Running Goot

I am once again running so good in Sit-N-Gos. Last night was one of my best nights in awhile. Played in four of them, took 3 firsts, and one third! I should have won the one I took third in also. All in with Jacks against Tens who rivered a ten. I didn’t mind being I did my fair share of sucking out also. My favorite was when I was all in with Pocket Rockets and got called by the big stack with pocket threes. He turned a three so I thought it was all over, then I rivered an Ace. Oh how I love to be on the winning end of the suck and re-suck I see so often on River Stars night after night. Actually I ran sick good on Full Tilt even better then on River Stars last night. I won all three I played on Full last night. I always run better there in Sit-n-Gos being the structure doesn’t contain antes. Even in live tournament I always do better without Antes. Think that is why I have such great results in Pot Limit Holdem tournaments online. On the Full Ring Limit HE front I did very well also. Won 12BBs in 30 minutes play. Don’t forget to watch ESPN’s WSOP Main Event coverage tonight. Think we will get to see a few more of the November nine in action tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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King of Rebuys

I am the King of Rebuy tournaments on River Stars. Yesterday I cashed in my 4th one straight. It was the $3.30 rebuy and the cash was small just $21, but the tournament only cost me $6.30. When down to 900 I had a ton of chips, like 42K, twice the average. Really felt I was going to go deep in this one, 720 places paid. Then I ran into a cooler for almost half my chips. I raised in middle position with A-J of hearts and got flat called by the button. The flop came J-2-4 with two hearts, gin for me, so I thought. I C-bet for half the pot and got min-raised. So I shoved having him covered and he insta-called with pocket rockets! No help for me on the turn or river and I was down to around 21K. I don’t know of many players who could get away from this hand, especially with the stack sizes. If anyone thinks differently please leave me a comment about it. Then I took a few stabs at pots and spewed some more chips. When we got 40 from the money I was down to 6K with an M of 3! I held on to crack the money bubble and cash. Thing is I really felt I played well in this one. Before I played I listened to one of Poker Road’s all Strategy Podcasts with Negreanu and Bonomo. I learned a bunch of tricks that really helped me in the Rebuy tournament. If you haven’t subscribed to this podcast you are missing one of the best ones out there. These guys do a really great and entertaining job of giving tournament tips to the listeners. Really feels like they aren’t holding much back at all! Bonomo has a great voice, probably could do a radio show. Negreanu is very funny and clever himself. Totally recommend to all my readers to listen to these, if you don’t you are missing a lot of great free advice! They have 3 episodes so far, looking forward to the next one. Just go to the Itunes store and search for Poker Road, then subscribe to the All Strategy Podcast. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Finally Home Game Success!

Played in a 16 man Sit-N-Go in a home game last night. I was finally able to overcome my snake biteness and cash in one! I took 2nd for 5 buy ins. Felt I played well but more importantly my big hands held up. Actually won 3 showdowns, which has been unheard for me lately, at my cousin Neil's house. When we got heads up I tried to cut a deal being the blinds were so big but we couldn't agree on it. He had a 2 to 1 chip lead so he was in control. Got coolered on the last hand. I flopped top pair and shoved all in, my opponent had flopped a straight. Oh well I was happy with second anyway. Shout out to my cousin Ant, he got cooled early in the first level. Aces to Kings sorry bro! Be careful playing online today, remember Sunday is donkday! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Making Sick Calls(Like Kenny Tran Does!)

My cousin Neil made some sick calls last night in his home game. The board comes out A-9-2 with two spades and my brother insta-pushes his short stack. Neil goes into the tank and calls with the almighty Hammer(2-7off). He wins a nice pot and gets my brother’s bounty. He then makes a sick call against me when we are three handed and in the money. At the start of the hand I have 8000 and he has around 15,000. The blinds are at 400-800 and he limps from the small blind. I wake up with A-4 suited and smell weakness so I shove. He insta-calls me so fast it’s just sick. What monster does he have, hmm? He has the mighty A-8 off and has me crushed. Kudos out to him for recognizing that I was making a move after smelling his weakness. His A-8 holds up and I go out in 3rd, got my entry back for it. Then in the second tournament he gets me again. We were down to 5 handed and I was short, but not super short. Blinds were at 150-300 and 2 people limped for 300 so I shoved for 2450. I wanted to take the dead money out there right then without a showdown. Bad move by me, he insta-called me once again with J-Q off! He had around 6000 chips behind so it was a chunk of his stack. I had a crappy 5-7 of hearts. Flop came with a 5 and a Jack so I was behind. The turn brought a second heart so now I need any 5, 7, or heart to stay alive. As usual I can never suck out in Neil’s games. I would be happy winning a showdown as a 4.5-1 favorite once in awhile over there! Just a reminder if you are ever in Clifton NJ go to my cousin pizzeria, Neil’s Pizza on Harding ave., right off of Main ave. He makes the best Chicken Parm. around! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.
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Another Night of Sit-N-Gos

Sit-n-Gos went well last night. Took a bunch of sick beats but still managed to pull a small profit out of it all. Worst beat was me flopping a set of tens and getting all the money in on the flop against top pair and a gut shot. I had him covered by a little, so when he got there I still had 80 chips left! Still I played in six of them and cashed in three, two seconds and one third. Should have won at least one of the heads up ones. In one we got it all in on the flop when I had a flush draw and two overs to his top pair. In the other one we got it all in when I had A-K to his Jacks. Just need to be on the winning side of a coin flip once in awhile to really make a huge profit in Sit-n-Gos. Did ok in Full Ring Limit games also, won 4BBs in a little less than one hour. One place I lost was in playing low limit No Limit on Full Tilt. Took some really sick beats with my pocket Kings running into pocket Queens that rivered a Queen! Also my pocket Aces were no match for pocket fours. Lost almost 2 buy ins in No Limit last night. Overall it was a winning night so I can’t complain. Looking forward to some fun tonight, we are playing at my Cousin Neil’s home game. He has been running this game every other week for a few months now. It’s a lot of fun but I always take sick bad beats over there. Last time we played I had 6 showdowns all night, all in with the best hand every time and lost them all. Oh yea I did chop one I had Aces against my cousins A-J for runner runner straight! Maybe tonight will be my break through. Wish me luck, I will need it. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Everyday is not Christmas

I guess everyday is not Christmas. I got hit by a case of Sit-n-Go variance last night. It wasn’t too bad I played in 7 of them and only cashed in one. At least I took first in my one cash. Thing is I bubbled in the other 6, took either 4th or 5th. At one point I shoved in two of them, at the same time, both with pocket Queens. Got called by Ace- jackass and A-7 off. In both cases they caught an Ace and IGH out of the money. In both cases it was more than 80% of their stacks. It’s amazing how bad people play in Sit-n-Gos. It’s ok I am happy to get my money in as a 2.5-1 favorite pre-flop all day long. I wasn’t splashing around much in either of these yet they still call, so odd. I didn’t play my new Laggy style, reverted back to my normal TAG style. Only reason was that I wasn’t getting hands to splash around with. The night before I was getting 7-8, 8-9, and 10-J suited a lot. These are my new raising hands to splash around with. Didn’t do well in Full Ring Limit HE either. Lost around 10BBs in an hour’s play. Shut it down so I could watch ESPN’s coverage of the main event. Last night was a lot more interesting than the previous shows. We were very happy with the coverage all around. Will watch again during the week while I am grinding out Sit-n-gos. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Owning Sit-N-Gos

Something has seemed to click in my brain with regards to Sit-n-gos. Suddenly I have started playing a more Laggy style and it’s working. Maybe starting to read Arnold Synder’s tournament book, that Hoyozo recommended, has started to sink in. Last night was just incredible! I played in 5 Sit-n-gos with 1 first, 1 second, 2 thirds, and a sick bad beat to finish in 4th for the last one. Not only were the results great but I was chip leader when 5 handed in all of them! For me this is unreal being I usually play like a Harringbot, very tight aggressive. This style allows me to get deep but never acquire enough chips to be the leader. I was zigging while they were zagging. Was changing gears at the right time and making the right lay downs. Am on my way to acquiring the 15% ROI I so desire. Decided to reward myself by removing some of my roll from Full Tilt. Still have a safe amount but it’s good to actually feel the money sometimes. Also grinded out some Full Ring Limit HE on Stars last night. Did ok making 4BBs in less than an hour. Don’t forget tonight on ESPN will be two more episodes of the WSOP Main event coverage. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Weekend Grinding

I had a very profitable weekend playing online. Made a decent amount of money in MTTs. Did even better playing in satellites to big events. I won three of them and unregistered from each one. Now my Full Tilt account is full of Tournament dollars. Started to use these to play in Sit-n-gos and had a great weekend in them. I checked my ROI on Full Tilt and it’s 13%, also checked RiverStars and it’s 7%. The difference between the two sites is rather odd. I feel the Sit-n-go players on Stars are much worse than on Full Tilt. Yet my results would indicate the opposite. Must be the structure of the Sit-n-gos. Either that or I just play better against “thinking players”. I’m not sure this is the case being I am playing low limit Sit-n-gos and there isn’t much thinking going on, LOL. Maybe it’s because I always play turbos on Stars. On Full Tilt I play both but mostly regular with 6 minute blinds. Well I will continue to mostly play on Full Tilt for the rest of the year. A few months ago my Full Tilt ROI was 9% and I set myself a goal of 15% by the end of the year. Unless I run really badly it looks like it’s attainable. Once I get to 15% will try to move up to the next level of Sit-n-gos. I have already dabbled in the higher limit and have done fine. It’s just that I am not properly Bankrolled to play much higher, than my current level. For now the plan is to grind out the Full Limit HE games during the week and play mtts and Sit-n-gos on weekends. This formula seems to be the right one for me. Always get crushed playing in the loose crazy weekend Limit games so now I am avoiding them. As for my Ironman status Silver it’s looking good for this month again. Just 1 more month after this and I will have enough metals to purchase 25,000FPPs. I am on my way to buying a 22inch monitor, with my points. Than eight tabling here I come! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.

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Rebuy Tournaments

PokerStars Tournament #107931484, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
3051 players
Total Prize Pool: $54240.00
Tournament started - 2008/09/20 - 18:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 522nd place.
A $27.12 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

I seam to have much success in these. Have cashed in 3 straight. Running great at Sit-n-gos today also. Played in three, have 2 firsts and one third! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Some Small Scores

PokerStars Tournament #107931483, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2772 players
Total Prize Pool: $50765.00
Tournament started - 2008/09/19 - 18:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 494th place.
A $25.38 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.
PokerStars Tournament #107931525, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
3078 players
Total Prize Pool: $30780.00
Tournament started - 2008/09/19 - 19:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 318th place.
A $24.62 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 62.56 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.

Back to My Winning Ways

Last night I broke through my losing streak. I won back 1/3 of what I lost from Tuesday’s sick bad beats. In live play I did quite well winning 20BBs. Also played in Sit-n-gos and cashed in 3 of 4. The one lose I had was all in pre-flop with Kings against Ace Jackass, ace on the river and IGH in 5th. The only thing I lost at was a Deep Stack Hi/Lo Pot Limit Omaha tournament on Stars. I really screwed this one up by playing too tight late in it. We started out with 90 players, when down to 60 I was in the chip lead. I got there by being in a sick cooler hand, on the winning end for a change. On the turn I had a Royal Flush to Top Full house. On the river we got it all in, Queens full to a Club Royal. This double up propelled me into the lead. This was a really well structured tournament with 5000 chips and 30 minute blinds. It started at 6:15 and I didn’t realize how long it was going to take. By 11:15 we were two players away from popping the bubble. I was real tired and by this point the short stack. Played way too tight, also got quartered a few times to eat away at my stack. I got knocked out in 20th, which was real frustrating. I could have just sat out, when I had the chip lead, and finished in the top 15 without even playing any hands. Oh well you live and learn. I will play in this tournament again, just not on a work night. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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A Grind Back to a Profit

Playing Online last night started out really bad. It felt like my running bad was going to continue from the last few days of play. Instead of bad beats I just kept running into monster hands. In the first 30 minutes I ran top pair into Aces no less than 6 times! Felt I wasn’t playing bad being I lost the minimum on these hands. Than I had Queens and a donk raised my on a flop of 10-7-5 rainbow. So I went into check and call mode. River comes with an Ace and it goes check, check. The donk bets nothing the whole hand and gets there and checks behind. What monster hand did he raise me with on the flop? Why of course A-2 off! At this point I felt really dejected and almost gave up for the night. I was down 30BBs already and not too happy about it. Instead I decided to just play lock down poker. So I fired up a Sit-n-go and played 2 other tables of full limit HE. The sit-n-go was going well, I was chip leader. Than when five handed I put the forth bet all in pre-flop with pocket Kings. They were no match for the luckbox’s pocket Queens! I was down but not out. When four handed I got aggressive, stealing the blinds every other hand. I finished second in this one, which was a really good finish for the way I have been running. Then things started turning around in the Limit Ring games. I finally got back to even and then some. I was getting tired so I shut it down up 3BBs for the night. Was more than happy to finish off a winner after the way I have been running online lately. On a personal note my mother finally got internet access, welcome to the online world! Of course now I will be spending time teaching her to use her new computer. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Shout out to cousin Ant, hang in there grind it all back! As always please continue to click through on my Google banner, above this post. Thanks!

Note – Ed if you are reading this leave me a comment.

Running Sick Bad

We got back from our Atlantic City trip yesterday afternoon. So I decided to fire up the Poker sites and play a little online. I ran so bad it was just sick! I lost 90BBs in 2 hours. Also played two mtts and 3 sngs and only took a third in one Sit-N-Go. First I started playing fine and kept getting beat by runner-runner flush or straight. Then I started playing bad and made some bad bluffs. Only to get called down by bottom or middle pair. So I took a break to re-group and settle down. My first hand back I got all excited that things were turning around. I raised with A-K of clubs and the flop came jack high with three clubs.(Also a royal flush re-draw!) We capped the flop, and then a jack came on the turn. We capped again and built up a nice pot. Of course another Jack came on the river and I got beat. A few hands later, still seaming I got hit with an under full house. My pocket fives made Fives full of Queens only to lose to Q-8 off, which filled up on the river! I played a few more minutes but it was obvious I wasn’t going to win yesterday so I give up for the day. Instead I watched ESPN’s coverage of the main event. I don’t know what they are thinking sometime. They make the feature table the one with Chiu Gaing? While he is a great player and nice guy can anyone understand what he is saying? You mean to tell me there wasn’t anything more interesting to show then his table? Must have been a really slow Poker news day, LOL. Tonight I will be looking for some quick revenge. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Could You Lay This Hand Down?

My wife and I played in a well structured No Limit Tournament at Harrahs yesterday. Start with 10,000 chips, with 20 minute levels and there were no antes. I love these no ante tournaments being they play right into my tight aggressive style. This is why I have a huge success rate playing in pot limit HE tournaments online. Back to the hand in question. In the first level my wife raises with A-K suited and gets re-raised by the button. The flop comes A-K-3 rainbow and she leads out. The button player comes over the top all in. Remember this is level one 50-100 and she still has 8000 chips behind. What do you do here? There are a ton of really bad players in this so this is a hard decision for sure. What can he have to go all in here? You raise and get re-raised by someone you have no line on yet. Pocket threes seam highly unlikely being he re-raised pre-flop. Aces or Kings seam really unlikely being you have one of each in your hand. The random bizerko factor comes into play, he may be a donk going all in of Queens or Jacks. I would give this a 10% chance at best. Could he be overplaying A-Q, possible but not likely. A-K is a very strong possibility in my mind. In fact this is what I would put him on and make the call. She made the call and the results really don't matter. Well I will tell you how bad my wife is running in live No Limit tournaments. He had pocket Kings and my wife couldn't catch the 2 outer with 2 cards to come. She got knocked out in level one and had to go play the cash games. It worked out fine being she made double the buy in playing in a $3-6 Limit game full of donks. This hand was just a cooler plain and simple in my eyes. Does anyone think differently? Also would you the reader lay this hand down? I would love to read some people's opinions on this hand. Please leave a comment about it. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Still Snake Bite in Live Tournaments.

We played the Harrah's 1:15 No Limit Tournament today. I got deep but still couldn't win a showdown. I lost three 60-40 hands straight! Between these and the ones from my cousin's home game on thursday I am like 1-9 going to showdown as a favorite all in pre-flop. I was ahead pre-flop in 9 of 10 of these hands! I am running so bad right now it's just sick! We checked out the Main Event at the Borgata tonight and it's stacked with Pros and well known Internet Players. Tomorrow I will do a post about some of the good hands I played in this weekend. At least I won playing live Limit HE tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

USPC My Bad Play

I am just sick with my play yesterday in the Limit HE event at the Taj. Don't know what happened, played solid for 6 levels. Than I got moved to a new table and I just blew up. Blinds were at 300-600 and I still had 4800 chips left. There was no real rush to do anything. Should have observed the table for a few rounds and figured out what was going on. Instead I tried to run over the table! I paid for it by getting knocked out within 15 minutes at my new table. Am so mad at myself that I have decided to not waste the $550 on the Stud tournament today. Instead we will play some deep stack No Limit tournaments at Harrahs and/or Ceasers. They are a fraction of the cost of playing in the Stud one. Hopefully I can redeem myself today. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

USPC Event 1 Results

We are both out of the $340 Limit HE event from the Taj in Atlantic City. Only 103 players showed up for this one. We started with 5000 chips and I had it up to 8000 during level 5. I completely owned my table but after it broke things went poorly at my new table. For some reason I lost my patience and started to spew chips. I got knocked out with around 65 players left so really didn't go too deep. My wife got knocked out an hour before me. She was pretty much card dead the whole day. Whenever she would flop top pair she would lose to a rivered flush or straight! We played some $10-20 after the tournament and she made as nice score, winning back 2/3 of her tournament buy in. I just ran on a thread mill, couldn't get anything going. Tomorrow we are playing in the $550 Stud event, hopefully things will go better. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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USPC Starts Today

My wife and I are about to leave for the USPC at The Taj in Atlantic City. We are both playing in the $340 Limit HE event today. Also both playing in the $550 Stud event tomorrow. I will try to do a post about the Limit event either tonight or tomorrow. If I can't look for posts about both on Tuesday. Thanks for reading and wish us luck! Tony

A Small MTT Score

PokerStars Tournament #107235159, Limit 7 Card Stud
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.50
56 players
Total Prize Pool: $840.00
Tournament started - 2008/09/12 - 20:45:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 4th place.
A $84.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 81.69 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.

Being Snake Bite Again!

Last night I was Snake bite once again at my Cousin Neil’s home game. It was just so sick what happened to me! For one thing I played almost perfectly, avoided the FPS that has been plaguing me over there. On top of this I get so hit in the face by the deck it was unreal! We played two 10 man sit-n-gos, about three hours total. I got dealt Aces 3 times, Kings 3 times, Queens once, and Jacks 5 times! Yet still I only managed to finish in 5th the first one and 4th for a bubble. The bubble stung being I was 2nd in chips with 4 left. With the blinds at 500-1000 my brother only had 3000 chips while 4 handed and he still managed a 2nd place finish while I had 12,000 at this point and bubbled! Sick thing is I never won a single showdown all night! I had 6 showdowns, 5 of them with the best hand and I managed to chop one pot! All in pre-flop with tens against eights and he rivers an eight. All in pre-flop with Aces against A-J off and it comes runner-runner to give both of us a wheel and another sick chop. I call a short stacks all in with A-J, he has A-7 and the first card off is a seven! Forget about winning a race either, my pairs lost to over cards every time. The one time I was behind I pushed my brother all in when I had K-9 and he was short four handed, he has Aces! Still I felt I played really well. I stole a few big pots. I protected my big pairs decently. If anything when down to four handed I may have overplayed my big pairs a few times. On three different occasions I called out someone’s hand exactly before they turned it over, so Negranu-esck LOL. It was a fun game but went a little too late for me last night. Today I am tired but will survive. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.
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Online Play

We watched the EPT from last year on DVD last night. Were very impressed by the production. Also the announcing and color was excellent. They had some funny Irish guy and Greg Raymor do it. We got the 8 DVD set from Poker stars for 5000 fpps. Played a short session on Full Tilt also. Did great in Limit HE winning 15BBs in an hour. Played a Turbo No Limit Sit-N-Go on Full and took down third on a bad beat. I shoved with Ace-Jackass and got called by K-7 who flopped a King and IGH in third when we all had pretty much even stacks. While this one was ending I decided to play a regular Hi/Lo Stud one. I forgot how long these non-turbo Limit events take. I got heads up with a 10-1 chip deficit. He didn’t know who he was messing with. I took it down but took an hour and a half to do it! Won’t complain being it’s a win so it was worth my time. So it was a good night with me winning in everything I played. Tonight am going to Neil’s home game. I remember, no Fancy Play Syndrome(FPS)! Hopefully I will have a good post tomorrow about crushing the game at Neil’s. This weekend we have a trip planned for some USPC preliminary events at the Taj in AC. Wife and I plan on playing the Limit HE and Limit Stud events. Hope to have a winning post about these on Tuesday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
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ESPN's Main Event Coverage

We watched ESPN’s coverage of the main event last night. It was much more entertaining than last week’s coverage. At times it was hard to watch. The parts with Chuck Liddell playing was just too sad to watch. He seems like such a nice guy but don’t think he really knows how to play poker. Every time he was in a hand I started to cringe waiting for his bad play to bust him out. Then ESPN did the feature piece about the young man crippled in a car accident. Chris Moneymaker has befriended him and bought him into the Main Event. He played strangely also. I cringed waiting for his bust out hand also. Then again they show a guy playing with his feet, being he lost his arms, in an accident I believe. Watching these people play is like watching those commercials for starving children in Africa. I am watching the Main Event for entertainment not to get all mushy and sad. Overall the show was entertaining anyway. We taped it and will watch it again. We were both very familiar with the Archie Karas story and ESPN did a good job explaining it to the viewers. Personally I think the guy is one of the biggest idiots I have ever seen. He makes 40 million gambling and then pisses it all away. Supposedly his friends told him to take 5-10 million of it and invest it. He could have lived comfortably off of this money. Instead he continues to gamble and the inevitable happens, he goes bust. IMHO he is more of a loser then the average gambler who never had money and is chasing the dream of hitting it big. This is one thing I will never do. Once I make my big tournament score I will use it to pay off my mortgage and then invest it to live comfortably off of it. What is the sense of winning a lot of money if you are just going to give it back? The thought of it is just so irrational it makes me sick. On Thursday I am playing in my Cousin Neil’s home game. Must avoid the FPS(Fancy Play Syndrome), think I will say it 100 times today and tomorrow to make it sink in to my thick skull. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.
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Blowing a Big Stack

My wife and I played in the Caesar’s Deep Stack tournament on Saturday. I already posted about her bubble finish but I never wrote about me spewing away a big stack. Well a little history is in order about how I became the big stack. Everyone started out playing really tight, which was a surprise in a $175 tournament. So I started splashing around and taking a stab at raggy flops. It worked well, built up my starting 20K chips to 25K. Than a cooler hand took place with me on the winning end of it. In level 3, think it was 150-300 at this point; three people limped when a tight older man raised it up to 2000 from the button. In the big blind I look down at American Airlines(AA) so I go into the tank and try to figure out how to get a lot of chips in the pot. Also I wanted it heads up against the raiser who I knew has JJ, QQ, or KK. I decide to raise it to 4500, a little more than a min-raise trying to represent A-K or A-Q. Everyone folds back to the button who instantly makes it 10K to go.(BTW he had around 24K to start.) Bingo my plan is working, I pause for a second and shove over the top of him. He goes into the tank, at this point he has 14K behind. He starts talking saying, “How can I lay this hand down.” I know you have Aces but I can’t fold. He was thinking forever and finally says I call. I say, “This hand is a cooler you have Kings right?” He had the Kings and I bust him and now have almost 50K in chips, which is 2nd biggest stack in the whole tournament. This is a place I am not used to being in! So at this point I start to splash around even more than in the beginning of the tournament. I steal a few pots but then the table gets tired of it and I run into trouble. This hand shows the kind of trouble you can get in when your image is ruined at the table. From late position I raise 3x from the cutoff with Q-7 of spades. (This is my first mistake.) Only the Big Blind calls me. Flop comes 10-5-5 with two spades so I lead out for half the pot. Turn bricks off with a six and I lead out for 3K. Big blind flat calls me again. River is a King and he checks to me and I fire the third shell with my Queen high. I insta-bet 4K and he calls me within 3 seconds. I say good call and he turns over pocket 4s! Talk about getting owned he calls my every bet with 4th pair to the board. It really was a good call, we talked about the hand for 10 minutes after it. Two things contributed to his call, first that the board was paired and second I bet the river way too fast. I fired out my bet, which was a classic tell that I was weak and wanted him to fold. Still I give credit for a good read and call. After this I tried bluffing another flush draw with the same losing results. I spewed away a lot of chips and then went completely card dead. Problem was my image was ruined so it was hard to steal. Also my table was crazy aggressive so it was raised and/or re-raised before my turn most hands. I ended up out in 18 place, should have known better. Online whenever I get a big stack I tighten up to protect it. This time I tried something different and paid the price. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Borgata Ladies Event

My wife couldn’t traverse through the mine field of Donkettes in the Borgata Ladies Event yesterday. She told me about numerous odd plays, that only women make in these tournaments.(Not a sexist observation it’s just that they think different than men.) Her bust out hand illustrates the crazy weird play. About 5 hours into the tournament they were down to 110 players. My wife had a comfortable stack with an M of 20. She open raised for 3x with A-K. Three players saw a flop of A-K-3 rainbow. The Donkette led out and a player in between flat called. My wife shoves her whole stack in over the top of both of them. Her stack was about 85% of the Donkettes. She goes into the tank for five minutes and finally makes the call for most of her chips. The other player quickly folds. So the pot is huge if my wife’s hand holds up she will have a ton of chips. What does the caller have for 85% of her chips? She has J-J, what a stupid call that was. What can she beat here, only a pair lower than Jacks. Thing is my wife was playing solid poker, not splashing around at all. Of course Jack on the River and my wife again gets bad beat out of this tournament, just like last year. How can she call off 85% of her chips with an underpair? Only thing is she had just gotten moved to the table so didn’t have a line on my wife’s play. Then again this makes the call even worse being she doesn’t know who she’s up against. Typical Donkey play make a bad call and get rewarded. As for me I played $10-20 Limit and was getting my ass handed to me for hours. Should of known being the first hand I posted I had 6-7 of spades and the flop comes Yatzee all spades. Of course someone else has the A-8 of spades so I am in the hole for 5 BBs right away. I had Jacks 4 times, cracked 3 of them. Queens and Kings both cracked also. Got to the point where I was down 50BBs that’s 1K in real money! I was feeling snakebite and really dejected at this point. Than something happened, my hands starting holding up. I started hitting flops and making great reads. I made a nice comeback to only lose 17BBs for the day. It felt like a moral victory. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Bubbling a Live MTT

My wife and I are in AC this weekend. She is playing in the WPT Ladies Event today at the Borgata! My favorite place to play Poker in the whole world! We both played in the Ceasers Deep Stack Tournament yesterday. 20K in chips with 20 minute levels made for a good value for a $175 buy in. I started out playing well and then built up a huge stack when I was on the good end of a cooler. I won a 45K pot all in pre-flop with Aces against Kings. The guy even said I know you have Aces but I call anyway. Pretty weird being he still had 12K behind with 200-400 blinds. Then I bullied a little and built it up to 60K. I was close to chip leader but started to spew chips. I was playing too many hands and kept bluffing missed draws. Went card dead and shoved for 6 Big blinds with 18 players left, 6 getting paid. I had 6-5sooted and got snap called by a KAG with K-8 off. I flopped a Six but he rivered a King, of the horror of a suck out and re suck out. My wife too the opposite route of me. She started out playing bad and getting unlucky. Became a short stack early but than played lock down solid poker. Choose her spots to shove very well. She got to the final table in the middle of the pack. She played well but the blinds and antes were killing her. There was a shove by a uber-LAG and a call by an older tight player. She saw an opportunity to triple up and make a run for the win so she over called. She fought the good fight and went down swinging. Got knocked out right on the bubble in 7th! Hopefully things will go better for her today in the super Donkey event, um I mean the Ladies WPT event. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

I Love Rebuy Tournaments

PokerStars Tournament #105242431, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50
2988 players
Total Prize Pool: $52635.00
Tournament started - 2008/09/05 - 18:00:00 (ET)

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 400th place.
A $31.58 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 47.01 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.

I seam to have luck in rebuys these days. Been cashing in 75% of the ones I have played in. Stay dry today! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

I Run Goot

Last night I ran so good it was crazy! I made a Royal Flush on the River in Limit HE! Than 30 minutes later I made an Ace High Flush in Stud on 5th street. It turned into a Queen high Straight Flush on 7th! I made 35BBs in an hour and a half. Not a bad rate of return, thank you very much. I played in a Pot Limit Hi/Lo Omaha Sit-n-go. When we got down to heads up he had a 10 to 1 chip lead. Basically he knocked out 6 of the other 7 players for me. Heads up I chipped him down and won this one. Only thing I lost was a bubble finish in a HORSE Sit-N-Go, should have cashed in this one also. A Super Short Stack survived 4 all ins before I got bad beat out of there. Spoke to my cousin ShipThis_1, he kicked ass himself at Sit-N-Gos yesterday. He moved up to the next level, keep grinding Ant! Wife and I are going to AC tomorrow, can’t wait to go. She is going to own the WPT Ladies event at the Borgata on Sunday, I can feel it! Just needs to walk through a mine field blindfolded, backwards to win this one. LOL - Those Ladies events are so crazy. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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WPT at the Borgata

My Cousin Ant played in the first WPT preliminary event at the Borgata yesterday. 1181 Donks paid $350 with around 120 of them getting paid. Ant fought hard through the bad beats and BS but came up short. After playing over 7 hours he got knocked out around 50 from the money. At least he didn’t get blinded/anted out, went down swinging hard. Shoved pocket sixes into pocket Aces! Been there done that a lot lately. Good job keep fighting and you will get a big score soon. Wife and I watched the Main event coverage again last night. My first impression was right, ESPN showed some really bad play from day 1! What about that sick cooler hand? Pocket Aces makes quads on the river only to lose to a rivered Royal Flush! Only reason they had that hand filmed was it was Ray Romano’s table. We get to see Scotty acting like a nice guy instead of the asstard he was during 50K HORSE. At least at the tables he was nice. His explanation for his behavior, during an interview, was just as bad as his behavior! (No apology just lame excuses.) Last night I played for an hour Online, with good results. I moved up one level, just to try it out, and I crushed it! Only thing is I was playing at two other tables, at my regular level, and I got crushed at one of them. Overall it was all good being I made 8BBs by the end of the night, as measured at my regular level. This weekend we have a Borgata trip planned, can’t wait! My wife is playing in the WPT Ladies event on Sunday. This is the one that she cashed in last year. Could have gotten really deep but she shoved A-K into a complete female donk who snap called with A-Q off and rivered a Queen. Such a bad call being my wife was playing solid the whole time. I wrote about this hand last year, to make things worse she starts laughing and jumping around like an asstard after the hand. Well played donk, get it in bad and get rewarded. Hopefully this year she can avoid the mines and make a big score. I will be grinding away at the $10-20 Limit cash tables. Expect a good report about this all on Monday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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Deep Stack Tournament

Today I want to talk about the deep stack tournaments that are at Poker Stars. They just have an awesome structure. You can almost fold your way into the money, if you are so inclined to do. You start with 5000 chips with 30 minute levels. Think the antes kick in at level seven. These tournaments suite my tight aggressive style perfect. Thing is the donks don’t adjust for this structure at all. A lot of players play their same lagtard style as a regular 1500 chip, 10/12 minute level tournament. These tournaments require you to gamble much more often; otherwise you get blinded/anted away to nothing. I wrote yesterday about going broke with a 90BB stack with Aces. Really this shouldn’t happen; it’s just that the situation was correct. I was against an over aggressive lagtard and just got very unlucky. After reflecting on the hand I would make the same call there every time against that kind of Donkey. Last night I stuck to the full Limit HE tables and did well. I won 10BBs in my short 1 hour session. Didn’t have much time to play was busy. Also played two Pot Hi/Lo Omaha Sit-n-gos on Stars. Took down a 3rd on a bad beat and bubbled the second one. BTW did anyone watch the WSOP Main event coverage on ESPN last night? The theme seemed to be look how bad these people are playing in a 10K tournament. This is probably good for poker being it’s selling the idea that the average Joe can play better than the Donks in the main event. Overall I though the coverage was decent and I am looking forward to watching again next week. I can’t wait for the next season of High Stakes Poker. Wife and I were watching an old episode on Monday night it was as entertaining as the other 3 times we had seen it! Also we were quite pleased by the WPT championship that Gus Hanson took 2nd in. There was some good Poker played in it for sure! I hope the WPT coverage will continue to be as good or better once they move to Fox, we shall see. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony.
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Feeling Snakebite

Yesterday I was so Snakebite playing in MTTs on River Stars and Full Tilt. In the morning it was just sick I got deep in 5 MTTs and got coolered/bad beat in them all. The worst was on River Stars I was playing in the $22 Deep Stack tournament and had 9K in chips, 90BBs. No reason to go broke in this spot. I get dealt Aces and get called by a total lagtard in the big blind. The flop comes down Q-2-3 rainbow and he checks to me. I c-bet for 50% of the pot, which had been my standard the whole tournament. He insta-shoves on me and I know he has a Queen. I was hoping it was A-Q so I would have his outs covered. Nope he risks 80% of his stack with one pair and a King kicker. You know how this story ends but I will tell anyway. Blank on the turn and a Queen on the river! F**k you River Stars. I almost feel like I should fold there being I have 80BBs behind. Just knew I was ahead. When I saw his cards I knew I was getting knocked out. Maybe that book, The Secret, is true? I may have willed that Queen by thinking about it, hmm I don’t know. So I played Sit-n-Gos for a few hours. I bubbled in a few but then broke through and took a 2nd and a first, so I turned a profit. Went back to MTTs and finally got a score. I played the Stars $8.80 rebuy tournament and build up a stack early when I tripled through with pocket Aces. Never had to rebuy and did an Add on so I was in for $16.80. I went card dead for hours but managed to steal here and there. Getting very short and close to the money I shoved with A-10 and got called by K-Q. By some miracle Ace high won and I got a much needed double up. I was still short but managed to somehow hold on long enough to break through and cash 2 places into the money! I think the cash was like $46.91, three buy ins is nothing to complain about. Over all It was still a losing day for MTTs for me. Played a little limit cash games and won a few BB. So as snake bite as I was managed to not damage the roll too badly yesterday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony
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Borgata Tournament

I wish I had good news to report from the Saturday Borgata Tournament but I don't. This tournament was more of a minefield, then it usually is. Guess it's because of the holiday weekend. I played a total of 6 hands in the first 3 hours. I was playing totally tight, not getting any hands. Regardless every time I brought it in for 3.5x I got called in 5 spots! One player in particular called me every time. He was one of the worst calling stations I have ever seen! Yet he got rewarded time and time again. When I left they were down to 20 players, with 18 getting paid and he was one of the big stacks! It was just so sick how bad he played. On the good news front I just crushed the $10-20 Limit game. I won enough to cover my tournament buy in and then some. So it was a fun good weekend of playing at the Borgota as usual. That is my favorite Poker room in the country! Happy Labor Day. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony