Blogging Back to the Real World

Another Christmas come and gone...

Great times for the Good Doctor Mondo and myself. We shared a mostly low key holiday weekend full of good food, relaxation, good music, and the like...

Highlights? The New Ben Franklins gig last Friday at the Larimer Lounge. It's been a really long time since I've played in front of so many people. I mean, only about 20 or so actually entered the venue on New Ben Franklins' tickets, but by 1/3 of the way through our set, there must have been 60 or so actually standing by the stage paying attention. I must say, that felt really really good. We play music because we want to, and because we need to, but it's always gratifying to see a crowd get larger as you go. In addition, the Denver City Saltlicks played a blistering set of punk Appalachia, and Brent Loveday's solo stuff was real cool. I missed out on Rosalie, as I'd headed to the end of the block to catch the Mike Marchant/Andy Hamilton set at the Meadowlark Tavern.

Yesterday, I finally got back to some online poker, for the first time in over a week. While it was a down session overall, I had fun, and nearly made a deep run in a $5 rebuy PLO8 event, where I was 17th of 64 remaining (550-something started), when variance finally bit me on the ass on two consecutive hands. At that point, I was 62nd of 62, with less than 1 BB left. Hey, chip and a chair! I then doubled up twice over two hands, when the following took place:

PokerStars Game #23345405722: Tournament #127699547, $5.00+$0.50 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Level XVII (2000/4000) - 2008/12/28 17:56:55 ET
Table '127699547 30' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Mondogarage (7692 in chips)
Seat 2: karo1102 (47246 in chips)
Seat 3: axxu73 (27776 in chips)
Seat 4: EVitoy (40564 in chips)
Seat 5: Realtorcraig (36724 in chips)
Seat 6: magawatt (91741 in chips)
Seat 7: Coachmendeal (19519 in chips)
Seat 8: WoosPigs (65110 in chips)
Seat 9: buyingthepot (35920 in chips)
WoosPigs: posts small blind 2000
buyingthepot: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [8d 7h Ah Ac]
Mondogarage: raises 3692 to 7692 and is all-in (I think this is a std play here)
karo1102: calls 7692
axxu73: folds
EVitoy: folds
Realtorcraig: folds
magawatt: folds
Coachmendeal: folds
WoosPigs: folds
buyingthepot: calls 3692
*** FLOP *** [6d Jc Qd]
buyingthepot: bets 25076
karo1102: calls 25076
*** TURN *** [6d Jc Qd] [9c]
buyingthepot: bets 3152 and is all-in
karo1102: calls 3152
*** RIVER *** [6d Jc Qd 9c] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buyingthepot: shows [5c 5s Kd Td] (HI: a straight, Nine to King)
karo1102: shows [2s 6c As Kh] (HI: two pair, Queens and Sixes)
buyingthepot collected 56456 from side pot
Mondogarage: shows [8d 7h Ah Ac] (HI: two pair, Aces and Queens)
buyingthepot collected 25076 from main pot
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 81532 Main pot 25076. Side pot 56456. | Rake 0
Board [6d Jc Qd 9c Qc]
Seat 1: Mondogarage showed [8d 7h Ah Ac] and lost with HI: two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 2: karo1102 showed [2s 6c As Kh] and lost with HI: two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 9: buyingthepot (big blind) showed [5c 5s Kd Td] and won (81532) with HI: a straight, Nine to King

I can't fault his flop call of karo1102's bet, but damn, you really play that hand preflop? No low draw possible, one low pair, one suit, and no A? Really?

So what was a decent chance at a run at $1500 turned into $26. Got river-raped on Bodog a couple spots before the $$$, and took a min-cash there in another tourney.

Really, the worst beat of all was I was unable to play in the PokerStars Guiness World Record attempt. 35,000 players, and I even tried to register 16 HOURS before the tourney started, and it was already full. I finally had a Sunday to play, and couldn't play in the one tournament I was trying to sign up for. If I hadn't satellited into the Double Deuce (which I busted out of Q high flush to K high flush (cutoff thought he'd play his K4 'cause it was soooooooted), I would have skipped the rest of the day. Sixteen hours is like an eternity in online tournament registration -- I'm utterly flummoxed and disappointed that I couldn't get into that event.

Less than "almost", I suppose, but I did enjoy the play for the most part. I've learned that the play in the rebuy Omaha events seems to get far worse after the bubble than even in the first two hours. That's something like three rebuy Omaha events in a row where I've got taken out in the money by obnoxious "barely have any draw at all" preflop calls in spots where the player making the call can't think they're doing anything but donating chips. If this keeps up, I have to make a deep run in this thing, sometime.

Anyway, it was a fun holiday all the way around nonetheless.