PAPT Pwnage!!!

*Home game* related.

But, before I start, few more blogs I'm adding to my blog list.

Kajagugu (took down the MATH for a seat to the Aussie Millions - and yes, Kaja, I am fairly bluffable - no offense taken on your blog)

PirateLawyer (another lawyer, another Canadian - WTF!?)

CzechRazor (as you can guess from the blog address, kind of an angry blog... in a dark humor kinda way... which is pretty much right up my alley - I mean one of his entries start with "Not only do massive downswings make me want to throw a kitten into traffic ..." and he's got a picture of a kitten... LOL)

So, go check them out. If it's not your thing, it's not your thing.

So, I've talked about the PAPT before. The Park Avenue Poker Tour, a home game of 8 to 11 players, basically a weekly sng style format where the top 3 generally gets points and top 2 or 3 (depending on number of players) gets paid. One with most points at the end of the year gets the side pot which at the end of the year is approx $600 (weekly buy-in is $25).

Well, up until this point, I hadn't played as much. Well, I have started to but early in the year, I wasn't showing up to those as much. Well, ever since something in me clicked, I started showing up and quite frankly, I have started to dominate in that thing. In the past 15 weeks, I probably showed up in maybe like 12 of them? I've won em out right in 6 of those occasions and came in 2nd once. And tonight, once again, pwned! I am now in first place of the PAPT Player of the Year standings and I have no intention of letting go.

Some interesting hands -

Early on, I was mixing it up and building a decent sized stack when I stacked a guy with my AK of diamonds when the money went all in on a J high flop with two diamonds and I made my nut flush on the turn. The guy played his underpair like AA but with a minimum of 9 outs (possibly 15 outs since I thought maybe QQ) twice and him being all in and the pot offering me 2:1, it was a fairly no brainer call.

So, with a decent sized stack, I was seeing a lot of flops. One hand, I was on the button with 3-6 (sooted) when the blinds were... 3-6... a short stack limped... and so I called as well. The blinds are in and the flop comes A-10-7. It was checked around to me and since everyone limped, I thought it was quite possible that no one had the ace. So I bet 22 into a pot that had 24. The blinds fold and the short stack goes all in... literally, my hand caught in the cookie jar... we laughed about it, I told them how I really didn't want to call cuz I had absolutely had nothing... but it was only 14 more to me. Pot had 68. One guy goes "you probably have 9 high or something." So I tell him I don't have a card that's higher than what's on the board. And right on cue, Tyke says "you probably have 3-6 or some shit like that." Amen. I call, flip over my cards thinking I'm gonna need running 3s, 6s, or two more spades to complete my runner runner flush. Well, one thing I didn't think about was a runner runner straight which I got when the 5 on the turn and the 4 on the river comes. Gross. I told you this was the house of bad beats. Oh the victim? He had AK.

And as usual, PAPT delivered the bad beats like they were going out of style. One hand, there was a 3 way preflop all in. QQ vs TT vs 88. Before the flop comes, when they all flipped over the cards, I pointed at 88 and said "he's the favorite in this house." Sure enough, 8 on the flop sends the TT home and cripples Tyke who had the QQ.

Well, there was one noteworthy thing that happened. As an online player, I personally think I'm at a huge disadvantage when I play live poker. I mean I don't have as much training on picking up tells or concealing my tells. I do my best and to the undiscerning eye, they might not notice but I keep thinking that I could be read so easily if I played against very good players. But last night, I picked up on something interesting. There was a hand where my buddy JT (igniyomontoya76 on FTP) was in a hand with another guy. Flop comes Q-10-3. There's a bet and JT makes a call that looked like "ok I'll see another card". Turn is an ace. And then he did something. I won't disclose what but I noticed something and I just kept that in mind. Fortunately, the hand went to show down and he showed A-3. So, when the turn gave him second pair and undoubtedly the better hand, he gave off a tell. Rest of the night, I literally watched him in order to confirm my read. And I picked up on two things that he did differently when he had a strong hand vs when he wanted his opponent to fold. I'm not gonna disclose it here (and I already told JT about it afterwards) so you PAPTers that read this, you'll have to figure it out on your own.

Well, keeping the above information in mind, like I said, I spent the rest of the night watching him and confirming my reads. Then, once three handed, JT and I got into a decent hand. I had 6-8 of clubs so I raised from the small blind to 100 (blinds were 20-40, I think). Of course, pure steal. JT calls. Flop comes 2-3-5 with one club. I contemplated betting here. But if I did, he's certainly capable of raising at which point I have to fold. So I checked to him since I do have a gut shot draw and a runner runner flush draw, I thought maybe I can see a free card. Well, he did what any half decent poker player would do by betting 100 and trying to steal the pot. I wasn't convinced that this flop hit him. So, since I knew it was a steal attempt, I wanted to get more information. I started counting out my chips and that's when my whole night of observation came to fruition. JT did something that I noticed him doing earlier when he wanted his opponent to fold. Like I said, I spent all night confirming my reads so if I couldn't pull the trigger, I should just quit poker. So I shoved. "I'm all in." Yep, with 8-high with a gut shot straight draw. He did not seem to like that and he thought about it a long time before he folded adding "don't do that again." JT is good enough to know that I was capable of doing this with air. But he probably didn't have anything either and he wasn't going to be the bubble boy (only top 2 paid) by CALLING an all in with nothing.

That proved to be the turning point where I amassed a big chip lead and JT got eliminated when his 44 lost to a race against Brent's KQ, our HU match didn't last long and the final hand, I won with 99 against his J-8 when he was fairly shortstacked.

And THAT is how I pwn PAPT. Woooooooot! I'm in 1st place, biatches!