Shoulda Knocked On Wood

Well I did it. Managed to completely jinx myself. That and the combo of having too much money on UB ...a couple of hours of shorthanded 150-300, and a few racks of chips later ... looking at possibly the biggest single day loss of my career ...

lol icing on the cake .. shortly after busting my UB account I get this email:

"Reload for the weekend with our 25% Reload Bonus. Right now, when you redeposit $25 or more, we'll give you 25% of your deposit - up to $200 - in Bonus Dollars!"

AC Hands

A week in AC. Since the week long hot streak of online poker, it has carried on into live poker and brief online stints from the hotel room. I feel like I am playing great and trusting my reads. Plus the added factor of getting off to a lead in most sessions always helps.

Before some of the lucky / well played hands, let me share the worst hand I played all week.

3 handed 80-160 Holdem. A solid player opens on the button, the spot in the game calls in the sb and I call with 35 diamonds in the BB. The flop came A28 with two diamonds. The SB checked and I bet; sigh, as soon as the chips left my hand I knew I screwed this hand up. The button called, the fish folded. The turn was an offsuit 6 and I bet, the button called. At this point I felt like the button was calling me down. The river came a duece and I gave up. I lost to the buttons J7 busted flush draw. I could have possibly played every street wrong in this hand. Preflop the call is close but I like playing pots with position on the spot in the game. Then I think its bad to lead this flop because the button is going to bet 100% of the time and its more likely the SB calls / peels on the flop vs one player opposed to both of us. Whatever, I really felt like I misplayed this hand based on tendecies of my two opponents.

Now lets talk about some of my lucsac hands.

4 handed 80 Omaha. SB open limps, I raise in BB with KQJ8 double suited. Flop comes, A96. SB checks I bet, he shows me AK and folds. Not sure what his other two cards were. Agression rules.

4 handed 80 Omaha, I raise on button with AK94, solid AC pro calls from SB, BB calls. Flop AAJ, SB bets, I call. Turn Q, SB bets I call. River 9, SB says, "I dont trust you" and checks, I bet, he calls. He shows me AK, nice river for the scoooop....runnnning good Matt !

80 Holdem, A friend and solid AC pro opens 2 off the button I three bet from the cutoff with 56 clubs. Flop J95, he check and calls. Turn 5, he check raises, I 3 bet he calls. River blank, he check calls. His top two pair down the drain...its better to be lucky than good !!

Boooze night

On Tuesday Night there were no big games going, so we decided we were going to play some 3-6 Holdem and have a couple beers before heading out to the bars. 4 of us were sitting in the same game and really firing it up. After about 13 people limp, I complete in the SB with 24 offsuit. The flop comes down 2-10-10, I bet out into this massive field with bottom pair crappy kicker. A friend of mine raised from second position, everyone else folded, I called. The turn came a 6, I checked and called. The River came another 6, giving me a final hand of 10-10-6-6-(4). Not a great kicker, so I did the only reasonably thing, checkraise the river. My friend bet and sees me putting in chips and says "I cant win." and mucks his hand face up....also having 2-4 for 4 high. We all managed to get a good laugh at this one.

Anyway all in all it was a great trip. I managed to get hot on Ultimate Bet and booked a nice win for the trip both online and live. Hope the hot streak continues.

en fuego

Mission accomplished, I was able to play a ton of party poker in the past 4 days. I may have fallen a little short of 8k hands but results were great. The game is soo much more fun when I am playing / running well. Flopping pairs with AK and having my big pocket pairs hold up.

I played mostly 50-100 and won slightly more than my lifetime win rate in that game.

Some 30-60, where my win rate was slightly lower, but I was able to win for the week in that game too. I was down for my first 600 hands or so, before I was finally able to get in the black.

I also played a fair amount 100-200 hands, where my win rate was far superior to my lifetime average. Most of this profit came on Wednesday morning, when both games were shorthanded and there was a big fish in both of the games. I managed to hit a ton of hands in a short time period and won a bunch before he went busto on both tables.

My favorite hand came this morning in the 100-200 game. An overaggressive player raised UTG, and I three bet him next with KQ of diamonds, then a solid player in middle position capped it. I knew he had a big hand for sure. The flop came down 9 high all diamonds, we checked to the MP guy who bet, UTG called and I checkraised them both, they called. The turn was a small non diamond, I bet and they both called. Now the river came out another small non diamond, the first guy checked, and then I decided to go for the river checkraise. I was pretty sure the MP guy held an overpair. He bet UTG called and I was able to checkraise both of them again on the river. Aces and Kings down the drain. KQ sooooted rules !!!!

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Spring week in college every year was a week long party. On the 20^th of April every year we threw our annual “Steak and Bake.” Where we fired up the grilles and cooked a bunch of steaks. It’s been a couple of years but a friend decided to revive this party tomorrow down in Providence at his house. I’m looking forward to a fun day in the sun.

Then heading to AC for a couple days … Omaha city here I come.

Catch Up Week

The past week or so has been pretty crazy. Between going to four Red Sox games, playing golf, Easter, and some friends from college coming up to Boston, I have played very little poker. This week (tues-fri) I plan on getting back on track, my goal is to play 8k party poker hands. I find my best results are when I focus on playing hours/ hands opposed to setting monetary goals. Two thousand hands a day should be doable.

I’m also in the middle of reading three books, which I normally never let happen. I like to finish one before starting something new, but due to strange circumstances; jury duty, leaving a book at home when traveling, and what not, I have three unfinished books. I plan on making a serious dent in these books and maybe starting the Harry Potter series. I have been dead set against reading these books but with constant pressure from a few friends and family members I may give in and read the first one and reevaluate from there.

If I accomplish my goals this week I was thinking about heading to Atlantic City next week for a week of live Omaha. I am determined to learn to beat that stupid game. I may lock myself in the Borgata and play Omaha until I either go broke or learn to win!!

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Red Sox scratch ticket update 5 tickets, -10 dollars, 2 entries to the grand prize drawing.

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Also the sox finally snapped the curse of the Szymaszek yesterday with a walk off home run in the bottom of the ninth; they are now 1-3 with me in attendance.

Prop Bets and a Broken Streak

Finally starting to get back to the grind; this week I played almost 5k party poker hands. This is not that many hands, but it’s the most I have played online in the last 2 months. I played mostly 50-100 with some 100-200 and 30-60 mixed in. Results were great, which makes me question my pursuit of big buy in tourneys and high limit mixed games. I think that I play tourneys for the challenge; I hate not being able to win at something. While the big mixed games, they are a must if I plan to take my game to the next level.

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I have a couple proposition bets pending; the first is a $500 weight loss bet made about 4 weeks ago, involving GP. He has to lose X number of pounds by a certain date. The end is rapidly approaching and my desire to order a cheese platter delivered to his house grow every day. GP tried to increase his drive to lose the weight by making the same bet with several people totaling in excess of $2500.

In my second bet, my ego may have gotten the best of me. I was playing 75-150 hold’em at Foxwoods and with many players up from Atlantic City; the topic of conversation was obviously Red Sox – Yankees. After some banter and trash talking the bet was decided, total wins for the season, I have Red Sox +3.5 games for a dime. I may be taking the worst of it here, but I could not resist backing my team.

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After attending the Sox game last night, and seeing the advertisements for the new Red Sox scratch ticket and the grand prize being 2 season tickets for life. I stopped by store 24 and grabbed a couple tickets. These are the first scratch tickets I have purchased in several years.

SundayFunday

Since busting out of the Main Event Thursday night, I have not played much poker. I won a 500 Heads Up SNG and played about 25 hands of 1-2 on stars without making a pair.

So yesterday the options were, play the Sunday Tournaments or … go play golden tee and see where the day brings me. Seems like an easy choice. So around 2pm I headed to my favorite gangster bar next to the fleet that happens to have GT 2006 Live.

After putting in a solid 27 holes, and only witnessing 1 dude gushing blood it was time to go grab some Celtics tickets. Playing with the local scalpers is definatly one of my favorite activities. The same dudes trying the same scams everygame. Anyway, floor seats were found, ahh the benifits of living in city with a basketball team "out of contention."

Before walking to our seats, we needed to grab some drinks…Go Big or Go Home !!!

Upon sitting down, I see this cute girl next to us. For some reason she is sitting in the press area, kind of weird. Anyway, she stands up and man is she tall, and why is she walking on to the court?? It turns out to be Ailay Brown (sp?) from American Idol, who was there to sing the National Anthem.

The game seemed like a typical Celtics debacle, an early lead, only to get blow out in the 4^th Quarter, by the Knicks.

There was a surprising amount of Knicks fans sitting next to us, who needed assistance in buying jack and coke’s. I have no quams, using the “you buy, Ill fly” policy for overpriced fleet center drinks. After the game it was still early and there was the urge to have a couple more drinks and catch the end of the Masters.

GG Phil. Best player to, "never have won a major," now has 3 in his trophy case.

The rest of the evening was somewhat of a blur. The last memory I have, is threatening the cab driver that I was going to throw up in the backseat, then getting angry at him for beginning to pull over and not bringing me straight home…

Main Event – Broke the Novel

Thursday was the Foxwoods WPT Main Event. Foxwoods has followed in the footsteps of other casino’s by starting you out with 20k in chips. In general this is great, but they are forced to skip some of the normal levels of 10k events, in order to conclude the tournament in 4 days.

I did not mind my first table draw, Bill Edler and Chris Biggler were the only two people I recognized. I lost a couple thousand in the first round, when I did not reraise with AK, which allowed the BB to flop 2 pair and beat me on an Ace, ten, five board.

Then midway through the second round I flopped a set of nines versus an opponents set of tens. This is the first time this has ever happened to me in a big tourney. I was sure my opponent had a very strong hand, so I check called the 9-10-Q flop, then lead when the 5 peeled off the turn. When he instantly raised me, I knew for sure he had KJ. He priced me into calling (by not raising enough) to try and make my full house and hopefully get his stack. The when the off suit 8 peels on the river, we go check check ??? Wow !! I guess my read was wrong, three nines must be good, I proudly showed my hand … sigh he shows me his set of tens. Maybe he priced me into drawing to 1 out on the river to get my stack? Expert ?? Nah … he just raised whatever he felt like raising and accidentally raised the perfect amount on the turn. Nice hand sir.

After moving tables I was able to rebuild my stack to ~17k, when I raised the 34 hearts in MP, a extremely tight straight forward player on the button called me. The flop came 25J all clubs, with the pot of 2500, I fired out 2200, the button instantly pushes his last 4500 into the middle … sigh, the pot is not 9200 and I need to call 2300 more. I was almost certain he didn’t have a flush, and put him on QQ or JJJ. I figured I had at least 6 outs hopefully 8. Maybe a bad call but I gambled with his set of jacks and lost. Good way to blow almost 6k.

Now with the blinds escalating, I was in resteal or push mode. When a player in MP opened for 1400, I had 6k and was pretty sure I was going to push on him with my two red eights, but while I was thinking the player to my left immediately says 3400 out of turn. So much for that plan, I dumped my two 88’s, only to be show AK and AQ. I wish I had acted a little bit faster.

After dinner, things became a little more desperate, I no longer had enough chips to resteal and was forced to shove at least once per orbit or else I would lose what little fold equity I had. While maintaining my stack for most of the 300-600 level, I finally picked up QQ, and reraised an EP raiser. He was forced to call my little reraise, and the ace on board set me packing…literally, I was in my car heading back to beantown within the hour.

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When returning home I decided to download the newly released novel, “Broke – A poker novel” by fellow Bostonian Brandon Adams. A quick fun read, the 95 page novel, was enjoyable and eye opening from cover to cover. Brandon puts in print what many poker players think about, but what very few actually are willing to talk about. I recommend the read to anyone who enjoys a fun poker story. The book can be found @ http://iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0-595-37729-7.

Foxwoods Update

I played the Foxwoods 3k event yesterday. The second biggest event is normally the toughest field, because the biggest event has satellite winners and the television exposure. Where the second biggest is normally a small field full of a many talented players.

I felt like I played real well the first 4 levels. Pulling the trigger several times and picking up pots, something I have been really trying to incorporate into my game. The best example of this was a hand where I had raised preflop and bet the flop and turn, then on the river my lone opponent bet into me, I felt like he was weak but probably had me beat. I thought for a second and raised his bet and made him laydown his hand.

Things were going smoothly, I had built my starting stack of 10k up to 25k, by playing mostly small pots and never getting all my chips in the middle. Then this critical hand happened.

Blinds 300-600, 75 antes, 3 limpers, I limp with 75 clubs, the button limps and the SB calls. Seven players plus antes, the pot is 4950. The flop came out J98 all clubs, a great flop for my hand. It was checked to me, and I bet 4200, allowing anyone with a big club to draw to the flush but also giving them a bad price to draw. The button thinks for a while, he had almost 18k in chips and eventually calls, everyone else folds. The turn card was an offuit ten, and with the pot being ~13k, and my opponent having about the same left in chips I put him all in. He agonized for a second or two then called, with the Ace of spades and Queen of clubs, giving him the irrevelent stright, and the Queen high flush draw. The river card peels off one of his six club outs (six of clubs gives me a straight flush) and he takes this monster pot of ~40k, leaving me with a little over 8k.

I was devasted after this hand, feeling I had played soo well up to that point, then having this happen. In the past I have noticed in my tournament game that as soon as somethig bad happens I give up. My thought process was it is so hard to win a tournament, if I dont get all the breaks, I couldnt win. I have been trying to fight this urge. I was able to build my stack up to 35K in the next 2 hours and at dinner I was just below the 40k average mark.

My stack dwindled to about 24K, then with the blinds at 800-1600 a solid player opened for 4100 and I shoved all in from the small blind with AQs. He called with AK and I was sent to the rail ... ahhh

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We have been playing 75-150 holdem the last couple days, so that is my plan again today. Then to get a good nights rest for the main event tomorrow, which can be followed on pokerwire.com.

Technology

Not much exciting news to report in my poker world this week. I played some 40-80 (or 50-100) hold’em, 75-150 HOE, and 5-10 NL, as well as a little Pokerstars 100-200 and 30-60. I did book a small win both online and live. Coming up this week I plan on playing in the 3k event on Tuesday and the 10k WPT event Thursday.

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I have just learned how to get my cell phone pictures from my cell to my computer, so I thought it would be fun to share some random pics that have been trapped inside my phone.

4080 foxwoods

200-400 commerce

600-1200 commerce

cashola

Bruins shootout

Celtics Nosebleed

Lakers

Kara @ Sox Spring Training

Koz

Katie @ Curling in Lowell ?????

Crazy Night in Vegas ...