Xmas shopping

I managed to get through the holidays with no major disasters...and only 1 embarassing event. That happened in Belk's where I may never shop again. It was very crowded and I was looking at some things and saw something I wanted to check out on the other side of the standing rack. I turned to walk around it and ran smack into a woman. I was so embarassed and started apologizing profusely - then looked up at her and to my horror I was apologizing to myself in a mirror lololololol. And yea -there were loads of people around, some of whom were watching me. That is one of those times you want the floor to open up and swallow you.

This Woman Needs a Man...

So - I am going to move this here now:

http://www.cardschat.com/f4/woman-needs-man-137279/index20.html

It might take you a while to catch up lol. If you have read it then you are familiar with Dakota's (the dog) xmas escapades last year when Joe's mum was here visiting. I got my new bigger tree - and I bought foil ornaments for the bottom of the tree. He has been so good this year with the tree that I even got brave enough to put presents under it. So far I have only had to re-wrap one - but it has only been a day lol.

However - my other decorations have suffered. This year I put 3 rows of garland across the fireplace and put the xmas cards on it. (don't worry - we have not used the fireplace lol.)

I came in and found 1 chewed up xmas card on the floor and one row of garland down. When I complained to Joe that Dakota had done it - he came to his defense as usual. He said I always blame everything on Dakota. He said the xmas card was from last year and must have fell out of something. (huh?). Of course Dakota did not pull my garland down - it just fell.

So later we were laying in bed - Dakota between us, barely allowing me enough room on my side of the bed as usual. (He actually growls at me when I try to claim an extra inch). He rolled over for his belly rub so I obliged. Then I felt something on his belly. I thought it was a leaf at first - but I couldn't pull it off. A closer look revealed what it was. Scotch tape -the exact size of what was missing from my hanging garland! I had evidence which I smugly shared with Joe. And what did he say???? That was not proof that Dakota pulled the garland down! The tape probably fell to the floor and when Dakota decided to lie innocently in front of the fireplace he layed on the tape.

Sigh lol.

"Treat Your Poker Like a Business"

Hopefully my book shipped today! It is written by Dusty Schmidt (Leatherass) from Stox Poker and it should be very good. And to make it more exciting he is doing a well thread at Cardschat. It is going great so far!

Here is the link for the well thread:

http://www.cardschat.com/f13/ask-me-anything-dusty-schmidt-aka-166743/

and here is the link to buy his book:

http://www.dustyschmidt.net

Variance sucks

Well December decided to show me what variance is all about - ouch. I am not doing well at anything -playing mostly sng's. But reviewing my games on my own and with my coach is not turning up a lot if mistakes so I guess I will be patient and ride it out. I will try to devote a day each week for studying and see if that helps to keep me focused.

November was a good month

November was my best month for poker since June - not a huge profit but a decent one nonetheless. I have continued with my sng coaching and that is helping a lot.

I also did well with some low-medium cashes in MTT's including some of the Cardschat private games.

Here's to December!

Sng and Tournament Update

November has been a good month overall for me. I have had 2 more sng coaching sessions and have another one scheduled for next week. I have learned a lot and it is reflected in my games. I am particularly more confident with my high blind and heads up game.

I think the sng coaching is also helping with my MTT game. I am having my best month since June.

There is still half the month to go - but I am happy so far.

I need to work some time in my schedule for watching videos - I paid for a year's membership at Stoxpoker and need to make sure I get my money's worth there.

I did an interview with Collin Moshman for Cardschat. It was fun to do and turned out well. He is very nice and the forum members have enjoyed it.

http://www.cardschat.com/f13/collin-moshman-interview-164121/

Poker in November

I have high hopes for November - I hope I don't let myself down lol. I should have a lot more time to play now. I finished Collin's book and it was very good. I need to get his HU book now. I am going to interview him for Cardschat within the next couple of days and that should be good.

I have another sng coaching session scheduled this week.

We just got back from San Francisco and it was fantastic!

Las Vegas again!

I arrived in Las Vegas last night. Flight was nice and I was able to read quite a bit of Collin Moshman's "Sit "n Go Strategy." (More on that next week!)

I was very tired last night so decided it was not a good time for poker. I played slot machines and Caribbean Stud a bit before heading to bed.

I played a little bit of poker this morning. I was totally card dead - only played 3 hands the whole time lol. I limped in with 22 in one hand and there was a large re-raise so I folded. Next hand I played was ages later when I got ATos and limped in with several others. Flop came AT2 and I bet and was called by a couple. Turn was an 8 and I bet - got 1 caller. River was something I don't even remember bet again and the guy re-raised all in. It was only $22 more dollars to call into a pot somewhere over $200 so I called. He had 22. Then right before I left I got QQ and won a small pot.

Will try again later!

SNG Coaching

I had my first sng coaching last night. It went very well and I am very optimistic about improving my game. I plan on doing more sessions. My coach was very thorough and I feel certain it will be money very well spent.

We had a sweat session and I played 4 $6.50 turbos. He gave me some great feedback. We installed SngWizard after that and he showed me some basics - I love it.

Hopefully I will have another session next week. For now I need to go workout and then shower so I can play some poker today!!

Video training

I finally joined Stoxpoker and I think it was a very good decision. I paid for a month and will probably go ahead and buy a year when the month runs out.

I watched a Matt Matros video on early MTT play and it was very good. Yesterday I watched one he made on 45 person sng's. I then played one of those and a 27 man sng - and finished 2nd in the 27 person one. I was pleased with some of the plays I picked up from him. I was short-stacked with about 600 chips and came back to take 2nd place. He ia an aggressive player. Tomorrow I am going to watch the 45 person sng video by Coling Moshman who is a tighter player. It should be interesting.

Poker Confusion

Poker has not been nice to me lately. I am not sure what to do. Next week when I get back from Kansas City I will get serious about the video training. I am at a loss for what to play. I hate ring games and feel I could never compete with the guys who play those regularly at 25NL and above. Lower than that I do not enjoy. Tournaments are where my heart is - but not having a good win since early June is painful. I like sng's but everyone says they suck. Limit supposedly involves more math so rule that out. I don't know what I should play. I just know that I love to play and want to play.

Tournament Training

So I have been debating whether or not to attend a WSOP Academy, a WPT boot camp or seek some other type of training. After some discussion with some friends at Cardschat I have decided to try some online training first. I signed up at Stoxpoker and watched my first video. I will tell you more tomorrow!

I think I am going to like this..

Vegas Baby!!

Vegas was incredible! I met some new Cardschat friends and made some more lasting friendships. I finally met Nick and he threw one hell of a party for us. I got to watch the WSOP up close and personal. I played a lot of poker and shared some great meals and good times with my Cardschat friends. I even left ahead on the money. I love playing live poker and seem to be much better at it than online. I have some big plans for the next year. More later!

Las Vegas 2009!

Getting excited about Vegas. I will be there during the entire WSOP from July 3rd-16th. It will be loads of fun. Too bad I can't play in the main event lol.

My First Final Table

At last!! I finally made a final table in an MTT at Pokerstars! I finished 5th of 3906 in the $11 - 30k guaranteed at Pokerstars - won almost $1600. I am so excited. That's all lol.

lol

I suck at poker lolololol.

Back Home Again

We had a fantastic time in England - met up with some of my Cardschat friends again and it was a blast as always.

It was good to get home again. I am finally starting to catch up on Cardschat work and stuff at home. Busy - but in good ways.

Hopefully I can play some serious poker in June!

Away in Ireland and England

We arrived in Belfast yesterday - here to visit some friends for a few days. Tonight should be good - going into Belfast to "The Empire' - where a band play glam rock on Friday nights. Will be here until Sunday, then we will go to Cheltenham, England for 5 days and then a final weekend in London.

No poker til I get back home!

My tournament update

I was finally able to move a large chunk of money from Full Tilt to Pokerstars. It will enable me to play some higher buy-ins and play around a bit more with re-buys. I am still waiting on my first final table - if I don't get it this month Irexes will lose his bet with me.

Brief update...

Wow - I have been bad - no updates since March 18th! Been busy digging into tournaments. No big cash yet but getting in the money some. Hope to update with some big news soon!

Poker Tournaments

I am really becoming addicted to tournaments now - in good way. I have a few favorites I have been playing fairly regularly and have been cashing in enough of them that I feel very good about playing. I am playing at Pokerstars and usually play in the $11 - 30k gtd every day. I have added the $22 - $32k gtd to that and once in a while play others. I have played in the $55 - 80k gtd twice - cashed in the first one but not in the 2nd. Those will be treats for when I have done well.

I am doing good early in the tournaments and making it to the cash - now I am working on the middle part of the game. I seem to be going deeper and deeper - but not deep enough yet.

I have not made that elusive final table but I feel it coming soon!

Poker Coaching

Wow - I haven't been able to spend a lot of time on poker lately. I have taken on additional responsibilities at Cardschat and have been very busy.

I has my first coaching session with Zachvac from Cardschat a couple of weeks ago. I am now using HEM - he helped me set it up. The coaching session was great. I need to get some hands in so I can get to my next lesson. ( he is coaching me at $25NL)

Tournaments Going Well

The last 3 days have been good to me. I won $30 in a FT tournament Sunday. Then I won over $123 by finishing first in the Cardschat Pokerstars re-buy. I finished 70th in the 80k guaranteed at Pokerstars yesterday and won $177. Last night I finished 3rd in the Cardschat UB buy-in and won $34. Today I won $35 in the 30k guaranteed at Pokerstars.

I feel a final table in a big MTT coming on soon!

Back From The Cruise

We got home yesterday. The cruise was fantastic - we saw some great shows and had lots of fun.

I can't wait to get back into playing poker. I have played a few Cardschat games today and will play a few again tomorrow. I am anxious to play in some Pokerstars tournaments next week.

I got a ticket to the Pokerlistings $5k freeroll tomorrow so will play in that too. I only need to earn 100 VPP's to get in their next big one so will play some cash games too.

Cruise Time

I will be gone for almost a week on a great cruise with The Barenaked Ladies. It should be loads of fun and I will give a report when I return.

Hopefully there will be a poker table in the casino and I can win a little bit. But we will mostly be busy going from concert to concert. BNL invites some of their favorite bands to perform on the ship and it is a huge floating music festival.

See you in a week!

A Good Day for Poker

Had a good day today. Played in the $11/10k gtd at Pokerstars - only won about $25 but felt it was a good tournament and learned some more from it. I am loving playing tournaments - they feel like the right thing for me now.

I also did well in the Cardschat UltimateBet buy-in. I got heads-up with April and we eventually decided to split it. I was down to about $40 there since I withdrew $340 - and now I am over $100 again.

And prices on flights to London went down so we are booking our May trip tomorrow! Details on that to follow.

Had a Decent Win This Week

I won the Cardschat money added tournament on Sunday night - for $172 which is the most I have won in a while. Why do I have to keep building my bankroll at Fulltilt instead of Pokerstars where I would rather play?? lol

Irexes let me watch him play another tournament - it really helps me a lot. I like his style and he is successful with it. I feel like it is something I can do. I have a lot more confidence when I play tournaments now.

I feel a big win coming soon!!

Tournaments Rock!

Well I am starting to love playing tournaments! I finished 123rd in the tournament mentioned in my last post and won over $52. I played in a $5 tournament today and finished 59 out of over 5000 players. It was only a little over $38 - but going deep twice since my sweat session feels good.

I am getting a lot more confident in my ability - I could have easily gotten to the final table today and won some big bucks. It will happen this year.

I think I have found what I want to do. I am going to try to play $5, $10 and $20 tournaments for a while and see how it goes.

Sweat session

I had my first tournament sweat session on Friday. It was with Irexes - whom many of us at Cardschat consider the best tournament player we have. I feel very fortunate to have been given this opportunity - it was very much like a coaching session. He played the $22 re-buy at Pokerstars and I was very fortunate that he was in for over 4 hours and went through several stages of the tournament. I learned so much from watching him. Mostly about getting reads and information on opponents, sizing bets and playing position. He really focuses on what he thinks the other players have rather than what he has. He takes a lot of notes on players and uses OPR to check rankings. He showed me what to look for. He also keeps the previous hand history pulled up to check cards played, etc. I feel like I have so much more information now to work with .

I took 2nd in the Cardschat USA vs World event yesterday. I am currently in the $11/30k gtd at stars and I am 280 of 626 and it pays 450. There were 4005 entrants.

YSY!

Tommy Angelo's Book

I am soooo excited - I got Tommy Angelo's "Elements of Poker". I got it from him - courtesy of Nick at Cardschat and it is autographed. I have read the introduction and a few pages and it seems like it will be easy to read.

Hopefully it will improve my game and all that good stuff lol. I will probably be a scary poker player by the time I turn the last page.

He will probably read about me and offer me free coaching for a year.

A girl can dream...

New Year for Poker

2009 is going to be a good year for me! I am going to do some studying and practicing to improve my game. I am going to just continue to dabble in cash games and will play some more tournaments.

I won a step 3 ticket at Pokerstars in the blog championship and turned it into a step 4 ticket. I used it to play in the Sunday warm-up last Sunday. I did not cash but felt like it was a good experience.

I played in the $11 re-buy today at Pokerstars and did quite well I thought. I finished 422 of 3258 which was in the money. I went out with KK all in pre-flop and ran into AA. If I had won that hand no telling how far I could have gone.....