Why are we here?

A few years ago, I started reading Wil Wheaton's website and have followed to his "temporary" location in exile. I really enjoyed reading his site and when he started playing poker and writing about it, it introduced me to a ton of other blog sites that had an interest in poker. Because there just isn't enough already, I started my own blog after reading the sites of the other players in Wil's weekly tournament on Pokerstars. Most of the people have been really nice and I have enjoyed playing against them. Some of the other players have been excellent sources of top notch info, especially Wes, aka Boobie Lover, and Sir Waffles. Unlike Wil and the rest, I am a novice at online Poker and don't know squat about writing a blog so please forgive me here and at the tables.

I have been playing NL Texas Hold'em in home games for about a year and on ESPN.com for about 4 months. On Tuesdays, I used to play at a local sports bar for prizes, but wanted to start playing in a regular Tuesday night tournament that Wil Wheaton hosts. After getting my account set up on Pokerstars, I played in my first WWDN tournie sometime in November of last year . There were about 50 entrants and I got knocked out in about 10 minutes. Not exactly the result I was looking for, but it was my first time playing online for real money.

I didn't have the chance to play again for a while, so I decided to make February "Brian's poker month." My goal was to play as much as possible without taking away too much time from my wife or let my TIVOs collect any more shows (I think I am about caught up to January of 2006 with some car shows from last summer). The first game actually started on January 31st and I was lucky enough to beat out 124 other players to collect 1st place at about 12:15 AM on Feb 1st. That made a great start for the month and definately encouraged me to play more. I thought I played pretty well and was catching some great cards. I even had quad Aces once to win a nice pot. When I went head's up against Boobie Lover, I had him chip dominated 4-1 I think. The only reason it wasn't over immediately is because he is a much, much better player than I am and I need to learn alot more about head's up play. The following Tuesday I went fairly deep but not enough for any payoff.

The next tournament was Valentine's Day so I spent the day away from the computer for a nice evening with Stacie. The Tuesday after Valentine's tournament didn't go well at all. I got knocked out fairly early so I tried my hand at a 9 person Sit'n'go. Beginner's luck held true and I won the first SNG I every entered. On Friday, I entered a satellite for the big Sunday game but was knocked out quickly. I tried another SNG and was out 7th out of 9. I think I will take these satellites a little slower so I can have better showings.

I always get very excited on Tuesdays because of Wil's tournament. This past Tuesday I wanted to make a good showing to end out "Brian's Month of Poker." I had a great showing with 91 total players. I was having ridiculous luck with flops. Almost every pocket pair I had would trip on the flop. I was trying to play aggressive and when I grabbed the chip lead, I still would be getting Ace something so I started stealing blinds. Shortly after the final table was set, it was obvious that they were better players than me. I got lucky on a few hands when the short stacks went all in and I either had them beat preflop or the board went my way. By the time there were 3 of us left, I had dropped to third. The cards were really going my way and I was able to pick up 2 good pots, 1 with pocket Aces and another on the board, then a couple of hands later I got quad Aces. I ended up finishing 2nd because my opponent, FishyMcDonk, had me slightly covered in chips but vastly covered in talent. Congrats Fish and I look forward to more tables.

Future posts will probably be more poker, our travels, and basically whatever I feel like. I hope you will come back and let me know how it's going.