Jan. review

So lastnight i won my 1st $50 sng...and today, i decieded to win my 2nd one!!!! Lastnight there were 3 of us left, and i busted the last 2 guys in 1 shot...my Q9 suited vs AK and QQ...gg me lol...they each had under 2000 chips, and i had like 9000, so its not as bad as it seems. I FINALLY cashed in an EPT satalite...didnt quite get the $700 ticket to the big saturday tourny, but i came in 7th and won $109 for my 7th place finish when the top 4 got it. Ive played a bunch of these, and it feels nice to actually win something, although, that ticket would've been much sweeter! San Remo, i'm coming!! Ended up coming in about 100th in the $10 7pm tourny that had over 3000 ppl...i literally didn't see a hand for the last hour and a half, it was SOOOOOO frusterating!!! When i got moved to my table, i had like 60k, when most ppl had under 40k...and BAM...never saw another hand the rest of the way until i was bascially forced to push a weak ace and got called by a bigger ace.....oh well, so goes the battle.

So this month has been a HUGE rollercoaster...when all is said and done, i ended up about $700 bones. From the lowpoint of this month (around the 10th) i'm up close to $1500!!!! I'm feeling very in the zone in both sng's and cash games. The $700 is a bit under the pace i need to keep to make that 10k (need to make about 850), but seeing as i lost A LOT of money on multi tables this month, i'm VERY happy!!! To even get the 10k, i figured i owuld need at least 1 big multi table score, and the fact that i didnt even come close to that, i'm just happy to be not in the red.

Non poker....i saw the worst movie i've ever seen in my life...CLOVERFIELD...if you have good taste in movies at all (like i do)...DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME SEEING THIS!! If you've already seen it, and liked it, you have just been bumped down in my books. Monsters don't exist...PERIOD!! No matter how believable something may seem, the second a monster comes into the picture...DONE!!! I really would like to hear someone explain to me why they thought this was a good movie, becuz i know good movies, and this, was not one of them!

Murph

ps pokerstars...how about flipping my boomswitch on in multi tables in Feb???

Once was nice...why not twice???

So, if you've been keeping up to date on my blog, you'll remember me mentioning playing in those $39 satalites to the sunday warm up...i played it like wednesday, and won a seat...played it again today...WINNER!!!! I'm telling you, i have a good feeling about these things...again, only 18 people registered...3 guys get the ticket...BUT it doesn't register on Officialpokerrnakings which blows...my ROI is in desperate need of a few $215 scores!

Cutting my night short tonight opting to end the night feeling GREAT!!! Ended up winning about $250 bucks or so today between sng's and multi tables....although, i accidently signed up for a double shootout to the sunday millions, and i ended up coming in 3rd...only the top 2 won the ticket, so i took home $35...oh, how did i bust u ask??? my AJ vs J10...i wouldn't have it any other way...speaking of bad beats (last one today i swear) i was semi deep in the $10 1 rebuy 1 add on....but busted in 45th when it got folded to me in the SB...i had 1010...the BB had been very aggessive, so i planned on just calling, thinking he'd raise, and i'd push...of course, he just checks...flop comes 954 rainbow...i bet 10k into like a 5k pot...he pushes, i insta call, he turns over Q9...AMAZING!!! i'm about to double up into a top 10 stack...WRONG....WRONG...9 on the river gg murph (this hand really bugged me since i played the guy like a fiddle)

Anyway, it was a good day, so no more complaining....onto maybe the funniest clip ive ever seen (well, not really, but it is pretty funny)...now if u don't know how bad Montell Williams is at poker...try to search some of his plays from the 2007 wsop...the guy literally called off his stack (it was a big stack) with like Q high, on a very dangerous board...could he sound any cockier in this interview??? I'd swear it was phil ivey if i just rea the transcript of the interview...anyway, enjoy

http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/29329

this should be the clip...if not, look on the right side of the screen...and click on the one that says montell williams

Murph

In for a quick rant

So i played my 1st ever $50 sng today...it went really well...Lost AA vs KQ all in pre flop for about 3/4 of the chips with 5 left...i girnd my way back...only to lose my A8 to A4 all in pre flop...then i once again grind my way back, and go bust when my A8 loses to K10 all in pre flop and i bust in 4th....i'm still swick about this one!

I'm getting absolutely WHORED today in sng's today...just busted out of a $30 with my AK vs Aq all in pre flop with 4 ppl left....and in another 1, with 4 left...utgraises, i have KK on button, i re raise, he calls flop comes 357 rainbow...he pushes all in a big overbet...i call...he turns over 46 offsuit...gg murph

Its been a baaaaaaad day

Murph

10k already??

Ok, no, i didnt go on a sick heater lastnight...the 10k refers to how many cash game hands ive played using poker tracker since i got it....my favorite part?? I've LOST 45 BUCKS WITH THE ACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How gross is that?? Lastnight, i got it all in pre flop AA vs KK, flop comes QJ10....9 onthe river nh sir. I looked back through all the times ive lost with AA and i honestly don't think there was a single time ive misplayed them. I've run into about 5 sets, and gotten it all in with the best o it about 4 more times, and lost them all. I know its just variance, but 10k hands isnt exactly a super small sample size....and i've LOST money with AA...poker is so fun...

So i discovered my new fav tournament lastnight...the $39 sat. to the sunday warmup. I don't really plan on playing in the big one on sundays, i just plan on banking the tournament dollars...played in one lastnihgt...winner!! I really like these, becuz every 6th guy gets the $215. Back in the day, Bodog use to run something similar to this (they still do actually) but these tournamnets cost $5 for $29...so bascially every 6 guy won 1st...i use to CRUSH these on bodog. I feel like my satalite bubble game is far better then most ppls, so i can take advantage o this. So i'm pretty excited about playing these in the future!

Ended up about 100 bucks on the day yesterday...thats including losing that $200 pot with the Aces...i'm gonna have to get into grind mode though for the next week...i need about 800 vpps to maintain gold status, which shouldn't be too hard, but i'll have to grind some 2/4 omaha8 (which i won $90 lastnight) to accumulate vpp's quicker then playing .50-1 nlhe.

I actually have a plan for my fpps which i may tell you all about next post...until then

Murph

Swing swing

So, before yesterday, i had been on a mini heater for the past week...i basically erased the -700 i started the year out on, and was actually up a little bit...until yesterday. Ended the day stuck about $150, but i'm VERY happy with the way i played. I played about 300 hands of cash and floppped 1 set (i picked up about 40 pocket pairs too) and got AA twice and had them cracked twice, picked up QQ once, and had those cracked too, so all in all, i'm happy with my play, eventhough i lost money. I had a guy at my table seeing 85% of the flops too!!!!! He was a payoff wizard!!! I just couldnt get a hand agaisnt this guy to save my life!!! Usually, when a guy has stats like this, he only lasts about 30 hands or so, but this donkey play 105!!!! He clearly ended up losing 180 bucks, and i if anything, he won money off of me...oh well, you can't beat every donkey...

Tournaments still are basically going nowhere. 4 days ago i came in 10th just missing the final table of a horse event, and yesterday, i cashed in the same event. Other then this, pokerstars has really just been BLAH since mid november. Actually, the $5 rebuy has been very profitable since ive started playing it, but i haven't had a big score in it...just a lot of $40-50 payouts. I decieded to play the $10 rebuy lastnight too, and it went REALLY well. First hand i picked up QQ utg...pushed all in, got called by AQ, he hit a flush. 2 hands later, i pick up AQ, utg pushes, i call, he has KJ...J on the river...and i called it a day LOL...i figured hey, this thing could get pretty expensive if this keeps happening, so i ate the 20 bucks, and left. I actually cashed in the 50/50 on fulltilt lastnight though. Parlayed a $6 sat. win into $90 bucks, so it was a good night on fulltilt i guess. I was running in the top 50 almost the whole tournament, until we got near the cash, and i went about an hour staright without catching a single decnt hand, and i ended up busting in like 115th or so.

Ok, i'm glad i'm getting back into grinding cash games, i feel like my game is improving ten fold...especially my reads (yes i know, its online, but there are def reads to be made). Maybe a cash in the $20 180 man sng at some point would be nice....i think i'm about 0 for 18 recently...

Murph

Winner winner chicken dinner!

Congrats to blacklude, he was the first person to answer this weeks question correctly...stay tuned, this could be a weekly giveaway! Your 5 bucks have been shipped sir, let me know if you don't get it for some reason.

So lastnight i put in a nice 10 hour session...ended up making about $160 bucks, so it was a pretty good day. Made a pretty deep run in the $5 rebuy coming in about 55th out of something like 2400 entries. Went a bit card dead at the end and had to push J10 and couldn't crack A8...oh well, i was happy with the result! I'm starting to think the $3 and $5 rebuys may be the easiest tournaments in the world to beat. There is SO much dead money in these its not even funny!!! It's frusterating becuz the fields are so big that its next to impossible to final table them, but making some decent cashes can be a regular thing.

Also made about $100 playing cash games for about an hour. I've said it once, and i'll say it again, pokertracker with HUD is A MUST!!!! All my profits came from one pot, and if i didn't have tracker, i would NEVER have made this play...best $55 bucks i've ever spent! Maybe tomorrow i'll post a pciture of my setup, and how i play my cash games. I feel like it can be profitable for others too!

Ok, got the night off tonight, so i'm looking to put in another long session...

Muroh

FREE MONEY!!

Ok, first off...the theme of the week is back to basics!! I think i've discovered the problem...kind of. I built my bankroll off grinding...period!! Playing very low limit, nl hold em games. These were my bread and butter. I use to pull in about 10-20 bucks a day on average. BUT, as you all know, grinding away in cash games can get VERY boring at times, and thats when i started branching out a little bit. Well, i think it got to the point, where i rarely, if ever play nl hold em cash games. Eventhough i was a winner at the other games, i had strayed so far from the grinding days that i think i slowly started losing perspective. Bottom line, the past 2 days, i've spent about 3 hours each day just grinding cash games. Monday i won $135 and yesterday i won $90. These aren't big scores (which is why i think i started playing so many tournies) but 50-100 bucks a day means about 400-500 (potentially) a week...which you can all do the math what that adds up to at the end of the year. Now i'm not saying i'm gonna be pulling in those kind of numbers just by playing cash games again, but i feel good about my game, eventhough its only been 2 days of solid poker (and yes, i still managed to get my aces cracked by Q9 on a 9 high board, all in on the flop, 9 on the river...ty stars). All this being said, i've got the next 2 nights off work, so i'll be playing a lot of multi tables, but i'll probably still work in some .50-1 or 1-2.

On to the subject...FREE MONEY!!! I'm having a little contest. The first person to answer this question correctly, wins a free $5 from yours truely ( i will transfer it to your pokerstars or fulltilt account). Now for the disclaimer. If you have ever lived with me, you CANNOT win the prize, so please do not ruin it for the other readers!! Onto the question...

"In my 30 years coaching here at West Canaan, i've brought to you 2 state titles, and 22 district championships count em"

You need to know what movie this is from, AND either the actor who said it, or the characters name in the movie...good luck and post your answers in the comments!

Murph

ps Is it just me, or does George Lopez now have the biggest head in the world??? He looks like a human pez dispenser

Someone turn off my doomswitch

This is going to be quick. I'm officially in the biggest slump of my short poker life. Poker can be very funny like that...when your on a heater, you feel like u are WAY better then you really are, but you have confindence on your side. When u r running like ass, you r constantly expecting the worst. Lost about 300 today, and i've lost close to $700 in 2008 alone!! Basically in every aspect of poker (multi tables, sng's cash games) i'm both running, and playing like shit! I know i've been complaining about running bad lately, but it's now starting to effect my play. I should probably take a few days off, but i'm not sure if i'm going to do that. I've only played 1 hold em cash session in 2008, and it was a winning one, so i think for the next few days, i'm just going to play a couple hold em tables at a time. No sng's, no multi tables, nothing!

Wish me luck in the next few days, becuz i'll take anything i can get!

Murph

ps just won a $30 sng as i was posting this...so i'm only stuck $170 now

I don't care anymore

So i'm writting about bad beats, and if u don't like it, don't read it.

I logged onto stars about an hour ago...i've busted out of 3 tournies..all in pre flop 1) my JJ vs 99 2) my KK vs A7 3) my AJ vs KJ...more to come i'm sure...

Murph

The coup de gras

I promised myself after yesterdays triple header bad beat story, that i wouldn't tell another one for a while...i lied. The picture is kind of poor, but as you can see, my AK was no good against AQ all in pre flop...big deal you say right??? This has happens to everybody...maybe...but how about at a mother$#@*&&*& final table???? ( i love how i flopped a king too, bascially leaving him drawing dead). Yup, i final tabled the fulltilt $10 bounty tournament, only to exit in classic fashion ( i wouldn't have it any other way). There were 7 of us left, and i was in 3rd, with 2 really short stacks still hanging on. Utg (who is 2nd in chips) makes it like 5.5 times the bb...i pick up AK and push all in...he instantly calls ( so i figured i might be in trouble) trouble??? How about i couldn't have asked for anything better for him to have...end result...gg murph out in 7th for $160 bucks when 1st was $1100.

I think my favortie part of the tournament was that i didn't get it in bad once...not once, and still final tabled it. Usually when u final table a big tourny, u can remember a couple times u may have sucked out on someone, thats just the nature of the beast...it happens that way. In a 600+ man tournament, your gonna need to suck out at least once to make any sort of money...not me...come to think of it, i swear to you, i can't even remember winning a coin flip...i played AMAZING post flop poker, and was %$#$%* in the end.

This is the joke of all jokes...i F-ing hate poker so much!! I played EASILY the sickest tournament of my life, and get *&*#$#* in the end. I owned that final table coming in to it in 5th, and chipping up like mad becuz 5 of the guys couldn't stop talking about each pay increase for each spot, so i knew they weren't calling with anything but the nuts. I can virtually guarantee i would've won this if that AK held...i would've been a big chip leader at a table of scared P&%#@#%

OUT!

Murph

I'm silly

One final post before bed...THIS DONKEY BEAT ME HEADS UP!!!! I mean look at that graph!!! Is that not the ugliest thing you've ever seen??? At what point do you just say hey, maybe sng's aren't my thing??? If you can believe it, he has a huge fishbowl next to his name when you sharkscope him...i'd give you his name, but this guy is my fish, and i will be searching him EVERY SINGLE TIME i sit down to play

Anyway, ended up staging a late night come back and was stuck about $120 for the day....although, i didn't come in 1st in either of the 2 sngs i just finished which i should have...my A8 was no match for J9 though. Have another big day planned for tomorrow, so may the fish be with me!

Murph

OMG

So i just finished a sng...i raise with JJ on the button heads up...he calls...flop comes J 10 9, i bet, he pushes, i call...he flips over 67...8 for his gutter in the river gg murph

Have i ever mentioned how much i hate poker?

Today was one of the worst days i've had in poker in quite a while...currently stuck about $275...Played in about 475 multi tables...cashed in none of them...and i busted out of 3 of them the same way me having JJ twice vs AJ all in pre flop, and me having QQ vs AQ all in pre...i really can't remember me ever running so bad...and the worst part is....i think i'm mind fucking myself...the second the hands are turned over (and i'm in front which i usually am) the VERY FIRST THING that comes into my head, is the cards that can beat me...its been bad!

Anyway, thats it for now...i really should take a break or soemthing for a couple of days, just to get my mind right becuz it is so frusterating getting it in good 90% of the time, but only winning it 30% of the time

Murph

ps...i hate complaining how bad i run, but really, this is as bad as its ever been for me in my short time playing poker, so let me vent!

The life of royalty

So i only managed to play about 6 hours of live poker while i was home, and ended up winning about 60 bucks playing 1-2...it was a very frusterating session though as i swear i just can't deal with donkeys. I tried a huge check raise bluff on the river becuz i KNEW this guy was very weak...of course, he pretty much calls instantly saying he has to see it...i just toss my bluff in the muck, and just like i thought, he had top pair, with a 4 kicker om a HEAVY straight and flush board...its been like 4 days, and that hand is still bugging me...i knew he was weak, made my play, and he's so shit in poker, he doesn't even recognize the strength i just represented...F poker! ALTHOUGH, i did hit my 1st ever (i thinkg) live royal flush!! Kind of got paid a bit too. I held the Q10 of hearts...flop came KQJ with kj of hearts....turn...ACE OF HEARTS BABY!!! I had some donkey betting into me too...i was just PRAYING for the board to pair on the river, but it blanked off, and i made a small bet on the river, and casually turned over the royal...gg murph!

So i'm home now, losing some money slowly but surely...ive gone with a TOTALLY new approach this week...i'm just playing A TON of turbo sng's...i wanna see how i fair at them seeing as you can play so many more games per hour then a regular sng...so far, so BAD!!!!! It has been very ugly these past few days!! i've played about 35 or or, and i'm down about 100 bucks...not terrible considering the beats ive been taking...it truely has been GROSS!!!!!!!! Do u know how many times ive had my A8 lose to a shittier ace??? WAY TOO MANY!!!! I hope its just variance becuz another few days like this, and bye bye turbo sng's

Anyway, thats it for now, making thursday and sunday big multi table days, and i may try to play the sunda millions this sunday...may

Murph

Now i'm ready

Ok, so back at the parents house and first thing i did was download pokerstars...well, maybe not first, but it was downloaded within a few hours. Didn't even play lastnight, but i'm just finishing up a short hour and a half session, and i'm up about 280...1st in a $30 sng and 2nd in a $20...and i've won about $100 playing some omaha8...so i'm back on track baby!

Ok, so here is what i'm looking for in 2008. First and foremost, i just want to improve my game...all aspects of it. From sng's to cash games to multi tables...i just want to get better, and i feel like by getting better, winning will come. So instead of just saying i'd like to get better, i'm actually going to read some strategy forums and 2+2 as oppossed to just reading the gossip and news junk (although i do love reading that stuff too). As for number goals, i hesitate to actually make concrete predictions, becuz i don't want to set myself up for disaster but i think i will anyway. It may sound absurd, but i want to make $10,000 in 2008! I really feel like this is VERY possible seeing as i won about 7k in 2007 and for probably the first 5 months, i was playing in much smaller games then i am now. Also, i really plan on playing about 90% of my poker on pokerstars, so having a deep bankroll allows me to play biiger games, which means bigger wins(and bigger loses too). I think i'm goiong to be playing a LOT more sng's too...from what i here, stars will be running a tournament leader board for sng's, so i plan on participating in this every week, which means when i log on each afternoon, i'm probably going to firing up 3 or 4 sng's right off the bat, and maybe throw in a cash game on the side. From what i hear, it seems like i shold have a shot at some free money from this, but we'll see once it starts.

I'm promising to be less of a bankroll nit too...i easily have the bankroll to take some shots at bigger games and bigger multi tables, and i never could pull the trigger...this is going to change this year i promise. It won't change a ton, becuz deep down, i still am a bankroll nit, but playing in some bigger multi tables once in a while i feel has a +ev. I think a lot of my yearly total will depend on my multi table game....1 big score or 2 could do wonders for my 10k goal.

Lastly, all this being said, i plan on moving back in with g/f around may or so, so that means a MASSIVE decline in the amount of poker i'll be playing, which once again, will hurt the 10k goal.

Ok, thats it for now...went to the casino lastnight...no poker though...getting ready to eat now
out

Murph

Bring back 2007!!

Well, i planned on doing my goals for 2008 today, but seeing as i've started 2008 stuck $200, i REALLY don't feel like writting naything positive...feeling the way i feel today, it would be an absolute joke for me to write about winning anything this year, let alone what i really want to win...that being said, i'll do it tomorrow , or by the end of the week...

Lost $80 today playing omaha8, which is the 3rd day in a row ive lost at that game (other two days were like only 10 bucks each)...not sure what the problem is...may mix in a nl hold em cash game tomorrow to change things up

Got CRUSHED in sng's today...2 hands sum up the day...(stop reading now if you don't want to hear a bad beat story)...early in a sng, utg+1 makes it 90....i have AA so i make a big re raise to 410...he calls...board comes Q82 all clubs....i have the ace of clubs, so its not horrible...he chekcs, i bet 799...he smooth calls leaving only like 150 chips...turn comes a J, he pushes all in...i call...this piece of &%$&*&% **@$ flips over 910 of *&%$**@ HEARTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! River misses, gg murph....he bascially called off his stack with a gutshot...and 3 clubs on board, when he didnt have a club...next hand....4 ppl left...2 pretty short stacks, me and other guy have like 5500 each...he's been rasing a ton on his button (i'm in the bb)...so he makes it his usual 5x bb...i have ak in the blind, so i push all in kwoning he will fold with the 2 crippled stacks ready to bust...WRONG...he INSTA...and i mean INSTA calls with J10 sooted...flush on river...gg murph...then the short stacks who managed to cash starting sayign how dumb I WAS!!!!?!?!?!?!!?!?! huh???????????????? Sometimes i hate poker.

Murph

ps i'm flying home tomorrow until sunday, so i won't be getting much poker in for the rest of the week...but i will still be grinding a night or 2 late i'm sure...gonna play some live poker too back home, so i'll keep ya posted