What a Sick Weekend!

Wow what a sick weekend! Before I go into details why, I would like to say happy 1.5 years Amy =)!!! *KISSSS* (since your the only person reading this anyway lolol)...
On Friday we had a nice date planned for our 1.5 yrs, we went to Hannahs Bella Bistro (the best fine dining cuisine in waterloo hands down), and I ordered a seafood pasta and Amy ordered the Chicken Supreme (which didnt turn out as good as it was before, oh well, its still the best place to go in waterloo). The seafood pasta was really good, in fact i'm sucha high roller there they custom made me a alfredo seafood pasta!! thats right!! lol =P... anyway after dinner we watched Knocked up for the second time, because Amy really really likes that movie and i happend to get her it for our 1.5 yrs!
When I first saw it, i didnt like it much but after watching it again i actually like it alot! I think it was probably because the first time i saw it i had a headache and was like 'hurry up finish movie so i can leave' as opposed to enjoying it and sitting through it! That was basically it for Friday.

Saturday was pretty interesting, The badbeat jackpot on UB was at 350K, and there was SO MANY people playing that afternoon/evening and trying to hit the jackpot. In fact, there was probably like 30 .25/.50 tables running (maybe even more), and if the jackpot hits at any of those tables everyone wins! It was funny because there was this one guy that had a Volunatry put in pot$ of 1%, LOL so he was just folding every hand and waiting for the jackpot to hit. Anyway so I decided to play 3 tables of .25/.50 because i figured if it hit, i would make 300$+ per table so 900 bucks! I ended up playing ALL day palying SUPER tight from like 5pm to 2am and IT DIDNT HIT!!! GRRR.....However, despite only make small amounts multi tabling the cash game, I did very well in the FT 5$ 18person SNG's. In fact right now out of the 3 times I've played it this weekend, I placed 1st, 2nd, 2nd with andrew coming second in the first place finish lol. The players are pretty awful and if i'm lookin for some easy money i'm definatly gonna play those more!

Sunday was kinda dissapointing because I went out to do some work at 345pm and the jackpot hit at 4pm =(... oh wells... it was in a diff stake tho but still sucks. After I finished lame school work I multitabled FT again playing 2 .25/.50 cash games and a couple of sngs. I played really really well in the SNG as well as in the cash games and I ended up the day making around 250$. What a sick day!!
After calculating my wins for the whole weekend i'm lookin at about 300-350$ made in just the last two days. Thats pretty awsome and definatly builds on my confidence that I know what I'm doing.

This is the first weekend where I played the most poker probably in my life, and i'm definatly glad the results were very very good. I prolly played like 10-13hrs over the last two days and i'm enjoying it so much! Unfortunatly stupid school work is gonna build up and I highly doubt i can even play a lot for the next week or so because I have quite a bit of assignments due (they decided to plop them all on one week) and midterms the next week =(... but I'm definatly gonna stick with my resolution from the last post that I am going to be playing at least 1 hr a day, just so I dont get all rusty and crappy after a week again.

All in all, it was an awsome weekend and awsome results!

-Ian

its been a while... and i'm rusty already

wellllllll, its been a while since ive played poker. up until maybe 2 days ago, i havnt played in a week straight. Which is pretty dissapointing for me because i'm never gonna reach my goal of 2k if i dont step it up! I havnt been playin b/c ive been working on my stupid cs349 assignment which took ALL week. Anyway, after not playin for a week i was a little 'rusty', and i found myself playin a lot tighter then i would have, because i was doubting certain situations a little. The first few hours of playin again was pretty brutal b/c i was super super tight, and limping with hands that i would never limp with b/c i just wasnt confident in my game no more! I wasnt making any big mistakes or playin bad, i was just playin like 20x tighter then i should be playing because i wasnt quite in my 'comfort' zone. After a couple of hours i was settling back despite losing 100+ dollars, there wasnt any hands i played poorly. My only criticism to myself is that i was just playin too tight pre-flop and not trustin my reads 100% like i used to.

The hand i lost my whole stack on was when i flopped the absolute nut straight with 98o on a 76Tcc board with 2 limpers behind me in the BB. I fired out 3/4 the pot (dont remember the amount), first limper pushes all in instantly overbetting the pot, and the guy behind him raises to 30 bucks LOL. I pushed instantly and the guy obviously called. I was shouting 'no club no pairing the board PLZZZZZ', turn paired the board and that was that TT wins. gg.

Although, despite taking a bad beat Amy pointed out an interesting way to play the hand. She suggested since i practically knew the second limper had to have a set, why not just call him down to the river and if it pairs, i'll muck and hopefully only lose 50$ on the hand. My initial argument was, 'why would i do that, i have the best hand, i should put all my chips in and hope it holds.' However I guess that could of been a safe way to play the hand without putting in my whole stack and savin some $$.
But the thing is on the turn the guy was pushin the rest of his stack in for sure regardless if it paired, so i guess if it paired i could of saved myself some money (i dont even know if i would of wanted to fold, especially with the pot so gigantic)..regardless playing both ways is perfectly fine as i was a huge favorite to win that big juicy sexy pot. Anyway, thats pretty much it for that hand.

So after my short break and becoming rusty , i realized that i can't keep taking short breaks from poker because i find myself getting curious and not fully trusting my reads on situations, as a result of being rusty i would then call off small/medium bets on the river just to satisfy my curiosity when i already knew he had the hand he was representing (this happened quite a bit in the last few days, and everytime i was still right!). So I have decided that, just like any sport where you have to 'exercise' to stay in shape and practice to maintain your skills, well pokers a mental game and i need to keep playing and staying in shape mentally, because at my stage right now i am still a learning player so taking big breaks will be very damaging to my learning curve because i will have to back-track and learn stuff/regain confidence on things that i have already learned when i shouldnt. So I have decided that, after my midterm tomorrow and after i finish an assignment due next week, my new resolution is:

1. everyday I will get at LEAST one hour of poker in, regardless of time/assigments/things to do. I will MAKE that hour everyday, and make it happen!
2. thats it.. lol

I think since i've already proven myself to be a +EV player, that playing this much will make me a lot closer to my goal then i've ever been!

Anyways, thats it for now, and I hope to keep my resolution and I'll let you know how it goes!

-Ian

FINALLY! I GET TO SUCK OUT LOLLLLLL

Soo

After 4 hours of .25/.50, which consisted of just folding and getting raised every time i bet into a pot. I was down like 20 bucks... I just sat there patiently when this hand occured:

I have AQ in the SB

CO raises to 1.5 and me and 1 limper calls

Flop: Tc Th 9s.

Pretty good board.. I figured the guy who raised has AQ or something like that because he raised with 1 limper. and the limper probably has a pocket pair. I lead out betting 2.5

limper folds and CO raises to $6.50. Theres no way he has a Ten here.. I put him on KK and AA. and decide to try to push him off the hand representing a T. So i call.. keep in mind this is SUCH A MARGINAL CALL and i was just tired of 4 hours of folding and letting people run me over LOL

turn Jh giving me a open ender.

Since im trying to sell my story of the tens, I lead out again for 10$. He calls. This reinforces the fact that he has a scared kings or aces.

river 8c. NICE!!!!!! All in! Even though I was planning on pushing anyways.

He calls with 9h 7h

and I rake in a big pot haahahahha

His play was really wierd because I never though he would have 97.. I played it like he had kings.. meh. it all worked out! haha

Back in TO for the weekend! Omaha is quite fun!

Well, today was a pretty fun day overall for poker.... I started the day playing a super duper long cash game session of .5/1.... in fact it was the longest session ever lasting almost 3hrs straight! It started going really really bad as I was playin 3 tables, and was down 80$ due to a couple of bad beats and unfortunate timing(preflop raises encounterin re-raises etc). However i stuck around and ended up playin 2 tables instead, and over the course of 3 hours i went from -80 to about +60, then i played two hands VERY horribly, to end the day -5... ill post the hand that i played very badly, it went something like this:

i pick up KK at early-middleish position, guy before me raises to 3.50, hes been bleedin chips off pretty badly and i was pretty sure he was on tilt, so i was thinking about raisin to 12, but i decided not to because if i kept my hand hush hush i could probably get his entire stack from a bluff by him...however the downside is i had to hope no one else would call behind me, and i decided 'lets gamble!'... (the table was playin pretty snug so this was reasonable), well unfortunately i got 2 callers behind me and the SB called as well =\... i was regrettin not raisin...

flop is 24Qdd, SB checks,
original raiser cbets 7$ into a 12$ pot.... i elected to cold call this because i was worried about someone makin a hand that would beat mine, especially with so much action preflop.... anyway 2 guys behind me fold... SB raises to 30$.... lol...i knew something like this was going to happen with so many callers! original raiser mucks and i muck..... oh wells...very correct fold.

anyway, after dinner i played the 1500$ guaranteed on UB tonight, i did pretty well being mostly average stack all day, then when we got near the bubble i misplayed one hand and it dropped my stack to like 2k from 6k, but i managed to grind my way back up to 4k again (this was still super short with a M of like 6)... anyway i ended up getting my whole stack in preflop with AJ vs a guy with 4k as well holding KJ.... he rivered a straight on me with 10 ppl left to the bubble... oh wells shitty luck..

the highlight of my day was defiantly playing lots of Omaha lol.... ive been playin 1c/2c Omaha just to kill time and donk around the last few days, and i must say its pretty fun! that and i ended up making pretty good money for 1c/2c haha.... the people there are SO bad! im starting to enjoy that game more and i wouldnt mind playin some more in the future, maybe even for higher stakes?? hmmm, not until i get better at Holdem!

Man i played a lot of poker today, and its surprising that i played well with so little sleep. There was only maybe 4-5 hands all day that i can think of where i played it badly. I woke up at like 9am with maybe 8hrs or less of sleep and i managed to play so well all day, like 6 months ago i could NOT play poker without full rest because i would constantly make stupid mistakes! (i never even went close to my Pokerstars unless i had like 9+hrs of sleep lol) and now i can run on very little sleep because my post-flop play and reading abilities is practically automatic now which is really good. This is good because in the past i used to run out of endurance during long tournaments and stuff and play bad near the end, and now it doesnt happen anymore....definatly a sign of how much i've gotten better lately.

anyway, in non-poker related talk im back in TO for the weekend to spend time with my family and koby! But you know, i came back on Sat and my parents went out to a party for dinner + all night and my sister went out with her Bf and just came home like an hour ago.... yay family time!! lol... im not complaining i got lots of poker time in anyway!!


Anyway this is a long post, and its getting late..... until next time my super-duper large audience out there!

Today was fun

Alright, so today i decided to play again, and while i was playin some tournaments on the side i decided to play some .10/.25 cash games with Andrew. Since i thought i am probably on my downswing i would play a couple of levels down from my usual so it doesnt hurt my BR too much. However as the day progressed, i was expecting lots of bad beats but i actually made quite a bit of money! I played very well in the cash game to make me up maybe 15-20$ until the following hand occured. (so maybe i wasnt on a downswing who knows.... )

This hand is definatly one of the most interesting hands this week, so i hope you enjoy!

I get QQ in middle position, and chemdogg420 raises to .85 in front of me (hes got 35$ behind). I thought about raising, but then I chose to just cold call this because he was getting bad beated really badly ALL day and i figured i can outplay him post-flop. I was actually expecting to hit a set on him b/c hes running so bad lol, i even said to Amy who was watching the hand beside me that 'im gonna hit a set on him'
all of a sudden phaethon re-raises to $2.75 from the big blind.
I was quite worried now but i figured i would call depending on if chemdogg re-raises or not. If chemdogg re-raised he had a monster and im folding asap. Anyway chemdog just cold calls and i cold call and we go 3 handed to the flop.

Flop (board: 8h 2h 7d):

phaethon checks. I WAS REALLY WORRIED ABOUT THIS CHECK FROM PHAETHON, ITS VERY POSSIBLE THAT HE HAS 88/77 FROM THAT CHECK
chemdogg420 bets $8.35.
I was worried about chemdogg because since he just cold called phaethons raise, I was pretty sure he had an underpair to my Queens, and he did not have KK, or AA because if he did he would have moved in pre-flop for sure (especially against 2 opponents he would want to isolate to only have his kings or aces heads up)
I decided the safest move here is to call and see what chemdogg does on the turn, and if paethon raised or moved in i was out of there so fast.
Paethon folded. - BIG SIGH OF RELIEF, NOW I CAN DEAL WITH CHEM!
turn (board: 8h 2h 7d 5d)
chemdogg420 goes all-in for $24.16.
**** he went all in INSTANTLY biiiig tell.... so right now i have two situations that i have to deal with.
1. he has a set, 8's and 7's
2. he has an underpair like TT, 99, JJ (we ruled out KK and AA from above).
However given the fact that he pushed it all in INSTANTLY, and put in such a huge OVERBET, i was 90% sure that he had an underpair and i figured he had JJ. The reasoning is simple, if he had a set of 8s or a set of 7s, why would he be trying to push me off my hand? especialy on a board like that!
So after some thinking, and amy yelling 'dont do it!' i called and we went to the river and showdown.
River (board: 8h 2h 7d 5d Ac):

Showdown:

chemdogg420 shows Td Th.
chemdogg420 has Td Th 8h 7d Ac: a pair of tens.
IK828 shows Qh Qs.
IK828 has Qh Qs 8h 7d Ac: a pair of queens.


Hand #49036826-20580 Summary:

$2.92 is raked from a pot of $73.37.
IK828 wins $70.45 with a pair of queens.


what an interesting hand! i think i played that hand pretty well!
in other news ...stupid UB, i was playing a tournament and i had the tournament window open (whcih tells me how many people are left, avg stacks, etc), and i was sitting at about 4.4k in chips , while the average was like 3kish, so i thought i was in good shape. Like most programs this window would update itself and tell you how many ppl are left, and stack sizes so i left it open for like 2 hrs. i was kinda confused why no one was busted out for 2 hours but i continued to think i was above-average and that the large stacks at my table was just a one-time thing and this table just ahd big stacks... but later on i decided to close and open the window again and BAM it refresehd... WTF... lol now i was super short stack with avg at 6k and only 120ish ppl left...hahaha... so then i had to play push/fold and i busted out.... lesson learned! dont assume those tournament windows update themselves.....

Owned!

Andrew Here... just going on a rant about how i OWNED this guy in a cash game

Ok, so I'm sitting at work and quite card dead.. no worries I got lots of time to burn.

Then I pick up KK
and this fish who litterally plays every hand and tries to outplay people and gets super lucky calls. flop q24 two diamonds. he checks, I pot. he calls. turn a diamond
he checks, I check. River he pots.. it wasnt that much maybe like 6 bucks.. so i decide to make the call and lose. I made a pretty bad/undeciplined call but meh its 6 bucks. The way he was playing i knew i would get all his money that he luck boxed with


so like 40 minutes later i pick up 88 UTG. I limp, that same fish limps. sb completes and checked by BB. flop 668. We all check
turn K
we all check to fish
who pots it. I min raise him because hes a call station and I dont want him to know I have a monster yet.. River a blank and i bet 2 dollars (VERY WEAK). He raises me like 5x the amount and I go all in and he calls. And that was that, I took all 30$ from him just being patient even though he owned me with the KK hand.

lalalalalalala so its 630 right now and im waiting for my stupid physics class to start, and i have nothing to do so ill just talk about some random things....

poker hasnt been quite so good right, since ive been playing a lot more this year i think this is really the first time ive encountered a 'downswing'! hoooray my first!
I hope i'm wrong, but so far with the way things have been running its variance time to pwn me.

it started yesturday, when my bro and i decided to start a table at the .5/1 on UB (b/c we get extra bonus's in ultimate points for starting a table). We played heads up for a while and then someone joined, and this guy is AWFUL. An example of his awfullness is shown in the example of (i only remember vaguely so its not very specific): Andrew raises with 77, noob calls, flop is 622r, guy checks, andrew fires 3/4 pot, guy calls, turn is a blank, he checks, andrew fires again, he calls, river is a Q, he checks andrew puts him all in (very bad bet, i told him he shoulda checked), the guy calls with 88... wtf?... anyway after he joined as usual we decided to team up against this guy because well, theres no point in taking each others money right? well 90% of the time we would be pwning people when its 2vs1, however this guy was just luckboxing us out of the water and playing super bad and getting paid off everytime. I dont think andrew was on his downswing, i just think he played bad in general (like the hand above, that was horrible). anyway, after maybe 20 minutes of raping us, he had quadrupled his buy-in of 30$ to $100, and I was down 40 and andrew was down 30... no big deal as these are small numbers, but i just thought it sucked b/c he wasnt even outplayin us, just gettin lucky, oh wel thats poker. After 20 min, if this guy was any good he would have either thought these two guys are fishes, i should stay to take more money, however he left and ran away with his winnings wtf! lol... if he had stayed longer i woulda waited his luck out and take it all back! (i hope)... anyway after that i didnt think much about him being luckier then me, but then i decided to play again today and got some pretty rough beats.... like my aces losing to KJo on a 789r board and some other random hands. So now i definatly think its my downswing time and its time to take a couple of days break (although im itching to play SO bad), we'll see how things go when i can re-focus and get myself off of tilt and into my game.

this post and grammer prolly really sux but class is starting soon so i was just rushing to put w/e in... haha... yeah....

New setup and first day of school!

LAME today was the first day of school and its already boring and stupid as usual.... so lets talk about something more interesting...
Yesturday i finished up setting up my new 'workstation' lol... i bought a nice comfy leather chair and set up my laptop and started running duel monitor action! check out the pics i attached! (ignore Amy in the background)... its pretty nice because before Amy and I were jammed in my room with a super small desk thats meant for one person. Theres a lot more space now and its definatly more enjoyable for me to play poker, i mean work hard on my assignments for school.

Heres a pic:



Other then that nothing interesting has been going on.... today was the first day of using my work station, i played a little today for like an hour and made very little $, but then i got a big headache and decided to quit... there werent really any interesting hands as i played very standard and nothing crazy happened. Hopefully i will have more interesting posts as time goes along!

Oh yeah, another update I totally forgot about, incase you didnt notice i put up a new banner and i am in the process of making this blog look fancier if i have time! so stay tuned! ( i didnt make the banner i stole it from the net lol). If you have any suggestions to improve/make this site more interesting let me know.

-Ian

NEW BLOG FOR THE NEW YEAR!

Happy new year !!

I was bored today so I decided I would create a blog for myself and my bro. I have no idea what to put on this blog right now (and in the future), but I'll probably just post random things that are interesting to me and/or Andrew if anyone cares.


The new year is going to be an interesting one because for the first time ever Andrew is going to be separated with me, I will be going to school in Waterloo and he will be working at UltimateBet.com for the next 4 months... things should be quite interesting!!

Not only that, next year is going to be a pretty interesting year for both of us, in that both of us have decided to play a lot more poker, and get to the level that we know we should be. I have already set a goal to bring my BR up to 2k for the next 4 months mainly focusing on cash games with tournaments on the side. I've had a lot of success playing cash games and I recently moved up to the .5/1 stakes on UltimateBet with quite a bit of success.

I just realized I can give author permissions to other people, so I'm probably gonna give permissions to some family members and people so they can post and blog with me too!


-Ian