Don't forget, the Bodog Blogger Tournament series revs up again starting tomorrow night. If I play, I won't be able to be there at the start due to a meeting at my son's school. I may have to skip the game completely. But I do plan to be there Thursday night. Here is more info....
You are invited to play in, post or forward this information.
Don't Miss Tuesday's Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament!
Start Time 9:05 pm ET.
Think you have what it takes to bust out a poker pro?
On Tuesday October 28th, 2008 professional poker player and author, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, will compete in the Bodog Blogger Tournament Series.
There will be a $75 bounty on Eric's head and the poker blogger who takes Eric's last chips in this tournament will receive a $75 credit to their Bodog member player account. This blogger will also receive a signed copy of Eric's book, Winning Poker Tournaments One Hand at a Time. If Eric wins this tournament, he will give the $75 credit to the poker blogger that places 1st runner up. That player will then receive the credit of $75 to his or her account.
This blogger tournament series is open to poker bloggers world wide and runs on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 9:05 pm ET.
More details available at the official blogger series site at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com
If you are new to Bodog, please sign up at http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/
So what are you waiting for?
Register today and may the best poker blogger take the bulls eye on Eric "Rizen" Lynch!
Nadia Alterio
The Bodog Poker Blogger
nalterio@fivermedia.com
Yahoo ID: bodogdirectory
Tune into Buddy Dank Radio for live tournament recaps and updates while you play at http://www.buddydankradio.com
Monday, October 27, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
The NumbBlowMe marathon
This will be short because I am writing this on my lunch break at work and hope to take a power nap after I post.
I played in the NumbBlowMe ten-cent rebuy tourney last night. After about 5.5 hours of roller coaster donkery, I finished in second place. More results and info can be found here.
How did I do it, you ask? Besides rigging the RNG, you mean. I can sum up my strategy for success in this tournament in one word:
Patience.
As you might expect, when you are playing in a tourney where rebuys are only a dime, there is a bargeload of maniacal play and ATC pushing. I chose to wait for opportunities to get my chips in with reasonable hands, and not shove against bigger stacks unless I had what looked like a better than average chance to take the pot. I double or tripled or quadrupled up a few times during the rebuy period using this method. Getting good cards was a big part of it, because they held up a lot of times. By the break, I was well above average in chips, although I took the 1,500 chip add on anyway (it was only $0.10, after all). I only rebought for $0.20 during the first hour; there were a total of 4,417 rebuys in this tourney. What does that tell you about how wild things were during the rebuy period?
I won't say that I played championship level poker, but I feel like my decisions were pretty good most of the time. Still,I was racking cards like crazy all night. I had starting cards of AA, KK, QQ or JJ more times than anyone would expect, even over the course of 5 hours, and they didn't get cracked as often as you would expect either. One particularly painful hand (for my opponent) was late in the game when I had JJ and flopped quads against Joanada who, on the short stack, pushed to my check on the flop. Although I took a couple of nasty beats myself, it seemed like I was dishing out more than I was getting.
I almost didn't play this tourney, but I'm glad I did, for the experience and for the bankroll boost (but not for the lack of sleep). And I'm really looking forward to the bounty I am supposed to get for busting Joanne. Beauty, eh?
I played in the NumbBlowMe ten-cent rebuy tourney last night. After about 5.5 hours of roller coaster donkery, I finished in second place. More results and info can be found here.
How did I do it, you ask? Besides rigging the RNG, you mean. I can sum up my strategy for success in this tournament in one word:
Patience.
As you might expect, when you are playing in a tourney where rebuys are only a dime, there is a bargeload of maniacal play and ATC pushing. I chose to wait for opportunities to get my chips in with reasonable hands, and not shove against bigger stacks unless I had what looked like a better than average chance to take the pot. I double or tripled or quadrupled up a few times during the rebuy period using this method. Getting good cards was a big part of it, because they held up a lot of times. By the break, I was well above average in chips, although I took the 1,500 chip add on anyway (it was only $0.10, after all). I only rebought for $0.20 during the first hour; there were a total of 4,417 rebuys in this tourney. What does that tell you about how wild things were during the rebuy period?
I won't say that I played championship level poker, but I feel like my decisions were pretty good most of the time. Still,I was racking cards like crazy all night. I had starting cards of AA, KK, QQ or JJ more times than anyone would expect, even over the course of 5 hours, and they didn't get cracked as often as you would expect either. One particularly painful hand (for my opponent) was late in the game when I had JJ and flopped quads against Joanada who, on the short stack, pushed to my check on the flop. Although I took a couple of nasty beats myself, it seemed like I was dishing out more than I was getting.
I almost didn't play this tourney, but I'm glad I did, for the experience and for the bankroll boost (but not for the lack of sleep). And I'm really looking forward to the bounty I am supposed to get for busting Joanne. Beauty, eh?
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Bodog Blogger Tournament Series - The Sequel
My favorite blogger tournament series from earlier this year is getting into the starting blocks, and the gun goes off October 28.
Yes, the Bodog Blogger Tournament Series is back, with some new features. Among other things, the tourney will run twice a week this time, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the tournament structure will match what Bodog uses in their 100K Guarantee game. The prizes for the Tournament of Champions at the end of the series aren't quite as sweet as the WSOP seat that they had for the previous series, but aren't anything to sneeze at either, including a grand prize of T$2,000 plus $100 Bodog casino credit. More details and the registration page can be found here. I have already registered for the series, and you should too. If you don't have an account at Bodog yet, go here to get more info and sign up. You can also check Smokkee's blog for updates and info about the series, since he is the Bodonkey host and chief pimp.
In other news, my recent poker sessions have been decidedly mixed. I played in the local Amateur Poker League weekly tournament this past Tuesday, and finished second. That got me a T-shirt from the venue, and what should be enough leaderboard points to enter me in the monthly venue championship for October. I also played in a few online tournaments over the past couple of weeks. Out of five SNGs at PokerStars since my last post, I cashed in one, but it was a first place finish which made up for the losses in the other four. I also played the Riverchasers tourney at FullTilt on Thursday for the first time in many months. Only five people showed up, and I finished fourth. My play was quite poor and disappointing. I guess I'd better play a few more of the lower buy-in SNGs there before I buy in to any more blogger games.
I am still curious about who all is going to the Winter Classic blogger gathering in December. I'm picking up mentions from people who are talking about it here and there, and making note of them. Maybe someone will be (or already is) putting together a list of attendees. Whoever is going, I look forward to seeing you there.
Yes, the Bodog Blogger Tournament Series is back, with some new features. Among other things, the tourney will run twice a week this time, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and the tournament structure will match what Bodog uses in their 100K Guarantee game. The prizes for the Tournament of Champions at the end of the series aren't quite as sweet as the WSOP seat that they had for the previous series, but aren't anything to sneeze at either, including a grand prize of T$2,000 plus $100 Bodog casino credit. More details and the registration page can be found here. I have already registered for the series, and you should too. If you don't have an account at Bodog yet, go here to get more info and sign up. You can also check Smokkee's blog for updates and info about the series, since he is the Bodonkey host and chief pimp.
In other news, my recent poker sessions have been decidedly mixed. I played in the local Amateur Poker League weekly tournament this past Tuesday, and finished second. That got me a T-shirt from the venue, and what should be enough leaderboard points to enter me in the monthly venue championship for October. I also played in a few online tournaments over the past couple of weeks. Out of five SNGs at PokerStars since my last post, I cashed in one, but it was a first place finish which made up for the losses in the other four. I also played the Riverchasers tourney at FullTilt on Thursday for the first time in many months. Only five people showed up, and I finished fourth. My play was quite poor and disappointing. I guess I'd better play a few more of the lower buy-in SNGs there before I buy in to any more blogger games.
I am still curious about who all is going to the Winter Classic blogger gathering in December. I'm picking up mentions from people who are talking about it here and there, and making note of them. Maybe someone will be (or already is) putting together a list of attendees. Whoever is going, I look forward to seeing you there.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Choosing where I play on line
I have realized something about my playing patterns that might be a bit surprising to some, but it isn't to me now that I think about it. It concerns how I decide which poker site to play on when I feel like sitting down for a session.
It used to be that I would first find out whether any tournaments were scheduled that were hosted by the poker bloggers that I am acquainted with, or that I knew some of them would be playing in. I haven't been doing that very much recently, in large part because most of those games were played on FullTilt, and my bankroll there had dwindled to the point where it would take most of my balance just to buy in. Since I wasn't playing in those games, I would look for tourneys with buy-ins small enough for me to handle and have a decent chance to build up my roll.
I chose to play those micro games on FullTilt so I could try to win enough money to allow me to play in the blogger games again. Then, as mentioned in my last post, I did win a tourney that more than doubled my bankroll there. Still, it would take about one tenth of my balance to buy into a typical blogger tourney. So, I looked at my balances on other sites. I'm doing fine at Bodog, thanks to the cash and T$ that I won during the Blogger Series earlier this year. I have more money there than at any other site. PokerStars is another story. I haven't had a lot of success there over the course of 2008 so far, and my roll has fallen well below $100.00.
So where do I play most often these days? Why, at PokerStars, of course. Since I am comfortable at Bodog and no longer on life support at FullTilt, I feel the need to work on building up my stake where it is the smallest. I've done pretty well there over the past few weeks, playing in eight low buy-in SNGs since the middle of September and cashing in three of them. I barely eked out a $2.30 profit over that period, but I consider it a positive sign that I have done at least that well. I'm hoping that the trend continues or even improves so that I can pump things up at Stars. Wil Wheaton has said that he is thinking about hosting tournaments again, and I assume that they will be on PokerStars. I would like to be able to play in them, which means I need to have some funds in my account there. As big a hassle as depositing can be, I would certainly rather win to increase my roll rather than have to try to deposit. Who knows, I may try to deposit anyway, to give myself a cushion sooner than later, but we'll see.
Meanwhile, looking ahead to some live poker playing in the future, I am all booked for the WPBT Winter Classic in Las Vegas the weekend of December 12 - 14. American Airlines changed my original flight booking so that now I am scheduled to fly home on Monday morning at 6:00 AM instead of on the red-eye about five hours earlier. That sucks, because I did not book a hotel room for Sunday night, but I also didn't plan to stay up the entire night like I may have to now. I will need to look into seeing if there is any other option to fly home, that won't cost me big bucks in change fees.
I have not yet seen or heard much about what is planned for the Winter Classic, nor a list of people who are planning to go. If anyone out there is compiling such a list and wouldn't mind directing me to it, or letting me sign up for it, please leave me a comment or e-mail me. I'm looking forward to seeing many of my blogger pals in just a few months!
It used to be that I would first find out whether any tournaments were scheduled that were hosted by the poker bloggers that I am acquainted with, or that I knew some of them would be playing in. I haven't been doing that very much recently, in large part because most of those games were played on FullTilt, and my bankroll there had dwindled to the point where it would take most of my balance just to buy in. Since I wasn't playing in those games, I would look for tourneys with buy-ins small enough for me to handle and have a decent chance to build up my roll.
I chose to play those micro games on FullTilt so I could try to win enough money to allow me to play in the blogger games again. Then, as mentioned in my last post, I did win a tourney that more than doubled my bankroll there. Still, it would take about one tenth of my balance to buy into a typical blogger tourney. So, I looked at my balances on other sites. I'm doing fine at Bodog, thanks to the cash and T$ that I won during the Blogger Series earlier this year. I have more money there than at any other site. PokerStars is another story. I haven't had a lot of success there over the course of 2008 so far, and my roll has fallen well below $100.00.
So where do I play most often these days? Why, at PokerStars, of course. Since I am comfortable at Bodog and no longer on life support at FullTilt, I feel the need to work on building up my stake where it is the smallest. I've done pretty well there over the past few weeks, playing in eight low buy-in SNGs since the middle of September and cashing in three of them. I barely eked out a $2.30 profit over that period, but I consider it a positive sign that I have done at least that well. I'm hoping that the trend continues or even improves so that I can pump things up at Stars. Wil Wheaton has said that he is thinking about hosting tournaments again, and I assume that they will be on PokerStars. I would like to be able to play in them, which means I need to have some funds in my account there. As big a hassle as depositing can be, I would certainly rather win to increase my roll rather than have to try to deposit. Who knows, I may try to deposit anyway, to give myself a cushion sooner than later, but we'll see.
Meanwhile, looking ahead to some live poker playing in the future, I am all booked for the WPBT Winter Classic in Las Vegas the weekend of December 12 - 14. American Airlines changed my original flight booking so that now I am scheduled to fly home on Monday morning at 6:00 AM instead of on the red-eye about five hours earlier. That sucks, because I did not book a hotel room for Sunday night, but I also didn't plan to stay up the entire night like I may have to now. I will need to look into seeing if there is any other option to fly home, that won't cost me big bucks in change fees.
I have not yet seen or heard much about what is planned for the Winter Classic, nor a list of people who are planning to go. If anyone out there is compiling such a list and wouldn't mind directing me to it, or letting me sign up for it, please leave me a comment or e-mail me. I'm looking forward to seeing many of my blogger pals in just a few months!
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