Calling Station
June 28th, 2007 lifesagrindIf you looked up “Calling Station” in the dictionary, you would see this guy.
This guys was so tight and so weak that I became a little scared of him having QQ so I pussied out a little on the river.
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KING OF THE WORLD #2
June 20th, 2007 lifesagrindSunday was tournament day for me and I managed to come up with a big goose egg. In fact I only played one event half way well and in that one I definitely brought my “A” game. I unfortunately was sucked out on by the overall tournament chip leader and it soured my willingness to play for the rest of the day.
I took Monday off and then my SNG play yesterday amounted to a -50% ROI effort.
mmmm… poker goodness.
So in a last ditch effort to make a little scratch I headed of to some low limit no limit action. My only hand of any note for the session also ended up being the KING OF THE WORLD hand for today. As is my style I like to open up for a raise when I’m first to act and then the continuation bet is a large part of my overall strategy. The best ways to combat someone who employs this strategy is to either call the continuation bet or just lead out at the flop. This puts the pressure back on the original raiser as they now have to decide if it’s worth firing another bullet at the pot.
The player I’m in this hand with has been my designated whipping boy. He was the loosest (68.57% VPiP) and weakest (Aggression Factor 0.9) at the table and had continually folded to my continuation bets. He chose to call me this time but I couldn’t give him credit for a real hand since he only called my bets. His bet on the river screams of a missed flush/steal attempt so I acted accordingly.
Best Article In A Long Time
March 10th, 2007 lifesagrindThis is by far the best article on poker that I have read in a long time. It rings especially true for me considering my last few months. Go read it.
PPA Commercial
March 8th, 2007 lifesagrindI think a better commercial could have been produced, but it’s a step in the right direction.
February Goals
February 1st, 2007 lifesagrindFirst lets do a little review of the January goals.
1) Qualify for Gold status Iron Man on Full Tilt: SUCCESS - I didn’t make it until the last day of the month, but I made it.
2) Get my SNG ROI to at least 10% playing $10 and maybe $20 SNG’s: FAILURE - Started hot, ran cold, then warmed up to finish the month with 267 played for a 3.38% ROI.
Now a look into the future.
1) Qualify for Gold status Iron Man on Full Tilt
I really debated going for the gusto and making Iron level but if I did that I wouldn’t have enough time left in the day to play any MTT’s. I’m actually still waffling with this so I won’t commit to Iron but I may try for it anyway.
2) Get my SNG ROI up to 10%
In order to make it worth my while I’m going to need to get there. Also the cash game bug is biting me again so I need to make the SNG’s worth it right now.
3) Play in at least two 300K Guarantee tournaments on Full Tilt
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
In December I finished in 249th place on the SNG leaderboard. For January I ended up in 195th place. If I decide to shoot for the Iron level this month I’m fairly confident I can make the top 100. I’m not going to make this a goal though because I’m still undecided on my approach this month.
Journey Update Week 2
October 1st, 2006 lifesagrindFiled Under: Poker
It hasn’t quite been two weeks but since I need something to post about on Sundays, I’ll make it the official Journey update day.
This week was not good to me. I managed to give back all the money made at the 3/6 tables. I decided to sign up for another rakeback site. Arctic Poker is giving back 40% with no wagering restriction and puts it into your account on a daily basis. I just signed up yesterday so I don’t know really know much about the site yet. It is a prima site though so if you’ve played at one, you’ve played at them all.
Tournament play was pretty much break even for me this week. I plan on playing a few today so maybe I can come up with a decent cash.
Anyway, onto the numbers:
Needed: $4,000
Bonus/Rakeback: $152.17
2/4: $25
3/6: -$70.25
MTT: -$167.01
SNG: $56.00
Satellites: -$0.10
Withdrawl: -$268.80
Total: -$272.99
Picks Week 4
September 30th, 2006 lifesagrindFiled Under: Sports, Poker
Had a glorious week last week going 3-0. This week the games look tight and I’ve only gone with two picks.
Chargers -2
Ravens
Bears
Seahawks +2.5
I made the Seahawks bet early in the week before it was announced that Alexander would not play. I thought the game would move the Seattle having to give points before the week was out but the news of the League MVP being out has now pushed the line to Seahawks +3. I would place more money on it if they were +7 but without Alexander it may be an uphill climb since they will move to a more one dimensional team. Also I’d ask for a moment of silence as they had to cut Kacyvenski to make room for another runner.
In actual poker news I took another run at the 20K last night. I was uncerimoniously removed from the tournament when I made a right move at the wrong time. I cashed but this hand would have set me up for a final table run.
2…2…2..Final Table In 1 (night)
September 28th, 2006 lifesagrindFiled Under: Poker
Don’t get too excited by the title of this post. One of them I didn’t finish high enough to cash in and the other (although a win) didn’t pay enough to cover my buy-ins for the night. That combined with a downfall at the limit tables, and my decision to purchase an iPod Video, have put the Journey in a slight hole. I’m cofident I’ll bounce back though and be back on track by the end of the week.
Why an iPod Video you ask. Well my PSP didn’t have enough storage for practical use as an MP3 player and my Nano couldn’t play video. I’ve been getting into some vidcasts and I wanted to take my TV shows with me on the go. I thought about waiting for the Zune to be released in November but I’m an instant gratification kinda guy. With the price drop on the 30GB model to the same price I paid for my Nano I couldn’t pass it up. That and I can get NFL highlights through iTunes now and to a fan that doesn’t have cable it’s my best way to keep up with what’s happening.
One Out Of Three
September 26th, 2006 lifesagrindFiled Under: Poker
I’ve started to play the 20K on Full Tilt a few nights a week and last night was one of them. PartyPoker also gave me a free $40 so I signed up for the 40K as well as the Mondays At The Hoy.
I debated (internally) naming the post “An Excercise In Being Card Dead”, but since I had no real examples, or any insight to share in actually playing card dead, I chose not to. Rest assured though I was in fact horribly card dead through both the 20K and the MATH. The 40K was a different story but we’ll get to that later. Oh, and I sucked in the MATH going out early.
I think I was nursing a short stack in the 20K from hand number 10 and it lasted for around 90 minutes. I then went on a nice run which put me over the average and I sat there for a while when the following situation arose:
(I thought I was saving screen shots of this but I was hitting the Pause/Break button instead of the PrntScrn button, oops)
We’re down to about 128 left and 99 pay. I have 7,900 in chips which is a bit under average. The blinds are 250/500 with a 50 ante. I still have play left in my stack and I’m the small blind. It’s important to note that the standard raise for this table has been 3X BB. The table is full but I’ll cut out the irrelevant parts here.
Seat 6: Diggzy Brown (6,965)
Seat 8: lifesagrind (7,900)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [9d 9h]
Folds around
Diggzy Brown raises to 2,500 This screams “give me the blinds”. This represents a little over a third of his stack. It’s a big chunk but I don’t think he’s committed, and I don’t think he wants a call.
lifesagrind raises to 7,850, and is all in I have an opportunity here to pick up a nice amount of chips and set myself up for a deep run.
Diggzy Brown calls 4,415, and is all in
lifesagrind shows [9d 9h]
Diggzy Brown shows [Ad Th] I would have to say this is a bad call. If he had me well outchipped it would be one thing but he’s calling off all of his chips here with an easily dominated hand. He has to believe that his best case is a coin flip and if he folds he has enough chips to steal the blinds again if needed.
*** FLOP *** [Ah 5d 4h] You already knew this was coming
*** TURN *** [Ah 5d 4h] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 5d 4h 3d] [5h]
lifesagrind shows two pair, Nines and Fives
Diggzy Brown shows two pair, Aces and Fives
Diggzy Brown wins the pot (14,480) with two pair, Aces and Fives
Was my analysis incorrect? Did he have to call there? Would you?
Give me some feedback and let me know what you think.
Now the 40K. Boy these party players are bad. That really sums up the whole thing. Nothing spectacular happened. I had a better than average stack and ran it deep. I finished in 55th out of 2,388 players. Finished in the top 2% and the payout sucked. It did cover my buyins for the night plus a little more but I really wish they would pay fewer places so the payouts were greater. All in all though the tourney was soft so I may start playing this one on a regular basis.
Journey Update
September 25th, 2006 lifesagrindFiled Under: Poker
It’s been five days since I declared my intentions of the 4K roadtrip. Actyper was the only one willing to throw down a date of completion, he went with Feb. 13. Personally I can’t see it taking that long. Anyway… onto the update
Needed: $4,000
Bonus/Rakeback: $133.25
3/6: $380.5
MTT: -$112.50
SNG: $56.00
Satellites: -$0.10
Total: $457.15
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