Oh no, I suck again!!!

Hello all, welcome back to my blog. In my last post I said I would post my results from this past Friday at Kurt's. Well here it is... 0. Yep, that's right, a big fat bagel. It sucked because I thought I was playing well. It was almost surreal. I had chips one minute and the next, I was broke. Both times I had the better hand preflop and things just didn't go my way. In the first game I was up and down for the most part, but I wasn't desperate. I will say I was on an extremely tough table. My table was loaded with talent at the beginning. I had Bill, Ryan, Jack, Jim, and Mark at my table to start with. The first 3 are the top 3 in points this year. The hand I went out on in the first game was crazy. I had just called an all in the previous hand with a decent but still marginal hand. Needless to say, after that call I was considerably short stacked. I had about $520 and I was up for the big blind the next hand. I look at my hand and what do I find but pocket queens. I was thrilled to say the least, plus I had position on the rest of the table. Jim was first to act and folded. Bill was next and he was in the pot with me on the previous hand and was short stacked as well. He had a little over $1000 and he went all in. Then the rest of the table folded until it got to Mark, who was the small blind. He was short stacked too and he went all in for about $800. Then it was up to me, and I'm thinking to myself no matter if someone has aces, I have to play these. I went all in for $520 total and I was praying that no one had aces or kings or big slick. We turned our cards over and Bill had A - 4 offsuit and Mark had pocket Jacks. I was happy to see the only made hand was Jacks although the ace high scared me a little. At that point I'm a 3 to 2 favorite over ace high and 4 to 1 favorite over the Jacks. The flop was all low cards and no staright or flush cards, so I had improved against the ace high and was dominating the jacks. The turn came up an ace, and there went my queens down the tubes. I went from being a favorite to being a 4 to 1 dog, drawing to one other queen in the deck because Jim had mucked a queen. The river came up another ace, giving Bill a set and destroying my queens. Needless to say I wasn't happy about it and I didn't take the beat to well. I wasn't angry at Bill for making the move he did, I was pissed because I got sucked out on. But hey, that's poker. I apologized to Bill for my reaction a little later, but at the time I wasn't in the mood for talking and I was on steam for a while.

That brings me to the start of second game. I started out well, picking up good cards and making good moves to grab an early chip lead. That was until I had pocket tens against Jack. I had raised three and a half times the big blind trying to force out weaker and drawing hands and I only got one call, Jack. The flop came up 9s - 9c- 7d. I thought I was still good, figuring all of the nine - rags were out of the pot, so I value bet half the pot and Jack came over the top for another $300. I thought for a minute and called. I don't know why I called, because I had put Jack on a set of nines, or at the very least a pair of sevens with an ace. The turn came up 8h, and I checked it to Jack who promptly went all in. While the 8 gave me more outs, I pretty much knew I was beaten and threw my hand away. I shot myself in the foot, costing myself $300 more after I knew i was beat. A couple of hands later I get Qd - 9d in early position and I just limped in. The flop came up 9s - 8d - 5s. There were four of us in the pot and I had flopped top pair with a decent kicker and it was checked to me so I led out an bet a decent bet. I don't remember how much exactly, but it was close to half the pot. I got one call and two folds. The turn came up 9c, giving me a set. I led out again and this time bet more than half the pot, I think it was $600, and the other guy called. The river came up Js, I bet $400 and the guy raised me all in. At this point I was wondering if he had the other nine and I was going to get out kicked. I wasn't really worried about a flush or a straight because I thought I had knocked out all the draws with my bets on the flop and turn. I really thought I was up against another set or a pocket pair, so I called. The guy turned up the nut flush of spades. I just stared at the board for a second and let it sink in. I was shocked he had called me on the turn after not improving his hand. And just like that I was out of the second game.

After the second game, I was at the cash table for a while, doing ok and just treading water. When the second game finished, Greg asked if we wanted to play another tournament. $20 buy in, $1000 in chips to start. I was in for sure as I wanted to get the bad taste out of my mouth from the previous games. 11 people started the game and most if not all were solid players. I won a big pot early in the game and was a decent stack throughout. I didn't play all that many hands, as my cards really sucked for most of the game. I tried to steal the blinds whenever I could. We got down to five players and I really wanted to finish well, if not win. I got dealt As - 8s and played a huge pot mainly on a flush draw. The draw never materialized and I was left with $300. What happened next not only shocked me, It'll probably never happen to me again. I was the big blind the next hand and was all in blind. It came down to just the blinds, Jack and myself. He called, and we flipped, I hadn't even looked at my hole cards. Jack turned over Jc - 6h, and I turned over Ac - 4d. My ace high held up and I doubled up. The next hand I got Ad - Kd. I went all in again and again I doubled up. Now I was at $1500. The next hand I got Ac - 10c, I called the big blind, and both Jim Sr. and Jack were all in for a little more than $600, so I called. I ended up flopping the nut flush and taking them both out. Now I was at $4800, not bad for being all in blind for $300, huh? It gets better. The next hand I get dealt pocket Jacks. John went all in and I called him. He had Qd - Jh. Nothing popped and I knocked him out in third place. Now Jim and I were heads up and I had a massive chip lead. I folded the first hand only to get dealt Ac - Kd the next hand in the big blind. Jim went all in with Ks - 5h. Nothing hit for him and I ended up winning it all. That just capped one of the most amazing comebacks I've ever been a part of. That made my night a little more palletable. I'm done, I'll post later this week on my plans for poker this Friday. Later!

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Top 5 - 7/28

Hello again everybody. I hope everyone is stayed cool this past week. It's the day before Kurt's Friday night poker league and that means only one thing... my Top 5 list. After some careful consideration, I have compiled a list that should do well. As far as last week goes, I've left Jim off this week's list at his behest. He alleged that our picking him was jinxing him. Kurt has also asked me not to pick him. People, I'm not playing voodoo jedi mind games with this list. The reason you people do badly when I pick you is simple, you CHOKE! Not because I put any undo pressure on you, not because I jinx or curse you, you choke, plain and simple. Deal with it people, and stop blaming me for your bad finishes. Anyways, now that I've got that out of my system, we can now move forward with my Top 5. Oh, just one more thing, I'm not picking Ryan either. Not because he asked me to, but because every time I pick him he gets a bagel. So, until he starts doing better, he's out of my Top 5 indefinitely. OK, let's get started.

My first pick did so well for me last week I wondered why I hadn't picked him sooner. He got a 1st and 3rd place last week and has been on a roll the past few weeks. My first pick shouldn't come as a surprise, it's Moe.

My second pick is due for a good week. He's in the top 5 in league points and a very solid player. My second pick is Peter.

My third pick is probably one of the most conisistent players in the league. He's always at the final table and he plays the short stack very well. My third pick is Greg.

My fourth pick is someone whom I'm very familiar with. I've tagged him with the nickname of "Luck Box". If that doesn't give him away, I'll give you another hint. He's currently the league's point leader. He's due for a good week and he's probably the most underrated player in the league. My fourth pick is Bill.

My fifth and final pick is someone who is always in the top 10 in points every year. He also had a win last week as well. My fifth pick is Leo.

Ok, recapping the list it goes: Moe, Peter, Greg, Bill and Leo. Looks like a pretty ineteresting group. Good luck to everyone on Friday at Kurt's. I'll post my results later this weekend. 'Til then, later.

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Off Week Poker...

Hello once again, everybody! Hope everyone enjoyed their Friday night, I know I did. Last night was the first night we played at Jim's house. I must say that it was a very nicely ran tournament. I enjoyed the way the tournament was played and I think we finally worked out the kinks as far as rebuys go. I still feel bad about the hand I knocked Jesse out on though. I had Js - 9s and limped in preflop. There were 3 players including me and I was on the button. The came up Qh-10c-8c. I flopped the nuts and watched Greg bet $600 only to be raised by Jesse all in to about $3200. I was absolutely thrilled when I saw this, because all the betting was done for me. I pretty much knew what Greg had. I had put him on top pair and a pretty good kicker. Either a king or an ace. I was perplexed by Jesse's hand though. I wondered if he was slow rolling pocket aces or kings, or even queens. I also was conerned about some with the club flush draw. No matter what, I had to call Jesse's bet. I also didn't want greg to now I had a made hand and scare him out of the pot with an all in bet, so I just called Jesse's bet of $3200. Greg eventually folded after some debate, but he did make a very good lay down. He ended up having As - Qd and would have had top two pair. The sad thing that still would've been the third best hand. Jesse had pocket 8's and flopped his third 8. If he had pushed all in preflop, I most likely would have folded. I'm sure that Greg would've called him and Jesse would have doubled up. Jesse had about seven outs to win the hand, but nothing popped and he was out in 10th place. We get to the final table and I was one of the big stacks, thanks to that hand with Jesse. At the final table I wasn't really getting much until I got pocket kings. I raised it from $400 to $1200 and Henry who was to my immediate left went all in for $1100 more. Everyone folded, and I had to call for $1100 more. Henry had pocket 10's and I was relieved that I wasn't looking at aces, ace big, or ace rag. The flop came 10c - 8s - Kd. Henry got really unlucky because we both flopped sets. I actullay thought he was ahead when his ten flopped because the 10 was covering the king when the cards were intially turned over. Nothing else came up for Henry and I won a sizeable pot to help sustain me to the money. We got down to the final four and it was me, Niki, Greg and Jim who was the tall stack. Jim had probably a third of the chips on the table at that point and more than a 2 to 1 chip lead on the rest of us. Greg was the short stack with a little over $2000. Niki and I were doing pretty well at that point. I think I had close to $7000 and she had a little more than I did. The hand that busted me was As - 1oc. I was on the button and I raised it to $3000. Niki had folded in front of me and Greg was the small blind. Greg folded and Jim, the huge stack, would probably call with any two cards and he did. the flop came up Qd - 8s - 4h. I tried to steal the pot with a $300 continuation bet and unwittingly commitedmyself to the pot. Jim raised me all in. I think I had about $1300 left, and I was going to be the big blind next for $2000. I called and sure enough Jim had flopped top pair with the queens. The turn came 10h which paired my ten but the river was a blank and just like that, I was out in 4th place. I made $40 and I had a good time. In heinsight, I probably should have checked the flop, but I was disappointed with the way I or Jim played the hand. I just got unlucky and ran into the big stack. After the tournament, we played a cash game and made some money there as well. All in all, it was a very fun night out for me and I'm looking forward to doing again in two weeks. Next up for poker is Kurt's this Friday. I had a very good night this past week and I want to capitalize on my new found momentum. I am still looking for that ellusive 1st win of the season. Hopefully it will happen this Friday. I will post my top 5 for this week on Thursday. 'Til then, later!

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Foxwood's, Cash Tables, and Off Week Poker...

Hi everybody! I've a few things to talk about today, so let's get right to it.

Yesterday was the long awaited trip to Foxwood's for Bill and I. Again, thanks very much to Moe for giving us the ride to and from Foxwood's. If it weren't for Moe , this trip would have probably been just a dream. We ended up picking up Ryan before heading to casino. We ended up getting there at 9am and we immediately got our Wampum cards. I'll tell you, all the commercials on TV about Foxwood's doesn't do it any justice. You've got to see it up close to realize how huge that place really is. You really need a couple of days to see the whole place. Anyways, after getting our Wampum cards, we headed to the poker room to register for the 10 am tournament. The buy-in was $100, $80 for the tournament and $20 for the casino and table fees. Once we were registered, we had about an hour to kill. I was so anxious to play I ended up sitting at $1 - $2 no limit cash table for about 30 minutes. I sat down and the first hand I got was pocket 3's. I limped, hoping to see a cheap flop and three other players limped in as well. The flop came Qs - 3h - Jd. The first two players checked. The third player to my right bet $20. He had to have the top pair. I decided to slow roll him and merely call his bet. The other players folded. The turn was the Jc, and he checked it to me. I knew he didn't have a J in his hand otherwise he would've made a bet. Even if he had the J, I would've raised him because the J on the turn gave me a full house, 3's full J's. I bet $25, hoping to take the pot. Most players say don't bet in that spot but my thought was this, if he had hit a queen or had a pocket pair, I ran the risk of him filling up on the river. After a minute of thinking, he folded. I showed him my hand and man was he pissed. He said he'd playing for 6 hours at the same table and hasn't seen many decent hands. I just sat down and the first hand I get is a full house. I showed my hand for a couple of reasons. The first being that this was my first hand at that table and I wanted them to know I didn't play garbage. Secondly, in the case I wanted to run a bluff, they would see that I was a tight player. I got another set about five hands later against the same player and took another chunk of his stack. I got up a few hands later and cashed out about $35 ahead.

Then it was time for the tournament. I was pretty unsuccessful in the tournament. I didn't make it past the second round of the blinds. I tried to make moves early, but I kept missing my flop. I finally saw pocket 9's and went all in only to run up against pocket queens. That was it for me in the tournament. I hit the cash tables for a couple hours after that. I ended up walking out of Foxwood's about $36 ahead. Not bad considering I spent $100 on the tournament.

Tonight is Off Week Poker and I am gonna be there. I'll post my results later tonight or tomorrow depending on how I feel. Later!

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Foxwood's, prepare to be X Bombed!!!

Welcome again to my blog. The Foxwood's trip is a little more than 12 hours away and I'm already feelin' the itch to kick some butt on the felt. I must admit, I'm a little nervous as well, this being the first trip to a casino where I actually gamble. The last time I went to a casino was for a show, and I think I was only 20. I can't wait to see the inside of Foxwood's, I hear it looks awesome. I hope I do well as this is the biggest tournament I've been a part of. Although the last big tournament I took part in, I had some pretty good results. I think it was 39 or 40 people or so, and I came in 3rd. I'll post how I did later on tomorrow night. Until then, have a good one evrybody!

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Points, oh my god, I got points!!!!!

Hi all. I hope everyone is doing well on this hot & steamy Saturday. As you can see from the title, I had a pretty successful night at Kurt's. In the first game, I rebounded from a short stack to finish third, my highest finish this season. The second game wasn't as good for me, but I finished 8th and collected some much needed points. I started the night about five points from being 25th and being on the brink of not getting to the end of the year tournament. After last night, I have now broken into the top 20 in 18th place overall. Not a bad night at all. Hopefully, I can build on last night and start getting some momentum in the latter half of the season.

In other news, most of my top 5 did pretty well last night. The only exceptions were Jim, Henry, and Ryan, who all didn't score a point. My biggest disappointment was Ryan, who didn't even make to the first table merge in each game. Jim just got unlucky for the most part. That means that both Jim and Ryan will not be in my top 5 for the July 28th tournament. I can't rank on Kurt, who finished 4th in the first game. He did score some points for me, which was a vast improvement from last week's bagel. The all star of my top 5 has to be Moe. he kicked some serious butt in the first game, finishing first. The second game he finished third, which helped boost him into the top 5 in points for the year.

Finally, I'm planning on doing a Foxwood's trip this Thursday, the 20th of July. As of right now, we have 5 people confirmed. They are me, Bill, Moe, Ryan, and my other roomate Mike. There are some people who are strong possibilities as well. It should be a good time. We're going to play the morning tournament and after have some lunch and probably do a cash game. If anyone is interested in going that I haven't spoken to, feel free to post on this blog or you can e-mail me at croy51x@aol.com. Alright, I'm done for now. Have a good weekend everybody!

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Top 5

Hey all, it's time once again to choose for this week's poker league game. I have to say that I'm still greatly disappointed in all of you whom I picked last week that didn't do well, (Kurt). Just in case, I've devised a system to keep all of you busted picks in check. If you fail to score a point, I won't pick you the following week. Choke on them apples! Alright let's get into it shall we.

My first pick promised me he'd do better and damn well better do just that if he knows what's good for him. I have a feeling I may regret this decision, but I'll give him another chance. My first pick is Kurt.

My second pick came in second last week in the first game and is a very good player. My second pick is Moe.

My third pick, much like my second pick finished second last week in the second game. My third pick is Ryan.

My fourth pick is a person I've picked nearly every week since he said that I didn't pick him enough. My fourth pick is Jim.

For my fifth and final pick, I'm going to go with a guy who much like me was in the back of the field last week until he won the first game last week. My fifth and final pick is Henry.

So let's recap: 1. Kurt, 2. Moe, 3. Ryan, 4. Jim, 5. Henry. Good luck to all everyone this Friday, and don't let me down this time!

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I Hate Re-buys....

Hi again everybody. I hope everyone is enjoying this weekend. Last night we had an off week game. About 13 people showed up, which was a pretty decent turnout for an off week game. I enjoyed the game for the most part. I did pretty well getting, 4th place and $45 dollars. I ended up making a deal with Henry to split our winnings. We did things a little differently last night as far as the basic structure was concerned. We did $20 buy ins and 20 minute blinds with unlimited re-buys for the 1st hour. After the 1st hour there was an optional add on for $10 more. The reason why I now hate re-buys is because if you're in a tournament setting, and you get busted, you should be out. At my table, there were 6 re-buys between 3 people. Kurt and I discussed this after the tournament had ended. He and I both agreed that having unlimited re-buys in a tournament setting degrades the level of play. Anyways, after the re-buy stage had ended, we still had all 13 original players. What was impressive is that we didn't drop any players for over an hour. After the 1st player went though, things started to pick up as more players started dropping. When we got to six players left, things once again slowed down. I think because everyone, (including myself), realized how close we were to making it to the money, the play started to really tighten up. We ended up playing six handed for about an hour before Henry got busted. Another 25 to 30 minutes went by before Luca busted out in 5th place. So I was in the money. Here were my opponents: Jack, Mohamad, and George. I had a pretty decent stack and I was getting awful cards so I wasn't losing all that much money. That is until I got A-Q suited in the big blind. I doubled the BB from $2000 to $4000. George, who at that point only had $6000 left, went all in. I called and that left me with a little less than $3000. I flopped a straight draw but nothing materialized after the flop. I busted out a few hands later after the blinds ate up most of my reamaining stack. I asked Kurt and Henry this question and I will pose it to anyone who reads this blog. Did I play that hand wrong? Was there anything I should've done differently? Feel free to post your answers if you like. Ok I'm done for now. Later.

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One Bad Night....

Hello again. It's been a while since I posted and I want to put your minds at rest... no I'm not dead or in jail. I'm sure everyone was soooo concerned, lol. Anyways, just to recap, last week at Kurt's was an absolute, total disaster. I failed to score points yet again, I and was out of both tournaments early. I played crappy and got short-stacked quickly. In the first game I think I played 5 or 6 hands before getting busted. The hands I lost the majority of my money on two hands I should've got away from. The first was against Keith in which the turn card that gave me two pair and a straight draw made Keith's hand. I kind of knew what he had, but for some reason I couldn't lay my hand down. After losing that hand, I was left with about $160. Keith played it well and he should've won the hand. The next hand, Marc finished me off, what a jerk... just kidding. The next game, I was doing alright until a hand against Bob P. I lost about half my stack to him. A short time later, I found myself in a hand against Kurt who had pocket Aces. He was short-stacked and went all-in. I had him barely covered with my Q-10 of diamonds. After the flop, I had an up and down straight draw, a flush draw, and a straight draw. Unfortunately for me, none of my outs popped and I was left crippled yet again. Next hand, I had pocket deuces and I went in for the rest of my tiny stack and got crushed by Jim. Two hands I couldn't get away from, two blown chances, zero points. I think I can call last Friday a complete failure of huge proportions. Tomorrow I get to see if I can redeem myself at an off week game at Greg's. Hopefully, I do well like I did last time. If not, you'll be hearing all about it.

This brings me to next point. The fabulous five names that I picked this past week did oh so horribly. Out of the five names I picked, only two of them got points, and only one of them made it to heads up play. Nice job guys! Way to screw me yet again. Kurt you should be ashamed of yourself. I mean, who loses to Bill when you had him read perfectly?! And Bill what in the hell are you doing taking out one of my top 5. You heartless bastard!!!!!! LOL, just kidding, but not really. Ok, I've pissed and moaned enough for one day. Now it's Corona time!

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