BDR presents The Great White North Eh-xtravaganza!

Blah blah blah.  Kids running around.  Kids getting all the good loot.  Boring adult gifts galore.

That's how it all started.   But little did I know I would get the greatest gift of all!  A trip to Canada for New Years!   Woot woot!  I leave tomorrow for more than a week in the Great White North eh.  If you don't know where I'm going in Canada you're an idiot and don't deserve to know.   If you're offended by that then I'll call you a retard too.

Stay tuned for updates which will most likely be on my ghey ass twitter account.  Might even have a BDR broadcast next week.

I must say that I am really liking Pokerstars.

A short history of my online poker play.(OK so it got a little long. Sue me!)

After the fall of PartyPoker a number of years ago I honestly thought I wouldn't be able to play on any online poker sites anymore.  It was the only one I played on so when they cut off all US players I didn't even bother to look at the others.  I decided I still wanted to play poker so I went on over to the local casino to play live.  Sure enough the main discussion at the tables was about the PP situation.  But the dealer at our table was talking about how he still plays on FullTilt.   Everyone there informed me that PP was the only major online site to shut out the US.  So when I got home I signed up and started playing there.

All this was just a few months before I found the poker blogging world.  I have continued to play primarily on FT and a little on Bodog when their first blogger series started.  But didn't really look into Pokerstars and even when I did I discovered I couldn't deposit there with my credit card so I just didn't bother.  Earlier this year a local friend of mine was talking about playing in the Saturdays with Dr Pauly and was kind enough to transfer me the funds to play.   Oddly I won the game and then had a small bankroll there too.   My cash was getting tight on FT and I traded someone PS for FT cash.  No more bankroll.

Months went by and I'm still playing on FT.  But then FT went and did something that just plain pissed me off.  I've talked about it on the radio but wasn't sure I wanted to write the whole ordeal up on here.   Short story is that Joanada and myself recieved emails from FT stating we were no longer allowed to play in the same games anymore.  Again I'm not going to state too much about it because my feelings are mixed on the situation.

I play non-blogger games with quite a few bloggers on occasion and was still interested in playing with Jo.   The newer double or nothing sngs had started over at PS so Jo transfered me a small amount and I started playing those.  Built up a small roll that has allowed me to play in Dr Paulys game more often and some kickass $1 2-7 triple draw and other assorted different games with bloggers for fun.

Now if you read my last post about going deep in the WBCOOP you know I got a few prizes.   The first was a Step 3 ticket that I turned into a Step 4 ticket today.  Cool part about that is I can use it to buyin to the Sunday Million if I want and this weekends seems to be a special deal where it is a 2.5 million gauranteed.  The other was a $320 buyin ticket.  This confused me a great deal as I looked around the site.  I could only find 2 games with that buyin this whole freaking week.   But obviously I was going to take a shot at one of them soon.   As I looked into it furter I was again confused because it wouldn't allow me to use my ticket to sign up for any of them eventhough it did show my ticket in my account.  So I sent off an email to support with a few questions.  I recieved a response very quickly stating that they had deleted my ticket and just credited me 320 T$!  Kick ass!

I have only been playing on Pokerstars now for a short time but everything about it has been a good experience.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have found my new home for online poker.

I spent a good amount of time this weekend in these tourneys.  I think I played 3 of the qualifiers total but had no luck until Saturday.   Friday night I noticed I missed that days game so I wanted to make sure I played in the last one the next day.

So Saturday I get signed up and lucky for me it's NLHE.  Somewhere around 450 or so entrants to start.  The game went well for me and I was above the average stack most of the game.   As we got closer to the 72 player mark that would grant me access to the game I decided to just wait it out and fold to the final.   It was a long bubble and I lost more than half my stack folding everything.   Made it in and then started to play again.  Still playing tight I caught some cards and ended up going out in 22nd place for a seat in the championship and a Step 3 ticket.

Going into Sunday's game I didn't have many expectations.  The Steelers game was still on and they were losing.  Angry poker isn't good poker.  With deep stacks and prizes going to 100 of the 369 entrants I figured I could play tight and at least get something out of it.  But I didn't listen to myself one bit and started throwing away chips early, playing lots of hands, and just plain playing horribly.

Lost about half my stack before the first break and the Steelers game was over so I could know concentrate.  Went back to playing tight ass poker but didn't get any quality hands.   Treaded around 2000+ chips the entire second hour and then right before the 2nd break I saw a cheap flop with ducks and hit a set against a top pair shorty who doubled me up to 4600.

3rd hour was about the same, played tight and saw cheap flops.  Nothing happening at all yet again. Then on the last hand before the 3rd break I had A10 in the BB and pushed a raise and was called by A7 to double up to around 6200.

The next hour would be crazy!

By the 4th hour we were getting close to the 100 mark for prizes so I still sat tight and caught my first quality hand of the tourney.  Big double up with KK to get me to 10,500.   Folded my way into the prize pool and then I became the ultimate card rack for a short period.  I had aces two hands in a row and they held up both times.  This put me at around 32,000 but the blinds were going up quickly and with me still playing tight I was a shorty within a couple orbits and found a horseshoe lying around that I could shove up my ass.  I pushed A3 suited only to be called my KK.  Ace on the flop and I doubled yet again up to over 40,000.  So funny cause everytime I got short the entire game I would push and somehow win every race.  I was still around the bottom of the pack but surviving.  Made a move allin with KQ against a raise only to win yet another race against AJ to put me over 70,000 and I was finally in the top half leader board.    Shorty pushed from the button into my SB and I called with A10, obviously I won that race too cause I run goot.   This was awesome cause I was now in the top 3 with just 20 to go.   After chipping up a bit more I went into the 4th break as the #2 stack and was a happy camper.

Down to 2 tables!  I pretty much went into a downward spiral so while playing 7 handed with the blinds at 4000/8000 I just couldn't get things going again.   I folded a couple hands to big stack pushes and was suddenly under 80,000.   So when I saw 99 in the BB I quickly decided this would be the hand.  But I should have thought about it a bit more as there was a raise and a push in front of me.  I did call only for them to turn up AA and AK.  FAWK!    I'm still a bit upset with that play but am very happy with my finish.

Out in 12th place for a $320 Tournament Buyin.  Plus with my Step 3 ticket from the day before puts me at $400+ in free tourney buyins.  Not bad for a freeroll.

So no I didn't play great poker.  No I didn't win the whole thing.  I did have a great time though and it was fun to see my name in the Pokerstars Blog.  I think I understand why people like hearing their names on the radio now. Thanks to everyone who was railing me!

The rest of my trip reports are coming soon.

After Jo and I had such a great run on our first day it was hard to sleep.  But who needs sleep while in Vegas anyway.  Started off by getting a nice breakfast.  Mmmmmm all parts of pig skillet.   We had some time before everyone would be showing up at the IP so after relaxing for a bit it was time to hit the bar.

Sat down to our first session of video poker and free drinks.  I hit quad Aces and a number of other hands to go up around $150.  Jo kept to her winning ways obviously and was up as well.  Gambling is easy!

First sighting was Alcanthang and Pirate Lawyer.  Had never met PL, great guy.  A short time later CK and FTrain showed up as well.  Jo and I had fun retelling our story of hitting the slots for $1000 each over and over.  Over/under on number of times we would tell the story was set to 50.  I lost track but would be surprised to hear we didn't hit the over.

From this point on things get a bit fuzzy.  Blogger after blogger entered.  Met Muhctim for the first time as well.  The night was filled with shots of tequila and laughter.  Eventually Emptyman and his wife showed up and I could finally get caught up with them.

This is when things got a little nutty.  Pretty sure I was annoying the crap out of anyone near me.  I was in full on drunken stupor mode.  Telling stories that went no where and trying not to look too far gone.  I was.

Decided it would be smart to get my gamble on some more.  Emptyman and wife were fairly avid slot players so I followed them back to some of their favs.  Won a $340 spin playing a different version of Monopoly and then promptly gave it all back.  No biggie cause this one played a funky ass tune about riding the fun train or something that you just had to get up and dance to.   Groovy but it was now very late and time for bed.