Sunday, 4/27/08

Well….I didnt have any time this week to get a qualifier done for the Sunday Millions!…the buy-in this week was up from $215 to $530.  I played one SNG and cashed for $97 but never got another chance to play again.

So, I played the Sunday 100K for a $11 buy-in.  MISTAKE!!…lol…23,118 players!  Thats right…23,118…OMG!!

I went out in the money, but it was terrible play, and I took a lot of bad beats and bounced back about 5 times.  I went out 2230th, so I lasted thru 21,000 players…I dont know whether to laugh my ass off or pat myself on the back.  I wont play that tourney anymore…lol

I have to write my article and do some stuff around the house, so I’m outta here for today.  I might play with the LPS tonight if I can…….

Friday, 4/25/08

Yesterday was a long day.  My step-son had been here for 4-5 days, and he headed home after a late lunch.  He’s high maintenance and it makes the house a little stressful.  My poker suffered while I had company.

So, Steve headed out last night to play live poker at SunCoast Casino to drive off some frustration from the visit, and I hunkered down in front of the TV and signed up for the $10R $55K guarantee tournament.  My first hour was slow.  No pairs, no Ace/rags…no nothing.  It was depressing.  I was on the messenger with Debbie complaining that I needed a table change when….wah-la!!  it happened!  I got PP 10’s that held and PP J’s right after that stood.  My cards changed drastically.  I got above the average stack pretty quick and built my stack to over 100K.  When we started hitting the money, the chip leader had me 3 to 1 in chips.  We kept stepping up in cash when this hand happened….

I have 84K(behind) in BB…Blinds are 8K/16K/800ante( I think)…UTG raises to 40K(80K behind), next pushes all in for 114K, folds around to button who calls the 114K(90K behind), now me…I have PP J’s…I’m thinking and this is my reasoning….

I look at all my notes on these players.  One typically raises with KQsuited, another any Ace, and the other gambles ALOT!…if I’m up against a big pair, which I think that I am, I’m dead in the water and will be out.  BUT if I’m the only one with a pair, and the others all have over cards, I like my chances.  I need chips badly to make the big money.  Do I want to gamble here?   The next money step is only another $7 higher, so thats not even a consideration.  I NEED CHIPS…so….I push and take the gamble.

I was right!  The original raiser pushes after me, and he has KQsuited, next had PP J’s also!!!…the Button has PP K’s and I’m out!!….it was a gamble, I almost folded it, but the blinds were going up along with the antes.  The next orbit would be $30K…half my stack.  I could have waited but I didnt want to blind out and the pot odds were too great.  4 times my money, even tho I had an idea that I would have to get lucky and gamble here.

I’ll give it another shot this weekend.

Thursday, 4/24/08

I havent done much in the way of poker since Sunday.  I had to actually work on Monday…lol..the WPT Bellagio Five Star has  been going on, and I really wanted to do a feature profile on Vanessa Selbst.  She could really give another “lady prodigy” in Norway a run for her money!….she’s that GOOD!

I’m going to buckle down in the next couple of days to try to win my way into the Sunday Millions.  DAM entry this week is $540…I cant understand why they keep changing the buy-in….drives me nutz!

Tomorrow is the televised final table of the ladies event at the Bellagio.  Part of my day will be there watching Vanessa close it out.  She’s going in with a huge chip lead, and the most confidence I’ve ever seen a lady have going into such a high pressure settting.

Catch me on Saturday morning for an update!!

Sunday, 4/20/08

Saturday was the only day available to me to try for the qualifier to Sunday Millions, but I missed it!!  Sooooo, I improvised and played a few SNGS and another $33 WSOP tourney that paid $215 if you dont win the seat.  Didnt fare well in the $33 tourney, but I won a SNG for $137 and another for $79?…dont remember the correct amounts, but it was close enough for me to make up the difference and make the buy-in for $215 into the Sunday Million.

First, THANKS to the gals that railed me!!  I missed the first LPS tourney on PokerStars because I was still in the Sunday Millions, but the girls watched me while they played, THANKS again!!

This was a weird tournament for me.  I was short stacked almost the whole way, the biggest stack I ever had was like $56K.  If I hadnt taken several bad beats early on, I would have had over $100K by the 5th round.

This is my players log:

PokerStars Tournament #84449109, No Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $200.00/$15.00
7176 players
Total Prize Pool: $1435200.00
Tournament started – 2008/04/20 – 16:30:00 (ET)

Dear survivor,

You finished the tournament in 350th place.
A $717.60 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

BLINDS                  CHIPS                                  REMARKS

25/50                   12, 525                    J/10 FOR FULLHOUSE    (6945 PLAYERS LEFT)

50/100                 10,425                     QJ IN SB, LOST TO AA, HE LIMPED UTG, I FLOP

                                                           J, HE FLAT CALLS ALL MY BETS  (6672 LEFT)

100/200               8825                        AJ LOST TO K/10….DONT ASK!  (6197 LEFT)

150/300               6875                       PP8’S LOST AK, K HIT FLOP/LATER AJ FOLD TO

                                                           ALL IN.  (6394 LEFT)

200/400               8675                        PIC UP A LIMPED POT FROM THE BUTTON (4657)

300/600             10,225                      CALLED 3700 ALL-IN WON! AJ VS. A2…GUY WAS

                                                          IN FRUSTRATION MODE, SO I TOOK ADVANTAGE!

400/800             12,825                      PP A’S AND PP 3’S HELD!  (3193 LEFT)

400/800/50       10,925                       NO HANDS AT ALL  (2666 LEFT)

500/1K/75         13,025                      PP 9’S…KQ…AQ…ALL HELD (2170 LEFT)

600/1200/100     8387                       PP 9’S TWICE IN A ROW, DOUBLED UP ONCE TO

                                                         26K!!..THEN LOST PP J’S VS. A3!!..IDIOT

                                                          (1800 LEFT)

750/1500/150      41,625                     KJ…PP J’S…PP K’S ALL HELD UP!  (1533 LEFT)

1K/2K/200            35,248                    NO HANDS, BLINDS ARE KILLIN ME (1256 LEFT)

1250/2500/250     27,948                    STILL NO HANDS!  (1110 LEFT)

1500/3K/300         35,548                   MONEY BUBBLE 1080TH!!  (930 LEFT)

2K/4K/400            32,048                   STEP UP IN MONEY AGAIN! (813 LEFT)

2500/5K/500        35,948                   AK HELD…(548 LEFT)

3K/6K/600            52,996                  PP8’S VS.AK…I FLOP A SET  (482 LEFT)

4K/8K/800            26,596                  NO HANDS, BLINDS ARE EATING ME (400 LEFT)

                                                        MONEY STEP!

5K/10K/1K                                       I COULDNT HOLD ANY LONGER WITH NO HANDS AND PUSHED IN ON MY SB.

As you can see, I struggled like Phil Hellmuth most of the tourney.  I didnt catch hardly any pairs or big aces thru out.  Maybe I should write a book on playing short stacks…LMAO

NEXT WEEK MY GOAL IS TO GO FURTHER!…I will only play if next weeks tourney is the $215 buy-in.  They alternate with the $1060 buy-in.

Saturday, 4/19/08

Gee, its been two weeks since I blogged, I thought I’d forgotten how!  But here I go to bring everyone up to speed on whats been going on.

The trip to Tahiti was FANTASTIC!!  I cant even begin to describe the untouched natural state of most of the islands.  The expense of changing U.S. dollars to French Franc’s was so high we barely spent any money once in the islands.

We chartered a 57′ catamaran with a chef ad captain with 3 other couples.  One of the couples was Laurie(HotDice) and Tony, what a wonderful couple they are too!  All we did was relax and enjoy!!  Sailing, snorkeling, eating and drinking….what more could we ask for.  The crew treated us like royalty!

I havent played any poker in so long, I’ve probably forgotten how.  I will make an attempt today to qualify into the Sunday Million tomorrow.

After we got back from Tahiti, I was only home for 2 days and I took off for Albuquerque New Mexico and Phoenix Arizona with Debbie for a business trip.  Her business and my ride…lol…I went along for the fun of it and so Debbie wouldnt be driving alone.  We had a blast.  7 casinos in 3 days!  I hit a royal flush on a .25 machine in Arizona for $1071….great time!!

My ankle is healing, I’m walking very well on it now, and start a little therapy for the ligament.  Hopefully I’ve learned to walk now….lol

Wednesday Morning 4/2/08

I dont have any poker news from yesterday, because it was the day from HELL.  I had my day planned out, write my column for this week, go to my friend Janis Sexton’s house for a party at 2pm and play poker in the evening…..NOT!

Steve headed over to Kathy’s to take care of the kitties and check her house, pic up the mail etc. cuz she’s at Foxwoods.   It’s about noon, I’m in the shower and the phone starts ringing off the hook!  Sh*t, this always happens when I get in the shower and there’s nobody else in the house to answer the dam thing.  I ignore it and it stops.  30 seconds later, its ringin again.  Geez…I come limping out of the shower to get to the phone, and its Steve…he’s at Kathy’s and someone broke into her house.  So after the whole afternoon is spent with police and CSI doing the investigation, I get to Janis party late, but in time for the stripper…lol

After the party, the drama continues into the night trying to get Kathy’s house secured without having to have Steve sleep there with a gun.  What a night, I’m glad its over………………..

Monday Evening 3/31/08

I found the same tourney I played last Thursday night!  $33 + R  and as many WSOP seats as they can give after the rebuys and addons.  Now, I dont rebuy, but I do addon, and I gotta say, playing it safe for the first hour I had just as many chips as the nutcase beside me that rebought 8 times and did an addon.  There’s so much luck in a game, and if you’re fortunate enough to occassionally have luck visit you, you will go deep in this tourney.

The hand I went out on was PP Q’s this time.  I was on the button, all folds around to me and the blinds.  Blinds are 2000/4000 500 ante.  I raise to 20,000 which is just under half of my chips, that commits me, the SB folds and the BB thinks about it, he has 107,000 in chips.  He re-raises me all in, and I call.  He turns over 56os…I’m so happy!…the flop is 34J…he has st8t draw, turn is Q!!!! I hit a set!…river is a 7!  He makes the st8t and I’m DUN!!!…in more ways than one….

14th place, and $215 again…..if I keep doing this from now til the WSOP I can probably save the $10K….lmao