucky. It was just fun and exciting to really be playing again - and to actually catch a few breaks and have a few good hands hold! Good lord! Me? A lucksack? Could it be happening???

See you blogger types this Sunday - don't miss it!

- Crush

Blogger Freeroll? Hells yes!

Thanks to sell-out Loretta for bringing this to my attention. This should be a blast.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 8556594

Be there, so I can bluff my unsuited hammer (or show it down and suck out your AA).

Home Games - Taking candy from ...

It's fun playing poker with people who don't care about money. Rather, it's just fun to have cards in my hand again. Just cleaned up a quick home game with my poker set that I've had for a year and have used once prior to tonight. 20$ + 1 R, went very quickly .. Three big hands ..

First QQ finds me UTG and I raise, called twice.

Flop comes As Qs 3s. Nice. So I lead, Gal to my left doubles my bet and puts herselft almost all in. I throw in the extra chips and before we even get our cards turned up the dealer of the hand turns up the 3d. She ends up showing me Ts 6s and she's the first player out.

Next was KQo. My buddy who had let himself get brutally short pushed it in, the other guy who was playing ATC all night called and I called. The board ran out something like 5J28Q and my KQ beat out Q6 and Q6 ... lol. 2nd player out.

The final hand of the match I had a monster K3 and checked my option to see J23 flop. ATC guy was making noises like he had nothing but would call so I put him all in and he turned up AK. I held off the 3 aces and won myself a nice little pile of 20's.

Physical reads make the game SO much easier its not even funny. I want to take money to a casino soooo badly but I'm just not rolled for even the smallest of games. I could play out of my bankroll and hope for the best. If I variance it all off life goes on.

I want to get a regular home game going, but I have the feeling I'd have to deliberately loose somewhat regularly to keep the attendance respectful, which sucks. Apparently one of my friends placed 3rd in a big tournament that happens once a year in this city .. so maybe I'll get him in too.

Anywho, I'm just happy and ranting cuz I got to play cards and I won a bit of cash. haha.

Cheers

Funny Coincidence

For those of you who read this blog closely (if anyone fits that category), you'll remember a few posts back I made a comment about "Dismantling my shitty Sony laptop into tiny pieces."

Well, the above mentioned device stopped working a couple weeks back, so I replaced it with a Toshiba and sent the Sony off to be fixed. A couple days ago I got a phone call informing me that the cause of the malfunction was a liquid spill (which happened well over a year ago - unless my ladyfriend did it and didnt tell me). Of course, this means my warranty doesn't cover the repair and it would cost me 1200$ to fix it.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

So yeah, this weekend I get to go pick it up, and you better believe you know what I'll be doing with it, as it won't boot at all, so it's an oversized paperweight for me now. I'm gonna have to go buy a sledgehammer. *claps hands giddily*

The poker gods are really testing this newfound patience

Bankroll: $402.44

Well, this is my last chance to play solid hours of poker before school starts tomorrow, so I'm multi-tabling 4$ 180's. Off to a tough start.


Here's a nice limp-RR.

PokerStars Game #11970098232: Tournament #60741890, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/09/09 - 21:50:24 (ET)
Table 60741890 18 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: DRSORDERS420 (1690 in chips)
Seat 2: codyc54321 (1370 in chips)
Seat 3: B.Drizzop (3485 in chips)
Seat 4: Su_dinero (565 in chips)
Seat 5: Sabo17tage (7962 in chips)
Seat 6: jimt2112 (1710 in chips)
Seat 7: HoustonDude (4080 in chips)
Seat 8: crushmastac (2180 in chips)
Seat 9: l3rodie222 (1245 in chips) is sitting out
DRSORDERS420: posts small blind 15
codyc54321: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Kh Kd]
B.Drizzop: calls 30
Su_dinero has timed out
Su_dinero: folds
Su_dinero is sitting out
Sabo17tage: calls 30
Su_dinero has returned
jimt2112: folds
l3rodie222 has returned
HoustonDude: calls 30
crushmastac: raises 150 to 180
l3rodie222: calls 180
DRSORDERS420: folds
codyc54321: raises 1190 to 1370 and is all-in
B.Drizzop: folds
Sabo17tage: folds
HoustonDude: folds
crushmastac: raises 810 to 2180 and is all-in
l3rodie222: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jc 5d 4s]
*** TURN *** [Jc 5d 4s] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 5d 4s 3d] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
codyc54321: shows [2h Qc] (a straight, Ace to Five)
crushmastac: shows [Kh Kd] (a pair of Kings)
codyc54321 collected 3025 from pot


That's the worst of it. I also ran TT into JJ on a 6 high board.

AK hasn't hit once. Neither has AQ. KK has seen Aces flop twice and both times the opponent showed an Ace. AK lost to A2 in a raised pot when the flop brought a deuce.

I'm still playing my game. My blood pressure only went up a little when the runner-runner straight took out my K's.

Oh well.

The best advice I can take right now is: Run better. Seriously.


CONTINUED: Oh yeah, it keeps on going. When I wrote the first part of this, I had two tournies left. Well I started getting some things going my way, and these two waited until the final 25 players before they ganked me...

Guy thinks I'm bluffing and KK fucks me again.

PokerStars Game #11972342837: Tournament #60744381, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2007/09/10 - 00:08:46 (ET)
Table 60744381 20 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: mariachiinc (12179 in chips)
Seat 2: Poeta (4370 in chips)
Seat 4: crushmastac (10941 in chips)
Seat 5: gut88 (18349 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: DFDPhantom (25711 in chips)
Seat 7: sexincity (13820 in chips)
Seat 8: vznyisleszv (3441 in chips)
Seat 9: mikey80i (7375 in chips)
mariachiinc: posts the ante 50
Poeta: posts the ante 50
crushmastac: posts the ante 50
gut88: posts the ante 50
DFDPhantom: posts the ante 50
sexincity: posts the ante 50
vznyisleszv: posts the ante 50
mikey80i: posts the ante 50
Poeta: posts small blind 300
crushmastac: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Kh Ks]
gut88: folds
DFDPhantom: folds
sexincity: folds
vznyisleszv: folds
mikey80i: folds
mariachiinc: folds
Poeta: calls 300
crushmastac: raises 1200 to 1800
Poeta: raises 2520 to 4320 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 2520
*** FLOP *** [6h Th 2d]
Poeta said, "gg lol"
*** TURN *** [6h Th 2d] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [6h Th 2d 9h] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Poeta: shows [7c Qc] (a straight, Six to Ten)
crushmastac: shows [Kh Ks] (a pair of Kings)
Poeta collected 9040 from pot
Poeta said, "NICE"
Poeta said, "lol"


And then ONLY I could miss 28 ... yes, twenty-fucking-eight outs when I pushed a few hands later.


PokerStars Game #11972410380: Tournament #60744381, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2007/09/10 - 00:13:53 (ET)
Table 60744381 20 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: mariachiinc (11479 in chips)
Seat 2: Poeta (9040 in chips)
Seat 4: crushmastac (6621 in chips)
Seat 5: gut88 (19599 in chips)
Seat 6: DFDPhantom (30452 in chips)
Seat 7: sexincity (11320 in chips)
Seat 9: mikey80i (7675 in chips)
mariachiinc: posts the ante 50
Poeta: posts the ante 50
crushmastac: posts the ante 50
gut88: posts the ante 50
DFDPhantom: posts the ante 50
sexincity: posts the ante 50
mikey80i: posts the ante 50
crushmastac: posts small blind 300
gut88: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qh Ah]
DFDPhantom: raises 600 to 1200
sexincity: folds
mikey80i: folds
mariachiinc: folds
Poeta: folds
crushmastac: raises 5371 to 6571 and is all-in
gut88: folds
DFDPhantom: calls 5371
*** FLOP *** [8h Kh Ts]
*** TURN *** [8h Kh Ts] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [8h Kh Ts 5s] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Qh Ah] (a pair of Kings)
DFDPhantom: shows [7s 7h] (two pair, Kings and Sevens)
DFDPhantom collected 14092 from pot


I just doubled up twice on the other one so I might still have hope to make ONE cash.


Final Update:

LoL. As usual, I finally start running good and then play like shit. Tried running a huge bluff and it failed, giving the next guy close to the same in chips (he had me barely covered) .. next hand I have Ad9d in the SB. Same guy raises and I call. Flop comes KQT with two diamonds. I make a weak lead wanting him to jam on me, he does, and to my dismay shows me AJ for the made straight. Turn and river both brick and I'm done in 6th ... from dominating chip leader to out in 2 hands. Only me. Totally my fault though. Amazing how when the poker gods finally decide to serve me one up on a platter I turn it down. *grin*

At least I made all the money I lost today back.

Haha I still run like shit, but my blood pressure is staying lower

Ending Bankroll: $406.29

Not many brutal suck outs, but a few that stung. I played a couple MTT's. Busted out pretty quick in two after repeated steal attempts kept failing when my hole cards reaked. The 3rd MTT was one of my fave 4$ 180's. I got deep in that one after a few favorable hands launched me to #4 in chips with 30 remaining. I proceded to build up to 2nd in chips, and then decided it would be fun to donk it all off being over-aggressive. Apparently I still need to find the line between "protecting a big stack" and going for the "monster stack domination". The hyper-aggression was working great from 30 players down to 16 and then all the wheels came off the cart simultaneously. The hand that started it, coincidentally, was my worst suck out of the day. 17 players left, a MP player who's been open jamming his 5K stack multiple times per orbit does his thing, and I'm OTB with ATo. I reraise to isolate, and get HU against his A8o. The flop drops 8K8. I bit my lip and smiled, glad that I'd built my stack to 30K where a beat like this didn't cripple me. I kept playing the same style, and proceeded to lose 4 raised pots in a row (all 4 times I had no kind of hand - I think I saw an AK sooooted early on but I was painfully card dead as usual today). I'd like to make a point of the fact that I did not feel at ALL like I was on tilt. The beat happened on the last hand before the break so I had 5 minutes so get some water and shake it off. Anywho, carrying on, I then got Q9 soooted in the BB and it folded to the SB who made a stealish looking raise. I jammed on him, he called and barely had me covered .. AK beat me down and I was out in 15th. Little disappointed with that, but I don't hate the way I played .. I'm going to have to get used to being hyper aggressive because I'm anything but a luckbox, and I certainly can't rely on my cards to win me a tournament. Yuck.

Then I shifted to the STT's. Long story short, I bubbled twice when 60/40 favorable positions got rivered by a 2nd draw that the trailer picked up on the turn (straight first time, flush second). I just finished the last ass whipping now when I got all in with AJ against KsQs. The flop was a friendly 234 with one spade. The turn was a 8s, and the river was the 4th spade, and my fifth 4th place finish on the bubble in my last 7 STT attempts greeted me.

I'm glad I stepped down a level. Many days this would have put me on tilt, but I stuck to the strategy I outlined in my last post and I'm actually sitting here smiling, happy with how I played today.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring better luck. I'm overdue.

Back from trip, itching to get back to it

Well the vacation was nice and relaxing. Watching my younger brother get married was definitely a strange experience, but it was very fun none-the-less. Much to my horror, my girlfriend of 9 months caught the bouquet, but I'm sure everyone will get past that, despite the fact that my dad caught the whole thing on video. Needless to say, I'm not in a hurry to get married and I sit mired in the beginning of my 4th year (out of 5) at University, with no car, no money, and not much else aside from my friends and a few semi-styling clothes. Oh, and my 400$ bankroll.

Yes, I'll start posting the numbers again now. I don't remember exactly what the number is, and thanks to my dispondant (sp?) Sony Laptop (shitpieces, for the record), I can't get onto my account from home. But not to worry, I'm going to pick up a nice new Toshiba today and send the Sony away to be repaired for god knows how many months, and then I can move on with my life.

But anyways, the last few weeks before each of these respective vacations had a lot of ups and downs. Okay, one up, and a lot of downs. My bankroll went from 670$ down to 530$ back up to 670$ and then collapsed to a medicre 400-some$. I think it's like 411$ or something to that effect.

Needless to say, seeing my biggest bankroll of all time diminished to almost half of what it once was put me on one hell of a tilt rollercoaster. Vacation has definitely helped get things back in perspective, I'm ready to start with a clean slate, and a lesson learned in how to avoid tilt. I know this is a problem for me because I'm an immature poker player, and since I'm limited to how much I can play, when the bad streaks happen, it has the potential to absolutely ruin my mood, because I really, really, really like to win. It especially stings when it happens on the heals of a hot run ... but through my two year history of playing, this has now happened three times. The previous two times were much less cataclysmic. My bankroll would go from 50 to 200 to 0. And then from 50 to 120 to 0. My first two (and only two) busts, both of which are now almost a year behind me.

This swing comes after I'd taught myself a little more control, and learned some valuable information thanks to the wealth of information available at the cardplayer poker forums. So while I have increased my ability to control my emotions, obviously it's nowhere near enough. So I'll have to take a page out of "Ace on the River", and stop caring so much about the money I have invested on PokerStars. I know it sounds a little funny... But I understood it after I chomped on it for a while. Right now, being a (relatively) poor university student, losing any amount of money is frustrating for me. So I have to let go of the notion that my bank roll is "my money". I have to treat it like it's an investment that will always grow in the long run as long as my "business" decisions are sound at every juncture. I have to stop thinking like "Shit, I just lost my 10$ buy-in .. I've lost five in a row now, so holy shit, I'm out 50 bucks!!!", and start thinking like "My investment will always grow in the long term if I keep making sound decisions."

So as long as I stay within my bankroll, keep my emotions in check, and make the best possible decision at every point, poker should continue to be a mildly profitable, extremely enjoyable hobby that allows for the ocassional luxury. As much as I hate to, I'll be stepping down to 10 NL and 5$ SNG's just for a bit to get my bearings back, and to ease the bankroll back up over $500.

I am still shooting for the 10K though ;)

Good luck on the felt, thanks for reading, and see you again soon.

-- Ken

Ugly - Off to go see little bro get hitched

Wow. I was so sure I was going to end the brutality tonight. So I popped into a double shootout to the Sunday mill, which I'm positive I can beat on a good day as historically the play has less than impressed me. I was chipping up nicely, very confident in how I was playing and then ...


The server crashed. PokerStars never crashes! What the hell! So after 15 minutes of failed login attempts, I finally get back in and shortly thereafter they announce all tournaments are canceled and I get my buyin + a small 6$ bonus for having a few extra chips. That kinda takes the wind outta the ol' sails.

So okay, I'll go try another 10$ 9-man SNG. I'm going to keep trying these until I drop my bankroll below a pre-decided number which I won't share because it's embarassing that my roll has gotten low enough that I need to be thinking like this.

So I start nicely, don't really get any big hands until I find 44. The chip leader (luckbox) gives off information for free and only 20 hands in I have 7 or 8 lines of info on him. He makes an offsized raise from EP, which until now had indicated weakness. I was in MP and jammed for 1200, thinking I'd steal, and willing to race if he called. OTB called AND EP raiser called, and it was AK vs A4 (OTB..lol) vs my 44. The board bricked out (despite putting a 4-flush for A4 out on the flop) and I doubled and some. After that it was just taking lots of pots till we got down to the bubble... Yes, the dreaded bubble. It's nailed me the last 4 times I've been here...

So I have ~4000, our EP player from earlier has ~4000 also, and the short stacks have ~2000 each. The play is very tight, and after a lot of stealing, I work my stack up to 5300, chip leader has 5800, and both shorties are down to ~1200.

I had to pick THIS time to get my hands...

Here's the first one.

Hero is dealt QQ in the CO. Raises to 450 (Blinds are 75/150). This is my standard raise at this point. BB (big stack) calls. Flop comes out 89T and I give a little fist pump. BB checks, hero bets 600, BB calls. Turn is a 6. I don't hate that card, but I don't love it either. BB checks, hero leads 1400. BB takes a second, and jams for ~3000 more, and has me barely covered. Now despite the piles of notes I had on him, he'd never made a check-raise. I'd seen a lot of his bluffy plays, and this didn't line up. After running my time bank almost all the way down, I decided to let it go... Not sure how I feel about that.

The VERY NEXT HAND, I get the BB, and hold Ts7s. The villain from last hand, now the SB completes and I (out of character) check. (I'd been stealing a lot earlier from SB in situations like this.) The flop comes off T87. Fist pump. SB checks, I lead 400 (400 pot), SB min-raises. His min-raises could mean either weak or strong, so I decided he was on a OESD, or a KT-JT kind of hand. I throw my chips into the middle with a smile on my face, I've got a good feeling about this one.

Villain turns over ...




J9.

Another bubble, I feel like a bloody moron, and I would love nothing better than to dismantle this shitty Sony laptop into tiny little pieces. Unfortunately for me, I have to go to bed.

Another well timed vacation. Hopefully the blood vessels in my eyes will calm down soon so I can see colors other than red.

Situation Downgraded to Life Tilt

So add 10 (or so) to the list. Twice I managed to get to the bubble, every other one wasn't even close.

My KQ bets, calls all in on a Q-high flop against Q9. Turn is a 9.

QQ makes a big prf raise and A6 flops an A, and of course, any top pair will do... Seriously, the play has been so bad today, adding to the life tilt factor.

Starting cards weren't gold either. AA once (dragged a nice pot as I miraculously held off QQ *eye roll*) KK once, ran it into AA preflop, of course. AK ran into KK.

So I've donked off over 200$ in the last couple days now. Almost 1/3th of my roll.

Wow.

Time for a break.

I run gooooot cont'd

Enjoying a few nice Sunday morning games, and here's the 3 pivotal hands in the 3 I've played thus far.


Table 59392740 1 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: crushmastac (1555 in chips)
Seat 2: I Donk U (3495 in chips)
Seat 4: jayr209 (1620 in chips)
Seat 5: Slick Kid G (3925 in chips)
Seat 6: lordvader19 (1693 in chips)
Seat 9: deadly1 (1212 in chips)
lordvader19: posts small blind 25
deadly1: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ks Qc]
I Donk U said, "Just A"
crushmastac: raises 150 to 200
I Donk U: calls 200
jayr209: folds
Slick Kid G: calls 200
Both callers are flop monkeys. They both have VPIPs around 70%.
I Donk U said, "not two"
lordvader19: folds
deadly1: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4c 3d]
crushmastac: bets 400
I Donk U: calls 400
Slick Kid G: raises 1450 to 1850
This guy's shown aggression, so I don't think he's got AK or he would have reraised me pre. He's made this move with top pair shit kicker before, so it's an easy call.
crushmastac: calls 955 and is all-in
I Donk U: calls 1450
*** TURN *** [Kh 4c 3d] [6d]
I Donk U: bets 1445 and is all-in
Slick Kid G: calls 1445
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4c 3d 6d] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Wait for it...
I Donk U: shows [2s 5s] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
That is both beautiful and hilarious. NH sir.
Slick Kid G: shows [Kd 4d] (two pair, Kings and Fours)
I was right about his hand. Unfortunately K4 > KQ


This one is just a cooler...

Table 59390621 1 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bdubuk85 (6720 in chips)
Seat 3: pokerchopmd (1430 in chips)
Seat 6: akron big (920 in chips)
Seat 7: crushmastac (2450 in chips)
Seat 9: Grubasek88 (1980 in chips)
bdubuk85: posts small blind 50
pokerchopmd: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ad Qh]
akron big: folds
crushmastac: raises 300 to 400
Standard raise from the CO
Grubasek88: folds
bdubuk85: folds
pokerchopmd: raises 500 to 900
Is that supposed to be a defending bet? I've seen him show less than stellar hands, so I'm gonna play for stacks...
crushmastac: raises 530 to 1430
pokerchopmd: calls 530 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [2d 9c 7s]
*** TURN *** [2d 9c 7s] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [2d 9c 7s 5s] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pokerchopmd: shows [As Ac] (a pair of Aces)
Oops...
crushmastac: shows [Ad Qh] (high card Ace)

I busted on the next hand with AT


And now my personal favorite

Table 59390697 1 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: hok_DK (2040 in chips)
Seat 2: hawk kan (1122 in chips)
Seat 3: Grubasek88 (2115 in chips)
Seat 4: Jake290 (2055 in chips)
Seat 5: SuitedHooks1 (945 in chips)
Seat 6: flAKQJTush (1245 in chips)
Seat 7: BiNxBiN (945 in chips)
Seat 8: crushmastac (1555 in chips)
Seat 9: Wadestr (1478 in chips)
hawk kan: posts small blind 15
Grubasek88: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8s 8d]
Jake290: folds
SuitedHooks1: calls 30
flAKQJTush: folds
BiNxBiN: raises 90 to 120
crushmastac: raises 280 to 400
I've taken a Hoyazo approach to pocket pairs lately.
Wadestr: folds
hok_DK: folds
hawk kan: folds
Grubasek88: folds
SuitedHooks1: folds
BiNxBiN: calls 280
He was short enough I sort of expected him to 4bet all in, which I would have snap called ofc. He's less than stellar, and not afraid to show it.
*** FLOP *** [Jc 9h Jh]
Me likey.
BiNxBiN: bets 545 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 545
*** TURN *** [Jc 9h Jh] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 9h Jh 6c] [9s]
Uh oh ... Ugh, at least I'm not QUITE playing the board :(
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BiNxBiN: shows [As Qd] (two pair, Jacks and Nines)
crushmastac: shows [8s 8d] (two pair, Jacks and Nines - lower kicker)
BiNxBiN collected 1965 from pot


So far I've lost with AQ, AK, KQ, and my pocket pairs. I've been winning with 89, 34 (lol), and 53. So I'm now going to play my 5-high and fold my "big" hands.

Probably more to come.

The 700$ Jynx : UGH!

Ending Bankroll: $570 [ Down 101$ ]

Man. Throughout my poker "career", whenever I hit a rough patch, it's always of epic proportions. I didn't write after yesterday's implosion (lost ~40$) because of how spitting mad I was (Got 3-outted on the river twice, once on what would have been the last hand of a tournament for 1st place, and went on to lose all 3 of the next hands as favorites, and lost the 4th as a dog and couldn't repay the suckouts.

So today I didn't get sucked out on. I got cold decked or generally outflopped. Players were flopping sets on me when I flopped top pair or top two. When I got QQ and 3bet to 4$ (behind a 1$ raise) and ended up 3 handed, Aces and Kings were falling.

The only hand I'm proud of in todays session (were I decided it'd be fun to very quickly drop 2 buyins) was this hand...


PokerStars Game #11688387793: Holdem No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/08/25 - 17:31:41 (ET)
Table Lomia II 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: nicolasb ($7.10 in chips)
Seat 2: jpb1478 ($11.65 in chips)
Seat 3: crushmastac ($24.90 in chips)
Seat 4: mariole75 ($23.45 in chips)
Seat 5: iskanderm ($34.10 in chips)
Seat 6: T.Daniel.J ($6.20 in chips)
T.Daniel.J: posts small blind $0.10
nicolasb: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8d 8c]
jpb1478: folds
crushmastac: raises $0.75 to $1
mariole75: folds
iskanderm: raises $2.25 to $3.25
Looks like a big pair or a big ace. I'll take a shot.
T.Daniel.J: folds
nicolasb: folds
crushmastac: calls $2.25
*** FLOP *** [As Tc 6c]
This is either a great flop for me or a brutal one.
crushmastac: checks
iskanderm: bets $3
Wow, that's a weak bet into a 7.5$ pot. He's scared. Must be JJ-KK.
crushmastac: raises $7 to $10
iskanderm: folds
He went on life tilt after this hand and started open jamming with AJ and KQ etc. I never found a hand to take advantage of it unfortunately before he busted.
crushmastac collected $12.25 from pot


I'm too annoyed to go over the hands I got decked on right now. Maybe later.

2nd time I've gotten up to 670$ only to see myself suffer a massive relapse. It's muy frustrating.

A big night: Bankroll peaks

Ending Bankroll: $671 [ Up 99$ ]

Yeeehaw. Today was fun. Started playing some cash, have now played almost 3000 hands of 25NL, over which I'm up 6 buy-ins and have a +11BB/100h. No doubt I'm on the high side of variance right now, but hey, I'll enjoy it while I can. The NL today got me about 60$ of the profit. There were two big hands, the remaining 10$ was small pots here and there.


Table Gabriella II 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: crushmastac ($36.80 in chips)
Seat 2: Max_2100 ($25 in chips)
Seat 3: FullTiltDJ ($14.70 in chips)
Seat 4: minet@minet ($11.45 in chips)
Seat 5: ICUTEX ($13.15 in chips)
Seat 6: chrisT18 ($25 in chips)
chrisT18: posts small blind $0.10
crushmastac: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8d Ad]
chrisT18: calls $0.15
crushmastac: checks
*** FLOP *** [Th Jh 7d]
Meh
chrisT18: bets $0.50
This guy had been betting a lot with air, so I was curious to see a turn with my gutshot + over.
crushmastac: calls $0.50
*** TURN *** [Th Jh 7d] [3d]
chrisT18: bets $1
crushmastac: calls $1
I know this is a bad call. But with the NFD + gutty, I couldn't help myself.
*** RIVER *** [Th Jh 7d 3d] [9d]
Ohhh... Now hope he's got something big
chrisT18: bets $2.25
crushmastac: raises $10.25 to $12.50
He's probably going to put me on bluffing a missed heart draw
chrisT18: raises $10.25 to $22.75
He should have called, but I'll take it ...
crushmastac: raises $10.25 to $33
chrisT18: calls $0.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [8d Ad] (a flush, Ace high)
chrisT18: shows [Td Jd] (a flush, Jack high)
Turns out he was trying to bet low to get chips with his huge flopped top two, and I caught two rediculous runners to smash flush over flush.
crushmastac collected $47.55 from pot


And then there's this one, which was a surprisingly difficult decision because of how I played it. Of course, if you read the CP forums, you already know how this goes...


Table Florentina II 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: jerry23847 ($5.45 in chips)
Seat 2: jaguar1230_9 ($25 in chips)
Seat 3: DaNevadaKid ($38.65 in chips)
Seat 4: crushmastac ($24.75 in chips)
Seat 5: heyitsgeoff ($24.95 in chips)
Seat 6: kdm0505 ($31.15 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.10
heyitsgeoff: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [7h 7d]
jerry23847: raises $0.25 to $0.50
crushmastac: calls $0.40
Shoulda repopped it...
heyitsgeoff: calls $0.25
*** FLOP *** [9h 6s 7s]
Bit of a scarey flop... But the 7 is always nice to see
crushmastac: checks
heyitsgeoff: checks
jerry23847: bets $4.95 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls $4.95
Didnt think that geoff would be interested in this pot
heyitsgeoff: raises $19.50 to $24.45 and is all-in
But he certainly is...
crushmastac said, ":("
crushmastac: calls $19.30 and is all-in
I figure I've got redraws if he's got 8T or a huge FD, and pray he doesnt have 99.
*** TURN *** [9h 6s 7s] [6d]
Nice...My hand must be good now...?
*** RIVER *** [9h 6s 7s 6d] [Ah]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [7h 7d] (a full house, Sevens full of Sixes)
heyitsgeoff: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $36.70 from side pot
jerry23847: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $15.55 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Seat 1: jerry23847 mucked [9s Ac]
Seat 4: crushmastac (small blind) showed [7h 7d] and won ($52.25) with a full house, Sevens full of Sixes
Seat 5: heyitsgeoff (big blind) mucked [8h Th]
So he did have the nuts .. waddaya do. Oh, and jerry just didn't like money.


The rest was a lot of up and down, but worked out nice.

Then later in the day I played some 5$ STT Sng's. Signed up for a quick 3. The first one was the slowest, the 3rd was the fastest. It only took 80 hands to win the 3rd one. I got heads up with the chiplead fairly quickly and my opponent (who had to suck out numerous times to get there) was out quickly. The 2nd SNG finished 2nd, after 97 hands. I was out in 3rd after I lost a race with a tilting player 88 < A9, the very next hand he raised OTB with QT and I repopped all in from the BB with KQ. I was suited in clubs, he in spades. The board ran off 3 spades and I was done. Boo.

The 1st took 142 hands to finish, and I'm the happiest about taking down. I won this one by steamrolling the table when we hit the bubble. When the bubble hit, I was 3rd stack with ~2300. Stacks were 4000,3000,2300,2000...roughly. I saw people tightening up so I opened up like a monster. 20 hands later I was sitting on 6500, the next closest stack was 2800. It got a little closer when one player played back at me at a couple good times to get almost even. Then he took out the #3 stack to take the chip lead and I took out the #4 stack to get to a HU battle, him with ~7500, me with ~6300. He had demonstrated across the two tables I'd watched him at (he was in the 3rd one that I placed 1st) that he was a very solid player. He was too tight and I took advantage of it when I could. When I got him down to 7500 - 6000 or so, he started getting pushy. I made one big re-steal that got it to 9500 - 3500, and then he open shoved OTB with K3 and I hummed and hawed and finally called with A2 and held to take it down.

So up 60$ in cash, two first places and one third for 3 / 3 cashes in 5$ STT's.

All in a day's work .. haha

Blehhh .. so much time for so little (MTT brief rant)

Ending Bankroll: 572$ [ Down 27$ ]

I tell ya, nothing sucks more than playing a low buyin MTT with 1600 people, running solid to the final 100, then running into a lot of tough spots and minor beats and finally going out in 53rd for a whopping 4$ profit. (It was a 2$ buy-in, yes, I know .. I'm poor okay).

The play was so bad for the most part until the final bits, then the play was horrible until I wanted a piece of the hand. The only reason I survived as long as I did was because AA kept showing up every time I tried to go on tilt and I'd win a huge pot. I had the tourny chip lead for a good 20 minutes around the start of the 3rd hour. And I tried to play it aggressively, and sometimes it worked, but a lot of the time I found people were playing back at me, and making really good plays / reads at me. It's frustrating when that happens when you know 95% of the field is donktastic.

I finally met the end when I raised with KQ from the SB and the BB flat called. Flop came KJx and I lead, the BB jammed, and I called (doy?). He, of course, had made the masterful slowplay of AK. GG me.

Right now I need to go to bed and stop thinking about how frustrating this was ... Might come back with some HH's on my next post. There were a few that warrant some debate.

Later days...

Back from Vacation, and back in Black

Ending Bankroll: 599$ [ Up 55$ ]

Well just finished playing about 2 hours of 25NL 6-max. Only had two tables that didnt break. One of them I didn't play a single big pot, but just kept winning small pot after small pot and worked up 35$ profit. The other table was mostly uneventful except for this hand, which is also a good example of why it's a good idea to constantly be reloading your stack.


PokerStars Game #11576860525: Holdem No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/08/19 - 16:14:34 (ET)
Table Galatea III 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Kadrin ($11.15 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac ($25 in chips)
Seat 3: Jenson1981 ($26.80 in chips)
Seat 4: DD Ranch ($15.75 in chips)
Seat 5: LOVINDUKE ($12.95 in chips)
Seat 6: TTtheC ($26.05 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.10
Jenson1981: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qh Ad]
First hand in a while, I hate that I'm out of position
DD Ranch: folds
LOVINDUKE: calls $0.25
TTtheC: folds
Kadrin: calls $0.25
crushmastac: raises $1.25 to $1.50
Ok, I want to take this right here.
Jenson1981: raises $1.50 to $3
Hmm, he doesn't want to let me. I have no read on this player unfortunately. He just moved to the table and this is his 2nd hand. I decide to make a loose-ish call.
LOVINDUKE: folds
Kadrin: folds
crushmastac: calls $1.50
*** FLOP *** [Jd 8d Td]
Sweet. 4 shots at broadway, two overs, AND the NFD. HUGE flop for me.
crushmastac: checks
With the intention of check-raising
Jenson1981: bets $2.75
crushmastac: raises $9.25 to $12
Put him to the test .. please jam please jam please jam
Jenson1981: raises $11.80 to $23.80 and is all-in
Woohoo! Snap call. I figure his range is TT+, AJs+, maybe KdQd? Against that range, I don't have an exact number, but I figure I must be a favorite, or in the very least close to even money.
crushmastac: calls $10 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Jd 8d Td] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 8d Td 7h] [Kd]
Haha, both my sets of outs collide and I get my joker.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Qh Ad] (a flush, Ace high)
Jenson1981: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $48 from pot
First big drag in a while. Felt good.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $50.50 Rake $2.50
Board [Jd 8d Td 7h Kd]
Seat 1: Kadrin (button) folded before Flop
Seat 2: crushmastac (small blind) showed [Qh Ad] and won ($48) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: Jenson1981 (big blind) mucked [Js Jh]
Dang! Turns out he was actually ahead almost 6 to 4, so I got a bit lucky.

I'll take it.

Nothing else interesting to report. Wanted to crack 600, but my big table broke and I'm starving... So, lunch time.

I run goooooot

Ending Bankroll: 544$ [ Down 83$ ]

Easy come, easy go right?

Wow.

6-handed 25NL just welcomed me with a dull thud.

And it wasn't (mostly) for a lack of bad play... I lost 10$ being an idiot and getting aggressive with a half-stack that had AA, then I played a set of Q's into a set of A's (AQx flop), then I tried to stack-a-donk with QQ, but he outran me with KT. Then I ran TT into AcQc with a flop of 3 rags, 2 clubs. QQ lost 3 times. AQs lost twice. KK folded around. It wasn't for a lack of cards, or a lack of playing. Ever card I touched just turned to ice and stabbed me right in the eye.

So I very, very quickly dropped almost a hunny, which is ghastly for a lowly college student such as myself. I kept thinking "Am I on tilt? ...No. I'm playing fine...I'm just getting set up over and over..." and that if I kept playing solid I'd be able to take my stacks back from a lot of the loose donks that were at my tables.

My reads were good, everything was swell. I just ran good into better, and huge into monster.

Whaddaya do, right??

Guess I picked a good time to go on holiday. A seven day break from cards will be nice.

Back to earth

Ending Bankroll: 627$ [ Down 43$ ]

So the hot streak came to an end pretty quick. Tried another 25 NL session late last night and went totally dry 3-tabling for an hour. Got hurt overplaying AT again twice (thought I learned my lesson with that hand...ugh). Other than that, no hands to speak of. No sets, no big pairs, and the pairs that I did find were brutally outflopped.

Tried short MTT's tonight for a change without any success. Busted quickly in the first when the 4 handed table (triple shootout, thin attendance) dealt me a whole lot of nothing over the first 5 orbits, and the blinds climbed fast enough that by the 4th orbit I was getting caught making moves and busted out when my A4 push woke up AT. Oops.

Next!

2nd go was a double shootout. I'm pretty sure I can beat these if I get more familiar with them. I just seem to try to move too fast for the first table... In a brief intermission, today is one of those days where I can't seem to flop to a bloody thing. The only time I won hands was when I was in the BB and flopped something and caught my opponents trying to steal. When I got hands like AQ/KK, I got them OOP, with limited action. KK folded around. AQ got a brutal Jragrag flop all soooooted (neither of my cards matched) and I had to check/fold...(fucker overbet all in

Hands like this describe my evening pretty well.


Table 57348630 6 10-max Seat #10 is the button
Seat 4: FL0P TIME (665 in chips)
Seat 7: crushmastac (2005 in chips)
Seat 9: Huasmack (2360 in chips)
Seat 10: fong9999 (3970 in chips)
FL0P TIME: posts small blind 15
crushmastac: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ac Js]
By far in a way my biggest hand of the tourney. As soon as I get them I eyeball the SB. He's been making a lot of moves due to his short-stackedness and I think he might try something on me here with nothing
Huasmack: folds
fong9999: folds
FL0P TIME: calls 15
crushmastac: raises 120 to 150
Make the raise a little larger than I normally would
FL0P TIME: raises 515 to 665 and is all-in
Bingo. The trap is sprung. Snap call.
crushmastac: calls 515
*** FLOP *** [2c 8c As]
*** TURN *** [2c 8c As] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [2c 8c As 4s] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FL0P TIME: shows [5c 4c] (a flush, Eight high)
crushmastac: shows [Ac Js] (a pair of Aces)
FL0P TIME collected 1330 from pot
crushmastac said, "nh.."


Isn't it true that of suited hands, you'll only find a flush 15% of the time or something like that? It amazes me how often people find a 4-flush on me when we get in preflop, and then make it on the turn or river. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I truly hate the flush. It is not my friend.

I didnt get any cards after that and busted 4 orbits of card deadness later.

Last try, STT 9 handed. Playing solid. Chipping up very, very slowly by making simple plays with rags when my opponents limped and got pushy postflop with their missed AJ/KQ/etc and my middle pair was good, etc. At around ~1600 in chips and with the blinds only 25/50 I raised to 200 from the button with KT. We're 6-handed at this point and my image is pretty tight so far so I think I might either just take the blinds or play my position postflop. Instead, the BB jams for 1400 and I tank for a bit. He's shown a lot of prf aggression and hasn't played many pots. It looks like a classic re-steal. I figure I'm doing pretty good against his range and make the call and he finds JJ. No miracle and I'm shortstacked. Busto 3 hands later when the blinds jumped to 50/100 and I was in ATC mode and AT > Ax.

So I've taken enough punishment for a day and a half. I'll regroup and try again some time...

I'm on vacation as of Saturday, and won't be back till the following Saturday. Unlikely any poker will be played that weak *sheds a tear*

Do no wrong

Ending Bankroll: 670$ [ Up 72$ ]

I work on trust hours and both my 'bosses' are away this week, and it was rainy outside, so I decided that I'd get a few hands of 25 NL to wait out the rain (I walk to work).

So I sat down and prompty began getting dealt QQ, KK, AA, and then TT that set on QQ, 88 that set on KK, and so on and so forth. I know it will only be a matter of time before I have to start grinding out a lot harder to win this much this fast, but it's nice to spike up 3 buy-in's in just under an hour.

3 times I flopped top set and dragged a nice pot.

PokerStars Game #11375734911: Holdem No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/08/08 - 10:59:16 (ET)
Table Eriphyla II 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: FiddyCent187 ($22.30 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac ($29.30 in chips)
Seat 3: Jupek ($9.15 in chips)
Seat 4: Mansch111 ($16.40 in chips)
Seat 5: JTdollar$ ($14 in chips)
Seat 6: geico79 ($5.30 in chips)
Seat 7: lmcjaho ($61.60 in chips)
Seat 8: yoboro ($11.90 in chips)
Seat 9: gillb06 ($24.50 in chips)
JTdollar$: posts small blind $0.10
geico79: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ts Tc]
lmcjaho: folds
yoboro: calls $0.25
gillb06: folds
FiddyCent187: calls $0.25
crushmastac: raises $1.25 to $1.50
Jupek: folds
Mansch111: folds
Jupek leaves the table
JTdollar$: calls $1.40
geico79: folds
yoboro: folds
FiddyCent187: folds
*** FLOP *** [4s Td 3c]
Boooooom!
Lexboe joins the table at seat #3
JTdollar$: bets $2.50
crushmastac: calls $2.50
*** TURN *** [4s Td 3c] [6s]
JTdollar$: bets $6
crushmastac: raises $6 to $12
Lets get one thing clear here. I hate min-raisers. I despise it, loathe it, etc. But it was the quickest way to get him all in and I was lazy.
JTdollar$: calls $4 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [4s Td 3c 6s] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JTdollar$: shows [Qc Qh] (a pair of Queens)
crushmastac: shows [Ts Tc] (three of a kind, Tens)
crushmastac collected $27.35 from pot
Sorry chummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-P. I dont understand how these people weren't raising preflop. Although it woulda had to have been a hella raise to get me off the pot.


PokerStars Game #11376068818: Holdem No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/08/08 - 11:29:21 (ET)
Table Eriphyla II 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: FiddyCent187 ($25 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac ($57.05 in chips)
Seat 3: Lexboe ($15.30 in chips)
Seat 4: eqyinoon ($53.30 in chips)
Seat 5: bmarley2005 ($30.10 in chips)
Seat 6: geico79 ($6.35 in chips)
Seat 7: lmcjaho ($35.15 in chips)
Seat 8: JustinBlue9 ($13.65 in chips)
Seat 9: gillb06 ($28.35 in chips)
Lexboe: posts small blind $0.10
eqyinoon: posts big blind $0.25
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qh Qs]
bmarley2005: calls $0.25
geico79: folds
lmcjaho: calls $0.25
JustinBlue9 has timed out
JustinBlue9: folds
JustinBlue9 is sitting out
gillb06: folds
FiddyCent187: folds
JustinBlue9 said, ".75"
crushmastac: raises $1.25 to $1.50
JustinBlue9 has returned
Lexboe: folds
eqyinoon: folds
bmarley2005: calls $1.25
lmcjaho: calls $1.25
*** FLOP *** [5c 2c Qd]
Booooooooooooooooooom
bmarley2005: checks
lmcjaho: checks
crushmastac: bets $1.50
I'm trying to induce a raise by making my bet look weak...
bmarley2005: folds
lmcjaho: calls $1.50
*** TURN *** [5c 2c Qd] [Jd]
lmcjaho: checks
crushmastac: bets $3
Two FD's...better up the ante.
lmcjaho: calls $3
*** RIVER *** [5c 2c Qd Jd] [Kd]
lmcjaho: checks
crushmastac: bets $8
lmcjaho: folds
Awww, I wanted you to have AK...
crushmastac collected $13.20 from pot



PokerStars Game #11376001702: Holdem No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2007/08/08 - 11:23:20 (ET)
Table Eriphyla II 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: FiddyCent187 ($18.45 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac ($45.15 in chips)
Seat 3: Lexboe ($19.30 in chips)
Seat 4: eqyinoon ($48.85 in chips)
Seat 5: bmarley2005 ($29.50 in chips)
Seat 6: geico79 ($13.85 in chips)
Seat 7: lmcjaho ($35.05 in chips)
Seat 8: JustinBlue9 ($12.60 in chips)
bmarley2005: posts small blind $0.10
geico79: posts big blind $0.25
gillb06: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8h 8d]
lmcjaho said, "nice catch"
lmcjaho: calls $0.25
JustinBlue9: raises $1 to $1.25
FiddyCent187: folds
crushmastac: calls $1.25
Juuuust enough in his stack for me to go set mining...IMO. Some people might disagree with that...
Lexboe: folds
eqyinoon: folds
bmarley2005: folds
geico79: folds
lmcjaho: calls $1
*** FLOP *** [3h 6d 8s]
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM... lol
lmcjaho: checks
JustinBlue9: bets $1.50
crushmastac: raises $3 to $4.50
lmcjaho: folds
JustinBlue9: raises $6.85 to $11.35 and is all-in
*drool*
crushmastac: calls $6.85
*** TURN *** [3h 6d 8s] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [3h 6d 8s 4h] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JustinBlue9: shows [Kd Kc] (a pair of Kings)
crushmastac: shows [8h 8d] (three of a kind, Eights)
crushmastac collected $25.50 from pot


It's also nice to be getting my chips in ahead, and staying ahead. My first few weeks of cash NL were riddled with rediculous suckouts, so this feels good. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I love being able to go through old sessions and review them. Especially in tournaments, but looking at statistics in NL cash has helped too. Some friendly statistics...

In 1200 hand sample...

Top profiting hands
Dealt JJ eleven times, Wins 90.91%, Profit +$48.25
Dealt 77 one time, Wins 100%, Profit +$31.45
Dealt TT seven times, Wins 71.43%, Profit +$27.05
Dealt 99 three times, Wins 100%, Profit +$21.8
88 four times, 50%,+$21.1
55 six times, 33.33%, +$18.45
And waaay down in 7th spot,
AA six times, 83.33%, +$16.45

So flopping sets with middle/small pairs has been tremendously profitable.

On the other side of the spectrum,

Top losing hands
Dealt Q8s six times, Wins 0%, Profit -$10.35
AT ten times, 30%, -$9.6
Q6 twelve times, 0%, -$8.0

Further down the list...

AK fourteen times, 57.14%, -$3.65 (That surprises me a little)
QQ nine times, 77.78%, -$3.65 (This number was much worse before it won for me twice today)

The last two are a bit odd, but the top 3-10 on the list have helped me plug a few holes in my game, although I don't know how the hell I've managed to play Q8s enough to lose 10$ to it. Haha... Hands like that and JTs, 9Ts, etc, all of them have left my playing portfolio unless I have position and reads, and even then I play them softer than I did.

That's all for now..

Right now, the rain has let up, so hi-ho, hi-ho...