Twice beat

I am slow this week on writing anything here. I had plans to write someone about the use of the hammer in blogger events (and still may). However I noticed I have now been beat by both mookie and surflexus in announcing the WWdN: Not The this week.

Same time, same place as last week:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 18th, 8:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 24776895
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

And as usual, I will be playing the WWdN tonight and the Mookie tomorrow night.

Its "Not" time again

Once again we have our regularly scheduled WWdN: Not The tournament. The turnout was slightly better than last week and once again I have to thank all the advertising for it from the readers out there.

I have to give a big shout out to SURFLEXUS who has managed to win the Mookie back to back and has now followed up with a win here tonight. I tried my best but he cleaned up on me heads up, even though I had a 2 to 1 chip advantage when we went heads up.

Thanks to all who came out to play (or to railbird), it was fun - as usual. See you all next week at the WWdN, the Mookie and, of course, the WWdN: Not.

I got lucky tonight!

Where's your mind at? This is a blog about poker. ;-) I played in my new Wednesday standard tourny, The Mookie, and managed to hang on long enough to make it to 30th place. This is not the part where I got lucky (although it is fun). I will be there again next week.

So I decided to play one of my favorite shootouts. This plan was short circuited by the wait for another one to start. I was impatient (not a good trait playing poker), so I decided to play the turbo version of the shootout. Given the 5 minute blinds, I figure I should try to at least attempt to limp into just about any hands - I needed all the lucky flops I could get. This actually worked pretty well, but alas, not well enough. I went out around 30 something again, so this is not the part where I got lucky.

I still wanted to play something different, so I figured I would try a $20+2 single table SnG. This is above my normal SnGs where I play at the $5 or $10 games. This game seemed to be going pretty well until this hand came up:

Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t10/t20
9 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: t1400
UTG+1: t1400
MP1: t2040
MP2: t2280
MP3: t940
CO: t1580
Button: t1430
darval: t1490
BB: t940


Pre-flop: (9 players) darval is SB with Qc Qd
UTG raises to t60, 4 folds, CO calls t60 (pot was t90), Button calls t60 (pot was t150), darval raises to t190, BB calls t180 (pot was t390), 2 folds, Button calls t140 (pot was t570).

Flop: 5s 6c 4s (t690, 3 players)
darval bets t500, BB folds, Button calls t500 (pot was t1190).

Turn: 7c (t1690, 2 players)
darval is all-in t790, Button calls all-in t730.
Uncalled bets: t60 returned to darval.

River: Ac (t3150, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t3150)

Results:
Final pot: t3150
darval showed Qc Qd
Button showed 3d 3s

Well that sucked. Here I am, 12 hands in and down to t60 after a stupid all-in bet. I didn't figure the guy for a 8 or a 3 and obviously I was way wrong. I took the approach that this was just a new challenge (albeit a potentially short one) and tried to see how far I could get with my 60 chips.

Now I got lucky. And lucky and lucky again. Then when there was no luck left I started to play smarter and kept going. Once again, luck had a role, but 50 minutes later, I got this in my email:

PokerStars Tournament #24536393, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $180.00
Tournament started - 2006/05/10 - 23:21:52 (ET)

Dear darval,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $90.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Now that was a nice way to end the night. ;-)

Mookie beat me too it

I was going to post something like I did last week, with a list of tournament which I planned to play in, but Mookie beat me to it. Regardless, I plan on the playing the WWdN tonight, The Mookie tomorrow and of course the WWdN: Not The on Thursday. I will see what else fits my schedule.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 11th, 10:30PM CST
Which: Tournament: 24388333
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

See you there.

I love double shootouts!

Pokerstars has these regularly scheduled double shootout tournaments, which cost $10+1 and lead to two entries in the Sunday Million Tournament, or $215 in tournament dollars (which can be used for anything but cashing out).

I have played these before and tonight was the second time I have won it. In almost all of these games I have played tho, I have the feeling that I am dominating the other players. They can get lucky (and do) but I just feel it is an easy game. I am not complaining about it - in fact I will use it to work on my bankroll.

Tonight was interesting. I had just signed up when I called an neighbor and asked him about something for tomorrow. He invited me and the wife over for drinks, etc. I said I would check and wasn't sure. Then I remembered the tournament and, of course, the unregister time had just past. So I told my wife we could head over as soon as I blew through this tournament. I decided to play loose and agressive and I assumed I would not be long for this game.

I played at least 70% of the hands, in a lot of cases with any two cards. My extreme agression got me a lot of pots and the few times I was called I managed to suckout with some really bad cards. This made for a lot of pissed off players - especially the ones who lost to this kind of play. You can't imagine the things they were calling me. ;-) Needless to say I wiped out the last person in the first match with another suckout. That person was nice enough to tell me that I would never get anywhere playing that way and I needed to learn to play better. I thanked them.

Of course I now had a 40 minute wait til all the other tables finished - apparently when you don't play crazy like, the game actually takes longer to finish.

By the time we started again, I had already decided to not go visit, so the play on my part was much more normal. I still had the same feeling that if it wasn't for their luck I would clean up. When we got down to 4 players, I had 8000 in chips and I don't think anyone had more than 1800. We moved around a little when we got down to 3 players and with one guy severly short stacked, it was pretty quick until we got rid of him and ended the game.

I cashed my tournament entry in for some more tournament cash, but I do like those shootouts. I highly recommend them to others who play in the blogger tournaments - if you can play well in those, you will love these.

Definitely more of these on my agenda.

SoxLover Rulez

We just finished this week's WWdN:Not tournament and congratulations has to go to SoxLover. Althought he played a really solid game, suckouts and bad beats almost changed the outcome. In the end, consistent good play (and nice deck with good cards) allowed him to finish in a dominating position.

We had a good turnout tonight (compared to a couple weeks ago) but didn't quite make the attendance from last week. Thanks to mookie99, 23skidoo, CarmenSinCity, SirFWALGMan, bdidde, smokkee, yosoyveneno, and DuggleBogey for playing and making the game a fun one. Special thanks to L0K1 for setting it up for us.

For those who's blog didn't get linked above (or I got them wrong), let me know in a comment and I will correct it.

WWdN: Not The tonight

After last weeks huge (well, it was relatively huge) turnout, don't forgot to come by tonight and see if we can set a new record.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, May 4th, 8:30 PM PT
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

My poker week

This week is shaping up to be a regular tournament type week. We have the regular Tuesday Night WWdN Tourny:

What: WWdN: IlliniFan Invitational
Where: PokerStars.
When: Tuesday, May 2th, 8:30 PM ET
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

I plan on following this on Wednesday with Mookie's:









And then on Thursday, I haven't decided whether I want to register and then show up late for this (it starts a little early for those of us on the west coast and have to work):










But I will certainly make it for this west coast friendly (we really need a cool graphic):

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, May 4th, 8:30 PM PT
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Please spread the word and see if we can get maximum attendance at all of these events.

Thinking about the stool

I have been thinking a bit lately about my 3 legged stool. I was trying to understand why I don't tend to see myself sucked out upon as often as some people. I think it comes down to how much you are trying to maximize your profit vs. how much variation you are willing to withstand.

I tend to be quite aggressive when I get starting cards. In many cases I will continue to push hard with my bets forcing the other player out of the hand. The advantage of this two-fold:

• Much less suck-outs
• Reveal very little of your cards

The disadvantage of this is you aren't really maximizing your profit.

Or are you? If you mix in a fair amount of bluffing in the above scenerio and develop a reputation as a tight, aggressive player, you can make profit in places that normally weren't possible.

Fundementally this is based on the idea that it takes better cards to call aggression than it does to bet/raise with them. By seldom revealing your cards, and always being aggressive with them, it takes really good cards for your opponent to call.

I think what I like best is even when they know you are doing it, it is still a hard call to make. Of course sometimes they make it and you actually have the cards you are representing. You can milk that play for the rest of the time you are at that table after that. ;-)

Of course you also have to mix your play up a little - it is really easy to stop being aggressive when you aren't really getting the cards - you just back off a little. If you are getting the cards, you have no reason to not continue the aggressive play.

The caveat here is you have to play with players who will actually recognise that you might have a hand - playing this way in a school of fish might not work as well. I suggest you try it when playing with bloggers - especially if you have the Hammer. ;-)

Obviously the devil is in the details and how much and when you do this makes a big difference. I adjust to the table I am playing with, the day of the week and lastly the phase of the moon. It appears to work fairly well for me.

Tell me what you think?

WWdN: Not The lives!

Thanks to Biggestron, Surflexus and Mookie, we managed to get a record 360% attendance at tonights WWdN: Not The tournament. We even managed to get our favorite geek and namesake to show up and enjoy the game with us. I also want to thank Jay (L0K1) who I keep asking to set these things up for us.

The event was attended by a regular whos-who of the blogger community.

In the style of many blogger tournaments, the Hammer was spotted on many occasions. This particular occasion was just a little stressful to me.

darval: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to darval [2h 7d]
Gilain: raises 150 to 200
darval: raises 300 to 500
Gilain: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Th Kc 8c]
darval: bets 500
Gilain: calls 500
*** TURN *** [Th Kc 8c] [9s]
darval: bets 2260 and is all-in

Really long delay - sweat drips onto my eyes and I can't see.

Gilain: folds
darval collected 2025 from pot
darval: shows [2h 7d] (high card King)
Gilain said, "damn it!"
Garthmeister said, "HAMMER!"
Quatloos said, "ya!"
darval said, "now that is way way too stressful.."

After what seemed like an awful long game - personally I think these bloggers are wimpier than they claim to be - we finally managed to get past the bubble. I would like to thank all those who arranged for me to win the tournament in appreciation.

Stay tuned for the same thing, same time next week. Thanks once again for playing.

The Big O and the WWdN: Not The

Last night I decided to check out the "The Big O" tournament on Pokerstars. I had heard about it before but hadn't played since I thought it was a private tournament. I think we had about 34 players with a large portion of familiar faces(?) from the regular WWdN and other WPBT tournaments. The game was a lot of fun and I managed to place 7th, final table, but out of the money. I plan to make it a regular part of my poker schedule.

I was thinking about playing in the next WPBT event (which is Stud) on Pokerstars this Sunday but my wife figures I should take her out to dinner instead (it is her birthday after all). I may have to skip this one for the sake of domestic bliss.

Lastly a reminder. There are only two of us signed up for the WWdN: Not The at this point. Time to go get yourself signed up if you are interested:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 27th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23734651
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

One more time

I admit it, we are beggars for punishment. We are going to try one more time for a Thursday night, left coast friendly, WWdN wannabe tournament. Hopefully with the support of some more bloggers we can break our all-time high attendance record of 5 players.

What: WWdN: Not the
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 27th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23734651
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Spread the word, pimp it up.

NOT WWDN and DADI 5

Time sure seems to fly when you don't pay attention and all of a sudden it has been 5 days since I wrote here. Personally I blame it on my new car which has been keeping me away from my computer. Or perhaps it was trying to get my backups off a crashed linux server which took all my time. Or it could have been my sunday home game with Jay (L0K1 on PS) and Sean. Man, this HAS been a busy couple of days.. ;-)

Anyway, we had high hopes for our WWdN: Not, or NOT WWdN, especially after we had mention last week by Wil in his post at Cardsquad. Unfortunately we had no-one show up - literally no-one. I mean we were willing to run with 5 people, two weeks in a row. Anyway, it is canceled for now (and probably forever).

On a much more upbeat note, the DADI 5: WSOP Satellite was last night and it appeared to have all the regular bloggers from the normal Tuesday WWdN tournies. I went into it with the goal of actually getting some points for the WPBT Player of the Year leaderboard. Not that I play that many of those tournies either, but it was a combination of that, and the WWdN that made me do it.

I knew I was in for an interesting (and I feared quick) night when I saw my starting table. I started on Table 2 with: StatikKling, L0K1, IlliniFan, Wil Wheaton, Up4Poker and Gilain. I figured it might be one of those TV nights where the hands all look like they were made for television.

Early on (4th hand), I had some interesting hands, with Wil and I running into each other heads up. The first one, I had KdJd and the flop came 4c Qd 8d. Wil apparently had AQ and bet out 300. I raised 500 more on a semi bluff and after thinking about it for a while, Wil says:

Wil Wheaton said, "kings?"
Wil Wheaton said, "i can't believe i'm folding AQ"
Wil Wheaton said, "long levels. big stacks. sigh."
Wil Wheaton: folds 

It wasn't much later when I ended up in a 3 way (With Wil and Gilain), preflop with AKs. We take it up to T120 preflop and the flop gives me 4 to the nut flush again and I semi-bluff enough to scare them away. So far the semi-bluff with flush draws seems to work well. At this point, we are a half hour in and I am at T4250 - all is good in the world.

About 7 hands later, I end up with a AKs, flop TPTK and doubleas raises my T300 bet to 1200. I don't believe him and come over the top pushing all-in. He folds and admits:

doubleas said, "damn..hammer"

At this point the cards have been too good to be true and that has to change. I am at T5945 and in good shape.

My cards continue to be on fire and shortly before the break I bust out zagga with AA over KK which held up. This puts me just before the 1st break with just over 10k in chips.


Of course my hot run of cards can only last so long and as the cards turn cold, my stack starts to dwindle. Before it gets too fara down, I end up in another heads-up, pre-flop with Wil. I have KQs and raise to 3BB. Wil re-raises it 6BB more and I call (bad call in hindsight, but I was still thinking I was on hot cards). The flop misses me completely but I continuation bet anyway for another 500. Wil thinks and curses and lets it go. That turns out to be one of the last good hands of the game (for me).

Wil ends up going all-in a few hands later with 77 and get dominated by IlliniFan who has QQ. The QQ turns into a full house and Wil was finished.

The slide continues with me hanging on by the skin of my teeth. Just before the 3rd break, I made the mistake of going all-in (I mean I was running out of chips) with my KQo. I was up against wwonka who had pocket Aces (of course). I had slightly more chips than him, so when the flop gave me a pair of Kings and the turn gave me a set, I felt sorry for him since he did have the better hand. Welcome to poker I guess.

That suckout managed to catapult me into a chip stack where I could coast to the final table. My cards were never again as hot as they were during the 1st hour and a bit. I managed to squeak through to a 7th place finish and had a great time doing it.

Hammer time at the WWdN

I played in the WWdN last night and did my normal early exit. I made it to about 65th or so out of 98 and the only interesting plays that I can recall at this point were a couple of nice hammer plays.

PokerStars Game #4669835096: Tournament #22928623, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2006/04/18 - 20:39:05 (ET)
Table '22928623 7' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: 23skidoo (1850 in chips)
Seat 2: Astin (1430 in chips)
Seat 3: kaellinn18 (2135 in chips)
Seat 4: memento2199 (1460 in chips)
Seat 5: malice51 (1440 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: darval (1105 in chips)
Seat 8: GCox25 (1440 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: MikeRH (1100 in chips)
kaellinn18: posts small blind 10
memento2199: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to darval [2h 7c]
malice51: folds
darval: raises 60 to 80
GCox25: folds
MikeRH: folds
23skidoo: folds
Astin: calls 80
kaellinn18: folds
memento2199: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ts Td]
darval: bets 200
Astin: folds
darval collected 190 from pot
darval: shows [2h 7c] (a pair of Tens)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 190 | Rake 0
Board [Qd Ts Td]
Seat 1: 23skidoo folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Astin (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: kaellinn18 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: memento2199 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: malice51 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: darval collected (190)
Seat 8: GCox25 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: MikeRH folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The ongoing discussion at the table was I should have slow played it more and made more money. I was not that confident, but when the opportunity presented itself, I tried again:

PokerStars Game #4669946527: Tournament #22928623, $10+$1 Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/04/18 - 20:48:54 (ET)
Table '22928623 7' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: 23skidoo (1920 in chips)
Seat 2: Astin (1240 in chips)
Seat 3: kaellinn18 (2270 in chips)
Seat 4: memento2199 (1230 in chips)
Seat 5: malice51 (1380 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: darval (1345 in chips)
Seat 8: GCox25 (1560 in chips)
Seat 9: MikeRH (1015 in chips)
23skidoo: posts small blind 15
Astin: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to darval [7s 2c]
kaellinn18: folds
memento2199: calls 30
malice51: folds
darval: raises 30 to 60
GCox25: folds
MikeRH: folds
23skidoo: calls 45
Astin: folds
memento2199: calls 30
*** FLOP *** [Tc 6s 3c]
23skidoo: bets 120
memento2199: folds
darval: raises 180 to 300
23skidoo: calls 180
*** TURN *** [Tc 6s 3c] [Qd]
23skidoo: bets 210
darval: raises 775 to 985 and is all-in
23skidoo: folds
malice51 has returned
darval collected 1230 from pot
darval: shows [7s 2c] (high card Queen)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1230 | Rake 0
Board [Tc 6s 3c Qd]
Seat 1: 23skidoo (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 2: Astin (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: kaellinn18 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: memento2199 folded on the Flop
Seat 5: malice51 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: darval collected (1230)
Seat 8: GCox25 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: MikeRH (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

That one was fun, but it was way too stressful as 23skidoo took a long time to think about it before folding.

Our WWdN: Not tournament actually got mention by Wil in his post at Cardsquad, so we set it up early to see if we could get more registrations.

What: NOT WWdN
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 20th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23351606
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Once again, feel free to spread the word. Note that the name changed slighly to match what Wil called it in his post.

Its all over but the crying..

The second WWnD: Not tournament is over and it lasted about 54 minutes. That's not a bad time considering we only had 5 players again.

L0K1 who has contributed enough to pokerstars over the last few years that they let create tournaments was there (Thanks again Jay)
PhilLogan who was there last week and wanted to duplicate his win again.
Me (darval) who did a real lousy job of advertising.
KtKatrina who was new this time and
Sowbug. I should have asked the new players where they heard about it.

I suspect I can convince L0K1 one more time to do this next week. If we keep getting 5 players, we can decide whether we want to keep doing it or not.

Oh yeah, I won! ;-) It was a great game but I have to say that I was just plain getting the cards. I don't normally do that well.

Just a reminder

For those left coast WWdN fans who have missed the weekly tournament designed for our timezone, this is a reminder for the WWdN: Not! tournament:

What: WWdN: Not!
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 13th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23026502
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Feel free to spread the word!

Unfortunately we all think we have been there..

I'm not going to call it a downword spiral. Yet.
But I'm in the midst of my worst run thus far.

With these words, Iggy is expressing something we all fear, and every time it happens, it seems worse than the last. Sometimes it even is worse than the last. The problem with random cycles, and most up and down cycles are just part of random variation, is they come in the small and big varieties. And as we saw with Hurricaine Katrina last year, the down cycles can be a real bitch.

Hang in there Iggy, take a little break, recall why you love the game so much, and come back stronger and better than ever.

And on a more positive note: Thanks for the pimp Iggy.. Appreciated. ;-)

WWdN: Not!

Over the last couple weeks, some of us left coasters have mourned the apparently loss of our Thursday night West coast WWdN tournament. Last night we tried to do something about it.

We created the WWdN: Not! tournament. It was scheduled at the same time as Wil's tournament used to be, same password and all. Unfortunately we waited til really late before creating it - in case Wil created one, and therefor probably missed a few people who checked in looking for it.

Congrats go to Phil Logan for besting a difficult field of 5 to win the inaugural WWdN: Not! tournament.

The plan for next week is to do the same thing if we don't see an official tournament created by Wil.

If Wil has any problem with this, we will obviously change it and keep everyone up to date on the new plans.

Its Hammer Time!

This was my best hand of the game:

PokerStars Game #4512870748: Tournament #21868191, Hold'em No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2006/04/03 - 21:42:28 (ET)
Table '21868191 3' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: misst74 (6890 in chips)
Seat 2: ArtofSuckout (4640 in chips)
Seat 3: FFLPlague (7900 in chips)
Seat 4: darval (3050 in chips)
Seat 5: moosebms (4035 in chips)
Seat 6: GoIrish89 (4360 in chips)
Seat 7: DrPauly (4675 in chips)
Seat 8: FatTabbyMama (4980 in chips)
Seat 9: TonySopran0 (4440 in chips)
GoIrish89: posts small blind 15
DrPauly: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to darval [7s 2h]
FatTabbyMama: folds
TonySopran0: folds
misst74: folds
ArtofSuckout: folds
FFLPlague: folds
darval: calls 30
moosebms said, "i catch them now. go dead later im sure...."
moosebms: folds
GoIrish89: calls 15
DrPauly: checks
*** FLOP *** [2c 9c 2d]
GoIrish89: checks
DrPauly: checks
darval: bets 30
GoIrish89: raises 60 to 90
DrPauly said, "ucla is killing me"
DrPauly: folds
darval: raises 210 to 300
moosebms said, "im playing too many hands to begin with, lol"
GoIrish89: calls 210
*** TURN *** [2c 9c 2d] [Jh]
GoIrish89: checks
darval: bets 300
GoIrish89: calls 300
*** RIVER *** [2c 9c 2d Jh] [6d]
GoIrish89: checks
darval: bets 600
GoIrish89: calls 600
*** SHOW DOWN ***
darval: shows [7s 2h] (three of a kind, Deuces)
GoIrish89: mucks hand
darval collected 2490 from pot
FFLPlague said, "HAMMER"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2490 | Rake 0
Board [2c 9c 2d Jh 6d]
Seat 1: misst74 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: ArtofSuckout folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: FFLPlague folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: darval showed [7s 2h] and won (2490) with three of a kind, Deuces
Seat 5: moosebms (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: GoIrish89 (small blind) mucked [9s As]
Seat 7: DrPauly (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: FatTabbyMama folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: TonySopran0 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

I finished 69th of 93, after doubling up 3 different people including Dr. Pauly. At that point there was no money left to pass around. ;-)

Back to Poker

After spending way too many days in Oblivion, I decided on Saturday to actually try my hand at some poker. Pokerstars has these double shootouts for seats to their $1,000,000 Sunday tournament which I have played before.

The trick to the double shootout is you play at two tables. There are 64 players, basically 8 tables of 8 players each - I am sure there are other formats (9 tables of 9 players, etc..) You play your table until you are the winner and then each winner moves on to the final table.

In this particular game, it cost $10+1 to play and everyone on the final table received $35, except the top two positions won a seat at the big game (worth $200+15).

I have played this about 5 times now with 2 early finishes, 2 bubble finishes (2nd place on the first round table) and now 1 win! Yeah!

I looked at playing the tournament on Sunday (always neat to play in a tournament with $1,000,000 in prizes - like I do it all the time), but decided my bankroll needed the money more than I needed to play in the big tournament. I can afford many more tries and perhaps one of these times I will actually play in the big game if I win.

So on that high note, I went off to play a semi-regular home game which got scheduled at the last minute for Saturday night. We started off with a S&G format for $20 each. There were only 5 of us to start with, so we made the prizes a 60/40 split for 1st and 2nd. I managed to become the first person out and played dealer for the rest of that tournament.

I should have realised that this was a sign of things to come, but when we started our cash game, I was off to a great start helping our host rebuy on two occasions. I don't know what happened after that but I managed to get into a few too many situations where the cards turned against me. My friend Jay (L0K1 of Pokerstars and WWdN fame) managed to suck out on an all-in which doubled him up and Dave (the infamous Quatloos) seemed to take his share of lucky cards (as usual). All in all, I ended up down $100 bucks for the night - it has happened before - even tho last time we played I was up about $140.

Unlike the last couple times I busted tho, this time I was ok with it. Not that I want to repeat it, but I guess winning $215 earlier in the day made it all right.

On the other hand, with my bankroll at Pokerstars $215 richer, I will have to try my hand at Iggy's blogger WSOP satellite tonight:

Blogger WSOP Satellite Tourney
PokerStars - Private Tab
April 3rd - MONDAY
9PM EST
$30 +3
No Limit
Password: socoshot