Small victory in my work life today as I received an email this morning saying that we will be going to "summer business casual" attire. What does that mean? Khaki shorts are allowed! Sweetness. It's about time. Working in regular business casual (or even worse, suits) is sooooooo overrated, esp in a corporate environment where you don't interact with customers/clients in person. So, I'll be in a much better mood starting tomorrow.
Now there was an interesting discussion regarding A-rod in last night's game. Here's an excerpt from an article on mlb.com.
With the Yankees grasping at desperation to end a month-long slump that had seen them lose 18 of 23 games leading into Wednesday's game, Rodriguez saw fit to refer to schoolyard tactics in the ninth inning. Rodriguez ripped a clean two-out single to center off reliever Scott Downs, scoring the Yankees' seventh run.
Jorge Posada followed with a sky-high popup to the left side of the infield, and as Rodriguez passed third baseman Howie Clark, Rodriguez made a verbal sound -- Rodriguez said he said, "Ha," while Clark insisted he heard, "Mine" -- in the ear of the infielder.
Thinking he'd been called off, Clark backed away from the ball, which dropped for a run-scoring single. Jason Giambi followed with a two-run single to center that put the game on ice for the Yankees, who open a three-game series at Fenway Park on Friday.
Um... wow, that's dirty. I personally think that's such a petty tactic and there are unwritten code of conducts in sports where you just don't do certain things... Like in pickup basketball, I always see one or two idiots try the call-out-for-the-ball-to-confuse-the-opponent move... now once in a while, there are also clowns that fall for it but regardless of which team I'm on, I always hated that. If you want to steal the ball, earn it. Block the shot, grab the rebound, steal the pass/dribble, but trying to capitalize on the confused opponent is just cheap. But, I see the argument. The other guy shouldn't fall for it.
A couple of years ago, I was playing live poker somewhere (can't remember if it was at some home game or at the casino - PAPT boys, don't sweat, it's not you guys) and this one guy goes, "I wish I could see what everyone else had and what the next card was." I asked him "why?" His response? "So then it would be so much easier to win!" I just let it go at the time but in my mind, I thought to myself, is this kid retarded? While you're at it, why don't you just try cheating. And hell, while you're at it, just try cheating your way through life you moron. Well, that was my thought process. I mean what fun would poker be if you could see everyone's hole cards AND you knew what cards were coming? Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you go join the 7yr olds shooting hoops in the neighborhoods, block their shots, score on them and then pat yourself on the back? Isn't that the same thing? Unfair advantage, that's what it is.
But I was also wondering, is that what some would consider "Hey, I'm doing whatever it takes to win and remember, winning isn't everything, it's the only thing!" Well, yeah... but I always thought there was a caveat to the statement... you know, I'll do whatever it takes to win, as long as it's fair and ethical. So, was A-rod doing whatever it took to win a game? Or did he violate this unwritten code of conduct? And to translate that onto the poker table, where do you draw the line? What if you saw someone's hole cards? Would you pretend not to see it? This is where the line, to me at least, gets iffy. As hypocritical as I may sound, I will pretend not to see it but also have it in the back of my head of what I saw. In other words, it's the player's job to keep their hole cards hidden. If someone was careless enough that I could see those cards, then that's his fault, in my opinion. Do I consider that dirty? Kind of... But I still don't feel that that's the same as being able to see everyone's cards and knowing what cards are coming... it's a tough call. So where would you draw that line?
Should you be able to do whatever it takes to win, even if that was unethical or considered breaking some unwritten code of conduct? Or would breaking rules be part of the "edge" that you seek to gain? If you have any thoughts, please weigh in. I'd love to hear it. And where would you draw the line?
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Mookie, a$$holes, and link update
Ok, let me start off by saying that I finally added my blogroll to the side. I think there are approx 25+ blogs that I monitor and visit each time they are updated. It's been looooooong overdue so sorry for not updating that and paying respects where they are due. I'd list them here but I guess there's no point. It's on the right hand side...
As for the Mookie, unfortunately, I have nothing exciting to report. The blinds start escalating so fast on those so it really becomes a push fest towards the end. Not that I'm saying that's bad or anything. I mean I guess most tournaments are that way anyways but I guess that's why it's always hard to come up with interesting hand analysis because it's not quite as deep. Bayne raised from EP, I pushed all in with my QQ and considering he was getting approx 2-1 odds, he called and flopped an ace and that's how my night ended. Unfortunate, but nothing I can do there.
This is gonna be a quick post from me today. Well, after the Mookie, I donked around in low limit Omaha hi/lo which was almost a joke as to how bad the players were. I mean I know I am bad because beyond the basic principles, I don't really know any Omaha strategy. But surrounded by donks who don't even know that, it was easy money. Well, after a little while, I started getting bored playing one table of no thought omaha (no thought because like I said, surrounded by donks, what is there to strategize?), so I played 1-2NL 6max... and I ran into this a-hole after this hand...
FullTiltPoker Game #2548871259: Table Bardstown (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:48:03 ET - 2007/05/31
Seat 1: RecessRampage ($218.35)
Seat 2: timabland ($46.10)
Seat 3: Drac329 ($78.35)
Seat 4: Skater87 ($198)
Seat 5: Roundelay ($68.15)
Seat 6: Parcheman ($138.10)
Skater87 posts the small blind of $1
Roundelay posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [9s Ts]
Parcheman folds
Parcheman stands up
RecessRampage raises to $7
timabland folds
Drac329 folds
Skater87 folds
Roundelay calls $5
*** FLOP *** [9c 9h 8s]
Roundelay checks
RecessRampage bets $10
Roundelay calls $10
*** TURN *** [9c 9h 8s] [4s]
Roundelay checks
RecessRampage checks
*** RIVER *** [9c 9h 8s 4s] [3d]
Roundelay bets $20
RecessRampage raises to $201.35, and is all in
Roundelay calls $31.15, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $150.20 returned to RecessRampage
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [9s Ts] (three of a kind, Nines)
Roundelay mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot ($134.30) with three of a kind, Nines
Roundelay is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $137.30 | Rake $3
Board: [9c 9h 8s 4s 3d]
Seat 1: RecessRampage showed [9s Ts] and won ($134.30) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 2: timabland didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Drac329 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Skater87 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Roundelay (big blind) mucked [Jd Jh] - two pair, Jacks and Nines
Seat 6: Parcheman didn't bet (folded)
Talk about a badly played pocket jacks... well, it was all good until this guy started talking shit about how I could raise with 9Ts from UTG+1... and generally, I don't accomodate these idiots by responding but I was in a mood so I was like "hey, I'm not the one that misplayed my hand." And THAT set him off. lol... he went nuts about how stupid I was for raising 9Ts from EP (dude, it's 6 handed and it's not like I do it all the time). And maybe that was a dumb move on my part (I don't think so, it's just a part of my mixing it up) but his smooth call on JJ from the BB is dumber. I mean I know you thought you had a monster hand but how do you not define that by reraising, considering you are gonna be out of position the whole time. Even worse, what are you doing just smooth calling the flop??? Are you trying to be sneaky? Or stupid? My "standard c-bet" looking bet was designed to let you raise but you smooth call... Great move of being sneaky but way to not find out where you stand. He checks the turn and my check behind him is a clear rope-a-dope... Nice river bet but even nicer river call. Was that the first time you thought you were behind or did you think you were still ahead? What would I reraise you with at that point? I was only there for a short while, I haven't gotten out of line, what did you think I had? TT?
Personally, I don't have too much of a problem with the way he played this hand but playing JJ like that from out of position to me is a dicey proposition. But again, I didn't have a problem until he starts mouthing off about playing heads up 10-20NL, how he has a monster bankroll, etc... dude, I don't care. The funniest thing was, he actually came in 14th in the FTOPS ME. So, in other words, he must be a good player. So what's a player like that going crazy? It's not like I caught runner runner to beat his hand when we both put our money all in preflop. Sometimes, I just don't understand how people lash out because they don't play like robots... Even Phil Hellmuth thinks you complain too much, Roundelay.
As for the Mookie, unfortunately, I have nothing exciting to report. The blinds start escalating so fast on those so it really becomes a push fest towards the end. Not that I'm saying that's bad or anything. I mean I guess most tournaments are that way anyways but I guess that's why it's always hard to come up with interesting hand analysis because it's not quite as deep. Bayne raised from EP, I pushed all in with my QQ and considering he was getting approx 2-1 odds, he called and flopped an ace and that's how my night ended. Unfortunate, but nothing I can do there.
This is gonna be a quick post from me today. Well, after the Mookie, I donked around in low limit Omaha hi/lo which was almost a joke as to how bad the players were. I mean I know I am bad because beyond the basic principles, I don't really know any Omaha strategy. But surrounded by donks who don't even know that, it was easy money. Well, after a little while, I started getting bored playing one table of no thought omaha (no thought because like I said, surrounded by donks, what is there to strategize?), so I played 1-2NL 6max... and I ran into this a-hole after this hand...
FullTiltPoker Game #2548871259: Table Bardstown (6 max) - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:48:03 ET - 2007/05/31
Seat 1: RecessRampage ($218.35)
Seat 2: timabland ($46.10)
Seat 3: Drac329 ($78.35)
Seat 4: Skater87 ($198)
Seat 5: Roundelay ($68.15)
Seat 6: Parcheman ($138.10)
Skater87 posts the small blind of $1
Roundelay posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [9s Ts]
Parcheman folds
Parcheman stands up
RecessRampage raises to $7
timabland folds
Drac329 folds
Skater87 folds
Roundelay calls $5
*** FLOP *** [9c 9h 8s]
Roundelay checks
RecessRampage bets $10
Roundelay calls $10
*** TURN *** [9c 9h 8s] [4s]
Roundelay checks
RecessRampage checks
*** RIVER *** [9c 9h 8s 4s] [3d]
Roundelay bets $20
RecessRampage raises to $201.35, and is all in
Roundelay calls $31.15, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $150.20 returned to RecessRampage
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [9s Ts] (three of a kind, Nines)
Roundelay mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot ($134.30) with three of a kind, Nines
Roundelay is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $137.30 | Rake $3
Board: [9c 9h 8s 4s 3d]
Seat 1: RecessRampage showed [9s Ts] and won ($134.30) with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 2: timabland didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Drac329 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Skater87 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Roundelay (big blind) mucked [Jd Jh] - two pair, Jacks and Nines
Seat 6: Parcheman didn't bet (folded)
Talk about a badly played pocket jacks... well, it was all good until this guy started talking shit about how I could raise with 9Ts from UTG+1... and generally, I don't accomodate these idiots by responding but I was in a mood so I was like "hey, I'm not the one that misplayed my hand." And THAT set him off. lol... he went nuts about how stupid I was for raising 9Ts from EP (dude, it's 6 handed and it's not like I do it all the time). And maybe that was a dumb move on my part (I don't think so, it's just a part of my mixing it up) but his smooth call on JJ from the BB is dumber. I mean I know you thought you had a monster hand but how do you not define that by reraising, considering you are gonna be out of position the whole time. Even worse, what are you doing just smooth calling the flop??? Are you trying to be sneaky? Or stupid? My "standard c-bet" looking bet was designed to let you raise but you smooth call... Great move of being sneaky but way to not find out where you stand. He checks the turn and my check behind him is a clear rope-a-dope... Nice river bet but even nicer river call. Was that the first time you thought you were behind or did you think you were still ahead? What would I reraise you with at that point? I was only there for a short while, I haven't gotten out of line, what did you think I had? TT?
Personally, I don't have too much of a problem with the way he played this hand but playing JJ like that from out of position to me is a dicey proposition. But again, I didn't have a problem until he starts mouthing off about playing heads up 10-20NL, how he has a monster bankroll, etc... dude, I don't care. The funniest thing was, he actually came in 14th in the FTOPS ME. So, in other words, he must be a good player. So what's a player like that going crazy? It's not like I caught runner runner to beat his hand when we both put our money all in preflop. Sometimes, I just don't understand how people lash out because they don't play like robots... Even Phil Hellmuth thinks you complain too much, Roundelay.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Analyzing my leaks, crazy hand, and some nonpoker stuff
Ok, let me start with this warning... This post is going to be all over the place. So, just to quickly break it down, these are the things that you will see in this post: Mookie, my cash game leaks based on PT, crazy crazy hand I witnessed, and some nonpoker stuff, mainly sports related. I am probably better off breaking this up into multiple posts but you know what, I'm in the mood to ramble on so that's what's gonna happen. Since this is a poker blog, I'll put the nonpoker stuff at the very end.
Chapter 1: Mookie ad
So, first thing's first. Come out tonight for the Mookie! Hopefully, I'll do better than my most recent performance in MATH and our home game dubbed PAPT.
Ok, now that I've done my part for advertising the blogger tourney (which given the traffic I get, really almost unnecessary probably but still wouldn't hurt... I know some of you nonbloggers play so if you want to join in on the tournament, you know you're always welcome).
Chapter 2: Analyzing my leaks and using PT
Ok, now on to the main topic. I've always been a big advocate of analyzing my play, looking back at hand histories, and using Pokertracker for that purpose. However, recently, Hoy has been posting some solid commentary based on what he's seen on his PT stats so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. But just to show that this isn't something that I totally ripped off from Hoy, here are few of the links to my older (it's obv not that old since I did start this blog only 5 months ago) posts to show that I have been advocating this... so if you care to see those or just to rehash your memory, click here or here.
I think in one of my posts, I talked about how I love points. Actually, I probably mentioned that in quite a few of my posts. Keeping score, having points, etc is always something I like... and I'm a sucker for. Reward points on credit cards? Great, sign me up! Wait, better rewards on this card? I'm there. (I'm actually not as bad as I make it sound but I'm pretty bad). Which is why I am personally a big fan of the whole points thing on BBT. Again, I don't think having the most points on BBT will mean you're the best tournament player but that argument to me is pretty worthless. And that's for a different post (yes, even I have limits). Anyways, so points is a big deal. What does that mean? That means that those stupid iron man challenge thing that full tilt does? Yeah, I'm totally a sucker for it. I swear... those stupid FTP points and the iron man is probably the biggest -EV thing for me. For example... there are nights I'm not in the mood to play poker. Rare, but it's there. But I fire up my laptop, open up a few tables and start grinding... why? Because I need to get my damn 200pts each day (or 25 days out of the month) to qualify for the Iron Man freeroll (which btw, is the best deal tournament... I mean what other tournament do you know that you can freeroll into and 1 out of 3 entrants get paid a minimum of $80 all the way up to $5,000???). They now started this thing where depending on the the number of consecutive months you maintain your level, you earn different sets of points as well where you can use those points to purchase bonuses, tournament tokens, etc... aaaaaah, more points. Ok, so what does all this rambling mean? Well, I got my 25 days of 200+ points so I don't have to play for the rest of this month unless I want to. Thus, last night, instead of playing, I decided to fire up PT and take a look at which hands I was losing the most money out of... and this is what I got... which took me by surprise:
These are filtered to only show the hands I played in 2007 just because I've had PT since last year and I wanted more recent information. I then sorted by the "net amount" and the clear net gainers were AA, KK, QQ, AK, etc... pretty predictable. There were couple of surprising ones amongst the top 10 money makers such as KJ and KQ which I tend to fold in EP... actually, I'm shocked that KJ was in top ten since I almost always fold that garbage...
Well, even more shocking for me was what you just saw above. The losses and where they are coming from. And being how consistent the losers are, my biggest leak is apparently the most obvious one also. I mean think about it. 67s, 68s, JTo, 78o, 89s, 89o, J9o, 64o, 9-10o, 78s, 65s... oh, and pocket nines. See a familiar trend? Aside from J9o which is pretty garbage but for some reason my favorite hand (yes, yes... please, spare me the "dangerous to have a favorite hand" speech, I've heard it a million times before), the suited and unsuited connectors and one gappers are my biggest leaks. CONSISTENTLY. This was actually shocking to me. I mean, most of us who take poker seriously tend to love these suited connectors right? You can get paid off very nicely when you hit it big, right? They are generally well concealed, right? I mean who doesn't like 89 sooooooooted, right???
So, after seeing this shocking revelation, I decided to do a little more research. I started looking at the hand history to see what was causing these to be my biggest leaks... And there was one consistent theme which is probably obvious just by looking at the stats. I'm not getting paid off when I actually hit it big. In other words, I lose a small pot when I don't hit. But I win a small pot when I hit it big... what does that mean? Well, more often than not, I'm not gonna hit it hard and since the idea behind these connectors and one gappers is to get paid off nicely when they do hit, I'm basically going one step forward and taking two steps back. When looking at how I play them, I don't hate my play preflop. So it's not like I'm playing them out of position or limping with them every time. I mix it up nicely but again, it's the post flop play that I'm crippling myself with with these hands. I need to go back and further analyze where I'm betting too soon (without giving someone a chance to catch a piece... ie, why bet if I have 89 and the flop comes 5-6-7 and it's checked to me?). I thought I was a decent cash gamer, only based on the money I was making but these stats really opened my eyes and I'm really shocked at what I found. This is definitely an area I'm gonna study up on and have to improve for my long term success in the cash games, esp if I want to move up levels.
Chapter 3: CRAZY HAND
Well, I always joked that I'd love to be in a situation where we're all deep and all the money is in the middle when I have AA and the two other guys who are all in both have KK... essentially eliminating any chances of them winning (yes, I understand a possible 4 flush but again... let's be real... you'd sell everything you own and put it on the line in this situation). Well, I was observing this low stakes NL table cuz my friend JT was playing in it and I was just chatting it up (and actually was surprised to see some of the play at this level was probably better than 1-2NL... SOME). Well, I couldn't get screen shots as this developed but it was a crazy hand. So instead of posting the hand history, I'll lay it out for you:
Full Tilt Poker Game #2541570786: Table Tyndall - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:07:05 ET - 2007/05/30
This was 7 handed: UTG min raises to $1 and MP reraises to $3. CO calls the $3, both blinds fold, and UTG then reraises to $7. Watching this, I immediately thought, alright UTG clearly has aces but it's so obvious he might get stacked here if the other two knew what they were doing. Well, the MP reraiser calls and so does the CO. At this point, I figured all three of them had pocket pairs. But I did not know the extent of what I was about to witness... NO, they didn't all have aces! FTP is not THAT rigged. :)
Flop comes 10-6-6. Innocent looking flop, I figured the aces (ie UTG) should take it down... UTG bets $8 into a $22 pot (obv trying to string people along on this safe looking board), the MP reraiser goes all in for $22 (your kings are f*cked dude), and here was the shocker... CO cold calls! UTG pushes his stack all in which was $26 and naturally, the CO calls the extra $4... and this is what they flip up:
Turn and the river obv didn't matter since the two pocket aces had no outs. Now that's a good way to rake in a $100 pot...
Chapter 4: Nonpoker content
Phew... I have to admit, I'm losing steam. When I first started this post, I was pretty fired up but now I feel like I typed as much as I can... but I wanted to throw a few things out there. First off, any of you Hokies reading this, how proud are you of the Vick family... wow, what a quick fall from stardom to... well, dumb-dumb? I mean there's the little brother Vick with his dirty leg stomping, bird flipping, gun waving under golden arches antics... and everyone thinking, wow, how far could the apple fall from the tree??? Well, apparently, the tree wasn't where we thought it was huh? It wasn't that Marcus was a bad apple that rolled off the hill far far away from the tree... it appears the tree itself is f*cked up. I mean even the superstar older brother has some serious issues... I still remember his miraculous comeback scramble against WVU down the sidelines which surely just the thought of it sends shivers to most Hokie fans but I also vividly remember seeing him flick his fans off in his own stadium, caught (and in his defense, later dropped, I believe) in an allegation that he had marijuana in his water bottle, and now, he's a big player in the illegal (read: felony) dog fight ring. I mean really? I know this isn't breaking news or anything but I just thought it was interesting. Roger Goodell (NFL commish) has been making some serious statements by dropping very severe penalties on players who are constantly surrounding themselves with bad publicity (Adam "Frogger" Jones... errrr "Pacman" Jones out for 16 games - that's a Vick from noCal reference... yeah, his no show during Smack Off sucked but I'm still on his bandwagon) and Chris Henry (stupid Bungles... suspend all of them) for 8 games... I don't know what Goodell is going to do with Vick but I can't imagine him not doing anything.
And how p*ssed off is Kobe Bryant? Boy, he sounds like a guy who's been holding it in for so long and now he can't take it... he's unleashing his fury on his media tour by ripping the lakers front office. And not that I care much for Kobe but I hear what he's saying and I agree. Kobe, whether you like it or not, is one of the best players out there, playing in his prime, and Jerry Buss needs to stop playing poker and put his money towards reloading that team with talent that could do some damage. I mean come on...
Now as a token Japanese, I feel that I need to throw this out there. Hey, any Sox fans out there? How do you like Dice-K?? Kind of a weird thing, it seems to me. And personally, I'm a big big fan of Daisuke. I didn't get to see him in high school but when I went back to Japan, during my brief stay, I caught some of the games he pitched in his rookie year and I remembered thinking this kid was nasty. I thought when Boston ended up with him that he would be a tremendous asset... maybe not like a Curt Schilling or a Randy Johnson in their prime but definitely a solid solid #2... And he's putting up results. 7 wins through today ain't bad. Hell, that's actually pretty good... the only question is his relatively high ERA. I'm surprised that he's actually getting hit quite a bit.
Ok, I'm clearly starting to flame out, so I'm out.
Chapter 1: Mookie ad
So, first thing's first. Come out tonight for the Mookie! Hopefully, I'll do better than my most recent performance in MATH and our home game dubbed PAPT.
Ok, now that I've done my part for advertising the blogger tourney (which given the traffic I get, really almost unnecessary probably but still wouldn't hurt... I know some of you nonbloggers play so if you want to join in on the tournament, you know you're always welcome).
Chapter 2: Analyzing my leaks and using PT
Ok, now on to the main topic. I've always been a big advocate of analyzing my play, looking back at hand histories, and using Pokertracker for that purpose. However, recently, Hoy has been posting some solid commentary based on what he's seen on his PT stats so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon. But just to show that this isn't something that I totally ripped off from Hoy, here are few of the links to my older (it's obv not that old since I did start this blog only 5 months ago) posts to show that I have been advocating this... so if you care to see those or just to rehash your memory, click here or here.
I think in one of my posts, I talked about how I love points. Actually, I probably mentioned that in quite a few of my posts. Keeping score, having points, etc is always something I like... and I'm a sucker for. Reward points on credit cards? Great, sign me up! Wait, better rewards on this card? I'm there. (I'm actually not as bad as I make it sound but I'm pretty bad). Which is why I am personally a big fan of the whole points thing on BBT. Again, I don't think having the most points on BBT will mean you're the best tournament player but that argument to me is pretty worthless. And that's for a different post (yes, even I have limits). Anyways, so points is a big deal. What does that mean? That means that those stupid iron man challenge thing that full tilt does? Yeah, I'm totally a sucker for it. I swear... those stupid FTP points and the iron man is probably the biggest -EV thing for me. For example... there are nights I'm not in the mood to play poker. Rare, but it's there. But I fire up my laptop, open up a few tables and start grinding... why? Because I need to get my damn 200pts each day (or 25 days out of the month) to qualify for the Iron Man freeroll (which btw, is the best deal tournament... I mean what other tournament do you know that you can freeroll into and 1 out of 3 entrants get paid a minimum of $80 all the way up to $5,000???). They now started this thing where depending on the the number of consecutive months you maintain your level, you earn different sets of points as well where you can use those points to purchase bonuses, tournament tokens, etc... aaaaaah, more points. Ok, so what does all this rambling mean? Well, I got my 25 days of 200+ points so I don't have to play for the rest of this month unless I want to. Thus, last night, instead of playing, I decided to fire up PT and take a look at which hands I was losing the most money out of... and this is what I got... which took me by surprise:
These are filtered to only show the hands I played in 2007 just because I've had PT since last year and I wanted more recent information. I then sorted by the "net amount" and the clear net gainers were AA, KK, QQ, AK, etc... pretty predictable. There were couple of surprising ones amongst the top 10 money makers such as KJ and KQ which I tend to fold in EP... actually, I'm shocked that KJ was in top ten since I almost always fold that garbage...
Well, even more shocking for me was what you just saw above. The losses and where they are coming from. And being how consistent the losers are, my biggest leak is apparently the most obvious one also. I mean think about it. 67s, 68s, JTo, 78o, 89s, 89o, J9o, 64o, 9-10o, 78s, 65s... oh, and pocket nines. See a familiar trend? Aside from J9o which is pretty garbage but for some reason my favorite hand (yes, yes... please, spare me the "dangerous to have a favorite hand" speech, I've heard it a million times before), the suited and unsuited connectors and one gappers are my biggest leaks. CONSISTENTLY. This was actually shocking to me. I mean, most of us who take poker seriously tend to love these suited connectors right? You can get paid off very nicely when you hit it big, right? They are generally well concealed, right? I mean who doesn't like 89 sooooooooted, right???
So, after seeing this shocking revelation, I decided to do a little more research. I started looking at the hand history to see what was causing these to be my biggest leaks... And there was one consistent theme which is probably obvious just by looking at the stats. I'm not getting paid off when I actually hit it big. In other words, I lose a small pot when I don't hit. But I win a small pot when I hit it big... what does that mean? Well, more often than not, I'm not gonna hit it hard and since the idea behind these connectors and one gappers is to get paid off nicely when they do hit, I'm basically going one step forward and taking two steps back. When looking at how I play them, I don't hate my play preflop. So it's not like I'm playing them out of position or limping with them every time. I mix it up nicely but again, it's the post flop play that I'm crippling myself with with these hands. I need to go back and further analyze where I'm betting too soon (without giving someone a chance to catch a piece... ie, why bet if I have 89 and the flop comes 5-6-7 and it's checked to me?). I thought I was a decent cash gamer, only based on the money I was making but these stats really opened my eyes and I'm really shocked at what I found. This is definitely an area I'm gonna study up on and have to improve for my long term success in the cash games, esp if I want to move up levels.
Chapter 3: CRAZY HAND
Well, I always joked that I'd love to be in a situation where we're all deep and all the money is in the middle when I have AA and the two other guys who are all in both have KK... essentially eliminating any chances of them winning (yes, I understand a possible 4 flush but again... let's be real... you'd sell everything you own and put it on the line in this situation). Well, I was observing this low stakes NL table cuz my friend JT was playing in it and I was just chatting it up (and actually was surprised to see some of the play at this level was probably better than 1-2NL... SOME). Well, I couldn't get screen shots as this developed but it was a crazy hand. So instead of posting the hand history, I'll lay it out for you:
Full Tilt Poker Game #2541570786: Table Tyndall - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:07:05 ET - 2007/05/30
This was 7 handed: UTG min raises to $1 and MP reraises to $3. CO calls the $3, both blinds fold, and UTG then reraises to $7. Watching this, I immediately thought, alright UTG clearly has aces but it's so obvious he might get stacked here if the other two knew what they were doing. Well, the MP reraiser calls and so does the CO. At this point, I figured all three of them had pocket pairs. But I did not know the extent of what I was about to witness... NO, they didn't all have aces! FTP is not THAT rigged. :)
Flop comes 10-6-6. Innocent looking flop, I figured the aces (ie UTG) should take it down... UTG bets $8 into a $22 pot (obv trying to string people along on this safe looking board), the MP reraiser goes all in for $22 (your kings are f*cked dude), and here was the shocker... CO cold calls! UTG pushes his stack all in which was $26 and naturally, the CO calls the extra $4... and this is what they flip up:
Turn and the river obv didn't matter since the two pocket aces had no outs. Now that's a good way to rake in a $100 pot...
Chapter 4: Nonpoker content
Phew... I have to admit, I'm losing steam. When I first started this post, I was pretty fired up but now I feel like I typed as much as I can... but I wanted to throw a few things out there. First off, any of you Hokies reading this, how proud are you of the Vick family... wow, what a quick fall from stardom to... well, dumb-dumb? I mean there's the little brother Vick with his dirty leg stomping, bird flipping, gun waving under golden arches antics... and everyone thinking, wow, how far could the apple fall from the tree??? Well, apparently, the tree wasn't where we thought it was huh? It wasn't that Marcus was a bad apple that rolled off the hill far far away from the tree... it appears the tree itself is f*cked up. I mean even the superstar older brother has some serious issues... I still remember his miraculous comeback scramble against WVU down the sidelines which surely just the thought of it sends shivers to most Hokie fans but I also vividly remember seeing him flick his fans off in his own stadium, caught (and in his defense, later dropped, I believe) in an allegation that he had marijuana in his water bottle, and now, he's a big player in the illegal (read: felony) dog fight ring. I mean really? I know this isn't breaking news or anything but I just thought it was interesting. Roger Goodell (NFL commish) has been making some serious statements by dropping very severe penalties on players who are constantly surrounding themselves with bad publicity (Adam "Frogger" Jones... errrr "Pacman" Jones out for 16 games - that's a Vick from noCal reference... yeah, his no show during Smack Off sucked but I'm still on his bandwagon) and Chris Henry (stupid Bungles... suspend all of them) for 8 games... I don't know what Goodell is going to do with Vick but I can't imagine him not doing anything.
And how p*ssed off is Kobe Bryant? Boy, he sounds like a guy who's been holding it in for so long and now he can't take it... he's unleashing his fury on his media tour by ripping the lakers front office. And not that I care much for Kobe but I hear what he's saying and I agree. Kobe, whether you like it or not, is one of the best players out there, playing in his prime, and Jerry Buss needs to stop playing poker and put his money towards reloading that team with talent that could do some damage. I mean come on...
Now as a token Japanese, I feel that I need to throw this out there. Hey, any Sox fans out there? How do you like Dice-K?? Kind of a weird thing, it seems to me. And personally, I'm a big big fan of Daisuke. I didn't get to see him in high school but when I went back to Japan, during my brief stay, I caught some of the games he pitched in his rookie year and I remembered thinking this kid was nasty. I thought when Boston ended up with him that he would be a tremendous asset... maybe not like a Curt Schilling or a Randy Johnson in their prime but definitely a solid solid #2... And he's putting up results. 7 wins through today ain't bad. Hell, that's actually pretty good... the only question is his relatively high ERA. I'm surprised that he's actually getting hit quite a bit.
Ok, I'm clearly starting to flame out, so I'm out.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
PAPT (home game)
So let's say you're in a 11 person sng... I know, that's a little much but let's just say it happens. The blinds are 1-2 with the starting stack of 170. There's a preflop raise to 6 but there are 4-5 players going into the flop. Flop comes Q-6-2, you hold KQs (with a runner runner flush draw), but the small blind goes all in. Yes, all in for 160+ chips to win a 30ish pot. What do you do?
That was the weird dilemma that our friend Sia had to face. Now, a quick background on the small blind. He's uber loose aggressive. Ok, he puts the uber loose aggressive to shame. He's bet and called ridiculous bets in the past with middle pair, he's called the river bet (which was the third barrell fired) with a busted straight draw... no, I didn't just mistype that. He called a river bet with a busted straight draw. He had like 5-6 on a board of K-4-7-x-x and he called the river bet... and obv lost. And it was like a $2 bet into a pot of $200. It was like a third or half of the pot.
So again, with this guy, what do you do?
Well, based on what I've seen in the past, I immediately put him on a hand like pocket tens. But, to answer my own question, I would have folded. KQ is not a hand that I would want to put my entire stack on the line with. However, Sia called... the villain shows Q6 for two pair and it holds and pretty much crippled Sia who busted shortly thereafter. It was definitely a weird start... and in talking to Sia later, his thought was similar to mine. He put him on a middle pair and since it was a raggeddy board and he's not one to think like with 5 people, someone's bound to have a Q (or maybe he doesn't care), Sia thought that there's a good chance he's ahead and so even though he didn't like it, he felt that this was a good chance to double up early.
Well, that pretty much set the tone. The villain was raising and calling with weird weird hands but there were also few guys that would not change their game and so would continue to try to bluff him off hands with their own meager holdings (one hand went to showdown with 3 consecutive bets after the flop and the villain's K-10 high beat the bluffer's K-9 high... the K-9 high had a busted flush draw that he bet on every street). So, he knocked off couple of guys and I was licking my chops to get into a hand with this guy that I felt I had a good read on (well, you don't even need to have a good read on this guy I guess). Except that's all I ended up doing in this game... was licking my chops... I never got anything to get started and I was literally getting blinded down. I mean nothing to work with. The best hand I saw was the last hand that I busted out with... pocket tens when I ran into pocket jacks when I pushed preflop... And this was already when my M was down to like 5, I pushed with (PAPT players, enjoy) 7-9 (everyone folded), 89s (everyone folded), A-10 (everyone folded) and once everyone figured out that I was starting to do this with a very wide range, I find pocket tens and push... only to get called by pocket jacks, he spikes a set on the flop and that's the end of the night for me.
Oh and the villain? He busted out in like 8th place I think. I didn't do much better by ending up 6th... again, no points and no cash... I clearly talk a big game but I might have to start backing it up soon... I hate to be all talk... and broke... :)
That was the weird dilemma that our friend Sia had to face. Now, a quick background on the small blind. He's uber loose aggressive. Ok, he puts the uber loose aggressive to shame. He's bet and called ridiculous bets in the past with middle pair, he's called the river bet (which was the third barrell fired) with a busted straight draw... no, I didn't just mistype that. He called a river bet with a busted straight draw. He had like 5-6 on a board of K-4-7-x-x and he called the river bet... and obv lost. And it was like a $2 bet into a pot of $200. It was like a third or half of the pot.
So again, with this guy, what do you do?
Well, based on what I've seen in the past, I immediately put him on a hand like pocket tens. But, to answer my own question, I would have folded. KQ is not a hand that I would want to put my entire stack on the line with. However, Sia called... the villain shows Q6 for two pair and it holds and pretty much crippled Sia who busted shortly thereafter. It was definitely a weird start... and in talking to Sia later, his thought was similar to mine. He put him on a middle pair and since it was a raggeddy board and he's not one to think like with 5 people, someone's bound to have a Q (or maybe he doesn't care), Sia thought that there's a good chance he's ahead and so even though he didn't like it, he felt that this was a good chance to double up early.
Well, that pretty much set the tone. The villain was raising and calling with weird weird hands but there were also few guys that would not change their game and so would continue to try to bluff him off hands with their own meager holdings (one hand went to showdown with 3 consecutive bets after the flop and the villain's K-10 high beat the bluffer's K-9 high... the K-9 high had a busted flush draw that he bet on every street). So, he knocked off couple of guys and I was licking my chops to get into a hand with this guy that I felt I had a good read on (well, you don't even need to have a good read on this guy I guess). Except that's all I ended up doing in this game... was licking my chops... I never got anything to get started and I was literally getting blinded down. I mean nothing to work with. The best hand I saw was the last hand that I busted out with... pocket tens when I ran into pocket jacks when I pushed preflop... And this was already when my M was down to like 5, I pushed with (PAPT players, enjoy) 7-9 (everyone folded), 89s (everyone folded), A-10 (everyone folded) and once everyone figured out that I was starting to do this with a very wide range, I find pocket tens and push... only to get called by pocket jacks, he spikes a set on the flop and that's the end of the night for me.
Oh and the villain? He busted out in like 8th place I think. I didn't do much better by ending up 6th... again, no points and no cash... I clearly talk a big game but I might have to start backing it up soon... I hate to be all talk... and broke... :)
Monday, May 28, 2007
Couple of interesting hands over the weekend...
I hope everyone had a nice memorial day weekend. This has been a very relaxing weekend for me since my theme was to "not do a damn thing." And I lived up to the theme too. All I did was play poker and video games. Since Mrs Recess was out of town for most of the weekend, that is literally all I did. Considering how much I played though, sadly, I have nothing to report unlike Fuel who's obviously killing the game. Well, here are couple of hands that I thought was interesting.
9 handed table, $2/$4NL, this guy just sat and I don't have any information about this guy.
Villain in MP raises to $12
Folded to me and I call with 89s on the button
Both blinds fold
*** FLOP *** [8h Jd 3d]
Villain bets $18
RecessRampage raises to $42 <--- I catch a piece of this flop and since his bet looks like a c-bet, I thought this will be enough to take it down
Villain calls $24
*** TURN *** [8h Jd 3d] [Js]
Villain checks
RecessRampage bets $80 <--- with the J pairing and him checking, I like my hand even more
Villain calls $80
*** RIVER *** [8h Jd 3d Js] [6s]
Villain bets $280.20, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
What would you do here? I thought maybe he's betting his missed flush draw but if he's gonna do that, would he push all in? Did he catch a set on the river with the pocket sixes that he couldn't let go?
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of $280.20 returned to Villain
Villain shows [5c 3c] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
Villain wins the pot ($271)
I really would like some feedback. It was really borderline for me and it's a pity that this happened so early in the villain's session because apparently, that's how this guy rolls and about an hour later, everyone was picking him off and he left empty handed but unfortunately, I wasn't in any meaningful hands with him after this. But not knowing that, what would you do?
What about this hand?
9 handed, $2/$4NL:
I raise $14 from MP with pocket tens
CO calls $14
Heads up going into the flop
*** FLOP *** [6s 7h Th]
RecessRampage bets $25 <--- with so many draws out there, I figured I'll make what looks like a standard c-bet
CO calls $25
*** TURN *** [6s 7h Th] [3c]
RecessRampage bets $84 <--- I bet the size of the pot to price out his draws
CO thinks about it, then calls $84 <--- he either already has a straight or he's got a piece of the board
*** RIVER *** [6s 7h Th 3c] [8d]
RecessRampage checks <--- I hate that river card
CO bets $287.90, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
What do you do here? The pot before his bet was approx $240 and I have him covered for the entire amount. I couldn't imagine what type of hands would hang around in terms of the betting. 99? 89? Or, did he have like A6 of hearts or just Ax of hearts and trying to bet on the scare card to take this pot away?
Think about it. And tell me what you would do here. And what your read is.
This is what I did...
RecessRampage calls $287.90
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CO shows [9s 5s] (a straight, Ten high)
RecessRampage mucks
CO wins the pot ($824.80) with a straight, Ten high
5-9 sooted... I have no way of putting him on that hand and I'm not even sure why he called the preflop bet or the flop bet. On the turn however, he was double-gutted so maybe he thought it was worth it. Now sure enough, I paid him off so I did make it worth it for him. But regardless of the results, what would you have done. According to propokertools, based on the range of hands that I could put him on, this is what it shows.
I'm not trying to justify my call or anything. Those were what I thought would be the realistic hand ranges. Am I missing something? Should I be including more possible holdings? Let me know what you all think.
9 handed table, $2/$4NL, this guy just sat and I don't have any information about this guy.
Villain in MP raises to $12
Folded to me and I call with 89s on the button
Both blinds fold
*** FLOP *** [8h Jd 3d]
Villain bets $18
RecessRampage raises to $42 <--- I catch a piece of this flop and since his bet looks like a c-bet, I thought this will be enough to take it down
Villain calls $24
*** TURN *** [8h Jd 3d] [Js]
Villain checks
RecessRampage bets $80 <--- with the J pairing and him checking, I like my hand even more
Villain calls $80
*** RIVER *** [8h Jd 3d Js] [6s]
Villain bets $280.20, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
What would you do here? I thought maybe he's betting his missed flush draw but if he's gonna do that, would he push all in? Did he catch a set on the river with the pocket sixes that he couldn't let go?
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of $280.20 returned to Villain
Villain shows [5c 3c] (two pair, Jacks and Threes)
Villain wins the pot ($271)
I really would like some feedback. It was really borderline for me and it's a pity that this happened so early in the villain's session because apparently, that's how this guy rolls and about an hour later, everyone was picking him off and he left empty handed but unfortunately, I wasn't in any meaningful hands with him after this. But not knowing that, what would you do?
What about this hand?
9 handed, $2/$4NL:
I raise $14 from MP with pocket tens
CO calls $14
Heads up going into the flop
*** FLOP *** [6s 7h Th]
RecessRampage bets $25 <--- with so many draws out there, I figured I'll make what looks like a standard c-bet
CO calls $25
*** TURN *** [6s 7h Th] [3c]
RecessRampage bets $84 <--- I bet the size of the pot to price out his draws
CO thinks about it, then calls $84 <--- he either already has a straight or he's got a piece of the board
*** RIVER *** [6s 7h Th 3c] [8d]
RecessRampage checks <--- I hate that river card
CO bets $287.90, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
What do you do here? The pot before his bet was approx $240 and I have him covered for the entire amount. I couldn't imagine what type of hands would hang around in terms of the betting. 99? 89? Or, did he have like A6 of hearts or just Ax of hearts and trying to bet on the scare card to take this pot away?
Think about it. And tell me what you would do here. And what your read is.
This is what I did...
RecessRampage calls $287.90
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CO shows [9s 5s] (a straight, Ten high)
RecessRampage mucks
CO wins the pot ($824.80) with a straight, Ten high
5-9 sooted... I have no way of putting him on that hand and I'm not even sure why he called the preflop bet or the flop bet. On the turn however, he was double-gutted so maybe he thought it was worth it. Now sure enough, I paid him off so I did make it worth it for him. But regardless of the results, what would you have done. According to propokertools, based on the range of hands that I could put him on, this is what it shows.
I'm not trying to justify my call or anything. Those were what I thought would be the realistic hand ranges. Am I missing something? Should I be including more possible holdings? Let me know what you all think.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Furious Comeback Part 2!? Not quite...
So last night, I played in the Mookie as usual and it was like deja vu when I donked off a lot of chips early to InstantTragedy's pocket kings with presto. This will sound like an excuse, and it is, but I wasn't really paying attention to who I was playing and I unnecessarily let go of a lot of chips for no reason. So, I'm down to 250 in chips... well, it's no story without a good comeback right? Right. Since it was fairly early, I never panicked, got lucky a few times and next thing I knew, I was back and in good shape. So good actually, that at one point, I became chip leader with about 20 people remaining. However, this wasn't meant to be my night when eventually, I busted out in 12th place when my AK was crushed by Zeem's K-10... I even knew this was the hand when this flop came out... A-J-x... at this point, I typed in the chat box, uh oh, I'm in trouble. And I meant it. Turn is another A... and the river, as expected was the Q to give him a straight. This wasn't even a bad beatish story. I just knew. I KNEW. I think I'm on to something guys. :)
On a side note, IT convinced me that I am waaaaaaaaay behind my times when I told him that I don't have any of the IM (read "girly chat") services... however, being the accomodating character that I am, I went and got gtalk so we chatted it up and swapped a few articles... I gave him a few good ones that he could read on his long flight to Maui. Hopefully, they will help.
I also discovered, after talking to him that the points in these BBT were actually a big deal... If you are an active BBTer, then you must think I'm retarded... and I must be. It wasn't until last night that I actually found out that top 3 BBT pts leader actually gets half the rake. I thought the entire rake pool was going to the freeroll at the end of this whole thing. I didn't know there were anything beyond bragging rights for the leaderboard. Goes to show how clueless I am about these things. He also wanted to discuss because he felt that the points weren't the only indicator but that money earned shouldn't be either (because if there are guys who don't play in the big game because of bank roll issues, that shouldn't count against them) which I totally agree. So I told him that I think there's middle ground where a combination of made money plus points would probably be a better indicator and that in the long run, it will hash itself out. He was against a system where people could fold to points and that this couldn't be an indicator of who the best players are... But these things never are. I mean who are the best players in the world? That is an argument that you continuously see on the forums and there are never any answers. Cardplayer POY doesn't even mean he/she is the best player. It just means that that person had the best year amongst his peers. And in the end, that's what it is right? Who cares who the "best" player is? I know that I continously want to be better and if I can have the honor of being somewhere at the top of the leaderboard, that's enough to make me psyched but I'll never be so clueless to think that I'm the best because I'm high on the leaderboard.
On a side note, IT convinced me that I am waaaaaaaaay behind my times when I told him that I don't have any of the IM (read "girly chat") services... however, being the accomodating character that I am, I went and got gtalk so we chatted it up and swapped a few articles... I gave him a few good ones that he could read on his long flight to Maui. Hopefully, they will help.
I also discovered, after talking to him that the points in these BBT were actually a big deal... If you are an active BBTer, then you must think I'm retarded... and I must be. It wasn't until last night that I actually found out that top 3 BBT pts leader actually gets half the rake. I thought the entire rake pool was going to the freeroll at the end of this whole thing. I didn't know there were anything beyond bragging rights for the leaderboard. Goes to show how clueless I am about these things. He also wanted to discuss because he felt that the points weren't the only indicator but that money earned shouldn't be either (because if there are guys who don't play in the big game because of bank roll issues, that shouldn't count against them) which I totally agree. So I told him that I think there's middle ground where a combination of made money plus points would probably be a better indicator and that in the long run, it will hash itself out. He was against a system where people could fold to points and that this couldn't be an indicator of who the best players are... But these things never are. I mean who are the best players in the world? That is an argument that you continuously see on the forums and there are never any answers. Cardplayer POY doesn't even mean he/she is the best player. It just means that that person had the best year amongst his peers. And in the end, that's what it is right? Who cares who the "best" player is? I know that I continously want to be better and if I can have the honor of being somewhere at the top of the leaderboard, that's enough to make me psyched but I'll never be so clueless to think that I'm the best because I'm high on the leaderboard.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Earning points - good or bad?
There was an interesting discussion on Hoy's blog regarding BBT points and whether that was a good thing or not in terms of encouraging participation. Apparently, long before I ever joined this blogging community, there was a discussion about how having a point system (where you earn points based on how you finish) could eventually hurt these tournaments where initially, it was supposed to be set up just so bloggers could donk around and have some fun... ie play socializing, drink beer, chat it up, type of poker vs paying attention, playing tight, intense poker... So, I guess, the question becomes why do you play poker? Or what do you play poker for?
Do you just play for fun and entertainment? I mean is it the same to you as it is playing craps or roulette? Thrill of winning money but knowing that generally the odds are against you? Or do you play because you love the game itself? Or do you play just to make money? I think all those are very important questions to ask yourself as well as identifying the other players and why they play.
Anyways, back to points. I think the issue was partially brought up because in these blogger tournaments, you can almost fold to points. In other words, play uber tight, catch a few hands here and there and most likely, you'll be in the points. If you do that consistently, then even if you're not the type of player to win the tournament, you will find your name high on the leaderboard. That may give you a sense of accomplishment or it may not. Well, the argument against having points is that once the leaders are finalized, there's a chance that attendance for these tourneys will drop because if people start thinking they don't have a chance, why play in these tournaments if they could find others that may yield more money or are softer, etc. In other words, why choose to play in a tournament where the players actually take poker seriously?
Well, I personally like points. That's just how I am. In Hoy's post, I left a comment about how I may have eaten more vegetables growing up (like my mom would have liked me to) if they assigned points. Like in a given day, if I got to 150pts, I could use those points for a dessert or something. Here, let me illustrate. Let's say I have these choices for desserts... slice of cake, 100pts. Ice cream, 150pts. Kit kat, 50 pts. So, now if I wanted a slice of cake for dessert (because kit kat's too small), I have to earn a 100pts... by eating salad (50pts), side of carrots (15pts), broccoli (20pts) etc, until I get to 100pts. Let's say to encourage a balanced diet, I still get points for meat (10pts) or whatever, but doubling up doesn't count (so you can't just eat insane amount of meat and get it to a 100). I swear, that probably would have made me eat more veggies.
I'm just a scoreboard kinda guy. I remember some people saying "how bout we play poker with chips but no real money involved?" Um... how bout we watch a game of basketball where they don't keep score? I guess in my mind, what's the point? Our home game, PAPT, also has points. Last year, Sia ran away with it and towards the end, there was no point in keeping track of the points in terms of who won the side pot. However, there was still some friendly competition between JT and Tyke on who took second place. I guess it just depends on whether you are for it or not. But it would be very hard for me to continue to play in games where the competition dies out and we just do it for "fun". That's just not how I'm wired. I'm always very competitive and I want to win in everything I do. So, I'm all in favor of the BBT points, even if that may not necessarily indicate who the best players are, it's just a fun way of keeping track. Hoy did make an interesting point, saying that because of the way BBT points are allocated, he only uses amount of money won as an indicator of how well people are playing. And I would have to think that in the end, they will be extremely similar. I don't know how long the BBT thing goes on but I'd have to assume that if it goes on all year, at the end of the year, I'd say the top 5 of points will generally be up there in terms of the money earned as well.
Do you just play for fun and entertainment? I mean is it the same to you as it is playing craps or roulette? Thrill of winning money but knowing that generally the odds are against you? Or do you play because you love the game itself? Or do you play just to make money? I think all those are very important questions to ask yourself as well as identifying the other players and why they play.
Anyways, back to points. I think the issue was partially brought up because in these blogger tournaments, you can almost fold to points. In other words, play uber tight, catch a few hands here and there and most likely, you'll be in the points. If you do that consistently, then even if you're not the type of player to win the tournament, you will find your name high on the leaderboard. That may give you a sense of accomplishment or it may not. Well, the argument against having points is that once the leaders are finalized, there's a chance that attendance for these tourneys will drop because if people start thinking they don't have a chance, why play in these tournaments if they could find others that may yield more money or are softer, etc. In other words, why choose to play in a tournament where the players actually take poker seriously?
Well, I personally like points. That's just how I am. In Hoy's post, I left a comment about how I may have eaten more vegetables growing up (like my mom would have liked me to) if they assigned points. Like in a given day, if I got to 150pts, I could use those points for a dessert or something. Here, let me illustrate. Let's say I have these choices for desserts... slice of cake, 100pts. Ice cream, 150pts. Kit kat, 50 pts. So, now if I wanted a slice of cake for dessert (because kit kat's too small), I have to earn a 100pts... by eating salad (50pts), side of carrots (15pts), broccoli (20pts) etc, until I get to 100pts. Let's say to encourage a balanced diet, I still get points for meat (10pts) or whatever, but doubling up doesn't count (so you can't just eat insane amount of meat and get it to a 100). I swear, that probably would have made me eat more veggies.
I'm just a scoreboard kinda guy. I remember some people saying "how bout we play poker with chips but no real money involved?" Um... how bout we watch a game of basketball where they don't keep score? I guess in my mind, what's the point? Our home game, PAPT, also has points. Last year, Sia ran away with it and towards the end, there was no point in keeping track of the points in terms of who won the side pot. However, there was still some friendly competition between JT and Tyke on who took second place. I guess it just depends on whether you are for it or not. But it would be very hard for me to continue to play in games where the competition dies out and we just do it for "fun". That's just not how I'm wired. I'm always very competitive and I want to win in everything I do. So, I'm all in favor of the BBT points, even if that may not necessarily indicate who the best players are, it's just a fun way of keeping track. Hoy did make an interesting point, saying that because of the way BBT points are allocated, he only uses amount of money won as an indicator of how well people are playing. And I would have to think that in the end, they will be extremely similar. I don't know how long the BBT thing goes on but I'd have to assume that if it goes on all year, at the end of the year, I'd say the top 5 of points will generally be up there in terms of the money earned as well.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
MATH - Furious comeback!!!
It ain't over till it's over!
As I try to better myself in tournament play, I obviously read a lot of blogs and forums to try to educate myself. But naturally, you have to play in order to gain experience and get even better. I'm still working on the fine points of deep stack play but I feel that generally, when I'm a short stack or when the blinds are high, my timing is pretty good. Of course, it helps to get lucky but hey, we're playing cards right?
So, last night, there was another sick beat that took a chunk out of my bankroll but I grinded hard on the cash tables to pretty much erase that deficit after several hours of play. In the meantime, I donked around some sng's and a couple of MTTs. Cashed in some but nothing worth noting... and of course, after watching the final episode of Heroes, I hunkered down to play in the MATH (Mondays at the Hoy).
Well, things didn't start off so well. I tend to be fairly tight but I also knew that that's my downfall so I wanted to open my game up a little. So I took a few stabs here and there but nothing was really connecting and I didn't get involved in big pots until this came along... Still early (double stack so we all started with 3000 chips)
FullTiltPoker Game #2480348419: Mondays at the Hoy (17511703), Table 5 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:26:35 ET - 2007/05/21
Seat 1: jeciimd (2,545)
Seat 2: a104l9 (3,200)
Seat 3: MiamiDon (2,815)
Seat 4: LookyMyHooky (2,915)
Seat 5: RecessRampage (2,380) <--- already a little down with few bad bluff attempts
Seat 6: NewinNov (2,530)
Seat 7: BuddyDank (4,420)
Seat 8: summer_babe (3,725)
Seat 9: Kajagugu (1,555)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 25
NewinNov posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Jh Kd]
BuddyDank folds
summer_babe calls 50
Kajagugu folds
jeciimd folds
a104l9 folds
MiamiDon calls 50
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage calls 25
NewinNov checks
*** FLOP *** [8d 2c Jc]
RecessRampage bets 200 <--- bet out top pair
NewinNov folds
summer_babe folds
MiamiDon calls 200 <--- don, as we all know is a player, so I wanted to be careful after this call
*** TURN *** [8d 2c Jc] [Ad]
RecessRampage checks <--- controlling pot size
MiamiDon bets 500
RecessRampage calls 500 <--- here, I thought he was trying to steal the pot from me since I showed weakness by checking. I thought I was still good.
*** RIVER *** [8d 2c Jc Ad] [As]
RecessRampage checks
MiamiDon bets 1,100 <--- clearly a steal attempt, right?
RecessRampage calls 1,100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MiamiDon shows [Js Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Jacks) <--- WRONG
RecessRampage mucks
MiamiDon wins the pot (3,800) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
RecessRampage: damn...
That took a huge chunk of my stack. Now I'm down to 530 in chip stack from the starting 3000... and we're like 15 minutes into the tournament with 47 runners. Not looking good at all... I'm sitting at 42nd out of 42 remaining runners...
10:51pm - I somehow keep surviving with my meager chip stack until about 10 minutes remaining till the first break, I get A9 of hearts in the small blind. Button raises to 300 (blinds are 50/100) and I go all in for 255 more... again, short stack and this is probably as good as it gets. As the button calls I type "time to get lucky" into the chat box... he flips over AQ but I catch my nut flush on the turn and double up.
10:54pm - That propelled me to 40 out of 42 remaining. And then I go on a mini rush... UTG raises to 350 (blinds still at 50/100) and I'm sitting at UTG+2 with pocket jacks. So I push my still small stack of 1,210. Goes back around to UTG who calls with AQ. JJ holds up. Another double up. Stack at 2,570.
10:55pm - Very next hand. I find AK from UTG+1 so I raise to 350. Jeciimd (our top points player who hasn't cashed in the BBT events) who has been called by many to be maybe a little too tight pushes his stack for 1,770. I personally didn't have any opinion on him in terms of tightness (believe me, if I peg you as a tight player, then you're folding everything but AA and KK) but based on his rep, I thought at best, it was a race. But I couldn't fold and I said as much in the chat box. Actually my quote was "I'm such a donk, but I can't fold this." He flips AQ and my AK holds. My stack is now at a healthy 3,640.
10:57pm - Folded one hand and then this came up. I'm in the big blind...
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Kh]
NewinNov folds
BuddyDank folds
summer_babe folds
Kajagugu folds
willwonka raises to 300
MiamiDon folds
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage calls 200
*** FLOP *** [7h Kd Ac]
RecessRampage checks
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka bets 500
RecessRampage raises to 2,150 <--- this is not a play I would have made a while ago but now, I wasn't sure if willwonka had the ace. I figured, if he did, then so be it. It was only half my stack at this point and I now wanted to pressure him.
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka folds <--- phew
Uncalled bet of 1,650 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot (1,650)
That took my stack to 5,290 which made me the chip leader at the table, only for a hand or two until MiamiDon won a monster pot right before the break.
11:22pm - I don't know what happened... very donkalicious moment for me. I call this guy's all in with pocket 5's on a board where there were three higher cards (turns out he had top set) so I lose 1,845 of my chip stack. However, that kinda snapped me back into playing tight again.
11:31pm - 10 minutes later, Schaubs and I go at it in this crazy hand where it was 3 handed going into the flop (after a raise and a reraise).
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Qd]
MiamiDon folds
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage raises to 600
NewinNov folds
BuddyDank folds
Schaubs has 15 seconds left to act
Schaubs raises to 1,500
OtisDart folds
JoeSpeaker folds
smokkee calls 1,300 <--- ??? I would love to know what he had here
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 2,575, and is all in <--- what else can I do with QQ here?
Schaubs calls 1,075
smokkee calls 1,075
*** FLOP *** [8c 5d 5c]
smokkee checks
Schaubs bets 3,811, and is all in
RecessRampage: hmmm
smokkee: i knew u were gonna do that
smokkee has 15 seconds left to act
smokkee: damn
smokkee folds
Schaubs shows [Th Ts]
RecessRampage shows [Qs Qd]
Uncalled bet of 3,811 returned to Schaubs
*** TURN *** [8c 5d 5c] [Td] <--- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RecessRampage: damn
*** RIVER *** [8c 5d 5c Td] [Qh] <--- YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
Schaubs shows a full house, Tens full of Fives
RecessRampage shows a full house, Queens full of Fives
RecessRampage wins the pot (7,825) with a full house, Queens full of Fives
RecessRampage: oh damn
NewinNov: lol
JoeSpeaker: gotdamn
The ol' suck, resuck. So much drama... lol
Well, not much happens after this but as antes kick in, it becomes imperative that I stay alive and relatively healthy. So this comes up...
11:56pm - Smokkee at this point has me covered by approx 1800 chips but we're both about average chip stack overall. Smokkee is in the small blind and I'm BB. (blinds 150/300)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Js Qd]
everyone folds
smokkee raises to 900
RecessRampage calls 600 <--- gotta protect my blinds
*** FLOP *** [3s Kh 2c]
smokkee bets 975 <--- half the pot? I sensed weakness here so...
RecessRampage calls 975 <--- I call, to see what he does on the turn
*** TURN *** [3s Kh 2c] [Qh]
smokkee checks
RecessRampage bets 4,275, and is all in <--- if he slowplayed a king, I at least have outs if he calls but I wanted to make a statement here... if I'm wrong, I'm gone
smokkee folds <--- phew... he later claims he folded KT here... not sure if he's telling the truth though... :)
Uncalled bet of 4,275 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot (3,925)
That was a pretty rare bluffing moment for me and that definitely helped. When the blinds start escalating in a hurry, every little bit helps, obviously.
Fast forward to 1:15am and this hand happens which is probably one of the most critical hands for me... It's down to 5 of us so we're in the money...
ullTiltPoker Game #2481723019: Mondays at the Hoy (17511703), Table 4 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:15:59 ET - 2007/05/22
Seat 2: TripJax (44,525)
Seat 4: OtisDart (11,919)
Seat 5: MiamiDon (23,600)
Seat 6: Mike_Maloney (40,088)
Seat 8: RecessRampage (20,868)
TripJax antes 250
OtisDart antes 250
MiamiDon antes 250
Mike_Maloney antes 250
RecessRampage antes 250
TripJax posts the small blind of 1,000
OtisDart posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Jc]
MiamiDon raises to 5,500
Mike_Maloney folds
RecessRampage calls 5,500 <--- I call in position, with decent cards, and with the blinds so high and at a short handed table, I either reraise here or call but folding, in my opinion, was not an option
TripJax folds
OtisDart raises to 11,669, and is all in
MiamiDon has 15 seconds left to act
Mike_Maloney: big hand
MiamiDon folds
RecessRampage: damn
RecessRampage: don, I was hoping you'd call...
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
MiamiDon: sandwich play
RecessRampage: got to
RecessRampage: I'm a donk
RecessRampage calls 6,169
OtisDart shows [Kc Kh]
RecessRampage shows [Qc Jc]
*** FLOP *** [2c 5s 7h]
*** TURN *** [2c 5s 7h] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [2c 5s 7h Ts] [2s]
OtisDart shows two pair, Kings and Twos
RecessRampage shows a pair of Twos
OtisDart wins the pot (31,088) with two pair, Kings and Twos
MiamiDon: nh
Mike_Maloney: ouch, nh
It was 6,169 more for me to call in a pot that already had close to 25,000 in chips. As I keep replaying, I feel like it was inevitable for me to lose chips here... Would you have folded? Would you have folded to the initial raise? I would love to hear it, esp if there are ones out there who think this is a hand that I should have folded. Well, this made me a short stack so few hands later, I pushed with 6-2 of hearts (I was gonna push ATC) and got called by Otis with AJ and that ended my tournament life. However, being at 42 out of 42 at one point, it was nice to see this...
And 4th place finish in this tough company was definitely something that I am proud of...
And by the way, stop by and congratulate OtisDart for eventually taking down the whole thing.
I'm gonna be hurting tomorrow at work...
As I try to better myself in tournament play, I obviously read a lot of blogs and forums to try to educate myself. But naturally, you have to play in order to gain experience and get even better. I'm still working on the fine points of deep stack play but I feel that generally, when I'm a short stack or when the blinds are high, my timing is pretty good. Of course, it helps to get lucky but hey, we're playing cards right?
So, last night, there was another sick beat that took a chunk out of my bankroll but I grinded hard on the cash tables to pretty much erase that deficit after several hours of play. In the meantime, I donked around some sng's and a couple of MTTs. Cashed in some but nothing worth noting... and of course, after watching the final episode of Heroes, I hunkered down to play in the MATH (Mondays at the Hoy).
Well, things didn't start off so well. I tend to be fairly tight but I also knew that that's my downfall so I wanted to open my game up a little. So I took a few stabs here and there but nothing was really connecting and I didn't get involved in big pots until this came along... Still early (double stack so we all started with 3000 chips)
FullTiltPoker Game #2480348419: Mondays at the Hoy (17511703), Table 5 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:26:35 ET - 2007/05/21
Seat 1: jeciimd (2,545)
Seat 2: a104l9 (3,200)
Seat 3: MiamiDon (2,815)
Seat 4: LookyMyHooky (2,915)
Seat 5: RecessRampage (2,380) <--- already a little down with few bad bluff attempts
Seat 6: NewinNov (2,530)
Seat 7: BuddyDank (4,420)
Seat 8: summer_babe (3,725)
Seat 9: Kajagugu (1,555)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 25
NewinNov posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Jh Kd]
BuddyDank folds
summer_babe calls 50
Kajagugu folds
jeciimd folds
a104l9 folds
MiamiDon calls 50
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage calls 25
NewinNov checks
*** FLOP *** [8d 2c Jc]
RecessRampage bets 200 <--- bet out top pair
NewinNov folds
summer_babe folds
MiamiDon calls 200 <--- don, as we all know is a player, so I wanted to be careful after this call
*** TURN *** [8d 2c Jc] [Ad]
RecessRampage checks <--- controlling pot size
MiamiDon bets 500
RecessRampage calls 500 <--- here, I thought he was trying to steal the pot from me since I showed weakness by checking. I thought I was still good.
*** RIVER *** [8d 2c Jc Ad] [As]
RecessRampage checks
MiamiDon bets 1,100 <--- clearly a steal attempt, right?
RecessRampage calls 1,100
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MiamiDon shows [Js Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Jacks) <--- WRONG
RecessRampage mucks
MiamiDon wins the pot (3,800) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
RecessRampage: damn...
That took a huge chunk of my stack. Now I'm down to 530 in chip stack from the starting 3000... and we're like 15 minutes into the tournament with 47 runners. Not looking good at all... I'm sitting at 42nd out of 42 remaining runners...
10:51pm - I somehow keep surviving with my meager chip stack until about 10 minutes remaining till the first break, I get A9 of hearts in the small blind. Button raises to 300 (blinds are 50/100) and I go all in for 255 more... again, short stack and this is probably as good as it gets. As the button calls I type "time to get lucky" into the chat box... he flips over AQ but I catch my nut flush on the turn and double up.
10:54pm - That propelled me to 40 out of 42 remaining. And then I go on a mini rush... UTG raises to 350 (blinds still at 50/100) and I'm sitting at UTG+2 with pocket jacks. So I push my still small stack of 1,210. Goes back around to UTG who calls with AQ. JJ holds up. Another double up. Stack at 2,570.
10:55pm - Very next hand. I find AK from UTG+1 so I raise to 350. Jeciimd (our top points player who hasn't cashed in the BBT events) who has been called by many to be maybe a little too tight pushes his stack for 1,770. I personally didn't have any opinion on him in terms of tightness (believe me, if I peg you as a tight player, then you're folding everything but AA and KK) but based on his rep, I thought at best, it was a race. But I couldn't fold and I said as much in the chat box. Actually my quote was "I'm such a donk, but I can't fold this." He flips AQ and my AK holds. My stack is now at a healthy 3,640.
10:57pm - Folded one hand and then this came up. I'm in the big blind...
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Kh]
NewinNov folds
BuddyDank folds
summer_babe folds
Kajagugu folds
willwonka raises to 300
MiamiDon folds
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage calls 200
*** FLOP *** [7h Kd Ac]
RecessRampage checks
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka bets 500
RecessRampage raises to 2,150 <--- this is not a play I would have made a while ago but now, I wasn't sure if willwonka had the ace. I figured, if he did, then so be it. It was only half my stack at this point and I now wanted to pressure him.
willwonka has 15 seconds left to act
willwonka folds <--- phew
Uncalled bet of 1,650 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot (1,650)
That took my stack to 5,290 which made me the chip leader at the table, only for a hand or two until MiamiDon won a monster pot right before the break.
11:22pm - I don't know what happened... very donkalicious moment for me. I call this guy's all in with pocket 5's on a board where there were three higher cards (turns out he had top set) so I lose 1,845 of my chip stack. However, that kinda snapped me back into playing tight again.
11:31pm - 10 minutes later, Schaubs and I go at it in this crazy hand where it was 3 handed going into the flop (after a raise and a reraise).
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Qd]
MiamiDon folds
LookyMyHooky folds
RecessRampage raises to 600
NewinNov folds
BuddyDank folds
Schaubs has 15 seconds left to act
Schaubs raises to 1,500
OtisDart folds
JoeSpeaker folds
smokkee calls 1,300 <--- ??? I would love to know what he had here
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 2,575, and is all in <--- what else can I do with QQ here?
Schaubs calls 1,075
smokkee calls 1,075
*** FLOP *** [8c 5d 5c]
smokkee checks
Schaubs bets 3,811, and is all in
RecessRampage: hmmm
smokkee: i knew u were gonna do that
smokkee has 15 seconds left to act
smokkee: damn
smokkee folds
Schaubs shows [Th Ts]
RecessRampage shows [Qs Qd]
Uncalled bet of 3,811 returned to Schaubs
*** TURN *** [8c 5d 5c] [Td] <--- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RecessRampage: damn
*** RIVER *** [8c 5d 5c Td] [Qh] <--- YEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!
Schaubs shows a full house, Tens full of Fives
RecessRampage shows a full house, Queens full of Fives
RecessRampage wins the pot (7,825) with a full house, Queens full of Fives
RecessRampage: oh damn
NewinNov: lol
JoeSpeaker: gotdamn
The ol' suck, resuck. So much drama... lol
Well, not much happens after this but as antes kick in, it becomes imperative that I stay alive and relatively healthy. So this comes up...
11:56pm - Smokkee at this point has me covered by approx 1800 chips but we're both about average chip stack overall. Smokkee is in the small blind and I'm BB. (blinds 150/300)
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Js Qd]
everyone folds
smokkee raises to 900
RecessRampage calls 600 <--- gotta protect my blinds
*** FLOP *** [3s Kh 2c]
smokkee bets 975 <--- half the pot? I sensed weakness here so...
RecessRampage calls 975 <--- I call, to see what he does on the turn
*** TURN *** [3s Kh 2c] [Qh]
smokkee checks
RecessRampage bets 4,275, and is all in <--- if he slowplayed a king, I at least have outs if he calls but I wanted to make a statement here... if I'm wrong, I'm gone
smokkee folds <--- phew... he later claims he folded KT here... not sure if he's telling the truth though... :)
Uncalled bet of 4,275 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot (3,925)
That was a pretty rare bluffing moment for me and that definitely helped. When the blinds start escalating in a hurry, every little bit helps, obviously.
Fast forward to 1:15am and this hand happens which is probably one of the most critical hands for me... It's down to 5 of us so we're in the money...
ullTiltPoker Game #2481723019: Mondays at the Hoy (17511703), Table 4 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:15:59 ET - 2007/05/22
Seat 2: TripJax (44,525)
Seat 4: OtisDart (11,919)
Seat 5: MiamiDon (23,600)
Seat 6: Mike_Maloney (40,088)
Seat 8: RecessRampage (20,868)
TripJax antes 250
OtisDart antes 250
MiamiDon antes 250
Mike_Maloney antes 250
RecessRampage antes 250
TripJax posts the small blind of 1,000
OtisDart posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Jc]
MiamiDon raises to 5,500
Mike_Maloney folds
RecessRampage calls 5,500 <--- I call in position, with decent cards, and with the blinds so high and at a short handed table, I either reraise here or call but folding, in my opinion, was not an option
TripJax folds
OtisDart raises to 11,669, and is all in
MiamiDon has 15 seconds left to act
Mike_Maloney: big hand
MiamiDon folds
RecessRampage: damn
RecessRampage: don, I was hoping you'd call...
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
MiamiDon: sandwich play
RecessRampage: got to
RecessRampage: I'm a donk
RecessRampage calls 6,169
OtisDart shows [Kc Kh]
RecessRampage shows [Qc Jc]
*** FLOP *** [2c 5s 7h]
*** TURN *** [2c 5s 7h] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [2c 5s 7h Ts] [2s]
OtisDart shows two pair, Kings and Twos
RecessRampage shows a pair of Twos
OtisDart wins the pot (31,088) with two pair, Kings and Twos
MiamiDon: nh
Mike_Maloney: ouch, nh
It was 6,169 more for me to call in a pot that already had close to 25,000 in chips. As I keep replaying, I feel like it was inevitable for me to lose chips here... Would you have folded? Would you have folded to the initial raise? I would love to hear it, esp if there are ones out there who think this is a hand that I should have folded. Well, this made me a short stack so few hands later, I pushed with 6-2 of hearts (I was gonna push ATC) and got called by Otis with AJ and that ended my tournament life. However, being at 42 out of 42 at one point, it was nice to see this...
And 4th place finish in this tough company was definitely something that I am proud of...
And by the way, stop by and congratulate OtisDart for eventually taking down the whole thing.
I'm gonna be hurting tomorrow at work...
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Bad Karma Part 5 - Presto, not so gold...
So, it appears that I got rid of my bad karma for the month of May earlier this month... things were going fairly well this weekend and I was up a few hundred dollars over the course of the weekend when this happened...
Full Tilt Poker Game #2473180285: Table Courage - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:16:26 ET - 2007/05/20
Seat 1: ChildBride ($396)
Seat 2: happythoughts ($562.30)
Seat 3: smalltalkdan ($395.20)
Seat 4: Cadi_007 ($51.80)
Seat 5: RecessRampage ($497.30)
Seat 6: sakurababa ($786)
Seat 7: Shimiwaza ($468.70)
Seat 8: chinzo ($117.20)
Seat 9: AC98 ($167.10)
ChildBride posts the small blind of $2
happythoughts posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [5h 5d]
smalltalkdan folds
Cadi_007 folds
RecessRampage raises to $14 (raising with gold, standard here)
sakurababa folds
Shimiwaza folds
chinzo folds
AC98 calls $14
ChildBride folds
happythoughts calls $10
*** FLOP *** [6c Kd 5s]
happythoughts bets $32 <--- very active and plays tptk like gold
RecessRampage calls $32 <--- figured, I'll let him hang himself
AC98 folds
*** TURN *** [6c Kd 5s] [Qh]
happythoughts bets $64 <--- he's definitely got a king, even better if KQ
RecessRampage raises to $150 <--- let's build this pot!
happythoughts raises to $236 <--- hmmm.... if it were anyone else, I would hit the brakes here...
sakurababa: YEAH <--- so easy to be a third party here
RecessRampage raises to $451.30, and is all in <--- I'm not going anywhere with this hand so let's see what happens
sakurababa: YEAH
happythoughts calls $215.30 <--- uh oh... he's either got KQ or...
Damn...
RecessRampage shows [5h 5d]
happythoughts shows [6d 6h]
RecessRampage: damn
*** RIVER *** [6c Kd 5s Qh] [8h]
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Fives
happythoughts shows three of a kind, Sixes
happythoughts wins the pot ($1,007.60) with three of a kind, Sixes
RecessRampage: nh
RecessRampage is sitting out
Painful...
Full Tilt Poker Game #2473180285: Table Courage - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:16:26 ET - 2007/05/20
Seat 1: ChildBride ($396)
Seat 2: happythoughts ($562.30)
Seat 3: smalltalkdan ($395.20)
Seat 4: Cadi_007 ($51.80)
Seat 5: RecessRampage ($497.30)
Seat 6: sakurababa ($786)
Seat 7: Shimiwaza ($468.70)
Seat 8: chinzo ($117.20)
Seat 9: AC98 ($167.10)
ChildBride posts the small blind of $2
happythoughts posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [5h 5d]
smalltalkdan folds
Cadi_007 folds
RecessRampage raises to $14 (raising with gold, standard here)
sakurababa folds
Shimiwaza folds
chinzo folds
AC98 calls $14
ChildBride folds
happythoughts calls $10
*** FLOP *** [6c Kd 5s]
happythoughts bets $32 <--- very active and plays tptk like gold
RecessRampage calls $32 <--- figured, I'll let him hang himself
AC98 folds
*** TURN *** [6c Kd 5s] [Qh]
happythoughts bets $64 <--- he's definitely got a king, even better if KQ
RecessRampage raises to $150 <--- let's build this pot!
happythoughts raises to $236 <--- hmmm.... if it were anyone else, I would hit the brakes here...
sakurababa: YEAH <--- so easy to be a third party here
RecessRampage raises to $451.30, and is all in <--- I'm not going anywhere with this hand so let's see what happens
sakurababa: YEAH
happythoughts calls $215.30 <--- uh oh... he's either got KQ or...
Damn...
RecessRampage shows [5h 5d]
happythoughts shows [6d 6h]
RecessRampage: damn
*** RIVER *** [6c Kd 5s Qh] [8h]
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Fives
happythoughts shows three of a kind, Sixes
happythoughts wins the pot ($1,007.60) with three of a kind, Sixes
RecessRampage: nh
RecessRampage is sitting out
Painful...
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Missed the Mookie!
I'm personally not a planner. It's not that I'm totally unorganized but unless it's something big (like a vacation, long trip, etc), I don't feel the need to plan. One thing about me is that I'm adaptable to most situations. So I think on my feet very quickly and as such, "shoulda planned for it" concept is one that I don't really embrace. And I'm laid back enough that if something doesn't go my way, I'll find another way to wing it.
Well, there are few things that I do plan on. Recently, it's been these blogger tournaments. They start at 10pm (my time) which is an hour later than the perfect start time for me but better hour later than hour before. Anyways, so MATH and the Mookie are two events that I actually plan for. And you know what??? PLANNING SUCKS! Because when you plan sh*t, you expect everything to go right! Ok, it's one thing if something tragic happened or something crazy happens. But it's another when you lose something that you always assume is there... power. As in ELECTRICITY. Last night, I came home from work around 5:30pm and noticed that my microwave and my oven both showed flashing zeroes to indicate that the clock has been reset cuz they lost power. Ok, no big deal. It rained a little so maybe something happened. (No storm, no crazy winds... just rain). I go to the grocery store, pick up some meat, milk, grapefruit juice, frozen vegetables... come home and the garage door doesn't open. Sure enough, we lost power again. Fortunately, I was lazy so at the grocery store grill, I got myself a chicken stirfry so I'm sitting in the semi dark kitchen with my Treo in hand lighting up the food I'm eating. Well, now I'm starting to be a little worried. It's 8pm, I had visions of spending some quality time looking over my hand history from the FTOPS tournament I played in a few days ago, play a few cash games and obviously, sign up for the Mookie... but my laptop battery is dead, wireless is obviously not working (and even if it did work, what good is it with a dead laptop???)... Well, I'm laid back and I can think on my feet right? Yeah and yeah, but that's all good when I don't plan because "no plan" is part of the plan. When I do plan and sh*t doesn't go my way, it irks me. Anyways, so I decided that I'll hit the local starbucks since they have wireless connection...
So, off I go to the evil empire of coffee makers and I nurse my grande Cafe Americano (for noncoffee afficionados, that's espresso with hot water - much better taste than regular coffee, IMO) while I debate whether I should purchase this one hour plan for $6 to play online. Well, I think I would have, except by the time this was happening, it's close to 9... the shop closes at 10... Mookie starts at 10... so, basically, I end up playing video games on my computer till around 9:45, hoping that maybe the power is restored, and as I enter my neighborhood, I realize that our neighborhood is still dark (and our neighborhood is the ONLY ONE that is dark). Around 10, I had no choice but to accept this cruel joke that someone was playing on me. I brushed my teeth in the dark and decided that I'll just go to sleep. And around this time, I convinced myself that this will be good. I've been up late the past few nights so going to bed a little early will do me well.
Well, around 2:30am, I came to. I kinda rolled over, and noticed that my wife's alarm clock now is beaming it's green light (I swear, that thing is so bright it's like the light on top of Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas). So, I think to myself, oh the power is back on... after 5.5 hrs of my fresh groceries sitting in the fridge that was probably not much cooler than the room itself... And then there was another problem... I couldn't go back to sleep... I toss and turn, and 30 minutes later, I'm wide awake. So, I do what every video game junkie does... I knew I wasn't in the right frame of mind to play poker but that didn't stop me from booting up the laptop and playing video games on it. I ended up being up till 4am when I finally started getting tired again and I went back to sleep...
As such, I'm exhausted this morning... and yet I didn't even get to play any poker last night.
Well, there are few things that I do plan on. Recently, it's been these blogger tournaments. They start at 10pm (my time) which is an hour later than the perfect start time for me but better hour later than hour before. Anyways, so MATH and the Mookie are two events that I actually plan for. And you know what??? PLANNING SUCKS! Because when you plan sh*t, you expect everything to go right! Ok, it's one thing if something tragic happened or something crazy happens. But it's another when you lose something that you always assume is there... power. As in ELECTRICITY. Last night, I came home from work around 5:30pm and noticed that my microwave and my oven both showed flashing zeroes to indicate that the clock has been reset cuz they lost power. Ok, no big deal. It rained a little so maybe something happened. (No storm, no crazy winds... just rain). I go to the grocery store, pick up some meat, milk, grapefruit juice, frozen vegetables... come home and the garage door doesn't open. Sure enough, we lost power again. Fortunately, I was lazy so at the grocery store grill, I got myself a chicken stirfry so I'm sitting in the semi dark kitchen with my Treo in hand lighting up the food I'm eating. Well, now I'm starting to be a little worried. It's 8pm, I had visions of spending some quality time looking over my hand history from the FTOPS tournament I played in a few days ago, play a few cash games and obviously, sign up for the Mookie... but my laptop battery is dead, wireless is obviously not working (and even if it did work, what good is it with a dead laptop???)... Well, I'm laid back and I can think on my feet right? Yeah and yeah, but that's all good when I don't plan because "no plan" is part of the plan. When I do plan and sh*t doesn't go my way, it irks me. Anyways, so I decided that I'll hit the local starbucks since they have wireless connection...
So, off I go to the evil empire of coffee makers and I nurse my grande Cafe Americano (for noncoffee afficionados, that's espresso with hot water - much better taste than regular coffee, IMO) while I debate whether I should purchase this one hour plan for $6 to play online. Well, I think I would have, except by the time this was happening, it's close to 9... the shop closes at 10... Mookie starts at 10... so, basically, I end up playing video games on my computer till around 9:45, hoping that maybe the power is restored, and as I enter my neighborhood, I realize that our neighborhood is still dark (and our neighborhood is the ONLY ONE that is dark). Around 10, I had no choice but to accept this cruel joke that someone was playing on me. I brushed my teeth in the dark and decided that I'll just go to sleep. And around this time, I convinced myself that this will be good. I've been up late the past few nights so going to bed a little early will do me well.
Well, around 2:30am, I came to. I kinda rolled over, and noticed that my wife's alarm clock now is beaming it's green light (I swear, that thing is so bright it's like the light on top of Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas). So, I think to myself, oh the power is back on... after 5.5 hrs of my fresh groceries sitting in the fridge that was probably not much cooler than the room itself... And then there was another problem... I couldn't go back to sleep... I toss and turn, and 30 minutes later, I'm wide awake. So, I do what every video game junkie does... I knew I wasn't in the right frame of mind to play poker but that didn't stop me from booting up the laptop and playing video games on it. I ended up being up till 4am when I finally started getting tired again and I went back to sleep...
As such, I'm exhausted this morning... and yet I didn't even get to play any poker last night.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Always a good time at Park Ave Poker Tour
Finally... things are starting to slow down at work which means more time for me to do things outside of work... which mainly boils down to two things these days... poker and blogging, esp since Mrs Recess is out of town all week this week. I actually want to recap my play from FTOPS since I think it will reflect very accurately how much of a tourney donk I am/give me an opportunity to study and improve my play. And "eel man", thanks for the tip on MTT. I think I see what you are saying and some of your posts really illustrate what you are saying so I appreciate the pointers. And Surf, really, you're too kind but thanks for the comment.
Anyways, so I come home from work and since I don't have to leave for the PAPT until around 7:30, I decided to watch last night's episode of Heroes. Btw, is this site for real? Can you watch these episodes for free? If so, I feel retarded for downloading an episode (actually the very first one) on itunes... Cost me a whopping $1.99.... When I first saw commercials for this show, I thought it might be interesting but since it's rare that I watch tv, I didn't think I would get into it as much as I have... well, I accidentally caught the second episode and from then on, I've been hooked which brings us to second from the last episode on Heroes. The best part about the show wasn't even the show... it was the fact that I was able to laugh at myself for being so dense... I didn't put two and two together until it happened. Since Claire's dad was trying to find the "locator device" in NY, I kept thinking that it would be this big machine... lmao... scene cuts over to the little girl with the special ability to locate anyone and she's proving to Dr Suresh that her ability is back... and then... wait, wait, wait... ooooooh, I get it... locator device... she can locate anyone... aaaaah. :) I'm so clueless sometimes...
Ok, for those of you interested in PAPT (which makes like maybe 3 of us), it was a weird night. First of all (uh oh, this is gonna sound like an excuse), I wasn't in my serious tourney mode... I was more in a splash the pot around a few times mode... and when that happens, I'm really not paying attention to what's going on. Folding the best hand twice on a board that I actually would normally be more aggressive with and then ultimately donking out with A-10 (though I still maintain that wasn't a bad play... I can't help it if someone else wakes up with pocket 10s). But what was interesting was this... I get there, just to find out that we're only gonna have 5 guys playing. The host is out because his dog just ran away... :( Very sad and I offered to help look for her but apparently, that's what they've been doing all afternoon so he decline my offer but wasn't going to play. Understandable. Well, our fifth guy gets rear ended by someone on his way so he is bleeding out the blinds (I think he didn't get there till 3-6 and considering there were only 5 guys, well, 4 until he showed up, that's a fair amount). Then mid way through 4-8, there's a loud knock on the door. We open the door and in walks the lady with the dog!!! The dog is fine, she's spunky and happy like nothing happened. And this is where it gets funny. She proceeds to start yelling at Seth (the host's roommate/the victim of my 2-4 soooted crackin aces) about how he let her run around in the backyard (fenced) unsupervised and how someone could have taken the poor dog away etc etc... Well, so she stole the dog to teach them a lesson... She was like "it could have been someone else!!! You were lucky it was me!" Ummm... how bout if you didn't steal her, the dog wouldn't have gone away? "If you had a 1 yr old child and you leave her unsupervised, she could disappear on you!" Seth took it well... for a while until he finally couldn't take it and said "I don't need to be f*ckin yelled at by you!" Needless to say, that added another 5 minutes of her yelling at him... what a crazy lady. I mean the point was well taken and I think I don't know the whole story but it appears that Seth was at fault. At least he was in charge so he definitely manned up to that and admitted that he was sorry. But for a strange neighbor to be giving him hell??? That's crazy. Nonetheless, Seth, Ramel, I'm glad your dog (I can't remember her name!) was fine and she made it home ok.
Ok, and back to poker... well, kinda uneventful. 5 players, yours truly out in 4th place with the A-10 jam getting called by JT's pocket tens. JT recently became a dad so he hasn't played in a while but it was good to see him back at the tables. And this just in, he won, beating Seth heads up. Well played guys. Tyke, our points leader was out in 3rd place when his A-10 was brutally slaughtered by JT's A2... but they were sooted... aaaah, the famous last words. All in preflop, 2 hits the flop and Tyke's 3 outer didn't come through for him. Doesn't really affect the point standings. Tune into next week for another exciting showdown at the PAPT!!!
Anyways, so I come home from work and since I don't have to leave for the PAPT until around 7:30, I decided to watch last night's episode of Heroes. Btw, is this site for real? Can you watch these episodes for free? If so, I feel retarded for downloading an episode (actually the very first one) on itunes... Cost me a whopping $1.99.... When I first saw commercials for this show, I thought it might be interesting but since it's rare that I watch tv, I didn't think I would get into it as much as I have... well, I accidentally caught the second episode and from then on, I've been hooked which brings us to second from the last episode on Heroes. The best part about the show wasn't even the show... it was the fact that I was able to laugh at myself for being so dense... I didn't put two and two together until it happened. Since Claire's dad was trying to find the "locator device" in NY, I kept thinking that it would be this big machine... lmao... scene cuts over to the little girl with the special ability to locate anyone and she's proving to Dr Suresh that her ability is back... and then... wait, wait, wait... ooooooh, I get it... locator device... she can locate anyone... aaaaah. :) I'm so clueless sometimes...
Ok, for those of you interested in PAPT (which makes like maybe 3 of us), it was a weird night. First of all (uh oh, this is gonna sound like an excuse), I wasn't in my serious tourney mode... I was more in a splash the pot around a few times mode... and when that happens, I'm really not paying attention to what's going on. Folding the best hand twice on a board that I actually would normally be more aggressive with and then ultimately donking out with A-10 (though I still maintain that wasn't a bad play... I can't help it if someone else wakes up with pocket 10s). But what was interesting was this... I get there, just to find out that we're only gonna have 5 guys playing. The host is out because his dog just ran away... :( Very sad and I offered to help look for her but apparently, that's what they've been doing all afternoon so he decline my offer but wasn't going to play. Understandable. Well, our fifth guy gets rear ended by someone on his way so he is bleeding out the blinds (I think he didn't get there till 3-6 and considering there were only 5 guys, well, 4 until he showed up, that's a fair amount). Then mid way through 4-8, there's a loud knock on the door. We open the door and in walks the lady with the dog!!! The dog is fine, she's spunky and happy like nothing happened. And this is where it gets funny. She proceeds to start yelling at Seth (the host's roommate/the victim of my 2-4 soooted crackin aces) about how he let her run around in the backyard (fenced) unsupervised and how someone could have taken the poor dog away etc etc... Well, so she stole the dog to teach them a lesson... She was like "it could have been someone else!!! You were lucky it was me!" Ummm... how bout if you didn't steal her, the dog wouldn't have gone away? "If you had a 1 yr old child and you leave her unsupervised, she could disappear on you!" Seth took it well... for a while until he finally couldn't take it and said "I don't need to be f*ckin yelled at by you!" Needless to say, that added another 5 minutes of her yelling at him... what a crazy lady. I mean the point was well taken and I think I don't know the whole story but it appears that Seth was at fault. At least he was in charge so he definitely manned up to that and admitted that he was sorry. But for a strange neighbor to be giving him hell??? That's crazy. Nonetheless, Seth, Ramel, I'm glad your dog (I can't remember her name!) was fine and she made it home ok.
Ok, and back to poker... well, kinda uneventful. 5 players, yours truly out in 4th place with the A-10 jam getting called by JT's pocket tens. JT recently became a dad so he hasn't played in a while but it was good to see him back at the tables. And this just in, he won, beating Seth heads up. Well played guys. Tyke, our points leader was out in 3rd place when his A-10 was brutally slaughtered by JT's A2... but they were sooted... aaaah, the famous last words. All in preflop, 2 hits the flop and Tyke's 3 outer didn't come through for him. Doesn't really affect the point standings. Tune into next week for another exciting showdown at the PAPT!!!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Donks do what donks do best - FTOPS IV Event 4
First off, if you haven't looked, this is not a victory speech or a "this is how I won more money in a tournament ever" blog...
Having said that, I want to thank surflexus for railing me till I donked off my chips with J-10... that was kinda embarrassing but I thought my image was tight enough and I was desperate enough that my early position raise would be respected... I guess not. When the villain pushed, I had no choice but to call, considering the stack size, blinds, level of play, etc hoping I had two live cards, which I did. I have to admit... the level of play overall in this tournament was definitely above me. When you can "feel" several players at the table making a play on you and yet you do nothing about it, it's not good. I tight donked my way to 215th out of 908 runners. Surf, thanks again for the support. You helped a lot more than you know.
I also want to thank InstantTragedy and Astin for the priceless entertainment they provided at the MATH "discussing" today's episode of Heroes which I obviously didn't watch because of the FTOPS tournament. It's DVR'ed so I will certainly catch it, hopefully at lunch tomorrow but if not, on Wednesday for sure (as of now, I intend to play at the PAPT tomorrow night). Seriously though, you guys were cracking me up which definitely helped because early in the FTOPS tourney, I was a nervous wreck. The dollar amount of the buy-in should not affect my tourney play considering I originally put up $26 for it... but it did. You guys helped calm my nerves... too bad I needed a lot more than just calm nerves to make anything happen.
A quick recap of how I went down... Really, I think my starting table said it all... I got nervous (read intimidated) from the beginning when I saw my starting table...
Bonaparte9 (past FTOPS winner) to my left, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and his railing posse at the table, I was pretty intimidated... And I played like a donk early... very donkish. There were two hands that I felt I was ahead but wasn't sure... so instead of being aggressive with it, I acted passive, and then folded to a bet which was surely induced by my show of weakness... fortunately, I was able to come back from that after a while but again, I couldn't really get anything going. And I was relatively card dead when the blinds got high... I mean there were times I was willing to push with anything that was coordinated... Ax, any two face cards, any pair, any connector, any suited one gapper or better... and all I kept getting were 8-3, J-2, 9-4, etc... I mean I've heard the ATC but I guess I'm just not loose enough...
I just wish that I chose a better hand to go down with but given that I made the initial mistake by raising from EP with J-10off, after that, I don't think calling the push that would put me all in was a mistake. Folding would have left me with a M of less than 4 and I was going to be either UTG+1 or UTG next hand so the blinds were right there... that was the spot that I was gonna have to get lucky... again, after the blunder that was raising with JToff... I honestly thought I would get away with it though because I've been playing tight all tourney and I know I was giving off that image... oh well. You live you learn I guess.
Again, thanks to all who railed me, entertained me, and wished me gl. I know all the thanking sounds like a victory speech... too bad it's not. Good night now!
Having said that, I want to thank surflexus for railing me till I donked off my chips with J-10... that was kinda embarrassing but I thought my image was tight enough and I was desperate enough that my early position raise would be respected... I guess not. When the villain pushed, I had no choice but to call, considering the stack size, blinds, level of play, etc hoping I had two live cards, which I did. I have to admit... the level of play overall in this tournament was definitely above me. When you can "feel" several players at the table making a play on you and yet you do nothing about it, it's not good. I tight donked my way to 215th out of 908 runners. Surf, thanks again for the support. You helped a lot more than you know.
I also want to thank InstantTragedy and Astin for the priceless entertainment they provided at the MATH "discussing" today's episode of Heroes which I obviously didn't watch because of the FTOPS tournament. It's DVR'ed so I will certainly catch it, hopefully at lunch tomorrow but if not, on Wednesday for sure (as of now, I intend to play at the PAPT tomorrow night). Seriously though, you guys were cracking me up which definitely helped because early in the FTOPS tourney, I was a nervous wreck. The dollar amount of the buy-in should not affect my tourney play considering I originally put up $26 for it... but it did. You guys helped calm my nerves... too bad I needed a lot more than just calm nerves to make anything happen.
A quick recap of how I went down... Really, I think my starting table said it all... I got nervous (read intimidated) from the beginning when I saw my starting table...
Bonaparte9 (past FTOPS winner) to my left, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and his railing posse at the table, I was pretty intimidated... And I played like a donk early... very donkish. There were two hands that I felt I was ahead but wasn't sure... so instead of being aggressive with it, I acted passive, and then folded to a bet which was surely induced by my show of weakness... fortunately, I was able to come back from that after a while but again, I couldn't really get anything going. And I was relatively card dead when the blinds got high... I mean there were times I was willing to push with anything that was coordinated... Ax, any two face cards, any pair, any connector, any suited one gapper or better... and all I kept getting were 8-3, J-2, 9-4, etc... I mean I've heard the ATC but I guess I'm just not loose enough...
I just wish that I chose a better hand to go down with but given that I made the initial mistake by raising from EP with J-10off, after that, I don't think calling the push that would put me all in was a mistake. Folding would have left me with a M of less than 4 and I was going to be either UTG+1 or UTG next hand so the blinds were right there... that was the spot that I was gonna have to get lucky... again, after the blunder that was raising with JToff... I honestly thought I would get away with it though because I've been playing tight all tourney and I know I was giving off that image... oh well. You live you learn I guess.
Again, thanks to all who railed me, entertained me, and wished me gl. I know all the thanking sounds like a victory speech... too bad it's not. Good night now!
Quick nonpoker post... Damn you AM910!
So, in Richmond, we have a sports station AM910 which airs the Jim Rome show from noon to 3pm EST. Well, most of the time... for some reason, they sometimes air the Richmond Braves (that's AAA baseball of obviously, A-Braves) games... well, today was one of those days. Rome comes back from a week of vacation (translate, a week long withdrawal from quality sports radio) and I only get to hear the first 30 minutes before they cut over to AAA baseball!?
Anyways, what does this have to do with anything? Well, it really doesn't. But, apparently, Vick from No Cal emailed the show explaining why he didn't (or couldn't) call in. Something along the lines of how his call didn't initially get through and that he didn't have time to sit on the phone for 3 hrs because of work, blah blah blah. Considering I've been hyping him up and everything, it was so disappointing. And like Rome said, I'm not saying I don't believe the guy. It's probably all true. But dude, it's the smack off. Once a year event, you hyped yourself up, how can you not show? Unbelievable... So in case anyone is wondering where Vick from No Cal was on Friday during the smack off, he was working... nice one.
Anyways, what does this have to do with anything? Well, it really doesn't. But, apparently, Vick from No Cal emailed the show explaining why he didn't (or couldn't) call in. Something along the lines of how his call didn't initially get through and that he didn't have time to sit on the phone for 3 hrs because of work, blah blah blah. Considering I've been hyping him up and everything, it was so disappointing. And like Rome said, I'm not saying I don't believe the guy. It's probably all true. But dude, it's the smack off. Once a year event, you hyped yourself up, how can you not show? Unbelievable... So in case anyone is wondering where Vick from No Cal was on Friday during the smack off, he was working... nice one.
$1,060 buy-in tournament? I'M IN!!!
There was some serious donkage going on tonight in the $216 buy-in satellite that I qaulified for with a $75 token (which I won, with a $24+2 buy in). Towards the end, with about 18 players to the tournament entry, everyone was taking all 15 seconds to fold. Nonetheless, when it was all said and done, I survived long enough to get in to the FTOPS IV Event #4 which is a $1,000 + 60 buy-in.
This is what event 4 is looking like as of 30 minutes before start time...
That's a solid prize pool... Let's see if I can do some damage.
This is what event 4 is looking like as of 30 minutes before start time...
That's a solid prize pool... Let's see if I can do some damage.
Poker is such an easy game...
When you catch cards... My best outing ever on a 2-4NL table online. Started with a full buy-in of $400... ended with this!
It was pretty ridiculous. Starting off with set over set where I flop pocket 9's vs an opponent's pocket 6s, I quickly double up. Then, shortly there after, I flop quads with my pocket 3's. Slowplay it until the flush gets there and empties the guy who had more than a buy-in who also held AKh.
Then to top it off, I raise from the CO with pocket jacks and get called by a fairly loose player on the button who also had a little more than a full buy-in. At this point, I wasn't willing to play a big pot with marginal holdings until the flop comes A-J-9, rainbow. I bet $35 into a $46 pot to make it look like a standard continuation bet and he calls. Now, at this point, I put him on an ace. Now, I'm willing to play a big pot because there's only one holding that he can have that can beat mine (obviously, pocket aces). So, I bet $85 into the pot that is now $116 because I felt that he's loose enough to make that call. What happened next was even better. He raised it to $200, leaving $216 behind. I reraise him all in at which point he thinks about it for a while but eventually calls... with A-10... that's a donkish call. There weren't too many hands that he could be beating. The river is a harmless 10, giving him two pair against my trips. Another $951 pot.
So there is justice afterall... after the bad karma series early in the month, this was a ridiculous heater... Thank you poker gods.
It was pretty ridiculous. Starting off with set over set where I flop pocket 9's vs an opponent's pocket 6s, I quickly double up. Then, shortly there after, I flop quads with my pocket 3's. Slowplay it until the flush gets there and empties the guy who had more than a buy-in who also held AKh.
Then to top it off, I raise from the CO with pocket jacks and get called by a fairly loose player on the button who also had a little more than a full buy-in. At this point, I wasn't willing to play a big pot with marginal holdings until the flop comes A-J-9, rainbow. I bet $35 into a $46 pot to make it look like a standard continuation bet and he calls. Now, at this point, I put him on an ace. Now, I'm willing to play a big pot because there's only one holding that he can have that can beat mine (obviously, pocket aces). So, I bet $85 into the pot that is now $116 because I felt that he's loose enough to make that call. What happened next was even better. He raised it to $200, leaving $216 behind. I reraise him all in at which point he thinks about it for a while but eventually calls... with A-10... that's a donkish call. There weren't too many hands that he could be beating. The river is a harmless 10, giving him two pair against my trips. Another $951 pot.
So there is justice afterall... after the bad karma series early in the month, this was a ridiculous heater... Thank you poker gods.
Saturday, May 12, 2007
I can't believe I'm partaking in this...
Back to back posts in triple digits... Generally, I don't really partake in this kinda stuff but admittedly, I was kinda excited that others are checking out my blog so I guess I kinda owe it to my limited audience. So, for that, Schaubs, thanks for tagging me. Based on what I've seen on other sites (which I've only seen this on Fuel and Schaub's sites but then again, I don't visit too many blog sites), I guess I have to list 7 little known facts about me and tag 7 other people. I'm not even sure I know 7 bloggers that read my posts so I may just tag a couple... but here goes... (wow, I feel like I'm a teenage kid... hell, more like a teenage girl...hell, make that an ugly teenage girl who tries so hard to fit in...)
1. I have 4 cats. That's right, 4. My allergist rolls his eyes when I complain about my sniffling nose. Before you leave this post based solely on that statement (which I won't blame you if you did), hear me out. I used to date/live with this girl who always complained that I traveled a lot and I was never home (my previous job required me to travel pretty extensively). So, in my attempt to shut her up, I got her a cat cuz she always wanted one. Personally, I hated cats... until you get one. The cats are so misunderstood. I've lived with a dog before and after having the cat, I'm definitely more of a cat lover... mainly cuz they're not all up in my face all the time. Anyways, so I got one. Then she said he needed a buddy so we got another one. By this time, I was clearly a cat lover (any comments questioning my manhood WILL be deleted). So we have two. Then her coworker was going to euthanize these two cats because her fiance was allergic to cats so we took those two cats in. We also found one cat that was always hanging out in our front porch and eventually we adopted him as well. (that's 5 if you're counting). Well, her and I broke up and I met Mrs Recess. She had two cats. I had two of the previously mentioned 5 cats. So, when we merged, we ended up with 4 cats. I love them all. Call me what you want.
2. I lived with the aforementioned cat loving girlfriend for over a year after we broke up... financially, it was great (the house was mine so she was just paying me half my mortgage and bills) but emotionally, it was a disaster. It didn't even feel like a disaster until she moved out and then I realized how bad the situation was. I have Mrs Recess to thank for that.
3. I cried at my own wedding. During the exchange of vows. I broke down before Mrs did...
4. I'm a ridiculously drastic (almost childish... actually, nothing almost about it... absolutely childish) overreactor when it comes to things I believe in... here's an example. On ESPN.com, there was an editorial written that was pretty much bashing poker about how it should be banned and that the UIGEA bill was good because poker is evil, it's gambling, etc etc... a very narrowminded article (even Tim Hardaway and his thoughts about gay people think that's narrowminded). So, ever since then, I declared to my friends that I will never visit espn.com. And I haven't. I never will. I have never watched Seinfeld after Michael Richard's blunder. And I probably never will.
5. Each week, there are only 3 nonpoker shows that I watch regularly (or DVR'd) - Heroes, Friday Night Lights, and Criminal Minds.
6. Most things in my life can pretty much be defined by words "love" and "hate". I'm always one or the other. I LOVE Friday Night Lights. I HATE espn.com. I LOVE poker. I HATE Bill Frist. You get the point. Mrs Recess HATES that I'm a hater.
7. I'm Japanese but I recently got my greencard. I speak fluent English with little to no accent, I'm a CPA, worked my way up to being a manager in a regional accounting firm for several years, own a house, now work for a very reputable company as a reporting manager, pay my taxes and still... after 12 years of being in this country legally and trying to legally obtain a greencard, I ended up getting one through marriage and not through work (even though the application has been in the works for over 5 years). Is it just me or does it not make sense that it's a lot harder to be in this country legally than illegally?
Wow, the 7 things about me turned into more of a rant than an actual "little tidbits" about me. Oh well. The following may or may not even read my blog but if you happen to stumble upon here, you're up!
lucko
Blinders
oossuuu754
WillWonka
AnguilA
1. I have 4 cats. That's right, 4. My allergist rolls his eyes when I complain about my sniffling nose. Before you leave this post based solely on that statement (which I won't blame you if you did), hear me out. I used to date/live with this girl who always complained that I traveled a lot and I was never home (my previous job required me to travel pretty extensively). So, in my attempt to shut her up, I got her a cat cuz she always wanted one. Personally, I hated cats... until you get one. The cats are so misunderstood. I've lived with a dog before and after having the cat, I'm definitely more of a cat lover... mainly cuz they're not all up in my face all the time. Anyways, so I got one. Then she said he needed a buddy so we got another one. By this time, I was clearly a cat lover (any comments questioning my manhood WILL be deleted). So we have two. Then her coworker was going to euthanize these two cats because her fiance was allergic to cats so we took those two cats in. We also found one cat that was always hanging out in our front porch and eventually we adopted him as well. (that's 5 if you're counting). Well, her and I broke up and I met Mrs Recess. She had two cats. I had two of the previously mentioned 5 cats. So, when we merged, we ended up with 4 cats. I love them all. Call me what you want.
2. I lived with the aforementioned cat loving girlfriend for over a year after we broke up... financially, it was great (the house was mine so she was just paying me half my mortgage and bills) but emotionally, it was a disaster. It didn't even feel like a disaster until she moved out and then I realized how bad the situation was. I have Mrs Recess to thank for that.
3. I cried at my own wedding. During the exchange of vows. I broke down before Mrs did...
4. I'm a ridiculously drastic (almost childish... actually, nothing almost about it... absolutely childish) overreactor when it comes to things I believe in... here's an example. On ESPN.com, there was an editorial written that was pretty much bashing poker about how it should be banned and that the UIGEA bill was good because poker is evil, it's gambling, etc etc... a very narrowminded article (even Tim Hardaway and his thoughts about gay people think that's narrowminded). So, ever since then, I declared to my friends that I will never visit espn.com. And I haven't. I never will. I have never watched Seinfeld after Michael Richard's blunder. And I probably never will.
5. Each week, there are only 3 nonpoker shows that I watch regularly (or DVR'd) - Heroes, Friday Night Lights, and Criminal Minds.
6. Most things in my life can pretty much be defined by words "love" and "hate". I'm always one or the other. I LOVE Friday Night Lights. I HATE espn.com. I LOVE poker. I HATE Bill Frist. You get the point. Mrs Recess HATES that I'm a hater.
7. I'm Japanese but I recently got my greencard. I speak fluent English with little to no accent, I'm a CPA, worked my way up to being a manager in a regional accounting firm for several years, own a house, now work for a very reputable company as a reporting manager, pay my taxes and still... after 12 years of being in this country legally and trying to legally obtain a greencard, I ended up getting one through marriage and not through work (even though the application has been in the works for over 5 years). Is it just me or does it not make sense that it's a lot harder to be in this country legally than illegally?
Wow, the 7 things about me turned into more of a rant than an actual "little tidbits" about me. Oh well. The following may or may not even read my blog but if you happen to stumble upon here, you're up!
lucko
Blinders
oossuuu754
WillWonka
AnguilA
Support online poker!!!!
I am a proud contributing member of the Poker Players Alliance which is a lobbying group to legalize online poker which has unfairly been lumped in with other games of random chance (like blackjack, craps, roulette, etc). Nevermind that lottery and horse racing are still legal. I mean if there's skill involved in scratching that lottery ticket or using that ridiculously short pencil at 7-eleven to fill in the dots next to the number you want, well, then I'm obviously unaware. Well, that said, this is the letter I received two days ago. Please, for the very few that stop by this blog to read what I have to say and play online poker, read on and make your voice be heard! Oh and this happens to be post #100! I can't believe I've written so many posts pretty much since the first of the year. Good stuff.
Dear Fellow PPA Member:
I have wonderful news to report! On Thursday, April 26, Rep. Barney Frank introduced HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007. HR 2046 will lift the prohibition on playing poker online. Your efforts are making a difference!
Representative Frank is the Chairman of the important House Financial Services Committee. And he understands the injustice that we have suffered. When he introduced the bill, he told reporters that “The existing legislation is an inappropriate interference on the personal freedom of Americans and this interference should be undone”.
But he can’t do this job alone. Now, we need to help Congressman Frank build support for his bill.
You can regain your right to enjoy safe, secure online poker – but only if you stand up for your rights. And PPA is here to help you do just that.
This is a landmark day for freedom. But it is only the first step of the process. Join me in celebrating this milestone – and take action to build support for HR 2046.
Click here or below to make your voice heard in our nation’s Capitol.
Sincerely,
Michael Bolcerek
President
Poker Players Alliance
Dear Fellow PPA Member:
I have wonderful news to report! On Thursday, April 26, Rep. Barney Frank introduced HR 2046, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act of 2007. HR 2046 will lift the prohibition on playing poker online. Your efforts are making a difference!
Representative Frank is the Chairman of the important House Financial Services Committee. And he understands the injustice that we have suffered. When he introduced the bill, he told reporters that “The existing legislation is an inappropriate interference on the personal freedom of Americans and this interference should be undone”.
But he can’t do this job alone. Now, we need to help Congressman Frank build support for his bill.
You can regain your right to enjoy safe, secure online poker – but only if you stand up for your rights. And PPA is here to help you do just that.
This is a landmark day for freedom. But it is only the first step of the process. Join me in celebrating this milestone – and take action to build support for HR 2046.
Click here or below to make your voice heard in our nation’s Capitol.
Sincerely,
Michael Bolcerek
President
Poker Players Alliance
Friday, May 11, 2007
2.5hrs - My take on MTT strategy
Survival vs accumulation - I think this topic has been discussed in many different forums regarding multitable tournaments (MTTs). Just to briefly rehash, the debate is on whether to play tight so that you can survive into the later parts of the tournament vs taking big risks early to accumulate chips so that you can enter the later stages of the tournament with a big chip advantage. In today's tournament structure where the top finishers get rewarded heavily, the chip accumulation strategy makes sense. However, the question here is how do you accumulate chips quicker? In other words, how do you make something out of nothing?
That is a question I've been struggling with for a long time which is why I always refer to myself as a tournament donk. I think I just don't get it. Whenever I tell Mrs Recess that I am in a tournament, she always asks what time it started because she knows that almost every time, I'm out of the tournament in 2.5 hrs... Sometimes, it stings. Other times, I just kinda laugh it off. But when I sit down and think about it, it's definitely more of a symptom than a coincidence. In other words, if Mrs Recess who pays no attention to my poker playing (or this blog) also realizes that I'm out of tourneys in 2.5hrs, then I must always be out of tourneys in 2.5hrs. So then the next question was why?
And the inevitable truth comes out. I play too tight and so I end up playing survival instead of chip accumulation. But if I don't get it, I just don't get it, right? In other words, I can't just say "oh, I'm playing survival poker. I need to switch to chip accumulation poker." And then switch it like that. If it were that easy, I'd like to think I'd have done that by now. So, first off, as I read the forums and other blogs, I noticed one trend which is pushing the marginal edge early on. In other words, a lot of people seem to go into the race situation early. Now, I'm not going to repeat Hoy's post regarding this but I'm personally not a big fan of getting into a coinflip situation early. And here's my take on why that is.
For aggressive chip accumulation, let's say that you push in order to double up, every time you sense there's a race situation. Well, if you do that, then let's say you have a 50/50 shot at winning that race. You win one and that's great, you just doubled your stackc. Of course, if you lose, you're out. But let's say in a tournament with 150 players, what good is doubling your chip stack at that point? Ok, let me rephrase the question. What good is doubling your chip stack at the risk of being out of the tournament so quickly? Now, I also understand the argument of if you have more chips, you can take bigger risks early on to add to your stack. But one thing about the race situation is that you are taking the skill factor out of poker and just letting it ride on luck. And in these tournaments, there are always donks out there who you should be able to outplay. But by pushing and making the donks have to make only one decision (call all-in or fold), you're in effect negating your own skills, no? Where as you may be able to outplay a donk on the flop or the turn, you're letting the cards do all the talking if you just push for a coin flip.
Having said all that, there must be something. Today, I qualified for Event #1 of FTOPS IV. As usual, I played tight early on, very slowly accumulating chips. After the second break, the antes kicked in and so I was going to open up my game a little more but the cards didn't cooperate. Until I picked up pocket jacks at the cutoff position... which I raised, got called by a big stack in the big blind, flop comes 9-9-10, he checks, I jam, he calls with pocket aces and I end up 851 out of 2,573 runners. Now, that's definitely just unlucky that that happened but when I saw that my bust out time was approx 2.5 hrs after the tournament started, I knew. I just knew something needs to be done with my game here. In other words, my game was so tight that my raises would have only been called with premieum hands. So it was inevitable that at some point, someone was going to have better cards because if they narrowed my raising range to any pocket pair and AQ+, though I'm not that tight, they won't be too far off. So in other words, if they tighten their calling range to that, then it won't be too often that I am ahead.
So, for those of you that play a lot of tournaments, what's your style/strategy? Where do you choose to open up? Do you try to double up early or do you wait till the pots are worth stealing, ie bigger blinds or blinds with antes? This is certainly an area I would like to improve in and so I'm gonna go do some homework myself.
That is a question I've been struggling with for a long time which is why I always refer to myself as a tournament donk. I think I just don't get it. Whenever I tell Mrs Recess that I am in a tournament, she always asks what time it started because she knows that almost every time, I'm out of the tournament in 2.5 hrs... Sometimes, it stings. Other times, I just kinda laugh it off. But when I sit down and think about it, it's definitely more of a symptom than a coincidence. In other words, if Mrs Recess who pays no attention to my poker playing (or this blog) also realizes that I'm out of tourneys in 2.5hrs, then I must always be out of tourneys in 2.5hrs. So then the next question was why?
And the inevitable truth comes out. I play too tight and so I end up playing survival instead of chip accumulation. But if I don't get it, I just don't get it, right? In other words, I can't just say "oh, I'm playing survival poker. I need to switch to chip accumulation poker." And then switch it like that. If it were that easy, I'd like to think I'd have done that by now. So, first off, as I read the forums and other blogs, I noticed one trend which is pushing the marginal edge early on. In other words, a lot of people seem to go into the race situation early. Now, I'm not going to repeat Hoy's post regarding this but I'm personally not a big fan of getting into a coinflip situation early. And here's my take on why that is.
For aggressive chip accumulation, let's say that you push in order to double up, every time you sense there's a race situation. Well, if you do that, then let's say you have a 50/50 shot at winning that race. You win one and that's great, you just doubled your stackc. Of course, if you lose, you're out. But let's say in a tournament with 150 players, what good is doubling your chip stack at that point? Ok, let me rephrase the question. What good is doubling your chip stack at the risk of being out of the tournament so quickly? Now, I also understand the argument of if you have more chips, you can take bigger risks early on to add to your stack. But one thing about the race situation is that you are taking the skill factor out of poker and just letting it ride on luck. And in these tournaments, there are always donks out there who you should be able to outplay. But by pushing and making the donks have to make only one decision (call all-in or fold), you're in effect negating your own skills, no? Where as you may be able to outplay a donk on the flop or the turn, you're letting the cards do all the talking if you just push for a coin flip.
Having said all that, there must be something. Today, I qualified for Event #1 of FTOPS IV. As usual, I played tight early on, very slowly accumulating chips. After the second break, the antes kicked in and so I was going to open up my game a little more but the cards didn't cooperate. Until I picked up pocket jacks at the cutoff position... which I raised, got called by a big stack in the big blind, flop comes 9-9-10, he checks, I jam, he calls with pocket aces and I end up 851 out of 2,573 runners. Now, that's definitely just unlucky that that happened but when I saw that my bust out time was approx 2.5 hrs after the tournament started, I knew. I just knew something needs to be done with my game here. In other words, my game was so tight that my raises would have only been called with premieum hands. So it was inevitable that at some point, someone was going to have better cards because if they narrowed my raising range to any pocket pair and AQ+, though I'm not that tight, they won't be too far off. So in other words, if they tighten their calling range to that, then it won't be too often that I am ahead.
So, for those of you that play a lot of tournaments, what's your style/strategy? Where do you choose to open up? Do you try to double up early or do you wait till the pots are worth stealing, ie bigger blinds or blinds with antes? This is certainly an area I would like to improve in and so I'm gonna go do some homework myself.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The Mookie and the Daily Double
Last night, like I do every Wednesdays, I played in the Mookie and coming off a solid showing last week where I ended up in second place, I was hoping to do well again this week. I'm certainly not a great tournament player or anything but I feel that my feel for the tournaments is coming back. When I first started playing, tournaments (mainly sit n go's) are all I played. Now, it's mainly cash games but I'm enjoying playing in tournaments as well. Because I'm not a great tournament player, I still feel that tournaments take forever and you could play for hours and not win any money vs in a cash game, if you play solid for the same amount of time, more often than not, I would make money. Having said that, I really want to take one of these MTT's down so I am starting to play in more tournaments (my more tournaments equate to maybe like 4 MTTs each week, including the two blogger tourneys - MATH and Mookie).
So, at 9pm, I fired up Part B of the Daily Double (I meant to sign up for both Part A and Part B but apparently, I missed the registration for Part A) which was a $10+2 entry. Basically, my strategy here was to play tight the first hour and let the donks kill each other while accumulating chips where I can but not getting in a gamble situation (a better side of the coin flip is still considered a gamble situation, in my mind). With 893 runners, I just didn't see the value in doubling my stack that early in the tournament. I know chip accumulation is important but how much value is there in tripling your stack in the first hour vs risking going busto 3 times during that time? Maybe I'm too tight and maybe that's why I'm not a great tourney player but that was going to be my strategy.
At 10pm, the Mookie started and there, I wanted to make sure I played relatively tight but stay aggressive because in these blogger tourneys, aggression is almost the name of the game. I actually played fairly well in both. On the daily double, around the 3rd or the 4th hour, I finally busted, coming out 46th out of 893 runners for a total of a whopping $26.40... barely doubling my buy-in...
In the Mookie, I played fairly well, making decent lay downs (some would probably consider it too tight) and again, not looking to get into a total race situation unless circumstances called for such. Before I knew it, we entered final table play and then this interesting hand came up. I was in the big bling with a relatively short stack and another short stack (we had about the same) goes all in from UTG +1. Now at this point, I figured he'd be pushing with any ace so I was willing to call with my pocket 8's... until this happened...
Another player goes all in... now what do I do? Well, it was a pretty easy fold for me... turns out I had the best hand preflop... but then this happened...
Quads. Wow. I don't know if that was a situation (ignoring the results) where I should have called... scratch that. I don't know if that's a situation where others might think I should have called but in my mind, it was a clear fold. Two all ins? No way my 88 is ahead. And even if it was the best hand preflop, no way it would hold up against two players. So I opted to fold.
Well, eventually, I couldn't make anything of my stack and I was done in 7th place when I jammed my pocket deuces and got called by pocket 7s...
Well, I was relatively happy with my performance considering I made back to back final tables at the Mookie and considering that I'm a self proclaimed tournament donk, that's not too bad at all.
So, at 9pm, I fired up Part B of the Daily Double (I meant to sign up for both Part A and Part B but apparently, I missed the registration for Part A) which was a $10+2 entry. Basically, my strategy here was to play tight the first hour and let the donks kill each other while accumulating chips where I can but not getting in a gamble situation (a better side of the coin flip is still considered a gamble situation, in my mind). With 893 runners, I just didn't see the value in doubling my stack that early in the tournament. I know chip accumulation is important but how much value is there in tripling your stack in the first hour vs risking going busto 3 times during that time? Maybe I'm too tight and maybe that's why I'm not a great tourney player but that was going to be my strategy.
At 10pm, the Mookie started and there, I wanted to make sure I played relatively tight but stay aggressive because in these blogger tourneys, aggression is almost the name of the game. I actually played fairly well in both. On the daily double, around the 3rd or the 4th hour, I finally busted, coming out 46th out of 893 runners for a total of a whopping $26.40... barely doubling my buy-in...
In the Mookie, I played fairly well, making decent lay downs (some would probably consider it too tight) and again, not looking to get into a total race situation unless circumstances called for such. Before I knew it, we entered final table play and then this interesting hand came up. I was in the big bling with a relatively short stack and another short stack (we had about the same) goes all in from UTG +1. Now at this point, I figured he'd be pushing with any ace so I was willing to call with my pocket 8's... until this happened...
Another player goes all in... now what do I do? Well, it was a pretty easy fold for me... turns out I had the best hand preflop... but then this happened...
Quads. Wow. I don't know if that was a situation (ignoring the results) where I should have called... scratch that. I don't know if that's a situation where others might think I should have called but in my mind, it was a clear fold. Two all ins? No way my 88 is ahead. And even if it was the best hand preflop, no way it would hold up against two players. So I opted to fold.
Well, eventually, I couldn't make anything of my stack and I was done in 7th place when I jammed my pocket deuces and got called by pocket 7s...
Well, I was relatively happy with my performance considering I made back to back final tables at the Mookie and considering that I'm a self proclaimed tournament donk, that's not too bad at all.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
PAPT - It's been a looooong time
The Park Ave Poker Tour that I wrote about early in the year has been M.I.A. on my blogs... mainly because I have been absent from the PAPT. Between work and few other things getting in the way of a good Tuesday night poker, I haven't been there in almost 2 months. During that time, a lot of new players were added, some old regulars left, and through it all, Tyke (last year's 2nd place PAPT POY finisher) kept his solid showing and continued to rack up points to take a dominating early lead in the Player of the Year Race. Well, finally, I was able to make it tonight even though work tried to get in the way once again.
Early on, I wanted to play tight and not spill off too many chips early. The way this tournament is structured, there's a lot of play early on since the blinds increase very slowly but after the first hour and a half, blinds start escalating in a hurry (after 5-10, it's 7-14, 8-16, then 10-20 and T$5 increments thereafter... starting chips of 175ish). So, as long as you have about T$100 chips, you're really not out and as long as you catch cards towards the end, it really doesn't matter how you do in the beginning. Having said that, it helps to build your chip stack so that you're not in a one and done situation either. So, to recap...
I started off getting pretty crappy cards when this hand came up... Seth limped from UTG (blinds at T$2/T$4) and Brent raised to T$8 from the button. The small blind called and I was in the big blind so I called another $4 with 2-4 of spades and Seth smooth calls. Now, at this point, I've never played with the small blind or Seth so I didn't know what to expect from them. Well, the flop comes J-2-4, giving me bottom two. The small blind comes out betting T$15 and since he just called the minimum raise from the button, I didn't put him on a big hand. I figured he may have hit the J with like a 10 or a 9 kicker... maybe QJ at best was what I figured. I was afraid that I would push him away if I raised so I decided to smooth call here. Then, Seth, the UTG limper/raise caller doubles it to T$30. Button folds and the small blind quickly calls so it's T$15 more to me in a pot where there is approx T$107 so, I was willing to take this pot down right now and I pushed all in. Seth calls and the small blind is agonizing... which made me think maybe he had a decent kicker to go with his J... well, he eventually folded and Seth turns over a very poorly played AA. Turn and the river didn't help him out as he was the first victim of this house of bad beats tonight. But I say it was poorly played on his part because he limped UTG which is fine but then when the button doubled the bet and both blinds called, he should have reraised at that point to narrow the field. Instead, he elected to call and going with AA four handed is just asking to get killed. Not having aces cracked in that instance should be considered lucky.
That clearly propelled me to the chip lead and I played fairly tight aggressive to build/maintain my stack. And then a few key hands came up. It was down to 5 players (started with 7) and there was one guy who was relatively short stacked with approx T$50 in chips. I knew that he was going to start pushing with a fairly wide range since the blinds were climbing up so when the blinds were T$5/10, I limped UTG with AK of hearts. It was folded to the shorty who pushed all in as expected. I called in a heartbeat, thinking if he has Ax, I'm way ahead. Worst case scenario was that he would have a pocket pair so I was feeling pretty good... Unfortunately, I lost the race against his pocket tens so he doubled up. Good news was, with my early lead, that barely put a dent into my stack... until this came up...
The aforementioned small blind (Shaun) was sitting in cut off this time when he raised it to T$30 (blinds still at 5/10). I am on the button with pocket 9's and since he was relatively short (I had about T$300+ at this point and he had like $90 total) I reraised to T$100. Folded back around to him, he thinks about it and calls with AJ. I can't remember which one but he hit his hand on the flop so he doubles up through me. Now that did put a dent to my stack. These are supposed to be coinflips I thought... wasn't I supposed to win at least one of these?
Well, in the end, the lost race with my pocket 9s comes back to haunt me when Shaun and I end up going heads up and he picked off my, what I thought was a well timed bluff. Next hand, he flops 2 pair, slow plays until I catch a pair on the turn, push my short stack in and that was it for me. A bitter 2nd place finish but it was good to be back.
Oh Tyke? He ended up in 5th place when he reraised all in with KQ suited and was called by A-10. Ace on the flop sealed his fate. Very marginal call by A-10 but they were both relatively short (relative to the blinds, that is) so that makes sense even though I'm not sure I would have been able to make that call with A-10 since it was a raise, reraise, reraise back all in... Certainly worked out though... and knocking off the points leader is always a good time! Where am I on the points leaderboard? I have a total of 6 pts baby! Only 26 points behind the points leader (that's only 4 1st place finishes and 2 2nd place finishes away, assuming Tyke doesn't place in any of those times). ha ha ha ha ha ha
Early on, I wanted to play tight and not spill off too many chips early. The way this tournament is structured, there's a lot of play early on since the blinds increase very slowly but after the first hour and a half, blinds start escalating in a hurry (after 5-10, it's 7-14, 8-16, then 10-20 and T$5 increments thereafter... starting chips of 175ish). So, as long as you have about T$100 chips, you're really not out and as long as you catch cards towards the end, it really doesn't matter how you do in the beginning. Having said that, it helps to build your chip stack so that you're not in a one and done situation either. So, to recap...
I started off getting pretty crappy cards when this hand came up... Seth limped from UTG (blinds at T$2/T$4) and Brent raised to T$8 from the button. The small blind called and I was in the big blind so I called another $4 with 2-4 of spades and Seth smooth calls. Now, at this point, I've never played with the small blind or Seth so I didn't know what to expect from them. Well, the flop comes J-2-4, giving me bottom two. The small blind comes out betting T$15 and since he just called the minimum raise from the button, I didn't put him on a big hand. I figured he may have hit the J with like a 10 or a 9 kicker... maybe QJ at best was what I figured. I was afraid that I would push him away if I raised so I decided to smooth call here. Then, Seth, the UTG limper/raise caller doubles it to T$30. Button folds and the small blind quickly calls so it's T$15 more to me in a pot where there is approx T$107 so, I was willing to take this pot down right now and I pushed all in. Seth calls and the small blind is agonizing... which made me think maybe he had a decent kicker to go with his J... well, he eventually folded and Seth turns over a very poorly played AA. Turn and the river didn't help him out as he was the first victim of this house of bad beats tonight. But I say it was poorly played on his part because he limped UTG which is fine but then when the button doubled the bet and both blinds called, he should have reraised at that point to narrow the field. Instead, he elected to call and going with AA four handed is just asking to get killed. Not having aces cracked in that instance should be considered lucky.
That clearly propelled me to the chip lead and I played fairly tight aggressive to build/maintain my stack. And then a few key hands came up. It was down to 5 players (started with 7) and there was one guy who was relatively short stacked with approx T$50 in chips. I knew that he was going to start pushing with a fairly wide range since the blinds were climbing up so when the blinds were T$5/10, I limped UTG with AK of hearts. It was folded to the shorty who pushed all in as expected. I called in a heartbeat, thinking if he has Ax, I'm way ahead. Worst case scenario was that he would have a pocket pair so I was feeling pretty good... Unfortunately, I lost the race against his pocket tens so he doubled up. Good news was, with my early lead, that barely put a dent into my stack... until this came up...
The aforementioned small blind (Shaun) was sitting in cut off this time when he raised it to T$30 (blinds still at 5/10). I am on the button with pocket 9's and since he was relatively short (I had about T$300+ at this point and he had like $90 total) I reraised to T$100. Folded back around to him, he thinks about it and calls with AJ. I can't remember which one but he hit his hand on the flop so he doubles up through me. Now that did put a dent to my stack. These are supposed to be coinflips I thought... wasn't I supposed to win at least one of these?
Well, in the end, the lost race with my pocket 9s comes back to haunt me when Shaun and I end up going heads up and he picked off my, what I thought was a well timed bluff. Next hand, he flops 2 pair, slow plays until I catch a pair on the turn, push my short stack in and that was it for me. A bitter 2nd place finish but it was good to be back.
Oh Tyke? He ended up in 5th place when he reraised all in with KQ suited and was called by A-10. Ace on the flop sealed his fate. Very marginal call by A-10 but they were both relatively short (relative to the blinds, that is) so that makes sense even though I'm not sure I would have been able to make that call with A-10 since it was a raise, reraise, reraise back all in... Certainly worked out though... and knocking off the points leader is always a good time! Where am I on the points leaderboard? I have a total of 6 pts baby! Only 26 points behind the points leader (that's only 4 1st place finishes and 2 2nd place finishes away, assuming Tyke doesn't place in any of those times). ha ha ha ha ha ha
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