Running Bad

I am running bad again. Played two satellites last night. One on FullTilt for their FTOPS Limit HE event and one on Stars for their WCOOP HORSE Event. In both events I built up a nice chip stack and got deep. I got coolered in both with hands I couldn’t get away from. Oh well I will continue my quest to win my way into some of these events. If I don’t will just directly buy in. Played some no limit and had very bad luck. For the second night in a row I ran Kings into Aces and couldn’t get lucky. Sick thing is the guy who felted me had Aces 3 times in one hour! Like an idiot he went bust with them the third time. He raised and got one caller. Flop comes 6-6-10 and the big blind lead into him for a pot sized bet. So he goes all in for like 150BBs. What do you think his opponent had, after he made the call. A six of course! What a bad move you are only going to get called by a hand that beats you. Unless maybe he has Pocket Kings or A-10. I highly doubt you will even get called by A-10 with such a gross over bet of the pot. Well thanks for shipping my money to someone else donkey. I played a little Stud last night and couldn’t even win there. Which was odd being I have been crushing that game on Ultimate for weeks. Oh well tonight I will be at it again. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Home Game Post#2

I remembered some sick hands from last night’s game and decided to do a second post today. Aren’t you all so lucky? :- ) My brother, who was very loud and excited last night, being he had some good news on the investing front, pushed all in with pocket tens. My cousin Anthony, who has the same first and last name as me, insta-calls with pocket Aces. Damn was he running good last night, except for this hand. My other cousin folded A-Qo to my brother’s all in push.(Great fold btw.) Of course you know how this hand goes. Flop comes 10-10-2 and we all start yelling and getting excited. Bad beat central should have been last night’s theme. Another crazy hand took place between Carlo and Tony. Tony limps in late position with pocket Aces, I have no idea why. He and Carlo see a flop of 10-2-4 off. Carlo pushes all in, very early in the SNG, the first round. Tony insta-calls with pocket aces and the taunting starts. Carlo acts like the hand is over and that Tony’s slow play will be punished.(Doesn’t he know there is no justice in Poker : - ).) The turn comes with a nine as well as the river! Carlo is knocked out early and gets abused by everyone else who is still in it. This is a fun but tough place to play SNGs! I don’t like either of their plays in this hand. I hate the late limp with Aces being you give your opponents a chance to out flop you. Which in this case clearly happened. Then I hate the insta-push for like 5000chips we started with from bottom two pair. A bet of the pot size, at this level of 25-50, was clearly called for. More then enough to protect your hand. There is no need to go broke in the first level with bottom two. Oh well there is always next time. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Home game.

Played some Sit-N-Gos at my brother’s house yesterday. This game is a loud, loose, crazy kind of game. Don’t really play to make money here, just to have some fun. A good time is had by all whenever we get together. Really it’s a chance for me to see my brothers and cousins every so often. For some reason I never win when I play with them. Doesn’t bother me being this is just a chance to blow off some steam. My biggest problem is I can never win a coin toss in this game. Actually I can’t seam to win as a big favorite, when all the money goes in either. My best chance to win is when I take the pot down without a showdown, so that was my plan last night. I have a tight image so I tried to exploit it early in both of them. It worked very well, I built up a large stack in both of the SNGs. Problem was I ran into a wall in the middle to late stages in both of them. I finished 4th out of 7 and 5th out of 9 in the two we played. Had close to the chip lead in both of them, at one time. The way I got crippled in the 2nd SNG really stung. We were down to five and I had enough chips to limp into the money being three were being paid. I woke up with pocket Kings in the big blind, we were playing 400-800 and I had 6000 chips. I thought yum yum I will double up on this hand and become the chip leader. My brother John insta-pushes under the gun. He is a loose crazy player, ATC is his motto. You never can put him on a hand. My first thoughts were Jacks or queens but you never know with him. Everyone folds to the small blind who is super short and has to call. I call and turn over my cards. Asked John if he had queens, he slowly turns over pocket Aces! Couldn’t believe he would push under the gun with them. All the money was getting in there anyway. It’s just the way he over bet the pot with the best starting hand . Oh well I couldn’t get lucky, after that hand didn’t even have enough left for a big blind. I was knocked out like 2 hands later. Think I lost five total coins flips last night. Maybe won one the whole night. Oh well this isn’t a bad beat post I got my money in way behind. It’s just unlucky to run into Aces from an under the gun pusher. Oh well one of these times it will be my turn to win. Good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Shout out to Cousin Ant. for playing very well yesterday by taking 2nd and 3rd in our SNGs. (Remember “Please don’t tap on the fish bowl!”)

RAZZ Tournament.

Just another example of me running well in Stud games. Only played one tournament yesterday. This was it:

PokerStars Tournament #56065266, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30
152 players
Total Prize Pool: $456.00
Tournament started - 2007/07/28 - 10:45:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 16th place.
A $6.38 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 46.60 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Good Luck at the tables. Tony

A Big Win in Hi/Lo Stud.

I took a tournament down last night. Here are the results:


PokerStars Tournament #56065161, Limit 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
80 players
Total Prize Pool: $800.00
Tournament started - 2007/07/27 - 17:45:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $240.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 179.84 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Maybe this is the start of a good weekend. I will do a real post later. God luck at the tables. Tony

Online Seven Card Stud.

I Love Online Stud! Stud is the game I grew up with. My first game in a live casino was $1-5 Stud at the Tropicana, it was then called “TropWorld”. Lately I have been playing the low limit Stud at Ultimate and FullTilt. I am talking about .50-1.00 and 1.00-2.00 Stud. I have been crushing the games for weeks. The play has been so bad. People just do not know how to play stud. It reminds me of the old games in AC when Stud was king and Holdem was new. We had all these great Stud players and all these bad HE players. Online it’s the reverse. As for tournaments this isn’t as true. My wife and I plan on playing in the STUD events at Fulltilt(FTOPS) and on PokerStars(WCOOP). Remember that my wife took 17th in the $1500 Stud event at the WSOP this year. Have played in a few of them last year and the play wasn’t as bad as the live online play has been. Anyway give Stud a try online. There is easy money to be had. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Damn Online Sit-N-Gos!

Damn online Sit-N-Gos! I was on such a streak last week. I went 8 for 10 in the money last week. This week is a whole different ball game, 0 for 8 in the money. Last night it continued, played in three, bubbled in two and got knocked out first in one. Again this rarely happens to me(Getting knocked out first), got coolered twice in this one. Of well this is the bad news but the good news is I can do no wrong in the live games. I have been killing the No Limit games on FullTilt. Granted it’s only .10-.25 but it’s a good way for me to rebuild my bankroll. As for the Stud games on UltimateBet I have been clairvoyant. I put people on hands and am totally right about it. Last night an Ace called on 3rd and a guy with a 4 showing raised it up. I had Split Kings but knew the guy with a 4 had pocket Queens. Also knew the Ace had a three flush or a small pair. I re-raised and bet all the way to the river. The Ace folded on 4th. I had Kings and threes and took down the nice pot when he showed Queens and sevens. This is the way it went all night. In another crazy hand I was full on 6th with Tens and eights showing. My one adversary had three 3s showing the other had three 9s showing. The nines bet the river, the threes limped so I raised with my Tens full. They both folded, the threes said he folded a full house. It was a sick raise being either of them could have quads but I just knew I was good. Based on the betting and a gut feeling. I am running very good in Stud lately. Probably just jinxed myself being last week when I did a post about running good in SNGs it ended right away! Tonight I will try to fight my way through this SNG slump. Good luck at the tables. Tony

BTW – If you aren’t already a FullTilt Member please give them a try by clicking my banner at the top of this BLOG.

Burst Bubble.

Last night my running good bubble burst. Played in two Hi/Lo Stud SNGs on Stars and couldn’t get anything going in either one. The first one was really bad I got knocked out first! That never happens to me. I always start out conservative to feel out the table. Problem may have been I wasn’t focusing on the SNG well. I was two tabling stud games on Ultimate at the same time. Was also reading email, surfing the web, watching TV, and riding an exercise bike.. Not focusing on the tournament at hand is a recipe for disaster. Some nights the grind just gets to me. Oh well tonight I will be at it again. BTW we might make a trip to the Borgata this weekend. Wish us luck. Good luck at the tables. Tony

$10-20 at the Taj

I never posted about our Taj trip from this weekend. We played the $10-20 LHE game at the Taj on Saturday. The game was very weak, which meant expect bad beats big time. I did well but my wife got beat up. Case in point, one hand she had Aces and she capped the betting pre-flop. She played the hand aggressively and got called on the river on a board of 7-5-2-8-10. Her opponent asked if she had a set, what the? I called out her hand before she turned it over, had to be aces.(I put him on Kings or Queens.) She turned over her Aces and he turned over his 7-5 off, what?? He dragged down the huge pot and she was steaming. He first called 2 bets cold with 7-5, and then got trapped so called 2 more bets with that garbage. That was the kind of table it was. This hand I will tell you about was pretty crazy. I got pocket Jacks, for the third time in two hours(Lost with them both other times). So I raise from under the gun. Something strange happens one by one every person at the table called my 2 bets cold. What the, we take a flop nine handed, one person was absent. Flop comes down 8-2-8. I lead out and get called in six places. Turn comes with a ten. I lead out again, three people limp and the button raises. I call, as well as everyone else. River brings another eight. I check fearing my hand is no good. Everyone checks behind and I quickly announce I have pocket jacks. One by one everyone folds and I drag down a monster pot. Damn I missed a bet there, really thought someone had the case eight at that point. If you are in Atlantic City I would highly recommend the LHE games at the Borgata or the Taj. They are both very juicy. That’s it for today, good luck at the tables. Tony

Online Tournaments.

Been running really good at online tournaments this week. Cashed in eight of my last ten played. Haven’t had any really big scores but it’s nice to cash in 80% of them! Saturday night was nice, played in a $22 Stud tournament on Stars. Only 16 people played it but I was still very happy taking down 1st place. $160 wins are not that big a deal but 1st always helps the poker ego. I want to thank all the readers that left me comments from my last post. Please keep them coming. Always good to have feedback so I know someone is actually reading/enjoying this BLOG. I read like 20 BLOGs a day, try to leave comments when I have the time. I need to improve on this in the future. Got to go get some work done. Happy Monday. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Short one today.

This will be a short post being we have decided to go to the Taj today after all.(Maybe the Borgata will decide on the ride down.) I would like to know that my readers are actually enjoying this BLOG. I need to ask you all a favor today. If you read this today and you are a regular reader please leave me a comment to this post. Just say Hi or anything else you want. Just want to make sure people are really reading and not just clicking through. Thanks so much and good luck at the tables. Tony

The End to a Good Run.

I guess the saying, “All Good things must come to an end.”, is true. My running good ran out last night big time! Couldn’t do anything right. Actually my good hands just couldn’t fade the bad beats. Lost 40 BB at Stud on Ultimate in one hour. Keep starting with Aces, Kings, or Queens and making two pairs or trips. Would loss to someone slow playing three Aces or they would catch a straight or flush by 6th or 7th. Had been running so well in Stud, knew I was do for a dose of reality. Just hurts wiping out wins for the last 4 days in one session. Also played some No Limit on FullTilt. This didn’t go well either. Lost a buy in, in less then an hour. Could have been much worse, was down 3 buy ins after twenty minutes. We had a complete idiot/lunatic at the table that was making all these crazy plays. Apparently the other people at the table knew what was going on and took full advantage of it. I wasn’t there long enough to know. He kept coming over the top of me when I had top pair top kicker and I kept laying it down. When I finally looked him up once he was betting with total air. No hand no draw. One hand he played so badly. A guy from UTG+2 limped in for .25c.(Playing .10-.25) So the idiot goes all in for $57.25! Realize there is .60c in the pot at this point. Everyone folds back to the limper who has $27.50 behind. He insta-calls in Hellmuthish fashion. He has queens and the idiot has A-Ko. He actually had a hand for once. Of course betting your whole stack into a nothing pot is so retarded. Only going to get called by a monster hand. The idiot turns broadway while the other player had three queens. Queen on the river for the re-suck out and the idiot loses half of his stack. I stayed at this table until the idiot got felted three times and then left. Came back to being down a little less then one buy in. I will say it again the low limit No Limit on FullTilt and PokerStars is so soft! Good luck at the tables. Tony

FullTilt Stud

Played for an hour on FullTilt last night with good results. I played in a HORSE SNG and finished on 3rd. Checked my records and I have cashed in six of my last eight SNG/MTTs. That is after going like one for fifteen previously. Didn’t feel I played any different just was on a streak where I couldn’t fade the bad beats. Also couldn’t win a coin toss for a whole week. It happens, high variance is a big part of poker tournaments. Feel that I now have things back on track. Also did well last night in the live games. Decided to try Stud on FullTilt, usually play it on Ultimatebet. Have been crushing those low limit games on Ultimate for weeks. Didn’t win a hand for a half an hour and was stuck 15 BBs. Turned it around and quickly brought it up to 10 BBs profit. So I quit for the night with a nice little profit in both live and SNG play. We may make a Taj or Borgata trip this weekend. Not sure yet but the $340 Saturday tournament at the Borgata is calling my name :-). Will post results from the trip on Sunday. Good luck at the tables. Tony

BTW – Click on my FullTilt Banner above and give them a try. You won’t be sorry :-).

Taj Tournament

I meant to do a post about the $120 No Limit tournament I played at the Taj on Saturday, so here it is. We started with 5000 chips with 20 minute levels. Not a great structure but I have seen worse in these cheap tournaments. I played solid for the first two hours really not getting many premium hands but keep chipping up by stealing. Didn’t show a hand down during this time, then this tough hand came up for me. At this point I had around 6500 chips and still hadn’t shown a single hand down. Had a great image at the table, everyone seamed scared to play a pot with me. I was in the Big blind with A-K off, think blinds were 200-400 with a 50 ante. Three limpers came in then the button limped and the small blind completed. So I raised it up to 1400 to go. Wanting to take it down right there or go heads up. Two people folded then a short stack went all in after three minutes of thinking it though. I knew he had a small pair and wanted to go heads up with me. Then the button goes all in over the top of both of us. What could he possible have to limp after three limpers and then go all in? It was 3500 chips to me, so if I lost I would be down to 3000, should I call. Keep thinking about what he had and I put him on a medium pair. First he limped wanting to see a cheap flop then he figures he can isolate the shorty and win the dead money out there. (So I thought, also was the possibility that he had a big Ace also and played the hand funny.) I was so hoping he had like A-Q suited or pocket tens. After a few minutes I made the call. The shorty had pocket twos, he made a good move probably putting me on two big cards. He figured go for the coin toss and the double up. The button had pocket Kings, what the? I don’t like his move at all. He got all his money in as a favorite but I would have raised myself being there was already dead money in the pot. Pocket Kings are not the nuts. I don’t like getting multiple callers with them. He took a big chance that me and the small blind wouldn’t raise and then we would see a flop five handed. Anyone could have an Ace or hit a good flop to crack his kings. I may have folded if he made a big raise from the button, the first time around. Anyway the Flop came with an Ace and I busted them both. Don’t want to be results orientated being I won it doesn’t prove he misplayed. Me personally would have raised big after the other limpers to win it there or go heads up. Anyone have opinions on how he played this hand? I will post about the rest of the tournament this week. That’s it for today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Short Post.

Running really good yesterday. Played one SNG and took 2nd. Played more low limit Stud on Ultimate and crushed the game. Earned more of my bonus on Ulitmate. Need to go out now to a birthday party. Always something to do. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Deep Stack Tournament.

Went Deep in the 12:00 $11 Deep Stack No Limit tournament on PokerStars yesterday. What a great structure this one has. Start with 5000 chips and have 30 minute levels. Antes don’t kick in until like three hours into it! The good news is I went deep, bad news is I only cashed for $29.40! Also played this for eight hours only to get coolered at a terrible time. Let me warn you if you intend to play in this set aside ten hours if you plan on winning it. I got knocked out in 46th place(1176 entries), on a money jump bubble.(We were going hand for hand at this time.) One of the things Stars does right is they go hand for hand at every money increase. This makes it fair so that these idiots can’t stall into the money jump. If I won my last hand I would have had 103,000 chips and been able to go really deep. The blinds were 1500-3000 with a 150 ante I believe. I had 50,000 chips in the big blind with K-Qo. Not a premium hand but in this situation a monster. The cutoff, who had been attacking my blind for hours brought it in for a raise of 4 times the Bid Blind. I called his raise to see a flop.(My first mistake, should have re-raised him big and taken down the pot.) Flop came K-8-3 rainbow. A great flop for me, I gave him some rope to hang himself with by checking. He bet the pot, I just called.(Another big mistake, should have pushed or at least raised him.) An eight came on the turn, I checked and he checked behind. Hmm what does he have. River came with another eight. I led our for half the pot and he quickly came over the top of me for all my chips. At this point I was down to 19,000 chips. I had a full house, could I lay this down? Really thought I had the best hand. I called and he of course had the monster hand of Q-8 off for quads! After eight hours spent fighting I was out in 46th. To add insult to injury I burst the pay jump so everyone else made $10 more. I also played in an $11 Hi/Lo Stud tournament at 12:00. As I wrote in my last post took down 4th for $72 is this one. I played in four tournaments yesterday and cashed in three. Not a bad ITM% at all! As bad as I have been running lately felt good about my day. Just wish I didn’t get coolered in that hand! Of well will get them next time. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Stars Tournament.

Made a little score in a Hi/Lo Stud tournament this morning. Here are the details:

PokerStars Tournament #54723047, Limit 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
72 players
Total Prize Pool: $720.00
Tournament started - 2007/07/15 - 11:45:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 4th place.
A $72.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 85.31 tournament leader points in this tournament.

I am currently deep in he 12:00 $11 Deep Stack one. Will post results once if I finish in the money. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

FullTilt Poker.

Last night I finally pulled of a successful hit-n-run session. Again I didn’t have much time to play before having to go out. I logged onto FullTilt to play some low limit No Limit. Did well winning a half of a buy in while only playing 30 minutes. The games on Full have been getting softer lately. I highly recommend playing on Full. The graphics are top notch. The tournament structures have improved. The variety of tournament has been getting better and better of late. If you decide to give them a try please click on my banner at the top of this blog. I get a referral bonus if you join them through this blog. Thanks so much. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

A Short Losing Session.

Played a very short session last night of No Limit on FullTilt. Intended on making a little score and then go out.(Like the Hit-N-Run sessions that Dr. Pauly used to write about.) Well the only one getting ran over was me. I couldn’t do anything right. I felt lucky to only lose two buyins in the 30 minutes I played. Actually I was down almost three but I made a little comeback. Sick thing is I had Aces twice and misplayed them both times. Won micro-sized pots with them both times. Tried to get to fancy with traps both times. Second time I had them I flopped an Ace with 5 callers pre-flop. I had limped under the gun with them. No one raised and the flop came A-K-7. I checked and everyone checked behind. On the turn a 6 came and put two hearts on the board. So I bet half the pot and everyone folded! What a waste of three aces. There are all kinds of bad luck in poker. Getting a monster and no one having anything is one of them. A few hands later I pushed on the flop with a gut shot, four flush, and what turned out to be two live overcards. A short stack who had 5-6 off had flopped a 6 and called my push. I missing my 18 outs twice and he took half my stack! It was one of those nights. I will get them tonight, I hope. Will be playing on Stars tonight after 5:30pm Eastern. If anyone is on at that time look for me and give me a shout in the chat. (Aviganola is my screen name.) Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Running Good.

Another night of running good for me. Seams I am finally playing out of my recent slump. It’s just so depressing playing at a table with inferior opponents that beat up on me. That has been going on for a few weeks now. I know it’s a short amount of time but it sucks non-the less. Last night played in another Hi/Lo SNG on Stars, took down 3rd place. I was very happy with this being I was the short stack when we were five handed and the severe short stack when four handed. I am talking about 200T chips when the leader has 6000T. I again crushed the low limit Stud game on UltimateBet. Great thing about this is that I am finally clearing some of the huge bonus that I have built up over there. I used to play the bonus dollars freeroll everyday over there. Would cash in like 60% of them. Took 1st twice and 2nd around five times. Again I played some No Limit on FullTilt and won one buy in. Poker is so much fun when things go right. Still have to rebuild my puny bankroll after my short-handed slaughter from last week. The variance at the game is just sick. May make a trip to the Taj or the Borgata this weekend. Will play in another tournament, I am such a glutton for punishment. One of the times I will be able to fade the bad beats and final table one of these. Haven’t had a big score, in live tournaments, since the Borgata in January. You can get that result by going to google, or any search engine, and putting my name in “Anthony Viganola”. That’s it for today. Good luck at the tables. Tony

A Winning Night.

It feels so good to finally have a winning night. Been running so bad lately that my confidence was very low. All I wanted last night was to have a winning session. Always do this after a few really bad days. Makes me feel so much better. I won at everything I played last night. Played low limit stud on Ultimatebet and crushed the game. Played No limit on FullTilt and won half a buy in. Most importantly I finally broke the Sit n go jinx. Played a Hi/Lo Stud one on Stars and took first. We got heads up with an equal chip stack. I felt I would win being I was running well the whole SNG. Right away I took a bad beat when I started with Tens and fives on 4th. He had me out chipped 4-1 at this point. Didn’t give up at all I started to play real aggressive, which you have to do heads up. I chipped back up to even in no time at all. One big hand happened that I misplayed but we wound up chopping anyway. On 6th I had jacks full of tens. Like a fool I kept raising until it was capped. He had an obvious made low and a better high draw that I over looked. Temporary brain fart that could have cost me the match. On 6th he had 6-7-8 of clubs showing. At the showdown we capped it again. He had the 5 of clubs and a made low. Could have caught a straight flush and knocked me out. He was freerolling on 6th street. This is a common mistake I see new Hi/Lo Stud players making. Don’t jam the pot heads up when the other person can’t lose in one direction. No harm done this time but need to not let this happen again. I play Hi/Lo much better then that. Well I took it down and booked a nice win for the night. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Borgata $10-20 LHE

Played $10-20 at the Borgata this weekend, also played the $340 tournament. (That disaster was written about in my previous post.) Only reason I played the tournament is that I won $170 in 30 minutes before the tournament started. My cousin and a friend were in the tournament so I decided why not. It turned out to be a waste of my time. Anyway $10-20 went well before the tournament but after it was a disaster. Some days no matter what I do I can’t win. This was one of those days. I had an overly aggressive player on my right that kept bringing it in for a raise. I noticed he always did this with big cards, any two cards Jack and above. He raised under the gun and I looked down at pocket threes, which looked like aces compared to what I was getting all day. So I three bet it, this move I usually only do with eights and higher. I wanted to isolate him and take the flop as a small favorite. Everyone folded to the small blind who cold calls the three bets.(Oh course it only cost him two and a half bets more!) What could he have to cold call here, hmm…. Flop comes 9-9-2. I thought it was a very good flop for me. Mister over-aggressive leads out. I raise to find out if my threes are good. The small blind cold calls both bets, a red flag goes up over my head. The original raiser folds and I am not happy. Turn comes with an off suit seven. I check and the small blind bets. I knew I was beat so I insta-folded. He shows the table how great he played his 9-10 off. What a bad play pre-flop. Calling 3 bets with a hand that will be way behind 90% of the time in this spot. In this one case he wasn’t that far behind. Keep playing like that sir and you will go broke so I thought. He played like this all day and just kept winning. Me on the other hand got crushed all day long. It got so bad that I ran out of money. I borrowed a few bucks from my father and moved down to $3-6. Got crushed here also. Played for two hours and lost 20 big bets. At this point decided I had enough for one day. I really am starting to believe putting a stop loss on yourself for the day is a good idea. In both of these games I felt I was a huge favorite yet couldn’t win no matter what I did. Holdem is like this for me, some days I can do no wrong but other days I can do no right. Oh well I will try again next time. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Borgata Tournament.

Played in the Borgata $340 No Limit Tournament on saturday. Start with 10,000 in chips with 30 minute levels. Felt I played really well. Got no cards for the first two hours but I had the patience to wait it out.(For a change.) After two hours I had 9800 chips. Felt my reads were dead on. Finally got a playable hand J-10 suited from the button. I raised it up 3x the BB to 600. Both blind called me and the flop came with j-j-4. They both checked and I bet 1000, big blind called me. Turn came with a 7 and I bet 2000 this time. Big blind called me again, hmm what does he have? River came with an offsuit 2, he folded before I could bet. I finally had some chips in my stack. In the next 2 hours I built it up to 20,000. Then I want card dead again. Every steal was met with a re-steal. Got down to 9000 chips when I got dealt Jacks on the button. I could almost feel the doom I was about to receive. Guy next to me was doing a lot of bullying of the table for the last hour. Two limps to me and I raise it up to 5X the Big Blind. Wanted to take it down but just knew he would call me. He does and everyone else folds. I know he is going to put me all in, no matter what, I felt it. Flop comes 2-2-5, sure enough he bets enough to put me all in. I insta-call so fast, sort of a Hellmuth move! He turns over 8-9 of spades. There are no spades on the board, he has nothing. Caught with his hand in the cookie jar! Yes I will double up and have some chips to fight with. Nope, seven on the turn and six on the river! Runner-Runner nothing funner! I hate No Limit Tournaments!!!! Another frustrating waste of five hours. Oh well I will have to get them next time. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Site Review.

Today I am doing another review of a very useful site. This is a poker review portal site. Here is a link for our european readers.

Internet Poker UK, Internet Poker Sites, Online Poker, Internet Poker

For our American readers use this link below.

US Poker, US Poker Sites, US Poker Rooms, USA Poker

This link is for Online Casinos.

US Casino, US Online Casino, USA Casinos

I checked the site over extensively. My favorite part is the Poker reviews on the home page. Also include bonuses for new players for each site. Also have the rules of all popular poker games. I like the news links on the far left of their homepage. It reminds me of Yahoo's news page. All the news you want to read in one place. They have a newsletter you can join to keep up with new changes. Also have strategy articles to help improve your game. Another useful feature is the tabs on top of the site. They break down the site into subjects so you won't be searching for what you want for very long. The Poker Strategy tab is my favorite. Check out this site you won't be sorry.

Here is the main link to the site:
UK Online Poker


By the way this was a paid review. We need to pay the bills also :-). That's it for tonight. Good luck at the tables. Tony

No Limit Tournaments

Another night playing No Limit Tournaments, another night of total frustration. Last night decided to go back to S-N-Gs being the variance is a lot lower then MTT. Same shit different day! This push monkey is going all in pre-flop like every other hand. I wake up with A-K suited and decide to trap him for a double up.(He has me covered by a 3 to 1 margin.) So I limp and sure enough he pushes his stack in. I insta-call and we take a flop of J-2-3 off heads up. Turn is a 2 and the river is a 5. I am sent to the rail in another stupid No Limit S-N-G. BTW – What do you think he pushed with. Oh the suspense, bet you can’t figure out the monster hand he had…… Without out further ado he pushed with J-6 off?????? Why I have no idea. Online poker is such a joke sometimes. I quickly signed up for another S-N-G. Played this one well even though I should have been on tilt. Lasted long and bubbled out in 4th. Oh well I hate tournaments these days. Speaking of tournaments I am going to the Bellegio East tomorrow, AKA the Borgata. What a great room they have. May play in the $340 No Limit tournament. You get 10,000 chips and have 30 minute levels. Wish me luck. If any readers are going there stop by and say hi. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Play to Win?

To play to win or to play to cash, that is the question. I keep hearing about playing tournaments to finish in the top three places. My problem is everytime I play to win I get coolered right outside the money. I guess it is different in B&M tournaments from Online tournaments. Being that people actually tighten up close to the money in B&M tournaments. Three times this week I have been within ten spots of cashing and have ran into a monster or been called by garbage only to be sucked out on. Last week I played with my old style, play carefully until into the money then open up my game. Cashed in 3 of 4 big MTT tournaments in 4 days. Problem is the cashes were only for around two times my buy ins. At least I felt good about cashing. Instead yesterday I finished eight out of the money when I had enough chips to cash for sure. Played a deep stack $22 No Limit on Stars yesterday. Had 5000T chips left around 40 out of the money. This was a decent position to be in being 1320 players started it and 180 places were being paid. Then this hand happened. I get Jacks from late position and bring it in for three times the big blind. The small blind calls me and the big folds. Flop comes 2-3-7 with two spades. He insta-pushes and I go into the tank. It really felt like a flush draw or A-7 to me. I thought and thought about it, could have folded and still had 3800T left. I decided to play to win the tournament and made the call. He had Kings which he played in a very odd manor. He didn’t raise me pre-flop and then he pushed into me instead of check-raising me. This totally confused me, thought I was ahead when I called. These tournaments are so frustrating! Last week I would have laid that down and snuck into the money. I don’t know how these tournament pros deal with the everyday frustrations of playing these and getting no money for long periods of time. Maybe I will go back to my old style of play. Problem is I want to make the “Big Score” in one of these badly. Oh well I will keep trying. Good luck at the tables. Tony

No Limit Donkament.

Played a No Limit Donkament on Fulltilt this morning. This is not a bad beat story just an example of how bad people play in No Limit Tournament. We are down to 56 players out of the starting 327. (Top 36 getting paid.) I had a lower then average stack of 2500 chips. I was playing so tight is wasn't funny. I get dealt A-2 of clubs in the small blind. (BTW playing 200-400 with a 50 Ante.) One early player limps and everyone fold to me. So I decide I want the limper, bid blind, and antes. How should I play it? I push, the big blind folds, and the limper insta-calls! He had 9000 chips so this call is almost 30% of his stack. What could he have here, J-10 off. He flops a Jack and I am knocked out. Two more hours of my time wasted without a cash. I could have folded and waited for a better spot. I didn't want to get too short, felt I made the right play. As for him why insta-call with that trash? I don't like the play there at all. Anyone have any opinions. Is it just me crying about another beat? Please post an opinion in the comments. Thanks and good luck at the tables. Tony

Happy 4th.

Happy 4th of July! Good Luck at the tables. Tony

Stud and HORSE.

Played more Stud last night, some HORSE also. Again I did great at low limit Stud on Ultimate. Did even better at $1-2 HORSE on FullTilt. I have said it before HORSE on FullTilt is super weak! People just don’t know how to play RAZZ. I don’t care how sure you are that someone is stealing, calling a raise with a King up is a bad play. I see this play over and over again on Fulltilt. You never know where you are in the hand. Can’t tell if your opponent has a made hand or is drawing. He on the other hand knows where you are at exactly. If you call with the King or Queen up with say A-2 or 2-3 in the hole it is obvious to me what you have. If you catch 4-5-6 I can fold with no problem. You on the other hand are left guessing, did he start with 3 low cards, did he pair, etc. Enough ranting about RAZZ for one post. They also play Hi/Lo Stud really bad. I see people raising with a nine or Ten up all the time. A pair of nines is not a good hand to start with in no foldem hi/lo stud. Not when four or five people are seeing 4th street. Also drawing to a bad eight is not a good idea, 8-7-2 is a horrible hand to start with in this game. If you are not a member of FullTilt click my banner above and join up. BTW you get a 100% up to $600! That is $600 for free, just for playing poker with a bunch of donks. Good luck at the tables. Tony

Seven Card Stud

Decided to mix things up yesterday playing online. I have been running so bad in short-handed Limit HE lately. So I decided to go back to my roots and play so low limit stud at UlitmateBet. Wow the few games going there were so juicy. Besides I have like $1280 in uncleared bonus that I need to earn there. I hate the fact that they changed their bonus policy last year. You now only get points/clear a bonus if you contribute money into a pot. It used to be that you just had to be dealt into a hand to earn points. This is bad if you are playing tight in a flop game. So playing Stud on this site made perfect sense. Have to ante every hand so always get credit toward my bonus. I got stuck playing in a really low limt game .25-.50 being it was this or .05-.10. I killed some time and earned some bonus dollars. Had a great session, won $15 plus bonus in an hour. If only I could do that at $2-4 or higher. Could make some serious coin. We had 2 or 3 people that would call every 3rd street no matter what cards they held. It was great, used to play in $1-5 and $5-10 games like this in AC. All you have to do is wait for a big pair and push it to the river. Sure you will get sucked out on now and then. Overall you were getting to push your hands with the best of it. Over time these are very profitable games to play in. Tonight I will see how the $1-2 and $2-4 Stud games are on Stars. Will also check if FullTilt has a Stud games going. I know the HORSE games there have been very good to me. Maybe I will play some HORSE on Stars or Fulltilt. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – I would highly recommend trying the HORSE games on FullTilt. If you are not already a member please click on my links at the top of this BLOG. (Need to play the bills also J)

Filler Post.

I recently learned of a way to make some extra money from website or a BLOG. Check out this service - Text Link Ads. If your site generates enough traffic they will generate text/banner ads you can get paid for having on your site. Good Luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Will do a real post tonight.