Getting Caught Up!
I feel like I say this every time I run bad, but I've been a horrible blogger these past few months. And yes, I've been running bad. To the point where I decided to take a few weeks off altogether. The break was two fold. One, to clear my head. And two, my bankroll took a considerable hit therefore the choice to break was easy. Whatever the reason though, I think the break was necessary.
And now for some bloggidy goodness...
Current Status...
Decided to get back in the mix this past Saturday. Enjoyed a relatively peaceful day and got some funds into Stars. What a pain in the ass this has turned into. While I won't go into great detail on the legalities and hindrances with funding your poker account these days, I will offer a gleam of hope...
Paytrucard.com is a godsend to the poker player. PokerStars.com actually suggested I give this company a try. Long story short, you sign up, you instantly receive a Visa debit account. You can associate it with your own credit card and be on your way. Full card number and expiration were provided immediately. I was able to get money onto stars in a matter of 5 minutes. I was very impressed.
I went to use them again this Saturday and was a bit paranoid when their site was down. However, this was a temporary issue and was resolved very quickly.
I also signed up for ePassporte.com and netspend.com but have decided not to utilize. The fee's and hoops with epassporte are just ridiculous. And netspend, while the option to fund via paypal was intriguing, it was not an instantaneous transaction. In the end, Paytrucard.com worked like a charm and they have me as a long term customer if they stay in the game!
With a little ammunition in my account, i was finally able to play some poker. Getting the money in to the account was like a warm, soothing effect. A calm came over me. It was actually kinda weird.
I took it easy Saturday night and played in 3 MTT's. Placed 29th in a $10 event. Put me plus $8 for the day. Cough. Hey, a profit is a profit, shut up!
Didn't have any great game plan for Sunday other than taking a stab at the Sunday Million on PokerStars.com. This tournament has been a thorn in my side for a long time. When my bankroll was healthy a while back, I opted to buy straight in to this tourney rather than hitting satellites. Just plain stupid. This ate through a good chunk of my roll without any significant wins.
I deiced to hit a 1 table satellite. Didn't really have any great run of cards but managed to survive. When the bubble came around, I was fortunate to hit a few key hands which put me in a great position to win outright. After a short battle, I took it down. At this point, it was early in the morning and decided to just relax and not play before the big tournament.
Finally came time to play and I pretty much went in my think tank (headphones and iTunes). Things started out slow but toward the end of the first hour, I made a few moves which backfired completely. I found myself with just over 4k in chips (players start with 10k). I was kicking myself in the ass but remained focused.
Over the next two hours I managed to battle back and found myself on a great run bringing me up to 28k in chips. I managed to sustain in this ballpark for quite a while. I took a little hit down to 19k but managed to double up with a bit extra which brought me up to 48k.
Long story short, I made it into the money. I was running cold at this point though and had to make a move shortly after the bubble burst. When I finally decided to stand my ground, this prompted a good 3 hand run which put me at 98k. I was in a great spot at this stage. I was entirely content with opening my play at this point and directing traffic as I found myself second in chips at my table.
Here comes my regrettable hand of the tournament. Sigh.
2000/4000 blinds w/ an ante.
Under the gun comes out with a raise, double the blind which makes it 8k. At this point, people were shoving good chunks and doing a lot of stealing. The raise in hindsight was fishy. Everyone folded to me in late position. I just call with KQd hoping to hit the flop obviously. Everyone else folds. Flop comes something like 742 rainbow.
At this stage I was actually pleased with the flop thinking it was relatively non threatening. He comes out betting the minimum 4k.
So, I'm going through my normal routine as to what he's holding. Early position, raises minimum, wants to get some value in there but probably doesn't have a high pocket pair. First to act, he probably would have just called. AK maybe? AQ? Maybe middle pair.
I ended up convincing myself I could get him off this hand. Going into the hand, he was at 48k, I was at 98k. After he put his 4k in, I pushed enough in to put him all in. I wanted the pressure back on him and take the pot right here.
He immediately calls and turns over AA. Yeah, I fell for it. Turn, no help. River, K. Naturally.
So, that severely crippled me. I should not have gotten into this situation to begin with. I should have been far more suspect of the raise before hand. I made a bad read at the end of the day. I really did not figure him for AA. However, shame on me for getting this much of my stack involved. If I could replay this hand, I probably should have raised my KQ pre-flop to determine where I really was.
Even though short stacked, I managed to survive two more levels into the payout. I finished 527th out of 6964. Overall, I played a good tournament and it was very nice getting into the money. That AA was really bugging me last night, but it was what it was.
To Sum It All Up...
Was a pretty good weekend of poker. Didn't over due it. Didn't stress myself out. Made a nice little addition to the newly revised bankroll. Certainly plan on continuing that trend.
Job Well Done...
I wanted to say Great Job to my buddy Matt Waldron who had a great run at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. Matt is a regular at Lifesabluff.com and represented the site with style. Matt did extremely well in day 1 and went in to day 2 with a decent stack. Unfortunately, the stars were not properly aligned and Matt finished a mere 30 or so spots from the money. What a horrible beat. You can read how it all went down by checking out the following thread.
Sick Bay...
I also wanted to shoot Frank Frisina well wishes. Frank is the creator/writer at Lifesabluff.com. Frank has been severely under the weather and I just wanted him to know my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Damn collapsing lungs. Might think those things would stay inflated. If you're a fan of lifesabluff.com, you can read more about Frank's situation here.
What's Next?
As for next steps. The original intent this weekend was to actually start giving a hard look at the WSOP satellites. They are officially on my radar.
That's it for now. I'll be returning with a few new articles that can be viewed at www.lifesabluff.com and www.pokerxtreme.com.
Stay tuned!
And now for some bloggidy goodness...
Current Status...
Decided to get back in the mix this past Saturday. Enjoyed a relatively peaceful day and got some funds into Stars. What a pain in the ass this has turned into. While I won't go into great detail on the legalities and hindrances with funding your poker account these days, I will offer a gleam of hope...
Paytrucard.com is a godsend to the poker player. PokerStars.com actually suggested I give this company a try. Long story short, you sign up, you instantly receive a Visa debit account. You can associate it with your own credit card and be on your way. Full card number and expiration were provided immediately. I was able to get money onto stars in a matter of 5 minutes. I was very impressed.
I went to use them again this Saturday and was a bit paranoid when their site was down. However, this was a temporary issue and was resolved very quickly.
I also signed up for ePassporte.com and netspend.com but have decided not to utilize. The fee's and hoops with epassporte are just ridiculous. And netspend, while the option to fund via paypal was intriguing, it was not an instantaneous transaction. In the end, Paytrucard.com worked like a charm and they have me as a long term customer if they stay in the game!
With a little ammunition in my account, i was finally able to play some poker. Getting the money in to the account was like a warm, soothing effect. A calm came over me. It was actually kinda weird.
I took it easy Saturday night and played in 3 MTT's. Placed 29th in a $10 event. Put me plus $8 for the day. Cough. Hey, a profit is a profit, shut up!
Didn't have any great game plan for Sunday other than taking a stab at the Sunday Million on PokerStars.com. This tournament has been a thorn in my side for a long time. When my bankroll was healthy a while back, I opted to buy straight in to this tourney rather than hitting satellites. Just plain stupid. This ate through a good chunk of my roll without any significant wins.
I deiced to hit a 1 table satellite. Didn't really have any great run of cards but managed to survive. When the bubble came around, I was fortunate to hit a few key hands which put me in a great position to win outright. After a short battle, I took it down. At this point, it was early in the morning and decided to just relax and not play before the big tournament.
Finally came time to play and I pretty much went in my think tank (headphones and iTunes). Things started out slow but toward the end of the first hour, I made a few moves which backfired completely. I found myself with just over 4k in chips (players start with 10k). I was kicking myself in the ass but remained focused.
Over the next two hours I managed to battle back and found myself on a great run bringing me up to 28k in chips. I managed to sustain in this ballpark for quite a while. I took a little hit down to 19k but managed to double up with a bit extra which brought me up to 48k.
Long story short, I made it into the money. I was running cold at this point though and had to make a move shortly after the bubble burst. When I finally decided to stand my ground, this prompted a good 3 hand run which put me at 98k. I was in a great spot at this stage. I was entirely content with opening my play at this point and directing traffic as I found myself second in chips at my table.
Here comes my regrettable hand of the tournament. Sigh.
2000/4000 blinds w/ an ante.
Under the gun comes out with a raise, double the blind which makes it 8k. At this point, people were shoving good chunks and doing a lot of stealing. The raise in hindsight was fishy. Everyone folded to me in late position. I just call with KQd hoping to hit the flop obviously. Everyone else folds. Flop comes something like 742 rainbow.
At this stage I was actually pleased with the flop thinking it was relatively non threatening. He comes out betting the minimum 4k.
So, I'm going through my normal routine as to what he's holding. Early position, raises minimum, wants to get some value in there but probably doesn't have a high pocket pair. First to act, he probably would have just called. AK maybe? AQ? Maybe middle pair.
I ended up convincing myself I could get him off this hand. Going into the hand, he was at 48k, I was at 98k. After he put his 4k in, I pushed enough in to put him all in. I wanted the pressure back on him and take the pot right here.
He immediately calls and turns over AA. Yeah, I fell for it. Turn, no help. River, K. Naturally.
So, that severely crippled me. I should not have gotten into this situation to begin with. I should have been far more suspect of the raise before hand. I made a bad read at the end of the day. I really did not figure him for AA. However, shame on me for getting this much of my stack involved. If I could replay this hand, I probably should have raised my KQ pre-flop to determine where I really was.
Even though short stacked, I managed to survive two more levels into the payout. I finished 527th out of 6964. Overall, I played a good tournament and it was very nice getting into the money. That AA was really bugging me last night, but it was what it was.
To Sum It All Up...
Was a pretty good weekend of poker. Didn't over due it. Didn't stress myself out. Made a nice little addition to the newly revised bankroll. Certainly plan on continuing that trend.
Job Well Done...
I wanted to say Great Job to my buddy Matt Waldron who had a great run at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. Matt is a regular at Lifesabluff.com and represented the site with style. Matt did extremely well in day 1 and went in to day 2 with a decent stack. Unfortunately, the stars were not properly aligned and Matt finished a mere 30 or so spots from the money. What a horrible beat. You can read how it all went down by checking out the following thread.
Sick Bay...
I also wanted to shoot Frank Frisina well wishes. Frank is the creator/writer at Lifesabluff.com. Frank has been severely under the weather and I just wanted him to know my thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Damn collapsing lungs. Might think those things would stay inflated. If you're a fan of lifesabluff.com, you can read more about Frank's situation here.
What's Next?
As for next steps. The original intent this weekend was to actually start giving a hard look at the WSOP satellites. They are officially on my radar.
That's it for now. I'll be returning with a few new articles that can be viewed at www.lifesabluff.com and www.pokerxtreme.com.
Stay tuned!
Labels: adam labare, epassporte.com, frank frisina, lifesabluff.com, matt waldron, netspend.com, paytrucard.com, poker, pokerstars, stars sunday million, world poker tour, wpt, wpt bay 101 shooting star
WSOP, BABY!
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