Merry Christmas

I am currently blogging from my parent's house in Genoa, NV on a 56K modem. Uck! Unfortunately, Santa didn't bring high speed Internet. Maybe next year...

Enjoy football and time with family...

Merry Christmas!

P.S. I received the entire series of Everybody Loves Raymond (minus Season 4) for Christmas. I am looking forward to many hours of playing poker and watching ELR.

Overhaul

I decided to embark on a wild adventure after countless months of failure in online cash games. Rather than making making minor adjustments, additions and/or subtractions, I have completely revamped my overall approach.

In 5/10 NL on Party Poker, I took the following basic approach:

Limp only in mult-way pots, raise position and squeeze often. I steadily maintained a 17/9 (VPI/PFR)

During the trial period, I will be playing 2/4 NL (9-handed) on Full Tilt and have preliminary standards of 30/10.

Here are my results thus far after 4,697 hands:

VPI: 28.55
PFR: 10.26
Net: + 1981.50
BB/100: 5.27
TWR: 215/hour

I am very satisfied with my results after only 9 hours of play. Although under no circumstances could I maintain such a high win rate, a win rate between sixty (60) and one hundred (100) is very possible.

Changes I have noticed thus far:

- Attempting to steal blinds less
- Open limping from various positions
- Sandbagging from early position

Basically, I am putting in less volume before the flop, allowing for more post-flop play. I am limping more and [especially in position] raising less, which has resulted in being re-raised less often. Therefore, I have become comfortable getting away from hands like QQ and AK. I am staring to find a groove in the post-Party Poker era. Phew!

Leaving Vegas

I am almost finished packing and ready to leave Las Vegas in the early afternoon. The trip was not successful from a financial standpoint. Even though I did not play near the hours I had intended, my results should have been much better. Another trip of missed opportunities in Las Vegas... I am looking forward to going home...

Friday Night

Misterniceguy is arriving shortly from Kansas City, after which we will begin a long night of drinking and gambling. Currently, I am sipping on my initial drink of the evening and plan on drinking quite heavily into the early hours of the morning. I wouldn't want to sway from my motto - "Get drunk and see what happens." The plan is simple - Drink up and head over to the Wynn for 1/3 NL. I hope my results will not coincide with prior sessions.

I played another live session at Bellagio last night, making for another nice score. At the start of my session, I got beaten up quite badly at 2/5 NL. I had a decent read for the table, but was unable to hold against a high stakes no limit player, whom had been playing 50/100 NL prior to gambling it up at 2/5 NL. After losing ~1025 over the course of a few hours, I decided to play 5/10 NL, which was playing shorthanded. Although I only played for a few downs, I managed to get unstuck for the night and come out ahead ~600.

Good luck to Big Swing, Colson10, Crazy Marco, SBRounder and Tmay420 in Day 2 of WPT Bellagio. Colson10 is among the chipleaders.

Mega Satelitte

Last night I played (2) $350 satelittes for the 1500+80 Mega on Tuesday. In the first satelitte, I took AQ against AK. I also lost a six-way last longer for $100.

The second satelitte was very sucessful. I made a 3-way last longer with the gentleman to my immediate left and Amnon Fillipi for $200 and a head-up last longer with AF for $300. I won a coinflip with AK v. 55 half-way through the satelitte, making me the favorite in the last longer. The situation became very interesting when play dwindled down to three players. Amnon, another gentleman [not in the last longer] and myself were virtually even in chips. At this point, AF and I cancelled the $300 LL. I began raising all-in when I was HU with Amnon and occasionally moved-in from the button. After several all-in bets, AF became a little aggitated and hinted calling me with a wide hand range at this point. In the next SB v BB confrontation, I raised all-in with KK and AF called with Q5o. I win!

When the dust settled, I ended up qualifying for $340. Not too shabby. Afterwards, I had a few drinks with Colson10, Gbecks and Prty P Sux and sweat SBRounder in the $1000 nightly. In the deciding hand, SBRounder raised AI UTG with AK, UTG+1 RR AI with AA and UTG+2 RR AI with KK. Uck. At the time play, play had been dwindled down to ten players from a orginal field of 147.

I played the mega satelitte this afternoon, drawing a fairly tough table. Our original table included Tmay420, The Usher, monkey101 and a hanful of saps. Shaniac moved to our table during the fifth level. I am satisfied with my play, but I was unable to get much going. After taking QQ v KK, I was left with ~3 BBs. I was very lucky on the next two hands in which I doubled and tripled my chips. I began to play more conservatively, with an occasional steal of the blinds and antes, until I was crippled with AQ v AK. I was out the next hand with J7 against A8 in a desperate attempt to double-up

I am going to play a few satelittes and the mega satelitte tomorrow regardless.

Sunday Re-cap

Crazy Marco won the 100K on Bodog for 25K, PartyPSux qualified for the PCA in the $650 mega satelitte and Basebldy made a deep run in the Sunday Million on Poker Stars, finishing in 17th position.

After 200 Rebuys on Poker Stars, Crazy Marco kept the bar tab open at Bellagio. The following several hours were pretty sick. I won't mention names, because the ongoing compulsiveness was relentless. When the dust settled, SBRounder offered a free meal at The Cafe, in which I devoured a BLT. Yum Yum.

I didn't get to sleep until 7:00 A.M. and was still a little tipsy, but I had wake up at 12:45 for a round of golf with Gbecks at Sienna. I decided against placing any bets until I got in a few swings. I took a par on the opening hole and nearly holed-in on a par three. I was very impressed with my play. However, the sun began to dip below the mountains and the temparture dropped rapidly, forcing us to call it an early day. Although we did not complete the entire round, I had a moral victory, finishing even in strokes with Gbecks. If a tiebreaker were in place, I would give the nod to myself, as Gbecks took a couple more mulligans than myself.

Update from Five Diamond:

With 4 players remaing in the 5K, Bluff For Rent found himself all-in again Joe Tehan, holding QQ v KQo. After a clean flop and turn, BFR only needed to faid a K on the river. The river came a K, sending BFR to the rail in 4th for nearly 72K.

Heater

The stars have aligned...

Winning Steak: 3 Days

2/5 No Limit

I played my first live session last night; I happened to be drinking a little bit at the time as well. The game was struggling, but with the introduction of live straddling the game became quite good. The action was fast and furious, the line-up was diverse and the players were horrible. I allowed myself to get moved off a hand late in the night with top pair when my opponent lead the flop for $200 with a gutshot and ace-high. Even though I had the best hand, I did not think it was worth gambling for his remaining stack.

Hours: ?
Drinks: Many
Net: +615

Tilt

I have never had much success with computers and such, but it is starting to get a little out-of-hand. Since arriving in Las Vegas, I have encountered a different dilemna each day. On Sunday, I went to Best Buy and purchased a wireless router. It was a simple task, but I managed to purchase the wrong router. Nevertheless, it allowed for computers to join the wireless network, but each computer had to purchase access to the Internet for $11.95.

Yesterday, Garrett and I ran a few errands and purchased the necessary wireless router. After getting the wireless network up and going, I encountered another mishap. Each time a computer gained access to the wireless network, the Internet connection was temporarily disconnected. Luckily, the Internet disconnections were isolated to only one computer. It goes without saying, it was mine. During the mayhem, a friend was playing several tournaments on my laptop, until of course, the laptop experienced an early death. RIP

Which moves us to this afternoon... I choose against playing in the 2K and played online cash games instead. A couple hours into my session I took a break from my games, waiting for the Internet to reset. After the reset, the wireless router was unable to establish a connection, leaving only the capability of a single computer connecting to the Internet. Keep in mind, I am staying with three other poker players.

Congratulations Tmay420!!!

After placing 2nd in 100 Rebuys, online sensation, Tmay420 choose to parlay his winnings in the 5K preliminary event at Five Diamond. Entering Day 2, Tmay quickly knocked out two opponents, bringing himself from the middle of the pack in the chip count to chip leader. In a key hand at the final table, Tmay flat called the initial raise with AA. On a T76 board, both players were all-in. Villian tabled 86, brick, brick and Tmay doubled-up. With two players remaining, a deal was agreed upon, giving Tmay 229K, with only the bracelet and a seat in the WPT Championship to be fought over. In the final hand, Tmay completed from the SB with KJo, BB raised an additional 48K, Tmay raised all-in & BB immediately called, showing AA. David Daneshgar made a set of aces on the turn, giving Tmay a flush draw and a wheel-draw chop draw. The river was an off-suit deuce. Not too shabby Tmay... Congratulations!!!

Sunday Re-cap

I squeeked ITM in the Sunday Million. For the most part, I sat around waiting for something to formulate, but I was never able to do so. I did not play spectacular, but I did enough to give myself a chance. However, I was unable to draw-out with 94 against AT in an attempt to steal the BB and antes, the hand in which I was crippled. Even so, it was a relief having a respectable showing, allbeit only for a microscopic victory.

Afterwards, I played 5/10 Limt & 5/10 NL for a profit of ~800.

On Friday night, I went to the rodeo with my friends from Santa Barbara. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed the various events, not just the shots and beer. As the night progressed, I continued slurping them down. I railed roulette at New York New York, while my friends grinded/gambled (take your pick). Since I don't play in the pit, I took the responsibility for waiving the cocktail waitress down and ordering rounds of drinks.

Sometime after midnight, we went to Ceasar's for a drunken poker. Yada, yada, yada...

It was 6:00 A.M....

I had a 'minor' altercation with the poker room manager...

An exchange of dialogue followed...

I was politely asked to leave...

After being threatened to be thrown into jail

GG