NEW BEST MONTH EVER!!!

October may have been meh, but November was ROCKIN’! With one hot handed trip to the Horseshoe-Bossier City I posted my biggest single session win ever. This trip propelled me into my biggest month ever. I also had my best month ever at online Full Ring games, I won $1,013, mostly at 100NL on Bodog.



I definitely earned it this month, I played a lot more hours than I usually do. My typical month is around 20 to 30 hours, but I got in 53 hours this month online. I was about 500 hands short of 10k hands with a 6.2 BB/100 Hands win rate. I got in more hours due to my wife being gone for a play that she was dancing in. This caused me to miss Monday night volleyball also, which just added to the time that I could play cards online after my son went to bed.

200NL online was a real challenge this month. I took 3 shots at that game, the first one went really bad. I dropped a full buyin and made a really bone-headed play here:

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

MP1 ($125.50)
Landlord79 ($266.00)
CO ($302.50)
Button ($414.50)
SB ($284.50)
BB ($46.50)
UTG (CompleteRock) ($200.00)
UTG+1 ($287.00)

Preflop: Landlord79 is MP2 with A, A.
UTG (CompleteRock) calls $2, 1 fold, MP1 raises to $8, Landlord79 calls $8, 1 fold, Button calls $8, 1 fold, BB calls $6, UTG (CompleteRock) calls $6.

Flop: ($41) 8, 7, 4 (5 players)
BB checks, CompleteRock bets $23, MP1 folds, Landlord79 raises to $64, Button folds, BB folds, CompleteRock bets $192 (All-In), Landlord79 calls $128.

Turn: ($425) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)
.

River: ($425) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $425

Results below:
CompleteRock has 4 4 (full house, fours full of eights).
Landlord79 has A A (two pair, aces and eights).
Outcome: CompleteRock wins $425.




The second run at it I found a table with a total donk who stacked off really easily. I got into a big hand w/ him here:

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

Landlord79 ($212.50)
SB ($331.00)
BB ($200.00)
UTG ($200.00)
UTG+1 ($103.00)
MP1 ($588.00)
MP2 ($319.50)
MP3 ($183.00)
CO (theMark) ($515.50)

Preflop: Landlord79 is Button with 5, 7.
UTG calls $2, UTG+1 calls $2, 1 fold, MP2 calls $2, 1 fold, CO (theMark) calls $2, Landlord79 calls $2, 1 fold, BB checks.

Flop: ($13) 8, Q, 2 (6 players)
BB checks, UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, MP2 checks, theMark bets $5, Landlord79 calls $5, BB folds, UTG calls $5, UTG+1 calls $5, MP2 folds.

Turn: ($33) 7 (4 players)
UTG checks, UTG+1 checks, theMark bets $5, Landlord79 raises to $25, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, theMark calls $20.

River: ($83) 2 (2 players)
theMark bets $8, Landlord79 raises to $91, theMark raises to $174, Landlord79 bets $180.5 (All-In), theMark calls $6.50.

Final Pot: $444

Results below:
theMark has J K (flush, king high).
Landlord79 has 5 7 (flush, queen high).
Outcome: theMark wins $444.



Upon further review by the 2+2 Forums, this river was better played as a raise of $60 followed by a fold to any reraise. I really have to work on these spots.

On my final shot at 200NL for the month, things finally went right. I played about 30 minutes single tabling and caught Aces, Kings and 7s for some good wins. I didn’t win a buyin back, but I did win 2/3s of one back. I think the table was just a little softer and obviously my card distribution was really excellent for that session.

I practiced a lot more table selection at the end of this month than I have in the past. It’s amazing how many players you actually recognize when you’re not overwhelmed by the volume of the micro stakes games. Most of my table selection was based on who was sitting at a table rather than by the stats of the table. It’s the same principle as playing the player and not their stats. I’m finding weak players before I’m focusing on playing loose games.

I’m happy with how my game is growing, I’m still reading Professional No-Limit (going on the 3rd month now,) and I just bought my 1st Cardrunners video. (Sorry Adanthar, it wasn’t one of yours.) I really don’t play a lot of tournaments; so I felt like a Full Ring video would be better suited to my needs. Daut’s video was at 600NL, so some of the techniques that he taught aren’t really relevant for 100NL, but I have to start learning them sometime. He also ran bad card distribution wise, which puts me into a poor mind frame going into a session, so I probably won’t be watching it that often. I’ve also made a few great contacts w/ some players that are making real money at Full Ring games. I think these contacts will really propel my game forward.

My goals for December are to enjoy the holidays and only play about 5k hands. I’d also like to visit the Horseshoe-Bossier City one more time before the year ends, preferably during the Christmas or New Years weekends. I’d also like to run in the black for 200NL this month.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! This was the worst Thanksgiving that I can remember. We spent the day, cooped up in the house; my wife was sick and I had a two-year old running around that I had to keep up w/. I did make a little online for Turkey day while my son was napping, but nothing significant. I’m not depressed about it being the worst Thanksgiving or anything, but it was the first time that I wasn’t w/ my family and friends on this much beloved holiday.

Friday was much more rewarding! My wife’s stomach bug was gone and we loaded up and drove an hour to her sister’s house. We helped her move for a few hours then I caught a ride w/ my cousin over to my favorite card room, the Horseshoe- Bossier City for some Live $1/3NL action!

OUT OF THE BLOCKS FAST!

Once again, I won the first hand that I played (this is always a good sign in my book.) It wasn’t the first hand dealt to me, but the first hand that I put money into the pot with. I won a small hand w/ K-Qo on a Q high board against a black kid named Bundee (as in Al Bundee.) He had been talking a lot when he had strong hands and he was talking during this hand so I never raised him since I only had TPGK. Turns out he had a worse kicker and I missed a lot of equity in the hand. He was in lots of pots though and I really thought that I’d get another shot at him overvaluing his hand. Things ran well and I quickly picked up a good stack.

Soon enough I tied into Bundee again, this time w/ QQ on the button in a pot where everyone had limped in. The $1/3 game works out well for me since I can make my standard 4x+1 BB per limper raise that I normally make online. It never worked the same for $1/2; the SPR’s were always screwed up and I always felt like I was playing w/ a short-stack. Of course, back then I didn’t know why I felt this way, but now that I understand SPRs it makes plenty of sense. Here’s the cliff notes from PNL, SPR= Stack to Pot Ratio. You buyin for $200 at a $1/2 game and the normal pfr is $12, w/ one caller this leaves an SPR of ~8. At $1/3NL, you buyin for $300 and make the same raise to $12 and you now have an SPR of ~12. You’ll have to read the book for further understanding.

Okay, I’ve got QQ on the button and make it $25 to go with a >$500 stack. There are three callers, one of which is Bundee who is still >100BBs deep. The 9 seat is an old man who doesn’t play all that well and calls way too often. He’ll raise pf w/ AA but not AK or QQ. I’m in the 2 seat so I can’t really see around the dealer to get his stack size and I’m not sure who the other caller was as he quickly folded on the flop of 8-6-6r to Bundee’s $25 donk bet. The 9 seat called the $25 and I made it $100 to go and got called in both spots! OH BOY! (Pot = ~$410) The turn was another 8 and both players checked to me again and I decided that I may want to try some sort of pot control just incase one of them just filled up. For some reason the old man in the 9 seat thought the hand was over and he turned up his pocket 7s. The river spiked a Q for me and when both players checked again, I made it $200 to go and Bundee quickly jumped into this boiling pot w/ his remaining $183. I assume the old man folded to this action because the dealer swept his cards into the muck. I turned over my Qs full and scooped a $775 pot. Within the first 3 hours of being there, I was sitting north of a $650 profit and changed gears to an ultra-tight mode for a while to help protect my win.

There was a TAG regular in the 1 seat on my right, and since I recognized him and he could tell that I knew what I was doing we started talking and having a good time. We talked about our opponent’s tendencies, mistakes and tells, and also discussed the change in the game dynamic that the HSBC’s stake change to $1/3NL from $1/2 NL had brought about. I want to mention a hand because it sets up the next that I want to talk about. “Ace” in the one seat, ended up winning his first pot after having sat there for 2 hours. He had limped from EP w/ A J and I had folded behind him w/ A-10o. He won the pot uncontested when an Ace fell on the flop. I made mention to him after the hand was over that I had folded A-10. And he asked if I had tightened up trying to protect my win. We talked about this briefly and he knew that I wasn’t getting involved w/o a premium hand for a while.

THE COOLER

Within 20 minutes, Ace raises to $13 from EP and I look down at a pair of Snowmen (8-8) and elect to do some set mining since if I miss it will only cost me $13 and I can win a big hand if I hit. There are several callers to help bloat the pot pf and the flop comes J 8 7 . Yahtzee! Middle set! Let’s go! Ace leads out for $40, I make it $90 to go and the 3 seat pushes all in for $148 total. It folds around to Ace who just calls, which really surprises me. He knows that I’m rocking it up, why would he call my raise and a reraise behind me? I thought at least 20 seconds about laying down my hand, but who can lay down middle set here? Ace has about another $90 behind him, so I don’t feel that exposed in the hand incase he has top set. If he doesn’t and the 3 seat has the flopped str8, I’ve got a good draw for the board pairing to catch me up with a possible side pot from Ace ta boot. Would Ace call here w/ overpairs? I don’t think that he would, especially after the conversation that we had had about the A-10 hand. Against my better judgment, I called the additional $58. The turn was a brick and Ace pushed his remaining $88 into the pot. @%#$&%$#%^$#%$!!!!! There’s no way I can lay down my hand now getting 6.5 to 1 w/ middle set. I call again and sure enough Ace has the set of Jacks, the board pairs on the river (not an 8 obv) and Ace scoops the near $700 pot.

EXERCISING THE STOP-LOSS

I had set my stop-loss at $700 and this pot brought me down to $625. So I quickly got up, grabbed a rack and made a B-line for the cage to cash in my $325 win before I hit full monkey tilt. The weather was quite frigid for north Louisiana, but I went out in the cold anyway to sit on a bench and call up my good buddy BJJIII for some emotional reinforcement. He quickly reminded me that I had just cashed out a winner while he was busy keeping Harper at home (Mr. Mom! LOL.). I didn’t feel so bad anymore and I don’t even know if I would have tilted, but who needs the added risk from that situation? This was the first time that I had acted on a stop-loss and I felt quite proud of myself for having the fortitude to follow through with it. Yeah for poker discipline!

After a walk around the 2nd floor craps and blackjack tables, I walked the High Roller area on the 3rd floor then headed back down to the cardroom on the 1st floor to see if my cousin wanted to grab something to eat. It was around 5pm and I was starving! Luckily, he hit a set and a str8 while I was cooling off and he had gotten back to even, so he entertained the idea of grabbing some grub. (He hates to get up when he’s down.)

HS-BC BUFFET

The HSBC buffet isn’t near as big as the Beau Rivage's or even it’s counter-part the Horseshoe- Tunica , but the service was awesome and the food was great! Just an FYI, Doyle Brunson considers the buffet at the HS-T to be the best buffet in the world. On Friday nights the HS-BC has a seafood buffet, which is incredible. I’m more of a buffalo wings kind of guy and if you ever want to surprise me, that’s the meal to bring. Being raised in the great state of Louisiana, spicy food is what I crave! I still give it an A for being one of the best buffets that I have partaken of, the Chinese food was exceptionally good!

DIDN'T MISS A BEAT

Immediately upon sitting down, I’m dealt Q -10 in the CO and limp in behind several limpers. The flop is K J 3 , the SB leads for $10 into the $12 pot, there is a call ahead of me and I call behind. The turn is a 9 to give me the nutz and the SB leads for $15 into the $42 pot. The BB makes it $45 to go and I smooth call hoping to keep the SB in the hand. Unfortunately, he folds. The river is a brick (5 ) and the BB makes it $40 to go and I raise him up to $100, which he instantly calls (Grrr! I left money on the table!) He doesn’t show and I rake in a $180 profit from my 1st hand back from the break. I love playing poker w/ other people’s money!

TABLE CHANGE PLEASE!?!

Not long after this a guy in his early 30s sits down and immediately raises his 1st 3 out of 4 hands. My cousin recognizes him from previous sessions as a good and aggressive player. I take the hint and scout out a soft seat one table over and make the change. This table seems to be filled w/ people who are laughing and enjoying themselves and my visual clues lead me to believe that most are playing poker because it’s fun and that they don’t need no stinkin’ books to tell them how to play poker! Good thing for me that I was right!

There is one good player at this table in the 1 seat. He’s young and plays a lot of hands, but his pfr is usually small (as in min raises.) He does raise big w/ big hands, but otherwise he’s just min-raising pf fairly often. He picks up a lot of orphan pots and no one is standing up to him. He’s about $700 deep when I sit down w/ $600.

Mostly, I’m raising pf and taking down w/ Cbets, which is quite rare at live games, but things continue to run very well for me. I limp-rr pocket Kings UTG+1 for a decent win AI pf vs. A K . That guy reloaded for $100 at least 4x at our table, I should have chased him around the room when he took a table transfer. I actually got into a super +EV situation vs. the 1 seat when I had AA vs. his QQ. The board was 6 7 8 J and we checked the turn and river. That was a huge missed opportunity, though I did win about $100 in the hand. I bet some combo draws and made some loose moves to keep my image loose. I showed down my favorite hand 6 3 after taking the pot w/ a Cbet. I got a lot of funny looks for raising it UTG. =)

REDNECK POKER

The faces changed out a bit and I’m up another $600 for this second session of the night. A redneck sits down to my immediate left; he’s in the 8 seat. His type is the kind that is aggressive all of the time and is too proud to learn how to play well. He’s not betting very big except for on a few occasions and he is chasing and hitting draws to win some very big pots. He’s dodging well when others are strong, but his small-string of wins are just a mirage and a lucky run. He bullies most of the table around, hits 2 OESD’s to swell his head and his stack. I start chatting it up w/ him and find that he is exactly how I thought he would be. He pushes me off a TPWK hand once, then I countered him a round later w/ a total bluff. He was buying my black chips off of me because he thought they were cool. He let himself get a little short stacked in the red chips department and I used that against him. In a BVB situation, I open-limped the SB and he raised me. I called and we saw a ragged flop. I could tell that he didn’t hit any of it, and I floated his Cbet OOP. I led the turn brick for $20, he had 3 red chips in front of him and he commented on not wanting to break his black chip down. I obliged him and pulled back one red chip so that he wouldn’t have to break his black chip on this street knowing that I’d fire the river and force him to break it or fold. Sure enough, the river bricked and I led for $25, he squeezed that black chip then threw his cards face up into the muck. A-10o, which completely had my A-4o crushed. I looked at him and said, “You know the difference between me and you? I can play well after the flop.” He laughed and we resumed our normal banter.

One round later I’m on the button and open raise to $12 w/ Aces and the redneck, of course, defends his SB, the BB folds. He’s ~$250 deep at this point. The flop is 6 4 3 and I Cbet for $25 and he calls. The turn is the 7 completing the FD and the many SD’s that were out. He checks again, I push $60 into the pot and he check-raises me all in! I checked my Aces and the Ace is indeed in my hand. I think about it a second and decide that I can’t fold this hand to his guy. I’ve got outs if he has me beat at this point, but I really don’t think that he’s got me beat here. It’s around $150 for me to call and I bite the bullet and do it. He turns over J 6 for a pair of 6s. He should have left w/ his 2 black chips a long time ago.

YOU PLAY ON THE INTERNETS?

I’m now >$1k deep and feel like a juggernaut! The redneck is replace by a young guy who hits 2 pair on his first 3 hands to run his $200 up into a sizable stack. I ask him if he plays on the internet and he comments that he doesn’t since everyone just pushes all in all of the time. I probe a little further and he admits that he has only played fun money online! Yippee for me, I love live poka!!

I did get to bet a black chip in this session and get paid off w/ the nutz! The new kid above limps from MP right behind me. I have the 10 9 and am deep enough to play any hand I want to and not have to worry about losing much. I’ve got ironclad reads on the whole table and feel in control of this tiny universe. The flop is Q 8 7 and I led out for $15 when it checks to me. The new kid calls along w/ a guy in the 4 seat who called preflop almost every hand; he’d then call the flop then fold to the turn bet w/o fail. (I love live poka!) The turn brings my money card, the J , the 4 seat checks and I bet $40, which the new kid calls and you guessed it, the 4 seat folds. The river is a brick and I look at my loose $5 chips, not enough there to make the bet I want to make, I have 3 stacks of 40 deep reds, but they’re stacked up w/ the paint lined up w/ one another and I’d hate to break ‘em down, so I toss a black chip into the pot which gets called. Woo Hoo! Nutz buddy! He comments that he didn’t think people bet their draws all that often. “Well, I’m not your avg bear!” He showed J 7 and said that the turn card was the perfect card for him to lose a lot of chips. I don't know why he called w/ a lonely pair of 7s there.

BRAGGAGE

The Stack is >$1,400 deep at this point, which, if you want a mental picture is 4 stacks of 40 tall reds w/ 6 black chips on the top. Holla!! It’s big enough that people are stopping to ask me what I’m going to do w/ all that money. Christmas, man! Christmas!

The game breaks soon as I’ve got all the money wrapped up into neatly aligned stacks w/ 2 black chips straddling 2 red stacks each 3x. I’m only playing w/ the loose red and white chips that I can never seem to get rid of, and no one there was aggressive enough to start bullying me beyond this tiny stack of loose chips. Did I mention that I love live poka! I cashed out my $1,205 win instead of transferring to a new table. I sat around another hour or so waiting for my cousin to get back to even (which he never did.) We left the casino w/ me dragging him out at 4:30 in the a.m. I rolled into the house at 6:15. $1,530 settles a lot of anger about why I was out so late. Thank goodness for the big wins!

I came out of the gates flying on my first two sessions this month. I was up 4.5 buyins at 100NL and felt like I could do no wrong. I have started adding a table or three to my normal 3 Bodog tables, yes, it is AP, but they gave me $10 a few months ago and I’m just using it to learn how to multi-table better.

I have taken 2 shots this month at 200NL, neither of which has gone well. The first time I lost $450 before recovering half of my losses when I flopped a set vs. an overpair. The 2nd time I just didn’t feel that I was ready for the new level. I found myself not wanting to fire Cbets into the 2 pf callers that were in the hand w/ me. The flop texture was gross every time, but it still felt like I was wussing out due to the higher stakes. I’ve concluded that 10 buy-ins isn’t nearly big enough to feel confident when taking a shot.

My graph looks pretty gross, (I’m at work so I can’t post it.) I peaked at $450 after my first two sessions, then dropped to about ($20), spiked back up to $250, dropped back to ($75), and am currently back up to ~$250. These kinds of swings will definitely pull you out of auto-piloting mode, which I find myself in more and more often as of late. I even dropped the extra table(s) that I was playing on AP just so that I would focus more. I’m still just a smidgeon under 5bb/100 for the month, but it really doesn’t feel like I’m making a whole lot of progress.

It seems as if the fish have taken one step up the poker ladder so that they aren’t freely giving their money away anymore. There are several more regs floating around now too, yet none of them are exceptionally good except one or two. The donks that I bullied last month have somehow moved up to 200NL w/o me. This is discouraging, though I know that they are just putting in way more hours than me. Two or three have had to drop back down as of the last couple of nights, so I was able to table select some easy ones last night.

So, to summarized my month. I peaked at +$450 early, have been below $0 twice since then. I’m working on my multi-tabling game, and Bodog seems to have gotten slightly tougher and therefore I’ve had to work harder and focus more to maintain positive results. Who knew that you had to work this hard for the easy money? Geez!!!

I just want to say that October was meh... It was lots better than September, but only 1/3 as good as August. I had a good turn around at the end of the month with my trip to the Horseshoe - Bossier City. Mostly that trip offset this trip, Return to the Shoe, but I still ended up positive for the month in live play.

My online play was still solid, my win rate has been running around 10BB/100 Hands, but I'm only playing 4 to 5k hands a month. I've got to get my quantity up to really start making some money.

I played a few tourneys online, guaranteed money down the tube since I don't play them except very sparatically.

My numbers for October look like this:
Live Ring $1/3NL: +$170
1 MTT: ($11)
PLO ($10)
SNGs ($12)
Online Ring +$496

Net = +$633.00

My chart is off once again due to Dogwatch, but it looks like this:


November Goals:
PLAY MORE HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, November has started off well, I'm up $181 after my first session. I've added one table of AP to my usual 3 on Bodog. If Bodog allowed more, I'd be playing 'em all there, but they don't so I'm having to venture out. Don't worry, I didn't make a deposit onto AP, they gave me $10 to come back and I've turned it into a seedling of a roll there. I'm not practicing bankroll management on AP because I'm just not going to play $10NL. It's currently at $106 as of last night and $25NL is as small as I'll play w/ it. Eventually I'm going to add more and more AP tables, but I think Bodog with it's high win rate will remain my bread and butter site.

Good luck all, may you run goot!

King Me!!!!

BJJII and I decided to make a run to the Horseshoe-Bossier City this past Friday night. BJ's friend Ben was in town and also made the trip with us. Ben is a great guy and an awesome poker resource. Right now he's a student and making his living off of online poker, you could say that he's living the life. I think he's gonna stay with it after he graduates here in the near future, so anytime I get a chance to pick his brain I jump on it. He, BJ and I had some great strategy conversation on the hour and a half drive over there and I think that really put me into the proper frame of mind for a great live session.

Pulling into the Horseshoe's parking garage I felt mentally ready to take on the live donks. I also felt the "ON" switch click over on my luck box. Literally, I felt lucky! We were immediately seated at a $1/3 table since we had called ahead and had Josh put our names on the list.

Nice start

I hadn't even gotten seated before I was dealt the 2nd best starting hand in Holdem. Literally, I was still standing when I looked at my cards. Without pause I tossed 3 red chips into the pot for a 5xBB raise behind one limper. I got called by a guy in an orange and blue long-sleeved polo(we'll call him Fgators) who only had around $175 in front of him. The flop was Q high and very uncoordinated, Fgators checked to me and I bet $25 into the $30 pot. He came over the top of me for a min raise, and after thinking about it for a second and evaluating his remaining stack size, I pushed all my chips into the middle of the pot.

This was my very first hand and I'm all in! He thought about the situation briefly, folded then let it spill that he had Q-9o. That's a great piece of information for future reference. I think to myself, "Welcome to the game, sir!" and settle in for a great session of cards. I immediately straddle on the next hand to build on this loose table image that I've walked into.

Expertly played, sir!

My next play is rather questionable, but it was against Fgators (who I had quickly figured out was a donk) and my hand (kicker) was concealed. I had A-Jo in the BB and 4 people limped into the pot and the SB completed. I check here almost always due to the fact that A-Jo is such a trap hand. I didn't vary from my standard play in this spot.

The flop was J-9-7r, which wasn't the best looking flop for my hand, but I definitely think that testing the waters was fine in this situation. I led out for $10 after the SB checked to me and got 2 callers before Fgators made it $35 to go from the cutoff. This should probably have been a fold for me, but the pot still wasn't too huge and I didn't think that I was breaking into any commitment thresholds w/ my call. I called to await further action by the CO and to see if either of the 2 callers would hang around. Both of the flop callers folded and I'm left heads up with Fgators.

The turn was a 6 and I check-called $20 thinking that I'm probably behind, but for $20 I couldn't fold in this spot. The river was an Ace giving me Aces Up and I looked over at my opponent's stack to gauge what my river bet would be. He only had $25 left in front of him and my dreams of winning a truly massive pot were crushed. I put him AI and he calls w/ his flopped 2 top two pair (Jacks up.)

I sure heard it from my pals when I stacked this pot, but it wasn't the first time that I had sucked out in my life. I was disappointed w/ myself, I had completely ignored the commitment thresholds that were set by my opponent's smaller stack and really felt that I had grossly misplayed my hand. He was in the 4 seat at the time though and seeing his stack was very difficult from the 7 seat that I was sitting in. If it were anyone else but Fgators, I probably would have quickly folded on the flop.

Yep, that's all of 'em

We had been playing for about 3 hours or so and my stack had grown to ~$500. I had the table covered and had 2 total rocks on my immediate left who I gave a lot of respect to due to the fact that one of my buddies who happened to be there had pointed them out to me as regulars. Now when I say they were tight, I mean they squeaked when they put money into the pot. The 1 seat was really loose-passive, the 2 seat was now Fgators, the 3 seat was Fgator's wife who we (my pals and I and the two rocks on my left) had stacked multiple times only to have her reload again and again for $100. The 4 seat was Ben, followed by BJ. I was in the 7 seat, an Asian man was in the 8 seat, a cowboy in the 9 seat and an older cowboy was in the 10 seat.

I had had a really good card distribution for the day, I had stacked Fgator's wife w/ Aces once and consistently had raising hands spread throughout the afternoon. When I looked down to another pair of Kings, I made it $15 to go behind BJ's UTG+1 limp. The cowboy in the 9 seat called, as well as Fgators in the SB.

The flop was so beautiful, K-6-5 rainbow! YAHTZEE!!! Fgators checked to me, since I had the board crippled I figured that I would weak lead for $20 and take down the $50 pot. When the cowboy called behind me I knew that he had to have a good piece of that flop. He was around $250 deep after his $20 call. I wanted to jump up and dance a jig when Fgators came over the top of me for a check-raise. When he made it $70 to go I realized that I was actually going to play a big pot w/ this flopped set of Kings.

Now I started thinking about how to keep the cowboy in the hand and not lose any of the potential business that I had going on at this point. I knew he was tight and would fold easily, so I banged the table with my shuffling chips just as I got check-raised. I paused for some Hollywood effect, and then counted out the $50, which I, with a tinge of disgust, tossed into the pot. The cowboy came along! Yee Haww!!

The turn could have been better; it was the 4 that put 2 diamonds on the board. Fgators immediately pushed for $132. I was kind of nervous about the straight draw getting there, but I knew that I could never fold top set in that spot. I repushed to put the cowboy all in and he reluctantly called w/ his flopped set of 5s! I'll give it to him, he knew something was up, I could see it in his eyes, but he couldn't fold a set in that spot. Fgators turns over 6-5o for bottom 2 pair on the flop. They're both drawing stone cold dead on the flop and just for good measure, my favorite dealer Kathy turns over the case King to give me quads on the river!

Enough

Not long after this, the LP player in the 1 seat went broke, as well as the contributing couple that had continually re-bought all afternoon. The remaining players looked around at each other for a second, determined that the loose action was gone, then decided to find greener pastures.

It was kind of slow for a Friday night at the Shoe and the seats weren't being filled (it was only 7pm.) There were nothing but regulars filling the other tables, so my buddies and I talked about heading over to the El Dorado to see if the action was any better over there. Upon further thought, BJ and I decided to go home to our wives and we dropped Ben off at a nice restaurant with some of his friends so that he can do what single guys do. I had netted a $670 profit in 4.5 hours and felt great! This was quite a relief after having lost in the previous 4 live sessions that I had played.

Once home, I realized that I had drank too many Red Bulls and couldn't sleep. With my wife passed out on the couch, I cranked up an online session of $100NL on Bodog. Within an hour and 15 minutes I had picked up $143. It should have been a +3 buy in session, but a guy hit a 3 outer on me on the river after we gotten all the money in on the flop. I'll take a one buy in win in just over an hour though; it's much better than a sharp stick in the eye! Despite a horrible start to the month when I lost $500 at the Shoe, the month has really turned around and I have gotten back into the black for a nice little profit on the month. Hopefully I don't blow it in the next 3 days!

Hopefully I'll keep running goot and keep the winning trip reports coming!

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

"The important thing is to keep playing, to play against weak opponents and to play
for big stakes."- Warren Buffet

This is my motto for online poker. In fact, I might just make it my signature
statement. Warren is speaking of playing bridge in this situation, but boy, does it
ever apply to poker!

"The important thing is to keep playing," if I don't have a bankroll because I blew
it on playing some game that was out of my league, I'm out of the game and can't
continue to make money. Taking shots is one thing, but over estimating your
abilities and over extending your bankroll is just arrogant. Spending your bankroll
is akin to being a quitter, IMHO. Bankroll management is key in our game, if you
don't have any tools you can't do any work. Our Bankroll is the tool of our trade.
No money, no play, it's that simple.

"To play against weak opponents," Many people have ego problems that keep leading
them to play tougher and tougher games. I guess that their motivation is different
than mine. My motivation is to make money at a hobby that I enjoy, not to beat the
best players in the world. I think that eventually one will lead to the other, but
I'm not going to risk a substantial portion of my bankroll against players who have
developed their game far beyond mine. "You can sheer a sheep many times, but only
skin it once" has a key thought in it that you may not readily see. I'm looking
to sheer sheep, not fight wolves! That's why I don't play my current stakes on
some of the more populated sites. I'm a 4 lb bass in a 2-acre pond where I'm
currently playing, but if I were to move over to Poker Stars... well, a 4 lb bass is
snack food in one of those games. Yes, a Brian Townsend who is driven by ego to
conquer the game will run up the gamut of the poker world faster than me and will
probably always be a better poker player than me, I'm okay with that. I just want
my little piece of the pie on a steady and consistent basis.

"And to play for big stakes." This is kind of a see rules 1 & 2 statement, if you
manage your bankroll and stay in the game and you consistently play against weaker
players with the occasional, calculated shot taken to move up in the poker world,
eventually you will play higher and higher stakes that will give you a bigger and
bigger return. 8 months ago I was playing $10NL with a $24 Bankroll. This was the
smallest stakes game that was available to me and I was consistently playing weaker
opponents. In the last 8 months I have moved up to $100NL and I still feel that I
am one of the best players on the site and stakes that I am playing. Do I want to
move up to $400 and $600NL, yes, when I'm ready and when my bankroll is large enough
to sustain the variance of that stake. Without bankroll management, I am likely to
become just another shooting star.

That's my $0.02 on how this snippet of Buffetology relates to poker.

It’s been well over a month and a half since I have been to my favorite card room, the Horseshoe-Bossier City . After the hit that my ego took when I went down to Biloxi, MS, I decided to slow down a bit and take some time off from the live felt. I thought that I might be a little rusty with my reading of tells, but I ended up picking up on some things, but wasn’t as sharp on it as I had been the last time that I visited the Shoe.

There were two changes at the Shoe that I noticed. The first was a flat screen added at the back of the room, this flat screen was much bigger than the rest of the flat screens, and a little lower down on the wall. I guess this was so that the seated players near the back of the room would be able to watch TV w/o having to strain their necks while looking way up near the ceiling. It was a nice addition to the room.

The second change was that the room had went from a $1/2 NL structure, to a $1/3 NL structure. The house does this for one primary reason; it allows them to drop the first dollar of rake much quicker than a $1/2 game will. As a poker player, this raise in stakes actually creates a slightly larger game, but it also brings the pre-flop raises back into a normal range relative to the big blind. This may be a temporary phenomenon, but the pre-flop raise size was 4 to 7x the BB on almost every hand versus the 5 to 10x for a $1/2 game. Basically, people are buying in for the same amount or more, and they haven’t adjusted their betting sizes up to match the new structure. The biggest example of this comes in a 7 way limped pot that now holds $21 vs the $14 of a $1/2 structure. The standard flop bet is still $10, which is now half the pot, versus a bet of ¾ of the pot. This creates a situation where drawing hands are more valuable. I actually like the adjustment as it allows a good player to play for slightly higher stakes, while everyone else is still betting like it is a $1/2 game.

The session started off nicely, the 2nd hand dealt to me was pocket 8s, and despite the warnings going off in my head, I just over limped them in the high jack. The flop was K- J- 7r and it checked around to me and I just checked right along w/ everyone else at the table. The turn was an off suit 3 and when it checked around to me again I bet $10 into the $15 pot. The button and SB folded and the BB min-raised me to $20. Everyone in between folded back to me and I just smooth called hoping to see a cheap showdown with him having a 7 or a bluff or I might be able to spike an 8 on the river. Sure enough, the 8 fell on the river and the villain checked to me again, I fired a $25 milking bet into the pot and he made a crying call w/ his lonely pair of Kings from the BB. “Nice slow play buddy!” Mark me as up $50 for my opening hand!

I raised behind some limpers w/ pocket 9s or 10s a few times, only to see four-handed flops of A-K-7. Well, the 7 may be off, but there was definitely an Ace and a King on every flop when I held 9s or 10s and when your 4 handed w/ a MPP on that kind of flop, you never fire a continuation bet, unless you’re some kind of maniac!

I over limped my favorite hand, 63 from the CO, and saw a multi way flop of A45 . Well, 63 is my absolute favorite hand, but a suited 6-3 will do. A lady in the 1 seat fired $15 into the pot and when the action folded to me I made it $45 to go. The button and blinds folded and the 1 seat called the additional $30. The turn was the 10 , and after the 1 seat checked to me, I fired a full stack of reds into the pot earning the fold from my opponent. The 2 seat began giving the lady some pointers about how I was playing, but from what I could hear, he had no clue of the depth of my game. I got up from the table to put this hand into my voice recorder because I didn’t want the table to know that I was capable of such a strong semi-bluff.

After folding for an hour or so due to K-3o’s and 8-4s’s and the like, I decided to make a move and loosen up my table image a bit. With the 64 in MP2, I open-raised to $10 and got called by the standard 4 callers. The flop was on my side as it fell A87, giving me a flush draw w/ a gut shot str8 draw. The lady in the 1 seat once again led into the pot, this time for $10. I raised it to $50 from the 5 seat and once again the 1 seat is my only caller. The turn is a total brick, and when she checked to me again, I blasted another $100 stack of red chips into the pot. She folded a little quicker this time and I triumphantly flipped my semi-bluff over and ask for the dealer to reveal the river card for me. It would have filled up my gut-shot which would have been the go card for a monster pot for me. Too bad I bet her out of the hand on the turn, but the result was what I was looking for, I showed down a non-premium hand that I played aggressively and won. Then it was back to folding.

Unfortunately, the table roster turned over 75% within the next hour or so, and I was still very card dead and folding every hand dealt to me. I did win some small hands out of the blinds, but they were relatively inconsequential. The value of my shown bluff was quickly diluted as the players rotated out, and I was back to square one as a rock! Seats 1 & 2 left, and a lady that we’ll call Ms Debbie transferred over to the 2 seat from another table. She was sitting $550 deep, and had a no-nonsense look to her.

With my squeaky tight image, I raised to $15 from the CO w/ K J getting the standard 3 callers to put the pot at $60. The flop came K-4-2r and Ms Debbie led out into me for $30. I felt like this was some kind of information bet and I wanted to test the waters to find out where she was at. I counted out $90 and saw that she was already reaching for some calling chips, I probably should have taken this as a sign of weakness, but I hadn’t played much with her as of yet and I wanted to control the pot a bit and so I just called her $30. The turn was an uncomfortable 10 and we both checked the turn. The river was a 9 and she led out again for $50. I thought maybe that she had paired her kicker and caught up, so I once again just called her down. She saw my hand and admitted that she was out-kicked, and I was just perplexed at how she could be out-kicked by my K-J on that board. When I questioned her, her response was classic, which set the tone for the rest of the hands that I played against her. She said, “I hit two pair a lot!” And she meant it! She claimed that she was on a card rush since 5am that morning and it was 6pm. Boy, was I itching to get involved with her now!

Another hour or so went by with me folding or raising, and my won pots were small ones. Many pots I would just let go after my pre-flop raise; the standard 3 players would call me, and the flop would come all over cards to my MPP. A-Q had become my standard “premium” hand, and I can’t tell you how much I really hate this hand! Anyway, I’m dealt another AQ in late position and bump it to $15 and once again get the standard 3 callers, including the now deep-stacked Ms. Debbie. She had grown her stack to ~$800 when this hand came up. I was ~$550 deep at the start of this hand. The flop was Q 54 and she led into me for $30. Due to the last hand that I played w/ her, I figured that she was out-kicked once again and so I made it $90 to go. Everyone folded around to her and she called, so far so goot! As she calls she questions me, “Do you have pocket Kings over there?” The turn was a very scary card, it brought the J which fit into her 2 pair range and kind of spooked me a bit. I checked behind on the turn to control the size of the pot and to induce her to bet the river with a weaker queen. The river was another bad card, an off suit 10, and once again she led the river into me, this time for $100. I called due to the fact that I had induced a bluff, but unfortunately the river had paired her kicker. “NH, Lady!”

This frustrated me a bit, and I lost another pot w/ QQ against a turned set. Fortunately for me, live players don’t bet in increments of the pot, nor do they raise accordingly. Min-raises are standard and the river bets following a turn min-raise are usually the size of the initial turn bet. “Reload, table 6!!”

With about $290 sitting in front of me and Ms Debbie sitting uber-deep at about $1,600 in the BB, I’m dealt KQ in MP2. UTG and MP1 limp in, I decide to play this one different and not raise to $15 with it, especially since a $15 raise only swells the pot and doesn’t insure a heads up pot. Most of the rest of the table limps in and we see a flop of QJ3 . Ms Debbie leads out for $10, MP1 calls $10 and I raise it to $50. The rest of the table folds out to Ms. Debbie, she calls and the MP1 player folds. Pot = ~$130. The turn is an off suit 7 and she checks to me, I feel that I am once again ahead of her range, especially since her range includes many flush draws and Qs with worse kickers. I reach over and push out a stack of reds for a $100 bet and, in return, she digs around in her monster stack to find 2 black $100 chips for a min-raise! With the history that I had w/ her I didn’t hesitate to push out my remaining $140. She instantly called the additional $40 and totally floored me with her hand, I never once put her on this, especially since she had just checked her option in the BB. I mean, I’ve got her pegged as a player who overplays top pair, chases on occasion and generally is flying by the seat of her pants. She then enlightens me with her brilliant knowledge of poker tells, “Sweetie, when someone bets their black chips, that means that they plan on getting them back!” Wow, and you play that bad? Thanks for the insight! Her hand? Pocket Aces that she checked into a multi-way limped pot!

I’ll admit that I grossly over-played my hand, but this is the worst example of playing pocket aces that I have ever seen! Then to feel so confident about her one pair is just plain sickening. I played my hand like I had >2 pair, and she puts all her money in against this betting line w/ confidence. Geez! I wish that I would
have brought more money to the casino! The river was a brick and I’m sent packing with another poker horror story.

Thinking back on this final hand, I’m less sick about my decision than I was when it first happened. I had her pegged as a certain type of over-player, and I got my wish by getting all of my money in against her, but for once she woke up w/ and once again grossly misplayed a very strong hand. Here’s to unfortunate circumstances!

Well, the Battle for the Luckbox has officially begun and the Landlord nation has suffered some defeat!

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

UTG BJJIII ($225.75)
UTG+1 ($76.15)
MP1 ($174.65)
MP2 ($56.50)
MP3 ($52.00)
CO ($158.35)
Landlord79 ($92.00)
SB ($101.50)
BB ($156.50)

Preflop: Landlord79 is Button with 7 , 7 .
UTG BJJIII raises to $5, 3 folds, MP3 calls $5, CO calls $5, Landlord79 calls $5, 2 folds.

Flop: ($21.50) 7 , 9 , 9 (4 players)
BJJIII bets $25, MP3 folds, CO folds, Landlord79 bets $87 (All-In), BJJIII calls $62.

Turn: ($195.50) K (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($195.50) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $195.50

Results:
BJJIII has K K (full house, kings full of nines).
Landlord79 has 7 7 (full house, sevens full of nines).
Outcome: BJJIII wins $195.50.

How can I always get my money in so goot and lose? Freakin Luckbox!!

And again!

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop| saw showdown

SB BJJIII ($325.25)
BB ($76.15)
UTG ($169.15)
UTG+1 ($56.50)
MP1 ($47.00)
MP2 ($147.85)
Landlord79 ($100.00)
CO ($101.00)
Button ($166.75)

Preflop: Landlord79 is MP3 with A, 6:.
4 folds, Landlord79 raises to $4, 2 folds, SB BJJIII calls $3.50, 1 fold.

Flop: ($9) 2 , 7 , 8 (2 players).
BJJIII checks, Landlord79 bets $6, BJJIII calls $6.

Turn: ($21) J (2 players)
BJJIII checks, Landlord79 bets $15, BJJIII bets $315.25 (All-In), Landlord79 folds.

Final Pot: $351.25

Results below:
No showdown. BJJIII shows 8 8 and wins $351.25.

Why OH why didn't I take the blue pill and check the turn?????


I did win the biggest online pot of my life this week though!

Bodog No-Limit Hold'em, $1.00 BB (9 handed) Hand History converter Courtesy of PokerZion.com

saw flop|saw showdown

Button ($76.50)
SB ($144.50)
BB ($47.50)
Landlord79 ($193.25)
UTG+1 ($81.00)
MP1 ($73.90)
MP2 ($66.35)
MP3 ($96.00)
CO ($146.00)

Preflop: Landlord79 is UTG with J , J .
Landlord79 raises to $3, 1 fold, MP1 calls $3, 1 fold, MP3 calls $3, 3 folds, BB calls $2.

Flop: ($12.50) J , 5 , 8 (4 players)
BB checks, Landlord79 checks, MP1 checks, MP3 bets $7.25, BB folds, Landlord79 calls $7.25, MP1 calls $7.25.

Turn: ($34.25) 4 (3 players)
Landlord79 bets $20, MP1 bets $63.65 (All-In), MP3 bets $85.75 (All-In), Landlord79 calls $65.75.

River: ($269.40) 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Final Pot: $269.40

Results below:
Landlord79 has J J (three of a kind, jacks).
MP1 has 8 8 (three of a kind, eights).
MP3 has 5 5 (three of a kind, fives).
Outcome: Landlord79 wins $269.40.


Alright, enough w/ the bad beats and the brags, September results were:

Went to Biloxi and lost ($1,069.00) over 17 hours of play.
Online wins were $310.00 over 31.5 hours.
Net loss was ($759.00)

After my biggest monthly win ever, I'm now facing my biggest monthly loss. I went through a 10 buyin downswing between live and online play, then also went on a 4 buyin downswing online after peeking out at a $500 profit for the month. I brought my net online win back up to $310 at the end of this month with my biggest pot won ever, actually, my total online win would have been higher to close the month out if I wouldn't have sat down w/ BJJIII last night and gotten sucked out on! Anyway, I'm happy w/ my recovery, it could have been much worse.


***October Goals***
Get back into the saddle w/ live casino play and win some monies at my favorite honey hole "the Horseshoe- Bossier City"
Play 5k hands this month and win >$500 online. I'd like to be playing $1/2 NL sometime in November or sooner.

***1 Year Goal***
#1. I want to have $20k in my BR by July 1, 2025
#2. If the legal landscape clears, I'd love to turn pro not long after achieving goal #1



***August Graph*** (It shows $200 more than I made, thank Dogwatch for that)

Rules of Engagement

For all of my loyal fans out there who check my blog every day hoping to get a line or two from me, =) sorry that I haven't written in a while but it's the end of the quarter and it's crunch time at work, we've also had lots of stuff going on at church, so I have been uber busy and have taken any spare time that I have to actually play poker instead of write about it. (Wow, that's a long sentence.)

I want to talk about managing when you play poker to optimize your win rate and minimize your losing sessions. I really feel that the players who can better manage themselves will end up making more money at poker and that they'll be the ones who are still around 10 or 20 years from now.

Everyone has his or her own quirks as far as what works best for them concerning optimal playing times. For me, I know that I play bad when I'm tired or rushed. On my trip to Biloxi, MS earlier this month, I was coming off a bout with strep throat. I was still on anti-biotics from the weekend before and wasn't fully recovered. I
figured that a few days of recovery would have allowed me to think clearly enough to play poker profitably. Boy was I wrong. Looking back, I now attribute 50% of my losses to mental fatigue and just plain not feeling up to doing the work of playing good poker. Sure my cards ran bad, that's the down side of variance, but I believe that my losses would have been a lot less if I would have been on top of my game that weekend. This fatigue carried through the next week as I proceeded to go through the biggest downswing of my life, which bottomed out at 10 buyins.

Another area that leaves me feeling tired and doesn't allow me to play at my best is playing poker after sex. I've paid the stupid tax on this lesson at least 2x already, and Saturday night, I tried my luck at it again. I guess that I thought that I had gotten good enough at poker to over come this weakness. I had cut my 10
buy in down swing in half for this month and was on the road to getting it all back when I found myself in a "Right Moment" with my wife. Once the action was over, I decided to do my next favorite activity and play some poker. Boy, what a bad idea that was, I proceeded to drop 2.5 buyins in the course of about 3 hours. I stayed up much too late and played way too long and I paid the penalty for it! I can honestly say that I have never paid for sex, but it has for sure cost me plenty of money!

I've also found that I don't play well when I'm on a time crunch. Situations of "Oh, I've got an hour before I have to be at so & so" are just not the right time to play. I've found that I make hurried calls and take the razor thin edges that are better left unplayed.

I also don't prefer to play at LAG tables where everyone is floating and calling down light. I like to be at semi-educated tables where the players have read enough Skylansky material to fold much too often. I'm not a chronic bluffer, but I do prefer heads up pots against people that I can predict what they are going to do. When I am getting floated and called down w/ 2nd pair or worse, I just need to get up and find another table.

So, what I'm going to do is reiterate to all of my loyal blog readers what my guidelines are for being at my peak when I play cards. This is mostly for my benefit, but I'm going to share it w/ you guys just so that you can help keep me accountable.

1. Don't play when I'm tired, this includes after sex, when I'm short on sleep, and after a very stressful day at work.
2. Don't play when time is an issue. This includes when my wife is pestering me and when I have to be somewhere in a short period of time.
3. Don't play at wild tables. The discipline to get up from these tables should add at least 1BB/100 Hands to my bottom line.

For the month so far, I am up ~$200 online and haven't been back to the casino for some live action since my Biloxi debacle. I was up ~$500 online prior to Saturday night and also lost $170 on Monday afternoon during a time crunched session. Combined, I'm at ~($870) for the month, and would have been half way into that Biloxi loss if I would not have broken my first two rules.

Update as of 10pm, I picked up about $50 tonight in a 2 hour session. It's not much but it's another win!

LL79