Why aren't I still in bed?

Placed 26th out of 595 in last month's CardPlayer freeroll at UB-had around 10K @ the break but had to leave my computer due to another committment so ended up just blinding out for $20. Bust out in the middle of the field when a douchebag with nothing but a flush draw calls my top pair/wrap draw pot-sized bet on the flop and my all-in on the turn and miraculously rivers an Ace. Argh.

Life of Sports with an added 3 grand to the prize pool only draws 99 players!?! Only 10 pay but such a small field with such a bonus-thanks Full Contact! Tons of pockets; AA get called all-in by JJ, 77 X2 (flopped boss full once, 2nd time flopped top set, get re-raised by bottom pair?!). #1 @ the break w/9125! Flop a straight w/45s in the BB, opponent turns trips but thankfully the board does not pair on the river! AA, man I love no-brainers, um, I RE-raise. AK loses to TT dammit. 55, 44 both win. JJ gets too much continuous pressure so I fold when the turn brings a K and I lose the tourney lead. AK gets me in more trouble on an undercard board. Slipping, down to 7th. AT v KTc, flop A, all clubs, move after raising pre-flop, dodge a fatal bullet and end up back on top. AJs flops top pair but all a different suit and I don't like the continued pressure so I let it go. A5s turns 2nd button w/a wheel draw, river Ace to suck out on opponent's top pair. Let go of AJs that calls for half my stack pre-flop and my deuces get no help on the flop so I'm back down to 7th @ the 2nd break. 8th out of 13, one sec, I mean 12. No action on my JJ, 99 flops Q and I don't have the stones to call all my chips off. Raise w/JTs late and flop 2nd button with a 4 flush and move the rest of the way in for no call. 11 left. MONEY! English raises me so I move the rest of my little stack in w/A8, english shows 5s, Ace on the river! 5th of 6. Blow out with my A9 shorty vs JJ, J to give me an extra kick in the pants on the river! $300 though-thanks FCP! Gotta say this was one of the best games I've played in a while, skill-wise.

$2500 freeroll just started too. Only 74 in this one! Snap Aces w/KQ when the river gives him a pair and me a flush. AQs outflops KK. Doing pretty decent at the break. Wow, just watched an all-in KK v 67s, flop Kx5, my first thought was the only way dumbass can win it is with perfect running cards for a straight, and WHAM! he does just like that. Holy sweet Jeebus. Man, I am so hungry. All I've had today was a big energy drink and some cigs. Try to outplay the button but run into a wall, or a set more accurately. Pick up the nut flush and I'm OK again. Misplay my hand and let a man make a set on the turn when I should have shut him out on the flop with my top pair. QQ very next hand to double up when KJs calls my re-raise, JJ right after with no action and the cycle completes itself again. Down to 26, stuck in the middle. Take a hit to bring me down to 21 of 23-fuck. K5 hits top pair and I call a decent flop bet out of position but then when the turn is checked I am pretty sure I am good so I move on the river, saying 23, and he calls w/2nd button. I then lose some when I call shorty's move on a T9T board holding AT, vs Q9, A turn but no more aid. 13 (only the strange) remain, 8th place @ break #2. Hey, I'm not any less hungry but at least I'm winning money:-) Weakdraw raises in the cutoff, I hold A7s in the SB so I move over the top with the remainder of my stack, he calls w/96s, flop J77xJ! 4th-WOOHOO! Play over the top w/TT on a 99x board then flop the nut flush to eliminate one and take the lead! It's worth the haven't eaten, need more sleep, only a fat energy drink and nicotine in my system feeling in my gut right now. KK doubles through 99! Lose when I misplay my hand again and 5s turn a set. Raise 3 in a row and I'm leading once more. Evil and I start a betting war pre-flop but then check it all the way down like a stuttering waiter and my AQs is good. 4 players holding for a while. KK v TT and a K on the river makes 3! H/U w/Evil AQ v 77 (I think-my mind is flying right now!), A! AA and it's OVAH! $750!!! WOOOOO-HOOOOO!!! $1,058 on the day!!! And we ain't even done yet! Gearing up for the home game @ fabulous Checkpoint Charlie's this evening...

Go to bed!

Start off a $5 MTT in great shape, doubling up the very first hand w/AQ v A7. Keep going until my QQ falls victim to not only AK but 99 on an Axx9x board and brings me back to ground zero. Decide to gamble on a giant pot w/KQs but fall well short and under 1K in chips. And I'm out shortly thereafter. I'm gonna get stoned and go to bed. Doom on me.

Tournament vs Ring Play

$.25/.50 NL HE @ FCP once more for $25. Every pocket pair so far has been outflopped or outdrawn, including Aces. Maybe I play so much tournament poker that I play way too tight when I jump into a cash game. So I loosen up, play my next 2 hands, Q9 and 67s, and win both. A3 right after that, flop bottom pair in position and get aggressive and take down another one. Hmmm... ATs, nobody calls my pre-flop raise. Just like Doyle expressed in Super System. Of course it helps to hold cards that fit too. Bust out AGAIN after an hour and a half when my A9 flops top pair, top kicker but am up against QQ.

Nothing Else To Do...

My stat tracker says that I'm up $1255 since the end of January but after treating myself to a nice new 17" LCD flatscreen monitor as a reward for my online play and forking over $500 for the upcoming FCPHUPL it sure doesn't feel like it. An extra $400 a month isn't really a whole lot anyhows I suppose. I guess putting myself $10K in debt for a set of wheels didn't help much either. Hope this carpal tunnel syndrome that feels like it's developing in my forearm from all the time I spend on my computer goes away. Not likely.

It's raining still and I'm not tired so I decided to jump into a $.25/.50 NL HE ring game at FCP as well as a $10 SNG. Slowly picking up a few pots here and there in both. 20 minutes later I'm down $25 when my JJ runs into KK. Fucking lock-up on my tourney screen and I lose a couple hundred in chips. Bullshit. When I finally get back to my table, find AQ and move, get called by the short-stack holding 53, who rivers a 5, 1 of only 3 possible outs on the river! Same jackass raises the minimum on the button so I move over the top after limping early w/22 and he calls again w/A3, getting no help thankfully. QQ first hand into the payout structure is nice, especially when the button raises. Finish in 2nd.

Hopefully I can make this my last pack of cigarettes. Been saying that for a while now. Like over 15 years. Well, another SNG, this one a 30-top for $5. Get paid off by a pair of tens with a 73, turning 2 pair but having to slow down with 4 to a straight out there. $5 MTT also. Move w/TT from the BB in a multi-way unraised pot, 44 calls, as does A5s, my pair stands and my stack triples in the SNG. Lose a monster pot then get some back when my AQ eliminates 44. Nothing in the MTT until my QQ gets outflopped by a pair of 5s and I donk the remainder of my stack off in frustration, my stack in the SNG quickly following suit as well. WTF am I doing?!? Time to log off. Good news is that DN approved CC Riders for the FCPHUPL!!! Wake up to a CardPlayer freeroll in the morning followed by the FCP Life of Sports +$3K and another freeroll for $25oo...

Omaha Limit w/Negreanu

Omaha Limit (ugh) tourney with a $1/entrant bounty on the Kid's noggin starting in 15...

Looks like I need to start coming up with the $500 entry fee for the FCPHUPL with 50% of the vote...
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Win the first two hands right off the bat-flop a straight then my 9s in the hole hold when I miss my draw. Then the downward spiral of my limit game ensues. AA flops a set but gets run down by a straight so I have to let it go. Wish I was the guy that flopped quads with QQ. Manage to make my next AA hold, as well as a KK. Man, Omaha is crazy enough, not being able to protect your hand is even tougher. Like when my opponent flops a set but a straight possibility appears on the turn and I raise (still on the draw) then fall into the nut straight on the river. Or when I flop trips but my opponent flops a boat and I don't improve much to my dismay. AA holds again for me. Flop the nut straight and the river pairs the board so I have to fold again. Push with my wee stack and luck out into the nuts again on the river to stay alive. End up 32nd out of 41 (and I didn't even get to sit with Daniel-he busted out before me though!) when I make 2 pair on the river but am undone by a straight-yuck.
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Created a private FCP tourney and it ended up being just me, Vatche, and weakdraw (Protege Seat 7 winner). Weakdraw moves over the top of my small pre-flop raise and I put him on a big Ace, no pair (boy was I wrong) so I call with my little 4s only to smack into his 9s. Then Vatche cuts down my Cowboys with trips on the turn and I'm gone just like that.

$5 1+1. Really like the re-buy tournaments that offer 1 re-buy and 1 add-on rather than the unlimited frenzies. 1st hand, AJ call a small pre-flop raise, flop rags, call a small bet because I don't put opponent on a pair or a matching small card in his hand, turn an Ace and I'm in for the rest of the way, devouring the bluff. TT, re-raise an early raiser only to have the SB push HARD and the original raiser call so I figure I'm no good and fold. Wrong. AK v AQ. Good until the flop that is, AJA! Got stubborn with a hand I knew I was beat with but proceeded to call anyway and donk my stack off to near-nothingness. One of the leaks in my game that I've tried to work on but still get caught by (still more frequently than I'd like-life's weird like that; sometimes I can let things go almost instantaneously, other times, well, I still haven't) because of my own damn retardation (didn't help it being the cooler anyways). Short-stack slam w/AJ, called by A8, chop 44Q64 board:( KK in the BB, check it to see the flop in a multi-way pot, flop 556, move, no calls. AT move again, get called by an aggressive player w/Q9s and make a pair of tens while my opponent doesn't improve to put me back over starting. 77 in the BB, move, called by A9s, flop A, turn A=re-buy. Miss my inside but the board pairs 4s on the river so I make an either believable or uncallable play to take down the pot. Limp w/AK early again, this time hitting a K on the flop but no action from the blinds.

3775 @ the break with my add-on, 98th out of 130 (283 entrants) left. Look back at the screen after folding K5, K5K flop-don't you just love that? AA very next hand, small raise pre-flop, 3 callers, flop rags, action from top pair, A river for a nail in the coffin to more than double up. Wow-AQ raise big, 1 caller, Kxx flop, checked to me so I bet half my opponent's stack, he goes all-in. I call (?) and my opponent flips KQ, killing me dead to 3 cards. Which I hit on the turn! Wow again. Just got shot into the running for real. Divine intervention is acknowledged-thank you Lord. Then I get pushed off my little Ace, which would have not only won the hand but also eliminated the original raiser. Flop trips w/67s and slow-play on the flop, slamming it on the turn with a big check-raise to take it down. Limp w/KJs and flop nut flush draw, call tiny stack's all-in move (so as not to shut out the remaining player in the hand), turn card flushes both of us (steel wheel draw on turn for opponent), I win. 55 on the button, flop QJx, push when it is checked to me, 1 caller, who then folds to my turn bet. Raise it w/33, minimal damage loss to A9(9). Flop wrap draw, turn 2nd button, river Broadway.

16,320 @ break #2, 21st out of remaining 38. Down to 4 tables, 20 places pay. Fold to a turn bet, miss Broadway again on the river. 77 shoots me up into 8th out of the last 29. Let go of an AJ that would commit 3/4 of my stack pre-flop. Limp w/22 in a 5-way pot for no help on the flop (KK made a set though, 2 for me on the turn, 3rd player rivered a straight!). Aces get no action.

Bubble. Nothing but a 99, which gets no challenge.

Money. Currently 15th. 66, re-raise the button. Make another steal by representing trips, knowing my opponent did not have it. AA, re-raise the button. Attempt another steal but get caught by the real thing (apparently). AJ loses when I think the short-stack is making a blind play on a 2TT flop but has a deuce.

24,398, 12th of 15. A3 takes one down to put me briefly in 10th. AQs move all-in, called by 66. Flop an Ace, turn a 6, river an Ace, out in 15th. Won an extra 10 dollars. Crap.

CC Riders

I just woke up this morning (afternoon) and got an email Vatche saying "Guess who I voted for" and found out I am in the running for getting my own team for the FCP Heads-Up League! So if you are an FCP Forum member, please give me your vote for Captain #29! Thanks!

Why Not?

I was checking out dna's (God bless the Negreanu Open!) blog and figured since I am in front of my computer most of my waking hours, usually playing online poker, and since everybody has one nowadays, I too would create a poker blog to chronicle my personal ups and downs in the game that has seeped into every corner of my existence, sort of like my own "How I Tried To Pay For My Jeep With Poker"...

I've been playing for a little over 2 years now I think; casinos, online, home games, wherever I can find a game; living, breathing, eating, sleeping, shitting poker; trying to develop my game and having a fairly successful time doing so.

I placed 2nd in the Neg-O last night (my best finish ever!), would've won with my check-raise had the river not drowned me! 3rd in a $10 1+1 Rebuy tourney. And a measly $60 after 5 hours of Dealer's Choice with the Usual Suspects, for a total of about $600 for the day. Not too bad at all. Especially after the past few weeks have been rather poor for me on the tables. Dropped maybe $100 back in SNGs and MTTs @ FCP today, with one exception: my 1st victory (as small as it may be) in the ONPC, a $1 Turbo Sub Qualifier for a ticket to the next round (Round 1?). I placed 14th in a 1+1 today when I called a raise from the BB w/KJ and flopped top pair on a Jxx board, instantly moving all-in with my short stack, only to be called by A9, who turned a 9 and rivered an Ace?!? Die you fucktard. Bummer to hear DN busted out of the Foxwoods event already. Man, only a couple more months till the WSOP...