Thursday -
Thursday night we left Santa Fe, NM around 11-11:45PM (thanks girls lol)
Trip was on schedule until we were 30 miles east of Flagstaff. Fatal semi accident we sat there from 5:30AM until 8:30AM at a dead stop on the freeway. Finally got into Vegas around 2:30PM on Friday (hauling ass lol).

Friday -
Got checked into the hotel Friday afternoon my friends were extremely exhausted and I wasn't so planned to go play the $60 Bounty Tourney at Harrah's with an add-on of $40. It was planned to meet up with Steven there he wasn't able to make it in time for the tourney but he railed me for my 3 way chop for $488. (Saaweet!)* Pic on my facebook page of the chips from the 3 of us at the table.

That night started feeling sick and let my buds go out to Tao night club while I stayed behind. After a shower and a nap felt a lot better and decided I didn't want to walk all the way to Tao @ the Venetian. So I went downstairs into the casino in Bally's. I had watched the guy with $1500 on a $1/$2 NL game play like a total donk and my thoughts were "I'm gonna take all that money." I waited for a seat for 30 minutes finally got seated directly to his left. (Hellz YEAH!) As soon as I was dealt in, he left (OMGWTFBBQ?) So, there I sat at a table full of extremely tight players and made a total profit of $25 (lol)

Went back to the room when my friends got back and passed out.

Saturday -
The girls wanted to go shopping (oh man...) went to Planet Hollywood and played some $1/$2 NL. Sat on my $200 for a long time, then I stood up to go to the bathroom and instantly I hear a soothing calming voice say "Are you Sean Pilgrim?" It was Bazerk!!! We talked and she had gone out of her way to get me and my friends passes to clubs and free hot dogs and stuff (Yum!) and BTW, we greatly appreciate it and they all worked for us! We talked for a little while and then she had to go.

She brought good karma and good luck to me. I sat down and was dealt pocket 7's on the button. Flop was gorgeous!!! K7Q rainbow. Check, Check, I bet $25, call call, turn 8 (still no flushies possible) I raise $100, All in $135, fold.

River 6c.

KJo was worth his whole stack apparently. Nice pot.

Then I went to the bathroom (had to play my button first lol) Came back after using the restroom and talked to my younger brother for a little while came back (posted behind the button in the CO) there they are again pocket 7's. This time it was raised pre-flop to $12 I flat in the CO flop comes 7Q2 (OMG Yes!) Original Raiser C-bets for $18, I re-raise to $65, he re-raises that another $100. I thought about it for a minute, really debated I don't think top set would re-raise me here (but I have been playing a really solid game and he realizes this, even made a comment about it which really helped my bluffing capabilities with the rest of the table I was able to take down pots with almost any C-bet). He had about 35% of his stack invested at this point he too is a tricky player and pretty solid but does occasionally go to showdown with dominated aces or dominated top pair. I re-raised again all in. I wanted to get paid off and if I was behind, set over set is a cooler that's all, and I'd still have plenty of chips left. But, once he started really having to think about it I knew I was golden then I thought about whether or not I should have flatted the flop 4-bet.

He flashed pocket aces at me and I tried to induce a call by somewhat acting a little bit nervous but not too obvious that I was displaying an acting tell. He mucked his aces face up, and I decided to show him the set, that's a tough lay down sometimes and almost any recreational player calls that shove with aces. But, he knew better.

Cashed out a short while later Total chips $660 ($460 profit).* Pic on my Facebook in the Vegas album.

I was supposed to meet up with Steve around 5PM but got tied up entertaining the girls and shopping myself buying gifts for my mom and brother, and we absolutely had to go hit as many night clubs as we could. So, was not able to meet up for another game unfortunately.

Sunday-
We got back to the room at 5AM (lol party animals). Checkout was 12PM. We were up and ready to go and I always get so depressed leaving Las Vegas especially after some run good. Anyway a little more shopping for the girls and we finally left around 4PM. Traffic was expected at the Hoover Dam. What we could not believe is that AGAIN! I-40 east was closed 30 minutes east of Flagstaff (OMFG R U 4 REAL?) due to a dust storm causing low visibility. We stopped in Flagstaff to get some dinner at Chili's and finally they reopened it about an hour and a half later. From there on out. Smooth sailing home and finally was in my own bed at 5:30AM and now. At work at 1:30PM.

Once a relationship gets to a point where there is less fun and more arguments and more fights. I believe it is time to call it quits. I may regret my decision but i think it's for the best for me right now. I can't be in a relationship where the other person tries to be more dominant or they cannot simply be spontaneous. "What are we doing tomorrow?" "I don't know" "Well think of something to do."... umm... No. I like spontaneity I like doing things without time constraints or like sleeping in on a Sunday morning without having to worry about what time we have to be somewhere. I may regret this later she is sweet has a good head on her shoulders, but I felt like my mission was to please her and at the same time not satisfy myself. I did my best to make her happy but, at the same time I was not happy myself.

I'm on day 6 of quitting smoking via cold turkey.

I've tried the electric cigarette, the gum, the patches... they've all failed me even following pharmacists and doctors advice. Such as with the patches: Step 1 for 4 weeks, Step 2 for 4 Weeks, and Step 3 for 4 weeks.

I have to say it's a tremendous feat to have made it this far. The first two days were the worst. I was smoking two packs a day and what made me finally decide to want to quit so badly is that I am spending on average about ~$3,650/year, ~$10/day smoking two packs a day. I figured I'd rather spend $75/week on some kind of gourmet steak dinner .

Anyway, quitting cold turkey had some effects on me mentally and physically.

Day 1:
6 Hours - Usually I would have smoked 3/4th of a pack in this time frame. Cravings start to really hang on to me. I counteracted this by just eating all kinds of stuff. Crackers, Candy, Gummy Bears, Sodas, Energy Drinks. Which seemed to take some of the edge off.

12 hours - Started getting a really anxious feeling way worse and craving them tremendously. Unable to sleep. Tossing and turning. Actually my emotional balance was so far off the norm for me I actually started crying at this point. I needed to sleep and I took Nyquil and 2 shots of Jack Daniels.

20 hours (3AM) - Woke up to a really really vivid dream(might have been the Nyquil + Jack Combo) but started sweating like a pig and vomiting, passed out on the bathroom floor.

Day 2:
Woke up 9AM - Was able to wake up with out any odd feelings until I got out of the shower. I really needed a cigarette. I felt extremely weak.

6 Hours Later - Seemed like the more alert I was and more active I was throughout the day the cravings became worse and worse.

12 hours later - After dinner, again craving a cigarette like all smokers do after they eat. Nervous feeling and hands and fingers shaking. Hard to sleep throughout the night, no dreams this time, and no waking up in the middle of the night for Nyquil and Jack, I was able to sleep a little better than the night before.

Day 3: Cravings still exist but not nearly as bad as day 1 or 2.

Day 4: I don't know what happened this was a horrible day. Most likely stress induced due to arguments with my girlfriend and stressed about money and work and trying to get ahead in life. And trying to quit. Sleepless and really really pushed to the edge.

Day 5: Yesterday... really more manageable

Day 6: Today... manageable. Cravings not so bad anymore.

Just insane to go from 2 packs a day to none. I think this is working out so far. The worst was Day 1 2 and 4. But I feel a lot more calm now and I still haven't had a cigarette. Wish me luck with quitting completely!

I couldn't win a SnG to save my life last night. I was playing such soft games too. $5 DoN's and kept busting out going in with the 2nd best all night. I didn't tilt I just LOL'ed at how bad I was running. Oh well, took a break after laughing, because soon enough it became less funny. And I was certainly doomed by the poker gods.

BR Peaked at around $760 last night when I played $25NL Rush and played a few SnG's and MTTs. Made a few bucks on STTs but lost some on MTTs so FT BR gained only a little bit. Sitting on $728.69 ATM.

Also made a deposit on Bodog for $300 today.

K so saved up enough to put in as much as I wanted in my prior blog post, but have changed my mind. I put $600 on Full Tilt, $200 on Pokerstars, and debating whether or not to put $300-$400 on Bodog. We will see.

Life's been busy busy busy not much "me" time. Anyway, Things should be looking up here shortly. Saving up some funds, going to put 40% on Full Tilt and 40% on Pokerstars, 10% on Bodog, 5% to Ub, and 5% to some other random site, probably Carbon. Around a total of about $6k (or a little more) in the next few weeks.

So my Bankrolls will be:

Full Tilt: $2400
Pokerstars: $2400
Bodog: $600
UltimateBet: $300
Carbon (or other): $300***
--------------------------
Total: $6000

I can play the real games, and only have to deal with the occasional 63/40, or the ones who call with Ax to the river and hit an ace against my KK.

Nice. I <3 Money

*** = I might bypass this one and just buy 2 more 24" monitors and stands for all 4. LOLZ

FullTilt:
With my last $.69 on FT I built it up with $.30 satellites and got it up enough to where I could play $2NL with 5 buy-in's. Got that up to $20, played $5NL Rush with $2.50 on 4 entries built that up as well and the whole time accruing rake back, then played $1 SnG's and $1.50 super turbo 6-Handed SnG's. Helluva ride and from $.69 to $49

Pokerstars:
Nice little BR boost playing the $2 90 man SnG took 4th for $17.xx, busted last night when I ran into a set vs. my overpair, then played 3 $5 Double or nothings and won all three of them. Nice little run for a small BR boost.

Pretty much blew my BR on Full Tilt. $178 down the drain today. God DAMN IT!

My girlfriend is the best!!!

So A break even player is a winning player as long as they have rake back. Which I do. So during this saga I am leading of depositing $100 /wk for the next 25 weeks should be decent. Really only staking $1 here or $1 there. Until I have the bank roll I want so I can play $20 SnG's. Life and Love are complicating. Paying Bills, Going out with the girlfriend, hanging out with family and friends haven't played much poker online or live. Played a friendly game at my buddies house last Friday no money involved due to n00bs. But, anyway it was fun. So $100 out of $2500 complete.

I let my life's problems get in my way over the weekend. The only thing positive that came from the tilt is that I took 1st in a $33 SnG on PokerStars and then withdrew $100 but that didn't make up for dumping my whole BR on Full Tilt, Cake, Carbon, Bodog, Ub, Absolute, Full Rush . I really need the $100 because I have strep throat (sucks). So BR's are like demolished. God damn my life, damn I'm an idiot. I ultimately got really annoyed with $5 SnG's and middle to late tourney busts which led me to play like an idiot and tilt. Anyway I want to save up a couple grand and play exclusively $20 SnG's. At least then the money will seem more "real" to me, which I know sounds sick but that's how I look at it $20 a pop vs. $5 a pop is probably healthier for my mentality of online poker.

Took 1st in Two Sit & Go Multi-Table Tourneys for a decent bankroll boost.

Played a little bit on Saturday made a min cash in the $5 buy in OFC event. Also got approved for rakeback from RakeBackPros for my account on Full Tilt (YAY!). Most importantly I ran into a girl who I used to see back in the day, and we hit it off like you wouldn't believe spent nearly the entire weekend with her. And I loved every second of it.

Definitely -EV when I stay up until 4AM playing. Oh well. Need to stop that shit and sleep. Some losses over the course of last night, blew the whole Bodog bankroll short stacking a $1/$2NL table. Got my money in good with a full house. 5 limpers preflop I had pocket 3's the flop was 3QQ, SB bets out $3, folds to me I re-raise to $9, he re-raises to $15 I shoved all in for $30 more. He snap called, he showed Q9o, like an idiot, I had 84% equity on the turn which was a 7d. But, he rivered a 9, pretty shitty. That's variance at work for ya.

Full Tilt Played some SnG's broke even in those lost 1 buy-in playing $10NL Rush.

Lost some BR on Ub and Cake from busting in a few SnG's.

Is it a breakeven session or a losing one? I can't recall right now. I need to start charting day by day or post by post changes in BR for each site instead of global BR's. Anyway, losing streak on Full Tilt that $200 is now down to $109 I believe. Other sites with some losses or break even.

Crushed some single table tournaments last night, Full tilt bankroll jumped about $100, Bodog granted me my $20 bonus from January(?) I used that $20 and Short Stacked the $25NL tables grew that small BR up. Lost the $30 I had on Absolute, playing $5 SnG's where they all got 4 handed and I had a 4 to 1 or even 6 to 1 chip advantage on the other players. And I couldn't win a hand for shit, my chip lead slowly dwindled and I busted out in 4th, horrible, but can't complain too much I am up for the day.

Full Tilt SnG Graph (March):

Took a shot at the $100K again for all my BR on Bodog.

Took 92nd, I was in the top ten throughout most of the tourney, it only took one guy who couldn't fold KTo to my AKs. He rivered a ten, we both flopped top pair but he couldn't fold, because he is a douche. Until the reload bonus comes in I will have $0 in there.

I hate retards. End of story. Anyway made a little bit of progress will update the sidebar with BR amounts.

I don't know whats going on, it's not variance. Just going in and coming out with 2nd best every time when I think I am ahead 95% of the time. Set over set, KK vs. AA, KK vs. QQ etc. It's just draining. Sticking to MTTs and SnG's and been getting busted from so many of them. I just want to end it all. Bodog BR is around $220, Full Tilt around $47.04 (Long Story) check for $180+ coming from FT due to an issue I had with them. I'll take that check and redeposit it into this BR so it'll be a little healthy. K so I haven't really hit rock bottom, but, I won $162 tournament dollars on Bodog yesterday which I said I wasn't going to use all at once in a big tourney but, I might. Still up in the air and we'll see how it goes.

I don't play as much as many of the people I have met online, volume is low I'm just getting a little frustrated. Trying to keep my chin up.

Not too much in the world of poker. A few SnG wins here and there and losses at 6-max ring games. I'm going to stay away from the cash games for awhile, pissing me off. But, today's nice: $16+$1 - 1st Place won $162 (Winner Take All)

I need to start sleeping more... it's slowly killing me...

$25NL Graph = Dog Crap:


$10NL Graph = Dog Crap:


$5NL Graph = More WTF Dog Crap:


Tournament Graph = Keep On Rolling:

Haven't played too much the past couple of days a few $2 2-table SnG's and a $10NL session tonight where I added 2 Buy-Ins. I'm a little burnt out at the moment from playing so much the past few weeks.

Sweetness...

Field of 67 Players:

The Bodog $100K Tournament went pretty slow, couldn't catch a hand, couldn't get paid off on hands, and had to fold a couple big hands. I was able to get a sweat session in by the Great Snowmobiler while on this tourney and he was very helpful. I need to work on opening up my hand ranges when I'm getting short on chips and turn up the aggression in late stages of MTTs. Snow said I have a good early/mid game so that was good to hear!!! I finished I think 240 something in a 800 player field.

I also played in Full Tilt's $22+$2 $200K Double Deuce, where I was railed by fellow CCer's and made my way in the money and busted out in 84th place ($214), where my all in with As Js ran into Ah 3h and my villain flopped a three and my hand didn't improve. Just simply got short on chips and got unlucky.

Full Tilt Results Screenshot:

Nice win $50 added. 22 Players. Hosted By Blue Lizard Forum.



And FTW...

Money is super tight. I'm withdrawing all the funds in my Bodog account except for $50. I need a new tire, I need to fix my SUV's from driver side headlight and turn signal because some ass face hit it in a parking lot and took off like it was an ex-girlfriend. So, I left the seat for the $100K still there and $50 cash. Let's see where we can go with this.

I played a $4 SnG won a seat to a $16 Multi-Table Tournament with 1 Seat Guaranteed. Well, I took 1st in the semi-final satellite and get to play the big event on Sunday. If I can take 1st OMG what a relief that would be. Anyway, running like god today on Bodog SnG's I entered my satellite results in HEM as cash because I don't know how to set this crap up for Satellites and obviously winning $162 tournament dollars is not exactly the same as winning $162 cash, but anyway had to manually put them into the HEM database because it doesn't seem to have an option to set it up as a satellite tournament with T$ as the payout so for today: my ROI is 110.81% and ITM 53.8% Winnings @ $153.90, I will update global stats when I get home from work.

So taking into account all of the profits from SnG's and Losses from cash games, which I have no Idea why I am failing at life playing $10NL and $25NL, I am at ~$3.50 from break even. Nice, love life and today's been awesome.

I went to see my dad last night after he got done with his Knee Replacement surgery. He's doing well, good to see he's not in pain at the moment. They apparently stuck a long ass needle into his thigh and temporarily killed the nerve so he doesn't feel any pain right now. Pretty sweet. His nurse "Faith" is extremely gorgeous and I'd give my right arm to be with her. But she probably wouldn't want to be with an armless man. So it might not work out very well. Anyway in the world of poker I will get some Screen shots up. I got sick of the PT3 data base, transferred all my hands and everything over to hold em manager, which meant unfortunately all the tourney stats were all fucked up and I spent 2 hours having poker tracker 3 and HEM up so I could manually add tourney info into HEM. Also, found out that Idleminers Hand Grabber for Bodog, WILL NOT save Multi-Table Tournament Hands (WTF?). Anyway I think I only played like 2 or 3 SnG's last night and I busted out 15th in the Cards Chat $5.50 today. I really wanted to take first because it was cash and a ticket to the $100,000 Guarantee on Sunday on Bodog. Which is probably the most over layed tourneys you could buy into. I want to play it before they change it to the $50K, or $25K or Less.

Lost a buy in at $25NL and then $5 in the MTT today.

Anyway, hope you are all doing well.

Since the change to bodog I've been doing really well with SnG's and not so much with cash. With cash I am down 6 buy-in's at $25NL and decided to go the SnG route. Well out of 24 SnG's I have an ROI of 85% which is really good! and I am ITM 78.57% of the time. Pretty much crushing the $4 SnGs and $7 Double Ups there. I took some of that money and bought into a $10 3 table "beginners" tournament and finished 7th for $33.

So for right now I'm playing $5NL and just going to work on fixing leaks and how to maximize profit for my big hands. So, hopefully I can stabilize my bankroll back at $600 after the 6 buy-in loss I had at $25NL.

Some images below.





And this is the Cash Graph -6 Buy-Ins:

Catching flak for switching from Full Tilt to Bodog. But, the games are softer and more profitable in my opinion. The challenge is off to a rough start and may be modified. Another member on CardsChat and I will possibly just have a Bankroll challenge and drop the high set standard of $600 to $40,000. $40k is feasible if I started out with a $6000 roll and strictly played $1/$2NL, but that would suck too because of my leaks. I wish I had a super user account sometimes or could predict the future or could have xray vision through the cards but see the ink live lol jk. I'd win the WSOP 10 times in a row. Then the field of players would slowly decrease... or maybe rise I dunno, I could bankrupt everyone. Okay get out of la la land damn it!

$20 SnG tonight at my buddies house, usually a soft game. Sometimes there's a maniac and the maniac is the reason for busto.

Tomorrow, Freeroll at Buffalo Thunder with a prize pool Guaranteed at $1K and up to $8K, I'm really hoping to take 1st in this and if I do, half in my pocket half into Bodog.

Okay so I've been dry humping the $0 to -$200 profit mark the past two days with little to no profit. Highest the Bankroll has been at as a total is $668. I'm not doing so well on Full Tilt, Every $25NL table I sit at has at least 4 - 5 regulars. And when I have a hand I want to play against the fishies with it seems without fail one of them will 3 bet me with better. So 4-5K hands later I'm floating and like I said earlier "dry humping" +$0 profit line.

My game definitely has leaks and I've decided to do something different. Take BR out of Full Tilt and throw it into Bodog. I obviously won't get in as much volume because I was playing 8 tables at once but, at least most of the leaks in my game can be worked on for a fraction of what they would cost on Full Tilt. I played around a total of 35 SnG's with similar "break even" a little bit behind stats. I invested $1 each day in the daily dollar and didn't make the money.

I don't know if people see a huge difference between Full Tilt players and Bodog players but I definitely do. I think I'd rather play with a bunch of loose-passive players then a bunch of loose-aggressive ones. So, for the next 2 days I'm off the online tables and have a date with a $20 Sit-n-Go being hosted at a friends house tomorrow night, and I have the $8,000 Free roll at Buffalo the following day. Any money won in the free roll is getting thrown into bodog as well. Why not take full advantage of a monthly redeposit bonus with free money?

I will sleep well tonight. Shit I was up until like 3 or 4am last night playing. Also the reload bonus I asked FT for is pretty much bull shit. Every 331 FTP they release $20 of my $600 bonus. I had +1500 FTPs and well getting $20 at a time really kind of sucks and was not the amount of time invested, I'm pretty sure 331 FTPs = $50 in rake, so Fuck it. Back to Bodog.

The bothersome thing is I looked myself up on PokerTableRatings.Com , from all of my online ID's. And the info is very odd to me. For instance it says I lost a flat $400 in 1 hand playing $2/$4, and that is very very wrong. Also, shows my Bodog name as being negative $1700 ... which is also wrong. I don't know. And I didn't know you could buy hand histories from PTR. Against the rules I believe. I'm sure there's a lot of people who purchase those, but they're dated from like August to Today and well maybe 1/2 those hands don't mean shit because those players stopped playing. I dunno just a rant. Off of work in five minutes. Tonight: Gonna drink, Gonna smoke, Gonna sleep.

Sorry I guess I forgot to mention BR back at $607.89. Withdrawal request went in today, hopefully direct deposited tomorrow so I can deposit the $600 on Bodog.

So bankroll started this eve at $548.69, I gained 6.5 buy-ins, swung down to +2 buy-ins, down to -4 buy-ins, down a little more and here I am with a total BR of $455.21. Maybe I should transition over to $6 SnG's? Only 2 days into my challenge and I am faced with a face full of variance, I'm not stacking off on draws, I get nut hands on the flop and Mr. 57/5 doesn't matter how much it costs to see the river. Or Mr. 57/5 slow plays all of his hands and I run into a monster.

For instance today the ugliest hand I lost. Two Limpers Behind and I have As Ks, Raise in the CO, SB&BB call a 6xBB raise Limpers Fold. Flop, is absolutely beautiful. Qd Js Ts, SB opens for a pot sized bet, BB re-raises all-in, I re-raise all in SB calls, I'm like WTF!? at the 3 AI pot. SB has TT BB has JJ, I'm in pretty good shape. I think at least, I was favorite to win on the flop, Had the nut straight, had the nut flush draw, had a royal flush draw, and wtf. Turn Kd River Kc. So disgusting and I was 2.5 buy-ins deep on that table. SB&BB are 40/25 and 30/10, pretty spewy, Sometimes I wish people would play their hands correctly I would have layed down AKs if SB 3-bet and then BB 4-bet, the frustration is extraordinary.

So Started out with $600 today. I told myself I wouldn't play the $25NL games at work and well, I did and all it took to tilt me was a fucking god damn old lady who couldn't find the fucking address bar in safari. Later on it took 15 minutes for her to tell me how the fuck she checks her e-mail all I needed to hear was "MacMail" but no you had to tell me your life story. Kill yourself.

Ok started with $600 today massive downswing during the day literally down 12 buy-ins I don't think the downswing was caused by that tilt BTW, the players that were on there were definitely not the average Joe after 5PM crowd. I was running into slow played aces, sets, and I couldn't believe how many times I ran into monsters. So now, 5,000 Hands later I have almost recovered from the losses. Bankroll is at: $548.69.

I played from 2pm-4pm at work (bad idea) and 6pm-8pm at work when it was mellow and started my +EV from the negative. Then got home relaxed for a few and hit the felt at 8:30PM - 2AM. Total hands: 3651 Total Profit: -$51.31

Made the deposit today. I also played the Full Tilt Turbo Freeroll last night and finished 15th out of a field of 7,500 players and made a whopping $3. I don't really care about the $3. I'm more happy about how high I placed in such a large field MTTs even though there was no buy-in. Adds some confidence and helps start my challenge! Wish me luck and if you care to watch I'll be online around 8:30PM MST, 10:30PM EST.

I'm about to shit myself with anticipation to get this rolling along tomorrow night! I'm going to make the deposit as soon as possible tomorrow. Then, I'm NOT going to play at work but rather I'm going to sit at a bunch of $25NL tables and sit out so I can have as many hands saved as possible then e-mail them to myself, once I get out of work I'm going to import all of those into HEM so yes... "iRokk this lonely road, the only one that I have ever known."

I'm getting the scrubbie dub dubbie Benjamins together for this deposit. Tuesday should be all set into stone. :-) Looking forward to long hours!

There's a monthly free roll at my local casino every month for all players who qualify by playing for 30 hours or more in the month. Well the 1st week in January I already made 35 hours, and another 30+ every week following this month. One of my girlies got comped a free room there and I went and checked the time sheet to see who all qualifies for it because the tourney is a week from today.

The way the tourney works is the house adds $1000 for each table that is filled up a max of 8 tables. When I looked at the sheet I was disappointed to see 6 maybe 8 were qualified and I thought there would be so much more. The others who qualified have EXACTLY 30 hours, and the names I don't recognize, probably fish who play 2/6 Limit all the time and love to suck out.

Anyway I'm just a little bummed that it doesn't look like the full $8,000 prize pool will be available for the taking. Oh well, it's kind of a crap shoot anyway starting stack of like 2000 chips blinds starting @ 25/50 with 20 minute levels. I just want to take this one down, the 3 live MTT's I've played I took 2nd twice in a field of 36 and the most recent one I bubbled in 6th place with 36 players. Their prize structure is retarded. If there's a 10 handed SnG they pay 1st 70%, 2nd 20% and 3rd 10% pretty much seems like a waste of time, 3rd place generally gets their buy in back for a STT. And I never chop, probably why I took 2nd place both times in the MTTs.

Sorry for ranting. This tournament is the equivalent to a Full Tilt super turbo in relation to hands dealt per blind level. I need some good cards from start to finish because of the "quality" of skill these players posses. TPTK will never be folded which is a good thing for me in most cases. Little to no bluffing due to calling stations. So, you either have the cards or you don't here. These same players are the same one's who hold AA and KTo out of position to me with QJs on the button and call a re-raise that would put them all in on a flop a JJK. That was an awesome pot by the way busted both players out in a cash game and they bought in full stacks of $300 each. They looked so dumbfounded that I had QJ in my hand, the guy in SB with AA should have re-raised PF and I wouldn't have seen that flop, but obviously his brain doesn't work too well.

Nothing to update on the $600 to $40k goal today. Just going to make the deposit no later than Feb 14th and it's GAME ON!

So my friend got a free comped room at Buffalo Thunder on the "executive suites" floor. She used to work with the current manager there and he gave the comp to her and she wanted me to be with her, how could I decline? Anyway apparently we stayed in the same room that the Director of Cloverfield stayed in. So we got comped a $300/night room for free, it was definitely luxurious to say the least. I was expecting a cheap looking basic hotel room and got so much more.

So besides that Buffalo Thunder is my local casino and card room, and since we were there I of course had to play. the $1/$3 NL game was going and looked really soft so I decided to buy in for a minimum of $100 for some reason this one guy could not price himself out of a 3 outer gut shot, I flopped a set of queens and was happy my turn bet put him all in, and he made the comment "No Guts, No Glory." When he called. The Jc on the river completed the flush draw that I thought he was on. nope the Jc completed his hand with the gut shot he was holding K9o, disgusting, crippled me and made some semi-comebacks but never regained my full $100. The game got down to 4 players for a little while and then 3 handed. Here, to try to get the most value out of K9o when I flopped top pair w/ a 9 Kicker (which played) I check the flop, bet the turn, bet the river, ran into another gut shot hand made on the river.

I don't know what compels people to play like shit and "gamble" live. They are piss poor players. It's okay it's all going to come back into my pockets with interest.

So the goal is to save up money starting this week, unfortunately this happened: I left my house to head to work it's snowing and looks like it's been snowing for the past 8 hours tons of snow. Snow and Ice never really cause an issue with me driving ever, this little front wheel drive infiniti does just fine in the snow. I made a left hand turn and was behind a plain old beat up blue ford truck with the tailgate down, a ladder tied to the bed and a few other things in the bed of the truck as well.

He's not really paying attention to the road and I didn't realize it until he hopped up onto the median and insta-swerved back onto the road. Upon his instant action two of the boxes in the back of the truck had tipped over and I thought, eh no big deal. We start heading uphill where the road is wet, not icy or covered in snow, a whole lot of things starting falling out the back of his truck. Roofing nails. AWESOME! The front tires must have propped them up just right so that instead of puncturing the rear tires and forming a possibly fixable hole they go in the rear tires and both bend and make a much larger hole.

So, new tires are going to delay this a little while. I can save $100 this week for the $600 deposit so it's not a huge deal, just a minor set back.

I've decided I'm going to grind out my bankroll on Full Tilt opposed to Bodog, based on a few reasons.

1.) Multi-Tabling: As of now Bodog only allows 4 tables open at one time why they can't make a software update to appease players is unknown to me. Full Tilt will let you have 8 open, and you can send a request to add more tables as long as you contact support.

2.) Hand History Databases: Bodog does not allow saving of hand histories to your local machine you have to use Idleminers "Bodog Hand Grabber" to save your hands, and I've noticed it doesn't really save all my hands. It has skipped some hands and at some points has stopped grabbing hands all together. With Full Tilt I do not have to worry about that all hands will be saved on my computer.

3.) Population: Although, I enjoy the database I currently have with the regs and fish on Bodog, I will have to let it go for now. I'll definitely be able to find a game at any time at almost any stakes on Full Tilt opposed to Bodog.

4.) Rakeback: I applied for Rakeback through RakeBackPros for Full Tilt and they accepted my request the following day. I know some CCer's are going to be angry with me because some are super struggling, and have been for quite some time to get rakeback on their existing accounts. I am confused however why they can't be that helpful to my colleagues on CardsChat.

5.) ID Changes: Another part of my decision making process is the ability to have my UN changed on Full Tilt. I sent them an e-mail requesting a change and they granted it I sent them 3 User ID's which all showed up as "Not in FT Database" so, whichever one they pick for me is the one I will use. This is going to give me a slight advantage on the players whom I used to play $25 NL and up with. I will still have my entire hand history database from FT from all time. And will still have all the VPIP/PFR/AgF/Hands etc. And I will be a unknown player. Bodog will not let me change my DisplayName or my Table Picture for that matter.

My decision between Bodog Vs. Full Tilt started as Full Tilt vs. all other rooms. I just find the interface a lot easier to use and opposed to Pokerstars, I don't like the PS interface, for some reason seems unresponsive to my mouse clicks and I need to click twice for it to react every time and I know that's a minor issue but it really is irritating to me. So I decided to stick with Full Tilt, being able to get rake back was just a plus.

Any Questions/Comments/Concerns are welcome.

We're going on a mission starting Friday. Building A Bankroll Without Grinding. I find myself having such a hard time breaking through the micro's but I know I do well at $25NL and above, regrinding the micros is so tedious and I've done it 3 or 4 times before but once I broke that barrier and was playing $25NL to $50NL to $100NL to $200NL to $300NL I was doing just fine. granted I was not rolled correctly for $200NL or $300NL but just took shots at them and made some money off of that. I was forced to withdraw almost all of my Bodog bankroll to replace the transmission in my car. Now that I'm struggling with $5NL even, I'm just frustrated and don't see a need to regrind the micros (Correct me if I am wrong) because I do fine from $25NL and up. I'm just in a constant pull-and-push motion with $5NL on Bodog.

I left $100 in my Bodog account to regrind and rebuild due to the emergency expense I had to attend to. I just find myself @ $100 to $140 to $100 to $160 to $120 to $100. I'm flat lining and it's killing me. Almost 5k Hands this month alone with $5NL and I'm too frustrated to continue to grind it out.

I seem to have a serious problem. I do really well against other competitive players. I do not do very well against calling stations, donks, fish, LAGs, etc. I've never really looked at poker as something I can live off of (though it would be nice) I love it for the competition, math, and skill involved. I could care less if BluffMaster69 wants to stack off with middle pair @ $5NL, if you call with top pair top kicker and he open shoved with 58o on a flop of A 8 4 rainbow, you'll be disgusted when he turns or rivers a disgusting rag for two pair.

So expenses are down again, and I can start saving up. So what I'm going to do starting this Friday. Deposit $100 - $200 a week from my paycheck into my Bodog account, maybe my Full Tilt Account (not 100% sure which site I want to commit 100% to) And play the correct games for my bankroll at the time. For instance: If I'm grinding $5NL w/ a starting bankroll of $100 and get it up to $140 by the next paycheck and deposit $100 I then have a bankroll of $240 and I start playing $10NL. The goal is to get past the $10NL barrier and be able to sustain myself at $25 or $50NL with at least 20-30 buy-ins. And go from there. Anyway. Stats will be updated and such. Stayed Tuned...