Monday, July 23, 2007

Waffles cracks my Aces

with 77. How do I feel?

http://nigoro.jp/game/rosecamellia/rosecamellia.php

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Awesome but Trivial Victory of the Day!!!

In this new segment, I am going to share with you an awesome yet trivial victory that we sometimes achieve but go hopelessly unappreciated. Do I have you hooked yet? Read on...

Unlike Waffles, who will shell out for WoW when there are perfectly good poker tables to be played, I like to drop by Kingdom of Loathing. I get my 15-20 minutes a day fix and I am done. and I am no stranger to computer games... which makes this so much more fascinating.

The following actually happened not a hour ago...

You step outside your home office to get some air. It has just rained and the air smells pleasant but its very humid. The mailbox flag is down.

GO MAILBOX

But its sooooo bright out.

INVENTORY

You are carrying the following:
Sunglasses (in shirt pocket)

WEAR SUNGLASSES
You put on your sunglasses and return you regular glasses to your shirt pocket.

As you approach the mailbox, you see your hedge clippers left lying in the driveway. "Oh yeah, I need to cut a branch with hornets on it".

TAKE CLIPPERS

taken.

USE CLIPPERS

The end is bent. You'll have to fix that first.

GO MAILBOX.

You are at the mailbox. A sewer gate is below your feet.

USE GRATE

huh?

BEND CLIPPERS WITH GRATE

Using your superior chimp intellect, you stick the end of the hedge clippers through the grate and push down. Its called leverage! The hedge clippers are now repaired. As you stand up, your glasses slip out of your pocket and into the sewer.

Argh!


GRAB GLASSES

Even if you could put your big mits through the grate, its a good 10 feet to the bottom.

LOOK GRATE
At the bottom you see some recent rain water, some green moss, mudd. And Glasses.

QUIT
No way.

GO HOME
You enter the house

LOOK
You have a vast array of items. Try something...

GET COATHANGER

ok, you now have a coathanger

GET THE THING YOU CLEAN OUT THE DRAIN WITH?
Huh?

GET SNAKE

A real snake or the tool?

GET SNAKE TOOL

You have a snake tool.

ATTACH COATHANGER TO SNAKE

You make a series of unbends and bends and manage to attach your COATHANGER to your SNAKE. Hehe... sounds dirty.

MAKE HOOK

You fashion a hook at the end of the COATHANGER.

LOWER SNAKE

You fish around for a few minutes and hook your glasses. Huzzah!

LIFT SNAKE

You slowly lift up your glasses to the top of the grate being careful to not jostle them.

GRAB GLASSES.

You win! Your adventure score is 95%. (you left the bees)
Your time was 11 minutes.
Thank you for playing Trivial Victory.


HAHAHAHAHA TAKE THAT UNIVERSE!!!

A post from Tilty McTilt

What's all this I hear about "Zen and poker"?! Bah! To play poker is to tilt, and to live live fully, you need to tilt it up like a weasel looking at a falling bird. Last night, I tilted after I had to fold middle pair. Middle Pair people! I did not even expect to be ahead and when I got pushed into, I tilted!

And watching KOD tilt, after his OESD got called by TPBK, just plain inspired me. I think he pushed an OESD on the turn in an early level and was surprised when TP called him, despite extolling this strategy on his blog! Just his luck to run into a reader. But he tilted off in chat. And that actually affected me! HOW? (I honestly don't know!) It makes no sense. How can someone ELSE'S exit affect my tilt?!

And what does one do when he is on irrational tilt? That's right! He Multi-Tables RAZZ. I had 3 to 8 or better with an Ace over a DOZEN times in the first 15 minutes and lost all but the 12th one. Then with not even a full raise left in my stack AND the bring-in, doubled up 3 times in a row?! Now that's tilt people! We need to be trying harder out there!

And just a comment on the mookie and the buddydank radio show that accompanies it. I love it.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The next morning...

I am awake now, having gotten up at 8am having played the Hoy until 1:30am. By the time I was unwound it was closer to 2:30am. Then there was the power outage, the plumber, and its raining. Gez.

I got some good One Minute Mystery hands last night, but I really got some great experience in 2 regards.

The first was my final table play. I am ALWAYS too loose at the final table, using aggression to Always Be Closing. Aggression + lack of thought = Bubble. Last night, after losing my chip lead and making a questionable call of an all-in with A7s (only to see AJ), I tightened it down still managed a few steals and finished 2nd.

The second was taking the bully on my right for a ride on the roller coaster of variance. The best part was that he would win chips, then eventually pass them down to me. Why he even played a hand with me I will never know. One hand, I flopped an Ace and let him bet on every street and "just walked the dog down to the river". He doubled me up twice last night. The second time he went out with the bathwater.

At the end, my fate was determined on a board of 2567. I had A5, and my opponent pushed me all in. After MUCH thought, I folded. He said he had 83 when it was over. Makes sense, but I then made a mistake folding there. I was fooled by his flop bet I think, and if I bet, I was confused by his call. I will need to go replay that hand again...

I am reading the new FT strategy guide and I must say that some pros live in their own world. Like the Fergeson "post" about always bettin the same up front. Can't agree (assumes a tight tight pro-level table). But I did like his discussion on how he determines his post-flop bet. He does it by estiamteing "the outs his opponents would have" based on the board. The MORE outs they have, the LARGER (not smaller) the bet he makes. BUT, he assumes HEADS UP play on the flop. (Thus the reason he is always raising or folding pre-flop). This just wont mesh enough with my style to use on every pot I play, but I love it as a heads-up methodology.

The next "post" on "leverage" is funny to read right after the above, since there are some conflicts. Lederer loves to have a second barrel pointed at you (similar in style to blogger doubleas) but is based more on position that outs. Lederer's strategy of leverages pressure works much better from position (or so I believe). He likes to rely on the "amount of the reraise" that has to be made to determine the outcome of the hand. His 3-10-X rule. I need to finish readying it before I form a final opinion, but I find it very similar to "creating pressure points", but explained in a more roundabout way. -The big thing is not not try to blow people off the hand post-flop, but rather bet in a way that they are making the maximum mistake if they are calling from behind. This is done with proper bet sizing based on stack sizes and the pot size (if you are deep stacked). He assumes it is rare for a player with a better hand to "walk the dog". Hmmm.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. boo-hoo-boo

Another Monday night and another Hoy. I might have broken into 2nd on the Hoy cash leaderboard now as I put in a strong 2nd place finish. Despite going to the final table with a monster 3-1 chip lead, it just got chopped away like a rain forest hosting a lumberjack convention. But eventually, I held on by using tighty-ness, position, stealing and focusing on the little-er guys.

all in all, a BIG dissapointment to get so close to winning a blogger tournament (I have ALOT of 3rds), but ultimately failing.

I am in need of some coaching maybe?

Monday, July 16, 2007

How does one play an O8B tournament

Ok, I thought Hold'em could be a crap shoot, but O8B with escalating blinds structure will be the death of me. Has anyone written a good article about this?

I played good O8B last night for a while, then the blinds started moving up. Suddenly, I realize I am two lost pots from done. I got rivered (from scoop to 1/2 the pot) TWICE, then rivered twice after that for scoops from half. IGHN.

How does one just shove in O8B? In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld, "Who are these people?"

Sunday, July 15, 2007

A Giant amoung Men...

I played in a home game Friday night, which sort of borke down to a very aggressive player host who is used to rolling over people, and his victims, mainly family and friends (at least in this case).

Little small buy-in two table MTT and I go out FIRST when I flop a straight and I get RAISED. Ok, let me guess... Flush draw? Well, I cant fold with 1/3 of my stack in there and the best hand, so I shove my chips in and watch the diamond fall on the river.

Normally, I would leave at this point, but if this was the play, I figured I would stick around and play the "bust-out cash game", which often is short-handed. Smart decision. I won four times my buy-in in just 90 minutes. Here was the absolute best hand:

I already have double my buy-in in front of me, and since its short handed, I am playing almost ATC. I call a min-raise from the BB with J5o. (I think we are 5 handed). The UtG made the min-raise, the player to his left calls, two folds and then my call...

Flop is the miracle JJ5. And now the best part. UtG makes a bet of about 1/2 the pot, maybe more. The second player RAISES! And me with the immortal nuts. I smooth call and so does UtG. I am sure that the UtG has an overpair of QQ, KK or AA and that the other player has a Jack. And in this rare instance, I am going to walk TWO dogs and try to break them both!

Turn is the 8 and maybe, just maybe the other player has J8. I mean, its possible right? HA! I am not looking for monsters lurking in the closet. I am in fully-engaged extraction mode. UtG now makes a BIG bet and the other players now CALLS. It's time to slam the door. I raise enough that the UtG will have to go all in, but I dont want to push in case the other Jack wants to call. Now, I know if the board pairs the 8 I have to split, but its just too much of an off chance.

UtG goes all in and I am SURE he has aces. the other player folds. I say, "I call. I have a boat". And the guy with Aces says "Already?". (and much to my credit, I did not crack a smile). But he was upset as the J5o I played registered in his brain. I think the play by him with the min-raise with AA short-handed was ok, but how are you NOT scared of two raisers post-flop on a paired board. The AA folding was an easy escape in my book.

The most amazing part was the the other guy? What do you think he had? JT maybe? AJ maybe? Nope, he was BLUFFING. OMG. He couldn't even beat a the board. I must be a good actor. He thought I was making a play at the pot.

So, now a second chance SnG starts and its same thing all over again. Only this time the flush does not crack my made straight. With 4 left, I am second in chips but determined to wait out the short stack who is tired, tipsy, and not as good as his believes he is at this moment in time. He finally goes out and with 3 left its so late I propose a terrible chop for the 3rd place player just to see if they will bite. They dont. Good for her. So, we play it out. I just call with an Ace in the SB vs. the BB giant stack and the flop is 6A6. I check. Nor the reason I check is that the last time we played a hand, I checked, he bet, I meekly folded. So, I figure he is primed to bet here. But, he suspects something and checks. Ugh.
The turn is a 9 and I bet. He RAISES all-in?! And Since I put him on 9s and 6s now, I call. He had 99 in the hole and made a miracle boat on the turn. I cash third and drive home, with a total of over 150% profit. Not bad.

Friday, July 13, 2007

EVENTS!

The google link to the right is a great way to track blogger events. I added the old one from Byron and added all the latest events... and now (drumroll)....

Fraser goes down!

Police investigating a report of a severed head in a parking lot have concluded that a man used an innovative method to end his own life.

According to the authorities, the man tied one end of a rope to a tree and then looped the other end around his own neck. Then he drove off in a car, which caused the rope to slice through his neck and cut off his head, which flew out the back of the car. Police found a suicide note inside the car.


And here now is the poker equivalent. Take a monster stack lead into the final table and finish 6th?!

Here is how I severed my own head:

Tight, tight play from the table, including me. But as I watched people pick off blinds (especially mine), I would try to time a steal. I went 0 for 5. ZERO. Just re-steals and re-raises and me with air...

Al and Jade double up, whilst I bleed and esacpe second best hands.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2930725821: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour (22093219), Table 6 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:04:06 ET - 2007/07/13
Seat 1: BuddyDank (19,565)
Seat 2: -o-LuckTruck-o- (10,805)
Seat 3: Blinders (27,188)
Seat 4: kazor (6,874)
Seat 5: tmcmenamin1 (9,790)
Seat 6: columbo (16,597)
Seat 7: AlCantHang (31,115)
Seat 8: jade2002 (37,066)
antes 200
columbo posts the small blind of 800
AlCantHang posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to columbo [? ?]
jade2002 folds
BuddyDank folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- raises to 10,605, and is all in
Blinders calls 10,605
kazor folds
AlCantHang: captiain overbet
tmcmenamin1 folds
columbo has 15 seconds left to act
columbo has requested TIME
columbo: dammit blinders
Blinders: yuor priced in
columbo folds <= I am still thinking about this fold...
What CAN I call with here? I have 16k in chips, its 800 lost to fold.

Could you make this call with JJ? KK? How about AKs?

AlCantHang folds
-o-LuckTruck-o- shows [As Tc]
Blinders shows [Qc Qh]
*** FLOP *** [7h 9s Kd]
*** TURN *** [7h 9s Kd] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [7h 9s Kd Jh] [2h]
-o-LuckTruck-o- shows Ace King high
Blinders shows a pair of Queens
Blinders wins the pot (25,210) with a pair of Queens
-o-LuckTruck-o- stands up

(I had AKs) Am I tilting now? Maybe...
This makes me the short stack when Seat 4 and seat 5 go out and pop the money bubble for me.

and then Frashier goes down...

Full Tilt Poker Game #2930790848: Riverchasers Online Poker Tour (22093219), Table 6 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:10:34 ET - 2007/07/13
Seat 1: BuddyDank (20,039)
Seat 3: Blinders (41,793)
Seat 5: tmcmenamin1 (21,790)
Seat 6: columbo (12,797)
Seat 7: AlCantHang (25,915)
Seat 8: jade2002 (36,666)
antes 200
columbo posts the small blind of 800 <==again, the SB is my nemesis. Learn something columbo!

AlCantHang posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to columbo [Js 7s]
jade2002 folds
BuddyDank folds
Blinders folds
tmcmenamin1 folds
columbo calls 800
AlCantHang has 15 seconds left to act
AlCantHang checks

hey, free flop! alright!
*** FLOP *** [6c 9s 6s]
columbo has 15 seconds left to act
I have An over and a live scare card, plus a flush draw. I figure Al either missed the flop (66%) or hit a pair (30%) that would require him to make a big bet if I check.

columbo bets 10,997, and is all in <== I think this is a good move. COMMENTS?

AlCantHang calls 10,997
columbo shows [Js 7s]
AlCantHang shows [Th 6d] TRIPS? ARGH

But I am only a 2-1 dog!!

*** TURN *** [6c 9s 6s] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [6c 9s 6s 6h] [Kd]
columbo shows three of a kind, Sixes
AlCantHang shows four of a kind, Sixes
AlCantHang wins the pot (26,394) with four of a kind, Sixes
columbo stands up
IGHN. Bubble casher.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

best mookie finish ever

This was a VERY interesting hand and here it is in grave detail...

17 left in the mookie and I am about 10th-ish here... I was FIFTH, but had to release a hand and escape..

With a round costing 1350 with antes, my M is 6-7, but my Q is about 1.0 +/- 0.1

Full Tilt Poker Game #2921499396: The Mookie - Arrgh Matey (22098113), Table 6 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:25:16 ET - 2007/07/12

Seat 1: GCox25 (11,078)
Seat 2: weak_player (7,246)
Seat 3: jeciimd (8,745)
Seat 4: willwonka (9,854)
Seat 5: riggstad (7,665)
Seat 6: Astin (19,119)
Seat 7: IslandBum1 (8,147)
Seat 8: columbo (8,398)
Seat 9: HighOnPoker (20,305)

antes 75
IslandBum1 posts the small blind of 300
columbo posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #6

folded around to Astin.
Astin raises to 2,400 <==Button Raise
IslandBum1 folds
columbo calls 1,800 with [? ?]

*** FLOP *** [2h 7s 4s]
columbo has 15 seconds left to act
columbo bets 5,923, and is all in

Do I look strong here or weak?

AI programmer wanted

I am looking for a programmer interested in AI to work with on a project. I have an theory that I have been playing around with for quite some time. Its an AI algorithm based on "Trinary-state Pattern Recognition".

I find poker a perfect test of the algoritm because it requires to use of partial information and the same situation can have multiple results. (I am NOT writng a bot, nor would that work as I am spending ZERO time trying to hide the fact that its AI and it will not initiate actions, but rather "sit over your shoulder and learn").

If the theory were to hold, then the only paymount would be accolades and resume fodder, but goodd stuff if this is your cup of tea.

I have no idea of time invovled as I have not actually written code in a decade, so only the developer could do an estimate. I would prefer to work with someone I have met or once removed.

Please let me know if you or someone you know is interested.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I don't suck!?

Stats for columbo in the Battle of the Bloggers
Rank based on PROFIT: 19th of 315 (2 better than me played only the Big Game AND made final table)
Events played: 24

Some other fun stats not in the above metrics:

Number of Mookie events played: 8
Number of Mookie events that I even made the first break, much less the points: 0

Number of Monday at the Hoy events played: 9
Rank of "money won 2007" in the Hoy for 2007: 3rd! (as of a week ago)

Profit on FullTilt for 2007, -$150 (wtf?)

Beware the Trips

I went broke TWICE last night playing poker, both times with trips. (And I doubled up with them once). I did notice something that maybe I haven't noticed in the past. When you have trips and someone Pushes into you, they likely have an overpair and are about to go broke. When you have trips and you might have kicker problems, the push wont come until after you look committed. Interesting, huh? As you think about this, it seems more and more obvious that "of course" its that way...

I have also noted that when you have JT and iht trips on the flop or turn, you OFTEN will be surprised by KJ or AJ (or KT/AT if trip tens). I am not saying to play trips scared, but I am saying that if your M>20, you had better be prepared to get away from trips in the right situation. Still, it will be hard.

Monday, July 09, 2007

WPBT event #7

Subject: Re: private tourney setup (WPBT) request

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail and tournament request. I have created your
private HORSE tournament as you requested in your e-mail below and it is
open for registration at this time. In order to locate your tournament,
click the "Private" tab in the tournament lobby.

Tournament #22093715 (7/22/07 21:00ET)

Your tournament has been created as a double stack tournament with 3000
starting chips, if you wish to update it to a single stack tournament or
require any changes to be made to your tournament structure, do not
hesitate to reply to this e-mail.

NOTE: See earlier post on how to join the WPBT...

quick updates

It's WSOP main event time, so if I post too much, you'll miss out on the great updates from Dr. Pauly. Don't do that!

I joined the Pokersluts Tour V for the next 6 sundays, once again taking me to 3 weekly online games (hoy and mookie).

The WPBT Event #7 HORSE will be 7/22...

Monday, July 02, 2007

BBT ends with a bang

Well, I played in my first "Blogger Big Game" last night, since it was the last event in the BBT series. I consider it a tad expensive for my online bankroll, but I certainly like the competition.

I had more volatility than i expected in this high level game. I had to get away from a middle pair with flush redraw because the other player pushed on the turn. Then worked it back to starting size.

Then I pushed the hammer into a player on a stone cold bluff, only to be shown a SET of Tens and losing half my stack. The very next hand, *I* am dealt Tens, flop a set, and double up against QQ to be back at starting stack size. Online poker is rigged.

I work it up to about 25% over start stack size, when this happens. Folded to me in MP and I have QJo. I decide to limp since the table was tight the last few hands. The button MIN-RAISES and I am the only caller. The flop is all undercards with two clubs and we both check. The turn is a Q. He bets. I raise, he calls. River is the 3rd club and we both check. He has AQ and now I am just below start stack size.

10 minutes later, I am in MP. UtG limp. I have KK and make it 3xBB. The player to my left, who has just a few more chips than me, raises it 3x my bet. This is almost 1/2 my stack to call. The blinds and the UtG fold. I have a reasonable expectation here of the following:

He has AK and he is going to call as a big dog.
He has QQ or JJ and he is going to call as a big dog.
He has AA and has me crushed.
He has the hammer and will fold to any push.

I reason that since my Q<1, that I am totally justified in disregarding AA and trying to get his stack in there.

I am also reasonably sure than if I push, he will call. I really think he has AK and I am a 4-1. If I KNOW he has AK, could I possibly fold? I mean, I am a 4-1 favorite and I believe if I ever folded KK to AK, then I would have to quit playing poker because I had become a tit-mouse.

I push, he calls with AK. Ace on the flop and IGHN.

I think I will play the big game again...