This hurts

I have been running bad lately and my bankroll has shrunk substantially. I figured that a Party Poker reload would be just the thing that I needed to turn my momentum around. I decided to play all 1000 raked hands at $1/$2 limit hold'em (6-max), a game that I had been beating rather easily.

Here are my stats:



As the title of the blog implies, this one hurts. It hurts because my bankroll is getting even smaller (I had $2000+ for last month's Party reload) and it hurts because I played reasonably well throughout this most recent bonus chase. I am dumbfounded trying to figure out what went wrong. This is probably the only time in my 'poker career' where I cannot blame a loss on bad play. Simply put, the cards just beat me. There was nothing that I could do.

In one of the shorter sessions, I flopped three sets and lost all three times. I also was dealt AA and KK and lost both times. They were all large pots and I won exactly zero of them.

After taking a couple of days off, I decided to go back to playing some $50 NL in addition to $1/$2 limit. I have been doing well at both, building my stacks at Full Contact Poker, and UltimateBet. Curiously, I have basically broke even at Party Poker. I never seem to be able to win a big hand or just win several small hands. It's rather strange to have my largest stack of money in a site other than Party Poker... that's never been the case for me.

A good start to my new plan

In my last blog, I had decided to drop down in stakes because several bad sessions had depleted my bankroll. I had decided to play mostly $1/$2 limit hold'em (6-max), although I'll probably play some $50 NL too. I am confident that I can beat both of these games.

My first few sessions since dropping stakes have gone either well or ridiculously well. I had a couple of short sessions at UltimateBet and I am +$20. There is nothing spectacular here, except that I am winning and that is always good.

My most recent session, at Party Poker, was just sick, but in a very good way. It started off terribly. I was overly aggressive at first, losing some money against call stations when I essentially had nothing. This was just stupid, to be honest, because limit poker is designed to benefit the call stations in their never-ending battle against the loose-aggressive types. I then lost a really big pot against another call station who called my raise from the big blind; I had KQ and he had AQ. The flop was queen-high and the betting was capped. The turn was a king and I figured that I had the best hand when he called me (I figured that his call meant that he did not have a set). The river was an unfortunate ace and I lost the pot.

At this point, I was stuck $20 (10 big bets) and feeling annoyed. I calmly reminded myself to play solid poker and that it was only a matter of time before I would grind my way back to winning. I also decided to open a second table, since I had planned on playing just a short time period (~30 minutes).

At that point, I started to get hit with the deck in a major major way. In fact, I quit the second table, after only 35 hands, with more than $170 (my buy-in was $50; +60 big bets). In those 35 hands, I flopped four sets, one was a set over set (i.e., a big pot). I also won another big pot when I flopped bottom two pair against top pair. And finally, I had this gem of a hand:

$1/$2 Texas Hold'em - Sunday, September 24, 22:28:29 ET 2006
Table Wakesetter (Real Money)
Seat 6 is the button
Total number of players : 6
Seat 2: rtgreer ( $53 )
Seat 3: kimmys3 ( $28.25 )
Seat 5: mike_r52 ( $26.25 )
Seat 6: JPRiverman ( $59.57 )
Seat 1: frazwood ( $89 )
Seat 4: gulen ( $50 )
frazwood posts small blind [$0.50].
rtgreer posts big blind [$1].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to frazwood [ 2h Ah ]
kimmys3 calls [$1].
mike_r52 calls [$1].
JPRiverman calls [$1].
frazwood calls [$0.50].
rtgreer checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ Kh, 3s, Th ]
frazwood checks.
rtgreer bets [$1].
kimmys3 calls [$1].
mike_r52 calls [$1].
JPRiverman raises [$2].
frazwood calls [$2].
rtgreer calls [$1].
kimmys3 raises [$2].
mike_r52 calls [$2].
JPRiverman raises [$2].
frazwood calls [$2].
rtgreer calls [$2].
kimmys3 calls [$1].
mike_r52 calls [$1].
** Dealing Turn ** [ 4s ]
frazwood checks.
rtgreer checks.
kimmys3 checks.
mike_r52 checks.
JPRiverman checks.
** Dealing River ** [ 5h ]
frazwood bets [$2].
rtgreer folds.
kimmys3 raises [$4].
mike_r52 raises [$6].
JPRiverman raises [$8].
frazwood: are you guys nuts or what?
frazwood calls [$6].
kimmys3 calls [$4].
mike_r52 calls [$2].
JPRiverman shows [ 6h, 4h ] a flush, king high.
frazwood shows [ 2h, Ah ] a flush, ace high.
kimmys3 doesn't show [ Kd, 5s ] two pairs, kings and fives.
mike_r52 doesn't show [ 3h, 7h ] a flush, king high.
frazwood wins $56 from the main pot with a flush, ace high with ace kicker.

While playing the hand, the betting pattern on this hand made no sense to me at all. I couldn't figure out how a flop could get four-bet in four spots and then have the turn get checked around. I was further perplexed when I bet out with the nuts on the river, only to have it raised and re-raised before it came back around to me (check out my comment during the hand). After seeing the hand history and the mucked cards, the betting pattern seemed to make a little bit more sense in that three of us had flushes.

My current plan is to rebuild my bankroll $100 at a time, cashing out every-other $100 that I win. I'm sure that this is confusing, so let me explain. I started with $600 in my Party Poker account. I'm going to play until I get to $700, and then I'll cash out $100. After that I play until I build to $800, and then I cash out another $100. I hope this plan works.

Notre Dame Football and Dropping Stakes

When I first started this blog, I planned on writing about three of my favorite topics: poker, fishing, and Notre Dame football. For better or for worse, I have written almost entirely about poker. In this blog, however, I am going to talk about all three.

I just finished watching Notre Dame beat Michigan State in what was an entirely entertaining football game (ND: 40; MSU: 37). It was high-scoring; it had a bunch of fantastic plays; and much of it was played in a driving rain storm (always fun to watch). I must admit Notre Dame was incredibly lucky to win the game, especially after getting behind 17-0 in the first quarter, but for everyone who hates Notre Dame football... well, let's just say that I'm smiling... I'll keep this polite.

The fishing report is quite depressing. We are rapidly approaching winter here in Minnesota (yes, summer just officially ended last week), so I am anxious to get in a little bit of fishing before it gets too cold. Unfortunately, the weather has been horrible the last two weekends, so I have not gone fishing once.

Moving on to poker, I have decided to start new poker tracker databases. Perhaps I'll write a blog detailing my old poker tracker stats, but my databases were getting huge (they're over a year old) and so they were operating somewhat slowly. Besides, my game has changed a lot over the last year or so, so I'd like to focus more on my recent play compared to my historical play.

When I changed my first database (I play on three computers, two with PT), I immediately donked away $150 playing $50 NL. I shouldn't really say "donked away" or maybe I shouldn't say $150. I certainly donked away $100. I lost the other $50 when I pushed all-in on a flop of Qs 9d 8c (rainbow); I held held J T. My opponent called with AdKd and caught runner-runner diamonds to win the pot. Sadly, that hand is typical of how I have been runnning lately.

Today, in fact, I lost almost $400 playing $5/$10 limit (6-max) despite the fact that I played rather well. The cards just wouldn't cooperate. For example, I lost a huge pot ($250) on the river when I held KcQc and the flop came with three clubs. Sadly, a fourth club came on the river and a serious donkey won the hand with AcJs. And when I say donkey, I mean his VP$IP was 97% after 70 hands. I've never seen a VP$IP that high, at any stakes.

After losing that much money (and I've been on a downward trend anyway), I no longer have the money to play $100 NL or $5/$10 limit. So, I need to drop down in stakes. My current plan is to play $1/$2 limit (6-max) for awhile. I might also try bonus whoring a bit; I really don't know.

The one positive in my poker game right now is UltimateBet. Several months ago, I made a small deposit and managed to win about $20 before cashing out my original deposit. Since then, I have slowly increased my stack until now, where it is just under $240. I have been playing a lot of $1/$2 limit (6-max) and I have been doing well.

Dream Poker Promotion

At the end of August, I got a little bit frustrated with my poker playing... in part because I was probably playing at stakes above my mental comfort level (but easily within my bankroll). I started out playing higher stakes well, and I won a lot of money. But then, the quality of my play started to decline, and I started to lose. Losing at these higher stakes got me frustrated and tense about poker, so I decided to drop down in stakes until I calmed down and I was mentally ready to try again. This was particularly smart because I quit before I lost all of my initial profit from the higher stakes games.

When I dropped back in stakes, I started two new PSO promotions: one at Golden Palace Poker and one at Dream Poker. I rather quickly cleared the Golden Palace promotion (see previous blogs). Dream Poker, however, was cleared much more slowly. In fact, I did not finish this promotion until yesterday.

Of all of the PSO promotions that one can attempt, the Dream Poker promotion is EASILY the most difficult one to clear. You must play 600 contributed raked hands at stakes of $1/$2 or higher. According the www.bonuswhores.com, this definition of a raked hand applies to both no limit and to limit games, so if you aren't a limit player... then you must clear this bonus at blinds of $1/$2 (i.e., $200 NL). It'd be ideal to clear this bonus while playing 7-card stud (i.e., an ante game, so every hand is a contributed hand), but I could never find a 7-stud game going. I did manage to play a little 5-card stud, resulting in a net loss of about $30.

I spent virtually the entire promotion playing 6-handed, $1/$2 limit hold'em. I initially started with a decent sized loss, primarily because my game was in poor shape (remember, I started the promotion weary with poker and a bad mental state). Eventually, however, I played better and I grinded very very well for a long long time. Towards the end of the promotion, I was feeling very confident in my game; and even though my bankroll was short (~$300), I even took a brief shot at the $2/$4 short-handed game. I am confident that I could have beaten that game also, but I was focused on clearing the promotion, which cleared just as fast at $1/$2.

I believe that I played 625 contributed raked hands (more explanation below), which was a total of 1135 raked hands. According to PokerTracker, I played more than 1900 hands of $1/$2 6-max limit hold'em (see below for the screen capture). I am revealing these stats simply to demonstrate how much work is required to clear this promotion. I must also brag a little bit: my win rate of slightly more than 4 big bets per 100 hands is excellent; I am full of confidence with respect to my short-handed limit game right now.


In the end, I won about $165 playing poker (note: the 5-stud stats are not included in my Poker Tracker stats, so I won less than the photo shows). I also cleared a $60 bonus from Dream Poker and I'll received 6000 PSO points, which is essentially $60 of value (I'll probably buy a Party Poker gift certificate). So, this promotion netted me a profit of almost $300. That's only a little more than my standard buy-in at $5/$10, but I'm very pleased with my effort.

My final assessment of Dream Poker? I really don't like this site very much. I already didn't like the software of the Prima network very much, but Dream Poker makes it even worse. By requiring contributed raked hands rather than merely raked hands (which sucks anyway), it is difficult to track your progress towards a bonus. The only way to find the number of contributed raked hands is to e-mail support, which was less than stellar.

Support quality? Poor. About 25% of my e-mails to support were ignored. About another 25% of my e-mails resulted in a form-letter response indicating that support was having technical difficultes, suggesting that I send another e-mail in a few hours. This is ridiculous, of course, considering that they still had my original e-mail and they could respond to my original e-mail in a few hours after their technical difficulties had been resolved (note to Dream Poker support: this is a key difference between e-mail and phone calls). Of the remaining 50% of the e-mail responses that I received, several of them were erroneous (e.g., one claimed that I had originally deposited $50 when I had deposited $200 originally), giving me little confidence in the accuracy.

In conclusion, after clearing the initial bonus and the PSO promotion, I was all too happy to get my money out of Dream Poker and pursue my poker riches elsewhere. Even if you like the Prima network, I recommend one of the other skins... pass on this one.

Site Reviews, Part I

I originally began this blog as a poker diary of sorts. I wanted to get my mental thoughts down on "paper" so that I could review my thoughts and how they developed over time.

These days, however, I feel like my blog should also contain some useful information from time to time. This blog is cross-posted at www.thepokerforum.com and I have even introduced a few friends from my "real life" to online poker.

Over the two years or so, I have been doing some serious bonus whoring. One ancillary benefit of bonus whoring is that you play many different sites and you get to find the ones that you like the best. So, in this blog and in the subsequent one, I will give my opinions on the various sites that I have played since I began my online poker career.

To list them, here they are, in their approximate order of appearance: (1) Pacific Poker, (2) Party Poker, (3) Poker Stars, (4) UltimateBet, (5) Full Tilt Poker, (6) The Poker Room, (7) Absolute Poker, (8) Paradise Poker, (9) Titan Poker, (10) BoDog, (11) Sun Poker, (12) The Gaming Club, (13) Poker Rewards, (14) Poker Share, (15) Full Contact Poker, (16) Golden Palace Poker, (17) Dream Poker, and (18) Hollywood Poker.

Party Poker

Without a doubt in my mind, Party Poker is the best site for a low-stakes grinder ($1/$2 limit or lower; $50 NL or lower). The games are soft and Party Poker has a reload bonus about once a month that is very easy to clear, even at low stakes. Party Poker is also the biggest site around, so game selection is the best around. This factor is very important. At a tough table? There is likely an easier table just a click away. Want to play Omaha 8/b at 3am? Party Poker has numerous tables going.

I've heard that Party Poker's support is awful, but in 2+ years of playing at the site, I've never needed the help of their support personnel. That must mean something good.

Poker Stars

Poker Stars is the second largest site out there. They have occasional reload bonuses, but they don't clear particularly quickly at low stakes. Poker Stars originally was the best site for tournaments (availability, plus they had good structures) but many of the other sites have caught up considerably. I haven't played at Poker Stars in a long time because their bonuses are not easy to clear and I just seem to have bad luck there (or I played poorly there). The speed of play at Poker Stars is also slower than other sites, so I am more than happy to just play elsewhere. It's a really good site, just not one of my favorites. A more recent note is that they've added HORSE (ring games too), so I might make start playing there again.

UltimateBet, Full Tilt Poker

I like to play at both of these sites, simply because I like the software. That's a clear bias on my part. The games have a reputation for being a little tougher than some other sites, and that's been my experience also. UltimateBet has recently had a flurry of reload bonus offers (they're stackable and they never expire); Full Tilt seems to offer a bonus about once every two months. The catch with both of these bonuses is that they are very slow to clear. Neither of these sites are particularly good for bonus whoring, in my opinion. I play there because I like the site. They both offer some unique games such as Deuce-to-Seven (UB) and HORSE (FTP).

Pacific Poker

This is the only truly bad site, in my opinion. I haven't played there in a long time, so things might have changed. The software is bad (slow + frequent disconnects + difficult waiting list procedure + you can only play one table at a time). They only infrequently have reload bonuses. I had an issue that required the help of their support team, but they ignored all of my e-mails. One good feature of the site is that they allow you to use your bonus money as if it is real money. So, I deposited some money initially, giving myself $100 of bonus cash. I then cashed out my initial deposit (which took a long time) and played with my bonus money.

The play at the site is very poor, usually very loose-passive. In theory, these are the most profitable tables, but my poker skills at the time could not take advantages. I am now confident that I could grind some nice profit here, but honestly... the site sucks so bad that I have no desire to play there.

A final note, I recommend that my friends start here... at their play tables to get an idea of how online poker works. This way, if they ever progress to playing real money, then they can take advantage of an initial deposit bonus at a legitimate poker site (many sites won't give you an initial deposit bonus if you've had a play money account).

The Poker Room, Full Contact Poker, Hollywood Poker

These are all from the same network, so I can discuss them at the same time (i.e., the games are mostly the same). These sites have a reputation for having a higher rake than the other sites. The rake for the limit games is a little higher than other sites for small pots, but they cap the rake for the larger pots. In the end, I think the rake is about the same as the other competitive sites. The rake for no limit is definitely on par with the other sites.

These three sites usually have reload bonuses, but they clear differently. The Poker Room and Hollywood Poker usually have 7X and 5X clearance rates (so attempt Hollywood Poker first, if possible); these bonuses must be cleared within 60 days and they clear all at once. So, you have to clear (for example) 1000 points to get a $200 bonus. Anything short of that, you get nothing.
Bonuses at Full Contact Poker has a 9X clearance rate, but they have a different system there. You must manually move your bonus money from one account to another, after which you have 90 days to clear the bonus. You can move your bonus in increments as small as $10. This might seem complicated (and I'm probably explaining it poorly), but it's really a nice improvement compared to the Poker Room and Hollywood Poker.

The other complaint about these sites is that they're short-handed games (which I like to play) are typically 5-handed. This isn't something I like, but it's also a major negative because these games break-up very frequently. Full Contact Poker has an added feature where you can have private tables of any size (less than 10). I really like this feature because it allows me to play 6-handed at the site.

In a later blog, I will review the other sites that I've played. For now, I am off to celebrate my daughter's first birthday!

Last Name: Pidiot, First Name: Stuart

Two nights ago I decided to play at the Poker Room to work on clearing a $50 bonus. I initially had built my stack by $70 or so, but then I donked away a bunch of it to the point where I was stuck about $75. I then made a small comeback, and my bankroll there was $230 (initial deposit = $250).

I started playing heads-up $100 NL and I played well for a little bit, but then I started calling large bets on the river with marginal hands. Logic would suggest that river-bluffs would be common in heads-up poker, but my experience has taught me that large/overly large river bets are usually value bets. In short, I donked off some hard earned cash (well, not hard-earned... I had won it playing poker. Meh).

Because I had been struggling to grind my way back to black, I immediately went on tilt and then got really stupid. I bought into a $200 NL room and I tried to run over the table. It took me precisely three hands to go bust. I raised from the button with JTs; the blind called with KQo. The flop was K T X (rainbow). He checked; I bet; he check-raised; I pushed all-in. He then took a lot of time to ponder his call, eventually clicking "call" and I went bust. He started to type something in the chat (probably about my stupidity), but I left the room immediately.

Suddenly, I am re-living my Hollywood Poker experience (afterall, same network, different channel) where I lost 3-4 times the bonus that I was trying to clear. Anyway, I went to sleep after that, pissed as all hell.

I spent most of yesterday considering my options. What was the best way to clear my $50 without losing even more money? I eventually concluded that playing very tight at $1/$2 full-ring would be the way to go.

I never quite follow my game plan; I actually played one table of $1/$2 and one table of $2/$4. I played rather tight and I played very well. I caught cards like crazy at the $1/$2 table and I won about $70 (in maybe 150 hands).

I also did well at the $2/$4 table, but I didn't catch as many cards. Still, I was +$35 at that table until my AA ran up against a call-station-big-blind with K7o (killer hand) and a flop of K 7 4 (rainbow) . Even so, I finished the table with a small profit and my net win for the session was $79, not including the $50 bonus that I cleared.

In the end, I recovered about half of my losses (the $50 bonus helped), which isn't so bad. I definitely need to consider playing more full-ring limit, especially at Full Contact Poker (same network) where I have a ton of bonus to clear.

Wild Night at the Poker Room

I know... I know... I just posted a blog a few days ago entitled "Wild Night at Golden Palace Poker". I definitely realize that I need to stop having these wild nights. But, poker is poker and variance happens. I'm usually pretty tight, thus avoiding variance, but sometimes you can't avoid the unavoidable. (Yep, I'm in a slightly silly mood)

In my last blog entry, I talked about losing some cash at the Poker Room while bonus chasing and trying to grind my way back by playing $50 NL. That was my plan last night, and that's how it started off. Unfortunately, I lost my buy-in at least three times, all with good hands that went against better hands (i.e., I didn't bluff my money way, at least).

Then I did something that was probably stupid. I decided to start playing heads-up $100 NL. I was slightly on tilt and for some reason this sounded like a good idea. When I say slightly on tilt, that means that my judgement on game selection was poor (like playing heads up) but that I could actually play just fine.

Why was playing heads-up such a bad idea? I have played numerous heads-up SNGs and I am pretty good at them. But, I have only rarely played heads up cash games, and I have usually done poorly. Very poorly.

Luckily, last night was an exception and I did very very well. I started out stuck about $80 (from the $50 NL games) and I eventually finished the night +$30. My first heads-up opponent was very weak, bluffing on the river far too often. Eventually, I flopped a set and then slow-played it to the river, taking his money when he bluffed all-in.

My second heads-up opponent was quite a bit better. He was very aggressive pre-flop and on the flop, trying to steal as many small pots as possible. I used a couple of different strategies here. First, I'd call his preflop raise with a good hand (like AJ, 55, 78s, etc) and hope to catch a nice flop. Second, I'd randomly re-raise just to slow him down a bit (he folded 100% of the time). Third, I'd call with a big hand (e.g., JJ or better) and try to take his money.

I was doing very well with this strategy for awhile, winning almost enough to be even for the night. I was contemplating quitting when I caught a flush draw on the flop while holding 5s6s. I then caught the flush on the turn, but then made a huge mistake when I merely called his re-raise (I should have pushed him all-in). The fourth spade came on the river, and he won the pot with Ts6c.

After that hand, I went on semi-tilt for a short while, losing about $20 so that my stack was dwindling around $15. After that, though, I started playing much much better and I doubled up twice, rebuilding my stack to around $50. Then, we had a big hand where he held A3 and I held Q9. The flop was A Q 6 and he made a reasonable bet, which I called. The turn was a nine; he again made a reasonable bet and I again called. The river was a blank and I called his all-in, taking his money with my two pair.

The highlight of the night actually occurred after that hand. I really needed to quit, but I wanted to play a little bit more. So, I bought into a room with only $30, where a guy sat, holding around $200 (remember: $100 max buy-in). He quickly typed in that he wasn't going to play unless I bought in for at least $75. I found this annoying. He had a rather big advantage over me with his huge stack, but he merely looked at it as risking $200 to merely win $30. So, I replied that I would simply sit in my chair to keeping him from playing anyone else. He was less than pleased. I then opened another table and played for about 10 minutes, winning perhaps another $5.

I am not sure if I will continue to play heads-up at the Poker Room. I don't know if I have a skill advantage with the games or not (i.e., did I just get lucky last night?). I don't think I am particularly good at playing 5-handed no limit hold'em (plus, the games break up far too frequently) and I don't particularly enjoy playing full-ring games either. After clearing this bonus, I am definitely going to stop playing at the Poker Room.

Running to Stand Still

Since my last blog entry, I feel like I've accomplished a whole lot of nothing. I finished the Golden Palace promotion and I cashed out with a tidy profit of more than $200, not including the bonus that I'll eventually receive from PSO. This promotion was far better than I expected it to be. It cleared relatively quickly; I liked the site; and the cashouts were reasonably quick, requiring no additional identification (to Neteller, at least).

I am still grinding away at my Dream Poker promotion. I am playing this one primarily by playing $1/$2 limit hold'em, although I've had a two sessions of 5-card stud (yep, 5-card) where I've lost around $30. So far, I have played more than 1300 hands of hold'em and I would guess that I am only about 60% of my way to clearing the bonus. Yep folks, the Dream Poker promotion clears VERY slowly. I don't quite regret starting it, but this is certainly the worst PSO promotion that I have attempted. First, I don't like the Prima system, in general (just my bias). Second, it's a contributed raked hands system, which is extra difficult to clear as a rather tight player. Third, low stakes no limit does not seem to work for me, so any chance that I had at playing more hands (I can play LAG and win at no limit), and thus clearing the bonus more quickly, does not apply here. My current estimate is that I'll need to play somewhere between 1800-1900 hands to clear the PSO promotion. That's a lot of play to get only $120 of bonus ($60 from Dream Poker, $60 from PSO).

I also deposited some money back into my Poker Room account. The Poker Room was one of my first PSO promotions, which I screwed it up terribly. I initially deposited enough to get the maximum bonus ($200), which is released at once after enough points are accumulated. The PSO promotion, however, completed at 600 points, much less than that required to clear the $200 Poker Room bonus. So, I did that one simply for the PSO points; in hindsight, I should have deposited only so much so that the bonus clear at 600 points (i.e., at the same time as the PSO bonus).

Anyway, this weekend, the Poker Room had a 7x reload bonus going, which I decided was worth attempting. I rationalized that it was better than the 9x Full Contact Poker bonus, which I was currently attempting (it's the same network, so why not?). I played well at first, increasing my stack by about $70, but then I started to donk away cash left and right. Then, I had a bad hand that cost me $90. The guy to my right was a complete maniac with a HUGE stack (like $350) that he had won by bullying people and/or catching miracle cards to suck out. I had built my stack up from $50 to around $90. I was dealt AA in the big blind; it was folded to him and he limped. I raised to 5x and he called (as I expected). The flop was T 6 2 and he bet out. I pushed all-in, figuring that he was call with any piece of the flop. Unfortunately, he held T6 and I lost my stack. Doh!

Last night, I realized that I was stuck about $90 at the Poker Room in my attempt to clear $50 worth of bonus; so I decided to stick to $50 NL, a game that I am confident that I can beat if I play well. The cards were generally bad for me all night, but near the end of the evening I made a crying call on the river with JJ (board: T 9 5 2 A) against a guy who had pushed all-in (he had KQ). I think I finished +$25 for the night, which is the start of a nice comeback.

I have also played a little bit at Full Tilt Poker, increasing my stack from $50 to $75. I almost lost it all last night, though. I noticed someone had signed-up for a HORSE SNG ($30+$1.50), so I bought in. Unfortunately, this guy was easily the best heads-up HORSE player that I have ever been against. First, he played all of the games well , which I've never seen before. He was particularly aggressive in Omaha 8/b, which is usually a game that I dominate. His aggression in that game, by the way, is a great strategy because you scoop the pot every time that you opponent folds. We were pretty evenly matched in the other games but he caught better cards. He won a huge pot in Razz with A 2 3 5 7 vs. my A 2 4 5 7 (identical cards showing). He then made a big call (bad call?) when he held only a pair of aces while I was showing four diamonds (I only had a pair of sixes). Given his skill and those two big hands that went against me, I had no chance in this match. Luckily, I immediately signed up for another HORSE SNG (again $30 + $1.50) and won it (easily), so I finished -$3 for the night.

As long-winded as this blog entry is already, I have even been playing at UltimateBet again. A couple of months ago, I deposited some money in my account there and played just a little bit. I eventually wihtdrew my original deposit once I showed a slight profit (like $20) and I have gradually built this up to a decent stack (like $140). I really like UltimateBet's software (and I have a ton of bonus cash to clear), so I might play there some more from now on.

One thing you might have noticed so far is that I haven't mentioned Party Poker once. I have been playing there very sparingly, primarily because they have taken away all of their bonus points for frequent play. I know longer can get 500 points points a month and 200 points a week for merely playing a few rake hands each day. So, I play there when I feel like it. But with perhaps a dozen or more better bonuses elsewhere, I don't see the point of playing there too much.

Wild Night at Golden Palace

For the last few nights, I have spent 60-90 minutes playing 2-3 tables of $50 NL hold'em at Golden Palace Poker. I am primarily trying to clear a PSO promotion (and GPP's sign-up bonus)... but I have been also clearing a nice profit along the way.

Last night, however, was a little different. I started by opening 3 tables; I immediately noticed that one of my tables had a really weak player. REALLY WEAK. I was practically licking my lips, waiting to take his money.

The first decent hand that I was dealt was AJs in the cutoff. The donkey limped; I raised; the big blind and the donkey called. The flop was a good one for my hand: J 5 4. The donkey bet out and I made a big raise; both the big blind and the donkey called. The turn was a queen. I decided this was the time to go all-in and I was quite excited when the donkey called (I knew that I had him beat). Unfortunately, the big blind called also and flipped over 44. Doh! The donkey turned over KTo. Luckily, the big blind was a short stack and I would still win money on the hand as long as the donkey didn't catch his open-ended straight draw. River: Ace... and the donkey raked in a huge pot.

The second big hand started when the donkey raised from UTG; I called from the cutoff with JdTd; and the big blind (someone else this time) called again. The flop was A 7 6 (two diamonds). The big blind checked; the donkey bet; me and the big blind called. The turn was another diamond, giving me a flush. The donkey bet out again and I pushed all-in, figuring the donkey would call with numerous marginal hands. I was worried when both the big blind and the donkey called (another HUGE pot). The big blind turned over AQ (drawing dead) and the donkey flipped over 67. I was in a great spot, about to triple up as long as the donkey missed his four outs. River: 7!

The third big hand of the night was just a few hands later. The donkey limped and I raised with JJ. Everyone else folded; the donkey then mini-re-raised me. I decided that my JJ was likely ahead (a coin flip?), perhaps dominating the donkey. I was not surprised when he called and flipped over 9h 7h. Unfortunately, the flop was T 8 6 and I lost another buy-in.

I must admit that I played the first hand poorly but I think I played the second and third hands very well. I was stuck $75 (actually I was stuck about $110 because I was losing at the other two tables also) but I was not actually on tilt. In fact, I had some VERY good news: I had a major DONKEY at my table with a HUGE stack (~$175) that was just waiting to be won. So, I closed one of my other two tables (so that I could focus better) and I bought in for $50 and started to attack the donkey again (note: I bought in for more than my usual because he was so bad).

I played very very well after that and I even won back about $40 of the money that I donated to the super-donk. Unfortunately, the super-donk only lasted about 30 more hands before he busted. After he left, I left the room also because I had far more money in my stack than I wanted.

Following that, I wish I could relay an incredible story of raking huge pot after huge pot, going from down more than 4 buy-ins to a decent win, but poker isn't like that. Instead, I slowly grinded my way back to the point where I lost only $15 on the night.

Now, if you have read to this point, then you are probably thinking that this is a boring blog entry about a guy who took 3 quasi-bad beats and wanted to whine about it. If you think that, then you are totally wrong.

I wrote this blog because this was perhaps my best night of playing poker. Ever. I pushed hard with three hands early-on, getting my money in the middle in good or very good spots. Nonetheless, I lost all three hands and I was stuck a good amount. But, I did not go on tilt. I recognized that I had an advantage at the table and I dug in and played my best game. I even won back some of my money. I then continued to grind, turning a bad night (losing more than 4 buy-ins) to one where I lost an insignificant amount (< 1 buy-in).

And as an added bonus, all of these chaotic hands were excellent for accumulating Action Points, so I've got that going for me, which is nice.

Long Time, No Blog

It's been quite awhile since I have written a blog. There are numerous reasons for my hiatus.

First, I have been busy with both my professional and personal lives. Personally, my family took a short vacation that did not involve any poker. Second, the new school year has started and that has taken up a considerable amount of my time.

Second, I have gotten frustrated with poker and I am in the middle of a "break" from poker (well, not really). I cashed a decent amount of my bankroll and I am trying to play for "fun", which means that I am relaxed, merely trying to make good decisions and not really caring whether I win or lose. I've learned that when I get into this mind-set that I can win. A lot. And that's starting to happen, although I also dropped down in stakes, so it's not a huge amount of money.

Before I decided to take my "break", I had a few big losses and a few frustrating nights. I had a similar feeling this February when I cashed out 90% of my bankroll and gave it to my wife, never to see it again. So, I did something similar... I cashed out about $1000 and decided to take a break (note: I'm not giving the money to my wife this time).

I then decided to sign-up for a promotion at Pokersourceonline. I have completed virtually every promotion that they had available, except for Golden Palace Poker. I had avoided Golden Palace because I had heard that there were difficulties with the cashout procedure (i.e., they required two picture IDs, a bill with your address, and a note from your mother). I also noticed that a new promotion was available: Dream Poker. So, I signed up for both of these and I have been trying to clear them since.

Dream Poker (a Prima site), so far, has been anything but a dream. Their initial deposit bonus and the PSO promotion clear only at $1/$2 stakes or higher. Also, the promotion/bonus clears only with contributed pots, so 7stud would be great but I've never found a game going. Furthermore, it's not clear what no limit stakes (if any) will clear the bonus. I've read at the PSO forum that $50 NL counts, but the raked hands that I've cleared at these stakes so far have not counted. My e-mails to Dream Poker support have either been ignored or resulted in a form letter that is written ambiguously. This is a big negative, in my opinion, but I have nonetheless continued to play.

Thus far, I have been playing almost exclusively $1/$2 6-max limit hold'em at Dream Poker. I have played poorly at times and well at others. I took one horrendously bad beat (see below) that cost me some good money. I also had a ridiculously bad session (i.e., I played poorly) that was a reminder of why I needed a break in the first place. My most recent session, however, was great. I played well, caught cards, and had donkeys raising with top pair against my set or overpair. Juicy. I won almost $60 in only 32 hands. I am currently +$26 at the site, having cleared about 1/3 of the promotion.

In contrast, Golden Palace Poker has been a pleasant surprise. I initially deposited $320 so that I would be clearing an $80 sign-up bonus at the same time as my PSO promotion (i.e., each would require 10,000 action points). I immediately cashed out $120 to figure out if the rumors about the difficult cash-outs were true (final answer: not true; my money appeared in my Neteller account in a few days). Also, I like the software and the games have been rather soft. The sign-up bonus/promotion clear based on a formula that involves your contribution to the pot, but I'm still accumulating action points rather quickly at $50 NL even though I am playing rather tight. I am also winning; I've won a little more than $200 while clearing almost 5000 action points.

So, a "thumbs down" to Dream Poker and a "thumbs up" to Golden Palace Poker. And finally, here is my bad beat. I normally don't like bad beat stories, but this is a good one. Enjoy!

** Game ID 919351168 starting - 2006-09-01 12:34:11
** Breathe Again [Hold 'em] (1.00|2.00 Fixed Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- frazwood sitting in seat 1 with $50.00
- Giantfish123 sitting in seat 2 with $41.79
- bigphatass2 sitting in seat 3 with $38.25
- hassan123 sitting in seat 4 with $117.94
- SuperEan sitting in seat 5 with $98.00 [Dealer]
- YellowMan1 sitting in seat 6 with $24.00

YellowMan1 posted the small blind - $0.50
frazwood posted the big blind - $1.00
** Dealing card to frazwood: 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts
Giantfish123 raised - $2.00
bigphatass2 called - $2.00
hassan123 folded
SuperEan called - $2.00
YellowMan1 folded
frazwood called - $2.00

** Dealing the flop: King of Diamonds, 2 of Spades, 10 of Clubs
frazwood checked
Giantfish123 checked
bigphatass2 checked
SuperEan bet - $1.00
frazwood called - $1.00
Giantfish123 folded
bigphatass2 called - $1.00

** Dealing the turn: 5 of Spades
frazwood checked
bigphatass2 checked
SuperEan bet - $2.00
frazwood raised - $4.00
bigphatass2 folded
SuperEan raised - $6.00
frazwood raised - $8.00
SuperEan called - $8.00

** Dealing the river: 5 of Hearts
frazwood bet - $2.00
SuperEan raised - $4.00
frazwood raised - $6.00
SuperEan raised - $8.00
frazwood called - $8.00
SuperEan shows: 5 of Clubs, 5 of Diamonds
frazwood mucks: 10 of Spades, 10 of Hearts
SuperEan wins $42.00 from the main pot