Start to a new series & taking lessons!

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!!!!

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!!!

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!

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!!

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!!

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

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