Pokerstars Satellite Bubble Special

This week was a week off from work and both my wife and my son had birthdays. So very busy with grandparents etc. In between, I have been playing plenty of Omaha8 and then today back to the satellite barrage. The Omaha8 has been about break even this week. I've been playing mostly 3/6. Which is higher than normal, but I felt I was not in over my head. I was called a 'horrible player' at least once. But that is when I was winning..lol..go figure. Par for the course at a poker table.
Today I played in several satellites. In the morning it was $10 and $8 rebuys. I won two and ended up ahead. But I was so very robbed in a third it was rediuculous. I went out exactly on the bubble, but how it happened was such a crock. I don't know how to explain it. I had a $20000+ stack and the table was in full stall mode and the blinds had just past me when the craziness started. I knew with the stall in effect that unless things got crazy, which they did, I would not have to pay another blind. If I did, it would put me allin. There were about 100 seats available and I was in about 34th and there were about 15 more to bust before we got our seats. And the blinds were way up there. like 4000/8000 thereabouts. One seat open. To make a long story shorter, two guys at the table busted in the blind. Ok that moves the blinds around quicker but I should still be ok. The blinds are higher when Pokerstars software takes a big stack off the table two guys in front of me...AHHHH. Hes replaced by a guy and should end up in the bb but then the guy in front of him busts, the new guy is completely missed by the blinds and in on the button!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If the seat is empty Im in the SB and survive.. Holy crap nope, Im in the BB and ALLIN that hand. Somehow more allined players survive than should and IM OUT on the bubble. I really should have been recompensated for that shit but I didnt email support about it. IT really was rediculous. I played it perfectly and was totally shafted. To make it worse I had 88 and the sb who was big stacked had 45s and called the blinds and caught straight to bust me. Holy fuck. Now I've had bad beats and bubbled out before. IT happens. But today....well that was special.....

Tonite I watched a good deal of the actual Sunday million tourney. It is such a crazy tournament. So many allins and crazy play. Nuts. I played in 2 of the $2 triple shootouts. I won 3 of 5 tables and got.....nothing. LOL. I beat the first two tables in my 1st try but was actually very nicely trapped when my oppenents 10 J turned a nut straight. He slow played it against my AK and when the K hit on the river took half my stack. It really was nicely played. Set me up good. But I was crippled and went out in 5th. 2 seats are given away so that was a nada. The 2nd tourney I won the first table but basically went card dead on the 2nd table. And just wasn't able to make any moves. Oh well. They are cheap tourneys but they do take a long time to play. I think I will stick to the double shootouts from now on. At least the first table win is worth at least $ 35 and shot at $215. I wish they would charge a bit more for the triple shootouts and give the other final table players a consolation. Say charge $2.75 and give $27.5 to 3rd-6th.

S is for Sunday satellites!

I love Sundays when I can get to just play poker. And Sunday poker is all about the Pokerstars Sunday Million. For me though it is a chance to build my tourney bankroll via REBUY satellites. For about 3 hours PS has $8 and $10 rebuy satellites going every 20 minutes. I play in all of the cash satellites. So usually i end up playing 8 or so of them. These are my favorites tournaments to play in. Unfortunately the past couple of Sundays that I have been able to play in them I have not played well and ended up breaking even or down about $100. In order to break even I need to win about 1.5 times. So winning one seat is not good enough. Two seats gives me about +100 and 3 seats about +300 or so. These tourneys are not really that difficult in theory. There is a pile of dead money in rebuy tourneys. But usually you have to rebuy at least once if not 3 times and then add on. I always rebuy right away and any time I am able to. Plus of course the add on. So it can get expensive. But its worth it. Some of these tourneys give away 100+ seats and after the break there might be only 5-6x the number of players to seats given away. Usually because I rebuy I have a decent chip stack. Many dont so those people are still dead money. So I am usually at worst a mid size stack after the break and Im usually about 2or3 to 1 against winning a seat. So for an average of $40 to win $215 I am getting great odds on my money.
But can I win a race on the bubble when I need it lately. NOOOOO. It has been ugly. Running into AA or KK or a big stack hitting a miracle to knock me out. It has been very frustrating. I have bubbled out of more tourneys than I have won lately. Early on today was no different as I allowed two $20000 chip stacks to evaporate. But not by bleeding as had been happening. Nope, I was good and aggressive today. But it was not until my last two sats that I was able to pull out a positive day. There were too many hands to remember, but in the end I won 3 but probably should have had 4 or 5 wins. It was a +300 run but should have been more. oh well. Same old. That's my take on ...... Any Given Sunday......

Wow November already!!

It's November. I havent posted in about 3 months. Now that's lazy. Thousands and thousands of hands of poker have passed. It has been a seriously up and down 3 months on the tables. With some serious tilt in early September followed by a solid October where I posted a solid profit. Over $1000 in the month which is very good for me. November has started slowly but I now have a week off to try to turn it around. Of course during my last week off of work is when I tilted for a week straight. Ugly. October was all about NLH for me and OMaha8. I was playing a lot at WPEX where they offer 100% rakeback. The problem has been tough players there, horrible software and a very slim game selection. So I'm back almost full time on Stars and that is where I won most of October. Look for me on stars as DonJ. Now usually at .50/1,1/2 NLH or 1/2,2/4 Omaha8.
My son will be 1 year old this later this week. He is awesome. But not so good for the poker game. Very distracting. But hey. That's ok!! We are still doing some renovations on the new home which is keeping us busy. AND BROKE! But the end of that is on the horizon. My friend Brian has moved into our downstairs suite. That will definately help out the mortgage payments. OHH and i almost forgot. I had not mentioned that I had invested in a uranium junior miner URE-TSX. It had been doing pretty well recently and I was up about 45% on it. Uranium is in major demand and the price is way up but still not high enough for a lot of miners to go after it. So Ive been touting it to anyone wholl listen now since March.....Then bam Cameco (world's largest supplier of U.) has problems with the largest uranium mine in the world (Cigar Lake)...well more than just problems. The entire mine flooded and operations were halted, maybe for good. Anyway, not that anyone else but me cares but damn if uranium stocks havent shot straight up.....It's good being right!!!
Oh and hopefully before long I will be upgrading my monitor setup finally!! Currently running a 17'CRT(yeah arachaic!!) but soon going to (hopefully dual eventually) 22" LCD. My Dads gone to a 32" monitor and I'm super jealous. But after seeing a dual setup at work that is what I want now. So much more versatility in the dual system. It might mean a full upgrade of my motherboard and video card (again) but it will be so worth it!!!! Just have to get thru a bunch of other expenses....sigh first..