I played another 45 seat $1 SNG over at Full Tilt Poker and came in 8th. I played super tight and took advantage of position and actually only showed down 2 hands out of the 100 I played. I made two costly mistakes - On the button I raised a limper in MP and the SB goes all-in. Limper calls and I have them both covered. I only had K9 suited but didn't have much more to call. SB had 55 and limper had TT and they both got some of my money. The final hand was also a mistake but since I was down to only around T3000 with blind at 400/800 I had to make a move at some point. I re-raised a big stack who was UTG and made a minimum raise to T1600. I pushed with KJo and he called with AQo and hit a Q on the flop. Out in 8th.

Overall I played well, but I guess my tight table image hurt me in the long run. I didn't get the action I wanted on some premium hands and eventually got very low on chips. Oh well, it was only a buck....

Update:
I won another $5 SNG:

More Full Tilt Poker SNG action last night. I played a 45 seater and got bounced early for being an idiot, then an 18 seater, which I managed to get to 6th place. I then tried the $4 satellite to the $40K guaranteed and got sent packing early.

So I fired up a normal $5 single table and won it, pretty easily:

I played in the DreamPoker 15K freeroll last night and got knocked out very early. I don't know who's smart idea it was to run this great event at 5pm EST, but I guess it works for the Euros. Here's the hand history if anyone cares to see how KK lost to JJ with a four flush on the river:

**Game ID 769168589 starting - 2006-04-24 17:27:45

** Dream$15000 Freeroll:Table 250 [Multi Table Hold 'em] (30.00|60.00 No Limit - MTT) Real Money

- Erback sitting in seat 1 with $2712.50 [Dealer]
- elvismm sitting in seat 2 with $4620.00
- Corda sitting in seat 3 with $2865.00 [Sitting out]
- k4tr1na77 sitting in seat 4 with $2532.50
- CASH___FLOW sitting in seat 5 with $6780.00
- huahuewin sitting in seat 6 with $16150.00
- Kajagugu sitting in seat 7 with $2090.00
- vitals sitting in seat 8 with $7475.00

elvismm posted the small blind - $15.00
Corda posted the big blind - $30.00

** Dealing card to Kajagugu: King of Diamonds, King of Hearts
k4tr1na77 raised - $270.00
CASH___FLOW folded
huahuewin folded
Kajagugu raised - $1020.00
vitals folded
Erback folded
elvismm folded
Corda folded
k4tr1na77 called - $1020.00

** Dealing the flop: 2 of Spades, 8 of Clubs, Queen of Spades
k4tr1na77 went all-in - $1512.50
Kajagugu went all-in - $1070.00
k4tr1na77 shows: Jack of Hearts, Jack of Spades

** Dealing the turn: Ace of Spades

** Dealing the river: 10 of Spades
k4tr1na77 wins $4225.00 from the main pot

End of game 769168589


OUCH !!!

I decided to try the Party Poker freerolls last night and boy what a wild ride that was. First let me lay out the ground rules:

1) $500 freerolls with 5000 entries and top 220 paid. Running about every half hour to an hour. First place takes $105.
2) WSOP satellite freerolls with 3500 entries and top 50 from all freerolls moving on to the Saturday event that pays a Main Event seat to top 14 and a 2K event to the next 10. Hotel included.

Notice I wrote entries and not players. Reason is that most of the entries were sitting out for a long time before anything really starts to happen. Party Poker is trying their best but their software is such crap that it really is frustrating. I mean how can you play a 500 multi-table event and have your window shut down every time you are moved to another table? I had to have all the tourney lobbies open so that I could find which one knocked me out, so I could find myself in the list of 5000 entries and hit the "Watch Table" button so that I could get back in the game. All this while trying to play about 5-6 windows at the same time.

I do like the new "shrink-to-fit" option they have in their latest version which will auto-size all your open windows and let you multi-table easily. The only problem is that you can't really control where each window goes and you can't use multiple screens. But better than before I guess.

At one point I had two windows going where I was the only live player. I was raising each pot to steal the sucker blinds until I really got a huge stack going. Along the way some latecomers pushed all in with junk and I took them out as well. I eventually closed all but 3 windows in which I had a huge stack and decided to concentrate.

I was taken out of the WSOP satellite in 206th place. I don't even remember what happened, I think it was a KK vs AA situation (again). I did manage to get 14th place in the $500 freeroll. I was getting so bored with the slow pace. It's pretty ridiculous to see people who are playing the clock for as long as they can in order to move from 43rd to 39th place and make an additional 30 cents. I played well and got crippled when in late position I raised with AQs and a slow-player in early position went all-in with AJo. He turned a J and I was slowly blinded away until I was out. The blinds were 60K/120K with a 3K ante, so there was not a lot of room to move around. I don't think I will play these $500 freerolls again. I do intend to try my luck in the WSOP satellites, though.

Here's a screenshot of my huge Party Poker Bankroll:

My first Royal Flush !!!

I have been playing a lot of the PokerHost $15K freeroll satellites, which is a huge waste of time because only the satellite winners go on to the main event. But it is a cheap and good way to practice tournament play and since they now have them every half hour I can play them whenever I feel like it.

I usually finish in the teens (14, 15, 16 out of 300-500) but never get to the final table. Usually it is some stupid move I make when close to the lead.

Anyway, I made my first Royal Flush EVER today - check it out (I am Gunigugu):

Since I have been constantly losing money in stupid tournaments I have decided to try something new. I deposited $50 into Full Tilt Poker and I will play only $5 SNGs until I either make some money or go broke.

I am adding another component to this personal challenge - I am reading Harrington on Hold'em and will try to play by his rules. Let's see if that makes a difference.

First SNG was a total wash and I played my usual stupid poker. Second one was going well and I made the money, but then I had to leave (while I was chip leader, no less). I told the table good luck and left. I think I got second place money, plus I cleared a $5 bonus. So I am now +$8 from where I started the challenge.

Wish me luck!

I played the Poker Savvy Blog Tour $1000 freeroll last night and came in 5th. I actually missed a big chunk of the game but a couple of lucky hands kept me in it. Took down $50 which is a really nice bankroll to start with at Titan Poker:



Player on my left, TheAudition, kept stealing my blinds every time and I just could not make the call. Finally I got 44 in the SB and pushed. He had A9o and called. He got a straight on the river to knock me out in 5th place. Thanks to doubleuwhy for hooking me up with this small field, huge prize pool, tournament.

Played the PokerLoons Cash League last night and came in third:

I hit a straight flush on the first hand of a tounrmanet last night on Full Tilt Poker:

I won another SNG - This time it was only a $1 game:


Here's the final hand:

Live blogging a Full Tilt Poker $5 SNG, let's see how this works out:

I decided to start off playing tight and the first hand I got involved with was a flush draw I hit on the river to almost double up. My opponent never called his last T550.

Second hand my J8 got outkicked by J9 and I was out.

So much for live blogging.

I decided to take my hard earned money and play above my limits. I joined the $3,500 guaranteed $24 tournament on Full Tilt Poker. Long story short, donk, donk, donk - I'm out.

I took the last of my Full Tilt Poker bankroll and played in a single table $5 SNG and won it. I actually had to sit out for a bit in the middle when I was chip leader. Probably worked in my favor with my recent crazy behavior at the tables.

ugafan8898 played a good, tight game and always seemed to have the better kicker when we were up against each other. When we went heads up we played a solid game for a long time changing leaders often and eventually my kicker paid off:


This was the final hand:

Home game went pretty well last Friday. We had most of the usual gang, but missed Chris and Paul. We had 4 new faces join and they were pretty good.

In the first game I got a calling station to call all my raises with small pocket pair and three overcards showing. That pretty much did it for me.

Second game was a little better. Well, a lot better since I won the thing. I made some good moves and was the big stack. Instead of playing like a fool, which is what I usually do when I am in the lead, I played tight and took position advantage. I knocked Bobby out when my AQs beat his AKo with a diamond flush on the river. I then went heads up against one of the new guys and after getting bad beat a few times I won the game.

As usual, I went on winner's tilt and was out of the third game before anyone else. I then became "dealer bitch" for the next 2 hours. Bobby ended up winning that one.

Total for the night - buy-ins: $60, winnings: $110

Even if you try real hard, you won't find a bigger poker donkey than me. I mean seriously - I SUCK!!!

I am so mad at my poor play right now that I think I will have to quit the game for a while so I can dig deep and evaluate why I am so dumb. Well, that is after I clean up tonight at the monthly neighborhood home game.

I mean, I am a pretty intelligent guy, so why do I play like a complete idiot?

Here's the breakdown. I entered the $100M qualifier on Titan Poker and sat out for the first whole hour because I was playing with the baby. I didn't mind showing up about 55 minutes in to find I still had about T900 and somewhere in the middle of the field. I then played pretty well, doubling and tripling up and got comfortable.

Next came the big gamble that had me triple up:


I was stuck at a table with some big stacks and had to pull the trigger on my pocket JJ, especially after the first raise. The other two players in the pot had KK and AQs and my lucky ass flopped another J. I went on to triple up and breathe a big sigh of relief.

I then played the following two hands that got me up to around 4th place with about T60,000:




I need to find the problem I have with playing a big stack. I could have just sat out from there and made the top 20 and earned my place in the weekly qualifier, but instead this is what happened:


I am an idiot! If you see me at the tables please tell me so. I deserve it.

The only good news is that I couldn't have played in the weekly game anyway. It is this Sunday and I will be playing golf at The Frog!!!

I got my $10 free with no deposit from Poker770 and tried to make something out of it. I entered the Maui Jackpot SNG and won after being shortstacked almost the entire game:



I decided to try to make it five in a row in order to win the $25,000 jackpot and got knocked out second. So I thought how can I maximize my losses and decided to play the $10 freezeout with $2000 guaranteed:



I got too loose and got clobbered in two hands that I should not have been in, in the first place. The annoying part was that I could have easily made the money in this one. Instead I played the $5 freezeout and got knocked out before the first round was over. Kind of back to square one.

I decided to try my luck at the .05/.10 NLHE tables and went broke in two hands. First one I flopped fives full of tens (holding pocket 5s) and the idiot next to me made tens full of jacks when he hit his jack on the river. Then with pocket AA I got raised and all-in called by a guy with pocket 5s who hit a 678 flop and a 4 on the turn. How do you like me now?

So the poker marketers giveth and the doom switch taketh away. At least I had a fun 5 hours with $10, right? If you want to know how to get $10 free from Poker770 then go to NeverPay4Poker and follow the instructions. You can also find how to get $10 free from about 8 other sites.

Check out the following hand. phillyfan20 made an impossible call. There was no reason whatsoever he should have called that. Luckily I was not in the hand. Full hand history below as well:


Full Tilt Poker Game #545458397: Satellite to $200K Guarantee (3356380), Table 15 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:10:22 ET - 2006/04/04
Seat 1: DARTH CHUCKY (3,345)
Seat 2: bamax12 (2,635)
Seat 4: Kajagugu (6,034)
Seat 5: POSTAL_PLAYER (1,699)
Seat 6: phillyfan20 (9,575)
Seat 7: bigjay1999 (4,417)
Seat 8: chadillac2000 (5,881)
Seat 9: KatOh9 (1,225)
DARTH CHUCKY antes 25
bamax12 antes 25
Kajagugu antes 25
POSTAL_PLAYER antes 25
phillyfan20 antes 25
bigjay1999 antes 25
chadillac2000 antes 25
KatOh9 antes 25
POSTAL_PLAYER posts the small blind of 120
phillyfan20 posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Kajagugu [8c Kc]
bigjay1999 has 15 seconds left to act
bigjay1999 folds
chadillac2000 has 15 seconds left to act
chadillac2000 is sitting out
chadillac2000 has timed out
chadillac2000 folds
KatOh9 folds
DARTH CHUCKY raises to 480
bamax12 calls 480
Kajagugu folds
POSTAL_PLAYER folds
chadillac2000 has returned
phillyfan20 calls 240
*** FLOP *** [Kh As 6d]
phillyfan20 checks
DARTH CHUCKY bets 240
bamax12 folds
phillyfan20 has 15 seconds left to act
phillyfan20 raises to 1,680
DARTH CHUCKY raises to 2,840, and is all in
phillyfan20 has 15 seconds left to act
phillyfan20 calls 1,160
DARTH CHUCKY shows [Ah 4d]
phillyfan20 shows [2s Js]
*** TURN *** [Kh As 6d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [Kh As 6d Ts] [5s]
DARTH CHUCKY shows a pair of Aces
phillyfan20 shows a flush, Ace high
phillyfan20 wins the pot (7,440) with a flush, Ace high
DARTH CHUCKY stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7,440 | Rake 0
Board: [Kh As 6d Ts 5s]
Seat 1: DARTH CHUCKY showed [Ah 4d] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 2: bamax12 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Kajagugu (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: POSTAL_PLAYER (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: phillyfan20 (big blind) showed [2s Js] and won (7,440) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 7: bigjay1999 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: chadillac2000 folded before the Flop
Seat 9: KatOh9 folded before the Flop

I played the Full Tilt Poker WSOP freerolls and had a good run until I got way too tired (damn daylight savings time changes) and busted out. But in back to back hands I hit a boat on the flop and quad Qs. Check it out:

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