Silly game

I got into an PL Omaha Hi/Lo $5 SNG on Poker770 by mistake. I thought it was a 6-seat NLHE and all of a sudden I get dealt 4 cards. I haven't played Omaha Hi/Lo in forever and figured these guys will be good at it since that's what a lot of people like to play in Europe. I played very aggressively from the get go and created a massive chip lead. It was then just about getting lucky and winning both Hi and Lo hands to knock the rest of the guys out:





Quick stats update:
18 Games
5 ITM (27.78%)
73.20% ROI
$78.40 Profit

While blogging

I got a free $5 deposited in my account by the promotion department at Poker770. This is the third deposit they have made in my account and I love them!

So while writing the previous post I decided to play a 2-table $2 SNG and what do you know - I won it:

I finally won one

I had a tough match on PokerStars last night. I had a heads-up battle that lasted over half an hour. My opponent was very tight and eventually I figured out that any raise from him was a real hand. I used that to my advantage and stole a lot of blinds by min raising pre-flop. We went back and forth and the chip lead kept changing hands.

So the only way to get his chips was to call and wait to hit a monster, which I did. With 7-4 off-suit I hit a dream flop of 7-4-4. We went check-check and the turn was another 7. I checked again. He checked as well and I thought I won't get paid again (I hit two hands with pocket A-A and could not get any of his chips). But the river was an 8 so I over bet all-in. He actually made a straight with pocket 5-6 and called. I was a 5-1 chip lead now and got him to move all-in with his K-8 vs. my A-7. A sweet 7 showed up on the flop and it was all over:



The funny thing was I played another game earlier and was in an interesting situation. I had pocket 7s in early position and made a nice raise on the flop that was Q high. A short stacked player moved all-in and then the button moved all-in as well. I had them both covered but there was no way I could make the call. The button had A-Q and made a set on the turn. But guess what the river was? The underdog-winning-river was another 7 which would have made me a full house and knocked them both out. How sick is that? Based on my experience with PokerStars I should have called but I just don't play like that. At least now I understand how these donkeys keep sucking out on everyone. There are tens of thousands of players on PokerStars who would play the 7s and server us all the beats.

I also need to adjust my stats. I have been playing when I know I might not be able to finish the game without interruption. I also got $5 free from i4poker (you can too until the end of the month) and played a few $1 SNGs there which I shouldn't count as real games. So here are different stat breakdowns:

Overall stats (5/25 - 5/29):
Games: 14
ITM: 3 times (2 wins, 1 3rd) - 21.43%
ROI: 63.65%
Buy-in: $91.30
Profit: $57.20

Without interruptions:
Games: 12
ITM: 3 times (2 wins, 1 3rd) - 25%
ROI: 98.53%
Buy-in: $74.80
Profit: $73.70

Finally in the money at Stars

I was so frustrated with PokerStars that I decided to take my remaining money and instead of sticking to the original plan of playing the $4 20-table SNGs I decided to play a single table $10 SNG. I figured I would have less chances of seeing those awful river beats (not true, the still showed up all the time but luckily not to me).

I tripled up early in the game when I limped in one off the button with 8-7 suited in diamonds. The button called and the SB raised to three times the BB. Since half the table had limped in everyone called the small raise. Flop came 8-4-7 with two clubs and it got checked to me. I made a probing bet of half the pot and got called by the Button and the SB while everyone else folded. Turn was a gorgeous 8 of clubs giving me top boat and filling up any flush that might be up there. This time I decided to check. The button bet half the pot, SB called, I check-raised half expecting everyone to fold but instead the button re-raised me, SB called (again!!) so I went all-in figuring everyone was pot committed and will call. The only hand that could beat me at this point was a straight flush with someone holding 5-6 of clubs. I was willing to take that chance. Everyone calls and we are all-in three ways.

SB has a pair of Queens (what a lame pre-flop raise that was against 5 opponents). Button has, get this, 5-2 of clubs for an 8 high straight. I try to quickly see if there is any trouble and realize I need to dodge three cards in the deck, any Queen will give the SB a better boat (2 outs) and only the 6 of clubs will give the button his straight flush (1 out). I was already expecting to see that 6 show up on the river to give the worst hand the pot, but the river was (surprisingly) a blank and I took it all down and knocked out two players at once. Thank you PokerStars.

I then bullied the table for a bit until my stupid A-Q (I should stop playing that hand but we were 6 handed and I was in position) ran into A-A in the BB. I eventually came in 3rd, which is way better than my usual 6th place finish. Oh, and guess what? I hit quads again:



Stats update (SNGs) since 5-25-06:
Games: 12
ITM: 2 (16.67%)
Buy-ins: $69.30
Profit: $34.20
ROI: 49.35%

I guess these numbers are pretty good, but to really be fair, that one win at Full Tilt Poker is the only thing that put me ahead.

FTP rules! PS sucks!

Okay I know I said it a few times already, but seriously, I have never seen so many river beats (and not only me getting beat, but also others and sometimes me giving the beating). I don't know why PokerStars evokes so many bad beats. It's has to be the quality of the players at some point. But why only river beats? Why not get beat on the flop? I shit you not - tonight I saw at least 10 dominated underdogs suck out on the river. Awful. I might ban myself from playing there any more. I did hit another hand with quad 6s:



On the flip side I played a 45 seat $5 SNG on Full Tilt Poker and came in 1st:

Goals

So I have been floating around without setting up any real poker goals. Posting my SNG winnings and minor victories is nice but gets me nowhere. So I have decided to start tracking wins, loses, ITM and ROI. Let's see how this works over the next few weeks.

Although I have previously stated how much I hate PokerStars, I have decided to make it my bitch and I will be playing some SNGs there as well as the occasional low buy-in MTT.

Since starting my SNG trial on Full Tilt Poker I have mixed success. I am definitely cash flow positive and I have yet to use my $24 token, but I have been playing when I don't have enough time and I have also entered some MTTs where I didn't cash.

Gwen goes bananas

Orange County Weekly did a serious probe into the Holloback Girl lyrics. This is some of the funniest 'shit' I've read in a while.

Now I remember......

..... why I hate playing at PokerStars so much. If you read the last post you will see that I have signed up to play the Blogger Tournament on June 18th. So that got my juices flowing and as usual whenever I have an urge to get hurt I head right over and make a deposit.

I think I have figured out the strategy to not get sucked out by the underdog. Don't play any pair hole cards. Just muck them as if you never saw them. Unless you're completely sure you're the underdog with a really low pair, don't even risk it. Save yourself the aggravation.

The other problem for me is that with the huge fields the prize pools are so large. So a $20 investment could come out almost 2K. Which gets me started with all kinds of what-if's that never materialize. I just watched the big stack suck out a set of 2s on the river to beat a pair of Js. Then a couple of hands later my pocket Ks lose to a set of 10s on the river. Then in a $10 SNG I lost again in a multi-way pot when my Js went up against AK vs. AA vs. 88 - guess who won it all? The 88 - on the river, AGAIN!

Seriously, I can't understand why I get beat so badly and why in the world I would keep coming back for more. Please sir, may I have some more? MORE!!!

So just to make the beatings sweeter I got quads again (I think I will stop taking screenshots of these because they kind of happen on a daily basis right now). I was especially proud of how I played this hand because I managed to get a lot more for it than I thought I would. Take a look:



PokerStars Game #5037806504: Tournament #25060906, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2006/05/24 - 12:31:14 (ET)
Table '25060906 47' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: karoloko24 (3460 in chips)
Seat 2: Sir_Poker86 (1365 in chips)
Seat 3: MKGB (2655 in chips)
Seat 4: lamp3122 (3320 in chips)
Seat 5: ladde1 (2294 in chips)
Seat 6: Rushton14 (1690 in chips)
Seat 7: Kajagugu (995 in chips)
Seat 8: teddy33 (2891 in chips)
Seat 9: Tangie (1390 in chips)
ladde1: posts small blind 25
Rushton14: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Kajagugu [Tc Ts]
Kajagugu: raises 150 to 200
teddy33: folds
Tangie: folds
karoloko24: folds
Sir_Poker86: calls 200
MKGB: folds
lamp3122: folds
ladde1: folds
Rushton14: folds
*** FLOP *** [Th 2s Qs]
Kajagugu: checks
Sir_Poker86: checks
*** TURN *** [Th 2s Qs] [4s]
Kajagugu: bets 200
Sir_Poker86: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [Th 2s Qs 4s] [Td]
Kajagugu: bets 300
Sir_Poker86: calls 300
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Kajagugu: shows [Tc Ts] (four of a kind, Tens)
Sir_Poker86: mucks hand
Kajagugu collected 1475 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1475 | Rake 0
Board [Th 2s Qs 4s Td]
Seat 1: karoloko24 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Sir_Poker86 mucked [Jd Js]
Seat 3: MKGB folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: lamp3122 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: ladde1 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Rushton14 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: Kajagugu showed [Tc Ts] and won (1475) with four of a kind, Tens
Seat 8: teddy33 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Tangie folded before Flop (didn't bet)

More quads and SNG wins

So it's starting to freak me out a little bit. Full Tilt Poker is the only site I have played on that I keep getting quads on:



This happened while I was trying to sneak in a quick $5 SNG while the baby took a nap. It was a very tight table with one loose idiot who was eaten alive and then proceeded to verbally vomit all over the table. It was fun. Eventually I got head up with the chip leader and after a couple of hands heads-up the baby woke up. So I figured I will just go all-in until I either win or lose. The first two hands were crap to which he folded (by this time I was the chip leader). The last hand was JJ against his AQ which I won to take another 1st:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

How to make 250 BB/hour

I had a free half hour to play yesterday while the baby took a nap in the afternoon and decided to play a little NL Hold'em. I came up with a formula to get a rate of 250 BB/hour:

1) Go to Poker4Ever - One of the new sites out there with lots of freerolls and loose players (very loose).

2) Look for a low no-limit table with some big stacks. I found a .25/.50 (blinds) table where three players had over $80.

3) Sit down and play a loose orbit trying not to lose too much. "Yes, yes, I'm just another fish. I only bought in for $25 cause that's all I have" - and they fall right into the trap.

4) Proceed to hit a few monster hands and conceal them well. Trip 10s with Ace kicker on the flop becomes a boat 10s full of Aces when you are out of position and one of the big stacks tries to bully you off the nuts.

5) Fold a whole orbit just to make them think you tightened up.

6) Bluff in position at anything resembling a good flop.

7) Walk away with $150 (or a $125 profit - 250 BB/hour).

How do you like them stats?

I kind of knew it already

TripJax 21 Questions

TripJax came up with a list of 21 questions which I decided to answer here:

1. What is the biggest mistake people make at a NL table?
Answer: Playing out of position.

2. What is the biggest mistake people make at a Limit table?
Answer: Chasing and Playing out of position.

3. Why do you play poker?
Answer: Nothing better to do. Wait, no - $10M first prize of the WSOP main event 2006.

4. If you weren't playing poker, what would you be doing?
Answer: Wasting my time on other useless crap. I would much rather go play golf but I don't have that kind of time and you can't play golf in the middle of the night unless you live in Iceland.

5. What is your favorite poker book and why?
Answer: None of the books I have read have wowed me yet. I thought I would enjoy H on H, but his problem hands are very strange and seem to not take a lot of things into account. I kind of liked "Positively Fifth Street" but I think 'Bad Jim' was trying to be too cool and wrote the boring parts of the book. After he got knocked out of the final table I was pretty much done with the book. Yawn.

6. Who is your favorite poker player and why?
Answer: I like the guys who are either very wild (Negraneau, Huck Seed, etc.) or the thinkers (pretty much Ivey or Juanda until they do something stupid). Anyone who makes for good TV (since that is pretty much the only poker I get to see).

7. Which poker player do you dislike the most and why?
Answer: Anyone who makes a stupid call with a true underdog and sucks out on me. Can't stand that guy!

8. Do your coworkers know about your blog?
Answer: I really hope they don't. That would be bad.

9. What is the most you have won in a cash game or MTT (both live and online)?
Answer: I came in third in the first ever $20 20-table SNG on PokerStars for around $400.

10. What is the most you have lost in a cash game or in one day total (both live and online)?
Answer: The $400 I won on PokerStars when I moved them to Party Poker and tried to play the half million bad beat jackpot tables.

11. Who was your first poker blog read?
Answer: I think it was Daniel Negraneu's.

12. What satisfies you more, your aces holding up for a big pot or a bluff working for a big pot?
Answer: The art of the bluff is fascinating.

13. Why do you blog?
Answer: Same reason I play - nothing better to do. I guess it helps me keep a running web log of my poker experience.

14. Do you read blogs from an RSS reader like bloglines or do you visit each blog?
Answer: I wish I knew how to work an RSS reader. I go to each blog when I have the time.

15. Would you rather play poker for a living than do what you currently do for a living?
Answer: If I could sustain my current lifestyle I would do it in a heartbeat.

16. Do you wear a tin foil hat on occasion?
Answer: No I don't but my mother-in-law likes to put one on the roast chicken we buy once she cuts into it for the first time. Not sure what that's all about.

17. If you had to pin it down to one specific trait, what does a great poker player have (or do) that separates them from an average player?
Answer: Complete disregard for money, which creates a fearless playing style.

18. Is Drizz the coolest person on the planet for naming his baby Vegas?
Answer: I think that is an awesome name, although I was hoping it wasn't a girl (which she is). With a name like "Vegas Drizz" there are only a few industries she will be able to work in... Sorry Drizz.

19. What is your primary poker goal and are you close to accomplishing it?
Answer: After losing a few $100 deposits I set off to never again deposit my own money in a poker room. So I became a freeroll and no-deposit bonus junkie and have made it to around $400 so far. I found out that I can get lots of free stuff and cash by just moving my money from one place to another. That being said I would like to win a big MTT for a nice payday. WSOP is so distant that I don't even dare dream of making it. Even if I win a seat I am going to have to pass the wife hurdle which will not be an easy task...

20. What is your primary online site and why?
Answer: My primary site is the one where they give me free money. You can all check out NeverPay4Poker where you can follow me around to the free stuff. All kidding aside, I used to mainly play on PokerStars until it became a complete donkeyfest with ungodly suckouts at every corner. I mostly play single table $5 SNGs at Full Tilt Poker these days.

21. What site do you dislike and why?
Answer: Party Poker has become a vortex of idiocy. First, I don't think their servers can handle the load anymore. If you play an MTT and your table shuts down you actually have to go through the tournament lobby and find yourself in order to join your table again. Or wait till the software does it for you a few minutes later. And the sitouts and level of players is just intolerable.

So that's it for me. Hope you enjoyed. Go visit TripJax for more quality posts.

1st in Poker770 6-seat SNG

I was waiting for my plane to arrive at the airport in Miami yesterday afternoon and fired up Poker770 where I just recently got a free $30 deposit promo. I figured I will kill some time by playing a turbo 6-seat SNG since I had about 45 minutes to kill. I got real lucky when I caught a set of Jacks on the turn against a very loose player who caught a K on the flop with his K-8 suited hole cards. I then got lucky again when the player to my left sat out for the rest of the tournament. This helped me do two things:
1) Steal his blinds.
2) Look very loose and wild with many re-raises.

I eventually got heads up with the chip leader and took him out with two consecutive hands. The first one was a pair of 2-2 against his 9-7 (he never improved and I caught an unneeded 2 on the river just to make it feel worse. Then on the very next hand my Ah-10 went up against his A-5 and hit a heart flush on the turn to seal the deal. $5.50 to play - 1/2 hour invested - $21 payday. Not bad. Check it out (love those trophies):

Quads again at FTP

Is this normal? I have hit quads so many times in the past few weeks. Since starting my SNG experiment on Full Tilt Poker I have hit quads 4 times (5s, 8s, Js, Qs). And it's not like I play that many hands....

Heads Up Double Shootout SNG

I decided to give this thing a try to hoping it would improve my heads up experience. What do you know, I won my first one. Heads up is all about traps and suckouts. There are very few hands I will muck pre-flop if I was not facing a serious raise. Here, as usual are my screenshots:

2nd in Loons April Cash League Final

My dear friends, the PokerLoons, held their final freeroll game at Trident Poker last night. All the Cash League players were entered (all seven of us, including Aito and Faldor who made a rare appearance) to fight it out for $200 paid over 5 spots. I will have a full recap later but here is are the final standings:

Jungle Fever

I've got Jungle Fever! I cashed in two more Jungle Poker freerolls, coming in 5th in the $200 and 55th in the $1K (I was cheap leader for a long time and made a crucial mistake when I pushed with AK vs. 99 on a Q high rainbow flop). The $200 was especially nice since I led the tournament at both breaks:

Cheats

I think this is a great post:
blog.brettkelly.org">Why Poker Sites Have No Reason to Cheat

I wrote a comment as well:
I like your reasoning inkdemn, but I have four points to make:

1) Your calculations are wrong because PokerRoom is part of the OnGame network and those 7K players are split across multiple sites. So the rake is not 12K per hour but much less. Still I am not sure it would be low enough for them to manipulate the game in their favor. The obvious problem here is that if a site IS part of a network then the WHOLE network needs to be "rigged", which would cause multiple sites to cheat and also put the network operator at risk. Score 1-0 for non-cheating.

2) Prop players (shills?) could work for a single site, sit in the same (real) room and virtual room and collude to take away players money. Since this is something that goes on in the real world (not the colluding, but the prop players) there is no reason to believe it doesn't happen in the online world. And I am not talking about some buddy system that uses IM to collude, but an actual site-run team that is out there to take players money. Simple scenario: Shills show up for work (punch in, work in shifts) and get a list of active players that have been padding their bankrolls lately and are due for a "hit". They find them and slowly join their tables, pl,aying together to take some of that money away. Once again, this is not software manipulation, but rather site-initiated colluding against targeted players. Score 1-1.

3) The "Doom" Switch - I've read about it in a lot of places and pretty much what it means is that a player is tagged once he makes a withdrawal from a site. After his withdrawal he mysteriously gets bad beat after bad beat. Now the flaw with this theory is that if that player already made the withdrawal and loses the rest of his money nobody can guarantee that he will re-deposit and continue playing at a place where he is being beat. Score 2-1 for non-cheating, which brings us to point 4:

4) There are so many places to play online that there is no real incentive for players to stay on one site if they lose their bankroll.Obviouslyy if you make SuperNova on PokerStars you are going to stay and play all the freerolls they throw at you, but you don't make SuperNova if the site is cheating you in the first place, right? As opposed to the real world where you need to go sit in a physical room, online you can withdraw your money where you lose and deposit it in a different room in minutes. So once again there is no incentive for the site to manipulate its software in order to drive you away.

Final Score: 3-1 against cheating. I hope my ramblings were semi-clear.

Not So Bad

So Jungle Poker is not so bad. I played in the $1000 freeroll tonight and came in 15th out of 1277 for $10 and a seat in the WSOP qualifier. They run a lot of fun tournaments on an almost hourly basis and are giving away $100,000 until the official launch on May 19th. Check it out:

Poker Night

Friday night was poker night in the neighborhood and while Bobby had worked his butt off to finish his table, we ended up going over to Chris' place as his wife was out of town and he could not get a sitter. We were a smaller than usual group of only 8 but the action was fast and furious. I cashed in third place in the first game when I got a really unlucky bad beat. I had pocket 10s and made a significant raise. Charles (who is usually a calling station) raised me all-in and then moved a bunch of hidden chips from behind his stack. I didn't think he had that many and now I had a real dilemma. I had him covered and I decided to call. He showed K-7 off suit. WHAT? That was an awful play and I was pretty happy with my call until a K fell on the river. Ouch. I was severely short stacked and a couple of hands later I was out in third.

An interesting hand right before i took that beating had all three remaining players all-in. Charles had pocket 8s and both Chris and I had pocket 10s. I made a very gutsy call to Chris' all-in which paid off when we chopped.

The second game, as usual, I got overly aggressive with AJ and lost most of my chips to Bobby. I ended up being dealer-bitch for about 2 hours after getting knocked out first. The third game was much better and I was the commanding chip leader at the table. But then my wife called and said the baby has been having a restless night and she had been rocking her for the past hour or so. She was exhausted and wanted to know when I would be coming home. So I was back to baby tilt and lost my whole stack in two hands. Both hands were lost to Cindy (Charles' wife who is also a calling station).

In the first hand, on a rainbow board of 10-8-4, Ken with the short stack was all-in, called by Cindy and then re-raised all-in by me with AK off suit. I had them both covered and figured they hit a pair and I was getting great pot odds to make the raise and potentially knock them both out. Ken showed a pair of 8s, Cindy had pocket 9s and my hand never improved.

On the second hand, on a board of A-K-4-4 I pushed all-in with A9 and Cindy called with A-10. I knew it was going to be a chopped pot when the K fell on the turn, but then a 10 fell on the river giving Cindy two pair and taking the rest of my chips. I was out and went home to watch the baby while my wife got her rest. Baby tilt does it to me every time.

I was too wired to go to sleep myself so I fired up a couple of SNGs on Full Tilt Poker. I finally won my first $24 tournament token after a long heads-up battle:



I then won a $5 SNG as well. Hundrooli was a loose nut who was on serious tilt after being dumped by his girlfriend earlier in the evening and also got puked on:

Last One for Today

I played a forum freeroll on CD Poker and was doing really well until I suffered a seriously idiotic and uncalled for bad beat. I raise 4 times the BB and get re-raised all-in with QQ by a big stack with AK. Flop comes Q88 and I am probably a 99% favorite to win this hand right? WRONG!

Turn K, River K. Can you believe this crap? I lose to runner runner boat over boat. Check it out:

More FTP Action

Ok, so I played a few tournaments on Full Tilt Poker. Second time in a row that I get 2nd place in the race for the $24 token. Basically it's a single table SNG for a $4 buy-in. Winner gets a $24 token that can be used to play any of the tournaments on the site while second place gets $10.

I got the Hilton Sisters on two hands at the same time:

Obviously, I won one and lost the other. Then while playing the WSOP freeroll I hit a straight flush on the flop and played it beautifully to knock out a player who thought his two pair were good (I can't find the screen shot or the hand history, but it was a beauty).

I then hit quad Js:

Finally Cashed in OPT

I finally cashed in one of the Online Poker Tour that was played over at PokerHost. I was severely shortstacked and the blinds were eating me up very slowly. I just needed two players to get eliminated and that happened right in time. So I won entry into the Money Tour Event this Saturday, that I won't be able to play in anyway because it's date night and we are celebrating our second anniversary. I will log in on time and maybe play a few hands, then leave it to the poker gods to get me in the money.

Here's my 24th place finish on the Online Poker Tour:



UPDATE (5/8/06): I wasn't able to play in the Money Tour Game and ended up getting blinded out in 23rd place. Not bad out of 44 players, but I made no money.

Lots of Stuff to Report

Where to begin...

I played a few more of the crazy Party Poker freerolls and cashed in 3 of them for a grand total of $4.20 with a top finish of 18th:


So tonight I decided to try my luck with one of these $1 buy-ins. I made it pretty deep but then made two crucial mistakes. First mistake came when I made trip Qs from the BB and lost to pocket 9s that turned a boat (9s full of Qs):

***** Hand History for Game 4178838009 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:23038974 Level:7 Blinds(300/600) - Wednesday, May 03, 21:42:40 ET 2006
Table Regular(682011) Table #10 (Real Money)
Seat 3 is the button
Total number of players : 9
Seat 2: screechusa ( $3100 )
Seat 5: Balagan ( $17109 )
Seat 9: nwcoho ( $10298 )
Seat 4: bossy1113 ( $6611 )
Seat 8: Chocoyote ( $20331 )
Seat 7: alliekattinn ( $30 )
Seat 10: gravy503 ( $5681 )
Seat 3: subvet626G ( $12735 )
Seat 1: whisper133 ( $36297 )
Trny:23038974 Level:7
Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Balagan [ 2c Qh ]
alliekattinn folds.
Chocoyote folds.
nwcoho folds.
gravy503 folds.
whisper133 calls [600].
screechusa folds.
subvet626G calls [600].
bossy1113 calls [300].
Balagan checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qs, 9c, Th ]
bossy1113 checks.
Balagan bets [1300].
whisper133 calls [1300].
subvet626G calls [1300].
bossy1113 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Qd ]
Balagan bets [4000].
whisper133 calls [4000].
subvet626G is all-In.
Balagan is all-In.
whisper133 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 8d ]
Balagan shows [ 2c, Qh ] three of a kind, queens.
subvet626G shows [ 9h, 9d ] a full house, Nines full of queens.
Balagan wins 4374 chips from side pot #1 with three of a kind, queens.
subvet626G wins 31970 chips from the main pot with a full house, Nines full of queens.

I should not have been in the hand to begin with and too many hands could have beat me. Any Q with a better kicker than my measly 2, and KJ would have made a straight. I should have folded after subvet626G went all-in. It was an easy lay-down that I should have made. Big mistake. The good news is that subvet626G was crippled when he slow played AA and ran into a set of Js.

So nursing a short stack I waited for my opportunity. Once again it came in the SB when I was dealt K7 and about 6 players called. I flopped 2 pair and instead of pushing all in at this point I checked thinking someone will raise and I can then go all-in. Instead it got checked around and a second diamond fell on the turn. It was a little late but at this point I pushed and got one caller who hit his diamond flush on the river to knock me out in 376th place:

***** Hand History for Game 4178927901 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:23038974 Level:7 Blinds(300/600) - Wednesday, May 03, 21:51:48 ET 2006
Table Regular(682011) Table #10 (Real Money)
Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 2: screechusa ( $7173 )
Seat 5: Balagan ( $3474 )
Seat 9: nwcoho ( $12098 )
Seat 4: bossy1113 ( $8711 )
Seat 8: Chocoyote ( $26012 )
Seat 1: whisper133 ( $61781 )
Seat 6: Drudag ( $13478 )
Seat 7: snugnodge ( $43291 )
Seat 10: blav247 ( $660 )
Seat 3: scottA8off ( $11029 )
Trny:23038974 Level:7
Blinds(300/600)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to Balagan [ Kh 7c ]
snugnodge folds.
Chocoyote folds.
nwcoho calls [600].
blav247 folds.
whisper133 calls [600].
screechusa folds.
scottA8off calls [600].
bossy1113 calls [600].
Balagan calls [300].
Drudag checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kd, 7h, 3s ]
Balagan checks.
Drudag checks.
nwcoho checks.
whisper133 checks.
scottA8off checks.
bossy1113 checks.
** Dealing Turn ** [ 9d ]
Balagan is all-In.
Drudag folds.
nwcoho folds.
whisper133 folds.
scottA8off calls [2874].
bossy1113 folds.
** Dealing River ** [ Jd ]
Balagan shows [ Kh, 7c ] two pairs, kings and sevens.
scottA8off shows [ 7d, Qd ] a flush, king high.
scottA8off wins 9348 chips from the main pot with a flush, king high.
Player Balagan finished in 376 place

Second mistake. So in two hands I managed to knock myself out. I was doing really well and I was easily going to make the money. Hopefully I will learn from these mistakes in the future.

Sunday night was annoying. I was looking forward to the Poker Forum Championship game but it ended up being a real bust as it was set up on Belmont (avoid at all cost) Poker. The game was on Paradise Poker but you had to log in through Belmont which would not let me log in. Although I was able to log in about 10 times before the game, it wouldn't work when I needed it. A lot of other players could not get in either. I just ended up logging in through my regular Paradise Poker account. The site has a few quirks like exploding knocked-out players and strange fade effects when changing tables. I eventually threw it away in 51st place earning no points or money. I don't think I would have been paid anyway since I didn't use Belmont to log in. Oh well, let's just hope they don't use that site EVER again!

On the other hand I played the Freeroll Tourny $300 freeroll on Poker4Ever and cashed for $3 in 11th place (out of 357). I played very tight and eventually went all in with 77 against A3 suited and lost:

Played another crazy evening of Party Poker Freeroll Madness. The first game I played I made it all the way to 25th place (out of a starting 6100) for a huge $2.65 cash out. Woo hoo !!! The amazing thing about this game is that at those levels the blinds are huge and it's a crap shoot. The strange thing is that almost every showdown had the underdog winning. So obviously when I got QQ in the big blind and I went all in I lost to both AK and J8 who also went all in. So I was out in 25th after a long night.

So what does a donkey do? I took my $3.50 from last time plus the $2.65 and instead of waiting to play one of the $1 or $2 tournaments I went to the low limit NL tables. Probably three hands into it I got K-10 suited and ended up going all-in with the second nut flush draw and a gut shot straight. Problem was that all 4 players in the hand went all-in right behind me. The BB had the nut straight and none of us improved our hands. He won over $60. Not bad for a .10/.25 table, huh? But what do you expect of Party Poker?

Back to a zero balance... Just means I will need to cash again in these moronic freerolls.