More poker has been played. Blogs have been read. Hand histories diagnosted.

Even though my results have not been fantastic, I think I am playing some of the best poker I have in a long time. Being in touch with the poker community and being able to get inside other people heads when they discuss hands has been invaluable to me so far. I can only wish I had done something like this a long time ago.

I have that same itch I've had before when I ran my bankroll way up. I am very excited about it. My only fear is whether or not I can see the burnout coming, when the I've over scratched the itch and it turns into a rash. When it comes I can only hope I have enough sense to look in the mirror and take a few weeks of relaxation, then try to find that itch again. Let's not think about that, it's a long way off.

I played more poker than I intended to in the past 72 hours, but I haven't wanted to stop. After blogging yesterday I played some more sit 'n gos and a rebuy tourney at the same time.

I didn't last very long in the $10 sit n go, where I exited 7th place after calling a large bet with A10 from the big blind on a board of Q J 10 10 4. The culprit limped in with K9 UTG and flopped a straight, only to check it all the way until the river. Not exactly orthodox, but he played me like a finely tuned violin.

I was the tightest player in the world during the rebuy period of the tourney, since I didn't get much of anything I could even consider playing. I blinded off about 300 of my 1500 chips and took the add-on to put me at 3200 going into it with 37 players left out of the original 44.

I raised the same hand that cost me the SNG, K9 of spades 2 off the button hoping to pick up some blinds in a very passive game. The cutoff, the button, AND the big blind called. This is like the twighlight zone when I get a QJ10 flop. With about $1600 in the pot I bet $999.99, which makes a huge pile of chips on the table and some people aren't sure how to react to it. The cutoff calls it cold, the button folds and the big blind pops it to over $6000. After tanking for about 20 seconds I decide I can't lay this down here, I have to take the risk. I'm actually more worried about the cutoff having AK then the big blind. I put my last $3800 and the cutoff quickly folded. He showed my 98 of hearts only to see 4th and 5th streets brick off making me the tournament's chip leader.

As Im plugging away I find some unknown clear fluid on the blanket Im using to warm my legs, which somehow wound up in my mouth. I am slightly grossed out, but no self respecting card player would stop grinding because of something this minute.

I hang on a while longer in the $20 sit n go Im playing and take 2nd place out of 9 players. Well, my other 2 tournies are paid for so the rest is profit now, great.

At the start of the second break in the rebuy tourney I have 24115 chips and we're 1 player away from 2 tables. 2 other players have about the same, and everyone else has about half that many chips or less.

My table breaks and I wind up with both the other big stacks at my table now. I once again think the draw isn't random on UB because I open up the other table and some quick math tells me our table has roughly 4.5 times as many chips as theirs.

My table is playing pretty wildly, especially the other big stacks, so I have to be very careful and let these suckers commit their own suicide. I try to play very, very selective aggressive, but I keep getting snapped off. My chips are dwindling, however I am still well above average.

My golden retriever comes over and puts her head on my lap and I pet her a bit. I now know what this mysterious clear fluid is. Gross.

With 10 players remaining I get tied up with the most aggressive player at the table who also has about 35,000 chips to my 16,000. He is playing very loose and I think I can trap him, so I make a sucker play. He pays me off... sort of. I don't like to tell bad beat stories, so send me a message if you want to hear what happened.

I look at the clock and realize if I hurry I can get into a live rebuy tourney at a local bar. I want to see some people there so I rush over. In the car I do some mental math and I think I was a 27 to 1 favorite when I busted out of the rebuy tourney. I pat myself on the back for getting it all in as such a huge favorite.

I had fun while I was at the bar, but my play was horrendous. I made 2 rebuys and an add on, and made no good plays at all. I think all this online play may be affecting my live play somewhat, I will have to give this some thought before I play live again.

Back at home I have about an hour before my girlfriend gets off work. I try to think of something else to do besides play poker, but I'm still itchy!

I open up 4 windows of live $.10/$.25 no limit ring games and play for 90 minutes a piece. I usually try to stay away from cash games online, but I don't know when my girlfriend will show up so I have to be able to quit at the drop of a hat.

90 minutes later I check each table to see how I did before quitting out. $25 buy in at each table. I have $41.33 in a game that broke 20 minutes before I quit the other 3. $22.34 at a table where I didn't didn't play very many big pots. $22.66 at another where I was up and down the whole time, but I messed up and bet $12.5 instead of $1.25 on a continuation bet and got reraised which cancelled out my profit. $54.45 at the 4th table, mostly from a hand where I made a set against a big stack's pocket aces. Overall I liked my cash results and I make a note to try that again soon.

As I shut down for the night The Eagles 'Lying Eyes' is playing, which is a great poker song if you think about it. When I was in bed I went over some others' HHs in my head that I responded to or read today, and I came up with some interesting theories that will be a much more productive read than my normal blog. Maybe I can do that tommorrow.

Started of today with the usual, two 9 handed sit 'n go, $10 & $20 buy ins, and a $.10/$.25 cash game which I bought in $25. I'll spare you the long hand histories for the most part and just summarize since they hurt my eyes.

I decide to put some Wu Tang Clan and Bone Thugz N Harmony on to wake me up a bit and get me in the mood for some poker.

Hand #1211689769 on the cash table started off looking good right away. I'm dealt Ac 5c on the button and with a limper under the gun I decide I should limp too. The big blind also calls. Flop comes with 7h 2c Qc and ALLNITE4FUN bets $.50. Tough to put him on a hand here as people who limp in first to act in a small cash game could have anything. That bet is pretty small and I decide to cold call from position. The big blind drops out.

6c hits on the turn, eureka! Im hoping he has something like 77 now, but it's probably QJ or something, there's also strong possibility he has 1010 or JJ and hasn't learned how to play upper-medium quality pocket pairs yet.

He seems to think his hand is worth another bet, $1 this time into a pot of $1.85. I'm not interested in getting a value bet from him at this point with the nuts. Alot players would just call here with the flush, but I want to make it look like I have a flush and have him do the guesswork. I make it $2.25 to go. Not very many players will lay down to such a small raise and many will play back at you with anything as high as top pair. He calls it and I'm pretty sure I'll get another $4 or so from him on the end.

The river is the 4c which I consider a small disaster. I go with the original plan and bet $3.99. He mucks, and I collect the $6.05 pot. Back to the waiting game.

A few minutes later on the $10 tourney in hand #1415500526 I'm dealt As Ks and am facing a raise in front of me. I reriase and a call to see a flop of Js Qs 10h. Wow, maybe the poker gods like me today! I bet half the pot since this board almost surely hit him and he mucks. No luck on profit from my big hands so far.

Over in the $20 tourney hand #1415515869 I post the big blind of $40 and see As Qd. Everyone folds to the cutoff who calls cold, which I consider a terrible play under almost any circumstances. The small blind moves all in for the $435 he has diminished himself to and I quickly come over the top for my $1345. DPJS shows me Ad 4s and with no help from the board I stack my virtual chips.

A while later the blinds in the $20 tourny are up to $60 in #1415530453, REDEXPLORER calls from the cutoff again, and I toss in $30 from the small blind with Jh 9s. big blind checks. 6d 3d 2d and we check around. 9c hits on the turn and since these are some weak players I sing to the tune of $120, 2/3 the pot. I'm betting it as the best hand expecting them to muck. big red calls it.

a 9 comes on the end and I value bet $200 quickly and go back to a hand in the cash game. While he's pondering a call I realize a 4th diamond has hit when that 9 fell! The good news is if he was chasing that draw he'd of called by now.

He indeed does call and shows As Ac! As the $820 pot adds to my chips I rack my brain trying to figure out a way he could have played that hand worse. I'm having a hard time. As for me, I quit out the cash game with $23.51 realizing that I can't keep up with two 6 handed games and a ring game.

Well, he has $200 left to donk off now, which ironically he loses to me 2 hands later when he finally figures out how to raise before the flop and I show him JJ making me the chip leader with around $3100.

Back on the $10 table the blinds are getting up there to $50/$100 on hand #1415541803. I haven't had much room to manuver with $1490 chips still. So I decide I'd better make some or pack my bags. 5 handed DREWBOY80 calls the blind second to act and I call Qc 9d in the small blind, which I seem to be playing a lot of hands out of position. I'll have to work on that.
3 players in with a flop of Kc Jd 2s. Check, Check, $100 minimum bet. I call to take one off. Big blind folds. 8h on the turn which looks like a total blank, so I decide to try and make him wonder a little and bet $250, half the pot since he didn't seem to confident with his hand thus far.

He doesn't buy into that theory and instantly makes it $500 to go. Well nevermind, I decide to save my $1040 chips for later.

I get more proof I think too much in hand #1415549139 at the $20 table when I get Qc 10d in the big blind. 6 handed 24KTACES calls under the gun for $100, Which I've noted he's done almost every hand he's had in that position. He also folds almost every time someone raises behind him, but I don't learn this until later... thanks for the donation. Small blind wants to play too.

Kh 9s 4d on the flop and I bet $250 into the $300 pot. 2 times out of 3 that will be enough to end it. 24KTACES calls behind me, so much for that theory. 2h on the turn and I'm done messing with this pot. He checks too. On the river I check again, He called so far and I'm pretty sure he'd do it again with any pair. He bets $400. My first instinct was to muck, but I stopped myself. Something just didn't smell right here. After about 15 seconds of diliberation I put my $400 in and he shows me Jd Qs. Which was right in the ball park with what I thought he had, which makes me wonder why I even called. Way to go stupid.

As the $1600 adds to his stack he asks me how he won that in chat. I respond with "NH, don't try that again". I don't think he will.

A little while later I get 10d 10h in the small blind and the short stack at the table with $1200 makes it $450 to go and I stack him off. He calls with KQ and makes a pair of queens to put him up to $2550 and me at $1850. Looks like I've got some more work to do.

Back at the $10 tourney I'm still in last place with $1390. hand #1415554933 I get As 2h in guess what position? The small blind. SROCHE22 doubles the big blind to $200 under the gun. Normally I'd be done with this hand, but the very hand before this one the same player moved all in cold, seems to me he considers his hand marginal. Since I only have $300 less than him I reraise $1190 more to put him to the test. He calls with 9s Ac but the board saves me and we split the pot with 2 pair apiece.

After some more play I'm dealt Qs Ad in the big blind on hand #1415559363. DREWBOY80 limps on the button for $150 as calls the small blind. I'm very interested in adding that $300 to my $1665 so I move all in. The boy uses up almost his whole time bank only to call it with QQ. My hand gets no help and It's up to the $20 tourney. Clearly this is the fault of Mariah Carey, which is now playing on my Windows Media Player. I'll have to delete that song.

I now post the $200 big blind with only $1025 left in my stack. Hand #1415577255 sees KABLOOIE with over 5 times my chip count raise me once again from the small blind. He has been the chip leader for awhile and has been invloved aggressively in the majority of the hands for the last 20 minutes. I decide my Ac 9d is a good 'now or never' hand. Justifiably so when he shows 10d Qs. The board comes in neither person's favor except the river, which spikes that Queen and puts me out in 4th place. As I close out the windows I hear 36 mafia's ChickenHead song playing, which seems to be all I am right now.

Well, I spent almost as much time typing this as I did playing, I think I'll leave out the play by play next time and just post my thoughts and maybe a few hands of interest. I'm sorry if you read this far.

Well, I have never been much into blogging before, however it seems to be a pretty popular thing nowadays and I think it would be a positive thing for me personally. One day maybe I'll be able to look back and realize things I didn't know or had forgotten in the future. Maybe someone will even read this!

Let's start with a little bit of boring background information. I live in Bend, Oregon currently with my family. If you live in Central Oregon and play poker at least once a month, I'll lay you 6 to 1 we've played cards together at some point. I lived in Reno, Nevada in 2007 for about a year and played some cards there. While I liked it, I have no intention of going back any time soon.
Online I use the handle ChickenBrad(as well in real life) or Wolfkry on Ultimatebet. UB happends to be the site where I primarily play. I don't have money on any other site right now, at least not that I'm aware of, so I'm playing there by default. To be honest I haven't performed very well online in the recent past and prefer live action. Due to the UB superuser scandal they 'secretly' deposited $1500 into my account, no email notice or anything, which I happend to stumble uppon one day.

I cashed out most of it, via check in the mail for a f***ing $8 fee as if I don't pay them rake or anything, and I'm trying to grind the rest up to a resonable amount.

Since I'm unemployed for the forseeable future, I have to win, and damnit I will. You can find me on there most days playing 9 handed sit 'n go's in the $5-$20 range which seem to be my biggest profit earner. From time to time I'll get into a smaller rebuy multi tourney since those can be a large uptick if you can dodge the suckouts and crazy play. I've found my online style is best suited playing 2 tournies and 1 cash game at a time. Once the blinds get high or the tournies get short on players I'll quit out the cash game, in which I've hopefully grinded out enough to cover my tournament entries.

Ok, I'm sorry you had to read all that crap, on my next blog hopefully I'll have something interesting... to the tables!