I'm Just a Razz Machine

PokerStars Tournament #206555188, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $15.00/$1.50 USD
24 players
Total Prize Pool: $360.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/10/31 13:45:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A USD 180.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 106.96 tournament leader points in this tournament. For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/tournaments/leader-board/


Congratulations!

Thank you for participating.

We did an even chop of first and second money. My heads up game is really strong but he had 50% more chips than me so a chop was fine with me. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Dr. Pauly Bad Beat Post

I played short-handed LHE 5/10 and 8/16 over the weekend and came across two dream opponents: a total Eurodonk and a total know-it-all. Both were to my immediate left. No matter if I opened or three-bet, those two dickwads called everything every fuckin' time. Unfortunately, I never got paid off with a huge hand. Instead, I got my proverbial nuts kicked on five different instances. Here are three examples... K-K vs. Q-3 and the Eurodonk caught running threes to make me slam my fist on the dining room table... Ad-10d vs Ah-2d and I flopped a diamond flush, yet Eurodonk rivered a four-diamond straight flush to which I used my Lord's name in vain... J-J vs Q-3 and the board runs out A-K-3-K-A.

That excerpt was from the Doctor's great post today, at the "Tao of Poker". Click on my lick on the left of this post. Today's post is a classic for sure. TGIF. Tony

Limit Variance

This is not a bad beat post, just stating a fact of playing Ring Game Limit Poker. Last night I had one of those nights that occur to me around once a week. It’s when nothing goes right no matter how well I play. (I started to tilt so I really wasn’t playing well after the initial bad beats.) I lost 75BBs in a two hour period. It’s not beyond normal variance but it was enough to start to push me over the edge to tiltdom. This occurred to me in my bread and butter ring game, Hi/Lo Stud. I started one hand with the absolute nuts, rolled up Aces. Didn’t slow play them at all, raising from 3rd street up until the river when I got re-raised. I made the crying call with my unimproved trips, hoping he had a low, to be shown Twos full of fours! In another hand I was the bring in with pocket 4s and a 7. By 6th street I had 3 nines showing for Nines full. I bet and got raised by a loose aggressive donk. Usually I would re-raise here but I knew he had me beat. Called him down on the river to be shown a hidden Tens full of fives! Then I can’t tell you the number of times I started with four suited cards 8 or lower. This start is a monster in Hi/LO stud being you have so much scoop potential. Either I would get there and someone would make a better hand or I would brick out. My losses were actually worse but I took a break and played some more last night, coming back 20BBs so was down 95BBs at one time. This kind of variance is to be expected playing in low limit games but it hurts anyway. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Once again a reminder all my readers to please click through on my Google Banner, above this post, so I can keep the lights on in this BLOG!

Sit-N-Go Variance

Last night was one of those sick bad Sit-N-Gos nights that come around every once in awhile. You know the nights I am talking about, when you shove A-J sooted into A-5 off and he 4 flushes you. It’s ok to happen once but when you got 4 flushed 3 times within 15 minutes it started to really sting. Luckily for me I decided to shut down the Sit-N-Gos before I could do some real damage to the roll. Instead I fired up the Hi/Lo Stud Ring tables at Stars and Absolute. I won almost enough at Hi/Lo Stud to cover my Sit-N-Go losses, so no real harm done. If only I could recognize these nights in advance I could prevent the bankroll damage that occurs like once a week to me. It feels like once a week I have a day where I wipe out at least 3 days of gains all at once. Maybe I should employ the Jennifer Harmon stop loss of 30BBs a session for Limit games and figure out an equivalent amount of buy ins for Sit-N-Gos. Maybe if down 5 buy ins I should just pack it in for the day and battle again tomorrow. Even though they say its one long session I can’t play well after getting 4 flushed in 3 Sit-N-Gos or getting sucked out by the one card in the deck in Hi/Lo Stud to beat me on the river 5 times in a row. OK rant over, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Stars 100K Free Roll

PokerStars Tournament #220202022, No Limit Hold'em
Freeroll
19098 players
$100000.00 USD added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $100000.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/10/25 14:30:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 431st place. A USD 31.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 26.49 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 am the King of Free Rolls. Happy Donkday. Tony

Depressing Poker Post

Click link if can't read image

Poker Listings

Don't know how well you can see and read what is in this image but I found this while doing a search for my name on the internet. It's the Day 1 leaders from the Razz event I took 27th in. Scroll to the bottom right and you will see I was in 5th at the end of day 1 only a few thousand away from the eventual braclet winner! I should have final tabled. I could have been a contender said Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront". I feel the same way. Happy junior Donkday. Tony

Stars 100K Free Roll

Last night I only had time to play another short session. Played in 2 Sit-N-Gos and took 2nd in both of them. When I got heads up I was crushed chip count wise both times. Had a 9 to 1 and 6 to 1 deficit which I couldn’t overcome in either case. In both of these I just nitted it up while the chip leader went nuts and knocked out the rest for the table. This kind of low variance style of Sit-N-Go play is the old me playing but it worked yesterday for sure. Live games went very well also. I crushed the Hi/Lo Stud game on Poker Stars and won slightly on Absolute. When I am on my Hi/Lo Stud game the variance is like 5 times less than playing full ring Limit HE. Basically if there are 1 or more really bad players, at the table, I am going to win for sure. Against decent players I hold my own very nicely also. This weekend I will be playing in a 100K free roll on Poker Stars on Sunday. Really love the way they treat us players. Being I played in a WCOOP event they gave me a ticket to the free roll, good deal. Also I think I will treat myself to the $215 Razz on Sunday afternoon also. Deep stack Razz is probably my best game. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Inducing Tilt

I didn’t have any time to play Sit-N-Gos last night being it was my father’s 69th birthday. Shout out to my Pop, happy birthday and many more! I did have a few minutes to play some live Hi/Lo Stud. It worked out well for me being I was able to pull off a quick Hit-n-Run for 10BBs. It’s not a lot but a profitable day is a profitable day. Also managed to totally tilt off a regular Hi/Lo Stud player on Absolute last night. On 6th I had an open ended straight draw and a made 8-6 for low. Player with Kings showing bet so I raised hoping to push out the low draws behind me. The tilted player and another player called my raise. The Kings showing 3 bet so we all paid 3 bets to get the river card. My hand unimproved and I just called the Kings bet. I lost being the last player made a perfect eight for low on the river. The player in between us went ballistic on me. Complaining that he had my low beat on sixth and that I was a total donkey. All I know is he had to re-load his stack a few hands later. Every hand I played he had some nasty comment about my play. It was quite comical tilting this bad player. Tonight I should have time to put in a bunch of Sit-N-Gos. Look for a winning post about it tomorrow. Also will look for the Tilter and see if I can push him over the edge again, LOL. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Hi/Lo Stud

Sit-N-Gos haven’t been going that well lately. Looks like variance has finally caught up on me. Haven’t damaged the roll too bad being I stepped down a level when things started going wrong. Live play had been going well up until last night. I played Hi/Lo Stud and kept starting with great 4 card draws and either not getting there or losing when better draws got there. An example would be me starting with 3-4-5-6, an absolute monster in Hi/Lo Stud. I caught 2 bricks, a Jack and a Queen. River I catch the suck you in card an 8. Now I have no high and a crappy low. I pay off a guy who started with 2 jacks and backs into a better 8 low! Hi/Lo Stud can have some really high variance some nights. In general for me it usually is low variance. As long as I play tight usually can avoid getting in trouble in this game. Last not was an exception, losing 20BBs for me in two hours. Oh well I will make it back tonight. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Night More Sit-N-Gos

Feeling better today, finally getting over this Sinus infection. Played a bunch of Sit-N-Gos last night basically breaking even. The heads up curse is continuing for me, had 5 seconds and no firsts! I keep getting my money in ahead but losing to a suck out. Come on I have to win these 60-40s sometimes right? Last night I played in a block of 6 and had a healthly stack in all of them. Finally I was left with 5 of them all 4 handed or less. To make a long story short I finished in 3rd in 3 of them and second in one. It’s very frustrating to run good early in these and run bad when 4 handed or less. If only I could turn this around and run good at the end. Of course I would have to survive to the end, while running bad; this would be hard to do. I am just rambling today! Need to put in 62 Sit-N-Gos between tonight and tomorrow to finish up a block of 100 for the High Orbit on Poker Stars. If I am able to finish up the block I should get a cash this week. TGIF. Tony

Still Sick

I am still sick but feeling better. I went to the doctor yesterday and he gave me a shot. Put me on Anti-biotics for the Sinus infection I have. It sucks being sick, feels like I just lost 4 days of my life. At least Poker went well today. I played in 3 Sit-N-Gos and won 2 of them. Working on a really strong score for a block of 100 this week. High orbit of the Battle of the Planets is looking good for me this week again on Poker Stars. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Playing Sick

I have said it before and I will say it again, "Don't play Poker sick!". Played sick last night and got my ass handed to me! I lost 75BBs in 2 hours of Limit HE. I am too good a player to lose that much in only 2 hours. Think if I kept playing I would have kept loosing. The bad beats seemed worse than normal but I know I was playing in my right mind. Tilt was a big factor being I had a fever and felt bad the whole time. Public service announcement, don't play sick! Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

It's Official

Hello AVIGANOLA,

Congratulations on your performance in last week's Sit & Go Leader Boards. A cash prize of USD 30.00 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"

I finished 27th in the world last week. Will try to improve on it this week. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Battle of the Planets

It not official yet but I finished in 27th in the High orbit of the Battle of the Planets on Poker Stars. What this means is I had the 27th highest score in the world for a block of 100 Sit-N-Goes at the level I played at. Could have finished in the top 10 but got coolered repeatedly in my last 5 sngs. Didn't even feel I ran that good yesterday but I had a 50% roi in the 40 Sit-N-Gos I played! I lost with pocket Aces 5 times in one day yet still had a huge profit. Beware of the donk today! Happy donk day. Tony

Battle of The Planets Update

Just completed my High Orbit Battle of the Planets Attempt on Poker Stars. Had to play in 40 of them today. My score should be at least good enough for a top 30 finish. My ROI for today was just sick, 50%! Wish it could be like this everyday. I will post the offical results tomorrow. The donks were out in full force today so beware tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Night Another Few Rounds

Played a few rounds of Sit-N-Gos last night. I did fine in my normal rounds, earned a small profit. Had some really strange things happen to me with Pocket Aces. Not once, twice, but three times I got all in with them and lost to a four flush! How many times can I get Aces all in against a hand with an Ace, having him totally crushed and still lose? I did manage to get a single first out of the 10 I played, got a few seconds and thirds also. Something else odd happened to me while playing in my rounds. I accidently signed up for a turbo Sit-N-Go, 2 levels higher than the ones I was playing last night. Didn’t realize it being I had 5 other ones going. When we got down to 5 handed I noticed they were playing better/more aggressive than the Donk fish in my normal Sit-N-Gos. Finally when we were 3 handed I happened to look at the top corner of my table window and realized what I had done. Played my ass off and won this one! Very nice bankroll boaster, that win was for more than what I won in the other 10 I was playing in. Sometimes it’s good to make a stupid mistake. I am so glad today is Friday, got really beat up at work this week. Tonight and tomorrow I have to grind out 52 more Sit-N-Gos to hopefully have a high finish in the Battle of the Planets on Poker Stars. Thanks for reading and have a good weekend. Tony

A Winning Round

Didn’t have much time to play last night. Played what my cousin and I call one round. In this case I played a block of 6 Sit-N-Gos. Sometimes I play 8 or 9 at once; this seems to be my limit. So I ran so good that I could have won all 6 of them! Got down to 5 handed, with a decent chip stack in all of them. The results were good, 2 seconds and 2 thirds, but again I couldn’t bring any wins home. When Heads up I had a small lead in 2 of them but couldn’t fade the coolers. I played a push-monkey heads up in one. He shoved on me 5 hands in a row. I raise with Q-K of spades, we are even in chips, and he again shoves on me. What would you all do? I snap called being couldn’t give him respect for a hand after all the shoving. He has the all powerful A-Jass. This hand has been killing me heads up lately. I can’t win with it and I can’t beat it. Well I shouldn’t be complaining being I had an ROI of 36% for this round. It’s just that I can’t seem to win these for the last week. This week out of 38 of them I only won 2 but took around 15 seconds. I am making a nice profit but always looking for ways to improve. Just seems that if I get it in ahead I lose or I call a shove I lose a flip. Anyone have any ideas on improving heads up play? Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Grind Goes On

Sit-N-Go Heads up frustration continued last night. On a good note I cashed in 6 of 11 of them. Bad note is I got Heads up in 4 and only managed to win one of them. Same things, that have been happening to me this week, continued. All in pre-flop with A-K vs. A-4, 4 on the turn and I get crippled. All in with pocket eights vs. A-7 off, Ace on the river and IGH in 2nd. This is starting to sound like a broken record. Don’t know if some of my younger readers even know what that is, LOL. Last one is all in with A-K vs. A-J, Jack on the river and I am once again crippled. You guys get the picture, seems I’m on the wrong side of variance heads up right now. It was a winning night and I am still on pace for a top 5 Battle of the Planet Cash on Poker Stars. Plus I have been putting in enough volume to complete the block of 100 on Saturday. Live play was break even, which means I won from bonus clearing/rake back. Played Full ring Limit HE on Absolute, just super tight so breaking even was fine. Learned my lesson about trying to pay attention in Stud while 6 tabling the Sit-N-Gos. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Sit-N-Go Grinding

Sit-N-Go play started out so bad last night. I had a nice stack in four of them at once, yet managed to bubble all four. In one of them I was the chip leader and managed to get it all in on a flop of 7-8-J with 2 hearts. I held bottom set with pocket sevens, my opponents had pocket eights for middle set and the other a flush draw. The flush draw got there on the turn but the board paired so he knocked out the flush and crippled me. I had two other Sit-N-Gos going at the same time and got heads up in both of them. That is the good news; bad news is I got it in way ahead in both and got sucked out on for huge pots. In the one it was A-J sooted against A-2 off, rivered 2. Other one was A-10 off against K-9 off, turned a nine. Maybe I am playing heads up too aggressive. Are any of my readers able to get away from A-J sooted heads up? Overall I played 14 Sit-N-Gos last night, took 6 seconds, 1 first, and 1 third. It was a winning night but I want to get more firsts when heads up. Especially in 5 of the 6 I had a chip lead at one point when heads up. Live Hi/Lo Stud play went terrible last night. Note to self don’t play Hi/Lo Stud while playing short-handed in 6 Sit-N-Gos at once. We were down to 5 or less players in all six and I had the stupid Hi/Lo Stud table going. Really need to pay attention to the cards that are out when playing Hi/Lo. So I took a beating, wiping out my Sit-N-Go profit and then some at the live game. Oh well tonight I will grind at least 12 more Sit-N-Gos. I want to have at least 60 put away before Saturday, so I will only need to put in at most 40 to complete a block of 100 for the High Orbit on Poker Stars. BTW – I almost had enough points to cash in my first block of 20 , the low orbit but I am a little short. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Another Week of Sit-N-Go Play Starts

Donkdays Sit-N-Go play yesterday went very well for me. At one Sit-N-Go level I played in 7 and cashed in 6 of them. That is a great start for a Battle of the Planets cash for this week. Every Sunday morning I play a few Sit-N-Gos at four different levels. Whichever level I have the most success at is the one I will focus on the whole week. With the number of points I have won so far I am on pace for a top 3 finish for the High Orbit(Block of 100). Of course this means I need to put the volume in all week, so I won’t have to grind out like 8 hours straight of Sit-N-Gos on the last day of the promotion, which is Saturday. It’s very draining grinding out over 50 Sit-N-Gos in a day. I’m not that old but Sit-N-Gos tire me out real fast. Again yesterday live play went very well for me. I was playing some of the dreaded Short-handed Limit HE on Absolute Poker early in the afternoon. It was a table of chasing donks and I quickly was down 25BBs. Was getting very frustrated when I won a monster pot! Against two other players the final board was 7-4-2-7-10 and the two idiots trapped me for a capped turn and river, one bet at a time (So I thought). I had pocket Aces and made the crying call on the River. I was expecting to be shown a seven by one of the idiots. Instead the sun shined on me when both donks had pocket Queens! Keep in mind I capped it pre-flop, but shut down after the flop was capped. Really though I was against a flopped set or A-7 sooted. This pot put me back to even and then I won some more for a nice profit. Got to love playing with idiots. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – Please click through on my Google Banner, above this post. Thanks much.

Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos

Yesterday was just brutal! The donks got there time and time again. Ace-King and Ace-Queen were no match for Ace-Rag. One bright spot was I did very well in double or nothing Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars. Well live play went well also. Be very careful today being it's the real Donkday(Sunday)! They are out in full force today. Almost like no one cares if they win or lose today just want to put a bad beat on someone. Happy Donkday. Tony

Junior Donkday

The play Online today is as bad as Donkday(Sunday). Don't remember seeing play this bad since the last days of Party Poker for US players! I am running bad but holding my own at Sit-N-Gos. Cash games are going really well but MTTs are terrible for me. Keep getting it in way ahead and losing on the river. Beware of the Donks today! Tony

Crazy Game Called Poker

Poker is such a funny game at times. Last night I ran bad at Sit-N-Gos but sick great at live games. The night before was the total opposite. I don’t know how people can do this for a living. The highs and lows to you moods are just crazy. Getting kicked in the junk some days while feeling as high as a kite other days is a lot to handle. I equate playing Poker to being Manic depressive. You have very high highs and very low lows. Its crazy some days can’t do anything right other days can’t do anything wrong. Some Donkdays(Sundays) my big pocket pairs Tens-Kings lose to Ace-Rag all day long. Other Donkdays I can’t lose a race if I wanted to. It’s so frustrating to get my money in ahead and then the outcome to be totally out of my hands. I believe Poker would drive a control freak completely insane after a few years. You never really are in control of your own destiny in Poker. All you can do is make the right moves and in the long run you will come out ahead. The short run can be brutal at times. This is why bankroll management is one of the most important things to being a winning player. You have got to have the bankroll to withstand the sick variance you may face. Enough ranting for one day, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony