I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 4892946

Decline of Work Productivity

Should be working on 100 different things here at work, but yet I sit updating my blog....that will show those IT weenies for shutting off my access to fantasy football sites and CardPlayer.com...any dedicated employee can always find ways to wate time at work....

Anyway, a quick update on the last couple of days and the coming weeks. Played some $5/10 on UB on Monday night....played a grand total of 42 hands and left the table up $250. Was the most amazing run of cards I have ever seen....over the 42 hands, I had high pocket pairs 7 times (JJ and above), including AA and KK twice. Pocket Rockets won twice, KK lost once on a rivered flush draw, JJ got dropped on a flop of A-K-2 when my initial bet was reraised. otherwise everything won big. Also hit AcKc for a flopped A high flush that saw not one, not 2, but 3 players follow me to the river. The Hammer (27os) saw a flop from the BB to see a flop of 7-7-2 and another nice pot....58os from the small blind finds a open ended straight on the rainbow flop and complete the straight on the turn....was simply amazing...I couldn't get the money into the pot fast enough. Was raising enough pre-flop to get 3-4 callers consistantly as they figured I was just a maniac....then I'd show them AA or KK at showdown and they'd back off for a hand or two. As much as I wanted to keep playing the table, my action was starting to dry up (as well as the run of good cards), so I took my $250 and ran with it.

Played in the Bloggers tourney on Titan last night for Pauly's Birthday. Didn't get to sit with Pauly in the tourney, made it past the first break, doubling up with AA from the SB and busting one of the players that went all-in with A-9 pre-flop. Played too many flops with marginal hands and ended up going all in post-flop with QhQd on a flop of 10h-7d-6h, getting called by a big stack with As-10c and watching him catch a 10 on the turn to wipe me out...and for the record, Titan has to be one of the worst sites I've played at....action seems very slow, the little clock buzzer that goes off if you don't make your decision in 5 seconds is annoying as well, and the avatars are all pretty generic. I have about $140 in bonus to try and work off, but I may just walk away from the site and only play there when necessary (ie, blogger events). It's too bad, as they have some great promotions and such, but the software just sucks.

Not much else to say...Jen and the girls are doing fine after Danielle had a stomach virus over the weekend. Nothing worse than watching a 4 yr old get sick over and over again....heart wrenching. Thankfully no one else has shown any signs of getting the virus...so far, so good.

I'll be in NJ/NY tomorrow and Friday visiting 3 different suppliers. Will be up near Syracuse on Thursday evening...not sure if there's anyplace I can get into any trouble in that area. Will be back in CA next week...probably no time to visit Bicycle or Commerce, but who knows.

time to get some work done.

Sat night update

GOOD DAY.....Buckeye's get back on the winning track with a shaky win against San Diego State. I know the final score of 27-6 looks like they ha dthe game in hand, but considering SDS scored a TD on their first play from scrimmage, and the Bucks had a 7-6 lead at halftime, it was pretty nailbiting. The depth and size of the team took over in the second half and they pretty much ground them down to make the win look easier, but they need to get much more consistent on offense with the Big 10 schedule starting soon.

To polish off the day, just finished my 10th straight positive session back at the $5/10 tables on UB. Since my disaster meltdown on 9/2 of loosing $1000 on the $10/20 tables (Damn that is hard to type...) I've put over $800 back into my account at the $5/10 tables. And the 10 straight positive sessions is a new record for me, so I'm pretty stoked about that. Granted some of them were only +$23, but all positive. I was up almost $250 at one point tonight and gave some of it back to leave with $140....made a bad play with AJos in early position by not raising...BB sees a cheap flop of 9-9-5 when he's holding 9-5os and I chase the A high to the river, knowing I was beat, but just couldn't fold the hand....really stupid. I'm generally pretty good (and getting better) about playing tighter and not chasing down missed hands, but this was just another indication that I have to keep working on that part of my limit game.

Checked Bill Rini's site...looks like there are a good number of bloggers signed up for the event already. If any of them read this, I'll be in Vegas on the evening of the 6th at Caesar's Palace if you want to meet up early in the week. Heading to the IP on Friday afternoon for the weekend of blogger poker.

Now, I just hope the Steelers take care of business against the Texans tomorrow and my Fantasy teams don't lay another egg like last week.

Friday

Hello all...trying to muddle my way through the last couple of hours of a Friday afternoon. Feel I deserve the down time, as the last few days have been very chaotic. Work is very busy, as we're in the midst of our holiday rush of new products going into production to support holiday sales that start in mid-October. Crazy to be worrying about holiday now, but it is the bulk of our business.

Had a couple of conversations with my mom over the last couple of days....I think we're on the path to mending some fences at this point, although she has steppd over some lines with some of her comments, but I guess she's feeling that she has nothing to loose at this point and is being 'honest' with everyone regardless of the toes she steps on.

Have finalized a trip to Vegas in December...3 days of training conferences for work at Ceasar's Palace and then a couple of days at the Imperial Palace to meet some of the other poker bloggers for a weekend of poker and partying. I'm very excited about the trip...been too long since I've been in Sin City. On top of that, some of my local pals are trying to make the trip, so that should make it even better.

Not much to speak of on the poker tables....going through a dry spell of live play, as my schedule just hasn't allowed me to make any of the local home games. Played a bit on UB the other night while Jen was at work....back to $5/10 and a nice run of about +$600 so far this month. Mostly just hitting sessions for +$30 to +$120....nothing huge, but able to stay positive. Had to wkr my butt off on Tuesday, as I was down $200 at one point and was able to catch some hands and hit some flush draws to go on a nice run that put me back up $20 at the end of it....played until the blinds hit me, pretty much folding around the table until I hit AA UTG....raised and had a few callers....flop hit K-J-2 rainbow and I lead into the pot again....get 1 caller and everyone else folds. Turn hits a 10 and I'm looking at top pair with a gutshot straight draw....I bet and get raised, so I figure he's made 2 pair or the straight already....but I call and see a lovely lady hit the board on the turn, giving me the nut straight and at least a split pot....I bet, he raises, I reraise and he caps and flips over a set of Ks against my straight....serves him right for slow playing a flopped set.....ended up picking up another $60 or so on the hand and leaving the table up about $90 or so.....was very happy to walk away at that point and watch the bankroll grow a bit more for Vegas....

Have a great weekend all.....

Morning Update

Amazing how a couple of days ends up slipping into a week of no updates....my apologies to any faithful readers out there.

One big piece of news from yesterday...I'm booked for a 5 day Vegas trip in early Dec. 3 days of training and then adding a couple of days over the weekend to attend the WPBT (World Poker Blogger Tourney) event scheduled for Dec 10 at the Imperial Palace. Looks like they're getting reduced room rates and holding an invite only tourney for the bloggers. Should be a fantastic time...ust hope I am able to continue to build my bankroll online over the next couple of months to allow for some poker and such for me while I am in Vegas....can't wait. More Later.

Wild Wednesday

I LOVE SHORT WORK WEEKS!!!!!

Other than yesterday feeling like a Monday on a Tuesday, it's now Wednesday and it's all down hill from here. Here's a run down of the last few days....

Sat - Made a quick trip to Toledo for a funeral in Jen's family. Stopped for a quick visit to see Dad in Genoa and then headed home to try and get Jen back to Columbus by 5pm for her shift at B&N. Was hitting Delaware at 4 and ran into a speed trap by the friendly State Troopers on Rt 23. Long story short, they 'clocked' me at 71 in a 55 mph zone....now I had the cruise set at 70 in the 65 mph zone and slowed down when I hit the 55 zone....I know I was doing 63-65 and would have accepted a ticket for that speed....but 71 was then next fine bracket, so I'm guessing everyone was doing 71 or better on Sat that got pulled over. I contemplated fighting the ticket, but decided that a days vacation to go to Delaware and hang out for the day was not worth the effort of saving a couple of bucks...so I now have my first points and speeding ticket in about 18 years....sigh.

Sun - Spent a lazy day around the house...Jen had to work 2-close, so spent most of the time playing with the girls and such. Nothing that much exciting.

Mon - Did some yard work...cut the whole yard for the first time in about 2 months...spread some new seed to fill in some of the bare/thin spots...just hoping it takes in the yard this fall....$50 to grow a weed in my yard so I can mow it every week....unreal.

As for poker, I made a decision to step back to the $5/10 tables on UB....after playing a month of $10/20 on UB and seeing the variance that my bankroll was taking...numerous small positive session (+50-250) and a few significant losses (-200-500) indicate that I'm not ready to ride out that kind of variance....while my month was still positive (+$900), I finished with a couple of huge loss sessions over the last week...dropped $1000 in one session (yes, 1 grand) and $800 in another.....to still be positive by $900 for the month just shows how good the month was for me....but I can't count on that all the time and need to step back to a managable limit and continue to develop my game.

My biggest hurdle at this point is to recognize a cold deck and walk away with the minimal loss....there was no reason for me to sit there and piss away the whole grand last week...and to add insult to injury, my last $150 was lost with me sitting AA and a guy calling the pre-flop raise with K3os and catching a K and 3 on the flop to beat me.....go figure. I think I'll make a sign of the Mike Caro quote regarding the money you don't loose at a table is just as valuable as the money you win at a table.....I'll hnag that above my computer and hopefully that will help cure me of this issue.

On a good note, I've had 5 straight positive sessions since going back to $5/10 on UB....up about $500 for the month already in 6 days, so that is very good. Cards have been running very good for me since dropping back in limits....as a matter of fact, I took QQ to a big pot over AA and KK when I hit a 8Q8 flop for the full boat and they followed me down to the end for a $200 pot...was very happy with that one.

In other poker news....I've opened up an account at Titan Poker....am working off a $50 bonus now and started it in fine style this morning....decided to play some $1-2 no-limit this morning before work for the hell of it....dropped $40 on a table with 5 other players, played 5 hands (one circut) and walked from the table with $120. Last hand saw me with AJ suited UTG, everyone called my $5 bump to see a rainbow flop of J-9-5 giving me top pair, top kicker....blinds check to me, I fire another $5 in the pot and they all call....Turn hits a 3, they all check to me again and I fire another $5 in the pot....figuring if anyone had something better that the J they would raise and I could then make a decision....they all call again.....River bring a K which worries me a bit....they all check to me and I fire $10 into the pot....one guys folds, the others call and my pair of Js take down a huge $80 pot.....I then walk with my tidy profit and get ready for work with a smile on my face for the quick profit.....Titan Poker has some nice freerolls and Sit-n-Go tourneys.....win 5-6 SnG's in a row and you can make 20-40k off the site, so I may give that a go if I can get enough money in the bankroll to support it....will have to see how fast I can work off the deposit bonus as well on the ring games.

If anyone is interested in signing up to Titan, just drop me your email and I'll send you a referrel...you get $25 for signing up this way, so it's a great deal (mvilla at insight.rr.com)

back to work now...ttfn

Finally Friday

Well...been a pretty crappy week over all....here's a quick run down...

- My brother-in-law's mom passed away the other day....trip to Toledo tomorrow for the funeral
- Washing machine broke down...paid $130 for a replacement pump only to find that the original pump was fine and that the machine was clogged with sediment and such...but the unit that is clogged is completly sealed, so there is no way to fix it....so a $1100 washer lasted 4 years and we have a new $800 washer getting delivered today. At least we'll have clean clothes.
- Jen has to work all weekend (Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon), so no grand activities planned for the Villa family this weekend. I'm hoping to take the girls to Magic Mountain this afternoon and let them burn off some energy and let Jen get some rest in a quiet house for a few hours.


Played a bit of poker the other day...was up $80 in one session, then ran card cold in aontehr session and dropped $260, then picked up some cards and made $99, so down $90 for the week. Month of August was good to me though, as I think I ended up about $900 for the month...will have to double check the numbers tonight. Here's hoping that September will be just as kind to me. Will probably play a bit of poker over the weekend as well, with Jen working as much as she is.

One other thing...for anyone that plays poker and is a football fan...Check out Cardplayer.com and the football picker challenge they are running for a seat in the $10000 2006 WSOP main event. Pick one winner every week during the NFL season and you win the spot....miss your one pick and you're out of the tourney. $10 to enter and they have about 200 people signed up so far, so that's cool....not to mention that it's a great way to get into the WSOP.

Not much else to say....have a great holiday everyone and I'll keep you updated on anything exciting over the weekend.