Hella Hold'em

This one's no April Fool!



Happy day, happy day!

This win brings me to a new milestone.... $300+ in my Full Tilt account.

I don't know what to say - except that my goal of being able to pay for the June WPBT Vegas trip with poker winnings is getting more and more realistic every day.

My win in this SnG was actually an accident. I was two-tabling (ran into my friend Armando online - he ran into me, actually - welcome to FTP, Mando! I had a limit ring game up at Armando's table while playing the SnG), and I was not in very good shape in the tourney. I had 950 or so in chips after losing 500 in a hand whereby my AK gave my TPTK, and a fish to my right had played 97o for a raise preflop. When I flopped my K, I put him all in for his remaining 450 or so, and he called with a gutshot straight draw. Interesting call. He hit his straight on the river. I folded for two levels straight, getting no cards, and was really not feeling very good about the SnG.

Then, I find KQo in the cutoff. There were 2 callers, and then the third guy pumps it up all in with his remaining 650 chips. Since I was two-tabling, I had just clicked in the ring game window, and I knew I originally intended to limp with my KQ. I went to click the call button, but missed the fact that it had been raised, and ended up clicking the call for the raise. D'oh! I was cursing myself for not being more careful, especially when the other 2 players called. Great. I can't even remember what the board came, but I ended up more than tripling up when it was all said and done, taking two people out. .

Short stack no more! From short stack to chip leader in one erroneous click.

From there on out I just played patient, aggressive poker. I found JJ two hands in a row in the pocket; won the blinds on the first, but knocked a guy out with the second one. Not long after, we're down to 4 players, and I'm second in chips, with two shortys behind me. While I played a hand on the ring game, suddenly I look back and we're down to 3. In the money, baby!

I took out the 3rd place guy to put me about even in chips with my opponent heads up. Cool guy - tight game it was. We played heads up for a good 25 minutes or so. He got me down to 2,000 chips, as I caught no cards whatsoever, then double me up. Then I got him down to 2,000, and I put him all in with my Ax suited when he pulled a boat on me. We went back and forth and back and forth. It was a very enjoyable match - and a challenge, for sure. I ended up taking most of the chips back with AA in the pocket, slowplayed. Then I won it with 97s, which flopped a straight.

The ring games, on the other hand... didn't win me anything :) I was 3-tabling the $.50/1.00 limit tables most of the late evening hours, and ended up breaking even or so. Managed to clear another $10 of my bonus, for $50 cleared so far. I'm $5.50 towards my next $10 release. MAN does it go slow!!! Can't complain though; free money is free money.

I was thinking tonight about how I miss using PokerTracker and having the heads up statistics displayed on my opponents. Doesn't work with Full Tilt. I might not have had that $100 slide last week if I'd have been reviewing my play after each session, or at least maybe I could have caught myself sooner. And as careful as I'm being about taking notes on my opponents in FTP, it's just not the same as having the aggression numbers and VP$IP% on people.

Some good news that I picked up thanks to StudioGlyphic - PokerStars is now offering the option to store hand histories locally, making life MUCH easier if you use PokerTracker. You can now use GameTime+ with PokerStars as well. Sweet. Too bad I only have $.04 in my account over there. (Literally). From what I hear, though, you can't record observed hand histories, like in Party Poker - only hands for which you're sitting at the table.

With that, it's about time I hit the hay. In actuality, it's 2am or so here, but since it's still Friday night to me, I'm pre-dating this post to just prior to midnight. Goodnight, everybody!