Monday, December 21, 2009

Crunchtime

My holiday vacation away from my full time job began today. This time last year is when I kick started my nice 2009 poker run. I made over $10k during that break. Hopefully, I can have a similar, if not better run over this year's break to kickoff a huge 2010.

Happy Holidays!

Friday, November 6, 2009

The Collapse


Well, I've finally completed my collapse on Full Tilt. This year started out so promising on that site. I was up $11k to start the year, after January. Now, I'm down for the year. Shit sucks. Just gotta keep trying to improve and hopefully my hard work will pay off.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Dear Full Tilt

Here is an email that I sent to Full Tilts support and this person's response. Apparently, they receive these kind of emails on a regular basis.


SUBJECT: I Love Full Tilt Poker

"Dear Full Tilt Poker,

I am writing to tell you how much I love playing on your site. You have by far the best software in the history of the Computers. I love going to Las Vegas and wearing the Full Tilt merchandise that you send to me. Hopefully, one day I will win a seat into the WSOP Main Event or some other major live event and can proudly wear your gear all the way to the final table. One day, when I grow up, I want to become a Full Tilt Red Pro. That would be the best day of my life. In the meantime, I'd like to apologize for anything that I have done to make you upset. I didn't mean to log into another poker site. Honestly, I didn't. I'd also like to ask that you please turn off the doom switch on my account. I really would love to win money in one of your tournaments. I've heard that it's possible. Again, I apologize and wish you all the best.

Sincerely,

Andrew aka TheJunkie"


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

RESPONSE

"Hello Andrew,

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Support.

First of all, thank you for the very positive feedback ragarding Full Tilt Poker. I wish you the best of luck in your quest to be a top professional player.

Some players like to think that there is a button or switch at online poker sites that when flipped gives players terrible cards and horrible bad beats. The doom switch also has developed a counterpart known as the boomswitch which apparently gives players great cards and makes them unstoppable at the tables.

The whole concept of a doomswitch does not make sense for an online poker site. Please understand that a poker site makes its money off of rake which is a small portion of each pot played on the site. A poker site does not want to take your money because once you are broke you can no longer contribute rake. For a poker site, busting players with a doomswitch does not in any way increase revenue. If Full Tilt Poker made players who potentially would have spent many hours of happily playing raked hands on the site go bankrupt to bad beats they would be risking those players trying their luck at another site, or not playing for real money at all.

Conversely, giving great cards to all the players who are close to busting would also negatively affect profits. If the consistent players who play poker for a living were consistently losing to players who were getting fed the winning hands they would take their game to another site. This would cost a site a large percentage of players who play multiple tables forty or more hours a week. These players track their hands very closely and would be the first to recognize if there was a statistical discrepancy. Every high stake game you see being played is a statement by every player at the table that they trust the RNG at Full Tilt Poker.

Some players come up with more devious schemes for how this doom switch might operate in an effort to maximize profits for a poker site. However, these theories are no less speculative than theories about UFO's, secret societies, and mythical creatures. While it is easy to type up a reasonable motive for a poker site to rig action there is simply no evidence to support it.

The fact is that there are thousands of players who record every hand they play, and there has never been a manipulated shuffle discovered over a significant sample size. Players who have recorded a hundred thousand hands or more and taken the time to analyze the statistics simply do not write emails to poker sites accusing them of having a doom switch.

Regards,

Jamie
Poker Specialist
Full Tilt Poker Support"


Good Game Doom switch.

Friday, October 9, 2009

The Comeback of All Comebacks

Well, the streak of venting on this blog leading to a tourney score continues. A couple days after my quick rant, I finally made a final table and closed the deal. This was a decent pickup, financially and emotionally.

I was able to keep my composure after getting pretty short stacked to make the final two tables. Then I sucked out versus a reg to make the final table. When HU came along I started down 3 to 1, but was able to take the chip lead. Then I managed to get down $73k to $1.4M and win the tourney. This was just amazing. Granted there was some luck involved, but a comeback that I'm proud of nonetheless. Hopefully, this will kick start my next upswing.

Note: My downswing on fulltilt is still in effect, so I am free to bitch about that. :-)

Suckout #1 vs PetieBigStacks from FullTilt:



I have shoved over this guys button raises 2 or 3 hands in a row and was counting on him making a tilt call.



I started HU down 3 to 1 and this save on the turn was a sign of things to come.



I was hoping for a hero call since I played my hand pretty weak.



After managing to take the chip lead, I got it in with a draw, only to be drawing dead on the turn. Notice my stack at the end of the hand. I am down to about $73k.



The start of my run.



I win a 60/40.



Suckout #2.



A sick hold.


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Good Advice

I was trolling through 2+2 today and came across a thread and response that hit home.

Original Thread:
How do you..
So last night I came pretty close to my first BIG cash, I haven't been an MTT player for long, about a month now.

First time i've really been that close to a large amount of money, but managed to go out in 13th, after being top 5 for a long time.

How do you guys deal with this? As i'm sure you've experienced it before.

I just generally feel like **** today, so close and the money I won doesn't seem to matter at all!
Just feel like that big MTT win will never come around..

Thanks
- Lncredible

Response:
if you don't have thick skin in this game you will never be as successful as you want to be. So many good players limit themselves b/c they dwell on their beats and misfortunes. You just have to let it go.
- M1cKmAcK


This is definitely something that I needed to read. I've been running like shit all year on full tilt and now that run bad is spilling over to PokerStars. Gotta try to stay positive and keep my cool during this downswing. Hopefully, it'll all come together when I'm on the verge of that huge score.

Good Luck!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Catching Up

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote a post. I'll just do a long recap so that I can start with more up-to-date happenings. Here are the highlights or lowlights of my summer in Vegas.

- I finally had a decent cash in a Vegas Tournament($6k) and I'm now listed in the CardPlayer database. I finished 3rd based on a 4-way chop in the 2009 Binions Poker Classic Event #6. There was a $200 buy-in and 246 entries.

- Next up the WSOP Main Event. I'm not a big cash player so I think the adjustment with playing deep stacked was even more steep than going from online to live. After a while I felt somewhat comfortable.

Day 1: I was definitely not given any breaks with my first table draw. I spent all of Day 1 with Andrew "Muddywaters" Wiggins, Josh Schlein and a handful of solid players. There were only one or two complete donks. Obviously they didnt last long. Not much happened. At the end of the day, I bagged 44275 chips.

Day 2: This day was very different than Day 1 in terms of moving. I was at 4 different tables. I started at a table with a couple of maniacs. Two were pros with some nice scores. One was Nam Le's brother. They looked like twins and he sported the Nam-esque Pittsburgh Pirates hat, so it wasn't hard to make the connection. I managed to get up to 50k but I couldn't move a guy off of AA with my busted straight draw. He tank called me down. I continued to nurse my short stack after getting crippled by a guy that tried to rep a hand vs my top two. I played it kinda bad and he got there. For runner, runner, straight holding J2o. I had to pay him off on the river. I was complete tilted after this hand. I figured that it was just a matter of time, but I'd bust and I proceeded to tweet that I had busted so I wouldn't have to get any more calls. Well, shortly after this hand, I was moved to a table with Tim Phan. I was only there for a couple of hands before being moved again. Next up was a table with Antonio Esfandiari. He had a mountain of chips. At this table I was able to stop the bleeding a little by using my short stack to resteal a few times with big ace type hands. The only other person that I recognized at this table was "dfish" from online poker. He was so annoying. I'm surprised that he could talk with Antonio's nuts in his mouth. I guess that's how early 20-somethings act. After being at this table for about an hour, the highlight of my tourney happened. A tourney director came to break up the table. He said that the person with the green card will be moved to the featured table. That was pretty cool. Dfish also stated that the person would get $10k, which I later found out was false. The $10k was only given if you started at the featured table at the beginning of the day. So, the Director proceeded to deal the cards, but he misdealt. He did it again and yours truly got the green card.

After going to the area, there was some confusion as to me really supposed to be there. After walking back and forth, they finally mic'd me up and I was there in livin color at the table with Phil Hellmuth. That was pretty cool. Me and my $17k stack. 5 chips. 3 orange($5k) and 2 yellow($1k). I didn't expect to be there long at all. It was at this time that I decided to let the cat out of the bag and send a tweet that I was at the featured table. A couple hands in, I finally picked up a big hand. I was dealt AA in EP with only about 20bb. I decided to tank, limp to induce a raise. It worked. I got it in vs AJ. He flopped a gutshot, but I held. My next big hand I had QQ and got it in vs AK. I held. Then from the BB, a shorty shoved into me and I called with KJs. Unfortunately, he had KQo, but I flopped a flush draw and got there on the turn. It was very cool. People in the stands were chanting my name like I was a superstar. I was there about about 3 and a half hours. Here are some clips from the episodes after they were broadcast. Unfortunately, none of my hands were shown because they weren't against Phil. I'm wearing a Michael Jackson t-shirt which I thought for sure would get me on TV, but I guess ESPN doesn't have any MJ fans. At the end of the day, I bagged up 58000 chips.









Day 3: After spending all of days 1 and 2 in the amazon room, I started off this day in the Brazilia room. It's like the red-headed step child when you're in the Main Event. Luckily, these tables broke quickly. I was at the table with Roland De Wolfe, but he was short and didn't last long. When I made it back into the Amazon room, I was moved to a table with a huge stack, the very friendly Kara Scott and a bunch of unknowns. The first big hand I played, I got a guy to call my shove on the flop for most of his chips. He had a pair of 9s. I had AKs which was a flush draw, overs and gutshot. I got there on the turn. Eventually, I was back to the dreaded 20bb stack(blinds 1000/2000) and I pick up 99 from MP. I decide to limp. The loosest guy at the table raised. My plan was to limp and get him to "raise the limper". I expected him to do this with a wide range. He had just shown a few hands where he attacked and folded to a 3bet. Unfortunately for me, after I shoved, he tank called and flips QQ. I didn't hit any kind of draws Good Game me. I lasted about 30 minutes before the dinner break. I peaked at about 78k. I finished like 1100 something out of 6600. As the saying goes, "I'll Be Back".

On another note, I was on tv again while the cameras filmed a big hand between the huge stack and an aggro guy. This happened right at the first break. The guy literally took 10 minutes to make this call. Scroll to around the 5:50 mark. I am shown next to the guy that attempted a big bluff against the big stack at our table.





Overall: It sounds kinda crazy, but for the most part I was card dead for the tourney. I saw AA once, QQ once, TT once, 99 about 3 times, 55-22 a few times and AK like 5 times. Not many good connectors and rarely hit any flops. After about 20+ hours of play, you'd think I see a better selection of hands. I think I did decent for my first big live tourney and don't think I played horribly, but I know I have a lot to learn and will be a better player next year.

- Well, I played some events in the FTOPS, WCOOP and Mini-FTOPS. I managed a few cashes in the mini, but that is all. The doomswitch is still on at Full Tilt. You'd think after 9 months they'd have some compassion, but I guess not. Hopefully, things will turn around on that site. I've been working a lot on my tilt control and I'm trying to stay positive. Before I would type "donks rule" in the chat after a beat, but now, I try to just only type nh and move on.

- To no one's surprise, I have a new coach. Seems like I change coaches like I used to change "girlfriends", every other week. Hopefully, someone will stick or at least turn on the light bulb. If the great Phil Ivey can state on national tv that he still has a lot to learn, there isn't a word or phrase to describe how much I need and want to learn.

Later and Good Luck at the tables.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

WSOP 2k9

It's just around the corner. I'll be out there Friday May 29th til Tuesday June 2nd. The Stimulus Special has my name written all over it. I plan on playing this and maybe MegaStacks or Deepstacks event. The Sun Coast tourney was my first time cashing in a Vegas tourney. Hopefully, that was just a warm-up to some real money. I'll also be back in Vegas right before the Main Event, the week of July 4th. Hopefully, I'll have a seat in the tourney. (Anybody wanna back me?)

Also, I've started a Twitter account. I will send text messages from Vegas during the various stages of the tourney to update my stack size, etc. Hopefully, I'll send "Final Table Baby!". You can follow me at http://twitter.com/junkiepoker.

Later.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

The Secret to Making Money in Poker Tourneys

Two things that I really believe that help in all facets of life.

1) Staying positive. This is my biggest challenge because I am a huge football and basketball fan. I grew up in a sports family so being emotionally involved is normal. I'm trying to work on not getting too high or too low. It can be difficult at times when going through stretches without a single cash. My poker chant while playing in tourneys is, "I'm gonna win this tournament." Feel free to use it the next time you play.

2) Charity. This is not so hard for me. I grew up not having anything so it's always been easy for me to give time or money to the less fortunate because I've been there most of my life and 90% of my family is still there. One of my New Year's resolutions was to give at least $20 each week to some charity or church. I've kept true to this for like 90% of the time. Whenever I find that I forgot a week, I'll double up the following week.

Try adding this to your life. I promise you it will help.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

First Trip to Vegas for 2k9

As I stated in a previous post, I decided to fork over the money and take a trip to Vegas and train with the online phenom, The Maven. Here's a trip report.

Well, it didn't start out too well. I took the worst bad beat of my life. Before heading out, Maven suggested that I rent a car. I thought about it, but decided to avoid it because I didn't want to deal with parking, getting gas, etc, etc. Boy did this bite me in the ass. I should have known something when a local on the plane asked where I was staying. I told her the Sun Coast. Then she asked how was I getting there. When I replied by saying a cab, she had this look on her face, like What The Fuck are you thinking. LOL. After getting off the plane, I went to the shuttle area to find out if there was a shuttle going to the Sun Coast. Of course there wasn't. Then I just waited in the long ass cab line. I told the cab driver where I was going and he paused as he closed the trunk. So, we're just riding down the freeway. I looked at the meter and saw it at about $19. Usually the cab to my usual spot, Ballys, is only about $20. I asked how much would this fare be and he told me about $50-$60. I said oh shit, turn around. After calming down, I just decided to finish the drive. That was unexpected to say the least. I was able to pay with a credit card in the cab, but I got screwed again because there was a $7 service fee. Go figure. The good news was that I found out a free shuttle would take me to the airport when it was time to leave. (even though I had to catch it at 6am)

This was actually the worst part of the entire trip. The casino was nice, they had some nice restaurants(T.G.I.F ftw) and even had a movie theater. I was tempted, but couldn't bring myself to fly to Vegas and go to the movies. The poker room was pretty small, but it was better than nothing. They ran a lot of limit games and only $2-$5 no limit. That's too big for me so I decided to play in a crappy $45 daily tourney to kill time. On Day 1 I was set to meet with Maven at 3pm and on Day 2 2pm. On Day 1, I played the daily tourney. Nothing much happened, but I saw how horrible live players play. I don't play much live any more, but the few times that I do play, I can see why online players are making more and more final tables of big televised tourneys.

After getting knocked out of the tourney, I took a cab over the Maven's house. He is sharing the house with online legend, Ari. It's a nice house but you can tell its a bachelor pad. There training center is sick. It looks like a huge garage that was split in two rooms. One room has black painted walls. There are 4 workstations. Each with a 30" monitor and a vertical 24" monitor. Two workstations were mirrors of a third. The second room was brownish and had 5 or 6 similar workstations. Ari and his student were in this room.

I spent most of my time next to Maven watching every hand of every tourney that he played. Before going out, I bought a digital voice recorder. This thing is great, I was able to record almost every minute that was spent talking poker.

Day 1: We started with intros. Maven introduced me to his two in-house personal assistants, Ari, and one of Ari's students. I even got to play with both of Ari's WSOP Circuit rings. They are pretty cool. They almost look like Super Bowl rings. Afterwards, we went over some general MTT strategy, etc. This was followed by watching him play and talk about various moves. He introduced me to a couple of moves that I have seen online but didn't really have in my tool box. One came at a good time because just before flying out, I discovered a leak in my game and was thinking about ways to plug it. One of Maven's tools plugs this leak. The night ended around midnight. Thankfully, Maven gave me a ride back to the casino. When I got back to the Casino, I grabbed a bite at my home away from home, TGI Fridays and then went and played Pai Gao for an hour or so to get some drinks. Day 2 was set to begin at around 2pm.

Day 2: To kill some time before heading over to Maven's house, I decided to play the Sun Coast daily tourney again. I ended up chopping it 4 handed. I had the chip lead and had no doubt that I would win. The only reason for the chop was that time was getting close. I needed to eat before going to Mavens and it takes 20-30 minutes for the cab to arrive. The chop was kinda funny. Did I mention that live players suck? Well, around 5 or 6 handed I was a smallish stack, not that anyone had a big stack because the structure sucked ass. But anyway, I was just shoving on them like crazy. Finally, this little ole lady had enough of it and called. I had KQ and she had K8. I felt kinda bad because she was obviously frustrated because I had the button when she was in the BB and this call/loss crippled her. So with the chop, at 5handed, they asked for an even chop. I had like 40k in chip, #2 had like 20k. I had my headphones in my ear, so I didn't look like a complete ass when I totally ignored them. When 5th busted, I was in 3-way pot with two short stacks. The guy that won had about 20k and I still had like 35k. At this time, I was ok with the chop because 1st didnt get much and I had to eat, leave. One guy was literally pissed that I didn't agree to an even chop 5 handed. I laughed and said that you've got to be kidding me. One guy had 1 or 2 big blinds and they wanted an even chop. Live players suck. LOL.

One interesting situation came up in the tourney. At one point early in the tourney, it was folded to the SB. I paused, looked down at Ten, Six. I paused again, and then shoved. But after I pushed in, I noticed the dealer flipping over the flop. My immediate reaction was to ask the dealer what was he doing. I didn't check. The floor was called over. It was ruled that since I took too long and the dealer did his usual tap and flip, that I checked. WTF? I hope this wouldn't be the case in a "real" tourney. Anyway, the SB shoved. I paused again. I had flopped mid pair with my six, but there was a flush draw out there. The SB said, "You can fold because the floor said that you just checked." So, I called. He had nothing, unless you call an over and a backdoor flush draw a hand. My hand held.

Day 2: So, I got to Mavens and the day was basically more of the same. I watched him play til like 11. It was nice to see him play in most of the big Sunday tourneys. He even sent me some of my money back because he busted "early" on Day 2. I thought that was cool.

Overview. So, the big question that people asked me when I got back to Raleigh. Do I think the training, trip was worth the money? It's kinda hard to say Yes or Hell No. It was very, very nice to see the "day and life" of an online poker professional. I think of myself as a full-time semi-pro, so seeing how they big boys play is nice. Here are some points that I took from the trip:

1) The workstations that they used didn't have any non-poker software except for firefox. And this was only to pull up peoples poker stats. So, I need to pay for the full membership to the online database and I needed to cleanup my PC to make it perform its best.
2) I need a large monitor.
3) They use Poker Tracker religiously. I have Poker Tracker, but rarely use it while playing. Basically this is costing me money, because all of the big boys use PT.
4) I have a few more big tools for my toolbox. This is always nice.
5) Don't play and be distracted by tv, the net surfing, etc, etc.
6) Contacts.
7) Watching pro play.
8) A bunch of other small things that I can't think of right now or put a price tag on.

Could I have been givin these things without going to Vegas? Probably, but I am a "seeing is believing" kind of person. I definitely believe a newbie would get the most bang for the buck, but it was beneficial for most intermediate players as well. So, if you fall into this bucket, I recommend taking the trip if you are serious about improving your game. I am always trying to get better and if that means taking a bit out of the several thousand that I have made, then so be it. I am no where near where I want to be skill-wise or financially, so training to become a better player can do nothing but help.

Wow, this was long. Til next time. Good luck at the tables.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

First MTT Win on Stars

Well, the poker gods shined on me once again after a bitch and whine post. On Sunday I won my first tourney on Stars. It was a $20 cubed for just under $9400. Not bad. For anybody looking for a nice deep stacked tourney for a low buy-in, I definitely recommend this 2pm-ish(EST) on Sundays. The initial $20 gets you 3k in chips. The rebuy gives you another 3k. So, that's a very deep 6k stack to start the tourney. I kinda just stumbled across this tourney. It's definitely on my regular Sunday tourney list now.

Usually, I try to capture a screenshot of all of my online poker milestone's but for some reason it didn't dawn on me til the next day that this was my first win on Stars. By the time that I realized this, the tourney lobby was already gone. Stars only keeps up the daily tourney lobbies for about 24 hours.

Because Stars offers chops, I would consider one if the chips are fairly even instead of flipping coins for a few thousand dollars. But this tourney was an exception. The other guy was so bad that I didn't even think of a chop. When we started I was down 2 to 1. After a while, I was up 4 to 1. Then I got unlucky when he hit trips on the river after all of the money was in on the turn. That gave him a 4 to 1 chip lead. Even at this point, I didn't think of chopping even if he wanted to. We were still deep and I had a huge skill advantage. So, as you know I ended up winning. It was only a day or two earlier that I told myself that I would buy that new Camaro after my next decent poker score. Well, this was the score. I contacted the dealership, but the problem now is trying to sell my current car. Hopefully, between now and the end of the summer I can win a lot more money and sell my car.

That's it for now. Good luck at the tables.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Downswing and Training

It's been a while since I've written a post. Honestly, I haven't had much of anything to write about other than bad beat stories, so I'd rather just not write than clog this blog with those stories.

So, the SCOOP passed by and not much happened. I only played in 3 events. 2 low and 1 mid stake event. The start times are not geared toward East Coast players. Unfortunately, I didn't cash in either event, but I love the 3 level buy-in idea. I just think Stars didn't have enough reasonable sattys for the high stakes events.

As much as I love playing on Full Tilt, I have been getting crushed since Feb. I'm trying to stay upbeat. Things will turn around soon, but the MTT grind can definitely take a toll on my emotional state. To help this, I just played a cash game for 30 minutes, lost $150 and then realized why I play MTTs. LOL.

After the SCOOP, I took a week off. The break was needed. As long as I am playing decent, I'll chug along during a downswing, but when I start noticing a lot of bad play, it's break time. My first day back, I finally made another Final Table on Stars. Ended with a 3rd place finish for $7400. A decent payout, but I woulda loved to get another 5-figure score if I coulda won my race, QQ < AK.

Regarding training, for the past 6 months or so, I've been emailing TheMaven and his students regarding the program. I think this could really help my progress, but there is a good amount of cost to get into the program. For a while, I've been trying to find something to invest my poker winnings into and eventually decided to invest in myself by joining the program. My initial training period is in May. Hopefully, I can get started and show vast improvement in time for the FTOPS and WSOP.

Well, that's it for now. Maybe I'll be posting soon about winning a WSOP ME seat. I've still only played one sattie and finished just shy of the seat. Take care.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Phone Call to Grandma

I stumbled across someone's video on PocketFives. Here's a video I made about my phone call to my grandmama after my first 5-figure poker score.





*This conversation didn't actually take place. I am 100% sure that it would go like this. I didn't want to go there because telling this to my grandma, whom I love very, very, very much, is like posting an Ad in the local newspaper. So I just mailed her the money without the story. (Link to the original video.)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

A Long Overdue Update

It's been a while so, here's the latest happenings in my poker life.

I'll start with the FTOPS, well, after probably spending $1500, I finally won a seat into the ME. But that was all for nothing. I was able to chip up early, but proceeded to tilt my chips off to a guy that chased a gutshot and got there when the turn game me top, two. I'd like to take some credit for giving him his start for a nice run in the event. He finished in 6th place for $78k. Congrats! Appropriately, his id is "dump22".

Well, after the FTOPS concluded, I decided to take a break from poker. Running bad and playing bad is a deadly combination for anyone's emotional health and bankroll. I had no timetable for this break, only that I wanted to clear my head and start back playing when I felt the desire.

During this break, I did something very out of the ordinary for me, I watched TV. I'm not a big TV person. I'd rather be on the computer trying to find some way to become a bazillionaire. Other than basketball and football, there are only a handful of shows that I watch on a semi-regular basis. Well, during this break I was able to catch up on CSI, Lost, Cold Case, Without A Trace and my secret vice, American Idol. That's probably all the shows that I watch. I also managed to watch a few movies from my Blockbuster Online subscription. And I managed to work on a new website that I have in the works. All of this spanned the course of two weeks.

So, exactly two weeks after the FTOPS and the start of my break, I was reading through some posts on PocketFives. Coincidently, one was about downswings. After reading a lot of posts about people's various downswings and how they worked them out, I felt a lot better about my current "normal" 50 buy-in downswing. Thus, that was the fire that I needed to put in a days work.

I then proceeded to play a good number of the regular Sunday tourneys with the exception of the Stars or Full Tilt Sunday Majors. Well, long story short, I was able to secure my biggest score to date. Although it was a second place finish, I won just short of $20k in the Stars $150k $50 buy-in tourney.

Heres a screenshot:




Here are some hands from the Heads-up battle. I started down about 4 to 1 and was down 5 to 1 before making a come back. Well, after our last break, I went from being ahead 5 to 1, to being out of the tourney in second place. I'm always looking to grow and improve as a poker player and after losing my last two heads-up matches, I'm starting to study more about that aspect of the game.

Hand #1:
This hand put me back in the game.




Hand #2: The first hand after the last break.




Hand #3: I played this hand horribly, but the guy was making some fairly thin calls with mediocre hands. I was hoping to get full value, but instead I valuetowned myself. LOL.



Hand #4 aka The Bustout Hand: Hopefully, this is the first of many 5-figure scores and a 6-figure score would be very nice.




Good Luck at the tables.

Andrew aka TheJunkie

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

FTOPS XI: Events #10 and #15

So, I'll start with the good news. Of the 7 FTOPS events that I wanted to play coming into this series, 4 have passed and I was able to play in 3. (I know that is pretty lame for "good news".)

Well, Event 10 was going pretty smoothly. No big pots, just steadily going through the tourney as the field dwindled down. Then this hand happened.

Hand #1 aka The Bustout Hand: Event 10. I have no idea what he could put me on that he was ahead of given my postion and stack size. And it seemed a bit too spewy for him to hope for a race situation.



This is admittedly, a luckfest, but the $100k for 1st was well worth the gamble to hope for a run good session. It wasn't meant to be though. Chino Rheem finished 4th. That guy is on a new heater.

Hand #2 aka The Bustout Hand: Event 15.




I still haven't won my seat for the ME yet, so I'll grind those satties hard this week. Hopefully, I can win multiple seats to offset some of my run bad.

Good Luck at the tables.

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Collapse

A few weeks ago, Full Tilt increased the starting chip stacks for the Nightly 50/50 tourney from 2k to 3k. This was great, but every since the change, for some reason, I hadn't made a deep run in this tournament. Prior to the change, I had 2nd, 3rd and 5th place finishes.

Well, last night I could finally see the writing on the wall. This was supposed to be my night to finally make it back to the another final table. With about 40 people left, I had chipped up to a nice stack which put me at the top of the leader board. I had about 250k.

As you can guess by the title of this post, poker can be a cruel game. The stacks were such that I couldn't fold any of my hands and I doubled up 4 different people. So, in a matter of 16 hands, I go from the chip leader to out in 31st place without tangling with any other big stack. This was the toughest way to go out of a tourney that I've ever had. Hopefully, this will lead to a run good stretch because I am due. A gold jersey would be nice. :)

Hand #1: The beginning of the end. I had told myself that I would fold to this guy's first SB shove without a AT+, 77+, KQ, type hand because he had gave me several walks, but I couldn't click the button.




Folded 1 hand.

Hand #2: Fairly easy call for me.




Folded 5 hands.

Hand #3:




Folded 1 hand.

Hand #4: I know the raiser is a solid player but this is an insta iso-shove with our stacks.




Folded 1 hand.

Hand #5: Sick




Folded 2 hands.

Hand #6 aka The Bustout Hand: Go figure.




For those keeping count, that's $250k to $0 in 16 hands. Take nothing for granted.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

FTOPS XI: Event #1

Please don't let this tournament be a microcosm of this FTOPS for me. Card dead for three hours and when I finally get into a "re-steal" spot, A9s runs into the COs AK. 33, 44, 77, TT, AJs. By far my best hands. Better luck next time.

The next event that I plan on playing is Event #10.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Weekend Update

After bitching and whining, I finally cashed in a tourney. To no one's surprise, it was the FTP Nightly $10 rebuy. That is definitely my bread and butter tourney. I'm a little disappointed, but I finished 2nd. I was 4 for 4 in my HU matches for this tourney. Oh well, at least I got off the cashless streak.

Hand #1 aka The Bustout Hand:




I'm also happy that I managed a couple of cashes in Poker Stars tourneys. Back to back cashes in the $10 rebuy. Not much in terms of money, but a big boost in terms of confidence on that site after going over a year without a cash. A win in that tourney would be huge. Not only is the payout usually $13k but the field is about 2000 people. That's 3-4 times the size of the FTP $10 rebuy. I think the Poker Stars field is probably softer than FTP, but it is huge.

On Sunday I played the monthly $1 Million Guaranteed tourney on Full Tilt. There were 2200 people. 1st was over $200k. I had a few big hands early, but overall the tourney was pretty standard. Not much to talk about. Surprisingly, I only had one flip and I lost. JJ held against my AQ. That crippled me and I busted the next hand. My JJ got flushed down the toilet by KJs. Fortunately, this occurred just after the money bubble so I did manage to pad the roll a little.

I'm really looking forward to the upcoming FTOPS. Hopefully, I can win a seat into the $1k and $5k events. I will probably need to win two seats into the $5k in order for my BR Management nazi-side to allow my gambler-side play in the event.

I'm also looking forward to the WSOP ME Sats. FTP has started running WPT LAPC Sats which are nice. Hopefully, this is a new trend given that they are a major sponsor for the WPT now. They are running $200, $300 and $500 weekly sats til the event which is around mid-Feb. I posted a suggestion that they change their sats to $200 or $300, a $500 and a $1k. Makes more sense to me and that is basically what they do for the WSOP ME for an identical prize package. The $500 Sat had 60 players with 2 packages being awarded. A $1k with the same number of players would have awarded 5 seats.

Oh, I was finally picked in the P5s OT Competition. I was picked by Yogiblair in the 2nd round. The comp starts in February. Hopefully, I wont be the weakest link. That would be a nice time to run good. Especially, in the FTOPS events. I think I can settle for bypassing my first 5-figure score and going straight to 6-figures. :)

Later.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Quick Update

This year started off with a bang. Picked up a win and had another session which I final tabled two MTTs at the same time. Wow, what a difference a week makes. I can say that I am well on my way to playing in 1000 MTTs for the year, but not much else has gone to plan this past week. The usual run bad stories. If I'm ahead, I get ran down, or I get coolered or my bluffs run into monsters....blah, blah, blah.

Last night's session was the first since I updated my resolutions, which I really tried to focus on being more decision oriented rather than results oriented. I must say that overall, the session went a lot smoother. There were a few bad decisions and no cash, but it helped me avoid tilting after a few beats. Practice makes perfect, so hopefully this will make for a better year.

Although, I have only had like one baby cash in the past week, technically, I'm up. I won two Sat seats into this Sunday's Full Tilt $1M Guarantee tourney. The buy-in is $535. I used one for the tourney and one for my FTOPS Event #10 buy-in. I hope to win a couple more seats. That would lock up all of my FTOPS buy-ins very early and let me focus on my MTTs for the P5s OT Competition. BTW, the draft is supposed to start today.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Pause

"When we are winning, we feel invincible... When we are losing, we feel like we may never win again... The most difficult aspect of poker is remaining humble and mentally steadfast during highs and lows. This is a lesson I continue to focus on."

-Rex55

After this past weekend, this quote has hit home hard.
(Adding to my New Years Resolutions.)

0) Stop being results oriented and focus on making the correct decisions.
0a)Work on controlling tilt.
1) Continue to maintain solid Bankroll Management rules
2) Grow my bankroll to $100k
3) Win a seat into the WSOP ME
4) Win a 5-figure score
5) Play 1000 MTTs
6) Play 60,000 cash game hands
7) Climb up to $5/$10 6max
8) Reach the Pocket 5s Top 15 MTT players for North Carolina.
9) Develop a regular MTT and Cash Game training regiment
10) Win 10 MTTs

Daily Schedule

I've finally settled on a daily MTT schedule. Since I have a full-time day job, my schedule consists of all evening tourneys. One of my New Years resolutions is to play 1000 MTTs over the course of this year. That averages to about 3 MTTs per day. Here is the list of tourneys which as of right now, give me the best shot at reaching this goal, and hopefully make a lot of money along the way. My plan is to play some combination of these tourneys on a nightly basis. I'll play more on the weekends to offset any light days during the work week.

(Poker Stars, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.......Mrs. Cleo says that the curse is over.)

Full Tilt:
$26 Freezeout at 8pm
$55 Freezeout at 9:30pm
$26 Freezeout at 10pm
$10 Rebuy at 10:30pm

Poker Stars:
$28 Freezeout at 8pm
$20 Rebuy at 9pm
$55 Freezeout at 9:30pm
$11 Rebuy at 10pm
$33 Freezeout at 11pm
$28 Turbo Freezeout at 11:40pm

I'll also occasionally mix in some satties for the Sunday Majors or (FTOPS, WCOOP, WSOP, etc), a $50 cubed rebuy, $100 and $75 freezeouts.

I'm also going to participate in the Pocket Fives OT Team Competition for February 2k9. At least that is my plan. I have to get drafted in order to actually be in the comp. The draft will start on Wednesday Jan. 14th and finished by Friday Jan. 16th. I hope to get drafted because that will add even more fuel to my fire to do well in MTTs. I don't want to be the weakest link. The comp lasts for the whole month. I registered as a mid-stakes player and my new schedule fits nicely within the requirements for the competition. As soon as I know the results of the draft, I'll post the details.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

FTOPS XI Schedule

The upcoming FTOPS schedule has been released.

As always, I'm looking forward to playing in the FTOPS. My winnings have increased with each of the past two series. Hopefully, that trend will continue and I can have a GREAT series.

Here is the full schedule. I have bolded the events which I plan on entering and italicized the events that I hope to satellite into.

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series XI Schedule:
(Event # Date Time Buy-in Game Guarantee)

#1 2/4 21:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold'em $1,000,000
#2 2/5 14:00 ET $240+16 PL Omaha/8 Knockout $200,000
#3 2/5 21:00 ET $200+16 Stud $100,000
#4 2/6 14:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold'em 3x Shootout $200,000
#5 2/6 21:00 ET $200+16 Limit Hold'em 6-max $150,000
#6 2/7 14:00 ET $500+35 PL Omaha 6-Max $300,000
#7 2/7 16:00 ET $100+9 NL Hold'em w/ Rebuys $500,000
#8 2/8 14:00 ET $240+16 NL Hold'em Knockout 6-max $600,000
#9 2/8 16:00 ET $500+35 NL Hold'em Heads Up $500,000
#10 2/8 18:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold'em $1,500,000
#11 2/9 14:00 ET $200+16 HA (half PLHE, half PLO) $150,000
#12 2/9 21:00 ET $1,000+60 NL Hold'em Second Chance $1,500,000
#13 2/10 14:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold'em (1R/1A) $300,000
#14 2/10 21:00 ET $500+35 HORSE $300,000
#15 2/10 21:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold'em Turbo 6-max $500,000
#16 2/11 14:00 ET $200+16 Omaha/8 $150,000
#17 2/11 21:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold'em 6-max w/ Rebuys $1,000,000
#18 2/12 14:00 ET $200+16 PL Omaha Heads-Up $100,000
#19 2/12 21:00 ET $300+22 NL Hold'em 4x Shootout 6-max $300,000
#20 2/13 14:00 ET $200+16 NL Hold'em 6-max $400,000
#21 2/13 21:00 ET $300+22 Razz $150,000
#22 2/14 14:00 ET $5,000+200 NL Hold'em (2-Day Event) $2,000,000
#23 2/14 16:00 ET $100+9 PL Omaha w/ Rebuys $350,000
#24 2/15 14:00 ET $120+9 NL Hold'em Knockout $750,000
#25 2/15 18:00 ET $500+35 NL Hold'em (Main Event) $2,500,000

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

First MTT Win of 2009

Well, it didn't take long to get my first win of the year. It's amazing how I literally went years without a single final table. The past two weeks I've had 3 wins, albeit in the same tourney, but wins nonetheless. And the past three months I've made a decent number of final tables. I'm very thankful and this is very encouraging for a strong 2k9.

Here are some hands from last night's win:

Hand #1: This hand sparked my deep finish. I was card dead for most of the beginning of this tourney. This was the first spot where I thought I could pick up some good chips uncontested or HU. Well, it didn't end up being uncontested or HU, but this win definitely propelled me for my run. It was kinda funny when the hands were shown, I was calling for the 9, but had no idea I had a lot more outs than just the 9. (7, 8, 9 or T)




Hand #2: In retrospect, and after some discussion with my coach, I realized that my play in this hand was pretty bad. I don't think it was awful because with my style I make a lot of high variance, high risk, reward type of plays that I have learned to deal with. KK+ is in my range for making this play.

I hadn't played with bdybldngpkrplyr prior to this tourney, but I know that he is a successful MTT player and was my biggest threat at the table. So, I was willing to gamble to get him out as quickly as possible. I just didn't think that it was this big of a gamble until the cards flipped over.




Hand #3 aka The Money Hand: We are about even coming into HU play. I had about $1.8M in chips and he had about $1.7M. I was able to grind away at him and get it in ahead for once.


Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year

2008 ended with a bang. Hopefully, that was the start of a white hot 2009. This time last year my main, if not only, poker goal was to use solid bankroll management to build my bankroll.

Here are my New Year's Resolutions/Goals for 2009 in no particular order:

1) Continue to maintain solid Bankroll Management rules
2) Grow my bankroll to $100k
3) Win a seat into the WSOP ME
4) Win a 5-figure score
5) Play 1000 MTTs
6) Play 60,000 cash game hands
7) Climb up to $5/$10 6max
8) Reach the Pocket 5s Top 15 MTT players for North Carolina.
9) Develop a regular MTT and Cash Game training regiment
10) Win 10 MTTs

Wow! Just typing these goals gives me shivers thinking about what if........

Happy New Years!