Sweeeet September

So, as all you grinders know, poker is a very real emotional roller coaster.  There are days, weeks and months where you just grind along, just treading water and not really getting anywhere.  Or worse, losing large chunks of bankroll.  You get deep in many tournaments, just to get bad beat late and feel like it was a waste of time.  You know you have the capability, but somehow get unlucky way too often.  If only you could pop a few, run good and watch that bankroll grow.  I popped in September.  I have always made money on Cake Poker, building bankroll, cashing checks, having a good time, and I have had moderate success at UB and AP, having won and travelled to Aruba with them twice (cashing both times, see posts) but I could never really get over on Full Tilt or Poker Stars.  Level of players abilities, run bad, tournament selection ???   don't know but scoreboard shows me never building a bankroll there.  So September rolls up and I grind along, treading water as previously mentioned on tilt for about 80 sessions and then I jump into a $30 rebuy with 3000 players and I get deep and I have a couple suckouts and I finish 5th for almost 14K.  Now I have a bankroll and can get busy.  3 days later, I pick up a 2 / 183 for 3K and 3 days later another 2/ 374 for almost 12K more.  Now THAT is what I am talking about.  Don't know why, didn't play any different than is my usual style but all the stars aligned for those 10 days and September became a sweet month, the best I have had in a long time.  I mostly stayed with multi's but did get involved in some sit n go's as well. 

Here are the numbers

Sessions Played 192
Hours played 160
ROI %    + 95.49%
Win Rate  $139 hour
Rakeback  694

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July / August

As I had mentioned in my last posting, I have moved over from the sit n go crowd to the multi table tournament crowd for the most part and continued to do so the last two months.   Even when I went back to the sit n go tables, wasn't really able to get any games going.  The reg crowd that I played with every day for months is gone and the tables aren't going.  I just saw an article that the Tribal gaming commission has signed an agreement with Cake Poker so now the Indian groups can open online poker rooms and play on the Cake network.  Will this get us to 10,000 average players ?  No, but a step in the right direction, we'll see.  They also brought over Victory Poker to the Cake network, keep grinding boys.   Anyway, back to my game.   The reason I mention these additions is that my favorite daily tournament, the 12k at Cake each night keeps getting cancelled for lack of min players ( 40 )  ..are u kidding ?   I wrote to a couple of the boys and said that is embarrassing,  what about running some super turbo satties the 4 hours before it starts to get us over the edge each night.  Low and behold, I am not kidding you, the next day I see a 5 seat guarantee for the 12k and some $16 kamikaze games ( didn't ask for that :) , and the next two nights we had 71 and 65 players signed up prior to it starting.  Way to go Cake.........

Here are the stats for July and August

Sessions played   514
Earnings     +4655
Win Rate   $11.94 per hour
ROI             10.26%
Multi tournaments  + 6002
All other games      < 1367 >
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WSOP 2010

So, as previously mentioned, I had won two separate packages from Cake Poker, one for $2500 to use in any tourney you choose, and a main event seat, worth $12,500.  This one also had the option to break into other events and not obligated to play the main, which worked out for me as the July 4th holiday is always a very busy time of year for me and hard to get away for that time period.  I worked out the calendar to get to Vegas for event 30, 31 and 34 in late  June.    Other venues are competing for the WSOP business with Caesars hosting a series of great events and the Venetian hosting big tourneys all month long  as well.  Casey, donkeyherder, and I set our sites on these events and headed off, staying on the strip, within walking distance all of these events.  As always when we make these trips, we "crew" , meaning we split all winnings of tournaments we both play.  We arrived at Harrahs and jumped into a small event in the first 10 minutes of being there.  It was a little 60 dollar buy in, but Casey won it and we split 1000.  The next day we played the Venetian, a great card room and this 330 buy in event got over 700 players.  Neither of us cashed that one. We got back to Harrahs and played a 150 buy in evening tourney and I chopped for a 900 profit, so 2 for 3 so far.  We also messed around and "crewed" up some craps and some blackjack to break up the time and we won every time we played, 300 here and 500 there, so good times so far. 

Event 30

Starting chips was surprisingly low at 4000, and starting field of 2394 players.  It was to be a 3 day event and hour blinds.  Within the first 30 min there were thousand chip hands frequently so I knew this would be almost turbo like and 243 players would get paid.  The first hand I chipped up with was A Q and a raise before me to 200.  I called and the flop came A A Q (holla) .  The raiser bet 400,, I called and player behind me calls.  The turn is a 3rd heart, the 10.  First guy checks, I bet 1000 and get two calls.   The flop is another heart, first guy pushes, I call and third guy calls too, with me tripling up.  The next big hand was me on the button with 10 10,  with a raise and 3 callers.  I call also, having position and wanting to see a flop.   The flop comes K 10 10, how sweet is that.  You know one of them has a K .  First player bets and one other caller and me.    The turn is a blank and the first guy pushes all in and I call, he turns over A 2, lol and I stack em up.  By the end of the day, we have lost over 2000 players and are down to 261, just 18 from the money.  It was like 2 in the morning and it's such a long day but a good feeling to be around to bag your chips.   I have 47k so I am feeling pretty good about getting to the money.  The one good thing is that the next day starts at 2:30, not noon like before, so a couple extra hours to rest up.  We get a redraw to a new table the next day and I have 2nd largest stack, two players are under 10k and therefore are trying to hang on to the money.  One of those short stacks, Christopher Gonzalez is sitting two seats to my right with about 9 k in chips.  He finishes 2nd in the tournament for a 360k cash .........anything is possible.  As far as my play goes, I hang around, not getting many playing hands, the few I get, I have players coming over the top all in and I end up laying down my A Q or my 6 6, etc.   I hang around for a few more hours and all of a sudden I have a short stack and end up pushing my A J in a 3 way pot against 9 9 and A 9.  The 9 9 holds up and I finish in 115th place for a $3800 cash.  I am now 2 for 3 in WSOP cashes.   I wanted to play those other events but it didn't work out, so will get over there next year to take some more cash..:) 

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May / June

May and June were really two different stories as I began a metamorphisis transitioning from sit n go's and heads up matches to almost exclusively multi table tournaments.  So, there is the question, what's the harder grind, playing mid size sit n go's and grinding up slowly or going for the home run but having to commit 4 to 6 hours for each tournament, many times to come up empty, but always the possibility of a big score ?  I dedicated the last month to the later and did have some success.  It started out as trying to get into that multi "frame" of mind as I was gearing up for the WSOP tournaments in Vegas.  That will be a separate post, but that is how it started.  I also spent more time at Full Tilt as my favorite site, Cake, has slowed down and there aren't as many opportunities at the right times of day for me to get enough action.  Don't get me wrong, I will continue to support Cake as they have been very very good to me and I like the softness of the 12k and $30 rebuy each night.   I had won both the 2500 and the main (12,500) package from cake for the WSOP, but due to job and family related issues, was only able to get to one event, event 30, a no limit $1500 event, which I did cash in, but was  overall unhappy with my late tournament play.   Here are the numbers for May / June

ROI  + 16.98%
Time played 285 hours
Total Win Rate  $32.20 per hour 
Live tournament play + $84.71 per hour

Cake win rate per hour $31.48
Full Tilt win rate (reg tourneys)  $19.95 per hour
Full Tilt 300 chip Super Turbo win rate per hour $121.45 per hour

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April 2010

April was a fun month for a few reasons. It started off with the Ireland trip (see post) and ended up being a 5 figure profitable month. Although I made exactly NO money in Ireland, we got home on a Saturday night (after 14 hours flying), rested up and I was jonesing to get back and play online. On our last stay on the beautiful southwest side of Ireland, I lost connection and was not able to grind the last 4 days of the trip. It turns out, although we took an adapter for charging, the battery went dead and thankfully nothing more than that. On Sunday morning, I had one last day of freedom (vacation) before getting back to the real job and I wasn't going to waste it. I should say that it is not very often I get to play the 'big' tournaments on Sunday as work/ family obligations take precedence, so it's just the way it is. Not this Sunday, it was all to do what I wanted. So I jumped in and played the WSOP main event on cake. There were 97 players and 2 tickets were to be given away (worth $12,500). I was grinding along, staying about chip average and I was feeling good, relaxed and time went by without me being too impatient. When it got down to 10, I was bottom stack. 5 places were to be paid (2 tickets) and I started thinking about winning this thing. I got much more aggressive as I am watching most players not wanting to get involved and when we got down to 3, I was chip leader. The short stack I knew would have to push, he was on my right and I catch A 5, he pushes, I call and he shows J 9 off. My A high holds up and I take down a ticket. I also won a step 4 sit n go, which puts you into a step 5 for a $2500 ticket and I ended up winning that too. The nice thing about what cake did this year, is that they pay you cash and you decide if you want to play the main, or you have the option to go play as many other events as you like. I am thinking about renting a house for 10 days and playing 5 or 6 $1500 events. It's a great option to have. Although I have had some nice paydays in tournament play, I still maintain, I am mostly a grinder with super turbo 6 man sit n go's as my main game. As I mentioned last month, I am getting much more involved in heads up matches as well. I reported being +32 in heads up ytd last month and I have now increased that with a good April to +52 ytd currently. I also started playing Poker Stars in the last week of the month. I wasn't going to, but found out I had a small bankroll there from a few years ago so started using it.






APRIL RESULTS
Games played 501
Time played 122 hours
Hourly Win Rate  $145.56
April ROI +27.13%
Super Turbo sit n go's ROI 6.08% + $3685
Multi Table tournaments 35 Tournaments ROI 295% + $12485


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Ireland

This is the actual view from the driveway of the home we rented in the Ring of Kerry the last few days of our trip to Ireland......................

We traveled to Ireland March 31st from LAX to Dublin via Atlanta and arrived pretty weary to The Burlington Hotel which is where Cake put us up and where the 2010 Irish Open was to be held this year.  Although this place was closer to town centre than was the Citywest hotel, where we stayed and played last year, I much preferred Citywest.   After resting up a bit, we had planned to meet in the hotel pub the first evening.  I always enjoy these meetings as you get to meet players you have played with online and others you have not.  I like hearing the different perspectives and experiences each brings.   I met Jasper from Holland, Yann from Quebec and Josh Prager from the Sacramento area.  I had sharkscoped each of the players prior to going to see what kind of players each were and was surprised to see how many players going had excellent ability numbers according to the sharkscope formula.  There were several 94's and very few under 80.  I was also surprised to see how few games at Cake many of them had and how they were able to come in and win major trips in so few tries.  It always amazes me while talking to players (and some could be bs) but for a 20 year old to talk about playing $8000 buy in cash games just makes me wonder how they get these kind of bankrolls to jump into big games as these.  While talking to Josh, I learned he was a professional poker player and was travelling around playing big tournaments.  He had just come from the WSOP series in San Diego and finished 6th in the main and when I looked him up, he had scored a 3rd in a huge tourney for over 500k.  What am I doing wrong ? ????????  :)   WE got to hang out with Chris, and Ian showed up and got to spend a couple hours with my old friend from Dublin, so that was cool.   We also got to meet Doug from Cake, who is one of the original Cake founders and the 'brains' behind the software.  Got some really good insight as to how the operation works and was very interesting.     So what about the Irish Open.................................................................................

DAY 1

We start off with 10,000 chips and a 25/50 blind with 1 hour levels.  We were to play 8 levels on day 1 with the last two levels being 75 minutes each.  Good format to get some play in.  Level one was fairly uneventful, but in level 2, I pick up A A from mid position and a dude from France on my right raises to 300.  I decide to slow play it and call and the button, a young Irish local reraised to 850.  The frenchman calls, I call and we see a flop of A K 10 rainbow.  There is over 2600 in the pot and it is checked around, with me sitting on a set of Aces.  The turn is a 4, and again checked around.  I was obviously waiting for some added value, taking a bit of a risk.  The turn is an 8, no flushes possible.  The frenchman checks, I bet 1600 and the Irishman repops me for 3500.  I put him on maybe slow playing AK or A 10, I'm not going away with my set, so think about it and shove all in.  He looks confused and goes into the tank for about 5 minutes and asks " will you show if I lay it down " and I shake my head  NO.  He laughs and says fold and turns over pocket 8's for a set of 8's.  Good laydown, he would have been on the rail (this player did eventually cash). 

A few hands later, I get 5 5 from the button and there is a raise in front of me to 300, which I call and the big blind calls as well. The flop is 3 4 6, two clubs. The raiser checks, I bet 675, the BB mucks and the raiser calls. The turn is a K, not a club, and he fires 1800 and I think about it with my 10 outs (from what I estimate) and make a scared call. The river is an A, no help to me, he checks and I bet 4100 and he thinks about it and lays it down, and I turn over the 5 5 and he is pissed....stack the chips

I didn't know it until about this time, but the player two seats to my left is Jude Ainsworth, a team Poker Stars pro with over a million in cashes lifetime. He seemed like a decent player but I certainly wasn't afraid of him before or after I knew who he was.



Card dead for a while after and I get to dinner break with about 19k in chips and after dinner I steal a few small pots and chip up to about 24k. We get to the last level of the night, 300/600 with a 50 ante and I had been raising quite a bit as the table was tight and picking up some extra bullets. Ainsworth has also been raising quite a bit and he does again and gets pushed all in from the button, a pretty tight Irish guy. Ainsworth calls, turns over K K, and the raiser meekly shows his 2 2, with the Poker Pro star about to pick up another 12k. Unfortunately for him, the river shows a 2 and he loses 12k instead, leaving him with about 18k. When it comes to my big blind, I pick up A A and raise Ainsworth the standard raise. I should mention, he has come over the top of my raises 3 times and I have laid down each time.  He instantly calls all in and I call and hold on against his A K, building my stack and taking the Poker Stars Team Pro out of the tournament.

WE are in the last level, it's about 1:30 am and I am sitting on 43k in chips. This is a great position to be in going in to day 2, so I don't want to get crazy. With 45 minutes left in the night, I pick up 9 9 on the button and it is mucked around to me and you remember that guy earlier who laid down the set of 8's, he is now in the big blind. I have determined after 10 hours of playing with him, he is a bit of a fish. I raise and he reraises to 4400. He has about 20k in chips. I think about it and am pretty sure he thinks I am trying to steal so I push all in and he calls with K K and it holds up...damn it. Half my stack that I have worked all day to build. 10 minutes later from an early position, I get K K and the gentleman to my right raises to 1900, I raise to 5100 and a player near the button pushes all in with about 19k. The raiser mucks, I think about it and wanting to get back to where I was, call and he shows A A.   Are you kidding me ?  But then the flop comes K 9 9...oh my god, I have sucked out and will finish day one, right ????????????    Not so fast fool, the turn comes an A and my tournament is over......sigh



Amanda as usual is here to support and is always great. I am putting her in the ladies event on Sunday and then we are off cross country to Killarney and the Ring of Kerry
 
The next day, we take the train across country about 3 hours to Kerry County.  The trains are clean, comfortable and on time.  The countryside was a nice change from big city Dublin.  Lot of small towns, farms, green pastures, very pretty.  We get to Killarney and easily find the rental car company in town centre and my Euro driving experience is about to begin.  I had made sure to get an automatic as of course we are driving on the opposite side of the road, not to mention the opposite side of the car.  I grew up driving a stick, but not left handed, lol, so f...that, get the automatic,even though it is much pricier.    I also make sure to get a GPS system and this turns out to be a smart move as roads in Ireland are not clearly marked in some of the places we ended up.  The drive to Waterville, where we stayed, was about 90 minutes and the drive is actually part of the Ring of Kerry.  It was a very pretty drive along the Atlantic coastline, through some small towns and then a little country road to the house.  A few days of relaxation and then back home.....Another great trip that I would recommend to any of you.
 

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February / March

This is why I don't quit the day job. I started off in February on FIRE, up over 4k in the first 180 games and then the variance came.  Over the course of 894 games played over these 59 days, I had 7 distinct and drastic downswings.  Looking more closely at it, I played many more heads up games these months and although I am +ROI over the long run, had some losing streaks in this period that cost me overall profit.   I did well with the super tubo's with a win rate over $100 per hour, but going forward I will continue to work on my heads up game.


Results

Games played   894
Hours played   206 hours
ROI                  .92 %
Win rate            $5.27 per hour

Heads UP matches    495  ( -$4329)
Super Turbo 6max    351 matches  ( +$7821)
Mulit's                        37 matches   (-$2425)
Rakeback                      1280

So, why play heads up with these results ?  Good question, well, the most profitable players on most sites are very good heads up players, and looking at my overall lifetime heads up results, I have won 477 matches compared to losing 445 for a +32 to the good.  I do need to get much better at opponent selection, as many times I am the first one in and giving the other regs the choice to jump in as opposed to me sitting back and choosing more wisely.  I will work on this going forward.......I might also note these results are for Feb/March and as of this writing, April is shaping up much better (will report on these soon).


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Miss February

oh dawg...that's just wrong


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January 2010

January has come and gone and now 2010 has started off very well.  Although I have been experiencing more drastic 'swings' lately and not quite as consistent, the end result was good.  I started venturing into more heads up matches and had a ROI of + 9.84% over 120 matches.  I will say that as jhub has consitently preached in sng's, table selection (or in this case) opponent selection,  is very important.  There are some heads up "specialists" that are really good at what they do and although I have sat down with them for some fun, why play players, when there are so many wannabees out there to take advantage of.   Choose your opponents carefully, look at their average buy in and see if they are in over their head.  I have matched up many times this month in a $150 buy in against players with 400 game averages of $30, who may be hot and trying for a quick score, that you can usually take control of the game.   My 6 man super turbo number for the month was ROI + 5.46% over 341 matches.

The real nugget of the month came on the last day of the month, winning an entry package to the Irish Open in Dublin, Ireland in April.   15 have qualified from Cake and I was lucky enough to make this trip last year (see post) and it is a blast.  Chris from Cake hosts and what a great time.  I have stayed in touch with Ian from Ireland over the last year and looking forward to seeing him again as well.  I am way looking forward to it.  We are taking a couple extra days off to stay in Ireland and I am hoping to score a house in Wexford or Wicklow to enjoy the Irish countryside.

Overall results for January

sessions  493
hours played  126
overall ROI  + 20.93%
Win rate  $ 88.35 per hour


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Miss January

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The Year 2009

2009

What a year, as the pictures above witness, only a few of the big news stories that touched all of our lives this year.

Iran will redefine itself in the next few years. It will, in my opinion, be the US' biggest concern over the next decade. The people there want freedom, want the right to express themselves and many are making huge sacrifices to get to that end. I fully support their effort and believe that this could have world consequences

Pirating still continues into the 21st century, that is amazing to me. These criminals from Somalia can take over vessels 100 times the size of the little skiffs they are zooming around in and how they can hold countries hostage is epic. And countries/ companies are paying it, encouraging and ensuring that as long as it is profitable for these guys, who obviously have nothing else going on that this activity will continue.

Vladamir Putin taking a horseback ride in the country.

Swine flu panicking the world in huge numbers. There haven't been very many pandemics in our lifetime and this one has already killed thousands of people.

Obama making US history. A great orator, but can he really solve all the things he is looking to tackle. I didn't vote for him, but more power to him, I hope he gets it done.

The death tolls from a war it's difficult to know if we can win. This week, 5 young Muslim AMERICANS were arrested for planning jihad. These were college students very close to graduating into professional careers and somehow, they ended up believing the kooks and signing up. That should scare us all. This group has only one ambition and that is to destroy us and our way of life and I hope and support that we will crush them and help them along with their false, unbelievable beliefs of martyrdom.

The landing on the Hudson kept us all amazed for a few days.

The Dali Lama helping out at a food line in San Francisco

Saturn pictures taken from the cassini orbiter. Wasn't it no more than 6 generations ago for all of us that horseback was the best we could do ? Goes to show, we are just a spec in time on our turn on this big blue marble.

and then there is Michael. Rest in peace, thanks for the music

POKER

Let's face it, I grind out a corporate job for 10 -12 hours a day and get my poker on for a couple hours in the evening and on my days off. I would like it to be the other way around, but obligations and poor life decisions
forbid that at this time. Having said that, and after a 4 month cooler in past quarter, it was overall a pretty successful year.

Sessions played 4230

Win Rate $ 36.75 hour for the year

ROI 10.32%

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October / November

 

Ah, fall is here and in the air....NOT...this is southern cal and fall is about the same as spring...perfect :) What a place to live, ya gotta love it. In fact, I do like the more moderate temperatures, mid 60's to 70's during the day and high 40's to 50's at night. I do like the chill in the evenings. So, what happened in October and November besides me losing my game in poker. We got to get out of town for a few days to Cabo (see previous post), had a fun birthday blowout in late November for yours truly where we went to the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano to party and see Dread Zeplin play. If you have not seen this band, check em out when they come to your town. The music is tight and it is funny to watch as the lead singer is a Elvis impersonator, very funny and good music. Also, joined facebook and I am not sure I am happy I did at this point. The upside is running across old friends I haven't seen in a while, but not sure I like that kind of exposure to everyone. Also, what's with the farmville bullshiiiit and all the other goofy stuff going on, I can do without seeing who's received a heart and crap like that. May disengage :)

POKER RESULTS

I have continued to stick with the my main game, the super turbo 6 man sit n go and was profitable at + $1357, but ventured over to the heads up 300 chip Full Tilt game and although I like the fast pace and games per hour, and ran some strings of wins, was overall down < $633 > for that game and will stop playing those altogether. Slight profit in MTT's of + 317 and had decent rakeback.

835 sessions

ROI + 2.83%

Time played 277 hours

Not great and not where I want to be, but survived the beats for the most part. Traffic has been increasing on Cake and the staff has added many new guaranteed Multi's each day, so that is bringing more people to the site. If you would like to give Cake a try, click on my banner and use FRAZ in the SIGN UP CODE box and you will get 33% rakeback for every game you play, ring and tourneys...If you don't know what rakeback is, shoot me an email and I will be happy to explain it to you, as you should NOT PLAY ANY MORE GAMES until you have it. It is that important to your profit line.

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Miss November

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Miss October

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Cabo baaaaby

So, I definitely had the Aruba blues this October, not getting there for the first time in 3 years, so to drown the sorrow away, donkeyherder, myself, soccerpro77 and herder's wife took a road trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It is called Land's End and for good reason. It ends literally where the Pacific ocean and the Sea of Cortez meet. It is only a two hour flight from So Cal, so we got there and we had bought a time share from a bro of mine and did not know what to expect except the pix looked good and the price was right. We knew we were about 40 minutes from the airport to the hotel and were debating to rent a car or take a cab and see what's up. There were hundreds of 'hawkers' around the airport, offering to give you a ride if you see a timeshare presentation and we're like " ah nah" and hook up an overpriced cab for the trip. It is an okay somewhat scenic drive and the town is a typical small town with the haves and have not's as far as we can see. There are mansions and there are shacks and the people all seem happy regardless of which one they are in. We pull up to this long drive headed for the ocean on the Pacific side to Pueblo Bonito Sunset beach and it is spectacular, a definite 5 star resort. They have some construction going on, building more rooms and a Jack Nicholas golf course and we get to the lobby check in and the check in attendant is cool and gives us a couple options. We had already paid for a 2 bedroom suite and he says, you can have this one or that one, but I also have this other one that has a jacuzzi on the balcony of the 8 floor and we say " hell yeah, that one" and we are off. This place is built on a side of a hill and they have golf carts take you anywhere you want to go...down these winding paths, all decorated with local foliage and it is obviously well kept. We get up to the room and SCORE...nice room, fantastic view, beautifully furnished and we are very happy. As we had not vacationed together before, I was not sure if we would all get along for an entire week together, but it all worked out fantastic and time flew. We partied on the sunset cruise, headed down the coast to snorkel and spent one day fishing the Pacific, just the 4 of us on our own chartered boat. As none of us are avid fisherman, we didn't know what to expect and the girls took some seasick meds but still ended up hurling and sleeping for a lot of the time. We were cruising a 1/2 mile from the shoreline trolling and ended up hooking up 16 Dorado ( mahi mahi ) and kept 12 of them. This is a beautifully colored fish that strikes top water and is shiny all the way in. In many cases, they leap from the water and the 12 we kept were from 10 to 30 pounds. We got back to the marina, had them filleted, and took them back to the suite where we cut them into steaks and bagged and froze them, with the exception of one which we took to the pool and they kindly grilled up for us fresh for fish tacos. What a treat !. Herder and I both brought our laptops and were able to grind some, both making final tables on consecutive days and that was kickass....Overall, a great trip

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Ah September

Did you know that September was national rice month ? Do you care that September was national rice month ? LOL, okay me either, except I am told it is in our best interest to eat more rice, so load up folks ...........

Poker was rough this month as I ignored my own advice and continued to get involved in ring games. My tournament play also suffered and it just seemed the ridiculous bad beats happened at a higher rate than normal, both on Cake and Full Tilt. I spent some time on UB playing satelittes for Aruba and won a couple of main event entries but never got too close to winning, so a bit frustrated with that and it may have negatively impacted some of my other play. At any rate, here are the results for September...I may be forced to eat more rice soon :)

RakeBack + 1392
Sit n Go's 210 sessions - 1349
Multi table tournaments 35 sessions - 410
Ring games 16 sessions - 532

September totals 267 sessions - $899 -3.37% ROI


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Time for a ROAD trip

Well, it looks like Aruba might not happen for us this year, unfortunately, but what the hell, let's do a road trip. The pic above is of the pool at our hotel as we are heading south to Cabo San Lucas and a little visit to Cabo Wabo perhaps. We are heading down with donkeyherder and nope, no poker there, so it's sunshine, margaritas and sport fishing. I will be taking the laptop and will stay in touch

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August 2009

August has always been a weird month for me. I am not sure why, but it's like, summer is coming to a close soon and it's too hot and I didn't do all the summer things I had planned and blah blah blah...just weird to me. In fact, it was pretty uneventful, as there were no major events or vacations that I took, it was just one of those grind it out months. My game jumped all over and I ventured out from my bread and butter ST sit n go's and played some ring games, and I didn't do well. Had some good sessions, but played too many hands and will lay off those for a while.

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Nah, I'm GRINDING right now

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Aruba (the second time) 08

The first trip to Aruba was so much fun, I had to try for it again and again was successful in winning the trip through Ultimate Bet. Since we had been the previous year, we knew more of what to expect and pack, etc. My buddy Bill (billiam_cdn) from Toronto also won again and we agreed to rent a house this time instead of staying in the hotel. I was able to score a 5 bedroom house with private pool on 5 acres on a hill just 2 miles from the hotel where the tournament was to be held. We had a tropical backyard with hammocks and beautiful foliage and a view of the Caribbean. They also had turtles and I ended up taking it upon myself to feed the turtles each day, which was fun. Each time I would feed the turtles, a bunch of little very colorful lizards would come out as well and help eat the lettuce I was feeding the turtles, very cool. UB also put on an auction for a bunch of cool things, like dinners at very nice restaurants, a private party in Phil Helmuths suite, and other fun stuff. I put in bids on two nice restaurants, Helmuth' party and was watching we got closer to the deadline. I had noticed that Shawn Rice, a UB pro, was also bidding on all the same things. Well, since he has about a million points and works for UB, that didn't seem right, so I asked and was assured he was not eligible. Okay, cool, I ended up not winning the private party but did win two great dinners, one at Texas de Brazil and another at the best restaurant at the hotel. One change UB made to the tourney this year, was that the main event would end at 8 p.m. each night, so that was cool and still gave us time to spend the evening's together. The first day of poker went well for me with the key hand coming when I hook up with A A in an early position and raise and get re raised from the button. I think about it and push all in, opting not to slow play them like I usually do. He goes into the tank and takes about 5 minutes before calling with K K. I win the hand, double up, and he admits he almost laid them down.....hmmm. I get by day one (in fact, I have never NOT gotten into day two in any major event) and in day two, I run good again with a huge hand where I am the button and see 4 4. There is an early raiser to 3,000 and I call and the big blind also calls, so a little over 12,000 in the pot. The flop comes J 4 4...oh boy oh boy oh boy...the original raiser bets 9,000, I call and the big blind mucks. The turn is a 2 and I am hoping his guy either has A A or catches something. He bets 25,000 and I call and he stares me down. This is one of those young hotshots with his poker starter kit, sunglasses and baseball hat (lol, I do the same). The river is a 9 and he goes all in, I call and he turns over pocket 2's for a full house and I instacall and pick up a huge pot. There were 551 players that started the tournament and 54 players would be paid and we got down to the money by the end of the day and I had a nice stack.

We played for a couple hours and I have Lee Markholt on my left two seats. He plays very tight but has a lot of respect around the table. He eventually gets knocked out and we start playing 6 handed when we get down to 36 players. I hang on with nothing special happening but picking up spots. I have already bettered my 07 finish as I was 38th there and once we get down to 18, I get tabled with James Mordue, the 07 2nd place finisher and a very solid player. I also have Lynn Samples sitting next to me on my left. I know James "Jimmy" is the guy I have to watch out for but he has a shorter stack and as a result has pushed a couple times. I pick up 10 10 when it is his big blind and I put him all in and tell him " I really don't want you in the tourney anymore" and he responds " No one does" and he is right. He has played many big tournaments and done well for himself. He looks down at his cards and calls with A J. He turns a J and doubles up and that's not a good sign. The very next hand, I get A Q and raise and he pushes all in from the small blind with 9 9 and I call again getting in heads up with "Jimmy" . I flop a Q and knock him out of the tournament and now I am feeling very confident with lots of chips and "Jimmy" out of the tournament. A few hands later, I push all in on Lynn Samples (she is the girlfriend of UB pro Shawn Rice) and knock her out as well. I am chip leader at this point and feeling it. What a feeling it is to be chip leader very late in a major tournament. After this, I go card dead and get whittled down a bit. It comes to my big blind and I pick up A 10 and, like every hand, there is a raise and I call and an A comes in on the flop. He bets, I call....turn is a rag, he bets, I call..river is a rag and I bet and he calls with A J and I lose the pot and a chunk of chips. I also run into Chris Morrison (dashalert) and I had played with him on many occasions online and he is a solid player as well. He bluffs me out of a nice pot and I am now one of the shorter stacks...wtf ? We are down to 10 players and 7 go to the final table which is on TV..I am that close. Dashalert and Matt Brady are the only two guys I think are equal to me at this point but the blinds are big and I am short. I raise from the button with J 6 of diamonds and get called by both blinds. This is going to be a big pot. The flop comes A 10 8 with two diamonds and it checks around to me, and I push all in. The small blind takes about 10 minutes in the tank and makes the call with A 2, the big blind folds and I now need a diamond...ONE TIME PLEASE....not to be, no diamond and I get knocked out 10th for $33,400. Nice run, but only 9 players to a million...I am NOT happy. As has become our tradition, it's celebration dinner time and we head over to Texas de Brazil. I had not been to a place like this before and what a great dinner, I highly recommend this place. We also got some snorkeling in and of course had a great time with our friend Bill once again.....thanks Aruba . The last night UB had their closing party. These parties are off the hook. It was definitely helped my "mood" that I had done well in the tournament, but they have bars everywhere, great food, it's out under the stars around the pool and they set up a stage built over the water of the pool and Scott Ian from Antrax and his girlfriend Pearl ( who is meatloaf's daughter) and their band just rock the night. We are smoking Cuban cigars, and Amanda and a bunch of others are in the pool dancing and the waiters are getting in the pool with their trays of drinks and delivering the drinks in the pool. It was crazy fun.


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Just Because

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Aruba the First Time ( Oct 07)

Winning Aruba the first time was especially important to me as we had never really taken any big "poker trips" before. Sure, we were at WSOP in Vegas, and that was great, but I have been to Vegas hundreds of times, as it is just 4 hours away, but we had never traveled to go play poker, so this was going to be fun. I don't know why, but we had to fly all the way across county and then south to the tiny island of Aruba, just off the coast of Venezuela. It has always been a vacation retreat for east coast crowd, but I had never paid much attention to it, until Natalie, and then it got all kinds of attention. We arrived and took a cab down to almost the end of the island to the hotel circle area and pulled up at the Raddison. It looked tropical with open air lobbies and it felt great. The rooms ended up being okay, a bit small, but hey, we were in freaking Aruba. We took a walk around the complex and saw the killer pool, right next to the beach, the gym that overlooks the water, some outdoor bars and open aired grill. This was so cool. Ultimate Bet had a welcome party that night around the pool and they did it first class, with many open bars, appetizers everywhere, and Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke hosting. I was getting hammered on free rum drinks and having a blast. Hellmuth was feeling no pain and like he always does, grabbed the mike and started talking. He introduced an 18 year old girl from
the Netherlands named Annette15 online as she had just won the European WPT event and something like 2 million dollars, poor baby.....lol. Hellmuth was also getting hammered and decided to liven things up a bit and started offering $500 to any girls willing to lose their tops and jump in the pool. :) They lined up to do it... Word the next day was Annie was not too pleased with this stunt. This party is also where we met new friends Bill (billiam_cdn) from Canada and Sasha, a single guy from Australia. We became inseparable from that night on. I was fascinated by Bill's stories of all the events he had won and been to and knew I would try more attempts to do the same after listening to him. He had travelled all over and played all these big events, but had not cashed in any of them yet. I, of course, had only played in one big event so far (the main event) and had cashed, so I had some bragging rights. Bill introduced me to Cuban cigars too, as he is expert on them. They were (and are) both great guys and you will see other posts with Bill in them as well. There was another guy I had been chatting with online and had played many times and his online name was The Black Hat and he was from Wisconsin. Turns out, there is a group from Wisconsin and they glossed themselves the Wisco boys. More about him later...The poker room was a convention center set up and had lots of buzz going on. It was very well run, with about 30 tables of sit n go's and sattelites going on. Amanda was not going to be bored after all...lol. The main event was the next day and Sasha got knocked out but Bill and I survived day one. The tournament had 548 players and would pay 54 spots. We both made it through the 2nd day as well, playing with such notables as Freddy Deeb, Michael Gracz, Jonathan Little, "JJ" Lieu and others. It was on day three when I sat and played with a young guy named Jordan Rich that impressed the hell out of me. I was fascinated watching how focused he was and saw him take a huge pot from Jonathan Little on an absolutely great call. Little was the chip leader and Rich had a good stack too, both in the top 10 and Little put Rich almost all in after the river and Rich thought and thought and made the call with 3rd pair and took the pot. Jordan was also two behind me, making him the button on my big blind and he was punishing my small stack and I knew I could not sit and not play. I look at A 5 off and sure enough he comes around and raises me again and I push, he calls and turns over K Q and I hold on and double up. I hated the way I was playing and learned alot about late round tournament play from watching Jordan Rich. The second day was played down until 54 players, or everyone making the money and Bill and I both made it. We were pumped up, as this was to be Bill's first major cash and I was now 2 for 2. Unfortuately, of the 54 players left, I was 51st in chips, very sad. I was to start day 3 with 33,400 chips and Bill had 135,000 chips, so he was in great shape. I had about 10 big blinds left and knew I had to pick a spot and push. I did that, picking up a few small pots and grew my stack to 57,000 and just was able to hang around while people around me were dropping off, including Bill, who caught a cooler and ended up getting knocked out 47th, but still a respected cash of almost $8,000. I see Gracz get knocked out, then Robert Williamson, then the 'mouth' Matasow in 41st and I am liking my game right about now. But then the cooler...I get Q J suited diamonds in the big blind , JJ Lieu limps from under the gun and we get raised by the most aggresive player at the table to 7500 chips. I have 3500 in already and make the call, as does JJ. The flop comes Q 5 2 rainbow with one diamond. There is 28,000 in the pot. JJ checks and the raiser makes it 15,000 to play, making the pot 43,000. I am hoping he is on a continuation bet, so I push all my chips in and JJ mucks (good) and the raiser says 'call' and turns over Q Q and I finish 39th for $10,630. Poker players know this feeling of disgust and sadness as you are leaving a tourney you have gotten deep in. You just won over $10,000 and you are feeling bad, very ironic but true. Well, I got over it, Bill was more disapointed than me I think, he had so many chips going in, but hey, it's time to celebrate. Amanda and Sasha were great supporters, there for us on every break and helping us discuss strategy for the next rounds, so Bill and I agree to take them to dinner. We hop in a cab and head for the southern end of the island to the (ironically) California Lighthouse where there is supposed to be a great Italian restarant. We pull up and there is a beautiful patio setting outside, with two levels, one covered and the lower one not. It is crowded and so we settle for the upper patio. It is a beautiful Carribean evening, Bill and I had just played 3 grueling days of poker and were rewarded for it and we were in Aruba, what could be better. We are drinking bottle after bottle of good wines, smoking Cuban cigars and have a great memories of the last few days and eating a great meal, when we hear thunder, then lightening, and wow, we have a show in the sky as we are celebrating. It is beautiful, but then a heavy rain starts just pouring down. It wasn't our choice, but we ended up sitting on the top patio, which was covered and all the people on the lower patio were scrambling with their food and getting soaked. We sat there dry and kept drinking our wine and smoking our cigars and ended up closing down the place 5 hours later. It was one of my most memorable dinners ever. The final TV table was to be the next day and remember that Wisco boy I told you about earlier, The Black Hat, well he made it to the final table. This guy is a young guy who was buddies with a pretty large group of players all from Wisconsin who all made the trip. They and I were all rooting for him and he played excellent and came in 3rd place for a cash of $252,000. The bad news was that he had a deal with UB pro "Poker Ho" who was also from Wisconsin who had staked Black Hat for 50% in the $500 sattelite to get to this tournament, so he they had agreed that HO would get 50% of any winnings.....ouch...still a good showing though...good job Brad....


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July 09

So, what were the big stories in July. Well, we launched Operation Strike of the Sword in Afghanistan, the first vaccine for swine flu was revealed in Germany, three dinosaur species were discovered in Australia, Sarah Palin stepped down from being Governor of Alaska, North Korea continues to defy the world and keeps firing missiles, and of course the continuing saga of how Michael Jackson died. I don't know about you, but less MJ news is okay with me, kinda done with it.

POKER

In our free rolls this month, big prop shout outs to yankee27 and pairaduxx for bringing home the cash in our two free rolls. Yankee27 won the NL tourney in just his first effort and pairaduxx also won in his first effort, this time in Limit. We have a great time with these and hope you all can join us for the future games.

For my game, I had a pretty good month, considering just 355 games and ended up on the last day of the month winning the 20K on cake for a nice finish.

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Dream Team Poker ( March 09 )

So, if I didn't mention it before, I don't keep up much with all the poker news going on. I just like to get in there and grind, so I had no idea what the heck DTP was until my buddy krazykanuck asked me if I was going to play in the DTP. I told him 'I have no idea what you're talking about' and he gave me the link http://www.dreamteampoker.com/ and there it was. It turns out, there is a new very popular and unique format using a team concept in what has always been an individual activity. After reading it, it sounded like a lot of fun and I knew exactly who I wanted on my team, donkeyherder and billiamcdn. Both are solid poker players and good friends. This was to be the 2nd time they had had one of these and I didn't know what to expect when we got there. The cost was 500 plus 50 per player, so I'm thinking a bunch of tourists and locals play this thing. Turns out, there were a bunch of locals there, Hellmuth, Matusow, Kenna James, Jamie Gold and tons of other well known pros. WTF ? I'm thinking what are these guys doing in a little (for them) buy in tournament like this. Well, as I mentioned before, this thing is taking off, was very well organized and advertised and oh well, let's go beat some pros then. We had to decide on a name and this wasn't easy. DTP was going to give us all jerseys with our name on it and you wear your team jersey when you play, so we wanted something cool and catchy and witty....we didn't get there. We (after a long 3 way call) decided on Chipstackers and it was official. As Bill is from Toronto, we all met and stayed at the Venetian, Casey and I shared a killer suite and Bill had his family there for a few days and then it was just the boys. DTP was hosting a get together at Caesars, where the event was to be held, so we all walked over there and I have to tell you, I was quite impressed. All the team jerseys were hung on the walls at each end of the room and it looked awesome, including the Chipstackers. There was "The Favorites" hanging there, which turned out to be the team of Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow and Jerry Buss (?) on one team. There was "team aced" which had Jamie Gold (who ended up winning ) and 146 other teams. The format worked that your top two finishers, would add up their finishing spot and the lowest combination wins. There was also individual prizes as well. No members of the same team could play together until the final two tables. It was really a great event, and once seated, an opening speech from ??? the actual mayor of Beverly Hills. Don't ask me, I have no idea.

I get to my starting table and there he is, the "mouth" Matusow. I also have Paul Darden at the table and both of them are talking to two other players at my table that they obviously know. So, as I am being tortured by the constant blabbering of the mouth about 'his book' I manage to play well and chip up a little. Our table is soon to break however, and I get moved to a table where I find myself with 4 chicks and pocket rockets in the big blind. There is a raise from early position and it folds around to me and I re raise and get called. The flop comes 9 3 2 rainbow and the original raiser pushes all in. My mouth is watering as I eye his stack to see how many chips I will soon be collecting and I call. He turns over 9 9 and I am done. Son of a ..................

Bill is soon to get knocked out too but Casey hangs on for a few hours and lasts to about 100 players. A disappointing run for the Chipstackers, but a great time anyway and fun to hang out with my boys. If you get a chance, I definitely recommend this tournament....

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Jimmy Buffet 09

So, you can't be grinding all the time can ya ? If you have never been to a Jimmy Buffet concert before, you are missing out on one of the all time great tailgate parties. The concert itself pretty much blows and frankly, I don't remember much of it except the best song he sang wasn't even his, but a cover on a Crosby Stills Nash and Young song called Southern Cross that is one of my all time favorites. BUT the party rocks. My buddy Don just bought a killer motor home and was dying to show it off and he is so generous, he was also designated driver. I warned him that our group would not be on our best behavior at this thing and he was totally down and a great host. Anyway, these people are crazy and fun, everyone is drinking, and playing music and it's a blast. It was made all the more fun by the people I went with. Amanda, Brenda, Ed, Don and Shirley..you guys rock....