Wow, a whole month?

Where has the time gone? I have been so busy lately, I havent had the chance to post any of the wonderful moments that have occured in my poker life.

Where to start?

Ok, lets start in the middle of the month. I recieved an e-mail sometime during the first of the month, or maybe even August, from some representatives at Bodog. Apparently they were visiting four cities across the country doing surveys on the average poker player, and the things they like, dislike, and would want improved, on the bodog site. I was one of the lucky 36 in the D.C. metro area to recieve this prize? I call it a prize because taking part in this survey earns you a cool one hundred dollars, that is deposited into your poker account after they have the meeting with you.

I met with two lovely young ladies, and went over various things about my personal and poker life, they enjoyed my children playing and acting like little devils during the interview, and all in all it was a nice experience.

I recieved another opportunity from Bodog for some free cash not two days after I had this interview. This one was from a representative named Scott, and the assignment consisted of answering a 20 question quiz, with the determining factor of payment being whether you could score 70% or better on the quiz.

I scored the bare minimum, 70%, but to my defense, the three questions I missed had to do with a few hands and whether I would play them in a certain position, apparently I should rethink whether I want to play these cards in the certain positions questioned, because I got all of those wrong.

Soooooo, after I recieved all the money from Bodog, I took Ricky Bobbys advice, and stuck strictly to tournaments, and sit n go's. Not risking my money in cash games online has been quite a boost to my online bank roll. I started out with 120 dollars, and I am now well over 400, even taking out a 150 withdrawal for some personal expenses, I am still doing quite well with my online management. I cant wait until I build up a live bankroll, and see how well I manage that.

Overall the month has been good.

I went to E's last night, and played in his limit HOE game. For those of you that automatically assumed HOE had something to do with E's house and a bunch of hooker(dont act innocent, you know it popped into your mind). HOE is E's version of limit Hold em, Omaha Hi/Lo, and Stud Eights or better.

Usually, I am a roller coaster in this game, and last night definitely did not dissapoint in any way. I originally bought in for 220, I caught some good hands, made some decents calls, and even made quite a few bonehead calls that saw me get extremely lucky, and either scoop, or split alot of large pots.

Ofcourse, my reckless play, even though tighter tonight than normal, saw me get mixed into alot of hands preflop. I like seeing flops in Omaha, and I like seeing the 4th street in stud. One hand in particual stands out for me.

In Omaha, I look down at a starting hand of 2/4/K/J. I call the big blind, and see a flop of 9/10/Q, giving me the current nut straight. I bet out, and get E as a caller. Turn brings another Queen, pairing the board. At this point, E bets out, and I raise him, he reraises, and I cap it. This was actually a bonehead play on my part, because of the second reraise, I knew I was probably behind to E's full house. Needless to say, the river was a meaningless 3, I bet, and E raised me. Instead of reraising, and losing more money, I called, and heard the bad news.

That would be the third time E has beaten my straight with a full house, each time on the turn.Its become kind of a running theme with him.

I eventually dwindled my stack down on some bad calls, and one or two suckouts. Ofcourse, I was following the norm, running my stack up early, and then watching my stack go down to the felt late.

I eventually busted out around midnight, following tradition pretty much. But, instead of leaving, I asked E to put me on the board. He had to decline, and instead, Trav took care of me with a loan. I proceeded to get hit in the head with the deck. I had two huge pots, that almost became split pots, but instead, on both of them, I got quite lucky and ended up scooping both. I really caught a second win after that rebuy.

I ended up the night with a 400 dollar profit. Not bad, but I also recognize that I caught alot of cards late. Im still learning the game, and I think I did have a little more discipline in the hands I played last night, but I also played poorly sometimes and saw it get payed off.

Weekend has started off good. I was going to play Pops tourny today, but I wont have time with a party I have to attend tonight, for some friends coming in to attend a huge tailgate party on Sunday at FedEx, watching the Skins play the Jags. Ill be at the game tomorrow, getting drunk beligerent, and losing my voice.

Gotta love those limit games...

Went to E's limit games last night. Finally got some stability to the game with E limiting that action to a round of Stud Hi/Lo, Omaha Hi/Lo, and limit Hold Em for the night.

I had one big plan for the night, I intended to break all of my superstitions that I have about this game, and finally leave all of my poker gains and losses solely based of the quality of my play.

The thing is, usually I have a sort of routine for when I play any cash or tournament games. I usually wear the same clothes for games, because I have a "lucky" shirt, I go to the same exact ATM because I seem to win more than I lose when I use that particular ATM, I drive a certain way to the game, its a route thats a little out of my way, but I drive it nonetheless. I wear the same hats, I wear the same shoes, instead of more comfortable ones, hell, I even wear the same pants, because every time I wear shorts, I lose...lol. See where this is going? Im waayyyyyy too superstitious.

I went against my entire routine for the night. And it seemed like it was working. I brought a sheet telling me the top starting hands for Omaha Hi/Lo, but when I brought it out, everyone kind of giggled, so I put it away, and never glanced at the rest of the night.

Yeah, that was probably a good thing. I played any, and almost all hands I got during the night, and the majority of them hit, much to the ire of a few others at the table. I was turning, or rivering almost every other hand of the night, either stealing a better low, or a better high. Scooped a few pots, but mostly split alot all night long. Now that I look back on it, it was kind of pathetic.

I say this because I intended to learn this game. I do live by the old saying that I would rather be lucky than good, because you get payed more, but I too also want to learn the nuances of the game, so I can be a better all around player. One big problem with this, is that I would do better to have someone teach me the game, instead of reading it in a book. I learn alot better doing it on the job, but when your in the middle of a game, you cant really talk about strategy, or the little points of the game, while everyone is trying to make money, or have fun.

So, all that being said, I just went with what worked. And it payed off pretty well in the begining. I doubled up my buy in off and on during the night. Never really got above that, but having double your buy in during a limit game is a pretty good place to be. I wasnt complaining, I was on the good end of the getting while it was good. I did get into a few verbal tiffs with a couple of people at the table when I dumbfounded them with some horrible suckouts, I really need to learn to just take the frustration in stride,or be a little more diplomatic in what I say, because its embarrasing the next day when I think of that dumb crap that happens.

I just need to learn this game, so I dont have problems like that at games. Though, I do think I started a trend last night, everyone kind of departed from the fundamentals of poker, and just left their pink sea life up to fate, and lady luck. And it actually got fun towards the end, everyone loosened up, and just played to play. I eventually got tired, and busted out somewhere around six in the morning, an entire six hours after I intended to stop playing, thats another point of my game I need to work on, leaving when I want to, instead of staying, and staying, and staying.

Thursday night poker....

Went to Larrys place last night to play some friendly poker. Twenty dollar buy ins, some .25/.50 no limit. The night started off quite well for me. I was on the button, limped around to me, I look down to my favorite hand, J/7 of diamonds, I call, both blinds check. Flop comes J/7/J, best flop I could hope for, a flush and straight possibility out there. It checks around to me, I check, turn brings an 8. My cousin in the small blind bets three dollars, Brian in the small blind calls, Larry calls, I call,. River brings another 8, Kenny checks in the small blind, Brian raises to four dollars, Larry folds. I tell Brian four dollars isnt good enough, and proceed to go all in for about seventeen dollars more, Kenny folds, Brian says, what the hell, I call. He says, I got a boat, and flips over 8/10 of clubs, showing his flush and straight draw, only to get runner runner boat. I flip over my J/7 and Brian is distraught. It was probably the fourth hand of the night, and Brian was already busted.

Game went on for awhile after that, Kenny busted Paul, I busted Corey, and it ended up being Kenny, Larry, and I. Got a little late, no one really got alot of action since we were three handed, and we decided to call it a game. After counting out, Kenny and I walked away with around 90% of the money on the table.