Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 7th, 2008

Last night I had watched an episode of this year's WSOP Main Event, the episode where the "new" Mike Matusow was talking about the power of positive thinking. He was explaining to another player at the table, who he had just beat in a pot, that as long as he thought he was going to hit a winning hand, he would hit the winning hand. Of course it was alot of table talk, but there's likely some truth to the talk. Even though the cards don't likely actually have minds that hear and respond to our thoughts, as Matusow implied, I just thought "what the hell." Figured with the way I've been running, what's it going to hurt?

So I got a fire burning in the fireplace and settled into a Pot-Limit Omaha Hi Lo ring game on Doyle's Room.

After a long grind at the table while watching Rob Zombie's rendition of the Michael Myers classic Halloween, my chipstack had grown to a healthy $7.40. According to the strategy, which states that once my chipstack represents 10% of my total bankroll I must leave the table, I was only a few more chips from taking the walk for the day.

Then came my hole cards: Jd Ad Js 9d. I limped in from early position. A player from middle position raised the pot. 2 other players called, so with that much action in the pot, I made the call. The board comes 7d Kh Td, giving me the nut flush draw and qutshot straight draw, or 11 outs, or a roughly 44% chance of scooping the whole pot. The preflop raiser had a habit of raising the pot with 3 or 4 low cards, A23x, A24x, A25x, types of hand. With only 1 low card on the flop and the chances he had raised preflop on a low draw, I figured that my folding equity against that opponent was good. The board texture showed no straight or flush, though the draws for such were present. The probability that the other 2 players would fold to a large bet was high, as they were strong and tight players. On that board, many players will even throw away 2 pairs and small sets. A player with and open-ender with the flush draw or a large set, KK or TT, would probably make an easy call, but that leaves only a small handful of possibilities. Even against any of those hands, I was drawing livelier than they. The fold equity combine with the drawing odds compelled me to bet right out, first to act, the size of the pot.

The original raiser called, and the other 2 players folded. The turn came a Qs, giving me the nut straight with the nut flush draw, and that's where all of our chips went in. Interestingly, my opponent also turned over the nut straight. He had Jh Ah 2c 3h, but he was done drawing. The river came Kd, giving me the nut flush. I scooped the pot and wondered at how a player could call such a large bet on a gutshot and backdoor low draw in a game like Omaha where one can hit real, massive draws. Granted, I was pushing chips into the pot with no made hand other than middle pair, but there are 2 ways to win a pot; with the best hand, or by getting everyone else to fold. By just passively calling, a player takes away from him or herself half of those options to win.

After that hand, my chipstack had now reached an obscene $15.54. Now I have to leave the next time the Big Blind reaches me.

But the very next hand I get dealt 8d Th Ad 4c. I know, not exactly the Omaha Hi Lo nuts, but I'm on Doyle's Room and so I play by Doyle's advice: "Play the rush." I flop 2 pair, (Aces and Tens), and turn a boat (Tens Full). The board also comes equipped with 2 other low cards, and me and a player with a low hand chop the pot. Chipstack now at $16.48.

Next hand, blinds are almost to me now, and I get dealt 4d 3s Qs Jh. I know, I know, not a great starting Omaha hand by any means, but Doyle says "Play the rush," so The Big Donk plays the rush! BANG! Board lands Js 5c Jd 6c 8s. My opponent has 2 5 6 8 and pays me off. In all fairness, 3 pair really should beat 3 of a kind, but that's not the way the rules are written.

My chipstack improves to $20.26, and here we are now.

Thanks for following along. Til next time. Best of luck to you at the tables.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 7th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $89.34

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008

Played a little Omaha again this morning. Nothing huge to report there.

But I did play one of those "Carnage" tournies. This is a pretty cool s$#!s-and giggles deal: 10-man SNG, everybody's all-in preflop on the first hand. 3 places paid. The board is dealt out nice and slow, good dealys between flop, turn, and river to give you time to analyze the situation a little. Well I get 69 offsuit, flop 2 pair, and it holds in a 10 way all-in. WOOHOOOO! 1st place in the Carnage match, baby!

Add a little more to the bankroll.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $92.71

Yes, it's true. I do get bored sometimes. Then I do strange things like make nifty little charts, such as this one plotting our progress in the $10,000 Challenge:



Is it cool? Or is The Big Donk a Big Dork?

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 8th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $92.71

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 9th, 2008

Omaha Hi Lo seems to be my game right now. I delivered another shellacking at the table and moved the bankroll up into the triple digits for the first time since we began this journey.

Piece of advice for those playing along:

Dependent on your time-zone. You'll have to do the math and figure out the times based on where you play. When I refer to the times here, I'm referring to Pacific Time. Let me tell you, the busiest times on Doyle's Room are the early mornings through early afternoons (about 2:00 PM my time at the latest). Doyle's Room operates on the Microgaming Network, which has a heavy European player base. These are very profitable times to play a very tight game and push hard when your hand is strong. When I say tight, I'm not necessarily referring to preflop (although it helps to keep the chipstack intact for the double-up). Because of the high-levels of loose and wild play I've observed, a player isn't likely to bully anyone around at these times. Big starting hands such as AA, KK, QQ, and AK run a good chance of getting cracked in the low stakes games. But if a player were to play strong drawing hands, play good pot odds, and to bet very aggressively when nailing a powerhouse hand on the flop, turn, or river, this player could see his or her chipstack take large upward leaps.

Hmmm... that's about all I have to say about that.

I am now going to go try a little evening poker. We'll see how that goes.

Good luck at the tables.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 9th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $102.11

Wow,
Very well done TBD we're all routing for you.
Keep up the good work.

good job tbd like the chart just make sure u dont flat line to much cause no mouth to mouth resucitation here old joke sure u heard it last line doctor says u gonna die .

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 11th, 2008

Thanks for the support Jeester. Hearing from you all makes me feel like I've got the old "homefield advantage" when I hit the tables.

And if I flatline, trucker, it's O.K. to just let me go. lol. I heard a joke on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour last night that cracked me up:

A Doctor tells his patient, "I've got some bad news and some worse news."
Patient says, "What's the bad news?"
Doctor says, "You've only got 24 hours to live."
"Oh my God," the patient says. "What's the worse news?!"
The Doctor says, "I forgot to call you yesterday."



Anyhow, onto the subject at hand. After a brief Omaha grind, we added a few more chips to the roll. I'm currently in a $0.05/$0.10 Omaha ring game and just got dealt 3d 5d Kd Ks. Flopped a flush draw but the board paired on the turn, and the odds got way too pricy, so I went ahead and got out of the way.

Well, off to the grind!

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 11th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $103.57

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 14th, 2008

Winning sure is fun. Especially when it's happening to me.

I couldn't sleep worth a lick this morning. Was out grinding late last night and didn't get to bed til the wee hours of the A.M. A couple hours later I popped awake and just could not fall asleep, no matter how hard I tried.

So I got up and hit the tables at Doyle's Room. I sat at one Hold'em game and one Omaha game. I don't usually do much multi-tabling, but this morning I needed a little extra action to keep my tired mind alert.

Turns out there was a reason for my early rise this morning. I ended up having a great game at both tables. I was also up in time to play the big morning freeroll, but didn't do so well, finishing way outside the money. I also played the sharpshooter tourney for a dime. Ten places paid. I made it to the final 2 tables, but couldn't quite get to the FT.

Anyhow, we're up some more in The Challenge. $10,000 looks closer and closer every day.

Place: Doyle's Room
Date: November 14th, 2008
Current Bankroll: $126.74

$125 after two months ... well done considering you don't play that often. keep the updates coming and let us know if you're playing any more tournaments too.

Nearly a month since last post.
Anything new happened?

Jeester

Jeester wrote:Nearly a month since last post.
Anything new happened?

Jeester

Sorry for the long delay. It has been too long. I've got to admit I've been avoiding this particular post because things have been going nowhere but downhill since my last post. I've kept waiting until I have something good to report, but I can't wait forever.

Since my last post, I've managed to crush my bankroll down to $89.04, mainly through SNG's. Even in the ring, I've basically just been breaking even or sustaining small losses. No big wins anywhere on DR. At this rate I'll be freerolling again soon.

At this point I'm considering either withdrawing from DR and moving the challenge elsewhere, or possibly cleaning out ALL accounts and combining the rolls from all the different rooms where I play. Personally, I think plan B would probably be the funner option.

Wow, that was awesome. As I'm writing this I just got Aces busted in the ring and lost another $4.50. Right now I'm at $84.45 with what I've got in the other ring.

I am going to try one more SNG. I can't help but think I'm on a cold run and due any time now. That could be a deluded train of thought, but with how much money I've made playing SNG's, I'd hate to think that I actually suck at them .

Just pulled off a big bluff with KJ suited after I flopped nothing and won about $0.90.

Oh. Just pulled off another one, a semi-bluff this time with AQs on the flush draw for a few more cents.

Crap I have AA again. I think I'll go all in pre. Changed my mind and raised 6 BBs. Took the pot pre. Whew. BR at $85.76.

Okay, where was I. Ah yes, one more SNG.

So tell me, help from the Donkhard Squad please! What do you all think about the previously mention room change ideas? Probably the biggest prob I've got with DR is the time differences in the high traffic times and my typical playing times. There are not many busy tables on my favorite times and it's hard to find an Omaha game late night Pacific Time.

AT suited from the small blind. Called a raise and flopped a gutshot. Check and called the flop, and let with a 2/3 pot bet on the turn to take the pot. BTW, rabbit shows that I would have hit that gutshot. Too bad I didn't get called!

Dodging this post when things are going downhill is not keeping it real here. That's poker. Ups and downs.

Another semi-bluff with a nut flush draw worked. Rabbit shows I would have hit. Dammit where's the calls?! Probably get them when I miss! lol.

Wow the beer is kicking in hardcore. TBD signing off. BR, after all that, @ $88.85 at the moment. Let me know what you think of the room changes. Till next time.

hehe, well i went from $141 to 0 in a month or month-and-half. i played poorly a lot. played good a lot. my over all problem was not quitting when i got a head i guess. and letting my emotions and ego get the best of me. which is okay. i know what to work on. which is amusing since this only happens online. brick and mortar poker i fold so much and play tighter.

the major reason this happened though, is eurolinx didn thave omaha in my budget =/

omaha is the one game i can play correctly for super long periods of time

most people try to forget a bad session after it happens, so can't say i'd inclined to write as much during a bad swing either ... happy for the update though, even if it's not on the greatest of terms.

also ...

i've been thinking about consolidating accounts lately too ... maybe evening opening a new one where i finally remember to get a rakeback deal, lol.

in your situation t.b.d., i'd recommend going with pokerstars or full tilt, there's always a game happening or tournament starting soon regardless of where you're playing from or what you want to play.

and hey, this railbird would happy to see you bring the action over to full tilt!

dijwaila wrote:most people try to forget a bad session after it happens, so can't say i'd inclined to write as much during a bad swing either ... happy for the update though, even if it's not on the greatest of terms.

I agree. It's tough to write about how you're not doing well. If anything, I guess updates could help you put things into perspective (okay, I'm not sure what I mean by this, but it sounds good right?).

I do like the idea of pooling the money into one account, if you're comfortable with not having money on other rooms that is. Pooling the money may make you focus more effectively especially if you tend to be drawn to other poker rooms because you have some money - that tends to happen with me.

As for poker rooms, I tend to default to FT and Stars. I haven't played many real money games on FT since I don't have much to play with yet, but Stars I think tends to have a wide range of games available to people with smaller starting bankrolls.