Current bankroll (10/14/2006):
$414
Sitting on the sidelines to see how this absurd new law pans out.
Tried a Casino Trip
Results: 3 hours played; down $5; $10 bonus cleared
My sessions today were a bit mixed. I played a total of three sessions and only pulled ahead because of the bonus. After playing, I looked at the Poker Tracker results, and I played correctly for most of the hands. However, I was still on a bit of tilt from last night.
Last night I went with a friend to a local casino of their Saturday night tournament. It was a $60 buy-in game, and there were 31 players (if I counted right) with the top 3 places paid.
I knew going in that both my friend and I had good chances going in, but we drew seats right next to each other. We tried not to go up against each other, so I would have rather been at another table. Eventually they moved me when another one got pretty short.
The short of the story is that I made it to the final table as the short stack. I fought off the blinds and won a few hands to make it to 5th place and busted out. My friend was the chip leader with two left and got sucked out when his flopped 2 pair (AAKK) lost to pocket 8's when an 8 hit on the river. He ended up with 2nd place for $465.
Looking back on the evening, I'm not sure if I played the last hand correctly. Before the hand, I had $8500 and the blinds were $1000/$2000. I drew 5c8c in the big blind. There was one limper pre-flop and the small blind called ($6000 in the pot).
The flop was 67T rainbow. The small blind, an aggressive better all night, bet $3000. The pot was offering me 3:1 for a 2.17:1 draw. However, just calling would have but me in a very bad positionwith $3500 chips left if I lost, so I went all in. The small blind called my raise, showed a ten, and ended up taking me out.
I thought about that hand all the way home, and don't know if I made the right move or not. If I'd folded, I could have lasted another 2 rounds and might have made it to the money; one other player was out right after I was. On the other hand, if the draw would have hit, I would have doubled-up and probably would have skated to 3rd place. Tough hand -- tough decision -- tough luck.
Fun Session at Paradise Poker
Results: 3 hours played; up $5
I played for an hour last night and for two hours tonight for a $5 gain. Instead of playing the $.50/$1 tables that my bankroll will support, I've moved back down to the $.25/$.50 tables to help knock the rut off of my limit game. Unfortunately, the bonus clearing is taking way too long at this level. I tried to speed it up a bit by multi-tabling tonight, but it's going to take a level change to make a real difference.
I tried to post last night, but for some reason it wasn't saved. Yesterday at lunch I found out that I won a grand prize in an online sweepstakes sposnored by Dodge and Golf Magazine. Since the letter didn't say, for a few minutes I thought I may have won a car or truck. As it turns out, the prize is a nice set of Cleveland golf clubs worth $2,000. I haven't decided whether or not I'm going to keep them, but either way I'm very happy with the non-poker win!
First blood at Paradise Poker
Results: 3 hours played; down $15
I played for a little over four hours this evening on
Paradise Poker but I didn't do very well. I'm a little rusty, so I was playing tighter than usual. When I did play, the cards were falling against me. I lost with pocket kings on the big blind against pocket aces in late position. On the very next hand I drew pocket kings again on the small blind and lost to queen trash when we flopped two queens. Two hands later I had pocket queens and folded to a bet with a flop of AKT.
I think it's time to break out the books (again).
On to Paradise Poker
Results: 0 hours played
I started a new account on
Paradise Poker and think I'll play there for a while. The interface seems very easy to use and there are always plenty of games to play.
I'm not sure how this new legislation is going to shake out, but for now, it's business as usual for me.
A long time with no new posts
It's been quite a while since I've posted any results, but it's time to get back on track. Since the last post, I've been playing mostly SNG's on Linesmaker poker with pretty good results overall. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to clear any more of the bonuses there.
Since I was getting impatient and was really ready to move on to another site, I decided to withdraw the balance and open an account somewhere else. However, on the day I was going to do the withdrawal, I stupidly decided to play some craps on their casino site. Without going into details, I took a real beating. When I decided to call it quits, I was down $63 overall on the Linesmaker sites. At least I'm still in the black overall, but that little trip to the casino was a stupid thing to do with my poker bankroll.
Today I'm turning over a new leaf and getting back into limit poker in earnest. I opened an account on a new site, and I'll be posting the results from my first session shortly. Wish me luck.
