Hello, hello....

No I haven't disappeared....I just haven't written in this thing for awhile.

So how are things going for me? I'm up...so that is good. I played my last Team Canada promotion event for Pokerstars. It is a turbo tournament so people are playing crazy hands. I decided to stay patient and wait for something decent. I finally got a pair of Jacks. I had about 820 left and the blinds were at 75-150. There was a raise but I decided to go all in anyway. The guy on my left called and the original raiser called.

In short, I busted out. I did get my set on the turn but the guy on my left (who called two raises with pocket 7's) got an eight to hit his inside straight draw....the original raiser had Ace-rag. Oh well, my money went in with the best hand so that is all I can hope to do.

My SNG challenge. Overall, things are going well but I have to step down a level. On that site, I made it through the 0.90 + 0.10 level with three cashes and bumped up to the next level of $2.50 + 0.25. I cashed in two straight, and then missed the money in the next three (6th, 5th, and 4th). A bad run of cards plus some missed plays. No big deal. Just go back down and start again. On the other site, I'm now on the third level but I have to be careful here as my bankroll there is considerably smaller...so I'll take a wait and see approach. However, I'm up 10% on each of the sites so things are good.

I haven't really been trying for a WSOP seat. I may give it a go...or I may plan to try harder next year. I'm feeling that my reading skills are starting to improve as I can now better narrow hands down based on betting patterns and such so I'm pleased with that.

Wish me luck!

End of Month report for March 2007

And I'm up for the month.

I made about 6% overall. Not a big amount but better than a loss.

The big winner was my SNG play. I told you about the challenge I had for myself. Here are the results of my last 4...I started the challenge strong with 2 cashes in my first two attempts (two 1st's actually) and then hit a 4th on my 3rd one. Bummer...back to try again. I then got another first to start my streak anew...makes things more fun I think.

I tried my luck at a $5 dollar tournament. This is my biggest buy-in but it was within my bankroll plus I was getting a good overlay as it was a guaranteed tourney and it looked like it was paying over 10% of the field. I made it through half of the field before being eliminated. I was just card dead. If I got some cards, I could have cashed in it easily....but that is all you can do.

I tried my first attempt at the Pokerstars WSOP Canada freeroll. I made a mistake here that I think I'll share. I wasn't getting a lot of cards and, with these freeroll tournaments, it is a good strategy to play snug and let the morons eliminate themselves. I doubled-up on one of my first few hands when I flopped a set and just played tight until this hand.

I had about 12 big blinds left and the blinds were at 100-200. I was in MP and it was folded to me. I looked at pocket nines. I raised 4X to 800. The button (who had me slightly outstacked) and the SB (a short stack) both called the raises. The flop came Q-8-3 rainbow. It was checked to me and, given my chip stack went all-in. The button called with Q-4?!? and the small stack called with Q-8.

In retrospect, I should have shoved pre-flop. It may have gotten the Q-4 out and I would have just lost some chips to the small stack if he stuck around. Like I said, wild players...

However, otherwise things are going well. I'm looking forward to a good April.