STARTPOST TITLE: Too Aggressive? AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 11/27/2006 08:50:00 AM ----- BODY:

Most people that have played with me know that I'm an aggressive player. Depending on the day, sometimes too aggressive. One way they think they can stop me is by throwing in a big raise. If I really don't have anything or I'm weak, I'd lay it down. I've caught on to a few players who come over top of my flop bets but then lay down to my re-raise. Obviously I can't catch them every time, and occasionally I do get a call which indicates a monster. In that case I have to lay down on the turn and my re-raises no longer work. This is a great thing.... IF you catch monster hands. Why? Cause generally I'd play the nuts exactly the same way on the flop. When my opponent thinks "Here he goes again", then tries to push me out of the pot on the turn, it will be too late for him to realize that I wasn't bluffing and now I've got all his chips.

Works great ONLY if you can catch cards. Lately it seems like I can't catch those big hands which make me the big money. So does that mean I've been too aggressive? I haven't been losing all that much cause I usually pick up lots of small pots. If one of my bluffs fail I just lose the accumulation of those small gains. Nothing to show for my time, but again not a huge loss and possibly setting up my opponent for a larger hand that I can benefit from later on.

----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: CPT at Great Blue Heron AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 11/09/2006 09:09:00 PM ----- BODY:

Yesterday I played the CPT event at GBH. Kinda pissed off when the tournament started late. Guess it really didn't matter since I had committed the entire day to this event. The real poker doesn't start until the rebuy period is done. Based on that, I decided to try to double up early in either the first or second level. There were 3 levels before the break and end of rebuys.

Once I realized that you only get 1 orbit per level I decided to push my stack with the next decent hand. So with the blinds 50/100 already I pushed with ATs. Got called by AJo and ended up busting out. Not to worry... Booya gave me enough for another buy in plus an addon. Did a double rebuy and watched the guy who called me with AJ win 3 more all ins against various players at the table. Too bad I never caught any cards during the rebuy period cause it was easily an all in fest.

At the break I did my add on and sat with ~6k. 100/200 blinds. Somehow I hang on until the next break with about 8k, blinds were at 400/800. I pushed with AcTc and get called by a short stack of about 4k. He's got Ah9h. What did he flop? The nut flush!!! I manage to hang around until the blinds are 500/1k and this time push with AJs. Got called by another short stack whose got K8. He flopped a K then turn and river were both 8s making his full house and sending me home. There were less than 4 tables at that point so I guess I finished around 35th. Surprising finish considering I never ever was above the avg.

Booya got some good publicity out of me. Every table I got moved to I said I won a seat for $5. The people who were interested asked for more details so I handed them a booya flyer. Guess I have to win another seat if I plan on playing in another CPT event.

----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: CPT Event Today! AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 11/08/2006 07:31:00 AM ----- BODY:

I'm playing in the CPT event in Port Perry today. Unfortunately it's a rebuy NLHE event which means there will be some erratic playing during the rebuy period. I generally stay away from rebuy tournaments, but it looks like all CPT events at Great Blue Heron are rebuys. I do have enough of a bankroll to rebuy 3 times, so perhaps I'll take some early chances and hope that I win those races. If I can catch a couple maniacs early on I should be in good shape.

The other thing I'm worried about are the blind levels. 20 min blinds in a live tourny is a crapshoot. We all know that longer blind levels give the advantage to the better players. And I have done well with those types of blind structures, but in 20 min we'd be lucky to get in 2 orbits per level. They should call this Turbo CPT.

And finally.... What's up with the start time? 9am? Don't they know by nature poker players are night owls? There better be some good coffee there. Wish me luck!

----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: Back from my Extended Poker Break! AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 10/25/2006 11:06:00 PM ----- BODY:

I've been busy and haven't played much poker of the past 2 months. As we all know online poker has changed a great deal with the new laws in the USA. I'm not going to get into that debate as I know lots of people have blogged it over and over. I'm just happy I'm not living in the USA.

So my return started with the PSO league. I missed most of the events and there is a bounty on me every event so it's hard to judge where my game is at after a long break. I do admit I'm a little rusty and have bombed out of the PSO league events pretty early, but I wouldn't say it's all the fault of my poor play. I did get out drawn a few times.

As for my cash game I started at UB playing 100NL. My first 2 sessions there I caught myself being too loose aggressive resulting in a small loss each time. I think UB will ultimately be my poker home since I have rakeback there. I'll try Party in a couple weeks considering they gave me cash value for my Monster Freeroll tickets.

actyper pointed me to Booya Poker just this week. I tried to get into the Poker Night in Canada league last night but missed it by 1 min as I was waiting for my confirmation email when I created the account. Since I missed the tourny I decided to play some 100NL and ended up making some change for the night. Tonight I entered the CPT satellite event for $5+.5 and ended up winning a seat into a CPT event. Booya poker looks like they are just starting up and have some great tournaments coming up for other CPT events and NHL hockey tickets.

Watch out! Looks like I'm officially BACK!

----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:  Anonymous DATE: October 26, 2006 at 4:24:00 PM EDT BODY: Congrats D!!!

You better take down the CPT event! I need to make my $5 buy in back. :) ----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: Vegas Trip Report AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 8/01/2006 11:19:00 PM ----- BODY:

Vegas was HOT HOT HOT! Both the weather and my poker play. I had a total of 5 poker sessions, 4 times at The Wynn and just once at The Paris.

Session 1:
Played with actyper the first night. Managed to build be up for the first 3 hours then I re-raise a guy when I'm holding JJ all low cards on the flop. He puts me all in and I'm pretty much committed now so I call another ~$120 into a $450 pot. He did hit his set and that had me down to the felt. I re-buy and made back a little before the night was over. Not a way I'd wanted to start off Vegas. At around 2am Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie) and Boston Rob (Rob & Amber from Survivor) sit at our table. Shannon played pretty tight and Rob busted out his entire $500 buyin. She's even hotter in person.

The next day actyper and I hit up the Rio to see the WSOP festivities. I got lots of free stuff. I definitely picked up more clothes than I brought. On the way back I play some single deck BJ at Imperial Palace and manage to finish slightly ahead there too.

$50 SnG - Treasure Island
This one was like a super turbo with blinds going up every 10 min. I didn't catch any cards at all and by the I did catch pocket 3s some guy pushed all in over top of me so I had to fold. He later told me he had a big pair. The next hand I played I was forced to go all in, so I did that with A3o and didn't survive that one. Finished 7th.

Session 2:
After seeing Love, which is a cool show at the Mirage, I went back to the Wynn. I don't remember many hands except the last one. I was up almost 3x my buyin making up for my first night disaster. The very last hand the BB convices me to play my hand blind, so I stradle. BB calls so I blind raise to 4xBB. He calls and flop is 7-7-9. BB checks so I bet another 4xBB blind and he folds. I flip over my blind hand 57o.

Session 3:
I spent a few hours at the Mirage with dlk9s who's covering the WSOP action for pokersourceonline.com. We played some single deck BJ and I win some more money. That makes 2 +ve BJ sessions this trip.

Later in the evening I go to The Paris to check out their games. I really don't like poker rooms right in the middle of the casino. This was one of them. I was almost felted here by losing some close hands where I was simply out kicked. In the end I managed to pull to a little above even before I called it a night. 4am. I had been averaging about 4h sleep a night.

The next morning I played $25/hand BJ 4-deck. In a couple hours I was up $400. That makes 3 BJ sessions and still way up! I did dump more than half of that back into the slots. I know.... stupid, but it was fun.

Session 4:
We had the PSO party at Hooters and I finally got to meet some people who I've been talking to online for over 2 years. Nice to put some faces to the names. After the party I head to The Wynn where I've decided is the only place I want to play. MikeJ and Kugr played at the Wynn as well but left early.

I doubled my buyin with in a couple hours. I had flopped a set and I check raised all in and was called with AK since her she hit her A on the flop. There was another girl who bluffed me big time... I really don't want to get into it, but she missed her draw and pushed all in. I just couldn't call with 2nd pair. I did finish the night with 2x my buy in. This night ended for me at 5am.

Funny thing is it ended almost like the last time. I stradled, but didn't play blind this time. BB raised so I called with 57o. Flop 2J5, BB bets, so I call. Turn is 7, BB checks so I bet about 1/2 pot. He calls. River is 5 making my full house. BB checks, so I bet pot here telling him he can't call cause the bet is too big. He thought for a long time and I actually convinced him that I was trying to buy it. He called but mucked what I believe was A9.

Session 5:
Kugr met me a The Wynn for our final poker fix before our flights. Within the first orbit I get AA. I bet $18 and get called by 3 people. Flop QT8. I bet $40 he calls. Turn A making my set but also putting a straight out there. I bet $90 and he calls. I'm thinking crap he made his straight. River is J. We both check and he shows Q9. Not sure how he makes that turn call, but that's poker. I did manage to make it back and finish even. One hand that helped was 82s when I stradled.... I figure it worked for my twice before. flop was A2x I bet pot trying to steal it since I'm heads up. He called. Turn was a spade now giving me a flush draw, so I bet half pot now, and he calls. River is a 2. Thinking he was on a missed draw I just value bet and he called. Showed AT.

While walking to catch our ride to the airport we stopped to play some BJ. Kugr played some BJ switch and I played single deck BJ. We both finished up making my BJ run 4/4 and capping a nice run in Vegas.

So only 1 real session where I lost money and what seemed like impossible to lose at BJ. Excellent outting and can't wait to go back. actyper played the WSOP ME. He's got updates on his blog. Hopefully next year will be my turn.

----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:  Curatio DATE: August 9, 2006 at 5:49:00 AM EDT BODY: Nice report, sounds like you had a great time. With all that luck, though, maybe you should have been playing in the Main Event!

Just curious, what exactly does "stradle" mean in poker? I looked it up, but didn't fully understand it. It doesn't seem to be an option that is offered in online games. ----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: Freakonomics Experiment - Part 2 AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 7/31/2006 11:44:00 PM ----- BODY:

I did the experiment that took about an hour. Played 2 games in which the odds were quite simple for these little games. For each round you beat the computer it was supposed to be worth $1. Honestly, I didn't care about the money. All I wanted was a signed book :).

In the end my score was 80 which translated into $80. A day after I started to think about the games, and there's no way I beat the computer by 80. I guess it's possible, but I wasn't really keeping track of the score as I was more focused on trying to figure out what move the computer would possibly make. Even though the odds of what card I would play should have been simple I probably over thought the whole thing. We played 300 rounds and for me to hold a 27% advantage over the computer is pretty insane. I'm good, but doubt I'm that good.

When I play poker I know exactly what my chip counts are whether in a tournament or in a cash game. I usually know where my opponents stand in terms of their chips as well. I just feel I didn't keep track of the score properly in this simple game or else I wouldn't be questioning the way it was scored. For this I'm a little disappointed in myself. I haven't read Freakonomics yet, but will hopefully get around to in this fall.

Updates on poker in Las Vegas are coming tomorrow.

----- ENDPOST STARTPOST TITLE: Freakonomics Experiment AUTHOR: Damian DATE: 7/17/2006 06:54:00 PM ----- BODY:

The authors of Freakonomics are looking for poker players for an experiment. Info Here

Since I'll be in Las Vegas anyways I decided to volunteer. They assure me that there will be no electrical shocking of any sort. Hopefully I get to the cheese at the end of the maze. I like Gouda!

To be honest I haven't even read their first book, so hopefully I at least get a copy of that for participating. They promise payment as well. I like Gouda! So if you are interested in poker player stats on decision making, keep an eye out for the sequal to Freakonomics.

----- ENDPOST