Step Screwed

I bubbled out of my Step 3 ticket, man I was pissed. A Shove monkey, who was really abusing the bubble kept raising hand after hand. The rest of the table were just letting him get all the chips. Never seen such passive bubble play online. Problem for me was he was one before me so I couldn't do any stealing myself. I was getting short so I had to make a stand. Got dealt A-J of Spades and he once again shoved on me, so I snap called. He had the all mighty Q-9 off. Of course nine on the river and I get screwed once again. Bad play rewarded as usual. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Step Madness

PokerStars Tournament #137059577, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $25.00/$2.00
9 players
$0.50 added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $225.50
Tournament started 2009/01/28 18:32:19 ET

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

You have won an admission ticket to 'Step 3'. 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.

To view your available tournament tickets, go to Requests > Tournament Tickets
in the main lobby.

I am back at it again, playing the Steps on River Stars! Again attempting to win a 10K buy in through the black hole of PokerStars Step program. Wish me luck! Tony

Winning Online

Play Online this week has just been insane! Something must be in the water or air making everyone play like there is no tomorrow. Maybe it’s the bad global economy/loss of people’s investments and retirement savings that has everyone going crazy. All I know is there is money to be made if you can stomach the roller coaster ride. Yesterday I won 40BBs in a Limit Game in 15 minutes. Later on in the day I lost 50BBs in Limit Hi/Lo Stud in the same time! It was sick, started rolled up and got run down by someone who started with 6-6-2. He filled up on the river and took down the 25BB pot from me. In another hand I had a very powerful scooper on 5th in Hi/Lo. A straight 3-7 against what looked like a high only hand and a worse low. The luckbox hits a six on the river to make an eight high straight and to complete his better low to scoop the pot away from me. Damn I was steaming after that one. Like I said there is money to be made if you can stand the huge variance online right now. Overall I was happy being I finished the day with a nice profit. It was about half of what I lost on Monday, which was a really bad day for me. I need to grind out 600 more points at Stars in the next few days to maintain my VIP status. Shouldn’t be too hard will just multi-table Hi/Lo Stud. Remember to ware your seatbelt while playing this week. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Sick Day

I am home sick today again. Am feeling a little better but not fully myself. I have said it before but I will repeat myself to remind everyone out there, DONT PLAY SICK! Got my ass handed to me all day long yesterday. Should have stayed in bed and rested instead. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sick Day

I am at home sick today with a wicked stomach virus. I won't give you the details but I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy! As for Poker I just started playing today and am taking bad beat after bad beat. People are playing so bad aggressive today! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. You will need it! Tony

Another Night Another Bubble

I finished in 19th in a Limit HE MTT on FullTilt yesterday.(18 places paid.) I feel good about my play, went down swinging. No trying to squeak into the money this time. Feels good to get knocked out like a man! Hopefully this will be my new style of play. Final table and not care about the bubble! Beware of the Donks today! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Make or Break Hand

This is the make or break hand for me in the Limit HE Tournament at the Borgata on Sunday. We are down to 30 people with 27 places being paid. There are five short stacks, including me who can’t survive more than 2 orbits of the blinds. The blinds are 3-6K and I have 13K chips behind. A tight but thinking player in the cutoff brings it in for a raise. I am in the Big Blind with 6K of my stack posted. I have 9-10 off and have to decide if I should make a stand or try to squeak into the money. If I fold I have to post the small blind the next hand and will be left with 4K on the button. (Unless I get a monster in the small blind. BTW at this point we are eight handed .) What should I do fold, raise, or call. I would love to hear people’s opinions. Two of the short stacks have less than one big blind left. I hate to be results based but I opted to fold and wait. I waited a few hands and then called all in with A-9 for my last 4K. I got two callers who checked it down and pocket nines knocked me out in 29th. The next short stack got knocked out 2 hands later and the bubble was popped. Can’t help but think I blew my tournament by folding the 9-10 in the big blind. If I would have called and lost would have been second guessing that move also. Poker tournaments can be so brutal! Would like other people’s thoughts on that fold. All ready spoke to ShipThis and he thinks it was an insta-call being over 45% of my stack was in the Big Blind already. Looking back on it I agree with him but in the heat of the moment after nine hours of play I wanted to lock up the cash! TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Online Grind

Last night I turned my blah Sit-N-Go results around. I have now won my last three double or nothing Sit-N-Gos in a row. My live play went very well also. Won around 25BBs in two hours time. May not have much time to play this weekend but I will try to get some hands in on Saturday morning. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Don’t forget to click through on my Google Banner, above this post.

Figure Out the Hands

This hand was from the 3rd level of my Borgata $300 Limit HE Tournament. I will walk you through the hand, what they both had will be at the bottom. A loose aggressive player brings it in for a raise in the cutoff, as the first one in. The small blind 3 bets, so the big blind folds. Cutoff caps and they see a flop of 5-6-7 rainbow. Small blind checks and the cutoff bets, small blind check raises and it gets capped. So two streets the betting gets capped heads up. Turn is a queen and it goes bet and call by the cut off. The river is a deuce. The small blind leads out, the cutoff raises and the small blind 3 bets. Cutoff calls and they turn over their cards. If this was easy you would think Aces to Kings or Aces to Queens right? Well remember this is early in a limit tournament and people play really weird sometimes? Hmm.... what do they have? The cutoff has pocket fives for a flopped set, he capped with them. The small blind three bet and called a cap pre-flop with the all mighty 8-9 off. He flopped the nut straight. This hand encapsulates the crazy BS I dealt with for the nine hours I lasted in this tournament. I will post some other hands from this tournament tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Borgata $300 Limit HE Event

We just got back from our AC weekend trip. I played my heart out in the Tournament only to finish in 29th, one from the bubble! It was just so brutal. I will write about it later on today. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Home Game Report

Neil’s home game for me last night was a complete bust. Didn’t get a single pair the whole night, except for one fluke hand. I get dealt pocket Aces but one of my cousin Ant . M.’s cards flashed up, Jack of clubs. He looks down to see another Jack and gets mad so he flips up both of his cards. Before I could stop everyone they all expose their cards and nullify the hand! Normally, like in all casinos, the Jack would have been the burn card and he would have gotten another card. Instead all hands were dead. He told me I would have busted him that hand! That sucked, only real hand I get all night doesn’t count. I finished in 5th in that Sit-n-Go. In the second one I get busted in the first orbit! This is something that never happens to me. I get dealt A-K under the gun at 25-50. I bring it in for 150 and get 5 Donks to call me! Not the result I want to get with A-K. Flop comes down A-Q-3 all spades; I have the King of spades. Looks like gin to me! So with my top pair and nut flush draw I bet half the pot. My cousin Ant. M insta-shoves for a huge over bet. This to me screams I don’t want a call go away. I may have folded this hand against some players. Problem is he over values Ace-rag all the time. He also shoves with non-nut draws often too. I have about 3500 left of my 5000 starting stack. How could I fold here against him? I can’t so in the span of a second I insta-call! He has the all mighty 4-5 of spades for a flopped flush, 118-1 to flop a flush and I run into it in a home Sit-n-Go, ARG! To add insult to injury I river three useless Aces. I go home first at 25-50, so brutal! Really got no cards all night other than a few A-Ks that only got me in trouble, lost me many chips when I didn’t connect with the flop. Look for a Borgata trip report this weekend. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Sick Bad Still

Still running sick bad at live games Online. I don’t know if it’s me or if the players have just gotten better lately. I have posted losing days in 9 of the last 14 online in cash games this year. This is after having a hugely winning year for 2008. Luckily my Sit-N-Go win rate has been great this month. Also for the few MTTs I have played have some nice cashes. The other night I won a $3.30 Limit HE MTT for a little over $100. It was only a micro-limit tournament but it felt good to beat out 114 players anyway. I will be playing a lot of Limit this week. I am getting prepared for the Limit HE Tournament I am playing at the Borgata on Sunday. This is the one that I took 13th in a year ago; want to improve on that performance. My wife is playing in the Ladies No Limit Event on Sunday also. She cashed in this event a year ago also. Took a really bad beat in it, which I wrote about last year. They got it all in pre-flop, her with A-K and the donkette with A-Q. Donkette rivers a Queen and then laughs like a monkey after the hand. It really steamed my wife big time. It left her crippled, knocked out shortly after that. At least she cashed in the event. Look for a trip report on Sunday night from our hotel room. We took off from work on Monday, planning on coming back for Day 2! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – You guys are slipping, please click through on my Google Banner, above this post. Need to keep the lights on in this BLOG!

A Little Score

PokerStars Tournament #133836219, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
27 players
Total Prize Pool: $270.00
Tournament started 2009/01/13 18:40:37 ET

Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $100.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 80 Sit & Go Leader Board Points for the Earth Division in this tournament.
For more information about our Sit & Go Leader Boards, see our website at
http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/battle/


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Finally something to write about. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

A Common Post

Not much going on Poker wise around here. I am running sick bad at live play since the start of the new year. Only great day was on Saturday. Running decent at Sit-N-Gos at least. Finally having a Home Game at cousin Neil's, after a long Christmas holiday from playing there. Hopefully will have something good to write about on Friday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Donkend Report

My wife started out crushing Sit-N-Gos yesterday, but then it all turned bad. She lost like 5 straight and started to tilt. Took some sick 2 outers on the River. Meanwhile I just couldn't get anything going in Double or Nothing ones on RiverStars. We decided to take a break and re-group. When we got back at it two hours later it was like night and day. Everything turned around for the both of us. Finally she put some bad beats on the other players. As for me I won a few SNGs and continued to crush the cash games. Let's go Giants today! It's cold and full of ice here 3 miles from Giants stadium. Should be a fun game to watch. Remember be very careful today on Donkday! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Happy Donkend

Instead of DonkDay(Sunday) this weekend is a Donkend. I guess because of all the snow/bad whether we have more idiots playing online today. The Sit-n-Go play is just so bad. Guy limps on the button and I shove from the small blind for 7x the BB. He snap calls, like he was trapping me with his Ace-Jass. Of course Ace on the River and my pocket nines are toast. Plays like this are the norm today. Be very cautious playing today, make adjustments! As for live play it's just as bad but in a good way. People are playing like it's 2006 and they are on Party Poker! I am just crushing Hi/Lo Stud today, like 100BBs in 2 hours! People don't have a clue how to play this game online! Remember beware and have a happy Donkend! Tony

The Sit-N-Go Turnaround

The Turnaround was by my wife not me. I am just running along on a Threadmill, not losing a lot but not winning either. My wife is on a sick hot streak. Funny thing is she is taking really bad 3 out and 2 out bad beats on the river, yet still making a very nice profit. Her Sharkscope stats. are now positive. Very nice comeback indeed! Hopefully mine is around the corner. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Sick Bad in Sit-N-Gos

Variance has hit me like a ton of bricks in SNGs. I am 0-9 and 1-12 since Sunday. This is after running so goot on Saturday. My Kings can't beat A-2 off. I can't win when I have a big Ace to a lower Ace. Also pair over pair is bad for me right now. Thankfully I am kicking ass in the Full Ring Games. Hi/Lo Stud has been awesome for me. Am winning enough to cover all my SNG losses so it's not all bad. Have taken a break from the MTTs since the new year started. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Please remember to click through on my Google Banner, above this post.

18 Man 6-Max Sit-N-Gos

I started playing these on River Stars yesterday with awesome results! I cashed in 5 of 6 of them, with 1 first and 2 seconds. I like the non-turbo ones. When at the final table there is so much play. My roi yesterday was over 100%! Also made a strong showing in their Battle of the Planets Promo. I finished with 390 points, just outside the money for the week! I will start a new block of twenty today. Remember it's Donkday so be careful! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

A Quick Online Review

I went over my records for Online Poker for the year and it was quite interesting. I crushed full ring games. Hi/Lo Stud was my best game with Limit HE a close second. I won a decent amount in SNGs. MTTs of course were a big bankroll leak for me. I know this but I continue to spew money in an attempt to make a big score. Hell it happened for my cousin, not just once but twice, so maybe it will happen for me. During the year I won maybe one MTT a month, but never one with a ton of players. Tournaments with 150 or less players were great for me. The ones with over 150 were where I spewed a lot of money. What have I learned from all this reflection? Probably that I will continue spewing money in MTTs because it’s fun to have a dream. Also that I should really focus on the Full Ring games . Lately I have been crushing the Hi/Lo Stud games at Full and River Stars. Also get the added benefits of clearing bonus, Rake back, and earning a ton of points to buy free “Poker Stuff”. Playing in the Ring games has a lot less variance than MTTs for sure. Where is this post going, I don’t know. The moral of this story is that we should stick to what has worked in the past. Of course this is easier said than done. Really I should stick to Double or Nothing and Heads Up Sit-N-Gos being these have been the most profitable for me over the year. I will stick to them this year, doubt it. Always want to challenge myself which usually means playing in a form of Poker that I haven’t been winning in. There lies the paradox, I keep playing in games I have trouble beating for the challenge. Probably not the smartest thing to do but at least it forces me to get better. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

New Year's Eve Poker

My wife and I should have taken our own advice last night. Should have played careful lockdown ABC Poker. Instead we both tried to play our normal agressive Sit-N-Go styles. It was just brutal! She went 0-6 cashes before giving up. In one hand she missed her nut flush/open ended straight draw so she pushed the river. Got called by A-K high for 90% of his stack! In one hand I shoved my Aces pre-flop, only to run into A-6 off for 80% of my opponents stack. He flops a six and rivers another to knock me out, F**K you RiverStars. This chit went on all night until I decided to give up and fight another day. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Happy new year. Tony