More HORSE

Well, it has been awhile since I have posted so here is the weekend review. Last Sunday at the Big Game I managed to land a 3^rd place finish, not too bad for only my second one. On Wednesday I think I placed 5^th in the Mookie, and about the same in the Mookie 2^nd chance. Now tell me, if the woman calls and you tell her you are playing two final tables at the same time (I was at both Mookie final tables at the same time), would you be slightly more than a little pissed if she called you back about 15 seconds after you hung up with her so she could tell you about something going on at the bar?!?! Let me tell you, I was! Thanks to that incident, along with a few Captian and diet’s, I managed to finish short of the money in the Mookie 2^nd Chance, as I managed to donk off more chips than necessary while trying to play both tables and carry on a fucking conversation.

In the meantime, Stars has decided it hates me as it continues to fuck me up the ass in my SnG’s. I think I have been getting no more than one 2^nd place in every three games, always to some fucking donk on the river. In my last one, while heads up that lasted for fucking ever, every time I was about to bust this ass out, he’d catch on the fucking river and double up. Only justice that I would fail to catch on my river and bust out in second yet again.

In the semi good news department, I played my first non-blogger HORSE tourney and managed to go out in 42^nd of 640 something. Didn’t pay much, but it seems I can hold my own in the game. Just my luck that as the blinds and antes go huge that my razz hands were all good stud hands, my stud hands were all good razz hands and all my h/l hands were just good enough to see at least the flop and would just improve enough one way or the other to get me to call, and then promptly fall apart. Oh well, we all know that the game is rigged to do just that! Who knows, maybe tomorrow Ms. Budo will get off the computer at a decent hour so I can get some quality time in on the tables, lol, I crack myself the fuck up!!

Sorry xkm, it was a misread....

Well, it looks like I did a major mis-read in a tier two token game. I had just recently rallied from the short stack to the chip leader. I'm in the BB for 800 when xkm pushes for his last 1200. I assumed since he pushed he wanted a caller so with only 400 to make the call I made it with my garbage Q8o. Turns out he only had T7s. If only he had hoyed me, then I would have taken that as a fold sign, or if he had girlie chatted me and told me to fold I only would have been too happy to. So instead of him getting a token, I sent him to the rail with $57. I am so sorry about that xkm, busting you out was not the intent, I thought I was donating. Next time hoy me and I will fold like a girl.

A Tale of Two Mookies

In The Mookie I last night about the only hand I could take any pots with was the Hammer. I think I saw the hammer four or five times last night and played it all but once due to a huge pre-flop raise. Short of those, I took a few more thanks to some lucky draws, but I eventually busted out after the break shortly before The Mookie II: HORSEing Around.

Don’t ask me how I did it, but I pretty much kept myself in the top five of the Mookie II for the whole damn thing, heck, even led the damn thing a couple times!! As I’m sure everyone at my table saw, I suck in all forms of limit poker, and thanks to some lucky donktastic plays, kept myself up there and actually scored me a token, whoo hoo! Pretty much as soon as we hit token status, we just played in push-monkey mode. While some may complain about such things, I did not care as by that time it was around 12:30 am Central time and I had to be up in six hours for work, heck I’m just glad I managed to stay awake during the final table!

So now I haves me two tier one tokens, so with a bit of luck I’ll score my tier two token for the Big Game this Sunday! As for tonight, we have the last of a great series, DADI X: Fight the Power, the last in series.

The Big Game
Sunday
Full Tilt
$69 + $9 (Cash or token)
9:30 PM Eastern
Double Stacks
Password: donkey

DADI X: Fight the Power
Tonight
Full Tilt
$24 + $2 (Cash or token)
9:00 PM Eastern
Short Handed (6-max per table)
Password: pokertrust

Beware...

Robot Thinks Human Flesh Is Bacon

But some of us already knew this. Keep that bottle of apricot lotion nearby at all times, as everyone knows that apricots (and most fruit for that matter) are a natural repellent to our bacon consuming robot overlords.

Wisconsin Set Back 100 Years

That’s right, you (may have) heard it here first, Wisconsin successfully moved back 100 years thanks to 59% of our voters! The gay marriage ban was worded to entice people to vote “Yes” even though it has much larger repercussions. This is not just a ban on gay marriage in the State; it also bans all Civil Unions, both homo- and hetero, and also makes any Civil Union or gay marriage performed outside of the State to be null and void within the State. Be interesting to see how that one plays out once it reaches the Supreme Court, as I’m sure it will in the next few years.

Gotta love those Christian Conservatives for bringing that one on. And keeping with the tradition of good Christian Conservatives, they of course brought back the Death Penalty to the State for an encore. Now Murder in the First can be executed, as long as there is supporting DNA evidence. Good thing they did not define what supporting DNA evidence is, that way they can line up as many as possible.

Maybe during the 2008 election we also ban interracial marriage, bring back segregation, and get rid of that pesky Woman’s Suffrage thingy.

The opponents of the gay marriage ban really blew it in their ads. Their focus on the gay portion only served to focus people on that one portion of the legislation. To get a majority of people on board, the focus should have been on the ban of civil unions. Once that legislation goes into affect, all people in the state who have one will get to kiss it goodbye, along with all of the legal protections and rights it affords. The fallout on this should ensue soon enough I’m sure.

One thing that did surprise me was how close Ryan’s seat was. I’m in the 1^st Congressional District here in WI, and this part of the state tends to have a pretty decent Republican slant. Without any ads (at least I didn’t see any), Ryan only got 56% of the vote, and for a 3^rd or 4^th term incumbent, that should send a loud and clear message.

And as we sign off for the day, you all know the drill:

The Mookie
Full Tilt
22:00 ET
$10+$1
vegas1

Be there!

Big Game Tilt

Ungoddamedmotherfuckingreal. After building my stack up to around 4,200 after managing to get myself down to around 1,100, I find myself with TT and raise it to 666 from Mungo who had made it 366 (you know how Mungo loves those crazy bets). He calls. Flop is 83T rainbow, he checks, I bet 666, he pushes, I call. The only thing I am really worried about is that he was playing a 97 and hit an OESD. He shows 88 to my TT and I’m sitting pretty. 4 hits the turn and I’m getting ready to move into 2^nd place, if not 1^st in this, my first Big Game. River brings an 8 and I watch all my chips get shipped to Mungo. My jaw dropped as my brain processes what just happened. That damn Canuck must have had some pretty fucking huge horseshoe up his ass as he hit his one outer to send me to the rail.

Ah well, cant really complain about the way we played it. I’m sure when he bet he put me on a pocket pair or an AT and was happy to see me bet into his set. I was just as happy to see him push into my set so was I happy to make the call. I was near euphoric to see him show a set of 8’s as the whole table pretty much saw the pot shipping my way. The whole hand played out just the way you would want it to, except of course that part about him hitting his quads on river. It was nice to see that he took pretty good care of those chips, as he made 3^rd place and got himself a nice little payday there.

And now for the obligatory tourney pimpage:

Monday: Monday’s at the Hoy (MATH)
Where: PokerStars
Buy-in: $20+2
Time: 22:00 ET
Password: hammer

Tuesday: WWdN (Name) Invitational (the Name changes, bust out the host; Wil Wheaton, and the next one is named after you).
Where: PokerStars
Buy-in: $10+1
Time: 20:30 ET
Password: monkey

Wednesday: The Mookie
Where: Full Tilt
Buy-in: $20+2
Time: 22:00 ET
Password: vegas1

Thursday: WWdN: Not the (Name) Invitational (the Name changes to the 2^nd place finisher, ie, Not quite good enough!)
Where: PokerStars
Buy-in: $10+1
Time: 23:00 ET
Password: monkey

32...Not So Good

Learned a valuable lesson at the WWdN Blogger game last night. When you find yourself having trouble focusing on the screen, it takes you most of your time to decide your action, when you want bet 3.5x BB and you bang in 350 (at 25/50), when you call down bets as your holding 66 on a board A9J with a flush to boot, you then realize that it’s way past time to check your blood sugar.

To start, the drive home, which normally takes about 1:15, took over 2:30 due to an accident involving a couple of semi’s about ½ way home. When I got home, I had to do some repair to the ferret cage, it seems the pig had been sleeping in front of it and his one of his tusks seems to had hook through and he seriously messed it up trying to get himself away. So I popped in real quick and got myself signed up, late, but there. By now, my food/insulin shot times are way off.

The game got going and I managed to more than double up by mid way through the 20/40 level, but that was when (looking back) I started to have some problems due to the low blood sugar. One unfortunate thing about low blood sugars (for me anyways) is that when you get yourself involved in something, it becomes difficult to notice that you are running low. In fact, at the live games people have asked me if I am doing all right once or twice as they notice before I do.

Anyways, shortly before break and just after donking off about 2/3 of my stack, mostly in that 66 hand mentioned above, I realized all was not well and checked the Sit Out box. Broke out the kit, checked the sugar and saw that it was 32. For reference, normal is 70-110 so I was pretty damn low. By the time I got the sugar back up, the game was going again and I sat down to around 835ish in chips with 75/150 blinds and the BB about to hit me again. Checked my Q high pocket, checked the flop and pushed the turn when it had been checked earlier—there was a Q on the flop. Sadly that turn was a K, which New just happened to have and with that, IGH.

After that miserable play what’s a boy to do? That’s right, fire up Tilt and play a SnG (non-token). At least I got to pad my roll there!

Don’t forget, tonight is the Mookie and we are still looking to cross that 80 player threshold so get over there and sign up!! Sadly I will not be there as I will be playing a live game tonight at the bar simply ‘cause it’s my birthday and they have a wonderful tradition. As the b-day boy, I will start double stacked. That nice little advantage will not last long cause as soon as we are all sitting, the TD will announce that I am the b-day boy and for the first two hours of play, everyone who buys me a drink will get a 500 chip. And Wednesdays typically have 40-60 players, methinks I will be in need of a new liver tomorrow! Dial-a-shot anyone?

6 Fucking Times!!!!

Six goddamed motherfucking times some ass caught runner-runner straights and fucking busted me out of my fucking tourneys!!! Un.Fucking.Real.

A Few Notes from Last Night

I don’t know about you, but I am freaking exhausted. Played one of the 100 FPP games on Stars for their WPT Caribbean Adventure. Game started at 9:00ish my time and I played until 2:30 am, and yes, I made it to the 10,000 FPP round two game!! Less than four hours later, time to get up and go to work.

I’m quite excited about this, as this will be the first time I have managed to win a seat to a second round game, bonus that it was a ‘free roll.’ Only handed out one major suckout all night. It was getting rather late; I was tired and had already lost about ½ my stack when I made a bad call. I was dealt ATo in the blind and called an EP min-raise. Flop gave me a ten so I bet the pot, got an all-in from EP and I called, after all, I would at least get my 100 FPP back and get to go to be. He showed Hiltons, but an A on the river sent him packing and pretty much put me back in the top 5.

One guy got me to chuckle when he called me a donkey for calling his 4x BB bet with an AKs and I hit 2 pair on the flop. This from the joker with a 76.3% VPIP. Crippled him on that hand and took him out the next orbit when he pushed with a 74o.

The one who irritated me was when there were three limpers and I had AQ s on the button so I raised it. Short stack pushed (only about 200 or 300 more) and everyone called. When the flop hit it missed me but the first to act pot bet and everyone folded. Ya know what he bet with? A flush DRAW! A J high flush Draw! What kind of a moron pushes people out of a pot with an all-in if they haven’t even made a hand yet!?! Well he missed his flush, neither his J nor his 4 hit, and shorty with 33 quadrupled up. Gotta love the morons with no concept of basic poker strategy in tourneys.

PCA round Two!!

5 handed fuckin table and I get 88 vs KK.  Un.Fucking.Real. Moved me from 2nd to fucking 7th. And only 6 move on….

Made the final table, now 2nd….

And I made it!! Whoo hoo, never made a freeroll before, wish me luck to the PCA!!!

Farewell Chipster...Octobers Suck

I’m beginning to wonder about October’s. This past week on Thursday one of my cats, Chip, passed away. You may or may not remember that just about this time last year my dog, Moto, passed away.

Chip was fairly young for a cat, she was around 12ish. Quite often, she would be on my lap as I donked away in our blogger games, sng’s or other games online. I cant recall off the top of my head what it was she had, but it slowly caused her to get thinner and thinner, slowly wasting away. The meds we got from the vet pretty much just took the spark from her, so we took her off the meds. Keeping her on the meds would have prolonged her existence, but not her life. It would have just been prolonging her death rather than increasing her life, so we let her live out the rest of her life as she had, only with a bunch of canned food (we usually only serve dry food for the cats, with the canned stuff as a special treat now and again).

During the last week, she spent much more time on my lap while I played online. She would usually just spend some quality time with me, around 45 minutes or so and then go off and do cat things, but up till the end she would usually say with me for hours, just laying there and purring. On Thursday, she got up a bit early and hopped off my lap, and with a slight wobble, walked off and went to where she likes to sleep behind the bed, and there she passed away. After not seeing her on Friday or all day Saturday, we suspected the worst, so we opened a couple cans of cat food that would normally bring her running, but when she did not show we started our search and found her where she likes to sleep (not an easy spot to get to mind you).

So now if I could ask you all to indulge me for a moment, won’t you all join me in a chant for all those who have passed.

Great Dharani

shin-myo jang-gu dae-da-ra-ni
na-mo-ra da-na da-ra ya-ya
na-mak ar-ya ba-ro-gi-je sae-ba-ra-ya
mo-ji sa-da-ba-ya ma-ha sa-da-ba-ya
ma-ha ga-ro-ni-ga-ya

om sal-ba-ba-ye su da-ra-na
ga-ra-ya da-sa-myong
na-mak-ka-ri-da-ba
i-mam ar-ya ba-ro-gi-je
sae-ba-ra da-ba i-ra gan-ta
na-mak ha-ri-na-ya ma-bal-ta
i-sa-mi sal-bal-ta sa-da-nam
su-ban a-ye-yom sal-ba bo-da-nam
ba-ba-mar-a mi-su-da-gam da-nya-ta

om a-ro-gye a-ro-ga
ma-ji-ro-ga ji-ga-ran-je
hye-hye-ha-rye ma-ha mo-ji
sa-da-ba sa-ma-ra sa-ma-ra ha-ri-na-ya
gu-ro-gu-ro gal-ma sa-da-ya sa-da-ya
do-ro-do-ro mi-yon-je
ma-ha mi-yon-je da-ra da-ra
da-rin na-rye sae-ba-ra ja-ra-ja-ra
ma-ra-mi-ma-ra a-ma-ra
mol-che-ye hye-hye ro-gye sae-ba-ra
ra-a mi-sa-mi na-sa-ya
na-bye sa-mi sa-mi na-sa-ya

mo-ha ja-ra mi-sa-mi
na-sa-ya ho-ro-ho-ro ma-ra-ho-ro
ha-rye ba na-ma-na-ba
sa-ra sa-ra shi-ri shi-ri
so-ro so-ro mot-cha mot-cha
mo-da-ya mo-da-ya
mae-da-ri-ya ni-ra-gan-ta
ga-ma-sa nal-sa-nam
ba-ra-ha-ra-na-ya

ma-nak-sa-ba-ha
shit-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ma-ha-shit-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
shit-ta-yu-ye sae-ba-ra-ya sa-ba-ha
ni-ra-gan-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ba-ra-ha mok-ka shing-ha
mok-ka-ya sa-ba-ha

ba-na-ma ha-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
ja-ga-ra yok-ta-ya sa-ba-ha
sang-ka som-na-nye mo-da-na-ya sa-ba-ha
ma-ha-ra gu-ta da-ra-ya sa-ba-ha
ba-ma-sa gan-ta i-sa-shi che da
ga-rin-na i-na-ya sa-ba-ha

mya-ga-ra jal-ma ni-ba
sa-na-ya sa-ba-ha na-mo-ra
da-na-da-ra ya-ya na-mak ar-ya
ba-ro gi-je sae-ba-ra-ya
sa-ba-ha

For a short amount of poker content, on Sunday I got into a $3 MTT on Stars. It was quite the rollercoaster ride, but of the 2,423 people in it, I went out in a miserable 20th. It was rather odd, but during my last 45 min or so in the tourney, I went up against the same big stack in six pots. Of them, I was way ahead in five of them, but nun-the-less, that bastard took the pot. Every.single.time. Lost over 250K to him in the six hands I played. Naturally I went out with pocket Aces. He bet enough to put me all in, I happily called as did the guy next to me. Me AA, the guy next to me, AK, Mr. Big Stack, QJ. Flop was J4Q, followed up with an A then a Q. I felt a rage losing to this guy six times, especially when I was ahead nearly every time and lost my entire stack to him. I damn near put my fist through the monitor. Then I realized something, I missed not having my cat with me.

Live and Learn

Well, by and large, I got raped at the tables last night. It seemed I was always fucking out kicked. The only positive note, I finally won myself a token in one of the marshmallow peep sex tourneys on Full Tilt. It’s about fracking time with one of those, I’ve been trying for a bit an never seemed to catch one. It just seems as if I didn’t have my Full Tilt groove on or something like that. I think the main thing is, I forgot about the Pot Bet button, I was always wondering about the size of some of those raises. Oh well, live and learn, and then show those mother frackers what you’ve got!!

Working on my MATH

Well I managed to bubble myself out the Hoy last night, not too bad, it was my third time playing it. Started out slow, thought I would be out before the first half hour was done, but I managed to catch a few and eventually work my way up in chips. All in all, I didn’t make too many mistakes along the way, just one bad read on Surflexus when we were down to four pretty much crippled me and I was out shortly thereafter.

On a more unusual note, I hit quads no less than three times yesterday. The first time was during one of the $3 Rebuy madness games on Stars. I was slowly bleeding off chips and was down to about 2,200 (did the instant rebuy at the start) and hadn’t yet won a pot in the first 40 min of the game. Finally I was dealt KK and made a standard 3x BB bet and had one caller. Flop gave me a set and it went check check. Turn gave me quad Kings, so I figured let’s try to keep this person in so I checked again and so did he (damn it). River was a nine so I figured I’d make a nice small bet of 1/3 of the pot hoping to make it look like a cheap steal. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when he pushed all in. I did a double check just to make sure I really had quads, then made the call. He had been holding pocket nines so that nine on the river gave him a boat, nines full of Kings. He was rather disappointed to watch that pot get shipped my way. As they say DQB!!

My next two were in the Hoy. First time I was able to limp in with 44. Flop gave me a set, so I checked, got a bet, I raised, he reraised all-in and I called. If I remember correctly, it was top two with a flush draw, but a four hit on the turn and I had no worries.

The next one, I actually missed. I had 99 in late position so I made it 300 to go (50/100) and got a raise to 600 by I do not remember who and a call by Kat. Suddenly my 99 was not looking so good and I folded. Would have hit a set on the flop and quadded on the river, that time it was just not meant to be.

I do remember seeing several more instances of quads in tourneys and sng’s last night, I get the feeling that yesterdays seed in Stars RNG must have favored quads lol.

Don’t forget the rest of this weeks games!

Tuesday: WWdN (Name) Invitational (the Name changes, bust out the host; Wil Wheaton, and the next one is named after you).
Where: PokerStars
Buy-in: $10+1
Time: 20:30 ET
Password: monkey

Wednesday: The Mookie
Where: Full Tilt
Buy-in: $20+2
Time: 22:00 ET
Password: vegas1

Thursday: WWdN: Not the (Name) Invitational (the Name changes to the 2nd place finisher, ie, Not quite good enough!)
Where: PokerStars
Buy-in: $10+1
Time: 22:30 ET
Password: monkey

Good Couple Weeks

Not too bad a run at the blogger tourneys as of late. Took down the Wheaties last week, took second in the WWdN Not last Thursday, and now in this weeks WWdN Not the Budohorseman Invitational, just when it was looking like we were preparing for the WWdN Not the Budohorseman Invitational II, nope, I had to go and win it! Congrats to Ursus Aureus, next week is yours!

This one was really quite fun. I have just quit smoking (again), so instead of lighting up, I was instead taking a drink. Frequently. I was much more chatty than usual, was playing loser than usual, but the cards were hitting me quite well, so it all worked out. Had one big suck-out on hacker when I re-raised with Hiltons and he pushed. I had a decent stack so I called and saw he was holing Ace’s. By the turn there were three hearts on the board and the river brought a bittersweet A of hearts. Sorry hacker, that was a tough one (did I mention that one of my Q’s was a heart, no, I didn’t but I’m sure you figured it out).

Made a few loose calls to pre-flop pushes with an ATs, A9s, KQs, and most of them worked out for me. I think it was the KQ that lost me some chips and put me down for a bit, but still in the top five. Made more good calls than bad ones, made some good folds and didn’t stay in too many that I had no business being in. Scratch all that, I had too much tequila and played like a total donkey, a lucky donkey.

This weekend I’ll be donking off some cash, mostly on Stars for now. I’ve been having a good run there—and putting most of it into Neteller so I can transfer it to Full Tilt later on. Still getting the feel for Tilt, I’m pretty new to that site. May play a token tourney or two and see about getting myself into one of those 20K, 250K and 500K games they have running, we shall see!

Tuesday, Wednesday, ?Thursday?

Well, don’t forget, tonight is the Wheaties, and thanks to our old bud Frist, it may be the last one for a while, let’s hope not though!

WWdN Invitational
PokerStars $10+1
Tuesday 7:30 PM Central
Password: monkey

Goin’ for a repeat of last week, let’s see if I can’t take it down again!

Followed up by The Mookie

The Mookie
Full Tilt $10+1
Wednesday 9:30 PM Central
Password: vegas1

And finish off the week with The Not

WWdN: Not the Budohorseman Invitational
PokerStars $10+1
Tuesday 9:00 PM Central
Password: monkey

Looking to finish one spot better this week, and with a bit of luck, we will actually be able to play it, we’ll just have to see if they will allow us or not…

And of course, we must all thank Senator Bill Frist. Thanks to him watching out for all of us, most of the reputable and established online poker rooms will be barring us from playing, letting us go to the smaller, here today gone tomorrow sites, or to the underground games for those of us not near a real casino. Thanks Bill, I feel safer already!!

Whoo hoo

Whoo hoo, the rush continues. Last night, our card clud had the second Omaha game (I missed the first one), and I actually won it! That makes me 4 for 4 in making the final table this month. And tonight, I finally took 1st in a WWdN. I must admit, I had a damn number of lucky draws and rivered my way on up. I’ve had more bubbles in that game than I care to count, a few cashes, but damn it was nice to finally win one. OK, it’s late so off to bed I go!

Pokery Goodness

Getting that excited/nervous feeling for Friday night. In just a few short days I’ll be up on the stage playing in the ‘Best of the Best’ tourney while about 200 others are playing in the Second Chance tourney for their shot at the big game in October. Rumor has it that we are playing for a buy-in to one of the Heartland Poker Tour games. I’m pretty sure they are out of MN, they offer satellites around the area in many of the Reservation casinos in the area. A number of their big games pay a couple 100K, so I like my odds there.

And it looks like the card club is making some changes for this year. It looks like the top nine this time will be playing for buy-in to a $1500 NLHE in the 2007 WSOP, as will the winner of the, now annual even. This time it will be for a 10-month period to match up with the WSOP schedule and then it will be an annual event. Me likey!

Last year, I missed the first 2/3 of the season, mostly because I had never heard of them before. I only had two months to play and get some points, but I made it with plenty to spare. For this six-month period, I have been in the top 9 since the start, and I actually took an entire month off, that is one month with zero points and I’m still sitting at 7th place! If I had kept my average that month, I’d be an easy 3rd place.

Well the clock has reset and we are now working on the 10-month totals, and this is month number one. So far I have only played a whopping huge three times and it looks like I am in the top 10, and with still better than a week to go in the month I should have little trouble getting into the top nine.

Oh, and one more sweet little change, on Monday’s they will be having Omaha Hi playing on a rotating schedule between two of the locations. You can be sure I will be at them, nice to get a break from NLHE every once in awhile and I could use some work on my Omaha game, as I have never played this one live before.

On the Hold ‘em front, I have been working on closing one hole in my live game, and so far it looks like I have been doing it well. Before, I was not getting paid off all that well with many of my good hands. Since I have started working on that aspect of my game, I’ve been raking in bigger pots than I had before by keeping people around longer, giving them good odds to call, even when they know they are beat, or even raising into me because they think I am weak and making a value bet. Thanks Hoy, I can credit you for helping me with that one!!

Don’t forget the upcoming games:

Tuesday night, WWdN Invitational on Stars, 7:30 PM Central Time, $10+1, password: monkey.
Wednesday night, The Mookie on Full Tilt, 9:00 PM Central Time, $10+1, password: vegas1.
Thursday night, WWdN Not the Invitational on Stars, 9:00 PC Central Time, $10+1, password: monkey.

Fuck It

What the FUCK?!!?!?! I managed to run into 2 flopped flushes and 3 flopped straights tonight, not to mention the fucktards who could not be bet off their draws, just ungoddammenunfucking real. I should just shut down and get my ass to bed, but no, I feel compelled to bet off the rest of my fucking bankroll, I’m just a fucktard on tilt now just going to make it worse, but at least I am aware of it!!

I don’t fucking get it, fucking calling down to the river with shit and catching (yes with fucking big bets) and everyone raising you fucking 10x your fucking bet, I mean what the fuck is going on, I just give the fuck up!

500K Marshmallow Peep Sex

Seems to be about time for an update. Saturday was kind of so-so. Had three tourneys running on Full Tilt, actually three sng’s. One of them, it turns out was Razz, it was supposed to be NLHE, but I guess the lines swapped just as I was clicking and not paying too much attention. Imagine my surprise when I saw myself with three cards!! Had that one been stud, I would have been ruling!!

As for the other two, one was a satellite for the 500K and the other was a marshmallow peep sex tourney. I finished 2nd in both. The one for the 500K really pissed me off as that one ran a good three and a half hours. Last hand I had two cards (don’t remember which) and we both were in it for a small raise. I flopped two pair and bet about ¾ the pot and go raised. I pushed, he called and hit his four outer for the gut-shot. He just had me covered as we had been pushing the lead between us for a while. Ah well, at least I cashed in both of them, but that $500 buy-in for the 500K would have been sweet!!

As for the live games, well I’ve only played three so far this month with two final tables, so at least I’ve got some points. I’ll need to make a bit of a run here at the end of the month to get in the top nine again, this time around the top nine are playing for a buy-in to a $1,500 NLHE event in the 2007 WSOP. It’s a sad thing, well not for me, but I’ve only played three times, with two final tables (only the final table gets points) and as of now, I’m only 30 point out of the top nine and 60 points from the top spot. All those other poor souls play at least 3-4 times a week.

Don’t forget the upcoming poker blogger madness! Tonight is the WWdN Invitational on Stars, password: monkey, tomorrow night is the Mookie on Full Tilt, password: vegas1 and Thursday night is DADI #9 also on Full Tilt, password: pokertrust. Be there!!

Raise, Re-raise, Re-reraise, All-In!!

Maybe I should be paying more attention to the ME coverage of this years WSOP. Recently I have noticed that if there is a raise, a re-raise, and the occasional re-reraise, the original raiser always goes all-in. This happened to me at least eight times yesterday and I for one just don’t get it.

For example, early on in the tourney (50/100) I look down at KK and make a raise to 300. The girl on my left re-raises to 600 and it folds around to me. I re-raise her and additional 1600 (total of 2200 each) and she declares all-in. I take about 2.6 seconds and call her. She flips up 77 and my KK turns into a straight. This happened two more times before the table was broken up. It was just unreal; every single time I said re-raise the original raiser went all-in. So tell me, is this a new trend or was it a full moon or something yesterday?

One player said they thought I was trying to buy the pots because of my bet sizes. I guess they must just play a bit different than I do, but I guess I could have been paying a bit more attention. If one of them raised, it was typically a min-raise or a 3x raise pre-flop. After that, they would typically keep throwing their initial bet into the pot, unless they hit big where they may bet 4x to 5x the BB on the river. Me, I had a weak two pair with a set potential out there so I bet half the pot to see where I stood. The guy accused me of buying the pot. Sorry, that just me, 1/3 to ½ the pot to see where I stand, the rest of you just keep betting the equivalent of the pots and keep increasing those pot odds all the way down to the river.

Tanner Evers Night

Well that sucked, before the Tanner Evers Charity Tourney on Full Tilt, I sat down to a single table SnG. Took down a nice pot or two, then called a min-raise from the BB with JT. Flopped a straight, made it ¾ of the pot to go (don’t remember the pot size) got raised, I re-raised, got re-re-raised, so I push. The guy shows two pair, KQ and catches a boat on the river. Oh well, one more try before I move to a cash game before the tourney starts.

Unreal, granted I was on flush draw, well, a royal flush draw actually, I was betting the hell out of it and got called down to the river by bottom pair, and by that I mean ducks!!! Still in it, but not by much, at least I get to work on my short stack play.

Well, took myself from the short stack and managed a 2nd place finish. Game took forever so I called an all in with a pretty weak hand, but the charity game was about to begin so I had to do it.

The charity tourney did not go so well, NewInNov took me out pretty early when he had a boat on my two pair (caught his A on the river, damn him for not representing pocket A’s lol). At least he took my chips to play heads-up, glad I could help sir. Check out Mookie’s blog for a recap of the game.

After that it was SnG fest where I moneyed in 50%, not too bad, at least I’m not down for the night!

Level 3

“You know I’m one of the best players here.” That’s what Brian ‘I see 80% of the flops’ McKenzie said to me after he took 4rd this past Saturday.

“Yeah Brian, you are up there for sure, too bad people don’t respect your raises.”

Good thing he doesn’t know that I typically set the over/under for him busting out at level 3 blinds, level 2 if he’s on his fourth tequila when the tourney starts.

This past Saturday he just kept getting unbelievably lucky and catching cards. Every. Fucking. Time. And yes, I started at his table and this time I did not make the level 3 blinds. Oh well, cant win ‘em all. At least he respects his play, me, I just like his chips.

On Sunday I made a huge mistake, one that never leads to a good night. I played a number of hands during level 1 and 2. For reasons that are not yet clear to me, for some reason during the first two levels of this tourney, a raise of 3-5 times the BB typically means that there will be 4-6 people seeing the flop with you at an 8 handed table. With 10/20 blinds a raise to 200 is pretty meaningless, and will not chase anyone out of the pot. It is not uncommon to see pots of over 2k during 10/20 blinds, and that’s with everyone starting with just 1,500 in chips.

And then something magical and mysterious happens, the blinds hit level 3 at 50/100 and suddenly people start folding their marginal/garbage hands to raises of 3-5 times the BB. I’m not sure what it is that causes this sudden shift, maybe it’s the fact that after the chip up’s, people see fewer chips at the table and are not able to let them go quite so easily. This seems to hold until the blinds hit 1,000/2,000 at which time it’s like we’ve warped back to level 1. I guess this is not quite as bad in reality as the M’s are getting a bit low for many still in, but it seems like too many are willing to go broke with garbage (ie, 48o) when they can still play a good 7 or 8 more orbits.

Shoot Me Now!!

Working on a pricing update here at work. The thing that sucks the most is I do nearly everything electronically in Excel and Access. I have just been giving our competitors pricing data—in a printed copy. There is nothing I loathe more than having to manually input half a bajillion numbers into a spreadsheet. It is just plain wrong and there will be no way I can get it done in time, I’m just not that quick with this type of thing and after about 15-20 minutes or so my brain starts to zone out when doing this type of ‘work.’

On the poker front, the past week or so has been abysmal. I’ve been busting out early in the tourneys or losing a buy-in or two at the cash tables. The cards have been just cold cold cold and I have pretty much just been blinded out of my past two tourneys. What are the chances of playing two tourneys and not taking a single pot? Actually, that’s not entirely correct, one time when I was in the BB and it was folded around to me, the SB had chosen that hand to use the restroom so I got his blind by default when his hand was mucked when the action got to him and he was not in his seat. There’s an idea, maybe I should slip some diuretics into everyone’s drinks tonight to keep them off the table so I can steal blinds to the final table…

DamnItAllToHell

Unfucking real. I am in a tourney now and in 40 hands I have not yet been dealt a pocket pair or anything better than an A5 (out of position). The two times I have actually made something, any bet, even a min bet gets folds. I am so pissed I am ready to take off the sides of the fucking PC and throw it into the middle of the fucking storm we are having. Why the fuck to I even bother with any of these fucking tourneys, I should just stick with the fucking cash games, but damnitalltohell, I just love the tourneys.

Maybe the Mookie

Managed to bubble yet again in last nights WWdN game. I put the button (I think it was skidoo) on a steal and as it turns out, I was wrong. Oh well, that’s one more bubble I can add to the series. I’d be doing all right if most of those bubbles were cashes, I always seem to screw myself on the bubble in that game, no idea why.

Well I am off work tomorrow, not for a good or fun reason, rather for getting a root canal. Since I will not be getting up at the crack of dawn, I may just well join in on the Mookie tonight and see how I fare. Sounds like they have been falling just short of the 46 people needed to pay the entire final table, so maybe one additional unexpected player will push it over that boundary line and allow the entire final table to get a payday. We’ll just have to see how it goes, wish us luck!!

Sunday 1st

Had another 1^st place finish on Sunday, so that’s two Sunday’s in a row with a 1^st, not too bad, but damn they finish late (around 1:30 AM). With it being so late in the month, I pretty much have a lock for the six-month top-nine game. That one should be fun, I play regularly with eight of them, there is only one Westsider represented so far, but there are two who have a shot of making it so we shall see over the course of this week.

As for last night, let’s just say the river showed me no love. Time and time again the donkeys would call with their bottom pair and catch runner-runner for a straight or flush or make their set. I can’t even count the number of times I made sure they were getting no better than 2:1 on their money but they would keep calling down with their 4:1, 8:1, 16:1 hands and they kept hitting. It was unreal, one of the morons with a three outer actually told me he was getting his pot odds to call, so he had too! That’s right, three outs getting 2:1 on his money on the river and he had the pot odds to call, must be that new math. While such things may be good for me in the long run, it still just makes you fume when they always fracking hit.

Anyways, on Thursday it’s off to the dentist for that root canal. It will be nice to have this over and done with, that’s for sure. Spent about a week with a swollen and infected tooth, it was not happiness. Work has been crazy during this time as we have been reorganized so I am now part of the new department. As a result, a ton of new work, passing along some old stuff, and a bajillion new meetings and reports to put out, what fun!

See ya’ll at the WWdN!!

Down to Four!

Had a pretty decent night at the tourney yesterday. I actually managed to double up during the Level 1 blinds so that got me off to a good start plus it put Mike (the guy who owns the company that runs these tourneys) on tilt right at the start. Anyhow, Mike is UTG and makes it 160 to go. Four people call when it gets to me on the button. I look down at 89s and since I’m getting at least 5:1 on my money I make the call. Both the blinds fold and Mike is stunned by all the action. Well the flop comes up 995 and Mike makes it 550 to play. It folds to me so I make it 1,100, which irritates Mike who then pushes and I call. He flips up AKs and then starts telling me what a horrible play I made calling him with that hand. So while normally I would agree that it was a bad call against him with an UTG raise, in this case I was on the button getting 5:1 so I put that down as a pretty easy call and a fairly easy lay down if the flop missed me. What do you think, good call or not (and yes, Mike is a solid player)?

Later on, during Level 3 blinds (50/100), I made a mid position raise of 400 with TT, got two callers and the BB pushed. I called and the other two also ended up pushing so I also ended up calling them as well. After all the side pots were worked out, it turns out that I had the only pair, all the A’s were in peoples hands as were ½ the K’s. That ended up working for me quite well as no one improved other than me when the board paired. It was fun having to call out “Doyle, down to four” as I was stacking all those pretty chips.

The next table was pretty nice, a couple of decent size stacks, a mid stack or two and a couple very short ones. Had one sweet hand there. Was dealt Ad6d in the CO and made it 4x BB to go (200/400) and got three callers. Flop came down 7d5d4c. I bet 2,200 and got one caller and two folds. Turn was a Js, and I was not pleased. I bet another 2,200 and Dan went into the tank. About 3 minutes later he finally mucked his hand, gotta love it when you pull off a nice bluff.

Awhile later the final table was announced, I took my seat and my cards went to shit. Actually it wasn’t just my cards, but also the play in general. I really don’t know what happened, it seems like all of a sudden people thought to themselves “Final table, I need to throw in chips with any paint or soooooted cards!” My AKs v K2o, K on the flop with a 2 on the river. 92s, sure I’ll call your 4x BB raise, they’re sooooted! Flush by the river. Over and over, it was surreal. We got down to four and I was down to my last 15,000 with blinds of 5,000/10,000 and I’m on the button with 44. What the heck, the underpairs have been working for everyone else and I know both the blinds will call. I throw in my chips and for the first time at this table, the guy who pairs his A on the flop wins. Oh well, what can you do, das pokah! Who knows, maybe tonight….

Sit In the Chair

Had a so-so day yesterday at the tables. Cashed in two of six SnG’s and bubbled the other four, grrrrr. After that (well during the last SnG anyways) I sat down for the WWdN:Not. Let me start by saying that the SnG I was playing was the longest freaking single-table SnG in history, damn near two hours long. Anyways, the Not was a good time. The hand that stands out the most is the one I played piss-poor. I had an AJ in mid-position and made a decent raise of about 3.5 BB and Katitude called me. During this hand the wife stood in the doorway behind me and was telling me about her day. Now understand that my hearing is not all that great and with the noise of the AC running I have to turn to look at her so I can hear her. So here I am, twisting back and forth throwing hundreds into the pot (flop was AxQ rainbow or something), betting ½ the pot each time and I keep getting called by Kat. So throw in chips and turn back to my conversation. Hear the beep, see another brick, bet ½ the pot and get called again. Turn back to my conversation, hear the beep, see a K on the river bet ½ the pot and get raised from 900 to 1800. I look at the screen, say fuck, realize I have to push or fold and muck my cards. The wife says, “That’s not my fault” and then leaves.

Un.Freaking.Real. There is a chair right next to me that she could have sat down in to talk, that way I could have still focused on the action at the table and carried on a conversation without any real problems. I ended up donking off about 2/3 of my stack in that hand, but at least Kat put them to good use and ended up being the Not of the tourney, so the next one is in her name. I figure she had two pair or a set, I really do not think she made the straight because I do not see her playing a QT down to the river with those bets. The only things I can put her on is AQ, AK, maybe a KQs, but I guess we’ll never know.

A Good Night

Last night I just had too much fun playing online. The WWdN was most excellent with a nice little 8th place finish. Both CJ and Wil joined us from the WSOP so that was quite nice of them to take time from their busy schedules to join us. The first table was pretty interesting with Kattitude, slb, Bobby Bracelet, ISS Spock, Hoyazo, and the LuckBox. Not too long later the empty seats were filled by SoxLover and Gracie. Hoy was the first one out at our table, followed not too long later by CJ. Sorry about that CJ, I was ahead and should have lost to the LuckBox (A7o vs. AKo, 7 on the flop but a K on the river), but I do have a theory about that. Since the LuckBox has been making the rounds there at the WSOP, I suspect that the combination of oils from peoples hands and the wifi craziness you are running into down there add up to decrease the LuckBox Radius of Influence (LBRoI). I suspect that as the number of people who handle your box increases, the LBRoI decreases as a inverse squared function. Just give it a good polish and all will return to normal.

The only other hand that I recall at the moment was courtesy of Waffles. I made a mid position raise with a KQs and Waffles pushed, I called and Waffles showed his Q3s. Waffles got his 3 on the flop and I made a beautiful runner-runner straight. I think I’ll check out my hand history tonight and see what it was that took me out.

Since it was still not too late, I decided to play a bit more for fun. Don’t ask me what compelled me to sign up for a $1 MTT at 10 PM other than I knew I would not be awake that long and just felt like donking off some chips without a huge investment. Turns out I busted out of that one three hours later in 38th. The sad thing is I could have played much longer but I was just so damned tired I couldn’t keep going on. It had been a really fun table and donated most of my stack to one of the fun ones when I called his all-in when I knew I was behind, and I’m glad I was otherwise I would have pretty much doubled up. After that hand the blinds and antes took what I had left in two or three hands. All in all, it was a very fun night.

Third

Well I had a decent game last night. It was pretty scary at first as when we came back from break I was down to 2,000 and the blinds were 100/200. I got quite lucky and was getting some decent cards along with some aggressive play and I managed to build my stack enough to get in site of the final table. Too bad the cards went so damn cold on me before the final table started; I sat down at the final with only 11,000 in chips and blinds at 1,000/2,000.

I only got to see a couple of flops before I was down to 8,000 and had to post my bb. I looked down and there was 55 looking back at me. There was on caller and then the big stack went all in against me. Since the blinds were about to go up, effectively dropping my M to one, I called—he is known for playing bs when he has a stack. He had pocket fours against my fives, and imagine my shock when I hit quads on the flop. Thanks to that I managed to keep myself going till I busted out in third.

With that finish I have plenty of points for the monthly game and it also put me into eighth place overall in the running totals, but not by much. I’ll be slugging it out with a couple of my good friends as we all struggle to make (or stay in) the top nine, which wraps up at the end of August. In September they hold the “Second Chance” tourney for those who did not qualify for the six month tourney (can you say poker cruise to Mexico in December) at which time there is the “Best of the Best” tourney for the top nine for a trip to Vegas.

I can remember last year when I started playing with this group in December. They were already half way through the September to February six month period and I actually managed to make it into the six-month game in that time. The six-month game is a two-day deep stack tourney and I actually made it about half way through day two. Personally I was quite proud of that as I had only been playing cards for less than six months. It still astounds me that with less than a year’s worth of experience, I am in the top nine of 700+ players, and all of the ones at the top have been playing for 5,10, 20 or more years.

Several of the players now know what my typical ranges are. I have been starting to use this to my advantage whenever I can to pull off the occasional bluff. It has been working out pretty well because in the past two and a half weeks I have only been busted out before the last two tables once, and sadly have had about seven bubbles. Now that I am playing the people at the table rather than just my cards, it has been giving me some help. Now if I can just get a bit better at putting them on a hand I should be able to go much further and give my game a nice boost.

Moneymaker Millions...A Donkfest of Epic Proportions

My oh my, what a donkfest that was last night. Sadly I spaced out the DADI, but I did decided to try out the new freeroll on PokerStars, the MoneyMaker Millions. There were over 9,500 people signed up to play so you know what a wild ride it would be. Before Level Two blinds were completed about 40% of the field had been eliminated.

At first I saw pretty much what I expected to see, the nimrod that would bet 300 with 10/20 blinds every time it got to him. It took all of four hands before he started to get called down and within two orbits had lost about 2/3 of his stack. He then settled down for bit and allowed a bit of more somewhat normal play to ensue, i.e. preflop raises 3x-5x BB, but typically there would still be four to six people calling it to see the flop.

Finally he got himself a marginal hand to play and he push, got two callers and by some miracle his hand held up. Having chips once again he resumed his previous play style and was with us for about two more orbits before his bottom pair with a shit kicker failed to hold.

I had not had the opportunity to play many hands as my cards were all garbage and it was nearly impossible to get a fold without going all-in, and there was at least a 40% chance of getting called if you did. By the time we got to Level 3 I was down to about 1,350 when I got an AJs in mid position, made a standard raise of 3x BB and got, you guessed it, five callers. Flop came down KTQ rainbow and there was a 200 bet into the 750 pot in front of me. That got one fold, I made it 750 to go, got one caller one more fold and the original raiser pushed (he had me well covered). I called as did the person who called my original 750. The guy who pushed was holding KTo, the other person had, get this, Q9o. Turn was a J, river a T, and my beautiful flopped straight went down to the boat on the river. The KT I can kind of understand, he probably put me on an A with my other card pairing the board so he probably figured he was ahead. But the Q9? Second pair with a gut shot calling two all-ins, well played sir.

In all, I outlasted about 60% of the field. That’s right, 60% gone before the first break. It was a truly unprecedented donkfest the likes of which I had never before seen. As for me, I can’t complain, had my hand held I would have been sitting fairly well, but the suck out on the river gave me an early night. I’ll have to try it again one day soon.

Bubbles and Senators

Well I managed to pull off yet another bubble. Actually surprised I made it as long as I did with all the crap I kept getting. Oh well, that’s the way this game goes. I felt pretty good about the hand I bust on. I was one of the short stacks, table was 5 handed and I was in the cut-off. Looked down at a KsQs and made a raise of 5k, making it 7k to go. The table folded around to the big blind, who also happened to be a new one here, and he thought and said, “I’ll put you all in.” I put in my remaining 10k and off we went, he flipped over JJ. A89 on the flop (all red), T on the turn and finally a Q on the river. For a split second I though I had it, till I saw his Q high straight. Why oh why couldn’t he make his set and give me the straight? So now that’s 5 bubbles in 7 games, I think I’m starting to lose my sanity.

Anyhow, don’t forget to write to your Senators and tell them that Sen. Frist is a putz and to vote against his proposed legislation to stop online betting. Give them an analogy they can relate to that will help them understand the skill/luck mix such as an analogy to the stock market. Remind them of all the books that can be studied, databases that can be used to track your performance that you can review to improve your game. Let them know that only a fraction of a percent fall into the “click your mouse, lose your house” category of addictive gamboooolers and find an analogy for them too—I used the day-traders. Let them know that state sanctioned gamboooooling, such as your lotteries, typically give you odds that only some numbnuts donkeyfish poker player would try to beat. And finally, say the magic “T” word. Let them know that they are missing out on potentially billions of taxable revenues and would be an easy new tax to pass. What are you waiting for, get busy and start writing!

STFU

Well, it looks like I have been running all right as of late. In my past six tourneys I’ve made two final tables and four bubbles, but let me tell you, those bubbles sting. I think that I have just managed to squeak myself back into the top nine (we have 670 players in our little circuit here) and need to stay focused to keep myself there, I should not have taken so much time off—oh well.

Anyways, last night was just one of those nights. After the break I found myself at a table that had two new players and one girl who could just not shut the fuck up. At best we did two orbits per level, and let me tell you, those blinds were eating us up. It was a good thing I managed to at least double up at that table, maybe if we could have played some god dammed cards instead of listing to our girl have to chat for 5 min, then resume shuffle, chat for 5, resume shuffle, chat for 10 start to deal, a few more comments, then finish the deal (she could not talk and do anything with the cards at the same time and of course she always had to be told when it was her turn to act, and no, she was not one of the new ones), it may have been possible to get some more chips before our table got broken up and the blinds jumped to 500/1000.

During that level of blinds I just got slowly pecked away and due to the lack of play at the previous table, did not have a stack to make a play at any of the pots short of going all in, and sadly there was more than one that could make that call and not even notice a difference in their stack whether they won or lost. The thing that sucked the most was just as the big blind was on me and the cards were dealt, the cry “Final Table” was announced. I look down to a Q3o and mucked my cards and gave my blind to the big stack, knowing that I had at least until the big blind hit me at the final table to try to outlast one of the donkeys at the table.

As luck would have it, I was placed in seat 8 at the final table. As I had prognosticated, two people busted out before the big blind got to me. Needless to say, the cards did nothing for me, didn’t even bother to look at them till I had to flip them after the river and the other two finished their betting. 95o was no help on a board of A23 Q 2. So off I went in 7th place and home for a relatively early night.

Four to Seven

Not too bad last night, went out in seventh. While normally I would be a bit more upset with such a low finish on the final table, not this time. During a bit over five hours of play, I won a total of four hands and only had two fold to me. I was getting craptastic cards all night long, but on those few occasions that I hit, I managed to get paid off on them so it was all good.

Not sure if I’ll be heading out to the game tonight. I am tempted and I do need some more points to get myself back into the top nine, as I just recently slipped down to tenth. To be honest, I’m surprised I stayed up as long as I did as I took about five weeks off (well actually more like only once a week). Have about six weeks to get myself back up there so I can play in the “Best of the Best” game at the end of August. It’s a special game for the top nine players that they do once every six months, the winner from the last one has a nice little trip to Vegas that he leaves for today…

That Was Fun

Was running a bit late to the WWdN last night, missed an orbit or two so I got to start just a bit short. Took me a bit to get going, won a few small pots and got myself back up over the starting amount. One hand that had two callers got to me in the SB so I completed figuring what the heck, they’re not great but for only 10 more…then Hoy makes it 100 to go. Buh-bye chips, I folded it as soon as it got to me. I limped one more time and Hoy did the same thing to me….at least he had a pattern.

Shortly before Level 2 I looked down at a KQs in the SB. Since it was just Hoy and me in the pot, I just limped and as expected Hoy made it 100. The flop had a K rags so I bet the pot and Hoy called. The Turn was a J so I bet again and he called and the River was yet another J. This time I checked and Hoy pulled a Hoy on me. I though about it for a minute and made the call. Hoy was playing A rag and was left with one chip, which was his all-in in the SB. Poor Hoy was out before Level 2 blinds. After that it seemed I was good in any pot that did not exceed 4x the BB, if it got over that amount it just seemed I was doomed to lose it. All in all, it was a fun game. I did have one too many by later on in the game and began playing my best drunken lemur game before eventually going out in 16th place.

After that, I naturally thought I just had to keep playing so I fired up a ring game, refreshed my drink and took about 10-15 minutes to donk off ½ my buy-in. Somehow I managed to realize that I had too much to drink to keep playing so I cut my loses and shut down the pc. Would have been better if I had shut down right after the tourney, but at least I did not lose my full buy-in.

Root Canal

Well it looks like I get to have a root canal done!! They did the preliminary work on it last week and they are getting the insurance authorization for the procedure. Guess I’ll be an indentured servant in a week or so, what fun!

Last night’s game was rather interesting. In the span of two and a half hours (the total amount of time I was in the game) by best hand was an ATo. I got only one pocket pair, 77, and they cost me several hundred chips. The lack of pocket pairs or any two decent overs was more than made up for by the seven times I was dealt Q9, four of which were sooooted. I was getting them so often I felt obligated to play them after awhile, of course they never hit. Oh, and that best hand I was dealt, you know that ATo, well that was also my last hand as I raised on the flop when an A appeared and it folded to the button who pushed and I called (by chance we had exactly the same amount of chips). He showed A6o and spiked a 6 on the river.

Don’t forget that the WWdN is tonight on PokerStars! Though a portion of our brethren is still in Vegas, a larger portion has returned so we should have a fairly decent turnout this week. Hope to see you there!

What a Weekend

Saturday I got to play tech support. One of my coworkers needed help with her PC and get her VOIP set up. After getting everything together and finding a power strip it looked like we were good, with the exception of having no mouse. I was hoping I would be able to muddle my way through without it, but it seems that getting the PC running was not in the cards.

Turns out, Windows would not even boot, not even in safe mode! What’s a person to do? I had them find me the system disc’s that came with the PC. The restore CD’s were all packaged together in a plastic bag. That’s right, all of them just thrown together in a plastic bag. They were so scratched up that they were unreadable. It also turns out that they got rid of the CD from their broadband provider that had the drivers for their DSL modem. Someone had told them that all the stuff from Yahoo that was included with the drivers on the disc was full of spyware that would slow their system down so they just trashed it.

So next weekend the saga will continue as I track down a mouse, keyboard, and Windows XP and hopefully get that sucker up and running. I should have her get the drivers and burn them to a CD while at work so we can get their broadband up and running.

Sunday was yard work fest. It was way too hot and muggy if you ask me, but the weeds were getting out of hand. Spent way too many hours out there for my comfort level. It was probably a good thing that I set up the min collapsible pool last weekend. I think it’s about 10 feet in diameter and about 3 feet deep or so. It was nice to take a dunk in the pool, even had the company of Guinness in the pool. Guinness our Rottweiler, not the beer, though that would have been nice too!

Bubbles

Don’t you just love being the bubble? That’s right, you guessed it, yours truly was last nights bubble boy. I was hoping to double up against the big stack again; he had been playing a lot of hands and making too many raises and all-in calls, though sometimes he did actually have it. Anyhow we were five handed and I was holding pocket nines. I led off with a standard raise and then he reraised me so I just pushed. He was holding Big Slick and with the A on the flop I knew I was done. So off to the bar I went and Nancy the bartender was kind enough to pour me a Bacardi and diet, on the house.

Looks like this weekend I’ll be playing tech support for a friend with massive computer issues so it looks like I will not be hitting any of the live games. I actually think it may be nice to have a weekend without wanting to pound my head through the wall after taking a bad beat or a major suck-out. Instead, I’ll get to approach stroke levels as I try to figure out why the hell the computer is not doing what it should be doing. Wish me luck!

4th

Well I had a decent night on Monday, took 4th in the tourney. The follow up on Tuesday was not quite so good, got down to two tables but lost a huge pot pretty early on that crippled me. Oh well, das pokah. After busting out I sauntered over to the bar to finish my beer and catch the last 10 minutes of the World Cup. That first goal by the Italians in the last two minutes of the second over-time was just amazing. The next one that followed less than a minute later was not quite as impressive as the Italians had that poor German goal tender surrounded.

The fireworks were alright, the bar where we were playing had a direct line of site to the show, so that was cool. The TD gave us all a 20 min break to watch the show, but the blinds had to stay on the clock so we all faced the brutal 200/400 to 500/1000 jump in blinds when we got back. To help make up for it the TD announced that anyone who spent $10 at the bar during the next 30 min would get a bonus 1000 chip, not an easy task considering almost everything was on special for the 4th!! Everyone was fine with that, gotta keep the bar happy after all!

Gonna have to make another crack at a final table tonight, haven’t been playing in the live games as much over the past month, and when I have, I’ve been running cold. So here’s to turning on the heat and taking this one down tonight!

Quit Being Pissy

Another lousy weekend at the tables. Down a buy-in and two tourneys without a final table, ho-hum. Saturday was irritating because I made it down to the last two before going out in 12th when my KQs lost to pocket 4’s. Went to the bar until a spot opened at the cash table and the woman bitched at me for being pissy. At the cash table, I got my buy-in and there were a couple of stacks there, didn’t win a single pot. That’s right, not a one. Nothing but drawing hands and never made a pair. Any pot I was in had a stack that would call or raise simply because they could. Back to the bar and hear ‘quit being pissy’ again. I guess I was ruining her night sitting on the corner and being quiet rather than chatting it up with her and her friend.

Sunday was about the same. Just wasn’t getting the cards and the draws were missing and it was tough to induce a fold at the table I spent most of my night at. The blinds were up to 500/1000 and I was sitting on about 5500. When the BB got to me, the button min raised me. I figured he was trying to steal and I was holding a J9s, so I figured wtf, push. Turns out the button also had 5500 and he called. He was on a steal with Q7o, but since his raise was damn near ½ his chips he had to call. Blanks to the river and out I went.

As I head to the bar, there she is with her friend and I tell her I just busted out. ‘Quit being pissy.’ I was just going wtf. I just fucking busted out of the tourney less than 4.2 seconds ago!! Guess I should be doing cartwheels of joy the instant I bust out of a tourney.

‘You should just play to have fun, if it’s not fun quit.’
‘Everyone gets bad cards and loses so quit being pissy.’
‘I’m here to be social and have fun.’

Sorry, I play to win, and when I don’t I will be irritated, i.e. pissy, for a bit. The Sunday hand I busted out with I figured I was on a coin-flip at best. I was not upset by the play or the way it turned out, but I was still upset to lose.

Sadly, she is not there for the cards, she is there for the social aspect. It really sucks when she dumps one, two, or three buy-ins having fun. I for one am a bit better than breakeven at the cash games, but when you add on her fun, we are way the fuck behind.

She says she loves the game, so do I. Problem is, she loves the game as a vehicle and I love the game for the game. So I guess that means that once again tonight I’ll get bitched at for being pissy.

I'm not your DADI

Well the DADI was a fun time last night. Didn’t catch anything all night, but I managed to hang on till a little after break. After managing to get myself down to a nice small stack, around 1500ish I found myself in ep with KQo and pushed. Drizztdj called and turned over JJ. Hit a Q on the turn but the J on the river sent me to the rail. After that I managed to bubble in two six max sng’s.

It was just not a good poker night in general. After the second time that night that my Aces got cracked by marginal drawing hands I think I poured myself too stiff a drink. I managed to donk it up quite well in that second sng, don’t really recall how I went out in that one. To wind things off I sat down at a 25NL ring and continued to play the same. Don’t ask me how, but before I was down by 10% I realized I was too tired and too drunk to keep playing, so as soon as I finished my smoke, I shut down Stars and headed up to bed.

The only decision for today is; tourney, sng, or grind it out in the ring games…

One bit of good news though, I finally managed to successfully pull off my first Hoy and Reverse Hoy. Ya just gotta love that Hoy!!

Otis!!!

I hear that Otis has the difficult task of spending the next 10 weeks or so in Vegas. It seems he has been given the job of spending his days and night with Dr. Pauly and Grubby hitting the buffets, going to the Hooker Bar and paying for lap dances by strippers. Oh that and he is covering the WSOP for PokerStars on their official blog. Look for the feeds on the right and click them so Otis knows we care!!

Hate this Fracking Game

Unreal. That is all I can say. Get into a ring game, keep bouncing up and down between our buy-in. Finally get to 1.5 buy-ins and within two hands down to .5 buy-ins. Why? Cause some fuckers keep calling the pot sized bets to the river with their bottom pairs and catching their set or second pair on the river. KK v 93o, a three on the flop and a 9 on the river. No less than 8 OESD/FD’s failed to make either one. Open-ended STRAIGHT FLUSH DRAW fails to appear, and loses to JJ, but as we already know jjok. Left with .3 buy-ins, the poker Gods just waited for me to get to 1.5 buy-ins then started pissing all over me, I hate this fracking game and I vow never to play it again, or at least until tomorrow night, whichever comes first.

Nut Flush and Boats

<rant>What’s up with me making my nut flush with the card that makes the other guy a boat? That’s two for two now and I for one fail to see the humor in that. Oh well, what can you do, I hate this game so I guess I’ll head out to a live game and get my ass handed back to me lol!</rant>

Free Guinness anyone?

Well busted out rather late in the tourney last night, but I stuck around for a bit to chat it up and watch the final table. Pretty much no sooner than that final table started Don walked up to me and asked if I wanted to get into a cash game, as they needed just two more people. I told him I was pretty tired and only had $10 on me, but he said that $10 is good. Eventually I finally agreed and sat down with him, Jen, Pat and one of the bartenders (the other one needed to wait for the final table to finish up so she could close the tabs).

Since I was tired, I did a pretty good job of donking off my chips. I actually started off pretty good cause my first hand was JJ and as we all know, JJok. Made a nice little profit on that hand and the proceeded to give it all away, and then some. I think Pat was the first to bust out and then the TD of the tourney, Wayne, decided to join us. I was down to my last 4 and some change when I woke up with something and made a nice little raise and everyone called. The flop came and I made a nice little bet that kept all but Jen. The turn improved me and I pushed and that got rid of the bartended (I think it was Melissa). The river neither helped nor hurt me and I pretty much quadrupled up on that hand.

Jen busted out soon after and that opened up a spot for the other bartender Nancy. Nothing really stands out for me about that little side game other than both of our lovely bartenders both did a re-buy or two (that caught the attention of Corey who decided to a buy-in and join us) and when you are playing with them, the Guinness flows freely. All I can say is the Guinness is good, and free Guinness is just hawsome!

I think by about 1 am or so, I was exhausted, we lost a couple players and finally we broke it up. It was nice to cash out for four buy-ins made all the better by free Guinness from the tap!

Make's ya and Break's ya

Well I don’t know about you, but I for one went out in a blaze last night. During Level 3 not too far from break, a new kid sat down at our table. I for one had never played against him before and I think only of our regulars had played with him once many moons ago. Well just before break the blinds were 50/100 and there was a mid-position raise to 300 or 400 and it folded around to the new kid, who pushed (he was short stacked, about 1500 in chips). The blinds folded and the original raiser called. He flipped over AdKd and the new kid flips 74o. Nothing hits but a 7 and the kid doubles up. He just wanted to double up before break or bust out early.

About three hands after break I’m in late position with several limpers I look down at As3s and for some reason made the call. The kid then made a min raise and everyone called, me included, the pot ended up with about 2,400 in it I think (I don’t recall if the SB joined us or not). Anyhooo, the flop came up KsTsX and the kid made a bet of 600 that I called. The river gave us a Jx and the kid made it 1200 to go. I took some time to think about this one (the three rum and diet’s no ice made counting the chips and doing the math a bit more problematic than usual), but I was getting 4:1 on my money so I made the call. The River was a Js so I made my nut flush, checked it to him and he put in his last 800 so I called and flipped my nut flush. Then this kid who had been playing marginal hands (as I found from other’s who had been playing him during the break) showed his pocket kings. Kings full of Jacks—wouldn’t you know he would get the one spade that would get me to call and make his hand at the same time.

Next hand I get AcQc and push my last 900, get the laughing calls of ‘he’s on tilt’ and then find myself looking at a reraise by Ed who keeps everyone else out and he flips pocket rockets. And AxQxTx and I am one card shy of drawing dead. A K or J fail to show up on the turn and I go join my fellow railbirds at the bar with a nice new rum and diet, no ice. I really do hate this game, can’t wait to see how I do tonight!!

The Thursday Tourney

Last night was fun, even if I didn’t make it all that deep into the tourney. I think Adam must have been on quite the lucky roll, he just could not miss a straight. 24o, sure, why not? 95s, he could fill it in. 68o, you got it, straight filled in. It was unreal, he could only lose with overs.

When Big T made it to the table with a short stack he announced that he wanted to go home and went all-in blind the first three hands he was dealt. Since he kept doubling up he had to start making smaller bets so people would call him. He doubled up twice more before he finally got his wish and the cards quit hitting him every.single.hand.he.played.

I did mange to build myself quite a stack at that table, seems no one wanted to call pot-sized bets on the river. And when they would min-raise my bets, I would triple their stupid min-raise and got them to fold. I would only lose if I went to showdown because the cards just seem to hate me in the later portion of the month. Haven’t quite figured that one out yet.

I think I just might get myself on Full Tilt this weekend and try out one of those marshmallow peep sex tourneys I keep reading about. Hope to see you there!

PokerStars Beta

I’ve been playing on the PokerStars Beta version of the software and I must admit, I like it a lot. The new skins are nice (though I think the skins should also apply to the lobbies), they have some nice new deck options and best of all, the resizable tables (once again I think this should also apply to the lobbies)! With my little 19” CRT monitor (I know, I know) the ability to make the adjustments necessary to the table sizes to get rid of that overlap is a blessing. So far, so good, and it’s nice that the Beta also does the auto-updates as well so you don’t need to keep checking back to see if there is a new beta available. Well done Stars!!

Calling Station

Haven’t been playing much poker over the past few weeks, no reason in particular just seems to have happened. Anyways, I think I’ll be heading out to the bar tonight to sit in on the regular Thursday game. The play at this bar is pretty much suck-out city, plenty of people who will play just about any two down to the river on the off chance that their 82o may well fill to a straight, or maybe they will catch trips, or two pair, or heck, high card 8. The sad thing is just how fracking often this happens. Must be the numbers thing, so many people doing it that someone is always getting their junk paid off.

There is one girl there that I just love to play with though, a wonderful remarkable calling station. Any pair or any Ace she will take to the river. One time she called me all the way down to the river, and I was betting it up the whole way. I had KQs, the board ended up something like KQTQA, so I was sitting on a boat, Q full of K and she was calling my bets all the way down, I think she put in about ½ to 2/3 of her stack into the pot. I was wondering if she maybe had KK, AA, or AQ, but no she did not. She turned over ducks!! That’s right, with that board she called pocket 2’s down to the river and put in a huge chunk of her stack. About the only time I ever see her fold is when someone goes all-in.

She is just so good to the few of us who have recognized this pattern in her. Ace high, call to the river, happily donking off ½ her stack. The nice thing is that know if you get the river and have nothing, you will be looking at an Ace high or better. I tested this theory once. The board had a potential straight on it and I was pretty damn sure she didn’t have it, so I made a big bet on the river (I had missed that straight but bet to represent) of about 2x the pot, which was a good chunk of her chips. She of course called and showed the tourist. She played her A high and hit a 7 on the turn so she just kept donking off her chips and that’s when I knew she would be a good future donor for the rest of time.

One of these days I hope she joins us in one of the cash side games after she busts out of the tourney. That would be just so damn sweet!!

Eventful Weekend

Well this past weekend started with the charity tourney on Friday night. We ended up with 148 people there and brought in $11,980 after the prizes were paid out. Unfortunately for me, my cards at that game seemed to set the tone for the rest of the weekend. You know the type, mostly garbage cards and when you get something marginal you find yourself going to river no matter the bet, and usually find yourself behind once you get there. And then on those three hands you actually do did, you get absolutely no action. Oh well, I busted out of that one just before the second break started.

Saturday, my brother, nephew and I took dad out to the ball game. Saw the Brewers take on Cleveland, and they actually won it in the ninth. I must admit, I do not do baseball. I needed to confirm that it was the game where people swing a stick and try to hit a ball thrown in front of them. In all, it wasn’t too bad. The new Miller Stadium is very nice. Our seats were pretty much behind home plate and slightly to the left in row 13. It was nice to see everything nice and close and as an added bonus, there was easy access to the bars serving Leinies.

Sunday was the big blogger tourney on PokerStars. I think there were 2,247 people in this one, I ended up busting out 170th. Cards were just plain garbage the whole time, I’m actually surprised I lasted as long as I did. Only got pocket pairs about 8 times and the best of those were Jacks. Oh well, there’s always next year!!

Memorial Tourney this Friday

Well, this Friday we have the John Crawford Memorial Tournament to play. There are a decent number of people who have pre-registered/paid for the event, so it looks like it’s going to be a good one. Since this is a $50 tourney with $25 re-buys and a $25 add-on, I set the over/under at $108.25 per person at the end of the re-buy/add-on period. MsJoanne took the under and I have the over. The prize is John’s seat in the WSOP. The entire package is: $1,500 buy-in, $500 spending cash, hotel, and airfare.

If this is like all the other tourneys that we have had, we should have a ton of people show up at the last minute to sign up for the tourney. I would be surprised if there is less than 100 people at this one, because if that is about right and my over/under is damn close, then that will be about $10,825 that will go into a trust fund of John’s kids college expenses once they hit that age.

I only know of a few people who will not be there. The reason for them not being there just makes me sick. One of them has a daughter ‘graduating’ from pre-kindergarten. That’s right, you heard it, graduating from pre-kindergarten. Come on, wtf?!?! I had graduation from high school and from college. What’s up with people nowadays? Graduation from pre-k, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, what have we come to? Hell, I think we should celebrate the fact that I got home today without killing that fucktard that made a right hand turn from the left turn only lane across 3 lanes of traffic so they could be two cars ahead. I should probably be more understanding, after all, that fucktard was probably rushing home to celebrate his kids graduation from 1st grade and had to give him his graduation present: Grand Theft Auto III, Hot Coffee Unlocked!

Update: It was a successful tourney and it looks like just under $12,000 was raised for his kids and put into a trust fund for them. Just hope we can do this again next year!

MTT "1/2 Life" Theory

I have several friends who play mostly home games and our small live tourneys who have asked me how long it takes to play some of these huge MTT’s on-line. I told them that for any MTT of 1,000 or more plan on about 4.5 hours. They asked 4.5 hours per thousand? I said no, about 4.5 hours for 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 or more.

My theory goes something like this; during the first hour you will lose between 50-65% of the players, same thing with the second hour. From the third hour on, you will lose between 65-75% of the players. By midway through hour four, the blinds and antes are so huge, it is very difficult to keep your M above 10, so there tends to be quite a bit more pushing with marginal hands so you do not get blinded out.

As a note, I play mostly low limit tourneys on-line (i.e. buy-ins of $20 or less, fees not included). For those of you who play higher limits does this hold true? For that matter, what do you think of this theory for the low limit tourneys; does this seem about right to you?

I also caution them about the first hour. I guesstimate that on average, at least one person per table will push during the first orbit. I remember getting KK on the third hand of a tourney so I made a standard raise of 4x BB for a total of 80 and the guy to my left did his math (80+20+10=110) and figured it was time to push. He did get two callers but I decided to fold. The first pusher had JJ, the second AQo, and the last one had 77. I don’t remember which one hit, it was either a J or a Q, but just like that we lost two players. Our new chip leader did not last to the end of the first hour and was quite generous with his chips. Nothing worse to me than getting an excellent hand during the first 15 min of play cause it seems like any raise will get someone to push, and that monkey will have 86 soooooted and inevitably catch their two pair to take it down. Make it past hour one and then you can start playing some cards.

Now do yourself a favor and go visit a beautiful poem, or ode by AlCantHang, it brought a tear to my eye as I'm sure it will to yours as well.

20th

Last night I played in one of the MTT’s on PokerStars and went out in 20th of 1,596. I was playing a good game, had my ups and downs but the hand that took me out almost made me puke. I had KcTc in the SB and called. The flop had a K and two clubs and the BB, who was short stacked, pushed. The chip leader at our table called, as did I. The turn gave me a T for two pair and I bet and was called by the stack. River put down a 2c and I bet 25k. The big stack pushed and I called. He showed AcJc and both me and the BB were sent to the rail, and the big stack of our table was now the big stack in the tourney (I had been in 5th).

I told my friend, MsJoanne, about this and she asked if I had been worried about the Ace. All I could say was, no, not really. I had to look at it this way, of the 13 clubs in the deck, five of them are out, and only one of them could beat me. He would also have to have two clubs, one of which had to be the Ace in order for him to win. If I had laid it down my M would have been about 3 or less, but the next level blinds would have me pushing every hand. If I won, I would have been the tourney chip leader with around 425,000 or so, but instead the other guy now had around 465,000. With only one card in the deck that could beat me, the only foolish thing to do was fold. I’m pretty sure any flush would be calling or pushing. In fact, if he had re-raised me, I would have pushed (course his re-raise would have left me with no choice for all intents and purposes).

Other than that, things went quite well and I think I played some good cards. I made a bad call or two, a bad fold or two, other than that I was playing some good selective-aggressive poker. The scariest part was after the second break when the cards just refused to work with me. I went two blind levels with only one pot each and didn’t see more than six flops between those two levels. A few times late in the game I had a rollercoaster ride of 100,000 down to 35,000 and back up, three times in all if I remember correctly, until I hit 178,000 and pretty much stayed there until the end no too long after.

To date, this was my deepest finish in a MTT, and the first time where I really had a good shot of making the final table, or taking it down for that matter. I can only hope that one day the poker gods will smile upon me once again and allow me to make it even deeper. Then again, it might be because all I drank was water this time and left the booze on the shelf….

Sweet Short-Handed Play

I decided to pass on the 180 person sng’s and stick to the single table ones. I started with a nice warm up, a $5+.50 nine person sng and finished 3rd. Then I decided to track down one type a friend of mine had told me about, a six person $12+1 sng. So I sat down, played it and took 1st. Well that was sweet so I decided to try another, and took 1st again. Well, since it was now double sweet, how could I possibly resist one more? So I fired up yet another one and this time took 1st again!

I always considered myself to be a decent player at a short-handed table, and a pretty good heads up player at my level of play. I’m not sure if this confirmed that theory or if I just happened to find myself up against some really bad players, especially heads up. In fact, every time heads up started, I found myself to be out stacked by about 3:1 and in one case by more than 5:1. Fortunately for me, they usually would let me at least limp in from the small blind, and most of them did not seem to realize you could do more than a min raise. And a pot sized bet—forget it! I found a formula that worked well there, any raise of 4x the BB would get a fold about 75% of the time, a pot sized bet, usually on the turn or river (assuming there had been previous betting) would buy you the pot about 95% of the time, and a raise or re-raise of 3x their original bet got folds to me 100% of the time.

It will be interesting to see if this trend continues. It’s probably just Variance tossing her hair back and giving me that seductive stare, just trying to lure me onto a path of destruction and –EV play. What can I say, I’m weak and I will follow her for a while. If I’m lucky, I may have actually just found that sweet spot for my level of play. Time will tell!

For tonight

I think that tonight I'll be playing some sng's and then move on to a ring game or two. Right now I'm debating if I want to tackle another one of the 180 person sng's or just play a couple single table ones. So far I've done all right with the 180's, cashed in about 1/2 of them, but sadly two of them were not the final table, so overall I'm still negative on them. I guess we'll see once I get home and how we are for time.

Well, my friend had fun in the last WWdN and then we moved onto a ring game. She keeps telling me how she hates the ring games and would prefer to stick with the sng's and the tourneys. While I too prefer the sng's and tourneys, it did not take me long to realize that if that is all you play, it makes for an excellent way to piss away your bankroll. The ring games are defiantly where the money is. While it is too soon for me to tell for sure, I think her main problem is that she plays the ring games the same way she does the tourneys. There is some difference in how you have to approach these two very different styles of Hold'em if you want to remain profitable.

At least she's a lot closer than Sue is, Sue plays tourneys live but opts for Limit Hold'em online. Sadly, she also tries to play the game the same when for all intents and purposes; they are two completely different games!

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Donking on the WWdN

Last night was a fun WWdN. I convinced my fried MsJoanne to join us, so I spent about ½ my time sweating on her, and as a result, play quite poorly early on. She went out in 44^th, so not too bad for her first time there. I lasted a bit longer and went out in 24^th (I think, we were down to 3 tables). After that we hopped onto a micro NLH game where I just had some fun donking off chips while drinking some Dt. Mountain Dew and tequila.

Next week I think it will be time to focus a bit more on the game, haven’t cashed there is quite some time. Heck, why aim so low? Next week I plan not only to win it, but also take Wil out and get the naming rights for the following weeks tourney!! So There!

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The name is DuMass...

Last night, I started at an interesting table. For some strange reason, one guy decided he would spend the first level just trying to buy all the blinds. That translates to betting 200-400 on every hand at the 10/20 blinds. Of course all that meant was that after an orbit or two people would call then raise him on the flop and he would end up losing. He did get one person out and got a caller to fold when he raised her (she should have re-raised him from the start) and got himself a nice stack to keep up his hyper-aggro (stupid) play. Eventually he got all in with her before the blinds went up…it went something like this…

Him: Raise, 300.
Her: Re-raise 600.
Him Call.
Flop: K Q A
Him: 600
Her: Call
Turn: Q
Him 1200
Her: Call
River: Brick
Him: All-in
Her: Call
Showdown:
     Him: Q full of A
     Her: K full of Q
Him: Cool—starts to scoop the pot.
Table: No, she won it.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Her three Kings beat your Three Queens.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: The pair only counts if the trips are the same.
Him: But I have the Ace’s.
Table: Sorry man.

Two hands later he went all in with his 97o UTG and lost his last 340.

About two weeks ago I saw a hand that I will probably never see again. Two people in, Flop is 2c3c5c and betting goes on. Turn is a brick and they check. River is 4c and they bet, raise, re-raise re-re-raise and call. She showed an Ac5h and he had a 6c8c. We were all shocked to see two straight flushes in the same hand. It was funny when he started pushing the chips to her before we stopped time to let him know that his 6 beat her A. He called himself an idiot for not realizing that and just habitually pushing to the A ‘high’ flush. The TD bought the table a round to celebrate this most rare occurrence.

As for me, I’ve had a pretty decent run online. In my past six sng’s I’ve bubbled 3 times and finished 1st three times so all in all not too bad. Now if I can just keep that going along with ring game winnings my bankroll should be pretty healthy by the end of the month.

Nimrods

<rant> Don’t you just love nimrods? There is something about people who just don’t seem to grasp basic poker strategy that makes you feel like you’re going to have a stroke. It seems to be happing more lately in my local tourney circuit. Sometime after break around level 4-6, the field starts to thin. Pre-flop there are let’s say 4 people in and then the flop is laid on the board. Short stack decides it’s time to push and the other three call. Then on either the turn or river some nimrod will make a very sizeable bet and drive the other two out of the pot. At least 50% of the time the all-in will now quadruple up and of those, at least 50% of the time one of the folders would have taken him out.

What is so hard to grasp about the concept of everyone checking down to increase the chances of getting one more person out of the tourney and moving everyone one-step closer to the final table? I can see hitting and then making a min-bet to start building a small side pot that may be called to the river for the sake of building a few more chips, but these morons will make huge bets (about the size of the pot or more) and just drive people out cause they finally hit something.

My best guess is that these are the people who have hear the word ‘isolation bet’ and are now applying the word without understanding the concept. I expect these people are the same ones who then the blinds are 10/20 and then someone raises 100 figures they are getting 130:1 pot odds on their money. I wish these people would learn the concept of the big words they know before applying them incorrectly. Well, maybe not that last one, I like it when they don’t know how to calculate their odds correctly or apply them.</rant>