Just can't stay away from the game.

So after losing my job as a gold buyer I decided to start playing online poker again for the very last time.  Deposited 95 dollars into Pokerstars today and started to play.  Only difference this time around is, I am going to pay extremely close attention to my Bank roll management and not tilt.  I will play daily until I can't play anymore.  So today, I started to play some 1 dollar SnGs.  Not a huge profit margin in that considering if I win a 6 man tournament, I only profit $3.65, however this means I won't go busto quickly with bad play and tilt play either. 

I am also changing my game up a little bit and playing absolutely text-book poker, no more limping in with strong hands, no playing out of position, playing only premium 5 and we'll see how that goes.  My goal right now, is very simple, 1 table 6 man Sit n Go's 1.50 dollar buy ins until my Bank-roll hits 150.00.


It's a long grind, it's boring, and the play is extremely soft, but I get to practice smart disciplined poker and making easier and better choices.


To make matters even better, while I have been by myself without support of friends and family in the past, I actually found someone who has taken the de-facto role of being my mentor and potential staker if I prove to him and to myself I have what it takes to crush SnGs online no matter the stakes.


He has been crushing ring games for a while now and a very profitable player so this bout of good
 luck definitely benefits me as well. 


Well this is just day 1 of my grind and since profit doesn't come easy, I wager the first week or so will be slow but I feel better, I feel better about my choices and I'm slowly noticing that I'm lasting deeper into tournaments and even winning a few of them with minimal effort.  I still get the occasional suckout but it's not as rampant as before, namely because I'm not in as many hands.

Hopefully I can continue the grind and notice positive results and grind my way to higher stakes, but for today out of the games I've played these are my stats on an average for today.


I played in 1 Multi Table Tournament, finished 24th out of 90
I also played 27 Sit N Go's today, all at 1.50  buy in.  For a Total Buy-in of 40.50
My average placement in the 27 Sit N Go's today was 2.81 and the Top 2 players get paid.
My total gross profit from the 27 games was  56.33
My net profit therefore is 15.83.  Which means, every SnG I played, I made 0.59 cents. 
Not huge numbers by any means, but it's a start, and we all have to start somewhere.

Bank roll to date 110.83

More poker tomorrow!

Early strikes make for a quick day

So I started my session at 6:30am today, sat down at a table and noticed a few regulars, and a few not so regulars.  I bought in for my usual 100, and looked down at AQ offsuit for my first starting hand, not a bad way to go I suppose and raised it to 15, immediately got 2 callers.  Flop comes AQ2, and I check, the other person checks as well and a very aggressive player bets out 25, not wanting to lose the other person in that hand, I smooth call his 25, and the other player calls as well.  Turn is a 6 and again I check, as does the other player.  The aggressive player however bets another 25, at this point, there's about 100 in the pot and I just want to take it down to I reraise to 50 putting myself all in.  The other player calls after thinking a bit and the agressive player folds.  The river is a 5 and I turn over two pair to take the pot, the other player had A2, pretty unlucky for him, but let this be a lesson to some of you.  That's what you get for playing Ace-Rag on a raised pot.

I have a table image at the casino as a very tight player that doesnt bluff and I love that image because that's how I bluffed out a huge pot today as well.  I had 72 diamonds on the button, not the greatest of hands, but the flop came Q K 5 with 2 diamonds.  It was checked around to me, so I checked as well, and the turn was a K of spades.  the bet was 15, with 2 callers and myself I decided to stuck around for the diamond draw because I knew that if I had hit I would get paid and failing that I called to set up a bluff since this seemed like the perfect time to do it.  The river was a blank.  And again it was checked to me, so I threw out a small value bet of 50 dollars.  It was folded to one more person before I won the pot and he looked at me and said.  You have a King?  I said yes I do <total lie> he looks at me and goes, yeah.. i've played with you before you never lie (hahaha), and folded his Queen. 

Why did I win that pot?  simple, because out of all the months I've been going there and playing with these people, they know how I play, they view me as a tight player who will not bluff and who usually has the goods.  So if I pick my moments properly, I can sneak in a bluff or two and win big pots and get people to lay down hands that normally beat mine.  This is one of the aspects of poker that I can not teach, it's just innate to know when to bluff and when not to.  But this is why table image is very important. 

That was pretty much it for memorable hands, I wasn't there that long, a little over 3 hours as I left at 9:40am, and with 400 dollars profit I might add.

How to lose at Poker and still make money

I started my session pretty early today at 4:30am, and I must have been sleeping still as I completely forgot to take notes of memorable hands and the such but I was pretty card dead and missed a lot of my monster draws, so I was down 100 dollars pretty quickly.

I rebought for another 100 and ground my way up to 350 and not before long a fateful hand happened.  I had KcKs in early position and make it 16 dollars to go.  Some guy who has been a complete luck sack and a horrible player in general, reraises me to 35 dollars.  I know he doesn't have Aces so I just smooth call him and the flop comes Th 3s 6d.  He bets out 40 and I call. Turn is a 8s, he bets out 50 and I immediately reraise him all in and he immediately calls.  River is a Qs.  Guess what he has?  yeap, pocket Queens, and so now I'm down 200 dollars for the day.

After taking a beat like that I decide to go home and just relax and refresh and refocus for tomorrow, basically my three R's for poker.  As I'm leaving the casino, I start thinking, you know, I want to at least break even, so let's try some table games!  Put 50 bucks into the slot machine and cashed out 80 bucks after I hit a very small progressive jackpot.  okay, up 30 bucks, so down 170... that's not too too bad.  Then I decide to play some Texas Shoot out, and after a while i'm down 100 bucks from that so, down 270.  I rebuy for another 100 at the table games, and just play smart and slow and grind up to 300 dollars.  Now on my last hand of the day this happens. 

For those of you that don't play Texas Shoot Out or know what it is, it's a table game where players are given 4 cards and you choose the 2 cards you want and the dealer does the same, then 5 cards come out and whoever has the best poker hand wins.  The bonus is that there are 6 decks so 5 of a kinds are possible and pay out very well if you play the bonus. 

So back to my last hand, I have Qh Jh 2s 6h.  So obviously I choose Qh Jh and I had 5 dollars on the bonus and 90 dollars as my bet since I just wanted to lose my money and leave.  The dealer shows 8s 8c so I basically needed a Q or a J to double my money.  I'm just praying for either that or hearts.  First card is an Ah, and i'm like sweet, that's 1 heart, next card is the Th i'm like awesome, that's 2.  The next two cards are the Ks Ks (which is possible since again, 6 decks are being used).  So here I am praying for any heart, eventho I have a straight already since a flush pays 3 ro 1 on the bonus while a straight only pays 1 to 1.  The last card is a Kh.  I don't notice it immediately, but all of a sudden it hits me like a ton of bricks.  I yell out. ROYAL FLUSH and hit the table hard, <a royal flush in texas shoot out pays 200 to 1 on the bonus>  I have 5 dollars on the bonus.  So yes.. I got 1000 dollars out of that hand and everyone on the table who plays the bonus got an extra 250 dollars as an envy bonus. 

Not too bad from being down 270 to up 730 dollars for the day. 

All in a day's work haha, now I go to sleep and tomorrow I will remember to document my hands at the grind and hopefully have a few more stories to tell!

Happy Friday!

Back to the Grind

Well the main reason for me not playing poker anymore was because someone very close to me had made me promise them not to gamble anymore due to philisophical idealogies, however after showing this person my dedication to the game and my skill level they have since taken back the promise which is why I am pleased to announce my Muhammed Ali like return to the ring (bonus points if you got the reference).


With that being said, I will once again document my wins and losses for everyone to see as well as some key hands, my throught processes behind these hands and a new segment called 'How would you play it' for Sarah and Greg as they are getting into the game and want to learn and get better at reading situations and players.

I do not recommend anyone playing below 20 buy-ins for effective bank-roll management, but for the purposes of this blog I am only documenting my profit/loss statement.  As my game of choice is 1/2 No Limit Texas Hold Em, with the max buy-in at the table for $300, the ideal bank-roll for this game would be $6000.  Basically this helps with swings and variances.

I went to the casino today to again, re-grind a new bankroll and just to play for the sake of playing really, and bought in for $100 to get back into the game.  Didn't really see many familiar faces, but with the bad-beat jackpot at 130 grand, I decided to play tight and just chase the bad-beat so to speak.  Woke up with a few hands here and there and stole some pots and eventually turned my 100 dollars into 150, which leads us to our first hand worth mentioning.

I was on the button with 4h Td, and 6 limpers pre-flop.  I had no business in this pot but I wanted to mix things up a bit and see how many people were donkeys at my table.  Flop comes 4d Qs 7h.  It gets checked to me, so I bet 12 dollars, and everyone folds except for a guy in mid position, I watched him play prior to this hand and identified him as an internet donkey (someone who overvalues their hands). He calls my 12 dollars and the turn is a 7s.  He checks, and I fire 40 dollars thinking I could just steal the pot, he waits a good 3 minutes then calls, Immediately I put him pocket Jacks.  Don't ask me how I put him on that hand, but I did.  River is a 2c and he checks again and I push All-in for my remaining 90 hoping to take it away from him.  He haws and hums and he asks me if I have a Queen.  I respond "Your Jacks are no good here, just fold" he thinks again for 3 minutes and goes, I know you have a Q ueen, but I have to call.  And calls and sure enough shows Pocket Jacks and therefore he wins the pot.  I just laughed to myself and said, sweet, my read was right and I'll get those chips back soon enough.  So after this hand I'm down 100 dollars for the day.  Now, he puts me on a Queen, which is superior to his hand and still calls me for over 150 dollars, which tells me I can set this guy up big time later on.

I rebuy for another 100 and immediately see Ah Kc, and raise to 15 from UTG.  I get 6 callers, I'm assuming because they figured I was on tilt after losing that hand with the Jacks.  Flop comes Ac 8s 4h.  I immediately push all in with my remaining 85 dollars, since well, there was already 90 dollars in the pot and I was perfectly happy with it.  I get 2 callers, everyone else folds.  Turn is a Kh, and river is a 5h.  I turn over 2 pair, and the other two people show AQ and AJ.  which works out very well for me as now i'm sitting with 300 chips in front of me.

After a few more hands and a few more hours, I am UTG (Under the gun) again, as it was straddled and I see Ah Ac, I was like oh.. hello Aces, nice to meet you!  Some guy raises to 7, I immediately reraise to 22, and I get 2 callers, the guy who had the JJ from the previous mentioned hand and the original raiser.  Flop comes 6h 6d 8s.  Not exactly the best flop for AA, but I fire out 50 dollars and both of them call me.  Turn is a Td and everyone checks to the river.  The river is the As, which fills me up and I know I have the best hand now since 66 was definately not there.  The donkey fires out 35 dollars (into a 200 dollar pot) and the other guy immediately calls.  I hollywood for a bit and decide that this is where I get my money back from the donkey and reraise to 200.  The donkey calls, as does the the other guy.  Donkey has... 8s9h.  no joke.. he called with third pair.. on a paired board.  The original raiser shows a T8 for two pair, and of course I show a full house and make 700 dollars on the pot.  I left shortly after that, so I cashed out 700 dollars, but I was in for 200 dollars so my net profit for the day is 500 dollars.  Not too bad for 5 hours of poker

How would you play this hand?

I had JsTh on the button and called a 12 dollar pre-flop raise.  flop comes 8s 9c 4h.  The original raiser, who is pretty agressive bet 60 dollars.  I only have 140 dollars in front of me and it's folded to me.  I took quite some time to think about this one, and I actually put him on AK.  My thought proces was that I have 2 over cards, and an open-ended straight draw, which means any 7 any Queen, any Ten, any Jack improves my hand with 2 streets to go.  that's, 14 outs which is roughly 56% of the time I will hit my hand.  I am getting better than 2 to 1 on my money, but the only problem is, there are 2 people to act behind me.  I mucked the hand, and as soon as I did I regretted it.  Would you play it any differently?  I was in a shove/fold situation, I knew I couldn't call the 60, so I had to either fold or push all in.  Against an agressive player, would you push?  Let me know your reasons why or why not.  Keep in mind that this was before I lost the 140 dollars to the donkey with JJ so my mind was fresh and I wasn't tilting.  I just didn't want to gamble I guess.  but who knows.

Anyways, Im back and tomorrow I will post more hands and give you an update with my play from tomorrow.

Happy Thursday and it's back to gaming for me!

Video Game Review: LA NOIRE PS3

Hey guys, long hiatus but I'm doing something new here as poker is on the backburner with several changes in my life since I last posted.  I have had a few requests to do some gaming reviews since people who know me know that I am an avid gamer and generally tell it how it is.  Keep in mind that these reviews are going to be for PS3, in the order that I'm playing the games currently at my disposal as I am going to be going for 100% completions and all trophies as well.

Plot : 8/10 - You basically play as a World War II vet turned LAPD detective in Rockstar's newest game.  As Cole Phelps, you are greeting with on the fly street crimes, as well as story based mysteries that you need to solve in order to progress through the game.  Some cases link up with each other and some don't,  In-between cases you are treated to cut-scenes that depict Cole's time during the war, and it gives you as the player, a deeper insight on what makes him tick and do the things he does.

Gameplay : 7/10 -  Not the greatest title out there currently in terms of gameplay.  Hardcore gamers will find the clue gathering portion a little too easy, as the default options play a little musical chime when you can inspect an item and the music just stops when all clues have been found,  Fans of the Phoenix Wright series will appreciate the fact that you don't have to tap all over the screen to gather clues, but it's equally is painful running around listening for chimes instead of actually being immersed into the scenery and looking at clues without musical help.  Yes, you can turn this option off, but it shouldn't have been an option anyway.  (I'm that hardcore)  The interview process is where you determine if the suspect is telling you the truth, or you doubt his motives, or he's just flat out lying to your face.  This would have been so much better done had it been possible to fail and let the guy get away scott-free.  It's not, if you fail the interview process you just learn less about the background story and proceed.  Such potential wasted.

Graphics: 9/10 - I'm not going to bullshit here, 37 cameras from every angle focused on each actor during gameplay and cutscenes pays off here.  The facial graphics for this game are phenomenal.  From the eyes darting around if they're nervous,or clenching their teeth or even the smallest of swallows when they're lying to you, this game details it all.  Afterall, facial expressions are how Cole can sense if a suspect is lying to him or not.  Then again, it can also be used against him as a little girl I interviewed after her mom died had darting eyes and I thought she was lying but before I made a silly choice, I thought to myself, if my mother just died and I was a kid, how would I act?  Well needless to say she was telling the truth.  L.A is perfectly recreated from the 1940's, From the landmarks, to the cars of the era, in stunning HD detail. 

Sound: 10/10  Probably the best musical score I have heard from a game ever.  And that's a pretty tall order seeing how there have been some great musical scores from other games in the history of gaming <Baron's Theme from Final Fantasy IV come to mind>  The music is taken straight from Noire films of the 40's and suits the theme of the game perfectly.

Replay Value 3/10 :  Not much really, once you finish the game and know how cases turn out there's really no point in replaying the game except to maybe get 100% completion and all the trophies associated with the game.

Hardcore Trophy Farming/Time to 100% Complete 8/10 :  One of the more frustrating games to 100% complete because of needing to unlock all 95 different cars in the game.  It's great that in order to unlock a car, you just have to get in and turn on the engine, sounds simple enough, however, due to a horrible design flaw, only certain cars appear during the game play.  The cars you need never appear until AFTER you've unlocked it which is pointless to say the least.  If you're going for the hardcore meter on this, be prepared to spend an additional 10+ hours hunting down cars after the cases.

Summary:  It's a great game, if you are a fan of Noire genre films and enjoy games like Phoenix Wright or shows like Law and Order and CSI : whateverthefuck, pick it up as a rental.  It's not worth the 50 bucks due to the low replay value, but in a solid week you can finish the game and immerse yourself with a very good story.  Being Rockstar's first attempt at being the "good guys" I'll cut them some slack, as at the end of the day, I was entertained and fully in awe with the facial accuracy that this game provides.  If you are hoping for a sequel, do not hold your breath as Team Bondi (Developer) and Rockstar (Publisher) are no longer on speaking terms due to horrendous working experiences from both sides while working on this game.  7 years in the making, I was truly expecting more but in a pinch, it does the job of being a Phoenix Wright meets Grand Theft Auto type game.

2011 Poker Challenge. Making it as a rounder!

Seeing how it's almost April, this challenge will fully start on April 1st, however I have started today, just to get back into the grind mode, as I think I have been a little lax lately during my time away from poker.

A good friend of mine suggested a unique type of challenge for me and I accepted as he has given me 2 to 1 odds, on a $5000 bet.  The challenge is as follows:

1) All games must be played live so no online poker at all, I must go to either Boulevard Casino, Edgewater Casino, Starlight Casino, or Cascades Casino. 

2) I can not under any circumstance use my own money from my other accounts for the purpose of this challenge.  I will attempt to turn 750 dollars, into 36500 in a year playing nothing but 1/2 No Limit and the occasional live Tournament.

So, I have my work cut out for me, ultimately this means that due to this challenge, I will have to drop down to 1/2 NL from my bread and butter game of 3/6 NL which means my play style will have to change as well to maximize profits.

Through this blog, I will be documenting every day my results and plays, as well as memoriable hands for the reader to follow, I will also be keeping a running talley and see where I end up March 19th 2012.

Without further ado, here we go!

March 19th 2011

Started my session at 7:10am at Boulevard Casino sat down with 100 dollars at a 1/2 NL game

I take a quick look around the table and see if I spot any of the usual players that I know, the sharks if you will, and I don't, I do however notice a few fishes and donkeys at the table from previous experience and think to myself, I'll be in and out in under an hour with my quota for the day. Which is 150 dollars profit.


2nd hand in I am in middle position and look down at AcKs, decent starting hand, it gets folded around to 2 seats to my right, and he pumps the pot to 25 dollars, guy to my right folds and action is on me.  Now, there's still 4 people to act after me, so I decide to get cute and flat call 25% of my stack with an off-suit AK.  Guy to my left calls, the rest fold.

81 dollars in the pot, flop comes 4h 9s Kd.  The original raiser fires a continuation bet of 25 dollars.  and now there's 106 dollars in the pot, 25 for me to call and I'm convinced he doesn't have pocket Aces as he wouldn't play Ace's like that.  I take all of two seconds and instead of pushing all in, just smooth call his bet as I want the guy to my left to call as well, however he folds and it's now heads up.

Turn comes 6s and he again fires 25 dollars.  At this point, Ive already invested 50% of my stack and there's still 1 card to come, either way my stack is in jeopardy, either at the turn or the river, so I just decide to ship the rest of the chips and surprisingly he snap calls.  My  immediate thought is he either has AK same as me, or he has some sort of underpair to my Kings and just doesn't believe me because I do bullshit a lot.

River is my saviour card as it's the Kc.  I now have trip kings and flip them over to take down a huge pot.  He flips over pocket Queens which is what I put him on as soon as I knew he didn't have Aces.  at 7:21am I'm up 125 dollars and it looks like I'll have a super early day and can enjoy my Saturday with some Dragon Age II!

over the next 30 minutes I was card dead and went from 225 dollars in front of my down to 170ish due to blinds and just calling 6 dollar raises preflops with mediocre hands trying to hit flops, then comes the last hand of my day.

I am in the small blind with Ac5d and it's folded to me.  I ask big blind if he wants to chop it (basically we take our blinds back and dealer deals a new hand) he's wearing shades and thinking he's big time and coldly tells me no.  I was like.. alright bro, let's dance.  And immediately pump it 25 dollars just to steal his 2 bucks and to my shock/horror/amusement/surprise he calls.  So Im thinking alright, time to out play your stupid donkey ass.

I immediately check blind, and let him decide how he wants to play this pot as I surrender first option to him.  Flop comes 5c 5s 6d.  I'm secrely laughing and almost burst out laughing when he puts in 12 dollars into the pot.  Immediately I'm thinking he has a 6 and even if he has a 5, I have him outkicked with my Ace.  I smooth call and check blind again.

Turn card is the nut card for me, the 5 of hearts.  I now have quads and can not lose this pot whatsoever.  Because I checked blind, he has the option again and fires off 24 dollars.  I sit and play hollywood with this guy for a bit.  I start talking out loud trying to make it look like I'm drawing to a straight, or have a 6 as well and I should have gotten an oscar for my performance before smooth calling his 24 dollars.  I check blind again hoping he would fire a 3rd bullet and hang himself completely to my check raise on the river. 

River is a Jh.  He thinks for a long time and finally checks it down and I'm disgusted.  I lost value on an unbeatable hand because I tried to get cute, but no  matter, he turns over 6s Jd.  I'm very surprised he didn't repop the river with 5's over Jacks.  But he must have sensed I was strong, I turn over my Quads, take the pot, and leave the table up 187 dollars for the day.  This occured at 8:30am. 

Boulevard casino was having an event today as well as Richard Broduer <Goalie of the Vancouver Canucks from the 80's> was having breakfast with the casino quests so I popped over, got an autograph and ate some free food before coming home.  Not a bad day's work.  187 bucks tax free in a little over an hour. 

Goal thus far 187/36500