Full house vs Full house

Today was bad beat central for me, but instead of complaining about all the crap that happened to me, I thought I would post the one hand that I re-sucked out on.

Me 8 7 Villain 5 5

Flop A 8 8
Turn 5
River A

What the?

What the hell is up with Full Tilt's tourny history? You can barely read the font to see any results. I just finished another poker book, this one is an old school cheapy one I picked up in the Borders bargain section for 3 bucks. It focuses on limit poker and stud, and was written right after Moneymaker won the WSOP. It had some good basic advice, one bit I am going to start doing is keeping track of everything. I used to go to the link from full tilt but now since I can't friggin read it I'm going to write down all my results. I have my hand history to look at as well on the hard drive from years ago. A lot of info on how to improve my game. My bankroll small as it is, is going up on Fulltilt. I had it down to under a dollar and now I have it up to almost $30. Pokerstars hasn't been so good to me and I'm at $30 there too, down from $50. Gotta keep grinding away.

I noticed on Pokerstars there is at least one person every tourny with a huge stack who sits out until they make it to the money and then they come back. One good thing that Pokerstars does is when someone doesn't come back when they run out of chips they don't have a showdown they just get knocked out. I like that better than at Full tilt where they can keep doubling up. Ok random thoughts, back to the tables.

still focused...

Yay! I'm on my game finally. I got unlucky in a 6 man, my set was busted by a flush, but I won an 18 man sng. I also made 8th in a wsop freeroll, so I'm doing well. I think not giving up is key.

Finally!

OK finally I won!! whoohoo! after an afternoon of feeling defeated, and knowing I did not play my best heads up, I got myself together and won two sng's. One was a satellite to the daily dollar...cuz I ran out of money lol, and then I won a 6 man sng and came in 2nd in a 9 man sng. So now I have some $$ and I have to build it back up with those $1 tournies. I didn't feel like playing pokerstars today, even though I need to earn those points, but my full tilt bankroll is so sad I had to work on it. It used to be really high and then I played like a donk and almost lost it all. I think I realized one of my biggest mistakes is not LEARNING from my mistakes. It's not good to be a repeat offender. The heads up battle I won I fought hard! I had the best hand twice going all in to knock them out but they caught up both times, I had AQ vs A9, they catch a 9, and I had KK vs A8 they catch not one, but two aces. I fought my way back and they shoved with A4 and I had KK and thankfully they held up and I finally won. It feels good to know I gave it my best...

poker gods!! WHY?!!

I don't know what is going on, but between my aces getting cracked the other day, and today's suck outs, it's been too cruel! Basically I get my money in with the best hand and have them dominated to one out, and boom they get there. AQ vs KQ, AQ vs K3, AK vs AQ. Also I haven't won a sng in awhile. I came in 2nd several times or 3rd but still no 1st. I was pretty good at my heads up game with those free HU tournies on ftp, maybe I need to practice more. Although no suck outs would be nice too. When i shove with 66 and they call with 22, somehow we friggin split the pot! Ahhh I like Kenny Tran's quote "Poker is like fire, sometimes it warms your heart, and other times it burns your bankroll!"

pocket aces cracked twice! make that 5 times

dang... two sit n go tournies, i raise three times the blind with pocket aces, both times they re-raise me, so i shove all in, first time my aces were cracked with 10 8 by the flop 10 8 7, second time my aces were cracked by pocket queens! LAME! ok this is ridiculous... i've had them 7 times today now, and they have been cracked 5 times!! by one opponent too , obviously having the worst hand, pocket threes catching a 3 , another pair of pocket queens got me and a pair of pocket 10s! ok how many more times today can they be cracked ... i think i should fold them lol....

Been awhile...

Sorry I haven't written in awhile. Quick updates... I finally signed up with Pokerstars.com, I was only playing on fulltilt, but they never seem to have enough tables going on during the day for omaha hi/lo or HORSE. Pokerstars format was hard to get used to at first, I prefer fulltilt, it's cleaner and you can adjust the look of the game. ****just sucked out with the worst hand lol, one of those fulltilt main event round 1, I had Ks Qs flop came Kc 8c 9s. original min raiser bets min, 2nd caller pops it to half their stack, and because its a free tourney i go all in having a feeling i'm going to win even though i know i am probably beat, orginal raiser calls with Ad Kd, 2nd caller has Qc 9c. Turn 5s River Qh. haha. tripled up. hopefully I can win another one of these things as the last time i won a round one, round two was absolutely card dead to me. **** Anyways, back to Pokerstars, or as Vanessa Rousso says "Pookerstars" in her commercials. Once I got used to their format, I've done ok...although I find it impossible to win their points to get my bonus. If you play a sit n go, it only gives you one point. Or if I play a cash table I seem to only get two points. I'll have to try a day where I play 8 hours straight and see what happens.



In non poker news, I got a 24 hour stomach flu this weekend. And no it wasn't swine flu, everyone asks me that ;-). Although I was worried, but I didn't have all the symptoms. I had some weird feeling I picked it up from Target when I was there Saturday trying on some bikinis for summertime, you go in those fitting rooms and there are kids running around God knows how many germs are in that place. Needless to say I was able to go to Borders and grab a good book that day before I got sick, "Angels and Demons". I've read "Da Vinci Code" and as much as I enjoyed that book, this one is a lot more exciting. I got through half of it yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing the movie, even though the first film was pretty boring. The thing with these books, is that they are very exciting reading them as Langdon talks about the FreeMasons, Knights Templar, etc, but when you have to translate that to film, that can be boring as hell. I really think they would have to change the storyline a bit to make the movie more exciting and more of an action film, kind of like "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" as that makes religion, relics, history, VERY exciting to watch. I love that film. I watched it again this weekend as I lay sick trying to keep food down lol. This Thursday is going to be exciting. The short film I produced is going to be screened for friends/cast/crew. I can't wait to see everyone's reaction. This film has gotten a very positive response from people in the industry that have seen it, so I can only hope this will boost my career somehow. Fingers crossed! Hope everyone is feeling ok....

4/1 tourny history

Could be doing better.... for instance I was in third place in one tourney today because I just wanted to eat lunch lol. The $$ is more important!! I also need to work on strategy for the bubble. I busted out 4th several times today.....

case ace got me

So the rush I had earlier winning and placing in every sit n go has officially ended. I refocused and my play today was pretty good. But the cards are just not coming my way and I am not hitting anything! Well some how I make it to four players left and I ended up being the bubble on this unlucky hand

Blinds are so high I shove all in on the button with AQ small blind calls with AA

flop QQ7


turn 10


River A!!!!!!

the case ace got me

i'm going to go and cry in the corner now blah

Queens hate me

After having a great day in pokerz yesterday, I've busted out of 4 tournies in a row against QQ this morning. Granted I was playing bad and shoving with the worse hand, so I guess I deserve it. OK I need to focus, I can't believe how bad I'm playing today...maybe some sushi will get me on track again.

Razz

I think everyone has a love/hate relationship with Razz. I personally love it, it is such a sick and twisted game, as your A 2 3 can quickly become A 2 3 K K J 9...etc. lol. Today I won two out of four$2 sit n gos, came in 13th on a WSOP freeroll (out of 225 players) and while I was playing that I won a $1 razz tourney. First hand was pretty crazy as I would have eliminated two players had the blinds been big enough. It seems they didn't know exactly how to play razz as they both kept re-raising with high cards and pairs. Fine by me! That gave me a good start to the game. When it gets down to 3 players, and heads up, it becomes a game of chicken. Who can complete the bet first with a low card but K Q underneath? The last hand was pretty crazy as he kept reraising me with nothing and his cards were awful, I didn't have much better A 9 A, but I got the better cards as the hand finished and I won with a 10, 9, 6, 4, A and they had a J, 10, 8, 5, 4. Whoo hoo $4 dollars baby lol. I'm happy to take it, I was down to $20 in my account because I was playing tired, etc, and since I've focused on my game I've now moved up to $70. I'll post some hand analysis later. I just want to add that the freerolls are such crap shoots as you have to go all in all the time. I did quadruple up with pocket 4s when the board made runner runner straight. But that wasn't enough and I had ten big blinds and went all in with J 3 sooted. I targeted the med stack and they had a K and I was gone. Que sera.

I heart Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain is very "In Yo Face" and I love it.  I was reading an article on msn today that had Anthony giving his opinion of the various cooking shows on TV.  I am a huge fan of cooking shows, especially Top Chef ( except this past season) so I was excited to read his critique.  When he got to "Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee"  I knew it was going to be a good one.  I honestly can't stop laughing at what he said:

"She makes her audience feel good about themselves.  You watch her on that show and you think, "I can do that.  That's not intimidating."  All you have to do is waddle into the kitchen, open a can of crap and spread it on some other crap that you bought at the supermarket.  And then you've done something really special.  The most terrifying thing I've seen is her making a Kwanzaa cake.  Watch that clip and tell me your eyeballs don't burst into flames.  It's a war crime on television.  You'll scream."

Well Mr.Bourdain, I looked up that clip and watched it, and not only did I want to scream, but I wanted to vomit when I watched it.  LOL!  It is pretty nasty.  I've never been a fan of Sandra Lee, and this is a pretty good reason why.  Enjoy the frighting video!

I'm gonna knock you out - LL Cool J

Oh knocking people out is SO sweet.  I played another $2 sit n go and knocked everyone but 2 players at my table.  It first started with a double knock out, I raised MP with AQ clubs, get two callers.  Flop is 6c 6d 10c, BB bets, FP raises, I shove all in, thinking no one called with a 10 6, maybe 10s if I'm unlucky.  They both call my all in showing 6 2 off and K 10 off.  6 2 huh?  Never underestimate the players of the low stakes sit n go's.  K on the turn, club on the river, shazam!  Double knock out.  Which felt pretty good because the other sit n go I was playing, I raised with pocket Queens, BB re raised me , I shove all in since I have 10 blinds and it's a turbo, they call and have pocket 7s and there flops that 7.  Good ole 2 outer.  But hey I'm not going to complain.  The other day my 8s cracked AA with a nice 2 outer on the river.  Sometimes I do play a bit too cautious, the player I ended up heads up with, I could have knocked out previously, but i was worried he might have a higher flush than me.  I had J8 clubs, got my club on the river and he made trip 7s.  I could have ended it there, I need to get better at that.  Needless to say I took him down in the end anyways.  

Last night we had friends over and I learned how to play Hearts.  I tried to shoot the moon as I had 8 hearts in my hand but someone got one of the hearts...grrr and I was stuck with all the points.  Gotta take a chance and gamble though, what's the fun in playing it safe?  

"Watchmen" ***

I went and saw Watchmen this morning.  I read the graphic novel for the first time about five months ago to see what the big deal was, and after I finished I was blown away with it.  I finally understood the nerdy excitement over the release of this movie.  Kind of like how I geeked out over LOTR and couldn't wait to see the films. Anyway, as good as the graphic novel was, the movie fell flat.  Zach Snyder directed the film, and he did a great job overall of being faithful to the book.  I felt like the graphic novel was unfolding before my eyes.  The casting was spot on, and the effects were great.  I really loved all the actors, especially Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach.  The end was different, but my boyfriend and I agreed it was actually a better ending than what the graphic novel had.  The problem I had with the movie was it lacked that magic "spark" you feel when you watch a really good movie.  With the LOTR films, I was sucked in and enjoying it as much as the books and I could really feel for the characters.  I didn't really have any emotion or attachment to "Watchmen" because everything is at a distance.  It's visually spectacular but it doesn't go beyond that.  "Watchmen" is also almost three hours long, so I kind of wanted my morning back after seeing it.  Needless to say I won't be buying the blu-ray for the 3 1/2 hour version!  I give watchmen 3 out of 5 stars. 

Low Stakes Sit n Go History and other musings

The latest and greatest chart fulltilt has on my tourney history.  I really wish they would keep more than a weeks worth of history, luckily I have a huge wealth of hand history stored on my desktop I can go back and sift through.  

Out of 11 tournies: 4 wins, 1 second place finish, 2 third place finishes.  So I spent $24.75 on entry  and won $48.60 = $23.85 profit.  Cashing in over half of them is not bad, but I could have done better.  I caught myself making a couple of dumb plays that busted me out of a tourney in 9th when I limped mid position with AQ sooted and the flop was A 3 5 , BB shoves all in and like a doofus I call....*smacks hand on head*.  They had A 3. That's not really listening to Negreanu's small ball approach is it?  I got it together though and did well on the next two tournies I played.  

I've started this blog to keep track of my play and to hopefully gain good insight from others as well.  I'll be talking about poker and whatever else comes to mind.   Thanks for reading.