HOME TOURNEYS LATELY

Last week we played at Mike’s house the first time since December. 7 of us played for $100 with no rebuys. We decided to pay $400 - $200 - $100. With three left, I was the nominal chip leader and called an all-in with the short stack as a 60-40 favorite and lost. He wound up knocking me out a little later when my button push ran into his AA. So I broke even there, but picked up over $100 in the cash game that followed.

On Saturday I played at the other Mike’s house in Clermont. He comes to the regular Mike game and he populated this one with a bunch of his accountant friends. We played with 8 and then 7 people with a $40 buy-in both times. I got heads up twice. I finished 2nd the first game when I pushed with TT and ran into KK.

I was the chip leader in the second game when my opponent pushed with a flush draw and I called with top pair and he sucked out. I had a 12,600 to 9,1000 lead going into the hand and he called off my preflop raise, 1/3 of his chips with 86h v. my ATo. I suppose he was going to push if he hit any portion of the flop, and I couldn’t get away from the hand when an Ace came. That left me with 3500 and I pushed on the very next hand with KQ and he woke up with AA.

The prize money in these tourneys was weighted towards the winner so my two second place finishes yielded but $100 total. I could have won either and just didn’t get lucky. The game was softer than Mike’s usual Monday night affair. I hope to be invited back.

This recent bankroll build is playing catch-up from a few weeks ago when I lost my a** in Tampa with Sir Saunders. Sir Saunders won $400 that fateful day.

A funny note from the Saturday game. I spoke with 3 of the guys through the night and they all said they have quit playing online poker because it's just too hard anymore. Two of them played primarily on Party Poker. The surprising thing was that not one of them had a Neteller account and they were unaware of the legal stuff going on with it. They were funding their accounts through bank transfers and credit cards that have since become defunct too. What's keeping me away from online play is the hassle of cashouts. Now even guys who didn't mind that hassle have reasons not to play.

The Neteller Customer Coalition has formed over at Yahoo. They're trying to put pressure on Neteller to relase the funds to U.S. players.

The UPC game in downtown Orlando is on Thursday night this week. I haven’t played since my initial 4th place visit. I might try it again in preparation for Vegas this coming Monday.