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Registration code: 423082

Pokerstars is doing an interesting Series for Bloggers Worldwide and I hope to see several of our fellow blogging community at the tables starting December 15th for some exciting poker and camaraderie around the events. You can win seats at their reknowned Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and other major WPT events and prizes. Sign up today!!

Poker in The Woods

I had quite a session at Foxwoods - I got a room offer for 40 points and couldnt turn it down - a very satisfying run of cards and good reads, where I did not lose a single confrontation - won several buyins but never got all my chips in the middle (well I tried once but got called for a string bet after a brutal river on a guy).

I sat down at a $1/$2 No Limit table - a table full of regulars with very consistent play. Very solid regulars, not usually the kind of game I like to play. Where I number myself as maybe the 5th or 6th best player at the table and usually will jet after a couple of orbits.

But here's how they went.

1st hand - Limp with 5 7 s after 2 callers. Call from Big Blind. Flop is 6 4 2 and a 2/3 flop bet by my neighbor is easily called by me and also the BB. A very nice 3 of diamonds hits the flop and my neighbor tanks and raises pot. I raise to $100 and get a caller and a call from him. I have a flush diamond draw and nut straight. Blank river and turns out I chop with the BB who has 5 7 clubs (semi-win)

2nd hand - about 5 hands later- 7 9 s, and I again limp and hit a 6 8 Q flop. Called a 3/4 pot bet with one other caller. 5 hits the board and I raise pot $40. Called by the same BB guy. Yep, another chop and I again had a flush redraw (semi win)

About 5 minutes later, I get KK UTG and I raise 6x ($12) - sort of the standard "I got something" raise. I get 4 callers. Flop is K J 6. I check on a slow play and the MP position puts in $35, another caller and I call as well. A blank hits, I bet $60. and I get 2 callers. Q hits River, I decide to check, see what the action is. MP checks, Button bets $120. Didn't make sense, so I call (MP folds - later says he had K J!!). The other guy missed his draw and was positioning. Win $560 pot.

I then hit a set of 4's and slow played a nice $350 pot against a top pair, top kicker and a gut shot draw, and an AA over JJ cutoff 10x raise and I repop to $40. Low flop, I bet $75 and he calls and on a Q, I bet $100 and he tanks. Finally folds after figuring my hand?? Guy seemed a very solid player who ran into hand after hand and lost about $600 in an hour and a half.

Very solid session and I am happy with the results.

All I Want For Christmas is a Two Out Flop

Yes, I can actually hear Alvin and the Chipmunks singing this one, ringing in my ears about 4AM on most mornings, as I'm attempting to build my bankroll one small pot at a time...

The fates have not been kind to the author in the last 60 days as I've dropped $2,500 + at the online tables, getting killed in 6 hand $5/$10 Limit and Pot Limit Omaha ($1/2) games on Full Tilt.

My winning style is a tight aggressive style of play, where I am disciplined, wait for appropriate starting hand. Get the right price or move on to the next one.

Lately, it's been the chip bleeding, weak passive calling station that has emerged in me - Limp- Raise - Call - Check - Call, Check - Call - yadda yadda yadda

Improving Results - Concentration and Stamina

Concentration and stamina are 2 of the deciding factors we see in who maintains winning percentages over the long haul vs. those that don't. The old Power Bar "Don't Bonk" slogan comes to mind, and this is especially true in the poker world.

Clearly, abstaining from alcohol during and prior to play, getting plenty of sleep and eating a vegetable and fiber rich diet are the obvious good things you can do.

Moreover, others are turning to natural stimulants or anti-oxidants. I personally have tried the FRS Energy drink and unlike Red Bull, Monster or Amp, this is actually waaaaay better for you, eliminating toxins from your body while improving your concentration and performance dramatically. Lance Armstrong does it and it can't be wrong. Learn more on the following page...

Call Me Ishmael

It's been a dark several weeks in my poker world, and I have to admit I am playing very poorly. Doing all the wrong things. Calling when I should be folding. Calling when I should be raising. Calling down suspected bluffs. Raising weak hands when down money. I have gone away from my solid fundamental style to playing the worst kind of tight weak poker, while donking away several buyins on FTP.

The light has come a bit in forcing myself to play on my paltry left over accounts and doing micro STT and SNG's and kind of recapturing my play and regaining confidence.

Strongly suggest this strategy of playing $10 and under SNG's and STT's if you are having problems with your game.

Until next time..

Even Steven...

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

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 7913655

I was thinking about the old Seinfeld episode where Jerry discusses his life, of always ending up even. "I lost 20 bucks and I find 20 on the street, I lost a gig and I get another one paying exact same money, play poker and every time, just end up about Even" ...

It has begun to ring true, most especially in my online play and I'm starting to analyze why and it is the most fundamental of problems, namely:

I loose call with inferior hands when there is a strong probability I'm beaten - usually in NLHE games, a set over my top pair or better draws vs. mid pair, etc. - and I underbet my winning hands...

No big mystery there. This is the battle cry of the middling player, who knows this already. So, why do we continue to do it?

It's particularly a bad play in No Limit, but equally bad in Limit to give back your winnings or chase a bad session calling down with a less than premium hand; and even more so, not jamming the premium or ultra winners or even superior draws to compensate for the suckouts and near misses.

It's something I am focusing on in my online play and I would strongly suggest if you are falling into the Even Steven (read: NON PROFITABLE) play, you do the same.

Until next time,

P.O.

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

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Losing my Addiction?

A long and arduous one, this poker journey. My addiction has taken me to far flung places I never would have thought of visiting. I've chased home and card room games in Indiana, California and a really scary one with a very large Indian guy (think the Hikawi's in F-Troop) barring the door in Northern Ontario just north of Toronto. I've played in card rooms all over the place, with a personal favorite in Montana at a bar with elk grazing out the back window just south of Big Sky. I've pulled off major highways, blowing off meetings, so I can get to a Wi-Fi Hot Spot in the parking lot of a Best Western or in the lobby of a Marriott under the wary eye of the manager, to play in a satellite or big MTT.

It's a grand social experiment, and like many, as you are investigating the people who play this game, it turns introspective when you realize the really twisted, dysfunctional one may be Y-O-U.

But then, you get final table in a big MTT at the casino and the doubts and misgivings give way to elation and feelings of mastery.

And, of course this is short lived as you get stuck and steamed and old lady TILT hits you upside the head and off you go.