BadgerPro's Poker Blog

Direct Link to New Blog

2007-09-19T17:08:00.001-07:00

Here's a direct link to my new blog:

http://www.tworags.com/blog/BadgerPro

Moving the Blog

2007-09-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'll be moving my blog from here to a poker site called TwoRags. You can get to my home page there by going to http://www.tworags.com/home/BadgerPro and within the next few days they are setting it up so you can get straight to my blog and I'll put a link up for that when it gets set up. For now though just go to my homepage there and you will be able to see my blog entries and click and read through them.

I should get more readers there and I know some of the other poker players who post over there.

Andy

Back on Track

2007-08-28T19:15:00.000-07:00

Been in a bit of a downswing lately that's caused me to drop down to 1/2 nl limit again. Did some major evaluation of my play lately and plugged a few leaks that I found and changed up my overall approach to cash games and have seen some great success in my past 3 days of play since changing it up.

Almost had a really sick day today but I lost with AA all in preflop twice. Once for a $600 pot when I got it all in versus KK and a K turned and then again less than 5 minutes later for a $400 pot against AK when a K flopped and K rivered (3rd time I've lost AA to AK in the past 3 days). I had one other good sized pot where I lost with TT against K2 when the flop came JJ3 after being reraised a few times preflop and the guy just shoved the flop and hit a K on the turn. Those were the three biggest hands I lost and even despite that I still had a really good day.

Also been back on my normal work out and play schedule. Playing 2-3 hours when I first get up and then getting in a lift and some cardio followed by another 2-4 hours at night. My morning play has been pretty much all cash games and I've mixed in a few tourneys at night but it's still mostly cash at night right now also.

I played the Sunday Million on Stars over the weekend and finished in the money but well away from the big money. Despite not playing many tourneys lately I've had some great results and have been getting deep in a lot but coming up just short in most of them.

Sigh

2007-08-25T02:34:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post since it's 4:30am and I'm really tired. Been playing a lot lately with mediocre results. Been putting in a lot of time at the cash games and I feel like my play is really improving despite not seeing the results I'd like.

I decided to take a break from cash tonight and jump in a few tourneys after being inspired by my roommate Eric's run last night as he took down 2 tourneys. Oh yeah, for those who don't know I've moved places (still in Madison) and I am now rooming with Eric, basebaldy, Baldwin.

I ended up playing 5 tourneys, a $33 rebuy, $11 rebuy , $55, $109, $33. I made one bad play in the $33r and then lost a coin flip to go out and I made a great call with top pair in the $11r with top pair weak kicker when I figured the other guy was shoving a flush draw... he was... and he hit it. Those were the only two tourneys that I didn't cash in. In the $55 I went out when I shoved with pocket sixes after getting short and ran into pocket aces.

Then came the two tourneys I made deep runs in, the $109 and the $33. I was at the final two tables of both tourneys at the same time with a nice stack in both and I felt like I had a great read on all of the players at my tables. In the $33 I was staying really aggressive since it felt like the table was way too passive and tight while at the $109 I was just sitting back and waiting for big hands since I knew I would get paid off since the entire table was playing way too loose and agressive.

In the $33 I made the final table and ended up losing with KK to JTo to go out in 3rd. I slowplayed the KK preflop and ended up losing when the flop came with two tens. I played the hand right though as the other player was way too aggressive (there were two at the $33 FT that were overly aggressive and spewy) and he would have bluffed off his stack no matter what the flop came.

In the $109 with 13 left I picked up AA and prepared to double up. I raised and immediately the guy behind me reraised huge and we got it all in. He flipped AKs, a much better hand than I even expected him to have, and I was a huge favorite preflop. However, two kings hit the flop and I couldn't catch a one outer case ace and I was out in 13th instead of having a top 3 stack and a shot at the $8k first place prize.

For those wondering my computer is back working great again. My iphone did break down though and I had to send that in to Apple. I just received a brand new one today though. Needless to say that over the last 3 weeks it has not been good to be an electronic device of mine.

I'll try to get back to posting regularly. The Sunday Million on Stars is a $530 buyin this week so hopefully I can win that and make a cool quarter million. Till then though... BADGER OUT!

Bad Beat

2007-08-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was just all around bad. I dropped a few buyins playing 2/4nl 6max and then I jumped in a few tournaments at the end of the night since I felt like playing still but wanted to change it up and play something besides cash. I got deep in a 55 1r1a tourney but lost a big coinflip just before we hit the money. I was then deep in a $11 freezeout and was doing a pretty good job of taking advantage of the money bubble...

However, as we are about 10 from the money I pick up AK and make a raise and just as I do... BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!!?!?! Yup, my computer crashes and not the kind of crash that is easily fixed by restarting the computer. I spent the next hour trying a few different things that will usually fix the computer and get it running again but nothing was working. I finally called Dell around midnight and spent an hour and a half trying to fix the problem. In the end we were able to get the computer running but it's very limited right now. It looks like I will need to completely wipe the computer and reinstall Windows. It really sucks but at least I'm able to access my files and save them so I can restore them after reinstalling Windows.

I wasn't planning on playing this weekend anyways as I'm headed to Chicago tonight to visit with some friends. My Mom and Grandma then fly in from Hawaii to O'Hare airport on Saturday so I will be picking them up and brining them home in the afternoon. Then on Sunday is JJO (hard rock radio station in Madison) Band Camp, which has over 10 awesome bands performing throughout the day. Hopefully I can get the computer back up and running at full speed on Monday.

Hot August Start

2007-08-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

I'm waiting for some laundry to finish before I go get my daily workout in so I thought I'd toss a quick blog up. My only goal for August is to try and get on a good playing schedule. I figure if I can do this and put a good number of hours in the success will follow. I'm going to try and get up before 11 most days and put a 2-4 hour cash session in, I'll then go get my workout in and/or run any errands I need to get done, which will give me a nice break, and after that I'll put another evening session in, hopefully 2-4 hours if I'm playing cash and if I'm playing tourneys it will depend on how I do in the tourneys. I figure if I am able to do this every day that would be 10 2-4 hour sessions but will probably end up being more like 7-8 sessions for an average week. I'll also be playing most Sundays and probably a few Saturdays so that will add in some more hours.

So today I was up around 9 and did some cleaning up and laundry and then put a nice little 2 hour session in while waiting for the laundry to get done. I felt like I ran bad but my stats showed otherwise at the end of my session. I finished up 4 buyins at 2/4nl, which is really good and felt like I played really well. The reason I felt that I ran bad is because I lost quite a few pots where I was a 3:1 favorite when all (most) of the money went into the pot and at the same time I didn't win any big pots where I was even a slight underdog or got all my money in on a straight or flush draw.

I played on Poker Stars today for the first time in awhile as I've been playing on Full Tilt as the games seem to be better there lately. When I first started my session I could already tell the difference in play between the two as the players on Stars were being much more aggressive than on Tilt and many of my raises were immediately 3bet back into me. I've really started to play a much more aggressive game and when I first start a session I start out very loose and then tighten up some after I have established a nice loose image. This seemed to work out really well as many of the players continued to 3bet my raises even when I had tightened up quite a bit.

Back in Madtown

2007-07-20T14:06:00.000-07:00

Just got back to Madison after a ridiculously long drive. I left Vegas with Eric and went to LA to catch a Dodgers game and stayed at Commerce Casino for the night. I didn't get a chance to play poker there but they have a huge poker room and from what I've heard it's a great place to play with a lot of really weak players. Don't ever go there to play blackjack though. There is some weird law that doesn't allow them to spread regular blackjack so they have these weird alternative blackjack games, which they charge you $1 per hand to play. I wouldn't recommend going there to play anything but blackjack

After LA we hit up San Diego and I went to check out the beaches with Ian, another poker player from Madison who's living in SD for the summer, while Eric picked up his girlfriend Mary, who flew in to SD to meet up with us. We then hit up a Padres game and after words went out in downtown SD. Petco is a really nice stadium and we had a ton of fun during and after the game. I don't remember what bars we hit up since we just stopped at wherever we could find right after the game.

I took off by myself the next morning and headed back to Madison while Eric and Mary went back to Vegas. I wanted to drive back a different route so I went from SD through Phoenix, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Des Moines, and up to Madison. It was a nice trip and while I had planned to stop somewhere along the way and get a room I never really got too tired so I drove almost straight through. I ended up stopping around 9am (pst) after driving 22 hours for a little 2 hour nap at a rest stop but then finished the drive getting into Madison around 1am (cst), which means the entire trip took exactly 36 hours (I left SD at 11am (pst). It took a bit longer than I expected, partly because of the nap but also because most of the times when I stopped for food I would sit down to eat instead of just getting it to go. I think getting out of the truck a few times on the trip helped me to keep going as it broke it up quite a bit. I also had two books on tape which made the first 2/3s of the trip go by much faster than just listening to music. Overall it was a nice drive and during the daylight hours it was nice to see the different landscapes and cities. I missed most of New Mexico and Texas since I was passing through them at night.

It will be back to the online grind now and I'll try to keep my blog updated at least once a week and hopefully as many as two or three times. I'm sure most people who have kept up with the blog know this is wishful thinking but I will do my best. I have gotten a few comments while playing online from people who have been reading and I appreciate all of the compliments. I haven't seen too many comments here on the blog but please feel free to post any observations, ideas, criticisms, or compliments as it's all welcome and will hopefully help me stay motivated to post more regularly.

Little Dissapointed

2007-07-10T03:31:00.000-07:00

Rather disappointed with the ME today. I thought I played pretty well but I couldn't get much going. I seemed to miss everything. When I had big cards the flops came low and when I had lower cards it was an all broadway flop. I'll put up a longer blog tomorrow trying to detail it out some more but I'm tired and need to crash.

Dinner Break

2007-07-09T19:56:00.001-07:00

Well the first half of the day hasn't gone as well as I had hoped and I'm down to about 7k. Seems like if I have big cards and raise the flop comes small and if I have a small pair the flop comes all broadway. Average right now is probably a little over 25k so 2 double ups and I'd be right back in it with a good amount of play. Gotta head back to the Rio now and hopefully pick up some hands and get some momentum going.

Change of Plans

2007-07-06T10:46:00.000-07:00

I was able to sell off some of my action and also get some more cash here in Vegas so it looks like I'll be playing the main event after all. I have to go sign up but I know they are sold out for Saturday and Sunday already so I will most likely be playing on Monday and then my second day will probably be on Wednesday. I'll put another post up this weekend with some more details about when I will be playing. Nice to get a shot at this event after seeing the players who were signing up yesterday I really felt like I was missing out.

Almost Made It

2007-07-05T18:59:00.000-07:00

Well, not really but we started with 5k in chips and 50k would be the average when we hit the seats I figured. I got up to 15k real early in the tourney and then went completely card dead and lost a 40/60 to go out of the tournament. Might go try and play a few satellites the next few days. The main event starts tomorrow but you can register through Sunday since there are going to be four starting days.

Last Shot

2007-07-05T12:15:00.001-07:00

Sorry it's been awhile since my last update but not too much exciting has happened in the poker world. No big wins lately and I've just been doing my usual grind.

I'm headed over to the Rio in 15 minutes for a $1k satellite to the main event. This will probably be my last shot to get into the ME. I'm sure they'll run some more sats over the next few days so I might take another shot but I think this will probably be the biggest one today, which means that it's my best chance to get in.

I played a little 2/5 over at the Rio yesterday and was up about $1k over about 6 hours which really helped my decision to play today. Didn't have too many really big hands but got paid off pretty much every time I did. Had one pot over $850 that I 4 bet a guy with flush and a got shot straight draw and got him to fold top pair. We would have been about even money had he called and considering he was getting over 2:1 at a 50/50 shot it was nice to get him to lay it down. His laydown was pretty close to correct though considering I'm only making that move with a set or a type of hand I hand.

Gotta run now but I'll put an update up later as to whether or not I had any success in the satellite today.

Another Quick One

2007-06-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'm definitely not getting my money's worth while playing in the World Series. Lasted about 30 minutes today and I got to the table 5 minutes late because mine wasn't in the regular tournament area.

Because the field is so large they put some tables in other areas. What they fail to do is put up any signs telling you where tables that aren't in the main area are. I knew my table wouldn't be in the main area because of the table number I had so I went to the first backup area (I actually thought there was only one back up area)... nope not there. I ask a guy and it's on the other end of the casino. Thanks for putting up a sign somewhere guys. So I have to walk all the back past the place where I came in to get to my table.

So I get to my table and raise the first hand with AJo and get called by the BB. Flop comes T9x and he check calls a bet, we both check the turn, and I call a small river bet when a J hits and he shows KQ for the straight.

Few hands later I make a big call with J9 on a Q96 A Q board when I thought a guy was floating me on the Q high flop and then he bet on the turn and river only to see that he went runner runner flush with T8. I then get knocked out when I limp and shove over a raise with 88 and lose to AK.

Don't really think I can play any of my hands differently. On the J9 hand I had such a strong feeling that the guy didn't have a Q or an A and that he was on a complete draw. I knew I was chopping if he had a 9 but I really felt he had a hand like JT or maybe KJ. He just got lucky to go runner runner for the flush and there's no way I can put him on that. One of these times they are going to miss their runner runners and their gutshot straight draws and I'm going to get a big stack... I'm just hoping that time comes soon.

I would like to play the $5k 6max next week but I'm gonna have to run pretty good before then to feel comfortable taking a shot in it. I'll probably play some $500 satellites at the Rio over the next two days and see if I can't win one or two and then take my shot.

WSOP Event #38 $1500 NL Holdem

2007-06-23T01:44:00.000-07:00

No more craps for now... back to my 'real job' I guess. Playing in my first full ring WSOP event tomorrow. It's event 38 and looks like it will easily get over 2000 people and I wouldn't be surprised to see it get over 2500 people. Tourney starts a 12pm pst and the first day won't be over until 2am pst. I'll be sure to put up a quick blog whenever I'm done playing for the day.

New Career

2007-06-21T04:04:00.000-07:00

Played golf with Eric today at a beautiful course out here in Vegas call the Painted Desert. All the courses here are about 1/3 their normal price if you tee off in the afternoon because they have such a hard time getting people to play midday with how hot it gets here. It was about 95 when we started the round and got up to about 105 and stayed there for most of it. It's a really dry heat here compared to the high humidity we get in Wisconsin. I shot a 96 which is pretty high for me but considering we finished off 10 beers each during the round I'd say that's not bad.

We each went back and took a 3 hour nap after our round and decided to meet up at the Bellagio at 8pm for their $1k tournament. I ended up busting about 2 hours in and Eric busted about 10 minutes after I did. We've each played a ton of poker the past few days, him live, and me online, so we figured we play some table games and get free drinks. We were looking for a good craps table and decided to head over to the Palms casino since they would probably have some lower stakes than the Bellagio. When we got there though the only craps that was running was a $15 minimum and the table was full. So we settled for some $10 minimum blackjack. We each bought in for $200 and I ran mine up to $600 while Eric blew through his.

The casino then opened up another craps table at a $10 minimum, which is exactly what we were looking for, so we left the blackjack tables and started to roll the dice. We probably rolled craps for over five hours and when four in the morning hit we were each up about $4.5k. There were five ridiculous rolls throughout the night, two each by Eric and I, and we each pushed our bets during all of them. So after having such a great run I've decided that craps is much easier to beat then poker and I'm switching careers. I figure my arm may get a little sore but that's a small price to pay in my opinion. I figure at this rate the Maloofs will have to sell me the Kings by the end of June to cover all the craps winnings I'll take off of them.

Back to Back Nights

2007-06-19T23:58:00.001-07:00

Won a $33 rebuy tournament on Full Tilt today. I got really deep in a lot of tournaments today and was lucky enough to take this one down. Feels great to be on a heater... maybe I can get this kind of stuff going in the WSOP now.

Owning Full Tilt on Mondays

2007-06-18T22:36:00.001-07:00

Last Monday it was 4th in their $1k tourney for a $17k profit. This Monday I won a $75 tournament with 435 players in it. First place paid out $7.5k. I came into the final table in 5th or 6th place in chips but lost about 1/3 my stack really early and had to play the rest of the final table as one of the shorter stacks. I doubled up once we got 3 handed though and was able to really take advantage of the other two players weaknesses.

Nice to win a tournament after having such a disappointing day in the WSOP event.

Gut Shot

2007-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

Was back in Madison over the past weekend for my buddies bachelor party which was a blast. Got back in Sunday night and had to go out with Justin for a few drinks because he took 3rd in a $2k WSOP event and made over a quarter million.

I was really excited for the $2500 6max event today. That faded quickly though when I only lasted 8 hands. I got a bad table draw and had Robert Mizrahi, the Grinder's brother, to my direct left. I knew he would be aggressive and wouldn't have minded having him on my right but to have him to my direct left wasn't good.

Second hand of the tourney I'm in the small blind, Robert in the big blind, it folds to me and I make it 175 at 25/50 blinds and 5k starting stacks with AJo. Robert obviously calls and the flop comes AT8r giving me top pair and I continuation bet 225 and Robert calls. Turn is a 9 and I check call a 500 bet to keep the pot small as I don't want to play a huge pot with just one pair or get blown off the straight draw I've picked up. River is another 9 and I check and he fires out 1100 and I take a few seconds and call and he shows me 67 for a turned gutshot straight. I say 'nice turn' and muck.

Eighth hand of the tourney I'm on the button, cutoff limps, and I look down to see the hand we all wait for, AA and make it 250 to go. Both the blinds fold and the cutoff calls. The flop comes AQ6r and the cutoff check/calls a 325 bet from me. Turn is a 9 and the cutoff checkcalls a 700 bet leaving me with about 1400 left to the river. A king rolls off on the river and the cutoff immediately puts me all in. I make the call and he shows me JTo for the rivered straight.

So in both big pots I played I flopped the other guys drawing dead to a gutshot and both times they got there. Really don't think I can play it any different. I thought I may have been able to fold to Robert's river bet but seeing the 67 means he was definitely going to make a play on me regardless of whether or not he hit his hand.

So it's back to grinding again for a bit. Not sure what my next tourney will be but I'll probably look to play another no limit event soon.

Finally!!!

2007-06-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

About time I ended this downswing I've been on in tournaments. Played a whole bunch of satellites to the $1k tournament that Full Tilt runs every Monday. I ended up winning my seat, which is good because I probably spent $850 getting it. I was close to winning another seat two other times which would have gotten me an extra $1k in cash but I came up short. On Stars if you win a seat you don't have to play in the tournament but on Full Tilt you have to play your first one and then you get cash for any seats after that.

The tournament started out really well and it seemed like people were just giving me their chips early on. I got a few hands in a row and went from an average stack to a really big stack. I had a guy check raise me all-in when I had top set and he had a straight draw to get my first big double up. I then went on a run and got AK a few times against some weaker hands. I also had a big hand where I had 96 in the big blind and got a free look at the flop to see 965 for flopped top two pair. I led out and got called in two spots. The turn brought another 6 giving me a full house and I check raised the other two guys all-in and one called with TT and he failed to hit his two outer. This game me around a 12k stack and put me top 5 with about 150 people left.

My stack floated between 10k and 15k all the way down to about 30 people where I started to get a little short despite not really having my stack move much. The money bubble was at 27 and with about 29 left I had to make a big call with AT when the button who had me covered shoved and showed A9. I hit a ten on the flop and dodged his turned straight draw to double up to about 20k. Just after the money bubble burst I picked up KK in the big blind and a player in the CO who had been super aggressive open shoved for 40k and I quickly called and my kings held up against his 77.

I ended up sitting at about 40k then all the way to the final table. When the final table started I was 8th in chips out of the 9 players. One guy busted early on and with 8 left I picked up pocket tens. The chip leader raised and I shoved all-in over his raise and was instantly called by the guy on my left. I was hoping he'd flip AK and we would be racing but he had KK and I was way behind. I got lucky and spiked a T on the turn to double up and move up to 3rd or 4th in chips.

There were a few more quick bustouts and we got down to 4 handed fast. I floated between 2nd and 3rd in chips while we were 4 handed. In my bustout hand I raised with KTs and the big blind cold called and the flop came down QTT with two diamonds. He led into me and I raised him with my trips figuring I had to be way ahead and he either had a straight draw, a flush draw, straight and flush draw, or just a bare queen. He reshoved over my raise and I called to see QJs. He hit his 2 outer queen on the turn though and I was out. The pot would have tied me up with the chip leader and the other two would have been really short.

I sold some of my action toward the end of the tournament when there was about 17 left and I had an average stack. So while 4th paid out about 23k I got just under 17k. It was a good deal at the time and if I hadn't gotten lucky with my tens it would have been a great deal for me. It's nice to finally get a big score and while it was really disappointing not to have that hand hold but I was really happy.

There's a really good chance I'll be playing the $2500 6max event this Monday now. It's one of the events where the final table will be televised on ESPN so it should get a big and soft field.

Upcoming Schedule

2007-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Didn't play too many tourneys on Sunday. I had a decent cash in the Sunday Million but couldn't really get too much going at any point in time. Gonna be playing a lot of cash games again this week and will probably play at home tonight and then at the Rio a few days during the week.

Justin, the only roommate not here yet, flies in tomorrow in the afternoon. I fly back to Wisconsin for a buddy's bachelor party this weekend. I fly out just before midnight on Thursday and then return Sunday afternoon.

Cash games have still been going really well for me this month and I'm up a good amount. Hopefully I can continue the run and if I'm up enough this week I'm looking to play the $2500 6max event next Monday in the WSOP.

Short Stacking

2007-06-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Wasn't able to get much going in the 1500 today. We started with 3k chips and my high point was just over 4.5k. My first table was a pretty good draw as there were 3 bad players and 2 players who were over playing their hands, especially their draws, but had a good aggressive style working for them.

Our first table broke just before the end of the third level and my new table had 4 big stacks to my left and one short stack to my right. It seemed like the 4 bigger stacks were playing pretty solid poker and the short stack was the tightest of them even after he doubled up once so my position was pretty bad.

I shoved in on the bigger stacks twice after they raised my BB and I looked down to a decent ace and they folded each time allowing me to chip up my stack to my high mark of 4.5k. After about 4 rotations there the following sequence happened.

Raised Ad4d from the CO and got called by the button and check folded on a 789r flop. Next hand I raised AQo from the HJ and got called by the button, small blind, and big blind. The flop came 743r and I wasn't able to make a continuation bet again as it was another horrible flop for my hand and I didn't have the chips to spare so the flop checked around. The turn was an offsuit 2 and the small blind fired out a half pot sized bet, everyone folded and he showed 22 for a turned set. Next hand I picked up AK UTG and fired out the same bet as the last two hands and got a good laugh from the dealer and the table as it was my third hand in a row raising the same amount. It folded to the BB who chipped in a call and we checked a A63r flop since I figured he was way behind and I wanted him to catch up a bit. The turn was a 2 that put 2 spades on the board and the BB check/folded to my bet.

Two hands later UTG raised 4x and I looked down at AKo again and moved allin figuring I was at worst a coinflip and he might even call with AQ, AJ, ATs as this was the third time in the last few rotations I had moved in on him. He called and flipped QQ though and the board bricked out knocking me out toward the end of the 4th level.

Was a little frustrating to not get any hands though. My best hands were JJ twice and AQs once at my first table and I had to fold one of my JJs after getting 3 bet preflop and then missing the flop. Most of my other hands weren't even worth seeing a flop with which was rather frustrating during the early levels. I picked up a few big aces at my second table but most of my other hands were complete rags.

I was happy with my play though considering my complete lack of cards. I made a few moves and used my tighter image well to pick up chips where I could. Back to grinding the cash games again now though for a while. Not sure what my next tournament will be.

Good Day

2007-06-07T01:26:00.000-07:00

Went with the other three roommates today to the Rio. They all played the $2k buyin event today but non of them had any success and they busted before the money. I played $2/5nl while we were there and had a nice day finishing up about $850. Was nice to run pretty good for once. I got paid off on most of the sets I flopped and only lost two of the bigger pots I played.

We then came back to the place and jumped in the hot tube and the pool for an hour or so. After that I jumped online and played some more $1/2nl and finished up about $700. I started out up and then made one bad call with a straight and lost to a flush that caused me to get down a buyin early but when I started to make hands I got paid off almost every time.

I really wanted to play the $1500 6max event tomorrow at the WSOP and I told myself if I won enough to cover the buyin today I'd play it so tomorrow I'll be playing in my first WSOP event. I'll make sure to put some updates up either after I'm done playing tomorrow or after I bust.

Half Way

2007-06-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

Been playing a lot lately working my way through the 20k hands at 1/2nl. I'm currently 10k hands in and I've been running and playing pretty good. The play at 1/2nl is definitely a lot weaker than at 2/4-5/10nl and it's been a nice change of pace.

I played the $550 deep stack event at the Venetian on Saturday after we got in and didn't cash but it was a good tournament and I felt I played really well just went card dead and couldn't get any momentum at the end. I also played a little live 2/5nl and the play was pretty bad. I ended up down a little though after getting coolered in a few hands.

Eric took 10th in the WSOP $1500 event that started on Saturday and was a little disappointed to not make the final 9 and get on TV.

I get my place tomorrow and am excited to move into it and get my own room there after crashing on the couch at Eric's place the past few nights. Justin won't get in until the 12th but the other 3 roommates will be flying in tomorrow. Also looks like there is a good chance I'll be back on the weekend of the 16th for Terpstra's bachelor party. I'll probably only fly out for one or two days though so that I can get back since I'm looking to try and play the $2500 6max event on the 18th.

Road Trip

2007-06-03T10:39:00.001-07:00

We left Madison at 3:20am on May 31st and got to Vegas at 8:00pm on June 1st. Overall it was about a little over 24 hours on the road. I drove out with Eric 'basebaldy' Baldwin who's another internet pro who plays only tournaments. He had just won $89k in the Stars new $1k buyin Super Tuesday tournament.

We were able to fly most of the way whenever on the freeways using Eric's radar detector. We did get busted in Nebraska though when Eric got lasered doing 13 over but the cop dropped it to 10 over and the ticket was only $69, which was pretty laughable.

The first day we drove for about 14 hours to get to Denver where we caught the Rockies game at Coors field. They lost to the Cardinals and while I had heard good things about the stadium I really wasn't very impressed. The stadium was pretty boring and there really wasn't anything special or interesting about it. Also, the fans didn't get into the game too much and it felt like there were more Cardinal fans there then Rockies fans.

We finished the drive to Vegas the next day, June 1st. The first two hours after we left Denver were amazing. The view while driving down through the Rockies was just ridiculous. I didn't have my camera out but if I go back the same way I'll make sure to stop at a few of the view points and snap some. When we finally go to Vegas we picked up two cases of beer, found the house Eric and some of his buddies are staying at, and then just relaxed as we were both pretty tired after the long drive.

I'll put another update up later today about our first day in Vegas. I get my place in two days on the 5th so I'm rooming at Eric's place until then.

Moving Down

2007-05-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Been a rough few weeks for me. It's been impossible to get anything going in tournaments or cash games. I seem to be going on tilt real easy too since every time I do get a little momentum going and either get a nice stack in a tournament or get up a few buy-ins in a cash game I get coolered or sucked out on.

Besides the few times I've gone on tilt though I really think my play has been solid. Considering I seem to be letting the beats really get to me I've decided to move down from playing 2/4nl and 3/6nl to 1/2nl for a while. I'm gonna make myself play 20k hands there before moving back up. I figure this will help me work through the rut I'm in. Also, playing at lower stakes the money isn't as significant to me and when I get coolered or take a bad beat it's easier to just forget it and move on to the next hand.

I've already put in 3.5k hands and while I have done pretty well I still seem to be running horrible. Had 3 sets today lose to runner runner flush and another lose to an overpair that hit its two outer. I did get lucky today and get AA against KK but then got KK against AA twice. The play is much worse at 1/2nl though and it's been a nice change of pace from the 2/4 and 3/6nl games.

Sucks to be moving down right before Vegas but hopefully I can get a little rush going now and have it carry over to there. I leave early Thursday morning and will be driving through Denver to catch a Rockies game before continuing to Vegas.

April... :(

2007-04-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

All that excitement to be playing cash games again in April went out the door real quick. I played another session on Sunday after my last post and finished down quite a bit. I then continued to run bad on Monday and Tuesday and finished the three day stretch down about $5k. Usually when I'm down I like to play a ton and grind it out until I get back to even or get up a bit. During this three day stretch though it seemed impossible to get anything going and every time I thought I might be about to turn it around I ran into a cooler(my really good hands running into other slightly better really good hands) or a bad beat.

Wednesday it finally started to turn around though. I was busy most of Wednesday night but I did put in a pretty short session and finished up about $650. Not much compared to how much I was down to start the month but it felt great to finish up on the night. I played well, my big hands held up, and I didn't get coolered at all. Thursday I only played heads-up cash games instead of my usual 6max games. I ran and played really well and finished up about $1850 in just a few hours. So I got back about half of what I've lost so far in April.

I've been working out a lot recently. I think I caught that spring fever during the few really nice days we had and I've been itching to get outside but have had to settle for the gym because it's gotten so cold out again(or maybe just the stress from the bad beats that has me working out so much). Besides just lifting I've finally started running again after my workouts and am finally starting to feel like I'm back in pretty good shape. I probably won't post again until after Easter so... Happy Easter!

April!!!

2007-04-01T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well I'm rather excited for March to be over. I won my bet with John, TwistedEcho, in March even though it got really close at the end. I ended up winning by just under 100 points. Nice to make an extra $2k on the month. I finished up about $20k on the month despite a horrible downswing at the end.

I'm gonna continue to try and qualify for the WSOP Main Event. Other than that thought I probably won't be playing many tournaments. I played the Sunday Million today on Stars today but didn't cash. After I busted that tournament I put in a nice long cash session. Really couldn't get much going there though and I finished up about $400.

April will see me playing a lot of cash games though. I'll try to put up some interesting hands if there are some and I'll definitely post if I have any good days.

Getting Worse

2007-03-28T00:32:00.000-07:00

I didn't think I could run much worse than the past few days but apparently I can. I played quite a few tourneys again today and didn't get a cash in a regular tourney. Also, Twisted had a few more decent scores and has moved within 300 points of me on the month.

I played two $33 rebuy tournaments today where the winner of the tournament gets a $12k package to the main event of the WSOP this summer. They usually get around 170 people and the play is pretty bad. The only downside to them is that you have to win the tournament and even with bad play that is still pretty difficult. Well I made the final table in both of the ones I played today, which is a pretty tough thing to do in itself. I ended up finished 4th in both of them which actually paid out $650 but that doesn't really feel that good when first is $12k.

In the first one I had 12 outs with my flush draw and an overcard to the other players pair but missed and then ran KK into AA. In the second one I raised JJ on the button and got called by both blinds. The flop came KJ2 and they both checked to me and I bet about half the pot. The small blind folded and the big blind shoved and I figured he probably had a king or a diamond draw since there were two diamonds on the board. Well I was really excited when he flipped over Q8 for a complete bluff with no pair and no draw... well almost no draw. The turn was an ace and the river was a ten giving him running cards for a straight. The pot would have tied me for the chip lead three handed against two other players I felt I was a huge favorite against. When the money went in I was a 97% favorite to win. The only way to be a bigger favorite is to have the other person drawing dead.

I also lost a pot for a huge stack in my $22 rebuy when the other guy had 12 outs and hit. I would have had a top 3 stack on the money bubble which means I could really bully the other players and build my stack for a final table run. This happened at almost the same time as I missed my 12 outer at my first WSOP satellite final table. Always nice to lose with 12 outs at the same time you lose to 12 outs.

I'm going to try to push through this bad streak for the rest of the month but I'm really tired of tournaments right now and am going be very happy to get back to cash games in April.

Ugly Two Days

2007-03-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well Sunday definitely couldn't have gone any worse. I didn't cash in even one of the tournaments I played... and I played a lot of tournaments. I lost most coin flips, ran into a bunch of coolers, and took more than my fair share of bad beats. Mikey, one of the guys I'll be staying with this summer, did finish 4th in the Sunday Million Tourney and scored over $100k. He was well over due for a big score so congrats to Mikey.

Today didn't get going much better than Sunday for me. I didn't play as much but I still got in quite a few tournaments and only cashed in one and it was a really small cash. To add on to that TwistedEcho made two final tables today but luckily for me he went out early in each of them. He's now only about 500 points behind me (he was about 1200 before Sunday) and one good score would bump him over me.

I've been starting to play some pot-limit omaha (PLO) since it's probably the most popular game after no-limit hold em. It's been going pretty well so far and I really enjoy playing the game. I think learning to read people's hands in PLO will really help with my hold em game also.

This is gonna be a short blog today since I don't have any good news and I'm really tired since I went to bed really late on Sunday night (Monday morning) and got a call from my buddy Colin to go golfing this morning leaving me with very little sleep. Had a great time golfing though as the weather hit 82 today making for great golfing conditions. I shot a 48/42 (front/back) and for the first time out this year and was pretty happy with the score and how I played.

Hopefully the final few days this month I can run well again. I'll be glad to get back to mainly cash games after this month as tourneys can very frustrating as you can do great one day and then run horrible for long stretches.

Vegas - Summer 2007

2007-03-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

I was tired yesterday so I didn't play much. Three small tournaments with no cashes. I tend to get a little lazy after a big score like on Tuesday. Not necessarily a bad thing tough. It's good to take some time and enjoy the big wins since they can be far and few between sometimes. I'm not sure how much I'll be playing the next few days but I'll definitely be putting at least a few sessions in. If TwistedEcho hits a big score in the next few days and pulls close to me again in our challenge I'll definitely be grinding the tourneys hardcore again but right now I don't feel much pressure as I have a comfortable lead.

Since I have nothing else to write about I'll share some exciting news for this summer. I've made plans with four other guys to rent a house for the WSOP this summer in Vegas! I met two of them, Justin and Mikey, when I was in the Bahamas for the WPT PCA event in January and the other two are good friends of Mikey. We have the house from June 5th - July 18th so a good month and a half. The Series starts June 1st and the final table of the main event is July 17th so we will be there for the whole thing.

I'm not sure if I will be flying or driving out there but right now I'm really leaning toward driving as I will have a lot of stuff to take out since I'll be there for so long and it would be a pain to take it all on a plane, especially a lot of the electronics.

I'm really excited for it though as it should be a an awesome time and great experience. It will be nice to live with other guys who play poker full time and hopefully all of our games improve from the opportunity to discuss hands and strategy every day. Having our own house and knowing Mikey and Justin well enough I'm expecting to have some really good times partying and all that other fun stuff... especially since we'll be in VEGAS BABY!!!

Here's a link to the house, Vegas House, it looks pretty sweet and I'm psyched to have such a nice place out there (good thing we got on it early... yes I, the procrastinator, planned ahead!).

3 Final Tables and 1 Win

2007-03-21T03:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, apparently if you ask for it in your blog it will happen. I made 3 final tables today, two in $109 tournaments where I took 3rd and 4th and the final table of a $11 rebuy where I won. The 3rd place finish was worth $3.2k, the 4th was $2.4k, and I got exactly $14k for the rebuy tournament.

I had a chance to do a lot better in the first $109 but I lost AJ < KQ which would of put us heads up with about even stacks. I did get very lucky a few times in the $11 rebuy though so I'm definitely not going to complain. I've made the final table of that rebuy tournament 3 times and finished in 3rd both other times so it was nice to finally win. The 3 handed and heads up battles took forever as it was probably close to 3 hours from the time we got 3 handed until it finished.

We actually cut a deal in the rebuy when it was 3 handed. I had about 7.5m in chips and the other two had about 1.5m. I got $14k and they each got about $6.2k where the actual payouts were $14,255, $7,255, and about $5000. I was very happy to get the deal as it's nice to be guaranteed the $14k and giving up $255 for that was no big deal. I ended up winning first anyways when we played it out.

This should give me a big lead in my bet with TwistedEcho and could possibly seal the deal. Nice to finally run well after the debacle yesterday.

The screen shot is of the tournament lobby after my win.

Upswinging Again

2007-03-20T04:55:00.000-07:00

I'm back up to $5k from cash games on the month after a nice session last night. I played 400nl, 600nl, and 1000nl. I ran really hot in 400nl and 600nl but was down some at 1000nl. Their seems to be a definite jump in talent at the 1000nl level and I've been running bad (getting unlucky) a lot at that level it seems.

Tournaments last night where a complete joke though. I got a huge stack early in the $55, 1 rebuy, 1 addon tournament but took a sick beat where I got it all in on a 974 flop with KK against an opponents Q7. He was just horrible but he spiked a Q on the river for a pot that would have given me the chip lead in the tournament. At almost the same time as that beat I got my aces cracked in the $109. I raised preflop from early position and got cold called by the small blind. The flop came jack high with two other rag cards with one of them being a diamond. The big blind checked and I bet about 3/4s the pot and he called. The turn brought another small diamond and he checked again and this time I bet a little over half the pot which was also just under half of his remaining chips. He then instantly check raised all in and while I was worried he might have a set I figured there was a really good chances my aces were still way ahead so I called pretty quickly. He flipped up AQ suited in diamonds and obviously the river was a third diamond giving him his backdoor flush. I found it rather funny that he called out of position on the flop with no pair and no draw, about the worst play in poker.

I'm hoping my luck in tournaments turns around as I'm going to need a few good finishes to win my bet with John (TwistedEcho) in March.

Back to Blogging!

2007-03-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well, I think this is attempt 3 at getting the blog going again and hopefully I can keep it up this time. Not sure why I feel like starting it again but I do... so I am.

This month has been a little bit of a roller coaster so far. I started out really bad in cash games and was down about $4.5k to start the month. Lately I've been playing a mix of $400nl up to $1000nl depending on which games I think are the best. After my quick downswing to start the month I went on a nice run and was up about $6k. I've had another little downswing though in the past two days again and am currently only up about $2k in cash games on the month.

I did win a $109 tournament on Poker Stars to start the month which was for a little over $7k so I am up about $5k from tournaments this month. It was nice to get a win early in the month since I have a bet with another tournament player for $2k to see who can do better on Stars during March. Currently I'm leading but he's not far behind and one good score by him could easily move him in front of me.

I also hit another Royal Flush yesterday in a cash game and got paid off pretty good. He raised preflop and 3bet him with AQs and he called. I flopped the Royal and checked to him and he just shoved all-in which rather shocked me. I of course called him instantly and won a nice $1.7k pot. The screen shot of it is up above.

Getting Unstuck

2006-10-27T02:11:00.000-07:00

Well today I sat down to play my usual cash game grind, 6 tables of 400NL. It started off well as I stacked someone early when I flopped a set and beat their overpair, but it was all down hill after that. I after about 6 hours of play I found myself down 4 buyins, $1600. Now I hate finishing a session down and after being down two buyins the day before I was determined to not to finish Thursday down.

So I contintued to play, doing my best not to tilt and also not to take extra gambles just because I was down and wanted to recover my losses. It took me another 5.5 hours but I got back up $400 on the session, leaving me down $400 over two days. 11.5 hours is definitly the longest session I've put in to date. Even toward the end though I felt really good and didn't think there had been much of a drop off in my play since the start.

I missed played some hands early to get down but I also lost two pots of about $700 each to 2 outers on the river. It was nice to recover though and it definitly helped get my confidence back up since I was feeling pretty down after losing 6 buyins. Now, it's time to get some sleep though since I'm pretty drained mentally after that session.

Halloween this weekend, which should be a ton of fun. I'm still not sure of my schedule but I'll definitly be out dressed as Maverick.

Not My Day

2006-10-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well I played 2 tournaments today, the Party and Stars Million. In both tournaments I started out with a pretty good first hour and ran my stack up some. Then it all fell apart in the second hour.

In the Party tourney I lost a bunch of chips to a shorter stack when my JJ lost to his AA. Then a few hands later I get KK and get involved in a 3-way pot with AA and QQ. The AA holds and I'm out.

I was still doing well in the Stars tourney though so I just moved my concentration there. I ended up getting it all in with 99 agaisnt 44 on a J9424 board. So my full house lost on the river to his quads.

Today was just not my day and I will be back to playing cash games this week as once again tournaments are just not being good to me.

Royal With Cheese

2006-10-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

It's been over two years since I hit my last Royal Flush. This is the third one of my life. The final pot was $169. Here's the hand history: HH. If you click on the picture you can get a bigger view of it.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2006-10-04T15:01:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the good and work my way down. Good news is that I've continued to kill 400NL. So far I'm actually doing better at 400NL than I was at 200NL. The players don't seem to be any better than at 200NL and I also feel like this level fits my game pretty well. I seem to be losing the least amount possible when I'm beat while still getting maximum value out of my good hands. Considering cash games are where I make most of my money and I make it the most consistently this is probably more of a great thing than just a good thing.

Ok, now we start with the bad. I played in the WCOOP Main Event, the $2600 NL Holdem event, and didn't cash. By far my biggest tournament that I've played in so far. I played pretty well but didn't get paid off on any of my big hands. I got aces, kings, and queens during the tournament and only the kings held up, which means that it just wasn't my day. My last hand I was starting to get short stacked and got it all in with 77 and was called by KTo. The flop and turn came great and my oponent needed a king or ten on the river to take the hand, which he got in the king. I lasted about 3.5 hours and finished somewhere around 1000th out of 2500 people. The prizepool was over $6 million and paid out over $1 million to first place.

Now we get to the ugly. The far right side of the republican party was able to attach an anti-gaming bill to the port security act which easily was passed through congress and should be signed by Bush within the week. This bill isn't going to make online poker illegal but it's going to put into effect measures that prevent banks from being able to make transfers to gambling websites. Nobody really knows what the effect of this bill will be and only time will tell what real effect it has on online poker. So as of right now I will continue to play as normal and am just adpating a wait and see attitude.

WCOOP #13 - $320 6-Handed PLH

2006-09-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

Today was the short-handed pot-limit holdem event with a $320 buy-in. There ended up being 1741 entrants creating a prizepool of over $500k. I dropped pretty quick from 2500 starting chips to 1500 and things weren't looking very good for this event. I chipped back up to about 1750 chips and then caught the nut straight on the turn which held over bottom set to double up to about 3500 chips. I worked up a bit more to 4400 but had two big back to back hands that didn't go my way. The first one I had TT which didn't hold agianst KQ and the very next hand I had AKo which fell to J9s and I busted around in about 850 place.

I was pretty happy with how I played overall but just didn't have a few big hands go my way which is all it takes. I'm leaving for the weekend to go golfing on Saturday morning but should be back in time for the WCOOP #18, the main event, on Sunday. I'd like to play in it but the $2600 buy-in is a pretty steep entry.

I've put in some good sessions at the cash games though and was up almost $1800 after busting out of the PLH tourney today. So while tournies aren't going that well for me the cash games are still going great. If I have another good day or two at them Thursday and Friday there's a good chance I'll play the main event on Sunday if I'm back from golf in time.

WCOOP #10 - $1050 NL Holdem

2006-09-24T15:24:00.000-07:00

Well todays event didn't go very well. I was card dead the whole time and the few big hands I picked up I ran into bigger hands. It seemed like everytime I was in a pot I would miss the flop and my opponent(s) would hit it. I was once again at a loose and aggressive table so it was almost impossible to pick up chips without getting a hand.

My bustout hand was when I picked up 97s on the button and had about 3k in my stack. I made it 400 to go and got called by the small blind who had been very loose and aggressive. The flop came K62 and he led out for 450. It really felt like a probe bet and that he only had a pocket pair like 77-TT and I figured if I pushed he would fold since I had been pretty tight the past few orbits and hadn't been making any moves. I also figured if he had a weak king like KT or KJ he would fold it. He ended up thinking for a few seconds and then making the call with AK. I really didn't think he would just call with a hand like AK preflop but he did and of course he hit a great flop.

I was also in the Party Poker $1 Million tourney today ($215). However I was also completely card dead in that tourney. Being card dead in both tourneys was very frustrating. When I finally picked up AK in the big blind it was minraised and called before me and I just pushed. The orginal raiser folded but the caller on the button made the call with 99. I flopped a king but the turn and river were both spades putting four on the board and he had the 9 of spades and made a flush to knock me out.

My next event in the WCOOP won't be until Wednesday with Event #13, $320 6-handed PL Holdem. The 6-handed events I usually have pretty good success in and hopefully I can turn my bad run in this WCOOP around with a solid cash in that.

WCOOP #8 and #9

2006-09-24T12:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the $530 PL Holdem and the $215 HORSE events. I ended up busting out in both events after a combination of some bad luck and some bad plays. They weren't horrible plays but I think I could have played a few hands better after reviewing them yesterday.

The HORSE event I could never get anything going. HORSE is all limit events, which aren't my best, and when I had the best hand to start I would get run down by a worse hand at the end and when I had a big draw I would miss my outs.

In the PL Holdem event I was playing really well but I got KK and ended up losing a big pot to a guy who flopped a set of 8s. The board was Q high and had a flush draw on it and since I was being aggressive I figured the other player could easily have AQ or have the flush draw, just tuns out I was wrong this time.

I'm hoping to have a much better showing today, Sunday, as it will be WCOOP Event #10, $1050 NL Holdem. Since it's Sunday there should be the usual ton of bad players entering the event. The event has a $1 million guarentee but right now it's about 1 hour before the event starts and there's already almost 1500 people signed up making the prizepool well over $1.5 million and I expect it to get well over $2 million by the time the tourney starts which will put first place at almost $400,000. No limit is definitly my best game so hopefully I'll have a solid showing today and get deep into the tournament.

WCOOP #6 - $215 NL Holdem w/rebuys

2006-09-22T02:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday was Event #6 in the WCOOP which happened to be NL Holdem with rebuys. I did my usual immediate rebuy to double my stack. I played pretty solid through the rebuy period and doubled up pretty early on with JJ vs AKo when we got it all in on a JQK flop and I even turned another J for quads. That was enough to give me a very nice stack since the blind structure in these events is great. I of course added on after the rebuy period so I was in for a total of $615, which is the least you should expect to be in for in a rebuy tourney (3x buyin). There turned out to be 2081 entries, 2503 rebuys, and 1337 addons making the prize pool just under $1.2mil.

I continued to play well through the rest of the tourney but went card dead as we got down to about 500-600 people left. I went from an above average stack to being one of the shortest as we got down to about 350 people left. With the top 270 making the money, which started at just over $1k, I was hoping to survive until then. On top of being card dead though I was at tables with active players which makes it pretty much impossible to increase your stack without catching a hand as every pot is usually raised or reraised.

When we got down to about 300 people I picked up QQ in the small blind and decided that I was going to have to make a stand with the hand as I was down to about 8 big blinds. There was a raise from an early position player and then the button reraised. I called all-in and the first raiser thought for a bit before finally folding and saying that he had AQ. The guy on the button flipped up AK and we were in a coinflip situation but I was about a 60% favorite. The flop came J high and it looked like I was going to more than triple up with a brick on the turn but the K on the river killed my chances and I was out about 30 people from the money.

So another dissapointing finish but I really don't think I could have played the tourney much differently. Friday is a limit holdem tournament with a $215 buyin that I don't plan on playing as I haven't played much limit in awhile and would rather have Friday night off. I'll be back at it Saturday though with Event #9 $530 PL Holdem for sure and probably Event #8 $215 HORSE (two events in one day on Saturday). HORSE is a mix of 5 games: limit Holdem, limit Omaha, Razz, 7 card Stud, 7 card stud Eight or better(or known as stud hi/low). The games change every level and it's usually a fun event. I do't think I'm great at any one of the games but I think I can play each of them fairly well.

WCOOP #4 - $215 NL Heads-Up

2006-09-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

Well today was Event #4. There were 2048 entrants it had to be a multiple of 2 because of the heads-up type structure. I made it through the first two rounds without too much trouble. In my first round match I had my opponent all-in twice and finally beat him the second time. In my second match I got it all in with AKs against A9o preflop and even though he spiked a 9 on the flop a K on the turn gave me the lead and the win.

In my third match I fell behind early when my opponent was hitting every hand. I was a little behind in the chip count when we got it all in on this hand. I was a 2:1 favorite but he sucked out right away on the turn and hit his flush and then even though I caught the ace high flush on the river it gave him a straight flush and I was out in round 3, one round before we made the money.

Tomorrow is WCOOP #5 Limit Omaha Hi/Low with a $530 buyin. I won't be playing that event but I'll be back at it on Thursday with NLHE $215 with rebuys. It should be a good event and has a $1 million guarentee but I'm guess the prizepool will be over $1.5 million as every event so far has gone well over the guarentee.

World Championship of Online Poker

2006-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

The WCOOP started yesterday with a $215 Razz event that I didn't play in because I was up north trying to 'catch' Bambi (which I had no luck in). I've haven't played much razz though and probably wouldn't have played the event even if I had been home.

Event #2 was today which was $530 NL Holdem. There were about 4500 people and the tourney payed out 600 spots. I ended up finishing in 484th place. I was really happy about my play in the tournament except for one hand which I think I really missplayed. I had about 2x the average stack in the tourney and the hand cost me about half my chips and it really shouldn't have. Here's a link to the hand if you'd like to view it: Bad Hand

I'll try and update almost everyday now during the WCOOP and hopefully that gets me in the habit of blogging a little more often. Tomorrow is event #3 and will be a $320 rebuy PL(pot limit) Omaha tournament that I probably won't play. My next event will be #4 215 NL Match Play, I'll explain more about it tomorrow or Tuesday.

Sunday Tourneys 7.30.2006

2006-07-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

No success today in either of the Million tourneys on Party Poker or Poker Stars today. The Party was the usual $215 buyin with around 5250 people. I ended up getting it all in with AA against 66 but he flopped a 6 and I didn't get any help on the turn or the river. The Stars tourney was their end of the month $530 buyin and had just under 2000 people. I worked my stack up in the first hour and finished with double my starting stack but kept running into big hands in the second hour and got knocked out. With fields that big though you need to have a lot of luck so while it's dissapointing not to have a good finish it can't really be expected.

I'm up and running 3 screens now and my older computer (5-6 years) seems to be having trouble keeping up with running multiple things so I'm looking to upgrade during the next week. I was considering a laptop though so I'll be doing some research on what'll work best for me over the next couple days.

I still haven't received my cashout from Titan yet for the big win because of some additional security checks considering the large sum of money but hopefully that will all be squared away during this week also.

In August I'll be looking to get back into cash games some more and build up some money to play in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) on Poker Stars at the September. A series of about 15 bigger buyin tournaments that attract a lot of people and finishes with a $2500 buy in tournament with over a $2 million guarentee.

So close again...

2006-07-30T02:05:00.000-07:00

Another big tourney and another dissapointing finish at the final table. This time it was the Party 200k Guarenteed tourney that has a $200+$15 buy in that runs every Saturday night. There were 997 people so the prize pool ended up being exactly $200k.

I played pretty well the whole tourney and never had a huge chip stack or a very small stack. With about 3 tables left I won a big hand with AK over 66 that gave me a great chance to make the final table. When were down to about 13 people I got some great stealing and restealing hands to give me an above average stack when we reached the final table.

Their was one super aggressive player at the final table, who was directly to my right giving me great position on him, and I was looking to catch a good hand and get all in against him. I didn't get a chance early on and ended up losing about half my chips when I raised AJs and had to call a shorter stacks push. He had QQ and I only paired my jack to double him up.

However, two rotations later I got AJ in the SB and pushed my now shorter stack into the BB who called with A8. The flop came AJx and I doubled up through him and was in great postion again with a nice stack.

The big aggressive player continued to raise (and call) with a lot of hands and he was continually raising and then calling all ins with hands like Q8s and A4o. He sucked out on AKo and AJo on both of those hands to knock the players out. So when he raised and I had AJo I decided I had to make my stand against him. He called with Q9s and the flop came KQJ and I never got any more help to go out in 6th for $8k. Another good payday but when you're looking up at $44k for first and $24k for second it's a little dissapointing to take another beat like that.

I was really hoping to get first or second and have my first 6 digit month but it wasn't to be.

On a side note before the touney started I played cash games for about 2 hours and was up $400 on only two tables. I caught middle set on one hand and got all in against two players. One who had top pair and one on a flush draw for about a $600 pot, which had me feeling good going into the 200k Guarenteed.

Tomorrow there I'll be playing both of the million dollar guarenteed tournies on Stars and Party so maybe I can have another big finish in those and hit my 6 digit mark for July yet. Also the WSOP Main Event is underway in Vegas and while I'm a little dissapointed not to be there this year... watch out in 2007.

Any given Sunday

2006-07-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

What's 4 months inbetween posts?

I fell off posting for a bit and was then waiting for some big news/good news to start up again. Well today I finally made my big break through cash in a tourney. I was playing on a new site called Titan Poker a little lately and to attract players they were offering a touney with a guarenteed prizepool of $1 Million like Poker Stars and Party Poker usually do. They made the buyin for the tournament $1000 though and as registration closed there was only about 500 people in it meaning that for a $1k buy in you were getting about a $2k entry. At the last minute I decided to take a shot at the tourney.

They tournament paid out 80 spots and as we got down to about 100 people left play slowed down and I was at about half of the average chip stack. The 80th spot paid $1.5k and I was looking foward to getting my buy-in back since there were quite a few short stacks still in. With about 83 people left though I was getting very short stacked but picked up KK and was lucky to double up against AJ. This got me rolling and I caught some good hands after we made the money and a bunch of people were making their move since the blinds were so big. With about 50 people left I was sitting 3rd in chips.

I continued to put a lot of pressure on the smaller stacks since many people were willing to just move up a pay spot and pick up an extra $500 and were willing to fold their big blind even when they only had about twice that in chips. When we got to the final table I was 5th in chips but the blinds were pretty big compared to my stack. I was lucky to get all in with AQ against J9 and double up. When we got down to 4 handed I was in 3rd in chips but picked up AA and doubled up against AT to move me up to 2nd.

The 4th place person was eliminated and we were three handed with the stacks at about 700k, 600k, and me in 3rd with 400k in chips and the blinds at 15k/30k. On the button I picked up JJ and raised to 80k and the big blind with 600k moved in and I immediatly called and he flipped over A2. The flop came King high and I was looking good to double up and get the chip lead but an Ace on the turn and I got knocked out in second. The payouts for the tourney were $300k for first, $155k for second, and $75k for me in third.

I definitly can't complain though as I got lucky to pick up some cards at the right time and have my good hands hold at the right time. It sucked losing to a 3 outer on the turn that probably cost me at least $80k but walking away with my biggest win ever and $75,000 definitly numbs that pain. I'm not sure of my exact plan for the money but I will be back to posting more often now.

Andy

Still rolling

2006-03-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

Back to the grind this week. PStars added some tournaments like their $20 ones with 180 people. They added a $4 with 180 people that I can't see myself playing since it's just not worth my time and also a $50 with 90 people. I was a little dissapointed to see the $50 only had 90 people in it and would much rather they made them 180 or even 120 would be nice.

I played 4 of the $20 ones and 4 of the $50 ones with some decent results. Making 2 final tables including 1 win in a $50, which pays out $1350. Despite winning the $50 I was a little dissapointed in my finishes in 2 of my other tournies where I couldn't win a coinflip situation.

I'm hoping to have some better results in bigger tournies this week. PStars has a $1000 tourney this Sunday and I'm looking at playing it if I can keep my good results in these smaller tournies going. Also the sattilites to the WSOP are starting up so I'll be looking to quailfy for the main event. You'll be sure to hear about it if I get in.

How to stop the frustration.

2006-03-15T14:38:00.000-08:00

I found a solution to being frustrated. It's called winning. I just finished playing a couple MTTs(Mulit Table Tourneys). I loaded up 4 tournies at the same time, playing in three 180 man, $20 tournies and one larger $20 tourney (428 people). I ended up busting out of two of the 180 man tournies about midway through.

However, I made the final table in both of my other tournaments. I came in 2nd in chips in the larger one. About half way through this final table I ended up making the final table of my 180 man tourney. Putting me at two final tables at the same time! I went on to win the first tourney while tredding water in the 180 man tourney. After winning the first there were still 6 guys left in my other tourney and I was sitting 4th in chips. About 20 minutes later it was heads up and then 3 hands later it was over and I was the winner, winning 2 touries at the same time!

It was pretty sweet and a bunch of the guys from the 2+2 MTT forum (link on the right of my blog) were sweating and cheering me on. So after a frustrating week last week, this week I was on the other end and had all my big hands hold up. Hopefully I can have this kind of results in one of my big buy-in tournies soon!

It's a toss up

2006-03-11T11:38:00.000-08:00

Well after my 3rd yesterday I continued to pound away at the tournies.

First the good, I won a 180 man tourney, which was a great feeling as always. I really had to play my best game at the final table since this was a dog fight the whole way and there was never a clear favorite or a major chip leader.

Now the bad, I played two big tournies last night. The first was the Party Poker Friday Special tourney with a $200 buyin. I was playing a great first hour and had almost doubled my stack in the first 30 minutes. Then I lost a medium pot when my A9 ran into A5 and he hit a 5 on the turn for two pair on a Ace high flop. Then my QQ ran into ace rag and he spiked an ace on the flop and I was back down to about average for the tourney still up on my starting stack. Then I pick up KK on the CO and there's 3 limpers. I make it 7 times the BB and the guy in the SB repops it to 17xBB. I don't lay down KK preflop as too often people are on a worse hand and if I run into AA then I figure that's just unlucky and move on. That being said I go all in for a little more than 60xBB and he insta calls with AKo and hits an A on the turn. My horrible luck for the week continues.

My next big tourney was a $30 rebuy on Poker Stars. I ended up spending $180 total after my rebuys and addon. I had a decent stack after the rebuy period and was feeling good. The first hand after the rebuy I pick up AA in the SB and get a guy to go all in with JJ and double up. Couple rotations later I get it again and take out a medium stack when he decides to try and play K4s against me (343 flop K turn - my AA makes a better two pair). Then things take a turn for the worst. We are down to about 45 people and top 36 make the money (36th already pays out 175, which would let me be about break even).

I'm below the average stack but in no major danger. I play A9 and end up doubling up against against a big stack who had KT after the flop came ATx. So I'm back up much better than average sitting about 17 out of 45.

A medium size stack pushes from EP and I have AQ in the SB. It costs me about half my stack but I think I'm good and call. He shows KQ and spikes a K on the flop, bye bye half my stack (this would have put me up to top 10 in the tourney).

I work my stack back up a little and am sitting about 27 out of 38 (2 more to the money). I get AJ in the SB and the big stack at the table raises from the CO. He had been raising a lot and I had been waiting for a hand to push over the top and figured I was good here and he probably wouldn't even call. He thinks for about a minute and finally calls with AT... ten on the flop and I'm out in 38th. Once again winning this pot puts me top 10.

Ok, this got much longer than I wanted it to. There are some easier ways to post hands I'll look into so that I don't have to try and explain them from here on out but until then this is what we get. I'm trying to be happy about winning but it's tough when I win the small one and take the horrible beats in the big ones. I'm out of town til Monday so have a good weekend all!

Most frustrating week ever!

2006-03-10T13:40:00.000-08:00

I guess this is what I get for taking some time off from cash games and playing tournies. I joined a bet with some guys online to see who could do better in March playing a certain tourney on Poker Stars. PStars has 180 person tournies that start whenever that many people join. The bet is to see who can have the best 20 finishes in these tournies. So far my results have been so-so and I'm break even as far as $$$ goes. I figured while doing this bet I would try to play some more tournies this month and usually have 3 or 4 tournies going at once.

I've been playing great this whole week but can't seem to have my big hands hold up when it matters. I played a $50 tourney today and made the final table (370 people). At the final table I started 2nd in chips. I'll list my big hands here to show why it can be frustrating:

On the CO(cutoff) I raised 3x the BB(big blind) with K9o (King 9 offsuit) and got reraised by the shortest stack at the table about double my raise. Getting the odds I had to call and he showed 44 and we had a coinflip and the 44 held up.

When we were down to 7 I got AJo in the SB. The short stack that was UTG raised to 3x the BB and I put him all in. He thought for a while and finally called with A7o and my AJo held up and I took him out. This gave me the chip lead.

With 5 left the short stack at the table pushed all-in and I had AKs (Ace King suited) and I called him and he showed A5s. The flop came 7 high with two of my suit so he had only 2 fives that he could hit since 1 of them made my flush. It hit on the river and he doubled up. This put me in 3rd in chips.

A couple hands later I get the monster KK sitting UTG and make my standard rasie to 3x BB. The button, also the short stack pushed all in and I insta-called him. He flipped A7o and spiked an A on the turn to beat me. This put me down to the short stack.

One rotation later I push in with AJs and double up when the big blind calls with T4o since I was so short. However I was still short stack even after the double.

The second shortest stack got taken out and we were down to 4. The big stack who was in the SB when I was in the BB was continually raising me so when he did it this time I called and then pushed the flop and got him to fold. This got me back up to a decent stack and put me 3rd in chips.

The short stack got taken out and we were down to 3 but my stack had gotten farily short again. I was lucky to see JJ in the SB and pushed in and got called by the BB who showed K7o. The board finished with 4 diamonds and he had the king of diamonds and I was out in 3rd.

Once again I played great and felt I really should have won this tournament. Twice I had guys in horrible shape with a chance to knock them out and both times they got very lucky. Winning either of those hands would have put me in a dominating position in the tourney.

I've taken a more aggressive approach to tournies lately and really been playing to win. This has cause me to get knocked out early in many tournies instead of barely limping into the money. This is fine with me since I know one big finish makes up for it (and also feels much better). However, this can be very frustrating since good finishes are so rare. I felt like today was my day when I made this final table and it sucks to lose like I did.

Well, that's enough ranting. I've got some errands to run and need to get my place cleaned up some. I'll post about my Vegas trip later this weekend or early next week. However, that was a frustrating trip too.

Me and a living legend!

2006-03-07T08:50:00.000-08:00

Doyle happened to walk in and sit next to me before his NBC heads up poker match and I got a quick picture snapped with him.

My first 10k month!!!

2006-02-21T00:57:00.000-08:00

This might be a little early but as of today I should finish Feburary with over 10k profit. I played in two tourneys on Monday night. Both of them were rebuy tourneys, one a $20 and one a $10. I did great in both. The $20 had 492 people, 1229 rebuys, and 318 addons. I ended up making the final table and at 3 handed we decided to chop the prize pool which ended up giving me my biggest pay day yet for over 6k (I ended up in 2nd place again!)! In the $10 rebuy there was almost 1700 people, over 5000 rebuys, and about 1000 addons. I ended up taking 43rd for a little over $200.

With my finish in the $20 rebuy I bumped up my monthly earnings to just over 10k! So as long as I don't go on a horribly bad streak I should have my first 5 digit month.

My challenge that I've talked about for myself has to do with Poker Stars rewards program. They have different tiers depending on how much you play. Everybody starts at the bronze star and each month you can move up to siver star(1500 points), gold star(4000), or platinum star(10,000). However there is one more tier called Supernova star which goes by how many points you accumlate over the entire year(100,000). I would like to reach the Supernova level by the end of May. It took me a while to calculate a reasonable goal for how long it should take me but I've decided that it's possible for me to do it by May if I really put my hours in. I'll try and update my progess as I go starting in a couple weeks.

Well I'm off to bed as it's 3am and I was up early for a dentist appointment today (no cavities!!).

A month!?!

2006-02-16T00:57:00.000-08:00

Wow, can't believe it's been a month since my last post... I might be the biggest procratinator in the world!

The week after my last post I got strep throat and didn't even play poker for a week since I could barely swallow... I'll spare everyone the details, but it sucked.

Well my bday came and went (Feb. 13th). I'm a big 24 now (oh yeah!). Had a great steak dinner at my Mom's on Sunday and then Dad and Juli took me out for a nice prime rib on Monday night. I got some clothes and money for the big bday and I'm really thinking about putting it toward a XBox 360 (If I could find where to buy one).

Figured I'd put up a post since I just made another final table on Poker Stars. There was 2057 entries into the $3 rebuy tourney. Technically I ended up in 2nd place. But with 4 people left we made a deal that gave 3 of us $2000 and another $4000. While I wouldn't normally take a deal like this that gives so much to one person but he had a ridiculous chip lead. We each had about 2 million in chips and he had about 8.5 million. After the deal no one played with any seriousness since it wasn't for anything really and I ended up finishing 2nd.

In my last blog I talked about a challenge for myself but I'll save that for the next post (I hate long posts). I'll put it up by this weekend (maybe?). ;)

Almost forgot.... HOW BOUT THEM BADGERS!!!

Holiday Party

2006-01-15T16:36:00.000-08:00

Not much to report on the poker front this week. I took some time off from playing cash games and went on a tourney bing for the week. My results were so-so and I will be back grinding it out at the cash games again. I came really close to having some big finishes in the tournaments but I couldn't get lucky when it counted the most.

Last night (Saturday), Colin and Crystal threw a holiday party with a crazy/cheesy sweater theme. The party was a blast and there we had a good collection of people there. Suprisingly there wasn't a 'major' crazy event that's worth writing about but it was definitly a crazy party overall.

After this week I may have a huge goal for myself. I need to take this week and see if it's even going to be possible. It involves me moving playing my cash games from Party Poker to Poker Stars since PStars' rewards program blows Party's away and it's not even close. Look for a post at the end of this week or early next week to see if I'm up to the challenge or not.

My face is offically healed!!! The black is pretty much gone, just a little yellowish and if you didn't know I had a black eye then you would notice. The bottom part of my nose is still a little sore but the doctor figured I just bruised the cartaledge real bad and it should feel 100% in 2 weeks. I haven't heard anything as far as any charges being brought against the a-hole (keep it PG i guess) who hit me but I'm gonna try and make some calls and see what the word is.

The new season of 24 starts in about 10 minutes and I'm pretty physched for it. Don't know if I'll take time out during the week for another post unless something 'big' happens.

New Years Goals (and a FT)!

2006-01-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Frustrating... that's the one word I'm gonna use to sum up this week. Played some great poker and I really had some tough luck. Down to 10 people in one of my tournies, 9 make the final table where all the big money is, I'm sitting 3rd in chips and get AA and lose to the guy whose second in chips when we get it all in on a flop of J55 (turn was a two outer J). Also I had a rough week in my cash games despite playing pretty well.

HOWEVER, I just finished another tourney up in 7th place. I played pretty well up to the final table, I thought, where I didn't get cards and didn't play that well. I'm not dissapointed though since making any final table is a damn good feat, especially in a 1000+ person field.

I'll list off a couple of quick New Year's resolutions/goals. I only have one big resolution for the year (with a couple of small ones built in). That's to get on a better schedule. I want to try and be getting up between 10am and 12pm and be getting to sleep around 2am. This will allow me to get on a better playing schedule and also to get on a regular workout schedule. I did really well this week and was actually getting up around 8am or so each day and getting to sleep around midnight. I got some workouts and a run in this week and I think being on a regular schedule helped that out.

My poker goals for the year are simple:

1) Don't go on tilt
2) 100k
3) Play in 1 big live tourney

First goal is pretty easy as I find that I rarely go on tilt (playing badly after having a bad beat put on you). It doesn't happen often but to be one of the best players it should never happen! So I'm going to try and keep track of when it happens and see if I can't find some ways to counter it.

Second goal is just a number to shoot for. If I put my hours in (goes back to my resolution) and play my best poker this should just come naturally.

For my last goal I'm going to shoot for a WSOP event. Either the 1k, 2k, or 5k buyin (maybe the 10k main event!?!), whichever I feel my bankroll can handle when the WSOP gets here.

Well it's 10pm on a Saturday... I gotta go find something to do!!!

P.S. The nose and face are doing much better! The nose is still tender and might be factured. I'll know more after my doctors appointment on Thursday. The swelling is gone and my black eye is starting to disappear... I should be back to my ugly self in no time! :)

Punching in the New Year!!!

2006-01-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

For those who still don't know about my New Year's Eve incident check out the two pictures below this blog entry to see my new look for 2006. After what was turing out to be a great New Year's Eve celebration, some drunk-jealous boyfriend decide he didn't like me and popped on the left side of my face at about 2am on January 1st. So after spending an hour talking to the police and filing a report and giving them his name it was off to the emergency room for another 2 hours to get everything looked at and see if anything was broken.

Good news is that it doesn't look like anything was seriously damaged. As you can see from the two pictures I put up below the swelling's gone down but I've developed a nice black eye. I have a follow up next week to see how everything is healing and allow the doctor to get a better look after the swelling's not so bad.

It's been almost a month since my last post though so I'll do some quick updating on the past month. Christmas was awesome and I had a great time with my family and friends celebrating. On the 24th it was gift opening at my Mom and step-dad's house in the morning and then Grandma's house with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and the all of the cousin's kids (think we are up to 9 now with more on the way!). Then on the 25th it was Christmas with my Dad and step-mom over at my aunt's house. My grandparents from my Dad's side were also there. Of course I can't forget my that my sister, Krisi, and her BF, Chris, were also at all of the events.

Fast forward to New Year's, which, besides the 'incident' I had a great time and have to thank my awesome cousin, Sarah, for spending the 2 hours with me at the emergency room and making sure I was well taken care of.

Yesterday then I had a couple guys over to watch the Badgers beat down the Tigers in the Capitol One Bowl despite being 11 point underdogs!!! What a great game! It was nice to see Barry end his coaching career with a big win.

This blog's already gotten long enough but one of my resolutions for 2006 is to update twice a week. So in the next day or two I will update with with the rest of my 2006 resolutions.

2006-01-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

January 1st, 2006 - Looking good!

2006-01-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

Punching in the New Year! January 3rd, 2006

I'M BBBAAACCCKKK!!!

2005-12-08T02:17:00.000-08:00

First things first... I'm back in Madison for good!!! My place looks great and it's bigger than I remember when I first saw it (landlord had a lot of furniture stored in it and it was hard to tell the size). The kitchen was completely redone recently and looks brand new. Part of the bathroom was also redone.

Now for some even better news... I just won my 4th poker tourney. With a $20 buyin and 621 people it lasted for 11 hours! Most online tourneys only last about 5.5 hours but this was a special tourney on Poker Stars, a "Deep Stack" tourney. In a normal PStars tourney you start with t1500(t = tourney chips) and the blinds go up every 15 minutes, but in a deep stack tourney you start with t5000 in chips and the blinds go up every 30 minutes. This gives you a lot more time to manuever and play, which means the better plays have an even larger edge than normal.

With 621 people there was t3,105,000 chips in play. Going into the final table I had a little over t800,000 in chips. With 5 people left I had t1.6M in chips and with 3 people left I was up over t2.1M and when it got heads up I had about t2.6M in chips. The other guy doubled up once when we were heads up and got up to t1M in chips but then I chipped back away at him and took it down. This was the first deep stack tourney I've had the chance to play in but it definitly won't be my last.

My other 3 wins in poker are a 2500 person freeroll (free to get in) that paid out $1000 to me, my favorite win so far. I also won a $20 tourney with around 600 people. Both of those on Party Poker. My 3rd win was a live tourney with 75 people and a $25 buy in, which was here in Madison at a pool hall called Quenique(not sure of the spelling).

Here are the goals I have set for December:
1) make 13k (cash and tournies combined)
2)win a tourney(well that's done)
3)win a seat to a big live event (kinda a long term goal)

(Yes, I did make these goals before I won my tourney.)

PS. I don't proof my posts at all... and don't plan on it. Make comments on my spelling or grammer if you really feel like it, but realize I don't care. :)

Whew... where to start?

2005-11-28T16:23:00.000-08:00

Ok it's been quit a while since my last post so I'll give you a cliff notes on everything up to now.

Vegas was great! We had an awesome time. I was down about $150 overall gambling (won at poker lost my ass at slots and blackjack... i'm sticking to what I know from now on!)

I got a small 8 point buck on the Monday before Thanksgiving. It had about a 12 inch spread and was a nice sized buck for Black River Falls. Overall hunting was a blast and our group got about 35 deer or so total.

After having Thanksgiving for the first time last year, after a 9 year break from it, I had 2 this year! First I was off to my grandma's and then it was back to my Dad's. Nothing like two huge meals within an hour of each other.

I've failed at my goals for this month but a lot of it was due to apartment hunting and deer hunting... damn that hunting.

I did make the final table of a tournament today and with 3 players left we chopped the remaining money evenly. So today has been great so far.

I gotta go as I have some more poker to play today... my next update should be from the new pad!!!

Month so far (and goals)

2005-11-08T18:57:00.000-08:00

It's been a week since my last post and I've been pretty busy. I have found a place to rent and will be moving in on December 1st... back to Madison!

I said I would be posting my goals at the begining of each month so here they are for November:

1) Gross 5 digits from my cash games. (My main goal)

2) Win a rebuy event on PStars (Secondary goal)

3) Win my entry to a big buy-in event (If I have time goal)

So far I'm a little behind my first goal for this month. But that's mainly because I was very busy last week finding a place to rent and didn't get the hours in at the table I wanted. However Monday and today(Tuesday) I put a big dent in my goal and I am still confident I can make it.

My second two goals aren't very likely to happen this month since I'll be pretty busy. I'm going to try to make a couple attempts at each but we'll see how it goes.

Thurday night I'm off to Vegas... little last minute trip that just got planned! Right now it looks like Greg, James, Sean, John, Me, and two others (I know we have seven guys but I'm not sure who the last ones are). Are flight takes off at around 9pm from Madison and we don't get back until about 4 or 5am on Monday morning. Should be a blast and I'm psyched to get out there with the boys.

Next weekend is opening weekend of gun hunting. This is going to cut into my playing a lot so it should be interesting to see if I can hit my main goal even with this time off. I'll be putting in a lot of hours Wednesday and Thursday yet this week and then hopefully get a lot of hours in next week.

Well this is long enough for now. I may post again before I leave for Vegas otherwise you can expect a good blog when I get back.

My First Blog

2005-11-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

I just set up my blog here on blogger.com. My goal is to be updating the blog 2 or 3 times a week. At the begining of most months I will post a goals blog for that month and then keep everybody updated as to how they are going.

For those of you who don't know I have left school for the time being to pursue a career as a professional poker player. My goal is still to get my degree within the next year in case I need something to fall back on in the future.

I am currently in the process of getting an apartment in Madison and will be moved down there before the end of November.

Feel free to comment on my posts or to share your thoughts and feelings.