I wanted to post a quick update to let anybody out there who sees this website that I have been breathing new life into it lately. Hustle Cards sat around with only minor changes for several years now, but it is time to get more content rolling out and a new design. This will all be coming in due time.

Most recently, I’ve been working on restructuring the content and updating the broken links within the content. I also noticed that the titles of the pages were all lacking, so I updated them as well. If you want to find any page on the site, I’ve also added a new and improved site map with links to all of the top level pages on the site.

Pretty soon I hope to have a new design to display all of the amazing content that we have here in a more organized and professional manner. That’s it for now; thanks for visiting and see you at the tables!

-Daniel Moravec

P.S. The 2012 World Series of Poker just began and is underway! I’ll be playing in the cash games and tournaments on a regular basis. Wish me luck!

Life Lessons From Poker

Since I received positive feedback on Life Lessons From Blackjack last week, I thought I’d share some lessons I learned from poker as well.

Background

Again, feel free to skip the background story if you just want to read the lessons part. I only include this for the curious.

I first learned to play poker when I was 18, just playing nickel-dime-quarter games with friends from school. I was a fairly weak player back then, mostly using a loose-aggressive style and bluffing way too much. But I enjoyed the game and would usually play at least once a week. Of course, this was only in home games where I mostly played those deviant forms of poker not found in casinos. My favorite game was called 3-5-7. I only played for fun at this time and for many years thereafter, I never took the game seriously.

When I was 21 and living in L.A., some friends and I made a few trips to Commerce Casino. I played mostly 7-stud at the time and a little bit of hold’em. I didn’t keep records back then, but overall I probably broke even. I played at Commerce perhaps 5 times total. It was an hour’s drive from my home, so it wasn’t convenient enough to bother with, since I was only playing for fun anyway.

From the age of 24 to 33, I hardly played poker at all, maybe once a year on average. It just wasn’t a big part of my life.

In January 2004, my family and I moved to Vegas. The availability of poker games in Vegas (and the recent surge in popularity) means that you can always find a game. The Las Vegas Strip is only a 20-minute drive from my home, and Downtown Vegas is 15 minutes away. Plus the closest casino to my house (Santa Fe Station) recently added a poker room, so now a game is only 10 minutes away.

When I first moved here, I thought it would be fun to play poker more often, since I always enjoyed a good game. I had no intention of making it into a career, but nor did I have any interest in losing money at it. I figured that if I could learn how to count cards at blackjack, surely I could become decent enough at poker to consistently beat the low-limit games. That way I could have fun and win a little money at the same time.

Turns out I was right.

Based on recommendations from others, I picked up a few books on the subject. My favorite was Winning Low-Limit Hold’em by Lee Jones. I followed Jones’ recommendations fairly closely, and they worked well.

I only play the cheapest limits, like $1-3 and $2-6 spread games or the $2-4 structured games. I play in smoke-free poker rooms, which fortunately are becoming more common. Personally I like the campy/friendly (and smoke-free) atmosphere of the Excalibur poker room, so that’s where I usually play. It’s a very winnable, low-pressure game if you’re halfway decent, especially on a Friday or Saturday night when the place is filled with tourists who are mostly there for fun and free drinks. I know most of the dealers there by name, and all are very friendly.

I’m not out to make a career out of this, and I certainly don’t consider myself a shark. I just love the fun and the challenge of the game. I’ve always enjoyed competition.

On average I play a couple times a month, usually on weekends. I record every session I play in a spreadsheet, so I can see how I did — I want to know if I’m winning or losing. Last year I came out positive, with a per session win rate of about 70% and a positive hourly rate of $2.27 (net of tips). Obviously I’m not going to get rich playing such low limits, but to me this is only an entertaining hobby, not a serious entrepreneurial venture. I only play in person, not online, because I like chatting with other players and meeting interesting people from around the world.

Poker is by far a much tougher game to master than blackjack because your decisions depend on the actions of other players, not merely on pre-determined rules of play and probabilities. Playing poker also takes a lot more patience than blackjack in my opinion. Between poker and blackjack, I enjoy poker a lot more because of the human factor.

Poker Observations

Whereas in blackjack most of my observations came from watching other players play their hands, in poker I’ve learned the most by observing myself, partly due to the nature of the game (I can’t see every decision other people make as I can in blackjack).

Here are some observations I’ve make from playing poker over the years:

1. You can learn a lot about other people by studying yourself.

Simply by observing myself and watching my own tells, like seeing my hands shake when I looked down and saw pocket aces on the button, I learned to look for those same tells in other players. In low-limit games, virtually anytime you see a player’s hands shaking as they try to place their bet, it means they have a monster hand. I’ve thrown away many solid hands after reading this tell, and so far every single time it was the right decision. By observing my own behavior, I could watch for it in other people.

How does this apply to life itself? If you know how you behave when experiencing certain emotional states, you can watch for that behavior in others to gain information (hich can be extremely helpful in certain situations).

For example, if I’m watching someone give a speech, I can observe how I behave when I’m really bored or really interested. Then when I’m the one giving the speech, I can watch for those reactions in the audience. If I see people leaning forward, smiling, and nodding, I know I have a captive audience because that’s what I do when I’m captivated.

If you’re a salesperson, how do you behave when you watch someone else give a good/bad presentation? If you’re a manager, how do you behave when someone tries to delegate something to you and you don’t intend to do it? If you’re married, how do you behave when you aren’t really listening to your spouse?

Observe how your own behaviors reflect various internal states, and then watch for those behaviors in others to gain information. You may be surprised to find that emotional states produce a physiological response that is extremely similar from person to person.

2. You can learn a lot about yourself by studying other people.

This is the reverse of #1. By observing how others behave in poker, and then seeing what kind of hand they have, I can connect their behaviors to information. Then when I see these physiological tells again, I can more easily put that player on a hand.

Many poker players do this. No big whoop.

But how many poker players take what they learn about other players and then apply it to themselves? This means watching for the tells you pick up from other players in yourself, especially when you’re heads-up against the player you saw express those tells. So if you see someone looking away from the table when they have a monster hand, make sure you don’t look away when you’ve got a monster.

You can also take this concept a step further and use it even more proactively. If you see other people behave a certain way when they have a great hand, you may find it beneficial to exert that same behavior on purpose when you’re heads-up against that player and want to bluff him/her out. It’s a sneaky way of using that person’s own physiological response to feed them false information. Just make sure you aren’t too obvious about it, or the other player will catch you. I find it works best as a subconscious signal that alters their intuitive feeling about the hand.

So what’s the life lesson here? The lesson is that this kind of manipulation also works outside the game of poker. By learning someone’s tells, you can consciously exhibit a certain behavior to activate the response you want. Certainly this sounds manipulative, and it is. But by being aware of this tactic, you can reduce your susceptibility to it.

TV commercials use this kind of manipulation all the time. They know all the tells for various emotional states, and they use them to attempt to manipulate your emotional response. This is one reason so many commercials appear logically stupid, but they can still be effective if they include the proper signals that bypass your mind and drive their message into your subconscious.

Think of those drug commercials where they read the side effects (which often sound worse than the symptoms the drug is supposed to treat), but the visual imagery suggests the exact opposite. The characters exhibit the tells of the emotional states the advertiser wants you to associate to their product or service. But those signals often have nothing to do with the product itself. In other words, you aren’t being shown the real emotional states the product will induce in you, but far more pleasurable states that probably won’t occur by using the product at all.

How many beer commercials show drunk people behaving stupidly?

3. Both intellect and intuition can provide input for making correct decisions.

In poker sometimes logic is correct, and other times intuition is correct. Sometimes they agree; sometimes they don’t.

In life, however, you generally have more options than check, bet, call, raise, or fold. Life is more open-ended, and when logic and intuition disagree, sometimes it’s best not to choose sides but to listen to both and seek out a third alternative.

When my logic and intuition seem to disagree, I try to step back and see the situation from other perspectives. In the past I’d usually favor my logic, only to find that my intuition was right. Then I’d slide too far the other way, and pay the price of ignoring my intellect. Now I know that both inputs provide information, but they do so by acting upon imperfect data.

In poker you’re limited in how much data you can gather. But life offers other extra opportunities for peaking at the cards. You can ask for expert advice while you play. You can take in new information to augment the data your logic and intuition are processing. You can wait for clarity before acting. You can even dive in with your best decision, see what the next card looks like, and adjust course afterwards.

4. Don’t be a fish.

“Fish” are bad poker players who are essentially there to give away their money. They don’t bother to develop much skill at the game, so they just play badly. And the longer they play, the more they lose.

Isn’t life the same? If you play badly long enough, eventually you lose. Abuse your health, your relationships, or your finances, and you can kiss them goodbye.

Good players learn the rules of the game and build their skills. They eliminate negative habits that would otherwise bring them down.

5. You can make no mistakes and still lose.

In poker you can expect to take bad beats again and again. Eventually you’ll take one in a heartbreaking situation when someone draws highly improbable runner-runner cards to beat your made hand.

Life is the same. You can play perfectly and still lose.

There’s no security in the cards. The only true security lies in knowing you did your best. Focus on making correct decisions, and let the cards fall as they may.

6. No single hand will kick you out of the game for life.

When you take a bad beat, just take a deep breath and brush it off. It’s in the past, and there’s nothing you can do about it now.

Stay focused on the present. There’s another hand to be played.

7. Do not play J8s UTG no matter how seductive it looks and how certain you are of achieving a multiway pot.

The life lesson here is left as an exercise for the reader.

If you’re a poker player yourself, I invite you to share your own life lessons from the game by posting a comment.

NL Holdem in Vegas Part II

Poker article continued from NL Holdem in Vegas Page I. This page is part II

…”Who’s comming back to the strip with me?” Who would have thought it would be so damn difficult to find a no-limit game at six in the morning? I personally had this magical conception of Vegas, in terms of poker especially, that I could get a game anywhere anytime. This was not true. I walked all over the damn place looking for a game, any game I’ll even take a limit game. I first started at the Bellagio, come on best known for poker there must be some high rollers left over from the long night. I was amazed to see an empty poker pit and a pit boss telling me, “yeah, the game should start back up around nine or ten”. Nine or ten! It was six in the morning at the time and I’m working on my second wind here I need a game.

So I left the Bellagio and headed elsewhere. I found myself at the MGM. This casino, I am almost sure, the 2nd largest in the world! Foxwoods, New England is the largest and I believe Fallsview, Niagra Falls is the third. So here I am at the 2nd largest casino in the world and do you think there is a game? Obviously not, I enter – again – an empty poker pit and a confused look on the pit boss’s face. So without giving up hope I headed to where I “heard” there would be a good no-limit game at all times – the Rio. Why you ask I didn’t head there right away, well it is actually decently far, if your walking, from everything else. However, on my way to the Rio I had to go through Caesar’s palace, which is a gorgeous casino with a beautiful mall yet no poker game. Anyways I head through Caesar’s and was off on my way to Rio.

Now the way to walk to Rio is actually quite unpleasant. It is along a highway or freeway or some kind of crap like that and the sidewalk is dangerously located an inch from where crazy drivers are speeding by you on hazardous turns and bends. Furthermore, you must talk a pedestrian boardwalk which is distasteful to the scenery in Vegas but mere aesthetics is the least of your worries. As I walked on the boardwalk I noticed several spray painted signs. Upon closer examination, from my limited knowledge of L.A. street gangs, I noticed it was a specific type of L.A. gang one in which I would definitely want to avoid. I will keep the name confidential to keep myself and my loved ones out of possible danger but lets just say it was not the nicest feeling to know that I was walking in gang territory.

What a feeling of relief when I approached the Rio, my shirt was off and around my head due to the blistering heat. I place my shirt back on and head inside. I walk confidently to the poker pit. Don’t worry Johnny everything will be good, there has to be a game come on it’s the Rio, I walk into the poker pit and nothing. Crud, I just hiked up Mount Everest and found a McDonalds at the top – no surprises. Instead of conversing with the pit boss I just decided to cut my losses spark up a cigarette and head back to civilization.

No Limit Holdem in Las Vegas

What would any rational professional poker player do once he has turned twenty-one – fly to Vegas of course. As my twenty-first birthday approached I was ready to place my skills to the test in the ultimate poker arena.

The outcome – not impressed. As I arrived at the Vegas airport I was pleased to see the abundance of slot machines strategically placed in front of you as soon as you walk off the plane. As my friends and I laugh at the people enclosed in these glass cases full of slot machines we feel the beating of our hearts rise as Vegas is about to be tackled. I have heard rumors of my skills at the poker table including the infamous the best player in Toronto. With these thoughts floating in my skull I am ready to take my strategies to the best tables in the world.

Hotel Check In

We went to check into our hotel. The hotel of choice is the Las Vegas Hilton, which I would recommend as it is cheaper than the larger names and about a five minute walk from the strip.

Once our bags were in our rooms, I couldn’t even say the word Vegas before one of my associates took off and decided to explore Vegas by himself. Myself and the others needed to catch up on some necessary food intake so, hilariously, we went to Denny’s.

After contemplating regurgitation and deciding against eating, it was poker time. Where? The Bellagio of course as I have heard that is where you can find the best in the world. And as contradictory as this may sound, if you are not an amateur then trust me when I say that you do not want to play with amateurs as your strategies will be tossed out the window when you get calleddown with ace five off suit to catch a gutshot straight simply because he doesn’t consider odds.

Anyways I’m looking for a game and that is the bottom line. It was fairly late, approximately one or two in the morning so I figure there must be a thousand games at any level going strong. To my astonishment I walk into the poker pit and find about nine tables running at a substantially low level.

Let me make something clear before I continue. I am a strict no-limit Texas Holdem poker player. I have no problem, I say this hesitantly, with playing limit poker but I just cannot stand the fact that you can’t put a person to the test for all of his or her chips, which I feel is the determining factor of a real poker player. Furthermore, the pots in limit poker, unless the blinds are 10/20 or higher, are relatively small and thus you could win five pots and be up fifty dollar, which is a waste of time. So I personally enjoy a nice no-limit game as I consider myself a high risk gambler.

When I entered the Bellagio’s poker room, I was surprised at the amount or lack of amount of no-limit games. There were a few, but I was stuck at 5/10 no-limit. In addition, I was with a bunch of amateurs who have decided, overnight, to become poker players from their time spent watching the sport on television. I played my game and set my traps. And after about an hour and a half, when my associates are pleading with me to leave, I cash out with a four hundred dollar gain.

I decided I would not be one of those typical stupid gamblers who play the high limit slots and shoot for a million. The main reason for this rationale is that my bankroll was not where I wanted it to be and thus I wanted to build it before I started to play stupidly. My strategy was set and my first mission on the first night was accomplished.

I admit that I was tired and ready for sleep. We got back to the room and smoked some funny cigarettes and everybody proceeded to pass out. I put my head down on the pillow and had a devastating thought – I’m in Vegas damnit I can’t sleep. I jump out of bed look around at the passed out crew and said simply “who’s comming back to the strip with me?”

Go to NL Holdem in Vegas Page II

Kyle Healey’s Poker Blog

Starting Bankroll: $50 Pokerstars
Jan.14: First tournament will be a $10 +1 single table at PokerStars – 9 People at 10:20 a.m on a Saturday. I am off to the tables now with no sleep, but I still feel alert and very ready to play.

Got knocked down early to $350 in level 1. I had 99 and raised it to 60 with 3 callers. Flop came 5 2 5 and I bet 200. I was raised all in. Thought about it and put him on a bluff (because he acted so quickly and it was a premium spot to bluff). He had QQ though and I lost. Now I have to grind it back up if I can because I don’t want to start off my official poker career playing like a donkey. I started to loosen way up but I am just going to sit tight and see if I can get a nice hand to double up with. It’s not worth playing if it’s not worth playing your best effort. That will be the motto from now on in this progress chart. Down to 8 players now from 9. Still on the grind up to 860 chips after that early loss. Well I finished in 5th place. I had two pair AQ going into the river, where A7 one pair and flush draw hit his backdoor flush. So there it is. I had the best hand going in and I had all my chips (2200 worked up from  350) and it’s all for nothing as I got sucked out bad there. Truly was a bad beat. Im going to go have a cigarette and come back and play again. Not sure what type of game, probably a heads up match I have to prove my superior skills right here right now because the I played great poker after that first stupid move in the first $10 tourney.

Current Bankroll: $39 PokerStars

Now I am going to play a $5 heads up match hoping to find an easy opponent. My strategy is easy does it and concentrate trying to slowly build this bankroll.

Current Bankroll: $33.75 Pokerstars

Went down early he now has a 2:1 chip lead I got caught bluffing. Need to play better here. I have come back and won the tournament about 5 minutes later.

Current Bankroll: $43.75 Pokerstars

That competitor was pretty easy for me once I settled down, and I took him out. I had K7 of hearts and he had K2 of spades and the flop came down K47. I underbet the pot and induced him to push all in. I called without hesitation. I think I will play another $5 Pokerstars heads up match, hopefully finding another easy competitor.

Current Bankroll: $38.50

Well I dropped that one quickly, lost to another flush draw.. hmmm. that’s the second loss today and the second time I was favorite going in with all my money. This time I had Aces and he had the flush draw. Oh well now I am going to play a $10 heads up tourney see what happens.

Current Bankroll: $28.00

Set up in a $10 heads up match with a player named cutie sumthing with a picture of a cute girl. This is just a tactic to make me think I’m playing a girl for sure. Anyways I had trip 7′s and managed to trick him/her into bluffing me all in with nothing so I won that match.

Current Poker Stars Bankroll: $48

Entered a $5 heads up match – If I win this I will be back over my starting bankroll of $50.

Current Poker Stars Bankroll: $42.75

He currently has a 2:1 chip advantage need to get back up. Too late I am out. I really can’t play these small limits. I think I am just going to try my luck at a higher buyin tourney sng or perhaps a ring game. I am definately not feeling these pokerstars heads up matches I am 2 – 2, and my PokerStars Bankroll is down $7.25. I shouldn’t be affected by this. Writing out the results and my inner reactions is helping me relax and the urge to jump into a ring game is slowly dissapearing.  I believe I am actually having a realization. I do not really like playing sit and go tourneys that much. But I want to try another $10 sng with 9 people. I feel I did well in that tourney and got really sucked out. So that is what I will play now, a $10 sng. We’ll see how this goes. It is now about 12:15 on Sat.Jan.14th. This is how I will track my online poker from now on. I really want to become a better player and this is truly helping me. Writing about my play keeps my mind on the money, and on the effort I need to put in to win other people’s money from them. I think it would be fun to play some other types of poker to keep my mind interested and excited. I may enter the $1 7 card stud hi/lo tourney and grind it out.  I bought in for this and will buyin for a $10 sng nl tourney. My goal in the multi-table tourney is to make it as far as possible.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $30.25

Currently 1st place in chip stacks $10 sng will keep you updated.

Have only 1335 left in the 7 stud hi/lo tourney

I have just won the $10 sng for $45. I made on amazing call when a player when all in for 1500 chips and I called with pocket K’s. There was an Ace on board but I had a feeling he didn’t have it from the way he’d been playing. I was very proud of myself.

I have over 5500 chips in the small 7 stud tourney limit its a pretty small tourney but I am having fun playing stud.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $75.65

Now I’m getting tired but I really want to finish in the money just for principles sake. 256 people left, top 120 get paid. I have less than 2000 chips left now. I finished 242nd out of 608, which is crap by my standards even though I don’t play 7 Card stud very often. Time to go to sleep, maybe will get more action in later on tonight.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $75.65

Entering another $10 sng 9 man table

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $64.65

Will try to play tight in this one ,not involved in too many pots until the blinds rae up, giving me better odds to finish in the money. Tried to make a move early and lost $500 chips or so. I thought they would both fold because I smelt weakness but one guy was trapping. Need to stick to the original plan now and grind it out. Ouch, out in 8th place. Flopped top pair with QJ and lost to trip 9′s… ouch… Notin I can do just a bad read on my part. Down to $53.65 again b/c I’m immediately playing another one of these sng and doing it right.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $53.65

Got caught trying to make a couple moves, seems to be my downfall. 6 people left I have 1000 chips left 50/100 blinds. Looking for a made hand. Up to 1275 chips, still 6 ppl left. Blinds are 50/100. Something’s gotta give soon – stay posted. Bad move by be calling preraise flop with 99 against tight player. He had KK which i knda put him on. Only 500 chips left now, gonna make my move. 62, 52, 42, 52, last 4 hands cant go in yet. I came in on 5th place, eventually getting sent out on the river by kq when i held A8. I am now moving to the ring games as after many hours I am still even on the sit an go’s today.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $53.65

Bought in with the full bankroll at .50/1 nl. My plan is to play tricky and take down the big pots while picking up the small ones.

Evened out, time to play a $10 sng , I really will try and win this one, after all it is money. Gotta stay focused and know the players to be a good nl player. Got an early chip 2800 2nd place gonna grind it out.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $40.70

Down to 4 players and I just tried a stupid reraise. Need to make top 3 gonna try really hard. Have 2,270 chips left. Made top 3, called a bluff down with 88. Now I’m aiming for 1st. I have won 1st and now have

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $85.70

Now I guess I should play another tourney since I kicked ass in that one. I really do feel like dipping into the ring games though. These are the decisions a poker player has to make on a daily basis. I just registered for another one. We’ll see what happens in this game to decide what I do next.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $74.70

Currently am 2nd in chips with 7 people left blinds are 50/100. I need to get going here and start playing tighter. Just after I wrote that I started playing even looser. Now I will tighten up for real. In the top 3 now with the chip lead, time to take down 1st. what a lucky catch this guy just got on me doubled thru. damn. Well I just got sucked out – str8 on the river to beat my two pair and boat on the river to beat my two pair. Two bad beats and Im in 2nd.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $101.70

I have now doubled my money. I am not happy about those beats however.. I’m going to play ring games now.  Will start up at the .50/1 again. I have bought in for $40. I have decided if I lose this I will probably cash out the remaining $60 and just do other things. But I wont lose it.

Right now I am playing 7 card stud .50/1 limit h/l, bankroll around $120. Now I’m going to play in a $20 sng nl holdem 9 players.
Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $95.40

My plan in this tourney is to make it into the money and 1st place. I will concentrate very hard on players in order to win. 7 Players left now, will keep you updated. 7th place, called an all in thought he was bluffing ended up being outkicked with a pair of A. Time for ring games goin loose right now.

I have been playing 3 tables at once stud h/l limit, and now I am buying into a $10 mtt.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $210.95

In the $10 buyin, there is over 1000 people and 198 places paid. Down to 800 sum chips, gonna start playing tighter, while playing some h/l stud on the side, also playing tightly. I’m out of that tourney fairly quickly. I think I played horribly, don’t know why I did. Im going back to paying some h/l stud now for a while to cool off an regain my composure. Sitting down at $1/2 limit h/l stud.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $210.95

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $195.10

Going to Play a $20 sng nl holdem tourney, because that is what I feel I would do best in right now. My strategy is to study my opponents, play tricky, and come out on top. I want that 1st place: $90

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $173.35

Well I had the chip lead, and then got a guy allin when i flopped trip 3′s . Well he had 99 and somehow found his 2 outer on the river. Now I am down to 1300 chips with 7 people left. That river was truly a bad beat. Another beat on the river. Flop comes AQK, I have A9. Player moves all in, I call. He has 1010 and hits his jack right on the turn. River comes K which can’t help me. I’m out in 6th. Now I will most likely cashout, no I will definately cashout $100 and play with the remaining $73. Will update later. Even if I lose this $73 in 20 seconds I will not dip in the $100 because it is double my deposit, which is a good goal.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $73.00 (cashed out: $100)

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $168.30 (cashed out: $100)

Trying to decide what to play now. I think a series of heads up matches are in order because I think I can beat anybody when I’m at the top of my game, and right now I am. Will start with a $10 heads up match. Then I will probably go to sleep as I have school in the morning, then it will be back to playing again.
After losing the heads up match, went to play nl ring games 0.50/1 nl all night.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $452 (cashed out: $100)

I am cashing out another $300 when I wake up. Therefore I have made $350 profit off of my $50 deposit that is guaranteed cash.  Also that leaves me with another $150 to play with in my account, which by itself is 3x my deposit.

Current Pokerstars Bankroll: $152 (cashed out $400)

I’ve been multi tabling nl cash games and now I am in a $10,000 guaranteed tourney with over 2000 people.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $350 (cashed out $400)

The tourney has gone from 2200 people to 1995. It is a rebuy tournament and the prize pool is already over $15,000. Definately worth playing my best poker.  I have re bought once, after gaining 4000 chips and then going all in with AA only to lose to 45 suited flush on the turn. Im out of the tournament now, ran into JJJ on the river. I need to start playing better tournament poker. I think I will take a short break, and then come back for some sit and go action, and try my hardest.  Playing in a $20 sng 9 man table now. Darm. down to 800 chips after the 1st hand. I need to play better. I had him preflop but he was winning by the turn and called my bet. Back up to even now – the screen literall shows me winning like 5 or 6 of the last 7 hands.

Dealer: Game #3662438870: ecooto wins pot (300)
Dealer: Game #3662447286: gizmo14 wins pot (230)
Dealer: Limits going up: blinds 15/30
Dealer: Game #3662457008: ecooto wins pot (105)
Dealer: Game #3662461479: ecooto wins pot (60)
Dealer: Game #3662466176: ecooto wins pot (390)

My plan now is to win. I have been raising almost every pot, taking control of the table. Just lost to a straight, now have 1845 chips with 7 players left. Top 3 get money. still 7 players left. I flopped a flush two hands in a row, cashed in on one. Now i have roughtly 5000 chops. Now there is the final 3 and I am chip leader. And I won the tourney finally winning all in K10 called vs. 85. Prize: $90. Now I am going to play another $20 sng b/c I just won that one.

Current PokerStars Bankroll: $396.90 (cashed out $400)