Golf status

I cannot wait to play golf this Friday! I was unable to play last Friday as I had hoped due to work. In addition to Friday, I will also be playing on Saturday in a tournament with my golf group. This is the last regular tournament before our big tournament in two weeks.

I have been practicing almost everyday. I've had to make a few adjustments to my original practice plan, but in general it's worked out great.

I have another lesson this evening. Last weeks lesson was very informative. Anyone who plays golf semi-regularly should take a lesson especially if they have a video camera. The mental image you have in your head of what your swing looks like will be shattered once you see the video. Ugly doesn't even begin to describe it. During the winter I worked on a fixing a bad habit. I tend to open the club face too much on my back swing which causes me to hit right. After working on it I pictured myself as having a perfectly positioned club face, but the video showed I hadn't fixed the problem at all.

My instructor also gave me a few other items to work on. I usually tend to hit the ball too low. Now when I hit it right following his corrections I get a higher trajectory on my shot. It's going to take a lot of practice to ingrain these changes.

I have also been working like crazy on my short game. Yesterday was my 2nd putting only session. I had never gone to a course or a range before last week and just putted. It was great knowing this was all I was going to do and I could focus all my attention to it. My putting is rock solid right now and my confidence is high. As for pitching, I developed a nasty shank off the hozzle. I would either hit a perfect pitch or shank it. Hopefully my instructor can help me tonight with this one.

I like happy endings

Last night was a long evening of up and down poker. I was getting tired and ready to read myself to sleep, so I turned off auto-post and waited for the blinds to come around. At this point I was up enough to offset my buy in to the PPM S&G. Then on my last hand here is what happened:

Party Poker 5/10 Hold'em (10 handed)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 8s, 8h.
Hero calls, 2 folds, MP1 calls, MP2 raises, 2 folds, Button calls, SB 3-bets, 1 fold, Hero calls, MP1 calls, MP2 caps, Button calls, SB calls, Hero calls, MP1 calls.

Flop: (21 SB) 8c, 9h, 5d (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP1 calls, MP2 raises, Button calls, SB 3-bets, Hero caps, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, Button calls, SB calls.

Turn: (20.50 BB) Ks (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP1 calls, MP2 calls, Button calls, SB calls.

River: (25.50 BB) 3d (5 players)
SB checks, Hero bets, MP1 folds, MP2 calls, Button folds, SB folds.

Final Pot: 27.50 BB

Results:
Hero has 8s 8h (three of a kind, eights).
MP2 has Ac Kd (one pair, kings).
Outcome: Hero wins 27.50 BB.

Not a bad way to end a session. The only thing that would have made the night better is if I won my PPM S&G, but I guess that will have to wait for another night.

PPM V

Party Poker has started up their satellites for next year's Party Poker Millions V cruise WPT event. They say the prize pool will be at least $10 million. I'm going to make it my goal to get on that ship next year with out having to stow away.

I took my first step last night. I played in two of the $9+1 qualifiers. If you win this single table satellite, you get a free entry into the $60+6 tourney and if you win there, you get an entry into one of the $500 semi-final tournaments where you have chance to get on the boat.

I took 2nd place in my first satellite which gave me $24, a net win of $14, hardly worth the time.
In the next satellite, after a long heads-up battle against a short stack, I took first. This guy kept hanging around, until I finally caught him stealing when he went all-in with nothing vs. my KQ. So now I have an entry in the $60+6 satellite.

In reflection today, I think I'm going to start skipping this lower level and buy straight into the $60+6 level. I think I'm better off spending the time playing 5/10 and trying to win the $60+6 than playing in the smaller satellite.

For example, last night I picked up $300 while playing 5/10. Now I don't expect to have this good of a night every time, but since my bankroll allows me to play at this level, my EV is higher by playing 5/10 than playing in a $9+1 S&G. However, my EV is higher playing the $60+6 S&G than playing 5/10. This is of course assuming that I value a $500 entry chip the same as $500 cash I could win playing 5/10.

My blog

I must admit I had no specific intentions when I started this blog. I thought it would be a cool place to talk a little golf & hockey and mostly to force myself to analyze my poker game. It's tougher to lie to yourself when you put it in writing. Also, this space gave me a source to practice something that has always been a weak point of mine, writing. I never thought of becoming a player in the blogger community; I was comfortable just lurking from the outside.

Then today two things happened that I thought were pretty cool:

First, I got my first bit of pimpage. The Blogfather himself has mentioned my little PG&H blog in one of his infamous Guinness fueled uber-posts. True, it was along with a couple dozen other blogs, but it's still cool to see your name in lights.

Second, I got my first non self-inflicted comment. It was from none other than the newly crowned WSOP blogger representative himself, Bob at One2Many. I guess I never actually expected people to read what I have to say. It's pretty cool to have someone stumble by.

Now I'm going to ponder what else I want to get from this bit of work avoidance. I won't have much time to do so if I plan on reading Iggy's uber-post, damn this one is long. It's going to take half a day to read it and the other half a day to stare at his last photo.

The weekend in review

I really wish I could have played in the blogger tourney on Sunday. The Blogfather, Iggy, gave me my invite last week, but as it worked out I tried to pack too much into one short weekend and couldn't make it in time to play.

I was able to watch the final table where there was some good poker action and great chat going on. Congrats to Bob at One2Many for winning and going on to represent all of the poker bloggers at the World Series of Poker. Pauly has a great play by play of the entire event over at Tao of Poker. It was great to see one of my favorite bloggers, Hank, at the final table. I hope someday he finds more time to blog, as his new job at Full Tilt is keeping him pretty busy.

As for me, I prefer to fish out at Party Poker. The guppies were out in force this weekend. I was disappointed to see that Party Poker decreased the upper limit on what seems to be their recurring month end bonus. In prior months you could get a 20% reload bonus up to $200 (deposit $1000 to get a $200 bonus), but this month they've lowered it to $100. It does make it much easier to earn the bonus since you only have to play 700 hands versus 1400 hands. Hopefully the bigger bonus will be back next month.

I was able to knock off about 300 bonus hands on Saturday and Sunday. When trying to knock out a bonus, I usually two table on 2/4, but this time with only needing 700 hands, I stuck with one 5/10 table.

Overall, I broke even on the weekend, but I had to dig myself out of a hole on Sunday. On Saturday, I had two hands that took just about all my chips at the table. In both hands I had a big pocket pair, which I fast played, and both times my opponent went runner-runner for a 4 card flush. the first time I had QQ and hit a set on the flop. We capped the turn and river both of which were clubs to give the bad guy, who had AA, the ace high flush which beat my king high flush. OK, enough bad beat stories. Sunday was just a grind with a few small wins that built me back up to even.

I worked a lot on my golf game this weekend. I'll update on that in a seperate post.

Golf tourney

I've got a big golf weekend coming up in exactly 23 days. Yes, I'm even counting down the hours and minutes thanks to our tourney web page (23 days, 0 hours and 20 minutes). The rain this winter and early spring has been ridiculous, so I'm not even close to being ready to play. Therefore I'm committing a great deal of time between now and tourney time to practicing like a mad man. It needs to be productive and not over done. So here is the plan:

Mondays - pitch target practice. I've got a small target net and a full shag bag, however I need to find a place to practice. My back yard is not ready for use yet. It is still owned by the dogs, but we are taking it back and it should be fully landscaped by fall (fingers are crossed). There are two schools by my house, one, which is closed, has a sign that specifically states "no golf practice" and the other which is open doesn't have a sign, but there are people on campus all the time. I'm going to jog by there tonight and see if there is a secluded corner where I can practice without everyone seeing me. If I can't find a place to practice I might just make this an off day.

Tuesdays - putting practice. There is a muni golf course right by the client I work for on Tuesdays. They don't have a driving range, but they do have a putting green. Putting is my strong suit, but I haven't practiced much lately and the plugged greens I've played on lately have made me lose a little confidence. This should help get it back.

Wednesday - Golf lessons. I haven’t taken a lesson with my regular instructor since last fall. One reason I didn't go during the winter is because I was still trying to fix the last problem we were working on (I keep moving my head on the down swing and hitting it fat). When I saw him at the range last week, I was impressed that he remembered my name. I'm scheduled to see him tomorrow and every Wednesday until the tourney.

Thursday - The BIG driving range. There is a range that is a 20 minute drive that has everything, grass and mats, big pitching area, sand bunker and a great putting green. Every time I go there it takes almost a long as it does to play a round. If I go there just one day a week and limit what I work on, I can cut my time down. Plus I have a buddy that goes here every Tuesday and Thursday. He knows more about golf than I will ever know. He is the sole reason why my short game has been on fire lately. Hopefully more will rub off over time.

Friday - Play golf. I'm so excited that I was able to rearrange my work schedule so I can work 1/2 days on Friday. Last summer I had this schedule and I played a lot of golf on Friday afternoons. The client that I worked with on Fridays was acquired at the end of the year, so my schedule changed. But now I've got a similar setup and can't wait to play this Friday. The best part is there is a great muni course only a few minutes away from the office.

Saturday - Local driving range. It's a much shorter drive than going to the big range, but they only have a range, which is fine for a quick trip. I bought a range card from them a while ago that I've hardly used, so I still have a bunch buckets coming my way. If I get out there early, I can even be home before my wife gets up.

Sunday - Short course. I played the short 9-hole par 3 course last weekend and it really helped rebuild my confidence in my short irons. I even played without tees to make it more like an approach shot which is what I really need to work on. I can also do this early in the morning and be home before my wife gets up. She is not on my case about golf at all. She is actually very tolerant. However, with this schedule I'm practicing every day, so the less interference with our home life the better.

The tourney will be four rounds of golf from May 12-15th. I really want to do well this year and I think this schedule will have me ready in time to do so

Ask and ye shall receive

After 7 weeks of waiting, I finally got my computer back this weekend!!!

I got the call on from the shop on Friday afternoon. I then spent all of Friday night and Saturday morning getting all of my data off of the broken down replacement they gave me. The first problem was how. Since it was a problem with the power cord, I needed to find a way to run the laptop on just battery power. The replacement laptop is a Sony Viao and so is my wife's laptop. They are different models and the batteries are slightly different. The battery from the replacement wouldn't work on my wife's computer; however her battery would work in the replacement. Therefore after charging it several times, I was able to get all of the data so I could return it and get my laptop back.

The first thing I did, after downloading all the Microsoft and virus updates that had piled up, was to update my Poker Tracker software. I kept all of my hand history for the last 7 weeks and I was anxious to see my stats. I took almost two hours to load the data. I feel asleep during the process, so I didn't get a chance to look at the data until the next morning.

As I figured March was a slightly down month, but April is off to a roaring start. My game stats stayed about the same. My VP$IP is between 17-18%. My preflop raise, which is always a problem area for me, is 4.5. My post-flop aggression, which is never a problem, is solid (I don't have the number available right now).

I'm looking forward to analyzing my stats further next weekend. I'll post on this subject once I'm done.

I want my laptop back!

I've been swamped at work lately, so poker, golf & hockey have been on the back burner. However yesterday I was able to get home at a reasonable time and the wife was at school, so it was time to fire up the old clunker in the den and go fishing on Party Poker.

I first saw that PP had started a new high hand jackpot that is not progressive, it just resets to $1,000 each time it is hit. This didn't really interest me as much as the bad beat jackpot, which I've been fortunate to be at the right table twice when it was hit.

So I sat down at a 5/10 table and played while I looked over the tourney tables. I signed up for the $9+1 Super Weekday Qualifier. This is not what I was looking for exactly, but the other option was a turbo tourney and that doesn't work well for my style of play. The 5/10 table was looking good. I won a few big pots including a one where I hit my open ended straight draw on the river to win a $200 pot. That really pissed off the guy I was heads up with after the turn. I put him on two pair and that's what he ended up having. He called me a few chioce names, most were censored by PP, but you got the flavor of what he was intending. I fired right back with nice comments, thanking him and telling how nice he was. He left about 10 hands later. I think he wanted to get into a flame war, but I cut his legs right out by being nice. That's a new one for me, the chatting part that is, not the being nice part. I next to never chat when I play online, but in this case I wanted to mess with this guy. It worked. When I left the table I was up $165.

As for the tourney, I figure my computer cost me about 1000T chips just in missed blinds. I'm not even counting the hands I might have won if I got good cards. I had to restart it 4 times during the 3 hours I played. I didn't get great cards. The one time I got pocket Queens, my preflop raise got no respect, even though I was playing tight and the flop came with an A and a K. With 4 others still in the hand, I had to let it go after someone bet 1/2 pot and another called before it even got to me. Overall, out of 400 players, I was knocked out in 55th place and only the top 22 got seats and 3 other spots got some cash.

I've actually learned a lot these last two tourneys and I'm looking forward to playing more. I think I should be able to place in one very soon. I'm getting a feel for when I can be more aggressive and seeing more spots where I can steal pots. Today and Friday don't look good for poker, so maybe I'll be able to play on Saturday morning, assuming I can't get out and play golf instead.

NHL Playoffs!

It's hockey playoff time! This is my favorite time of the year that is if there was a season. I was able to get through missing the regular season by watching college hockey every Friday night on CSTV. Now that the Frozen Four is over, I don't know where to go to get my fix. I have some old games on tape, but that's just not going to hack it. My buddies are looking to start the old hockey team up again, but that season won't start for at least another 6-7 weeks. I guess I'm just going to have to play more poker and golf until the players and the owners can get their heads out of their respective posterior cavities and come to an agreement. They may be losing money, but I'm the one saving money by not paying for NHL Centre Ice and season tickets to the Sharks. I'm saving even more money not paying for playoff tickets right now.

No really this time.

OK, I know I said I would keep up with this long ignored blog, but really this time. I forced myself to publish old unposted drafts to get things going.

I haven't been playing a lot of poker lately because my laptop is in the shop and the replacement laptop they provided me also broke. Therefore I had to use my old Dell in the den which has a bad habit of freezing up at inopportune moments.

This brings us to Sunday morning. The dogs decided to wake me up before 6am. Usually when they do this I let them out, brew some coffee, feed them and play a tourney on Party Poker. Given my computer situation, I thought this could be interesting.

I found a nice little $5+1 NLHE tourney with 1500 players. For the first few hours, my computer ran like a champ. I actually took the opportunity to restart it durning one of the breaks.

After about four hours, we were down to about 30 players. I was already in the money since top 180 got paid. I was low stacked with around $25,000T and about to hit the blinds which would go up to 4k-8k. With 1 minute left in the break, I decided to open up one of the other tables to observe their play. BAD MOVE! My computer froze right up. The dogs and cats ran out of the room as a flurry of obsentities flew around the den. I quickly hit the reset button hoping to get back before the big blind hit me. From the living room, my wife offered me the use of her laptop which she already had on and does have Party Poker installed (I'll leave that story for another post). For some stupid reason, I said no and waited for my clunker to restart. When I got back, I had missed 8 hands and lost almost half my stack to the blinds. I can't bear to go look at the hand history for those 8 hands. Well, I figured I had to do something before the blinds came back to me, so I went all in with A-x and got knocked out in 25 place. I made a small profit, but the money didn't mean anything. It bugged me getting knocked out for some reason other than how I played (or misplayed) my cards.

This allowed me to get to my main plan for the day, which was planting my butt on the sofa and watching the Masters. I'm a fan of DiMarco especially since he was the lone bright spot for the US in the Ryder Cup. I feel bad for him losing to Tiger, but that was an exciting finish. I figured that the 16th hole would decide the winner. I was right for the wrong reason. That was such a dramtic moment when Tiger chipped in that downhill sideways bender. I had a feeling when the commentator said" he'll be lucky to get inside of DiMarco" that he would hole out. Congrats Tiger on a 4th green jacket and shutting up your critics.