H.O.R.S.E

I have been mixing it up by playing at the 3/6 H.O.R.S.E. tables as a break from my normal 1-2 NL games. Take a look at this web gem:


Full Tilt Poker Game #4342134908: Table Woodview - $3/$6 Ante $0.50 - Limit Stud H/L - 0:57:37 ET - 2007/11/30
Seat 1: semloh2 ($69)
Seat 2: lviceman ($149.35)
Seat 3: Keep_Walking ($42.25)
Seat 4: Lain ACF ($228.25)
Seat 5: anoniem ($172.90)
Seat 6: Rake Feeder ($170.25)
Seat 7: maxmotz ($59.25)
Rake Feeder antes $0.50
anoniem antes $0.50
lviceman antes $0.50
Keep_Walking antes $0.50
semloh2 antes $0.50
Lain ACF antes $0.50
maxmotz antes $0.50
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to maxmotz [3s]
Dealt to semloh2 [Qh]
Dealt to lviceman [3c]
Dealt to Keep_Walking [Ks]
Dealt to Lain ACF [8d]
Dealt to anoniem [5c]
Dealt to Rake Feeder [5h As] [3d] <-- A decent starting hand for a Stud H/L game
lviceman is low with [3c]
anoniem: yeah me too
lviceman has 15 seconds left to act
anoniem: NL hold'em
lviceman brings in for $1
Keep_Walking folds
Lain ACF folds
anoniem: I'm burned out a little bit
anoniem folds
Rake Feeder calls $1
maxmotz calls $1
anoniem: this doesn't really take and thought
semloh2 has 15 seconds left to act
semloh2 completes it to $3
lviceman has 15 seconds left to act
lviceman calls $2
Rake Feeder calls $2
maxmotz calls $2
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to maxmotz [3s] [7d]
Dealt to semloh2 [Qh] [4s]
Dealt to lviceman [3c] [Ah]
Dealt to Rake Feeder [5h As 3d] [2d] <-- Low is looking good
lviceman checks
Rake Feeder bets $3 <-- I bet my draw
maxmotz calls $3
semloh2 calls $3
lviceman calls $3
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to maxmotz [3s 7d] [4h]
Dealt to semloh2 [Qh 4s] [7c]
Dealt to lviceman [3c Ah] [Td]
Dealt to Rake Feeder [5h As 3d 2d] [4d] <-- Gin!
lviceman checks
Rake Feeder bets $6
maxmotz raises to $12 <-- Nice, he is raising for me
semloh2 folds
lviceman has 15 seconds left to act
lviceman calls $12
Rake Feeder calls $6 <-- Smooth call here, wait till next street to raise
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to maxmotz [3s 7d 4h] [Jd]
Dealt to lviceman [3c Ah Td] [Ad]
Dealt to Rake Feeder [5h As 3d 2d 4d] [Kc]
lviceman checks
Rake Feeder bets $6
semloh2: perfect for me
maxmotz raises to $12
lviceman calls $12
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
nekopaku sits down
Rake Feeder raises to $18
nekopaku adds $60
maxmotz raises to $24 <-- 3 way capped!!!
Rake Feeder calls $6
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [5h As 3d 2d 4d Kc] [Jh]
lviceman checks
Rake Feeder bets $6
maxmotz raises to $12
lviceman calls $12
Rake Feeder raises to $18
maxmotz calls $4.75, and is all in
lviceman raises to $24 <-- 3 way capped again!!!
Rake Feeder calls $6
*** SHOW DOWN ***
lviceman shows [7h 5d 3c Ah Td Ad 2s] a pair of Aces, for high and 7,5,3,2,A, for low
Rake Feeder shows [As Jh 3d 2d 4d Kc 5h] a straight, Five high, for high and 5,4,3,2,A, for low
Rake Feeder wins the high side pot ($7.25) with a straight, Five high
Rake Feeder wins the low side pot ($7.25) with 5,4,3,2,A
maxmotz mucks
Rake Feeder wins the high main pot ($91.40) with a straight, Five high
Rake Feeder wins the low main pot ($91.35) with 5,4,3,2,A
maxmotz is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $200.25 Main pot $185.75. Side pot $14.50. | Rake $3 <-- Scoooop!!!
Seat 1: semloh2 folded on 5th St.
Seat 2: lviceman showed [7h 5d 3c Ah Td Ad 2s] and lost with HI: a pair of Aces; LO: 7,5,3,2,A
^-- This guy is sweet, a pair of Aces and a 7 low!
Seat 3: Keep_Walking folded on 3rd St.
Seat 4: Lain ACF folded on 3rd St.
Seat 5: anoniem folded on 3rd St.
Seat 6: Rake Feeder showed [As Jh 3d 2d 4d Kc 5h] and won ($197.25) with HI: a straight, Five high; LO: 5,4,3,2,A
Seat 7: maxmotz mucked [6d 3h 3s 7d 4h Jd 2c] - HI: a pair of Threes; LO: 7,6,4,3,2
^-- This guy is even sweeter, a pair of 3's and a 7 low!

With all that action I only expected half the pot, not the whole thing. Nice scoop for me!

Poker vs Black Jack

I don't know the first thing about playing Black Jack. I don't even care to learn about the game, it just does not interest me. I am sure there is strategy in taking the casinos money, but it is so impersonal playing against the house, I prefer to compete against other players. Besides, I find it much more fun to take other peoples money in the card room.

Sunday afternoon I went to Foxwoods with a friend of mine, he wanted to play Black Jack because he felt that he was not good enough to play live poker in the casino. He may be correct in the sense that he is not a very experienced poker player, but the room at Foxwoods is filled donkeys just like him. I told him that he would not improve unless he sat down at a table, and that a $2-4 or $4-8 LHE would be a good place to begin. He didn't listen.

I grinded out 1-2 NL for what would have been a nice profit except that I made the mistake of sitting down at the Black Jack table with my friend. I have no idea what the bankroll requirements are for playing Black Jack, but I was definitely short stacked at $25/hand. Do people actually make money at this game? Or do the stars need to align perfectly in order to book a win?

Nothing New Here

Since my last post I have been to Foxwoods twice, once booking a good sized win, and once booking a bad sized loss. That's a wash right? Many of the big name TV-pros were in town for the main event, some even donked it up in the lower limit cash games. My worst beat was raised, re-raised, and over the topped pre flop, resulting in my QQ losing to 43o flopping quads. WTF?!?

I donked up a nice little home game that I should have crushed. Wonka was there, I think he may have monied twice that night. I on the other hand was the second or third to the rail in the early game, and 3rd place in the late game. Remember that you cannot bluff the unbluffable, or outplay someone that will call you down with no pair and no draw.

I have not been playing much online so far this month, and have missed most of the blogger tournaments. I did finish 29th in the Full Tilt Iron Man promotion freeroll, thanks for the $150! The poker game really went out the window once the money bubble popped, any 2 cards were good enough to push or call an all-in.

The VA is being a pain in the ass. I drove into Boston this morning only to find out 11 minutes later that there is nothing they can do for my tinnitus, other than prescribe me some sleeping pills. Thanks, but I already have enough those from my PTSD shrinks. Yet another waste of my time.

Foxwoods - Again

I am a little disappointed that I missed tonights MATH tournament. The BBT2 is in full swing and I am coming off of 2 ITM finishes last week in the Mookie and Riverchasers. I have been missing Hoy's game for a while now, with Mondays being one of the days I try to visit Foxwoods.

I had planned on leaving the casino in time to make it home for the MATH, but the "one more dealer change" game continued for several hours until I finally stood up. Had I left after 6 hours as I had planned, I would have booked a nice triple up but instead I settled a small profit after a long day. I suppose any profit is better than a loss, but my 12 hours of time could have been spent playing multiple tables online. I neglected to make adjustments and when turnover changed the table texture, and I began to bleed chips.

I did get a few decent hands, and of course I took some horrific beats. One particular player was on a roller coaster ride after buying in short for the 3rd time. He proceeded to win 9 all-ins while short stacked, and kept donking off his chips in between all-ins. He was nicknamed the all-in-master. Unfortunately I was the victim of his luck sackery 4 times over. KK cracked by Ace-poop, AK TPTK cracked by Ace-poop and then again by runner runner bottom 2 pair. Finally the flopped nut straight loses to runner runner flush. Good thing he was aways short stacked, each of the hands were only for $60 or so. He would double up off of me, then lose my money to the other players, and I would have to win it back from them in order to lose it to him again.

The World Poker Tour was in town for the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, and several well known pros were in the room. In the afternoon Survivor Castaway Jean-Robert Bellande was playing 10-25 NL. There was a small group of railbirds watching the action, and Bellande looked as if he had lost 100 pounds on Survivor. Later in the evening, Barry Greenstein was at the 100-200 NL table. A rather large crowd of 25+ railbirds was watching the game, with more than $200,000 on the table.

The Mook, The Dook, and The Spook!

Last night was the Triple Lindy of blogger donkaments ...

The Mookie had 114 participants, the BBT2 craze has sure pumped up the numbers. With so many new faces the play seemed uber tight for the first hour, and then turned into a steal, re-steal, push any pocket pair like it is gold festival. I did get lucky early on and knock Al out when I out flopped his TT with my AQ. Tight play kept me alive until the blinds were large enough to do some damage. I scrapped down to the final two tables and in the money. Everything was looking good until my 88 ran into 55 and a 4 flush on the river crippled me. Out in 15th place.

The Dookie has also been stacked with extra players since the onset of the BBT2. PLO H/L is not my normal game. I do play a fair amount of O8 limit, but tonight for some reason I was pushing my craptastic 1 way high only hands. Out early enough not to care.

The creme de la creme has to be the Spook! (Sorry Mook). This super donkfest had a whopping 52 participants show for the 11:59 pm start time on Halloween. Short Handed, Short Stacked, and Turbo - the only ingredient we were missing was re-buy. It was a push fest out of the gate, with several preflop multi-way all ins. I knocked out the host Instant Tragedy with my 66 vs his TT. Thank you for all the compliments live on the Buddy Dank internet radio show. It warms my heart to hear "Rake Feeder You Donk!" shouted repeatedly. At the final table Buddy decided to pick me to win. I listen to his show often enough to know that when he makes a pick, that person loses. The poker gods were on my side, I woke up with AA twice within 5 hands and 3 players left. I am the Spookie Champion! Scary Huh?