PAPT Player of the Year lives here!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Going into tonight, the pot for the Player of the Year award was up to $625. With 9 players showing up tonight, another $15 was added to the pot to make it $640. There were only two other players who had the chance of catching me. Both Ramel and Shaun had 52 pts and I had 61 pts so one of them had to win this week and next week. Keep in mind, next week is Christmas day. But I'm pretty sure that if one of them had won tonight and they needed a win, they woulda scraped together enough people to have a tournament next Tuesday. So, this was starting to become like a NFL playoff scenario. I win the POY award by winning or Shaun and Ramel not winning. Odds were clearly in my favor.

Well, I got to the tournament a little late and surprisingly, by the time I got there, the two were already shortstacked. Without much drama (or rather, apparently, I missed all the drama), Shaun busted out when his AQ ran into AK. Ramel couldn't make much happen either when he busted out, courtesy of JT. Good work, JT. So in other words, I did nothing to really earn my money but I got paid. So I thought maybe if I win tonight, it would be a good way to end the season and also kinda put an exclamation mark to my PAPT POY win... alas, that didn't happen either when my top pair no kicker ran into TPTK in a blind v blind battle.

So, fairly anticlimactic end but then again, I'm $600 richer tonight so who cares.

One hand of note though... At PAPT, I have like these super jinxing powers. I mean I will call out a card that would lead to a bad beat and sure enough, the card will come. I did that to Tyke a few times and he generally now wants me to shut up... so I figured today would be a good day to repay my debts... the karma debts, that is. So, there's a preflop all in and Tyke calls with 88... much to his chagrin, his opponent has QQ. Even worse when the flop comes Q-5-6. Everyone goes "oh man, it's over." At this point, I was dealing the cards. So, right on cue, I go "7 and a 9 would do it." I peel off the turn card and sure enough, it's a 7. River? Do I even need to tell you? BOOM. 9. For a runner runner straight. Courtesy of me. Tyke, I'm glad we could end the year on a positive note. :)

Oh and the percentages? Hey PAPT crew, I told you. It's like 3% right. According to propokertools, Tyke had 3.33% chance of winning. You're very welcome.

PAPT Pwnage... Again

For those that don't really get poker, it just seems like a game of luck. I mean look at the WSOP for example. Every year, a no name newbie comes in and wins a tournament, making them insta-celebrities. The "professional" poker players aren't taking it down. So, to a casual observer, they think, see, it's all about getting lucky. It's gambling.

And can you dispute that? I mean even amongst the bloggers (the group that is allegedly better poker players than the general public), there are tons of people that berate their luck, call themselves the unluckiest players in the world, donkeys are harder to beat because they chase everything, etc etc. Even my non-blogging poker playing friends say idiotic stuff like lower level cash games are harder to beat because the players suck and they will call you with anything. I mean... that's pretty much as dumb as it gets. What up, JT and Sia. :)

However, if poker was so luck-based, then everyone should have an equal chance of winning right? I mean if luck plays such a big part and if it's even harder to beat donkeys, then how could someone (ie me) put together results like this???



5 indicates a win and 3 indicates a second place finish. Those are the number of points that you get for the 1st and 2nd place finishes, respectively. If this consistency isn't considered pwnage, I don't know what is. And for one of the weeks that I didn't get points, I think I didn't show...

Honestly though, this isn't meant to be a brag post. I mean here I am, a poker blogger who reads, studies, and plays every day vs a group of guys who get together and play a friendly game on a weekly basis is really not fair... it would be like Kobe Bryant playing in a high school basketball game or something... These guys play a fairly tight, aggressive but straight forward game and that's pretty much the only reason I can take this thing down very frequently. But the Player of the Year award is now up to $600. There are 4 weeks remaining (one of which I will be in Vegas) and I'm only ahead of the 2nd place guy by 9 pts (I curse the spring months when I didn't play much). This will be a fun stretch!

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!

PAPT and that list that everyone loves to hate

Quick update on our little home game we call the PAPT. As usual, Tuesday nights are reserved for the PAPT (which means no points on FullTilt). Based on all my recent comments about how I love points, you would think that's weird until you remember that there are points involved in the PAPT (as you can see on the side bar). Ramel still holds the lead for the PAPT Player of the Year award but guess who's closing in quickly? Yep, yours truly, the famous RecessRampage. Considering I haven't played in as many tournaments, I think I'm doing fairly well. You know at one point I'll recap that as a brag blog post. Anyways, last night, I took down the whole thing... a win in back to back weeks propelled me to 2nd place in the POY standings, passing Tyke. Again, 5pts go to 1st, 3 pts to 2nd, and 1 pt to 3rd. I really wanted Ramel to bust out early but his aggressive play, mixed in with good cards kept his chip stack healthy and in the end, there were just the two of us left. I'm not gonna go into too much detail here but if you want to know how aggression helps in a poker tournament, just watch Ramel. He is very very aggressive by nature. He plays his strong hands hard and bets his made hands very strong. And the thing is, his idea of "strong hands" is a lot looser than an average player. Which is clearly what makes him dangerous. When he raises preflop (esp when the blinds are like uber high), you don't know if he's got AA or 22... AK or K-10 (or Q-10 for that matter)... his range is very big. The only weakness he has is that his post flop game is not as strong as his preflop game. However, in the tournament structure of the PAPT, the blinds escalate at an almost ridiculous pace towards the end so uber aggro preflop takes down a lot of pots. Again, it's not just coincidence that he's got as many points as he does.

Alright... so on to my other main topic of this post. I'm not sure how it started. But I had a bad feeling when I first saw this post by RaisingCayne. Why? Because he then "tagged" Matt. I just had a feeling that this might eventually come my way. Well, I kinda let my guard down when I didn't see any "10 things about me" post from Matt in a while... until yesterday, on my bloglines, I noticed that it finally came up. Well, this is dated October 4th so at first, I was really confused as to how I missed this... until he mentioned that this was backdated since he started working on it almost a week ago. Shit.

Well, like Matt, I did this a few months back. And I love how we all allegedly "hate" doing this and yet we all follow... what are we, Lemmings? Well, apparently I am. So here goes my list of 10 things about me that not many people (ie mainly bloggers) know...

1. I was born and raised in Tokyo. Located in Japan for those globally challenged. I went to an international school called St Mary's (go Titans) where I spent 13 years there (K-12).

2. When I linked St Mary's above, that was the first time I visited my school's home page. Ever. And most likely the last.

3. Until I roomed with my friend after college, I was afraid of dogs. When I was a little kid, I was bitten by our neighbor's dog on my right arm. I still have a pretty nasty scar on my right forearm and have been deathly afraid of dogs until I had a roommate with a dog. That's also where I learned how dirty dogs are. At least Marlie was. My roommate would clean her and the first thing she would do is run out the backdoor into the lawn (ie, her personal bathroom) and roll around in the piss and shit covered lawn.

4. I really miss the atmosphere of St Mary's. The school was a true melting pot, at least in terms of race, nationality, and religion. When I was growing up, my "best friends" would include people from countries that today, might have negative connotation in some people's minds depending on your nationality. Pakistan, South Korea, Kuwait (I think no longer exists), Burma (used to be Myanmar, I think), etc. And tons of Europeans in our school as well as a fair share of Americans. Of course, there's the usual school stuff where people make fun of others but it was never (at least as far as I was aware) about race or nationality. It was about how geeky you were, how short you were, etc. Mean. But again, color blind. It was nice. And considering how things are here in the US today, I notice myself missing that atmosphere more and more.

5. I was arrested for speeding. I mean handcuffs and everything. For going 91mph on a 65mph zone. The cop was a dick. In a place called Norlina, NC. Apparently, I was speeding on "his" highway. I believe his exact quote was "You can't be speeding on MY highway, son." FUCK YOU. I had to pay $200 for bail.

6. I love NY accent. I don't know what it is. You know how a lot of people like British accent or Australian accent? Well, NY accent is my thing. "Wanna cup o' cawfee?" uh, yes please!

7. I've been arrested in 2 different countries. Once here in the U.S. as I described above. Once when I was growing up in Japan. Actually twice in Japan, now that I think about it. Actually, twice here in the U.S. now that I think about it... The other time, in the U.S. was when I was caught buying beer for underage kids. I was in college. That sucked. 100hrs of community service took care of that though. So, no record. Which is all that matters. In Japan, I was caught shop lifting once when I was a kid. I don't remember how old I was but I do remember everything else. I decided to steal these little weights that you strap on to your wrist so I took them to the bathroom, put them in my backpack and walked out the store. I was busted by a store clerk and taken to the police station. Another time, I was caught stealing someone's bicycle. I was riding this stolen bike to get home and I was busted by a cop. Taken to the station. My parents get the call at like 2am. I still remember the look in my dad's eyes. That memory will make me never steal again. EVER.

8. My favorite room in a house is the bathroom. Something about the privacy of bathrooms. I just love it. And just as important, I love pooping. And I take a long time to do so. Because I always bring something with me when I poo. Newspaper, magazine, lap top, book, etc. I typically spend about 20-30 minutes in the stall when I poo. And I'm obviously not pooping the whole time. I'm reading. At work, I take my treo with me and read blogs. Fun times.

9. My two favorite blogs to read in the pooper are Hoy and Dr Pauly. No offense guys. You guys write long posts so I don't have to "browse" as much on my treo which is obv not as fast as the network. So I always try to hold until the afternoon when their blogs are updated for the day. I just cry on the weekends.

10. I can't think of #10... so I'm gonna bail here.

And you know what. It's not fair that I do this without me tagging and unlike RaisingCayne or Matt, I'm gonna tag a bunch of people so maybe some of them will partake in this crazy ritual.

Bayne, LJ, Hoy, Fuel, Lucko, Cmitch, Gnome, JamyHawk, Mike_Maloney, Sean, and Schaubs. You're up!

I'm a sucker (nonpoker content)

I think I've mentioned this before. I'm a sucker for points. Just assign points to anything and I'll start going after it. For example, these days there are tons of credit card incentives where you can earn points by simply making purchases and you earn x amount of points per dollar. But if you shop at certain stores, you make 3x that amount or maybe 5x that amount. When I hear that, I start by looking at those stores first. Then, you know, you can trade your points in for some cool prize you'll never use. It's perfect, really.

Our home game league, PAPT (Park Ave Poker Tour) also has the point system. Every Tuesday, a similar group of 8-10 players show up for a $25 buy-in SNG style game. Each week, $15 of the total pot is set aside for this main prize that goes to the Player of the Year. The POY is determined by the points that you earn based on coming in 1st, 2nd or 3rd (5, 3, 1 pts, respectively). I swear. If it weren't for that stupid points system, I wouldn't go as frequently as I do. I love the company there and it's always a good time but Tuesdays are generally tough because I play basketball in the mornings. So, I'm out of bed at 6am, go to play ball by 7am and then work all day, and at 8pm, this thing starts. And since I always expect to win (I mean don't we all???), basically, I'll be there till about 11pm on an early night or midnight. It just makes for a very exhausting day. So, there are times around 7pm, I'm feeling the effects of the long day and I'm in the mood to just sit around and maybe play online for an hour or two... But what gets me off my ass to go play? Why, the points of course. The prospect of the points always make me coming back for more. Last night, I took it down and with 8 runners, 1st place prize was $125. That was nice but really, that's like nothing compared to the 5 pts I got. No, really. I mean it.

And then now, there are these stupid poker sites and their freakin points. Fulltilt has the stupid Ironman Challenge where you earn more medals by earning certain amount of points each day. So, I have to try to maximize that. Now granted, my video ipod should be on its way now so I can't really complain about the points. And now, Pokerstars just sent me an email saying they are giving me 750 points for this month so I only need to earn another 750 points to be upgraded to silver level. You know I'm gonna go after that... Please... marketing departments... stop with these points... it's literally killing me...

Ok, really. You wanna know how bad it is for me? Last night, before the PAPT, I booted up my laptop and I three tabled for about an hour just for the sole purpose of earning my 200pts on Fulltilt. How? Before I sit at the table, I open up the cashier screen to see how many points I have. I add 200 to that number and write that down. I keep my cashier window open in one corner and I have three cash tables going on at the same time. As soon as I passed that "magic number", I quit. So what I was down $300? I got my 200pts. These fuckin points are definitely -EV for me... and yet I can't stop it.... must... earn... points...

Oh... and one more thing that really has nothing to do with points. But I'm in the mood to babble on so here it comes. I'm a sucker for stick figures too. Stick figures crack me up... actually, any sort of crude drawings crack me up. Wes's blog just reminded me of that. So, I leave with you, a few pictures that my friends drew... they, like me, obviously are hard at work since these came during work hours (we don't have time to do shit like that after work!!):





HA HA HA HA HA... these make me laugh, just by looking at it on my blog... Yeah, so I'm a freakin 12 yr old. Leave me alone. It's my blog.

Good fold? Weak tight? Same difference?

I think this was a good fold by me on the river, being that there weren't too many hands that I could beat. If it were a bluff by the villain, I think that's just a great read and play. But it still sucks to have to fold a flopped straight. Did I play too weak on the other streets?

Table Rose Canyon - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:40:53 ET - 2007/09/04

9 handed table. Villain and I both have about the same stack around the original buy-in.

I'm UTG, villain is on the button.

Dealt to RecessRampage [Ad Qc]
RecessRampage raises to $14
Everyone else folds
Villain calls $14
SB folds
BB folds

*** FLOP *** [Tc Kd Jc]
RecessRampage checks
Villain bets $22
RecessRampage raises to $66
Villain calls $44

The pot has about $34, I checkraise. You could make the argument for betting out here and sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. So, I'm not that interested in the "you shoulda bet out here" argument because this is just a variation. It's very rare that I check raise so I like to incorporate checkraises once in a while, both with a made hand or a draw. Here, I have the nuts and probably 7 out of 10 times, I bet out. So, why am I posting this hand if I'm not interested in comments? I am. Was the checkraise amount not enough? Should I have checkraised more? In reviewing this hand, I don't mind the checkraise here. Granted, he only has to call $44 more to see another card when the pot already has $120. But if he's drawing to the flush, he's still not getting a good price since if the next card is a blank, I'm gonna price him out.

*** TURN *** [Tc Kd Jc] [6c]
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage bets $80
Villain calls $80

Well, this is where it gets interesting. The third club comes. However, I am not giving him credit for a flush just yet. He could have a flush but what would he have that he calls a preflop raise on this board that would have a flush? Ax of clubs? Can't be AQ of clubs since I have the Qc. AK of clubs? I guess at this point, I'm thinking it's more likely for him to have two pair? I don't know. This is where I start getting a little confused and I'm not sure how I feel about this call. Did I bet too little? Should I have checked? I'm interested in your thoughts on my turn play.

*** RIVER *** [Tc Kd Jc 6c] [Js]
RecessRampage checks
Villain bets $264.40, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of $264.40 returned to Villain
Villain mucks
Villain wins the pot ($323)

At this point, I'm not sure what I could beat. Since there were too many hands that I thought could beat me, I decided to let it go and wait for a better spot. Was that too weak? Or was that a good fold. I think it's a good fold but it always sucks to throw away hands like this...

On a totally different note, yesterday was our home game, the PAPT. There were only 7 runners and I really couldn't get anything going and in the end, I donked off my chips with A-10 sooooooooted when it was down to 5 handed play against Tyke's AA. I'm sorry. I meant Tyke's second AA of the night. Along with the KK that he had earlier. Can't beat a luckbox! :) In the end, Tyke took second place to inch closer to Ramel in the PAPT leaderboard.

PAPT and Pvanharibo

First and foremost, go check out LJ's blog here. She (PvanHaribo) did it again. Not only did she come in 3rd in the 32k few weeks back for a nice score of $4000+, she came in 3rd when she played in the tournament this past weekend in Vegas for a nice score of $3k, and now, she came in 3rd AGAIN in the 32k for a nice score of $5,300+. She played real well even though I missed out on the final table action because I had to leave for the home game that is the PAPT. But go show her some love over at her blog. Just incredible.

Well, not to be outdone by LJ, I decided that I need to step up my game. So I did. By taking down the PAPT baby!!! That's right. A win. Not a 3rd place finish. Victory. 1st place. Numero uno. Beat out a tough, tough field of 11 players (what, LJ bested 282 players? whatever) to score a nice $160 win (what, LJ got $5,343? whatever). Seriously... I was gonna do a full recap on a night that saw Sia aka PouringReign come back to Richmond for a special appearance in the PAPT but after what LJ just accomplished, I feel silly even talking about it. Again, go show her some love. Very well deserved.

As for the PAPT, it was a lot of fun. 11 person 1 table sng sucks in the beginning but as usual, the action was fast and furious from the beginning. In the end, Sia played well enough to come in 3rd, while I was able to take down the whole thing fairly easily once it got heads up. It always helps when you get good cards. It was nice to have Sia back in town since he moved to Florida at the end of last year. Talking in person is generally better than girlychatting. Much like live poker is more fun than online.

Since I'm feeling lazy about my post today, I'll leave you with this. Since the heads up challenge is starting, I decided that maybe I'll practice a few rounds and so I signed up for a $10 HU SNG. Very first hand, this is what happened.

FullTiltPoker Game #3383513624: $10 + $0.50 Heads Up Sit & Go (25875812), Table 1 - 10/20 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:59:46 ET - 2007/08/27
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [8d Ks]
RecessRampage raises to 60
DECEPT1C0NS calls 40
*** FLOP *** [8c 2d 8s]<--- gin!
DECEPT1C0NS has 15 seconds left to act
DECEPT1C0NS checks
RecessRampage checks
*** TURN *** [8c 2d 8s] [6d]
DECEPT1C0NS bets 60
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 180
DECEPT1C0NS calls 120
*** RIVER *** [8c 2d 8s 6d] [Jh]
DECEPT1C0NS checks
RecessRampage bets 320
DECEPT1C0NS has 15 seconds left to act
DECEPT1C0NS has requested TIME
DECEPT1C0NS raises to 840 <--- thank you!
RecessRampage raises to 1,260, and is all in
DECEPT1C0NS calls 420, and is all in <--- sucka!!!
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [8d Ks] three of a kind, Eights
DECEPT1C0NS shows [6h 8h] a full house, Eights full of Sixes <--- kabaaaam!
DECEPT1C0NS wins the pot (3,000) with a full house, Eights full of Sixes
RecessRampage stands up
DECEPT1C0NS stands up

Yep, that's right. One and done. Probably the quickest heads up match in the history of heads up matches. Heads up challenge, here I come, baby!!!!

My streak of second best in the PAPT

Last night was our regular home game tournament, the PAPT. 10 runners, top 3 gets cash and points for the player of the year award. Our points leader, Tyke, has been in somewhat of a cold streak and hasn't gotten past 36 pts in several weeks. On the other hand, Ramel and I have been on quite a tear - Ramel has won 3 weeks in a row recently, notching a win basically 3 out of the past 4 weeks. In the past 6 weeks that I played in I've come in first or second 5 times.

The funny thing is that about two or three months ago, when Hoy did his "scouting report" on the BBT Top 10 bloggers, one of my friends said that it would be interesting to do something like that for the PAPT crew. So, I went ahead and did it. For all the regulars in the game, I did a fairly detailed write-up on how I thought their game was (or the lack there of). It's amazing what putting thoughts down on paper does. It made me realize how I was playing against this competition so incorrectly.

What do I mean? I know some of the PAPT crew reads this blog (ahem, Tyke) and I think knowing this might benefit them. So, obviously, I'm not gonna put the whole write-up I did for every player but out of our 10 regular runners, there are approximately 3 players that will fall in love with their starting hands. What do I mean? I don't mean that they can't let go of the hand after the flop or the turn if they don't connect. But rather, if they decide that they like their hand, they don't care what the other players do. So, when they raise, I tighten up a little, but when I have a big hand, I go ahead and bump up the pot significantly. In other words, I do the overbet for value early in the hand, preflop, when they are still loving their AQ or something like that.

Then there are couple that I know I can outplay. Those are few and I think the PAPT crew here reading this would know who I am talking about. I mean they just play a weak passive game. I'd say weak tight except when their idea of a good hand is as bad as KTs, I can't say that that's a tight player. But there's a lot of instance where some players will limp then fold to a raise. It's almost a tell. Last night, there was an instance where this one player limped from the cut off. I knew he was weak. I look down and I see K8. Cards don't matter here. I bumped it up to 4.5x the BB (I think it was 2-4 so I bumped it up to 18). Now shockingly, a fairly tight BB called my raise so I didn't like that too much. Flop comes 10-5-x, completely missing me. But again, cards don't matter here. BB checks, CO bets out. Now cutoff isn't stupid so I knew he must have hit the hand. But I also know he plays his connectors weak (that's what weak passive players do). So, I thought at best, he has J-10. So, he bet out 20 into a pot of over 50. So, I raise him another 50 on top. BB looked pained but he folded to my aggression. The said CO? He mulled over it for a while, mumbled something about a kicker, and folded. Don't play weak if you're out of position against me. I WILL punish you for it.

In the end, I amassed a huge chip lead going into heads up battle... against my recent nemesis Ramel. I had a 3 to 1 chip lead but after a few ill timed bluff attempts, we were even in chips. And then the final hand. I felt like I trapped him fairly well. I had AQs. I call from the small blind. Ramel bumps it up another 100 on top (blinds are 15-30), we both have about 700-800 in chips. At that point, I knew he had a moderately good hand. Two face, Ax, or a pair. But again, he'll do that with any ace or any two face. So, I liked my chances and he's one of the guys I peg as one to fall in love with their starting hands. I thought I probably have him crushed. So, I just shoved. He instacalled. I was close but a little off. He had KJ (I was hoping a hand like AJ or KQ - basically anything but two live cards). Well, the river brings the K to an otherwise unimproved board and once again, Ramel takes it. 4th time in 5 weeks. And I, once again, come in 2nd. So sad...

For those of you keeping track, I have updated the points on the side as well.

PAPT Update

For some strange reason, I don't really feel like writing anything today. But it sure as hell beats working so I'm gonna write. I've been on work tilt for as long as I can remember. One big downside of working for a big corporation is whenever you are involved in a large project that eventually extends out to numerous departments in several different locations, it's a bitch to coordinate. And it's getting to me. Big time.

Anyways. Enough about that. Last night, I went to play in our home game, the PAPT. We had 10 runners which is slightly more than usual (we generally have about 8) but that didn't stop me from continuing my hot streak of cashing/earning points in 5 of the last 6 weeks I played in (stupid food poisoning...). I took it down after what ended up being a very tough 3 handed situation. No detailed recap though. Let's just say I cracked AA with 58 suited, I hit quad deuces, etc my way to the victory. But make no mistake. It was no cakewalk. I continued to run into a set up type hand against the third place finisher. First time was when he went all in and I instacalled since he was relatively short and I had a big stack (there were still 7 of us remaining at that point, I think) when he had QQ vs my JJ. No House of Bad Beat story here. Later, we were 4 handed and I flop a flush with 78c. We get it all in on the flop and his flopped Q high flush takes it. Then, to make matter worse, 3 handed, my jacks run into his kings! Except the House of Bad Beat finally lives up to its name by letting me spike the J on the flop. I never looked back after that and I finally took it down. It was a tough tough shorthanded table though. I was exhausted afterwards.

Well, so if you've read here before, you know that we have a points system for the PAPT. Basically, if there are 7 or less players, top 2 gets cash and points. If there are 8 or more players, top 3 gets cash and points (5,3,1). At the end of the year, the top point earner wins the side pot that is generated by taking out $10-$15 each week depending on the number of players for the week. So, as of July, the prize money is up to $380 and the top 5 point earners can be seen on the right hand side of this blog under the "counter".

It's a good incentive to keep people coming back every week and also, just a friendly side competition to have. And at $25 buy-in, it really doesn't break the bank for anyone (keep in mind, $15 of the total buy in is set aside, not $15 per person). So, yesterday, the $250 prize pool was reduced by $15 that goes to the side and the remaining $235 is awarded to the top 3 finishers ($145, $65, $25). As you can see, it's very top heavy in terms of the points as well as cash. 1st place gets almost twice as many in points (5pts vs 3pts) and cash is more than double that of second place. This is actually a good structure for us because there really is no glory in coming in second place.... and take it from me, the king of second place finishes. It sucks. 2nd place really sucks cuz you're there the whole time and yet you leave with a very slim profit and 2 weeks of solid effort coming in 2nd barely beats out a guy who wins just one week. No wonder no one gives a shit about the bubble.

Tonight is the Mookie and right now, I'm strangely not feeling it. It's kinda funny how that is. Tomorrow is the BBT freeroll and I'm not feeling that either. I need to get my ass in gear and start "feeling it" whatever that means. But for some reason, I'm just having a hard time really getting my poker focus. Maybe it's the bad month of July that I had (profits were very slim this month)... I don't know. Maybe it's the work tilt that's affecting my mental focus. Whatever it is, I need to figure it out. Mowing the lawn tonight should help... over the "degenerative weekend" I did not do that... and now, my lawn is looking like a chia pet with a bad haircut...

Wow, that was as pointless a post as it ever gets. And I'm still on work tilt. I'll see you all tonight!

The key to winning the PAPT (Home Game)

For those of you that have read my blog for a while, you know that I frequently refer to the site of PAPT (aptly named based on the fact that it's on Park Avenue) as the House of Bad Beats. And it's really not because I experience a bad beat here and there and get all pissed off. Actually, quite the contrary. It happens to everyone. Equally. Suck out after suck out. Waiting for good cards is death because you're gonna get sucked out on. AK < AQ. AQ < QT. KQ < K9. You get the drift. And I'm not making this up. I couldn't. It's too unreal. "Random" number generators for online poker sites think the house is rigged.

So, the key to winning this thing is simple. Go in with the worse hand. And boy did I do a lot of that today. After donking off some chips by bluffing into guys who can't fold, I tighten up a little and then an interesting hand comes up. The blinds increase insanely fast in the mid to end game. Goes from 1-2, 2-4, 3-6, 4-8, 5-10, 7-14, 8-16, 10-20, and $5 increments above that. AND the levels start with 20 minutes until it hits 5-10 and then after that, it's 15 minute levels. So it's insanity as you can imagine.

Well, when the blinds were up to 5-10, I had about 40 in chips. After 5 callers, I limp also with 5-6 (at this point, I was gonna take it to the felt but playing goofy like this is all part of what makes this home game fun). Then Tyke reraises from the BB to thin the field. Now he's a fairly tight player so I put him on either a pocket pair or two over cards. Then there's another caller so I now have a chance to almost quadruple up (with all the limpers that were there). So, I toss in my last 30 chips. I don't remember what the other two had except they both had face cards. When will they learn? I flop an OESD, turn completes my straight and I'm back in business.

Later, I shove 8-10 and get called by AQ. AQ is garbage as we all know and I double up again, giving me some chips and I'm back to being healthy. At this point, the blinds are becoming insanely high and I think it was 15-30 and everyone's M is like 6. And there are still 5 of the original 9 players. Tyke's stack is starting to dwindle (his AJ obviously couldn't hold up against a short stack's A-10) and so he shoves with A5.... only to be called by Ramel's KQ. I folded A-7 so I thought this might be a bad beat waiting to happen. Until the flop comes A-J-x. Now, Tyke is golden. I would've caught my second pair on the turn as a harmless 7 comes. As Ramel starts giving up and starts counting out chips to double up Tyke, I go "10 would be brutal." Well, whaddaya know???? BOOM. 10 on the river gives Ramel the straight and sends Tyke to the rail. The funniest thing is... if I didn't say that, it would have taken a few seconds for Ramel to know that he won. On the turn, I bet you he thought he was drawing dead (ok, I bet you cuz he said so). His words? "I'm so slow I didn't even know I had a chance."

It's down to 4 and top 3 gets paid as well as the PAPT points. But, there's no such thing as a "bubble" here and so the plays are relatively fast and furious. Ramel (very LAGGY) raises to 120 (blinds are now 20-40) and I'm on the BB with AA. I shove for like 300+ total. Ramel instacalls with A-10 off. I go "watch, aces no good here."

And sure enough, I'm out the door few seconds later when Ramel catches a flush on the river with the river being the Q of clubs to put 4 clubs on the board. One of the guys said it best when he said "man, with all the crap cards you were going all in with and winning, it's ironic that he goes all in with AA and gets felted." Ironic? No. Standard for this house. And that's what makes it fun! It's nice to have a break from online poker once a week for a truly fun game where it's serious, but not quite serious.

Soon, I'm gonna update my blog to have the leader points up on the side or something. Just to keep it interesting.

Oh and just so you know, last year's PAPT Player of the Year? Sia aka PouringReign. I told you it was a donkfest!

PAPT (Home Game) Update

*Warning* If you're not interested in our home game, this post might... errr, probably will bore you to tears.

Ok, now consider yourself warned.

I think Sia can attest to the fact that I play more online poker than anyone he knows. I mean it's almost like a disease. I won't play if I have less than 30 minutes but if I have more than 30 minutes to kill, I will immediately fire up a table or two. So, last night, I got home from work around 6 and Mrs Recess had her pilates class until 6:45 so I decided to play a little online poker. Fired up two 2-4NL 6 max tables and by the time I was done, I was up a buy-in with a big pot coming when a donk tried bluffing his missed flush draw against my set. I mean bluffing is one thing but he overbet by pushing all in. Oh well. Thanks.

At 7pm, I had dinner with Mrs Recess and shortly thereafter, headed over to the PAPT, hoping to repeat my performance from last week. 8 runners, typical sng style tourney in our weekly home game. It was a weird night though. Tyke, our PAPT player of the year front runner, was on tilt the whole time because his laptop was being "Windows"... you know, blue screen of death, memory dumping, etc. Typical. No, no, I'm not a Mac guy or anything... I just accept those things as part of having a Windows computer... just like I've come to accept that bad beats are part of poker.

Anyways, I was down to half my starting stack early when I lost two big pots in these two hands...

Two limpers, I bump it up to T$12 (I think the blinds were 1-2) with AQ and they both call. Flop comes Q-10-10 with two spades. both checks to me so I bet about T$15. Then I get raised for T$30 more by Shaun, who is a fairly tight but aggressive player. However, I did not peg him as a guy who would make a play against me with nothing so I was pretty convinced he had a T there. I spew some more chips by calling on the flop but folding on the turn when he fires out another big bet. Then few hands later, I find 99 UTG. I limp and it fold around to the button who raises. Shaun calls from the SB, BB calls and I call. Flop comes 7-7-2 (hammer time!) with two diamonds and Shaun bets out T$20. I bump it up to $50 and it's folded back to Shaun who reraises me for a $100 more... Well, with 99, there wasn't too much I could beat at that point so I decided to save my chips for a better spot... turns out I folded a better hand (I told him 9s and he said they were good) but my guess is he must have had two overcards both diamonds. I was down to about T$80 from the starting stack of T$175 but I just felt that I could still find a better spot. I was upset for a little but fortunately, my cards were so bad for the next few orbits that I didn't even have a chance to tilt my chips away.

Fortunately, I picked up decent cards at good times and my all ins were called a few times which enabled me to double up 3-4 times and eventually, I was heads up against... Shaun. We battled it out for a fair amount of time but there were two key hands where it tipped the scale. I turned two pair but slowplayed it where he eventually caught a straight on the river. I doubled him up there... Then he pulled a monster bluff with 6-3 on a board of A-J-9-x-x where I had to lay down my K9 on the river... In hindsight, that was such a bad fold... but it is what it is. Alas, after those, he kept constantly pressuring me and eventually, I got frustrated, pushed my Q8o into his KQ and I bust out 2nd... Helps that I'm a donk but very well played by him.

So, for all that trouble, I won $60... net profit $35... after 3.5hrs of work... maybe I shoulda stayed home and played online...

Popping the PAPT cherry! (home game)

It's nice when things are slower at work. I get to come home at a decent time (which I live less than 10 minutes away from work so that helps) and do things around the house (ie, play online poker) and still have time to grab some food and head on over to the home of PAPT (Park Avenue Poker Tour - so cleverly named based on the location of its house). So, that's exactly what I did. I got home around 5:30, took care of some chores (very little) and started up a few tables to see if I can "warm up" for the weekly home game. Nothing major happened in terms of online poker. Up in two tables, down in one... net to about nothing... Got the points I needed to continue my ironman freeroll streak and headed over to the PAPT.

Well, with 9 runners and a few old school players back, it was looking to be a good night. And a good night it was. We had all 9 players intact for the first 5 levels which is pretty unusual. Naturally though, the blinds started creeping up and it soon became a push fest. The funny thing about this structure is that it's the worst when it gets down to about 4-5 handed because that's also around the time the blinds are really high in relation to the stacks. And yet, it's not quite as bad when it becomes heads up because the stacks become big enough. So, amassing chips early to survive the mid-late levels is even more important in this tournament.

Well, tonight, the House of Bad Beats lived up to its name. Anyone who thinks online poker is rigged, need just step into this house and will walk away convinced that there's nothing that online poker could bust out that doesn't happen in this House. And there were some tricky plays too. When it got down to 5 handed, JT, who was relatively short stacked smooth called the big blind. JJ, then raised from the CO to about 4 times the big blind and so it gets folded around back to JT who pushes all in. They were both relatively short in that their M's were probably around 6-8. JJ thought about it for a long time but eventually decided that JT was limp-pushing with midpair (which I thought at the time was a good read) so he called with AQ... only to find out that he was a severe underdog to JT's AK (these initials are getting confusing). But, of course, in the House of Bad Beats, AQ was gold... Q comes out on the flop and no K on the turn and the river severely cripples JT who eventually goes out few hands later.

Another funny thing about this group is that the proverbial "bubble" is nonexistent. Top 3 got paid tonight, with 9 runners and top 3 also made points for the Player of the Year award. So, I was thinking that maybe when it's 4 handed, I'll turn up my aggression factor... except no one really cares about the bubble so that's never a consideration. Regardless of the other stacks, if the hand is good enough to go all in, there's no hesitation. So, I had to reel my aggression in a little... but just a tad. I still wanted to make sure that I was stealing my fair share of pots in order to stay healthy during this time of quick and ridiculously high blinds...

Well, fortunately, tonight, the poker gods were smiling down on me. Aside from a few key steals and take downs due to proper aggression, my hands held up when they needed to in key race situations and when heads up, I dealt another massive bad beat... Q was gold tonight (along with a 9 but that's another story). Tyke (our current points leader) and I were heads up and Tyke was solidly applying pressure on me. I, on the other hand, kept trying to play small ball (even with the high blinds) and so I would limp from the small blind 90% of the time. There were several times Tyke would raise and I would have to fold. But, I felt that if I could see the flop relatively cheap, being the small blind heads up also meant I had position and I felt that I could outplay him on the later streets. Well, as I noticed Tyke constantly applying pressure on me, I just knew that it was a matter of time that I would get the cards I need to spring the trap... and it came when I was in the SB and was dealt KQ (pretty monstrous heads up, IMO). So, as usual, I limped, and like he's been doing quite a bit, Tyke raised it up another 120 (blinds were 30-60). With 240 in the pot which would be approximately a third of either one of our stacks, I decided that this is the perfect spot to spring the trap. So I said "all in" to which he quickly responded "I call." Insta-call wouldn't do justice to the quickness with which he called. And to my dismay, he flips over AK... I'm pretty much dead... until of course, the House of Bad Beat delivers! Q on the flop with no help on the turn and the river for Tyke pretty much crippled him (he didn't have enough to even double the big blind) and the very next hand, I was dealt 22 and put him all in. His 3-5 didn't come through and that was it. I finally popped the PAPT cherry and won the tournament. I still have a long ways to go to catch Tyke (or anyone for that matter) but it goes on till the end of the year so I certainly have time.

On a side note, during the heads up match, one key hand that came up when I was in the big blind. Tyke limped, I checked and we saw the flop come 2-3-5. I checked, he bet approximately a 100 into a pot of 120 and I read that as a standard c-bet... so, I decided to make a move and semi-bluff at this pot... by going all in... with 4-7o... yep, just an open ended straight draw. Didn't think he had anything but I think he mentioned that he had TPTK... that was heck of a fold and I'm glad he made that fold... because we did run it out for fun and I wouldn't have caught anything.

Also, I have a confession to make. JT, on the hand where you said you had 22 and the board came 6-7-9 where I raised you from the SB... I later mentioned that I had 44... well, I lied. I actually raised from the SB with 8-3off... so I flopped an OESD and I thought an aggressive bet on the flop could take it down. When the blank came on the turn, I couldn't fire another bullet which you immediately noticed and took it down with an aggressive bet. I seriously considered pushing on the turn and in hindsight, I probably should've. So, lesson learned for me here. Well, actually, you weren't supposed to call...

I hate giving out info on my bluffs but then again, I also aggressively bet my made hands too so in that sense, that should be a wash. Either way, good times were had by all and most importantly, I took that shit down!!!!

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... :)

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!!!

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

Weekend recap, FTOPS IV, MATH, and PAPT (or the lack thereof)

I don't even really know why I wait till the weekday to blog. I think this is relatively common in that I usually visit other blog sites on the weekdays so it makes sense that I update mine on the weekdays as well. Having said that, it would seem like it would make a lot more sense if I actually did the weekend recap on a Sunday night or something when I feel like I have time. But then again, I use that time to play poker so I guess it's almost a catch 22. Anyways, this weekend was really not all that exciting on the poker front. On Saturday, I only played for like an hour and got killed. Well, my "getting killed" is about $600. This is the hand that especially sucked when Presto wasn't so gold this time...

FullTiltPoker Game #2210341074: Table Karina Jett - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:02:21 ET - 2007/04/14

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [5d 5h]
UTG calls $4
RecessRampage calls $4 <--- from the button (yes, Fuel, I realize now that this is a raising hand)
SB calls $2
BB checks
*** FLOP *** [5c 7s Tc]<--- uh oh, Presto is gold!?
SB bets $8
BB calls $8
RecessRampage raises to $36 <--- slow playing trips is overrated
SB calls $28<-- must be on a draw
BB folds
*** TURN *** [5c 7s Tc] [8h]
SB bets $80<--- wtf!? did he make a straight? 4-6? or did he now catch a pair with his 8-9?
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to $307, and is all in <-my hand is still good right!?
SB calls $227 <--- oh f***
RecessRampage shows [5d 5h]
SB shows [4d 6h]
*** RIVER *** [5c 7s Tc 8h] [9s]
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Fives SB shows a straight, Ten high
SB wins the pot ($707) with a straight, Ten high

That sucked. And admittedly, that was a situation where I should have just called on the turn. I'm not sure that pushing was the right move. However, I will say this. In terms of his likely holdings, I thought he would do that with 7-8, 8-9... 4-6 did cross my mind because he was also deep so I knew that he knew that he had enough odds to make that call on the flop... and admittedly, I wanted that call on the flop. Still, probably a poor play. Sometimes, it's such thin line between "Presto is Gold" series that Fuel does on his blog and this type of disaster (mainly found on my blogs).

Fortunately, like lucko mentioned before in his blog during his sick run last month on the cash tables, the weekends at FTP are softer than usual. There are sooooo many bad players who buy in short at these tables so, on Sunday, I made up everything I lost. It would be better if I can say I made up what I lost on Saturday and then some but then again, I'm not as sick as some of the other bloggers here. But, making up the $600 loss from Saturday still felt good. This hand came up on Sunday, when I got involved with a guy who took some of my money with a total donkish but lucky hand. But based on what I saw on Saturday, I had notes on him... a very simple one that said this "total calling station - will call down with any piece of the board regardless of the size of the bet."

So, when this hand came up, I decided to trust my note, even though my hand was definitely vulnerable.

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Ks]
EP calls $4
3 players fold
RecessRampage raises to $18 <-- from late MP
CO-1 folds
CO (cutoff) calls $18 <-the aforementioned donk
Button folds
Both blinds fold
EP calls $14
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4h 8s]
EP checks RecessRampage bets $50 <- pot was like $55-57
"the donk at CO" calls $50 <- here he comes.
At this point, I wasn't really worried about a set. He'd make this call with a hand as bad as 4-5.
EP folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 4h 8s] [5s]
RecessRampage bets $120 <-- now the board is starting to look dangerous with str8 possibilities and double flush possibilities so maybe I should've bet more here. The pot was like $150 so he was getting better than 2-1. However, I actually put him on a weak king so I felt like this was a good amount.
"the donk at CO" calls $120
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4h 8s 5s] [Jd]
RecessRampage checks <-- the river felt safe but now, I'm not too crazy about my hand. Plus, if he simply missed the flush, maybe he'll take a stab at it
"the donk at CO" bets $80.90, and is all in
RecessRampage calls $80.90 <--- my only thought here was "man, if he has KJ, that's so sick."
*** SHOW DOWN *** the donk shows [8h 7h] (a pair of Eights) <-- actually had more outs than I gave him credit for
RecessRampage shows [Qc Ks] (a pair of Kings)
RecessRampage wins the pot ($558.80) with a pair of Kings <-- thanks for holding on to my money but I'll take back what's mine!

The MATH hosted by Hoy last night had another good turn out with 49 bloggers. Yours truly, in true tournament donk fashion, busted out 21st as my stack steadily dwindled down. I'm such an uber weak tight tournament player, it's almost funny. I let my stack steadily dwindle down until the blinds increase or my stack dwindles (or the combination of both) to the point where my M is around 5 and then I just become a push monkey, pushing all in with half decent cards and sometimes not so half decent cards. I'm bound to get caught and eventually, I do... alas, my exit at 21st place when my 33 ran into a 99 in the small blind... I need to switch things up for the Mookie tomorrow night.

Speaking of tournaments, it must be that time of the year again. Already!? FTOPS IV Schedule is out so FullTilt is now running a bunch of satellites to qualify for the events. I need to start playing in these satellites as well as the WSOP satellites that I have been kinda neglecting...

And speaking of neglecting, I haven't talked about PAPT (Park Avenue Poker Tour) in a long time.... that's because I haven't been to it in a long time. I feel like the past several Tuesdays, something was always up whether it was work, family visiting, basketball league games, etc where I just wasn't able to make the 8pm starting time. As such, I still only have a meager 3 points on my quest to a PAPT POY which Tyke is furiously trying to get. And consider this. He was the second place finisher last year after Sia who decided to graciously move down to FL to give the rest of us a chance so Tyke is definitely picking up right where he left off. Hopefully, he'll be like the hare in that story and me the tortoise... funny how comparing myself to a turtle is never all that exciting...

Alright, time to start working! (read: check out other people's blogs!)

Avoiding total disaster...

I had two weeks remaining before February ended with a total blank in the column under my name for points in our increasingly popular Park Avenue Poker Tour. Zero points after two months of play would have been a disastrous start to my quest for the PAPT Player of the Year. But alas, last night, I outlasted the field of 8... well, almost... came in 2nd and got 3 points. (Points are awarded to the top 3 when 8 or more players show, 5pts for 1st, 3pts for 2nd, 1pt for 3rd). I was actually pretty happy with my play and even though I didn't get as many good hands as I would have liked, when I got em, I got good action on them.

Very early, when the blinds were 2/4, I got dealt KJ of diamonds from late position so I raised to $12. Patrick (remember, no more name hiding until someone objects) popped me back from the blind for another $15 so I called. My intial instinct here told me that he's got a good hand but since I had position, I thought it was worth a call since he could be doing that with AA, KK, maybe even QQ or JJ and AK. The flop came K-x-x with two clubs on the board. Not exactly what I was hoping for but I did hit the flop. Patrick without hesitation bets out $25. At this point, I have him on AA or AK (if he had KK, I'm leaning towards him maybe slowplaying that a little). So, I call. Turn comes an A, he pushes all in and since I KNEW he had AK or AA at that point, it was an easy fold. He flips over his AA for trips. Now, if I "KNEW" he had a much better hand, why did I play on after the flop? Well, my thought was that he had AA or AK. In which case I thought $25 was a cheap enough call to make when the pot already included over $75 and if I hit my J or even another K (if he had AA), I knew that I could bust him. Granted, if he had AK and the 2nd K of the board hits the turn, I'd be writing this blog probably around 9pm on Tuesday about how I didn't make it...

Later, when the blinds were 3/6 (I think), I got dealt pocket queens. I haven't gotten much till then so I was pretty happy since I was hovering around $120 in tournament chips. I am in the big blind and there are two callers so I bump it up to $18. I believe they both called. Well, the flop comes Q-x-x with two spades on the board. I hit top set. Now part of me thought about checking this monster but I didn't like the fact that there was a flush draw out there with 2 players and one of them was a calling station (in my opinion) so I bet out hoping that if either one of them caught a piece of the board, I might get some action. Well, the one caller I got was the one I wanted. When the K (nonspade) came on the turn, I pushed all in... and got an instant call. Unfortunately for my friend across the table, K completed a second pair so with 2 pair, obviously, there was no way to fold the hand. My trips held up and that was a big double up (and then some) that got me about $300 in chips.

After that, I went card dead for a long time. And I mean I didn't see anything good. Not even an ace... At one point, I do get dealt 88, I raise, but big blind reraises me all in (Adam, if you're reading this, nice reraise). I folded because I figured the best case scenario for me was that I was a very slight favorite on a 50/50 and I knew that there would be a better spot for me. And my chip stack wasn't hurting so I played a little safe there. There was another instance when Patrick pushed all in and I found myself in the big blind (I think we were either 4 handed or 3 handed) with A6. I thought about it but I decided I could wait for a better moment... unfortunately, he flipped over A5 so I would have been a huge favorite.

Well, the poker gods were smiling down on me last night though. Once we were three handed, there was a big change in chip stacks when my dwindling stacks found AK, I raise, only to be pushed back for all my chips by Brent with AQ. Fortunately, my AK held up so I doubled up. Shortly, I find myself KK and so I raise only to be pushed all in by Patrick... who had QQ. Now THAT was an insta-call for me and my KK held up. So, going into heads up match, I was a clear chip leader with over $600 in tournament chips. But... no crazy big hands heads up. I missed a very big draw that would have ended the tournament with me winning but I didn't get there. That shifted the chips and not too many hands later, I bluffed on a busted straight draw... except he had top pair. Oh well, maybe next week!

On a side note, the House of Bad Beats lived up to its name... only against Adam... The two beats he took were brutal. Both times, he shared the top card, dominated the kicker and both times, he saw the mountain of chips shipped to the other player. I think one was KJ vs K7, K7 takes it. AK vs A8, A8 takes it. The interesting thing was that he was setting it up for that as well. Not for the bad beat but the bad calls. I don't know if he was catching but he can't have a monster every hand. And he was raising probably 70-80% of the time when it was 4 handed. When I felt like he was going too far, I hear Brent say "I raise, I'm all in." I thought to myself, there you go, someone pushing back. Let's see what Adam does. So, I was astonished when he said, "I call." Even more astonished with the AK. I thought this was gonna be his tournament. Until the house on Park Ave lived up to its name. Tough to finish 4th in that style.

"Pat flips over KK and I'm feeling good about my J-10"

The above quote was NOT by me. Actually, I didn't even play in the tournament last night. I was gonna work late and since my wife was going out of town on Wed, and I opted to do dinner with her and work out on my Bowflex. By the time all was said and done, it was 9pm. I probably could have played instead but there were times in the past where I would force myself to play even when I'm not feeling it and the results were generally miserable. So instead, I decided to opt out. Plus, it's early enough in the year that I figured not attending one or two here and there won't hurt my point standings (it's hard to hurt it when you have none... ha ha ha ha ha).
Also, I know I've been relatively keen about keeping people's names off but now, unless someone tells me to keep it off, I'm gonna put it in because it's just too complicated to try to describe someone without their names. I'm guessing first name/nicknames are fair games. Again, if you have a problem, let me know.
Well, the quote really shows how ridiculous that house is... I've seen a lot of bad and nasty beats online and I've heard a lot of people say "oh my god... only on (insert online poker site here)!" Well, I should invite all those people to this house. Yes, the House. The House of Bad Beats. The title hand happened when it was down to 4 people. With the escalating blinds and such, I think the raise is understandable. But instead of me trying to describe a hand where I wasn't present for, I'll just copy and paste the email exchange that I had with my buddy JT. (I've edited portions of the email, mainly for his safety):

Key hand was when I was UTG and raised to 100 with J/10 suited. Vamp and new guy folds and Patrick went all-in. We pretty much stayed away from each other when it was 4 handed. I thought to myself he's got something big. Well, with my raise I was left with about 210 in chips. I had Patrick covered, he had 170ish. So it pretty much came down to me wanting to gamble and take a crack. Well, I did (as you can assume). Pat flips over KK, and I'm actually feeling good about this hand (no lie). Flop comes 9-2-K. He trips up but I got a gut shot. Turn is a Q, making my straight. River is a blank and I win. Against pocket pair like KK or AA, I think the best winning percentage against those are suited connectors. Anyway, with Pat out I was pretty confident in winning the whole thing. Last hand of the night and I got a comfortable chip lead, I got dealt A-Q. I raised to 150 (blinds at 25-50). Vamp calls. New guys goes all-in, he's got 163 left. So it's just 13 more to me. I obviously call - BUT what I didn't do and I'm not sure if it's a mistake was to put Vamp all-in. Probably was a mistake. Any, she calls and flop comes 2-5-Q and I immediately put her all-in. She thinks, waddles about it, and eventually calls. I got A-Q, she's got A-10, new guy has K-Q. I got top pair with top kicker. Turn and river are blanks and I take them both out.

Good ending for him but in my mind, a VERY questionable call. Once I called him out on that, he defended his position by saying this:

Well, there was also some history to go as well. Let me explain. There was a hand earlier in the night. I got A-10 suited (hearts) utg and raise it 16 (blinds at 4/8, should of raised more). I get 4 callers. Flop comes A-J-5. Pat's up first and fires 45. Fold, fold, I call (so it's just me and him). Next card is a Q hearts. 2 hearts on the board. Pat goes all-in and has me covered. So I'm left with a decision. I got A with medium kicker, flush draw and gutshot straight draw. Do I risk it all? I put him on 2 pair, maybe even trips (5s). Decision, decision. And what do I do, I fold. I can't risk it all on a draw and a medium hand. It's early in the tourny and I still got chips to play with. Turns out Pat had A-6. I had him beat, but he beat me in play. SOOOO, when it came down to the hand below, the revenge factor was definitely playing a huge role in my decision making. Not a good route to go most of the time, but hey, sometimes you got to gamble. And seriously, I was feeling good about my J-10.

Btw, utg stands for "under the gun" as in first to act after the blinds, for all you nonpoker afficionados. I love it. "And seriously, I was feeling good about my J-10." REALLY!? WHY!? Cuz it's like your initials??? And very questionable fold in my view. Actually, in a tournament situation, unless I feel like I'm drawing dead, I don't think I can fold a pair and a flush draw. But, then again, I am the same clown that folded trips with a nut flush draw to a top pair, medium kicker in the big tournament so who am I to talk (I really don't want to talk about it so don't ask me. Jonjon can probably give you a better insight on that one). And this might be the last time JT will let me put excerpts of our email exchange on this blog...

Any thoughts on this matter would be welcome. Also, I will respond to any comments posted if you want to discuss the hands more.

House of Bad Beats lives up to its name.... AGAIN

January is pretty much over. New year is awesome. You generally start with a lot of new goals, new beginnings, new this and that and your expectations are high. I guess that explains the increased memberships at the YMCA and I'm guessing most of the other gyms where many of us are trying to live up to the resolutions made in the new year. Well, my goal was simple. To get off to a good start in the Park Ave Poker Tour (self named based on location - aka Tuesday night poker tourney league). So, in reflecting back in January, how did I do? Zero cashes, no points. Disastrous. And the streak, of course, continued for me tonight when I failed to come in 3rd (which would have given me a point), and needless to say, another $25 out of my wallet. Aaaah, good times. Key hands? Key hands related to mine were probably as follows.

Early on, I was doing fairly well. I was making well timed raises, I was getting decent cards and I was playing them well. Poker is a funny game. When the deck hits you, it's an easy game. Well, there it was, and I was up to about $250 in tournament chips (we all start with $175) when the following hand came up. I believe the blinds were like 4-8 and so it was raised to $16 by JT who was sitting in middle position. RC (I'm gonna go with initials now) calls and I'm on the button with KQ. So I call. We see the flop 3 handed and the flop comes K-9-x. Exactly what I wanted. Or so I thought. Until I heard "all-in" and then a "I'm all in". And this was like quick. There was no pondering the call. And they both had the same amount in chips which was like $70 more maybe, and so it wasn't really a factor in terms of the chip stack. So I go into the tank. Everything about the way it played out tells me I'm ahead. Even to the point where I think that maybe they both have K-J. I think some more. Then an interesting thing happened. They decided that they would show each other the card. And the reaction actually screamed that they either had a same hand or not much or both. And then RC goes, "we're waiting for him to donate to the pot." Um, can you say Mike Caro 101. Strong = weak, weak = strong. If there ever was a tell, that was it. But, oddly enough, I decided to play it safe and fold. Stupid. JT flips over Q-T (he must have really wanted to go home) and RC flips over A-9. A-9 holds up and he doubles up (I would have won and knocked two guys out had I called).

But, we move on, I'm doing ok and the blinds are increasing steadily. JJ (initials, not cards) is nursing a very low chip stack of about $50 when the blinds are like 5-10. Well, I don't know how it ultimately ended but the poker gods were smiling down on him tonight. Initially, he goes all in with like A-J vs pocket pair (by "devilsad4c8") and he catches the ace on the river to double up. Few hands later, we knew the poker gods were on his side. The blinds now were like 7-14 or 8-16. "Devil" makes it 60 to go. I look down and see AJ from the button. So, I call thinking it will be a heads up match. Then I hear JJ from the small blind go all-in for $110 more. And the big blind, RC, calls. "Devil" and I look at each other, "devil" mucks and I have a decision to make. $110 more into a pot that is now over $360. I'm getting killer odds but an all-in and a call makes me think my AJ is beat. So, I fold. And what a relief it was when I saw that JJ had AJ also. RC turns over his pocket 9's. "Devil" shows his AQ that he folded. So RC is actually a huge favorite at this point. What looks like a coinflip is actually more like 80-20 because JJ only has 3 outs (only 1 ace remaining and 2 jacks remaining in the deck). Well, he hits is miracle 3 outer on the turn to take down a monster pot. Remember last week, he hit a 2 outer on the river.

So, we're still recovering from the monster pot that he raked in by getting ridiculously lucky. It gets 3 handed (at this point, I'm out but watching the entertainment that is the PAPT) and another lucky hand for JJ. JJ was tired of being pushed around and he goes all in against RC. RC calls and flips over his AQ. JJ turns over his Q-10 of clubs in disgust. RC 70%, JJ 30% (if WPT cam was there). Flop comes J-9-x. RC 62%, JJ 38% (with the straight draw, his odds actually increased). Turn is a blank. RC 75%, JJ 25%. River. Of course, a 10. To give JJ the pair and knocks out RC. Brutal. That left JJ and "devil" as the last two players and that's when I decided to call it a night. Crazy karma. And of course, without this, it wouldn't be the House of Bad Beats I guess.

And the streak continues...

Another Tuesday night poker... and another $25 out of my wallet. This really sucks. It's only been 3 weeks of playing for me (since I missed last week) but either my play is atrocious, I'm not getting cards, or a combination of both... and this post is becoming kinda deja-vu-ish (if that's not a word, well, now it is). My last hand? Blinds at 8-16, I made it $40 with pocket 6's. It was down to 3 players and top 2 got paid. I had about another $80 behind me. The big blind goes all in which had me covered just enough but not by much. So it was $80 more into a pot that was approx $160+. At that point, I figured he would move in with two high cards so I called. He had QQ. End of story. For those who know, it's "devilsad4c8". What do you think? Should I have folded? I just couldn't see how I would survive with only $80 left if I folded and 3 players left. But maybe I give up too easy. I don't know.

The funny thing was that he had a massive chip lead for a while. Then a crazy hand happened. The blinds I believe were 5-10. It was 3 handed at this point. He raised it to $30. Then, another player reraised it $40 more. So he reraises again. This time all in. At this point, it's starting to be clear that they both have big hands. Especially the aforementioned devilsad4c8 definitely had a big hand cuz otherwise he wouldn't do this. Well, "JJ" calls and turns over pocket 4's!!!! Devil turns up KK and at this point, he had "JJ" covered so "JJ" is all in. Well, what do you know. He spikes a 4 on the river for a set and cripples devil. But, couple of questionable calls later when devil went in (and I say questionable because the all-in was for like $60 after the flop and he would call with absolutely nothing... not even like two high cards, I mean just random stuff. JJ, if you're reading this, some of those calls were very questionable). So, that gave devil second life... enough to bust me out.

Key hand that crippled me early was when I hit top pair, turned two pair, only to lose to a flopped set of 2's. The guy was relatively short stacked so I put him all in and he called in a heartbeat. That crippled me early, even though I was able to climb back up but not enough. I gotta win soon. It's getting very frustrating...

On a totally different note, during the day, I have two friends that I discuss a lot of poker with over email. It's great because if it's up to me, I could talk about poker all day. So, we discuss certain scenarios that my friend finds online or certain hands from Tuesday night poker group, etc. Well, one of the topics that came up today was about the pros and their opinions of the pros and who's good, who's not, etc. It was a very interesting discussion. They felt that certain pros were riding the wave because they happened to have the bankroll to play the tournaments and hence, they're popular. I think I was more in support for the pros than the other two were. This was the discussion that ensued:

I'm sure you guys watch poker as much (if not more) on TV as much as I do. I actually recorded a bunch of WPT and WSOP tourneys just to watch and analyze. And what I've come to realize is that a lot of "pros" aren't that much better than the average player. I see them make moves that any bluffer does or slow play a monster (who wouldn't?). So to Sia's point, a lot of these players are just riding the wave and somewhere along the way made a lot of $ and are able to play at high stakes and make a lot of money (as well as lose a lot). And a lot of them just 'intimidate' people at the table just b/c they are the "pro". Here are my additions to the list;

Not to sweat:
Chris Furgeson (although you can't get a physical tell, he pretty much plays by the book)
Josh Arieh (plays overly aggressive poker)
Dave Williams (see above)

Definitely don't want sitting to my left:
Scotty Fischman (very aggressive but knows how to apply the aggression)
Eric Lindgren (solid player all around)
Phil Laak (he's just too unpredictable)

This was my response:

And add Antonio Esfandiari on the list of not wanting on your left. I agree and disagree with you guys. I disagree about the point you guys make about they have money so they can win or lose a lot of money. The guys I listed were like high on the list of cardplayer tournament player of the year (including which I did not but guys errrrr kids like Shannon Shorr, Nick Schulman, etc) which means they are consistently turning in great performance. And you guys say that you watch them on TV and they're not that great. Well, do you realize the number of people they have to survive in order to get there? The fact that you see them maybe twice (anything more is downright impressive) on TV (which is generally just the final table) is actually more impressive than you give them credit for. And let me add this about Dave Williams and Josh Arieh. They may play Ramel poker but with much better timing and better read. If you only saw them make out of control moves, then you only saw them in bits and pieces or the TV highlights only focused on those things because if you're watching WSOP, they weren't prime time players at that point. Which is why I think recently, the more popular shows are like GSN's high stakes poker. It shows the poker players in a different setting and the poker they play there are pretty high level, though I immediately caught Negreanu's tell on one hand when he held K-10 and the flop was Q-10-5 and he pushed all in against Antonio's JJ. (Esfandiari picked up on that tell as well and called the all in, just to be rivered by the king and lose $80,000 of his own money).

Oh, and definitely add Tom McEvoy on that list of jokers. But I would include Dave Williams and Josh Arieh on the list of not wanting on my left.

Also, the stories I hear about some of these guys and how they "made it" is pretty unreal. You think you need a bankroll to be better? Think again. Take the Chris Ferguson experiment for example. If you haven't heard, it's where he made a $20,000 bet with a friend that he could take $1 online and turn it into $20,000. I think he did that in like 6 months maybe? Maybe a little more. And he won the bet. Kids like Shannon Shorr built up a ridiculous bankroll but he started with a few hundred dollars and the kid's like 22. I mean these are guys who are playing at a different level. I think it's the ability to adjust to different competition. It's not about playing a certain hand a certain way or slowplaying a big hand or making a crazy bluff. Those are just instances you are seeing on tv. I think being able to switch gears and adjust is the biggest thing and these top pros are doing that well. Much better than you guys give them credit for.

This conversation followed an initial email from Sia regarding how he thought a lot of "pros" that people sweat, including Doyle Brunson weren't all that great. Even though I don't agree with them, it was a very interesting discussion, I thought, about how different our perceptions were. If any of you other guys want to include another pro for a good one or a bad one, feel free to comment. And please, I think Mike Matusow being a donk is a given. What about favorite players? My all time favorite is obviously Negreanu, followed by a lot of the young guys like Erick Lindgren, John D'Agostino, Phil Ivey, and Allen Cunningham. I also seem to favor the European crowd like Marcel Luske and Gus Hansen.

One last note: No matter how much WPT tries, they're never gonna find a suitable replacement for Shana Hiatt. She was the best as the host for WPT...