Dave's Home Game

At my suggestion we added bounties to our home game last night, at my brother’s game. I thought it would loosen up, an already wild loose game but it had the opposite effect. Everyone tightened up being they didn’t want to get teased about losing their bounty! It had a real fun effect on the game being we made whoever busted out sign over their bounty to the person who busted them!(Sign a ten dollar bill.) When someone became short the sharks would smell the blood in the water. Overall, as usual, the game was a lot of fun. It’s a good diversion from everyday’s grind of life. I did well in the first tournament but ran into a cooler, when I had the second biggest stack. I had 5-8 of spades in the big blind and got to see a free flop. I flopped a spade flush draw and bet it. On the turn I hit a five so I had a pair and a flush draw on a board that was straight draw heavy. In hindsight I know I should have pushed on the turn, even against my brother John, the big stack. Instead I bet half the pot and he called. The river brought what I thought was yatzee a low spade which appeared to make a straight also. So I bet half the pot and my brother came over the top for all my chips. I had to call being 75% of my chips were in the pot. I announce I have a flush but knew it wasn’t any good. He has the K-2 of spades in his hand and knocks me out in 5th, with 3 places being paid. Oh well another hand another cooler. Sick thing is against anyone else I could possibly lay it down on the river but against him I have to call being he was playing so wild. (Actually I may have checked behind on the river against anyone else.) When they got four handed he had like 80% of the chips in play. Of course he went on to win it. I had a good time and hopefully we will play on a more regular basis. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Bounty Tournaments.

Hoy may be the King of the Fifty/Fifty’s but I am turning into the King of Low Limit Bounty Tournaments! Last night I again went deep in the UltimateBet 6:00 $6.50 bounty tournament. I finished in 21th out of 432 players.(50 spots were paid.) Amazing thing is I got no cards for the first 2 hours. I only won two hands total before the money bubble burst. It sounds crazy but no pocket pairs, A-K, or A-Q until the money bubble burst. This is the third straight Bounty tournament I have cashed in. The strategy in these changes from a regular tournament. People are more likely to call your all ins light, do to the extra incentive of getting your bounty. Also when a shorty goes all in I try to isolate even more then usual, being I want his bounty myself. Of course you have to dodge even more bullets to make the money in these. Trying to steal pots early in these is a recipe for disaster! Until half the field is eliminated do not try to steal at all. You will be banging your head against the wall thinking, “How can he call me on the river with A-10 high!”. If you have patience to pick your spots well can make a lot of money in these. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Good Run Comes to an End

All good things must come to an end. After running great the last few days I ran into a does of reality last night. Couldn’t win a thing playing live. Especially couldn’t win at all on FullTilt! This has been going on for a few weeks. I ran great at Ultimate, Stars, and Cake but get beat up on FullTilt. This isn’t usually the way it goes just lately. So I lost 45BBs playing Limit HE last night. I won 8BBs at Stud to offset it a little. Just seamed every set I flopped no one paid me off. Every second best hand I got trapped paying off to the end. Oh well you can’t win every night at Poker. My results could have been much worse, at the bottom I was down almost 80BBs! Whenever I am getting killed am always happy to end the night on an upswing. I may have been able to play longer and get more of it back but I was tired from the big score I had the night before. Let me tell you playing 6 hours in an MTT is tiring! Not that I am complaining, winning almost 100 times my buy in makes it worth while. May try to play in some of the majors this weekend. It all depends on if I can satellite my way in or not. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Nice Score

I am running so goot right now. I cashed in the Sunday Major on Ultimate for $400, not bad for a $10.50 investment. Then last night I took down a large field MTT on Ultimate. I won the 6:00 $6.50 Bounty tournament! First prize was a Roll building $540, also received 7 bounties for another $7. Felt I played well through out the whole tournament. No major suck outs but I did win a few races here and there. Also twice I cracked Kings with an Ace/Face, once A-J other A-10 suited. These were suck outs but 2 and ½ favorites don’t always hold up : -). At the final table I got sandwiched between the two big stacks. On my right was a real lag-tard, min-raising every hand. On my left was a super TAG. So I had to sit on my hands until four players got knocked out. This actually worked out great for me, made me play very patiently. I was folding small pairs below sevens constantly. Also folding nines and tens for re-raises being on any hand you would have to defend with your whole stack. I couldn’t wait to get heads up with the lag-tard, he knocked out half the final table. When heads up began he had a 3-1 chip lead but I knew that wouldn’t last. On the second hand I raise with A-J and he smooth calls. Flop comes Ace high and I C-bet. He comes over the top, like I had seen him do all tournament long. I insta-called just knowing I was good here. He had the all mighty A-3 off. I double up and never look back from there. Heads up lasted a good 30 hands. I hope this keeps up may play in the BoDog Blogger event tonight. BTW – Congrats to Hozayo, he has turned into the King of the 50-50s these days. Click over to his Hammer Player BLOG, on the left, to read about his latest conquest. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

CEGs

My cousin Ant(ShipThis) was playing on RiverStars last night and came up with a new Poker description for certain players. He Calls them CEGs, not to be confused with Dr. Pauly’s CAGs(Crazy Asian Gamblers). CEG stand for Crazy European Gambler. You all know the type from No Limit MTTs and SNGs. They push all in on the flop with a flush draw or OESD. Or better yet they push all in on a naked bluff! Also love to float you with air and check-raise you on the turn. I have noticed this trend myself on FullTilt. Most of these CEGs come from Germany or Sweden. Then again I see a lot of Canadian players doing the same thing, wait they are not really European. (Still many Americans consider them the equivalent of being from Europe, especially if they are from Queebec, LOL.) Anyway I don’t know where this post is going. Just remember to be aware of those CEGs tonight while playing online. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Finally an MTT Score.

I took 74th out of 946 in the Ultimate 200K tonight. Good for a win of $400, even better it only cost me $10.50 to satellite into it on my first try. I am tired may write more about it tommorow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Good Tournament Day.

I had a winning day today playing MTT/Satellites. I won myself a seat in the Ultimate 200K Sunday Major for tomorrow at 5:00pm eastern. If you want to sweat me my screen name is Aviganola there. Also had a great time playing at Saturday's with Dr. Pauly. (Pot Limit Omaha at 4:20 every Saturday on PokerStars, password "taopoker".) I was in the top three for most of the tournament until we got to the final table. The Doctor played his big stack well, kept attacking my big blind. I eventually made a stand and couldn't hit my Nut flush draw/gutshot. Had a great time and wound up cashing in 5th for almost three times the buy in. I may write about some of the hands tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Cooler Night

Last night was total cooler night for me! Check this out I ran into Aces ten times, each time I had Jacks, Queens, or Kings. It gets better in all ten hands the highest card on the board, by the river was a ten! Unreal to run into so many coolers in a session. Being I was playing limit it was almost impossible to get away from these hands. Also in some cases I would check call to the river and be shown an unimproved A-K or A-Q. I fealt I played the coolers well, going into check call mode once I was raised on the flop each time. Considering how many cooler I ran into was very happy only losing 41BBs for the night. Remember this was low limit HE so these things are expected. If this was No Limit it would have been worse. Would have folded some of these hands but I know would have lost many buy ins in these situations. It was just unreal I would raise with pocket Jacks and get re-raised by a donk who was playing every hand. Flop would come 2-4-10 rainbow. I would bet and he would raise. So I check call to the river to be shown Aces once again! (To me this is a way ahead or way behind situation.) Hopefully tonight I can be on the winning side of a few coolers. BTW we got a ton of snow today here in New Jersey. Got five inches by my house with more to come over the next 5 hours. Happy shoveling. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Calling All Bloggers

While reading Mitch’s BLOG yesterday(Opoker, link on left) a thought occurred to me, “I need to get this BLOG linked up with other Bloggers.” In his post yesterday he offered Bloggers a chance to get a link on his. This is a great idea and I have decided to extend the offer myself. Any Bloggers who would like a link please leave me a comment to this post. I would greatly appreciate a link to my BLOG on yours also. Not only will this help readers find my and your BLOG but also it should help get our Google page rank raised. Back to Poker in this post. I have a possible Borgata trip planned this weekend. It all depends if my wife comes home or stays another week in Cyprus. May even hit up the great Saturday Tournaments they have, that I have raved about in the past. $340 buy in gets you 10,000 chips with 30-minute levels. It’s a donkalicious tournament; there are a lot of good players but many more bad ones. Wish me luck. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

I've Seen the Light

I seam to finally have seen the light. Watching my cousin play(ShipThis) on Sunday I have picked up what I have been doing wrong in MTTs! I have been playing too tight in the early middle stages of MTTs. Acquire chips or go home is going to be my new mantra. Especially in these low buy in events. I played a bounty tournament on Ultimate last night and this new way worked well for me. I got five bounties and finished in the money. Granted I only won three times my buy in but it’s a start. I pushed with A-K twice early in the tournament. Once heads up and he called, got his bounty. The other time as a squeeze after four limpers. Also pushed over the top of two players with Jacks. I was against Tens and A-Q, jacks held up for another bounty. In the past I have been smooth calling or even folding in this spot. No fear poker is my new motto! Once I acquired a healthy stack I put the brakes on. No need to go broke when I had enough chips to make the money. Then on the bubble, in the small blind, I get pocket Kings. I push over the initial raise, who had me covered. He shows A-10 and we were playing hand for hand on the bubble. I knew it was going to hold up, karma baby. I doubled up there and was able to make the money easily. Tonight I will be at it again. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Stars Deep Stack Tournament

I played in the $11 Deep Stack No Limit Tournament on Stars yesterday starting at 12 noon eastern. This tournament has the best structure of any I have ever played in. Only problem is you need a lot of time to play in it. Start with 5000T with 30 minute levels, no antes for nine levels. Being you get so many hands an hour online this structure is as good as a WPT event at the Borgata, IMHO! Anyway I went deep lasting five and a half hours basically by being a nit. I played as Super TAG man yesterday. Whenever I got Jacks+ or AK I would push. Rarely got action but when I did my hand held up. This worked for me, got into the money after five hours. I continued my TAG ways until I was down to 5000T, which was pretty short, M of 4. So I open pushed, like I had been doing all tournament, with pocket Aces. If anyone was paying attention they would have known I had a hand. Two players called me, one with pocket sixes and the other with pocket tens. They quickly checked it down to the river, which of course was a ten and IGH after winning $17.50 for five and a half hours of work. Weird thing was the pocket tens made a full house on the river, with the button. Instead of betting his hand for value he checked behind, with close to the nuts. I was happy to make the money, one of these days I will go really deep in this one. I played satellites all morning for The FTOPS Knockout and the FTOPS Main event. I bubbled a seat twice yesterday. Both times in the big blind when there were three stacks at the table that couldn’t even survive the small blind or 3 more antes! So close and yet so far. On the cash front I did very well yesterday, won 25BBs in a two hours of play. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Thanks to my readers for clicking through on my Google Adsense banner, above this post. It only takes a second and it helps keep the lights on!

Saturdays With Dr. Pauly

Played in Dr. Pauly's Blogger Pot Limit Omaha Tournament on RiverStars yesterday. Even though I rarely play Pot Limit had a great time. We had 44 players turn out and I got pretty deep, think 19th. In the middle of the tournament I got moved to a table with the Bayne on my left, with a nice large stack. He took advantage of his position on me, big time. I raised with Aces single suited and he smooth called. The Flop am down J-5-6 with 2 suits.(I didn't have that suite.) I led out for the pot and he smooth called. We took the turn heads up, it was an Ace and I bet half the pot.(This was probably my downfall, should have played strong and bet the pot!) The river came with an offsuit 8, so I made a weak lead of 1/4 of the pot. He insta-raised me the pot. I went into the tank, my first instinct was to call, how can I fold top set on this raggy board? Then I played the hand back and kept thinking he was on a flush draw, with a gutshot that he just made. I don't play enough with him to know if he was capabile of a big bluff here. The river bluff was for over half his stack. Finally I decided to fold being I had enough chips behind to live to fight another day. He showed four totally raggy cards. Don't even think he had flopped a draw at all, he floated me with air. I got owned this hand big time. Hats off to Bayne for outplaying me in this hand. We will meet again, hopfully on my turf and I will take you down :-). Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Will try to satellite into the FTOPS Konockout tournament today on FullTilt see you all there.

No Love for Me on Full Tilt

Last night I wanted to play at my now “higher level”, but instead decided to play my normal level to shore up the bankroll more. Want a bad mistake that was. The donks were out in full force on Full Tilt last night. I lost with Aces six times last night, won the blinds with them once. This is even worse then it seams being I was playing at a six handed, sometimes only five-handed table! A donkashay calls my raise with J-3 sooted. Flop comes out 10-7-3, with none of his suites. I bet and he raises, so I smooth call. Turn comes with an off suit King, now have a rainbow board. I check, he bets and I check raise him. He calls with his pair of threes. A Jack falls on the river and for some reason I know it’s doom. I check, he bets and I make a crying call. F***in donk makes two pair on the river. This kept happening all night on Full, at one point I was down 60BBs there. I made a comeback to being down 40BBs on Full. Luckily I won on Cake and Ultimate so the final total was like 24BBs down.(Could have been much worse.) Also final tabled another Satellite for Friday nights FTOPS Stud event. Came up short in 6th, three places were paid. No love for me on Full Tilt this week. I may buy in directly to the event tonight. If anyone is interested I am selling 50% of my action to the Stud event tonight.($108 gets you half my action.) If interested please email me at Aviganola@Yahoo.com before 7:00pm eastern tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Now A-K Suited Hates Me

First a few days ago I couldn’t get Aces to hold up, now it’s A-K suited! Last night I lost three All-ins with A-K suited against A-J off, all three times! I had been chipping up nicely in a bounty No Limit tournament on Ultimate when I got them the first time. I pushed over a raiser for three times his bet, had him covered, he insta-calls with his A-J off, which just can’t be good. He spikes a jack and doubles through me. An hour later, with a still healthy stack, I push all in over a huge stack. He insta-calls, as if he knows he’s ahead, jack on the river and I go home. The other lose was on FullTilt in a token satellite, this one made more sense. In the proceeding orbit I had gotten three great hands and had pushed with them, no one looked me up. So I pushed again with A-K suited and the big blind looked me up with A-J off. Jack on the flop and IGH pretty close to the bubble. Forget about winning races, why can’t I at least win as a 2.5-1 favorite? On the good news front I moved up in stakes at a short-handed Limit cash game and held my own. Usually when I move up I get spanked and moved back down. I turned a few big bets profit at the higher level. Will give it another try tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Nightly Grind

Another night, another near bubble finish. I played in a bounty No Limit tournament on Ultimate last night. A little over 550 entries with the top 50 getting paid. From 120 left until I got knocked out I was short stacked and card dead. I kept making the right all in move to win the Blinds and Antes, just to survive. When we got down to 55 players I only had a little more then double the big blind left. In the cut off I get dealt A-10 off, can probably fold it and fold every hand until my big blind to squeak into the money. Instead, like the man I am, push all in and hope for no action. Nope the big blind, who was pretty short also, calls me with the monster Q-6 off. Granted he was priced in against my range. Of course he flops a queen and turns a six for good measure. I don’t know maybe I should have folded and got back double my buy in for 50th. Then again if I double up there I am guaranteed a money finish and maybe I can go deeper in it. On the cash front again I had a great night last night. I won 22BBs in two hours of play at short-handed limit. The cash games keep my roll healthy while I take shots at making a big score in an MTT. This is the way I have been rolling lately. Last month I lost 50% of my cash game profits to MTTs, this month I am down about 30% already. Probably should just stick to cash games and play the lottery : - ). Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

MTT Variance

The variance in tournaments is so high. Last night I wrote about losing three in a row with pocket Aces. Last week I went nineteen MTTs without a cash. Then on Saturday night I came in second in an Omaha Hi/Lo one and almost wiped out all of the losses from the nineteen. This is why bankroll management is so important. No wonder a lot of the pros are broke, at times. Unless you have a huge amount of money, in savings, MTTs are a hard way to make a living. As for cash games, last night I crushed them again. Won 20BBs in less then two hours of short-handed Limit. Actually was up a lot more but went on a losing streak at a table of donks. I could have kept playing, would have won it all back but I was tired and wanted to watch High Stakes on GSN. I hooked up the DVD recorder I bought my wife for Christmas, so I am know burning DVDs of all our favorite Poker shows. We have over 500 VHS tapes, all over our house. I will transfer them to DVD one of these days.(Actually will take months!) Anyway I am rambling today. I miss my wife and my life being normal again. Hopefully she will come home this weekend. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Aces Suck!

Can't beleive in the span of 30 minutes I got knocked out of 3 No Limit tournaments with pocket Aces. Lost to A-Qh, pocket eights, and 9-10off. In all three hands I got my money in early and way ahead. I wasn't short in any of them either! Granted these were low limit donkathons so bad play is to be expected. Oh well back to the cash game grind. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Cash Games

Crushed the cash games yesterday.(Sunday) It's usually hit or miss on Sundays, being there are so many donks out there. I won 60BBs in three hours of play! Did alright in MTT/SNGs also but had a losing day being I spent $129 for the FTOPS event.(Got back $40 of it in bounties.) I have decided that these knockout/bounty tournaments are my favorite. I will continue playing them, as well as the Sunday Brawl on FullTilt if I can satellite in. Will write about a few hands I misplayed during yesterdays event. There really weren't that many poorly played ones by me yesterday. I learned something very important, about online play yesterday. When playing in these "Bigger" events I need to single table and totally pay attention to what is going on. What a difference this makes when making big decisions in these. Lately I have been playing MTTs on auto-pilot, with bad results to show for them. Oh well live and learn. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

FTOPS Event#8

I am playing in the $129 6-man Knockout event today. Wow it maxed out at 6000 entries. You get a $20 bounty for each person you knockout. First prize is a little over 114K! Wish me luck. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

UPDATE - I fought long and hard but got knocked out in 1100th. Did get 2 bounties of $20 each. Felt I played great with only a few mistakes. As usual I couldn't win a race in a critical situation. Actually all day I couldn't win any important races. I went 1-8 with A-K today and I went 2-2 against it all in with a pair. If you can't win these races you can't win MTT/SNGs period. This is the nature of No Limit.

Running bad in MTTs!

Gross, Sick, Yuck, etc.!! That is how bad I am running in MTTs. Just lost three more tonight, that's like 12 in a row without a cash. My HORSE one on FullTilt was really sick. In RAZZ had a made 6 on sixth and a guys catches the case five to make a wheel! Then a few minutes later in High/Low Stud I go all in on sixth with Aces up and the same donk hits an inside stright for a seven high and the low to scoop me and knock me out! As for my No Limit tournaments can't win a single race all night. Was just hanging on by stealing in the right situations. This game is so frustrating!! At least I continued my live play winning, 17BBs tonight. That's for reading my ranting and good luck at the tables. Tony

More Life-Tilt

Now I am really on Life-Tilt. Just got news from my wife that she is staying overseas another week. On top of this I am stating to feel sick again. Also running real bad at MTTs the whole week. I haven’t cashed in nine MTTs straight. This is not the way I want to be running before playing in my first FTOPS tournament this weekend. Looks like it will be the Knockout NL one on Sunday. Played a short session of Limit HE at lunch and lost 10BBs in fifteen minutes. On the bright side TGIF! Hopefully I can turn things around tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

FTOPS Limit HE Event.

I give up trying to win a seat into the Short-handed Limit HE FTOPS event tonight on FullTilt. Played two satellites yesterday, with the same annoying results. In one I never got anything going, only lasted thirty minutes. Got deep in the second one, were giving out six seats and I came in 12th. Almost forgot how frustrating Limit HE tournaments can be. Hate to say it but it really boils down to a card catching contest. So I grinded out a profit playing short-handed Limit, won 15BBs in an hour. My rake back this month should be huge. I have already grinded out over 3000 hands this month. I guess I am resigned to my fate of being a grinder. Think I will change this BLOG to be called the “OnlineGrinder” instead of “OnlineRounder”. TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – If anyone would like to back me in tonight’s $216 short-handed Limit HE FTOPS event on FullTilt please shoot me an email at Aviganola@nj.rr.com.

On Major Life-Tilt

Is anyone out there? Feeling kind of Blah today. Wife is overseas, with a family emergency. Her brother-in-law is gravely ill and in the hospital. He is only 42 and almost didn’t survive an emergency operation. I am starting to feel my age, 40. Seems people I know or are associated with are all starting to have health problems. Oh well getting older sucks. On to a lighter subject, short-handed HE is a real rollercoaster. Last night I was down 40BBs in the first 30 minutes. I don’t know maybe life-tilt is causing me to start off playing badly in my sessions. Then after I get settled in I start playing well again. I took a break and got back to it 15 minutes later. I won all 40BBs back and then some. Finished the night with a small win of 10BBs. As for the MTT front things aren’t getting any better. I am running real bad in any MTTs I play. Played a Hi/Lo Stud one on RiverStars and man the rivers were bad! Played a No Limit Bounty on Ultimatebet and didn’t get any bounties but someone bad beated me to get mine. I need some life encouragement. Someone please post a comment, to cheer me up today. At least then I will know that someone is out there reading. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Going Deep in MTTs

ShipThis went deep in two MTTs yesterday. He didn’t make a big score but cashed and went far anyway. Spoke to him about the tournaments this morning. Can’t seam to get those 2.5 to 1 favorites to hold up. I feel the same way also. I got knocked out of eight live tournaments/SNGs in a row with pocket jacks. Half of them I was a 2.5 to 1 favorite in. That is the thing about poker 2.5-1 isn’t that great of an advantage. Short term there is just so much luck involved to win a big MTT. (I am talking fields of 1000 or more.) The stars really need to be aligned in order for you to final table a big MTT. My hat is off to the tournament pro that plays these MTTs live day after day. The frustration level has got to be so high. You can easily get your money in with the best hand ten tournaments in a row and still loss every one of them! What else can you do but get it in good and hope to win? I really believe you will be rewarded, in the long run. Just can be very painful to wait for the luck to even out. I know ShipThis is due for a really big score one of these days. Keep at it and you will be rewarded. As for me that big score just doesn’t seam to be around the corner anytime soon. I want mine to come at the WSOP this year. Maybe I can win the $1500 RAZZ or the $5000 Hi/Lo Stud. I can’t wait for the WSOP! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Turn Around

The turn around started last night. I won 25BBs in two hours of mutli-tabling on FullTilt. Whenever I take a beating am happy to have a winning session the next day, to get me back on track. I would have been happy with a 5BB win even. Also cleared $17.50 in bonus and earned some rake back. Sunday’s beating was softened by the $22.50 in bonus I earned and the large rake back I am sure I earned. My MTT slump is alive and well again. Was doing so well in a HORSE MTT on RiverStars. When down to 60 people I was in the middle of the pack. Then I made some stupid steal attempts in the Stud leg. The chip leader kept playing back at me and this just killed my stack. Finally I get all in on sixth street with Kings up against a pair of fives, with no aces. All I had to do was dodge a five on the river and I would have doubled up. Nope he spikes the 2 outer on the River and I go home. BTW at least I lost to a fellow blogger, Gary Cox. Wonder if he went ahead and used my chips well. Have to check that out tonight. Will be multi-tabling short-handed Limit again tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Bad Sunday for Online Play

Playing online yesterday was a total horror. I don’t even want to talk about the bad beats. Thing is I just played bad to compound the beats I took. You should never play when you have problems going on in your life. I had an emergency yesterday, wife needed to fly overseas to see her sick brother-in-law. On top of that I was baby-sitting my two nieces who were totally excited to be with my dog. (My lucky brother got tickets for the Superbowl, so I was helping him out by watching his children for the day.) All this and the fact that I think half the players at my tables were either drunk or on drugs made for a very bad day of poker. I really got hit bad, lost 90BBs over the course of the day. It will take me awhile to recover from this one. Oh well back to the grind. The moral of this post is don’t play while distracted! Your mind needs to be totally into play in order to play effectively. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Giants!

The Giants just pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NFL history. What an awesome game! Good night all. Tony

Big Score

Big Shoutout to my cousin Ant.(ShipThis on PokerStars) On Friday he won $2800 in a $100 No Limit torunament on RiverStars. He should have won it all but ran into a huge cooler when five handed. He got dealt pocket Kings, all in preflop, against the chip leader who of course woke up with pocket Aces!! Cooler! Still it was a nice score. Go Giants! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Good in MTTs

For a change I am actually running good in MTTs. I just cashed in 4 of my last 6 of them. The two I missed in were both very close to the money. Of my cashes two were final tables. Granted these were all low limit tournaments, but a cash is a cash. As for short handed Limit HE I ran real good today, winning 37BBs in two hours. Things didn't go too well last night. I moved up in stakes and just kept getting coolered over and over again. I ran into 10 sets last night! Everytime I had Kings I would loss to an under pair. That's why today I moved back down to my regular level. I will take another shot, once I get my bankroll healthy. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Short-Handed Limit HE

Wow the variance in short-handed Limit HE can be huge sometimes. Last night I sat down in a crazy short-handed game on CakePoker. Got myself in a hole real fast, after twenty minutes of play I was down 43BBs! What happened is some donk, who was playing every hand, went on a sick rush. He was almost busted, down to 5BBs, when he started hitting every flop and river. The weird thing was he always seamed to have a five in his hand and a five kept coming on the river to pair the board. He was winning hands with three fives, ten kicker. One hand he made two pairs on the river Kings and fives to crack my Big slick. It got so bad that everyone else at the table left and we starting playing heads up. Normally I would have just left and went to another table. In this case I was steaming and down 25BBs to this donk. So I played him heads up and he just beat me every hand. I won like one hand, that went to a flop, from him. I had pocket fours and flopped a set. Flop comes A-Q-4 and I am thinking yatzee being I raised it up and he may have a piece of that. Nope he folded to my flop bet! After he took 18BBs from me he abruptly left the table. The smoke was coming out of my ears. I decided to take a break to go walk my dog and clear my head. I came back fifteen minutes later to start my session fresh. This really seams to help me when I am rattled from bad beats. Turns out it worked great. At my new table I started winning right away. I came all the way back to actually being up a little within an hour. My clear head and flopping three sets got my back. I ended the night down a few BBs, like five. The results aren’t important, the fact that I was able to get away from the tilt and start over is. Learning to put up with some sick variance is very important when playing in these short-handed games. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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