so, i'm playing another 500 sat. We get down to five handed, and it's pretty tough. One player is terrible, folding JJ when he was getting 2-1, etc etc. one guy was very good, the other two pretty good and fair. the fair one was wearing his WSOP bracelet... I'm guessing he won the seniors event or something.

Anway, the bracelet winner open limps in the cut-off (blinds 150-300) and I complete form the sb with 56o. flop 478. i check, bb checks, bracelet winner moves in. I move in behind. he shows 910o. turn J. BTW, that was for about 55% of the chips in play.

So, both 500 sats i've played, i got it all in for more than half the chips in play as a 2-1 favorite (a little more this time) and lost both times. Sigh.

Still, I came back without ever showing a hand and we chopped it three ways. Bracelet winner went out in 4th.

So, i'm no longer getting killed here in vegas and that's nice.

redmanjew LIVES!

OK, yes, redmanjew hasn't spoken in a long long time. Pal and vegas hustler jacksup told me I should rename the blog redmanjew shuts up.

So, I've been in Vegas for a few weeks, and pretty much nothing had gone right. i was out a bunch of money playing limit (my bread and butter), so i started playing 1 table no limit hold em sats (my other bread and butter)...

A few fun hands from the past few days:

Yesterday, early on , i get it all in with 44 against a5 on a 346 board. this would have tripled my stack because there had been lots of people in the hand... turn:5 river: 2. oh well, could have been worse.

today, i finally did well. First hand of a $500 sat, Ep raises to 100 (25-25 blinds, 2k stacks), bunch of callers, i call in the bb with 99. flop: 578. i check, original raiser bets 250, there's a caller. I move in, both fold.

i win a few more hands and get myself up to 5400 in chips. then this hand happens. I raise in LP with kjs. The button calls. flop: KJ10, 2 diamonds. i bet 70% or so of the pot, button calls. turn is the 7 of diamonds. i check, button bets 2/3 of the pot (around 1100)... i think the hand through, get a read, and move in. He calls with AK and the king of diamonds. I look away and am told that an ace hits on the river. Had I won (i was about 2:1 to win) I would have had almost half the chips in play. I still have about 1700 and the blinds are 50-100 at that point.

A guy two to my right keeps raising 6xbb, so whenever I have a hand I move in... he always folds. it was a great way to chip up. i have reraised all in several times when this hand came up:

the guy with all the chips raises to 600 (100-200 blinds), next guy calls... i move in from the BB with KK. raiser folds, next guy thinks for a while, eventually puts in his last 1700 or so. he says, i guess I need trips and I figure him for 77 or something. he turns over KcQd.

flop: 3c 7d 2c

Turn is literally the worst possible card for me: Qc. I look away. as the river comes out, i hear someone at the table yell "oh my god!" and the guy next to me looks at me and says, "sorry, man."

turns out they were fucking around and the Kings held up. Then i had a lot of chips... an d it eventually came down to me and the guy who spiked the ace oin the river. he had about 70% of the chips in play... we made a deal where I got 40% of the prize pool and we both were happy.

I decided to play one more sat. this time it was a $300. a few interesting things: ep limps, i raise in mp with KQs (blinds were probably 100-200) and the woman behind me calls. The limper moves in and I count the pot, realize I am getting 2:1 and say to the table, "this sucks. i call." I only have 400 chips left. Woman behind me folds. Limper turns over QQ.

flop: K 10 6. i win, and two people at the table then say they folded a king. Little case king action baby. suddenly I have a lot of chips.

One other interesting hand: 4 handed, 150-300 blinds. Button raises to 900 or so, i move in for about 3.5k w AJo from the BB. Button thinks for a long time. As i sit there, i think there's probably only one hand she's thinking so long with. finally she says, "okay, i'll let you steal this from me" and tables AQ. "Wow." i say out loud, and collect the chips. i tell her she made a great fold, and no one else probably could have folded that etc. etc.

Anyway, i was in on a chop on that table too, so i won back a fair amount of my losses for the trip today. so that's good.

I will say this: i am super comfortable playing these one tables. i kind of began to hate limit, which is why i started playing the sats, and have enjoyed them, even though i hadn't cashed until today... in all five sats i've played, i've had chips. I've doubled my stack in all but one of them, and in that one, i moved in with A9 with 2900 (150-300) from the button, got called by the sb for almost all of his chips and was ahead pre flop! I didn't win the hand, but wow... After he called, i said: Do you have an ace? he said no. I said, "Do you have a pair?" he said no. I would have been CL had I won that hand, so it's hard to complain about that one...

Anyway, who knows... maybe I'll be badgered into making another post soon.

(Super) nova? check.

Well, I did it.

It's been a brutal few days, but I am now a super nova. so, that's something. The games have become pretty good again. but the suckouts have been exceptional, and I am dropping cash over the last three days at a clip that is not pleasing. That said, if the games continue to be this good, it's a near certainty that I'll make it all back and then some.

Dear pokerjl,

Congratulations! You have achieved the "Supernova".

We invite you to learn about your many new PokerStars VIP privileges by
visiting http://www.pokerstars.com/vip/supernova/

Sincerely,

PokerStars Team.

moving along...

Been sticking with the plan and playing 80 min of so of oinline poker a day... as of now, I am 7.3K vpp away from becoming a supernova...
so, I should be one of those by next week sometime. Yay...

I recently started to exercise a little game selection... I used to always just play in whatever game was available... but now I look at the stats of the games to see which is the best and am willing to wait a bit before I play. I think this has helped my bottom line as I am definitely up against worse players than I had been up against.

Also, I started playing on FTP a bit more because the games are juicier there...

went to the Borgata a week ago, dropped 750 over 3 days... the last hand I played I lost a 900 pot when the card that made my flush made another guy's full house. not complaining (he had me beat all the way), just aware how the turn of a card can, in the short term, be the difference between a winning and losing trip.

Onward!

So, things continue to go well in the quest for supernova status. I seem to win for three days, then give a lot back on the fourth day. but that said, I'm at my high point for the year right now, so that's something. I now have almost 71K vpps. I've done 40K vpp in 47 days... I only have to do 29k in the last 88 days to get there. Of course, my goals have been raised now. I want to do enough vpp that PS gives me a WSOP Main Event package for next summer. I've run some spreadsheets, and it's totally doable.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 6785010

stars update

Ok, so last time i posted, I said I was going for being a stars supernova by the end of the year. I had, at that point, 30.7K VPP and needed to reach 100K VPP by the end of the year to get there.

It's still early days, but things are going well... I am up to 51.3K VPP in 25 days of play. I am at the point where I just need to do 450 VPP a day to get there, and I can knock that out in 60-90 min.

The games are good, but my bankroll has been all over the place. I only had about 2k in PS just before I started all this, got it up to 4k, watched it fall to about 1800, and now it's back to 3600. I have earned $810 in fpp during my play too, so overall, it's been good. While it's been a rough year poker wise, this is my current high point. While I feel I've run a little poorly, overall, the online games are not like they used to be... they are tougher for sure.

back on the stars horse...

So, back at the beginning of the year I decided I was going to be a pokerstars supernova. Then I started running bad, got disgusted, and let it go completely.

lately I've been playing almost every day and taking poker seriously again. I've been playing PS this month and noticed I had become a goldstar (which is on their frequent player bonuses, it's a medium level designation.) I found myself interested to see if I could make platinumstar by the end of the month (you have to do it in a month or start over the next month.)

I'm well on my way to Platinum, and I've started to think about bigger and better things.

First thought: Boy, at this pace, if I had played more, I would have become a supernova easily.
2nd thought: I'll do it next year!
3rd thought: Shit. The supernovas are calculated over a calendar year, so I begin the year at zero (unless I already am a supernova)... so I won't reap the benefits of it until I achieve the whole enchilada, which will take at least 6 or seven months.
4th thought: Could I just achieve the status this year? If I did, then I would get all the good stuff starting January 1st! hmmmm.

So, I have a fair amount of work ahead of me to pull it off. but it's definitely doable. I'm less than a third of the way there, and have about a third of a year to get there. I've run the numbers and think I should be able to knock it out if I play 10 hours a week 4- tabling shorthanded games. That doesn't seem like a lot to me these days... I've definitely been playing a lot more than that, although mostly full tables, which move slower and are a bit more suited to my style... I might play full tables instead... we'll see.

either way, I'm back to going for it. It's fun to have a goal.