Wandering Aimlessly

The upcoming month of May is always the hardest time of the year. The anticipation of the upcoming WSOP is always high. Trying to get together the roll for the trip and if you are lucky enough to have one, trying to keep it before you leave. This ill be the first year since '05 that I am not going out there with a specific plan to play in an event. That's not to say I will try and satellite into an event, most likely the Main Event. I want to set aside about $800 or so for single table satellites at the Rio and then parlay that money into the $500 and $1k mega-satellites. I had good runs in the $1k megas in '06 including a final table but just falling short of a seat.

I have been trying to find some online play to prepare me for the trip. I really need to start playing some more big field MTT's. I just don't have the time or attention span right now to play these though. Lately I have been searching for anything to make money on. I have started to play more 2-7 at he $0.50/$1 level with some success. I also played another $2r into the $33r event. I ended up winning a seat investing a total of $8 in the process. I love these tourneys, especially since there is no rake.

Please, just let it be June already!!!!!!!!!!

Friday Donkament and Getting PLO'd in the Ass

Once again I decided to play Kat's Donkament on Friday evening. I think I have found the secret. Go to happy hour. Come home with a good buzz. Win enough chips in the rebuy period that when you start to fall asleep during the second hour you can keep folding. Then by the time the final table hits, you have enough of a headache to keep you awake to win the bitch. Works for me. Basically I used all my luckboxing skills early to four-ple up on the first hand and then magically made 1010 hold up against 88, AK, and I think KJ right before the end of the rebuy. Can't tell you fuck about the next 30 mins or so as I couldn't keep my eyes open. Down to the bubble got it all in with QQ vs AK. Flop of QJ10. Turn A. River K. That was some serious ghey-ass shit there, but who am I to complain. HU with Riggstad went quick as I think like 5 hands in I got QQ again, he had an ace. There was alot of raising with a ragging flop and the QQ held up. So the Donkament is +EV for me. I'm pretty sure this is like winning a gold medal at the Special Olympics, but I guess I know my role.

Unfortunately this was the high water mark of the weekend. I spent the rest of it getting butt raped at the PLO tables. Which is bound to happen at some point when playing this game. Each loss was a little different then the next. First one I had AAxx in the BB and the button had been pot betting every time it folded to him. No difference this time, so I just call from the BB. The flop come a fairly innocuous J23 rainbow. I figure I'd let him pot bet and then get him on the re-pot. He obliges, I re-pot, and he thinks about it and smooth calls. This has me perplexed but I only have a few bucks behind now and when the 4 shows on the turn I just ship the 1/4 pot bet I have in my stack in and he calls. He had 9445 no suits. Lovely, rebuy please. Second loss was when a guy minraised UTG and I potted OTB with AKK7ds, then he repots. Now I know this screams AAxx, but I don't know if this is a fold here or not. The 7 is a dangler, but this is pretty strong hand to fold preflop in a 6 handed PLO game. Rightly or wrongly I called, hit the seven and a backdoor FD on the flop and it all went in, and his aces held. The last one stung the most when I was trying to get the 77% at the table and flopped a boat in the BB against him. Of course he hit his 6 outer on the turn for the bigger boat.

I think I need a break from the PLO tables. I feel like I haven't been playing as well the last week or so. Part of that is my quest to make ironman for the month. Why you ask. I have no fucking clue. The challenge, I guess. The 10K freeroll, maybe, that either A) I will get fiercly sucked out on in or B) (The Vegas Money Bet) will coincide with the day my wife goes into labor with our first born. I'm so positive of the second it's scary. Anyway, I digress, I need one more day of 50 FPP's to make it for the month. Most likely one more session on PLO and then a break. All that being said I have enjoyed playing it. This is the first real extended effort that I have made to play more ring then SNG's which has been good for the bankroll overall despite this weekends' setback.

Can you play PLO and change diapers at the same time?

Musings after St. Louis and other Stuff

Two things that stick in my mind from the St. Louis trip.

#1 - Its hard not to forget this because I heard the same story a total of 57 times. Once when each person he knew walked by, dealers, random strangers, etc. At the final table two of the three chip leaders got it all-in on a Q,7,2 rainbow. Dick (as Zerb calls him) pots it, next guy re-pots, Dick re-pots all-in and has next guy covered who calls. Dick has the Q,Q,x,x. Next guy has 7,7,A,x. Why is the A important? When the turn and river go runner runner A,A. Next guy was 4% on the flop and 6% on the turn and manages to pull a massive suckout. Dick ended up in the heads-up battle when I left. Not sure how that one ended. My money is on Dick. OK, maybe I should have called him pussy instead.

The other hand that sticks out was when i was in a $1/$2 NL hand. I had the 2,2 on the button and a TAGish dinosaur raises it up from early position to $12. Its folded to me and I know I am probably behind and if I hit I'm not getting paid. I folded but the LAGtard in the SB calls. Of course the flop comes A,10,2. The turn was the K. The LAG had K,10 and I just know I take all of his stack with that hand. I recognized the TAG but forgot to account for the LAG behind me.


Yesterday I played a WSOP freeroll on Stars, Yes, I was that bored. 1400 people and 50 advance to the next step. I finished 67th. Thats 80 minutes of my life I will never get back.

This morning I played a little .25/.50 NL and was up around $10 after one hour. My big hand was when I had A,A in the BB. I flat called a raise and saw a heads-up flop. It went check check. I lead for $5 on the turn and $10 on the river and he called all the way down. My hand was good (don't remember what he had). Bored with 2 tabling I decide to pop open a .10/.25 PLO table on FT. Within 20 minutes I cashed out with $70. Amazing what happens when your top sets hold up.

I played AIPS and lasted a total of 15 minutes. I called a pot sized bet with Q,J,10,X in the BB. Flop comes Q,10,X with two clubs. I check and the raiser throws out a 75% pot bet. This screams of AA or KK here. I re-pot all-in. He calls and shows A,10,10,9 with two clubs. Oops. After that I played in a $2 rebuy on Stars to the $33 tourney. I was in for $20 in the rebuy period but came out 19th in chips with 16 seats awarded. I had enough chips to survive one bad beat ( JJ < KJ ) and one coin flip when QQ < AK. I battled back and had to shove with JJ about 10 away from the bubble. The monster stack called with A,8. My hand held and I walked into the seat. I might have to play more of these $2 rebuys. With 95 runners or so 20 quit before the rebuy period was over. Pure gold. Just hope I can get that double-up sooner next time fore 8 rebuys and an add-on.

Live PLO Tourney

First off, never go to a casino well in advance of meeting someone or a tournament. When I got to Harrahs it was two hours before I was to meet Zerb. The wait list for $1/$2 was 8 deep so I gave up. I decided to go get my balls kicked by Pai Gow to the tune of $100. I was down only $3 when i decided to play the 3 card and 7 card bonuses. All of my $100 was gone 10 minutes later. The last hand was a supreme holding of j,8,7,5,4,3,2 with no flushes.

I decide to walk back over to the poker room and they had opened up a new table so there was no wait list. I got an immediate seat in the $1/$2 game. The first hand I picked-up was the 9s8s and played for a limp. I whiffed the flop and got out. About a lap in I picked up QdJd and limped. A few limpers come along and the BB raises to $12. All 5 of the limpers call and we take the flop 6 handed. Flop comes Q,9,2 rainbow. An EP player leads for $15, one player calls and I call. Turn is the 5 and the same player leads for $20. Next to act calls and I like the pot odds even if my hand is currently not the best. The river pairs the 9 and its checked around. The player leading the betting gives-up (Zerb said he had a 2 in his hand). The next player tables J,J and my Q,J is good. Nice sized pot.

The only other pot I won was when I had A,Q in late position and raised to 10 and the blinds and two limpers folded. Time for dinner after an hour and I cashed put with $303 good for a $103 profit.

The tournament was $55 buy-in PLO. You started with 10k in chips, 100/100 blinds and 20 minute levels. Pretty good IMO. They had 40 people. Before the tournament Zerb and myself guess it would take nearly 2 hours before the first bust. Wow were we ever wrong. By the end of the 2nd level one table had already busted and we had 24 by the first break at the end of level 3. The play at my table was pretty passive. There were 2-3 good players. In the first level I hit quad 4's for a smallish pot. At the end of the 3rd level I was sitting with 14k in chips.

Levels 4-6 I pretty much folded every hand I got. At the end of level 6 I had 6600 in chips and there were around 16 players left. With the blinds at 800/1600 and UTG to start level 7 I had to shove any 4. I shoved with J,X,X,X suited in spaded. Thought It was going to work until the BB woke up with A,A,2,4. Well, I run good and flopped the flush and he was drawing nearly dead and I got the double-up. I hung on and reached the final table with 12k in chips and 1k/2k blinds. I was able to get a double-up with A,A,x,x.

Down to 8 people and the tourney paying the top 5 I was able to double-up again with K,K,x,x and I was sitting on 37k. With one limper and me in the SB with A,J,10,x I called and the BB checked. The flop was 9,8,2 with two clubs. I checked and the BB bet pot. He had 9k behind and I decided to put him all-in for 9k more with the open ender to try and get a workable stack. He held top two. I paired my Ace on the turn giving me more puts but missed the river. After the hand I was down to 10k and the blinds were 2k/4k. When I was UTG +1 an interesting hand came-up. A short stack was all-in and two others were all-in on the turn. One of the chip leaders called. Could it be. He said I'm way behind but I call. He ends up going runner runner straight and knocks out all three people and I'm in the money.

Next hand UTG I had A,10,K5ss and shoved. The BB called with the K,10,J5ss. The flush hit and I got the double-up. The very next hand I get K,K,x,x and pot it from the BB after one limper (the same guy I doubled through). He puts me all-in and I call. He has A,K,10,X and he flops the ace and I'm done in 5th for $144. Damn, if I win that one I have around 60k in chips and am in decent shape to make the top 3. I will take the cash.

BTW me and Zerb had a $10 last longer. He busted around 12th place when he sensed weakness and shoved with 10,10. Unfortunately the guy behind woke-up with A,A. Overall a profitable trip to St. Louis for me.

Atlantic City and Other Stuff

Work is ghey or I would have posted sooner. I hate when things like "work" get in the way of "real" priorities like poker blogging. I mean really WTF?

Saturday I trucked on the AC bus trip down to the Hilton. But the Hilton sucks, so we walked the minute and a half to the Trop. First bad beat, there is a waiting list of 8 people for 3/6 hold'em. First suckout, we get the floor man to open a new table and the 3 of us all get on the same table. I'd love to share with you some great poker insight to my 3/6 game or how I really outplayed some uber-donk at the table but this session was more about drinking and laughing at the donks. I definately don't play the uber-aggro high variance style of limit poker but I do play much looser then most and rely on that image and good post flop skillz to win my money. That being said, after about an hour I was almost down to the felt of my original 150 buyin, but I was magically able to make QQ stand up against an UTG limper who hit bottom pair with his 73os. I can't make this shit up people. Then the fun hand of the night happened. My buddy, or at least I think he is still my buddy, raises. I am in the SB with J2s, an effing monster people. [FLASHBACK] This guy tries to bust me with crap in our home game all the time. He loves to see me tilt, it entertains him. That's our back story here [/FLASHBACK]. I call as does the BB and the early limper (73os boy). Flop is 752 with one spade. Checks around to my buddy, he bets, I call. I am almost positive at this point he has an over pair because he wouldn't bet with air there. Turn is the 6s. I check call another bet. River is the 9s. Now here's where I screwed up, I went for the check raise when I should have bet because he has to call at that point. But he checks, I show, he shows KK, and proceeds to call me the stupidest poker player ever, for the next 20 mins. This made it all worth it. Ended up coming back and only being down 11 bucks at the table, given I drank at least 3 times that much in alcohol at the table, it was worth it.

Last night was CHIMPS main event. I played uber monkey tight in the beginning, partly to biuld the image, partly because I was paying more attention to game 7 Flyers/Caps (Go Flyers!). Built up a nice big stack early, winning 11 of 11 hands that I had played thought the first hour. Then in hour 2 the huge hand came up with Snuffy, where he made a small raise OTB and I just called from the BB with A10h, not wanting to make a huge pot here OOP against the other chip leader. Flop come KhJh6c. I check. Snuffy bets 900 into the 1300 chip pot and I check raise to 2700. Now he thinks a little then pushes all in for about 3K more. At this point I think math dictates I make this call even though it's not the best situation. I call and he shows KJ, turn and river blank and I don't improve. Now crippled I eventually show with A5s and get called by the BB with QQ. Flop 556. This get's me back to functional. Now 3 handed. Same guy that has QQ earlier raises from the button, I shove in the SB with JJ, button calls. He's got QQ. Flop Jxx. This guy now will beat me on the street if he finds me. He gets eliminated on the next hand. Snuffy and I get HU and decided to chop the money and play for the bracelet. In an epic (not really) HU battle I won the big pot when I hit my flush on the end, didn't get paid but took the big chip lead then held on for the win. I think this win actually makes CHIMPS slightly profitable for me on the year, but just barely.


Last night was the first night I played since Saturday. May play Riverchasers Thursday. Would like to finally play the sat into the bracelet race on Friday. Someday I'll get to the damn step 4 on Stars, maybe tonight.

I Heart St. Louis

I'm not sure what it is about this town but I always seem to play well land run well here. Last trip I played in two tournaments and finished 3rd in both of them. I also had a good cash session. Last night was more of the same.

I arrived at Harrah's about 5 minutes before 7pm trying to get in the $35 NLHE tournament. Too late, it was already full. This was the best thing to happen to me.

I was able to get a seat immediately in a 1/2 NL game and bought in for $175 (that's all I had on me). The second hand from middle position I picked-up AdJd and limped. Six people to the flop of J,4,3. The UTG player leads for $15, I call along with two others. OK, a loose passive game by the looks of it (except for the UTG player). The turn pairs the 3. UTG bets out $15 again and I am the only caller. The river is a 9. UTG leads for $25 and looking at this board there is no way he holds a 3. If he does so be it. I raised to $60 and he says u hit your kicker huh and calls with K,J. Good start.

I won one other medium sized pot before i picked up 5,5 in early position and limped. We go to a flop of A,5,3 rainbow. EP player leads for $15, I call and 3 others call. The turn was another ace. EP leads again for $25 and I raise to $70 and one other behind me calls and EP calls. The river is the worst card in the deck, another Ace. The EP player shoves for $120. I fold and the other player folds. He shows the A,K. Damn it.

Next interesting hand I get 10s9s in late position and call a raise to $6 along with 50 other people. The flop comes 9 high with two spades. Its checked to me and I bet out $20 and get one or two callers. The turn brings a 3rd spade. The aggro player I faced in the 1st hand leads for $25 and I raise to $60 and he calls. The river is a non-spade and he checks. I bet out $70 and he folds. He said he had the A,9 with the ace of spades.

Last interesting hand of the night I get 5,5 and limp. Multiple ways to the flop of J,5,4. A SAG (sick asian gambler) who has re-bought about 6 times already shoves for his last $25. The guy who beat me with quads calls. OK no way he is drawing out on me here. I raise to $80 and he folds. The SAG was drawing dead and I picked up a nice pot.

After about two hours of play I got up with $503 in front of me for a profit of $328.


CHIMPS championship is tonight I need to finish top 7 to lock-up the season 2 title and we can have a meeting of the season champions tomorrow night at Harrahs with Zerb.

Profitable Weekend

I got in a whole 90 minutes of live play on Friday. The very first hand of the day I get A,10 UTG+1 and limp. We see a 7-way limped hand to a A,10,4 rainbow flop. UTG leads out for $15 and I flat call. Everyone else folds and an 8 hits the turn. UTG bets $15 again and I raise to $45 leaving $38 behind. He thinks for a minute and calls. OK I'm sure he has A,K or A,Q here. The river is a 3. He checks and I shove. He hums and haws and says two pair huh? He calls. I show the two pair and I was right, he had A,K. HE gets up after one hand and leaves. Good start. I only ended up winning two other hands that I can think of right now. Smallish pots. I ended up leaving with a $72 profit. Good comeback after the $45 loss on Thursday.

Saturday was the Ante-Up! home game. We had it at my house this time. As usual I ran my first buy-in into dust (almost) and re-bought for another $100. Two key hands got me back. When we were playing 2-7 I was dealt 3 to the wheel and limped. On the first draw I hit the wheel and was able to get in two bets. On the second draw Steve drew 1 and I stood pat. He leads, I 2 bet, he 3 bets and I cap it. We both stay pat on the 3rd draw. He leads I raise and he calls. He said well only one hand can beat me. I tables the wheel and he had a #2. I don't remember ever seeing that in 2-7 before.

The other key hand was in NL when I had Q,J and raised to $3 and got 2 or 3 callers. Flop comes Q,x,x with 2 clubs. I lead for $6 and Gambit raises to $15, Fasso thinks for a long time and folds. I flat call. At this point I am planning on capping it ($50 max per hand) on the turn. A non-club baby hits the turn and Gambit leads for $20. I cap it which was was $32. He thought for a long time and folded. Fasso picks up his mucked cards of Q,10 and asks Gambit if he could beat that. He said yes and that he folded K,Q. Really? I don't think you can fold that hand there. I told him I had A,Q. After the game I texted him saying I had Q,J. He sent one back saying he had the exact same hand as me. That was a nice pot to win.

At the end of the 6 1/2 hour game I showed a profit of $27. Down early, rally, show a small profit. Thats how I roll. Guess I need to arrive two hours late next time.

I'm in St. Louis this week. I hope to get 2-3 days of play in. I am meeting Zerb at Harrahs on Wednesday for the PLO tournament. I have always played well in St. Louis including two 3rd place finishes in two tourneys played last time I was in town. Cash games are always good too. I can actually buy-in for more than the shitty $100 max that we have in Florida.

More Love for PokerStars

I'm a loyal customer over at Full Tilt Poker. I've never played a significant amount at any other site. Now, don't get me wrong, I have bonus whored at just about every site out there back in the good old days of Neteller. I used to play a ton of SNGs over at the PokerRoom skins but I still called Full Tilt my home.

I have a love/hate relationship with Full Tilt. I love them. They hate me. I have been beaten down so badly by that site on multiple occasions unlike I have at any other site.

I have several poker friends that play a lot over at PokerStars but I've never been a fan of that site. Since the Chimps Series plays the odd event over at PS I had to break down and trade some FTP $ for PS. I found myself with a whole $20 over on Stars and FTP had just left a nasty taste in my mouth for the Nth time.

I fired up an $11 SNG on PS and ended up winning it. I'm sure it involved what will soon become one of many legendary suckouts on my part. Snuffy will attest: PS allows me to suckout with more regularity than is statistically allowable.

Now, I don't want you to get me wrong. I don't usually NEED to suckout to win. I do get my chips in ahead a vast majority of the time. It's just that PS doesn't eff me hard with some hideous bad beat the way that Full Tilt tends to do. (I am in no way saying the site is rigged. I don't believe that crap at all. But, I do believe I am running bad there while I am running good on PokerStars.)

Paybacks are a bitch!

And PS comes through for me again. Doh! I have to say I thought there was a good chance I was ahead of this guy. He was 26/23/inf. I know, excuses, excuses.

Woooooooot! ITM!

I'll take a 2nd place any day.

Thru 1,000

I have now played 1k hands at 50NL and it hasn't been a great run. I was up almost $100 at one point. Yesterday was a roller coaster. I was down 30 in my earlier sessions. Last night I played three tables and one of the first hands I picked-up A,A. There was a raise to $2 and I three bet it to $5.50. The original raiser insta-shoves and I call. What I really hate about Poker Stars is that they do not show you their cards so you have to sweat the whole board. He had A,K and I immediately had the double-up. After a couple hundred hands later I lost that double-up on another table when my K,K ran into A,A for the third time in the last four days. I'm not really too pissed off. It just happens.




I was going to play the $80 satellite to the weekly WSOP $650 satellite on Stars last night. They only had 18 runners and I decided to pass. After my cash games I opened up Full Tilt and they had a $14 satellite to a $50 satellite. There were 36 runners for 9 seats and 10th got $14. In the first or second level I picked-up A,Q suited in late position and raised to 100 after a couple limpers and both called. The flop comes down Q,x,x with two clubs. I bet pot and get one caller. The turn is a blank and I just ship it in. He called my all-in with the flush draw and missed and I had the early double-up.

I sat on my hands after that and waited for good cards. At the 50/100 level I picked-up 7,7 and limped. Five ways to the flop it came 6,5,4 with two clubs. A player in the SB bet out 100. I had him covered and I just decided to ship it in. He called with the 5,3. The board bricked and I was up to 5k in chips and in great shape. Down to 12 people and 60/120 I am sitting 7th in chips. I pick-up 8,8 in the BB and there is a min-raise from a 2500 stack. He had been doing it a lot to pick-up the blinds. The flop comes 7 high. I check and he bets out 240. I ship and he takes a long time and eventually calls with the J,J. Ugh, just like that I am down to 2800 and am 10th/12.

The stacks at my table now are pretty good and I was the short stack, but still with 20 BB's. I was able to pick-up the blinds once or twice an orbit with air just because the other stacks didn't want to lose any chips. I was able to get it up to 4k without a fight and I was in good shape again. Still with 12 people left I had 5,5 in the SB. I raised 2.5x to 500 and the BB called. The flop came Q,Q,7. I checked and the BB min bet 200. I raised to 700 and he shoved. I folded and now I'm down to 2700.

After that loss I was able to maintain the stack and we were finally down to the bubble at 10 people. Just showing how bad people play this hand comes up at the other table. Both stacks are top 6 including the chip leader. The player 6th in chips min-raises UTG and the chip leader in the BB calls. The flop is raggedy and he check calls the flop and turn. On the river he check raises all in and the other stack called with two pair. The chip leader had 7,4 and hit the straight on the river. There is just no reason for the guy in 6th to play that pot. Thank god for him cause I got my seat.

I did play about four hours live yesterday. Nothing too exciting but I lost a pot early where i raised pre-flop to $8 with 9s7s and got two callers. The flop comes Q,7,4 with two clubs. I c-bet $12 and a short stack shoves for $37 total. The other player folds and now I have a decision. I decided to call for two reasons. One short stacks like this always seem to to be on the draw. The second thing I am going to give off a very loose image at the table. He ended up having Q,J. I missed my 5 outs and was down $50 early. I rode the short stack being as low as $30 but was able to get it back up to $75 before I lost another big pot and was down to $20. Time to rebuy to $100.

With the fresh stack I played good and was able to get within $5 of even. I then played tow pots with a calling station where i tried to put out a semi-bluff on the turn. I missed both times and he took the pot. This is just an absolutely stupid play by me. He 100% checks both turns if checked to and calls anything. Just terrible play by me. After the four hours I ended up losing a total of $45.

I think I might go play today again. The Ante-Up home game is tomorrow at my house. I will try and get pics for the Nation for the upcoming foot race between Fasso and Chris.

Poker, Finally

I've played minimal poker since my return from vacation.

I was able to hit Gordo's home game where I was the bubble bitch when my A5c (only Ace in damn near forever) went down to Scott's KQs. NH, GG, IGHN.

I did score a $75 token on FTP the other day and called it good as I wasn't in the mood to play anymore. I'm hoping to use it for a Bracelet event satellite soon.

I played a sng on FTP today. This guy was continually raising when I was in the blinds so I decided to give him something to think about. Apparently his two brain cells decided calling with AJ was the right thing to do and FTP reinforced his bad play.

I fired up PokerStars because, well, they like me. I've sucked out more than my fair share of times over there. Snuffy will vouch for this. No love this time but at least I didn't lose.

Crap, PS failed me.

PS loves me again!

Out in 2nd when K4 < Q4 on a Q4x flop, doh. Still can't complain.

PLO musings

I think I have found the secret to my recent PLO success.

Flush draws.

When they get there, I lose, when they don't I win. At least recently it seems.

Example 1.

Tuesday night I am OTB with KKxx. New player to my right pot bets preflop and I just call not knowing anything on the player. Flop of AKd7h. He makes aabout a 2/3 pot bet, this smells like and ace with a draw so I jam. Sometimes I will just call in this situation waiting to see a safe turn before I jam, especially when I'm in position, but I thought the pot bet here was big enough (80% of his stack) that he may lay down. He insta-pushes all in and I am worried about AAxx, but there's not much I can do. He shows Q10dQ6 and his flush gets there and I lose. Eventually I grind back up and lose a 1/4 of a buyin.

Example 2.

Last night. Button pot bets for about the 6th time in a row, SB calls and I call in the BB with 668s9. Flop comes a near perfect 5s7h8h. SB checks and I check behind expecting the donkey bet from the button. I am rewarded when he pots it, SB insta smooth calls for 85% of his stack. Button still has about 30 bucks behind. This is another situation where I will sometimes smooth call but I figured the button on the over pair and the SB on the FD. So I wanted the rest of the button's stack in ASAP because if the flush came I didn't know if I would get it. I check raise pot, putting my self all in, the button calls and the SB obv calls. Button shows QQ56 with no hearts. SB has KJh and nothing else of significance. FD doesn't get there and I take down the monster.

Hand #2 from last night. OTB I have a weak AAxx hand. I think it was AA42 rainbow or something close to that effect. Cutoff limps, I pot, SB calls, cutoff calls. Flop is Js7s6d and it is check check to me. I make a 3/4 pot bet and the SB insta calls and the cutoff, pushes for about a buck more. Ehh, now I want to be done with the hand. Until the turn is the Ac. SB checks again. With no straight on board and 1 card to fade with the FD and having boat outs I pot. SB shoves for his last 3 or 4 bucks on top of that. Cutoff has the 10 high FD, SB shows two pair aces and sevens with the ace high flush draw. Bad turn for him. My hand holds and I end a nice session.


In summary no one lays down a pair with any flush draw in 6 max plo.

CHIMPS HORSE

I didn't get as many cash game hands as I would have liked yesterday since CHIMPS was last night. I only got in around 120 hands but it was a profitable day. I ended up making around $30 or so on the day. I will take it.

CHIMPS HORSE last night was an interesting one. There were a total of 23 runners which is pretty impressive. The very first hand of the tournament I had 7,5 in the BB and deadmoney called from the SB. The flop came 6,4,3. Ship it. He checked, I be and he folded. The rest of the first rotation I was able to chip up to around 2200. When we dropped down to two tables it went very fast. Before I knew it we were down to the final table and I had around 5k in chips good for 2nd or 3rd.

The first key hand of the final table I had J,J when we were seven handed in the BB. The chip leader raised UTG+1 and I called. The flop came 10,8,5. I went for the check raise on the flop and he called. The turn was a 2 and I lead and he called. Praying for no overcard to hit the 4 hit the river. I lead and he raised. I called and he rolled over 7d6d. The hand played pretty standard. Just unlucky to have the straight come home. After the hand i was down to 2k and was amongst the 3 other short stacks.

I was able to hold on and maintain my stack and gradually climb back up. Down to three handed I was a considerable short stack. I was able to hang around for quite a while and got the double up and was sitting 2nd in chips. Two hands later I have them back to the eventual winner. Twice when we were 3 handed I faced a flush on 5th street already when I held two pair. Nothing I can do there. I will take the 3rd place and the $18 and the points that go along with it.

I have a decent lead for the season and two people can catch me in the final. If I finish 7th or better I can lock-up the title.

I also played the Blogger Skillz which was Stud8 last night. In the first hour and a half I never had lower than 2700 or higher than 3400. Very tight play probably cause I was concentrating on CHIMPS. I had one hand that took half my chips when I had a lower flush. He was showing only two to the flush on the hand. The other half of my chips left me when i had 3 suited cards and two low's and didn't improve. Stud tourneys tend to be a chip exchange early and then you have to win that one big hand late. Didn't happen for me and I busted in the high 40's/70.

More cash games for me today.

Booooooorrrriiinnng

I thought I was gonna have some good shit to write about this week, but I got nothing. Saturday was BlindGuy's Poker SuperStars Extravaganza. One would think that with 4 preliminary tournaments the better players more consistent player would be rewarded. You would think. However when you can't win with KK in two of the tournaments, you don't stand much of a chance. The first one came when I had them OTB and the tightest player in our game called from the SB. An ace flops and he checks, I know if he calls he has an ace so I make a small c-bet for my information. He calls and I am done with the hand. Turn is a second ace. Check, check. River is a king. He checks, I bet now, he raises. I begrudgingly call. He shows AK. The only card in the deck that can make me bet the river. Second one, UTG min raises. I reraise 4x on top with KK. He insta-goes all in. I call resigning myself to his aces. Nope. AQ. Ace on the flop. After being crippled there, it pretty much eliminated me from making the final table.

Sunday was PokerSlut tour the OM8 version. This was the, "Ooooooooh look I have 4 cards" version. That's how that went. Last nigth was Skillz Stud8. My big hands went to shit. Started A47d, 23h5, and 345 and never made it past 5th street. Got crippled in second hour when KK and AA got into a pissing match and I was the only low with a FD and never got there.

Played some more 6 max PLO, mostly .25/.50. Outside shot of making ironman for the month if I keep up the play, so we'll see where that goes. Been pretty even since Saturday. Lost a buyin yesterday when a FD and gutshot are enough to put your entire buyin in on the flop against my flopped set. Well played sir. Did manage to win all but 10 bucks of it back however, so that was nice. Thank you Mr. "I'm going to jam my two pair on a 3 heart board with a straight on it and no redraw".

Still need to play my Step 4 on stars. Still want to satellite in to the bracelet race on Sunday or Friday nights. Depending on the homegame may play riverchasers on Thursday. Mookie is less then 50/50 tonight, but we'll see.

Saturday is a bus trip to AC for a friend to raise money Dimes March for Babies. I will drive an hour in the opposite direction of AC, to go to AC. But the cause is well worth it and I more then happy to do it. Once in a while degenerate gambling can lead me to do things that are good for others, so how can I not do it with a smile on my face. If you feel you need some good poker karma or have a little extra money that you don't know what to do with leave a comment and I will be more then happy to get in contact with you and give you the donation info.

Nothing Exciting

Nothing too exciting to report. Gambit's home game on Friday was uneventful. Unless you count me flopping the nuts in Omaha8 twice only to get behind on the turn. I hate that game. I lost my first buy-in fairly quickly. I made a late rally and ended up losing only $2 on the night.

Saturday and Sunday I spewed some money playing stuff I shouldn't have played (except the Slut Tour of course). This week I decided I wanted to play 5,000 hands online this week. I threw $200 into Stars and began short stacking (read 50 bb's deep) $0.25/$0.50. I got in a total of 415 hands today. I had a couple hands hold, a couple not, and one nice suckout:

[21:41] Snuffysports: all the way with a,j
[21:41] Snuffysports: my bad reads are working out now
[21:41] TheSnarf10: well done
[21:41] Snuffysports: a,j raise to 1.5
[21:41] Snuffysports: get min raised to 2.5
[21:42] Snuffysports: i call
[21:42] Snuffysports: flop j,10,9 all spades
[21:42] Snuffysports: he open shoves for around 12
[21:42] Snuffysports: i call with no spade
[21:42] TheSnarf10: k
[21:42] Snuffysports: he had k,k with Ks
[21:42] Snuffysports: turn A
[21:42] Snuffysports: river J
[21:42] TheSnarf10: heee haaaaw
[21:43] Snuffysports: embrace the donkitude
[21:43] Snuffysports: i have run bad in cash games for so long, bout time it gets even
[21:43] TheSnarf10: every time a donk wins with AJ a blaz gets his wings


I ended up with a profit on the day. Can't complain.


Click on image for larger pic

PokerSlut Tour

Fridays are goooooooot

After a day off from work to do yard work and catch up on house chores, I decided to play a 10 PLO8 MTT with everyone's favorite blogger Scott Fischman. No run ins with him but it was a good idea to play. First hour was nothing special ended it pretty much even, then getting low in the second hour I took a shot with the nut low and what figured to be the only flush draw, albeit not a good one. Well the FD got there and sent me off to the races.

I was able to make some big hands and get paid off every time. Yes, Zooks, I did flop quads twice but I didn't make the people go all in first. The other big hand came with about 20 or so left while I was in the top 10 in chips. Played A2310 for a small raise from UTG, flop cam 338. SB bet out, I reraised all in and he called with KQJ3. He never improved and I was up to 3rd in chips. Played tight for a while after that, trying to take down pots cheaply and not let the hands get out of control.


Make it to the final table and then finally to the last four. Shorthanded I really started to get aggressive and amass some more chips from the prohibitive chip leader. Then down to 3 I grabbed the lead briefly, only to see it slip away again. We start heads up with him in the lead. After a few hands i pull slightly ahead. Only to have this happen.


Full Tilt Poker Game #5996252850: $10 + $1 Tournament (45530428), Table 13 - 5000/10000 - Pot Limit Omaha H/L - 19:56:22 ET - 2008/04/11
Seat 5: ElSnarfGrande (199,870)
Seat 9: Dragonbaby64 (199,130)
Dragonbaby64 posts the small blind of 5,000
ElSnarfGrande posts the big blind of 10,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ElSnarfGrande [7h 8h Kc As]
Dragonbaby64 raises to 20,000
ElSnarfGrande calls 10,000
*** FLOP *** [Kd 3s Ks]
ElSnarfGrande checks
Dragonbaby64 bets 10,000
ElSnarfGrande raises to 70,000
Dragonbaby64 raises to 179,130, and is all in
ElSnarfGrande calls 109,130
Dragonbaby64 shows [5h Qh 4d Kh]
ElSnarfGrande shows [7h 8h Kc As]
*** TURN *** [Kd 3s Ks] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 3s Ks 5d] [Qs]
Dragonbaby64 shows a full house, Kings full of Queens, for high
ElSnarfGrande shows three of a kind, Kings, for high
Dragonbaby64 wins the pot (398,260) with a full house, Kings full of Queens
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 398,260 | Rake 0
Board: [Kd 3s Ks 5d Qs]
Seat 5: ElSnarfGrande (big blind) showed [7h 8h Kc As] and lost with HI: three of a kind, Kings
Seat 9: Dragonbaby64 (small blind) showed [5h Qh 4d Kh] and won (398,260) with HI: a full house, Kings full of Queens

I feel like I played real well in this. Playing all those turbo plo8 sng's paid off immensely especially short handed. In the end I will gladly accept the finish, even if a little disappointing in the end.

Donktastic

I played some $0.25/$0.50 last night. In total I got in around 250 hands by 2 tabling. I ended up booking a small win of around $10. Next week I am going to try and play around 5000 hands at this level. I have never come close playing that many hands. I am going to play both on Stars and Full Tilt. I considered throwing some money into Cake but the way they eff up the hand histories so you can't use Poker Tracker totally has turned me off.

Last night I also played the Mookie. I played fairly tight early. In the blogger tourneys you just don't see that many flops for cheap. Someone is always bringing it in for a raise. I was around 1700 when i picked up the mortal nuts (at least for Blaz) with the Ah,Jh and raised to 350. A short stack shoved for 650 and I called. He had 8,8 and I ended up with the flush by the turn to now have a healthy stack. My downfall was when I had K,J on the button and limped. The flop comes K high all clubs. I bet and the BB called. The turn brought another K. He checked, I bet and he shoved to put me all-in. I had around 900 left and called. He ended up flopping the flush with J,6. I missed my boat outs and I was done in the mid 50's. I would think most bloggers raise on the button there. Guess the bloggers have something right there.

I decided to take off the afternoon today to go play some more live poker. At 1pm they have a $40 no rake tournament. You get 2k in chips and the blinds are a short 10 minutes. You can get an extra 1k for a $5 dealer tip which I did. I ended up losing most of my stack in the 2nd level when I had 3,3 and the flop came 5,4,2. I was out in less than 20 minutes.

Before the tourney I played 1/2 hour of $1/$2 NL. Why I ever do this before a tourney I have no idea. I don't think I ever win when I try this. I play way too loose knowing that the tourney is starting. I ended up losing $31.

After busting in the tourney I got on a new $1/$2 NL table. I just got absolute junk for around an hour or so. I was down to $65 when I finally picked up K,J and flopped top pair and raised a flop bet. The board got scary and the turn and river were checked and I won the pot. After that hand I was able to keep chipping up to around $150 when my donktastic hand happens.

There is a player in the game who has lost $300 in 1/2 hour by shoving flush and straight draws and never hitting. I am looking to play pots with him. I was in a hand with 6h4h UTG. Not great but I limped cause the bad player was to my right in the BB and he is going to most likely see a flop. It was limped about 5 ways to and 8,7,5 flop. It was checked to me and I lead for $9 and get one caller in middle position, the bad player folds. When the turn is being dealt I look at the board and see that I misread the board. It was actually 9,7,5. The turn brought the 8h. Now I really do have the straight and a flush redraw. I lead for $20 and the older guy in the hand shoves for around $120. What? There is now way he had 10,6 in this spot. I figure he has the lone 6 as well and we are chopping right now and I have a freeroll with the flush draw. I called and he rolled over a hand I never considered, the J,10. Oh fuck me. How I didn't see that as a possibility is beyond be. How do I miss that shit. Well, my donkish ways worked as the 10h dropped on the river and I hit the flush for a monster pot.

After that hand I started getting hit by the deck a little for some small pots. I picked-up A,K suited 3 times and K,K once. After a couple hours it was time to go and I had $372 in front of me for a nice profit on the day. Its nice to be a lucktard sometimes.

I have Gambit's home game tomorrow night. By the way, I received an interesting e-mail regarding a prop bet that is going to go down in May. I'm sure you will hear about it on Ante Up! tomorrow.

Random Thoughts

I'm pretty sure a monkey could cash in more SNG's then I have lately. No check that, I KNOW a monkey could cash in more. If you don't count the SNG that I was in with 6 left when FTP crashed as a cash, I am 0-10. That includes NLHE, PLO, PLO8, OM8. This is just absurd. The snippet goes like this. On the bubble of the first I'm shorty and push in the SB with K10d, BB wakes up with 77 and calls. I flop a diamond draw with 2 overs to the 7's and can't improve. The next scenario, I push from the button strangely enough with K10d with 6 left for about 1000 (blinds 100-200). BB calls off his entire stack with QJos and proceeds to hit the jack on the river. I only hope that this bad luck will translate into good luck when I hit up my step 4 on PokerStars.


6 Max PLO. Is my savior right now. I'm getting more and more comfortable playing post flop. Learning that 6 max is not as much a game of the nuts like full ring. Most importantly exploiting tards who can't fold big pairs who feel the need to pot bet everytime. Sample size for this is still small but I'm waiting patiently for Poker Tracker 3 to be finalized so I can use it for PLO. I'm too cheap to buy 2 and then have to upgrade to 3, sue me.



I don't know how I feel about being Snuffy's lucky rabbit's foot. I have to imagine that if he wins a WSOP ME seat by making me* rail every fuckin step he plays there's something good in it for me. I mean really if you don't look out for number 1 who will right**?



The title of this post made me think of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey from the early 90's SNL. Which made me remember one of my favorites, so I leave you with that.

If a kid asks where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is
"God is crying." And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is "Probably because of something you did."




*he hasn't made me do anything but I don't put it past him

**I'm only joking here, kinda, sorta, maybe he'd at least by me a coffee in Vegas

My Best Comeback Ever

Yesterday's poker happenings didn't start off very well for me. I started off playing my LAPT Step 4. I ended up busting out in 7th when my J,J < A,A < K,K. There was a raise and a calland I shipped it in trying a squeeze play plus if I'm called I have a good hand. Oops, 3rd best hand going in, 3rd best coming out.

I moved on to my WSOP step 4. With 6 people left and 6 BB's I called the SB's (and CL) shove into me with K,J. He ended up having A,3. Flop K,5,2. Turn J. River 4. Im' done. Finishing 6th gave me a step 2 redo. Great. I played the step 2 and wnded up getting my advance to step 3 where the greatest comeback of my life happens.


We are in level 2 and I have not played a hand yet when I set a great trap on the turn:



After that fuckage I was left with 130 in chips. I almost busted the mouse after that one. Good thing I didn't. Two hands later I get A.K. Knowing if I shove I am gonna get called and have to beat 3 others so I did the stop-n-go.



Hey that worked. Still in deep shit though. Eight hands later and taking the blinds once I pick-up an ace and ship it in.



Hey a suckout! I ship it with the 10 high the next hand and win the blinds again. The next lap around the table I actually get a walk in the BB. I picked up K,K a few hands later but only get the blinds. About 10 hands later we are actually down to 5 handed and I have a redo locked-up. Time to gamble it up with the J,3.



Down to 4 left I call a short stack all-in with connectors.



With 3 left there is a ton of shoving and we are trading blinds back and forth. Then the two big stacks face off.



Two hands later the other short stack shoves into my BB and I call with the K,10.




A combination of horrible play, hitting every hand and the PokerStars boomswitch I was able to advance back up to step 4. Thanks Snarf for the rail. Every time he watches I win. I sent him the IM after the brutal beat. He brought the table up and the rest is history. I will be waiting to play till after he gets home for sure.

Slut Tour

Last night was the start of Season IX of the Pokerslut Tour. Congrats to my fellow Corporation members who also cashed in 3rd and 5th. No, I will not be calling you assclowns.

The game was NLHE Double stack. I chipped up to around 4000 early and hung there for a while. With 14 left I got involved in a hand with Fasso. I had A,10 in one of the blinds and called a 3x raise from Fasso. Flop comes A,J,x and I check call a 2/3 pot bet. The turn was a 10. I lead out for around a 1/2 - 2/3 pot bet and he called behind. The river was a K bringing a 4-liner straight. He shoves for his last 1500 which was a 1/2 pot sized bet. I know he was been increasing his aggression lately. The way the hand was net didn't smell like there was a J in his hand. I called and my 2 pair was good against Ace rag. I guessing he had me on the same type hand and if he shoved he could get me off of the hand, and if not, it would be a chopped pot. Right?

After that hand I had around 7000 and played pretty snug till the final table. When the final table started I had 6600 or so in chips. I ended up increasing my stack to 10k by not playing a pot past the flop and never having to show my hands. I was making standard 2.5x raises and was not getting looked up. I was picking up hands including Aces twice. I'm suprised I never got played back at though. With 6 left I picked up J,J in the bb when the SB shoved with A,somehting. My hand held and I had 14k.

Playing from 5 handed to 3 handed was a lot of chip trading. I can't remember but I must ahve knocked 5th and/or 4th out cause when we got to 3 handed I had a good lead. I was able to put more pressure on and when Zooks was knocked out in 3rd I had a 4.5:1 lead. Wisco Left doubled through me once when A,3<9,3. After the hand I typed in chat "just die already". He didn't take it too well. Sorry about that, was just being funny. The last hand of the tourney i picked up Jacks and called a shove. He had K,x and it was over. Guess I will try to win it this year. After I bust out early in the next two I can quit though :)

Rest of the Weekend

After such a nice start to the weekend, things kept going pretty damn well for a change. Saturday saw me drop a little at the 6 max PLO tables, the two big losses coming when I pushed with best hand best draw and got called, in one instance, by middle pair no redraws only to catch the 5 outer on the river. Wasn't pretty, but it can happen. In the middle of a sng, which I was second in chips with 6 left, someone literally flipped the FTP doom switch. Like for 6 hours, but I'm sure you're all aware of the that. SNG cancelled and I win a few bucks back that I lost. Luckily there are these things called "bars" and this thing on TV called the "NCAA basketball semifinals", and most importantly an expectant wife who was willing to drive. Very +EV. GG Saturday night.

Sunday was a long afternoon at the 6 max PLO tables. I put just about 450 hands at .10/.25 and had about a 60 dollar profit on the day. One interesting hand of note was one that was a little out of the ordinary for me. I like to play post flop, I feel that's where my strength lies. I try to avoid preflop pissing contests. So OTB I pot bet with AA24 single suited. The BB, who hadn't done anything spectacular to this point repops pot. Most times with most hands here I call and see a flop but something felt off. I decided to repop and basically put myself all in. He then calls/reshoves to us both all in and he flips up.........................2469 rainbow. Stunned silence was all I could muster. And by some miracle of the heavens my hand held up.

Also played 2 token MTT's on the day. In the 26 I got some chips early but went card dead when the blinds went up. This is death and a petered out about 25 spots before the tokens. Now in the 75 the karma that was restored in the PLO was immediately given back. Round 3 I make a raise with AKh, miss make a c-bet, get reraised, fold, down to 1000 chips. In the 40/80 level. UTG+1 limps. Cutoff limps. Button folds. In the SB I have 99 with about 900 chips, so I shove. UTG+1 with about 1400 in chips calls as does the cutoff with about 1300 in chips. WTF????? Flop comes 665, check check. Turn 2, check check. River King (FUCK ME), UTG+1 goes all in, cutoff folds. UTG+1 shows.................K-10os. Yeah I can't even fathom an explanation to this one. Finally finished off with the Event 1 of Season IX of the PoerkSlut Tour, deepstack NLHE. Played tight. Made it to the money in 5th. I heard some assclown won the thing.

Summary: A good poker weekend. Which I really needed. Or I was going to have to buy a dog, just to kick it, or give up poker.

Poker Plan for this week: Hopefully play my step 4 over at stars and see if I can't advance that a little. If there's no homegame, Riverchasers on Thursday. Then if I don't hate poker I think will play the 69+6 sat into Friday's bracelet race. Saturday is BlindGuy's PokerSupersStars extravaganza, which will lead to a good 12+ hours of poker and drinking. With anyluck I will remember enough about for a good post. Else I'll have a splitting headache and be on tilt all day Sunday, Good Times!

Steps and The Sluts

I played a couple of WSOP Step 3 tournaments yesterday. In the first one with 7 people left and the blinds at 75/150 I shoved for my last 1005 chips with A,9 and the BB woke up with A,K. He flopped his king but I was dirty and went runner runner straight. That hand got me up to around 2200 and I was in good shape to lock-up a redo at least. After the hand I was 2nd in chips.

When the bubble burst I has 2100 in chips and actually was in 5ht place. Everyone had between 3500 and my 2100. At 150/300 and a redo locked-up I picked up 9's in the BB and called a shove from the big stack. We was shoving the last 4 hands before this one. HE had K,J and mu hand held. I was now up to 4500 and in really good shape. After that hand I just got nothing playable. I think I folded around 16 of the next 17 hands and when we were 3 handed and 300/600/50 blinds and I had 3400 with 600 posted in the BB I had to defend my BB with Q,8. The shover ended up with K,5. I flopped my 8 but he turned the K an I was out in 3rd place. Two in a row for the redo. I can't complain though I should have been out in 7th.

Later on in the day I took my 3rd shot at the step 3. I decided to play a little more aggressively in this one. The cards I was dealt early helped. I was dealt A,10 3 of the first 4 hands (suited 2x). One hand about 1/3 of my chips went in and he had the A.10 as well for a chop.

In the 15/30 level I picked up Kings and Aces and re-raised a raiser and got no action. The same person kept raising. I think his VPIP was around 85% with 50% PFR's. With 7 people left and 1700 in chips (good for 4th) I picked-up kings again. I raised it 3x to 600 and a stack bigger than me shoved. I called and he had A,Q. The flop brings an Ace. Fuck me!!! Wait, the turn is a King!!! Double up. I am now sitting on 3660. Two hands later the hand of the day comes up when I have Aces again:




Down to 5 people and I have a great stack. After that hand i told Snarf in chat that I may quit if I blow this one. Shouldn't have said that. We quickly lose two of the short stacks and just about 5 hands later I try to end it with A,5 against a 1700 stack. He had J,J and now its a game again. I have 5500 and the short stack has 3500 and its any ones game. I am up to 5800 and try to end it again:



Fuuuuuck!

After folding a gazillion hands in a row I have 1100 left and am in deep shit. One person has 10k in chips. I pick-up A,Q and it holds. When I was in the SB the other short stack was in the BB. The big stack let us fight it out each time. In 3 straight hands I held nothing higher than 6,2 and had to fold the SB. With less than 3 BB's and one of them posted in the BB I have to play this crap.




Woot! Two hands later its finally over, courtesy of another suckout.




Off to step 4 now. Geez this post is getting kinda long. I will post the slut tour stuff later today.

Poker Stars SNG

Since FTP is down tonight I fired up Poker Stars to play a sng.

I started off real slow. This table was pretty active while I sat and folded. My stats were something like 4/0/30 hands when this hand came up.

A few hands later.

I have some chips now and this guys shoves from the button. I can afford to make this call.

My stats are now 11/3/37.

10/2/52

ITM!

This guy had been raising from the SB all night. I decided this was as good a time as any to get my chips in.

This is my first $10 sng over at Stars. I had $20 on there before I played it. I have been meaning to deposit a decent amount over on Stars based on the recommendation of several people including Snuffy. I would like to play some of their step sngs. I think Stars is softer than Full Tilt but I supposed 1 $10 sng is not a valid statistical sample ;).

There's a light, I can see it

After a little pre-dinner poker play, which saw a nice profit from .10/.25 6 max plo, I decided to play Kat's donkament. Which is fantastic poker therapy but if you play tight and get a little lucky, can be very profitable.

So this week there were 27 peeps and as normal the action was fast and furious. I double early in the push monkey section, 3rd hand I think, with KQc, and kept my stack up from there. This is where things sat at the end of the first hour. Please note the number of rebuys.




So I sat in pretty nice shape. Early in hour two I limped with 88 from UTG+1. Blinds were 100-200 and button makes it 600, I call. Flop was K82 two spades, I decide to go the the check raise and he knuckles behind. Turn is another deuce so I check once more, feeling very confident. He checks again. River is the 3rd spade so I bet about 3/4 pot. He raises, I push, he calls with AA. After that I was in a little better shape heading into the 2nd break.



After the fantastic balancing algorithm at full tilt saw the 5 biggest stacks at the same table with 14 left, we slugged it out and eventually made it to the final table. I can't remember much heading into the final table. Played tight, didn't steal too much and came in with a decent stack.





First hand of final table I get 1010 and raise, get reraised. Call and fold the flop of all unders to a shove. I should have folded to the reraise here if I was going to fold an all under flop. However full tilt sent me my only aces of the night on the next hand. When I reraised the chip leader, it looked like a steal and I got action against pocket 5's and they actually held up. We finally get to the bubble and I am way short. But I make a few pushes, flop a set against TPTK, and eventually get a decent stack. Then proceed to bluff it off with AQ unimproved in a completely donktastic move. Then I got my only real suckout of the night when I shove with A10 from the SB and get called by the BB with AQ. Flop K-10-x. Turn Q. River J. And we chop. Eventually the bubble bursts. Second in chips stacks off with 10-7os and I am left HU. Major chip disadvantage and the blinds were a little to high to make up the ground. But I will take the results.



Congrats again to Kat for being a great hostess and taking down her own damn tourny. Well done maam.

And here's to hoping the brighter side of the tunnel is shining through now.

Back to Live Play

I apologize in advance but this is going to be a really long post.

Yesterday I was trying to decide what to do with my last $27 on Stars. I was thinking about playing another step 2. I finally decided that since I am playing SNG's pretty well lately that I should play some regular ones. I decided to sign up for 4 in a row. All of them started within 3 minutes of each other. I quickly decided I am not used to playing this many tables at once. Too late now I guess. When the blinds went up to 25/50 in all of them the best I was doing was 1400 in chips and all of them ranged between 1200 and 1400. When we got up to 50/100 I really hadn't made too much headway in any of them. I ended up busting out in 7th in the 3rd one that I started. That's OK, I'm still alive in 3 of them.

Oh oh, make that 2. I was the bubble bitch in the second one that I started. But hey, in the money for the other two, I can still pull a profit. OK, 3rd place in the last one, that's a start. When I was playing these I quickly remembered that I should be playing turbos. 10 minute levels is waaaay to long to play. I ended up winning the first one that I started so I showed a small profit. That's a good start. Turbos next time though.

Later in the day I decided to play my WSOP step 3. The very first hand I am in the BB with KhQh. The UTG player raises to 60, there are two callers, the SB calls AND I FOLD!!! What a complete pussy move this is. My initial thoughts are, hey, 3 people will be below the starting stack, lets just fold. We are always results oriented so watch what happens. The flop comes Qc,7h,4h. Ah, shit. The original raiser makes it 240 to go. and there is one caller. The turn pairs the 7. Original raiser shoves, and the other player takes a second and calls with....... Q,10! The original raiser had 6,6. Wow my hand was good. The flush got there on the river for good measure. I wonder how the hand plays out if I play it. I probably check raise the flop. Not sure of anyone gets all their chips in or if I fold to significant pressure if it gets to the turn.

We drop down to 6 people and i have 2200 in chips good enough for 2nd place. I got up in chips my shoving 2 straight hands, one with A,Q and the next with 10,10. Then all of a sudden all the short stacks double up. I think it happened 3 times. Before you know it I am sitting in 6th place with 1400. I was able to make a couple of raises to stay afloat and we finally dropped to 5 handed good enough for a redo. The blinds were getting up there and with 4 people left and a 2400 stack I shoved UTG with 6,5. Next to act woke up with K,K and I was out in 4th place. Took me 3 times for the LAPT, we shall see for the WSOP. I still can't believe I folded that first hand. Just terrible.

Today I decided to take the afternoon and play some live poker. I made my way over to Lucky's at Tampa Greyhound Track. For those of you unfamiliar with this place, its right in the middle of the hood. Lots of police presence around the track. Everything looked fairly new but not exactly clean. Kinda reminded me of Binions, without any of the history. The tournament started at 1pm so I got in an hour of 1/2 NL play. I think the average age at the table was the late 60's. Holy fucking rock garden. I saw exactly one raise pre-flop in the hour I was there. I won two small pots and walked away down $10.

The tournament was a $65 buy-in. You started with t6000 and the blinds were 15 minutes for the first 3 levels then 20 after that. They did have a 75/150 level which was nice. They started with 3 tables and seated alternates in the first 2 levels. In the first lap I people open shoving for their stack. Very nice. I managed to lost 4000 chips within 5 hands at the end of level 1 and beginning of level 2. Look at these gems.

25/50 blinds and I am in the BB with K,J off. Flop comes J,4,3 and I check. Its check around to a late position player who bets 300 and I am the only caller. I really should have thrown in a check raise there to find out where I was at. The turn paired the 4. I checked and he bet 600 and I called. I am pretty sure I have the best hand now. The river is a 7. I check and he bets 600 again. I finally decide to raise like a fool to 1700. He thinks for a minute and calls with 9,4 off. WTF! Beautiful call pre-flop and bet on the flop. Guess he "felt" it was coming. Lolz.

A couple hands later he limps for 100 and I get AcQc and raise it up to 500 and he is the lone caller. Flop comes J,x,x with 2 diamonds and it goes check check. The turn is the Ad. He checks and I bet 600 and he calls. The river brings a 4th diamond. HE checks and I check behind. He flips over the nuts with Kd9d. Jeez. Way to get every chip out of that hand.

Now i am down to 2000 and he has 11k. I don't think I need to mention that he was busto within a lap and a half around the table. I tighten up and the next hand I play is at 75/100 when I have 1800 left and limp with 8,8. 5 to the flop of A,A,A. I have all my chips in my hand but throw out everything but the 1k chip. Everyone folds. Blinds go up to 100/200/25 and I am down to 1750. A player open shoves for around 3700 UTG +1 and I look down at K,K in the cutoff and ship it in. He shows A,Q. Flop good, turn Ace and I'm out the door. That was a lot of fuckin fun.

Now the story gets interesting. I get back in a 1/2 NL game and one of the first hands I ma in the SB with Q,J and limp in a 5 way pot. The BB goes all-in for $11 total and EVERYONE calls including me. Flop comes Q,8,8. I lead for $20 to see if anyone has the 8 and everyone folds. The all-in shows 2,2 and I pick-up a healthy pot right away. I stick around the $175 point for quite a while when a dude with Maverick sunglasses sits down at the table. He had around $225 but voluntarily moved from another table so he had to start with $100. the first hand at the table he raises from the BB to $15 and gets 1 caller. He shoves the flop, the other player folds and he then shows the bluff. Hmmmm. 2 hands later I get A,Q and he raises to $10 and I call. Flop comes A,2,3 rainbow. He open shoves. I start talking to him to see if I can get anything. I ask him to show a card and he said he will if I show one. I shove him the Ace and he flips over the deuce. Wow, that was a great card to show! I think for a good 2-3 minutes and decide that I only have $10 invested and fold. He then shows me THE HAMMER. D'oh!!!!! OK, time to trap this clown.

A few hands later he raises to $5 and I pick-up K,K and raise to $15 and he is the only caller. Flop come J,10,9 rainbow. He open shoves for around $150. I think for a second, not too long. If he has a straight draw with the Q I have 2 of his outs covered. I call and he shows Q,9. The turn and river come 4,J and I got him. He re-bought and I hoped to pick-up another hand to completely felt him. During this time his buddy comes into the game. One raises to $20, one calls. Then they turn their cards over and check it down. Holy soft playing. The first dealer allowed it and the second one to come in had none of it.

I ended up leaving shortly after that with $363 in front of me. For the day I ended up making $188. Not too shabby. Its amazing how some people throw away money. I'm just glad to clean up the scraps some times.

Quote of the day, after I win the big pot the dealer makes the standard quote, "Works every time but once". So true.

A Day in the Black

Sure I only played about 75 hands.


Sure it was only a 2.5% bankroll boost.


But I don't want to kill anyone this morning. So I have that going for me, which is nice.

I think I am going to stick to 6 handed PLO for a little while and kill some of the SNG play. I tend to be moderately successful here. I'm finding very predictable patterns in people's play, at least at my limit (.10/.25). So expect some more posts in this vein.

I will share the two biggest traits that I have been able to exploit so far. No this is not all from last night, I was playing more a few months ago but have gotten away from it. Both of these stem from people not being able to adjust from hold'em to omaha.

First, is that people can't lay down aces. Depending on your tolerance for variance and board texture you can stack these fools left and right. Most of the time they will fire out a pot bet on ANY flop, paying no attention to board texture or their own draws. It can be frustrating when you know what they have (they pfr about 5% of the time and every time it's pot) and you keep missing. But patience is key and you will eventually double through them.

Second, follows in the same thought. These are the people that HAVE to c-bet whenever they pfr. Hoy wrote alot about this pattern in terms of 6 max NLHE last year and it can have alot of the same value in PLO. They are even more exploitable when they feel if they are OTB and HAVE to bet pot when everyone limps. They will almost always bet 1/2 pot but more then likely a full pot, when the action checks to them. Two ways of combatting this is betting pot before it gets to them, which despite their reckless preflop play will cause them to fold. Or the hi risk/hi reward check raise pot. Most times this results in a fold, but do it once or twice to them and you will get the overcall by them with an overpair to the board.

A final thought is that I have noticed full ring is much tighter and more a game of the nuts. The 6 max obviously has a lot more variance and can be much more profitable. Now I almost always short buy in these. There are two schools of thought here, so I'll have to go into that next time.

Justice

Is it wrong to wish ill on some idiot that sucks out on you? I don't think so. It's even better when it happens within a few hands of his suckout.

This happened on the 4th hand of a Tier 1 sng. We got it all in on the flop.

Two hands later this happened:

I couldn't help myself and typed "Justice" in the chatbox. He turned out to be a pushmonkey.

Are you the least bit curious how he went out? He didn't even last long enough for me to finish this post. He went out on the 13th hand of the sng.

Talk about frustration. Don't you hate it when the idiot that manages to get all of your chips spews them to somebody else?

I know I feel better about it if they can at least make good use of your chips. Am I wrong to feel that way? I don't know, but at least I'm honest enough to admit that I do.

Step3 - LAPT

I had planned on playing in The Mookie last night, however I fell asleep before it started. Two year olds do this to you. The only thing I played yesterday was my LAPT Step 3. I didn't play a hand until we were at 50/100. I limped from the SB and the BB and CL raised it up 4x and I folded. Point taken. The very next lap I have 1135 and pick-up AsKs from the SB and limp. He raises again to 400 and I take a second for dramatic effect and shove. He snap calls with the A,10. I win the hand and am up to 2270 and the chip lead in one hand.

The next hand I play is at 75/150 with 5 people left and I have a stack of 2195 in the big blind. The button makes a standard shove play for 1200 and I call with the A,J. He shows Q,8. My hand holds and we are down to four people and I have 3500.

About 4 hands later we are down to 3 people and I have around 3200. 3rd place has around 3100. I pick-up K,8 in the SB and make a 3x raise to 600 (100/200 blinds). The 3rd place player shoves for his stack. If I fold here I have 2600 and he moves up to 3700. Not a dire situation but now I have to pick-up a hand against that person to have a good chance to advance. One key decision is that I already have a redo which definitely creates more gambling situations. I decide to call and he shows the 10,4. I win the hand and advance to step 4.

These step tournaments create some interesting situations. I certainly haven't solved them but I am getting a pretty good grasp on what people are thinking in them and it has helped a ton when in marginal situations.