Play poker in America’s Cup of Poker tournament, now set to conclude in Bariloche, Argentina ^Excited for the America’s Cup of Poker to begin? We’ve got all the tournament updates, details and information you need to know to stay on track, right here ^Mary Ashton^^America’s Cup of Poker Tournament Details and Updates^Tournament Structure Details

I was gonna write an update on my bankroll/bonus challenge that is coming to an end in about 3 days, but I noticed these little tidbits as I was reviewing my hands. I was going to initially write about bad beats destroying my challenge and now I am not to sure if its only the bad beats I remember and they aint as bad as I thought. The update will follow soon, but here are questions for you allFirst one.AA won 89% of the time and occurred 224X out of 46,500 hands in the last 10 days. They lost to underpairs 9 times. Of those 9 times 7 were 2 underpairs. Which ones? I’ll give you a hint (they are below 99)Second one.KK won 87% of the time and occurred 206X. They lost to underpairs 7 times. One of them occurred more than 1/2 the time. What was it (it is above 88) and if you are curiuos KK lost to AA 4 times

Our docu-series: “Suck Out! A Horse with No Name Recognition” continues here (take a look) with our backer’s perspective.

But, why do you think backers invest their money in other players?  Should backing be done more for cash games or tourneys? Some would even say never.  Your thoughts?

We got free tix for The Pretenders last nite, Damn that Chrissy Hynde is one hot 58 yr old mama. We belong to HouseSeats. They give away free tix to locals. So far this yr we have seen Al Stewart, Barry Manilow, The B-52’s, George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers, Johnny LaNG, Blue man group, and Blondie, not to shabby for the year of free concerts and shows.Okay so u wanna know the hands that beat KK….it was QQ, and TTHands that beat AA were 55, and 88 which some of you got right…cya

I was gonna write an update on my bankroll/bonus challenge that is coming to an end in about 3 days, but I noticed these little tidbits as I was reviewing my hands. I was going to initially write about bad beats destroying my challenge and now I am not to sure if its only the bad beats I remember and they aint as bad as I thought. The update will follow soon, but here are questions for you allFirst one.AA won 89% of the time and occurred 224X out of 46,500 hands in the last 10 days. They lost to underpairs 9 times. Of those 9 times 7 were 2 underpairs. Which ones? I’ll give you a hint (they are below 99)Second one.KK won 87% of the time and occurred 206X. They lost to underpairs 7 times. One of them occurred more than 1/2 the time. What was it (it is above 88) and if you are curiuos KK lost to AA 4 times

Our docu-series: “Suck Out! A Horse with No Name Recognition” continues here (take a look) with our backer’s perspective.

But, why do you think backers invest their money in other players?  Should backing be done more for cash games or tourneys? Some would even say never.  Your thoughts?

We got free tix for The Pretenders last nite, Damn that Chrissy Hynde is one hot 58 yr old mama. We belong to HouseSeats. They give away free tix to locals. So far this yr we have seen Al Stewart, Barry Manilow, The B-52’s, George Thoroughgood and the Destroyers, Johnny LaNG, Blue man group, and Blondie, not to shabby for the year of free concerts and shows.Okay so u wanna know the hands that beat KK….it was QQ, and TTHands that beat AA were 55, and 88 which some of you got right…cya

Learn how to win your next 5 Card Draw Game with the top four rules for playing – the ultimate strategy! ^Winning at 5 Card Draw requires that you learn only four basic rules – it’s all the strategy you need to come out on top! ^Mary Ashton^^5 Card Draw Tactics and Strategy – Top Four Rules^Top Four Playing Rules

I was really surprised that some of you all thought that AA was the losing hand. My AA is a 91.5% winner for over $1728.00 (191,000 hands) seen 874 times (25NL) and that equates to close to 2.00 each time seen. How do you play AA? Do you play it differently than KK? Do you play it differenty based on position? Do you play it differently if raised in front of you and behind you (u r in blinds).The answer is yes, yes, and yes. I play it all different ways, I seem to get the most money by being out of position and calling a preflop raise, and when the flop comes I donk bet which usually induces a reraise or shove which I gladly call. I use to be afraid of AA when ever I played deep stack poker cause the losses hurt so bad, but not anymore (as you know I short stack) and now its one of the most exciting hands I get to play, cya

Played some cash games over at PokerHost, what a minefield. Didn’t enjoy it at all, sorry. I’m such a tournament player, can’t stand to have a day go by when I can’t play a tournament. That’s not to say I win every day, in fact, I play better after I’ve played too much, and played bad poker. That’s when I can focus, regroup, and see just what I need to correct. Truly have the ‘eye’ of the tiger after that – I hope you get to play me then, I’ll congratulate you if you can take me out in that spot.

I was really surprised that some of you all thought that AA was the losing hand. My AA is a 91.5% winner for over $1728.00 (191,000 hands) seen 874 times (25NL) and that equates to close to 2.00 each time seen. How do you play AA? Do you play it differently than KK? Do you play it differenty based on position? Do you play it differently if raised in front of you and behind you (u r in blinds).The answer is yes, yes, and yes. I play it all different ways, I seem to get the most money by being out of position and calling a preflop raise, and when the flop comes I donk bet which usually induces a reraise or shove which I gladly call. I use to be afraid of AA when ever I played deep stack poker cause the losses hurt so bad, but not anymore (as you know I short stack) and now its one of the most exciting hands I get to play, cya

Played some cash games over at PokerHost, what a minefield. Didn’t enjoy it at all, sorry. I’m such a tournament player, can’t stand to have a day go by when I can’t play a tournament. That’s not to say I win every day, in fact, I play better after I’ve played too much, and played bad poker. That’s when I can focus, regroup, and see just what I need to correct. Truly have the ‘eye’ of the tiger after that – I hope you get to play me then, I’ll congratulate you if you can take me out in that spot.

Okay, after 31.5 hours, 24,458 hands and losing $11.55 with accumulated 4,537 pts. There are only 2 loosing hands (Not AJs, though its up a paltry .85cents) and they are 88, and ATo. I cant seem to get a handle on netting + dollars on this challenge. I will atleast find out how much it costs to get the 285.00 bonus. I have found that alot of villains are shoving the flop on me for the flush draws, and shoving their AK preflop which is normal, but it seems they are killing my large pocket pairs hence my loss.I am learning alot though about me and poker. My leaks with AK is a serious problem I have to work on (more losses). I am fine tuning this Short Stack Strategy to include Stealing from the cutoff, button, and blinds per sklansky/chubokov numbers….I have done the stats and it seems to be working. CBets seem to be profitable too. Can you think of any other player/playing stats (not hole cards that I may wanna check up on)?One last thing is that I would leave the table once I hit +8BB or little more (so going from 5.00 to like 7.50) then leaving is loosing to much profit, and I now making sure I stay till I have over 10.00…..what this does is causes me in certain hands to double up from like 7.50-9.50 to up like 20.00…..Thats bigger pots, bigger profits. cya

Yesterday was the opposite of my daily poker routine. I won, then lost it back. Usually I lose, then win most of it back. Yesterday you could play any two cards against my premium pairs and win.My win rate for AA is usually between 87% to 91%, and yesterday it dropped to an unbelievable 72% WOWTPTK loses to rivered set, AQ, to AJ, QQ to K9, AA to T9, AA to QQ, AA to KQ, QQ to 46, AA to K4, QQ to 33, AA to K8, AA to 76, and AA to 88.I had to quit several times during the day hoping to end the massacre, but to no avail. I get sick just talking about, have a great weekend.

Well, I thought that since I am half way thru my challenge I would blog alittle about my week grinding it out. I started last Sunday and my schedule went as follows….Monday-Friday is pretty much the same. I wake up with the wife around 6:30 a.m and drink coffee, and chat. Then I play from around 7:30 to 9am. I take the dogs out for their long walks a Westie and Cairn Terriers (Toto)(separately, and dont ask why) then its breakfast time and alittle CNBC.Around tenish or so, its back to the tables till 1pm or so, when I decide to shower and eat lunch, maybe run some errands, and let the dogs out again. Of course back to the grind till maybe 4pm, when its movie time. I tend to look for good movies on cable (I have all 400 stations and record them for later dates).6pm rolls around and I let the dogs out again, and play till like 7:30, then feed the dogs, do dinner, walk the dogs again for a long walk separately of course, and back to grind after 9pm till close to midnite. Mondays I have my NL group meetings. The weekends I play as much as I can and also usually go out to dinner and the movies and taking the wife to play the slots. I do get once or twice a week to play live poker too

OnlinePoker2.0 is a great read for poker players and web enthusiasts alike. They follow and discuss advances in poker and social media/internet technology, so it was only a matter of time before we met up to discuss the future of PokerDIY – you can read the full interview – “Poker leagues go social with PokerDIY”. It’s nice to see a useful poker blog/site with meaningful content – check it out if you get a chance…

Lets set aside my current challenge for a moment (actually this probably is why the cash part is losing). I am a winning player this month. I played 130,000 hands, I won $269.00 Yes, I am a winner but under what circumstances?I played 40 hrs a week, won 269 or 1.69 an hr, winning 1BB/100. Yes, I did not lose money. I feel horrible with this winning month, do you really understand how I feel? How unhappy a winning player feels?What I did discover was that my staple hands won over $4,254.00 and $3993.00 of that came from AA-JJ, AK. To be honest with you I am not that into being a great player or anything like that, just a winning player making money is all I want. I dont care how I do it either. Its established that I suck at deep stack poker so that goes out the window.I will start using the sklansky/chubokov hands for stealing from cutoff/button/small blind. I will cut my use of AQ, AJ, TT as they are only winning 35% of the time compared to the above better hands at 82% yet when AQ

Okay, after 31.5 hours, 24,458 hands and losing $11.55 with accumulated 4,537 pts. There are only 2 loosing hands (Not AJs, though its up a paltry .85cents) and they are 88, and ATo. I cant seem to get a handle on netting + dollars on this challenge. I will atleast find out how much it costs to get the 285.00 bonus. I have found that alot of villains are shoving the flop on me for the flush draws, and shoving their AK preflop which is normal, but it seems they are killing my large pocket pairs hence my loss.I am learning alot though about me and poker. My leaks with AK is a serious problem I have to work on (more losses). I am fine tuning this Short Stack Strategy to include Stealing from the cutoff, button, and blinds per sklansky/chubokov numbers….I have done the stats and it seems to be working. CBets seem to be profitable too. Can you think of any other player/playing stats (not hole cards that I may wanna check up on)?One last thing is that I would leave the table once I hit +8BB or little more (so going from 5.00 to like 7.50) then leaving is loosing to much profit, and I now making sure I stay till I have over 10.00…..what this does is causes me in certain hands to double up from like 7.50-9.50 to up like 20.00…..Thats bigger pots, bigger profits. cya

Yesterday was the opposite of my daily poker routine. I won, then lost it back. Usually I lose, then win most of it back. Yesterday you could play any two cards against my premium pairs and win.My win rate for AA is usually between 87% to 91%, and yesterday it dropped to an unbelievable 72% WOWTPTK loses to rivered set, AQ, to AJ, QQ to K9, AA to T9, AA to QQ, AA to KQ, QQ to 46, AA to K4, QQ to 33, AA to K8, AA to 76, and AA to 88.I had to quit several times during the day hoping to end the massacre, but to no avail. I get sick just talking about, have a great weekend.