Not Broke, Not Dead

One of my regular comment posters asked yesterday if I was "broke, dead or both." I'm happy to say that I'm still breathing and playing poker every day.

The main reason for the lack of posts in the last month in a half is I've been trying to play as much as I can and at the end of the day more time in front of the computer to write a post hasn't fit into my time budget. I guess I didn't realize it had been a month and a half since my last post either.

I wish I could say that things have been going well, but they haven't. Actually it's more of a good news bad news situation. The bad news is I was ahead about $8,000 for the year in the middle of march (a VERY week number for 2+ months for me) and then I lost $7,000 over 5 days. Clearly that's bad news.

The good news is I've made some significant changes to my standard tactics and I think I'm back on track.

I knew I needed to change something, so I finally spent the time to download Pokertracker (the easy part) and get it working (the hard part). Pokertracker is a piece of software that records every hand you play and allows you to look at how much you've won and lost with different hands in different situations. If you want to know how many dollars per hand you won with A6 off suit in the cutoff (or any other hand in any other position) it will tell you.

Happily the websites save hand histories to your hard drive if you have a certain setting enabled. They don't save forever (there's another setting for how long they save), but when I got Pokertracker running it found about 125,000 hands from pokerstars and 20,000 hands from Absolute poker. That gave me a solid group of hands to look at and a few things stood out.

There were a few spots where I noticed that I was making more money with a lesser hand in the same situation. For example I'd be winning more with A8 off than with A8 suited or more with 88 than 99. Of course some of that could be sample size aberration, but more likely is I was misplaying those hands stronger. Specifically I know I was three betting (to thin) with A8s in spots where I'd just fold A8 off. Similarly with 88 I was treating it more like a small pair and playing 99 like a big pair (ie capping it vs two opponents or three betting it out of the big blind vs an early position raise).

In fact I was getting into the habit of calling or three betting KTs, KJs, JTs, QJs, and QTs against a solid player's raise. The games I play in are very aggressive and players have a wide range of starting hands that they are capable of raising, but I was taking it too far. These hands were costing me a fortune and since I've been MUCH more apt to just dump them I've felt much more in control and my results have been great.

Another thing I started doing is looking up all of my regular opponents on www.pokertableratings.com. While the database for this site is certainly not comprehensive (they've been tracking hands for about 2 years and I don't think they're catching them all), and I'm sure it's not 100% accurate it will give you an idea if the player you're up against is a winner, a loser or a break even player and since you can see how many hands they've tracked you can find out if you're up against a rookie or a regular. The best news about it is it's free.

I've gotten into the habit of looking up everyone who I've seen more than once and then making a note with their vital stats so I don't have to look them up again. In fact pokertableratings has a "PTR" score for every player. It's a 1 to 100 number that would be easy to put in a note. It doesn't seem that precise to me. Most people seem to fall in the 30's or 40's and they have Tom "Durrrr" Dwan as an 83 even though he's probably the best online cash game player in the world and is up $7,000,000 over 250,000 hands. But still use full.

The last bit of good news is that I have been working really hard in march so I should be getting a nice fat load of about $4,000 in rakeback on the 15th of April.

Looking a little farther into the future the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) comes back on May 2nd. More on that in a post coming soon.

Pounding Mr. Terrible

Yesterday I ran into a fellow who was off the charts bad. The thing about players like that is they usually buy in short and when the go broke they give up. This guy bought in for $200, but reloaded 4 or 5 times before finally bailing out (He went through $1,000+ in less than half an hour playing limit $10/$20).

Anyone who plays poker can tell you about a time they played someone really terrible and thought with dollar signs in their eyes, "If I can get any kind of cards at all I'm going to kill this person!" Sometimes it's really frustrating playing against a terrible player. If you're against some joker who is going to call you down every time no matter what, the only way to beat them is to make the best hand. Of course if you make a few hands you'll destroy them, but if they get lucky a few times you'll want to pull your hair out.

Happily I got a fabulous run of cards against Mr. Terrible. I kicked his ass left and right and in one span of 8 hands I flopped two sets, got dealt AA, and made a flush. One of the sets was in a 4 way capped pot preflop as were the pocket aces and I won all of those pots at showdown with heavy action from Mr. terrible.

The hand with the flush was amazing. Look at how the hand played out.


Stage #1911311267: Holdem Normal $10/$20 - 2010-02-17 13:59:04.009 (ET) [ 2010-02-17 13:59:04 ]
Table: BELUGA Dr (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 5 - KAON STRANGE ($205.50 in chips)
Seat 1 - BUCKEYE_BOB ($369 in chips)
Seat 2 - ACESSEDAI ($525.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - LIUHAMPTON ($506 in chips)
Seat 4 - BONSAIHUGGER ($442 in chips)
BUCKEYE_BOB - Posts small blind $5
ACESSEDAI - Posts big blind $10
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to ACESSEDAI [Ks 7s]
LIUHAMPTON - Folds
BONSAIHUGGER - Folds
KAON STRANGE - Raises $20 to $20
BUCKEYE_BOB - Folds
ACESSEDAI - Calls $10
*** FLOP *** [5s 6d 6s]
ACESSEDAI - Checks
KAON STRANGE - Bets $10
ACESSEDAI - Raises $20 to $20
KAON STRANGE - Raises $20 to $30
ACESSEDAI - Calls $10
*** TURN *** [5s 6d 6s] [9s]
ACESSEDAI - Checks
KAON STRANGE - Bets $20
ACESSEDAI - Raises $40 to $40
KAON STRANGE - Calls $20
*** RIVER *** [5s 6d 6s 9s] [10c]
ACESSEDAI - Bets $20
KAON STRANGE - Calls $20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESSEDAI - Shows [Ks 7s] (Flush, king high)
KAON STRANGE - Mucks
ACESSEDAI Collects $222 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($225) | Rake ($3)
Board [5s 6d 6s 9s 10c]
Seat 1: BUCKEYE_BOB (small blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: ACESSEDAI (big blind) collected Total ($222) HI:($222) with Flush, king high [Ks 7s - P:Ks,B:9s,P:7s,B:6s,B:5s]
Seat 3: LIUHAMPTON Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: BONSAIHUGGER Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: KAON STRANGE (dealer) HI: [Mucked] [4h 3d]


Do you see the call on the end! He called me with 4 high! If I have 23, 24, or 34 we split the pot. If I have any of the other 166 combinations of two cards I win. He just gave me $20 to see my cards. Amazing.

I went on to book a $1,300 win yesterday, put another $400 on it today and brought my streak of winning days to 5 in a row. Everything seems to be back on track.

Avoiding Total Doom!

I took another big step away from poker doom today winning $800 over the course of 2,000 hands of moderate stakes limit hold'em. I matched wits with certified geniuses that go by the names: Clowntastic, King_of_Farts, and Boner_me. Somehow I managed to come out on top.

In other good news I'll be picking up all the rakeback I earned last month on AP in one big load tomorrow. It's in the $1,500 range and I'll also be picking up about $500 in rakeback on Cake. Put that together with two modest but significant winning days and all of a sudden I feel like I have enough money to play again. Don't get me wrong, I'm still playing short money, but I feel confident that if I put in enough hours I'll be able to turn this thing all the way around in no time.

Of course there are a few awesome things on the horizon that are going to put a hurting on my productivity. I'm turning 30 on Tuesday so I'm not going to be playing at all that day. Then on Thursday my wife and I are going to eat at the Ritz dining room in San Francisco (think jacket required, 9 course chefs tasting menu with wine pairing) and are going to spend the night at a hotel in the city. Then later this month 16 of us are headed to a 7 bedroom 5,000 square foot cabin in Lake Tahoe for 4 days.

Hopefully tomorrow I can book another win and go into my birthday with a positive feeling.

The Streak is Over!

After losing 10 days in a row, I won $500 today. It feels more like $5,000. The only (and I mean the only) positive of getting my ass kicked for so long is winning is greatly appreciated. It's nice to get pumped about winning pots that are fairly standard.

Hopefully I can keep this new winning streak alive tomorrow!

My Worst Run Ever?

I am in the midst of a staggering, mind numbingly awful run. My last winning day was February 1st which was $800 and came the day after a $3,000 loss. Since then I've played every day but Superbowl Sunday and lost every single day. Some big losses, some small, but any way you look at it, it's 10 losing days in a row.

It's been over 20 tournaments since the last time I made the money let alone a significant cash.

I know I've had worse runs in terms of dollars, but they were all following major booms where I was flush and playing big stakes. This time I've lost 85% of my bankroll.

In December I had a run of 11 winning days in a row and 6 $1,000 plus days in a row. I can't think of what I'm doing differently. I have a hard time thinking that all of the same players have just figured me out and have gone from total suckers to blowing my doors off.

It's making me crazy! Every day I sit down and think that the bad beats have to stop at some point. Eventually I'll get a fair run of cards. But day after day I keep losing and losing. It sucks!

UBOC Update!

I am getting killed in the fucking UBOC! Since my last post I came up short in $130 NLH, $215 NLH, $109 6 handed limit (it makes me sick that I can't ever seem to do anything in these 6-max limit tournaments!), and $320 PLH/PLO/PLO8 mixed. I'm 0 for 6! Fuck!

Tomorrow I have $215 HORSE which might be my last event if I put up another brick.

WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 081711

UBOC Events #1 and #2 Recap

Event #1 really came down to one hand two and half hours in where I had no chance to get off it and no chance to win. The blinds were 100/200, I had my starting stack of 3,000 up to about 3,800 and I got dealt J8 in the big blind. There were two limpers, the small blind called and we took the flop 4 way. The flop came down Q 9 5 and it got checked around. The turn was a ten which looked like a total bingo card making me a straight. The small blind bet out 625 into the 800 chip pot and I took a moment to think.

I had about 3,600 behind and the small blind had about 3,000 including his bet. I thought I was likely to get called if I moved all in, but if he was on a bluff I didn't want to blow him off it. He might also lay down a hand with a ten in it to a big turn raise, but might check call the river. Of course I also wanted to give my other opponents the chance to make a mistake by raising or calling thin.

In the end I just called and the river came down an 8. This was not a great card for me since I'd now be splitting against someone else with a J in their hand and more likely it would kill my action against any hand that I could beat.

When my opponent moved all in I figured he had a jack as well. I was right, but I was sorry to see he had KJ and hand made a bigger straight. A few hands later I got my last 500 in the pot with KT vs 66 and missed.

The finish in event #2 was much more dissapointing. 2+ hours into play I had 1,400 of my 3,000 starting stack left and had one foot out the door. Then I caught a few breaks. Here is a hand I played in the Razz (7-card stud where the lowest hand wins) section of the tournament.

Stage #2130831249 Tourney ID 4960102 8 Game Mix + Multi Normal Tournament Normal 250/500 - 2010-01-20 22:36:53.026 (ET) [ 2010-01-20 22:36:53 ]
Game Type: Normal Razz
Table: 44 (Real Money)
Seat 1 - ACESSEDAI (2,427 in chips)
Seat 2 - MARIA NUCCIA (3,814 in chips)
Seat 3 - INYOUREYE111 (4,972 in chips)
Seat 4 - WHATZPROFIT (4,313 in chips)
Seat 5 - YELLOSUB86 (2,427 in chips)
Seat 6 - GEEAH (6,447 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCE CAMINO (3,431 in chips)
Seat 8 - RYANBLUF (8,052 in chips)
ACESSEDAI - Ante 40
MARIA NUCCIA - Ante 40
INYOUREYE111 - Ante 40
WHATZPROFIT - Ante 40
YELLOSUB86 - Ante 40
GEEAH - Ante 40
BRUCE CAMINO - Ante 40
RYANBLUF - Ante 40
*** 3rd STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [3d 6d 7h]
MARIA NUCCIA - Pocket [H H 2c]
INYOUREYE111 - Pocket [H H 8s]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H Ah]
YELLOSUB86 - Pocket [H H 6h]
GEEAH - Pocket [H H 9h]
BRUCE CAMINO - Pocket [H H 8d]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H 4c]
GEEAH - Bring-In 75
BRUCE CAMINO - Folds
RYANBLUF - Raises 250 to 250
ACESSEDAI - Raises 500 to 500
MARIA NUCCIA - Folds (Preselection)
INYOUREYE111 - Folds
WHATZPROFIT - Raises 750 to 750
YELLOSUB86 - Folds
GEEAH - Folds (Preselection)
RYANBLUF - Folds
ACESSEDAI - Calls 250
*** 4TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [3d 6d 7h 8c]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H Ah 4d]
WHATZPROFIT - Bets 250
ACESSEDAI - Calls 250
*** 5TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [3d 6d 7h 8c Kh]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H Ah 4d Kc]
WHATZPROFIT - Bets 500
ACESSEDAI - Calls 500
*** 6TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [3d 6d 7h 8c Kh 5h]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H Ah 4d Kc Jh]
ACESSEDAI - Bets 500
WHATZPROFIT - Calls 500
*** RIVER ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [3d 6d 7h 8c Kh 5h 5d]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H Ah 4d Kc Jh H]
ACESSEDAI - All-In(Raise) 387 to 387
WHATZPROFIT - Calls 387
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESSEDAI - Shows [3d 6d 7h 8c Kh 5h 5d] (8,7,6,5,3)
WHATZPROFIT - Shows [Ad 5s Ah 4d Kc Jh 3s] (J,5,4,3,A)
ACESSEDAI Collects 5,419 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(5,419)
Seat 1: ACESSEDAI won Total (5,419) All-In with 8,7,6,5,3 [3d 6d 7h 8c Kh 5h 5d - P:3d,B:5d,P:6d,B:7h,B:8c]
Seat 2: MARIA NUCCIA Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 3: INYOUREYE111 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 4: WHATZPROFIT lost with J,5,4,3,A [Ad 5s Ah 4d Kc Jh 3s - P:Ad,B:3s,B:4d,P:5s,B:Jh]
Seat 5: YELLOSUB86 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 6: GEEAH Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 7: BRUCE CAMINO Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 8: RYANBLUF Folded on the 3rd STREET

Clearly my opponent thought we were playing normal stud. Either that or he is a total buffoon...or both.

Here is the very next hand still playing Razz:

Stage #2130833604 Tourney ID 4960102 8 Game Mix + Multi Normal Tournament Normal 250/500 - 2010-01-20 22:37:50.025 (ET) [ 2010-01-20 22:37:50 ]
Game Type: Normal Razz
Table: 44 (Real Money)
Seat 1 - ACESSEDAI (5,419 in chips)
Seat 2 - MARIA NUCCIA (3,774 in chips)
Seat 3 - INYOUREYE111 (4,932 in chips)
Seat 4 - WHATZPROFIT (1,886 in chips)
Seat 5 - YELLOSUB86 (2,387 in chips)
Seat 6 - GEEAH (6,332 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCE CAMINO (3,391 in chips)
Seat 8 - RYANBLUF (7,762 in chips)
ACESSEDAI - Ante 40
MARIA NUCCIA - Ante 40
INYOUREYE111 - Ante 40
WHATZPROFIT - Ante 40
YELLOSUB86 - Ante 40
GEEAH - Ante 40
BRUCE CAMINO - Ante 40
RYANBLUF - Ante 40
*** 3rd STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [7s Ah Kh]
MARIA NUCCIA - Pocket [H H Ad]
INYOUREYE111 - Pocket [H H Jh]
WHATZPROFIT - Pocket [H H 9d]
YELLOSUB86 - Pocket [H H 8h]
GEEAH - Pocket [H H 9s]
BRUCE CAMINO - Pocket [H H 6d]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H Ac]
ACESSEDAI - Bring-In 75
MARIA NUCCIA - Folds
INYOUREYE111 - Folds
WHATZPROFIT - Folds (Preselection)
YELLOSUB86 - Folds
GEEAH - Folds (Preselection)
BRUCE CAMINO - Folds (Preselection)
RYANBLUF - Raises 250 to 250
ACESSEDAI - Calls 175
*** 4TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [7s Ah Kh 2h]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H Ac 7c]
RYANBLUF - Bets 250
ACESSEDAI - Calls 250
*** 5TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [7s Ah Kh 2h 2s]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H Ac 7c As]
RYANBLUF - Bets 500
ACESSEDAI - Calls 500
*** 6TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [7s Ah Kh 2h 2s 5c]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H Ac 7c As 10s]
RYANBLUF - Bets 500
ACESSEDAI - Calls 500
*** RIVER ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [7s Ah Kh 2h 2s 5c Jd]
RYANBLUF - Pocket [H H Ac 7c As 10s H]
RYANBLUF - Bets 500
ACESSEDAI - Calls 500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RYANBLUF - Shows [5d 10d Ac 7c As 10s 10c] (A,A,10,7,5)
ACESSEDAI - Shows [7s Ah Kh 2h 2s 5c Jd] (J,7,5,2,A)
ACESSEDAI Collects 4,320 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(4,320)
Seat 1: ACESSEDAI won Total (4,320) with J,7,5,2,A [7s Ah Kh 2h 2s 5c Jd - P:Ah,B:2h,B:5c,P:7s,B:Jd]
Seat 2: MARIA NUCCIA Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 3: INYOUREYE111 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 4: WHATZPROFIT Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 5: YELLOSUB86 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 6: GEEAH Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 7: BRUCE CAMINO Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 8: RYANBLUF lost with A,A,10,7,5 [5d 10d Ac 7c As 10s 10c - P:5d,B:7c,B:10c,B:Ac,B:As]


On this one my opponent made a full house! HA! I can't say I felt sure he was bluffing most of the way, but I thought it was worth it to look him up.

During this two hand stretch tripled my chips and was in good shape. A few hands later I made a wheel (the best possible razz hand) against A 2 3 5 6 which is the thrid best possible hand. That took me over 11K.

After a little up and down I gave back a ton of chips when I started with split aces against rolled up 9's in the normal 7 card stud. In fact I plummeted all the way back to 1,500 chips.

But then I made another comback. I was up to 9K or so when this hand came up playing Stud hi-lo (note that I was playing against Ultimate bet (or AP) pro and card player colunmist Michael Binger).

Stage #5039 Tourney ID 4960102 8 Game Mix + Multi Normal Tournament Normal 800/1,600 - 2010-01-21 00:02:51.005 (ET) [ 2010-01-21 00:02:51 ]
Game Type: Normal 7 Card Stud H/L
Table: 44 (Real Money)
Seat 1 - ACESSEDAI (8,936 in chips)
Seat 2 - VISIONEER (7,676 in chips)
Seat 3 - STANACS (3,760 in chips)
Seat 4 - MARWAN23 (9,845 in chips)
Seat 5 - YELLOSUB86 (5,026 in chips)
Seat 6 - APSTER (9,726 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCE CAMINO (3,127 in chips)
Seat 8 - MICHAELBINGER (22,983 in chips)
ACESSEDAI - Ante 150
VISIONEER - Ante 150
STANACS - Ante 150
MARWAN23 - Ante 150
YELLOSUB86 - Ante 150
APSTER - Ante 150
BRUCE CAMINO - Ante 150
MICHAELBINGER - Ante 150
*** 3rd STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [2d 4d 4h]
VISIONEER - Pocket [H H 8d]
STANACS - Pocket [H H Qh]
MARWAN23 - Pocket [H H 10h]
YELLOSUB86 - Pocket [H H 3h]
APSTER - Pocket [H H 6c]
BRUCE CAMINO - Pocket [H H 9c]
MICHAELBINGER - Pocket [H H 3d]
MICHAELBINGER - Bring-In 250
ACESSEDAI - Raises 800 to 800
VISIONEER - Folds
STANACS - Folds (Preselection)
MARWAN23 - Folds (Preselection)
YELLOSUB86 - Folds
APSTER - Folds
BRUCE CAMINO - Folds (Preselection)
MICHAELBINGER - Calls 550
*** 4TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [2d 4d 4h 5s]
MICHAELBINGER - Pocket [H H 3d 2s]
ACESSEDAI - Bets 800
MICHAELBINGER - Raises 1,600 to 1,600
ACESSEDAI - Calls 800
*** 5TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [2d 4d 4h 5s Ad]
MICHAELBINGER - Pocket [H H 3d 2s 10c]
ACESSEDAI - Bets 1,600
MICHAELBINGER - Calls 1,600
*** 6TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [2d 4d 4h 5s Ad 9s]
MICHAELBINGER - Pocket [H H 3d 2s 10c Ac]
MICHAELBINGER - Bets 1,600
ACESSEDAI - Calls 1,600
*** RIVER ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [2d 4d 4h 5s Ad 9s 3s]
MICHAELBINGER - Pocket [H H 3d 2s 10c Ac H]
MICHAELBINGER - Bets 1,600
ACESSEDAI - All-In(Raise) 3,186 to 3,186
MICHAELBINGER - Calls 1,586
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESSEDAI - Shows [2d 4d 4h 5s Ad 9s 3s] (Straight, ace to five)
MICHAELBINGER - Mucks
ACESSEDAI Collects 18,772 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(18,772)
Seat 1: ACESSEDAI won Total (18,772) All-In HI:(9,386) with Straight, ace to five [2d 4d 4h 5s Ad 9s 3s - B:5s,B:4h,B:3s,P:2d,B:Ad] LO:(9,386) [B:Ad,P:2d,B:3s,P:4d,B:5s]
Seat 2: VISIONEER Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 3: STANACS Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 4: MARWAN23 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 5: YELLOSUB86 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 6: APSTER Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 7: BRUCE CAMINO Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 8: MICHAELBINGER HI: [Mucked] [6s 5h 3d 2s 10c Ac 6d]

What a sweet 3 on the river to make me the wheel!

After that hand I really liked my chances of making the money. We were down to 60 or so players, I was well over average and 40 spots paid.

Binger got a little revenge playing hold'em when he went all in for 5,000 with K7 vs my AK and spiked a 7. Then I lost another 5K against another short stack with A9 vs 77.

You'd think this was a razz tournament with all the razz hands I'm sharing, but while the razz did me well early it did me in in the end. Here was my final hand.

Stage #98358 Tourney ID 4960102 8 Game Mix + Multi Normal Tournament Normal 1,600/3,200 - 2010-01-21 00:50:24.013 (ET) [ 2010-01-21 00:50:24 ]
Game Type: Normal Razz
Table: 44 (Real Money)
Seat 1 - ACESSEDAI (12,506 in chips)
Seat 2 - VISIONEER (26,802 in chips)
Seat 3 - TMAY420 (28,961 in chips)
Seat 4 - MARWAN23 (27,162 in chips)
Seat 5 - PSVALENT (11,818 in chips)
Seat 6 - WORTHLESNUTS (31,875 in chips)
Seat 7 - ANALYSER2 (9,740 in chips)
ACESSEDAI - Ante 250
VISIONEER - Ante 250
TMAY420 - Ante 250
MARWAN23 - Ante 250
PSVALENT - Ante 250
WORTHLESNUTS - Ante 250
ANALYSER2 - Ante 250
*** 3rd STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [As 6h 5s]
VISIONEER - Pocket [H H 3c]
TMAY420 - Pocket [H H 4s]
MARWAN23 - Pocket [H H 8s]
PSVALENT - Pocket [H H 7h]
WORTHLESNUTS - Pocket [H H Jd]
ANALYSER2 - Pocket [H H Ad]
WORTHLESNUTS - Bring-In 500
ANALYSER2 - Folds
ACESSEDAI - Raises 1,600 to 1,600
VISIONEER - Folds
TMAY420 - Raises 3,200 to 3,200
MARWAN23 - Folds (Preselection)
PSVALENT - Folds (Preselection)
WORTHLESNUTS - Folds (Preselection)
ACESSEDAI - Calls 1,600
*** 4TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [As 6h 5s 7c]
TMAY420 - Pocket [H H 4s 5d]
TMAY420 - Bets 1,600
ACESSEDAI - Calls 1,600
*** 5TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [As 6h 5s 7c 10s]
TMAY420 - Pocket [H H 4s 5d Qh]
ACESSEDAI - Bets 3,200
TMAY420 - Raises 6,400 to 6,400
ACESSEDAI - All-In(Raise) 4,256 to 7,456
TMAY420 - Calls 1,056
*** 6TH STREET ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [As 6h 5s 7c 10s Kc]
TMAY420 - Pocket [Ah 2s 4s 5d Qh 3d]
*** RIVER ***
ACESSEDAI - Pocket [As 6h 5s 7c 10s Kc Ks]
TMAY420 - Pocket [Ah 2s 4s 5d Qh 3d 2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESSEDAI - Shows [As 6h 5s 7c 10s Kc Ks] (10,7,6,5,A)
TMAY420 - Shows [Ah 2s 4s 5d Qh 3d 2c] (5,4,3,2,A)
TMAY420 Collects 26,762 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(26,762)
Seat 1: ACESSEDAI lost with 10,7,6,5,A [As 6h 5s 7c 10s Kc Ks - P:As,B:5s,P:6h,B:7c,B:10s]
Seat 2: VISIONEER Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 3: TMAY420 won Total (26,762) with 5,4,3,2,A [Ah 2s 4s 5d Qh 3d 2c - P:Ah,B:2c,B:3d,B:4s,B:5d]
Seat 4: MARWAN23 Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 5: PSVALENT Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 6: WORTHLESNUTS Folded on the 3rd STREET
Seat 7: ANALYSER2 Folded on the 3rd STREET


In the end I finished 48th, just 8 spots shy of the money. It felt like a major waste of 5 hours.

UBOC Events #1 and #2 Underway!

Event #1 of the Ultimate Bet Online Championship is $320 "sniper" no limit hold'em. In this variant for every player that you bust you get $30 ($20 from each player goes to the house and $270 goes to the prize pool). We started with 1,103 players, the tournament pays 108 spots and first place is $65,488.

Event #2 is $162 8-game mixed. On pokerstars 8-game is a mix of the five HORSE games, plus triple draw, no limit hold'em and pot limit Omaha, but in this tournament there is no triple draw and instead there is pot limit Omaha hi lo. Also they've switched the no limit hold'em to pot limit hold'em.

I haven't played a ton of pot limit hold'em, but I have two WSOP cashes in that style so I'm not super pissed about the switch. On the other hand I'd much rather play triple draw than PLO8 even though I've made the money in 100% of the PLO8 tournaments I've played (I'm 1 for 1).

We started event #2 with 386 players and first place is $15,633.

An hour and a half into both, not much has happened. I'll try to put up a recap later, but might not get to it for a while since I'm off to wine country tomorrow and need to do some planning.

UBOC Starts January 20th!

Ahhh another acronym for a poker tournament series! It's not exactly the WSOP. It's not the WCOOP or the SCOOP. It's not even the FTOPS. I don't know if there is any prestige at all involved in winning a UBOC event, but like the above sets of tournaments the Ultimate Bet Online Championship will be loaded with under qualified players taking their shot at six figure pay days. The action starts January 20th and goes until the 31st.

There are 18 events with buy ins ranging from $109 to $2,600. Here is the full schedule if you're interested.

There are 9 events with buy ins totalling about $2,500 that I'm 95% sure I'll play. Towards the end of the series there are two $1,000 buy in events and one $500 event that I'll probably skip if I get stomped in the first 9. But I'll give them a go if I've been doing well. One major downside of this series is that most of the tournaments go off at 5:00 pacific so I'm going to have some late nights if I do well.

They are running an interesting promotion where you win prizes based on how many cashes you have in the series. Here are the prizes:

11 cashes $1,000,000
10 cashes $100,000
9 cashes $10,000 WSOP main event entry and $10,000 UB Aruba buy in
8 cashes $10,000 UB Aruba buy in
7 cashes $1,000 online tournament entry
6 cashes $500 online tournament entry
5 cashes $500 online tournament entry
4 cashes $300 online tournament entry
3 cashes $200 online tournament entry
2 cashes entry into a $10K prize pool freeroll

I have plans to play 5 of the first 7 events and you can bet that if I cash in 3 or 4 of them I'll expand my schedule and make a go at 8 or 9 cashes. I'll do my best to post about my results, but as my loyal readers know I tend to start strong with the recaps and then fade after a few days of blogging every day.

Even though this is the "Ultimate Bet" online championship, I'll be playing it on Absolute Poker. A year or two ago these two websites joined to increase their traffic, but they're still independent in some ways. The point is if you want to watch the action live you can go to www.absolutepoker.com, download the software and do a search for acessedai (that's not a typo I have an extra "s" in my AP username compared to my pokerstars name). I'll also try to post some on twitter as I go (as you can probably see my tweets will show up on the right side of the blog).

Wish me luck!