The Music Gods are listening... Poker Gods not so much

Nope, didn't score any additional Dead tickets or Phish tickets to anything.

But part of my music wish list has been satisfied: KBM for Kreutzmann, Burbridge and Murawski are now booked for Mountain Jam. That now puts two members of the current Dead line-up on the mountain (Billy K and Warren Haynes) and one member of Max Creek on the mountain (Scott Murawski). I'm crossing my fingers that Max Creek will be added to this years festivities.

Disappointed I'm going to miss Eh-Vegas but I and BFF Kim will be attending a Max Creek show here at Troy's Revolution Hall in two short weeks. One month later its the Dead, a month after that Springsteen and a few weeks after that Mountain Jam. Dave Matthews just announced a couple shows at SPAC (Phish did not) in June.

Kim looked into condo rental for Mountain Jam, but supposedly already sold out and taking deposits for 2010. I suggested renting an RV with nephew Zack and Sierra. I cant rage for 72 hours with no sleep and enjoy the music, especially when its rained every year. Sleeping on what amounts to Hunter Mountains version of the Lhotse Face loses its charm when there are no Sherpa's to do the hauling. I could sleep in my SUV away from the mayhem. Seriously considering getting VIP tickets so I can take in the music from a nice covered perch and actually really write about the whole weekend.

No one wants to read bad beat stories but the past week of poker(beginning with last Monday) has been a cluster fuck and I've blown thru a good $150 or so on pokerstars. This was after finishing 2nd in one of those $2.20 90 person sngs (I had a first and second in my first two attempts at them) last Sunday night. . I have made deep runs in $8.80/$5.50 90 person sngs and the $22 deep stack, only to get bamboozled at the end just short of the money. Maybe Ive played the AA hands wrong by just not shoving all in but I'm trying to extract value from my hands and at the lower limits I constantly get run down by someone chasing their flush, gutshot etc without the odds to do so. Example, I flopped to pair with 57os on board of A57. bet the pot and some donk with Ace high only calls me all the way down to the river where they are rewarded with a better two pair. I know its tricky playing those kinds of hands. But its redonkulous to call off your stack with just top pair. Poker is not fun when you are card dead and get your big hands cracked when Pokerstars RNG throws you a bone. I looked over one SNG I played and I think i only hit the 5 card flop 5 times over the whole tourney till i busted out. I was catching no pieces of anything.

Today started a new week and I did manage to win a $5.50 DoN which is my first cash since last Sunday in anything.

I made an awesome marinated Flank steak, roasted yukon gold potatoes and marinated asparagus for dinner last Sunday during the Daytona 500 which fed me for a few days. I was disappointed at the rain delay/cancellation. Next time start the race like at 11 AM or noon. The West coast is used to getting up early for football!!

DON's aka Pokerstars Double or Nothing SNG's

I'm not going to be the first person to blog about the DON's or the last.

This isn't going to be a DON strategy article. If you are interested click here for a 2+2 thread.

Yes they can be frustrating when everyone tries to wait each other out, the blinds get high and there are still 10 people left. I was at one table where no one busted and we were 50 minutes in. I think i ram jammed first out on that one.

They are a slow way to build a bankroll. If you only play DON's you will lose your feel for how a large field MTT plays and you will not get any real heads-up or shorthanded experience as you do in a standard SNG since 5 spots pay and you only have to outwit, outplay and outlast 5 other nits.

In the standard non-turbo DON NLHE $5.40 buy-in you win $10 for a net profit of $4.60. If you win one and lose one you lose money.

Here is my way of improving my profit in the DON's:

I play the $2.20 satellite to the Sunday $100k guarantee at 3:30PM Est. If i win a seat I unregister which puts T$11 into my account. I then use the T$ to buy into a $5.40 SNG. If I win that I get $10 cash in my account. In effect i have now only used $2.20 my original satellite entry fee) to win $10 for a profit of $7.80 vs the $4.60 I win if i used $5.40 of cash. Plus i still have T$5.60 left. if I win another $5.40 SNG for $10 its really all profit. So in actuality I have only used $2.20 to win $17.80 ($20 for winning two $5.40 DON's). If i buy in the normal way. I spend $10.80 (2x$5.40) and only win $20 for a net profit of $9.20. I've almost doubled my ROI on the DON's using this method.

Yes it can be a grind much like the cash games but by playing the satellite you are keeping your Mtt skills sharp and by playing the Don's you can slowly grind a bankroll without the swings of cash game play.