Well, since my last post I've pretty much went broke. I've also taken a break from poker up until now also. I've played in some of the CC freerolls but have not deposited anywhere. I think I just lost my heart for the game due to the bad swings I was taking. My last downswing, which wiped everything out, was on Full Tilt.

I had won a little contest on Cardschat where someone had put a $5 prize on whoever could come up with the best conspiracy story as to why the passwords were being put on so late. Out of two total entries I took the elusive first spot and won a $5 bankroll starter. Within 3 days I had the $5 up to over $30 and was feeling quite good about my play. By the end of the week I had it up to over $70 and decided to give the initial $5 back to the person who had given it to me. I felt I had a pretty good handle on things and wanted him to give someone else a chance to do what I did (he did btw).

After that, it all fell apart. I hit cooler after cooler. AA stood up to nothing as did KK and QQ. Flopped flushes were beat by boats, boats by quads. Within two days $65 had been wiped clean and was sitting in other accounts that I had no access too. But that's okay. I'm just glad I gave the $5 back when I did.

So after all that I took a full break. I was rarely even on CC. But I'm about to come back and after Christmas, if I haven't won some off of a CC freeroll, I will probably deposit somewhere and start over. This time I think I will do so without the complacency that I had been playing before!

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 625315

Took 1st place again in a $3.30 buy in Carbon tourney. This one paid $40.50 bringing my br there to over $61. Was in 4th place when I hit final table and stuck it out to put myself in 2nd by last three players. I knocked out 3rd with QQ and was a 2-1 underdog HU. My opponent basically went all in with 72 off suit or better, so I just folded till I had a good hand (AKs) and called. Took over the chip lead and then folded till I got AQo and called. Won that hand and put some more cash in the br!

CC Tourney Win/Carbon Tourney Win

Alright, I know I haven't posted in a while, but I was really starting to doubt if I could ever do this and get anywhere.

But the other day I was playing a CC freeroll on Carbon and took 1st place for $50!!! I had been consistently placing in the top 5 for the last couple of weeks, but my best had been 3rd for $12.50.

So, after a couple of celebratory donk moves, I was down to around $20 again. I was sure I was going to donk away my whole winnings and be back at the beginning. I was trying to play 10/25 PL Omaha 8/b, which I was having really good luck with on UB. But on Carbon, it was a different story. I won about 10 hands out of 100 and those were really small wins.

So I decided to take my money and go to some of the smaller tourneys that didn't have rebuys and play them. I lost a couple and then hit one in 3rd for about 8 bucks. Then, today, I caught a win in a $2.20 buy in for over $30, putting me back around $50. So this is where I'm gonna keep my money. I'm gonna keep playing these smaller tourneys that have around 30-50 players and therefore reducing the horrible variance I was catching at ring games.

I think that this will create a better environment for 1) Bankroll Management and 2) a bigger bankroll!

I didn't want to have to do this, but this template won't allow the link to CC anywhere else. So, from now on, the link you see below my post will be included in all the posts that I make. If anyone knows how to change this to where I can put it in my margins, that would be great. Just use the comments to tell me where and how I should place this. By the way, my html experience is pretty limited. So explain in some detail. Thanks, and see ya at the tables!

3rd Place Finish

Took 3rd for $12.50 in the CC $100 F/R on Carbon today. Hopefully I can put this to good use. I lost a little on Casino.net, and have just been hovering at UB. I have one good day at UB and then one bad day. I'm really starting to despise that site!

Oh well, hopefully I can get ITM on tomorrows CC F/R on Full Tilt. I don't think I've ever had money on there. Would be nice to see what the SnG's are like.

Found a New Site

I found a new site today, and I think I'm gonna like it. It's called Casino.net. I played a freeroll there and it was like playing the first three rounds of an Ultimate Bet 5000 player Freeroll. But I played tight and took 4th place out of 99 players and made $9! Considering I only played about 10% of my hands, this was really good. The graphics are horrible (flash) and the game is really slow.

I will be putting my $9 into the ring games tomorrow to see how fishy they are and to see if I can actually turn this into something.

If you want to try it, they have several different size freerolls ranging from $20-$500 daily. I'm going to check some of them out too and I will report back. Cya!

All you have to do is go to Casino.net, then click on the poker tab and download the software.

Cashed in a CC Freeroll

It's not much, but I took 4th place in the $100 CC Freeroll on Carbon for $7.50. I'm putting it into the $2.20 Bounty SnGs to try to build it up a little. We'll see what happens. Carbon usually isn't very good to me! LOL See ya all at the tables.

Well, I think I might have found my sweet spot. I won my way back into another 6k Guaranteed Sniper Tourney on UB. It's a $10 + 1 buyin and this time I had to rebuy once and added on for double, making my buy in for the 6K $2.64. Not too bad, but I do hope I finish better than the last one. I was served pocket J's on the first hand and three bet them getting one caller. The flop came out all low cards so I fired a pot sized bet and ran into a set of 8's.

I don't know why I couldn't lay down the J's, but I couldn't. He pushed, I called, I went to the rail! Game over. I will be looking forward to making it all up tonight.

Almost forgot to mention

I can't go through another myriad of freerolls looking for another dollar or two. Tried it again for four days and my g/f is about to kill me! So I stuck the bare minimum onto UB ($25) to give myself a head start. I know, it's cheating! Just don't tell Chris Ferguson and everything will be alright.

In fact, if I don't start winning some quick, I'm gonna be bust again. I'm already down $5 from where I deposited.

Hoping to pull this one off!!!

Alright! I just won my way into a 6k Guaranteed Sniper Tourney on UB. I took first place shortly after the start of final table and held on to take one of five entries into the tourney. As it stands right now, there are 23 others in the tourney through these qualifier wins and still about 7 qualifiers to come; each entering about 4 more players. Then, it's a 10+1 dollar buy in so there will probably be a few of those entering. I'm hoping to have a field of around 100 at the biggest.

It's not a rebuy so I don't have to worry about that. I just have to play tight and smart and I think I might be able to make it into the money here. This would be a big boost to my bankroll.

I know I'm really only telling the good games right now, but there are plenty bad ones. I just don't want to talk about it! LOL Once I get a stable bankroll built I will start writing more about the variance issues I'm having at the time and showing some bad decisions that I'm sure I'll make.

So, if I do good, you will hear just how much money I made and what kind of a genius I am. If I lose, you will have to wait till I'm a genius again to hear anything! LOL Till later!

New Tools

I found a new tool that is really neat for replaying entire sessions of poker. It's called "Popopop's Universal Replayer". I've already uploaded some of my HH and it works great. You can check out the link below to download this free player. You'll have to copy and paste until I get the hang of this HTML thing again.

http://www.universal-replayer.net/

Also, if the replayer doesn't seem to work for you, try downloading the Divx Codec. I'm not sure what it is, but MrSticker on CC does and I trust him. LOL Here's the link...

http://www.divx.com/

The Money Has Left the Bankroll!!!

Well, in my last post I was doing pretty well. I was sticking to my range of hands and playing pretty tight. I kept doing that this last week and won a couple of tourneys, but lost a lot more. I don't know whether to mark it up as a variance my br couldn't handle or just plain bad luck. I'm guessing on the variance. But anyway, my UB bankroll is gone except for 3 cents that I can't even get on a micro with.

So it's strictly back to freerolls.

Note To Self- STOP BEING A DONK!!!

I have had to revise my ways of play a little. My swings were just a little too much with the way I was approaching .50 +.05 SnG's. I still play a lot of hands early, because you have to make a move quick in turbos. But I've had to tighten up my play around 30-60 blinds instead of 50-100. This has made a good change in the swings in my stack. Even with 2500 chips, at 100 blinds, you only have 25 BB's. Once I realized that was where my stack was going, I fixed it and it seems to be working. Already today I've won 3 out of 5 SnG's. I'll keep you updated regularly on how this is working or what I've had to change to make it work. Thanks for reading!

Oh, by the way, if you are reading, please just leave a comment real quick so I feel good about myself! LOL

Breaking the Bank

Well, I've trudged through quite a few SnG's over the past couple of days and haven't done too bad. I'm up around $10 right now. I'm playing the .50+5 turbo and ultra turbo games mainly. I seem to do better at them since within the first couple of blind escalations I've hit a good pot or two. My strategy has been to play just about anything that can make something to the flop until the blinds hit 50-100. Examples would be 56o, A5o, and suited cards and premium hands. Once the flop comes out I either bet or fold. No checking. This does lead to some wild swings in stack size, but it's working for me right now.

Also, I mark everyone! By the 30th hand played I like to be able to have some sort of read as to how the player plays. Are they a TAG or LAG, do they c-bet when they have low pockets, do they have a tendency to freak out with high pockets. Just something to let me know the next time I see them. This has done wonders in the last week.

I just caught a huge pot on a boat against a flush because the guy was a chaser and I knew it. The flop was 6hTcAh and I had Ad3s with him on the button. I threw out a min bet and he called. The turn came out 3c and I bet the pot, he called again. I pretty much had him figured for hearts when the flop came out Ah making my boat and his flush. I waited a minute and checked it to him and he went all in and I called. Sure enough he was holding a flush to my boat and I felted him. Damn, I love that feeling!

Anyway, just wanted to update a little since I don't have much time to get on here lately. See ya all at the tables!

Getting Better

I played in the $150 CC freeroll last night and took 6th place for $5. Not too bad. I was up and down in my stack all night. I started slow and nothing really happened till the second blind escalation. By first break I was in the top ten. Then I got knocked down to 28th with 36 remaining. I tightened up and caught a few good hands to double up on and brought myself back to 2nd at one point. Then everyone got aggressive, including me,at the final table and my stack took a couple of good hits. I played good hands, but I played them against better ones. That's how it goes. Well, five bucks in UB isn't a great start, but it could be better. Now off to the SnG's to try to make it into something.

First Week

Well, I started this blog with the intentions of writing in it once a week. But after I posted my first blog in it, things went haywire. So I'll do it now. I played in several freerolls that week ranging from prizes of cash to Ultimate points. Over a four day period I played in 9 good sized tournaments. Most of them were on Ultimate Bets (UB). Here's a rundown of what I played that week.

8/20 Ultimate Bet 5000 point f/r out early
8/21 Cardschat.com $150 f/r on Ultimate bet out 33 of 58 (this one sucked for me)
8/21 Pokerspace.com $300 f/r out early
8/22 UB 5000 point f/r placed 20th for 100 pts
8/22 UB 4K GTD Feeder placed 4th (bought into this with the pts I won, then placed for seat)
8/22 Ultimate Bet 5K feeder 20 person SnG out on the bubble
8/22 Cardschat.com $100 Carbon Poker f/r out in 7th place/5th paid
8/22 Ultimate Bet 5K GTD Rebuy out in 190th
8/23 Cardschat.com $200 Full Tilt f/r out somewhere around 50th

So it wasn't a completely unproductive week, but I never do as well as I want to. I think that's every poker player! In the next blog I'll talk about the two tournaments that I did well in; the UB 5000 pts and the UB 4K feeder tournament.

As of right now, I'm still at $0. But I've got more opportunities to play for cash, so that's good.

CC Bodog $100 FR

Hmmmm, this one didn't work out as well as I wanted it to. Welcome to poker. I made some bad decisions within the first few hands and got low on chips. Then, not much farther into the tourney made my final mistake. I had AJ suited in late position and the flop gave me top pair with J's. I went all in with it and got beat by slow-played rockets.

Oh well! There's always another one around the corner.

UB $500 Bonus Dollar Tourney

Well, even though it wasn't a tourney for real money, I still did very well in this one. I placed 10th out of about 2800. That gave my Bonus Dollar account a boost of $10. And that can be turned into real money later!

This tourney was grueling for me though. My cards weren't cold, but they were luke warm at best. I think my best hand was QQ throughout the whole 3.5 hours. I did use something today that I've been spending a lot of time on learning here recently. EV value. I was in a hand on the BB with T5 diamonds and UTG raised to all in (about 2800 chips) right of the bat. I thought about folding as soon as I heard the chips fall, but one player in MP called with around 1200, and then the small blind called. I had about 18k in chips and SB had around 9k. I seen that the pot was big so I took a stab at it with my suits. The flop came out with only one diamond and no pr for my hand. I thought I was in trouble til SB checks it to me. I checked. The turn come another diamond and SB checks it again. Well, I know that I played the EV all wrong, but I was pot committed and made a pot sized bet. This would've put SB almost all in and he folded. Luckily, for me, the river came a diamond and I caught a really nice pot and evicted two players from the game.

I still need some more learning on EV, but now I understand why some players will call with junk in their hand. I can't wait for the CC freeroll at Bodog tonight. Hoping to see a final table for the second time today!

CardsChat.com

The website I mentioned earlier is CardsChat.com. Seriously folks, this has to be one of the best out there for poker knowledge. I've been to several others (won't mention names) and they just don't compare.

They have several freerolls each week that have really nice payouts and good competition. The freerolls are on most of the sites, if not all of them, that I play.

Freeroll Note

If you want to play in freerolls that are sponsored by CardsChat.com all you have to do is become a member and make 50 quality posts! Please don't go there and think you can spam the threads up and get away with it. They catch you! It doesn't work! They will delete your spam posts and more than likely your account. Remember... Quality, not Quantity!

I would definitely go check out the bank of knowledge there. If you don't believe me, you can keep up with this blog and watch as my bankroll grows. I will try to post most of my games on here weekly and also any threads on CC that have helped my game.

Good luck on the tables!

Getting Started

Well, this is the beginning. I started playing poker over 5 years ago and have had limited success. I've always been just a little better than most of the donkeys playing at my tables. But I found a website called CardsChat.com and have been studying up on how I can get better at my game.

Already I have started placing more often in the top 20 in MTT's (Multi-Table Tournaments). Two already this past few weeks. But I want to get better. I'm going to start by playing freerolls and try to build a bankroll out of them. I don't really want to put any more money into deposits, but later, if I'm having trouble, I might.

I play on several different sites. My screen names are...

-Ultimate Bet- dcrys1979
-Carbon dg1267
-FullTilt dg1267
-Bodog dg1267
-PokerStars dg1267

If you see me on any of these sites say hello and let me know you come here. Who knows? I might take it easy on ya! LOL