Big Blind Poker..and other stuff

I have recently joined Big Blind Poker, and look forward to their Sunday freerolls. It will give me a chance to play on a different site (Titan Poker), win some money, and play against a much friendlier group then I am used to. With a little luck I will be able to make some money in the freerolls to play the weekly $5 buy-in tournaments, as I dont plan on depositing onto Titan.
In other play, my play on PokerStars has gone well. I am up to $84.63, which is up $37.39. Since my last post, I am up $15.44! Hopeing by the end of August to get near $100 bankroll.

Great Poker Weekend

Played a lot of poker this weekend, including getting a friend of mine onto PokerStars on Saturday night, had two tournaments with amazing runs of card on Saturday. Within 2 hours, I won and placed 2nd in a couple of tournaments, in the process getting some monster flops where I took 2 people out of the tournament at a time 3 different times, including twice in 5 hands in the tournament I won. I actually have over 1/2 the chips on the table when we got to the final 8. I was actually up $22.20 after Saturday night, but played 5 tournament on Sunday, and never cashed - heck I only bubbled once, the rest of the time I was getting sucked out (3 times) and once I just overplayed a hand and lost it on my own. The good news is I am up $25.45 in since starting my experiment with PokerStars, and for last week I had a profit of $33.00!! Playing some today, as I am probably on working 1/2 day since I turn 37 today.

Loving PokerStars

Getting lots of good play in, even when I dont finish in the money. Played a total of 12 tournaments between 11 pm Tuesday night and 10 pm Wednesday night. Still havent gotten a win since I started tracking my PokerStars $1.50+$.25 18 player tournaments, but I cashed 5 times out of 12, two 2nds, one 3rd, and two 4ths for a profit of $4.80. More importantly, I am learning patience and how to play the cards and the position, stealing blinds and making bluffs that just a few months ago I dont think I could have done. Currently I am up to $52.09, after starting at $43.74. The good news is that my play on PokerStars since Monday has given me a $17.10 profit. I will be sticking with the $1.50+$.25 tournaments for a while, building up my bankroll. I think every $10.00 I earn, I may try a $1.00+$.20 45 man tournament, just to work on longer play. And of course the occassional freerolls when I have the chance. And the CardPlayer tournament next week is on my birthday, so that should be a interesting end to my 37th birthday!

Monday, Monday

Monday turned out to be a good night for me. I took care of the things around the house that I needed to, and then sat down to play poker. The CardPlayer League tournament was interesting. I never got above $1,800 in chips, and was below $1,000 most of the time. I did scratch and claw my way, grinding it out. Normally I would have panicked and went all-in super early, as we had 40 players, and with two eliminations I was 2nd lowest in chips. I still managed to pull out a 13th place finish. Leaves me 50 points out of 9th overall, so I need a Top 4 finish next week to make the finals. Otherwise I concentrated on the $1.50 + $.25 turbos. Played 6 tournments, no wins, but 2nd twice, 4th twice, 11th once and 12th once. $10.50 in buy-in, $21.60 in cash outs, for a profit of $11.10.

They call me the Bubble Man

Played four $1.50 + $.25 18 player turbo tournaments yesterday. Pays 4 places, so how did I finish? 5th, 5th, 6th & 7th. Very frustrating. I got a lot of play in though for not cashing at all. And my grand total for the entire weekend? Down $0.05! Not too bad. The real frustration for the weekend was the CardPlayer freeroll. I had people "railing" me right in my home, they sat and watched over my shoulder for over an hour. The most disappoint part was getting myself all in with a pair of Kings with only 100 people left (it paid 50). The guy next to me has gotten my 4 different times on 4 outers or less on the river. He is the only one left to call me, and he does, but not after typing "I havent played in while, I guess I will now". He flips over a pair of 4s. So the flop comes up 3-4-5, and I know that I am not going to get the Q I need, and sure enough I am out. Oh well, that is how the cards fall sometimes. But it really is tough when 1 person seems to have you number for drawing out on you. Lots of poker tonight, including the CardPlayer League Week 9 tournament.

Giving Up on Bodog

There comes a time when it just isnt working anymore, and that has now happened with Bodog. I keep hitting the bubble, and no further. Cash games arent any better. So my NEW goal (I know, the is the second time for that), is to work my Bankroll up on PokerStars. I still am working with the bankroll I had there, starting with $43.74. I am down $4.05 right now, so we will see where it goes from there. I am hoping that by focusing on one site only, I will be playing better.

Good Night, Not so Good Tournament

Well the CardPlayer tournament was a bust, I had a Broadway after the turn and went all-in, and was just against a set of 9s. As long as the case 9 didnt come up, or the board didnt pair, I was safe, leaving my opponent with 9 outs. The Jack paired, and I was out 40th of 43. Somehow I am still in the running for the Champions table however, as I am tied for 13th and only 29 points out of 9th. Two good finishs in the last two weeks will still get me in.
I did win a 18 person $1.50 + $.25 NLHE tournament on PokerStars, winning my $10.80. I also finished 19th of 184 on Bodog Beginnner $4.00 + $.40 NLHE tournament, cashing for $5.88, making my losses for the day even out. I finished the day up $2.18. Not a bad start to my fresh start. Likely not playing again until Saturday, August is a busy month.

Fresh Start

I have decided to give myself a fresh start, with the rebuys that I made on PokerStars and Bodog. The starting amount is $95.17, although my current bankroll is $117.17. This allows for the buy-in I already have to this weeks CardPlayer Tournament, as well as the last 2 tournaments to be taken out of consideration. Any cashs made in those three tournament will also be cashed out, and not counted either. This is mostly because I want to start playing correctly within my bankroll. This will consist of me grinding it out at the $1.00 - $2.00 tournaments on PokerStars, although I will allow myself the $4.00 + $.40 Beginner Sit n Go's on Bodog, since they pay out 5 places instead of 3. I may add other sites to this, but only if I win money through freerolls, including the CardPlayer Monthly this coming saturday. Additionally I will be really busy with home and work, so I will not be playing as much as I have come used to. My goal, to work my bankroll up, first towards $200, then see what happens. If I do lose this entire bankroll, I will be going back to deposting only $50 every 2 months, and playing ONLY on sub-qualifiers towards winning as seat for WSOP or WPT.

Long Winding Poker Weekend

Had a lot to do this weekend, so I didnt play as much poker as I would have liked, and when I did play I was having some bad luck, and did some play plays. My highlight/lowlight for the wekend was the $4.00 + $.40 180 players MTT on PokerStars. Got some great cards at the beginning, and at one point I was the chip leader with almost 23,000 where then next best had 10,000. Unfortunetly I made some bad plays, twice calling All-Ins when I had Ax on boards with 2-3-4-5. And of course both times the players had K6. Not just the 6, but K6. This pretty much crippled me, but I was able to hang on and finish 15th, for $8.64. My previous goal of doubling my bankroll is now gone, as I reloaded on PokerStars for another $50 this weekend. I have to learn patience, I know how to read the cards and when I have good odds and when I dont, I just played the bad odds too often. Tonight is the CardPlayer league, and I really hope to finish far better then the 40th of 41 that I finished last week. I am currently 13th in the league, top 9 make the champions table. Update tomorrow!

Taking a few days off

Horrible night last night. Got rivered on what should have been an easy double up on Bodog just 10 minutes before the CardPlayer tournament. It seemed to stick with me, as I ended up donking off my chips in less then 10 minutes, finishing a horrible 40th of 41 in the CardPlayer tournament. Hopefully I didnt dig myself too much of a whole, as I was only 5 points out of the final table before this, now I will likely have to final table 2 of the final 3 weeks to make the championship match. Just couldnt get it together, and the insane heat in Maryland and 10 hour work days are making it so I cant be relaxed enough to play well, so I think I am going to take the middle of the week off, and play some on Friday afternoon, since I have only a half day to work then. No exact numbers for today, but lost $4.40 on Bodog and about the same on PokerStars, so that kills about 10% of my bankroll. Thinking about playing PokerStars 180 person MTT as well as the cheap Sit N Gos when I come back on Friday.