WSOP or Bust

I believe they call this a "Party Poker Flop":

#Game No : 3727762366 ***** Hand History for Game 3727762366 *****NL Texas Hold'em Trny:20963456 Level:10 Blinds-Antes(800/1600-50) - Sunday, March 12, 20:58:58 ET 2006
Table Regular(628718) Table #15 (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: NoBlackAces ( $9872 )
Seat 2: mcdeebob ( $54861 )
Seat 3: swisstrips ( $13572 )
Seat 4: pumpking ( $17161 )
Seat 5: sdguard ( $23814 )
Seat 6: D_DAY123 ( $16595 )
Seat 9: jay32jeff ( $22055 )
Seat 10: touganal ( $42086 )
Seat 8: crazyhands7 ( $13073 )
Seat 7: jerry76123 ( $31775 )
Trny:20963456 Level:10
Blinds-Antes(800/1600-50)
NoBlackAces posts ante [50].
mcdeebob posts ante [50].
swisstrips posts ante [50].
pumpking posts ante [50].
sdguard posts ante [50].
D_DAY123 posts ante [50].
jerry76123 posts ante [50].
crazyhands7 posts ante [50].
jay32jeff posts ante [50].
touganal posts ante [50].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ 9c 9s ]
mcdeebob raises [3700].
swisstrips folds.
pumpking folds.
sdguard folds.
D_DAY123 folds.
jerry76123 folds.
crazyhands7 is all-In [13023]
jay32jeff folds.touganal folds.
NoBlackAces is all-In [8222]
mcdeebob calls [9323].
** Dealing Flop ** [ Ad, Js, 9d ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Jd ]
** Dealing River ** [ 3h ]
mcdeebob shows [ Kc, Kd ] two pairs, kings and jacks.
crazyhands7 shows [ Jh, Jc ] four of a kind, jacks.
NoBlackAces shows [ 9c, 9s ] a full house, Nines full of jacks.
crazyhands7 wins 6402 chips from side pot #1 with four of a kind, jacks.
crazyhands7 wins 30766 chips from the main pot with four of a kind, jacks.
Player NoBlackAces finished in 154 place

1300 players, made it to 154th. I really do not mind flopping a set, turning a full house and losing.... to QUADS. Much better than a guy calling all-in with a gutshot and hitting.

It's funny to think about: I was dead to the case 9 on the flop and drawing completely dead on the turn with a full house!

Anyways, I turned $16 into a buy-in to the WSOP satellite tonight. It just started and I won the first 3 hands on an UBER-tight table then got moved after the 3rd hand.

They pay 1 WSOP ME entry for every 55 players. Top 7 will get paid with 1 - 4 getting an entry and 5-7 getting cash.

If I do anything in this tourney for once, I'll post a full report.

**** UPDATE ***

I went out in 76th place. With blinds at 200/400, I had 16,000 in chips and picked up AK of hearts in MP. I made a standard 3 x the BB raise to 1200 and it folded around to the BB who had over 32,000 in chips. (chip leader in the tourney with 8 tables left). He re-raised and made it 3,100 to go. Did he think I was stealing from MP because I had a bunch of chips, or did he really have a hand? I hated that I was about to call and see the flop with the chip leader, but thought at worst, it was a coinflip. If I hit my flop, I push, if I miss, I lay it down and still have almost double the chips of the average stack.

Flop came J-A-2 with two diamonds. I had position on him and waited to see what he'd do. There was 7,000 in the pot and he led out and bet only 2,000. Now this means one of two things: 1) He flopped a monster and is begging for me to call or 2) He completely missed and knows I have a big ace and hopes to see the turn for cheap. I put him on option 2 and raised it to 6,000 straight. He then pushed for his last 27,000 (had me WAYYY outchipped) and I quickly called. It was then that he flipped over pocket Aces and I saw that I was drawing completely dead.

It was rough, but again... I don't mind losing to an absolute monster. He flopped a set of aces and I flopped top par with top kicker. I don't think I could play it any differently. Just rotten luck, I guess. The worst thing about it? After the guy won that hand, he had over 50,000 in chips. About 10 minutes later, he ended up dumping more than 35,000 with the sucker-end of the straight against the nuts. He didn't even cash.

Overall, I played extremely well. I outlasted 70% of the field and when I went out, I went out with a real hand. I had 16,000 in chips when the average was under 9,600.

Best of all, I had a real shot at winning a $10,000 seat, hotel and travel accomidations and $1,000 spending cash... all for a $16 investment.

"I'll be baaack"

Ridiculous SnG event

Go Fossilman, this guy is a lot better than people give him credit for.

Not a bad few hours of work.

SnG article

What's this...the Donkey is on a roll

So after my successful trip down to SD to play poker with the crew, I'm back home and have booked back to back winning sessions at Bay 101 bringing in almost $454 (which for this donkey is not bad.)The first night, I scooped up the biggest pot of my life (pretty sure this it was the biggest) of approximately $280. I'm on the button and have 5 limpers in front of me (playing 6-12). I look down and see pocket rockets so I raise it up to $12. Everyone including the blinds call so the pot has $84. The flop comes 9x4. The blinds check and my arch nemesis Hormones (my cousin) leads out for 6. One guy calls and it gets to me and I raise to 12. Hormones reraises to $18 the guy calls and I just call because I figured he has a set because 2 pair unlikely with the board being what it is. Now $128 in pot The turn was my gin card Ace of diamonds. Hormones bets, guy calls, and I raise to $24 Hormones raises to $36 guy calls and I reraise to $48 and they all call. Now $272 in the pot. I yell out 9 diamonds because I want the other guy to make his flush but for me to fill up. The river comes and it is a 9 of clubs. Hormones has 2 chips left and the other guy missed his flush draw and folds and I call the 2. Hormones had pocket 4's for a full house but I have a bigger full house to rake in a $280 pot. Hormones and I left right after that and I booked a $324 winning session.

Went back yesterday and won $120 playing 6-12 so not doing too bad. I can't remember the last time I had 2 winning sessions in a row. This year is shaping up to be a good one...I need a good year to erase the horrors of 2005.

Who's your Donkey now No Black Aces

Tourney results


My cardplayer bio

The other cash here is not me, must be another Chris Stewart from Fremont but the top one is me.

Hey even the Hendon mob now recognizes my donkey skills....hee haw
Hendon Mob Bio

I am proud to lead the way for the crew and expect all of you to join me soon.

Every donkey has his day

So it is time for my trip report to SD about 10 days ago. Let's see, I bumped up my cash game play up to 8-16. Played with a bunch of maniacs and was down almost $400. Then the impossible happened, my table hits the jackpot and since it was between 9:00pm-12:00am it was doubled. The jackpot was worth over $13,000. My table share was $751, so I ended up about $350. So not a bad start to my poker trip.

The next day I went to Rincon with No Black Aces (NBA from now on) and RiverRat. We decided to play in the $200 night tourney. 156 players and top 18 got paid. On the 3rd hand I doubled up when a total donkey gave me his chips. I raised in 3rd position with JJ to T75 (Blinds 25-25). I get reraised to T225 by the button. I call. Flop comes out 9 high. I check and he bets T300. I smooth call (maybe a mistake calling here but it worked out). Turn was a rag below 9. He bets T300 again and I move all in for T175 more raising it up to T475. He looks surprised and then calls me with A10 of diamonds. I needed to avoid a diamond or an ace and the river was a rag and I doubled up and knocked the donkey out. I played tight and solid throughout. Took one bad beat when I called a guy (Mike Odea a loud obnoxious pro from vegas) all in with my Queens and he had 8's. He caught an 8 on the river so I doubled him up. I ended up grinding away collecting chips, getting very lucky on one hand to double up and I made the final table finishing 7th and collecting $1059 for my efforts. My first casino tourney final table and second casino cash. My 4th final table (where real money involved) and 2nd largest payday. Thanks for NBA and RiverRat for sweating me at the final table.

The next day played 4-8kill for hours and finished up $112 and played 2 tourneys really poorly and busted out of the money in both. So that was it, won about $1500 and turned a profit of over a $1000. Next poker trip, the WSOP.

How I plan on going to the WSOP Main Event on $10

Dealer: Congratulations,NoBlackAces! You won Entry to WSOP Step 2.

Dealer: Congratulations,NoBlackAces! You won Entry to WSOP Step 3.

2 Down, 3 to go. If I place top 2 in step 3 and top 2 in step 4, all I have to do is win step 5 and the rest will be history.

See you in the main event. You can count on it.

This is why I will never win a big MTT

***** Hand History for Game 3722448012 *****
NL Texas Hold'em Trny:20943849 Level:5 Blinds(150/300) - Sunday, March 12, 04:28:22 ET 2006
Table $10K Gtd.(628596) Table #24 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: ltvbc ( $3242 )
Seat 2: La_cour_DK ( $6208 )
Seat 3: impact ( $2310 )
Seat 5: submariner3 ( $8836 )
Seat 6: NoBlackAces ( $6198 )
Seat 8: johnvb5 ( $2887 )
Seat 10: Rmplstlskin ( $4019 )
Seat 4: OlverCloseof ( $6392 )
Seat 7: PEASS111 ( $4543 )
Seat 9: KawikaNanea ( $1168 )
Trny:20943849 Level:5
Blinds(150/300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ Ks Kd ]
OlverCloseof folds.
submariner3 folds.
NoBlackAces raises [1200].
PEASS111 calls [1200].
johnvb5 folds.
KawikaNanea folds.
Rmplstlskin folds.
ltvbc folds.
La_cour_DK folds.
impact folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Qc, 4d, 3s ]
NoBlackAces bets [2200].
PEASS111 is all-In [3343]
NoBlackAces calls [1143].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 2h ]
** Dealing River ** [ 7h ]
NoBlackAces shows [ Ks, Kd ] a pair of kings.
PEASS111 shows [ Ac, 5c ] a straight, ace to five.
PEASS111 wins 9536 chips from the main pot with a straight, ace to five.

I mean... are you kidding me? Could I have telegraphed a HUGE pocket pair any more???Again, I play flawless poker for over an hour and then this happens. I am absolutely positive that if I could go longer than 3 hours without having some fucking donkey call 4 x the BB and then raise all-in on the flop with nothing but a gutshot straight draw AND HIT, I would actually take down a win every once in a while.

Un-fucking-believable my bad luck...

Stats from 2 tourneys played tonight:

Hands Played: 199
Hands Won: 27% (54 of 199 hands!)
Showdowns Won: 82%

Flops Seen: 31%
Win % if Flops Seen: 55% (34 of 62 hands!)

You just can't play any better than that...

Congrats to an old friend

So many years ago in a past life I worked in a movie theater. One of my co-workers was a girl named Jackie. Jackie soon became my partner in crime at the theater (she trained me how to make the popcorn and even better how to clean the popper..ahh the memories) and we became good friends. We also went to the same high school but she graduated a year ahead of me and we didn't know each other while in school. Anyway, I left SD for the bay area and Jackie and I would keep in touch and when I was in town we would hang out and dance the night away at the E Club (I think that's the name) at Miramar NAS (now Marine Corp station). Anyways, we sorta lost touch and then out of the blue I got an email telling me she was married and living in Vegas. Soon the conversation turned to poker (what a shocker). Turned out we both had become poker addicts. Well once again no contact forever till recently. I read an article on cardplayer about these two lovebirds who met online on PP and are now getting married. I thought it was a cool story but didn't pay attention to the names. Then out of the blue I get an email from Jackie telling me about the story and what has been going on. Turns out she was the woman in the story. What a small world. So we've been catching up and I told her about this blog and I told her I would make her my next posting so here it is. Gentlemen, I am proud to announce our subscriber base has now reached that astronomical milestone of 1 reader. Congrats guys and Congrats Jackie.

Have a great wedding at the Paris hotel and enjoy the PP Cruise. Here is a link to the story.

Jackie's Story

Party Poker, Pechanga, Vegas, and Random Thoughts

I am still doing well in my 10-20 online venture... I wish I could just bring that to the felt.

Played 8-16 last weekend with RiverRat... I play solid all day and I find myself up about $200 after 4 hours of play. Then the jacks come...

In a matter of two orbits, I get dealt pocket jacks 3 times. The first time I lose when the flop brings all unders, I bet, get 3 callers and the turn brings an ace. The second time, I lose when the flop brings all unders and I guy leads out in EP. I raise just to get smooth called. The turn brings trash and he bets again. This time I call and the river brings a Q. He bets, I just call and he shows 2 pair on the flop.

The final time I get dealt jacks, I am in the BB and there are 5 limpers. I raise for value hoping that I see yet another garbage flop. Everybody calls and the flop comes out 10 high. A guy in EP bets out, I raise and everyone calls. The turn brings a harmless 5 (or so I thought) and this "player" (as RiverRat warned me) leads out. I raise, get one caller back to him. He calls. River comes out garbage. He bets out his last 8 chips and I call. The jackass flips over 8-6 os for the turned gutshot straight. Yikes. Calls 2 bets on the flop with it, flops nothing but a gutshot and proceeds to call 2 more bets with it. How do you play against that?

I played in the tourney and was doing very well after the first break. I was about twice the average chip stack when I picked up pocket aces in the cutoff. It's folded to me so I make like I am trying to steal the blinds and open for a 4 x the bb raise. Folds to the BB and I see he has exactly enough to call my bet. He goes into the tank and announces the call as he flips over J-7 os. I smile and flip over my aces and everybody lets out a collective "ooooh". The flop comes 6-9-x. The turn is an 8. Of course the river is the 5. He takes it down and I lose my mind as well as a quarter of my stack. I get changed to another table where I push with K-Q os and get called by 4 players. Flop brings two queens and I quadruple up.

I go out 2 hands later with KQ when an over anxious player in EP commits himself and raises 5 x the BB with AK. I put him on a mid-pair and figure to be a coinflip so I push for a little more than half his stack and he calls. He flops an A and IGHN.

Here's a shocker... my hands online actually hold up:


***** Hand History for Game 3591012375 *****
$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Monday, February 20, 15:20:39 ET 2006
Table Mustang (Real Money)
Seat 10 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 4: ChipsButty ( $317.26 )
Seat 6: Macadame ( $636 )
Seat 7: THEMONEYSMIT ( $498 )
Seat 9: NM333 ( $583.80 )
Seat 2: rolleddown ( $404.56 )
Seat 1: loujd ( $147 )
Seat 8: NoBlackAces ( $278.50 )
Seat 5: alaq24 ( $547 )
Seat 10: Iphis ( $465 )
Seat 3: rocket44222 ( $858.50 )
loujd posts small blind [$5].
rolleddown posts big blind [$10].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ 6d 6c ]
rocket44222 folds.
ChipsButty folds.
alaq24 folds.
Macadame folds.
THEMONEYSMIT raises [$20].
NoBlackAces calls [$20].
NM333 calls [$20].
Iphis calls [$20].
loujd folds.
rolleddown folds.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4d, 5s, 6h ]
THEMONEYSMIT checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$10].
NM333 folds.
Iphis raises [$20].
THEMONEYSMIT folds.
NoBlackAces raises [$20].
Iphis calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Tc ]
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
Iphis calls [$20].
** Dealing River ** [ 4c ]
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
Iphis raises [$40].
NoBlackAces raises [$40].
Iphis raises [$40].
NoBlackAces calls [$20].
Iphis shows [ 5c, 5d ] a full house, Fives full of fours.
NoBlackAces shows [ 6d, 6c ] a full house, Sixes full of fours.
NoBlackAces wins $352 from the main pot with a full house, Sixes full of fours.

Going to Pechanga tonight for a little "pre-Vegas" warmup with RiverRat. We're off to Vegas on Thursday for what hopefully turns out to be another long profitable trip for me at the tables. Profit sharing comes Friday, so even if I don't do well, I won't feel too bad about it. More Pechanga and Rincon next week with the boys, so I'll be busy.

Lookin forward to it.

Once you go to 10/20, you never go back...

According to my PokerTracker database, I have only played 11 hours of cash games since October 2005 . In the last 3 days, I have played 9 of those hours. I don't think I will ever go back to the lower limits. I mean, they are literally giving away their money on these tables!

***** Hand History for Game 3506011733 *****
$10/$20 Texas Hold'em - Monday, February 06, 16:38:27 EDT 2006
Table Table 65383 (6 max) (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 1: BitterMoon ( $347.50 )
Seat 6: NoBlackAces ( $610.50 )
Seat 2: LECYCLONE ( $1092.50 )
Seat 4: PGaveston ( $311 )
Seat 3: JozefTaska ( $778 )
Seat 5: peter60 ( $168.06 )
BitterMoon posts small blind [$5].
LECYCLONE posts big blind [$10].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to NoBlackAces [ 9h Td ]
JozefTaska folds.
peter60 folds.
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
BitterMoon raises [$15].
LECYCLONE calls [$10].
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8h, Js, 7d ]
BitterMoon bets [$10].
LECYCLONE folds.
NoBlackAces calls [$10].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5h ]
BitterMoon bets [$20].
NoBlackAces raises [$40].
BitterMoon calls [$20].
** Dealing River ** [ 5d ]
BitterMoon checks.
NoBlackAces bets [$20].
BitterMoon calls [$20].
NoBlackAces shows [ 9h, Td ] a straight, seven to jack.
BitterMoon doesn't show [ Qh, Ah ] a pair of fives.
NoBlackAces wins $198 from the main pot with a straight, seven to jack.