I don't want this sketchbook to become a "Bad Beat" diary, but today was kinda ugly . . .
After transferring most of my on-line poker funds to Full Tilt Poker yesterday, I had $62 left in my UltimateBet account. Today, I decided to play with that money on a No-Limit table and see what I could do.
After 30 minutes on UltimateBet, I was up to $74 (up $12) when I was dealt Ac Kc. Playing aggressive, I raised the bet to $8 and I had one other player raise me to $16. I immediately called.
The flop came As Ad 6h. My opponent immediately bet $10. Considering my options, I went "all in." As I saw it, the ONLY way that I'm behind is if he's holding A6 - which seems highly improbable considering the fact that he raised the bet to $16 before the flop. My opponent deliberated for 20 seconds before calling my bet. After seeing him wait for that long, I knew I was ahead.
Sure enough, he flipped over JJ and I had a big lead. The river was a 10 and the turn was (ugh!) another jack. That jack gave him the full house and he took all of my $62. That, my friends, is what we call a bad beat!!
Oh, well - I can't cry too long. That's the chance you take when you play No-Limit Poker. I really like No-Limit, but bad beats like today can be rather costly. Whereas my losses wouldn't have approached $62 if I had been playing a $2/$4 table (for example), I put myself in a good position to make $74 on that singular hand. I don't know the exact odds, but I'm guessing that I must've been nearly a 95% favorite to win that hand. Personally speaking, if someone gives me a 95% chance to win, I will ALWAYS put $75 on the table and take my chances.
My fantasy football teams look to be having a good day, so that's some good news. Two days ago, I forgot to mention that I acquired Eddie George in EHSI's fantasy football league, which cost me $2. I guess I'll add that to my daily loss today.
So, after all was said and done, I experienced a very modest profit this month. However, considering the fact that I lost money the last three days and started the month in a $480 hole (thanks to Potawatomi), I guess I can't complain. Here's a quick summary of my month:
+$453.00 On-Line Poker
+ 82.70 Live Poker Games
- 480.00 Trip to Potawatomi
-$ 4.00 Fantasy Football
+$ 51.70 TOTAL
Daily Sketch: Down $64
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $51.70
October 30, 2004: Full Tilt Poker
This evening, I established a new account at Full Tilt Poker. Through October 31st (tomorrow), Full Tilt is offering a 100% sign-up bonus for anyone who opens a new account on their site. Simply put, that's an offer that's hard to ignore. So, maximizing my potential, I consolidated some of my other on-line accounts and moved $600 (the max allowed) into an account on Full Tilt Poker. If I can actually earn $600 bonus dollars from Full Tilt Poker, that'll be pretty sweet!
Because it's such a large figure, Full Tilt Poker is giving me 3 months to earn the $600. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to earn that sum of money, but I'm certainly going to give it a go. Unlike some other sites (i.e. PokerRoom), it doesn't appear that I'll need to play high-stakes tables on Full Tilt to earn the bonus. We'll see, I guess . . .
For the last couple days, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn't play a lot of poker tonight. Of course, that doesn't mean that I didn't get the chance to lose some money.
Playing for less than 10 minutes on Full Tilt Poker, I was dealt K-K on a NL table that I had entered for $50. I raised the bet (preflop) to $5 and was called by two other players. After seeing a 5-J-Q flop (rainbow), I immediately went "all in" and hoped that someone was holding A-Q. Sure enough, I was called by one player who was holding AQ, so things were looking pretty good. My pair of kings was a solid favorite to scoop the pot.
Naturally, the turn was an ace and I lost to the two pair. Ugh! Down exactly $47, I quit for the night. I don't think I earned many bonus points in my quest for the $600.
Daily Sketch: Down $47
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $115.70
Because it's such a large figure, Full Tilt Poker is giving me 3 months to earn the $600. I'm not sure how long it'll take me to earn that sum of money, but I'm certainly going to give it a go. Unlike some other sites (i.e. PokerRoom), it doesn't appear that I'll need to play high-stakes tables on Full Tilt to earn the bonus. We'll see, I guess . . .
For the last couple days, I've been feeling a bit under the weather, so I didn't play a lot of poker tonight. Of course, that doesn't mean that I didn't get the chance to lose some money.
Playing for less than 10 minutes on Full Tilt Poker, I was dealt K-K on a NL table that I had entered for $50. I raised the bet (preflop) to $5 and was called by two other players. After seeing a 5-J-Q flop (rainbow), I immediately went "all in" and hoped that someone was holding A-Q. Sure enough, I was called by one player who was holding AQ, so things were looking pretty good. My pair of kings was a solid favorite to scoop the pot.
Naturally, the turn was an ace and I lost to the two pair. Ugh! Down exactly $47, I quit for the night. I don't think I earned many bonus points in my quest for the $600.
Daily Sketch: Down $47
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $115.70
October 29, 2004: 18 Minutes of Losing
After getting home from work this evening, I played poker on UltimateBet for exactly 18 minutes. During those 18 minutes, I managed to lose exactly $50 on a 10-man No-Limit table. Unfortunately, I lost two big pots that proved to be my downfall and I quickly retired from the on-line poker scene.
During my first bad pot, I was holding AA and raised the pot to $5. One player called and we saw a flop of Ks 7s 8s. Unfortunately, neither of my aces was a spade. Still, I went "all in" and my opponent called. He only had $17 left in his account, so I was effectively betting $17 that he wasn't holding two spades. I thought it was a reasonable wager.
As it turned out, my opponent wasn't holding two spades. He had a king and a nine, but the nine was a spade. Naturally, the turn was a 2s and I lost to his flush. Ugh!! I hate losing with pocket rockets!
On the last hand of my evening, I was dealt Js Ks. Two other players called my $2 bet and we saw a flop of 9s 10h Qs. I had flopped the nut straight and I was holding a straight flush draw. I felt great!!
Interestingly, my first opponent went "all in" with $60 - more than double my shrinking stack. Then, the second player also went "all in." Excitedly, I hit my "all in" button and got ready to watch a mountain of chips slide my way. I anticipated tripling-up!
The turn was a 2h and the river was an 8h. I felt great about my chances - until one of my opponents (the first guy) flipped over Ah Qh. With the turn and river, he had caught a flush. He scooped the pot and I retired for the night - down exactly $50. Ugh!
Daily Sketch: Down $50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $162.70
During my first bad pot, I was holding AA and raised the pot to $5. One player called and we saw a flop of Ks 7s 8s. Unfortunately, neither of my aces was a spade. Still, I went "all in" and my opponent called. He only had $17 left in his account, so I was effectively betting $17 that he wasn't holding two spades. I thought it was a reasonable wager.
As it turned out, my opponent wasn't holding two spades. He had a king and a nine, but the nine was a spade. Naturally, the turn was a 2s and I lost to his flush. Ugh!! I hate losing with pocket rockets!
On the last hand of my evening, I was dealt Js Ks. Two other players called my $2 bet and we saw a flop of 9s 10h Qs. I had flopped the nut straight and I was holding a straight flush draw. I felt great!!
Interestingly, my first opponent went "all in" with $60 - more than double my shrinking stack. Then, the second player also went "all in." Excitedly, I hit my "all in" button and got ready to watch a mountain of chips slide my way. I anticipated tripling-up!
The turn was a 2h and the river was an 8h. I felt great about my chances - until one of my opponents (the first guy) flipped over Ah Qh. With the turn and river, he had caught a flush. He scooped the pot and I retired for the night - down exactly $50. Ugh!
Daily Sketch: Down $50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $162.70
October 28, 2004: 78 Minutes on UltimateBet
.Due to the fact that tonight's poker results are otherwise unexciting, here's a quick recap of the evening. I really like Ultimate Bet's stat page. If nothing else, it provides some interesting information - and I don't hafta search the site to find it. I played on one 6-man $2/$4 table.
Site: UltimateBet
Time: One hour, eighteen minutes
Hands Played: 192
Hands Won: 57 (29.7%)
Flops Seen: 118 (61.5%)
Hands Played to the River: 56 (29.2%)
Hands Folded after River: 11
Showdowns Won: 28
Showdowns Lost: 17
Poker Results: Up $2.25
Bonus $$ Earned: $16.60
Daily Sketch: Up $18.85
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $212.70
October 27, 2004: Poker at Bernard's
Tonight, I played in my weekly poker game at Bernard's. After the first 60 minutes, I was down nearly $12. However, over the next two hours, I recouped my losses and finished ahead exactly $20 for the night. I've lost track, but I believe I'm 7-for-7 when playing in this relatively new weekly game. Eventually, I'm going to start experiencing some losing sessions, but we'll see how long I can keep the winning streak alive. The next game is scheduled for next Monday night.
Daily Sketch: Up $20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $193.85
Daily Sketch: Up $20
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $193.85
October 26, 2004: Lazer 103's Raw Deal
This afternoon, I was the lucky 30th caller when WLZR was looking for someone to play their on-air radio game called Raw Deal. As the 30th caller, I had the option of taking $100 cash or opting for the mysterious prize behind Door #1. Similar to "Let's Make a Deal", that prize could be a dud, but I took the chance nevertheless. After all, I'm a gambler, right?!?
The prize behind Door #1 was a taco buffet party for 20 - hosted by Qdoba. I'll take it! In addition, I'm also entered into a drawing to win a $10,000 home entertainment system. I'd definitely take that!
My good fortune continued into the early evening. Playing for 45 minutes on UltimateBet, I won $98.37 while playing two simultaneous No-Limit tables. Since 10 people were seated at each table, I figured that I wouldn't have much difficulty keeping up with the action - which proved to be true.
I actually made $105 on one table while simultaneously losing $7 on the other table. My "big" hand occurred when the flop showed an A-9-5 while I was holding an A-9. I made a substantial bet and was immediately raised "all in" by another player. I considered my options and decided to call his bet. As it turned out, he was holding AK and (thankfully) a king did not appear on the turn or river and I scooped a monster pot.
This evening's winnings helps to ease some of the sting of the money I lost last night on Ultimatebet while watching the football game. Unlike last night, however, I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and watch tonight's baseball game while staying away from the on-line poker tables.
Daily Sketch: Up $98.37 & a Taco Party
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $173.85
The prize behind Door #1 was a taco buffet party for 20 - hosted by Qdoba. I'll take it! In addition, I'm also entered into a drawing to win a $10,000 home entertainment system. I'd definitely take that!
My good fortune continued into the early evening. Playing for 45 minutes on UltimateBet, I won $98.37 while playing two simultaneous No-Limit tables. Since 10 people were seated at each table, I figured that I wouldn't have much difficulty keeping up with the action - which proved to be true.
I actually made $105 on one table while simultaneously losing $7 on the other table. My "big" hand occurred when the flop showed an A-9-5 while I was holding an A-9. I made a substantial bet and was immediately raised "all in" by another player. I considered my options and decided to call his bet. As it turned out, he was holding AK and (thankfully) a king did not appear on the turn or river and I scooped a monster pot.
This evening's winnings helps to ease some of the sting of the money I lost last night on Ultimatebet while watching the football game. Unlike last night, however, I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and watch tonight's baseball game while staying away from the on-line poker tables.
Daily Sketch: Up $98.37 & a Taco Party
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $173.85
October 25, 2004: Sun Poker = Good, but UltimateBet = Bad
While watching "Fear Factor" this evening, I played 60 hands of No-Limit Poker on a 6-man table on Sun Poker. I only won 8 hands, but I still made $44. I scooped a significant pot when my full house beat another player who had hit a flush on the river. I had made the full house on the turn, so the river proved quite profitable for me. After two days of action, I gotta say that I like Caribbean Sun Poker! I'm 2-for-2 on the site.
After playing the 60 hands, I checked my account and noticed that an extra $40 had been credited to me. So, it appears that the 175 hands I had estimated yesterday was probably understated by 25 hands. With the extra $40 in my account, tonight's one hour of poker on Sun Poker was pretty profitable.
I should have quit playing poker at that point, but I decided to jump on UltimateBet while watching the Monday Night Football Game. I proceeded to give away all my winnings - and more.
First, I entered a 20-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 6th place - two spots out of the money. I was eliminated while holding a QQ. I went "all in" before the flop and was called by the chip leader - who was holding Ad 7d. Naturally, an ace appeared on the board and I was eliminated.
Then, I entered a 10-man $30(3) and found a similar fate. I finished in 5th place - and was again eliminated holding QQ. This time, my opponent had AK (offsuit) and won the pot when a king appeared on the board.
Frustrated by my tournament play, I moved to a $2/$4 table and played for 90 minutes. Again, I couldn't find any luck and lost another $65.50. There were several maniacs on my table that raised every pot preflop and I saw several big swings in my bankroll. In the end, however, I couldn't seem to catch the key cards I needed and lost some pretty big pots. Ugh! Thank goodness I found success on Sun Poker earlier in the night, because my performance on UltimateBet was abysmal.
At least there was some good news tonight. Entering tonight's game, I was 1-1 in my fantasy football leagues - with two games in the air. Unless there's an overnight adjustment, I should finish the weekend 3-1, with my only loss coming in Dave's league. Had Chad Johnson had one more yard receiving (he finished with 149 yards), I would have tied Tom/Carrie in EHSI's league. Instead, I won by a single point and improved to 4-3. At the same time, Rudi Johnson's productive night gave me a victory in David D's league. After the weekend's results, I'm 5-2 in three leagues and, as mentioned earlier, I'm 4-3 in EHSI's league. That's not bad, if you ask me.
Finally, Indianapolis' loss this weekend eliminated me from Sure Bet. Ooops! I guess that 15 people are vying for the $1,470 first place prize. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.
Daily Sketch: Down $36.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $75.48
After playing the 60 hands, I checked my account and noticed that an extra $40 had been credited to me. So, it appears that the 175 hands I had estimated yesterday was probably understated by 25 hands. With the extra $40 in my account, tonight's one hour of poker on Sun Poker was pretty profitable.
I should have quit playing poker at that point, but I decided to jump on UltimateBet while watching the Monday Night Football Game. I proceeded to give away all my winnings - and more.
First, I entered a 20-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 6th place - two spots out of the money. I was eliminated while holding a QQ. I went "all in" before the flop and was called by the chip leader - who was holding Ad 7d. Naturally, an ace appeared on the board and I was eliminated.
Then, I entered a 10-man $30(3) and found a similar fate. I finished in 5th place - and was again eliminated holding QQ. This time, my opponent had AK (offsuit) and won the pot when a king appeared on the board.
Frustrated by my tournament play, I moved to a $2/$4 table and played for 90 minutes. Again, I couldn't find any luck and lost another $65.50. There were several maniacs on my table that raised every pot preflop and I saw several big swings in my bankroll. In the end, however, I couldn't seem to catch the key cards I needed and lost some pretty big pots. Ugh! Thank goodness I found success on Sun Poker earlier in the night, because my performance on UltimateBet was abysmal.
At least there was some good news tonight. Entering tonight's game, I was 1-1 in my fantasy football leagues - with two games in the air. Unless there's an overnight adjustment, I should finish the weekend 3-1, with my only loss coming in Dave's league. Had Chad Johnson had one more yard receiving (he finished with 149 yards), I would have tied Tom/Carrie in EHSI's league. Instead, I won by a single point and improved to 4-3. At the same time, Rudi Johnson's productive night gave me a victory in David D's league. After the weekend's results, I'm 5-2 in three leagues and, as mentioned earlier, I'm 4-3 in EHSI's league. That's not bad, if you ask me.
Finally, Indianapolis' loss this weekend eliminated me from Sure Bet. Ooops! I guess that 15 people are vying for the $1,470 first place prize. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.
Daily Sketch: Down $36.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $75.48
October 24, 2004: Caribbean Sun Poker
.Now that I've earned my $100 redeposit bonus from Empire Poker, it's time to move to another poker site. Unless I'm chasing a bonus, I don't see a reason to play poker for free. After all, there are 200 different poker sites on the web, and most of them are offering bonuses. So, why not take advantage?
When I was in Las Vegas this past Labor Day, I saw a sign (on top of a taxi) advertising a website called Caribbean Sun Poker. I had never heard of the site and, until today, I had never read anything about it. If nothing else, it's not highly advertised. A quick search on google, however, brought me to this article:
"Caribbean Stud Poker is a quite popular poker room with loose tables and a great monthly loyalty bonus program. The games are among the loosest today, so if you are looking for soft games - this is a good poker room. The player volume in the network has more than doubled in 2004, as the site has recently introduced no-limit and pot-limit tables, along with multi-table tournaments. The software has OK functionality, but the graphics aren't as nice as some other poker sites. They have a great monthly loyalty bonus program that pays $40 after you play 250 raked hands during a calendar month."
Armed with this information, I created an account at Caribbean Sun Poker and deposited $310 into an account. Since the month is almost over, I'm hoping to play 250 raked hands on this site during the upcoming week and earn an easy $40. Then, next week, I hope to play another 250 hands and earn the $40 November bonus. Then, I can move on to another site (i.e. "Full Tilt Poker").
Interestingly, after setting things up, my Sun Poker account shows a $93 "pending" bonus - which is exactly 30% of my initial $310 deposit. Although it's not advertised anywhere, I believe that I've got a 30% deposit bonus waiting for me. However, I don't know how many hands I need to play to earn the $93 and I don't know if there's a time limit for earning the bonus. I searched the website and other articles on google but couldn't find anything referencing a sign-up bonus. That's kinda weird.
All told, I played poker for about 2 hours today. As best I can tell, I played about 175 raked hands and there were about 2,000 people playing on the site - which is more than I expected. Unfortunately, Caribbean Stud Poker doesn't seem to advertise the number of raked hands you play - so '175' is an educated guess. From what I've read, however, I will simply see $40 credited to my account (without any fanfare) after I play 250 hands - which is also kinda weird.
As the preceding website article suggested, the tables on Sun Poker were pretty loose. I concentrated on the Pot-Limit and No-Limit tables, and I saw A LOT of wild betting. Despite the fact that I didn't seem to get great cards, I still won $73.75 today - which isn't too bad. I hope to play another 75 raked hands tomorrow and (hopefully) I'll see the $40 bonus added to my account. In the interim, I think I'll do some more research and try to determine how I can get the $93. If the $93 is legitimate, I probably have the opportunity to earn $173 (in bonus alone) from Caribbean Stud Poker over the next two weeks.
Daily Sketch: Up $73.75
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $111.98
October 23, 2004: Chasing Empire's $100 - Part II
Before watching the Wisconsin Badgers play Northwestern this morning, I sat down at the computer and chased Empire Poker's $100 redeposit bonus. Needing to "only" play 108 more raked hands of poker, I knew it wouldn't take much more than an hour to earn the bonus.
All told, it took 75 minutes to play 108 raked hands on Empire this morning. I earned the $100 bonus and, shortly thereafter, it was deposited into my account. At the same time, I also made $25.35 on the NL tables, which helps to offset yesterday's losses. After playing 108 hands, I retired for the day.
With the $100 bonus credited to my account, I'm (finally!) in the black this month. It's been a long climb trying to recover from the disaster at Potawatomi earlier this month! Over the last two days, I actually lost $15 playing on-line poker on Empire, but the $100 bonus more than offsets those meager losses. Thanks Empire Poker!!
Daily Sketch: Up $125.35
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $38.23
All told, it took 75 minutes to play 108 raked hands on Empire this morning. I earned the $100 bonus and, shortly thereafter, it was deposited into my account. At the same time, I also made $25.35 on the NL tables, which helps to offset yesterday's losses. After playing 108 hands, I retired for the day.
With the $100 bonus credited to my account, I'm (finally!) in the black this month. It's been a long climb trying to recover from the disaster at Potawatomi earlier this month! Over the last two days, I actually lost $15 playing on-line poker on Empire, but the $100 bonus more than offsets those meager losses. Thanks Empire Poker!!
Daily Sketch: Up $125.35
Month-to-Date Sketch: Up $38.23
October 22, 2004: Chasing Empire's $100 - Part I
Despite the fact that Theresa and I went out for dinner and saw a movie ("The Forgotten" - a dumb movie) this evening, I was able to play a significant amount of poker tonight.
After moving $200 into my Empire Account, I set out in my quest to earn the $100 redeposit bonus they offered. All told, I played exactly 392 raked hands - leaving me 108 hands short of the 500 required to earn the $100. FYI . . . It took me nearly 4 hours to play 392 hands of poker.
Unfortunately, I didn't fare well. All told, I lost $40.09 while playing exclusively on $50 NL tables. Time after time, I found myself folding mediocre hands. I never really seemed to catch a monster and slowly watched my chips dwindle. It was a VERY frustrating 4 hours. More than once, I was tempted to leave the NL tables and hop on the $5/$10 limit tables, but I avoided the urge. Almost certainly, I would have played on tilt - a recipe for disaster. I'll play the last 108 hands tomorrow and, hopefully, not lose any more money while chasing the $100.
Daily Sketch: Down $40.09
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $87.12
After moving $200 into my Empire Account, I set out in my quest to earn the $100 redeposit bonus they offered. All told, I played exactly 392 raked hands - leaving me 108 hands short of the 500 required to earn the $100. FYI . . . It took me nearly 4 hours to play 392 hands of poker.
Unfortunately, I didn't fare well. All told, I lost $40.09 while playing exclusively on $50 NL tables. Time after time, I found myself folding mediocre hands. I never really seemed to catch a monster and slowly watched my chips dwindle. It was a VERY frustrating 4 hours. More than once, I was tempted to leave the NL tables and hop on the $5/$10 limit tables, but I avoided the urge. Almost certainly, I would have played on tilt - a recipe for disaster. I'll play the last 108 hands tomorrow and, hopefully, not lose any more money while chasing the $100.
Daily Sketch: Down $40.09
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $87.12
October 21, 2004: Steve's on Bluemound
I didn't do any gambling this evening. Instead, I visited a local drinking emporium in Wauwatosa (Steve's on Bluemound) and played some Golden Tee with Jared and Ty.
I did, however, submit 12 football picks (against the spread) into Tom V.'s $100 pool. I did pretty well last week (9-4), and I didn't publish my picks. So, I think I'll keep them to myself again this week.
Finally, I actually received a legitimate offer from Empire Poker today. They are offering a 50% redeposit bonus (up to $100) if I play 500 raked hands on their site. So, I'm going to transfer $200 from my Party Poker account and pursue Empire's $100 during the next week (or so). After earning that bonus, I plan on establshing a new account at Full Tilt Poker. They're currently offering a first-time deposit bonus that appears too good to pass up. More details on that will follow . . . .
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $47.03
I did, however, submit 12 football picks (against the spread) into Tom V.'s $100 pool. I did pretty well last week (9-4), and I didn't publish my picks. So, I think I'll keep them to myself again this week.
Finally, I actually received a legitimate offer from Empire Poker today. They are offering a 50% redeposit bonus (up to $100) if I play 500 raked hands on their site. So, I'm going to transfer $200 from my Party Poker account and pursue Empire's $100 during the next week (or so). After earning that bonus, I plan on establshing a new account at Full Tilt Poker. They're currently offering a first-time deposit bonus that appears too good to pass up. More details on that will follow . . . .
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $47.03
October 20, 2004: UltimateBet Poker
Late last night, Theresa went back to UltimateBet and played on a $.25/$.50 table for 35 minutes while I watched baseball. Unfortunately, she wasn't as fortunate as the other night. All told, she lost $8.03. Theresa is still up for her two sessions, but I think I'm going to need to cut her off. It's obvious that she's becoming addicted to poker, so I better nip this addiction in the bud. After all, there's only one computer in our apartment, and we can only really afford to have one person addicted to poker at a time!
My mission for the evening was simple: win back the money Theresa lost last night. Mission accomplished!
I jumped around UltimateBet and played on a variety of tables tonight. I played on some no-limit, some $1/$2, and some $5/$10 tables. After the dust had cleared, I was up exactly $14.27 - covering Theresa's losses by $6. Considering the fact that I played for nearly two hours and the fact that I was playing for some relatively significant stakes, it's interesting that I basically broke even. I did scoop a $90 pot to close the night, however, when I hit a miracle 9 on the river to hit a straight. I was holding a 10-10 and really had no business being in the pot, but the runner-runner finish saved my evening - and the sketchbook!
Daily Sketch: Up $6.24
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $47.03
My mission for the evening was simple: win back the money Theresa lost last night. Mission accomplished!
I jumped around UltimateBet and played on a variety of tables tonight. I played on some no-limit, some $1/$2, and some $5/$10 tables. After the dust had cleared, I was up exactly $14.27 - covering Theresa's losses by $6. Considering the fact that I played for nearly two hours and the fact that I was playing for some relatively significant stakes, it's interesting that I basically broke even. I did scoop a $90 pot to close the night, however, when I hit a miracle 9 on the river to hit a straight. I was holding a 10-10 and really had no business being in the pot, but the runner-runner finish saved my evening - and the sketchbook!
Daily Sketch: Up $6.24
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $47.03
October 19, 2004: Notes & Stuff
I decided to take a day off and, consequently, refrained from gambling today (gasp!). So, if you're only interested in my actual wagers, you can stop reading.
Update: I went 3-1 in my four fantasy football leagues this past weekend, bringing my cumulatilve year-to-date record to 16-8. In the only league I lost (EHSI), I actually scored the 2nd most points in the entire league, but I played the highest scoring team in the league. So, I experienced a bit of bad luck in that league and fell to 3-3. I'm 5-1 in Dave's league, 4-2 in David D.'s league, and 4-2 in Jon's league. Not too bad - if you ask me. As it stands, I should win some money in these leagues.
I also had a very good weekend in Tom V.'s $100 pool. All told, I went 9-4 with my 13 picks, including a 6-0 mark in the NFL. Year-to-date, I've got a record of 32-24, which is pretty good. That record isn't winning the pool, but I'm in the running - which is better than usual. For the past several years, I don't recall finishing the season with a winning record. For now, at least, I'm well ahead of my "normal" pace.
My Sure Bet selection (St. Louis) escaped with a 28-21 win over Tampa Bay last night, so I'm still alive in that pool. I believe we're down to our final 31 entries playing for the $1,470 grand prize. That money would serve as a nice deposit for next Spring's wedding, ehhh? Next weekend, I'll be selecting the Indianapolis Colts to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in Indy. I feel pretty good about that pick. We'll see what happens, though. A lot of other people have already picked Indianapolis this season, so I'm rooting for a lot of other NFL upsets this upcoming weekend that might knock out some other people.
Finally, I was reading an article today on CardPlayer.com and found the following blurb. I thought it was kinda interesting:
Currently, more than 200 sites offer real-money poker games on the internet. Well over 100,000 people play poker simultaneously during peak hours. On average, however, only 40,000 of those people are playing for "real" money. Here's where they play:
PartyPoker 17,660 players (43%)
PokerStars 7,945 players (19%)
Paradise Poker 3,681 players (9%)
Pacific Poker 2,378 players (6%)
Prima Poker 2,206 players (5%)
UltimateBet 2,091 players (5%)
Ladbrokes 1,492 players (4%)
Other 3,543 players (9%)
Total 40,996 players
Lately, whenever I log into PartyPoker, the site reports that nearly 50,000 people are playing on their site. The fact that "only" 35% of those people are playing for real money is pretty interesting. As much as I like poker, I can't really imagine playing for "fake" money. But, to each his own, I guess.
I'll make sure to play some poker tomorrow! I needed a day off today, however.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $53.27
Update: I went 3-1 in my four fantasy football leagues this past weekend, bringing my cumulatilve year-to-date record to 16-8. In the only league I lost (EHSI), I actually scored the 2nd most points in the entire league, but I played the highest scoring team in the league. So, I experienced a bit of bad luck in that league and fell to 3-3. I'm 5-1 in Dave's league, 4-2 in David D.'s league, and 4-2 in Jon's league. Not too bad - if you ask me. As it stands, I should win some money in these leagues.
I also had a very good weekend in Tom V.'s $100 pool. All told, I went 9-4 with my 13 picks, including a 6-0 mark in the NFL. Year-to-date, I've got a record of 32-24, which is pretty good. That record isn't winning the pool, but I'm in the running - which is better than usual. For the past several years, I don't recall finishing the season with a winning record. For now, at least, I'm well ahead of my "normal" pace.
My Sure Bet selection (St. Louis) escaped with a 28-21 win over Tampa Bay last night, so I'm still alive in that pool. I believe we're down to our final 31 entries playing for the $1,470 grand prize. That money would serve as a nice deposit for next Spring's wedding, ehhh? Next weekend, I'll be selecting the Indianapolis Colts to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars in Indy. I feel pretty good about that pick. We'll see what happens, though. A lot of other people have already picked Indianapolis this season, so I'm rooting for a lot of other NFL upsets this upcoming weekend that might knock out some other people.
Finally, I was reading an article today on CardPlayer.com and found the following blurb. I thought it was kinda interesting:
Currently, more than 200 sites offer real-money poker games on the internet. Well over 100,000 people play poker simultaneously during peak hours. On average, however, only 40,000 of those people are playing for "real" money. Here's where they play:
PartyPoker 17,660 players (43%)
PokerStars 7,945 players (19%)
Paradise Poker 3,681 players (9%)
Pacific Poker 2,378 players (6%)
Prima Poker 2,206 players (5%)
UltimateBet 2,091 players (5%)
Ladbrokes 1,492 players (4%)
Other 3,543 players (9%)
Total 40,996 players
Lately, whenever I log into PartyPoker, the site reports that nearly 50,000 people are playing on their site. The fact that "only" 35% of those people are playing for real money is pretty interesting. As much as I like poker, I can't really imagine playing for "fake" money. But, to each his own, I guess.
I'll make sure to play some poker tomorrow! I needed a day off today, however.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $53.27
October 18, 2004: Poker at Joe's
Last night (after I made my sketchbook entry), Theresa decided that she wanted to watch "Mermaids" on TV in our computer room while I sat in the living room and watched the Sunday night NFL game. While watching her movie, Theresa started to play Solitaire on the computer. I suggested that she could play some poker, instead, and she took me up on the offer.
Playing on a ten-man $.50/$1 table on UltimateBet, Theresa proceeded to make $10.45. She was very excited by her winnings - probably because I didn't help her. I sat in the other room and gave her an allowance of $20. Two hours later, she had over $30! Since she was playing with my money, I'm going to add that amount to my sketchbook. If she had lost, I would have added it to my month-to-date losses, so I think it's only fair to add it to my winnings. Besides, after losing nearly $100 yesterday, I need a positive entry to my sketchbook!
Tonight, I played poker at Joe's place. Before heading there, however, I played 15 minutes of poker on UltimateBet after getting home from work. Knowing that I only had 15 minutes, I jumped on a No Limit table that had only two other players. In particular, I wanted to get "some action" during my 15 minutes, and playing on a full ten-man table can be quite slow and tedious. In general, unless you have a really good hand, it's usually advisable to fold before seeing the flop. However, with only three people sitting at a NL table, it's usually advisable to never fold before seeing the flop - since mediocre hands can scoop a lot of pots.
During the 15 minutes I was logged into UltimateBet, I witnessed a hand that epitomizes how NOT to play NLo-Limit poker. Please take notes. Here's how it went:
Sitting in the Big Blind ($1), I called a player's raise to $2. I was holding a very mediocre 5-9 (offsuit), but I don't like folding cards when so few people are playing, so I called the extra dollar to witness the flop. It takes more than $1 to chase me out of a 3-handed pot!
The flop came 2-5-9. I had flopped two pair and suddenly felt pretty good about my chances. I checked the bet and my opponent immediately went "all in" with all $75 he had brought to the table. Without hesitation, I called his bet and expected to see him flip over A-9, or (maybe) an overpair. Instead, he flipped over AK.
This, my friends, is an example of one of the worst bets I've EVER witnessed. While an AK is a good starting hand, it's a terrible hand to hold when you throw $75 at a $4 pot and aren't even holding a pair. My opponent was (obviously) trying to steal the $4, yet it was a STUPIDLY RECKLESS bet. The only time I'd ever call his bet is if I've hit the flop - which I did in this case - making him a huge underdog. To risk $75 on a $4 pot while making a complete bluff is an idiotic play. If he wanted to bluff, he could have bet $10. If I call (or raise) his bet, he'd know that I'm holding "something" and he could play cautiously from that point forward. By betting $75, however, he was risking everything he had - simply praying that I hadn't hit any part of the flop.
The turn and river were no help (to him) and I took all of his $75 - just like that. He immediately left the table in a huff - cursing his poor luck. I played one-on-one (for a few minutes) with the remaining player before retiring from UltimateBet for the evening. All told, I won exactly $89.77 before heading to Joe's house. Amazingly, I had offset all of yesterday's losses in the space of 15 minutes tonight. Woo hoo!!
Playing for three hours at Joe's house, I won exactly $6. It's not a mountain of money, but at least I won, so I won't complain about the meager winnings. Overall, it was a good day for the sketchbook.
Daily Sketch: Up $106.22
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $53.27
Playing on a ten-man $.50/$1 table on UltimateBet, Theresa proceeded to make $10.45. She was very excited by her winnings - probably because I didn't help her. I sat in the other room and gave her an allowance of $20. Two hours later, she had over $30! Since she was playing with my money, I'm going to add that amount to my sketchbook. If she had lost, I would have added it to my month-to-date losses, so I think it's only fair to add it to my winnings. Besides, after losing nearly $100 yesterday, I need a positive entry to my sketchbook!
Tonight, I played poker at Joe's place. Before heading there, however, I played 15 minutes of poker on UltimateBet after getting home from work. Knowing that I only had 15 minutes, I jumped on a No Limit table that had only two other players. In particular, I wanted to get "some action" during my 15 minutes, and playing on a full ten-man table can be quite slow and tedious. In general, unless you have a really good hand, it's usually advisable to fold before seeing the flop. However, with only three people sitting at a NL table, it's usually advisable to never fold before seeing the flop - since mediocre hands can scoop a lot of pots.
During the 15 minutes I was logged into UltimateBet, I witnessed a hand that epitomizes how NOT to play NLo-Limit poker. Please take notes. Here's how it went:
Sitting in the Big Blind ($1), I called a player's raise to $2. I was holding a very mediocre 5-9 (offsuit), but I don't like folding cards when so few people are playing, so I called the extra dollar to witness the flop. It takes more than $1 to chase me out of a 3-handed pot!
The flop came 2-5-9. I had flopped two pair and suddenly felt pretty good about my chances. I checked the bet and my opponent immediately went "all in" with all $75 he had brought to the table. Without hesitation, I called his bet and expected to see him flip over A-9, or (maybe) an overpair. Instead, he flipped over AK.
This, my friends, is an example of one of the worst bets I've EVER witnessed. While an AK is a good starting hand, it's a terrible hand to hold when you throw $75 at a $4 pot and aren't even holding a pair. My opponent was (obviously) trying to steal the $4, yet it was a STUPIDLY RECKLESS bet. The only time I'd ever call his bet is if I've hit the flop - which I did in this case - making him a huge underdog. To risk $75 on a $4 pot while making a complete bluff is an idiotic play. If he wanted to bluff, he could have bet $10. If I call (or raise) his bet, he'd know that I'm holding "something" and he could play cautiously from that point forward. By betting $75, however, he was risking everything he had - simply praying that I hadn't hit any part of the flop.
The turn and river were no help (to him) and I took all of his $75 - just like that. He immediately left the table in a huff - cursing his poor luck. I played one-on-one (for a few minutes) with the remaining player before retiring from UltimateBet for the evening. All told, I won exactly $89.77 before heading to Joe's house. Amazingly, I had offset all of yesterday's losses in the space of 15 minutes tonight. Woo hoo!!
Playing for three hours at Joe's house, I won exactly $6. It's not a mountain of money, but at least I won, so I won't complain about the meager winnings. Overall, it was a good day for the sketchbook.
Daily Sketch: Up $106.22
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $53.27
October 17, 2004: UltimateBet NL
After watching the Packers spank the Lions this afternoon, I played some No-Limit poker on UltimateBet. Things didn't go particularly well.
All told, I lost $108.47 while playing two hours on a 10-man table. I was particularly crippled when I went "all in" holding 10-10. The flop had come up 8-10-K and I felt pretty good about my set. Unfortunately, another player (ABigSlickk) was holding pocket Kings, and I lost over $60 on that one hand alone. Ouch!!
My losses were slightly reduced by the $18.04 I earned in bonus bucks from UltimateBet. My $100 has been reduced to $81.96. If I keep losing like I did today, I'll need all $100 to help keep me afloat!
Daily Sketch: Down $90.43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $159.49
All told, I lost $108.47 while playing two hours on a 10-man table. I was particularly crippled when I went "all in" holding 10-10. The flop had come up 8-10-K and I felt pretty good about my set. Unfortunately, another player (ABigSlickk) was holding pocket Kings, and I lost over $60 on that one hand alone. Ouch!!
My losses were slightly reduced by the $18.04 I earned in bonus bucks from UltimateBet. My $100 has been reduced to $81.96. If I keep losing like I did today, I'll need all $100 to help keep me afloat!
Daily Sketch: Down $90.43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $159.49
October 16, 2004: Pokerstars EPT Qualifier
Yesterday, Tom V. gave me a call and asked for my help. Earlier this week, Tom had entered a freeroll tournament on Pokerstars. Finishing near the top, Tom qualified for a satellite tournament that started at 1:00pm today. Unfortunately, Tom already had plans this afternoon, so he asked that I "pinch hit" and play poker on his behalf. Naturally, I accepted the offer.
The top two finishers in this afternoon's satellite tournament win a free entry into the European Poker Tour's opening event in Dublin, Ireland next weekend (valued at $1,900) and $1,100 in spending cash. So, the total prize package is $3,000. However, as I mentioned, only the top two players win this prize - so it won't be easy.
Here's how it went:
1:00pm -> All told, 248 people have entered this tournament - spread over 34 tables. I'm sitting at Table #12. Each table has 7 players - which I like. It means that I can bluff a little bit. If each table had 10 players, I'd be forced to play pretty standard - especially at the start. We're all starting with 1,500 chips, so let's get rolling!
1:01pm -> After one hand, I'm the chip leader at my table with 1,630 chips. Dealt KK to start the tournament, I eventually scoop the pot. An ace appears on the board but, thankfully, none of my early callers was holding an ace - so my pocket kings hold up.
1:06pm -> Wow! I've already been moved to another table. Only four people have been eliminated from the tournament, yet I've already been reassigned to Table #17. This table, unfortunately, has 10 players. So much for 7 players at each table, I guess. We've got 25 tables in action - so 9 tables have already been eliminated.
1:26pm -> For the 2nd time, I'm dealt KK. I raise the bet to 100 chips (preflop) and get one caller (Zelik). The flop comes Q-3-3. Zelik immediately bets 480 chips. I suppose that it's possible that he's holding AA or a 3, but I immediately declare "all in". Zelik calls my "all in" bet (he's got more chips than I do) and he reveals A-6. I'm shocked! He doesn't even have a flush draw. Why did he call me? The turn is a 2 and the river is another 3. I take home a huge pot with the full house and I'm suddenly sitting with 3,460 chips - which is good for 12th place of the 205 players still alive. I love pocket kings!!
1:31pm -> Zelik is eliminated. After losing that big hand to me, he's the short stack at the table and quickly loses his last few hundred chips. I'm still amazed he called me while holding A-6.
1:49pm -> Sitting in the Big Blind, I'm dealt 4c 6c. Five people limp into the pot and I check when it gets to me. The flop comes Qh 4d 4s. Opusx69 bets 100 chips and is called by Purr of Aces and myself. The turn is a Jd. Opusx69 bets 200 chips and Purr of Aces raises to 780 chips. Holding more chips than either of them, I immediately declare myself "all in." After considerable thought, Opusx69 folds, but Purr of Aces calls my bet. He flips over K-4, and I'm in BIG TROUBLE. The turn, however is another Queen, which gives us both a full house. Thank goodness for that Queen, 'cuz Purr of Aces' king kicker was going to cost me A LOT of chips. Whew!! After the hand is over, Opusx69 declares that he had a Queen. Had he called, Opusx69 would have won everything.
1:58pm -> Opusx69 is eliminated from the tournament. Holding JQ, he goes "all in" after seeing a flop of 2-9-10. He loses to another player holding K-10. Interestingly, I was also holding a J-Q on the hand but (smartly) folded after the flop. Opusx69 had a pretty good stack of chips when he went "all in." Why risk your tournament life on an open-ended straight?
2:00pm -> The one-hour break has arrived. I've got 3,585 chips. There are 149 players still alive, and I'm in 30th place. The blinds are still pretty small (25/50), so there's no reason to make any stupid bets. I'm thankful that my 4c 6c didn't cripple me 10 minutes ago.
2:23pm -> Thus far, the 2nd hour has been pretty uneventful. I've taken a couple small pots and I'm sitting at 3,660 chips. There are 119 players still alive and the average stack is 3,170 chips. I've fallen out of the Top 30, so I don't know my exact placing right now. Interestingly, the tournament's overall leader (perulrik) has just been moved to my table. He's got an astounding 18,270 chips! Putting that in perspective, only one other player in this tournament has over 10,000 chips. Yikes!!
2:36pm -> Dealt 10h 4h in the Big Blind, I stumble into a flush when no one bets aggressively enough to make me drop. I scoop the pot and I'm up to 4,085 chips - which is 310 chips from the Top 30. Perulrik, meanwhile, is up to 20,020 chips. A few minutes ago, he finished a hand with four 6's. I'd kill for a hand like that!
3:01pm -> Dealt Q-10 in the big blind, two players (Perulrik & Purr of Aces) limp into the fray. I check and we witness a flop of 10-10-4. I check the bet and Perulrik immediately bets 200 chips. Purr of Aces folds and I quickly call. The turn is garbage. I check the bet and Perulrik bets 400 chips. I raise to 800 and Perulrik calls. The turn is another 4. Holding a full house, I immediately bet 400 chips. Perulrik raises me to 800 chips and I reraise him to 1,200 chips. Perulrik calls my bet and shows a 4 underneath. That's not good enough to beat my full house and I scoop a big pot. I'm up to 6,035 chips and have moved up to 21st place in this tournament.
3:04pm -> Holding AQ, I lose a sizeable pot to another player (tshock43) who's holding AK. An ace appeared on the flop and I was stuck calling his bets. I'm down to 4,885 chips - just outside the Top 30.
3:05pm -> It's time for our 2nd five-minute break. After losing that last hand, it's probably a good time for a break. To this point, that was the biggest hand I've lost in this tournament. There are 69 players still alive and the average player has 5,391 chips. Of course, Perulrik has 20,450 chips, so he's distorting the averages a bit. He's still leading, but there are eight players with over 10,000 chips. The blinds will be increasing to 75/150. A very important hour is about to begin!
3:29pm -> I'm holding 4,510 chips and I've just been moved to Table #4. I haven't caught any cards yet this hour, but I'm being patient. We're down to 53 players on 6 different tables. Remember, only the final 2 players win the trip to Dublin.
3:38pm -> Dealt AK, I make it 750 to go in. I'm called by one other player (Thricepunk). The flop comes A-9-8 and I immediately go "all in." Thricepunk calls my bet and reveals an A9 under. He's got me beat. The turn and river don't improve my hand, and I'm eliminated in 52nd place. Ugh!! I guess Tom won't be visiting Dublin next weekend.
Disappointed that I couldn't win on Tom's behalf, I decided to play some low-key NL poker on Party before the start of the Wisconsin Badger football game against Purdue. Playing poker for 45 minutes, I won a modest $7.21. If nothing else, however, I played enough hands to reach my goal of 2,000 bonus chips for the semi-final tournament in 3 weeks. I'm officially registered to play on November 5th - and I'll be starting with 3,000 chips - the most allowed. Hopefully, I have better success than I did today while playing on Tom's behalf.
After watching the Badgers pull out a thrilling 20-17 victory, I played some 10-man NL poker on UltimateBet. Since I've earned enough bonus chips on Party, I may as well play on UltimateBet - especially since I've got $100 bonus dollars sitting in that account.
I only played for 10 minutes, but I came away $41.50 richer. I didn't get any great hands, but I won an unusually high number of small pots. Guessing that my luck was about to end (I rarely win on Saturdays), I quickly left the tables and retired for the day.
Daily Sketch: Up $48.71
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $69.06
The top two finishers in this afternoon's satellite tournament win a free entry into the European Poker Tour's opening event in Dublin, Ireland next weekend (valued at $1,900) and $1,100 in spending cash. So, the total prize package is $3,000. However, as I mentioned, only the top two players win this prize - so it won't be easy.
Here's how it went:
1:00pm -> All told, 248 people have entered this tournament - spread over 34 tables. I'm sitting at Table #12. Each table has 7 players - which I like. It means that I can bluff a little bit. If each table had 10 players, I'd be forced to play pretty standard - especially at the start. We're all starting with 1,500 chips, so let's get rolling!
1:01pm -> After one hand, I'm the chip leader at my table with 1,630 chips. Dealt KK to start the tournament, I eventually scoop the pot. An ace appears on the board but, thankfully, none of my early callers was holding an ace - so my pocket kings hold up.
1:06pm -> Wow! I've already been moved to another table. Only four people have been eliminated from the tournament, yet I've already been reassigned to Table #17. This table, unfortunately, has 10 players. So much for 7 players at each table, I guess. We've got 25 tables in action - so 9 tables have already been eliminated.
1:26pm -> For the 2nd time, I'm dealt KK. I raise the bet to 100 chips (preflop) and get one caller (Zelik). The flop comes Q-3-3. Zelik immediately bets 480 chips. I suppose that it's possible that he's holding AA or a 3, but I immediately declare "all in". Zelik calls my "all in" bet (he's got more chips than I do) and he reveals A-6. I'm shocked! He doesn't even have a flush draw. Why did he call me? The turn is a 2 and the river is another 3. I take home a huge pot with the full house and I'm suddenly sitting with 3,460 chips - which is good for 12th place of the 205 players still alive. I love pocket kings!!
1:31pm -> Zelik is eliminated. After losing that big hand to me, he's the short stack at the table and quickly loses his last few hundred chips. I'm still amazed he called me while holding A-6.
1:49pm -> Sitting in the Big Blind, I'm dealt 4c 6c. Five people limp into the pot and I check when it gets to me. The flop comes Qh 4d 4s. Opusx69 bets 100 chips and is called by Purr of Aces and myself. The turn is a Jd. Opusx69 bets 200 chips and Purr of Aces raises to 780 chips. Holding more chips than either of them, I immediately declare myself "all in." After considerable thought, Opusx69 folds, but Purr of Aces calls my bet. He flips over K-4, and I'm in BIG TROUBLE. The turn, however is another Queen, which gives us both a full house. Thank goodness for that Queen, 'cuz Purr of Aces' king kicker was going to cost me A LOT of chips. Whew!! After the hand is over, Opusx69 declares that he had a Queen. Had he called, Opusx69 would have won everything.
1:58pm -> Opusx69 is eliminated from the tournament. Holding JQ, he goes "all in" after seeing a flop of 2-9-10. He loses to another player holding K-10. Interestingly, I was also holding a J-Q on the hand but (smartly) folded after the flop. Opusx69 had a pretty good stack of chips when he went "all in." Why risk your tournament life on an open-ended straight?
2:00pm -> The one-hour break has arrived. I've got 3,585 chips. There are 149 players still alive, and I'm in 30th place. The blinds are still pretty small (25/50), so there's no reason to make any stupid bets. I'm thankful that my 4c 6c didn't cripple me 10 minutes ago.
2:23pm -> Thus far, the 2nd hour has been pretty uneventful. I've taken a couple small pots and I'm sitting at 3,660 chips. There are 119 players still alive and the average stack is 3,170 chips. I've fallen out of the Top 30, so I don't know my exact placing right now. Interestingly, the tournament's overall leader (perulrik) has just been moved to my table. He's got an astounding 18,270 chips! Putting that in perspective, only one other player in this tournament has over 10,000 chips. Yikes!!
2:36pm -> Dealt 10h 4h in the Big Blind, I stumble into a flush when no one bets aggressively enough to make me drop. I scoop the pot and I'm up to 4,085 chips - which is 310 chips from the Top 30. Perulrik, meanwhile, is up to 20,020 chips. A few minutes ago, he finished a hand with four 6's. I'd kill for a hand like that!
3:01pm -> Dealt Q-10 in the big blind, two players (Perulrik & Purr of Aces) limp into the fray. I check and we witness a flop of 10-10-4. I check the bet and Perulrik immediately bets 200 chips. Purr of Aces folds and I quickly call. The turn is garbage. I check the bet and Perulrik bets 400 chips. I raise to 800 and Perulrik calls. The turn is another 4. Holding a full house, I immediately bet 400 chips. Perulrik raises me to 800 chips and I reraise him to 1,200 chips. Perulrik calls my bet and shows a 4 underneath. That's not good enough to beat my full house and I scoop a big pot. I'm up to 6,035 chips and have moved up to 21st place in this tournament.
3:04pm -> Holding AQ, I lose a sizeable pot to another player (tshock43) who's holding AK. An ace appeared on the flop and I was stuck calling his bets. I'm down to 4,885 chips - just outside the Top 30.
3:05pm -> It's time for our 2nd five-minute break. After losing that last hand, it's probably a good time for a break. To this point, that was the biggest hand I've lost in this tournament. There are 69 players still alive and the average player has 5,391 chips. Of course, Perulrik has 20,450 chips, so he's distorting the averages a bit. He's still leading, but there are eight players with over 10,000 chips. The blinds will be increasing to 75/150. A very important hour is about to begin!
3:29pm -> I'm holding 4,510 chips and I've just been moved to Table #4. I haven't caught any cards yet this hour, but I'm being patient. We're down to 53 players on 6 different tables. Remember, only the final 2 players win the trip to Dublin.
3:38pm -> Dealt AK, I make it 750 to go in. I'm called by one other player (Thricepunk). The flop comes A-9-8 and I immediately go "all in." Thricepunk calls my bet and reveals an A9 under. He's got me beat. The turn and river don't improve my hand, and I'm eliminated in 52nd place. Ugh!! I guess Tom won't be visiting Dublin next weekend.
Disappointed that I couldn't win on Tom's behalf, I decided to play some low-key NL poker on Party before the start of the Wisconsin Badger football game against Purdue. Playing poker for 45 minutes, I won a modest $7.21. If nothing else, however, I played enough hands to reach my goal of 2,000 bonus chips for the semi-final tournament in 3 weeks. I'm officially registered to play on November 5th - and I'll be starting with 3,000 chips - the most allowed. Hopefully, I have better success than I did today while playing on Tom's behalf.
After watching the Badgers pull out a thrilling 20-17 victory, I played some 10-man NL poker on UltimateBet. Since I've earned enough bonus chips on Party, I may as well play on UltimateBet - especially since I've got $100 bonus dollars sitting in that account.
I only played for 10 minutes, but I came away $41.50 richer. I didn't get any great hands, but I won an unusually high number of small pots. Guessing that my luck was about to end (I rarely win on Saturdays), I quickly left the tables and retired for the day.
Daily Sketch: Up $48.71
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $69.06
October 15, 2004: Ultimate Bet Bonus Chips
This morning, I found the following e-mail in my inbox:
Greetings Steve!
Time to top up your account? Let us help! We're offering a 50% redeposit bonus, up to $100, when you deposit $50 or more between 6pm ET October 15th and 6pm ET October 17th. Check the website for full details and reload your weaponry today.
More Later,
John Vorhaus
UltimateBet Poker News Ambassador
Capitalizing on the offer, I transferred $200 from my Party Poker account into my UltimateBet account and was immediately credited with $100 bonus dollars. Since UltimateBet's bonus dollars never expire, I won't actively pursue those bonus bucks right away. However, it's nice knowing that the money is sitting there and I'll wander in-and-out of UltimateBet over the next few weeks and slowly earn those bonus bucks while playing raked hands on their site. I still need to play a couple hundred raked hands on Party Poker to earn my maximum 2,000 bonus chips for the semifinal tournament in three weeks, so I'll concentrate on that endeavor before pursuing the $100 bonus bucks. Andrew has also told me about an attractive bonus offer on Full Tilt Poker, so I need to investigate that site in the next couple weeks as well.
So many bonus opportunities, so little time . . .
I made 13 picks in Tom's $100 pool this weekend. I won't bore you with all the picks, but I will bore you with the season-to-date standings. There are 11 people in the pool, and the top 3 get paid. I'm sitting in 5th place. I need to have a good weekend.
1. Bruce (22-11-1) 2. Wayne (19-13-1) 3. AJG (25-19-1) 4. Tom (22-18-1)
5. Steve S. (23-20-0) 6. Ron (16-15-1) 7. Odds & Ends (19-18-1)
8. Chuck (15-14-0) 9. Steve L. (2-0-0) 10. Brian (12-13-0) 11. Bob (0-0-0)
Otherwise, I didn't do any gambling today. Theresa is planning to run a bunch of errands tomorrow, which will leave me alone for a good part of the day. I should have ample time to play some poker, so I decided to take a night off this evening.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $117.77
Greetings Steve!
Time to top up your account? Let us help! We're offering a 50% redeposit bonus, up to $100, when you deposit $50 or more between 6pm ET October 15th and 6pm ET October 17th. Check the website for full details and reload your weaponry today.
More Later,
John Vorhaus
UltimateBet Poker News Ambassador
Capitalizing on the offer, I transferred $200 from my Party Poker account into my UltimateBet account and was immediately credited with $100 bonus dollars. Since UltimateBet's bonus dollars never expire, I won't actively pursue those bonus bucks right away. However, it's nice knowing that the money is sitting there and I'll wander in-and-out of UltimateBet over the next few weeks and slowly earn those bonus bucks while playing raked hands on their site. I still need to play a couple hundred raked hands on Party Poker to earn my maximum 2,000 bonus chips for the semifinal tournament in three weeks, so I'll concentrate on that endeavor before pursuing the $100 bonus bucks. Andrew has also told me about an attractive bonus offer on Full Tilt Poker, so I need to investigate that site in the next couple weeks as well.
So many bonus opportunities, so little time . . .
I made 13 picks in Tom's $100 pool this weekend. I won't bore you with all the picks, but I will bore you with the season-to-date standings. There are 11 people in the pool, and the top 3 get paid. I'm sitting in 5th place. I need to have a good weekend.
1. Bruce (22-11-1) 2. Wayne (19-13-1) 3. AJG (25-19-1) 4. Tom (22-18-1)
5. Steve S. (23-20-0) 6. Ron (16-15-1) 7. Odds & Ends (19-18-1)
8. Chuck (15-14-0) 9. Steve L. (2-0-0) 10. Brian (12-13-0) 11. Bob (0-0-0)
Otherwise, I didn't do any gambling today. Theresa is planning to run a bunch of errands tomorrow, which will leave me alone for a good part of the day. I should have ample time to play some poker, so I decided to take a night off this evening.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $117.77
October 14, 2004: Poker at Harry's
Tonight, I played poker at Harry's home with 7 other guys. During the winter months, this is a monthly game. During summer, however, we play far less frequently. In fact, we hadn't played since I started this sketchbook on June 14th - which might be our longest stretch of inactivity in the four years that I've been playing with these guys.
The stakes for this game are higher than my other home games, but they aren't outrageous. Basically, the antes are a $1 and the maximum bet is $3 all night. Still, with eight guys playing every hand, the potential to win (or lose) a significant amount of money is quite possible.
All told, we played poker for 4 hours and I lost exactly $8. A couple guys won over $100 and another couple guys lost over $100 - but I was basically even. I caught some nice hands early and was up nearly $75, but I ended up giving all of it back. I simply couldn't catch any cards and slowly watched as the $75 disappeared.
After playing poker, Harry hosted blackjack on his professional table. Per usual, I lost $40 while playing $10/hand for about 15 minutes. I never win when playing blackjack at Harry's home, so I consider the fact that I "only" lost $40 to be a minor victory - which is pretty sad.
After blackjack, we typically head over to the craps table. However, many of us were getting tired and it was approaching 1am, so we decided to call it a night. All told, I lost $48 during the course of the night.
At the same time, I also spent $1 today in EHSI's fantasy football league. I picked up Antonio Gates - in the hope he'll help my ugly WR corps. Of the four leagues I'm in, EHSI's league worries me the most. I'm 3-2, but I don't feel particularly good about my team right now.
Daily Sketch: Down $49
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $118.77
The stakes for this game are higher than my other home games, but they aren't outrageous. Basically, the antes are a $1 and the maximum bet is $3 all night. Still, with eight guys playing every hand, the potential to win (or lose) a significant amount of money is quite possible.
All told, we played poker for 4 hours and I lost exactly $8. A couple guys won over $100 and another couple guys lost over $100 - but I was basically even. I caught some nice hands early and was up nearly $75, but I ended up giving all of it back. I simply couldn't catch any cards and slowly watched as the $75 disappeared.
After playing poker, Harry hosted blackjack on his professional table. Per usual, I lost $40 while playing $10/hand for about 15 minutes. I never win when playing blackjack at Harry's home, so I consider the fact that I "only" lost $40 to be a minor victory - which is pretty sad.
After blackjack, we typically head over to the craps table. However, many of us were getting tired and it was approaching 1am, so we decided to call it a night. All told, I lost $48 during the course of the night.
At the same time, I also spent $1 today in EHSI's fantasy football league. I picked up Antonio Gates - in the hope he'll help my ugly WR corps. Of the four leagues I'm in, EHSI's league worries me the most. I'm 3-2, but I don't feel particularly good about my team right now.
Daily Sketch: Down $49
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $118.77
October 13, 2004: 20 Hands
Tonight, I half-heartedly played 20 hands of NL on UltimateBet. I'm kinda tired and not really in the mood to play much on-line poker right now. So, I took it very easy this evening.
Initially, I tried to play on Party Poker - but their servers were down - so I had to move to UltimateBet. Once on UltimateBet, I quickly dropped to $37 (from $50). Then, the following hand occurred:
Dealt Ah Jd, I called the $2 ante and was matched by three other players. The flop came Ks 5h Jc and one player bet $2. I called the bet and the other two players folded.
The turn came as a Jh. The other player bet $2 and I called - playing it slow.
The river came as an Ac. I had hit the full house and felt pretty good about my chances. The other player bet $4. I raised him to $8 and he quickly went "all in." He had more money than I, so I threw my last pile into the pot and called his bet.
My opponent flipped over a 5s 5d. He had flopped a set and had stumbled into a full house when the 2nd Jack appeared on the turn, but the ace I caught on the river gave me a bigger full house. Woo Hoo! I got lucky!
Shortly thereafter, I quit. I finished the night up $19.
Daily Sketch: Up $19
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $69.77
Initially, I tried to play on Party Poker - but their servers were down - so I had to move to UltimateBet. Once on UltimateBet, I quickly dropped to $37 (from $50). Then, the following hand occurred:
Dealt Ah Jd, I called the $2 ante and was matched by three other players. The flop came Ks 5h Jc and one player bet $2. I called the bet and the other two players folded.
The turn came as a Jh. The other player bet $2 and I called - playing it slow.
The river came as an Ac. I had hit the full house and felt pretty good about my chances. The other player bet $4. I raised him to $8 and he quickly went "all in." He had more money than I, so I threw my last pile into the pot and called his bet.
My opponent flipped over a 5s 5d. He had flopped a set and had stumbled into a full house when the 2nd Jack appeared on the turn, but the ace I caught on the river gave me a bigger full house. Woo Hoo! I got lucky!
Shortly thereafter, I quit. I finished the night up $19.
Daily Sketch: Up $19
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $69.77
October 12, 2004: Poker at Bernard's
Looking back at the weekend, I was pretty successful with my football pools. Although I only went 5-4 in Tom V.'s $100 pool, I went 3-1 in my four fantasy football leagues and my Sure Bet choice (New England) beat the Dolphins. So, I can't complain. I'm in great position to make the playoffs in all of my fantasy football leagues and I'm 1 of the last 35 people left in the Sure Bet Pool. In addition, I also won $10 in Extendicare's league for having the highest scoring team in the league this weekend. I won't see that money, however, until the season ends. So, it doesn't go in the sketchbook - yet!
Tonight, I played poker at Bernard's home in Brookfield. After sitting up late last night watching the Packers' Monday Night debacle, I was pretty tired heading to the game this evening. If I had been home, I would have skipped playing on-line, since I've learned (the hard way) that's it's never a good idea to play poker when you're tired. However, because the stakes are low and because I feel that I'm the best player in this recurring weekly game, I decided to play.
After three hours of play, I found myself up exactly $20.70. At one point, I was down $16, so I didn't exactly coast to my winnings. I caught some nice cards during the middle hour of our play and, consequently, kept my winning streak alive in this recurring game. I think I've won five times in a row.
Daily Sketch: Up $20.70
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $88.77
Tonight, I played poker at Bernard's home in Brookfield. After sitting up late last night watching the Packers' Monday Night debacle, I was pretty tired heading to the game this evening. If I had been home, I would have skipped playing on-line, since I've learned (the hard way) that's it's never a good idea to play poker when you're tired. However, because the stakes are low and because I feel that I'm the best player in this recurring weekly game, I decided to play.
After three hours of play, I found myself up exactly $20.70. At one point, I was down $16, so I didn't exactly coast to my winnings. I caught some nice cards during the middle hour of our play and, consequently, kept my winning streak alive in this recurring game. I think I've won five times in a row.
Daily Sketch: Up $20.70
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $88.77
October 11, 2004: South to Milwaukee
I didn't place any wagers today. I golfed at Hunter's Glen with Harv, Matt, and Chuck. I wasn't particularly confident that I'd be able to golf with any sort of consistency (I hadn't swung a club in 45 days), so I didn't want to wager on the course. It was probably a good decision. Although I shot a respectable 44 on the front nine, I wilted on the back nine on my way to a 52.
We got back to Milwaukee in time (barely) for the start of the Packer game.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $109.47
We got back to Milwaukee in time (barely) for the start of the Packer game.
Daily Sketch: $0
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $109.47
October 10, 2004: North to Crivitz
Today, I joined Harv, Matt, and Chuck in Crivitz, Wisconsin. Leaving early this morning, we drove north (3 hours) and helped Harv get his summer home winterized. In exchange for our help, Harv treats us to a round of golf, some drinks, and a generally enjoyable weekend.
After feasting on pizza and beer at a local bar while watching afternoon football games, the four of us decided to sit down in the evening and play some hold 'em tournaments at Harv's home. All told, we played six $10 tournaments - with the winner taking the entire $40 pot.
Fortunately, I caught good cards most of the night and proceeded to win 3 of the 6 tournaments. As a result, I netted $60 ahead for the night.
Daily Sketch: Up $60.00
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $109.47
After feasting on pizza and beer at a local bar while watching afternoon football games, the four of us decided to sit down in the evening and play some hold 'em tournaments at Harv's home. All told, we played six $10 tournaments - with the winner taking the entire $40 pot.
Fortunately, I caught good cards most of the night and proceeded to win 3 of the 6 tournaments. As a result, I netted $60 ahead for the night.
Daily Sketch: Up $60.00
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $109.47
October 9, 2004: A Little UltimateBet
I decided to change things up a bit and played a couple Sit 'n' Go Tournaments on Ultimatebet this afternoon (while watching the Badger game). I've had a decent week playing on-line poker and I'm not eager to give back my winnings today, so I limited my play to two tournaments. Since my UltimateBet account had less than $100 in it, the low balance limited the amount of money I could lose.
First, I played in a 10-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 3rd place. I was awarded $40.
Next, I played in a 6-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 2nd place. I was awarded $36.
While I'm happy to win money in each tournament, I'm disappointed that I couldn't win more. In each case, I was the lowest money winner and missed out on the opportunity to win substantially more money had I been able to improve my final standing.
I got a bit unlucky and was eliminated on coin flips in each tournament. In the first tournament, I went "all in" with an As Qs and lost to a pair of 7's. In the 2nd tournament, I went "all in" with 9d 9s but lost to an As Kh. Argh!
The hand before losing the 2nd tournament, I was dealt 88 when there were still 3 players in the tournament. I was the chip leader. The first player immediately went "all in" and was quickly called by the other player in the tournament. Bashfully, I folded my 8's and decided to let them battle for 2nd place. I was dismayed when the first player revealed 77 and the other player revealed 55. Neither player improved their respective hands and I would have won the tournament had I called the bets. Ooops!! Unfortunately, I felt certain that my 8's were not winning - especially with two players going "all in" before the flop.
I experienced a modest profit today ($32), so I guess that I shouldn't complain too much.
I am going out of town the next couple days, so the sketchbook will go dark until Tuesday night.
Daily Sketch: Up $32.00
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $169.47
First, I played in a 10-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 3rd place. I was awarded $40.
Next, I played in a 6-man $20(2) tournament and finished in 2nd place. I was awarded $36.
While I'm happy to win money in each tournament, I'm disappointed that I couldn't win more. In each case, I was the lowest money winner and missed out on the opportunity to win substantially more money had I been able to improve my final standing.
I got a bit unlucky and was eliminated on coin flips in each tournament. In the first tournament, I went "all in" with an As Qs and lost to a pair of 7's. In the 2nd tournament, I went "all in" with 9d 9s but lost to an As Kh. Argh!
The hand before losing the 2nd tournament, I was dealt 88 when there were still 3 players in the tournament. I was the chip leader. The first player immediately went "all in" and was quickly called by the other player in the tournament. Bashfully, I folded my 8's and decided to let them battle for 2nd place. I was dismayed when the first player revealed 77 and the other player revealed 55. Neither player improved their respective hands and I would have won the tournament had I called the bets. Ooops!! Unfortunately, I felt certain that my 8's were not winning - especially with two players going "all in" before the flop.
I experienced a modest profit today ($32), so I guess that I shouldn't complain too much.
I am going out of town the next couple days, so the sketchbook will go dark until Tuesday night.
Daily Sketch: Up $32.00
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $169.47
October 8, 2004: Time to Rest
I'm pooped! I played 700 hands of poker the last two nights, and I could use a break. With that being said, I played poker for less than one hour tonight. I sat on a $50 NL table on Party Poker and won exactly $15.45. Not exactly a windfall, ehh?
It's amazing, however, to watch some players get wild on these NL tables. During my hour of play, I saw one particular player increase his stack of chips to over $250. Shortly thereafter, he had lost it all! He was a reckless better who kept going "all in" whenever he flopped top pair or had a flush draw. He caught a few cards early and, consequently, saw great success. When his cards went cold, however, he kept going "all in" and eventually lost all the gains he had made. It was amazing to watch. I wish I had been able to capitalize, but I didn't get the cards.
Despite the wild play at my table, I played conservatively. Entering the night, my goal was to win enough money to pay for dinner for Theresa and I (Chinese delivery).
Mission accomplished! Our "free" dinner - courtesy of Party Poker - was quite tasty!
In other news, I spent $2 in EHSI's league picking up a couple free agents (Richie Anderson & Michael Clayton). Hopefully, they work out for me this weekend.
I made nine picks in Tom V.'s $100 pool this weekend. I've already gotten my first two picks correct:
Virginia -16.5 over Clemson
UNLV +10.5 over BYU
Wisconsin +3 over Ohio St.
Iowa St. +9 over Texas A&M
Kansas St. -2.5 over Kansas
New Mexico -1.5 over Air Force
New Orleans -3 over Tampa Bay
Minnesota -4 over Houston
Carolina +5.5 over Denver
Considering the fact that I was 18-16 entering the weekend and the leader was an outstanding 18-8-1, I need to have a good weekend. My 2-0 start is a step in the right direction!
Daily Sketch: Up $13.45
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $201.47
It's amazing, however, to watch some players get wild on these NL tables. During my hour of play, I saw one particular player increase his stack of chips to over $250. Shortly thereafter, he had lost it all! He was a reckless better who kept going "all in" whenever he flopped top pair or had a flush draw. He caught a few cards early and, consequently, saw great success. When his cards went cold, however, he kept going "all in" and eventually lost all the gains he had made. It was amazing to watch. I wish I had been able to capitalize, but I didn't get the cards.
Despite the wild play at my table, I played conservatively. Entering the night, my goal was to win enough money to pay for dinner for Theresa and I (Chinese delivery).
Mission accomplished! Our "free" dinner - courtesy of Party Poker - was quite tasty!
In other news, I spent $2 in EHSI's league picking up a couple free agents (Richie Anderson & Michael Clayton). Hopefully, they work out for me this weekend.
I made nine picks in Tom V.'s $100 pool this weekend. I've already gotten my first two picks correct:
Virginia -16.5 over Clemson
UNLV +10.5 over BYU
Wisconsin +3 over Ohio St.
Iowa St. +9 over Texas A&M
Kansas St. -2.5 over Kansas
New Mexico -1.5 over Air Force
New Orleans -3 over Tampa Bay
Minnesota -4 over Houston
Carolina +5.5 over Denver
Considering the fact that I was 18-16 entering the weekend and the leader was an outstanding 18-8-1, I need to have a good weekend. My 2-0 start is a step in the right direction!
Daily Sketch: Up $13.45
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $201.47
October 7, 2004: Chasing $100
Entering tonight, I needed to play exactly 226 raked hands to claim Party Poker's $100 reload bonus. That's the EXACT number of hands I ended up playing on a 6-man $50 NL table.
To illustrate the volatility of NL poker, you need only look at the 2nd hand I played this evening:
I'm dealt AA. Under the gun, I raise the ante (from $1) to $4. I'm called by two players.
The flop comes 3s 7c Jh. The 1st player (Pokerjoel) immediately declares "all in" with the $62 he's got at the table. The 2nd player folds and I immediately call - putting Pokerjoel on AJ in the hole. Unfortunately, Pokerjoel reveals an underpair of 3's, and his 3-of-a-kind takes the pot when I can't improve my aces. Just like that, I'm down exactly $50!
For the next 90 minutes, I slowly win back the $50 - inch by inch. Exactly two hands after getting back to even, I'm dealt JJ. With four players in a pot that I've bet to $4, the flop comes As Ac 4c. One player (corkycosmo) bets $4, and I decide that I'm going to call one more bet and chase a jack. Sure enough, the turn comes as a jack and I'm sitting pretty.
Corkycosmo goes "all in" after the turn. Naturally, I call - holding the full house. Corkycosmo proceeds to show an A4 under. He had flopped a full house and proceeds to scoop the entire pot! Ugh!! All told it "only" cost me $35 - as Corkycosmo didn't have a lot of money at the table. Still, it was a swing hand that I thought I had won when I saw the jack on the turn.
Once I played my 226th hand of the night, I quit. I did proceed to win back approximately $25 of the $35 I lost to Corkycosmo, so my poker-playing losses were $10. However, I claimed the $100 bonus, so I made some decent money tonight. In the end, I netted ahead $90.43 this evening.
Daily Sketch: Up $90.43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $214.92
To illustrate the volatility of NL poker, you need only look at the 2nd hand I played this evening:
I'm dealt AA. Under the gun, I raise the ante (from $1) to $4. I'm called by two players.
The flop comes 3s 7c Jh. The 1st player (Pokerjoel) immediately declares "all in" with the $62 he's got at the table. The 2nd player folds and I immediately call - putting Pokerjoel on AJ in the hole. Unfortunately, Pokerjoel reveals an underpair of 3's, and his 3-of-a-kind takes the pot when I can't improve my aces. Just like that, I'm down exactly $50!
For the next 90 minutes, I slowly win back the $50 - inch by inch. Exactly two hands after getting back to even, I'm dealt JJ. With four players in a pot that I've bet to $4, the flop comes As Ac 4c. One player (corkycosmo) bets $4, and I decide that I'm going to call one more bet and chase a jack. Sure enough, the turn comes as a jack and I'm sitting pretty.
Corkycosmo goes "all in" after the turn. Naturally, I call - holding the full house. Corkycosmo proceeds to show an A4 under. He had flopped a full house and proceeds to scoop the entire pot! Ugh!! All told it "only" cost me $35 - as Corkycosmo didn't have a lot of money at the table. Still, it was a swing hand that I thought I had won when I saw the jack on the turn.
Once I played my 226th hand of the night, I quit. I did proceed to win back approximately $25 of the $35 I lost to Corkycosmo, so my poker-playing losses were $10. However, I claimed the $100 bonus, so I made some decent money tonight. In the end, I netted ahead $90.43 this evening.
Daily Sketch: Up $90.43
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $214.92
October 6, 2004: More Party Poker
Last Friday, I noticed that Party Poker was offering a reload bonus. Taking advantage of the offer, I immediately transferred $500 from my UltimateBet account and earned a tentative $100 (20%) that Party Poker will give me after I play 700 raked hands on their site. The catch, however, is that all 700 must be played in one week - something I didn't notice until tonight.
Admittedly, the $500 withdrawal from UltimateBet nearly exhausted all the funds I had in that account, but I didn't anticipate playing on that site in the foreseeable future, anyway. This month, my quest is to garner as many starting chips as possible for next month's "big" Party Poker semifinal tournament. Since I was going to play on Party Poker anyway, the $100 will truly be "free" money. Of course, I could always transfer the $500 right back to UltimateBet, but I guess I'll wait until they offer a reload bonus before doing that.
Side note: Eight hours after transferring the $500 to PartyPoker, I could have immediately transferred the money back to UltimateBet and not sacrificed the $100 bonus. PartyPoker doesn't care if you keep the $500 in your account - they just want you to play the 700 raked hands. As I just mentioned, however, I think I'll keep the $500 in my PartyPoker account until I see another site offering a reload bonus (UltimateBet, Poker Room, or Empire Poker). If none of those sites offers a reload bonus during the next 30 days, I'll use the $500 to establish a new account on a new site (PokerStars or Pacific Poker) and take advantage of a first-time deposit bonus. I already had a few bucks sitting in my Party Poker account, so I've got some wriggle room - in the event I start losing.
So, with time running out to earn my $100, I'm going to need to play more raked hands than I ever anticipated during the next two nights - but that's no big deal. I was going to play poker, anyway, although I had originally planned on entering some tournaments in my quest for bonus chips.
Still, for every raked hand I play during these next two nights, I'll earn one bonus chip for the semifinal tournament. So, while playing the required 700 raked hands on Party Poker, I'll simultaneously earn the $100 AND accumulate 700 bonus starting chips. Essentially, I'll be killing two birds with one stone. That works for me!! Hopefully, I can also cut into the negative month-to-date sketch while playing those 700 hands. If nothing else, it certainly sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?
Since I enjoyed moderate success playing No Limit last night, that's where I decided to go tonight. Investing $50, I jumped on a 6-man NL table and let the fun begin!
All told, I played (on and off) for about 4 hours while watching the baseball playoffs. If nothing else, the hands were played quite quickly. In fact, by playing No Limit poker, a lot of hands were decided when the first person made a sizeable wager. Since Party Poker doesn't require a significant pot to start raking, almost every hand that was dealt counted towards my quota of 700 hands - which is a very good thing. There were numerous smaller hands, in fact, that saw Party Poker rake only a dime. Even though it was only a dime, it still qualified as a raked hand!
I didn't make a ton of money, but my chips slowly (yet surely) increased . At my lowest level, I believe I was down $30. At my peak, however, I was up nearly $75. Considering the fact that anyone could go "all in" at any point, it's quite surprising that I didn't really have any big swings.
At the end of the night, I found myself up exactly $33.50, which isn't very exciting, is it? I played over 400 hands, so I'm well on my way to the $100 bonus. I should earn that tomorrow, so hopefully the sketchbook looks more positive than it does today.
Daily Sketch: Up $33.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $305.35
Admittedly, the $500 withdrawal from UltimateBet nearly exhausted all the funds I had in that account, but I didn't anticipate playing on that site in the foreseeable future, anyway. This month, my quest is to garner as many starting chips as possible for next month's "big" Party Poker semifinal tournament. Since I was going to play on Party Poker anyway, the $100 will truly be "free" money. Of course, I could always transfer the $500 right back to UltimateBet, but I guess I'll wait until they offer a reload bonus before doing that.
Side note: Eight hours after transferring the $500 to PartyPoker, I could have immediately transferred the money back to UltimateBet and not sacrificed the $100 bonus. PartyPoker doesn't care if you keep the $500 in your account - they just want you to play the 700 raked hands. As I just mentioned, however, I think I'll keep the $500 in my PartyPoker account until I see another site offering a reload bonus (UltimateBet, Poker Room, or Empire Poker). If none of those sites offers a reload bonus during the next 30 days, I'll use the $500 to establish a new account on a new site (PokerStars or Pacific Poker) and take advantage of a first-time deposit bonus. I already had a few bucks sitting in my Party Poker account, so I've got some wriggle room - in the event I start losing.
So, with time running out to earn my $100, I'm going to need to play more raked hands than I ever anticipated during the next two nights - but that's no big deal. I was going to play poker, anyway, although I had originally planned on entering some tournaments in my quest for bonus chips.
Still, for every raked hand I play during these next two nights, I'll earn one bonus chip for the semifinal tournament. So, while playing the required 700 raked hands on Party Poker, I'll simultaneously earn the $100 AND accumulate 700 bonus starting chips. Essentially, I'll be killing two birds with one stone. That works for me!! Hopefully, I can also cut into the negative month-to-date sketch while playing those 700 hands. If nothing else, it certainly sounds like a good plan, doesn't it?
Since I enjoyed moderate success playing No Limit last night, that's where I decided to go tonight. Investing $50, I jumped on a 6-man NL table and let the fun begin!
All told, I played (on and off) for about 4 hours while watching the baseball playoffs. If nothing else, the hands were played quite quickly. In fact, by playing No Limit poker, a lot of hands were decided when the first person made a sizeable wager. Since Party Poker doesn't require a significant pot to start raking, almost every hand that was dealt counted towards my quota of 700 hands - which is a very good thing. There were numerous smaller hands, in fact, that saw Party Poker rake only a dime. Even though it was only a dime, it still qualified as a raked hand!
I didn't make a ton of money, but my chips slowly (yet surely) increased . At my lowest level, I believe I was down $30. At my peak, however, I was up nearly $75. Considering the fact that anyone could go "all in" at any point, it's quite surprising that I didn't really have any big swings.
At the end of the night, I found myself up exactly $33.50, which isn't very exciting, is it? I played over 400 hands, so I'm well on my way to the $100 bonus. I should earn that tomorrow, so hopefully the sketchbook looks more positive than it does today.
Daily Sketch: Up $33.50
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $305.35
October 5, 2004: Party Poker
With a sizeable monthly deficit staring me in the face, I'm going to use last month's technique to make it up: Multi-table tournaments.
With that being said, I entered a 30-man $30(3) tournament this evening on Party Poker. Unfortunately, I only lasted twenty minutes.
Dealt JK, the flop came up KK5. Two other players were in the pot and checked to me. I made a sizeable bet and was called by one of the other players. After a couple unexciting turn and river cards, I found myself declaring "all in" with my 3-of-a-kind. My opponent called and revealed a K5. He had flopped the full house and had slow-played it nicely. Yikes!!
I finished in 27th place - my worst finish to date. There wasn't much I could do about it, though. After the flop, I was not going to fold that hand.
Having only played for 20 minutes, I decided to jump on a 6-man $5/$10 table. Surprisingly, things went well. It's been quite a while since I found any great success on these tables, so I'm unsure why I played. In the end, however, I'm glad I did.
I played for 55 minutes. During that time, I slowly and steadily saw my chip stack increase. I flopped some top pairs and was delighted when my callers always seemed to reveal a lower kicker. All told, I won $81.
Later in the night, I checked back into Party Poker and noticed Andrew sitting at a NL table. For kicks, I decided to join him at the same table. In 45 minutes, I won $22.15. Andrew won significantly more before I left. Congrats, my man!! Hopefully, he hung on to that money after I went to bed!
Daily Sketch: Up $70.15
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $338.85
With that being said, I entered a 30-man $30(3) tournament this evening on Party Poker. Unfortunately, I only lasted twenty minutes.
Dealt JK, the flop came up KK5. Two other players were in the pot and checked to me. I made a sizeable bet and was called by one of the other players. After a couple unexciting turn and river cards, I found myself declaring "all in" with my 3-of-a-kind. My opponent called and revealed a K5. He had flopped the full house and had slow-played it nicely. Yikes!!
I finished in 27th place - my worst finish to date. There wasn't much I could do about it, though. After the flop, I was not going to fold that hand.
Having only played for 20 minutes, I decided to jump on a 6-man $5/$10 table. Surprisingly, things went well. It's been quite a while since I found any great success on these tables, so I'm unsure why I played. In the end, however, I'm glad I did.
I played for 55 minutes. During that time, I slowly and steadily saw my chip stack increase. I flopped some top pairs and was delighted when my callers always seemed to reveal a lower kicker. All told, I won $81.
Later in the night, I checked back into Party Poker and noticed Andrew sitting at a NL table. For kicks, I decided to join him at the same table. In 45 minutes, I won $22.15. Andrew won significantly more before I left. Congrats, my man!! Hopefully, he hung on to that money after I went to bed!
Daily Sketch: Up $70.15
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $338.85
October 4, 2004: Poker at Joe's
Tonight, I played in the weekly game at Joe's house. Before I briefly describe the night, however, I thought I'd give a quick update regarding the football pools that I've invested in:
As mentioned in yesterday's entry, my Sure Bet selection (Philadelphia) was victorious - so I advanced another week. Green Bay's loss eliminated 16 people and another 2 people were eliminated when Washington and New Orleans each lost. I was hoping that more than 18 people would be eliminated but, nevertheless, we're down to 40 people. I've got a 1-in-40 shot to win $1,470. That would certainly erase my negative month-to-date sketch, wouldn't it? Next weekend, I've already selected the Patriots to defeat Miami. If there's such a thing as a "sure bet", that's gotta be it, right? As of today, New England is favored to win by 13.5 points.
At the same time, I went 2-2 in fantasy football this weekend. Tyrone Wheatley's injury cost me a victory in EHSI's league and my poor decision to activate Chris Brown ahead of Rudi Johnson in David D.'s league cost me a victory. As a result, I fell to 2-2 in each of those leagues, but I'm 3-1 in my other two leagues.
Meanwhile, I went 3-4 (against the spread) in Tom V.'s $100 pool - bringing my year-to-date record to an extremely average 18-16. With one-third of my allotted picks done, I'm not exactly on the path to riches in that pool.
On to poker . . .
All told, I improved to 4-for-4 in this new weekly game by winning exactly $25 tonight at Joe's house. I started the night with some excellent hands and coasted to the finish with my profits. It's not a ton of money (primarily 'cuz the stakes aren't high), but I certainly don't mind my 4-for-4 record thus far.
Daily Sketch: Up $25
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $409
As mentioned in yesterday's entry, my Sure Bet selection (Philadelphia) was victorious - so I advanced another week. Green Bay's loss eliminated 16 people and another 2 people were eliminated when Washington and New Orleans each lost. I was hoping that more than 18 people would be eliminated but, nevertheless, we're down to 40 people. I've got a 1-in-40 shot to win $1,470. That would certainly erase my negative month-to-date sketch, wouldn't it? Next weekend, I've already selected the Patriots to defeat Miami. If there's such a thing as a "sure bet", that's gotta be it, right? As of today, New England is favored to win by 13.5 points.
At the same time, I went 2-2 in fantasy football this weekend. Tyrone Wheatley's injury cost me a victory in EHSI's league and my poor decision to activate Chris Brown ahead of Rudi Johnson in David D.'s league cost me a victory. As a result, I fell to 2-2 in each of those leagues, but I'm 3-1 in my other two leagues.
Meanwhile, I went 3-4 (against the spread) in Tom V.'s $100 pool - bringing my year-to-date record to an extremely average 18-16. With one-third of my allotted picks done, I'm not exactly on the path to riches in that pool.
On to poker . . .
All told, I improved to 4-for-4 in this new weekly game by winning exactly $25 tonight at Joe's house. I started the night with some excellent hands and coasted to the finish with my profits. It's not a ton of money (primarily 'cuz the stakes aren't high), but I certainly don't mind my 4-for-4 record thus far.
Daily Sketch: Up $25
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $409
October 3, 2004: NFL Sunday
Per usual, I spent most of the day watching football. In particular, I watched the suddenly dismal Green Bay Packers lose to the NY Giants - at home! Ugh!
As a result of the Packers' loss, I'm confident that a significant number of people were eliminated from the Sure Bet pool. Thankfully, I had selected Philadelphia to defeat Chicago - so I'm still alive. I believe there were 58 people still playing as we entered the weekend. I'm guessing, however, that close to 50% of those 58 people had selected Green Bay. I may have inched significantly closer to a $1,470 jackpot! Wouldn't that be a nice payday?!?
After watching the debacle at Lambeau, I wasn't in the mood to play poker, but I decided to enter one 10-man $30(3) tournament on Party Poker before the 7:30pm NFL game started. After all, I created quite a hole for myself at Potawatomi on Friday, so I better start trying to dig myself out!
I finished 3rd in the tournament. For my accomplishment, I won $60 - giving me a net profit of $27. I was eliminated by thek1dd, who called my "all in" bet while holding more chips. I had an 88, but his A-10 took the pot when an ace appeared on the board. Ooops!! Using that hand as a springboard, Thek1dd proceeded to win the tournament and claimed the $150 first place prize.
Considering the fact that I didn't want to play poker today, I'll take the modest $27 earnings.
Daily Sketch: Up $27
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $444
As a result of the Packers' loss, I'm confident that a significant number of people were eliminated from the Sure Bet pool. Thankfully, I had selected Philadelphia to defeat Chicago - so I'm still alive. I believe there were 58 people still playing as we entered the weekend. I'm guessing, however, that close to 50% of those 58 people had selected Green Bay. I may have inched significantly closer to a $1,470 jackpot! Wouldn't that be a nice payday?!?
After watching the debacle at Lambeau, I wasn't in the mood to play poker, but I decided to enter one 10-man $30(3) tournament on Party Poker before the 7:30pm NFL game started. After all, I created quite a hole for myself at Potawatomi on Friday, so I better start trying to dig myself out!
I finished 3rd in the tournament. For my accomplishment, I won $60 - giving me a net profit of $27. I was eliminated by thek1dd, who called my "all in" bet while holding more chips. I had an 88, but his A-10 took the pot when an ace appeared on the board. Ooops!! Using that hand as a springboard, Thek1dd proceeded to win the tournament and claimed the $150 first place prize.
Considering the fact that I didn't want to play poker today, I'll take the modest $27 earnings.
Daily Sketch: Up $27
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $444
October 2, 2004: PokerRoom.com
After getting home from Potawatomi, I decided to try my luck on Party Poker for a few minutes during the wee hours of the morning. I played for 90 minutes and lost $42 while playing on 5-man $5/$10 tables. Ooops!! At one point, I was up nearly $70, but eventually finished in the red.
After a hearty night's rest, I went back to Party Poker while listening to the Wisconsin Badger football game.
Side Note: Why wasn't the Badger game on TV? Did I miss something? How can a conference Big Ten football game not be on local TV? Maybe I missed it, but I scanned my cable service and couldn't find a broadcast. So, I listened to the game while simultaneously playing poker
During the three hours of the game, I won $51 while playing on various $3/$6 tables. It's not a lot of money, but at least it offset my early morning gambling losses on the same site.
For those loyal readers of the sketchbook, you may recall that I initially joined Poker Room (at the end of August) because they offered a $200 sign-up bonus. After playing on the site for three hours today, I realize that I won't be earning the $200 bonus, so I withdrew all my money from the site. This week, I'll be playing on other on-line sites.
To earn the $200, Poker Room wants me to play 1,400 raked hands. Usually, that wouldn't be much of a problem, but Poker Room doesn't take a rake until the pot grows to $20. Playing three hours of $3/$6 action this afternoon, only 214 hands were raked. On Poker Room, many of the tables are 5-handed. With only 5 people at each table, it's relatively unusual to see a pot grow above $20 - unless two people play all the way to the river. Too often, everyone folds to the better before the pot reaches $20 - so the hand doesn't count towards my required 1,400 hands.
I still have over 1,000 raked hands to play before I collect the $200, but it's simply not worth it. I must claim the $200 by October 29th, which means I'd need to dedicate most of my October on-line poker to PokerRoom.com. Additionally, I'd probably need to bump my play up to the $5/$10 tables and, consequently, risk a decent amount of money - all in search of the $200 bonus. At this point, I'd rather play lower stakes on Party Poker and accumulate the last 1,100 bonus chips I need for the semi-final tournament that's being played during the first weekend of November. So, I guess I'll leave the $200 unclaimed on Poker Room.
Having said that, I'll definitely go back to Poker Room in the future. Playing $1/$2 tables on that site, most of the pots are never raked - which is a huge bonus. I'm not sure how the site can afford to operate $1/$2 tables that don't rake money, but so be it. They must be raking enough money from the higher stakes tables to offset the lack of rake from the lower stakes tables. I'll probably go back to Poker Room in November - after Party Poker's semifinal tournament the first weekend of the month.
Daily Sketch: Up $9
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $471
After a hearty night's rest, I went back to Party Poker while listening to the Wisconsin Badger football game.
Side Note: Why wasn't the Badger game on TV? Did I miss something? How can a conference Big Ten football game not be on local TV? Maybe I missed it, but I scanned my cable service and couldn't find a broadcast. So, I listened to the game while simultaneously playing poker
During the three hours of the game, I won $51 while playing on various $3/$6 tables. It's not a lot of money, but at least it offset my early morning gambling losses on the same site.
For those loyal readers of the sketchbook, you may recall that I initially joined Poker Room (at the end of August) because they offered a $200 sign-up bonus. After playing on the site for three hours today, I realize that I won't be earning the $200 bonus, so I withdrew all my money from the site. This week, I'll be playing on other on-line sites.
To earn the $200, Poker Room wants me to play 1,400 raked hands. Usually, that wouldn't be much of a problem, but Poker Room doesn't take a rake until the pot grows to $20. Playing three hours of $3/$6 action this afternoon, only 214 hands were raked. On Poker Room, many of the tables are 5-handed. With only 5 people at each table, it's relatively unusual to see a pot grow above $20 - unless two people play all the way to the river. Too often, everyone folds to the better before the pot reaches $20 - so the hand doesn't count towards my required 1,400 hands.
I still have over 1,000 raked hands to play before I collect the $200, but it's simply not worth it. I must claim the $200 by October 29th, which means I'd need to dedicate most of my October on-line poker to PokerRoom.com. Additionally, I'd probably need to bump my play up to the $5/$10 tables and, consequently, risk a decent amount of money - all in search of the $200 bonus. At this point, I'd rather play lower stakes on Party Poker and accumulate the last 1,100 bonus chips I need for the semi-final tournament that's being played during the first weekend of November. So, I guess I'll leave the $200 unclaimed on Poker Room.
Having said that, I'll definitely go back to Poker Room in the future. Playing $1/$2 tables on that site, most of the pots are never raked - which is a huge bonus. I'm not sure how the site can afford to operate $1/$2 tables that don't rake money, but so be it. They must be raking enough money from the higher stakes tables to offset the lack of rake from the lower stakes tables. I'll probably go back to Poker Room in November - after Party Poker's semifinal tournament the first weekend of the month.
Daily Sketch: Up $9
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $471
October 1, 2004: Potawatomi
I haven't visited the Potawatomi Indians in quite awhile - which is strange considering the fact that I live less than two miles from the casino. Of course, the explosion of on-line poker has really kept me busy, so there hasn't been a need to leave the house to gamble. After all, why drive two miles to a casino when I can simply wander over to my computer to play poker?
Having said that, I decided to take the afternoon off from work to visit the Injuns and play some poker. If nothing else, I thought that some "live" action might prove to be a nice diversion from all the on-line poker I've been playing lately. With Theresa out of town for the weekend, I've got a chance to do some serious gambling, and I thought that Potawatomi would be a good place to start. Considering the fact that I've only lost once when playing poker at the casino, I also thought that a visit to Potawatomi would give me a good chance to start the month with a positive sketchbook entry. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way
I arrived at the casino around 12:30pm. I went up to the poker room and was dismayed to see a sizeable waiting list for the $5/$10 poker tables. I put my name on this list (I believe I was #7) and headed down to the casino floor.
Starting at a $10 blackjack table, things started ok. I won my first three hands and was up $40. Slowly but surely, however, I gave that money back. After 40 minutes, I was down $60 and put a $20 bet on the table. I was dealt AA against a dealer's 7. Splitting the aces, I was given a 3 and a 5 on each ace. Ugh! The dealer flipped over a 10 and I lost both bets. I was down $100 and decided that was enough.
Then, I wandered over to a $1 Wheel of Fortune Machine. I had hoped to stop at a machine if I won money in the poker room but, with nothing better to do, plunked $100 into a machine before playing poker. Unfortunately, I didn't hit a single spin. It took less than 15 minutes to lose the $100, so I put another $80 into the machine. It took 25 minutes, but I eventually lost that money, too. At least I got a couple spins during those 25 minutes, but they weren't enough to keep me from losing all my money.
Down $280, I wandered back to the poker room and saw that I had moved up to #3 on the waiting list. I waited another 45 minutes before finally getting on a table.
For the next 8 hours, I sat at a $5/$10 table and slowly - yet surely - lost another $200. It was very frustrating! Without getting into many specifics, I'd like to mention that I was dealt AK exactly 7 times during those 8 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't win a single one of those 7 hands - despite the fact that I flopped the top pair on 6 of those 7 occasions. Admittedly, AK isn't the greatest hand you can get, but it's pretty good - especially when you keep flopping top pair.
Here was my worst bad beat:
Dealt AK, the flop came up 10-J-Q (rainbow). I had the nut straight and bet aggressively. Two other players stayed in the pot and we capped the betting pre-turn (aka the most allowable money was put into the pot). The turn came up garbage (I think it was a 4). One of the other players folded, but the betting was still capped after the turn by myself and another player. At that point, I suspected that the other player was holding AK and assumed that we'd split the pot.
The turn was another Jack. I bet and was raised (again). Suspecting that something was wrong, I simply called the raise. I still assumed that we were splitting the pot - which was quite large. I flipped over my AK, but was surprised to see my opponent holding JQ. The last Jack had given him the full house and he scooped the giant pot!
Needless to say, I was stunned. I was leading the entire way - until that jack appeared on the river. Why a guy would continue to raise the bets (after the flop and turn) when he was "only" holding two pair completely baffled me. I can understand why he'd consider calling my bets, but he was a huge underdog and should have seen that. After the hand was over, he said something to the affect of, "I knew I was losing, but I felt lucky." Ugh!!!
So, I eventually left the poker table down $200. It's (easily) the most money I've lost at Potawatomi's poker tables. Oh, well. That's poker, I guess. At least I've got a full month to make up for today's dismal performance!!
Daily Sketch: Down $480
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $480
Having said that, I decided to take the afternoon off from work to visit the Injuns and play some poker. If nothing else, I thought that some "live" action might prove to be a nice diversion from all the on-line poker I've been playing lately. With Theresa out of town for the weekend, I've got a chance to do some serious gambling, and I thought that Potawatomi would be a good place to start. Considering the fact that I've only lost once when playing poker at the casino, I also thought that a visit to Potawatomi would give me a good chance to start the month with a positive sketchbook entry. Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way
I arrived at the casino around 12:30pm. I went up to the poker room and was dismayed to see a sizeable waiting list for the $5/$10 poker tables. I put my name on this list (I believe I was #7) and headed down to the casino floor.
Starting at a $10 blackjack table, things started ok. I won my first three hands and was up $40. Slowly but surely, however, I gave that money back. After 40 minutes, I was down $60 and put a $20 bet on the table. I was dealt AA against a dealer's 7. Splitting the aces, I was given a 3 and a 5 on each ace. Ugh! The dealer flipped over a 10 and I lost both bets. I was down $100 and decided that was enough.
Then, I wandered over to a $1 Wheel of Fortune Machine. I had hoped to stop at a machine if I won money in the poker room but, with nothing better to do, plunked $100 into a machine before playing poker. Unfortunately, I didn't hit a single spin. It took less than 15 minutes to lose the $100, so I put another $80 into the machine. It took 25 minutes, but I eventually lost that money, too. At least I got a couple spins during those 25 minutes, but they weren't enough to keep me from losing all my money.
Down $280, I wandered back to the poker room and saw that I had moved up to #3 on the waiting list. I waited another 45 minutes before finally getting on a table.
For the next 8 hours, I sat at a $5/$10 table and slowly - yet surely - lost another $200. It was very frustrating! Without getting into many specifics, I'd like to mention that I was dealt AK exactly 7 times during those 8 hours. Unfortunately, I didn't win a single one of those 7 hands - despite the fact that I flopped the top pair on 6 of those 7 occasions. Admittedly, AK isn't the greatest hand you can get, but it's pretty good - especially when you keep flopping top pair.
Here was my worst bad beat:
Dealt AK, the flop came up 10-J-Q (rainbow). I had the nut straight and bet aggressively. Two other players stayed in the pot and we capped the betting pre-turn (aka the most allowable money was put into the pot). The turn came up garbage (I think it was a 4). One of the other players folded, but the betting was still capped after the turn by myself and another player. At that point, I suspected that the other player was holding AK and assumed that we'd split the pot.
The turn was another Jack. I bet and was raised (again). Suspecting that something was wrong, I simply called the raise. I still assumed that we were splitting the pot - which was quite large. I flipped over my AK, but was surprised to see my opponent holding JQ. The last Jack had given him the full house and he scooped the giant pot!
Needless to say, I was stunned. I was leading the entire way - until that jack appeared on the river. Why a guy would continue to raise the bets (after the flop and turn) when he was "only" holding two pair completely baffled me. I can understand why he'd consider calling my bets, but he was a huge underdog and should have seen that. After the hand was over, he said something to the affect of, "I knew I was losing, but I felt lucky." Ugh!!!
So, I eventually left the poker table down $200. It's (easily) the most money I've lost at Potawatomi's poker tables. Oh, well. That's poker, I guess. At least I've got a full month to make up for today's dismal performance!!
Daily Sketch: Down $480
Month-to-Date Sketch: Down $480
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