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.