I have been Jonesing to get back to Foxwoods for a few days, and finally woke up Sunday morning and just drove down by myself. I have had a very good run at Foxwoods since returning from Iraq, nearly every session has been in the positive, +500, +900, +1200, etc. Sure there were a few sessions that were break even or minor losses, but nothing that bothered me. Until yesterday...
I would like to say that I was cold-decked, but I did get a few premium hands, AAx2, QQx2 (all cracked). Unsuited 5 gappers were the norm and looked like gold. I had QQ cracked by 24o and 34o after making it $40 to go pre-flop. AA was cracked by TT on a flop of KJ8. I had re-raised two $17 pre-flop bets to $65 and one came along. I pushed on the flop, and the TT player was proud to get it in behind claiming he had a straight draw - runner, runner of course!
3 times I got it all in with at least a 4-1 advantage, and every time I was runner runnered for miracle suck outs. Enough of the bad beat stories, nobody wants to read about someone else's misery.
Live poker is rigged.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Bovine Scatology
This is the kind of shit that Full Tilt has been killing me with:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed)
UTG ($224.70)
UTG+1 ($220.75)
MP1 ($76.10)
MP2 ($201.75)
MP3 ($97.20)
CO ($230.55)
Button ($127.25)
Hero ($200.40)
BB ($49.40)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, Kd.
7 folds, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4.
Flop: ($13) Ts, 9c, 2s (2 players)
Hero bets $12, BB calls $12.
Turn: ($37) Jc (2 players)
Hero bets $18, BB calls $18.
River: ($73) Ac (2 players)
Hero bets $14, BB calls $13.40 (All-In).
Final Pot: $99.81
Results below:
Hero has Qh Kd (straight, ace high).
BB has 6c 5c (flush, ace high).
Outcome: BB wins $99.80. Hero wins $0.59.
Granted, I did not have a huge hand pre flop, but whatever possessed this guy to call the flop and turn bets with a bad draw? He hand to go runner runner in order to beat my turned straight and rivered broadway. I supposed I could have put him all-in on the turn, but my gut tells me he would have called.
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed)
UTG ($224.70)
UTG+1 ($220.75)
MP1 ($76.10)
MP2 ($201.75)
MP3 ($97.20)
CO ($230.55)
Button ($127.25)
Hero ($200.40)
BB ($49.40)
Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, Kd.
7 folds, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4.
Flop: ($13) Ts, 9c, 2s (2 players)
Hero bets $12, BB calls $12.
Turn: ($37) Jc (2 players)
Hero bets $18, BB calls $18.
River: ($73) Ac (2 players)
Hero bets $14, BB calls $13.40 (All-In).
Final Pot: $99.81
Results below:
Hero has Qh Kd (straight, ace high).
BB has 6c 5c (flush, ace high).
Outcome: BB wins $99.80. Hero wins $0.59.
Granted, I did not have a huge hand pre flop, but whatever possessed this guy to call the flop and turn bets with a bad draw? He hand to go runner runner in order to beat my turned straight and rivered broadway. I supposed I could have put him all-in on the turn, but my gut tells me he would have called.
Friday, August 17, 2007
An open letter to Full Tilt support
Dear Full Tilt,
Please flip my boom switch back to the winning position. I need to catch more sets that turn into boats vs runner runner straights and flushes.
Thank You,
Rake Feeder
p.s. While you are at it, please stop counterfeiting my top 2 pair vs an over pair.
Please flip my boom switch back to the winning position. I need to catch more sets that turn into boats vs runner runner straights and flushes.
Thank You,
Rake Feeder
p.s. While you are at it, please stop counterfeiting my top 2 pair vs an over pair.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Iron Man Final Table
Last month I played on Full Tilt nearly every day, qualifying for the Full Tilt Iron Man promotion and entrance into the $30,000 freeroll. When I played in the Gold level freeroll there was quite a bit of dead money, about half the players did not even show up. Such was not the case at the Iron level game, I am sure there were a few no shows, but on my tables every player was present.
With 298 players and a $30,000 prize pool it was essentially a $100 tourney for free! Of course my MGR will take the hit and my rakeback will suffer, but IMHO it is worthwhile to opt-in to the Iron Man promotion.
I was chip leader for quite some time after the bubble broke, up until the final two tables. With 12 players left my QQ was cracked by a donk open pushing UTG with K6o for 17,000 vs my 60,000. The blinds were 800/1600, I understand he was short stacked but there really is no need to push UTG with that kind of hand. The hits just kept on coming, and my stack dwindled to 12k until I doubled up with pocket sixes.
I was talking to wwonka on the phone, when the final table popped, and the very first hand I get AA in the BB with a raiser from LP. I have 24,000 in chips facing a 3x raise to $7,500 with the blinds at 1200/2400. I insta push of course, and he insta calls.
Boom! Aces cracked by KJo. Out in 9th place.
Sure I am happy anytime I get $450 for free, it just sucks to go out like that.
With 298 players and a $30,000 prize pool it was essentially a $100 tourney for free! Of course my MGR will take the hit and my rakeback will suffer, but IMHO it is worthwhile to opt-in to the Iron Man promotion.
I was chip leader for quite some time after the bubble broke, up until the final two tables. With 12 players left my QQ was cracked by a donk open pushing UTG with K6o for 17,000 vs my 60,000. The blinds were 800/1600, I understand he was short stacked but there really is no need to push UTG with that kind of hand. The hits just kept on coming, and my stack dwindled to 12k until I doubled up with pocket sixes.
I was talking to wwonka on the phone, when the final table popped, and the very first hand I get AA in the BB with a raiser from LP. I have 24,000 in chips facing a 3x raise to $7,500 with the blinds at 1200/2400. I insta push of course, and he insta calls.
Boom! Aces cracked by KJo. Out in 9th place.
Sure I am happy anytime I get $450 for free, it just sucks to go out like that.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Mookie Donkout, Dookie Win!
My buddy Wonka called me tonight to remind me about the Mookie. I had spent much of the afternoon and evening drinking beer at the local American Legion Post, of which I am the newest (and youngest) member. There was a small game in the back room, but it was only a $5 buy in, I was not going to waste my time. I was tempted, as I had not played any poker at all since my Saturday pilgrimage to Foxwoods. My live play has been great, but my online cash games at Full Tilt have left much to be desired. I have been getting pounded by runner runner straights and flushes when I flop top set and bet out.
It was clear early on that tonight was not going to be my night at the mookie. In the 1st level I have AA in LP with a few limpers followed up by a 4x raise from Irongirl in front of me. I re-raise the pot and she mucks. I am very happy taking it down a nice little pot without seeing the flop. The next orbit, I have AA again (card rack). There are a few limpers and once again a raise by Irongirl. I re-raise the pot, she pushes, I insta-call and a 9 on the flop gives her a set of 9s and leaves me with only 800 chips very early. She said that she was tilting from another tourney. I tell her it is all good, I knew there must be a reason for her going to the well with pocket nines so early in the tourney. I manage to work back up to a decent stack, mostly due to a suckout with 56s vs AK, followed by a double up off of MiamiDon with KK. I ended up donking it all back to him with AQ vs his AA in the BB. Out in 16th or so.
The dookie was a HORSE event, something that I have very limited experience in. I do not play much limit hold em, my style prefers to take pots down long before the turn and river. I do however enjoy playing Omaha H/L, it used to be my favorite bonus clearing game. Razz and Stud are not in my normal list of games to play either. Net result for the night = +$26, yay.
It was clear early on that tonight was not going to be my night at the mookie. In the 1st level I have AA in LP with a few limpers followed up by a 4x raise from Irongirl in front of me. I re-raise the pot and she mucks. I am very happy taking it down a nice little pot without seeing the flop. The next orbit, I have AA again (card rack). There are a few limpers and once again a raise by Irongirl. I re-raise the pot, she pushes, I insta-call and a 9 on the flop gives her a set of 9s and leaves me with only 800 chips very early. She said that she was tilting from another tourney. I tell her it is all good, I knew there must be a reason for her going to the well with pocket nines so early in the tourney. I manage to work back up to a decent stack, mostly due to a suckout with 56s vs AK, followed by a double up off of MiamiDon with KK. I ended up donking it all back to him with AQ vs his AA in the BB. Out in 16th or so.
The dookie was a HORSE event, something that I have very limited experience in. I do not play much limit hold em, my style prefers to take pots down long before the turn and river. I do however enjoy playing Omaha H/L, it used to be my favorite bonus clearing game. Razz and Stud are not in my normal list of games to play either. Net result for the night = +$26, yay.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Weekly Pilgrimage to Foxwoods
One of my buddies from Iraq lives in CT, he and I have been making a weekly pilgrimage to Foxwoods for a while now. First of all, it is nice to be able to keep in touch with a friend from over there. After an 18 month call up with 12 months deployed to a combat zone you get to know people better than friends you have had for years. It was surprisingly difficult to get a game going over there, General Order #1 prohibits gambling of any sort and although poker games did happen, they were almost always small 4-6 player tournaments with a very low buy in. Early in the deployment we did manage to get into a game with the unit from the 82nd that lived next to us. All of their money ended up in either my pocket or my buddy's pocket and they never let us play with them again. What were you doing with $1000 in the desert anyway? The MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) tent sponsored a tournament once a month, "for fun" with $50 phone card or PX gift certificate prizes. Unfortunately, I never had the time to make it to one of the legal games.
I arrived at the reservation about 930am, and was 10th on the list for the 1-2 NL tables. My buddy had been there for about 30 minutes, and was quickly up about $200 after some aggressive play. I was called for a brand new table, locked up seat 8 and proceeded to the cage to get my chips. On the way back a seat opened at my buddy's table, and the nice floor lady let me move to sit with my friend.
The play was typical for the 1-2 NL tables at Foxwoods; everyone was limping into as many pots as possible, pre flop raises from $7-15 only juiced up the pot, and only large ($25-35) re-raises would take it down pre-flop. I limped with KK UTG, everyone limps around to the button who makes it $10 to go. The blinds fold and I re-raised to $35, big stack from MP calls and the button calls. The flop is K93, I have top set and bet out $40 expecting at least one caller. Both muck claiming small pairs, I show my Kings and my table image earns some credit.
I take down a few pots pre-flop with decent pairs and re-raises from the BB, I build my stack rarely going to show down. After 5 hours I am up $900 and in need of a break. My buddy has lost some ground, a flopped Aces full to a rivered AK bigger boat, and some questionable calls with second pair. He is sitting on about $400 after re-loading a hundo and breaking even. I decide that I am going to take my chips off the table and rat-hole my profits. There is a long list for 1-2 NL, I put my name in before heading to eat. Lunch at the 5th Street Cafe is on me, I have enough player points to cover both of us.
It is about 3pm, my buddy heads back to his table, and I check the list. My name must have been called while we were eating, I have to get back in line. No worries, 1-2 NL is so popular, they seem to have 25-30 tables running and still opening new tables. I get called for a new table, and once again on my way back from the cage I notice an empty seat at my friends table. The floor lets me move and I am back in the same seat. Evidently my replacement had bought in for the minimum twice and spread his chips around the table. Strangely, everyone was glad to see me back.
In retrospect, I should have just left my money on the table and taken my break. I had been successful at the table, had built a good stack and earned a good image. My post break game was not nearly as successful as my morning session. Most of the table has been here all day, with stacks built from the never ending stream of tourists buying in for the minimum 2-3 times, busting out and leaving. I no longer have the stack to move people off of hands. I am card dead for an eternity, re-loading 3 hundos each time I dropped below $200 and considering leaving. At about 8pm I say to my friend that I need to double up soon or I am going home. I have a little more than $300 in front of me, and the very next hand I have AKs in the BB.
Limpity, limp, limp around the table to the button who is sitting on about $1500 raises to $15. The small blind calls $15, and I bump it up to $30 hoping to drive out the rest of the field. It works and we go 3 way to the flop with about $100 in the pot. The flop is an absolute dream for me. K73 with 2 spades. TPTK with nut flush re-draw. The SB checks, I bet out $60 and the button raises to $120. The SB folds and I think about it for a minute. I know the huge stack has a very wide range of hands after 10 hours at the table. I have seen him make this move with KQ before. He knows that I don't have my big stack from the morning session. If I jam, I expect he will call as he has been running very well, he can afford it, and I am short enough to price him in if he has a decent hand. If he had AA or KK, he would have come over the top of my pre-flop bump. I am more afraid of him having 73 than 77 or 33 based on his previous holdings. I push, putting $170 on top of his raise and he calls, showing AKo. Nice! At worst we are chopping and I have the only re-draw. The dealer wastes no time in putting another spade on the board, and after the dust settles I am blessed with nearly $700 in chips, back on top by $100 after my 3 hundo reloads. After the hand he said he thought I might be on a set of 7s, but he couldn't get away from TPTK.
Final tally, 12 hours for $1000 profit. Plus free lunch.
I arrived at the reservation about 930am, and was 10th on the list for the 1-2 NL tables. My buddy had been there for about 30 minutes, and was quickly up about $200 after some aggressive play. I was called for a brand new table, locked up seat 8 and proceeded to the cage to get my chips. On the way back a seat opened at my buddy's table, and the nice floor lady let me move to sit with my friend.
The play was typical for the 1-2 NL tables at Foxwoods; everyone was limping into as many pots as possible, pre flop raises from $7-15 only juiced up the pot, and only large ($25-35) re-raises would take it down pre-flop. I limped with KK UTG, everyone limps around to the button who makes it $10 to go. The blinds fold and I re-raised to $35, big stack from MP calls and the button calls. The flop is K93, I have top set and bet out $40 expecting at least one caller. Both muck claiming small pairs, I show my Kings and my table image earns some credit.
I take down a few pots pre-flop with decent pairs and re-raises from the BB, I build my stack rarely going to show down. After 5 hours I am up $900 and in need of a break. My buddy has lost some ground, a flopped Aces full to a rivered AK bigger boat, and some questionable calls with second pair. He is sitting on about $400 after re-loading a hundo and breaking even. I decide that I am going to take my chips off the table and rat-hole my profits. There is a long list for 1-2 NL, I put my name in before heading to eat. Lunch at the 5th Street Cafe is on me, I have enough player points to cover both of us.
It is about 3pm, my buddy heads back to his table, and I check the list. My name must have been called while we were eating, I have to get back in line. No worries, 1-2 NL is so popular, they seem to have 25-30 tables running and still opening new tables. I get called for a new table, and once again on my way back from the cage I notice an empty seat at my friends table. The floor lets me move and I am back in the same seat. Evidently my replacement had bought in for the minimum twice and spread his chips around the table. Strangely, everyone was glad to see me back.
In retrospect, I should have just left my money on the table and taken my break. I had been successful at the table, had built a good stack and earned a good image. My post break game was not nearly as successful as my morning session. Most of the table has been here all day, with stacks built from the never ending stream of tourists buying in for the minimum 2-3 times, busting out and leaving. I no longer have the stack to move people off of hands. I am card dead for an eternity, re-loading 3 hundos each time I dropped below $200 and considering leaving. At about 8pm I say to my friend that I need to double up soon or I am going home. I have a little more than $300 in front of me, and the very next hand I have AKs in the BB.
Limpity, limp, limp around the table to the button who is sitting on about $1500 raises to $15. The small blind calls $15, and I bump it up to $30 hoping to drive out the rest of the field. It works and we go 3 way to the flop with about $100 in the pot. The flop is an absolute dream for me. K73 with 2 spades. TPTK with nut flush re-draw. The SB checks, I bet out $60 and the button raises to $120. The SB folds and I think about it for a minute. I know the huge stack has a very wide range of hands after 10 hours at the table. I have seen him make this move with KQ before. He knows that I don't have my big stack from the morning session. If I jam, I expect he will call as he has been running very well, he can afford it, and I am short enough to price him in if he has a decent hand. If he had AA or KK, he would have come over the top of my pre-flop bump. I am more afraid of him having 73 than 77 or 33 based on his previous holdings. I push, putting $170 on top of his raise and he calls, showing AKo. Nice! At worst we are chopping and I have the only re-draw. The dealer wastes no time in putting another spade on the board, and after the dust settles I am blessed with nearly $700 in chips, back on top by $100 after my 3 hundo reloads. After the hand he said he thought I might be on a set of 7s, but he couldn't get away from TPTK.
Final tally, 12 hours for $1000 profit. Plus free lunch.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Cash Games, Daily Double, and the Mookie!
I played in a few tournaments and 1-2 NL cash games on Full Tilt tonight (last night?). I was in my normal 4 table grind and breaking even, until I ran my AA into AA and KK. The action was raised to $8 from MP, I re-raised to $18 from LP, the BB came over the top and made it $40 to go. The MP raiser flat called and I pushed all in. Everyone came along for a nice chop of $131 to each of the pocket Aces.
I played in The Daily Doubles at 9pm and of course the Mookie at 10pm. I was run out of the Daily Double A when my flopped trips and flush draw was beat by a flopped full house. I really should have gotten away from the hand when my flop bet was re-raised. I did manage to cash in the Daily Double B for a whopping $22.44 which nearly covered my buy-in for both games.
My big hand on the final table was a 3 way all-in between me, ScottMc and Mike_Maloney. I had about 15,000 and wake up with QQ UTG. I am looking for action and I put in the standard raise of 3x the blind to 3600. ScottMc goes all in from MP for about 11,000, and Mike_Maloney pushes for 15,000 from the BB.
I was prepared to call one all-in with my QQ, but 2? I easily could have been up against AA or KK in this spot. I pushed and hoped that one of them was on a medium pocket pair, and the other a big Ace. If I have any readers, comments are welcome on my play.
We traded chips around for a while, I sucked out a couple times, and we were finally heads up with a slight chip advantage in my favor. On the first hand heads up my opponent bonehet timed out on the button. He had been having disconnection issues all evening, so when the next hand was dealt, I quickly raised thinking he was disconnected. Yes, it was a cheap play but thats the way it is online. Unfortunately I did not raise enough for the value of my hand AJ, and he returned in time to call my min raise with 53s. The flop was 53J and I was crippled. Oh well bad karma on me. On the next hand he put me all in for 13,000, I insta called with Ace-poop, he showed Q3s and caught a Q on the turn, game over.
Thanks for the radio show to BuddyDank and his crew!
I played in The Daily Doubles at 9pm and of course the Mookie at 10pm. I was run out of the Daily Double A when my flopped trips and flush draw was beat by a flopped full house. I really should have gotten away from the hand when my flop bet was re-raised. I did manage to cash in the Daily Double B for a whopping $22.44 which nearly covered my buy-in for both games.
My big hand on the final table was a 3 way all-in between me, ScottMc and Mike_Maloney. I had about 15,000 and wake up with QQ UTG. I am looking for action and I put in the standard raise of 3x the blind to 3600. ScottMc goes all in from MP for about 11,000, and Mike_Maloney pushes for 15,000 from the BB.
I was prepared to call one all-in with my QQ, but 2? I easily could have been up against AA or KK in this spot. I pushed and hoped that one of them was on a medium pocket pair, and the other a big Ace. If I have any readers, comments are welcome on my play.
We traded chips around for a while, I sucked out a couple times, and we were finally heads up with a slight chip advantage in my favor. On the first hand heads up my opponent bonehet timed out on the button. He had been having disconnection issues all evening, so when the next hand was dealt, I quickly raised thinking he was disconnected. Yes, it was a cheap play but thats the way it is online. Unfortunately I did not raise enough for the value of my hand AJ, and he returned in time to call my min raise with 53s. The flop was 53J and I was crippled. Oh well bad karma on me. On the next hand he put me all in for 13,000, I insta called with Ace-poop, he showed Q3s and caught a Q on the turn, game over.
Thanks for the radio show to BuddyDank and his crew!
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