Bad Beat Night

Warning anyone who hates negative bad beat posts should stop reading this rant now! Last night playing Online was just so sick. It must have been a full moon because people were calling on the flop with no pair and no draw and getting there! I raised under the gun in Limit HE with A-Q off, flop comes A-K-10 with one spade. I bet and get called by the big blind. Turn brings the nine of Spades; I bet and get called once more. The river brings the Jack of Spades and the big blind quickly checks so I bet my rivered broadway. He pulls the Hollywood BS and almost times out but then check raises me. I know the bad news but pay the one bet to see that he rivered the runner-runner flush with the 5-6 of spades? What a bad play he had nothing on the flop but a naked runner-runner under flush! My Omaha Hi/Lo results were just as dismal. I lost in the sickest way when I turned Quad twos and we got into a raising war on a board of K-10-2-2. Luckily for me the villain was all in when his forth King rivered me! So sick I wanted to throw up after this hand. I played for a few more minutes and then gave up. The game will be there tomorrow is my motto. Thanks for reading my ranting. Tony

The King of Micro-Stakes MTTs

PokerStars Tournament #173018875, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $0.10
3935 players
$50.00 added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $443.50
Tournament started 2009/06/28 10:00:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 98th place. A $0.58 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 34.48 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 won almost 6 buyins! That's how I roll baby. I am so balla! Happy Donkday. Tony

Home Game Report

Sometimes I think I am psychic. Yesterday, 3 hours before even going to my cousin’s house, I sent a text to my cousin Nick stating to watch my go all in tonight with pocket Kings and get knocked out. I was close I went all in with pocket Kings and got crippled instead of eliminated. It was early in our weekly Sit-N-Go with 7 of 9 players left when Riz raised it up 3X under the gun for 600 chips. I had already chipped up winning two other small pots. I decided to not play slow by re-raising up to 1500 chips to go. This cleared out the field back to Riz who instantly went all in. I snap called him, without even thinking about it. The thing is I have a lot of history playing with Riz and he overplays A-K all the time. Also Aces, Queens, Jacks, and probably Tens are in his range also.(Maybe A-Q also!) Basically I only have one hand to fear here and it’s Aces, also I am not good enough to fold Kings pre-flop! He of course had Aces and I am crippled down to 575 chips. The blinds go up next hand to 150-300. In my big blind I get the almighty 10-2 off but have to call an early position raiser for my last 275 chips. He has A-8 but I out flop him when a two comes out. Of course he re-sucks out on me on the turn when an 8 drops. Why can’t I even get lucky in an all in situation? My luck in these home games is so bad, live Poker is so rigged. Then things went from bad to worse when I get a call that my father is in the hospital. Makes my bad beats/luck look insignificant. My father is suffering from severe back pain, so bad the ambulance took him to the Emergency room. He’s home today suffering, seems he re-injured his back doing work that he is supposed to be retired from. At least is looks like he will be ok with a lot of pain medicine and rest. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Step Madness

Step madness/fever has got me again! I started playing the ten steps on Ultimatebet and my obsession has caught me. Have vowed to only pay cash for Step 1s, which cost .11 cents so really all I can lose is a lot of time, no real money. This time around I am playing to win a September Aruba package to play in their yearly MTT down there. Being I love Aruba and am a glutton for MTT punishment it seems like a good idea. If I can parley less than 5 bucks into am 8K package, even better. I will keep you all updated on my progress in my step quest. Right now I have paid for 4 Step ones and currently have a Step 2 and a Step 3 from them. Tomorrow night will play a home game at cousin Neil's house so expect a report on Thursday. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. - Good luck Hoyazo in Vegas!

A Short Vegas Report

While on vacation in Vegas I noted that Limit HE has really dried up these days, downtown that is. I could barely get a game higher than $2-4 Limit in downtown Vegas on this trip. I did play in some wild $3-6 games at the Nugget, with mixed results. On one night I got my ass handed to me repeatly for 2 hours before deciding to quit down 40 BBs! I lost with pocket queens twice and pocket Kings twice in one hour! Did lose with them in back to back hands to boot! In the first hand my Kings were against Tens who 2 outered me on the river! Very next hand I got 1 outered on the turn by pocket sixes! I played both hands super fast betting and raising on every street. This was the way these game was that night, very loose and very fast. It was a high variance game for sure. Even though the games were few and far in between they were very juicy. I lost in this session but had some great winning ones at the Bellegio. The games there were going and of all different stakes. So Limit He was to be found, just not downtown this trip. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Sick Bad

Ran sick bad at Sit-N-Gos last night. I went 0 cashes for 7 tries! Didn't win a single all in showdown, not one. Lost my 60-40 and 40-60 pre-flop all ins. Twice lost with a pair to overpair pre-flop. I know this variance is part of the game but it still sucks! I am at it again tonight. Wish me luck I need it. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Hand

This will be the first in a series of posts about our trip to Vegas this year. I advise those who hate bad beat stories to stop reading now. This one is one of the sickest bad beats, at the worst time that I have encountered! Playing in a $225 deep stacked donkament in the Golden Nugget's Grand Series when this hand occured. We started with 275 players and 12 hours had now passed with 30 players left. I am super short stacked with the blinds at 3K-6K with a 200 ante. Have been card dead for 2 hours when I wake up to pocket rockets. As first in I shove for 1.5 the big blind with my meager stack of 9650 chips. It folds to the big stack in the the big blind who goes into the tank for 3 minutes. She has to call here, with any 2 but I have a bad feeling about this hand. She finally calls and turns over 2-5 off. Flop comes J-A-8, so I have flopped top set and feel pretty good that I will double up and survive the money bubble. Turn brings a three and the river a four! So it goes runner-runner to knock me out of one of many mtts I will play in Vegas that week. No one said life or Poker was fair. If my wife hadn't seen it she probably wouldn't have beleived the hand either. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Bad Live but Good Online!

PokerStars Tournament #169962384, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00
32 players
Total Prize Pool: $320.00
Tournament started 2009/06/13 16:45:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 1st place. A $128.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 113.74 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'm Back

We are back from our Vegas trip. Very bad results this time! Actually this is the worst trip we have ever had to Vegas. I will post all about it in the next few days. Right now I need some sleep! Tony

Vacation Finally

It's finally time for our Vegas trip! Flying out tomorrow morning. Wish us luck. I will try to post updated on here as often as I can. WSOP here we come! Tony

Vegas Baby!

Just 2 more days left until the Wife and I go to Vegas! Been trying to get in the right frame of mind to go out there and crush the HORSE tournaments we intend to play in. This weekend I final tabled not one but two RAZZ tournaments, both with 100+ entries. Took bad beats in both once at the final table but at that point the levels were so high that it was a luck fest anyway. Was happy to get my chips in way ahead in both but to lose anyway. Feel I am playing my A+ game in all the Stud legs. Been reading up and practicing Omaha Hi/Lo so that shouldn’t be a problem either. The HE leg will probably be my Achilles heel, not because I play it badly just because everyone seems to know how to play Limit HE these days. Also seems that avoiding bad bets and luck plays a huge part in winning at Limit HE. Basically I will play super tight in this Leg in all the HORSE tournaments I play in. Really want to cash in big in the first one we play in at Binions, the $500 HORSE. This cash or not will determine if either of us get to play in a WSOP event. This extra incentive should force me to bring my A game to Binions. Hope to post from Vegas but not sure will be able to. At the very least expect some good news from me in a week and a half. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony