well finally I cleared $300 last night

I played pretty well but made some marginal decisions. I called down some pre-flop raises with marginal hands knowing I could outplay people postflop, of course it helps when the flop clobbers you upside the head too

I called a raise on the button with 45 suited against AK, flop came 4 4 K and I stacked him

I called a raise with 33 (standard play) and flopped a set against a flush draw, the turn filled me up and completed the flush, I stacked him

I called a raise with 43 suited on the button against KQ. Flop came 4 4 3, turn was a Q, I stacked him

so yeah not my typical TAG but at the same time these donkeys stacked off to me so I guess I can't complain

I did lose a stack early (speaking of donkeys) by stacking off my AA vs. a set (he was short stacked so I guess it was really half a stack)

anyway a decent night last night! Hopefully I can soon double my mini-roll and switch to $50 NL 6-max

Fat Baby Roll: $335

Sunday Lee Jones hated me
so I sit down at this $25 NL 6-max table. There is one dude with a stack size of $150, and another dude over $250!!

so I am like, awesome! lots of money on the table

well these two donkeys were playing all in poker, if they raised it was $25!

so I lose
AA vs. QQ
AK vs. 55
and KQ vs. J8

yeah, that's fun

so I am down $75 and hitting the end of the month, where I always like to make a good showing, yikes

so Monday rolls around and I finally get a chance to play

I played very well, I stacked 3 seperate guys, and then loaded up a $2 MTT (a weakness of mine is MTT, I love em)

so I played very well and very aggressive. I got lucky early on KJ in the BB, flop came J J 8 one guy donked shoved all-in into like a $150 pot, so I called, he had 88 (oops) turn was a K! Nice


after that I literally took any even minor +EV situation and was willing to play for my chips if I thought i was ahead. I played very aggressive and dominated the tournament (810 players)

so eventually I get heads up with a 3 to 1 chip lead, of course I blow that (two coin flip hands I lose) so now I am down 3 to 1. well I fight back to even and we shove a bunch of chips back and forth for a while, finally we decide to split it because it just wasnt that much money and it was 2:30 AM last night, so we do that and play for the bracelet, which I win! AWESOME!

that nets me about $267 to help buff up the roll a little.

all in all May has been a great month so far! I started with $100 and have done a good job playing tight and placed well in a couple of small MTT, I am very happy and well on my way to re-building the roll!

On some personal notes. I sort of have this weight loss bet with some friends. We are seeing who can lose the most (percentage wise) by September 1st. I need to lose like 30-40 pounds so what the hell, $50 each! I am going to keep a total of weight lost here as well, so I can bore people with that as well! One week in I am down 4 pounds!

Baby Roll: $626
Starting Weight: 224
Current Weight: 220

Some random stats for the month of May.

Total hands; 4,894
hours; 63.25
bb/hr; 11.21
bb/100; 14.49
$ won; $330.75
V$ip: 27.87 9playing 6-max only)

My worst leak of the month was playing some MTT, even a couple $20 ones. I realize that this is a bad idea considering the size of my roll, i have a weakness for them!

anyway i am pretty encouraged, decent stats for the month and I am making some really good progress so I thought i would set some goals for the month of June, some of these may be a little out of reach but whatever.


June Goals

100 hours
$1,000 in profit

last night I pulled some money out of the bankroll for MTT's. I realized I wanted to keep playing them but I didn't want it to impact my bankroll on the negative side this month, therefore I pulled out $50 for MTT fees, if I lose it I play no more this month, seems like a good idea since I enjoy playing them!

last night I played some $25 NL and one table of $50 NL (all 6-max)

I started down a quick $30 due to a dontastic type of dude at my table. I started like this

Raised AK, one caller

flop comes J 4 5

I bet pot, he calls
turn is a 3 I check, he checks
river a Q, I check he checks, he has J8

I raise AK, one dude shoves for $7 on a 25 table, mind you he limped on the button with 3 limpers, I raised, it folded to him, he shoved. He had done this like 5 times already, I know I am ahead, I call

board is 5 3 9 J J

he has 52

ok

I raised AA, one caller

flop comes 3 5 A two clubs, he bets, I raise, he shoves, I call, he has a draw, turn is a club

so after that I fought back hard. I hit a lucky hand (straight over a straight) then I had the donkey in hand #2 up above in this hand

folds to all-in man in the SB, he open shoves for $10.

I have TT and call, he has AQ and doesn't improve, thank you sir

All in all it was on ok night starting down $30 I ended up $25, minus the bankroll adjustment for MTT's I still have over $600 which isn't bad


Mini roll: $618

so I am pretty certain Lee Jones hates my sorry ass.

This weekend was absolutely brutal, I lost $140
I was set over setted 4 times
I lost full houses to bigger full houses 2 times and I lost a set to a flush

so yeah it wasn't pretty. but I never let this stuff affect my mood, my life rocks and even though the bankroll is puny I enjoy life so whatever

I did move some money off of Stars so I can do some bonus whoring in June and maybe try some other sites. For the moment I won't count it as bankroll money until I actually put it into another site, so it will look like my Bankroll took a hit (it did but not as big a hit as I am showing). Right now I am under rolled for the $25 game but with the money sitting in my account I feel like I can replace it if I hit a bad streak. In the meantime I will count the money as being out of the roll until I find a home for it

I am still crushing the $25 NL 6-max game on stars to the tune of 14 BB/100 (I think that counts as crushing) so I am making money there

I tossed out the goal of 1K profit (for now) since I moved some money it will be hard to play higher limits with my money split up, but that is fine by me. I am ok playing the $25 tables

My first "payment" back to my bankroll comes this week. I am uncertain if I am going to put money back in. It may depend on if I have a decent week or not. I thought I may toss in about 300-500 instead of 1K like I planned, just to fluff up the roll a bit, but I am unsure about that. For some reason I am really stuck on the idea that I want to rebuild this from scratch, it is sort of a pride issue I guess.

Also I am having another home game this Saturday (I do have seats open, anyone in MN want to play? $50 NL cash? Pretty fun game!)

Anyway things are good, life is good, poker is mostly good and I can't complain.


Modified baby roll on Stars: $200

ahh more continuation of my journal that no one reads!

last night I played some donkerstars $25 6-max tables, I cleaned up about $140

it was the first really big night of poker I have had since I started this, which is good because after last weekend I needed it.

I had a couple intereresting hands.

my only previous hand against this guy came about 1 hand before hand, I had AK and raised, he called.

flop missed me but I threw out a CB, he called, we checked the turn and he threw out a half the pot blocking bet on the river, I figured he missed his flush and shoved, he folded.

so a few hands later

I rase Q[d] Q[h] to $1 UTG, he calls from the BB

flop comes K[s] 4[s] 7[h]

he checks, I bet pot, he calls

Turn was a 8[d]

we check

River was a K[d]

he half pots it

now I folded my QQ only because I figured he learned from the last hand and was hoping I would shove, he showed T3[s] anyone call that?

Mini roll of doom: $340

I donked around in some $100 NL 6-max last night. I didn't reall fear losing the money (maybe because i have 1K in poker money waiting in the bank I am resisting the urge to put online) so while I was playing out of my roll I had backup if I needed it, but mostly I played because I was getting bored of the $25 NL 6-max games on Stars

I made $140 last night, pretty decent night. I find the players at 6-max to be so bad, I can't believe it. Stars isn't the easiest site to win on but man there are some terrible players at 6-max.

anyway I posted a hand in the NL section about a crappy way to play a set if anyone is interested in what NOT to do.

I am going to move $500 or so over to party for a while and work on the games there to get a feel for it. If I like it I am planning on playing there more than Stars. I am a pretty loyal person but I find Stars is just hard to win on sometimes and there are easier games out there

Stars Uber roll: $480

excession

well last night I was only single tabling it. I figured if I am playing the $100 levels I can't multi table and go bust. However i am in a weird spot in that i have some of the money to "pay myself back" but I am resisting putting it online, however knowing I have it allowed me to play above my roll (never a good idea)

I need to temper that urge because I would hate to go busto (something I never really have done, I have been broke but never just because of poker, usually because of RL stuff)

Anyway I am like you in that I love the MTT. The last 6 I have played I have finished 1st, 19th, 15th, 20th and two way out of the money, plus a top ten last month. Lately i have been doing well in them but the variance is so high I just don't want to donk all my money off playing those


also, glad someone is reading me! I am sort of additcted to people's journals and read a lot of them, although I rarely post in them

Well I have to say...Party Poker sucks

actually, sucks isn't the right word. but man I wasn't prepared for being called down with no pair, no kicker and hitting runner runner on me.

here is a brief rundown of my first 600 hands at party poker (all 6-max)

lost 3 full houses to bigger full houses (2 I flopped)
set over set 5 times
flush over flush 2 times
3 times someone had to hit runner runner to beat me
lost QQ vs. KK 4 times (twice we both flopped a set)
lost AA to two pair on the river twice
had a runner runner straight beat me when he hit his two gut shot cards

yeah
AFTER clearing my bonus I am down $200

yuck!

have to say, so far I hate Party Poker.

played for only a half hour last night but had some funny hands

so I am in the BB with 86

2 limpers to me and I check, flop comes 6[s] 8[d] 3[d]

I lead out for $3, one caller (short stack), and another short stack raises me to $10, I pop it to $30, putting both all in, both call

super shorty turns over J[d] 5[d] and the other shorty turns over TT

so I win the side pot but lose to the super shorty when the river spikes a diamond, NH sir. I lose $8 on the hand

so another turn around the table I find 6[c] 2[h] in the BB
I check, 3 limpers

flop comes 5 4 3 rainbow, nice, I lead out for $3, 1 caller
turn is a A I lead out for the pot, he calls.

river is a 5 putting a flush draw and a paired card out, I check, he bets $6, I call, he has A5 NH SIR!

so two hands later on the button I have K[d] Q[d] limper (same dude with A5) and I raise to $4 OTB, he calls

heads up

pot is $8

flop comes K[h] 5[c] Q[s]
he checks, I bet $7
he calls

turn is a 4[d]
he checks, I bet $25, he shoves in for another $14 over, I call

he turns over QT and is drawing dead (NH SIR, AGAIN!)

so I hand a two hand loan of some money but got it back

anyway I only got about a half hour in but I won $50, so I will take it. Monday nights are double header softball nights so I usually don't get too much time in

last night may have been one of my more impressive poker nights, but not for my final win/loss of the night

so I started out the evening donking off some money in typical fashion at the $100 6-max tables

I raise AQ one caller
I fire one the flop, he calls (it missed me)
I fire on the turn (he calls - still missed)
I fire on the river (I have A high) he calls me down with 55 on a board with 4 overcards. Ok, of course I was the idiot who fired three barrels, so....

then I lost a monster hand to a total donkey

this guy was overbetting like mad, the best hand he showed down during his overbets I say was 33 on a board of 5 9 K (he hit a 3 on the turn after the fact)

so I raise KJ on OTB, he calls

flop comes 9 T Q

he checks, I bet pot, he calls
turn is a 9 he checks, I bet pot, he shoves for $200 (he has me covered) I call. Of course in hindsight I totally missed that this was a check raise, but still with the hands he was showing down....well he had T9, yuck!

so down $180 I took a break, had a beer, went to the gym and ran five miles. However I was still pissed off and out for blood, so I returned home focused and went at it

Hero in BB with 6[d] 2[c]
3 limpers hero calls

flop comes 3[d] 5[s] 4[h]

hero bets out $3, three callers

turn is J[h]

hero checks, UTG bets $5, one caller, hero check raises to $15, both fold (bad play on my part there, I should smooth call or lead out, ooops)

few hands later
hero has K[d] K[s] on the button

1 limper, hero raises to $4, SB re-raises to $9, limper calls, hero re-raises to $30 (SB has $220 in front, limper has $50)

SB thinks, the mucks, limper calls

flop come 9[h] 5[s] 2[d]
limper open shoves for $18 +/- hero calls
turn is K[h]
river is a brick

hero takes it down with trip K's, limper has A[h] 3[h] (WTF?)

anyway I don't remember a ton of other hands but I played the best i have played in some time and I left the night up $1.50. However I feel the last half of last night was some of the best poker I played in recent memory, best $1.50 I ever won!

I haven't updated this in a few days mainly becuase I have been working half days (we are slow) and I usually update this at work.

anyway, this weekend was great for poker. I had a decent Friday winning roughly $200
I won another $500+ on Saturday and another $140 on Sunday.

nice!

from the "I am so tricky I tricked myself department"

($100 NL 6-mac) Villian min raises in the cut off, I re-raise to $10 in the BB with K[s] K[c]

He calls

flop comes K[h] 5[c] 4[d]

I lead for 3/4 pot, he calls

turn is a 5[h]

I check, he shoves, I call

he has A[c] A[h]

nice hand sir!


Also I just bought my Nano. I was super excited to have my I-pod finally, then I came to work (where I have in excess of 30 GB of music on my PC) only to find I cannot downlaod I-tunes on my work PC, well no problem I know the network guy and he can hook me up, ooops, he is vacation.

Nice....