Klopzi's Mediocre Poker One man's journey from poker obscurity to poker mediocrity. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 51 0 52 5733

Articles from Klopzi's Mediocre Poker

Cards and Cribs 2007-09-17 07:00:00 Although my weekend started off being all about the poker, Saturday morning saw me trading in my poker hat for my "daddy" hat. It felt good to help get things ready for the arrival of our new child and the time away from the tables let me simmer down a bit after that pounding I took at the tables on Friday night. Friday night started with a bang. I got home from work; gave my son a bath; picked up a Purolator package from an obscure store in a half-abandoned mall; stopped at the liquor store to pick up a little something; and finally, I made an expensive trip to Wal-mart to pick up a new crib, a four-drawer chest, and a slew of other baby-related sundries. I managed to get everything home in one piece thanks to the help of my wife's family. I ran everything upstairs into the new baby's room. As my wife put our son down to sleep for the night, I high-tailed it to the TV room to prepare a spot for my wife and I to eat dinner. With our son soundly asleep, we ate a huge plate of. ...

Reload at PokerStars! 2007-09-14 13:30:00 Just got word that PokerStars is offering a WCOOP 2007 reload bonus! It looks like the bonus is 25% up to $125 with bonus code WCOOP2007. Assuming this is legit (I can't verify any of this right now), it looks like Stars will be getting the bulk of my business for a while. As long as the bonus is no worse than 15x (update: it is a 15x bonus), I'll make the move. Don't worry Full Tilt: I'll be back once the bonus is cleared! Full bonus details can be found here. Visit my site for the rest of this story and other content. ...

Less talk, more numbers! 2007-09-14 07:00:00 Another weekend upon us which means more time for family, more time for poker, and one week closer to our new addition to the family. But today's post isn't about my wife, my kids, my house or my job: today it's all about the poker. And instead of discussing strategy or long term goals, I'll be focusing on just one thing: my sit-n-go results. Are you ready for some results-oriented discussion? Let's do it... It's been two weeks since I started exclusively playing sit-n-gos. Overall, things are alright: I'm playing well and making moneyhitting the SNG tables. I just happen to have summary of my play so far: Buy-inPlayedFinishesWon/LostROI%ITM%1st2nd3rdBubbleOther$5/$6411101$28108%75%$10/$112874557$23270%57%$20/$2219103510($236)(52%)21%SUMMARY519591018$243%45% While it's still too early to come to any conclusions, I do feel good about my game and my numbers. Excluding the tough break I had at the $20/$22 buy-in SNGs, I've been pretty rock solid. I'm getting to the bubb ...

SNGs and Dirty Diapers 2007-09-12 07:00:00 There is lots going on in my life right now and poker is definitely not at the top of the list. But poker's been a good friend to me over the past couple years so I'm making time to hit the tables no matter how complicated or busy things get. Of greatest importance to me right now is the upcoming birth of my second child. We expect the new baby to arrive any time in the next four weeks! It's crazy to think that I'll be a father again so soon after the birth of my son less than a year ago. My wife and I decided to go for the "ripping the band-aid off quickly" approach to having kids. The advantages to having a second baby so soon after the first? We're used to not sleeping, so having a second baby around will not affect our mental capacities all that much. My son and his brother/sister will be close enough in age to be able to hang out and play together. My wife and I are still in diaper-change mode: poopie diapers are still the norm in our day to day lives. Finally, my ...

Vengeance will be mine... 2007-09-10 07:00:00 I had a great weekend spending time with my family. I also had a terrible time at the tables. Having had great success at the Full Tilt's $11 + $1 Turbo SNG tables, I was really pumped about trying my hand at FT's $22 + $2 Turbo tables. Unfortunately, you know that old saying about the best laid plans...? Everything started off quite well. After playing six $22 SNGs, I was close to break even after bubbling twice and finishing in third place three times. The players were not that great and I'd been a little unlucky to finish as poorly as I had. Friday night, I took the night off to watch a movie with my wife. I figured that a relaxing evening away from the poker tables might help me re-focus and give me an edge when I next sat down to play poker. Also, I like watching movies with my wife so it was a win-win situation for me. Saturday, I squeezed in a few sit-n-gos after spending the bulk of my day vaccuuming and cleaning. My plan was to do the cleaning so that my... Visi ...

Testing the Waters 2007-09-06 07:00:00 This isn't the sit-n-go strategy post that I promised yesterday. Instead, I have a recap of last night session at the tables. First off, I have to say that playing sit-n-gos seems to be satisfying my poker addiction and my video game addiction. I satisfy my poker jones by playing poker and winning money; I fill the video game void by being able to declare "I win!" after I take down a sit-n-go. Hopefully I can keep this up when I invariably go through a cold streak at the tables. Last night, I made my way to the $20 sit-n-go tables. I decided to play a regular $20 + $2 at Titan Poker and a $22 + $2 Turbo at Full Tilt. Since the blinds increase so slowly in regular sit-n-gos, I figured I'd easily manage to finish off the Full Tilt turbo well before things got interesting over at Titan. I know discussing results of sit-n-gos is like discussing the intricacies behind a coin flip, but bear with me and I guarantee that we'll easily kill off 5-10 minutes of your workday...as would. ...

Up, Up, and Away! 2007-09-05 07:30:00 After my session last night at Full Tilt, I've decided to move up to the $20 buy-in sit-n-gos. I've only played twenty-two SNGs since last Friday, and only eighteen at the $10/$11 buy-in level, but I feel quite ready to take on the bigger buy-in games. If I were to tell you my ROI% right now, you'd punch me in the face and call me a liar. In any case, short-term variance or not, the siren song of the $20s are calling my name. Where to play, where to play? Full Tilt has been very kind to me in the past few days and I'll definitely give them a good chunk of my business in the coming weeks. However, I know for a fact that the SNGs running at Titan Poker are some of the fishiest around. Whereas Full Tilt's 9-person Turbos take roughly 45 minutes from start to finish, Titan's 10-person Turbos struggle to reach the 30 minute mark. In fact, in one SNG I played at Titan over the weekend, there were only five players left by the time level two started. Now's that fishy! The onl ...

Hey There! 2007-09-05 07:00:00 This is a message to all my loyal, or first time, readers out there who happen to have web sites, blogs, or any form of online media distribution: Please link me up! Unfortunately, I'm not one to go around from site to site, leaving comments such as: "Hey! Great site! I have a site too! Wanna exchange links?" Generally, I was going under the assumption that if someone came to this site and liked my content, I'd get linked up in short order: I guess that makes an ass out of me and umption. Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to tell you what to do here. This is more of a favour which I'll return in kind if you have a poker-related blog that you'd like to have linked on my site. I try quite hard to provide the best content I can while maintaining my primary focus on poker. I'd feel awful asking anyone to link to this site if I felt that its content was sub-par or unrelated to poker. I haven't really cared all that much about who linked to Klopzi's Mediocre Poker and ...

LOL Donkaments 2007-09-04 07:00:00 I started playing poker in early 2005, around the time my wife and I were married. Like most players, I started out at the play money tables. And like most players, I soon discovered that poker without money isn't really poker. As if sensing my displeasure with the online poker scene, Tiger Gaming stepped up and gave me $5 of real money to use at their tables! And so it began... A bankroll of $5 leaves very few options when it comes to playing poker. Luckily, Tiger Gaming catered well to low-budget poker players: No-Limit Hold'em: Tiger had a number of $5 buy-in NL hold'em cash game tables. Although quite reasonably priced, I was not willing to put 100% of my bankroll on the line. Even in the beginning, I was instinctively driven to keep my bankroll alive and healthy. I have to thank my wife for this since she's the one who was very wary of me making any real money deposits to any online poker or gambling establishments. Limit Hold'em: Although Ultimate Bet had the lowest ...

Long Weekend! 2007-08-31 17:30:00 Is there any better feeling than getting ready to leave work on the Friday before a long weekend? Other than getting married, witnessing the birth of your children, winning the lottery, developing x-ray vision, finding out you have the ability to fly, or raking in the largest pot of your life: no! For those of you keeping tabs, here are my plans for the weekend: Drinks and sit-n-gos! I know better than to play NL cash games with a few drinks in me but SNGs, on the other hand... Mr. V. will hopefully stop by this evening and walk me through some SNGs. He's actually quite good at these things and I'm always up for learning more tricks of the trade. Sit-n-gos have not treated me all that well in the past and I'm hoping to turn things around. While on the subject of poker, I'll be hitting up Titan Poker (my new all-time favourite site) for some more $50 NL fun. As my bankroll approaches the levels necessary for $100 NL, I've found myself really looking forward to my "short but.. ...

Sklansky Bucks 2007-08-30 07:00:00 Is poker a game of skill? Or is that an excuse we use to justify our gambling addiction? I decided to find out for myself by taking a look at my results at the 6-max $50 NL tables over the past couple months. Since my return to the tables, I've had a moderate amount of success. I'm not quite ready to play $100 NL but I'm getting there. Before sitting down to play last night, I wanted to determine whether my current win rate was the result of luck or skill. I decided to download PokerEV - software that, amongst many other things, can determine whether you are running "hot" or "cold" - after reading about this piece of software on Lumpy's blog. With the software installed, I let PokerEV take a look at my PokerTracker database. PokerEV crunched some number and was then ready to give me the answers I so desperately sought. Lo and behold, PokerEV let me know that I was running cold. My expected value in the hands I was playing (ie. Sklansky Bucks) far outweighed my actual retu ...

Hellmuth vs. Matusow 2007-08-29 18:30:00 Anyone who watched Season 3 of High Stakes Poker is already well aware of Phil Hellmuth's awful reputation as a high stakes no-limit hold'em player. Well deserved or not, Hellmuth's time for revenge was at hand in the inaugural episode of High Stakes Poker Season 4. The hand in question takes place after the 4:00 minutes mark of the video below. Take note of how Mike Matusow takes it upon himself to rib Hellmuth. Now watch as Hellmuth gets the last laugh... var host = document.location;document.write(""); Not only did Hellmuth win a big pot: he also collected $500 from each player at the table for having won a hand with the hammer - 72 offsuit. Sure, Hellmuth can be dick, egotistical, cocky, arrogant...but you've got to give him credit for sticking to his guns and playing his game, night after night, tournament after tournament. Visit my site for the rest of this story and other content. ...

The Balancing Act 2007-08-29 07:00:00 Today I'll be discussing a topic that I've already brought up a number of times over the past couple years. The issue at hand is one of balance: finding a perfect blend of family, work, free time, and poker. Perhaps it's a little odd that I separate my free time and poker into separate entities even though I am simply a recreational poker player. It's quite possible that this is a symptom that helps explain my constant struggle to incorporate all of my different identities - husband, father, employee, friend, poker player, and video game fanatic - into one cohesive package. As I watch my son crawl around the floor, sticking everything from toys to food to carpet lint into his mouth, I know that he has it pretty good. My son wakes up, eats, plays, and sleeps in almost equal parts each and every day. His concept of self is limited only to what he can taste, feel, hear and see. He doesn't need to worry about spending too much time performing any one activity at the expense of.. ...

Top 10: Tuff_Fish Moments 2007-08-27 07:00:00 When we think about America's greatest heroes, many names probably come to mind. As a Canadian, my vote's not for any U.S. presidents, civil rights activists, or anyone else who may have helped make the U.S.A. the place it is today. Nope - we have tons of those types of guys and gals up here in Canada. There is one U.S. citizen, however, that I feel raises the bar for all peoples and persons here on Earth. And who might this greatest American hero be? Tuff_Fish, that's who! Anthony Sandstrom, aka Tuff_Fish, has been in the news recently having launched an initiative to get online poker legislation on the California ballot this year. However, it's not Tony's political savvy or legislative know-how that makes him one of the greatest poker players of all time. Although a regular, mild-mannered guy in real life, Tony's online persona, Tuff_Fish, allowed Tony to explore the darker side of the human spirit. In a series of recordings, Tuff_Fish documented his struggles in th ...

Review: Internet-Poker.co.uk 2007-08-26 23:30:00 Ten years ago, how many of you knew anything about poker? How about five years ago? For me, poker was a game you played around the kitchen table. Cigars, snacks and drinks were equally (or more important) than the cards we played and the penny antes we lost each hand. And yet now, poker is a worldwide phenomenon played by everyone and his brother. And thanks to UK Poker Sites (http://www.internet-poker.co.uk/), there is no reason for not giving poker a shot. Every poker review site worth its salt needs to give its readers three vital pieces of information: A list of US Poker Rooms that will accept U.S. players. Last year, this wasn't really a consideration; however, we live in a post UIGEA world. And until the lawmakers in the States smarten up, U.S. players need to know which sites will welcome their business with open arms. UK Poker Sites presents a list of 6 great poker rooms that accept U.S. players, along with deposit bonuses for new players and room reviews. This... ... Internet