Christmas in July

Who's pumped? Why you ask? Well today is the start of the Main Event at the World Series of Poker!! Even though I'm not there like I would like to be, it's still a ton of fun to sweat the action on cardplayer.com and keep up with the action. Plus we did a Fantasy WSOP Main Event poll, and we had to draft all of our players so nobody has the same players as someone else. Here's my picks:
Michael Mizrachi
Patrick Antonious
Daniel Negreanu
Jennifer Harman
Joe Sebok
Carlos Mortenson

So, although everyone's team is pretty much stacked, I have a few guys that can accumulate a lot of chips, so hopefully they'll go pretty deep for me.

We all got together last night and played some poker at Keith's place. I ended up coming out ahead by $22, so it was a decent night, but I feel like I played very well, and I'm excited about how I've been playing. I made some plays that weren't based on cards, but on the people I was playing…which is something I'm still getting used to. Overall, I think I played well, but I still made a few mistakes I can correct.

I was able to get a free program from Wilson Software called Turbo Tournament Texas Hold'Em. I earned enough points on Ultimate Bet, so I decided to get this program with the hopes that it can help improve my game. It seems pretty cool, as you can set the # of players (up to 5,000), the structure, and the game (no-liimt, pot-limit, and limit). I'm hoping this can help me continue to improve my tournament game.

I'll probably be playing a lot of NCAA 07 this weekend, so I'll report back to you in a couple days. Everyone have a good weekend!!!

By the way, I'm going to open my website back up at www.freewebs.com/sdogg10. You can still read my blog here, but I'll have some other stuff up there you might want to check out.

"If they give you ruled paper, write the other way."

Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over

I haven't posted because I haven't found time. I have been meaning to do it for the past 4 or 5 days, but I just haven't gotten around to it. So here is a short synopsis of what I've been up to:
Thursday: I took the day off to spend some time with Kylie. She didn't have to work on Thursday or Friday, so we had some fun and hung out. I love to spend time with her, so any chance we get to spend the day together is ok by me. I really don't remember exactly what we did, but I'm sure it was fun!

Friday: It was Kylie's 21st birthday, so during the day we went shopping for her gift. I ended up getting her a pink sapphire ring that she has been wanting, so I hope she is happy with it. That night a bunch of us went the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café and had a great time. She got really drunk, which I guess was the whole point, and the night ended by her getting kicked out of a bar downtown called Brothers. Apparently they don't appreciate you throwing up in their trash cans…who knew? But if you ask me, the trash can is a much more sanitary and convenient option than the floor. I tried to explain this to the bartender who kicked us out, but he was an asshole. Oh well, makes for a good story I suppose.

Saturday: I did absolutely nothing. I played some NCAA 07 online and got my ass kicked, I played some poker online, and watched some TV. It was a really relaxing day, and something I've needed for awhile. Kylie was in Bucycrus all day, so I had the apartment to myself. I had to fold some laundry and things, but nothing too serious. I caught up on some of my TIVO, and I'll have to say, High Stakes Poker on GSN is by far the best poker show out there. I'm glad I TIVOed it and I'll be watching it every week now.

Sunday: Nothing much. I came into work for a couple of hours (yuck) and then we went to the mall with Sam and Keith. Later we watched some of the NASCAR race at their place. I ended up falling asleep and when we came home I took another nap. We woke up in time to watch Entourage…man that show rocks.

Monday: Typical Monday…except that I worked 2 hours overtime. I'm trying to get in at least 13 hours of overtime this week, so I have to bust my balls to get there. The paycheck will be nice though.

Today is Tuesday and absolutely nothing worth reporting has happened today. We are going to a concert tonight at Promowest Pavillion with Jack's Mannequin and O.A.R. That should be fun, and I'll report on that later in the week.

As far as the "race to 5k" goes, nothing to report really. I've been down to $50 and back up to $120. But right now I'm at about $100. I need to devote more time to playing. I'll make another post this week and address some of the problems that I think I have, and maybe by addressing them I'll force myself to fix them. I hope so. I need to start the steading bankroll building that I used to be so good at. After all, this isn't the first time I've had to build a bankroll.

That's all for now. See ya on the flip side.

"It's what you learn after you know it all that counts"

The Hero Dies In This One

Man…I've been really tired lately. I don't know why, but I've started taking my vitamins again, so hopefully my energy level will pick back up. It sucks going through the day with the only thing you're looking forward to is going to bed. Hopefully I'll feel better in a couple of days.


This weekend is Kylie's 21st birthday, so a bunch of us are going to the Buckeye Hall of Fame Café to have dinner and play some games. It should be fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing her have a good time and enjoy herself. She deserves it. I already gave her the present for her birthday, which was a mini-shopping spree. I gave her $150 to spend, and my parents gave her a $50 gift card. Let me tell you, this girl can shop because that $200 was gone in no time. She also bought some clothes for me which is my birthday present, so it was a good time buying each other stuff…but no I'm pretty broke, so I'll have to watch the finances for awhile.

On the poker front, the past 2 days have sucked. I'm back down to where I started on the "race to 5K", with only about $85. I donked away $20 last night, and the day before I failed to cash in 4 straight sit n go's, which is highly unusual for me. I ended up winning one and coming in second yesterday, and if it wasn't for that I'd really be hurting. The one I finished second in I should have one, but my flopped nut straight ended up splitting the pot when he hit his inside straight draw to chop. Then he picked up aces on the next hand against my top pair, and that was all she wrote. Tough luck, get em next time.

I did decide that this 5% rule sucks, I'm upping it to 10%...this will either allow me to build faster, or go broker faster. I guess it'll be one or the other, so we might as well find out which one it's gonna be. I'll keep you posted.

Well, my lunch break is over so it's back to the grind…I'd much rather be grinding it out at the poker table, but since I'm a complete donkey, it's gonna be a long time til I can do that. Have a good one!

"Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit."

I Shall Believe

I'm kinda pissed right now, because I typed up a whole post earlier and accidentally closed my browser before I could post it. So, this won't be quite as long, but it should get the job done.

I must confess, my $100 to $5,000 isn't completely legit. The reason being I lost about $20 before I started it, so in reality it's turn $82.14 into $5,000. Still the same concept, but just a tad bit more work.

I'm doing well so far...I'm up $42.96 so far, mostly from playing .05-.10 6 hand NL cash games. I did win a $5 + .50 6 handed sit n go this morning. The hardest part about this whole thing is not putting more than 5% of my bankroll at stake during any one session, because until this morning I couldn't buy in to any 6 handed sit n go's. Those are my bread and butter. Now I feeling a little more confident and I'm playing much better. These low limits kind of force you to play very solid, because everyone else plays like donkeys. Solid play, although not always the most fun, is the only way to win at these micro limits. As we speak, I'm playing in a $1 + .10 Omaha 8/b tournament...I'm still learning Omaha, but we'll see if I can make something happen. (Actually I just got knocked out...oh well, I guess I have more to learn!)

Everything else has been pretty normal. Kylie and I are going up to Marion tonight to celebrate my mom's birthday. We get to eat her world famous lasagna!! I'll keep ya all updated on the progress. See ya later!

"Good things take time. Great things happen all at once."

The Search For Something More

After last night, I've decided something has to change. I lost $20 last night playing a cash game on the internet, but that's not what bothers me. What bothers me is that I had it worked up and was sitting nicely with a profit, and then proceeded to blow the profit and make it a negative night. I've just been playing poorly, and last night was no different. Something has got to change.

So I've come up with a challenge for myself. Now this isn't an original challenge, because if you've visited almost any online poker forum you've undoubtedly seen this post more than a couple times, but I figured it would be fun for me. I'm going to try to turn my $100 online bankroll into $5,000. I have no time limit for this, but I'd like to get it done within 9-12 months. The rules are as follows:

1. I can play any cash game, sit n go, tournament etc. as long as the buy in doesn't represent more than 5% of my bankroll at the time of me buying in.

2. Any game goes…Hold Em, No Limit Hold Em, Omaha, 7 card stud, etc.

3. If I'm playing a cash game, I've got to buy in for at least 25 times the big blind (or big bet if it's a limit game) without using more than 5% of my bankroll. This is going to force me to play small at the beginning, but that is going to be part of the challenge.

The reason for this is twofold. One, I need to have some direction with this poker thing. In the past I've played for fun, with no real direction as to what I want to accomplish. I've been willing to gamble at certain time for no other reason than just to gamble. I need to start focusing on playing the best possible game I can play, or it's not worth playing at all.

Two, I need to get better. By having a goal, and hopefully moving up limits, I'll be able to make myself a better player all while learning things that can help me as well.

I'm sure all 3 of you that read this will think I'm an idiot, but that's ok. I know that I can accomplish this, I just need to have a goal…so I set one for myself. Wish my luck in this endeavor.

As a side note, I'll still play small live cash games and small buy in tournaments whenever I get the chance. That won't affect this online bankroll. Once I get it built up, I may start factoring in my wins and losses in live games. But for now, this is going to be online only.

I’m going to put notes at the end of each of my blogs charting my progress since the last blog. I'm sure I'll be discussing this in some of the blogs as well, but this will blog will still include my everyday life as well. I think this is going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully the people that read this (if there are any) will enjoy this too. Later dudes!

"All of us get lost in the darkness…Dreamers learn to steer by the stars."

Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows

Let's see here. What's happened since last post? Well not too much. Kylie went to the lake this weekend so I spent most of my time just hanging out with myself and watching TV and playing poker online. I also played in my first live tournament in awhile.

Poker has been completely BALLS lately…it's really been bad. I keep losing…mostly from my bad play, but when I do play well I get unlucky. It. Freakin. Sucks. Oh well, so goes it I guess. I think I've started to figure out what I've been doing wrong, so hopefully I can fix it.

I've realized that I need a pick me up in life. Things are just so bland and boring in my life that I have to do something to change it. But the problem is, I haven't figured out what. So if anyone has any ideas, please shoot them my way.

I guess this is going to be a short post because I've got nothing else to talk about. Just trying to kill a little time and end my endless boredom, which apparently isn't possible. So, I'm going to try to get out of this funk and do something worthwhile with my life. Who knows what will happen with that…could be interesting. I'll catch ya'll later.

"Hell, there ain't no rules around here...for God's sake. We're trying to accomplish something."

Every Day is Sunday Evening

This sucks…no matter how long of a weekend you get, it always sucks coming back to work. Today was no different, as it seemed like the day lasted 37 1/2 hours. The 4 day 4th of July weekend flew by, and I have nothing to show for it really. I didn't really do anything productive…at all. I pretty much just hung out with various friends and family, and ate a lot of food. It was nice to get a chance to relax for a couple of days though, so I shouldn't be complaining. Now it's back to the grind, but the good news is it's only a 3 day week!

On a different note, I've been watching some of the World Cup. I've never been a fan of soccer and I've always kind of made fun of it like most Americans, but I must say the World Cup is interesting. Since the U.S. sucks and was out in the first round, I started rooting for England because a guy at work is from there, and it was pretty exciting. Even though they got knocked out, I watched some of the semi-final game yesterday. Although soccer will never find a warm place in my heart, I've got a newfound respect for it. It's actually interesting to watch…you should check it out of you get a chance. The World Cup championship game will be on Sunday at 2 p.m., so tune in and see what you think.

Now to poker. I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. Ever since losing to the 3 outer in the 20+ 2 tournament, it's been all downhill for me. I've managed to lose about $150 in the past 5 days, with a combination of terrible play and even worse luck. I'm getting horrible cards, playing badly, and getting unlucky. That's a recipe for disaster in poker. I've got to start playing the $5 tournaments again and see if I can build back up. While $150 isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, it still sucks. Since I cashed out all of my bankroll except $100, that extra $150 represented a big portion of this new, albeit small, bankroll. I guess it's time to suck it up and start making things happen…I'll keep you updated.

I can't think of anything else important, so this is all. If I think of anything else I'll post it. Well, actually I'll intend to post it, but unless it's something extremely important I'll probably forget about it and it'll never make it up here. Oh well. See ya later.

"Don't tell me how rough the waters are, just bring in the ship."