I should have posted this earlier, but a band I used to play bass for, The Jet Age, is currently on tour and playing live in-studio at KEXP 90.3 at 4pm EDT, 1pm Pacific...just about now.
You can stream it live here.
Their Denver show on Saturday night was sparsely attended (naturally, as it was first time out west for them), but full of rock'n'roll tasty goodness.
That is all.
Very little poker this weekend, though I managed to satellite into the MSOP $15+1.50 HORSE, and promptly unregistered, as I wouldn't be home to play it.
Those MSOP sats are pretty good bankroll builders!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Weird Night at the Tables
So I played the daily KORS last night, and it turned out to be a heads-up deathmatch SNG between myself and Surflexus, since no one else registered. Anyway, I did manage to win that (woo-hoo!), but with only two entrants, no $26 token for the next level...only $16 for an $8 buy-in.
Played a .50 rebuy to Full Tilt's MSOP event #44 this afternoon. Won my entry with one re-buy, and of course unregistered from the MSOP, since it's during my work hours. My goodness so many people don't know how to play satellites. 14 seats, and with 16-17 left, folks would call all-ins with A8 sooted, and go from a comfortable position to being bubble boy. Had fun with one asshat I sent to the rail (when he overplayed middle two pair). In the end, I basically won $15 for my $1.10 buy-in
Managed to win a Tier One token during the frenzy, which I'll probably use next Tuesday in a huge 8pm donkament.
And that was about it.
Completely got my ass kicked up one end and down the other in every Bodog tourney I played. Went out of their $10 turbo MTT 10 spots from $$$ when I raised ATo in early position (was looking to steal, really), got called by two microstack all-ins, and then got re-shoved by one of the blinds. I read the overshove as an attempt to isolate the two micro all-ins, so I called (he had me covered), and I ran into QQ. One of the micros had an A, and I whiffed on the A and eventual broadway draws. If I win that pot, I cash easily.
Also got coolered out of the $5k, and aggro'd my way out of the $5R and $6k.
So my Bodog roll is about 1/4 off its high, and even with three tourney "wins" last night, I was down overall. I don't think I've ever lost so much on a night with so many 1st place finishes.
I should probably stop playing the $30 buy-ins at Bodog until I can achieve another decent ($300+) tourney score. I feel okay playing up to $20 buy-in, at least until my roll drops below $1k, and it's starting to get close to doing so... ever since my $5R win, I've done nothing on Bodog but lose. Probably 15 straight non-cashes now?
Played a .50 rebuy to Full Tilt's MSOP event #44 this afternoon. Won my entry with one re-buy, and of course unregistered from the MSOP, since it's during my work hours. My goodness so many people don't know how to play satellites. 14 seats, and with 16-17 left, folks would call all-ins with A8 sooted, and go from a comfortable position to being bubble boy. Had fun with one asshat I sent to the rail (when he overplayed middle two pair). In the end, I basically won $15 for my $1.10 buy-in
Managed to win a Tier One token during the frenzy, which I'll probably use next Tuesday in a huge 8pm donkament.
And that was about it.
Completely got my ass kicked up one end and down the other in every Bodog tourney I played. Went out of their $10 turbo MTT 10 spots from $$$ when I raised ATo in early position (was looking to steal, really), got called by two microstack all-ins, and then got re-shoved by one of the blinds. I read the overshove as an attempt to isolate the two micro all-ins, so I called (he had me covered), and I ran into QQ. One of the micros had an A, and I whiffed on the A and eventual broadway draws. If I win that pot, I cash easily.
Also got coolered out of the $5k, and aggro'd my way out of the $5R and $6k.
So my Bodog roll is about 1/4 off its high, and even with three tourney "wins" last night, I was down overall. I don't think I've ever lost so much on a night with so many 1st place finishes.
I should probably stop playing the $30 buy-ins at Bodog until I can achieve another decent ($300+) tourney score. I feel okay playing up to $20 buy-in, at least until my roll drops below $1k, and it's starting to get close to doing so... ever since my $5R win, I've done nothing on Bodog but lose. Probably 15 straight non-cashes now?
24 Hours of Booty
Noted blogger, unofficial cruise-ship Julie of all things WPBT, and all around good-guy Falstaff is once again taking part in 24 Hours of Booty, the official 24 hour cycling event of the Lance Armstrong Foundation.
As of this moment, Falstaff is at 41% of his overall fundraising goal of $2,000.00. Aside from suggesting to this guy what a way to spend a bracelet race win, we should all be helping out.
Falstaff, hope you can avoid the saddle sores!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Gaping Holes in the Bloggerment Calendar?
Well, yeah, but not exactly.
The Bodog Blogger Tournament is on hiatus for a wee bit.
The Skillz Series appears to be done.
But never fear, the KORS is here, and I'm not talking about this Kors.
Check it out, you Razz degens. Nightly shots to go from an $8.80 into a $200+16 end of month Razz tourney. I'm lickin' my chops, how about you?
Not sure about about this bloke, though:
He doesn't look like much of a Razz player. Don't. Bore. Nina!
Anyway, the nightly KORS is at 7:45 MDT, so I think I can make it, and it may just be the new hit of the bloggerment summer.
Also, I was clued in on Rambler's ongoing series of tourneys. Tonight's is a $5.50 HA Pot Limit, that sounds like something straight outta the Skillz school. Look for the 21:00 $5.50 HA Pot Limit, password is "epicfail" I learned about it too late to register this morning, so we'll see if I get home from work in time. But if I do, I'm so there.
BTW, a big shout out to our different little yellow BWOP, who's playing in the PLO8 event at the WSOP today. I know her chipstack just took a big hit, but she got a nice early shoutout by the Pokernews crew in the first entry of today's Live Reporting:
"1 hour 52 minutes ago | Posted by Pojo
Notables in the Field
Some of the notable players in the field today include Mark Seif, Humberto Brenes, Barny Boatman, Joe Hachem, and Carol Kline."
Pretty awesome. Let's send her some major chip-up vibes.
The Bodog Blogger Tournament is on hiatus for a wee bit.
The Skillz Series appears to be done.
But never fear, the KORS is here, and I'm not talking about this Kors.
Check it out, you Razz degens. Nightly shots to go from an $8.80 into a $200+16 end of month Razz tourney. I'm lickin' my chops, how about you?
Not sure about about this bloke, though:
He doesn't look like much of a Razz player. Don't. Bore. Nina!
Anyway, the nightly KORS is at 7:45 MDT, so I think I can make it, and it may just be the new hit of the bloggerment summer.
Also, I was clued in on Rambler's ongoing series of tourneys. Tonight's is a $5.50 HA Pot Limit, that sounds like something straight outta the Skillz school. Look for the 21:00 $5.50 HA Pot Limit, password is "epicfail" I learned about it too late to register this morning, so we'll see if I get home from work in time. But if I do, I'm so there.
BTW, a big shout out to our different little yellow BWOP, who's playing in the PLO8 event at the WSOP today. I know her chipstack just took a big hit, but she got a nice early shoutout by the Pokernews crew in the first entry of today's Live Reporting:
"1 hour 52 minutes ago | Posted by Pojo
Notables in the Field
Some of the notable players in the field today include Mark Seif, Humberto Brenes, Barny Boatman, Joe Hachem, and Carol Kline."
Pretty awesome. Let's send her some major chip-up vibes.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Call Me Uncle
Spent the weekend in Milwaukee, with my older sister, her husband, and her brand new baby girl. Well, nearly brand new -- she's now three months old:
Hanging out with that lil' angel was so much fun, I never even felt like going to Potawatami for some NL action, not that I'd planned to. I did go so far as to Mapquest the drive from my hotel to my sis' with it as a waypoint, however. Heh.
Did manage to play some poker on trip. A three hour layover at O'Hare on the way up resulted in me a) finishing 5th in a $10 90 player SNG at Full Tilt (with about 6 KO bounties), and at the same time, dropping a 50NL buyin when I check shoved A2 on an A29Ax board into. (I was BB in an unraised pot pf) Coolered, but broke even.
Late night tournies in my hotel room were much worse, finishing close to the money a ton of times, usually going out on hands where I flop a set, bet it, call a shove by an underset, only to see some asshat who called two shoves with TPTK hit runner runner bigger full house. One of these was in a $30R where I was in for $93, so my recently-grown Bodog roll took a nice hit on the trip. Oh well. I'm proud of the fact that I didn't let any of those events tilt me and put any sort of damper on the trip. But look at that pic above once again...how could anything put a damper on spending time with that little angel.
Hanging out with that lil' angel was so much fun, I never even felt like going to Potawatami for some NL action, not that I'd planned to. I did go so far as to Mapquest the drive from my hotel to my sis' with it as a waypoint, however. Heh.
Did manage to play some poker on trip. A three hour layover at O'Hare on the way up resulted in me a) finishing 5th in a $10 90 player SNG at Full Tilt (with about 6 KO bounties), and at the same time, dropping a 50NL buyin when I check shoved A2 on an A29Ax board into. (I was BB in an unraised pot pf) Coolered, but broke even.
Late night tournies in my hotel room were much worse, finishing close to the money a ton of times, usually going out on hands where I flop a set, bet it, call a shove by an underset, only to see some asshat who called two shoves with TPTK hit runner runner bigger full house. One of these was in a $30R where I was in for $93, so my recently-grown Bodog roll took a nice hit on the trip. Oh well. I'm proud of the fact that I didn't let any of those events tilt me and put any sort of damper on the trip. But look at that pic above once again...how could anything put a damper on spending time with that little angel.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Strange Days At The Dealership
Mostly non-poker content
Okay, so I was going to make my next post sort of a run-through of last night's tournament win in the Bodog $5 rebuy*. Well, today's car service events were too surreal to ignore, and probably more interesting to write about, anyway.
I don't know whether I've blogged on this subject before, but I drive a pretty sweet Infiniti G35x sedan, which is pretty great, except that I now live in Colorado -- a state with only three Infiniti dealers in the entire state, none of them within 50 miles of my home. So, I try to get things such as today's routine 7500 mile service/tire rotation done during an extended lunch hour, at an Infiniti dealer at the south end of the Denver metro area.
I should have known things would not be routine today when, instead of having to go inside and wait 10 minutes before a service advisor writes up the order -- the advisor (a new guy, at least from the last time I was there) meets me outside and just takes my keys and service book. He was a bit excited and in a rush, which turned out to be a bad omen that I should have read.
Well, a few minutes later, I'm inside reading news on their lounge computer, when this service advisor (let's call him Mark, since that's his name), tells me he needs to get me a courtesy car. Why, you may ask? Because he was in such a hurry that he ran my car into another customer's SUV, and now both vehicles have to go to a body shop. Fuck me. The damage isn't severe (the SUV got it a fair bit worse, actually), but it's real damage nonetheless, with lots of paint transfers on my right rear door, quarterpanel, etc.
So Mark says he's going to make me whole. Okay, fine. I'm irritated, but I get my courtesy car, detour three times to get back to the office, because of three separate intersection-closing accidents (how ironic). An hour later, I get a call from Mark, who tells me my $100 service also needs a $550 brake job, complete with new front rotors and pads. Now I'm pissed. I'm not surprised, because my car's been abusive on pads, the rotors have already been turned, and my brakes squeal. but that's sorta beside the point, by now.
In my mind, I'm thinking you've crashed my car, and now on top of that, you've added $550 to a routine service bill? WTF? And you're gonna make me whole? Yeah, we'll see. The body work will end up showing up in a Carfax report, undoubtedly, so you're gonna have to go beyond just paying for the damage you caused when you crashed my car -- that's what I'm thinking, at this point. They're gonna have to pay at least 1/2 of my service and brake repair bill, for me to feel made whole, at least to make up for the inevitable lessened value of the car for the need for body work. I mean, you shouldn't have to tell me you're going to fix the damage you caused, the question is, what are you going to do to satisfy a customer who's been bringing his car to you for ALL service for the last three years, and who has referred new vehicle customers to your dealership who ended up purchasing vehicles?
But I wasn't ready to spring this on Mark just yet. Why? Funny you should ask.
A few months or so ago, I helped convince one of the partners I work for, into buying a 2008 Infiniti G35x from the very same dealer. Oddly enough, he had his car in for routine service and a door ding fix today, as well. Very ironic, but so perfect. His service advisor was also Mark. Well, Mark called to let him know his car was ready, when the partner asked him whether he was crashing any cars today. Hahahahaha, brilliant. It eventually came out that I work for him, and that it was his paralegal's car that the service advisor crashed.
Even better -- when the partner was dropping off his car, during random small talk, Mark learned that we work in automotive franchise litigation. That is, disputes between automotive manufacturers and their dealers. As such, we know a lot about the internal practices of automotive dealerships, as dealership day-to-day operations are occasionally significant to some of our litigations.
Well, they're gonna make me whole next week, that's for sure. Because they're going to know if they don't, I'm going to submit a service survey to the manufacturer that's going to go a good ways towards costing the dealer part of a monthly bonus they should normally be in the running for, for achieving a certain composite service satisfaction score.
Infiniti's not a client of ours, and I don't know the rules of any particular survey score bonus program they have with their dealers. But if it's at all similar to the programs our clients do have, and I'm certainly within rights to give you a zero satisfaction score (after all, you crashed my car!), why should I not submit a poor survey? I'm the absolute opposite of satisfied at this point.
Anyway, the car won't be ready until Tuesday now, so we'll see what happens next week.
Oh yeah, the tourney.
As for the tourney, after my initial buy-in/rebuy got river 3-outed, and sticking around because of a very soft table, I ended up the rebuy hour at just above average chips. At final two tables, a caught a miracle river 4-outer to fill a boat, when smal blind slow played his flopped nut flush, and I shoved his CR on turn with bottom two pair -- yeah I was a donk, but I put him on a draw, and frankly, I've been due a 4-outer of my own:
Got to final table 4th in chips (8-handed final table, because 9th got knocked out as we were breaking table), knocked out a couple shorties, went to HU with a 5:3 chiplead, HU lasted about 20 hands, and that was that.
Okay, so I was going to make my next post sort of a run-through of last night's tournament win in the Bodog $5 rebuy*. Well, today's car service events were too surreal to ignore, and probably more interesting to write about, anyway.
I don't know whether I've blogged on this subject before, but I drive a pretty sweet Infiniti G35x sedan, which is pretty great, except that I now live in Colorado -- a state with only three Infiniti dealers in the entire state, none of them within 50 miles of my home. So, I try to get things such as today's routine 7500 mile service/tire rotation done during an extended lunch hour, at an Infiniti dealer at the south end of the Denver metro area.
I should have known things would not be routine today when, instead of having to go inside and wait 10 minutes before a service advisor writes up the order -- the advisor (a new guy, at least from the last time I was there) meets me outside and just takes my keys and service book. He was a bit excited and in a rush, which turned out to be a bad omen that I should have read.
Well, a few minutes later, I'm inside reading news on their lounge computer, when this service advisor (let's call him Mark, since that's his name), tells me he needs to get me a courtesy car. Why, you may ask? Because he was in such a hurry that he ran my car into another customer's SUV, and now both vehicles have to go to a body shop. Fuck me. The damage isn't severe (the SUV got it a fair bit worse, actually), but it's real damage nonetheless, with lots of paint transfers on my right rear door, quarterpanel, etc.
So Mark says he's going to make me whole. Okay, fine. I'm irritated, but I get my courtesy car, detour three times to get back to the office, because of three separate intersection-closing accidents (how ironic). An hour later, I get a call from Mark, who tells me my $100 service also needs a $550 brake job, complete with new front rotors and pads. Now I'm pissed. I'm not surprised, because my car's been abusive on pads, the rotors have already been turned, and my brakes squeal. but that's sorta beside the point, by now.
In my mind, I'm thinking you've crashed my car, and now on top of that, you've added $550 to a routine service bill? WTF? And you're gonna make me whole? Yeah, we'll see. The body work will end up showing up in a Carfax report, undoubtedly, so you're gonna have to go beyond just paying for the damage you caused when you crashed my car -- that's what I'm thinking, at this point. They're gonna have to pay at least 1/2 of my service and brake repair bill, for me to feel made whole, at least to make up for the inevitable lessened value of the car for the need for body work. I mean, you shouldn't have to tell me you're going to fix the damage you caused, the question is, what are you going to do to satisfy a customer who's been bringing his car to you for ALL service for the last three years, and who has referred new vehicle customers to your dealership who ended up purchasing vehicles?
But I wasn't ready to spring this on Mark just yet. Why? Funny you should ask.
A few months or so ago, I helped convince one of the partners I work for, into buying a 2008 Infiniti G35x from the very same dealer. Oddly enough, he had his car in for routine service and a door ding fix today, as well. Very ironic, but so perfect. His service advisor was also Mark. Well, Mark called to let him know his car was ready, when the partner asked him whether he was crashing any cars today. Hahahahaha, brilliant. It eventually came out that I work for him, and that it was his paralegal's car that the service advisor crashed.
Even better -- when the partner was dropping off his car, during random small talk, Mark learned that we work in automotive franchise litigation. That is, disputes between automotive manufacturers and their dealers. As such, we know a lot about the internal practices of automotive dealerships, as dealership day-to-day operations are occasionally significant to some of our litigations.
Well, they're gonna make me whole next week, that's for sure. Because they're going to know if they don't, I'm going to submit a service survey to the manufacturer that's going to go a good ways towards costing the dealer part of a monthly bonus they should normally be in the running for, for achieving a certain composite service satisfaction score.
Infiniti's not a client of ours, and I don't know the rules of any particular survey score bonus program they have with their dealers. But if it's at all similar to the programs our clients do have, and I'm certainly within rights to give you a zero satisfaction score (after all, you crashed my car!), why should I not submit a poor survey? I'm the absolute opposite of satisfied at this point.
Anyway, the car won't be ready until Tuesday now, so we'll see what happens next week.
Oh yeah, the tourney.
As for the tourney, after my initial buy-in/rebuy got river 3-outed, and sticking around because of a very soft table, I ended up the rebuy hour at just above average chips. At final two tables, a caught a miracle river 4-outer to fill a boat, when smal blind slow played his flopped nut flush, and I shoved his CR on turn with bottom two pair -- yeah I was a donk, but I put him on a draw, and frankly, I've been due a 4-outer of my own:
Got to final table 4th in chips (8-handed final table, because 9th got knocked out as we were breaking table), knocked out a couple shorties, went to HU with a 5:3 chiplead, HU lasted about 20 hands, and that was that.
I Thought I Would Be Writing a Tilt Rant Tonight
After getting knocked out of three tourneys on river three outers real close to $$$ (or sorta close), such as the Bodog MSOP 3 tables from $$$, I really thought I'd be ranting Waffles-stylee tonight.
That is, until this:
Thanks, Bodog.
I'll write up something on it sometime tomorrow (gotta work lunch around a car appointment). But it feels good. That's two MTT take downs on Bodog for me in a month, and my biggest Bodog cash ever. Ya, ya, I know, it's still not even $700, but whatev.
That is, until this:
Thanks, Bodog.
I'll write up something on it sometime tomorrow (gotta work lunch around a car appointment). But it feels good. That's two MTT take downs on Bodog for me in a month, and my biggest Bodog cash ever. Ya, ya, I know, it's still not even $700, but whatev.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
This One Goes Out to Iggy
"I'm voting Republican because...sometimes, the Constitution is just one big, inconvenient headache."
No Republicans were harmed in the making of this film.
No Republicans were harmed in the making of this film.
Pimp Your Skillz
Well, it appears the Bodonkey is taking a bit of time off, so there's less bloggeriffic fun to be pimpin' for Tuesday night shenanigans.
However, the Blogger Skillz Series (formerly hosted by the King of Donks) is still running, if currently host-free. Tonight's edition is return of the HOE. That's right, Limit Hold'em/Omatard 8. Should be fun!
But lest we forget about the find folks over at Bodog, they're still running the Mini Series of Poker, a series of tournaments mirroring the WSOP Hold'em events, but for 1% of the buy-in. You'll find me donking it up there tonight in a $16.50 NLHE event, as of 9pm EDT. Maybe I can stay in longer than the Rockies can stay in a game, for once.
Anyway, it's probably my last night of pokerz before I go to Milwaukee to see my new niece, so let's get some game on, kids.
However, the Blogger Skillz Series (formerly hosted by the King of Donks) is still running, if currently host-free. Tonight's edition is return of the HOE. That's right, Limit Hold'em/Omatard 8. Should be fun!
But lest we forget about the find folks over at Bodog, they're still running the Mini Series of Poker, a series of tournaments mirroring the WSOP Hold'em events, but for 1% of the buy-in. You'll find me donking it up there tonight in a $16.50 NLHE event, as of 9pm EDT. Maybe I can stay in longer than the Rockies can stay in a game, for once.
Anyway, it's probably my last night of pokerz before I go to Milwaukee to see my new niece, so let's get some game on, kids.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Vega$ Trip Report - Part 4 (Denoument)
Monday, Monday...bring on the mamas and the papas, as long as they gots chips, I say.
The last day our our Vega$ trip was, in some ways, the best. Certainly the most relaxing, and certainly the most profitable. The day started with the Good Doctor Mondo and I back down at the Lazy River for a few more orbits 'round the pool, where I fulfilled my duties as a human floatation device. I can't get over that pool...hope it's open in December. Actually, my only critique of MGM Grand at all is, their pool opens at 8 or 9am, yet the Lazy River doesn't open until 10. WTF is up with that?
Anyway, we chilled down there for a couple of hours, and got upstairs just in time to clean up before extended noon checkout. I'd been hoping to get one more session of 1/2NL in, of a sorta relaxed variety, but I was not prepared for how busy their room was at that time of the day on a Monday.
After waiting my turn on the wait list, I sat down at table 8, and found an interested bunch. One player had about $800 behind, another had about $500, and there were several of what struck me to be old tighties at the table. I pretty much decided to stay out of most action for the first couple of orbits, and found the big stacks not really playing any hands, either. I'm thinking they picked up most of their chips on one or two huge hands.
I wish I could say there were truly interesting hands. There was the AK I bumped up PF, late position smooth called, raised my c-bet on an raggy board, and I check folded an ugly turn that brought a flush. I actually put her on a high PP at that point. She shoved the turn, and the laydown wasn't really *that* tough. It was her first orbit, and reading her soul, she struck me as a solid player.
There was one player who would consistently pay my ass off. If he had an A, he just could not get away from it, and would raise every PF and c-bet every flop, no matter his kicker, or how bad the board was to his hand. I think over half my profits that day came from him --- twice when he paid off my flopped sets, and once when he folded to a river bet. Now I saw where the two big stacks got their chips. Details are fuzzy now.
Eventually, Mr $800 would come and go from the table and miss a lot of hands. The other good stack left. One of the older guys was constantly complaining and seat-changing, until he left when a new table opened. Pretty typical stuff, but that left me as the only truly sizable stack actually playing at the table, for the most part, and I think I used it well, at one point getting up to about $600 in my short session. By the time I had to cash out to catch the airport shuttle, I was up almost two buy-ins, for my most successful 1/2 stint of the trip. Fuck short sample sizes, I'll take a 85bb/hour rate any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. My only wish is that I had another hour or two to play there, but it was time to come back to Colorado where I remain, donkin' in the Rockies.
To all of you out there this weekend, may your stacks be big.
Best of luck to all you bloggers playing the Caesar's Mega Stack today.
And a special note to F-Train, who's not only out covering the WSOP for PokerNews, he's made it to day 2 of Event 26 - $1,500 Razz with a slightly above average chipstack:
Go go go, you furious lil' prarie dog, you!
The last day our our Vega$ trip was, in some ways, the best. Certainly the most relaxing, and certainly the most profitable. The day started with the Good Doctor Mondo and I back down at the Lazy River for a few more orbits 'round the pool, where I fulfilled my duties as a human floatation device. I can't get over that pool...hope it's open in December. Actually, my only critique of MGM Grand at all is, their pool opens at 8 or 9am, yet the Lazy River doesn't open until 10. WTF is up with that?
Anyway, we chilled down there for a couple of hours, and got upstairs just in time to clean up before extended noon checkout. I'd been hoping to get one more session of 1/2NL in, of a sorta relaxed variety, but I was not prepared for how busy their room was at that time of the day on a Monday.
After waiting my turn on the wait list, I sat down at table 8, and found an interested bunch. One player had about $800 behind, another had about $500, and there were several of what struck me to be old tighties at the table. I pretty much decided to stay out of most action for the first couple of orbits, and found the big stacks not really playing any hands, either. I'm thinking they picked up most of their chips on one or two huge hands.
I wish I could say there were truly interesting hands. There was the AK I bumped up PF, late position smooth called, raised my c-bet on an raggy board, and I check folded an ugly turn that brought a flush. I actually put her on a high PP at that point. She shoved the turn, and the laydown wasn't really *that* tough. It was her first orbit, and reading her soul, she struck me as a solid player.
There was one player who would consistently pay my ass off. If he had an A, he just could not get away from it, and would raise every PF and c-bet every flop, no matter his kicker, or how bad the board was to his hand. I think over half my profits that day came from him --- twice when he paid off my flopped sets, and once when he folded to a river bet. Now I saw where the two big stacks got their chips. Details are fuzzy now.
Eventually, Mr $800 would come and go from the table and miss a lot of hands. The other good stack left. One of the older guys was constantly complaining and seat-changing, until he left when a new table opened. Pretty typical stuff, but that left me as the only truly sizable stack actually playing at the table, for the most part, and I think I used it well, at one point getting up to about $600 in my short session. By the time I had to cash out to catch the airport shuttle, I was up almost two buy-ins, for my most successful 1/2 stint of the trip. Fuck short sample sizes, I'll take a 85bb/hour rate any day of the week, and twice on Sundays. My only wish is that I had another hour or two to play there, but it was time to come back to Colorado where I remain, donkin' in the Rockies.
To all of you out there this weekend, may your stacks be big.
Best of luck to all you bloggers playing the Caesar's Mega Stack today.
And a special note to F-Train, who's not only out covering the WSOP for PokerNews, he's made it to day 2 of Event 26 - $1,500 Razz with a slightly above average chipstack:
Go go go, you furious lil' prarie dog, you!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
We Now Interrupt This Trip Report For the Following Announcement
Originally, I wasn't going to comment on this controversy, but the more I read about it, the more pissed off I get.
I am, of course, talking about the fact that well known blogger Hoyazo played the Bodog Blogger Tournament series under a different account name, and then either wrote a fake blog about his experiences (never writing about his Bodonkey exploits on his own well-read blog), or having other cohorts in cahoots write the "fake" blog entries, most of which were used to trash specific blogger/players, who almost universally had nothing but good things to say about the Bodonkey.
Blinders has written a rather extensive rant on the subject today. In fact, some would call the rant Hoy-worthy. Essentially, Blinders posits that what Hoy did was nothing short of cheating.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling what Hoy did as cheating other players, because there is absolutely nothing requiring anyone to play under the same name at every site. He didn't have an account prior to the series, and he was fully within his rights to start an account under a different name.
However, Hoy definitely cheated Bodog out of its earned goodwill and recognition, by not discussing his play in the series on his own blog, which is much more widely read than ICrushBloggers ever was (at least before Hoy completely deleted the ICrushBloggers blog from existence). Nor did he link his widely-read Hammer Player blog to the Bodog Blogger Tournament page, which deprived the series out of a fair number of potential players, and that's a real shame, because Hoy is one of the more prolific and entertaining bloggers out there. The series really could have used the benefit of his writing...especially as he was playing and profiting from it every week.
Bodog went way over and above by adding so many $T every week, never mind the final TOC prizes, and was certainly entitled to have its series put on for bloggers pimped on those blogs, or at least discussed after the fact.
I think the real victims here are Bodog and the greater blogger community, but I can't go so far as to say he cheated, per se. But every act like this does lessen the blogger community in some way, though the narcissists won't be able to see it through the haze of self-importance. Frankly, Love_elf said it best right here.
Quelle bummer.
I am, of course, talking about the fact that well known blogger Hoyazo played the Bodog Blogger Tournament series under a different account name, and then either wrote a fake blog about his experiences (never writing about his Bodonkey exploits on his own well-read blog), or having other cohorts in cahoots write the "fake" blog entries, most of which were used to trash specific blogger/players, who almost universally had nothing but good things to say about the Bodonkey.
Blinders has written a rather extensive rant on the subject today. In fact, some would call the rant Hoy-worthy. Essentially, Blinders posits that what Hoy did was nothing short of cheating.
I'm not sure I'd go as far as calling what Hoy did as cheating other players, because there is absolutely nothing requiring anyone to play under the same name at every site. He didn't have an account prior to the series, and he was fully within his rights to start an account under a different name.
However, Hoy definitely cheated Bodog out of its earned goodwill and recognition, by not discussing his play in the series on his own blog, which is much more widely read than ICrushBloggers ever was (at least before Hoy completely deleted the ICrushBloggers blog from existence). Nor did he link his widely-read Hammer Player blog to the Bodog Blogger Tournament page, which deprived the series out of a fair number of potential players, and that's a real shame, because Hoy is one of the more prolific and entertaining bloggers out there. The series really could have used the benefit of his writing...especially as he was playing and profiting from it every week.
Bodog went way over and above by adding so many $T every week, never mind the final TOC prizes, and was certainly entitled to have its series put on for bloggers pimped on those blogs, or at least discussed after the fact.
I think the real victims here are Bodog and the greater blogger community, but I can't go so far as to say he cheated, per se. But every act like this does lessen the blogger community in some way, though the narcissists won't be able to see it through the haze of self-importance. Frankly, Love_elf said it best right here.
Quelle bummer.
Vega$ Trip Report - Part 3
...aka, the section where our intrepid hero fights back from oblivion.
So there I am on Sunday morning, ragass tired, tilty, and hungry. How to fix this? Head for the bouffffet, MGM-stylee.
The Good Doctor Mondo and I headed down to what was a surprisingly tasty brunch, though I wouldn't have thought pot stickers and seafood ceviche to be appropriate Sunday 10am dining fare, at least not with turkey sausage, blueberry blintzes, and lox with capers.
As it turned out, my stomach didn't think so, either, which resulted in my spending pretty much the next eight hours in bed, moaning and groaning through 500 miles of NASCAR Pocono boredom, and an inability to find a Rockies game on TV. At least my better half had yet another wonderful afternoon at the pool -- we definitely got our aquatic mobnies worth out of this trip.
Eventually, I was able to get up and eat a lil' something, when the thought occurred that we needed to get some hours in to lock in our poker rate. What else to soothe the bankroll than some 1/2NL? The soothing came quickly, and powerfully, when I was able to pick up a full buyin and a half in no more than about two hours, for my best live session on the trip up to that point.
For the most part, I played quiet, staying out of pots unless I had the goods, or could get to the goods. As it was, I didn't really feel *that* great, and probably played more passively as a result. There weren't really a lot of interesting hands, other than one in particular. There were a couple of intraweb 21yo whiz kid types sitting at the table, one to my right, with a bigass jewfro (though hardly Alex Jacob-worthy), and a static chipstack. At one point, he had to fold his PP to a dude who showed quad AAAA after the fold.
Not too much longer after that, I pick up KK in some kind of early-to-mid position. With the whiz kid limping, and me still a bit stung from the previous night, I decided to bump to $18, to see how serious he was. Well, a late player called, as did whiz-fro. The flop comes Kxx (two spades), and I'm feeling fine. Whiz-fro bets $20...I can call, but there is that flush draw out there, and one to act behind. I elect to min-raise another $40, and get a fold (from LP), and then whiz-fro flat calls. The turn brings....the case K. YAHTZEE! Whiz-fro checks, and I have a decision to make. Sure, I can check, but if he checks the river and I bet, there's a good chance he folds, and I get no value out of my quads. So I decide to fire out $40, figuring if he's going to fold now, he'd probably have folded on any river, anyway. So what happens? Well, after I raised PF, raised the flop, and bet the turn...whiz-fro shoves. BINGO!
He didn't much like having to show down his 99 to my quad K's, but I was happy for the chips, and his misplayed his hand soooo badly in the first place. I soon turned in for the night, taking my $145 hourly rate to bed, for a last night's sleep in Vega$.
Part 4 to come!
So there I am on Sunday morning, ragass tired, tilty, and hungry. How to fix this? Head for the bouffffet, MGM-stylee.
The Good Doctor Mondo and I headed down to what was a surprisingly tasty brunch, though I wouldn't have thought pot stickers and seafood ceviche to be appropriate Sunday 10am dining fare, at least not with turkey sausage, blueberry blintzes, and lox with capers.
As it turned out, my stomach didn't think so, either, which resulted in my spending pretty much the next eight hours in bed, moaning and groaning through 500 miles of NASCAR Pocono boredom, and an inability to find a Rockies game on TV. At least my better half had yet another wonderful afternoon at the pool -- we definitely got our aquatic mobnies worth out of this trip.
Eventually, I was able to get up and eat a lil' something, when the thought occurred that we needed to get some hours in to lock in our poker rate. What else to soothe the bankroll than some 1/2NL? The soothing came quickly, and powerfully, when I was able to pick up a full buyin and a half in no more than about two hours, for my best live session on the trip up to that point.
For the most part, I played quiet, staying out of pots unless I had the goods, or could get to the goods. As it was, I didn't really feel *that* great, and probably played more passively as a result. There weren't really a lot of interesting hands, other than one in particular. There were a couple of intraweb 21yo whiz kid types sitting at the table, one to my right, with a bigass jewfro (though hardly Alex Jacob-worthy), and a static chipstack. At one point, he had to fold his PP to a dude who showed quad AAAA after the fold.
Not too much longer after that, I pick up KK in some kind of early-to-mid position. With the whiz kid limping, and me still a bit stung from the previous night, I decided to bump to $18, to see how serious he was. Well, a late player called, as did whiz-fro. The flop comes Kxx (two spades), and I'm feeling fine. Whiz-fro bets $20...I can call, but there is that flush draw out there, and one to act behind. I elect to min-raise another $40, and get a fold (from LP), and then whiz-fro flat calls. The turn brings....the case K. YAHTZEE! Whiz-fro checks, and I have a decision to make. Sure, I can check, but if he checks the river and I bet, there's a good chance he folds, and I get no value out of my quads. So I decide to fire out $40, figuring if he's going to fold now, he'd probably have folded on any river, anyway. So what happens? Well, after I raised PF, raised the flop, and bet the turn...whiz-fro shoves. BINGO!
He didn't much like having to show down his 99 to my quad K's, but I was happy for the chips, and his misplayed his hand soooo badly in the first place. I soon turned in for the night, taking my $145 hourly rate to bed, for a last night's sleep in Vega$.
Part 4 to come!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Vega$ Trip Report - Part 2
Saturday was a very unusual, uncharacteristic day for me. How so? Well hell, first of all, I was coming off a cash in my biggest ever live tourney, measured by field size and buy-in. I was still pretty much half asleep in frog pajamas, when the Good Doctor Mondo dragged my dog ass out of bed around 9am to spend most of the day in the Lazy River pool, and as much I really don't care for pools, swimming, and all that jazz, the MGM Grand's Lazy River was really kinda cool.
Anyway, it was eventually time to play some poker, and I found a 3/6 HORSE table at the MGM. Apparently, 3/6 HORSE is a rare bird at the MGM, indeed. I was told it was only the 2nd time that game was ever spread. Unfortunately, the only thing more rare than running that game, was me having any kind of hand. I sat in at the start of Stud, and didn't win a pot until the 2nd hand of Razz. Ick. Only won a couple of pots, and dropped about $70 over nine orbits. Okay, fuck it, I'm hungry, let's grab a sammich and play some 1/2...off we go!
I sign up to find a 14 name waiting list, but it's only about 20 minutes before I'm sitting down to what appears to be a possibly profitable table. About one orbit in, I pick up KK (either UTG, or EP1, I now forget which). Naturally, I bump it to $14 to go, and I only get one caller - a large tattooed Latino guy who reminds me of some of those Unique Whips folks. Anyway, he calls, and we see a flop of 642, with two hearts (I have Kh). I didn't like the flush draw, so I bet $20, and he raises to $40. I flat call, and 6h shows up on the turn. He checks, and I'm immediately suspicious of turned trips. Still, I check behind, and the Qh shows up on the river. The dude bets $40, and I'm sure he's got a 6, but I have the K-high flush, and call. Well, the read was mostly right. He had 64. Yup, the turned boat. Yup, he called $14 PF out of position, with nothing more than 64 soooted. Nice hand, sir.
That's cool, I've still got $120, and a great read. I'll get it back. Over the next 2-3 orbits, I fold a ton of trash pockets, but watch as this same guy raises 90% of all hands preflop, between $14 and $20 each time. And when he got callers, he C-bet 90% of those times. Twice he was called down and had to show trash like T7o, so he's basically betting not ATC, but ETC (every two cards). The only times he ever folded to flop or turn bets were when he was raised off pots by a dude at the end of the table who looked...suspiciously...like his brother or cousin. They were virtually identical looking, except for the ink. And no, I'm not stereotyping. Anyway, I didn't suspect collusion, just bad aggro play. I'm gonna get paid off, eventually.
And then...BOOM. AA under the gun. Normally, I'd raise this up to $12, $14, or so. But I've got monkey aggro two seats to my right, in the small blind. He's going to raise, and I'm going to get paid. So....I....check. And then five limp behind. And monkey aggro....checks. Fuck. He raises every hand except this one. Still, the flop comes Q42 rainbow, so I feel okay. Now that we're several days later, I'm a bit fuzzy, but I believe the donk checked, I bet $20, and he and one other player called the flop. Okay. Rag on the turn, and monkey aggro shoves a stack that's now smaller than mine. Obviously, I overshove -- he's trying to push me off.
Except the player behind me calls. Monkey aggro turns over AQo, just as I thought...and then the player behind me shows 44 for the flopped set. I miss my 1 outer on the river, and 44 stacks us both. Gack.
I know, I know, I know....never limp AA. But I felt I was playing a player more than the cards that hand. He was raising every damn hand, and I knew I'd get to make a large 3-bet. Meh. If it's any consolation, I figure the 44 would have called a $14 bet PF with implied odds of the expected monkey call out of the small blind. But still, now I'm on tilt. Lost a buy-in in 45 minutes where the only hands I played were AA and KK. I needed revenge, and I was going to get it at....
....table games. Please do me a favor if you're ever with me in Vega$, and I make a move towards the table games. Stop me. I don't care how. Just stop me.
First, I dump $60 in two hands of Pai-Gow, before I realize wtf am I doing playing a game best played drunk in $5 increments, for $30 bucks a hand (and sober, at that). So I take $140 over to 3 Card Poker, where I'm quickly back up to $250. Do I leave, having recovered about 1/3 of my loss for the night? No. I swing down. I swing up. Eventually, I turn that $140 into about $350 or so. I've actually recovered over half my poker loss, and my entire Pai-Gow loss.
Do I leave? Hell no. Not until 20 minutes after the Dealer of Death arrives I lose all of that, and even $100 more. Fortunately, I stopped myself after I pulled out my very last C-note, before turning into chips that would eventually belong to Mr. MGM. What an expensive lesson. Here I am, down a few hundo for the trip thus far, even having cashed in the Mega Series, and having had one nice 1/2 session. No more table games for Mondo, ever. I can't be trusted. Every time I was up, I just knew I'd go up more. When I was down, I just knew I'd recover in a hand or two. Yup. Just say no.
I'm please to inform you that I did not play a single table game hand my entire last 38 hours in Vega$. Hopefully, hard lesson in monkey tilt learned.
Part 3 later!
Anyway, it was eventually time to play some poker, and I found a 3/6 HORSE table at the MGM. Apparently, 3/6 HORSE is a rare bird at the MGM, indeed. I was told it was only the 2nd time that game was ever spread. Unfortunately, the only thing more rare than running that game, was me having any kind of hand. I sat in at the start of Stud, and didn't win a pot until the 2nd hand of Razz. Ick. Only won a couple of pots, and dropped about $70 over nine orbits. Okay, fuck it, I'm hungry, let's grab a sammich and play some 1/2...off we go!
I sign up to find a 14 name waiting list, but it's only about 20 minutes before I'm sitting down to what appears to be a possibly profitable table. About one orbit in, I pick up KK (either UTG, or EP1, I now forget which). Naturally, I bump it to $14 to go, and I only get one caller - a large tattooed Latino guy who reminds me of some of those Unique Whips folks. Anyway, he calls, and we see a flop of 642, with two hearts (I have Kh). I didn't like the flush draw, so I bet $20, and he raises to $40. I flat call, and 6h shows up on the turn. He checks, and I'm immediately suspicious of turned trips. Still, I check behind, and the Qh shows up on the river. The dude bets $40, and I'm sure he's got a 6, but I have the K-high flush, and call. Well, the read was mostly right. He had 64. Yup, the turned boat. Yup, he called $14 PF out of position, with nothing more than 64 soooted. Nice hand, sir.
That's cool, I've still got $120, and a great read. I'll get it back. Over the next 2-3 orbits, I fold a ton of trash pockets, but watch as this same guy raises 90% of all hands preflop, between $14 and $20 each time. And when he got callers, he C-bet 90% of those times. Twice he was called down and had to show trash like T7o, so he's basically betting not ATC, but ETC (every two cards). The only times he ever folded to flop or turn bets were when he was raised off pots by a dude at the end of the table who looked...suspiciously...like his brother or cousin. They were virtually identical looking, except for the ink. And no, I'm not stereotyping. Anyway, I didn't suspect collusion, just bad aggro play. I'm gonna get paid off, eventually.
And then...BOOM. AA under the gun. Normally, I'd raise this up to $12, $14, or so. But I've got monkey aggro two seats to my right, in the small blind. He's going to raise, and I'm going to get paid. So....I....check. And then five limp behind. And monkey aggro....checks. Fuck. He raises every hand except this one. Still, the flop comes Q42 rainbow, so I feel okay. Now that we're several days later, I'm a bit fuzzy, but I believe the donk checked, I bet $20, and he and one other player called the flop. Okay. Rag on the turn, and monkey aggro shoves a stack that's now smaller than mine. Obviously, I overshove -- he's trying to push me off.
Except the player behind me calls. Monkey aggro turns over AQo, just as I thought...and then the player behind me shows 44 for the flopped set. I miss my 1 outer on the river, and 44 stacks us both. Gack.
I know, I know, I know....never limp AA. But I felt I was playing a player more than the cards that hand. He was raising every damn hand, and I knew I'd get to make a large 3-bet. Meh. If it's any consolation, I figure the 44 would have called a $14 bet PF with implied odds of the expected monkey call out of the small blind. But still, now I'm on tilt. Lost a buy-in in 45 minutes where the only hands I played were AA and KK. I needed revenge, and I was going to get it at....
....table games. Please do me a favor if you're ever with me in Vega$, and I make a move towards the table games. Stop me. I don't care how. Just stop me.
First, I dump $60 in two hands of Pai-Gow, before I realize wtf am I doing playing a game best played drunk in $5 increments, for $30 bucks a hand (and sober, at that). So I take $140 over to 3 Card Poker, where I'm quickly back up to $250. Do I leave, having recovered about 1/3 of my loss for the night? No. I swing down. I swing up. Eventually, I turn that $140 into about $350 or so. I've actually recovered over half my poker loss, and my entire Pai-Gow loss.
Do I leave? Hell no. Not until 20 minutes after the Dealer of Death arrives I lose all of that, and even $100 more. Fortunately, I stopped myself after I pulled out my very last C-note, before turning into chips that would eventually belong to Mr. MGM. What an expensive lesson. Here I am, down a few hundo for the trip thus far, even having cashed in the Mega Series, and having had one nice 1/2 session. No more table games for Mondo, ever. I can't be trusted. Every time I was up, I just knew I'd go up more. When I was down, I just knew I'd recover in a hand or two. Yup. Just say no.
I'm please to inform you that I did not play a single table game hand my entire last 38 hours in Vega$. Hopefully, hard lesson in monkey tilt learned.
Part 3 later!
Vega$ Trip Report - Part 1
Wow, what a trip. Got home late last night and caught up on reading about 157 blog entries by other writers, so I'm just now getting started.
Anyway, the Good Doctor Mondo and I landed safe and sound and got checked into the MGM with no fuss at all. From the moment of landing, CK and I were trading text messages trying to figure out where or what blogger stuff was happening on Thursday. Of course, most were landing on Friday/Saturday, so in the end, by the time I showed up in the MGM poker room (after a truly wonderful burger at the Studio Cafe that was actually worth the $13-14 cost), CK was already there playing 1/2, and seemed to have a good amount of the table's attention.
Anyway, CK did a pretty good job of describing the two hands we got into it with one another. Funny thing about the AA hand is that, yeah, I was worried about her having a Q, but also thought that she'd fire out on just about any river to represent strength. I think if it were anyone but her, maybe I lay down on that river, but I just couldn't get it out of my mind that she was just trying to push a known blogger out of a pot, because it would have been the WPBT tour thing to do.
Well, I very much enjoyed playing with her, and was bummed to see her buy-in gone. CK is every bit as much fun to be around in person as in an online tournament.
In the end, I *was* crushing the table, but gave back about 1/2 my profits in a couple of bigger two pair hands, but ended up about 2/3 of a buy-in on the night. The Good Doctor Mondo made a few bucks at 2/4 limit, and more importantly, was having fun. I made it a short night, because the Caesar's Mega Stack was the next day, and I wanted some real sleep. And boy, was I glad I did.
Woke up really early on Friday. Knowing the turnouts of the first couple of events, I was expecting long lines, and I still needed a Caesar's players card. Well, duh. By 9:45, I'm already there and registered, so I donked off about $100 playing a 1-3 game that was not playing large at all, and then jumped into the tourney. I've already posted that I ended up going out 39th of 582 (for a relatively small cash), but here's a few fun facts.
a. Only had AA and KK once each in the tourney, and both in the very first hour.
b. Had QQ three times, and all three brought significant chips to my stack.
c. Had AK twice, and both times had to fold to very ugly board/flop raises or 3-bets. (more on AK later)
d. Fantastic structure. Antes didn't start until level 7. However, they start getting really pricey by levels 10-11, in comparison to average stack sizes.
e. Very top heavy payout structure. 54 of 582 paid, so less than 10%. Even so, only the top 36 even got an amount at least 2x the buy-in. Buy-in was $340, and 45th-37th paid $508, 28th-36th paid about $590. 1st, however, was a nice $49k and change.
f. I ended up playing for 14 hours, and didn't get moved from my original seat until we were down to less than 60 players, during level 11 or 12, when they broke down to six tables. Moved twice after that. One other player from my original table was still there, too.
g. On the very bubble, I 3-bet shoved AKo from late position, and was actually okay with losing that hand, but when asked by the original raiser, I told him I was equally okay with a call or a fold. I know that's how people become bubble boys, but of the 55th left, I couldn't have been better than 50th or 51st in chips at that time.
h. Only played two hands post flop where I was significantly behind. Once was just after the bubble, when I shoved KQ soooted UTG. (I'd previously folded KQ UTG last orbit before bubble broke.) Called all in by small blind who had AKo, and I hit straight on turn. The 2nd time was my all out hand. With a miniscule M, me having 1% of chips in play (39 players left), 15 minutes before the end of Day 1 play, and the blinds crawling up my ass, I shoved A6 sooted early, and a big stack overshoved AK. Picked up flush draw on flop (when he paired), and paired my 6 on the turn, but missed an 11 outer on the river. Was my shove okay in that spot, given the situation? Was I underestimating my need to try to double up in that spot in the tournament?
What do you think? Should I have folded pf and been willing to show up 12 hours later for Day 2 with an M no greater than about 2 (assuming I didn't get a big hand in final 12-13 minutes? Or was the shove okay in that spot, knowing I was likely behind to any other A, and have little equity. If I hit my outs, I'm up to about 200k, and have a real chance at being competitive early in a Day 2. Anyway, I gamboooled and lost, and went to bed.
Some of the most fun was calling the Good Doctor Mondo with updates, which she was sharing with her 2/4 table. The whole table back at MGM was kinda cell-phone railing me. That felt good. And texting CK with updates. I wish I could have given better news at the end.
Okay, enough for now. Will blog Saturday's ugliness and monkey tilt later today, or tomorrow.
Anyway, the Good Doctor Mondo and I landed safe and sound and got checked into the MGM with no fuss at all. From the moment of landing, CK and I were trading text messages trying to figure out where or what blogger stuff was happening on Thursday. Of course, most were landing on Friday/Saturday, so in the end, by the time I showed up in the MGM poker room (after a truly wonderful burger at the Studio Cafe that was actually worth the $13-14 cost), CK was already there playing 1/2, and seemed to have a good amount of the table's attention.
Anyway, CK did a pretty good job of describing the two hands we got into it with one another. Funny thing about the AA hand is that, yeah, I was worried about her having a Q, but also thought that she'd fire out on just about any river to represent strength. I think if it were anyone but her, maybe I lay down on that river, but I just couldn't get it out of my mind that she was just trying to push a known blogger out of a pot, because it would have been the WPBT tour thing to do.
Well, I very much enjoyed playing with her, and was bummed to see her buy-in gone. CK is every bit as much fun to be around in person as in an online tournament.
In the end, I *was* crushing the table, but gave back about 1/2 my profits in a couple of bigger two pair hands, but ended up about 2/3 of a buy-in on the night. The Good Doctor Mondo made a few bucks at 2/4 limit, and more importantly, was having fun. I made it a short night, because the Caesar's Mega Stack was the next day, and I wanted some real sleep. And boy, was I glad I did.
Woke up really early on Friday. Knowing the turnouts of the first couple of events, I was expecting long lines, and I still needed a Caesar's players card. Well, duh. By 9:45, I'm already there and registered, so I donked off about $100 playing a 1-3 game that was not playing large at all, and then jumped into the tourney. I've already posted that I ended up going out 39th of 582 (for a relatively small cash), but here's a few fun facts.
a. Only had AA and KK once each in the tourney, and both in the very first hour.
b. Had QQ three times, and all three brought significant chips to my stack.
c. Had AK twice, and both times had to fold to very ugly board/flop raises or 3-bets. (more on AK later)
d. Fantastic structure. Antes didn't start until level 7. However, they start getting really pricey by levels 10-11, in comparison to average stack sizes.
e. Very top heavy payout structure. 54 of 582 paid, so less than 10%. Even so, only the top 36 even got an amount at least 2x the buy-in. Buy-in was $340, and 45th-37th paid $508, 28th-36th paid about $590. 1st, however, was a nice $49k and change.
f. I ended up playing for 14 hours, and didn't get moved from my original seat until we were down to less than 60 players, during level 11 or 12, when they broke down to six tables. Moved twice after that. One other player from my original table was still there, too.
g. On the very bubble, I 3-bet shoved AKo from late position, and was actually okay with losing that hand, but when asked by the original raiser, I told him I was equally okay with a call or a fold. I know that's how people become bubble boys, but of the 55th left, I couldn't have been better than 50th or 51st in chips at that time.
h. Only played two hands post flop where I was significantly behind. Once was just after the bubble, when I shoved KQ soooted UTG. (I'd previously folded KQ UTG last orbit before bubble broke.) Called all in by small blind who had AKo, and I hit straight on turn. The 2nd time was my all out hand. With a miniscule M, me having 1% of chips in play (39 players left), 15 minutes before the end of Day 1 play, and the blinds crawling up my ass, I shoved A6 sooted early, and a big stack overshoved AK. Picked up flush draw on flop (when he paired), and paired my 6 on the turn, but missed an 11 outer on the river. Was my shove okay in that spot, given the situation? Was I underestimating my need to try to double up in that spot in the tournament?
What do you think? Should I have folded pf and been willing to show up 12 hours later for Day 2 with an M no greater than about 2 (assuming I didn't get a big hand in final 12-13 minutes? Or was the shove okay in that spot, knowing I was likely behind to any other A, and have little equity. If I hit my outs, I'm up to about 200k, and have a real chance at being competitive early in a Day 2. Anyway, I gamboooled and lost, and went to bed.
Some of the most fun was calling the Good Doctor Mondo with updates, which she was sharing with her 2/4 table. The whole table back at MGM was kinda cell-phone railing me. That felt good. And texting CK with updates. I wish I could have given better news at the end.
Okay, enough for now. Will blog Saturday's ugliness and monkey tilt later today, or tomorrow.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Having to Be Brief...
It's 3:18 in Vega$, and on borrowed internet. Will post more on Monday when I'm home, but just wanted to give a big shout out to every blogger's favorite frush drawer...that's right, BWoP, for text railing me today during my run at the Caesar's $340 Mega-Stack.
Hope the draining's done by now, at least!
Oh yeah, how'd I do? Well, I lost 1/3 my starting chips by two hands into the tournament, when I had to fold raised AK and 88. 14 hours later, I went out 39th of 582 runners. I'm totally exhausted. Of course, the $$$ is very top heavy, and let's just say my hourly rate going 39th was good for a few happy meals. But it was well worth it.
Will write more on Monday, as I won't have net access until then.
Oh yeah, one celebrity sighting. Louie Anderson was playing an $80 SNG, lol.
Hope the draining's done by now, at least!
Oh yeah, how'd I do? Well, I lost 1/3 my starting chips by two hands into the tournament, when I had to fold raised AK and 88. 14 hours later, I went out 39th of 582 runners. I'm totally exhausted. Of course, the $$$ is very top heavy, and let's just say my hourly rate going 39th was good for a few happy meals. But it was well worth it.
Will write more on Monday, as I won't have net access until then.
Oh yeah, one celebrity sighting. Louie Anderson was playing an $80 SNG, lol.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Why Post So Much On A Wednesday Night?
'cause I ain't taking my laptop to Vega$, that's why. Bwahahahahaha
Jeez, I should just get Twitter, seeing as this post is nothing more than Twitter-worthy, if that.
Jeez, I should just get Twitter, seeing as this post is nothing more than Twitter-worthy, if that.
How Do You Go On Avatar Tilt In Three Easy Steps?
1. Julius Goat and Bayne offer up a fantastic and fun service for us bloggers.
2. In a fit of inspiration, these guys design the best avatar ever (at least one that's not wearing a gold jersey and football helmet):
3. Your Winblows Vista-disabled laptop won't let you overwrite existing avatars, no matter how many fucking times you make the file, the folder, the Full Tilt folder, the Graphics folder, or any other folder not read-only:
Uncheck and unapply "Read Only", go back and try to paste it in and...voila...nothing. It's like the custom avatar screen of death.
And no, I'm not in a position to deal with wiping the laptop and putting XP in (unfortunately). I still have my old XP desktop, but the whole point is not lot lock myself to my home office...
This Dude is having a rather difficult time abiding at this particular moment. Advice welcomed.
2. In a fit of inspiration, these guys design the best avatar ever (at least one that's not wearing a gold jersey and football helmet):
3. Your Winblows Vista-disabled laptop won't let you overwrite existing avatars, no matter how many fucking times you make the file, the folder, the Full Tilt folder, the Graphics folder, or any other folder not read-only:
Uncheck and unapply "Read Only", go back and try to paste it in and...voila...nothing. It's like the custom avatar screen of death.
And no, I'm not in a position to deal with wiping the laptop and putting XP in (unfortunately). I still have my old XP desktop, but the whole point is not lot lock myself to my home office...
This Dude is having a rather difficult time abiding at this particular moment. Advice welcomed.
Congratulations to the Biggest Bodonkeys Of Them All
Leaving On A Jet Plane
Wow, it's finally almost here -- start of the unofficial blogger weekend in Vega$, part one. The Good Doctor Mondo and I take off around 4pm tomorrow, and should be checking into the MGM around 6pm. If'n yer in the area, you may find me at a 1/2 table. Or 4/8L, haven't decided yet.
Anyway, I've been tossing around various options for the trip in my head, and I'd love to hear suggestions tonight, if anyone's around.
My original plan (and my desire), has been to play two tournaments during this trip. The WSOP is out, because I'm not rolled for it, and I don't plan on those two tournaments to be satellites.
I originally was going to allow myself to play two tourneys, a $180 daily at Venetian (8pm), and a $150 at Caesar's (7pm). Both are reasonable tournament values, though neither is deep-stacked.
I then saw that Friday's Casear Megastack event is a $310+30 (for 12.5k chips and 50 minute rounds), and my first instinct is to jump all over it. True deep stack poker, imho, especially for those of us who aren't on the circuit. But the buy-in probably precludes me from playing a 2nd tourney (assuming, arguendo, I don't cash).
On the one hand, I really want to play two tournaments. On the other, I have been running pretty badly lately, though I think that started turning around last night, when I won a $75 token frenzy (only to donk off the token later), final tabled a Limit O8 (for a smallish cash, because there were only about 110 runners), and cashed in the Bodog $5k guarantee (but again, not a very deep run).
My point being, I'd been running terribly, but think I'm slowly starting to come out the other end, even if I'm still losing out to a few runner runner perfect perfect catches. Aside from last night's Bodonkey, where I was already mathematically out of the Top 18, so was just donking for a chance at a bounty, I think I've played very well the last couple of days. I know I only played "okay to half decent" on Sunday, but I've played about 22 tournaments since, and feel better about my game, if not my suckout-avoidance abilities.
I very rarely make it to Vega$, and I desperately want to play a true deep stack good-sized field event, and the Mega Stack series fits the bill. The Venetian Deep Stack is definitely out for me, as the buyins during my days there ar $540 and $1060, and I'm definitely not rolled for that, unless I have a miraculous 4-5 buyin night to the good in my first MGM Grand session, which is more than unlikely, I'm sure.
One thing to consider is, the Good Doctor Mondo and I need to average 4/hr a day cash play at the MGM to keep our poker rate, and I was planning on playing 1/2NL instead of my normal 4/8, 4/8 with half-kill, or 5/10 limit, and I need to be prepared to potentially lose a buyin or two.
So my question to you guys is, what do you do? Do you suck it up and only play one tourney and make it the Caesar's Mega Stack series? Or do you skip the Mega and play a couple of $150 type tourneys? Or do you maybe play the Mega stack and them some bullshit $60 tourney elsewhere? (My last Vega$ trip, I took down a Sahara $62 daily, and never felt less skilled than those at my table.)
I'm looking for suggestions, though my present inclination is to play the Friday noon Caesar's, and a Sunday at Sahara.
To those of you going out this weekend, I hope to run in to some of you, and that you run hot like the wind. To those of you going next weekend, pffffffbbbbt...we'll have to wait until the Winter WPBT to sling chips. Stay awesome.
Anyway, I've been tossing around various options for the trip in my head, and I'd love to hear suggestions tonight, if anyone's around.
My original plan (and my desire), has been to play two tournaments during this trip. The WSOP is out, because I'm not rolled for it, and I don't plan on those two tournaments to be satellites.
I originally was going to allow myself to play two tourneys, a $180 daily at Venetian (8pm), and a $150 at Caesar's (7pm). Both are reasonable tournament values, though neither is deep-stacked.
I then saw that Friday's Casear Megastack event is a $310+30 (for 12.5k chips and 50 minute rounds), and my first instinct is to jump all over it. True deep stack poker, imho, especially for those of us who aren't on the circuit. But the buy-in probably precludes me from playing a 2nd tourney (assuming, arguendo, I don't cash).
On the one hand, I really want to play two tournaments. On the other, I have been running pretty badly lately, though I think that started turning around last night, when I won a $75 token frenzy (only to donk off the token later), final tabled a Limit O8 (for a smallish cash, because there were only about 110 runners), and cashed in the Bodog $5k guarantee (but again, not a very deep run).
My point being, I'd been running terribly, but think I'm slowly starting to come out the other end, even if I'm still losing out to a few runner runner perfect perfect catches. Aside from last night's Bodonkey, where I was already mathematically out of the Top 18, so was just donking for a chance at a bounty, I think I've played very well the last couple of days. I know I only played "okay to half decent" on Sunday, but I've played about 22 tournaments since, and feel better about my game, if not my suckout-avoidance abilities.
I very rarely make it to Vega$, and I desperately want to play a true deep stack good-sized field event, and the Mega Stack series fits the bill. The Venetian Deep Stack is definitely out for me, as the buyins during my days there ar $540 and $1060, and I'm definitely not rolled for that, unless I have a miraculous 4-5 buyin night to the good in my first MGM Grand session, which is more than unlikely, I'm sure.
One thing to consider is, the Good Doctor Mondo and I need to average 4/hr a day cash play at the MGM to keep our poker rate, and I was planning on playing 1/2NL instead of my normal 4/8, 4/8 with half-kill, or 5/10 limit, and I need to be prepared to potentially lose a buyin or two.
So my question to you guys is, what do you do? Do you suck it up and only play one tourney and make it the Caesar's Mega Stack series? Or do you skip the Mega and play a couple of $150 type tourneys? Or do you maybe play the Mega stack and them some bullshit $60 tourney elsewhere? (My last Vega$ trip, I took down a Sahara $62 daily, and never felt less skilled than those at my table.)
I'm looking for suggestions, though my present inclination is to play the Friday noon Caesar's, and a Sunday at Sahara.
To those of you going out this weekend, I hope to run in to some of you, and that you run hot like the wind. To those of you going next weekend, pffffffbbbbt...we'll have to wait until the Winter WPBT to sling chips. Stay awesome.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
BBT3 Post Mortem
In the end, 455 players took part in at least one event of BBT3 - Battle of the Blogger Tournaments, and more chips were slung than a day of hash at the Waffle House.
Congrats to the 45 or so who won their way into the Tournament of Champions, good luck all. I won't be joining, as the best I could pull out was one 2nd place and one 3rd place finish. Special congratulations go to TuscaloosaJohn, who won the overall points title, going away.
The biggest thanks of all go to Al, for putting this thing together (along with the Riverchasers tourneys) and getting such awesome prizes set up, and to Don, Hoy, Chad, and Mookie for making their events part of the series.
As for myself, I only played 13 of the 56 events, all of which were Blogger Skillz games, I believe. I just can't play online pokerz enough nights of the week to make a real go at it. That said, I'm happy with my performance, in relative terms. In my 13 events, I scored points 4 times, final tabled twice, and cashed twice. Overall, I finished 88th of the 455, playing less than 1/4 of the events. In addition, the two cashes were for more than my buy-ins, so it was even a bit profitable.
Maybe next time, maybe next time.
Tantalizingly close to a TOC seat, but with me in Vega$ this weekend, I probably wouldn't be playing, anyway. In fact, I won't be participating in the blogger freeroll portion of the series, either, as I'm pretty sure I'm not taking my laptop to Vega$.
Still, it was fun, and I hope a lot of you do continue to play blogger events with the rest of us.
Last Chance at Bodog Bloggerment Glory*
*Don't worry, the Bodonkey will continue every Tuesday at the usual time, with the usual tasty $Ts overlays, but the chase for the Main Event will be over.
Yup, tonight is the very last night of the Bodog Bloggerment series*, at least insofar as getting a seat into the 18-person final (with a WSOP Main Event seat up for grabs!)
There's also an extra special prize at stake tonight. $mokkee's ass. (aka the donkey's donkey) Well, his bounty, at any rate. He's already invited us to come get some, and I'm hoping to get mine.
The BIGGEST bounty ever in the history of blogger tournaments is on the head of $mokkee, the Bodog blogger tournament host, adding an extra T$270 in value to Tuesday's June 3rd poker blogger tournament! The lucky poker blogger to eliminate $mokkee will be rewarded with a seat in Bodog's WSOP* Semifinal 5 Seat Guaranteed Tournament scheduled for June 8 at 3:15 pm ET. Details at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com
BREAKING NEWS AT THE BODOG BEAT!
Poker Blogger Tournament Puts Bounty on $mokkee
http://beat.bodoglife.com/poker/poker-blogger-tournament-puts-bounty-on-smokkee-76486.html
Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series where poker bloggers worldwide are gathering each Tuesday in the Bodog Poker Room. One lucky blogger will win a $12,000 WSOP* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008. This tournament is open to poker bloggers from around the globe with a Bodog Member Player Account.
If you are new to Bodog, please sign up at http://poker.bodoglife.com Players are then required to go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament and sign in with their Bodog account information. Once this is completed, you must click on "REGISTER NOW" to register yourself into the tournament series. Once this is done, look for the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register.
For assistance with registration, call Bodog's poker customer service at 1-866-909-2237 or email http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com/contact
Please include your blogger screen name, Bodog Member Account ID number and your poker blog URL address.
I'm also pretty sure that Chad's hosting his Skills game again, too. However, with BBT3 being his-to-ree, turnout may be a bit lower. No idea what tonight's game is, and no idea whether I'm playing it yet or not, as I'm already registered for FTP's Mini-SOP Limit Omaha event tonight.
Yup, tonight is the very last night of the Bodog Bloggerment series*, at least insofar as getting a seat into the 18-person final (with a WSOP Main Event seat up for grabs!)
There's also an extra special prize at stake tonight. $mokkee's ass. (aka the donkey's donkey) Well, his bounty, at any rate. He's already invited us to come get some, and I'm hoping to get mine.
The BIGGEST bounty ever in the history of blogger tournaments is on the head of $mokkee, the Bodog blogger tournament host, adding an extra T$270 in value to Tuesday's June 3rd poker blogger tournament! The lucky poker blogger to eliminate $mokkee will be rewarded with a seat in Bodog's WSOP* Semifinal 5 Seat Guaranteed Tournament scheduled for June 8 at 3:15 pm ET. Details at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com
BREAKING NEWS AT THE BODOG BEAT!
Poker Blogger Tournament Puts Bounty on $mokkee
http://beat.bodoglife.com/poker/poker-blogger-tournament-puts-bounty-on-smokkee-76486.html
Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series where poker bloggers worldwide are gathering each Tuesday in the Bodog Poker Room. One lucky blogger will win a $12,000 WSOP* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008. This tournament is open to poker bloggers from around the globe with a Bodog Member Player Account.
If you are new to Bodog, please sign up at http://poker.bodoglife.com Players are then required to go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament and sign in with their Bodog account information. Once this is completed, you must click on "REGISTER NOW" to register yourself into the tournament series. Once this is done, look for the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register.
For assistance with registration, call Bodog's poker customer service at 1-866-909-2237 or email http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com/contact
Please include your blogger screen name, Bodog Member Account ID number and your poker blog URL address.
I'm also pretty sure that Chad's hosting his Skills game again, too. However, with BBT3 being his-to-ree, turnout may be a bit lower. No idea what tonight's game is, and no idea whether I'm playing it yet or not, as I'm already registered for FTP's Mini-SOP Limit Omaha event tonight.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Picture Book
At least it's a great Kinks song, but dammit if I'm not the unluckiest player in the blogoverse.
The money went in late on this beautiful cooler:
After betting the flop, I 3-bet all in, and this donk calls on the flop with the inimitable Jackace, through about 1/3 of the field in the $28k:
$3k guarantee $24+2 PL O8 (which I bought in for about 6% of my roll, after my token went bye-bye in the above pic. This donk called down 1/2 pot bet on flop and turn with absolutely nothing more than OESD and terrible low. Which, naturally, he hits. Both. Drops me to about 80 chips:
Finally, this speaks for itself in Midnight Madness (though at least I still have about 200 chips as I write this...):
And here...I go out of the $6k guarantee, all in preflop:
Well, the night ends this as it started, on a goddamn cooler.
At least it was one past the bubble, so what...I min-cash in 1 of 12 tourneys tonight, and have pretty much fuckall to show for being the anti-Astin. I honestly no longer know what to do. My bankroll is 30% gone, I'm playing good poker, but if you have less than 4 outs, you're guaranfuckingteed to catch if I'm in the hand. Hell, you may need runner runner perfect perfect, and it's alllll yours. I can flop quad AAAA, and if you're on a draw, you're going to catch it. Come get what little bit there is of my roll, everyone else is.
The money went in late on this beautiful cooler:
After betting the flop, I 3-bet all in, and this donk calls on the flop with the inimitable Jackace, through about 1/3 of the field in the $28k:
$3k guarantee $24+2 PL O8 (which I bought in for about 6% of my roll, after my token went bye-bye in the above pic. This donk called down 1/2 pot bet on flop and turn with absolutely nothing more than OESD and terrible low. Which, naturally, he hits. Both. Drops me to about 80 chips:
Finally, this speaks for itself in Midnight Madness (though at least I still have about 200 chips as I write this...):
And here...I go out of the $6k guarantee, all in preflop:
Well, the night ends this as it started, on a goddamn cooler.
At least it was one past the bubble, so what...I min-cash in 1 of 12 tourneys tonight, and have pretty much fuckall to show for being the anti-Astin. I honestly no longer know what to do. My bankroll is 30% gone, I'm playing good poker, but if you have less than 4 outs, you're guaranfuckingteed to catch if I'm in the hand. Hell, you may need runner runner perfect perfect, and it's alllll yours. I can flop quad AAAA, and if you're on a draw, you're going to catch it. Come get what little bit there is of my roll, everyone else is.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Much Ado About Nothing
Got a bit of a late start, so skipped Dushanbe, for yummy paninis at The Buff instead.
Up to the hill, registered, picked up a nice early 2/5 pot while waiting for the tourney, and promptly ended up down when flopping top two pair (QJ on the button) gets destroyed by the MP player who figured 64o out of position was a nice hand. Well, it was when he caught a 3rd four on the river.
The tournament? Gack. Went set mining five times and was out before the 1st break. Only picked up two pots all day. The first was when I raised AKdd to 1200 (blinds 200/400), called by SB. On a 977 flop (two diamonds), I thought of checking behind, to see the free card, but decided to bet out 1200 into the 2800 pot. The SB folded, and I heard him mention AK. Anyway, I tried to steal from the cutoff the very next hand, with A7s, and the same player called, now from the button. I folded to his 1200 bet after I checked the 8-high flop (with one of my suit). Was that too weak tight of me?
Anyway, as a bit of backstory, I lost the only three pots I played to the river, when I was outkicked by one each time. Two of these were to the same player, the guy on my immediate left (who is the same guy from the previous paragraph). Two hands after my last laydown, I pick up JJ. With two limpers before me, I chose to simply call. I was already down to 10k (from a 15k starting stack), and none of my bets were getting any respect. The player on my left bumps it to 1600, and everyone folds to me. I figure him for AK, or maybe a mid pocket pair, and I elect to call. Not so much to set-mine, but to try to try to get into the same type of situation where he folded his AK to my AK a few hands previous.
Flop comes 887, and in a way, I couldn't ask for a better flop, given my read. But this time, being out of position, and just having the two pair with no draw, yet thinking I was ahead, I chose to check. Well, villain bet out 3k into a roughly 4k pot. I'm sitting on about 8k behind, and I have to raise or fold. If I fold, I'm down to 50% starting stack, less than 20BB, and the shortest stack at the table. So I chose to shove, and learned just how bad my read was when opponent turned up AA. (At least the 3rd AA at our table in under 50 hands...none mine, of course.) I get no help, and I go home. Fucking bummer, too. JJ, 66, 55, 33, 88, all no good for me, and I couldn't even make it past the 3rd level.
I'm pretty certain I did not play my best poker, but I don't think I played too badly, either. Somewhat unlucky when every one of my PP not only didn't flop a set, but in each case had terrible flops for me, such as three paint, or flush/straight combo draws that I didn't have. Really, I lost my way when I lost two pots previous, getting outkicked by one each time. If I don't lose about 30% of my chips in those, I think I can get away from the JJ v. AA hand. If I slowplay my AKdd and hit my flush, maybe I stack the guy who ultimately took me out.
It wasn't a bad day all around, though. I finally got to meet a couple follow members of the Poker in Colorado forum (we each ended up having 10% of the other two, though one of us three went down QQ to AA before I went out). As for the Good Doctor Mondo, she's set. She managed to double her 2/5 buyin in about 90 minutes, eventually giving a few chips back, but finishing up with an 80% profit for the day.
In the meantime, I keep running the opposite of good.
At any rate, this was not what I was looking for pre-Vega$, but nothing I can do about it now, but I worry that perhaps the best thing I can do in Vega$ is not even step in a poker room right now, and I can't postpone the trip. I hate trepidation.
Up to the hill, registered, picked up a nice early 2/5 pot while waiting for the tourney, and promptly ended up down when flopping top two pair (QJ on the button) gets destroyed by the MP player who figured 64o out of position was a nice hand. Well, it was when he caught a 3rd four on the river.
The tournament? Gack. Went set mining five times and was out before the 1st break. Only picked up two pots all day. The first was when I raised AKdd to 1200 (blinds 200/400), called by SB. On a 977 flop (two diamonds), I thought of checking behind, to see the free card, but decided to bet out 1200 into the 2800 pot. The SB folded, and I heard him mention AK. Anyway, I tried to steal from the cutoff the very next hand, with A7s, and the same player called, now from the button. I folded to his 1200 bet after I checked the 8-high flop (with one of my suit). Was that too weak tight of me?
Anyway, as a bit of backstory, I lost the only three pots I played to the river, when I was outkicked by one each time. Two of these were to the same player, the guy on my immediate left (who is the same guy from the previous paragraph). Two hands after my last laydown, I pick up JJ. With two limpers before me, I chose to simply call. I was already down to 10k (from a 15k starting stack), and none of my bets were getting any respect. The player on my left bumps it to 1600, and everyone folds to me. I figure him for AK, or maybe a mid pocket pair, and I elect to call. Not so much to set-mine, but to try to try to get into the same type of situation where he folded his AK to my AK a few hands previous.
Flop comes 887, and in a way, I couldn't ask for a better flop, given my read. But this time, being out of position, and just having the two pair with no draw, yet thinking I was ahead, I chose to check. Well, villain bet out 3k into a roughly 4k pot. I'm sitting on about 8k behind, and I have to raise or fold. If I fold, I'm down to 50% starting stack, less than 20BB, and the shortest stack at the table. So I chose to shove, and learned just how bad my read was when opponent turned up AA. (At least the 3rd AA at our table in under 50 hands...none mine, of course.) I get no help, and I go home. Fucking bummer, too. JJ, 66, 55, 33, 88, all no good for me, and I couldn't even make it past the 3rd level.
I'm pretty certain I did not play my best poker, but I don't think I played too badly, either. Somewhat unlucky when every one of my PP not only didn't flop a set, but in each case had terrible flops for me, such as three paint, or flush/straight combo draws that I didn't have. Really, I lost my way when I lost two pots previous, getting outkicked by one each time. If I don't lose about 30% of my chips in those, I think I can get away from the JJ v. AA hand. If I slowplay my AKdd and hit my flush, maybe I stack the guy who ultimately took me out.
It wasn't a bad day all around, though. I finally got to meet a couple follow members of the Poker in Colorado forum (we each ended up having 10% of the other two, though one of us three went down QQ to AA before I went out). As for the Good Doctor Mondo, she's set. She managed to double her 2/5 buyin in about 90 minutes, eventually giving a few chips back, but finishing up with an 80% profit for the day.
In the meantime, I keep running the opposite of good.
At any rate, this was not what I was looking for pre-Vega$, but nothing I can do about it now, but I worry that perhaps the best thing I can do in Vega$ is not even step in a poker room right now, and I can't postpone the trip. I hate trepidation.
Live Poker Prelminaries
The Good Doctor Mondo and I are headed up to Black Hawk today. She for some $2/5 action at the Lodge, with their tantalizingly tasty $175,000 Bad Beat semi-sorta up for grabs, and myself at the Golden Gates for their noon $100 tourney, starting with 15,000 in chips, but with a first level of 100/100. Definitely not deep, but not bad for us low rollers in Colorado.
Hoping for a deep run and a nice trip report, but if I bust early, I'm told there's often an Omatard table running at the Gates. No fold'em Omatard8 can't be any worse than No fold'em Hold'em, right?
Of course, this is all just practice for the unofficial WPBT, Part One, which for moi starts Thursday.
But before all of that, we're off to a bit of brekkie on the way, at one of the most exquisite places that we've always wanted to go, but haven't -- the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. The Dushanbe Teahouse, while not exactly historical, will be one day.
From their website,
In 1987, during his first visit to Boulder, Mayor Maksud Ikramov announced that Dushanbe planned to present our city with a Teahouse to celebrate the establishment of sister city ties. From 1987 -1990, more than 40 artisans in several cities of Tajikistan created the decorative elements our Teahouse, including its hand-carved and hand-painted ceiling, tables, stools, columns, and exterior ceramic panels. Often these skills are handed down from generation to generation within families. Lado Shanidze served as chief architect.
Tajikistan gives us an exquisite tea room, and we give them a cyber cafe in exchange. At least you can probably play Party Poker in Tajikistan, so they may have come out ahead, in the end.
Anyway, that paragraph hardly does the Dushanbe Teahouse justice, so here's a few pics:
Of course, none of that means that Sunday brekkie will be any good, and breakfast is truly my favorite meal of the day. I mean, it's possibly no better than a Denny's Grand Slam, but the place was once featured on Road Tasted, hosted by the Deen brothers, on the Food Network, so it probably won't be quite like a Waffle House. I may wish it were, but I think I'm going to have the Indian Curry Omelette (Green chile and herb omelette, cut into strips and stewed with tomatoes and Indian curry, served with pita)
Good luck on the felt, and don't forget, tonight is your final chance to pick up a BBT3 Tournament of Champions seat and Miami Don's Big Game -- get your Tier 2 tokens ready.
Hoping for a deep run and a nice trip report, but if I bust early, I'm told there's often an Omatard table running at the Gates. No fold'em Omatard8 can't be any worse than No fold'em Hold'em, right?
Of course, this is all just practice for the unofficial WPBT, Part One, which for moi starts Thursday.
But before all of that, we're off to a bit of brekkie on the way, at one of the most exquisite places that we've always wanted to go, but haven't -- the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. The Dushanbe Teahouse, while not exactly historical, will be one day.
From their website,
In 1987, during his first visit to Boulder, Mayor Maksud Ikramov announced that Dushanbe planned to present our city with a Teahouse to celebrate the establishment of sister city ties. From 1987 -1990, more than 40 artisans in several cities of Tajikistan created the decorative elements our Teahouse, including its hand-carved and hand-painted ceiling, tables, stools, columns, and exterior ceramic panels. Often these skills are handed down from generation to generation within families. Lado Shanidze served as chief architect.
Tajikistan gives us an exquisite tea room, and we give them a cyber cafe in exchange. At least you can probably play Party Poker in Tajikistan, so they may have come out ahead, in the end.
Anyway, that paragraph hardly does the Dushanbe Teahouse justice, so here's a few pics:
Of course, none of that means that Sunday brekkie will be any good, and breakfast is truly my favorite meal of the day. I mean, it's possibly no better than a Denny's Grand Slam, but the place was once featured on Road Tasted, hosted by the Deen brothers, on the Food Network, so it probably won't be quite like a Waffle House. I may wish it were, but I think I'm going to have the Indian Curry Omelette (Green chile and herb omelette, cut into strips and stewed with tomatoes and Indian curry, served with pita)
Good luck on the felt, and don't forget, tonight is your final chance to pick up a BBT3 Tournament of Champions seat and Miami Don's Big Game -- get your Tier 2 tokens ready.
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