Friday, September 28, 2007

I Will Be Lost in Translation

I'm ready for the trip I don't really want to go on. I leave for Japan at 12:50 tomorrow afternoon. I will try and update while I'm there and my saving grace is that I have Skype so I can call back here. Until then have a great day.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

The Wednesday Donkarama

Through tiredness I drove on into the Donk fest that is called the Mookie. It was a fine field and I fluctuated up and down early. After the first break I was sitting near the Dank position and made the decision to play a few more hands. I chipped up a little but still had a long way to go. I had been playing real tight for 6-handed and when Numbono raised in front of me I pushed with my 77. I figured him for a strong A and I was right when he called with his AK. I was hoping for AJ and a fold from him but the coin flip was ok. The flop came QTQ and I’m feeling ok. The turn was x and I’m ready to double…that is until a T hits and my 2 pair is counter fitted.

I also played the Dookie which was turbo Razz. This is a real skill game and the play reflected the great skills of all the players. I eventually made the final table as a short stack and doubled up at the right time when my 972 clearly dominated my opponents 974. I waited a little and finally found another good hand with A56 only to get called down by A53. He hit his cards and I didn’t for 7th place with 4 paying. It was a fun game but turbo Razz is really a game for masochist.

I also played a little cash Horse and made a small gain. I like the game but Stud is still the biggest weakness for me. Maybe FT will spread HORE. Maybe they can come up with a game that starts with a W to make it real fun to play.

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I leave for Japan on Saturday and was informed yesterday that the parent company there had already given away their seats for the baseball games there in Tokyo. They were trying to get me to a game but no go this time. That would have been the true nuts.

I’m going to miss a few family events like soccer and cheerleading while I’m gone. It really sucks to be missing these things but I have to do what I have to do. I know the kids will do just fine without me.

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One last thing, I’m going to do a fundraiser tourney for my daughters softball team. I’m thinking January or early February so if anyone wants to come to the western suburbs of Chicago and play let me know. You can leave a comment or email me at thepokerenthusiast at Comcast dot net. I could also arrange a trip to the boat in Aurora if anyone is interested.

That’s it for today…Have a great day.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Trip Continued

We arrived at LAX on Tuesday morning about 8:30. The boss picked us up at the airport and we headed to Long Beach for the solar cell show. Traffic was mildly uncooperative but we arrive at the convention center about an hour after leaving the airport. We would have been there sooner except for the fact that the boss made a wrong turn and we had to backtrack a little. I don’t know why we had him driving considering he had just arrived from Japan and had 1 hour of sleep in the last 24+ hours. Anyway, we get in line to register for the show and we sit in line for over an hour before we get to the front of the line. The problem was that we were in the wrong line and had to jump over to head in the right direction. 45 minutes later we are ready to go.

The show was good and we met with customers and as well as possible new customers and headed to lunch before our return trip home. Everyplace we went was full of people and had an hour wait. The problem was that we had to head back to the airport for our flight home in an hour and thus didn’t have a lot of time. We finally found a place about 4 blocks away and had a quick meal before heading back to LAX.

The flight home started like a flight should. We left on time and I had a small person sitting next to me who fell asleep right away. The I noticed that her breath smelled like garlic and I had random breath alerts from that point on the rest of the trip.

Somewhere over Iowa we got the announcement that air traffic was backing up and we would have to fly above Des Moines for 20 minutes before finishing our trip home. A short time later the captain informs us that we are being diverted to Rockford to refuel because we don’t have enough left to follow the flight plans and get us to Chicago. But thankfully the controllers made a switch and put us on a straight run home and we only arrived 15 minutes late.

By the time I got home it was close to midnight and I was ready to sleep. I had a quick drink of water and hit the hay. 4 hours later I woke with stomach cramps and felt like I was going to hurl. They eventually went away an hour or so later, just in time for various members of the family to start moving around and ending any sleep I hoped to catch before returning to work.

Good things on the trip were meeting Bayne, eating at Ming’s, having a good meeting with the customer, and watching Ocean’s 13 on the flight home. Not a terrible trip after all.

San Jose to Long Beach

It was Monday morning. I heard the alarm go off with its anointing sound and I popped awake because I was headed to San Jose for a meeting with one of my customers. The flight was a 6:00 am so a 3 o’clock wake up was plenty early for the trip to the airport 45 minutes away. But when I looked at the clock, it said 3:58. I had slept through the alarm. I jumped into the shower, put all my sundries into the quart size bag I had waiting so I didn’t have to check my luggage and left the house at 4:17.

The gas tank was sitting on a quarter tank, maybe enough to get there but I wasn’t sure, so I hit the gas station and threw in $10 worth to ensure that I would make. Traffic was non-existent and I made the decision to keep my speed at 75 MPH to avoid getting a ticket and minimize the chance of being pulled over.

I have made this trip a million times and as I cruised down I88 toward I294 I focused on the traffic ahead and determined that parking in the short term parking was going to be necessary if I was going to make the flight. It was 5 am when I hit the traffic…or should I say the parking lot. Traffic was stopped and I was only 2 miles away from the parking garage. I was beside my self with anxiety as I tried to figure out how I explain this to the boss.

The hold up was short lived and we started to move again. I parked at 5:15 and ran through the parking garage breathing hard like the out of shape 40-year old that I am. Checking in was easy, yes I forgot to check in online the night before, and security was smooth as I explained that my flight was boarding. I went through the special line for idiots like me who arrive late and I took off on a brisk walk down the terminal walkway. They were boarding and calling the last group as I walked up and was greeted by my co-worker who was going on the trip with me.

I was sweating like a pig and on the flight to Denver. I finally cooled down about an hour into the flight and tried to relax. They were showing a preview show for NBC for entertainment and I saw “Chuck”, I show about some computer geek who has become entrusted with all the knowledge of the NSA and CIA threw some computer e-mail that was sent by a friend.

I caught the connecting flight with no problem and soon landed in San Jose. After a good meeting with the customer, we went to Ming’s, a restaurant in the Redwood City area, and had a great lunch. I set up a possible dinner with the customer and head to the hotel to check in.

Now I’ve slept in dumps before but this may have been the worst. It was a Good Nite Inn but it was anything but a good night. They advertised free wifi but of course, I didn’t have it in my room. The toilet leaked so the water ran all the time and other than the stuff that looked like mold in the shower, everything else was ok.

Around 4:30, I received a call from the customer that canceled dinner plans so I did the next best thing. I contacted Bayne. I knew he lived in the area and within an hour he was picking me and my co-worker up for dinner. We were a little north of where Bayne lives but he was sure he could find something close. After an hour of driving through neighborhoods and a few spots that had eating establishments that were closed, we headed to his area and found a sports bar/steakhouse that did the trick. We chatted over drinks and food as the football game played on the plasma screen TV’s the were placed in every direction. It was nice to meet a blogger in person and I thoroughly enjoyed shooting the shit with him. Thanks for showing me around Bayne.

So now, as I write this, I’m sitting in the San Jose airport at 6am. I’m headed to Long Beach by way of LAX to pick up my boss and hit the solar cell show going on there. Poker is an after thought but I think poker blog still fits. I had the pleasure of meeting a BBT front-runner in person and came to the realization that these people we chat with online are no different from people we know and meet every day. We just meet them in a virtual world.

I'll finish with the story after I get home.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

I Final Tabled the Wrong Razz Tourney

So I went out after playing many hours of Razz in the WCOOP. Being that I'm into abuse, I jumped onto Full Tilt and Played the Razz tourney there ad ended up in 5th. I love abuse.

The biggest thing I got out of this WCOOP tourney is that I know I can take that sucker deep. I had good reads on all the players and know my game was as good as any player that I saw. I had 4 real donkeys that I played with that kept passing chips back and forth but I could get them away from them. I did double up on one of them but I could get heads up with them enough to take advantage. I just want to know when the next big one is.

The weekend was as usual with soccer cheerleading and softball. Baseball Enthusiast scored 2 goals in a 3-0 win. Speedy Enthusiast did her cheers like a champ. Softball Enthusiast pitched the best game I've seen her pitch even though she lost the game.

As far as the reunion goes we didn't go. By the time SE got done with practice we and we still hadn't eaten we decided to stay home. We watched a movie and went to bed early.

Thats it for my weekend. Have a good one.

Friday, September 21, 2007

381st Place

I played solid but got hit 3 times in te last hour when I had made hands and my opponent caught better hands on the river. twice I had a made 7 and lost to a better 7 on the river. Oh well...it was fun. If they hold up I'm playing for 3 more hours.

Reunions and Playing in the WCOOP

***********edit********

Got a few hand and the donkeys paid me off...still below average but moving up.

*********edit*********

Getting ready for the 4th hour. I was card dead and now need a hand before to long. 2 hands and I'll be above average.
*****edit*****

fist break I'm average stacked. I have 3 real donkeys at the table and 4 solid players.

**********edit************
I'm a little below average at the 2nd break. The donks keep passing chips back and fourth. I got burnt on 7th street to knock me down by 700 otherwise I'd be up.



Well it’s Friday and another workweek is almost over. The good news is that I’ll be playing poker tonight in the WCOOP Razz Event on Stars. This will be my biggest buy-in that I’ve played and even though it may not be good bankroll management, I think taking this shot is well worth it.

We start off with 3K chips and 30 minute blind levels so if I do the math correctly I’ll be playing for at least 10 hours tonight and probably more before I take this bad boy down. I think I’ll play my regular game and play tight for the first few hours when the chips involved are not very significant. After the blinds move up I may open the game a little but I plan on playing my good hands strong and getting away when I brick. The key will be getting good reads on my opponents and putting them on hands. If I can isolate on a few donkeys I will and try to move up the ladder as I usually do. I have all the confidence in the world that I will cash but we shall see how it ends up. I may try to live blog this thing but that may prove to be harder than I want it to be. Overall, I don’t think I’ll play anything else tonight.

Saturday I have a class reunion of sorts to attend. It is for everyone who graduated in the 80’s and since I graduated in 85 in a school with 250 students in it, I should know almost everyone there. It should be a good time.

Other than that we have the usual soccer, cheerleading and softball stuff going on so it will be a typical weekend at the Poker Enthusiast’s house.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

I Rule at Donkey Games

I played one tourney last night. What do you think it was? Yes...it was Razz.

I went deep again and missed the final table by 2 spots. You know I feel I'm going to make a final table every time I play this game. That seems crazy but with the bad play out there and the limit structure I can weather the dead times and take advantage of the good times. I guess I don't understand how so many people can continue to throw money at this game when they actually suck at it. Does that mean I don't ever get lucky? I have my moments but I know how to throw away a hand most of the time. The hand that killed me was chasing a nut draw late when my opponent had a draw to a 9.

There is a good chance that I may play the WCOOP Razz event on Stars this Friday. I have to leave work early to do it and the buy-in is a little high for my roll but I know I have a good shot at going deep. I'll find out tomorrow if I can do it.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Am I the KORD

So I made a final table in Razz again last night. It really sucks sometimes though when you get there and have some idiot call you down when he shouldn’t be in the hand. This is not a bad beat story but an example of why I do well at razz.

So here are the up cards at the final table.

Dealt to HeyItsMau [3h]
Dealt to toba52 [As]
Dealt to doedo [9d]
Dealt to mictilt [9s]
Dealt to MURRELL4035 [Jh]
Dealt to Lucky Giggles [Jd]
Dealt to CUTCOIN [8h]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [2c 3d] [5h]
MURRELL4035 is high with [Jh]

At this point in the tourney I am short stacked so I cannoy complain to much about big stacks calling a raise from me. I have a great starting hand and want a call…in my eyes I see 3 players that could call me if they have anything and 2 more that could do it but it is questionable. Only mictilt calls my raise.

Dealt to mictilt [9s] [Jc]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [2c 3d 5h] [6d]
pokerenthusiast bets 800
mictilt calls 800

At this point I’m dominating this guy There are so many cards that put me ahead at this point. Any 10,9,8,7,4, or A puts me into the lead. All the jacks are gone. That is 24 outs minus the 6 on the board so 18 outs for the big lead. That is 18 out of 38 that gives me a huge lead.

Dealt to mictilt [9s Jc] [7h]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [2c 3d 5h 6d] [Qh]
mictilt bets 1,600
pokerenthusiast calls 262, and is all in

Now even though I’m behind I have the same number of outs minus if he hits lower than a 9 so I have at worst 14 outs with 2 more cards to come.

Dealt to mictilt [6h 4h 9s Jc 7h] [7s]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [2c 3d 5h 6d Qh] [6s]

We both brick but I still have a ton of outs. Any 9 or lower that I don’t pair wins it for me.

Dealt to mictilt [6h 4h 9s Jc 7h 7s] [2s]
Dealt to pokerenthusiast [2c 3d 5h 6d Qh 6s] [2d]

My demise as I pair the board again. This is the type of situation that you have to be willing to push in order to have success in Razz. I play this hand the same way with a huge stack or a small stack. When you look at the fact that so many cards would give me the best hand you would have to agree.

The funny part is that they guy actually said that you have to play bad cards to win at razz. I’d have to like my chances in the long run.

I’m starting to think I should only play razz. My guess is that I’m cashing in around half of these tourneys and hitting the final table 25% of the time…maybe higher.

Maybe I should be called KORD…King of Razz Donks.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Papa Surf Goes Deep

It is Tuesday and I don't have a lot to say. I didn't play last night because I working on some personal stuff but I did watch Surf's dad go deep in a 90 peep sng. He ended in 3rd place so go way to go papa Surf. The end of his night came when his JJ lost to QT and a Q hit on the turn. Doesn't really matter because he played well anyway.

I may play a little tonight. Mrs. P.E. will be out of the house in the evening so jumping into the virtual world may happen after I get the kids to bed. We shall see what happens.

I'm looking at maybe doing a face lift to the blog. It's not that I don't like what I have but I'd like to add a little more so I can add some perment pimpage for the blogger events. I have to work on the layout on the side and see if I like it.

That's it for today...have a great day.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Tuesday Poker on Bodog

Online Poker Blogger Tournament at Bodog

Bodog is pleased to invite poker bloggers to play in it’s first ever Poker Blogger Tournament with added prize money courtesy of Bodog.

Bodog is adding a total of $125 in bonus money and if you are one of the last 5 players to be eliminated prior to being paid out by the standard payout structure, you will get your buy-in returned by way of a $10 bonus. If you finish 2nd in the tournament, you will receive a $25 bonus. And if you finish first, you will be rewarded a $50 bonus.

The tournament runs weekly on Tuesday evenings and requires a password for entry that bloggers can promote within their community.

Details of Tournament:

Dates: September 18, 25 and Oct 2, 2007
Tournament Name: “Online Poker Blogger Tournament” at Bodog
Entry Password: bodogblogger
Buy-in + fee: $10 + $1
Starting Chips: 3000 (Double Stack)
Payout: Standard Bodog payout structure
Bonuses:

T$50 bonus paid to 1st place finisher.
T$25 bonus paid to 2nd place finisher.
T$10 bonus paid to the 5 players that are eliminated prior to payouts.

These bonuses will be awarded within 24hrs of the tournament completion.
T$ = Tournament Credits. These can be used as a buy in to almost all scheduled tournaments at Bodog and have a ratio to cash of 1:1.
T$ can also be combined with cash to buy in to tournaments.

Day of week: Tuesdays
Start time: 8:35pm ET


Bodog has committed to run this tournament every Tuesday through October 2nd.
If participation warrant’s it, we will keep it running and increase the prizes and/or turn this into a poker league with an ongoing leader board!

If you haven’t played at the Bodog Poker Room before, please download and install the free software client at:
http://www.newbodog.com/poker/download-poker.jsp

If you’re not yet a Bodog member, sign up for your FREE account by clicking the “Join Now” button in the Poker Room client.

If you need assistance with signing up for the tournament or with starting a Bodog Account please call or email us at:
The Bodog Poker Customer Service Number: 1-866-909-2237
The Bodog Poker Customer Service Email: poker@newbodog.com

No Charger...No Poker...Well Maybe A Little

The weekend started bad for me in that I forgot my charger for my laptop at work. The consequences of that are not being able to sit in my lounge chair with the tv on play poker. Sure, I have a desk top at home but with three kids it is hard to find time for me on that computer so I was left with virtually no play on the night. I did get a call from a buddy so we fired up a sng around 11:00 but that was it for the night. Overall, the only good thing for the evening was going to dinner for my son's birthday and hanging out with the family...and those were fun things to do.

Saturday was the usual stuff, Soccer in the morning, BE had 4 goals, followed by cheerleading but a new wrinkle came in the afternoon. Baseball Enthusiast had his kids birthday party which happened to be a Star Wars theme. We found a guy who dresses up like Darth Vader and got a Storm Trooper and had them show up to the party. The kids had a blast and we took some great pictures. The kids asked some great questions about the planets and the Death Star and I thing they all had a ton of fun.

Saturday night I fired up the Laptop thinking I had about four hours I could play before I ran out of juice. I jumped onto the token Razz tourney and got hit with every brick in the deck. I lasted a while but I never did get any traction and as I left the table some idiot makes a comment that I felt was idiotic. I proceeded to drop to his level and but in that I mocked him. I looked up his tourney stats and realized he had a ROI of 40% and told him I thought he must be good with an ROI like that. After further review I saw He had a tourney ITM % of 13% and that He had one big win...If you took that away he was a losing player...I made that observation on the table and went away. I checked a little later and he didn't cash after donking of a nice stack. Anyway, I played another token event and was almost crippled when my turned nut flush got rivered by a straight flush. I lasted a bit longer but ended up calling from the BB with any two cards because I was getting about 10-1 on my money. I hit top pair crappy kicker and lost as a guy with over cards called my push and hit his king.

One last attempt for the night saw me go deep and end the evening with a final table and a 4th place finish. This may have been one of the best final tables I've played on. When we were down to five players the action was hot and heavy as each of us looked for an opportunity to move up. We lasted this way for at least 35 minutes until one guy made a mistake. With four left we continued to make moves and look for a spot. I end up getting AA on the button and limp hoping for the big stack to come over the top. He checked and the flop came Q high. He bet at the pot and I pushed and he shows Q4. A 4 on the turn ended my night but overall I was very happy with my play.

Sunday was church followed by softball like every other fall Sunday. We had the pleasure of watching Softball E. come back from a shaky performance last week and shut down the other team. She gave up 2 run and struck out 10 in her 4 innings of work and had both her change and drop ball working like a charm. They won the 1st game 8-5. The 2nd game was a little different in that they lost for the first time this year. It was a good game until late when they gave up 5 runs on a couple of errors. The final was 9-3 and my daughter pitch solidly in the game.

The only down side to all of this is that I don't get to watch the Bears play.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Going Deep and a Little Blogger Poker

I had some great responses to my question and I want to thank each of you for your input.

I think that in my case using Poker Office is more of a method to track my play and to look for situations that have me playing at less than an optimal level. If I played cash game more than I do then I would use the software to data mine but I’m not a big cash game player.

Last night was a good night in that Wednesday is Mookie night and a chance to play against some quality players? I donked out when I didn’t re-raise a guy who I knew was playing at me. I hit top pair and he hit bottom 2 pair with 76. Anyway, I was busy going deep in another Razz tourney so I didn’t have time to worry about my misstep. I ended the Razz tourney in 2nd for another final table in the tourney of donks and getting a nice return on a small buy-in. I also played the mighty Dookie which was Omaha hl NL. This the same type of tourney that I won a few weeks back so I was sure I would go deep. The cards didn’t agree for much of the tourney but I hit a few hands in the 2nd hour and even took the chip lead for a while before surviving a long money bubble and finishing in 3rd.

That was my night…how was yours?

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

A Poker Question

I didn't play last night but I did watch a little. A friend was playing a 90 peep tourney so I sat back and watched him play for a while. I also fired up poker office to data mine the tourney because it was at a level that I play a lot and I had seen many of these players at the tables before. What I realized after watching and having the program run in the back ground is that I had the same reads on most of the players just from watching their game. I didn't know the exact percentages but I knew who the agro guys were as well as the passive ones.

I know people have data mined before and many do it all the time. Do you think this is wrong? It is not something that I've done much of and virtually all of the data I've accumulated has come from games I've played. I don't know...just a question.

Monday, September 10, 2007

A Little Poker and the Weekend

I didn't play any poker other a little NL cash over he weekend. It was a weekend of hell over all as I battled through my sore back to attend all of the family functions we had lined up.

Saturday started with Baseball Enthusiast playing his first soccer game of the year. If you recall, he played for the first time last year and scored about 3 goals a game for the season. He wasn't the fastest player but played hard all the time and used both feet well. Anyway, a year can make a huge difference and it did in his case. He was all over the field and moved around players with easy. I was amazed at how fast he had become and he peppered a ton of shots on goal. The problem was the 5 players on his team that would stand around and watch the ball. Other than he and 2 other kids, there are a bunch of wall flowers on the team. The other team scored goals when the goalie layed on the ground to look at some ants or something like that. So he lost his first game ever in soccer but he played well and I think thay all had fun. After the game I asked him if he got tired and he said he did at the end of the game. So we talked about getting tired and he asked how do you stop getting tired. I told him he needed to run more so his body got used to it. When we got home he ran sprints in the back yard to get into better shape. And it was his idea.

So after soccer we went to watch Speedy Enthusiast cheer lead for football. It was fun to watch the girls trying to do all the cheers and even try some low level lifts. The best part for me was watching the little football players flying around the field laying hits on each other. I would have loved to do this as a kid but we didn't have football in my town so I never had the chance. Anyway, S E has a lot of fun doing the cheering thing and she also gets to hang out with her friends.

Sunday Saw Softball E. playing her old team in a double header. She started the game at pitcher but struggled to throw strikes. She was pulled before it got really bad and her team come back to win the game. I think she was trying to hard to do well. Anyway, She also pitched in the 2nd game and did better so the nerves she had in the beginning went away and she controlled her part of the second game. Overall she had 4 hits in 5 at bats and her new team licked butt.

We also had a birthday party for Baseball E. later in the day. He will be 6 later this week and we had our family party. He got so much stuff that he didn't know what to do with it. The best stuff was the Star Wars stuff that he got. The toys of today are so much better than we had as kids it is crazy. I'm hoping he'll get a Milenium Falcon for his kids party next weekend.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Friday is Always a Good Day

It's Friday and Friday is almost always good. I've been hurting with my back so sitting around the house is the name of the game today. I'm not happy about it but that's they way it goes.

I have played a little poker. I final tabled one MTT on UB and another on Full Tilt so that's been ok. I'll prolly play tonight...maybe the daily double or some Razz. Anyway, still working om a bigger score.



As I was sitting around today I watch He's My Girl . The only thing this has to do with poker is that Jennifer Tilly is in it and she plays poker.

Soccer and cheerleading tomorrow. Softball on Sunday.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The Blog Father and The Dookie

I got pimped by the Blog Father him self yesterday. I feel like a virgin and my wedding night.

I didn't do well yesterday. I played in a few tourneys and my good luck changed back to suck outs and coolers. I chipped up early in one tourney before running KK into AA. I chipped back up to run KK into AA again and finally got knocked out when my flopped set ran into a flush draw that came through. Playing razz was also no good as my made 65432 ran into a chased 6542A. That one was a killer because I was capping itfrom 4th steet on.

OK...no more coplaining abouts cards.

Some how I hurt my back. I woke up and had to roll out of bed. I just got home from the Doc. and I'm on Flexeril and ready to relax a bit.

I forgot to pimp the Mookie yesterday. My bad. Anyway, I didn't play the main event but played the Dookie which was Omaha high PL. Being that Omaha has been my game as of late it shouldn't be far fetched that I cashed...and I did. I got heads up with Hoy and we traded chips for a bit. On the final hand I flopped the nut straight and bet out and he called. The turn paired the board and I bet and he came over the top. I knew he had the boat and even called it but with the blinds high I called in hopes of a semi bluff. So my night ended well I guess.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Year to Date Has Been Good

So, I’m through with 8 months of the year and I wonder how I’m doing. I thought I’d go through all the information and see if I have had any success.

In January I started new with a new account and a new attitude. I cashed in 23 % of the tournaments I played and ended the month at break even over two different sites. My biggest cash was $88 and if it wasn’t for two final tables I would have lost a chunk. NL hold’em was my best event for the month and I dabbled in the Razz and Horse field a little.

February was a solid month for me. I final tabled numerous events and the beginning of my love for Razz. I also do well in Horse and Hold’em with my biggest cash for the month in Hold’em at $187. Felt very good about my play in February.

March was very good again with good runs in hold’em and in Razz/Horse. My big cash was for $268 on UB and I cashed out almost all that I had there. I have enough to play a tourney now and then but most of it is for donking. I’m realizing at this point that I can make some money playing Razz and Horse.

April was a solid month with one $100 plus win in hold’em. It’s also the beginning of ball season and my games played drops in half. I played some Razz and Horse with little luck but do well in Hold’em. I up good chunk at this point for the year.

May comes and I get away from Razz and Horse for some reason. My biggest cash is $10 and I drop like a rock. I have lost all confidence in my game. I dread playing because I can only play at night maybe one night a week so I overplay everything.

June is a slow month for poker. I play a dozen tourneys and cash in 2. I realized that softball was getting in the way of playing so I played for fun and didn’t over commit to the game. Only played one Horse tourney.

July was more of the same as I played some low buy-in stuff for fun. I knew that I couldn’t focus on the game so I quit trying to do to much. Started a challenge with another blogger who shall remain nameless.

August came and I was ready to focus. Softball was over and I jumped back into the game and the challenge with determination. The month started of stagnant but a good run at the end of the month with a handful of final tables and a $287 win gave me a huge month for me.

As I look back over the year to date I’ve had a solid year. My ROI is at 16% at Full Tilt and 35% overall. If I take out my summer of idiocy then I could be at 40% or higher. But where does it go? I would have thought it I had more money but I didn’t have much when I started.

I also think the challenge helped me to get back into focus in a hurry. The challenge is a way to compare results and work on our game together while keeping me from doing things I shouldn’t. I think we’ve both gained from the experience and kept us within our game..

So, I think things are going well. Next up are the big scores that will put me into another zone.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Labor Day Weekend

It was a great weekend to stay off the poker tables and to have fun with family and friends. We started Saturday heading up north to the lake and spent the day fishing, watching football and just hanging out. The girls had a couple of friends with them who had never gone fishing before so it was fun to see them try to take a fish off a hook. Over we didn’t catch much but a bad day of fishing is better than a great day of work anytime.

Sunday we headed to the ball park and watch Softball E. play her first game for her new team. They played the other 14U team in her organization and played them to a 4-4 tie. Considering that the other team is a group of 14 year olds vs. a group of 13 year olds I think they did great. She pitched very well the first two innings allowing one runner and striking out 3 batters but struggled a little in the 3rd. Later in the day we met up with my buddy from Georgia who is up here until Wednesday. We had dinner at his sisters house and the kids went swimming while we caught up and happenings in our lives.

Being that today is Monday, we don’t have anything planed other than watching the Cubs play at 3:05. I have a little yard work to do but that shouldn’t take very long.

That’s it for today…Have a great day.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Do You Need a Card Table

This is a paid review for Cardroom Supply

Many of us spend significant time playing poker on-line but most of us would love to play more live poker. One way of doing this is by going to Cardroom Supply and finding the table that best suites your needs.

The first thing I noticed was the variety of tables they supply as well as the different combinations of chairs and chip sets you can buy. With all of these choices, even the tightest budget has the ability to find something that can be enjoyed and used with ease.

Is building your own poker room on the horizon? If it is then Cardroom Supply is the place to go. They have many high end tables that are equal to or better than the tables you find in the casino nearest you. They have different wood grains and colors to match any theme that you may want to employ. And if you need to buy chips and other necessities, they have everything you need.

If you are on a budget and can’t afford a super expensive stand alone table, they have folding units and table top additions that will fit your pocket book. You can even get a personalized logo put on the felt to make the table your own.

Consider Cardroom Supply when you are looking for your poker room needs and I think you’ll find they have everything you are looking for in a supply house.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Returning From Tunica

Sur should almost be home. He started the day by playing some 1/3 no limit and dropped a buy-in when his KK ran into AA and when his top 2 pair with AK lost to a flush. Not a good start to the day and it ended the same way in the tourney. I didn't catch all the details but he lasted 3 plus hours before getting knocked out.

So thats it for the updates. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the happenings of a fellow ATL player for all of those who came by from there.