Riverchasers Wrap

It was good to get the first cash and the first final table of the BBT4 out of the way for me. Now I just need to string a few of these in a row starting with the Mookie Wednesday night.

the first hour was pretty much meh for me. Absolutely zero interesting hands and I had a stack of 3300 at the first break. Starting in hour two it was moving time.

At 60/120 Astin who had around 7k to start opened for the 17 millionth time on the night and I was the only called from the BB with 88. Flop comes AK8dd and I check to Astin who bets a touch over 1/2 pot to 480 and I put in a raise to 1250. He tanks for a bit and folds and I'm up to 4400 after the hand.

Not much else happens till we drop down to 2 tables. It helps a ton when you know how other people at the table play as the next two hands show.

Acumen53 gets moved to my table. I have seen him plenty and know that he is willing to bet air if pretty often if he senses weakness.

120/240 and it folds to me in the SB (5k stack) with AJ. Looking to get in a limp re-raise vs acumen (5k stack) but he does not oblige and checks his option. Flop comes 1095cc. I check and acumen checks back. Turn is another 10 and I throw out a 325 bet trying to rep the 9 or the 5 but he calls. River pairs the 9 and brings the crubs in. I check and here is where it gets interesting. Lee bets out 950 into the 1300ish pot and its back to me. I hit the time bank and replay the betting patterns in the hand. He doesn't raise pre so I don't put him with an ace in this spot. He calls my smallish turn bet. This could be a 9 or a 5 or possibly the flush draw. When I check to him on the river his bet size seems way too much like a bluff. He is not going to jam that much in there with the flush for fear of the boat. I think any legitimate hand he has is going to put at most a 1/2 sized pot bet. Seemed too much like air and I called. He had the K,6 and I scooped a nice pot.

The very next hand we move to 150/300 and I raise with AQ from the button to 800 and Lee ships from the SB for a total of 3700. This is where knowing how he plays comes in as well. I have seen him ship light in this spot a lot. Any pair, most aces and any 2 paint is in his range. I call and see 77. I win the flip and just like that I get to an 11k stack.

Headed to the final table I chipped down a bit and the stacks were as follows:

Seat 1: Mike_Maloney (14,160)
Seat 2: Astin (6,858)
Seat 3: ChampSampson (9,899)
Seat 4: heffmike (7,537)
Seat 5: nzgreen (18,739)
Seat 6: tgrazz (2,351)
Seat 7: BorgataGirl (9,220)
Seat 8: TheCloserX5 (4,465)
Seat 9: scottc25 (9,580)

We played around 50 hands at the final table with every short stack getting at least one double when my final hand happens"

ull Tilt Poker Game #11427730177: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament (84928736), Table 8 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:48:03 ET - 2009/03/31
Seat 1: BuddyDank (19,012)
Seat 2: OMGitsPokerFool (35,152)
Seat 3: Joanne1111 (26,500)
Seat 4: heffmike (23,919)
Seat 5: Schaubs (7,379)
Seat 6: scottc25 (18,755)
Seat 7: Astin (24,458)
Seat 8: 1Queens Up1 (10,073)
Seat 9: ChampSampson (17,752)
BuddyDank antes 125
OMGitsPokerFool antes 125
Joanne1111 antes 125
heffmike antes 125
Schaubs antes 125
scottc25 antes 125
Astin antes 125
1Queens Up1 antes 125
ChampSampson antes 125
BuddyDank posts the small blind of 500
OMGitsPokerFool posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottc25 [7h 7s]
Joanne1111 folds
heffmike folds
Schaubs folds
scottc25 raises to 3,000
iaatg6296 (Observer): who will dedicate their win to me :)
Astin calls 3,000
1Queens Up1 folds
ChampSampson folds
BuddyDank folds
OMGitsPokerFool folds
*** FLOP *** [3h 3d Jc]
scottc25 checks
Astin has 15 seconds left to act
iaatg6296 (Observer): no one woot :)
Astin bets 8,625
scottc25 raises to 15,630, and is all in
Astin calls 7,005
scottc25 shows [7h 7s]
Astin shows [8c 8d]
Joanne1111: lol
*** TURN *** [3h 3d Jc] [Ac]
*** RIVER *** [3h 3d Jc Ac] [Qs]
scottc25 shows two pair, Sevens and Threes
Astin shows two pair, Eights and Threes
Astin wins the pot (39,885) with two pair, Eights and Threes
1Queens Up1: gg
scottc25 stands up

Kind of a cooler of a flop with those two hands. I went with what I thought was right and I turned out to be wrong. I am going for a win in this spot 100%. Points for the month mean nothing to me.

One thing I did notice is that 1Queens Up1 and Heffmike were definitely playing tight over the last couple of tables trying to move-up and earn a few extra points. That allowed me to steal a bit more than I normally would and helped me accumulate a few extra chips.

No lie this time. I am NOT playing Stud tonight. Playing deep stacked Stud with blogger might put me on tilt for the month of April. PASS. going to play BoatDrinks and Corporation heads-up instead tonight.

OK I Lied

Yesterday around dinner time I was bored and decided to take $13.75 of my $15 roll at Full Tilt and play a heads-up SNG for a token. Bankroll management at its best. I ended up winning it and registered for Riverchasers. Fast forward a few hours I made it to the final table but no further. I was bounced in 9th for $51 and change. I should have a proper write-up later today. There were a couple interesting hands I played.

Not Much Poker

Not too much poker to talk about but a ton of little things to get out there. The BBT4 continues to be a titanic for me. I played the Brit Blogger yesterday and got my chips to around 2500 in the first hour before I slipped. at 50/100 I raised to 300 UTG with KQ and next to act shoved for around 1k total. Knowing if I open that hand there I had to call a shove from one of the two short stacks I did and lost the flip vs 1010. The very next hand I call a raise with AQ and have to pitch it on the flop. Just like that down to 1k. I didn't get a chance to ship before the break and was the uber short stack coming out. I shoved once with a suited ace and won the blinds. Same lap I shoved A6 sooted over the chip leaders open and didn't catch up vs his A9 and out I went in the middle of the pack. I am going to hang it up for the rest of March and start up again Wednesday with the Mookie. New month, new hope.

On a slightly better note I have final tabled all four Pokerslut events I have played this season. Granted the best showing I have is 5th and no cashes in 20-25 player fields but its a start. Last night was LHE. I had a stack of 5k at the break. Think the deck was hitting me in the face? It also helped that supercon and a random Brazilian were at my opening table. The Brazilian was having a hard time finding the fold button.

I really need to get more MTT play in over the next couple of weeks before the Australia trip. I need to get into the NLHE mindset again. Nothing online is gonna compare to the structure there but I just need to play some more hands. Can't believe that's just a tick over 3 weeks away already. I am going to try my absolute best to find my way into business class for that monster of a 16 hour flight, be it through miles or bribes.

Nz sent me an IM last night requesting a rail. That's the only way he can make hands is if I am on the rail he says. I think we all benefit from a friendly rail. Not sure if we just don't do stupid shit or what. Just seems to work.

Donkavatar

I have one now:










Obvious choice.

Isolation

What do you do when you are trying to isolate a short stacker and another idiot comes along for the ride?



I see a lot of these short stacking players that will stick it in with just about any Ax or any pair and this SB player was definitely playing this way.  I just couldn't shake off the button.  So you tell me, WTF was he thinking?

Frustration

That doesn't even involve bad beats or setups. I was fully intending to play the Mookie last night. I was on vacay until Tuesday afternoon flight got in, so I knew I would miss The Brit and Riverfuckers. I planned to play the Skillz and the Mookie this week. An excellent plan if I do say so myself. I played the Skillz, and luckily, got most of big hands later when people started playing a game that resembled poker and made a run to the FT. Went out one after the money paid, getting involved in a SB/BB confrontation that cost me. So about 1230ish I crawl into bed, trying to fall asleep, til about 1AM when the evil monkey that lives inside my child decides to come out. The wife goes on baby tilt (deservingly so) and I hit 'I just wanna sleep tilt' about 3AM. I finally rock the evil monkey out of him about 330 and fall asleep somewhere around 4. Wife's alarm hits at 530, mine at 620 and I have a splitting headache, feel like vomiting, and my throat's on fire, welcome home asshole. So, I stayed home from work, got some sleep, felt like shit, and was ready for bed by 900 last night, evil monkey comes back at 915 and stays with us until 1030. So I miss both the AIPS freeroll and the Mookie, not that I had any intention of playing either at this point.

Now it's Thursday, I feel mostly human and got some sleep last night. I'm ready to play....guess I'll need to wait. Playing every event each week is really difficult for me but I've been trying to make 2 a week. Now I find myself in the Top 20 on the leaderboard, sans Al's update since Monday, and would like to give myself the best chance of moving up. Missing Riverfuckers hurts each week because that has the most points with the bigger buyin. If the evil monkey can be exorcised by this weekend, I will try to go 4-4. At this point I have 4 points finishes, a win and 3 FT's, and feel like I am running well and playing well. Getting the top spot of March is unrealistic at this point, but finishing the series in the top 20 isn't, top 10 would be nicer though. Looks like I may have to sacrifice some sleep between now and June....or move to the west coast.

Rigged

I started this tournament before lunchtime today.  A deepstack, slow MTT on Poker Stars. 

I managed to chip up nicely then ran cold for a while but managed to tread water. 

Then we started to get a rash of AA v KK on my table.  This hand came up 4 times in less than 2 rounds.  I had even told a friend on AIM that I didn't want to get AA because it was due to lose since it had won the first 3 matchups.







Those first two happened within 3 hands of each other.

That's when this hand came up.



I was about 96/250ish when this happened.  Money at 180, of course.  Rigged.  SFO.

Absolute Poker and BBT Comments

A little while back nzgreen said that he was going to deposit a little bit of money on UB/Absolute to try their 10 steps to the WSOP. If you are one of the first few to start from step 1 and make it all the way to a Main Event Seat you also win an Aruba package. Although I hate the site for what they did to people I decided to drop $50 in and give it a go.

I started off at step 1 ($0.10+0.01) and played a total of 10 of them. I ended up winning 6 step 2 tickets. I played those and won 3 step 3 tickets. I flamed out at step 3 and had to decide what to do. I said screw it and bought in directly to the step 3's ($1+0.10). So far I have accumulated 2 step 4's (playing one right now actually). So far I have $6.60 invested. We shall see how far I can get.

One thing I really want to talk about is their bad beat jackpot. As of right now its at $667k. You need quad 8's or better beaten at one of their BBJ tables. Here is the kicker to all of it when. When I was looking into what a qualifying hand was I saw this:









You read that right. THEY FUCKING TAKE 10% OF THE BAD BEAT JACKPOT IN RAKE. What the fuck is that all about. Since they can no longer rip you off behind your back (or so you think) the rape you in broad daylight. This is just fucking terrible. People see the huge six figure BBJ and probably don't bother to look at the fine print. A quick search on 2+2 did not return any results so I posted something.

BBT4

Epic fail on my part so far. I have only earned points in one event. I did finish on THE points bubble for the Brit Blogger Game Sunday. Go me. I am going to scale back my play the rest of the way. No more Monday $26 events until May.

I was reading Smokkee's profile on Mookie's site today and saw the question he posed to the next winner:

Q: If you win your seat in the BBT4 TOC will you play the 2009 WSOP Main Event or will you take the money and run?

This would be such a tough question for me. Good thing I probably won't even make the TOC this year to have that problem, let alone winning it. If I did make it and win I'm not sure. I could really use that money to pay down some debt. I also would feel compelled to play because if I don't what is the incentive for FT to keep putting up seats if nobody is going to play them.

Tough call.

Math is Idiotic

Barry Greenstein did it again.

First is was "LOL Donkaments". 

This time is was "Math is Idiotic". 

He couldn't have timed it better.  I won't spoil it for you, but you really REALLY need to watch this week's episode of High Stakes Poker. 



We all know Barry donates a lot to charity but I think, as poker players, we need to spread the wealth as well.  If you think giving 2¢ to Daniel Negreanu buys you a lot of good poker karma just think what donating to the "Math is Idiotic" fund will do for you.

Don't think about it.  Just do it.  Do it now.  You know you want to. 

Enjoy the afterglow.  You've earned it.

I Did It! I Did It!

12 blogger events later I finally have my first points finish. Granted it was only a 19th place finish in the Mookie last night. Baby steps.

Anything that involves a Horse....

Can't end well. Or at least that's my theory. Three things prove my theorem: 1) this picture 2) that video from college 3) last night's BBT event. Played well enough in the Skillz HORSE last night. Got lucky early when my JJ river setted against 88 and a flopped set. Got unlucky when I could improve in razz against a shorty and lost half my stack. Then got lucky when I 3 bet 245 against the same player with an 8 showing and they went 4 bets on 3rd. Later in stud go the resuck against trip dueces when he boated on 6th and boated on 7th, we both had trips on 4th, capped on 5th. I knew I was behind when his board paired on 6th but there was nothing I could do, I'm probably calling a river bet there even if I don't pair cause the pot is enourmous. Despite having a top 4 stack, I think I had 8 big bets when we hit the third iteration of stud8. That's the way things go. Demise was set when 6 handed 1K/2K Hold'em I got 88, raised, got 2 calls + the BB. Flop came 9 high rags, BB shorty bets, I raise and get smooth called behind. I should not have put another dime in after that. Check called a bet on the turn and folded river, just assanine there. Villian flipped over a flopped set of 4's and BB had a pair of 6's or 7's I forget which. Eventually went out 2 off the FT, some nice points and 4 bounties I think on the night. Not a bad night, was hoping for a FT and a decent cash but it was not meant to be. See ya tonight at the Moooooooooookie, all the way with an A and a J!

Brit Blogger Follow Up

As promised, I would have done this earlier but forgot my HH at home, so I was not able to use company time to blog my recap. To be honest I needed them to figure out what the hell happened. I was playing this thing through child watching and dinner (thanks to MrsSnarf for not immediately divorcing me for playing poker through Sunday dinner), so to the tournament just kinda flew by and before I knew it we were at the money bubble. In fact this post maybe longer then the actual tournament, but why do you care, you're at work.

Since this was a single stack things moved pretty quickly early. I tried to play fairly tight early and steal when I could just to stay afloat. In fact I don't even no if I had a showdown in the first hour, maybe 1 or 2. First big hand came when I was Danked by Buddy. I raised with QQ and he shoved the rest of his shortish stack in with AQ and spiked an ace on the flop. This actually put me in a pretty bad spot, a few hands later with blinds at 50/100, UTG limps and there are folds to me OTB with KJos, figured this was a good spot to ship and did for 900. UTG calls with A7dd, I get lucky and flop a jack to get back to a workable chip stack. I was able to pick up some hands from there to the end of the break with a couple of raise and folds, then got a nice reraise in preflop with QQ got a call and took it down on the flop. Cruised into the break with about 3000, maybe a little above half the field.

Second hour pretty much went the same way, just playing snug and waiting. Picked up AA UTG and contemplated limping, but ultimately decided to raise 3x, 1010 behind me shoved and my rockets hold up to get me up to around 4500. The hand that really got things going came a little later. With blinds at 100/200, there were folds to me in the SB with KQ, I raise 3x and the BB just calls. Flop came a lovely KQ3 rainbow. I bet 800 into the pot of 1200, and get minraised back. I basically put him on a king at that point and decided to just call. The river is another offsuit 4 and I check with about 2400 behind, the BB bets 1600 into the pot and I push the rest in. He calls and shows AA, not what I was expecting at all. The river did not pair the board and I got myself up to 9K in chips. Shortly there after we reached the most agonizing money bubble that I've seen in a online tourny in a while. It wasn't even like there was a big money to be won, everything had just gone so fast to that point that everyone had a decent stack given the blinds. During this point of the tourny RecessRampage routinely pillaged my blinds while I had absolute ka-ka. Eight high, seven high, it was awesome. Finally after the money bubble broke, I picked up AJ in the BB and insta-called his 43rd shove from the button, it held versus his Q5, and I got up to about 14K.

Once at the FT, I was pretty quiet. Really didn't get much in the way of hands and wasn't trying to take on too much risk with a healthy stack and a coupla big stacks to my left. Things seem to go pretty quick down to 4, I can't say a remember much, but I know by the time we got there I was down to 4/4 with about 13K in chips. Just kind of treading water to get there. Once down to 3 handed I whittled all the way down to 9K, blinds at 1k/2k, before stealing some blinds then getting a double through Mookie with my A10 vs his Q10. This was really the story of the night, the times I needed to get my money in, I got it in with the best of it AND it held. Most importantly. Other then the KJ hand early, I don't remember getting it in behind. At this point I really thought if I got to HU I had a chance despite LexLuther's big chip lead.

Lex evetually takes out Mookie and at the start of HU I am outchipped 72K to 19K. I get uber lucky early and pick up KK just after I folded AJ to a 3 bet. Snuffy thinks I'm insane, but at that point I didn't feel like I need a race. Stupid maybe but I was confident I could find a better spot. My KK holds against his AJ and now I have a fighting stack. Unfortunately I go through a derth of crap hands and picking some bad spots. The bleed is slow, but effective and at this point I really started to feel like the match was slipping away. After making a bad play with AJ and just calling a 3 bet, I am left with only 23K or so in my stack. After trading chips for about the next 20 hands or so, the blinds are 800/1600 and he makes a raise to 5200, I reraise with the JackAce to 13K leaving me only about 13K behind. I honestly thought he would fold here, but he shipped, I cursed, and called. He tabled A9 and my hand holds. Just like that the matchswung to my favor, 52K to 38K. I balked up the lead when I raised 66 preflop, bet out and got reraised all in on a 10 high flop with two clubs. Now the chips are reversed of what they just were, 52 to 38. Shortly there after comes the crippling hand. I just called the 800 to complete with K7 OTB, he checks behind. The flop comes Ks6d7s. He bets out 3600, I decide at this point with a coupla spades to go for the minraise. He obliges by pushing all in and I call, he has K10, no spades and I hold. Now I am up 74K to 18K. At this point I just applied the pressure with any hand I was willing to go to bat with and eventually, got him all in with my KQ vs his Q5, and taking it down.

So there you have it. I played mostly nitty, got hands when I needed them and then didn't lose when I was a favorite. Really easy :) My luck this time around didn't come from uber suckouts, just getting the right cards at the right time. I will say had Lex played a more aggressive laggy game HU I would have had to majorly change gears and take more chances. Fortunatlely for me we had similar styles which allowed me to play the way I was most comfortable with. Lex I don't have your blog, leave a comment so I can link you. Won't be able to make tonight, but expect to play Skillz and Mookie this week. Thanks for all the congrats from the rail at the end.

Winner Winner

Write up tomorrow. Scouts honor.

Two Live Poker Recaps

On Thursday night deadmoney5 and myself went up to Running Aces Harness Park in the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities. They had a $80 Omaha 8 or better limit tourney. They had a total of 31 runners. With 5k in chips to start and beginning blinds of 25/50 and 30 minute levels. I have to say that this was the worst play I have ever seen in any tournament that I have ever played in. The only thing that comes remotely close was the old cheap buy-in tourneys at Luxor back when the first hour was limit and it switched to no limit after that.

How bad was it? Here were tow hands in particular that I saw. In the first three levels one older dude at the table folded twice pre-flop. TWICE!!! That's it. I saw him call down on a paired 9 high coordinated board with a three flush out with AAJJ. When he said all he had was aces and jacks it was apparent he had no idea how to play. One other winner was the guy to my left who plays AQQQ single suited UTG. When the flop came a low coordinated board he called a bet from one of the blinds and then decided to fold once it was two bet. How bad is this?

As for my game I played pretty snug. I slowly chipped-up and had around 7k at the first break. In the next couple of levels is when I started accumulating chips. I had the nut flush draw on one hand that got there on the turn. There was a low possible and a raising war broke out. The turn and river was capped as two idiots both had the nut low. The blinds were getting up there and I actually got all-in on that hand and won a around 9k for my half.

As the idiots started busting fast and furious I was slowly gaining more chips. Probably should have won more. When we were down to two short handed tables I played one big pot where I had the nut low on the turn and hit the wheel on the river for a nice scoop. When we reached the 9-handed final table I had around 20k in chips with the blinds at 1k/2k.

Paying only 5 spots I was an average stack at the table. Still 9-handed I was crippled when I played A3610 from the button (I know, not great). Flop comes 887. The SB leads out and I call. Turn is the 9 and I call another bet. River bricks out and I make a crying call with the straight and he shows 87 for the scoop. After that hand I had 4 big bets left. A couple hands later I played JJ98 single suited (I know, not great again). Flop comes 109x. All of my chips went in on the brick turn and I didn't improve and busted out in 9th.

If I lived up here I would play that tourney or any other Omaha tourney they offer every single time. About 2/3 of the field is drawing dead before it starts. So +EV.



On Friday night I headed down to Canterbury Park to play some limit poker. When I got there around 8:30 there was open seating at 3/6 LHE and a healthy waiting list for the 6/12 Stud8 game. I put my name on the Stud8 list and took a seat in the 3/6 game. I bought in for my standard $120 in the game. In the first lap around the table I won three hands that all went to showdown. As I would figure out fairly quickly the table was pretty loose passive.

All told in the first hour I won 6 pots. Every hands that went to showdown I won. After an hour I had almost 300 in front of me. Not bad for a 3/6 game. The next 2 hours of so I bled down to around 200 and stayed at that number for another 3 hours after that. As the night went on the game started getting filled with even more lose passive players along with one SAG. Funny thing the SAG didn't start out that way but near the end he went bananas.

Two big hands back to back against the SAG. I have 77 and call his raise along with 3 others. Flop comes J73. I check call along with everyone else. I get a check raise in on the turn and get one to tag along. I lead the river and get the SAG to call who had top top. Decent sized pot. Very next hand as I am still stacking my chips I raise with KK and get 3 callers along with SAG. Flop comes K96. I check and SAG last to act puts in a bet. Both players call and I peel. Turn J. Two checks and I check. SAG bets, one call and I put in the raise. SAG 3bets other player gives up and I flat knowing I can get in the check raise on the river. River bricks and I check. He bets and I 2bet. He three bets and now I have to think if I can raise here. I do it and he raises back. Now I'm worried about the straight but that doesn't make too much sense if he bets the flop. I just call and he shows KQ lololol.

Those two hands pumped the stack nicely. I won a few smallish pots after that and the table eventually breaks after around 7 hours of play. I had 8 stack 40 high and some more on top of that. Needed 4 racks to cash out and had $350 when it ended for a $230 profit. I have to think that may be one of by better LHE sessions ever. Hard to tell cause I play it so rarely any more. I'm considering going out there tonight but will have to play it by ear.

Another 0-Fer

Yet another whiff in week 2 of the BBT. Four events and four more strikeouts. This is starting to get embarrassing.

Early on in the Sunday Brit Blogger game I flopped top top with AK into a set and lost half my stack. Shortly after that I flopped a flush vs the same opponent who flopped a set. Luckily my hand held and I was back to even. I blinded down to around 10bbs and at the 60/120 level I lost a flip and was out.

Monday in Riverchasers I lasted a total of 2 hands. I was on the button with KK and the cutoff opened to 90. I 3bet to 250 and the BB raised to 800. Cutoff folds and I 5bet ship my 3k and get called by AA. Done. I just don't think that I can fold KK in that spot. Cutoff opens light and my 3bet from the button certainly doesn't mean strength. The 4bet from the BB could be a steal attempt. I think i am seeing AK and QQ there a lot more than the only hand that can beat me. Gigli for me.

Tuesday night Blogger Skills was a fun one, PLO. In the first hour I got in a massive pot 3-ways:





















All of the money went in on the flop. I ran the numbers and here were the odds after the flop:
















Pretty standard I guess. After knocking out two people I was able to do pretty much nothing the rest of the way. I ended up bouncing out in 25th which I believe was 5 spots short of the points. At least I am trending up, right?

The Mookie has always been an event that I have never performed well in. My deepest run was the final two tables once. Never a single cash. Granted I haven't played bu about a dozen of them in my life but that is still pretty pathetic. This one would prove to be no exception.

Early on cardgrrl was my personal ATM. One of the first hands I played was 98ss and limped. Cardgrrl raised from one of the blinds to 4x and I called. Flop comes J104ss. Nice flop. I check call a 3/4 pot sized bet. Turn is the Q. I check, cardgrrl pots it and I put in a healthy raise. She insta calls and we see a Q river. Ugh. That's about the worst card that I can see. It is certainly possible that she has the boat. AK is also in her range. She donk bets 1k of her 1300 stack or so. I just call and she has AQ and I am up to 6k. Later on in the first hour I flop a set against her and let her do the value betting for me. After that hand I have 10k and she is down to around 1200. As it turns out I should have put her all-in on the first hand as she ended up finishing 2nd. I wanna know how that happened.

Early in the second hour playing 80/160 I limp UTG with A10dd. Not the greatest play by any means. A MP player raises to 540 and I am the only caller. I am looking for diamonds only cause if I hit just the A or 10 I am perfectly willing to dump the hand. Flop come JXXdd. Good flop. I check and MP leads for 800. I put in a check-raise to 2200 and MP ships. Looking at the math if I only have the flush outs I am getting the exact odds that I need. When you add in the A as another 3 outs its a coin flip and an easy call. If I fold I still have around 6k and plenty of time to play. I put him on two specific hands after the shove KK or QQ. I discounted AA as I had one in my hand and JJ doesn't make sense to ship that much in. I opted for the call because I think an 18k stack at that point just looks too good to me. 2nd place at that time had 10k. The board bricked out on me and I ended up 61st.

I will defend that play and I think I repeatedly make that play every day. Anyone else beg to differ at all. All comments welcome.

After the Sydney seat the online game has gone in the shitter. Doomswitch activated.

This weekend some time I will have to post about the live O8 tourney I played at the harness track up here in Minnesota. If you live around here you HAVE to play it whenever its offered. By far the worst play I have ever seen in my life. Even worse than the AIPS PLO. More on that later.

A Week and a Half in the BBT and.....yawn

My play that is, not the BBT itself. Things started nice enough with a cash in the Big Game, but since then radio silence. Truth be told I knew I was not going to be able to play every event each week. My goal is to play at least 2 a week. Keeping in mind I'm not playing every event, it is still disappointing to not have sniffed the points since the opener.

Last night I yo-yo'ed a little in PLO, which I guess is to be expected. Took a shot early after the break to grab some chips, got there in the end with a kinda waek starter, then crashed with double suited aces. TBA raises from UTG, one call, I repot with A9ccA3dd, TBA just calls, other player folds. Flop come K94hhh. TBA open shoves all in. Sweet. Three possibles there and none of them really good, 1) he has a flush 2) He has a set of kings 3) he has #2 with the ace of hearts or just the ace of hearts and knows I don't have it. At any rate, I can't call. Later my top pair, fd and gutter was no match for the naked OESD on the flop.

Will play Mookie tonight and hopefully things go better. I just keep telling my self, go all the way with an A and a J.....get your money in behind.....this is the Mookie dammit!

At Least Live Poker Isn't Rigged, Sorta

Got a chance to get to the track and play some 1/2 NL. First time since December. In the first lap around the table I call a raise to $6 with 44 from the button. Flop 7,6,4 rainbow. I call a $10 bet from MP. Turn 8. Checked to me and I fire $16 and he calls. River 6. Bingo. He ships $35 or so all in. I snap call and see his 88. Board had to pair to make me lose more money. After dusting off $150 in 30 minutes I quit and decided to play the tourney.

$65 buy-in and 53 people. It actually was $10+10 (plus $5 toke) and a $40 add-on. Only 38 take the add-on by the end of the 1st break. I was CL heading into the FT with 112k. Next closest was around 50k. Ran good early till a 20k stack doubled through and then lost a 15k pot to 2nd in chips. Time to slow down. We got down to 3-handed and I had 150k. 2nd had 140k and 3rd had 110k. Chop it up for $500 each. I'll take it.

wow u run goot

As least that's what Snuffy told me today when he saw me hit yet a one outer, the second in a week. This one happened during the Blogger Skillz Stud Eight game:

Full Tilt Poker Game #10954194320: Blogger Skillz Game (80235155), Table 6 - 1200/2400 Ante 200 - Limit Stud H/L - 0:24:39 ET - 2009/03/04
Seat 2: wwonka69 (2,537)
Seat 3: wolfshead (15,848)
Seat 4: STING70 (25,129)
Seat 5: Bone_Daddy84 (2,474)
Seat 6: DaBag (19,140)
Seat 7: SmBoatDrinks (28,761)
Seat 8: nzgreen (2,341)

*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to nzgreen [Ad 6h] [2c] brings in for 400
wwonka69 [9s] folds
wolfshead [As] folds
STING70 [2h] calls 400
Bone_Daddy84 [5d] completes it to 1,200
DaBag [9h] calls 1,200
SmBoatDrinks [7s] folds
nzgreen raises to 2,141, and is all in
STING70 calls 1,741
Bone_Daddy84 raises to 2,274, and is all in
DaBag calls 1,074
STING70 calls 133

*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to STING70 [2h] [Jd]
Dealt to Bone_Daddy84 [5d] [Kd]
Dealt to DaBag [9h] [Js]
Dealt to nzgreen [Ad 6h 2c] [Qs]
DaBag checks
STING70 checks

*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to STING70 [2h Jd] [8d]
Dealt to Bone_Daddy84 [5d Kd] [Td]
Dealt to DaBag [9h Js] [Jh]
Dealt to nzgreen [Ad 6h 2c Qs] [6c]
DaBag bets 2,400
STING70 folds
DaBag shows [9d Kc 9h Js Jh]
nzgreen shows [Ad 6h 2c Qs 6c]
Bone_Daddy84 shows [6d 4h 5d Kd Td]
Uncalled bet of 2,400 returned to DaBag

*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Bone_Daddy84 [6d 4h 5d Kd Td] [Ts]
Dealt to DaBag [9d Kc 9h Js Jh] [Qc]
Dealt to nzgreen [Ad 6h 2c Qs 6c] [6s]

*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to Bone_Daddy84 [6d 4h 5d Kd Td Ts] [Qh]
Dealt to DaBag [9d Kc 9h Js Jh Qc] [8h]
Dealt to nzgreen [Ad 6h 2c Qs 6c 6s] [Tc]
DaBag shows [9d Kc 9h Js Jh Qc 8h] two pair, Jacks and Nines, for high
Bone_Daddy84 shows [6d 4h 5d Kd Td Ts Qh] a pair of Tens, for high
DaBag wins the side pot (399) with two pair, Jacks and Nines
nzgreen shows [Ad 6h 2c Qs 6c 6s Tc] three of a kind, Sixes, for high
nzgreen wins the main pot (9,964) with three of a kind, Sixes
No low hand qualified


Not a great starting hand but with 3 people in the pot already, and three baby cards, I couldn't resist the opportunity to try and hit a low for a possible double up.

As I said earlier, that was the second one I have hit this week. The first occured during the Blogger Big Game. I rivered aces full of kings (holding AA in the hole) on a KxxKA board. My opponent in the hand had AK for kings full and I got about as lucky as you possibly can.

I've made an OK start to BBT4. I've played three events, scored points in all three, cashed in two and final tabled one. I'd sure like to win one so I don't have to rely on points to get into the TOC.

Bad Beat Central

I shouldn't expect anything less from a blogament.

In the Big Game I lost a 10k pot in the middle of the second hour when KK loses to QQ all-in pre to send me to the rail.

In Riverchasers at the 30/60 level I called a 3x raise along with 3-4 others with 22 from the SB. Flop 862cc and I check. Last to act, cardgrrrl bets 750 and I ship my last 2k. I get a call and see 77. Bink 7 on turn and I'm out.

Fuck...My...Life

Give'm the Heater, Ricky

Heater, I'm on one. Despite when ended up being an anticlimatic finish to the Blogger Big Game last night, I've been on a bit of a tear. But more on that in a bit. Surprisingly this has come about not from playing every minute that I can. Nope, since Thursday night I've played exactly four tournaments, a 3 dollar 90 man KO, a 6 dollar 90 man KO, PS Tour, and the Blogger Big Game. A Wise Goat posted a few days ago about the 90 mans and how he was doing quite well in them, he advocated a much tighter strategy early. I tried it and you know what the difference was this time? When I pushed with my big hands later they actually held up. I'm sure this is part of the strategy that the Goat leaves out, only to let young grassshopper find out for himself. This is very key however.

On Thursday night, I play tight, make little to no increase in my stack in the first hourish, pick up some hands. Play smart and win the mother fucker. Hot damn! Friday night, same story, ultimate luckboxing. Couldn't get a hand worth 2 shits, eventually shoved 45ss into QQ, river gutter. Booooom. My chip stack yo yo'd from there but eventually took the thing down. Double Boom. Yes Zooks, there was a slot of luckboxing in the middle there and there are some fine screenshots that I may post later this week, along with some of the HH's, just for fun. Yes I did get lucky alot, but MOST of the time my money went in with the best of it, it just happened to hold up......and I got a few uber suckouts when I needed them.

Fast forward to Sunday. Played nothing on Saturday or during the day Sunday, didn't want to tilt myself before the Big Game. Wii Karts almost did that right before but that's a different story alltogether. PS Tour, I get someone to hand over their chips with top pair Queen kicker against my KK, only to have them spike another 10 on the river to smack me down. Ended up pushing AQss a few hands later when button smooth called an UTG raise with AK then called me. To be honest I didn't care and was more focused on the Big Game anyway. At that point I wanted more chips or to get the hell out of there.

Big Game, first hour, play tighty donk style. Picked up a few hands, but nothing much of interest. Finish the first hour up about 400 chips. In the second hour I start to get some hands. I pick up AA and KK once each and win fairly nice pots with both. Chip up to around 7500, yo yo a bit from there. First big break comes when Hoy raises what I think was the 3rd hand in a row, could be wrong there, but something like that. One caller to me in the SB with 66, I call to set mine and see a flop. Flop is 1052hh, not a bad flop, but I really wanted to control pot size here and see what these other guys were going to do. All checks, intriguing. Turn is an offsuit 9, so I bet about 2/3 pot, I think about 850 into around 1250 if I can remember correctly. Hoy now calls and the other player folds. At this point I'm really not sure where I am in the hand, I don't think Hoy would float two overs with one to come, he could have the FD, I thinkn he raises if he hit the 9 there, maybe not, again confusion. River is an offsuit quuen. The pot is now 2000, I have about 5K behind, I decide to check, because honestly the hand was not making sense to me at this point. If I paid of a river value bet so be it, but I wasn't willing to risk my stack in this situation. Hoy checks behind and mucks 78os for a busted draw.

Into the 3rd hour I picked up a few more hands in key spots to really start to chip up. My QQ held against Goat's AK, when it got all in before the flop. Then a few hands later I just called a raise from Miami Don on the button with JJ. Flop came Jack high with all clubs, Miami Don bet out, I raised him all in and faded his KhQc to almost double my stack and knock out our gracious host. This was the story of the night, basically picking up big hands in key spots. You can't do much about it, sometimes you are on the right side of those hands, others not so much. After this hand, I went pretty dead for the next hour or so. Basically up into the final table. Once there I watched every short stack double up it seemed whenever they needed to. Bubble burst and I was about 6th in chips. Fold, fold, fold. Bleed, bleed, bleed. Still no one going out. 3 outer on the river, no problem. So when there is a raiser to me and I'm OTB with Fuel's Gold I think I can make a move here. And there's the problem people, I was thinking. Never think in a blogger tournament. It's like driving, assume everyone else is going to do the stupidest thing possible, then react. I shove and the oringal raiser insta-calls with 1010. Now, given the blinds where they were, I'm not saying I don't call with 1010 there. I just thought, (there's that word again), that my image might help me a little. No miracle for me and I go out on the bottom of the payscale, but on the payscale nonetheless.

Sorry this was a long post. I'm happy about how I'm playing right now. I guess I'll have to make more effort to play events but it's going to be tough given my schedule. Happy to cash, disappointed in the ending. C'est le vie I guess.

BBT4

That's a fucking great start to the BBT for me. In these things people constantly fucking rape my blinds and I let it happen. I get 88 in the SB and its folded to me and i raise 3x and am called by the BB. Flop J,7,x. I lead 1/2 pot for 120 and get raised to 300. I 3bet to 777 and get called. Turn 7 and I ship. Of course J10 is good and BB calls. That leaves me with 40 chips.

I get it in a couple hands later with A4 and get raised by the same player. Everyone folds and they have J10. Flop K,Q,9. Fuck my life.