Fun weekend

December 8th, 2008

Friday night, I went to the indoor supercross show in Geneva.  I had fourth row seats.  It was really fun, and the freestyle jumping was totally awesome.  To think, just a few years back, nobody could do the backlfip and now they all do it with extra tricks.

Changed Saturday plans meant that I was able to play in a home game STT.  Nice because I missed the Friday night game for the second week in a row.  It was organized by the biggest Friday night fish regular.  He brought a bunch of his friends, and several others from the Friday night group made the numbers up to 10 players.  Classic NLHE with 2k starting chips and structured to last about 3 hours.  First few hands demonstrated that most of the competition had no real idea what they were doing…  I don’t mind people who play bad, but people who don’t know anything about the rules sort of gets to me.

A few hands:

I call a raise from a good loose player in LP with AQo, BB (fish) calls too.  Flop is A high.  original raiser checks, I bet, fish calls, raiser folds.  I put the fish on a pair, but know I’m ahead.  Turn is a K, I bet again and get called.  River is a blank. check check, and I take it down (he had ATo).  That hand gave me a healthy stack.

I bust another guy when I catch his bluff on a possible straight board.  I have ace bad kicker, and he had paired his jack.

Nothing too noteworthy.  I make it to HU against a seemingly solid tight player.  He has the chip advantage (not quite 2-1).  First hand, I raise with 64o to test the waters with blinds at 400/800.  He calls.  flop is 345.  Pair and OESD… nice.  I put him on 2 high cards.  Not sure if he bets, but I push, and he calls.  he has AT for a gutshot that is no good and two overs.  The deuce comes sealing the deal.  I know have the chip advantage.  He plays too tight, and I get to steal a lot of pots.  We each get dealt ace baby about 3 times, and once it does not split…  That puts me back to about 6000.  Last hand, I raise with AQ and get called.  Flop is 4K4.  I push and he calls flipping over 64…  No straight for me, and it’s over.  2nd pays 300 in a standard 50/30/20 payout scheme.

I use that to buy in to the four player cash game that follows.  All Friday regulars including the big donator who organized the tournament.  He finished 3rd, so he has some cash.  Initial stacks are 300/300/250/200.

First hand is a O8.  I raise with A23x.  Flop is a lovely AA3. I bet out, and get called by the 200 stack.  turn is a 7.  He raises me and we get it all in. He has sevens full, and no low.  How nice to bust someone on the first hand :)  A mix of good play and good cards gets me up to about +500.  Last hand of the night is a courcheval hand (5 card omaha high with one flop card exposed preflop).  We are three handed as the donator has busted out. Flop is AK9 with 2 hearts.  I have a set of 9s with a baby flush draw. There is a bet and a small raise which I just call (mistake).  Turn brings the flush.  There is a bet of 60, and a fold.  that makes the pot about 200.  I have 700 left, and bettor has about 260 behind.  I’m pretty sure he has the flush, and mine is only 8 high.  I hesitate.  I think he will call a push.  In the end I just call to see what happens thinking I can stack him if I hit the boat.  River is a blank, and for some reason I try to push him off his flush with a bet of 100.  he min raises and I’m done.  I gave too much back, but still make a cash game profit of 240 making it 440 for the night.

Winning and having fun is always nice.

Basketball

October 16th, 2008

It’s been a long time since my last post.  It had been a much longer time since my last win playing basketball after changing teams.  We finally won a game last night.  38-37 phew ;)

We only had 4 players, and the others had a full team.  We kept it close, and it was tied at halftime.  We pulled ahead by 10 points in the first five minutes of the second half, and just managed to hold off a last minute rush.

Was very nice.

Poker wise I have rejoined a Friday night game in town after they agreed to stick to standard games in the dealer’s choice format.  They used to play all kinds of strange games with lots of wild cards.  So far it has been going well.

I cleared another 999 EUR bonus at McPoker, and am working on a 600 EUR one right now.  Will have to play 1/2 and above regularly to get the required points.  Had a good session last night.  In a recent software update, they now write hand history files to disk.  I’ve written a little tool to parse and store them in a DB, so I can finally have some stats on the players.

Hopefully I can post more regularly again.

Final Tennis post

June 23rd, 2008

To make it short, we won 5-4 and move up to first league next year. YAY.

We were ahead 4-2 after the 6 singles matches.  I played and won.  So we just had to win one doubles match to win overall.  I was selected again for the doubles with the same partner as last time.  Our first doubles pair was a fairly strong one that often play together.  I was in the second pairing, and our third one was a weaker team, but was made to allow everyone to play (we were 10 people)….  Our other two teams lose, and I’m in the third set with my partner.  We won the first 6-4, and lost the second 1-6.  We take a commanding lead of 5-2 in the third, and my partner is up to serve.  He can’t close the deal, and I get my chance to serve leading 5-4 in the final set.  I put in a solid game, and we win it.  I felt like quite the hero :)

In the poker world, I’ve been playing a bunch of Omaha Hi lately.  When I remember not to pay off the river with just the 2nd nuts, it’s a good source of money.

Tennis

June 9th, 2008

After getting rained out on Saturday, my InterClub tennis match took place on Sunday.  There are 6 singles, and 3 doubles.  We are now in a playoff format, so first to 5 wins.  I was selected for the singles and won.  We were tied 3-3 after the singles, so the doubles would decide the winner.

I played again in the doubles, and had a pretty easy victory.  One of the other doubles was a tight game, and my partner and I thought we were losing the third one, but it turned out they were not putting the score up properly!  We won 5-4 overall, and advance to the next round which is scheduled for next Sunday.  If we win that one, we’ll move up a league for next year.

In other good news, McPoker bonus was cleared on Friday night :)

Family Visit

June 1st, 2008

My brother came to visit for a week, and house cleanup for a visit by a potential buyer meant not much poker lately.

Fun things done while he was here include:

 - Him coming to watch my tennis team play, and me winning both my singles and doubles matches.  My team won 8-1 overall, and that landed us in second place, so we play this Saturday to try to move up a league.

- Walking up and down the Saleve mountain (a trip he likes to make every time he comes).  Last time he was here, we took a wrong trail, and ended up having to turn back without making it to the top.  This time we made it, and had a drink at the top and admired the view.  We got separated on the way down somehow, but did meet up at the bottom.

- Had dinner out at the steak place

- Went to the Ecolint kermesse

- Generally had fun watching movies and playing games.

 

Sporting weekend

May 16th, 2008

One of my last basketball games of the season coming up tonight.  We are playing the team in first place, and somehow we are in last place :)  Not much suspense on who the winner will be, but hopefully will be fun.

On Sunday, I have the second round of the interclub tennis matches.  We are in a group of 4 teams that all play each other (6 singles, and 3 doubles).  1 point for each win, and top 2 teams go through to play for a chance to move up to the next level.  Off to a bad start as 2 weeks ago, we lost 8-1 even though there were several 3 set matches.

McPoker bonus is just 8985 FPP away now.  Way ahead of schedule there :)

GoldStar

April 29th, 2008

I hit GoldStar on PokerStars for the first time; with one day to spare ;)  Now I have to build up some FPP again to go for some bonuses.

It was a rough session otherwise.  All my big pairs lost, and none of my draws came in.  They must have thought I was Johnny.

A good session at McPoker partially made up for that.  Played a bit of 1/2 6-max NL.  Really racked up the FPP at that table.  Now need 16906 to clear the bonus.

Waiting for some extra memory to arrive for my notebook.  Tomorrow is a day off; maybe I can work on the video project then.

Royal Sighting

April 26th, 2008

This is rare enough that I decided to include it here. Most of the time, it’s hard to win money on this hand too. Didn’t get much, but as least it was paid off to the river.

Seat 1: lvrookie ($241.50)
Seat 2: Holdenpot ($110)
Seat 3: Phatcrndwg ($157) -
Seat 4: Fish_Light ($103) -
Seat 5: Ironklad ($448) -
Seat 6: Sandy1117 ($110)
Seat 7: Jerzy__Jim ($130.50)
Seat 8: Carrera911 ($149)
Seat 9: badactuary ($154)
Seat 10: GaijinBlue ($289)

PRE-FLOP:

Fish_Light posts small blind $1
Ironklad posts BIG blind $3
Dealt To: Carrera911

FOLD Sandy1117
FOLD Jerzy__Jim
RAISE Carrera911 ($6)
FOLD badactuary
FOLD GaijinBlue
CALL lvrookie ($6)
FOLD Holdenpot
FOLD Phatcrndwg
FOLD Fish_Light
FOLD Ironklad

FLOP:

Pot: $16
   

BET Carrera911 ($3)
CALL lvrookie ($3)

TURN:

Pot: $22
     

BET Carrera911 ($6)
CALL lvrookie ($6)

RIVER:

Pot: $34
      

BET Carrera911 ($6)
CALL lvrookie ($6)

SHOWDOWN:
Carrera911:

MUCK lvrookie

Carrera911 collected $44 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $46 Rake: $2

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: lvrookie mucked [Js Ah] - Net Gain/Loss: ($-21)
  
Seat 8: Carrera911 showed [Jd Kd] and won 44 with a Royal Flush - Net Gain/Loss: ($23)

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

I’m off to play a second round tennis match at my local club.

Playing Limit Hold’em

April 20th, 2008

I’ve been playing a lot of LHE this month.  I guess I started it to clear the PS bonus.  Then I realized I could actually use my FPP to buy more bonuses!  I settled on 3/6 because that is a limit I used to play a lot (mostly on Absolute).  I’ve been doing really well.  PT tells me i’ve been running at 4.3 BB/100 month to date.  I’ll try to make GoldStar for the first time.  I’ve usually spread my play on so many sites, that it’s hard to rack up a lot of play on a single site.

I had such a good session on  Saturday, that i decided to try 5/10.  I don’t think I played differently, but I got totally destroyed :)  I remember that I never did well at 5/10 in the past either.  oh well, I’ll have to study up on that one.  Admittedly, I didn’t hit any flops, and it was just one session, but it seemed quite different.  Maybe the time of day was a factor too;  it was later than I usually play.

There is talk of making videos for the site, and if I do one, it would probably be at 3/6 limit.  I think it would be fun.

McPoker Bonus update: 19078 FPP to go, so I almost doubled the weekly requirement.  That’s good, because there will for sure be days when I won’t be able to play.

Good luck at the tables!

McPoker Bonus Progress

April 14th, 2008

Back in February, this site had a 500% bonus up to 1000 EUR.  This site is quite soft, so I took advantage of the offer.  It required 30000 of their FPPs to clear, and clears in one lump sum.

As of this morning, I have 21378 FPP to go.  I have until the 9th of August to clear it.  That’s about 180 FPP per day every day.

That may seem like a lot, but you can earn up to 15 FPP per hand!  You get 1 for each 20 cents rake.  I’ve had ups and downs, but I got my roll up to a reasonable size again where I can play 0.5/1 NL, and the points just roll in at that level.  At one point I was down to playing .05/0.1 NL!

This is a German site, and has mostly German players on it.  It attracted a lot of gamers with different promotions.  It is quite common to see people sitting with 5+ buy ins at the NL tables.  There are only 500+ people connected at a time, so not great game selection.  Just lots of free money ;)

I’ll keep you posted.

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