What's to write about?

I would like... (I would like? I would like a trip to Europe.) I would like to play in WSOP satellites online. I even stored up a bankroll to do it. Now that bankroll ($>1K, <$10k) is in limbo until the US Department of Justice can determine how to order that money returned (or so we assume at this point).

What's the use of debating or pointing out the issues here? Like with so many other political events of the decade, we are a nation divided. And no one speaks of what we have lost as a result. By being polarized by politics (right vs. left, religion vs. religion, etc) we have lost our sense of nationalism. You can ask any nut-job about what he loves and get the stoic reply of "God and country", but is it really the truth? If we love our country so much, then why do we fight so hard to defend what is WAS instead of what it IS?

The 1940s are not coming back (thank goodness). And everyone remembers the good parts of the 1950s but not the fact that it lead to the turmoil of the 60s (don't get me started on this dissertation on repressive society). And those golden financials of the 1980s? That came from the dawn of the Age of Information, not from superior monetary policy. But I digress...

The US is an amalgamation of conflicting agendas, conflicting religions, conflicting politics and conflicting people (see incarceration rates). Bad? who is to say? Chaos brings change, change avoids stagnation. But our common ground has eroded through "philosophical wars", widening income gaps, and the dawn of "opinionated news" (Edward R. Murrow is now John Stewart?). Instead of the UNITED states of America, we have been somewhat reduced to the Bickering States of America.

Let me detour to Wisconsin for a second and please put aside your polarized thoughts for a minute if you have them. There we some very important issues in Wisconsin, but to me there was a good set of ideas on both sides. Yet what we SAW was slanted public relations and rhetoric. Absolutely no attempts were ever made to sell the plan outside of the "inner circles". And you could even claim that it was purposefully avoided as to not be seen as "collaborating with the enemy".

The NFL labor dispute went the opposite way, with both sides quickly trying to sell their agenda to each other and to the general public. In listening to the radio, many people have listened to the arguments and formed opinions. But to me it is clear that without being able to operate as a league instead of 32 competing businesses, the NFL is doomed to be 6 teams. In their case, they already had a working model and tore it down.

Whatever happened to debating a decision until it was made, but once it was made, getting on board and making it work? Don't we all do that everyday of our professional lives? Then why is it so damn hard to support a president (any elected president) for a lousy 4 years? (NOTE: I am a REPUBLICAN and I am saying this!) So you cant get $5 Gagillion (sic) cut from the budget. Take the compromise and move forward. (We live in an age where they brought back the Tea Party. Really? Are you kidding me? Is there a monarchy I don't know about?) Instead we reach some middle ground and fight tooth and nail to NOT be there. WTF?

Here is where I choose to wrap this up. It's not that we cant find any middle ground on anything but rather that we are choosing to fight against being there. Against inevitability itself. Because if you crush down 48% of the people, you crush down 48% of America. And where is the "victory" in that?

-Joe Consumer

p.s. why do I get the feeling that after 40 years of verbal mocking, Canada is laughing at us instead of with us?

Time to recycle my last header

Ummm, WTF? No more online poker for 2011? Really? is that what its come to?

WTF? What is going on?

I have really let this go, eh? I have not been playing enough to develop new thoughts on strategy... but I have been thinking quite a bit about it as of late.

I am playing in an invitational this weekend, and lets see what I'll be concentrating on.

1. AGGRESSION.
2. See #1

I have been readying quite a few war strategy books lately, and there is a common theme. There is no substitute for making you opponent have to adjust. To anything.

Feel interest returning...

... the urge to 3 bet coming on...

Frustrating Bubble

Played great poker this evening. I mean, really close to perfect. But in the end went out on the bubble when I lost 3 hands in a row, all getting my money in ahead. No coin flips the entire route. So, frustrating as it was, played well.

But its trying to convince me to skip WSOP this year.

MTT and a somwhat spoiled attitude

I do have to admit that I am a tad frustrated that playing ABC good poker is so incredibly ineffective lately. I mean, I had a lucky break when my AK flopped an Ace on KK, but then it all went downhill as I lost 4 straight all-ins with dominating hands (AQ vs. A8 for example), pushing me from the top 25 to out in an hour.

But, I will say this. I LOVE CAP ENTRY TOURNAMENTS. I was so sick of playing with 800 people, then after an over an hour there are 900 people, because 600 late registered.

I played a 500 cap. under 300 started, and sure enough players keep coming. But in a cap, it STOPS. If I could, I would play ONLY CAP entry MTT online from now on.

Embracing the Future

Would you in today's day and age build the DIY table, or go for the all electronic table?

http://www.videopokertable.net

I, for one, am impressed not by the electronics, but the effort put into the software. Looks better than the electronic casino tables.

Fool!

If there is one thing that always frustrates me about cash games, its watching a player spew chips and when I finally get a crack at the fountain, he draws out. But this is not a bad-beat complaint. No, rather my inability to spew small amounts of pre-flop chips in order to trap people with boats made with Q2o. Yet, across the table is a guy who saw 3 turns all night. Each time he had a boar. And each time the other player with a pair would keep betting into him and paying him off.

I remember now what I love about tournaments. You cant just sit there and spew chips hoping for the perfect flop one day.

Talk about Cliche

If you want to win a tournament, you have to win your share of races. Once again, I played well but went 0 for 1 in the results column. Avoiding getting my money in behind and not calling off with 44, got me to 13th (of 30), but was surprised when KT called my eventual all-in. He had 1600 in the BB and I moved in for only 8.5k, so its not awful. But he is very lucky there I have 99. King on the river and its over for me.

So much comes down to a big race. And I made two huge moves on pots with air just to get that far, so I cant hide behind being passive. I doubled up early (to 20k), but ended up having to release 3 hands in big pots over the next 90 minutes, that put me back to 12k, which forced the inevitable cliche.

You got to win a race. Especially the FIRST.

Multi-entry tournaments

The beginning of the end. And to think that today a majority of the MTTs $24-$150 seem to be ME, I have to ask myself, "Am I no longer the target customer for FT?"

AD-DUH-DUM:
OOPS! This is ME week at FT!!! April fool? ok, I did not know that. Although I still hate MEs.

WSOP

The schedule of events has been released and I am meeting it with new trepidation. I have to admit, I had a lousy time last year. I not only ran bad, I scheduled poorly and spent undo hours not having fun. Not this time.

Get it, play an event (two if I flame out of the first), visit the new "retroarcade bar" and get the hell out of dodge.

#32 is NL $1500 Sat the 18th at noon with a consolation $1k Sun at noon. Quick and dirty. $2500 max exposure.

A more ambitious route would be the following weekend.
#41 is the SHOOTOUT, Friday the 24th at noon, followed by the Saturday $1500 NL at noon and again the consolation $1k on Sunday. Now that would be $4k and that is alot of dough, so I am not prone to take this lightly.

Perhaps some qualifying efforts are in order. If I DONT cash in my league, and boy have I run bad, I won't spend $4k. No way.

Let the satellites begin!

Signs of the times?

The two things I noticed in that last couple of days are changes to the FT withdrawal options due to "temporary complications" and the Home Games offering on Stars. I dont know how either are going to work, but I am testing both so that I DO know how both are going to work.

Its interesting that stars is offering this option, but I have ALWAYS felt it was ridiculous that I had to work through support to schedule reoccurring online games. Let's hope this is a permanent trend.

CASH?

Yup, longtime MTT only player is sitting at the $3/$6 ring and $50 or $100 SnG tables as of late. Mostly due to time constraints. But I am also seeing some pretty darn bad play out there also. I did get stacked once when my overpair ran into a set, but other than that, its been going pretty well.

Thank goodness I dont bet on football. Gez, what a couple of weekends.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 717130

Harsh Reminders

Sometimes I forget that there will be days where you sit down at a table to play cards and get dealt dreck for 4 hours. And worse, trying to represent non-dreck results in running into real hands. I made some great folds, escaping 99 when he had KK and things like this, but all-in-all, just never really won any pots Saturday.

As I play the hands back through my mind, MAYBE I dont fold 76 (BB) on a K73 flop when he c-bets, but I would be pot committed with even a call.

Middle pair was my best flop of the night. I did not even flop a single DRAW. So, it was home to watch football and SNL.

Getting my feet wet

I sat down and fired up the virtual tables, encouraged through bonus clearing reinforcement. (It's just like MMORPG gold mining?). I played some $2/$4 and some 10 mix. Wild variance in the 10 mix left me even, and a moron at $2/$4 had my down $60 on a any-two-card-shove pre-flop until I took it all back from him and took a big hand off another eastern block player overplaying aggro poker. So I was up about $130.

Yesterday, I gave it all back in SnGs. A $24 SnG killed me when I was happy to have A6o call my KK pre-shove. Only to see it go down in flames. Meh. Starting with only $1500 in chips, I'll take that situation every time. In the larger $100 SnG I finihsed 4th, bubbling when I lost two significant hands on a dominated call. Not expecting that 4 handed.

But I did get some play in for a couple of days, and played relatively well, so there is that. I am looking forward to some live poker this Saturday!

Mentally Vexed

There's an expression for you. I made a half hearted attempt to login to an online site yesterday, only to forget my password and get distracted by something shiny. Part of it is the new job, part of it is the mental distraction of the holidays, and some of it is even the Reid bill saga. Am I supposed to flee with my funds the moment it passes or simply ignore it as "much ado about nothing"?

And even this medium. This blog type medium. Where is it going? or perhaps more correctly, where is it fading away to? Perhaps as a content provider who is ONLY chronicling a stupendous rise to mediocrity, this blog has run its course (sort of like leaving on a drive to LA and ending up in San Diego).

I could say "time will tell", but lately time=stress. Perhaps this is why young players dominate long tournaments. Time is a simple commodity of which they are overloaded. I seem to be treating idle time as paramount to say smoking, an event that shortens your life.

I watched the first couple of episodes of Mad Men last night to see what all the commotion was about. I dont think the show is for me, and I dont feel like watching it just because everyone else likes it. Talk about digressing...

I missed the WPBT last weekend, and that also took its mental toll as I cursed the poker gods. And yet, I have too much to be thankful for to really be anything more than "sorry I missed it. Next year for sure."

2 months ago, I was close to last in my league (as was its host). I bet someone that we would both make the top 11 out of 27) by the end of the league getting 6-1 odds I think. I came in second that month, and in December my accomplice won. Neither was particularly pretty, but we continue to climb the ladder. It has to go better than my "Lions will win 5 games this year" bets. (Note: I will make that same bet next year!)

Another Tale of Two Kings

After early level success, I had a combination of bad table position and bad cards. With about 1/2 the field gone, my double-avg size stack was tiny. I have maybe $12k (avg is $35k) and I finally get a hand: KK.

An action player who had made many marginal plans and got rewarded this evening is on my left and he raised (I am in the blind) to like $1800. Now I can re-raise all-in, and expect him to fold and rake a pot of like $4k. OR, I can bet half my stack (say $5k) and expect him to CALL, and expect him to call the post-flop push, as probably a 3-1 favorite (as he probably has a weak Ace... yet again).

I dont know how you play, but I am NOT letter a weak ace get away pre-flop here. I bet 1/2 my stack, he calls with Ah3h. Flop is Th9h3c and when I shove, he now calls again as a dog, because he hit the flop. But in the end, he draws out and I go out.

But, that is the way I play.

Totally NOTHING to report

Really. In a strange way, I found myself AVOIDING opportunities to play poker this weekend and instead work on minor house remodeling/decorating projects. And hacking my Wii. And playing XBOX. and staring. Which brings me to the thought that I am rebelling against poker since I am to miss the WPBT extravaganza in Vegas for the first time in 5 years. So much booze. So many straddles.

Felted!

Why do I like tournament poker better than cash games? It's just really hard with 40-50 BB to get away from a set regardless of the board. And if you have top-set second nuts, you are not going to escape from the unlikely change that someone called a 4x raise with 2d4d.

Still, no one to blame but yourself. Move in with top-set and lose... It happens, move on. At least it wasn't Kings into Aces pre-flop!