Freeroll

So, two days ago I busted in play chips on FTP. I had found that it was really hard for me to stay motivated. Maybe it was playing cash tables for a bit that did it, but grinding away at play chips lost all it's worth. With that, I decided to change up the philosophy a tad and go straight to the freerolls on UB. Luckily for me, that changed my luck almost instantly. They have a freeroll every hour that serves as a qualifier for a $1000 freeroll on Sunday. In addition to that, the top 20 out of the 30 who cash get actual cash too. A decent offer. Last night, one such freeroll started at 11:35. I, however, didn't make it to my seat until 12:30. With this, I had let my stack fall to 1100, but, at the same time, had let the field shrink from 4611 to around 1050. From there, I took over. I played beautifully, maxing out my sets and aces, stealing blinds during cold spells, making good lay downs, etc. I managed to stretch it all the way out, and grabbed a 4th place out of 4611. That was good for a shot at the $1000 freeroll on Sunday and $4 in the mean time. I'm pumped!! hahaha. So now it's back to the cash tables again. At last. Hopefully it'll last longer this time.

UB Points and Murphy1

So, earlier today, I had 6 bucks on UB but got terrible luck, bad play, and just more bad luck. So that's gone. Oh well. Now I'm trying to work my UB points up and go that route. Doing ok so far, but since I only started with 100 points, and the smallest sng is 100 points, there's not a lot of margin for error. But I'll post more about that as I go after it. Right now I have 200 total and I'm playing another sng. But anyways, many of you might be familiar with Murphy1 on UB. Sae pointed him out to me as a good player to watch, and up until now I've been impressed. Today I was watchin him play a rebuy where he was absolutely dominating. With 80ish left, he had 70k, with the average at about 16.5k and the blinds at 100/200. Absolutely destroying. And all of the sudden, he starts playin crazy aggressive. Pushing like crazy, and not gettin called for the most part, but showin bad hands. Sucked out a few times, but got caught showin ace rag several times. I understand that it's good to be aggressive with the big stack, but he would be pushing over the top of large raises with garbage quite often to say the least. It was unreal to watch him freefall and the get knocked out in 58th, 28 out of the money. Instantly he went to a $1/2 ring game where I didn't see what he bought in with, but he was at 43 when I saw him, so I'm assuming he tilted like crazy and dumped a bunch more. It was unreal to watch him just collapse, and it sure made me feel a lot better about losing my 6 bucks earlier. It was insane. Terrible play. I guess it happens to all of us.

I'm back (3/3 looool)

Did it again. Managed to finish ITM in the $5 MTT, good for just $7. First was $215. Why oh why can't I final table? I must not have been playing complete attention because all of a sudden I realized I was shortstack with T9000 and blinds at 600/1200. So I probably missed a ton of spots to steal, unfortunately. Ah well, we shall never know.

I'm starting to table talk a lot more, or at least yesterday I did. It really sped up the progress of the game and keeps it entertaining. Usually, I find watching the hands I'm not playing in highly boring and I'd rather open up Facebook or watch a movie or talk on AIM or something. Yesterday though, I saw most of the hands played at my tables, had fun chatting, and time flew by.

I just realized that UB added another pretty interesting tournament, a $3r $500 Gtd that starts at 9:00 AM. So, I decided to make a last of all the tournaments I would play if I had the money and time for them. One day, I hope I'll be able to. I'm really curious about what would happen if I just did nothing but play online poker for 6 months. I don't know if I'd get tired of it or get rich or go broke or what. I'm just... curious.

$3r $500 Gtd @ 9:00 AM
$20 $2k Gtd @ 11:00 AM
$60 $3k Gtd Bounty @ 11:30 AM
$10 $1.5k Gtd @ 12:00 PM
$10r $2k Gtd 6-max @ 12:30 PM
$100 $8k Gtd @ 1:00 PM
$15 $2k Gtd Bounty @ 2:00 PM
$5 $1k Gtd @ 2:30 PM
$50 $3.5k Gtd @ 3:00 PM
$10r $2.5k Gtd @ 3:30 PM
$10 $1.5k Gtd @ 4:00 PM
$60 $2.5k Gtd Bounty @ 4:30 PM
$6 $1.5k Gtd Bounty @ 5:00 PM
$20 $2.5k Gtd @ 5:30 PM
$5r $1500 Gtd @ 6:00 PM
$35 $7.5k Gtd Bounty @ 6:30 PM
$120 $20k Gtd Bounty @ 7:01 PM
$5 $1.5k Gtd @ 7:30 PM
$150 $20k Gtd @ 8:00 PM
$11 $4.5k Gtd Bounty @ 8:00 PM
$4 $3k Gtd Bounty @ 8:30 PM
$30r $19k Gtd @ 9:00 PM
$25 $6k Gtd Bounty @ 9:30 PM
$100 $9k Gtd @ 10:00 PM
$5r $3k Gtd @ 10:30 PM
$25 $6k Gtd Bounty @ 11:00 PM
$6 $1.5k Gtd Bounty @ 12:00 AM
$1r $1k Gtd @ 1:00 AM

God, that is delicious. UB has added some great tournaments. For those of you with low bankrolls, please check out the $4 Bounty that starts at 8:30 Central. There is $3000 Guaranteed! What value, wow. Also of good worth and at a good time is the $5 tournament that starts at 7:30. $1500 guaranteed there.

See y'all at the tables,
BnB

ZOMG TY UB

UB added a $5r $3k Gtd which just looks so yummy imo.

Obv I need like at least a $500 roll to play in it but knowing of its existence is exciting in itself.

I'm busto on UB and won't be back until paycheck day, which is in a week and a half.

Been playing play chip stuff cause I'm a gambler, ha. Feeling like I'll be playing really well when I get back. Thank you Baluga Theory. Will write an article about this in the future but it honestly might be the most important poker lesson I've ever learned. Google it.

I'm playing in a random $5 MTT as well as the $1r $1k Gtd tonight with the very last of my uPoints, ha.

I've been broke twice before and always use my last dollar or something to make something happen. Third time in a row?

Recovering

So last night was bad. Real bad. I was playing really well and had my overall stack up from 710k to 768k. Then I got dealt pocket kings and managed to play them slow enough but not just checking so that I got the only caller all in after the jack high flop. He showed KJo. Dominated. But of course, he hits his 2 outer on the river. Tilting a little bit. Then at another table, everyone leaves and it's just me and another guy heads up. So I play it accordingly, and start playin more aggressive. He, naturally, doesn't like that, and gets over aggressive when I have 5s. I put him all in, and he insta-calls with A8o. He misses, I make up what I lost with the kings earlier. But then he gets really overaggressive towards me, which pisses me off, and then when I lose a few bogus hands, TILT. MAJOR TILT. When it's all said and done, I'm down 200k all the way down to 510k. Ouch.

But then today's been better. At one table, the very first hand I get is AK. Flop come king high, I bet out, and get one caller. Turn is an ace. I bet a small bet, he reraises, I push, double up. Then later, same table, AK again. I lead out preflop from somewhere around utg+1 (6 person table). I get one caller. Flop comes AKx. I check, he bets big, I push, he calls with AQ. Thanks for playin. Up to about 150k at that table (bought in with 40k). Then later, I get ladies. Raise preflop, 1 caller, flop comes KQ7, 2 spades. I check, and he bets 6000 into the 6900 pot. I "think" for a long time, then call. The turn is a red 3, and I "think" again, and then bet 4200 into the 18,900 pot. He instapushes and I have never called anything so fast in my life. Hahaha. I don't even remember what he shows, but the river is another meaningless 3. Up to 240k. I ended up finishing the day at 660k. A good day. Gonna play a little more, then it's a live tourney tonight. You kids have fun.

BP

Good Night at the "Cash" Tables

Well, tonight started out real rough. I wasn't playing very well, wasn't very focused, and I was way too aggressive. I was playing a bunch of 10k sng's, and I would either win or bust in all of them. However, this was making my chip stack decline slowly but steadily. So when I got down to about 307k, I decided to mix it up and play some "cash" tables. I bought into 2 300/600 tables with 40k at each table. That's when I started hitting some massive hands, and managed to play a very solid big stack as well. There was a brief moment at one table when a guy sat to my left and continuously bet the pot from position and would repop me all the time. So I just watched and waited as he slowly rose above my stack that used to be 140k. Then came that one hand when he min raised preflop and then bet the pot that came all garbage. I reraised him, which he re-reraised yet again. I then pushed and he instantly folded. Probably not the wisest of moves on my part, but I had to trust my read. As for the night on the whole, I finished one table up 120k and the other up 140k, leaving my overall bankroll at a grand total of 611k. It was a really good night. I'll have to go back to those cash tables again.

A Little Introduction

Hey guys. Saeid's been askin me to blog for quite some time now, and here it finally is. I'm Michael, and I've been playing poker and actually understanding it (not falling in love with A3 because of the ace) for about 3 years. I'm that guy in the group of friends who loves watching poker, talking poker, and playing it, but still refuses to buy into a site. While it's been incredibly tempting seeing all my other friends do well with their buy ins, I'm resisting the urge and trying other ways instead.

I did a bunch of freerolls on UB, Absolute Poker, Pittbull Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and even Royal Vegas Poker for a while, but when it's 4000 people gunning for 18-27 spots and if you cash you get 60 cents to a dollar, it's tough to make any noise at all. Lately, however, I've turned to FTP because of the good play chip format. So now I'm that guy who grinds along on play chip tables.

About two weeks ago I hit my high at 1.3 million chips. Hahaha. It cracks me up that I have that much and no real money. But I then played in the 500k buy in tourney where the top 18 cash real money. The first time I came in 7th, raking in a whopping $2. With that, I played 5 $1.25 sng's, cashing in 3rd in the first 3, and bubbling the next 2, leaving me at $1.15. After busting in the next 500k tourney, I was left with 300k in play chips. Then today I busted 230th/736 in a dollar tourney where the top 72 cashed. So now it's back to the play chip tables. Grindin away. It's tough to stay focused after playin some cash games, and especially after cashin for $80 for Saeid a while ago. But oh well. I'll keep ya posted.

BigPapi

Saturday Results

I played in a ton of tournaments yesterday (bold = cashed)

• $5 Freeze-out $2,500 Guarantee (289th/514)
  
• $10 Freeze-out $1,500 Guarantee (26th/261)
• Good for $16.96
  
• $6 Bounty $2,000 Guarantee (94th/572)
• $1 Freeze-out Turbo (171st/360)
  
• $5 Freeze-out $1,500 Guarantee (145th/390)
• $2 Bounty (403rd/762)
• $6 Bounty $2,000 Guarantee (33rd/473)
• Good for $10.64
  
• $1 Rebuy $1,000 Guarantee (39th/311)
• Good for $7.41

I also briefly played some cash games (6-tabling NL10) and made close to $10.

So, the good thing is that I finished Saturday in the black, albeit barely. I'm trying to remind myself that is a good thing. I cashed in 3 tourneys and ran deep in a few others as well. Yesterday could have been a very profitable night. However, what some people fail to realize is that is the exact reason I am disappointed. You see, very very good MTT players finish in the money close to 20% of the time. They whiff 4 out of every 5 tourneys they enter. So, cashing in a tourney is a big deal and when you're in the money, you want to do all you can to take the event down (or in the very least, make the final table).

Today I'm more than likely playing the exact same schedule with the exclusion of the last two tournaments (I think). Classes start tomorrow and I believe I heard somewhere down the line that adequate rest is needed for those.

Bankroll is still at that $100 mark.

- BnB

Back above the $100 mark

I placed 4th in a $5 Turbo on Sunday for $78.62 which finally brought my bankroll past the $100 mark. I hope its finally time to get something going.

The tournament score also gave me over $6,000 in tournament winnings. Quite the achievement, IMO.

Now, if I can only work on keeping the tournament money that I win...

Until next time,
BnB