Two Small Cashes

PokerStars Tournament #103653428, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2961 players
Total Prize Pool: $51815.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/29 - 18:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 351st place.
A $36.27 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 49.96 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.


PokerStars Tournament #103653487, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
2853 players
$1470.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $30000.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/29 - 19:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 157th place.
A $36.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 85.71 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.


Going to the Borgata today to play some $10-20 Limit HE. Also may play in their awesome $340 11:00am Tournament. Wish me luck. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Neil's Game

Played at Cousin Neil’s last night but my results were bad once again. In the first Sit-N-Go I played a perfect patient ABC game. I was able to avoid FPS(Fancy Play Syndrome) and chip up nicely. When we got down to 4 players, with 2 places paid I was nice and comfortable with the 2nd big stack. Then I pushed pocket Queens into pocket Aces for half my chips. Nothing I could do 4 handed. Two hands later in the small blind I push Q-K suited into A-Q and I get knocked out in 4th. This SNG was just bad luck, didn’t play badly. Problem is this put me on semi-tilt and the FPS crept back in the 2nd Sit-n-go. Early in the 2nd one I made a move with the Hammer(2-7off) against my Cousin Neil’s big blind. Flop came down giving me a gut shot so I C-bet a small amount. My cousin called my min-bet. First mistake was attacking his big blind, he’s a defender. Second mistake was the small wimpy C-bet. A nine fell on the turn and he led out for the pot so I had to fold. He defended with 9-5 off which flopped a pair and turned two pair. I lost 40% of my chips in round one, this is just so bad! Now I was playing behind the eight ball big time. I hung around for a few rounds, not getting any cards. Finally, with a short stack of 9BBs, I get dealt pocket fours. From the button I open for 2.5x the Big Blind, planning to do a stop and go if I like the flop. Instead my Cousin Ant. shoves on me from the BB.(I probably should have just shoved pre-flop myself, but hindsight is 20/20.) I could have folded but was getting 2-1 with what I thought was the best hand so I called. I had the best hand being the donkey shoved with A-2 off. (If you are reading this Ant., it was a donkey play LOL.) Well as usual I can’t win as a 2.5 to 1 favorite pre-flop in home games ever! He flops an Ace and turns one to add insult to injury. It’s my own fault for getting short by making stupid fancy plays in level one! Of well you live and learn. Everyone have a good weekend. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – If you are ever in Clifton NJ try out my Cousin Neil’s Pizzeria on Harding Ave, right off Main Ave. It’s named Sal’s Pizza and they make the best Chicken Parm. around! As always please continue to click through on my Google banner above this post.

I Run Goot.

Last night I got hit in the face with the deck. Went on a quick hit-n-run rush. Again I won 30BBs in less than an hour. I flopped 2 sets that both won huge pots. In one of them I flopped a set of nines only to get sucked out on the turn by the nut flush draw. That’s ok a rivered forth nine for quads to the rescue. It was just sick I was getting dealt A-J, A-Q, and A-K on three tables at the same time. Was hitting top top and it was holding up! Poker is so fun when things are going your way. Also was happy when I got a message from Poker Stars that I had just become a Silver member of their VIP club. That means a month of Saturday free rolls for me and will earn FPPS 50% faster. (There are a number of other benefits also.) On top of this after I earn 50 points 1 more day on Full Tilt I will be a Silver Ironman there also. One more month at Silver and I will have enough Bonus Metals to purchase 25,000 points with. With that and my current point balance I almost have enough for a 22 inch monitor in the Full Tilt Store. Eight tabling, with no overlap, here I come! Tonight is the always fun Cousin’s Neil home game. Just need to play some solid ABC No Limit tournament poker to defeat this crowd. No more FPS for me, LOL. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S.- Shout out to Cousin Ant., grind baby! As usual readers please continue to click through on my Google Banner, above this post, thanks in advance.

The Reversal

Last night was the complete reverse from the night before. I played a one hour session where I could hardly do anything wrong. Only had Aces once but they held up to win a big pot. Kings came twice and I flopped one for good measure both times. Finished the night up 30BBs, thank you very much Donks. It turns out there are some regular players at my level, on Full Tilt that are really bad. I have notes on them so in the lobby they show up with an icon next to their name. Right now I have 3 of them flagged so I look for tables they are at before I go onto the waiting lists. It is so true what many authors say about table selection being a skill in itself. Did have a very disappointing Knockout MTT on Full Tilt. Over 600 Donks(Players) in this with 63 places being paid. I got down to 90 when I decided to shove A-10 from late position, only to run into pocket rockets. Played the MTT so well but came up short. Had some very bad luck trying to get people’s bounties. Every time a short shoved I would call or re-shove but always double them up. This is the first Knockout in awhile that I didn’t collect a single bounty. Did anyone watch the WSOP Post Limit Omaha Championship on ESPN last night? It was very enjoyable to watch something other than No Limit Holdem. The Grinder had a shot at a bracelet but came up short. It was also cool that they showed a few hands of Hellmuth going for number 12 in the $1500 Horse event. Really I would have liked to see the Horse event televised also. Playing in some live Poker tomorrow night. My Cousin Neil’s game is going on, wish me luck! Look for a winning post about it on Friday morning, eastern time. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.
P.S. – Please continue to click through on my Google Banner, above this post, Thanks.

Running Good Over?

I don’t think I should ever write another post about running good online. Every time I do it my next session is a nightmare. Last night I only had an hour to kill so I played a quick session. It was just brutal, had Aces three times and they were cracked all three, within the first 15 minutes. Then I started playing really bad after that. Was getting crushed down almost 50BBs in a half an hour. Cooled down and got off tilt to end the session down 20BBs. Still in an hour this is not the results I want to achieve. Ran good all weekend so I can’t complain. Last night’s WPT championship was just awesome! Gus Hanson played so well and got lucky to boot also. Looked like he should have slowed down, once they got heads up. Being it’s an edited broadcast we really can’t tell If that was the case. I just enjoyed watching a master LAG player at work. Will watch that tape a few more times for fun. Don’t forget to watch the WSOP broadcast tonight on ESPN. I believe it’s the 10K Pot Limit Omaha Championship tonight. I like to watch Pot Limit Omaha being it’s such an action game. Of course I will be at the tables looking to crack someone else’s Aces. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Donkday

Sunday is now officially Donkday at the Onlinerounder.blogspot.com, here. My cousin Ant and I have talked about how bad the play has become on Sundays. It’s such a minefield playing on Sundays! Starting this weekend I have banned myself from playing Ring games on Saturdays and Sundays. Just sucks that I win all week and then give it back on the weekends. If I want to gamble I will go to Atlantic City and shoot Craps! Eventually I may go back to playing Ring games on the weekends but for now only going to play MTTs, Satellites, and Sit-N-gos. That is what I did this weekend with awesome results! On Saturday I won 2 out of 3 $55 Satellite seats on Full Tilt. Also cashed in 3 out of 4 Horse $22 Sit-n-gos. On Sunday I had mixed results, literally bubbling in four MTTs! On the Sit-n-go front I did great once again. I played 3 Horse Sit-n-gos with 2 firsts! Some of the people in these didn’t even know how to play some of the legs, mostly Razz of course. Also played a few No Limit Sig-n-gos with a bunch of bubbles. Took another attempt at the WCOOP Steps on River Stars. Only paid for one Step 1 Sit-n-go, which I won and played 8 of them before I lost it. (A lot of repeat Step 1 tickets.) I am now almost a Silver on Stars and am a Silver Ironman on Full Tilt. The Full Tilt one I am excited about, 2 more months at Silver and I will have enough Metals to cash in for 25,000fpps. With them and the points I already have will have enough to purchase a 22 inch monitor for my PC. Look out I will be able to eight table, without overlap and without going blind! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – Go ShipThis_1 stick to the system and grow the roll! As always please continue to click through on my Google Adsense banner, above this post, it’s free and only takes a second, it helps keep the lights on in this BLOG.

Full Tilt Daily Double

I almost double cashed in the Double last night. I took 102 in the "B" tournament and around 300th in the "A". The way I got knocked out in the "A" was just so sick. My table was crazy and I was starting to get short with an M of 7. I get dealt pocket Queens when 3 people go all in ahead of me, 2 of them I have covered. The Big Blind, who was a Huge Stack calls all 4 all ins. I am against pocket Tens, pocket eights, pocket fives, and J-6 off for the huge stack. The flop comes with a six and the river comes with the fatel six to send me home relatively close to the money. I ran the hand through a poker odds calculator, wasn't sure of the suits but I was 55% to win pre-flop. I almost laid it down pre-flop, if I had more chips I would have. Oh well another case of making the right decision, long term, but not getting rewarded now. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP 50K HORSE Buzz

It seems yesterday’s main topic of discussion Online was ESPN’s televised WSOP 50K HORSE event. Actually Scotty Nguyen’s poor behavior in this event was the real main topic on many Blogs yesterday. Also why did Harrah’s let him get away with all that crap? In the 2007 WSOP if you accidently said F**K it was a penalty. Now we see a “Star” player calling other people Mother F***ers and getting away with it. How is this good for Poker? Only thing I can think of is ESPN may have thought it would make for good TV. Maybe what they say is true any publicity, good or bad is a good thing for ratings. They could be right being this telecast has created more buzz then any of the other ones so far this year. Actually more buzz then the dull “November 9”. Personally I think the one who will get hurt the most by this is Scotty Nguyen himself. I can’t see any companies wanting to use him to promote their products now that his behavior has been made public. Enough about this and unto last night’s Online play. Again the same pattern that has been going on for the last week for me. I get crushed in the first 30 minutes of play and then have to dig in and play lock down ABC poker to pull myself out. Last night I made a huge comeback and ended up around 5BBs for the night. Think I need to play well from the very start of my sessions in order to have some really good winning nights. Only played one HORSE Sit-n-Go and I broke my good streak by bubbling in this one. Started with split Kings in Stud and didn’t believe the other big stack had the pocket Aces he was betting. He bet every street including the river to cripple me, when I was 2nd in chips. He played the hand well, I wouldn’t have bet the River in case my opponent made two pair. It sucks being I stuck around and the short stack got knocked out 2 hands after I did. Oh well it won’t be the first or last time I bubble. Think tonight I will get my feet wet and play some MTTs again. Haven’t played any for a week so it’s time to buy a lottery ticket and try again. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Same Donks Different Day

Last night I was happy pulling off a small win on Stars in the Full Ring Limit HE tables. I played with the same Donks as the last few nights and they played just as bad. Problem is one particular donk keep pulling me down with him. I had Q-10 of spades in the big blind and calling a pre-flop raise that the three of us saw. A-J-A with two spades giving me a royal flush draw against idiots that could have anything. The first player, who was decent bet and than a complete Donk raised, which I gave no respect to. Figured I was live no matter what being they either both had an Ace of the Donk in the middle was on a lower flush draw. Turn was a blank and I got trapped in the middle for 4 bets! River was a queen but I knew it couldn’t be good. Decent player had Ace-8 suited. Idiot who kept raising on the turn had K-Q no spades! So he makes it 4 bets on a gut shot on the turn, what a donk. I played an hour more at the table and watched him spew through almost 50BBs! I only got a few of them finishing the night up 4BBs, a win is a win. I played another HORSE Sit-N-Go on Full Tilt and took first place in it. I have just cashed in 3 of my last 4, with 2 first places. Checked my ROI on Shark Scope and it was 9% two days ago, hoping these wins will have pulled me into double digits. Watched the WSOP 50K HORSE again last night and Scotty Nguyen just acts like a total jerk off. It seems a lot of Bloggers agree with me being I have noticed a bunch of posts about his poor behavior. These are the kinds of things that will just add fuel to the fire for congress to never tax and regulate online poker. That kind of behavior will really mark the end of the Poker bubble. IMHO. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

WSOP 50K HORSE and Playing Bad

Last night’s play was similar to the nights before. Within the first 30 minutes I was down a large amount, 40BBs. I took some bad beats and then started playing badly. Got under-setted twice within an hour, my pocket fours flopped a set against pocket nines. Than 5 minutes later my pocket Jacks flopped a set against pocket Kings, this one didn’t cost as much being the final board was A-K-J-10. So I got tilty for a few hands and made some bad plays. Then sanity returned to me and I played lock down ABC Limit poker. This worked and I made a huge comeback, ended night down 6BBs! Also played in one HORSE Sit-N-Go and got re-sucked out on big time. Flopped a set of Sevens and got two outed on the river. I would have been chip leader with 5 left instead I get knocked out on the next hand. I figured I would play HORSE being the WSOP 50K HORSE was going to be on ESPN. Did you all watch it last night? Scotty Nygen, playing for Two million, gets drunk and acts like a total Ass-tard! I have never seen Eric Lindren get so made at another player as I saw last night. I have played with Scotty in two WSOP events and he seemed like a decent enough guy, then again he wasn’t drinking in either one. Actually my first WSOP event in 2004 the $2500 HORSE event, he was at my first table. I had the pleasure of knocking him out of it. That was the event that put Scott Fishman on the map, he won it. I had a huge stack but then got moved to a table of maniacs. They just destroyed my chip stack in the Stud leg of HORSE. It was my first “Big” buy in event so I was a little green. Still it was thrilling to get to play with Scotty and Mike Wattel in my first event. Not only play with them but to hold over both of them! Anyway I digress watch last night’s event on the re-runs you won’t be sorry. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Big Shout out to Cousin Ant, stick to the system and build up the Roll. I want you to go to the Borgata in September!

Sometimes the Donks Win

Last night I got hit with a dose of reality. It seems whenever I start to run good I have a night where almost nothing goes right. I played Full Ring Limit Holdem on Stars and Full last night. I lost 25BBs, which doesn’t seem too bad but was down almost 50 before I turned it around. There was a Donk on my right which just beat me constantly all night. Finally I figured out that he was full of it and I started re-raising to isolate him. I called him down two hands in a row really light and was right both times. In one hand I put him on Ace-rag and the board had 3 face cards, I had an under pair pocket fours, won a nice pot. (He had the almighty A-2 off, LOL.) Then the very next hand he raised again and I flatted him with A-7 sooted. Flop came Q-7-4 and he led out so I raised to isolate him, other two players folded. Rags came on the turn and river he bet and I called him down. My sevens were good he had King high. Outside of these two hands this donk really owned me. When I got to the table he had 20BBs, when I left he had over 80! I finally gave up for the night so I could watch the new WPT. In the past the Ladies night ones haven’t been very interesting but this one was. Can’t wait to watch the WSOP 50K Horse tonight on ESPN. I will try to get some donkey revenge tonight also. (Or as the Good Doctor says, “Spill some donk blood.”) Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Finally a Winning Sunday

Yesterday was the first winning Sunday I have had in a month. It’s because I avoided playing in ring games and focused on SNGs and Satellites. Also played in the right SNGs, for a Sunday. Avoided playing in the steps and the Donkey No Limit ones. Instead I played in Pot Limit Hi/Lo Omaha and my old bread and butter HORSE. Again I just crushed the FTOPS Satellites on Full yesterday. I cashed in 2 out of 3 of them, that’s 5 out of 6 for the weekend! So all my SNGs and MTTs on Full Tilt were free rolls for me. Didn’t have much success in MTTs, played in four of them and got deep in them all. Didn’t cash in any of them but got some bounties. I tried something different, ignored the bubble and just played my cards to win it all. This style never seems to work for me. My style is to slow down and play super tight until we are in the money. I will go back to playing this way from now on. I was in one sick hand, close to the money in a small knockout tournament on Full Tilt. I got dealt pocket eights in the big blind. Someone brought it in for a raise and 2 other players flat called. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Just knew this hand was doom for me. I called for pot odds and figured no set no bet. Flop comes gin for me 9-8-2 with two diamonds. I check and the first player, huge stack, shoves. The second player calls all in and the third player shoves also! In a live tournament I would fold this hand. In a more expensive MTT Online I might fold this. Problem is this is a micro limit bounty tournament so I know they are calling light, being bounties are up for grabs! If I fold I have enough to squeak into the money being we are 20 places from it. I decide I am ahead and make the call for my tournament life. Wait until you see the setup Full Tilt does on this hand. First player pocket jacks, 2nd player pocket queens, next player A-K of diamonds. So I am ahead but have to dodge many outs. Why didn’t the pocket Queens re-raise pre-flop so I could fold? The turn is a Queen so I am dead to one out. The river is a diamond and the A-K gets 2 bounties and becomes a huge stack. What a Sick hand, if my set holds up I am one of the huge stacks. In this same tournament I saw another crazy sick thing happen. A crazy complete donk at our table is the chip leader of the tournament with 35K with the blinds at 100-200 with no ante. In five hands he goes butso, realize the next biggest stack was like 10K before these hands started! In two hands he flops top pair no kicker and doubles someone up. In another hand he flops a flush draw with 8-4 of diamonds and calls an all in for 75% of his stack! What a complete donkey, should never blow a chip lead that fast unless you get totally coolered. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – Good job by my readers for clicking through on my Google Adsense banner, above this post, please keep up the good work! Shout out to Cousin Ant., avoid the MTTs until your roll is healthy!

Weekend Online Play

Not much going on this weekend. I crushed the satellites on Full Tilt again yesterday. I played in four of them and won three! I only played a little in ring limit games, won 4BBs. Haved learned my lesson to not play live on weekends, always run bad. One thing I have learned is I lose the desire to play once I start winning. Last night I quit early being I was up. If I was stuck would have played all night. It's probably the wrong thing to do but it's a habit I need to break free of. Also the Olympics were awesome last night! I will play more today. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Cousin Neil's Homegame

FPS – Fancy Play Syndrome, Mike Caro’s term. I suffered from the worst case of it last night at my Cousin Neil’s home game. I just played so bad that it was indefensible. I made all the wrong moves at all the wrong times against all the wrong players. Something must have been in the air because I just played on broken auto pilot all night long. Granted I hardly got any big pairs all night, nines once and queens once . Mis-played both of them horribly. For some reason every time I got A-J, K-Q, or A-Q I thought they were Aces? Online I muck all three of these hands from early position without even thinking about it. Meanwhile in a 12 handed game I am bringing it in for 4x with A-J from second position! It is so true what people say, don’t play poker if your head isn’t into it. Also I have been running so well Online all week that it clouded my judgment for this game. Every situation is different and every game is totally different. The moves I was making online all week didn’t work in this game. Re-raising with air against my Cousin Ant., bad idea! Re-raising pre-flop with pocket nines against my cousin Neil, very bad idea. Trying to bluff my cousin Nick, extremely bad idea. Laying down pocket Tens on a board of 5-J-5-J-2 against Jay, super bad move! Anyway big Shout out to my brother John for defeating Carlo Heads up, great job! TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

A Winning Night

Another night another Full Tilt Satellite won! That’s right 5 in a row now. I played in their $15 satellite to a $55 super for an FTOPS event. As soon as I cashed I found the super and unregistered from it. Looks like I will be free rolling all mtts on Full Tilt for the next 2 months. Sit-n-gos on River Stars went just as well. Played in a single table and took third on a sick suck out. A-K all in against Q-5 and he rives a five, thank you River Stars! Then I played in a regular 12 man 6 max 2 table one. When we got heads up had the same amount of chips. We had a sick 45 minute heads up match. I finally wore him down to rip this one down. The money wasn’t a big deal but the Battle of the Planets points were. I now have a legitimate shot at the top five for my division. I have 227 points with 7 to go in my block of 20. If I can win two for these and cash in maybe 2 more I will be in the top 10 for the week. As for live games they were a real roller coaster on River Stars last night. Within 20 minutes I was down almost 40BBs on sick beat after sick beat. Also ran into Aces 3 times on top of the beats. I kept my head and just played through it. By the end of the night only down 7BBs. So I put together another winning night, 3 in a row. Feels good after Sunday’s beating I took. Tonight playing in a home game at Cousin Neil’s house. Hope to have a winning post about it tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – As usual thanks to my readers for clicking through on my Google Adsense banner, above this post, keep up the good work! Shoutout to Cousin Ant. don’t get discouraged you’re A-K will hold up sometimes in Sit-N-Gos online!

Full Tilt Satellites

I had another good night playing online yesterday. I have discovered gold in playing in Full Tilt’s $15 satellites into their Supers’. Won another one last night, that’s 4 for 4 in these! After qualifying I just unregister and now have a ton of tournament dollars, to do what I please with. Don’t know why I hadn’t thought about this sooner. On Sundays had been qualifying for the Sunday Brawl half the time I tried in their $55 11:30am super for it. Should have just been unregistering instead of donking off the $256 entry, time after time. Don’t think I have even cashed in it, actually I never even have gotten a bounty in it! This is really sick being I have had people all in, with the best hand, over 10 times and they always suck out on me. Of well from now on I will build up my tournament dollars instead. Sit-n-gos went great last night also. I played in three with a first and a second. The one I didn’t cash in was pot limit Omaha. Way I got knocked out was too runner-runner. I raised all in pre-flop with A-A-3-10, with one ace suited with the three. The flop came 2-8-J with two of my suite. Turn and river blank out for me and the villain makes two rag pairs to knock me out, so sick! Good news is I have a shot at River Stars Battle of the Planets Promo, once again. It’s only an outside shot but I will play some 18/27 man Sit-n-gos to build up my points. As for live play last night, it didn’t go very well. I lost 10BBs on Full Tilt. Actually shocked I didn’t lose more, flopped 2 sets in 5 hands and lost to flushes both times. The first one was so sick, had pocket Kings and flop comes Q-K-4 with one diamond. I bet and the donkey calls. Turn brings the 8 of diamonds. He bets into me and I raise. Rag diamond on the end and he bets into me. I don’t even raise being I know he flushed on me. What does he have you think?? Unreal he has the A-2 of diamonds in this spot. Then again it’s limit so the donks will call pre-flop with any ace rag. Just don’t know what he was doing calling the flop. So overall it was a winning night so all is good. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – As usual thanks to my readers for clicking through on my Google Banner, above this post. Please keep up the good work. Shootout to Cousin Ant, stick to the system!

Back to My Winning Ways

Back to my winning ways. Whenever I have a big losing session or two I just want to, “Book a win” to get my confidence back. Losing days have a way of creating more losing. It’s like bad karma and momentum. I am not very superstitious but I believe in positive energy putting you onto a winning track. When I am playing confidently the right moves just flow out, without me having to think about what to do. So yesterday I cashed in my third FTOPS Satellite in a row. I realized that the fields are real weak on Full Tilt in these. Also realized many people don’t know how to play in them properly. They seem to play into my strengths, hanging on to get into the money. I’m not very good at accumulating a lot of chips but I can almost always finish in the top 25% of the field. The $15 satellites pay out 27% of the field with $55 super seats. I just unregister and am now building up tournament dollars at Full Tilt. Also played in two Sit-n-gos and took a second, so a small profit for the night here also. Did loss a little at the ring games but 3BBs isn’t much at all. It was a profitable night so I was happy. Don’t forget tonight there is more WSOP coverage on ESPN. We have been happy with the coverage so far. Seems this year there is less moronic acting out and more actual good poker playing. Think that ESPN has geared the coverage toward the more mature poker watching public. Hopefully this year the ass-tards won’t get much coverage during the main event. As for the WPT last night it was really enjoyable to watch. I love to see pros at the final tables of these. It’s a shame that Ted Forest ran into big hands over and over again in last night’s coverage. Hope the WPT continues to get better now that it’s going to be on Fox. We have always been fans of the WPT. I hope their new show “ClubWPT” does well. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – Thanks to my readers for clicking through on my Google Ad Sense banner, above this post. Please keep up the good work!

Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Online is Brutal!

I have a new Online leak to my bankroll. I played Limit Omaha Hi/Lo yesterday on River Stars and simply got crushed. If I didn’t make money playing Full Ring HE and Stud the day would have been a disaster. I have read in other people’s BLOGs what a great soft game this is Online right now. It turned out to be a total luck box game, basically four card bingo. No less than five times yesterday I lost huge pots with top or second full house! Ran into quads three of the times the other two was against top full house. How can I win when I play Q-Q-A-10 single suited against 7-7-J-4 rainbow. The flop comes 7-Q-7 and we cap the turn and river! In another hand I have A-K-2-3 against naked Aces and lose a monster on this board A-K-9-K-8. He waits for the river and then we cap it. He never bet or raised until the river when the 8 made a flush! I was doing what the books say, only playing two way hands with all four cards working for me. The villains were just playing any two cards and beating me. As for low hands I rarely made any so I hardly had to worry about getting quartered. I have read the variance in this game is lower than Holdem and Stud but for me this weekend in didn’t work out that way. I won yesterday in MTTs, SNGs, Holdem, and Stud. It didn’t make up for the money I lost in this stupid game. Think I will give up playing it for awhile. Anyway there’s today’s rant! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Small Score

PokerStars Tournament #99190472, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2574 players
Total Prize Pool: $12870.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/10 - 09:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 237th place.
A $12.87 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 56.69 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Very proud of this one. On the bubble I only had 800 chips left and I managed to squeak into the money. Than lastest 4 payout jumps. The last hand was just brutal! After working my stack but up to average I shove for 8x the Big Blind with A-K of hearts. Get called in two spots by A-10 and A-8 off. Turns and eight and IGH! Of well it's all good will be at it all day. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Small Cash

PokerStars Tournament #99190471, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2520 players
Total Prize Pool: $12600.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/09 - 09:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 361st place.
A $8.82 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 45.45 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Being Snake Bit

I continue to be snake bit playing in ring games on Full Tilt. Last night was more of the same, couldn’t win a pot on Full yet couldn’t lose one on River Stars. The difference on the two sites is obviously different players, duh but also Stars is ten handed and Full is only nine. Need to do some re-adjusting on Full to plug up this leak. So last night I won 20BBs on Stars and lost 19BBs on Full for a net profit of 1BB! It’s all good being earned rake back and cleared some bonus. Good news is I did well playing in Sit-n-Gos on Stars. Played in two WCOOP Main Event Step ones. Took a first and a third good for a Step 2 ticket and a repeat Step 1 ticket. Should have won the second one but took a brutal beat all in to get knocked out in third. Over all I was happy with my play for the night. Tonight I will play on Full Tilt at 6:30pm in a super to win an FTOPS seat for the 9pm $216 Stud event. Wish me luck. TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

First Impressions

Playing with the tilt-monkey continued last night. By chance I choose a table he was at and I sat down right next to him. It turns out that he/she is actually a good solid player. Didn’t read any comments in the chat so he probably forgot about me or just ignored me. Looked in the lobby and he was seated at 6 tables of the same level so he’s probably one of those solid semi-pro grinders. This is another important poker lesson, don’t let one session form an impression of how a player plays. Everyone has off days when they aren’t playing up to potential. This guy turned out to be a very good TAG.(Tight Aggressive Player) Every time he was in a pot and raising he had what he was representing. There wasn’t any easy money to be made from him. While I was at the table with him the money in front of him got doubled. I played this table and one other. I made 9BBs in two hours. I’ll take it, a wins a win. At the same time I played in a satellite for event number 5 of the FTOPS.($216 Stud, 100K guarantee on Friday night.) I got deep but missed cashing being I went card dead. It looks like this FTOPS will be a huge success. Event number one had a 1 million guarantee and before late registration was over the pool was almost 1.2 million, with first getting over 199K! BTW – Full Tilt finally added a late registration feature to their software. It was a smart move being it only benefits them to have more people buying into these guaranteed events. Actually this update of the software has made their awesome interface even better. The table colors are nicer and the graphics are even smoother. I like their interface even more than River Stars but I will continue to play at each site. If you don’t have a Full Tilt account please click through on my Full Tilt banner, above this post, using promotion code “AVIGANOLA”. Leave me a comment(with your new screen name), to this post and after your first real money deposit I will give you another bonus, on top of the one they give new players. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Playing Against an Online Tilt-Monkey

Last night nothing much important happened. I did a short session where I was quickly down 20BBs and made a nice recovery to end the night up 4BBs. Funny thing is I tilted a guy so bad at a table that was playing way too tight. Around 75% of the time if I raised pre-flop I would steal the blinds. This was a very profitable place for me to play at. So I raised from late position with the all mighty Q-9 off. The Big Blind(Future steamer) three bet me. We saw a flop of 10-9-4 and I decided to let him take control of the hand. He bet out and I called. Turn was a blank and he bet out and I called again. River was gin for me another 9, he bet out and I raised. He went into the tank and it felt like he was going to fold. So I stick the needle in and type in the chat, ”Do you have Kings?”. He insta-calls me and I win a nice pot. He types in the chat, ”Stupid donkey I called to see what garbage you raised with.” I ask him, “Were you ever ahead in the hand?”. I looked up the hand history, he had the Ace-Jackass off suit. So I told him, “Oh yea you were ahead pre-flop.” For some reason this set him off big time. For the next half hour every time I was in a pot he was raising it up. This is how I got my money back, just tightened up and let him do the betting for me. I love online tilt-monkeys! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Back to My Winning Ways

Last night I got back on track to my winning ways. Grinded out at the Full Limit HE games on River Stars and Full Tilt. Ended the night up 10BBs in less than two hours. A happy outcome after Sunday’s disaster. Things started out bad on Full Tilt but then turned around to the positive. As for Stars I continue to do well, during the week there. Just seems that Sundays are not my day to play Sit-N-Gos or Live Ring games there. By the way I have decided to pull my money off of BoDog and not play there again. All this bad news about the FBI seizing their funds has not sat well with me. Plus keep reading about people doing withdraws and the checks bouncing. Well I went to do a check withdrawal last night and wasn’t happy at the message I got. It stated that it will take around 40 days to get my money off the site. WTF, how long does it take to process a check and mail it out? Stars never takes more than a week. Two weeks ago I gave up on Ultimate Bet, requested a check and got it a week later. I deposited the check and haven’t heard any bad news from my bank so I assume all is fine with it. So I have given up on all sites accept the big two, River Stars and Full Tilt. It’s probably better for me to focus on just those two anyway, rewards wise. Full Tilt I get a nice rake back and also have a ton of points saved up. Almost have enough for a 20 inch flat screen monitor! As for Stars I have a huge bonus to clear, need 4800 FPPs to clear it. Also I want to maintain my silver status, maybe become a Gold VIP. The free rolls you get for being a VIP are just easy money! My wife has used her FPPs for a few sweat shirts, poker books, and instructional DVDs. Don’t miss the 5K WSOP Mixed Holdem event tonight on ESPN. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sundays Are Bad Online

When will I learn? Playing Online on Sundays is a losing proposition for me. I got my ass kicked all day long yesterday. It was the complete reverse of Saturday. On Saturday I couldn’t lose a race but yesterday I couldn’t win a 2 and ½ to 1 favorite. Sick thing is that I ran pocket Queens and Kings into aces eight times in Sit-n-gos. Including the sick one that made me lose my Step 5 ticket that I had won on Saturday. Also my Kings through nines couldn’t beat Ace rag all day! In the live games kept running into Aces also. Got under-setted 3 times in the live games also. Well enough ranting about yesterday. Need to put the whole weekend in prospective. I won everything I touched on Saturday and lost everything back on Sunday. So overall it was a wash so it’s all good. I would feel much better if I got killed on Saturday and won it back on Sunday. It’s all relative and have to look at the big long term picture. I am still a winning player with a 9% ROI in Sit-n-gos. Trying to set up a Borgata trip for this weekend. Hope to be able to go and have some live poker to post about on this BLOG. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
P.S. – As always thanks to my readers for clicking through on my Google Ad sense banner, above this post. Keep up the good work!

Step Frustration

I lost my Step 5 ticket this morning. In a sick way! Down to 7 players with 6th getting a repeat step 4 ticket. The player on my right open shoves for 15x three hands in a row and wins the pots uncontested. I wake up with Kings in late position. Early player raises for 3x and the donkey on my right shoves over the top. I of course snap call. Of course the donkey has Aces after shoving 3 hands in a row. F**k You JokerStars. I have to rebuild up the step ladder from Step 1. Arg Poker is so unfair!!! Good luck at the tables, you will need it. Tony

Step Madness Again

PokerStars Tournament #99696527, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $200.00/$15.00
9 players
$6.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars.com
Total Prize Pool: $1806.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/02 - 20:44:52 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You have won an admission ticket to 'WCOOP Step 5'. This ticket allows you
to participate only in a tournament of this type. Tickets are not redeemable
for cash or Tournament Dollars (T$); if you register and then unregister from
the tournament, your ticket will be returned

Started this morning with 1 Step 2 ticket, now I have won my way up to step 5! I run goot! I spent a total of $15 yesterday on this. Can I turn it into a $5200 WCOOP main event entry, we shall see. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another MTT Cash.

PokerStars Tournament #98771226, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $8.00/$0.80
1710 players
Total Prize Pool: $46168.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/02 - 10:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 199th place.
A $50.78 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 56.18 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participatig

Big Shoutout to my cousin Ant. for helping me with my MTT game. Since his advice I have cashed in 7 of my last 10 mtts!!! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Small Score

PokerStars Tournament #98287152, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
3456 players
Total Prize Pool: $34560.00
Tournament started - 2008/08/01 - 19:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 83rd place.
A $51.85 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 129.75 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

At least the mtt wins are getting bigger. This one was for 4 and 1/2 buy ins. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Neil's Home Game

My head hurts from last night’s game at Cousin Neil’s house. No I don’t have a hangover, only had 2 beers. Neil has a low hanging light fixture that I was sitting under. I am six foot tall and forgot all about it. I stood up quickly and hit the point in the center of my head. It hurt really bad, actually broke my skin and bleed! Put an ice pack on it and continued to cash in the Sit-N-Go, like a trooper LOL. As usual the game was a lot of fun to play in. Especially last night being I was able to avoid the minefields. We chopped the first Sit-n-go 3 ways, got 2 bounties also. Then I took third in the 2nd one with a bounty. Really didn’t get many good hands all night. Had Aces once and Kings once, no other pairs over eights. Think I tightened up too much in the 2nd one, will have to work on that. Made a huge lay down with A-K and another with pocket sixes. Not going to race for all my chips on the bubble when there is a short stack left. Look forward to playing at Neil’s again soon, next time will keep an eye on the Chandelier! By the way if you are ever in Clifton, NJ go try out my Cousin’s Pizza, it’s awesome. Sal’s Pizza on Harding Ave, right off Main Ave Clifton, about 5 blocks from Route 46. His Chicken Parm. is the best! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Big shout out to Cousin Ant! Stick to the system, avoid the MTT leak! Also Carlo stick to the diet, as hard as it seems it’s worth it! GL to all my cousin’s playing on Full Tilt now!!!