Monday, December 18, 2006

If I had a Hammer...

So this Hammer thing...I clearly don't have the hang of it quite yet. Ended up playing the pub league freeroll on Friday, since I had to meet two players there to pick up a camcorder for my Good Doctor Mondo to use over the weekend. Anyway, I get there and tell a friend of mine that, if I'm big stacked at the table and get the Hammer, I'm all in.

Guess what. Of course. I'm big stacked, triple up in first hour, and get the hammer. In the BB. I totally chicken out. Flop comes Q87. I check-fold to an all in. Deuce on river. KK wins the hand. I feel worse than a donk.

Anyway, I end up finishing 2nd in the first tourney, out of 55. Nice. So, early in the 2nd tourney, I get the Hammer. Again, in the BB. Blinds are 25/50, and six players call. I go all in. Called by pocket tens, and crushed. I think the lesson is, "grow a pair before it's too late".

Crushed the home game Saturday night, but got rivered by a straight over my flopped two pair in HU and finished 2nd. Not bad. I'll take 2.5x buy-in payoff anytime. Spent most of my FTP time this weekend in .10/.25 and .25/.50 NLHE, and damn if I didn't end up down one buy in after being up four buy-ins. I know, I know, you WANT a caller to your re-raise with nut flush on turn. What you do NOT want is for that fish to hit his four outer on the river. Yes, that happened. Twice. I hate FTP sometimes. Heh. Went from running awesome, to running shitty, in about two hours of play. The bankroll's down to five max buy-ins at .10/.25, but this whole thing of playing NL is still new, and yea, I'll reload if I have to.

Anyway, it was great to hear of smokkee's satelitte rockage this weekend. Wonder how he did in the $500k. Good luck in the Aussie qualifier tonight. Also great fun following the Doyle Brunson WPT stuff.

Someday, I'll learn to take notes. There were actually a couple of interesting FTP hands. Finding the fish at most of the tables wasn't difficult. Avoiding their suckouts was, unfortunately, occasionally impossible. But the real difference between a roughly break even weekend and being up a bit was a bad call with KQ on a K-high board, seeing villian turn over AK. Lessons, lessons, lessons...

Today, I sit at work in a virtually empty office. All the shelving's gone to make room for new carpet tonight. Which makes today utterly fucking boring, and yet I can't leave...argh. There's good midday tourneys up the hill, as well. Still, finding a $75 iTunes gift certificate in my mail inbox is suhweet...gonna start it off with The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. - McAwesome organ driven spy-fi from Europe. Maybe followup with Switzerland's, The Giant Robots, if the US iTunes store carries it. Great, great stuff. This band gets the Mondo's stamp of approval, and if they ever gig in the US, I *will* find a way to get them to a Denver show.

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