Busy Sunday

OK, the family decided to stay home this Sunday. So I got to play a bunch of poker.

First, I played in the $2,000 guaranteed tourney over at poker.com. I like this tourney as it starts at my normal waking hour, there's usually about a hundred something people so it doesn't take that long to finish and there's normally an overlay on the pot plus the buy in is $15 which is right down my comfort alley. So I make it a point to try and play this every Sunday.

Played good poker and finished 5th for a nice $160 win. Would have placed higher except this other guy spiked his gutshot straight to the river against my set of 5's. What can you do except to say nice hand. Here's hoping we meet again someday. =)

Then I tried to get a token over at Full Tilt playing one of those 2 Table SNGs. Was card dead most of the time. Tried to be patient but I think the best hand I got was a KQ off and I had to fold that with an Ace on the flop. Finally had to go all in when I was in the SB with an 8-3 bluff. BB thought about it for a while, he had me covered, so he called with his J2 off. And that was it for me.

Finally, for a change of pace, I decided to play a $1 buy-in 3 table Omaha tourney. My omaha experience is pretty much limited to playing some Greenroom freerolls over at Pokerroom using my excess points. But I guess my hold-em experience paid off, or maybe its because the buy in was only $1 and it was a haven for donkeys. Whatever the reason was, I placed first and I honestly was laughing with disbelief after the last hand was done.

Heheh, the winnings was not even significant. I win more placing 1st in a normal Holdem SNG. But you get a perverse sense of accomplishment winning something you don't normally play.

So overall, a pretty good Sunday. =D

Full Tilt Bonus

Did anybody else get some bonus dollars from Full Tilt ?

A few days ago, I received an email from Full Tilt stating that they had deposited $5 in my account. I have no idea what it was for. There was no explaination. It was just an email and the added $5 in my balance.

Yesterday, I received another email, this time for a $50 bonus offer that I have to play through in 14 days. My immediate response was it was one of those spam emails that tries to steal your password or some such con.

But it looked valid and when I accepted the offer, my bonus account immediately reflected the amount. I'm certainly not complaining as its a nice surprise. I just found it strange because Full Tilt in my experience has been one of the more stingy sites in terms of offering reload bonuses and such.

And I don't know if its a coincidence, my brother who plays over at Absolute, also got a $10 bonus. Their explaination was that it was given as some kind of support because he was no longer playing regularly.

Maybe the poker sites are checking their customer database and offering incentives to their non-USA customers as part of some marketing push. That would certainly be a good strategy considering everything that's happened to their USA customer base. And asian players would certainly welcome any move of this sort.

24

Non poker content coming up

I just recently started watching the TV series "24" in DVD and I have to say this show really rocks. There are so many twists and turns in each episode that you never know what to expect.

I can't stop watching. The writers of the show really know how to end each epsiode with a cliffhanger. I keep saying to myself "ok last na" and then when it ends I can't wait to find out what happens next and before I know it, I've watched for another hour. Damn !

My wife is also hooked and she doesn't even like those action adventure espionage type of movies. She being more of a romance soap opera type of TV watcher. So that says a lot about the quality of the show if my wife keeps bugging me to explain some of the more technical aspects of the events happening in the show.

This addiction to 24 has resulted in me not playing too much poker these days. I did manage to play in another Poker.com $2000 Guaranteed Tourney last Sunday. I placed 19th playing really bad poker and won $20. Considering that the buy-in was $15, it wasn't too big a deal. My play was disappointing, but I certainly can't complain as the only way I reached even that high was sucking out when I overplayed certain hands that shouldn't have even been played. (K-8 vs AK with an eight coming out, A-5 vs A-J with the 5 coming out).

That said, I've also been playing like a fish in the past few SNGs that I've played. Really impatient and willing to gamble on a coin toss even in the early stages. This has resulted in some quick losses that could have been easy ITMs.

I think it's time to reduce my poker bankroll since as per my judgement and the advice of others, there is no need to go to higher stakes. It's been well padded since the tourney wins in December and therefore I feel I am playing too loose since a loss doesn't really dent it. From experience, I play better with a limited amount and knowing that I can't afford a loss.

So it's something that I'll probably do. Financial wise, it's pretty much the same, since money that I take out from the site just goes into my bank account. But it gives me a different gaming mindset seeing your poker account balance everyday and knowing that you only have 20 to 30 buy ins instead of 60 to 80 which is its current level.

Now let's see if I'll still play that AJ preflop with a raise and a reraise all-in by 2 donkeys. =)

Poker Quote

"In the absence of any mathematical explanation, one thing is for certain; if you engage in games of chance long enough, the experience is bound to affect the way you see God. Successfully draw to an inside straight three hands in a row, and you’ve got to be blessed. But if you’re the person drawn out on, the one whose trip aces just got snapped for the third time, you will go home feeling cursed."

- from Poker Nation by Andy Bellin