It's been 2 Months??

Wow, I didnt even realize it has been that long, until I read comments on my last post from Lightning and Bam-Bam asking about my trip to Vegas, which as LAST month! It just seems like life is getting in the way of poker. I guess that is what happens when you have a kid at 39! She turns 2 in December, and is becoming more talkative and smart every day. The Vegas trip was great, I only got to play poker twice the entire trip, once finishing 3rd in a SNG. Super Turbo with the guy that won being a complete drunk who was a regular as the poker room so....
Got to get remarried in a wonderful little ceremony, saw the Freemont Street Experience again, and the fountains at the Bellagio for the first time. Generally had a great time. Have been playing very infrequently online, maybe once a week, and even then just a Steps touranment or two, currently have two Step 2 ($8.80) tokens. My life events, I have the two series I play in that both had their first events in October. The WSOP group I finished 7th (out of 20), so I am still in the running, but need to not finshing any worse then that the rest of the way out. The TDSOP group I finished a disappointing 17th out of 40, but earned a few points and feel comfortable that with a little smarter play I should easily qualify for the final tournament. Of course the wife plays in the TDSOP group also, and finished fifth, so I guess she is the better player right now!

Vegas Bound!

My wife and I have decided to head to Vegas later this month to renew our vows for our 5th Anniversary. Definately looking forward to getting to Vegas for the first time in a 18 months, a little gambling and a lot of fun! We will have the cutest little flower girl in our 21 month old daughter, and hope that if any of you bloggers are living there or will be in Vegas the week of Sept 22-27, that we can get a chance to meet up!

Until later, good luck to you all!

$3 Tournamnet and Charles Town Races & Slots

Friday Mrs CEM and I managed to make it up to Charles Town Races, which had just statted doing table games on July 4th Weekend. From what we had heard that first weekend was a total zoo, so we waited a couple of weeks. The Good: The table games are literally as soon as you come in the door from the Valet (which is only $6), so very easy to find. Plenty of games, including Craps, Blackjack, Three Card Poker, Roulette, Let It Ride, Pia Gow Poker, even a Big Wheel. There actually seemed to be a few open seats if you looked (mind you we got there at 5:30 PM on a Friday, so those from DC/Baltimore were still on their way from work/home. The Bad: Dealers were amazingly slow and showed very little understanding of the games they wer dealing. I am a huge fan of Pia Gow, but it shoudlnt take 7 minutes to deal, determine winners, and pay out for 6 players playing a hand of Pia Gow Poker! The other major issue were the limits. $25 was the cheapest table found (except for Let It Ride, which was $15, and the Big Wheel which was $10!) when we got there at 5:30, by the time we left after Midnight the minimum at Blackjack had hit $50.
The poker room as basically a tarped off/darkened area where the horse racing upstairs betting was done. They had a number of games, both Limit (5/10 and 10/20) and No Limit (1/2), plus some 4/8 Omaha. There sign up screen showed a waiting list for the most popular choice there (1/2 No Limit) was at 121 people before 6 PM Friday night. No tournaments were shown to be planned at casual glance. So they are definately going through their growing pains right now, but there is at least hope for the future.

On Saturday night, I played the Daily Dollar and went out about 1/2 through the field, and decided to fire up a $3 Double Stack 6 Max tournament, which had a nice structure and 487 runners. A beat in the first hour put me at 1500 chips early, but I worked on playing TAG, and found myself moving up the board well for the following couple of hours. 54 people cashed, which I easily made it past, but once we got down to 5 table, I was having to play short stack ninja poker, pushing and/or stealing in the best opportunities. Even though I was 25th of 25 at one time, I played my stack back up long enought to last all the way to 13th place, winning about 4 times my buy-in.

Until next time, good luck on the felt and with all you do!

Starting Anew

Have played a little bit in the past few days. I played 4 $1 9 man Turbo SNGs. These thigns are a wonder to play. Some of the worst players ever, as I tried a Tight Agressive approach, and after a few early exits realized that for $1, these people really dont care at all about playing well. I did finally manage to adjust my game well enought to take a 3rd place in the final of the 4 SNGs, but even then I managed to get chased down two hands in a row when we got the money AIPF with me ahead both times! I also played some .01/.02 cash. 2 sessions of about 30 minutes each. First session was very unexciting, with a very quiet tight table, and I managed to grind out a $0.24 profit. The 2nd session was much more interesting, where I stacked the player to my left when his pocket 6s flopped a set, but I turned a bigger set with my Pocket Kings, and the river pairing the board got him to call my all-in. I managed to finish up $1.78 (almost a full buy in), so I think I will continue on my playing the micro cash games as well as adjusting my game to the level of player in the $1 SNGs for now. Bankroll is about even after the week.

Trip to Charles Town Races and Slots tonight with Mrs. CEM to check out the table games and bet some on the horses!

Good luck to you all on the felt and all you do!

Missing In Action

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted. My self imposed leave from online poker is pretty much still in effect, as I have managed to put my bankroll on Full Tilt below $100, and I sit at a mere $16 on PokerStars. I have played a couple of SNGs, with very limited success, but decided last Friday to play a $3 MTT, which I finished a fine 14th place out of 382 for a $12 profit.

So what have I been doing, you may ask yourself, or maybe not, I would not be surprise if anyone is even bother to read anymore. It seems like I am not the only person that has gone missing as far as Poker Blogging, with even those that still do blog not blogging as often or as much. Not sure if it just another let down period after the BBT5, or maybe with everything else going on that the Poker Bloggers are just moving on into other stages in their lives.

At least with me, my family has continued to be a far more encompassing part of my time. My daughter K is now 19 months old, and really its not just changing some diapers, keeping her fed, and watching her sleep anymore. All the interaction that I do with her keeps me so busy that by the time she is ready for bed, I am ready to get the other things I need to have done with/for my wife and or myself.

Does this mean the end of this blog? Or me playing poker? NO! It is just a shift in priorities for now. I am actually working on my game, but on the learning side from reading books instead of playing currently. I feel that I had been running bad to a point where I was letting it affect my play. Was I actually runnding bad, or playing bad? Probably a little of both. So I am going to work on my game. Do I still have big goals in mind? YES! I hope to play in the 2011 WSOP. I will be a part of a 20 person tournament series again that the winner plays in the Main Event (I actually finished 4th last year, after winning the 1st tournament I just played badly for a couple afterwards). So there is always that, or trying to win myself a seat again for a $1,500 Event. I also plan to play at either the Harrah's or Ceasers Atlantic City WSOP Circuit Event (most likely an event that is the day before/after the ladies event, so the wife and I can make a weekend out of it).

So I hope to be playing more soon, but will likely be "starting anew" as far as my bankroll, and following proper bankroll startagies, so it is unlikely I will be playing many of the Blogger tournaments for a while, until I build back up the bankroll and feel I am playing a better game.

Until my next updated, I hope you all do well on the felt and in all you do!

Playing for a Great Cause!

Taking a break from online poker

Last night finally did me in for playing online for a while. I am running as badly as possible at the wrong time, even though I think my reads and decision making is probably at it best. I decided to play a $6 Sat to the $30K last night, which has a $100+$9 buy-in. I did not plan on playing the $30K, but instead wanted to use the Tournament dollars and/or Ticket to play other things this weekend. Played good poker, and even being card dead for 2 hours I made the final table (Had QQ once, 88 once, A10 three times....and that was it!). Once I hit the final table I was finally getting cards and when I chipped up to take the chip lead with 7 left (only 2 seats were awarded), I used my chip stack to my advantage to steal and push people around. We get down to three handed....I have 22K, the other two players are both between 12K and 13K. One goes all in, and the other calls! So one is out or severly cripple..right??? WRONG! The board flushes, and they split the pot. Not two hands later I get the small stack all in with AK against my pocket 8's, and he spike the king on the river. Now I am short stacked, and fight for my life, finally pushing my AQ into KQ, and he flops the king and I cant catch up. If this had been an isoloated issue, I probably would not be as upset, but this has been happening since before the BBT5 started, so it has been almost 2 months of this. I have lost 1/2 my bankroll, and think I just need to take some time off from playing online and let someone else take the beating for a while. Good luck to you all on the virtual felt, I hope you run better than I have. I will be back, but probably not until I can sit down and not feel that not matter how good I am going to play the cards will be running against me.