Donkday Results

Yesterday I had a winning Donkday on Poker Stars. Usually Donkday(Sunday) is a losing day for me; just don’t play against idiots too well. Full Ring Stud went very well on Stars. Also did well in Full Ring HE, played 3 tables at once and produced a nice profit. I need to earn another 193 points tonight to maintain my VIP status. Once again I waited to the last night of the month to lock down enough VPPs to maintain my status. It’s odd I don’t usually procrastinate at other things in my life. Sit-N-Gos started out great for the week, took first in my first 2 and then a third. My cashing sunk back to normal after that showing a small profit on my next 7. Now I have a nice start for the Battle of the Planets for the week, think I will just try for the low orbits this week(A block of 100 is too time consuming for me.). Overall yesterday was a good winning day for me. Really should have played more Ring games to finish off my VIP status. Tonight I need to take the dog to the Vet right after work so it may be a late night of playing to earn my points. Maybe I will just be silly and multi-table like 9 Limit HE tables at once for an hour to earn the points. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of the Planets Results

I finished my block of 100 Sit-N-Gos last night on Poker Stars. It was a struggle to get the last 12 in before midnight. I finished with 1002 points, good for 202nd best score in the world at low limit Sit-N-Gos for the week on Poker Stars. I didn't cash but gave myself a goal of completing it and I did it. Let me tell you Saturdays are almost as crazy as Sundays Online. Will have to start calling it Donk Day junior, LOL. Beware of the Donks today, they are out there and looking to snap off your Aces with 4-5 off! Happy Donkday. Tony

Sit-N-Go Grind

Last nights’ Sit-N-Go play was frustrating with mixed results. Played in 6 of them, took 3 thirds and pretty much bubbled in the other 3. Felt I played fine, just wish I could win the important races when it counts. As for the live games I kicked some ass once again. Stud has been great for me on Poker Stars; actually Full Ring Limit HE went well also. Only place live went bad was on Ultimate Bet got my ass handed to me. On Ultimate I was playing in low limit Jackpot HE so it’s basically like playing Bingo. Tonight I need to do a lot of grinding on Poker Stars being once again I waited until the end of the month to earn enough VPPs to maintain my status. Also I need to grind out 30 Sit-N-Gos tonight and a bunch tomorrow being I am on pace for a top 20 finish in the Battle of the Planets this week. Same thing happened last week but I waited too long to really put the volume in to complete a block of 100. Being I have a real full time job and a social life putting 100 Sit-N-Gos in is not always easy. Being it’s supposed to rain all weekend I think I will be able to complete my block of 100 tomorrow. TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Brutality

Last night I went over to my brother’s house for a birthday party for my Niece. Had a few drinks and decided to play a few quick Sit-N-Gos when I got home. Actually they weren’t supposed to be quick but got bad beat real fast in both of them. In the first I get it all in with pocket queens on a 2-5-8 board and the donk rivers a five to knock me out in 9th, a place I rarely finish in regular Sit-N-Gos. In the next Sit-N-Go the under the gun player 3x raises it and I have pocket Aces so I min-raise him. Flop comes 9-7-2, he checks and I bet half the pot. Turn brings a five and he snap shoves into me. At this point I put him on Tens or Jacks, being he didn’t 3 bet me pre-flop. Now there is a flush draw out there and he wants to protect his over pair. I call and am drawing thin to his pocket twos, WTF? No luck for me, as usual, and I again get knocked out in 9th. Did I tell you all I rarely am the first one knocked out of these, oh yay I did. Being I just got knocked out of two in a row in 9th I take this as a sign not to play anymore for the night. Sometimes this game can be so brutal. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Shout out to my cousin Ant for bubbling the Full Tilt 70K last night, patience your big score is coming I can feel it!

Sit-N-Go Comeback

Finally a night when things went my way! It was one of those nights where my big hands held up, got paid off over and over again. Only problem was I didn’t have much time to play so only got 2 Sit-N-Gos in and some live play. I decided to play some Stud, which used to be my live game of choice before the Holdem boom. It’s an old timer’s game that has been around forever, yet people still play it terribly! I was playing low limit at Poker Stars, used to play it at Party Poker in the old days also. The Sit-N-Gos went well with a 4th and a 3rd. This was a little annoying being I had a healthy stack in both of them when 4 handed but again had a problem winning a big race. I can’t complain being it was a nice profit for a short playing session. Watched the WSOP last night, it was good but last week’s coverage was better. Watching Phil Hellmuth act like a total Asshat is starting to grow old. His grand, joke of an appearance, made him look like a real idiot but to each his own. Still think the coverage this year is great and am looking forward to next week’s episodes. Shout out to my niece Emily, who just turned 16, they grow up so fast! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Frustration

Last night’s Sit-N-Go play started off so sick bad that I almost gave up after getting slammed in 3 of them within 5 minutes of one another. First I limped behind 5 players with pocket Jacks being a raise was sure to get called by these donks. Flop came down A-J-A and I was stoked being I was going to double up and stack someone. Early position played led out for half the pot and it folded around to me. I decided to suck him in by min-raising him. He snap shoves and I snap call. What a bad player he shoves on me with A-3 off? Basically he is only getting called if I have an Ace or pocket Jacks, at best a chop unless he gets lucky. Of course a three on the river and IGH with my first sick beat of the day. I am playing in a double or nothing and get pocket Aces, under the gun and bring it in for a 3x raise. Late position player min-raises me and I just know he’s got Kings or Queens so I min-raise him back. He shoves on me and I snap call. Of course you know how this story ends, King on the river and his pocket Kings get there! Things were looking bad for me for sure. I lost a few more Sit-N-Gos on the bubble in the normal can’t win a race fashion. Instead of giving up I played in a few more and took a third and a first to end the night as a loser but on a good note. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Streaks

Last night I squeezed in a few more Sit-N-Gos in my quest for The Battle of the Planets domination on Poker Stars. I am on pace for a score of 1500 for a block of 100. If this keeps up I should finish in the top 20 this week. Problem is in the middle of these quests always seem to go on a bad streak of like 15 sit-n-gos with only a cash or two! It’s so brutal all of a sudden my Kings and Queens keep losing to Ace rag. At the same time I never can suck out when I get my money in behind. If I can avoid this running bad problem can be in the top 5 for the week at my low limit Sit-N-Go level. Really as soon as I lose 4 in a row I should realize the bad streak is starting and just shut it down. Problem is I never have the discipline to do that. As long as I am playing well I feel things are about to turn around and will starting winning again soon. Poker just doesn’t work like that. For me 25% of the days no matter how well I play it will be a losing day. It’s just the nature of the beast in games that have a ton of short term luck but long term skill. My advice to my readers is just except it as part of the game. It’s easier said than done but we all need to strive towards it. On an entertainment note, can’t wait for ESPN’s WSOP Main Event coverage tomorrow night. Wife and I both thought last week’s coverage was outstanding. The story is unfolding well and I can’t wait to watch this weeks. Happy Monday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Please remember to click through on my Google banner, above this post, need to keep the lights on in this BLOG!

Battle of the Planets

Decent start to my Battle of the Planets quest on Poker Stars today. I cashed in 4 of 8 with 2 wins. If I can keep on the pace for 100 Sit-N-Gos first for the week will be mine. Realize that is first in the whole world at that Sit-N-Go level! The money would be nice but I am playing for the glory, LOL. Would have to run insanely sick to win first in the High Orbit but have to have a goal. Happy Donkday. Tony

Donkday Alert

Beware the Donks are out in full force today. Something about Sundays brings out the worst play in people! So far it's working to my advantage but let's see if my luck holds up. Got a nice start to my new Battle of the Planets quest on Poker Stars. Happy Donkday. Tony

Battle of the Planets High Orbit

I gave up on finishing a block of 100 Sit-N-Gos in the High Orbit on Poker Stars. My Score was on pace for a top 60 cash but I still need to play 20 more Sit-N-Gos in the next 2 hours. I am tired to continue playing, next week I won't wait until the last day to complete a block of 100. Today I played over 40 Sit-N-Gos and let me tell you it was a long tiring grind. Super frustrated is how I feel now. Felt I ran super bad yet still turned a small profit. Oh well tomorrow us another day. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of The Planets Update

This quest is so brutal. I just played 16 Sit-N-Gos, 55 to go today. Started out kicking ass but now I just went 1 for my last 10, with 5 bubbles! I have a small profit but I really need the points for my High Orbit quest. I need to take a break being I have been playing them for the last 4 hours. I will update my progress later on. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of the Planets Update

Only had time last night to play in 2 Sit-N-Gos, felt I played well. Again couldn’t win an important race when it really counted. I took 4th in the first one and 3rd in the second one. As long as I keep playing well I know that the winning results will be there. Bad thing is with 5 to go to complete my first block of 20 looks like I won’t have enough points to cash in the low orbit of the Battle of the Planets on Poker Stars. Am looking good for a High Orbit cash but that means have to grind out 85 more Sit-N-Gos by midnight Saturday. It’s possible if I stay home all day tomorrow and do nothing but grind them out 9 at a time. I don’t know if it’s worth it but may try being it’s so hot and humid in the Northeast right now that I probably want to stay in my nice cool basement and play on my computer. We have been going biking on the weekends lately but this weekend we probably won’t. Back to Poker, I kicked some serious ass in the live games last night. Moved up one level of low limit No limit and did very well. Should stick to the higher level but don’t like to risk too much of my bankroll at once. Thing is my Full Tilt roll was very low after playing in some FTOPS events so instead of re-loading I decide to punish myself by re-build grinding at the micro-stakes No Limit tables. I am talking about .1-.25 cents No Limit. After 2 weeks of crushing that game my roll is now healthy enough for me to play in $26 Sit-N-Gos and MTTs if I want. The roll at Poker Stars is really high being my wife has been crushing the 6-max Limit HE tables for the last 2 weeks! Usually I am carrying her, keeping her in action, lately she is keeping my roll large! TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of the Planets Quest

My weekly Battle of the Planets quest, on Poker Stars, continued well last night. I only played one Sit-N-Go, took 2nd in it. Really felt I was going to win but the villain, AKA “The Luckbox”, kept sucking out on me. Oh well 2nd is better than a bubble! With 7 left to go in a block of 20 I have 200 points, need around 400 to cash in the promotion for the week. This promotion keeps me playing in regular 9 man Sit-N-Gos every week, even though the Double or Nothing ones are so much more profitable for me. Starting tonight I will play in 2 regulars and 2 Double or Nothings at the same time. Since I have bought a 26 inch monitor I can fit 16 windows on my screen, with no overlap, of course I will go blind in a few years if I do this! Really 9 windows works nicely on this monitor without making me up my contact/glass prescription, LOL. Also need to grind a lot of Ring game play out to maintain my VIP status. This month I don’t want to be a slave to the Ring game tables on the last day of the month! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

More Double or Nothing Vs. Regular Sit-N-Gos

Didn’t have much time to play online last night but did play in two regular Sit-N-Gos. (Again didn’t listen to myself and just play in Double or Nothing Ones.) Took another brutal bad beat in the first one to not cash in it. In the second one I took 3rd but lost a huge race which would have made me the chip leader heads up. Just the normal hand, under the gun raises and I snap shove with pocket Tens. He snap calls with the all powerful J-K off, having me covered by 100 chips when we all have similar sized stacks. Jack on the turn and IGH in 3rd when I thought I was going to win this one. Like I said I hate the variance in regular Sit-N-Gos, Double or Nothings go so much smoother for me. Did everyone catch ESPN’s coverage of the Main Event last night? Personally I thought it was great! Loved when “Lex” kept bluffing people out and showing them the bluffs, it made for great TV. Also Mike Matasow’s laydowns were fun to watch. Really sucks the way Doyle Brunson got knocked out with a set to a gut shot on the turn, this game is so unfair sometimes. Can’t wait for next week’s coverage, which includes Phil Hellmuth and Danial Negranu. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Double or Nothing Vs. Regular Sit-N-Gos

I should go back to playing only Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars. Last night I played in two 9 man regular ones and finished in 4th, the bubble, in both of them. Don’t want to make this into a bad beat post but I flopped trips with A-7 on a 7-7-Q flop and lost to pocket fours that rivered a 4! Online Poker is so rigged I tell you, not. The variance in regular Sit-N-Gos just drives me crazy. In double or nothing ones I cash around 75% of the time. Also losing three in a row is almost unheard of for me. In regular ones I can easily go ten in a row without a cash. Have done that a few times; also have gone six cashes in a row too. It’s just that I feel I play a Sit-N-Go well, get down to 4 players but take one bad beat and get nothing in return. It always feels like a wasted 45 minutes of my valuable time. Really should just stick to the Double or Nothing ones. Does anyone else feel the same way as me? I would love to hear some feedback about other players experience with them, please leave a comment. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Great Donkday

Finally had a winning Donkday! Kicked some ass at Sit-N-Gos today. Also played in a Super for the FTOPS and won a seat. Got 4 bounties to boot also! Didn't play the FTOPS being I didn't sleep well last night, so needed a nap. We took a nice day trip to Newport RI yesterday. Nice place to visit but 190 miles of driving straight with bad traffic isn't much fun. The place was packed yesterday, full of tourists. Back to the Poker, watching High Stakes Re-runs right now. Tonight going to watch 2 months 2 Million on G4. It will probably be bad but want to see it anyway. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Shark Scope

Shark Scope says I am hot, at Sit-N-Gos that is, LOL. Wish all the girls when I was in High School thought the same, LOL it must be Friday feeling kind of silly. Two days ago I switched back to Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos and since then I have won 6 straight. Amazingly I wrote about the turnaround yesterday and Poker Stars didn’t throw the doom switch on me! Also ran great playing in Low Limit No Limit on Full Tilt, winning a Buy in and a half in 30 minutes. Was planning on playing in the FTOPS Razz event tonight but looks like we are going away for a few days so will miss it. I want to make sure we get back in time for me to play in the FTOPS $129 Knockout Tournament on Sunday. I grinded all week playing Low Limit No Limit to get my roll back up on Full Tilt so now I can wear it down in one MTT. The pattern seams to repeat for my roll on Full these days. Have a feeling I am due for a nice score in an MTT so maybe Sunday will be the day. You all will be the first to hear about my big score, if it happens on Sunday. I am so glad its Friday, been a tough week. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Double or Nothing Sit-N-Go

After suffering from a few days of getting crushed at 9 man regular Sit-N-Gos I decided to go back to my bread and butter roll building Double or Nothing SNGs on Poker Stars last night. That sentence is probably a run on but it’s my BLOG so I’ll do what I want, LOL. I went 3 for 3 cashes in the Double or Nothing ones, also played one regular one and took a second. Only losing thing I did was a took 5th in a Step 2 on Ultimate Bet, being a Step 2 is only worth 34 cents, it wasn’t a big loss . So I have the pattern figured out now, whine about running bad and the next session will be a winning one. Oh no hope the reverse doesn’t happen and now tonight I will get my ass kicked again. See the risks I take to produce drivel for you all to read day after day, lol. Anyway tonight I will multi-table the double or nothing SNGs and shoot for last night’s 100% cash rate, yea that will happen. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Frustration

Last night the running bad at Sit-N-Gos continued for me in a big way. I went 0 for 6 last night, after going 1 win out of 5 the night before. For me this is a very bad ITM percentage. Basically ruined any chance I had of cashing in the Battle of the Planets High Orbit for the week. The variance at Sit-N-Gos can be so brutal at times. I lost every important coin toss. Lost almost every domination hand, such as Shoving with A-J and getting looked up by A-4 who rivers a four of course. It got so bad in one of them that I wanted to quit for the night. This idiot was shoving every other hand at the 15-30 level in a regular 9 man Sit-N-Go. I was waiting to trap him when he once again shoves under the gun and I am in the Big Blind with pocket Queens. It folds around to me and I happily snap call to be shown Q-10 off. I am stoked to have him completely crushed pre-flop. Of course the flop comes with a J and a 9 making me sweat it out. King on the river and I get knocked out first and my frustration level really begins to rise, as well as my blood pressure. I finished up my last 2 SNGS by bubbling them both by losing 2 coin tosses once ahead and once behind. At that point I decided to shut it down before I damage my roll further. Damn I don’t know how people can play these for a living! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Step Quest Setback

My Step quest has taken a big setback this weekend. I am determined to win an Aruba Trip at Ultimate Bet starting from a Step 1. A step 1 seat cost .11 cents and you have to work your way up to a $2500 Step 10 seat. Then have to finish in the top 2 in a Step 10 in order to win one of the packages. I have worked my way up the ladder to Step 10 twice already but not won a package. This time around I am in for .88 cents worth of Step 1s and have gotten up to Step 9 only to be denied. This weekend I lost my Step 2 and my Step 8 tickets, of course on the bubble in both. The Step 8 was just so brutal yesterday. On the bubble of winning a repeat Step ticket an early position player limps in and I shove from the button with pocket nines. I was getting short, only had 9 Big blinds left with the blinds at 100-200. It folds to the early position player who has my covered by 300 chips, so his call would leave him crippled if he lost. He snap calls me with A-J off and 4 flushes me on the turn! I hate his play in every way there. Don’t like my play either, should have pulled a stop and go on him. The flop came 4-6-7 of spades, I had the 9 of spades and he had the Jack. If I would have limped, could have seen a flop and shoved on him. He was a pretty bad player so he may have called with the Jack of Spades anyway. I’ll never now but try to learn from my play all the time, what else can I do. I lost my Step 2 playing A-K too aggressively against a donk who couldn’t fold his pocket threes for most of his stack! Tonight I will have to start the whole process over again. Happy Monday. Tony

P.S. - Please click through on my highlighted links inside this post, need to keep the lights on here.

Why I Hate MTTs

Warning Bad Beat Story about to be told, proceed at your own risk. Damn I hate Mtts these days! Friday night I am doing fine in a No Limit MTT. We are about 100 players from the money and I have slighty below the chip average. Can probably fold my way into the money, which I should have done. Of course the poker gods had other plans for me. I get dealt Queens under the gun and bring it in for 3x. Everyone folds expect the big blind who defends, he has me slighty covered. Flop comes gin for me 2-8-Q rainbow, sweet! He shoves right into me and of course I snap call with top set. I am stoked to see he has A-K off! Jack on the turn and a ten on the river and IGH completely shocked, bite me Joker Stars. This chit keeps happening to me, how do people make money in MTTS? Beware of the donks today. Happy Donkday. Tony

Full Tilt Supers

I run so good in Super-Satellites on Full Tilt. In the last three days I won 2 out of 3 of them. The one I lost was to a bad Stud beat literally on the bubble, paying 5 places and I took 6th! Great thing is now I have mega tournament bucks on Full tilt so tonight I will treat myself to an FTOPS entry. I am playing in the $216 Stud tonight on Full Tilt, wish me luck. Last night I tried to get back into the Sit-N-Go grove by playing the mid-stakes double of nothing ones on Poker Stars. It didn’t go well, I lost two straight. The play in these has gotten somewhat better than a few months ago when I was crushing them. So I moved back down to the low levels ones and won two straight right away. Tonight I will focus on the cash games until the FTOPS Stud starts. Need to clear a huge re-load bonus that Stars gave me. Also plan on shooting for a Gold VIP this month so need to do a lot of grinding. Btw did anyone catch the WSOP on ESPN this week? Wasn’t expecting the Tournament of Champions to be very good but it was entertaining to watch. Wonder is the Ante Up for Africa next week will be good or bad? Post your opinion in the comments section to this post. The word for the day is Spewage, cousin Ant needs to avoid it! TGIF. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Online Satellite Play

I have been continuing my new found love of No Limit Cash games online this week. Haven’t had a losing session at them all week. My Sit-N-Go playing has dropped off while I focus on the cash games. Still am playing in Satellites on Full Tilt to earn Tournament Dollars for the FTOPS that starts tonight. Last night I played in a $15 MTT and won the $55 seat, even though I was the short stack from 18 people down to the final 9 that won the seat. While on the bubble there were 2 large stack idiots that had no idea how to play in Satellites. They kept getting all in pre-flop, trading their stacks back and forth. Both of them just needed to fold until I got blinded away. I couldn’t even survive the blinds again when this hand took place. The player 3rd in chips raised and the chip leader shoved. The first player, who was guaranteed a seat snap calls with pocket twos! The big stack had A-K and won the race. I was the fortunate receipt of some really bad play being I won a seat I really shouldn’t have. The big stack didn’t care being he had double the other player’s chips so he wasn’t at risk. Think the other player was just getting sick of the big stack bulling the table so he made a stand. Guess he didn’t realize that 10th only paid $10 and that 1-9 won $55 in tournament dollars, so why gamble at all when you aren’t gaining any equity. If I keep seeing such bad play in these than I will continue earning “Free” money in them. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Limit Bad, No Limit Good

I have decided that playing Limit HE sucks big time. I played great on Friday, had to 4 table for 3 hours to maintain my status on Poker Stars, yet got my ass handed to me losing 60BBs. Flopped 7 sets, in that time, and got rivered in 5 of them. Problem is playing on weekends is such a crap shoot playing Online in Low Limit games. The variance is even more than I am willing to stomach. So I decided to give low limit No Limit a try. Felt so much more comfortable with so much less variance. Also I read an article, about No Limit cash games, in Card Player that totally helped my game. I have given up on the hit-n-run strategy that I employed in the past. Instead I buy in for the max and want to build up a stack to have the whole table covered. Also try to be the best player at the table, which at the low limits isn’t very difficult to do. When I choose a table if there are some huge stacks there I just avoid it. Huge stacks means either they got real lucky or they are playing well enough to crush the table. This may be my new maintain status, earn rake back, and clear bonus grinding strategy. (Say that 5 times quickly.) Also Sit-N-Gos are going fine for me so I will continue with them. Just missed cashing in the Battle of the Planets on Saturday so I will give it another go this week. I played my Step 9 yesterday on Ultimate Bet and lost it but won a repeat Step 8 ticket so will have to play it this week to get back up. That has been a really good bonus clearing/status maintenance for me. So far I have paid cash for 6 Step ones, total cost of 66 cents and I still have a Step 8 and a Step 2. Also must of cleared $50 in bonus money by playing in the Steps so it’s all good! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

King of Freerolls

PokerStars Tournament #181510732, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: 100 FPP
4871 players
$30000.00 USD added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $30000.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/08/01 14:30:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 209th place. A USD 27.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!

Another Freeroll another score for me. Good luck all. Tony

Thank you for participating.