Adventures of Merchdawg

Drive across the US and catching up

2010-05-23T17:41:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I have got an update out, so this one will probably be a bit long.

To get started I managed to get my car in the shop and repaired before the main part of my summer trip. The guys at the dealership even managed to get my car across the street and get the oil changed so that I could get started back on my trip on time. Friday, May 14th, came and I got back on the road around 9. The weather was just a little rainy but it didn’t stop me from getting into Indiana in the early afternoon.

The next week was a little rough, with it being the one year anniversary of my Dad passing away. I got around and saw all my family up there and pretty much all of my friends. It was great to see everyone again, and without all their support I wouldn’t have made it through the week. Dad was a great man and he molded me into the man that I am today. Without his guidance in my life I would not be who I am and for that I will always be grateful.

Before I knew it the 21st of May came and I started my drive across the US. My plan for the first day was to get to Tulsa Oklahoma. I managed to get a little over a hour farther on day on and got into Oklahoma City before stopping for the night. After getting my hotel room for the night and some dinner I was off to sleep so that I could get back at it in the morning.

Day twos plans were to get to Alberquque, New Mexico, but since I had drove a little father the night before I changed the plans to at least make it to Arizona. After crossing the Arizona border with plenty of sunlight left in the day I decided that Flagstaff would be the new goal for the night. I would have made it had the weather not been so bad that the state had to close a portion of interstate 40 due to high winds and low visibility from the dust. After a minor detour I got a hotel room, and dinner for the night then headed to bed.

Day three came and saw me crossing over the Hoover Dam and arriving into Las Vegas. Since it was still before noon when I got to the dam I decided to stop and to a little sight seeing. Pictures do no justice to the Hoover Dam. I was amazed by the sheer size and beauty of the dam and surrounding area. Definitely happy about stopping for about a hour to do the tourist thing.

After the short stop I finished my drive into Vegas and have been getting settled into my suite here at the Rio. This will be my home for the next four nights, and then we move into the house. I think the rest of the day will be spent relaxing a bit, maybe some poker in the evening, some dinner, and then get some sleep. Gotta start getting my sleep cycle changed to it being 3 hours behind where I was just 3 days ago.

The next few days, weeks, and months will have many first and new things for me to experience. I can’t wait to not only experience them, but also document them here for me to look back on later down the road. Enjoy the pictures that I have taken over the past few days.

Until next time.

Beach Trip with family

2010-05-03T22:10:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was a good relaxing first weekend of my trip. My brother and his family took me down to Panama City Beach Florida for the weekend, well it was more of a trip for the kids that I was privileged enough to get to join. We left Friday afternoon after my sister-in-law and brother got off work. It was rather stormy all the way into town but we finally made it in around 8 local time (central standard time). We all got to bed early so that we could get to the beach in the morning.

The weather come morning was not wet but it was rather windy and overcast. We made the best of it and headed down to the beach. It was great to just sit in the sand and watch the waves come in, plus getting to play in the sand with my wonderful niece and nephew. After some fun on the beach we headed back to the condo to each lunch and play in the pool for a while (the ocean was just a bit too rough for the kids to play in the water). After some afternoon naps we decided to head down to Pier Park to do some shopping, play on the carnival rides, and get something to eat. All in all we had a great day just relaxing and having some fun.

Sunday we packed up and headed back home. Once home me and my niece and nephew played outside with the bubble guns before getting cleaned up and heading to bed. We were all worn out after an action packed weekend.

Today was just another relaxing day for me. I slept in a bit then headed out to the store to pick up some things to make for dinner. I had dinner ready for my brother and sister-in-law when they got home from work. Tomorrow will be my last full day, plans are to get things packed up so I can leave and head up to my brothers for his graduation weekend, and then hopefully head out to see my nephew play in his t-ball game (as long as the weather cooperates).

Until tomorrow,

Merch

Another relaxing day

2010-04-29T22:21:00.000-05:00

Another good day to help get this trip back onto a good start. Had lunch with my sister-in-law then went and found some good deals at the mall. After that I just relaxed the rest of the afternoon until my niece got home and I played some games with her for a little while. Dinner was had with a good friend down here in south Georgia and her soon to be husband. It’s always good to see good friends when you are in town.

Tomorrow me, my twin brother, my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew will be heading down to Panama City Beach for the weekend. I haven’t been down to PCB since I lived down here, has to be at least 10 years ago. I am looking forward to some quality beach time with family and am going to shut off all electronic devices until we get back home Sunday afternoon. This means I will not be putting out any blog updates until Sunday night.

Until then,

Merch

Day two, estimates and time with friends.

2010-04-28T21:38:00.002-05:00

Day two was definitely better than day one, didn’t have to talk with any cops and didn’t have any more fender benders. I did go and get estimates on the damage I suffered yesterday and got all that paperwork up to my insurance agent this afternoon. Now I just have to wait to hear from the ladies insurance company so that I can submit the claim. Hopefully I can get everything taken care and get repairs done in two weeks when I am home for a couple of day before starting phase two of the trip.

Here is my planned itinerary for the entire trip. Of course the dates are always subject to change:

April 28 - Arrive in Leesburg GA. Leave May 5th. (Going to Panama City Beach for the weekend).
May 5 - Arrive in Sharpsburg GA. Leave May 12th.
May 12 - Arrive in Hilham TN. Leave May 14th.
May 14 - Arrive in Yorktown IN. Leave May 21st.
May 21 - 8-12 hour drive to somewhere around Tulsa OK.
May 22 - 8-12 hour drive to somewhere around Albuquerque NM.
May 23 - 6-10 hour drive to the Rio casino and resort. Checking out on the 27th.
May 27 - moving into out house for the next 6 weeks. Moving out on July 7th.
July 7th - moving into Rio casino and resort. Leave Vegas on the 18th of july.
July 18th - Arrive in Lake Tahoe. Staying for 2 days.
July 21 - Arrive in San Fransico. Staying for 3 days.
July 24 - Arrive in Los Angeles. Stay for 3 days.
July 27 - Start heading back east. Stop at Flagstaff AZ.
July 28 - Visit four corners and continue east. Stop at Mesquite TX for 2 days.
July 29 - Arrive in Tyler TX. Staying for about a week till August 3rd.
August 3 - Arrive back home in TN.

If I am going to be passing through where you live and you would like to meet up just send me a message or just leave a comment and I will get with you.

Until tomorrow,

Merch

Summer Trip Day One

2010-04-27T20:43:00.001-05:00

Today was the first day of my summer road trip. I drove from my house in Tennessee down to my twin brothers in south Georgia, which is where I will be at for the next week.

I got everything packed up yesterday afternoon and got on the road this morning around 1000 EST. I decided to stop and get some lunch around noon and then stopped to top off my fuel after lunch. I am sitting there waiting for a lady in a Xterra to pull out so that I can pull up to the pump. Well she decided that she would rather back up, and she also decided not to look before backing up. That means that she backs straight into my brand new car that I just made the first payment on the day before. Of course her car didn’t sustain any damage but my car now has a bumper with a slight dent and a cracked grill.

Not really how I wanted to start my trip, hopefully it isn’t a sign of things to come. Tomorrow will now be spent going out and getting some estimates on what it is going to cost to get repaired and then getting all the paperwork to my insurance agent so that she can handle dealing with her insurance company for me.

Until tomorrow,

Merch

Here are some pics of the damage:

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 3 & Trip Recap)

2009-08-22T11:34:00.000-05:00

        Well, I got home early afternoon yesterday, and really wish I could have stayed a bit longer. I really enjoyed my stay at the hotel and gained some more experience with live poker. My hotel room was exactly as described and had everything that I needed for a good nights sleep (except for the thin walls that allowed me to hear the loud discussion/arguement in the room next to mine at 1 in the morning, but that was resolved with a call to the desk and they sent security up to ask them to quiet it down). My biggest gripe about the hotel room was having to pay for internet and wireless not being available, come on folks get with the program here and upgrade your systems and give us free wireless internet. The only other issue I had was the long walk to the casino from the hotel, even though they have a golf cart shuttle that you can use if you wish it still takes a good 10 mins to walk to the casino from your hotel room. Not much can be done about this but if I were to have the choice between this casino/hotel to another one with a shorter walk I would be inclined to say that I would take the other one.

        On day 3 of my trip (Thursday) I played my 2nd tourney of the trip. The tourney didn't go as well as I would have liked it to. Late in the first hour I was in the BB with AK and got raised by the CO (who had just been involved in a hand where his TT got beat). I re-raised him to 1200 and he shoved his stack which made it ~1k to call. I made the call and was not able to beat his 77. The very next hand I picked up AJs and shoved into the blinds and a few limpers. I got called by a guy with 44 and managed to flop a broadway draw and turned the broadway. Leading up to the 1st break (end of 2nd hour) I didn't get very many cards and didn't pick up many chips. Just before the break I was in the BB with 64 of diamonds. It limped around to me and I checked. The flop came 8 high with 2 diamonds and a 6 on the board. I had ~2k and there was ~800 in the pot, so I shoved my middle pair and flush draw. I get called by and everyone else folds. I flip over my middle pair and am ahead at the moment but he flips over AQ of diamonds so he has my flush draw beat. Well a diamond came on the turn and I was sent to the rail with a bitter taste in my mouth (nice over call with your naked flush draw, this isn't the internet).

        My next trip up will probably be in late October for the WSOP-c event that is being held up there. Hopefully I will have more luck in the tourneys I decide to play than I did in these. Also I hope to have more funds to play more cash games than I was able to this trip since they were rather juicy and as weak as a $0.01/$0.02 table on PS.

Until the next update,

Merch

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 2)

2009-08-20T00:09:00.000-05:00

        Today started out with me sleeping in and just getting some good peaceful sleep in my hotel room. I decided to run into town (New Albany) to pick up some lunch and some things for me to eat for breakfast for the next few days. The drive was not as bad as I was expecting it. I did however miss my turn that was to take me to Wal-mart but still managed to get to Kroger. There is nothing surrounding the casino/hotel to go get food or anything like that besides the shops and restaurants within the casino/hotel. There is a gas station as well as a waffle house within 10 mins of the casino and not too far away from the nearest hotel (Holiday Inn Express), and the Kroger or Walmart are only about a 15-20 min drive away.

        Once I made it back from the grocery I ate my lunch and then headed down to the casino for some slot play. I found a $0.01 machine that I played on for about a hour and ended up being down $10. I went back to my room for a little rest and relaxation before heading back down later on in the night. I went back to the same machine and played for almost 2 hours and managed to gain a daily profit of $24, of which I gave back to the machine later in the night. It was a fun day though that resulted in me breaking even for the day and just enjoying a slow and relaxing day.

        Tomorrow brings a new day and a new tourney for me. I will be getting to bed shortly so that I will be rested up for my noon start of my tourney.

Until the next update,

Merch

Horseshoe Southern Indiana (Day 1)

2009-08-18T20:15:00.000-05:00

        I got to the casino/hotel today at around 11:00 a.m. EST. I proceeded directly to the casino and got registered for the two events that I am going to play while I am here. After registering for my tourneys I inquired about getting checked into the hotel early. I was told to call up to the front desk and see if they could get me in for early check-in. I called up and they said they have a room available. I then went and moved my car closer to the hotel room area. I went in and got checked into my room and then moved my stuff into the room for my stay. Once I finally got everything moved up to my room I got everything arranged and situated for my stay, then I got into the shower and decided to take a quick nap before my tourney started. I also ate some lunch in my room so that I would not be distracted by any hunger pains during my tournament play.

        I got down to the poker room a little before 3 (start time of my tourney). I found my seat and got comfortable and check my starting stack amount. This was a $245 Bounty tourney (Event #5 of the 1st Annual S. Indiana Horseshoe Classic), that had $200 go to the prize pool, $35 to the house, and $10 towards a bounty on your head. About the 3rd hand I got in with AJo, and didn’t flop anything but turned a Jack. I lead out and got one caller, another blank came out on the river and once again I lead out and my only opponent folded and I took down a small pot to get myself going. The rest of the first hour was pretty quiet with me folding more than playing the hand. I did manage to get a bounty late in the 2nd hour when I raised from LP with 77 into a short small blind. He shoved and everyone folded back to me. It was very little for me make the call and I did so, my opponent flipped over AJ and I managed to dodge his outs to knock him out and collect his $10 Bounty chip.

        I managed to pick up another bounty when I had AQ and raised it up from middle position. One of the short stacks shoved and it folded back to me. I made the called and my opponent shoved Qx. The flop came QQx, turn was another blank, and the river was an Ace. Ship the $10 bounty chip. Towards the end of the 4th hour I was getting short and was not getting any hands. I looked at the first card that was dealt to me on the button and it was an Ace, I didn’t even look at my 2nd card. A very loose player limped in from EP and I shoved all in. He thought for a moment and finally called. I flipped over my 2nd card first, it was a Jack. My opponent flipped over A9 and my unsuited AJ held for a much needed double up.

        When we came back from the break I was once again under 10 BBs. I got AK and shoved into an early position raise, it folded back to him and he folded giving me the antes and blinds. Not too long after I got moved to another table and was dealt KQ in the BB. A player had raised it up in Middle Position and I was sitting with 7 BBs, I shoved into him and he called with KK. I didn’t flop any draws and the turn card brought me nothing but an end to my day. I finished 22nd out of 97 entrants, with the tourney paying top 9.

        I felt that I played pretty good today and got some more experience playing live. Hopefully on Thursday I will be able to build on this experience and get a final table (which will more than likely mean a cash) and hopefully a win.

        All in all I have enjoyed my first day here at the Horseshoe in Southern Indiana. Tomorrow I am going to go into Louisville and meet up with a high school buddy for some drinks and to just hang out and relax some more. I might get some more play in tonight or maybe tomorrow. Just determines on how I feel.

Until the next update,

Merch

Haven't been playing

2009-06-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

I have taken about a 2 week break, will probably be a bit longer one from playing due to current personal reasons. This is actually a good thing since I needed a break and it will hopefully give me a fresh outlook whenever I do get back.

Poker Playing and a Poker CoPilot Review

2009-03-06T17:21:00.000-06:00

Play has been going steadily since the last post. The roller coaster has continued but it seems to be making a change as of change. The last week has seen some profits coming in rather than losses going out or just breaking even. This has part to do with recent reviewing of videos on stoxpoker along with the recent addition of a program called Poker CoPilot. Poker CoPilot is a poker tracking program similar to poker tracker 3 or hold’em manager. The biggest difference is that Poker CoPilot is the only program that is built to run on a Mac computer of the three and the only program out there that has a Heads-Up Display (HUD). I will do a review about the program towards the end of the blog.

The videos I have been reviewing on Stoxpoker are produced by James “splitsuit” Sweeney. He has 2 different series that focus on ring games. I started with his first series that took me back to the basics. It was helpful in clearing some questions that I might have had, as well as helping me with ranging my opponents a bit more. I am almost done with this series and after I finish with it I will move on to his second series that is called Kiss the Ring. I have seen some changes in my game that has resulted in more winning sessions than losing sessions, and I can’t wait to see what things I will learn in the next few videos. It has really opened up my game to where I am not such a tight passive player and becoming more of a tight aggressive with some loose aggressive mixed in (which is something that I never did).

The videos have also helped me in table selection. I used to choose tables by the players per flop percentage. This is just fine but has some flaws in what tables to pick. Yes I want to get on a table with more players that see the flop because of my tighter playing style, but I also want to get onto a table with more fully stacked player rather than the short stack players. The reasoning behind this is that when you are playing against a short stack player in ring games, you are actually playing their game more than the more positive EV game that you should be playing with a full stack. So here recently I have been focusing on sitting on a table with 4-5 players that have a full buy-in or real close, and this has resulted in better sessions and better results. It is important to keep an eye on the table demographics as you play through your session to make sure you are staying in a position that is the one you want and the table doesn’t get taken over by short stacks. This type of thinking has made me consider moving up to what is called the deep tables, where you have double the normal buy-in (so $20 in $10NL rather than $10). These tables on the norm have 7-8 players at the table with $10 or more. The only concern I have is wether I should be buying in for the full amount ($20) or just buy in for my regular amount. I know that buying in for less than the full amount eventually causes me to lose EV because if I get paid off with a monster and only have $10 on the table, I could have gotten more had I put $20 on the table. I’ll have to do some research into this before I will feel comfortable with changing up the tables I play on any further.

Now the 2nd thing that has drastically helped my game is the addition of Poker CoPilot (http://pokercopilot.com/). Once again this is a program similar to Poker Tracker 3 and Hold’em Manager. It doesn’t have all the info that that these other 2 programs have, but it is the only program that can be natively ran on a Mac and its functionality is actually really nice. The support for this program is really good considering that it is basically being ran by one person. I started using the program about 30 days ago (using the free 30-day trial), and have had a few issues with it. Below you can find my pros and cons to this program, I hope it is helpful to anyone who might be considering getting the program for themselves.

Pros:

Runs on a MAC (with development of PT3 for Mac not even started yet this is a big plus, considering most of your opponents are using either PT3 or a program similar to it).
Updates a plenty (I think within the past 30 days I have gotten 2-3 updates to fix any bugs or to upgrade/update the program itself).
Easy to use/setup (Was just a simple download and basically start using, as long as you have already setup to save your hands to your computer you will start benefiting on your first table, you might have to direct it to find your hand history folders, if you changed where it would be by default).
Support is awesome, if a bug arises and is reported a fix for it is worked on quickly. Questions are answered within a day.

Cons:

If you keep the program open for numerous days, it doesn’t recognize it as being a new day and will display all the stats from pervious days (since program first opened) as being todays stats along with any stats from todays play.
Unable to customize date range, it does have today, one week, one month, three months, six months, year to date, one year, and max.
Your stats in the HUD show your overall stats for the day (would rather see what my stats are for that table for that session).
No way to chart your personal VPIP in the custom charts area.
More functionality needed for the HUD (color ranges and more stats).

This program was much needed for the Mac poker players. With a purchasing price of $49.95 it is less than Poker Tracker 3 ($89.99) and Hold’em Manager ($80 for professional, $55 for Small Stakes version), now for me to find someone to purchase the program for me since I don’t have a CC or PP.

Until next time,

Merch

Roller Coaster

2009-02-22T00:28:00.000-06:00

Well, the last few days have been a roller coaster. It all started Tuesday (2/17) when my afternoon cash session resulted in a $25 loss, then in the evening I got almost all of it back with a plus $23 session. Wednesday (2/18) rolled around and I had a loss for the day of $24. Thursday was a big come back day with me winning $47 followed by Friday and a winning day of $10. Yesterdays sessions were nasty all around with a $12 loss in the afternoon and a $14 loss in the evening. I feel that I am getting a bit stronger and have made some great lay downs that are saving me money.

Today the main issue was getting either min-bet-shoved on or limp-shoved on pre-flop when I have a big starting hand. Pretty hard to lay down KK in that spot and that is exactly where I was both times. The other losses came from getting in ahead and getting beat my the always awesome 2-3 outer or getting flushed down.

The tourneys have not been much better. I did get another cash, but it is a min-cash and doesn’t get me to where I want. The BAP that I have been running since last June is at an all time low in the $60s. Either I am going to get a big score soon to recover and get this thing ended or it is going to go busto. I would prefer the first one to happen.

Good Luck to all on the tables,

Merch

Winning Small, Losing Big!

2009-02-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

Well the title says it all, if my hands held I won a small amount, but if they didn’t hold then I was losing big amounts. I had quite a bit of coolers tonight as well, like QQ into QQ and AA, or KK into KK. Every time I got in big with a top hand it usually meant me getting in behind, hard to fold those big starting hands when you are getting action pre-flop.

I did make some errors tonight but they were for minor losses (I know these minor losses add up in the long run, so I am going to try and fix those leaks), but that is a part of learning. You have to learn from these mistakes though because if you don’t then you will just think these mistakes are not mistakes and that you are doing everything right.

Other than those few mistakes, I just feel that I am still running really poorly. I hope this bad run ends sooner rather than later, and that I am not totally broke before it happens.

Until next time,

Merch

0-20 in 2009

2009-02-06T00:48:00.000-06:00

Well 2009 keeps going by as do the tourneys without a single cash. I have had a few cashes in MTT SNGs, but I don’t count that towards my MTT cashes.

Seems I am able to get something going sometimes and then just go card dead or get out drawn at the wrong time and I am sent to the rail shortly there after. It is getting a bit unnerving and I don’t know what I need to do. I don’t think a drastic change is needed in my game (think that will hurt me more than help me). Hopefully I will just continue to grind these out and get something going into the right direction. Tomorrow is another day and it bring a new tournament with different opponents.

Merch

What do I need to change?

2009-02-02T22:49:00.000-06:00

Played in some tourneys today along with my regular cash set and just got killed all over.

The cash games were just people catching their flush or straight or even their 2nd pair to beat my AA, KK, QQ. Pretty standard responses that they put me on AK or some other random stupid response that just shows how bad they really are.

The tourneys were just nasty. I am still 0 and who gives a damn for MTTs for 2009. I played a few micros and a few $26 MTTs. I had a great first hour of the 32k and ended it with over 13k in chips. The 2nd hour just killed me, the key hand was my JJ against 66 of another opponent. We both turned the Flush but he rivered the higher straight flush to take all but 3k of my chips. Not much I could do there. Just another case of me running poorly.

I have reviewed my previous hands and there is nothing that sticks out to me that I can change to improve my winnings. Just me getting unlucky more than I should. I know most of the big pros and top players in the poker community would just say this is variance, but I ask you if it is supposed to last this long? I mean I have been on a major down swing since last June with maybe a 1-2 decent day, not even a good day within that span. I have been working on my game adding in different tools and what not, but when people are not folding to your raises it doesn’t matter what you do or what tools you have especially when they are catching in the frequency that they are against me. I have also been working on the mental side of things but it is hard to stay on the positive when you are getting bad beat after bad beat. I would understand more if I was getting in behind more, but I am getting in ahead more than being behind. Maybe I am just getting in ahead too much, even though when I get in behind I am not catching on the same frequency as they seem to be catching on me.

Until next time,

Merch

January 2009 Recap

2009-02-01T23:12:00.000-06:00

January didn’t bring a good start at all for the new year. I didn’t cash a single MTT that wasn’t a SNG, and finished off the month with a nasty run on the cash tables.

When I go back and look at my stats I see that I am playing way too passive, and my hands are not holding in key areas (hard to beat calling stating donkeys).

The month also didn’t finish too well with my laptop all but dying but I was able to get a new screen, new hard drive (180GB, did have 60GB), and 2 sticks of 1GB Ram for right around $150. Gotta love Ebay.

Hopefully February brings a change and I will start turning things around and get back into the black. I don’t like seeing all that red.

Until next time,

Merch

Running Bad

2009-01-22T02:52:00.000-06:00

Well yesterday was a pretty bad day for me on the cash tables. I had all the signs telling me to get off the tables and call it quits, yet I stuck around and wound up losing 5.5 buy-ins. Today I had the same thing and feelings and got away before having a massive blow-up like yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow I will get on and won’t have any bad vibes and will be able to gain back what I lost over the last 2 days. I know my game can accomplish it and hopefully my fate will be able to hold also.

Where to go from here?

2008-09-25T01:24:00.003-05:00

I am really lost right now. I just can't seem to get any traction going into the correct way. Every time I think I get something going I wind up getting into a head on crash with a calling station donkey.

I understand variance and all, and understand how things will even out (as they say). But this has been going on for the past 3-4 months without any let up. Yes, I do have a few suck outs here and there, but they are no where near as much as I am getting sucked out on. It seems that I am only getting lucky early in the tourney and when it really matters is when I am getting crippled of knocked out, especially on the bubble or late in the tourney.

This happens to me tonight, just in the money of a $2.25 tourney, I am in the BB with AK with a little over 10BBs. A few limpers before me, and I shove in my stack with all intentions of just taking the limpers out of the pot, but the button limper calls with 89s, for his entire stack. Of course he rivers the flush to all but cripple me:

Full Tilt Poker Game #8216188486: $2 + $0.25 Tournament (62386907), Table 1 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:50:17 ET - 2008/09/25

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus (9,188)

Seat 2: proptaxman (11,635)

Seat 3: indyontop (5,186)

Seat 4: DUKENDABEARS (3,236)

Seat 5: BPC487 (17,892)

Seat 6: dirkinseattle (16,914)

Seat 7: FreeToes (7,013)

Seat 8: UKman1 (21,115)

Seat 9: merchdawg (9,515)

pimppokerstatus antes 100

proptaxman antes 100

indyontop antes 100

DUKENDABEARS antes 100

BPC487 antes 100

dirkinseattle antes 100

FreeToes antes 100

UKman1 antes 100

merchdawg antes 100

UKman1 posts the small blind of 400

merchdawg posts the big blind of 800

The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to merchdawg [Kc Ac]

pimppokerstatus folds

proptaxman folds

indyontop folds

DUKENDABEARS has 15 seconds left to act

DUKENDABEARS folds

BPC487 calls 800

dirkinseattle folds

FreeToes calls 800

UKman1 calls 400

merchdawg raises to 9,415, and is all in

BPC487 has 15 seconds left to act

BPC487 folds

FreeToes calls 6,113, and is all in

UKman1 folds

merchdawg shows [Kc Ac]

FreeToes shows [8h 9h]

Uncalled bet of 2,502 returned to merchdawg

*** FLOP *** [Jh 9d Kh]

*** TURN *** [Jh 9d Kh] [7d]

*** RIVER *** [Jh 9d Kh 7d] [3h]

merchdawg shows a pair of Kings

FreeToes shows a flush, King high

FreeToes wins the pot (16,326) with a flush, King high

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 16,326 | Rake 0

Board: [Jh 9d Kh 7d 3h]

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus folded before the Flop

Seat 2: proptaxman folded before the Flop

Seat 3: indyontop folded before the Flop

Seat 4: DUKENDABEARS folded before the Flop

Seat 5: BPC487 folded before the Flop

Seat 6: dirkinseattle folded before the Flop

Seat 7: FreeToes (button) showed [8h 9h] and won (16,326) with a flush, King high

Seat 8: UKman1 (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 9: merchdawg (big blind) showed [Kc Ac] and lost with a pair of Kings

And then a few hands later I get it in again with AK and get called by QT, for over 1/2 his stack and he of course catches up on the river for a King high straight.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8216231528: $2 + $0.25 Tournament (62386907), Table 1 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:55:12 ET - 2008/09/25

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus (2,702)

Seat 2: proptaxman (10,335)

Seat 3: indyontop (13,872)

Seat 4: kendah (10,392)

Seat 5: BPC487 (15,792)

Seat 6: dirkinseattle (38,576)

Seat 8: UKman1 (19,815)

Seat 9: merchdawg (1,702)

pimppokerstatus antes 100

proptaxman antes 100

indyontop antes 100

kendah antes 100

BPC487 antes 100

dirkinseattle antes 100

UKman1 antes 100

merchdawg antes 100

kendah posts the small blind of 400

BPC487 posts the big blind of 800

The button is in seat #3

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to merchdawg [Ks Ah]

dirkinseattle folds

UKman1 folds

merchdawg raises to 1,602, and is all in

pimppokerstatus has 15 seconds left to act

pimppokerstatus raises to 2,404

proptaxman folds

indyontop folds

kendah folds

BPC487 folds

pimppokerstatus shows [Qh Th]

proptaxman: So, if I reraise you wouldn't fold?

merchdawg shows [Ks Ah]

Uncalled bet of 802 returned to pimppokerstatus

*** FLOP *** [5s Jh 4c]

*** TURN *** [5s Jh 4c] [9c]

*** RIVER *** [5s Jh 4c 9c] [Kc]

pimppokerstatus shows a straight, King high

merchdawg shows a pair of Kings

pimppokerstatus wins the pot (5,204) with a straight, King high

merchdawg stands up

pimppokerstatus stands up

proptaxman stands up

indyontop stands up

kendah stands up

BPC487 stands up

dirkinseattle stands up

UKman1 stands up

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 5,204 | Rake 0

Board: [5s Jh 4c 9c Kc]

Seat 1: pimppokerstatus showed [Qh Th] and won (5,204) with a straight, King high

Seat 2: proptaxman folded before the Flop

Seat 3: indyontop (button) folded before the Flop

Seat 4: kendah (small blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 5: BPC487 (big blind) folded before the Flop

Seat 6: dirkinseattle folded before the Flop

Seat 8: UKman1 folded before the Flop

Seat 9: merchdawg showed [Ks Ah] and lost with a pair of Kings

It is really hard to stay positive when these beats keep happening over and over again. I know I am supposed to focus on wether I played the hand correctly, but when you play the hand correctly so many times and end up getting beat every time.

Alot of people have told me I need to take a break, but I just got off a break. I was pretty much on a break the entire month of August, and I come back to running just the same way. It is really hard for me to take a full break away from it all since I don't have much anything else to do around here. I have already planned a trip in October to go visit my brother and his family. I think this will be a good time to just leave everything back at home (laptop, books, magazines, anything poker related) and just relax and not worry about anything poker related for a few days. Maybe that will help and clear my head.

I really don't know what else there is that I can do, making any drastic changes to my game is at this point doesn't seem like the right thing to do, because it will just cause me to press with a new style/system and make mistakes that will just compound these beats that I am taking.

All I really know is that if things don't start turning the other way anytime soon, then I will just go completely insane.

Heres to things changing for the good soon, until next time,

Merch

Yuck!

2008-09-14T23:02:00.002-05:00

Things have just been down right ugly lately. The $10NL cash project is just hanging in because of my RakeBack. I seem to be a few days where I get off the table with 1-2 buy-ins and then the next day it all goes back to someone else. The short stack idiots were getting the best of me, but I did some reading and started to play them a bit differently. It has helped me to not stack them as much, and for me to actually get their stack more. I will be happy to move up a level or two and get rid of these idiots that have no clue.

My have lost confidence in my tourney game. My reads are off and I am leaving too much on the tables, hopefully things will change here soon, and I will start rolling in the correct way again. It is just tough to keep going positive whenever every time you get a monster it gets sucked out on, and when you get in against a monster you don't get to beat them like that. I just feel that I need to get back into my routine here at my house and things will fall back into place.

I will get back to doing some reading and getting back into the right mind set, and hopefully that will all help.

Merch

2008-08-20T17:48:00.002-05:00

I have finally gotten the wantonness to getting back to playing tournament poker. This probably has to do with a 13th place finish in a micro buy-in tourney the other night. I managed to chip up pretty early in the tourney and maintained the stack throughout the tourney. Once we got into the money I chipped up to a top 9 stack and just before the FT bubble I get involved in a hand with AK. There was a 3x raise from EP, this player had been raising like this quite a bit, and I had a good re-steal so I stuck my stack in there. Well unfortunately this guy had to wake up with QQ and I didn't improve so I was sent to the rail. Was still nice to get somewhat deep again, and make me feel like I am doing the right things.

The $10NL project is still going well. I lost a few buy-ins at the beginning of the week, but had a great session last night, and it continued into my afternoon session today where I won about 4 buy-ins in about 2 hours. If I keep this up I will be moving up to $25NL. My goal is to get at least 25 buy-ins for the next level before I move up to it, but might add in 1 $25NL table into the mix and play 5 $10 + 1 $25 NL table once I get up to 20 buy-ins. The entire goal of this is to get up to the $100 NL level and get to where I can withdraw at least once a week, hopefully at that point I will be able to find a good withdrawal option, since the cash pick-up has gone bye-bye.

Merch

$10NL & 27man SNGs

2008-08-13T22:30:00.002-05:00

Well the $10NL project is still going. I didn't have a good end to the week start of this week, but started to turn things around. I am really enjoying my time playing/learning cash games and see that it will only make me a better player being able to implement some cash strat into tourneys. I have usually been playing 4 full ring tables at once and today had a try at 6 full ring tables and it was a very good session tonight with me winning over 1 buy-in, and finishing positive on 4 of the 6 tables. I just need a bigger monitor so that I can fit these tables without any overlap. That is in due time, and then maybe I will progress to more tables.

The tourney side has still been treating me so-so. I am still plugging away at them, but just not feeling 100%. I started playing the 27man SNGs on PS and have had some success. Hopefully these will be my saving grace, and get me going again with my current stake.

I also put up a new BAP this week to cover all my action (tourneys) for October, and 2 WSOP-c tourneys at Horseshoe Southern Indiana that will be played the first week of October. Hopefully I will start getting some results to get this thing sold out and get some bigger buy-in live tourneys under my belt. Would be fun to play these for sure.

Until next time.

2008-08-08T22:04:00.002-05:00

Things have been slow lately. I have been enjoying spending some time with family and haven't gotten much play in for the last week. I am still on the cash crusade and things have slowed since the last post. I am having either minor winning sessions or minor losing sessions. I plan on continuing with this new project, and hopefully will be able to progress and create a source of monthly withdrawals from my cash game profits.

Anyways, nothing much else to report on. Until next time.

Quick Update

2008-08-01T20:42:00.002-05:00

I have been crushing the $10NL scene and have gained 5 buy-ins since the last post. So in the positive and don't plan on letting it go the other way anytime soon.

I am up at my Dad's now in the great state of Indiana, and it is great to be spending some time with some of my family and some friends that I still have up here. But do to me being up here my playing times have changed and I haven't gotten in much play for my stake. I just need to find some tourneys that fit my new sleep schedule and when I am not out and about schedule a bit better and then I will start getting in some more play. It isn't to hard to get a cash session going because I can start then end whenever I need to, but a tourney I have to know that I will be available for a certain amount of time. I am sure after a few more days things will tend to slow down a bit more for me and I will be able to fall into a steady schedule again.

I just updated my goals list today with what I managed to accomplish in July. It can be seen at the following link: My end of year goals.

Other than that I have just been enjoying spending time with the family. Hopefully by the next post I will have gotten into more of a steady schedule and start getting my stake into the positive, so that I can move onto my next plan.

Until next time,

Merch

Update!

2008-07-27T13:18:00.002-05:00

Well, the poker has been running at a slow pace. I am winning or losing little amounts. I currently am still running the stake that started back in June, trying to grind it back up to a positive or break even at the least. Hopefully things will take a change here soon and I will make those few big scores and get this puppy back to the positive.

I have also started a cash project and things are getting better there also. I started out losing 5 buy-ins and struggling with getting paid off with my monster hands. I have since gotten some advice from some friends that have played cash before and since then I have managed to win back most of the buy-ins and am only a partial buy-in down. The play at the $10 NL level is pretty easy, and if you play aggressive enough, you will get paid off with those big hands by someone with middle pair and things like that.

Other than that stuff I have not been up to much. Hopefully things will start to turn for me on the tourney side and I will hopefully keep on progressing in the cash games. This will all help me accomplish my goal of going out and playing live to play some cash and tourneys, hopefully backed for some of it.

Until next time,

Merch

UGH!

2008-06-23T15:48:00.002-05:00

Title says it all. I started off this month with a bang and things have gone to the exact different since then. This past weekend was a terrible run for me which meant I went on a $179.80 down swing over just Friday-Saturday. I am on an even worse swing if you count for the past 5 days which has me on a down swing of $241.60. The wheels just seem to be spinning and going to wrong way. I am taking the day off and will be reviewing my past play to see if I am making mistakes, or just getting really unlucky. I have only cashed in 3 of my last 18 MTT tourneys, and those were for a min cash.

It is time for me to get things going in the other direction and get these things back on track. Hopefully after reviewing my recent play and taking a day off from playing I will come back on Tuesday with a different attitude and new vigor to get things going in the right way.

Other than that, I have just been plucking away with daily life and trying not to break too many things when the bad beast just seem to keep on coming.

Until next time.

Wow.

2008-06-10T23:27:00.003-05:00

Well, I just started the new stake for my investors and we got off to a bang. I played the Early Doubles (I FT'd the B tourney just this past Friday). It was rather up and down for the first couple of hours, with me being down to under 1k in chips in both tourneys at one time. I got aggressive with my good hands and before I knew it we were down to the money bubble in both tourneys. At this point I was short in both and had a stack that was well below the average. But I didn't hold back and just chose decent hands to shove with until I got a healthy stack in both. Before too long I was wondering how I stood in the race for the best double finish, so I had some friends do some research. Around this time I crashed out of the A tourney in 43th place and was informed that there was 1 other player that was still in both. This other player shortly crashed out of the A tourney also in 38th place, so I knew that I had to best his finish in the B tourney by at least 5th to take the entire bonus. He busted out of the B tourney in 25th place so my next goal was to get to 19th at the least. Slowly but surely 5 players dropped and I looked poised to at the least get the double best finish bonus. I managed to shove with some sub-par hands and pick up the blinds and antes and managed to win a few key 40%/60% hands. Soon enough we were down to 10 and playing hand for hand to the FT. The FT bubble finally busted and I was sitting in 7th place. I just couldn't get much accomplished on the FT and ended up crashing out in 8th place. Was still a nice finish and was nice to get back to the FT in such a short amount of time. With the double cash/best double finish and winnings from any other tourney that I played for the day I managed to finish the BAP up $367.83 for the day. It's a great start to my 31 day run, and I hope to see this continue to go up.

On to other things, I have been reading at least a chapter a day of The Theory of Poker, and one thing that I took away from what I read, is that I shouldn't be so results orientated, that I should be more focused on wether I made the right play. I took this into my play today, and I feel that even when I lost chips, I was making the right play.

GL to everyone on the tables,

Merch

Setting goals, big finish to end out last BAP.

2008-06-08T17:07:00.000-05:00

Well I have decided to set some goals for myself for the rest of the year. Here are my goals.

OK, I didn't put one up at the beginning of the year because I just wasn't motivated to do so yet, so here goes. These are goals that I want to accomplish before the end of the year.

Get to, and maintain, a positive ROI across all sites that I play on (SNG & MTT)

Pokerstars:
SNG -15% according to SS
MTT -48% according to OPR
Full Tilt:
SNG 15% ROI according to SS (accomplished & maintaining)
MTT -13% according to OPR
Ultimate Bet:
SNG - Haven't played any SNGs
MTT 14.91% according to Poker DB (accomplished & maintaining)
Have a $500, $1000, $1500, $2000 single MTT score:
$500
$1000
$1500
$2000
Finish with a $500, $1000, $1500, $2000 profit for my BAP
$500
$1000
$1500
$2000
Work on my cash game (Online & Live):

Build a BR on Cake/AP/Bodog from $0.00:
Cake
AP
Bodog
Become the top poker player according to P5s for the city of Cookeville TN monthly and for the year:
Currently sitting 2 of 2 44.09 points behind first for the month of June.
Currently sitting 3 of 5 1200+ points behind first for the year.
Move into the top 50, 40, then 30 according to P5s for the state of Tennessee.
Currently sitting 60th
76.70 points out of 50th
206.99 points out of 40th
483.58 out of 30th.
Finish reading the following books:
The Theory of Poker
The Tao of Poker
Reread the following books:
All 3 parts of the Harrington on Hold'em Series
Zen and the Art of Poker
Pickup and read the following book(s):
The Poker Mindset
Every Hand Revealed
Super System I & II
Profit enough to pay for the following poker items:
6 month subscription to www.pokerpwnage.com ($149.94)
Poker Tracker ($89.99)
Parralles ($49.99)
Windows XP system disc to load onto my Mac ($95.78)
2nd Monitor for my Mac
23" ($899)
30" ($1,799)

Start putting back some profits to pay for a possible trip to Vegas in 2009.

Update Personal Blog:
Update weekly
Update bi-weekly

I have also started working with a coach to improve my game and this showed with a deep finish in the Early Double on June 6th.

Other than that, nothing much has been going on. Just working on improving the game as much as I can and looking for that next big score.

Until next time,

Merch

Been too long!

2008-05-22T01:14:00.000-05:00

Damn, has been too long. Guess I should update everyone. I am finally home and have been home for almost 2 weeks straight without having to go anywhere (except for those trips to the DRs office to get my broken finger looked at, more on that to come). Anyways, I am back to playing poker, and trying to make this a profitable run (more on that in a bit also). Other than that, I am not planning any more trips until mid-late summer/early fall. So hopefully I can get some games in and maybe we will get the shop finished so that I can start on my personal home poker table.

On to the poker. I am in the middle of another month long BAP/HEEB. The last one didn't go too well but it finished with a bang, so I was hoping that that momentum would carry over, wrong. I had 1 day in the positive then proceeded to go on a downfall. Just seemed that I couldn't get a key/pivotal hand to hold for me, which was resulting in more money going out than coming in. I took a sweat session with Herschelw and learned alot. The hard part was to find a way to put it into my game. One of the things that he said and then I again read in USCphildo's Blog (this was a recommendation by Herschlw) and that was that you should ask yourself what are you trying to accomplish with your actions? I started to question myself in this way, and also opened my game up quite a bit in my EP-MP game. This in turn caused me to be involved in many more hands with cards that I would usually never play but in LP unopened hands, but the advantage was that it also meant that I was involved with more hands that my opponents would not put me on, so I was able to get more chips when I did hit. Another addition to my game is the semi-bluff, this is something that I had not utilized to my advantage in the past, and have been really working on honing my skills in this so that I can better utilize it against my opponents. As with the playing a bigger range of hands, the semi-bluffing has also allowed me to trick my opponents into thinking I am not holding as strong of a hand as I am representing, and has started resulting in me getting stacked, rather than just getting a few chips. As with anything in poker, it is an ever changing game, and you can never learn/know everything. Over the next few months I am going to be really emphasizing on improving my game in any way that I can. Wether it be reading, ghosting, or joining a poker training site (which I probably will be doing pretty soon since Herschelw, USCphildo, and a few others will be joining forces in a new poker training/coaching site that will have the normal poker videos, poker articles, but will have the addition of a few other key things that I will not comment on until they open up for business the first part of June.

Off to my finger, what can I say? I took a bad beat, hit the chair, broke a bone in my hand just beyond the first knuckle on my pinky of my right hand. This happened on a Saturday, 3 hours later was in the ER getting x-Rayed, Tuesday was an appointment with my regular doctor, then Wednesday it was the orthopedic doctor, who said they can't cast it (because of my ring finger being so screwed up because of my arthritis), so the best they could do was buddy tape it and that I need to come back in about 2 weeks. So now I am not able to use my right hand very much, but I am getting by.

This weekend I will be smoking my first brisket and ribs. This is going to be fun for me, and I have already started getting things ready. We had to special order our brisket, but I already have the ribs in the fridge with a home-made dry rub already on it and soaking in (never ever ever dredge your ribs, they should always be dry, even during the cooking process). I am going to be making some homemade potato salad also, and throw some chicken on also at the last minute. Should be a great feast for Sunday for me to watch the Races (both indy and nascar).

Well, I think this has been a good update for everyone. I will do my best to give another update within the next few weeks.

GL to all on the tables,

Merch

Finally a win, and my 24 hour marathon BAP.

2008-03-15T00:15:00.000-05:00

Long time no write because I didn't care to write about the nasty beats that I have been taking. My month long BAP turned into a Month and a half long BAP because I was down at the end of the month. We planed on playing it for 14 more days or until profit was hit. I proceeded to get tortured on the tables and going into the last day I was down close to $300. I hit the tables and managed a min cash in a tourney on PS before I finally hit a FT and won a tourney.

It was a $2.25 180 man on FTP, I got to the FT sitting really low and was sitting 8/8 when I hit my card rush. In 2 hands I moved from being in last to holding a nice chip lead. With me sitting 1/7 I doubled up a shortie when he hit an Ace on the river, but I kept my head in the game and continued to grind it out. When we got down to 4 play because really tight, and there was a lot of raise and win the pot hands. We finally got to 3 handed and I busted 3rd place out when we got our chips in the middle with me holding 99 and him holding K9, he didn't improve and we were HU. Heads-up play was a little slow to start but it picked up quickly. With me sitting on 60k chips and the other guy with 205k I get dealt K8o, the blinds were 2k/4k and I limped into the pot. The flop came Kd5s7s, the other guy min-raises (which he had been doing alot of on flops) so I raised into him making it 20k. He just flat called me. The turn was my bingo card, the 8h, he checks to me and I push it in the middle, he calls and flips over 3s2s for a flush draw. He didn't catch on the river and I scoop up a 129k pot. It's a new ball game now.

A few hands later I get dealt 99 in the BB. The other player limps into me for 2.5k and I raise to 20k, he pushes his stack of 157k into the middle and I call with my 100k stack. He flips over AhTh and he doesn't catch and I take over the chip lead and all by cripple my opponent. A few hands later I get 99 again this time in the SB, I raise it up 20k and he shoves his remaining 50k into the pot and I call him. He flips over 4h2h and he doesn't catch and I take the win.

This really made me feel great and get some trust back into my game. And it proved to me that being patient and choosing your time to make your move does work and that my instincts are right most of the time.

Well that is enough for now, I hope to be writing about more of these wins here in the near future.

For anyone interested, check out my 24 hour marathon BAP, this should be a fun one.

My 24 hour Marathon BAP, 61 games starting at noon and finishing the next day at noon.

Until next time,

Merch

Update time

2008-02-13T12:55:00.000-06:00

Quick update on all things on my side. I am still running this month long stake and am up about $30 right now. I am getting semi-deep in some tourneys, just can't crack the middle money mark and get to the FT.

My schedule has been these tourneys lately:

On PS:
$5.50 5k Guar @ 1300
$11.00 2k Guar @ 1900

On FTP:
$6.00 Early Daily Double A
$6.00 Early Daily Double B
$1.00 Re-buy

The 2 tourneys on PS both have 3k starting chips and have 15 min levels, which seems to work rather well for my game.

I have double cashed the Early Daily Doubles twice so far in the last month, and they start with 2k in chips.

I have managed to get semi-deep in the $1 re-buy the last 2 days with a 51st and 40th place finish. Last night I got knocked out in a hand that would have given me a top 10 stack. I was on the button and got dealt JJ with around 30k in chips, it folded to me and I raised to 6500 (the blinds were 1000/2000). SB folded and the BB raised it up (which I expected, since he probably saw my raise on the button as a steal) to 30k, which puts me all in. I call and he flips over AQ. Flop comes 8A8 and I didn't improve from there. I feel that I am going to FT and possibly win this tourney sometime in the near future, even with my first hour tables playing really tight and me only being able to get out of that first hour with around 4k in chips the last 2 nights, I have still managed to get as deep as I have.

Well, that is about it for now. I am still in Texas spending time with my grandmother in her last few days/weeks. I am going to have to get back to Tennessee sometime in the near future to meet up with a lawyer to put in my next appeal for my disability claim, the next step is a hearing. Hopefully things will work out. I also started on a new drug which has started to give me a more better days bad days. But I still am not in any condition to return to work.

GL to all on the felt,

Merch

Quick Update!

2008-01-22T19:38:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to give a quick update to everyone! Going to be heading to Texas tomorrow to visit with Grandma as she is getting worse, but I will be online and ready to start playing come February 1st.

I have been reading for the past week, and have made it through a couple more books. I will be doing alot of reading on the road tomorrow, and will be ready to start applying it to the tables when my February BAP starts up. Speaking of that it is almost sold out. Only have 3 shares left to sell at $10.00 a piece so that makes a total of $30.00 left to raise. Should not be a problem with 9 days left. I am really looking forward to running this HEEB and am expecting some good things! Here is a link to my BAP ad, if you haven't gotten a share yet, hurry they won't be available for too much longer!

MY BAP AD!!

Also starting in February, I will be leading the poker forum rakereport.net in starting a forum league. We will be playing once a week and the buy-ins will be $1.25. This is a new addition to the site and should draw some newer members. This is not the only major thing happening on this site. They announced last week that they will be giving away a WPT Bootcamp package that will be happening in December. Everyone should go and check them out, sign up, and join us for this amazing chance!!

www.rakereport.net

As for the other league I am a member of. We just started back up and we are trying to get some new members to really get the tourney fields to be big once again. There is a good bunch of guys and gals there and I think that most anyone that reads this will fit in with them. Check out the site and join in, it's always a great time when we get on the tables together!!

PRC League!

On a personal note, I started the a new med today for my arthritis, and with this addition things should really start to turn around for me. I am hoping for a really great 2008 and so far it has been looking promising! I hope everyone else is having a good year so far also. GL to everyone on and off the tables.

Merchguy

Another day, continue to lose!!

2008-01-09T23:29:00.000-06:00

Well the title says it all. I played in 3 of the 90 man tourneys on FTP today and managed to finish 87th, 19th, and 22nd in them. I also played in a PRC League tourney, and managed to bubble the money in that one also. So for any that are out there trying to keep track, that now makes it 16 tourneys in a row without a cash. This year so far has not been too nice to me on the felt. I have lost over $150 and have only cashed in 5 out of 35 tourneys. I am just going to keep grinding through, and hopefully things will make a turn for me soon.

On a side note, I got a phone call back from the drug company, and they approved me for the medication assistance program. So that means I will be getting the meds that I need for the next year at no cost to me. This will mean a better level of living for me and hopefully will mean that I will get to start back at work, and get back into class this fall.

Other than that, things are the same. Here is to a change tomorrow on the felt!!

Merchguy

Sorry!

2008-01-08T15:30:00.000-06:00

Sorry all, it has been a while since I have updated. I will try my best to atleast get an update out there once a week. No promises.

Well the holidays came and went. I really missed being with my friends back in Richmond for the New Years festivities!! Hopefully this year will bring on new adventures and will be better for me health wise. I have some leads on getting meds for me, which will help get me back into the real world. I really and still trying to start school in the fall. Just got to see what happens between now and then!

Poker finished off last year very well. I ran a BAP of thirty (30) 90 mans on FTP at the $5.50 level. Got off to a rough start but really turned it on to finish it off with a nice profit for my backers. I was able to get another BAP up and sold out to run the following:

30 - $5.50 90 mans
10 - $5.50 45 mans
10 - $5.50 18 mans
5 - $11.00 18 mans

So far these have not gone to well. The starting BR was $330 and I am down almost $200. I only have 15 of the 90 mans to run, but these have been my most profitable games over the past few months, so hopefully I can turn this around and get back into a profit for my backers.

My future BAP plans are to sell out all my play for the month of February. I currently have it set-up and have sold some shares. Still have a long way to go to get the total $500, but also have just about all of January left to get this sold out. The plan is to split the $500 between PS and FTP, and adhering a 5% rule to those bankrolls. Meaning to start off, I can play any tourney up to the $12.50 level on both sites. This should be a fun BAP to run and hopefully a profitable one. It will allow me to play both SNGs and MTTs, so I am excited to have the opportunity.

The league that I am a member of on FTP is going to get start up again this Wed. Jan 9, 2007. They are a really good group of people and have really helped my game involve to where it is today. They will be running 5 tourneys a week on Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, and Sunday. All the buy-ins are going to be $2.50, and each tourney will have points that are awarded for the top finishers. Then those that have the most points at the end of the month will be invited to a special tourney to battle it out for the best of the month! Everyone should check out this league and join in on the fun.

Pocket Rocket Crew

The only other forum that I really frequent is the RakeReport.net, they had some great giveaways over the holidays, and just announced some new bonuses, and there are some big announcements come. So check them out also and get in on the fun before you can't!!

Well, that is pretty much it for now. GL to everyone on the tables and I hope everyone has a great year!! Oh, and my birthday is this Saturday. I'll be turning 27!!

Merchguy

Update time!

2007-12-12T12:12:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess I should update everyone on what is going on.

I finished the series of (25) $1.25 90 mans on FTP this past weekend. I got off to a great start in these, with taking 1st in two of the first ten tourneys. Overall I finished the stake at a little less than double of the starting bankroll (BR) of $31.25.

The other series that I am running is for the Neverbeg December 2 Remember (NBD2R). I haven't had too much luck in the NLHE games in this series but I have finished 3rd in the RAZZ event and 2nd in the HORSE event, and my teammate won the NLHE HU tourney, so we are sitting at just below our starting BR for this run. I still have 3 events left to play (DS NLHE, HORSE HU, & the Main Event), and my partner has 2 events left (DS NLHE & the main event). Hopefully we can break into profits for this BAP. Would be nice to ship back profits, even if it is only a small amount.

I set-up a series of (30) $5.50 90 mans on FTP for a BAP and managed to sell out in less than 1 hour. I started playing yesterday and finished middle of the pack when I lost most of my stack when I made a bad call. I had middle pair on a rather low board and thought the guy was bluffing at the pot. I got stuck and became stubborn and just didn't fold when I should have. Lesson learned! Now is I can only get these to fill and start playing. I think they are filling so slow because of the Knock Out (KO) craze. They removed the regular $11.00 90 mans in place for a KO 90 man. I don't like the KO tourneys because they only pay top 9 rather than top 18 (which is what the regular ones pay).

As for investments at this time, I have about $70.00 currently out in BAP investments, and most of these investments are all running for a profit at this moment. Most of the time with these investments I have been rolling over the initial investment and taking the profits to make new investments.

Well, I think that is all that I have at this moment. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas season!

Merchguy

Start to a new series & taking lessons!

2007-11-25T14:40:00.000-06:00

Well, got another stake last night for a series of the $1.25 Double Stack 90 mans on FTP. This time I am going to play a total of 25 over the next 2 weeks. I played one last night after watching some football (more on that later) and after a little over 3 hours I managed to take first.

Was a nice start to this series. Got off to a good start early in the tourney when I had AhKc in the SB. UTG+1 raised to 180 and if folded to me, I called as did the BB. The flop came AsQh9h, there was 540 in the pot and I raised it pot. The BB folded and UTG+1 raised it enough to put me all-in. I felt that he had a weaker ace so I called and I was right. He had AcJd. The turn was Kh and the river was a 2c. Got a nice early double up. From there I had a few more hands then got AKo again in early position. Ended up all in pre-flop 3 way. I was up against AJo and TT. The flop came AAQ rainbow and I ended up more than doubling. From there I didn't look back and stayed up in the top 9. When we finally made the final table I was in 3rd, but managed to get to 1st when we were down to 6 handed. By the time it was 3 way I had a commanding CL and managed to keep this lead and get to HU with it. The final hand was when we both his a set of aces on the flop all the money got into the middle on the turn and my AQ beat his A4.

I played the 2nd game today and didn't fair as well. Ended up getting A2 in the SB and it folded to me. I raised and the BB called. The flop came A42 rainbow. I checked and the BB raised. So I raised him with my 2 pair. The turn was a 4 which negated my pair of 2s. We ended up getting all in at that point and he had A3. So I had the other two 2s that were in the deck to win the pot and any card that wasn't the four 5s in the pot to chop. Well the river was one of the four 5s that he could hit to take the pot with a 5 high straight because he had A3o. Just makes me puke. But off to the next one.

Tonight I am going to take my first poker lesson with a guy known as herchelw. The lesson is going to cover blind on blind play and lots of people have said that what they got from this lesson has really helped them. I am thinking about taking some more lessons with the next one being chipping up in a MTT. I will keep all updated on how the lessons go and how much they are helping my game.

I got them to add a game to the NBD2R, it is going to be a KO tourney on FTP. This should be fun since my partner in the BAP just won one of these tourneys last week and hopefully will be a good chance for a good return for us in profits.

Now for the football for the weekend. UGA beat GT, which is not a big story, Makes me happy that we have now beat them for the past 7 years straight. The UT/UK game really made me sick. UK had so many chances to win that game and had they won then UGA would have been going to the SEC Championship game. But now we have to wait and watch next week to see what happens above us. Just checked the polls and the BCS is not out yet, but UGA is ranked 4th in both the AP and the USA Polls. Which is a good indicator that we will be ranked 4th int he BCS. What needs to happen now is for WVU to get beat by Pitt and Miss to get beat by OU next weekend and UGA will more than likely backdoor its way into the national championship game.

Until next time!!

Merchguy

Update and NBD2R!!!!

2007-11-23T21:25:00.000-06:00

Well things have been quiet for me over the past few days on the poker front. I did play some all-in or fold style Omaha H/L with some people from Neverbeg and ended up getting killed. Then yesterday I pretty much spent all day with the family just cooking and eating, then watched some TV. One of the BAPs that I was invested in had a big win and wound up almost doubling my money, so I re-invested my initial investment and took my profits. Other than that one of my other BAPs will be ending today with a slight profit to me, and 2 of the other active BAPs that I am invested in are running well and should return me a nice profit.

I opened up a team BAP up for the Neverbeg December To Remember (NBD2R) with Ravens_rool28 for us to run a combination of the events. Below is a list of the events we will run, as well as a full scheldule.

Merchguy:

Event #6 67940120 Dec 5 22:00 - No Limit Holdem 5.50
Event #7 67940227 Dec 6 21:00 - Razz 5.50
Event #9 67940841 Dec 7 21:00 - No Limit Holdem ALLIN OR FOLD! 5.50
Event #11 67941018 Dec 8 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Heads Up Matches 5.50
Event #15 67855498 Dec 10 21:00 - .50+r No Limit Holdem with Rebuys
Event #16 67942059 Dec 10 22:00 - HORSE 5.50
Event #17 67855499 Dec 11 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Shootout 5.50
Event #19 67855500 Dec 12 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Deepstacks 5.50
Event #20 67942268 Dec 12 22:00 - HORSE Heads Up Matches 5.50
Event #21 67942350 Dec 13 22:00 - Main Event 11.00 No Limit Holdem

Ravens_rool28:

Event #1 67855497 Dec 3 21:00 - 5 Card Draw 5.50
Event #6 67940120 Dec 5 22:00 - No Limit Holdem 5.50
Event #7 67940227 Dec 6 21:00 - Razz 5.50
Event #11 67941018 Dec 8 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Heads Up Matches 5.50
Event #15 67855498 Dec 10 21:00 - .50+r No Limit Holdem with Rebuys
Event #17 67855499 Dec 11 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Shootout 5.50
Event #19 67855500 Dec 12 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Deepstacks 5.50
Event #21 67942350 Dec 13 22:00 - Main Event 11.00 No Limit Holdem

Full Event List:

Event #1 67855497 Dec 3 21:00 - 5 Card Draw 5.50
Event #2 67939502 Dec 3 22:00 - Limit Holdem 5.50
Event #3 67939667 Dec 4 21:00 - FLIPAMENT! 5.50
Dec 4 21:00 - NB TITLE TOURNEY - 5.50
Event #4 67939855 Dec 4 22:00 - 7 Card Stud 5.50
Event #5 67855496 Dec 5 21:00 - 2-7 Triple Draw 5.50
Event #6 67940120 Dec 5 22:00 - No Limit Holdem 5.50
Event #7 67940227 Dec 6 21:00 - Razz 5.50
Event #8 67940444 Dec 6 22:00 - Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better 5.50
Event #9 67940841 Dec 7 21:00 - No Limit Holdem ALLIN OR FOLD! 5.50
Event #10 67940713 Dec 7 22:00 - Stud 8 or Better 5.50
Event #11 67941018 Dec 8 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Heads Up Matches 5.50
Event #12 67941225 Dec 8 22:00 - No Limit Holdem Heads Up Big Boy Matches $109
Event #13 67941440 Dec 8 22:00 - SITOUT! 5.50
Event #14 67941959 Dec 9 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Big Boy $33
Event #15 67855498 Dec 10 21:00 - .50+r No Limit Holdem with Rebuys
Event #16 67942059 Dec 10 22:00 - HORSE 5.50
Event #17 67855499 Dec 11 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Shootout 5.50
Event #18 67942186 Dec 11 22:00 - Pot Limit Omaha 5.50
Event #19 67855500 Dec 12 21:00 - No Limit Holdem Deepstacks 5.50
Event #20 67942268 Dec 12 22:00 - HORSE Heads Up Matches 5.50
Event #21 67942350 Dec 13 22:00 - Main Event 11.00 No Limit Holdem

Until next time,

Merchguy

Wow!!!

2007-11-18T23:49:00.000-06:00

Wow, is all I can say! So I go to Rake Report(one of the sites I told you all about in my last blog), and I am reading the thead about this months freeroll and the computer giveaway. I hadn't checked my email yet so I didn't think I had won it. Well low and behold I get down to the annocement of the winner and it says merchguy. I had to read it again. I was just at a lost for words and couldn't believe that I was the winner. I can't wait to get this thing and have some fun with it! Has really been an up and down month for me and I hope that all is on the up for me from here. Anyways, everyone needs to get over to this site and get active so that you can have a chance at something like this also!!

Here is the link the thread about my win and the computer!!

Cutom Computer Giveaway

Dual-Core AMD processor
Asus Motherboard
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive
256MB Graphics Card
Stable After-Market Power Supply (i.e. no generic crap)
DVD Burner & seperate DVD Reader Drive
NZXT Guardian Case w/window & lighting
Windows XP Home Edition with all updates installed

Rake Report

Until next time,

Merchguy

A few poker web sites/forums for my readers!

2007-11-15T16:31:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to post a few of the sites/forums that I am a regular on.

One of the first places that I joined to help improve my game was the league on Full Tilt Poker. I was playing alot of Razz at that time and I saw that they had a private tournament at that time for Razz. So I joined with the main reason of just playing that tournament. But came to find out that they had a great forum that had some really good players on it. They had plenty of post there to read through with different stradegies and lots of hands to review to see how people played certain hands and why they played them that way. I joined this league in Middle March and have since really improved my game thanks to the post there and the books that have been requested for me to read. Here is the link to that league:

Pocket Rocket Crew

The next site that I joined was a site that held a couple of freerolls at the time. Due to my disability and not having a job, threrefore not having any income to deposit to play with this became my sole way to gain money when I went bust. This site has lots of players and lots of hand histories and stradegies to review also. I don't really go there as much now, but to go on there to see what is going on and check out some new stradegies. Here is the link to that group:

Railbirds

I stumbled across this next site one night when I was looking through the Full Tilt Poker Forum, and was rather interested. It was a staking site, and since I don't have the means to deposit money, it seemed to be a great idea for me. So I joined and started playing stakes. Since I have started playing for this site I have a total winnings for my stakers of $154.86, and have staked out a total of $109.45 with $105.00 more out at the moment. This site is great in that there is not just staking going on, but also lots of decussion on stradegy and review of hand histories. There are a lot of great players here that have managed to get deep into lots of the major online tournies. I plan on staying active in this site for a long time, eiter playing stakes, putting out stakes, playing BAPs, or investing in BAPs. I highly recommend everyone to check out this site and get involved yourself. Here is the link to this site:

Never Beg

The next site was an advertiser to Never Beg, and I got interested in them because they were giving out a prize to new members that joined and were active. So I joined this site and was able to win that said prize. Since then the site has changed in a ways and has set up a points system where you get awarded for hitting certain milestones or doing different things to help promote the site. The site is full of lots of good players with good opinions on hands that you are questioning your play on. There has been talk of trying to send a member to a big live event as a prize, but the site has to grow and have more traffic for this to happen. So get over there and get active, so that you can yourself have a shot at winning the prizes that are out there for the members. Here is the link to that site:

Rake Report

There are a few other sites that I check daily also just to see what is going on. Below is the link to those sites:

Poker News
Poker on a Mac
RakeBacks
ESPN Poker
Full Tilt Forum
Stake A Shark (another staking site)

I hope that all the information on the sites/forums/leagues that I have wrote about here will help out any of my fellow readers and that you will become an active member at these sites.

GL to everyone on the felt,

Merchguy

Kidney Stone Bye Bye!!

2007-11-14T21:38:00.000-06:00

Well I passed my kidney stone today, so I am back to playing poker.

As for the stone it passed rather easily, was not too painful, and I did not pass out! I am glad that this is behind me and hopefully I will not have another one for as long as I live. It was much more painful while it was in my kidneys than it was in my bladder or while I passed it. Probably because I was medicated!!

Now on to poker. I got a stake into the Daily Doubles on FTP. I managed to get through the 1st hour in both tourneys but shortly after the break I got AA in the BB and it folded all the way to the button. He limped with a stack just a little bigger than mine, the SB made the half bet call and I raised it 4 times the BB. The Button called and the SB folded. The board came 9cJc6d. I am first to act and I move all in, just barely above the pot, defiently not giving anyone odds on calling with a flush draw. Well I was wrong, the button called my all in which left him with about 200 chips. The cards flip and he has 8cTc, so he has a flush draw and an open ended straight draw. Loose call pre-flop in my opinion, espically with me raising him out of position! The river was the 9s and of course te 5c hits on the river to knock me out of the Daily Double A tourney in 662nd.

Was able to make it past the 2nd break in the Daily Double B. I was really shortstacked with an M of less than 3 so when I was UTG+1 I pushed all in with KQo. The next guy to act raised all in after me, then the SB called both of our all-ins. The SB had AQo, I had KQo, and the other guy had 55, needless to say I didn't improve nor did the SB and the UTG+2 guy took the entire pot. I was sent to the rail in 279th for a total of $0.00.

Hopefully I will get my roll established here soon and will be able to play these 2 tourneys on a regular basis. I really like the option of hitting a double cash for more money, usually atleast $30.00, then challenging for the best avg finish for almost $1,000.00, and maybe hitting a double FT which would be worth atleast $10,000.00 in extra cash.

As of right now. I have $60.00 staked out in various BAPs out of my FTP money and about $45.00 staked out into BAPs out of my PS BAP. One of the BAPs for the FTP money will be ending Friday morning(it is in a minor profit right now), and the other 2 should be done by Sunday(one is in a minor profit, and the other has a minor loss as of right now). The 2 BAPs that I am invested with my PS money will be ending sometime early December(one of those BAPs has already doubled my money, and the other is at a slight loss for me). I also have $20.00 reserved in a BAP that will start in a little over a week. The player for that BAP has ran a few profitable BAPs, and I had been waiting for her next months worth of play to get in on her action. Hopefully all of my investments will become profitable, and I will have more money to play with around the first of the year!

Until next time all,

Merchguy

Kidney Stones!!

2007-11-14T01:42:00.000-06:00

As of right now, I am not playing poker until I pass this damn Kidney Stone. I feel that playing while I am drugged up is not really a good thing, considering that I will probably fall asleep during the tourney at some point!

As for the Kidney Stone, I started to fell some lower back pain on Saturday and just thought it was my arthritis, but as the day went on it started to hurt more, and I ended up getting sick. At that point I was like the hell with this, we have to go the hospital. Get to the hospital and I was in major pain, they got me into the ER quickly, got an IV started and got meds into me to help relieve the pain. Shortly after they got my pain to subside some they took me for a CT and found the stone in my Kidney, and decided to admit me into the hospital. So I spend 2 nights in the hospital and they said that I should be able to pass this on my own and if I don't within 2 weeks that they would have to go in for it, so hopefully I pass it on my own. I am now back at home on good drugs, drinking lots of fluids and waiting for the stone to pass. Guess I won't be up in the tree stand this Saturday for opening day of the Hunting season!!

Oh well, until next time all,

Merchguy

Intro

2007-11-13T17:14:00.000-06:00

Well, for all the readers this is going to be a place that I try and tell my life on the poker tables. Hopefully it will be a good read of how I started from the bottom and managed to be able to travel all over to play in tourneys troughout the world! Check back often and let me know what you think. Until next time!!

~Merchguy