Updates & Trip Report - Celebrity cruise from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean islands

It's been awhile since the last post.  First, a few updates:

• Life is going well.  I continue to excel in school, with 5 classes now under my belt in pursuit of my MBA at Johns Hopkins.  Last semester was one of the more useful classes, Corporate Finance.  Net Present Value (NPV), Future Value (FV), Free Cash Flows (FCF), NPV of annuities, etc. was very useful.  I'm in fact using it to value investments I'm considering in the form of purchasing real estate in the Univ. of Maryland / College Park area.
• Segue to the investments.  I'm considering purchasing a small condo in the College Park area as I alluded to above.  The price is fairly cheap, but getting a loan for an investment property is apparently incredibly difficult.  I'm running into funding issues.  Moreover, it seems that even though 25% down is required for the loan, investment purchases in Prince George's County, where College Park is located, require quite a bit of up-front escrows in the form of taxes.  I'm looking at about 25% + ~15% in closing costs alone.  I was considering partnering with my brother-in-law, but I think he's uncomfortable with the net cash requirements.  Anyone out there know how to get real estate investment loans?  Any suggestions for contacts?
• I've been toying with the idea of starting an investing blog.  It would be nice to have a place where I can convey my thoughts about ideas I have for investments.  I have been on somewhat of a buying binge (since February), when I was able to roll out prior 401(k) moneys that had been rolled into my current job's 401(k) when I joined my current company.  I've purchased a few companies, and have done well thus far: MAKO Surgical (MAKO) @ $36.21 & $35.58, Corning (GLW) @ $12.95 & $13.53, Jinpan International (JST) @ $8.42, Microsoft (MSFT) @ $30.21 & New York Community Bancorp (NYB) @ $13.23.  Would love to go into my rationales for purchases, but am happy I'm up around 8% collectively.  Problem I have is that the S&P500 is up ~6.9% over the same period...  are my returns simply beta from the market?  I'm confident in my investments, but I'm never sure as to how to properly measure them.
• Bodog / Bovada is shutting down its business to residents of Maryland.  No big loss here; I wasn't playing all that often since they stopped publishing names of players.  However, this leaves me without an online poker home.  Any suggestions for U.S. facing sites that I could deposit?

Celebrity cruise trip report:
I got back from a cruise with my wife, originating from San Juan and hitting: St. Croix, U.S.V.I., St. Kitts, Dominica, Grenada, St. Thomas, and back to San Juan, Puerto Rico.  It was a fun time - beautiful ship, the "Summit" - and they naturally had a poker table.  It seems that every ship I've been on has at least one table, and this ship did not disappoint.  The table was a PokerMate table consisting of 8 player seats with 8x ~17" 4:3 touchscreen displays, coupled with a ~30"16:9 display in the center to show bets, community cards, blinds, etc.
I've played on this type of table prior, and the interface remained identical.  Once you get the hang of protecting your hole cards by pressing in a location on the screen, it is similar to playing online poker with the exception that your opponents are sitting in front of you.  You can set up preferences for you session (i.e. auto-muck, auto-post, etc.), and change languages.  Other than that, the game plays like a regular poker game - bet / fold / raise / etc.
The play was ridiculously soft; I would love to be trapped on a ship with these turkeys as my captive audience.  Besides the one other player who knew what he was doing, the rest of the players fell into two types: ones that were happy to take gambles for the entire stacks with any pair and others who would meekly fold to significant action.  Figuring out each player type was fairly easy, and it became as simple as waiting for a hand to stack the calling station types (who would call all manners of pre-flop bets as well - didn't matter whether I 3-bet or initially raised big), or pre-flop raise the meek who would usually call and fold to a cbet.
The primary problem with the poker on board the ship, though, was the arduous task of getting enough players for a game in the first place.  I refused to play the sit-n-gos that they scheduled (twice nightly, but at inconvenient times - during dinner and the show), so I was relegated to cash games.  Gathering up enough players at the right time was such an ordeal that I played a total of 3 one-hour sessions before the game broke up.  The first session, I ran poorly and dumped ~$70, but the next two I would wind up winning for $170, making my 3 hour poker foray a profitable one.
The secondary problem with the poker on board was the rake.  It is a miracle that I beat the rake, a hefty 10% up to $15!  Highway robbery, anyone?  I get that the Celebrity Cruise Line needs to make their nut, but come on - you want games to play, so why not encourage them?
The nicest part about the tables, in addition to the personality of each player who, by the way, were in vacation mode and super happy to be gambling, was that the casino would offer us a round of drinks whenever we got a cash game together.  At least "some" money was "rebated" back to us.


At any rate, I have a quick hand history for you:
$200 effective stacks around.
EP raiser who was semi-loose / solid raises to $6 which was fairly customary for the table.  MP (loose / bad player) flats and LP (tight / bad player) flats around to me with AKo.  I jack it up to $25 which folds the blinds and gets EP to flat, along with MP and LP.
Flop comes a very coordinated 4♣ 5♣ 6♣ - all clubs - giving me the nut flush draw holding the A♣Kx.  Checks around to me and I lead into the big pot with $40.  I get instantly check/raised from EP to around $80, with MP flatting and LP flatting.  I'm getting GREAT odds and sit there for a minute to figure things out.  While I'm contemplating my move (which skews heavily towards a shove for my remaining ~$160), MP shakes his head and says, "you're not going to believe this."

What would you do?

Click to see results

I folded my cards. I couldn't imagine any scenario where I was ahead, and had huge floating visions of straight flush, once the loose / bad MP started yammering. I knew that I was beat by the EP at the moment; was pretty sure he flopped a set (solid though straightforward player as he is). I had no clue what LP was doing in the hand, but my main concern was EP... Why are EP & LP flatting to a check-raise instead of getting it in? Things were not adding up for me, and I conceded that even though I'm getting great odds, I have to fold here. The turn, natch, was a club and the river a blank, netting me the nut flush. However, on the reveal, EP shows a set of 5's, LP shows a Q high flush (Q♣Qx - no preflop 3bet / 4bet / etc.) and MP shows ... 7♣ 8♣ for the flopped straight flush and the sweet triple up. Needless to say, I was patting myself on the back. Probably the only time I've folded for a read of a straight flush.

Quick follow-on: same player who called my 3bet would sit down 2 nights later with ~$100 and go broke on the third hand of that night to weird action he called my $8 PF raise with A2 vs. my KQ on the button.  The flop was 2 x Q - an EP caller led $10, he flatted, I raised to $30, EP folds, he raises to $60 and I shove (he calls).  See what I mean?  Bad players abound...

The HU beats sting just as bad as the FR beats...

I hate not having a HH converter...  Stupid Bodog / Bovada.  Here is a link to the hand if you care to laugh at me.

Yup... Heads-up is pretty cool

I wish I could capture a few hand histories, but wow...  there are such polarizing players in heads-up play.  To my experience (limited to 4 days), I've taken note of three types of players: the solid, well-rounded hand reader, the gambler, and the tilter.

• The solid, well-rounded hand reader
  Buys in full, 100BB.  Tops off his stack whenever he falls below the 80BB threshold.  Can fold and raise his button, and absolutely folds his blinds to raises.  His range is somewhat predictable meaning that it will take somewhat of a cooler to stack him.  He is capable of calling with Ace high if the situation warrants.  Raises his button about 66% of the time.
• The gambler
  Buys in for 25-50BB.  Plays any two cards.  Primarily relies on getting lucky and calling down whenever he hits any piece of the board.  Once he gets stacked, he's done.  If he's on the doubling end, he's gone as well, happy to take his double-up.  Rarely raises, bets only when he has top pair.  Loves to min bet (WTF is with that!?!??!).
• The tilter
  More rare but very lucrative.  This player is similar to the gambler in his buy-in habits and pre-flop ranges.  However, he'll continuously rebuy for his standard 25-50BB and look out if he gets stacked back-to-back!  For example, I had a guy who I was pretty sure went through his entire bankroll last night.  He bought in twice for 35BB and then rebought for the nice round number of $17.94 at a 25NL table.  Pretty sure I busted his roll.

I'm currently playing with ranges and gaming the game.  For example, since Bodog / Bovada has anonymous tables, does it make sense to try to steal blinds at the higher stakes?  In other words, if I sit & wait for a player and raise his blind (getting him to fold), if I drop the table afterwards, is it profitable?  Not saying that this is acting in good faith because it isn't, but how long before people start doing that on Bodog / Bovada?  Why shouldn't it be me?

As an aside, Bodog is offering $15-$30 per week as part of their Cash Per Suit promotion for the next month.  Play 25 points for 4 out of 7 days and make $25.  Play 25 points for 7 out of 7 days and make $30.  Seems to me that the 4 out of 7 days sequence makes the most sense.

Look for me on the tables!  I'm "Player 1."

Figuring it all out... A change in games within the Bodog structure

For the past 2 months, I've been dealing with the stupid changes that Bodog / Bovada made to their poker tables - primarily making the player names anonymous.  To me, as a grinder, that is the stupidest move they could have made; it makes the action at a full ring table simply impossible to follow.  How can I possibly keep track of whether player 4 got up and a new player 4 is sitting in his place?  I need to be placing my full focus on that particular window in order to have a chance of noticing - and probably not be involved in a hand at the time.  Expand that to the maximum 4 tables that Bodog allows, and keep tabs on players coming & going becomes very difficult at best.

From a business perspective, I can understand why Bodog has done what they have done.  Simply put, poker is less profitable to them than Blackjack or slots.  When you have an online casino which offers the full gamut of games, you don't want your gambler's money on the poker table where the casino becomes a partner with the winning poker players, taking a rake instead of outright taking the gambler's money.  You want that gambler sitting at a Blackjack table, or a Roulette table, losing their money directly to the house.  The question I ask myself, though, is why wouldn't Bodog / vada shut down their poker altogether?

Regardless, in dealing with the frustration of no longer being able to play full ring poker under anonymous circumstances, I've thrown in the towel on online poker.  I don't want to join Black Chip Poker, or some other third-rate site; I already have money on a third-rate site where I'm comfortable getting money off (they pay out immediately, and conveniently).  My understanding of the post-Black Friday poker world is the withdrawals have gotten far more difficult than even pre-Black Friday, with some players going to the extent of trading 80 to 90 cents on the dollar in order to get their money off those sites.  To grind online with an immediate 10 - 20% deficit like that, in addition to the cloud of DOJ looming at any minute, I'll take my chances with Bodog.

Back to the point of the article, though: changing my game.  I've thought long & hard about the solution to my inability to follow full ring games with anonymous players, and come to the decision that heads-up poker makes the most sense for me.  I'm not putting in hours like I used to - I have my graduate school to contend with now - but when I do, I can easily and quickly follow the action when I only have to deal with a handful of players.  I put in a few hours over the weekend and have had positive results at 25NL.  Either I'm incredibly lucky, or the players there have no idea about pre-flop hand ranges or when to play for stacks.  I've been coolered once, with a flush over flush, and sucked out on once to a chop, but other than that, I've been DOMINATING the play.  Playing against a single player, I'm able to focus on their play, and immediately notice a sit out or stand up.

The only problem I'm seeing now is the wait for a game to start and the high rake.  Basically, I have to sit down at an empty table and wait for a player.  Sometimes this can take 5 minutes.  The rake is quite costly as well - I think Bodog takes full rake from the heads-up tables.  However, in the appox. 2 hours of play that I've put in, I'm up about 3 buy-ins.  I expect it to continue.

Flopped straight flush

It's been awhile since I caught one of these.  I think I should lead the flop here, given the turn action.  However, I get an okay payout for the stone cold nuts...

Bodog $0.50/$1.00 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $89.00
BTN: $39.85
SB: $73.80
BB: $100.00
UTG: $43.20
UTG+1: $96.50
UTG+2: $98.50
Hero (MP1): $113.15
MP2: $117.50

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is MP1 with 6s 8s
3 folds, Hero raises to $3.00, 1 fold, CO calls $3, 3 folds

Flop: ($7.50) 5s 7s 9s (2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks

Turn: ($7.50) 4h (2 players)
Hero bets $4.50, CO raises to $12.00, Hero raises to $20.00, CO calls $8
Assuming he has a set or As; I should have led flop.

River: ($47.50) 4d (2 players)
Hero bets $30.00, CO folds

Final Pot: $47.50
Hero mucks 6s 8s
Hero wins $45.15
(Rake: $2.35)

What I've been up to lately - Bodog, MBA's (Legality of online poker) and life

Long time, no post!  This blog used to be primarily about hand histories, though with US poker going dark, I've been playing less frequently, and far less volume.  It used to be where I'd get into 1-2 sticky situations per night, but now, actions seem far more clear, and with the reduced volume, I'm able to focus on each individual decision.  Poker seems to be a continual treadmill; up & down, up & down...  Move up when the roll gets sizable to support the next buy-in level, and then cash out at the end of the month.

Bodog

I currently 4-table on Bodog, keeping my bankroll to a minimum (8-12 buy-ins @ 25NL), which is a $$$ amount I am comfortable with losing, should the DOJ decide to seize Bodog's assets.  In reality, it is not a truly cost effective use of my time.  I should be playing 50 or 100NL, but I simply don't want to keep an amount online that would be sufficient for those stakes.  Alas, I have to settle for the 25NL donks, which can be both tremendously profitable, and terribly frustrating.  Overall, though, it's profitable.

MBA

I have completed my first two classes of my MBA program: Financial Accounting & Business Communications.  Accounting was ridiculously difficult; just like engineering, there are a set of rules for proper accounting standards.  However, the rules seem counter-intuitive to natural math.  For example, the notion of credits and debits to T-accounts (basically a means of tracking transactions between accounts) are different for assets and liabilities.  There is no notion of +/-; a liability is net positive, just the same as an asset, though a credit to an asset account means the opposite of a credit to a debit account.  Very confusing, and seemingly anti-engineering.  Whatever.

As difficult as accounting was (we went through, chapter-to-chapter, 700 pages, from the aforementioned T-accounts to derivatives and bonds (i.e. present value of future cash flow, etc.) in about 8 weeks), Business Communications was the inverse.  It was ridiculously soft; 3 papers: 2 3-page, and 1 10-pager, a group presentation, and an individual presentation to discuss the 10-page paper's findings.  My topic of choice: Legalization of online poker.  I am going to post my papers and presentation if anyone is interested.

Click this link for the papers.

I started my post-graduate college career with 2 A's.  That's like pulling off a successful check-raise against a nit!  Booyah!  I was also confronted with my first return on the MBA investment: one of my classmates has essentially offered me a job.  Pretty sure I'm not going to take it, but it's very cool nevertheless.

Life

I've been crazy busy with work & school, that life seems to be flying by.  I've had little time to myself, and that which I've had, I've been spending with my family.  It's fun watching my 3 children grow into individuals.  My 8 year old is really getting into reading and becoming quite the bookworm.  He's into Pokemon as well, which annoys me, but it gives him some exposure to games and strategy.  My 6 year old is learning to read, and seems to take to it a bit slower than the 8 year old was at her age, but it's coming along.  She is really into gymnastics and music; perhaps she'll be the artist in the family.  Finally, my 4 year old is learning her letters and numbers.  I think she's going to be very smart.  She does not know how to shut her mouth, ever.  The ongoing joke is how do we know when she's awake?  She's moving her mouth.

I went to Hollywood Casino at Charles Town, WV, last Thursday.  I think I'm done with that place.  It is stupid, but I run absolutely terribly there.  Simply unbelievably bad.  I win *EVERYWHERE* else I play, but I cannot seem to win in my home casino.  It's a shame, too, because CTown is only 45 minutes away.  I'm just frustrated that I sit at a table full of donkeys and cannot hit a single hand - for what was 4 hours on Thursday, added to the prior 10-12 hours worth of sessions that I put in.  Collectively, in those 16+ hours, I've seen KK twice and AK twice.  I may have seen QQ once.  To make matters even worse, I'm folding the trash hands and even decent hands, and none of those hands ever hit regardless.  It's not like I'm hitting hands that I folded, I'm simply not hitting ANYTHING.  It's amazing, too, because when I was out in California a few weeks ago, in the few hours I was there, I hit my hands and got paid MAJORLY.  Why can't I run half-way normal at home, like I do ANYWHERE else?!?!?!?  WTF?

That's all.

Review of Bodog & IdleMiner

Following up on my min cash at the Bodog 100K guarantee on Sunday, after putting in my 200 points at Full Tilt, I decided to open up a Bodog client and put in a little volume.  The kind folks at Bodog are running a $2500 Freeroll for putting in 150 points between July 15th and August 15th.  Freeroll notwithstanding, I wanted to get a better feel for the cash games on that site.

Setup

As a quick background, the Bodog hand history log is non-existent.  In other words, HEM cannot read Bodog hand histories.  If you want to use a HUD such as HEM, you must get third party software.  In my case, the good folks at IdleMiner were able to walk me through setup of their software, which was as simple as could be.  Upon downloading the software and double-clicking it, the install process was painless through the install wizard.  Next, I had to point HEM to the output directory where Bodog Hand Grabber would output the hand histories.  Once running, all I had to click was "On" to turn it on and begin processing.

Typical Bodog Hand Grabber screenshot

Anyway, as I was greeted by the lobby upon logging in, I realized that the lobby is not nearly as user-friendly as PokerStars or Full Tilt.  Clearly, this is not a top tier site, although the lobby is usable.  It displays all cash games available, from all stakes and game types.  I can filter on Holdem, Omaha, etc., but while filtered on Holdem, I can see HU, 6 max, and my standard Full Ring (9 person) tables.  Not cool; all I want to play is $25NL given my [smallish] bankroll.  After finding the 25NL tables, I was able to find an open seat and sit down immediately.

Quick FYI: There were approx. 8 tables running with varying amounts of players for this past Monday night.  The 50NL tables, all 4 of them, were full for the majority of the night.  Clearly, this site does not have the volume of a larger network, which, in all likelihood, is fine.

After sitting down, I was forced, once again, to resize my table to an appropriate size.  Apparently, the Bodog client has no memory of prior window size settings.  Another note of interest is the fact that the Bodog client does not remember that I chose to "Wait for Big Blind" last time I played, so for the casual player, he will be automatically bought into the next hand by posting his blind out of turn from all positions.  I quickly caught this issue and checked the box to wait until the BB position, while opening up other tables.

Quick FYI: Apparently, the Bodog software only allows a maximum 4 tables to be open at any given time.  I called the Bodog support team twice last night, to be given the same answer: *ALL* users can open no more than 4 windows.  This is a limitation imposed by Bodog due to prior complaints of their customers.  WTF?  So they don't want me to put in more volume AND fill seats at more tables?!??!?!  I am more than comfortable with 9 tables!  Let me open more tables than a pedestrian 4!

One by one, as I opened up my 4 tables and resized them to fit my needs (there is no auto-tile or auto-cascade function), I realized that my HUD was popping up on all of the tables, even prior to being dealt into a hand.  I realized that the IdleMiner Bodog Hand Grabber was already doing what it does best; grab hands.  Apparently, I don't need to be dealt into hands in order to use the software, unlike the big sites!  Basically, my client could act as a PTR and grab hands all day, spying on my opponents' tendencies when I'm not physically present at the tables!  How cool is that?

The play
Holy cow! I had a brief time to play at the 50NL tables on Sunday night, and was card dead, so I did not get a real feel for the player base.  However, I gave it a real shot last night and was pleasantly surprised at the level of donkishness.  There were 3+ people at my tables, running a 60/10 style play who *LOVED* to see flops and fold to cbets.  Any PF 3bets were met with INSTAFOLDS.  It was as if I was taken to a place where I knew the future and these players had no idea what a 3bet or steal was!  For the most part, in my 200+ hands last night, I *RAN* over the table, backed up the car, and ran it over again.

These players were loose PF, and totally scared money post flop!  It was amazing.  And when they called, I knew my bottom pair was no good, so I check down to see their TPTK, sets, etc.  If they got aggressive, folding was really easy.  Talk about readable players.  I simply could not believe how behind-the-times these players were.  No clue about board textures.  No clue about hand strengths.  No clue about appropriate spots to bluff.

In all of the hands I played, I was taken for an extra $6.50 when I bet my flopped TP into a 2 spade board and got a call.  The turn was another spade which was checked through, and I finally led the non-spade river and was min check-raised for my $3.25 bet to be shown the turned flush.  Fancy play, pal!

Conclusion
All told, I took more than a buy-in in a very small sampling of hands.  I was poking around and took a look at their weekday guarantee tournaments... it seems that they perpetually run an overlay on everything!  As I build my bankroll, I *WILL* be taking shots at the larger tourneys.  Too bad that they don't have satellites to qualify for those tourneys - or at least I couldn't figure out how to see the satellites...

Anyway, for those interested, definitely check out IdleMiner for the hand grabber support, download the Bodog client, and attempt to make a deposit - which is likely the hardest part.  If you're successful, you likely won't regret it.

Good luck!

Back to my roots - a min cash at the $100K on Bodog - 2010-08-01 recap

I can't let PokerGrump take all of the money on Bodog's overlaid tournaments.  I've been looking for awhile to [re-]start a bankroll there; it was Bodog that started my online poker addiction career.  Back in March of 2007, I had deposited $50 and was able to play with it for 6-8 months before going busto.  After busto, the credit card companies denied new deposits and I sort of gave up on Bodog.  Well, a few months ago, they sent me an email offering me $10 free in casino chips to try out there casino with the catch that I had to place 100 bets in order to request a check / use the money in other areas of their system (i.e. poker).  I was able to convert the $10 to a $15 bankroll, and immediately proceeded to donk it off at the .02/.05 poker tables.  Crappy, yes, but oh well - it doesn't feel good to lose your puny BR at the micro stakes :-(.  I then tried to swap money with a fellow blogger, but Bodog doesn't allow player to player transfers.  Long story short: I gave up.

Fast forward to 4 days ago and you can imagine my surprise when I got an email from Bodog offering me a complimentary $215 + $12 ticket to their $100K Guaranteed tournament.  It's interesting that they offer me $10 in gambling casino chips, and now offer me a $227 tournament entry(?!?!).  I'd take the cash any day of the week, but whatever.  I'll take a shot.  After checking it out with the wife, I registered and waited for Sunday 4pm to roll around so that I can take my shot at getting a real bankroll.  Quick aside: I had read previously that Bodog's player base was very weak, so I see an opportunity there, if only I can get a bankroll where I can sustain the ups & downs.  Starting out, my goal for the tournament [obviously] was to win the thing; the structure was such that first prize would get 25% of the $100K.  However, as a default position, I wanted to do no less than min cash, thus giving me the bankroll I desired.  A min cash would work out to .3% - $300 for 63rd place.

As I said, the tournament started at 4pm, though I didn't really get serious about it until 6:00PM - my stack was up & down, and the play was proven to be absolutely atrocious.  If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know that I'm a 98% cash player; I'm not sure whether this is standard for $227 Sunday majors tournaments.  For example, people were putting stacks on the line post-flop with AK high, or calling all-ins with gutshot draws (and they all seemed to be hitting & sucking out).  I knew if I got a hand or two, I would be able to at least cash this sucker.

WARNING: No hand converters, so HH suck!  I'm going to try to detail most hands, but I'm kinda lazy!

Early, I wound up doubling through a flush draw against my flopped boat...  the players were chatting "vnh," "nh," etc...  Really?  I'm playing like 10% of my hands and I call all-in and you think I played it well?

Anyway, I'm sitting on a mid stack at around 6:50PM when the following comes up:

ThTs in SB with 300/600 blinds & 60 antes.  I'm sitting on a short 17K stack and donk is sitting on 25K.  This is a pretty dicey situation, as I can seriously hurt donk's stack if he loses, but I will absolutely go out of the tourney if I lose...  Donk raises to 1325 from BTN; he'd been stealing and very active.  I re-pop him (first time I'd 3 bet) to 5K.  That's a pretty good indication that I'm not going to fold when I have 1/3 of my stack in there already.  He 4bets me to 15K and I ship for the last 2K.  He shows up with AcKd so we're off to the races.  Now, as I said earlier, I'm not a tourney pro by ANY stretch, but against a tight opponent, if you're the donk, aren't you flatting against my FIRST 3 bet?  At best, you're 50/50, and at worst you're FAR behind.  I have to imagine I'm flatting there...  Anyway, I fade a 9 2 J Q 2 board to win a huge (relative) pot.

From that point on, I had garbage on top of garbage, and my table consisted of 3 of the top 10 big stacks with 120 runners left...  I sat in 27th place, FYI, after the hand.  When I mean garbage, this kinda crap was typical:

The sum total of runners was 593 players, leaving a nice overlay to the tournament that was free to begin with :-).  For the next few hours, I had to sit idly watching big stacks battle each other and throw all in with gambles -  it’s to the point where it’s humorous.  The play here is simply atrocious.  They're 100BB+ deep and getting all in PF with AK vs. 55 or whatever...  I’ve stolen a few times, but haven’t had the gall to re-steal against those stealing on me.  BTW, I hate the fact that I can’t get a HUD with Bodog tournaments.

I work up the courage to start opening my game, because I'm not getting any traction...  I steal in early position with the best hand I've seen since the TT hand (30 minutes ago):

And it works!  I move up to 25th place!

3 minutes later, I get involved with a really weird hand with a player who had been incredibly active - raising nearly every hand.  The quick of it is that I have 34K to his 57.5K stack.  Antes are 500/1K & blinds are 100.  I am dealt Ah2h in SB (once again) and decide to defend his EP raise to 3K.  We see a flop of Kc4cAc.  I check call a bet of 6K, leaving me 25K.  The next card is a Kh and we check through the turn.  Finally, Js is dealt on the river and I check to weirdo who leads for 19.9K(!!!?!??!?!?).  Given his check through the turn, I have trouble buying that he has an Ace or King - he's polarized to monsters / air.  [I probably shouldn't have] but I check / raise all in for the remaining 25K and he SNAP folds... I mean so fast he didn't even wait for my bet to hit the table...  Just weird, but I win a 60K pot!  I am now in 4th place out of 110 runners!  With the blinds and bubble approaching, stacks are moving fast.

I [unsuccessfully] try opening my game up but fail miserably.  After chipping down a bit, I steal with A8o and get into a little mix with a big stack:

I have 49K and big stack has 73.5K... 500/1000 blinds and 100 antes still.  It's 7:30PM. (WHEW!  A lot happened in a short amount of time!)  I am dealt A9o in the UT+1 and raise 3.5K where big stack calls in the BB.  Flop is 2c7h6c and we check through.  The turn is Ks and I lead for 6K and illicit a fold, taking a decent pot.

Then, I get involved in a 3-way pot which was somewhat of a cooler (600/1200 blinds and 120 antes):
I have Ah4h and call in EP for 1200.  CO calls as well, but BTN short stack open shoves 7.6K.  I flat and BTN flats behind.  I considered raising there, but I wanted to keep it light with BTN because he's sitting on 78.5K vs. my 46K.  Flop comes 4s9s6c and I lead 8400 and get a call from BTN.  Turn is a beauty: Ac.  Since the pot is now well above my stack (41K), I bet 22K hoping for commitment but he folds.  The BTN has 4c4d for the flopped set - CRAP so I wind up breaking even on the hand with a $17K side pot win.

7:40PM: I'm in 26th place out of 84 left.  63 paying!

7:45PM: I lose a decent pot where I whiff entirely.  Starting stack of 42K and ending stack of 34K.

7:47PM: The poker Gods love me!  If I had been thinking about this, I should have flatted, but whatever:
I have AcKc in UTG+1 and a 27.5K stack vs. my very active player's EP1 27.5K stack.  Blinds are still 600/1200 with 120 antes.  I raise to 3.6K and am 3bet to 10.8K.  Folds around to me where I shove the remaining 24K and am called to see QcQd - a race.

Ace in the window and I'm back in solid footing.  20th place with 77 remaining.  14 more until the money and I start folding my way into the money.  Remember: I want to get a bankroll, first & foremost, but I would love to take this sucker down.

After 13 more minutes of nothing-ness, I blind down as we break at 8:00PM and I sit in 39th place after having lost a 44 vs. QQ 13.5K pot.  66 remain and the money jumps from a min cash of $300 to $600 at 27th place.  Since there is such a gap and delay between money jumps, once we’re in the money, my plan is to start getting aggressive.  I’m hoping for 3 quick bust outs immediately following the break so that I can start aggro-ing it up.  I'm already getting flack from my wife because she has taken the kids out to dinner without me.  It sucks being tied to the computer this late at night, but the tournament started at 4:00PM…  4 HOURS of poker straight!  My donk-cash game playing self isn't used to playing 1 table, 4 hours.  Earlier, to begin the tournament, I was 3 tabling on my Full Tilt account while playing Bodog - continuing to work off the mid-year bonus allotted to me, but once I started getting deeper in this tournament, I decided to focus my full attention on the HUD-less Bodog windows.

While we’re on break, I’ll tell you that I do not recommend the Bodog software at all.  This has to be the clunkiest piece of trash in the universe of online poker…  The lobbies are cumbersome, the settings for the windows are not nearly as configurable as the big 2 (PokerStars & Full Tilt), and the Hand Histories are un-retrievable in a standard format (my apologies for the above BS retelling of the hands).  Finally, you actually have to pay close attention to the tables because there aren't any tools to enable HEM or PT3 to display a HUD.  Apparently, the lack of HUD is solely for Bodog tournaments - when I played in the cash games previously, I was able to use a hand converter to basically screen scrape the Bodog windows and pipe them into usable text files for HEM processing.  With all it's faults, though, the one HUGE plus that Bodog does feature is apparently its player base, as I said before.  If I can min cash here for as TERRIBLE of tournament player as I am, the player base must truly stink!  Whatever, we’re coming off break, so here goes the money!

8:08PM: I get a BB special to pad my stack with flopped TP - going for a check raise that never comes to fruition.

8:10PM: 64 left!  We've entered hand-for-hand play.  I'm in 31st place with 35K chips.  Chip lead holds 155K and the average stack is 48K.  One minute later, the bubble bursts and I immediately implement my plan:

8:14PM: I have 3h3d and have a 39K stack vs. an UTG (chip leader) raise to 5K.  Blinds are 1k/2k with 200 antes.  UTG+1 flats with his 26.6K stack.  I auto ship my 39K figuring for a race...  either I chip up nicely into the top ten or I go out to dinner with a new $300 BR.  Either way: win win.  UTG over-shoves his 155K stack and UTG+1 [strangely] CALLS his 26.6K - I don't get that; whatever he has that's NOT AK or QQ+ has to figure to be beat.  Well, the UTG+1 tables 8s8c and the big stack tables AcKh.

Flop is AsKc9s and that's all she wrote; 5h 7d on the turn & river and UTG+1 and I are toast.  GG, Bodog, and thanks for the free tournament!  Given the level of play there, I will definitely be back.  In fact, I think I will start trying to play satellites into these types of overlay tournaments.  The money seems fairly easy, given that I have the time to play it.  In the interim, I definitely want to check out their cash tables.  If the players are anything like what I experienced in the tourney, then I most certainly have an edge.  Couple that with a HUD and I think I'll be rolling in no time.