Oh man, I'm totally nervous about that tournament tonight. I only have to finish in the top 40 to advance, but it's through a field of 400. I'm visibly shaking with nervous energy as I type this. I want to win it bad . Anyway, onto the article... Playing poker well requires a rather wide skill set. Lately, I've been thinking about those skills and how I stack up. Math skills: This is more essential in limit, but still plays a critical role in no-limit. You need to be constantly compari...

I lost that tournament from last week. Kind of depressing, I really wanted to make it to the next round. Oh well, maybe next time. So it now looks like I'll be playing in two events at the World Series The first event will be the $1500 No-Limit event, where I'll stay in that timeshare with Dutch and his friends. Well, I hope to do that event. I'll be trying out a few satellites in Vegas to try to win myself a cheap seat. My wife also wants to play in the ladies event, which is about a week ...

I broke even last night. Well, not exactly. I actually made about $12 after three hours of play. Party Poker will give me a $100 bonus if I can get 1,000 raked hands before the 26th. So last night I was just trying to get it up to 500 hands, then I'll do 250 hands over the next two days. I buy-in to each table with $150. Since I play two at a time, that's $300 I keep in play at any one time. Kind of nerve wracking, having all that money at risk. I have to keep telling myself it's just a sc...

Last night was another tough game at $2/$4. After three hours, I only booked a win of about $7. Better than losing, I suppose. It was one of those nights where I started out losing a few big hands right away, then spent the rest of the night playing catch up. What was slowing down my progress was that I kept splitting big pots with other players. Four times there were four to five people in these huge pots with over $100 in them. I'd get a strait for the win, but then would have to split the ...

I finally got my bonus from Party Poker, so my total for the night was about $114. These games are tough, I just can't seem to make very much money. I think I was earning more cash total at $1/$2. I considered moving back down, but I want to make progress towards the higher stakes. I'm starting to think earning so little is just normal, at least until I improve. Battling this tougher competition is helping me get better, though. My reads on opponents are improving and I'm pretty confident tha...

w00t! I made it to the final table at the Casino San Pablo tournament on Saturday (in person, not online). They start paying out prizes at 10th place and I went out in 7th. Not too shabby. A combination of short stacks at the table, and me getting trash hands, had me just waiting for the short stacks to go out. Every player that busted meant more prize money for me. It worked ok at first, as three of the short stacks eventually went out before me. But the binds & antes were so huge, I eventu...

So I had just enough cash to play at $3/$6 online, but only by $30. I was pretty scared about playing at that level, because just one loss would send me back down to $2/$4. But I finally got up the nerve to do it last night and won $60 in the first few hands! I decided to hang onto my winnings, so quickly logged off. I really wanted to keep playing, though, so I signed up for a $5 tournament. I lost that one right away, when I had AQ with a flop of Q72. My opponent pushed all-in and I call...

I had another good session last night. Won about $70 at $3/$6. I was actually down about $100 for a while, but then managed to win $150 off of just one guy in two hands. He was a total maniac and was capping almost every betting round. At the showdown, the person who made the last bet shows their hand first. The other players only have to show their hands if they can beat the first player. But all that information is stored in the hand history logs. I have some software that goes through thos...

I played the tournament again at Casino San Pablo and won first place! I'm feeling pretty good about my play now. Heh, there were some fun moments at the casino. I was playing $3/$6, while waiting for the tournament sign-ups, and check-raised this one guy. He wasn't very happy about it and left the table for a little bit to steam. My mentor introduced me to him later and it turns out he's the guy I'll be sharing a room with during the WSOP this summer. Well, at least we know each other now ...

Last night was interesting. I won $64 playing $3/$6 for about... oh... four minutes. That was enough for me and I quickly logged off That's been my pattern lately, I play for a short amount of time, accumulate some cash, then log off. The one time I didn't do that, I was up over $100, eventually gave most of it back, and logged off with only a $15 profit. If I keep doing this, I'll never get a big payout. But at least the bankroll keeps growing. A little later, I got 3rd place in a $20 sit ...

A ninja is not reckless. A ninja hides in the shadows and only strikes when he has the advantage. A ninja understands that late position is his shadow, allowing him to watch his enemy's movements before making a decision. He understands that early position provides no cover. Without cover, a ninja only attacks with his strongest weapons, such as high pocket pairs or other strong cards. But from the shadows, he can sneak in with more subtle weapons. Suited connectors & low pocket pairs are his...

I made the final table at the Casino San Pablo tournament again. That's three weeks in a row! I only got 9th place, but since I had to get really lucky to get there, I can't complain. Twice, I was all-in with the worst hand and caught some perfect cards. Early on in the tournament, I had taken half of this one guy's stack. On the very next hand, a big stack raised and that guy pushed all-in. I looked down to see AQ. I had the short stack covered and didn't want to play it three handed, so I p...

If you've been keeping track, you'll see my bankroll took a hit today. But not from poker. My wife has been on a downswing lately and hasn't really had the cash to join me at the casino tournaments. So for Valentine's Day, I gave her a small chunk from my bankroll to hers. Cash as a gift? I know, I know, it sounds like a cop out in lieu of a real gift. But it actually means a lot... she knows that there is only one thing more important to me than building up my bankroll right now and that's h...

I got back from Vegas last weekend. It was a lot of fun, but anti-climactic. I did five tournaments, but didn't get into the money in any of them. Stutefish came with me, so we spend the rest of the time playing $2/$4. He's still learning, so we stayed at low stakes, and he managed to go from small loser to break even during the trip. He's learning a tight aggressive style, so just needed some experience to tune it. I made a small profit from those games, but was down for the week from the to...

Sweet. My wife brought home around $4,000 from her trip. Not a bad haul for someone that hasn't played poker seriously in months. She was killing the no-limit tables at the Stratosphere. Ended up playing against a bunch of drunk guys from different wedding parties, so the tables were nearly all fish. She's got such a great system that I'm totally unable to emulate. She likes to sit down and immediately start playing like a maniac. Makes big pre-flop raises, over bets the pot post-flop, pus...