Slow Blogging Time

Haven’t been blogging much this week being have been busy with other projects. Have played a lot of Limit HE lately. I almost forgot how frustrating this game can be. Last night I lost 3 out of 4 pots starting with pocket Aces. Didn’t play any of them slow but the donks kept chasing. One hand really stung when I raised under the gun and capped it when it got back to me. I was against pocket Kings, which I knew and a donk with K-10 sooted. Love these idiots calling 4 bets with a tourist type of hand. I got revenge on him later in the session. Over all it was a losing night, down around 10BBs. Need to grind some more tonight to maintain my VIP status on Poker Stars. I am only a few points away so it shouldn’t be too taxing. Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos are going very well this week. I should just play them all the time and nothing else. It’s just too much of a grind playing them all the time. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

MTT Score

PokerStars Tournament #254819287, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $4.00/$0.40 USD
1000 players
Total Prize Pool: $4000.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/03/27 19:40:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 33rd place. A USD 16.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 89.64 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.

This was my deepest run yesterday. I Played in 14 MTTs and cashed in 7. Good results but lost money being the more expensive ones I didn't cash in. I did pick up a lot of TLB points so my leader board hunt is still on. Will put in a high volume of MTTs again today. Beware of the Donks and remember to get it in behind today. Happy Donkday. Tony

Micro-Stakes Final Table

PokerStars Tournament #254829096, Mixed PLH/PLO
Buy-In: $2.00/$0.20 USD
145 players
Total Prize Pool: $290.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/03/26 18:10:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 7th place. A USD 11.60 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 61.54 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.

The quest for Tournament Leader Board Points continues. I have cashed in 5 of 8 MTTs so far tonight. Updates to follow tomorrow. Tony

Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos

I am super hot, that's what she said, LOL. No actually if you Shark Scope me that is my current ranking. I just won 7 of my last 8 Double or nothing Sit-N-Gos. My formula of middle to late aggression is paying off big time. Rush Poker has been up and down but slighty up so I can't complain. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Good MTT Results

Great results for MTTs for me yesterday. I cashed in 7 of 16 of them, with 3 top 200 finishes. These top 200 finishes were really good being these were fields of 5000+ in each case. I picked up around 300 TLB points at Stars so I am back in the hunt for a top 100 finish for the year. Need to check my monthly totals for March, may be close to a top 1000 finish for the month. If in top 1000 get a ticket into a 20K freeroll, which I bet everyone doesn’t show up for being you get registered for it automatically. It’s a goal to shoot for to make the top 1000 this month. The good news is how well I did on Stars yesterday, bad news is had a nice stack in the mini-FTOPS knockout yesterday, pretty close to the money. I have Aces and raise for 3x under the gun. A complete euro-idiot lagtard shoves on me for 25 BBs, terrible donk play.(It is 6 max but why shove here?) BTW he had pocket Jacks, a hand for once. The flop comes with a Jack and the turn comes with another to put me away. He has me covered by 160 chips so the 40K pot goes his way! I win that hand and I can coast into the money, instead take another bad beat. Didn’t tell you all that I have lost 3 times in a row all in pre-flop with Aces for me and A-K for my opponent, what are the odds of that? Enough ranting for one day at least I did well on Stars. Happy Monday. Tony

Foxwoods Trip Report

We took a trip to Foxwoods on Saturday this weekend. Limit HE is alive and kicking there for sure. The $4-8 games were extra juicy, even better than I remember them! I played super tight/super aggressive, winning 20 BBs in 3 hours, did this while drinking so you know the games were soft. My wife played in the Ladies No Limit event, it had a decent turnout. She played great but couldn't fade the pocket Aces she shoved into from the button with AK suited. She agonised about this play on the ride home but it was automatic. With 6BBs left you have to shove there, especially from the button as first player in! The big blind woke up with Aces, what can you do? She out lasted half the field, not bad for her first live tournament in a year. Beware of the donks today, it's the first day of spring and they are out in full force. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Donks Winning

I really hate when the Donks keep winning. Yesterday on Stars I had one of those horror of a days playing MTTs. Kept getting all in pre-flop with Queens or Kings and lossing to Ace-rag! Hate days when none of your 70-30s win. It happened all day until I got so sick of it just shut down my computer and gave up. Well we all know shit happens. Instead I watched a bunch of episodes of High Stakes Poker and just relaxed. Speaking of High Stakes, last night's episode was awesome! Between people getting felted bluffing and Durr's sick bluff vs. Ivey it was a great show to watch! If you haven't caught it yet watch it on the Net or as a rerun, you won't be disappointed. As for Online Poker for me, tonight things are going better. I won 2 buy ins playing Rush on Full and right now I am in the money in the 7.5K on Stars. I will post my results tomorrow. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

DonkDay

The play today is the worst! Queens and Kings are useless today. Every Ace-rag will run you down. Remember to get it in behind to win today. Happy Donkday. Tony

I'm Just a RAZZ Machine

PokerStars Tournament #301010905, Limit Razz
Buy-In: $10.00/$1.00 USD
99 players
Total Prize Pool: $990.00 USD
Tournament started 2010/03/12 19:45:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 6th place. A USD 49.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 81.68 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.

Another night another RAZZ final table, lol. Good playing with you gates, we will meet again. Tony

Rush Poker

Rush Poker, “Oh how I loathe thee, sometimes”. Last night nothing could go right for me at Rush. Finally shut it down and gave up for the night down 5.5 buy ins! Don’t want to make this a bad beat post but how many times can my A-K lose to Ace-Rag in a row? How about 8 times straight not even counting pair over pair loses! I consider it a lot of skill to only lose 5.5 buy ins last night! Sit-N-Gos went better for me, broke the bad streak of losses finally. After I shut it down watched a movie I have been meaning to see, Crash. What a great movie it was! Anything with Don Cheadle usually is. If you haven’t seen it go to Blockbuster or order it on Netflix, you won’t be sorry. This weekend plan on putting in a very high volume of MTTs again. Tonight expect to see me playing in every MTT, less than $33, on Stars from 6:00 until 11:00. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

P.S. – If you want to try out Rush Poker please sign up for a Full Tilt account with Promo Code “Aviganola”. After your first real money deposit I will send you another bonus on top of your 100% Full Tilt one!

Running Bad in Sit-N-Gos

The running bad at Sit-N-Gos continued last night. Thankfully I am crushing the cash games enough to keep my roll from going down. Looks like I have figured out this Rush Poker thing finally. If I 3x raise with pocket nines and someone shoves on me I now fold my hand. (That is providing I have at least 10 times the big blind left.) In the past I have been calling this shove and either been against a bigger pair or 2 overs. Have been losing those races around 80% of the time so it’s hurt my results. Another move that has worked for me is when these Euro-tards try to steal from the button or cut off I re-raise from the blinds with ATC. Instead of shoving, I am almost re-raising 3x their raise, unless I am short, which then is a shove. You have no idea what percent of the time I take the pot down with this move, probably over 90%! Am also on the snide in MTTs during the week. Really shouldn’t play them when have to get up for work the next day. If I make the money am tending to throw the tournament away by being over aggressive, being don’t want to stay up late unless have a huge stack to make the final table with. Also don’t like to even limp into the money on a work night so this has hurt my ITM percentage for sure. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

TLB Update

Deep in an MTT

PokerStars Tournament #247234329, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $0.50 USD
1657 players
Total Prize Pool: $828.50 USD
Tournament started 2010/03/06 20:00:00 ET


Dear AVIGANOLA,

You finished the tournament in 20th place. A USD 2.56 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 79.65 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 finally got deep but hardly won any money. My A-K couldn't fade Ace rag another time otherwise I would have had a huge stack. It feels good to run good in an MTT one time. I had beaten Ace Rag with A-K 6 times straight before my busto hand. Beware of the Donks today! Happy Donkday. Tony

Rebuilding the Roll

The Roll rebuilding process continued last night. I finally put a solid winning night in. Played in 3 Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos on Poker Stars, cashing in 2 of them. Also played some cash Limit HE, won around 12 BBs. On Full Tilt I broke my string of losses at Rush Poker by winning a Buy in and a half. Once I get my affiliate payout for February will be able to play a higher level of Rush Poker. If I lose a few buy ins will move back down. In the past have been stubborn, not moving down when running bad. Tonight starts my all out assault for MTT TLB points on Stars. From 6 until 11 I will probably play every MTT $50 and less they run. On Saturday plan on a full day of MTTs also. This is the plan unless I run really bad and get discouraged early. Look for some TLB race updates this weekend. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

Running Bad Still

I still can’t shake off my running bad Online. Again last night I had bad results in Sit-N-Gos. I went 1 for 4 cashes in around 2 hours play. Same thing for Rush Poker on Full Tilt. Problem is I am losing all my important coin flips. Lost with A-K to an under-pair 4 times straight last night. While this doesn’t seem overly bad it’s the difference between winning for the night or losing. If I win half of those flips I am up 1 buy in at Rush, instead of being down almost 2. Same problem in the Sit-N-Gos I get short and shove A-J on the bubble, get called by A-7 for 5 BBs and go home in 6th for no money. This happened in 2 of them, worse than a flip I had him dominated as a 2.5-1 favorite. This has been going on for a few weeks but I just know my run good time is right around the corner. I can just feel a big score coming for me hopefully this weekend. I want my run good to take place in a big MTT, not a Sit-N-Go. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

The Luck is Turning

Looks like things are starting to turn for the better for me. Last night I got home late so only had time to play 2 Double or Nothing Sit-N-Gos on Stars, won them both. Also played a half an hour of Rush Poker and won a buy in. I got my ass handed to me playing Rush Poker on Sunday. Lost so bad that I had to move down 1 level, didn’t want to bust my account. I feel my luck is starting to turn around. I ran really bad in key spots last weekend in MTTs. Think I’m do for a run good weekend; hopefully it will happen soon. My plan is this week to build up the roll so it will be really healthy to grind a ton of MTTs again this weekend. Even though I had a losing weekend did pick up some nice TLB point cashes, being I made 3 final tables of low limit MTTs. Problem is I got sucked out on/Coolered in all the middle limit MTTs I played. If I could reverse that trend would be better off. Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables. Tony

MTT Brutality

Warning this post contains some bad beat stories in it so tune in at your own discretion. Played a bunch of MTTs yesterday on Stars with mixed results. In the Sunday 1/4 million something really bad happened to me. Relatively close to the money I had a nice stack of 9K, a little over the average. A complete Lag/spewtard, who was seeing 76% of the flops, raises under the gun. He gets flatted in 2 spots and I wake up with AA in the big blind. I play my Aces like a man by shoving my whole stack in. The spewtard, snap calls me, like he has the nuts which is impossible being I have them.(Everyone else folded.) Of course you know how this story ends, King on the flop and I just know what is coming, King on the river and I got sickly beat! So sick being I would have had a huge stack of 25K and could have coasted into the money and maybe gone deep in this one. My wife had the same chit happen to her. She was close to the money in the Turbo Takedown. She had around the average when some idiot gets all in pre-flop with J-10, with the ten of diamonds, vs. her pocket Kings with the King of diamonds.(BTW he had around 20 Big Blinds!) By the turn there is a four flush in diamonds and she is celebrating. On the river the pot gets pushed to the villain and she is crippled. He made a gut shot, one out, straight flush on the turn. So sick next hand the small blind shoves into her 5x stack and she calls with A-Q of diamonds vs. 3-5 off. She flops a 4 flush but he turns a 3 and she gets knocked out close to the money! MTTs online are just so brutal. End of rant. Tony