Good + Bad =/= Indifference

Ahh, got a few tournies in tonight, and ended up with a fairly reasonable night.

Made one final table (in Limit Omaha 8, 'natch), though I went out fifth when I got my chips in on the turn, whiffing my draw on the river.

I was actually in pretty good shape at the start of the final table:



Entered the final table in 3rd, but was pretty much alternately whiffing, and card dead, for most of it. No complaints there.

However, I do think I've got Jestocost beat for teh sick of teh night. Yes, all the chips went in on the flop:



And, oh yeah, before I forget, nezzi77 on PokerStars can felch the runny turds out of my ass, 3-bet overshoving 74o preflop on me a few players from the bubble (catches the 4, of course), to knock me out about 15 players from the money. Of course, I'd been playing tight, never showing down junk, and had raised the hand UTG...and I had a stack that wasn't really close to being in the danger zone, so there was no reason to think I'd suddenly expanded my range. 74o, really?

Naturally, even after that donktastic douchebag move of his, he must have tried the same stunt again, because he managed to crash and burn his entire stack and go out only four spots closer to the bubble than I.

Jeebus fucking crisps, if you're going to play like a douchenozzle, and manage to get just lucky enough to actually pick up the pot, the least you can do is learn something from the hand and not piss it all away two hands later.

And yes, I even looked your ass up on OPR, and yes, you've actually hit five four-figure cashes over the last year. All I can say is, it must be fucking nice to have the easy button when you play as badly as you did tonight. Ahh, I can be more compassionate than that...maybe you're just a tilt monkey, given your single $12 cash amongst nearly 30 tournaments covering over $200 in buyins since yesterday....

Has the Worm Turned?

Perhaps, or perhaps not. But the horrendous bankroll slide seems to have stopped for now. "Horrendous" is a strong word, considering how micro I tend to play, but half a roll is half a roll, ya know?

But the last week has ultimately been pretty good. I only played two sessions, focusing mostly on non-HE action of varying types. Lots of HORSE, LO8, Omaha, etc., to a set of pretty good results, including at least three final tables. For once, I didn't go out 9th, 8th, 7th, or whatever. And the greater irony is that my best success this week came on Full Tilt, normally the scene of most of my ugliest crashes. In fact, I managed to nearly triple my FTP roll to get out of the danger zone, thanks to taking 2nd in a Rush PLO tourney, and chopping heads up in a $5.50 LO8 tournament.

No real hands of note there. Mostly, I found good spots, hit draws, and scooped more than I chopped. Though this one felt pretty good, because I was fairly certain I was only pulling the low:




What's the danger zone? Oh, a two digit roll that requires me to play no more than like a $2 buy-in. Or just put the whole damn thing on black.

That LO8 tournament was fun, but perhaps I should have played it out. Got to a 2:1 chiplead at one point before giving half of it back. Nevertheless, it was 12:30am here, and I really wanted some sleep before the Red Sox came to town for a three game set. I'll probably blog about that a bit later, but I managed to attend all three games, and we pulled off a series victory that feels a bit like a loss all the same.

I can only hope this is the start of something better.

Good luck on the felt ya'll.

Bah, A Wee Bit Short

Bah.

Played a very small batch of tourneys last night, three in total. The FTP $5 LO8, the $4 4-max PLO8 on Stars, and the $4 1000-max NLHE at Stars. Came up empty. Bah.

$5 Limit O8 - finished 45th of 221 (27 paid). Twice I had to bail two massive combo draws in big pots after scary rivers. The one I remember saw me holding AA54 double suited clubs/spades and a flop that brought two clubs and a deuce and a trey. The red king on the turn didn't help (I check/called), and the non-club K on the river hurt worse. So the low never filled, and all I've got is a pair of aces. The river fold was correct, I am certain, pot odds be damned, but it left me crippled.

The upsetting part to me of this is that I did not raise from the SB with this hand. I got a bit gunshy raising PF in this tourney, because the field seemed so loose that every late position raise saw either five callers or TWO re-raises on top by players who limped in early. My hope, preflop, was to pick up exactly the kind of draws on the flop that...well...that I did pick up. But if villian's caught virtually any part of that board by the river, I lose that hand.

$4 4-max PLO8 - finished 74th of 599 (60 paid). This one hurt, to the extent that I managed to overcome losing 1/3 of my stack in the first couple of levels, and played pretty tight afterwards, but as the blinds caught up and I found myself short, I shoved from position to get called by a mixed-bag hand. The flop gave him top pair, but gave me bottom two pair. Of course, it's Omaha, so nothing's a sure thing, but the turn gave him trips.

$4 8-handed 1000-max NLHE - finished 196th of 1000. This one hurt real bad. At first, I thought it would be a really really short tourney for me. Third hand in, I see a couple of Jacks staring at me from one of the blinds. Nice. Early position raises, and about four players (besides myself) come along for the ride. Now, I considered re-raising to isolate, but at these buyins, with the quality of players at this level, I'm likely to still see the flop at least 4-handed, so I elect to call. The flop was all low cards, maybe 9-high. I didn't want A-rag to get there, so I bet out, and the original raiser shoves...it's early enough, I haven't invested time, so I call. He's got QQ. Bah. But the J on the turn saves my bacon and sets me up for a long run.

I'm not playing a lot of hands at all, but saw KK once and QQ three times, and picked up nice pots with all of them. Given my rate of reasonable cards, I didn't feel the need to get out of line by trying to steal too often, and that strategy seemed to be working.

I manage to spend the entire first hour in the top 10 in chips, eventually falling backwards a bit through card death. But with 200 players left, I'm still something like 60th-70th, with a just above average chipstack, when we get to the last hand before break. Then this happens....and where the Mondo learns a powerful lesson.

I'm in the SB holding KQs, blinds are either 150/300 or 200/400, I forget. The BB is in the top 5-10 in chips, with 3x my stack. Folds around to the hijack who calls. (I have about 15k chips, he has about 11k) I hate this spot. I like raising here, but for the massive stack on my left, who has been pushing around a bit. The hijack could have anything, medium to big ace, middle pair, who knows. So I elect to call (the BB checked). The flop was great for me. Q54 rainbow, yeah. I think I'm good here, because AQ in that spot most likely raises preflop. So given possible holdings, I look like I have a monster here.

So I check, hoping to CR any kind of continuation bet. The hijack spot bets 1100, essentially just short of pot. Doesn't tell me much. So I raise to 2700 to show strength. I suppose I could have shoved, but that would have shown weakness, and I do think I have a monster here. Until he smooth calls. Dammit, dammit, dammit, I tell myself as the inconsequential turn comes out. He's got to have a set of fives, he's just got to. Why didn't I raise preflop, I ask myself as I donkey shove the turn. Actually, he had pocket fours, for the flopped bottom set, and I'm crippled.

I misplayed this so many ways...when he called my flop CR, I *knew* he had a set (only error was which set). So why do I shove myself to certain death there? Why did I not raise KQs from my spot preflop? Even with the huge stack on my left, I have a lot of FE in that spot that possibly makes up for the loss of showdown value of my hand?

Any suggestions how to avoid this type of leak? I know, I know, sometimes, you've just gotta actually trust your reads. Shoving into what I know is a made set is probably a worse blunder than not raising PF in that spot, but I'm interested in your thoughts.

So instead of a healthy stack at break, I'm 195 of 200, with about 8.5 BB left. Bah.

Either first or 2nd hand after break, the even shorter stack on my right shoves. I see 99 and overshove -- he could have anything, but with 8 BB left and an M of about 4, I'm not folding here. Well, two to my left overshoves. Gross. The shortest stack had 77 (putting me well ahead), but the big stack had QQ. Can I beat the mighty QQ again with a smaller pair, like I did in the first orbit?

Ummmm....nope. The Q of hearts on the flop nearly sealed my fate. The heart turn on the two heart flop gave me hope for a backdoor flush (I held the only pocket heart), but the river smited me, and IGHN. This one hurt. Bah.

Three tournies, beat at least 80% of the field every time, but zero cashes. Bah.

Catharsis, Of Sorts

Yeah, so I played the show last Friday, and I have to admit that things went well for the most part. We had a decent crowd, the room sounded great. You have to love a venue that's combo rock hall, BBQ joint, and bowling alley. The Big Lebowski approves.

Anyway, I know we showed a bit of rust (especially that suck ass bass player), but the energy level was high, and people seemed genuinely pleased with the performance. I suppose when we're rocking the fuck out that most of those little mistakes may not really reach the ears of individual audience members, unless it's glaring.

I managed to make it through the first seven songs of the set just fine, but then we played "Boy". This is a song our guitar player wrote that is particularly haunting and sad, and about fear and death. Not to mention the bass carries the melody, and about 80% of the tune, musically. Well, I asked for us to play that song, because the lyrics hit home with particular impact these days. We rehearsed pre-show, and I started crying towards the end of the song.

Wouldn't you know it, about halfway through "Boy" on state, I pretty much began sobbing uncontrollably, thinking about my Good Doctor Mondo, now in the ICU bed for a full month. It hurts just typing that last bit. Anyway, it was pretty brutal, but I somehow got through it and only donked a couple notes of the melody. Of course, we still have three more songs to play after that point, and I was pretty ragged the rest of the night, but I (and we) got through it. Cathartic...yes, it was. I think I *need* to do this band thing during our difficult process right now.

The Good Doctor's mother is back in town and staying for...ever? Certainly through the next six weeks of so.

Okay, happier stuff...I made TWO final tables on the same day a couple days ago. One in a Bodog $30 NLHE, and one in a $5r LO8 tourney. Yep, you read that right...a Limit Omaha 8 that is also a rebuy. Head asplode. Naturally, I didn't finish better than 7th in either event, but a final table is a final table, especially when it feels like forever since you got there.

Carry on.

Weekend Poker Roundup

I really have no idea why I spent so much of Saturday donking around online, but I did just that. Played some games well, played a few less well. Made a couple of final tables, and yet lost out on my best opportunity...

PokerStars has recently updated to offer a wide variety of 90-man SNGs at all kinds of buy-in levels. Of course, I'm a small baller, so I played seven of them ranging from $3.25 to $8.80 buy-ins. What's interesting is that the offerings include regular stack, turbos, and deep stacks. By deep, it's only 3000 chips, but very slow moving levels. It was in one of these deep stack events where I felt like I played my best, and yet came up with nothing.

For over three hours in this event (and yeah, the 90 man deepstacks easily go 4+ hours, it seems), I was in the top two in chips. In fact, I was chipleader for most of the time, from about 88 players left, down to 18. Twelve spots paid. During the third hour, I recall having to fold about 98% preflop, just because the cards were that bad. Having a big stack was one thing, but given the levels and table stack sizes, and aggression of the two players to my left, I didn't really want to have to lay down weak hands to resteals at that time in the tournament.

At this point, still being 2nd in chips, and playing tight, I eventually woke up to KK on the button. Of course, it folded to me, and I went 3x the BB or so (a tad higher, I believe, because the stacks were high relative to the blinds). I was rather surprised when the midstack on my direct left repopped it to about 9x the BB. I had him easily covered, but he'd been somewhat aggressive. The pot was large enough to take down at that point, so I shoved. Duh. He had AA.



K on the flop. AWESOME!
A on the flop. NOT SO AWESOME!!

The next thing you know, I go from 1 of 18, to 18 of 18, with about 15 BB left. Still playable, but tons of work to do. Unfortunately, I was never able to really chip up again, and wouldn't you know it, I went out on the 13th place bubble. Very unsatisfying after playing really dominant poker for the first 2.5 hours. But truth be told, if the chips hadn't gone in preflop, I'm pretty sure they would have gone in on the flop in a set over set situation.

That was the only 90 man SNG I really came close to cashing in. However, what I took away from that event was, for a recreational player like myself, those 90 man deepstacks offer a shit-ton of play value. And, unlike some of those 1500 chip MTTs on Stars or Bodog, taking an early beat doesn't have to be the end of the world. If what you're hoping to do is slowly grind up a roll, with an equal priority of playing a relaxing evening, there are far worse tourney choices to make than to fire up three or four of these $8.80 90 man deepstacks.

On a more positive note, I finished 4th in a $5 Limit Omaha 8 MTT over on Full Tilt. 90 runners, and a $90 payout. Not totally awesome, but made the whole day a bit better than breakeven. More importantly, I was able to recover from being a total early donktard. 24 spots paid, and when we got to 24, I was in 24th. When we got to 18, I was in 18th. When the final table started, I came into it 9th. By rights, I probably shouldn't have cashed, and instead, came oh so damn close to the bigger money of Top 3 spots.

I went when blinds were 10k/20k, and I held about 33k chips. I didn't get a screenie of the hand, but I raised with something like AK53, with the A and K each suited with one of the wheel cards (two clubs, two hearts, I think). The small blind (with about 35k chips) re-raised, I popped again, and he shoved to put me all in. His hand was similar to mine, but he wasn't double suited, and he had a deuce. He had an AK in there possibly AKT2. Of course, A on the flop, with two clubs, so I'm looking good. But a T on the river (or whatever gave him a 2nd pair) ensured my exit, when no more clubs came. I'm not complaining, as it took a ton of work just to get that far. A ton of work, and a straight flush wheel that allowed me to scoop one very nice pot (both players called):



At any rate, it was a fun day of online poker, even if I still came up short in decent cashes (did final table a small tourney at Bodog, and cashed in the $3r at Stars). Not much better than break even on the day, but I felt that for the most part, I played really well, except for a couple of the 90 man turbo SNGs, when I was definitely overaggressive.

Hope the rest of you had a great weekend, on and off the tables.

Bloggerments Shmloggerments

Well, that's about how she goes. Tuesday was definitely my worst ever performance in nightly bloggerments ever, and there's really no one to blame but myself.

In the Bodonkey, I never truly got going, and about 1/2 through the first hour, I raise a flop with ye olde untrustworthy TPTK. AJ soooted, I believe. After being raised, I shoved right into a flopped two pair, and IGH 43rd of 44. Ugh. It didn't seem like a particularly tough table or field that night, either, and I definitely wasted a chance to move up the leaderboard.

Things in the Skillz game were worse...after chipping up to 4k the first orbit, I proceed to go out like 83rd, because I forgot my own cardinal rule about how over 1/2 the field had disabled their fold buttons. I had so many quality hands go down to ugly turns and rivers, it wasn't even funny. Only one time, for a largish pot, did I think the opposing player actually play the kind of hand that should be seeing a raised preflop pot in Limit O8, but whatev, it was still very nearly a great night.

See, remember that $75 token I luckboxed my way into? I finally used it, in Full Tilt's $23k guarantee KO, with $15 for each knockout. There were about 432 runners, with 45 paid. At first, I tread softly, thinking the skill level was going to be higher than I was used to. However, after about 90 minutes, it hit me how many others were probably in on Tier Two tokens, because the play really was no different than the $11 KO MTTs, or the $11 turbo KO 90 player SNGs.

I had to overcome a short stack, after getting three outed by a shorty on the river, which dropped me to about 1600 (3000 starting chips). This make KOs very hard to come by because, chip up as I did for 4+ hours, I was always behind average chips. However, by the time the bubble broke, I was still alive, and working hard. Unfortunately, the fourth hour brought total card death, and with 16 players left (and me 16th in chips, I shoved KQ soooted from 2nd position (UTG had called), and UTG called me with a 66 that held. Still, I was able to turn $14 into a Tier Two, and that token in to $199 plus a single KO bounty. I think it's odd that I could survive past 415 players in a 432 person field, and only have one KO, but my few all ins were always with me as a shorter stack.

In fact, the only two showdowns I lost the entire tourney were the 1st hour 3-outer, and the hand of my demise. Nine showdowns out of about 350 hands, and only seeing 9% of flops. That's MiamiDon poker, I suppose.

Anyway, the field didn't seem that tough, and if I can't be around for the Big Game, I've found a decent use for those Tier Two tokens going forward.

Also played the Bodog $8k guarantee, and went out around 20th or so for a somewhat decent cash, as well. In the end, it was a somewhat profitable night, but performing so poorly in the bloggerments really leaves a sour taste, ya know?

Work is truly kicking me in the junk these days, so we'll have to see how often I can post. I was going for two posts every three days, but I may be lucky to do 2-3 a week, at least until this trial in early June. We'll see how it goes. I'm definitely a no-go for the Heartland Poker Tour qualifiers, because I just can't take the time off work to go up the hill. At least they're back in September, and I'll be rolling in so much OT pay from trial that I can definitely give it a shot.

Tonight's the Mookie, but it started 90 minutes ago....

Tuesday Night Bloggamania (Bodonkey/Skillz)

Oh yeah, out of the way first...last night I managed to take down my 3rd 50-60 runner bar poker tourney in my last seven attempts at a particular juke joint (with one 2nd place, to boot). The most minor brag ever, but it felt good being able to have such a good read on one particular aggressive player that...every time he'd chip up against others, I would immediately take them from him. He was raising most hands in mid to late position with ATC, and was C-betting every flop, and most every turn, whether the board hit him or not. In most cases, he would whiff, and I was able to call these obvious c-bets and then push him out on the river with 1/3 to 1/2 pot bets, more than once with nothing more than 2nd or 3rd pair and a good kicker.

Eventually, he pulled this move in a hand where I'd flopped two overs and nut flush draw, and when the A came on the turn and he overshoved, I knew my top pair was likely good, and had a hell of a re-draw. Turns out he was drawing to a gutshot, and he was drawing near dead.

To him, I say, "I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!" (Actually, I respect his play quite a bit. Most of the table ended up becoming extremely weak/tight as a result, but being able to take advantage of his aggro style by being on his left and having a good read on a decent player just felt so goot.)

Anyway, to more current events:

Tonight is another edition of the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series. In fact, I believe tonight marks the halfway point in our journey to win a World Series Main Event seat to play with Team Bodog 2008. Join up and challenge other Poker Bloggers each Tuesday in our Bodog Poker Room and live to tell about it. Earn points and work your way up the Tournament Leader Board for a spot in the final tournament for your chance to win a $12,000 World Series of Poker* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008.

How to Participate
This tournament is open to poker bloggers worldwide. Players must have a Bodog Member Player Account to register.
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 in the upper right hand corner. Once this is completed, they must then click on "REGISTER NOW" to register themselves into the tournament series. Bloggers will each have to do this once in order to play in the series. Once this is done, they then need to find the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register as they normally would each and every week.

Players are encouraged to register early. If you need assistance with signing up for the tournament or with starting a Bodog member player account, please call Bodog's Poker Customer Service at 1-866-909-2237 or contact us prior to start time at http://www.bodogbloggertournament.com/contact

Tournament prizes, leader board and tournament schedule available at http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/

Not only are there bounties, $Ts overlays, and lots of juicy goodness, but there's also Buddy Dank radio! Tune in, tune in!



In addition, tonight is also Chad's Blogger Skillz Series. Tonight we're playing Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, and believe me, over half the field have disabled their fold buttons for this one, no doubt. If a bloggers got a 568T one suited, they'll be calling 3-bets preflop, and quartering the low with with the dude playing 54 low whose 4 was counterfeited.

Lawdy grant me strength as I try to improve upon my 2nd place Razz finish last week. And please, for one night, let me run like Antonius.



See you there!