3 days and counting....

i've been unable to login to my Full Tilt client with either "smokkee" or "killinkegz" for several days now. i've sent an email to Full Tilt Support each day since they locked my Full Tilt account (killinkegz on Thu 3-27) and have yet to receive any response. i even searched the web for a phone number. apparently, Full Tilt doesn't take calls from their customers. i couldn't find another way to reach anyone at Full Tilt except thru email and no one seems to be listening.

i've missed the Riverchasers tournament and it looks like i'm gonna miss Don's Big Game.

the inability to access the money in my account is beginning to annoy.

i've always been able to help other bloggers sort out their issues with Bodog whenever they came to me. if anyone's reading who might have an inside line to FTP, a brotha could use some assistance. i've put their "badge" up and i'm not even sure i'll be able to play the freeroll for the 2k WSOP package or even the TOC for that matter.

i'm beginning to feel like this whole BBT3 thing has been a big waste of time and $$$ for me and if i don't get to cash out any $$$ after my last tournament score what's the point?

smokkee resurrected

Today i received a nice little email from our friends at Full Tilt after i inquired why my withdrawal requests were getting declined.

From: Full Tilt Poker - Support
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 11:26 AM
To: KillinKegz
Subject: RE: Full Tilt Poker - Funds Withdrawal
Request

Hello KK,

This is to inform you that the following multiple account has been closed:

KillinKegz

For that reason, your recent withdrawal requests were voided.

Your primary account, smokkee, is your main account. I see that smokkee is currently closed at your request. You will need to email in to have that account re-opened as that is the one that you will only be able to play on.

To ensure a level playing field, our policy only allows one Full Tilt Poker account per player. We cannot allow you to use any account other than your primary account. If you would like a full explanation of our site rules, please visit our website at:
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/siteRules.php

Please contact us from the registered email address for your closed account, KillinKegz, to let us know if you would like the remaining funds in this closed account transferred to your primary account or withdrawn to your payment processor.

We thank you for playing at Full Tilt Poker and appreciate your understanding.

Regards,

Full Tilt
Poker Senior Cashier

I responded shortly after I received this gem asking them to re-open my "smokkee" primary account and transfer funds from "killinkegz" to "smokkee".

still no response has been received from Full Tilt's top notch support team. so, i was unable to login to Full Tilt and donk around in RC. Smokkee's rakeback days on FTP are ovah.

Funny they don't care if you play under a new account even after closing your old one until you request a withdrawal. Gotta luv it when you've got several thousand dollars sitting online and can't get to it.

Kudos Full Tilt! well done.

Josh Arieh slugs it out with 51 Bodonkeys

that's "ar-ee-ay" Buddy. got it? good.

Unfortunately, Tina and I were never seated across from Josh and didn't get a chance at his $100 bounty. Josh mixed it up pretty early losing about T$1000 chips then busted out a player, dubbling up to over T$4k.

This was the $100 hand. Josh raised pf with 77 and Abby17 reraised with AQo putting Josh to a decision for all his chips. Josh decided to gamboool early (it's a $10 tournament) and jammed his remaining stack. Abby17 spiked an Ace on the flop and it held scooping the pot and Josh's $100 bounty. Abby rode that stack all the way to the top 3 payouts.

The players at Josh's table made him feel welcome in the chatbox and he seemed to be having a good time. But that all came to a screeching halt after he lost a coin flip. For some reason, BDR's guest decided to blurt out a bunch of derogatory comments about Josh after he busted.

Several people at Bodog were invited to listen in to last night's "show" along with Josh. I'm not sure if he was or not. But, i will say this. Alot of effort goes into planning and producing these "special" blogger events / tournament series' with added prizes. They're not a slam dunk to put together.

If you had a home game and were able to convince a well-known pro to sit and donk it up with your friends and family, would you blurt out a bunch of derogatory comments after he lost all his chips? Just think before you speak. That's all i ask.

Back to last night's Bodonkey. Last week's winner, TripJax went heads-up with "StinkyBritches" for this week's title and valuable TOC points. i've never played against Stinky in prior Bodonkeys but, i will say some of his plays seemed a bit sketchy. hey "it's a $10 tournament". Stinky got the best of TJ taking down 1st place for $156 cash + T$109. Trip won $104 cash + T$109 finishing 2nd and Abby really came out the big winner this week with $62 cash + $100 bounty + T$109 for 3rd.

After picking up 1st and 2nd place finishes the last two weeks and no TOC points prior to that, TripJax has catapulted to 6th place on the leaderboard. I dropped down to 7th after picking up no points this week. My QQ was no match for RecessRampage's monkeypush from EP with JTo.

There are 10 more tournaments left in the Bodog Blogger Series after this week's tournament which still gives everyone plenty of time to squeek into the top 18 spots on the leaderboard and compete on June 10th for the 12k WSOP Main Event Package. Register early!

FTP 40k Guaranteed 3rd pl finish recap

I used to play this tournament regularly when it was the 28/32k. The structure is the same as the 50/50 and the field is a manageable 300+ players on avg. While you might think higher buy-in tournaments have better players in general, the play is only slightly better than your $69+6 buy-in tournament. You will run across some well known pros but, there's still lots of dead money.

Incredibly, two players from my starting table made the final table (Charles Oakley and Kice32). I finished ahead of both. JohnnyBax was at my starting table also and got off to a decent start but, ended up running AK into KK after the 1st break crippling him and was unable to recover.

Like most tournament wins and deep finishes, timing and luck were on my side. I only lost two races. I won every coin flip, a couple of 60/40 races and most of the time got the rest of the table to fold when i shoved.

I got to the 1st break with over T$8k mostly due to these two hands:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318807 JsTs vs KdQd
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318814 QQ vs 66

after the 1st break i took out a player with KQs vs TT
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318819

I didn't play any big pots after the KQo vs TT hand until after the 2nd break:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318825 TPTK is *gold
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318830 KK vs 77

stubbed my toe running 99 into KK
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318833

after the 2nd break i got Bowser125 to fold to my push with TT:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318835

dubbled with AK vs AT http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318839

QJo is *gold vs KK http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318841 (the only bad beat i laid)

had to fold my monstah 33 to a caller and a push
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318843

dubbled with 88 vs JTs before the 3rd break
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318848

short stacked ninja:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318851 KTo open shove
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318855 Q8o shove into a button limper and dubble
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318857 K6s awww iiinnn
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318860 JackAce !
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318862 JackAce is *gold babeee!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318866 JackAce steal again YAWN
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318867 dubble thru with 22 Quack Quack!
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318871 JackAce really is *gold
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318875 dubble thru with 99 vs KTs

Back to "real" pokah:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318880 how can i fold QTo from the BB??
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318883 K9o SB steal
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318889 Kill a shorty with AQs vs A7o

Final Table thoughts. I came into the final table comfortably 3rd in chips with T$130k. One thing that i've come to realize thru all my final table experiences is that alot of players will "crack" or donk out overplaying marginal hands. My final table strategy is to let other players donk out while I move up the payout ladder. I try to maximize value on any big hands. But, I haven't seen many to this point so i play somewhat conservatively letting other guys find the rail.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318891 I take down the blinds/antes with 88 in EP
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318895 I call a shorty's push with 89o from the BB but don't get lucky
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318900 somehow i don't go broke with AQo
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318903 take down the blinds/antes with JTs

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318909 I fold TT on a J-high flop. this hand was a very difficult spot for me. i thought the other guy might be on a draw after the flop but I wasn't willing to gamble with another shorty left at the table and the diff in payouts being $2500 for 6th, $3500 for 5th, $4500 for 4th and $6000 for 3rd. i came into the Final Table 3rd in chips and didn't want to finish lower than 3rd.

here are the chip counts a few orbits later when we're 4-handed:
Seat 1: Loeppenthin (391,517)
Seat 5: KillinKegz (36,034) on fumes
Seat 6: kice32 (201,137)
Seat 7: fitniss (373,312)

I was getting dealt total garbage and had to fold to open raises. Blinds and antes were eating me up and i finally had to jam from the SB with 97o after it was folded to me. BB called with 8-T0 and i got lucky. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318914

short-stacked button steal with J7o 4-handed http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318918
i dubble thru the guy who's 3rd in chips with KQo vs 99 http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318921
JackAce steal 3-handed http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318922

my final hand. i push from the SB with the tourist after it was folded to me and the BB wakes up with AK. http://www.pokerhand.org/?2318924

So, i got my wish which was to finish in the top 3. But, it took alot of patience and luck to get there.

Lucko uploaded my HH when I was down to the final two tables into pokerXfactor (thanks amigo!). you can view it here. the final table starts at hand 75. My "luck" factor was 20 with the avg luck factor being 50. I'm very fortunate to have finished in 3rd. Now i can take some shots at more WSOP Qualifiers and take a little breather from the low-stakes cash game grind.

Bink!

my biggest online tournament cash ever!

this was - >> my biggest live tournament cash.

Bodog Pro Josh Arieh will play in next Tuesday's Bodonkey

.....and a $100 bounty will be placed on his head. Register early for next week's tournament.

>

There's still time to win your seat into the Bodog TOC

With only seven (7) tournaments behind us and eleven (11) left, you still can win your seat into the Bodog Blogger Tournament Series TOC.

TripJax picked up his first points of the series by taking down last night's event finishing 1st for $160 cash +T$109. This win places him 24th on the leaderboard with 11 tournaments to go. He's clearly put himself in a position to make the TOC.

A few top 5 finishes will put you in a comfortable spot on the leaderboard. After 7 events, my best finish is 6th and i'm currently sitting in 6th on the leaderboard. I was 12th on the board last week. JL514 moved up to 5th from 14th this week after finishing 3rd last night, demonstrating how quickly you can move up the Bodonkey TOC ladder.

The best part about the structure of this series is you don't have to win an event to get into the TOC giving you a better chance at the top prize in the 18-player sng we have scheduled for Tuesday, June 10th.

So, you might ask how did i manage to donk out in 6th, one spot from the top 5 payouts?? If there ever was a spot to fold KK preflop, this was it.

I picked up KK utg and bet pot just wanting to clear out any ragged Ace and take it down right there. TripJax shoves. I call and he flips AA. An Ace hit the flop for added pleasure.

RedKoi was down to around T6k in chips at the time, i had T$19k and TripJax had a few more chips than me. I could've easily folded into the top 5 spots. This is one of the few tournaments where you really have to play it like a satellite when you get near the top 5 payouts. gg me



We had 40 players suit up this week. This is far below our record turnout of 56 early in the series.

Bodog girl TV

Get registered early for Tuesday night's Bodonkey @ 9:05pm ET. A few players have had trouble registering into the tournament the last couple of weeks. Don't scramble around at the last minute, register now!

I tried a couple of satellites into Sundays $500+35 WSOP Main Event Qualifier on FawkTilt but, no luck. I also played a couple of $16 double-shootouts into the PokerStars $650. no dice there either. I'm gonna try to get into Thursday's 1k on FawkTilt if i can. These three qualifiers are the best odds to win a seat so, i'm gonna focus most of my efforts on the weekends and Thursday trying to satellite in. The rest of the week will be spent at the cash tables. I can only take so much junk kicking from WSOP hopefuls.

...and if you haven't seen Bodog girl TV yet, get on it. the 1st coupla vids are NSFW.

anotha deep finish in BBT3...

but I came up short this time finishing 5th in the RC when i got all-in pf five-handed with AQ, and Amstel's 88 held.

I lost a couple of races late where i was dominated until after the flop. once holding AcKc vs AA on a low flop with 2 clubs and another time against Buddy with AdJd vs KK. i flopped a flush draw against his set, turned the flush but he rivered the boat. both times i was a big dog pf but sometimes it's hard to tell when a player shoves into you, when you've been raising like mad.

i was hoping to pull off a Lucko and win 2 events this wk. maybe next wk.
:P

Gnome left a comment on a previous post with some really good questions about playing full-time. so i thought i'd answer some of them here.

i started with a $5k online bankroll. just before i got laid off from my job, i made a HUGE withdrawal from my online BR to pay for Tina's engagement ring and that's what i was left with. so, I started with alot less than i'd prefer. but, i left my job with a severance package, stock options and an annual bonus which was enuf to cover my expenses for an entire year.

i'm currently residing in 100/200 NL purgatory. i'm unable to move up in limits because i have to make monthly withdrawals. so, my online BR stays pretty much the same after i make a withdrawal (give or take a buy-in or 2). i really don't see myself moving up unless i hit a nice tournament score and i'm ok with that for now.

i'm not going to say how much i make but, i will say that a solid cash game player can average approximately 20-30 buy-ins a month (or more). i haven't had to dip into my savings for expenses since last summer.

as i mentioned in my article, relying on poker to pay bills can be very stressful. every mistake you make at the tables can cost you money. it's not for everyone. there are lots of highs and lows.

TOC fo shizzle!

to summarize, it was your standard bloggament. coolers, bad beats and suckouts galore. i took some nasty beats and layed a couple. incredibly, i really felt i had the game in hand from the get go. i hung on to the chip lead when we got down to 2 tables and continued playing aggressively. all the way down to the final 3 players.

when we got 3 handed, i continued playing to win. i got coolered with KKxx vs AAxx against Astin. but, grinded my way back and finally busted him with a flopped nut flush after he slow played AAxx pf.

I had a pretty big chip lead going into HU with KngofKngs, raising with just about anything. he finally dubbled thru when i flopped a set and he flopped a naked 9-high flush draw. it came through for him on the rvr and we were even in chips. we traded chips for a while. when i picked up a handful of broadway cards and raised into him. he flat called and i flopped the shizznuts, a broadway straight. we got it all in on the flop and he had an OESD with a 7-high flush draw. somehow my hand miraculously held.

this was probably only my 4th omaha tourney ever. i figured it was my best shot at a TOC seat cuz of all the NL players donking around in Omadraw.

The Bodonkey

NewinNov has been tearin' up the Bodonkey since the series began. He was leading the pack before 2night's tourney and took it down for $141 cash + T$109. I wasn't able to watch the HU closely cuz i was a bit distracted. Sean finished 2nd for $94 cash + T$109 and got himself on the leaderboard.

I put an $11 mOOkie buy-in bounty on IgetCrushedbyBloggers which Zeem collected. IhaveaCrushonBloggers finished 46th of 47. well done my man. You've definitely shown where you stand against the blogga faithful.

Here are the final payouts.


thanks for all the rail support in the Skillz and everyone who registered and played in this wk's Bodonkey.

mOOkament 2night!

A bad day on the felt is better than…

…a good day at the office.

Some days are better than others. But no matter how many sick beats or coolers I run across, I’m so much happier now than when I was answering to the man. But, I still have to remind myself of this from time to time.

The last few years at my old job were extremely frustrating. My previous boss “resigned” and a new guy was brought in. Although working for my new boss was cordial and I even found him to be friendly most of the time, I quickly discovered we couldn’t trust him to make correct decisions. When there’s no trust, there’s no team loyalty.

My new boss found every reason to hire in a bunch of colleagues from his previous employer. It got so bad that his old boss finally had to tell him “no more”. When he wasn’t hiring people from his previous “life” as he called it, he was bringing them in for consulting gigs. I used to wonder if he was getting any kind of kickback from it. It just seemed over the top. For instance, he had someone come in and interview a bunch of department managers to map out all of our critical business processes. After two weeks of this, several meetings and hundreds of hours what was the result? No one knows except him. We never got to see any output.

WTF ?!??!

Not long after, he hired this person in as a Director of IT. We already had several directors at the time but, he found it necessary to bring in one more. Talk about top heavy. The absolute best part was this person had no direct reports and no budget to manage. Can you say dream job? She really was more of a glorified administrator than anything. She scheduled meetings, coordinated training and had carte blanche to get her mitts into everything that was going on. She was more of a distraction than anything else.

Most of the “good” people in our department started jumping ship. Several of which were good friends of mine. Some even attended our wedding.

While all this was occurring, I decided I was going to hang in there and continue to hope things would get better. Well they never did. It seemed like he just wanted to push out most of the existing IT management team and replace them with his own hand picked minions. I dreaded going into work everyday. But, the pay was good so I stuck it out only to get my walking papers after spending three grueling years under his “direction”.

I may not make as much as I did working there as I do now. But, I’m 100x happier. I treat poker like it’s my job and it’s treated me well so far.

This article talks more about my approach toward playing full-time.

W2D's day one of the '06 WSOP Main Event

at one pt, W2D was the chipleader late in day 1.

Chasing the dream...

Never really got much going in the mOOk last night. i did take out Hellory when he called my short stack push with 77. i only had a couple hundred more chips than he did at the time. my 99 held. after the break, i stole the blinds once with an open push then picked up AJo in the CO and jammed $1800 chips all-in pf. the BB tanks for a long ass time even using the timebank and finally calls with KQs. i flop a J which really means nothing but, he snags runner runner for broadway. oh well

W2D put up a post about his 2006 quest to win a seat into the WSOP Main Event. it sounds alot like my story except he finally got his.

Drizz takes down this week's Bodonkey

We had 43 players in the 5th edition of our Bodog Blogger Series. Apparently, Bodog made some recent technical changes that prevented some people from registering for the Bodonkey. Please register early so you don't run into difficulties at the last minute. Next week's tournament is open for registration now.

Drizz took down this week's Bodonkey title for $172 cash+T$109
Emptyman finished 2nd for $103 cash+T$109
23skidoo took 3rd for $69 cash +T$109

rest of the payouts are below. check tournament leaderboard here.



I was lucky enough to sit down with IgetPunkedbyBloggers on my right. I wasn't the only one punking him tho. He finally got shortstacked folding to our reraises then, pushed over the top of a raise and an all-in reraise with a monster hand for his tournament life. That monsta hand was.....

2-2 (quack, quack...)

The original raiser in the hand who had a bunch of chips at the time called with AKo. The all in pusher who was also shortstacked held JJ. Flop came K-2-x and SucksOutonBloggers tripled up. So, what does he do with his new found wealth? Right after the 1st break he raises and calls an allin push for over 30 bb's with AKo and runs into QQ. Player with QQ flops a set and he's done. well played gg.

Some advice for you sir. Get a new screenname. Cuz it just aint working for ya.

I know, I know... it's only a $10 tourney and we really shouldn't be spending one minute trying to analyze a hand in a low buy-in tourney.

moving on....

Bodog is currently running their Bodog Poker Open Series which started Monday night. Event #1 had 377 players and a total prize pool of $94k. Incredibly, two Bodog pros finished 2nd and 3rd. Evelyn Ng took 2nd for $16k and Josh Arieh finished 3rd for $11500. Rusostreet took down Event #1 for $26k.



I discovered that Bodog is running 20 seat guarantees into this Sunday's BPO Main Event. I played one tonight that was short approximately 50 players. Their guaranteed sats even have an overlay. How sick is that? I came up short but will give it another couple of tries.

Bodog's BPO Main Event is scheduled for this Sunday, March 9th @ 8pm ET. Bodog is adding 25k to the prize pool and the winner also gets an Omega Speed Master watch valued at $4400.

I'd be happy with 2nd or 3rd. Tina already got me a watch.

18-1 shot at winning a seat to the WSOP Main Event

Tournament Leader Board after 4 events.

Where's our buddy Blogger Crusher? Mr. IhaveACrushonBloggers is on the outside looking in picking up points in only one of the last four events. You the man GotCrusheredbyBloggers.

Push and pray son. Push and pray.

a must read

...for anyone who's interested in hearing how to turn $200 into over $100k.

Bill me

this beauty came up right after the 1st break of the Big Game.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, Blogger Big Game, 60/120 Blinds, 9 Players

UTG: 3,350
UTG+1: 6,225
UTG+2: 3,015
MP1: 5,790
MP2: 4,570
smokkee (CO): 4,920
BTN: 3,910
SB: 6,620
BB: 6,600

Pre-Flop: (180) Ah As dealt to smokkee (CO)

5 folds, smokkee raises to 360, BTN folds, SB raises to 1,200, BB folds, smokkee raises to 4,920 and is All-In, SB calls 3,720

Flop: (9,960) Td Jh Kh

Turn: (9,960) Qc

River: (9,960) Ks

Results: 9,960 Pot
smokkee showed Ah As (a straight, Ace high) and LOST (-4,920 NET)
SB showed Kc Kd (four of a kind, Kings) and WON 9,960 (+5,040 NET)

"Thanks for playing at FawkTiltPokah!"