It has been a while...

I haven't posted much lately. I haven't been in town much. I went to Austin for four days at the end of last week. I've been ill since I got back and the defense looms. There hasn't been much time or room for poker due to those facts. I've played a little and done ok. I've played two SNG's and won one and didn't cash in the other.

Arkansas pulled a rabbit out of a hat and made the NCAA tournament. They play USC on Friday night. I doubt they win but I will be pulling for them.

200 Posts...

This is my 200th post on this blog. I am certain most of you who read this think it is pointless and unworthy. Well, you know what? I agree with you. But Here goes the 200th post.

Poker was good to me all weekend until last night. I was up considerably and had managed to accumulate a nice amount of Rake. But then the Sunday night monster struck for the second night in a row. I dropped $60 in about one hour last night. As usual, It wasn't hard.

I played a little big to $1 limit hold'em this weekend. It had been a long time since I played limit and I didn't do as well as I would've liked, but I did ok. On WPEX, there is always more limit action than there is NL.

I didn't play any SNG's or tournaments.

Arkansas managed to end the season on a two game winning streak. They head into the SEC tournament needing to win four games in four days to make the NCAA tournament. Otherwise, Stan might be unemployed. Also, the women's coach resigned last week.

A New Month...

I hope March brings better poker results than February did. I played enough poker over the last two days to accumulate $10 in rake each day. However, the results have not been what I would've wanted. I won a sports bet yesterday and still ended the day only up about $10. That tells you I lost money playing poker.

The only good hand worth mentioning came when I was in the big blind with 7-6 os. The flop came 4-5-8. The turn was a K and the river was an 8. Some guy who limped had 10-8. I stacked him.

Arkansas won a game last night. I still think the Heath era is over, but who knows.

Poker and Basketball???

Well, the two rarely, if ever, mix unless a sports bet in involved, but this post will contain a little of both. Only three relevant hands from yesterday's poker, but they both resulted in big pots. Two I took down, the other one I got felted. All are in a .25 NL game with a $12.50 buyin.

#1

I have QQ in the big blind. It is folded around to the small blind who thinks for a second before raising it to $2. I raise it to $6 think he is on steal. He goes all in and I call. He flips over AA. GG me. I rebuy for another $12.50.

#2

There is a guy at the table who is literally raising every hand to $2. I mean every hand. Not just some of them. All of them. The previous hand he had picked up A-10 and been beaten in a big pot by JJ. He was left with $10 which as about the same as me. So the next hand he is in the big blind. I picked up 88 and limped in. Per his usual move, he raised to $2. I went all in. He called with 6-5 of diamonds. He almost sucked out on me, but the 8-8 held on and that guy was essentially done. As soon as the table figured out what he was doing people were lying in wait for him. His strategy was very effective short term but it was doomed in the long term.

#3

My favorite of all. I'm in the small blind with A-5 os. It is folded to me. I raise to $2. The big blind calls. The flop comes out 2-10-5. I bet $2. He calls. "uh oh." I might be in some trouble. Except, the turn came a big ole beautiful 5. I bet $4. He calls. The turn is a blank and I go all in. He calls. SHIP IT! It was a nice $40 pot.

Arkansas appears to be in the market for a basketball coach. Several of the local media outlets have reported that if the Razorbacks do not win the SEC tournament then Heath will be out. I hate that Heath did not succeed here but the reality is he did not. A change must be made.

Poker hasn't gone so well...

nor has sports betting. I keep getting high pocket pairs (JJ, QQ, KK) and they keep running into aces. Each time I lose a big pot. And I'm not afraid to play big pots. Two other hands that come to mind that maybe I could have or should have played differently.

I pick up 88 in the small blind. I raise to $2. The big blind goes all in. I call. He flips over AK. There is an A on the flop but it's all spades. I have a spade, he doesn't. The turn is the king of spades giving me the flush. The river is another K giving him the full house. GG me.

I pick up 5-6 in the small blind. I call the big blind as it's just me and him. He raises it to $1 (we're playing .25 NL) so I call. The flop comes 7-8-9 with two diamonds. I check, he bets $1 and I go all in for about $10. He calls and gets a diamond on the river. GG me.

I also lost two sports bets for a total of $55. That certainly didn't help.

Hopefully Arkansas will have a new basketball coach soon. Stan is a nice guy but he has severly underperformed for five years.

Not Much Poker...

I played a little bit last night with virtually no success. I did win a sports bet which was a nice BR boost. I did not play at all on Tuesday night as it was FAT TUESDAY and I spent the better part of my night on Dickson Street enjoying the reverie.

Arkansas basketball is done for. They might play in the NIT, but I wish they would just fire the coach and move on.

It was a bad day for poker...

I didn't play well and I made some really loose calls that didn't pay off. My KK got cracked by trip 10's. My QQ ran into a set of 9's. My AK couldn't outrun 8-8 and on and on. It wasn't my day. The previous day had been pretty good. This one was bad. I think the final tally was $34 for the day.

Softball season is starting. If you haven't been to a collegiate softball game, save yourself the trouble as they usually ain't worth it. I doubt this year's team will be any different.

I'm such a donk...

I played a lot of ploker over the weekend. I made the final table of a $5 MTT. I stacked a few people in the ring games, I finished second in the only SNG I played. I had the rake up to over $60 which was gonna leave me with a really nice BR. But I had to go and donk off $75 dollars last night so the BR is about the same as it was on Friday. It currently stands at $329.

Arkansas routed Ole Miss on Saturday to stay one game out of first in the sec west. They have a losing conference record and they are one game out of first. Amazing.

Frank Broyles announced his retirement on Saturday. There may be a lot of people excited to see him go but I am not one of them.

Happy Anniversary...

Five months. And they said we'd never make it.

Poker was pretty good yesterday. I got felted twice. But I doubled up three times. One of the double ups came in a .50 NL game. I bought in with $25 and had run it up to $34 when them hand came up. I had pocket 6's. I limped in as did three other people. The flop came 4-4-6. I'm licking my chops cause I know I'm gonna take this one down. It's just a matter of how much can I get. Well, I check. The next guy folds and the third guy raises to $2. I min raise to $4. The last guy folds. as does the other player. The initial raiser calls. The turn is a K. I bet out $2. He goes all in. I can't call fast enough. I have him covered by a few dollars. The river is a blank and I'm north of $65. His comment was "Nice Flop."

I finished second in a $11 SNG. For the day, it was a $31 profit. Not too shabby for someone who plays as badly as me.

The up and down world of poker...

I didn't blog yesterday cause I didn't really feel like. I had lost about $30 at poker plus another $22 on a sports bet so I was down over $50 for the day. Well, last night, I got that back and then some. So today, though a little late, I feel like sharing. Tuesday nothing was working for me. No flushes, no sets, so high pocket pairs. No nothing. Well, Wednesday there were several pocket pairs, two sets and a flush. All produced a nice profit. And to add to it all, I collected pocket Aces one time and got felted for $13. I immediately rebought and ran that $12.50 up to $40 before quiting that game. Then I won a $11 SNG for a nice profit. In the SNG, I won a really big hand by rivering a full house to beat the other two players left. They both had a club flush. I held QJ and the flop contained a QJ, both of clubs. The turn was a club and we all got it all in. The river was a beautiful J. One guy was knocked out and another was crippled. I won two hands later.

I'll be attending the Arkansas/Ole Miss game this weekend but only because the in laws are in town. The Hogs were blown out by Miss State last night virtually ending any chance of making the NCAA tournament.

Felted on a Full House...

I played quite a bit yesterday and would've been even for the day had I not lost a my whole stack in a .50 NL game. I was dealt pocket 10's. The flop was 8-j-Q. The turn was a 10 and the river was a Q. I have a full house, 10's full of Q's. My opponent held pocket J's. GG me. I guess I could've been worse. I did accumulate $13 in rake.

Poker was Good...

I played quite a bit of poker over the weekend and did rather well. I managed a $70 profit from poker and $56 in rakeback to push the BR well over $300. It hadn't been there in quite a while. I think a lot of my success was because I was very patient. The play on WPEX seemed to be very agressive this weekend. Waiting on some good hands allowed me to take advantage of some of the agression. A couple of times it got the better of me and I lost some big pots but on the whole, I came out ahead. I managed to make the final table of a MTT but I busted out 10th, 9 got paid. Not surprising as I don't really have the moves to succeed that deep in a tournament.

Arkansas lost at LSU on Saturday. They are now 4-6 in the SEC and still right in the thick of the western division race. Unbelieveable.

Bad Poker, Good Sports Bets...

I managed to win two sports bets for $77 total. That is a pretty nice pad to the bankroll. Unless you lose about $90 playing poker. A couple of lose calls and a couple of suckouts take the bankroll down pretty quickly. My diamond flush lost to quad 6's. My kk lost to an A on the river. And 77 will never beat JJ without some help. All three of those pots cost me my table stack. But I am still in the game. My BR not gone. Just a little less than before. I'll keep on plugging away, accumulating rake and hoping for a big score.

Good women's basketball is bad. Bad women's basketball is hell.

Being a bad poker player isn't a good thing...

I managed to only lose about $15 playing poker yesterday, but it wasn't because I wasn't trying. I managed to take $12.50, run it up to $40 and then drag it all the way back down to $0. I also managed to get AA cracked by trips for a $25 loss. Then I managed to lose $33 on a sports bet (sports betting is bad, much like crack). However, in an attempt to lose more money, I called an all in bet for $25 with 99. My opponent had AA. But a 9 on the flop saved me and some of the previous losses came back to me. I know how the guy felt as I've had AA cracked more than my fair share of times. And he claimed it was the second time it happened to him on that table yesterday. So had I not lost the $33 bet, I would've only been down $15 playing poker.

Arkansas hosts Auburn tonight in BWA. They are 11 point favorites which makes me think Auburn is the team to bet on cause Arkansas really only blows out the other team if I bet against them but I might try anyway. If they do not win tonight, the season will be officially done as there will be no way short of running the table that they will get in the NCAA tournament.

I must've won at poker...

because I started the day with $327 and ended with $310. However, I lost $22 on a sports bet so the only thing I can figure is that I won a few bucks playing poker plus I collected $10 in rakeback. So I must be right on track for the week.

I turned in my rough draft of chapter 4 to one of my committee members yesterday. I hope to have the feedback soon so that I can move forward. This represented a really big step.

SNG's, Rakeback and the Colts...

All three were good to me over the weekend. Ring games were not so good to me as I made some loose calls and tried to bluff at the wrong time on more than one occasion. I won a $20 SNG and a $10 SNG each for a nice profit. In fact, those were the only two SNG's I played. I played a couple of $5 MTT and didn't cash in either. I won $50 on the colts and my weekly rakeback amounted to $61 so after playing for a week, my bankroll is the same as it was last week. I don't think that's good, but somehow it can't really be bad.

The Razorbacks blew the KY game on Saturday as we all knew they would. They had a 14 point second half lead and lost by 8. Auburn comes to BWA on Wednesday night so I guess we'll see how it goes.

Poker was Profitable, but it came awfully late...

I played quite a bit yesterday. It started out really badly, then picked up some steam and by the end of the night it was profitable. I should say that I made $33 in a sports bet, but I also won two $11 SNG's and doubled up in a .50 NL game and in a .25 NL game. Both of those double ups came after getting stacked in a .50 NL game and getting stacked in a .25 NL game. Both times I got stacked I made loose/weak calls against clearly stronger hands. One time my 88 was up against QQ and another time my 99 was up against AKs and the flush got there.

After I quite making the loose calls, I ended up doing ok. I didn't play any MTT. I stuck to the ring games and SNG's.

We are supposed to get snow here today and tomorrow. We will probably get some but it won't likely be enough to do anything other than make people drive crazily.

The Ups and Downs of Poker...

I managed to play quite a bit of poker yesterday and all toll, I think I broke even. To accomplish this "even steven" day, I had to win a $11 SNG for $35 ($24 profit), get felted when my top pair ran into quads losing $12 and playing a $11 MTT and not cashing. It could've been worse. It could've been better. I played plenty of ring poker and was neither up or down but did accumulate plenty of rake for the day.

No midweek basketball for the Razorhogs this week. Kentucky on Saturday at BWA.

There was some serious progress made of the dissertation yesterday. Progress to the point that I might actually finish chapter four in January like I planned.

A Good Weekend for Poker...

I played quite a bit this weekend and did pretty well. AK held up twice for nice pots, I flopped couple of sets and won two $11 SNG's for $35 each. I also made the final table of a MTT but the buy in was only $5 and the payout was $14. I finished 7th out of 60. Nine got paid. No complaints though. I've been playing/running bad for the past two months so it was nice to do well for a change. I feel like I'm seeing the game more clearly right now but maybe that is because I'm running good. I just hope it keeps up for a while. Though I have no idea how in the world I would get the money out if I ran up a big score.

The Jeckle and Hyde Razorbacks are at it again. After blowing the game at South Carolina, they come back and crush Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Odd, I know. They sit atop the western division of the SEC with a 3-4 record. They host Kentucky this Saturday. A win over KY would go a long way towards setting them up for a good run the second half and an NCAA tourny birth.

Muy Bueno...

Poker was good last night. Playing at the .25 NL level with a $12.50 buy in I managed to triple my buy in not once but twice. I was pretty pleased. I didn't play all that much either. Less than 2 hours total. I joined Sarah and some of her work friends for drinks so that cut way down on the poker playing.

I'm sure I'll play plenty of poker this weekend. It is supposed to be rediculously cold in NWA so I probably won't be outside except for Sunday when I'm doing dissertation work.

Tutoring...

I am responsible for coordinating the tutoring for this college. It ain't easy. Finding tutors willing to work, at times that are convenient to them, in areas that are needed isn't as much fun as it might sound like.

Played a little poker last night. Didn't really lose anything. I played in a $10 MTT and didn't cash. Then played some NL cash games at the .25 and .50 level and made back the $10 plus a little.

Arkansas blew it at South Carolina. Not that it was unexpected, but it was disappointing none the less.

The big protest at the UofA yesterday drew a total of about 50 people. I would say that is a resounding failure.

A Slave to Variance...

I played for about two hours yesterday. I played one MTT and busted out 14th out of 49. Then my AA got cracked in a .50 NL game and that cost me $25 and then I lost $12.50 in a .25 NL game so it wasn't hard to lose $50 playing poker yesterday. I'm still at it though. Grinding away. There is another regular at my levels on WPEX who told me last night that he was down $70 and all his loses had come with good cards. It was just one of those nights.

Arkansas is at South Carolina tonight. If they lose this one, the season will be officially over.

A Pretty Good Day!!!

I won two $11 SNG's yesterday and managed to not lose too much in cash games so I ended the day with a nice $31 profit. I played in two $11 MTT and didn't cash in either one though I went deep in one. The only time I was really disappointed was when my AK got sucked out on by AJ all in for $12 in a .25 NL game. There was an A on the flop and the unfortunate river was a J. Oh well, it has happened before and it will happen again i'm sure.

I've stuck to the low limits and played a little more selectively the last couple of weeks and it has worked out pretty well.

I read Chis Fargis' blog http://www.twentyoneoutstwice.blogspot.com/ and it appears he is returning to the workforce full time soon. Good luck Chris. I'm so glad I don't have to depend on poker for my living.

The dissertation is moving along, albeit at a slow pace. Having to configure 150+ tables isn't easy.

Poker has been good to me...

for the last couple of days, the poker has been ok. I've made two final tables of MTT, one fourth and one eighth. I haven't really had that many losing sessions and the winning sessions are much more frequent.

Arkansas managed to take care of LSU on Saturday. It wasn't even close. They are the most jeckle and hyde team I've ever seen. They play really well against ranked teams and lose to the worst teams in the SEC. They play at South Carolina on Wednesday night. If they lose there, the season will be lost.

I was pulling for the Saints, but I have no problems with the Bears. And the Colts are ok too.

In spite of myself...

I managed to make a little profit yesterday in spite of myself. I hit two big hands in a .25 NL game to run my initial buy in from $12.50 to $60. Not bad. I also made a little profit in another NL game but I dropped $33 on a sports bet to eat up most of the profit. Not really surprising. Arkansas is the most inconsistent team I've ever had the frustrated pleasure of watching.

What are we gonna do now that Neteller has suspended transactions with gaming sites for U.S. customers?

http://content.neteller.com/content/en/member_businessupdate.htm

This isn't a good sign. If I am not able to get a check from WPEX, then I guess I'm screwed. Any suggestions?

A little Poker...

Poker was ok. I played for a little while and lost a few bucks in cash games. Then I played the $1,000 tournament with 95 entrants. 9 get paid. I finished 10th. Not surprising. I hung around pretty well for most of the tourney, but per my usual moves, I made a weak attempt at a steal and lost most of my chips. I was out two hands later in 10th.

I don't know how much, if any, I'll get to play today. The Razorbacks are playing Georgia tonight and I usually go to all the SEC home games. Sarah has friend that is going with us so that should keep her entertained while I watch the game.

In other, more important news, I got the final statistical analysis done yesterday for my dissertation. Now all I need to do is write it up. Easier said than done.

Poker was played...

And I didn't do too badly at it. I suffered one rediculous suckout and I was on the good end of a rediculous suckout on a pair of Aces. When I sucked out on the AA, I made way more money than I lost on the QQ getting sucked out on. Either way, I'm ok.

The Patriots managed to get by the Chargers so they get the Colts in the AFC Championship game. And my friend Keith is a lifelong, diehard Saints fan. He has suffered through the losing with them so I hope the Saints beat the Bears and make it to the Super Bowl.

I'm still searching for the answers to my previous posts about ANOVA's.

ANOVA...

For those of you not into academics or statistics, an ANOVA is short for Analysis of Variance. It's a statistical test to determine differences between more than two groups. A t-test determines differences between two groups. Growing up in Smackover I never gave any thought to this type of statistic, not that I knew it existed. To me, statistics were what you came up with after adding up the totals of a football game or a basketball game. 100 yards rushing on 20 carries, 12 completions on 24 pass attempts, 8 tackles, 3 for a loss. Those were the types of statistics that I grew up with. Now that I live in a different world, I am dealing with the "other" type of statistics. I am in search of a test that will tell me what the differences are once I find them.

For example, if I have five groups and I run the ANOVA and find that differences exist between the groups, I then need to find out what the differences are. Is it between group one and group four or is it group two and group five?

I've heard of Tukey's test, but I'm not sure I have a handle on that yet.

Anyone out there have a suggestion?

Just Rambling...

When wondering about the different types of poker players, I have often considered myself to be the "strong-tight" type of player. However, the more I reflect, I might be the "weak-tight" type of player. I usually only play really solid hands, I don't limp often and when I raise, I raise enough to say "I've got a strong hand." But this doesn't seem to matter at the levels I play. Raises are not respected. Players call with any two cards. And they will call any raise. Also, players will raise with any two cards and I do mean any two. Table image means nothing. I've seen lots of players stick it all in with A-7. That is a terrible hand. But playing at these levels (.25 and .50 NL) has change the way I view myself. Tight-solid is the same as tight-weak. If you aren't willing to call and raise with any two cards, these levels are tough to beat. My raises are not respected and I give too much respect to my opponents raises. I'm not sure if higher limits is the answer though I did have much better success at higher limits on Pokerroom. I think the anti gambling legislation in the U.S. has driven a lot of the easy money out of the game and I doubt this will ever change.

Anyone have any thoughts about this?

Wondering about Scientology...

Not for any particular reason, but there seem to be a lot of people into it, especially celebrities. I need to do some more research before I can speak intelligently on the subject.

Did anyone realize that John Brown University was giving out Engineering degrees? And I don' t mean the type of engineers that drive trains. I mean the kind that build things. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Arkansas played pretty well at Florida last night, but they didn't win. Not surprising.

Didn't Play Poker...

Did work on dissertation. I managed to make significant progress on the dissertation. I am going to have about 150 tables in my paper and I am done with 56 of them. And when I say "done" I mean they are formated with information in them. It doesn't mean one of my committee members won't make me go back and change one or two or three or however many. I have got to be determined, diligent and persistent in getting this thing done. I've been working on it for about 18 months.

Florida just blew the doors off Ohio State last night. I thought when OSU ran back the opening kickoff that it would be a rout for OSU, but Florida proved the SEC is the toughest conference in the country. The "big ten" kinda flopped in the big bowl games, getting routed by USC and Florida. If Arkansas had done their part, the big ten wouldn't have won any of the major bowls. Arkansas rarely does its part.

Arkansas has the misfortune of having to play Floridia in basketball tonight. I doubt the results will be to my liking.

No Poker...

There was no poker played over the weekend as I was busy and said in my previous post that I would be cutting back on poker playing so as to focus a little more on my dissertation. Well, there was plenty of dissertation work done as I moved to about the halfway point on chapter 4 (5 total chapters). I also attended the Arkansas/Alabama basketball game on Saturday. Arkansas slaughtered Alabama. It wasn't even close.

I've got a few bucks on WPEX and I'll probably play some this week. Stay tuned.

Poker isn't fun right now...

I played a little yesterday and didn't do too well, but I didn't do too poorly either. I'm just kinda blah with poker right now. I'm not winning and that takes a lot of the fun out of it. I'm thinking of not playing as much, if at all, for a while. I am having a hard time beating the game. I really miss pokerroom. I did pretty well there. I'm guessing the anti gambling legislation has driven a lot of fish from the waters and now, instead of being a shark, I'm one of the fish. Also, at the limits I play, people will play any two cards and show no respect for a raise. They will call any amount of raise with anything and draw out on you. Very frustrating.

Anybody have any advice?

Stupid LSU...

Or is it stupid Notre Dame? Either way, I needed one more point to cover the over last night and I didn't get it. Poker wasn't much last night. I finished second in a five-man $11 SNG and I made a few bucks off ring games. I played in two MTT and didn't cash in either one. The bankroll ended up about even for the day.

I've been spending more time on the dissertation and less time on poker lately so the post may reflect less of a poker theme for a while.

The SEC basketball seasaon is staring. Arkansas hosts Alabama on Saturday at 1:05. I'm not optimistic about the chances of Arkansas making the NCAA tournament. I figure they have got to win nine more games to get an at large bid and I don't think they are good enough to get it done. The SEC west is too tough with LSU and Alabama. That will likely be four losses right there plus Kentucky and Florida. That means we could only lose one other SEC game and I just don't see that happening.

I know the picture below has been posted everywhere on the internet and the story of Brandi Hawbaker and Captain Tom has been told and retold 1,000 times, but I'm gonna post the picture anyway. She certainly looks like she's having a good time.

Not Much Poker...

I didn't get to play too much yesterday as we went to see the "Producers" at the Walton Arts Center. It was pretty good and entertaining for sure. I enjoy anything Mel Brooks writes. I did finally win a sports bet with Louisville beating Wake Forest. I'm hoping for another one tonight with the LSU/ND total. I guess we shall see.

Poker good, sports betting bad...

I got to play a little poker over the weekend as we finally returned home from our seven day Christmas journy. It was much too long of a time to be away from home. I've done ok playing poker as I've made a couple of final tables in MTT and done ok in the ring games and SNG's too. But I've blown a lot of it betting on football. I've got to ditch the sports betting.

We did manage to get a few really cool Christmas presents. I got a printer/copier/fax/scanner from Paige and Lynn and a couple of nice shirts. Sarah had a better haul than I did as she got purses, clothes, jewelry, makeup, dishes, cookbooks and other stuff plus some cash.