The Crooked Link

Life of a Low Stakes Gambler...

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Limited or No Connectivity

"Limited or No Connectivity." That's the message I keep getting on my computer at home. Then it goes away for like 5 minutes and comes back on disabling me from accessing any websites. I've tried a lot of things like resetting my modem and shit. What I haven't done is call up AT&T cause I hate being on hold forever but I guess I'll have to end up doing that.

Anyway, yea so haven't been able to blog consistently because of this or play any poker. I did have two plays the last couple of days though. I had the Cubs -1.5 both on Tuesday and Wednesday and hit on both as my Cubbies swept the Brewers to take a 5 game lead in the NL Central.

So the bankroll is up to $95.45 which I'm pretty happy about, considering it was around $55 around a week ago. I'm hoping to get it back over $100 this weekend with some smart soccer picks.

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I went to see The Dark Knight today and was not expecting anything great because every time my friends tell me of "the best freakin movie ever" I end up leaving the theater very disappointed. Thankfully this was not the case today, as the movie just simply rocked. So awesome on many levels and hands down the best superhero movie of all time and its not even close. Heath Ledger as The Joker was just masterful.

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I also went to Gigio's today to have a talk with my boss. My friend Furcio is quitting pretty soon (3 weeks?) so I told my boss I would take over his shifts. He was delighted with this and offered me a raise since he doesn't have to go trough the trouble of hiring someone new and training him. I could definitely use the extra cash since I want to finally start saving up for a car. My sister wants to transfer me her 2006 Pontiac G6 but I think this may be to much for my first car and with monthly payments plus gas and insurance it wouldn't leave me with much spending money.

Instead I'd like to save up at least 4k and buy myself something a little older. Wouldn't mind going with a good old 98 Civic. It seems a Civic is just about every teen's first car.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Monday Night Bases

Cincinnati -0.5

Kansas City -0.5

Baltimore -0.5

Cleveland -0.5

LA Angels -0.5

Colorado -1.5

Houston v. Cincinnati Under 9

Milwaukee v. Cubs Under 7.5

Minessota v. White Sox Under 8



Day Profit: $13.28

Day Record: 5-3-1

Total Record: 76-88-3


Bankroll: $83.28

Total Profit:-$116.72

Sunday, July 27, 2008

One Play. Maybe Two

I've had just one play so far today which I managed to cash. Not much left for the night except the Yanks v. Red Sox game and a couple of MLS games. Going to go do some research and see if I like any of those.

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Pumas -0.5

Adding:

Yankees -0.5 (+164)

Yankees +1.5 (-115)


Day Profit: -$0.97

Day Record: 1-2

Total Record: 71-85-2


Bankroll: $70.00

Total Profit:-$130.00

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Good Saturday

I haven't blogged the last couple of days because my internet connection at home has been acting up. Sometimes its working great (like now) other times it stops working completely and sometimes only certain websites work. It's beginning to get really frustrating.

Because of this I also haven't been putting in any cash sessions on PokerStars although I did play four $5.25 Heads Up SnGs last night and went 3-1 which was pretty cool.

Anyway, I had a pretty good day as far as sports betting today. Starting the day the bankroll stood at $54.11 after a 1-2 baseball day on Thursday on plays I didn't post here.

I had a pretty huge card today with baseball, soccer and even a boxing fight, lol.

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Cruz Azul -0.5

Atlas -0.5

Tecos v. Indios Under 2.5

Baltimore -0.5

San Diego -0.5

Rockies v. Reds Under 10.5

Arizona -0.5

Antonio Margarito +190


Day Profit: +$16.86

Day Record: 6-2

Total Record: 70-83-2


Bankroll: $70.97

Total Profit: -$129.03

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I really needed a winning day. Man, it would have been sweet to hit the Cruz Azul pick though, and they should have won the game but fucking Sabah missed a penalty kick two minutes into the game. Blah, can't complain with a 6-2 day though.

The Margarito v. Cotto fight I was initially going to to with the Puerto Rican Cotto who was a good favorite to win the match, but I decided to back my fellow Mexican Margarito instead which paid off nicely although I bet it kinda small since I don't know shit about boxing in general. The only reason I placed the bet was because there was so much action on this fight at my work place.

Speaking of work, I had a good gambling night there as well on Friday. My friend Furcio and I have been teaching the other guys how to play 5 card draw poker and I had a nice rush of cards. I also ran good in blackjack and ended the night +$57.

So that's about it. Hope to have another good day betting sports tomorrow and will try to update if my fucking internet decides to work.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Hating Sports Bets and Lovin' Poker

God I suck at sports betting. Had a horrible day today although not surprising since I basically bet the biggest afternoon dogs looking to get a little lucky. Nope. Went an ugly 1-4

San Diego -0.5

Oakland -0.5

Pittsburgh -0.5

Minnesota -0.5

Cleveland -0.5


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Day Profit: -$13.90

Day Record: 1-4

Total Record: 53-79-2


Bankroll: $59.35

Total Profit: -$140.65

Being down $40 after less than a week is definitely worrisome so I'm just hoping that I can pick it up a bit when the Mexican Soccer League starts this weekend.
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What I have been doing alright in is Poker. Yesterday I decided to play 6 max instead of full ring but I quickly dropped 1.5 Buy Ins. I was tilting a bit so I chilled for a bit then decided to play a $6.60 6max SnG instead. I love these man, I've had good results in them and after having played cash games so much for the past few days, tournament poker kind of felt easier for some reason. Anyway I ended up winning the SnG which helped recoup my cash game losses and then some.

I decided to put in another 6max session tonight and ran pretty good over ~150 hands cashing out for almost a full buy in.

Here's the graph:



That goofy downswing around hand 113 was me trying to bluff off a short stack with AQ in a 6699 board. He'd raised preflop and I put him on two overs and figured I could push him off the hand but he woke up with 77 and I double'd him up. No biggie, I grinded my way back picking up small pots.

No real interesting hands I can remember except for this one.

I flop a straight and slow play it by just calling on the flop but the turn brings a horrible card for me. I still decide to bet it and get insta-called which has me worried. The river is another ugly card putting a four flush on board. I check and my opponent bets $2.50. I tanked for a while and was so close to folding but say "aww fuck it" and call thinking I'd get beat my a tiny club. Nope, opponent had AQ no club and I drag in a nice pot.

I've also been using HUD stats a little more to exploit my opponent's weaknesses more and more and make better decisions. Today for example I noticed a guy was folding to a re-raise on the flop 100% of the time! And it was over a decent size sample of around 80 hands or so. So I start to three bet him with air on flops and getting him to fold a ton. I also used the stats to help find leaks in my game as well. I noticed I was folding to continuation bets way to often so I started calling light and making moves on the turn which worked out quite nicely.

Alright High Stakes Poker is on so I'm off to watch that!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

7.21 Break Even Session

I had a brutal 5 hour 400 hand session last night. I started off 2-tabling because I had a bit of success doing so the night before but this time around things were not going so well. I just couldn't focus with two tables and was making sloppy plays. I finally decided to 1 table it when I was already down like 1.5 buy ins.

But as soon as I began playing just one table I felt like I had a bit more control of the table and was able to focus more and get some reads on my opponents especially because I was using HUD stats.
The most I was down on the night was around $17 but I slowly grinded my way back. I started playing at 3:30 am and by 8:30 am I finally got lucky for once and won a big pot that put me in the black for the session with a profit of $3.50. I'll take it.

Here's the hand that put me in the black.

Big time suck out.


Yea, I sucked out big time and I probably should have folded pre-flop. I mean what's he going to jam all his stack in there with? I was trying to get some info from him on the chat but he wasn't responding, lol. I asked him if he would show if I folded and he said no. I made the reluctant call and made the suckout of the night.

Here's the session's graph:



After I won the pot I kinda pulled a hit and run but I was just to tired to keep playing.

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Anway I finally went to sleep at around 9:00am and woke up at 6.pm. Too late to bet on most baseball games but I'm making a couple of plays on the Cubs game.

Cubs -0.5

Cubs v. Arizona Under 9.5

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Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 0-2

Total Record: 52-75-2


Bankroll: $73.25

Total Profit: -$126.75

Monday, July 21, 2008

Monday Night Picks

Still on Paper Chaser's picks plus I also like the Angels tonight although not willing to lay the heavy juice on the money line (-200) so I'll go with the runline at even money.

Florida -1.5

Yankees -1.5

St. Louis -1.5

LA Angels -1.5


Also still haven't decided whether I want to play the Cubs tonight or not. Harden looked strong in his Cubs debut and is an all around Ace pitcher when healthy, in my opinion. And even though Randy Johnson is something like 12-0 lifetime against the Cubs, his last victory against them came in 2004. That was when the Cubs sucked and when Randy wasn't a 65 year old man with a sub .500 record.

I'll make my decision on the Cubs a little before game time.

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Day Profit: -$6.75

Day Record: 1-3

Total Record: 52-73-2


Bankroll: $83.25

Total Profit: -$116.75

7-20 Session

Just got done with a 2.5 hour 10NL session. Played a total of 187 hands and ended the night with a $7.40 profit. Here's a couple of interesting hands:

Hand # 1 (How not to play an open-ended straigtht)

Hand #2 (Hero call that gets outdrawn)

Hand # 3 (Value bet with 2 pair)

Hand #4 (AQ>QQ)

I peaked in profit at around $12 but then donked off about 5 dollars in one of the last hands against a guy who overplayed top pair top kicker.

Still happy with the session overall.

Here's today's graph.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Oversleeping...

I don't usually work on Sundays so today's plan was to grind 10NL all day, but late last night my friend gave me a call and asked if I could work for him today. I could use the extra cash so I said sure.

I usually go into work at 4P.M. except Sundays in which case I have to be here at 2P.M. Well, I ended up going to sleep at 5 A.M. thinking I had set my alarm to go off at 10:30 so I could put in a solid 5 hours of sleep and have time to analyze the baseball lines in the morning and maybe catch an early movie at the Cineplex in Evanston before heading to work.

Well I woke up to no alarm actually and when I glanced at the clock it was 2:15 LOL. So I jumped out of bed, brushed my teeth and put some fresh gear on and managed to arrive to work only 36 minutes late. Haha, how the fuck do you oversleep for a job that starts at 2.pm?

Right so anyway this means I missed out on playing Paper Chaser's picks which is going to sting if he ends up sweeping.

I may or may not make a play on tonight's Santos v. Pachuca game. I'll update later if I do.

Since I left home in such a hurry I didn't bring my laptop with me (using a friend's at the moment) and since Sundays are usually really slow at work I'm probably going to be close to finishing up Harrington on Cash Games by tonight and then I'll put in a short session of 10NL when I get home from work.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bad Comeback

I've been MAJORLY dragging on the blog cause I've had a lot of shit going on none of which was "gambling related" but I'm back and ready to make some money. Or lose it, whatever. I'll definitely be updating the blog daily though.

Let's start off with the sports betting. Haven't made a pick since who knows when and my record looks awful Haven't even really been following baseball at all, which is about the only sport to bet on during the summer. Have no clue who's hot and who's not so definitely going to have to do some reading up to catch up. In the meantime I'm going to ride with Paper Chaser's picks and hope he's pretty money with those. Started off on the wrong foot today going 0-2 but definitely felt like they were the right picks. Zambrano on the mound for the Cubbies, I'll put my money on that any day. And Detroit got off to a 6-0 lead in the 1st and were still hanging on in the 9th by a run but they blew it and lost in extras.

But I'm still going to follow his picks for a while and add maybe one or two plays of my own each day and hopefully start the slow steady climb out of the $100 hole and get back in the black.


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Detroit -0.5

Cubs -0.5


Day Profit: -$10.00

Day Record: 1-1

Total Record: 51-70-2


Bankroll: $90.00

Total Profit: -$110.00
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I'm also going to be putting in a TON of time into online poker. I started the grind today and it wasn't pretty. I just got done with a grueling 4 hour session ending the night down 2 Buy Ins. I started off okay, playing pretty tight and floating around even for a while until this hand came up, which put me on major tilt.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2918592

With his pre-flop call of my re-raise I had to put him on something like AJ-AK so the flop looks pretty safe for my JJ. I turn a boat and have him drawing to a one outter. Obviously the river puts quads in the board and his fucking Ace high drags in the biggest pot I'd played up to that point.

Very next hand I lose the rest of my shortstack when I slow play top pair and my opponent rivers a straight. I was tilting so much so I took a short break but then rebought again. Things started off pretty nicely the second time around and was up half a buyin after the first hand. But after that I kinda just went card dead a little bit and lossend up my play a little too much which ended up costing me the second buy in.

Still feel like I had some good spots. I got my money in as a favorite for the most part.

Also played a 200FFP satellite for tomorrow's 100k Guaranteed. LOL, top 6 places paid and I busted in like 8th with my A10 going down to KQ with a King on the river. It was just that kind of night...

I also downloaded a trial version of Poker Tracker 3 which should help immensely in finding leaks in my game. I was having some trouble setting it up at first so I my HHs for tonight's session weren't captured but I'll be posting graphs of most of my sessions from now on.

Apart from that, I also picked up a copy of Harrington on Cash Games. The Harrington on Hold Em' series got amazing reviews from the poker community and I'd been hearing the Cash Game series was just as good so I forked over the $35. I just starte reading it but I can see how it's definitely going to help me with my game. I just got done with reading the general stuff like pot odds and shit like that and I'm now anxious about getting into the deeper stuff like pot control and just post flop play in general.

So that's about it. Not a good day in poker or sports betting but looking forward to putting in another long session tomorrow and get some results.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Taste of Chicago

So I'd been meaning to make a post about what I was up to for the 4th of July celebrations but I just kept on procrastinating to the point that now I can't even remember half the things I did. I'll try my best nonetheless.

July 2nd, I hit up the Taste of Chicago with my friend Mariana. We actually had an awesome time and enjoyed stuffing our faces with TONS of food. That's what The Taste's all about. Good food, good music and just a great atmosphere. The night however, ended on a sour note with some lady drama but I won't get into that.

Then the next day on the 3rd, I hit up The Taste once again but this time with my sister. Also had tons of fun and tons of food. We also enjoyed some live music including this local band called Mind's Hideaway which whom I was pretty impressed with. I was feeling their music so we stuck around after their performance and chilled with them for a little bit. Cool bunch of guys.

The Taste was definitely a lot more crowded that day because of the fireworks show that was gonna take place by the lake front that night.

Anyway we stuck around for the fireworks and they were just simply amazing. Honestly, just jaw dropping stuff. Amplified even more perhaps by the buzz I was getting from the marijuana smoke all over Grant Park, lol. Seriously you couldn't walk 20 feet without spotting someone lighting up. You'd think the heavy 5-0 presence would discourage such mischievous activities, but oh it did not.

Anyway on our walk back, the streets of downtown were just completely FLOODED with people. Shit was crazy and as my sister and I are making our way to the L station we hear these loud ass popping sounds. Those my friends, did not sound like fireworks. More like gunshots. Yup, bunch of clowns had to fuck up what has traditionally been a safe family outing in the Chi, by staging an all out gang fight in the middle of the streets with no concern towards the fact that there were families everywhere with little kids.

Anyway as soon as all this shit starts going down my sister and I skip the L station and just jump on the #22 bus instead. We got home probably in twice the amount of time it would have taken us to ride the train, but I wasn't going to take any chances. So the next day I read about what happened in the newspapers and on the news. Four people got shot but thankfully no innocent bystanders. Just what the fuck are people thinking man?

Right, so on the actual 4th of July I took it easy and chilled at home. Family wasn't up to much and I wasn't in the mood to go out so I watched TV for most of the day instead. I did go out to my front yard for a while to check out some more fireworks and brought my dog Chase along but he kept getting scared and running towards the door, lol.

And that concluded my 4th of July festivities for 2008. Good food, great music, amazing fireworks and a good old fashion gang shoot out in the streets of Chicago.

I brought my camera to the Taste thinking I'd be snapping pictures left and right but ultimately forgot so I only took a couple shitty ones: