Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Corporation Poker Tour Season 4 Starts Tonight

on Full Tilt
21:00 Server Time
$5+0.50
Pot Limit Omaha
password: anteup

More information regarding the series and its past winners (read: me) can be found here:

http://www.chimpspokerseries.com

Boring Poker

Haven't been playing a ton lately but have been trying to grind out a little. Unfortunately someone has flipped my doom swtich at Full Tilt. I was doing fairly well at 25 NL got away from it a little to the fishing fields at 25PLO 6 max. This has killed me over the last 2 nights. I can't hit hand and when I do it doesn't hold up. Dems da breaks I guess. Case and point last night in 6 max PLO. The button had be potting every folded hand to him, he obliges again then the uber loose SB and I call. I flop top two on a FD board, I check to the button who is cbetting 100% nice. He again obliges and bets half pot, which is I take as a very weak lead. The SB of course calls, and I repot with top two. This is not usually I make but the spot was right and I really though I could take the pot down. The button folds and the SB calls, now I almost know this is a FD, so on the turn when an undercard blank comes and he shoves I am confident I still have the best hand. He had shit. He turned bottom pair, that's it, and the second nut flush draw.........and of course is rewarded on the river. In the meantime by bankroll takes a beating. But my monster roll on Stars is slowly growing. Slowly.



I'm sure there's a Snuffy post coming about the Corporation Poker Series starting tonight. So I'll let him do that. We're all waiting with baited breath. This weekend Snuffy makes trip to the north for some Atlantic City poker action. This should be interesting. I feel like my NLHE game is really coming around so I'm very interested to see how an extended AC session goes. Hopefully I'll have something good to report.


In the meantime, Go Phils! Let's win a game or 3 or 7 or 11 this year. If we lose to the Brewers I will be disappointed through the end of football season.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

MGM Grand Detroit TR

I was in Detroit this week for work. I was at Greektown earlier in the week but did not have enough time to play there. Wednesday night I was able to get in a short session at the new MGM Grand. It has been open almost a year now. I don't know where their old location was. This place was immaculate. The poker room is on the 3rd floor. You take an elevator from the main gaming area to get there. It shares the floor with a night club. Being there in a Wednesday evening there was not much going on in the club.

I got there around 5pm and was able to get in a 50-300 game which was 1/2. I bought in for the full 300 and played fairly snug for the first hour. I limped into a number of pots but was never able to connect. The first key hand was when I was on the button with A,7ss and limped after 3 other limpers. The SB raised to 12. He had been doing this a lot. If it was ever limped to him on the button or SB or BB he raised to 12. His range was very wide in this spot. Numerous times I saw him check fold the flop after doing this. It looked like he was stuck in the game and just wanted to bloat the pot up in case he hit something. It was folded back to be and I called. Flop comes A,K,5. He leads for $20 and I call. Here is where I think I made the mistake in the hand, I should have min-raised here to define my hand and try to figure out what he had. By just calling in this spot I had no additional information. The turn was a 2. He leads for $40 and I just call again. Another mistake for me here as I still have no information. I think its a raise or fold in this spot. The river pairs the 5. I think this is a great card. Two pair and I do not need to worry about the kicker. He shoves for $106 and I have a pretty easy call. He turns over the 5,4 off for rivered trips. Shit. Horrid play by him but I really played the hand badly. A raise on the flop or turn and I can get him to fold. After that hand I was down to $36.

As is always the case I get A,A the very next hand. There was a raise to $15 in front of me and I shoved. He called and had J,J. Flop comes with an Ace and I get the double. After that hand I won the next four in a row and had my stack back to $180. After about an hour of not much happening and seeing the guy to my left blow all of the money he won off of me, he decided to start raising again.

The next big hand I am in the small blind with A,2 off and there are 3 limpers to me. I limp and now the BB raises to $5 everyone calls and I have had enough of this shit and raise to $52. The BB insta-calls and everyone folds. His quick call really doesn't mean too much here I don't think. Flop comes K,x,xdd. I decide to check and he shoves for another $120 or so. I fold what I said was QQ. He turned over KdQd. After that hand I was down to around $80 or so.

The last big hand of the session came when I limped with 8c6c. We see the flop 6 handed and it comes out 5,4,2cc. It gets checked around. Turn is am off-suit J. One of the blinds leads for $15 and a SAG lady who was in the first hand after she sits calls and I call. The river is a perfect 3c. The blind leads for $15 again and the SAG lady raises to $40. I shove for my last $46 and the blind says "I knew my two pair were no good". Duh! The SAG calls and shows A,4 off. Nice value raise with the idiot end of the straight. If I had more money I wonder what I could have extracted from her. I probably would have raised to $80 or so and I KNOW she would have called.

After the three hour session or so I left with $169 for a $131 loss. Not a great session by any means but I was fairly satisfied after being down to my last $36 and $55 during the session.

Monday, September 22, 2008

No Analysis Necessary

I got nothin.

Started with this on Stars. Converter not working for some reason.

Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2008/09/22 20:11:47 ET Table 'Vundtia' 9-max Seat #3 is the button Seat 2: Kaartje73 ($16.45 in chips) Seat 3: Usurpov ($23.55 in chips) Seat 4: snarf2597 ($16.60 in chips) Seat 5: DDHume ($13.80 in chips) Seat 6: Shakedown88 ($30.35 in chips) Seat 7: Monterroso69 ($25.50 in chips) Seat 8: martin564283 ($38.65 in chips) Seat 9: blueberry ($24.65 in chips)
snarf2597: posts small blind $0.10
DDHume: posts big blind $0.25
Fate Dealer: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to snarf2597 [5s 3d]
Shakedown88: folds
Monterroso69: folds
martin564283: calls $0.25
blueberry: folds
Kaartje73: folds
Usurpov: calls $0.25
snarf2597: calls $0.15
DDHume: checks
*** FLOP *** [2h 4c 6c]
snarf2597: checks
DDHume: checks
martin564283: bets $0.25
Usurpov: raises $1 to $1.25
snarf2597: calls $1.25
DDHume: folds
martin564283: calls $1
*** TURN *** [2h 4c 6c] [Ad]
snarf2597: checks
martin564283: checks
Usurpov: bets $3.25
snarf2597: raises $4.25 to $7.50
martin564283: folds
Usurpov: raises $9.25 to $16.75
snarf2597: calls $7.60 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($1.65) returned to Usurpov
*** RIVER *** [2h 4c 6c Ad] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
snarf2597: shows [5s 3d] (a straight, Deuce to Six)
Usurpov: shows [4h 4s] (a full house, Fours full of Sixes) Usurpov collected $33.25 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $34.95 | Rake $1.70
Board [2h 4c 6c Ad 6s]


Then to this on Full Tilt.




Then I found a juicy PLO table.



Yaaaaay me! Time for a break.

************EDIT**************

At work now so I can't post the lovely replay but I forgot a hand. First hand of a SNG where I went set over set. That was sweet too. My apologies for leaving misery out there and not communicating it.


***********AS YOU WERE***********

Sunday, September 21, 2008

PokerSlut Tour XI NLHE DS

From PS Tour

Live Blogging the Mega-Satellite

Figured I would try this. Maybe it will help me stay awake.

1:58am - Two minutes till the start. 47 entrants so far. Registration is open the first 10 minutes. 5k in chips to start. 20 minute levels.

2:10am - Official total of 73 people, 72 left.

2:23am - Down to 69 people. I have 4960. Raised a couple hands and no callers.

2:37am - Out. Top top vs set.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

$0.02 For A Boomswitch Please

I am 0-2 in satellites. My last one I built up to 4500 when I called a 4x raise at the 15/30 level with 64hh along with 3 others. Flop come s 7,5,3cc. I checked, pre-flop raiser makes it 390 and gets one caller. I ship and both fold. The hand that set me off on tilt was when I called a min-raise from and UTG+1 player to 100 with 76cc and was the only caller. Flop comes 7,3,2cc and he open shots his last 1400. I call and he has A,K off. He hits the 4 outer on the river and I'm back down to 3000. I pissed through that stack fairly fast and busted on the last hand before the break.

I decided to say fuck it and buy directly into the mega-satellite. Not sure if I am gonna play the Saturday night one or the early Sunday morning one yet. I will be keeping an eye on the entrants. It should be an overlay even bigger than last week. Having the event starting in 6 days should help.

While looking at 2+2 I saw a post showing someone with a break-even graph through 9k hands. He then sent KidPoker (Negreanu) $0.02 to turn his boomswitch on. His graph took off after that.

Soooooooo...........


Hello scottc25,

We have transferred $0.02 from your account to 'KidPoker' as per your request.

Good luck to you both.


Regards,
PokerStars Cashier



B00000000000000000000000000000000m!!!!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Finding My Aggro Monkey

Look he's over there! In the closet with the dust on him.

Played in two MTT's last night. The AIPS event for AnteUp and a 3 dolla donkament. Two tales from two different tournies. There's almost no story to tell for AIPS. It was a 6 max event, the blinds were 20/40. I raised to 140 with AK, BB calls. Flop comes AK6 rainbow, check to me, I bet 240 into the 300 pot, BB pushes for about 1000, I call knowing I am probably behind. Sure enough he has a set of sixes. I don't know if I can fold there or even if it's worth folding there leaving myself with 700 some chips in the 6 handed event. I wasn't happy about it but at the same time trying to milk a short stack that early in a 6 handed event had no appeal to me. I'm a pussy what can I say.

Now the 3 dolla donkament was a different story. I played all my pairs and aces much more aggro early in this and it paid off. I took a hit early when I fired two barrels with unimproved AQ and I guy couldn't lay down bottom pair 6 kicker to the preflop raiser. Doubled a few hands later when I raised with A10, got some calls. Flop was 1088, checks to me I bet, one call, turn is an under, check, I shove, he calls with J10. Chipped up a couple more hands then made a call that I normally would have folded in the past. I raise with 55 in late position, I get two of three callers between me and the button, plus the BB. Flop come 642ss. Checks to me and I fire about the pot, passive calling station to my left calls, then the button pushes for about 1600, BB folds, back to me. There's about 1200 in the pot and it's about 1300 more for me to call. The more I thought about this push the more it felt like overs and a FD. I knew it would be a race if I was right. I had about 5500 behind and decided to go with my read and try and get some chips. I called. Button had 910ss and didn't improve. I was sitting on a nice stack for awhile. Then I called an early raiser with QJss, flopped top pair, he be small, I raised, he called. Turn was a 10 he bet small, I raised again, he pushed for a small amount more. He had 1010 and turned the set. Sucks. I think I could have gotten away there, the turn bet was super fishy. Eventually built back up when my 88 outraced K10os. Went uber-card dead and just didn't steal enough. Made the money but with not enough of a stack to make a difference. Shoved when I missed with A9os against a reraiser making a small flop bet. Knew I was probably behind but either wanted chips or to go to bed. He eventually called with KK on a jack high rainbow flop, little slowroll maybe.

Any way I was pretty happy with the way I played. I took some chances that I normally would not have and really tried to play outside my box that I have been stuck in. Hopefully this leads to some better results. 25NL still going well but nothing of interest to report. Might play Donkament tonight, but still on the fence. See how the evening goes.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Seriously, WTF!!!

A little history before this hand came up. I had 13 BB's left sitting around 38th/44 with blinds at 75/150. 9 people won the $800 seats. After folding for about 75 minutes I finally get a hand. The villan was around 12th at the time.




My thoughts:

#1 We was at my starting table and saw me fold for an hour straight.
#2 He puts me all-in knowing with my stack that I have to call.
#3 He does it with A,4 off.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Live Play and APPT Overlays

Since I returned from New Orleans I was able to play one live session. It was only about 90 minutes at the track buy I was able to book a $62 win. I only had two real hands of note. I had A,Q in MP and raised to $12 and saw 3 callers. Flop comes J,10,xdd. Check, check, I check and SS on the button shoves for $25. There is a fold and the SAG, who I have played numerous hours with, calls. If he had a HUD running live he would be a 100/0. He literally sees every flop. Earlier in the session I saw him limp UTG with 8,3 off and take a medium sized pot when the flop came 8,8,2. With $98 in the pot I am getting good odds (10 outs 2x) and call. Turn is a blank. SAG checks, I check. River is a Q. SAG checks and I value bet $25. SAG is the type of player to call this bet with 2nd or 3rd pair. He folds what he says was A,J. Now way in hell he has that. The all-in player had J,little and is busto.

The dude is bitchin' how he can never hit a flop, etc. Well sir, nice call pre-flop with J,little. This guy was exactly what VegasRex was talking about in a recent post. He was talking about the Mets like HE was on the team. Us, we, shit like that. You tend to get a lot of that in Florida, more on the east coast though. He ends up dropping 2 buy-ins and goes to the tournament. He was telling the guy next to me how to play. Guy next to me gave a nice jab in when he left. Can't remember what it was but I lol'ed.

Other other hand was when I had Q,10 and limped. About 7 to the flop of A,K,X. Checked around. Turn blank and checked around again. River J with no flushes. SAG leads for $10, I raise to $25, called from behind and SAG folds. He shows K,J and my hand is good. Nothing else interesting beyond those hands. I was never in another pot for more than $10 besides those too. The table started to toughen up a bit so I left with the profit.

On Monday night I played the TuckFard open. When we reached the final table (after one person busted) I had around 2k in chips. I ended up taking out 3 people at the FT including BamBam with his 1bb after getting knocked down a couple hands earlier decided to shove his 3,3 into my AA from the BB. It was over when I flopped quads. When we got to 5 handed I had around 7k in chips and 2nd had around 2400. Blinds were at 150/300. yep, I finished 5th. I ended up losing 5 coin flips in a row. The worst one was when I had K,9 vs J,10 or so. I flopped J but lost to a turned two pair. Oh well. with the bounties the tourney cost me $0.50.

Whil perusing Poker Stars today I noticed they were running two mega-satellites to the Seoul APPT event every weekend. In the $300+20 satellite they had 118 people for the 10 seats. With a total guaranteed prize pool of $60k that's and overlay of $24,600!!!!! Holy shit! Looking at the $450+25 they had 87 runners. With the $60k prize pool that's a $20,850 overlay. My god. I looked and saw that they had 77 registered for the event so far. The event is in 10 days. I wonder if that's why they ran the 10 seat guarantees. Who woulda thought the overlays would be that big.

I am going to try a couple $88 sats to get into the weekend 10 seat guarantee megas. Not having any money on Stars I called on Snarf and Zooks to transfer me $11 in turn for some Full Tilt cash. What do I do with the $22? Play a $20 SNG of course. Snuffy's money management. My book will be out soon.


I now have my $88 to get into the satellite. If I miss I probably can afford two more shots at it. Wish me luck.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Less Tilt, More Money

This weekend was a much better one. Fantasy Football 2-0. Weekly pick'em pool tied for first, tiebreak tonight. Bets with 'a guy' positive. Most importantly some nice cashish at the 25NL tables. Oh yea and both my son and I made it out of the weekend in one piece with mom in class all day saturday and sunday. No rescues from grandparents required, even though they did both come by.

Between Friday and Saturday on Full Tilt I was about to secure about 4 buyins playing 25NL. These buyins were of course tempered by the fact that I played The Donkament on Friday night, went off for about 8 or 9 double buyins, then proceeded to lose back to back races with AK vs 99 both times, 5 handed. Any one of these wins would have made me 2nd in chips. Really annoying. The 25NL is getting much better though and my feel for the game is definately improving. Most of the wins this weekend came from big hands that held up which is usually the case. However, I'm getting alot better at padding those wins by winning more medium sized pots with good bets and/or calls in the right spots. This is where I'm seeing improvement. Hopefully this trend can continue on the upward swing.

Finally the weeked ended with a little action at PokerStars. Since there was no PSTour, I let Zooks convince me to playa little PLHE at stars. Good plan. There's nothing like putting 45% of your bankroll on the table when you don't care. So I sat at the table with Zooks and the few maniacs that she pegged. Like I said this was a good choice, as about 10 mins in I get AA against one of the maniacs, turn a set, and get paid of by middle pair on the end. So nice. Won another nice pot with KK then sat on my hands for awhile. Finally right before I got up I picked up QQ and got 1010 AIPF and it held. All said and done walked off with 80 bucks from the table. Not too shabby. Now I actually have something that resembles a bankroll on Stars. Shit! This means I might have to care. I just with I could turn the 216 ticket I have into cash. I wanted to play the WCOOP with it but all the times are at 230 and 430 in the afternoon, just not conducive to my schedule. I'm sure I'll find something.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

OMGWTF!?! Split Pot?

I had to go back to look at the replay to figure out how on earth I got any part of this pot.  I just remember saying no more hearts when the flop came out monotone.  The turn pissed me off big time.  When the river hit I was oblivious to the fact that there was a straight flush on board and it was going to be a split pot.  D'oh.

I guess there's a reason they call it RiverStars.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Harrahs New Orleans Trip Report

At least I got one good thing out of this session. Taking a chance at a higher level made be realize it. The realization that I made is that when I'm playing 1/2 NL I think I am better than everyone else in the game. Thinking this makes me think I can play ATC and outplay people on later streets. As Zooks pointed out to me this is exactly how NOT to play a 1/2 game. Where you make a good portion of your money at that level is getting value out of your good hands and capitalizing on others mistakes. I can get away with it when I play at my local card room because I have logged a number of hours with the same people. Yesterday when I was losing 2 1/2 buy-ins in the 1/2 game I was thinking that I was king shit and just getting unlucky. Totally not the case. I was playing VERY badly. Just no other way around it. I can't even remember any key hands that I lost. Probably because i just want to forget it.

When I decided to sit with $500 in the 2/5 game (which was a must move table) I was a short stack. The average stack on the table was around $1300. I had to play cautious and pick my spots. I also knew that I was not used to playing this big lately and that most of the other people had more experience than me. I tightened up the starting hand range quite a bit. After folding for about the first hour I picked-up A,A from the BB. About 75% of the pots included a straddle and this one was the same. There was a pre-flop raise to $40 and one caller before I popped it to $140 and the cold caller was the only caller. Flop comes 10 high rainbow and I lead for $200. the other player folded and I took a decent pot. He said that he folded Q,Q. I tend to believe him in that spot since I was playing tight. I heard the other guy who raised it to $40 then folded say to the person next to him when i bet on the flop that I had A,A. I'm OK with that. I will take the pot down right there.

About one lap later I picked-up Q,Q. There was a raise to $40 after a few limpers and I raised from the cutoff to $125 and got 3 callers. Not what I wanted. Flop comes 9,4,4. Its checked to me and I lead for $200 again and only a short stack with $80 calls me. He has A,K and does not improve. That was about it for winning hands for me in the session. After that hand I was up to a little over $1100. I gave some back including limping UTG with J,J and seen a flop of 9,5,5. Checked around. Turn 5. SB leads for $15 and I;m the only caller. River 10 and SB leads again for $100. This should be an easy fold here but I called and saw the 5. When I was moved over to the main game I had around $850 or so. I stayed in the game for around 90 minutes an left with $870 on front of me. Not all the way back but a good 2/5 session none the less.

I saw two interesting hands at the table not involving myself. A regular sits in the must move game and has $1300. In the first lap he raises to $40 after a few limpers and gets one caller, who was another regular (with around $1k behind). It was apparent they both knew each other pretty good at the table. Flop comes Q,5,3. After a raising war breaks out both of them get $1000 in the middle. One has the set of Q's and the other the set of 5's. The case 5 hit the turn. You should have seen this guy go off. "How can you put that much money in there. You know I have it." I don't think anyone is getting away from middle set period.

The other good hand included a solid TAG and a SAG (sick asian gambler) who just sat at the table with $1000 covering the TAG by a little. TAG is in late position and raises it to $55 and the SAG is the only caller from the BB. Flop comes A,J,9. SAG checks and TAG bets $125 and SAG calls. Turn is a low card bringing a second club. SAG checks and TAG bets out around $500 and SAG calls. River is a 3rd club and SAG buts the TAG all-in. TAG calls and SAG shows Kc9c. So fucking sick. TAG had A,A and storms out the room knocking over a drink table and showering someone at the next table. Was kinda funny.

After calling it a night for poker I played some Pai Gow for about 3 hours on the same $100 and ended up winning $20 which covered the loss from video poker earlier in the night.

A little bit better

My last 3 sessions playing 50NL have not gone well. So there is good news/bad news there. Bad news is I'm making mistakes. I know it. The good news I think I know what most of them are. The more bad news is I've been running bad (lost with KK three times AIPF). Combo of these factors does not help the morale but I've been trying to push through.

It seems most of my mistakes is ill-timed agression. It seems that in the big pots, my agression is coming in the wrong spots. Either on the turn when it should have been on the flop or on the flop instead of pre. I don't know if I'm playing to passively when the pots get big or playing to antsy when they get big. Maybe a combination of both.

So the little bit better part. I sat at a 25NL table last night. Got about 200 hands in while watching Jamie 'the 45 year old wonder kid' Moyer attempt to save the Phillies season against the Brewers. At any rate, about 3 hands in I got my AA all in on the turn against QQ with an all under flop and it actually help. Pretty much stayed there. I was playing a little tighter then normal but that was mostly do to a dearth of carddeadness. Lost a hand with buttom set to a shortie who flopped OESD and FD. Blah blah. Towards the very end of the session was able to get a pretty good sized stack all in on the turn with bottom set against his top 2 and it actually held. This gave me a nice win. Closed out up a little more then 40 bucks. I think I'll be keeping my fishing pole here for awhile until I work my bugs out. See if I can maintain a little better win rate at this level then having the big swings at 50NL. Definately getting a better feel at the table, hopefully this translates live. In a weird way I think this is helping my MTT game by getting me more focussed when I play. But we'll see how that goes.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

50 Cent

Not sure who I pissed off in the blogger world but Full Tilt was the means of getting back at me last night. In the Mookie and Dookie I suffered four 3-outers and one 2-outer. Brutal to say the least. I ended up busting out of the Mookie with around two tables left with one bounty. In the Dookie I was a little more fortunate that the 3-outers hit after we had already reached the money and I was able to make an easy fold with K,K on an A,x,x flop. I was able to finish in 3rd for $17 giving me a total profit last night of $0.50. Woot!!!!!!!!!!!! $0.17 per hour, what an hourly rate!

I was never able to make it to the Belle of Baton Rouge this week. East Baton Rouge Parrish is still under a curfew so the casino shuts down at 8pm. Its amazing how much destruction Gustav did here. Downed trees everywhere, and this was a smaller storm. I am going to get to Harrahs in New Orleans tonight. Hopefully with Ike I will be able to get out tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I don't get it

Yeah I know, I hate bad beat posts too. But srsly, wtf? I watched the button raise in EVERY unraised pot to him. EVERY ONE. So I knew what I wanted to do with this hand when it was limped to me. Knew it. Just explain to me how you make that call for your whole stack. I just donngettit. It's always the unaccounted for idiot the fucks the whole thing up.

For our google readers. Shitty.

All others can watch the live trainwreck.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Peaking Early

This seems to be a trend. I can win on Friday, then the rest of the weekend goes down hill. I let Zooks talk me into a 3 dollar donkfest on Friday night along with some .25/.50 6 handed HORSE (who knew this even exisited). The HORSE ended up being down 2 bucks after being in the hole for almost 15 at one point, so this was a nice recovery. In the uber-donkament I was down to about 700 chips in the first 2 levels. Ready to be done, I started shoving. And doubled. And doubled. Finally I get to a respectable amount of chips and I actually had to care again. Cruised into the cash then finally busted when my 88 couldn't our race AK. Bleh, but a 16th place finish with 400+ of my closest friends wasn't too bad either.

However, on Saturday the wheels fell off, in more ways then one. On the poker front I lose just over a buyin playing 50NL. Lost with KK 3 times. Twice to undersets and the third when I guy was willing to put in 14 doallars preflop with the JackAce offsuit and spike his A on the flop. I realize there is nothing that I can do about this, money in way ahead blah blah, variance blah blah. I don't feel better. Then my cable/internet goes out for 3 hours after I had just paid for the college football package. Asshats. So I can't chase my losses and I can't watch Notre Dame (probably a good thing) or Penn State. Cocksuckers.

Sunday involved no poker. I should have been chipper and happy because the Eagles slaughtered the Rams and the Phils beat up on the Mets in the afternoon. However I was too pissed about the Lions and Texans screwing the pooch in my sports betting. Then my fantasy team getting ass raped by Michael Turner. Then my survival pool pick of the Charges get fuckered on the last play of the game. Then the Phillies not even showing up for the second game of the double header. Tilt was full on monkey-uber-ultra levels by this point. And the last fucking thing I wanted to do was play PokerSlut rebuy assclownery. At least the Grand Poomba of Football lorded of the Patriots and in the biggest ironic twist ever, in the first game in 5 years that Tom Brady was not listed on the injury report, he gets shelved for the season. Hold on a sec while I feel bad for Bo....ok that's done. Didn't yo mamma always tell you that cheaters never win??

A Much Better Sunday

After getting my balls kicked repeatedly online (and live) over the last couple of days I was going to take it easy on Sunday. I was waiting for the football games to kickoff and had the laptop ready to follow my 3 money leagues that I am in. TOH left about an hour before kickoff with Reece and I decided to see what was happening online.

I started up Full Tilt and registered for an $8.70 Tier 1. I was down to around 1200 when I picked up Q,J off in the 40/80 level and called from the button. Four ways to the flop of J,6,J. Its checked to me and I bet out 320. I get check min-raised and I shoved. My opponent couldn't fold A,A (well played) and I got the double. On the very next hand I get 98hh from the cutoff and limp. Five ways and the flop comes 6,5,2hh. The SB bets 60% pot (240) and its folded to me and I shove. My opponent calls off the last 1200 of their stack with A5cc. Of course I miss my 18 outer twice and I'm down to 900. A few hands later I won a race when A,Q beat 9,9 and I was able to get the token.

During that tourney they were about to run a $75 turbo sat into the $216 buy-in $750k guarantee tourney. I registered. There were 81 runners for 25 seats and 26th got nearly $190. Early on I picked-up a lot of playable hands (A,Q x2, 8,8, A,K). On the 8,8 hand I raised to 120 and got a lone caller from the SB. Flop comes 9,5,5 and I call a nearly pot sized bet. The turn was an A and I folded to a sizable bet and was left with around 1150. I tightened up and finally picked-up Q,Q and made a standard 3.5x raise. A late position player who had me covered shoves and I called. I was racing against A,K and the board bricked giving me the double. Not long after that a short stack of around 800 shoved into my BB when I had A,A and I was up to around 3200 in chips. I won the blinds a couple times when a key hand happens.

I am in the BB with 3700 and am sitting 9th/45. A stack of 1200 is in the SB. With blinds at 60/120 its folded to the SB who shoves. I have 10,10. Here is where I need opinions. I have asked two people already and they both said call. I did call and was up against K,4. Flop comes with a K and I lose the pot and am knocked down to 2500. I was blinded all the way down to 1206 in chips and was 27/30 with blinds of 200/400 when its folded to me on the button with K9hh. I shoved and the SB big stack called. He had A,K. I crushed him though on a flop of K,Q,9. I faded the A and the Q on the turn and river and got the double I needed. I was able to fold into the seat shortly after that.

One interesting thing happened on the bubble on my table. The two shortest stacks in the tourney had 1.5 and 1 BB (not at our table). Its folded to the SB who shoves for 4500 (9bb's) and the BB who has him covered by all of 200 chips calls. Sb shows J,10ss and the BB shows 5,5. The flop coems with a 5 and its over. I'm not sure which is the worse play here. Shoving or calling. Calling has to be. the only thing I can imagine they are thinking is they wanted the cash and not the T$. The only flaw with that logic though is that you can convert the t$ at 90% and you would have had more than what 26th got in cash. I guess that's way satellites are so good. People just don't get it.

I'm at the airport right now on my way to New Orleans. While waiting I wanted to see how the Slut Tour went last night. FT is blocked on the free internet here so I tries Official Poker Rankings and ThePokerDB and got this:


Fuck you "free" internet. Have to hook the Blackberry up and tether it to see. I should be playing some live this week at Harrah's and at the Belle of Baton Rouge.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Hard Rock Report

My trip to the Hard Rock room on Friday ended the same way most of my trips end there, which is with a significant loss. Everything started out good though. On the third hand I was in the BB. There was one limper and someone in MP raised to $20. The button called, SB called, I called with the 10,10 and the limper called. $100 into the pot with a flop of Q,10,xdd. With 5 people in and the FD out there I lead for $45 leaving me $35 behind and only the SB called. The turn was a 10. SB checked and I checked behind. River was an off-suit J. SB checked and I shoved for my last $35 and the SB called with A,J. What? After that hand I was up to $235 in front of me.

I proceeded to not win a hand for the next 2 hours. I was knocked down all the way down to $51 when I was able to get a double-up with A,K all in pre vs A,9. After that and I didn't win another one the rest of the session. I lost that $100 and then peeled another $100 and lost it all-in on a straight draw and drawing dead vs a turned flush in a $200+ pot. A total loss on the day of $200 for me. Most of my losses on the day were top 2 vs a flush and top pair on a paired board losing with the K kicker to the ace. Not a good day.

On Friday and Saturday I got in a ton of poker online. I lost a step 3 and a step 2 for the APPT. After that I ran a WCOOP step 1 all the way to a step 3 and lost it there as well. I donked off a little in 2-7 NL and am now down to $3 on stars. Time to reload.

So far Sunday is going pretty damn good though. I will post up on that in the morning.

On a side note please visit our new sponsor over there on the right.

Friday, September 5, 2008

I'm not all dead, just mostly dead

No really I still exist I promise. To some this may be a disappoint but so be it, Miracle Max gave me the pill and I feel more gooder now. Let's see, in the past two weeks I've played exactly 1 SNG until last night. I won that SNG. That makes my win rate over the past 2 weeks about 450%, not too shabby. After a few weeks off I finally feel like getting back on the horse again. In the end I think playing too many MTT's is really what killed my desire to play. Between trying to play PokerSluts, CHIMPS, random Blogger event during the week, and some FTOPS sats it really just burned me out. I wasn't playing my best, I was losing focus, and not seeing results which all kind of fed off each other. Now here I sit, so what of it.

Well since I was on vacay at the beautiful syringe free (almost) Jersey Shore I was able to get a night of 1/2 action in at the Trop in AC. Sat with 200, and I feel like I played pretty well. Definfately played smarter preflop then I had been, was able to dodge some dicey situations, and made a few good value bets on the end that I had been missing. However, I ended up down 10 bucks on the evening. One tough hand that I really don't fault the guy for the way he played it and another where I didn't want to listen to the bets in front of me. In the first early limper and I have AQ (at about 210 at this point), I pop to 12, button (about 375 in front) and SB (maybe 150 in front) call, then the limper goes all in for 31. There's definately an argument to be made for reraising here, but I didn't really want to risk my stack on an overcall by the bigger stack behind me so I just called. I'm sure there is an argument to folding here as well but it just wasn't that much more into the pot. At any rate, flop comes Ad5x7d, I have the Qd. SB checks so I bet 50 to try and get some info, maybe even build a side pot from a smaller ace, well they both fold. Turn is a 9d, and the river 8x. I table the AQ and he rivered me with 88. I didn't see if he had the 8d and this was a one outer or a two outer but I guess that point is moot. The other hand wasn't as interesting as I just couldn't let middle pair go when I should have known I was beat. Stubborness on my part.

Last night I knew I was running good when the inconsolable child actually fell asleep for me and not mom and actually stayed in sed state of sleep. What better way to celebrate then a little 50NL on FTP. Had a small win. Fairly tight table but I was able to take advantage of a few peeps. I think this is where I will be focusing most of my efforts at this point. My NLHE cash game isn't what it should be and I need to make it better if I want to show more profit. It's getting there, but still needs work. I'm sacrificing too much money online and live to not be better at this game then I am. I'm also cutting down on the MTT's. Trying to do PokerSluts, CHIMPS and blogger events is too much for me in a week. Haven't yet figured out how to do this, but I'll think of something.

That being said I started rereading my Harrington books. They've been sitting on the shelf for too long and my brain needs a refresher. I'm also very interested in the two books Hoy has mentioned and is writing about, The Poker Tournament Formual I and II. I want to read these but finding the time and discipline to do it will be tough, but my interest is very peaked. I'm sure a comment or two here will be forthcoming. Finally I need to register for a WCOOP event over at stars. I have a 216 ticket sitting there and I want to put that bad boy to good use for the instant bankroll. There are a few events that peaking the interest level, so we'll see where that ends up.

Finally, my apologies to BamBam for not leaving a comment earlier on his blog. Been reading along and even with my more pleasant distractions over here should not have precluded me from doing so. I hope all is well and everything comes out smelling like aces when all is said and done.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Been a Bit

Has it been a week already since I posted anything? As you can guess I really haven't played that much. Since then I had one live session at the track. I played about two hours with nothing really exciting happening. I ended up leaving when I was up $5. I just didn't feel like playing that day. Now it has been a week and I want to play again. I am planning on taking part of Friday off and going to the Hard Rock. Not sure what I'm gonna play as of yet.

Online in the last week has been pretty blah. I have slowly bled down on Full Tilt and am close to dropping below $100. I played the Mookie last night. I was as high as 4500 in chips but busted out shortly after the break with around 3 tables left. The 2-7 on Poker Stars has been going good. I have taken some of those profits and have been back to playing some step tournaments.

In the steps I won an EPT Step 2 ticket and then busted out of that one the same night. I have played 2-3 Step 1's for the WCOOP with nothing to show for it. I have played 3 APPT Step 1's and was able to win a Step 2. ticket. I used it a couple of nights ago and was able to advance to Step 3. I'm gonna try and shoot for the Manila stop in mid-November. It has the smallest buy-in meaning that for the Step 6 the top 3 of 9 will win a seat. I don't have any burning desire to go there but if I could get there for free, why the hell not.

I am motivated to try and get silver star on Poker Stars this week. With playing the step tournaments I think I have a reasonable shot at doing it. 1500 points is a lot, but I'm going to try. As long as I can combine the 2-7 cash games along with the Steps I think I have a good chance at it. I think whatever I win (if I win) tomorrow at the Hard Rock I am going to put online to bolster the balance a bit so I have a better chance. We shall see.

That's about all I have for now. Hopefully I will have some information on the Corporation Poker Series to get out within 2-3 weeks. I am going to probably shoot for October to start it up again.