I Bubbled in the WPBT Last Night

Last night i came about 30 minutes late to the tournament, luckily i was at 2785 out of my original 3000 chips ... Im waiting on line now in the Jetblue Terminal in JFK ... So i cant post any hand histories ... Nothing memorable happened ... I was chip leader most of the tournament ...

Everyone was playing super tight and lots of blind stealing ... My biggest loss was when i called the buttons All-in with AK suited and opponent turned over pocket pair and i loss the coin flip ... This massively damaged my stack and i was short stack after this

I came in 4th place , and the top 3 got paid

Sucks

-
from blackberry

Time To Ship The Bounty : And Why Im Not Upset

Well, for all of you who played in the weekly blogger tourney, Mondays At The Hoy ( MATH ) all know that i donked out pretty fast . At one point i was in 2nd place right behind Fuel55 , but my 'luck' took a turn for the worst. It was a hand that i shouldve folded pre flop, but unfortunately for me i flopped top pair with crappy kicker , and decided to make a move betting right into Low Limit Grinders flopped set , i was basically drawing dead and was knocked out.

Congrats to him and he earned $11 for the honor of knocking me out.

After the tourney , i opened up a cash game , and decided to play some larger limits that i usually play for . i opened a $3/$6 table and bought in with the max of $600. My plan was to play very very tight unless i had a major pair or AK , everything else i would muck . In about 25 min i was able to leave the table with 975. I had pocket aces once but all i took were a few pre flop raises , and then i made a nice chunk of dough by getting pocket QQ vs another guys pocket 66.

I dont know if im ready to play at these levels full time , and my bankroll is defnitely not set up for this level. But i think if i go to these tables every once in a while , and i make sure to play tight tight , then its good for a nice bankroll boost here and there.

I will not be playing in the Mookie this wednesday night, but i am planning on playing in the WPBT ( World Poker Blogger Tournament ) tonight on Full Tilt.

Wish me luck

Bounty on My Head in Tonight MATH Tourney

ive already posted this in the comments on Hammers Blog , but im letting all my readers know too

The last few weeks ive been playing in the weekly blogger tourneys on FTP , i played the MATH and the Mookie , but ive been doing horribly and im extremely disappointed in my play , The furthest i made it was 13th in last weeks mookie.

In tonights tourney, I am putting a $11 bounty to the lucky donkey who knocks me out , i am hoping that this will make me play even better

Ill be playing under the screen name STEVENWE , or possibly JOEMNZNYC ( depends which account has money in it , i never play on ftp anymore so my account there dont really have funds)

See you on the felt

German Virgin is Pocket 99: Am I the Only One Who Knows That ?

I was sitting at a live game a few days ago , and at one point someone had a hand after a showdown, showing pocket 99. And i causally said , 'german virgin wins again' and everyone at table looked at me like i was crazy. And we all got into a conversation about different nicknames.
Everyone at table was throwing out names of hands , big slick, highway patrol, cowboys, pocket rockets ( apparently, i was told its also the name of a ...shall i say....'womans best friend') .. and many others. But noone had heard of the hand german virgin ...

i remember sitting at a home game about 3 yrs ago, myself being very new to the whole texas holdem/online and tv stuff thats popular. I had played alot of 5card draw in high school and early on in college, i also played a game called 'Queens Eight' , good game. ANyways, sitting there as a newbie at this home game , not really knowing anyone there , i was only invited by my wifes friend husband. And all these 'pros' were talking a big game, pot odds, names of each street , coin flip and i remember hearing someone saying pocket 99 was called a german virgin , and the reason he said it was called that - In german , the words NO - NO is translated to 'NIEN NIEN' sounding very similar saying 9 9. And i guess since the person screaming NO NO , it means German Virgin.

Heres a link with some poker definitions, and on the page , towards bottom you will see German Virgin is Pocket 99

http://casinogambling.about.com/od/poker/a/pokernamens.htm

and heres another , this one is sort of interesting , this author has a nice way if explaining it

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=German+Virgin

So until someone tells me differently , Im sticking with that

My Satellite Tournament Win : Pocket KK have been very nice to me

A few days back , and as i mentioned in my last post , i won a nice satellite a few days ago.

It was a $80 Rebuy + Add on tournament and for every $1050 in the prizepool , another winner would get a $1050 entry ticket to the Pokerstars WCOOP Event #14

There were 36 entrants and rightaway i decided that i would NOT rebuy , no matter what , and whether i would do an ADDON after the break was still up in the air. I was card dead for the first 2 or 3 orbits and didnt mind losing some blinds. I knew that in Rebuy tourneys pppl play agressive in the hopes of doubling up right away . I really took my time waiting for a hand and finally got dealt pocket kings while sitting in middle position. UTG limped, I raised it up about 4 X the blinds , got 2 callers behind me, SB folded, BB called and UTG went all in , I instacalled and everyone else folded, He turned over pocket JJ and i flipped over my beautiful Cowboys and with a harmless flop,turn and river i had more than doubled up !!

i dont really remember much else during the first hour of play , and i didnt really have any showdowns, My bluffs worked, My good cards held up and i was able to chip up and be in the top 10 when it came time for the break. At this point I was in 8th place with about 24 players left , 19 people decided to buy the addon , including all the chipleaders and i was pushed back to about 14th place and finally decided to buy the addon and went back to 8th or 9th place.

After the break ended , i had figured ppl would play tight and it would take some time for ppl to bust out , i guess i was wrong. Within the first orbit 3 players from my table had busted out and we were easily down to the final 2 tables with a few empty seats on each. I continued to play tight and really felt the blinds and antes eating away at my stack. I was now all ready to start making some moves and at least trying to steal some blinds.

In 1 hand i was the small blind and the button decided to 3-bet the blinds , i decided to call because this guy was extremely aggressive throughout the tourney and it seemed like he did this every orbit or every few hands , and i called with the hopes of trying to make a move against him to steal the pot. The flop came and it looked like a very harmless flop and i didnt catch anything so i checked , and the original raiser made another potsized bet , i figured he was contuation betting so i quickly put him all in and he folded quickly.

Another lucky hand was when i got dealt pocket AA in middle position and i decided that i would overbet for value , there were no limpers before me and i went all in , I was trying to give the illusion that i had one ace and that i was trying to steal blinds , well , lucky for me the BB had AK and quickly called , cards came out and he was eliminated and i was in extremely healthy shape .

The prize pool had enough money for the top 6 players to get the $1050 prize and players 7 - 9 would $240 and # 10 would get $61. I played it real slow and only tried to pick up blinds a few times against players with a medium stack , bec i felt they were to cautious and would fold unless they had a monster.

We were down to 8 players and all of us were at least going to cash for $240, for me this was a profit of $80, im not sure about others , but during the rebuy period i saw plenty of ppl rebuying quite a few times, so at this stage i was pretty happy that i was in the black .....the next hand came and i was the SB and got dealt my lucky pocket KK . Some guy who was short stack decided to try and steal blinds and made an all in move and i thought to myself , "wow, im getting great starting hands and ppl are betting INTO me" .. anyways , after the guy moved all in and i was getting ready to click the CALL button, but the guy who was the button and acted before me decided to think about calling the all in move, he really took his time , so i knew he didnt have pocket aces, after alot of time he decided to call and since i covered both of them i called too.. The original raiser , who i thought was trying to make a move to steal blinds flips over K 7 , so i had him dominated, the guy who took a while to think about it flips over pocket 88 and i turn over pocket KK , on the flop a 7 came out , so for the turn and river i was hoping to avoid an 8 or 7 , and luckily nothing good came out and as soon as the hand was over the game ended. I took out players 7 and 8 in 1 shot and just us 6 winners were left.

Im curious to know , if it was the right move for me to have called the allins , I was already sort of guaranteed to be a winner and if any of them had sucked out on me i wouldve been crippled and out

A few months ago when i won a WSOP Main Event satellite on pokerstars, We were down to the last 35 players and the top 25 or so got the $11k winners package. i was in a similar situation with alot of raises before me and i decided to fold pocket KK preflop because i didnt want to take a chance , especially since i had no reason to come in first place, just needed to place in the top 25

I felt real good and happy that i made about$900 profit for the tourney.

heres a pic

Im Sitting at Live Game and Loving It

Ive been looking forward to this Live Game all day. I got here at about 9pm for a freeroll tourney before the $2/$5 game starts. Since there was a low turnout , 6 guys , the prize pool was $200 total ... $75 for 2nd place and $125 for winner.
3 or 4 hands into the game i get dealt pocket 77 in middle position. the guy under the gun decides to raise it up 3 X the blinds , i called , SB calls and BB calls , flop comes A 8 7 ... Jackpot , at this point im hoping someone hit their ACE , ... Small blind checks, big blind check, under the gun raises with a pot sized bet ,i then decide to go all in , and the SB insta calls leaving the UTG guy to think about it , he started think for like 60 seconds and at that point i put him on a weak ace or maybe maybe 2 pair ... He decides to call , sb has AK , UTG has A 9 , and i have trip 7's ... Harmless turn and river and i knocked out 2 guys ,
My two cousins were in the game and a few hands later they were both in the SB and BB and SB makes a raise , BB raises all in and SB calls after a few min of wasting time thinking ... SB flips over 99 and BB flips over KK ... So its brother against brother and the SB makes lightening with a 9 on the flop and takes out his older brother and it was down to 3 ppl , a few hands later i took out the 3rd guy and took a bunch of chips from my cousin .
And in the spirit of finishing up quickly, and other ppl waiting to start the $2/$5, i decided to throw my cuz a bone and did an even chop , $100 to each, and for the record, im confident i wouldve taken it down in less than 10 hands
So in my 2 appearances in the Freeroll tourney, ive been in the money both times.

Im now sitting in the 2/5 and up another 75 and im starting to get bored ... I think i like live tourneys but not live cash games ... I really enjoy playing cash games online ... I like the multi tabling and i like the speed.

The last few days ive been doing ok playing the $50NL and averaging about $75/hr playing 3 or 4 tables ... I wish there were more hours

I also won a nice satellite ... I won an entry to a WCOOP event , not sure which # event it is , but its the NLHE $1050 buyin ... The satellite was a great tourney and ill post details in next post

Wish me luck
-
from blackberry

Nothing Interesting to Report

I went to the live cash game on sunday night and before the game started they had a freeroll tourney, 9 players , $300 prize pool ... I made it to final 3 and we did a 3 way chop.
I ended up losing the $100 in the cash game after , but at least i got a free dinner.

Last night i played some NL$50 on PS and opened 3 tables and after an hour was up about $75 and i decided to use some of my T$ and entered a $16 turbo single table tourney and i came in first place. I didnt do anything spectacular nor did i get lucky. It just seemed that all my good hands held up, all my bluffs seemed to work and not too many showdowns. I did lose to a 1 outer but the guy was so shortstack that i barely winced.

Im also played in the MATH last night and was prob the 2nd or 3rd to be knocked out. I really want to do well in the blogger tourneys and establish a reputation, but i seem to do horrible. Perhaps its the full tilt software being rigged,lol. I knew i left ftp for a reason

Not sure how much online poker ill be playing in next few days. Im still trying to launch some new business ventures and found out that the wifey wants to go to florida next week for vacation. She sort of booked the ticket without even telling me. But im always happy to be in florida.

Wish me luck

-
from blackberry

Back @ The Tables After 3 Day Hiatus

After 3 days of not playing any poker i was looking very forward to hitting the felt. I opened up 2 tables of NL$50 and started to grind away. I was basically card dead for first 25 min of play and just kept on folding and stealing blinds here and there.

I had some horrible beats , i know noone wants to hear or read another bad beat story, so ill keep it brief. I had KK vs A7offsuit , i went all in pre flop and i guess the A7o thought i was bluffing so he called, and he caught an ace on the turn.
Heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1486841

Im going to post another bad beat , but i want your advice and tell me if i played this wrong, i had K8s vs 55 , and the river card bought my flush but also gave him his full house. After the beat, everyone at the table was discussing this hand and some mentioned that i got what i deserved since i went in with K8 , im going to paste the hand and you guys tell me what and if i did something wrong

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1486844

Im extremely pissed about that hand , but what can i do ...

Luckily for me i was able to win a nice pot a little while later , i had pocket QQ and rivered trips

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1486881

Although, my last hand of the day was pocket aces and i guess i made too small of a raise bec 5,10o called me and he got 2 pair on the flop and felted me

During this time, i was playing a $16 STT and came in first place, so for the day im up about $150 , and i cant complain about that.

Ill prob hit a live game later today especially since they are starting off with a Freeroll tourney.

Ill keep you updated

Wish me luck

-
from blackberry

Pamela Anderson Adds Spice to the Poker Table

I always new that former Baywatch beauty Pamela Anderson was into poker, i guess i just didnt know how 'into' poker she was. Apprarently the former spokeswoman for Doyles Room was sitting at the poker table and ended up losing about $250,000. Recently , the former Mrs. Tommy Lee / Mrs Kid Rock appeared on the Ellen Degenerous and admitted to owing $250K as a result of a poker debt. However , owing money in poker is nothing interesting ... what is interesting is that she admitted this on (inter)national TV and said that she has been paying back the debt via a payment plan. The payment plan is a bit different than what traditional banks offer, she said she has been giving sexual favors to this pro-poker player in return for a clean slate. She went on to say that she is now dating this pro poker player and that 'all is good'.
After doing a little research, ive found out that Pam has been chilling with Rick Solomon. For those that know, Rick Solomon is the dude in the famous Paris Hilton sex tape. I guess you can say that Mr. Solomon is a pro poker player, he came in 196th in the 2006 WSOP main event and cashed for about $45k. He made a tad bit more by selling the Paris Hilton sex video for about $7 million a few years ago so i guess i can sort of believe this story about them.

Its interesting how poker has evolved and become glitzy and glamourous and sort of mainstream. I wonder if Mr Solomon taped the actual 'payback' of Ms. Anderson. Im sure that would fetch a pretty penny too. Im sure Solomon has thought about it, and even though the world was exposed to a Pamela video years ago, 2007 has been the summer of blockbuster sequels so who knows.
Im sure lots of people are now willing to invite Pam to their homegame and maybe we can get her to join the Mookie, ill even lend her the money to play,lol.

Im curious to know how Solomon will declare this 'earned income' on his tax returns , is it a loss or a gain??!!

Im mobile blogging so i cant link up any references now, when i get to a PC ill link up

Wish me luck

-
from blackberry

Mobile Blogging is Cool!!

And its even cooler when i can blog sitting at the barber shop and getting a haircut. I have nothing major to report , i fired up PokerStars and opened 2 tables of $50 NL and was able to make a nice profit of 1.5 buyins in about an hour. Not too bad!! ... I def feel that im much better at this level of play. All my moves seem to work although mostly im a tight-aggressive player ( ( TAG ) ...

The river cards today were exptremely interesting today and i made sure to upload the hand history right after the hand was completed

The first hand was me losing almost an all-in after i caught my straight on the turn and opponent boated on the river
Heres the losing hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1473801

A few hands later , and it may have been on the other table , i was dealt pocket 10's and a scary flop came out that kept us both behaving until the river , he had KK and a flop of Q Q X came out we both scared off until my 10 on the river came


Heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1473798

Nothing to eventful after those hands

I will not have a chance to play any poker until sat night and i prob wont have any new updates till then

Enjoy

Wish me luck

-
from blackberry

I've Decided to Continue Playing Cash Games

Im going to continue to try and learn cash games, despite me being a much better tourney player. Im deciding to move down a level to $50NL ( .25/.50 NLHE )
My reason for moving down is not necessarily because my bankroll is lower but i feel i am better at this level , and need the confidence boost of a few winning sessions

Wish me luck
-
from blackberry

Its 4am and Im Driving Home $25 Richer

Im totally blasted now, was out all night and at 12am i decided to pick up my cousin and drop in at a live cash game 'somewhere' in Brooklyn. When we got there and much to my dismay, there were only 4 players , all non pros, all seemed very tired and more concerned about whats on the TV in background.

The game was a $2/$5 NL with a min buyin of $200 ( i still dont understand why there was a min buyin, noone was waiting ) and on the very first hand my KK loses my allin vs A6s , he called my $25 preflop raise, after the flop he bet out $40 and i assumed he had AX with 3 non connected low cards on the flop , so i went all in and he reluctantly called ( freakin callin station ) and flips over A2 , needing either runner runner for flush or an ace, well he got the flush and won the pot ...
I wasnt sure if i should rebuy but ended up doing so , and after 2 hours the game broke with me having $425 in front of me ...
The game was nice and clean , but the rake was horrible, i cant imagine that a real player would come back to this place bec the rake was so high

At least i had a good time chilling with my cousin who i havent seen in quite sometime

Good night

-
from blackberry

Woke Up This Morning & Hit The Tables

I woke up late on this fine Monday morning and to work a little. I made some phone calls regarding my 'day' job. I'm also trying to launch a new business and had to take care of somethings by email and phone, the plans are still just preliminary so im not ready to divulge details just yet.

Anyway, I am writing this blog post as i navigate through New York City traffic so bear with me. I played on pokerstars for about 2 hours this morning. i decided to give it a go at the cash tables again , but decided to play the lower stakes tables, i opened up 2 tables of .25/.50 NLHE ( $50 ) and started to grind. I did pretty well despite a few bad beats, i made a nut flush on the river against a guys flopped set. I also doubled up with a top pair of 7's against a busted flush draw. I cant post any hands now bec im on the blackberry, but it was all good.

Towards the end i fired up a $16 single table tournament to test whether i can play 3 tables at once on the laptop. I was a folding machine for the first few levels of the tourney but once the blinds raised i found it hard to concentrate on all 3 tables, so i closed one of the cash games until it came to bubble time. With 4 players left i closed out the cash game to fully concentrate on the tourney. I stole alot of blinds and within a few ahnds was chip leader. I kept up the blind stealing while the other 3 seemed to be affraid of their own shadow ( and being eliminated on the bubble ) ... Traffic on the brooklyn bridge is starting to move now, yay ... After it was down to 3 i lost my chip lead and was on verge of being knocked out in 3rd place , but i got a little lucky with some premium hands and was able to win some nice showdowns. It got to heads up and we were both even in chips , but my opponent was not aggressive at all and basically lost because he lost so much in blinds , and when it came down to him doubling up at the end , he barely had any chips that it mattered . The last hand was me slow playing , i had flopped top 2 pair vs opponent flopping bottom pair , the turn gave opponent bottom 2 pair vs my top 2 pair and we were all in and all opponent could hope for is to fill up and make a full house, which gladly he didnt and i won !!

Wish me luck
-
from blackberry

Finished Grinding for the Day

I have been playing on and off throughout the day , and im up about $150 as well as the $215 i won in the satellite tournament. I decided to close up the cash game for the night , and i fired up a $5 Rebuy Satellite Tourney , im still in middle of playing and its early stages so i have nothing major to report.

There were 2 hands that i played in particularily that i saved ,

This first hand was me playing extremely dumb , i basically called off a full buyin with bottom pair because i thought the guy was bluffing ( or maybe i was tilting )
heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1464897

and heres a hand where i won a big pot and it was Pocket Kings vs. Pocket Kings , about 2 weeks ago i had a similair situation where i was able to double up , Heres that post .
I love when this happend , I gotta give credit to this guy though , he didnt mouth off or even show me the cards , i had to look myself to see what he had mucked. He didnt even make a comment , Nice etiquette

heres my lucky hand for the night

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1464924

Im still a bit torn over whether to continue with the cash games or stick with the tourneys.

I was chatting wih a player today and he recommends i buy Poker Tracker along with the addons,

Wish me luck

My Cash Games Goal Update: Horrible

As some of you know , im primarily a tournament player, however the last few weeks ive been giving it a go at the full ring cash games , I always feel that my cash games need tremendous improvements and in order to be someone who relies on poker income i need CASH GAMES.

Well its been a few weeks , and still way to early , but im doing horrible. I think my play is ok , but im either just getting bad beats or bad luck , not sure which.

As a cooler, i decided to enter a tourney today , played in a satellite into the PokerStars Sunday Million , and i WON!!! , there were plenty of winners , But nevertheless i won the $215 entry.

But i need to log off now bec the wife is asking me to run some errands, so i unregistered the $215 and will save it for future tournament play

Im extremely disgusted and feel i dont want to play any more cash games , not sure what to do

An Interesting Way to Deposit Money For USA Players

As all you USA players know , its such a hassle for us USA'ers to deposit money. Theres plenty of way to deposit if you dont mind crazy expensive fees, such as Western Union, Money Gram, Epassporte Fees, Credit Card fees.

Theres an online poker room called Carbon Poker , and they now allow players to make deposits using prepaid telephone cards. The name of the prepaid phone cards is called Fonelinx.

Ever since dopey Sen. Bill Frist shoved the 'anti poker' law into the renewal of the Patriot Act, Online Poker has been such a hassle for us USA players. Im glad there are constant new alternative ways to deposit money into the major online poker rooms.

If you do sign up for Carbon Poker , please use this link , so you can get a first time deposit bonus of 200% up to a $500 deposit , you you get $1k for free , pretty cool.

I also read about some of the above details on another blog, so im linking to that to, HERE

Please Vote In My Poll

Hey guys , now that i actually have a few readers , can i ask and beg that you vote in my poll.
Its right there , on the right side of the page

Do you enjoy playing poker in

live casino

home game

online casino

Im sitting on 2 tables at Pokerstars now, Finally up a few bucks

ive been sitting at Pokerstars tables for past 30 min , Was down about $40 until i rivered trip kings vs a guys pocket aces , Its always nice to bust pocket aces . The dude was trying to slow play me , and im not sure if i just got lucky or did he suck. Regardless, I kept the pot small up until the river, heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1460966

i plan on playing another 2 or 3 hours tonight ,

wish me luck

In Middle of Grinding : Update

i just started playing on PS with the intention of grinding it out for the next 3 hours , I bought in at my usual table , $100 NL ( $.50/$1 NLHE ), i enter on the big blind and a few hands later i was fortunate to double up , Bec i got lucky on the RIVER !!
I was ahead preflop , so naturally i deserve to have sucked out and won the pot

heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1455630

To help pass the time i decided to read Amatay's Blog , and Wow , i read every one of his posts goign back almost 2 years, this guy can write , and he's funny too , Congrats Amatay on getting $10k in your bankroll

In Middle of Grinding

Im sitting at a pokerstars table with the intention to grind a little for the next 3 hours or so ... its about the 3rd hand and i just got real lucky with a river card and was able to double up

Heres the hand

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1455630

Other than waiting for some premium hands im reading Amatay's Blog , and this guy is funny and a great blogger

Wish me luck

-
from blackberry

I'd rather be playing poker

Im sitting in a restaurant on the corner of 89th st/columbus ave on the upper west side in manhattan. Im here because my wife dragged me to get-together with some of her old college friends. Im extremely bored and waiting anxiously for a steak thats costing me $26.95.

-
from blackberry

I grinded the $100NL for about 2 hours today

I fired up PokerStars today and deided i was going to play about 200 hands of $.50/$1 NLHE. I see sawed throughout and was down and then up almost a full buy in .

I posted 2 hands that really affected me for the night , first hand is a nice river win and the 2nd is a bad river loss

Heres the win that almost put me at about $170

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1450259

and heres the loss that put me back at about $100

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1450257


On a side note, As much as i like Pokerstars , I like the fact that i can upload a customized image for my player and it helps me advertise my blog to all that im playing with. I also love their FPP program , they have the best FPP tournaments. But i need rakeback at this stage of my game play.

Wish me luck

Played in the MATH, Doing Other Stuff

I didnt play alot of poker the last few days. I had a bad run a few days ago and lost 4 Buyins in less than an hour, so im down $400. I obviously played very bad and was trying to induce action, lost a few coin flips and overall some very bad poker playing , perhaps tilting too.

Last night i finally played in an invite-only tournament, welcome to bloggers only. You may have seen other blog posts referring to the MATH , Mondays At The Hoy. Im not sure what the title means other than its played every Monday night on Full Tilt Poker. I finally felt like i entered the Blog World big time. I want to thank Fuel55 for inviting me and telling me about the 2 weekly tournaments.

Im not going to really recap the tourney , i didnt do too well . I made a bad bluff in the beginning and ended up being shortstack for most of my play until i finally busted out in about 13th place out of 19 ( i think ).

I will play alot more poker over the next few days and hopefully something good to report back