March 15, 2008: Full Tilt Update

When the week started, I had the $317 in my account that I claimed while playing in last weekend's Full Tilt Poker Tournament. After numerous hours of various poker action this week, I can proudly declare that I now have a whopping $360 in my account. Woo hoo!

For the most part, the last six days haven't been successful. Focusing mostly on 1-table $10 Sit 'n' Go Tournaments, my account has slowly bled. Thankfully, I exercised a fair amount of discipline, and I didn't go crazy and lose all my money.

Regardless, I just can't seem to take 1st place in these Sit 'n' Go Tournaments. I'm reaching the money fairly regularly, but the "big" money is claimed by taking 1st place. A flurry of 2nd and 3rd place finishes won't really result in much profit if you can't take first.

Down to my last $140 (I was down nearly $200 this week), I decided to join a $10 90-man tournament this evening. Remarkably, I found success. Over the course of 3 hours, I won a few coin flips and made it to the final table. From there, I played smart poker and eventually claimed the title.

A couple years ago, I recall winning a tournament that had about 100 people playing. Tonight's victory is probably my 2nd largest victory, although the amount of my winnings isn't exactly crazy. Regardless, it feels pretty good to outlast 89 other players!

March 9, 2008: Full Tilt $750,000 Guaranteed

Two weeks ago, David won a significant amount of cash playing in UltimateBet's weekly Sunday $215 tournament. Although David is a decent poker player (he'll be joining me in Vegas at the WSOP), I don't believe he's any better than me. So, why can't I win some significant loot sometime?

With that in mind, I beat my head against a brick wall this afternoon at Full Tilt Poker. Playing a variety of ring games and Sit 'n' Go Tournaments, I basically broke even. So, I decided to invest the last $215 of my account balance in this evening's $750,000 Guaranteed tournament.

Exactly 3,984 people signed up to play. Yikes!

Unfortunately, I couldn't seem to catch any cards. Slowly yet surely, my starting stack of 3,000 chips dwindled until I found myself with 585 chips two hours into the tournament. At that point, I had won exactly 5 hands. Boooooring!!

Then, during the next 30 minutes, I scooped three nice pots and suddenly found myself with over 13,000 chips. I actually found myself above average when we got down to 1,200 players. Woo Hoo!!

Then, once again, my cards went dry. However, I folded smartly and eventually found myself "in the money" - which came when we got down to 522 players.

Not long afterward, I found myself folding pocket Queens and declared myself "all in". I had 5,000 chips (which wasn't chump change), but it wasn't enough to scare the Big Blind. He had 45,000 chips and called my bet while holding K-8 offsuit.

Wouldn't you know it? A king appeared on the flop and I was eliminated in 452nd place. Had I only won that hand, I would've been armed and dangerous.

Instead, I won a prize of exactly $317.92.

That isn't exactly a bounty of loot, but it's better than nothing - I suppose. When you consider that I was down to 585 chips at one time, I guess I shouldn't complain too much. At least I gave it a run.

March 7, 2008: More Blackjack

I had planned on "bonding" with UltimateBet's Blackjack program this weekend. I was going to stick to a specific plan and track my results. If nothing else, I hoped to prove that Blackjack could be beaten.

Unfortunately, that didn't quite work out.

I played for two hours this evening. Sticking to a stategy of playing 3 hands at once, I proceeded to lose $150. The dealer simply hit WAY too many cards and I couldn't catch any breaks. So, my "experiment" ended before it started. Ooops!!

With my account balance back down to $200, I decided to transfer my money to Full Tilt Poker. Maybe I'll try my luck on Sunday at the poker tables.

March 4: 2008: Back to UltimateBet

On June 14th, David and I are venturing to Las Vegas to play in a preliminary $1,500 event at the World Series of Poker. I'm already counting the minutes!

I booked our flights to Sin City today. Surprisingly, the Midwest Express flight is rather inexpensive and will only cost $267. I fully expected that we'd be paying closer to $350 to fly out there.

I booked our two flights today. To reimburse me for the cost of his own flight, David sent $267 to my UltimateBet account. As a result, I've suddenly got some money to play with. Woo hoo!! Otherwise, I had no viable method for depositing money at UltimateBet.

Armed with a fresh bankroll, I sat at an Ultimatebet blackjack table for about 2 hours tonight. After the dust had settled, I had claimed a profit of exactly $140. If my goal is to win enough money to cover the cost of my flight, I'm already halfway there.

Admittedly, Ultimatebet's Blackjack tables are complete luck. So, I guess I got a little lucky tonight. We'll see if I can give back some of this money over the next few days . . .

March 2, 2008: Ooops!

When last we left you, I had over $1,100 in my Full Tilt account and things were going well. After starting with $300, I had tripled my original investment in one day. Woo hoo! I was the king of the world!!

Since that time, however, things have gone south.

First, I transferred $220 into Chris' Full Tilt Poker account. He was interested in getting back into the game, so he gave me some cash in return for funding his account. Then, I initiated a $300 withdrawal from the website. My check should be coming in the mail shortly.

After making those two transactions, I had approximately $600 in my account. Unfortunately, that money disappeared in the blink of an eye. Boo!

Playing exclusively at 6-man $5/$10 tables, I frittered away all $600 in two ugly nights on Full Tilt. A flurry of ugly cards, ugly beats, and ugly play contributed to my downfall. Ooops! There were some really ugly experiences along the way, but I'm not that interested in sharing them. Trust me, it was ugly!

So, all after was said and done, my short "experiment" at Full Tilt resulted in a profit of $220 in one week's time. I guess that's not bad - but I had hoped for more.