Alright, so i haven't played much today. But, i did have a good day thus far regardless. Got up this morning and started watching the muralific muralusion bubble out of the $200 guaranteed. I was only half awake so i decided i might as well go ahead and play the $5 NL tourney. You know, half asleep and poker is a great idea. Well, it ended up working out pretty well. Things looked pretty grim though coming up on the bubble. I was down to about 6 BB's and decided to semisteal with pocket 5's and moved in. I got called by QQ, but ended up getting lucky and flopping a set. That turned out to be the differnce in the tournament. From there it was on to the final table and that worked out well. I ended up being the big stack with 3 left. Then i knocked the one guy out so i was the big stack going into heads up. Unfortunately i kind of lost the HU match. He outflopped me when i had the best hand a couple times and that was it. Not too much i could do about it, but still a second. Didn't take a pic as it was a second and not a win, but overall i was very happy with the result. I think i'm going to play the $1500 short hand guaranteed and hope i can do well there as well. I seem to kind of be getting back into my MTT groove the past couple days. (>~.~)>

Woohoo, still more of the same. Up and down up and down. It's getting kind of frustrating. I can't put together 2 good days. Started out awesome today. Won my first 2 sng's so i was up $30. I quickly lost 3 more so i ended up like $15. Also had a bad day the other day. Lost a bunch. Sat down at a NL table and lost like $50. Made trips to get rivered by a flush, twice. Made 2 pair to get rivered by a, guess what, flush. It was pretty sick. Very frustrating. I think i'm going to stick to just MTT's and SnG's for a while.

Had a good showing in the $1500 guaranteed tourney. Over 100 ppl in it and i went out like 17th or something. Kind of got unlucky. Kind of not. Got my money in with the best hand with a chance to more than double up and got beat. It happens. Couldn't have really folded though with a-10 in my BB with only 3 BB's left. If i was a midish stack i probably fold there, but shortstacked or bigstacked i would have been forced to call. Gonna go and do some SnG's right now and hope it works out well for me. ^_^

LoL. Not a lot to post about just felt like i needed to keep updating. it's been more of the same, up and down from day to day. thanksgiving night i went and lost like $80-$100. Not really much i could do. I either missed the flop completely or made a great second best hand. It was absolutely brutal. Then yesterday i decided to take a break from ring games after such a bad session and went and played some $5 sng's. Well that worked out pretty good. i placed (meaning 1st or 2nd) in 8/9. I took 1st in 6. It was pretty amazing. I ended up making like $100 on sng's which basically got me back to where i was. Today i'm hoping for another day like yesterday. If i can string a couple of those together i will be a very happy camper, but we'll see.

Been so up and down the past week or so. Haven't been able to win any tourneys, but have been getting pretty consistent results. Mad $20 in the 10k freeroll on sunday and $20 in the 1k freeroll (with some help from my wife) yesterday. Other than that i've barely been staying even. Actually down quite a bit from my highest, but what do ya do. Ring games have been the same as tourneys too. I'll have a great session, then i'll have a down session. I just don't feel like i'm in rhythm overall, but i don't think i'm doing anything wrong. Just the cards are consistently falling the wrong way right now. I can't complain too much as i am going deep in my tourneys and overall i'm doing alright in ring games, but it's kind of frustrating after the rush i had been on. Honestly though i feel pretty comfortable with how i'm playing. I still feel like i'm a threat to go deep in any tourney i enter and that's what it's really all about as it is impossible to win them all (i'm not phil hellmuth ya know)...Anyway, things are ok and i have faith that i have a big win coming up soon. Just have to keep playing my cards correctly and eventually good things will happen. ^_^

BPT - The House of Blues

Just got underway. Kind of missed a couple hands because of an unfortunate incident with some chocolate milk, but i'm here now. Looks like a tough table. On table 3 right now with a couple BPT winners and a 20k freeroll winner. Not very excited about my table, but we'll see how it goes. Table looks awesome though.

Down 200 chips right now due to a misread on a bet by Kufolem. I thought he was bluffing with position and i had a pocket pair and check raised..oops. Grrr. Flopped a pair with a flush draw. Didn't work out very well. Down 3 chips now. Gonna have to bounce back. Down 400....not doing too well here. Think i need to sit back a little. Apparently i love j-8..i've had it 4 times already..Big pot just now between Markster1 and Kufolem. Kufolem had a flush and markster1 2 pair. Kufolem is running over my table at the moment. Wow....currently in 107th place out of 109. This is not looking good. Kind of feel like the whipping boy right now. Need to actually hit a hand because thus far i'll i've shown are bluffs, semi bluffs and second best hands. Think i'm going to tighten up and wait for a premiumish type hand now. Losing too many chips with OK hands. Just picked up a bigger pot from markster1 with a semibluff. Woohoo, not in last at my table anymore. reverted back to my limit hold 'em limpaholic strategy and it seems to be working. 90th out of 107 right now, kind of on the comeback trail. Still fine for chips though so i'm not really worried. Markster1 lost another big pot. This time with 2 pair to a straight. Wow, i just donked out in 103rd place or something. Grrr. went all in with top pair and a weak kicker after it was checked on the flop by markem. I bet the turn and he raised, i reraised, he called with a king kicker. I had 100 chips and went all in the next hand with K-jo. He called with K-6, he made 2 pair. YES! that was some terrible poker right there. I just never found a rhythm honestly. I hate that. Just felt out of sync and like nothing i was doing was working.

Hehe...so i woke up from a midnight nap. Well, i had been watching TV and fell asleep because it was boring and i was tired and woke up just in time for a $10 NL tourney. So, feeling refreshed i bought in and got ready. Well, i got lucky early and flopped 2 pair with K-j when someone else flopped a king. Got a quick double up out of that. Kind of hung around after that. Didn't really do much. Didn't play a lot of hands. Won the hands i played usually. Finally made it to the final table and yes, i was the shortstack. Oh for fun lol. Well, i stole some blinds and stayed alive until 2 ppl dropped. Then i picked up a-5s and i raised UTG. I got one caller. I hit my ace on the flop and the guy put me all in. I figured i was beat, but had a gutshot straight draw and was pretty much pot committed anyway so i called. He turned over K-Q...he had nothing. hehehe. I doubled up. Then i picked up aces and raised. Got reraised. I went all in, the other guy called and turned over QQ. I win. From there it was pretty smooth. I made a bad play and sucked out with AQ vs AK. Go me! From that point on i dominated the table. Got it heads up and put on my aggressive hat as usual and won. It was a blast. After the Heads up portion was over the other player said and i quote, "I just couldn't take anymore.." Hehehe. That's a good feeling. Just leaned on him till he broke. I love it. ^_^

Alright, so with the bankroll at a new high i played a $10 NL again. I sucked. I lost. Tried to steal the blinds with pocket 7's. Guy called all his chips with k-10o? Wtf? Lol. After that i just donked out. Couldn't believe he made that call. It was something else. Anyway, no big loss, just $10 down. So i went and sat down at my favorite table. The one $1/$2 FL tables. It was a great time. Got off to a pretty rough start. Got beat by 2 outers twice and a 4 outer once. Doh! Only good thing was that i was a little up at that point so it didn't put me in the negative. Was able to bounce back from that nicely courtesy of some nice little fishies that kept calling me. Ended up playing there for like 5 hours. Left up $75. Almost tripled my buy in again. It just seems to get easier with each session. The ability to take beats like i did early on there without losing my head is helping a lot too. A month ago, i take those beats and i'm dropping my whole buy in at the table by tilting away like a drunk guy by a urinal. It was weird tonight though, i didn't get to chase any flushes..I can't remember the last time i didn't chase at some point. Oh well, it worked out for me. hehehe...i love my new pond. ^_^

Woohoo! just played a $10 NL hold 'em tourney and it was something else. So i was doing ok about midway through the tourney about midstacked. Not great, but not good either. So i picked up AK suited. So, i raise, get one caller. Flop came out QJ9 or something like that. I know the QJ for sure. So i had 2 overcards and a gutshot draw and ended up getting it all in. I missed everything and was severely crippled. down to like 200 chips and the blinds were about 150..maybe i had less than 200, don't know. anyway, blinds were coming and i moved in with 7-5s and got insanely lucky and rivered a flush. Then picked up aces and doubled up again. In about 5 hands i got right back to where i was. From there it was smooth sailing to the final table. knocked a couple ppl out, it was great. So i entered the final table as a midstack. Ended up getting lucky a couple times and picking up aces again and getting into 3rd place by the time it was 3 handed. Took the chip lead by knocking the 3rd player out. Once it was heads up it was smooth sailing. I had the chip lead and dominated with aggressive play. Lost the chip lead a couple times but ended up getting it back. The final hand i had got him fairly shortstacked and raised with k-8o. he called and the flop came out k-8-x. I bet and he went all in, game over. I took down my biggest tournament win to date. Woohoo!

Well, after the first matches (the first MTT and the first round of SnG's) for the forum league my team has some work to do. If we had done better in the MTT we would be in good shape, but as is, we are middle of the pack which is kind of disappointing as good a team as we have. We are still in pretty good shape, but i think it could definately be better. Right now, all we need is one good set of finishes in an MTT and we're right there. Honestly i'm ok with 6th right now. As good a team as we have i really expect us to move up the leaderboard at some point in the season. ^_^

just thought i would give a quick update on the Blogger Poker Tour as i was mentioned in the news for the last event which is kind of cool.

"And one of the best stories of the day, 2 rookies, Stevenslb159 & thepurdle, both making the final table in their Blogger Poker Tour debut. They finished in 7th & 10th place respectively, a great leg-up to a possible top 20 place, despite their late start."

pretty sweet. here is a link to the entire article. http://www.bloggerpokertour.com/2006/11/freeroll26-takes-down-event-4.htm

Today was a good day for poker. But first, let me just mention the rest of yesterday. Decided to enter a $10 tourney with my buddy Muratore. We both ended up making the final table because we just rock like that. Unfortunately we went out 8th and 9th or something so it kind of sucked. We got our money back, but not much more. Honestly though, for the cards i had it was a great showing.

As for today i started the day off by playing the forum league sng. I dominated. Absolutely dominated. Had one big bluff semi early that kind of set me for the rest of the tourney. Raised UTG with 8-9s and got one caller. I flopped a flush draw so i bet hoping to take it down. It didn't work. On the turn i picked up a straight draw to go with my flush draw so i went all in. Didn't get called and set myself up as the chipleader. I don't think i lost the lead from that point on. I was aggressive as hell, made a couple of nice lay downs and rolled over the table i thought. Caught some cards at the right times which helped, but i was very, very happy with the way i played. Ended up winning it so i was pretty happy about that.

After that i decided to go ahead and try to win my way into the 15k guaranteed tourney. My first attempt sucked, busted out of the $2 satellite so i tried again. Ended up winning that one. It was tough though. Very, very tough. Ended up being heads up against a guy named Gator. No joke, the heads up match lasted about a half hour. It was insane. Ended up winning it though. I was able to whittle him down by taking down small pots and once i had the chip lead (i started out abotu 1k down) i didn't relinquish it. It was beautiful. From there i entered the $10 satellite and also won that. Knocked out 2 ppl at once with pocket kings and had a huge chip lead going into heads up. It only lasted about 3 hands i think. I moved in with a-8 or something and he called with pocket 7's. I got my ace and won.

The 15k was a great time. I started out as a chipleader by knocking out someone with pocket aces. Then knocked out another person by flopping 2 pair with AQ. Then knocked out another by flopping trip 9's. It was monstorous. The crappy part was after that i went completely card dead. Ended up about a midstack with under 50 ppl left and the top 30 getting paid. Picked up aces and raised from the button. The big blind called. The flop came out all spades and i had the ace of spades. To my suprise he moved all in. I figured top pair or something and he was protecting his hand so i called. unfortunately for me he had flopped trip 2's. I didn't improve and that was the end of my tourney. Honestly though, even if i knew he had flopped trips i probably would have had to call. I had 9 spades that could help me and 2 aces. 11 outs. a about a 44 percent chance of making my hand and taking down a big pot. Oh well, it was a fun tourney. The level of play was overall a lot better than the normal tourneys. Also, the blinds move up slower so it gives you more time to play with skill as opposed to having to start gambling early.

So, feeling pretty good about the way i was playing i sat down at a ring game. Sat down with $40, left with $80. Was actually up to $100 but had a couple hands that cost me quite a bit. So again, still feeling good about my play i entered one last tourney for the night, another $10 mtt. I played really, really well i think. i was actually chip leader for a good portion of the tourney. Had a really cool incident too. Got transferred to a new table and had 2 ppl i had played with a couple times tell me how much they respect my game and such. Super cool. anyway, ended up going card dead after the first break and slowly dropped down the leaderboard. I ended up making the final table as the shortstack. I was able to last a until 6th, but that was all i could muster. The blinds were just too big. I did double up once, but it just wasn't enough. Ended up pushing all in with pocket 5's and getting called by Q-10o. He hit his queen on the turn and that was it. There wasn't much i could do though. If i don't move there i have less than 5 bb's which is pretty dire straights. I may have been able to wait longer, but i don't know what the odds are that i get a better hand than that before i get blinded out. I played to win and didn't lol. If i won that though i was right back in the game. Overall though it was a good showing, for the entire day actually. ^_^

Just finished my first Blogger Poker Tour event, Irongirl's Omaha a Go-Go. I think i did pretty well. Made a couple of mistakes that cost me huge though. For example, early on i accidentally folded an ace high straight with a redraw to a royal flush...would have busted 2 ppl. Also accidentally called an all in on a steal attempt. To misclicks cost me about 6k in chips. Very, very costly. Other than that i played pretty well overall. that is until it got down to ten handed and i was in the money. Oops. I was sitting in 6-8 for chips and was really ok. Then i made a mistake and bet my flush draw on a paired board as a continuation bet..Big mistake, guy had flopped a fullhouse and i doubled him up. Then i was shortstacked and had to make a move. Had Akxx and moved all in to the other blind. He had AKKx. I actually took the lead on the turn with 2 pair. He hit a straight on the river though and busted me out in tenth. Hate making mistakes and i made at least 3 in the tourney that cost me dearly. I should have been in the running to win it, but oh well.

Right now, i'm watching the final table and their down to 7 handed. Not a lot happening though because every is fairly deep for chips. Egonolson is leading atm though with 56k. Next closest is freeroll26 with 38k. Looks like Stevenslb159 might need to make a move soon. He has 13k and the blinds are at 1k.

Freeroll just took the chip lead from Egon by flopping trip aces. He just has a slight lead, but a lead nonetheless. Egon had been leading probably half of the tourney. Imjusthere4thebeer just doubled up courtesy of Egon, by rivering a straight. Egon is now down to 19k in chips and here4thebeer has almost 30k. Egon bounced back though. Just won a pot and got himself back up to about 30k. MTLDon just doubled up courtesy of freeroll. Moved all in with AAxx and freeroll called with KKxx. MTL was the second shortest stack, but is now comfortable at about 30k. Stevenslb159 looks to be in really bad shape with only 1k in chips. Nevermind, he just busted out. He just picked a hand and moved in. No luck for him though. We are now 6 handed.

Shortstack is now Kufolem with 15k. Nevermind, he just busted out too. Bluffed all in, into Egon's Ace high flush. Now 5 handed. That was quick..

Freeroll has just taken a commanding chip lead by flopping a flush and getting called down by Egon's 2 pair. He now has 84k in chips. Other than that everyone else is pretty even. Hanging right around 30k in chips. MTLdon just busted out. Moved all in with AKxx and got called by imjusthere4thebeer with KQQx. here4thebeer caught a set on the flop and it held up. Now down to 4.

That was quick. imjusthereforthebeer just busted astinaguy. Moved all in with QQxx and got called by astinaguy with KKxx. Here4thebeer caught another set on the turn and that was all she wrote for astinaguy. imjusthere4thebeer now has 80k in chips and i s avery close second to freeroll. Egon is the shortstack with about 30k in chips still. So much for that. Egon just doubled up with a fullhouse and is now even with imjusthere4thebeer since that is who doubled him up. Freeroll just took a biggish pot off of Egon. He now has over 100k in chips and egon is back down around 30k. Freeroll is playing the bully like a champ and is trying to run away with this right now by wittling the other two down. Geez, he's up to 120k. it just doesn't look fair for the other two right now. Things are looking rough for Egon. he has 20k in chips and the blinds are up to 2 and 4k...It's really going to be hard for anyone to overcome freeroll right now. as long as he doesn't double anyone up, he really should win this. Egon is now out. He had to make a move and he did. He just happened to run into a bigger hand that happened to make 2 pair.

Heads up. Freeroll has 138k to imjusthereforthebeer's50k. It's over just like that. i'mjusthere picked up AAxx and moved all in...Freeroll called with KQQx and made a straight. Game over. Great match everyone.

I decided to take a leap last night and sat down at a $1/$2 limit game. This was a big step since i'm skipping a step doing this. as of tonight, i would say it turned out to be a great move. it turns out there are more fish at this limit than at the .25/.50 tables. weird, but true. today, i sat down with $30 and i ended up leaving with $60. i had been up to $90, but made a couple second best hands and lost 30. a little later i sat down at another table. I sat down with $30 again and i sat there forever. Almost 300 hands to be exact. I should actually still be there because i was on a tear and the table was full of fish, but i was getting a little tired so i left. Get this, sat down with $30..i left with over $130. i made over $100 at one table. it was insane. i still can't believe i did that well. I'm pumped. Needless to say i won't be playing at the .25/.50 tables anymore. ^_^

i feel sick. just played 2 tournaments and they both royally sucked. no two ways about it. First i entered the 2k guaranteed. I did fine and made it until the first break. Then after break i was card dead. Didn't see anything for about 30 minutes. Finally pick up kings, getting kind of short stacked at this point and i'm facing a raise. I really only i had one move, all in or fold. I couldn't fold kings and you guessed it, i ran into aces.

Then, just now in the $10 MTT i went out in a hurry. I can't remember the last time i went out in a tourney this early. Well at least a non freeroll. Still very early in the tourney and i pick up aces. My table has been playing retared as usual so i decided to jam the pot preflop. Raise up 5 times the BB to 100. There had been 3 limpers and i had to get rid of some of them anyway. I get one caller. The flop comes out K-x-10. Not really much to be scared of but there are 2 diamonds out there. To my suprise the guy bets into me. At this point i put him on some kind of king. Like KQ or something because these are the type of hands he's been playing. I raise, Jam the pot to push him off any draw he might be on and make sure he actually has a pair. The turn comes out a J. At this point i think i'm probably still fine. I don't think he has 2 pair. Only scary thing (i thought) was that this was a 3rd diamond so he could have theoretically been staying with his flush draw. I decide he is scared of the diamond too and isn't very confident in his king when he checks to me. I move in, trying to take the pot down right there. He calls. He hit Broadway. He stayed with a gutshot straight draw and nothing else facing the kind of betting i was making. I don't know what the hell he was thinking or how he could have possibly thought his AQo was any good on that flop, but hey, what do i know. Chasing a gutshot there...amazing. I guess it worked, but honestly i should have picked that pot up on the flop. He had absolutely nothing. I'm fuming. I don't understand how ppl that have been playing long enough to get 3 gold stars on poker.com can make such awful calls. I don't care that he got lucky and hit it. I do care that he made an awful call and got lucky. Granted, i should have let off the gas when the 3rd flush card came, but i was spot on when i knew that he wasn't on a flush draw. Little did i know that he would chase a much longer shot than a flush draw.... >.<;;

On the bright side, as i got my message saying "Congratulations you finished incredibly far from the money in the $10 NL Hold 'em Tournament" (I hate that damn message unless i have smething to be proud of) i recieved my Blogger Poker Tour coupon! Hurray! Can't wait. Ok, i'm off to go pull my ears off. ^_^

Well, i've been up and down for the past week or so. Mainly down, not so much up. I've been bouncing out of MTT's on the bubble over and over and it's been getting insanely frustrating. Well today, we had the 5th Street Charity Ball on poker.com with half of the proceeds going to the Make a Wish foundation. I signed up for this a couple weeks ago and have been really looking forward to playing in an event that goes towards such a good cause. Well, i didn't realize that this was a rebuy event until about 20 minutes in, but really it didn't make any difference to me at that point. I had already doubled up a couple times and was sitting fine for chips at break, but i went ahead and took an add on anyway. Ended up doing very well and making the final table. Sat and played fairly patiently and let ppl kill each other. Ended up getting down to 3 handed as the shortstack. Ended up moving all in with middle pair from the BB and got called by Q-10 (no pair) with a gutshot stragiht draw. Actually a great call given the situation and Pajasen (read Punk) ended up knocking me out in 3rd. I forgive Pajasen though since he/she (i have no clue) ended up going on to win it all. Grats Paj!

So, riding that success i entered a $10 tourney and i looked pretty good. With 11 ppl left i was about 5th in chips and then distaster. This guy who had been moving all in constantly moved in, i called with pocket queens figuring i was ahead (correctly). Then, the BB called with AK and the other showed pocket 3's. The 3's hit trips and the AK made a wheel straight on the river. Bye, bye purdle. Oh well, i played well and actually played that hand correctly in my mind. I just couldn't lay down queens against such a loose player.

Well, still feeling good about my play i just entered another $10 MTT. Ended up doing really well. Played shortstacked almost the whole time and ended up making the final table and the money. Sat around for a while, moved in when i thought i might have the best hand and stole the blinds a few times. Still shortstacked when it got down to 5 handed and then i moved in with pocket 2's hoping for a coinflip if anyone called. It didn't work. I got called by pocket 9's and ended up taking 5th. Still not bad and i'm back to where i started the week at.

One last thing. Played int he halloween tourney last night at poker.com . It was really a great time. I think i was playing well enough i should have at least made the money, and maybe another final table, but it wasn't meant to be. Midstacked i picked up Aces against 2 all ins. I of course move in and see i'm up against AK and QQ. Queen hit on the turn and that was it. Oh well, it was still a great time.

Overall, i think the past couple days i've been playing some of my best poker. Aggressive, but not too aggressive. Tight, but loose enough that ppl have to fear me. Hoping one of these days the good play will pay off for me and i'll get a big win. I'm going to satellite my way into the 15k guaranteed for this saturday and hope to hit big. We shall see.