Monday update

gotta make it quick here...have work to get done, but wanted to toss something out there other than the pics. I'm starting a new blog that will focus on the family stuff (pics, stories, etc), leaving this blog for more poker related content. Will post the link (and email to friends & family) from home later this evening). Then back to regular poker content tomorrow...and do I have a weekend of poker news to tell....nothing good, but will be good to write it up.

Ashley's THIRD Birthday....HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY.

Finally Friday

- request for all readers...I'm trying to compile a list of famous poker hands as related to players (ie 10-2 os for Doyle Brunson). Please post any hands and pros in the comments section. Thank you.

ahh yes...the weekend is nigh upon us....and for once I have no travel plans in the foreseeable future.
No travelling to Toledo.
(Jen is committed to staying home for the remainder of the pregnancy, anytime in the next 5 weeks now)
No travelling for work until the Vegas trip in Dec.
(see note above...5 weeks and counting).

Jen is finished with work after Saturday until February or so (again, see note above...35 days and counting - 5 weeks for those with math impairments)....

Agenda for weekend:
Sleep
Carve pumpkins
watch OSU on Sat.
Play various poker tourneys over weekend (WWdN tonight, RPG freeroll on Sat, WAPT tourney on Sunday)
Play additional $5/10 as time will allow...I'm finally positive on the month after a nice, quick $250 last night....now $150 to the good on the month. Considering the swings I've had to endure during some sessions, I'm happy at this point to just say I'm positive on the month...at least will be able to make next months car payments again from the poker fund....huge thanks to anyone that I have played poker online (UB/PS) against over the last 6 months, as you've allowed me to make every car payment on my little blue Focus so far.....THANK YOU!!!!!
Sleep some more
Watch some NFL on Sunday...probably get stuck with the Browns or Bungals again...at least the Steelers play on Monday night, so that will finish the weekend in style.
Celebrate Ashley's birthday on Sunday (Monday will be trick-or-treat, so no time for cake and presents).

ahh....sounds good to me.

As for the poker stuff...I may just switch to PS for the next couple of weeks....I've been able to make all my $ back on PS after loosing most of the $ on UB....I'm positive on 10 of 11 PS sessions ove rthe month, clearing about 2k in the process, while loosing that much at $5/10 and $10/20 on UB....may take some time off the UB site and just play on PS while I'm making money. Course, I have about $600 in bonus money on UB to play off, but with their reduction in their points system (each hand is now worth a max of 0.5 points or $0.05), that means I would have to play about 12,000 hands to clear the cash...which would take me over a year with my casual level of play....add to that the fact that i'm not consistently making money right now, I'd rather play where the money is rolling in. Not to mention that I need to build some cash between now and Dec for the Vegas trip without dipping into the eye surgery fund that I have waiting for the new year.

Lunch over now...back to work and grinding out the last few hours of a Friday...have a great weekend all.

Mid-Week Update

Not much to tell...still trying to get over the sting of not qualifying for the Bahamas on Sunday. Pretty sure I did everything I could, definately gained some good experience in playing in tournaments again after focusing on limit for the past few months. Hoping to work through the qualifiers again tonight or later this week to give it another shot on Sunday to get my ticket to the Bahamas. Will keep you posted.

Had a rough night on UB last night...dropped about $250 at the $5/10 tables over a couple of hours....good hands were sucked out on and great hands saw no action. Had AA cracked by a chased flush draw....saw a flopped 2 pair loose to a set on the river...and so on, and so on....

At least I had the brains to get off the table with some cahs this time instead of spinning into the bad place of tossing all my cash away. May try and recoup some of it tonight depending on how the PokerStars qualifier goes.

Finished the bathroom repairs last night with the grouting of the tiles....looks pretty much like new now, so that is a positive sign for my craftsmanship.

Looks like pumpkin carving time tomorrow night...girls are very excited about getting their designs on the pumpkins...lots of work for me, as this is one of my favorite activities...just takes awhile to carve 3-4 pumpkins....and we'll add a new one next year at least, if I don't do one for the baby over the weekend. If anyone has any great ideas for carving pumpkins, please send them my way.

Weekend Update and Live Blogging

Let's see....finished the bathroom...just need to wait for it to dry and then grout the tiles...hope it turns out ok....

Steelers and OSU won their respective football games, so a great weekend in that respect.

ok...scrubbed out of the Pokerstars Bloggers tourney, had 2 pair and lost to a 3 outer on the river...sigh.

8pm - doing well qualifier for the Bahamas...this will probably be my kiss of death, but I'm the chip leader as we hit the 3 hour mark of the tourney...35 of the original 193 still playing for the top 3 spots. Been catching some nice cards and flops, will see how this plays out.

8:25 - still chip leader...down to final 27 players and just finished the third break.

8:55 - still chip leader....have about a 10k lead over second place....24 players remaining....last two hands...folded Qs2s to mid-position raise from the BB...flop Q-2-5 and the guy goes all in....next hand i have 2-3 and fold...flop comes down A-4-6...two players go all in and a 5 spikes on the turn...would have taken them both out with th estraight...sigh.....

9:03 - 43k in chips, KK hits trips and knocks out AQ, then Jd8d knocks off Kd10d when I flop 2 pair and take him out. almost 20k lead over 2nd place...

9:05 - called modest raise with JQos, hits 2 pair on the flop, both check, anotehr Q on river gives me full boat...he checks, I toss a small raise at the pot, he goes all in, I call...he has Q-10 and I take his chips too...52K in chips.

9:20 - break.....I have 72k in chips....2nd place is 31k, final 14 players in the tourney.....hands starting to shake now.

10:14....final table in second place...down to about 50k...lost some chips trying to bust some small stacks....table is very tight right now.

10:30 - still in 2nd by a couple thousand...15 minute break now. chip leader has about 80k, I'm in second with 41k. not many flops getting on the table....pre-flop raises getting most pots. I'm pretty card dead, so hoping things pick up after this break.

11:45...down to final 5 in 3rd place...very tight race now....just survived an all in against AA and caught my flush draw to cripple one of the big stacks and double up to third.....just waiting for cards now.

soooooo close......midnight now and my QQ just got busted by AA and I finished in 5th place. Can't even begin to type my frustrations after being so close to that trip and playing with the pros in January. Was in the BB and caught QQ....one of the chip leaders raised to 6k (blinds 1-2k) and I went over the top of him all in....he called quickly and had the pocket rockets to take me out....so disappointed now. and I have to get up in 5 hours to get on a plane to Jersey....sigh.

Bathroom Update and some poker

Worked at drying out the wall last night...ended up pluggin in a space heater, running the fan and closing the door to dry out the wall...seemed in much better shape by the end of the evening...will check again this afternoon when I get home and hopefully replace the tiles. Spent part of last evening scraping off all the old glue and such from the tiles that had fallen out...such fun.

Girls decided to put themselves to bed last night at 8pm, so I had an hour to hit UB and play some poker...ended up cashing off the table with +$149 if memory serves me correctly this morning....was up almost $300 at one point, but missed a flush draw with AK suited and then got beat when I had AcQc, caught a Q and a flush draw on the flop, missed the flush draw and future improvement and lost to KK....saw a few other flops with suited connectors or mid-pairs, but failed to improve and folded to bets with overcards on the table. Did start out with AA in my first hand (that held up) and then caught full boats on 2 of next 5 hands to take down nice pots...no complaints.

Watched Lost...love that show...it's such a tease each week, as they just pull back the onion layer by layer each week to give you a little more of a glimpse of the story....great TV show though.

Pretty much called it a night...trying to figure out if I'm headed fr NJ tonight...back to the phones now...

Mr. Fix-it and other randomness

Yesterday started with a shot to the junk....while standing half-comatose in the shower, I put my foot on the soap dish in the wall (I know, I know...it's a soap dish, not a foot rest), as my back issues don't afford me the flexability that I would like to have to soap up them toes of mine, and the damn things falls off the wall and lands on my other foot.....so now I'm standing on one foot trying to keep my balance and not fall over. Put my foot down (onto another piece of tile that fell off) and try to examine how bad my foot is...of course, with no glasses on, all I can see is a blur on the tub floor, but thankfully no blood is apparant on the white tub...so at least I'm not badly damaged. Proceed to finish with a quick shower, trying to keep too much water from hitting the bare drywall and not step on the tile pieces that I can't see to pick up...but can sure feel them when I step on them.

So with that kind of start to the day, it pretty much goes in the crapper from there....end up getting roped into a huge data search for another department....current list shows about 750 documents from the last 4 yers that I have to find, copy and submit for review....by the end of the week....good thing I have direct reports to do the grunt work, but they're not going to be happy about it. But end up at work until 5:45 trying to get it all organized to hand off to them today to get started.

Stop at Lowes to get the repair supplies for the shower...luckily all I was stepping on in the shower ended up being broken grout, not tiles, so they can all be saved and replaced. Upon closer examination last night, it looks like there are at least two more tiles that were loose, so out they came to be repaired. Nothing like sitting in the tub with an extension cord and hair drier trying to dry out the wall.....after about 20 minutes, I decided to give the drier a break and let the wall air dry for another night....hoping it is dried out by tonight so I can get the patching done, as it needs 72 hours to dry before using the shower....sigh.

So needless to say, no poker last night, except for watching the ESPN coverage of the WSOP...did enjoy seeing Phil Hellmuth get beaten in a couple of hands, although I think he could have been baited into giving up more chips with his AK with top pair against the full boat if the old guy hadn't bet quite so much....pretty much told Phil that he could beat top pair. Also enjoyed the Mike Matusow spot with him getting his multiple penalties for dropping the f-bomb....found it funny with the way the pit boss handeled it...."have to give you a 10 minute penalty....ok, now 20.....ok now 30 minutes..."....was very funny to see on tape.

Anyway, gotta get to work now...later.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY DANIELLE!!!!

My little girl turned 5 on Sat and I finally figured out how to get the image off my DVD camera and up on the web. I can't believe how big she has gotten so fast. I have video from the party as well...if I can figure out how to load video on the site, I'll post that as well.

Monday morning - Weekend update

OK...lots of poker news from the weekend....

Cleared my PS bonus of $100 on Sat afternoon during a nice +$450 session on the 5/10 tables. Ended the 2 weeks on PokerStars up $1900 and cashed it all off the site. Just waiting for it to clear and then I'll decide what to do with it. Probably will load some money back on UB to play while travelling this week to NJ in the hotel room during the evenings.

I can't get over how successful I am at the $5/10 limit games, but get shelled at $10/20. Not sure if it's my playstyle, or what, Pokertracker has me listed as a "Semi-loose, aggressive, solid" player...I see about 30% of the pots, which I think is ok in limit games, as you're more apt to try and see pots with suited connectors and suited Ax to try and catch something rather than risk it in no-limit on marginal hands....and I can't argue the success. So I guess I'll just keep grinding at the $5/10 as long as the money is there to be made. Was hoping that UB would offer a re-load bonus ove rthe weekend, but I have $400 to claim already, so I guess I'll just start to work on that now.

Qualified in a PS WPT satellite last night. As noted below, I placed 1st out of 370 to win a seat in a satellite on Sunday, with the top 2-3 players getting a seat in the WPT event in the Bhamas in January....how cool would that be. Hopefully I didn't blow all my NLHE luck last night, as I did get lucky a few times...see below....

I slide into the final 25 players near the bottom of the list with about 7k in chips…top stack had 90k at this point. I tripled up with KK when AQ and AJ didn’t improve. Gives me about 22k and moves me into top 10….proceed to nickel and dime some pots down to the final 2 tables with about the same amount of chips.
Double up and cripple a guy with QQ against 10 10. Then get 10 10 to hold up against the chip leader at the time and his AK to double up again…now have around 70k in chips and sitting in top 5.
Make it to the final table and have the top 2 stacks to my right (sweet…get to act behind them). Anyway, miss a chance to take the guy on my left out when I mis-play AQ suited and let him force me out of the pot with an all in raise….ended up his AJos against another AQos, with the AQ winning the pot….I had the guy with AJ covered, so I would have taken all of his stack and then split a small side pot with the other AQ. Anyway, he was gone a few hands later.
So we get down to final 5 (top 3 wins seats to Sunday’s satellite). I get KK in the SB, everyone limps in front of me, I make a 3xBB raise, get a call from the BB, a small raise from the UTG player, a call from the button, and I say ‘screw this’ to Jen who was watching and go all in on a huge pot….BB folds, UTG calls, everyone else folds….UTG has AA…..I pound my head on the desk, thinking that I’m going to bubble out of the tourney with KK…only to see KQx hit the flop…..a 10 hits the turn, giving him outs (A or J) but he misses and I cripple him in the tourney, and now have a 2-1 lead on everyone else (240k to 100k).
Tried to bully them a bit, dropped down to 160K when my 10-10 loose to AJ when he hits a J on the river….bah. Anyway, we’re down to final 4 and just sliding chips around the table when I find AA in the SB…..first two players fold, I bump 4x BB, BB raises another 4x, I bump again to about half his stack, he goes all in and I call….he flips 10-2 os and I wipe him out. Not sure what he was thinking, but I’m not complaining.
So anyone with a PS account, please come cheer me on Sunday at 5pm. Hoping for tickets to the Bahamas in January.

First step to the Bahamas in January

PokerStars Tournament #13733702, No Limit Hold'em
Super Satellite
Buy-In: 100 FPP
341 players
Total Prize Pool: 34100 FPP
Target Tournament #13733582
3 tickets to the target tournament
Tournament started - 2005/10/16 - 18:30:00 (ET)
Dear MVilla888,
You finished the tournament in 1st place.
You qualified to play in Tournament #13733582 and are automatically registered for it.
See Tournament #13733582 Lobby for further details.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Now all I have to do is repeat this success next Sunday and I'm on my way to the Bahamas.

Hammer Time

Just had to post this from my session on PokerStars this afternoon while I try and clear my deposit bonus....set the guy on tilt permanently I think.....he complained and whined about it until he lost all of his cash on the table.

PokerStars Game #2818222833: Hold'em Limit ($5/$10) - 2005/10/16 - 14:35:17 (ET)Table 'Bishop'
Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: manresa777 ($144.50 in chips)
Seat 2: Snowy00 ($301.50 in chips)
Seat 3: MPM44111 ($214.50 in chips)
Seat 4: TaintedRogue ($149 in chips)
Seat 6: MVilla888 ($674.50 in chips)
Seat 7: chas913 ($88.50 in chips) S
eat 8: jusfoolin ($156.50 in chips)
Seat 9: ClemsonAce ($95 in chips)
Seat 10: TDeeznutS ($362 in chips)
TaintedRogue: posts small blind $2
MVilla888: posts big blind $5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to MVilla888 [7d 2s] - THE HAMMER
chas913: folds
jusfoolin: folds
ClemsonAce: raises $5 to $10
TDeeznutS: folds
manresa777: folds
Snowy00: folds
MPM44111: folds
TaintedRogue: folds
MVilla888: calls $5
*** FLOP *** [2d 6h Ac]
MVilla888: checks
ClemsonAce: bets $5
MVilla888: calls $5
*** TURN *** [2d 6h Ac] [2h] - WHEEEEEEE
MVilla888: checks
ClemsonAce: bets $10
MVilla888: raises $10 to $20
ClemsonAce: raises $10 to $30
MVilla888: calls $10
*** RIVER *** [2d 6h Ac 2h] [9d]
MVilla888: checks
ClemsonAce: bets $10
MVilla888: calls $10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ClemsonAce: shows [6c Ah] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
MVilla888: shows [7d 2s] (three of a kind, Deuces)
MVilla888 collected $109 from pot

He was livid to say the least....

Slow day so far

wow...had a whole list of things to do at work this week and finished them all by this morning....so what is a QA manager to do.....waste time trolling the blogs of the internet and doing some writing of my own...

My back has been bothering me more over the last couple of weeks...Especially in the morning, nothing like walking around the house hunched over like a 90 year old man for the first hour after waking up. The chiropractor adjustments don't seem to be fixing the problem, so I'm not sure what to do next...Probably start up a diet again and get better at some exercise...sigh...hate excercise.

Not much on the poker news front. May try and get home early tomorrow to play in Wil Wheton's Pokerstars tourney at 4pm...$10 buy in to play against Wil and a bunch of poker bloggers,should be a good time if I can get out of here early. Played a few minutes on PokerStars last night, made about $50 over two sessions at $5/10. Ended up with pretty crappy cards and was able to win the couple of good hands I got dealt. I was very happy with the start of the second session (post-Lost...great show if you're not watching it)...anyway, started the second session with KK in the big blind....6 limpers pre-flop all call my raise from the BB and see a flop of AJA...I know I'm dead at this point, as someone out there has an A for the trips, crushing my KK. Everyone checks to me and I decide to toss $5 into the pot and see what happens.....everyone calls!!!! Amazing. So now the pot is large enough...about $100, that I know this is going to a showdown due to the pot odds. So the turn brings a Q and I'm looking at a possible straight to salvage the pot. Again, all checked to me and I probably should have taken the free card to try and hit the straight, but I hit the bet button instead and fire $10 into the pot...first three guys fold, then I get a cold call, and everyone else folds....so I know I have Ax sitting accross the table from me, and I'm drawing to a K for a boat or a 10 for a straight....river brings a 6 and I'm dead in the water. I check to him and make a crying call on his bet to see him with AQ for a full boat, confirming that I was pretty much drawing dead after the flop.

Was able to finish the session up about $30 after playing very tight over about 5 circuts on the table. Was able to suck out a flush on one hand and make a full boat on another with my pocket 2s for a couple of nice pots.

~~~~Lunch break~~~~

So...where was I? I really need tofigure out how to put video up on the site, as Danielle's b-day party is this weekend and would like to put up a clip of her at her party for everyone to see. Any suggestions from anyone?

Not much else going on....Jen getting closer and closer to having the baby...should know more after her next appointment on Oct 28. Will keep everyone posted as to any developments.

TTFN.

Online poker in the work place

just found out over lunch that I was at a $1/2 NL table on UB over the weekend with the VP of the department (my boss). I had no clue it was him, and he had a feeling he was playing against me, but I missed his chat attempts at the table. Anyway, I apparently busted him for about $63 on a hand that saw my AKs beat his pocket 9s when I flopped a K and he didn't improve. I think the money was in the pot pre-flop, which means I called a $63 dollar raise pre-flop with AKs. I believe I remember the hand, as I was up about $100 on the table at that point and figured I had a decent hand and would still be positive if I lost....my AK took out the 99 (my boss) and a QQ (nother dude at the table) for a healthy pot. My boss seemed ok with it, so that's cool...will have to look at the hand replay tonight at home and see how it all went down to be sure. I know I had a nice session, making about $350 off the $100 buy-in. May have to put some cash back on UB if I can catch my boss trolling around some more.....at what point does beating your boss at poker online become a career-limiting move?

Not much else going on....Jen and I had a great dinner last night. Went to Carabbas out at Polaris...very nice Italian eatery. She really like her gifts and she got me a nice gold rope necklace for my crystal pendant, looks very nice and I'm happy to be wearing it again. The earrings and necklace looked very good on her last night at dinner as well.

Looking forward to Danielle's birthday party this weekend...hard to believe she's turning 5 already. Will make sure to get some pics of the girls posted here soon, as it's been awhile since I showed them off to the world.

Back to work now...lunch is over.

Blue Monday

Have to update the world after that post on Friday.

Had a great time Friday night dealing at a poker tourney here in town. Private company party that was very well done (ie, free food, free booze, and skantily clad models from LA). Was a great time and the only mistake I made dealing was on the first hand when I inadvertantly grabbed the guys cards from seat one as part of the muck after he ahd bet into the pot. He was cool with it and I returned his bet to keep everything right. He made sure to keep his cards back from the table and I made sure not to grab them again. Saw some terrible play, but it was a freeroll for them, so lots of gambling going on. all in all a great time, and I made money for the evening with no gambling involved, so it's all good.

Jen worked long shifts on Sat and Sunday, so I was able to play on UB some more...was able to build my remaining $250 from the disaterous session last week back up to $750 over the course of the weekend by grinding out on the $5/10 tables. Not sure why I play better at this level, but seems like I play just tight enough to stay solid at the table, but catch cards at the right times and make the right gambles to win some nice pots. All in all a nice boucne-back from the huge loss last week.

Contrary to my beliefe that I could step up from $5/10 to $30/60, I just can't do it with the bank-roll I currently (or had last week) have at my disposal, for the obvious reasons. I have to stick with the playing at $5/10 and just build the bankroll just like everyone else....while trying to hit a big score by jumping up 203 levels sounds like a great idea, it's a huge gamble, and one that my bankroll and nerves can't take again.

So now I'm focused on bulding a reasonable bankroll for the Vegas trip in Dec. Less than 2 months to go, so if everythign goes well, I should have a nice chunk of change to be able to mess with in Vegas for the 5 days I'll be there. I'll probably stick with small tourneys and such, possibly some small cash games ($1/2 NL or $5/10 limit), but will depend on how the first couple of days go as I adjust to some serious live play. Just have to make sure I have enough left for the bloggers tourney on Sat.

Later all.....and Happy Anniversary to my lovely wife. I'm a lucky man to have such a great partner in the trials and tribulations that life throws at us.

Mad at myself

have to vent here....Jen worked last night and I had a quiet house to myself after getting the girls to bed to play some poker on UB. Started with about $1200 in my account and decided to try and make some quick cash and play $30/60...plan was to play very tight and try and pick up some hands and some pots....overall worked well, as after about 30 minutes I was up $1100 when the table started to break up. So I left the table and watched happily as my account was updated to about $2300. How sweet it is (was).

Decided to give $10/20 a try, as I hadn't played at the limit in awhile and figured I could employ the same tight strategy and at least clear some bonus money....sat down with $1000 and fought with the table and the cards for about 45 minutes before giving up after loosing about $400....so at this point I'm still up $700 for the night with a respectable $1900 in my account.....

And then my brain goes to sleep for the night and my ego/greed kicks in...why not play $30/60 again and make some more quick cash....HUGE MISTAKE. Proceed to sit dwn with $1500 and watch it all flow away, as I get sucked into a very loose game and get bit by the bug to play loose as well...pitched hands that would have won, chased loosers and watched the whole $1500 drain away over the course af about 45 minutes. So now my UB account shows a smashing $250.

I'm such an idiot sometimes....once again I smacked myself in the head and played when I was in the wrong mood (tired/depressed) and then went on tilt trying to outplay the loose players at the table. While I did watch a very loose player piss away about $3000 at the table, it was just very poor play on my part. So I'm headed back to the $5/10 tables and will work on grinding my way back to a respectable bankroll. Thankfully I have a nice chunk of change sitting in mt Neteller account, so all is not lost.

I'm actually thinking that I may switch sites for awhile and play some tourneys on PokerStars to try and qualify for their WPT event in January. They just announced that they are starting sattelite tourneys, so I may give that a try, as I need to work on my no-limit game to get ready for the Vegas trip in December. Definately need to take some time and get last night out of my head though. Time to get to work...TTFN.

Monday morning - quick update

Hello all...been a crazy week since my last update. Spent 3 days out in north LA watching the wildfires from the hotel room. Was pretty cool in a surreal kind of way. Lots of families were in the hotel we stayed in with pets and such, as they had been chased from their homes by the fires. Was very surreal.

Played some poker on Sat night...played another successful $30/60 stint, turning a quick $350 profit on a short table. The proceeded to switch back to $5/10 to grind out some bonus cash. Saw my stack swell by $200 very quickly, and should have pulled the plug then and walked from the tables with a nice tidy $500 profit for the evening....but proceeded to keep playing and try to take advantage fo the fish at the table (and they were ripe for the picking)...ended up with about 120 cold hands and proceeded to drop the $200 I had earned plus another $200 at the table. Numerous losses on flopped sets, missed flushes, cracked AA to runner, runner straights, etc, etc, etc. Just one of those sessions that reminds me that poker is gambling and no matter how good I think I am, I can't bank on winning every session. I'm a little pissed at myself for not banking some of the $200 I was up on the 5/10 table, but I guess that's part fo the game. For the record, I ended Sept with about $1600 in profit, so definately no complaints there. Pulled $1200 off of UB and now have over $2k on Neteller, so my eye surgery is getting closer and closer to being a reality.

I'm pretty stoked about the poker bloggers tourney on Pokerstars (see note below). Anytime I get to freeroll for a chance at a WSOP seat is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

Back to the expense reports and catch up from work. Next update will probably be from Lynchburg, Virginia. TTFN.