Personal ATM Machine

I got back from San Diego at about 4pm Monday so I was able to play a couple of sessions of poker afterall. First one was a 2hr session trying to get a bunch of fpp on Pokerstars to work off my reload bonus. I made $125 for that session. The second session I had one guy pay me off several times when he really shouldnt have. I liked him a lot, hehe. Even with him paying me off I still had hands that didnt hold up, such as AA KK. Let me tell you about the AA hand as I am sure a lot of people wouldnt have folded like I did...

UTG raises to $8, I am in MP and call, LP calls and BB calls.

Flop: 567

SB moves all-in for about $125!! UTG pauses and folds and I pause as I debate my decision. This move by the SB typically means a PP with a OESD, eg. 88. There is also the chance he has 2 pair, eg. 67 or trips. The best scenario was he had 88 or 44 but in both those scenarios he had a 42% chance to hit one of his outs. If he had 2 pair or trips I would be in trouble. I decided I have only invested $8 and with a lot of unknowns decided he could take it.

My paydirt hand of the night was my third payday against the same opponent (he had $270, I had $290). I was SB and dealt AA with two limpers so I raised to $8 and only my friend called. Flop came 755 and I believe I bet $15 which he called. Turn was another 5. At this point I would be more than willing to payoff someone with a 5 or 77. I bet $35 and he raised me $35, now rather than just calling him I decided to min. raise back as we still had plenty of reserves left and I wanted all of his. Thus I reraised him $35 and he called. River was a K which didnt scare me but probably would him. But at this point the pot is big so I just pushed in which would cost him about $140 to call. He debated a long time but did eventually call. He had Q7s for the lower FH. That pot was the biggest I have won to date, equalling approx. $540...yummy!

I quit after that hand with a second session profit of $345 and a total for the night of approx $470. A fantastic start to the week. I should clear Pokerstars bonus tonight in a bout an hr and then I will move over to Bodog and work on clearing my bonuses there for the rest of the week.

I feel very confident I can reach $10k by the end of this week...wish me luck! :-)

BR Week 20

I am off to San Diego today with Alex and Amber to go visit our friend Kay at his pad. So I am writing my blog now as I wont be playing Sunday and I will be back late Monday so I might not even get a session in on Monday either.

To the BR!!! Good news is I had another $1k week -- $1125 to be precise. This puts my BR to $8775. This coming week will be my last week at $1/2 (barring a disaster) and I will be moving up to $2/4 the following week. I have a couple of bonuses to work off next week as well which will help make sure that disaster doesnt occur. If I clear both those bonuses next week and have a good week it is feasible to surmise I "could" reach $10k by next Sunday night...a lofty goal and not something I am pushing to make but it sure would be nice!

All my profit for week 20 came on the weekdays --> $200, $15, $200, $300, $410, (mon.-fri.). On Saturday I had my AA busted by JJ who I must say played them brilliantly. He played me like a master fiddler and doubled up. I also lost on plenty of other hands and before I knew it I was -$400. I made it all back by Sat. night so I didnt quite get 6 days of straight wins. I think I can handle that ;-)

Well I must finish getting ready for my trip, we are taking the Train to SD to avoid the holiday traffic.

Bodog players

The quality of competition is not very good on this site and is the only reason I am seriously considering staying here. In my opinion, or perhaps just recent memory, they are the worst I have seen on any of the sites I have been on. They chase all the time time and play very marginal hands. I won with a hand last night which I lost a huge pot in an identical play last week.

MP raises to $4, I raise to $10 (with AA). MP calls.

Flop is 494 (my memory fails me but I think 2 of one suit)

MP bets $12 and I raise to $30 and MP raises me approx. $50 more.

Now at this point I am either well ahead or well behind. If I am behind I am paying him off and if I am ahead I am happy for him to remain the aggressor. Thus I call his $50 re-reraise.

Turn was a 3 I think (no 3 to a suit) and MP pushes in and I call.

River is a K and MP has TT vs my AA. An easy $200 gain. Last week it was the same scenario but the river brought a Ten.

BTW, that was my very first hand of the session and as is now my policy I quit straight away and went and watched a DVD (Matrix Reloaded).

I hopped back on after the DVD and played another 90mins and made another $100 with some small and medium pot wins. A $300 gain for the night for about 90mins work - I like it! Puts me up $700 for the week and sets me up perfectly to have another $1k week. Having said that I am making a sacrifice to the Poker River Gods so the week doesnt turn south on me.

Bodog sux

Last night was one of those nights again where worse cards from my competition would come through for them. If I had AQ vs A7 the flop would come A7x. I lost one major hand of the night my set of 3's vs another set of 6's. Thats going to happen every now and again, oh well. The players are so bad on this site that if you can get a hand they will most likely pay you off. They need to suckout to win. They will routinely call with middle pair or gutshot draws. Another common practice is to place a minimum bet on a flop eg. $2 into a $12 pot- very weak play but I see it a lot. I ended my first session $150 down and took a break and came back later to play another. Wasnt long before I was another $50 down and I was going to quit with any medium pot win. I got AA UTG and limped, UTG+1 raised to $12 and MP called the $12. When it got back to me I raised it to approx. $35 and they both called. Flop came T high with 2 clubs and MP player had $32 left. I figured if I am ahead I dont want to scare anyone off so I bet $35 and was called by UTG+1. The turn brought a 3rd club. I wasnt worried about him having a flush because he obviously had a high pp. What I was worried about was one of them could be clubs and neither of my Aces were. It actually took me a while to make my bet and I pushed in which may have helped influence my opponent to call me. He had KK, no clubs and got no help on the river. So I immediately unclicked autopost on all my tables and waited for the blinds. I got several playable hands while waiting but as is typical got sucked out on. So before the blinds even got to me I lost another $30. Anyway I quit and somehow managed to be up $15 for the night, hahaha.

I have 4 days left to make $600 and have a repeat $1k week. I would like that :-)

Bodog blows

Aarghh, I cant wait to be done with Bodog. One problem I have with their interface is regularly my fold button disappears and I have to wait to be timed out and then sit back in. It also annoys everyone else at the table. Also I get the "unjoin waitlist" button come up where my fold button should be when I am not even waiting on any table. I go through the motions of cancelling this but it will continue to repeat all night. There is only one thing in favor of bodog. If you like to play a lot of hands per hr this is the site for you. They are by far the fastest dealing and hand completion site I have come across. On their 10 person tables its like playing on a 6 person table on any other site. If they had rake I would love this site, but seeing as they dont I cant wait to get off.

Anyway to last nights play. I cant really remember too much worth mentioning last night apart from one hand where I had a minor suckout. I was in the SB in a family limped pot with 33. The flop came 463. Pot was about $12 and I bet out $7, MP called and LP raised $7. I reraised $7 more, MP folded and LP paused for a long time and raised about $70. In all honesty at this point I should've known I was behind and folded and in fact that did enter my mind for 1 second but I quickly brushed it aside...I had trips! So he had about $30 left so I just pushed in and he called. He had 57 for the nut straight which is actually a far better scenario for me than him having trip 4's or 6's. The turn killed him when it paired the 6 and I made $120ish profit. Had some other small ups and downs and ended quitting for the night$205 up. This puts me well on my way towards another $1k week and boy do I want it. I also realize how quickly the tide can turn but I put more odds on me making it than losing it all.

Bodog - screw them!

So when I initially joined Bodog they invited me into a free tourney which I won. My prize was a 100% matching bonus up to $100 and a couple of other things. So I deposited $100 for that bonus and then another $500 for the 20% initial deposit bonus. I lost a big chunk of my money early on this site so had to reload another $600 to be able to multi-table at $1/$2. This third deposit also gets a 20% matching bonus. Thus I have 3 bonuses due, totalling $320 and I have to earn 3 bodog points for every dollar in bonus. I have now cleared enough points for my first bonus and ask them if I get it now. Their answer is I have to clear ALLLL my bonuses before I get any of them. WTF?! Think of it this way...if you are a losing player and are having to constantly top up your account to keep playing the level you want to, you will basically never ever get a bonus because each time you are depositing they are adding more bodog points required. Its basically an all-or-nothing bonus scheme. I told them it was BS and that once I have cleared my bonus points they will never earn another dime from me. I have to earn another 660 points which will take me no more than 2 weeks. At least I will have $320 to look forward to. But after that, they can KMA! I will be quiting the site for good.

Onto last nights play. WOW, what a suckout fest. A lot of the players on bodog are simply terrible. They are chasers, do not understand the value of a kicker and will call with middle pairs. Needless to say I lost to 4 flushes, 1 made on turn and 3 rivered. and I lost multiple times with TPTK when their lesser kicker hit on either the turn or river. It was one of those nights where if it could go wrong it would. As many hands as I lost I kept them as minimal as I could and for my session lost only $170. This is what cracks me up about fish players. Of the three flushes that hit on the river (I had position over all 3), they all checked on the river, which I did too. So all of them chased without the odds to catch and then when they hit they got no money from me. Freaking monkeys! Another example for you...5 of us in a limped pot it comes down K75. All checked to the button who bets about 2/3 pot, SB calls. Turn a J, SB checks, button bets half pot, SB calls. River an x both check and SB wins with the hand J9. Can anyone tell me why SB even called the flop bet?

So I quit, had something to eat and chilled for a little bit then hopped back on. I do not enjoy losing to these fish so want some payback. My second session for the night the cards started hitting me. I got QQ several times and won all of them to of them BIG pots where both times I got trips. One of them I would've folded but an idiot played it stupid. Check this out.

So I raise from MP to $10, LP calls, BB calls as does an EP limper. Flop comes K54. BB checks, EP bets $6 (um, ok...I'll call that), LP folds and BB completes. Turn is a 9. This time it costs us $10 each (I am not convinced with the betting I am beat). River is a Q (sweet!). BB checks, EP checks and I bet $50. Suddenly BB wakes up and raises me $50. At this point I dont think I thought about the hand enough and simply called him worried about trip Kings. If I had taken a moment I would've realized there is almost zero chance KKK would play the hand this way. Anyway I won the pot against his AK. But seriously how easily could he have taken this hand away from me? CHUMP! I got trips 3 or 4 times in my second session and quit after about an hr having made back the $170 and another $190 on top of that. I went to bed a happy man starting off Monday the way I like with a nice profit of $190.

Would it be possible to have $1k weeks back to back???? :-)

BR week 19

Well I really wanted to make $1k this week and blow me down but I did!

Another very good week for me +$1150 putting my BR to $7650. On Saturday morning I got to $1250 and put a hoodoo on myself by telling my friend. Then I promptly lost $550! oops. By Sunday afternoon I had won most of it back and was very happy. Sunday afternoon and night I went to a friends party and got very drunk and had a riproaring time. I really didnt want to come to work today.

I am hungover.

Card dead

Last night was an uneventful 2 hrs of play. I won one big pot with the marginal hand AJs which I raised to $6 and was reraised to $10. I called and the flop was AJx all hearts. I didnt check his hand history but I imagine he had AK as he called my river bet of $35. That profit was blinded away and lost on missed flops and missed draws and a couple of suckout losses. The only other exciting hand was one of those suckouts where I raised w/AQs with 2 callers. We all checked the flop of KJx, turn was a T of diamonds putting 2 diamonds on the board. BB led out with a pot sized bet of $18 and I raised to $44 which he called (in hindsight this bet is too small. I believe I should've raised to $58-$68). River was K of diamonds. He checked as did I. He won with his 87 diamonds for the flush. So I quit at 8pm to watch the season finale of Smallville $35 down. Was a very boring card night with practically no action for the time played. I hope for some positive action tonight. I need to make $650 in 4 days to hit $1k.

Yummy

I played for no more than an hour last night because I got paid off early. My first payoff came when I had AA in mid to late position. No one had entered before me so I made a raise to $6 with 2 callers. The flop came 93x and the BB lead out with a $9 bet which I called and the other person folded. Turn was a 3 and the BB bet $10 and I raised $20 more which he called. The river was another 3 and the BB lead out with a $50 bet which I pushed in on and he called.
My hand - AA333, BB hand TT333. Profit of $175. Unfortunately I also lost several medium pots in the coming 30 mins to lose about $100 of that. For example an EP raised to 6 and I called from the blinds w/ JJ. Flop was Ten high and I lead out pot size, called. Turn was low again and I bet $25 which he tripled, I folded and rightly so I believe. Another hand I had AQ and raised a limper, Flop came Queen high and he bet and I raised and he called, turn was a King, one of the few cards I dreaded and he led into me with an $80 bet, easy fold.
Then the tide turned again in my favor. I was in the SB w/KK and the button raised to $6 which I called. Flop came Jack high and I checked and he bet about 1/3 the pot $5. Now I know and he knows that his bet looks weak so I could have any hand to go for a steal and raise him $10 more. Well he reraised me an additional $15 which gave me pause and made me think he might have pocket jacks (why I dont know). I called. The turn was a beautiful K. I checked and he bet pot $75 - I only had $150 left but decided to check and lead out on the river. On the river I pushed in and he called and indeed he had JJ for trip jacks, hehe, but I had KK for trip Kings! That pot gave me a profit of $195. I was now $280 up for the night and as I have previously decided was going to call it a night an unlcicked autopost and would play out the remaining hands until the blinds hit me. In the second to last hand on my final table I got 22 in UTG+2 and I limped. MP raised to 8 and I called. The flop came 28T and I lead out with a $15 bet which he called. The turn was a K and I actually got concerned he might have pocket Kings. Anyway I played weak and checked the turn and he bet $30. Now I decided if he did have trip Kings I was going to call him down anyway and if he didnt I decided to act weak so he would buy the pot. So I paused for a long time and called the $30 turn bet. The river was junk and I took the small risk of checking to him and he bet $100 which I insta-called. He had AK and I took the pot. Seeing what he had I wonder if he would have played the hand out if I had reraised him on the turn? Or if I had called his turn bet and lead out on the river with $50 he would've at most only called. So I think I got maximum return. Profit was $170 for that hand and one hand later I quit for the night. Total profit for the night $440. VERY SWEET! This sets me up nicely for a $1000+ week. I know its early but I am very keen for another $1k+ week. BRING IT ON!!

Monday blues

Overall a horrible card night. The flop missed me all night and I actually didnt feel like I got many premium starting hands either. I got a ton of pp's and saw every flop with them no matter the cost and didnt hit a trip once (exclusion to come). This would be in the range of 12-16 pp's for the night missed - now that annoyed me. I made one bluff for the night which I havent done for a long time and it failed. I was a blind with AK and two limpers so I raised to $10. Flop was 558 2 spades. I bet pot $20 and was called. Normally it is a check fold from there but my guess is because I was card dead I decided to try to buy it. I bet pot again $60 and was called. River also missed me and we both checked. He had called me down with 86 - WOW. He was right this time but damn, I wouldnt be doing that too often. Ran into other beats such as an all-in my a maniac which I called with my JJ, he had J2 spades. He got his flush on the river - priceless. I lost several small to medium pots also when the flop missed or compromised me and after 2-1/2 hrs I was down $300 - yuck. I was getting frustrated as I just wasnt getting hit with anything and hadnt all night, then when I was close to quiting I made $250 in 3 consecutive hands at the same table. First one was me in BB w/63o with a 33Q flop and making $50. Next hand I have AQ and call a $6 raise. Flop is QQx and I make about $80 on that and then the next hand I have QQ and raise to $10 on the button and get 1 caller. Flop is 36Q 2 clubs. I continue with aggression and bet $20 which is called. Turn brings an Ace and opponent has $90 left, he checks. I decide if I bet pot I may as well put him in so I do and he calls. No third club and he said he had the nut flush draw with a pair of aces. Next hand I had Q5s and called a min. raise to see if I could continue the rush but the flop missed me so I quit shortly thereafter. Thus I ended the night down $50 and was extremely happy at that!
Bring on Tuesday poker and let the flop hit me HARD!

BR week 18

Made $450 profit for the week which is lower than I was hoping come Sunday putting my BR at $6500. Why? because as what is becoming a trend, Sunday seems to be a killer for me. I lost with the following hands:

AAx1, KKx2, Tripsx3, straightx1 & flush x1 -- all in one day.

Very painful.

New site for people --> gamesgrid.com

download it and play as they have a 1000% (up to $5000) matching bonus on first deposit. You read that right, 1000%! And it isnt hard at all to work the deposit off and they pay whatever you work off each week and you have one year to do it. Not only that if you play 10+ hours per week at a particular ring game they will give you a rakeback equal to 150% of the SB/hr played per/table.

The only downside is not many people play on the site and it can take a while to get a table, but definitely well worth it.

If you (and you should) sign up please use my username as a referral -- "Holdem1"

Even stevens

Its now Friday and I have played 4 nights this week. Monday had a profit of $125, Tuesday I lost about $225, Weds. I lost about $100 and Thurs. I won about $230. So I am up a few dollars at this point. What I have learnt this week is that if I get myself up a buy-in at any point during the week, I should quit for the night right then and there. For example, on Monday my highpoint was about +$250, Tuesday $+200 (how did I manage to lose $400 from that?!), weds. I didnt have a high point but was as los as -$200. Thurs. I had told myself if I get to even for the week to quit. This happened in the first hr and I quit immediately.

At the start of the week I was thinking I'll play the entire session no matter my wins or losses during it but by Thrus. I started thinking...I am trying to make like $400-500 a week profit and if I can get +$200 on any given night that is such a big chunk of what I am hoping to get that week I should quit right then. Why you ask? Well quite simply it is easy to blind away $200 in a session and if you have some losing hands another $200 on top of that.

If I had quit on Monday and Tuesday when I reached +$200, this week would be looking hot. Instead I have managed to break even.

The flipside of doing this is I will never go on a blinder and win $800 in a night because I will quit at $200. But I am in no rush to make chunks of money, my goal is to make a CONSISTENT $400-$600 per week and thats it.

Quads x 3

For the third time in 3 weeks I ran into quads - the one outer.

I had 88 my opponent had 7x - his kicker didnt matter because he had to get the 4th 7 to win.

Flop came 787, K, 7

WOW. From this never having happened to me before I have now been on the losing end of it three times in 3 weeks with very stong hands. Brutal!

I also ran into many other suckouts last night, it made me chuckle as I realized it was just one of those nights. But not everything went against me. Here is one hand I enjoyed winning.

I had J9s in the BB, 3 of us saw the flop in an unraised pot.

flop came Jx9 - 2 spades.
Pot was $7 and I bet $5, next guy called and final guy raised it $10 more. I honestly was happy at this point to take the pot and give terrible odds to anyone chasing so I raised him $60 more. Unless this guy has trips or my cards he should definitely fold. Well caller folded and raiser reraised me all-in $100 more. I called. He had pocket aces and got no help.
Note: people, dont limp with aces.
He seriously needed to lay those aces down though. What did he think I would reraise $60 with?

Anyway, that and a couple of other medium pots allowed me to be $125 up for the night.

BR week 17

17 weeks over now and my profit for it was $770 putting my BR to $6050. Yes it was a good week but unfortunately my mood doesnt reflect it as on Sunday I lost a big chunk of it. Water under the bridge now and time to focus on a new week. This week I am going to go back to my very tight game and see if I can get rid of some of this high variance game I have been playing. My wins and losses have been yo-yoing about and I want to reduce those losses even if it means some reduction in wins. I think I can make a higher avg. weekly total by playing tighter.

I might deposit into Party Poker tonight and work off a bonus. You make more money via bonuses than rakeback so its worth it. Otherwise I play on Eurobet for sure (for the rakeback).

Repeat?!?!?!?!

Bad beats are acceptable, multiple bad beats get frustrating, repeats of last week blow ass!

I raise UTG w/AK a shorty of about $40 reraises me so I push in so I can see all 5 cards
streets go as follow J4J9Q -- my opponent had AQ.

I have AA in SB, mp min. raises with one caller, I reraise to $14 and both call.
Flop is 983
Mp has $60 left and other guy has the same as me. I bet pot $40 and MP pushes in, other guy folds
MP has 88 and holds up.

I have KK couple of limpers I raise to $10
Flop come K46 2 spades
checked to me, I bet $20, 1 guy folds and the other pushes in.
River puts 3rd spade on board but second 6, I should be good.
Nooooooooooooo, the 2nd 6 gives him quad 6's
Thats the second time in two weeks my set over set has lost to river quads.

I quit after I tilt away another $50 and realize I am not in a good frame of mind to play anymore.

I end the night down $210.

Bodog bonus

For a while some of my poker associates have been raving how soft the play is at the Bodog poker site so I finally downloaded it this week. Then yesterday I got an email welcoming me to the site and they said that I havent deposited any money yet and would I like to play in a mini-tourney...sure, why not. The prizes were as follows:

1st Place: Free $100 bonus on a $100 deposit plus a $5 WSOP satellite tourney credit.
2nd Place: Free $75 bonus on a $75 deposit plus a $5 WSOP satellite tourney credit.
3rd Place: Free $50 bonus on a $50 deposit plus a $5 WSOP satellite tourney credit.

I'll also be throwing in a free copy of Barry Shulman's new book from CardPlayer Press called "52 tips for Texas Hold'em Poker" withyour initial deposit should you place in the top 3($20 additional value).

The tourney was last night and had 21 players. You start with 1200 chips and the blinds increase slowly. Quite simply I was card dead the enitre tourney and made extreme use of the "FOLD" button. As you would think in this kind of tourney people were dropping like flies and with slowly increasing blinds it wasnt long before we were down to 1 table and I still had over 1000 chips. Still hadnt seen any decent cards but doubled up with a SB J7o on a Jack high flop when middle pair called my all-in. Once again I simply folded away until we were down to 4 and I was at maybe 3-4k in chips. The CL limped with QQ and I checked from the BB with 57o and flopped the nut straight. I checked and it was bet and raised and I think I pushed and was called. He got trips on the turn but no boat on the river. That'll teach him for limping. He was knocked out shortly after. Soon after I was CL and then the next pivotal hand I had was AQ and I raised and was called by the other major stack. Flop came AT5 and I bet a medium amount and he raised huge so I pushed in and he called with A9. I held up and now had close to 20k in chips with only one other person left who had about2.5k in chips. I pressurred him relentlessly and we got all-in on my A2o against his KJs and neither of us improved. Sweet!

While I was doing that tourney I was also 2 tabling on Pokerstars. Playing my same aggressive style, I won some medium pots and lost some medium pots and stole plenty of little pots and ended the night $100 up. PS also have a 20% reload bonus on up to $120 currently on, so I deposited $600 and thats why I was playing there. Need 600fpp's to clear my bonus and earned 100 of them last night.

So far this week is going perfectly. Every night has been a profit and it has been a lot of fun. I have played one sng (3rd), lots of ring games and a mini tourney (see above). Aaahhh, if only it was this easy every week.

Be aggressive...be, be aggressive

Last night I got AKo a lot and I believe it paid off almost everytime - I am not talking anything big, usually just the PF bet but that is still good. I continued my new improved aggressive style and did not get as much playback on my continuation bets on the flop. Raising PF not only limits the amount of callers but gives you control of the hand. Your opponent generally has to have the flop hit them to be willing to call or raise any flop bet you make. So I would raise PF and bet again on the flop (where it often missed me) and win the hand. It is a great way to accumulate money and if you do hit your hand and get playback it should allow you to get paid off. At one point in the night I was up about $350 and I had 44 in SB with 5 of us in a limped pot. Flop came 245 (2 clubs) and I lead out with a $20 pot size bet, was called by one and raised another $100 by the button. It was a huge raise but I was willing to call it, the other guy wasnt. Turn brought the 3rd club and it scared us both and the hand was checked to the river. The other guy had A3 for a straight. I ended the night $250 up though so I have no complaints. That $250 was made up with a lot of continuation bets and a couple of medium sized pots. I was very pleased with the night. Same again tonight please...

Aggressive style

I have modified my style a little bit. If I am coming into a hand and anyone before me has limped I am raising even if I am coming in with 54s. Basically if I am betting it wont be a call it will be a raise. I dont know whether it was my imagination or not but a lot of the time I made a continuation bet on the flop I was NOT getting called but reraised. A lot of the time I had to fold as the flop had missed me completely. This happened a lot and I believe people picked up on this and reraised me just to test me and resteal the pot from me. Of course sometimes I have a hand and I get their resteal money. I got AA 4 times last night and came out slightly ahead due to the fact I almost positive I ran into KK and a K came on the flop. I bet in a way to find out whether he had KKK and am positive this is the case - cost me $85. But I won a nice pot on one of the others and a couple of small pots on the other two. I also lost with KK and QQ so my high pp's werent much help last night.

Betting aggressive (with control), I must say, is a lot more fun but has a bit more variance. Last night I got played back a lot and so was losing $20 a pop in those situations but the flip side is you tend to get more action when you do make a hand.

Anyway I was breakdancing around even when I was in the SB with AKo with about 4 limpers and the BB to come so I raised it to $15. I got a mp caller and the flop came KT7. I lead out with approx. a $30 bet and was called. I decided if he had trips or something else sweet I was going to pay him off, in otherwords, I was going all the way on this baby if he wanted to. The turn was another low card and I checked knowing he would bet. He bet $35 into an approx. $90ish pot and I decided my hand is somewhat vulnerable and I am happy with the size of the pot, so if he wants to play with me it will cost him everything and I reraised him another $150. He reraised me his final $18 and we saw the river. It came an Ace, giving me two pair. I ended up winning the hand and when I checked hand history he had called me down with KQ. Not the best hand to be calling a $15 PF bet. My guess is, because of my large $150 raise he put me on a steal with something like QQ, JJ and figured he was good. Sorry, no!

So that pot put me for the night +$200. Fine with me...goodnight.

BR Week 16

Ok 16 weeks over and obviously week sixteen sucked ass due to all my river losses as previously noted. I also didnt play much on the weekend as I helped my friend paint his new condo and then had to work on Sunday and then go help my friend move into his condo. Anyway, lets get to the numbers. Week 16 was a loss of $605 and puts my BR at $5280. Considering all the all-in river losses losing $600 isnt terrible. On Sunday I squeezed in a $30 SNG as I wasnt in the mood for any ring game. I got some good cards and I played very aggressive and basically used what I have learnt from my ring games to pressure people. I built a very healthy stack to $7k with about 5 to go. We get down to 3 and the SS doubles up when he sucks out and then I bust 2nd stack to have a 2 to 1 chip lead. My opponent wasnt very skillful and basically pushed in every other hand. I like someone who plays like this as I will bust him in time. Eventually we got all-in my A9 against his J9, but he flopped 2 Jacks which is his 3rd suckout of the game. So now he had the chip lead 2 to 1. I get it back my JJ against his 88 and then eventually rein him in and win. That made me feel better about the week.

So I sacrificed a goat to the RIVER GODS in the hopes of appeasing them. Lets see how this week shapes up...

All-ins and the river

What can I say...

I have been all-in 5 times this week as a heavy favourite and on all of those 5 times I have lost on the river. We all expect it every now and then even a few times in a row, but all 5? Let me run them down in order of merit.

5. I had a flush and my opponent boated on river. This is when my 3 flush cards fall on the flop and we get all our money in on the turn. So not only is he lucky but stupid. (10 outs)
4. I have a straight and he flushes on river. (9 outs)
3. I have KK against TT and he rivers a straight. (6 outs)
2. I have 66 and trip on flop and boat on turn, board is all low and his JJ boats higher on river. (2 outs)
1. I have AA he has 33, flop is A3J and he quads on the river. (1 out)

So the worst odds I had was a 3 to 1 in my favor all the way up to 975 to 25 in my favor. I also found it funny that all my losses occurred on the river. I am hoping this terrible streak will end this week and I can leave it at 5 in a row. Because of these all-in losses I havent played much this week as I quit after each one and I really had to quit after each successive one as each new one was more frustrating than the last and playing on tilt is never a good idea.

I dont have the figure in front of me exactly how much I am down this week but its approx. $750. I put this down to one of those really big downswings because obviously I played my hands right but the river gods did not reward me.

Will the river gods be generous next week?....