I won the March Cash League over at PokerLoons. I won $50 for first place with 280 points.

Then last night we had an exclusive $200 freeroll for anyone who played at least once in the cash league during the month with 7 spots paying out. Guess what? I took first place for another $75. March has been good with the Loons. Check out the final standings:

How did I turn a 6th place finish in a freeroll ($2.50) to $14.20 on Titan Poker? Well, I started out playing the Forum League last night and took 6th place (I think). I was chip leader when my wife came home and so I sat out and went to talk to her. I came back to the game a couple of times and went all-in with no callers. Eventually my AJ got beat by a K10 when a 10 hit the board. But I wasn't really playing so I'm not mad about my bad play.

So I won $2.50 - now what? I went to the .05/.10 NLHE games and made a little, lost a little. Then I decided to play a 6 seat SNG for $1+.20 and won that in about 20 minutes:


I then spent some more time going up and down in the NLHE game. I eventually went all-in with the following hand after the flop and won $14.20 - sweet! Now I have some cash at Titan and I will play a few of the cheap buy-in forum games there. Check out my 4-way pot winning hand:

All good things must come to an end. After a winning streak of two weeks in a row at the PokerLoons cash league games on Trident Poker I went out fifth out of seven players last night. I guess it's hard to concentrate and play your best while cooking dinner, so I don't feel too bad. I think I am still at the top of the leaderboard after my previous two wins and I still got in to the end-of-month $200 freeroll for anyone who makes it into at least two cash league games. I will need to play better next week to take the top league prize.

I actually got knocked out with a really weird call from bmc1. I was in the BB and she was on the button and raised the minimum with 10-6 of clubs to try to steal the blinds. I didn't have a lot more and went all in with A-9 off suit. I knew she was trying to steal but she called, missed the flop and the turned a 6 and rivered a 10. Ouch.

Not sure who won, I had to finish making dinner, remember?

On a slightly better note, I just published the first PokerLoons newsletter - The Loony Bin. Go to the site and check it out. Aito made me a moderator and I am now happy to be part of the team.

2nd week in a row that I won the PokerLoons cash league on Trident Poker. Knocked out bmc1 and Aito in the process too. Here's are the final standings:

Played a $2 tourney over at Poker4Ever with a very small field of 15. After my second hand I was down to 40 chips as I had gone all in and beat by an overpair. Well guess what, I made it all the way back and took second place for $9. I was leading 3-1 heads up, but got knocked out when my Jacks full of Fives lost to quad Jacks. Ouch.

Check this out - playing on CD Poker and Poker4Ever at the same time I got the exact same hole cards! Now what are the odds of that happening?

Here's the proof:

Commerce Casino $1/$2 Donkey Poker trip report.

Had an overnight stay in LA and decided to check out Commerce for myself. I asked around and heard Commerce was nicer than The Bike and that they will have a $1/$2 table for sure. The place is HUGE - they say that commerce has more poker tables than all of Vegas combined. Not sure if that's true, but it sure felt that way. The main floor was packed and they even had tables in the hotel ballrooms. That's where I found the $1/$2 tables and put my name on the list.

The crowd was the usual mix of Asians, Hispanics and old farts that I have come to expect at a poker room. When I sat down I saw that the table was loose and wild. Any two cards play preflop and sometimes even called in the dark. At first I figured I'll play very tight and crush them when I hit a good hand, but that strategy went out the window very quickly. I saw that the odds of getting a bad beat were also very high and after throwing away hands like J6o when the flop was JJ6 I decided it was worth the buck to see a flop. I made a mental note to not cold call any raises pre-flop unless I had a hand. I also decided to raise it up once in a while, usually from late position to try to build up the pot and drive some players out.

I played very aggressive for a few hands, showing my bluffs and excusing it as "just wanting to see what the other guys had". Now I was the loosest guy at the table, which is exactly what I wanted to be. The fact that I bought in for $100 also made me "the big raiser", as one of the guys announced before I even had my chips. After this loose start I was about $40 in the hole. But now I started to play for real.

I must have hit about 8 three-of-a-kind on the flop within the first hour. I would hold an 86o and the flop would be 885. Simple check-raise and then ram and jam would get a monster pot going and all but twice I took it down. I lost to a flush once and boat the other time, but this strategy definitely paid off. The river was usually the deciding card and many bad beats were served around the table.

I don't remember too many hands, but one of the last ones is too good to pass on. I was up around $50 at the time and getting a bit tired. Old Fart in seat 1 had been losing most of the night and kept moving seats when they opened up. Tilt Boy in seat 8 had left a stud table that hit the bad beat jackpot three hands later and was on a serious meltdown path. We tried to convince him that he should play the $1 pre-flop but he refused and said it's stupid. I was in the small blind in seat 5 and got my usual 7-10 off suit. Everyone called and the flop came 6-7-8 rainbow. I bet out and got raised, so I called. I think at this point everyone was still in. The next card was a 5, with no flush draws. I bet out and got raised by the BB. Then Tilt Boy was all in for his last $6 (he had been buying in for $10 each time he busted out) and Old Fart could only call for his last $6 as well. I think we got a couple more callers and I called and the BB capped it. I figured he had a 4 rather than a 9 and put Tilt Boy and Old Fart on either a set or two pair. What do you know, the river was a 9, giving me the 10 high straight. Only hand that could beat me at this point was a J-10. Right away Tilt Boy and Old Fart started screamed at the dealer "This dealer sucks!" and "That is fucking bullshit, dealer" and they were serious as hell. I bet out and got the BB to call and another player as well who was hoping for a chop. I turned over my hand and Tilt Boy and Old Fart went ballistic. I won about $40 on that hand which is nice for a $1/$2 table but the following 2 minutes were the best part of the evening. Tilt Boy just threw his hand on the table and walked away yelling and kicking chairs. Old Fart got into it with the dealer who called the floor manager. Just imagine the poor Asian lady yelling back at Old Fart "you are dirty ol' man, you bullshit, I dealer no bullshit, dirty dirty man" as Old Fart is yelling at her "you bitch, this is bullshit".

The whole table was on tilt from that one and I even got called a "river rat" by the Angry Russian who thought we would chop. Only guy who took it well was the BB who had the 4 like I expected. And all I said was a quiet "sorry" as I stacked up my chips. I then tried to explain that there was so much money in the pot I had to try and hit my 2 outs. But it fell on deaf ears as everyone was on full tilt.

The dealer left and surprisingly enough the Old Fart was not ejected from the casino. He then dealt a river bad beat to someone else hitting his own straight vs top two pair. But we cleaned him out quickly after that as he was really steaming. And I got back at Angry Russian as well for calling me a river rat by slow playing a set of kings.

All-in-all I would say Commerce was a pleasant experience. I got very lucky and I don't think I like playing these low limits when everyone limps in. There is very little skill and a lot of luck involved.

I won the PokerLoons cash league game on Trident Poker last Monday. As usual we were only eight players and most of team Live & Loon was present. Aito went out first and bmc1 was close behind. I eventually got heads up with jiggerpops and took the win. This month the top three point winners will split the league money instead of the top 5. Also, if you play in two cash games this month you get into a private $200 freeroll at the end of the month.

In all the excitement I totally forgot to take a screen shot. Also, last month I came in 6th in the standing because I played like an ass. 5th place was $25, so shame on me for the poor play.