leaks found

I went back over some old posts on 2+2 this morning, as well as looking at my bad play from last night. Based on this information, I think I've discovered correctable leaks in my late game play -

1) stop panicking at 10BB. There is still time, there is no need to go into "ICM shovey shovey mode" yet. At 6-7BB, it's definitely time to panic, but not at 10. 10 is a good time to shove over a raise, if you have the hand for it (or the fold equity based on a read), but ICM shoving at 10 BB is simply too early, it appears.

2) I'm often ignoring reads/villain stats at the end of the game. Last night I folded around 25 times in a row with garbage cards. I saw the TT with 11 BB and thought "go time". I was in middle position and ready to shove. Then an early position player raised it up first, and my only thought was "even better, now the pot is bigger". I shoved over him. He sat and thought about calling for a good 5 seconds, and that's when I checked his stats and saw the bad news - he was a loose passive player with stats of 38/8 - meaning that his under the gun raise represented a pretty strong hand. He ended up calling with JJ and I was dead meat.

If you take these two leaks together - I should have gotten away from TT last night. It would have been one of those irritating, crying folds, but I could have done it. I would have still had 10 BB and enough time to come up with a hand or get lucky somewhere.

Looking at the big picture, my holdem ROI graph is a steady upward climb in the first 5 months, and then I suffered 2 negative months in a row. (one very negative, one slightly so). I've basically run even for about 120 tourneys.

I need to verify this - but I wonder if this small downswing corresponds to when I stopped playing by Harrington's "M" clock, and started using pure BB? I used to get desperate in Harrington mode with an M of 5 - which corresponds to 7.5 BB. When I switched to using a BB clock, I also switched to a "panic mode" of 10 BB, which is decidedly an earlier "go" time.

bad decisions...

played very poorly tonight in 2 tournies.

In the first, I tried a steal with A2 and got a caller (tried 4 steals on the night, all 4 got called, BTW - a fun way to drain chips). Then, I hit my Ace - C-Bet, and got called. We both checked the turn, and he bet very small, but I didn't have much left. I felt like the bet was weak like maybe he was afraid of the ace, but no, it was 2 pair, AQ, and I was crippled.

Got AJ in the very next hand and shoved 6BB - I thought maybe it would look like a tilt raise and get called light, but someone had TT and won that race.

Bad c-bet there - even with top pair. Left me with no chips to manuver. Need to pay attention to stack sizes.

In the second tourney, I tried two steals and got called each time and had to fold. I finally got TT and decided to shove no matter what. An UTG player raised it up 2x, and I shoved over him. He took a second to call, and while he was waiting, I looked at his stats - 38/8. Uh oh - I knew immediately that he had AK, JJ or QQ. I prayed for the former but got JJ and off I was again.

Is there any way to avoid that? You wait and wait for good cards, or even mediocre cards - can you really fold TT with 9BB and 7 players left? Not sure on that one.

fun can go away in a hurry

I limped behind a limper early with 99 tonight, when someone on the button raises it 4x. I was all set to fold but the first limper called, and I decided to take a shot with my pair and setmine.

The results were even better - a flop of K99 - I flopped quads! The original raiser bet, and both me and the original limper called.

The turn was another King - a horrible card for me. Now nobody without a king is calling. The board checked around.

The river blanks and I have to bet to get something in the pot. I pray one of them, maybe both, has a King, or this pot won't be big enough. Fortunately, the original raiser puts all in, so he has a king. (what if he has 2 kings? Gadzooks, that would be a fun story). I call his all in and he shows the expected AK. Whew.

Very next hand, I get a cheap play with 44. The flop brings nothing, but I get to see a free card, and it hits a lovely 4. The river pairs a King, so I have a a boat. I bet small and get paid off.

A great start - 4400 chips, but it isn't enough to make the money. I call a shortstack shover with AQs (a fine ICM call), but villain has AK and I get put back to even. Then some bad cards and I end up short. My very first ICM shove, with J6s, is called by AJ, so I don't even have 2 live cards, and I'm gone.

Second tourney, I play 3 hands and lose them all - the last is an overshove with 11 BB with AK. Villain calls with 66 and I lose the race.

My quads/boat combo, along with perfect ICM play, net me a negative 30 on the night. My month still looks good, though...

the secret to online dominance...

I have found the secret - very simple, really....

Play on Saturday night.

I played in three tourneys last night, two were rated "double fishy" tables by Sharkscope.com (oh, sharkscope is another secret to online dominance, well-worth the money). I took first in one tourney and second in another.

An example of the quality of opponent - I raised up 2 limpers with AKo. 2 people behind me called, as well as the two limpers. We were 5 to the flop. (ugh).

The flop comes AJ9. I lead out - no need to get fancy here. One caller. I'm worried about broadway straight draws (QT/KT-ish type hands).

The turn bricks that draw. I bet again - opponent goes over the top, all in. Do I really want to go broke with top pair? Well, the villain is rated as poor on sharkscope, so I figure there's a good chance my kicker is better, so I call...

Villain had J2, both spades. There were no spades on the board. She had called a 5x preflop raise with J2 suited. I manage to fade the 5 outer (2 jacks, 3 twos) and win a big early pot.

Sharkscope Double fishy action - it's the best!

my present to myself - frustration at the table

One quick 9 man on Christmas eve. My stats were 6/0 after 50 hands, all unplayable crap. The guy two to my left was a horrible maniac, on top of it, no steal would be uncalled. I didn't even try (as you can see by my stats).

I folded my way into 3rd place. We were down to 5, maniac was 1st with 4200, then one more big stack near him, then three shorties with < 1500.

Bad maniac raises my blind, 2x. He had done this before and showed down 79o and QT. I had 44 and decided it was time to race, or maybe I could get a fold for once. Nope, no fold, he shows A9o. Nice call for 1/3 your stack.

Flop and turn look good for me, but the Ace on the river seals the deal. I played 3 hands out of 52. The last one was probably a bad push - perhaps I was due for a decent hand, and I certainly felt I could outplay one or two of the guys at the table.

Let's keep in mind, especially tonight - for many (most) of us, poker is meaningless entertainment. Sure, I love the game so much that sometimes it scares me - but the real important stuff is asleep 30 feet away from me, waiting for Santa to come. Losing a race in an $11 tourney seems like pretty paltry crap in comparison, and it aught to. Happy Holidays, all.

4-handed Christmas special

Between a sudden freezing rain and the holiday, only 4 people showed up for the cash game last night. We played 4 handed with one big blind, and I ended up down around $30.

One big hand I lost - I limped on the button with A8, and the flop came AT3. The first limper bet and I raised, using my new aggro-flop-position strategy. The blind called my raise, triggering my alarm, but then the original raiser repopped it to $16.

Thinking time. This is a limped pot, so one can't necessarily be put on an Ace. This particular player would have raised with tens, so my first guess is a pair of threes, or a sneaky limp with aces or perhaps Ace King. There are no draws to play for except a gutshot. On top of this, I've got a player behind me. This all added up to a fold. The blind folded behind me and the re-raiser took the pot.

I still think there's a chance I've got the best hand there, but I don't want to stack off with top pair/crummy kicker.

A few hands later a similar situation comes up - I limp with another weak ace, A7o, on the button. It's only me and the blind and we see a flop of something like A84, with two spades. He leads into my top pair. I think about raising it up, but, remembering what just happened to me before, I call.

The turn brings a red jack - no draws have come in yet. He leads into me again. This is a tricky player who could have a decent ace (not raised before the flop) - he has also bet into me on the come before and then got paid when the draw comes in. I still think I'm ahead, though, so I call again.

The river is a red deuce - no draws on the board (except 3-5, unlikely) - and he bets once again, this time the same size as the turn bet. Now I'm pretty sure I have him - should I raise the pot for some more value? Nah, I don't think he's calling me with anything worse than this, so I just call. He says "if you've got an ace, it's yours" and I show him the Ace. He had middle pair and had put me on a flush draw.

So, in this case, I abandoned my aggro-donk-position strategy and played top pair weakly, and got a really good handreader to misread my hand. Need to remember that one...

Another medium loss was playing AJ on an AA974 board. I lost the hand to pocket nines, but I feel like I lost a pretty small amount considering I had trip aces. A well-played loss.

One small win I was pretty proud of - I raised up pocket queens and I got a caller - the often mentioned Mr. Pietzak. The flop came with an Ace and a King - quickly making my queens look like dogmeat. On top of this, I was out of position and had to act first. I knew that if I checked here, Mr. Pietzak would bet this board no matter what his cards were. Nope, I had to bet myself. I did so and got a fold. I showed him my queens and told him that it was a tough board to c-bet on.

Overall, my cards weren't terrific, and I certainly didn't flop any huge hands that I could get paid with. I speculated a bit more than usual considering we were just 4 handed, but none of this speculation paid off for me - it only served as a steady trickle off my chip stack.

back to the $22s with a nice beginning

I have been playing the $11 Full Tilt 9 mans for about 5 weeks now, even though my bankroll could have stood a higher level. There were a few reasons for this:

• a poor October and November (both negative ROI months overall)
• early foray into multi-tabling (and Matrix tourneys)
• felt like I needed work on ICM endgame strategy.

Well, I have played basically even for the past 100 tourneys, but felt like I was ready to move back up to the $22s, so last night I played a single $22 tourney, and the results were good - I won the thing. I feel like I played well, with the exception of an AKo that didn't work out so well. In this hand, I called a raise from the blinds instead of reraising - mainly because I had open-raised twice in the past three hands, and I didn't feel like I needed to race for all my chips yet. Plus, the initial raiser was tight - so I felt like if I hit my Ace I could stack him with an AQ/AJ checkraise. Sadly, I missed the flop and just let it go, but did so without too much damage done.

The bubble was an interesting affair - there was one other "experienced" player at the table (around 300 tables played, like me), and a beginner who didn't seem to like having to fold before the flop. In fact, he said as much by typing "overbet" in reply to my shove with AKo and 9 BB left. He said he was dying to call, so I asked "with what?" - to which he replied "Q8, same suit". Oh, pleasepleasepleaseplease let me get a hand against this guy...

After awhile, one player pulled away and the other 3 (myself included) were about equal. By then I had targeted the player who wasn't going to call my shove without a monster, and wasn't shoving himself - so I raised his blind for a few orbits and was able to pull away from the other 2 and secure a second place spot. Headsup was uneventful - I started off behind, but won a 40/60 type hand to flip the stacks, then put him away with another 40/60 win. Some marginal luck in my favor, which I'll gladly take - it felt good to add $68 profit to my month.

Tonight is the Thursday night cash game, moved for the holidays...

friday poker, give back some of Thursday's winnings, and some online

no luck in the Friday night "social" game - CS got the best of me once again, and I ended up down $30. He is impossible for me to crack - and there's absolutely no explanation of why this is so. He literally plays every hand, and over half of them to showdown. If it is checked to him preflop, he will put .50 into the pot with any two cards. Post flop, he will open bet with any pair, any draw, and any overcard to the board. If it is bet before him, then he will call with the same range.

An example hand (one of the few I can remember). - I raise it up on the button with A8. He calls. Flop hits an Ace. I bet, he calls. Turn comes another ace. I bet, he calls again. River comes a 5. I bet, he raises, I call (it's a limit game, I'm calling $1 to win $9). He's got 55 and 2-outed me.

It seems that if I'm in the game with CS, then he will go home ahead, or even (when I pay him and he pays everyone else).

I have moved beyond being irritated about it now - the amount of money is not important. Caro's new book (mentioned in a prior post and highly recommended, BTW) says that the best way to make money at the table is to be friendly and have people like you. I am pretty much this way anyway, but last night I made sure to keep my mood light and laugh and smile even as CS raked my money over to his pile. I will continue to work on this.

Tonight I played 3 SNGs - bombed out of the first by getting money in with a set, villain had flush draw and called - it got there. In the second tourney, I got my money in ahead again, only slightly ahead this time with KQ against 67, but this didn't hold up - but I was in second and took home some loot.

The third was a 6-man, $10 matrix tourney in which I placed 2nd in 3 of the 4 tourneys, but no overall points winnings b/c I didn't knock one person out. In the one tourney I bombed out of (in last place) - I raised up AA and got a call, the flop came AKQ and we all got our money in the middle, with only one hand that could beat me - TJ. That's exactly what he had called my 4x raise with. I had lots of outs to boat up but it didn't happen.

So in each loss tonight, I had my money in as a favorite. I ended up winning $6.40 on the night and kept my overall December ROI above 18% - a number I'll take gladly. If I could turn one or two of these second place always-a-bridesmade finishes into first placers, I'd be having a very fine month.

Tomorrow is a family trip to Tiffin for a Christmas get-together. I've known my wife's oldest sister for over 20 years now and this will be the first time I've ever been to her house.

wild finish

At the end of last week's Thursday game, I offered the possibility of hosting at my house occasionally. When our organizer sent out the weekly email to see if enough people could make it to play, he explained how this week, Matt would be the host of the game. I wasn't aware that I was hosting it this week, but no matter, I straightened up the basement and we got 7 people in to play our normal shallow stack, no limit game.

The game was wild early - featuring 3 early bustouts, two by E.H who overvalued his top pair, top kicker on both occasions - and one two pair vs. a flopped straight with KJ on a AQT board. Ouch. I had some medium hands early and lost a few close showdowns, along with a couple failed steal attempts, which together put me slightly in the hole for the night.

I made up for these small losses in part by continuing my flop aggression strategy from last week. In one early hand I raised a flop bet on a low-paint, straightening board and got a fold immediately. I had two overs, nothing more. In another, I got a free play with the powerhouse 84o in the big blind - the flop came 223 - and I checkraised a middle position limper and got a fold. A checkraise bluff with air, nice!

I had another checkraise opportunity fail when I defended my big blind with A9 suited, and the flop came 9 high. I checked to Tony with the intention of checkraising - he is capable of stabbing at almost any pot - but he checked behind. Tony had already gotten stacked by his brother with the KJ straight I mentioned earlier, so I thought maybe his aggression might be toned down a bit now. His check told me I was ahead, but also left me in a dangerous position if some non-Ace broadway came on the turn. My intention was to bet the turn with any card, but then a lovely second 9 came, so I checked again with the intention of checkraising an even stronger hand. Tony checked behind again, damn! Maybe he was slowplaying aces or kings and I was going to get him....

The river blanked and I had to get some value for my hand if I could, so I lead out with a smallish-bet, but Tony sniffed it out immediately and folded, showing AT. I returned the favor and showed my dominated preflop hand.

(an aside - I realized this morning that I'm showing WAY too much in this game - and always with a good hand to "prove" I'm playing decent cards and not bluffing. The trouble now is that I've mixed in enough not-so-good hands with my flop raises and such, and I'm never showing those, of course, so I think I'm giving away too much information. In short, I AM BLUFFING now, at least a bit more than before. I need to avow to a "never show, EVER" pledge, immediately. This is a semi-friendly game, sure, but everyone is there to win money, including me.

I had two run-ins with Tony's brother Fred, one on each side of the ledger. Fred is a self-taught player that isn't interested in the study of the game like I am - but he has a good feel for the table and his opponents and can make money by playing them more than his cards. In the first hand, I raised up a pair of Kings from under the gun. Fred was the big blind, and looked at his cards and raised his eyebrows, like he was happy with what he saw, then made the call. The flop was the worst possible flop for KK - Ace Ten x, all diamonds. Fred immediately looked down at his cards and I joked - "see any diamonds under there on that second look?". He laughed and checked. My joke was as much about myself as it was about him - I didn't know if I had the king of diamonds or not! And, I didn't want to look and make it obvious that I couldn't remember, so I left my cards under my protector, and checked behind.

The turn was garbage and Fred lead out with a decent bet. This gave me time to think, and to recheck my cards, where I was happy to see the king of diamonds. This gave me enough reason to call - I could have perhaps even raised, but I was behind many hands and didn't want to get pushed off of the nut flush draw.

The river didn't help anyone and Fred checked again. This told me that Fred didn't have flush, but he could have had some type of Ace that he would call, so I didn't see any value in a river bet. I checked and showed my cowboys - Fred turned over QJ with the queen of diamonds and a gutshot straight draw, but nothing else. His turn bet was a stab at the pot, and a good one at that. Someone else at the table commented that had Fred made a decent river bet, I would have had a tough decision. He was right, I may have had to lay down Kings or make a squirming, hero call.

Later in the night, Fred raised and I decided to call with KJo. The safe play here is to simply fold - one can lose a lot of money being dominated in a raised pot with KJ - but I feel like I'm strong enough to get away from this trouble hand in the sense of danger. Plus, I feel like my new flop game can win me some pots when I miss, so I can play a few more hands in position now. We were heads up to the flop, which came with and Ace and two lower cards. Fred checked. I could have stabbed at this pot myself, but checked behind. The turn paired my king, and Fred bet. A raise was an option here, using my new aggressive principals, but I don't think this occurred to me on this hand. I called my pair of kings.

The river blanked and Fred bet again, not very big. I went through what he might have. He raised preflop - so an Ace was a possibility, but then he checked the flop. Either he missed the ace, or maybe he hit it and wanted to checkraise me? Hmmm. Then he bet the turn king. If he has a king - it's probably better than mine - I don't see him raising preflop with KT or below. He might also have a pair from, say nines up - some of which I'm ahead of, some of which I'm behind.

Finally, I thought back to our earlier hand, and the stab he took on the turn with nothing, but then checked the river. Maybe he was doing the same here, except double-barreling - knowing that he couldn't win the pot by checking the river, after my call on the turn. A distinct possibility, and enough of one to get me to call here. He turned over a very-well-disguised AK. I immediately complimented him on the play of his hand - especially checking the flop. This helped to discount the possibility of an ace in his hand in my review, and got me to call 2 bets. In the end, I lost a fair amount of money by calling a raise with KJo to a hand that dominated me, so maybe I'm not quite strong enough to get away.....

I played two draws very differently. One was a limped 77 on a 689 board. There was a bet and a raise before me, and I decided it would be too expensive to hit my straight or set, so I folded on the flop there. In the second, I played QT (what's with playing the garbage broadway hands?) on the button, then reraised an opening bet on a QJ9 board - this time with a straight draw and top pair. I got a call on that raise, which smelled dangerous. The turn paired the 9, and the caller checked to me. I decided to bet again and fold to a checkraise, which could be a boat or a baby straight, but the villain folded, telling me he had JT. He had the same straight draw as I, plus middle pair - a decent hand and a good laydown, in my opinion.

At about 1:30, we announced 2 more orbits around the table, ending on my deal. My original $40 had at one point trickled down to under $20 and I had bought back in, and was currently down $10, making a decent comeback. I decided to tighten up in raised pots and avoid the big mistake, and maybe play a few limped pots in position to end the night. Nothing playable really came my way in these last orbits, though. We got to the last hand, on my deal. I dealt myself A9 offsuit. With a limper before me, I limped behind hoping the blinds would let us get a cheap one in. They did and we were multiway...

I had to do a doubletake on the flop, because it hit me hard - Ace Ten Nine, top and bottom pair, with position. Better still, the small blind lead out with a $5 bet into a $5 pot. This wasn't a stab - he had something he liked. Was it better than me (a set or Ace-Ten), or not? (ace-x). I was about to find out - I bumped it to $15. He called right away, leaving me thinking "uh-oh".

I briefly thought about shutting down and not going broke on the last hand of the night, but this week I have been reading Mike Caro's new book "Caro's Most Profitable Hold'em Advice". In this book, he describes in great detail how you should never change your style of play based on achieving "a winning session". His advice is to treat all your poker play as one long session and not worry about winning days and losing days. After all, if you have 5 losing days in a row where you lose $10 each day, then one winning day where you win $100, you're ahead $50, right? "Sessions" are an artificial block of time, in his mind, and we shouldn't judge our wins and losses on these artificial block of time.

Based on this advice, I couldn't play last this hand timidly in the hopes of getting away with a good night- I had to play it to the best of my ability. If I went broke, oh well - it's not like I'm playing with the mortgage money or anything.

The turn came and didn't look like it helped anyone, and the small blind bet $10. This bet seemed small to me - the flop had been raised to $15, so there was at over $30 in the pot. My opponent is a decent player, Tony's younger nephew Nate (his whole family will be in this game before long) - and I didn't know how to read the smaller bet. Does he love his hand and is trying to draw me in, or is this a pot control feeler bet for a pair or a gutshot draw? I didn't know, and in the end called the bet.

I was rewarded for guarding against playing too cautiously when the river brought another 9 and boated me up, nines over aces. I was ahead of just about everything now except for AA and TT. Nathaniel is an aggressive player - I have seen him three bet with smaller pocket pairs than tens, and I thought that he would have tried to take down the pot preflop with either of these hands, especially on the last hand of the night. I discounted these possibilities and made the vow to go broke - if he had either of these hand - then hats off to him fooling me. He bet one more time, and I raised all in - $29 more bucks into the pot.

The table collectively straitened up. What was a sleepy, 2am, ready-to-call-it-quits poker game 2 minutes ago got a monster pot on the last hand of the night. Nathaniel had a pained look on his face and I knew I had him - he would have beat my chips into the pot with AA or TT. He started going through what I might have out loud, and in this discussion said "you got A9? I've got everything beat except A9". That's exactly what I had, of course, so I locked up tighter than a drum, staring straight down at the felt of the table, afraid to breathe. Caro's book mentioned that players doing this are often holding monsters, so I figured he would fold if he could read my body language. I wanted to peek at the board one more time and try to figure out what he had, what he might be pained in calling that only could be beaten by my A9, but the board was over to my left and I didn't even want to shift my eyes that way. I was a statue. He finally said- "I can't fold it, show me your A9 - I call", and I happily did. He flipped over 9T - he had a boat himself! Bad luck, to be sure - smells like the several second-best hands I've played in this same game, to monster losses. The table agreed there was no way he could fold it - just bad luck for him and great luck for me. I dragged in a $65-ish pot on the night and turned a small loss into a big win, not that I'm supposed to be counting that way, as I now know...

manners

Someone went all-in on me tonight. I had trip Tens and called. He had an open-ended and hit it on the river to knock me out, then typed "hahahahahaha" in the chat.

I told him he was showing fine sportsmanship. His reply "that's the Norwegian way". My reply back - "a fine culture, you must be very proud" and signed off.

The taunting didn't irk me as much as it could have. I had already played in a matrix tourney and showed a profit, finishing 3rd overall. I also played one more after Mr. HaHa and took second, making the night profitable overall. (a whole $11, woohoo!) In the last tourney, the winner hit 2 pair on my top pair while we were three handed (5 outs), crippling me. I then fought back to a survivable level, then took delight as Mr #1 and Mr #2 butted heads and left me as #2. I had less chips on him but a good read - and got him to commit quite a few chips with top pair, - and I had him outkicked. He hit his kicker on the turn for 2 pair and put it in. I lost, but it took him 2 suckouts to beat me, so I still felt ok.

After my board reading nightmare earlier this week, I've played well.

boardreading mistakes

Tonight I misread the board twice in a 5 hand span. I'm not tired, drunk, or tilting, so I'm not sure what's going on. Perhaps I just need a break.

In the first hand, someone limped and I reraised with QQ. Someone called behind me, and so did the limper. The board came Q 6 4, with two spades - I had top set. Usually I'll bet to protect against the flush, but I checked here, deciding consciously to vary my play and not be afraid of every draw.

The turn came the 6 of clubs, putting 2 clubs on the board along with 2 spades. The player before me put out a half pot bet, and I decided I needed to raise to protect against both flush draws. I raised big and they both folded - a nice pot won by me.

Except, you doofus, that the 6 paired the board, giving you a nice floating boat. Why are you protecting against flush draws again?

In a later hand, I have 99 and raise a limper. He calls. The flop comes a very satanic 6-6-6. The villain minbets - this usually means he has nothing, so I raise. He calls. The turn is a King. I bet - he calls again.
The river is the fourth 6. My first thought is "well, I'm really glad he doesn't have quads". He checks and I bet big, for "value". He folds. As he's folding, I realize that he had me beat if he had any card higher than a 9 in his hand - the fourth 6 counterfeitted my boat and turned my nines into kickers. Lovely.

Both hands won, both played poorly.

I actually finished third in this tourney, but didn't take much satisfaction in the victory. You'd think after this amount of time I wouldn't be making mistakes like these. I did play fairly well at the end - a hyper aggressive player was the big stack and to my left, making it very difficult to get into the pot. I was able to trap him into putting a nice amount of money into the pot with AA, but he was raising really often and I needed to take a stand - which I did, with KQs. It wasn't the best hand preflop, or afterwards.

card luck

for the longest time, I wanted to write a program to determine if your cards were lucky or unlucky in the short run. The goal was to quantify being "card dead". I even started writing this program and getting some early results.

Tonight's games were good examples why what cards you get aren't nearly as important as when you get them. I was in two simultaneous SNGs tonight. In the first, I had flopped two pair from the big blind with J7, bet it all the way down, then got counterfeited when the turn and river both came up kings, and lost to JT. I was down half my stack early. So I tightened up and hoped for a hand. Then I got one, JJ in the big blind. I had about 10 BB and was shoving over any raisers or limpers, but everyone folded and I got a "walk" with my relative powerhouse. Damn!

Later in the same tourney, my wish was granted again - KK. I shoved it all in (9BB) and everyone folded. Double Damn!

About two hands later, I witnessed a 3 way all-in between AK, QT (ouch), and AJ. AK held up, 2 players got knocked out, which helped me incrementally, but not my stack.

Why couldn't Queeny-Tenny call me with some similar crap when I had KK? Or, even better, why couldn't I have gotten the KK against the AK/QT/AJ and quadruple up? Nope, the chips flew around the table but by me and I was still crippled.

My final hand was AJ in the big blind. Someone raised a goofy amount (like 333), I shoved over him, he called, with 5h8h and hit two pair to knock me out. He typed "odds" into the chat, which was actually true - he had 2-1 odds on the hand, but callling an all in, half your stack, on 58s in a SNG doesn't seem to be the right play, the hell with the odds. I typed back "uh, no" even though he was probably right. A bit of tilt, yes.

The other tourney, I managed to avoid the bubble and take third. Knucklehead to my right was the big stack but didn't know how to play it - kept limping in, and my stack wasn't big enough to make him really fold, so I dwindled down to around 5BB. I finally took a stand against one of his limps with King-rag, he had 9T suited and knocked me out.

I'm no longer going to entertain thoughts of writing the "card dead" software.

In other news, we're getting a new member in our family in a few weeks. Her name is Rosalia and we visited her today and took some pictures. Can you take this face?

ICM ain't workin' for me...

surely a sample size issue, but all these times I shove with JT on the button with 9 BB and get called by JJ, get crused, then look it up in ICM and see that it was a good shove, it has stopped making me feel very good.

100 tourneys of 0% ROI poker doesn't make me feel like ICM strategy is working for me.

Thursday night game - new strategy

I was finalizing my new strategy in the car on the way to the live Thursday game - coming from my third kids Christmas recital in three days. How can you have 3 recitals with only two kids? Oh year, 6th grade choir, 6th grade band, and 4th grade choir. I suppose I should be thankful little Sophie hasn't found an instrument she likes yet.

As I drove to the game, I went over my new strategy in my head - I wanted to be more aggressive on the flop, when in position. I have noticed in this game that flop raises get a lot of credit. I have also noticed that it's customary to take shots on the flop with nothing. I felt like I could get many of those players to fold, as well as some of the good players who might even have caught a pair on scary boards.

I did this 3 times early, and I got a fold in 2 of them. In the first, I limped into a multiway pot with AT . The flop reveals T92. An early position player bets, I raise in position with top pair/top kicker, and I get a fold. The second hand, I played 79s, the flop came 678 - someone bet and I raised with middle pair and an open-ender. Another fold. In the third, my flop raise was called, the turn was checked, and the villain fired out a bet on the river. I had third pair and let it go.

Later in the game, I did it one more time. I limped into a multiway with TT, got a flop of Q 2 4, and someone fires out a bet. There's no guarantee he's a got a queen in a multiway pot, so I raise. I get a fold. This guy is someone who always shows his cards, and always wants to know what his opponents had. He said "what'd you have?" I told him "I had a pair" and when he pressed, I revealed that it was a pocket pair under the Queen.

I think maybe this was too much information. Late in the tourney, I raised from early position with AT (probably should have folded to begin with). One of the better players at the table called my raise. The flop came A Q x, and I lead out with a bet on my pair of Aces. The good player raised me right away. Well, let's see - he could have AK/AK/AJ, all ahead of me. He didn't seem like the type to call with a lower ace, but it was late in the evening and maybe he had loosened up and was playing soooted Ax. Or, alternately, he might not have had an Ace at all. Maybe he was employing my new strategy and simply raising the flop bet in position, making it tough on the out of position player to play with a mediocre hand. In the end, I felt like I didn't want to continue on and pay $20 to find out, so I folded and kept my stack slightly above my starting $40.

My early success with my aggressive strategy served me well, because my cards turned to crap in the middle hours of the short night, and I tightened up. I tried a few limps that didn't hit or were raised preflop and let them go. My stack dwindled down to $25 from $40. I considered buying back in for $40, but before I could do this I won a few interesting hands to bring me back to even.

In the first, I limped again into a multiway pot, this time with a pretty decent AJs. I considered raising with this hand, but knew I'd get a couple callers and might get into a tricky spot with a trouble hand. The flop was all unders and completely uncoordinated - something like T 7 3 rainbow. After 2 checks, I made a little feeler bet just based on the board texture. I figured there were no draws for anyone to hang around with. My only caller was Tony.

The turn helped me quite a bit - a jack. I was out of position and bet again, this time a decent half pot bet. Tony looked confused - he's usually quite good at putting people on hands, but I had stumped him on this one. He even started talking out loud "that Jack helped you?". "Two Pair?", "Did you limp with Jacks and have a set?" "Maybe Queens?". He called again. A thought crossed my mind that perhaps he was playing me with a set of tens or something (he had flopped quad tens earlier in the night), but my read was that he was honestly flummoxed and simply didn't think I had anything. My guess for him, on this board, that he had a T - maybe 9Ts or AT. (JT would have 2 pair and Tony would have easily checkraised me on the turn).

The river was a blank - I knew that if I was ahead on the turn, I was still ahead. A thought crossed my mind, though - I had played this hand strangely and had him genuinely stumped - let's see if I could mess with him some more. I made a final bet of $5 - into a big pot. His eyes boggled. "$5 into a $35 pot? What in God's name is that?". I figured he would look me up with his T and I'd get a bit more value from the hand, but perhaps my tiny bet worked in reverse - he ended up folding. He told me after the hand that he had AT - confirming my read. Because it was Tony, I revealed my hand to him as well. I think this reveal came into play later.

It occurred to me later that if our positions were reversed - and I had AT on a T high flop, my new strategy would have had me raising - and someone with 2 overs would most likely fold. The "standard" strategy in this game is to call that flop lead when you catch a piece - basically a "I don't believe you, let's see if you fire again on the turn" call. My new strategy is more "I don't believe you, let's see if you want to play a big pot with an average hand" raise.

My last decent win of the night was also against Tony - he had lost to my AJ and another hand or two and looked a bit frustrated. I was playing 9cTc from small blind. The flop comes Q 9 4, with two clubs - middle pair and a flush draw for me, but out of position. I check, and everyone checks behind me. Nice! The turn is red 7, and I figure my 9 is good, so I bet. Tony calls again.

The river is the Ace of spades. No flush for me, and an overcard to my pair. Could Tony have an Ace, though? It wouldn't be a good ace - he would have raised out the limpers with that. Also, because of my Ace-Jack reveal earlier, I'm thinking it's in his head that I'm capable of betting with nothing but overs - so there's no way he can discount me from having an Ace. I bet and he folds with a frustrated look on his face.

Soon after I got AK and hit the flop hard but didn't get much for it. I raised it up early, got two callers - and hit two pair - A K 2. Nice flop. Do I check with the intention of raising, or lead out and hope someone called with an Ace? I chose the latter and lead out, chasing both villains away. Damn! Mr. Show Everything showed a pair of 7s.

That last hand I played was a limp in the small blind with A8 of clubs, behind other limpers. The flop showed some promise - 6 7 9 with one club. I checked, not wanting to get raised out of a decent draw. The big blind bet a nice size and everyone else folded to me. Should I raise like I've been doing? A consideration, but this time I'm out of position. I call and look for a good turn card.

It's not the 5 or 10 I was hoping for, but it is another club - the three of clubs to be exact. I check. My opponent thinks for a moment and checks behind. My guess is that he hit a pair from that flop but doesn't like the straight potential, and also doesn't like that I might checkraise him. C'mon river!

Nope, no good. Queen of spades. Can I push him off this hand? I strongly consider it, but wimp out in the end. My stack is still above my initial buy in, and I really want to go home with a win tonight. This will be my first game where I both play well and win some money to boot. Most of my net gains in the Thursday game have been misplayed hands where I suck out. And several of my losing nights have been in well-played games. I would like tonight to be the night I play well and post a net positive for the effort.

Final tally on the night - $47, a $7 profit. It feels like a $100 win, though. I'm slowing making the transition to higher level thinking - I'm thinking well beyond my own cards into what opponents have. In a few cases, I have even been considering what my opponents think I have. And I'm making adjustments based on the table.

victory of sorts

soooo proud of how I played tonight. no cards early at all, stayed focused, stayed ok. ICM moves when short all worked for once - either all folds, and a victorious race (my 33 his AT). Got 4 handed, played the bubble to get out of trouble, let the big stacks knock out the shorty. At 3 handed, the big stacks decided to bump uglies on a big pot and I was heads up, at a 5-1 chip disadvantage.

But I turned it around. I had this guy spun so many ways to Sunday - I know I was in his head. I raised his button until he fought back, then laid back and played my position. Then I put out feeler bets on the flop until he got sick of that, he eventually raised me, so I folded. Next hand, another feeler bet, he raised, but I had top pair - I reraised. He folded. Then I reraised a feeler bet again, this time with nothing, again he folded.

The final hand, he raised, I called with AT. flop came 2 5 T. I checked, he bet, I checkraised all in. He thought for a second and called - he had 99. Fantastic set of events by me - I had him all backwards and crap - he didn't know what the hell was going on. I had him with 2 outs to beat me.

The fact that the 9 came on the river (I shit you not) didn't even bug me tonight. I get mad at suckouts by horrible players (like Mr. K5 last night) - this guy was decent and I had outplayed him, and that was the important part.

a reward for trying something different - out in one hand

Listening to a pokercast this morning, someone suggested limping in early with AK. Sure enough, first hand of a 9 man tonight, under the gun, AKo. I limp.

A bad player, still in early position, minraises me. There are 2 additional callers. I call as well.

Flop Kc Ts 6c. Blind bets. He's an awful player. I raise big, putting half my stack in. Yup, I'm going all the way with top pair. If he's got a set, well that'll be a fun story to tell. He has two moves at this point, fold or shove. He does neither, he calls.

Turn comes 5c. He shoves. His shove is only half the pot. I call all-in.

He's got K5 suited for 2 pair, and I'm gone in one hand. King-ffffing-five suited.

Everything worked to perfection - got a bad player into the hand, and pot committed with a 90% chance to win. Then he hit his 3 out draw on the turn. A nice reward for a perfectly played hand.

Tourney 2 I played to the bubble, got someone to shove into me as a 70% favorite (A5 vs 66), lost that one too. Then I made two correct ICM raises in a row with no chips left, was dominated both times. Got lucky and chopped the first, no luck the second.

So when I'm a favorite, I lose, and when I'm a dog, I chop or lose. Got that? It's a miracle my ROI is positive at all with this luck.

Over the long haul, I'm basically even money for the last 100 tourneys. That's not very good.

sigh.

Shortie shoves into my blind, I've got AJ and figure he's shoving much wider than that. He's got 33 and I lose a race. One tourney down

Next hand, I shove any two cards from the small and only 2.5 BB left. My two cards happen to be 68o - but I get called by bigstack 45o! +60% to win, lose anyway. ICM actually says this is a dead-even move with his wide calling range, but c'mon, am I going to wait for better cards now? My cards were crap the whole tourney.

In the second tourney, people foil my shove/reshove moves time and time again, and I get blinded out practically. I end up shoving my last 6BB with 24o into 4 people, not good. But I can't let the blinds pass me again - I figure this crap hand is the best chance I have to have 2 live cards... except I get called by 99, so I really have NO live cards. oops. After the tourney, I realize that 99 had already limped, and I shoved over him, but I didn't see this b/c I was playing 2 tables. Guess I have some work to do there...

Tourney 3 - haven't won a hand yet... finally, JJ... but the player right before you minraises. His stats so far - 38/0. Terrific. This practically screams "I've got a big hand". How big? Do I really fold JJ? He's a -16% player on sharkscope - could this be AT? Sure it could. Crap. I reraise, he shoves over. Double crap. I make the call - expecting QQ/KK/AA, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see AK. I'm even more surprised to not see an ace or king on the flop. That means I'm a 3-1 favorite with 2 cards to come...and the turn pairs his ace and I'm out in 8th place.

Should I just have folded? My reads were conflicting, and his real hand ended up as a race. Should I really just fold and live to fight another day? A -16% bad player could have TT/99 there as well as what he had. I hate Jacks.

Tourney 4 - bubble lasts about 6 hours - I've got big stack and start to bully but people start calling/shoving. I slow down until I hit some hands. Headsup is bizarre - dude "slowplays" every top pair so I can't get a read on him, he finally makes the critical error of slowplaying AK with an ace on the flop all the way to the river, I hit runner-runner straight, shove, and he calls. That's bad poker, people.

4 tourneys, net profit - $1. 3 losses and one $45 win. I will now immerse my head in boiling cooking oil.

vacation ends, irritates

I get into 2 $10 9 mans in tonight (multitabling) - both irritate me in different ways.

The first I get zero playable hands and the blinds eat me up. I make my first all-in stand with 8 BB and the powerhouse QT - I get called in the blind by AQ. Bye-bye.

The second tourney goes much like the first, but I actually get a monster JJ to shove over someone's raise. They call with AJ and I've got to fade the Ace, but I do and double up. We get to the bubble- the big stack is the worst big stack bubble guy ever, puts no pressure on anyone, so I've got a chance to do some damage. I start off in distant fourth, but crawl up to second and it looks like the bad player is going to blind himself out. Still, I hit KQs under the gun and shove (ICM says this is a go), and of course the big stack ends up with a callable TT. We're racing, but he hits a ten on the turn and river for quads and a big "F-You" to my chance at the money. Donk (and I do mean donk, over $12,000 lost at FullTilt) who was about to be blinded out, you're friggin welcome.

December stats still strong despite the losses.

Back to real work tomorrow, where I expect everyone running around like chicken little, trying to get this system replacement project done for the first week of 2009. Since we have yet to actually see this new system running in our building, my hopes are low.

Friday night.

The original home game fired up Friday night with a nice turnout - 9 people for a full table. It was very nice to have our friend Freddie there, feeling strong despite his second chemo treatment, and mixing it up.

The poker itself on Friday is secondary to socializing and having some cocktails, so I'm usually not on my A game. Nobody is there to make money or embarrass anyone. If someone is betting into me when I have the nuts or I suck out on the river, I'll often just call the bet. (unless it's Tony, the other "serious" player - I believe it's understood that we can bang on each other in this game).

This Friday, I put a little scare into JJ - one of the tightest players at the table. He rarely "represents" a hand - if he's involved, he's got something or a strong draw to something. In this hand, I limped on the button with A2o. The flop came all diamonds with an Ace. JJ bet and I raised, representing the made flush. He called me a few names (something he does anyway), and made it clear that he had a flush but not a high one. In fact, he said "there are 4 diamonds higher than mine, crap". Sounds like 8d9d...

He debated on whether to call, and finally, with a little help from someone else at the table who wasn't in the hand (usually a no-no, but semi-tolerated in this game), he called.

The turn blanked, he checked and I fired out the max $2 bet. He called me some other names and called again.

The river was nothing interesting. He checked and I bet one more time. He called and I said "just trying to put a scare into you, pair of Aces". He looked at me cockeyed and dragged a decent pot.

This last bet was a mistake on my part - of course - he had already decided to check/call his middle flush down, and I knew this. I was throwing good money after bad. In fact, I could have probably minimized the damage with a $1 bet on the turn instead of the max bet. I think my raise had already convinced him I had the higher flush, so he wasn't going to raise me. A turn check might have woke him up, though.

I won back this pot and more with a fantastic dealt hand of 8 KKK A in "Kings and Little People", which gave me a royal flush in this goofy game. We also played a game for the first time called "Cryogenic Freeze", a 7 card game that you could "freeze" at any time, and make your last card wild. I ended up with a pair of sevens and three Aces, with the Aces wild, and my 5 sevens took another nice pot.

We play a fair amount of Omaha in this Friday game - a game I'm not very good at, and also nearly impossible to play as a limit game, in my opinion. Hitting a set or top two pair in this game has almost no value - as everyone is still drawing to straights and flushes, and our $1/$2 limit makes it impossible to push anyone out of the pot or deny them odds to draw. If I hit a medium strength hand like 2 pair or a set, I usually either fire out a bet if I'm early, or even check/call to keep the pot size manageable. If I'm late, I'll call a bet or check behind, but rarely raise it up - since everyone is going to call anyway. The goal is to boat up and bury the straights and flushes.

I ended up +$8.50 on the night - very nice after going down about $20 early. As I mentioned, the company was more important than the cards, though.

Thursday Night Blah

Not much fun to report in the Thursday game - I left down $67. Cards were bad for the most part - the few large hands I had either won small pots or lost big ones.

I made a few moves early that I liked. I raised on the button with KJ, got a call from the blind. The flop was a clean whiff - A Q x, but the blind lead out. I raised thinking he didn't have an ace and got a fold.

Later I limped on the button with J8s, a garbage hand for sure, but it worked out ok. The big blind raised it up, but I decided to defend with better position. The flop was another swing and miss, but we got to see a free turn card. The turn looked innocuous enough, I fired out a bet but got a call. The river was a T, which at first didn't look like it helped, but thankfully I took another look at the board, which featured a 9 and a 7 as well. I hit a gutshot! I bet out a small amount for value, but the blind folded, telling me later he had nothing to call me with.

Early, I 3 bet Tony's nephew, Nathaniel, with AK, then a newer player that I didn't know much about 4 bet us both. Nathaniel agonized for a big and folded. I should have folded as well, but I thought he could have KK or QQ and hitting either of my cards would win a nice pot. Add in to this that he had only doubled the bet - from a known good player, this would make me nervous, but from this particular player I felt even more confident that he didn't have Aces. Some of his earlier bets were oddly small - and I felt like they telegraphed the strength of his hand. I called the extra $10, but then folded right away with an all-baby flop and a big bet from him. We never knew exactly what he had. We did find out what Nathaniel had - he had folded 88 and would have won a giant pot with a 883 board! Folding quads got him steaming just a bit.

I raised over some limpers with QQ, then Tony, a shortstack, shoved over me - I had over 2-1 odds to call - he had AK and got rewarded by an Ace on the river. Another big pot there.

The next hand I played, with me as the shortstack, I raised all-in over limpers again, with KJ - Matt P called me with AQ. Saw a Queen in the window, then a King to put in front, then another Queen on the turn to complete the rollercoaster loss. I bought back in, with a mild steam coming out of my ears.

That buy in featured garbage cards - mostly. I tried a move or two to steal some blinds - each time I was either defended with a call or reraise. No repsect for the tight player! For the most part, I shut it down. I lost another medium pot with top pair to a guy with trips. On this hand, the most obvious read was that he had second pair and hit trips on the turn - he minraised me on that card - but I felt like I had been pushed off of several hands on the night and needed to show I couldn't be pushed off every hand, especially top pair. When the river hit, I defensively bet $5 into a $15 pot to keep my loss down. This bet actually worked in another way - the player with trips thought it was a value bet, saying "don't tell me you've got a boat", and "paid off" his trips with the best hand. I explained - "Nope, I was pretty sure you had trips, but I wanted to control the size of the pot. I also wanted to make sure I saw what you had". I think maybe I impressed the table with this logic. If I check there, he gets to bet any amount, and I pretty much have to fold, learning nothing, and getting pushed off another hand.

I lost another top pair hand with KQ, out of position, on a four flush board. It was a backward night - the wrong cards in the wrong positions, second best hands at the wrong time, people with cards when I tried to enter the pot without them. I made a couple mistakes, as always, but my losses were on the luck side than the bad play side, at least I think so.

One of these days, I'll crack this game. Most of my posted wins in this game have been fueled by lucky breaks - most of my losses (not last night) have been flameouts with unfoldable, second best hands (boat vs. quads, trips with second best kicker). Sooner or later, I will play well and win money because of it.

vacation continues

More poker to come tonight, but I really got to pound the tables today. Results so far:

$5 Matrix tourney. Took one 1st place finish, and 4th overall.

Double-tabled 2 $10 9-mans - bombout in one (70-30 when all the money went in), third place in the other.

Again, Double-tabled 2 $10 9-mans - bombout in one, (down 62-37 preflop with KQ vs. AJ, but hit a pair on the flop to put me 73-27, but villain hit runner-runner to flush out), second place in the other.

Finally, one more $5 matrix - this one I finished first overall, and monied in all 4 tournies. Very nice. See pic for final results window from Full Tilt.

Multitabling really gives you, as Seinfeld once said "more everything". When the cards aren't coming, they're not coming faster. The one thing I like about multitabling is that, as long as there's another tourney going on, you can't sit and stew about a bad beat. I got my aces cracked by a sucker calling with A7o today - it was a matrix tourney and I witnessed him time and time again take any ace way too far - I knew he had some Ace-rag in his hand when he raised - I got him all in and the flop came all crap... that happened to connect with his 7 for a straight. Ow. Anyway, no time to fret - 3 more tourneys were still going...

Evening session - 3 $10s - bombed way out of the first one, dude limped in with AA, I raised him with AQ, he called, flop came Queen high. Oops... Second one, got low and lost a race... third one, took home first prize. Then I was about to go to sleep and looked up Tony - he was on a $5 matrix tourney, and it was still registering! I hopped on.... and took first place on that one too, for another $18.90 victory. I took first or second place in all 4 tourneys in that one. (I must say, my cards were amazing in this matrix tourney, several big pocket pairs, 2 sets, lots of top pairs. Sometimes you're good, sometimes lucky). Another great day overall, $37 bucks won in 19 low-buy in tourneys (counting the matrix tourneys as 4), for a 40% ROI on the day.

the checkraise - always a favorite.

Frustrating start to this tourney - no playable hands, etc. etc. My stats were like 8/4/0 when I got K A in the small blind. I was hoping to overshove a raise or a couple limpers, but everything folded to me. How can I make money on this hand?

Full Tilt Poker, $10 + $1 NL Hold'em Sit n' Go, 40/80 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

Hero (SB): 1,125
BB: 1,770

Pre-Flop: (120) K A dealt to Hero (SB)
5 folds, Hero raises to 200, BB calls 120

A 2.5x raise, pretty standard for this level. I don't like to limp with good hands - every time I do, I seem to let 24o play and hit trips or two pair or something. Fortunately, I get a call, so a) he's got something not terrible, and/or b) puts me on a steal.

Flop: (400) 3 A 8 (2 Players)
I hit my Ace. Only one draw. Ok, he's got something he likes, let's hope it's an ace and get a bet out of him with a check.

Hero checks
BB bets 240, Hero raises to 800, I get my bet, and checkraise him.
BB raises to 1,360, He reraises. Oh crap. Watch he's got AA or he hit two pair. Well, I'm in too deep to fold now.

Hero calls 125 and is All-In

BB showed 5 A Nice - I guess he thought I was stealing and put his money in with a kicker problem. Now I just have to avoid a 5...

Turn: (2,250) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In) ... and a spade. Lord, no, not this way...
River: (2,250) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In) ... whew. For a second I thought the 7 would become some goofy chopped pot, but my K kicker plays of course.

Results: 2,250 Pot
Hero showed K A (two pair, Aces and Sevens) and WON 2,250 (+1,125 NET)
BB showed 5 A (two pair, Aces and Sevens) and LOST (-1,125 NET)

This hand brought me from last place to 3rd, which I was able to turn into a 2nd place finish when all was said and done. I never used to checkraise with top pair - always saved it for big hands like sets and such - but they work just as well with smaller hands as long as you think you're ahead.

the hazards of multitabling

Yesterday afternoon I was playing in one of the Full Tilt matrix tourneys, using the Full Tilt Shortcuts software from Windy Hill. This software lets you set up hotkey shortcuts for all of the common actions, and automatically moves your mouse focus to the table that next requires attention.

It does a good job of highlighting the active table with an impossible-to-miss red border, but yesterday I missed it anyway. I saw a table with AKo in early position, and hit the "B" key to open the betting. Small problem, though- that wasn't the active table.

The active table had 4 limpers and I had just raised it up to 7x BB with... 69 offsuit. D'oh!

Everyone folded except for one limper. The flop came J J 9. I hit! I decided that if the limper had a J, well, good for him. I shoved the rest of my chips in and got a fold.

That hand was lucky, but not the real reason that I'm lucky today. I went downstairs this morning and found this little note from my 9 year old - totally unsolicited. Not bad for a degenerate gambler in training.

interesting start to November...

Got caught up on some work in the morning, then fired up a $5 matrix tourney on Full Tilt at 1pm. Things started off goofy, as is the norm recently - couldn't decide whether top pair was good when I had to call a pot size bet - pocket pairs missing sets every time, etc.

Then, to test my resolve further, my internet connection went out. I tried rebooting my wireless router and my DSL modem, but it wouldn't come back. I tried rebooting my PC (which takes 4-5 minutes), no dice. My kids computers didn't have internet either (they connected to my wireless router). Tilt was very high.

So, I went downstairs to watch the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet cheating piece on 60 minutes, which I had Tivoed. Then, I came upstairs to start fiddling with the internet again. I was able to temporarily get it working by plugging my PC directly into my cable modem, bypassing my router.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see if the Full Tilt tourney was still going on. It was just ending. My results while not present - 3rd place, 3rd place, 3rd place, and 5th place. I won $5.40 on a $5.50 investment, folding my way into the money in 3 cases. Odd.

So I'm down .10 on the month up to that point.

Matrix tourney #2 - some good results - I finish 1st, 2nd, and 2nd in 3 of the 4 tourneys, and second overall. In 3 of the tourneys, I got my money in ahead and lost, so I played well.

On the day, I played 5 tourneys (2 matrix). Won a little money in each of those, won a 9 man, bubbled in another (on a suckout, getting my money in way ahead). Finally, played a $5 heads-up with Tony and won it - made two big hands early and then jabbed and parried my way to the victory there. I'm playing super small stakes on the matrix tourneys - $5, to get comfortable multitabling. My winnings today were $28.65, for a hefty 65 ROI. After my abysmal performance lately, a nice day- I'll take it.