Hella Hold'em

Yes, Virginia, there is poker on this blog!

I played a little of the poker stuff last night, as my friend Scott hosted a mini Diamond game. As I've said before, cash has been a little tight 'round these parts, so my mortgage was rooting loudly for me.

I was feeling good last night. Normally, when it comes to no-limit holdem, I'm a tournament kind of girl, but I haven't played a whole lot of poker lately. Instead, I've watched a whole lot of High Stakes Poker on TV. That had me in the mood to play a cash game last night. The tournament alternative was likely going to be a rebuy game, and of all tournaments, I like those the least. So I threw my hat in the ring along with my vote for a cash game.

A cash game it was. $1/2 blinds. The five of us (Scott, Ed, Jim, Randy and myself) bought in for $100 in Monopoly money each. We played for a while - nothing really notable, no big hands, but after a bit I looked at my stack, and I'd nearly doubled up. Funny, I don't remember doing it. Here's what I do remember:

OK, I just spent like 10 minutes trying to write out the hand I was in with Randy, and I just can't remember all of the details. I had JJ and flopped a set on a K high flop. I think I bet out the flop and he called, then I checked-raised the turn. I was a tiny bit afraid he had KK as we went into the turn, but thought by his reaction to my check raise that my set was good. I underbet the river such that he had 8:1 odds to call me, and... he did. He had QQ. That was probably my biggest pot of the night, though I vaguely remember taking a decent sized pot off of Jim as well with AK and top pair, Aces.

There were a LOT of offsuit aces that I folded preflop that would have hit 2 pair on the flop. Had I loosened up a bit more, I probably could have snagged a few more pots. That happened probably 4 or 5 times. Ahh, the hands that could have been.

I slightly more than doubled up my Monopoly moolah, and January will end in the black.

In other news, rumor has it that the Empress poker room may be open as early as this week. C'mon, W2, where are you???!!

BEAR DOWN, CHICAGO BEARS

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
Make every play, clear the way to victory!

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
Put up a fight with a might so fearlessly!

We'll never forget the way you thrilled the nation
With your T-formation

Bear Down, Chicago Bears
And let them know why you're wearing the crown!

You're the pride and joy of Illinois,
Chicago Bears, Bear Down!!

I'm suffering from a bit of a cold here in Chicagoland. 60 degree weather turned teens practically overnight wreaks havoc on the human body. The Sickness has reduced me to the couch for most of today, and by 6pm I was starting to feel like I might have stored up enough energy to sit upright. So I'm doing something pretty unusual for me:

I'm watching the Golden Globe awards on TV and playing some $10 SnG's on Full Tilt.

Well, I've only played one, and some early technical difficulties nearly led me to an early retirement. My laptop has a very sensitive touchpad. I was feeling too lazy to climb across the couch to grab my USB mouse out of my backpack, so I was using the very sensitive touchpad. As a result, I called a 395 bet (about 1/3 of my stack at the time) on a flop of overcards with 94o from the big blind. D'oh! (I folded on the turn).

I was down to the felt when Baz showed up, but because I was watching the Golden Globes, I didn't notice my trusty railbird until I had chipped up a bit. With Baz's luck, I doubled up a couple times and managed to take 3rd place.

In my final hand, I had A5c versus A5s. Of course, I lost to a flush. (This story couldn't end any other way!) 3rd place was nice, though. I'll take the profit!

I'm not sure if I'll play anymore, as my head is starting to hurt a bit, but thanks to Baz for the mojo!

/Boooooo. Cars just beat Happy Feet. Lame.

Nothing doing in last night's Bad Beat on Cancer tourney. I went out 27th, AJ vs A3 or A4... I can't remember which... but he/she hit the gutshot on the river for the wheel, and I had too much invested in the pot by that time not to confirm my gut feeling that I'd been sucked out on. Ce la vie.

I've finally received my invitation to switch to the new Blogger. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it right now. I've heard of people with custom templates having problems with the new version. I don't want to have problems.

Still no news on whether Empress Joliet has reopened up their poker "room." (Does 3 tables qualify as a room?) I should just pick up the phone and call over there and ask, eh? I'm definitely a bit antsy to play again. The next Diamond home game is in a couple weeks, so it'll be nice to resume those again.

There is definitely more poker in my future. Stay tuned!

Come check out Phil Gordon's Bad Beat on Cancer tourney on Full Tilt Poker tonight in... 11 minutes or so :)

Five bones.

I'm registered to play in it, while watching Clerks 2. I heart Netflix, and I heart Kevin Smith.

Just watched the intro. Fat people are taking over the United States. Look out, skinny. Here we come. Give us your pizza. ROFL!

A little birdy told me that poker is likely coming back to Empress Casino Joliet (which is about 10 miles from my house). The rumor was that it was supposed to return after the 1st of the year.

I'm absolutely SILLY-excited to hear this!

As a side note, I realized after consulting Google Maps today that Hollywood Casino (Aurora) is the same distance from me as the Indiana boats, BUT I could get there with zero road construction encounters. (The worst part of driving to the Indiana boats is getting stuck in the construction traffic on I-80 - and I do mean *stuck*). Something to keep in mind... I've never been to Hollywood.

If anyone hears anything about Empress, please let me know!! :) Thanks!

Happy New Year!

Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

Become consistantly profitable in the $200-max NL cash game at the casino

Not long into 2006 (and shortly after the Dec 28, 2005 KK Quandary, which led to my biggest single-hand cash game loss ever, $800), I decided to go back to limit holdem, which much better suits my playstyle. While I didn't accomplish this particular goal, I think I accomplished its intent, which was to become profitable in my casino cash game. During the first half of 2006, I was in the black playing $5/10 limit holdem at the casino.

Online poker goals: Learn to play "my game" online. Become profitable at the $50-max buy-in level of online NL cash games. Continue to work on my no-limit cash game.

After switching back to limit holdem, I was again relegated to the micro limits (ie. lower than $3/6 holdem). I've never had enough faith in my online game at the low limits to invest significant amounts of money to my online bankroll. 2006 solidified my opinion that there are just TOO many newbs and donkeys at the lower levels to be able to outrun their luck. I'd much rather play at a casino. With that, I spent much more time this year at the casinos and much less time playing online. Throw in the US prohibition of online gaming, and I haven't seen too much online poker action this year.

Focus more on each hand's story and my opponents and less on my own cards.

I still have trouble with this. I play my cards. I rarely have the ability to play in spite of my cards. I'll keep this on my list for 2007.

My final (and a bit lofty) goal for 2006: build up to $5,000 in my poker bankroll.

I got about halfway there. In July 2006, I decided to sell my house and buy a bigger one in a more expensive neighborhood, closer to all of the shopping and entertainment amenities of the area. I had about $2,500 in my bankroll at the time, and spent it all on fixing up my old house and buying stuff for my new house. Considering that was around the half-way point of the year, I might have been on target to reach my goal. I'm going to consider this a possible success.

Where does this leave me, heading into 2007? Well, Empress Casino Joliet closed their poker room, and my schedule currently doesn't allow for many trips out to the Indiana boats. I'm still not comfortable investing money in an online bankroll, so really it seems that poker will take a bit of a back seat to life for a while this year. I don't have the money to reseed my bankroll right now, though I'd like to do that at some point this year. I need to work a bit more than I did last year to afford my new house, and I'm OK with that.

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year
  

Yup, that's it. Keep it simple. Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game. I still love the game of poker, and I'll carry that with me into 2007.

Here's hoping you reach all of your goals in 2007, whether personal, professional, or poker related. :)