I shoulda bought a lottery ticket...

The other day, I was playing flag football and I tweaked my hamstring... so, no morning basketball for me for a few weeks while I try to recover. Getting old sucks. And yes, "the other day" is post bash. I guess I coulda gotten drunker... though I sounded pretty drunk after hearing myself on the BDR last night. How funny was that? I'm a funny drunk.

Anyways, knowing that I don't have to wake up at 6am to get ready for bball, I decided to make it a long poker night. And what can I say? I was running awful good. Early in the session, I got bad beated in a hand and I was like "jeez, I run so bad." But then, I went on a rush and my session ended like this.



On a last minute whim, I decided to play the Mookie also. I was playing uber aggro and was still catching lightning in a bottle. Too bad it was a $10 tourney... I shoulda been playing 5/10NL instead. This hand was funny too. I have my reasons of why I did what I did but no matter what I say here, people will already have their own opinions so I'm not even gonna bother explaining.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8310987608: The Mookie (62483964), Table 3 - 50/100 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:00:28 ET - 2008/10/01
Seat 1: riv3r maker (2,675)
Seat 2: hoyazo (5,680)
Seat 3: iam23skidoo (2,150)
Seat 4: Chippy McStacks (7,869)
Seat 5: MiamiDon (5,880)
Seat 6: xkm1245 (2,930)
Seat 9: RecessRampage (7,963)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 50
riv3r maker posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #6

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [8h 9s]
hoyazo raises to 300
iam23skidoo folds
Chippy McStacks folds
MiamiDon folds
xkm1245 folds
RecessRampage raises to 1,000
riv3r maker raises to 2,675, and is all in
hoyazo folds
RecessRampage: crap...
RecessRampage: sry if I suck out <--- very polite, likeable, good looking man
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage calls 1,675
bayne_s sits down <--- donkey alert!
bayne_s adds 4,975
madbrooklyn sits down
madbrooklyn adds 3,700
riv3r maker shows [Qs Qd]
RecessRampage shows [8h 9s]

*** FLOP *** [Ad 9c 8c] <--- lightning in a bottle
*** TURN *** [Ad 9c 8c] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [Ad 9c 8c Jh] [3s]
Chippy McStacks: wow <--- in awe of my amazing "skillz"
riv3r maker shows a pair of Queens
RecessRampage shows two pair, Nines and Eights
RecessRampage wins the pot (5,650) with two pair, Nines and Eights
RecessRampage: at least I apologized <--- couldn't have said it better myself

Too bad with all that lucksackery, I still couldn't close it out... Congrats to willwonka for his first mookie win. I mean he maintains the spreadsheet for crying out loud. He was due.



PS. Just in case... Bayne and I were going back and forth last night at the tables and I got an impression that some thought maybe we were somewhat serious??? Um... def not. We have fun giving each other shit. So it's all in fun... until he places a bet on the "don't pass" line in December and I have my monster roll... and 50 minutes later (and me still rolling), he switches to pass line bet and I immediately crap out...

Back to regular programming (ie poker content) and quick clarification

Quick clarification in regards to my previous post about the mortgage rant. I am in no way defending the idiot mortgage companies that did what they did in dishing out loans that every reasonable person could have seen as a bad idea. Nor does that mean that I am calling any of the mortgage brokers or people who work for the mortgage companies idiots either (so Jamyhawk, if you are reading this, please relax). Everyone to an extent were blinded by the crazy growth at the time. The loan officers were generally pushing loans because, well, that's how they make money. The loan companies probably offered incentives where if you sold/closed x amount of loans, you get paid x amount extra. So, they're just doing their jobs. I have no pity for the executives of the companies though that made those decisions who are now going under because like some of you pointed out, you HAD TO KNOW that that was coming. But it didn't matter. It was close now and worry about it later mentality and they're paying the price for it. The rant earlier was based on the article I read and it was not trying to point the blame on any one party because pretty much everyone is in this. But like Willwonka said, where's the reward for people who are being prudent and careful and saving (ie, losing tons of money in the stock market)? I mean... I don't even like to look at my portfolio right now cuz it's so depressing... and I'm well diversified too. Still doesn't help when everything is going down (one or two sectors going up like energy and emerging markets are not offsetting the losses I'm experiencing in other industries).

Ok, now on to poker.

Last night, I played the Mookie for the first time since the BBT3. Tuning into BDR where everyone there were slooooooooooooooooooooooooooowly getting drunk (drinking soco at a snail's pace... I mean come on) made me really wish I was down in Okie Vegas. :) (I jest, of course. After listening to Buddy rap on the karaoke machine, I had to reluctantly go to bed - and thanks for the call IT!) Unfortunately, it was not to be but it sounded like they were having a blast. I'm expecting some dial-a-shots tonight. I'll come through this time.

As for the Mookie itself, I didn't do too well. This was my pretty much bust out hand that I am still kicking myself for not folding because it was such an obvious hand...

Full Tilt Poker Game #7158775480: The Mookie (53696736), Table 1 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:29:03 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: Obie315 (43,903)
Seat 2: HighOnPoker (16,420)
Seat 3: muhctim (9,635)
Seat 4: DrewFours (15,743)
Seat 5: Numbette (6,750)
Seat 6: bdidde (32,780)
Seat 7: PinkyStinky (18,374)
Seat 8: RecessRampage (18,395)
Obie315 antes 75
HighOnPoker antes 75
muhctim antes 75
DrewFours antes 75
Numbette antes 75
bdidde antes 75
PinkyStinky antes 75
RecessRampage antes 75
muhctim posts the small blind of 300
DrewFours posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ac As]
Numbette folds
bdidde folds
PinkyStinky folds
RecessRampage raises to 1,800
Obie315 folds
HighOnPoker calls 1,800
muhctim folds
DrewFours calls 1,200

*** FLOP *** [7d 5c 6s]
DrewFours checks
RecessRampage bets 4,500
HighOnPoker calls 4,500
DrewFours folds

This board sucks for AA. When Jordan called, I knew he had a pretty big hand or a big draw. And I'm not trying to sound cocky about it. Not many hands would smooth call here in this situation so his hands were fairly limited. My initial thought was he either has a set, possibly a straight/two pair, or 88 for an overpair and an OESD. But I have to think with 88, he would raise here. The smooth call scared the shit out of me... nonetheless, Jordan gets paid off... he's lucky I'm such a donk.

*** TURN *** [7d 5c 6s] [2s]
RecessRampage checks
HighOnPoker has 15 seconds left to act
HighOnPoker bets 6,600
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
HighOnPoker: you got a lotta time in that time bank
RecessRampage: I'm not good enough to fold this <--- but my mouse was hovering over "fold"
HighOnPoker: then dont
PirateLawyer (Observer): shoooooove?
RecessRampage: ah hell
RecessRampage raises to 12,020, and is all in
HighOnPoker calls 3,445, and is all in
RecessRampage shows [Ac As]
HighOnPoker shows [5h 5d]
Uncalled bet of 1,975 returned to RecessRampage
RecessRampage: nh

This is gonna sound lame but PL making the comment there actually made me think, ah hell. I hate placing the blame there but I kinda wish I had the observer chat off because I am fairly certain I was so close to folding and then when he said shove, I was like, yeah, what the hell, it's only the mookie. Still, it pisses me off that I know I'm good enough to make the laydown and I didn't (and this part is DEFINITELY NOT ON PL). Well, which means I'm NOT good enough to make the laydown. I fuckin suck. Obviously.

*** RIVER *** [7d 5c 6s 2s] [8h]
RecessRampage shows a pair of Aces
HighOnPoker shows three of a kind, Fives
HighOnPoker wins the pot (35,390) with three of a kind, Fives
RecessRampage: so obv <--- well said

I know a lot of MTTers might say that's just a cooler but I disagree. I sniffed it out but I wasn't good enough to listen to my instincts. I mean I am nit after all. See below:

Full Tilt Poker Game : Table Rosy (deep 6) - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:42:41 ET - 2008/07/09
Seat 1: Rocker855 ($237.30), is sitting out
Seat 2: sicklol ($1,507)
Seat 3: SaxManMike ($400)
Seat 4: OhYesTGPFA ($1,253)
Seat 5: RecessRampage ($975.10) <--- SB
Seat 6: passtheganja ($1,098.90) <--- BB

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Jh As]
sicklol folds
SaxManMike folds
OhYesTGPFA folds
RecessRampage raises to $12
passtheganja has 15 seconds left to act
passtheganja has requested TIME
passtheganja raises to $36.60
RecessRampage calls $24.60

In a deep stack game, I really don't like to 4 bet with a marginal hand like AJ even in a blind v blind battle. Maybe I should. I don't know. Thoughts?

*** FLOP *** [Js 9s 4d]
RecessRampage checks
passtheganja has 15 seconds left to act
passtheganja bets $38.90
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to $155
passtheganja has 15 seconds left to act
passtheganja has requested TIME
passtheganja calls $116.10

I was quite surprised with this call. I thought for sure the hand would end right here.

*** TURN *** [Js 9s 4d] [8s]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage checks
passtheganja has 15 seconds left to act
passtheganja has requested TIME
passtheganja bets $127.50
RecessRampage calls $127.50

I didn't know what to make of this bet but I started getting a bad feeling about it. I have top pair and a nut flush draw but being so deep, I am not sure this is an area that I want to really ship it in. And if you thought, you could check raise again, it's the same as shoving since I'll essentially be committing myself.

*** RIVER *** [Js 9s 4d 8s] [Jc] <--- talk about a set up card
RecessRampage checks
passtheganja has 15 seconds left to act
passtheganja has requested TIME
passtheganja bets $779.80, and is all in
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of $779.80 returned to passtheganja
passtheganja mucks
passtheganja wins the pot ($635.20)

I am fairly certain this is a good fold. There's not a single hand where I can think of where this guy ships it in on the river that I have beat. I think a lot of people will call here and the guy will show a boat and they'll call it a set up or something but I disagree. In a deep stack game, I think pot control is important. If the villain is doing that with a lesser J, that's extremely spewy in my opinion and he just didn't seem like the type. This was an air or monster situation and the overbet made me feel like it was a OBFV instead of a bluff. Anyone see this differently (I'm sure there are plenty)?

Thoughts?

Last night, I didn't get home till about 10:45pm but I was still able to play in the Mookie for about 30 minutes before I busted out. I wasn't in the right frame of mind so I couldn't care less about that. However, when I tuned into BDR, Tragedy was talking about some sort of donation so I hit him up on the girly chat to find out what they were talking about. Basically, they were trying to get us, poker degenerates, to do something nice with our cash for once. He told me that Al's friend was doing the 3-day breast cancer walk in Philadelphia. In the past, people very close to me have participated in the one in D.C. and so I know how grueling, nasty, and tough it is to actually do this 3 day walk (they walk 60 miles in 3 days - NOT EASY).

I, so far, have been very fortunate to not know anyone who has had to fight breast cancer. But I'm sure there are quite a few out there that's either a friend of a friend or some sort of a family friend who may have been affected by breast cancer. So, once I heard that, I decided to show my support.

RecessRampage (FTP) and Dirty Vizzer (PS) are both anti-cancer. If you want to join all the cool kids and send a big "F*ck You" to cancer, here's the link to do so.



Oh, and I was in training all day yesterday so didn't get to post this... close but no dice... ok though since I was a PLO rookie. And yet, even I was shocked with some of the plays that I thought were terrible. Admittedly, I had to verify with the Assistant that they were bad and he confirmed. I played tight all tournament, which makes sense since the only thing I know about PLO is from what the Assistant tells me and he is the self proclaimed "tightest Omaha player."



On Bodonkey, Tragedy sucks out on me with a two outer after we get all our money in on a Q-3-3 flop, me with AA, him with KQ. Tragedy, after I reraised you preflop and bet that big on the flop, what did you think I had!? Oh, and btw, I just got your voicemail. Thanks for the phone call. :)

No strategy posts today. I got another busy day ahead of me.

One more thing. Looks like Emptyman and I will be playing the HUC6 finals tonight at 9pm EST. Should be fun. See you all tonight.

Blogger cash game and FTOPS

Before I start my actual post, congrats to Waffles, Willwonka, and Katitude for also advancing to the 2nd round of HUC6. Go to that site for updated brackets. Also, please note that if your 2nd round opponent is set, you can go ahead and schedule/play your match.

So last night was a little different for me. Normally I have 4 cash tables open, grinding as usual at the 2-4NL 6 max tables. But last night, I had 3 tables open... two of which were tournaments. Unreal. I satellited into FTOPS #1 so I had that going. And at 10pm, the Mookie started as well as the deep stack 4/8NL blogger cash game. My buddy Pouringreign asked a good question on the girly chat. "Shouldn't you play against lesser competition at 2-4NL 6 max rather than playing against these known ringers?" My response? "They're all donkeys." Just kidding. That was not my response. My actual response was "yeah, but Fuel said I would be publicly humiliated if I didn't play. Plus after all the cash game posts and the recent posts, if I didn't play, I'd basically be admitting that I can't hang." Gotta get the "felt cred."

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't really get much for cards. I definitely played fairly tight but the cards were just atrocious. Not even suited connectors or one gappers in late position... One AA on the button but it was folded to me and I raise and stole the blinds... One KQ from the CO, button calls my raise, I flop a straight but of course, I fire out a c-bet because that's what I do and the button (nonblogger) folds.

I don't have the HH for this one but one interesting hand was when Rakefeeder, Fuel and I were in a hand. I raised from MP, Fuel calls (because he has position on me and I'm sure desperately wants to rub in the fact that he's got more game or something), and Rakefeeder calls from either the SB or the BB. 3 way. We see a flop 9 high with two diamonds. Rakefeeder comes out firing a pot sized bet. The initial pot sized bet made me think that he either had TT or maybe a hand like A9. Either way, fairly strong for that board but not THAT strong, was my read. What did I have? KdJd. Two overs with a king high flush draw. I seriously considered raising there but I didn't want to get reraised off what I thought was a pretty good draw. Plus Fuel was behind me and I wasn't sure what he might do. If he flopped a set (there was a 5 out there if I recall correctly) and he decides to raise and rakefeeder comes over the top, it would be an easy fold for me. So, I smooth call. Fuel calls. Turn is an offsuit J. Rakefeeder checks to me so I fire out a good size bet (prob 80% of the pot), Fuel folds and Rakefeeder after thinking about it folds. So, Rakefeeder, if you had TT, it's a good fold. And as promised, I'm telling you what I had.

Speaking of which, I got lucky with my seating. I was seated to the left of Gnome and Cmitch, two of the players that I would much rather have on my right than to my left. Cmitch was probably not too excited that whenever he raised, I put in a reraise. However, both times that I 3 bet, I had a hand. One was AK, the next was TT. With Cmitch, I wanted to apply aggression with strong hands and couple that with the fact that I had position on him, it would be very hard for him to play on without premium cards. And since I was playing tight, there's no reason for him to think that I would be getting frisky without cards. At the end of the night, I ended up a little over $800. Nothing crazy considering the stakes but definitely happy about that. Thanks again to Gnome for setting that up. Oh, and before I forget, here's a good HH. Fuel knows what I have before I know what I have. :) Good thing he's a payoff wizard.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5152471555: Table Alise (deep) - $4/$8 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:55:34 ET - 2008/02/06
Seat 1: SirFWALGMan ($945.20)
Seat 2: weak_player ($1,547)
Seat 3: Fuel55 ($1,600)
Seat 4: Bone_Daddy84 ($1,592)
Seat 5: Rake Feeder ($1,403.20)
Seat 6: smizmiatch ($2,127.30)
Seat 7: cmitch ($1,659)
Seat 8: RecessRampage ($1,805)
Seat 9: SPIRITSLAYER ($1,307.40)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of $4
SPIRITSLAYER posts the big blind of $8
The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [8c 8s]
SirFWALGMan folds
Fuel55 raises to $24
Bone_Daddy84 folds
Rake Feeder folds
smizmiatch folds
cmitch folds
RecessRampage calls $20
SPIRITSLAYER folds

*** FLOP *** [6c Kc Td]
RecessRampage checks
Fuel55 checks <--- he always checks top pair

*** TURN *** [6c Kc Td] [Th]
RecessRampage checks
Fuel55 bets $24
RecessRampage calls $24

At this point, I did think that Fuel had the K. If he had a draw, he'd bet out the flop. So, I actually thought about making a move on the river if another club comes. Except I forgot Fuel runs so bad (only according to him).

*** RIVER *** [6c Kc Td Th] [8h] <--- gin!
RecessRampage checks (he's got top pair so he'll bet)
Fuel55 bets $64 <--- right on cue
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME (I like to think about my bet sizing)
RecessRampage raises to $244
Fuel55: ceom on
Fuel55: you have 88? <--- he's good...
Fuel55 has 15 seconds left to act
Fuel55 has requested TIME
Fuel55: i am a payoff wizard <--- oh thank god
Fuel55 calls $180

*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [8c 8s] a full house, Eights full of Tens
Fuel55 mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot ($589) with a full house, Eights full of Tens
Fuel55: fawek i knew <--- I know...

Nothing much to report on the Mookie except I had a decent chip lead that I rode to the final table but couldn't get anything going and busted out in 8th or 7th or something. Admittedly, between the blogger cash game and the possibility of going deep in FTOPS#1, I really wasn't paying much attention to the Mookie.

On the FTOPS, the first hour, I played like... a bitch. Oh my god. I wanted to play tight. Instead, I played some weak tight poker. After the first hour, I knew I had to do something different. Basically, I needed to play my game. My desire to play tight actually made me play weak tight. So, after the first break, I decided to still play tight but be more aggressive. Slowly, I was able to chip up and the big break came when I flopped top set with QQ against a guy who had QJ and doubled up. Chipped up nicely after that until this hand came.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5153078013: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 385 - 170/340 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:41:58 ET - 2008/02/06
Seat 1: canuckoo (28,460)
Seat 2: BRAZILUSA (27,306)
Seat 3: bkrake (5,757)
Seat 4: SuperSnoopy (8,685)
Seat 5: ProtekYoNuts (12,188)
Seat 6: 3pounder (6,053)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (14,425)
Seat 8: unemployed (6,170)
Seat 9: SELPARA (20,099)
canuckoo antes 25
BRAZILUSA antes 25
bkrake antes 25
SuperSnoopy antes 25
ProtekYoNuts antes 25
3pounder antes 25
RecessRampage antes 25
unemployed antes 25
SELPARA antes 25
3pounder posts the small blind of 170
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 340
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [6d 4d]
unemployed raises to 725
SELPARA folds
canuckoo folds
BRAZILUSA calls 725
bkrake folds
SuperSnoopy folds
ProtekYoNuts folds
3pounder folds
RecessRampage calls 385

*** FLOP *** [3d 8d 9d] <--- gin!
RecessRampage checks
unemployed checks
BRAZILUSA bets 2,570
RecessRampage calls 2,570
unemployed has 15 seconds left to act
unemployed raises to 5,420, and is all in
BRAZILUSA calls 2,850
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 13,675, and is all in
BRAZILUSA has 15 seconds left to act
BRAZILUSA folds
RecessRampage shows [6d 4d]
unemployed shows [Jd Ad] <--- d'oh!
Uncalled bet of 8,255 returned to RecessRampage

*** TURN *** [3d 8d 9d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [3d 8d 9d Kd] [Kh]
RecessRampage shows a flush, King high
unemployed shows a flush, Ace high
unemployed wins the pot (18,830) with a flush, Ace high

Fortunately, that only brought my stack down to about average so no big deal. I was able to chip up again and at one point, I was like in top 20 out of 1000ish players left. When this next hand happened, I was like in top 100 out of the remaining 950ish players with 750ish spots cashing. But of course, cashing isn't the goal here. I don't know what the minimum cash amount was but I'm guessing like $300 or something maybe? Anyways, that's not gonna do much to my roll. I wanted at least 4 figures... of course I was dreaming 5 or 6 figures...

Full Tilt Poker Game #5153656456: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 41 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:29:59 ET - 2008/02/07
Seat 1: RecessRampage (26,850)
Seat 2: fightingchicken (7,804)
Seat 3: ArmenH1 (28,425)
Seat 4: blubboz (7,423)
Seat 5: Donwaldorf (58,438)
Seat 6: Gwermpt (14,927)
Seat 7: ckingusc (12,237)
Seat 8: MrTimCaum (13,446)
Seat 9: GAME OVER 73 (14,413)
RecessRampage antes 75
fightingchicken antes 75
ArmenH1 antes 75
blubboz antes 75
Donwaldorf antes 75
Gwermpt antes 75
ckingusc antes 75
MrTimCaum antes 75
GAME OVER 73 antes 75
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 300
fightingchicken posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #9

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qd Qc]
cmitch (Observer): gl alan <--- nice guy, that cmitch.
RecessRampage: ty cmitch
ArmenH1 raises to 1,555
blubboz folds
cmitch (Observer): so what did u have? <--- relentless
cmitch (Observer): i had AK <--- he must've really hated me reraising again
Donwaldorf has 15 seconds left to act
Donwaldorf calls 1,555
Gwermpt folds
ckingusc folds
MrTimCaum has 15 seconds left to act
MrTimCaum raises to 13,371, and is all in
GAME OVER 73 folds
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 26,775, and is all in
fightingchicken folds
ArmenH1 has 15 seconds left to act
ArmenH1 folds
Donwaldorf has 15 seconds left to act
Donwaldorf folds
RecessRampage shows [Qd Qc]
MrTimCaum shows [Ah Kd]
Uncalled bet of 13,404 returned to RecessRampage

*** FLOP *** [As 7h 5d]
*** TURN *** [As 7h 5d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [As 7h 5d 8s] [8d]
RecessRampage shows two pair, Queens and Eights
MrTimCaum shows two pair, Aces and Eights
MrTimCaum wins the pot (31,127) with two pair, Aces and Eights

This was huge. I felt that the guy's shove meant he was a little weaker so I ruled out AA and KK. I honestly considered folding the QQ here but again, I felt that his shove was an attempt to pick up the two weakish raises from EP. And I didn't have any reason to believe that the other two players involved were tricky players. So, I decided to take a stand here. If I win this race, I'm top 20 in chips. Instead, I lose half my stack but still ok. But then I think one hand later, this happens.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5153680548: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 41 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:32:04 ET - 2008/02/07
Seat 1: RecessRampage (13,329)
Seat 2: fightingchicken (6,754)
Seat 3: ArmenH1 (26,120)
Seat 4: blubboz (7,273)
Seat 5: Donwaldorf (56,733)
Seat 6: Gwermpt (16,352)
Seat 7: ckingusc (12,087)
Seat 8: MrTimCaum (31,052)
Seat 9: GAME OVER 73 (14,263)
RecessRampage antes 75
fightingchicken antes 75
ArmenH1 antes 75
blubboz antes 75
Donwaldorf antes 75
Gwermpt antes 75
ckingusc antes 75
MrTimCaum antes 75
GAME OVER 73 antes 75
ArmenH1 posts the small blind of 300
blubboz posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ac Qs]
Donwaldorf folds
Gwermpt folds
ckingusc folds
MrTimCaum folds
GAME OVER 73 raises to 1,555
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 4,200
fightingchicken folds
ArmenH1 folds
blubboz folds
GAME OVER 73 has 15 seconds left to act
GAME OVER 73 raises to 14,188, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage calls 9,054, and is all in
GAME OVER 73 shows [Ad Ah]
RecessRampage shows [Ac Qs]
Uncalled bet of 934 returned to GAME OVER 73
*** FLOP *** [2s 3s 2h]
RecessRampage: damn
*** TURN *** [2s 3s 2h] [8d]
RecessRampage: gg
*** RIVER *** [2s 3s 2h 8d] [4d]
GAME OVER 73 shows two pair, Aces and Twos
RecessRampage shows a pair of Twos
RecessRampage stands up

I guess I coulda called there and fold to a flop bet. By reraising, I kinda got pot committed when he came over the top and shoved like that. I thought I would be racing and with me getting 2:1, I couldn't fold... or so I thought. Tough spot I think. I coulda just tried to hang around to cash but again, cashing was not my goal. It was extremely fun playing in this tournament though. I still have a long ways to go with my MTT game but since I actually satellited into this after my first try, it only cost me $24+2. Good times.

Thanks for IT, Buddy, and Smokkee for showing me love on the radio. And thanks to all those who were railing me during the Mook, FTOPS 1 and blogger cash. Good times.

A hand from the Mookie

Did I overplay my QQ? I have to admit, the fact that this guy has a K didn't even cross my mind. In my mind, there wasn't a single hand that contains a K that he woulda played it the way he did was what I thought. I obviously thought wrong.

Full Tilt Poker Game #4636187257: The Mookie (34950110), Table 6 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:26:59 ET - 2007/12/26
Seat 1: leftylu (2,610)
Seat 2: RecessRampage (3,275)
Seat 3: schlepp571 (5,730)
Seat 4: heffmike (3,815)
Seat 5: IslandBum1 (6,015)
Seat 6: Drizztdj (2,840)
Seat 7: muhctim (2,725)
Seat 8: katitude (1,065)
Seat 9: BigSlickNut (3,720)
schlepp571 posts the small blind of 25
heffmike posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Qh]
IslandBum1 calls 50
Drizztdj folds
muhctim calls 50
katitude folds
BigSlickNut folds
leftylu calls 50
RecessRampage raises to 325
schlepp571 folds
heffmike folds
IslandBum1 folds
muhctim calls 275
leftylu folds

*** FLOP *** [Kh 7d Kc]
muhctim checks
RecessRampage bets 550
muhctim raises to 1,100
RecessRampage raises to 2,950, and is all in
muhctim calls 1,300, and is all in
RecessRampage shows [Qs Qh]
muhctim shows [Ks Jc]
Uncalled bet of 550 returned to RecessRampage

*** TURN *** [Kh 7d Kc] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 7d Kc 6s] [As]
RecessRampage shows two pair, Kings and Queens
muhctim shows three of a kind, Kings
muhctim wins the pot (5,625) with three of a kind, Kings

When he checkraised me, I figured he was trying to see where he was with his middle pocket pair. I thought the only hand that had me beat would be 77. Did I overplay my queens? Would anyone do anything different here?

Even in looking at my hand, I just can't imagine getting away from this hand. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Tournament of Champions? Huh? Me? I'm in!

EDIT - linked everyone, added cmitch to the list of railers. Thanks for the comments everyone.

I'll post details later. I'm exhausted. But I gotta do this now. 2:20am? Perfect. I'll get about 5hrs of sleep.



So I'm in the 27 seat (I believe it's actually 26 now since xxMagicianxx won two seats, right?) Tournament of Champions to compete for a $18,000 Australia package. To say that I got lucky tonight is an understatement. Honestly, I'm not even gonna try to tell you how I played well or whatever... because when you get the cards that I got, it really doesn't matter. The grossest of them all was this one...

Sellthekids and I are heads up and basically he's got me covered 2:1 in chips. We get it all in and I am waaaaaaay behind (Mookie said, 93% vs 7%... too tired to check) when he flips over AA vs my A6... and this madness ensues...



This leads eventually to the final hand where I complete from the SB with K7, he checks and I flop top two. I check to him, he shoves, I instacall and that's all she wrote.



Like I said, even getting to this point, I got very lucky. I only got sucked out on once when my KK lost to AQ for a very big pot. However, my chipstack was very healthy so I wasn't totally dead. I think I was down to around 20k with about 12 people remaining but I recovered. And again, I don't really tilt over bad beats so I let that roll off my back and just kept playing.

I'm not gonna go into details now since I'm exhausted but suffice to say, pretty much anyone can win a tournament when you get cards like this:

AA x 1
AK x 8
AQ x 4
KK x 5
QQ x 3
JJ x 5
TT x 1

I guess those are the premium hands. And for good measure, 99 x 2.

It was sick. I won several big hands with AK including this critical one...

5 players remaining

Seat 3: actyper (38,682)
Seat 4: RecessRampage (42,122)
Seat 5: sellthekids (40,976)
Seat 7: madbrooklyn (18,420)
Seat 8: RaisingCayne (129,800)
actyper antes 500
RecessRampage antes 500
sellthekids antes 500
madbrooklyn antes 500
RaisingCayne antes 500
actyper posts the small blind of 2,000
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Kd Ac]
sellthekids folds
madbrooklyn folds
RaisingCayne raises to 129,300, and is all in <--- from the button
actyper has 15 seconds left to act
actyper has requested TIME
actyper calls 36,182, and is all in
RecessRampage: holy cow
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage: I honestly don't know what to do here
RecessRampage: you both have PP right?
RecessRampage: I gotta call
RecessRampage: gl me
RecessRampage calls 37,622, and is all in
RaisingCayne shows [7s Ts] <--- no PP
actyper shows [Ah Th] <--- no PP

as you can tell, my hand readings skills were right on... :)

RecessRampage shows [Kd Ac]
RaisingCayne: i'm a donkey!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!
sellthekids: fold till the points?
Uncalled bet of 87,678 returned to RaisingCayne
*** FLOP *** [5c 2h 3h]
*** TURN *** [5c 2h 3h] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [5c 2h 3h 6s] [Jc]
RaisingCayne shows Jack Ten high
RecessRampage shows Ace King high
RecessRampage wins the side pot (6,880) with Ace King high
actyper shows Ace Jack high
RecessRampage wins the main pot (117,046) with Ace King high
actyper stands up

I guess for most people, it's an instacall? I mean the point is to win so obviously you have to call but I guess I always have to think about these things... I guess that's why I'm no good in tourneys. But at least I got it right.

Now the inordinate amount of good cards I got can only be attributed to karma. Today, I transferred some money on FTP to InstantTragedy since he recently purchased a gift for Doc Chaco in Iraq. I don't even know Doc but I support what IT was doing so I just wanted to help out. Well, maybe the poker gods saw my good deed and decided to treat me. Who knows. I got lucky and poker is so easy when you get lucky. Who ever said this game is skill based???? (sarcasm based on my post from yesterday)

I also want to thank everyone that railed me at one point or another and esp the final table. Buddy hammered on the radio was hilarious and that and all the table banter made the final table a very entertaining one. I am afraid that if I list the names, I'll forget but I'll give it a shot. Also, I'll link you all up tomorrow, not that most of you needs it since everybody probably reads your blog before they read mine. Ok, in no particular order, here goes. Again, thanks Chad, LJ, InstantTragedy, JamyHawk, Pirate Lawyer, MClarich, Schaubs, Lightning36, pushmonkey, cmitch... I'm probably forgetting someone and if so, I am very sorry. Let me know, esp if you want to be linked up. Also, thanks Mookie for pointing out how much of a dog I was in that A6 vs AA hand... errr, I mean thanks for hosting. Dammit... it's 3am. GG to all. And thank you again for the support and entertainment.

FTOPS #1, Mookie, and Buddy Dank Radio appearance

Wow... I have so much to go over. And yet I know I won't have time to cover everything. So, first off, let me get all the important stuff out of the way. Congrats again to PvanHaribo (LJ/Lana) for coming in 3rd in the 32k that she satellited into with $8.80 and turned it into $4,700+. Too funny considering just the day before, she was talking about how she needed to build her online roll and so she was playing in $2 sng... amazing how quickly things change.

Next, I know none of these guys are probably happy where they ended up but they all did cash in the FTOPS #1 event. And yes, I know that there's no glory in cashing for these guys but hey, something is better than nothing. So, please go congratulate Julius_Goat, Hoy, and Cmitch.

Ok, so now I spread the love for my fellow bloggers, let's see... how did I do? Well, few weeks back, I played in a $8 single table super satellite to FTOPS #1. I took that down and quite frankly, never played in any other satellite to the FTOPS. So, I was entered into the $55 satellite last night into event #1 and I sneaked into the tournament, coming in 240th (top 243 places won the entry).

As for the FTOPS event itself... I wasn't so successful. I eventually busted out in 952nd place out of the original 4,165 runners. I suck. What more can I say? And I don't say this in a "I'll say I suck so please give me pity" type of way. Early in the tournament, I was doing fine, I think. Now I wasn't giving it the focus it probably deserved because I also had two 2-4NL cash games open and an hour into the FTOPS, the Mookie started. Oh yeah... and I made a guest appearance on the BuddyDank radio. That was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I didn't water down the show too much for all you listeners out there. And thanks to Buddy and Sean (aka InstantTragedy) for letting me come on the show. Again, that was a lot of fun.

Shortly thereafter though, I did close down the cash tables so that I could focus on the tournaments... but now that I went from 4 tables to 2, I decided to look for other bloggers. And I found Hoy and Cmitch so I started railing them. It wasn't till much later when Bayne told me that Jgoat was in as well. And one thing I noticed? I suck in tournaments. Wait, did I say that already? Why do I say that? Watching them, I could tell that they are picking their spots but they are also making moves. Or so I assume. I know Hoy was very active. Cmitch seemed to have timely aggression. Me? None of that. Ok, maybe once in a while but eventually, not enough to keep up with the pace of the escalating blinds and eventually, I go into a double up or go home mode. And no matter who says what, that is NOT a key to success in tournaments. I'm bound to lose a race or get sucked out on eventually and by letting my stack get shorter, I'm handcuffing myself from making plays and pretty much gets to a push and pray mode. So much more to learn for me.

Surprisingly, I was doing well in the Mookie. I don't even know how. Mookie was almost like an afterthought for me. Like a background music. Something to cover up the portion of my laptop screen that doesn't have a poker table up. But next thing I knew, we were down to like 15 players and there I was... in top 6 or something. Eventually (again, this is still all a blur and I don't have the HH with me to go over it right now), we get down to the final table but at this point, I'm more interested in how Hoy and Cmitch were doing in the FTOPS... well, pretty much. But now that we were at the final table, I wanted to win.

So, I started focusing my efforts on the final table of the Mookie and I think I played fairly well. Eventually, the money bubble broke and there were 5 remaining when Don suggested a chop. No one really said anything but when we lost another player, we seemed to have agreed to a chop. Or did we? It was interesting actually.

I don't have the chat log but last night, we saw what was probably the most controversial over the least amount of money at 1:30am-ish... At one point or another, all 4 remaining players (Don, Jordan, Joe Mav (I don't know your blog, if you have a blog AND you read this, please comment so I can link you, and myself) agreed on a 4 way chop when our chip counts were all relatively even. I was ok with this since it was late and winning the Mookie was like $210 or something vs the $130 or so that we get if we chopped. At this point, $80 was close to nothing... not to laugh at $80 but considering I play $2-4NL, that's like a size of one pot... so it really wasn't worth arguing over. So, once I thought we agreed on a chop, I shoved my KQ from the BB when JoeMav in SB raised. Believe it or not, it was more or less a "oh well" shove. I busted out in that hand against JoeMav's AJ. And then an interesting thing happened. I saw in the chat, someone goes "so are we chopping?" HUH? I thought we just agreed on that... and from that point on, a huge discussion ensues about whether they agreed to a chop or not... AFTER I busted.

Personally, I really don't care. If they end up chopping 3 ways, that's fine. If they do it 4 ways, that's fine. Either way, no grudge held here. Believe me. I have no problems with other bloggers and I'm not about to start one for $80 or so. So, any controversy/disagreements aside, gg to Don, Jordan, and JoeMav. Thanks again to Buddy and Sean for having me on their show and good job Lana, Hoy, Goat, and Cmitch.
And if anyone said anything to me on the chat box at the tables, sorry I didn't respond. I never saw anything but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss it. I had 4 tables up so when I do that, I can't pay attention to the chat. And if you wanna talk to me, my girly chats are to the right of this screen. Hit me up anytime!

Poppin the BBT cherry!!!

Finally... With a lot of pleading, begging, and soul selling with the poker gods, I took down the Mookie!!! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! For most, this won't be all that exciting. But I've never taken down a multi table tournament and I knew that my BBT experience will not be complete without at least taking down one tournament (regardless of the top 10 standings on the leaderboard) so this was especially satisfying. Admittedly though, I had to do A LOT of sucking out. Before I go into the details, thank you for all those that supported me and railing me. Now, somewhere in the midst of what could potentially be the longest heads up match in the BBT history (38 minutes according to the live blog), Wes and I decided to chop the cash. But we both wanted the points so we decided to play it out for the points. I actually figured that by chopping the cash, the heads up match won't last too long... well, either we were both getting really shitty cards or we both suck at heads up... well, actually, I can tell you now that I suck at heads up. I just don't have any experience in it. I am always playing a full ring or 6 max cash tables. Heads up never happens. So, I pretty much had no clue what I was doing and I'm sure it showed. Nonetheless, big props to Wes for taking two bad beats in a row with class. Sorry it had to end that way.

Generally, I would focus my hand recaps and analysis to cash games because that is what I primarily play but even though I actually had a very good night on the cash tables, the poker gods decided to show me that the MTT's can be fun too so I'm just gonna run through those tonight.

I got my two friends (Inigomontoya76 and Pouringreign) to come out for the Mookie and as usual, I was listening to the great BuddyDank Radio show hosted by BuddyDonk, er I mean BuddyDank and InstantTragedy. Buddy, of course I kid - that's for all the trash talk over the radio. :)

Well, meanwhile, I was successfully chipping up in the Fifty Fifty on FullTilt. 30 minutes into the Mookie, we were on the 1st break of the Fifty Fifty and I was doing fairly well.



I had built up a pretty big stack but unfortunately, I didn't put them to good use. It didn't help that an even bigger stack was sitting to my left. So, instead, I decided to try to conserve my chips in the middle stages as suggested on this great post on MTT by the K.O.D. himself. I was doing fine, occasionally stealing but not doing anything crazy until this hand came up...

I was in MP and so I raised it up to T$700 (blinds at T$100/$200). Button calls and we go into the flop heads up. Flop comes K-K-2. So, I thought about checking but that seems fishy so I bet out T$1000. The button smooth calls my bet and so now I'm wondering if he has a pocket pair. I check the turn which was a blank for deception. I bet T$1000 on the river to induce a call and then a funny thing happened. The button raised to T$2850. Something didn't seem right so I call. This is what I see.



I'm still shocked that I didn't go busto on that hand. Well, thank goodness because I was able to climb back up by playing the short stack fairly well and so I was one big hand away from having a big stack to potentially do some damage in this tournament. And right on cue, I get dealt pocket aces. So, as I start to wonder how to play this, this is the action I see...

FullTiltPoker Game #2790628538: The Fifty-Fifty (21080837), Table 19 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:18:30 ET - 2007/06/28
Seat 1: gunthy2 (7,067)
Seat 2: RecessRampage (10,085)
Seat 3: mostbluntedd (32,985)
Seat 4: cmitch (6,685)
Seat 5: sammy1260 (9,251)
Seat 6: Flush_Edges (5,377)
Seat 7: UGGs (26,501)
Seat 8: cheese625 (8,572)
Seat 9: MattSuspect (8,510)
gunthy2 antes 50
RecessRampage antes 50
mostbluntedd antes 50
cmitch antes 50
sammy1260 antes 50
Flush_Edges antes 50
UGGs antes 50
cheese625 antes 50
MattSuspect antes 50
cmitch posts the small blind of 200
sammy1260 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ad Ac]
Flush_Edges has 15 seconds left to act
Flush_Edges folds
UGGs folds
cheese625 raises to 8,522, and is all in
MattSuspect folds
gunthy2 calls 7,017, and is all in

WOW. The only problem is, I sensed a bad beat coming. I really did. And alas, I push all my chips in but when it's all said and done, this is what happened...



Once again, I'm crippled. At this point, the bloggers are staying strong in this tournament as I notice Hoy, Astin, and Cmitch are still in the tourney. As a matter of fact, after the above hand, I'm shortstacked again but I find a way to double through Cmitch when I jam my AQ sooooooted into his JJ and I win the race. That made my stack healthy enough to survive the cash bubble but eventually, I find myself shoving KJo and get called by pocket tens. I don't win the race this time and unfortunately, I see this message.



Well, the good news was, at that point, the Mookie was winding down and I was still in the hunt. I'm not even gonna list out all the suckouts I needed on the final table in order for me to survive and to eventually win. For those of you that had to witness the heads up match, I'm sorry. I actually took down the pot with the "Hammer" 3 times even though I only showed it once. Shoulda showed more just to keep everyone moderately entertained since I'm sure the last 30 minutes of our heads up match, all everyone wanted was for it to end...

I also thought I was gonna do a better job of recapping the hands but it's 2:42am right now and I have to get up in about 5 hrs... so, sorry for the abrupt ending, once again, thanks to all that railed me and supported me, either through the chat boxes or through girly chats. And I wish I coulda joined the blogger cash games but I had to focus on the tourneys tonight. Good night now!!!!

Blogger Pimpage!

Alright, before I start my general "I love talking about myself" blog entry, I have to do some blog pimpage for others. I kinda assumed that everyone knew but in case you missed it (ie, in case you live under a rock), Hoy cashed in the WSOP Event #12 6 max event which his specialty! Also, another blogger made some noise at the WSOP! And I know her in person! Lana, again, congrats on cashing in the WSOP Ladies Event! I'd like to think that us meeting before your trip gave you the good karma. Yes, I realize I had nothing to do with it but I'll take credit for it anyways - I mean it IS my blog after all. :) I'm sure she'll do a more detailed write up but check her blog here.

Ok, some more pimpage. First off, let me say this to all my nonblogger, poker-playing friends that the blogger tourneys are not exclusive to bloggers. It is open to everyone and more the merrier. Just to summarize, MATH (Mondays at the Hoy - password hammer) is on Mondays (never would've guessed) at 10pm EST, Mookie on Wednesdays (password vegas1) at 10pm EST, and Riverchasers on Thursdays at 9:00pm EST (password Riverchasers). So, if you guys want to play, feel free to do so. And, more importantly, BuddyDank and InstantTragedy are teaming up to bring some quality entertainment through your Media Player (I use RealPlayer but you can use Itunes or WINamp also). Seriously, it's freakin awesome and if you want to know the details, click HERE. They'll take requests, you can talk all the shit you want (Buddy, you lucky donk) and seriously, it's just a great great time. Now some of the music played can be considered questionable but it's all by request so if you don't like some of the songs, blame the other bloggers. And no, I did NOT request ABBA. That was all InstantTragedy.

But in all seriousness, the BuddyDank & IT radio is awesome. So, go check their websites out! Plus, personally, I love Buddy's banner. Never gets old. :)

Ok, well, I need to catch up on the zzzzz's so I'm gonna leave you with this interesting hand that came up.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2659589534: Table Karina Jett - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:26:19 ET - 2007/06/13
9 handed - my stack is up to $554 and the villain has a full buy-in ($400)

I'm in the SB with 79o and it's folded all the way to me.

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [7s 9c]

RecessRampage raises to $12
Villain calls $8

*** FLOP *** [7d 5c 9d] <--- BOOM!
RecessRampage checks
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain bets $18
RecessRampage raises to $56 <--- kind of a draw heavy board so check raise a decent amount
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain calls $38
*** TURN *** [7d 5c 9d] [Jd]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $100
Villain has 15 seconds left to act
Villain raises to $332, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME

Ok, so clearly, I am in a very interesting situation that I pretty much created for myself. I flop top two on a draw heavy board, a 3rd diamond comes on the turn which is clearly a scare card and yet, I somehow manage to donk bet $100 into this pot that had $136 before my bet. The strong bet was to show that I wasn't afraid of the diamond and to take down this sizeable pot. Then the villain thinks about it and pushes... It's $232 more to call with a pot that is now $568. So, it's serious thinking time.

What are your thoughts here? I raised preflop and he called. But granted, it's only from a SB so I could have anything, even though I think I had a generally tight image. Does he have a set? Catch a straight on the turn? Or did he hit the flush? I gave it some good thought and this was my thought. If he had the flush, he has no reason to push considering I've shown enough strength that he could probably reel me in. He could easily have a set but if he flopped it, I think there would've been a little more action on the flop considering the draw heavy board. Did the J on the turn give him the set? Or... And honestly, this is what I thought. Maybe he has a hand like TT with one of them being a diamond so he has a solid overpair on the flop, and now, with the scare card, he's trying to scare me off (which I played like I have an overpair) and if I call, he has outs. Honest to god, that was my exact read. And this is what happened:


RecessRampage calls $232
Villain shows [7c Ts] <--- wow, worse than I expected... not even a diamond draw
RecessRampage shows [7s 9c]
*** RIVER *** [7d 5c 9d Jd] [As]
Villain shows a pair of Sevens
RecessRampage shows two pair, Nines and Sevens
RecessRampage wins the pot ($797) with two pair, Nines and Sevens

So, it ends up that he was really doing this with air, believing his read (?) that I had maybe like AK. But honestly, with as much action as he saw from me, there's no reason for him to go to war with a hand like that.

This was a key pot for me because this actually brought me back to even after a brutal night where my AA and KK were slashed three times tonight, fortunately by relative short stacks but at these tables, the relative short stacks still have like $160 so believe me, down $500 early in the night with those suckouts hurt. This definitely brought me back to being even for the night... thank god.

Oh and the Mookie? I didn't do well tonight... I donk played (errr, slow played) AA and it cost me early... couldn't get much going with my short stack and eventually busted when I lost the race with AK vs 88. Online poker is so rigged.

Mookie, Bloggers Gathering, and a little Poker in the Big Apple

Wow... so much to write... and so little time. Well in the interest of time (and the readers), I'll try to keep this short. After my missed bluff opportunity on Monday against jeciimd, I woke up still pissed with myself on Tuesday... Sadly, I had to wake up super early since I was flying up to NY for a business trip. Going into the Mookie, I was determined to play well and make up for my weak play on Monday... well, I guess I overdid it... I held pocket tens and raised to 140 from MP (blinds at 20-40). When Pushmonkey72 reraised me to 480, instead of calling (his reraising range is larger than an average person... maybe right on par for a blogger), I decided to push. He called with AK and everything was looking good... of course, until the river ace... so rigged. :) I'm out in 48th place out of 51. Maybe I should be folding to the points...

However, even better was BuddyDank's live radio feed of the Mookie. Nothing like having good music with an occasional commentary during the bloggers tourney. Apparently, InstantTragedy was supposed to be the special guest but unfortunately, he never made it (where were ya Sean???). Anyways, in case you haven't seen, InstantTragedy's got the full report of at least Day 1 (at this time) of his trip to Maui so go check it out. Very nice! Seriously though, that live feed was very cool. I really enjoyed it... too bad my tournament life was cut waaaaaaay too short.

So in addition to these two blogger tourneys that I really didn't do anything in, some of the bloggers are heading out to Vegas in the next couple of days. At first, I contemplated going but since I didn't really know anyone or really talk to anyone for that matter (at the time), I thought that maybe it wasn't worth going... (Ok, aside from the obvious question of "when is Vegas not worth going!?!?" I just wasn't sure about how this whole thing was going to go). But in the past few weeks as my blog has gotten more and more visitors and I've started to talk to more people, I started thinking that this could really be fun. And then I read up on a lot of other bloggers who are going and it appears that many of us don't know or have never met the others who are going (it's almost like a blind date for poker degenerates... and mostly men). So, in other words, it wouldn't have mattered, it would include a lot of drinking and playing cards... wtf was I thinking???? So, I'm kinda upset that I'm not going to Vegas this weekend. For those of you who are going out there, have fun!!! Maybe next time, I will join you guys. Scratch that. Next time, I will be there.

However, I did have a blogger encounter. So, I'm in NY and since I have heard of live poker clubs, I reached out to pvanharibo to see if she can hook me up. Well, she came through big time. She told me about some of the clubs and she told me that she will meet me at one of them. So, sure enough, I go out there and I'm at the door negotiating with the dude who says he's never heard my name and that he can't let me in. Until I find out that I'm at the wrong club... So, I had to go over to the other club and eventually, I met her and she let me in. Now, I'm an "official member." We didn't get to sit at the same table but it appears that she did real well. Me? Well, I did fairly well. I couldn't believe how soft the competition was. I don't know why but I always think that players who play live must be better. And every time, I'm shocked as to how bad the players are. Example? This one guy flopped two pair with J8 on a Q-J-8 board. There are two or three players and a round of betting. Turn is a blank. Another round of betting and one of them folds so two to the river. River is a Q. Check, the guy bets, call. The guy that check called had AJ. The other guy proudly flips over J8 and goes "I got two pair." And looks very confused when the dealer ships it to the guy with AJ. Dude, your two pair got counterfeited... how do you not see that? Nice "value bet".

So, I didn't really get any cards but the one big hand that I was involved in was relatively early in the night. Bunch of limpers and I find AQs on the button. I raise it to $15. (Sorry, this is 1-2NL) I get one caller and then a short stack reraises all in for another $21. I thought it was shady for her to limp call but I called without hesitation for two reasons. 1) She was shortstacked. 2) This is gonna sound super sexist but a middle aged female poker player is generally a donkey. Ok, ok. So it's wrong to stereotype... but if you just get to the table, you go by impressions and my impression is that they suck. So I call. Well, to my dismay, the other guy who also had a very big stack calls. So, three people are in and the pot already has $120+ (did I say this was 1-2NL) and we haven't even seen the flop. Well, flop sucks. It comes J-7-5 rainbow. Very raggy. I was willing to check it down... except the big stack decides to bet into the dry side pot. He bets $50. Now it was early in the night and I didn't know anything about him aside from the fact that he accumulated a big stack but one other thing I knew was how soft this table was (so you didn't have to be all that great to win a lot) and how it was common for EVERYONE to limp so he may have just gotten lucky. Couple that with the fact that I sensed weakness, I decided to call. That's $120 main pot, $100 in the side pot if you're keeping score. Turn is another blank and he checks. Now, at this point, there is enough in the side pot that I really wanted to take it down. I figured if the all in lady is going to win the main pot, I need to at least snag this side pot that's grown. So, I was trying to figure out a good bet but since we could only buy in for $300max, at this point, I had about $200 behind. So, at first I counted out a $100 but there's no point in leaving a $100 behind so I said "I'm all in." The guy thinks about it, looks over to the guy next to him, shakes his head and reluctantly folds. So, the side pot is mine. Now, I had to turn over my bluffy AQs and the guy is like "unbelievable!" Well, you know what was even more unbelievable? The all in lady who I stereotyped as a donkey? She had A3 of diamonds. Another blank on the river and the main pot was mine too! A3 of diamonds!? Nice limp reraise all in, ma'am. You're not helping the stereotype. You are a donkey. Thanks for your money. But aside from that, I take a few stabs here and there but nothing exciting. After an hour and a half, I'm up $160 and I call it a night. Again, pvanharibo, thanks so much for letting me into the club and have fun in Vegas!

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.

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.

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.

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.