Weekend Update & Junkanoo Parade

Date: Mon, Jan 7, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

My ladyfriends sister got married on Saturday and everybody seemed to be implying that we were next. We just smiled and ignored the comments and went on like nothing was said. By the end of the night she was completely drunk and had to be helped to the car. We spent most of sunday together so i didnt get to play any tournaments until that evening. I played in a $5 FO, finished 855th and in a $10

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Weekend Update & Junkanoo Parade

Date: Mon, Jan 7, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

My ladyfriends sister got married on Saturday and everybody seemed to be implying that we were next. We just smiled and ignored the comments and went on like nothing was said. By the end of the night she was completely drunk and had to be helped to the car. We spent most of sunday together so i didnt get to play any tournaments until that evening. I played in a $5 FO, finished 855th and in a $10 360max entrants along with a few 180s, But didnt finish get deep in any.

This morning i got up early and decided to play a $2.20 128max headsup winner take all tourny. I finished in 20th place having won two heads up matches which were really easy. My third opponent and i were more evenly matched. I got down early and was fighting back for most of the match, finally going out with KJo vs 75o on a J75 flop. Probably should've pushed pf... meh. These are good for developing a good heads up game... i will definitely play this tournament again.

Junkanoo Parade
Each year in The Bahamas on Boxing Day morning and New Year's day morning we have a huge parade called "Junkanoo". It is similar to Carnival or Mardi Gra and is rooted in our African heritage. I thought i'd just put youtube link up to show people what its like. This one shows the costumes better than any other that i found, but the music is not the best. The music is key to junkanoo... you feel it and just have to move.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Reading and Plans

Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Haven't played at all this week. But i've been hitting the forum and reading alot, Mostly 2p2 and HOH2. 2p2 is a great resource and all other forums reference it, so i rarely read any other forums although i visit several blogs. As for poker books, i think that the definitive books on MTTs and cash games have been written. And what is not in any book that i have can be found on the forums for

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Reading and Plans

Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Haven't played at all this week. But i've been hitting the forum and reading alot, Mostly 2p2 and HOH2. 2p2 is a great resource and all other forums reference it, so i rarely read any other forums although i visit several blogs.

As for poker books, i think that the definitive books on MTTs and cash games have been written. And what is not in any book that i have can be found on the forums for free, therefore i think its unlikely that i will purchase another poker book anytime in the near future.

I currently own;

poker for dummies... never read this one
play poker like a pro? by phill hellmuth

These two were my very first purchases before i'd discovered any forums or knew anything about poker... waste of money imo.

Definitive works
SuperSystem2
Theory of Poker
HOH1 & HOH2
No Limit Holdem: Theory & Practice

Other
Kill Phil 1
Phil Gordon's little green book

Thats it. I can reread several chapters in any of these books (besides the first two) and still find useful info.

I have been thinking of making some changes to the blog. During my research into PXF one thing i noticed, and it was the same when i was a member of Cardrunners, was the lack of low limit videos. When they do a low limit video it would invariably be 2/4 NL (CR) or 11R(PXF) which is still high for the average micro stakes grinder. While you can learn much from these videos i alway thought it'd also be great to actually see videos of situations that we encounter at our level.

To that end i will put up some more videos of bubbles/ITM/Final tables and whole hand histories of some of the tournaments i've played. While i cannot promise that they will be played perfectly, hopefully they can be of some use to other players who play the same levels.

I will also try to post a little more about my life. I'm not one for the social blogs and really don't like the "poker" blogs that have more personal than poker content. But i will probably add a few post here and there with personal content to keep it interesting.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Island Grinder 2008

Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

2007 was an interesting year. I went from sngs to full ring cash to 6 max back to sngs and now MTTs.I have not tried any other forms of poker besides NLHE. I've decided that i will be mainly a MTT player for now. I'm simple not up to the grind and variance of the cash games and right now it doesn't feel like i will be up to them anytime soon. My game improved a lot in December, which was my best

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Island Grinder 2008

Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

2007 was an interesting year. I went from sngs to full ring cash to 6 max back to sngs and now MTTs.I have not tried any other forms of poker besides NLHE. I've decided that i will be mainly a MTT player for now. I'm simple not up to the grind and variance of the cash games and right now it doesn't feel like i will be up to them anytime soon.

My game improved a lot in December, which was my best month since i started playing sngs again. I played 45 180sngs... bubbled 5 times and got ITM 7 times. I made the FT everytime i got in the money, finishing with 2 wins, 2 2nds, 6th, 8th & 9th for a 400% ROI.

My Bankroll now stands at $1100.00, which is more than enough for the $4/180 sngs that i currently play. However,I am not interested in just trying to grind the 180s for a monthly profit, instead i will begin preparing for and taking regular shots at large field MTTs. Of course I will still play the 180s regularly also.

I will eventually join a training site, most likely PXF. But i will not do so until Feb/March because i feel that there is still alot that i can do on my own to improve my game.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

$4/180 win

Date: Sun, Dec 30, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

I haven't played at all this week, but have been doing some reading. I've just started reading HOH2 even though i had it since last year. Well the reading must've helped because i played two tournaments, busting 20th in one and taking down the other. I felt i played really well in both tournaments. In the tournament that i bubbled i came back from a short stack with some really nice play, if i

Read Full Poker Blog Post

$4/180 win

Date: Sun, Dec 30, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

I haven't played at all this week, but have been doing some reading. I've just started reading HOH2 even though i had it since last year. Well the reading must've helped because i played two tournaments, busting 20th in one and taking down the other.

I felt i played really well in both tournaments. In the tournament that i bubbled i came back from a short stack with some really nice play, if i do say so myself. But my mistake in that tournament was not adjusting properly to my image and i got called down by a huge donk after firing three barrells on a very dangerous board. This guy could've been beat so many ways it was just crazy what he called down with. But i guess he had a read and took a stand. That left me short again and i had to push bot.

Yesterday was a good day all around. I was able to play my tournaments,get a win. And go out to a sports bar to watched Football, shot pool and karaoke with my lady friend and her sisters.

Today i wanted to play in the $5 FO that i monied last sunday which starts at
1pm but my brother just called and he needs a ride to work for 2pm, so thats out. There are 3 more tournaments that i could possibly play in;

3:30pm - - 100K guarenteed - - $11 buy-in
5:15pm - - 360 max entrants - - $16.50 buy-in
7:00pm - - 20K guarenteed - - $11 buy-in

I'm not sure what we're doing tonight but there was talk of seeing a movie lastnight. If we do, that will knock out all of these tournaments. Which will be sad because i'm feeling really good after my win yesterday. But gotta spend the quality time.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

2007 in Review

Date: Mon, Dec 24, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Sunday Tournaments

Date: Mon, Dec 24, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

I only played two tournaments yesterday...a $4/180 and a $5 MTT FO with 2718 runners. The 180 was a dud. I picked up KK first hand and got it AI pf vs. EP raiser who had AA... I went out first hand in 180th place. There is just no way i am folding KK pf ever in these tournaments.

I played really well in the $5 FO, but ran into my old problem of "Time" & distractions. With about 55 player left i had 246K in chips and was in 10th place, My ladyfriend came by and we sat in the car talking for about 15 minutes... when i came back i had 168K in chips, there were 34 players left, i had switched tables and was now the short stack. blinds were 3000/6000/1000a (i think). I eventually pushed over a EP raise with AQs, was called by 77 and busted out in 30th for $24 profit.

I just checked the results and the tournament lasted 8hrs! I just don't know how i'm ever gonna get 8 uninterrupted hrs for a tournament.sigh. Something will have to work out.

Best wishes to all and Enjoy your holidays

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Another 2nd Place Finish

Date: Fri, Dec 21, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

Did not play any poker Yesterday, so when i got home around 1:30am lastnight i was itching to play. Fired up some 45s and a 180. Got in the money in just 1 of the 45s but was running well in the 180. About 15 minutes into the 2nd hour i won a big three way pot that put me in first position in the tourny. I haven't posted any hands in a long time on this blog because i usually make these

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Another 2nd Place Finish

Date: Fri, Dec 21, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

Did not play any poker Yesterday, so when i got home around 1:30am lastnight i was itching to play. Fired up some 45s and a 180. Got in the money in just 1 of the 45s but was running well in the 180.

About 15 minutes into the 2nd hour i won a big three way pot that put me in first position in the tourny. I haven't posted any hands in a long time on this blog because i usually make these entries at work. I will try to include a few hand histories in the future. Unfortunately i can not remember the exact hand right now.

I usually don't like taking the lead early in a tourny because its sometimes difficult to play out front. How aggressive should i be? The blinds are worthless compared to my stack. Its very easy to become too passive and allow others to take advantage or too aggressive and spew chips. I think i found the right mix in this tournament and was able to continue to accumulate chips while keeping my image strong which allowed me to steal with relative ease. I held the lead going into the Final Table.

My heads up was again a let down. I made two huge mistakes by again pushing weak hands when it was not necessary to do so. I will get this ironed out eventually. Tournament ended at 6am this morning... not a good idea to start so late.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Moved up a Level

Date: Wed, Dec 19, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

Yesterday I officially moved up from the $3 45s to the $6 45s. Not a real big jump in skill level it turns out, since the majority of players are still really bad. Moving up is always a psychological thing. As long as you have the bankroll and are comfortable with risking slightly more you will be ok. I have well over 100 buyins for the games i play. I played 5 $6/45 tournies and monied 3. One

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Moved up a Level

Date: Wed, Dec 19, 2007 Internet Live Tournament

Yesterday I officially moved up from the $3 45s to the $6 45s. Not a real big jump in skill level it turns out, since the majority of players are still really bad. Moving up is always a psychological thing. As long as you have the bankroll and are comfortable with risking slightly more you will be ok. I have well over 100 buyins for the games i play.

I played 5 $6/45 tournies and monied 3. One 1st, a 2nd and 6th place finish. for a whopping 500% ROI. I also played 2 $4/180s and 2 $3/45 but did not money in any.

Read Full Poker Blog Post