1st Royal

I managed to hit my first ever royal flush today. It as crazy too because I was down to 110 in chips in a Stars 4.40 but I managed to double up a couple times and I got up to 955. Then the Royal hit.





Then the hand right after this I get hit with Aces!

PokerStars Game #14957448174: Tournament #75807115, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2008/01/31 - 12:36:53 (ET)
Table '75807115 7' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Shorty83 (2840 in chips)
Seat 2: jiuhjiuh (1699 in chips)
Seat 3: Danilo1973 (4915 in chips)
Seat 5: CrookedLink (1955 in chips)
Seat 6: AniD (940 in chips)
Seat 7: boeksma (2200 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 8: dbc1984 (1670 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: DorkyOne (7536 in chips)
Danilo1973: posts small blind 15
CrookedLink: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CrookedLink [Ac Ah]
CrookedLink said, "WEEEEEEEEE"
AniD: folds
boeksma: folds
dbc1984: folds
DorkyOne: folds
CrookedLink said, "1ST ROYAL"
AniD said, "raise hell! go all in and hit a royal haha"
AniD said, "nh"
Shorty83: folds
jiuhjiuh: folds
Danilo1973: calls 15
CrookedLink said, "and the sick thing is now i have aces"
CrookedLink said, "lol"
CrookedLink: raises 90 to 120
Danilo1973: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [8d 8c Td]
Danilo1973: bets 300
CrookedLink: raises 1535 to 1835 and is all-in
Danilo1973: calls 1535
AniD said, "lol"
*** TURN *** [8d 8c Td] [As]
*** RIVER *** [8d 8c Td As] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Danilo1973: shows [Tc 2d] (two pair, Tens and Eights)
CrookedLink: shows [Ac Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Eights)
CrookedLink collected 3910 from pot
CrookedLink said, "dey never beleive me"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3910 | Rake 0
Board [8d 8c Td As 9c]
Seat 1: Shorty83 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jiuhjiuh (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Danilo1973 (small blind) showed [Tc 2d] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 5: CrookedLink (big blind) showed [Ac Ah] and won (3910) with a full house, Aces full of Eights
Seat 6: AniD folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: boeksma folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: dbc1984 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: DorkyOne folded before Flop (didn't bet)

lol Notice how I actually told the table I had aces, and they didn't believe me...tsk tsk,

Three Seconds

No, not seconds as in time. Seconds as in 2nd place finishes. I played 3 SnGs tonight and managed to place 2nd in all three. Two on Full Tilt and one on Stars. I would have obviously liked to win at least one of them, but I can't complain with 3 straight cashes.

I'm still looking for a partner for the February $4.40 challenge on FCP but I haven't found one yet. I guess I'll have to fly solo. I was thinking about whether I'm going to pony up the $50 buy-in straight from my bankroll, although it's really not something I'd like to do. $50 would put a huge dent on my roll right now. So I think what I'll do instead is deposit another $50 on Stars just to buy into the challenge, but use my roll to play the $4.40s. Just makes more sense to me that way.

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So this 2nd semester at school is going to be real tough since I did kinda shitty the first semester. Had a talk with my counselor this morning and we went over what I need to pass, which is basically all my classes. No room for errors anymore. Gotta get serious about this school shit so I don't have to hit the books during the summer. Passing all my classes is definitely doable; I just gotta start showing up.

Monkey Off My Back

Man, hadn't gone so long without cashing in a single table SnG on Stars, but I finally managed to take one down just now.

As I showed on my Sharkscope stats on my previous blog, I had gone 4 SnGs without cashing, plus 2 more tonight for a total of 6. Obviously I get tilted to the max when my pocket 9s run into Aces on the 6th one, that I figured I'd try one last one for the night except I made it a $13 dollar one, double my usual stake.

I've gotta say, hands down, the difficulty level between a $6 and a $13 SnG is huge! And I began to notice it as soon as the tourney started. On the $6 dollar one, usually about 10 minutes in you've already got a couple of guys eliminated, and a guy who is super short stacked just waiting to push. But on the $13 one, the playing field remained so close and it took a while before the first guy busted.

I however did stick to my usual approach of playing real tight aggressive poker and it paid off once again. Once it got down to 4 handed the stacks were so even that I kinda had to start playing more hands though, otherwise the blinds were going to get to me. I managed to get my money all in with AdQd against 10s10c and the beautiful lady hit on the flop and it held up. From there it was only a couple of hands until we got to heads up.

We started HU with me about 3k to my opponents 6k but first hand of heads up I get pocket tens on the button and make a standard raise to 300. Guy insta shoves and I call. He shows QJ and I somehow hold up. From there it was just a bit of blind stealing until he was so short stacked he pushed with J8 and I genuinely felt my Q9 was good so I made the call. A queen hit on the flop but he had a flush draw which I thought I would vomit if he managed to hit it. Thankfully he didn't and I took it down for a cool $46, and a huge confidence booster.

So I managed to make up the losses for the bad run I'd been having on Stars and coupled with the earlier SnG I won on Full Tilt, I got a nice boost to my roll. Obviously not the way I wanted to do it, because more often than not, going up in stakes to chase losses will make me go bust, but I just gotta feel good about the win and make sure I don't have such a shitty run of SnGs again.

Runner Runner

Well the weekend came and went, and so did my Bodog roll. I'll be the first to say that my "All In" move was pretty moronic because it was a $48 bet, which was more than enough to try and grind it out but I just kept getting frustrated with how I was running lately with sports. I would either have a horrible day, or just a break even at best. I kept waiting for that breakthrough day that would push me into the green, but it just never came, and I let it overwhelm me a bit too much. So I let it all ride on the Pachuca game. They obviously lost 3-2 and now my sports betting grind has come to a sudden end.

I do regret tilting away the money like that, but also, sports betting was really distracting me from my poker game lately, something I did not want to happen. So will I stop the sports betting and play poker exclusively? Probably not, but I will put more emphasis on my poker game and only bet a couple of games a week.

Yesterday was a roller coaster day as far as poker goes. I won a couple of HU matches, but on one of them, I must have sucked out like a dozen times on the guy. I kept putting my money in with the worst hand and kept sucking out. I swear, I felt sorry for the guy, cause I would hae probably kicked my computer if that was me. A couple of times I caught runner runner to stay alive when I should have been all but gone.

So later at night, when I busted in 3 straight 6 man SnGs, I couldn't feel too bad, because I can't exactly be a suck out machine and then get pissed when someone else sucks out on me. (lol that sounds kinda gross)

Thankfully this morning I was able to win an $5 6 max SnG to help recuperate the losses from late last night. I noticed that whenever I seem to be running extremely well on Full Tilt Poker, I seem to be running horrible in Stars, and vice versa. Seems kinda weird but true, and I've got the sharkscope stats to prove it!

PokerStars:



Full Tilt Poker:




So it's pretty evident that I've been way more consistent on Full Tilt lately than Stars, but about a week or so ago, that wasn't the case at all. It was the complete opposite.

I've also managed to stay away from cash games for the most part which I think has helped me tremendously. I'll keep grinding out the SnGs instead. Right now my total online bankroll stands around $265.

$114 is on Full Tilt and $151 is on Stars. Last time I deposited was 2 weeks ago. My initial deposit on Full Tilt was $50 and Stars was $93. So over a couple of weeks my net profit has been $122, if my monkey math is any good.

Not spectacular and not baller money by any means, but I think this is the first time in my online playing that I've been able to notice a real consistent progress in my bankroll, and staying away from cash games has a great deal to do with it in my opinion.

I'm going to continue to make the short handed SnGs my main source of income, with a few $4.40s now and then, since that's what's been working. We'll see how it goes.

I'm All In

Just one play for the all in move.

Pachuca +150

NBA Blowout

I've had such bad luck with NBA games, but tonight it's the turnaround night. I can feel it!

Actually no I can't, but let's hope it is.


Suns -2

Grizzlies +8

Bucks +10

76ers +3

Lakers +7

Bobcats +4

Nets +9

Kings +8

Blazers -2.5

Suns v. Cavs U(212)

Atlas -143

College Hoops

Well last night's huge card went 6-8-1, with the NBA games fucking me over. So I'll stick to college picks exclusive tonight, courtesy of the Paper Chaser from CrookedStraight.com

Rider -11

Utah St. -10.5

Wisc.-Milwaukee -8

South Alabama -12.5

Boise St. -11

UCLA -4

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I know I said I wouldn't play poker online yesterday, but since I didn't feel like driving to the casino, I jumped in a Stars 4.40 instead, and managed to Final Table it. Finished up in 4th place for $60.

I was one double up away from having a clear shot at winning the whole thing but I got it all in with my K10 v. 77 and even though my 10 hit on the flop, he caught a runner runner straight. It's all good though. Still feels good to finish deep.