Running History
In all my reading and lurking of 2+2 I had read countless times about how soft and easy Party Poker was. I came across an instantbankroll deal which would give me a $75 starting amount at Party and another bonus of $25 once I had played a certain number of raked hands. I was skeptical at first but eventually signed up for the deal and within a week or so, sure enough, I had $75 in a Party account and was ready to roll with 45 days access to the beginner tables there.
At the same time I downloaded poker tracker and poker ace hud which I had read a pile about and was immediately impressed with both and registered them. I decided that I would focus solely on limit poker and read GSIH and SSHE and hopefully learn how to play poker.
I started out at the 0.15/0.30 tables and got off to a nice hot lucky start. I quickly moved to the 0.25/0.50 tables and went on an even hotter streak. I ended up playing about 6k hands at 0.25/0.50 and churned a profit of about $160 or so. It didn't take long at all to take my original free $100 at Party and triple it. I couldn't tell (and still have no idea) if I was just getting lucky, or the books were helping, or if Party really is that soft and easy, or if things were just starting to fall in place from getting in a lot of hands. Probably a bit of a combination of several factors.
By early February I moved to the 0.50/1.00 tables and was getting the itch to chase some bonuses down at other sites.
A Whore is Born
All the while, my internet reading continued. I was curious about 'bonus whoring' but it really seemed like more trouble than it might be worth. I really had to force myself to try out Party as I was inclined just to stay at Paradise forever. I felt that I would be better off just learning to play proper poker and forego running around chasing bonuses.
But...There are just soooo many bonuses out there. Along came super bowl weekend and Paradise was offering a reload bonus. I had always liked Paradise, so I figured I may as well get my feet wet in the bonus world and opened up a neteller account. Threw a few hundred (cdn$) into neteller, paid the whopping 8.9% service fee and transferred $200US to Paradise to pick up $40 in bonus. I had intended to deposit $500 to get the full $100 max bonus but without a certified neteller account I was not able and for some reason, any attempt at credit card deposits were declined, although my original deposit on Paradise was by credit card and had worked fine.
The neteller account was certified shortly afterwards and then converted to a US account as I quickly realized I was going to be scalped on exchange rates. I then split play between Paradise and Party, doing fairly well at both.
At about the time I finished clearing the Paradise bonus, Empire was just offering a $200 reload bonus. I fired off another deposit using instacash through Paradise which I moved to Neteller to deposit at Empire. Originally, my intent was to never put in any more money after the original deposit of $200. Somehow this figure had grown to $861 with the creation of the neteller account and an additional $400 instacash deposit just to use for chasing bonuses. So, in mid-February I opened an Empire account. Quickly cleared the $100 deposit bonus and then immediately fired off another deposit to take advantage of the $200 reload bonus. I then slogged through what I considered to be awful table selection at Empire for what seemed like far too long trying to clear that bonus. I had access to the beginner tables but there wasn't much going on there so I found myself playing 0.50/1.00 on 6-max tables for some reason. I did not have much 6-max experience at the time but did some quick reading on it and adjusted accordingly. I did okay, but I found the swings at 6-max to be pretty vicious. I would be up a lot one night and then lose it all and more the next. To make a long and boring story short and boring, I cleared the Empire bonuses and made an additional $3.44 profit. The $300 bonus money was good for the bankroll but I'm not sure I learned too much other than I probably do not play optimally when I'm playing more tables than I'm used to and trying out 6-max for the first time.
PokerNow
Within just a few days of finishing the grind at Empire I opened a Poker Now account. I didn't realize at the time that these were on the same network and I would be playing with the exact same people at the exact same tables. Short story: Cleared $100 bonus quickly, played more 6-max 0.50/1.00, lost $25 while doing it, netted $75.
Again, I wasn't sure if making the quick bonus was worth it as I played like a robot and just wanted to finish the raked hands.
Poker Stars
It was now nearing the end of February and I had stuck to playing just limit poker for a month and a half. I had read a couple good poker books. I had learned a bit. And I had managed to satisfy my ADD nature by hopping around from site to site instead of game to game. So, time to add another site! Enter Poker Stars. I figured I would treat myself to some SNG's again. I knew I wanted a Stars account eventually in order to play some forum games there at some point. I had read a lot of SNG strategy material on 2+2 since I had last played any SNG's and felt like I was a little better equipped to tackle them again. Knowing that Stars only had a $0.50 fee on the $5 SNG's was a factor in pushing me to open an account there. So, I put aside $200 of bonus money and opened a Poker Stars account to be used just for SNG's.
In my first SNG there I found myself short stacked early due to a really stupid call. I called an all in raise with AK. I KNOW that AK is a great hand to move all in with but not the greatest to call all in with but for some reason I did it anyway. I hung in for a bit but as the blinds increased I was forced to push all my chips in several times. I managed to take down a lot of blinds this way as others were hesitant to put that much of their stack on the line. Anytime someone did call I had a great hand and it held up. This made people even more hesitant to call my all ins which enabled me to steal even more blinds. Eventually I caught up to everyone and just kept on rolling. I had no experience with Stars but after over an hour we still had 6 people out of the original 9 still in this game which seemed odd to me. The SNG went over an hour and a half after which I finally won it and was pretty pumped. My girlfriend had been watching over my shoulder and was freaking out everytime I pushed all in. I think the whole experience was more stressful for her than I and we were both pumped when it was over. It was a great (and very lucky, no doubt) start to my return to SNG's. Funny enough, the excitement far far far outweighed the actual monetary gain. Once again, I was a champion SNG player. I then proceeded to lose my next 4 straight SNG's. Ooops. Again. Deja vu. Okay, so I'm no champion poker-anything. Fair enough.
I then proceeded to finish in the money in the next six straight SNG's I played to close out the month. Missed the money in the next one and then hit the money in the next four straight followed by two fourth place bubble finishes. I plan to stick to the little 5.50's for a while until I feel like I really do know what I am doing. At that time I may pick up and move to Party for the $11's or may stick around Stars, who knows. I will be pretty conservative with bankroll management and am only allowing myself to consider original deposit plus SNG earnings for purposes of moving up.
Poker4ever, early March
Poker4ever was an interesting ride. Nice software and pretty soft games but the low amount of traffic made table selection tough. I ended up having to play 1/2 which was a step up for me in order to clear the bonus. I also found myself playing no limit and pot limit in order to clear it, which was stupid seeing as though I had played nothing but limit for the last while other than SNG's which really don't translate well to ring games. I was probably down a bit on the no limit play, took in a small amount from some of their nice freerolls and made some money on the 0.25/0.50 and 1/2 limit games. As I was nearing the end of clearing the bonus I was up $150 at one point but dropped $70 of that in my last hour or two. $200 bonus plus $80 of earnings for just a few days there was pretty good though. I liked the site and would play there more if there were just more traffic. I did keep some money there and will check back now and then.
Stars Reload Bonus and Party Triple March Bonus
Friday night seems to always be a great time to play on-line poker. I'm not sure if people are getting drunk and playing or what but Fridays always seem to be better than average for me. There were a lot of extra people out at Party as well due to the reload bonus.
I finished almost 450 of the raked hands I needed to clear the $100 bonus, despite playing more than 1,000 hands for the night, 3-tabling. I finished up $58 for the night, which makes it a good night for me. People playing much higher stakes must get a chuckle out of people like me calling +$58 a good night I imagine. This gets me all the more closer to moving up to 1/2, which I'll start taking shots at fairly soon, if I keep winning. (in hindsight, I should have never thought this, much less put it in print anywhere)
Saturday - March 11, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,700 hands played
+$17, 1BB/100 hands booo
3 and 4 tabling
I got knocked around pretty badly on a few tables and was down for much of the day. Showed a small profit overall but it was a worse than average pair of sessions. On the bright side, I cleared the 1st $100 bonus on Party and now have a few days to clear another 1,500 raked hands for another $100 bonus.
Sunday - March 12, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,500 hands played
-$105
3 tabling
A new record! I had lost 70BBs in a day twice previously, but today marks a new low. Either I am still numb or am getting used to the downward swings that occur with limit poker as I don't feel all that bad right now. I'll make some of it back tomorrow night.
Monday - March 13, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00
1,000 hands played
+$8
4 tabling
Stars $5.50 NL SNG
1 game - 2nd place
+$8
Third day in a row of poor results at limit but at least it didn't result in a loss today. The SNG was pretty good and featured lengthy bubble play 4-handed and a long fight to determine third place. I let myself get pushed around a bit more than I would have liked headsup but got all my chips in the middle with the better of it a few times and lost. All in all, a fun SNG. I'm looking forward to the end of the Party bonuses. I have been playing far too many hands the last several days.
Tuesday - March 14, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
880 hands played
+$26
3 & 4 tabling
Much better results than the last few days. I think I completed stage 2 of Party's triple bonus tonight but I probably won't find out until sometime tomorrow if I am credited with the additional $100.
Wednesday - March 15, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,180 hands played
-$75
4 tabling
Awful night of poker. I started out bad, I continued throughout bad and I finished up really bad. Overall it was pretty bad. Bad. Bad bad bad bad.The only saving grace is that I'm still ahead this week due to bonuses. I have been playing far too many hands on too many tables and am looking forward to this Party bonus passing. I still need a ridiculous number of raked hands over the next two nights to clear the third bonus and doubt I will take a serious shot at it. Silly bonuses.
Thursday - March 16, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,170 hands played
-$46
3 and 4 tabling
Blah. Winnings at Party are evaporating and stand at $265 now, down from over $400 just a week or so ago. Does bonus chasing translate to bad poker or am I just hitting a cold deck? My stats suggest I have been folding too much but when I do get to showdown I have been losing way more than usual too. Time to re-read the post-flop sections of SSHE. On my list of things to do when I stop playing a stupid number of hands every night.
Weekend Summary - Daily summaries are obviously bad luck
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
2,050 hands played
-$21
3 and 4 tabling to finish bonus, some 1 and 2 tabling after
Party $6 Mini Step Tourney
2nd place, re-entry into level 1
7th place, busto with KK all-in getting beat by bigstack's AQ
-$6
Stars $5.50 SNG's
16 played(1st - 2, 2nd - 2, 3rd - 2, 4th to 9th - 10)
+$2
Many of the hands played this weekend were on 6-Max tables. I hadn't played 6 max in a while and it was a nice change of pace. What was really nice about them was all the crazy loose play I saw. I tried out a mini step tourney which was fun. I busted out on my 2nd try. I finished the Party triple bonus. I took a beating during this bonus, losing about $140 from play while gaining $300 in bonus. A net gain from a bankroll perspective but a big failure from a winnings and improvement point of view.
Monday - March 20, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit 6 Max
Few hundred hands played
+$63
Single tabling, while playing mini steps
Party $6 Mini Step Tourney
1st place, entry into level 2
5th place, re-entry into level 2
-$6
Stars $5.50 SNG's
2 played(1st - 1, 3rd - 1)
+$20
Paradise $5 Limit Tourney
138/450
$-5
Paradise $0.25/$0.50 limit
+11
I got the urge to play in a fixed limit tournament, so headed over to Paradise for one. I forgot what a crap shoot these are. I didn't catch any good cards and was pretty much crippled after only playing two hands. I got really lucky and fought back to build up a bit of a stack but the blinds were getting big and I had to commit to a hand went out with a wimper, not a bang. I played a little limit at Pardise while the tourney lasted and made enough to cover the tourney fee plus a little.
Next I fired up two Stars SNG's and built up decent stacks in each of them allowing me to coast to the money reasonably easily. I can't remember how I got knocked out 3rd in one but it happened quickly. I was short stacked in heads up play in the other and we battled for quite a while before I won it.
I played some 6 Max limit at Party again while I took another shot at the mini steps. The 6 max table was a dream with super loose passive players to my right and the only tight player sitting on my immediate left. I had my best session in a while on this table getting both good cards and awful play from the others. In the mini step I got short stacked but hung on and came back to a long drawn out heads up battle that ended with my JJ holding up to an all-in to put me into level 2. In level 2 I was quiet for a while then doubled up on one hand and then in the very next hand flopped two pair and almost lost my whole stack to a set. With blinds at 50/100 and my stack at 300 it wasn't looking good. I got lucky with getting all-in at the right times against the right people to build back up and outlast a few people before running into someone all-in with pocket Kings. I ended up in 5th which gives me a re-entry to level 2. Seeing as though I was so close to being put out much earlier, I was pretty happy with the result. These mini-steps are fun but I doubt they will be profitable for me.
Tuesday - March 28, 2006
I played some more $5 SNG's at Poker Stars - probably won a couple and lost a few. Played some 6-max fixed limit 0.50/1.00 at Party and won a bit.
I signed up at RiverBelle for the $150 bonus which includes $25 for neteller and $25 for friend referral. I used a name from a 2+2 poster I knew played at RiverBelle and dropped him a pm to let him know. He got $50 for the referral and gave me $25 of it, which I thought was incredibly generous of him!!!
I just signed up at BetFred last night for a $250 bonus. I am playing both of these slooowly with no rush to finish. The Party March triple bonus wore me out a bit and work is crazy busy right now. Thank goodness for bonuses as I proceeded to lose $50 in just a few nights at RiverBelle. Up a bit at BetFred.
I got the urge and played a $3 MTT last night on Party. Didn't get a whole lot to work with and got ground down by blinds. Scooped some blinds on a couple pushes and then had my AT push called by A2 from the big blind, which I thought was fantastic until the river brought a 2 and sent me packing, finishing around 400th out of 1,700 or so.
I have been doing very little poker reading lately and I should try to change that and finish my 2nd read of SSHE and get going on TOP. I want to get at HOH 1 and 2 as well as I am getting increasingly interested in NL, both cash and tourney games.
After a couple weeks without working out I finally started again Sunday and spent all day Monday feeling good and sore. Another small workout last night and now I have a good sharp pain in my back today. I can't figure out if it is my back or some internal organ is going busto. Ahhh, the joys of getting old.
At the same time I downloaded poker tracker and poker ace hud which I had read a pile about and was immediately impressed with both and registered them. I decided that I would focus solely on limit poker and read GSIH and SSHE and hopefully learn how to play poker.
I started out at the 0.15/0.30 tables and got off to a nice hot lucky start. I quickly moved to the 0.25/0.50 tables and went on an even hotter streak. I ended up playing about 6k hands at 0.25/0.50 and churned a profit of about $160 or so. It didn't take long at all to take my original free $100 at Party and triple it. I couldn't tell (and still have no idea) if I was just getting lucky, or the books were helping, or if Party really is that soft and easy, or if things were just starting to fall in place from getting in a lot of hands. Probably a bit of a combination of several factors.
By early February I moved to the 0.50/1.00 tables and was getting the itch to chase some bonuses down at other sites.
A Whore is Born
All the while, my internet reading continued. I was curious about 'bonus whoring' but it really seemed like more trouble than it might be worth. I really had to force myself to try out Party as I was inclined just to stay at Paradise forever. I felt that I would be better off just learning to play proper poker and forego running around chasing bonuses.
But...There are just soooo many bonuses out there. Along came super bowl weekend and Paradise was offering a reload bonus. I had always liked Paradise, so I figured I may as well get my feet wet in the bonus world and opened up a neteller account. Threw a few hundred (cdn$) into neteller, paid the whopping 8.9% service fee and transferred $200US to Paradise to pick up $40 in bonus. I had intended to deposit $500 to get the full $100 max bonus but without a certified neteller account I was not able and for some reason, any attempt at credit card deposits were declined, although my original deposit on Paradise was by credit card and had worked fine.
The neteller account was certified shortly afterwards and then converted to a US account as I quickly realized I was going to be scalped on exchange rates. I then split play between Paradise and Party, doing fairly well at both.
At about the time I finished clearing the Paradise bonus, Empire was just offering a $200 reload bonus. I fired off another deposit using instacash through Paradise which I moved to Neteller to deposit at Empire. Originally, my intent was to never put in any more money after the original deposit of $200. Somehow this figure had grown to $861 with the creation of the neteller account and an additional $400 instacash deposit just to use for chasing bonuses. So, in mid-February I opened an Empire account. Quickly cleared the $100 deposit bonus and then immediately fired off another deposit to take advantage of the $200 reload bonus. I then slogged through what I considered to be awful table selection at Empire for what seemed like far too long trying to clear that bonus. I had access to the beginner tables but there wasn't much going on there so I found myself playing 0.50/1.00 on 6-max tables for some reason. I did not have much 6-max experience at the time but did some quick reading on it and adjusted accordingly. I did okay, but I found the swings at 6-max to be pretty vicious. I would be up a lot one night and then lose it all and more the next. To make a long and boring story short and boring, I cleared the Empire bonuses and made an additional $3.44 profit. The $300 bonus money was good for the bankroll but I'm not sure I learned too much other than I probably do not play optimally when I'm playing more tables than I'm used to and trying out 6-max for the first time.
PokerNow
Within just a few days of finishing the grind at Empire I opened a Poker Now account. I didn't realize at the time that these were on the same network and I would be playing with the exact same people at the exact same tables. Short story: Cleared $100 bonus quickly, played more 6-max 0.50/1.00, lost $25 while doing it, netted $75.
Again, I wasn't sure if making the quick bonus was worth it as I played like a robot and just wanted to finish the raked hands.
Poker Stars
It was now nearing the end of February and I had stuck to playing just limit poker for a month and a half. I had read a couple good poker books. I had learned a bit. And I had managed to satisfy my ADD nature by hopping around from site to site instead of game to game. So, time to add another site! Enter Poker Stars. I figured I would treat myself to some SNG's again. I knew I wanted a Stars account eventually in order to play some forum games there at some point. I had read a lot of SNG strategy material on 2+2 since I had last played any SNG's and felt like I was a little better equipped to tackle them again. Knowing that Stars only had a $0.50 fee on the $5 SNG's was a factor in pushing me to open an account there. So, I put aside $200 of bonus money and opened a Poker Stars account to be used just for SNG's.
In my first SNG there I found myself short stacked early due to a really stupid call. I called an all in raise with AK. I KNOW that AK is a great hand to move all in with but not the greatest to call all in with but for some reason I did it anyway. I hung in for a bit but as the blinds increased I was forced to push all my chips in several times. I managed to take down a lot of blinds this way as others were hesitant to put that much of their stack on the line. Anytime someone did call I had a great hand and it held up. This made people even more hesitant to call my all ins which enabled me to steal even more blinds. Eventually I caught up to everyone and just kept on rolling. I had no experience with Stars but after over an hour we still had 6 people out of the original 9 still in this game which seemed odd to me. The SNG went over an hour and a half after which I finally won it and was pretty pumped. My girlfriend had been watching over my shoulder and was freaking out everytime I pushed all in. I think the whole experience was more stressful for her than I and we were both pumped when it was over. It was a great (and very lucky, no doubt) start to my return to SNG's. Funny enough, the excitement far far far outweighed the actual monetary gain. Once again, I was a champion SNG player. I then proceeded to lose my next 4 straight SNG's. Ooops. Again. Deja vu. Okay, so I'm no champion poker-anything. Fair enough.
I then proceeded to finish in the money in the next six straight SNG's I played to close out the month. Missed the money in the next one and then hit the money in the next four straight followed by two fourth place bubble finishes. I plan to stick to the little 5.50's for a while until I feel like I really do know what I am doing. At that time I may pick up and move to Party for the $11's or may stick around Stars, who knows. I will be pretty conservative with bankroll management and am only allowing myself to consider original deposit plus SNG earnings for purposes of moving up.
Poker4ever, early March
Poker4ever was an interesting ride. Nice software and pretty soft games but the low amount of traffic made table selection tough. I ended up having to play 1/2 which was a step up for me in order to clear the bonus. I also found myself playing no limit and pot limit in order to clear it, which was stupid seeing as though I had played nothing but limit for the last while other than SNG's which really don't translate well to ring games. I was probably down a bit on the no limit play, took in a small amount from some of their nice freerolls and made some money on the 0.25/0.50 and 1/2 limit games. As I was nearing the end of clearing the bonus I was up $150 at one point but dropped $70 of that in my last hour or two. $200 bonus plus $80 of earnings for just a few days there was pretty good though. I liked the site and would play there more if there were just more traffic. I did keep some money there and will check back now and then.
Stars Reload Bonus and Party Triple March Bonus
Friday night seems to always be a great time to play on-line poker. I'm not sure if people are getting drunk and playing or what but Fridays always seem to be better than average for me. There were a lot of extra people out at Party as well due to the reload bonus.
I finished almost 450 of the raked hands I needed to clear the $100 bonus, despite playing more than 1,000 hands for the night, 3-tabling. I finished up $58 for the night, which makes it a good night for me. People playing much higher stakes must get a chuckle out of people like me calling +$58 a good night I imagine. This gets me all the more closer to moving up to 1/2, which I'll start taking shots at fairly soon, if I keep winning. (in hindsight, I should have never thought this, much less put it in print anywhere)
Saturday - March 11, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,700 hands played
+$17, 1BB/100 hands booo
3 and 4 tabling
I got knocked around pretty badly on a few tables and was down for much of the day. Showed a small profit overall but it was a worse than average pair of sessions. On the bright side, I cleared the 1st $100 bonus on Party and now have a few days to clear another 1,500 raked hands for another $100 bonus.
Sunday - March 12, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,500 hands played
-$105
3 tabling
A new record! I had lost 70BBs in a day twice previously, but today marks a new low. Either I am still numb or am getting used to the downward swings that occur with limit poker as I don't feel all that bad right now. I'll make some of it back tomorrow night.
Monday - March 13, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00
1,000 hands played
+$8
4 tabling
Stars $5.50 NL SNG
1 game - 2nd place
+$8
Third day in a row of poor results at limit but at least it didn't result in a loss today. The SNG was pretty good and featured lengthy bubble play 4-handed and a long fight to determine third place. I let myself get pushed around a bit more than I would have liked headsup but got all my chips in the middle with the better of it a few times and lost. All in all, a fun SNG. I'm looking forward to the end of the Party bonuses. I have been playing far too many hands the last several days.
Tuesday - March 14, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
880 hands played
+$26
3 & 4 tabling
Much better results than the last few days. I think I completed stage 2 of Party's triple bonus tonight but I probably won't find out until sometime tomorrow if I am credited with the additional $100.
Wednesday - March 15, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,180 hands played
-$75
4 tabling
Awful night of poker. I started out bad, I continued throughout bad and I finished up really bad. Overall it was pretty bad. Bad. Bad bad bad bad.The only saving grace is that I'm still ahead this week due to bonuses. I have been playing far too many hands on too many tables and am looking forward to this Party bonus passing. I still need a ridiculous number of raked hands over the next two nights to clear the third bonus and doubt I will take a serious shot at it. Silly bonuses.
Thursday - March 16, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
1,170 hands played
-$46
3 and 4 tabling
Blah. Winnings at Party are evaporating and stand at $265 now, down from over $400 just a week or so ago. Does bonus chasing translate to bad poker or am I just hitting a cold deck? My stats suggest I have been folding too much but when I do get to showdown I have been losing way more than usual too. Time to re-read the post-flop sections of SSHE. On my list of things to do when I stop playing a stupid number of hands every night.
Weekend Summary - Daily summaries are obviously bad luck
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit
2,050 hands played
-$21
3 and 4 tabling to finish bonus, some 1 and 2 tabling after
Party $6 Mini Step Tourney
2nd place, re-entry into level 1
7th place, busto with KK all-in getting beat by bigstack's AQ
-$6
Stars $5.50 SNG's
16 played(1st - 2, 2nd - 2, 3rd - 2, 4th to 9th - 10)
+$2
Many of the hands played this weekend were on 6-Max tables. I hadn't played 6 max in a while and it was a nice change of pace. What was really nice about them was all the crazy loose play I saw. I tried out a mini step tourney which was fun. I busted out on my 2nd try. I finished the Party triple bonus. I took a beating during this bonus, losing about $140 from play while gaining $300 in bonus. A net gain from a bankroll perspective but a big failure from a winnings and improvement point of view.
Monday - March 20, 2006
Party $0.50/$1.00 limit 6 Max
Few hundred hands played
+$63
Single tabling, while playing mini steps
Party $6 Mini Step Tourney
1st place, entry into level 2
5th place, re-entry into level 2
-$6
Stars $5.50 SNG's
2 played(1st - 1, 3rd - 1)
+$20
Paradise $5 Limit Tourney
138/450
$-5
Paradise $0.25/$0.50 limit
+11
I got the urge to play in a fixed limit tournament, so headed over to Paradise for one. I forgot what a crap shoot these are. I didn't catch any good cards and was pretty much crippled after only playing two hands. I got really lucky and fought back to build up a bit of a stack but the blinds were getting big and I had to commit to a hand went out with a wimper, not a bang. I played a little limit at Pardise while the tourney lasted and made enough to cover the tourney fee plus a little.
Next I fired up two Stars SNG's and built up decent stacks in each of them allowing me to coast to the money reasonably easily. I can't remember how I got knocked out 3rd in one but it happened quickly. I was short stacked in heads up play in the other and we battled for quite a while before I won it.
I played some 6 Max limit at Party again while I took another shot at the mini steps. The 6 max table was a dream with super loose passive players to my right and the only tight player sitting on my immediate left. I had my best session in a while on this table getting both good cards and awful play from the others. In the mini step I got short stacked but hung on and came back to a long drawn out heads up battle that ended with my JJ holding up to an all-in to put me into level 2. In level 2 I was quiet for a while then doubled up on one hand and then in the very next hand flopped two pair and almost lost my whole stack to a set. With blinds at 50/100 and my stack at 300 it wasn't looking good. I got lucky with getting all-in at the right times against the right people to build back up and outlast a few people before running into someone all-in with pocket Kings. I ended up in 5th which gives me a re-entry to level 2. Seeing as though I was so close to being put out much earlier, I was pretty happy with the result. These mini-steps are fun but I doubt they will be profitable for me.
Tuesday - March 28, 2006
I played some more $5 SNG's at Poker Stars - probably won a couple and lost a few. Played some 6-max fixed limit 0.50/1.00 at Party and won a bit.
I signed up at RiverBelle for the $150 bonus which includes $25 for neteller and $25 for friend referral. I used a name from a 2+2 poster I knew played at RiverBelle and dropped him a pm to let him know. He got $50 for the referral and gave me $25 of it, which I thought was incredibly generous of him!!!
I just signed up at BetFred last night for a $250 bonus. I am playing both of these slooowly with no rush to finish. The Party March triple bonus wore me out a bit and work is crazy busy right now. Thank goodness for bonuses as I proceeded to lose $50 in just a few nights at RiverBelle. Up a bit at BetFred.
I got the urge and played a $3 MTT last night on Party. Didn't get a whole lot to work with and got ground down by blinds. Scooped some blinds on a couple pushes and then had my AT push called by A2 from the big blind, which I thought was fantastic until the river brought a 2 and sent me packing, finishing around 400th out of 1,700 or so.
I have been doing very little poker reading lately and I should try to change that and finish my 2nd read of SSHE and get going on TOP. I want to get at HOH 1 and 2 as well as I am getting increasingly interested in NL, both cash and tourney games.
After a couple weeks without working out I finally started again Sunday and spent all day Monday feeling good and sore. Another small workout last night and now I have a good sharp pain in my back today. I can't figure out if it is my back or some internal organ is going busto. Ahhh, the joys of getting old.
posted by FloppyJT at 1:09 PM
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