New Week of Battle of the Planets

Sit-N-Gos continue to go great for me this week. I am working on a perfect block of 20 for a Battle of the Planets cash on Poker Stars. So far I have played in 4 at the middle level and have 2 firsts, 1 second, and 1 third. Of course I won’t be able to cash in all 20 but as many cashes as possible is my goal. At this level 1st for the week pays 7 hundo, so that is good enough incentive for me to proceed very carefully! At the low limit I have a good block going with 193 points after 10 of them. Usually 420 points is good for a min-cash in the top 100 for a block of 20. If all this doesn’t make sense to you, go to the promotions tab on Poker Stars home page and click on Battle of the Planets for a complete explanation. Damn I am starting to sound like a paid advertisement for Poker Stars. I can assure you they haven’t paid me anything for this post. If anyone who works for them wants to pay me shoot me a comment, hint hint. Imagine that me making some money from this BLOG, it’s tough to do. I have made a small amount from my Google Banner, above this post, which I would greatly appreciate you all clicking on it. Anyway, back to the Poker, the cash games last night started out great but then turned bad. I was up like 30 BBs but gave most of it back by the end of the night. My play went downhill, really didn’t feel like playing but needed to earn a few hundred points to maintain my VIP status on Poker Stars. Tonight I will have to complete it but only need a few more points. Thanks for reading my ranting today. Tony

It's Official

Hello AVIGANOLA,

Congratulations on your performance in last week's Sit & Go Leader Boards. A cash prize of USD 20.00 has been credited to your account. This credit can be viewed under the History section on the PokerStars Cashier.

The final rankings for last week's competition can be viewed in the PokerStars client by selecting the 'Requests' menu, then 'Sit & Go Leader Boards'.

If you have any questions regarding this promotion, please contact "PokerStars Support"

Got an email from Poker Stars about my Battle of the Planets cash. It's now official! This week I will try to score at a higher buy in. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Winning Sit-N-Gos

Something has clicked in my brain about playing in Sit-N-Gos. I am playing them more aggressive, at the right times, and its working. I could contribute it to running good but I am rarely sucking out on people. Also I am taking a ton of sick 2 and 3 outers on the river, yet still this weekend I crushed them! It’s crazy when someone shoves into me I am sensing my hand is good and making the pre-flop call. In the past I was just lying down and waiting for the bubble to burst. Another thing is when 4 or 5 handed I am shoving often and people have been calling me light over and over again. It seems I do a few shoves and then they get really frustrating. Can’t tell you how many times I shove with A-J or A-10 and got looked up by a dominated Ace-rag! It was sick they were making calls for their Sit-N-Go life with A-6 on the bubble. Not even as short stacks but with healthy stacks many times. Now that I have cashed in the High Orbit, in the lowest Sit-N-Go level on Poker Stars, will have to try to do it at the next level. Once I do that I will try to cash at the next higher level. Good thing about this is as I cash in the High Orbit my bankroll will be raising as well. Shout out to my cousin Ant, who has grinded the Sit-N-Gos lately for a healthy Bank roll once again. Ant keep to the program and manage your bankroll well! That’s it for today, happy Monday. Tony

Battle of the Planets Results

The results aren't official yet but I came in 22nd in the High Orbit on Poker Stars. What this means is I had the 22nd highest score, in the world, for the week for a block of 100 Sit-N-Gos.(Of course it was in my low limit division.) It was tough putting in the volume to finish it off last night. I had to 9 table for 4 hours, just made it in time. Played the most Sit-N-Gos I have ever, in a single day, 59. It is exhausting and by the end of the night my eyesight was blurry from staring at the screen! My hat is off to the "Professional SNG Grinder", how do they do it? Later on I will post my official resuts email from Poker Stars. Also will post about some of the details of my quest. Beware of the Donks, they are out in full force today. Happy Donkday. Tony

Sit-N-Go Grind Goes On

Sit-N-Go play went great last night. I went 3 for 4 cashes with a first, a second, and a third. Really need to put in the volume this week to complete a block of 100 on Poker Stars. Problem is I need to go to the airport on Saturday, hopefully it won’t take too long. Yea right, famous last words, an airport trip being quick and painless! At least my sister-in-law is flying into Newark, not the dreaded JFK! The traffic getting to JFK and coming back is so unpredictable, especially on the weekends. Anyway back to Poker, played some Hi/Lo Stud last night. This is my fallback, in a pinch game to play. If my roll is getting low play some Double or nothing Sit-N-Gos and some Hi/Lo Stud to rebuild. Good thing about Hi/Lo is the games are great at multiple sites. The softest games are on Ultimate Bet, then Poker Stars, lastly on Full Tilt. Games on Full Tilt are super high variance. If you can stomach the roller coaster can make 50BB in 2 hours easily on Full. Enough rambling for one day, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

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

Sit-N-Go Grind

The Sit-N-Go grind continues on for me. I got bad beat out of enough points to cash in the low orbit of the Battle of the Planets Promotion on Poker Stars. First Sit-N-Go I got heads up with a total luckbox, with a 10-3 chip lead. He constantly got it in behind and sucked out. I took a 2nd in this one which isn’t what I wanted but still left me within striking distance of having enough points to cash. So with my last 2 Sit-N-Gos I played a 27 man and a 9 man. Needed a first in the 9 man and a cash in the 27 man to have enough points to cash. After being in 2nd chip position in the 9 man, when we were down to 4, couldn’t survive an all in with A-7 to K-9. In the 27 man we were down to the final 7, with 5 being paid. Early position big stack opened for 3x and I shoved my A-Q. He snap called me with the all mighty tourist, K-10 off. Ten on the flop and I basically bubble this one in 7th. If I win that 60-40 I cash for sure. Well I finished with 340 points for my first block of 20. If I can grind out 80 more before midnight on Saturday should finish in the top 20 for the High Orbit. Don’t know if I will have the time or drive to do it! I will update my progress on this BLOG. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Update

Last night’s Sit-N-Go play was neutral, from a profit point of view. I played in 7 of them and took 2 firsts with no other cashes. It was quite frustrating being I bubbled in 4 of the other 5. Maybe I was playing the bubble too aggressively, don’t know. One of the bubbles was really sick being the 2 super-shorts both were all in and the big stack called them both with A-K. He doubled them both up when both of them hit a pair with their rags! This made me the short stack so I bubbled instead of one of them. From a Battle of the Planets perspective I did fine. I now have 313 points with 3 Sit-N-Gos to go. Usually around 420 points is enough to cash for the week so I will play the last 3 really carefully. If I can finish a block of 100, am on pace for 1th overall in the High Orbit on Poker Stars. If you take first you win 125 buy ins, at this level so it’s worth playing for. Just need to avoid those bad streaks of losing like 10 in a row that always seems to happen to me when I try to cash in a block of 100. I tell you the variance of Sit-N-Gos really can be brutal. On the health front I am starting to feel like my old self again! Finally after 10 days I have no fever or dizziness. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Back At Work

I am still sick but back at work today. This Sinus Infection doesn’t want to go away. I will struggle through the day and hopefully be able to take a quick nap at lunch time. Started playing 2-7 No Limit Low Draw Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars last night and I won my first 2! Also won my last No Limit one so I went 3 wins and a third out of my first 7 Sit-N-Gos for the week. Battle of the Planets score is looking really good right now. People have no idea how to play 2-7 Draw at all. In the old days I used to crush the High Draw games on Paradise and Planet Poker. As a child I grew up playing Draw so picking up 2-7 was real easy. Maybe I have found a new niche to exploit Online. The 8-Game Sit-N-Gos have been going real well for me also. Low Limit No Limit on cake has been going real well for me too. Love the fact that they give me my rake back every Wednesday directly deposited into my Account. There are a lot of rake back grinders there but many weak spots also. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Been awhile since I have reminded you all too please click through on my Google Banner, above this post. That way I can keep the lights on in this BLOG.

Getting Better

I am still sick but starting to feel better. The doctor put me on Antibiotics and a cough suppressant. They seem to be helping but I am still really run down. Online Limit HE has gone really well for me this week. Playing during the day is against the euro-donks and they play Limit way too aggressive. Today I am up 40BBs and a few buy ins at low limit no limit. Sit-N-Gos are going really well also. I got a good shot at a Battle of the Planets cash this week. Will have to grind out a lot of Sit-N-Gos tonight and tomorrow to cash. Don't know if I have enough energy to finish off 70 more Sit-N-Gos. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Sick Day

I am home sick but I don't have the swine flu. Went to the doctor and all I have is a sinus infection. It's a very severe one but at least it's not swine! Been kicking ass in Limit Sit-n-gos all week. The 8-Game and HORSE ones have been really good to me all week. Live Limit HE has been going great also. Something clicked playing live at the Borgata this weekend. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Sick day

I am still home sick! Been in bed since Sunday, can't knock it. Actually my symptoms are similar to the swine flus. Tomorrow will have to go to the doctor. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

MTT Success

PokerStars Tournament #195075872, HORSE
Buy-In: $3.00/$0.30 USD
200 players
Total Prize Pool: $600.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/09/15 12:45:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 11th place. A USD 7.80 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 64.47 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.

Sick Days

I have been home sick in bed since Sunday night. Think I picked up something at the Borgata on Saturday. Been playing a little Online with good results. I am doing great in Limit HE. Playing live at the Borgata has helped get my patience back. Will do a proper post later, once I get out of bed. Tony

Borgata Results

No good news to report for my wife in the Ladies Event. She played well and finished in the middle of the field. Got a really bad table draw, felt there wasn't any weak players to pick chips up from. It seems that live tournament Poker is getting harder to beat these days. As for me I did great playing live all day. I won a buy in in $1-2 No Limit and I played $3-6 Limit and won around 20BBs in 5 hours. As for the stake of the Poker economy, it's booming! The Borgata Poker room was totally packed, every table going. There were a ton of "Big" No Limits games going, $10-25 and $10-20. They had 3 Tournaments going, satellites and Sit-N-Gos. It seemed to be a normal busy Saturday night at the Borgata. Also I got to meet AlCantHang live in person while he was working. He's a super nice down to earth kind of guy. What a great gig he's got now, being the official Blogger for the Borgata during the open. Doing a great job of reporting all the action. Check out his work at BorgataPoker.BlogSpot.Com! On another note Lacey Jones was playing in the Ladies event and damn she's hot! Wow she was wearing tight jeans and sexy high heels. She had a bunch of rail birds drooling over her every move. Beware of the donks today. Happy Donkday. Tony

Borgata Ladies Tournament

The wife and I will be making a Borgata trip tomorrow so she can play in the Ladies event. Maybe I should dress in drag and play in the event also! I don’t go that way so won’t be playing it. There are some really good women players but is a lot of dead money for the first 4 fours of play. I have been watching these Ladies events for a few years and have seen tons of crazy bad plays, if you can believe it even more than in daily AC MTTs! Still undecided on what I will do while she is crushing this event, we hope. I will play live for a few hours and hopefully put together a big enough win to buy myself into the Survivor tournament at I think 4PM. Not sure of the details but I think it’s $500+40 with 1 in 10 players winning $5K! Being I am a master of holding on to cash in Satellites of this type, it should be right up my alley. Am a little short on cash right now so will need to win at the live games to play in it. On a sadder note today is such a depressing day being it is 9/11. Living in the NY area when it happened and currently it really has a major effect on me and everyone else around this time of year. Such a sad terrible event in the history of our country. We should all take a moment to remember the people, especially the police and firefighters that lost their lives on this day! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Borgata Open

Last night’s Sit-N-Go play was frustrating but profitable. I bubbled in two low limit Sit-N-Gos to pretty much swash my plans for Battle of the Planets domination on Poker Stars, at the lowest level. I took a first in an $11 Sit-N-Go. With 13 to go I now am on pace to be in the top 20 in that division. Looks like I will switch my efforts to playing these to try to cash in the promotion. My low limit No Limit play at Cake continued to go real well. I like all the promotions they have for us players. Best thing is every Wednesday you get your 33% rake back deposited into your account automatically. It’s a nice bonus to have every week. I will continue playing their everyday now. The Borgata open started yesterday and it looks like a big success. They had over 800 players in their first MTT on a Wednesday, always a good sign. Check out Al’s coverage on the Borgata blog at I think Borgata.Blogspot.com. (Google Borgata Blog to get there for sure.) Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Saturday my wife will be playing in the Ladies event at the Borgata, wish her luck.

WSOP Main Event Coverage

Played a short session Online last night. Played in 2 Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars. In the No Limit one I was the chip leader for most of it but then lost 2 coin flips on the bubble to finish in 4th, I run bad. In the 2nd one I played in an 8-Game one and got heads up even in chips. Took a big lead but couldn’t fade the Luckbox sucking out on me over and over. I finished in 2nd so I earned a good amount of points towards the Battle of the Planets promotion. I have a good shot at the top 100 in the Low Sit-N-Go promo., will update my progress this week. Did you all catch the WSOP main event coverage on ESPN last night? Phil Hellmuth decided to play crappy cards and give the bad beats back, like he always seems to take on the coverage. He was on his best behavior and it made for a quite entertaining night of coverage. We taped it and will watch it again this week. The story is really unfolding well this year. ESPN is getting better and better at this every year. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Planned Borgata Trip

Yesterday was a slow relaxing Labor day. Got in some exercise by biking for 45 minutes in the early afternoon. My wife and I also went walking around a track early in the evening. It was so nice out that I couldn’t just stay in all day on my day off from work. Did fire up many Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars while I was home. Had an OK day, around break even. Bad things kept happening to me; they all had to do with Aces. I would get all my money in with them, to an under pair pre-flop, and get sucked out on. Other thing is I would shove my ATC into them while a short stack and never suck out. I played a lot of live Low Limit No Limit on Full Tilt and Cake Poker with great results. Yesterday I won 5 buy ins, a little at a time. Actually the whole weekend I kicked ass at the No Limit tables. It feels like my bad luck at Sit-N-Gos evened out with good luck at the live tables. As long as I break even in one and win in the other should remain quite profitable for me. The wife and I have a weekend trip planed for the Borgata in AC. She is playing in the Ladies event on Saturday. I don’t know what I am doing yet, probably will try my hand at some Low Limit No Limit there. Will probably play some $1-2 at the Borgata or some $5-10/$10-20 Limit HE. Expect a trip report on Sunday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Donkday Results

Short post today. Yesterday's results were as follows, Sit-N-Gos Bad and live play real good. Couldn't win my way into the WCOOP $215 No Limit yesterday so no MTT for me. Happy Labor Day to all! I will do a proper post later on. Tony

Another Small Score

PokerStars Tournament #191866072, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: 100 FPP
4625 players
$30000.00 USD added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $30000.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/09/05 14:30:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 147th place. A USD 33.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

I run goot, in Freerolls. Have a great weekend everyone. Tony

8-Game Results

Felt I played great for 2 hours in this WCOOP. Then I made some stupid mistakes in the Omaha Hi/Lo leg to lose most of my stack. I should know better, when in Vegas this leg of HORSE was my weakest also. I finished in around 1100 out of 1800 players. I was very frustrated after this one, had the table chip lead for the first 1 and 1/2 hours. Today I will try to qualify for the $109 12:45 No Limit event. Wish me luck. Tony

8-Game Update

PokerStars Tournament #191884269, 8-Game
Super Satellite
Buy-In: $40.00/$4.00 USD
175 players
Total Prize Pool: $7000.00 USD
Target Tournament #200909005 Buy-In: $109.00 USD
64 tickets to the target tournament

Tournament started 2009/09/04 18:05:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. You qualified to play in Tournament #200909005 and are automatically registered for it. See Tournament #200909005 Lobby for further details.

If you choose to unregister from this tournament your account will be credited with W-USD 109.00. W US Dollars can be used to buy into any qualifying special PokerStars event. Visit our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/ for more details.



Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

Ok. Looking good so far, won a seat into it! Tony

WCOOP 8-Game

Last night’s play went well for me. I am starting to play the Step Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars again. I played a step 1 and won it so tonight will try to parlay the Step 2 into a 3. Every time I make it to Step 4 I will use the ticket to play in a Sunday Major on Stars. Tonight I am looking forward to playing in my first WCOOP event this year. I am buying into the $109 8-Game, can’t wait. My Triple draw and Pot Limit Omaha games aren’t great but all the other legs I excel in. It’s a 50K guarantee but I expect the prize pool to go over 100K! There are a ton of players out there that are really getting into HORSE/8-Game events these days. It’s so much more fun and interesting than just playing straight No Limit all the time. Plus you have the addition of No Limit and Pot Limit Omaha to spice up the Limit games. Will tonight be my big score I have been waiting for, hmm…we will see. I will one table this tournament tonight to really focus on it, at least after the first hour. In the past I have played these on Auto-pilot while playing 3 or more other tables. This hasn’t worked well for me so I will try to stay focused on this one MTT only. BTW - happy holiday weekend for you all out there. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

An MTT Score

PokerStars Tournament #191809791, Limit 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00 USD
56 players
Total Prize Pool: $560.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/09/02 17:45:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 5th place. A USD 42.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 67.29 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

Haven't been playing many MTTs lately so I am happy with a small score. Tony

Another Sick Day

Home sick again today. Have a fever and feel so run down again. I am going to miss tonight's home game at my cousin Neil's tonight. Kind of sucks being the last game was cancelled. Haven't played for a month, am jonesing to sling some chips live. Oh well I will play in some Sit-N-Gos today. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sick Day

Wasn't feeling too good today, stayed home from work. Played a bunch of Sit-N-Gos, had a small loss. Also played in a crazy .50 cent rebuy Satellite to win a $109 WCOOP entry. My table was nuts, one player shoved all in every hand for an hour! By the end of the rebuy period I estimated he had paid $50 to win a $109 seat! He went bust 3 hands after the rebuy period was over, couldn't change gears I guess. I played great, got really deep but couldn't win a race when I needed to. Finished 9 players from winning a seat but only spent $2 total. Hopefully I will be able to go to work tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony