Off to Vegas

Leaving for Vegas tonight, not sure which day I'll be playing the wsop main event. Most likely playing the Venetian deep stack tomorrow.

Updates will be at http://www.twitter.com/AshPoker

WSOP shipament x2

BBT4 TOC tonight.

Oh well, already got my seat! :)

Oh thanks to Al, FT, and the BBT I just got my 2nd seat.

I think the first key was that a sat out most of the 1st hour. Seemed like a waste to play much then, and wanted to rest up, eat dinner, just chill for a bit. After the first break I pretty much turned it on. Had a yo-yo stack for much of the first few hrs as I was opening up a lot on a rather passive table. Made a good read on a hand with Smokee, with a bluff catcher for lots of chips. Once I got it up there, pretty much stayed top 3 for the rest of the tourney.

FT I was able to agro it up as most didn't want to leave with nothing. Used my stack on a few hands and pretty much got lucky when people pushed or raised me when I actually had hands. A flopped set on Hoyazo's utg raise, after getting all his chips after that hand, I knew it was a lock for the seat. CK gutted me on a flopped set earlier, I think that was the only big hand I lost. Final 4 time, I knocked out Karma(sp) 88 > AQ? Down to 3, ck shoved with somewhere around 8bbs. I looked down at Q8 and figured I had to make the call with our stack sizes, even though her range was probably a lot smaller than standard in that spot. She flipped over Ax. Lucky 8 on the turn, and river blanked.

Ship the wsop seat! GG all and thanks again to alcanthang and ft.

Shipament

Finally got out of the negative for the year. The first 2.5 months were tough.

Boo Feb

Did shit in Feb. Some deep finishes but no big $. 3rd in a wsop sat, only paid out first. Yesterday Aces full losing to quads started my downfall after starting every tourney pretty good. I hate poker.

BBT4

Didn't even realize it started yesterday

Attention: Battle of the Blogger Tournament 4 Starts This Sunday, March 1st

You’ve been waiting and now it’s back, Battle of the Blogger Tournament 4; 13 total weeks, 4 events each week plus 3 "Blogger Big Games" – including your shot at a $10K WSOP* Main Event prize package.

Fight your way to Vegas starting Sunday, March 1st and battle for your entry to the Big Dance ending on Sunday, May 31st. The winner of each blogger-hosted event will automatically be entered into the Tournament of Champions for the chance to claim a seat at the Main Event.

Win your way into the Tournament of Champions, to be held on Sunday, May 31st, and you could be going to Las Vegas. First and second place will be awarded $10K Main Event packages, while third and fourth places will win $2K Bracelet Race packages.

But that’s not all that you stand to win. Make the top 20 in the final Battle of the Bloggers 4 Leaderboard standings and you’ll earn even more:

* First Place - $750
* Second Place - $600
* Third Place - $500
* Fourth Place - $400
* Fifth Place - $350
* Sixth through 20th places will receive custom Full Tilt Poker jersey

Here is the tournament schedule:

Tournament: Blogger Big Game
When: March 1st, April 19th, May 31st
Game: Superstack NLHE
Buyin: $69+6 or token
Password: donkey

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Every Sunday at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament
When: Every Monday at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Every Tuesday at 21:30ET
Game: rotation of non-NLHE games
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Every Wednesday at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Poker Rake Races

Just finished up my new site: RakeRaceNews.com All the information and news about Poker Rake Races. At Rake Race News you can learn more about the $1.5 million Titan Poker Rake Race, $1,000,000 Ladbrokes Poker Rake Race,$80,000 Purple Lounge Rake Race,$1,000,000 Bet365 Rake Race,$500,000 Sun Poker Rake Race, and $400,000 PokerPlex Rake Race.

Also a basic strategy guide on How to win a rake race

January Recap

Pretty much a wasted month here. Small loss for the month, and didn't play the hours I wanted, less than 40 when I budgeted for 60 at least. Still playing pretty well in mtts, just not getting the results. Satellites are still happening, have been pretty much qualifying for any event at will. Frustrating day yesterday,t hough technically should be Feb recap. In the party million, I had a huge stack, top 10 or 20 about 3-4hrs in, in a deep stack tourney. For some reason I decided to risk about 1/2 of it pre with AK. Lost a flip to JJ, even though the flop came AKQ. Sometimes I just get too greedy I suppose. In the Sunday Brawl I once again have a huge stack, but I played passively and let my stack dwindle away. Got to work on my big stack play more.

I have a new goal now, and that is to work out a schedule. I want to play more mtts, but lack of desire during weeknights is killing me. The holiday times were great, didn't have to worry about waking up early the next day, nor was I tired during the evening. I have a pretty good idea of what to play on sundays, just have to figure out weeknights. With Ftops coming up this week, it'll prob be easy to schedule, I always play the opener for sure.

Here is my Sunday schedule if your curious. Most of the majors ($200+), i'll try to sat in.

• Party Million $640 (1st sunday of month) 12pm
• Pokerroom Championchip $300k. $200 (1st sunday of month. Weekly but too early) 12pm
• FT $32k $24 2pm
• PS $40k $26 2pm
• Pokerroom Bounty $100k $100 (2nd sunday) 2pm
  
• Cake $250k 5pm (last sunday)
• Pokerroom $100k 100+1r 3pm
  
• Hollywood Celebrity $20 2pm
  

Other major tournaments I randomly play if I sat in are ipoker $250k, Boss $250k, stars million, FT million, Stars Turbo Takedown, Cake $150k

Other random tournaments include ipoker rebuys ($10/$5), pokerroom $10k turbo, Stars $10k turbo, FT double deuce, Stars $200k

If you think of any other sunday tournies I should check out let me know.

2008 Recap / 2009 Goals

2008 Goals

1. Hourly Rate. I finished at an approx $50/hr rate. Had a losing July and a couple of sub 1k months which screwed it up. I'm setting my goal for $100/hr. I averaged 48hrs per month in 07, I should have that up to at least 60.

Got about halfway there in the $70s/hr

2. Cash Games. Same as last year, get to $1000NL. Limit $10/20 which should be no prob.

Epic Fail, not even close. Still playing mostly $200nl, some $400nl. Though a lot has to do with not having a regular site. Beginning of the year was playing on mostly cake, but that site turned incredibly tight. So now I have my rolls spread across multiple sites and no home cash game site. As of right now it is Carbon. Limit wise I had been playing 20/40 but the variance was too big for me right now. So I consider myself a regular 10/20 player if I play limit. Haven't touched limit poker for many months now though.

3. Tournaments. Definately should be able to get a 5 digit score.

3x 5 digit scores.

4. Satellites. Qualify for WSOP ME, WPT Niagara, Aussie or PCA Jan 09.

Qualified for WSOP ME. Bubbled WPT Niagara twice. Bubbled another WPT seat. Aussie/PCA didn't really try as hard to get in as I could of.

5. Live Poker. Honestly not much, would rather play online

Played jack all live poker except for trips to Vegas and friendly home games.

6. Education. Continue learning and improving.

www.pokertrainingguide.com Nuff said, I guess I watched a lot of videos. Have the oppurtunity to watch a lot more.


Will also do a 2008 site by site recap later.


2009 Goals

1. $100k. Want to try and reach $100k profit for the year. That is with part time hours, approx 60hrs per month or $130/hr.

2. Tournaments. Min 5x 5 digit scores. Will have to if I want to reach $100k. Also want to do better in the major tournies. In 2008 I sucked in major tournies, best I did were min cashes. I could sat in them fine but I'd choke in the big game.

3. Live qualifiers. Pretty much only WSOP ME and WPT Niagara are the big ones. Still tough to get time off to play many of the others. Might play a few of the Port Perry CPT monthly tournies. $550 freezeouts. Will try for the BC Open as well.

4. Cash games. I dunno what to do here. Probably continue at $200nl at one site until I have a roll there to play $400nl. Or just cheat and transfer funds from one site to another. I don't see myself playing limit for a while, puts me on tilt a lot. I still believe that limit players are overall weaker though.

5. Staking. I might pursue this further. Only have 1 regular horse right now, but since end of july has turned $2k to $10k+. Will start scouting I guess. Low levels only though, can't afford to big time stake.

In conclusion, i'd have to say 2008 had more positives than negatives. Made more $ than the previous year, had some decent tourney results. Cash games were a dissapointment as I didn't progress, and live cash games in Vegas I still suck at. I also got more confident that I can do this sucessfully full time if I get canned at work. Automotive sector, yippee! So at least I have a nice bailout job for now. Blogging wise, i've lost the desire to write. Seems like its the same with most of the other casual bloggers. Kinda lost its appeal, and just don't want to take the time and effort. I'll still blog my brags though. :)

Finally a shipament post

Finally a sweet score. Ship the $14k after 7 grueling hours

PokerStars WBCOOP 2008

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 646161

Game Date Time
Pot Limit Omaha December 15 14:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em December 16 19:00 ET
Omaha Hi/Lo December 17 22:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em December 18 14:00 ET
8-Game Mix December 19 17:00 ET
No Limit Hold’em December 20 15:00 ET
Places Freeroll Qualifiers - Prizes Awarded
1st WBCOOP Final seat + Sunday Majors Platinum Package*
2nd-9th WBCOOP Final seat + Sunday Majors Gold Package**
10th-27th WBCOOP Final seat + Step 3 Ticket
28th-45th WBCOOP Final seat + Step 2 Ticket
46th-72nd WBCOOP Final seat

* A Sunday Majors Platinum Package consists of 3 x $215 tournament tickets, 1 x $530 tournament ticket and 1 x $11 tournament ticket.

**A Sunday Majors Gold Package consists of 2 x $215 tournament tickets.
The WBCOOP Final

The World Blogger Championship of Online Poker Final takes place Sunday December 21, at 15:00 ET.
Prizes
Places WBCOOP Final - Prizes Awarded
1st PokerStars Caribbean Adventure prize package - worth $14,300
2nd European Poker Tour± prize package + SCOOP‡ Main Event ticket + Step 6 ticket - worth $11,100
3rd European Poker Tour± prize package - worth $7,500
4th SCOOP Main Event ticket + Step 6 ticket - worth $3,675
5th Step 6 ticket - worth $2,100
6th SCOOP Main Event ticket - worth $1,575
7th $1,050 Tournament entry
8th Step 5 ticket
9th $530 Tournament entry
10th-18th $320 Tournament entry
19th-27th $215 Tournament entry
28th-45th $109 Tournament entry
46th-100th Step 3 ticket

100% Rakeback Poker

A new site has appeared, Paynorake.com which gives players the ability to earn 100% rakeback. There is a level in which you must play, but the minimum they pay out is 50% rakeback. Rakeback is paid daily, and tracking is live 24/7. Paynorake is on the action poker network so unfortunately US players are not able to play on there.

For more information and for a PaynoRake review, please visit PayNoRake Poker

I love to torture myself

Started the hand in 2nd chip position. ep big stack raise, i 3bet in mp with KK, folds around and he shoves. If for whatever reason I fold there I would have ended up in 4th chip position. So I called and end up against AA.

I own WPT seat bubbling

Another WPT seat bubble for me. Weird, I played like crap the first hour, just donking off my chips, not really into it. Was down to like 2000 chips (10,000 to start) after 15mins I think. After that poker got easy, and had the chip lead with 20 to go. Final table I kept losing to shorties and when 5 handed it got down to two big stacks and 3 smallish (12 bbs or less) stacks including myself. Eliminated 5th, AT > Q7. Now the 4th place guy kept surviving his allins, including J8 > AK. My downfall ended up being an $11k flip. 99 <>

Win a wpt seat one time! Only a month left.

The rest of my sunday tournies were crap. ipoker $2.5 million I was completely card dead. Went out in 500ish. Pokerroom $500k I was dominating, until I kept losing at the end just shy of the $. Same with the pokerroom $20k rehab.

Free 14g Poker Chips from Golden Palace

Free 14g Poker Chips from Golden Palace Casino

If it works, you get some cool looking chips + spam. If it doesn't work, you just get spam.

http://www.goldenpalace.com/flush/

United States is on the list of shippable countries, odd can't even play there. Though if I remember correctly I don't think Canadians can either.

"Please allow 2-6 weeks for delivery. Supplies are limited - available on a first come, first served basis."

lol I got slowrolled!

I open, blind raises leaving behind $954 at 1k/2k blinds, I raise on top. Dude then proceeds to time clock all the way down, then calls flipping up the rockets.

Stage #1253844479 Tourney ID 2055534 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $2000 - 2008-08-16 19:00:38 (ET)
Table: 16 (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 1 - PCH180 ($76357.92 in chips)
Seat 2 - ACTYPER ($82719.70 in chips)
Seat 3 - MERKER777 ($66815.48 in chips)
Seat 4 - BADBEETE ($23985.32 in chips)
Seat 5 - MINDISMAN ($38713.28 in chips)
Seat 7 - FRANKIEBUS ($25153.84 in chips)
Seat 8 - VIKESFAN353 ($13754.46 in chips)
PCH180 - Ante $200
ACTYPER - Ante $200
MERKER777 - Ante $200
BADBEETE - Ante $200
MINDISMAN - Ante $200
FRANKIEBUS - Ante $200
VIKESFAN353 - Ante $200
FRANKIEBUS - Posts small blind $1000
VIKESFAN353 - Posts big blind $2000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to ACTYPER [Ac Kd]
PCH180 - Folds
ACTYPER - Raises $5000 to $5000
MERKER777 - Folds
BADBEETE - Folds
MINDISMAN - Folds
FRANKIEBUS - Raises $23000 to $24000
VIKESFAN353 - Folds
ACTYPER - Raises $43000 to $48000
FRANKIEBUS - All-In $953.84
ACTYPER - returned ($23046.16) : not called
*** FLOP *** [10d Qc Jd]
*** TURN *** [10d Qc Jd] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [10d Qc Jd 8d] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACTYPER - Shows [Ac Kd] (Straight, ten to ace)
FRANKIEBUS - Shows [Ad Ah] (One pair, aces)
ACTYPER Collects $53307.68 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($53307.68)
Board [10d Qc Jd 8d 7c]
Seat 1: PCH180 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 2: ACTYPER won Total ($53307.68) HI:($53307.68) with Straight, ten to ace [Ac Kd - P:Ac,P:Kd,B:Qc,B:Jd,B:10d]
Seat 3: MERKER777 Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: BADBEETE Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 5: MINDISMAN (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 7: FRANKIEBUS (small blind) HI:lost with One pair, aces [Ad Ah - P:Ah,P:Ad,B:Qc,B:Jd,B:10d]
Seat 8: VIKESFAN353 (big blind) Folded on the POCKET CARDS

PWND!!!!!!!!!!

Don't slowroll, it's not nice!

Boo, just lost headsup. AA < JJ allin preflop. $1,310, not bad. 3 final tables this afternoon.

WPT Niagara 2008 North American Championships Satellite Information

The 2008 North American Poker Championships World Poker Tour event takes place once again this year at the Niagara Fallsview Resort October 10 - 16th, 2008. The buyin is $10,000 + $300. After promising to make this event bigger and improve the satellite system, Fallsview once again fails. Only the one main event, no super satellites, and the sng satellite system got worse with more juice!! I really hope one day a U.S. based casino (Harrahs/MGM/Wynn) invades Ontario) and teaches the Niagara group how to run a poker room.

So here is the live sattelite schedule for the 2008 WPT NAPC:

Step 1:
- $70 ($53 + $17), 24% fees/rake. Last year's Step 1 had 19% fees ($73 + $17).
- 1st place wins seat to $460 satellite. 2nd place gets replay in $70 satellite.
- 1000 chips, 10-minute levels.
- Casino Niagara only, Thursday - Sunday.
- Patience Factor 0!

Step 2:
- $460 ($418 + $42), 9% fees. Last year's Step 2 two-table format had 5% fees ($607 + $33).
- Top 3 gets seat to $1,240 Step Q satellite. 4th gets $460 replay.
- 2000 chips. Last year's Step 2 had 25% more starting chips at 2,500.
- 20-minute levels.
- Saturday at Casino Niagara, Sunday - Friday at Fallsview.
- Patience Factor = 2.7, Skill Level = 1.

Step A:
- $170 ($141 + $29), 17% fees. $290 in fees will be taken away from the players for every Step A satellite, or over 20% more than the $240 last year ($136 + $24).
- 1st place gets seat to $1,240 Step Q satellite. 2nd gets $170 replay.
- 1200 chips, 15-minute levels.
- Daily.
- Patience Factor = 1.3, Skill Level = 0.

Step Q:
- $1,240 ($1,154 + $86), 7% fees. $860 in fees will be taken away from the players for every Step Q satellite, which is a whopping 72% more than the $500 last year ($1150 + $50)!
- 1st place gets NAPC entry. 2nd place gets $1,240 replay.
- 3000 chips, 30-minute levels.
- Saturday (daily starting on October 1).
- Patience Factor = 6.2, Skill Level = 4.

You can phone 1-866-576-5375 for WPT information. Thanks to Buddy for the above info.

There are also some Online Satellites for the 2008 North American Poker Championships

Party Poker is offering a $13k package to the WPT Fallsview event. Every Sunday 2 packages are guaranteed, and the buyin is $650+40. Tues/Fri/Sun (speed) $75 freezeout subsatellites, and Mon/Wed/Sun $33 rebuy satellites to the $650. Many daily sub qualifiers starting at $1.

Cake Poker is offering a $12k package to the WPT North American Poker Championships. Every sunday at 8pm, For $215 you can win a seat. $40 on Sunday at 5:30 semis, + daily sub qualifiers from gold chips to $7 rebuys.

PokerRoom is offering a $15.5k package to the WPT Niagara event. Every Saturday at 22:00 CET a package is guaranteed, and the buyin is $540. Now this promotion is not called the Double Trouble promotion for no reason, 2nd and 3rd places will receive a $7k PokerNewsCup Australia package tournament that is happening around the same time as the WPT Canada event. Satellites occur daily, and are mostly rebuys other than the sng sats. Trust me, pokerroom will take good care of you if you qualify through them.

Back to Vegas & Free Cardrunners videos!

First, yes I am going back to Vegas, about a month since I left there. Won't be much poker play this time around (though there wasn't much last time either). Friend's wedding at the Bellagio, should be around 30 or us alltogether, so some good drunken times lie ahead. Me and my liver are ready.




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Got my $10k back :)

Not too bad of a comeback. Was about a bit under average when the $ bubble broke. After at one point got down to 1.5BB. A few double ups and some weird non calls, I was back up to a decent stack. With about 30 left I was amongst the chip leaders, and started the final table 2/10. Let some other guys battle it out, and stayed out of the path of the cl. Won some pots here and there, chip leads kept changing hands. Lost a bunch when my set was overturned by a river flush. Battled back and with 4 left was the chip leader 1.2 - 800k - 800k - 200k. Though I got lucky though as Ax > TT. A few double ups by the little stack and at one point, all of us were about even. 3/4 of us played pretty tough poker, resteals galore so chips were moving. 4th place was eliminated, can't remember the hand now. A bowed out when I tried a resteal with A4, but ran against 88. 4 on the turn, but blank river. Had a feeling I was going to have a nice score today, though in honesty I thought it would be in the 2million+ tourney on Pokerstars. KK < AA to an uber donk killed those dreams. Also played a €100k on Poker Heaven (Boss), which I dominated but just ran so bad late.

http://www.pokerroom.com/poker/tournaments/info/37731961/

My first Uber beat

Stage #1025854414: Holdem Normal $10/$20 - 2008-07-11 23:16:36 (ET)
Table: RAKOF AVE (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 4 - JOHNFRUGBY ($605.50 in chips)
Seat 5 - ACTYPER ($651 in chips)
Seat 6 - 1MOREFISH ($1235.97 in chips)
Seat 1 - JESSMPG ($420.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - HARDSHELL ($131.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - GRIMNOK ($86.50 in chips)
ACTYPER - Posts small blind $5
1MOREFISH - Posts big blind $10
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to ACTYPER [6h 5h]
JESSMPG - Raises $20 to $20
HARDSHELL - Calls $20
GRIMNOK - Folds
JOHNFRUGBY - Calls $20
ACTYPER - Calls $15
1MOREFISH - Calls $10
*** FLOP *** [9h 7h 10h]
ACTYPER - Bets $10
1MOREFISH - Calls $10
JESSMPG - Calls $10
HARDSHELL - Calls $10
JOHNFRUGBY - Calls $10
*** TURN *** [9h 7h 10h] [2s]
ACTYPER - Bets $20
1MOREFISH - Raises $40 to $40
JESSMPG - Calls $40
HARDSHELL - Folds
JOHNFRUGBY - Calls $40
ACTYPER - Calls $20
*** RIVER *** [9h 7h 10h 2s] [8h]
ACTYPER - Bets $20
1MOREFISH - Folds
JESSMPG - Calls $20
JOHNFRUGBY - Raises $40 to $40
ACTYPER - Raises $40 to $60
JESSMPG - Folds
JOHNFRUGBY - Raises $40 to $80
ACTYPER - Calls $20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JOHNFRUGBY - Shows [Jd Jh] (Straight flush, jack)
ACTYPER - Mucks
JOHNFRUGBY Collects $486.50 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($490) | Rake ($3) | Jackpot Rake ($0.50)
Board [9h 7h 10h 2s 8h]
Seat 1: JESSMPG Folded on the RIVER
Seat 2: HARDSHELL Folded on the TURN
Seat 3: GRIMNOK Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 4: JOHNFRUGBY (dealer) won Total ($486.50) HI:($486.50) with Straight flush, jack [Jd Jh - P:Jh,B:10h,B:9h,B:8h,B:7h]
Seat 5: ACTYPER (small blind) HI: [Mucked] [6h 5h]
Seat 6: 1MOREFISH (big blind) Folded on the RIVER