Saturday, May 31, 2008

Challenge Complete

I reached my challenge way ahead of schedule, obviously the tourney score helped out a lot , but I'm very confident and ready for my next challenge ... Ill prob post something tomorrow.

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I haven't really tried to win a wsop seat this year , all year long I was thinking of winning a seat and then playing 1 or 2 of the preliminary events and still have money left over. But mrs. Pokergrind and I are expecting a baby in the next week or so and a poker-themed-vacation is the furthest thing from our (hmm,her) mind. So I haven't really tried. However , jun 15th pokerstars and FTP are running pretty decent satellites and ill prob plunk down a bit of change and try to win on that day


wish me luck

- sent from my Treo

Friday, May 30, 2008

Sometimes Slow playing works

I hate to slow play , but this table was so aggressive and i figured i would get repopped , i didnt know that i would get repopped by complete crap



and then his reraise bluff with just bottom pair , what was he representing?

yest i played in a local game and was down about 1k , but left down 600 , i jammed AK into AA twice and once onto QQ and naturally lost all 3 times , i used to kill this game , but its been a while since i went and have to re adjust to them , perhaps next time i can win these DONKEYS , they all play pretty much the same , except for SS ( he may be reading) he seems to have learned how to play pretty good , especially when he has a set and i jam top pair into him,lol

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someone sent me this pic ,

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Challenge Update & Some Other Poker Stuff

Ok , first , sorry for not updating , but my challenge is going fine , in fact im way ahead of schedule , thanks to that nice tourney i played last week.

i dont have the exact figures right this second , but im above $13k since may 1st but below $13.5k , i dont have too many hands saved , or anything too exciting to report , but i have mainly been 3 or 4 tabling the $2/$4 on Full Tilt and have been doing well/running well , there was a 3 day period last week where i played sooooo bad and lost about 2.7k , but then i took a day off and played solid great poker with some phenomenal results, i had a few $800+ days a few times in a row and have been enjoying poker

I also went to the borgata to play in the sunday night tourney , but when i got there i learned that they cancelled the tournament bec of the holiday weekend, so i sat at the 2/5 table and played uber-tight agrgressive and booked a $450 win over a 5 hour period , i didnt have too many interesting hands , except for 3 hands where i had KK then QQ then KK and i raised preflop on each got 3 or 4 callers , and an ace hit the flop and i gave up. I made one super bluff with pocket 10's on an ace high flop, but my table image was so tight that when i led out after the flop i got once caller , the turn was a blank and i check raised and took it down. Interestingly, about an hour into the game Ron Perelman sat down at my table and basically played every flop and usually folded , he never seemed to raise just called alot. Turns out he likes to play Limit and was waiting for a seat in the $80/$160 game , and he left shortly after donking off about $250

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heres a nice hand that i played yest , I call it "thanks for letting me get there"



im not sure what he thinks i have or why he even reraised after the turn, at one point i said to myself that he played this like pocket aces or pocket queens, but luckily for me the guy was a donk and paid me off

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ive also earned a tremendous amount of rakeback this month and luckily i wont have to include that into my challenge, i hope all my readers are earning rakeback when they play on full tilt poker, if you guys arent, then please sign up via me and i will get a nice referral bonus and you will get 27% of the rake returned back to you . If you want rakeback , then just download the software and open a NEW account on FTP and in the referral box just type in 'thepokergrind' and then send me an email or post a comment and ill make sure you get linked up

wish me luck

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

General BS

I played a cash session yest and donated about $650 , perhaps I was feeling a bit cocky after my tourney payday, and I was on 2 hrs of sleep....today, I woke up early and refreshed and opened a few tables , within minutes I was down $500+ bec I was playing horribly ...i tightened up and focused more , I was able to bluff this one guy off a big hand bec he was showing weakness and I ended off the session being up about $140... Later on today I'm going to post my Challenge Update, but I think I'm pretty close to my goal.... I'm prob at about 11k- 13k ...need to do the #'s later

- sent from my Treo

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Big Pay Day !!!

its about 4 am and here's a copy of the email I just got from full tilt...


-----Original Message-----

From: cashier@fulltiltpoker.com
Subj: Full Tilt Poker Tournament #48775284 The Fifty-Fifty NL Hold'em
Date: Tue May 20, 2008 4:30 am
Size: 527 bytes
To: XXXXXXX@gmail.com

This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Tournament #48775284 The Fifty-Fifty NL Hold'em
Buy-In: $50.00 + $5.00
986 players
Total Prize Pool: $50000.00
Start Date: May 19 9:30 PM ET

Dear thepokergrind,

You finished the tournament in 2nd place.
There has been $5900.00 added to your account.

You have earned leaderboard points for this tournament.
To view your current leaderboard points use the My Promotions button in the Cashier window.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.



Monday, May 19, 2008

Tournament at The Borgata

Later on ysterday ( day 18 ) I decided to head to The Borgata after work and entered the 4pm $100+20 tournament. There were about 150 entrants and I had come a little late into the 2nd level, but the dealer was soooooo slow that I was only blinded once. I played very patiently and avoided major confrontations. I was able to chip up early in level 3 while holding 55 (presto!!) and the board coming K 5 9 rainbow, I was the button and original raiser followed up got one caller and I smooth called, turn was a blank and raiser bet , got a call and I raised a small amount , orig raiser folded and caller called. The turn was another K giving me the full house and hopefully my opponent trips, he led out with a nice sized bet , I went into the tank and moved all in , he called and ......ship it!!!!!!.... I didn't have too many confrontations and just really played against the weak players at the table who I knew wouldn't play back... I only took one bad beat , but fortuantely I had plenty of
chips so it didn't affect me... Anywhoo, fast fwd to the final table and only 9 places got paid and the FT had 10 ppl ...and immidiately everyone started talking about chopping. I didn't want to chop with 10 ppl so I kept my mouth shut and didn't voice my opposition, and the conversation died down.... 10th place got knocked out and we were all in the money and again everyone started talking about EVEN chopping , even though there was some shortstacks who couldn't even survive a full orbit. This time I said that I'd rather wait till we have fewer players. 9th got eliminated and again everyone looked at me and said 'chop ? ' and I sort of pointed to the last remaining shortstack and said let's wait...8th got knocked out (by me ) and again all the puppy dog-faced players asked me , chop?...i looked around and we were all about even in chips and the even chop was $2200+ for each , which was more than the 3rd place finisher would get, so I finally agreed and took he $2255.... So do I add
the $2255 to my tally in my Challenge ?


- sent from my Treo

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Roller Coaster Session : Day 18 of Challenge

Well, the title says it all , I started the session 4 tabling and was doing ok , I was up $200 within minutes ....but then the horrors started happening
I had KK on the button , it folds to me, I do my standard pre flop raise so it looks like I'm stealing blinds , the BB reraises me, I decide to flatcall and hope not to see an ace on the flop, flop comes all rags ,rainbow .. BB makes a C-bet and I shove he thinks and thinks and calls with 10 10 , yay he drawing to 2 outs , turn is rag and river is an ugly red 10....disgusting..

A few hands later I find myself on the button with a nice AK suited , some shortstacker in the cut off decides to min raise preflop, I shove him all in which is about $105 total , he insta calls as if he is holding pocket KINGS , and what does he turn over ? 10 8 offsuit ..and naturally he hits the flop and takes the pot...

At one point I was down about $800 , but ended off the session only down $140.....
Day 18 is not over

wish me luck

- sent from my Treo

Challenge Update: Days 8,9,10,11,......17,

Ok , so im very lazy , but i hate blogging when im having a crappy time playing poker , Although i am up , the last few days since day 9 or 10 ive been having lots of coolers, and runner runner straights against my sets , and stuff like that , all in all im UP still , which is a very good thing , But could have been up alot more.
Also , the poker hand replayer that i use was down or giving me a techincal problem , so i barely saved anything

tonight, 17th day, i did pretty good , i was 4 tabling some 2/4 and made a $950 profit, I played pretty tight and waited to get paid off on some good hands ,i also joined cardrunners and ive only watched one video , nonetheless it points out some things i know already but 'clearer' , ....for $20 a month or whatever it seemed worth it

heres a hand that i had , im really curious to know what he was holding , if anyone can give me his range id like to know , unless he had total air




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day 17 cash tables: $972
day 17 tourney tables: $18 , I played 2 HU Sng's for $10+$1 and won both

Total Profit for may: $5,855
Still need to complete my challenge: $8145

wish me luck

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Full Tilt Withdrawal Update:

just to let you know....ive made a few withdrawals from FTP over the last 30 days and I finally logged into my bank account today and see that my earliest withdrawal just came in...i initiated this from FTP back on april 17 and it hit me today , according to ftp's email they have fixed the issue and everyones tranactions should be coming in the next few days, in order of the cashout....i made a big withdrawal on april 21, so I'm waiting to see when that will come..

..................

I played about 1200 hands today and ended up.......EVEN!!!...thanks god for rakeback....
I'm up about 5k for the month, I will give more specifics later on...

- sent from my Treo

Thursday, May 15, 2008

FULL TILT Withdrawals

Anyone else having problems with withdrawals , I have 4 or 5 withdrawals that I've made over the last 5 weeks and none of them have been deposited into my bank account ... FTP keeps on emailing me saying its a 3rd party processor and that the delay is a technical error and has been resolved...and then a week later they say 'oops , NOW its been resolved '... This has happened 3 times so far and although FTP offered a $300 bonus credit its still frustrating...anyone else having issues?


- sent from my Treo

Update

I haven't been blogging lately , and I had originally planned on giving updates of my challenge more often.
Yesterday I had a good day at the tables. I was 4 tabling some 2/4 FR and made about $1200....im no where near my goal , but so far for May , I'm up roughly 4.2k ....ill give exact figures later

wish me luck

- sent from my Treo

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Downswing

Well, I guess it had to happen...today I had my first losing day, I'm currently down about $800 for the day and decided to log off... I didn't have too many bad beats so I can't complain...just some bad LAG play by me...i need to stick to TAG bec my LAG game sux
.ill try to play more later
and when I'm on the computer ill update my totals
- sent from my Treo

General Update

I haven't played much the last few days , but had some roller coaster sessions, I'm up a few hundred bux since my last post and will update the challenge later tonight.

I've also tried saving some hands that I played , but having problems using that poker hand replayer from www.pokerhandreplays.com , for some reason the flop cards are not being shown, but the turn and river display properly , anyone else having that problem?

- sent from my Treo

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Challenge Update: Day 8 and The Return of My Weekly Blogger Bounty Tournament?

Today i decided to play some sit n go tourneys even though i went 0 for 3 the day before, well its a wonder what one day will do, I played 5 tourneys and all were $20+2, I played 2 separate 18 person tourneys and the first tourney i won!! and the 2nd i came in 2nd place!!, i then played 3 single tables tourneys with 9 players and came in 2nd place in 2 of them and busted out of the 3rd early , so i made about $245 in tourney winnings yay!! i also played some cash tables today and did ok , i booked a nice $360 profit so overall im happy with my day , i also want to let you know that this whole month i have NOT played any 5/10 , ive only played 2/4

day 8 cash tables: $360
day 8 Tourney tables: $245

total profit for may: $2766
still need to complete my challenge: $11,234

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I really want to start my weekly Bounty tourney again , and im not sure which night is the best for me and for everyone , Im hoping some of you can chime in and help me out,

Why is Jennifer tilly Considered a Pro

heres a youtube clip someone sent me recently , after tilly makes this horrible play look at the faces of the others sitting at the table , its amazing how she sits at the same table with phil ivey and patrik antonious,



and then she says 'uh, i thought you had pocket kings' .....is she for real , ive heard of playing it safe but jeez,

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Flopped Straights Never Win / Challenge Update: Day 7

I love When ppl slow play monsters , especially if it gives me a chance to catch up,

Here i am in the small blind and the big blind slows plays his hand so badly , and of course he shoves when he is way behind,

heres the link




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Challenge is going ok , im not putting the hours in like i orginally had planned, but i am still doing good , im playing pretty well , and im really paying attention to opponent stack sizes and AWARE of my position , and my results have been pretty good.

day 7 at the cash tables $735
Day 7 at the Tourney tables -$66 ( i opened up 3 separate $20 Sit n go tourneys , and didnt cash in any , my tourney skills suck sometimes , although i got coolered in one of them.

total $2161
still need $11,839

Monday, May 5, 2008

Checking The River For Value & Challenge Update

Heres a hand i played that im very proud of the way i bet throughout the hand , i ended up doubling up bec i had a monster , But does anyone thing i should've played it differently after the flop and turn, although i love the way i played the river

heres the hand



edit: not sure why my opponents card dont show up in the replayer , but he had a Q-rag and only called my flop bet bec he was hoping to float me and perhaps steal it on the turn , luckily for me he hit his card,

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challenge update:
im no where near my goal, but at least im still up a few bux ,
this update is up until and including may 6th , which means im 6 days into my challenge

cash tables $1443
tourney , no change , although i made it deep in a 32k guarantee last night , the pay day is so paltry unless u make it to top 3 , but thats how it goes

total $1491
still need $12,557

Friday, May 2, 2008

The Commodore Hand Strikes Again

As some of you know , i love playing the Commodore Hand, its when you hold a 6 4 in your hand , Im assuming its called this because of the famous revolutionary computer of the 1980's called the commodore 64 ,

heres why i like it



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challenge update

its friday, may 2nd about 4pm and this month i only played 1 session and prob wont play again till saturday night or sunday..

cash tables + $609
tourney + $51

total $660
still need $13,340

wish me luck

Is this Guy for Real, ( not poker related )

Ive heard of dumb criminals , but this takes the take , wow


Police: Texas man trying to cash $360 billion check arrested Fri May 2, 10:18 AM ET



Charles Ray Fuller must have been planning one big record company.

The 21-year-old North Texas man was arrested last week for trying to cash a $360 billion check, saying he wanted to start a record business, authorities said. Tellers at the Fort Worth bank were immediately suspicious — perhaps the 10 zeros on a personal check tipped them off, according to investigators.

Fuller, of suburban Crowley, was arrested on a forgery charge, police said. He was released after posting $3,750 bail.

Fuller said his girlfriend's mother gave him the check to start a record business, but bank employees who contacted the account's owner said the woman told them she did not give him permission to take or cash the check, according to police.

In addition to forgery, Fuller was charged with unlawfully carrying a weapon and possessing marijuana, Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson said.

Officers reported finding less than 2 ounces of marijuana and a .25-caliber handgun and magazine in his pockets, police said.

Fuller couldn't be located for comment by The Associated Press on Friday because there were no phone listings for him in the Fort Worth area.

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i'd love to play poker with this guy

Please tell me why i played this hand badly

heres a hand ,



if i had bet preflop , then a c-bet on the flop would have won me the pot . Instead i bet the turn , and i checked the river , do u think this guy is calling me on the river if i bet?

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as for my challenge , between now ( may 1st ) and jun 14th , which is 43 days , my goal is to make 14k , i had an even more grandiose challenge , but nixxed it and will try this and perhaps if i can accomplish i will try a a diff challenge in the future.

I will be 'cheating' a little in order to get this challenge accomplished , i will include all of my rakeback earnings as well as any deposit bonuses that the online pokerrooms offer

wish me luck