Poker Time TOC

Today is the day I get back to the Jokers Casino and play the Tournament of Champions. I am excited even though I am still not feeling great but anxious to go out and see what my thought process is for playing a live tournament again.

I spent some time today watching Daniel N. play on PokerStars and get my mind focused on what I need to do. When 5:30 rolled around I was ready to go. I drove down to the Casino and paid the entry fee and now I wait for the start.

We had two tables at the start. I started with T$3500. It was nice to get back with the group and mix it up again. Seat 3 seems to have my number and was reading me very well. He could tell me everytime what cards I had in my hand. I decided to change it up a bit and play a junk hand and go all the way to the end with it so I could show the cards. I got 78o and called with this hand. I had seat 4 call me and we ended up playing to the end but I came up with a straight and he had AA. I was able to show the hand at least and throw Seat 3 off a little bit.

I made it to the final table tonight. For being off 3 weeks this is a pretty good showing. I finally went out in 5th place on the money bubble. I hate when that happens. I had KK and I raised and got two callers. After the flop I figured I was still ahead and went all-in and was called by the other two. I showed the KK and the other guy showed 44 and the third was Ax. In the end the 44 had a full house and I had a K high Flush. Wow, I was out of the tournament in 5th place.

I have ideas of how to correct this play. I will work on this on the next tournament I play. Remember the guy in seat 3? I had him guessing at the final table. I was able to semi bluff and won the pot. He was talking to himself during the hand. " He doesn't bluff." You keep thinking that.

Now the new week is here and I will probably get back to some online play at FT and PS. I am entered into a invitation only tournament on PokerStars on February 14. This should be fun. This is by invitation by Jonathan Little. I have been learning online play from him by watching videos of him teaching while playing. Some of this is rolling off onto my live play as well.

Hope you have a good week.

Day of Rest

We have now come upon the weekend. Most people will now use this time to rest and get themselves ready for the next week. You have to recharge those internal batteries to keep doing what we do. Don't you feel like you are in a rat race? Work your 40+ hours per week and then get ready to do it again. What do we achieve by doing this? Money? Fame? Retirement? What happens to those years when you are doing this that you could be enjoying family and seeing sights? Need money? We try to pack as much stuff as we can into our lives. It is called possessions. Got to fill up the garage, the house, the extra rooms and for what? When is enough enough? When do you ask that question what am I doing and is this worth it? Got to have money? How much is enough? I keep hearing what do you want for retirement? I would like a million dollars in retirement. Do you think you can actually get there? Will it be enough? What if you don't make it to retirement because the last I heard nothing is guaranteed? Now what do you do? I would go back and Rest and Relax because we all have to do it again on Monday.

Today I went out and walked around the block. It was nice to get out of the house.

I really enjoy the single and MTT's and am trying to get myself to play more HU stuff. I think I can build the BR better with HU than with the others.

Way to go JB on your WSOP place this past week. Placing 59th was fantastic. Your first cash. I bet that was a nice vacation for you.

Let's start playing

I have spent the last week either in bed or in the hospital having surgery and have been trying to recoup and rest.

I waited til tonight to get started with playing poker with somewhat of a clearer mind than the last few days. I play on FT and PS and will go back and forth depending on where I want to play. I will usually play in the $2 HU or the SnG's. I have spent a lot of time going over Heads up play from HeadsUpPro and watching the videos from Jonathan Little. I have a hard time staying with one type of play. Oh, and I do play live at the local Casino. In fact I am supposed to play in the Tournament of Champions on Sunday. I won a monthly tournament which allows me to play with all of the other champions. This is my fourth month in a row playing in this tournament which means I have won a tournament in each of the past months. I am hoping not to miss this one.

Tonight I played in three tournaments. The first was a 9 player SnG and I went out in 7th by playing way to aggressive to start out. I know better than that but that was my first tournament in over a week. The second one was a HU tournament and I won that one. The player was overly aggressive and I just waited to get some good cards and won it real early on. The third one was a 27 player SnG and I worked it down to getting in 6th place. On the bubble of getting paid for the tournament. Talk about not getting cards and trying to play position was not working either. I did something right by getting down to the bubble but couldn't pull off the double up I needed.

I am a person that is a Type 2 Diabetic and I just started on the Insulin Pump over a week ago. I was diagnosed in 2001. My doctor was suprised I moved so fast with this process. Of course this runs in my family.

Hopefully I can keep you up to date on my play and trying to build my bankroll. I will usually play 1 to 3 games a night if I can. I will let you know how I am doing with my diabetes. For me it is a way of life and I don't put myself down for having this disease.

I may even talk about my work life a little bit. I work on computers all day. I have been working on my A+ Certification. Maybe some day I can take the test and get it done.

I am back

I am still here and have been very busy with work, parents, poker, family and one of the items I was unable to squeeze in was more time with my blog writing. I will try this again. I may not write every day and may put this on a schedule so you get updated every other day. I do keep twitter and facebook updated due to family and my poker playing.