Monday, January 27, 2014

750 SNG Month Day 26

Finally a winning session.  I have had losing sessions since my last post until yesterday.  I am now down 20.00 with 625 games played.  I have 125 games left to play this month.  I could have played more yesterday but decided to try my hand at tournaments instead.  I hadn't played any tournaments all month and felt this was the day, especially with the 1.10, $10,000.00 guaranteed tournament on Carbon.

I loaded up quite a few games and got to work min cashing in most of the small buy in's.  I played 3 11.00 tournaments and busted in all 3 of them in short order.  I made a semi-deep run in a 5.50 deep stack.  I was on the final 3 tables, 3rd in chips and busted out with pocket Q's to a K7 suited after he raised and I went all in.  Later in the evening, I made a deep run in the nightly 2.20 game, where I met my demise again with pocket Q's to a K7 suited in the final 2 tables.  This time a huge stack called my all in, with a lot of extra chips on the table, so it was a bit of a different scenario.  I wanted to fold it as there was a raiser and a caller  before me and I didn't have enough chips to push them out of the pot.  A triple up was too inviting, so I went for it.  I was facing AJ and 99 by the other 2 players that had raised and called before me.

I finished in the money of the $10,000.00 guaranteed.  I think I went out 500ish for 7.00. 

In the end it was a losing day for tournaments.  I did have fun trying to make that final table. 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

750 SNG Month Day 21

I have 550 SNG's completed this month.  That is a little ahead of schedule, but there are days that I will not get to play.  My profit at this point is 1.50 from SNG's, 15.00 from the leaderboard, and 10.00 from VIP's for a total of 26.50 so far for the month.

Last night I played a long session trying to make it into the top 5 of the SNG leaderboard again.  After 50 some games I was up 5.00 for the day.  The only person I had a chance to catch was still 30 games away and that was only for 5.00.  I decided to chalk up a winning day instead of pushing to get those additional games. 

Most of my days have been break even.  Part of that is due to a lack of concentration on some games.  Part is due to evil suck outs.  I cannot help the suck outs, but I can help the lack of concentration.  Just one more win per day would have my profit soaring. 

Last night I tried something new that should help me.  Instead of loading every game I can play, I am loading up 6 games and playing them down until they are done.  That way I am close to the same blind levels on each of the games.  It will take me a little longer playing each night to reach my goal, but it should give me a chance to pay more attention as we get closer to the end of the game.  It would be worth a little more time to change some of those 2nd places into wins.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Monday Night Muck Em

There were 14 runners in last nights game.  My son had came home with a red see through visor Sunday night.  I had mentioned to him that I should wear it to the poker game on Monday.  As I was getting ready to leave yesterday, he hands me the visor.  So, I wore it.  There were a few comments as people rolled into the game.  I'm sure I looked pretty goofy.  One person said I needed a band around my sleeve and I would look like a real dealer.

The game took off and 2 of the players at my table were winning all of the pots.  My hole cards were lousy so I started waiting for a good hand.  Then I noticed the hands that were winning were low.  I finally stayed in a hand with a 2 3 as everybody was keeping it friendly.  The flop came out 4 5 Q rainbow.  There was a min bet in front of me so I followed with a call.  Everybody else folded.  The turn was a 3.  I knew it didn't help me yet.  The other player bet a little bigger this time.  The 3 gave me additional outs so I made the call.  A 2 fell on the river.  I was concerned about the other player having AQ at this time, but his bet cried that he didn't.  I raised and he tanked for a bit before folding. 

The next hand of importance came when I was dealing.  I had KQ off and everybody folded to me.  I called, the SB called and the BB checked.  Flop was A J 10 with 2 hearts.  My Q was a heart.  I bet and SB raised.  BB called.  I went all in.  SB called and BB tanked for a while before mucking.  We turned over our cards.  He had A 10 and missed catching either of those for a boat.  The BB turned over his cards.  He had A 10 as well.  I did catch runner runner hearts to make a flush to better my made straight.

I was now sitting with a good sized stack to go to break with.  Then I got KK.  There was a decent raise before me.  His raising range was fairly large but I figured he would follow me if I put him to the test for all of his chips.  Another shorter stack called and so did he.  I was up against Q 10 off and A Q off.  An 8 9 J Ace came out on the flop and turn to cripple me right before break. 

I added on for 3000 chips to give myself a chance after break.  After break I pulled a couple risky bluffs that worked out and built my chip stack to about even with the rest of the table.  About that time the other table lost a few players and we combined tables. 

One person went out on the first hand at the final table.  A few hands later I look down at 99 in the SB.  I had to fold them 3 times earlier in the game as somebody would always 3 bet me when I had this particular hand.  The blinds were high enough that I was making a stand this time.  There was one caller from early position and everybody else had folded.  I bet half my stack showing that I was pot committing myself.  BB folded and the other player called.  The flop fell low, like I hoped it would.  I went all in.  He called with a 7 8 suited.  His suit was not on the board, nor did he have a pair or a draw.  That bluff I pulled on him a few weeks ago worked to my advantage this time. 

Shortly after we made the money.  One of the players had went all in several times when he was getting low on chips.  I spotted this early but never had a calling hand.  I was in the BB and he tried it again from the SB.  I had J 9 off suit.  I called.  He said good call and rolled over 9 4 off suit.  He caught a 4 on the turn but a fourth suited card fell on the river giving me a flush as well as taking him out.

Third place went out a few hands later and we were heads up.  I was a chip underdog at this point and the blinds were high.  I knew I needed to play really aggressive to have a chance.  It made it easy that I kept catching hands.  I got drew out on a couple times.  We went back and forth for a while then we found the hand that would end the game.  She went all in with K 10.  I called with AJ suited.  An ace off the flop sealed the deal and I am now have an extra 170 in my pocket. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Vegas Is Booked

I called the Riviera and was able to get my free 3 night stay over the weekend.  I decided to go that route to have some extra money while I am out there.  This weekend I registered for all of my fishing tournaments for the year, so the extra money not spent on rooms will be nice.  We will be out there Feb 21st to the 24th.

Mizike is excited about his first trip to Vegas.  He has text me several times with nothing more than "Vegas Baby".  It's going to be a good trip. 

I am on pace to reach my 750 SNG goal for the month.  It hasn't been extreemly profitable.  Right now I have played 475 games with a loss of 1.50.  I did clear 10.00 worth of VIP's this month and also got 15.00 so far from coming in 3rd on the SNG leaderboard the first week.  I am sitting 6th this week since I had to play catch up from not getting to play much the last week due to my rib pain.  If I put in a little extra volume tonight and tomorrow, I should be able to slide into the top 5 and claim some more bonus.

Tonght is the Monday night Muck-Em game.  I look forward to this each week.  We have been getting close to 2 full tables, which makes it a little tougher to make the money, but when you do, the payouts are that much better.  The money winners and the bubble boy get points that count towards a prize at the end of the year.  I hope to be on top of the leaderboard when that time comes.  There is some good competition so I will have to play my A game all year.

This weekend I was coaching 1st and 2nd grade basketball.  This is our towns 1st year to join the league we are playing.  The teams we played definately had experience.  We got blown out in both games.  I was still proud of how the kids played.  They tried really hard, we just weren't prepared for what we were coming up against.  We have a couple of practices this week.  I have some plans to fast track us to being a better team.  It will help having a couple games under our belt to know what we need to work on.

I'm really looking forward to practices now.  There's so much to teach these boys.

Sunday was a really nice day.  I had plans to play poker all day.  With the nice weather I changed my plans.  I worked on vehicles, barbecued, and went on a 3 mile walk with the family.  It was a terrific day.

We got some news Friday night that one of my boys is struggling at school again.  He was doing o.k. at parent teachers conferences.  Now he is writing letters backwards and out of order in words.  The teacher wants to get a group together to help him.  This came about the same way it did 2 years ago.  The teacher said he was doing great then a month later said that we might think about holding him back.  I was upset when we got the letter.  He has learned so much this year and seemed to be coming along really well.  Then this last week they threw really hard crap at him all at once.  Hard words, crazy math questions that don't make sense to me, and wham!  Here we are again.

I'm really mad at the school system, as we asked that they let us know what we could do to help at the parent teacher's conference.  "Oh Nothing", they said, "He's doing just fine."  We have been working with him on reading and on his spelling words and math homework.  What the "F".  I know he struggles and is slow at picking things up.  I was the same way at his age.  Dad was the same way.  We're wired wrong.  We have some type of learning disability.  The schools says they won't test for this stuff until they reach 3rd grade.  He may never make it to that grade at this rate.  Then what?

I'm not a teacher, and have poor teaching skills.  My wife says the same thing about herself.  We want to get help for him, and have looked at some options.  The options we are finding are quite expensive for us living in rural areas.  I'm sure it's not much better living in the city.  As a parent we want him to have every opportunity, so whatever it takes, we will do.  I just wish we could figure out what makes it so hard for him to read and write.  That is our biggest hurdle. 

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Vegas Trip In The Works

It's time for me to start planning another trip to Vegas.  I got the go ahead from my wife and found a willing soul to share in a free trip. 

My good friend Mirketti has agreed to come out with me this time.  This will be his first trip to Las Vegas.  I just finished booking our flights with Southwest Rewards points.  We will be going out Feb 21st and coming back on Feb 24th.

The last trip I had out there was kind of a let down when my money was frozen and I didn't get to play as much poker as I would have liked.  This time, I will be going out hoping to play a bit more poker, but also knowing that I will be introducing a newbie to a lot of sight seeing.

I had received an offer from the Riviera for 3 free nights stay.  I tried calling today but the message says they are not open.  They will be back tomorrow.  I'm not sure if we will be able to use the free nights for this trip.  If so that will save me some more money.  If not, I might try to book our stay at Bally's.  I might just do that anyway.  Bally's seemed pretty awesome last time I was in town.  I wouldn't mind grinding some poker during our downtime.


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Day 14 Of 750 SNG Month

I am sitting with 339 SNG's completed after the first 2 weeks of play. 

We had basketball games out of town tonight so I was only able to get in 6 games. It was a great 6 game set with cashes in all 6 games. 


Monday Night Muck Em 3rd Place

Last night was my weekly local poker game.  The rules changed slightly allowing one additional add on for half the starting stack if you have already added on and lost all of your chips before break.  This allowed for more money to go into the payouts.

We had several new players this week which also increased the size of the payouts.  It also had me thinking a little extra trying to figure out each of the new players. 

About a quarter the way through the game I was collecting pots, and had built onto my original buy in slightly.  I was folding hands that would hit on the flop and play hands that would not.  One player was getting short stacked and started playing aggressively every hand.  I took my shots at him and lost in coin flip races.  With the aggression he showed I thought I would be a ways ahead.  He actually had the hands when I put him to the test.

By break I was down to 3500 chips with the blinds at 500 1000.  I had taken 1 add on after I busted to that player. 

When we got back from break I had to make a move.  I was in the BB right away and folded waiting on a better hand.  The next hand I had A5 suited.  Four people limp called and I shoved.  Everybody folded.  I was surprised, and had some chips to work with.

The next hand I got KJ.  The player that I had lost most of my chips to before made a decent raise.  By this point I had seen him do this with air several times so I called.  The flop came K 6 6.  He bet slightly less than pot.  I had about double his bet left so I moved all in, thinking that he would make that move with any K or even a mid pocket pair.  Once again I was wrong.  He had big slick.  Lucky for me one of my 3 outs caught on the river, severely crippling him, and giving me a fighting chance.

He went out shortly after and we combined tables.  One of the new players at the other table took 3 people out in one hand.  We were down to 6 with 4 getting paid.  The 6 of us played and played but nobody would go out.  The chips moved all over the table as the blinds kept increasing.  Each of us at 1 point were down to 1 BB left.  It was the best short stack play I've ever witnessed. 

At one point the short stack was all in, in the BB.  I looked down at pocket K's.  One player raised and I went over the top.  He folded.  The short stack ended up catching a straight to stay alive and almost quadruple up. 

I was down to 1 BB on 3 occasions before we got the first bust out.  Most of the time I was sitting with 2 BB's.  Then the worst thing happened.  The blinds went up to 5000 10000 with a 1000 ante right as the BB was getting to me.  I had just enough for that 1 hand with 5 players left.  It folded to the SB who called.  I don't remember what he had, or what I had.  I did win.  The next hand the BB was all in by being in the BB.  It folded to me and I called with a 7 3.  He had pocket K's.  I was back down to a little over 1 BB again.  I made a play at the pot a couple hands later with an all in move where everybody folded when I got an Ace again.

Finally a couple rounds later the new guy took the bubble boy position putting the rest of us in the money.  We had another player bust out shortly after.  I took the plunge next as I tried to push my A9 in the BB when the SB raised me.  He had AQ.  My 9 hit on the turn but a Q on the river sent me packing. 

The game was over a few minutes later.  At the end of the game with blinds at 10000 20000 with a 5000 ante, the winner only had about 5 BB's when he had all the chips.  It was amazing how well everybody played short stacked as we got to the highest levels.

I got over double my buy in even after my add on.  The game got over an hour later than usual so I did not get to play any online last night.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Day 13 of 750 SNG Month - Pain - Sharp Pain

The last 4 days have killed my volume.  I did really good the first week with my volume clearing 283 games.  My profit from those was -1.00.  I have had a few 15 game days since then and am now sitting up .50 for the month not counting the 10.00 I cleared from VIP's and another 15.00 I got for finishing 4th in the first weeks SNG challenge.  So far this month I am up 25.50 in 1.10 SNG's.  I could wipe that out with 1 horrible session as I found out earlier in the month so I need to pay attention to how I'm playing and if I am doing horribly, just log out for a while.

This last week has been a little rough for playing.  I think I tore a muscle in my lower right side beneath my ribs.  It's painful and very hard for me to play.  After working all day with the pain, all I want to do when I get home is lay down and ball up in a fetal position. 

Saturday I took it easy figuring that the more rest I could give my side the better.  On Sunday after church I was showing my 7 year old son how he was shooting the basketball incorrectly and threw the ball up in the air like he was doing.  In the process, I felt a knife like sensation in my side.  I went to the ground and rolled around screaming.  I was in complete agony.  My muscle felt like it had ripped completely in half.  My son ran and grabbed my wife who stood over me as I screamed and rolled around in the driveway.

The stabbing crippling pain eventually turned into a throbbing pain once I was able to get to my feet.  My wife wanted to take me straight to the E.R. but I said I wanted to eat fried chicken.  I was already going to get x-ray's on Monday and figured that as long as I only had the throbbing pain I could make it until then. 

She had to help me get in and out of the car as any wrong movement would cause excruciating pain in my side.  It was very painful getting in and out of the SUV.  After we ate, I was getting a basketball practice plan ready for her and I was going to lay down the rest of the day.  At that time I felt a sneeze coming on.  I grabbed my nose and prayed that it wouldn't come but it happened, causing just as much pain as I had initially.  It took 10 minutes for it to settle down again.  This time I went to the E.R.

They took X-Rays.  Nothing appeared broken and they're not sure what is causing the pain.  They did give me a Toradol shot and a muscle relaxer that has helped tremendously.  Other than 1 more sneeze last night I have been o.k.

I didn't play at all this weekend.  I'll try getting my 25 games in tonight and hopefully the rest of the week I can do the same.  I have something planned every evening so it may be tough to get 25 games a night in.  I may have to concentrate on playing more on the weekends to make up for lost ground through the week.  I have the next 4 weekends committed to staying home since I am coaching and have games the next 4 Saturdays.

Monday, January 6, 2014

Day 3 4 & 5 of 750 SNG Month

I got in a ton of poker Friday and Saturday.  It started off good on Friday night.  I put in 46 games and came out 7.50 ahead.  On Saturday I was ready to put in an extra long full day session.  It started out crappy and turned to complete S**T.  I couldn't seem to find the win button.  I chopped pots more than I won them.  When I would have a dominating hand it would lose, and my hands that were dominated lost too. 

Then I hit my tilt button.  I had all of that time to play and went on tilt for over half the session.  I should have shut down for a couple of hours, came back and tried again.  I didn't do that.  I made plays that were more risky, and got even more upset when they didn't work out.  I was getting my money in with the best hands, they just were not winning.

Finally, I figured out that I wasn't going to get back any of my losses and called it a night after I had played 84 games for a 29.00 loss.

I didn't feel like playing on Sunday.  Actually I did, but decided not to since Saturday sucked so bad.  Late in the evening I played 5 games for a .50 profit.  It felt good to end the day with a profit.

I am still up 3.00 for the month.  I have gotten 10.00 from VIP's.  Some of that is from previous play but I'm counting it towards profit, so I am up 13.00.  I am also sitting in 3rd on the SNG leaderboard.  With 2 days left I may keep a top 5 position.  Tonight I have the weekly local game, so I won't play a lot, and tomorrow I have basketball games, so I won't get in a lot of volume then either.  It will come down to seeing how much volume the other players can get in to catch up to me.
Day 3
Day 4

Friday, January 3, 2014

Day 2 of 750 SNG Month

Last night I had some ground to make up in my 750 SNG challenge.  With only 14 games the night before I needed to put in 36 games to get back on track.  I started around 8:00 after supper and the dishes were done.  I had 25 games finished in an hour.  There were a lot of players getting on at that time.  I took a short break and when I came back the tables were not filling as quickly.  I pretty much broke even over the next 14 games.  At that point it wasn't quite time to go to bed so I thought why not get in a few extra games while I can.  I'm glad I did as I went on another upswing.  Part of that was due to getting lucky against the same player over and over.

At the end of the night I had played 45 games for a 25.00 profit.  That gives me a pretty good start for the month.  After 2 days of play I am sitting 7th on the SNG leaderboard.  Top 5 get paid.  Unless the 6 players above me lower their volume, I will probably not catch them this week. 

I may put in a little extra volume this weekend.  It's easier to play when i can get multiple games going at the same time.  There should be quite a few more players during the weekend so it will be easier to put in volume. 

Outside of poker, the boys were wrestling in the living room last night.  They were getting pretty rough and my daughter was right there beside them, trying to get in on it.  She ended up grabbing a pillow case and wrapping it up with her arms and legs and rolling across the floor growling and wrestling with it.  It was pretty funny.  After a while she figured out peek-a-boo with it.  It got stuck on her head one time and when she pulled with both hands she crashed face first to the floor.  She ripped it off her head and began wrestling with it again until she and the pillow case ended up laying wrapped up around one another in exhaustion.

My wife decided to teach the boys how to Indian leg wrestle.  My 7 year old whooped her on the first try.  She convinced me to give it a try.  I whooped him, then she wanted to challenge me.  She couldn't do anything against the dead weight of my leg.  It had us both laughing in no time.  I started to get up and here comes my little girl in for the tackle.  I let her tackle me and she got up on my chest, got up on her knees and growled in victory with smile from ear to ear. 


Thursday, January 2, 2014

750 SNG Month Begins


Out with the old, in with the new.  It was a fun gathering in OKC for our new years celebration.  One of my poker friends from Ohio called me before midnight and talked to me for a while.  His phone has been shut off for a couple months now and I was worried as to what might have happened.  He had good reason for shutting off his phone.  It was great to hear from him.

The party broke up shortly before midnight, but I had paced myself for a long evening.  Since there were only a few of us left, we loaded up and went to the casino.  We were all doing pretty lousy, I was about break even playing slots, so I guess I was doing o.k, when we decided to leave.  I told them I wanted to try the Family Guy slot out before we left.  One of the other guys sat down with me.  He had 5.00 left and max bet.  He hit the bonus on the first spin and proceeded to win over 400.00!  Crazy.  I played until I hit the bonus.  It wasn't much and left me down 45.00 for the night.  Oh well, we had a lot of fun for 45.00.

We stuck around yesterday to have supper.  A snow storm was moving in and by the time we left, it was inevitable that part of our trip was going to be driving through blowing snow.  About half way home we hit the storm.  It wasn't as bad as I had imagined and the wind kept the highways fairly clean.  It took us a little longer to get home, but it was not majorly stressful.

To reach my goal of 750 SNG's this month, I figured that I would need to put in about 25 SNG's per day.  Since we got home late last night, I logged on and nobody was registering for the 1.10 SNG's.  I played for an hour and got in 11 SNG's for a 2.20 profit.  That's not a bad start, but I will need to make up some ground already. 

I also saw that Carbon changed their SNG promotion this month.  Every time I get to where I may profit from a promotion they change it.  It's really PEEVING ME OFF!  There may be a chance that I get a little something from the promotion they have, but I'm not sure I will be putting in enough volume now.  Instead of paying out the top 20, they will be paying out the top 5.  They did break it out a little further with 1.10's having their own category and 2.20's having their own category etc.  With the volume I will be playing I should have an extra 10.00 in VIP's by the end of the month.  My goal is to make a profit so anything helps.

For the next few days, I plan on putting in some mad volume to get ahead of the game.  There will be a lot of nights I will not be able to play much due to basketball games, practice, live games, travel and whatever else comes up.  When I do have time I will need to take advantage of it.

Before the new year came, I put in a few evening of playing between 25 and 45 games.  A couple of those sessions turned out really well, and all of them were profitable.  If I continue to have sessions like those I should have a profit at the end of the month.