Bubbles can be fun

Today is going to be a hellacious Sunday, tournament-wise. There are so many that I'm afraid I'll be ghosting a lot, and skipping others I wish I was in. Gotta choose my spots, though, and give my best attention to the ones I decide to concentrate on. Being half-assed or distracted would mean I might as well not even play. I'm out to win, or do the best I possibly can.

Didn't win my first event of the day, but that's a good thing, really. Long story short: Pocket 5's Forum, of which I'm a largely silent and background member (hey, those guys and gals are probably the best online, definitely in top 3 mobs) ... anyway, Pocket 5's was holding a $10+$1 Ultra Turbo (2-minute levels) this morning guaranteeing at least 5 seats (worth $1,050 each) to the UBOC $1 million Main Event later today (3 pm, all times St. Louis). Thought I'd give it a go, my day's kickoff and warmup plus a chance to play some of the best.

So the Shamster Luck continues. I finished sixth. No UBOC Championship seat. That's OK, I have a ton of other games this afternoon. Plus the P5s thing paid six places; the seat bubble got the leftover cash, which was $85. Sweet!!! That I will not complain about. Sure, the UBOC ME would've been fun if I could devote my full attention to it. But it wasn't guaranteed money, either, so this prize is fine.

The P5s game saw me playing some of my best poker. Rah! Plus the quickly soaring blinds and antes made it a pushathon. I was in the right place at the right time, even having AJ hold against two foes (that hand has killed me lately). Finally was crippled when my AT at the final table went heads-up against low stack's AK, leaving me only 2K chips. Trippled up with the powerful Q3 as two pair materialized. Then came the end, courtesy of Shamster Luck:

Stage #20284967 Tourney ID 5087039 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 3,500 - 2010-01-31 09:41:40 (ET)
Table: 6 (Real Money) Seat #7 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JOEPO (10,374 in chips)
Seat 5 - TRAILERACES (26,595 in chips)
Seat 6 - PWNYEXPRESS (24,696 in chips)
Seat 7 - 2XQUIZIT (13,607 in chips)
Seat 8 - XTJBIRD13X (13,774 in chips)
Seat 9 - SHAMANALIX (5,454 in chips)
JOEPO - Ante 350
TRAILERACES - Ante 350
PWNYEXPRESS - Ante 350
2XQUIZIT - Ante 350
XTJBIRD13X - Ante 350
SHAMANALIX - Ante 350
XTJBIRD13X - Posts small blind 1,750
SHAMANALIX - Posts big blind 3,500
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to SHAMANALIX [10s 10h]
JOEPO - Folds
TRAILERACES - Folds
PWNYEXPRESS - Folds
2XQUIZIT - Folds
XTJBIRD13X - Raises 5,250 to 7,000
SHAMANALIX - All-In 1,604
XTJBIRD13X - returned (1,896) : not called
*** FLOP *** [6s 8h 9s]
*** TURN *** [6s 8h 9s] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [6s 8h 9s Js] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
XTJBIRD13X - Shows [4h 7d] (Straight, five to nine)
SHAMANALIX - Shows [10s 10h] (One pair, tens)
XTJBIRD13X Collects 12,308 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(12,308)
Board [6s 8h 9s Js 5d]
Seat 2: JOEPO Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: TRAILERACES Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 6: PWNYEXPRESS Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: 2XQUIZIT (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: XTJBIRD13X (small blind) won Total (12,308) HI:(12,308) with Straight, five to nine [4h 7d - B:9s,B:8h,P:7d,B:6s,B:5d]
Seat 9: SHAMANALIX (big blind) HI:lost with One pair, tens [10s 10h - P:10s,P:10h,B:Js,B:9s,B:8h]

Ah well. Got the cash and the experience. Now the madness really begins. Here's how the schedule shapes up, only listing the things I'll probably play or qualified into, and leaving out the Gaming Forum Network, UBOC, PStars Million, H0 Radio, Nationwide Poker Tour Weekly and many others I'd like to be playing:

-- 1 pm: Forum Poker Series $500 Kickoff Freeroll at Easy Play Poker. Playing for Team Poker101a. Getting three eligibility tokens to Valentine's Day games at EPP just for playing. Plus trying to help Team2Win's forum (101a) win the FPS's prize.

-- 2 pm: GridIron Sweepstakes $50 Freeroll at Easy Play. Very small field of 30 max, people who won teams in EPP's GridIron Sweepstakes regular season (I won Da Bears. Lucky me. But they did earn me $30-some bucks one week. Wish I had Colts and/or Saints...). I won't be here much because Easy Play and Reefer are both Merge Network sites and you can't have both open at same time (wish I had another computer...). And over on Reefer...

-- 2 pm: Online Forum Challenge $2,000 Freeroll at Reefer Poker. Go Team PA! Trying to bring glory to my main forum, Poker Analysis, even though this is not a team competition. Thank goodness they moved the game back an hour, it was originally supposed to start at same time as FPS. (I hate corporate rivalries and one-upsmanships, although I benefit from such.)

-- 2 pm: World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Final at PokerStars. I should be in this game, it should be my big game of the day. But I am very unenthused. The WBCOOP has been no fun this year: too many sitouts, ill-mannered 4-year-olds pretending they're players, hooligan behaviors, uninspiring prizes. I love PStars, but they really bombed here. I wouldn't pay to play in these circumstances. Last one (December '08) was sensational, and I cashed in its final. Now I'm yawning and real disappointed.

-- 3:20 pm: RP League Winter Series II Final at Reefer. With $500 added and a $109 coupon for the winner, plus 124 entrants max, this one has my attention and focus. Hopefully I'll still be on Reefer for the OFC; hate to multi-event, my record is awful, but I'll give it a go if necessary.

-- 5 pm: Shark Poker Tour at PDC Poker. A $2 buy-in with $50 added. I have't been playing much with the Sharks lately. I miss them. I want to be there more. But we'll have to see what my situation (tournament positions, emotional strength) is when this one comes up.

-- 6 pm: Sunday Football Special I at PokerStars. Now this is a tournament!!! For $10+$1 I get a shot at Super Bowl tickets plus spending money. So what if the full 40,000 entrants show. I will play ... although probably not until SFS II at 9 pm!

-- 7 pm: Suited Pockets $50 Freeroll at Doyles Room. I love Doyles, and I love the Pocketeers. But we'll have to wait and evaluate my situation.

-- 9 pm: SFS II at PStars. See 6 pm. See me cap the day with a big score. I hope. I've had my fun bubble; now for bigger and better things!

Dontcha love quickies?

A week since my last post? Geez. Time flies when you're having real life...

Mom's better. As of last night my poker game's better. More on everything later (four days off in a row starting Thursday -- ahhhhhhhh!!!)

Just wanted to make note I played my first World Blogger Championship of Online Poker yesterday (Tuesday). Work kept me out of Monday's, and will sideline me again today. But starting Thursday I'm registered for four in a row. Tuesday's WBCOOP #2 was Pot Limit Omaha, and it was not a memorable experience -- I finished 755th/1,634 entrants. Blah. For an excuse I'd explain I was still in a Mixed Games Forum league game (Limit HA) when the WBCOOP started, at a tough final table, and I do not do well dividng my attention -- proven fact, look at the records, it's just my game/temperment. On the bright side I won the GML #26 game, my first win in the league (which I only joined mid-January). That league is fun; I'll have to had them to my forums menu at right soon!

Tuesday night I played Mini UBOC 12 (Limit HORSE) at UB (formerly Ultimate Bet). I made some really dumb moves (will post three really bad hands next time), but somehow survived them and finished 18th/308 for a $56 cash. My first UBOC game (in this series); with my schedule I hope it's not my last. Fun and educational.

Speaking of education, off to work I go at St. Louis Community College-Meramec. A lot of buses, trains and walking ahead getting there and back. Hope the weather holds. Not driving can be a pain (dang panic disorder). But whatever is and will be, so be it. Peace...

A small pause

Sorry I've been quiet, and unfortunately it'll probably be that way until the weekend. Got a couple viruses on my computer I'm trying to get eradicated and repaired. School's started back up, which means back to the modelling grind (rah!). And mom has carotid artery surgery tomorrow; she's 80.

Meanwhile, if you want good poker games for a great cause, play tonight (Wednesday Jan. 20). At Ultimate Bet or Absolute Poker is a Play for Haiti benefit at 20:30 ET; $5+0, turbo, rebuys for first 30 minutes, one add-on, capped at 750 players, Annie Duke among those already registered. And at Doyle's Room the regular 21:30 ET Wednesday Bounty has been tweaked into a Haiti Relief Celebrity Bounty Tournament, featuring Doyle and the gang plus celebrities like Mickey Rourke; it's $25+2.50 well-spent.

Be nice and stay happy.

PStars' WBCOOP is coming!!!

OK. I don't know how to put this on the margin at right. I'm lucky when I make a post and it takes. Besides, this thing deserves its own prominent space. So here goes nothing (which is what I usually think/say before playing anything):

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 609843

Hmm. Looks good in preview. Let's put 'er up. And good luck, fellow bloggers! If you want in a separate last-longest on the side for certain events, reply here (I love getting mail. Even spam. Such a feeling of power to trash it...) ...

Still hungry for more BLT

Taking a break before evening action, and thought I'd go ahead and put something up. You're not limited to one blog post a day, are you? Over three years here, 10 years online, and I still don't understand nuttin'...

The third BLT was today at Full Tilt. One more BLT next Sunday -- another turbo like last week. I prefer the regular speed; I'm now 2-for-2 at cashing in them. But I should've done better today. The killer, as Sham's Law finally ends the fun:

Full Tilt Poker Game #17681184600: The Big Little Tournament (125975242), Table 100 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:18:32 ET - 2010/01/17
Seat 1: PavliX (65,078)
Seat 2: x-Rocky 36-x (9,940)
Seat 3: Zarachr (27,027)
Seat 4: syenite (24,732)
Seat 5: Itch52 (33,441)
Seat 6: bamfer77 (34,728)
Seat 7: shamanalix (6,470)
Seat 8: bailli (26,158)
Seat 9: badmoouth (36,427)
PavliX antes 150
x-Rocky 36-x antes 150
Zarachr antes 150
syenite antes 150
Itch52 antes 150
bamfer77 antes 150
shamanalix antes 150
bailli antes 150
badmoouth antes 150
shamanalix posts the small blind of 600
bailli posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to shamanalix [Ac As]
badmoouth raises to 2,400
PavliX raises to 10,350
x-Rocky 36-x folds
Zarachr folds
syenite folds
Itch52 folds
bamfer77 folds
shamanalix calls 5,720, and is all in
bailli folds
badmoouth has 15 seconds left to act
badmoouth has requested TIME
badmoouth folds
PavliX shows [Tc Th]
shamanalix shows [Ac As]
Uncalled bet of 4,030 returned to PavliX
*** FLOP *** [7s Td 2s]
*** TURN *** [7s Td 2s] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [7s Td 2s 7h] [Qs]
PavliX shows a full house, Tens full of Sevens
shamanalix shows two pair, Aces and Sevens
PavliX wins the pot (17,590) with a full house, Tens full of Sevens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17,590 | Rake 0
Board: [7s Td 2s 7h Qs]
Seat 1: PavliX showed [Tc Th] and won (17,590) with a full house, Tens full of Sevens
Seat 2: x-Rocky 36-x folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Zarachr folded before the Flop
Seat 4: syenite folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Itch52 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: bamfer77 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: shamanalix (small blind) showed [Ac As] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sevens
Seat 8: bailli (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: badmoouth folded before the Flop

Finished 1,944th of 33,030 entrants, earned $15. But I (always) want more... dang big stacks and Sham's Law.

More real soon. Gotta start plugging the World Blogger Championships of Online Poker coming up later this month at PokerStars ... before I miss the whole thing! That was a lot of fun last year!!! Unfortunately, classes and work will likely keep me out of the fun the first three days. Durn.

Wrong way to end a slump?

Finally broke out of a mini-slump (I hope!!!), as well as feeling better from the stomach flu and actually starting to get my hearing back from the Lady Gaga concert. So why am I not happy?

Guess it's because I played "dumb" in "ending" the current slump. (Postive thinking -- I insist the slump is over, and good things lie ahead!) I finished 45th/246 entrants a little while ago in one a $1.10 Satellite to Sunday's Big Little Tournament at Full Tilt. My $4 prize will pay for most of my entry in the 12:45pm (St. Louis time) BLT.

Of course, if I'd finished one spot higher I'd have got a ticket for the full $5.50 entry. I made the money, but bubbled the 44 tickets. And I should have coasted in for one. But I got KK the last hand and pushed my 5K, got called by the big blind -- who had been the table big stack and bully and whom I had a history with in my short time at Table 22 in the 5-minute turbo event.

I didn't think anyone would challenge my push, since we were one spot from the money and two from the tickets. But my foe had me covered, must've figured he had nothing to lose and could embarass me, and called with AK. And of course, as per Sham's Law, an ace flopped.

I shouldn't have gotten personal and taken riskes. I should have coasted. But I want to win tournaments, not just survive them. I folded my QQ to him a few revolutions earlier when an ace flopped and he push-raised my check (that was when he had twice as much as anyone at the table, before he went on a small losing streak). As bad as things have been running for me, I wanted to attack now that I had KK and get momentum on my side. And the poker gods and goddesses are still laughing at me.

Ah well. I won something. That's a step in the right direction. I also finished 3rd/6 Saturday morning in a Pot Limit Omaha High/Low tourney (ray101bassman's weekly PokerStars $1.10 fun) for a 10-cent profit.

Another lesson learned from having kings cracked in an unnecessary bubble-time risk? Nah, not the way I felt, and as little as I had to lose. I already intended to buy in direct anyway to Sunday's BLT; just decided to try one more satellite as a warmup and game-sharpener.

I'm playing to win. I'm thinking positive. I'm learning, and using (some of) what I learn.

Bring it on, felt Foes and poker Fates! The Shamster will always bounce back. Eventually.

Good results on Reefer

Hmmmmm, that title may get me in trouble at a casual glance. Oh well. Coming down with a stomach flu (something I ate?), just want to go to bed, don't care about much of anything right now.

What I do care about, and what has me feeling a little better in my pain, is that I just got out of my slump a little. Played the Reefer Poker League Winter Series II's Event 3 (why'd nobody alert me that the Series started with two games last week??), played mostly solid (though far too card-dead and thus over-cautious the third hour), and finished 6th/58 entrants for a $23.40 payday. Would have liked to do better; I was tournament leader most of the first six levels (flopping a set of kings to crack aces on a three-way all-in in the first five minutes sure helps!). But the way things have gone the last few days, I'll take any rays of sunshine!

Winter Series II runs all January, games every Tuesday and Thursday (8:15p CT) for $5.50 each. The eight-game series qualifies coupon-earners to The Final at 16:20 Reefer time on Sunday, Jan. 31 -- and that championship features $550-added plus a $109 coupon for the winner.

If only Merge Network software wouldn't freeze up so often, primarily on its "refreshes", and be so slow to update the standings or translate my wagers. I was about ready to throw the computer through a wall a couple times. Why can't computer/software geniuses come up with good dependable solid smooth programs for poker????? But surviving so long/well (and cashing) against such a tough field made the frustration a little easier to bear. If Reefer (a member/skin of the Merge Network) only ran smoother, and if it only got the old agreement with PIC Club going again, it might become my favorite site of all the poker internet. Ah well...

I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'm playing live at Lumiere Place casino in downtown St. Louis. I sure hope I feel better...

(Full) Tilted again ... and again

I do not believe or agree with the paranoids who say all online poker is fixed, and that the RNGs (Random Number Generators) ain't really random at all. Why would poker sites take such a chance and cheat as an institution (we won't talk about random individual cheating right now)? Why would sites care about any one account, especially a small one, when they make so much money off rakes and fees?

Then bad luck smacks me in the face, and all I can do is shake my head and repeat one of my mantras: "This too shall pass; I'm a good person!"

Sunday was basically an out-and-out disaster for me on the faux felt. The imperfect ending to the imperfect day came when I was knocked out of Satellites to Full Tilt's Big Little Tournament, not once, but twice, on rivered flushes when I was ahead. Don't tell me the odds...

The first time, I was sitting pretty in about 25th place of 70 left in a chase for 41 BLT seats. I should've just sat out and backed in. But I flopped a Broadway straight, looked at cementing my seat by taking the pot by pushing all my chips to scare others, and got called by the only stack at the table bigger than me. I should have gone slow with two clubs having fallen in the flop; another club turned, Stackie had two clubs in his hand, and I was out in 65th with no seat and down a buck-10.

Another 1.10 satellite was just starting, and I jumped into it, really ticked at myself for blowing one game but confident I could maintain the steady good play I'd been doing and win a seat this time. But I was card-dead early, which is not a good thing to be in a turbo (5-minute levels) event. Finally I pushed my last 800 chips with T9 from early position, and got called by one player who showed AKo. Wouldn't ya know it, I flopped another straight and got the lead! But the shamster (me) is the unluckiest of players; there were two spades in the flop, caller's A was a spade, and the turn-river came 2 of spades, 3 of spades. Flushed again! Why me???

Sunday had started horribly with me 22,239th/33,736 in the weekly Big Little Tournament finale. I don't know what happened, but it wasn't pretty; it was also 5-minute turbo, and I wasn't in sync or in the right frame of mind ... I guess. I do promise to do much better in next Sunday's BLT (regular 10ish-minute levels) -- and I will cash!

Bombed in two other tourneys Sunday to make the day a total washout. Was much more fun watching the Arizona-Green Bay NFL playoff scorefest. Today I haven't played anything yet; a touch of sinuses and depression and just not feeling in the groove. We'll see what the evening brings. I will play something somewhere sometime!

I am intrigued after finding out Absolute Poker is holding AP Touchdown Wednesday tournaments this month, with Super Bowl packages as the prizes. I'm going to have to look into that, especialy its satellites. Also hoping PokerStars has a new round of NAPT-Venetian qualifiers this week; nothing on their schedule yet, but then again they didn't start playing them last week until Wednesday.

As a final thought on Full Tilt's reputation for unbelievable bad beats on rivers and an inordinate amount of worst-hand-wins ... well, it happens everywhere. Even live. There's no perfect online site for a good game. The software hangs up too often on the Merge Network, the Cake Network, worst of all on Microgamings (I grandfathered in so I can still play some of those). Even PokerStars, my first site to play online and to play real money, is not always dependable. I got royally rooked by them when they did their Player Quiz; I got the survey all correct I am certain, but they never gave me the ticket to tournaments that they promised and I earned. Probably because I didn't capitalize the "S" in my site name or something trivial? You'd expect a lot better from "the best." Nevertheless, grumpily, PokerStars remains my favorite site, followed by Full Tilt, Doyle's Room, Reefer Poker and ... let's call it about a seven-way tie for fifth.

If you hear a scream later tonight, you'll know I just got flushed again...

Ready for another sweet Sunday

I can't believe the year is already 10 days old. Man, life flies when you're having fun ... and also not. I know I already broke my resolution of a post a day here, but what the heck -- how many resolutions survive a full year? So might as well get it over early in breaking 'em!

One thing I'm hoping not to get over early is my participation in tournaments today. Specifically, Full Tilt's The Big Little Tournament. Qualified in a satellite on Friday for this week's $5.50 event, which guarantees $250K prize pool. Today's 12:45 pm (all times Central) game is Turbo (5-minute) NLHE, so it's going to be wild from the get-go. My goal is to do better than last Sunday's regular-timed-levels BLT, when I finished 5,676th (of 46,105 entrants) and pocketed $7.50. A couple good hands early today, please, dealers!

Also on tap for me today will probably be the Gaming Forum Network's $5.50 buy-in with $50 added at 3p at UB (formerly Ultimate Bet) (and more on GFN in a moment), plus maybe the H0 Radio games at 9p at UB (weekly freeroll and $5.50, $100-added buy-in run simultaneously, bonus if ya win both, which I don't think anyone has done yet). The H0 Radio games are co-sponsored by Rounders Radio, and that's where we get the passwords, either via the broadcast at 7p or in the Rounders Radio Chat Room. I may also play one of Poker101a's games, depending on how things are going today; eric's gang has games at 7p (freeroll) and 8p (buy-in) at UB/AP, and they're part of the Poker Forum Network that plays at 4p (freeroll) and 6p (buy-in) at Doyle's Room. Yup, busy busy day.

Saturday wasn't that busy -- mainly because I was in the GFN (told ya I'd get back to them) $100 Freeroll at UB for almost 5 hours. The satisfying news was I made the final table, learned from some very tough rivals and some big stacks in action, finished 4th/222 entrants and pocketed $10. The frustrations included not winning, getting "so little" payoff for playing so long, and that the final table overlapped the start of the Poker Analysis Heads-Up Challenge III that I hosted at Doyle's. Needless to say, two things at once didn't work well for me (although it went a bit better than normal). Didn't get a first-round bye, faced very tough PA regular dcrat (known as rattler3 at Doyles), fell behind early and finally bowed out after a 22-minute struggle. At least our first-round match lasted longest of the 7 opening matches, thus giving me a little solace. Congrats to mjo (Jack8 at Doyles) of Grove City, Ohio, for winning PAHU III, and to fitchjr1 as runner-up!

So I only played 3 tournaments on Satuday. Also cashed in ray101bassman's PLO H/L at PokerStars, finishing 3rd/12 for $2.40 (on a $1.10 entry). So I profitted $9.10 for the day ... if ya don't count the $25 stake I put up in PAHU III.

Bring on bigger and better results today, poker world. And be gentle, goddesses!

Where'd everybody go?

Ok, I know June through December exist. I was there -- I think. I wrote -- I think. I think -- I think. Where is everything?

I hate computers. If it wasn't for online poker, I'd go back to woman-chasing and the real world. (Thank you, online poker!)

Been playing a lot of poker lately. Success rate is increasing, but still missing out on the big scores. Those will come. Meanwhile, keep learning.

Got a lot of writing to do to make up for what disappeared. Wonder if I can re-post from the forums, what I was writing in them about the same time? This is painful! (Yes I can re-post, Blogger says! Thank goodness! I can recreate what's gone before...)

I'm hosting the Poker Analysis (Forum) Heads-Up III tournament at Doyles Room starting at 7 (CT) tonight, Jan. 9. Only $2.20, with $50 added. Come join us. Lots of great people and poker players in PA.

Have a good day and play nice...