Bodog Freeroll Impressions

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 31, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Well I decided to be different and play in the Bodog Freeroll sponsored by CardsChat. 70 people, 5 paid, and I've never tried the site out.

Bodog Impression: I like the table and layout. I hate that HEM doesn't work (no HHs!?), hate the bet slider, and was chuckling at the traffic. Decent graphics. Heard mixed reviews about payouts when I asked about it at the tables.

Freeroll Impression: I had a lot of fun playing with CC regs that I normally don't play with, like Eagle Jim, Buckster, DJ11, and more. Outside of that some idiot "mclarkj" decided to trash talk to me *after* I was eliminated after two straight coolers. It left a VERY sour taste in my mouth to think that is normal in CC freerolls.

So how'd you lose? Well, I finished in 11th place ... Eagle Jim had half my stack (I had about 8.5k and blinds were 200/400) and pushed AIPF and I have KK. His A6 hits the straight. Ugh. Next hand I get QJ in the CO so I shove and sure enough KK is on the BTN and I don't hold up. The end.

Will you ever freeroll again? I doubt I'll ever MTT again! Man everytime I play an MTT I'm reminded how horribly lame they are. I might play in a super secret CC MTT but I have no idea when the next one is.

Bye Bye Stupid Google Ads

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 30, 2008 in mafia | 3 comments

So I had Google Ads on here for 2 months I think ... and accumulated a cool $8 for my efforts of pimping out my blog. I get about 50 readers a day on here so I thought it would amount to more but apparently times are tough for the tofu-eating Northern Californian sad-sacks at Google. Anyways long story short, I found out through a friend (thanks KD!) that they were feeding ads for flipping poker bots! W - T - F! So as soon as I saw that myself today, I took the ads off and replaced them with banners promoting a site that's not even up and running (but will be in late January).

Also I think today might be "mafia day" or something. Maybe some 3betting/4betting article got out and EVERYONE on Stars read it because over the 1 hour I played today I was seeing 3betting stats globally 300% higher than I normally see them. Yes, I checked the stats.

So I did something smart, I adjusted and just waited with good hands (played tighter than normal) and got KK AIPF against QQ. I won, and came out a nice winner for the session.

Hooray for Heater Day (and did the year just end?)

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 30, 2008 in General | 0 comments

Today started out with two banner sessions each worth +75. There were some really nice heater hands that were able to squeek in this month so that I'm not totally hating December! Hooray! The bankroll has definitely swelled the last week, and it was overdue ... and with the blessing of the coach, I dipped the toe into 100nl 6max today for a quick 45 minute (200 hand) session. The 100nl game seems to have slightly more people who know what they are doing, but that's about the only difference from my first glimpse as compared to 50nl. And FYI I ended up +$9 at 100nl today

I'm not sure if I will be able to play at all tomorrow. I have no set plans but if I am feeling better (and my wife) I think we will end up getting out of the house for a while, and there will not be time for poker. Plus I need my rest, so I am not sure if I will play that "one last session" before the year is done. If I don't I can be happy that I secured Goldstar for next month and had a good month profit wise after it looked *very* bleak early on.

The end of year post (which I am hoping to make rather long and retrospective) will come once I am sure I have played my last hand of the year. After that on the 1st I will write my 2009 overall goals (although I keep having trouble figuring them out due to the nature of the UIGEA legislature being up in the air). I played 3 210fpp and tanked in all three. I hate them now.

AK Hip Hip ... Hooray

You've Seen The Fish Suck Out 37 Times in December. Chalk 1 up for Ice (finally!)

The biggest pot won during my short 100nl session

Wild Wacky Sunday & Two of the Worst Coolers I’ve Ever Had

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 29, 2008 in coolers, poker, winner | 0 comments

Today was Super Donkfest Sunday and featured two of the largest online poker tournaments ever (I did not participate), and the most traffic I have ever seen on Stars (at one point 250k). I also enjoyed a FullTilt Poker flashback when Stars crumbled underneath the weight of the traffic and the ring games got shut down basically (nobody could sit down at a table once someone left).

Once that all got taken care of and before and after the Chargers decimating the Broncos, I got in 2,132 hands and also had another coaching session. This time my coach brought along another one of his students, Jesse, who is a pretty smart guy and a good player. During the session, Jesse said the sentence I hate to hear the most (no offence against him, he dind't know):

"You run horrible" - direct quote (twice during session)

It's well documented that my coolers are definitely from the twilight zone but today definitely takes the cake for "top 5 all year WTF hands" ... and somehow I ended up in the positive. The good thing is that my coach was very impressed that I didn't tilt at all during the session. Yay for me.

You would like to see some of these hands? Okay. First I have a pretty section just for KK!

Standard KK Cooler Part 1

Standard KK Cooler Part 2 "Revenge of the Shortstacker"

Standard KK Cooler Part 3 "Cardrack 76/26/2 player hits"

That one really bit but she had been hitting EVERYTHING within the last 30 minutes there which is why I slowed down. Can't believe her PF play with AT off. Unreal.

KK ... OMG WTF ARE YOU SERIOUS?!

Again, I can't believe the preflop play of the villain here. The stats just don't matter but I take pride in getting it in way ahead here. Just a bad cooler.

So that is it in terms of just KK coolers, but I got a 1 more that you'll love...

Worst Cooler IMO of my entire career

Yep. I was being sweated during this hand too and all of us just said "NO F'ING WAY" all at the same time. I think we were even in harmony when we said it. Pretty unreal to have a boat and lose to the straight flush.

Anyways I imagine after all that negativity you'd like to see one or two hands where I win. Sure, no problem!

Huge Win for KK

Yes yes yes, turns out I can win ONE hand with KK afterall. Yay.

AA Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I liked this one, I can watch it over and over again.

So after all those ups and downs I ended up a winner today. Kinda amazing! The good news personally is that I somehow managed to retain goldstar for the month. I really wanted to keep goldstar, the FPPs are definitely worth something (right!?) and who knows what promotions are in the works at Stars that I might benefit from.

Anyways, that's today and the crazy up and down day I had. Hooray!

5400fpp Sattys to the Million SUCK

Posted by icemonkey9 on Dec 27, 2008 in 5400fpp | 2 comments

So I just played in my first 5400fpp satty to the millions, and boy did it SUCK. On my right was JohnSmiley1 (arguably the best HU player on stars), a SuperNova, and a SuperNova Elite. Man did THAT suck. Everyone played super tight, ridiculously tight ... and I got 1 hand.

My Biggest Hand

Yeah ... I guess getting action isn't exactly my game.

Beginning of the End, Part 1

A gorgeous 3 outer on the river caught by the villain spells the beginning of the end for icemonkey9.

The End of the End, Part 1

Preflop I'm only a 38% favorite "against the field" but I hit the turn with my Queen. I have to avoid any Ace (2 left), a Jack (3 left), or a 3 (2 left) for a total of 7 outs plus whatever clubs are left (just noticed that). Just not my day.