PokerStars $20+2

After getting knocked out of the Monty Memorial Classic Invitational Tourney, I logged on to Stars to see if they had a tournament starting up soon, and I saw that there was a $20 PLHE tourney starting in 30 minutes that only had 45 people entered in it, so I said "What the hell." and registered. I thought there would be, maybe, 150 people entering, what with the $500, end of the month tourney being played. Nope, 400 people signed up by the time 10pm rolled around. Ah, that's no good. I was hoping to play against far fewer people.

If you've read my journal recently, you know about my recent foray into PL tournaments, and how I pretty much just got blinded away. It was pathetic, really. I fired up Party at the same time, arguing with myself that if I was going to waste $20 on a tourney, I may as well make up for it by winning that back playing PL ring games. That's sound reasoning, right? Right. Let's get right into the action, shall we?

Looking back at the tournament summary, I didn't play a decent hand until well into Level III(I think that means 3). And then, the floodgates opened up. I won a hand worth t700 to get my stack back up to where it started, and 4 hands later, I got this hand.

Ah, crap, BisonBison's hand converter doesn't support the PL games on Stars. Ah, that's definitely going to make this much more time consuming. Crap. Sigh.

3rd level Blinds 50/100 (t1540)

I'm dealt AKo in MP and raise 3xBB, get one caller, (the guy to my left calls 30, and the guy directly to his left goes over the top, all-in. I reraise all-in thinking that the short stack is on a steal, with t750 already in the pot. The guy directly to my left folds, and I see that the short stack has Kj0. The guy that folded typed in the chat "had KQo LOL" LOL, indeed. I wouldn't have minded tripling up, but I'll make do with doubling, as the board comes out 6-2-7-2-2, and I win the hand unimproved. Nice!

Two hands later, I get dealt AJ in MP and call the BB of 100. Folded around to the SB, who raises to 200, the BB calls, and I call. Now, I absolutely detest the minimum raise, and I probably would've called a modest size raise because I had position, but the SB let me get in cheaper than he probably should've. That being said, the flop came out A-2-T. SB bets 300, BB calls(that put him all in), and I call. Turn is another Ace. I can't possibly understand why the SB does this, bet he pushes all-in for 700 with 2 aces on the board. I call immediately and what does he have? KK. Stupid minimum raise. The BB has A7, the river is a blank, and I eliminate both of them while pushing my stack to about 4500 before the first break. Nice!

I pretty much hold steady for a few levels when the following hand came up.

Level V (75/150) t4260

I'm dealt AKo in...yup, wouldn't you know it, MP again. There's one limper in front of me, and I raise to t450. The SB folds, and the BB and original limper follow me along for the ride. The flop comes out 5-5-A. I don't know if I'm all that happy about the two fives, because I can't count the number of times that I've seen someone call a raise with Ace-crap, so the limper could've very well had a 5. The limper bet out 750, and with TPMK, I decided to find out if he actually had a 5, I put him all in for about t1000. Looking at this now, I'm not sure I like my play here. He could very well have had AQo, and I'd be back to about average stack. The BB folds, the limper calls and turns over A30. He doesn't improve and I'm up to t7000 in the matter of about 10 hands.

Two hands later...Level 5 (75/150) t7000

How in the hell have I always been in MP when I get these hands? Maybe I'm reading this summary wrong? I don't think I am, though. Anyhow, I'm dealt JJ in MP and first to act, so I raise it to t450. Damn, this would be so much easier with converted hands. Gah. Well, immediate left of me called so quickly, that either he had his "call any damn bet" button marked, or he liked his hand. A lot. It scared me a bit. It's folded around to the BB, who calls the extra 300. The flop fell 2-7-3, rainbow. The BB bet out 450 into the pot, and being a little afraid of the guy to my left with position, I flat call and hope he just folds. He does, and I feel better about my jacks. Ok, one question; when you have nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, why would you ever try to steal with such a small bet? Sure, you don't want to commit too many chips, but when your chances of pushing a preflop raiser off with a 1/3 sized pot bet are slim, why commit any chips. I don't get it. So, the BB was on a steal, I guess, because when the turn came a 6h, (the board read 2-7-3-6, just to clarify), he checked. With 2500 in the pot, I pushed, and he immediately folded. Hmmmm. t8500

Ok, I'm going to skip ahead because this is going to be really long. I did want to touch on a hand-and a situation that's been happening to me a lot lately- that bothered me; people limping with AA. Not a limp, reraise, mind you, just a limp. Why do this? Ok, so it worked against me. Without going into great detail, I was sitting at about t12000, which is more than double the next biggest stack at my table. I'm dealt 66 in the BB, and it's limped around to me, and I just check? Why? I have no idea. The flop comes out x-6-A, which I think is the best thing that could've happened to me. I bet out a pot sized bet on the turn and a limper called, while everyone else folded. I put him all-in with my next bet and he calls immediately and flips AA, for flopped trips. Doh! How could I have possibly put him on that? Lucky for me, he had a shortstack and only got a small portion of mine. Still, this has happened to me more in the last week, than in the last 6 months. Is there a new book out that's telling people to limp with aces? If there is, I'm going to burn it.

Two hands later, I'm dealt AA and ended up pissing away about t3000 when I knew I was beat when there were 4 diamonds on the board, with neither of my aces being a diamond. Looking at the hand history, he had a straight flush draw on the flop, so it's possible that he would've called any bet I made. He seemed to me to be a fairly strong player, and finished 5th, but I guess I'll never know if I would've been able to push him off his hand.

I also gave away another 2000 chips on a botched steal while holding 77 on a board that read x-A-K when I knew that the person I was heads-up with didn't have an ace or a king. He made a minimum bet on the flop(t300), and I raised it to 1200, which so wasn't enough. I should've pushed in a pot sized bet, which would've been about t2000(?) and that might've been enough for the steal. He did, however, use almost all of his time bank, and then finally called. Drat. The turn and river went check-check, and he turned over JJ. I knew I was beat when he called my flop raise bet, and by that time, I didn't want fire again to win the pot. Maybe I should've?

Well. Hmmm. This is getting long, and if anybody is still reading this...kudos to you! I'll make it more concise, yah? Yah. This late in the tournament, it seems that everybody is shortstacked. It's either a push or a fold, unless you're one of the extremely big stacks. I'd made it into the money, and unfortunately I was one of the shorties, with about t4000. In a blur of cards and chips, I somehow managed to work my way back up to t14,000, good enough for 10th out of 17. Was I going to make my first final table? With 1oth making only $50 more than 17th, I wasn't going to sit around much longer. I wanted to double up, and quick.

Level XIV (2000/4000) t14000

Damn, the blinds near the end come around so quick! I'm pretty much pushing with any paint here, and luckily, I pick up KQ and push without even thinking. It's folded around to LP, who has me outchipped by about t8000. He thinks for a bit, calls, and turns over K-10, which is better than anything I could've hoped for. Better, that is, until a 10 flops...and I go home now. Well, I was already home, but you know what I'm sayin'.

I guess that I should've been out of the tournament in Level X when I sucked out against pockets kings, making my wheel on the river. Gee, I almost forgot about that. Heh. For my troubles, and over 3 hours of work, I made...drumroll please? $95. It sure would've been nice to win that $2000 top prize, but I feel good about the way I played the whole night. I finished barely out of the money in the Monty Memorial, and lasted deeper into the money in this tournament than I thought I would.

With that, I called it a night. Or tried to call it a night. Don't let anyone that doesn't play poker tell you that this isn't a tough game to play. It drains you mentally and physically. It laughs in your face and pisses in your beer when you're not looking. I felt good about the way I played, yet I knew that I probably could've done better in both tournaments, and that dug into me. I'm not a person that asks "Did I play this wrong?" but something was still wrong about the whole thing. I know if I played something wrong, and I can immediately realized it.

I got knocked out of the tournament at about 1:30am, and tossed and turned until 4am, and I'm starting to think that my tournament "success" is the reason for it. Sounds strange, no?

Monty Memorial Tourney and PokerStars $20+2

Warning: This post could end up being quite long, because I'm going to try my hand at recounting my Stars tourney from last night after I got bumped from the Monty.

Monty Memorial:

First off, I'd just like to say that I was actually a little nervous about playing in this. I'd never played with bloggers before, so the last thing I wanted to do was look like a huge donkey. I think I fared pretty well, getting bumped in 16th out of 77, by a hand I think I dominated preflop. I wish I could remember how it all went down, so if F2aler reads this, let me know if you remember how it happened. Pacific's lightning quick showdowns left me a little confused, and my chat feature shut off about 2 seconds into the next hand. All of the stuff recounted is from memory, so forgive me for shoddy details.

First level:
I started off with an insane rush of cards, catching KK, 99, and AK within a short amount of time, and pushed my stack to about 2100. In the hand I held 99, I think I was in the BB withDoubleAS to my left. There were a few limpers when it got around to the SB, DoubleAS, and he raised 3x the BB. I flat called. I think Mean Gene called as well. The flop came xx9, and DoubleAS bet out 150, I reraised to 450, with Mene Gene folding. DoubleAS thought for a bit, and folded, saying that he'd had 66. There were two suited cards on the board, and if he had a flush draw, I wanted to make him pay.

A little while later, Mean Gene flopped 4 of a kind 7's, and I think he played it pretty damn well, getting much of DankHank's stack. DankHank got his revenge, a short time later, though, by knocking him out.

Ok, I'm going to stop right here and say something. Ahem. This "trying to retell a story without hand histories" blows. And sucks. With the tornado of cards, it was tough to remember any sort of coherent tournament history, but I'll try me damndest.

About the third level, or so, I knocked out vandylb when I held 37o in the BB, and caught a three on the flop, and called him down to the river, putting him on Ax, with no ace on the board. If I could get a hand history on this damn hand, I'd like to know if my read was correct.. Gah! He was very shortstacked, so I wasn't taking a huge risk by calling him.

Not much happened for awhile, but a few levels later, I got seated at the same table asHdouble, andIggy, with Hdouble to my right, and Iggy to my left. Great, just what I needed. I think that about this time, we were down to somewhere around 20 people. Being shortstacked-hey, wasn't everybody?-I woke up in the BB with AK. Hdouble raised from LP with AQ, and I reraised him, putting me all in. He called, and flop came xxxQK. leaving him crippled. At first, I thought I'd won with unimproved AK, and it wasn't until the cards were almost off the table that I noticed he'd hit a queen on the turn, and I a K on the river. Lucky, lucky me. Hdouble was knocked out shortly after that, while I looked away from my computer for a second. When I looked back to my screen, his name was gone, and I have no idea of the circumstances of his departure.

So, I'm at about 4,000 chips with the blinds, well, huge. I wish I could remember the hand that I got knocked out with, but I think I was just so surprised that I was out, my mind went fuzzy. I do know, however, that I was ahead when F2aler and I got it all in preflop. At least, I think I was. Maybe?

16th. So close to the money, yet so damn far. All I can say is that, the blinds went up way too fast, and I would've appreciated 15 minute levels. Can you imagine what it would've been like if our stacks had started at t800 instead of t1500? Good lord, the whole tournament would've lasted less than an hour! Nothing like a 75 person SNG. Also, when the first break came around, Pacific cut 5 minutes into that level, but kept the tournament clock running. That made that level only 5 minutes long! And those were 5 minutes I definitely could've used to build my stack a little above 10x the BB.

All in all, I think I did pretty well and outlasted some people that I consider to be much better players than I am. Hmmmm...or are they? Congratulations, Iggy, on your win, even if you were in cahoots with Pacific. Ha! Actually, you bullied the final table around pretty damn well, and I'm happy that I don't remember tangling with you for the hour we played at the same table. Hey, even if we did tangle, the fact that I don't remember must mean that it wasn't all that significant, right?

Ok, this entry is long enough already, so I'm going to do a seperate write-up for the Stars tourney. I'm sure there's more that I wanted to write about the Monty, but I'll just shut up for now.

I finally figured out the dual-monitor option for my laptop, and let me tell, I'm disappointed that I waited so long to fish out my old monitor out of the closet. No longer will I have to toggle between screens, or miss any of the action. Now I can play poker and surf porn at the same time!

Why, yes, I am doing the running man right now.

Also, I seem to have become friends with a female bartender. If I don't show up for the blogger tourney, I hope you understand. I won't have gone missing, but I will be really, really drunk. Really drunk.

Pot Limit

I'd always been interested in the argurment of Pot Limit being so much tougher than No Limit, because I choose to play PL on Party. The reason I chose it was because it prevented some hunyuck from reraising my JJ to $50, when the odds are that he's holding trash. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to play for my whole stack on what is just a pair of jacks. And if someone is continually playing like a maniac, it's tough to even want to play a hand. I know, I know, just switch tables. Yes, I know that. Hear me out, though. I like PL because it prevents the maniacal play preflop(for the most part), and after the flop, it plays pretty much the same, depending on the amount of people in the pot.

Up until this week, I'd always played NL tourneys because that's normally what's offered at Stars. It looks like they've added a few PL tourneys, though, so I decided to enter a $10+1 earlier this week. After getting bounced in 120th/600, I finally understand why PL is so much more difficult, and I have to say, I am much more intrigued by it than NL. The major difference is that I realized is how many different decisions you have to make preflop, especially while shortstacked late in the tournament. Man, oh man, it was confusing.

For example, let's say you're stack is 9x the BB, and you pick up AKs and you're UTG. In NL, that's an easy push, regardles of position, right? If nobody calls, hey, at least you pick up the blinds. In PL, however, it's really, really tough to push people off of a hand, especially when you're UTG. You may have 2, 3, or possibly even 4 callers because you can only raise that certain amount, which completely dilutes your hand. There are other factors that make PL so much more difficult, but that was one kicked me in the groin this week. And then Nelson laughed at me while I was clutching my junk.

I'm not one to go into Poker Theory, because honestly, I know I'm not all that educated in that area. PL is something that really, really interests me. Hell, look how many really good NL players there are out there. A shitload. What are the chances that I'll become one of those good players? Slim to none, and slim just left the bar with my girlfriend. On the other hand, how many PL "specialists" can I name? Off the top of my head, none. I think there's a niche to be found in there.

----
Sometimes, I play like a donkey. There, I said it.

Last night, I'd worked my up 3x my buy-in, all the while a bat was flying around our living room. And yes, I do really mean that there was a honest-to-goodness rat with wings that found it's way into our apartment. Pfffft, and people say that playing in the WSOP is pressure. Try concentrating while something is swooping at your head, and you'll know pressure.

So, back to my story. I'd worked my way 3x my buy in, in little less than an hour, but lost about $25 in 2 hands following that because I went brain dead. In both hands, I was heads up with TPTK, and I knew that I had them beat, but I just called their bet on the turn instead of raising. In both, the river came and I knew they'd made their two pair. Why didn't I raise? Like I said, I play like a donkey.

For the longest time, I was terrible with my aggression level because I had such a miniscule bankroll, that losing just 1 buy-in would hurt. Not that my bankroll is huge by any means, but if I lose a few big hands, it's not going to cripple me. It's so much easier to play this game when you're not playing scared. I've come a long way from becoming a calling station, but there are still times like last night that I know I should've raised, but I chicken out and just call, even though I know that I should be controlling the hand.

Be honest with me, readers. There are actually people in this world that can play more than double the amount of tables I'm showing here?

How?

I don't understand it. I have a tough enough time keeping track of two, and three is enough to make my brain explode. 4, 5 and 6, though? Come on, get serious. Here, I'm showing two tables of PL Omaha, and one 7stud, and my eyes are bouncing back and forth between tables like I've one too many cans of Jolt Cola. Also, I think I'll either suffer from a migraine or motion sickness if I play too long at this resolution.

Cripes.
-----

In other news, it looks like Pacific's brain cloud may be even a bigger blessing in disguise than originally thought. They've updated their graphics! I'm at work right now, and I can't get around our firewall to verify if they're better, but can they be any worse? I think not.

Pacific Poker really shit the bed tonight in regards to Iggy's blogger tourney.

I was really looking forward to this tonight, too. Though, there's nobody to blame but Pacific Poker. Something tells me that they won't be around much longer. I know 50 bloggers and a bunch of readers definitely won't be back.

Edit: I just received an apologetic email from Pacific saying that they're sorry for the inconvenience, and all that noise. That's nice and all, but it would've been better to get it two hours ago, when the tourney was to start!

Just a quick thought for today. Out of all the people that call themselves "poker players", what percentage would you say are like us? I guess I'll explain a little better. When I say "us", I mean people that eat, drink and breathe poker in all it's forms. People that consume poker, whether that be writing about it, reading 2+2, or just thinking about it constantly. Be honest, now. Y'all are flippin' crazy over the game.

On a nightly basis, there are 55,000 people on Party. We all know the abundance of fish, but how many would you say are real "students of the game"? I've got to wonder how many players even know that 2+2 exists. I sure didn't when I started.

I ask because many of my friends play poker, but I can't think of nary a one that gets any knowledge of the game outside of watching it on tv. And that's sad, really. On the other hand, it does bode well for the small percentage that do take the time to improve, though. Those that buy PokerTracker or some other stats software to keep track of their game. Those that can't get enough information.

Every now and then, a friend will sit behind me while I'm playing online, and they think I'm crazy for laying down my pocket 6's when it's been raised three times before it gets to me. Or, that I'd ever lay down a gutshot straight draw to someone making a bet that's half my stack.

When did poker make that turn from something you saw on tv and looked like a fun thing to try, to something that consumes you?

I'm convinced that Mike Sexton is actually just someone in the back room pushing a button that runs a soundboard containing about 10 phrases. I'm sure it's not that easy to repeatedly come up with new material less than once a week, but come on. There's got to be a different way of saying that a player is in trouble other than "...he's headed for whitewater". Gah, it's so frustrating!

The only thing worse than Captain Unoriginal is Norman Chad. He makes me want to slowly twist a drill bit into my brain in hopes I hit a spot that makes me lose consciousness. He tries so hard to be funny but he's...he's just not funny. He's about as funny as Eric Stoltz in Mask.

To take out my frustration, I'm going to the bar so I can't talk to women. Can't wait for the blogger invitational!

No, you're not imagining things, I really am posting more than once in a week. I'm trying to make a concerted effort to post more, and I have one huge reason behind it. I enjoy writing and definitely want to become better. It's a pride thing with me, because I really don't think I'd ever do this for a living, but becoming a better writer makes me feel like I'm not just wasting my life. If you were to meet me in real-life, I defintely wouldn't come across as a person that figuratively gets off on writing. You'd probably think that I'm just a punk that likes to chase tail and drink all day long, but you'd only be partially right.

I just recently started writing about poker, but have been blogging for close to three years. Looking back to when I started, I'm even embarrassed to admit that I wrote like that. I'd probably still be embarrassed to have some of the poker bloggers read my new, real-life "stuff", not because I think it's all that bad, but because I'm definitely not the most politically correct person you've ever met. Come to think of it, I'm sure that Iggy and Pauly would laugh, but that's neither here, nor there. I guess I'm just saying that the "poker blogger community" contains some damn good writers, and getting feedback from them makes me strive to be better. It's weird, really. I'm a poker player. I blog. I still feel weird being having some of big guns(not to be mistaken with "big 'uns") of this community reading and commenting on things that I write. I honestly don't know how they find the time to A)post as much as they do, and B)read every little blog out there in pokerjournaland. Astounding, really.

With that being said, I am so looking forward to playing in the Poker Blogger/Reader Tourney on the 22nd. I downloaded the software a few days ago, and it seems downright clunky, and reminds me of Wilson Turbo Poker Software in the way it moves and sounds. It'll take some getting used to, but I think I'll be ok. I'm not sure how I'll fare, as I've never played at the same table as another blogger, or had them sweat me. Hopefully I'm the kind of dead money that wins the tournament, and not the dead money that is, well, dead. Now to get that email sent to Iggy.

--

I'm not a big fan of posting my hand history, but I thought this hand last night was funny. The other guy involved in the pot had accumulated a fairly large stack for this level, and I'm not quite sure how. Looking back, I left money on the table only calling his raise on the river but if I'd taken the time to look at the board to see why he'd been a calling station until that ace came, it was blatantly obvious that he hit his straight. That's another $10-$20 that I should've taken from him, but I was tired and not paying as much attention as I should've been. This was my last hand of the night, and I'm not a fan of the hit and run, but it's easier to take when you're the one running.

Party Poker Pot-Limit Hold'em, $0.50 BB (3 handed)


SB ($27.90)
Hero ($43.90)
Button ($103.34)

Preflop: Hero is BB with Th, 3d.
Button calls $0.50, SB completes, Hero checks.

Flop: ($1.50) Ts, Jh, 3s (3 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1.5, Button calls $1.50, SB folds.

Turn: ($4.50) 3c (2 players)
Hero bets $3, Button calls $3.

River: ($10.50) Ad (2 players)
Hero bets $10, Button raises to $20, Hero calls $10.

Final Pot: $50.50

Hero shows Th 3d (full house, threes full of tens).
Button shows Ks Qc (straight, ace high).
Outcome: Hero wins $50.50.

What a great way to end the night.

--
So, that's how I ended my night. I started out by playing in the 7pm $5+.50 MTT NLHE on Stars. For whatever reason, their servers were bogged, and it started 15 minutes late. While they were getting things figured out on their end, I fired up a $25 PLHE game on Party. I'm not sure why I like Pot Limit more than I do NL, but I do. I like the fact that you need to build a pot when you have a monster, or when you're holding a decent hand, someone can't come over the top of you for $50 pre-flop right away. The game would be much tougher live, though, what with having to keep in mind how much has been thrown into the pot already. Hey, I'm a lazy poker player, what can I say?

My PL experience last night, outside of that last hand, was nothing to brag about. I was only up by a little bit, never really moving below my buy-in, but also never really having that one hand that makes me feel like I'm moving up at something other than snails pace. I can honestly say that, a few months ago, my ring game was less than spectacular. Without a doubt the weakest part of my game. I've improved, though, and judging by my recently refreshed PokerTracker data, I think I'm on the correct path to reverse my minute losses. I wish I had all of my data here at work so that I could post it and get some feedback, but I think I'll wait until I get a bigger, more comprehesive sample. In the past week, I've played 20 hours of Pot Limit on Party, and that's about 4 times over what I had been playing. Last night was my longest session in quite some time, just a tick above 4 hours. To feel like you're actually improving is a great thing, especially considering the games on Party seem so soft right now. So, so soft. Soft and squishy like my *ex-girlfriend.

--
With all the time I've spent improving my ring game, my tournament game has suffered. So much so, that I completely busted out at Stars after a bad SNG run, and I had to fund it with winnings from Party. That's the poker player equivalent of a credit card addict using one credit card to pay off the balance of another. God bless Neteller. I feel like I've come back a little in tourney play, though, as I've placed in 3 of the last 4 SNG's I've played. Poker homeostasis would be grand right about now.

Oh yeah, about the Stars $5 tourney; I doubled up early to well above the average stack, only two bust out late in the 2nd hour after moving in severely short stacked, finishing approximately 400/1600. Sure, I outlasted 1200 people, but that means relatively little because I didn't accumulate a big enough stack to even be a threat. At all. I need to tweak my aggression level so that I'm not blinded away in the blogger tourney like I was last night.

Eh, 'm'out.
--


*This is a lie.My last girlfriend was really quite fit. Being the unimaginitive little bitch that I am, I couldn't think of anything else quite as soft as the tables are on Party right now. 50,000 players? Are you kidding me?

Sorry for the hiatus, and if there are any readers still around, I'll just say this; let's get started, shall we?

"Relocation"

It's not so much of a relocation, really. My roommates and I need a change of scenery to a place in Minneapolis that isn't quite so quiet. I really enjoy people watching,trying to figure out what's running through their messed up brains, so that's a main reason that I'd probably enjoy B&M poker more than I do online play. I have yet to make it to Canterbury, though. To not stray from the topic heading, I think I've finally found an apartment in a neighborhood that's chock full of crazies and interesting people for me to watch. After I move on October 1st, and the weather starts to turn a little worse, I'll be back in full force, online at least. It was weird for a bit there, because I thought I'd simply started to bore with poker, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I took an unintentional week break, and started back in with games such as Omaha and Stud, and that's helped my interest in Hold 'em return.

With that out of the way, I can talk about the poker that I have been playing.

Home Games:
I blame the weather for not hosting a home game in over a month, because I'd rather be oot and aboot than sitting all night. I did, however, play in one game that was hosted by a coworker of a friend of mine. $25 buy-in, NLHE. The odd thing about it was that, though it was No Limit, they decided to use a Limit betting structure. Preflop and on the flop, the minimum bet was, of course, the BB. When it got to the turn and the river, though, the minimum bet was 2xBB. That doesn't seem right, does it? I don't play much limit poker, so it took a little getting used to. It also would've helped if they had adhered to that rule, but from time to time, somebody would throw out an underbet on the river, and seeing that I was an outsider, it was better to keep my mouth shut.

The game was about 35 miles south of Minneapolis, so I was happy that we started at 4pm, instead of later in the night. I wish that I could take game notes like Pauly, but the first game doesn't need exact details. I'll try my best, though. First hand, I fold. And then for the next 35 hands, I continued folding . I got, at most, one playable hand the entire tournament. It's tough to win when you only have one hand that you deem worthy of throwing in for the SB, let alone a full bet. I'd like to argue that it was just because I playing was too tight, but when the best starting hand you see in an hour and a half is Q9o, that argument is a little weaker. For the few cards I did get, I lasted much longer than I should've, especially considering I didn't win one pot. Not one. I busted out 5th/10. My buddy won the first tournament, for a $140 profit, all while being the only drunk person in the room. I even took Felicia's advice and didn't drink while playing. Harumph.

We finished the first tournament in a little under 3 hours, so everyone wanted to play again. Being crapped on by the deck in the previous tourney left me a little unsure, because spending another $25 for something you're not having fun playing, just isn't worth it. Luckily, Jeremy said that he'd bankroll me, and that made me feel worse for needing a backer to play in a $25 home game. My mood shifted for the better when I started getting some cards, and for most of this tournament, if I wasn't chip leader, I was close to it. The blind structure was a little too steep for my liking, and I found myself fighting on the bubble, but finally busted out 3rd and got my buy-in back.

For the night, I was down $25, and for getting little to nothing to work with in the first tourney, I can't complain. My buddy was the big winner of the night, +$190, and he needed it because he blew a hole in his radiator on the drive, and we were lucky to make it to my apartment without his engine going "Kablammo!"

Online play

I haven't played much online lately, and my bankroll has been very, very bipolar. Up $125 one day, and down $75 the next. Up, down, up, down and never really getting over that proverbial hump. Both of my bankrolls are admittedly very thin, and I've been lax in studying like I should. I've slacked from using Pokertracker, and unless I restart studying my own play, I'll never get any better. Speaking of Pokertracker, does anyone know how I can delete just my notes? I'd like to keep the notes collected on everyone I've played, but requesting hand histories from Stars and Party has been spotty at best, and it doesn't do me any good to study the data on my own play because it's so incomplete. Anyone?

WCOOP
Holy hell, I'm missing the boat. Watching these tournaments just adds to the amazement I've already gained regarding the amount of money tossed around all willynilly in the online poker community. Who doesn't dream of getting that one big payday of $90k? I know I most certainly do. It doesn't do me any good to try and qualify for an event now, because the only super sats available are the 50FPP and 500FPP. The 50FPP only "pay" 2 spots into the next satellite, which doesn't make it worth my time to try, and I haven't been playing enough on Stars to have the 500FPP necessary to play in the higher supers.

Next year is mine.

Sorry for posting in snippet form. I wish I had more to say right now, but it's Friday, and I've been awake since 5:30 in the am, and very much in need of a nap. I've had a fairly decent(for me, at least) entry about the "poker mindset", and how it drifts into my life outside of the cards, but I need some time(read; motivation) to slap it out into digital form.