SUNDAY REPORT

It was a long day of poker. It began well and ended well with a lot of heartbreak in between. First let me catch up the home audience on my results for the past two months. My laptop actually bit the dust a few days ago and I am still reeling from the loss. One of the things I lost with it was my poker stats for August and September so here they are in a nutshell:

August was horrendous. It began in Vegas where I did nothing but lose. I even fed $600 into video poker machines. I spent the back half of the month in Orlando and kept trying to squeeze tournaments in when my heart just wasn't in it. All told, I lost between $3500 and $4k during August which included my $640 STT qualifier for the Barcelona tournament. Even though I was in a funk, the ticket was expiring and I had to use it. I was second out at the table. I was a net loser in every facet of the game, MTT, STT, HU, and cash games, though I cannot provide the exact figures.

September started off slow but when the kids went back to school after Labor Day, I got my head on straight and I started doing well. I made two final tables during that first week of school and another at the end of the month. I made almost $2k in the cash games and I did well at the STT and I think I lost a little at HU, mostly because I kept throwing good money after bad playing O8. I won consistantly all month and finished up somewhere in the neighborhood of $3500 to $4k, though I cannot provide the exact figures. So I'm willing to call the last two months a wash and just move forward with my net total thru July as I move into October. I won't count the demise of my laptop which was like throwing $1400 in the trash bin.

Today I set up camp on my Dell PC which I bought to enable me to play any poker site and is now a first stringer. My day began with a $105+9 SNG at PokerStars. I finished 2/10 and cashed $283.50. A good start to the day. I got robbed on that final hand too.

Next I decided to play the big Party Poker event since I didn't want to pay over $2k to play the WCOOP event at Stars. I was doing well but I duffed off my chips on the bubble by making a call I wished I could have back as soon as I clicked. I called a raise from the BB with K9. The flop came K76 favoring clubs. I checked with the intention of raising a continuation bet. My opponent went all in and I instantly called. When he turned over KQ I realized that with so many draws on board, of course an all in bet was a king and any king which opened for a raise was better than mine. I need to think a bit longer sometimes and get away from hands. I tend to go with my gut too often when my gut does not boast a perfect record. I finished 912/5060 and made no money after paying $215 to play.

I paid $216 to play the big event at Full Tilt and again I started well but didn't cash. I was seated to the left of David Chiu which meant there was a bounty at the table. That always excites me. I became the table captain and chip leader early on but then the table broke and the bounty scattered. It dried up good for me after that, beginning with a hand in which I flopped a set but ran into a bigger set from a smaller stack. I wound up 590/1279 for no cash.

My next event cost me $163 and I finished an unremarkable 113/283. Then I entered the $216 Full Tilt HORSE tourney just for giggles. I played a handful of HORSE SNGs during September and did pretty well. I knew I had no chance of doing well in this event with people like Andy Bloch playing but I saw my buddy MarvinGarden signed up so I signed up too. I played too many hands and hit nothing but second best hands and finished 117/133. Fun though - I'm going to keep practising.

I was pretty much burnt out on poker by this point and down $640.50 on the day but I was still railing the big WCOOP event at Stars so I decided to play one last tournament, a $109 six-handed tourney at Full Tilt. I gotta tell you - I am posting great results at these short-handed events. I really have to focus to play so I don't play them while watching TV, but with the laptop broken, I can't watch TV while I play anyways, which I'm sure will be good for my game. I played well, got lucky in spots, and wound up winning the event - 1/257 - for a payday of $6682 and a happy ending to a long day of poker.