Single Table Sit and Go Week: Day One and Day Two

I decided to do a week of single table sit and go tournaments.  These are really quick single table games that do not take very long to play and give some great prize amounts.  On Monday I started with a NAPT-LA Sat: Free-roll tournament with over 7,000 players.  I ended up going all in on the first hand with Q 10 off suite.  The person who called had a pair of 2’s and got a third two to beat me and finish my time in this tournament.  I finished 7,771^st.

After that I started my “single table sit and go grind week”.  I started with a buy-in of $3’25 for a NL Hold’em turbo with six players.  It started okay but then went downhill very quickly.  I accidently clicked the button to raise twice when I want to just call and almost went out but then I started to lose just by not getting anything when I was in one of the blind seats.  I left this one with only gaining 1.38 in VPP.

The next one I did was the same.  I ended up making one person frustrated when I kept calling to the point where when I bet, he folded.  He folded after the river card and then asked what I was calling after the flop.  I told him that he would never know.  I believe that if you tell them what you had, they could in turn use it against you if you repeat what you did that hand.  Part of being successful, in my opinion, is to be unpredictable.  This person was upset with me but I did not care especially when he ended up going out of the game.  I got the second person mad because I had pocket K’s and pushed another person all-in who had pocket 5’s and did not beat me with any of the cards that got turned over.  He didn’t like that I beat him and started talking shit to me.  I did not care what he said.  Bottom line is that I had the better pair then he did.  I ended up winning this one with $11.70 in prize money for a $8.45 gain and another 1.38 VPP. 

This was the last one I did on Monday with it being Valentine’s Day.  On Tuesday I played a few tournaments.  Again these were all single table games.  The first was $3.25 buy-in which I had a bad beat and finished 6^th with a 1.38 VPP.  I entered another one and finished 3^rd with another 1.38 VPP gain.  I then entered a Fifty50 for $1.08 buy in and finished first for $3.50 in prize money and a $2.42 gain with a 0.44 VPP gain.  I entered another one of these and finished second for $2.19 in prize money and $1.11 gain with another 0.44 VPP gain.  You are probably thinking that this part is very boring due to only say what I played and the results.  I would love to talk about some big, amazing hands but there were not any to really talk about.

I then entered a tournament with six players and $1.20 buy-in.  I ended up finishing 6^th with only a 1.1 VPP gain.  The last one for the night was the $3.25 buy-in with six players.  I finished in first place and won $11.70 in prize money for an $8.45 gain and 1.38 VPP gain.  I also gained 39 sit and go leader board points. 

I started the week with $10 and finished yesterday with almost doubling that.  I am probably one win away from doubling that.  My VPP is sitting at 20.69 for the month and 79.85 for the year.  I also received my FPP for the surveys that I completed.  With those points and the points for the games I played in, my FPP is at 80.81 right now.  I realize that if I did not do those two tournaments that cost a total of 28 FPP, I would be at over 100 FPP.  But it doesn’t matter since I will gain another 20 FPP in a few days of playing.

I am going to look at hosting a “home game” club next month.  It will probably be towards the end of March.  So please give me some feedback on your thoughts of it or leave any comment or question you may have.  Thank you for taking the time to read this.  I know that a lot of people are not reading this but each time I check the stats, I am happy to see that there were some viewing this.  Thank you to those who read this.

Sunday = Down-Day

I would like to start by saying a few words about a great man who passed away.  Mr "Skip" Bird, Valparaiso High School Teach and Swim Team Coach passed away over the weekend.  He was a great teach and coach who touched the lives of so many of his students.  I remember how fair and helpful he was when I had him.  Though I only had him for one class, I would always see him outside his classroom in between classes and he always would say "hello" to students he passed who he had taught or coached.  He will be missed.  RIP "Skip" Bird.

Now on to what happened Sunday Afternoon and Evening.  I continued to play Sunday after I posted on here.  I played the free-roll tournaments, along with a few other ones.  I played in a NL Hold’em Turbo Takedown Sat: 20 FPP turbo with 150 players.  This took my FPP down to 11.21 FPP but I was not worried about it.  Then I entered my biggest buy in ever.  It was an NAPT-LA Sat: $4.48 Hyper-Turbo Round 1.  I did not make it past the second hand in this one.  I had 10 Q off suit and was betting the pot after the flop and river.  One player kept calling me, so I shoved all-in and he called to reveal 6 4, which gave him a pair of 6’s on the table.  Then the river card came and it was a 4 giving him two pair.  I could not believe that just happened to me.  Usually when I have a pocket pair, I can win the hand especially with something like pocket Q’s.  In this case, I did not win it.

I then did a $0.55 buy-in with 45 players.  This did not go well and I finished 39^th with a 0.28 VPP gain.  At least I gained some VPP from that one.  I then entered a Turbo Takedown Sat: 20 FPP Turbo with 150 players.  I ended up finishing 71^st and did not gain anything.  After that I entered a $0.10 NL Hold’em tournament and did very poorly.  I don’t even remember what I finished at.  I then went on a NAPL Free-roll Shootout SNG playing spree.  With these being free to enter, I ended up going all-in a lot.  Probably even when I should not have.  I finished 4^th, 34^th,15^th, 29^th, 28^th, 25^th, 33^rd, 30^th, 28^th, 18^th, 20^th, 31^st, 23^rd and 28^th.  I also entered a $0.02 Hyper-Turbo tournament with 900 players.  Each player starts with $500 in chips and a $10 ante, 25/50 blinds.  I finished 523^rd and was surprised I made it that far.

The last tournament I entered was The Big Game.  This is the one where the top 300 players left get a ticket to the second round.  The tournament started with 3,996 players.  I started out okay and had some good wins with big pots that doubled my stack.  I made it to the first break and there were 1,568 players still in it.  That five minute break came and gone, I started to lose some chips and was playing conservatively.  Then the second break came and there were only 441 players left.  I was on a roller coaster at this point.  I would gain some chips and then lose some chips and then lose some chips.  It kept going on like that for a while.  With each hand I saw people busting out of the tournament.  430, then 418, then 400 players left.  Each time I looked at how many were left there were less and less remaining.  Then I lost about half of my chips and was about to bust out in the next two or three hands.  That is when all of a sudden the tournament ended.  I had done it.  I had survived to the final 300 players and gained the ticket to the next round.  I will be playing that later this week and will try my hardest to win that on to make it to the final round.  If you do not know or remember me talking about this in previous post, this is the one that could get the winner a chance to be the “Loose Cannon” in The Big Game TV show.  It would be really cool if I could get on that tournament.  I am not sure where it is taking place but I can worry about that if I make it to that tournament.

I also received the 60 FPPs from the surveys today which leave me with 71.31 FPPs.  I also have 11.81 VPP for the month and 70.97 VPP.  My ranking has declined a little to 35.82% which is still higher than last year.  I actually did reach almost 40% but the loses I had this weekend hurt that ranking. 

I am still considering doing a “Home Game” club on Poker Stars and you should be seeing an official announcement in the weeks to come.  There will be an invitation to join sent out on Facebook.  If you would like an invitation, leave a comment with your email or the name you use on Facebook so I can send you the information.  I will not be posting the information to access the “club” on here since this is a publicly viewed blog.  

Latest and Greatest, or Something Like That

I think I have figured out the best times to play.  Those days are Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Any other day has too many people who are very lucky and get the better hands and don’t know what they are doing.  I watched someone go all in with 8 9 of suit after the flop gave him only a high card Q.  With that said here is what I did the last three days.

On the Friday I only played in three tournaments.  The first was a Fifty50 ten player sit and go for $1.20 buy-in.  It went pretty bad and I finished 6^th and with a gain of 0.44 VPP’s.  The next one was my old standby $0.10 NL Hold’em sit and go with 360 players.  I did not last long in this one and finished 251^st.  The next one was the same as before but a new tournament that was just starting.  I made it to the first break after only 30 minutes of play and 214 players left in the tournament.  Then I made it to the next break with 34 players left and everyone who went out would win $0.20 or more, depending when they were to go out.  I ended up finishing 21^st out of 360 and gained my ten cents plus another $0.20 and 22.53 tournament leader points.  I am unable to see where I rank so far since when you try to look it up, they only show the top twenty players and that is it. 

On Saturday, I only played two tournaments since I had some other things I need to take care of including having some guests over.  The first one I played in on Saturday was another $0.10 cent NL Hold’em with 360 players.  The first hand I was dealt was J A.  A diamond flush showed up on the table.  Thinking that the other player was calling due to this showing up, I called his push of all-in.  Turns out that was a bad thing to do.  They had the Q of diamands and the higher card which pushed me out.  I entered into another one for $0.10 and finished 280^th.  I had pocket K’s and was beat due to a full house showing up on the river which gave the other player 6’s full of Q’s.  This brings me to todays tournaments that I did this morning.

The first was a Fifty50 single table sit and go tournament with $1.08 buy in.  I ended up finishing 9^th in this one.  Then I did a $0.10 NL Hold’em that started out pretty good.  The best hand I played so far was the following:

Dealt to Me [Td Kd]

oerarne: folds

Me: raises 450 to 500

robwiersma58: calls 500

kemmitper: folds

Dzseli: folds

BestYet99: folds

Edwards E: folds

cocodiente: folds

*** FLOP *** [Jh Qs Th]

Me: bets 1075

robwiersma58: calls 1075

*** TURN *** [Jh Qs Th] [Kh]

Me: bets 2090 and is all-in

robwiersma58: calls 2090

*** RIVER *** [Jh Qs Th Kh] [Kc]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Me: shows [Td Kd] (a full house, Kings full of Tens)

robwiersma58: shows [3c Ac] (a straight, Ten to Ace)

Me: collected 7405 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 7405 | Rake 0

Board [Jh Qs Th Kh Kc]

Seat 2: 1&only696 showed [Td Kd] and won (7405) with a full house, Kings full of Tens

Seat 3: robwiersma58 showed [3c Ac] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace

This was the best hand that I had the entire tournament and after that, I started on that slippery slope of having my stack disappear.  I ended up finishing 137^th out of 360 players.  I was pretty disappointed and decided to take a break and take care of some class work and type this up.  I still think that the best time for me to play is Monday through Wednesday.  I seem to win the most single table tournaments and place higher in the bigger tournaments than any other time of the week.  My stats today leave me with 11.09 VPP for the month and 70.25 VPP for this year.  I also have 31.21 FPP in my account right now.  I plan to do a little bit more playing today but nothing that will be posted till tomorrow. 

I am also looking for feedback about doing a “home game” through Poker Stars.  Please let me know if you are interested.  If you are one of my friends on Facebook, you will be receiving an invitation for it.  

One Day Up, and One Day Down

The last two days have been pretty interesting.  Yesterday I played four tournaments, two of them were single table Fifty50 games and two were multi-table games.  I did two that had a buy-in of $1.08 which were pretty uneventful.  During the first one, I was smoking a great cigar and watching TV which caused me to not really pay attention to what I am doing.  I think this could be a new strategy, playing and winning by not paying attention to what is going on.  I won ten hands doing this and finished in first place to win $3.13.  This gave me a $2.04 gain and added 0.44 to my VPP.  The second one I played the same way and finished in first place again for a $2.90 win.  This added $.182 to my account and 0.44 VPP.  This was a very good start to the day and I was feeling pretty good about my hands so far. 

I then entered a NL Hold’em turbo for a $0.55 buy-in and 45 players.  I received nothing but crappy hands.  I also could not get a good string of bluffs going and I couldn’t buy any pots by betting the amount of the pot like what usually happens.  I ended up finishing 39^th and gained 0.28 VPP.  The next one was one that I have not really done much of.  With my two wins that I have had I decided to play a NL Hold’em game with 18 players for $1.20 buy-in.  At the table I was at, there was a retired Navy Chief who was playing.  It was interesting chatting with him but he did not last very long.  While we were chatting I think I might have given away one of my strategy.  I started off pretty well but the more we chatted the worse I was doing.  I ended in 10^th place and gained 1.1 VPP.  After this one, I was done for the night.

Today I played four tournaments before I called it a night.  I did two multi-table and two single table tournaments.  The first was an 18 player NL Hold’em for $1.20 buy in.  I was getting nothing but crappy hands after crappy hands.  I was not able to do anything.  I busted out in 15^th but gained 1.1 VPP.

I then did another Fifty50 tournament for $1.08 buy in.  This was a difficult table to play at.  Every time someone would bet after the flop or raise pre-flop, everyone would fold.  People were playing very very conservatively.  It was going very slow and after twenty minutes everyone was still in the game.  I finally got pocket A’s and decided to call someone who was going all in.  Just when I thought I had his Q’s beat, the river gave him two pairs, Q’s and 3’s.  I couldn’t believe that he got that lucky on the river but then again I guess I should have seen it coming.  I was the second player to go out and finished 9^th with a 0.44 VPP gain.  I did the same type of single table game and finished 9^th again with a 0.44 gain. 

I then did my usually $0.10 multi-table sit and go tournament with 360 players.  I finished this one 158^th overall.  I was not getting any good hands to make any big gains today.  The gains I had yesterday were gone after four games so I decided to call it a night.  I have now gained 10.21 VPPs for the month and am up to 69.37 for the year.  I also have 30.33 FPPs in my account and I should be getting another 60 FPPs by next week.  That is going to make my FPPs look pretty good.  My ranking on www.officalpokerrankings.com has increased again.  I am currently at 38.41% and increasing each day.  I think today will cause it to decline a little bit but I will not know until tomorrow. 

I am also thinking about setting up a Home Game “club”.  If you are interested in playing me please leave a comment and I will let you know more details.  The only stipulation is that you must register on Poker Stars in order to play in it.  If I do not get at least five people interested then I will not be doing it.  It all depends on the feedback I get here.  I am considering either a $10 or $20 buy-in and that each player will start with $1,500 in chips.  First place will win either all of the buy-in money or I will see about breaking it down for the top two.  That also depends on how many people show interest in it.  So the more people who show an interest will determine how many people will play against me and also how much cash can be won.  So, please leave me any comments or questions that you might have.  Also, for the record, Poker Stars is not in any way involved in this home game.  They are also not receiving anything for doing this and I am not receiving anything from Poker Stars.  The only connection between me, my home game, and Poker Stars is that it will be using Poker Stars software and require a Poker Stars account to participate.  I am not receiving anything from them for doing this.  It is strictly something fun I have thought of possibly doing.  Again, please leave a comment if you are interested and I will post more information as I see an interest in this.  Overall, it should be a fun game to play.  If the first one gets good participation then I will consider doing this once or twice a month.  With that being said, may the Poker Gods smile upon all your hands and your winning be large.

Bad Start but a Good Finish

Tuesday was an interesting day.  I managed to play five tournaments which had mixed results.  The first one I bought into was for a $1.20 NL Hold’em game with six players.  In this one every player received 1.1 VPP and 1^st and 2^nd places won cash.  It started out okay with no big hands to start.  That is until I had a bad beat that took half of my chips.  I started folding a lot and then got some good cards but that was another bad beat and it took me down to a third of what I started with.  I figured it was only a matter of time before I end up out of this tournament.  I started to go all in for a couple hands and was able to build up my stack a little.  That is when I ended up with pocket J’s.  Someone decided to go all in and I figured it was now or never that I was going to get back into this game.  He turned over a pair of J’s and I never got another 7.  So I finished 5^th out of 6^th.

The next one I did was a Fifty50 for $1.11 buy in.  This is one of those with ten players and the top five get paid $1 plus $0.03 for every 100 chips that you finish with.  Things were going pretty good.  I took out two players and had a nice stack of chips.  I then took a couple bad beats that knocked my stack down a little but nothing to worry about.  After-all, you cannot win them all.  I finished this one in 4^th place and took $0.60 gain.  It wasn’t the best I could have done but it gives me a gain and I’ll take it.

Then I entered a NAPT-LA Free-roll that had over 9,000 players.  This one really sucked.  I went out pretty quickly and didn’t win a single hand.  I was pretty much folding to everyone who was raising pre-flop or post-flop.  I just could not catch a break to get a good hand and I wasn’t going to play with garbage.  I ended up finishing 7,856^th.

After that I did a NL Hold’em turbo game with 45 players and a $0.55 buy in.  I made it to the first break in 6^th place and 15 players left.  I thought it was kind of odd that there was a break in this tournament since there were only 45 players but it is what it is.  Then I started to get nothing but crappy hands.  I ended up going all in to try to buy the pot and stay in it.  There were ten players left and only one more needed to go out to get to the final table.  While I was playing this hand the tenth player went out.  Right when it was changing to put everyone at the final table, the hand I was playing ended and I lost.  I finished 9^th right when the final table was being seated.  What a bad beat.  I did receive 0.28 VPPs so at least I got something out of it.

The last one I played for the night was a $1.08 buy in with ten players that was a Fifty50.  There were not any notable hands for this one other than watching someone get four K’s.  What a hand that was to see.  It was two K’s on the flop which gave him three of a kind.  The turn card was a low card and the river was another K.  It was nice to watch and I was glad that I did not try to bluff through that hand.  I ended up finishing 2^nd and after that last one, I felt a lot better.  I finished with a $1.54 gain and 0.44 VPP.

On another note, I have been receiving surveys from PokerStars that give the person who completes them get FPPs.  I am not sure why I am receiving so many of these surveys but it is nice to get something back for playing on their site.  I actually just finished doing one that I got this morning right before writing this.  The first one was just asking questions about how I like PokerStars and such.  The second one had to with the “Battle of The Planets” promotion that they have been doing for a while now.  The third one that I did was about their “Home Game” section that they have come out with.  One of the questions had to do with have I used it yet and about friends playing on PokerStars.  Right now I do not really have friends who play online.  I am pretty much the only one.  If anyone reading this plays on PokerStars let me know in the comment section and I will respond to you about maybe setting one up.

Now for the summary from the other days results.  Right now my VPP for this month is 5.97 and 65.13 for the year.  I do not think I will be able to get to the next level this year but maybe something will break loose and I will go on a big winning streak.  My FPP is currently at 26.09 but it should be going up next week.  I have 40 FPP coming from one survey that I did and another 20 FPP from the one I did earlier.  My ranking is 37.40% which is down from where it was earlier.  There is only one tournament that has not been included and that is the one that I did where I finished 9^th. 

Well, that is it for today.  I will try to post some more tonight or tomorrow morning again.  Thank you to those who are reading this.  When I check my stats, it is nice to see that people have viewed it.  Please feel free to leave any comments or questions and I will answer those that I see.  As always, may the Poker Gods smile upon your hands and your pots be large. 

Two Small Days

Monday was an interesting day of playing poker.  After completing some very idiotic homework for this math class that I am taking, I was able to start getting nto some poker games.  The first one I entered was a NAPL Free-roll Shootout SNG.  This is that one tournament that you can enter after you finish one.  It is also one that you can go all in without worrying about being out of the tournament since you can just go register for another one after you go out of the current one.  The first hand I had was 3h and 6s, which I folded.  The second hand was 2s and 5h which I folded.  The third one gave me Jh and Jc which I was able to win.  The fourth hand gave me Qc and Qd.  I took the other player all in thinking he was going to fold.  He called and showed nothing.  Then the river card was shown.  This gave him a flush and left me with a pair of queens.  This really screwed me out of the game and I finished 31^st out of 36.

The second tournament I entered was a single table sit and go, limit hold’em game with 9 players and a $1.20 buy in.  I ended up getting crappy hands that were so bad that I couldn’t even win with a pair of queens.  When I finally had the pair of queens I was beaten by three 2’s.  The only good thing I got out of this was 1.1 VPP.  I mean this game was so bad I will never do another one ever again.  It turned out that no one at this table even spoke a word of English.  Everytime I was the big blind, someone would go all in against me to make me fold.  For all I know they could have been saying to target me and get me out of the game.  I was very upset with the outcome of this game.  I also came to the conclusion that limit games suck.  I do not think that you can bluff or even steal a pot due to a limit being set on how much one can bet.  There were a number of hands that I could have pushed the other player out but I couldn’t do it with a $20 increase on the bet.  I will never play a limit game ever again.

After that horrible experience, I bought into a NL Hold’em Fifty50 for $1.08.  This is one of those where first place to fifth place get paid $1.00 plus $0.03 for every $100 in chips that you have.  One of the hands I had was pocket Aces.  The other person had pocket sixes and landed the full house on the river.  Luckily I was still in the tournament.  After a few more crappy hands, the sixth player was finally taken out.  I finished with enough chips to come in fourth out of ten.  This gave me a $0.63 gain plus 0.44 VPP.  It was kind of sad since I only won five hands in the whole game.

The fourth one that I played was a sit and go tournament with a $1.20 buy-in.  It only had 9 players and the top three won some money.  Everyone also got 1.1 VPP.  I was not having a good time at this table.  I did not get very awesome hands and when I get K Q and push the other guy all in, I get taken out by a small pair of 5’s.  It turned out that I just had high card A.  What a disappointment this one was. With three loses and only one small win.  I decided to take a break and get something to eat.

The other day I had won a ticket to the NAPL USA Rookie Division tournament.  After killing time playing those other tournaments, this one finally started.  After the extended registration ended there were 4,290 players.  I started off to a great start by taking two other players all in and winning a big pot.  Then I started to get some bad hands and did a lot of folding.  The first break finally arrived and only 2,656 players remained.  After the break a few more players went out and I was not getting any great cards to play.  I went into a folding mode where I only saw maybe five or so flops.  I had a good size stack of chips going into the second break with 1.066 players left.  I was then moved to another table where I was the biggest stack.  I had another guy go all in and decided that I will call.  I had the pot won until the river card showed up and gave him the win.  I was not out of this tournament but I ended up down to only $2,000 in chips.  I started to get a bit more aggressive and was able to build my chips back up.  I actually had to do this twice due to trying to bluff and buy the pot.  We only needed 436 players to go out to get into winning some money.  Then the third break came.  This was the longest I have been alive in a tournament of this size in a long time.  I was doing very good and playing very disciplined and cautious.  There were only 465 players left at this break, which meant that anyone who goes out wins some money.  Anyone who went out got anywhere between $0.19 and $80.33.  I was starting to get a little tired and was not use to playing in one tournament for two and a half hours.  At the three hour mark, I ended up going out and finished 340^th place for a $0.24 gain.  The original buy in was ten cents but since I had a ticket for this, I did not pay anything to play in it.  Therefore I had 24 cents of profit.

I ended up finishing the day with 3.54 VPP for this month, and 62.70 for this year so far.  I do not think I will be able to make it to the next level this year but I will continue playing and see what happens.  I also received 3.66 FPP for the tournaments I played in but I also received 20 FPP for completing a survey.  I also just received another survey from Poker Stars and should be getting some more FPP.  My ranking on www.officialpokerrankings.com went down a little bit to 37.41.  I am still above my ranking for last year.  So, I am not too disappointed with my ranking.  I know that it will end up going up this week.

I will continue to play when I can but with working a few hours each day now, I do not know how many I will get to in any given day.  I have decided to write when I have done at least five tournaments.  This way I will make changes to my VPP, FPP, and rankings.  I will also try to write these prior to going to work.  As always may the Poker Gods smile on your hands and your pots be plentiful.

Sad Four Days with a Sad Super Bowl in Between

After getting some rest, and recharging my batteries for another week.  I finally have some time to get things updated.  I have not done very much posting since I have not been doing so magnificent plus I have not been playing that many games.  On Thursday I played a $0.10 tournament with 360 players.  It went okay and I finished 143rd out of 360.  So right about the middle of the field is where I ended that one.  This was also the only one I played on Thursday.  On Friday I only had time for one 10 cent tournament with 360 players.  This one went better than I expected and I finished 69^th out of 360 players.

On Saturday and Sunday, I was able to do a lot more.  It also was nice to have yesterday and today off.  On Saturday I was only able to play in three tournaments. Two of them had FPP buy-ins and I did not do so hot in either one.  The first one had a 2 FPP buy in and I finished 46^th out of 100 players.  The second one was a “Turbo Takedown Sat: 8+R FPP 2x Turbo”.  I finished 108^th in this one and do not remember how many players were in it to start with.  By playing in these two tournaments, I had zero FPPs left in my account.  To finish out my Saturday, I entered my usual 10 cent buy in with 360 players.  I really have not been having very much luck lately.  I finished 108^th out of 360.

On Super Bowl Sunday, I was able to do quite a few tournaments.  I did 3 tournaments with $0.55 buy-ins and 45 players with finishing 21^st, 43^rd, and 33^rd.  It looked like this was not my weekend for winning.  I then did my old standby tournaments with $0.10 buy-ins and 360 players.  The first and last ones did not go to well.  I finished 252^nd, and 277^th.  The third one put me 87^th out of 360 with no significant hands to talk about.

I then entered into the NAPT LA Sat Free-roll.  This is one that I did last week trying to attain a ticket to the next round for a chance at $8,000.  There were over 7 thousand players registered and I lasted to 4,345^th.  The next one exceeded my expectation.  It was the NAPL Nightly $500 free-roll with 9,234 players.  I needed to make it 1,126 to win a Rookie Division Ticket and $0.10.  Things were going pretty well up to the first break.  After the first break, I started to lose and folded a lot of hands.  I was able to hang in there long enough to finish 1,061^st and won a Rookie Division Ticket and $0.10.

Feeling pretty good about that, but distraught over the result of the Super Bowl, I entered my usual tournament for 10 cent buy in and 360 players.  With being upset, I did not play very well.  I ended up going out pretty quick and finished 277^th.  With that being the end of my real money, I entered into the NAPL Shootout Free-roll and finished 5^th out of 36 players.

This morning I started out with a couple of those NAPL Shootout SNG tournaments with 36 players.  I finished 2^nd in one of them and 9^th on the second one.  I then took a break from poker to take care of some homework for the math class I am in and also to catch up with some friends on Facebook.  I also wanted to “clean” my Facebook page from all of those crazy Green “Gay” Packers fan posts.  Now we have to spend the next year hearing about Rodgers and how he is such a “great” QB.  In my opinion, He would not be so good without the Offensive Line in front of him giving him the time to make any type of passes like he has.  Next year will be different and they will not bet the Bears again in the playoff.  I only have one message for all of those fans, Wait till next year when every team is gunning to beat you.  As you can tell I am not a fan of Green “Gay”.  I have been a Chicago fan all my life and will NEVER rout for the packers, EVER.

To get back on topic here, I have improved my ranking to 38.88%.  I was up to 39% a few days ago but I ended up going down due to the games I played on Sunday.  With getting into the swing of working again, I am going to try to post more and also to include more about each tournament.  As always may the Poker Gods smile on your cards and let your pots be large.

Day Two of Free-roll Tournaments: Part two

I want to start by apologizing for not making this post sooner.  I have started a new part-time job that has taken up more time then I had thought.  With that said, it is on to the second day of the "Free-roll Week".

I started the day with five NAPL Shootout SNGs.  I finished 16th, 34th, 17th, 2nd, and 25th.  The one in which I finished 34th started just as fast as it ended.  I had pocket Ks and went all in only to be beat by a full house consisting of 8s and 3s.  I then bought into a tournament with 4,934 players for only 20 FPP just to finish 1230th.  Then I switched to a couple NAPL Shootout SNGs to finished 35th and 5th.  I then played in one of The Big Game Round 1 Qualifier with 4,191 players just to finish 2595th.

After that I did three more of the NAPL Shootout SNGs and finished 25th, 10th, and 18th.  I reallly was not having very much luck with these.  I then entered into the NAPT Free-roll for LA with 10,000 players just to finish 8,492.  The next two of these tournaments had me finishing 2324th and 7,337th.  I also played in two more Big Game tournaments with 5,000 players.  I finished 2,884th and 2483rd.  I was not having a good day with these.  I was at least prevent any lose in real money by doing these tournaments.  I did two more NAPL Shootouts which had me out just as quickly as they started.  I did manage to make it to the final table for the last one I did on Tuesday.

I was unable to do very much playing this week since I was just so tired by the time I got around to having the energy to do anything else.  I spent most nights with my wife showing her some attention and going for walks with her.  I have been able to play a couple more tournaments which I will be posting about tomorrow.  I have been able to improve my ranking on the poker rankings web site with a 39.61% ranking.  My FPP is down to 8 since I have played two tournaments that have required FPPs.  My VPP have not changed this week since I have not played any tournaments that do not add VPPs to my account.

I hope that you are enjoying reading about my results and what I think about them.  Stay tuned for more about the last few days, which should be posted tomorrow.  As always may the Poker Gods smile on your hands.

Day One and Day Two of Free-roll tournaments: PART 1

With my current situation I have decided to do a week of free-roll tournaments.  A free-roll tournament is one that is free to enter into as long as there is a sit for you.  There are three types of free-roll tournaments taht I have played in the last two days.  One of them is the NAPL Free-roll Shootout SNG tournaments that if you win, you receive a ticket into the NAPL Rookie Division tournament.  The next one that I have been playing in is the NAPT Los Angeles Sat for a ticket into the next round and a chance to win $7,000 for a buy in and hotel plus another $1,000 for expenses to play in a main event in LA.  That would be a very cool tournament for me to get into since I live only a few hours away.  The other one is The Big Game Round 1 Qualifier.  The top 300 players get a ticket into the round 2 qualifier.  If you win that you get a ticket into a final event that will then invite you to make a video of yourself saying why you should be selected to play in The Big Game Main Event in Vegas that will be televised.  With that said, on to the results.  I am going to make a lot of them short since I did not win and they were multiple tournaments that are the same.

On monday I did six NAPL Free-roll Shootout SNG tournaments and finished 28th, 31, 26, 17, 24, and 5th out of 36 players.  There was only one time that I made it to the final table.  These ones are fun to play because you get people going all in with the craziest hands.  But I did not win any of them.  The next one after that was the NAPT LA Free-roll that had 10,000 players in it.  I did not do well and finished in the 7,000s some where.  I then played in The Big Game Round 1 Qualifier which had 5,000 players in it.  I made it to the first break with just over 2,000 players left in the game.  After the break, I went down hill.  I finished this one 1,569th.  Then I did another string of the Shootout SNGs.  I finished 25th in the first one of this string.  On the next one I had pocket 8s on the first hand of this one and everyone called all in.  This is not a surprise and it happens more then you would think.  I did not have the winning hand and finished 32nd.  The next two had me finsihing 13th and 34th.

I then went back to The Big Game and on the first hand I got suckered out of half my chips.  This was not a good game for me.  After losing half, I was struggling to hang on and fninshed 1,432nd.  The next was the LA Free-roll in which I finsihed 2,,874th.  Back to the Big Game with only 3,921 registered to play, I finsihed 1,435th.  I then finished the night with a ten cent buy in with 360 players.  I ended up finisheing 14th which was very lucky since I was all in with weak hands a few times and gaind 30 cents.  This had me finishing the day with playing in 16 tournaments.