02/12/06    So today I decided to head down to the Bicycle Club casino here in LA and play some live cards. Didn't really have too much time on my hands so I decided to play a little limit and see how it went. Good bunch of fun players who were drinking and playing most every hand. That sure makes for a crazy game when 60-70% of the table sees the flop! Ended up breaking even on the day, but had a couple big hands and a lot of losing ones. When I flopped a set one time there were 7 people in the hand, and all of them called the first bet. The big bet round for the turn didn't get many out with 5 callers. The board paired on the river giving me a boat and 3 of us paid to showdown - pot comes to me! Woo hoo! Always nice when people pay off your big hands. On the other hand, I got dealt pocket aces and raised preflop...5 callers. Flop was 2-5-J with two diamonds so I knew I was in trouble already to the flush draw. As suspected, the bet scared no one. Turn was another 5. Please tell me no one has a 5...I bet and get raised. Well had to see for my own eyes, but he had a 5-6 offsuit. Wow was all I could say there. I guess that's poker!

02/03/06     I'm getting excited once again for the Bodog $100,000 tournament this weekend. For $100+9 you get entry into possibly the best tournament online anywhere. I'm over the new software upgrade, and am happy that at least you can change the table felt from red now. So back into the action I go - where else can you find overlays of more than $25,000 in one tournament? Bodog has always had to kick in money to pay out the people, and looks like this is even better after the new software. If I were you, I would invest in trying this tournament. Open an account now by visiting Bodog and register for the tournament this Sunday!

01/27/06     Wow, I can't believe that January is almost over. Seemed like it took forever to get here, and now it's almost gone! Anyway, have not been playing much recently, just too many things going on it seems. I have found the new Bodog interface to be a little "busy" for my tastes, I much preferred the clean look of the old software. As a result I find myself playing there much less than I used to. I really only play the guaranteed tournaments there now - the overlay is so generous it's hard not to. However, I've been playing my other games on a few of the various sites including Poker Room, Full Tilt, and Ultimate Bet. All of those rooms are great, and have wonderful things about them - Poker Room has private tournaments that anyone can set up; Full Tilt is getting some really big action lately with some huge prize pools and the biggest cash limits I've seen; Ultimate bet has just about the best software out there and is so easy to use - and there are only a few more days left to grab their 100% deposit bonus! So if you have not tried these rooms out, you might want to take a few moments of your time to give each one a shot. I know I had forgotten how much I'd liked them - it's realy easy to get locked in to playing exclusively at one site....but you may find that one site is best for tourneys, another for Sit N Gos, and a third for cash games. Maybe your New Year's resolution can be to give some other sites a try. Who knows, you might just love one of them!

01/17/06     Just got back yesterday from taking the three day weekend in Las Vegas, and had a great time as usual. Caught a show, had some great food, and of course played a little poker. I did not have a long period of time to spend playing, only a couple hours at a time, so I decided not to get involved with any of the no limit games. Instead I jumped in on a few $2-$4 games knowing full well that the players would be awful. I was not disappointed in that regard at all. I raised with AK from middle position and another player with AT called me all the way down when an ace flopped. Dealt KT diamonds a flop came down Ad Jd 4c. Nut flush draw, straight draw, and Royal flush potential. My heart was beating big as I was at a place with a high hand jackpot of about $1000 for a Royal. No such luck though, but a Qc gave me Broadway to win. Unfortunately I lost all the money I won on that hand when dealt pocket queens. Flop was 5-5-9 rainbow and I bet all the way down never seeing a card higher than a ten. A couple callers on god only knows what draw and then just one caller at the river. He turns over 5-6 offsuit for trips. Unreal, he wasn't even in the hand yet, I raised, and he called with that trash to a raise and 2 callers. Can they see the cards coming? Or do they just play every single hand hoping for that kind of a flop? They never hit all day long except of course against me...ah well, I knew what I was getting into!

01/13/06     Might as well talk about it...my favorite online site may not be my favorite much longer. I'm talking of course about the new Bodog "upgrade" which looks terrible. Not only that, it slows traffic down a lot. People have said the hands per hour has been cut in a third on most tables. Why would they do this!? Well, since then I've been playing on Full Tilt and Poker Room a lot...who knows might be switching over. Bodog still has some great overlays and the Bodog unlimited reload bonus is nice too, but I may just play there for select tournaments now. If you'd like a 100% Full Tilt Poker Bonus or a 20% Poker Room Bonus just use these links.

01/06/06     If you are not currently a player at Ultimate Bet, they are offering up a 100% deposit bonus right now for new sign ups through our link. Their software is one of the best in the industry, and they have a pretty wide variety of games as well. This offer is only good in the month of January though, so jump on this one ASAP, as they are not likely to do this again anytime soon. With this bonus, it's worth a look.

01/01/06     Happy New Year! The holidays are behind us, and unfortunately it's about to be back to the grind once again in 2006. I hope everyone had some wonderful time off, enjoyed time with family, or maybe took a few trips. I'm sure there are a few resolutions out there, and whatever they are, I hope they work for you. Happy 2006 everyone!

12/27/05     Hope everyone had a great Holiday. If you are like me you did not get a chance to play any over the break, but spent it with family and friends having a great time. Of course, you are also probably itching to get back to playing a little, and I would highly recommend taking advantage of Absolute Poker's 200% Deposit Bonus. It is a limited time offer that expires at the end of the year (just a few days away!) so use this link now along with bonus code AP200 to get this offer before it runs out.

12/18/05     Finally had some free time on my hands on a Sunday for a change. I don't know why but I've been so busy on Sundays lately that I have not been able to get into my favorite tournament. Well, this time the Bodog $100,000 tournament was going to be played! I jumped online and registered, and as usual there was a nice big layover of somewhere around $20,000 that Bodog was generous enough to foot the bill for :)  The tournament started out very slow, with people playing much tighter in the first hour than I remember. After a few rounds though, it loosened up a bit, giving me the action I was accustomed to getting on this site. Unfortunately, when you get action, you sometimes get busted, and that was the case for me today. 4 people in an unraised pot I find myself with Q9s and checked to the flop. Three hearts including the ace on the flop, the small blind goes all in, I go in over the top and get called not once but TWICE from behind. Uh oh. Well the SB had trip jacks, the guy after me an ace with decent kicker, and the last guy? K4s in hearts of course so Im drawing dead to a ten of hearts for the straight flush. It did'nt come of course, and I was out quickly. Just in time in fact to enter the $4000 guaranteed tourney that was about to start. Now there I had some better luck (sadly, why in the small one??). Made the final three tables out of a field of 450 to earn back most of the entry into the $100,000 tournament. I'm telling you, if you guys have not played in the $100,000 tournament on Bodog, you are missing out. You get the most bang for your buck of any site out there. And with a $25,000 first prize, it's hard to argue!

12/10/05     Last night I was itching to play a live game, and knew I was going to be over at a friends house in Sherman Oaks. So I looked on the main page and saw Randy's game from my list and decided to take my friend along with me to give it a go. I was pretty happy with the setup, nice poker table, great chips, plenty of cards and a great bar. Table of ten was full when we got there, so we waited around about an hour for seats to open up and had a few drinks in the meantime. My friend sat in first, and then I joined a few minutes later. $20 buy in no limit game, with .25/.50 blinds. Took me a good hour to get used to the play at the table, but found myself involved with a couple big hands before the night was over at 2am (5 hours of playing). Cashed out with $60, and I think I played pretty well. A good time was had by all, and I just might be back again for more! In the meantime, a holiday party tonight hopefully won't leave me too tired for tomorrow's big $100k Bodog tourney. I haven't played that one in some time and it's definitely overdue.

12/03/05     Wow, I knew today's game was going to be a tough one, and that the Bruins were serious dogs going into it, but come on! I wish the Bruins could have shown at least a little heart out there and kept the score respectable. Ok so SC is a better team, but still, you would expect from athletes of this caliber they would get amped up for a game this big and play their hearts out. Even if they lost, they should still want to play a good game. What happened to the mental part of the game??

11/27/05     Happy Thanksgiving everyone - hope your holiday was a great one. I managed to find a little time to get some poker in, finally getting a little break from everything. I played a bunch of sit n gos and unfortunately really didnt have great results, but it was fun. On the other hand, my friend was on fire! I played 4 sit n gos with him and he won each and every one of them. But not just won, he was down to like 100 chips in 2 of them, and each time when he made his stand he doubled up, or even quaded up with pocket sixes with 3 callers and not one of them hit a pair to beat him. He was a true luckbox, winning every single race that he was in, and even sucking out in some situations he was dominated. Man I wish I could win races even 50% of the time, I'm just cursed when it comes to those. Ah well, that's poker! Hopefully I will be getting down to one of the local cardrooms soon, it has been a while since I've played live.

11/11/05     For a limited time this month we are offering up sponsorship deals to Bodog. If you are a NEW player to the Bodog site, just sign up for an account using our link, make your first deposit and email us with your full name and email address that you used for the sign up. Within 2 business days we will send $20 to your neteller or paypal account. You won't find a better deal, or a better site! Plus, you still get the 10% deposit bonus and unlimited 10% reload bonuses!

11/05/05     Big News! I've just arranged another exclusive deal for readers of this site, and you won't want to miss it. Check out http://www.ucla-poker.net/ for information on intercollegiate poker tournaments online, as well as sponsorship offers where you can play for free! Take a look and give me your feedback.

10/29/05     Well I finally found some time to play last night, and did pretty well. I wanted to play in a larger multi table tournament, and my favorite nightly one on Bodog was starting up at 7:30pm. I played a couple sit n gos while I was waiting, and took second in both. The first one I was 25% of the chip leader's stack and just couldn't get up, but in the second one I got all the money in (and had him covered) with A7o to his J9o. An ace hit the flop and they I watched the straight build around him to take me down to 10% of the chips. Ah well, the 600 person MTT was just starting. Now this is one fun tourney...Friday night and lots of players are drunk and loose. I was being paid off right and left by people, and competition didn't get too stiff until around the second break. Going into hour three we were on the bubble, but some tight play with a few moves made at good times allowed me to head into the final two tables. Ended up mixing it up with JJ, called all in by AK and lost the race. Out in 14th place. Not too bad out of 600 people! With the overlay the payout was about 8 times the entry fee, so not bad, but man would it be nice to get deep into the final table for a change. Want to try your luck at Bodog? Just click this link to get a 10% Deposit Bonus with unlimited 10% reload bonuses.

10/27/05     Special offer! I've arranged an exclusive deal for all you LApokerplayers.com readers. Sign up at Revolutionary poker  using my link and use the bonus code BRUINS and you will get an EXTRA 10% on top of our already great 30% first time deposit bonus offer. Hurry, this is a limited time offer!

10/23/05     It's been a busy week with school and I haven't had much time to play. I'm jones'n a little for a game so I might jump online and play a couple sit n go tourneys. I'm itching to feel the cards though so I may have to make a Vegas trip soon. I really do wish that the local card rooms here had a decent structure on their NL games...Ah well, maybe a little home game action!

10/16/05     I played in the $100 + $9 buy in tournament at Bodog today. I love this site for their tournaments, they have some guaranteed money events which end up with big overlays as they rarely get the required number of players. The $100 + $9 is no exception, and at $100,000 guaranteed its a pretty big overlay. There were 740 people today for a free $26,000 from Bodog. Anyway, the tournament started out just like all the other buy ins, people making huge overplays with top pairs etc, and generall busting out quite quickly. I was playing pretty tight and conservative as it was my first big money tourney, but solid play landed me at double the starting stack at the first break. After the first break, the play improved a bit, but was still a bit reckless. Another hour of tight play though took me up to around 3500 chips and into the second break. Coming into the third hour is where I made my mistake. We were nearing the money, and I found myself making the classic too tight mistake when the rest of the table started to tighten up. I had set a goal of making the money rather than aiming high, so my play became a little too timid I think, and I lost a good amount of chips as a result. I did however squeak into the money, and finally made my double up attempt with KQs. I got two callers, which didnt make me too happy, but when the flop came down Q93 I felt pretty good. Check check from the opponents and the turn is a blank. First to act fires a bet, but is called, and the river brings the dreaded Ace. They turned over 10-10 and A6o respectively, so I was pretty bummed that the bet from the tens didnt get the ace out. Oh well, still not a bad finish to a big money tourney! If you have not played in this tourney, you really owe it to yourself to try it out. The overlay is huge, and final table money starts at $1600 going up to $25,000 for the winner. New to Bodog? Just click this link to get a 10% Deposit Bonus with unlimited 10% reload bonuses.

10/13/05     Worst beat I've ever seen happened tonight. My friend and I are playing a sit n go when this hand comes up. He has pocket queens and raises the 15/30 blinds up to 130. Two callers. Flop comes down Q94 rainbow, so my friend throws out a weak bet of 60 to make it look like he didnt hit the flop. Both opponents call. Turn is an A, so he's hoping someone made their ace and he will get action. He checks to show fear of the ace, and second to act bets 200. Third player folds off and my friend raises all in. Other player calls and flips over A9o for two pair. He was a .4% chance on the flop, improved to 4.5% chance here at the turn. He's drawing dead to an ace, and guess what card comes....yep another ace (turned out to be the case ace as someone else folded one). Unreal beat. I just hate getting all your money into the pot as a huge favorite, and yet you lose! ARG!

10/11/05     Why are the card rooms in Los Angeles so terrible with their no limit games? When I go to Las Vegas, I love to play $1-$2 blind no limit hold em, with max $200 buy in. 100 times the BB, thats just right! So what are the local casinos thinking with their $100 max buy in $2-$3 blind no limit games? It's ridiculous to think this is poker and not just luck...with a bring in raise on the order of $15-$20, you have to push all in on the flop just to make a pot sized bet. I know they want to generate a lot of rake, but come on!