He managed to finish 3rd/2,451 in the Full Tilt Poker $9,500 GTD Rush Rebuy. The buy-in was only $2.20 and he re-bought nine times, but walked away with $2,200 for his third place . . . nice run sir.

With Lynn heading to the gym and me and GG doing nothing, he happily(?) drove me to this place called Too Hotties to get my hair cut. As you walk in there were maybe six or seven hairdressers who were stunningly gorgeous and all young. There was a pool table, flatscreen TVs, massage chair, PS3 and XBox 360 all for the patrons or guests to enjoy.

“Do you guys want a drink?” asked the receptionist.

“I’ll grab a beer!” and extremely excited GG added.

As GG sipped on his Bud Light while getting a chair massage, a petite brunette named Lacey began on my hair. We exchanged normal haircut banter of work etc, and I found out that even though she is only 20-years old, she has never been out of the country! This shocked me, because at the same age I already had been to eight different countries with nearly twenty trips to Asia to holiday or visit family.

Ending the haircut with an awkward but enjoyable face massage, I was extremely pleased with the result, as nothing beats your personal hairdresser back home . . . and for $23 it felt like a bargain!

With GG and I a little hungry, we ventured next door to Firehouse Subs where I bought us some late lunch / early dinner before picking up Lynn on the way home.

We decided a few days ago that we were all going to play the Green Valley Ranch weekly $45 HORSE tournament, and tonight was the night for us to check-raise some senior citizens and have some fun!

Lynn didn’t really want to play due to her lack of knowledge in the games, but that still didn’t stop Donnie, GG, Jane and I donating our money as the $45 entry got us a 2,500 starting bank. Unfortunately the Tournament Director was a bit of an idiot – and although there were four tables in operation – they still managed to seat Donnie, me and GG in the one, two and three seats respectively on the same table. Throw in the fact that we were nine-handed and played each game for a fifteen minute level instead of eight hands, really underlined the quality we expected.

“So what order does the games go in?”

“What exactly is hi-lo . . . razz . . . or stud?”

These were just a handful of the comments that we heard in the first few minutes of the tournament as we all just gave each a look of Oh My GOD!

I chipped up pretty easily in the Holdem orbit, but then played a terrible Razz hand where my made 8-7 perfect was rivered by a guy after I bet every street in a mult-way pot. I managed to pick up some chips though, and finished the first break with 4,600.

With the blinds climbing every game, I tried to play tight in the stud games, but when we returned to Holdem I won about nine pots to get my stack up to 6,500 and then 11,000 by the Razz orbit.

Reaching the final table of eight with 11,200, I was sitting third in chips (chip leader had 33,500) with Stud being the game with an ante of 100 and betting limits of 500-1,000. My stack slipped a little as we lost just one player before I managed to win a hand in Stud Hi-Lo with two-pair against two lows; one of which was the losing hand of Donnie’s.

With only five people getting paid, once we lost seventh, we made a deal for the bubble boy and chuck in $10 each so that he would at least make some profit. Once he exited, I had 14,500 during the Omaha Hi-Lo orbit with blinds 500-1,000 and was sitting on the button.

The remaining four players then started talking deals of chopping the prizepool five-ways for $220 each. The player on my left only had 8,500 and Donnie 6,500 in the big blind, while the two players on my right had 25,000 and 18,000. I felt that I had a great enough skill edge to keep playing, and running ICM equities saw that I should earning a little more. I obviously was beaten into submission and took the deal as we made our way home.

Not having played online all day, I decided to load up a couple of tourneys on Full Tilt Poker to fill in some time before doing some work.

I busted a Rush tourney quite early, but was also playing a $3 PLO Six-Max Rebuy tournament. Although I was in for five rebuys, I had a better than average stack after the rebuy period was over with Donnie also still in. We ended up being seated on the same table for quite a while which was pretty funny as I held the chip lead with 45 players remaining of the starting 77. Once there were about 29 players left, I lost a couple of big pots here and there and slipped back to around fifth only to see Donnie exit when I guy – that I proceeded to berate afterwards – called off a pot raise preflop and then a pot-sized shove on the flop for 80% of his stack with just a straight draw for the wheel.

With only eight players cashing, I doubled a couple of short-stacks up when we were twelve-handed, and consequently had to grind the short-stack on the bubble. I then managed to find two massive double ups after flopping the nut full twice against two players and doubling in the first before eliminating the guy that busted Donnie in the second to take the chip lead into the final table with 40% of the chips in play.

Unfortunately after losing one, I played a massive pot holding K♥ K♠ 9♥ 4♦ against A♥ A♠ J♣ 8♠ after I raised, he potted, and I put him all in. The board ran out 6♥ 9♦ 9♣ Q♠ 10♠ to see the suck, re-suck cost me a chip stack of well over half the chips in play.

Not letting it deter me, I still continued to open fairly regularly to pick up the blinds while also making some sneaky check-raises in blind-on-blind battles with the virtual nuts. I still managed to lose some crucial pots to prevent me returning to my once powerful stack, and consequently when I reached heads-up play, I was nearly a three-to-one underdog in chips.

I managed to take a few dints out of his stack, but he pushed back a couple of times to see my slip back to a three-to-one underdog before this final hand occurred.

Seat 1: tRaMSt0p (90,516)
Seat 3: molchun17 (305,984)
tRaMSt0p posts the small blind of 5,000
molchun17 posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #1
Dealt to tRaMSt0p 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

tRaMSt0p raises to 22,500
molchun17 calls 12,500
*** FLOP *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠

molchun17 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
*** TURN *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠

molchun17 bets 22,500
tRaMSt0p raises to 68,016, and is all in
molchun17 calls 45,516
tRaMSt0p shows 8♥ J♥ 7♣ 7♥

molchun17 shows 9♣ 7♠ 5♠ 4♥

*** RIVER *** J♣ 7♦ 9♠ 4♠ 9♥

tRaMSt0p shows a full house, Sevens full of Nines
molchun17 shows a full house, Nines full of Sevens
molchun17 wins the pot (181,032) with a full house, Nines full of Sevens

With the final hand occurring around 5:30am, I was fairly disappointed not to take it down and top off a good day, but will take the $159 for 2nd/77 players.

I recently made a deposit on Absolute Poker to take advantage of 30% rakeback and supposedly soft players. With a fair chunk of money on PKR, it sucks because I can’t play on that site while I’m still over in Las Vegas – and not wanting to play on PokerStars or Full Tilt – I decided to choose Absolute Poker for some low-stakes cash game grinding.

Starting at just 10NL and 25NL to get use to the software and the players, I’ve noticed that the players are incredibly weak-passive, with the majority of them being terrible short-stack players. The one adjustment I have made in my game is opening my range when entering the pot with a raise, because it is so easy to pick up the blind, and if you eventually get some action, you can easily outplay them on the flop or turn. As for the short-stackers, I’ve noticed that they will often call off a good percentage of their stack preflop and simply check-fold to the majority of c-bets. When they shove over your open however, it is normally the nuts!

With Donnie playing a heavy MTT schedule, and GG moving over to sit-n-gos, they both managed to lure me back to the tournament grind also. I had back-to-back cashes in the Absolute nightly Sniper 3k GTD KO, where I finished 61st yesterday and 40th/667 tonight when I shoved my Aces from the small blind for 12k (at 500-1,000) over the under the gun’s open of 2,275 with J♠ 10♠. He called it off (el oh el) and flopped a straight draw, turned a pair then rivered two-pair. First was $800-ish, so it was pretty disappointing to bust for a virtual min-cash.

Donnie, Me and GG grinding online . . . degens we are!

I ran deep in a PLO rebuy, but got bounced a few levels from the money when my A-A-Q-J was all in on the flop of 10-9-3 against Q-J-10-7 and K-Q-J-2. The turn landed an Ace and the river a 7 to send me crashing out in a pot that was for the chip lead! There is a $11 Rush 135-player tournament that we’ve all been mucking round with, and I final tabled one of them the other day; but was denied a win when my 7♦7s couldn’t hold against Ace-10. However it was the $10+1 $9,500 KO GTD today that really broke my spirits!

After winning a huge pot when my A♠ K♠ made a flush against Kings, I began playing a Carter Phillips-esque poker of raising nearly every hand to build a stack, before taking down this pot.

Then a few hands later, I made a straight on the turn, but my opponent bet-folded from the blinds before this hand went down a few hands after that.

As we approached the money (189 of the 1,875), I was looking to improve my already top-ten chip stack so I could have a good crack at the $3k-plus first prize. Unfortunately, I would play this pot out – which if I won – would have lauched me to the chip lead with a five-time average stack!

I did manage to sneak into the money and eventually bust in 81st place for a $32 payday (courtesy of a few KOs) after my 6♥ 2♥ went down to 10♠ 6♠ on a 6♣ K♠ 6♦ 10♥ 8♦ in a blind-on-blind battle after all the money went in on the turn.

Although I’ve been wanting to focus on cash, playing tournaments with the boys have got me back into the grind that so many people seem to love.

I’m not sure if I’ll continue with it on a full scale effect, but probably will dabble a little when the cash games are running on the low side . . . don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated on all the bad beats I deliver and am delivered in return!

However since returning (including a session before working the JHDSS) I have managed to put together a fourteen buy-in winning run over the previous five sessions. Since I’ve been winning fairly early on in the session instead of grinding out a profit over hours of play, these sessions have been very short and with just over six hours and 800 hands of play.

Although it may seem that I am running pretty good, I still feel that I’m playing really well, and thought I might post just a few of the hands from the latter sessions.

In standard full-ring play I wouldn’t normally open this kind of hand in early position, but for this session I was playing fairly laggy – VPIP of 33.3, PFR of 19.2 and a 3bet % of 5.7 – and since I had a good feel for the table decided to play it anyway (lets also throw in that it’s my favourite hand too!).

Game#1260562263
Blinds are $0.25 – $0.50
alexou91000 ($36.65)
Cardmaster ($30)
duncanwhisk ($41.90)
tRaMSt0p ($60.29)
NONSTOPX ($105)
mamut19 ($17.25)
bobbyrob85 ($27.35)
Styxounet ($17.43)
KKaeser ($54.89)

alexou91000 posts (SB) $0.25
Cardmaster posts (BB) $0.50

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♣ 6♣

duncanwhisk folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $1.50
NONSTOPX folds
mamut19 calls $1.50
bobbyrob85 folds
Styxounet calls $1.50
KKaeser calls $1.50
alexou91000 calls $1.25
Cardmaster folds
FLOP ($8) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦

alexou91000 checks
tRaMSt0p bets $3.85
mamut19 folds
Styxounet folds
KKaeser folds
alexou91000 raises to $7.70
tRaMSt0p calls $3.85
TURN ($23.40) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦ 5♣

alexou91000 checks
tRaMSt0p bets $14.85
alexou91000 raises to $27.45 (AI)
tRaMSt0p calls $12.60
RIVER ($78.30) 4♥ 7♦ 10♦ 5♣ 3♥
alexou91000 shows K♦ Q♦

tRaMSt0p shows 7♣ 6♣

tRaMSt0p wins $75.30

When I was check min-raised on the flop I was very sure that he had a flush draw, but still being unsure, I decided just to peel one with my two-pair, trips and backdoor straight draws in position.

When alexou91000 checks the turn I was fairly certain that he indeed had a flush draw and now meant I had to size my bet. It was fairly likely that he would fold to a full pot bet (which was virtually his stack), but if I made it too small he would most likely call and check-fold if he missed since he was getting such a good price. Consequently firing just over a half-pot sized bet meant that he was pretty much committing his whole stack in the hand, plus he may think that by raising all-in he may gain some fold equity . . . unfortunately for him I snapped him off with my pair of sevens (forgetting that I actually turned a straight draw) and held, well, improved actually.

Early on in this session a lost a buy-in when I check-raised all in with middle-pair and a flush draw on the turn, but was snapped off by just top pair.

Although I was in the red early on, I played the remainder of the session fairly tightly – VPIP of 22, PFR of 12 and 3bet% of 6.7 – with these two hands being the ones most interesting.

crookid was playing super laggy at 46/14 and was virtually playing every hand of the past few orbits. He has an incredibly high percentage of betting in position and having position on him meant that I my range against him was fairly wide.

Game#1261973803
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
tRaMSt0p ($99)
panolis ($304)
pio777 ($37.30)
fredward ($110)
AmdyZero ($136)
djlaye ($155)
crookid ($104)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.50
panolis posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 9♠ 9♥

pio777 raises to $2
fredward folds
AndyZero folds
djlaye folds
crookid calls $2
tRaMSt0p calls $1.50
panolis calls $1
FLOP ($8) 3♥ 6♦ 7♣

tRaMSt0p checks
panolis checks
pio777 checks
crookid bets $8
tRaMSt0p calls $8
panolis calls $8
pio777 folds
TURN ($32) 3♥ 6♦ 7♣ 9♣

tRaMSt0p checks
panolis checks
crookid bets $14
tRaMSt0p raises to $42
panolis folds
crookid folds
tRaMSt0p wins $57

When faced with my flop decision I quickly checked Holdem Manager and crookid’s stats supported my read of him being fairly loose. pio777 (the preflop raiser) was a fairly tight player and the fact that he didn’t continuation bet meant that he was most likely to have an Ace-King type hand, and as for panolis, he was just as loose as crookid.

When crookid fired out on the flop there was only a slight chance he had me beat, but I decided just to call to see how the loose panolis might play his hand. And since pio777 was tight, he easily could have checked a set, and we would all find out about it with so much in the pot already.

Gin on the turn and it was an easy check into two loose players – even though I could be behind to three different straights – and when crookid fires out again I think it’s an easy check-raise as I don’t really want to see an 8♣ or something just as ugly land on the river.

In hindsight I probably could have check-raised smaller to like $31 because it might induce him to spaz out with air or hands with terrible equity – a range his range is very skewed too.

Game#1261966738
Blinds are $0.25 – $0.50
tRaMSt0p ($53.97)
goldentee ($112)
AmazingChicken ($19.41)
WillieWinsom ($15.07)
Kloonike ($53.84)
Booun ($50.59)
smudge2u ($19)
preyb4ur84t ($10.79)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.25
goldentee posts (BB) $0.50
Booun posts (BB) $0.50
Booun posts (SB) $0.25

Dealt to tRaMSt0p K♦ K♠

AmazingChicken folds
WillieWinsom folds
Kloonike raises to $2.25
Booun folds
Smudge2u folds
preyb4ur84t folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $7.50
goldentee calls $7
Kloonike folds
FLOP ($18) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥

tRaMSt0p bets $14
goldentee calls $14
TURN ($46) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥ 3♠

tRaMSt0p bets $32.47 (AI)
goldentee calls $32.47
RIVER ($110) 2♠ Q♠ 5♥ 3♠ 8♦

tRaMSt0p shows K♦ K♠

goldentee shows Q♥ 10

tRaMSt0p wins $107

On the turn I actually timed down because I was thinking what could this goldentee be calling with. He had called a three-bet preflop and a sizable bet on the flop and had me thinking that he held Aces, Kings or Queens. He may have called with an underpair like Jacks through to Eights, but if so, he isn’t calling a bet on the turn.

Either way I grew some balls and stuck it in – having the Ks<.pokerhand> helped of course – and when I was snap-called I dropped my head thinking I was dead.

Well that was until he tabled his Q♥ 10♥, I shipped the pot and then checked that he was a complete fish playing looser than any of the players from the previous hands.

I do realise that I’m having a good run at the moment but am still fearful of the reverse trend.

My online poker goals that I set at the start of the year are all on track, but it’s going to make it tough to complete by the time I was expecting as I have an incredibly hectic schedule coming up.

A few more days at home before I head to Christchurch for the New Zealand Poker Championships and then straight to Sydney for the next ANZPT stop. I return home for just a couple of weeks before (possibly) working the Melbourne Poker Championships and then over to Las Vegas for the 2010 WSOP.

Since PKR can’t be accessed when I’m in the USA, I don’t expect me to play more than 25-hours over the four months. This of course means that my online aspirations for the year take a back seat, but hopefully I can take what I’ve learnt this year into practice on the cash game felt of the many Las Vegas cardrooms.

After registering a profitable session at lunchtime, I logged back on at night and was quickly chasing back loses. I managed to grind back into profit before swirling back down in the negative before managing to get lucky and register a small loss for the session. Consequently I decided to upload some hands to show you exactly how far off I was from playing my A-Game yesterday.

jawad93110 had been playing awfully loose and was bluffing in any spot he could. He would raise preflop, continuation bet the flop and then check-raise the turn and show Jack-high. In this hand I felt that I could win a big pot off him if I flopped well – regardless the fact I was playing a sub-premium hand and was out of position – since he was a near lock to bluff off his stack if I trapped him well enough.

Game#1250347686
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
tRaMSt0p ($99)
2002KRU ($71.05)
CB750 ($133)
jawad93110 ($180)
kiwi16 ($227)
iguiguana ($38.50)
Tomion ($40)
ChipsBC ($53.77)

tRaMSt0p posts (SB) $0.50
2002KRU posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p J♠ 10♠
CB750 folds
jawad93110 raises to $4
kiwi16 folds
iguiguana calls $4
Tomion calls $4
ChipsBC folds
tRaMSt0p calls $3.50
2002KRU folds
FLOP ($17) 3♦ J♣ 2♠
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $4
iguiguana calls $4
Tomion folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
TURN ($29) 3♦ J♣ 2♠ K♦
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $8
iguiguana folds
tRaMSt0p calls $8
RIVER ($45) 3♦ J♣ 2♠ K♦ 5♦
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 bets $20
tRaMSt0p folds
jawad93110 shows 4♠ 5♣
jawad93110 wins $42.75

With the line I took I think I should always be calling the river because he is barrelling it with all his range. Instead I wussed out and gave the pot to him on a well-served platter.

Finally I was ecstatic to look down at a premium hand where I could potentially find a double up hopefully against jawad93110.

Game#1250349435
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
CB750 ($129)
jawad93110 ($199)
iguiguana ($41.40)
Tomion ($25.50)
ChipsBC ($53.77)
tRaMSt0p ($111)
2002KRU ($69.55)
HURICANNE67 ($38.50)

CB750 posts (SB) $0.50
jawad93110 posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p Q♥ Q♦
iguiguana folds
Tomion calls $1
ChipsBC folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $4
2002KRU folds
HURICANNE67 folds
CB750 folds
jawad93110 calls $3
Tomion calls $3
FLOP ($12.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠
jawad93110 bets $3
Tomion folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $13
jawad93110 calls $10
TURN ($38.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠ K♦
jawad93110 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
RIVER ($38.50) 9♣ Q♣ 3♠ K♦ J♥
jawad93110 checks
tRaMSt0p checks
jawad93110 shows 10♠ 8♠
jawad93110 wins $36.60

When he donk-called the flop I expected him to be holding a drawing-type hand, and when the turn landed a King to fill the most likely outcome of Jack-Ten it put me in shutdown mode. I could still fire out after jawad93100 checked but if he does have Jack-Ten he is most likely going to jam and push me off my hand, and if I do fill up on the river he will nearly always pay me off.

Unfortunately the river put a one-card straight out there, and even though his river check portrayed weakness I felt that a bet wouldn’t do much good. By checking I got to see what he had to give me some quality information for the session and my notes, but also I think he would barely ever call with a hand that wasn’t a straight. The one thing he was capable of (from what I had already seen) was that he could pull the trigger with a check-raise holding complete air and consequently push me off my set of Queens; and since I did have a fair amount of showdown value it just seemed like the right option to check behind.

With jawad93110 absolutely owning my soul in pot after pot I decided that I was going to break my standard full-ring strategy and just try and target him for some chips.

Game#1250359111
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
HURICANNE67 ($36)
CB750 ($114)
jawad93110 ($309)
NEWWAVE69 ($227)
gladheateher ($147)
Frankenpower ($91.35)
davybaby83 ($100)
BritneyLover ($99)
tRaMSt0p ($99.50)
2002KRU ($59.05)

HURICANNE67 posts (SB) $0.50
CB750 posts (BB) $1
davybaby83 posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♥ 8♥
jawad93110 raises to $4
NEWWAVE69 folds
gladheateher folds
Frankenpower calls $4
davybaby83 folds
BritneyLover folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
2002KRU folds
HURICANNE67 folds
CB750 folds
FLOP ($14.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦
jawad93110 bets $4
Frankenpower folds
tRaMSt0p calls $4
TURN ($22.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦ 9♣
jawad93110 bets $4
tRaMSt0p calls $4
RIVER ($30.50) J♠ 4♣ 9♦ 9♣ 8♠
jawad93110 bets $30.50
tRaMSt0p calls $30.50
jawad93110 shows K♥ Q♠
tRaMSt0p shows 7♥ 8♥
tRaMSt0p wins $88.50

Although I thought my gutshot was live if I hit it, I was extremely grateful to the poker Gods that a ten didn’t fall.

I think the river call is pretty standard against this type of spewy player since I best most of his range. It’s just the way I played the previous streets that are a bit more of a worry.

Although this isn’t a standard open for me in full-ring play, I was just trying to get out of the red and back into a positive session.

Game#1250429696
Blinds are $0.10 – $0.25
NICKDRAKEISGOD ($81.10)
NothingZ ($16.12)
perpalaqui ($34.73)
lori1860 ($30.56)
djc8008 ($39.53)
Poeth ($15.65)
tRaMSt0p ($36.38)
Close2Insanity ($40.83)
Mahoni007 ($13.65)
KeaneR ($12.36)

NICKDRAKEISGOD posts (SB) $0.10
NothingZ posts (BB) $0.25

Dealt to tRaMSt0p 7♣ 5♣
perpalaqui folds
lori1860 folds
djc8008 folds
Poeth folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $0.75
Close2Insanity calls $0.75
Mahoni007 folds
KeaneR folds
NICKDRAKEISGOD calls $0.65
NothingZ folds
FLOP ($2.50) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥
NICKDRAKEISGOD checks
tRaMSt0p bets $2.50
Close2Insanity folds
NICKDRAKEISGOD raises to $7
tRaMSt0p raises to $35.63 (AI)
NICKDRAKEISGOD calls $28.63
TURN ($73.76) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥ K♥
RIVER ($73.76) 7♠ Q♦ 5♥ K♥ 8♣
NICKDRAKEISGOD shows K♠ Q♠
tRaMSt0p shows 7♣ 5♣
NICKDRAKEISGOD wins $70.76

I suppose NICKDRAKEISGOD’s call isn’t that bad, but there are a huge bunch of hands that beat him, and (although it doesn’t show in the hand history) he snap-called my shove and then of course dinked the turn. If I flat the flop I suppose I could get away from the hand on maybe the river, but courtesy of the tilt-inducing session I decided just to insta-ship!

By this time my favourite player jawad93110 had left the table after bluffing some more chips into his stack and consequently play was back to normal.

Game#1250439199
Blinds are $0.50 – $1.00
Rosk79 ($108)
tRaMSt0p ($116)
asharne ($53.07)
SneakyT ($126)
Methodical ($83.55)
Oktavyan74 ($53.50)
Vampir1962 ($46.50)
vwtdi ($137)
VictorVL ($18.50)

Rosk79 posts (SB) $0.50
tRaMSt0p posts (BB) $1

Dealt to tRaMSt0p K♣ K♠
asharne calls $1
SneakyT folds
Methodical calls $1
Oktavyan74 folds
Vampir1962 folds
vwtdi folds
VictorVL folds
Rosk79 folds
tRaMSt0p raises to $4
asharne calls $3
Methodical calls $3
FLOP ($12.50) J♦ Q♦ 4♠
tRaMSt0p bets $7.50
asharne folds
Methodical calls $7.50
TURN ($27.50) J♦ Q♦ 4♠ 5♣
tRaMSt0p bets $17.85
Methodical raises to $53.55
tRaMSt0p raises to $105 (AI)
Methodical calls $18.50 (AI)
RIVER ($171) J♦ Q♦ 4♠ 5♣ K♥
tRaMSt0p shows K♣ K♠
Methodical shows Q♣ J♠
tRaMSt0p wins $168

My turn bet was meant to set up a shove from Methodical or leave me with a pot-sized bet on the river to put him all in. As you can see however Methodical did shove like I hoped, but unluckily for me he was an 82% favourite when the money in as he had flopped Queens-up. Thankfully I managed to spike a King on the river to collect the pot while remarking in the chat box that Methodical played the hand very well and was unlucky (which followed a previous hand where he was two-outed by pocket eights against his Aces after 200bb went in preflop).

Although I only lost a little bit in this session and still finished up for the day, I was well off from my A-Game.

Since I’m slowly trying to tick off some online poker goals (one down and many to go), playing like this is definitely not going to help in achieving them. Hopefully I can fix my some of these leaks and return to playing as well as I can.

The Online Poker Operator of 2009 has served to their loyal player base an opportunity to win one of seven WSOP Experience prize packages. Each package is worth $4,000 and includes a buy-in to a WSOP bracelet event, travel and spending money, an invitation to a PKR exclusive WSOP party and BBQ and five nights in a luxury hotel.

Unique to PKR is that they are conducting a poker league with 22 MTT events spanning eleven weeks. Twice a week (every Tuesday and Thursday) PKR will be running a $10 + $2 MTT tournament covering a variety of poker genres; No Limit Holdem, Omaha, Fixed Limit, 6-Max, Deep Stacked and Rebuys.

Each tournament has an allotted 45,000 League points appointed to every event with the top 100 place-getters earning points. At the end of the 22 league tournaments, if you sit on top of the leaderboard you automatically win a package, finish inside the top 10, 50 or 100 and you will get your shot at one of the five Road to Vegas freerolls where a further six packages are on offer.

The first League event is kicking off tomorrow Wednesday the 34th of March at 7:15 am with No Limit Holdem being the game, and of course, a coveted 45,000 points on offer as well as the huge expected prizepool.

Event #1 – Wednesday, 24 March – No Limit Holdem
Event #2 – Friday, 26 March – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack
Event #3 – Wednesday, 31 March – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #4 – Friday, 02 April – No Limit Holdem Deep & Stack
Event #5 – Wednesday, 07 April – Pot Limit Omaha
Event #6 – Friday, 09 April – No Limit Holdem
Event #7 – Wednesday, 14 April – Pot Limit Holdem
Event #8 – Friday, 16 April – No Limit Holdem Terminator
Event #9 – Wednesday, 21 April – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack (6 seater)
Event #10 – Friday, 23 April – Pot Limit Omaha hi/lo
Event #11 – Wednesday, 28 April – No Limit Holdem
Event #12 – Friday, 30 April – No Limit Holdem $2 Rebuy
Event #13 – Wednesday, 05 May – Fixed Limit Holdem
Event #14 – Friday, 07 May – No Limit Holdem
Event #15 – Wednesday, 12 May – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #16 – Friday, 14 May – No Limit Holdem Double Chance
Event #17 – Wednesday, 19 May – No Limit Holdem with antes
Event #18 – Friday, 21 May – Pot Limit Omaha (6 seater)
Event #19 – Wednesday, 26 May – No Limit Holdem Deep & Steep
Event #20 – Friday, 28 May – No Limit Holdem
Event #21 – Wednesday, 02 June – No Limit Holdem (6 seater)
Event #22 – Friday, 04 June – No Limit Holdem Deep Stack

So if you are desperate to book a seat on the PKR WSOP plane and are willing to put your tournament skills to the test, then I’ll be seeing you on the virtual felt!

Recently he made a small deposit on PokerStars but hasn’t been able to get any rhythm and settle in a limit where he can develop his skills and make some money. He understands the basics of the game, but of course, is still a basic amateur.

Over the last few weeks he hasn’t been able to play too much, and I think this was mainly due to time, but also the fact that his relatively small starting bankroll is a little depleted.

I logged on under Duckers51 to see how much he had left, and after seeing a shocking three bucks and change, I decided to try and run it up for him. Since that day I’ve played a few $1.15 Double-or-Nothing sit-n-goes while sometimes short-stacking some $0.01-0.02c NLH to see the account reach a high of nearly triple what I started with.

Now don’t worry, I’m not going to share hand histories from $0.01-0.02c NLH or bad beat stories, but instead share a chat-off I had with a player by the name of kyle939.

Basically it all started after I was dealt A♣ K♦ and check-raised all-in on a A♥ 4♣ 4♦ flop, and kyle939 made the call with J♦ 5♦ and made a backdoor flush to force me to rebuy.

Duckers51: tell me, what were you thinking when you called with Jack-high?
Duckers51: did you think you were ahead when I check-raised you all in?
Duckers51: or . . . was it that you’re a complete donkey with a faggot haricut that feels like being a donkey?
kyle939: you are a dick
kyle939: i’ve only been playing 1 month
Duckers51: yeah obviously
Duckers51: and you’ll be broke in another month
kyle939: hey duck you are a dick
Duckers51: i don’t mind that you think that, but you still didnt answer my questions
kyle939: hey mallard do you know anything
kyle939: the duckman blows
Duckers51: i know more than you
kyle939: why do you suck
Duckers51: how do I suck? You hit a runner-runner flush like a fish
kyle939: way to go fuck

I then managed to double when my Q♠ J♣ held up against kyle939’s A♥ J♥ when I moved all-in on a Q♦ 8♠ 8♥ flop.

Duckers51: well played fish
Duckers51: the money you just gave me could have been used to get yourself a haircut
kyle939: stop crying
kyle939: maybe in Mexico
Duckers51: maybe from a hobo that lives on your street
kyle939: can’t get a haircut in the real world for less than $15
kyle939: DORK
Duckers51: how would you know? doesn’t seem like uv ever had one!
kyle939: ya play i will take your money dick
Duckers51: well lets play higher stakes
Duckers51: how much money you got?
kyle939: I’m up all night duck fuck
Duckers51: does that random statement have a point?
kyle939: hey duck in the mouth lets play
Duckers51: how much money you got on this site?
Duckers51: I got 4k, so you wanna play $5-10 NLH?
Duckers51: i’ll start a table, come find me
kyle939: your cool
Duckers51: thanks
Duckers51: so is that a yes
Duckers51: or are you wussing out?
kyle939: what did you do blow someone for that
Duckers51: no . . . only your mum did that so she could send you to school
kyle939: not stupid pervert
Duckers51: i made it playing poker you retard
kyle939: thats cool
kyle939: loser
Duckers51: how am i the loser if you won’t even put ur money where your mouth is?
kyle939: im getting money from you and you arent touching me
kyle939: PERVERT
Duckers51: ummm, so you playing me heads up or not?
Duckers51: simple question
Duckers51: if not
Duckers51: i think you can shut the fuck up
kyle939: im not going anywhere with you
kyle939: PERVERT
kyle939: fuckster
kyle939: actually you suck duck person
kyle939: coulda been yours duck guy
kyle939: really duck guy
kyle939: you blow

kyle939 then doubled an opponent up with King-Queen versus King-Jack on a Jack-high board.

Duckers51: hahaha . . . ur an ATM kyle!
kyle939: really duck watch
kyle939: now i am crying duck fucker
kyle939: dont duck around
Duckers51: AAAATTTTTTTMMMMMMMMM
kyle939: just watch

Then this beautiful hand happened. From out of the small blind I opened with J♥ J♦ over kyle939’s limp. The flop fell J♠ 7♠ 7♣ and I check-raised kyle939’s bet before checking the 8♥ on the turn. kyle939 moved all-in, I double-fist-pump-snap called and his 3♠ 3♣ was left drawing dead.

Duckers51: BOOM mutha fucka!
kyle939: fuck off duck
Duckers51: you realise you had a pretty bad hand there kyle
Duckers51: threes are no good on that board you fish
kyle939: hey duck fucker blow a fish
kyle939: you will see i will get that little bit of $ back
Duckers51: then you can use it to get a haircut
kyle939: hey duck how do you know I need a hair cut
kyle939: are you watching me
Duckers51: yes kyle I am watching you play like a donkey and donate all your money to everyone
kyle939: lol
kyle939: and
Duckers51: and . . .you need a haircut to fix that ugly mug of yours!
kyle939: i will get it back freak
Duckers51: im the feak . . .? . . . have you looked int he mirror recently?
kyle939: lmao
kyle939: i got lots of time duck fucker
kyle939: and how do you fuck a duck
Duckers51: ur the one that keeps saying it, so i think u’d have a better understanding of bestiality
kyle939: chillout cause i will get your $
Duckers51: im going to take the money I won off you and rub it on your moms titties!
kyle939: no! That is fucking a cow not a bird
Duckers51: huh
kyle939: needledick
kyle939: your gross and someone should report you
Duckers51: ur the one that keeps saying FUCK every second word
Duckers51: dont worry
Duckers51: im going to bid you adieu
Duckers51: everyone . . . please take kyle the ATM to the cleaners
Duckers51: and then rub his money on his moms titties later tonight!

Now I bet you’re all thinking that you shouldn’t berate players that are playing $0.01-0.02c NLH because they’re obviously still learning, but I just couldn’t help myself.

I obviously was trying to level him with the $4k heads-up match, but it was just so enjoyable pissing him off. Didn’t he realise that if I actually did have $4k in my account, I would probably not be playing the smallest game available?

Well I got a good laugh out of it today, and hopefully you did too.

I just hope that Dad doesn’t mind if his chat gets banned!

Last week was a terrible week for me on PKR as I spiralled downward hard and fast. Now I understand that downswings go hand in hand with upswings but last thing I couldn’t catch a break as everything and anything went wrong.

I admit that I did play bad at some points, but only quite minimally compared to the run-bad that I encountered. Maybe some people can identify with this, but after running my initial $500 up to $1,380-odd I decided to trial a tracking program called PokerOfficer. My accounted plummeted to $980 before I stopped using PokerOfficer and saw my account climb to over $1,400. I then – through the advice of some friends – downloaded Holdem Manager, and like in the previous instant, my account again spiralled downhill to below $1,000.

That downswing included one session where I lost nearly six buy-ins with my EV stating I should have only lost one buy-in. The other negative sessions also saw me run well below EV . . . but that’s poker right? I have been keeping track of the major hands that I’ve lost when I’ve been all in. Aces cracked 8 times, Kings 14, Queens 3, Jacks 5 and Sets 2 with most of these being on the flop. On the flipside, I’ve cracked Aces three times with standard coolers getting there with Kings and Tens, and only cracked Kings and Queens a combined three times.

Now that I’ve had close to a week away from the virtual felt, I have a few questions to pose to you before I return to PKR. What is my next step?

Should I continue playing $0.10-0.25c NLH?
Should I play a mix of $0.10-0.25c and $0.25-0.50c NLH?
Should I play only $0.25-0.50c NLH?
Should I continue to play solely full-ring?
Should I switch to solely six-handed?

Now I completely understand that my sample size of 15,000-odd hands isn’t much to go from, but I am just starting with online cash, so I definitely want to take steps in the right direction.

Your help is needed as I don’t want to see this ugly mountain continue to slide downhill!

The short story is that I played real terrible at the start to be in for three buy-ins on a $2-3 NLH table before kicking myself in the ass to play better and grind back to near even . . . only to donk it all off at about hour twelve of my session.

Following my live donk off and my downswing online, there was only one thing left to do.

. . . I grabbed the noose, hung it over the . . .

No. Just kidding.

Instead I made a few adjustments to my strategy and jumped back on the horse to continue to grind the $0.10-0.25c NLH tables.

So far things have been solid with the adjustments I’ve made helping me tighten up my leaks. Although the profit hasn’t fallen in droves as yet, I’m hoping that their just around the corner.

I do have a question for the Tilted Behaviour readers out there.

Is it possible to be playing $5-10 NLH on PKR by the time the WSOP rolls around?

I say it is possible if I continue to put in some high volume and run a little better than I have over the past couple of weeks. I do think it is unlikely though as most of the higher games are played only six-handed, and currently I tend to stay away from short-handed play because my strategy is a little too weak (I believe).

But for arguments sakes, here are the increases in limits on PKR; $0.25-0.50 ($10-$50 min and max buy-ins), $0.50-1 ($20-$100), $1-2 ($40-$200), $2-4 ($80-$400), $3-6 ($120-$600) and $5-10 ($200-$1000).