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May 2009 - Posts

• Blog Prop Bets

  By dtools22 - May 28 2009, 08:24 PM

  The past few weeks pokerwise have not been great for business.  As a result the blog has started to become very boring and if nothing else negative.  I feel like this week I should try to liven things up a bit.  With the WSOP officially starting today with the $40K guaranteed I'm feeling like getting some action going.  Since poker is not going great, I've had to look else where to find a mark. I was talking to some friends about a week ago who know I play poker a lot.  They asked how things were going and I told them not great.  After a little discussion the conversation turned to this blog and one of my buddies in the room did not know that I was writing a blog like this on a regular basis.  I told him it has gotten fairly popular and he did not seem to believe me.  When I showed him the view counts of posts as well as the article that was written a few weeks ago about it on P5s he was less than convinced. He challenges that I somehow rigged the numbers in my favor before showing him.  He just outright disregarded the article.  Why he jumped to these conclusions I have no idea but it lead to him challenging me to a bet.  He contends that even though some blog posts I have put out have hit a couple hundred views that no more than 50 people ever read this blog.  I instantly took him up on the bet.  The only issue is how exactly to we quantify the total? He does not trust the view counts on my dashboard so that's out.  I said why not just do it from posted comments and have people post individually on a fresh blog post.  He doesn't like that idea because there is no effort really involved.  People just have to scroll to the bottom and post something quick (FWIW I can't defend his points so if they seem a little weak that's why).  He suggested having people send me a penny on PokerStars and keeping count there or using my twitter account to start collecting followers, both of those ideas to me seem like they would just piss people off.  I don't want people thinking this is a stunt to either get money (they did just put in the $.01 990 SNGs on Stars so I'd be on a mega freeroll there) or me just trying to bring people to my other stuff.  So, I'll leave it to you guys.  Any suggestions, feel free to comment them here.  I figure if I get 50+ comments he'll cave anyway. If I do win this bet, to make things interesting for you guys I'll take requests on how you want me to repay the favor.  Now I'm not going to stake people in MTTs or anything like that, but something more along the lines of wearing the Durrrr Pink Flamingo hat while playing at Foxwoods (obv post the pics) would be fair game.  It's summer so let's have some fun, post any suggestions you'd have for if I win the bet. EDIT: Never actually mentioned this part but the bet is worth $100 for a win. 10 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• Moving Down

  By dtools22 - May 25 2009, 09:07 PM

  I was looking over my books for the last few weeks and I've gotta say, there isn't much to smile about.  MTTs I sit having cashed in only 2/40 during the last two weeks.  Early on this was due more to running bad than anything else, but after a little while the frustration started to build and I noticed some leaks that needed plugging.  Even after I fixed those I was still taking too many big gambles early on in MTTs when I did not need them.  Satties have actually treated me alright in the past few weeks.  I've won a few $109+ seats on FTP and really that's what's been keeping the BR alive.  Looking down at these numbers it seems to me the only solution is to move down and try to build back up. I have been avoiding playing SNGs lately, for no other reason than I was playing too many MTTs to effectively play and SNGs alongside them.  I think now might be a good time to try and get back my roots a bit.  SNGs are where I started when I started playing semi-seriously (I say semi because it's hard to say with a straight face that grinding $1 45mans and $2 9-18mans is serious).  Now I'm not perfect at these but I've been a winner on the lower buy ins and I think it might be time to start grinding these rapid fire again.  Now I've been concentrating mainly on FTP so the SNGs of choice over there are the $3.30KOs. I have about 80 buy ins at this level which should be enough to grind these for a little while.  I want to really hone my game, particularly bubble and shortstack play.  Accumulating chips late in MTTs has never really been a strong suit of mine until I get to the FT.  I've always kept the mentality that making the FT just below average in chips would be fine and from there I can take care of the rest and really start attacking.  This has worked very well for me in the past and when I do get to that final 9 I end up in the top 3 a pretty consistent amount of the time.  That being said, I think my biggest leak is not abusing the bubble as much as I should and not trying to build a stack before the FT.  Playing in the turbos will force a little bit more action, and hopefully I can sharpen up at picking up needed pots late. The big thing I need to do is get that swagger back.  It's not to say I think my abilities have dropped off too considerably, but I have been making mistakes and I think a part of them is because I have not had the usual confidence in my decision making.  I'm going to try to rebuild grinding the $3.30s not only because of the value these things have, but also because these will help me to regain that confidence and take some more gambles when appropriate. Here's my plan for the rest of the month: 1) Grind the $3.30KO SNGs on FTP, try to get in 125/week. 2) Play Satties to the MSOP events, already won seats to events 3 and 4. 3) Rebuild and regroup. I don't really have much intentions of moving up with these unless I go on a tear.  For right now I'm just content with refocusing on the basics and getting myself back on track. 4 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• FTP MSOP

  By dtools22 - May 22 2009, 07:08 AM

  Looking over my stats and HHs over the past 10 days or so the numbers are ugly.  In my last 35MTTs I have cashed in only 2 with one near FT bubble in 11th.  Some of those have been mistakes by me, others have been QQ<JJ or <AJ etc, but however you look at it it's been ugly.  Having said that one thing I've been able to keep is my confidence.  Most of my bust out hands I've taken the best of it going in, and lost on the other end.  My game right now is solid and it's simply a matter of time before this streak comes to an end.  Hopefully this is me paying my dues and taking my lumps before a big score comes my way in the MSOP on FTP. I am one of the players that simply loves when the WSOP comes around.  Obviously I've never played in it but I do become something of a fan boy following some of my favorite players.  I love checking the updates and betting with friends on who will last longer in particular events, arguing about who has a better chance to win a bracelet this year, listening to the coverage from sources like PokerRoad Radio at www.pokerroad.com, and watching the ESPN360.com coverage of the FTs.  I am especially excited that the $50K HORSE will be on 360 rather than TV because for a poker player I think it's more entertaining to try and figure out the hands on the fly rather than just watching a few all ins on TV.  Plus when the WSOP gets rolling the MSOP on FTP gets going giving the low limit donks like myself a chance at getting in the mix. With my abysmal time playing the SCOOP a few months ago I did not play any of the Mini FTOPS events last time around.  I went to lick my wounds playing some cash games and more live poker.  That being said I think I'm ready to get back into the mix with the MSOP.  Looking at the full schedule which can be found at http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/series-mini-series-of-poker, there are a ton of $10-20 buy ins that I would love to get involved in.  Events 1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 all look like great MTTs for me and that's just looking at the first 10 events.  I'm very excited to get myself back into the mix and try to rebound in a big way from my letdowns in the past few weeks. It's not 5 days and counting until the WSOP takes center stage.  And all the side bets and other action aside, I am very much looking forward to what should be a fantastic series in 2009. No Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• Film Sessions

  By dtools22 - May 18 2009, 06:53 PM

  First off I'd like to thank everyone for their comments on my post about the downswing I've recently had.  I really appreciate the help some of you offered.  Also, to anyone who took issue with my "whining", fuck you this is my blog . That being said, I have cleared the sand out of my vagina and I'm ready to talk about the steps I've taken to get myself out of said slump. One thing I have always done during my slumps is just take a break.  Usually the problem gets rectified by simply taking a night off and relaxing for a little while.  Letting the mind power down is usually all it takes to fix things.  I hit the Xbox 360 and the Wii harder than normal, workout more, watch poker on TV (if available), and basically take every step possible to move away from the computer.  I went to go check out Angles and Demons last Saturday (btw definately worth seeing) with my girl friend as well.  However when I came back on Sunday after a few days to myself, I was still not having any real success.  Now normally this is when I watch some of my old poker videos, reread sections of HOH that I've always struggled with, talk to friends about hands (more so than usual) but I felt like the problem was bigger than this.  So I decided to go over the HHs from the previous night's session. Now I'm sure a lot of you are thinking that I'm a moron for not doing this anyway but just hear me out.  I normally will go over key hands with friends and talk to them about moments that are turning points in an MTT.  Big flips, huge pot odds, flopping sets and getting value (or why i didn't get value) these are usually the spots where I lean on others for suggestions.  However going over the HHs and remembering my bustout hands, there were very few spots where my money got in and worse than a coinflip.  In most cases I was going broke in 70/30 spots.  The problem however was that when these bust out hands happened I typically had a stack that was too short to protect anything. What I did discover in just looking at the first few HHs from Sunday's session were some smaller mistake over the course of the MTT.  Spots where I was missing bets seemed to be everywhere.  I was losing value in a lot of hands I was playing due to more passive play.  It actually got so bad that I was calling pre with hands like AK to see a flop...why I do not know but it's there in black and white. What this has spawned is a new idea for me.  What I used to do was film my sessions using some free downloadable screen capture software online and I would upload it on my iPod video and watch them.  The issue was it locked me into only one or two tables at a time.  What I would now love to do if get some software that lets me convert the HHs I have and not only replay them, but save them as video files.  Looking over the HHs works fine and I plan on doing this at least two-three times a week to help stay sharp, the video is more for portability sake so I can work away from my comp (considering the HHs when I donked off near the bubble are 110+ pages, don't really want to print em).  So far it has been helping, but I've also been running better so only time will really tell if this has lead to long term improvement or not.  Still, feels nice to see my mistakes and fix the problems. 1 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.