Lots of NFL side bets for 2008

I have booked a ton of NFL bets for the coming season. I'm going to try my best to chronicle them on this blog so I can keep track of them. There is a good chance of a chop on many of them. For example, in the "Q" bets below, if the Jets win 8 games, I push. If Notre Dame wins 6 games, I push. Here they are (so far):

"Q"
$50 N.Y. Jets 7 wins or less
$50 Notre Dame 7 wins or more
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$25 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miami Dolphins 3 wins or less
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"A"
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 New England Patriots 11 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$25 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miami Dolphins 5 wins or more
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"S"
$20 Oakland Raiders 8 wins or more
$20 New England Patriots 13 wins or more
$20 Philadelphia Eagles 9 wins or more
$20 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$20 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$20 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$20 Miami Dolphins 5 wins or more
$20 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

"D"
$25 Oakland Raiders 6 wins or less
$25 Philadelphia Eagles 7 wins or less
$25 New England Patriots 11 wins or less
$25 Green Bay Packers 11 wins or more
$50 San Diego Chargers 13 wins or more
$25 Dallas Cowboys 10 wins or less
$25 Miam Dolphins 5 wins or more
$25 U.C.L.A. 9 wins or more

It Never Gets Old-Part 1

Just took 21st in the Full Tilt $11.5K. For the third time in the last week, I was within the last 4 tables and got it in with pair over pair pre-flop....I've got to figure out something different. 80% favorites just don't work for me. WTF!!!!!!!

Full Tilt Poker Game #7914952863: $11,500 KO Guarantee (60061375), Table 62 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:38:08 ET - 2008/09/03
Seat 1: longballjy (186,815)
Seat 2: HGJ18622 (17,159)
Seat 3: luckycatch1 (49,469)
Seat 5: FloppedTheNuts (38,428)
Seat 6: Dobbsey (88,348)
longballjy antes 250
HGJ18622 antes 250
luckycatch1 antes 250
FloppedTheNuts antes 250
Dobbsey antes 250
FloppedTheNuts posts the small blind of 1,000
Dobbsey posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to HGJ18622 [Qs Qh]
longballjy folds
HGJ18622 raises to 16,909, and is all in
luckycatch1 folds
FloppedTheNuts has 15 seconds left to act
FloppedTheNuts raises to 38,178, and is all in
Dobbsey foldsFloppedTheNuts shows [3d 3s]
HGJ18622 shows [Qs Qh]
Uncalled bet of 21,269 returned to FloppedTheNuts
*** FLOP *** [4c Ah Kh]
*** TURN *** [4c Ah Kh] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [4c Ah Kh 6s] [3c]
FloppedTheNuts shows three of a kind, Threes
HGJ18622 shows a pair of Queens
FloppedTheNuts wins the pot (37,068) with three of a kind,
ThreesHGJ18622 stands up

Dog Days of August

When I started this blog a few months back, I hoped to display the perspective of an everyday working guy with kids and a wife and his pursuit of glory in the poker world. Over time, I have resorted to simply telling you about bad beats, tourney results, and the occasional anecdote about prop bets or Vegas trips. The last week has shook me back into reality and has so harshly reminded me why my quest to elevate my poker game always seems to be an uphill battle.

My wife and oldest daughter were out of town for the weekend so I was home alone with my two boys. They had both fallen asleep watching a movie on the couch and I was playing in three different MTT's around 9:30 in the evening. My work phone rang and it was my boss telling me that we had just had an officer-involved shooting at work. As the Commander of the Internal Affairs Unit, I have to respond to every OIS. But here I was.....stuck at home with my two boys and no one to watch them. I abandoned the three MTT's (so much for those buy-in's) and quickly called a good friend of mine who allowed me to drop my two boys off at his house for the night. I knew it was going to be a long night as any call-out is usually a 5-hour minimum.

When I got to work, I found out that our SWAT officers had attempted to stop a murder suspect (the guy had shot and killed an innocent man outside a bank) and the suspect jumped out of his vehicle and opened fire on the officers. A fairly hellacious gunbattle ensued with no one getting injured before the suspect was actually able to escape. The investigation took most of the night and I ended up getting home around 6:00 in the morning. As I was driving home (and weaving from one side of the road to the other), I was thinking to myself that I'm pretty sure most of the online pros that I seem to "envy" don't have these sorts of things happen to them when they're in the middle of MTT's. It was a real splash to the face....again realizing that I probably have too many things going on in my life to really make an impact in the poker world. I can't really expect myself to be analyzing hands and thinking poker strategy 24 hours a day when I have friends and co-workers being shot at and I'm in charge of the investigations. (sigh)

Since I had to skip an entire night of sleep, I've been pretty much of a basket case ever since which has again reduced my ability to play late night MTT's. I've shown some very uncharacteristic restraint in NOT playing poker the last few nights when I've been tired. In the past, I've played anyways and gotten so tired that I've found myself hoping I would bust so I could go to bed. Yesterday was the first day of school and my youngest boy started kindergarten so it was a pretty big day in our house. With school starting, my weekly schedule looks something like this:

• Coaching soccer 6:30-7:30 on Mon-Wed.
• Getting home from work every other night at 7:00.
• Attend, coach, or referee 5 soccer games every Saturday.
• Make lunches for 3 kids every night.
• Workout with a personal trainer 3 times a week.

Where exactly am I supposed to fit in the volume necessary to either make a steady flow of income from poker or actually win some of the prop bets I have with RUBBA? I still hold out hopes of making big scores in the poker arena but it is becoming harder and harder with my schedule. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like If I was 15 years younger and in college during the boom of online poker. I would probably be very well-known or broke without a degree. Take your pick!!

For the record, I came the closest yet to picking up one of the prop bets with RUBBA. I ran a $.50/$1.00 NL cash game on Full Tilt up to $419 before falling short. One of the bets is to have 5 buy-in's at a table and I almost made it. The forecast is not too good over the next couple of weeks for a lot of online play but I will do my best. I hope that it will make me focus just a little more knowing that I don't have the luxury of playing ten tournaments a day.

I'll keep you updated...Thanks for reading.

W2D

Update

For the record, I didn't quit. Shocker.....I've had a 47th, 46th, 23rd, and 20th place finish in MTT"s with at least a $4,500 first prize in the last 7 days. I may be coming to the conclusion that I am...well.....ordinary. :):)

W2D

EDIT: I just finished 17th in the TILT $17K running K-K all-in pre-flop into 5-5. Board...Q-2-3-4-6. Like the mule that I am, I'll just keep running my head into this wall until the wall crumbles or I go unconscious.

I quit!

I made the 3rd hour of nine MTT's in the last 6 days and have cashed in 3 out of 9. I am running as bad as it gets....the following hand happens to me every single tournament in the 3rd or 4th hour. My coping ability has come to an end. I feel adrift at sea...

Full Tilt Poker Game #7598105304: $32,000 Guarantee (57063392), Table 36 - 400/800 Ante 100 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:37:59 ET - 2008/08/10
Seat 1: SweetLuh (13,143)
Seat 2: beleivedat (40,186)
Seat 3: mcclain21 (35,217)
Seat 4: ATrain16 (18,110)
Seat 5: njrepp (56,176)
Seat 6: JoNova (10,110)
Seat 7: Sweendog24 (8,975)
Seat 8: Burbur111 (11,120)
Seat 9: HGJ18622 (18,782)
SweetLuh antes 100
***Dealt to HGJ18622 [Jc Jh]
ATrain16 foldsnjrepp folds
JoNova folds
Sweendog24 raises to 8,875, and is all in
Burbur111 folds
HGJ18622 raises to 18,682, and is all in
SweetLuh folds
beleivedat folds
mcclain21 folds
HGJ18622 shows [Jc Jh]
Sweendog24 shows [7d 6d]
Uncalled bet of 9,807 returned to HGJ18622
*** FLOP *** [3s Th 7h]
*** TURN *** [3s Th 7h] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [3s Th 7h 6s] [8h]
HGJ18622 shows a pair of Jacks
Sweendog24 shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Sweendog24 wins the pot (19,850) with two pair, Sevens and Sixes

Who needs the bullshit....

W2D

FTOPS Update

I went deep in the TILT $17K last night (20th out of 951 entrants) so I thought maybe things would continue tonight in FTOPS Event #1. Unfortunately, I was at work late so I actually had to play while driving home (30-minute drive). I don't know if anyone has ever played on their laptop WHILE driving but it sucks. I picked up A-A in the BB and a limper ended up flopping a set of 7's on me for half my stack. I was pretty much short for the next 2 1/2 hours and played a short stack pretty well but ended up running A-J into A-A to cripple me then ran 6-6 into A-A to finish the job....

I probably won't play another FTOPS event until Sunday's $300 event.

Thanks for reading,

W2D

Quick Update...

I returned from Jamaica on Friday and am now back at my dungeon I call work. Man....I could really live in Jamaica. I mean...if I didn't have kids, responsibilities, etc., etc.

I came back ready to smash the online scene but Saturday night was "one of those nights" as I was only able to play two MTT's. I got it all-in with K-K v. A-K and Q-J on a K-10-5 board. Yeah, no good (river Ace). I then got it all-in in the other one with K-K v. A-K. Yeah, no good (runner-runner straight). I did win an FTOPS seat so that eased the pain. I will really start ramping up the MTT volume over the next couple of days.

After over four years of playing online, I finally purchased Pokertracker 3 on Saturday. It has taken me a little bit to get it set up and situated but I have already seen improvements and enjoy the HUD feature which gives me added input when I'm multi-tabling. I'm looking forward to see if it improves my results.

Besides the tons of bets with Rubba this month (see previous post), I've got various other things brewing:

$50...I've got Notre Dame for 7 wins or more this year. 6 wins, I push. 5 wins or less I lose.
$50...I've got N.Y. Jets for 8 wins or less this year. 9 wins, I push. 10 wins or more I lose.
$20...I win if Brett Favre is the GB starter in week 1. I lose if Aaron Rodgers is the GB starter in week 1 (I'm fucked on this one).
I also opened my big mouth the third week of June and told a close buddy of mine (huge GB fan) that if Favre ever played another down with the Packers, I'd go to a game with him this year at Lambeau (we went last year). As it stands today, it looks like I'm safe on this one. That would have been a $1,500 loss.

I'm looking to pile up a ton of NFL prop bets this year as I feel I can take the best of it against most of my friends. Very few of them know what the hell they're talking about.

Anyways, FTOPS starts tomorrow. I'm hoping to play event #1 at 1800 hrs. Weeeeeeeeeeeee

Thanks for reading,

W2D