One year later !

Its hard to believe its been a year since I decided to start and subsequently forget about this blog.

I think I chose at the time to not continue because I wasn't sure that I had a unique angle about the game that people would find interesting. I'm not a pro, I'm not a traveler, and I can't afford the bigger buyin games. Yet! I'm working on that. I'm also an avid blog reader and I can't stand blog's that are never updated. I never wanted to be that guy.

So why am I here now? I guess its because I feel like I'm turning an important corner. I feel like I have made important changes in my game. I have the confidence to play with the better players. I'm having more fun playing again and I'm making a little money (very little). Poker is a lot more fun when your bankroll isn't on tilt all the time.

What I'm hoping to do in the coming posts is to analyze and write about what it is I have been doing to improve or change my game that has changed me from a 5 year straight B/E player to being a slightly profitable player. A trend I hope will continue until I can hit that big cash which will float me in big games for the year.

Principally I think there have been 3 main contributors.

1) Harrington on Holdem 2 (completely renewed commitment to the "M")
2) Playing in higher buyin games
3) Watching better players play and watching the finish of games I've just been knocked out of.

I've also been playing on the Myst Poker Tour (MPT). Its a series of freeroll live poker events held at The Lone Star Bar and Grill on St Laurent St., here in Ottawa. Congratulations to local poker pro Marc Karam, his sponsor Eurolinx, Niko, etal for a doing such a great job. The series consists of 10 weekly events with the best 10 players advancing to the VIP tournament (week 11). The weekly prizes are good thanks to Marc and Eurolinx but the final prize of a trip to the WSOP is the real plum. Check out Marc's sick web site for more info.

I played my first game on week 2 and somehow made my way to the final table so I have my seat in the VIP final. This was only my 2nd or 3rd live multitable event. I have nothing to brag about, I didn't play particularly well nor not did I catch great cards. I just folded, folded and then folded some more. Later, when the blinds went up I pushed over and over from position keeping myself afloat. I doubled up a couple times but nothing exciting. In fact when we found ourselves down to the final 13 or 14 I lucked out a few times. Not the standard type of luck ....weird type luck. On two occasions I found myself in decent sized pots with Niko and a 3rd. I missed the flop both times, Niko bet the flop (standard C-bets) 3rd folded and I reraised about the minimum putting myself Allin.I was toast both times but I was so short I wanted to at least give myself a chance to get lucky. Thankfully and to my surprise Niko folded both hands to me, giving me enough chips to advance a few more positions. He folded both hands quickly, apparently he had already decided his action if he was reraised. He really must have been playing with air as the odds were easily there for any two cards and I couldn't bet anymore.The other weird thing that happened is that I actually miscounted my chip stack. No crap, when we had about 12 left, blinds were sick and I kept folding in obvious push situations. I thought I had about 6k with 500/1000 blinds. With only 1 or 2 positions to go I was making real tight folds. Little did I know how tight they really were as I actually only had ½ that many chips.

So after final tabling my first decent sized live event, you can imagine the confidence I was feeling when I went back. Last night was week # 9 and it was my 4th try since I qualified. I've lasted 1 hand, 4 hands and maybe 15 min 2 times. KKvsAA, runner runner straight, runner runner flush, and last night TPTK vs flopped trips. Poker is so humbling. Oh, I forgot to mention that if you get to more than one final table you get extra chips to play with at the VIP.

WOW, that's a long post.......to long. More to come very soon. I've had some decent results lately I'll to post some interesting hands.

Ifoldallday