Sunday, April 22, 2007

Wow do I suck

TWO limit tournaments this evening, both with me finishing in the bottom half. I feel REAL bad abou the LHE in the WPBT because at one point I was the chip leader. But my inability to play uber tight, combined getting caught on a big draw and it resulting in nothing, did me in. I cant really flog myself about the RAZZ though, I was at one point dealt paint or a pair like 20 hands in a row. I just anted myself to death...

Still, a BIG wake up call for what I feel has become a BIG leak in my game. Not folding enough hands...

Sunday, April 15, 2007

quick hand summary

Decent but not great player on my left at the 1-3 table.

I am on the button and raise it to 10. SB on my left reraises to 35 and the lone limper folds...

If he is playing AK out of position, I might punish him badly. If its JJ, I am so dead. I call to see the flop.

Flop is 677
He bets 35. You have about 90 behind.
Call? Raise? Fold? Me I called.

Turn was a 3 and he bets 35 again.
I get very suspicious. Why?

Well, if you have JJ, don't you go for me stack here knowing I am either behind or drawing?!

I consider a turn bet that is the same size as a flop bets, head up, a significant sign of worry. I think I am good here.
I push all in and he calls with 2 overs, the AK. The river is a 9 and I take about 120 off him with TT.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Embrace your inner donkey

Off to the MGM, where the local blooger contingency came out to host my inner donkey friday night. I was joinwd by "weak (player)", "sin city carmen", and "miami don". I especially would like to thank them for lowering themselves to 1/2 for my bankroll.

I was slowing gaining ground and was up about 50 when on a strange hand with 5s4s I flop a 4 on a very ragged board and 2 spades. I am ahead? When the river comes the 3rd spade and I check raise just 20 more for value. He seems very worried, and evantually calls... With the Q-high flush. Ouch. I was also dealt 23 seven times in one hour. ugh.

down 33 for the shortish session. Carmen, however, took about a full double up from the table...

Carmen went home, don stayed, and weak and I went to dinner. sushi at the Orleans. Great food and conversation, but weak ordered something that wasnt on the menu. Neither of us noticed until the bill came. That one item was 1/3 the bill. ouch.

we are tired, so we say "let's just play and hour at ceasars1/3 and then pack it in." Easier said then done. Friday was "give you money away to anyone with a f*cking brain in their heads" night. xomg.

Lady who pushes all in with KK after the board has an ace and 3 spades. And get called by a WORSE hand??!! nice play mame, sir.

and that was just to two players to our left!! there were two south american gents who NEVER knew where they were at in a hand. A young 20 something girl who had the basics, but would pay off any value bets. Oh, and my favorite. A limper from utg dressed like a body builder guy in hollywood. I raise from LP with two red aces (weapons of mass destruction! Drink!) to like 5xBB. He re-raises to 100 ?? 100 to win 15? Nice play sir. I actually say " I haven't played a hand in three rotations, and when I raise and you reraise me??". And I push in. He says "you got aces don't you" and I smile and say, "it doesn't really matter does it, its only 33 more". And sure enough he throws it in!! And I make 150 at a 1/3 table on the only hand I play in that 1/2 hour. Gez.

I LOVE buying in short. I stole the idea from Chris Furgeson. Buy in short and no one gets odd to draw on you AND they'll pay off your big hands because they feel like you are not a threat to their stack. Then, when you double up. You have as many chips as them AND they are all intimiated.

I did get the worst of one though. A Limper. I raise to 15 with AK. Limper calls (he did this alot). Flop is KQT and I bet 50. He reraises all in to 300. Now I can fold away 1/2 my profit or call my entire stack and see if he is bluffing. And although this guy was not good, he wasn't an idiot like the others. He could have KQ, or even AJ. AND he can't expect to get called here by anything but a giant hand. Weak puts him on a set like QQ, me two pair. I fold to fight another day. "never go broke on TPTK".

but after I cash out, we talk. He had KJ and was pushing with TP and the OESD. Hmm. ok, now I can see that. Guess I need more practice reading hands. even so, with my Ace outs cheated, i was only about 60% there.

we reluctently got up and left, all that pretty money still floating around the table.

wah wah wee wah
what a table

Friday, April 13, 2007

Tilt-a-whirl

Ceasars 11pm tournament. $70 buy in. 2500 in chips. 30 minute levels. 70-80n players. PERFECT. I buy my seat early...

The VERY first hand, some dufus raises and I call with a pair of 99. 9 out of the door and he bets off his ENTIRE 2500 to me. FIRST HAND! All I had to do was keep calling!

after the double up, gave hundreds back on back to back baby pocket pairs...
then a I make a BIG proflop raise (350) which is picked off by a rock and I am down to 4300 from 5000. But still, doing very well and feeling good.

Table starts to elicit a personality. To my left, decent player nothing special, next a regular who like to say "wow" when players call his raises. to his left, a TV type. Hat, sunglasses, stiff as a statue. But his play is VERY amateurish as he simply goes all in whenever he has a hand. Kinda funny actually. Next guy total ROCK. Next guy is a unknown still. next to him is an INVISIBLE girl. Rarely played, and when she did she was behind. And finally, to my right, the calling station who might be playing his first live tournament. I am NOT one to pick up tells, but this guy had a freaking LED sign with the strength of a given hand...

Now on with the show.

50/100 level 1 is only half over. Utg limps. TV guy raises to 500. Utg says "wow".
folds around to me with KK. I stand up to look at TV guys stack (he has 1100 more) and UtG says "and you still have to worry about me." "no, not really." Have I given enough indication of my hand strength to TV guy and Wow guy yet? I make it 1600 and wow guy reluctantly folds. TV guy INSTA-CALLS (no thought at all and everyone noticed that). with JJ. Nice call sir.

J hits set and I go from chip leader in the toutnament to like 2300.

I hit a set of 5s and get calling station to stick with me with nothing but middle pair by making value bets. 2950 end level 1 (70plus).

DESPITE being up for the level, I cant let go of the fact that I was rolling over the table, firmly extablished as table captain, and TV donk ruins it with his suckout.

Level 2

I then lost 900 when flopped flush draw and gut shot resulted in pain

Wow guy raises 3x (his standard) to $300
I am the only caller in the BB with KsJs. I know I might be dominated, but I was willing to see what flopped. Pot is $650

KhJh on a board of board Qh 9h blank
wow guy bet 400, easy call with such a strong draw. Heck I could RAISE here but I sense he hit the flop and was not going away.

turn is a blank and he bets 400 which is clearly a MISTAKE on his part. It carrys the odds over from the last bet and makes this an easy call.

a 8 non-heart on the river forces my to give up the hand, but he checks and shows the 2 pair on the flop.

2500 and back to starting stack size.

I am on the buttom and TV guy limps. I raise with KJ from the button to $600 and he just says all-in. Who does this to a me when he HAS to expect me to call? An idiot or AA, KK, QQ, AK. and all of those hands as expecially poision right now. I am forced to fold. But now I am very tilt-y.

The VERY NEXT HAND, I raise again and wow guy makes a comment. I say "have to play correctly despite being once-bitten."

This time the SB says "all in" and I look at what is now only $1600 left if a fold. I cant MENTALLY get past the fact that I would only have 1600 chips if I fold and I titl call. He Shows AA

one blind left. win a hand.
2.5 blinds left

I make a comment about pushing again. TV guy limps. Rock, raises up to 700. I call with everything (about 700). TV guy RAISES ALL in.

now, JJ is all in Vs two donks who send their entire stacks to the pot AK vs AQ. and TV guy is the AQ. well played sir. AK hits a KING ON THE RIVER and a wonderful start is flushed down the toilet to tilt and donks.

Ighn??! I had to walk the halls for 30 minutes before retiring...

Thursday, April 12, 2007

SO many ways to go broke

Select your spot to go broke:

Lost $150 playing 1-3. I did not play perfect, but never did I miss so many flops when playing tight aggr. Even with JJ, the flop would be A88 and both opponents hit.

I could not hit the side of a barn with KQ. or ANYTHING for that matter. Made so many second best hands, I felt like Bill Fillmath.

Then this gem comes up: Select you "going broke" point:

Somewhat loose but overbetting the pot player joins the game.
First raise I make in 20 hands. He re-raises like 4 times the pot. I fold KQo.

Few hands later, he make is $10 UtG.

I look down at AcKc.

Call or rasie? I have position, and a shorter stack. I expect all my money can go in here. But you could be worried. Why? Because you have not made the best hand all night.

Flop 8T6 with 2 clubs. Now you have a nut flush draw and 2 overs vs. an over aggressive player. He bets... Going broke YET?

Turn is a King. Now you have TP AND the flush draw? Gone broke yet?
I am playing this strong here... But...

The board pairs the ten on the river. He shows TT and felts me and IGHN-DQB. Argh.

TOPIC CHANGE
On a "hoy-type" related note:

what's with the whiney bitches who complain that there is not enough money in the pots and yet they are playing 1-3? Want big pots? Go play 10-20 NL. There, big pots. Now shut the frack up.

I am crushering the local online game

PokerStars Tournament #47426788, No Limit Hold'em
13 players
Tournament started - 2007/04/11 - 21:00:00 (ET)

Dear Columbo777,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.

Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

And its a league, with a bonus payout at the end structure. Which rocks, because I am opening up a big lead. (I was first heading into this one)

But on the flip side:
I feel awful that I am letting Al down (http://www.alcanthang.com/poker/). I am on his "blogger team" and I once again had a VERY early Mookie exit when AQ ran into AK on a flop that had an A. A THRID opponent folded AQ after the flop with the EP bet POT (all in) and I was behind him to act on the flop. TOTAL DONK MOVE BY ME?

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

The quiet man

So last night I played in a 1 table SNG at MGM. I know right away its a donk fest. You start with only 1000 chips and 25/50 blinds, so you can't play a hand you not committed to. FIRST hand, lady raises to 200 utg and the tatoo man on the button raises all in after a look at one card. She folds AKs!!?? And surrenders 20 percent of her stack. He shows ATs.

And now its time to play our newest game show, "what's worse?"

Ok contestants, question number 1:
What's worse?
Folding AKs in that situation
Or.
SHOWING the laydown??!!

fast forward and tihs donk and his buddy have both doubled up, the latter getting his money in behind. I am card DEAD... I Now have like 550 and call from the SB with T4o in an unraised pot. I flop TP and throw my chips in. All fold. I now have 750...

meantime the blinds are now 100/200 6 handed and this comes up:

UtG raises to $600. I look down at KK. Now here's the problem. The BB (posted 200) only have 500 left. Can he fold? probably...

But I go all in with my hand, and the BB calls.

UtG: raiser AJo. (AJo and QQ were automatic all in bets at this table)
BB CALLS with J8s.

Can I blame him? I GUESS NOT, but I am dissapointed.

flop has and 8, river is a Jack and J8s triples up vs. KK and AJ and IGHN.

I just dont have the mojo...

Congratulations are in order

News direct from Dr. Pauly (link at right):

"I'm the newest feature writer for ESPN.com. Yes, it's true. Andrew Feldman hired me to cover the 2007 WSOP for ESPN.com. I have huge shoes to fill... following in the footsteps of legendary sportswriter Steve Rosenbloom who provided the content for ESPN last summer. "

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Live from Vegas

Interesting times at the low limit NLHE tables last night. I was at a table with about4 - 5 decent players. 2 incredibly Tight players, and these two rotating chairs. And when these players would rotate out, they would ask for a table change! "Our tables had no action", they would say. yet, I had doubled my stack through solid play. These players were looking to "felt" someone. One guy, as he left, said "its stupid waiting for a set over set hand".

Sure enough, later in the evening, some guy lost his huge stack when his bottom set lost to middle set.

BUT, that was one hand. One. The rest of the time, the action was like a final table and quite frankly I wasn't afraid to say so. "I like the competition. I dont play for the money." To me, this was a blast. Of course, I think I was better than most of them, but could I get away from bottom set?

Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Bad Bad day

So right after point bubbling the riverchasers, I had to transition into the worst day every. This Saturday, I had my basement flood a scant 5 minutes before in-laws came over to afternoon Easter festivities (on a saturday?), which all occurred on the DAY that my company is officially swallowed by giant bureaucratic company.

Dun-dun-DUN!!!

2 techs working on the interconnect bridge, 16 people on the check-in call.

SIXTEEN?! How many people need a status update that quickly?!

So then, after spending FOUR hours mopping up water... And $250 bucks for the plumber to run a 50 ft snake line under the house... And after cleaning up after a group of people who apparently like popcorn enough to carry it around, but not enough for a majority of it to actually reach their mouths…

I am going to see the MIDNIGHT FREAKING showing of GRINDHOUSE!!! I am even going to sneak beers in like a high school punk!!! And laugh as I do it!

Next week it’s off to Vegas on what the wife refers to a “business”. (She adds the quotes). A week of work by day, cards by night… (I already sent in the OMM to ante-up!)

The riverchasers implosion was so interesting that it may be a OMM, so I have decided not to post it…

Thursday, April 05, 2007

WPBT update on event #6 (Vegas) revised

Here is what I am going to do for the WPBT points on event 6...

As last year, the Vegas live events are top 25% in the points.

For those who DO NOT ATTEND, there will be a online version, limited to non-vegas participants only, also scoring just the top 25%.

This seems about as fair as can be...

Note: if you ATTEND the vegas WPBT weekend, you are NOT eligable for the online tournament, even if you oversleep in a drunken stupor...

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Of Kings and Queens and Guillotines

MATH at FT was visited last night by the dogs of war. 47 players. I personally saw pocket kings lose 4 out fo 5 times, and not once to AA. As a matter of records, only once to even Ax. Most of the other times it was back door trips, one card straights, etc. As I had screamed to the poker gods that Mistree Varience pwned me earlier, I was the recipient of one of those Suckouts.

I meandered through the tournament until I hit the points bubble and was about to go out when my steal raise with QTo ran into KK in the blind. I sucked out and was back to just above average. From that point on, I played solid poker again, making the final table. Despite being down almost 8 to 1 in chips, by the time the $ money bubble popped, I had closed it to 4 to 1. After what seemed an eternity, I worked my hands to chip leader with 4 left when QQ held up vs AK (of all the luck).

I tried too hard to crack a short stack and ran into his monster trap and that began my fall from grace. I bled for a while, than tried pressure. Both lost me chips and I went out as I came into the final 4, in a firey blaze.

Last nights MATH was the first of the new sactioned events for http://bloggerpokerchallenge.blogspot.com/

and those points for a 4th place finish should serve me well...

Monday, April 02, 2007

Hit me with your rhythm stick

HIT ME HIT ME HIT ME

I have OFFICIALLY joined the "BAD BEAT SO BAD I HAD TO SCREAM CLUB"

I limp with Ac8c from Utg and FLOP the nut flush against 5 callers. I check, and it goes around to the button who pushes all in with nothing but a pair of sevens. The board is 2c3cJc. And he pushes with two RED sevens. I call AND SO DOES ANOTHER GUY?! The other guy is ALREADY DRAWING DEAD with nothing but overs?!
The guy with 77...get this. TURN is a 7 (set), river is a 2 (boat).

I have 1/3 of my stack left and 2 hands later I push all in with JJ and get called by the SAME GUY with Ad5d and he makes a flush.

Somewhere, variance owes me a freakin blow job.