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Getting Back to the Grind

I have a little more time for a proper post this morning.  I’m coming off a little mini-vacation from poker.  I had such a rough week on the tables over the weekend that I really didn’t want to look at another poker hand for a while. 

I thought my Full Tilt check withdrawal should have been here by now.  I checked my mail yesterday and still no check.  Then, out of coincidence, I got an email a few minutes later from Full Tilt thanking me for my deposit.  Hrmmm… I made no deposit and this one was the exact amount of the check I was expecting.  Another email soon came and said they had to cancel my withdrawal (even though I had been sent a letter telling me my check would be unaffected).  So, 16 days after the withdrawal and I’m back at square 1.  Ugh… I hate the UIGEA.

The good news is that I got another $100 bonus for my efforts, so I will go ahead and grind on that a while.  I’ve decided to go ahead and move up to $50NL for the time being.  I have enough bankroll, and it will also speed up the clearing process for that bonus. 

My ultimate goal in the $50 games will be to continue to build my bankroll and then start working on my heads up play a bit.  The HU NL games are the most fun games that I have played (besides 2-7 TD) on the net.  I’m no heads up genius or anything, but I feel that I have a considerable edge over the competition.  I know the HUNL games can be swingy, so I’ll wait until I pad my roll a bit more before continuing into those.

Lastly, I finally got Wordpress installed on the new site.  Now, I just need to get it working the way I want and I’ll be all set to move this blog over to the new location.

Lack of updates on my end.  Sorry about that.  I haven’t been in the office.  This won’t be a proper post either because I have training in a few minutes.

I have been working out of town the past 2 days.  I have in-office training the next 2 days.  Friday can’t get here fast enough. 

I played a bunch of tournaments over the weekend and ran like pure ass.  I tried to make it up by playing 2-7 triple draw and run like smelly ass.  I lost a good chunk of money over the weekend.

I haven’t played poker the past 2 days because I have been getting home late.  I went to my parents house to watch the HR derby Monday night.  Last night, I had intended to watch the All-Star game on MLB.tv, but what was I thinking?  It was blacked out of course.  Fox, ESPN, and MLB are tight.

Maybe more of a proper update later on.  I still haven’t began working on the new site either.  So much to do, so little motivation to do it.

Moving / More MTT Thoughts

This website will be moving soon.  I bought a domain and hosting plan for it.  My goodness is webhosting cheap these days or what?

I’m still waiting for my account to be set up and all that jazz.  Then I’ll have to install Wordpress and mod it up a bit.  Hopefully everything will be ready for me to work on that over the weekend or even this afternoon :).  I’ll post the link whenever it’s ready.  The main reason for the move is that Wordpress is some much greater than Blogger.  Plus I want to open up a couple other blogs under some sub-domains.  Hey, I like to purge my brain into the keyboard which sometimes comes out as a blog post.  It’s how I keep my sanity.  It’s my drug.  I don’t claim to be a good writer, but I will claim that writing calms me more than just about anything these days.

Now for the more important stuff.  I have been giving though to the whole MTT concept and how to incorporate more into my play.  I think I will try out the cash games during the week, MTTs on the weekend type thing.  This way, I can buy into some of the larger events (player wise) and not have to worry about sitting around for 8 hours.  I know I won’t have to be at work the next day.

I’m also going to only set aside a certain portion of my bankroll for MTTs.  This way, I can 1.) keep track of my winnings easier (since Pokertracker doesn’t seem to handle that aspect well) and 2.) protect my cash game roll.  I’ll probably play mostly $4/180’s on Stars and satellites to larger events.  This way I should be able to build my MTT bankroll and then eventually move into buying directly into the higher buy-in events.  I can also move up the 20 table scale by going from the $4 –> $10 –> $20 or whatever they spread.

Congrats to Iggy for making the money and surviving day 3 of the WSOP.  I know the little man has to be exhausted right now, but remember the field is full of donkies and with your patience at the tables, you can take this bitch down for the bloggers.

I sucked it up last night on the tables.  I tried playing in several satellites and stayed away from the cash games for the day.  I cashed in zero of the tournaments I played.  I went deep in all of the tournaments but 1 too.  The 1 I didn't go deep in was a triple shootout where I did get down to heads up at my first table, but the dude made 2 hero calls on me and beat me.

I'm going to study up a little bit on MTTs this coming week and put them as part of my arsenal again.  They are too soft not to.

Tonight, I'll be going to the newly constructed concert hall type building they opening in town.  There will be a Bluegrass band playing that I've never heard before.  I'm not a big bluegrass fan, but a music and local music fan, so I'll go check it out...especialy for free.  I'm most interested in this huge building they have erected in town.  It looks fabulous!

MTT Madness

I’ve been a good little boy for 10 straight days.  I’ve stuck to the cash games and I’ve grinded.  I’m on pace for my 20K hand month (I think).  So I’m going to take a night off from the cash games.  Instead of cash games, I will run a few tournaments on Stars and/or Full Tilt.

I’m looking for a couple big scores to boost the bankroll.

River on!

Not an hour after my last post, my buddy Charlie called me.  He is the other half owner of the cabin and the contractor on my house last year.  He said him and his cousin Danny were definitely going to the river.  So the trip was on!  Nice!

I called the usual suspects to see what their status was for that week.

Rusty – Oldest of the crew.  Recently married, awaiting child. One of those What Can Brown do for you guys who wears brown shorts and brown socks to work if you know what I mean.  He works for a Hypermega Global Corp. type company and they have all kinds of procedures for vacation days.  He’s pretty sure he can get off the necessary days.

Bub – 2nd oldest of the crew.  Definitely the most blonde.  Fun to get on a sleepless induced tilt.  Even more fun when he’s drunk.  He said he would love to go and will make it happen.  Bub is a trooper when it comes to fishing.

Roger – My oldest friend.  Personal problems kept him from attending these trips the past 2 years.  He’s going to check about getting the days off.  My mother is his boss, so I’m not seeing a problem there :)

Jason? – Other owner of the cabin. I’m sure he’s working on the park somewhere.  Doesn’t answer his phone.  Checks his email like once a century.  His status is very doubtful as I have mentioned the reasons in my last post.  Jason originally started organizing these trips and I hope things work out so that he can go.  He needs a break anyway.

Danny – Cousin to Jason and Charlie.  Overall good guy.  Kind of looks like Sloth from the Goonies, just not as sexy.  Danny has a knack for landing women that are way out of his league.  It’s either all personality or he’s hung like a horse.  By the looks of his up and coming bride to be, I’m guessing it’s the latter.  She’s way too hot for him :)  Danny is the fish at the poker games.  It’s not that he sucks or anything.  He just lives to spew.

Mike? – 2nd oldest friend.  Mike and I don’t get to hang out much anymore because he spends his spare days jumping from airplanes.  Myself, I’m afraid of planes and have never really had the urge to follow him down to SC on these trips.  Mike is the quiet guy that can probably outdrink anyone on the trip.  We grew up in the pool hall together (along with Roger), went to college together, and both loathe our IT jobs together.

So, what can we expect from this trip?  Well, it’s mostly poker and fishing with some horse shoes on the side.  There will be drinking.  There might be some magical tea passed around.  Fish might actually be caught.  There will be grilling and a lot of chilling.

Danny is getting married next month too.  This means, there might be a trip to Charlestown for a bachelor party.  This means a redneck version of The Procedure.  Poker, Booze, Strippers… not necessarily in that order.

Charlestown has strip clubs and a casino.  I’m pretty sure they are running table games now that they are legal too.  If that’s the case and if the Powerball winner that lives beside the cabin comes along, I will try for a stake in the highest stakes game they spread.  If Mr. Powerball gets hammered and starts handing out cash like he did last time this mini-trip happened, then that cash will skip the strippers’ grubby mitts and land in my pocket so I can stake myself :)  That’s how I roll.  I don’t care much for Mr. Powerball anyway.  He’s a pill popping douche who likes to show off his money :)

Vacation Fail

I’m 2 weeks off a vacation and now I have another one scheduled in 3 more weeks.  However, I’m not sure if it’s going to happen at this point.  For like the past 15 years, a bunch of us friends pack up the vehicles and head for Front Royal, VA to do some fishing.  It looks like perhaps last year was our LAST year doing this trip.  Nobody seems to be able to get their shit together this year and get the days straight (we’ve been going the first full week in August for the past 15 years).  The guy that owns the cabin just married the anti-Christ.  They have a child that was born back in December.  So that complicates the issue.  However, the real reason is that the guy is a superintendent at a popular WV state park and has a hard time with his schedule during the summer.  In short, he has managed himself into a corner where nothing gets done if he’s not there.  So he has to work 7 days a week during the summer.  I don’t know about him, but I went to college so I could get a job where I didn’t have to do such things.

So here I sit again, wondering what vacation #2 will bring.  Vacation #1 was decent in the beginning because my Dad and I took the boat out fishing for a few days.  Vacation #1 was supposed to be Bonarroo, but I really enjoyed my time with my Dad.  More so than I would have with a bunch of filthy hippies.  We might sneak the boat out during this vacation too if his work schedule permits.   If not, then I’m not sure what I can do.  I really don’t want to spend another vacation sitting around the house.

I’m actually going to get with some other friends and see about maybe putting together a beach trip.  There are issues with that as well because one of the guys is starting school that following week, so I’m not sure about that either.

Long story, short… Vacation plans are “iffy” at best this year.  Getting old is gay.

One of dem days

First of all, how does this happen?

I still contend that Isabelle thought she was experimenting with another chick.  Well, I’m off to buy a scarf…BBL.

Ok..back.  Last night was one of them nights on the poker tables.  You know what I’m talking about.  Get the money in good, the cards come bad.  You miss flop after flop and never are able to get to a showdown.  Those type of nights.

The good news is that I never really paid attention to it being one of those nights until my session was over.  I knew it was a tough night.  I tried not to worry about it because I also knew I was playing very well. 

When all was said and done, I felt like I had been through a war.  I played as hard as I could for my timeframe I set aside prior to starting my session.  I finally pulled up Pokertracker to check out the carnage and was almost floored when I saw the Amount Won column show green.  Not only green, but +2 buyins green.  WTF?  Did I not import some hands?  A quick check of my Stars balance agreed with my results.  Nice!

We are a little over a week into July and I’ve already surpassed my winnings (minus rakeback) for June.  Hopefully this trend will continue.  I will attribute a lot of the winnings from just running good, although I have taken a fair share of beats this past week.  Mostly, I can attribute my winnings to good table selection, having a sound mind when playing, and just plain good poker.  Also, I’ve matched my total hands I played in June, so that helps :)

I’ll be trying to sweat Iggy today in the WSOP, but it’s hard to sweat a magical dwarf who has no real name nor face.  I’ll rely on Pauly to keep me updated :)

LOL FullTiltaments

After 1 month to do a simple bank withdrawal, I lost confidence in Full Tilt.  But I got my money and all was good.  I went to make another withdrawal this month and they have “temporary” problems with teh payment processor, so checks are my only choice for withdrawing my money.

Today I get this:

Dear WiredAces77,

We wish to inform you of a temporary issue with our payment processor which has affected a small number of recent check withdrawals.

If you are affected by this issue and experience any difficulty cashing or depositing your recent check, please rest assured that we are fully aware of the situation and working to resolve it as swiftly as possible. we will contact you when we receive further information on the details of your recent check withdrawal.

In the interim, please reply to this email or contact checkquestions@fulltiltpoker.com for clarification and assistance.

We appreciate the importance of receiving your funds in a timely manner and apologize sincerely if you have been affected.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Full Tilt Poker Support

PokerStars #1

Trying to stop spewing with Aces/Overpairs

Some are wins, some are losses.  Here are the first batch of hands without results, but with reads.  How do you play these?

These hands all come out of my last 20K hands played

--------------------
HAND #1
--------------------

Villain is 35.91/9.55/2.88 after 220 hands:

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 4 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

SB: $28.05 (112.2 bb)
BB: $53.95 (215.8 bb)
Predator314 (CO): $62.80 (251.2 bb)
BTN: $32.65 (130.6 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is CO with A A
Predator314 raises to $0.85, BTN folds, SB calls $0.75, BB calls $0.60

Flop: ($2.55) 2 7 4 (3 players)
SB checks, BB bets $2, Predator314 raises to $8, SB folds, BB raises to $18, Predator314 raises to $61.95 and is all-in, BB calls $35.10 and is all-in

--------------------
HAND #2
--------------------

Villain is 14.17/10.63/2.29 after 254 hands

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

UTG: $18.80 (75.2 bb)
MP: $34.25 (137 bb)
Predator314 (CO): $32.40 (129.6 bb)
BTN: $32.65 (130.6 bb)
SB: $9.75 (39 bb)
BB: $29 (116 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is CO with A A
2 folds, Predator314 raises to $0.85, BTN calls $0.85, SB calls $0.75, BB folds

Flop: ($2.80) 2 Q 7 (3 players)
SB bets $1.25, Predator314 raises to $6, BTN calls $6, SB folds

Turn: ($16.05) 6 (2 players)
Predator314 bets $25.55 and is all-in, BTN calls $25.55

--------------------
HAND #3
--------------------

Villains are:

BB: 50/14.29/0.80 after 14 hands

CO: 54.46/8.91/0.44 after 14 hands

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

Predator314 (BTN): $25.90 (103.6 bb)
SB: $34.75 (139 bb)
BB: $25 (100 bb)
UTG: $23.15 (92.6 bb)
MP: $40.55 (162.2 bb)
CO: $5.85 (23.4 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is BTN with A A
2 folds, CO calls $0.25, Predator314 raises to $1.10, SB folds, BB calls $0.85, CO calls $0.85

Flop: ($3.40) T A 8 (3 players)
BB checks, CO checks, Predator314 bets $2.50, BB calls $2.50, CO raises to $4.75 and is all-in, Predator314 calls $2.25, BB calls $2.25

Turn: ($17.65) Q (3 players, 1 is all-in)
BB checks, Predator314 bets $20.05 and is all-in, BB calls $19.15 and is all-in

--------------------
HAND #4
--------------------

Villain is 14.59/9.96/3.43 after 28 hands

Full Tilt, $0.10/$0.25 NL Hold'em Cash Game, 6 Players
Hand History Converter by Stoxpoker

Predator314 (SB): $25 (100 bb)
BB: $24.45 (97.8 bb)
UTG: $25 (100 bb)
MP: $31.50 (126 bb)
CO: $34.45 (137.8 bb)
BTN: $18.15 (72.6 bb)

Pre-Flop: Predator314 is SB with A A
4 folds, Predator314 raises to $0.75, BB calls $0.50

Flop: ($1.50) 6 2 9 (2 players)
Predator314 bets $1, BB calls $1

Turn: ($3.50) 4 (2 players)
Predator314 bets $2, BB raises to $5.75, Predator314 calls $3.75

River: ($15) T (2 players)
Predator314 checks, BB bets $8, Predator314 calls $8

I’m trying not to overwhelm the blog with a bunch of hand histories, but just picked a couple tough hands from my AA holdings over the past 20K total hands.  Again, some are goign to be wins, some are going to be losses.  Some are wins when I suck out, some are losses when I get sucked out on.  That’s why I’m not including the results.  How would you play any of these hands differently.  I know the results and some differently

I will also state that Hand #2 is an abomination to all this is related to poker! I blame the mushrooms.

I will post results tomorrow and maybe a few more AA hands if I can pick out a couple… maybe some KK hands as well.

I’m finally back in the office today after a long weekend.  I haven’t missed it one bit.  In fact, I could fired right now and feel nothing but happiness even though I might not be able to pay my bills in the future.  All of this, not 1 week after receiving a nice raise.  Throw all the money you want at me…I still hate my job!

I was looking at my schedule for this month.  I don’t see anything fun on the horizon.  I have a training session scheduled for tomorrow.  Next week, I have to install a new system in Charleston.  That will take 2 days.  Then after that, I get to train a new customer.  The next week…more training.  Week after that, I travel to Washington D.C. for yet more training.  The good news is that after the next 3 weeks, my schedule is pretty clear.  And I have another vacation coming up first full week of August.

I’m hoping the August vacation is to the Shenendoah.  Several of us want to go, but the guy that actually owns the cabin has been unreachable.  We don’t know if the trip is a go or no-go.  In past years, it’s always been just the thing to clear your calendars for the first full week of August.  But these days, wives and kids complicate matters.

As for poker, I’m grinding still.  I only played about 500 NLHE hands yesterday.  That’s normal for me, but prior days say me playing 1200-1500 hands.  I’m supposed to go to the P-Rays game tonight, but it has been storming all morning.  I doubt the field can withstand much more of this rain.  If that’s the case, then I’ll try to score another 1000+ hand session tonight.

This job is all the motivation I need to play poker anymore.  The more poker I play = more money I win = more I can save = bigger bankroll = me telling the boss to take a hike.

Lastly, I watched a couple movies yesterday.  First was The Grand.  I had never heard of it, but picked it up on a whim.  The movie was pretty shitty, but I got a couple chuckles out of it.  It’s a satirical, almost improvisational movie about the state of the poker industry today.  It pretty much hit the nail on the head.  I also watched the new Rambo.  If you never wanted to buy a .50 caliber weapon, this is the movie to change your mind.  They took Sylvester Stallone and his shitty acting and made an entertaining movie.  Basically, Stallone grunts and occasionally yells while firing various guns with awesome precision into enemy heads and toros.  The shootout scenes make the movie.  Nothing like seeing a sniper rifle take a dude’s head entirely off his body.  They didn’t leave out the gore in this movie and it’s fantastic if you ask me.  Just don’t expect to see good acting.  Just awesome shootouts and death scenes.