November Blog November 29
I went up to Northern California over Thanksgiving weekend and had a really nice time. My best friend, Steve is from Santa Cruz and he wanted to show me a couple things around town including the boardwalk where he wanted me to try out the rollercoaster. The trip was meant for relaxing and site seeing, but I managed to squeeze a little poker in.

I stayed in this great hotel in Santa Cruz that was right on the beach. My balcony was literally a few floors up from the sand, so I had a great view. In Santa Cruz, they have a small card room about the size of Commerce Casino's bathroom. It has a few tables, but I only saw a maximum of two games going. I chose to go to one of the bigger card rooms so I could have a better choice of games. Garden City was nice, but I had my mind set on playing at Bay 101. Once I got there, I put my name on a couple lists and the board person told me that it would be a minimum of one hour wait. I read a couple poker magazines while waiting and then checked to see how far I moved up the list. After one hour, I hadn't even budged so I decided to just go back to the hotel because Steve and I had a long day planned the next day.

On Saturday, we went to the boardwalk and rode the rollercoaster which was pretty cool because it was one of those really old rickety wooden ones that was even more exciting because it felt like it could break down at any time. After the ride, we hit the local cardroom where I played a small spread limit game for about thirty minutes. After he was done visiting with a couple of his old friends, I got up from the game and we did some shopping (of course he hated that part), went to dinner, and then went back to Bay 101 to play. The game selection up north isn't anywhere close to what it is in Los Angeles and I ended up playing a small Limit Holdem game.

On Sunday, we headed back making sure to drive through the beautiful towns on the way. I will be heading up there again sometime in the near future because I really want to stay at some of the places we drove through, such as Carmel and Solvang.

When I got home, I realized that I missed the last chance qualifier for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and I am not pleased about it. I told myself I would go on the trip regardless, but I am not so sure now. I kind of want to go to the Aussie Millions so we will see. I really don't like the timing of either of the tournaments because it is so soon after the holidays and I kind of like to wind down for a couple weeks. As of now, I am just going to play it by ear.

I have been spending more time in the Omaha games. The more time I sit at the tables, the more I realize it is where I should be. I might make my move back up to the 30-60 game shortly since I have been doing alright in the 10-20 and the 15-30.

The Bike tournaments are running right now and I plan on playing on Monday and Tuesday of next week. After that, I will be heading to New York for a few days to see what Christmas time in NY is like.

November 18
I played in a few tournaments this week including the HORSE FTOPS event on FullTilt Poker. I only made it through half the field in the HORSE event, but I have finished in the money in the last three NL tournaments I have played in.

I was the chip leader in the HORSE event for a short period (before the first break), but then fell into the average chip stack range. I made a huge mistake during the Stud Hi Low portion when my hand slipped and I clicked the wrong button. I had this guy exactly where I wanted him and then hit the fold button instead of hitting the call button. I have mis-clicked a few other times, but nothing like this time. In this case, I was not surfing the internet. I wasn't horsing around. My mouse just did a little jolt and my cards went into the muck. I never recovered from the loss and was eliminated halfway through the tourney.

My NL game has been better this week, but I have still made several mistakes. Last night I played in the $22 w/ rebuy tournament on PokerStars and I finished in fourth place. There was one hand I really screwed up and it could have made a difference in my finish. We were four handed and I had pocket fives. The flop was 883. My opponent bet into me and I was pretty sure that I had the best hand, but he only did a minimum bet and it kind of threw me a little. I wanted to see what the turn brought. The turn was a jack and I wasn't thrilled with it, but it was very possible that my hand was still best. He led into me with another min bet. I don't know where my brain went at that moment, but I only called again. The river was another jack which meant I had the two pair on the board with a stupid five kicker. He did another min bet, but I didn't think there was any way I could win. I could only beat a few hands (44, 43, 42, and 22). I chatted in the box "I really screwed that hand up" and he said "No, I really screwed it up. I can't believe I min bet the river with pocket deuces." It's hands like these that make me question my abilities. Where in the hell does my brain go during these moments. Since my opponent was only min betting, the pot wasn't huge, but it certainly could have made a difference in my finish.

Besides that $22 rebuy tourney, I finished in the money in the big $11 rebuy and in the $77 short handed tourney. The payout for those two tourneys isn't going to make my house payment, but I did get about $2400 for the $22 rebuy which was nice.

I will be looking to play the larger events tomorrow. I am not sure which ones, but I am considering the satellite for the Caribbean Adventure and the $215 HORSE and Omaha Hi/Low tournaments.

November 9
Last night's Survivor episode was a good one. I have been waiting since the show started for Bobby Bellande to be eliminated and finally he is gone. He did have a couple of good moments, but those moments were overshadowed by his moments of idiocy. Kind of reminds me of the way he plays poker. This particular cast is interesting because there is no great player to root for. They have some good players like Todd and Frosty, but they don't have a front runner like Yul or Earl from previous seasons.

November 8
I have been playing Razz this week on FullTilt Poker. They have a $10-20 game that runs on a pretty consistent basis and I have been doing decent in it. The good thing about it is that it usually doesn't have more than 6 players in it and I like short handed Razz much better than 8 handed.

Tournaments haven't been my top priority this week. I am one of those moods where I am just not very interested in them. I didn't play in any of the big ones on Sunday and haven't played many during the week either. I played a 3-table sit n go yesterday and finished in first place and then played in the $55 w/ rebuy tourney earlier today and got knocked out fairly early. That about sums up my whole week. I am planning on playing in at least one online tournament next week. FullTilt is running their FTOPS series and next Thursday they have a $500 HORSE event that I am interested in playing in. I am disappointed that they don't have a regular Omaha Hi/Low tournament (they have a Pot Limit one only)

This Saturday I am celebrating my birthday. I am going to have a nice big party since I didn't really celebrate last year and I am excited that a couple of friends are coming into town to hang out with me. My kind of friends are the ones that play poker, so I know I will be playing a lot this weekend including playing in a tournament at Commerce Casino on Sunday.

November 1
I played in a couple tournaments on Sunday that I have been meaning to write about. It has taken me a little while to get my head and thoughts together because I was so upset about one of them.

I have been wanting to play in the PCA every year since its inception. For some reason, it has never worked out. This year, I am determined to play and winning my seat would be ideal. I haven't played in too many satellites yet, but the couple I have played in have been torturous.

The most recent one was on Sunday. I used 10k of my fpp points to play in a satellite where they gave three seats. There were a little over 200 players and I bubbled the frickin thing. I played so well for so long and then at the end, I screwed up and I am still kicking myself about it.

When we got down to four players, the battle was long. We all sat there and played cautiously hoping that another player would get in a confrontation. The chips moved around and I was in the top two for a short while (we all were) and then I found myself being third in chips. Being third in chips is a lot less comfortable than being second. I had about $190k and the fourth place guy had about 150k when the following hand took place. The chip leader raised (just doubled it) on the button (I was in the small blind and the short stack was in the big blind) and I was dealt AQ. In a normal 4 handed situation, a push wouldn't be out of line, but in this particular situation it is a horrible move, but that didn't keep me from making it. I could have done any number of things, but pushing shouldn't have been one. I didn't need to win the tournament. I didn't need to accumulate all the chips. I only needed to outlast one more person. The way the flop came down, I would have gone broke anyway (the board was Axx), but that is beside the point. I felt defeated and have had a hard time getting over that loss.

I did manage to finish third in the Omaha tourney that night, but it still didn't make me feel any better about the satellite loss. Winning $1200 isn't anywhere close to winning a 12k package. I should be playing in a few more satellites in the coming weeks.