2006 Year in Review

It was almost one year ago to the day, a couple friends and I were driving our golf carts from the "halfway cafe" to the 10th tee at the Michael Jordan Golf Course in the Bahamas, drinking our Miller Lites, smoking our twenty something dollar cigars and eating some of the grossest hot dogs one could find. Life was good. While traveling with poker players the conversation inevitably turns to poker. Anyway it was on this tenth tee when we talked about our results for the previous year and what we saw happening in the year to come. It was my third full year playing poker and I had said that I made more each year, both of my playing partners said the same, they too had made more money every year since they began playing poker. We pretty much agreed that things should continue to get better in the future. Well that was about all I needed to secure the jinx.....

lets see if I can remember some of the year's highlights....

Jan
-Bahamas WPT event, made day 2 w/ good chips, lost bunch of races early, John Pham trapped me, busted in time to catch some sun
-JV 3 puts from 12 feet for eagle in big skin carryover, $500 extra birdie golf match, he did make a nice par though

Feb
-WPT @ Commerce, made it to day two, low chips, they had assigned the tables for day 2 by first name, I think I had 7 Matt's and 2 Mike's at my table...busted early
-played first live session of Badagi/ triple draw +10k, beginners luck obv
-played highest holdem Ive ever played, 600-1200, only had 1/2 my own action, takeover owns me (obv), small loss over 2 sessions

March
-WPT @Foxwoods, busted day 1, never got anything going
-Foxwoods has the crappiest limit holdem games in the country, tough to start a 40-80 game

April
-Trip to AC, vowing to learn to play better O8, booked a little win for trip

June/July
-WSOP begins, got a house in Henderson, sharpen my pool skillz
-Don't cash in any events, obv huge tourney donk
-Save my trip with a hot run on party
-Manage to have enough cash to blow in Vegas by having a winning trip in the 80-160 to 200-400 mixed games

Aug
-Shit hits the fan, first significant losing month in poker career, party poker 100-200
-Bought Rental Property in Dracut

Sept
-More of the same, another big losing month
-Senate Majority Leader Frist passes bill to attempt to stop online poker/ banking/ gambling

Oct/Nov
-pretty much living life on perma tilt
-Party Poker closes it doors to US customers
-WPT @ Foxwoods, no chance
-Struggle through entire Foxwoods trip, end up blowing a good chunk of change mostly the last 2 days
-sometime during this two month stretch I manage kick myself in the balls and attempt to get my act together
-finally have a little winning streak online to end out November

Dec
-solid month, playing a zillion hands between 10-20 and 30-60


summary: I suck at tourneys. Year end totals were down from 2005, and pretty close to my totals in 2004, but I have far from perfect records, which needs to change in the future.

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2007 Resolutions/ Goals

Poker
-Keep better records
-Study/ learn tourney poker opposed to just dishing out thousands of dollars trying to learn on the fly
-Continue working/ studying other forms of poker, especially no limit cash games

Fitness
-Run a sub 1:50 half marathon
-Bench my weight, 3 sets of 8
-play 25 rounds of golf

General
-Get involved in another piece of positive cash flow real estate
-Read 10 non poker books
-Continue to keep an active blog
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Anyway, thanks for reading and Happy Holiday's to all !

Reemergence of Limit Holdem

This is just a 15-30 hand, but these types of hands used to be the the norm not the exception...

PokerStars Game #7529453921: Hold'em Limit ($15/$30) - 2006/12/20 - 17:19:40 (ET)
Table 'Venus V' 10-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: all aces ($529 in chips)
Seat 2: Dano 21n ($1087 in chips)
Seat 3: slipknot3323 ($572.50 in chips)
Seat 4: matty14 ($584 in chips)
Seat 5: Which ($1905 in chips)
Seat 6: orly63 ($234 in chips)
Seat 8: SuitedAces ($880 in chips)
Seat 9: SIVLA ($650 in chips)
Seat 10: huypham111 ($1656.50 in chips)
SuitedAces: posts small blind $10
SIVLA: posts big blind $15
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SuitedAces [Kh Kc]
huypham111: raises $15 to $30
all aces: folds
Dano 21n: folds
slipknot3323: folds
matty14: calls $30
Which: folds
orly63: folds
SuitedAces: raises $15 to $45
SIVLA: folds
huypham111: raises $15 to $60
Betting is capped
matty14: calls $30
SuitedAces: calls $15
*** FLOP *** [2c 9c 2s]
SuitedAces: checks
shenan55 has returned
huypham111: bets $15
matty14: folds
SuitedAces: calls $15
*** TURN *** [2c 9c 2s] [Qd]
SuitedAces: checks
huypham111: bets $30
SuitedAces: calls $30
*** RIVER *** [2c 9c 2s Qd] [6d]
SuitedAces: bets $30
huypham111: calls $30
*** SHOW DOWN ***
SuitedAces: shows [Kh Kc] (two pair, Kings and Deuces)
huypham111: mucks hand
SuitedAces collected $342 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $345 | Rake $3
Board [2c 9c 2s Qd 6d]
Seat 1: all aces folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Dano 21n folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: slipknot3323 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: matty14 folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Which folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: orly63 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: SuitedAces (small blind) showed [Kh Kc] and won ($342) with two pair, Kings and Deuces
Seat 9: SIVLA (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 10: huypham111 mucked [6c 4h]

I guess I could have put it another raise, but as it turned out, I probably got the max.

Running Bad

Ive been on a little hot streak the last 10 days or so in poker. Nothing significant monetarily but a pretty solid bb/100 number so it looks like I wont be living on the street come Christmas...

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Anyway with the holidays approaching Ive been busy doing a bunch of errands and stuff that I have to take care of. Today I got my car inspected (about 3 months overdue), then decided to make my inaugural trip to the mall to begin my Christmas shopping. I live about a 15 minute walk/ 5 minute drive so 9 out of 12 months I probably make a visit about once every couple weeks BUT come Thanksgiving and sales and blah blah blah, I stay the F*** away. But anyway today I ventured into the overcrowded parking lot, and circled for a while before finding a lady coming out the door that I would follow to her car (pretty sick but I guess this is how you get a spot around this time of the year). Anyway after she loads her bags, fixes her hair, puts on her sunglasses, checks her mirrors, looks both ways, she is ready to go!! Ahh a spot at last. Now I'm walking around through the masses of people looking like a chicken with my head cutoff, knowing I need to buy so many gifts and knowing I don't want to come back but don't know what to buy anyone, or what stores to go to. Finally I decide to hit up BestBuy, where if nothing else I can get some DVD's for me (not very festive but hey, its Tuesday and that's when the new releases hit the shelves). Upon reaching the front door, I see the big metal gate is lowered, I walk up and read the sign, "Store Closed, Due to a broken pipe and a water leak." Ugh, possibly the busiest shopping week of the year, and Best Buy is closed at 2 in the afternoon! I wonder how Best Buy (BBY) stockholders feel about this ? That is truly running bad!

The "Would Ya?" Blog

Lately poker has been pretty blah...I read Maroons blog a while back and he mentioned your theoretical rake back on stars went way up once you reached supernova status, so for the last couple weeks Ive been playing a zillion hands on there. Mostly 15-30, some 10-20 and 30-60. For some reason I have more trouble winning on this site than any place else in the world. I'm beating the 10-20 and 15-30 pretty soundly...and obv getting crushed in the 30 game. But I did achieve Supernova status yesterday, which is good through all of 2007.

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I was recently picked up off the waiver wire in a men's street hockey league. I made my debut last night, scoring a goal and an assist, but it wasn't enough as we lost 6-4.

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off topic...waaay off.....Not really sure when the phrase "Would Ya" first popped into my vocabulary, but I think the original story was a few friends and I were out somewhere and a marginally attractive girl was across the room and someone said, "would ya?" Being the first time these words were uttered in my presence, we all checked out the specimen and replied with our answers. Anyway since its origination, this phrase has been uttered countless times by someone. Recently this phrase was applied to an onslaught of Movie/TV milfs. Some of the favorites include, Selma from Fools Rush In, Demi Moore from Strip Tease, Carmelo from Sopranos, Jill Taylor from Tool time, Cheryl Hines from Curb Your Enthusiasm, Carrie from King of Queens and Elaine from Seinfield. Then once the question was inevitably answered "yes." Then debate continues...with some headsup battles...Selma in her peak vs Demi in her peak ? (I know this is getting juvenile but I don't care, its my blog, I make the rules) KoQ Carrie vs Seinfield Elaine, current or peak...Soprano's Carmella vs Cheryl Hines...Rank them...yadda yadda yadda this go on for ever...anyway good times

Stick Practice

With my 28th birthday just around the corner and my physical peak rapidly declining I decided to follow in the footsteps of Jesse Martin and start playing some sports again. I had played hockey through high school and decided I would try to find a street hockey league in the Boston area. When scouring the web I couldn't find a league to join, but I stumbled across "Stick Practice" at HockeyTown USA in Saugus. This is an open sheet of ice where you can go skate, shoot and attempt to get your skating legs back. Today was my first day skating in 3 or 4 years...and it showed !

Anyway, while there I was talking to this guy, who says they play a pickup game 3 times a week in Stoneham the Home of Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. So maybe after a few more times attempting to regain some of my skating skillz I may go and play a little competitive hockey.

Also on a side note, HockeyTown has indoor wiffle ball and street hockey leagues, with a wiffle ball Home Run Derby December 17th. Mark your calenders!!

LuckBox

Im in the midst of a (1500-2k hands) no-limit session....
Seat 1: FatalError ($296.25 in chips)
Seat 2: billyjex ($1200 in chips)
Seat 4: SuitedAces ($591 in chips)
Seat 5: stacysmom ($609 in chips)
Seat 6: macay ($676.70 in chips)
SuitedAces: posts small blind $3
stacysmom: posts big blind $6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SuitedAces [Th Jh]
macay: calls $6
FatalError: raises $21 to $27
billyjex: folds
SuitedAces: calls $24
stacysmom: folds
macay: calls $21
*** FLOP *** [Ts 9h Qh]
SuitedAces: bets $36
macay: calls $36
FatalError: calls $36
*** TURN *** [Ts 9h Qh] [Kh]
SuitedAces: bets $60
macay: raises $60 to $120
FatalError: calls $120
SuitedAces: calls $60
*** RIVER *** [Ts 9h Qh Kh] [4d]
SuitedAces: checks
macay: bets $493.70 and is all-in
FatalError: calls $113.25 and is all-in
SuitedAces: calls $408 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
macay: shows [Ah 2h] (a flush, Ace high)
SuitedAces: shows [Th Jh] (a straight flush, Nine to King)
SuitedAces collected $589.50 from side pot
FatalError: mucks hand
SuitedAces collected $892.75 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $1484.25 Main pot $892.75. Side pot $589.50. | Rake $2
Board [Ts 9h Qh Kh 4d]
Seat 1: FatalError mucked [As Jd]
Seat 2: billyjex (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: SuitedAces (small blind) showed [Th Jh] and won ($1482.25) with a straight flush, Nine to King
Seat 5: stacysmom (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: macay showed [Ah 2h] and lost with a flush, Ace high

overcalling 2 big bets with the straight flush .... ahh life is gooooood