Well it's the end of the month and time to look back on goals and see how I've done. Not too bad actually. I was just a little short of my volume goal but other than that all else was good. I still finished with about 100 more games than I've done before so at least there is progress there. The best thing from August was the Pokerstars Women's League, see upcoming blog post for more details about how I did there.

GOALS:

• Play 150 45 man turbos on Stars ($3.25 and/or $6.50)
• probably came close but not quite
• Play 150 9 man super turbos on FTP ($2.15 and/or $5.50)
• yes pretty sure I did this
• Play 100 180s on Stars ($2.20s, $3.30r and/or $7.70) - nope got sick of them mid way into the month
• nope got sick of them around mid-month
• Play 50 additional games
• Yep and then some - switched to mostly 18 man sngs mid-month and played several MTTS
• Total volume 450 games
• so close but... finished at 432.
• Finish the month with a positive ROI on Stars and FTP
• Stars - yes (14%) but FTP just plain sucks or I just plain suck on FTP!
• Get my silver status back on Stars
• Yes, made it at around 6:30 p.m. last night
• Most importantly RUN GOOD!!!
• Ran great and the beginning of the month but things went a bit south mid month

Well onward and hopefully upward to next month! Does anyone want to coach me for free???

The big knock out!

Yep that's right I knocked out Chris Moneymaker in a Triple Stud tournament on Pokerstars tonight. It was my first time playing triple stud which is a new mixed game Pokerstars just started running. It's basically H.O.R.S.E. without the holdem and omaha rounds, or as a poker friend of mine said, it's H.O.R.S.E. without the balls, lol.

Now no matter what the circumstances are, knocking out a big name pro is exciting and definitely allows some bragging rights. However, I have to say he was down to only 250 or so chips so it certainly wasn't like I outplayed him or anything. But knocking out a pro is still knocking out a pro. The fact that it was Chris Moneymaker i.e. "the Moneymaker effect" makes this all the more sweet.

As for the triple stud tournament it was great fun and moved surprisingly fast. It was also a very nice and welcome break from holdem. I ended up finishing 7th out of 79 runners for a small cash. I will definitely be playing this game again.

Pokerstars Women's League

Well as some of you know Pokerstars has started a new Women's League and I've been playing in the nightly games for a few weeks now. My results have been pretty decent and I have actually been enjoying playing in these games. As many of you (the 2 or 3 people who might actually read this blog) know I'm not generally a big fan of ladies poker games but decided to give this league a shot anyway. This journey through ladies poker has been interesting.

Currently I am number eight on the Women's League tournament leaderboard but I should move back into the top five after my 5th place finish last night. The play in these is very mixed. There are some women who are really pretty decent and few who are actually good and a whole bunch who are really horrible.

Women have a reputation in the poker world for being calling stations and after playing these games for awhile I've realized this is a reputation well deserved. I've never seen the like of horrible calls and I play low stakes sit-n-goes and see some pretty awful play there but these ladies have even the mirco stakes players beat at making really bad calls. My very favorite was in one of the earlier games before the field got so big and went like as follows:

I have AA on the big blind, one person in middle position raises about 4X and the button flat calls, the small blind folds and I 3 bet to 12 or 13X and the original raiser shoves over, the button calls and of course I call. The original raiser turns over AKs and the button turns over A3 off. What in the world are you beating with a raise, a 3 bet and a 4 bet shove with A3 off, nothing that's what! Anyway beat us she did. The board played out with a 2, 4 and 5 giving Miss Super Dumbass a straight. Luckily I had her well covered and was able to hang on for a little while longer.

I have to say the best thing about playing these games is learning how to best play against really bad players and learning the proper adjustments. One example was last night. The woman who was the big blind to my button was a total calling station and every single time I raised she called. At first I would make a typical c-bet whether I hit the flop or not, unless the flop was super wet or something, but she would call every time. So finally I just stopped c-betting when I missed the flop and even when I hit because I knew she would bet out even if she missed and then I could check raise her. And that brings me to another thing these women do that makes me insane...

Donk betting, not just normal donk betting but min donk betting, some of them will donk bet you every time and half of more of the time they didn't even hit the flop. They min donk bet with complete air. Sometimes I string them along sometimes I raise. Sometimes they fold to a raise and sometimes they call to the river with complete air or my favorite, bottom pair. I mean seriously how bad can you be? Anyway ladies keep playing badly my bankroll and I are totally enjoying your bad play!

One night in an early game I was playing really aggressive, as usual, and one women accused me of being a man. I'll take that as a complement!

On a positive side these games are very friendly and it's rare to see someone go off on someone else in chat. Women tend to be very supportive of each other and this really shows in these games. In other games I play I don't even keep the chat window open but in these games I do and I'll actually chat a small amount with the other players if I don't have a bunch of games running. Surprisingly this is one thing I am enjoying about these games. Also anything that increases the number of women in the game of poker is good. I'm pretty sure many of these ladies don't play in many other games but through these games maybe they'll start venturing out and discover how fun poker can be.

In closing kudos to Pokerstars for supporting women players the way they do!

Wish me luck with leaderboard! First place at the end of the month pays a $300 bonus and the other top five spots bonuses aren't too shabby either.

Monsters Under the Bed!

In the world of poker, tournament and cash games, there are two things that I frequently see players do that always ends up costing them lots of money in cash games or lots of bust outs tournaments. That is being afraid of monsters under the bed and over valuing big, and even small, pocket pairs.

Many players really have a problem dealing with playing big pocket pairs, and even little ones for that matter. Say you are dealt a pair of aces, while this is the absolute best hand you can be dealt, and pocket aces will generally win you the pot about 80% of the time, this hand is not always the best hand after the flop. Many people have a problem understanding that. If you are holding aces and you raise 3X the big blind pre-flop and you get two callers to see the flop and then the flop comes QJT all hearts, you bet out 2/3 of the pot and one of the callers re-raises or check raises you, guess what, you're aces are no longer good - live with it and fold them! In this scenario I will often see players shove on a flop like this and then they whine when they lose all their money or bust out of a tournament. Hello, with a flop like this and two callers you are more than likely beat so don't shove and don't over play here. Slow down and bet 1/2 pot and see what happens.

The other thing I see is fearing the monsters under the bed. Recently I was playing in a live cash game in Tunica and this middle aged woman sat down. She played a couple hands either limping and/or limping behind or making a reasonable raise. Then in one hand she raises 10X the big blind, all but one player folds and two see the flop. She is first to act and she shoves 100 big blinds. Of course the other player folds and she shows her aces saying "I just get beat so often with aces I never slow play them". Well guess what, she never gets any value for them either and what if the guy who called hit a set on that flop, he's going to call you and your are going to lose all your money.

I often see this in tournament play as well. People increase their raise size with big pairs essentially turning their hand face up. Then if the flop is coordinated or has two suited cards on it they shove. If they continue to play this way they will find themselves often whining that they can never win any money with big pocket pairs or that they are always getting beat when they have them. People, learn to play your big pairs! Don't change your raise size and don't shove 100 big blinds into a 6 big blind pot! Always remember even aces are only one pair after the flop and one pair isn't always the winner!

I'm not going to take the time to discuss mis-playing small and mid pocket pairs, I'll save that one for another post, but what never ceases to amaze me are people who will call you down with a pair of fours. Last night in the Women's League game on Pokerstars I shoved from early position with AQs, I was down to about 12 effective big blinds so shoving when this short is the only option, I got one call from the small blind who turned over pocket fours. You don't call an early position shove with small pocket pairs, you are flipping at best and more than likely you are either beat or will be beat after the flop! In this case she actually won the hand because I totally missed the board. The good thing is she'll now think that was a good play and do it again, I hope I'm there to pick up her chips.

Lady Luck

Well things have really turned around for me lately. I'm almost afraid to say anything for fear that I will jinx myself. In truth I think I'm just playing better. A few things seem to have clicked with me lately and my mental attitude has improved as well. I am winning flips more often it seems but I lose plenty as well and those damn pocket kings aren't running much better but overall I think I can attribute my upswing to better play.

I actually posted goals for August and I have every intention of achieving these goals. They are:

• Play 150 45 man turbos on Stars ($3.25 and/or $6.50)
• Play 150 9 man super turbos on FTP ($2.15 and/or $5.50)
• Play 100 180s on Stars ($2.20s, $3.30r and/or $7.70)
• Play 50 additional games
• Total volume 450 games
• Finish the month with a positive ROI on Stars and FTP
• Get my silver status back on Stars
• Most importantly RUN GOOD!!!

Last night was terrific! I shipped two 6.50 45 man sit-n-goes and had another 6th place finish and another final table where I finished in 9th in 45s. As for the later two, I think I would have finished higher in the 6th place game and at least cashed in the 9th place game but the wireless capability on my laptop went out at very crucial moments and I lost tons of chips while I was rebooting.

My bankroll is starting look pretty nice again after dipping way past the point of no return so hopefully it's all uphill from here.

Super Turbos - are they really devil's spawn????

Well some days yes and some days no....

Myths about super turbos:

• They are nothing but bingo poker
• Skill doesn't matter because they are all luck

The truth:

They are no more bingo poker that a regular turbo sit-n-go. The only real difference is in a regular turbo you have a few levels to possibly built a decent stack in the early levels but actually if you play a regular turbo properly you have to play extremely tight during those early levels so you rarely build a big stack. Once you reach the 50/100 level and you're sitting on 12 or 13 big blinds it's all push fold from there anyway. In a super turbo you are in push fold from the first hand. If you know nothing about proper push/fold and ICM then neither super turbos or regular turbos are the game for you anyway.

As I mentioned before if you know proper push/fold and ICM you have a huge advantage in either a super or regular turbo sit-n-go. Many people who play both of these know little or nothing about ICM or push/fold play and think they can rely on their common sense to win these, wrong!

Why play super turbos:

• The speed in which you can finish a set
• The extra volume you can put in due to the speed
• The extra rakeback you earn from the extra volume
• Because they are fast paced and a ton of fun
• They're great for practicing your short stack and shorthanded play and bubble play

On average a super turbo sng takes about 12 minutes to play. You may spend up to 20 minute if you win but on average only 12 minutes. That's about 1/4 to 1/3 of the time it takes to finish a regular turbo sng.

Even if you only play 4 tables a time you can play around 16 to 20 games an hour with super turbo but with regular turbo you would only get in 4 to 6 games on average.

If you want to be a rake back whore super turbos are for you! Because you can get in so many games per hour you can easily be a break even player and still make good money from rakeback.

They are very fun and it's so quick to get a set in you'll find yourself often getting in one extra set because you only have to spare a few minutes to do so.

Knowing how to play short stacked and shorthanded and how to best play on the bubble is extremely important in any tournament you play and super turbos give you a great way to practice this.

I've decided to play super turbos, now what:

• Buy sit-n-go wizard (I still have to do this myself)
• Learn everything you can about ICM and push/fold (working hard on my knowledge)
• Start at the low levels and practice
• Enjoy learning and perfecting a great poker game
• Understand that variance will be higher in these but you'll earn more rakeback to off set your lower ROI

So off to the super turbo tables...