My best win with the hammer, though it is not a true one since I played it from the blinds. I was a bit happy after my flopped trips lost to an overset.

The Morning Rebound

After taking three painful hits last night, I had a pretty good rebound this morning that involved doubling up at the two $100NL tables I was playing at(I either had a below buy-in stack or my opponents did, so I left both tables with $175).

The first hand was with QcQh. I raised 4x the BB and had a caller or two until it go to the blinds with a guy raising it to $18 (he started the hand with $200+). I thought for a bit and figured if I hit my set I would make a bit of cash, so I called and everyone else folded. Flop was Js10S3h. A pretty dreadflop as I am losing to AA-TT now, AK and AQ just got a gutshot draw and spades just recieved a flush draw. The SB raised to $25. I think a bit more and have a feeling the guy is trying to buy it so I call.

Turn: 9s. One of the worse cards possible (the others being A,K, maybe a Q). Straight and flush draws both just made their hands. He pushes in $43. The right bet for a made hand, though I think he would check it to me if he made it and let me pay him off instead of scaring me off the hand. I call the rest of my stack dreading the outcome hoping at the very least I hit a straight to beat an overpair.

River: 7s. Another really horrible card. Any spade, 8, pocket pair AA-99 beats me (QsQc beats me because of the flush, 8s because of the straight, the rest all have trips). There are very few starting hands that I can beat at this point.

We flip our cards up. He holds QcTh. I win a huge pot and am amazed that I got extremely lucky and called his bluffs both times. He promptly left the table.



----
The second hand involved pocket aces. I slowplayed by calling a simple 2xBB raise in the SB against two callers. Flop was Ad9h5d with raising action between the other two so I called and waited. Turn was a heart. I check, SB raises to $4, MP raises to $20, I raise to $45, SB folds, MP goes all in. River is a low club and he shows pocket 5s for trips to be crushed by my aces.
----

Both hands were not my best plays by any standard, but I am quite happy with the results.

Challenge Bankroll updated: $324.40

After my tournament bad beat, I get delivered another one on my challenge game. I flop a flush and bet aggressively the entire time to lose to a runner runner full house:

** Game ID 907070188 starting - 2006-08-22 22:05:56
** Bad Beat Table 4 [Hold 'em] (0.50|1.00 No Limit - Cash Game) Real Money

- IWE sitting in seat 1 with $106.45
- troutfisher sitting in seat 3 with $196.24
- Uturn sitting in seat 4 with $118.15 [Dealer]
- Syphos sitting in seat 5 with $90.60
- takingithome sitting in seat 6 with $231.62
- bowler56 sitting in seat 7 with $9.50
- glava sitting in seat 8 with $16.45
- KuReshtin sitting in seat 9 with $68.94
- Soobroke sitting in seat 10 with $56.85

Syphos posted the small blind - $0.50
takingithome posted the big blind - $1.00

** Dealing card to Syphos: 6 of Spades, 7 of Spades
bowler56 folded
glava folded
KuReshtin folded
Soobroke raised - $2.00
IWE called - $2.00
troutfisher folded
Uturn folded
Syphos called - $2.00
takingithome folded

** Dealing the flop: Jack of Spades, King of Spades, Ace of Spades
Syphos bet - $4.00
Soobroke called - $4.00
IWE folded

** Dealing the turn: Ace of Diamonds
Syphos bet - $7.00
Soobroke called - $7.00

** Dealing the river: 8 of Diamonds
Syphos bet - $10.00
Soobroke went all-in - $43.85
Syphos called - $43.85
Soobroke shows: Ace of Hearts, 8 of Hearts
Syphos mucks: 6 of Spades, 7 of Spades
Soobroke wins $113.20 from the main pot

End of game 907070188


After this I get crushed for another $40 when my flopped trips run into a bigger set. My Challenge money went from about $300 to $175, I will update the side bar later....

In the top 20, top 40 pay, I lose in 61st after a wellplayed hand delivers a bad beat:

Hand 889953000, Started at 8/22/2006 9:43 PM
Table 'Port Louis': 20-20 No Limit HE (TournamentChips)
Seat 0: syphos (15,340 in chips)
Seat 1: SHLADE (5,715 in chips)
Seat 2: JasperisOK (16,050 in chips)
Seat 3: hammer124 (15,237 in chips)
Seat 5: stickman5 (11,703 in chips)
Seat 6: Monkey800 (17,456 in chips) (on the button)
Seat 7: dreemtim (5,800 in chips)
Seat 8: -Widow Maker (7,970 in chips)
Seat 9: 8spiderman (4,110 in chips)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
Dealt to syphos: 9s
Dealt to syphos: 9d
dreemtim : Post Blind (300)
-Widow Maker : Post Blind (600)
*** Pre-Flop *** :
8spiderman : Fold
syphos : Bet (1,800)
SHLADE : Fold
JasperisOK : Fold
hammer124 : Call (1,800)
stickman5 : Fold
Monkey800 : Fold
dreemtim : Fold
-Widow Maker : Fold
*** Flop *** : Qs 9c 2s
Dealt to syphos: 9s
Dealt to syphos: 9d
Dealt to hammer124: Qc
Dealt to hammer124: As
syphos : Bet (3,000)
hammer124 : Raise (7,000)
syphos : Raise (10,540)
syphos : All In (13,540)
hammer124 : Call (6,437)
hammer124 : All In (13,437)
*** Turn *** : [ Qs 9c 2s ] 5s
*** River *** : [ Qs 9c 2s 5s ] 8s
Dealt to syphos: 9s
Dealt to syphos: 9d
Dealt to hammer124: Qc
Dealt to hammer124: As
syphos : Show Cards
hammer124 : Show Cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 31,477 | Rake: 0
Board: [ Qs 9c 2s 5s 8s ]
syphos bet 15,340, collected 103, net -15,237 Shows [ 9s 9d ] (a flush, Queen high)
SHLADE lost 0
JasperisOK lost 0
hammer124 bet 15,237, collected 31,374, net 16,137 Shows [ Qc As ] (a flush, Ace high)
stickman5 lost 0
Monkey800 lost 0
dreemtim lost 300
-Widow Maker lost 600
8spiderman lost 0

The last couple of days have been hovering around the previous bankroll without much improvement, however, today I was able to catch a set and slowplay someone to an all in that gives me enough to move up a level.

Current Cash Challenge Bankroll: 213.24

Overall, with a bonus from playing backgammon on party poker, I am up to $1410 for my total bankroll.

I am waiting to get into a meeting at my office and decided that I should off the bookshelf right behind me. All my political science and academic books are on areal bookshelf near my office, but I make sure the important books (those on poker and chess) are kept right behind me for all (professors and peers alike) to see.

Almost ready to move up to a new level as I am standing at 179.61. Time for me to take a break for the day.

I've only played one $50NL table today and that was enough to add $80 to my challenge total.

I initially moved up to $75 dollars within the first half hour of play after I win a decent hand and outplay someone on another. After another hour or so my stack fluctuates between $60 and $75. Finally, two hands make my day and they occur within a 3 hand period.

First, I get AdQd on the small blind and there are 5 limpers, I raise to $2 and 4 of them call. The flop is AcKsQh. I am first to act and throw out a $5 bet into the $9 pot. First person folds, second person goes all in for 20. Fold Fold. I think about it for a few seconds, tell him that he probably has me and I call with my two pair. He shows K4 and I take the pot down. This bumps me up to $95-100

Second hand I win with J10 with a flop of QT6, no one bets and I take down a small pot.

Third hand. I get dealt pocket aces, raise to $2, get two callers and the flop is T9blank. I am first to act and I lead out with my standard $5 bet. The guy to my left goes all in for $10 and the third person calls the bet, I can only call. The third person has $6 and I don't even look at the turn as I put the rest of his stack in, he calls and my hand holds up versus QQ and an open ended straight draw...which was nice as the QQ killed two of the third players outs.

I'm expecting to hit a slump anytime soon, but right now the cards are treating me well.

Once I move up to .5/1, I can start playing the badbeat tables, anyone know if this is a good idea (the Jackpot is 116k, 70% gets shared, 50% to loser, 25% to winner, and 25% amongst the remaining players remaining in the hand).

Starting my NL Challenge and have moved up a level on Day One. Played a bit of $20NL and found way too many people who are willing to just call when I have top pair and they have something much worse. Also, My pocket Queens cracked aces by hitting a rivered flush after a flop all-in, so that definitely helped my progress.

wee, $50NL next up.

I deliver such bad beats that people post them on forums:

http://forum.hollywoodpoker.com/showthread.php?p=70101


*in short, I had bottom trips someone had mid-trips, I hit quads on the river.

As noted by my sidebar, I am lifting the cash game challenge from Curatio's blog (in which he dominated his cash goal by over $700) and figured to give myself a hack at it. I figured I might as well try to clear the dreampoker bonus at PSO while doing it since it is the last one challenging me and then maybe switching over to rakeback at Aztec when I am done. I have ordered Sklansky's and Miller's No Limit book and hope to put it to good use. If I fail my goal before finishing the book, then I will go for a second try at it after the book has been completed. I hope to finish the book by this weekend as I am going to join an undergrad's game of $200 NL and try to walk away with some cash on Sunday.

I was planning on being out all night Friday, so I figured I would play a quick tournament in the afternoon, hoping to complete within 3.5 hours. Looking at the games, there was only one that really appeared to be of interest and within my price range: 10/1 rebuy, PL 5 card draw.

Now, 5 card draw was my first poker love. I first learned how to play the game with my parents when I was about 8, and my friends and I would gamble random things with them, mostly baseball or Magic cards. So when decent five card game comes along, I am down to play in it.

This ended up being a 108 person tournament so only 10 places paid out. I was doing alright, playing a bit aggressively and my stack fluctuated until I busted out near the top 70and decided to rebuy, thus costing me $20. After that, I built a respectful 4k stack by the break (1.5k starting stack) and added on for another $10 at the break. By that point I was in the top half of players.

I continued to be aggressive and trying to play people's betting habits/draws and had decent success. One of the weird things is that the average pre-draw raise was only 2x the big blind. At some point one of the dogs puked on the carpet and I had to clean it. So I did that while playing.

I got near the bubble when I realized I had only an hour left, play slowed down and I picked up a few pots...but then one of the dogs pissed on the carpet. So I had to punish her while cleaning up the mess, watching the clock, and playing the game.

Finally I clear the bubble and we are in the top ten, but my time to get picked up is nearing and I have to take care of the dogs one time before I leave. So I run downstairs and feed them, run back up and don't miss anything. Then the 3rd break comes and I run the dogs downstairs, take them all out to the bathroom, then put them away to come up and only miss a hand I would have folded anyways.

I have 10 minutes left and there are 7 people left, so I have to up my bluffing and moves. Number 7 drops and then I am left as short stacked, I pick up a few pots, but then I become pot committed, forced to bluff, get called, and I end up losing to a marginal hand with a busted draw.

6th place netted me $110, so not a bad showing for a game I do not play as much (but have studied a bit and have known most of my life).

Quick update:

Hosted a pokergame at home last night, 7 people played, only 3 rebuys (no one added on) and I was one of the rebuys as one of thenewer players made an amazing call on my bluff with an ace high. I came back to win it for $25 first place finish. The home games do not get calculated into my bankroll (nor do the entry fees) as these games are more for fun (but I still love my chips).

I decided to hit a casino as the monthly 100% match up to $100 (25xB) bonus on intercasino was available. So I depostied $200, and by the time I played $2500 worth of hands, I was at $400. So this evening earned me $300. That puts my bank roll at $1080. It is quite the nice bounceback and I was worried for a bit when my blackjack cash went from $200 to $300 and then dropped to $140, after that I hovered around $200 prior to hitting a $200 jump in the last 150 hands.

:)

To all those who keep up on this post, I achieved my August goal in mid-July, but then proceeded to drop way below that back to my starting due to some casino runs gone poorly. However, thanks to my recent touranment success, I am up to about 800-850 in my bankroll, and hope poker can keep my head above water...and achieve what my bankroll was for about a week.

3 tournaments and I knew it was time to call it a night.

5/.50 - First hand played, Aces, one guy pushes in preflop, I call, a third calls, I show my aces, 2nd caller has jacks, the guy who pushes all in has 4h5h. Hits two pair on the flop.

5./50 RB/AO. Aces get cracked by j9o (hits trips). Rebuy and end up losing trips to a 4 flush followed by TPTK to trip kings.

10/1.5 - Go all in with pocket kings, guy with 4s calls. 4 appears on the flop.


=/

Two more late night tournaments for 8/3

2/.25 Tubro rebuy/addon. Total spent: 6.50. 230 people, top 30 pay. 18th place paid out $16.

$5/.5 freezeout. 447 Entrants, top 40 pay. 84th. The last hand I was a 36% favorite against 2 others. Hit my King (KQ all in), then the guy got a runner runner for a four flush to take me down.

Still +$4 for the latenight adventures.

Tournament Report for 8/3/06:

$10/1.5 6 Figure Free Roll 10 person SNG, 3rd Place $20 payout
-First hand pocket queens, My two big MTT last night involved getting pocket queens the first hand and tripling up (4.5k) and getting pocket jacks to triple up(3k).


$7/1 MTT Qualifier to a 50/4, 56 entrants. Top 9 pay. Top 7 get a ticket, 9th is less than a buyin and 8th is about a dollar more.
- First hand I got pocket aces, more than doubled up, which put me in first from the get go. 4 winning, high pocket pairs in a row.
-Result, 8th place, $9.80. Had pocket kings and someone went all in behind me, his AJ wins. I forgot Harrington's rule on qualifiers and called where he said he wouldn't call with Aces.


$5/.5 Freezout, 521 people. Top 60 pay. 19th place, $26.05 prize.
-No pocket pair first hand.


$10/1.5 6 handed Six Figure Freeroll Qualifier, 1st place, $42 prize.

$10/1.5 10-handed Six Figure Freeroll Qualifier, 3rd place, $20 prize.

Net run from tournaments this evening: $69.85

MTT placings for 8/2.

$5 Freeze out 56/500, top 40 pay.
$5 Freeze out 129/497, top 40 pay.
$2.5 Rebuy/Add on 21/214, top 30 pay. $11.40

Often, the best skill can overcome bad luck and, similarly, the best luck can overcome the poorest skill (though when these two things are contention, Phil Hellmuth loses). However, when you are in a Multiple Table Tournament, you need a combination of skill and definitely some luck to win your coin tosses and the occasional 34/64 underdog situation (any worse and you probably should have laid the hand down...especially if you are a 20/80 underdog with your jacks against someone’s queens).

Last night, I decided to tempt my luck with another $5/.50 rebuy/addon since the last one went so well. This one was doing well and my luck carried me through some rough/poor decisions - probably the best was when I was small blind, everyone folded to me, and I called. The big blind raised it the minimum amount up to 1.6k, and I decided to punish him for being obnoxious. I call with my 4c 5c. Flop is 464 and I ended up winning after all the money goes into the center, his A9 post-flop bluff did not hold up.

By the end of the second break, there are 30 people and I am 16th with about 14k in chips, top 10 pay out (Even though there were 200 to start with). Shortly after this, I get dealt AQo in late middle position and raise 3x the BB, the chip leader calls and everyone else folds. Flop is JJ4, I bet half the pot (4k into 7k pot) and he calls. At this point, I should lay the hand down and give up as the only hands that can call me there are pocket pairs, a jack, or maybe AK. However, I bluff again, and a third time in the river putting it all in. The CL turns over pocket Jacks for quads...his method of smooth calling each time paid off.

So, afterwards, I realized my mistake and flagellated myself over it as I running good and made a bad bet. However, 29/200 was an acceptable showing and at least gives me some consistency is placing deep into the tournament.

Given that I ran well last night, I wanted to play a bit more this afternoon to see if my luck/game would continued. While surfing on the Pokerroom website, I cam across a tournament-based freeroll that will be having on the 20th of August. Basically, to get a ticket to it, you have to win 5 different sit n go tournametns that are running daily from the end of July until August 11th. Given that I spend most of my poker time playing these low-limit SNGs anyways, I figured this might be worth my time.

The six SNGs that need to be cleared are:
5/.75 20 person
10/1.5 10 person
10/1.5 6 person
20/3 10 person
20/3 6 person

Given the formats, I figued that the 20 person would take the most time to fill up and actually play out. Also, my likelihood of winning would be the lowest since there are more competitors. So I played that one first and just cleared it 5 minutes ago ($40 for first). Given that it ought to be the hardest, I can now continue on my track to the freeroll and hope that my ITM placing will outpace any losses I have. I am a bit worried about the 20/3 since I have not played too many SNGs at that level (only a few, and have won once or twice), but my win from last night might cover me through those trying times.