Augest 20th

I have not really been updating much because my play for the month has been really stagnant. I started off really hot winning about $1600 at $100NL cash games, but it went all downhill from there. I dropped about $500 back and another $500 at the new $50NL Heads Up cash tables. I have been struggling ever since playing mostly break even poker. However that all changed last night, when I had my biggest MTT score ever.

I really have not played many MTT's all month, however it was Sunday and the FTOPS M.E. was today. So I decided to try and satellite in, which I did for about $100. I then decided I should be playing a few more MTT's since I had to play this one. I bought into the 200K guaranteed Stars 2nd chance tournament soon after. I played really well and made it all the way to heads up with a 2.5:1 chip lead. The guy was reallllllly tight, and I probably could have beaten him heads up but I decided that I was willing to chop considering there was more than a 20K difference between 1st and 2nd place. I won just a little more than $46,000 for my efforts. By far my largest score ever.

I would write a report but I don't think there was really any interesting hands, mostly just me playing standard TAG and running good. I was delt a lot of premium hands, and most of them held up. I preddy much dominated the final table bubble chipping up to about 1.6million, double that of the next closest person. I got lucky in maybe one spot at the final table where my Q6ss beat AT, but I got unlucky in a lot of other spots. Anyways im really psyched about this as I feel it will be a springboard for more big cashes down the road. I am now rolled for basically anything I could want to play. I will probably continue to play $100NL and move up to $200NL really soon. I also think I will be playing a lot more MTT's in the future.

Its a really weird feeling winning this, I know its a lot of money, but it just hasen't sunk in yet. Its weird how one small almost insiginificant decision lead me to this. I almost didn't even play any MTT's today, as I was going to go out to the lake. However it was raining, and all the guests cancelled, so I didn't go. Then later in the day, I was thinking to myself that I just did not feel like playing today. Then I said if I sat into the FTOPS ME I would play a few more MTT's for the day. While I was playing the satellite I was thinking to my self that this is going to be really long and boring day. I should just try to bust out and go to sleep. I was thinking to myself that I would probably just take the $535 in cash (what the seat was worth) if I could, but Full Tilt does not allow you to do that. They make you play if you satellite in. So I said f it, and bought into the stars 2nd chance for $215 as well. And now the rest is history. Funny how such small decisions and feelings can lead up to a bigger and greater outcome. Anyways, I just wanted to document some of the random thoughts that were flying around in my head. I'll leave with a picture of the lobby from my win.

Augest 5th

So after about 5 days of playing mostly NL cash games.... I am up almost $1300 playing $.50/$1 NL cash games. I have played about 8k hands, and have been 8 tabling for about an hour or 2 a day. This is really insane for me, I have almost made in one week what it took me all of last month to make. Granted, I think I am running a little hot, but I am also playing well.

I did not play any MTT's except for a few today. I won like $200 qualifying into the sunday million, but did not play it. I insted decided to play a few smaller MTT's but ended up donking out of them because I could not stay focused.

I have a $500 bonus from full tilt that I think I will try to clear before the end of the month as well. All my play has been on PokerStars so far and im kind of afraid to switch sites. I have calculated how much I have missed out on rakeback for my play on pokerstars, and it comes out to about $600. However I think the games are just so soft there that it makes up for it. Also, if I remember correctly Full Tilt games are much more difficult.

Dunno how much I will be playing this week, as I will be going out to the lake for a few days. I would however like to make this a 5K month strictly from cash games. If I really want to do this, I will have to up my sessions from 1 a day, to at least 2 a day and really grind out the hands. We'll see how it goes.

Augest 1st

Long overdue update. I have really busy since my last post. I went to vegas for 4 days with some friends, which was a lot of fun. The original goal of this blog was to make 1k for this trip, which I did. So the trip was basically "free."

I got to play a whole lot of poker there, mostly 1/2 NL live which was interesting. I basically broke even gambling wise for the trip. Only having to pay my expenses. If not for some sick coolers I took one of the days over at Ceasers Palace I would have been up about $600 or so. One hand some guy slowplayed turned quads to my bigger rivered full house which cost me a buy-in or so. I also unfortunatly did not get to play any tournaments over there. There were some nice deep stack ones over at the Venetian and Ceaseres, but I decided I would rather not be tied down having to play for 8+hours at a time (which was a mistake). I would really like to get back out there and play some tournaments. Overall the trip was a whole lot of fun with my friends and we had a blast drinking and partying.

This last weekend the Heartland Poker Tour came out to Gary, IN which is only about an hour away from my house. I played one $400+40 Satellite and qualified for the $2000+400 main event. I then played a $100 STT and lost, so I spent about $500 getting into the main event. Out of about 410 people, I took 23rd place. Which was good for almost $5,000. First place was about $250,000. So although I made a lot for myself, I have been fairly dissapointed and depressed. There were a few hands that I think I may have misplaed towards the end, which cost me some valuable chips. One was when I had 99 and had to fold to a CRAI on an A22 flop. Another was when I cbet my missed KJo and had to fold again to a CRAI. And finally a semi questionable call for most of my stack with AJo. Im preddy sure this was the right call, but it still makes me mad. I would write up a tourney report, but its just not all that intresting. I will probably be in some pictures and may make the T.V. cut very breifly. Check out www.heartlandpokertour.com for more info.

Now on to my end of month results.

329 SNG's
+ $1,242

7429 NL cash hands
+ $368

MTT's
- $105

Overall
+ $1,505