May 10th, 2005 (Tuesday)

Well, I think I've gone through about 3/4 of the hands I played yesterday. There are certain ones I'm happy with and plenty that I wasn't. I really need to tighten down at 7-Stud if I am going to continue playing there - being loose has worked really well at the cryptos - but at Pokerstars and Full Tilt - it just won't cut it.

I'm going to have to work pretty hard to recover the ground from last night, but I doubt I'll play tonight. Being up so late last night has left me in a somewhat zombie-like state now - and it is only 4pm. If I do play tonight, it will definitely be a short session.

The more I read about the Empire fiasco - the less and less I like the site. Everyone's got an opinion about it - but one thing that I really haven't seen is a clearcut way of declaring an account "fraudulent" under their guidelines. I rarely play there regularly without a bonus - but at this point - that's pretty much site-wide - I don't usually play anywhere without a bonus. If they feel they are losing money on it - banning people is not the way to go about it. Reward those who use the bonuses and continue to play there and just stop the bonuses to people who don't. By continuing to offer bonuses to those who already fall under suspicion to them - well that's a little predatory. If they don't like people bonus chasing - just stop the bonuses to those individuals. Heck - stop offering them to me - I have no problem never returning to Empire...

I had fully intended on making use of the bonus, and I still might, but I will only do so if I feel I will be able to get my money back without an issue.

(Continued)

Well, I didn't take part in the Empire bonus. It actually had little to do with the controversy around it, but more that I passed out in my chair after dinner while watching baseball. I woke up just in time to see Millar hit a walk-off home run though - so its all good. Did I mention I was tired? My wife was as well since she passed out at about the same time and didn't wake up until after the 11 oclock news was over. In any case, I was too tired to play poker, so I stayed away.

I did however play a little Angband - which is a rogue-like game (if this term doesn't mean anything to you - it never will...). I didn't get anywhere in the game really, but it is a good waste of an hour.

Right before I went to bed, I withdrew the money from my Neteller account for the Foxwoods trip. It has been a while since I've really taken a significant portion of my bankroll out, so taking out $1000 all at once feels good...

I didn't take advantage of the empire bonus too because I was afraid of freezing my account. I've decided to do a little SNG playing now and since I normally play on party, I plan on transferring some money to Empire and just play them there. Hopefully, that will make me an "active" player and I can then continue to bonus whore the site. It seems they give too many bonuses that are easy to release just stop going there. Any plans to do something like that?

The problem with Empire is that I really don't like their software. To have them adopt (or rather enforce) a policy which alienates a whole group of their players (granted players that are taking advantage of bonuses) just makes them a site I'd rather not play at.

The ongoing argument is that the loosest players are there and that you'll make more money there - but frankly, I'm having the best few months of my poker career so far and of the 10k hands I've played this year, less than 1000 has been there... While I might make more (which is not guaranteed), I enjoy playing at the other sites more (because they have better software).

Pokerstars - the place which supposedly has the best players around - still earns me the best win rate on the games I play there (now with the exception of $2/$4 stud - but that's just because I only had one session of it and a piss-poor one at that...)

As it is, I've got plenty of bonuses to work with to keep me busy and while none of them release as fast as Empire's did (at 7x raked - now at 10x raked, I'm not sure about that...), I don't feel the need to jump everywhere at a moments notice.

Ironically though, if I ever decided to play at Empire again, it would be during a bonus period - so in essence, they are shooting themselves in the feet for this...

/d

Hey star-

I like your signature. Thats pretty funny stuff.

Now if only we can start workin on those pics we talked about in my journal...

Hey - anyone who wants to meet my wife can come meet us at Foxwoods this weekend. You won't get to see her tits unclothed, but you aren't going to get any pics either...

May 11th, 12th, 2005 (Wednesday, Thursday)

Another night where I didn't play any poker. After work, I went to my father's (because he was watching my kids for an hour between when Lindsay needed to go to work and when I got home) and had dinner. He cooked up some turkey tetrazinni (sp?) - essentially a while sauce with turkey base, chopped tomatoes, mushrooms over noodles. Its an excellent dish and I highly recommend it.

After I came home and put the kids to bed, I worked on cleaning up the house, since Lindsay was working later than she had planned. I must have done a good enough job because she walked in with a smile on her face. She told me I was welcome to play some poker if I wanted to, but I decided I would just relax and watch Law and Order and play a little more Angband. That game is so addictive for such a low-graphic game. Although it is a very simple design, I can still play it for hours upon hours.

I made the decision last night that if I wake up on time on Friday morning I will run down and play the tournament at Foxwoods. Lindsay has been saying I should pretty much all week, and I was already on the fence anyway. I hope I do well for my first live tournament.

The money cleared out of my Neteller account this morning (Thursday), so during lunch I'll go withdraw it.

I have made the decision to play in the tournament on Friday morning. It probably isn't the best EV wise - but I need to get some regular live tournament play under my belt and this seems like a good way to start. I'm still undecided about the ACT I tournament - but that will be determined by how much of a winner I am this weekend (if I'm not winning - I won't even try it).

Not that I post much on the weekends anyway, but I'll see everyone when I get back.

May 17th, 2005 (Tuesday)

Its been much busier lately than I like, both at work and at home, so I'm not getting much time for myself these past few days. Just something quick and brief.

I played a $2 NL HE multitable tournament last night and did really well (in terms of my choices), but still finished 80th when my push ran into aces preflop. I don't regret the push though, so it was a good tournament overall.

I had a horrible run on a $2/$4 HE table, where I only saw 2 showdowns in the first 54 hands and lost both of them. I'm pretty happy about only losing $63 there, but at the same time it was a tough table to lose on. There are some hands I have questions about, so if I get to them, I will post them.

I had a great session on an $2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo table and managed to walk away with triple my starting stack after a little under 3 hours. The table was choice and I can't believe how much I was called down... I only won about 15 hands out of the 133 I played there - so the ones I won were quite big.

I'm almost done with my bonus at Pokerstars, another 106 FPP to earn left. If I play tonight, I will probably finish it off. Also, UB is apparently doing a reload bonus, so I redeposited there to take advantage.

Here's the numbers from last night:

PS 5/17 10:30pm $2 NL HE multi (1124) 7943985, 80th, 1:23am, 169 hands, +2.49
PS 5/17 10:35pm $2/$4 HE ring (10) $80 buyin, Ra-Shalom, $40 rebuy, 1:17am, 210 hands, -63
PS 5/17 10:41pm $2/$4 O8 ring (10) $80 buyin, Salph IV, 1:28am, 133 hands, +165.50
PS 5/17 10:30pm - 1:28am, 343 hands, 189 FPP earned (494 total)
$474.46

UB 5/17 $300 deposit ($100 bonus dollars) - $202.92 bonus dollars

Net change for the day: $104.99
Net time for the day: 2.967 hours, 8.367 table-hours

Total Net change for the month: $570.45
Total Net time for the month (actual hours): 38.650 hours
Total Net time for the month (table-hours): 79.367 table-hours

Real-Hourly rate: $14.759/hr
Table-Hourly rate: $7.187/t-hr

May 18th, 2005 (Wednesday)

Well, again I didn't have much time to play, but I made solid use of my time. I really wanted to finish the bonus on Pokerstars last night, but Lindsay needed some help, so I just called it a night. I'm happy with the nice win anyway.

I played on two tables last night, a $2/$4 Omaha Hi/Lo and a $2/$4 Hold'em and was up on both for the entire night. I was actually up quite a bit on the omaha table until my top flopped boat ran into top flopped quads... what are you going to do?

Anyway, I'm only 9FPP away from getting my bonus, so it will be a nice addition to the month's bottom line:

PS 5/18 8:58pm $2/$4 O8 ring (10) $80 buyin, 10:56pm, 98 hands, +35 (Diadem)
PS 5/18 10:13pm $2/$4 HE ring (10) $80 buyin, 11:01pm, 42 hands, +58 (Irmintraud)
PS 5/18 8:58pm - 11:01pm, 140 hands, 97 FPP earned (591 total)
$567.46

Net change for the day: $93.00
Net time for the day: 2.050 hours, 2.767 table-hours

Total Net change for the month: $663.45
Total Net time for the month (actual hours): 40.700 hours
Total Net time for the month (table-hours): 82.133 table-hours

Real-Hourly rate: $16.301/hr
Table-Hourly rate: $8.078/t-hr