Defeat!!!

Scottie won the little step wager. The wager ended with me being on step 6 of my 3rd attempt. Although I was happy with my profits from the steps themselves, I am not stoked about the loss of the wager. He finished his steps in 2 attempts. Good job Scottie, I am looking forward to the next challenge.

On the brighter side of things, I have made it to the leader board of the battle of the planets on stars for the 2nd week in a row. I am going to go on a push and see if I can get in enough games to place in the "High orbit" board as well.

I had a huge hand in a tourney yesterday. I hit another royal on the turn. I ended up tripling my stack, and knocked out 3 short stacks all in the same hand. I was payed by a set, low-end flush, straight, and 2 pair. Obviously, I received several comments from 2 of them that were funny. The usual Donkey, and a few "go F*** your mother".....
I enjoy when folks get that upset. Makes me feel that I am doing my job correctly.

Fun days

I wouldn't stretch things and say the last couple days have been too profitable (floating in and around break even). Even though I have had a huge case of the "ups & downs" it has been fun. I have seen several rare and funny hands occur the last couple days.

My little wager with Scottie is going. Not well on my part. I am on step 5, and my third attempt. He is on step 5 and his second attempt.
We are both still making money. His is just a little more so far. We shall see how it turns out. I am just in a bit of bad run right now.

I am working on a design for Justin's sleeve. It is a large design and the tattoo artist should have a lot of fun doing it. I will start posting the different sections of it as I get them done.

Getting out run.

Scottie is still on his second attempt. He has made it to the 5th step though. He is holding up nicely.

My first attempt went like crap. I opened up by basically running over the first game. Then in step 2 absolutely fell apart. I was knocked out 17th out of 18. My second attempt has gone a little better. I made it thru the first step relatively easy. Step 2 I got a repeat with 2nd place. Then the next game I took 3rd forcing me to play 1st step over. That first step I took a 2nd then a 1st place. I played the step 2 and got a nod to move to step 3. I am going to pick up from there in the morning. I am in mid-swing of a MTT. Starting field was 3668. I have found myself in 13th with 147 runners left. It's getting time to concentrate on this game instead of SNGs.

The wager begins.

I finished my little effort at getting into the battle of the planets leaderboard for the week. I managed to slide into the middle of the board. I was attempting to make it to the top 10 for the bonus tournament that is offer. No luck there, but I will get the additional money for making the board.

Scottie has made it to step 4 of the wager and is still on his second attempt. He has spent alot of time bouncing back and fourth between step 3 and 4.

Since I finished what I set out to do. I will begin my part of the wager today. Good luck to you my friend.

Another day in the dust.

Yesterday, wasn't that bad of a day. I spent the majority of the day on ring games. Towards the end of the day I found myself playing 18man SNGs. The 18mans went really well. I have to win 2 more or place in 4 to make it on to the weekly Battle of the Planets leader board. Considering the amount of games I have left to play for the "low orbit", I should be able to accomplish this without much effort.

A friend of mine ran across this ladder for 18man SNGs this morning.


We both thought it is interesting and could be a lot of fun to run. So, since I have different objective for the remainder of the week. We placed a $20 wager on his ability to run thru it. He has 4 chances to complete all 7 steps. There is an additional $20 wagered on who will go the furthest. And finally, there is an additional $20 wagered on my performance (so he will have a chance to win his money back). I will run mine either this weekend or early next week.

Right at the moment, he is on his first stab at it. He is on game 3 and currently on step 2. He took 2 in his first, first in his second, and is sitting in third with 7 to go on his third.
Go gettem' Killer!

Poker can be boring sometimes.

The last two days have been almost event free. I have not had that many bad beats. On the other hand, I haven't had any notable wins either. So I guess that would be considered strange (no bad beats).

The last two days of play have been pretty much all break even sessions. Sunday was so close to break even, I posted a $.46 loss. Monday, wasn't as close. I lost just over $9.
Most of my hands were just missing everything except the muck pile. Both days, I had a couple big blind specials that allowed me to stay afloat on or around the break even mark.

Hopefully today will swing back up into the profit side of things.

Back home and ready to rock...

We got in a little after 1am last night. I was a nice little trip. Obviously, I don't have that much fun around my in-laws, but the wife and kids enjoyed themselves. So I claim it was a success.

This week in poker I will be working on MTTs more then anything. I plan on playing some of the larger ones on stars, ap, and cake.

Sometime this week I will be withdrawing some money from stars, allowing me to deposit some on fulltilt. Which is where I prefer to play more comfortably.

I will begin posting art work again here soon. I haven't had a chance to work on anything lately.

Any who off to the races.............

The week of poker is at a close for me....

Yesterday, in not so many words, really freakin' sucked. I suppose it is variance smacking me around a little bit for the good run the other day. I had just a few too many bad beats. Then a few hands of getting unlucky with hands like KK. Considering the things I was beating those sort of hands with the other day, I can't really complain.

Well the poker week comes to an end for me today. The family and I are headed out for a short trip to eastern Tennessee. We will be returning late Saturday night.

So good luck to anyone playing.

Interesing few days

Saturday, I went on a hell of a binge in poker. It was one of those fluke days that I could not go wrong. I would venture an estimate to say close to 90% of the pots I entered into I won. Most hands were not monsters until the flop or turn. Even winning with absolute crap hands. That day I ended up pulling an extremely long session, tripling my online bankroll. It was an exhaustingly sick day for poker.

The next day was the exact flip side of the coin for me. There was nothing I could have done to win a hand it seemed. I guess the run of good fortune had come to an end.

Monday was a little better for me (not a lot though). I ended up winning a $2 180 man. But, that was the only thing that I was able to cash in.

Tuesday, a friend wanted me to play a couple games for him on AbsolutePoker. They went well. Bother were rebuys, I took 8th in the first, and 12th in the second. He was pleased with the results. I felt I could have done better, especially in the one I took 8th in.
I really should play more rebuys. I always seem to do well in them.

Tuesday also marks the day of my wife's first win in a MTT SnG. She has been doing pretty decent since she began her poker voyage. She has been enjoying herself, and I have enjoyed the side effects it has had on our relationship. For any couples out there I would strongly suggest that you both try to play. Not that we had any really large issues, but her playing has brought us closer together.

Also watching her learn has helped my game a little. If nothing else, it reminds me not to over think all the time ( serious issue of mine).

Well onward and upward...time to get to the poker thing!

Good days are here again.

This evening I played on AP. It went really well. I played 4 rebuy tourneys. I final tabled 2 of them and finished in 12 in another. The 4th I was knocked out a couple spots before the bubble. All for a decent return on my money.

In the first rebuy, I was just astonished in the way the cards were falling for me. My hands would be strung together. I would have 5 to 8 winning hands in a row then nothing for an hour. Which isn't all that strange. It was just the strength of the hands I was hitting that was strange. In the same game on one table I flopped a royal, hit quads 3 times, and had 2 straight flushes. This was over a span of 2 hours. It was just one of those sickening games, leaving you wondering when the bottom was going to fall out of it. I ended up in 2nd on this one. The bottom waited till we were down to 4 players to fall out.

The second and third didn't go as smooth. Both of those I actually had to play cards. I especially please with my 7th finish in the 3rd game. Nearing the bubble I was in dead last holding 5 big blinds. Due to a couple forced calls from the big blind as soon as the bubble passed I was actually back in the game. About 30 to 45 minutes after the bubble I had a key hand that was the turning point for the game for me. I was back down to 11 times the big blind. I was dealt 65 of clubs in the big blind. The very nice gentleman in UTG+1 limped with aces then it became a family pot. The flop came 345 (rainbow). After checking it, the fellow with aces 2x bet the flop, everyone called. The turn came a second 5. I shoved and ended up with 3 callers. the river was 6 (saving my neck from the fellow with 26 of hearts. After that hand I had enough chips to start fighting back and taking down blinds repeatedly.

On a side note, the fellow with aces later said he misread his hand at a glance. He was under the impression that he had A4 until it was too late.

Strange change of pace.

It seems that I have found a more balanced game in ring games. Before my leave of absence, I was more balanced in MTT sng's.
I am finding my way back thru the paces in MTT sng's. It does seem to be a lot more work then I thought it would though. I am still holding steady at a decent 20.7% cashing.
The shinning light so far seems to be my ring games. I am posting a nice return on those games.

I understand it is a little early in my return to cast judgments on stats. I am just taking the good with a smile, and adjusting the bad as I go. You can't build a house without going one brick at a time.

Doing the laundry.

I guess the old saying "everything comes out in the wash" still stands true. Things are beginning to come back. I am back to being able to put solid reads on hands. My instincts still need a little nursing along. My decision making has greatly increased.

Over the last two days I have cashed in 21% of my games. Not great, but a huge improvement.

With that said, I am back to the grind to see what today brings my way.....

getting a little better

Yesterday's run was a little better. I actually placed in a couple, and won one 90man.

The funny thing is that my 90 man win in a $0.25 game was as exciting as my first $1k+ win awhile back. Mainly I guess it was just fun to win something after such a long time.

Happy 4th to everyone...let's go blow up somethings

I'm back.

After a sitting out for a few months I am back.

I played 3 games last night along with 2 hours of ring games. I came out of it with nothing but a less in practice makes perfect. My decision making skills are so rusty it's funny. It was a good thing I didn't step out of the micro buy-ins.

For now, I am going to concentrate on the basics in an attempt to let things soak back in.