April=Mixed bag

April was a strange month for me. First, I had to get through the April 18th tax deadline IRL. Second, I watched in disappointment on Black Friday as the 2 sites I play on were seized by the DOJ and access to my accounts was temporarily suspended. Nearly 2 weeks later PokerStars reached an agreement with the Feds so I was able to access and have already received my funds. It appears the same agreement with Full Tilt is close at hand. Finally, I played a bunch of tournaments in the Borgata Spring Open, only to bubble (not exactly stone bubbles but 3 were within a table or so of the money) almost all of them, some in more dramatic fashion than others.

Now before moving forward in this new poker environment here is a quick recap of April:

On-line Cash +$810.18
On-line tournaments +$555.45
Stars FPP Value (550 VPP x 3.5 factor x 1.5c per) +$28.88
Full Tilt Rakeback +$277.69
Merge Rakeback +$45.17
Live Cash +$20
Live Tournament -$3,050
Live Staking arrangements/swaps/etc. +$942

Total ($370.63)

The Live tournament numbers are skewed, of course, by the brick off at Borgata which included the Spring Open Main Event ($2700) and the $550 6-max as well as several other smaller tournaments. Fortunately, I was successful in some home game tournaments to mute the effect of those losses.

You will notice that I list Merge Rakeback as a new category. In light of the shutdowns, I have moved a minimum of $$$ over to Lock Poker. It is a smallish site on the Merge Network and offers 35% rakeback. The site is small and has minimal PLO8 games but enough that I can 4 or 5 table across different blind levels. In addition, one of their affiliates has a deal running right now that if you rake $1k within 60 days you will be given an Ipad2 (or you can opt for $600 bonus I think). So with that in mind I dumped a few $$$ on there and have been grinding low/mid stakes PLO8 and some of the tournaments. In fact, the first tournament I played on the site ended pretty well:

This was the $10 PLO with rebuys and though it is far from my biggest cash, a win is a win. I also made the Final Table of this tournament Monday night (ultimately finishing 3rd) as well as finishing 2nd in their nightly $60 the same night. I am not going to keep much on this site at all in light of the goings on over the last 3 weeks.

Here's a fun one with a pretty spewy PS/FTP reg...admittedly I get lucky on the flop but we are HU and he is hyper aggro when HU (and only less so when not HU). Sometimes a player just can not beat you, other times you never seem to be able to win a pot of a player. This player has never won stacks from me that i can find in my database and we have a lot of hands together:

Merge $300.00 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo - 2 players - View hand 1296108
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

Hero (BTN/SB): $202.70
BB: $125.75

Pre Flop: ($4.00) Hero is BTN/SB with 4 5 3 T
Hero raises to $9, BB raises to $27, Hero calls $18

Flop: ($54.00) 2 3 A (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($54.00) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $40.50, BB raises to $98.75, Hero calls $58.25

River: ($251.50) K (2 players)

Final Pot: $251.50
Hero shows 4 5 3 T
BB shows 6 A Q 2
Hero wins $125.50
Hero wins $125.50
(Rake: $0.50)