PokerStars Free Bonus Gifts
POKERSTARS MARKETING CODE   |    POKERSTARS BONUS CODE  |    POKER FORUM
What's a PokerWonk?

Poker Blogs by Popularity

Footer

Poker Blogs by Type

Footer

Poker Blogs by Wonk

Footer

Recent Blogs

Footer

Poker Articles by Blog

Footer
Write about Poker. Read about Life. PokerWonks, the Poker Blog Community.

Donkeyherder's Poker, Rakeback, and Blastoff Shopping Network Blog    Friends

Poker - So far so good!!

Date: Mon, Mar 8, 2010 Internet Tournament

Idon't particularly like going that long in between posts, but time is money. At the current moment Ihope to avg. about $100 per hour. So you could say each post is costing me $100-200 depending on how much I put into each post. In the end, I hope posting can help me collect my thoughts and keep me focused on my goals, which should add up to something. Not to mention having a record of this exciting time in my life.

I have to say the start to this year was pretty dramatic. My friend convinced me to go down to a local casino in San Diego and play in their annual New Year's Day tournament. Usually tournaments there are fast structured crap shoots against pretty weak opposition. This time it seemed we had more room to play and I was slapped in the face with the deck pretty early, flopping sets a couple times and then used my big stack to beat up on everyone for a while until I lost half my stack making a huge laydown with a pair of QQ on a smaller flop to another big stack, who then showed a flopped 3 of a kind. It actually pumped me up and I was able to come back and build another big stack and re-continue my relentless attack until the bubble. I eventually made it to final table with such a big chip lead the entire table was tired and opted to basically give me 1st place (about 5K) so they could chop the rest of the prize pool!! To win a tourney, 1st day of the year, can't get any better than that!!

After that, I continued my "Double-up" SNG grind online for the rest of the month, but had a renewed passion for mixing in some more multi's! Some time towards the end of January I started to get a little bit too confident and really started bumping up the number of table I play at 1 time from 3-4 to 6-8 and I started to slowly develop some nasty leaks (bad habits) in my game. Typically for me when I start to experience bad runs it's due to a lack of focus and recklessness and if you're playing 8 tables at a time even the smallest leak (let alone trying to play optimal strategy) can quickly cause an ugly dent to your bankroll!! Luckily, I was able to cut my losses after dropping $3,000-$4,000!!

In February I jumped a little heavier into the Multi tourneys and did score a few final tables, but got bent over a barrel a few times and finished 4th, 5th, and 9th for some moderate scores. I eventually lost my golden touch in multi's and began doing much better back in the sit in go's (SNG's) and grinded out the rest of February with solid results. One interesting side note for the month, my real job has semi annual meetings to discuss various business and last month we got bussed out to Las Vegas! I can't say I'll ever turn that down, despite some slightly torturous lectures and meetings. We did get put up at "The Palms" which was very nice, and In the evening we did get to roam free. The 1st night I grinded out some 1/3 no limit cash games, which proved to be at least some good practice considering I hardly ever play live games except on special occasions.

The 2nd night, however, I was determined to play something bigger, preferably a tournament, but there wasn't much going on except the Wynn had some things going on and a $200 nightly tourney. I didn't really want to pay for a cab ride there, but couldn't stand the thought of grinding out another night of 1/3 at the Rio. Ifound a free shuttle but it was stuck waiting on some NASCAR parade. I finally saw a cab and it was only $11 so I made the move hoping I could still make the tourney. I made it there and if you've never been to the Wynn, it is the epitome of fancy pancy wealth, but still a bit overwhelming. I still raced through and found the poker room just in time for the tourney. It only had about 40+ players and quite some odd opposition. Some guy next to me, nice guy, but looked like a coked out 45 year old surfer, but was wearing a T-shirt and shorts and about 150k in bling-bling jewelery? Anyways, I got KO'd 10th before final table after some guy limped 1st in with AQ with high blinds and antes and I shoved from the BB about 10X over him and the SB with KQs and AQ called and I missed. Oh well, a bit dejected, but didn't want to end my run down about $300-400, so I saddled up to the only open table (5/10 No Limit )at a decent limit with only $600. I say only because most of the players there started with or had about $1,000 and I didn't notice any donks right off the bat. To my delight they called me out for a 2/5 NL table immediately where $600 was a solid start. The table was pretty loose and I was able to hit a couple solid hands early building up to about $1,000 when I unexpectedly got involved in the hand of my night!:

Most of the hands had a bunch of $5 limpers or a raiser to $25 with a bunch of callers. This time everyone folded around and I raised $15 from the button with A3 (both spades), which isn't a great hand, but with such deep stacks I took a shot.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

An End to 2009 and a Fresh Start to 2010!!

Date: Thu, Dec 31, 2009 Internet Tournament

Well, as every year, there have many unexpected up's and downs. This year also continued my track record, each year, of accomplishing something big or making another big step in my life. This year was moving into a big, new, house. The year before was my son being born and renting out the condo we bought a few years back, and before that was celebrating a World Series of Poker, Main Event cash, and buying a new Corvette. The list seems to go back each year since graduating High School.

2010 feels like the 1st year I expect to have all my endeavors in order and our home is mostly set. This is the first time Ifeel excited to start the year looking to get in better physical shape and have already been consistently doing mild daily exercises. I have also just started working again on doing homework on the hands I play. (BTW. If anyone knows a good hand replayer for Cake poker that plays out an entire session instead of 1 hand at a time, I would be happy to hear) I have been waiting for another break-out poker year and with all my ducks seemingly in a row, I hope to maximize my performance.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Poker, poker, and more poker....

Date: Mon, Dec 7, 2009 Internet Tournament

I haven't been able to post much lately ever since Cake Poker started offering 6 handed "Double-Up" tournaments, which fill much better than the standard 10 handed and have been filling up to $300+12 on the regular especially in the evenings, which is perfect for me. Needless to say I stopped playing big tournaments last month and have been playing these like crazy, 5-7 games at a time, putting up my biggest month in total $ gambled and raked (I think around $60,000 in tournaments)!! I started off destroying them and have since had to make some adjustments, but the Cake Poker has such a good rakeback deal at 33% back, regardless of profit I can make over $1,000 a month only playing 2-3 hours per day. That being said, I've pretty much obsessed myself with these "Sit-and-go's" and haven't updated my blog or anything else in a while.

Today is the coldest it has been in a long time here in southern California. Are you ready......49 degrees!!! That's practically freezing here and all sorts of idiots are driving like morons in the rain, crashing all over the place. I practically never get sick and a couple weeks ago my wife, who gets sick all of the time (elementary school teacher) gave me something nasty and I'm still trying to shake it. I haven't taken off any work, as I never do, but I might make arrangements before the next big holiday push at my work.

A couple weeks ago I used up most of my Cake Poker "Gold Chips" to buy a stationary bike in their rewards store. I've had a personal goal to keep my weight from exceeding 200lbs. At 6 ft.+ I'm not much out of shape, and I do alot of walking at my job, but far from the athlete I was while in school. The consequence to playing alot of poker and having a kid now, I rarely take the time anymore to go surfing, golf, or play basketball like I used to. So I have very slowly been changing my routine. Like most people, I hope the equipment will help, however, I was never big into bike or treadmills so I'm not holding my breath.

I recently celebrated my buddy "Dawgonu"'s birthday which was alot of fun. We all bought wigs and went to a small concert venue in San Juan Cap. to see "Dread Zepplin" which was pretty good. The lead singer is dressed up like an old school chunky Elvis impersonator and sings Led Zepplin (and other songs) belting it out pretty solid as the king himself. Good time had by all. Happy B-Day buddy!!

If anyone follows MMA or UFC fighting, it's been a pretty good couple months. I love watching boxing, but MMA is so action packed and you can watch so many good fights in so little time, I find that's all I watch now. Fedor finally had a good fight on primetime TV in which he looked in trouble but calm and cool as ever, came back against Brett Rogers and knocked him out. The TUF heavyweight (featuring Kimbo Slice) finale was this week and much of the show was a bit boring and played up, but I have actually always liked Kimbo, who was totally over hyped not by his own doing, by Strikeforce before getting outted by a much lighter subpar fighter. I was worried once I heard he was fighting Houston Alexander, because that guy is a brutal attacker. Once in the ring, however, Kimbo looked way bigger than I thought, and Houston just ran around the ring trying to kick Kimbo in the knees and Kimbo actually looked pretty solid, including one of the best slams I have ever seen, slamming Houston on his head! In the end I think Kimbo got a little lucky after getting his legs kicked out, he looked pretty vulnerable, but ended up winning in a decision against a solid UFC fighter, which should silience some of his critics that he is more than just a backyard brawler and has no skills. I like humble underdogs, Go Kimbo!

Unfortunately it looks like most the top MMA fighters are hurt or have just fought, so it looks like it's gonna be a bit bland for a few months. On the boxing front, however, it has been pretty exciting watching Manny and the return of Mayweather leaving a wake of opponents leading to their superfight which should happen by mid-2010. I was also enjoying the "super-six" middleweight tourney, which looks to have an exciting finish if they can get all the fighters in the ring. My pick has been Arthur Abarham. I really looked forward to the Areola-Klitchko fight. It was too bad Areola got so beat up. He was the most exciting Heavyweight I've seen in a while and I hope it doesn't discourage him from coming back strong. Areola was a local kid (Riverside, CA) and I saw him in his up and coming fights at Pechanga Casino with my dad a couple years ago.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Recapping my poker last month and how you can make some easy money by signing up on "Blastoff"!!

Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2009 Internet Tournament



You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com Cake Poker
Please see instructions below on signing up for our 33% rakeback deal on Cake Poker. Please make sure to use our SIGNUP code "FRAZ" (All Caps)

My buddy recently turned me onto an easy opportunity to make some money for virtually doing nothing but referring a website to your friends, family, or anyone else who enjoys the advantages of buying stuff on the internet. It's basically a collection of big name retailer's who offer deals on all sorts of products called the "Blastoff Network" and you can buy things off their site at a discount and if you refer anyone else and they buy anything you get a % commission on anything they buy and of their referrals as well. I looked into it fairly closely and it isn't any kind of pyramid scheme. There is absolutely no obligation to buy or pay any money for anything!!In a nutshell Blastoff finds these major companies customers and say on a single transaction that company hypethetically makes $100 profit and they give "blastoff" say $30 for finding them this customer and "Blastoff" in turnsplits this profit withyou $15. Now, I believe all the numbers and percentages are different per transaction, but bottomline is alot of people are out of jobs or just looking for some extra cash and you can make money with nothing out of your pocket if you find sign up some people and they buy some stuff online from any of these major companies or they signup other people themselves.

Here is the link to check it out. Like I said it costs you nothing to signup andcheck out the dealsand hopefully signup: my.blastoffnetwork.com/Donkeyherder/

With the holidays coming up alot of people are going to buying stuff online anyways, you might as well get some free money for signing them up!! On the "Blastoff" website they explain all the details and answer alot of questions. They also offer personalized websites for you when you sign up (Similar to setting up a "Facebook" account or blog site). I'm goin to try and add some signup links to my blogs and facebook, etc. Some people are getting crazy about this, making, and passing out flyers. Others are just signing up a few friends and family. I'll see how it plays out. Please pass along any ideas.


As far as my poker playing, I had a great run for a few months, but like I said before, if you ever have a great result be prepared for an immediate falloff. I'm sure there's some logic to it, but it seems like everything hits the fan fast after having a great run. For me, I had a great July and it followed with my 1st down month all year. I then had a couple more subpar months, I feel mostly due to distraction and vacations. Ihad a great time in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico last month and finally feel settled and re-energized to work on my game. I've noticed I've really fallen off the self assessment train and have been coasting on autopilot for many months. I have a tendency to coast if things are running well and lose focus on important details until it kicks me in the ass, but November's a new month and I've already started going to doing my homework and trying to plug some the holes in my game. My main falloff seems to be playing doubleups sng's (10 players, 5 get paid double on Cake Poker) I was killilng these games for months, cashing over 60% at the highest limits available, but I started adding more big multi table tourneys and got out of routine with the vacation and got a bit sloppy. I really enjoy playing the multi's and statistically had my best year ever with an averaging finish of 29/100, cashing 24% (with a profit), am in the top 20% - 43% of the time and in the top 6% - 14% of the time!! Despite all this would you believe I am still in the red for multi's on the year. Seems impossible, but I missed cashes on some big live and online $500-$2500 buyin tourneys which ate up all my profits. I've also managed to make15 final tablesout of155 tourneys and have had numerous bad beats on final table and knocked out 2nd, 3rd,or 4th.Ihave yet to take a big 1st place cash in over a year. I cut back on playing these big tournaments since my son was born, but I feel I will win a big tournament very soon considering I'm getting deep in so many tournaments now.

There are still a few books I'm reading. I'm almost done with"Poker Wizards", by Warrick Dunnett. Very interesting andsimilar to the popular stock market series of "Market Wizard's" books on some the great stock traders and their strategies. I'm most of the way through Negreanu's big "Power Holdem Strategy" book, which I have some reservations with his strategies applied to online play, which is 95% of what I play, but still interesting, and I have Rizen, Apestyles, and Pearljammer's book (Can't remember title something likeOne hand ata timepoker?) which is in my car.


Again, anyone looking to get a great rakeback deal saving at least 33% on all the fees and rake you pay to play. Please give Cake Poker a shot if you haven't already. You must use our signup code to get a rakeback account though! Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

To join our fast growing Cake Poker Crew!!

1. Download cakepoker.com - Click on the advertisement above or below, then download the Cake Poker Software.
2. Open a new "REAL MONEY ACCOUNT"(you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get up to 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.If you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

Cake Poker

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Handy Hand Replayer

Date: Mon, Oct 19, 2009 Internet Tournament

I spent alot of time looking for a way to replay hands on CakePoker and finally found something free and not posted for everyone else to see on some forum. You can just cut and paste hand histories from most sites. So far I have only been able to paste one hand at a time. Supposedly entire sessions can be posted, but I haven't figured it out. If anyone does please let me know how.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Roller coaster WCOOP poker month

Date: Mon, Sep 21, 2009 Internet Tournament

I will admit I had one great tournament last week. I dominated a $50 rebuy tournament as a huge chip leader down to heads up I had about a 2 to 1 lead and lost an allin pot both having top pair but my kicker was weak, then eventually I went card dead and fought back and forth for about 30-40 minutes until my opp limped with an A7 and I had 86 and the flopcameA87 and I put him on a draw and came overtop his bet. Obv. he called and I didn't hit my outs, out 2nd place, $2,500. I was pretty bummed out after having such a huge lead the entiretournament and having itcompletely dissapear heads up because the blinds get so big that whoever catches a couple lucky hands can win. Either wayI was pumped because I played pretty awesome 99% of thetournament and had some big tournaments coming up.

I can't wait till this month is over. I've been mixing in alot more multi table tournaments which can drive even the most seasoned pro, CRAZY!! I unfortunately have continued to be very successful winning satelites to big tournaments (ie WCOOP events on Pokerstars) and then getting deep in the big event only to be busted out with no money usually on some bad luck. This time I won a $500 entry into the $500 rebuy 1+1, which cost me an extra $1,000 in rebuys. My table was pretty mixed, but I had Pro Victor Ramdin on my left and Orel Hershiser across from me, along with a few other strong online players. I startedoff the event by doubling up with trips vs. AA and continued to pound away at my table and inthe top25 out of 1000+ players for a few hours. I eventually went card dead and sat backand waited for better hands when we got down to about 300 players,171 paid, and an early position player limps along with 2 or 3 more and I had J10 suited, so I call. The flop come 5 10 10, and I was now a bit less than avg. stack. I can't remember how the hand played out, but and 8 hit the turn and the 1st ep limper raised me and I didn't feel like I could lay down trips. I uncomfortably called and he turns over 55, a flopped boat vs my flopped trips...sigh. I now wonder if I could have gotten away, but it would have been hard. I couldn't put him on 1010 or a higher kicker with a 10 from ep, so unless he had 55 or 88, I had everything else covered. Anyways, I also won a satelite to the 6 handed $1,000 limit tournament which played at the same time and had Humberto Brenes on my left and a few solid online players. Somehow I never got any traction and lost half my stack early, but managed to keep myself alive longer than the rebuy tourney. I eventually crippled Humberto before he was knocked out, but found myself on the virtual rail less than an hour later before the money I think about 120 out of 410. Net loss for the day of about $1,500 wiping out any gains for the whole month. Tis the life of a poker player.

I think I'll have a couple poker book reviews coming out soon. I've been reading Daniel Negreanu's big book on "small ball" stlye poker "Power Holdem Strategy".



It's been pretty interesting, but I'm not sure how much applicable to Online poker. I've noticed when I pull up alot of stats on most of the big name live tournament pros, their online tournament results haven't been all that good. There is also a fairly obvious difference in the way people play online vs. in a live tournament. I also started reading Mike Matusow's "Check-Raising The Devil", which isan autobiography of one of poker's most notorious stars (In case you didn't already know) and is a bit rough around the edges,but despite Daniel's interesting angle on how plays poker, suprise, I've found myself more interested in Matusow's crazy life.

Aside from poker, I'm still dealing with a condo thats value has tanked and have been renting it out this year and it has been a pain since the only renters we could find in this crappy market had big pitbull dogs which pissed off all the neighbors and now I've gotten a couple tickets from animal control and it looks like we're going to be losing money while looking for new renters again. If I could just sell it off and break even, I could probably quit my job and play as a full-time pro. Oh well, I'm very blessed otherwise and maybe we'll get some awesome tenants, so I hardly have reason to complain. I'm going to Cabo next month!! I still have 10 more days to get things together, we shall see what I can do.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

So far, a pain in the ass month for playing poker!!

Date: Sat, Sep 12, 2009 Internet Tournament

I've been completely out of groove all month. Cake Poker opted to shut down all tournaments for a few days to fix some software issue, which is the first time since I started playing therefor2 years. Everything's fine now, but it forced me to go play on other sites which pay less rakeback and ended up playinga variety ofgames and tournaments leading to very inconsistent results. I also tried to take advantage of some free time to keep playing multi's and continued to get deep and busted before big money, which took some chunks out of my bankroll. Now it looks like I'm going to have to dig myself out of another hole again and grind out a bunch of sit n go's.

On a good note, I got everything booked to go to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!! It looks like a pretty fab resort. I'll try and include some pics. It's still pretty warm, so hopefully the weather will hold up and we can dodge any other hurricanes or crazy religeous wackos who last week hijacked a plane in cancun, Mexico to warn the president about an impending earthquake??!! wtf. You can also check on my buddy Dawgonu's poker blog/website: dawgonu.com.


Read Full Poker Blog Post

Probably my best month playing poker but didn't make much money?!

Date: Mon, Aug 31, 2009 Internet Tournament

Last month I had my best month in a long time, making multiple final tables. This month, I knew it would be hard to out due myself, but other than the actual money I made, I statistically played better than ever. I know it sounds like some sort of BS to make myself feel better, but I continued to cash deep into alot of multi-table tourneys and I absolutely killed the double-up sng's, cashing 68%!! My main downfall was finishing deep in alot of expensive multi's without any really big cashes. I had some vacation and other free time so I wanted to take advantage of the rare opportunity to play big tournaments. Luckily I made it back in sng's, but not by much, so it looks like it's going to be profitable by only my rakeback alone. I also played the most hours this month in a long time and have improved my abilities to play multiple games at a time. Previously I could only play 2-3 tables without screwing up or not paying attention, etc. This month I was running 3-6 games with little problems and expect to go back to a more grinding schedule in Sept.

There is one big caveat. Iand my buddy Dawgonu wereoffered an opportuntiy to rent a week at someone's time share anywhere in the world for basically $800 or $400 split. So we're taking the girls and heading out to somewhere exotic!! It looks like our main expense will be the plane flight. We're thinking Hawaii since most of us haven't gone yet. Any suggestions?? We gotta book it fast, so it might throw off my plans somewhat.

Things are starting to fall together well at the new home. Everything is pretty well organized and we had a party for my sister who just moved to Arizona. After we get back I want to look into buying one of those big L shaped leather couches for my living room and maybe eventually get a LCD TV, which will be a nice compliment to when Ifinally get the cash to buy one of those real nice professional poker tables for my dining room some day.

It has been butt-sweatty hot the last couple weeks here for So. California standards around 90+ for many days. Too hot to take advantage of the beach or anything until after 7pm. I need to get back into some sort of an exercise routine. I'm not fat by any means, but nowhere near what I used to be and I feel more out of shape every month. My dad, who's in his late 50's just started running and now he's doing a marathon and practicing 15-20 miles a day!! That's so awesome and I'm so pathetic now. At 6' I used to be able to dunk a basketball and run a 5 minute mile and now I suuuucckk. Surfing has still been fun and I'm talking myself to get back onto the golf course, but it's really hard for me to try and pick things back up and suck when I used to be so good before. It's like coming out of retirement at 31 years old, lol. I guess I'm being a bit dramatic. I'll probably hit the driving range before I take off on vacation.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

July ends as one of my best and busiest poker months ever and now I'm Mr. Mom

Date: Wed, Aug 5, 2009 Internet Tournament

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com Cake Poker
Please see instructions below on signing up for our 33% rakeback deal on Cake Poker. Please make sure to use our SIGNUP code "FRAZ" (All Caps)


As I mentioned before, I started mixing some multi's back into my game each night and it has paid off well in $$$ but not much sleep. July ended as one of my best months ever in terms of consistent cashes. We also have signed up dozens of players to our rakeback deal on Cake Poker (See ad link above or below post, 33% rakeback). I did play 1 NL holdem event at the Bike in their "Legends of Poker" tournament series. There were 800 players and I made it to the 2nd day after the stopped play at almost 4am. Unfortunately, I was moved to a loose table the last hour and could not shove a single hand to maintain any kind of decent stack and had to come back the next day with a supershort stack and being put in front of the blinds, forcing me to shove allin the very 1st hand K2s getting called by 2 (AJs, and 1010) and missing. Ko'd somewhere around 100/800, 20 before the money.

This month looks to start off in a much different direction. My wife was selected to as a teacher to go to Virginia and get a 1st hand U.S. history learning experience, which is great, but I become Mr. Mom at home for the next week! Looks like poker might be a bit on the back burner until late night. I am on vacation though so I'm not complaining. My Computer also crashed last week which was a huge bummer and time waste. I didn't think it was a big deal and was in the middle of finishing some sng's until the whole system crashed. Fortunately it's all up and going now, but I lost all my pictures, music, and bookmarks, so I lost alot of good online links.

I plan on catching up on blogs, twitters, and house stuff so hopefully when I'm ready to play I can be 100% focused. I added some links and changed things up a little on the blog. Hopefully it doesn't look too bad. I'd like to track down some kind of a poker related background if anyone knows how to import you own backgrounds on livejournal please let me know.

Again, anyone looking to get a great rakeback deal saving at least 33% on all the fees and rake you pay to play. Please give Cake Poker a shot if you haven't already. You must use our signup code to get a rakeback account though! Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com Cake Poker

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Another Final Table?!!

Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2009 Internet Tournament

Yup, I've done it again. We're down to 4 left out of 161 of a $50 rebuy multi table tourney. The prize is $1500-$4000. I am 4th in chips, but healthy................Sigh, Unfortunately I am keeping my 3rd place streak alive with another suckout, my AQ vs KJ. 3rd place, $2,000.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

I have to brag a little bit after a few deep finishes in some multi-table poker tournaments this mo.

Date: Sun, Jul 26, 2009 Internet Tournament



You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com Cake Poker
Please see instructions below on signing up for our 33% rakeback deal on Cake Poker. Please make sure to use our SIGNUP code "FRAZ" (All Caps)

Normally I like to wait till have some time to collect my thoughts and put something decent together like I did last post on bankroll management. I recently started mixing in some multi table tournaments online and just staying up late, really late!! Normally I completely avoid the multi's since we've had our baby, but my wife is off work during the summers and I've begun squeezing some in late night with some ridiculously good results, despite running constantly into total donkey's calling reraises with 610 suited and flopping 6,10,3 and I have AA etc. Before this month I only played 27 multi's this entire year, but did have 5 final tables to show. The bad part was every time I made a final table I ran into a horrible beats like the one I mentioned up above and typically they were on smaller tournaments with little winnings to show ($570 was the largest).

This month however was a different story. I've played 15 multi's this month so far and finished deep in 9 out of the 15, with 4 final tables: 4th ($1,200), 3rd ($1,500), 3rd ($1,200), and a 3rd last night in a $100 rebuy tournament (a profit of $3300)!! It seems like I've been having a rought ime trying to break through the 3rd mark lately, but that's much better than avg. so I won't complain. I had a small 1st place 75 players and a couple solid 2nd places, 200 players last year, but nothing since I won $12,000 seats to the WSOP Main Event 2 times in 2007.

I've been updating the look and links, etc. lately. Hopefully it is helpful. So far we've signed up over 85 players over the last few months onto Cake Poker, which is great. If you'd like to get in on the deal here's the info. Please email me if you have any questions.

Again, anyone looking to get a great rakeback deal saving at least 33% on all the fees and rake you pay to play. Please give Cake Poker a shot if you haven't already. You must use our signup code to get a rakeback account though! Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com Cake Poker

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Help on Building a Poker Bankroll

Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 Internet Tournament

Over the last couple months, as a Cake Poker affiliates,we've signed up quite a few players and I'd like to give out some pointers on how to build and maintain a sustainable bankroll and hopefully learn from some of my experience, mistakes, and success.

When I 1st started out I had no clue how difficult it was to judge how good of a player you are and what kinds of swings your bankroll will go through on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. It seems to me the great majority of players coming in hoping to make a bunch of money playing poker, think the best way to take their shotis tobe the next "Moneymaker" and treating poker like a lottery ticket rather than grindthere way up the ranks like about 95%of all the REALlong lasting pro's have done like Ivey, Chan, Doyle......

Donate as little as possible to Poker University - The one thing I did know was I wasn't good enough to jump into anything bigger than $2/4 limit cash games and $10-20 sit in goe's or multi table tourneys. Not necessarily because I couldn't afford more, but my skill level was just not there yet. So if I'm going to lose a little money at 1st while trying to get down the basics, Iwanted to lose as little as possible while I'm basically paying my poker "Tuition". So if you're fairly new to poker or online poker, start off playing small until you feel completely comfortable with the game and online site and you actually have a consistant winning record. Each game and online poker site take some time getting used to. I personally spend about a week feeling out a new game before I risk anything substantial.

Track your stats - Almost every good poker player knows exactly what games they aremost succesful.Alot ofplayers seem to have a hard time doing anything otherthansitting down and playing. Let's be honest, the majority of people who take there shot at being the next wannabepoker pro end up losing money because they don't even want to take the time to think about how, what, or where they play. I ampersonally a stat freak and love to break down my numbers into every possible category to help memaximize my profitability. Now I know many players aren't looking to turn their favorite hobby into a full-time job, but you at least need to have an honest record on how you're doing.

Do your homework - These days there is so much information on the internet, poker books have tend to be discarded by some as something not worth the time or up to date with the way games are played today. I think this might be true in some cases at very high limit play, but for someone starting out they can give you alot of great advice for usually only $15-40. I figure if any book is able to help me win just 1 pot in my lifetime, then it was worth the purchase. There are also alot of good magazines out there which are good to pull out while doing nothing and killing time.

Find an online poker site that gets rakeback and take advantage of bonuses - Obviously I'm a bit partial to Cake Poker which gives one of the highest rakeback deals at 33% back on all fees and generated rake, but if you do play anywhere else make sure you don't sign up without getting rakeback. For many players that are close to break-even, rakeback can turn some slightly losing players into winners and winners into healthy winners. Many online pro active players get $1,000 to over $10,000 a month in just rakeback alone. I have a link for my rakeback deal at the bottom of the entry and as a link on the left side. As far as bonuses, many sites offer 1st deposit bonus matches. Cake Poker, in fact, offers a 1st deposit match of 100% up to$600!Just be careful not to play outside your normal comfort zone to get a few extra dollars and in the process lose hundreds orthousands of dollars in the games themself. I recently had 2 major sitesinstitute a limited amount of time to earn the bonus dollarsyou could be tempted to play way too big to earn a couple hundreddollars. Luckily,Cake Pokerhad neverhad a time limit, so be careful anywhere else.

Avoid becoming a satelite junkie - Ideally I would say to never play a satelite you can't afford to buy directly into without it heavily affecting your bankroll. It really doesn't make sense if you haven't gotten good enough to build your bankroll and buy directly into a tournament which poses much tougher competition than you're normally used to. Many times I've found myself buying into multiple satelites and bubbling out and in the end I could have just bought straight in. Better yet I have no problem winning satelites only to consistently not cash in on that BIG tournament and in the end depleting my bankroll from all the satelites I played.

Impose strict limits on what % of bankroll you risk per game - Especially for newer players who don't understand the time it takes to build a bankroll and how easy it is to lose it all after a few bad games/weeks etc. It can be a bit different for each game but I would say for standard sit-n-goes which payout about 33% of players, I would only risk at most 1-3% of my bankroll or $10 of a $500 bankroll. In a multi table tourney which usually only pays 10% of players closer to 1% or $5-10 of a $500 bankroll. Cash games are a totally different animal. Just to sit down to a $2/4 limit game you need $100 and the swings can be very wide. I would say you would need at least $2,000-3000, so about 20X the buyin seems about right. This can be abit shocking for some players, but if you really are a good player you will move up through the ranks fairly quickly. This also leads to the topic of bad runs.

Don't multi table if you have yet to become a long term consistant winner - I might get some crap for this because like me, alot of players are a bit A.D.D. and waiting3 seconds to analyze a hand is just way to long so we play 3-4 tables at a time. The problem with this idea is that the great majority of online players struggle with just being profitable while playing 1 game and for every additional game you play your winning % typicallydrops. So if you're barely a winning player2 games might push you to barely even and 3 gamesat a time can make you a loser. Typically the only players who succeed at this have already broken down every game they've ever played and figure out an exact strategyso that decisions are made easier (not necessarily the best play) and they already have very good notes on how all the othersopponents playat the table.Playing only 1 table (Or 2 max) leaves you enough time to really evaluate every hand andopponent to make the best possible plays and improves your game the fastest, enabling you to eventually move up to higher limitsmuch easier.

If you're running bad, regardless of luck you need to make some changes - This is probably what ruins most poker bankrolls than anything else. Maybe your patience is wearing thin, you're getting tired, distracted by too many things (TV, phone, work, muti-tabling too many games), maybe your opponents arebeating you with total junkor maybe you are just not skilled enough yet to play at the limits you are playing. No matter the reason whenever things are going bad dramatic changes need to be made and usually for me it's because I'm playing too aggressively or too many hands orboth, taking too many bigrisks. So tightening up for me works. Maybe that's not everyone's problem, butmost athlete's/competetorshave some weakness they have toalways beon top of. It can be veryhard to move down in limits especially after being at a limit for a long time. I remember killing $100+ 6mans on Pokerstars for months until I got a little too confident and my competition started to catch up in skill and I eventually dropped down to $30 sng'sfor a few monthsuntil I found a couple other games and new sites (Cake Poker included)that proved more profitable.


Read Full Poker Blog Post

At Least I Cut My Losses

Date: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 Internet Tournament

Well thanks to a good run by Doug (a young online player I staked 10%) I was able to recoup about 1/3 of my losses. He made a great run, came back from a small stack a couple times, and had the best hand chopped or beat multiple times including his eventual bustout in 17th place out of 600+ for $7700!! You always get a little disappointed getting so close, but it's a great boost to his ego to cash well in his 1st WSOP event. I still have a piece on my buddy tdawonu, who won a seat to a $1500 WSOP tourney on Cake Poker, so there is still hope to come out with a profit.

As far as me, my wife and I went and saw "The Beatles Show" the other day. We paid for great seats (About 5 back from the stage) and it was well worth it. It's a great show at the Mirage. I also played a few hours of 1-3 No Limit Cash Games here which proved to be a long grind and very few hands worth playing until I finally lost about $200 and called it a night to meet Doug for the 1st time and see how he was doing. Last night we got 2 for 1 tickets for "Penn and Teller" which was great magic type show. I think we're just gonna hang out today and maybe tonight I'll play a smaller live tourney. It's definitely nice to get some time away from the house, baby, job, etc. It's a first in a long time. I still have another week of vacation when I get back so I still hope to get a couple more multi's in before I go back to the grind.

Well I guess that's it for now. Gotta go to breakfast. Again, anyone looking to get a great rakeback deal saving at least 33% on all the fees and rake you pay to play. Please give Cake Poker a shot if you haven't already. You must use our signup code to get a rakeback account though! Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com

WSOP2

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Bittersweet WSOP So Far

Date: Sun, Jun 14, 2009 Internet Tournament

Well I played in today's $1,500 NL event and started out the way I prayed I would by doubling up early and imposing my will throughout. I started with 4000 chips and picked up a couple small pots with AK's and later picked upKK in EP. I raised about 3X and got reraised by a late position player. I just called to see what kind of flop hit before committing. The flop came 10 8 5 and I bet 1/2 pot into the reraiser who raised me again. I felt pretty good and didn't think I could get away from my hand so I pushed allin and got a reluctant semi pot committed call from my opponent who suprisingly turns over QJ!! He turned a Q which freaked me abit expecting my usual bad luck, but to my suprise held up on the river.

So I doubled up early and proceeded to chip away and built my stack to 11,000 until I hit a road block. I get QQ in late position and a amateurish player raised small in early position thena mid position player somewhat light stacked just calls and I reraise about 5X only too be reraised allin 7000. The other player then calculates and calls, which I put on a medium PP hoping to get good pot odds. At this point I'm also getting pretty good odds, but I had a feeling that I was against AA or KK, but hoping I wasn't and getting great odds Itook a bit of a big risk and called getting about 2-1 odds with QQ and left with my original 4000 stack if I lost. Unfortunately he did have AA and the 2nd player had JJ and the flop missed me including a straight draw.

I then proceeded to run into a bigger pair 2 hands in a row including my final hand still missing about 11 outs. That pretty much sucked because I couldn't ask to start out any better and unfortunately had to get involved in such a big pot. Maybenext time I might not take such a risk so early regardless I solid odds.Easy to say in hindsight only because this time it was against AA.

The one good piece of news is I staked another online player that my buddy knows well, in the $1500 limit holdem tourney on Friday and is in the money down to the last 20 players!! I might come out ahead after all. I also have a piece in my buddy who will be playing another $1500 WSOP NL tourney in a week or so. So I will have to settle to bask in someone elses glory this year. Better than nothing right? Gotta go. Donkeyherder.

Read Full Poker Blog Post