haha, ya, I'm just a little frustrated right now. I feel completely lost right now at the tables.

Weakness has started to creep into my game. Check out this hand from this morning: I raise AJh from the CO. A regular TAG calls from the botton. Flop is QJ4 all spades. What do you do here? I have 2nd pair, and I think that I am ahead a good portion of the time. But these type of flops are bluffed at constantly. Plus I am out of position. So I checked and he checked behind. Turn has an offsuit 8. I checked again and he bet about 2/3 pot. For some reason I called, cause I still think he is ahead. River is the 4th spade and it goes check/check. He had 22 with the 2 of spades and he won. I mean, if I bet anywhere in that hand he folds. Even the river. But I played it like a pussy and he caught up and won.

I don't know, maybe it was because 3 hands earlier I lost to another half stack donk when I got it all-in after the flop with AA on a 844 flop with him holding 98o.

I definitely need a coaching session this week

Since I'm bored at work today, I decided to take a look at all of my AK hands I've had this month. This info is probably useless to everyone, but I thought it was interesting.

I've seen AK (suited and offsuit) a total of 64 times this month (about 4000 hands total or so)

I'm down $203 = -79.3 ptbb/100
Total win % = 83%

Win limps/blinds PF: 27 times

Fold PF: 1 (UTG bet & UTG+1 3-bet)

I'm the open raiser: 14 times
- Win with a c-bet: 5
- Win with 2nd bullet on turn: 2
- gets to Showdown and I win: 2
- gets to Showdown and I lose: 1
- I fold somewhere post-flop: 1
- villain 3-bets/ I just call: 0
- villain 3-bets/ I fold: 0
- villain 3-bets/I 4-bet/call a push: 1 (Lose to QQ)
- villain 3-bets/I 4-bet push: 1 (lose to half stacks AQ)
- villain min-3-bets/I 4-bet/he flat calls; I win with c-bet: 1

I just flat call PF and Fold to Squeeze and a 4-bet: 1

I just flat call PF: I call a c-bet/ Raise on turn and he folds: 1

I'm the 3-better Pre-flop: 20 times
- I win Pre-flop: 10
- He calls my 3-bet; I win with a flop c-bet: 3
- SB Cold Calls, as does PF raiser; I fold post-flop: 1
- Get it all-in PF vs short stacks: 3 (win vs KQ & A8; chop vs AK; lose vs AQ)
- Villain 4-bets/I 5-bet push and he folds: 1
- Villain 4-bets/I 5-bet push and he calls: 2 (Both times I lose to KK)


So by my count, I've gotten Ak all-in PF a total of 7 times. I won one of those (vs two short stacks who had KQ and A8), chopped one, and lost 5 (to KK, KK, QQ, AQ, AQ)

Maybe if I am really really bored tomorrow, I'll look at the last half of March too

Here is the up to date PokerEV graph



Tonights highlight was losing with KK to KQ in a 3-bet pot on a T77 flop. Most money got in on the flop (all but $20). J turn, 9 river. sweet.

Im not sure why I haven't advertised this here yet, but here ya go.

There is a pretty good poker blogging community out there. Some of you may read some of them. One of the old school poker bloggers, AlCantHang, worked with Full Tilt to have a Battle of the Bloggers Challenge. It's not just open to poker bloggers (Even though I wouold consider most everyone here a poker blogger cause we all have journals), but open to everyone.

The prizes for this challenge are freaking awesome. If you win any of the weekly poker blogger hosted tournaments, you win entry to the Tournament of Champions. Top 2 get a $10,000 Main Event seat, 3rd and 4th get Bracelent races seats ($2,000). The overlay is huge, and the touraments are $11-$26 (With a monthly $75 one). There are some pretty good players (including Scott Fischman who has played many of these), and a lot of really bad players.

Here is the info and website

*********************

Battle of the Blogger Tournaments 3 is a 13 week series of blogger hosted events on Full Tilt Poker. The buyins range from $11, $26, and $75. You can click on the tabs above to see the tournament schedule and Leaderboard.

The winner of each blogger event will automatically be entered into a Tournament of Champions freeroll on June 7th for a chance at a the following prizes: 1st and 2nd place in the ToC will receive a $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event seat. 3rd and 4th place will receive a $2,000 Bracelet Race package to be used on a WSoP preliminary event.

We will tracking players statistic via the Tournament Leaderboard which will be updated following each event. At the end of the BBT3 we will award payouts and prizes to the final standings:

1st place - $750
2nd place- $600
3rd place- $500
4th place- $400
5th place- $350
6th place through 20th place on the leaderboard will receive an FTP Jersey

We will also use the leaderboard to reward the Player of the Month. The player to earn the most points throughout the individual months of March, April and May will be awarded a $2,000 Bracelet Race package for the WSoP.


For more details, go to the Full Tilt Poker site.

The following tournaments are participating. Qualify for the Tournament of Champions by winning one of these events.

Tournament: MATH
Where/when: Full Tilt Poker, Monday 22:00ET
Game: NLHE 6-Max
Buyin: $24+2 or Tier I token
Password: hammer

Tournament: Blogger Skills Series
Where/when: Full Tilt, Tuesday 21:30ET
Game: Rotation between non-NLHE games
Buyin: $12+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
Where/when: Full Tilt, Wednesday 22:00et
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Tournament: Riverchasers Online Tour
Where/when: Full Tilt, Thursday 21:00ET
Game: Bi-weely rotation of NLHE and non-HE games
Buyin: $10+1
Password: riverchasers


*************************

i play in the Wednesday night one for sure every week, and try and get in one other one too.

Cheers

How do they verify if you indeed have a blog....like I don't have one, could I just sign up and plaY?

What a comeback! I made $15!



I had a coaching session last night with Twelver along with Pok 7 railing too. Twelver's comment when our coaching session was done: "Dude, you need to run better". No kidding.

Every single 3-bet pot I had was a loser for me in that first hour. I'd 3-bet with KK, and the BB would cold call, and then the oringal raiser would call, and the flop would come Ace high. I'd 3-bet AK and the flop would come 7 high and my c-bet would get min-raised. Standard stuff.

Pok 7 railed for an hour or two after Twelver left, and I was still down between $500 and $600 the whole time. But the donks were out in full force last night, so I decided to stay up a little bit later and grind out a few more hands. This hand brought me back to even for the night:

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
6 players
Converted at

Stacks:
UTG ($228.00)
Hero ($203.00)
CO ($129.05)
BTN ($184.60)
SB ($195.00)
BB ($200.00)

Pre-flop: ($3, 6 players) Hero is UTG+1 [8h]
1 fold, Hero raises to $7, 2 folds, SB calls $6, BB calls $5

Flop: [8c][6d] ($21, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $14, SB raises to $41, BB folds, Hero calls $27

Turn: ($103, 2 players)
SB bets $65, Hero goes all-in $155, SB calls $82

River: ($405, 2 players)

Final Pot: $397
Hero shows: [8h]
SB shows: [8s]

Hero wins $402 ( won +$199 )
SB lost -$195.00
BB lost -$7.00

I was a little bit worried that he had 22, especially since he was running like 19/6 or something like that. But that was the only hand I figured he could have that beats me. I suppose he could have had a straight draw, but my plan was to call and use position.

***************************

Here are a few of my big losing hands

3 handed against two idiots. I figured AJs is strong enough to 3-bet here. And then TPTK i a 3-bet pot vs a monkey is gold (And Twelver says that he rarely folds TPTK in 3-bet pots). I'm not sure about my push on the turn, but I figured any bet by me commits me, so why not get the most Fold Equity. Ugg, not sure how I feel about this hand.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
3 players
Converted at

Stacks:
BTN ($215.15)
SB ($586.50)
Hero ($222.60)

Pre-flop: ($3, 3 players) Hero is BB [Jh]
BTN raises to $7, 1 fold, Hero raises to $24, BTN calls $17

Flop: [6h][Js] ($49, 2 players)
Hero bets $36, BTN calls $36

Turn: ($121, 2 players)
Hero goes all-in $162.6, BTN calls $155.15

River: ($438.75, 2 players)

Final Pot: $431.30
BTN shows: [5h]
Hero shows: [Jh]

BTN wins $430.3 ( won +$215.15 )
Hero wins $7.45 ( lost -$215.15 )


************************

And the worst one. Not sure what to say about this hand. This guy was a mega donk. This guy started with $100 and had over $1,000 after a few hours (I had built up to $700 on this table toward the end too). What is even funnier, toward the end of the night, after I had been making money off him, he started to follow me around and sit at all my other tables. I made a lot of my profit for the night off of this guy. I've followed donks around before, but I've never had one follow me.

$1/$2 No Limit Holdem
5 players
Converted at

Stacks:
UTG ($321.40)
Hero ($200.00)
BTN ($289.80)
SB ($191.40)
BB ($187.30)

Pre-flop: ($3, 5 players) Hero is CO [Qd]
1 fold, Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, SB calls $6, BB calls $5

Flop: [3h][Js] ($21, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $15, SB folds, BB calls $15

Turn: ($51, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $36, BB calls $36

River: ($123, 2 players)
BB goes all-in $129.3, Hero calls $129.3

Final Pot: $381.60
BB shows: [Ah]
Hero shows: [Qd]

BB wins $378.6 ( won +$191.3 )
SB lost -$7.00
Hero lost -$187.30

I'll post some interesting hands over in the NL Forum

Cheers!

Glad to see you came back. Maybe it's the start of your big turn around.

It's possible I am getting out of my downswing.

I played a quick session this morning, and this hand came up.

UTG raises to $6. Donk behind him calls. I have AA on the button and 3-bet. UTG calls. Flop is . He leads full pot, I shove and he calls.
He Shows . A king falls on the turn and I fade 12 outs on the river and I win! My hand held up!! OMG!!!! Fist Pump!!



Also, I think I may have to start getting up earlier and playing Friday morning. The tables were unbelievable this morning. Hardly any regulars, and the tables were full of donks. There were at least 10 tables that had greater than 40% in the full tilt lobby for % see flop. If you play at Full Tilt, you know that that number is gold.

Isn't Friday morning USA time Friday evening for those crazy Australian folks? (Plus afternoon for Euro donks, right?)

Here is my monthly graph so far. Yikes, I was down 13 buy-ins. Now only down 1 buy-in.

Woot, got the cash game graph above zero finally.