Why attack poker blogs?

Well I have been a member of Raise the River for awhile. In fact I have mentioned their websitemultiple times in previous posts. Now i have heard about several of the bigger more well known bloggers getting hacked or having there accounts deleted. However that is to be expected if you have thousands of visitors every day. Recently some things have been happening in the world of poker blogging that finally made me start posting in the forums. 3 or 4 members of raise the river have been hacked and had there accounts deleted. Now that is years and years of history just gone. I know my blog alone is almost 2 years old. Also my wife has an online journal that chronicles our lives for the past 4 or 5 years. If that were to be deleted we would be devastated. I have looked into it and got some good advice that I included here. If you have a blog please follow the advice at least that way you might be able to get your blog back. Also make sure you do not make the security questions easy to guess.

On a brighter note I have added some more blogs to my blog roll. These are mainly from the RtR Blogroll. However, I can honestly say a great group of bloggers. If you are on the blogroll and want to know why I did not add you. it is because you have not updated within last month which is something I look for when adding blogs.

On the poker front I hit another milestone my bankroll is currently at 214.32 I am almost to the point where I will be switching from micro to low stakes completely. The transition is already almost there. Expect a post later next week about the key differences. Also I will be posting hap hazardly during my 6 day break from work. So keep in touch....Once I hit a 50bb level I will be playing low limit STT, and two table games. I will still be at micro mtts for a while with the occasional shot taken. i want to try to win a seat to the sunday million this weekend. Not sure if I will spend the money to try though.

Sorry to wait so long....

Well its been awhile so pull up a chair, and get ready for the post I know everyone has been waiting for...

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NEWS FLASH....
I WILL BE PLAYING BLOGGERMENT 24... I am going to bring the title home to Japan. That means I will be waking up at 4:30am to make coffee and be ready for the game to start at 5:00am. The english domination ends now...

If you are interested in playing go check it out. At pokerstars under private tourneys. I have my ticket do you have yours?
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As for my play recently... I am kind of in a state of perpetual 170-180ish... I dont really move up, and I dont really move down. I have final tabled 3 180 man tournies in the last week. One of them really diasappointed me as I was the chipleader until 18 ppl left.

I have been playing a lot of the 6 max games. Mainly the 6.50 ones because I like the 10 minute levels. The play here is very soft, and not as many regulars play these games do you oppurtunity to cash is quite a bit higher. I would be near rich if I had not once again ventured into the world of heads up ring games. I have not figured out why I can win 70% of my heads up matches in an SnG but become an unwilling sperm recipiant in the ring games. Anyways I have set aside the day of the bloggerment as my poker only day. So in return I offered my wife a poker free day. She has not decided on the day yet.

Not time yet...

Well unfortunately the military base I work on is having an exercise so this was not the week of the 180 man games. Also, unfortunately I lost all sense this morning and blew a good portion of my bankroll playing games I shoul dnot have been playing. Fortunately though I learned my lesson well before I was broke and have moved back down to my home. "micro-land" I think I will stay here for awhile...

So So Close...

Well I did not make much profit this weekend, but it was my own fault so I can't be upset about it anyways. I played several MTT's to be exact this weekend. I made a few adjustments to my play and it realy seems to have helped. I need to work on my end game though. Out of the 6 MTT's I played this weekend here are my results.

5th in 180 man...
19th in 180 man...
12th out of 895 in $1 mtt
24th out of 1209 in $2 mtt
53rd out of 1505 in $3 mtt
Busted first hand in $1 mtt I pushed all in with AA guy called with KJ.

I am very happy with my recent results. I need to work on closing the tournament. I was very disappointed with the 53rd place finish in the $3 game. As at one point I was 10th out of 60 in chips. I lost a big pot with JJ vs 44 and I blew up after that quickly going out.

My goal this week is to try to win a 180 man tourney. My mtt play has seemingly gotten better. I am going to play two 180 man games a night this week until I win one or lose the 56 dollars I have decided to set aside for this excursion.

My bankroll will not enjoy this excursion if it does not pan out. However, I think I am a few adjustments aways from playing this very well, and the reward of winning one of these is enough for to risk it.

only two weeks away from playing the bloggerment...

And time to close it off with a funny line in a chat box...

"playing poker with you is like a dog screwing a skunk. I want more but I have had all I can take"

Another weekend update...

Ok i found a third reason to update on the weekend... it is to answer yorkshire pudding about my tilt avoidance at live games. Although it would be quite amusing to see me throw a tantrum at the WSOP. When I play live i prefer something like the following...

"Nice hand. Really. You usually don't see someone call three bets with no hand and no draw after the flop. Nope, usually you see people actually trying to WIN. But not you. Nonono. See, you're playing on a whole different level than the rest of us. You just keep throwing those chips in the pot, and somehow they keep coming back to you. I guess I'm too DUMB to understand the logic behind it. Yup, I'm just TOO FRIGGIN STUPID to make sense of it."

Was it something I said...

I dont know but I have not had a comment on my blog this week. I hope I did not upset anyone. Especially over at RTR with my comment about dominating the bloggerment they hold. As it was just in good fun. Of course I have the utmost respect for those guys. Also if anyone of you is a member of RTR I am going to be posting a couple hand histories for ya'll to pick apart. I feel pretty good with my play but really think a good look from outside eyes could do me some good.

On a more then mildly depressing note. There are a couple bloggers that seem to be having such a bad run of it that they have or considered to decide to stop playing online poker. I have been through my share of bad streaks and bad cards. It does change. You just have to work towar dimproving. You have to adjust your game to the donkeys or you get kicked in the face. Speaking of which I no longer hold back when I am upset over a bad beat I actually jump up and down and scream like a five year old. I am here to tell you it works WONDERS for me I get all my frustration out in a fit of embarassing adolescent rage. Then I am ready to concentrate again. Sure, my wife looks on as if I just swallowed some LSD and calls me a dumb overreactor but I dont suffer from tilt this way. I suggest it to anyone.

Next up is the RTR Premier league I would actually pay money to be a part of this. However, the time difference just kills any chance I have of doing it. So, if you are reasonably near the same time zone as these guys go join RTR and have some fun and test your skills against some good players. I will go ahead and hang out down here in micro land for at least another week. Hopefully I can make it to 150 dollars this weekend. I am currently at 129.00.

Again thank you to all my readers...

A bit of a hit...

Ok from now on I can't play on the nights that pokerstars decideds to do a scheduled server restart. First of all where are these schedules at? If anyone knows let me know. It never fails that I go play some ill fated cash game and lose a chunk of my bankroll. Fortunately it was not that much. I am sitting at 123.47 right now... I have thought about what kind of guidance I am going to use now that I have a little bit of a bankroll...

I am pretty much playing anything under the micro tab at PokerStars right now. With the occasional rise to a "low" game. Still procrastinating with restart of poker office. I have been doing so well just playing that I almost want to wait until I hit 50 buy ins for the 5 dollar level. we will see however...

Anyways I am debating whether to take a shot at a 180 man game or not. These are really an issue for me. I know I am good enought to take one of these down. but I either get impatient or mess up in general.

Well not very thought provoking but it was a post....

Time for a POST!!!

Ok I have been really cheating my readers as of late with some very quick posts. SO today I am going to have a post to reflect on the last month of play since I started my microthon with $20.00. Let you know of some of the blog posts out there. Also will include an update of how I am doing in my quest to greatness... Greatness being a relative term of course.

First of all I have to announce that Mark's website has been completely redesigned. So if you get a chance go check out Sit and Go planet

Secondly lets look at some of the great blogging/sites/general cool things happening in the world of blogging lately.

The first item I want to touch on is this post that appeared about a week ago on Up for Poker. It is a good enough post that I am going to add yet another link to it here and here and here.

Secondly I want to make sure everyone knows about theRaise the River forum. It is a great group of bloggers that head this site up. I cant wait until my next four day weekend so I can dominate their bloggerment. :)... Not really I will probably be Squished like a bug, but I will put a valiant effort. I am really curious what my donkalicious play will do to their tournament.

Example follows...

PokerStars Game #11479380249: Tournament #58244478, $3.00+$0.25 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/08/14 - 03:39:13 (ET)
Table '58244478 4' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: cooljoe21 (4265 in chips)
Seat 2: biakkax (7105 in chips)
Seat 3: unie (9910 in chips) <---aggresive guy always defends his BB
Seat 4: boudableu (4860 in chips)
Seat 6: jeffrj (2465 in chips)
Seat 7: penaudcol (5640 in chips)
cooljoe21: posts the ante 50
biakkax: posts the ante 50
unie: posts the ante 50
boudableu: posts the ante 50
jeffrj: posts the ante 50
penaudcol: posts the ante 50
biakkax: posts small blind 400
unie: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to biakkax [4d 9h]<----prime raising hand
boudableu: folds
jeffrj: folds
penaudcol: folds
cooljoe21: folds
biakkax: raises 1600 to 2400
unie: calls 1600<---WTF can't I steal a pot
*** FLOP *** [Qc Jc 8d]
biakkax: bets 4655 and is all-in<---Can you say fold bitch
unie: folds
biakkax collected 5100 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5100 | Rake 0
Board [Qc Jc 8d]
Seat 1: cooljoe21 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: biakkax (small blind) collected (5100)
Seat 3: unie (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: boudableu folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: jeffrj folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: penaudcol folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I know I promised a recap but I just decided I am going to make an article about it when I hit $250.00 which is the amount that I want to hit prior to playing the $5.50 SnG's exclusively. I will give this advice to anyone that is trying to make a bankroll out of next to nothing like myself. "Vary your play." It is essential!!! do not try to grind it out playing 1.20 STT's ONLY even if your ROI is a Gazillion percent because you'll get bored and try to make it exciting. You have to open up your play or boredom will steal your roll.

As an update I took some horrifc beats on sunday and monday, and I do believe on sunday night angels actually were sacrificed to hell by the poker gods to cause the events that transpired to occur. Three SnG's in a row I flopped the nut str8 got all in only to be beat by a flush at the bubble. Luckily for the people at pokerstars the bad beats stopped and I recovered and added some to my bankroll. I am currently at 131.17.

A productive weekend...

Well it is Sunday and I am making a post. That means one of two things lol...Either I went completly broke, or I had a very good weekend. I glad to say that it is the latter reason...

I have played a lot of SnG's this weekend, but on a whim myself and Mrs. Dreams entered a big 2.20 MTT. Since MTT's are niether of our specialty we did not have much expectation other then to play a little poker. We were both pleased when we made it to the money. Mrs. Dreams went out shortly after the bubble in a heartbreaker where she was a 70/30 favorite preflop. I caught a lucky break when I flopped a set while holding pkt 6's and went to 120k in chips. Unfortunately I got a little to aggresive and went out in 24th. However, I did beat 1460 more people so it was not a bad showing for a struggling SnG player like myself.

I woke up this morning and played some single table games and built my roll to $95.00. I decided to play a $5 SnG I took first and gave myself the 3 digit bankroll I have been looking for. Also, I have to say thanks for a fan from belgium that tracked me down. It is a pretty cool feeling when someone types in to the chat box "hey man I read your blog".

Well I am off to work on my bicentennial... Hopefully I keep the roll on an upswing for a bit... Thanks to all my readers...

Appoaching the century mark....

My bankroll is slowly making it to the century mark.I am sitting at 82.59 right now. I would really like to take my roll into the triple digits this weekend lol... The biggest problem I have right now is I dont know what I want to do when I hit $100.00. I have been playing so safe trying to rebuild that A risk with my roll almost makes me sick. However, playing 1.20 SnG's until I have 100 buy ins to play 5.50 SnGs make me almost as ill. I have been kind of working my own way to safely risk my roll. Normally I will build up to a predetermined point and try 1 or 2 higher SnG's or I will play a 1.20 SnG and decided before hand if I win it I can play 180 man SnG. I do have 213 FPP's whichI would like to try to parlay into a sunday million ticket. Howver to do this it is pretty much a full table triple shootout.

In other words I have no idea what the weekend holds I just hope it holds some bankroll boosting poker...

Rough times...

Well it hass been a bit since my last post and I have been fluctating my bankroll between 60 and 80 dollars all week. I have been trying to play small games to build up to 80 ish then a 5 or 10 dollar SnG. The problem is it seems that pokerstars has my doomswitch set to on on anything over 1.20. Last 5 bubbles of low limit SnGs are as follows.

QQ vs JJ - Villian catches J on the flop
KK vs 99 - Villian catches 678 on the flop and a 5 on the river
KK vs QQ - Villian Catches his Q on the river
AK vs AQ - Villian catches on the flop
AQ vs AJ - Villians J hits on the river


To be honest I have almost tossed my computer twice. It is so hard to take a beat when you have a guy purely dominated. hopefully I can ride this bad luck streak out and move on. My current bankroll is $64.90.

A nice start but had no read on him...

I won a couple of 1.20 games yesterday getting my roll to around 58.40 I decided to play 180 man game. Now these games have been my bane since I started playing holdem I have actually played less 1 dollar mtts that have 1-5k entrants and final tabled more of those then I have my one final table of 180 man game.

Last nights game strted of really really well I had tripled up on my first table and went kind of card ead on my second table. I got pocket 10's in the BB. The chipleader for tournament was to right with about 8k, I had about 5k at this point. It was folded around to him and he completed the SB I raised 4xbb which goes along my guidelines for a standard raise(3xbb + 1xbb for everyone who has entered the pot). Anyways he calls and we see a flop. It hits 10JA I check the flop he bets I call. The turn is a 3 but matches the J so no I am concerned about the flush. So I lead out for the 2 x the pot wanting to end it right here. He calls and an 8 hits missing the flush SB bets 1000 I push pretty sure that I have the best hand he calls and shows 79o for the str8. I had no idea he held a str8 and due to that he bent over the felt and took my chips. I am still kicking myself for being greedy and putting all my chips in the middle, and why did I not see that str8.

Anyways that knocked me down to 54.00 which is still a profit for me so I cant complain. I am playing a live game tomorrow so my online play will be less then most weekends. I am hoping to get to play some 1.20 18, and 45 man. If I do well in those I will probably play a 180 man tourney on Sunday.