Day 3

On the third day of my experiment, frustration gave way to immense satisfaction!

I began the day once again trying the Full Tilt Main Event freerolls but had absolutely no luck. Later in the day I added a couple of poker rooms to my list, so I played freerolls at Bodog and at Carbon Poker. At Bodog's $500 freeroll, I competed against 4500 players and managed to come in at a respectable 275th place -- nothing to write home about, but evidence of improvement. I then played in a $50 freeroll at Carbon Poker in which I finished 81st out of 1500. Unfortunately, these freerolls don't pay nearly that many places.

At 10:15 P.M., I elected to try one more at Carbon Poker and all my efforts were finally rewarded. Again facing 1500 opponents, I managed to finish 3rd and open my bankroll with $5.00! It doesn't sound like much, but believe me, it took me a long time (over a year of play and study) to finally finish in the money. In the crucial hand I was playing short-stacked with about fifteen players remaining. I found myself looking at A-4 suited in hearts on the button. After the table folded around to me, I raised 3 times the big blind hoping to steal a pot. However, "greatbambeeno" in the big blind (with a chip stack that had me well covered) decided that stealing was not an option for me and called, leaving me to start considering what he might be holding. I decided he was probably holding a medium pocket pair, something like 8-8 or 9-9. The flop came 2h-5s-Kh, giving me the nut flush draw and a gutshot straight draw while I didn't think it helped him. Bambeeno checked and I checked right behind, happy to see a free card. The turn brought another 2 and bambeeno once again checked. I thought that the King had probably scared him and the paired board couldn't have been good for him either, so I went crazy and shoved all-in. Bambeeno instacalled and turned over A-K, leaving me almost dead. I had 11 outs, leaving me a 4-1 underdog in the hand. However, the river brought me an absolutely beautiful 3 of diamonds, filling my straight and doubling my chip stack!

After I finished the tourney, I moved to a micro-stakes game with .02-.04 blinds and won a whopping $0.67 in ten minutes, leaving me with a profit of $5.67 for the day. It doesn't sound like much, but it was infinitely better than the zero I started with!

On Friday, I played in four freerolls and didn't fare very well. I started with a freeroll at Full Tilt at 8 a.m. (an ungodly time) and didn't make it to the first break. My thinking doesn't really begin working quite that early it seems. I later went to Ultimate Bet where I finished in 471st out of 4112 and felt like I wasn't playing well. I decided to rest for the afternoon and get some things accomplished around the house, and I was back to the tables for the 6:15 and 10:15 freerolls at Carbon. In the first one, I finished in 160th position out of 1500 after making a really dumb donkey call -- I called an all in with A-10 suited, only to see one player acting behind me call as well. Unfortunately, they were holding 10-10 and A-J offsuit, leaving me only a flush or straight possibility to win the pot. The poker gods had a different idea though, not giving me any of my hearts and only low cards on the board -- leaving me drawing dead on the turn and river. In the 10:15 I again got away from my game plan of playing tighter than a drum at least through the first break and got knocked out 20 minutes into the tournament when my flatout crazy all-in semi-bluff didn't hit.

I'll be back later with news on how I fared today!

Getting Started

I've been playing poker for several years and had a pretty fair amount of success. Am I a professional? Not even close....but I (like 99% of the players out there) feel that I could be if only I had the money and the time.

With the economy the way it is, I now have the time. I've been unemployed for quite a while and don't have any immediate prospects. I'm 52 years old and this has proven to be a solid obstacle in finding a job right now. I certainly don't have the money to become a pro player, so I've come up with another tack. I've decided that I'm going to play in as many poker freerolls as I can in order to 1)build a bankroll and 2)try to win a seat in the World Series of Poker. I know the odds are long against me, but I figure I don't really have anything to lose.

Currently I play at Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, Poker Stars and Doyle's Room. I've just opened an account at Carbon Poker, and I may add one or two more sites in the future.

The purpose of this blog is twofold. First, I want a way to track how I'm doing. Therefore, I'll be posting my results for every freeroll I play in along with my analysis (as objective as I can possibly make it) as to how I played. I'll post any relevant stats as well as my winnings. Second, if anyone out there is interested in doing this, they will hopefully learn from my mistakes as well as my successes.

That's all for this first post -- wish me luck!!!