Happy New Year!!!
Just wanted to have one last post of 2008. The year ended on a good note for me!!! I went by the casino last night to play a little bit in a cash game and left the table being up $6300 so that was a nice year end bonus for me. Surprisingly the casino was packed, I was expecting it to be pretty empty since it was the night of Dec.30th but people were playing poker, blackjack, roulette, etc. all night long. I guess with the global economic crisis people are looking to get some easy money at casino’s. Unfortunately in my opinion that only leads to loosing more money then you started out with unless your playing poker. The games that are against the house just aren’t for me. Well anyway hope everyone has a great and happy New Year and I will post right after my celebration has ended 
Posted by Jared on 31. 12. 2008 in Cash Game Poker. And No Comments .
Some Time Off For The Holidays…
Hey everyone. Been taking it easy this week due to spending Christmas with the family and New Year’s coming up but got a call from my friend last week with a pleasant surprise. He isn’t that much of a player and basically just does it for fun to pass the time while he is at work but ended up winning a seat for the PokerStars Sunday Million game. There were a little over 8 thousand players registered into the tourney so a pretty decent amount of competition. My friend ended up getting 7th place and winning either close to or just over 28k. I am very happy for him as this doesn’t happen often where he would win a pretty decent amount of money so my only advice to him was not to get dragged into the gambling scene too deep now that he has won. In the long run skill comes into play but it also shows us that there is always a chance for a rookie to get lucky and win big once in a while. So at the end of the day any player sitting at the table has a chance and it all comes down to the cards that come out on the table. Hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and wish you all a very Happy New Year. I should be back to playing by the end of this upcoming week so look for more posts about my poker adventures.
Posted by Jared on 29. 12. 2008 in Tournament Play. And No Comments .
No Rakeback On PokerStars…
Hey guys. Having a pretty good run in the sit n go tournaments on PokerStars lately. In the past couple of months won a decent amount of money which was much needed since Christmas is coming up and the economy being in a slump. The only thing that I dont like with PokerStars is that they do not offer rakeback at all. That is the only reason I play in other rooms like Fulltilt and Cake Poker. In my opinion PokerStars should really consider having a rakeback program for their players or the rest of the poker rooms will catch up to them eventually because everyone likes free money and thats basically what rakeback is. I am signed up to Fulltilt through Rakebrain.com and have enjoyed some cool perks from them for having a membership. Aside from getting my rake money returned to me on a monthly basis without any problems I was enrolled in a couple of freerolls and participated in some rake-races even thoe I havent won one yet. I think that is pretty awesome, having the chance so win a few hundred $ for free just because you play with a rakeback program. Its not like you wouldnt be playing on the regular if you didnt have one but it is that much sweeter when you get some free stuff because lets face it everyone likes free things. So my point is basically to reach out to PokerStars to finally make rakeback available for their players. Feel free to comment your thoughts on this
Posted by Jared on 18. 12. 2008 in Rakeback. And No Comments .
One Hand Makes The Difference…
Did anyone notice that in every tournament you play there is always one hand during the night which either makes you or breaks you. I was playing over the weekend and was sitting pretty from the get go. My bluffs were going well the whole night and the times when people were calling my bets I most often had the nutts. When there was only 11 of us left I was chip leading with a 40,000 stack. That’s when the dreaded hand came that changed the whole night around. I had AJ suited sitting in early position so I raised 4 times the big blind to get people out of the hand and make sure I only get called by strong hands. Small blind called my raise and flop came out A,2,8 of all different suits. Small blind checked and I put him all-in for about 12,000 more. He called me and turned up J 10??? Now honestly I dont understand that move at all but turn and river came out 9 and Q giving him a straight. That left me with a little over 20,000 with blinds being 800-1600. A few hand after that I had QQ and after a raise went all-in pre flop and was called by AK. Ofcourse with my luck 2 Kings came out on the flop and just like that in 2 hand I was out of the game one shy of the final table. So it always comes down to one hand, this time it was the AJ one which if won by me I would just hang out till there’s 3 players left but instead took me out of the game in 5 minutes.
Posted by Jared on 15. 12. 2008 in Tournament Play. And No Comments .
What a comeback!!!
Hello,
Took down a 50 player tourney yesterday after being almost out of chips 2 hours into the game. Started of with 2000 chips and was sitting back for the first hour getting some horrid hands that arent even worth waisting the blinds on. Then the cards started coming in but my luck was still missing. Lost a couple of big hands after flopping a full house one time and then my opponent catching a higher full on the river. Then picked up a King high spade flush on the turn went all in and was called by pocket aces, one of them being an Ace of spades. River came out another spade and that brought me down to 450 chips with blinds beign 150/300. At this point I though my night was over until I got moved to another table. I got a little lucky I must admit, getting dealt KK 3 times in a row which was followed by JJ. Got called all-in on all four hands and won so in a matter of 10 minutes my stack was over 8000. Now that I had a decent stack I started playing my game and by the time there were 2 tables left I was chip-leading with close to 30,000. Once we moved to the final table my stack was still at near 30,000 but very soon I took control of the game. Knocked out 4 out of 9 other players at the table and when it was time for heads up I had 2 1/2 times the stack of the opposing player. One on One play didnt last too long as I was faced with an all-in just after a few hands. Having A,3 of hearts I gave it a go and was up againt 9,8 of hearts. Neither one of us caught anything on board so the final hand was kind of plain but the important thing is that I got the win under my belt and proved that you are never out of the game untill you have actually lost.
Posted by Jared on 08. 12. 2008 in Tournament Play. And No Comments .
Talk about a bad beat…
Hi everyone. So last night I was playing a small $250 no limit freezeout hold-em tournament at the casino. There were 102 players so 1st prize was pretty decent. Everyone started the game with 3000 worth of chips and blinds being 10/20. At the beggining I lost a few hands right away and went as low as 1100 but then picked up a few big pots and started building up my chip stack. Got lucky a few times by pulling off big bluffs and in no time I was one of the leaders. By the time the blind level was 300/600 there were 24 players left. My chip stack was close to 30,000 with the average being a little over 12,000 so I was sitting pretty and was just going to ride it out to the final table. Too bad lady luck didn’t have the same in store for me. I was in big blind and got 7, 5 off suit, the next 2 people just called one of them being the chip leader and the small blind folded. Flop came out 4,6,8 all different suits. Since I flopped the nutts with no flush draws on board I simply checked and got what I wanted from the other 2 players in the hand. The guy after me raised 2500 and the chip leader re-raised to 14,000. After thinking for a minute I made a right read and put the big chip stack on a set which he would most likely not fold to any bet so I moved all-in wanting a call. The guy after me folded and the chip leader called. After we flipped out cards I was right, he had pocket 6’s in the hole meaning flopped a set of 6’s going against my nut straight so I was feeling very comfortable and was ready to take over my opponents position of being the chip leader of the tournament. Thats where the worst possible turn and river cards came out. He caught runner Aces to give him a full house and just like that I was out 24th. I don’t blame him because its hard to throw out a set with that flop and after all I wanted a call but didnt go my way at the end. Guess that’s just poker…
Posted by Jared on 05. 12. 2008 in Tournament Play. And 1 Comment .