Two Goals

I've established two different goals for my online bankroll. I've basically mentally split my roll in to two stacks and put them on a spreadsheet.
On one side I have placed $150. I'm going to use that to play some 5.50 sng's probably 3 to 4 at a time and 2 or 3 sets a night until I either go bust or play 100 sng's. Then I'll evaluate the results and decide what to do from there.
With the rest of my roll, I'm going to play token qualifiers and play some 26 and 75 buck tournies trying to hit a big one. I've got plenty in to give it a shot after winning a grand last week, so we'll see how it goes. I'm thinking if I'm going to make my goal of winning $25,000 by the end of the year, I'm going to have to take some shots at these larger tournaments.

I'll post my sng results nightly along with any other MTT's that I play.
Good luck at the tables this week everyone!!!

Back Home Again

I'm back home again after the second weekend away from home. It was a get-together with several co-workers this time at G's house in South Carolina at Lake Hartwell. We played a lot of poker and sang some karaoke.
We had a special guest show up last night to sling some cards with us. Tripjax's brother made the drive over from the Clemson area and we had a great time. It was cool to meet Trip's brother after he and I had spent so much time on the road together last weekend. His brother lives almost right between where Trip and I live so hopefully we can all get together and play again soon.

Air Cards Rule

We made it up to the lake house and we're having a good time. We played poker until about 3 am and got a few hours sleep.
Trkfix has his air card with him so I was able to play a little online between live games.
Tripjax's brother called me last night. He may be able to make it over tonight.

Gone Fishin'

I'm heading out to Lake Hartwell in South Carolina for some fishing. I have no plans to see the water. :)

Midnight Madness

It's 4:50 am and I'm at the final table of the Midnight Madness on Full Tilt. I'm sitting with 255,000 and 4th in chips......details to follow tomorrow. I will definitely be straight to bed when this is over...........

Update: I'm out in 4th place and it's time to go to work!!! I won about $965.

Okie Vegas Revisited

A bunch of things I will never forget about Okie-Vegas in no particular order:

1. Kat getting to taste all kinds of food she had never had.
2. Oossuuu754 getting away from a large pot on the turn and naming my hole cards.
3. Dropping the hammer with an all in on the turn against Gary Carson.
4. Watching TripJax balance "The Hammer" on his nose.
5. Hearing the GCox family belt out some dog-gone fine karaoke.
6. Playing live poker with several of my "invisible friends".
7. Learning that sleep is over-rated.
8. Watching TripJax and 23Skidoo get their birthday taps.
9. Shooting pool with Jordan, F-Train, and Tripjax.
10. Shaking hands with Shorty.
11. Meeting Kay Kay, Janet, Shithead and his wife, and all the other wonderful locals at the lake.
12. Hanging out on the porch with everyone and hearing all the great stories.

Thank you so much GCox and GCox family for making us all feel at home!!!

Okie-Vegas Trip Report: Part 4

The drive to Gary's was fun. TripJax slept in the back seat while I got to hang out with Jordan and let him drive the rental. We got a chance to talk for a while and it was great.
Arriving at Gary's, Mrs.GCox had morning food on the table for us along with coffee, juice, milk, whatever you wanted. She prepared all kinds of great breakfast foods and we ate up. Not long after that, Maudie, Gracie, and FTrain arrived with the BBQ and we wolfed that down also.
Tables were set up, everyone including Yestbay1 arrived and the tournament soon began. I was feeling great with 2 hours of sleep under my belt in the last 60 or so. I get seated between Gracie and Kat. I start off good and build up a little but then I get over-involved in a few hands that I have to get away from. This leaves me short-stacked and I limp in to the final table. Maudie has a gift for everyone that made the final table and Oossuuu754 I'm sure is disappointed especially for not getting one of these fine OU shot glasses....heh. I get a few chances to push in and try to double but I'm behind twice in a row and get lucky to split both times. Then Skidoo runs in to my AK with his AJ and I double up and get almost healthy. I hang in for a long time and a few people get eliminated. I wind up going out in 6th when I push J8 from the small blind and run in to Kat's QJ. Oops. She goes on to take down the tourney so at least my chips went to a good place!
After the tourney, I get a chance to shower and shave before playing some cash 1/2 no limit. The cash game is a lot of fun and I end up ahead 25 bucks. We get a chance to sing some karaoke and just have a great time being together. GCox, Mrs.GCox, and Lil'GCox showed us an awesome time. They are excellent hosts and made everyone feel so welcome to be there.
We crashed at G's house and in the morning Mrs. GCox made us an awesome breakfast before TripJax and I had to hit the road. A few hugs later and we were on our way.........
It was a long drive but I would have driven 100 times further than that to get to hang out with each and every one of you.

Okie-Vegas Trip Report: Part 3

One word sums up the next arrival at Okie-Vegas.... JORDAN!!!!
Jordan arrives in Oklahoma and the excitement we already have goes up another notch. We leave the airport and head for the "lake house". Oh...one thing I'm leaving out is that every time there is food there is something that Kat has never had before. I'm expecting a post Kat, don't forget!!
We arrive at the lake house and it's awesome. Gary has sold you on thinking it's some little po-dunk trailer by the lake. Well, it's HUGE-normous.
We are starving when we get there and Gary lets us know they have a grille down at the store near his place. Jordan, Kat, Skidoo, and myself set out on foot and walk to the store. It's a little hot outside but bearable. We place our order and go to the bar next door to the store to sit down and have a drink while we wait on our food. The bar is exactly as I had imagined it would be. I will not attempt to describe it because I would fail miserably. We leave the bar, grab our food and head back to the house. Maudie arrives and brings along Gracie and F-Train. Now we have a blogger PARTY!!!!!! F-Train is a madman and crazy cool and Gracie is so nice!!! Every time I think we have reach the peak of sensory overload.....hah...not even close!!
The ladies go for a walk and the guys hang out on the screened in porch (yes, it got completed in time) and talk for a while. We decide to walk down to the bar and look for the girls. The bar has completely transformed from the earlier quiet little place to a packed out madhouse full of locals. Throw in a group of crazy bloggers from all over the place and you have a party. We shoot pool and throw darts and get to know some of Gary's "lake-house" neighbors. Janet, Lona, Shithead, K.K., Shorty, Ray, and many, many more. Skidoo and TripJax tell them it's their birthday thinking they are going to get a free drink. hehehehehe......that's not what you get for your birthday at this bar. You get Janet's paddle right on your rumpus....and we're not talking a love tap, we're talking POWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!
I could have hung out at the bar all night but we had some poker playing to do, so we wrapped up our pizza and headed for the house. We sit around and talk some more and it's very nice just to be hanging out with everyone.
Instant Tragedy is close to arriving and we decide to set up a "fake" hand of holdem for him. It's designed for him to hit quads and Maudie to beat him with a straight flush. He gets there and the volume knob goes to 11 as the hand is dealt. Something went wrong with the hand and he gets the wrong cards. It's hilarious and I don't know what happened but I do know one thing; Jordan had it set up perfectly so I'm guessing the cards somehow got moved around before we started during all the chaos.
We start the real sit-n-go and Tragedy has a gift for every person there. It's awesome. Kat wins the tournament (I'm sensing a trend here) and Maudie, Gracie, and FTrain call it a night. After they leave we start up a cash game and Shithead, Janet, and K.K. show up to play. We play late in to the night and Tragedy deals for us. We play until one by one people can't hold their eyes open and finally reluctantly call it a night.
Gary and I are the last two standing. We realize it's only a couple of hours before we have to be at his house in OKC, so we say our goodnights and get some shut-eye.
When I get up, Gary is up and has coffee made. He and I are the first two up and we enjoy a cup before waking everyone else. Tragedy has to go back to Texas so we say our goodbyes and the rest of us head for OKC..............

Okie-Vegas Trip Report: Part 2

TripJax and I leave Tunica and set the GPS for GCoxville, Oklahoma. The trip across Arkansas seems quick as we are so excited to get there. GCox calls us and we are only about 15 minutes from his house. TripJax is ready to take a nap as he's been up for about 30 hours. I on the other hand have only been up a mere 24 so I let Gary know I will be going with him to the airport to pick up Kat. We get to the airport and I am already on "Meet Invisible Friends" overload and that kicks in to turbo as Kat comes out to greet us. I'm overwhelmed with emotion from meeting three people in person for the first time that I've known online for so long. That's just the beginning as we later pick up 23Skidoo (a familiar face from back home) and head to Norman to meet up with Maudie. We all go out to eat and then play a sit-n-go at her house where she promptly welcomes us to Oklahoma with a thundering display of skill taking down the sit-n-go and letting us know she's a player. Well, I didn't actually need to be shown; after all she's practically taught me everything I know about poker with all the moves she's put on me in the blogger tournies online. She's the one player in those tournaments that seems to always have my number.
We decide to go to the Riverwind casino and Maudie calls ahead and gets us on the list for 1/2 no limit. When we arrive, they have our names up on the board and they open a new table for us. We take our seats around the table along with a few random folks that have no idea what they are in for. Hammers fly and the fun ensues as my stack begins to grow and grow. I look down and I have over 500 in front of me fairly quickly from the 200 I started with. As I glance around the table, I'm once again overwhelmed with emotion. Kat to my left, then TripJax over on the other side of the dealer. Maudie to my right and GCox on her right. 23 Skidoo across from me. It can't get any better than this, right? Wrong. Another blogger arrives. Oossuuu754 comes in wearing his Full Tilt jersey and takes the 3 seat! Ok, that's as good as it gets, right? Wrong again as poker author Gary Carson sits down in the 4 seat. I loosen up my game a little and manage to double most everyone at the table. It's the most fun I've ever had at a cash game in a casino. I think Kat was the big winner for the night. (a trend that will continue through the weekend, way to go Kat!!!) It's over way too soon. We get back to Gary's and Skidoo and I head for our hotel room.
There's one bed in the room so we make do and get a little sleep. For me, it's the first sleep I've had in almost 40 hours so I have no problem getting to sleep. We wake up early and head back to GCox's to begin the next day..........

Okie-Vegas Trip Report

It was early Wednesday morning and I thought I was running ahead of schedule. TripJax and I had discussed meeting where I work around 10:00 am or so to head out for Okie-Vegas. He was going to text me when he left North Carolina so I could have an idea of when to expect him. I check my phone; no text message. Hmm.... It's about 7:45. I hope he isn't still at home. That would put us way behind schedule.
The phone rings. Trip is nowhere near North Carolina; he's almost to where I work...doh!! He had texted the wrong person on his phone and let a former co-worker know what he's wearing at about 2:00 am....heh. I let him know I live an hour from work and I'm on the way. A quick call to work and I have the welcoming committee in place for Trip. Traffic on my side of town of course is terrible, and it seems to take forever to get there.
When I arrive, TripJax informs me that he hit something in the road and there is possibly something wrong with his car. I let him know he's at the right place for that and that will be no problem. We make our rounds of the store and I introduce him to the store full of Mookie-playing and former Mookie-playing degenerates that are my co-workers. We leave his car in the hands of rmbj494, one of the best technicians in the universe and head out.
We are scheduled to meet Dugglebogey and Jusdealem between 4 and 5 pm in Tunica where we plan to have dinner and maybe play some 4/8 limit or something before hitting the road again to finish the drive to Oklahoma. We get there a little early and pull in at The Goldstrike around 3 or so. We quickly locate Duggles in the poker room amongst the 3/6 limit crowd and let him know we are going to walk around a little. He says he will meet us downstairs shortly. We have some time to walk around a little before we are scheduled to meet Jusdealem. I couldn't remember for certain where we had agreed to meet up but I knew it was either at Goldstrike or Horseshoe. I'm fairly certain it's Goldstrike but we have plenty of time so we walk over to Horseshoe and check out the poker room. There's a $130 bounty tournament in a few hours and we decide not to mention it to the others seeing how we had already decided to play 4/8 limit. We get back over to Goldstrike and find a spot where we think the meeting place is. We get a drink and settle in and start looking around trying to spot her.....which is pretty hilarious because we have exactly 0% idea what she looks like. I guess we looked like a couple of desperate guys eagerly eyeing every woman that walked anywhere near the bar. I made a sign on a napkin that said "Jusdealem" thinking that might help. Duggles came downstairs and joined us just as we got the bad news from Jus that she couldn't make it.
The three of us head over to the cafe and grab a bite to eat. They have a 12 buck special running that includes prime rib, soup, potato, and cheesecake. While enjoying our dinner, we decide to play the tournament at the Horseshoe.
We get signed up and are starting at three different tables. There are 52 entrants. The play at my table is fairly weak tight for the most part starting out. There's a couple of solid players that I quickly identify and one luckbox that can't fold a hand but keeps hitting and accumulating a massive stack. I win a couple of fairly decent pots and double my stack before the first break. At the break, all three of us are still in. TripJax loses his last hand before the break but he still had a good stack. Duggles had built a nice stack up but had a set not long before break and it got busted on a terrible suckout so he's back down to his original starting stack.
We play on after the break and Duggles gets moved to my table as his table breaks. He is low on chips and I know he will be making a move to double soon. I get moved to another table and not long after he gets eliminated. TripJax goes out a little while later. I think we were down to about 22 players by this point. We get down to two tables and take another break. Duggles and TripJax are railing me and I'm just trying my best to make a few moves and survive the rising blinds. I manage to win a few hands and make it to the final table. We make it to the money and people start falling out quickly. We get down to four players and I'm the shortest stack. They offer a four-way even chop and I quickly accept seeing how I have less than half the chips of the leader and I'm the shortest stack left. I pocket my winnings and TripJax and I say our goodbyes to Duggles and head for the car. The journey continues........

Home

I'm home from Okie Vegas. Rest now.....plenty to write about soon.

Monkey Tourney Tuesday Night

The Monkey Tourney is Tuesday night on Stars. Yours truly is the bounty this week so fire away.

Monkey Tourney on Poker Stars
Tuesdays @ 8:30 pm est
password is "monkey"

Okie-Vegas Here We Come!!! Countdown: 3 days

In case anyone can't tell, I'm VERY EXCITED about the trip this week with TripJax. In just three short days, we'll be on our way. The agenda for the week is coming together and looks like this:

1. Arrive in Tunica around 5pm or so on Wednesday and meet up with Jusdealem and Dugglebogey for dinner and some poker. From there, TripJax and I will continue on to Oklahoma.

2.Arrive in Okie-Vegas either late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. Once in Oklahoma, we are in LowLimitGrinder's home turf and he has done an excellent job of laying out a really cool agenda for the rest of the week. I won't go in to details here. Check out Gary's blog for a list of confirmed attendees.

So that's the week in a nutshell. I finally get to meet about a dozen or so of my "Invisible Friends"!!! I look forward to meeting each and every one of you!!!

4 Days to Okie-V

It's past midnight so that makes it Saturday....which means........ 4 Days to Okie-Vegas!!! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!

Lucko Still Alive Late in Day 2

Lucko is still alive late in day 2 of the main event. He's currently sitting with about 75k going on the dinner break. Gooooooooooo Lucko!!!

One week until Okie-Vegas and I am ready to go!!! I'm going to try to pick up a new digital camera to take with me so I can post some pics when I get back home.

I donked out of The Mookie tonight very early on a really bad play. I have to quit trying to buy big pots early in a double stack tournament. I did run very well last night in The Monkey Tourney. I managed to make it to the final three and cashed. I also knocked out the bounty player so I have a target on me next week. It will be my last tournament before I head to Okie-Vegas. If you aren't familiar with The Monkey Tourney, it's on Stars Tuesday nights at 8:30pm est. It replaced the time slot of the WWdN tourney. They are putting a lot of work in to making it a really nice tourney, so come on out and play it if you get a chance!!!

I've been experimenting a lot with how to play a paired flop that misses your good startng hand and I'm looking for some good reading material on the subject. I think it provides an excellent opportunity to outplay a weaker player post-flop but there are certainly plenty of dangerous ways to get hurt also. Any suggestions?

Title Goes Here

In case anyone hasn't figured it out, you can click on the word title to the left of the box to type in a title for your post. You can also tab like a million times and get there.

I need to mention a few people. My fellow blogger FairnBalanced was very kind in his blog mentioning my new Grandson being born. Thank you very much. Many others left comments on my blog here and I thank every one of you.

If anyone has somehow missed it, Lucko is off to a great start in a little poker tournament that is taking place in Vegas. Make sure and wish him well.

Have a great week everyone!!!

MTTs are going well

I've gotten my mojo back in multi-table tournaments. I'm getting really close to a big pay day. I made the money in the 28k tonight and made it to the final table in The Hoy...but just short of the cash.
I placed 70th of over 2,700 on Stars in a rebuy and last night I made it to the top 50 in a MTT with over 650 entrants on Full Tilt. I feel a big payday coming soon. I've made a few adjustments in my game and it seems to be helping in two areas:

1) Picking up a big stack early. I've broadened my preflop range a little and I'm relying more on outplaying my opponents postflop. I'm not talking about bluffing; I'm talking about them bluffing when I hit mostly. Also, betting premiums hard early is really paying off. People just don't want to believe you and will really pay off those big bets.

2) Switching gears a little better. I'm tightening up at the right times. Also, I'm doing something I'm really not comfortable with but it's getting better and that is playing from position a little stronger. I'm widening my range based on position and not turning weak after the flop. That being said, I am also getting away from some hands when I'm obviously beat.

I've found myself with some really healthy stacks late in some huge field tournaments and I think this is where I'm struggling a little. I think there's a point somewhere about halfway through the payouts where I'm a little too loose and tend to donk off a large part of a very healthy stack causing me to go out a table or two before the final table. I've been going over my end-game play in recent tournaments and I feel like I've found a few corrections so hopefully I can take one to the house soon.

Okie-Vegas countdown: 9 days

Mayo Starts Main Event Today

I mentioned a few weeks ago that a player from BrainMc's league won a seat to the Main Event. He starts today. Stop by his blog and wish him luck if you get a chance.

Goooooooooooo MAYO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fun Night of Poker

I had a fun night of poker tonight at Kajagugu's . There were several bloggers there; BrainMc, Weak_Player, PokerCat, Deliverator, Kaja, and myself. It wasn't a profitable night for me, but I had a really great time.

Okie-Vegas is fast approaching and I'm ready to go.... 11 days and counting.