Skippin' the Heartland, and Pulsating MTT Action

Well, good luck to everyone going up to Blackhawk for the Heartland Poker Tour. I decided tonight not to go, as my temperment is currently unable or unwilling to deal with the most atrocious donkey beats imaginable.

The online poker world has been, with one notable exception, kicking me in the junk beyond belief this week.

I swear, if someone calls my reshove (holding AK sooooted) with J8 off and hits, two from the money in a $5k...or calls my 4 bet shove (with QQ on button) with A9 and hits A on the river, for a stack big enough to take me to $$$ in a $40k guarantee...or runner runner flushes me three spots from the money in a 500 player tournament....

Anyway, I'm embarrassed at how loudly I was swearing in my living room last night...loud enough for the Good Doctor Mondo to hear as she pulled up to the garage last night.

If that happened to me up at the Golden Gates during the HPT, I think I'd be as likely to literally throw a fist at someone, instead of just slapping my fist on a barstool or pillow. I am simply not presently in a mental state to take the horrible beat by a horrible player three spots before the $340 qualifier bubble. A race is a race. And I can totally deal with running QQ into AA, or say, having KK outflop AA, or even having AQs catch an AK, etc. You know what I'm talking about, the kind of battles for stacks where, whether or not the play was optimal, it was at least understandable or justifiable...where your stack is truly short enough that it's +EV to shove any two broadway cards from the cutoff in an unopened pot, or restealing from a button who you've seen to be raising light and showing down trash, etc.

But those incomprehensible plays by terrible players, who these days are invariably hitting their river miracles on me...I just don't think I can deal with that in a high buy-in live event right now, because the online poker world has just been truly abusive of me of late. It's so bad, I'm correctly predicting the river that beats me just about every time now. "Here comes the case K.............and there it is."

I did mention above about one notable exception, and here it is:



BOOOOM!, I actually took one down, the Bodog $10+1 NHLE Turbo, that runs at something like 9pm in my time zone. There were around 143 runners this time around, and for once, I didn't take any atrociously horrible beats. I mean, I did lose a couple of pots where I was heavily ahead when the chips went it, but in each case, they plays were completely reasonable under the circumstances, and I never felt hosed.

This almost didn't happen. After chipping up big early, and coming into the final three tables either 2nd or 3rd in chips, by the time we got to the final table bubble, I was just about on the morphine drip. However, I was able to last, and got in a strong position when I called all ins by two short stacks at the final table and my AQs held (I belive the all ins were A7 and A4s). This put me in 2nd of the final five, and I was on my way. Heads up looked like this:



Heads up went somewhere between 18-20 hands or so, with a bit of back and forth. At one point, we were nearly even in chips, but there was essentially no button limping on either side, and pots were taken preflop or on the flop, until this hand:



I believe I raised pot preflop, and he smooth called. What is he shoving that flop with? At this point, I don't care, I'm not folding bottom two pair with backdoor possibilities here.




Well, guess some of my backdoor options are knackered, but I'm ahead (less comfortably than I thought), and may have made the same shove myself. Frankly, I think check-shoving the flop is as good a play as shoving. Is it better or worse, what do you think? If villian put me on a random A or K, or small pocket pair (given preflop action), he probably thinks he induces a fold here. Anyway, I think his play was fine.



And it actually held up. Wow.

Once again, the final payout was pretty small. It's always the 400+ runner and more MTTs where I get truly hosed. So maybe the ticket for me is to stick with 150-180 player tournaments, no matter the buy-in? Does that make any sense. This was my 5th MTT victory at Bodog this year, but none had more than 220 runners, and two had less than 100. I suppose that's variance, or maybe the 15-20 table starting range is just a sweet spot of sorts for me. I haven't figured that out just yet.

At any rate, I've been able to work my Bodog roll just about up to what it was before my recent withdrawal, so I'll take it.

Return to the Heartland

If you haven't already read, the Heartland Poker Tour is back in Blackhawk, once again at the Golden Gates, home of the nicest poker room in Colorado. This will be HPT's third stop in Colorado, and they've finally named the event the Mile High Poker Open. Of course, being Colorado, home of restrictive casino limits, there is no direct buy-in to the main event which starts on Friday, October 3rd. Instead, you have to qualify for the main event by way of $340 qualifiers, which are really supersats. One in five players in each qualifier gets in to the main event, which makes the main event equate to a $1700 buy-in.

The first of sixteen $340 satellite events is this coming Saturday, October 20th. There are also $80 and $110 single table sit-and-go's where players can win seats into a $340 qualifier. The satellite events have nice structures, but the SNGs are truly donkeyshovefests, with 1500 in starting chips and blinds that increase every ten minutes. I swear they play almost just about like playing the chippies on Full Tilt. There is a rumor that if you win five satellites, you are entered into the main event, but a) I have not confirmed this, and b) this would seem to run counter to Colorado gaming law, especially as the SNGs pay out in cash, not qualifier tickets.

I have yet to decide whether or not I'm going to try to take part. Work schedule requirements dictated that I miss the last two events, and that does not look to be a factor for me this time. However, until last night, I've been running extremely poorly, for the most part. I started writing this post before yesterday's play. I'm hoping to go through another week and see how things hold up. I can afford the $340 to take the shot, but if I'm running like ass, I just don't see the point. But I feel confident enough after my play last night to give it a go -- I just want to see if I can back it up with more solid play first. We'll see...

TOC Seats and Blogger Gatherings

A few days ago, I mentioned how, after finising 2nd in the Skillz game, I was initially really bummed that I couldn't finish one spot higher and pick up a seat to the BBT3 Tournament of Champions.

Well, upon further review, I'm not so much bummed. In fact, I may end up being more bummed out if I am to actually win a TOC seat? Why, do you ask? Because as of now, I'm scheduled to be working a trial in Ohio for the first two weeks of June. The TOC is Saturday, June 7th, but that's the weekend in between two trial weeks. Though I can't say with 1000% certainty, I've a pretty good idea I'll be working around the clock that entire weekend on prep for the following week. Of course, this also means missing the BBT3 freeroll on the 8th, as well. Most likely.

What is actually most likely is this: If I end up not winning a TOC seat between now and then, the case will settle, or the trial team will head home on the weekend, leaving me with no work, and I'd otherwise be available to play a tourney I'm not in. If I do win a TOC seat, I'll be crushed and dominated like a KK facing a flopped set of AAA, and I won't be able to play. That's the way these things usually go.

However, I once nearly lost my job when I begged off a trial team because of some long-ago arranged recording sessions and good-paying gigs to pay for those sessions. And being the weekend warrior I am (and never selling any records), I know never to pull a stunt like that again. So work it is.

The real bummer is, I am definitely a no-go for the summer blogger gathering, making me 0-for-forever at showing up for drunken paigow or IP Geisha Bar shenanigans since the start of my blogging days. At least there's a chance the next winter gathering will incorporate my birthday, and I'm fuckin' entitled to go, lol.

But no worries - I'll continue to donate mightily in the Skillz series, and may even start playing the Mookie in about four weeks time...though I'll probably use my current $75 token in something other than the Big Game, given the futility of the BBT3 for moi.

In the meantime, I'm going to see a truly amazing indie band from Syracuse, NY tonight -- Ra Ra Riot:



I'm sure 101% of you have probably never heard of them, but I saw the band last summer at Monolith. I must say, it's been many many years since I've seen an indiepop band just be so joyous and infectious on stage, which takes on more import, given the tragedy that's befallen this band in the past.

For you crusty strictly metal types, there's probably not a lot here for you. However, if you like your pop bouncy, hopeful, with lots of jangle and strings, you may find something truly special here. My favorites are "Each Year" and "Ghost Under Rocks", though "Dying is Fine" is utterly moving, given the story.

Anyway, good luck all on the felt this weekend.

Oh yeah, the Heartland Poker Tour's stop in Blackhawk begins today. I haven't decided my level of participation yet, given my poor SNG record, and unavailability until late for the $340 qualifiers....

Once More Unto the Heart(land Poker Tour)

Got this off of 2+2 today:

Golden Gates Casino
Black Hawk, Colorado
April 1-13, 2008

$300+40 Qualifiers
NO Direct Buy to Main Event

For those not from the Rockies, the reason for no direct buy ins is that Colorado gaming laws restrict maximum tourney buyins to something like $500. This meant that when the HPT was last here, folks winning seats via the qualifiers were able to sell seats for up to $3,000 (when the actual value of the qualifying seats, based on $340 x number of players/20 was something like $2,000 or so).

Allegedly, the Main Event will be spread over three days instead of two. And this time, I'm not scheduled to be out of town during the ME, so I can actually try to win a seat to this thing. Yay me!

Last time, they ran a bunch of 1 table $45 and $70 sats to the $340 supersats, but 1-table SNGs really are not my strong suit, and I think I'm more likely to just trying to buy into a $340 straight off. If I manage to win one seat, maybe I'll take one or two cracks at the SNGs to try to get a 2nd seat to sell, but who knows. It's still a ways off.

Still, it's pretty much in my backyard (just an hour away), and very nearly in PokerPeaker's backyard, so I'm hoping he gives it a shot, as well. There's very little hotel space in Blackhawk, but plenty in Denva!

If any bloggers come out, let me know, and we can maybe have a mini-blogger gathering somewhere.