I’m taking a 4 day weekend starting tomorrow and heading up to northern Michigan with my buddy. It will be the first time I’ve had an extended time away from my family since my daughter was born 2.5 years ago. While I’ll missy my girls, It will be nice to get away, get back to basics, and de-stress. We’ll be staying at my wife’s aunt’s cottage. It’s fully equipped, and I expect we’ll have a lot of fun.

So, no updates after today until probably Tuesday.

I’m old. That means that I remember Van Halen in the David Lee Roth years. The 3 of you that read this probably don’t know who Van Halen is. People have been waiting for this reunion for over 20 years. Well, I’m going to see them in a few weeks, and things look favorable. Bring back the rock! Hopefully they don’t break up before the show comes to my town.

Bought one yesterday at the grocery store. Boston butt, aka pork shoulder, is what most good pulled pork is made from. I fired up the slow cooker this morning, and threw it in there with some barbecue spices, minced onion and garlic, apple cider, apple cider vinegar, honey, a tiny bit of barbecue sauce, and some hot sauce.

It should be ready just in time for the 4pm football game. I can’t wait.

No poker the past few days. I’ve been enjoying the hot weather and going to my mother-in-law’s pool with my family instead. My daughter loves it. It’s been nice, and I’m not sunburned, but it has made made tired. Yay!

Played a little. Blew it in the Stars .25 tourney. Had JJ, raised 3x, got reraised allin, called against what I thought was a resteal, but no, it was KK. Made me a short stack. Saw a cheap flop with K5s, flopped a straight and flush draw, shoved, got called by a straight and AA. No flush, I go from middle of the pack to out in like 5 hands near the bubble. Mom has been hovering in top 30 in chips.

Played ok on UB though, pretty tight for the most part < 20%, didn’t get many hands, and when I did flop some big hands, ended up getting caught by the river. Still managed to have a pretty solid night, back over $60. PTBB/100 is still a paltry 6.75. Ugh. That rake is killing me. I’ve paid 36.26 in rake over ~7.5k hands. On PS, my paid rake is 69.80 over ~40k hands.

Frustrated that I found a couple juicy tables, and the teachers kept criticizing the ‘dumb’ players, and pots went from 7 people in the hand and $1 pots to 2 people in a hand and .15 pots. Loose players would either tighten up or leave for fear of being ridiculed. I hate it because that’s how you make the big money, the guy that calls raises with Q5s and will call multiple streets with bottom pair. These supposed geniuses should shut their traps and let the bad players continue to play the way they play. Everyone gets sucked out on, quit whining. Blog about it or whatever, but don’t teach at the table. I get the nuts 1 or 2 times a night, I don’t want you telling someone they shouldn’t call my all in with top pair.

UB – $60.54/($18.02 pending)
PS – $80.15
FT – $19.50

So I took a week off from work and went on vacation. My mom rented a cottage, and I stayed there with my mom, wife, daughter and sister. While the weather was a little rough (rainy and cold), it was very relaxing and I had a great time. I did some sightseeing, shopping, eating, reading, relaxing, and just really enjoyed myself.

About halfway through the week, I went to an Indian casino in the area. They have nightly tournaments, and some cash games in a small poker room with about 10 tables. There was only one cash game being played at the time, and that was $2/$5 NL with a minimum buyin of $200. I promised my wife I wouldn’t blow a bunch of money, so I signed up for the nightly tournament – a $40 buyin + $5 add on + a single $20 rebuy. I planned on blowing all $65. The tournament structure was horrendous, it was basically a turbo with the blinds doubling every 20 minutes and a starting stack of T1000 in chips, with blinds at T25/T25, then T25/T50, and doubling from then on out.

I planned on playing it like I would a standard online turbo. There were about 65 people in the tourney, and it was only paying the top 6, so you have to play fast, steal, and push your big pairs hoping to get paid off.

The table appeared to be made up of all regulars that knew each other’s names. A couple were decent players, but mostly, I felt that I could outplay the table if I got any cards at all, which wasn’t happening. At one point, I got Q3 4x in a row. Because I was so card dead, I was able to steal the blinds a couple times.

After about 45 minutes, with blinds at 50/100, I got KK in MP with about 1150 in chips.

UTG calls
MP1 calls
I make a smallish raise to 250

I was trying to get someone to come over the top so I could get heads up and get some value. There had been a couple hands with some aggressive betting with questionable cards, so I felt I had a good opportunity to get reraised by UTG or MP1, who had both been aggressive. Instead they both call. I plan on pushing the flop if no A comes. If an A comes, I’ll bet 1/3 the pot with position.

Flop comes 732 with 2 diamonds. I’m going to push.

UTG checks.
MP1 pushes

I put MP1 on a flush draw and instacall. We have about equal stacks. The surprise is that UTG instacalls saying he’s priced in. I’m excited, because I think he has a flush draw too, which puts me way up front.

The dealer has us turn up our cards.

me – KK
UTG AdTd
MP1 QdJd

I’m excited but nervous because MP1 is drawing nearly dead, and UTG has 10 outs (3 aces and 7 flush cards). I’m about a 3-2 favorite over the ATs.

Turn Kd

Well, a diamond comes, but at least it gives me boat outs. I’m about a 4-1 dog. The dealer takes some time with the cards for some added suspense once everyone realizes I have a boat draw.

River is a blank.

Oh, but wait, I forgot to rebuy…

I rebought for the extra $20 and 1000 chips. I pushed once and everyone folded, I got a walk, and then with an M of 2, I pushed with K3o and got called by KJo and was gone.

-$65

I went to the desk, and they had the $1/$2 NL game started and seats open. The minimum buyin was $50, but I opted to buyin for $100. The players were terrible. It was no different than .01/.02 online. People calling all 5 streets with A high regardless of the bets or stack sizes of the players around. People pushing pocket pairs when they were clearly beat by an A on the flop. Tells abounded. Everyone was relatively easy to read. I was lucky enough to get it all in with a nut flush and get called by who knows what. At one point I was up to about $300, but after calling some raises with small pairs, and raising a couple high card hands preflop without hitting, I cashed out at $214, which paid for more than my tourney buyin. I maybe played 10 hands over the 3 hours at the table.

Overall, it was a good night and a great trip, and a great vacation.

I’m taking a vacation next week with my mom, sister, wife, and daughter, leaving this Saturday. I’ll be doing a lot of shopping, packing, and prep in order to get on the road (we’re driving 4 hours away and getting a cabin in the middle of nowhere), so I probably won’t be online much in the next two weeks. I plan on buying a couple books – one poker, one not, to read during my down time. I know we won’t have internet access, and probably won’t have cable, so it will be time to chill with family, which will be great. My mom, sister, and I will probably play some cards for fun in the evening. My mom still plays MTTs online, but she has some work to do on her game, so I hope to show her some things.

There are 3 casinos within an hour of where we are headed, and my mom wants to go, so I’ll probably take her. After doing some research, I’ve found that one of the casinos (20 miles from where we are staying) has Texas Holdem, but I have not been able to verify what limits they spread, or whether it is a limit or NL game. It would be nice to find a juicy table of 1/2 or 2/4 LHE, but I don’t think I’ll get that lucky, the smallest game will probably be like 5/10 or 6/12, and I’ll have enough money for one 20BB buyin and blow it all on AA capped preflop with 7 callers. I think I’d rather have two $100 buyins at 1/2 NL than one $240 buyin at 6/12 LHE. If you would have asked me two years ago, I’d would rather have had the limit buyin, but not anymore. Although, I think I’d get more enjoyment out of 10 buyins at 1/2, and then maybe my mom would feel comfortable enough to sit at the table.

Anyway, don’t expect too many updates in the next two weeks. If anyone has a poker book recommendation, post it in the comments before I leave!!!!!!!

I suppose I should cover some background about what I do and why, just so you can get an idea of where I’m coming from.

I waited until 2006 to start playing online. I missed the golden years. I had played in casinos and home games for several years, but I waited to start online, because I didn’t know if I trusted the sites to pay out once I started winning my millions. In addition, it took some convincing before my wife would part with a couple hundred bucks for me to start my adventure. At this point, especially with legislation getting kinda crazy, I’m not planning on re-depositing, so I’m going to grind my way up. I’ll deal with withdrawing when I get there.

I play on Pokerstars exclusively. The reason is pretty simple. I tried UB and PartyPoker, but UB had a terrible game selection, and PartyPoker did too. I didn’t want to put a ton of money online, because I have a family and a limited budget, so my bankroll precluded me from really playing on those sites. They don’t have the tiny .01/.02 games. Having a limited bankroll, I can’t spread it around.

Due to some poor choices, after building up my bankroll to about ~$800, I’ve blown most of it on WSOP satellites, a PS $215 Sunday Million buyin, Pokertracker software, and a couple of rounds in some larger games, ignoring good bankroll management strategy. Back in September of 2006, my online BR was down to a paltry ~$3.00. I decided to start playing .01/.02 NL, lower than I had ever played, where the minimum buyin is $1.00 to see if I could accomplish what Chris Ferguson was able to. Using the ‘Jesus Experiment’ guidelines (aka the 5% NL rule which I’ll cover that in another post), I was able to build up to about $250 again in a couple months. Once again, I got ahead of myself and played in some larger games ‘taking a shot’, and I’m back down to about ~$75.00. Overall, I’m clearly down some money in my online adventure, but I’m also clearly up for stakes where I have large hand samples. I’d like to think that I’ve just had a run of bad luck when I move up, and that’s the only thing keeping me in the micros, but it may be that I’m just not good enough to move up. We’ll see.

I play part time, probably less that 8 hours a week. Usually I play on nights when my wife is working and my daughter is asleep, or on a weekend night when everyone has gone to bed. I’ll usually 4-table .02 or .05 NL for an hour or two. I get in about 55 hands per hour per table, so I’ll get in about 200-400 hands a session a few times a week. I don’t have too many opportunities to play tournaments, because they take too long. I’d like to play more of them, but that’s the way my schedule is. When I do play them, I usually play the 45 man $1.20 buyin SnGs. I do fairly well in them, but not great.

My greatest online poker accomplishment is winning a $215 PokerStars Sunday Million seat in a 36 man FPP freeroll. I didn’t make it much past the first break. I’ve also won seats to several satellites viaWSOP and WCOOP supersatellites. I’ve come close to winning a couple satellites, but I’ve never gotten there.

My main game currently is 9 man .02 NL, buying in for $5. I have a bankroll for about 15 buyins right now. Most people suggest 20 buyins (the 5% rule again), so I’m pushing it a bit, but based on my Pokertracker stats, I’m confident that this gives me plenty of breathing room at this limit. I’ll explain why in another post.

I may talk about my home game and casino exploits, too, but I haven’t done much of either lately.

I’ll be posting my current BR at the end of each post just so everyone can keep track of how I’m doing.

BR=~$75.00