Nice River

***** Hand History for Game 3286064401 *****2/4 Texas Hold'em Game Table (Limit) -
Fri Dec 30 13:47:03 EST 2005Table Bad Beat Jackpot 1105521 (Real Money) -- Seat 7 is the buttonTotal number of players :
10Seat 1: Thin0ne ( $74)
Seat 2: Vadd1 ( $94)
Seat 3: huge_rack ( $44)
Seat 4: jb_flopit ( $107.25)
Seat 5: Stewman20 ( $98.50)
Seat 6: iedington ( $84.20)
Seat 7: drander ( $55)
Seat 8: Bigad66 ( $75)
Seat 9: coelacanth33 ( $100)
Seat 10: Sir1810 ( $6)Bigad66 posts small blind (1)Sir1810 posts big blind (2)
** Dealing down cards **Dealt to Stewman20 [ 9h, Th ]
Thin0ne calls (2)Vadd1 folds.huge_rack folds.jb_flopit folds.
Stewman20 calls (2)iedington folds.drander calls (2)Bigad66 calls (1)Sir1810 checks.
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 7h, Ac, Jh ]
Bigad66 checks.
Sir1810 bets (2)
Thin0ne raises (4) to 4
Stewman20 calls (4)
drander folds.
Bigad66 folds.
Sir1810 calls (2)
Sir1810 is all-In.
Creating Main Pot with $20.50 with Sir1810
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ts ]
Thin0ne bets (4)
Stewman20 calls (4)
** Dealing River ** : [ 8h ]
Thin0ne checks.

Stewman20 bets (4)Thin0ne folds.
** Summary **Main Pot: $20.50 Side Pot 1: $11.50 Rake: $1.50 Jackpot Contribution: $0.50Board: [ 7h Ac Jh Ts 8h ]
Stewman20 balance $116.50, bet $14, collected $32, net +$18 [ 9h Th ] [ a straight flush, jack high -- Jh,Th,9h,8h,7h ]
iedington balance $84.20, didn't bet (folded)drander balance $53, lost $2 (folded) Bigad66 balance $73, lost $2 (folded) coelacanth33 balance $100, sits outSir1810 balance $0, lost $6 [ 7c 4c ] [ a pair of sevens -- Ac,Jh,Ts,7c,7h ]

It's been a while

Hello all, I haven't posted since my 2nd a few weeks back. Things were going great for a while now, they have reverted back to crap. I look back on my play in the tourney where I finished 2nd and realized that I played well (not great) and got very lucky and some premium hands at the right time. A few examples.

blinds 25/50 1st position raises 5x's to 250. I'm in the cutoff with AKs. I smooth call. Flop comes KKK. I flop da NUTS!!! He checks, I check. Turn is a rag, he bets, I call. River he bets, I raise him and he moves all in (I have him barely covered) and his QQ lose to my QUADS. 2 levels later, I'm chip leader and open up in 1st position with KK. Guy right next moves all in and shorter stack moves all in from SB. I call and my kings hold up to beat QQ's and Ten's. About 5 hands later I win another all in with my AA's beating KK's. I just played uber tight till the final table where I entered I believe 2 or 3 in chips. When we were 4 handed, I was chip leader but soon that changed. I don't remember the hand but it dropped me to 3rd in chips. Final 3 I was shortstacked for most of it but let the 2 big stacks battle it out. Finally the 2nd chip guy busted out and I was heads up with a 4-1 chip disadvantage. First hand of heads up play was all it took. We were basically allin with my AJo vs. 83s. He flopped a 3, turned an 8 and I hit a jack on the river. Overall I was very happy taking home over a $1000 for a $10 investment.

Prior to that and after that I was primarily playing 10+1 SNG's and was playing really well. I had a return on investment of over 40% and was up over $200 playing them. Then the 24th and 25th rolled around and a combination of playing poorly, getting sucked out on, and not knowing when to quit while up in 2/4 (why I started and then kept playing ring games is a mystery to me) saw me lose all the money in my account. I then bought in for another $100 and started playing the speed torunaments. Boy do I love those. I played the $5 and $10 ones and they have huge fields but go super fast. I didn't cash in any of those though. I then played a 20+2 and cashed in that one. 27th place (out of I believe 451 people), good for $43. Anyways, lost that $100 too and last night bought in for another $100 and this is it for a while. No more buying in if I lose this quickly like the last $100. Must stop playing. So I played 3 SNGS, finshed 2, 4, and 10, good for a $3 dollar loss.
Then I played a $5 speed tournament last night. Over 1100 people with first place being about $1200. I was second in chips at my table with a little over 200 people left. They pay top 140. Now I want to get all of your opinions on this because I don't know if I did the right move. I believe I did and just took a bad beat but tell me please so I don't make it again.

I have about 10,500 in chips and the chip leader has about 11,000. The chip leader is in first position and moves all in. Blinds at 500-1000 (blinds raising every 3 minutes). I know he probably has a medium strengthed hand, just trying to steal blinds because he has been doing this and sucking out on people all tourney long. A guy in 3rd position after using all of his timebank moves all in for $3200. I know I have him beat because he is desperate. I have AKo on the button. Approximately 14-15,000 in the pot. Not the best pot-odds but I know I have the best hand. If I call and win, I will be tourney chip leader and cripple a larger stack. If I don't, I'm still top 10 in chips. I call and 1st position shows A10 and the shortstack shows AJ. I have them both dominated. Great position for me, so I thought. The flop comes King high which is great for me except for the next 2 cards. QJ. 1st position flops da nuts and I'm down to runner runner. I lose of course and finish 205 and out of the money. I keep thinking about it and my read was right but just got unlucky...but should I have called in the first place, that is the question?? Comments appreciated.

Death of a Heeb

My reign on PP as BigHeeb91 is officially over.

I took a week off of online poker while I was studying for finals... By the way I've played the last 3 days, I should have taken 2 weeks off. So, I will be taking another week off for the Holiday.

When I return, I will be changing my screen name. I guess it's find of like when an under performing baseball player gets traded and plays better because of the "change of scenary". I have cashed in exactly 1 SNG over the last 3 days. I'm down over $300. Being the Christmas season, all I can think of is "that woulda bought a helluva lot of presents".

Case in point: I busted out three times today when my pocket kings ran into aces twice and AQ once. I flopped top pair yesterday with AK and moved all-in only to be called by pocket 6s who of course went on to catch a 6 on the turn. Got my all-in with AK called preflop by pocket 4s and I never improved, but when I moved in with pocket jacks and pocket 10s, the guy holding AK or AQ always improved.

So I am killing off the BigHeeb when I get back in hopes that it changes my luck and I can get back into the black before the end of the month. I have a week to think about my new screen name, so hopefully I will be creatively inspired.

And here's a Christmas greeting from Nicholas:

` fgfe`r4ctvfrgdrnxb

I think that says, "Dad I need a diaper change".

Peace

How to turn $11 into $1017.90

So folks 10 days into my party poker experiment and so far not doing too bad. I'm up over 30% on the $10+1 SNG's and today I took 2nd in a $10+1 NL MT. 783 people and I finished 2 for $1017.90. Not bad. Details will follow when I have time.

Celebrity Mugshot Poker

I saw this on Saturday and was ROLLING on the floor laughing. Check it out:

Celebrity Mugshot Poker skit from SNL

Action Donkey now swimming with other donkeys on PP

Yes folks the subject of this post doesn't lie. I have now entered the online poker world. I opened up a PP aacount, deposited $100 and after the first night, ran it up to about $130 (woohoo big winner). After the second night, down to about $80. I like it a lot (like there was any chance I wouldn't) I've played 6 sng (5nl and one limit) and have placed 5th(3 times), 10th, 8th, and 1st. Yes, I actually won. Nice $39 profit. Been playing the $.50/$1.00 limit game to get my raked hands bonus out of the way. Have finished up about $30 bucks in about 45 minutes of play.
Well I'll keep you posted on my progress. I was thinking of copying this guy who's blog I follow
http://dnapoker.blogspot.com/

He is trying to turn $50 into $5000 in 1 year playing online poker. Doesn't look like he will do it but you never know. Haven't thought about what my goal would be but once I do I'll let you all know.

FFL Playoffs

So I was checking the playoff matchups just now and saw that I am going heads up against none other than my fellow blogger Sinatra. Should be a good matchup but I would have to put my money on Ol Blue Eyes. I also noticed that the other dynamic duo of this blog are playing each other in the consolation bracket (yes folks that means they didn't make the playoffs) so best of luck to them.

I had no clue he was part of the MIT Blackjack Team

So I was watching the Monte Carlo Millions from 2004 on FSN (why do they show poker a year after it has happened) and they did a profile on Andy Bloch. He was part of the MIT Blackjack team. Google search brought me this article.

http://www.onlinepokercenter.com/articles/player_interviews/andy_bloch_interview_2005_wsop.php

Still not a pro either but always a donkey

Hey guys,

Read April's blog as suggested by Big heeb. She did use the greatest 2 words in poker, "Jopke" and "Donkey" Anytime those words are typed in a article/blog, you know it must be good. Hope everyone had a great holidays and good news I'm getting a computer tomorrow and once I get my Internet hooked up, it's time to venture into the world of on-line poker.

Oh yeah, no DOTW for the week. Nobody stunk it up bad and congrats to Mr. Harrington for winning the poker royale battle of the ages.

Action Donkey out!

April's "How to Win at Limit Hold 'Em"

Last week when I played in that PokerStars Tournament with all those famous poker bloggers, I made a few new friends and have been lurking around even more poker blogs (my favorites list now includes 22 poker blogs).

April wrote a great post the other day on "How to Win at Limit Hold 'Em". I must admit... I agree with everything she says. Her strategy is perfect for both B & M casinos like Pechanga and online poker rooms like Party Poker.

It's a must read!

It's official... I'm still not a professional

So I told myself on November 1st that if I could make enough in the next 30 days to pay for my property taxes, I would seriously consider playing semi-professionally. By this, I mean playing 40-60 hours a week with a real bankroll. Here's my SNG stats from November (courtesy of PokerTracker):

In 138 tourneys, I finished in the money 35.51% of the time for a ROI of 48.6%. While the FIM number isn't great, it's decent enough to net me $1,486.20. Add to that the $1,396.00 for my runner-up finish in the MTT and that brings me to a grand total of $2,882.20.

Unfortunately, that is a bit short of the $2,993.30 needed for my Dec 10 property tax bill. So I needed to make an extra $111.10 to "take the plunge". I think that was a sign from above because of course, I decided to get greedy and try to make that money quick in a $100 + 10 SNG this morning (December 2). I ended up going out in 4th (1 from the money) when my pocket Aces in the SB were cracked by K-3 os in the BB.

So I fell short of my goal and I must keep playing as a "casual" player. Oh well, maybe next year...