Darn River

Ha!  I fooled PokerStars into thinking a was a “real” blogger.  They have allowed little old me into the WBCOOP.   Look out pauly and chops, here comes the unpronounceable lkport!  The WBCOOP is the World Blogger Championship of Online Poker and begins January 25, 2010 exclusively on PokerStars.

Bloggers from all around the world (and me) will be competing for tickets to SCOOP events over a six day period.  SCOOP is the Spring Championship of Online Poker and is a big deal, way the heck out of my bankroll level.  Or it would be if my bankroll had a level.  I guess zero is kind of a level.  Anywho, look for me to spew chips at PokerStars while spewing words about the experience right here all during the WBCOOP events.

Look, I even know how to copy and paste the schedule!

and then the big finish:  2010 WBCOOP Main Event takes place January 31 at 15:00 ET.

Oh yeah the name.  well it really stands for a place in New Hampshire called Lakeport.  It is not even a town or a city, it is more of an area of a city.  People call me Ell-Kay, people call me Port.  Some think the first letter is an “I” since I am too lazy to capitalize the “L”.  I am not too picky about what I am called, and of course i get called much worse than anything resembling my name quite frequently.  I guess to be a big time blogging celebrity type, I should have picked a name that was less obscure.  oh well, I have used this name online since 1996, I do not think changing it now would be wise.

Enough about my weird name.  The WBCOOP begins!  Good luck me, no good luck to the rest of you word spewing egomaniacs.

Third profitable day in a row.  I am beside myself with feelings of competency.  It took me till my last 2 games to get there, but the result matters.  Yesterday was “Trap the fool and watch the improbable suckout” day.  i was firing on all cylinders, maximizing each hand, and somehow 10-20% hands kept taking me out.

Thankfully, I kept playing good poker and shockingly was rewarded for doing so.  As an aside, i will be playing in PokerStars WBCOOP that I mentioned a few days ago.  The fun starts January 25th.  Thats Monday for you calendar challenged types.  More on what that means coming on Monday.

Well, November was a poor month with a $390 profit.  Some would say “well you made money”, and while this is true one has to consider that I was +$314 for November 1st!

You read that right, +$80 for 29 days following.  Pretty sad.  At least this month’s Holdem Poker Chat marathon was profitable (+$40).  but the month itself is a major disappointment.  I am starting December slowly and seeing if I can fix my play to become more profitable.

Sadly, I think I need to move away from the Cake Network.  the structure pays too many people, its too top heavy and the blinds are too fast.  I never liked PokerStars structure and it seems Lee Jones is destroying the good part of Cake and turning it into PokerStars Lite.  Gotta tell ya Lee, there is already a PokerStars.  the people who want 25% payouts and only doubling your money at the final table are already playing there.  At least the original has decent blinds structure.  You haven’t even got that.

So, last we left I was wallowing in self-pity.  I came out blazing with a nice $212 day.  Won it all back, all happy etc.  And then it happened.  I forgot how to play poker apparently.  I have had five straight days of losing.  All that $200 is gone and I am wondering what I am doing wrong.

I am playing badly.  real badly.  I know enough to know that my game has all of a sudden become horribly flawed.  I am playing just like the people I usually exploit.

Well I managed to win my way into this Sunday’s Bodog $100K guaranteed tournament again.  I hope I can straighten my game out by then.   As a bailout, PokerStars has a $100k freeroll to congratulate Joe Cada for winning the WSOP Main Event.  I am in that also, so hoping for a good payday to straighten my ass out.

I did poorly in my big $162 buyin.  I finished 12th with 9 being paid.  Most of the rest of my poker was mediocre too.  I was bailed out by the Breeders Cup a little to post a $14 profit, but thats just a tease.

I haven’t done well in an OFC in a while.  I think I need to post a good result in this weekend’s Full Tilt OFC.  Other than that, no earth shattering games are on my slate this weekend.  Just the usual suspects.  maybe the Double Deuce at Full Tilt.  The Sunday 1/4 Million at PokerStars is also a possibility.

As you will recall, I thought that I played real well on Monday but managed a pittance for my efforts.  It is nice to know that i was not deluding myself.  The first tournament I played Tuesday ($11, $1k guar) I managed to get 3rd for $160.  And i did play pretty well.

Of course, I thought I played pretty well after that too with nothing to show for those efforts.  These days I am taking the 1,000 FPP’s I won from PokerStars on twitter and using them in satellites to the turbo takedown that runs at the end of the month.  The turbo takedown is 3k points, so need to sat in.

Sorry i haven’t posted for a couple days.  October is starting out pretty well.  Sunday i lost like $4 but the rest of the month were positive days.  Not great days, but at least I am not digging myself a hole like September.

I have been putting some time into double stack tournaments on PokerStars.  I feel this stack and blind size is complimentary to my game.  The payout structures could be better in these, but you have to take the sweet with the sour when ordering takeout.

A very rocky month is now over.  August and September both started with poor play and a hole I had to dig out of.  August, I dug in spectacular fashion, September I clawed and dragged myself to +$300.  I am happy to have regained some ability but the negative slides need to stop.  Poor play is unacceptable.

I know what was wrong early in September.  It seems I was searching out coin flip situations instead of waiting until I was the big favorite.  Anyway, a new month.  I have been playing some more than usual on PokerStars, and it is there that I hit a big enough score to go positive for the month.  I will see how that goes in October.

So, last night/morning about 1:30 am I decided that I wanted to play some stud games.  I found a 7stud hi/lo and a razz to play on Full Tilt.  those games can be kind of slow on the action, so as not to be bored I added a bounty on Cake and a little doublestack $3 NLHE on PokerStars.

I ran fairly well in both stud games.  i think i was just outside the money in both.  The usual for lately, play hard, play long, get nothing.  The bounty I managed to get $2 of $6 back and then i was toast.  By this time I am already in the “money” on PokerStars.  I figure, “well if I can stick around some, maybe I can pay for the other three.

Seven grueling, tired hours later I busted out in 5th place for $371.  This pays off all the terrible September play and puts me up $250 for the month.  A far cry from August but at least I am out of the hole and feeling good about poker again.

I had gotten a used computer that was significantly better than the one I had been using.  Yesterday I finished loading my essentials on it and reconfiguring my desk space to accomodate two computers and three flat panels.

I still had time after all that for some poker, but not the will.  I played one $4.44 PLO8 4-handed MTT on PokerStars.  I stupidly did not see the 4-handed part when I registered.  No luck there.  I just did not feel up to anymore poker and retired to relax for the night.

Friday’s schedule is full so I will be back at the grind today.