My Best Moment Playing on Pokerstars

My best moment playing on Pokerstars I feel hasn't arrived yet but strongly feel it will be happening very soon! (maybe this coming weekend in the 7million Anniversary Sunday tournament). Up to this point my best moment playing on Pokerstars was actually just a short while after I had begun playing online poker back in June 2008. And it happened during a private forum freeroll of all things. It was a Saturday afternoon and I had been playing since early in the morning. Earlier in the day I had taken first place in a large-field (~nine hundred players) private forum freeroll (Railbirds) on Fulltilt Poker. Later in the day the same forum held another large-field freeroll on Pokerstars and a few hours later I was running deep in it too. I had only been dabbling in micro buyin tournaments and sit'n goes online along with a bunch of private forum freerolls for the first six months of playing online as I had made a plan when I got started to only play in micro buyins and to always stick to good bankroll management. I had been a winning player up to that point but just barely and mostly due to a decent score in my very first micro tournament where I took secondd place. This day though in June 2008 it felt like all the time I had spent learning the game was finally paying off,.... even though it was only a forum 'freeroll' there were some experienced players on the table (compared with myself) and I was holding my own against them. Another couple of hours goes by and we were approaching the final table. I was short-stacked, sitting on only around fifteen big blinds. I opened up my range, shoving allin over the other passive limpers and when I finally got called it was when I had a monster hand (which held up!). We popped the final table bubble and I continued on my winning spree and managed to acquire a decent-sized stack. Just five players left now. I was fourth in chips when two of the other big stacks got it in which eliminated one of them, leaving me fourth of four players left. Even though I was the shortstack on the table it suddenly dawned on me that there was a good possibility that I could win this tournament and then would be the only member/player who had ever won two railbird freeroll tournaments on the very same day! I doubled up through one of the forum administrators, moving into second spot in chips. The adrenaline was beginning to really flow now. I called out to my wife who was sleeping on the couch, telling her "I'm still in this freak'n thing! I think I'm gonna win it! I think I'm going to win back-to-back Railbird freerolls on the very same day!!" Now we were down to three players left. One other and myself were about even in chips with the other being shortstacked now. A moment later and the shortstack was elminated. We were now Heads Up!! It was hard to reign in the adrenaline flow but knew I would need to if I wanted to maximize my hopes of taking this tournament down. "Patience" I kept telling myself. "You can do this!" It was all over in a flash as I managed to flop top set with pocket 'KK' on a A-K-4 rainbow flop and villain stacked off vs. me with their AQs. All the remaining chips slid across the virtual table on my screen and I was the winner! Two large-field private forum freerolls, back-to-back on the very same day! I am pretty sure I was in shock. It took me awhile to come back down to earth but when I did I began to realize that if I continued to put in the time and effort to work on my game, I had be able to continue to pursue this hobby as a winning player. With all the micro buyin tournaments available to play on Pokerstars, I knew I had have a ton of oppurtunity to continue honing my skills in my newfound favourite pastime. That one day was the turning point in my online poker play and I continue to play this game four years later. Still waiting for the 'next' most memorable moment though, lol... maybe this time it will be when I manage to wade through a large-field higher buyin major on a Sunday afternoon. Hmm.... Pokerstars Sunday Million seems like a good prospect. Maybe the $7million guarantee has my name on it?

A Sunday OFF (almost)

First Sunday I haven't played a bunch of MTT's in a long time. Had the grandaughter over for the day & had a great time away from the computer screen. Did play a few private games, one being a 1st place in the Cardschat 888Poker $100 freeroll. Haven't been playing much this past couple weeks as work & other committments are keeping me real busy. Looks like it's going to continue on this way for at least another month but am planning on getting at least a couple days of playing each week. Will be great to get a good chunk of work out of the way so I can finally kick back without having a ton of stuff hanging over my head. Will be doing 4 computer builds in early March. Will be exciting to get playing on my own new computer!! Maybe wait to download PokerTracker4 once I get my new computer up & running. Planning on getting more games in on Pokerstars next month too. Thinking about setting up some sort of challenge for myself playing the MTT/SNG's (probably the 27man's but maybe the 18man's too. My step-daughter has been inquiring about doing something like this for herself (along with asking me for free coaching which I don't mind as I find that teaching also helps my own game). She's been talking about playing the 9man sng's (reg. speed) starting at the lowest limits. I was suggesting that instead she should just try the $3 buyins and probably better off to play the 18man, 27man & 45man games as opposed to STT (single table 9man's). This is what has now got my own thoughts flowing, thinking it might be a good thing for me to try doing the same. Not sure exactly what goals to try to set for myself due to major time constraints at the moment. Maybe something small like min. 15 games, twice a week. Who knows, it might lead to something.

Mini GSOP & GSOP starting soon on Ongame

Played a couple of satellites to the GSOP (GSOP Giveaways) with decent added $'s. Picked up a $54 ticket in the $1 buyin, narrowly missing out on the $109 ticket (lost to runner runner.. sigh). Planning for a different Sunday this weekend. I'll be babysitting all day so will only be playing a small handful of priv. mtt's. In other words, it's probably going to be a profitable Sunday for a change, lol.

Uneventful Sunday

Bad run this Sunday. Busting out of many in succession to the shittiest players. Only results were a 2nd in CC Stars & a refund on Colt when site shutdown while deep in the $10-10k gtd., getting a refund of $35 which turned out to be my biggest cash on the day lol. Probably better than the result I'd have had w/o the shutdown. Had a bad attitude after running like shit vs. huge fish.... then after busting out of ~15-20mtt's, I decided to play in the $90 Sun $100k on 888Poker and got a f'n brutal table... the exact opposite of what I'd been on all day as it was REG-INFESTED! Doubled up early in that after flopping the nuts (Broadway w AK from EP) and having player in BB donking into me, calling a raise & then having him get it in on the turn with a CRAI for HUGE (we were deep)... he held 98s, the ig-end, lol.. weee.. a quick double up to 10k in chips but it was the shits from then on.. and then I fk'd up HUGE! Puter was lagging, goofy settings had the back of the cards colour not standing out from background which caused me to fk up HUGE on my bustout hand. I thought it was an LP aggro blind steal but missed the eMP raise.. and LP 'flat' (< trap!)... so I over-shipped 23bb's with KQo in SB.. then eMP rrai.. and LP calls.. up vs. AQs & AKo (AQs sucked out for a HUGE pot). Went in Bodog $100k at same time (reg'd late) and it was a huge donkfest (as usual). Had a guy call a limper with A6o.. then he calls a 5x re-raise.. calls down an AXX board.. with his shitty TPnK, only ahead of a bluff. Made a shit play in that one too, shipping it a bit wide in a spot where I knew it was in bad shape again w KQ. Not sure what to play on Sundays... always feel like I'm faced with decision between playing a bunch of shitty cheapo private junk or playing a few decent tourneys.... but then not wanting to miss any I get too much running on puter, get lag issues & lose value. Maybe just stick with the ones that build the bankrolls & then add in a bunch of MTT-SNG 45 & 27 man sng. Need to take advantage of the massive amounts of fish on the tables on the weekend instead of taking shots and bleeding off my bankrolls.