Picture me rolling ...

Including the win in my last game on Thursday night, I've now won 3 of my last 5 games. They were only $3.25 45 mans because I was playing short sessions, but still ... good all the same.

So yes, I just finished a very short, quick session but obviously the results of it were great. Four games played, two wins. The first win was a bit out of nowhere as I really didn't expect it. I failed to double before the final table so went on to it as one of the short-stacks. It was taking ages to lose anyone and I decided to defend my big blind and try to double up against a slightly shorter stack all-in with 8 9 suited. They turned over ace ten off and first card out was the ace, second was an 8 but my hand didn't improve. So I was all-in on my small blind but thanks to someone trying to bluff on the flop, I won and got some chips back. A whole nother orbit went by without losing anyone and someone shoved from mid-position and I was forced to call in the big blind with king jack suited which I obviously didn't mind. He turned over ace rag and I caught a king on the flop and made the flush on the river.

Finally we lost a couple of players and the money bubble burst. I stole the blinds with queen ten off from midposition which moved me in to 3rd place. Not long after that I found myself short-stack until I doubled up with ace king 5 handed. Lost a few more players and I was short-stack 3 handed until I double up twice, the second with 9's against queen ten off. I lost a huge flip with ace queen suited vs pocket 4's (I of course had ace queen) and looked to be gone. Somehow I fought my way back in to it and watched the other two attack each other and I soon found myself heads up but facing a 4:1 chip deficit.

First hand, aces in the big blind ... but the big stack small blind folds ... sick. Funnily enough, it didn't matter as I had them again 3 hands later (after stealing the blinds once) and doubled-up to take the chip lead. Then 3 hands later I had aces AGAIN and delivered the knock-out blow to get the win.

The second win was a lot more straight-forward. I was short-stacked midway through but doubled up with 7's vs ace king and then raised under-the-gun with jacks, got shoved on and decided to call. He turned over aces and luckily for me a jack came on the turn and I was chip-leader. From there I cruised through to the final table, kept the lead in the early going and then got a big stack and sailed in to heads-up with a bit of a chip lead. My opponent seemed fairly aggressive early so I decided to call a small blind shove with king 8 off, he turned over jack ten and thankfully my hand held. That was the turning point and I knocked him out soon after.

So my bankroll is now at US$1212 which is of course an all-time high. My goal yesterday was to get in to the top 2% on OPR, I'm pretty sure that will happen tonight.

OPR rating

As you can see from the graphics below, after last night's good performance, I'm now ranked just outside of the top 2% of tournament players on PokerStars. This is my highest ranking so far but hopefully I'll soon be inside the top 2% over the last 120 days and the same for 2010 when they eventually update the graphics with the 2010 yearly rankings.

CapitalDodge plays online poker at PokerStars

120 days Rating: 97.97% Rank: 22,072 of 1,085,202

Year 2009 Rating: 96.25% Rank: 64,744 of 1,727,304

Year 2008 Rating: 74.87% Rank: 266,919 of 1,062,266

Year 2007 Not Rated Rank: n/a of 615,667

Still running good

Haven't been putting in much volume of late but the bankroll is still steadily growing and I think playing less tables at a time is really helping my game. I'm basically playing no more than 3 tables at a time and its been paying off with good results of late.

Tonight was the first time I played since a short session on Monday night. Tuesday I hate a date with a girl I used to play poker with at the Shafston. It went well so we'll see what happens from here. Wednesday is trivia night and we came second again after losing in sudden death last week.

The night didn't start well tonight with a couple of ugly suck-outs in the first couple of $3.25 warm-up games. In my third $6.50 game I had a 3rd place finish which was good but could have been so much better. Three-handed the game was just going around in circles until I defended my big blind with ace 6 off to a small blind shove. Unfortunately he turned over ace 9 suited and caught a 9 on the flop to cripple me. I fought back a little but was knocked out when my aces in the small blind couldn't beat king 8 suited in the big blind.

After grabbing dinner I got a second place in another $6.50 game. I had a good shot at the win against a relatively new player but just went card-dead come heads-up and just got pounded on. I eventually got it in good on the flop but was called and he caught a gut-shot straight on the river for the win.

Thankfully I finished the night with a win in a $3.25 45 man. It was nice to take one down after getting close a couple of times earlier in the night. Three handed again was taking its time but I raised with ace king off on the button, small blind shoved turning over ace 8 and thankfully my hand help up to give me a decent chip lead going in to heads-up. First hand the small blind shoves all-in and I call with ace queen in the big blind. Thankfully my hand holds and its all over straight away.

With 3 strong results tonight and clearing the 2nd Stellar reward on Monday, the bankroll is now just under $1150. I probably won't be playing again until Sunday afternoon, friends place tomorrow night for the AFL, heading to the parents on Saturday and then caddying on Sunday morning.

March madness

I haven't been playing a lot of late, plenty of other things going on. With the NCAA basketball tournament (March Madness) underway, when I do actually play, I tend to have the laptop on in front of the TV watching the action.

Since I'm not giving the games my total focus, I've been just playing a couple of tables at a time and tending to play the lower stake $3.25 45 games. They've been going well and I finally officially got over the 4 figure mark with my bankroll. Thanks to a win yesterday and a number of final tables, the bankroll now sits just over US$1050.

I'm about to unlock another VIP Stellar Reward so that'll be another $10 bonus earned. After that its another 3 x $10 bonuses before they start paying $50 each time. Those are a few months off tho with the amount and the level I'm currently playing at.

Gym has been going well still. I did 12 sessions in 12 days finishing with a return to boxing class on Saturday morning. I used to go every Saturday but got out of the routine last year when my finances took a hit during the economic slowdown. I've just been easing back in to things at the gym but boxing is a really good cardio and full-body workout and I'm already feeling it today in my calves.

Anyway, early night so I can be up early for the gym before work. Here's my current SharkScope graph:

Short session

I didn't really plan on playing tonight but I played for 2 hours or so. I've got the laptop in front of the TV, so since I wouldn't be as switched on as usual I just played the $3.25 45 man games and didn't play anymore than 3 at a time.

My best result was actually my first game where I finished 2nd. I was unlucky to do so as I played extremely well and got unlucky down the stretch. Before the final table with about 20 players left I took a flip I normally wouldn't when I raised pre and got shoved on by the big blind. Normally I'd fold there but I called and to my surprise he turned over queen ten suited. Thankfully there was a 7 on the flop because the turn was a queen and I knocked him out. Then on the bubble I raised on the button with kings and was delighted when a similar stack shoved over the top of me from the small blind. I was even happier when he turned over king queen off and I had a solid chip lead.

On the final table I re-raised all-in over a cutoff raise with ace king in the big blind and thankfully he turned over ace 9 off and my hand held. It was from here that things went downhill. I raised from the small blind putting a short-stack all-in, he calls with 10, 2 off ... I flop a king, turn a queen, he rivers a four card flush with the 2. Same player pushes all-in under-the-gun, I call in the big blind with ace 6 to try and knock him out. He turns over 8's, I flop 2 pair and he again rivers a four card flush.

Thankfully the big blind took out the short-stack so I get to heads-up but am facing a sizable chip deficit. Surprisingly he folds the first hand in the big blind when I shove and next hand I get pocket jacks in the big blind. He puts me all-in and I of course call, he turns over king 7 off and of course catches a king on the flop and the tournament is over.

After the first tournament I got knocked out in the first 5 players in 3 of the next 4 tournaments which is of course very unlike me. First i ran queens in to kings and then jacks in to aces, both of my hands I had in the big blind. The 3rd one I called a minraise, flopped top pair, turned two pair and then despite me showing strength on both the flop and turn he kept calling and rivered a better two pair.

I cashed the final tournament I played in coming in 6th. I was lucky to get to the money as I never had a stack and was very short going to the final table. Thankfully there was a suck-out early and 2 players got knocked out.

As I only played 7 tournaments, the 2nd and the 6th were enough to give me a profitable session and the bankroll is just under four figures at $997. I'm playing APL tomorrow night and trivia on Wednesday so won't be on PokerStars for the next few days.

Update

I didn't do much blogging over the last week or two because work had been so flat out and I had been focussing on getting back in the gym.

Anyway, on to some of the things I haven't yet talked about. One night last week I tried to focus on the 180 man games. Probably my weakest game of all that I've played so far is the $2.20 180 game with about a -15% ROI (according to SharkScope). Usually I mix these in when I'm playing 45 man games so my thought was that if I just played these I might do better rather than playing different game speeds all at once. It didn't go well and I played 14 of these games and cashed none of them. Sure, its a very small sample and the variance in these are so high that I'm sure this is standard, but it was frustrating all the same.

In other news, the APL Poker Classic was held in Melbourne last weekend and a number of my friends were playing in it. One of my friends David posted on Facebook that he had made it in to the money which started at the top 100 (600 starters). I didn't see any further updates and figured he had just min-cashed until just before I went to bed he posted that he finished 4th winning $35K and a spot on Team APL for the World Series of Poker (valued at $15K). So today a few of us had a BBQ in New Farm park to celebrate his win and hear some of the stories. He basically put his success down to a good run of cards at the right time and not getting any bad beats.

After my failure in the 180's the previous week I decided to just focus on the 45 man games. At the moment I'm concentrating on the $6.50 buy-ins but using the $3.25's as a warm-up to get my head in the game. I hadn't been running that well during the week and my bankroll was down under $850 a few times. The last 2 days have been better tho as I won a $6.50 game and today a $3.25 one. The latter was satisfying as I came back from a very short-stack after I walked in to someone slow-playing aces and I had pocket tens. From there I clawed my way back and actually started heads-up ahead and won when my ace 8 held up after the big blind re-raised all-in with king queen off. I finished tonight cashing 3 out of the 4 tournaments I played before dinner and the 4th one I bubbled. It wasn't anything too exciting tho as I had two 6th places and a 3rd.

The bankroll is now back up to US$980 so hopefully tomorrow night I can push through the $1000 mark again and head onwards and upwards.

Full Tilt Poker and the Sydney Roosters

While watching the Sunday NRL game between the Roosters and the Rabittohs, I couldn't help but notice the Sydney Roosters are now sponsored by Full Tilt Poker.


(Full Tilt Poker logo on the bottom left hand side of their shorts)

Poker sponsorship is everywhere lately so it was only a matter of time before they touched the big sports of Australia, Rugby League and the AFL. The only question now is how and where will PokerStars respond.

February results

Ok, so its a little late, but here are my results from February:

Period Full Tracking Last 120 days Year 2010 Year 2009 Year 2008 Year 2007 2006 (>?) 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2009 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2008 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2007 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2006 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January with estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) without estimated RA expenses (and bounties in FTP Knockouts) View by Game Game Size All Holdem NL Holdem L/PL Omaha Omaha HiLo Other Games

ITM Finishes 1st 5 1st ties 3 2nd 4 3rd 3 4-10th 25

MTT Avg. Finish% Early 1% (10%) EM 9% (20%) Mid. 45% (40%) ML 30% (20%) Late 15% (10%)

HU/STT/MTT * Prizes Profit ROI ABI AFS R/A ITM ITM Heads-Up 2 player $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Single Table 3-10 $0 $0 0% $0 0 0% 0/0 0% Multi Table 11-45 $774 $205 36% $3.82 45 0% 36/149 24% Multi Table 46-180 $104 $29 38% $2.77 143 0% 9/27 33% Multi Table 181- $15 $4 35% $2.20 4234 0% 2/5 40% $892 $238 36% $3.62 175 0% 47/181 26%

So obviously I didn't play anywhere near as much as I did in January. Not included in the above is a session of 18 man games to chase the $40 40 billionth hand bonus that was on offer.

The good numbers are the reasonably high ROI (for me) and the ITM%. The ROI of course leads to a decent profit considering the lack of games played. It would have been higher but I had a bad session near the end of the month after I reached the $1000 mark.

My goals for March are to keep improving and moving my game forward. I played a bit last week but I'm not sure how much time I'll be online for the rest of the month.

I've just hired someone to help me out with Capital Reservations so that takes the pressure off and I can get some balance back in my life after a crazy last 6 weeks or so. My main focus of the month is getting back in shape and getting consistent gym time in. So far so good with that as I've been to the gym 5 times in the last 3 days (2 weights, 3 cardio) and I'll be there again in the morning. I weighed in just over 80kg and the goal is to get down to 75kg ... hopefully I can get this done in a matter of weeks.

Greatest comeback EVER!

At the start of January I had a post titled "a win for the ages" but that was nothing compared to what happened two days ago in a $6.50 45 man game on PokerStars.

After losing to 3 4 three-handed I managed to scrape in to second place and faced the seemingly impossible when heads-up started:

Seat 2: CapitalDodge (1860 in chips)
Seat 9: Kstnbike (65640 in chips)

And to add to the challenge, the blinds were already at 1000/2000. I survived my big blind as my 9 high was good enough to win the hand. We split the next pot with the same hand, I then doubled up again with an ace high win and shoved the next hand with ace rag and he folded. Up to 10K and in the big blind I called an all-in with 10 2 suited and sucked out with a ten against queen 2 suited. He didn't like it but I had to take the chance and giving my blind away when it was now at 3000 just didn't make sense.

After pots going back and forth mostly pre-flop the turning point of the match came when I completed the small blind with 7 10 off and saw a 7 10 3 flop ... unfortunately for me all clubs. Villian led out and I decided to shove over the top and take my chances. He called turning over 7 2 off with thankfully NO flush-draw and my hand held. This now gave me a 52K to 15.5K chip lead and I began to whittle him down.

I called an all-in with 7 9 off but his queen 5 caught two pair and the stacks were even again. After coming back from nothing and having a dominant chip-lead, I really didn't want to let this one get away. I took down a large pot when I raised pre with king ten and flopped the open-ended straight draw and pleasingly he check-folded to my strong c-bet. Two hands later I got it in with ace rag against his queen 9 and an ace on the flop sealed the deal and gave me the win.

Coming back from all-in on my first big blind when heads-up started to fighting all the way back, then having a huge chip lead only to see it disappear and then getting the win ... extremely satisfying and definitely the greatest comeback EVER!!

Dream Job Australia - PokerStars.com

I got this e-mail today from PokerStars and all I can say is WOW!

Dream Job Australia - PokerStars.com

Play poker for a year!

Here’s your chance to live the life of a jet-setting poker player absolutely free. With Dream Job Australia you could be a PokerStars sponsored player worth $100,000, including $40,000 for tournament entries, and a $5,000 per month salary. Win the job and you’ll get to travel to your choice of stops on the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT).

Simply play in the daily free-to-enter tournaments for your shot at winning this once-in-a-lifetime prize. Make it to the final 10 players and you’ll have six weeks to convince the poker community you’ve got what it takes.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a PokerStars account yet, it’s easy to download the free software and get set up. Existing players have a great chance of winning too, and with a tournament running every day, you’ve got plenty of chances to qualify.
How to play

Freeroll satellites run every day, Saturday to Thursday from March 1 at the times stated below. The Weekly Finals take place on Fridays, with the Grand Final running Saturday, March 27. You can find the tournaments in the PokerStars lobby by selecting ‘Tourney’ and ‘Regional’.

Tournament	Buy-in	Date	Time	Prize
Dream Job Australia Freeroll Qualifiers	Free	Daily, Saturdays to Thursdays March 1 - 25	20:30 AEDT (04:30 ET)	Top 9 players win seats at Weekly Final
Dream Job Australia Weekly Final	N/A	Fridays, March 5, 12, 19 and 26	20:30 AEDT (04:30 ET)	Top 18 players win seats at Grand Final
Dream Job Australia Grand Final	N/A	Saturday, March 27	20:30 AEDT (04:30 ET)	Top 10 become Dream Job Australia Finalists

The top 10 finishers at the Grand Final will all become Dream Job Australia Finalists, and they will then complete a poker knowledge test, meet with Team PokerStars Australia at ANZPT Sydney, and for the next six weeks they will blog, tweet and facebook their poker exploits. It’s then down to the poker community to decide who gets the big prize.

Details of the Finalists will be published here after the Grand Final, and everyone can vote for their favourite finalist. Each of the finalists will have their own dedicated tournament, and to vote you should register for that tournament. The Finalist with the most players in his or her voting tournament gets the Dream Job!

The voting tournaments will be listed in the PokerStars lobby under ‘Tourney’ and ‘Regional’, and the winner will be announced on May 10, 2010. Voters may only register for one tournament.