Moved to a new place

Again my blog has moved to here:

http://mookie99.bigopokerroom.com

Thanks to all of you who have hooked me up with a link. Please update the link to the above....

Blog Has Moved !!

I have moved my blog and all past posts here:

http://mookie99.bigopokerroom.com/

Post Lite

I haven't been playing too much online this week so far. At the beginning of the week I continued my bad run by losing two more SNGs. I decided to change things up a little and play a 4-person Heads UP SNG, winner take all.

Both matches were very long (200 total hands played) and in the end I was lucky enough to win.

I have only played one other time online and that was a single table SNG. Down to 4 players, blinds were 100/200, I had 3,710 in chips and UTG had 2,570: JJ in the BB. There was one limper UTG, SB called and I raised to 1,000. UTG calls and SB folds.

The flop is 9c Kd Qc. What would you do now with JJ ?

I won't post anyting more about the hand for now, except to say I lost and was knocked down to about 1,200 chips. I stayed aggresive though and in the end I was able to pull out the win.

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Misc.

The first bounty tournament of the year at the Big O Poker Room is this Saturday.

Mrs. Mookie continues to run well...she took 3rd in a 45 person tourney on Pokerstars.

Scotty Nguyen won his 1st WPT title this week.

Topless poker in Vegas.

Sunday SNGs at Aladdin Poker Room in Vegas are now internet style.

Congrats to Chris at 21Outs for winning the WSOP Circuit Limit 3 Draw Low-ball event.

Weekend update

I wasn't planning on playing any live poker this weekend as we weren't able to find a babysitter for our five runts (imagine that). However, MM was kind enough to stay behind and watch the kiddos while I went and played at the 2006 Winter Series of Poker Event 1 at Jim and Stacey's.

In retrospect, she should have made the trip and left me behind as she has been running better than me lately.

The tournament had 16 players and had the options of a single rebuy and add-on. Most players started with 17K in chips (you get 1k for registering online and another 1k for showing up on time). Blinds started at 100/200 and went up every 20 minutes. One of the nice things about playing there is that there are players who don't play at the Big O Poker Room. It's always refreshing to play against different players.

Right out of the gate, I lost 9k within the first level in two different hands. The first one, I flopped two pair against a flopped straight and the second one I flopped an open ended straight flush draw that didn't get there.

Since there was only one rebuy, I tightened up and didn't play too many pots over the next level. In the last minute of the last level (300/600 blinds) before rebuys ended, I called off the rest of my chips (3k) with J6c and was up against AKo and AQd. I flopped two pairs and tripled up giving me around 10K going into the first break.

I rebought and did the add-on to give me about 25k chips to start the next level (blinds 400/800).

I could never get above average for the rest of the tournament. Anytime I would gain a little momentum, I would lose a key pot. I lost a big chunk of my stack when I limped in with QJs and flopped and turned a J, only to be outkicked by the SB with AJ.

I never got a pair higher than 5's for the night and my biggest pots were won with the J6 hand I mentioned earlier, 73o (bluff), and QJs (semi-bluff). With blinds at 1,500/3,000, UTG+1 raised to 9k. It folds to me in the BB, and with a total of 24k (including my 3k BB) I jam with AKh. UTG+1 calls with 77. 665 on the flop and a 7 on the turn and IGHN in 12th place (I think).

Jim and Bern ended up chopping heads up and Stacey finished 3rd. A very nice finish for the hosts.

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After busting out of the tournament I went home and played some online at Pokerstars. I started out playing micro (.10/.25) NL cash and quickly lost $15 when I ran QQ into KK on a T high flop. I then played a 3-table SNG. My starting table was pretty wild, nearly each hand had a pre-flop raise and then a re-raise. I layed pretty low and then ran AA into quad tens to end my tournament in 21st place.

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Congratulations to Absinthe for taking down the $300 NL Event #1 at the LA Poker Classic (Commerce) for $113,000 and change.

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Toby "Moneymaker" and Justin made a trip up to the Winstar Casino in Oklahoma (Texas/Oklahoma border). There trip was very profitable as Toby won 2nd in a 54 person tournament for around $1,200 plus another $200 or so playing in the cash games. Justin won around $600 in the cash games plus another $250 hitting a bonus hand in blackjack.

Toby said they have around 30 poker tables and spread NL and limit hold 'em. They have tournaments Monday-Thursday. They played the tournament and $1/$2 NL cash. Toby said the competition seemed pretty soft (must be if these two donkeys finished up....just kidding)

Also, since the legal gambling age in this casino is 18, the players there are ready to gamboool.

The Winstar is only about 4 hours away Austin, so I am sure we will be making a trip(s) up there soon.

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It looks like the Big O Poker Room will be having the 3rd tournament of the season this Saturday. It will be a rebuy/bounty tournament. More details will be posted on the Big O website.

Slow week

This has been a slow week for blogging as I have been pretty busy with work stuff. I hadn't played any online poker until last night and even then I only played 1 SNG.

Early on, I played loose (donkey) and picked up a couple of larger pots. Here is an example of my donkey-like play:

Blinds 10/20, I limp in MP with Kh5h, player next to me limps, and the button raises to 60. The BB calls, I call and the player next to me calls.

The flop was 8h 9s Qh. We all checked to the button who bet 75. The BB called, I called and the other player folded.

Now the turn is (8h 9s Qh) 6s. The BB goes all in for 295. Now this is where my true inner donkey takes over. I am getting about 2.5 to 1 on my money, but I don't know the BB is going to do. At this point I think I have about 12 outs, but 3 of those may be dead outs to a higher straight. The play here is to probably fold or jam (or not be a donkey and limp in with K5). So I of course just call. The button just calls as well.

The river is (8h 9s Qh 6s) 2h. I lead out with a bet of 400 and the button calls. Button had KsQs and the BB had Jd8c. With that pot, I was 2nd in chips.

I stayed in 2nd until we got down to 5 players. I lost over half my stack trying to run JJ past AQ with 2 Qs on board and having the ass-end of a straight against the higher straight. With the blinds going up, I switched gears and became more aggresive and chipped back up.

Made it into the money and continued to play aggresive. I knock out the 3rd place finisher and take a slight chiplead heads up. We play a couple hands before I outflop his TT with KQ and win.

This makes my 3rd SNG win in a row. I should probably play more SNG instead of cash as I haven't done too well in the cash games lately and that's where I have been spending most of my time.

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Here are few new(to me) blogs I have been reading:

Pokerstars.com Official Blog

Sound of a Suckout

Poker with WillWonka

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No poker at the Big O Poker Room but we may go over to the 2006 Winter Series of Poker Event 1 at Jim and Stacey's if we can find a babysitter.

Stuck in neutral

I played a lot of live poker this weekend. All small low buy-in NLHE tournaments. I ended up cashing in 3 out of 4 tournaments, but broke completely even. (Never higher than a 3rd place finish)

On Saturday, Season 3 at the Big O Poker Room began with a smaller rebuy tournament with 12 players.

First hand of the tournament at the other table, somone suggests everyone go all-in blind since A. It's the first tournament of the new season and B. It's a rebuy tournament. Well 4 players did, including Mrs. Mookie, and her QJ won. So right off the bat she started with close to 70K in chips.

That was pretty much the theme for the night at that table, as they had 8 rebuys there to our 1 rebuy at our table. After the rebuy period ended things calmed back down.

I love playing short handed, and early on I was able to chip up by playing a lot of small pots cheaply.

There was a huge hand at the other table between Pants and Mrs. Mookie. She limped in on the button and Pants checked his option in the BB. The flop was A A T rainbow. Pants checked while commenting "I'll slowplay", Mrs. Mookie responded "I won't" and pushed all-in. Now she was the chipleader, however, Pants had just doubled up by hitting a straight flush and had alot of chips as well. He called and turned over A9, while Mrs. Mookie had TT. No help for Pants and Mrs. Mookie went over 100K in chips.

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CORRECTION: Pants checked the flop, Mrs. Mookie bet the flop and Pants called. On the turn Pants checked and MM went all-in and Pants called
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We went to the final table with 10 players and I had an above average stack. Since both players that busted came from the other table, (and because of the 8 rebuys) they all had monster chips.
I took a tough beat early on to make me a shortstack. This kept me from playing many pots. We lost a few players and I continued to nurse the shortstack. Meanwhile, Mrs. Mookie took a tough beat against Mikey and that brought her back to the pack.

With the blinds moving up and my stack staying the same, I pushed all-in with ATd and ran into the recent bracelet winner's (aka Toby Moneymaker) QQ. Luckily for me, an ace came on the turn and I doubled up.

We made it down to 5 players and saved a few crumbs for 5th. After losing Jim in 5th, I lost a couple of large pots, one to Mrs. Mookie and again found myself on the shortstack. Moneymaker knocked me out when we raced his 99 vs my KJ.

In the end, Mrs. Mookie faced Mikey heads up. Mikey had a 3-1 chiplead and was able to pull out the win.

We ended up playing another tournament that night, and my 11 yr. old daughter played. She ended up knocking me out and finished 3rd.

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Last night I played a small tourney and squeaked into the money. Went home and played a little online while watching Friends: Season 2 with my wife (And no I don't want to hear any "You know how I know you're gay.." references)

Here comes the weekend

Not much going on these past couple of days. I have played a little online, but pretty much break-even poker. No exciting hands and only cash games.

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On Saturday, we will start Season 3 at the Big O Poker Room. We will be unveiling pictures of the 2005 Top Ten Money Leaders, 2005 Top Ten Points Leaders, and of course the 2005 Big O TOC winner. These will hang on the wall inside the Big O Poker Room. (that is until Mrs. Mookie makes me take them down)

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One of these days I want to buy some nice custom ceramic (casino-like) poker chips for the Big O. Bad Blood is getting ready to buy some for his home game. He is buying them from HomePokerChips and look like this.

It looks like it will cost me about $1200 to get a customized set of 1,000. That's a lot of wampum, but one of these days...maybe.

Well that's all for now, have a good weekend....

One extreme to the other

Played a little more on Pokerstars last night. Started in in the hole by playing NL cash tables(.10/.25 and .25/.50). After playing for about an hour or so, I decided to play in another SNG.

This proved to be a complete opposite experience from the night before. No big hands to bust people with, and a lot of folding early on. In the end, it would take 138 hands to get heads-up (instead of 21 like the night before) and only 5 hands of heads-up play (instead of 33) to pull out the win. Even with the win, I still only broke even for the night due to my cash game losses.

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Tonight there is a private tournament that I may play in tonight on Pokerstars if I have time. It is hosted by HighOnPoker and Tripjax. I am even worse at Omaha H/L than I am Hold 'Em, but it sounds like a lot of fun. So come play if you wanna try some Omaha for a change of pace.

Down to 2 in 21

So last night I checked on my cashout from Empire and found my money in my Neteller account. I then put that into Pokerstars and started playing some low limit NL cash games. I pretty much played break even poker and then decided to play a $10+1 NL SNG. This is the strangest SNG I have played in. Here are some of the hands:

Hand #3
With blinds at 10/20, I raise to 100 in EP with Ac As. I get two callers and we see a flop of Jd 6d Qc. I bet 250 and both players call. The turn is 7h and I bet 900 and the next player jams for 250 more. Folds to me, I call, he turns over Ah Js and no J comes on the river and I knock him out.

Hand #13
With blinds at 15/30, I raise to 90 UTG with As Ac. EP player re-raises to 650 and is all-in. A player in SB re-raises to 1100 and is also all-in. I of course call and EP shows 5d 5c, SB shows Ad Kc. My hand holds up and I knock both players out.

Hand #14
With blinds at 15/30, the button makes it 120 to go. I re-raise to 510 in the SB, with Kc Ks. The button re-raises to 2285 and is all-in. I call and he shows Qd Qc. Again my hands holds up and I knock him out.

Hand #16
With blinds at 15/30, a player in MP raises to 210. I call in the cutoff with Ah Kh as does the BB. The flop is Ac 2d 5c. MP pushes all-in for 1275. I re-raise to 2550 and the BB folds. MP shows As 2c for two pairs. Turn is 6d, and the river is 5s to counterfeit the MP's 2 pair.

We are now down to four players and the blinds are still 15/30. One of the other players knocks out the bubble.

Hand #21
With blinds at 15/30, I raise to 120 in the SB with Jh Js and the BB calls. The flop is Td Th 5s, I bet 240 and the BB calls. The turn is Qh, I bet 660 (enough to put the BB all-in) and the BB calls. BB shows Jd 6c.. ??? Interesting play.... Drawing dead, he is knocked out.

So now 21 hands into the tournament, I find myself heads up with a couple of minutes left in the 15/30 level. I have 9980 in chips, while my opponent has 3520. Because the blinds are so low in relation to my (our) stack sizes, I try to play smaller pots and try to chop away.

We ended up playing 33 hands heads up, before I am able to pull out the win. I stuck to my plan and never fell below 8500 in chips.

This by far, was the most bizarre tournament I have ever played in. Of course a monkey could have played and gotten heads up with those hands, but it was still weird.

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I read a great article about playing lower limit online multi-table tournaments (MTT) on the Tao of Poker blog that was guest written by JoeSpeaker. If you have some time, take a look as there is some really good information.

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Just spoke with Arnold "Lederer". He is out in Phoenix on a business trip and found his way to Casino Arizona (101 & Indian Bend location). He says the poker room there is nice and huge - 45+ tables. He played there for about 4 hours and it was packed. He played in the $50 min/$150 max NL cash game. Blinds are $3/$5.

Weekend results

Saturday, we hosted the 1st Annual Big O Tournament of Champions. We had a few last minute cancellations so we were left with 14 of the 20 qualifying players for the tournament. Most players paid full amount to start with 40k in chips. (Avg to start was about 38K)

I was dealt AA first hand of the tournament, but didn't get any action. That was pretty much par for the course for the first couple of levels. The table was on the tighter side, so I was able to make plays at a lot of pots. However, when I did have a monster I rarely got paid off.

We lost our first player, Steve, early in the 2nd level (30 minute blinds). I didn't see the hand as he was at the other table, but it had something to do with another player calling all the way down and then his all-in on the river will a pair of 3's. Steve will probably have his hand and the exact details of the way the hand played out on his blog.

It would be another 6 levels before we would lose another player. Having deep stacks and longer blinds will do that. I was over average pretty much the first 10 levels. I never doubled my starting stack, but was always above average.

Right before we made it to the final table, I lost almost half of my stack with AsQc on a flop of Qs 9s 4s. I thought I was way ahead and ended up checkraising all-in on the turn only to find out I was up against Ks 5s. No spade on the river and for the first time in tournament, I was below average.

At the final table, I was probably 6th or 7th in chips (out of 10 players). I lost a large pot when I limped in MP with Jc Ts. The blinds were 2k/4k and I had about 53K in chips with average stack about 58K. Five players saw a flop of Js 6h 2h, both blinds checked and I bet 12K. One player (Justin) folded while another (Michael) went all-in for 33k more. It folded back to me and I went into the tank. Now with 77k in the pot, I was getting almost 2.5-1 to call. I ended up folding thinking I am only a slight favorite over a flush draw and a huge favorite to a bluff. If he had a set, bigger J or bigger J with a flush draw I was drawing very thin. Michael was nice enough to show me Kh Jh. (Side note, I should have never been in that pot to begin with, especially limping in)

From that point on, I was in push or fold mode. We lost a few players and I hung in there. I doubled up a few times, but with the blinds moving up, that didn't get me out of push/fold mode. I made it down to the final 4 and called off the rest of my chips with Ad 9d against Toby who had Qs Qc. He flopped a set and I flopped a flush draw, but the board paired on the turn I was done.

Shortly after that, Toby knocked out Justin and got heads up with Rocky. Rocky had started at my table and was down to the felt very early in the tournament. He made a great run to get heads up. Both were very even in chips, with Rocky having a slight lead. About 10 hands into heads up play, Rocky went all-in and Toby called with A2. Rocky had KQ and the A high held up and Toby became the 2005 Big O Tournament of Champions winner.

Toby won $100, the Pokerstars chipset, and the beloved Big O TOC I bracelet.










Rocky finished 2nd and won $60 and a Full Tilt hat.













Justin finished 3rd and won $37 and a Cardplayer subscription.










I finished 4th and won a Cardplayer subscription.











Tommy finished 5th and won a Full Tilt hat.










Henry finished 6th and won a Cardplayer subscription.










Anna finished 7th and won a Full Tilt t-shirt.












The tournament was long, a little over 6 hours, but I think it went well and was a lot of fun.

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On Sunday, I played more on Empire with the intent of blowing through the remaining money I had on there or running it up to $50 and cashing out (as that is the minimum you can cash out). I played a $11 SNG and lost and was down to $13 and went to the $50NL cash table. I played for about an hour and left the table with $52. I am now done with playing on Empire ! In the end I got Pokeroffice for free, but it took longer than I wanted as I hate playing on Empire.

Weekend...finally

Even though this week was shortened for me (didn't have to work on Monday) it still seemed long due to work going back to normal.

I was unable to play any online poker last night, as my grandfather had to be taken to the hospital due to breathing problems. They gave him drugs and breathing treatments and he did much better and they let him go home. Although very scary, it was good that he was able to go home and seems to be doing better.

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This weekend is the 1st Annual Big O Tournament of Champions Freeroll that I mentioned in an earlier blog. This should be alot of fun. I am looking forward to playing in a tournament that offers so many chips (40,000) and a little longer blind time (30 minutes). Blinds start at 100/200.

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I came across a great post on Felicia's blog that talks about what makes a good poker blog. Go here to read about it. Here are some things she wrote that are key: (again be sure to check page for discussion on each point)

1) Don't post bad beat stories
2) Don't post hand histories
3) Don't whine about losses
4) Don't post pics of kids or pets
5) Give your opinion
6) Are you a poker journal, or not?
7) Try to act serious about your play
8) If you are going to enable comments, actually REPLY when someone leaves one

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In parting, here is an interesting article regarding Pokerstars. It looks like they are going to sell or merge.

Hook 'em Horns !

Wow, what a game ! This has to be the most exciting game I have seen. I thought last year's Rose Bowl wouldn't be topped anytime soon, but last night was amazing. It's easy to say this now, but even if the Horns would have lost, it still would have been the best title game ever.

I haven't talked to my friend who was at the game yet, but I am looking forward to hearing about it from his perspective of being able to witness it live.

I guess the only *bad* thing about last night's game, is that Vince played so well, I don't think he is coming back next year.

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I did play a little of poker on Empire again. I played the $5NL cash table again, doubled my buy-in and then donked most of it all off. I blame the Texas game, I tried to play at the beginning of the game and then realized I should quit. But not before I played in another of their crappy SNGs. Finished 3rd to break even before I turned off my laptop and focused my full attention on the game.

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I have decided to start working out again, so Tuesday was my first day back in the gym in probably at least 6 months. I figure if I keep up with my workout schedule on here, it will keep me motivated to continue. My goal is to put on 15lbs within the next 3 months. Yes, put on weight...I have been "scrawny" my whole life. When I graduated high school I was 6' 125lbs. A couple years after that I was married and still 125lbs. When I go back and look at pictures of myself then, I bet I could post them on here now and you would donate "just 25 cents a day, to make sure I was fed a healthy meal". That's how scrawny I looked.

A few years after I was married, I started going to the gym and reading up on eating to gain weight, etc. and in a year I went from 125lbs to 167lbs. I stayed at that weight for about a year and then slowly quit working out. So today, I weigh about 150lbs and am way out of shape.

So anyway, the goal is to get into a regular workout routine and stick to it. I have no excuses if I slide as we have a gym within our building here at work. 

Back to work

Tuesday was my first "real" day back to work from the holidays. I worked most of last week, but there was hardly anyone here at the office so it was pretty laid back.

During the day I heard that my friend and his wife who are out in Vegas (same friend who ran a scooter into the back of the bus on the first day of his honeymoon back in November) for a week, played in the Aladdin tournament (around 85 players) and they both chopped 1st-3rd place money with one other guy. They both took around $1000/each from the chop. They are going to the Rose Bowl tonight and then may stay for an extra day to visit Commerice or the Bike before heading back to Vegas. They won't be back until late Saturday night so they will miss the 1st Annual Big O Tournament of Champions Freeroll

At my home game, we have a money list and points list. At the end of the year if you are on either or both of those lists you qualify for the tournament. You get free chips for each list you are on, the higher up the list you are, the more chips you get. Players can also pay $1 for 1,000 chips to get them up to 40K in chips. The tournament should be alot of fun, the blinds will be 30 minutes long plus everyone will probably have 40K in chips. So there should be some good poker played. I was able to get the following prizes donated:

Pokerstars came through HUGE and donated a poker chip set personalized with the Pokerstars logo on each chip.

Full Tilt donated 2 hats and a t-shirt

Cardplayer donated 3 - three month subscriptions, plus sent 80 January 2006 issues

We also went and had a bracelet made up for the event. So whoever is skilled and lucky enough to win the tournament, will walk away with this:



I got this idea from a fellow blogger when he hosted a big tournament.

Haven't played a whole lot of poker lately...went online last night and played on Empire. I have already cleared the free PokerOffice, but when I went to cash out I found that the minimum cashout is $50. Well I only put in $50 so that I could get PokerOffice and took a beating in the .50/$1 limit game. (this was before I found they spread micro-limits under their Beginner section) so now I am stuck playing out the crumbs that are left from my original deposit.

I played a SNG and they have a horrible structure, only 800 starting chips. Was knocked out early when I couldn't win with QQ and TT (I will do my best to avoid posting bad beat hands on here). Went to the $5 NL table and ended the night up a whopping $5.
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Online results today: +5
Live results today: $0
Online results YTD: -$25
Live results YTD: $0
Total results: - $25 

New Books

My wife gave me three poker books for Christmas:

Ace on the River by Barry Greenstein
Phil Gordon's Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold'em by Phil Gordon
Doyle Brunson's Super System 2 by Doyle Brunson (and various other pros)

I just finished reading Ace on the River. The book is paperback but has a "coffee-table book" page and picture quality. There are pictures on every page. The content of the book is geared towards "advanced" players and covers multiple forms of poker along with with different aspects of poker (money management, psychology, math, etc.). This is a great book if you are looking to advance your game or if you are considering "going pro". Even if you aren't looking to do either of these things, there is still plenty of good information to be found.

I think I will read Phil Gordon's book next and then after I finish that I will start on Super System 2. Another thing I want to try to do this year is learn to play more than just NL Hold 'Em. If and when I finish Super System 2, I will probably re-read some or all of Ace on the River since there were alot of sections I skipped since I have no clue on how to really play Stud, Triple-Draw, etc.

If you are looking to improve your NL Hold 'Em tournament game, I think Harrington on Hold 'Em Volume 1 and Volume 2 are still the best books out there right now.

Happy New Year

Some of the things I am going to try and change this year is post here more often and keep exact stats of all my poker play. Part of the reason I haven't in the past, is cause I play such small limits, micro-poker. But hopefully this will help improve my game and give me motivation to play well and move up limits.

So far I haven't fared too well, I deposited $50 into Empire Poker in order to clear a bonus to get a free copy of PokerOffice. I played a little of everything in the lower limits ($25NL, .50/$1, .25/.50 and .15/.30 limit) I played a total of about 300 hands and lost $30.

I will probably play a little longer on Empire and then put some money into Pokerstars.

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Online results today: -$30
Live results today: $0
Online results YTD: -$30
Live results YTD: $0
Total results: - $30