Days till the bar:70

......Thud! Takes a Hit but Survives. Or so the dream goes.

Welcome! Due to popular demand (mostly from my family and people I owe money, but still) here comes the next 70 days of madness.

Just a bit of background on my online exploits. I started playing real money the day before thanksgiving, when, after badgering me for an hour or so, MVP loaned me $5. I proceeded to double it playing micro limit, place in a MTT tourney the next day and pay him back by the next morning.
I rolled the roll and by that sunday had enough stacked up to enter what is my greatest online poker triumph to date, my BTP stud h/l win. Very tough field, very fun tourney. MVP did his best MK impression. Ill try to get my write up of the tourney up at some point.

Anyway, Ive been rolling along on the winnings from that $5 since then. I reached a high of 112 last weekend and have dropped back into the single didgits a couple times. I'm still in my feeling out what games I am comfortable enough to play. (One note, I can and know I can beat the micro limit game, but I cannot for the life of me, bring myself to play it, I would rather read the Federal Register or stab myself in the eye than play that for two hours). Again, still feeling out where I can play.

So far I have been playing some NL ring, both 6 max and full. I think I am more comfortable playing full right right now (also I can 2 table full ring, which I cannot do playing 6 max), some tourneys (sng, some 2 table turbos, more MTTs lately), some plo (looks beatable but I havent played enough to be comfortable on a short roll), some omaha hi/lo (beatable, but I need a deeper broll to play), and some stud hi/lo.

Friday night I hit 112 thanks to some good omaha h/l play, then woke up on saturday and decided to hit the $10nl and proceeded to run into AA 5 times in the first twenty minutes. I quit down 4 1/2 stacks, convinced nothing good was going to happen.

Ive been most comfortable playing stud hi/lo, so I think Im going to stick with that (and some NL MTTs, which Im consistently getting ITM, now just need to start moving up).

This journal will cover the following forms of poker: Stud H/L, Omaha H/L, NLHE. Feel free to post on other forms of poker, but I do not play very much PLO or LHE.

This journal will cover the following (and other not included) non-poker subjects: law, judicial ethics, women, whisky, sport bikes (Ducatis in particular), football (college and pro), baseball (tigers in 08), basketball (anyone who says the Pistons are not the best team in the league deserves MK at all of their tables), hockey, Classical Literature, Greek History, Roman History, guns, tasty animals to be shot with guns, fast cars (STI, thats all I have to say), fishing, snowboarding, boobs, politics, environmental issues, diversity, race, ethnicity, the moral and ethical quandries of our (past, present and future) times, and how everyone knows that Eskimos are the greatest lovers in the world.

Feel free to post any thoughts, etc. Feel free to post damn near anything as long as it is either respectful or razzing someone who knows/can take it in good fun. I welcome a good conversation.

-Jus

So how do you and MVP know eachother?

Glad you finally started your own journal so you can stop buggin around in mine... BTW, where's the ole "MVP also badgered me to kick some serious smelly ass at Stud and Omaha HL and those other 'alternative' poker games that everyone thinks they know how to play and no one really does"?

To answer Escape's question, I don't really know Jus, but felt fairly comfortable lending him $5, knowing that he wasn't beggin for $5 to go run to Fresh Market to go support some kind of weird twisted radish buttplug fantasy...

p.s... if you want a lot of hits in your journal, post lesbian stories... That'll do it...

Days till the bar: 70

Cant get the convetrter to work so

PokerStars Game #3326384969: 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Limit ($0.25/$0.50) - 2005/12/13 - 20:49:37 (ET)
Table 'Opik'
Seat 1: todd316 ($4.40 in chips)
Seat 3: STR8_CRZY ($19.45 in chips)
Seat 6: Juskimo ($30.65 in chips)
Seat 7: zaakman ($4.95 in chips)
Seat 8: VegasKid ($5.40 in chips)
todd316: posts the ante $0.05
STR8_CRZY: posts the ante $0.05
Juskimo: posts the ante $0.05
zaakman: posts the ante $0.05
VegasKid: posts the ante $0.05
*** 3rd STREET ***
Dealt to todd316
Dealt to STR8_CRZY
Dealt to Juskimo [Ah Jh Th]
Dealt to zaakman
Dealt to VegasKid
STR8_CRZY: brings-in low $0.10
Juskimo: raises $0.15 to $0.25
zaakman: folds
VegasKid: folds
todd316: raises $0.25 to $0.50
STR8_CRZY: folds
Juskimo: raises $0.25 to $0.75
todd316: raises $0.25 to $1
Betting is capped
Juskimo: calls $0.25
*** 4th STREET ***
Dealt to todd316
Dealt to Juskimo [Ah Jh Th]
Juskimo: bets $0.25
todd316: raises $0.25 to $0.50
Juskimo: raises $0.25 to $0.75
todd316: raises $0.25 to $1
Betting is capped
Juskimo: calls $0.25
*** 5th STREET ***
Dealt to todd316 [4h 7s]
Dealt to Juskimo [Ah Jh Th Kh]
Juskimo: bets $0.50
todd316: raises $0.50 to $1
Juskimo: raises $0.50 to $1.50
todd316: raises $0.50 to $2
Betting is capped
Juskimo: calls $0.50
*** 6th STREET ***
Dealt to todd316 [4h 7s 2c]
Dealt to Juskimo [Ah Jh Th Kh Qh]
todd316: bets $0.35 and is all-in
Juskimo: calls $0.35
*** RIVER ***
Dealt to Juskimo [Ah Jh Th Kh Qh As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
todd316: shows [6d 5c 4h 7s 2c 7h 8h] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,2)
Juskimo: shows [Ah Jh Th Kh Qh As 7d] (HI: a Royal Flush)
Juskimo collected $4.35 from pot
todd316 collected $4.30 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $9.05 | Rake $0.40
Seat 1: todd316 showed [6d 5c 4h 7s 2c 7h 8h] and won ($4.30) with HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,4,2
Seat 3: STR8_CRZY folded on the 3rd Street
Seat 6: Juskimo showed [Ah Jh Th Kh Qh As 7d] and won ($4.35) with HI: a Royal Flush
Seat 7: zaakman folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)
Seat 8: VegasKid folded on the 3rd Street (didn't bet)

Sometimes this is the problem with playing hi/lo. 5 card running royal flush wins like .35.

Aha well, still cool to see. Finished the session up 1.5 buy ins, so that was nice. Broll is still suffereing from the 5 aces debacle, but starting to recover. I think I need to just grind the stud h/l for a bit. Ive had the most consistent wins there.

-Jus

Days til the bar: 69

Frustrated but happy. Played a $3 MTT, total cattle call - 1862 people.

Get down to 4 tables, I'm determined to make it to the final two tables. There are 21 people left and then this happens:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t12000 (7 handed)

Button (t123311)
SB (t103540)
Hero (t58680)
UTG (t213125)
MP1 (t156834)
MP2 (t197952)
CO (t136328)

Preflop: Hero is BB with , .
UTG raises to t24000, 5 folds, Hero raises to t58080, UTG calls t34080.

Flop: (t119160) , , (2 players)

Turn: (t119160) (2 players)

River: (t119160) (2 players)

Final Pot: t119160

Results in white below:
Hero has 7d 7h (two pair, sevens and sixes).
UTG has Qh Kc (straight, king high).
Outcome: UTG wins t119160.

Ouch. Granted he had a ton of outs, but this was a point where I needed to make a move and lost the coin flip. I dont know. Anyone lay down the 7s and be at 44k, so less than 4 bb? Was so close.

But its encouraging, because I have played several MTTs today and am 3 of 4 itm (with the ubiquitous aces getting cracked by 104o) and each finish was progressivly better. I think it went 161st, 77th, 21st. I feel like I have the game to plow through these cattle call tourneys. As long as I am patient enough to make it through the first few levels, I feel pretty comfortable. One of these days I'm going to get it right. The hand before I got busted I folded QJo, to see a AK10 flop, which kinda sucked, but I'm still happy with the way I played.

-Jus

Jus... I don't know if you're gonna read this in time, but that $5 Rebuy on Party that I think you should play is startin in about an hour... IM me if you catch it and I'll stake ya...

Re-buy Running Journal
MVP offered to buy me into the Party $5r MTT today. Seeing as I was going to play for a few hours, having just finished my last exam this week, I accepted. Here goes.

6 minutes in, still going strong. Haven’t played a hand yet but feeling good.

29 minutes in, Ouch. My BB special J8 gets killed on the Q109 by the super slowplayed KJ. But I might save $5 on going out when the transit workers strike at midnight, costing NY businesses $400-500 million A DAY during the busiest business season of the year. So I rebuy.

34 minutes in, I get Jacks in the Big Blind. Pretending this is a poker tourney, I make it 400. Checked around because the K on the flop scares me, but the Jacks take the hand down. I suppose the guy who had AJ probably would have called a push, but I’m content to build the stack for the moment.

57 minutes in, K10 utg, call, get a QJ9 flop, push. No callers, win 300. Yeah, I know I shouldn’t be calling with crap UTG, but its treated me well in the past. Have to slip into some pots sometimes. That’s now 2 flopped straights with almost no return.

1 hour in, first break. Stack is at 4500, have played a total of 5 hands. Got to hit the bathroom.

1 hour 19 minutes in, it is now 6pm, Simpsons is in 1 hour. I wonder if I can make it another hour playing less than 6 hands.

1 hour 27 minutes in, I call the min raise from the BB with 86o. flop comes 864. I push. Get 2 callers, with AK and J10 to triple up. Stack at 9900.

1 hour 36 minutes in, ugh. I complete in the SB with 86o, then bet 800 into the 652 flop and have to fold a push. Stack at 8800

1 hour 46 minutes. Limp with AJ, catch a jack. No play on the flop.

1 hour 56 minutes.

***** Hand History for Game 3206681131 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:18304480 Level:8 Blinds (150/300) - Thursday, December 15, 18:36:30 EDT 2005
Table Multi-Table R&A(541804) Table #14 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 5: toybe21 ( $24083 )
Seat 7: BSTACKS ( $16403 )
Seat 9: Juskimo ( $8455 )
Seat 2: gakman ( $11369 )
Seat 4: kykevin28 ( $3920 )
Seat 8: Hammersby ( $16057 )
Seat 6: thomcon ( $18975 )
Seat 10: steve6178 ( $6370 )
Seat 1: dammtheluck ( $10995 )
Trny:18304480 Level:8
Blinds (150/300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Juskimo [ 8d 9s ]
dammtheluck folds.
gakman calls [300].
kykevin28 folds.
toybe21 folds.
thomcon folds.
BSTACKS folds.
Hammersby folds.
Juskimo calls [150].
steve6178 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ts, 7d, 2c ]
Juskimo checks.
steve6178 checks.
gakman bets [700].
Juskimo folds.
steve6178 folds.
gakman does not show cards.
gakman wins 1600 chips

Too tight? Just didn’t feel like getting into it with that at this point, 380 left.

2 hours 6 minutes in, 2nd break. Doing ok. Haven’t gotten a thing through most of the tourney. Jacks once, Ace-Jack a few times, but no huge hands in the last hour. 335 left, 120 ITM so, roughly 200 to go. I’m below average at 7700. I think I’m going to open up a bit now, as I like trying to play borderline hands before the blinds kill me too much. I can still push with 5500, but I might pick up some chips on the way. Or maybe just wait for a monster.

2 hours 16 minutes. Grab my lucky new york baseball giants visor and toss it on backwards and upside down.

2 hours 18 minutes. Visor goes on front and center. Read on CNN.com that there is an active volcano over the city I’m about to move to. Simpsons starts. Has to be good luck.

2 hours 26 minutes. KK. Finally. I miniraise from the CO. BB calls. I check the K88 flop, he bets, I call. I raise his turn bet all in. He shows Ac8c for flopped trips. I double up to 10,900. Very Nice! First big hand of the tourney and I got it all in. Perfect flop to go with too.

2 hours 37 minutes. Pick up aces after playing two hands well after the flop. Get the villain to the turn before he folds to me betting 1500 into a 4900 pot. Stack is recovering

2 hours 45 minutes. Aces. Make it 2400 to go and get no callers. They now believe I only play good hands. Note that I have been at the same table for the last two hours and have played a total of maybe 15 hands. Time to open up.

2 hours 49 minutes. Run TP from the BB into Queens. He was short stacked so I’m down to 12,000.

2 hours 52 minutes. Kings. Raise the 800 bb to 2k. No callers. Need to start bluffing.

2 hours 55 minutes. 87 in the SB, take it down on the turn with a pot sized bet. 40 to the money so people are starting to tighten up.

3 hours 8 minutes. 75 in the bb. Call a min bet on the k72 flop. Peel of the 5 and push. Villan folds.

3 hours 27 minutes. Wow, first table move in 3 hours. There goes all my super tight stealing credibility. Stack is about 19k right now. About to be 1k/2k, but we are 11 off the money. Was in the perfect position till the balance. And we hit hand for hand (which are now my favorite words ever).

3 hours 37 minutes. AJo in the BB. Flop the Nut Flush Draw. Pick up the str8 draw on the turn. Brick the river but the A high is good, somehow. Wow. Stack at 25k.

3 hours 38 minutes. Next hand. KQd in the SB, K on the flop. Bet 4400. 3rd guy folds. Small stack all in hits his A on the river. Damn! Would have been over 30k. Still at 23k.

3 hours 49 minutes. 118 players left. ITM. Yes. I think the best part is….well I’ll get to that later. Still poker to play.

4 hours. 97 people left. Went from random mix of music to Prodigy “Fat of the Land”. This will take me to the promised land. Smack My Bitch Up!

4 hours 5 minutes. 3x bb after posting and folding the SB. About to be all in on the next good hand.

4 hours 41 minutes. MVP brings the gang. Suddenly I feel like I have a crew that will beat up anyone who messes with me. I always wanted to be a hockey player so there could be a big Canadian guy who got paid $1 mill a year to follow me around and beat up anyone who was mean to me.

4 hours 52 minutes. 37 players left. Wow.

5 hours 5 minutes. I can do this. 29 people left. This is MVP style.

5 hours 14 minutes. I have to pee. Xas is making me make the right calls. 5 mins to the break.

5 hours 30 minutes. 19 players left. I really want to make this final table. Really.

5 hours 35 minutes. I push J8 v A5. Don’t improve.

Finish 19th. 155.36. So 75 each and MVP rocks it out again. I am now 2 for 2 in rolling his dough.

The best part of this is the fact that my play validated the belief that MVP had in me. I just feel good about being able to take someone elses money and be able to come back and show some return. Tells me that I’m doing something right (and that I need to start listening to some of MVP’s gambling picks). He deserves a huge amount of credit for pushing me to do this.

Awesome. Ill post more in a couple hours.