Well thanks to a good run by Doug (a young online player I staked 10%) I was able to recoup about 1/3 of my losses. He made a great run, came back from a small stack a couple times, and had the best hand chopped or beat multiple times including his eventual bustout in 17th place out of 600+ for $7700!! You always get a little disappointed getting so close, but it's a great boost to his ego to cash well in his 1st WSOP event. I still have a piece on my buddy tdawonu, who won a seat to a $1500 WSOP tourney on Cake Poker, so there is still hope to come out with a profit.

As far as me, my wife and I went and saw "The Beatles Show" the other day. We paid for great seats (About 5 back from the stage) and it was well worth it. It's a great show at the Mirage. I also played a few hours of 1-3 No Limit Cash Games here which proved to be a long grind and very few hands worth playing until I finally lost about $200 and called it a night to meet Doug for the 1st time and see how he was doing. Last night we got 2 for 1 tickets for "Penn and Teller" which was great magic type show. I think we're just gonna hang out today and maybe tonight I'll play a smaller live tourney. It's definitely nice to get some time away from the house, baby, job, etc. It's a first in a long time. I still have another week of vacation when I get back so I still hope to get a couple more multi's in before I go back to the grind.

Well I guess that's it for now. Gotta go to breakfast. Again, anyone looking to get a great rakeback deal saving at least 33% on all the fees and rake you pay to play. Please give Cake Poker a shot if you haven't already. You must use our signup code to get a rakeback account though! Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com

Well I played in today's $1,500 NL event and started out the way I prayed I would by doubling up early and imposing my will throughout. I started with 4000 chips and picked up a couple small pots with AK's and later picked up KK in EP. I raised about 3X and got reraised by a late position player. I just called to see what kind of flop hit before committing. The flop came 10 8 5 and I bet 1/2 pot into the reraiser who raised me again. I felt pretty good and didn't think I could get away from my hand so I pushed allin and got a reluctant semi pot committed call from my opponent who suprisingly turns over QJ!! He turned a Q which freaked me abit expecting my usual bad luck, but to my suprise held up on the river.

So I doubled up early and proceeded to chip away and built my stack to 11,000 until I hit a road block. I get QQ in late position and a amateurish player raised small in early position then a mid position player somewhat light stacked just calls and I reraise about 5X only too be reraised allin 7000. The other player then calculates and calls, which I put on a medium PP hoping to get good pot odds. At this point I'm also getting pretty good odds, but I had a feeling that I was against AA or KK, but hoping I wasn't and getting great odds I took a bit of a big risk and called getting about 2-1 odds with QQ and left with my original 4000 stack if I lost. Unfortunately he did have AA and the 2nd player had JJ and the flop missed me including a straight draw.

I then proceeded to run into a bigger pair 2 hands in a row including my final hand still missing about 11 outs. That pretty much sucked because I couldn't ask to start out any better and unfortunately had to get involved in such a big pot. Maybe next time I might not take such a risk so early regardless I solid odds. Easy to say in hindsight only because this time it was against AA. 

The one good piece of news is I staked another online player that my buddy knows well, in the $1500 limit holdem tourney on Friday and is in the money down to the last 20 players!! I might come out ahead after all. I also have a piece in my buddy who will be playing another $1500 WSOP NL tourney in a week or so. So I will have to settle to bask in someone elses glory this year. Better than nothing right? Gotta go. Donkeyherder.

I just wanted to give congrats to our Freeroll winner in yesterday's FRAZ Freeroll on Cake Poker to "Puporunswell"!! It was a hard fought battle through 26 players and a very tough heads up match against "Bigdaddy775" who took 2nd, followed by our buddy "Billiamcdn" who played well and held the chip lead most of the tournament. For those who missed out or haven't signed up with us to get a 33% Rakeback account on Cake Poker, our next freeroll will most likely be on Thursday, 6/25 6:15 pm. Please contact us if you have any questions or interest in signing up. Cake poker is a great site with active table at all limits and alot of loose players.

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask.

You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com



Jumping forward to my personal poker playing career, Last month was a little bit disapointing. I had a pretty good run mid month only to donk it off through bad beats and some bad/distracted play. We have really taken to becoming serious Cake Poker Affiliates and now have almost 60 players signed up!! It has definitely become a bit of a distraction and change to my regular playing habits. I made the mistake of playing too many tables while trying to take on too many tasks at once. These days I get/send a ton of emails to interested players looking to join up, which is great, but very time consuming. I can't imagine what customer service issues an entire poker room must deal with.

The good news is my play has come around lately this month. I am actually on a 7 day positive run streak!! As I mentioned above I'm also going to leave this weekend to Vegas to play in 1 or 2 of the events in the World Series of Poker. On Saturday is a $1,500 NL tourney which I hope to cash and see where it takes me. It will also be the 1st time my wife is away from our baby for more than half a day. I'm sure it's gonna be tough for her so wish us both well. I hope my next post is of pictures of a bracelet or at least a few hundos to make up for my time. Take care everyone, Donkeyherder.
 

Hey Poker players, I have decided to team up with a good friend and successful poker player in becoming a Cake Poker Affiliate!!

I am not sure how many of you play online but I may have an offer and a few good reasons for you to start. I have played at Full Tilt, Party Poker, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker and now my primary site is on the Cake Poker network. We might all enjoy a good live game, but consider the advantages of online.

1. Play in the comfort of your home
2. No crowds
3. Games readily available at any time and at every limit
4. You DON'T tip (this is huge)
5. No gas expenses
6. play sit n go's in as little as 15 minutes ( and win )

and the biggest reason I would suggest you devote at least some of your time to online is RAKEBACK. Every time you sit at a table you pay rake, whether it is a tournament fee or rake per hand dealt, either way, there is money disappearing from the table. You NEVER get it back ! UNLESS you have rakeback. I can get you 33% back on every tournament fee you pay and / or every raked hand you play in, if you are a cash player. READ THAT AGAIN, it's that important to your profit line. In my opinion, you should NEVER play again without it.

I don't expect many of you will play as much as I do, but I am averaging $1000 back per month. Think about that, if you run a business and can pay 33% less expenses, wouldn't you do that ?

We also run a free roll every other week for $100 and if you join using the instructions I give below, you will be invited. We are having our next one Thursday evening at 6:15 so you have time to get joined and in....

to join

1. download cakepoker.com here: Cake Poker
2. open a new real money account (you don't have to deposit to do this at this time) using FRAZ (all caps) in the SIGN UP CODE box...you don't put anything in the promotional code box

For new players, you will get 110% of what you deposit, up to $600 on your first deposit as well...thats free money !!

I can also help you if you have any problems making any deposits if you send me an email and you wish to transfer money from another site.

You can also download using the banner below....if you choose to join...shoot me an email to let me know you did and what your screen name is, so I can invite you to the free roll. For new players, I am always here to answer questions about the site or poker in general, so please ask. I send out info about different aspects of the game to improve all my players games. It is in both MY and YOUR best interest to make you all profitable players....

hope to talk to you soon...You can email me at Donkeyherder2000@yahoo.com

With the World Series of Poker about to start, I've been dreaming about trying to work out some kind of deal with a sponsor and representing some charity. Ideally I'd like to find some deserving charity to represent and find a sponsor out there somewhere who might put the money for me to play in a tournament(s) in return for advertising on my blog and on my clothing while I play and I would dontate 10% of the buyin whether I cash or not and if I cash a tournament I could donate half of any profits to that charity. It seems like a win-win-win deal. The sponsor would probably get good press, I would get a mostly free entry, and the charity would get money (possibly huge) and good press as well. I might not make as much money as I could buying in on my own, but it would be great to show that poker players and those in the industry are in fact contributors to society and doing good for those in need. It sounds like a good idea in my book. I just need to do the hard part of finding some sponsors and selecting a charity to back. I thought down the road I might be able to raise money for multiple charities or special individuals in need. If anyone has any experience in this I would love to hear any advice in getting started. I don't know if it's a bit too late for this years' WSOP, but with all the WPT events, maybe in the next year I can make something happen.

For some reason it seems my performance always comes in spurts. I've noticed the same thing when looking up many other good online players. It's kind of weird when I see solid consistent players who show some of their best results one month only to follow it up with a horrible next month! I'm guessing some players get overconfident after going on a hot streak and try to make a run at the higher limits or just get sloppy with their play and maybe have a run of bad luck to boot. Luckily for me, I've really tried hard the last couple years focusing on playing only my highest returning games at the right limits. I do maintain very detailed statistics breaking down every singe game/tourney into every category and focus on my highest return per hour. This year with a new baby, however, I've had to cut down my multi table tournaments by about 95% and focus strictly on sng's, due to time restrictions. I think this has actually helped my game quite a bit by keeping me completely focused on mostly one type of game.

This month started out pretty slow. The first half of the month I was struggling to break above even. I have improved my return on $100 double-up's which I felt I was way below potential, but my games $150+ ran into a little bit of a cool down keeping me around even. Lucky for me I was on vacation this week which meant I got a few chances to play some smaller multi table tourneys at night. On Pokerstars they run a $25 rebuy satelite to their $650 WSOP Satelite. Apparently the poker gods couldn't throw enough suckouts against me and I won the seat 2 nights in a row!! Finally. Since then my sng's have been better and now I'm currently up for now.  

I watched the end of the Celebrity Apprentice with Annie Duke (Pro Poker Player) vs. Joan RIvers (Media Hag) and was a bit disgusted. I'm not a real big fan of Annie Duke, but she kicked River's ass outraising Joan 3 to 1, put on a better show, and they still gave Joan the win. I thought it seemed a bit shady, and later found out that River's already signed a deal with the producer to deal a reality show before the final of this show and the charity Joan represented was run by a woman who is connected to Trump's family!!! You do the math.  

 Well got to go. Don't go and lose your roll on some WSOP satelite. Donkeyherder.

I wish I could say we came home with the trophy full of money, but both my teammates were bounced early on bad beats or bad luck and I eventually got KO'd in the last 100 out of over 400 players. It was a great trip regardless. We met up with my buddy's friend from Canada, who was a real nice guy. It was a total guy's weekend. We immediately jumped right into multi table tourney's every chance we got. The very 1st tourney I was playing and running quite well. We got down to the bubble and "Canada Bill" got cut down to a single chip (less than the small blind). Some how he miraculously tripled up like 3-4x including KO ing me out on the bubble and getting heads up before getting badbeat multiple times and taking 2nd place. An incredible chip and a chair story!! It wasn't a huge win, but a great story. I believe we ended the night taking in the Beatles Circe de ....... show which was really good. 

We proceded to play most of the trip coming up slightly short. There seemed to be alot of horrible loose passive players in Vegas. I had one guy on my right who was calling off tons of chips with weak hands and sucking out. He called some guys allin move with a bad hand because he said he saw him "blink his eyes". I was salivating to get involved with him and sure enough I got my chance. This guy raised as usual and I got KK. The blinds were pretty big and I reraised him about half my stack. The guy sat and studied me and I blinked my eyes like crazy!! lol He then shoved allin obviously oblivious to the fact I was pot committed anyways, I called and he turns over POCKET 5's!! LMAO......The board comes small and he backs into a straight knocking me out! SIGH....

After that point I thought it was going to be a down trip. I had some moderate success playing a little bit of craps and blackjack. I'm not much of a gambler outside of poker unless I think I have some sort of an edge, but it's nice to break the monotany.  On our last night we had a nice dinner at one of the Venetian dinner spots and proceded to say our goodbyes to Canada Bill who had to fly back the next morning.

I was about to close up shop for the night until I found a 2/5 NL cash game seat open at the Venetian.  It was a brand new table and everyone was buying in the maximum $1,000 which was a bit steep to me, so I just bought in for $500. I rarely play cash games or live poker and figured if I busted out, that would be my last shot. I quickly realized $1,000 was not so far fetched of a bankroll to play with. Almost every pot was raised and many times people would raise before the cards were even dealt just for fun. It was a nice lively table, but very crazy and easy to lose everything you had on any hand. I tried limp into alot of cheap flops to try and catch something big. Luckily I did just that and caught a few big hands and then was able to play my normal game with a bigger stack to work with. By the end of the night I won many pots and was up about $1,400. It was one of my best cash game sessions. 

One funny story.....One of the cocky FullTilt sponsored guys who was dumping money all night, commented to a solid heavyset player to my left that he thought one of the poker room massage girls who massaged both men, if she had choose one of the two men to "hook up" with, he would win unless the heavyset guy gave her his money. The heavyset guy in good spirits laughed and I said "Maybe you two need to make a bet?!" After a few hours later the cocky FullTilt guy dumped all his money (probably 3K!!?) and proceded to leave. About 15 minutes later he came back to the table and said "You bastard.... She did pick you after all!!!) In good spirits again they both laughed and FullTilt guy took off broke and probably unable to pay if they had bet anyways. The kicker....The heavyset guy told me 15 minutes later he took a break earlier and told the massage girl about the bet and he would give her half the money if they guy actually paid up!!! LMAO, Classic. 

I headed home with some great memories and a few hundred ahead. Can't beat that I guess? 

Since then I have been playing very well and won a seat to a $2,300 sng to play for a WSOP Main Event seat. My buddy won a 5K seat to an Ireland tourney which I have a peice, I worked out a nice rakeback deal on the CakePoker Network, and last night I killed some sng's last night up $1,500. I can't ask for more. Good luck all, don't lose the kid's college fund. Donkeyherder.

 

Somehow I managed to get the OK from the wife to go play in a "Team Poker" tournament in Vegas this coming weekend. It looks like it's gonna be bigger than I thought. 150 teams of 3 players sold out and more to add on the day of. At $1,500 per team, it looks like a prize pool of over $250,000 is likely. Some pros and celebs should also make it fun. I should take some pics maybe I can post later. Here is a link on Cardplayer.com about it. www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/article/6004/dream-team-poker-hosts-event-at-caesars

We're almost done with this month and it has been a roller coaster ride. I started off pretty hot and it looked like I was going to has a banner month. Then I had a few bad days and have been treading water ever since. I've been caught up with a few Step tournaments on Absolute Poker trying to win a seat to this years 10K Main Event. I have also been dabbling with some of the Ultra turbo sng's and I think it has cut into my wins and focus. I seem to be playing these games well and continue to get bad beat in the end, which makes me think I should just keep playing them in hopes my luck will even out and I'll get a better feel for what my profit margin(if any) really is. Regardless, I probably shouldn't let these games eat up all my profits from Double-up sng's on Cake which has been very good over the last couple months.

I hope to catch up on my work so I can put some decent posts together and do some homework on the games I'm playing, but I've been saying that for months. It reminds me of the gym membership I keep saying I'll use eventually.

Business in the "real world", seems to be doing a little better. I work for Kraft Foods and it might be the 1st solid finish to a quarter in a while. Since the downturn it has been constant bosses over the shoulder on everything and if you complain you're told that there are 20 in line to take your place. It's getting pretty old and we are supposed to be getting GPS tracking phones soon which track our every move.....sigh. I took my job because I enjoyed the freedom to do things how you want and all that mattered was results. This idea is quickly dissapearing in recent years and soon "big brother" will have shock collars on us all. I love technology, but I see the writing on the wall not just for me but everyone that works for a big company.

Looks like the baby woke up and it's time for daddy duty. Gl, all. Try not to bet the rent money. Donkeyherder.

Well I've  been playing pretty well. I've steadily done pretty well over the last few months, but I haven't had much time to play. I usually play about 2-4 games at a time, but I probably only get in about 5-10 games a day. Despite this, I am playing the highest available buyins on double-up sng's and am playing at my highest avg. buyin ever (around $170 avg.) and currently have a win rate of just over $20 per game on $150+ double ups, which would probably rank pretty well on any of the leaderboards, but I still change my screen name pretty regularly.

My buddy has already won poker trips to Aruba, Austrailia, and now Ireland. We're going to team up in Vegas this month to play in a $1,500 3 man Team tournament at Ceasers. We got a HUGE room at the Venetian. It should be fun. I'd like play a couple multi's before then. I played a $30 rebuy the other day (I think only my 2nd multi all year long!) and made final table, but busted out with QQ vs AK allin preflop and only won like $200. Oh well. I hope to maybe play a live tourney this month at the "Bike" in L.A. 

Once my wife gets off work for the summer, things should relax considerably at least for 3 months. Otherwise life is good, our jobs are secure (for now), and we have renters in our condo. I hope to have a good year and pay off some things. If things go good maybe down the road me or my wife could quit our job. For now it's gonna be a grind and I'm on Daddy duty. Maybe I'll get lucky and cash big this year in a big Vegas tourney?

One good thing I've noticed is that the economy isn't showing much of a damper in the poker industry. At least not in the online traffic dept. It looks like many of the big sites are showing 20-40% bumps over the last 6 months. I'm guessing most of which is in low limit games, but I'm sure some of it filters up to the games I play. Since the Doyles Room merger with the Cake Poker network there has been a noticable bump.

I am also trying to play some of the WSOP satelites on AP and have a couple $250's and a  $800 satelite to play. I try not to put too much money into satelites because I'd rather play the games in which I get my best return and it kinda takes me away from perfecting my current niche, but I'll take a couple shots and see if it was meant to be.

Sorry for the little amount of posting lately. A combination of busy work has hit me as usual. I think I really got my game in a decent zone sticking to primarily Double-up sng tournaments on Cake Poker, in which I now play the highest limit game I can get to fill which is usually $150-200 and $300/$500 every once in a while. I change my screen name weekly to somewhat throw off the non observant players and would probably be on a few of the Sharkscope leaderboards if I cared more about the attention. I hate to start spouting off on how well I'm doing because it always leads to a horrible bad run. Hopefully Cake keeps growing and the games stay strong. 

My buddy "Dawgonu" wants to play in the WSOP San Diego Series and a 3 player Team Poker tourney at Cesears in Vegas next month. I hope to work it out and maybe play in one of these events, but it's gonna cost me probably a $1,000 or more, plus travel. Wish me luck.

I hate to post what I consider a half-assed post, but I figure it's better to at least keep things current. There's been a couple book reviews I've been meaning to do, particularly Neal Gersony's novel, "Poker Slam", which was a great read, but haven't the time to give it a proper write-up. You can click his blog link if interested.

Gl, all. Try not to degen your car payment on the tables. Donkeyherder.

I haven't been the biggest football fan this year, but just as all the rest of the country, I'm sitting here watching watching this Steelers beat up on the Cardinals (So far). Before the game I felt a bit in favor......AHHHH my neighbor just knocked on our door and made our dogs go nuts!! Apparently he bought a new? VCR and can't get it to work. lol shocker!!......OK. Apparently you need to turn the TV on channel 3. Could you guess? To his credit his TV is a big screen within the last decade. The superbowl actually proved to be a very good game. 

I was going to put together an end of the month post, but got sidetracked and will probably wait for a better time to do a decent post. GL, Donkeyherder.

I wish I had more time to post more frequently lately, but I'm still quite busy. When I do post I try to make it something worthwhile. I guess I could just make smaller more frequent posts. I know I get a bit bummed when I check out a website and nothing has been updated in a while. I guess that's why fellow poker grinder "sparta45" decided to pull the plug on his blog. I think I might do a poll on that and see what kind of responce I get (Hopefully more than 3 opinions, lol)

Today is my birthday I am unfortunately 31 years old. Unfortunately, only because I'd like to be a World Champion by 25, but I guess I can't put life on hold or quit my job just yet and focus 100% of my work time on poker. I'm pretty much just gonna hang out at home. We went out on Saturday to "Islands" restuarant to celebrate. I looked around for any decent live tournaments in the L.A. area and couldn't find anything worth wasting gas and driving to. Only a $300 7 card stud tourney at Commerce, which isn't my specialty.

This month has been a roller coaster. I went into the month on a hot streak and carried that over into the first week or so, until BAMMMMM!!!! I dropped like $2,500 in 3 days on a combination of bad beats, bad cards, and slightly poor play. I then adjusted to this by taking a step back and playing some smaller other games until I got things back on track. Luckily, that's what I did and over the last week I have made up all my losses and I feel I am back to my "A" game, or at least "B+". I have done very well play the double-up tournaments on CakePoker, and I haven't spent any time at all reviewing any of my hands or tracking any hand stats from these games. Once I get some time I'll have to go back and do some homework. I'm a little reluctant since I've been doing so well, that doing such review might change the way I'm playing and hurt my results. You come across some very unsusual circumstances in these games because nobody wants to bust out 6th even if they have huge pot odds to make a call or a shove allin, etc. I think trying to track my plays might be more difficult due to these variables which might be tough to factor. Please keep the feedback coming (email, comments, and questions). Donkeyherder

 
Play Online Poker

Cardplayer magazine did an article today online that talks about Obama's website which takes suggestions for action. Apparently, the right to play online poker ranked #2!!! Here's the link to the cardplayer article with Obama's website link: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/article/5891/citizens-tell-obama-to-let-people-play-online-poker

I recently was thinking to myself "I wonder if the 1st tournament I sit down and play shows any better or worse results?" I thought I might play tighter, possibly more distracted due to getting things setup, as well as being busy checking emails and working on other work. However, I also thought my mind is fresh and less prone to tilting. So I decided to give it more looking into. Since I actually have a daily running tally on every game I play, I basically went back to last January 2008 and copied my data onto another spreadsheet and deleted out every game except for the 1st sit in go I played each day. Here were my results:

Each SNG not being my 1st game: $10 per hour, per game

Each SNG as my 1st of the day: $7.60 per hour,  per game

It actually is much worse as I separated out the standard sng's from the "double-up" sng's. at $1.60 per hour, per game

(I figure the reason for this might just be because the double ups have no end game and are a bit less complicated to play.)

I will say the data used reflecting 1st sng's is 314 games taking 168 hours of play, which might seem like alot of data, but is still susceptable to random variance swings. I do believe when using common sense, it seems to make sense. In anything we do the 1st time, we are probably not at our best. As any sporting event you have ever been to might show, they all warm up prior to the big game. Why would it be any different for poker?

So how will this information guide my future play? I would probably like to delve deeper into the data and see if I am just playing too cautious or busting out earlier more often. This information, again, is based on how I play, and might not be as useful for somebody else who might be able to sit down with good energy and give 100% of their attention to every game. In my personal case, if I am playing winning sng's, I will keep playing into the night until I lose one or two. So if you look at the last 1 or 2 sng's I play each day it will probably show pretty bad results even though I am playing quite well.

My recommendation for other players out there: In my particular case I am still somewhat profitable my 1st game, however, most players with less experience and skill are probably fighting to keep their heads above water as it is, and starting off the day on a downswing is probably much more damaging and could cause an earlier bout of tilting. I would recommend trying to play smaller than your normal average buyin and if things work out well, than you can move up to a higher level of play feeling confident in your game, and if things do start off poorly you have already minimized your losses and can continue to play small until things work out better. This would be a much better strategy than what I typically hear when I talk with amateur players who get tilted and lose and then try and play bigger to make their money back, which leads to an inevitable crash to their bankrolls.

Lately I've been getting a lot of  questions on where to find a good book devoted strictly to sit'n'go's? Most of the poker books out there have maybe one chapter or a few pages devoted to these tournaments (Typically 6 or 10 player tournaments which pay 2-3 players based on finish.) In general, they will all basically tell you to play tight early and more aggressive late, with a few examples. In most cases I think it's ok advice for smaller buyins $1-30 buyins, but there are so many variables that can make or break you, it would be a good idea to study a little deeper. Check out "Sit 'in Go Strategy", by Collin Moshman.



It was first printed in 2007, so I'm sure at the higher limits, there are some strategies that might be debated, however, the book runs through a number of tough scenarios and specific ways to look at and play a hand based on strictly sit 'n go style tournaments. If you have read any of Dan Harrington's books, it is from the same publisher (2+2 publishing) and it has a very similar style of teaching. It runs for $24.95, which in my mind is probably the cost of what most people to play 1 single sit'n go, and you will probably make that money back hand over fist if you can retain some of it or plug a few leaks.   

I tried to find an applicable quote from the David Apostolico's book based off Sun-Tzu war strategies "Tournament Poker and the Art of War": "We are not fit to lead an army on the march unless we are familiar with the face of the country - its mountains and forests, its pitfalls and percipices, its marshes and swamps."

Good luck at the tables. Please keep the feedback coming (email, comments, and questions). Donkeyherder

 
Play Online Poker

Poll #1325309 Would you answer my poll
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

I'd like to add some polls to my blog, would you chime in?

Well last year wasn't my most productive year in poker, at least not in the way of dollars made. Between our new baby and moving to a new home, my free time was utterly drained between wife, baby, moving, and "real" work. That being said, still another profitable and productive year.

My poker:
In terms of performance, I ended the year fairly strong. I had a positive finish in 7 out of my last 8 months, included my last 3 in a row. While my games/hours had dropped this year, I am now pretty well settled and expect to gradually put in more time and effort into my games. I also finished the year at my highest average buyin level pretty much ever at $141 average buyin per game/(sit in go). Most of my focus has been $150-200 double up sit in go tournaments in which 5 out of 10 players get double their money back when the first 5 get eliminated. I've been tearing these up pretty well cashing about 57-60%. That might not seem all that great, but I would venture to say it is in the highest ranks for that limit. Going into next year I have got my niche pretty well figured out for now.  I will also probably play 1 or 2 events at the WSOP again this year depending on this success and hopes I should have a renter for my condo.

Here is my latest qoute from the David Apostolico's book based off Sun-Tzu war strategies "Tournament Poker and the Art of War": "Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations lead to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can forsee who is likely to win or lose".

This year I also rarely had time to research my and my opponents play hand-by-hand. This year I hope to work out a few more leaks with my increasing spare time.

My buddy "dawgonu" has had a great year as well, cashing in some big tournaments and improved the leaks in his game all around. He has already won a trip to play in the Aussie Millions in a couple weeks and I expect us both to have another great year.

My poker related investments:
I plan on buying another 37"+ TV to use as a 4th monitor and get a Verizon hi-speed internet plugin as a backup internet connection. I'd also like to get a heavy duty power backup "UPS" that could endure any long lasting power outages. Typically it's not a problem here in sunny CA, but it has happened before and if I'm playing 3 $200 tournaments and registered in 2 more and I lose power, I could potentially easily lose $1,000 and my short term sanity!! Too me it's worth the investments.

My financial investments:
I pretty much cashed out all my stocks last year so I could take off 3 months of work to support my wife during her pregnancy. This was a very good decision, obviously for the time spent with my wife and coincidentally the stock market has plunged over 30% since then. I hope this years' success will give me an opportunity to rebuild that account and hopefully by then the markets have turned around.

My real job:
As with most people, my real job is not something I love with all my heart, but it pays the bills in a time where people are getting laid off, so I can't complain. I'd love to quit and play full-time, but it makes sense to keep doing what I'm doing. To me it's like paid exercise during a time in the day when my favorite game doesn't fill well anyways. I actually like doing my job which has me talking to alot people I've known quite a while and I get to drive around and do things on my own schedule in my company car. The only real downside is dealing with increasing administrative work and catching heat from management, especially over things you don't have much control and rarely getting any kind of compliments for a job well done the other 99% of the time. So I'll keep on for now until I am able to line up a better scenario.

My family:
Despite my desire to play poker 24/7 365 days a year, I realize if I want to at least maintain my current routine I will continue to try to be a good dad and helper around the house. While it makes obvious sense based on my results $ per hour etc., my wife still has a hard time seeing my time playing poker as equal to time working my real job or helping around the house. She says she understands, but when I'm sitting in a tournament with hundreds or thousands of dollars at stake and the baby is crying or the house is a mess, etc., you can tell it goes right out the window. In a way I can understand and unless I am asking for a divorce, I have just got to deal with it. I am young and already have more than most people twice my age and am very grateful to have a nice home, good family, good wife and blessed with a healthy child.

My Poker blog:
I started this blog less than a year ago with no experience or expectations what so ever. I didn't really expect to make much money off of this, but I'm glad I am able have my experiences documented and at least do something positive for others with all the experience I have in this way of life. I expect to do more reviews on mostly poker related stuff and continue to network myself around and get to know more people in the industry. I do enjoy writing but since it is something I don't really get paid for, I prefer to use my valuable free time to play. I do hope to continue to improve my content and have gotten some good comments and advice this year.

All in all I think I'm in a great spot to have a good year. The only obstacle I really see is my playing time is still at a part-time level, which should at least continue to improve with time and set me up to have a spectacular year hopefully by 2010.  Time will tell my fate I guess. Good luck at the tables. Please keep the feedback coming (email, comments, and questions). Donkeyherder


 
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I finally got some things put together so I can get back to work herding up some donks.  I'd like to add a 37-42" LCD above the current three monitors.






I got 2 power back-up/surge protectors and one of the most major necessities....the office FRIDGE Baby!!



I'm hangin a little poker wear to maintain that poker vibe and a Donkey Herder shirt to represent!!



Here's a little bit of some of the literature I've read on my way to graduating from Poker School with a Masters in Donkeyherding!! Hee-Hawwww.

After having the friendly donkeys on my screen saver for a while, I really didn't even think about it when the cable company guys came by to fix my internet and phone. One of them asked me wtf is with the donkeys? Was I really into donkeys or something? He probably thought I was a donkey fornicating freak. I tried to explain the poker reference, but I guarantee those guys were about to call Chris Hanson's Catch a Predator show looking for a reward.

There's still a few more things I'd like to do later, but I bought my own digital camera today at Costco (I could live there if I had to!!) so I wanted to post some pics before the holidays. Gl all, Donkeyherder

Apparently Time Warner Cable has like the worst customer support of all-time!! I always had the worst experiences with phone and internet providers. I guess TWC's internet crashed about a week ago and I finally got a tech out to my house today which made 1 simple phone call reseting my modem from their office?!! You would think over the last week and 15 phone calls somebody woulda tried to do that already?? They also processed my account twice under 2 different account numbers?!! WTF? I still don't have a phone 45 days later too? Sighhhhh

More the reason I want to buy an internet plug-in card, but then I'll have to another phone company to screw me around. Anyways, I had a good start only to have a small but horrible suckout run. It should play out, but I might start being more selective on the $200's I play.

More to come later, just had to get that off my chest. Donkeyherder.
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Play Online Poker

Well it's obvious to say moving sucks!! It's pretty much killed all my recent poker action. It took about a week just to get about the most important 90% of our stuff out and into the new place. Then what I didn't realize was even a bigger hassle of trying to take it all apart and reorganize which is in it's 2nd week of coming together. The good thing about the whole thing is you get to get to clean up and you get that feeling of a new fresh start. This also applies to my office (which I no longer have to share with the baby) and I get to rebuild my ultimate computer setup! My previous setup I had (3) 24" Samsung monitors and a 32" TV. I exchanged my TV with our bedroom 36" and I plan to buy a 37"-42" lcd 1080 High Def. to put above my 3 monitors and use it as another monitor. I had an electrician add an additional plug outlet under my desk. I also use 2 battery backups with about 1 hour of power in case the power goes out and has multiple outlets with surge protection. If I can find a good plan, I would also like to buy one of those portable high performance USB internet connectors, in case my internet crashes or prolonged power outage. Everything I've seen is about $50+ per month and I'm not sure how reliable they are, so I might wait till I find a good deal.  

I recently was contacted by Neal Gersony who wrote a fictional novel called "Poker Slam" asking me if I'd read and review his book. I am usually very happy to do reviews, which I have done on other books and poker related subjects, and I think I will expand and do more of in the future, however, during my move-in process it might be a week or two more before I'm back up to speed. I'd also like to do some posting or start a new blog related to stock picking, which I have spent alot of time tracking and analyzing over the last 6 or 7 years on a daily basis. With the financial markets in such a bad state lately, I have a feeling I'll either look like a stock picking donkey or superstar with such wild swings. Variance is just as much an issue to overcome in stocks as well as poker. If you think about it the returns of a succesful poker player are anywhere between 5 and 20%. This is also very similar in stocks except typically most people aren't able to invest in hundreds or thousands of different stocks for long periods of time as you can play hundreds of games of poker in a month. This makes me believe that trading stocks is probably much more risky and volatile than playing poker. If you think about it most pro poker players can at least over the course of a year show a profit probably 9 out of 10 years. The odds of that same feat in the stock market are very rare even if you are one of the best stock pickers alive, as obviously seen this year in which the whole market has lost over 20%.

As far as my personal poker results for the month of November, I started the month off pretty bad down the 1st week and was able to turn it around and finish up positive after finishing up 10 of my last 13 playing days. I also had my largest average tournament buyin at abiut $130. I have been having pretty good success with 2x double up sit in go's which basically 5 out of 10 players get paid double their money if you are part of the last 5 standing. At first I didn't think these tournaments were worth the time since there isn't any large payout for 1st place and the profit margin is slimmer. Fortunately, I improved my strategy and at a higher buyin level ($100-300) I am able to make a decent and consistent return (as of right now at least). It's really hard to tell until you've played hundreds or even thousands of tournaments, which is why many players can get big ego's on a decent run and other players who play to high for their bankrolls can eventually find themselves reloading their credit cards or quitting altogether. Now I'm saying most players would be winners if they just kept dumping money and keep playing, but I'm saying it takes a while to figure out a realistic return and that's not even factoring whether your game or the way to beat the game itself changes. Personally I think most players should just play really small till they show a consistant profit and slowly move up.  It can be frustrating, but why not pay as little as possible to learn how to win?