It has been a slow few days in the poker world for me lately...I picked up another 2nd place in a SNG...Was the second one out in another...then I had the dreaded "bubble", as I had my first 4th place finish...I had a bad beat -10 10 goes down to A9, then I played a really dumb hand...I should know better...

What is REALLY interesting is....Am I a fish???

I finally got PT downloaded, and an admittedly small sample of 500+ hands...but my VP$P is 25% ( I had assumed it would be no higher than 17 or 18) , and I am passive to boot...I was amazed to see the numbers, and though a small sample, this could be very enlightening indeed...

Interpoker is a real pain to play more than ONE table...I heep getting timed out, as the 'other" screen doesn't pop up...Any ideas??

I have the same problem when I multitable the crypto sites -- the program starts hogging the CPU and the tables get really slow. I read on another forum that if you lower the color depth (right click on the desktop, choose properties, and go to the settings tab) it will fix it, but I haven't had a chance to try that out yet.

It's amazing to me that these poker sites can get away with such poorly built software, when their competition provides better alternatives.

Thanks Norton---I will try it...It truly is amazing when you get used to P Stars, and then go elsewhere...Why the hell don't these dopes learn from the best?? Makes NO sense to me...

The poker life has been hit and miss lately...I have been busier at work than usual, so I have even fewer hours in than usual...Thanks to Norton...Changing the monitor settings helped alot at Interpoker, and I can safely play 2 games at once...I know Monk plays 4 at a time, but I have NO idea how he does it with their crappy software...I finally held some cards during my bonus whoring, and I may come out around even...It seems like I played for days without winning so much as a pot!!

The SNG's have cooled off for me as well, but my ROI is still in pretty good shape; I will post the results after I play a few more...

There are times when I just want to relax and play some cards without stressing myself...I enjoy O8 (Omaha HiLo)...I played a a little 25/50cent yesterday...I KILLED the game!! I was up about 20 BB's (in less than an hour) when this hand came up...I held AAK 10 dble suited in MP---One limper, and I call. ( I had been doing a fair amount of PF raising), SB completes and BB raps...flop is AJ3 with two spades, cool, I have top set with nut flush draw...SB bets,BB raises, EP folds and I call...Turn is a 4 of spades (hello nut flush!)...SB checks, BB bets, I raise, both call...River is another 4...Top boats are fun!! SB checks, BB bets and I raise...back to the SB who RE-RAISES (now I am sweating quad 4s), BB re-raises for the cap... Life is good!! I scoop the pot for $11.00 in a .25/50cent game---I know the BB had 3s full of 4s, and I have to assume the SB had the BB beat (4s full??)...For any new omaha players, what you DO NOT do in this game is re-raise and cap with the lower full house...It is a game of NUT hands...

Anyway, I hope you enjyed reading about my "Hand of the Day"---lol maybe the month...

Well...It has been interesting...I finally got my first (Interpoker) bonus cleared...It took over a week (snail mail) to get the PIN number needed, but it hit my Neteller account within a day or so---no complaints...The bottom line is I picked up the 90 dollar bonus and lost 30 BB's (1/2 limit), so I come out 30 bucks ahead...I was stuck pretty good, but in my last session, I was holding some cards and had a good little run...

I am getting used to the crypto software...P Stars has spoiled me, but this isn't as bad I thought in the beginning...I think I can play 3 games at once if I know I will not be disturbed. I just signed up at poker plex for the "easy" 50 bucks...So far so good, as it looks the same as Interpoker, probably same players...Most the players on these sites (so far anyway) are more aggressive than I am used to, but they still have plenty of holes in their play as well...ABC should work OK here...

Limit is boring as hell, but as I have posted before ( I think) I am trying to get back to basics, and have a "grind em out" mentality before I venture back to the NL world...I have been playing and writing this "blog" at the same time... It's fun to look down and see I am a small winner at all 3 games...that hasn't happened in a while!!!

It's whiskey time kids-Good luck all...
B

I had alot of problems with running more than one game at Crypto as well on my lap top but when I bought a new computer and put in 512 mbRAM instead of 256 I was able to play 5 games with no problems. I never tried the color alteration method.

The games on all the Cryptos are the same players just different color schemes. Make sure you do UKBetting, WilliamHill and TotalBet as well. I don't know what kind of bonus they are offering now at these 3, if it is 25.00 or 25 GBP for playing 5 hours but I get the 25 GBP and can knock it our in 1 hour at 5 tables for close to 50.00 bonus at each. And since you like O/8 this would even be better for you if you are just interested in clearing the bonus as it is done in time and not raked hands and those O/8 tables are VERY slow. You could fold every hand and still turn a profit with the bonus.

First of all, thanks Piers, as I was unaware of those sites...I did find some other "Crypto" sites as well...Are they all available to US players?

Overall, things have been going reasonably well...As I mentioned earlier, I finally knocked out the Inter bonus...I knocked out the Pokerplex in no time at all (waiting for the PIN of course) and managed to book some profits as well...I am on WilliamHill now, and need just another hour or two and that will be finished...I will have all my figures added up at the end of the month...

I am doing my best to learn the ins and outs of PokerTracker...I mis-read some numbers last time, so I was happy to see I wasn't as passive as I thought...I still am playing too many hands PF (especially for a bonus chaser), but the number will come down over time. Lots to learn, but so far so good...

Only about 900 hands...All at Crypto's, and all was 1/2 limit...
VP%P 24.8%
PFR 5.01%
PFA---
[b]NOT SURE WHERE TO LOOK FOR THIS

BB/100 4.13
Won $79.12

My SNGs (NL) have cooled off some, but I am still feeling quite confident anytime I sit down...The latest 7 have been...
one---1st place
two---2nd place
four---out of the money (with one dreaded 4th place)

I was drunk in 2 of the "out of the money" finishes...Another leak when I play too late in the evening, but no excuses---it's all money and it all counts!!

All in all, I am fairly pleased, and when I learn more about PT, I am sure I will find more leaks to fix...First and foremost is to tighten up PF, and quit calling in the SB so often...I really do know better...That's all for now...

PT will help tremendously and it works best with the Party since hand histories automatically save to your harddrive so its easy to autoimport. I feel like I'm playing blind without PT and game time plus (GT+) with it. If you don't use this too, I suggest you look into it as it displays stats about your opponents on the tables so you can make better decisions depending on what type of player they are.

Good luck.

About crypto - it must be something up with your computers, guys, cos I play 5-6 tables there on occasions, on a 56k dialup modem, on a computer with 256mb RAM, and they almost invariably run smoothly and quickly!

Good to hear things are going ok bobby,

Monk
xxxxx

It is the end of the month, so here is a partial recap...The bonus chasing has been going well, but the deck has been hitting me pretty good...After looking more at PT, I may need to make some adjustments !

This is just a SNG update, and I will have the rest posted tomorrow...

I love SNG's!!

Total games---------32
Wins------------------8 (25%)
Place------------------7(22%)
Show-----------------3(9%)

4th places------------4

ITM---------------------56%
ROI---------------------58%

The cash return is actually a bit better, but that is a story for another day!! I wanted to update this a bit more, but I played too late last night and I am really sleepy...See you later...

Sunday afternnon here...I just got done with my commodity update, and I am a bit tired of writing but had a few mumblings to pass on. April Fool's Day---Ice's was a bit over the top (I actually thought it was BS when he had a "partnership" where the other guy was getting only 25%, but I didn't give it much thought...The end result was like a bad TV movie and luckily at the same time I received some BS E- mail from my buddy which reminded me of that it was Apr 1st...Tetsuo, on the other hand ---Geez, he got me there...I guess what is so amusing is that I think I am one of the world's great cynics, and I still fall for shit like that!! LOL Well done guys...

I still do not have all my figures added up for March, but it all worked out pretty well...Got my bonuses at 3 cryptos, won a little on the side, and started off the month of April with a two out of two win at the 5 buck SNG's (Stars)...

I signed up at UB, for the Apr 1st bonus as well...Unless I am missing something, I will NEVER play NL there, as you stick that "slider" where the sun don't shine...It's is impossible to bet the amount you want...I did play some 1/2 limit, and although it releases slowly, I think it will work out OK...

You have to play 800 hands at Interpoker now---an extra 300 hands for 10 extra bucks-Yuck...But it's still a bonus...

I am really disturbed about my PT stats...after review, I knew I was playing too many hands, and that is easy enough to fix, but my passivity was what really floored me...Perhaps my aggression numbers will grow as my V$IP reduces...My BB's/100 is pretty good, but of course now I am thinking it was more luck than anything else...It is still a very small sampling, so the next couple of months should be enlightening...

I am off to play now---GL all...

Haha. Thanks for the compliment on the April 1 joke!

I am finally getting caught up here...Been a bit busy lately, and haven't really had time for poker, let alone a journal...

Beginning BR---------600

Bonuses for Mar----165 (Inter, P Plex, and WillHill)

Playing profit----------73

SNG profit-------------102

Purchase PT----------<55>

Ending BR for Mar---885

All in all, I guess I'm am happy with the results...I did not get to play anywhere near the number of hands that I wanted to...Pokertracker continues to be a valuable tool...I have so many leaks it really is scary...My V$IP has dropped a little, but that will take a bit of time, since I have 1500 hands in, and am still at 23%... At least that is an obvious leak that should be easily remedied...What concerns me a bit more is the aggression numbers...

BB/100 2.47

V$IP 23.6 (I know I know)

PFR 5.7

and (with PF "unchecked")

1.18
1.52
1.17

total-1.27

These are quite a bit lower than most the posts I read...Obviously needs some work in this area, but the whole thing is a bit confusing as I consider myself pretty aggressive already...
I am REALLY gonna work on Tight-Aggressive this month, and see where it takes me...

On a happier note, I was bored with limit (as usual) , so I ventured into the 08PL games (.50/1.00)... (All on the "Crypto sites") I did NOT win as much as should have, thanks to 2 bonehead calls made by yours truly...Listen boys and girls, The games are soft, soft, soft as far as I can tell...If you have a modicum of experience and knowledge of 08, this should be tons of fun..I am talking about a .50/1.00 game where folks are calling 20 dollar bets WITHOUT the nuts...I was awestruck...I was up over 200 bucks at one point, doing nothing more than playing solid cards...Don't make any huge mistakes, and the cards should take care of you...
GL at the tables...

Did I say I liked 08PL???
I got lucky............... but damn..........this doesn't happen every day...


Game #536402683: Omaha High/Low Pot Limit ($0.50/$1) - 2005/04/08 - 20:34:36 (GMT)
Table "Gulfport" Seat 2 is the button.
Seat 1: Makaveli8 ($105 in chips)
Seat 2: topthat3 ($43 in chips)
Seat 3: chris750 ($98.50 in chips)
Seat 4: bobby22 ($80 in chips)
Seat 5: Dormouse ($163 in chips)
Seat 6: ivabigun ($66.50 in chips)
Seat 7: SS333S ($105 in chips)
Seat 8: en1gma ($228.75 in chips)
Seat 9: Nino9 ($113 in chips)
Seat 10: poledance ($109.45 in chips)
chris750: posts small blind $0.50
bobby22: posts big blind $1
----- HOLE CARDS -----
dealt to bobby22 [4h Ad Td 7s]
Dormouse: folds
ivabigun: calls $1
SS333S: calls $1
en1gma: folds
Nino9: folds
poledance: calls $1
Makaveli8: folds
topthat3: calls $1
chris750: folds
bobby22: checks
----- FLOP ----- [Jd Jh Kd]
bobby22: checks
ivabigun: checks
SS333S: checks
poledance: checks
topthat3: checks
----- TURN ----- [Jd Jh Kd][2d]
bobby22: bets $4
ivabigun: folds
SS333S: folds
poledance: folds
topthat3: calls $4
----- RIVER ----- [Jd Jh Kd 2d][Qd]
bobby22: checks
topthat3: bets $13.50
bobby22: raises to $27
topthat3: raises to $38 and is all-in
bobby22: calls $11
----- SHOW DOWN -----
bobby22: shows [4h Ad Td 7s] (Royal Flush)
bobby22 wins Royal Flush bonus at table Gulfport with prize of $125
topthat3: shows [6d 2h Ks Jc] (A Full House, Jacks full of Kings)
bobby22 collected $86.50 from Main pot
----- SUMMARY -----
Total pot $89.50 Main pot $86.50 Rake $3
Board [Jd Jh Kd 2d Qd]
Seat 1: Makaveli8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: topthat3 (button) lost
Seat 3: chris750 (small blind) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: bobby22 (big blind) showed [4h Ad Td 7s] and won ($211.50) with HI: Royal Flush