Neil's Home Game

Played our home game last night at Cousin Neil’s house. Felt I played well, most of the night. I took third in the first Sit-N-Go, with 2 bounties earned. Still was disappointing being I had a ton of chips early and felt I would take first down in this one. In the 2nd one I was pretty much card dead for most of it, but I hung in there. I got 1 bounty when I shoved my K-10 of hearts into an A-J-4 flop with 2 big hearts! There were 5 people in the pot but after my shove I got one caller by A-8 off. A three of hearts on the turn sealed the hand for me. So we got down to 4 people on the bubble and I started chipping up, by stealing here and there. Everyone was playing super tight and I got myself up to 2nd in chips. Then the fatal bust out hand happened to me. On the button I got dealt A-9 off, I had 10,500 chips with the blinds at 1-2K. So I decided they were playing so tight that I would just open shove and be happy picking up 30% for my stack. The small blind folded and my cousin Tony, the chip leader by around 5K went into the tank. After 3 minutes he decides to gamble with me by calling off 70% of his stack with A-J off. It holds up and I am the bubble boy. I don’t like his call here at all. There weren’t many hands I hold that he is ahead of. My range, at this point was any pair and A-9+. So he’s ahead if I have A-9 or A-10. Crushed if I have A-Q or A-K. In a coin flip if I have pocket tens or lower. In really bad shape if I have pocket Jacks or higher. Plus if he loses this hand he is crippled and will most likely bubble. On the plus side for him, if he knocks me out he gets my bounty and they are all in the money. In this one hand his call was right being I had 1 of 2 hands he dominated. In the long run this call is way –EV. I will push there in the same situation on the bubble everytime, keep making that call. I will make a ton of money in this situation over time. Only 2 more weeks until I go to the WSOP! The wife and I are both excited to take out shot at glory, fame, and a lot of money! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Night More Online Play

Can never figure out where the best place to play is going to be for the night. Some nights it’s MTTs, other SNGS, and most nights it’s Live ring play for me. Last night was definitely SNGs for me. I played in 3 of them, with 1 bubble and 2 cashes. The bubble sucked big time, once again I push with Kings and lose to Ace rag. I swear I am 1 for the last 14 at showdown when all in with pocket Kings! River Stars just hates me when I have Kings. Sick thing is like 11 of the times I am a 70% favorite, 2 of the times I open pushed into Aces. The other SNGs went great, finished in 3 in a 12 man and finished in 3 in an 18 man. If I could cash in every mutli-table SNG I would own the Battle of the Planets Promotion on River stars. So I made a nice profit in SNGs for the night. Also did very well playing in Low Limit Stud on Ultimate, won 14 BBS in one hour. Now for the bad news, got crushed in short-handed Limit HE on Full Tilt. The games were so soft, just kept getting rivered by gut shots. Felt I played fine but my hands just weren’t holding up. I made a nice comeback , toward the end of my session, only finished down around 22BBs. Looking back I didn’t really get crushed 22BBs in 2 hours really isn’t that much when playing short-handed. Tonight I won’t be playing much online, having a home game at cousin Neil’s tonight. I can’t wait to beat Ace-Rag in a hand, LOL. Hopefully tomorrow I will have some good news to post about. Have been getting crushed in these supposed to be soft home games. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

A Good Night Playing Online

Had a great night playing live games yesterday. Did fine at low limit Stud on Ultimate Bet and kicked some ass playing short-handed Limit He on Full Tilt. Funny thing is I moved up a level and the players seem worse! I may just have been on the good side of variance, need to play many more sessions before I decide how bad they really are. Good things happened like I flopped a set and bet aggressively the whole hand. Got paid off on every street by second pair no kicker, I like it. It felt good putting my second winning night in the books. We will see how it goes tonight. I did ok in SNGs, played in three of them and cashed in one, broke even, profit wise. In a 12 man, 6 max one I had the big stack when on the bubble. I was able to abuse the bubble big time. While 4 handed I raised in 50% of the pots and was able to chip up without much resistance. Bad thing is the other players didn’t like it one bit. Once the bubble burst they started playing back at me big time. Every time I raised I got 3 bet. I started to get frustrated, being I lost the chip lead. So my fatal hand was pocket Jacks. Under the gun I brought it in for a raise and the new chip leader 3 bet me. He was really pushing us around at this point. I had enough of it so I pushed all in for a huge over bet, around 5 times the pot, he insta-calls me. Of course now he has pocket Aces. Ace on the flop and IGH in third after having a huge lead when 4 handed. I played this hand really badly. If I just flat called him could have folded on the flop, when the Ace hit. Instead the player in between us squeaks into 2nd place. I should have waited for him to get eliminated. Was just getting so frustrated from the big stack pushing me around. Need to keep emotions out of my play. Oh well you live and learn. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Day of Online Play

Played a few MTTs yesterday, with mixed results. I got really deep in a Stud Hi/Lo one on River Stars but got coolered a few places out of the money. The way these tournaments are structured they may as well be No Limit, after the first hour. Usually one bad hand and you are done or crippled. I started with 4-5-8 of diamonds, four limpers and I limped behind also. I catch gin on 4th street the Ace of Diamonds. This hand is a monster powerhouse draw with tons of scoop potential. Problem is Hi/Lo is like Razz, you don’t have a made hand until at least 5th street(Unless you have trips or quads!). I needed any low card or any diamond, better yet a low diamond for a most likely scoop. Instead I catch 2 big bricks(Face cards) and a black four. After this hand I had less than 400 chips. I got knocked out shortly after this. Sucky thing is if I make my draw I am close to chip leader and can coast into the money. Instead I get nothing at all for 3 hours of playing well. MTTs are just so brutal! On the live play side I did really well. I played a few hours of low limit stud and won 20 BBs. Played some short-handed Limit HE and won around 12 BBs. Overall was a slightly positive day. Being it’s gotten harder to win Online these days a win is a win. I hate to say it but everyone that complained about UGIEA drying up Online Poker did have a point. It seems being it takes more effort to fund your accounts that a lot of the fish have migrated off of playing Online. Funny thing is the live games in AC seem to have gotten even softer since this trend started. There is still bad play out there; it’s just that now you have to hunt a lot more to find it. BTW – I have noticed that I am getting more and more international readers to this BLOG. Welcome and enjoy my ramblings every day. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Memorial Day

Went to a barbeque yesterday, ate way too much food. Also got sunburn on my legs, now I am suffering big time. Will be relaxing on the green felt today. RiverStars and UltimateBet. See you all there. Happy Memorial Day! Tony

WSOP Main Event Package

Through a Freeroll I have qualified for the 25 seat guarentee on Ultimate Bet tonight at 5:30pm eastern. Anyone want to sweat me I am playing in it right now. Wish me luck! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Bad Night Playing Short-Handed Limit HE

Last night I did fine playing in Sit-N-Gos on River Stars. Played in 4 and cashed in 2 of them, a 2nd and a 3rd. As for cash games they were just brutal. Got my ass handed to me playing short-handed Limit on Ultimate Bet. Played with a mix of sharks and complete donks. The donks are the ones that did me in! This hand illustrates my point perfectly. A complete donk, they don’t get much worse than this, limps under the gun. I have pocket threes, so I raise to isolate the donk and play a pot with him in position. Everyone folds and we see a flop heads up. It comes J-5-3 rainbow with one diamond. He checks and I bet, donk insta-calls. Turn brings the King of diamonds. He checks and I bet, donk calls again. River is I think the 2 of diamonds. He checks and I bet he quickly check-raises me. I look over the board and can’t see how I am beat here. I just call fearing the backdoor diamond draw. Of course he has the 9-7 of diamonds, wtf!! He had no piece and no draw on the flop. (Against a normal player I 3 bet this river.) I flop my first set and lose a large pot. How can I beat this kind of BS. The shit that was happening didn’t even feel like real poker. Starting to believe the conspiracy theorists that Online Poker is rigged! Of course I don’t believe this but it was a frustrating night. Lost 55BBs in 2 hours of play! I have been playing Online long enough to expect bad nights like this but it still sucks. I’ll be at it again tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

My Battle of the Planets Quest is On

I seem to be back on track in Sit-N-Gos. I played two $16 turbos last night on River Stars. Came in second in both of them. I may have to finish out a block of 20 at this level. So far I have 4 cashes in 5 attempts. On Sunday the same thing happened I started out great in the low level ones with 5 of 6 cashes. I was all excited about finishing in the top 20, and then variance hit me. The next day I only cashed in 1 of 9 of them and ruined my chances to cash in the promotion. This time I am not counting my chickens before they are hatched. If things look good on Saturday I will try to finish out the block. I am excited about a freeroll I will be playing on Saturday. Ultimate Bet is rewarding is most frequent point earners with a freeroll to a WSOP tournament. They have 6 different levels, based on how high you finish. I will end up playing in a freeroll where 1 in 5 win a seat to their $530 - 25 seat guarantee main event tournament on Saturday night. I may have to play a lot on Friday night to maintain my position. Even if I fall back I am still guaranteed a seat in a freeroll where 1 in 10 win a seat to the $530 main event tournament. I would much rather play in the first tournament, 20% advancing is much easier then 10%! I also played some short-handed Limit last night, against a bunch of maniacs. Before I realized how crazy they were playing I was down 25 BBs. Then I decided to look someone up on a flop of 8-2-4 where I had defended my bid blind with 8-10 sooted. He capped the flop so I went into check call mode. Turn a jack he bet I called. River a 2 he bet and I made the crying call. The pot was shipped my way. I looked up his hand, pocket 7s. Now I realized I was getting run over in previous hands. Suddenly I started calling people light and winning hands. In no time at all I was up a small amount. You really have to adjust you calling requirements when playing in short-handed games with uber-aggressive players. Lesson learned and now I have notes on the maniac. I will look for him tonight : - ). Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Night a Few More Sit-N-Gos

I ran ok in Sit-N-Gos last night. I moved back up to my normal level and liked the results. I played in two of them, 1 bubble and 1 2nd place finish. Also wanted to try to finish off my low limit Battle of the Planets Promo with a strong point finish. So I played an 18 man one and we got down to the money bubble with 5 left and me in 2nd chip position. Up until this point I was playing solid poker, not showing any bad hands down. Everyone folds to me on the button and I open shove A-10 of diamonds. This is the right move being there is a short stack so the small Blind really can’t call without a monster.(He is chip leader and barely had me covered.) He goes into the tank and after what felt like 5 minutes he calls me. The big blind snap calls me also.(He was the short stack at the table.) The small blind had K-J off? WTF is going on, why did he risk his tournament on this cheese of a hand. The big blind had pocket 8s. Guess what I lose to both of them and instead of cashing I am the bubble boy. My push was the right move, he shouldn’t have called. I got screwed out of the promo. points I needed to possibly cash. Oh well that sucked I may try at the $10-20 SNG level this week. Just started playing $16 turbo ones and I am 2 cashes for 3 attempts. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.

Online Sit-N-Gos are So Brutal

I am so sick of Sit-n-gos! Last night I ran insanely bad. Cashed in 1 out of 9 of them. Five times I finished in forth. Got it in with the best hand all 5 times, lost them all. I think 4 times was a 70-30 favorite, other time a coin flip. Oh the horror of playing these day after day. I saw something really sick in my 2nd one of the night. The big stack, a complete calling station Donk, called 5 all ins in a row with a dominated Ace. ( I guess any Ace will do.) He won all five of them, knocking out 4 players and then me! He raised under the gun, I had A-J and knew I had him crushed. So I shoved for 6x his raise. He snap called me with the monster A-6 off. Flop comes J-6-6, Ace on the river to torture me and finish me off. Is this what it takes to win low limit SNGs, complete moronic play? This bad run ruined my chance to cash in my first block of 20 in the River stars Battle of the Planets. Online Poker is so Rigged, LOL. I will be back playing tonight, so expect more ranting tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
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Sunday Sit-N-Gos

Things went better for me yesterday. I dropped down one level in Sit-N-Gos, with great results. I cashed in 6 of 8 SNGs, with 2 wins. I have a great start to this week’s Battle of the Planets promotion, on River Stars. If I can finish out my block of 20 SNGs strong I will be in the top 50 for sure. Actually have a shot at top 10, if I can continue at this pace. If the block works out well I may try to do a block of 100 SNGs this week. For those of you not familiar with this promo, too bad, only kidding LOL. The top 50 for a given block of 20 SNGs gets a piece of the prize money and then the top 50 for a block of 100 gets a piece also. (Low orbit for 20 and High Orbit for 100, silly names they put on each block.) The prize pool is more depending on the level of SNGs you play. The promo runs Sunday to Saturday night every week. They take your highest score for a block of 20 for the week.(Can play up to 5 blocks for each SNG level.) You get points for cashing based on highest place in the SNG. Example 50 for first, 30 for second, and 20 for third for a 10 man Sit-N-Go. You can get points for 1 table, 2 table, and 3 table SNGs. So this week I will focus on scoring in this promo. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Freeroll Final

Cousin Ant(ShipThis) played the weekly WSOP final last night on River Stars. 1777 players/Crazy Donks came out for this one. I sweated his play for the last 2 hours, had to be some of the craziest bad play I have seen in years. He fought hard for 8 hours but came up short of a package. Final tabled the tournament, knocked out in 9th, they gave away three 13.5K packages. I really thought this would be his big score. Keep at it your big score is around the corner. As for me yesterday I got my ass handed to me all day at the live tables. No matter what I played I got beat up. Oh well hope today will be better. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

New WSOP Step Quest

I decided to give it one more try. I bought in to a Step 1 this morning. I won it and have been playing off this ticket all day. Got to Step 4 twice, 1 card away from Step 5 but got rivered. Oh well I won a repeat Step 4 for that one. At the very least I am earning points toward my VIP status. Got to go my Step is starting right now. I want to get to Step 6 tonight! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

FTOPS RAZZ Results

My wife fought hard in the FTOPS Razz last night. She lasted almost 3 hours but couldn’t get deep. The way these are structured everyone gets to the point where they are one hand to the river that loses in trouble. Basically the chip leader can get to the river 3 times before going broke. The live version of any Limit Stud variant is the same. Last year in a Taj US Poker Championship preliminary event I was playing in a Hi/Lo Stud tournament and doing great. Around 15 from the money I was the chip leader. All that meant was I could almost get to the river three times well everyone else couldn’t. Within 30 minutes I was knocked out 10 from the money. 2 huge monster draws tramped me to the river to lose most of my chips. In one I started with A-3-5 of clubs, caught the 6 of clubs on forth. This is a sick monster draw in Hi/Lo. On the river I caught a 7 thinking I was at least getting half the pot. Nope my nemesis, at the table, had a wheel on 5th! The other hand I started with 4-5-6 rainbow and called to the river only to catch 3 bricks face cards on 5th, 6th, and 7th. Lost the hand to a pair of jacks. So 4-5-6-8 on forth against a high only hand losing to one pair! Arg this game can be as frustrating as Razz. So I played a few SNGs last night, had no luck at all. Played in 5 of them with no cashes. Three times I bubbled, two of the times I got it in with the best hand.(70% pre-flop on both.) The other hand was A-K for me against Queens, no improvement. It is just so sick how I can’t win all in with pocket Kings. Again last night I raise and someone pushes me all in. Before I call I tell my wife watch this, he has A-3 off and I will get knocked out once again with pocket Kings. She comes over and I call, he has A-4 off?? Ace on the flop and IGH on the bubble. No lie I think I am 0-9 with Kings when we get it all in pre-flop. I had them 2 other times last night but thankfully everyone folded. Hope this will be my weekend to make a nice score. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

FTOPS Event #18

My wife is playing the $322 Razz Tournament on Full Tilt right now.(9:18 eastern) If you want to sweat her screen name is TCGRO. Wish her luck. Thanks for reading and have a good night. Tony

Short Post

Last night I only had time to play 3 SNGs. One cash and 2 bubbles, the cash was a 2nd place in a No Limit one. The one bubble was just brutal, in Hi/Lo Stud. I ran into a player who was rolled up when I started with pocket Aces. If I just sit on my hands I most likely make it into the money, instead I bubble. The right play is to go with the Aces, if I loss I loss, that’s poker. So one cash for 3 SNGs isn’t too bad, a small lose. I grinded out a bunch of hands of Low Limit Stud on Ultimate Bet. Walked away with a small win, so overall the night was slightly positive. I can’t wait for the WSOP! My wife is going to play the FTOPS Razz event tomorrow night, for WSOP practice. I will sweat her the whole tournament. Good practice for me too. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Night a Few More SNGs

Did pretty well playing online last night. I was happy to book a small win being I have been running bad lately. Played 2 SNGs and got coolered in both of them. Being they were turbos, don’t have a lot of time to wait for a big hand. I pushed pocket 9s into pocket Aces with an M of 3 and 6 players left. Next SNG I pushed A-Q into A-K with an M of less than 3 and again with 6 players left. Was getting frustrated with no limit so I played a HORSE turbo on River Stars. I crushed the game big time, when 4 handed I had more chips than the rest of the table. Heads up I had a 4 to 1 chip lead. Then in Stud my agrreso-monkey opponent started to raise every hand. I had nothing to defend with and he quickly took over the chip lead. In the Hi/Lo leg he continued to crush me. When we got to HE he had a 3 to 1 lead on me. I decided to fight back and just crushed him in HE. I won the SNG before the HE leg ended. Felt good to rip one down. Now in my battle of the planets promo. I have cashed 4 out of 9 SNGs, with 2 first places. It’s not a good enough pace to cash in the 20 block level, but in the 100 block it is a great start. If I run well this week I may have to pound out a ton of them on Saturday, to complete my block of 100. As for live play I was getting crushed at short-handed Limit HE on Full Tilt until I flopped a set of 8s against 3 aggro-monkies. Pre-flop capped, flop capped, turn capped, and river capped heads up. I turned a full house eights full of jacks, he turned top trips top kicker. I won a huge pot and this put me onto the road to recovery. I ended up around 5 BBs for a very bumpy hour’s play. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

New Week

Yesterday started off so good. It is a new week so a new battle of the Planet Promo. on River Stars. I started out on fire with 3 SNG cashes in a row.(A second, then first, and a third.) After that I won a seat in their monthly 100K free roll, 200 players giving away 20 seats. So now on May 31th I will be playing in a total Donkament for a share of the free money. At this point I had to go out, being it was mother’s day. After I did the right thing by bringing flowers/gifts to all the mothers I know decided to continue my good run. A complete reversal of fortune took place. I bubbled 3 straight SNGs. All with BS bad beats. I got it in 70% favorite and got sucked out on over and over again. A-Q against A-7, seven on the river. Kings against A-5, Ace on the flop. A-9 against A-3, flop A-3-7. This was my usual Sunday BS on River Stars. Put me in a bad mood so I packed it in for the night. At least I ended up with a small profit for the day. Instead I watched the WPT from the Borgata. It was awesome, shame that Matasow got knocked out in sixth. Still it was very entertaining. I DVDed it so I can watch it again this week. The WPT is on GSN now, which means less people will be watching it. This is a shame being they have made improvements to the data they give you on the bottom of the screen. I think the format they have now is their best ever. Also they fixed the structure so it’s no longer a push fest. Looking forward to this week’s episode. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of the Planets

Cousin Ant(Shipthis) almost cashed in the Venus division of Stars Promo. Came down to the last SNG out of 100! He played an 18 man on and took 3rd. If he took first he would have cracked the top 20 for the week. Congrats. on the run you will get them this week. I am trying it myself this week. Cashed in my first 3 this morning so I am off well. Thanks for readingand good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP Step Quest Over

I forgot to tell you all that my WSOP Step quest on River Stars is over. What a bankroll eating black hole that turned into. I ended up with nothing for my efforts. Pretty sick being I got up to Step 5 three times. Every time I got there I was either card dead or got coolered. It was pretty crazy being just coming in 6th would give me a repeat step 2 ticket. I finished in 8th twice and 9th once! For someone as consistent as me this was really bad. I got up to step four around 15 times. Four gave me a lot of trouble, usually I would win a repeat Step 3 or 4 ticket. Even though I wasted a lot of money on this, it’s not all bad. I was able to maintain Silver VIP status just from these. So I played all the Saturday Freerolls for 2 months and I earned 50% more FPPs. (Cashing in a few of them.) My latest quest is trying to cash in their Battle of the Planets Promo. I have gotten close but no cashes in it yet. Cousin Ant(ShipThis) is having a nice run this week at it. If he keeps it up he is on pace for the Top 30 in the Block of 100 Venus category. Go Ship! BTW my wife is on a sick $5-10 Limit HE run this week. She is just crushing the game big time, oh no now I have jinxed her run! We will see how it plays out. As for me I am playing in the Hi/Lo Stud FTOPS tournament tonight at 9:00. Need to get warmed up for the WSOP. You thought I could do a post without saying it, no way, “I can’t wait to go to the WSOP!”. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Another Night More Sit-N-Gos

Last night started out with a bang and then I sizzled out. I won my first Sit-N-Go, then I bubbled the next one. No problem, in my third one I tripled up early and had a huge lead the whole way. When we got three handed they had caught up and I had a very small lead. Still felt I was playing great and that I would win it. Instead I started playing like a skirt and got knocked out in third. There was a hand that I really screwed up, brought it in for 3x the Blind with pocket Tens, the next player shoved on me. I had 3800 left, which seemed like enough chips behind to fold and play it safe. It wasn’t being the blinds went up to 400-800 with a 100ante the next hand. I was suddenly very short with almost no fold equity. I should have called his push, instead I get knocked out a few orbits later. Big mistake on my part, possibly because I was multi-tabling and playing like a robot. Need to pay more attention when we get short-handed. After this SNG I went on to loss 4 straight. My mind wasn’t in it at this point. So I switched it up to a Hi/Lo Stud SNG. I took third in this one but decided I wasn’t playing well so I packed it in for the night. I will be at it again tonight. Can’t wait for the WSOP! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Sit-N-Go Comeback Started

Made a Sit-N-Go comeback last night. The first few ones were just brutal , like the day before. One hand I raised from early position with pocket Kings. The button pushed all in. I call my wife over and ask her what she thinks he has. She thought Aces, I told her no he has queens and I will be felted. I call and sure enough he has Queens and flops one to send me out. That’s how I roll. Then I loss another one with pocket tens all in against pocket nines, who four flushes me. After losing 4 in a matter of 30 minutes I was about to quit. Instead I continued on and went on a rush. Won 2 of them and took a second, which made the night profitable. Today when I start playing I have some momentum on my side. Only played a little low limit Stud on UltimateBet. Basically just spun my wheels in place, losing a few BBs. BTW I can’t wait to go to the WSOP! Our trip is less than 40 days away. We both can’t wait to go. We want to make the final table together. Think of the buzz that would create, having a married couple at the final table. I will feel real bad knocking her out but second is not too bad : - ). Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

More Sit-N-Go BS

Sit-N-Gos are just brutal! My hat is off to the Sit-N-Go grinder that makes a living playing them all day. Don’t know how you can take all the disappointment, time and time again. I don’t think live play grinding is even half as bad. Last night I played 10 more $6.50 SNGs to finish out my block of twenty. I cashed in three of them for a small lose. Thing is I bubbled in 6 of the other 7! I was ahead all in almost every time. I ran queens into tens, Jacks into A-7, and Kings into A-10. If I win just two of these I have two more cashes, maybe 2 more firsts. The Queens into tens hurt the most. We were on the bubble, with the other 2 players short at the table. In the small blind I get queens, can’t fold them here can I? I push not wanting to play them out of position against the big stack, who barely has me covered. So I push them and he can’t wait to call me with Tens? I think his play was hideous, especially being I had a very tight image in this one. Of course Poker Stars rewards his bad play with a Ten on the turn. SNGs can leave you second guessing your plays over and over. I still feel I made the right play, just so hard to accept that I should have cashed, instead out on the bubble once again. I shut down for the night after this hand. Couldn’t take the BS anymore. On top of this I got crushed playing live on Ultimate Bet. Lost 35BBs playing Limit HE. Don’t remember a night where I made so many nut flushes and lost to Full houses. Also made King high two card flushes and lost on the river to the Ace high one card flush. It was sick but I am lucky to only be down that much, was down 50BBs a few minutes before I quit. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Winning Sunday!

Finally a winning day playing Online on a Sunday! What a relief it was after getting beat up 3 Sundays in a row. I dropped down 1 level in SNGs and the results were 10 times better. I ran so well that once I complete my block of 20 on Poker Stars I may be in the top 40 to receive a piece of their Battle of the Planets promotion. Don’t want to jinx myself being I have 10 more to play to finish the block. I went 5 cashes for 10 SNGs yesterday. More importantly I bubbled 4 times and got my money in ahead all 4! Got 3 outered on the River in 3 of them, thank you River Stars. Then I decided to play my remaining WSOP Step tickets and did great. I first played a Step 3 and won a repeat step 3 on the bubble. Again got it in good as a 2.5-1 favorite and lost. Then later in the day I played a Step 3 again and took it down to win a Step 4 ticket! I have decided to not sink any more money into these, so I am playing off the tickets I have already won. Let’s see if I can take my Step 3 and Step 4 ticket and turn them into gold. I played one MTT and got brutally coolered in it. I was in first for more than half the tournament. It was a RAZZ tournament on River Stars and I got rivered big time. We were at the final table with 7 players left, was in 3rd chip position.(5 places paid.) I started with 2-5-7 and brought it in for a raise, a 9 called me. (Terrible play this close to the money.) By sixth street I had a monster 7-5-4-3-2, I bet it out and he called. By this point most of both our chips were in the pot. He checked the river to me and I bet, leaving myself with 1000 chips behind. He called and had 7-5-4-3-A! He didn’t raise me, which was really weak. He caught the A on the river, only card that beat me.(BTW 2 were already out.) RAZZ can be so brutal at times. I got knocked out a few hands later. Played my heart out for 3 hours only to come up empty handed. MTTs can be so tough to deal with sometimes. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Birthday

Today I turn 41, how time flys. I am writing this post from the Hampton Inn in Gallaway NJ, 3 miles from Atlantic City. We played a quick session of $10-20 at the Borgata last night. It was juicy, to say the least! I won a little over $600, at the two tables I played at. I love playing at the Borgata on Friday nights, it's a mix of grinders, drunks, and just terrible old school players. By old school I mean older players that drew up playing Stud and now play $10-20 and $20-40 without a clue! Some tables are full of sharks, just need to practice good table selection. Saw a sick hand last night, the kind that everything talks about that only happen online. A set of Sevens and a set of Jacks on the flop. The betting goes crazy on the turn. The original raiser calls 2 bets on the turn but then folds for 2 more. An Ace hits on the river and he goes ballistic! He swears he folded Aces on the turn. So it was a set, over set, over set hand! He made the right move, just it hurts to see someone else raking in an over $400 pot that you wouldn't have won. Will be playing more $10-20 today, wish me luck. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Tight Home Game?

We had a home game last night at my Cousin Neil’s house. A really weird thing happened, everyone played super tight. The game used to be a loose crazy donkfest. Now it seems that no one wants to give up their bounty. Plus we have made it embarrassing, when you get knocked out. You have to sign your $10 bounty over to the person you knocked out. Also we had eleven people and 15 minute blinds, 5000 starting chips. This game used to take 2 hours start to finish. Last night it took 3 hours, as a result a few of us light weights didn’t play in the second game. My brother and I were both tired, from a long week on work tilt, so we both left after the first game. Looks like next game will have 10 minute blinds, to speed things up. Problem seemed to be we weren’t getting in that many hands either, not even an orbit in 15 minutes. Even though the game was tight, most flops heads up; people were still taking their time to make a decision. What the, players are starting to think before they act, that ain’t right! Need to find a softer game, LOL. I have never had success in these home games anyway, maybe with better play I will play better also, doubt it LOL. On another note my birthday is on Saturday, what better way to celebrate then spend a day at the Borgata in AC! Will probably be playing in the Saturday $340 No Limit at the Borgata. If you see a 41 year old 6’0 male with a Full Tilt Iron Man hat on having a good time with a big stack of chips in front of him, stop by and say hello. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Online Grind Continues

Only played one low limit Sit-N-Go last night. Played a regular HORSE one on River Stars. Played ok I guess, finished in 5th. Got coolered in the Limit HE leg, time and time again. Thought I was a decent Limit HE player, got the results from years of grinding it out, to prove it. For some reason when playing it in HORSE I always spew lots of chips, in this leg. It used to be that my Stud leg was my weakest and my Hi/Lo was my best. Now it seems all the Stud legs are great for me and all the flop legs are bad. If somewhere they spread a RSE tournament, I’m in LOL. As for live play I grinded out a ton of hands on Ultimate Bet. Needed to earn 200 Raise status points, to be a Legend next month. I did it so now next month I will reap the benefits; best one will be clearing my Bonus dollars faster. Two months ago I had a little over $1200, in my bonus account. I have now gotten it down to $933. Also by being a Legend I have like no real ceiling on the amount of Ultimate points I can convert into cash. This amounts to a nice little rake back from them. Not trying to sell anyone on Ultimate Bet, personally I think it’s the worst of the major sites, excluding Absolute, which they own. That is clearly the worst of the major sites. Speaking of sites, those f***kers at Cake Poker still haven’t mailed me a check for my $600 cash out from them. Have been trying to get my money from those crooks for 3 months now. Do yourself a favor, don’t play there at all! They offer great bonus/rake back and weak players but you have almost no quick way to withdraw your money. If I really needed that money for bills I would be screwed. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
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