After another ten hour day in the office, I was sadly unable to make it home in time for the Mookie (or, The Buddy, if you're so inclined).
Now, I wasn't necessarily setting to play any poker last night. It's been a long week already, and miles to go before I sleep. But the Good Doctor Mondo and her mom were watching American Idol, and I just. can't. get. into. that. The audition shows are fun, but once everyone gets to Hollywood and is fed through the inevitable makeover process through the course of a season...makes me wanna gack.
So instead, I thought I'd try my hand at Full Tilt's new Rush Tournaments. Yeah, Rush poker with a tournament twist. I found two levels of 135 man SNGs, at $4.40 and $11. And I promptly tried a $4.40. The same Rush poker mechanism, but in a tourney with 2k starting chips and three minute blinds. So it's also a super turbo. And almost as promptly, I went down in flamed, with my AQ going down to KT on a TT8 board. Raised PF from the button, both blinds called, and I couldn't lay down to the check-raise after my c-bet on the flop.
So I fired up another one, as these seem to go off every five minutes. And on the very first hand, my AQ 3-bet AIPF went down to QT (who'd called my all in) on yet another TTx flop. Gross. I could sense a pattern forming.
So I fired up another one, and AK went down to QQ (oh, so now a Q is good).
So I fired up another one, and KK went down in flames. At least my conqueror had no tens...
So I fired up another one. And came home fourth. Way to go.
Actually, I found myself very fortunate in this one. Twice I had to catch a turn or a river in a really tight spot to keep going. And even when the final table started, I was 9th in chips, and pretty much roached my way up five spots just from other players getting knocked out by one or two big stacks. I think I only managed to pull down two pots at the final table.
All in all, the most valuable lesson I learned in these last night is that one of these 135 rush tournaments will go from start to end in under 80 minutes or so. But the play, at least in the $4.40s, is pretty bad, at least given some of the preflop calls I saw. Variance will be high. Once down to 18 players or so, the short stacks will stall, to lesson the number of hands. I haven't yet decided whether the quick fold is a great idea at that stage. If you have a decent stack (which I did at that time, around 5th-6th in chips), you may be better served by playing along with the stallers, to force the levels to rise and help the blinds swallow them up.
Anyway, it was fun, and the whole shebang was done just a few minutes after the DVR'd AI festivities were over, so I'm definitely going to try this again.
Besides, given the massive 122 player Mookie turnout last night, the 12:30MT headsup, and my work schedule...gah...it's looking less likely that I'll end up in any of the BBT5 events this cycle, such is life.
May the chips fall your way....
Showing posts with label Tournament Poker. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tournament Poker. Show all posts
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Saturday, November 01, 2008
Blackhawk Trip Report
Around 2:45 Friday morning, the Good Doctor Mondo kissed me on the forehead and split to Memphis for a couple of days, for one of her professional field's two big conferences. (Oddly enough, the other is next weekend -- weird scheduling.)
So I get to work as per normal, and find I've got pretty much absolutely nothing on my plate. Reminded that a lot of my vacation hours won't necessarily roll over, I say fuck it, let's go to Blackhawk! Okay, what I actually did first was log on and check the day's tournament schedule first, but I digress.
If you know me, you know I love deeeeeep stack poker. Well, the noon tourney at the Golden Gates looked promising. An $80 buyin plus $80 rebuy up front nets you 40,000 in chips. Woo! But don't get excited, it's really not deep stack, because not only do blinds start at 100/100 (followed by 100/200, and 100/200/25), the levels are only 20 minutes. So truly, it's not deep, but for Blackhawk, it actually pretty much is.
I get the clearance of my bosses, and roll out right at 10:50. Fortunately, traffic was very light, and I managed to make it up the hill in enough time to register. There were only 40 players, so only four spots would pay. P'shaw, I hate that one pay spot per table, but whatev. I understand you can't pay the whole final table when there's only 4 tables. Still, I'd like to see 5-6 spots pay but again, I digress.
The first hour was pretty routine, lots of folding, a bit of stealing. Unfortunately for me, my image was tight enough that when I did get cards, I couldn't get action. For instance, at 100/100, I call an UTG raise to from mid-position with 99, and eventually, 5 players see the beautiful flop of K9x and two hearts (Pot is 1750.) First three players check. Real men bet sets, and besides, I didn't want anyone to get their heart flush for free, so I bet out. But I want action, so I only bet 350, around 20% of the pot. And everyone folds. A pot's a pot, but I would like to have been paid off. Still, I end the first hour around 47k in chips. Considering at least 1/4 of the field didn't take rebuys up front, I was actually probably above average chips, but hardly dominant.
The only notable aspect of the first hour was the old man whose play and table demeanor I can only describe as Alzheimer's-affected. He claimed to be colorblind, but wanted a cheat sheet for denominations. He played out of turn so often that he suffered a nine-hand trip to the penalty box, and *still* collected at least one more warning button by the 2nd hour. He'd throw one chip out for his ante every time, and it would be the wrong color. He'd try to call all bets with one chip. At first, I thought he was an angle-shooter, but his actual play was so atrocious, I couldn't give him that much credit. In one hand, at 100/200, he called an UTG raise to 1000 from the BB. Flop comes 2xx, and he calls a 2000 chip bet. Turn comes 2, and he throws a 5k chip out there. Okay. UTG shoves, and he calls. He had Q2 for the turned trips (UTG had QQ, and rebought after that hand.) So he calls 5x the BB out of position with Q2 off, and then calls a basically pot size bet with bottom pair. There are other examples, but suffice it to say, the table was convinced he was just that bad a player, and not a schemer.
Anyway, the guy he busted took his rebuy, and a little while later, he raised UTG to 2000, when blinds are at 200/400/50. After a call in MP, I wake up to find AA. SCOREBOARD! Hmm. There's about 4800 in the pot, I've got about 48k, and while taking the pot down here would be okay, I really need to try to chip up here. So I kick it up to 7,000 to go, and UTG flat calls (MP folded). UTG seems like a solid player, but I'm thinking AK is his likeliest holding, because he's aggressive enough to have 4-bet a smaller pair. On a KJ9 flop, he bets out 5,000 into the roughly 17,000 pot. Is his fishing for info? Is he trying to take it down now? Was my read correct? If I can get him to commit way behind, I'll be in the top 2-3 in chips, and primed to make a deep run. Let's find out..........SHOVE. Well, the read was bad, he had JJ for the flopped set, and I'm down to about 6,000 in chips with an effective M of about 4, at most, given the blind structure.
Well, I manage to ride the microstack for about an hour, open shoving in various late positions, doubling up and then folding a few, and just staying alive. Sadly, I missed a chance for a near triple, when I got to see a free flop from the BB that gave me top pair and OESD, and my flop shove was called by bottom pair, OESD, and the straight hit the river. I'd have been thrilled for my pair to hold against his pair (same villian from the AA v JJ hand). But eventually, it crashed down. I picked up AQs UTG, with an M of about 2, and shoved. The same old man who'd now collected four warnings and a penalty, and who hadn't shown down a decent preflop hand all day, winning with garbage, actually woke up with a hand. QQ, to be exact. Ugh, there go my outs, and there go my chips...and out before the third break.
Given the timing, I stuck around for one more tourney, a $50 buyin with 20 minute levels, 8,000 chips, and starting at 25/50. This tourney turned out better, but with the Golden Gates only paying out three spots (30 entrants), my fourth place bubble finish was only good for an agreed-upon save of $20 from each of the remaining three players. When we got to 4-handed, there was one dominant stack, and three shorties, of which I was one. We were pretty much equal, and all amenable to the save. All three were decent players, and the final table with them was enjoyable.
I don't truly mind going out fourth, but 3rd would have given me a profit for the day. And my exit was on back to back hands of irony. In the first, my A7 could not hold up against villian's K9, and on the very next hand, my K9 couldn't catch up to the same villian's A7.
Still, before that sequence was a pretty hilarious hand where I was on the big blind and committed to call with something like 53 sooted. Well, the raiser had Ax, and the flop came AA9, so I'm putting my hoodie on to leave, when the turn and river come deuce four, for the miracle runner runner straight to beat flopped trips. So every hand after that was gravy.
Wow, long post. Lost money on the trip, but felt I played well, and really, just had a good time. I ran into Jamal Saqwiddeh (sp?), and finally got to congratulate him for his deep run in the WSOP Main Event. What an easy going dude.
Anyway, have a great week at the tables.
So I get to work as per normal, and find I've got pretty much absolutely nothing on my plate. Reminded that a lot of my vacation hours won't necessarily roll over, I say fuck it, let's go to Blackhawk! Okay, what I actually did first was log on and check the day's tournament schedule first, but I digress.
If you know me, you know I love deeeeeep stack poker. Well, the noon tourney at the Golden Gates looked promising. An $80 buyin plus $80 rebuy up front nets you 40,000 in chips. Woo! But don't get excited, it's really not deep stack, because not only do blinds start at 100/100 (followed by 100/200, and 100/200/25), the levels are only 20 minutes. So truly, it's not deep, but for Blackhawk, it actually pretty much is.
I get the clearance of my bosses, and roll out right at 10:50. Fortunately, traffic was very light, and I managed to make it up the hill in enough time to register. There were only 40 players, so only four spots would pay. P'shaw, I hate that one pay spot per table, but whatev. I understand you can't pay the whole final table when there's only 4 tables. Still, I'd like to see 5-6 spots pay but again, I digress.
The first hour was pretty routine, lots of folding, a bit of stealing. Unfortunately for me, my image was tight enough that when I did get cards, I couldn't get action. For instance, at 100/100, I call an UTG raise to from mid-position with 99, and eventually, 5 players see the beautiful flop of K9x and two hearts (Pot is 1750.) First three players check. Real men bet sets, and besides, I didn't want anyone to get their heart flush for free, so I bet out. But I want action, so I only bet 350, around 20% of the pot. And everyone folds. A pot's a pot, but I would like to have been paid off. Still, I end the first hour around 47k in chips. Considering at least 1/4 of the field didn't take rebuys up front, I was actually probably above average chips, but hardly dominant.
The only notable aspect of the first hour was the old man whose play and table demeanor I can only describe as Alzheimer's-affected. He claimed to be colorblind, but wanted a cheat sheet for denominations. He played out of turn so often that he suffered a nine-hand trip to the penalty box, and *still* collected at least one more warning button by the 2nd hour. He'd throw one chip out for his ante every time, and it would be the wrong color. He'd try to call all bets with one chip. At first, I thought he was an angle-shooter, but his actual play was so atrocious, I couldn't give him that much credit. In one hand, at 100/200, he called an UTG raise to 1000 from the BB. Flop comes 2xx, and he calls a 2000 chip bet. Turn comes 2, and he throws a 5k chip out there. Okay. UTG shoves, and he calls. He had Q2 for the turned trips (UTG had QQ, and rebought after that hand.) So he calls 5x the BB out of position with Q2 off, and then calls a basically pot size bet with bottom pair. There are other examples, but suffice it to say, the table was convinced he was just that bad a player, and not a schemer.
Anyway, the guy he busted took his rebuy, and a little while later, he raised UTG to 2000, when blinds are at 200/400/50. After a call in MP, I wake up to find AA. SCOREBOARD! Hmm. There's about 4800 in the pot, I've got about 48k, and while taking the pot down here would be okay, I really need to try to chip up here. So I kick it up to 7,000 to go, and UTG flat calls (MP folded). UTG seems like a solid player, but I'm thinking AK is his likeliest holding, because he's aggressive enough to have 4-bet a smaller pair. On a KJ9 flop, he bets out 5,000 into the roughly 17,000 pot. Is his fishing for info? Is he trying to take it down now? Was my read correct? If I can get him to commit way behind, I'll be in the top 2-3 in chips, and primed to make a deep run. Let's find out..........SHOVE. Well, the read was bad, he had JJ for the flopped set, and I'm down to about 6,000 in chips with an effective M of about 4, at most, given the blind structure.
Well, I manage to ride the microstack for about an hour, open shoving in various late positions, doubling up and then folding a few, and just staying alive. Sadly, I missed a chance for a near triple, when I got to see a free flop from the BB that gave me top pair and OESD, and my flop shove was called by bottom pair, OESD, and the straight hit the river. I'd have been thrilled for my pair to hold against his pair (same villian from the AA v JJ hand). But eventually, it crashed down. I picked up AQs UTG, with an M of about 2, and shoved. The same old man who'd now collected four warnings and a penalty, and who hadn't shown down a decent preflop hand all day, winning with garbage, actually woke up with a hand. QQ, to be exact. Ugh, there go my outs, and there go my chips...and out before the third break.
Given the timing, I stuck around for one more tourney, a $50 buyin with 20 minute levels, 8,000 chips, and starting at 25/50. This tourney turned out better, but with the Golden Gates only paying out three spots (30 entrants), my fourth place bubble finish was only good for an agreed-upon save of $20 from each of the remaining three players. When we got to 4-handed, there was one dominant stack, and three shorties, of which I was one. We were pretty much equal, and all amenable to the save. All three were decent players, and the final table with them was enjoyable.
I don't truly mind going out fourth, but 3rd would have given me a profit for the day. And my exit was on back to back hands of irony. In the first, my A7 could not hold up against villian's K9, and on the very next hand, my K9 couldn't catch up to the same villian's A7.
Still, before that sequence was a pretty hilarious hand where I was on the big blind and committed to call with something like 53 sooted. Well, the raiser had Ax, and the flop came AA9, so I'm putting my hoodie on to leave, when the turn and river come deuce four, for the miracle runner runner straight to beat flopped trips. So every hand after that was gravy.
Wow, long post. Lost money on the trip, but felt I played well, and really, just had a good time. I ran into Jamal Saqwiddeh (sp?), and finally got to congratulate him for his deep run in the WSOP Main Event. What an easy going dude.
Anyway, have a great week at the tables.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Having to Be Brief...
It's 3:18 in Vega$, 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.
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.
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Problem With Taking Shots At Higher Levels
Summed up in two words, "False Confidence"
Hmm.
After tiring of the disheartening and recockulous suckouts I've been dealing with in various of FullTilt's $3.30 90 KOs, and other $2-5 buyin tourneys, often enough just before the money spots, I thought I'd take a flyer at a $10+1 90 player KO tournament, as an experiment to determine if the play quality was any higher.
And the worst possible thing happened.
I won. The whole tourney. Ship the first place monies and several KOs, for a nice payday (at least at my bankroll level).
What happens next? Later in the weekend, I chase further success. At least seven times. Only to not cash a single time, aside from a couple of KO bounties. The causes...plentiful. A couple suckouts, a couple of coolers (JJ v. QQ, or QQ v. AA), and yes, one recockulous suckout where someone determined to defend a blind calls my button all in with J3 offsuit and hits. Often, I would get off to a good start, but then being so card dead once the blinds kick in, that I can't even try to steal with a shrinking stack and even worse cards.
This leaves me in the position of not really knowing what to do -- I realize the sample size is small, but I think it's also axiomatic that the lower the buy-in, the categorically worse play becomes. (And yes, I do know that even the Sunday Majors see their share of horrible plays.) Do I stick it out another 4-5 attempts first? Or do I just fold my tent and go back to $3.30?
The worst case, though, was the beat I put on myself yesterday, when I went out 15th. After raising UTG with AQo, and being re-raised all-in (about 3x my original raise), and then called by a blind, I called, running into AK and JJ. I think I had the odds to call the re-raise, but with one of the blinds calling it, can I really fold there and have no better than 14th place micro-stack at that point?
Even Bodog was unkind to me yesterday, with the three tournies I played unceremoniously dumping me within two tables of $$$. So gross. I one, I went out six spots before the cash where I shoved late with 99, only to run into TT, and not catching the miracle. As with FTP, I'm running into these situations where I'm seeming to chip up very nicely indeed in the first hour or two, and then just when I need to be stealing, I'm either getting just truly horrible cards, or I'm having to fold to resteals when I try with barely-marginal cards (which compounds the problem).
I believe I've identified a current leak in my game to work on, though. AQ has gotten me into trouble repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. Not as much to pocket pairs, as to AK, which means I'm most likely failing to see something. Time to work on that.
Anyway, even with my nice hit, my bankroll is no better than it was heading into the weekend, not after seven failures in the $11 KOs, accomapied with an 0-5 in PokerStars WSOP Steps. I believe that particular experiment is over.
Hmm.
After tiring of the disheartening and recockulous suckouts I've been dealing with in various of FullTilt's $3.30 90 KOs, and other $2-5 buyin tourneys, often enough just before the money spots, I thought I'd take a flyer at a $10+1 90 player KO tournament, as an experiment to determine if the play quality was any higher.
And the worst possible thing happened.
I won. The whole tourney. Ship the first place monies and several KOs, for a nice payday (at least at my bankroll level).
What happens next? Later in the weekend, I chase further success. At least seven times. Only to not cash a single time, aside from a couple of KO bounties. The causes...plentiful. A couple suckouts, a couple of coolers (JJ v. QQ, or QQ v. AA), and yes, one recockulous suckout where someone determined to defend a blind calls my button all in with J3 offsuit and hits. Often, I would get off to a good start, but then being so card dead once the blinds kick in, that I can't even try to steal with a shrinking stack and even worse cards.
This leaves me in the position of not really knowing what to do -- I realize the sample size is small, but I think it's also axiomatic that the lower the buy-in, the categorically worse play becomes. (And yes, I do know that even the Sunday Majors see their share of horrible plays.) Do I stick it out another 4-5 attempts first? Or do I just fold my tent and go back to $3.30?
The worst case, though, was the beat I put on myself yesterday, when I went out 15th. After raising UTG with AQo, and being re-raised all-in (about 3x my original raise), and then called by a blind, I called, running into AK and JJ. I think I had the odds to call the re-raise, but with one of the blinds calling it, can I really fold there and have no better than 14th place micro-stack at that point?
Even Bodog was unkind to me yesterday, with the three tournies I played unceremoniously dumping me within two tables of $$$. So gross. I one, I went out six spots before the cash where I shoved late with 99, only to run into TT, and not catching the miracle. As with FTP, I'm running into these situations where I'm seeming to chip up very nicely indeed in the first hour or two, and then just when I need to be stealing, I'm either getting just truly horrible cards, or I'm having to fold to resteals when I try with barely-marginal cards (which compounds the problem).
I believe I've identified a current leak in my game to work on, though. AQ has gotten me into trouble repeatedly over the last couple of weeks. Not as much to pocket pairs, as to AK, which means I'm most likely failing to see something. Time to work on that.
Anyway, even with my nice hit, my bankroll is no better than it was heading into the weekend, not after seven failures in the $11 KOs, accomapied with an 0-5 in PokerStars WSOP Steps. I believe that particular experiment is over.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Bar Poker Is (Still) Eazy...
Won my 2nd straight Monday night at the Bit, and in the last three weeks, have finished 2nd, 1st, and 1st. Keep shipping those gift certificates, I tells ya. And to Cory, yes, we can definitely make it bigger.
Anyway, the game itself was fairly routine -- doubled up in the first hour, and pretty much doubled up in hour two, but things got interesting when the 50-runner field was narrowed down to the final three. Of the trio, I was short stack, was slightly covered by middle stack, and the big stack had at least 55% or so of the chips at the table.
As most of you already know, aggression is the key in short-handed tournament poker, and last night was going to be no exception. The first hand of three-handed saw me on the button, where I found a suited A. So I shoved, and got two folds. And that continued for a bit, where I'd shove any A, any pair, and any suited paint. Obviously, any of those three hands could have been vulnerable, but keeping the pressure up was vital, and successful. Of course, I gave a few chips back, and had to make a few folds, and eventually, the chips stacks were almost right back where they were when 3-handed begun. Nevertheless, the tone was set.
A couple hands later, and I'm heads up with the chipleader, who has me about 5:3 in chips, and we're playing for the not-so-mad-mobnies. And then comes the fun.
Second hand of heads-up, and I look down to see the glorious, wondrous Hammer. Given my earlier agression, there was only one thing to do. Shove into the big stack. When he calls and turns up AK, I'm really liking my chances, and the flop 7 and river deuce give me the chip lead. The very next hand? AA in the big blind. Nevermind the fact that he folds to my min-raise after a call...the fun part is getting 72o followed immediately by AA, from worst to first. How often does that happen? Like once in every 220x220 hands? The fact I won far more chips with the Hammer was only more sweet, and espeically against a nemesis who has more than once knocked me out by calling my top two pair with a naked gutshot or flush draw that hits on the river.
Anyway, it felt good to take down another tourney, and yes, I just wish I could translate final table success there to my online endeavors, where going out 6th or 7th seems to be the standard. That said, a win is a win is a win, and the main reason I prefer tournament poker to cash games is, I like to win tournaments, titles, and championships. Winning a bar game sometimes just feels better than taking 7th in a Stars 4/180, even if it's far less profitable.
Anyway, the game itself was fairly routine -- doubled up in the first hour, and pretty much doubled up in hour two, but things got interesting when the 50-runner field was narrowed down to the final three. Of the trio, I was short stack, was slightly covered by middle stack, and the big stack had at least 55% or so of the chips at the table.
As most of you already know, aggression is the key in short-handed tournament poker, and last night was going to be no exception. The first hand of three-handed saw me on the button, where I found a suited A. So I shoved, and got two folds. And that continued for a bit, where I'd shove any A, any pair, and any suited paint. Obviously, any of those three hands could have been vulnerable, but keeping the pressure up was vital, and successful. Of course, I gave a few chips back, and had to make a few folds, and eventually, the chips stacks were almost right back where they were when 3-handed begun. Nevertheless, the tone was set.
A couple hands later, and I'm heads up with the chipleader, who has me about 5:3 in chips, and we're playing for the not-so-mad-mobnies. And then comes the fun.
Second hand of heads-up, and I look down to see the glorious, wondrous Hammer. Given my earlier agression, there was only one thing to do. Shove into the big stack. When he calls and turns up AK, I'm really liking my chances, and the flop 7 and river deuce give me the chip lead. The very next hand? AA in the big blind. Nevermind the fact that he folds to my min-raise after a call...the fun part is getting 72o followed immediately by AA, from worst to first. How often does that happen? Like once in every 220x220 hands? The fact I won far more chips with the Hammer was only more sweet, and espeically against a nemesis who has more than once knocked me out by calling my top two pair with a naked gutshot or flush draw that hits on the river.
Anyway, it felt good to take down another tourney, and yes, I just wish I could translate final table success there to my online endeavors, where going out 6th or 7th seems to be the standard. That said, a win is a win is a win, and the main reason I prefer tournament poker to cash games is, I like to win tournaments, titles, and championships. Winning a bar game sometimes just feels better than taking 7th in a Stars 4/180, even if it's far less profitable.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Weekend Roundup
Before going further, please take thee quickly to the inernational house of Hoyazo and congratulate him on his massive win in FullTilt's fitty/fitty last night for nearly $11 large. That's his third major cash in just a couple of weeks, and he must be over $20k in MTT cashes just this far in 2008 already. Dude, we're all proud of you.
Well, hell's bells, I shoulda gone to Vega$, given my Oscar picks. In a surprise, I managed to correctly predict six out of eight categories in my blog yesterday, and during the show, I correctly called Film Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing on the fly. I coulda been a contenduh!
At any rate, the show was fun enough. I'm glad no cheeseball Disney song won this year, which saved me at least one trip to the bathroom to hurl at such sugarcheese overload. In a surprise, the 2nd biggest winner was The Bourne Ultimatum, which is a really cool thing indeed.
I'm writing short today, since I'm writing late today, but just wanted to update a bit of weekend pokering. The theme of the weekend was, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Much like last week, I was able to final table a Bodog guarantee tourmanent, yet my bankroll was pretty much neutral, since picking up cash elsewhere was difficult, at best. However, in a tribute to some other blogger's recent bloggery...
Dems Quads, Bitches.
But it gets better:
Dems Quad Bitches, Bitches -- and getting bet into, no less.
Unfortunately, aggro-Euro LaGork folded to my less-than-pot-size-raise:
This was in the PokerStars $3 rebuy, a tourney I love dearly, but one in which I barely profited today. I've recentely tried playing rebuys without an upfront rebuy, and waiting for semi-premium hands to double up early. Well, yesterday, that did not work, and I was in this tourney for four rebuys and an add-on. At least I survived into the $$$ this time, but going out shortly after the bubble, I only managed to barely cover my buy-ins for this tourney, as I went completely card dead in hour three, and sunk like Ashlee Simpson's recording career.
The Stars Sunday $100k donkafest was even worse, as my QQ got cracked by AKo very early, for most of my chips. And no, not by an A or a K, but by four miserable little spades, none of which were higher than an 7. But all was not lost, thanks to Bodog.
After crashing two $11 attempts to squeeze into the field for their $100k, I managed to stay alive in a $2k guarantee (that was over $3k, with about 320 runners), and nursed a short stack until the bubble. At that point, it was fly baby fly, double double toil and trouble, until the final table, where I sat down in 6th. Well, we get down to 7, with first paying about $800, when I see AKs in late position. I don't recall what blinds were, but i had about a 5th place stack at this point, and I went my normal 3x to 3.5x preflop raise. Clearly, this must have looked like a steal, because big blind, who had me covered by a small bit, decided to shove.
So I call.
He flips AQo, yay me, we're playing for what would be a 2nd place stack. And then the Q hits the flop, and I go home. Once again, the final tables are there for the taking, and I can't avoid having a 70/30 or better hand getting beat on the way to a likely Top 3 cash. And, apparentely, I'm going to need one of these mythical top threes to actually grow my roll. Someday, kemosabe, someday. In the meantime, I'll have to vicariously live through Hoy's cashes, I suppose.
Anyway, good luck on the virtual felt this week. I leave you with the three-outer that knocked me out of the $100k satellite, only about 10 spots from the seats. As you can see, it took a miracle turn to even make a three outer possible (the all-in was on the flop):
Well, hell's bells, I shoulda gone to Vega$, given my Oscar picks. In a surprise, I managed to correctly predict six out of eight categories in my blog yesterday, and during the show, I correctly called Film Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing on the fly. I coulda been a contenduh!
At any rate, the show was fun enough. I'm glad no cheeseball Disney song won this year, which saved me at least one trip to the bathroom to hurl at such sugarcheese overload. In a surprise, the 2nd biggest winner was The Bourne Ultimatum, which is a really cool thing indeed.
I'm writing short today, since I'm writing late today, but just wanted to update a bit of weekend pokering. The theme of the weekend was, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Much like last week, I was able to final table a Bodog guarantee tourmanent, yet my bankroll was pretty much neutral, since picking up cash elsewhere was difficult, at best. However, in a tribute to some other blogger's recent bloggery...
Dems Quads, Bitches.
But it gets better:
Dems Quad Bitches, Bitches -- and getting bet into, no less.
Unfortunately, aggro-Euro LaGork folded to my less-than-pot-size-raise:
This was in the PokerStars $3 rebuy, a tourney I love dearly, but one in which I barely profited today. I've recentely tried playing rebuys without an upfront rebuy, and waiting for semi-premium hands to double up early. Well, yesterday, that did not work, and I was in this tourney for four rebuys and an add-on. At least I survived into the $$$ this time, but going out shortly after the bubble, I only managed to barely cover my buy-ins for this tourney, as I went completely card dead in hour three, and sunk like Ashlee Simpson's recording career.
The Stars Sunday $100k donkafest was even worse, as my QQ got cracked by AKo very early, for most of my chips. And no, not by an A or a K, but by four miserable little spades, none of which were higher than an 7. But all was not lost, thanks to Bodog.
After crashing two $11 attempts to squeeze into the field for their $100k, I managed to stay alive in a $2k guarantee (that was over $3k, with about 320 runners), and nursed a short stack until the bubble. At that point, it was fly baby fly, double double toil and trouble, until the final table, where I sat down in 6th. Well, we get down to 7, with first paying about $800, when I see AKs in late position. I don't recall what blinds were, but i had about a 5th place stack at this point, and I went my normal 3x to 3.5x preflop raise. Clearly, this must have looked like a steal, because big blind, who had me covered by a small bit, decided to shove.
So I call.
He flips AQo, yay me, we're playing for what would be a 2nd place stack. And then the Q hits the flop, and I go home. Once again, the final tables are there for the taking, and I can't avoid having a 70/30 or better hand getting beat on the way to a likely Top 3 cash. And, apparentely, I'm going to need one of these mythical top threes to actually grow my roll. Someday, kemosabe, someday. In the meantime, I'll have to vicariously live through Hoy's cashes, I suppose.
Anyway, good luck on the virtual felt this week. I leave you with the three-outer that knocked me out of the $100k satellite, only about 10 spots from the seats. As you can see, it took a miracle turn to even make a three outer possible (the all-in was on the flop):
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Two-Fer Tuesday (well, almost, but long post anyway)
So last night was the bloggerment daily double, consisting of the Bodonkey and Blogger Skillz tournaments, the latter being Omatard 8. Much fun was to be had all around, and for myself, it turned into a decent showing that was close to being a lot better.
Of course, Bodog's software is pretty pathetique in terms of it's amenity towards posting hand histories and such here, but it's easy enough to recall. The first hour was pretty quiet for me, though I was able to pick up a couple thousand chips when I induced a raise all in by someone who held TPTK, when I'd flopped top set. However, we only dropped 2 of 37 runners in the 1st hour, and I was squarely on the top end of midpack, chipwise. Unfortunately, when folks started dropping left and right during the 2nd hour, I couldn't catch a hand to save my life, and survived on a couple of blind steals, and in the third hour, I made my fatal mistake.
We were down to 11 players, with 10 making either money and juicy T$ overlay, or a T$ refund of one's buy-in (which I was able to score last week). I'm in the SB for essentially 1/3 of my remaining microstack, and the only caller was the other shortie who was UTG at the time. Looking down, I see a craptastic J3o, but as I said, I'm already in for 1/3. Big blind had a healthy stack, probably 3rd or 4th of the remaining players. So I jam. In retrospect, I should have suspected the other shorty would have a hand and call, given his UTG smooth call, and I could have folded and waited to shove ATC from the button next hand. But I didn't. I shoved from the SB. As it turned out, BB called, and the other shorty folded. BB showed K-rag offsuit, and neither of us improved, and I go home on the bubble.
In retrospect, it was a misplay on my part, but if I don't get to open shove next hand from the button, I have zero fold equity and am forced all in by my next BB. That said, the other shorty may have gone out by then, and I could have regained the buy-in, who knows? I'd really like a top five finish here soon, as the T$109 overlay would be worth a couple months of Bodonkeys, ya know? And with the soon-to-be-announced enhancements, I think we're all going to want to be over there soon.
Of course, the Skillz game started up during the first hour of Bodonkey, and that tournament was a completely different story for me. I chipped up some in the first hour, but by 90 minutes in, I was in the top three chipleaders for most of the next two hours, complements of hands such as these:
and,
In most cases, I was folding preflop unless I was holding three to the wheel (including A3 or better), three to Broadway, double suited AA or KK, or essentially, a small subset of hands that would pretty much allow me chances to be drawing to nuts on flops. I played very few speculative hands at all, and for once, most of my draws caught and held, to where out of my first 24 showdowns, I was able to scoop 11 and split 11. Early and midstage cardrackery. During this time, I was able to score 2.5 knockouts, which recovered over 1/3 of the buy-in well before the money spots rolled around.
Unfortunately (for me), I got a bit cute and lost a large pot when MarsMan2001's turned quads beat my turned smallish boat, and when the final table started, things looked like this:
From there, I had a hard time catching playable hands, though I did score one more nut/nut off of dino_burger:
Thanks, dino!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that was the last pot I took any of. I do know I lost my last five showdowns in a row. LJ was raising preflop just about every hand, and was collecting chips like they were going out of style. I lost most of what I had left on an attempted bluff smartly called by Rake Feeder (pretty sure it was him), such that by the time a big blind hit me for about 80% of my last few chips, I shoved and showed the following:
A horrible hand, to be sure, but given the only caller was superstack LJ (who had around 90,000 at this point), I actually felt I had a reasonable chance to catch one end or the other...at least until the Q7Q flop hit both her suits. gg, IGHN, but hey, I actually managed to cash, woohoo! And in my first ever Blogger Skillz tourney, to boot.
So, in the world of bloggerments, I squeezed into the cash in one tourney, and just barely squeezed myself out of the cash in the other.
All in all, I'll take it, especially as it salves the wounds from a savage misplay on my part during a concurrent $5 NLHE at FullTilt. I'd managed to chip up early by twice inducing donkeys with underpairs to put in all their chips to my sets or boats, when the following hand occured. To set up the situation, I had just moved to this table a couple hands previous, and really had no reads.
Full Tilt Poker Game #4960220056: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (37013156), Table 47 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:23:29 ET - 2008/01/22
Seat 1: KINGTODAY (1,767)
Seat 2: jwraimee (1,025)
Seat 3: Turd Hurder 130 (1,220)
Seat 4: LickMyAce (1,260)
Seat 5: Mondogarage (3,290)
Seat 6: roadie (2,935)
Seat 7: Digger Micka (3,800)
Seat 8: drymouth9 (1,090)
Seat 9: tough chip (1,375)
jwraimee posts the small blind of 25
Turd Hurder 130 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [Kc As]
LickMyAce has 15 seconds left to act
LickMyAce folds
Mondogarage raises to 175
roadie folds
Digger Micka calls 175
drymouth9 folds
tough chip folds
KINGTODAY folds
jwraimee folds
Turd Hurder 130 calls 125
*** FLOP *** [Kh Ad 3s]
Turd Hurder 130 checks
Mondogarage checks (check to try to induce player behind to bluff)
Digger Micka checks
*** TURN *** [Kh Ad 3s] [3h]
Turd Hurder 130 checks
Mondogarage bets 350 (time to build a pot, my two pair is g00t)
Digger Micka calls 350
Turd Hurder 130 raises to 1,045, and is all in (?????????)
Mondogarage has 15 seconds left to act
Mondogarage calls 695 (no need to isolate, I have best hand, right?)
Digger Micka calls 695
*** RIVER *** [Kh Ad 3s 3h] [3d]
Mondogarage has 15 seconds left to act
Mondogarage bets 500 (well shoot, I misplayed my top two pair into a chopped boat, likely)
Digger Micka has 15 seconds left to act
Digger Micka calls 500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Eww. Eww. EWWWWW. Fack. Obviously, I got way too cute at a new table with top two pair. Any close to pot-size bet from me has to chase out the blind, right? Do'h. Maybe not, since the donkeyfucker did call a 3.5x raise from UTG+1 with five-fucking-three offsuit. Of course, the quads on the river wasn't even just to rub it in, it cost me a chunk of side-pot action, because I think Digger Micka makes that call there regardless, unless river comes a K.
Still, I was bruised and battered, but not broken, and was in fact, still above starting chips, which I managed to nurse to about 6,000 (thanks to two flopped sets), when I see a lovely QQ below. So I raise UTG. And I'm called by a shorty. And the tourney chipleader on the button shoves for 13k. I can't fold here. He's been aggro. He wouldn't shove AA or KK, right? AK? Well with a caller already, I put him on less than six outs. So I call. And I'm more right than I thought. By the turn, I'm mentally stacking my chips. That, my friends, was a mistake:
And that, was that. Evil. 6 outs? Try 3. Of course, I had no redraw. Anyway, I wasn't leaving the non-bloggerment portion of the evening a punk like that, so during the latter stages of the Skillz Game, I fired up a $3.30 KO 90 player SNG, where I did manage to finish 5th with some knockouts, to clear about $12 for my efforts. I don't recall the name of the Eurotard who doubled me up on three consecutive pots, taking me from 3k to 26k and busting you clear out, but thanks for making my night a bit more profitable!
Anyway, it was quite the fun night of cameraderie, and congrats to LJ and Drizztdj on taking down the bloggerments.
Oh yeah, as a side note, there was much slinging back and forth between Miami Don and Jeciimd, with regard to Jeci's having won the TOC and playing the Aussie Millions, yet for all intents and purposes, not blogging about it at all. Frankly, I think Don was over the top, in the sense that Jeci was free to do whatever he wanted, but I can't help thinking it's time for Jeci to rename his blog to something along the lines of A Month Late... nevertheless, the shit talking was enjoyable to read.
Whew, long post, and my crayons are worn down from the screenshots. Probably no poker for me tonight, but for those of you playing the Mookie, may you get it in good.
Of course, Bodog's software is pretty pathetique in terms of it's amenity towards posting hand histories and such here, but it's easy enough to recall. The first hour was pretty quiet for me, though I was able to pick up a couple thousand chips when I induced a raise all in by someone who held TPTK, when I'd flopped top set. However, we only dropped 2 of 37 runners in the 1st hour, and I was squarely on the top end of midpack, chipwise. Unfortunately, when folks started dropping left and right during the 2nd hour, I couldn't catch a hand to save my life, and survived on a couple of blind steals, and in the third hour, I made my fatal mistake.
We were down to 11 players, with 10 making either money and juicy T$ overlay, or a T$ refund of one's buy-in (which I was able to score last week). I'm in the SB for essentially 1/3 of my remaining microstack, and the only caller was the other shortie who was UTG at the time. Looking down, I see a craptastic J3o, but as I said, I'm already in for 1/3. Big blind had a healthy stack, probably 3rd or 4th of the remaining players. So I jam. In retrospect, I should have suspected the other shorty would have a hand and call, given his UTG smooth call, and I could have folded and waited to shove ATC from the button next hand. But I didn't. I shoved from the SB. As it turned out, BB called, and the other shorty folded. BB showed K-rag offsuit, and neither of us improved, and I go home on the bubble.
In retrospect, it was a misplay on my part, but if I don't get to open shove next hand from the button, I have zero fold equity and am forced all in by my next BB. That said, the other shorty may have gone out by then, and I could have regained the buy-in, who knows? I'd really like a top five finish here soon, as the T$109 overlay would be worth a couple months of Bodonkeys, ya know? And with the soon-to-be-announced enhancements, I think we're all going to want to be over there soon.
Of course, the Skillz game started up during the first hour of Bodonkey, and that tournament was a completely different story for me. I chipped up some in the first hour, but by 90 minutes in, I was in the top three chipleaders for most of the next two hours, complements of hands such as these:
and,
In most cases, I was folding preflop unless I was holding three to the wheel (including A3 or better), three to Broadway, double suited AA or KK, or essentially, a small subset of hands that would pretty much allow me chances to be drawing to nuts on flops. I played very few speculative hands at all, and for once, most of my draws caught and held, to where out of my first 24 showdowns, I was able to scoop 11 and split 11. Early and midstage cardrackery. During this time, I was able to score 2.5 knockouts, which recovered over 1/3 of the buy-in well before the money spots rolled around.
Unfortunately (for me), I got a bit cute and lost a large pot when MarsMan2001's turned quads beat my turned smallish boat, and when the final table started, things looked like this:
From there, I had a hard time catching playable hands, though I did score one more nut/nut off of dino_burger:
Thanks, dino!
Anyway, I'm pretty sure that was the last pot I took any of. I do know I lost my last five showdowns in a row. LJ was raising preflop just about every hand, and was collecting chips like they were going out of style. I lost most of what I had left on an attempted bluff smartly called by Rake Feeder (pretty sure it was him), such that by the time a big blind hit me for about 80% of my last few chips, I shoved and showed the following:
A horrible hand, to be sure, but given the only caller was superstack LJ (who had around 90,000 at this point), I actually felt I had a reasonable chance to catch one end or the other...at least until the Q7Q flop hit both her suits. gg, IGHN, but hey, I actually managed to cash, woohoo! And in my first ever Blogger Skillz tourney, to boot.
So, in the world of bloggerments, I squeezed into the cash in one tourney, and just barely squeezed myself out of the cash in the other.
All in all, I'll take it, especially as it salves the wounds from a savage misplay on my part during a concurrent $5 NLHE at FullTilt. I'd managed to chip up early by twice inducing donkeys with underpairs to put in all their chips to my sets or boats, when the following hand occured. To set up the situation, I had just moved to this table a couple hands previous, and really had no reads.
Full Tilt Poker Game #4960220056: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (37013156), Table 47 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:23:29 ET - 2008/01/22
Seat 1: KINGTODAY (1,767)
Seat 2: jwraimee (1,025)
Seat 3: Turd Hurder 130 (1,220)
Seat 4: LickMyAce (1,260)
Seat 5: Mondogarage (3,290)
Seat 6: roadie (2,935)
Seat 7: Digger Micka (3,800)
Seat 8: drymouth9 (1,090)
Seat 9: tough chip (1,375)
jwraimee posts the small blind of 25
Turd Hurder 130 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [Kc As]
LickMyAce has 15 seconds left to act
LickMyAce folds
Mondogarage raises to 175
roadie folds
Digger Micka calls 175
drymouth9 folds
tough chip folds
KINGTODAY folds
jwraimee folds
Turd Hurder 130 calls 125
*** FLOP *** [Kh Ad 3s]
Turd Hurder 130 checks
Mondogarage checks (check to try to induce player behind to bluff)
Digger Micka checks
*** TURN *** [Kh Ad 3s] [3h]
Turd Hurder 130 checks
Mondogarage bets 350 (time to build a pot, my two pair is g00t)
Digger Micka calls 350
Turd Hurder 130 raises to 1,045, and is all in (?????????)
Mondogarage has 15 seconds left to act
Mondogarage calls 695 (no need to isolate, I have best hand, right?)
Digger Micka calls 695
*** RIVER *** [Kh Ad 3s 3h] [3d]
Mondogarage has 15 seconds left to act
Mondogarage bets 500 (well shoot, I misplayed my top two pair into a chopped boat, likely)
Digger Micka has 15 seconds left to act
Digger Micka calls 500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Eww. Eww. EWWWWW. Fack. Obviously, I got way too cute at a new table with top two pair. Any close to pot-size bet from me has to chase out the blind, right? Do'h. Maybe not, since the donkeyfucker did call a 3.5x raise from UTG+1 with five-fucking-three offsuit. Of course, the quads on the river wasn't even just to rub it in, it cost me a chunk of side-pot action, because I think Digger Micka makes that call there regardless, unless river comes a K.
Still, I was bruised and battered, but not broken, and was in fact, still above starting chips, which I managed to nurse to about 6,000 (thanks to two flopped sets), when I see a lovely QQ below. So I raise UTG. And I'm called by a shorty. And the tourney chipleader on the button shoves for 13k. I can't fold here. He's been aggro. He wouldn't shove AA or KK, right? AK? Well with a caller already, I put him on less than six outs. So I call. And I'm more right than I thought. By the turn, I'm mentally stacking my chips. That, my friends, was a mistake:
And that, was that. Evil. 6 outs? Try 3. Of course, I had no redraw. Anyway, I wasn't leaving the non-bloggerment portion of the evening a punk like that, so during the latter stages of the Skillz Game, I fired up a $3.30 KO 90 player SNG, where I did manage to finish 5th with some knockouts, to clear about $12 for my efforts. I don't recall the name of the Eurotard who doubled me up on three consecutive pots, taking me from 3k to 26k and busting you clear out, but thanks for making my night a bit more profitable!
Anyway, it was quite the fun night of cameraderie, and congrats to LJ and Drizztdj on taking down the bloggerments.
Oh yeah, as a side note, there was much slinging back and forth between Miami Don and Jeciimd, with regard to Jeci's having won the TOC and playing the Aussie Millions, yet for all intents and purposes, not blogging about it at all. Frankly, I think Don was over the top, in the sense that Jeci was free to do whatever he wanted, but I can't help thinking it's time for Jeci to rename his blog to something along the lines of A Month Late... nevertheless, the shit talking was enjoyable to read.
Whew, long post, and my crayons are worn down from the screenshots. Probably no poker for me tonight, but for those of you playing the Mookie, may you get it in good.
Monday, January 21, 2008
Fun Times on the Rail - Weekend Recap
Played a bit of poker this weekend, but spend much more time railing PoWdA (a fellow poster on the Poker in Colorado forums), and good times were had by all.
Saturday was pretty much a non-factor poker-wise, though I managed to play about 50 hands of .50/1.00 limit 2-7 Triple Draw over at PokerStars, and ended up 1/2 a buy-in. Played about 100 more hands of it on Sunday, and between the sessions, I must have ended up with a winrate of maybe 3BB/100 hands. Nothing to speak of, but makes up for some small Razz losses. One of these days, I'll learn how to play 2-7 Triple Draw profitably, but right now, it's okay to essentially tread water. I've already tightened my game up enough to where I won't chase draws unless I'm dealt at least three to an 8, unless I'm in an unraised blind. That may be a bit nitty, but probably saves me a few big bets when I'm looking at a rough nine after two draws, and I'm in front of someone who stands pat.
Tournaments were a slightly better proposition, where I played two, and cashed in one fairly deeply. In a $3 KO tourney on FullTilt with 1100 runners, and me down to 600 chips by the 2nd blind level, I was able to marshall the forces of ninja poker to end up collecting three bounties and going out 24th. With the 23rd place stack and A9o on the button, shoving into a BB who is holding wired Jacks is not often a winning proposition.
Now what is ninja poker? I'm not sure this qualifies, but what the hell:
And yes, I waited until after the flop to shove. Ninja poker is putting him on a Q, and knowing your three outer won't hit until the river, for dramatic effect. Or something. A more typical example of ninja poker is here - let them bet into you when you're holding top two and nut flush draw. And then, send them home with a smile.
Unfortunately, my favorite Stars $100k donkey fest was full, and I was unable to register. Next time I satellite in, I should know better than to turn it into $Ts, until I'm sure I won't be around to play. In my other tourney, a 4/180, I again ran a bit short of the money, but played well, and was probably one double-up from a cash. Ironically, it was a typical Eurodonk betting A-rag into my JJ (all in preflop), but flopping the miracle trip aces. What's the lesson? If you have JJ, you beat me. If I have JJ, play ATC, because you beat me. I'd rather have AJ than JJ at this point. The end result of my weekend was very much bankroll neutrality.
The real fun was railing PoWdA, however, in the $10+1 Stars Deep Stack, that starts at 10am in this timezone. I've played this tournament a few times previous (though not in a while), but had never made it more than 4-5 hours in. Wow. I had no idea at all how long this took, but I swear the Sunday Million started later and ended earlier than this. Thanks for the lesson, PoWdA, as I will never play this tourney again. The only way to make this tournament worth anything in terms of hourly rate is to finish in the top six or seven spots, given the length. I just can't play 13.5 hours in one online tournament in one day. PoWdA, however, can -- finishing 4th for about $1200, with a good handful of Holla Colorada poker players on the rail. Very very well done. PoWdA has the PoWa!
As far as I know, PoWdA isn't a blogger (yet), but this guy is, and he's degenerate enough to be entertaining. It's a new blog, but Scrupboy is on his own Chris Ferguson-ish quest to restore his Stars bankroll from...drumroll, please...SIXTY CENTS, to respectabiliy. He's up to about $11.50 already, and well on his way.
Speaking of well done, please head over to LJ's blog and congratulate her on a very nice five figure score this weekend. If I knew I could increase my winrate proportionate to the number of beers I quaffed at a live tourney, I'd follow the green glass diet, too.
Oh, and this just in: The people's champ for National League Rookie of the Year is about to sign a six year extention with option year. Woohoo! Duh duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh...TULO!
You, sir, are a shortstop stud.
Saturday was pretty much a non-factor poker-wise, though I managed to play about 50 hands of .50/1.00 limit 2-7 Triple Draw over at PokerStars, and ended up 1/2 a buy-in. Played about 100 more hands of it on Sunday, and between the sessions, I must have ended up with a winrate of maybe 3BB/100 hands. Nothing to speak of, but makes up for some small Razz losses. One of these days, I'll learn how to play 2-7 Triple Draw profitably, but right now, it's okay to essentially tread water. I've already tightened my game up enough to where I won't chase draws unless I'm dealt at least three to an 8, unless I'm in an unraised blind. That may be a bit nitty, but probably saves me a few big bets when I'm looking at a rough nine after two draws, and I'm in front of someone who stands pat.
Tournaments were a slightly better proposition, where I played two, and cashed in one fairly deeply. In a $3 KO tourney on FullTilt with 1100 runners, and me down to 600 chips by the 2nd blind level, I was able to marshall the forces of ninja poker to end up collecting three bounties and going out 24th. With the 23rd place stack and A9o on the button, shoving into a BB who is holding wired Jacks is not often a winning proposition.
Now what is ninja poker? I'm not sure this qualifies, but what the hell:
And yes, I waited until after the flop to shove. Ninja poker is putting him on a Q, and knowing your three outer won't hit until the river, for dramatic effect. Or something. A more typical example of ninja poker is here - let them bet into you when you're holding top two and nut flush draw. And then, send them home with a smile.
Unfortunately, my favorite Stars $100k donkey fest was full, and I was unable to register. Next time I satellite in, I should know better than to turn it into $Ts, until I'm sure I won't be around to play. In my other tourney, a 4/180, I again ran a bit short of the money, but played well, and was probably one double-up from a cash. Ironically, it was a typical Eurodonk betting A-rag into my JJ (all in preflop), but flopping the miracle trip aces. What's the lesson? If you have JJ, you beat me. If I have JJ, play ATC, because you beat me. I'd rather have AJ than JJ at this point. The end result of my weekend was very much bankroll neutrality.
The real fun was railing PoWdA, however, in the $10+1 Stars Deep Stack, that starts at 10am in this timezone. I've played this tournament a few times previous (though not in a while), but had never made it more than 4-5 hours in. Wow. I had no idea at all how long this took, but I swear the Sunday Million started later and ended earlier than this. Thanks for the lesson, PoWdA, as I will never play this tourney again. The only way to make this tournament worth anything in terms of hourly rate is to finish in the top six or seven spots, given the length. I just can't play 13.5 hours in one online tournament in one day. PoWdA, however, can -- finishing 4th for about $1200, with a good handful of Holla Colorada poker players on the rail. Very very well done. PoWdA has the PoWa!
As far as I know, PoWdA isn't a blogger (yet), but this guy is, and he's degenerate enough to be entertaining. It's a new blog, but Scrupboy is on his own Chris Ferguson-ish quest to restore his Stars bankroll from...drumroll, please...SIXTY CENTS, to respectabiliy. He's up to about $11.50 already, and well on his way.
Speaking of well done, please head over to LJ's blog and congratulate her on a very nice five figure score this weekend. If I knew I could increase my winrate proportionate to the number of beers I quaffed at a live tourney, I'd follow the green glass diet, too.
Oh, and this just in: The people's champ for National League Rookie of the Year is about to sign a six year extention with option year. Woohoo! Duh duh duh-duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh...TULO!
You, sir, are a shortstop stud.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Please to Be Backing a Blogger, Herr Craig
If you haven't read, Full Tilt and Michael Craig are running a contest of sorts, where Michael will back the winner in to Event #1 of the upcoming FTOPS #1 series. You can read about it here.
I would really like to see a blogger win this opportunity.
I would really like it to be me, 'natch.
However, if that is not to be, I would be very nearly almost as happy if it were any of our fine feathered friends, however.
Except for this guy, of course, who's already won his way into damn near every FTOPS VII event he cares to play, and hardly needs the backing (grin).
As Michael Craig says, however, you're going to have to work for it...
I would really like to see a blogger win this opportunity.
I would really like it to be me, 'natch.
However, if that is not to be, I would be very nearly almost as happy if it were any of our fine feathered friends, however.
Except for this guy, of course, who's already won his way into damn near every FTOPS VII event he cares to play, and hardly needs the backing (grin).
As Michael Craig says, however, you're going to have to work for it...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sometimes, Persistence Does Pay
Cool. After who knows how many attempts at this mini-donkerama, and two 2nd place finishes, I was finally able to take one down. My first win in a PokerStars $4/180 20-table sit-and-go. It feels good, and doubly so in that I came into final table as chipleader, and only once had to truly luckbox a hand. When we were down to final three, I was 3rd in chips, picked up AT soooted in the BB, and re-shoved all in to an AJ, Jack on the flop, and caught the runner runner flush on the river. Obviously, HAWKAHOLIC99 hadn't read this guy's views on playing Jackace. Heads-up went back and forth until about 20 hands in or so, at which point I picked up a couple monsters to crush.
I love what this has done to my Sharkscope:
What really made this special was that it was my first victory in any online tournament greater than five tables. I've had several higher cashes, but those were all 2nd and 3rd place finishes in larger tournaments -- this was my first flat out victory other than freerolls.
Anyway, there was really only one notably unusual sequence during the tournament, and I didn't get histories, because the table closed as soon as the 2nd hand in the sequence occurred. At a point during final three tables, I picked up AA in mid position, and put in a standard 3.5x raise (at that point, I had a lowish mid-size chipstack). Player at cutoff or button called, and blinds folded. Flop came Txx, and I checked to caller who made a roughly pot-size bet, and I let the timer come on before I re-raised all in. Players calls and shows ATo, and my AA holds for a double up. Only two hands later, I pick up AA under the gun, and make the same size raise. I am called by the very same player, and again, everyone else folds. Flop comes 9xx, and I check. Player makes roughly pot-size bet, and I again let the timer come on before I re-raised enough to put him all in. You guessed it -- he turns over A9o, and my AA holds up to knock him out, and put me up to about 3rd in chips.
Along the way, I did significantly misplay a hand, which I posted over here without showing results. If you have any thoughts on how this hand was played, please let me know. I did not post the results. Needless to say, I lost the pot, but not in the way you'd think.
Anyway, given the amount of time I spent playing yesterday, I got the "you're not playing any more poker for a while" from the Good Doctor Mondo, so I will likely not be making my Bodonkey debut tomorrow night, after all. To those who are playing bloggerments this week, I wish you all high cards and no suckouts, unless you can rant about them as entertainingly as he can, in which case, may a 72o crack your AA on the bubble (strictly for comedic purposes, of course).
Speaking of which, I would be highly remiss if I did not extend my sincere appreciate for Waffles' having distilled the latest Brandi drama into a version I could actually finish reading on my lunch hour. Oh, the insanity! Good thing the Brit doesn't play cards, I suppose.
As Douglas Adams wrote, "So Long, and Thanks [PokerStars] For All the Fish"
Thursday, January 03, 2008
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.
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.
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