Click Raise

WBCOOP event #1

Click Raise — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:54:19 +0000

7:39 Call me el-busto. Shoved on the big blind with A10c with one late position limper and the small blind limping. Limper calls with 99. I hit my A on the flop, but he turns a 9 to take it down. Good game bloggers. Placed about 450th.

7:37 - Still a little sick to my stomach. Up to 3k in chips when my Q9 hit a Q to beat 44 all in. But the big blind is 200. Gotta shove.

7:34I think I just threw up a little. I lost 11,000 in chips with AQ against 66 when the board came down 663QA. I am hurting with about 1,000 left.

7:27 Ok, this is beautiful. I was in the SB again. It was folded to me again. I limped just like last time with Q 10o. BB checks - again. Flop comes 92Q rainbow. I bet 234, and he raised to 720. I called and the turn was a 4. I checked and he bet 1,080. I start thinking, “wait a minute, I’ve seen this before.” So even though I only have top pair, I figure I am good at least some of the time, and he is folding a good chunk of the time.
But he calls. He has 92, but I hit a Q on the river to suck out and double up.

7:21 - Alright, got my stack up to 6,500ish. I started the hand with about 4,400. I limped after being folded to and the BB checked. I had 67o and the flop came 8 9 10 with two hearts. I bet 234 and he raised o 600. I called and the turn was a 3h. I didn’t put him on a flush because he likely doesn’t raise the flush draw on the flop. I checked, which was probably a poor decision, and he bet 1,200. I shoved and he tanked before folding.

7:11 Picked up AA under the gun, raised to 300 and got called by the guy that won a stack off me before with my AQ. Another player shoved and I called. The original caller folded. The guy who shoved had 10 8 and my AA boosted me up to about 4,200 in chips. Over the chip average. Nice.

7:10 - Just stole some blinds and won a 350 chip pot off another player to boost by stack back up to 2,200 or so. Blinds are at 100/200, so things are going to really heat up now. I’ve only got 20 big blinds, which gives me a little breathing room, but I would like to stay about 20 big blinds. Of course 10 big blinds is the traditional panic zone, but I want to avoid getting that low.

7:04 - I should have gone to take a dump during the break. At least then I would have missed one of the first hands after play resumed and saved myself 750 chips. I called a standard 3x the big blind raise to 240 with AQo from a player in mid position. Flop came 5c Ks 9s. He checked and I bet 567. He min-raised, which I took to mean he had a great hand or completely stinks at poker and doesn’t see the slide bar to increase bet sizes. I folded and am down to 1,538. The fight goes on!

6:55 - Alright, it’s the first break and I’ve got about 2,500 in chips. Below average, but about half way in the chip counts. 1,067 left. Next hour should whittle about half of them away. I plan on winning. Seriously. But then again, I always do.

6:50 Got moved to a new table. There were three people sitting out when I arrived, and they seem like a softer bunch. My raises are getting folded to pre-flop much more often. We are down to about 1,100 players from the original 1,740. 153 of us will get something for our efforts, which is a smaller payout percentage than MTTs generally provide for. That said, it’s a freeroll, so I cant complain.

6:30 - This is generally a much nicer group of people than I am used to seeing on the virtual felt. Lots of “Good luck” and “Wow, nice hand” being thrown around.

6:27 - Called a raise of 5x the big blind with AKc. The under the gun raiser and I went heads-up to the flop, which came 4c7c4d. He bet out 200, and it was an easy call for me. when the Ks hit the turn, he bet 200 again, and I raised to 789. he shoved all in, having me covered. I called off my remaining 1k or so. He had AK as well and I was freerolling to a possible flush, but the river left us splitting the pot. Fair enough I suppose.

6:20 - Took a $678 pot when I hit the nut flush on the river. Had overs the whole way and it looked like he was betting light with top pair or an over pair. He folded to my river bet on river, though.

6:13 - There’s just over 1,700 people playing in today’s tournament. From what I understand they only had about 350 last year. That’s a huge increase, and makes the filed much larger than I had anticipated.

6:05 - Won a $150 pot when my Q7 in the big blind held up against K6 of the small blind. The flop was 7s4s2c. I bet 45 into the $60 pot. A mid-position limper folded and the SB called. We checked down a 3s and 4h. It’s a small pot, but it’s always nice to get chips instead of lose them

6:02 - First hand dealt. Folded AJos under the gun. I wonder what the nerd factor is in this tournament. Over 1,000 people who enjoy writing about online poker. I know where I stand.

5:51 - Alright, the first tournament for the Pokerstars World Blogging Championship of Online Poker starts in 9 minutes. I am also playing the $5 2xrebuy 1 add on tournie, and just busted in a $8.80 MTT (insert bad beat here).

I’ll be live blogging, so check back throughout the the night. Hopefully I’ll last a little ways into it.

Pokerstars WBCOOP starts today

Click Raise — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:51:31 +0000

Quite an acronym, isn’t it? The World Blogger Championship of Online Poker starts this evening on Pokerstars. The tournament series, which lasts all week, is a little different than most poker tournaments. The tournaments are all freerolls, which I haven’t played since my first deposit years ago. There’s not straight cash to be won. Instead, Pokerstars is offering up tickets to play in their Spring Championship of Online Poker, which as huge fields and cash prizes. It should be fun if not mildly profitable. I’ve had two nice tournament runs in the last month or so (not on Stars), so hopefully I can see my modest streak of success continue.

The first event kicks off at 5:00 PM EST. Look for me playing under the screen name ApoclypseWow. I’ll be updating live, so check back here and on twitter, where I can be found at twitter.com/BConoley

WBCOOP here I come!

Click Raise — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:35:03 +0000

Alright, I just got word that Pokerstars accepsted my application for the World Blogging Championship of Online Poker. Some pretty rad prizes for freerolls. Check them out below and follow my progress here. It’s going to be a great ride!

PRIZE STRUCTURE:
1st Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $1,050,
2nd to 9th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215,
10th to 36th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33,
37th to 63rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $16.50,
64th to 153rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $11

The Final begins at 15:00 ET on Sunday 31st of January. The game will be No Limit Hold’em. The Final will award the following prizes:

1st Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $3,150,
2nd to 9th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $2,100,
10th to 36th Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $215,
37th to 63rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $55,
64th to 153rd Place SCOOP Tickets to Value of $22

SPOT PRIZES:

Best Tournament Blogger: SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Tournament Blogger (x3): SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33
Best Tournament Tweeter: SCOOP Tickets to Value of $425
Highly Commended Tournament Tweeter (x3): SCOOP Tickets to Value of $33

Pokerstars blogging championships? Yes please!

Click Raise — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:56:28 +0000

I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can Play Poker Online at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: 952299

50k Challenge Report: Roll = $728.49

Click Raise — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:00:48 +0000

I booked a $8.92 win yesterday. Yup. Slow going. With a few hours to play, I fired up three NLHE tournaments and busted without cashing in all three. With another half to go in the Jets/Bills game, I sat down at a .50/1 LHE table as well as a .25/.5 NLHE table to try to at least recoup my losses.

Biggest hand of the night was playing NLHE when I was dealt KK in the button. 3rd to act raises to 1.50. 4th to act calls. I re-raise to 5. Flop comes 35J rainbow. I bet $8 into the $15.75 pot. Initial raiser folds and other caller re-raises all in for $4 more. I call and he shows 85os. The turn is an 8, giving me a heart attack, but I recover when a river J ships me the pot.

With my roll this low, I expect things to go extremely slowly for a while. Hopefully I can take down a few 90 man or 180 man SNGs to boos myself up and into a higher buyin range.

I’ve also been watching a lot of the Isildur1-driver high stakes games on Full Tilt. While Izzy has lost a ton of money in the last week, he’s still playing the nosebleeds. Meanwhile, Durrrr has moved down to the 300/600 and 400/800 tables. It’s sick to think that we have come to consider that low limit.

Day 1: -$31.90

Click Raise — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:38:37 +0000

So my first day was a bust. Thinking I had some time to play, I fired up three MTTs and three 9-man Sit-n-goes. I didn’t cash in any of them, but was extremely happy with my play. I’m not looking to cry over bad beats, but I did’t get my money in bad on any of my bust hands, save for an all in call with JJ after I had been raising pre-flop for about a half-dozen hands. One player, who I had beaten in a hand earlier via suckout on the turn was upset and shoved with A3 after I raised with JJ. I called and he hit. Fair play.

So yeah, I’m stuck for day 1, but it’s not too bad. I plan on playing some tonight and getting myself back in the positive. I don’t mind having downswings, obviously, but I would like to get off on a positive start.

Current status for the 50K challenge

Click Raise — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:54:45 +0000

Alright, here’s the breakdown for how the 50K challenge is shaping up. I have my roll spread across three sites. I’ll check in daily and update the progress.

Full Tilt: $500

Pokerstars: $123.13

UB: $128.34

Total: $751,47

Not off to a great start | $-500

Click Raise — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:35:11 +0000

My challenge is off to a horrible start. As reported yesterday, I set a goal of turning a $1,000 bankroll into $50,000 by January, 2010. However, before playing a single hand I have found myself with a bankroll cut in half.

This is mostly my mistake. Well, entirely my mistake. As a member of one of the better-known poker forums, I replied in a thread dedicated to player-to-player transfers. I was hoping to get half my roll onto Pokerstars and replied to a thread from a poster with a good reputation and lots of trading experience. As is customary, I made the initial move since I was new to this. After sending this player my $500, I waited for him to return it on Stars.

I’m still waiting.

Chalk it up to a lesson learned. It’s a huge step backwards, but I am still up $500 from the weekend.

I plan on playing some cash games tonight and will report back with results.

New year, new challenges

Click Raise — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:39:09 +0000

Alright, it’s been a quiet year for us over here at ClickRaise. To be honest, we’ve been pretty non-existent since the Spring. We were offered an opportunity early in the year to write our columns through a very popular poker site. However, when the person responsible for bringing us aboard left the site, we were left a little frustrated, which resulted in some down time for the site.

Poker has not been a big part of my life for the past six months. I graduated from law school, entered the workforce, and have been adjusting to regular hours.

However, I am looking to start getting back into things. I booked a 1k win on the weekend and have decided to try to turn it into 50K by the end of the year. For regular players, that would be easy enough. I don’t play too often, so it’s going to be a challenge. But it would feel really nice to get it done.

So please give us a shot and check us out. We’re going to have lots to talk about in the coming days, weeks and months.

The Economy is down. The Poker Economy is….up?

Click Raise — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:01:29 +0000

With the economic downturn of the past few months in full effect, big business is collapsing in upon itself and depending upon government bailouts just to keep on keepin’ on. Even the bankers are having to cut back. While this is obviously a concern for those that are tenuously employed, its an even bigger issue for those of us who are unemployed. Although I like my free time, I don’t relish worrying about where rent is going to come from and the government has long ago cut me loose from any kind of assistance. Fortunately I’ve had poker to keep my house warm.

Stunningly, being able to pay the rent from poker hasn’t always been that reassuring. For one, I’m not exactly a grinder. Playing 25 hours in a week is tons for me, and my girlfriend loves to make sure my hours are limited during peak times (read: weekends). Also, while I think my skills are fine, I’ve had epic downturns and run really bad and tilted like a mofo before. My bankroll isn’t huge to begin with, and when you get it in your head to take a shot at 5-10 NLHE when you normally play .5-1 or 1-2, you’re not leaving a very nice variance cushion. A small run of bad luck can send you scrambling back down to the micro-micro-stakes. Finally, I worry that with family, friends and even enemies losing their jobs, the recreational gambler may just pack up and save money for other things, like, y’know, food.

All this is simply a prelude to my session on Stars this afternoon (a distracted, slightly losing affair) where I noticed that one hundred-and-ninety-seven thousand people and change had fired up PokerStars on a Wednesday afternoon for some action. ALmost 200K on a Wednesday afternoon. Wow. Those aren’t poker pros. Those aren’t grinders (well, obviously some of them are). The poker economy is alive and well!

So I guess concerns about the poker economy are premature. I guess the European poker community is around and online at 3 pm EST. I suppose people will always gamble, even when they’re hurting for money; probably ESPECIALLY when they’re hurting for money. And, of course, on the weekend we can always count on drunk people. Ahhh, beer! Helping the poker economy since cards were invented.