Live Blog of 18:15 CST Stars $11 1R1A

Well, since I haven't blogged in a while I thought I might pick up here on hour two of what has become one of my favorite tournaments, even though I've only played it twice. I still never blogged about the first time I played it, when I took 23rd out of 837, and would like to sometime, but I figured I'll move forward with this blog for some prosperity.

Beginning of hour 2, approx. 7:20 CST. Made it through the first hour with 9590 + the 4k addon. I'm into it for the original $11 buyin + $10 addon.

7:20: Average is around my pre-addon stack, so I'm above average with my 13590. Lost almost 2k on first hand of hour 2. W/K7o in the BB, blind is min-raised in the SB to $300. I figure everyone else will call, so I call for the discount. Flop comes 5c 8 6c and I flop about as good as I can expect. SB bets 500, I call, folds around to LP, who bumps to 1.5k, SB calls and I call. Turn is non-club 10. Check, check, 5k bet, all-in, and I fold. LP shows a set of 5s and SB goes home.

7:32: Blinds 75/150 still, I raise to 450 UTG w/JJ. With a monster or no respect of the UTG raise, player two seats later makes it 1250, and it folds around to me and I fold. I hate Jacks. My stack and chip average @ 11k.

7:41: QQ UTG. Raise 3x to 600, folds around.

7:42: Very next hand UTG again, I pick up KK and have an opportunity to get it all-in and end up with a helluva sweat. This guy was table captain and on a SERIOUS heater and I managed to snap it off. 38th out of 634 remaining.

7:53: 55 in the big blind. One caller and I check. Flop comes 3 8 10. I fire 725 into the 850 pot and get called. Turn J. I check to see where he's at. Checks behind, and I put him on a draw or a hand he doesn't love. River blank and I fire 1300 into 2300 pot. He calls and shows K8o. Ick. Not sure how he can make that call, but I'm sure I played it bad.

7:57: Try to make a position play w/Q2c. Raise to 800 in the cutoff and button and BB call. Flop comes A-high, all diamonds. BB checks, I fire 1500 into 2k pot, button calls again. I check-fold the river.

8:00: Call in mid-position w/AJo. Flop comes K-high rainbow. I fire 900 into 1200 pot, button calls. Turn 6. I fire 1300 into 2300 pot, button calls. Have to check the river again, button checks and takes down the pot w/AQo. What am I doing wrong here?? Down to 16k, w/average @ 14k.

8:05: Limp into 6-way pot w/88 from the button. Flop 694. UTG bets 500. Folds around to me and I pop to 1500. UTG calls. Turn 9. Check to me and I bet 3500. UTG folds for once. For the record, UTG is the one that doubled me up earlier and the one that just made 2 hero calls in the last hand. He is officially my nemesis. Up to 18950.

8:11: AKo UTG+1. Raise to 1k w/blinds @ 150/300/25. Nemesis calls. A-high flop. I bet, nemesis min-raise, I jam...quick. WindBreaker 3 - Nemesis 1. And the Stars setup hand goes my way! Currently 38k & 14th/483.

8:25: Second Break. Currently 36,450, 25th/447, & big stack @ my table by ~10k. Avg. 16,921. Blinds going to 200/400/50, with me in the small.

8:35: Limp w/55 UTG. UTG+1 pops to 1200. SB call so I call. Flop 7 10 4. SB check, I bet 4250 into 4450 pot. 2 folds and I drag the pot. Then scoop blinds on next hand.

8:45: Nemesis eliminated when his A9 can't beat AK on an A-high flop. Too bad I didn't get him.

8:51: Up to 41,400 after a little scoopage. THIS HAND is my favorite.

8:53: AKo in 600 chip BB. Blinds @ 300/600/50, I call a raise to 1600 from a player who has shown loose tendencies. Flop comes 10 J 4. He bets 3k into 3950 pot. I make the CR to 9650. He tanks for a while & folds. Who is this masked marauder playing my screenname check-raising with air?! Up to 46,100 & 31/309 w/avg. @ 25k.

9:01: I have been and currently am @ Table 77. A little luck from my brother's old football number??

9:12: Mini-blowup. Find 22 in MP and limp w/it and see a 10 Q Q flop 4-ways. Three checks, and I fire 2850 into the 3875 pot. SB & BB fold, and EP calls. Turn 7 and EP checks to me. I fire 6k and he calls again. River 6, he bets somewhere North of 7k and I have to fold. He probably had a 10 the whole way or just as easily could have been slow-playing a Q. But I had to get caught one of these times. 35k left. Blinds headed to 500/1000/100 and I'm due a trip through the blinds.

9:16: Unfortunately, my table is very well stacked. Shortest stack is 14k and biggest is 54k, so no shortys to pick off and nobody desperate to get chips in the middle. What are the chances table is due to break? Anyway, gonna lock it up a little and hope for some good hands and see what happens as we approach the bubble.

9:19: So much for locking it up. Folds to me in Cutoff-1 and I open for 3775. Cutoff jams 16k and I have to let it go. 28,900 w/avg @ 33k.

9:22: I lied about bubble approaching. I guess we pay 117. I thought it was 171. Still got a LONG ways to go.

9:24: Woo PokerStars glitch! Got to skip my small blind when guy on my right busted!

9:28: Pick up 88 in UTG+2 & make it 4400 to go after 1 limper. Table big stack jams. I call and he shows QQ. I'm not sure why I called. He hadn't shown any play too far out of line, but I just thought the jam was a funny play and he was trying to scoop with a big ace, and I was willing to flip coins for the table chip lead. Horrible call in hindsight, obv, but I still would've had 25 BBs behind and approaching the 3rd break if I can fold, so its an EASY fold. This is why I don't win tournaments. All that promising play and I end up pissing it down my leg with one terrible play. I get this mindset that I'm being attacked and/or I'm due, and logic just completely escapes me.

To add insult to injury, table immediately breaks. Final verdict...208th out of 1035. I do love this tournament, though, and feel like it gives me the best opportunity to get that breakthrough win. I just wish I could avoid that bombshell mistake that always directly or indirectly shows me to the rail.

Well, here I am on the brink of my week off to spend at home and toil away the days in front of the laptop, and my bankroll is crap and I haven't been running too terribly hot. Guess I'd better hit the SNGs and see if I can get things turned around.

How to Bust a Blogger Freeroll in 29 Hands

I'm steaming so bad right now its freakin' ridiculous.

Hand 3
I probably could've played this better, but its early. Considering he was on a draw, I thought I played it pretty well. God forbid Stars let me live on the river.

Hand 5
I win some back, yay!

Hand 6
I get a little feisty protecting my blind/trying to scoop the sit out big blind, but this guy has to have a hand here. Why do they have a hand every damn time I make a move?!

Hand 8
Flop a flush draw and position myself to win a big pot...but can't get there. I admit, I made a terrible call on the turn, but it was early and I was OK with it.

Hand 10
I'm already steaming a little and decide to call a cheap all-in with suited gappers, hoping nobody raises to isolate. This guy had just lost most of his stack on the previous hand, and what are the chances that he wakes up with JJ-AA, so at worst I'm 70/30, and most likely I'm 40%. So everybody cooperates, I out turn him, and of course he doubles on the river.

Hand 13, I move to another table.

Hand 18, I limp UTG w/ATd, flop comes QQ6, three checks, turn 9, BB checks, I bet 60 into 90 pot, BB calls, river 8, we check, BB shows 9J for the win.

Hand 20
I felt like I made a really good play here preflop, reraising the button raiser to see where he's at. I then proceed to butcher my chance at a flop play, and he turns the 2-outer. Admittedly I'll probably make that weak play on the flop every time, but I feel like more often than not it saves me money. Of course the 2-outer on the turn is a kick in the stones.

Now...drumroll please. Hand 29
I get a potentially cheap look at a flop and don't hate the king. I want to make sure I know where I'm at, so I bet the flop so I can get away ASAP if need be. I'm good with the big blind's call here. Now to see if I'm *really* winning the hand I make sure to bet the turn, too, and he jams. Now NOT FOR A SECOND did I think I was beat here. I don't know if it was timing or the way he played the hand up to this point, but I was positive the 5 sealed the deal for me on the turn. So I called pretty quickly and he's dead to six outs.

...and proceeds to hit it. GG me. 458th/559. Honestly, I can't believe I outlasted 100 people. Incidentally, Twitter tells me Pauly was one of those people, going out in 545th with a set of 7s vs. a Q6 flush draw. Quite ugly in its own right.

Anyway...*that*, my friends, is a conscise lesson on how to bust a blogger freeroll before dinnertime.

After taking 2-3 weeks off because of holiday and focusing on selling/buying a house, I have been running like this ever since I picked the laptop up on Saturday. It feels like summer 2006 to summer 2007 all over again. Bankroll is getting scarce again, so I'm in lockdown mode to try and recover. I was really excited to play this tourney tonight, but obviously Stars had other plans for me. Don't think I'll probably get to play in any of the others, so this is probably the abrupt beginning and end of my WBCOOP 2008.

Hope things are treating everyone else better!

WBCOOP - Count Me In!

Its that time of year again. This is AWESOME that PokerStars does this for bloggers. Just really really cool.

I was actually a little bit scared that it wasn't going to happen this year, because as I recall last year it was a lot closer to, if not affiliated with, the WCOOP. Now weather my pea brain just doesn't remember that right or its just different this year, it doesn't really matter, cuz its on.

It does look a little different this year in that instead of just one big tourney there's a series of freerolls and a Final. Pretty sweet.

So join the club!

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: 510155