The Crooked Link

Life of a Low Stakes Gambler...

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Random Thoughts...

  • I've had some weird poker related dreams the past couple of nights. Two nights ago I dreamed I was at the Final table of a WSOP event. It was 4 handed with Doyle to my left, Daniel to my right and some asshole who kept trying to cheat by having a guy stand behind me trying to peek at my hole cards. At first I thought it was the Main Event, but it wasn't because I busted in 4th for $300,00ish. Then last night's dream involved me playing live poker and I manage to hit a set of Kings, and as soon as I get my money all in my internet connection goes out, but I'm thinking, wait a minute, this is live poker! Anyhow, when the internet connection returns I find out I somehow lost the hand, since my stack has decreased significantly.
  • I really should have gone to class today, since I came to school anyway. I've been sitting here in the library for 2 hours browsing the FCP forums and listening to music. So far I've ditched Weight Training and Lifetime Activities, and I'm supposed to go to Advanced Band in 15 minutes but I don't think I'll go to that either. The only reason I actually came to school today was because of my World Lit class, since we're watching one of my favorite all time movies, Y Tu Mama Tambien.
  • I don't understand how my Lit. teacher got permission to show us Y Tu Mama Tambien. Sure it's got allthese themes that we've been discussing in class like coming of age and all that stuff, but the movie is a fuckin porno. lol I wonder if she even GOT permission to show it to us, but I don't really give a shit, it's a fuckin good movie.
  • I'm thinking I may be too broke to go play at the charity casino next week, which really sucks. I just had to pay the cell phone bill even though I haven't had a cell phone for over a month, and then I gotta make a payment on this Credit Card bill that I haven't used in over 6 months!
  • At least I'm going to start working 3 days again since today is the last day of night school. Trying to support my gambling ways is not easy when you're only working 2 days a week. But somehow I managed lol.
  • I wanna go see The Kite Runner tomorrow. I hear it's not as great as the book, but I'll have to see for myself. I might go tomorrow since school lets out at 12. Maybe I'll invite this chick, who happens to be my ex. We've been hanging out a lot lately. Actually it's more like she's been trying to hang out with me a lot lately. I don't mind it really, because she's kinda cool, but I also don't want anything serious right now.Hm... maybe inviting her to the movies isn't such a good idea after all.
  • I'm probably not graduating in June, and I've come to be cool with that. Summer school can't be too bad.
  • Yesterday I learned that I've been saying the expression "In layman's terms" wrong. Somehow I thought it was "In lamest terms." Haha I'm an idiot.
  • I managed to strain my neck during my sleep and now it hurts to turn to the right.
  • If I don't get a Christmas bonus at work, I'm going to be pissed.
  • I wanna go to Vegas so badly. Just 3 more years.
  • I need some new headphones. The ones I got right are unworthy of approbation, as my 6th grade teacher used to say.
  • I'm surprisingly not very excited about the Winter break from school.
  • I've run out of random thoughts. I've still got 45 minutes until my Lit class starts so I'm just going to keep bumming in the library and surfing the forums.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Thrift Shopping

I decided for some obscure reason to hit up a thrift shop after I got out of night school today, just for the hell of it. Maybe it's because I didn't wan to go home right away since I knew a big Power Point Project was waiting for me. So I bought a t shirt, 3 VHS movies and a book. All for a grand total of $8.39. Hey can't beat that right?

So since I'm off sports betting for a couple of days, I'm really craving to play some poker. The only problem is the only site I have any money in right now is my sports betting roll on Bodog. Would it be bad if I used just $5.00 from there to satisfy my poker craving for a bit? I don't know, I'm undecided. Best case scenario, I log in a winning session and I don't have to worry about it, but what if I end up losing the buy in. That's going to screw up my smart sports betting system I've been trying to follow. Oh well, I'll decide what to do a little later, because right now I gotta finish this power point that I thought was due on Thursday, but apparently is due early tomorrow morning.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Chasin' and Losing Part II

Had one play tonight, and although I really felt it was a smart play for a couple of reasons, it still felt like chasing for the mere fact that it was a 2.5 Unit play.

NFL Teaser (6 pts.)

Chicago Bears +17

Chicago Bears v. Minnesota Vikings Over 37.

Risked $12.50 to win $11.36

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So I'm finally on the negative overall, which feels like crap as you might imagine. I think I might take a couple of days off and return with what I hope will be some strong plays on Friday. I'm not sure yet though as this might change if I find value in any plays between now and then. That's really about all I've got for tonight, I really feel down right now but oh well, thats gambling.

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After 20 Picks: 8-12-0 -2.1 Units

Bankroll: $39.60

Total Profit: -$10.40

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Chasin' and Losin...

Don't really feel like writing up a long entry. The main thing is I fucked up this weekend by "chasin" after I lost a couple of plays, so I'm right back to where I started. I feel pretty shitty right now, but tomorrow is another day, and there's nothing left to do but pick myself right up and start again. Anyway, here's how the weekend went:


Italian Soccer Serie B Single Bet

Rimini (+110)

Risked $2.50 to win $2.75

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Italian Soccer Serie B Single Bet

Bologna v. Grosseto Over 2.5 (+115)

Risked $2.50 to win $2.88

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Italian Soccer Serie A Single Bet

Juventus Pick (-200)

Risked $10.00 to win $5.00

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NFL 2 Team Parlay

Indianapolis Colts -10.5
Dallas Cowboys -11

Risked $5.00 to win $13.64

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NFL 2 Team Teaser (6.5pts)

Indianapolis Colts -4
Dallas Cowboys -4.5

Risked $5.00 to win $4.17

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NFL Single Bet

New York Giants -6 (-125)

Risked $10.00 to win $8.00

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After 19 Picks: 8-11-0

Bankroll: $52.10

Total Profit: +$2.10

Friday, December 14, 2007

12/14/07

So I ended up not going to school. I really wanted to, because like I said, I've already missed way to many days, but I went to sleep pretty late and when I woke up it was already like 10am, so I just went back to sleep. It's cool though because I heard so many students were absent that the teachers didn't really teach anything.

I ended up waking up around 1pm and then I just bummed around, surfing forums and analyzing the lines on Bodog. Came up with just one play for the night:

NBA 2 Team Teaser

Toronto Raports +8

Detroit Pistons -5.3

Risked $5.00 to win $5.00

Both covered relatively easy although I was at work so I didn't get to see the games.

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Work was kinda shitty today because my guy Furcio came to work wasted as hell so he wasn't in the gambling mood all night. We did play poker for a little bit, but we ended up around even. Including that and a $5.00 game of conquian I played, I made a whopping $8.00 in gambling at work tonight.

I still haven't decided which NFL teams I'm going to play this week, because I haven't had time analyze the match ups just yet, but I should be able to have that done by tomorrow night.

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After 13 Picks: 7-6-0 +4.3 Units

Bankroll: $72.10

Total Profit: +$22.10

Thursday, December 13, 2007

School Treath

So my school has been put on "high alert" after a threat that there would be a school shooting emerged earlier in the week. Now the school's gone crazy with a bigillion police cars outside and every single person entering the building getting searched. The threat specifically mentioned tomorrow, Friday the 14th, as the day the shooting is going to take place. So the school has decided to grant an excused absence to anyone who doesn't wish to show up tomorrow.

I however, will be there tomorrow morning, not only because I a 99% positive nothing is going to happen, but also because I just can't afford to miss any more school. So it should be an interesting day at school because so far, most of my friends have decided to stay home, not because they are actually worried something might happen, but because they just feel like being bums. I estimate about 30% of kids will actually show up tomorrow.

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I had a decent day yesterday going 2-1 including a 2 team parlay:

Fifa Club World Cup 2 Team Parlay

Boca Juniors (-290)

AC Milan (-275)

Risked $10.00 to win $8.34

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NBA Single Bet

Houston Rockets (-2.5)

Risked $5.50 to win $5.00

This game was crazy. With 0.8 seconds left the rockets lead is two and Yao is up at the line to shoot two. He needed to make one of the for them to cover, and after missing the first one I wanted to kick him in the face. I though it was over because I figured he'd intentionally miss the second shot so that time would run out during the rebound, but he actually made it!

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UEFA Champions League Single Bet

PSV Eindhoven -.5 (+110)

Risked $5.00 to win $5.50

Not much to say here. I locked in the bet before knowing that PSV's squad would not be at full strength.

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Also went to play some poker yesterday and I gotta say it was a hell lotta fun even though I ended up on the negative. I played two $50 SnGs. 1,500 in chips and 12 minute levels don't allow for much fancy play so you really have to gamble early. Don't really remember too many hands, but I ended up busting like 6th on that 1st one and then I played another one and busted out earlish on that one too. Like I said, with the stack sizes, you make one mistake and you're kinda left with no option but to push in the rest of your stack with any semi decent hand.

The positive was that I am beginning to feel a lot more comfortable at the table. Just the table dynamics and stuff like that felt really good, and the location was this beautiful room at the Holiday Inn that was just amazing in my opinion. It almost looked like a real casino floor, nothing compared to the shady ass place where the last event I attended was held.

Anyway, I plan on making another trip on the 27th, hopefully play some cash games, and if not then a bigger multi table tourney.

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After 12 Picks: 6-6-0

Bankroll: $67.10

Total Profit: +$17.10

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

That's Bull...

So the Bulls decide to win with their biggest margin of victory of the season on the one night I decide to bet against them. Bulls v. Sonics was the only NBA game on TV, but I wasn't about to lay down 9 points, not the way the Bulls have been playing this season. So I took the Sonics instead. I also figured both teams would struggle from the field and we'd have a close, low scoring game. I figured wrong.

Teaser (4 pts)

Sonics +13
Sonics Bulls Under (196)

Risked $5.00 to win $5.00

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Thankfully things had gone a little better earlier in the day with a couple of Overs I bet on two Champion's League matches.

Single Bet

Olympique Marseille v. Liverpool Over (2.5)

Risked $2.50 to win $3.13

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Single Bet

Real Madrid v. S.S. Lazio Over 2.5

Risked $5.00 to win $3.33

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Hopefully the good run in soccer continues for tomorrow as I've already got a couple of plays:

PSV Eindhoven -.5 (+110) for 1 Unit and a two team parlay with Boca Juniors (-290) and AC Milan (-275) for 2 Units. This last two games are going to start at 4:30 in the morning tomorrow, so I might actually wake up that early to watch them. Haha, am I a degenerate or what? I won't wake up at 7am to go to school but I'm willing to wake up at 4:30am to watch a soccer game.

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I played a little bit of poker on Pokerstars today for the first time in a while. Nothing big, just a micro stakes Tournament, but I think I'm beginning to crave poker again a little more. Maybe I'll go play a single table freeze out tomorrow at the Charity Casino. I'm not sure, depends how busy I get after school.

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After 9 Picks: 4-5-0 +1.6 Units

Bankroll: $57.71

Total Profit:+$7.71

Monday, December 10, 2007

MNF

Had just one play tonight. Monday Night Football. I went with the Falcons for several reasons, the main one being Reggie Bush being out for the Saints. A lot was talked about on therx regarding the big line movement going on. Line opened at Falcons +3.5 and people seemed to think this was a good pick, so when it rose to Falcons +5 I decided to jump on it for a single unit.

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Single Bet

Falcons +5 (-113)

Risked $5.00 to win $4.55

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Didn't watch the game because I was working but I kept checking the score at NFL.com. Atlanta didn't even manage to keep it a close game. Oh well. I was also planning on making a couple of NBA plays but nothing caught my interest. Right now I'm doing some research for a couple of games for tomorrow's Champion's League matches. Hopefully I have better luck tomorrow on those.

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After 6 Picks: 2-4-0 +1 Unit

Bankroll: $56.25

Total Profit: +$6.25

Sunday, December 9, 2007

The Sports Betting Grind Begins...

I began the sports betting grind again this weekend, this time around feeling really confident that I can make some money if I make smart decisions and do my homework on every game I bet on. Weekend started off on a good note as I won 65 dollars from gambling at work on friday, and I used $50 from that to get me started on Bodog.

I decided I'm going to bet using units of $5. This is actually quite a large unit taking into account that I'll only be starting off with a $50 dollar Bankroll but if I made the unit any smaller, watching the games would be a little dull.

So anyway, after browsing the RX forums, a lot of the guys seemed to like a couple of picks a lot including Bulls+6.5, Suns -10, Bulls Celts Over 183 and Jazz+ 5. So I said to myself, hey why not kick things off with a couple of teasers, and this is what came of it:

Teaser #1

Suns -6.5
Bulls +10.5

Risked $5.00 to win $5.00

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Teaser #2

Jazz +9.5
Bulls v. Celts Over (180)

Risked $2.50 to win $2.50

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So I ended up losing those two, and just like that I was 0-2 to begin. Hey no one said it would be easy lol. So I was ready to call it a night until I saw the Pachuca game in the Fifa Clubs World Championship against ESS was going to be starting at around midnight, since it was being played in Japan. Bodog had Pachuca as -166 favorites on the ML but after doing some research online I figured it was going to be a close match, and I wasn't quite sure who to pick. I finally decided to go with ESS because they were having a great year in their domestic league while Pachuca has been struggling as of late. So the pick looked like this:

Single Bet

Etoile Sportive Du Sahel +375

Risked $5.00 to win $18.75

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As it turned out, it was in fact a close match as it wasn't decided until the 85th minute, with ESS able to pull out a 1-0 win. So this picked me up from my earlier loses in the NBA and I decided to place one last bet before heading to bed:

Single Bet

Deportivo La Coruña +2 (-140)

Risked $7.00 to win $5.00

Ended up winning this one as well. Deportivo for some reason always manages to show up against Barcelona, and I knew they'd at least keep it close which they did, losing 2-1 but giving me the win with the spread.
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So today I woke up around noon, too late to place any bets on some games I wanted to bet on in the NFL, so I guess I was lucky because I was planning on laying some money on the Cowboys, but they didn't cover.

In fact I didn't bet on the games later in the night either and instead had one play the whole day with the Mexican League Championship game. It was really going to be a coin toss between Pumas and Atlante, so I decided to pick Pumas just because Bodog was giving even money on them.

Single Bet

Pumas PK (EVEN MONEY)

Risked $5.00 to win $5.00

It was really a fun game to watch and it looked like I was going to end up pushing but Atlante managed to score a beauty of a goal with 5 minutes to go. Oh well, can't win em' all.

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So to summarize overall, after 5 bets I'm 2-3-0 and roughly +2 Units

The Bankroll now stands at $61.25

Total Profit :+$11.25

Not a lot of action happening tomorrow but I'll see if there's any smart plays on basketball and maybe a half unit bet on Monday Night Football. I'll update tomorrow night, if I do place any bets.

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On a completely unrelated note I plan on attending school every single day for the rest of the year. Crazy huh? Let's see how THAT turns out!

Friday, December 7, 2007

I Though I Was Done...

Haha, I really did. I told myself last week that it was over, no more gambling for me. How long did that last? About a day and a half. And it's not like I lost an insane amount of money or anything, I just kinda lost interest in gambling for a bit. Especially poker. My guy Furcio and I ended up not going to that $50 freeze out I talked about on my last update. We were set to go but I changed my mind at the last minute becauseI was dog tired and I had a major headache so I would have just donked my chips away.

So yea, poker's just not doing it for me these days. I don't know why, I just haven't had the urge to play. Usually, when this happens, I get over it in a couple of days or something. And even if I'm not playing, I still try to stay connected to the poker world trough forums and websites and such. But lately, I haven't even had the desire to do that. I'll browse the FCP forums occasionally, but not really looking for any real poker content, just to see what the guys are up to.

I don't know, maybe this'll all be history in a couple of weeks or so and I'll regain my passion for poker but until then, I think I'm going bring the focus back on sports betting.

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I lost $100 to this guy at work last week, because the Bears blew it in the 4th quarter, but besides that I haven't been doing much sports betting and I really want to get back on that.

The thing is, I really want to take a smart educated approach to this. Last time I deposited on Bodog I had a really good run until I pissed it all away cause of tilt and that's exactly what I'll try to avoid this time around.

I've been reading up on just some basic guidelines when it comes to sports betting and one of the things people tend to agree on is this concept of units. Basically means that I should bet the same amount of money on each game, and not load of on a game that I think is a lock, because all this is going to do is destroy my BR. I'm not quite sure what my unit amount will be, but I'm going to keep it very small just to test out this educated betting system.

One of the most valuable resources I think I'll have is the RX Forum website because it'll give me a chance to get advice on picks and I also want to keep track of every bet I place, maybe even create some sort of spread sheet.

Anyway, yea I'm pretty excited to start the sports gambling again and I really do think I can make some money if I just stick to some basic BR management rules and make smart plays. I might get started this weekend, but I'm not 100% positive on that so I'll keep ya'll updated.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

HU Specialist No More...

I seem to have hit a small rush of bad luck when it comes to HU matches. (read " I went on tilt and busted my Full Tilt account) lol.

So I guess the poker Gods became angry at my cockiness because I felt indestructible in HU matches. So they decided to punish me with some sick coolers today. I just could not catch a break all morning. I had lost with sets over sets and my opponents kept hitting their two outers on the river. So i busted my tilt account. I would have probably ended up busting my Stars account as well but I had to leave for school lol.

I was going to try and bust my bust my Stars account when I got home from school by playing a game that I don't play often, at stakes that my Stars BR cannot support. But as much as I tried, I failed, lol. Turns out I'm actually "ok" in 5 card draw. Ha, who would have though. I spent a few minutes at a .25/.50 table playing mostly heads up and somehow I managed to double my bankroll instead of going broke.

Oh well, I guess that means more inevitable suffering in this game I like to call poker.

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Yesterday I went to my school's first home basketball game, which turned out to be quite fun. But only because my friend Furcio and I had money riding on all kinds of crazy bets. First of all we bet on the game straight up, and needless to say, we suck at handicapping games but we somehow came up with a line that had our school a 25 point favorite over the rival school.

This is how we came up with the spread:

Me: Dude, do you think you guys are going to win today?

Guy on Team: Hell yea man, we're going to kill them by like 50 points.

lol We though 50 points was a big of s stretch so we decided to make it 25. My friend took the other team -25 and I took out school +25. Here's some more of the action I had on the game (green bets are the ones I won) :

-Rival school would score first

-Saif would miss his first shot

-Kinsler would score over 19pts. (He ended up scoring 19 so it was a push)

-Danny would score less than 4 pts in the 3rd quarter.

-Total score for our school would be less than 90.

lol Our school ended up crushing the other team like 78-10, so we were way off on the spread we came up with, but it was our first time handicapping so it wasn't too bad. Aside from the bets above we also kept betting on whether a team would score in a certain possession or if free throws would be made or missed. We ended up coming up around even for the whole game, but it was still fun, knowing we had some action riding on almost every play.

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So I've still got that $50 freeze out single table tomorrow at the charity casino, and my guy Furcio decided to come with. Only problem is he's still underaged, so the plan is for me to buy him some casino chips and then use those to pay for the tourney entry instead of straight up cash. Hopefully they'll assume he already got carded at the cage so they won't card him again at the table.

I really wanna hope I have a good run of cards tomorrow and hopefully I can take it down for a nice $300. And if not me, at least my guy Furcio.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Thanksgiving Weekend...

So the Thanksgiving weekend is finally over unfortunately and it's back to school tomorrow. So here's a recap of how the weekend went...

Wednesday I decided not to go to school just to give myself an extra day on the already extended holiday weekend. The plan was to stay home and chill but I got a call from a guy from work asking if I could go in and cover for him because his aunt was sick or some bullshit like that. I didn't really feel like going but I figured I could use the extra cash. So that's how my Wednesday went, at work answering phones.

Thursday aka Thanksgiving not much went down. See, my family isn't big on Thanksgiving. Never has been, probably never will be. We still had dinner but it wasn't turkey, it was some mexican thing my cousins made. I would have rather had turkey but eh, what are you gonna do right?

Anyway, Thursday night I decided to load some money online to try to get back on the poker grind. It was a small amount though, with the hopes of turning it into something. I deposited both on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. I started playing on Stars and did extremely well on my first session. Granted it was micro stakes, but I really needed to regain some confidence in my game after the horrible live session I had on Wednesday.

Friday I had work again. My guy Furcio came to pick me up and we drove to Best Buy to check out some Black Friday deals but most of the door buster deals were gone. So then we went to Borders for a while and chilled until it was time to go to work.

I wasn't at work for 20 minutes and I was already gambling lol. My guy and I are discussing the football games from Thursday and out convo went something like this:

Me: Dude, Favre was a monster yesterday.

Furcio: I know dude, that was insane!

Me: 20 straight completions!

Furcio: No, 23.

Me: No dude, it was 20.

Furcio: It was 23 dude! How much you wanna bet?

Me: $500! (lol my greedy ass)

Furcio: lol no, make it $20.

Me: Alright $40.

Furcio: Ok deal, go look it up online bitch.

Me: I don't have to dude, it's right here! (I shove the newspaper in his face)

Furcio: Damn...

lol so that's how I made my first $40 of the day. I shoulda tried to go higher but oh well. Anyway, work was dead for a Friday night so we spent most of the night playing cards.
I ended up losing most of those $40 in fuckin Rummy. God, I hate that game. lol I don't know why I keep playing it for money since I suck so much at it. And then I was running bad in other card games like blackjack and King's Corner.

Anyway, that was friday. Saturday I spent most of the day playing poker online. But I was running bad. God, it was so frustrating, especially this Knockout Tourney on Full Tilt in which I got felted when my Q high flush was beat by a runner runner straight flush. I went on mad tilt after that and donked of more money in cash games. I decided to stop before I busted my accounts.

So today I was feeling a whole lot better and decided to play some more online. But I began to play HU matches instead, and guess what? It turns out I fuckin rule at HU matches. lol not really, but I played some sick matches.

I don't know what it was but I was playing so good. I was making some good reads and what felt like good lay downs. I won a $20, a $10, a few $2 and an $8 shootout. Hopefully my good run can continue and carry over into live play cause I plan on playing a $50 single table freeze out at the Rockford Charitable Casino on Wednesday.

So that's all for today. I'll update Wednesday night and tell ya'll how the freeze out went.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

What a Donk

Look up the word donk in the dictionary right now, and you'll find my picture. Holy shit I played like the biggest donk in the world today. I just got back from my first live cash game experience and it was a complete disaster. I just want to kick myself in the nuts right now for how bad I played. I don't even feel like blogging but I just need to vent.

Basically I've come to question whether I have ANY poker skills what so ever. Not the way I was playing I don't. Sure it was my first time playing a live cash game so I was a little nervous but still, thats no fuckin excuse what so ever. So I guess I'll run through some of the retarded plays I made.

I bought in for $100 and waited til a seat at $1/2NL opened up. It hadn't even been 10 minutes that I'd been at the table and I'm on the button with JJ. I raise it to 10 and get two callers. Flop comes something like 89K. 1st guy checks and 2nd guy bets I think like 25 and I call. We check check the turn which is a blank and the river is another blank but he fires like 40 dollars. I think for a bit and then call. He had KQ and just like that I'm down to 30 sumthin dollars!

Wait it gets better. Even though I manage to double up with AJ against QK and then I crack a dude's Aces with pocket fives when I catch a miracle 5 on the river, I was still able to keep donking off my chips. I was so out of my comfort zone because I'd never played with stakes that high before, and I figured with $1/2 blinds, standard raise at the table would be 6, but somehow it was 12, not to mention this one dude who kept straddling every chance he had. So the final hand of the night came when I had j10 and flop comes 89x. I make a standard raise and the other guy puts me all in for my last 40 so I decide to call for some reason with an open ended straight draw against KK. I brick of course and that was that. I swear if I had been anybody else sitting at that table I would have been like "What a fuckin donk!" and I'm pretty sure that's what people said as soon as I left the table and I don't blame them.

God damn it, I'm really pissed off about the way I played. It's like I feel like I can't play poker for shit. Whatever little confidence I had in my game was shattered tonight. Man, I'm done I don't feel like writing anymore. This is it. I gotta reevaluate poker in my life. Maybe I'll be able to think a little better later when I'm not steaming so much.

I hate poker.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Ain't Life Grand & 35 to 1

Yesterday's update was mostly about my trip to the charity casino a couple of weeks ago so I'll use this update to tell ya'll about what I've been up to lately.

I'll start off with the fucking FCP's Ain't Life Grand Challenge on Pokerstars. I tried to win an entry to the tourney playing in one of the freerolls on Saturday Night. A total of 183 registered and top 9 got in. I was getting some good cards and managed to go deep, but not deep enough. I had a short stack with about 30 left but managed to triple up when I made a monster All In call preflop with 88 against AQ and K10. My eights held up and I was up to 20k and sitting nice and dandy with the field slowly decreasing. I told myself to stay away from big pots and I should be good but then I get Ad9d and decide to raise it up in early position, because most of the table was short stacked and obv playing extremely tight. Everyone folds to the big blind who pushes for like 7k more and so I had to call given the pot odds. He flips JJ and the flop comes x99. Boom, ship it! or not, as the fuckin two outer J hits on the river. Damn that really hurt me and I just played horribly the rest of the way finally getting busted in 21st.

Oh well, that was that. So tonight the actual tourney was happening and I was browsing the FCP forums and this guy was feeling generous enough to hand out a few stakes for the tourney. So he shipped me the entry fee with a standard 50/50 no stakeback. Well to make a long story short on the tourney, early on some deuche bag decides to make a huge bluff on me with Q high. It got me down to 1k which was still enough to make something happen, but then I get deal AQ on the button and make a standard raise. One caller and the flop comes 799. I check and he raises it up to 400. I check raise to 800 (I don't know why! I guess I was still tilting from getting bluffed earlier) So he goes into the tank and finally pushes for his last 250. I knew I was obv beat but I had to call and hope for a miracle on the turn or river. No such luck and I was out. lol To make matters worse, my staker was at my table so I'm sure he thought I was a total donk. I don't blame him, I played horribly.

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Ok enough of that fuckin tourney. On to better things. So my friend Furcio hit on a parlay for $200 a couple of weeks ago on Bodog and last friday we spent the whole day at work playing blackjack craps and roulette at the Bodog Casino.

Funniest shit happened, when he was playing roulette, all of a sudden I pull the laptop away from him and I place a $1.00 bet on #19. lol he starts going crazy telling me wtf is wrong with me, and I'm like "relax man, I'm feeling 19 for some reason, this shit is going to hit and when it does, you gotta split the winnings with me." lol And sure enough the fuckin ball landed on 19. We just looked at each other and went fuckin crazy. I couldn't stop laughing. Sure, he only won $35 but it was too funny. All I got for my troubles was a measly $15. lol Actually I owed him $15 from some HU poker earlier in the day so he just cleared that debt from me.

Anyway, he proceeded to lose the $35 plus a lot more on blackjack. He finally decided to let his last $150 or so, ride on a 4 game NFL teaser that ended up losing with the Jets upsetting the Steelers.

We spent the rest of the night playing Conquian (Mexican version of Rummy) and Kings corner.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So this week is shaping up to be quite busy starting tomorrow. I really want to go play poker but I'm undecided on whether I'll go to the charity casino, or to this home game in Lincoln Park. I was set on going to the home game for sure, but then my friend Furcio said he couldn't come and I didn't wanna go play at some dude's house that I don't even know, all by myself. So as of right now, Rockford Charitable looks likes the way to go. I'll probably go pick up my paycheck at work right after school, go pay some bills, and then drive to the casino. I'm planning on playing 1/2 NL because as I learned last time, the tourneys are total crap shoots.

Hopefully I have a good session and don't get home until 11 or so. Wednesday I'm suppose to chill with one of my friends who also happens to be my ex. I'm not quite sure what's going on there, but we'll see. Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't know what I'll be up to. My family isn't big on Thanksgiving so I'll probably just bum around the house watching Football.

Furcio wanted me to go camp outside of Best Buy Thursday night with him for Black Friday. I did it last year, and it was pretty fun, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it again because like I said earlier, I've got some bills to pay so I'm going to be short on cash. I don't know though, I might change my mind last minute, especially if I'm able to make some money in poker tomorrow.

So that's the plan for the next couple of days. We'll see how things go. I just hope I don't donk off my money at the casino tomorrow.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Live Poker...

I was supposed to write about my first live poker experience a while ago, but I just hadn't felt like blogging. So I guess I'll get to it tonight.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to visit this charity casino that I'd heard about online and from some tv commercials. It's an 18+ casino, so I figured this was the only opportunity I'd get to gain some live poker experience aside form rare poker game I host at my house.

So I decided I was going to play in a $100+20 Multi Table Tourney that started at 4:30. The drive there was quicker than I expected so I got there about an hour early. I registered for the tourney as soon as I got there and then just walked around getting a feel for the place. The place where the event was being held was pretty crummy looking, and the place smelled funky, but just the sound of chips being thrown around and cards being dealt was enough to get my blood pumping.

I railed the cash games for a while then I went to take a sit at my table for the tourney but no one was there yet so I didn't want to look like an idiot sitting there by myself so I walked around some more. Finally a couple of guys sat down at the table and so I went to take my seat as well. I gotta say I was a little nervous about the whole thing, because outside of playing with friends at school and at home, I'd never played live poker before. I wasn't sure how the dynamics of the whole thing might work. Shoot, when the dealer gave me my stack of chips I didn't even know what the denominations were, so I felt like a dumbass. I figured I should ask the dealer, but in my mind I was like thinking he was going to laugh his ass for asking such a dumb question. lol but I did end up asking him and he was really cool about it and explained it to me.

As my table started filling up it was becoming very obvious I was BY FAR the youngest at my table. To my left was a guy who was like 70 and to my right was a chick who was 28ish, and the rest of the table was 40ish or so. I didn't let this intimidate me though, as I figured, hey we're all starting with the same amount of chips.

So the tourney finally starts and right off the bat I get dealt pocket 3s. I limp in in early position, and after a couple of more limpers a guy in late position raises it up. I think for a little bit and fold, just because it was the first hand, and I was still a little nervous and wanted to observe the table for a bit before I got comfortable enough to play a hand. Sure, I was kicking myself when another 3 hit on the flop, but whatever. lol.

Anyway I proceeded to play a pretty tight game, again just trying to get a feel of the game and the table dynamics, plus I was getting dealt crap anyway. I finally won my first pot when I had AK and I made a small raise in late position. I got one caller and the flop came something like 7K2. I check and the other guy raises like 1,000. I think for a second then say All In. Then I hear the dealer announce that I call and he begins to burn the card to deal the turn when I say "Wait! I said all in!" and the dealer says "Oh I'm sorry I didn't hear you." The the other guy begins to get pissed off I guess thinking I was somehow angle shooting, until this guy acoss from me says to him that he heard me say all in. So the guy finally mucks his hand and I pick up my first pot =)

And from there I went card dead the rest of the way. I picked up a few small pots along the way but those were only enough to keep me around even. Then another key hand came up, and I'll try to retell it as best as I remember because again, this was a couple of weeks ago. So I'm in late position with KQ and about three guys have already limped so I make a standard raise and get one caller. Flop comes something like 725. The other guy checks, and here I think about checking for a minute, but I decide to fire a bet, just to see where I'm at. I was hoping to pick the pot here thinking he maybe had called my preflop raise with two over cards. So I wasn't too happy when he insta called. Turn is a a blank and it goes check check. The river is another blank as far as I'm concerned and the dude puts out a huge bet. I think about it for a while, and as I'm staring at the board I finally realize that there were two hearts on the flop and the way he played the hand I'm almost sure he caught the flush on the river with another heart. I finally muck and he says something to a couple of guys at the table about how I let him catch his flush with my check on the turn. Looking back at that hand, he was right, I played that horribly.

So that hand kinda crippled my stack, and I knew from the beginning that this tourney was going to be a crap shoot because of the tourney structure and sure enough the blinds started to get to me. I finally decided to push my last 2,000 or so with the blinds at 300/600. I open push with AcJc and it folds around to the Big Blind. This dude goes into the tank for like a minute, until finally he says "Alright, I'm only calling you because I'm suited" and he flips over 7d2d. Argh!!! The flop comes AJx and I'm like boom, ship it, until I realize there's 2 diamonds. So obv another diamond hits on the river and it's good game me.

The table seemed to get a kick out of this guy felting me with 72 and the dealer even cracks a joke about everyone at the table now owing the guy who busted me $500. Haha real funny. Anyway, I didn't feel as bad as you'd think I'd feel, because the whole experience was a blast. I though about sticking around for another tourney that was going to start at 7:30 but I decided to go home instead.

So that was basically it, and like I said, it was an all around awesome experience playing live poker for the first time. I'd actually planning a second trip sometime this week, but I'm not sure yet because I've got alot of stuff going on right now.

This blog entry is getting too long for my taste so that's going to be all for tonight. I'll probably do another update tomorrow at work. Adios!

Thursday, November 8, 2007

I'm a Gambler...

Wow, it's been a crazy week and a whole lot has happened since my last update. lol I went from feeling great, to quitting poker and gambling in general, to playing in my first live poker tournament. But I'll break it down a bit.

It all started last Friday at work. I did not intend to gamble at all, but I knew sooner or later my friend Furcio would talk me into it, so I did something smart and only brought along $20. Turns out it would be the most painful $20 I've ever lost, lol but ill get to that in a minute. So as soon as I get to work this guy wants to bet on the Patriots Colts game but he wants the Patriots. I say no way man, Brady is a monster right now. Then I tell him I'll take the Colts if he spots me 7 points, which was around the Vegas line the Colts were getting anyway.(It was more like 6, but w.e.) I tried to talk him into it, because I figured the Colts D would keep it a close game, but he wouldn't bite so I didn't get any action on that game. At least not from him.

So work was extremely hectic which gave me and my buddy Furcio no chance to gamble. It wasn't until later that night when the place calmed down a bit, that I pulled out my $20 and offered a $20 coin flip to anyone but no one wanted to, until my guy Manny said fuck it and we flipped the coin. Heads, I win =) So I'm up $20 and immediately Furcio wants to do a $40 coin flip. lol Sure why not. Heads again, I win =) lol this sends my friend Furcio into mega tilt and wants to flip for another $50, ahh was a little hesitant but I accepted, and won again! lol I'd managed to turn my $20 into $150 in like 5 minutes. I was like "ok I'm done for the night, I've been extremely lucky but thats it. So an hour or so later, I don't know why in the world I go and ask my friend for another $50 flip. I think my crazy gorilla thinking in my head went something like this:"Ok just another $50 flip. If you win you walk away with a sweet $200 and if you lose, you're still up $100."

So Furcio doesn't want to do another flip because he says that $50 is the only money he's got left and he needs it for gas. lol But I talk him into it and he agrees. (We're the fuckin definition of a degenerate gambler, I swear!) Ok so we flip and I lose. Crap, that wasn't suppose to happen. I coax him into flipping for another $50 and I win. lol Ok, I should have walked away, but no, we do $50 again and I lose. Another $50 and I lose again. At this point I feel like shit and so I flip for my last $50 and lose. Man, that hurt. No joke, that was painful. I literally felt my knees grow weak and my stomach felt so sick. And it's funny, because technically I'd only lost $20 but it hurt a lot more than that. lol and Furcio is trying to make me feel better telling me you win some you lose some, and reminding me when I took almost $350 from him in a single night in nothing but coin flips also. I didn't care what he was saying, I still felt like shit.

So I get home, and I decide to play some poker on Bodog. I had a decent hour or so session winning back the $20 I lost at work, plus a little more. I quit before I had a chance to lose it back. So all that went down on Friday, and then the rest of the weekend was a wreck. Saturday night I played some more on Bodog but things didn't go so good this time. So I lost a few there, then made a couple of bets on soccer and football and lost both of them. By the end of the night I was on mad tilt and let my last $50 from Bodog ride on a 3 team Football parlay. Fuckin Chargers killed my action early as Adrian Peterson and the Vikings ran them over, and I mean literally ran them over as Peterson set a new rushing record.

So I woke up Monday morning feeling like shit not only because of the weekend fiasco, but I had a major tooth ache. One of my back teeth was killing me, and the stupid thing is I had a root canal on it about a year ago. Supposedly during a root canal, the nerve is killed so it doesn't hurt anymore. So I didn't go to school and I called in sick at work and went to the dentist. She said the root canal had to be redone and thats going to run me like $650. Fuck. She gave me some antibiotics and painkillers and that's been working so far as I haven't had the pain come back, and lets hope it doesn't.

Anyway, on Tuesday I decided not to go to school again, I don't even know why, but I spent the morning thinking about whether I should quit gambling. For the first time in my life, I actually considered it. No sports betting, no poker, no coin flips lol. And just focus 100% in school. Well that though lasted about 10 minutes. lol. I just love to gamble, its my life. I love the thrill of sports betting, and I most definitely love the game of poker. It's who I am, and sure I had shitty weekend, but that's part of the gamble. I'm at a point in my life where I can sustain the style of life I live. I have virtually no living expenses so I have the luxury of using the little money I make at work towards poker and sports betting. It's not as if I lose money, and then go ask people to lend me some. I use my money that I earn, so if I want to gamble it away, hey that's my choice.

Enough of that. I was going to write up on my first live poker tourney but it's getting late and I actually plan on going to school tomorrow so I'll write about it tomorrow night.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Weekend Recap...

Lets review how the weekend went, shall we? So Saturday I had to wake up super early for Saturday school. It was such a drag and I slept through half the class, but so did everybody else so the teacher didn't really care. I got out at 12 and I walked back home. I chilled around the house, then I placed my first bets on Bodog for the weekend. I lost a little bit on a 2 game soccer parlay but I made some profit for the night with Santos crushing Atlas 5-2. Sweet, Saturdya night and I was already half way there in terms of my weekend goal.

So I was supposed to go to some thing called Trails of Terror, but I went to pick up my ex, and we ended up going to see Halloween instead. The movie sucked big time. Ain't got nothing on the original. After the movie we drove to Evanston to get something to eat and then I drove her home.

Sunday morning I made two soccer parlays. One was a three game parlay from Spanish division games, which I won. The second was a two team Mexican soccer parlay which I lost. And then to the good stuff...NFL Football!

I made two different parlays;

#1

Colts -350
Giants-600
Titans-320
Chargers-550

Risk $10.00 to win $13.27

#2

Browns-105
Colts -350
Giants-600
Steelers-210
Chargers-550
Buccaneers-200
Saints+105

Risk $2.00 to win $29.42

So I spent the whole Sunday glued to my TV watching football. My 4 game parlay was a lock, and my 7 game parlay, in which I was getting 15-1 odds, all came down to the Tampa Bay game. They screwed me over obviously, but I didn't feel to bad considering I only lost 2 dollars. I think I would have felt even worse if I HAD won the parlay, and only having bet 2 dollars on it.

So anyway after football I made one last parlay for the night with the Chivas v. America game and the Red Sox v. Rockies game. The Chivas game was pretty awesome but they lost 2-1 so gg me.

Oh yea, sometime during halftime of the Tampa Bay game, I rode my bike to Gamespot and bought Madden 08. Pretty Random I know. So I played Madden til' pretty late at night. It's a freaking awesome game, and I ended up going to sleep at 5 am. Yea, that meant no school the next day obv. I spend Monday afternoon again playing Madden until I left for work around 3:30.

Work was super slow as was expected from a Monday night, so I spent most of the day on the FCP forums just lurking and laughing my ass of at a guy who laid down $500 on some long shot parlay that paid 180-1. Then I logged onto Bodog and placed my bet for Monday Night Football. After a little bit of researching I decided on a teaser. Greenbay +10 and Under at 51. So I won that for a nice $15 bucks.

So overall, I think I surpassed my weekend goal, which is sweet. I'm at school right now and I'm about to leave for night school, so that's it for me. I'll probably lay down some money on the season opening NBA games tonight and update tomorrow. Adios!




Friday, October 26, 2007

Weekend Goals...

So the weekend is finally here. Time again to grind it out and win some money. Last week's action was crazy as I literally had something riding on almost every game on NFL Sunday and spent most of the day glued in front of my television. Had some wins and some heartbreaks but overall I was able to pull of a profit. Lets hope this week goes just as well.

I originally had set a monetary weekend goal of $20 but this week's games are a lot tougher than last. And not only in the NFL. The weekend is going to be crazy as far as Mexican Soccer goes also. The Super Clasico on Sunday between Chivas and America is going to be insane. Bodog has Chivas as a +170 underdog on the moneyline right now. But this game is going to be so tight. America is at home, and they've got a little bit of confidence with their win over Pachuca last week.Chivas is running good as well. Man I'll probably go with Chivas and hope they can pull it off.

Anyway like I said, a $20 goal now seems a little difficult unless I hit a decent parlay. So I'll make the goal $10 instead. That's doable right? lol Let's hope so.

As far as the NFL goes, I'm betting on the Patriots v Redskins and Colts v Panthers games for sure. Bears game I'm still undecided. I've gotta see how much the lines have moved from now until Sunday morning.

Alright so I don't plan on spending the whole weekend in front of the tv. Just most of it. lol. I do have other plans. I've got Saturday school in the morning, and I was suppose to have lunch with a friend afterwards but she canceled on me last minute so I'm free for most of the afternoon. Later around 6ish I'm going to some Halloween thing called Trails of Terror at Peterson Park. (this means I might have to miss the Santos v Atlas game!!!) My ex asked if I would take her, and I didn't wanna be a douche so I said yes. I'll bring my little sister along so that I will have done something Halloweenish with her this year because I might work on Halloween Night, so I'm a super cool brother like that. haha

So I'm typing all this from work. I get off in about 40 minutes, and I just want to get home and sleep! Work was pretty hectic today. We had people lining up all the way out into the street. Things calmed down around 11ish though, so I had time for a quick $5.00 HU match on Bodog. I took it down in 3 hands, but I was freakin lucky. On the second hand I end up pushing with AQ v 88 and I hit runner runner for a straight. I felt like a donk, but hey, I've taken my share of bad beats so it's all good.

That's all for tonight. I'm tired and I'm not looking forward to waking up at 7am and being stuck in a room for four hours learning about fucking trigonometric functions!

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Stupid CPS...

So I managed to drag my ass to school this morning. I was so comfy in my warm bed and the mere thought of having to walk to school in the cold almost made me go back to sleep. But the hardest part is always getting out of bed, so I just got up and jumped in the shower real quick before I changed my mind.

I'm at school right now, and since this is my lunch hour I thought I'd get in a quick session of .5/.10 on Bodog and maybe a HU match. But it seems the CPS (Chicago Public Schools) network here at school prevents me from accessing t he Bodog Software on my laptop. Same thing with Pokerstars. The only thing actually working is Full Tilt Poker. Only problem is I have no money in there.

So I guess I'll have to get trough this lunch period with no poker unless my friend furcio is up for another beating in .5/1 HU.

Last night I worked til 1am. I made a super small bet for the Colts v. Jaguars game parlaying the Colts -175 plus the Over (451/2). The Colts won, but my over didnt get covered so I lost that.

Work was extremely slow yesterday. I spent most of the day reading The Kite Runner. I might write about it in here sometime this week. Anyway work was really slow and by 12am there were absolutely no calls coming in so I played some poker on Bodog and ended up losing like 5 bucks.

I've got night school today so I probably won't be home til around 8pm so I'm not sure if I'll be playing any poker tonight. Depends on how tired I am. Anyway, I'm gonna go take Furcio's money for the remainder of my lunch period so I'm out!

Monday, October 22, 2007

No School Today...

Man, I'm really going to be close to not graduating if I keep ditching so much. So last night, I was going to go to sleep earlyish because I had school. But I ended up going to sleep at 5 am. I was playing on Bodog and making a little bit of money, so that's why I went to sleep so late. Class starts at 7:55 and I wasn't going to function on 2 hours of sleep, so I decided to sleep in. I woke up at 12 today. Took a shower and then got on Bodog.

I started playing some .5/.10 and getting some nice hands early on. But then I went card dead for a bit so I was around even for a while until I got felted with a busted nut flush draw. So I rebought for another 5 dollars and again went all in on a flush draw and lost. (Sound familiar from last night?) So I thought I was done, but I decided to try a $10 HU match for the hell of it. Man, did this guy suck or what. I beat him in less than 20 hands. I was making some great calls, I think I lost like 3 hands to him altogether, that's how bad he was playing.

So the $20 brought me back to even for the day, and I don't think I'm going to keep playing today. I've got work in a couple of hours and I probably won't be home til' 1 am.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Sunday Update...

So it was a day of nothing but watching sports and making money. Well kind of making money lol. I started the day with a soccer game from my 3 game parlay. Toluca took care of Puebla and the Redskins and Cowboys did their thing as well, so I won $27 dollars from that parlay to bring my Bodog account to $47. Man I wish I would have added the Santos soccer game, as they won as well. I also played with the idea of adding the Bears game, but I didn't have enough confidence that they would get it done, although they did. So if I had made it a 5 game parlay, the payout would have been huge, considering the Bears were underdogs. But whatever, I hit my parlay and I was happy.

So then I made a second 2 game parlay with the Steelers and the Red Sox. I swear I was tempted to just have the $47 ride on those two games. But I decided against it and I only bet $10. The Sox killed the Indians, but the Steelers couldn't get it done. What a game it was though. Just like a week ago with the Bears game, it all came down to a Field Goal at the last second. Boy was I glad I only bet $10.

Still, after the Steelers game I was steaming a bit so I was like, "ok it's just 10 dollars. I'll go make that in poker in like an hour." So I sit at a .5/.10 table on bodog with 5 dollars and lose it immediately. Ok, rebuy for $3 more dollars. Lost that real quick. And then, I almost did the stupidest thing. I was on tilt to the max and I sat at a .10/.25 with half my roll from Bodog. Thankfully I came to my senses before the Big Blind got to me and I realize I was just going to donk of my money. So I cooled off for a bit, and sat down at a .5/.10 table again, with 5 dollars.

I was a lot more calm this time around and I played pretty well. Tripled up actually and left the table with around $15ish. I wanted to keep playing, but I decided against it. I wanted to end the day with a profit so I guess I did the smart thing. So my Bodog account again stands at 38, and I might bet on the Colts tomorrow night.

Anyway, that about sums up Sunday Gambling Fever. I'm going to go read a few chapters of The Kite Runner (great book) and then go to bed. Hopefully I make it to all my classes tomorrow. Adios.

That's More Like It...

After running so bad in everything the last couple of weeks, it felt good to turn in a nice profit in poker for a change. Wasn't online though. It was from my friend Furcio from work. We played Heads up .5/1 NL Hold em at work for a couple of hours. Now, with a 10 dollar cap, this thing got pretty crap shooty because we were either calling and check/folding if we missed the flop, capping if we hit the flop, or capping pre flop with any semi decent hand. It was still really fun though, and I had my laptop with me so I was jotting down how much I won or lost per hand just to see the good old Variance at work. Went something like this:

-.5
+.5
-10
+.5
-.5
+10
-1
+1
+2
+2
+1
+1
-1
+1
+1
+1
-.5
+1
-1
+1
-.5
+1
+10
-10
+10
+1
+1
+10
-1
+1
-1
+10
-1
-10
+1
+1
-.5
+10
-.5
-1
-1
+10
+1
-1
-1
+1
-1
-10
-1
-1
-10
-10
+1
+10
+1
+0
+10
+1
+0
+10
-1
-10
+1
+10
+.5
-.5
-10
-1
+10
+10
+10
+1

I went on tilt a little bit when he started going Cappy Happy as I called it, capping with hands like Aces rag or connectors and I started calling with marginal hands. I was really close to just quitting when I was up like $30 dollars, but I decided to keep playing a little longer, and I caught a bit of a rush and ended up up around $77 dollars. After poker I made another 18 dollars on black jack so a total profit of $95 for the day. I'll take it.

Sports gambling is back as well. My Bodog account was busto but my guy wanted me to place a couple of bets for him so I Deposited $30 yesterday. He gave me like $16 for his bets and I figured I might as well deposit a little bit to grab some action myself.

My 1st wager was on the Chivas vs Atlante game from last night. Now, I had no idea who to pick. Atlante was undefeated until last week, and Chivas is playing really well right now, plus Chivas was playing at home. Since I couldn't make up my mind, I decided to wager on a Draw. The moneyline was at +240 for a draw so I was getting almost 2.5 to 1 for my money.

Now watching a soccer match, were you're hoping the final score is a draw, gets pretty interesting. I found myself cheering for both teams while they were on Defense, hoping neither of them conceded a goal. And by halftime I was looking like a genius with the score 0-0. But 15 minutes into the second half Chivas went up 1-0. Hey at least I had some to root for now, and Atlante was getting some good opportunities but they weren't capitalizing. It wasn't until there was like 2 minutes left in the game that Nkong from Atlante hit a beautiful shot from outside the box to tie the score up 1-1 and giving me the win on Bodog.

Then I made a 4 game soccer parlay, mainly on games that were going to be on tv today, because I wasn't planning on betting on the NFL. But my action got killed with the first game lol. I woke up at 9:30 to watch the last 15 minutes of the AC Milan game, which was the first in my parlay, but they lost 0-1. Oh well.

I just finished making another parlay, hoping this one works out. It has two football games and a soccer game;

3 Game Parlay

Deportivo Toluca -170

Washington Redskins -400

Dallas Cowboys - 480

Risked $20.00 to win $27.98.00

So, like I said, let's hope this one works out. Two of these games are about to start, so that's it for me. I'll maybe update later tonight to see how things went. Peace.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here's a couple of pictures I took from Friday night gambling at work.
The camera on my sidekick is really shitty but w.e.


Guy at the top is my guy Furcio. He looks like he's 12 years old but this bitch will bet on anything.

On the right is Manuel. He sucks at playing cards but he doesn't know it, and it would be unethical on my part to let him know.

Bottom guy is Alex. I got him hooked on Bodog. lol. Pretty good card player also.





Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Friggin' Adrian Peterson...

and no, not the Bears Adrian Peterson, but the Vikings'. Ahh, what a crazy game that unfolded on Sunday. Bears managed to score early and the Vikings would just come right back. At one point the Bears were down by a couple of touchdowns and I stopped watching. Then I come back in time to watch Hester's 80 plus TD reception. God damn it Hester. Must you get my hopes up? So with 1:38 remaining the Bears decide to kick it to Peterson. (WTF!!!) who manages a nice run to put them in good field goal position. They convert a 54 yard Field Goal and there goes my $250 dollars. Damn did that suck. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I've just been losing way more than what I've been winning lately.

Not much went down on Sunday. One of my guys came over to play poker. But just for fun. He doesn't gamble. So that was alright. I really wanna get back to playing poker though, but both my Pstars and Full Tilt Accounts are busto right now. Maybe I'll set up a home cash game for sometime next week or something.

So me and my girl finally broke up yesterday night and the weird thing was, we are kind of still cool. I really wouldn't have minded if she never talks to me again, but apparently that won't be the case. She still wants to hang out and be good friends, so I guess I'm cool with that too. (Friends with benefits anyone?)

I'm in school right now, and I should be working on creating some website but I haven't been to this class in a while, so I don't know how to do any of this shit we got assigned. Hey at least I'm here though. I actually managed to make it to all my classes yesterday and today. I feel good about that because I was seriously ditching way to much. I've still got about another hour to go and then I've gotta walk about a mile and a half to make it to my night class that runs from 4:15-7:15. I don't mind walking except for the fact that it might start raining so whatever.

I think that's about it. I don't know when I'll post again because I don't have much gambling action going on anytime soon. Maybe next week? I don't know. I'm out!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Bears For The Win!

So I haven't played online in ages. More like a couple of weeks or so, but it seems a lot longer than that. However I have been playing live, mostly with one of my friends, who's as much a gambler as I am. But I'll talk about him in a second. Let me first run through what I've been up to as of late...

So I was extremely disappointed about the Cubs getting swept in the NLDS. Forget that I lost $50 Dollars on the last game, it was more painful to watch them get swept at home, against a team that on paper, the Cubs should have dominated. But I guess baseball isn't played on paper. I was actually around Wrigleyville with my girl during the last game. We were just chilling and we stopped by a bar to watch the game for a bit. God it really stung to get swept. At least make things interesting and send it to game five or something. But oh well, they had a good season and hopefully we can get deeper in the playoffs next season.

I've also been missing school. A lot. I've probably been absent about 8 days already and lets not talk about how many times I've gotten there around 11:30 when class starts at 7:55. It just keeps getting tougher and tougher to wake up in the morning. And knowing that the classes I'm taking right now don't really matter towards graduation is a big incentive when deciding whether to wake up and go to class or sleep in all day. And it's not like I do anything productive when I'm at home. I usually wake up around 1, then watch tv until it's either time to go to work or to night school. But I really want to stop this habit. School's only been on for a month or so and I'm already getting scolded by teachers for missing so many classes. I'm actually going to try and go to all of my classes next week. It's going to be really hard, but I'm actually going to try. I'll update ya'll on how that went later next week.

Besides school, something else in my mind has been this girl situation I'm in. I'm currently dating this chick, and we've been together for about a month but we've been kicking it for a lot longer than that. At first I really liked her, and I guess I still do, but being with her just isn't the same anymore. I always had my doubts about whether we would work out because before we were dating, she had another guy who she'd been for almost a year, but she was messing around with me on the side. So I thought to myself, if she was willing to cheat on her previous man with me, who's to say she won't cheat on me with some other dude. I still decided to give it a try anyway, but lately I've kinda sensed something might be up. She's been acting kind of shady, and a friend told me her and her ex had been seeing each other. When I found this out, I actually wasn't too angry, because I was sort of expecting it, and I had been looking for a way out of this relationship anyway, so that might be it. I'll probably talk with her tomorrow to break up.

So back to gambling. I have a friend who I've known for a couple of years and he's the only one of my close friends who's as much a gambler as I am. We'll call this friend "Furcio." Furcio and I not only gamble at school, but he also happens to work with me, so Friday nights here at Gigio's pizzeria is all about the gamble. We'll gamble pretty much on anything. From coin flips to blackjack, to whether the next person who calls in is a man or a woman. And not just bubble gum change stakes either. There's been times were I've won upwards of $300 dollars in a single night on nothing but coin flips and blackjack. Today it was all about Poker though. We played Hold Em' for about 4 hours. We played $.50/$1 with a $10 cap per hand. I was on fire today. I ended up $51 for the night, although I gave a little bit of it back in coin flips. (Don't ask me why I do coin flips for money. It's the most retarded thing ever, trust me, I don't recommend it.)

No day at work with my buddy would be complete without some sports betting. I made the biggest bet I've ever made on any sport for the Bears to win against the Vikings this Sunday. Me and Furcio put up $500 ($250 each) against these other two guys from work. So 1,000 is at stake, which me and Furcio would obviously split if the Bears can get it done this Sunday. It's going to be such a crazy game to watch with so much riding on it, but lets hope for the best.

That's about all that's been up. I'll try to update Sunday night, hopefully with good news about the Bears game.

Friday, October 5, 2007

On Life Tilt...

No other fuckin way to describe what I'm going through right now. This past week has been the worst gambling week ever for me. At least on the sports betting angle. I mean, hell, I'll be the first one to tell you that sports gambling is and always will be -EV. But are you freaking kidding me? I just can't seem to catch a break. I'll break down some of the bigger bets I've placed.

Italian Soccer (2 Team Parlay)

AC Milan -450

Palermo +130

Risked $10.00 to win $18.00

This was basically two of the top teams in the league against two of the bottom ones. As you can see from the moneyline, Milan was a huge favorite, but that game ended in a 1-1 draw, so the second game was irrelevant.
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NFL (4 Team Parlay)

Baltimore Ravens -220

Chicago Bears -105

Pittsburgh Steelers -260

Indianapolis Colts -550

Risked $10.00 to win $36.47

This was originally suppose to be a 6 game, $20.00 parlay that I was going to do with one of my friends and he picked most of the games but I ended up shaving two of the games because I was a bit skeptical of his Football wits. According to him all these games were a lock. Apparently not..
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MLB (Prop "Will there be a run scored in the first inning?")

No -155

Risked $20.00 to win $12.90

This was me just goofing around. I was bored, and the only baseball game on TV was the Rockies v. Padres Wild Card tie breaker.I just wanted some quick action, so I laid down this prop bet. I was getting horrible odds as well. But I guess I was just looking for a quick "high". lol
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MLB & NFL (2 Team Parlay)

San Diego Padres -126

New England Patriots -426

Risked $7.10 to win $8.75

lol This was a desperate attempt at winning back some of the money from my previous bets. I knew the Patriots were a sure lock, but if I had only laid a single bet on that game, the payout would have been horrible because New England was such a big favorite. So I had to parlay it with another game, but it was a Monday night so the only other game going on was the Padres v. Rockies. I really thought the Padres would get it done, but after what became an unbelievable game, the umpire blew it in the bottom of the 13th with a horrible call at home plate.
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MLB (Cubs v. Diamondbacks NLDS Game 1)

Cubs +104

Risked $10.00 to win $10.40

So this was the game I was really pumped up for. I mean, we had Z going. And I would have laid more money on this but I'd made some smaller prop bets on the game so I decided to only lay down 10 dollars. Wise choice I guess. Z did what he had to do but the Cubs offense was horrible and Marmol, our bullpen "MVP" fucked it up.

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UEFA Cup (3 Team Parlay)

Tottenham Hotspur -250

Lokomotiv Moscow -300

Hamburg SV -550

Risked $8.88 to win $10.71

What the fuck. Tottenham crushes this team 6-1 the week before and they only manage a
1-1 draw this time around? Ahh...if Sports Gambling is -EV then Soccer Gambling is -----EV.
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So that about covers the biggest bets on Bodog from this past week. I also had this bet with a guy from work. It kind of worked like a 2 game parlay. I bet $25 dollars that the Cubs would win the NL Central and another $25 that the Bears would beat the Lions. So in order for either of us to win any money, we would have to win both of our bets, otherwise we'd even out. So after the Cubs clinched the NL Central last Friday, I was on somewhat of a freeroll, because if the Bears won, I'd collect $50 dollars, but if they lost, we'd even out and I wouldn't owe him anything. Well the Bears blew a ten point lead going into the 4th quarter and that was that.

So to recap. I'm on life fuckin tilt and I hate sports gambling with a passion.

p.s.- I've got the Cubs for $70 in tomorrow's game and the Bears for $20 on Sunday...

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Rough Times Ahead...

So this weekend was stressful to the max. I mentioned in a previous post that we had a couple of days of major storms and the basement of our house, which is my room, got flooded. So the carpet had to come out because mold was starting to grow on that, so I spent most of the weekend moving out of the basement into my old room in the second floor. The room is alright, but I'm definitely going to miss my old room because that place was huge! It was perfect for when the guys came over to play some poker, and now, in my new room, its so small I couldn't fit all my stuff in here. The bed takes up most of the room, so that's all I have along with my desk and Tv. Another thing is that there's no cable up here, which is a major problem. I'll have to get someone to come over and hook me up asap. Besides the moving, the weekend was also hectic because of school starting up. And I got into somewhat of an argument with my dad yesterday, but I don't really want to get into that.

1st day of my Senior year in high school today. Extremely light schedule. Today I had Spanish 3. That was ok. Then I've got lunch right after which kind of sucks because it's so early in the day. After lunch I had Weight Training, Lifetime Activities and Band. All easy classes I guess. Last period I had Aquatic and Marine Science. That was actually kinda cool because we walked down to the river behind the school, and some people went in the river with waders and we were looking at all the species living in there and stuff.

After school I finally had a chance to talk to my counselor about the classes I need to make up. So, I will have to go to evening school and Saturday school. Saturday school starts the 15th, and evening school, which is only a couple of days a week, starts on the 27th. The plan is to have earned credits for Trig and Biology by January, so I don't have to worry about not graduating and stuff. It's a good thing my Northside Schedule is so light.

Alright so what's all this school stuff mean for my poker game? Like I said in an earlier post, I might have to take a break for a few months. I'm going to have such a hectic time with school and work that I probably won't be able to play much. My weeks for the next 4 to 5 months look something like this:

Monday- School from 7:00am-3:14pm Work from 4:00pm-10:00pm

Tuesday- School from 7:00am-3:14pm Evening School from 4:30pm-7:30pm

Wednesday- School from 9:30am-12:45pm Work from 4:00pm-10:00pm

Thursday- School from 7:00am-3:14pm Evening School from 4:30pm-7:30pm

Friday- School from 7:00am-3:14pm Work from 4:00pm-12:00am

Saturday- Saturday School from 8:00am-11:30am

Sunday- Homework!!!

So, as you can tell, it's going to be really tough the next 5 months or so, but I should get through it. I may play a little poker here and there, but nothing big.

This doesn't mean I haven't played any poker lately though. I've actually been crushing Heads Up matches like crazy. I've won like 5 in a row, including a 4 man shootout tonight. Bankroll still isn't decent enough though, so I'll stick with SnGs for now.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

School, Poker, and Fifa...

So the plans I had on the last post for Tuesday were a wash. I didn't get back home from orientation til' around 1 pm. Orientation was ok. As expected, my schedule is extremely light. This is what it looks like as of now:

Spanish 3-Should be a breeze, since I'm fluent in Spanish, and I've got Villodas as a teacher, and she loves me.

Weight Training- I don't know how intense this is going to get but, it should be ok.

Lifetime Activities-Kick ass class, nothing but playing stuff like softball and soccer.

Advanced Band- If Lil doesn't get all Nazi on us about learning the piano, I'll be ok.

Aquatic and Marine Life-I heard my teacher Arnam is pretty easy, so if I stay focused I should be ok.

World Literature- Don't know who my teacher is yet, but I'm kinda looking forward to this class.

Computer Software Application- Seems like a blow off class as well.

So, this is my schedule to begin school, but I've still got to make up two half credits for Trig and Bio. If they don't let me make them up at my school, which will be extremely gay, I'll probably have to go to evening school or Saturday school. I don't know yet. I'm trying to set up an appointment with my counselor to see what my options are. I really don't want to have to go to evening school, not only because it might get in the way of poker, but in the way of my job as well. So we'll see what happens.

Anyway, after I got home from orientation I just wanted to sleep! I was soo tired because I'd pulled an all nighter. But instead, my girl called me up, and we went to the beach and then out to eat. lol by the end of the day, after getting home around 10ish, I was super extremely tired because I'd been awake for 30 plus hours. So I just crashed til like noon.

Today (well I guess I mean yesterday, because it's past midnight) I woke up around 12 and met up with my girl again. She wanted to go to a museum to see some exhibit so that took up most of my day. I got home around 8 pm and I watched the ending of the Cubs Brewers game. I don't know what the hell is wrong with Zambrano this month man, but he's been horrible. People kept talking about him being more relaxed after he signed his gazillion dollar contract extension, but that hasn't been the case. Hopefully he picks it up in September because the Cubs are definitely going to need him for the home stretch.

So after watching the cubs be sucky, I finally played some poker. I started with an 18 man SnG. I was card dead til' the final table where on the first hand, I was in late position and there were like 5 or 6 limpers and I got dealt JJ. The blinds where big enough where simply collecting the blinds was going to help my stack so I pushed half hoping everyone would fold, but with an ok hand in case I got a caller. I felt like gambling I guess. Anyway, everyone did end up folding. Then the very next hand I get AA. Guy raises for half his stack so I push and we get a third caller. One had QQ and the other one KJ. So my Aces held up. and i tripled up just like that. lol. Two hands into the FT and I was CL. I ended up finishing in 3rd though. But I'll take it. Then a couple more SnGs where I didn't cash, until this last one I which was a heads up 5 dollar one. I took it down in less than 10 hands. That's going to be all for poker tonight.
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I've been playing a ton of Fifa 07 on the PS2. I used to play alot of it online, but my internet connection kept signing me off for no reason, which got extremely annoying so I stopped online play. I started a new season with a kickass team I created. It's filled with a bunch of Mexican players, and I lowered their ages to like 19 and 20, so I'd be able to have them for a while. lol I created this player named Negreanu for my team, he's like 18 and he's already got an overall of like 93/100 so he's definitely gonna be the one carrying the team. I started the season in the Spanish Second Division, but I should make it to first division by the end of the season. It might take a while though, because I rarely simulate a game, and theres over 40 games in a season including other tourneys besides the domestic league, so yea, might take a couple of weeks to fininish up this first season, but it should be fun. I'm going to go play right now actually. Later!

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

No More Cash Games...

At least not for a while. Cash games have been killing me lately, and my Full Tilt roll is bleeding bad, so I'm going to stick with SnGs for a couple of weeks. Probably no more than 3 dollar buy ins for each one. Depending on where my roll is at in two weeks, I'll decide whether to go back to cash games or keep grinding it out on the SnGs. I'm going to try to play a sick amount of poker this week because school starts next Monday.

As a matter of fact, I've got orientation in a about 4 hours or so. I was about to go to sleep right now and figured I'd wake up around 10 or so, thinking Orientation was around noon, but I just found out its actually at 8 am, so I might as well pull an all nighter. I'll be back home around 11am and then I'll crash til' like 5 pm. After I wake up I might go pick up my paycheck. I'm not sure yet. Depends if I feel like riding the bus. Then, gonna hit the tables all night long. That's the plan anyway.

So yea, with school starting again, I have no idea how much poker I'll be able to play because I have no idea how difficult my Senior year is going to be. The schedule I receive at orientation today will probably be filled with easy classes, but thats not going to be my final schedule, because I've got to talk to my counselor about a couple of classes I need to make up. So, I'll have a better idea of where I stand in a week or so, hopefully. But if it turns out I really gotta focus in school, then I might take a poker hiatus for a couple of months until I'm sure I can balance the two well enough that I don't have to worry about not graduating.

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No Bodog activity recently. Don't think there will be for a little while because there's no money to reload right now since I've gotta do some back to school shopping. My initial 50 dollar deposit is all but gone because of retarded Bankroll management. Geez..what the hell was I thinking when I placed that Barca bet? Oh well, live and learn. No matter how much of a favorite a team is, you gotta leave yourself outs man, and I neglected to do that, so I'll be watching sports for the sheer joy it for a couple of weeks. Ha!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Not a Good Gambling Day...

I hadn't played much poker in the last two days until today. I wish I hadn't played today either. I played .05/.10 for a little bit and immediately lost a few dollars. So I decided to join a $5.50 90 man SnG instead. I went deep finishing up 17th for a small payout. Busted when I pushed with JJ and got called by Kings. Oh well. Then I went back to the cash games and was just getting killed. No, more like, I was killing myself trying to over do it, and pressing hard with hands I had no business pressing with. So I dumped another 10 dollars there. Don't really want to make excuses for my garbage play today, but because of all the storms we had this past couple of days, my room in my basement got kinda flooded. So the carpet is soaking wet, and it smells really funky, so I decided to play on the computer in my living room instead of the one in my room. I think this definitely affected my play because when I'm playing in my room I'm more focused, and here in the living room, the distractions are non stop with people walking in and out and talking to me. What sucks is my carpet is probably gonna have to be replaced so I won't get to play in my room for a few days.
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The day wasn't any better on the sports betting angle. I woke up expecting to find 55 dollars in my Bodog account from the Barcelona v. Racing game, thinking it was a lock. But damn Barca couldn't get it done and score was 0-0. That's one thing I don't like about betting soccer games on Bodog. A draw counts as a loss, and I lose my money.Also, I didn't end up betting that multi game parlay I talked about earlier. Good thing I didn't because two of my picks were washes. Santos did end up beating Pachuca though, as I predicted they would. But like I said, no money made off that.

So overall, combining Poker and Sports, a total loss of around $80 dollars for the day. Tough. Hope tomorrow goes better.