Best not to talk about...

So, in short, a summary for my trip to AC.

Cash: -$290

Set over set at a 2-5 table took me to this amount on the final night, and I was up $200 before.

WSOP Satellite -$190

Lasted to 14th when my 9's did not hold up against k7 when a straight filled on the turn. 5 got seats.

WSOP Omaha8 event -$345

Totally unimpressive, played horribly, was out in 4 hours.

and the one bright spot...

Borgata $100 +20 15k guarantee +$160

I came in 16th, two after the bubble broke, shoving my short stack with 6's against KK.

My run of luck was bound to end, and considering my November wins, this whole thing was kind of a freeroll anyway...I actually only managed to play two WSOP events due to bad money management (i.e., I don't know my daily debit card limit - fail).

I did meet some wonderful people on my trip, though. But that's for a blog I don't currently write. :)

Stupid is as stupid does

Greetings from Harrah's, where I have committed a huge error in judgment.

I planned on playing today's event, got here last night, played some cash(see below) but neglected to remember that my bank card has a maximum withdrawl per day and I didn't come with cash - and therefore could not enter the event today! Woops. There is a 6-max $345 tomorrow, but I've nevr played a 6-max tournament, and while I love playing 6 max cash, 6-max while protecting your stack and quicker orbits...not so much, i.e. I've never even tried to play it. So, aside from an attempt at sattying into the Main Event, I might not play a single woo-sop while I am here. Oh well! I look at it as fate.

Now, to cash. The Harrah's poker room, since it is the site of the woo-sop, was hopping like I had never seen it, with almost every table filled with hoodies and ipods and PLO spreads, it was nuts.

I sit down with $200 at a 1-2 table. Let's just say my day was SWNGY, starting at about 5pm. Once again I failed to be Jordan and didn't take notes, but I ended up being felted twice and caught myself down 400 with 625 total bought in at about 11pm. The pivotal hand that got me back up to even.

Limpy table. Comes around to me in the SB with AKos. I raise it up to 20, four callers, old smug dude, emaciated Hank Azaria and hoodied Lieve Schrieber lookalike. The flop comes A-Q-3, two spades. Decent flop for me, but I check, knowing that I am going to get some kind of action - both of these guys liked to splash. Old guy checks, Liev throws out 25. I make it 50. He calls. Two folds. The turn is another 3, and I check. Liev pushes out 85. I don't think he just calls with AQ, and no way he has a 3 so I feel like I am still good, and I flat call. The river completes the flush, but with a spade 3. Now, if I didn't telegraph that I had an A with the min-raise, this is a great position. I can only hope he thought I was second-best or drawing to the flush, but even with a queen I have some kind of boat....so I was at a loss with what to do here. All I have to fear are quads, AA or QQ and I feel like based on his line, none of the three are possible, and conclude he has been drawing to a flush. Here is the conundrum...do I check and potentially lose value, or do I bet out and possibly induce a fold? Based on the two hours I was with him at the table, if he had the perceived nuts he would always bet the river, so I pretended to miss, and checked. Sure enough he puts me all -in, and I call. He mucks 2s6s. And boom, back up to even.

I drop some chips for an hour and then pack it up, down 15 for the session. You do the math and say, hey, you DO have enough money for the buy-in today! Well, I paid for Bill's Burger Bar with cash. Fail! More to come after today's antics.

Bodog f**ks us all in the ass pardon my French.

What might very well be the most ridiculous software update since Windows Vista, Bodog has succeeded in alienating every skilled poker player, flung open wide an inevitable wave of collusion, and reduced the game of poker to an arcade game in one fell swoop.

If you don't know already, EVERY POKER table on Bodog has gone anonymous - in other words, no more names, just seat numbers. No indication of who is sitting there, which eliminates a HUD's usefulness, or the ability to take any notes. What's more, the update looks and sounds like very little thought had been put into it.

But I see where and why this 'update' has taken place.

Read this statement from Bodog's VP. An abridged version of this article is basically, screw the grinders. On the surface, this whole 'recreational poker model' looks, sounds, and literally reeks of short-sighted judgment. If you read 2+2, players are withdrawing in droves, crying foul at this unannounced plundering of one of the few US-friendly poker sites remaining. Why lose all this business? they will certainly lose mine, as I'll be pulling my substantial bankroll there as fast as their processors will let me. But I think this radical move runs deeper.

Merge has already felt the crunch. They halted accepting US players, and blocked play from 'dangerous' states like New York and Kentucky. Bodog's poker traffic since Black Friday jumped 97%. This 'revolutionary game-changer' that is the Bodog update is not meant to progress - it's meant to eradicate. They know exactly what they are doing - they want the grinders off the site so they don't get in trouble with the DoJ. I highly doubt they even want poker to remain part of their model at all. If they do, they want it to be a game of chance, not of skill - how to do that? Eliminate the edge by making everyone anonymous. What is incredibly frustrating to those of us who enjoyed playing on the site, is that it seems so incredibly asinine to make such a business move - but in the big picture, this is exactly what Bodog needed to do to keep their sportbook and casino intact, and stay viable for the US market in the long term. they'll make more money on all the Super Bowl bets they will take then they would in six months of collecting poker rake -- not to mention that comparatively, poker is 'honorable' in comparison to sports bettors. Words like win rate and BB/100 don't apply to sports and casino bettors...they keep their balances online - fewer withdrawls means less risk, and more $ in the long run for Bodog's coffers.

So, it's sad, but ultimately understandable. I've investigated other options, but Merge is locked for me, and no other site comes close in terms of volume. It looks like my online pay might very well be coming to an end.

Dine n' Dash

IF you've been reading my blog, you know all about my amazing November. One of my conundrums about it is the massive bankroll I am sporting on Bodog. I seem to be constantly thinking about what might happen if one day I wake up and it goes the way of FullTilt or Poker Stars and getting my money out becomes impossible. But, I'm also enjoying playing at higher stakes for the first time, well, ever online. So I have tried to put those fears out of my mind...for now.

Now I know certain people are going to fault me for this process, but I have been doing the Dine n' Dash method of playing cash online. While playing 50 and 100NL, if I go up one buy-in, I leave. That could be 10 minutes or 2 hours. Granted, these levels have been almost ridiculously soft at times and I am sure my long term winrate would be much better if I grinded more, but...you know what, I don't really enjoy doing that. Why do it if I am not enjoying it? If it makes me happy to leave showing a profit, then I should leave when I feel that way. Granted, it doesn't always go that way ( I left with a 2 buy-in loss last week), but by and large, I've left the tables with a $100+ profit. And, if you block your brain from extrapolating the eventual demise of Bodog, that could easily equal $1500 or so profit from the site monthly.

So, I am going to stop withdrawing at around $4000...40 buy-ins for 100NL. And see how that goes.

In other news, hotel rooms are booked for the WSOP Circuit Event. I plan on playing in two events while I am there....one of which may be the Omaha 8 event. I'll also try to satellite into the Main and play lots o' cash. If you plan on being there Dec 6-10, let me know!

Borgata Poker Open Final Table!!!!!!!

That's right folks....yours truly outlasted 253 runners and made it to the final table of the $500 NLHE Bounty tournament, and if you add in the 8 bounties I scored, I went out in 7th for just a little over 4K. You can read all about it at www.borgatapokerblog.com.

Without a doubt this has been my finest month of poker, like, ever. 2 Bodog scores ($9100 and $700) and now my first ever Event Final Table!!!! Sure, I've cashed in some Borgata events, but all min cashes. To add to the fun, I had Josie there to help cheer me on (she busted out but apparently killed it at the cash tables), and Hoyazo, whose link I cant seem to find, bubbled out of the final table in tenth! So bloggers were representing this week at the Borg.

I wish I could be like Jordan and take notes about pivotal hands....I know, at some point I busted out 8 people. Unfortunately I can only remember clearly when my bustout occurred.....all in with 8's versus 6's preflop ( I shoved with about 12BB's on the button), and they guy spikes the 6 on the turn. Ewwww! I can give a general overview, though....Throughout the grueling 14 hours I played some of the best poker of my life - I was focused and patient, bluffed in some great spots, and actually never was at risk for ALL my chips until the final table. I had some memorable doubleups, AA v KK, AA v. QQ, KK v. AK.....these ALL happened to me....and all held up. The one break I do remember that resulted in a bit of a suckout was AK v. 55 where I squeezed a shorter stack...the flop came 10 9 10, blank on the turn then a 9 on the river, counterfeiting his hand and busting him. The biggest flurry of chips came against the biggest stack at my table when we were down to 3 tables...I dont quite remember the blinds, but I min-raised into him with AA, knowing that a few other times he had 3bet anyone coming in that light. He did indeed do that - and I shoved, and he prett much snap called, with QQ....and it held up.....I had about 178K in chips and this doubled me up to 350K, and there were so many chips it almost took me an orbit to organize them.

At the final table I was card dead....literally when it was folded to me with 8s I knew I had to make a move before I got run over. This whole experience though - wow, exhausting...it makes me wonder if I could ever do the WSOP. I mean, I played a Borgata Open Main Event for 3 days, but for some reason...maybe it was the structure, or whatever, it felt nothing like this tournament.

So far November has been a $14K month? That's so incredible and unbelievable. Coming up....the WSOP Circuit Event in AC, and you bet I will be there with bells on trying to extend this streak!!!

Incredible, #2. Really. Incredible #2.

I know that despite yesterday's events, where I got extremely lucky through 658 runners, that I am a decent tournament player. I'm patient - I pick good spots, get it in good, and have a pretty good record of cashing in things, live and online. Black Friday has sort of numbed me, though, as it has many people, almost out of poker entirely - without a doubt this new cash infusion will have me playing more live, but - I don't know, I've got this online too. So tonight, I decided to just hop into a $10 tournament, and this happened -

I know, right? Crazy. I hop in, and bink! I win it. Sure only 108 runners or something, and lower stakes, but...this time, I was in a zone. I felt calm - cool - collected. I realized, I didn't really care much about this tournament, I had plenty of money to play with. And it relaxed me. It let me play without fear. Despite that, I played my game, but it speaks so much to your mindset when you are playing poker...or for that matter, any sport where you are putting money on the line. Are you going to play $25 a hole when you know you're hooking your 3 wood? No. Not if you only have $100 in your pocket. Of course, a little sliver of my mind is like, so THIS is how pros feel when they get their first big score....

But I know that the downswings are there...I just got the best of it twice in a row. And now I have 10K in my Bodog account.

9K cash! Incredible.

I know no one even reads my blog anymore, but you know, you gotta tell someone.

On the poker front I've been playing with Big Apple Home Poker, a loose-knit group of folks who play $30-$40 buy-in tournaments in the city a few times a weeek live, which has been great for the ol' bankroll. They also play .25/.50 mixed games, which is also nice for my current stash - however, I will probably be making a few more trips to AC and the underground, because last night, I did the unthinkable. Granted, it might be incredibly difficult to actually GET this money, but look below...

This is easily my biggest online cash to date, and let me tell you, it was probably the craziest 7 hours of poker ever played online. I've literally just been killing time on Bodog...I had some cash on there and so I've just been playing a sng here and there, but then last week I got this email to enter a freeroll for the 100K tournament. Well, I won it. So, I decided, what the heck. I'll play it. For the first few hours I played solid patient poker, not really even paying much attention while I watched football - letting Tracker tell me people's VP/PFR tendencies, value betting my solid hands, not really getting speculative at all unless I was in position, and suddenly, out of 658 people, I saw myself with around 200 people left. In the next hour, I had some unbelievable suckouts (chopping with a full straight on the board when I was behind, filling out Q10 to a straight flush against the nut flush, crazy stuff like that) and not only had I cashed, but somehow had made it to the final table. I finally busted in 3rd when my K5 didn't hold up against k9 with two kings on the board, and became (hopefully) 9K richer - just like that.

The funny thing is that I didn't jump up and down, cheer, anything like that - I knew it would be a pain in the ass to even get this money - it appears Bodog will only allow it to be withdrawn only $800 at a time in my case, and even then with a hefty charge from Western Union - but in NY state it appears that is the only way I will get it. But wow. It was pretty incredible.

My two cents...oh, wait, it's in my confiscated bankroll....

Ok, so what many say was inevitable, happened. America has been kicked out of the party. Now what? Interesting that DC passed an online poker bill today...and guess what umbrella it is under? The DC Lottery. MILLIONS of Americans gamble every day with their Powerballs, Pick 6s, Mega Millions, and the like, and while I am fully aware that the chrges filed have more to do with illegal bank activity than a question of whether or not Americans are gambling, I find it ironic that the lottery business in our country largely goes unregulated - taxed, but not regulated. The South Carolina "Education" Lottery is supposed to help fund, well, education. But do we really get to see the books? Do South Carolinians get to see where all the money they gamble goes to? No. Several states claim that their lotteries go to several worthwhile causes, but is there any concrete evidence that they go there? Not that I have found. My point is this...suppose a lottery version of the UIGEA was passed, but 7-11s and the like still sold tickets, arguing that the rule was unclear. then the Fed, without warning, shuts you down and thousands of Americans hold winning numbers...how would Americans feel? And this is a game of CHANCE. Pure chance. Granted, we dont need to funnel money illegally to pay for our lottery tickets, but we are essentially depositing money to a 'site', and it is within our rights to do so. Why are lotteries tolerated, but games of skill are not? why does the government, saddled with trillions in debt, not want to regulate something that in essence is a more sensible form of gambling than a quick pick at your local gas station? These are questions that are no easy to answer, as our country is filled with these sorts of oxymoronic situations. As for my blog, well....I currently live nowhere near a casino right now, unless I go back to New York - and right now I am not sure I will. I think Bodog, Carbon, Victory, Cake, a lot of sites have avoided this lawsuit, but is it at all wise to deposit there? It would be great if someone knew the answer.

Been a long while...

I can't believe my last post was January...but a lot has happened in the past months. I uprooted myself from NYC to Atlanta for work, and might consider staying here a while. Now, his has been advantageous in many ways, but....

It certainly hurts poker content.

No longer am I a short ride to AC, Foxwoods or Philly. No longer am I minutes away from a private game in town. My poker has been limited to online, where I have been treading water.

SNG's got boring to me around February so I decided to multi-table micro cash for a while, and while it is VERY slow going, my goal is to get my roll up to $1000 and then re-evaluate. I stacked some 90 mans along with my cash the other day, so I think I may mix it up a bit to keep it interesting. I do miss touching actual cards.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 533733