Happy new Year

Happy new year to all! It has been one heck of a ride in 2008 and I am looking forward to the new year with some new plans and new changes.

Quick update on where things are.. not a lot of details because well, I don't want to share too many :)

- Job is going well. Work is well, work. Gotta be done, but not to bad.
- Married life is not going as well. Estie and I are seperated and she will be moving back to jacksonville in February most likely.
- Sports betting is the devil!
- Poker is well.. poker. Still the love of my life, but god I hate her at times.

On to new news... Harrahs has started a combined promotion that was too good to pass up.

Every day when you play between 8-11 AM or 6-9 PM they give you a certificate. If you come back within 24 hours, you get 10% of your buy-in back (max $30). So if you play every day between 6-9 PM then every day they pay you $30. Expand that over a month and that is $900 to play poker!

On top of that.. at the end of January if you have played over 50 hours you get a cashback check of $x per hour played. the X is from 2 to 5 depending on how many hours you played. Play 50 hours get $2 per hour (total of $100), play 101 get $4 per hour (total of $404), and it caps out at 126 hours for $599. Making the net promotion of 126 hours and 31 days of poker worth just over $1500. Now since I have a real job.. I won't make 126 hours, but my goal is 76 hours which gets me in the $3 per hour club and hit the everyday thing for a nice profit of just over $1100 on top of what I make playing!

I started out on this quest January 1st putting in right at 5 hours and up $700. An excellent start and far exceeded my expectations. I manged to flop 3 sets, ending in 3 boats, and 3 large pots. I am amazed at what people will pay off with. Unfortunately for me.. this lesson didn't hold as I did well for a few days before degenerating into a "I am smarter than you" pissing contest which ended in me being stacked by a guy with top pair, top kicker on a Q high, 3 spade, straight possible board. Technically he SHOULD have folded for his whole stack with something as weak as top pair.. but he didn't. I am still up $600 over 6 days which is perfectly acceptable ($100 a day would be just over 3 grand in profit for a month. I can live with that). I just have to remember the situations where they pay me off with monsters and NOT try to force stuff.

Monday night we had a nice little Omaha 8/B 4-8 limit game going to break up the no-limit grind so I jumped in and after 3 hours turned a $25 dollar profit. Hardly life changing, but it was fun and I didn't lose. So hard to argue with it.

One funny hand from the first day. I flop a set of 5's, turn a boat on a queen high board. I check raised the guy on the turn and he called. On the river an Ace hits and I pushed all-in for about $150 into a $300 pot. This guy things for awhile and eventually says you must have flopped a set of 5's and turned the boat. Now I was shocked he had such a good read on it, and a bit disappointed as I was sure he would fold now he had put me on my EXACT hand. Then he called. This guy will be dangerous one day when he learns to fold the 2nd best hand...

Another fun hand that demonstrates it isn't about your cards but about the story you are telling. In this case, the story was unintentional. Flop comes down K66 two spades and I have 6/7 of hearts. Bunch of players in the hand as it was limped and early position leads out. I called in middle position and everyone else folded (not what I wanted but oh well). Turn is the 3rd spade, original bettor now checks and my read is he is scared of that spade, so I bet. He calls. The river is the 4th 6. Now he leads out and I reraised him all-in which he instantly called. The funny thing about this hand is I had firmly represented hitting the flush and then being an idiot (noone with a flush should reraise on a board with 3 6's on it). I didn't MEAN to represent the flush.. but the reality was I did by accident and that was the nail in his coffin. If he thought I had a 6 he would never have bet into me, but thinking I hit the flush on the turn meant he was sure his King for the fullhouse was good.

Back to the casino tonight for a few more hours of poker, see if we can go back to no-limit and start the winning back up.