Bodog Poker Blogger Tourney #2

Filed in archive Internet Poker by David Aydt on September 11, 2025

Info from this site: Keep your poker face.com

Bodog... er NewBodog.com (thanks to the wonderful people that are taking advantage of legal loopholes because of the UIGEA) is staging the second part of its Online Poker Blogger Tournament.

Bodog, well known for its soft bonuses and even softer ring games, is putting up $125 in tournament credits in addition to the money put up by your fellow bloggers to compete for. Again, thanks to the wonderfully vague UIGEA, its become difficult for players to transfer funds from the bigger sites such as PokerStars or Full Tilt to compete.

But, who doesn't like free money? So, if you have the means check out the email invite below to participate (for poker bloggers only please):

Bodog is pleased to invite online poker bloggers to play in it's first ever Poker Blogger Tournament with added prize money courtesy of Bodog.

Bodog is adding a total of $125 in bonus money to the tournament. If you are one of the last 5 players to be eliminated prior to being paid out by the standard payout structure, you will get your buy-in returned by way of a $10 bonus. If you finish 2nd in the tournament you will receive a $25 bonus. And if you finish first, Bodog will give you a $50 bonus.

This tournament is Bodog's way of acknowledging poker blogger's contribution to the great game of poker.

The tournament will run weekly on Tuesday evenings and will require a password for entry that all bloggers can promote within their community.

Details of tournament:
• Dates Remaining: Sept 11, 18, 25 and Oct 2, 2025
• Tournament Name: "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" at Bodog
• Entry Password: bodogblogger
• Buy-in + fee: $10 + $1
• Starting Chips: 3000 (Double Stack)
• Payout: Standard Bodog payout structure
• Bonuses:
o T$50 bonus paid to 1st place finisher.
o T$25 bonus paid to 2nd place finisher.
o T$10 bonus paid to the 5 players that are eliminated prior to payouts.
 These bonuses will be awarded within 24hrs of the tournament completion.
 T$ = Tournament Credits. These can be used as a buy in to almost all scheduled tournaments at Bodog and have a ratio to cash of 1:1.
 T$ can also be combined with cash to buy in to tournaments.
• Day of week: Tuesdays
• Start time: 8:35pm ET

Bodog has committed to run this tournament every Tuesday through October 2nd. If participation warrants it, we'll be able to keep it running and possibly increase the prizes and/or turn this into a poker league with an ongoing leader board!

If you haven't played at the Bodog Poker Room before, please download and install the free software client at:

New Bodog

Sputtering start, but a start indeed

My week started off very well as I picked up a buyin at $50NL on Monday night. On Tuesday night I played 9 hands online for a $0.50 win. I felt that my eyes were heavy and that I wouldn’t be sharp, so I quickly got offline. After watching some T.V., I decided to try my hand at Omaha 8. I know very little about that game but have played plenty of Stud 8, so I thought, what the heck! I quickly dropped my $25 buyin and decided that I might want to learn a little something about that game before I try it again.

I played about 2 hours on Wednesday night, though I still didn’t feel that strong of a drive to crush the tables. Only intending on playing for a quick 30-minute session, I found myself a slight loser when the 30 minutes was up. Not having booked a losing session in my last 9 trials, I didn’t want to swallow that bitter pill. A couple of big hands cost me about $30 or so and all of a sudden I was down to a $40 loss at the hour and a half mark. I hit a big hand to the good to bring my loss back below $20 and decided that I had had enough for the night and I crawled into bed at 11:30.

”Tournament of Champions”

My intention had been to play a few quick hands then get off since I had a big tournament on Thursday night. We played 12 tourneys at a friend’s house and have held back $5 per head every week. In these tourney’s, you get points based on how well you finish. The top 6 point earners were allowed to play for the set aside prize pool with starting stacks in proportion to how many points they earned compared to the other 5 top players.

On Thursday morning I’m up at 6:30 and at work at 7:45am. I have a really busy and stressful day at work and know that this isn’t conducive to great poker playing. When I finally get off work, I was fortunate to have an empty house to come home to as my wife and kid were still at the school where she works. I got a few quick tasks done then found some classical music on Rhapsody to help calm my nerves. Lying down, listening to soothing music and focusing can do incredible things for your poker game prior to game time.

At 6:30pm, I’m seated at my friend’s poker table w/ him and 4 other “top point earners.” My stack is the smallest starting stack at the table at around 8,500 chips, the largest stack is on my left at around 12k. The blinds started at 25/50 and go up every 25 minutes, so I’m in no big hurry to start making moves. I win some small hands early to make up some ground on the other stacks, then a key hand happens in my BB to change the distribution of the chips. I’m dealt the AQ and the table folds around to the SB who just completes, he started out 3rd in chips. I knew that this guy might think that I was making a move, so I made a standard raise to get some money in the pot. He calls. The flop is Q high with some straight potential and the SB leads into me for 1k. I really feel that I am ahead here w/ my TPTK but I want to let him keep firing and I also want to see a safe turn card before I really make this a huge pot. The turn is a Jack, which completes some of the straight possibilities, and the SB leads into me for a 2nd time. I call his 2k bet but am starting to get a little worried about my one pair hand. The river is an off-suit King, and thankfully the SB just checks and I am happy to check behind him. He shows Q-6o for TPNK and I rake in the first big pot of the night. About 2 hours in, this same player was the first of us to get knocked down to the felt. The player who started the tourney w/ the largest stack was soon behind him due to being completely card dead.

How you act and react toward your hole cards matters!

The rest of the night consisted of me stealing the BB from my SB or stealing the blinds when the player to my right just completed his small blind. About every 3rd orbit I was able to steal one of these based on some key tells that the players to my immediate right and left were giving off. The player to my left always capped her cards when she wanted to play and did something else w/ them when she didn’t. The player on my right never bothered to conceal his opinion of his holdings and between his face and his handling of his cards, I could always make a reasonable estimate of whether he would call my raise after he completed his SB.

We’re down to 4 handed, I’ve got my quarter of the chips in play and I pick up pocket 6s on the button. I make my standard raise to 2.5x BB and get called by my friend in the BB. He defends w/ a lot and is a very tough player post flop. He also very rarely reraises preflop, so it’s very tough putting him on a hand. I guess you could say that he is a small ball type of player. The flop is 5-9-5r and he leads into me for 2k. I have played thousands of hands with this guy and he will make this bet both when he has it and when he doesn’t. My gut said that he didn’t have it and I went with it. I assume my subconscious mind realizes or sees something that my conscious mind does not, but I have an overwhelming feeling that I am ahead here, though I can’t put my finger on exactly why. I call, the turn is an off-suit 4 and he fires 4k into me. I don’t like my hand much anymore, but he’s capable of firing all 3 streets and my gut initially said that I was ahead, so I stick with it. The river pairs the 4 putting 2 pair on the board and my friend just goes irate and throws over pocket ducks like he just all of a sudden got caught up on. I rake in a nice pot to recapture the chip lead.

Queens don’t beat Kings!

The lady at the table is eventually knocked out when her pocket queens don’t hold up against the BB’s K-10 and we’re down to 3 handed. We play 3 handed for about 20 minutes and I lose the chip lead on a hand where I had a flush draw and an OESD on the turn. I picked up the str8 draw on the turn and the SB over-pushed to get me off my big draw. If I’m holding this combo draw on the flop and he makes this same play, I’m going to the felt w/ it, but w/ one card to come facing an over bet, by 15 outs didn’t seem like enough to call for my tournament life. This hand put him into the chip lead and left my friend and me w/ about 18k each. With 24k in chips, he agreed to an even split. So for the night I was +$230 and my best month ever just keeps getting better!!!

I also picked up a buyin at $50NL this morning when my flopped set crushed a Bodonk w/ top pair. I’m thinking of taking a shot at $100NL soon, word on the street is that NLHE on Bodog doesn’t get any tougher until $400NL. May this good run never end!!!!

A parting question: When you crush your goals for a given month, how do you keep yourself motivated to keep playing your best and actively trying to find new fishing grounds?

Moving up in the points race!
I played in my “other” home game last night. The host set it up after my structure and it is a very enjoyable game. He is also doing a points race with a “tournament of champions” at the end. He is having 12 games and dropping your 3 lowest scores whereas I am doing 10 games and only dropping one score. His TOC will only be a 6 handed table whereas mine will be 9 handed. (I’m more interested in preserving the comradary of my game whereas he wants the competition.) Last night was the 5th game in this series and I came into it in 4th place, trailing the leader/host by 22.8 points. I ended up outlasting everyone who was ahead of me in points and finishing 3rd, which was good enough to move me into 2nd place in the points. I have never pushed all in so many times in one game in all of my life. I started off okay and was breaking even in chips, and then I lost a few hands and was down a bit only to surge and double up to take a safer chip position. I am a fairly tight player, but due to reads and a fluctuating stack, I was doing a lot of stealing last night and fighting tooth and nail to pick up some key points for the TOC and a little extra money along the way. Here is a breakdown of the key hands I played in as much of a chronological order as I can remember them:

1. K-5o in the SB, opening hand, won it with bottom pair of 5s in a multiway pot that was checked down.

2. 5-5 missed the flop and folded

3. 10-10, I flopped top set on a rainbow board and checked the flop and bet the turn when an Ace hit. I got called on the turn but folded to on the river due to the villain’s kicker concerns.

4. Q-4s, Still very early in the tournament, I limped on the button w/ this garbage hand and flopped bottom pair w/ a flush draw. I bet the flop and won w/ no resistance.

5. A-A, raised pf and won the hand on a continuation bet on the flop.

About this time the blinds started getting a little heftier and my stack had just broken even, so I tightened up and started playing TAG poker. We play with antes after the 4th level of blinds start and these really force the action, this caused my stack to dwindle and had me pushing all in a good bit more often than I would like.

6. I limped behind from the CO w/ Q-10o and flopped top pair of 10s on a 2 suited board. When I pushed all in, I got called by the LAG on my right who I tied into many times in the night. He was on the flush draw and obviously missed. He was the big stack shortly before his hand and with this hand I knocked him down into the red zone.

7. Having a bigger stack now I stole a blind w/ a 2.5x BB raise and tried it again with the very next hand, which was 4-4. The LAG on my right called me pf and donked into me on the flop. Based on how he glanced at the flop and immediately bet I put him on a decent hand. He messed up and showed me the bluff, it was a quick bet and I had him pegged. A few rounds later I had an opportunity to capitalize on this read, but didn’t stay with my gut when I flopped 2nd pair. I called him on the flop, but backed off when he fired again on the turn. He exhibited the same tell and once again showed me the bluff. I had him nailed at that point, but he didn’t bluff into me again for the rest of the night.

8. K-Qs I pushed all in when folded to in the SB and got called by the table chip leader to my left who had K-10o. She ended up making two pair, but her 2nd pair gave me my straight for the badly needed double up.

9. The LAG on my right makes another pfr but this time he bets rather slowly. This throws up some red flags but with my current stack size I don’t really have a choice. I have pocket Jacks and have to give the hand some serious thought. I pushed all in. All my mulling it over fortunately gave the guy the impression that I was very strong. I also told him that I read him as strong but that I had to go with this hand. He flashed A-10o and folds. This was at the bottom of the range that I put him on, but like I said, I didn’t have much choice and a misread at this point would be disastrous.

10. I once again start in with the 2.5x BB raise. We are 5 handed waiting to consolidate tables with the next knock out. The LAG to my right is short-stacked and once again exhibits a fast bet when he pushed All in over the top of me. Based on his style and his fast bet, I decided to call him down w/ my Kh-10h. He has about ½ my stack and turns over 6s-2s. My read was dead on! He completes a spade flush on the turn. BOO!!

11. The very next hand I looked down at Ah-Kh and put on my dejected, I’m on tilt face and pushed all in from the BB over 2 limpers. The LAG starts asking me questions about whether I’m on tilt or not, but eventually they both fold.

12. At this point, I’m still short and I started aggressively stealing blinds to stay afloat. I pushed w/ Q-9o, and 10-3s. The Q-9o was due to a read of the BB as he looked at his hand, which worked out flawlessly, but with the 10-3s I actually got called by the super short stack/host in the BB w/ A-2s. He catches an Ace on the flop to secure his double up. I pushed several more than this, but these are 2 key hands that I remember.

13. Once again, with J-J in the SB, I am put into another big decision for all of my chips. A LAG on the other end of the table limps in along with the button. The big-stacked BB on my left is talking to the host who was put out a few hands earlier and makes a comment that she likes her hand to him. She actually doesn’t lie too much at the poker table, so I look at this as an opportunity to win a big pot and take a big advantage at the table. I just complete the SB and as expected she raises the 1000 BB to 3000 total. Neither limper is dissuaded by this pot builder raise, and they both call. With 7600 more on top, I push the rest of my chips into the middle hoping to isolate the BB. She obliges and calls and the original 2 limpers just fold. She turns over A-Ko (which I put her on a big Ace) and we are off to the races. In our circle we call pocket Jacks “tournament killers.” More people seem to go out with Jacks than with any other hand in poker. The host makes a comment about my “tournament killers” never holding up and I point out the fact that they hold up approximately 55% of the time against AK. Sure enough they hold up and I am catapulted into the middle of the big stacks.

14. I guarded my stack for about 30 minutes as we got down to the final 5. I’m in a great position chip wise and mostly trying to stay out of major conflicts with the bigger stacks. With the blinds as 800-1600 and an ante of 200, a short-stacked LAG that is UTG pushes his entire stack out for 7600 total. The calling station directly across the table from me almost insta-calls for half his stack and the button between us folds. I look down at A-A in the SB and ask the calling station how much more he has left. He has about 8500 more after his call and I stack my chips up and put him all in as well. The BB folds and the calling station says that he is pot committed and calls off the rest of his chips. The LAG turns over 7-7 and the Calling Station turns over A-Jo and I am so far ahead that I have to pinch myself to make sure that I am seeing what I am seeing. If I win the hand I have half the chips on the table. If I don’t win the main pot, the side pot will put me right back to my 27k stack that I started the hand with. Unfortunately, the flop falls J-J-7. = ( I’m back down to 12k and have to start tying back up with people again.

15. Through some very good fortune, the LAG and the Calling Station tie into it on the bubble and I slide into 3rd place. I made the money and took 2nd place in our chip race. Though I was sick about the Aces hand, I am very happy with how my night turned up. I got caught stealing in a BVB situation when I pushed my 6-5o into the BB for the knock out. Not that they know the 10 to 1 rule, but I was well under this range. Hey, I was in the money and beat out everyone who was ahead of me in points, so who cares!

Hopefully, I can win the big tourney at the end, but until then I’ll try to keep you updated about the tournaments progress!

We had our bi-weekly home game last night and I was fortunate enough to win it. Actually, I split the 1st and 2nd place money w/ a visitor and took the 1st place tournament of champion’s points. We split due to the late hour of the night. (I have a very slow structure, which allows the better players to utilize their skills more.) We have a point scale based on where you finish in a given week and we add these up over 10 games and drop your lowest score. A player is allocated chips in the TOC based on how many points he has accumulated versus the rest of the field. We pull $5 per head out every week and put this into a TOC fund that basically creates a freeroll that we play at the end of our 10 game session. This really works well for rewarding consistency and creates a new dynamic in the game.

With the win I was able to leap frog 2 players ahead of me and move into 5th place. You may think that 5th place isn’t all that great, but considering that I had a horrible start on the opening two games and the overall strength of the field at my game, moving into 5th is a great place to be. This was game 5 of 10. Two weeks ago I placed 2nd to move into 7th place and this week I really closed the gap on the top of the board as the points leader went out in 6th place out of the 10 we had playing.

I didn’t get very many great starting hands last night, but I was able to hit some flops and keep my stack to the north side of where I started. I only want to post one hand that I think will be a great hand for anyone trying to learn the little things that help to put a poor player around the corner to becoming a good player.

We are 4 handed and I’m in the BB
Blinds 600-1200 w/ a 200 ante

UTG limps (40k in chips)
Button limps (20k in chips)
SB completes (25k in chips) Qd-9d
Hero checks (15k in chips) Qh-3h

Flop comes 10h-9h-3s
SB leads for 2k
Hero pushes all in for 13.5k total
UTG folds
Button folds

This is the learning part that I would like to point out: With a pair and a flush draw against one pair higher than my bottom pair I’m usually >52% favored to win this hand. With the SB having me dominated with his middle pair and equal Queen kicker I am only now around 44% to win this hand. If the opponent’s high card were any card other than a queen I would once again become the favorite in this hand. This includes changing the Queen to an Ace or King. So, late in a tournament with a short stack such as I had, this one pair plus a flush draw situation presents a great opportunity to double up or pick up some chips as the favorite.

I obviously caught the heart on the river to double up and eventually win the tournament.

Hopefully, next week, I’ll be able to give you another good report on the home game that I play on my game’s off-week. It’s a tough one too.

I should be back online most of Saturday getting my FTP bankroll built from the $12 gift that tworags.com gave me for reviewing some local cardrooms. This is a great site and those guys are doing a great job!