I play poker to make money. I don’t have much of an ego. I don’t care if I am a top ranked player. I like being somewhat unknown. But sometimes you just want to challenge yourself and see what you can do…….

I decided to enter the November Team TLB Challenge on Pocketfives because I was looking for a little additional motivation. I am ready to play a lot of tournaments and see what kind of results I can put up. I also like getting into team contests for online poker because it can be a very isolated lifestyle. It’s nice to have others rooting you on at the FT. Also, your teammates might be able to help you improve your game or you might be able to help them improve theirs. It will be a long month…but it should be a lot of fun too!

Why I will be successful in November: I will put in the time. I will play my best from beginning to end. I will avoid tilt. I will make good decisions. I will not quit. I will play better than my opponents when the big money is on the line. I will be a short stack ninja when needed. I will weild a big stack when possible. I will be smart and aggressive. I will take chips from the weaker opponents. I will avoid giving chips to the best players. And I will pray to the poker gods whenever I am all in – ONE TIME!!!!!!!! PLZ? ONE TIME!!!!!!!! CMON!!!! ONE F-ING TIME!!!!!!!!!!

To my opponents, I wish you the best this month.
To my teammates, I hope that you are both lucky and good this month.
To the poker gods, I pray that you will be kind and merciful.

- Mark

Tournament poker can be such a grind. When you register for an online tournament you might really be in the mood to play some poker and you might even bring your A+ game to the table. However, the key is will you be able to stay focused and play your best for the next 5-8 hours? Being totally focused at the beginning is important but staying focused right through the final table is even more important since that is when the biggest money prizes are determined.

When I first started playing online, I never considered how long the tournament would last. It usually didn’t last more than an hour or two for me since I didn’t have the skills to make it deeper into the tournament. Now one of the first things I do is check to see how long the tournament normally lasts before I register and then determine if I have any commitments that would interfere with the end of the tournament. Once I know that I have the time to play, I try to assess if I have the energy to play for an entire tournament. During the day this is not usually a problem but sometimes I’ll feel as if I want to play one of the late night mtts cause I’m not tired and I love poker. Then I start thinking will I be tired at the end of the tournament and what time do I need to wake up tomorrow and how will I handle the next day’s schedule when I’m exhausted. This thought process has helped me avoid a lot of bad situations during my poker career and probably saved me a lot of money.

- Mark

Just a quick follow up to yesterday’s blog entry with some things I learned:

- Trying to post hands from my day was extremely difficult.
- My game really does suffer a bit after I have 4 tables going.
- I can manage 5-6 tables much better than 7-8 tables.
- I did actually profit on the day even though I only cashed in 1/10 mtts.
- Making one FT can really help in being profitable.
- I will be really busy in November for the PLB Challenge.
- November will be a lot of fun!

Hi everyone – I will be playing a lot of poker today. I decided to enter the November PLB Team Challenge on Pocketfives at the last minute and I am using today to prepare for the increased volume of mtts I plan to play next month. Here is my schedule for the first half of the day:

Pokerstars
13:00 $100 – OUT
14:15 $201R1AO – OUT
15:00 $50 – OUT
15:15 $50R – OUT
16:00 $10R – OUT
17:00 $50 – DID NOT REGISTER YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR LIMITS
17:15 $501R1AO – DID NOT REGISTER SEE ABOVE

Full Tilt
14:00 $26 – OUT
14:30 $20R – OUT
15:00 $150 – OUT
15:30 $50 – OUT
16:30 $30R – 4th place for $1380

I will try to keep it at a max of 8 tables so I may have to drop some of these if I’m getting deep in the early ones. I also plan to play more mtts tonight but it’s hard to predict what my schedule for the 19:00 and later mtts will be at this point so I’ll update that later today.

I also hope to do some live updates to this blog entry to track my progress throughout the day. This should be fun so stay tuned!!

- Mark
———————-
AN EARLY DOUBLE UP

PokerStars Game #12838012802: Tournament #64650393, $100+$9 Hold’em No Limit – Level I (10/20) – 2007/10/25 – 13:05:56 (ET)
Table ‘64650393 42′ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: gazeebo_eyez (2970 in chips)
Seat 2: Wallentin72 (4470 in chips)
Seat 3: cbsplash (1250 in chips)
Seat 4: zillick (3210 in chips)
Seat 5: Pe-T (2970 in chips)
Seat 6: Edgardoo (2970 in chips)
Seat 7: too blave (3010 in chips)
Seat 8: mscell (2680 in chips)
Seat 9: klask (3440 in chips)
too blave: posts small blind 10
mscell: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mscell [6d Qc]
klask: folds
gazeebo_eyez: folds
Wallentin72: folds
cbsplash: folds
zillick: folds
Pe-T: folds
Edgardoo: folds
too blave: calls 10
mscell: checks
*** FLOP *** [Qs Kd 6s]
too blave: checks
mscell: bets 40 (I BET MY TWO PAIR HERE CAUSE I THINK I WILL GET A CALL FROM ANY K, Q, or 6 or ANY DRAW)
too blave: calls 40
*** TURN *** [Qs Kd 6s] [7h]
too blave: checks
mscell: bets 120 (THIS IS A GOOD CARD FOR ME SO I BET POT AGAIN)
too blave: raises 300 to 420 (THIS RAISE DOESNT SCARE ME HERE. I DONT THINK HE HAS A SET AND KQ LIKELY RE POPS ME ON THE FLOP SO I THINK THIS IS TOP PAIR OR A BIG DRAW OR A MOVE)
mscell: raises 2200 to 2620 and is all-in (I REALLY DONT LIKE TO BE ALL IN IN A BLIND WAR AT THE 10/20 LEVEL BUT I THINK MY HAND IS BEST AND I WANT TO WIN THE POT HERE OR CHARGE THE MAX FOR THE DRAW)
too blave: calls 2200
*** RIVER *** [Qs Kd 6s 7h] [Tc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
too blave: shows [Ts 9s] (a pair of Tens) (SO HE PICKS UP A TWO WAY DRAW ON THE TURN AND DEICDES TO GO WITH IT AND MISSES)
mscell: shows [6d Qc] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
mscell collected 5360 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5360 | Rake 0
Board [Qs Kd 6s 7h Tc]
Seat 1: gazeebo_eyez folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Wallentin72 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: cbsplash folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: zillick folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Pe-T folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: Edgardoo (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: too blave (small blind) showed [Ts 9s] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 8: mscell (big blind) showed [6d Qc] and won (5360) with two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 9: klask folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

——————————————–
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE SETS

PokerStars Game #12838447695: Tournament #64650393, $100+$9 Hold’em No Limit – Level III (25/50) – 2007/10/25 – 13:32:33 (ET)
Table ‘64650393 42′ 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: gazeebo_eyez (5300 in chips)
Seat 2: Wallentin72 (7360 in chips)
Seat 3: cbsplash (3080 in chips)
Seat 4: JonLines (3200 in chips)
Seat 5: Pe-T (2560 in chips)
Seat 6: Edgardoo (3735 in chips)
Seat 8: mscell (5060 in chips)
Seat 9: NIB88 (8120 in chips)
gazeebo_eyez: posts small blind 25
Wallentin72: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mscell [Jh Qc]
cbsplash: calls 50
JonLines: folds
Pe-T: folds
Edgardoo: folds
mscell: raises 150 to 200 (I HAVE SOME CHIPS SO IM GOING TO BE MORE AGGRESSIVE AND ISOLATE LIMPERS WITH POSITION)
NIB88: folds
gazeebo_eyez: calls 175
Wallentin72: folds
cbsplash: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [Qs 9c 5h]
gazeebo_eyez: checks
cbsplash: checks
mscell: bets 445 (THIS IS A GOOD FLOP FOR MY HAND BUT I WANT TO TAKE IT DOWN HERE IF POSSIBLE)
gazeebo_eyez: folds
cbsplash: calls 445
*** TURN *** [Qs 9c 5h] [Jc]
cbsplash: bets 800 (HIS LEAD HERE DIDNT SIT TOO WELL WITH ME BUT MY HAND IMPROVED SO UNLESS IM GIVING HIM CREDIT FOR KT OR A SET THIS IS STILL A GOOD SPOT FOR ME)
mscell: raises 3615 to 4415 and is all-in (I FIGURED HE HAD A PAIR AND DRAW COMBINATION AND WANTED TO GET THE CHIPS IN BEFORE THE RIVER)
cbsplash: calls 1635 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Qs 9c 5h Jc] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cbsplash: shows [5d 5s] (three of a kind, Fives) (HE FLOPPED A SET AND WAS LUCKY THAT I IMPROVED ON THE TURN WHEN HE LEADS OUT)
mscell: shows [Jh Qc] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
cbsplash collected 6410 from pot
Wallentin72 said, “vnh”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6410 | Rake 0
Board [Qs 9c 5h Jc 4h]
Seat 1: gazeebo_eyez (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: Wallentin72 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: cbsplash showed [5d 5s] and won (6410) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 4: JonLines folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Pe-T folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: Edgardoo folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: mscell showed [Jh Qc] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 9: NIB88 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

————————-
KNOWING WHEN TO SLOW DOWN

Full Tilt Poker Game #3963437838: $17,500 Guarantee (29629286), Table 94 – 30/60 – No Limit Hold’em – 14:37:29 ET – 2007/10/25
Seat 1: It_is_she (4,485)
Seat 3: MrPVol (2,815)
Seat 4: mscell (3,785)
Seat 5: SmokinAcesYrAzz (4,925)
Seat 6: TOBTHATANK (2,445)
Seat 7: WHACKINGDAY (2,595)
Seat 8: judoka_ro75 (1,290)
Seat 9: Storhove (4,660)
TOBTHATANK posts the small blind of 30
WHACKINGDAY posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mscell [Td Tc]
judoka_ro75 folds
Storhove calls 60
It_is_she calls 60
MrPVol has 15 seconds left to act
xDOCTORx sits down
xDOCTORx adds 2,455
MrPVol folds
mscell raises to 240 (RAISE TO ISOLATE WHAT I FEEL IS THE BEST HAND PREFLOP VS THE LIMPERS)
SmokinAcesYrAzz folds
TOBTHATANK folds
WHACKINGDAY folds
Storhove calls 180 (WE GET HEADS UP VS A LIMPER WHICH IS A GOOD RESULT)
It_is_she folds
*** FLOP *** [5s 4s 3d]
Storhove checks
mscell has 15 seconds left to act
mscell bets 500 (I WOULD PREFER A LESS CONNECTED/COORDINATED FLOP BUT I THINK A C BET HERE IS FINE)
Storhove calls 500
*** TURN *** [5s 4s 3d] [2c]
Storhove checks
mscell checks (THIS PUTS A FOUR STRAIGHT ON BOARD GIVING HIM A STRAIGHT WITH ANY Ax OR ANY 6x HAND SO I JUST CHECK BEHIND)
*** RIVER *** [5s 4s 3d 2c] [8d]
Storhove has 15 seconds left to act
Storhove checks
mscell checks (I DONT KNOW IF HE CHECKS A STRAIGHT HERE BUT I DECIDE TO CHECK BEHIND BECAUSE IM NOT SURE IF I CAN GET A WORSE HAND THAN MINE TO CALL)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mscell shows [Td Tc] a pair of Tens
Storhove shows [2h 2d] three of a kind, Twos (SO HE HAD AN OPEN ENDER ON THE FLOP AND TURNED A SET AND DIDNT WIN ANOTHER CHIP FROM US AFTER THE FLOP WHEN WE WERE STILL AHEAD)
Storhove wins the pot (1,630) with three of a kind, Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,630 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 4s 3d 2c 8d]
Seat 1: It_is_she folded before the Flop
Seat 3: MrPVol didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: mscell showed [Td Tc] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 5: SmokinAcesYrAzz (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: TOBTHATANK (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: WHACKINGDAY (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: judoka_ro75 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 9: Storhove showed [2h 2d] and won (1,630) with three of a kind, Twos