Tried For A Repeat But Had To Settle For Redemption

I was shooting for a repeat the Monday before last.  I started building a stack shortly after break and Poof it was gone in a hand.  I can't remember what I had but it was more than likely trips or better to stack off like that.

This week was redemption time.  We had turkey and all the fixings for break time and I had been looking forward to this game as I have slacked off on playing any online poker for a while now.  My plan was to play tight and take advantage of the players that had seen me playing so loose the previous week. 

I picked up a couple pots early, then settled in waiting on an opportunity to take another pot.  A little before break I won a couple of hands to set me up nicely for the blind jumps after break.

After eating an early Thanksgiving meal at break, I came back ready to make the money.  Things did not go so well.  I was instantly in the BB and had someone go all in for another BB.  I called with a less than desirable hand and lost.  The very next hand the same thing happened and I called again and did not catch. 

The very next hand a player went all in for 2 BB's again.  This time my stack was not looking great but I had a better hand.  I folded and would have won that hand. 

I blinded down to 2 BB's and made my move with 10 10.  I had another caller and another person go all in with slightly less chips than I had.  My 10's held and I tripled up. 

One player was dominating the table after that and knocking people out right and left.  I got one more knockout as I was in the BB and had the all in covered with the BB. 

It got down to heads up and I was dominated in chips.  I made a great run and was ahead in chips when I called down top pair to his normally large bets.  We both had the same hand but his flushed on the river crippling me.  The blinds went up the next hand and I was automatically all in.  I went out in 2nd and cashed for a little over triple my buy in, plus we got great food.

Last night I had some time to play some poker on my phone.  I did o.k. playing heads up cash against another player.  He was really aggressive and all I had to do was wait on a decent playing hand and call him.  I could tell right away when he started adjusting and I made adjustments to counteract.  I ended up doubling my buy in over the course of an hour of playing him.

Vowing to Stay Away From Slots - Hitting the Poker Room From Now On

This weekend I was able to stop by the casino.  I first stopped by the poker room to get registered for a $1-$3 NL game.  There were 5 people on the waiting list so I decided to wait a little bit and use some of my free slot play up.  I used it up quick.

Then instead of going back to the poker room, I tried out several different slot machines for the next hour.  I didn't have any luck.  I'm not sure why I continued to play.  I know I'm not going to make any money playing slot machines.  I just like to see the reels going round and round. 

When I got done playing around with the slots, I was dissappointed with myself for spending that money.  Instead of going into the poker room, thinking that I would want to make up for the money I gave away, I decided to instead go back home. 

From now on when I go to a casino, it will be to play poker, or it will be to goof around with friends with only a little bit of money on slots.

I'm not a great big fan of 1-3 NL yet.  I've only played a few times though.  I need to give it a chance as that seems to be the only option anywhere anymore.  The old days of playing fixed limit is over, now we have to play for real money.

I'm going to go play the local game tonight and will be the bounty since I won last week.  I'm shooting for a repeat.

Carbon Poker Mobile

This is the first I had heard of it.  It looks like its been in beta testing stage since October last year.  When I logged out of Carbon last night a pop up showed up with a link to Carbon's mobile app.  I grabbed my phone and loaded the web page it gave me and saved it to my main screen.  I put in my user name and password.  Bam!  I now have mobile online poker. 

In the little bit of time testing it out, it looked like you can only access cash games.  I'm going to test it out to see if I'm in a tournament on the computer and shut the program down and open the app, if my tournament will open on my phone.  It may be wishful thinking and I doubt it works, but it would be nice for those times that I have gotten in a tournament but realize I need to do something else, where I can't take my computer.

I did play on my phone for about an hour and made a couple of buy in's.  I ran really well.  Before that I had played a couple of tournaments.  I min cashed 1 and finished 10th in the 750.00 nightly guaranteed.  It was pretty disappointing as I had been chip leader for over 4 hours and lost when I called all in with trip 10's to another players boat on the flop.  Tens treated me well Monday but it wasn't my hand last night.  I didn't see it coming and then it was over.  There was no doubt in my mind that I was making the final table and making a run for the 180.00 1st prize money. 

It was still a profitable night.  I'll get them next time.  The final table was full of some of the toughest regulars I play against so I would have had my work cut out for me.

Coming so close to a final table got me fired up about online poker again.  It's been a while since I had last played.  This was a nice comeback.

I was sick last night while I was playing.  I was able to lay there and stay focused so I played.  After I was done I went to sleep.  It was pretty scary as I really felt like I was dying when I closed my eyes and drifted off.  My wife woke me up one time and asked if I was cold.  I was.  I guess I was shivering so hard it woke her up.  She threw an extra blanket across me.  I remember waking up another time shaking pretty hard. 

I had a dream I was outside in the snow and had build a mound out of snow and cut a square hole in the top to put water to do the dishes.  There were penguins sliding down the sides of the mound and I was trying to train them to do the dishes for me thinking that their flippers would work great for scrubbing pans.  It was cold. 

That was one of the strangest dreams I have had in a long time, so I thought I would share it.

I still do not have plans for this weekend.  I may stay home and try to save some money.  Driving costs so much and we both just got back from trips 4 hours away last weekend.  That's 200.00 in gas.  With the holidays coming up, I know we will be traveling a lot.  It may be a good weekend to just stay home.

No Place Like 1st Place

Found this plant full of devils claws while we were out hunting last weekend.

Monday night I went to the local game even though I was starting to feel a little bit under the weather.  The week before I was the 1st one out and it stunk.  This week I was going to do what I could to not do the same thing. 

The first three hands of the game came out with somebody having a flopped flush.  The other players didn't think it would happen a 3rd time, luckily for me it did as one player had the ace.  I had K 10 and it all went out in the middle.  The fourth suited card did not fall for him and I got an early double up.

From there the 10's helped me tremendously.  I flopped a set against an all in.  He caught a flush, but the board paired on the river and I won again.  The final hand came down to my pocket 10's against QJo.  My 10's held and I won.  There were quite a few other hands that were instrumental throughout the tournament.  I think I took out all but 2 players.  I wasn't playing aggressive, I just waited on my hands and called their overly large bets that usually chase me out of the hands.  This time I had chips and was able to stand my ground.

There were 9 players.  The game paid 4 spots.  I took 4 times my buy in, which isn't too bad for a fun local game.

This weekend I am considering going down to Oklahoma City to play a tournament and hang out with friends.  I may have to go down the following weekend to help them move so it is a tossup right now.

Hunting Trip

It's been quite a while now since I have played online poker.  I think I needed a break.  I had played almost every day for over a year.  I'm not in a hurry to get back and play.  The latest change with Carbon Poker has changed my attitude about online poker. 

You work hard to learn to play a certain game and dominate it and the site changes so you have to learn all over again.  I'm not ready to commit myself to that again, knowing that as soon as I start doing well everything will change again.  It has happened over and over and over since I first started playing. 

With the option to play live now, I'm not so persistent about playing online.  I am going to start focusing my online play on 2 table sng's as those are the average size of games I play and could stand to get better at them again. 

This weekend was a family holiday, the opening weekend of pheasant season in Kansas.  We drove 4 hours north to my parents to go out pheasant hunting Saturday and Sunday.  They have been in a drought the last few years so the pheasant population is down from what it used to be.  We still managed to get one.  I'm looking forward to eating fried pheasant strips for the first time in a lot of years.  We have some homegrown sweat potatoes to fry up at the same time.  I think we will wait until next weekend and make an event of it unless we plan something else this weekend. 

I'd like to stay home and save money, but my friend in Oklahoma City is moving and he had helped me move from Ohio back.  I kind of owe him and he asked me to come down.

We may just have to eat that pheasant Wednesday night. 

I didn't think to turn on my runkeeper while we were walking fields.  It would have been interesting to see how many miles we hiked and how many calories we burned.  It was a lot.

I had fallen off the wagon of weight loss since I got back from Las Vegas.  I weighed myself this morning and was back up to 218 pounds.  I'm not going to obsess about it but I am going to try to eat a little healthier until Thanksgiving.  Maybe I can get back down to 215 pounds by then.

A Break From Online

This weekend seemed kind of short.  I guess the time change wasn't enough.  We stayed pretty busy all weekend so that makes the time go a little faster.

Friday night we cleaned a little and lounged around.  My parents were coming in to town on Saturday.  We got up and finished cleaning on Saturday, then I started lunch for when my parents got in.  They showed up right on schedule as lunch was finishing up.  We ate hamburger stew and homeade italian bread. 

After that we went to a craft fair.  When we got back we walked around town since the weather turned out so nice.  Later that night we went to dinner and a play in town.  They have those a couple times a year here.  The production was very good and you could tell a lot of practice went in to get ready for it.  The cast did an amazing job.  My sister in law stole the hearts of the crowd with her performance.  She is so talented on so many levels.

On Sunday we got up to see my parents off and go to church.  Both boys ended up with some type of stomach bug so we didn't end up going to church.

In the afternoon I took a nap and woke up realizing I had told somebody I would play a local game.  I got ready and got over there.  It was a 10.00 rebuy and had about 18 people.  There were around 20 rebuys and only paid the top place.  Usually they chop around top 3 but it was looking like it would not chop unless we got out 1 individual.  That individual took me out in 5th place when his 2 pair overtook my top pair.  I was short stack and had been looking to make a move anyway.  I was out 10.00 with a chance of making a good return had I won that hand.

It's been a while since I have played online.  My patience to sit in a game for a long time was wearing thin.  I decided to take a break as the long games are the ones I do good in if I have the patience.  I'm not craving the final tables like I was.  It must have been time for a break.  My need for final tables will return, it always does.