$20 to 20k

I’ve been studying poker for a while rather than playing much for the last little while. There are a couple of reasons.

1) My game has been lacking (which I’ve already mentioned). I don’t want to go bust. Plain and simple. So I’ve been brushing up my game.

2) I had a month membership to Stox Poker. I’d have to say that the site helped my game. I didn’t see any super change in my game overnight, but I feel it was useful and if I had the money, I’d continue to use it. I’m going to give a better review in another post.

3) Jack! His schedule and my poker playing don’t seem to gel. But when they do I’ll try to sneak in a little poker.

So the idea is.. when I do play poker. No matter what I’m going to try and post my results here. So to that end…..

I played a little 0.04NL on Party Poker. I know big stakes huh? Well my BR has been built up from nothing on that site (I got a free $10 bonus and ran it up to $25. It would have been more too but as a side note don’t sports bet with your poker BR).

23 Hands,
Amount Won: $1.00

Woo hoo. At least I ended up + for the session. But Jack beckoned and I had to feed him early.

After a bit I was able to log into Cake and play one of thier $6 30man Bounty Tournaments. I knocked out 3 players and finished 4th. Winning 11 and $9 in bounties.

I’m done for the night now. I hope that tomorrow I can get a few more hands in. I’m also going to post some goals.

Well, I suppose since I pay for this site, I will start to try to use it again. So whats new with me?

1.  I’ve been playing at Cake Poker since November. I have been floating around my original buy-in and frankly I’ve been re-thinking my skills as a poker player. Lets face it, there are so many people that begin poker and do so well. I’ve been playing for roughly 1.5 years and I’m sure I’m a loosing player. At this point I’d be happy to be a break-even player.  To this end I’ve been thinking on what I can do to improve my skills. (More on that later)
2. I’ve temporarily joined Stox Poker. The site is similar to Card Runners and the like. I was able to get a free month by changing my Poker Stars avatar to the Stox Poker logo. To this end I believe that this has helped me re-focus on becoming a better player. If you’ve never checked it out, I’d reccomend it. Check it out by clicking the link on my page. (It benifits me in the end, by giving me a few extra months).
3. Lastly Non poker related but the biggest change in my life. On January 26th 2008 my first son was born. He is the greatest. I never thought that I would enjoy parenthood, but other than the sleepless nights he is the best thing. My wife and I are truly blessed.

Hey All,

I had to make this post. I was playing at Cake Poker tonight at my usual 0.02/0.04 NLH table. I bought in a short with a half stack ($2.00 instead of $4) because I was in a pretty bad mood tonight and I just wanted to blow off some steam but not too keen on loosing money.

Anyways I won a few hands and I got really lucky when I went all in with pocket 7s on a straight draw against trip 6s and I got the 7 on the river. I was pretty happy after that hand, and since I won a few extra dollars I would turn off the tilt.

A dozen hands later or so I was dealt AKs in the dealer position. I ended up cjust calling a raise of .11. The flop came down Js, 10s, Qh. There was a bet of .50 which was called and then it got to me and I decided to go with the best hand so far so I pushed all in, I got called by a 10h,9h and a K,10o.

The turn was the best card and the first time it’s ever happened for me. Qs.

Here is the hand history

Thought I’d share my first royal with you all.

So here are my exploits in the world of poker for the last little while:

 1) I played a $2 NLH MTT tourney and I actually cashed for the first time in a while. I think I went out 157. It’s not the cash that I was happy with, but my play in general. I played tight aggressive poker. I was able to make a few great reads on my table, and I ended up with the chip lead up to the second break. I fell apart after a pretty bad beat, I went all in with AA555 only to be beat by the straight flush. I didn’t see that one coming. After that I went pretty much on tilt and donked off most of my chips.

 2) I’ve layed down pocket kings twice after the flop. It might not seem like a big deal, but both times I saved quite a bit of money.

 3) Lastly I joined Poker Source Online . I was able to get $50 free for playing at Absolute Poker. Well it’s really $100, but I have to clear the bonuses. I’ve checked out this site and by all accounts it seems legit. I didn’t have to give any credit information or anything. They deposited the $50 in my account and I have to get 375 raked hands to withdraw the money. (To get the other $50 I have to clear Absolute Poker’s bonus requirements $5 for every 20 raked hands). If you haven’t seen this site, I suggest you check it out. (And if you sign up please use my ID as a referral “Mikedach” or use the link.)

I’ve read that the variance in SNG tournaments is bad, but this is ridiculous. I’ve been following the same strategy that had me winning not 3 weeks ago. Now I’ve been loosing.  I know that bad beats are part of the game, but I’ve gone out of my last 6 tournaments while I was ahead, twice with pocket kings (which really burns my toast). 

Maybe it’s me. I’m not the most brilliant poker player. Infact sometimes I can be quite a donk. Well I just bought the Full Tilt Tournament Guide and I’m going to really try to study it. Next week I’ll try to write a review on it.

My last few tournaments have not gone so well, I’ve been sucked out a few times at key times. I’m still confident in my play though. My basic strategy works like this:

Stay tight in the beginning, raise a lot pre-flop with premium hands and limp with small pocket pairs.

By the time the blinds get to about 75/150 I start to raise much more with a broader range of hands. This usually gets me into the money.

This strategy comes from this post :
http://www.pocketfives.com/BCA6D444-A5E4-4839-9849-9D90D4AC7658.aspx

Special thanks to MacAnthony member of the AnteUp Nation for letting me know about the Akismet plugin. This should greatly reduce my daily spam.

As a result I have lifted the requirement to become a member of this site to post a reply. So reply away. Am I a fish or a donk? Let me know. Like how I’m doing? Let me know. Words of advice or encouragement? My reply box is now yours.

And to the spammers out there. A great big Fuck all of you. You should be ashamed.

So I’ve decided to give my poker blog a bit of a revisit. I’ve been playing all this time, mostly with small success.

Recently I’ve focused my poker power on Sit and Go tournaments. For the last two weeks I’ve been doing well. Making the money at least 50% of the time.

After I’m done this current tourney I’m in, I’ll post my last little bit of results.

With all of this in mind I’m going to revamp the blog a little bit. In the coming days you will see:

1. More posts
2. A design change
3. A new name?

Oooh I’ll bet you are all soo excited. Well I better get back to my tourney, so far I’m 0 for 1 tonight (I’ll talk about that later).

To combat spam I’ve required you to sign up to my site in order to make comments. Not that I’ve been posting much lately.

Well It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I’ve had some troubles logging on. And I’ve hit some rough patches in my game too. I decided to take a break and focus a bit more on life.  Well my life seems to be in order and I decided to dip my toe into the poker stream again. Once I have something to report I will be back in full force.