Post Vegas Blues

Vegas trips are alway so much fun – it is hard to adjust when I get back home. I have come to love playing live tournaments and living in Georgia means I have to travel to play. Vegas is really the best deal with the best tournaments so I try to go every 2-3 months. I guess I should consider myself fortunate for being able to do that – but I really do hate that I can’t play live all the time.

I did okay on this most recent trip. I finished 5th in one of the Venetian 2nd chance tournaments and finished 4th in one of the daily Aria tournaments. I stayed at the Aria the last 6 nights I was there and they may have stolen me from the Venetian – I really like it there.

I had a blast with Team Moshman as usual. I wasn’t able to play my best when we played pool – but I did manage to stay reasonably sober unlike most of the others lol. See if you can pick out the guilty parties in the picture above.

Time to Hit Vegas Again!

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

Some of us are heading back to Vegas this week. I am looking forward to seeing some of my Team Moshman friends again. The last trip was fantastic – there are some great memories of that one!

I am also excited to play some live tournaments again and see if I can get some more final tables. This time if I chop I will be much better prepared lol.

I will be playing some of the 2nd chance nightly tournaments at the Venetian which I did so well in. I will also be playing some of the Aria tournaments this time since I will be staying there for part of the trip.

I plan on taking some pictures this time too!

Off to New York for the First Time

from my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

Every October Joe and I pick a new place to go that we want to see. This year it is Manhattan. I have never been and Joe has only gone there once long ago. I am very excited – it seems people either love it or hate it. But Joe knows me well and thinks I will love it. I think he might be right.

At any rate it will be a nice break from my routine – and from poker for 5 days.

Last year was San Francisco which ended up being one of my favorite places in the world – maybe only second to Amsterdam.

Next year we are talking about Hawaii.

Took Down the Pokerstars 25k!

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I finally got a 1st place in a big online MTT! It was a miracle comeback too. With the blinds at 500/1000 and a $100 ante I was down to 993 chips and had to slowplay to make the money lol.

I then proceeded to blind out – got down to 418 chips. By this time the blinds were 600/1200 and the ante was $125 which left me with 293 chips. I was UTG and had J3os. I called with my micro 1/4 bb stack and caught a J on the river to win. I perked up at this point cause I had 2bb’s to work with lol. Here is the result:



If you can't see it - I won the tournament! Cash was $5064.

Another Venetian cash

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I snuck away for a last minute quick trip back to Vegas this week. I played in the same nightly Venetian tournament again and finished 7th for a small cash. There were only 71 in the tournament - they said that was the lowest turnout they had ever had. It only paid the final table - and it is a shame that my JJ did not hold up against 66 in my last hand. It would have put me about 3rd in chips and I could have had a nice cash.

Oh well.....

Back From Vegas and addicted to live tournaments!

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

Wow – what a great trip this was!! It was so cool meeting all of you for the first time. I feel like I have some new friends for life.

We kicked off the first meeting after I arrived with the fantastic dinner at CraftSteak. It was the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. And the company was fantastic – had some great chats with everyone.

Darts was a blast – and I even won a game. Which is a miracle I know. Rob can attest to my terrible aim. I met him and Grind in a bar in the Palazzo. They were over doing the old people jokes with me and I finally had my last straw with Rob and threw an ink pen at his chest. Only it hit him right between the eyes instead. It was bloody. He is still a marked man. But no more old jokes hehe.

Collin and Katie took me to dinner on my birthday to a Brazilian Steakhouse and it was another fun night. Simon, Andy and his wife joined us.

Cody (Bwammo), Jonny (Silentstorm) and I had a couple of fun nights hanging out. I hated that Jonny lost his phone though. We all had a last night dinner at an Italian place – then all of my Mosh buddies except for Rob left me. I was very sad.

The next week was spent with Cardschat friends – and Rob who got along great with all of my other friends. We all hung out together every day and night. We had a blast both days of the 2+2 parties playing foosball, shuffleboard and darts. Rob and I make a good team – well only because he is on it lol. The Bodog party was good for drinks and food but we didn’t stay long. The CardRunners party was good for drinks and we made our own fun.

Dusty Schmidt (Leatherass) invited me to dinner with the DTB guys. Hunter, QTip, Owen and Phil joined us. I love all of them – we had a great time talking and they had me in stitches more than once.

I was thrilled with how I played in my first real shot at live tournaments. I cashed in 5 of the 10 I played in – making a profit of over $3400. I totally screwed up my 1st place chop and probably cheated myself out of about $600-800 more. But Cody kind of set me straight on what to do going forward and it was a lesson learned. I have to give him some credit for my success – I have really opened up my game a lot since he started coaching me and watching him play so much has me making decisions and moves that were never part of my game in the past. He focuses a lot on how the table and players are playing and has helped me to start doing the same. I know the times I went deep some of the things I learned from him were invaluable. He never cares about how short his stack gets – he is always convinced he can still take it down. I found myself with that same confidence after a few games. So for those caoches jealous of his student buying him dinners – he earned them lol!

Last night Rob and I played in the nightly Venetian game – which is what 9 of my games were in. We both made the money and of course they sit me right next to him twice. So when it was down to 12 he shoves into me from LP and I know his range is any 2 cards. It was an easy call with my AT. He turns over 83os lol. Ofc he gets a 3 to take me down to 6k in chips with the blinds at 3k/6k and 1k ante. Next hand I get KK and more than quadruple up with 4 callers. Then I get 99 and more than double up. I worked my way back to 116k lololol. Unfortunately Rob got knocked out in 10th with AK vs AK and the other guy hit 4 cards to a flush. I finished 8th for a $668 cash.

I plan on playing a lot more live tournaments!!

Helps to have fun playing poker sometimes

from my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I played my sng’s earlier than usual yesterday because I didn’t want any pressure to play in the evening. Joe’s mum is leaving today after a month with us and we took her out to dinner last night which was nice – and my last good meal til Vegas since I need to go back to eating lettuce for a month now. (We have been very bad while she has been here).

I also had a couple of fun games I needed to play last night. We have a guys vs girls event going on at Cardschat and the girls absolutely crushed the guys last weekend in the kick-off event. Then we had a HU qualifier which was a shootout and I finished 3rd. Being the top finishing girl I had to play the top finishing guy hu last night. It was a fun match and I beat him – I have to give you guys here some credit for that. I have learned a bit more about playing hu from watching the hu matches taking place here.

And then there was a private tournament for members of TournamentPokerEdge. Their pros played in it – bigdogpckt5s, IveGotToeJam, HitThePanda. There were 36 people in it and I managed to finish 3rd – ahead of all the pros hehe. Their founder took top place – he is a very nice guy. The tournament was loads of fun – they are a fun group to hang with. (Not as much fun as you guys of course!!)

Anyway – my point is it is nice to take a night off sometimes and just play for fun. Some of us from here did that on a Friday night a few weeks ago and we should do it again sometime soon

My Round 1 HU Match Today

From my blog at:
http://collinmoshman.com/

I was fortunate enough to draw mdot in round 1 of the Team Moshman HUNL Invitational. It could have been worse – I could have drawn Collin himself.

To prepare for my match I signed up for Vandweller’s 2 minute Skype crash course in “How To Defeat mdot HU.” WIth his proven track record I have total confidence that he has given me the tools I need to take this down.

I did my homework and played a hu nl $2.20 match last night practicing what I had been taught. So far my success rate is 100%. I took down the match and my opponent declined a re-match so he must have been scared.

Get ready for the hunl upset of the century! (Today at 1pm at Pokerstars, tournament id#269094068) – see you there!

Might have to switch to Full Tilt

From my blog at:
http://collinmoshman.com/

I stopped playing sng’s last Saturday. After a bad month in March I found myself even worse off halfway through April. I just couldn’t have a winning session.

So I have spent the week playing some MTT’s and trying to decide what to do. I have played some rush sng’s and MTT’s at Full Tilt. On a whim Thursday I decided to play 6 $11 sng’s there. It went very well. I have played a few more sets since then and every one has been a good set. It is early days – but the play seems to be so much softer there. I hardly ever see more than 1 person loading up multiple tables. (Unlike PS where there are usually 3-4 doing it at an given time).

I really hate to play there with no rake. But I guess I might try it for a few months and see if I can get some Iron Man bonuses. I will miss Pokerstars – I like it soooooo much better. But I guess I will have to play where I can profit.

Full Tilt's Rush MTT's

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I played in the $5.50 one last night – it was fun! There were 2288 entries and I managed to finish 30th. It was only a small cash of about $30.

I found it relatively easy to build chips in the early to mid-game stages. The game was fast – and took a lot longer than I thought it would. By the time I went out in 30th it was already 3.5 hours. It was a double-stack with 6 minute blind levels.

I could have gone deeper if I hadn’t mistakenly thought a huge stack was bullying me with his re-raise. I had 88 so shoved and he called with his AA lol.

I will try some more of these – but you can’t really multi-table too much when in one of these games so it will hurt my volume. Also the HUD didn’t work – but that wasn’t really relevant until it got done to less than about 100. I know the HEM hud works for cash rush tables so I guess they will get it going for tournaments too.

Achieved My Gold Star Status at Pokerstars Yesterday!

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

The world is changing – dakota now has 3 gold stars at Pokerstars. It was only a few months ago it seemed I was destined to be eternal bronze star forever. Then I discovered Collin’s sng videos after joining Stox, saw a thread where zerosum79 was offering coaching and that was all she wrote. I am officially addicted now.

If I could only get back the “run good” I had in January poker life would be grand lol. Here’s to platinum by the end of the year!

Vegas Trip Report

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

We just got back home from Vegas – it was a great trip. We arrived on Saturday morning – it was our first stay at the Aria. I thought it was very nice – but lacked atmosphere for me. The rooms are very nice and slightly larger than a normal hotel room – but far from the suites you get at the Palazzo/Venetian. We only paid $139 – and got a $50 food credit and a $50 casino credit so it was a good deal. The poker room was very crowded so I skipped that.

The next morning we went to Fatburger’s – yummy! Then we headed off to the Palazzo for the next few nights. Those nights were free so even a better deal. They also comped several of our meals. I love that place – even the smell of it lol. Since it was just me and Joe this time we got to spend a lot of time just doing things together which is unusual for a Vegas trip. We did some degenerate gambling – especially me hehe.

I played in the Venetian noon poker tournament on Monday. I didn’t last long. I got TT and re-raised with 2 in the pot pre-flop. I knew one would call – he was playing a lot of pots. I didn’t expect the other to call so I put him on a strong hand. The flop came T95. I thought and then decided to check raise. But they checked behind me. So when an 8 came on the turn I shoved. I put the first guy on a 5 or 9 and was right – he was weak. I thought the other guy had a high pocket pair or AK. He had 6-7 and had hit a straight with the 8. Oh well. It was good practice for the Spring Break Poker Classic in Biloxi which is soon.

I played at $1/2 table yesterday and enjoyed it – ending up breaking even.

I will be heading back out either late June or early July – can’t wait!!

Off to Vegas Again!

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

Joe and I will be heading off to Vegas on Saturday. We are staying at the Aria Saturday night and I am anxious to check it out. The room was only $139 with a $50 food and beverage credit and a $50 match play – so not too bad. And it is close to Fatburger’s – so that will be lunch on Sunday!

After that we will head to the Palazzo for 3 nights – and those are all free so that is cool. I will play in the noon tournament at the Venetian one day. We are meeting up with Nick (owner of Cardschat) to go to Cold Stone Creamery since he and I are both ice cream addicts.

Joe and I just plan on checking things out on this “quiet” trip. He is a gem and will let me play poker as much as I want – but I will try to spend a lot of time with him.

Oh – and our flights were only $35 each roundtrip from Atlanta. I managed to squeeze some Delta credits out of the 5th rep I talked to after my San Francisco disaster last fall. (When I booked the flights for the wrong day and didn’t know it til the day before we were supposed to go).

This will just be a fun practice run – the big trip will be during the WSOP – can’t wait for that one!

On Target For Gold

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

Since I have 27 days to earn vpp’s this month I am well on target to get the 3000 I need for gold. After the first 8 days I have 1126 vpp’s for the month so I should be able to pull it off fairly easily.

Also – my next sng will get me my first $50 stellar reward bonus – so that makes $100 for the year now. I should fly through for the next $50. I really like that Pokerstars added that to their VIP program – it is a nice little plus on top of the other benefits.

Mining for Gold This Month

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

A few months ago I thought I was destined to be a recreational bronze player at Pokerstars forever. I played MTT’s – but never earned more than about 450-550 vpp’s a month. Then I started playing $5.50 sng’s and adding tables. In December I realized it would be easy for me to move up to silver so in January I did. I moved up to the $11’s and got up to 6 tables by mid-month. I had a lot to do at home in February and it was a short month with a trip in it so I didn’t bother pressuring myself to get gold and still earned over 2150 vpp’s.


But now March is here and even with my Vegas trip I should be able to earn 3000 VPP’s and move up to gold. I know that is not exciting for most players but earning twice the fpp’s that I was earning 2 months ago means a lot to me. Especially with the improved VIP program at Pokerstars. I am earning and buying decent bonuses and that really helps.


And – Platinum is no longer out of the question. When I am able to move up to the $22’s and possibly 8 tables it will be a real possibility I never imagined before. I doubt I will ever see Supernova but I could be happy with Platinum!

Putting myself on a schedule...

From my blog at:
http://collinmoshman.com/

This month has been a bit difficult. Every good set of sng’s is followed by several bad ones. I had a very good month in January and I think I may have become a bit over confident in my game. As a result I have spent less time studying than I think I should have. I still have a lot to learn before I can become a consistent winner playing sng’s.

The first thing I need to do is put myself on some kind of a schedule. My days get away from me and what suffers is my study time. It is hard to be disciplined when you work from home. I also have a lot of issues with my attention span – seriously. I am usually awake by 7-7:30 am but it is around noon most days before I am ready for the day. It is not from being lazy. I check in at Cardschat first thing every morning to take care of immediate issues there. Then I get sidetracked with other online stuff – email, Stox, etc. I try to do 35-45 minutes on the treadmill most mornings. Then because I am female it takes the rest of the time to shower, dress, etc lol. (and walk the dogs of course).

So – starting now I have to be on the treadmill no later than 8am and in the shower by 9am. By 10:30 or 11am I need to be ready to face the day or I will ….fire myself lol.

I also have to watch a video before I play any sng’s going forward – at least Mon-Fri. Today I watched Collin’s latest video ” Low Stakes Sng’s.” It reminded me that I still have a lot to work on late in the game when blinds are high. So I will try to find some more videos that will help me with that.

I am also toying with the idea of giving turbos an official shot – I have only tried short sessions in the past and didn’t like them. Maybe I should wait until I feel I have made some improvement in my late game strategy though. I am also afraid to make any big changes in what I am playing while I am on a downswing – maybe I should not feel that way.

Poker Hurts My Feelings Sometimes

From my blog at:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I used to think I didn’t tilt much because I rarely get mad when I get a bad beat or lose a lot of games. I don’t post bad beats at the forum or rant and rave about how bad players get rewarded, accuse the sites of being rigged, slam things around, break things or throw tantrums.

But I finally figured out that I just tilt quietly inside in my own way. I let it hurt my feelings lol. I was doing great in the Pokerstars 30k one day – had a huge stack and was in deep. Then I lost it all on the river to a really bad beat. My feelings were so hurt. It took me weeks to forget that crushing blow. It reminded me of having a broken heart – hurt right in my heart center. Really lol. It was a physical and emotional blow. I got over it and I don’t think it will ever affect me like that again.

But it still hurts my feelings sometimes.

Now that I think of it – I am the same way in relationships – my husband will vouch for that lol. I don’t get angry – I just get hurt and withdraw.

But not for long hehe. Poker hurt my feelings on Monday and I was back playing with love in my heart by Tuesday afternoon. Gonna go give it some more love right now!

Hotlanta Tonight!

From my blog at:

From my blog at http://collinmoshman.com/:

This will be my first poker free day in a very long time. The last couple of days have been a bit slow and today is the perfect day for a break. We are at the Hilton in Atlanta – Joe’s company is having a big elaborate buffet dinner for customers in town for a conference. Last year the food was awesome – so no worrying with calories tonight. Afterwards we will all go somewhere here in Atlanta – not sure where but it will involve drinking and no driving lol. I am such a wimp – I won’t last as long or drink as much as everyone else. My husband is English – I rarely drank at all til I met him. You can not marry into an English family and never drink – so once in a while I cave in and have a few.
Meanwhile everyone else is working and I am in the hotel room and have time to watch a sng video – so off I go!

Maintaining Confidence and Control While Learning

From my blog at http://collinmoshman.com/:

I had an interesting day today that has me thinking. (Yea – I know that is dangerous lol).
For about 9 days I have been playing really well – and running hot hasn’t hurt at all. It has seemed like I have had a lot of things start to come together at the same time for me and it has really paid off. I have done some little tweaking with my game and started taking a lot more 1st’s and 2nd’s vs the many 3rd’s and 4th’s I was previously finishing with. A lot of the changes have to do with stepping up my aggression as the blinds go up. My confidence has been very high and mentally I have stayed focused and positive. I have done so well that I have not devoted much time to studying – I just felt like I needed to stay on the tables as much as I could while I was doing so well.
Today I decided I had better start watching some videos and doing some reading again. My SitnGoGrinders membership expires in a few weeks and I haven’t watched many videos there so I watched a couple of fultip777’s videos. He plays higher stakes than I do but they are regular speed and the other coaches there all play turbos I think. One was a $55 and the other a $109. He played pretty tight in both of them.
Then I played a set of 6 sng’s and I knew from the start I was in trouble. I was second guessing myself a lot and my confidence took a quick dive. Nothing seemed to be working for me and I was confused about how to play lol. This happens to me too often. When I watch a video and the coach is playing differently than I have been taught – or if I am reading a book and the strategy is different than what I have learned – it really messes up my game. I read Collin’s book first and have had Greg as a coach – so if anyone plays differently than what they teach it just confuses me.
Maybe I was trying to apply strategy in $11’s sng’s that is better suited for the levels that fultip plays at. Maybe I should not stir the pot right now.
Or…..maybe I should have watched some of Collin’s videos instead lol.
One thing is for certain – I have got to learn to maintain confidence and control in my game as I am studying. I know I still have a lot to learn.
I used to play a lot of pool before I started playing poker. (I am pretty damned good for a girl if I must say so myself). But I know in pool when you learn something new and start trying to apply it – that you usually end up playing worse while you work it into your game. Then once you have mastered it you are much better than you were before. Maybe poker is like that is some ways.

Collin Moshman's website

Collin invited me to become a member at his website and I am very excited about that. You can visit his website here:

http://collinmoshman.com/

I will be cross posting my blogs entries from there to here - so here is the first one:

Hi to everyone – really glad to be a part of this group! I am the student rather than the coach and hopefully we will see a great progression in my game this year.I started playing sng’s in August last year – I played 10 sng’s which were a combination of 9, 27 and 45 person. Largely due to taking first in a 45 I did pretty good. I played about 25 in Sept and then in October decided to start playing sng’s as my primary game – specifically 9 person. I had contacted Greg (zerosum79) about getting coaching and we started that in early October. I played 45 mostly $5.50’s and was down a little for the month and then played 162 games in November and broke about even. I had read Collin’s book and between that and the coaching sessions felt that I was finally getting a good grasp of the game. By December I was playing 4 tables and got in 217 games and ended up slightly down but felt very good about my game.Greg doesn’t know it yet but I have made a couple of changes in the past few weeks. After the 1st week of January I moved to 6 tables. It took some adjusting but I am handling it well now. And last weekend I moved up to the $11’s. As of yesterday I have played 285 sng’s and I am having my best month since I started playing sng’s.I love to play MTT’s and I need to work those back into my schedule – I am just concerned that I will now play them like sng’s out of habit.Anyway – that might have been tmi – but just giving everyone an idea of where I am with my game.

Moving up!

Last week I made the move to 6 tables on my desktop. I am handling it pretty well so I think I will stick with it. I know I make a few more mistakes so will keep an eye on that. I still only do 4 tables on my laptop because I just wouldn't be able to see well enough with 6 tables on a 17" screen. I wish I had better eyes - but at least I can see well enough to get by.

Then yesterday I decided to test the waters on $11 sng's. I played 18 in 3 sessions. By the time got to the last session I was feeling great about it. In the last 7 games I placed in the money in 5 - with 3 of them 1st place finishes. It was a great session and I will try them again today and hope they don't bite me on the ass!

Pokerstars 2010 WBCOOP

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 309824

New Year's update

This year is off to a good start. I am not winning loads at poker - but I am up for the month and feel good about my game.

Pokerstars has made some nice improvements to their VPP program and I can finally reach silver star status this month. Hopefully I will be able to shoot for gold within a few months. At least now I can get some benefit for my fpp's/vpp's.

I am continuing with my coaching - have another session tonight.

Found out both Carbon Leaf and Gaelic Storm are in Atlanta together Sunday night so very excited about going to that show.

Life is good.