A non-aerobic exercise in futility

Monday, December 27, 2004

Finally in the money

Finally made my breakthrough today. Despite getting no cards to play in the bubble stage, I finished 16th out of 285 in a $10+1 limit hold-em tournament. It's not a huge money prize ($34.20) but it's a massive confidence boost. Suddenly those top 20% finishes aren't such a monkey on my back, but an assurance that maybe... just MAYBE... I have a clue what I'm doing in a tournament setting. If I could've just gotten one premium pair in the last 90 minutes, I could've had a chance at the final table. Maybe next time. There IS a limit Omaha $10+1 tournament at 5:15 tonight... hmm. Or maybe I'll just relax and play some stud 8/b.

posted by Matt 1:39 PM

Sunday, December 26, 2004

And now for something completely different

Sometime in 2003 during my fits of drunken insomnia, I discovered the joys of international cricket. Look, when it's 5am and your days and nights are totally screwed up due to having no job and drinking copious amounts of rum, you find all kinds of things to amuse yourself. I ended up reading all about the 2003 World Cup and even listening to some of the matches while following the text commentary on http://www.cricinfo.com in the middle of the night. I've attempted to learn more about the game, even bought EA Sports Cricket 2004 for my PC... and I'm just fascinated by it. The entire concept that a Test can be played for five days and end in a draw... delightful. For some reason I decided to become a Sri Lanka fan, due mainly to the controversy around Muttiah Muralitharan. I personally think he's getting shafted by being labeled a chucker, but that's just me. Also their ODI shirt really rules.

In the brief period of time I've been following cricket, I've also fallen in love with Bangladesh. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for underdogs. You can't be a bigger underdog than being a dirt-poor country that's flooded into oblivion every single year. This weekend, they won their first home ODI match, vs India. Bangladesh vs. any other Test-playing nation is like the 16-vs-1 game in the NCAA basketball tournament. They're just such massive underdogs that play with heart and guts but can't quite pull it together. This weekend, they managed to play a solid game and actually out-played India in every facet of the game. They'll play again late tonight in an attempt to win the 3-match series.

You've got to love the underdogs.

posted by Matt 9:51 PM

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Holiday poker updates

I've had the itch to play some more multi-table tournaments lately. Yesterday I continued my magnificent trend of finishing in the top 20% of the field, but out of the money (90th of 530+) in a $3 limit hold-em tournament. The big blow was me burning over 3500 chips with my K-K vs A-A from the guy on my right. Ugh.

As I type this, I'm playing a $1 Stud 8/b tournament to get a little more experience. Things are going okay so far, and I'll update again once I'm done.

Well, I'm out in 62nd out of 395. Ordinarily I'd be upset with missing the money again, but I made a push to get a big stack instead of just trying to limp into the "money"... 32nd place paid only $1.97, and I was pushing for a big stack to play for the 1st place prize of over $98. I lost a lot of chips pushing A-2-3 for lows, and A-hi flushes for hi. If I'd hit even one or two of the hands I pushed, I'd have been in great shape for some real money. That's what happens when you play to win.

posted by Matt 1:06 PM

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Not the start I was hoping for

Tonight was a trial run for my "serious" phase of my beginning poker career. It didn't go well.

After work I headed to the local Hard Rock for some thrilling $2 Omaha. Didn't catch a lot of hands early, and I threw away some money chasing draws at a loose-passive table (lots of callers, not much raising). This was followed by a period of having absolutely nothing to play.

The only thing worse than having nothing to play? Having lots of good low hands to play.

As my chip count dwindled (I only sat down with $60), I finally started getting some hands with nut-low possibilities. A-A-3-3 single-suited was only good for 1/4 the pot when it shared the nut low. The next hand was A-2-4-10 with the A-10 suited. The flop was a wonderful A-3-8 giving me the nut low right away. The turn was a K, and the river...

... a 4. Yes, the fourth low card was a wheel card. I was all-in at this point, and sure enough someone showed A-2-5-x for what would've quartered me anyway, and now took the entire low half. That was it for me on the night, but I'll be back next week. After all, payday is coming.

posted by Matt 8:01 PM

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Let's try this again!

Well, here we go. Another year has come and gone, and ye olde blogge fell into neglect and dis-use. This is really and truly a shame, as a good bit has happened.

The eHarmony experiment came to an end. There was some e-mail and phone contact with a few lovely ladies as well as one actual date that, while amiable, ended with nothing else in the cards. This led to the decision that I'm through with dating! How exciting! This should give me more time to focus on...

... poker! I took a five night trip to Las Vegas in August and drank a lot of rum and played a lot of cards. The trip was ultimately unsuccessful but a ton of fun. Expect to see the full story on here in a few days.

I had a job change in October this year, and I'm now working in a call center for General Motors. It pays almost $2/hour more than the bank, so that's worked out pretty well.

The plan for 2005 is ambitious.

1) Start blogging regularly. If my boy 3zy can do it, there's no reason I can't.
2) Do the diet thing again. It worked pretty well last year.
3) Invest the tax return into online poker and start getting serious. Lots and lots of $1/2 tables and $10 SNGs, as well as trips to the local Seminole/Hard Rock casino.

So that's where we stand at this, the threshold of a new year. This has been the State of the Blog address.

posted by Matt 8:47 PM

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

Non-poker update! Wow!

History in the making, the first non-poker post of the year. Only took about four months.

I went to a Buddhist meditation/beginners class Monday after work. It was pretty darn neat, actually. It was a guided meditation for about 15 minutes, then a half-hour or so talk on the subject that week, then another brief meditation. I'm thinking this is something I could learn to get into, and I'm going to make a point of trying to meditate at home after work. I dunno just how far I want to get into it, but I plan on doing some more reading on it.

Also, I finally gave in and took a 3-month subscription at eHarmony. I'm sure this will result in hilarity for everyone, and of course updates will be posted here.

posted by Matt 11:13 PM

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

It's been a while...

Sorry 'bout that. I promise with this re-re-launch I'll try to talk a bit less about poker and more about other stuff.

But first, this poker update.

I recently cashed out the $500 I made from my orginal $50 in February. This is because I am a bad-ass and I am going to stay someplace awesome when I go to Las Vegas in August. So I restarted with $100 recently, and we'll see what I can do from there.

I've taken a few days off because... well, I just didn't feel like playing the last few days. I can't really afford to "force" myself to play if I'm not feeling it, so whenever I feel a little bit off I just don't play. But that all changes tonight as it's another 2+2 Forums SNG. Update later!

I also haven't really been online much the last few days. It's good to kind of get away from the online scene for a few days and recharge so I can be freshly astounded by the idiotic drama of the internet. Mission accomplished.

posted by Matt 8:30 PM

Saturday, March 13, 2004

All you can eat, baby

From my $50 buy-in at the beginning of Feb, my PokerStars bankroll officially topped $300 tonight. That's mostly through SNGs, and a few very good $1/$2 Omaha 8/b sessions, and a couple $.50/$1 NL hold-em ring games. Delightful.

posted by Matt 3:03 AM

Monday, February 16, 2004

Looking For The Key

I finished 40th of 162 in a limit Omaha tourney at PokerStars today. I've got a solid, steady trend of finishing in the top 25% of multi-table tournaments but not being able to close out in the money. Each time it's happened, I can link it to one hand where I just lose a little composure and make loose calls or raises, and it's always in the last half of the 2nd hour. It's simply a mental issue, not a theory issue and I'm going to have to work hard on my focus at that stage of tournaments. A little thing like that could be the difference between a frustrating evening and a large payday.

posted by Matt 10:09 PM

Thursday, February 12, 2004

What a night

Oh man.

First, I got 3rd of 18 in a $5 + $.50 NL hold-em SNG at PokerStars. Nice profit there.

Then I realized there was a $10+1 2+2 Forums 18-player SNG starting at 8:30pm. I figured that if nothing else, I'd get $11 of education from it.

I won the damn thing. $61 profit.

2+2 Forum posters are some of the most knowledgeable poker players you can ever hope to find on the internet, and I consider it a great feat to come from a short stack to beat them. This has given me a huge confidence boost in my tournament game, and I'm gonna be riding this wave for a bit.

posted by Matt 12:30 AM

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

SNGs at PokerStars

I thought it'd be fun to try out the $5 + $.50 SNGs at PokerStars. The players are of a MUCH higher caliber than the Party low-limit folks, and I've been doing quite well. Playing nothing but $5 + $.50 SNGs, I've taken $50 up to $145.50 in about a week and a half. It's been a varying diet of NL hold-em (9 and 18-player), Stud 8/b and Omaha 8/b. I've been doing well in all of them, which means my tourney strategy in general must be working well.

posted by Matt 12:22 AM

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Tourney day!

I burned off my last $11 at Gaming Club with a $10+1 buyin multi-table tournament. I placed 29th of 191, out of the money by just a few spots.

At PokerStars, I got 2nd in an Omaha 8/b SNG, and won a NL Hold-em 4-player heads-up tourney (both $5 + .50). This should get me ready for the 2+2 tourney tomorrow night... wish me luck!

posted by Matt 12:22 AM

Sunday, February 01, 2004

SNG day at PokerStars

I felt like getting away from hold-em for the day, so I hit up a few $5 + .50 SNGs at PokerStars today.

Omaha 8/b: WIN.

Stud 8/b (my first one ever): 2nd

Stud 8/b: WIN.

I will take that. Life is good.

posted by Matt 1:46 AM

Sunday, January 18, 2004

More new linkage!

Fellow chatter JetMet has a new blog as well. Check it out from the sidebar.

posted by Matt 1:30 PM

New Linkage

Check out Jay's blog on the sidebar when you get a chance. As a fellow former techie, we gotta watch out for each other, yo.

posted by Matt 12:09 AM

Saturday, January 17, 2004

Tournament Life continued

I just now finished THIRD out of 240 for a score of just over $140 at the Gaming Club. I made an absolute bonehead play on my final hand, but other than that I'm thrilled with my play.

posted by Matt 6:37 PM

Thursday, January 15, 2004

Moving Onward

I put $100 in at the Gaming Club last night. This evening I played it up to $240 and withdrew all but $15 of it. Vacation fund!!!

posted by Matt 7:11 PM

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Tournament Life

I finished 23rd of 214 in tonights no-limit tournament at UltimateBet. It turns out to be a whopping profit of $3.52, but it was a fun way to burn a couple hours and get tournament experience. I'm pretty happy with my play overall, but I did go weak at points.

posted by Matt 9:30 PM

Saturday, January 10, 2004

Vacation Fund and diet update

Hell of a day today.

I doubled up $75 to $150 at Gaming Club today. Also, I've lost 7 pounds since the new year. Life.... is good.

posted by Matt 11:16 PM

Monday, January 05, 2004

Starting off the new year

Saturday I hit the Seminole Casino for some $1/$2 hold-em. It was ugly. My first two hands were A-K and A-A, and both got beaten. I managed to win ONE hand in over two hours, finished down $64.50.

However, I'm back online at PartyPoker. I'm up $20 on the night with a combo of more $1/$2 hold-em and a 2nd place in a $10+1 Omaha 8/b sit-n-go. Delightful!

posted by Matt 10:56 PM