Shirley Rosario Blog

September 2008

September 27
I spent the week playing the step satellites on PokerStars for entry into the LAPT and PCA tournament. I am planning on going to both events regardless, but thought I might be able to win my way into the events rather than forking over the cash. So far, things haven't gone so well. Going into yesterday, I was doing decent and then I bombed 4 of my steps. I currently have one step 5 left for the LAPT event in Costa Rica and hope to make it all the way with it.

Other than playing in the steps, I have spent several days playing live action No Limit at the Bicycle Casino. Even though I haven't had a great week, I enjoyed playing. I always have a good time when Halli is there because we spend a large portion of our time laughing about things. Even if we are good friends away from the table and laugh our asses of while we are at the table, we don't play nice when we are involved in a hand together. As a matter of fact, there have been plenty of times when we have gone head to head. (She doesn't Chop the Blinds and I am usually sitting next to her).

I am not too sure what my plans are for the next week regarding poker. The tournaments at the Bike are going on for the next couple weeks, but they are small buy-ins and are almost all No Limit, so I will probably pass on them.

September 19
I was really looking forward to the Omaha Hi/Low WCOOP event, but it ended up being a total drag. At first, it appeared that my table was pretty solid and it seemed like accumulating chips was going to be a little more difficult than expected. I was totally wrong about my table being solid because they started playing like maniacs. The one hand that comes to mind was when all the players folded to me in the small blind and I called with 34TT. The flop was A76 and I led out with my decent low, pair of tens, the big blind raised and I called. The turn was a deuce giving me the nut low and a pair of tens. I led out again, he raised, I reraised and he capped it. I was pretty certain that he had a better high hand than I did, but thought he was on some kind of draw and I was hoping I would I be able to get him to fold on the river if a blank came. If he was on a straight draw with only a pair of aces, he might (emphasize the word "might") fold. The river was a shitty four and I check called. He turned over A3TJ and ended up getting 3/4 of the pot. I have no clue what he was so excited about on the turn that made him four bet. Did he think his pair of aces was a huge hand in Omaha or was he raising because he loved his live three?

I think I am done with the WCOOP events. There aren't very many more that I am interested in. I considered the 10k HORSE for a short time, but I think I am going to pass on it. I haven't decided about the championship event on Sunday.

Tonight, I am taking a break from poker and celebrating my sister's birthday. We are going to Oktoberfest with our cousin and a few friends. It should be a blast.

September 16
I haven't played as many WCOOP events at PokerStars as I thought I was going to play, but I did squeeze in two over the past week. The first was the HORSE event on Saturday and there isn't too much to talk about regarding that tournament. I played really well except for one hand in Stud where I lost way too many chips and other than that the event was uneventful.

I wasn't planning on playing the Stud 0/8 event, but I woke up yesterday with an itch and registered for it at the last minute. I was surprised at how my game has come along over the past two years and I noticed some things during hands that I would not have noticed a year ago. Combining that with a nice run of cards managed to keep me at the top of the board for quite some time. When we were a few out of the money, I lost a large pot and then I was one of the shorter stacks. I wasn't sure if it was smarter for me to play one reasonable hand and hope to accumulate chips or whether I should sit it out and wait for 3 people to be eliminated. I knew that it was a wise choice to risk bubbling the event if I picked up a monster hand, but that didn't happen. Actually, I wasn't even dealt a playable hand. As soon as the bubble burst, I was dealt pocket kings and played it for all my chips against an opponent who was going for low. He backed into a full house (threes full of deuces) and I was eliminated in 80th place which got me about $800 (a profit of less than $300).

My next event is the Omaha 08 or Better on Thursday afternoon. I won't be missing that one.

September 9
It took me awhile, but I finally realized that Razz puts me on tilt. During the WCOOP, I saw the most atrocious play and many of the horrible players managed to outlast me. On one hand, a guy started with a queen up and hit a jack on fourth against a 7 high board and managed to beat his opponent. This hand was about five minutes into the tournament and kind of set the tone for my table. Numerous times, I had the bring in with a king and all of the players folded to me. I am not complaining about that of course, but I was amazed at the lack of skill on my table.

Now that I set aside the whole day to play the Razz tournament, I have no clue what to do with the extra time in my day. I have so many things to catch up on and I have no idea where to start. This is always a bad thing for me because when I can't make a decision, I usually just say "Fuck it. I will play online poker." While it makes me money, it isn't so good at helping me keep my affairs in order.

September 7
I decided to skip the WCOOP 6-handed NL event on PokerStars and chose to go to the gym instead. I know it seems kind of silly, but it was just something I had to do for myself. I usually go to the gym three days a week (MWF at noon) and meet with my trainer, but I have been traveling so much that I haven't had time to go. In between the World Series, Uruguay, and Cancun, I have only managed to get to the gym a handful of times and I can't make any more excuses. So, if there are any WCOOP events I want to play in over the next two weeks, I will switch my gym days around, but I just couldn't do it on the day I finally decided to commit.

As far as the WCOOP series, I still don't know which ones I will be playing in for sure. I think the Razz event on Tuesday will be my first one. I will make sure to keep my journal updated.

Tonight I am going to a No Limit tournament at Commerce. It is a small buy-in event and is probably a waste of my time, but it is a deep stack event and I think it should be helpful for upcoming tournaments. I don't have the desire to play a lot of No Limit, but I have to make sure I keep my game from getting rusty. I have some big PokerStars events coming up over the next few months starting with Costa Rica in November and then Australia in December.

September 4
My trip to Cancun was fun and relaxing. It was probably a little too relaxing because I have been so laid back over the few days that I didn't even realize I didn't post a journal entry for the first of the month. Oops.

Tomorrow is the start of the WCOOP on PokerStars and I am considering playing in the 6-handed No Limit event, but I am not sure yet. I now I will be playing in the Omaha Hi/Low event and the Razz event for sure and will probably play in at least a few more including the HORSE tournament.