Not quite but close enough. Earlier this week I donked out of the Bodog Blogger II, but eeked out a 3rd place in their November 9 special. Thanks for the T$109 bonus and about 3x more cash than my first in the Blogger game a couple weeks ago. Tonight I came in second in the Blogger game adding to my pile of T$ which should be enough to cover the rest of the Blogger Tourney.
I had a 2-1 chip advantage heads up and it seemed as if Salex77 wanted to flip for it early on. Call it aggression or short stack strategy, I prefer small pot poker heads up with small blinds and eventually shifted the game to what I liked. It took about 30 minutes for me to chip him down to 20k and a 4-1 advantage for me. We were heads up for quite a while, at least 3 levels. The two important hands where we got it all in preflop were both Asian Jews (CK would be proud!). AJ vs T9 and he doubles up gaining a slight chip advantage. With the stacks about even we get it all in preflop AJ vs AT and a Jacob on the turn gives him a straight. Good game Salex!
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
If you were a superhero, what would your special power be?
Mine would be getting knocked out first in home games that I should crush. Tonight was the HPT live game hosted by a good friend of mine. 20 players, 2 tables and for the third time in a row I go out as the gigli. I don't know (or really care) how any of the action went after being exiled to the side game. Always a bridesmaid Byron came in second, and I believe PokahDave came in fourth - a nice showing for the Boston Bloggers.
In any group of friends there is always someone who stirs the pot. Much like Manny being Manny, Wonka was being Wonka. The quote of the night comes from Air Force Steve when he said to Wonka:
"If you were a superhero, agitation would be your special power..."
Byron and Dave did nearly talk me into making the trip to Vegas in December. I'll check my bankroll and might just see everyone this year.
In any group of friends there is always someone who stirs the pot. Much like Manny being Manny, Wonka was being Wonka. The quote of the night comes from Air Force Steve when he said to Wonka:
"If you were a superhero, agitation would be your special power..."
Byron and Dave did nearly talk me into making the trip to Vegas in December. I'll check my bankroll and might just see everyone this year.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
HPT Practice
Tonight is the first HPT live event in several months. The host called me earlier this week and asked if I was up for a little pre-HPT practice at Mohegan Sun for the 7:30pm nightly tourney on Thursday. My rubber arm twists very easily and 4 of us made the drive down. I arrived early, planning on playing a few hours of cash games before the tourney started.
I have my choice of several open tables and scout for familiar faces. Several tables are stacked with regulars and players I know, and one table appears to be touristy. There are no big stacks, and I take the first pot with air on a 3 flushed and paired board. There is a shorty across the table that reloads a hundo at a time until he finally decides the drinks are not really free if he is losing. I lose a big pot with AK when an older gentleman calls me down with A2 and catches a deuce on the river. I lose another pot to him with 99 vs his 88, again he called me down to the river with AJT on the flop and catches an 8. He didnt even bet his set when I checked to him on the river. The nice woman to my left gets stacked for 300 when her set of 8s runs into a younger guys set of 5s and he rivers quads. I overplay JJ from the straddle and lose a large pot to AK, leaving me stuck 200. My friends show up in time to rescue me from donkey tilt and we head over to the tourney tables. Wonka has an emergency at home and has to borrow my car.
There are 3 plays where I was favored by the poker gods, which could have crippled me or sent me to the rail. At my first table I raise from MP with 99 instead of making it 325 to go, I drop a 500 chip by accident and try to catch my mistake. I said 325 but dropped 825 but I don't bother arguing. The shortstack says all-in for 3K and I think about it for a minute. I decide that it is either a conflip or a small pair and make the call. He has TT vs my 99, but a 9 on the flop sends him home.
At my 3rd table I raise with a sooted A9 and my friend in the SB goes all in. I have him covered and we would basically just swap stacks if I lose. Getting 3-1 I make the call and he flips KQ suited. He spikes a Queen on the flop but I catch a backdoor flush and my friend has to wait chauffeer me home.
Again at the 3rd table I raise with a crappy sooted Ace-poop and get re-raised all in. At this point in the game there are 2 tables left and I need to chip up. Only 9 places pay, and I am not playing for 9th place. I make a very bad decision vs a tight good player and run into Kings. I knew she had me crushed but called like the donkey that I am anyway. An Ace on the flop double me up and cripples her. She manages to rebuild and makes the final table.
At the final table there are 3 big stacks and the rest are short or average. It doesnt take long before the chips are flying and there are several multi-way all-ins. When the dust settles it is me against the woman I sucked out on and she has the lead. We play heads up for about 40 minutes, at one point I was down 5-1. Once the stacks evened out she agreed to chop, which I was happy to take. It was 1:30am and my two friends had been waiting for a couple hours.
See everyone at the HPT tonight!
I have my choice of several open tables and scout for familiar faces. Several tables are stacked with regulars and players I know, and one table appears to be touristy. There are no big stacks, and I take the first pot with air on a 3 flushed and paired board. There is a shorty across the table that reloads a hundo at a time until he finally decides the drinks are not really free if he is losing. I lose a big pot with AK when an older gentleman calls me down with A2 and catches a deuce on the river. I lose another pot to him with 99 vs his 88, again he called me down to the river with AJT on the flop and catches an 8. He didnt even bet his set when I checked to him on the river. The nice woman to my left gets stacked for 300 when her set of 8s runs into a younger guys set of 5s and he rivers quads. I overplay JJ from the straddle and lose a large pot to AK, leaving me stuck 200. My friends show up in time to rescue me from donkey tilt and we head over to the tourney tables. Wonka has an emergency at home and has to borrow my car.
There are 3 plays where I was favored by the poker gods, which could have crippled me or sent me to the rail. At my first table I raise from MP with 99 instead of making it 325 to go, I drop a 500 chip by accident and try to catch my mistake. I said 325 but dropped 825 but I don't bother arguing. The shortstack says all-in for 3K and I think about it for a minute. I decide that it is either a conflip or a small pair and make the call. He has TT vs my 99, but a 9 on the flop sends him home.
At my 3rd table I raise with a sooted A9 and my friend in the SB goes all in. I have him covered and we would basically just swap stacks if I lose. Getting 3-1 I make the call and he flips KQ suited. He spikes a Queen on the flop but I catch a backdoor flush and my friend has to wait chauffeer me home.
Again at the 3rd table I raise with a crappy sooted Ace-poop and get re-raised all in. At this point in the game there are 2 tables left and I need to chip up. Only 9 places pay, and I am not playing for 9th place. I make a very bad decision vs a tight good player and run into Kings. I knew she had me crushed but called like the donkey that I am anyway. An Ace on the flop double me up and cripples her. She manages to rebuild and makes the final table.
At the final table there are 3 big stacks and the rest are short or average. It doesnt take long before the chips are flying and there are several multi-way all-ins. When the dust settles it is me against the woman I sucked out on and she has the lead. We play heads up for about 40 minutes, at one point I was down 5-1. Once the stacks evened out she agreed to chop, which I was happy to take. It was 1:30am and my two friends had been waiting for a couple hours.
See everyone at the HPT tonight!
Friday, October 31, 2008
Bodog Blogger Tournament
Yay, I actually won one of these things. Last season I squeeked into the top 10 with a plethora of final table appearances and a few cashes. Tuesday night I donked out with the hammer far from the points. Good game to Chad, Riggs, and whomever the other guy was that insta-called with King high.
The Bodog Blogger Tournament is every Tuesday and Thursday night at 9:05pm EST, you need to pre-register on their website in order to get into the tournament.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
I Love Mohegan Sun
Did I mention how much I like the new Poker Room at Mohegan Sun? Probably not since my posting (and playing) has been somewhat erratic as of late.
Life is good. I am finally coming to terms with my post deployment woes. I no longer drive down the street and worry that the side of the road will explode. Aggressive drivers no longer make me look to my gunner for defense. Loud noises (such as fireworks) still set me off, but fortunately the 4th of July is 9 months away. It sucks that my favorite holiday is difficult to endure.
During my first few weeks in Iraq I rarely slept. The concussion of an incoming mortar or rocket attack will keep any normal person awake for hours. After a while you get used to it, and unless it is close, you can practically sleep through it. I can remember my first combat patrol thinking what the fuck did I get myself into? The city streets look like you took the town dump and spread it around. Small fires of burning trash are everywhere. People are going on with their lives.
When most people think of Abu Ghraib the prison is the first thing that comes to mind. For me it is the surrounding area, a western suburb of Baghdad that I covered. After a few weeks, you get used to it, and re-program to deal with daily events in a combat zone. You begin to learn where the worst areas are and take measures to mitigate. You establish rapport with the local populace and begin to become effective. You can read your mens minds and they can read yours. Then it becomes an everlasting groundhog day. Drive around, talk to the Iraqis and then come back and prepare to do it again. Sometimes it is weeks without any action, then suddenly there is more than you could want.
Finally after a year in country and 19 months on active duty I get home safe. All my fingers and toes. I party like a rock star. The simple things that we take for granted in America mean so much more after a tour at war. It has been over a year now and I still feel out of touch. Poker is my adrenaline rush.
Not sure why all that came out, but it is all typed up so I might as well post it. Back to the topic...
Yesterday I made the trip to the newly opened Mohegan Sun Poker Room. This was probably my 6th or 7th trip since it opened. The room is nice, with easy access to the valet entrance. They have comfortable adjustable chairs which remind me of the Venetian. The tables are poorly designed, no drink holders and a very small chip well. The staff says the wrong tables were delivered and new ones have been ordered. I hope they have the extra-large cup holder like the Venetian. There are plenty of television monitors to watch the game. Go Sox!
Many of the dealers are still new and inexperienced, but in time they will be fine. The dealers keep their own tips and the good ones seemed to have bigger piggy banks than the bad ones. The 1/2 tables are raked which is a nice change from the $5 per half hour time charge. I don't see a noticible difference in play between Foxwoods and Mohegan games.
I bought in for $200 about 6pm and stayed until the table broke at 2am. I sat in the 9-hole between two friends who were nice enough to school me on who could play and who couldnt. We had a good time taking pretty much everyones money for several hours. A nice little old lady dropped $1200 in $200 increments, paying off every flush and straight with marginal hands like KJ and second pair. A woman in the 1 seat had come to the table with a rack full a white chips. This is 1/2 NL, why not use the dollar chips? She called everything and caught building up to nearly $1k. Any bare Ace, Face or piece of the flop and she was in it until the end. All sick runs must come to an end, and eventually she gave it all away one pot at a time. The kid to my right went from $73 to about $800 mostly from the little old lady. The kid to my left doubled up three times in a row to build up to $650 or so. They rack up together about $1500 and new blood comes to the table.
I played my normal game, suited connectors and small pairs raising in position. Limping out of position and making bleeding calls when 8 players test the waters. I slow played a couple big pairs KK and QQ, once for a nice win and once for a sizeable loss. My over pair vs top pair vs bottom pair vs flush draw. Bottom pair boated and I saved my stack by getting out.
I ran several nice bluffs against a guy who was identifed early on as easily out-playable. To his credit he got away from vulnerable hands vs my check raises and scare card bluffs. Most of the other players would have called me down not knowing where they were in the hand.
New Right-guy and I have been friendly and staying out of each others way for the most part. The problem is he was on my right and taking my plays away before I had a chance to make them. He was culling the low hanging fruit before I was able to harvest it. He did show me some serious respect laying down pocket Kings when I raised on a double-gutter. He showed his KK so I showed him my 45 on an A37 board. He said that was a ballsy raise with nothing and I tell him if you can't raise on a draw then poker is not the game for you.
My biggest pot of the night came near the end of my session. I raise with QQ from mid position dropping 4 reds and saying I only meant to bet $15 but the extra $5 should stay in the pot. Four players come along for the ride. The flop is Q67 with 2 hearts. Check to me and I bet out $40 hoping someone has a Queen. Player on my left calls (he has a flush draw), one player drops and the player on my right check raises another $100 on top. There is $320 in the pot at this point.
Right-guy goes out of his way to tell me that he is strong, thinking he is doing me a favor and he is ahead. I announce raise, toss 4 greens in to cover his raise and count out my remaining $280. He says he thought we were being friendly and I say we were until you check raised me. I slide my stack across the line and he begins to tank. $700 in the pot now. The flush draw guy on my left wants to come along but changes his mind even though he has less than $100 remaining. Right guy has about $1100 behind and decides to call with Q6, top and bottom pair.
The turn pairs the 6 giving him Sixes full of Queens and me Queens full of Sixes. The river is the 4h, flushdraw guy would have got there and lost. A $1000 pot on a 1/2 table. I Love Mohegan Sun.
Life is good. I am finally coming to terms with my post deployment woes. I no longer drive down the street and worry that the side of the road will explode. Aggressive drivers no longer make me look to my gunner for defense. Loud noises (such as fireworks) still set me off, but fortunately the 4th of July is 9 months away. It sucks that my favorite holiday is difficult to endure.
During my first few weeks in Iraq I rarely slept. The concussion of an incoming mortar or rocket attack will keep any normal person awake for hours. After a while you get used to it, and unless it is close, you can practically sleep through it. I can remember my first combat patrol thinking what the fuck did I get myself into? The city streets look like you took the town dump and spread it around. Small fires of burning trash are everywhere. People are going on with their lives.
When most people think of Abu Ghraib the prison is the first thing that comes to mind. For me it is the surrounding area, a western suburb of Baghdad that I covered. After a few weeks, you get used to it, and re-program to deal with daily events in a combat zone. You begin to learn where the worst areas are and take measures to mitigate. You establish rapport with the local populace and begin to become effective. You can read your mens minds and they can read yours. Then it becomes an everlasting groundhog day. Drive around, talk to the Iraqis and then come back and prepare to do it again. Sometimes it is weeks without any action, then suddenly there is more than you could want.
Finally after a year in country and 19 months on active duty I get home safe. All my fingers and toes. I party like a rock star. The simple things that we take for granted in America mean so much more after a tour at war. It has been over a year now and I still feel out of touch. Poker is my adrenaline rush.
Not sure why all that came out, but it is all typed up so I might as well post it. Back to the topic...
Yesterday I made the trip to the newly opened Mohegan Sun Poker Room. This was probably my 6th or 7th trip since it opened. The room is nice, with easy access to the valet entrance. They have comfortable adjustable chairs which remind me of the Venetian. The tables are poorly designed, no drink holders and a very small chip well. The staff says the wrong tables were delivered and new ones have been ordered. I hope they have the extra-large cup holder like the Venetian. There are plenty of television monitors to watch the game. Go Sox!
Many of the dealers are still new and inexperienced, but in time they will be fine. The dealers keep their own tips and the good ones seemed to have bigger piggy banks than the bad ones. The 1/2 tables are raked which is a nice change from the $5 per half hour time charge. I don't see a noticible difference in play between Foxwoods and Mohegan games.
I bought in for $200 about 6pm and stayed until the table broke at 2am. I sat in the 9-hole between two friends who were nice enough to school me on who could play and who couldnt. We had a good time taking pretty much everyones money for several hours. A nice little old lady dropped $1200 in $200 increments, paying off every flush and straight with marginal hands like KJ and second pair. A woman in the 1 seat had come to the table with a rack full a white chips. This is 1/2 NL, why not use the dollar chips? She called everything and caught building up to nearly $1k. Any bare Ace, Face or piece of the flop and she was in it until the end. All sick runs must come to an end, and eventually she gave it all away one pot at a time. The kid to my right went from $73 to about $800 mostly from the little old lady. The kid to my left doubled up three times in a row to build up to $650 or so. They rack up together about $1500 and new blood comes to the table.
I played my normal game, suited connectors and small pairs raising in position. Limping out of position and making bleeding calls when 8 players test the waters. I slow played a couple big pairs KK and QQ, once for a nice win and once for a sizeable loss. My over pair vs top pair vs bottom pair vs flush draw. Bottom pair boated and I saved my stack by getting out.
I ran several nice bluffs against a guy who was identifed early on as easily out-playable. To his credit he got away from vulnerable hands vs my check raises and scare card bluffs. Most of the other players would have called me down not knowing where they were in the hand.
New Right-guy and I have been friendly and staying out of each others way for the most part. The problem is he was on my right and taking my plays away before I had a chance to make them. He was culling the low hanging fruit before I was able to harvest it. He did show me some serious respect laying down pocket Kings when I raised on a double-gutter. He showed his KK so I showed him my 45 on an A37 board. He said that was a ballsy raise with nothing and I tell him if you can't raise on a draw then poker is not the game for you.
My biggest pot of the night came near the end of my session. I raise with QQ from mid position dropping 4 reds and saying I only meant to bet $15 but the extra $5 should stay in the pot. Four players come along for the ride. The flop is Q67 with 2 hearts. Check to me and I bet out $40 hoping someone has a Queen. Player on my left calls (he has a flush draw), one player drops and the player on my right check raises another $100 on top. There is $320 in the pot at this point.
Right-guy goes out of his way to tell me that he is strong, thinking he is doing me a favor and he is ahead. I announce raise, toss 4 greens in to cover his raise and count out my remaining $280. He says he thought we were being friendly and I say we were until you check raised me. I slide my stack across the line and he begins to tank. $700 in the pot now. The flush draw guy on my left wants to come along but changes his mind even though he has less than $100 remaining. Right guy has about $1100 behind and decides to call with Q6, top and bottom pair.
The turn pairs the 6 giving him Sixes full of Queens and me Queens full of Sixes. The river is the 4h, flushdraw guy would have got there and lost. A $1000 pot on a 1/2 table. I Love Mohegan Sun.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Bodog Royal Flush Bonus
I mentioned in my last post that I hit a Royal in a 1/2 cash game on Bodog. Smokkee was kind enough to reply that Bodog is paying a bonus (50xBB) whenever a player hits a Royal! Aside from the medium pot I won, Bodog sent me an extra hundo. All I had to do was sort through the hand history (albeit a daunting task) and send it to them.
http://www.bodoglife.com/bonuses/royal-flush-bonus.jsp
Thanks for the reminder Smokkee!
http://www.bodoglife.com/bonuses/royal-flush-bonus.jsp
Thanks for the reminder Smokkee!
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Lack of Posts = Lack of Play
While I have never been an every day poster like many in the poker blogger realm, my writing activity has been seriously delinquent for several months now. What is that matter you ask? I have not been playing anywhere close to what I was last summer and fall. Lately my play has been curtailed to maybe a single cash game while watching TV, or perhaps a small buyin or blogger tournament. I still make several trips to Foxwoods each month, but much like my online play, not nearly the frequency that I had been playing.
I played some 1/2 on Bodog tonight, MiamiDon was at the same table for several hours. Early on I hit a Royal with QJd in the SB for a medium sized pot. I think that is my 4th Royal this past year. That stack eventually slide across the table when I overplayed a small pair vs someone who slow played pocket Kings. Net result down a buyin and a half after a few hours.
My live play has been mediocre. Home games have been slow this summer, and the competition seems to have gotten better. Foxwoods seems to have turned a bit for me, I had been getting shelled for a while but have had some solid sessions my past few trips. I am looking forward to Mohegan Sun re-opening their poker room at the end of the month. I expect it to be packed with Foxwoods regulars looking for a change of scenery.
I played some 1/2 on Bodog tonight, MiamiDon was at the same table for several hours. Early on I hit a Royal with QJd in the SB for a medium sized pot. I think that is my 4th Royal this past year. That stack eventually slide across the table when I overplayed a small pair vs someone who slow played pocket Kings. Net result down a buyin and a half after a few hours.
My live play has been mediocre. Home games have been slow this summer, and the competition seems to have gotten better. Foxwoods seems to have turned a bit for me, I had been getting shelled for a while but have had some solid sessions my past few trips. I am looking forward to Mohegan Sun re-opening their poker room at the end of the month. I expect it to be packed with Foxwoods regulars looking for a change of scenery.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
It has been a while
Wow. It has been 3 weeks since my last post, and since the last time I played. Yesterday morning an Army buddy called me up saying he was headed to Foxwoods, and I immediately roll out the door. When I arrive JB is already seated, at what appears to be a friendly, loud, tourist laden table, half the table has less than 100 in front of them, yay $60 minimum buy-ins. There is no list for 1/2 NL, and after a quick recon of the room I take an empty seat at the next table over with a few regulars and some deeper stacks. I am right behind my friend which is nice, we can talk in between hands and not have to play against one another.
Seat 1 is old-old-regular-guy sitting on 1k, Seat 2 is bald-glasses-guy with about 800, seat 3 is crazy-asian-old-guy with about 250 (isn't there always a crazy asian guy?). Seat 4 is young-regular-kid with about 800, seat 5 is a regular with about 1200, seat 6 is a player from New Hampshire with 300, seat 7 is the cursed chair with a steady stream of play a hundo, lose it, reload and then lose it and leave players. Seat 8 is a 2/5 regular who says he is grinding back after getting stuck 1800, but he is sitting on about 1k, I am in seat 9 with 200 (shorty), and seat 10 is New Hampshire player #2 with 300.
Early on I get into it with the big stack old guy with top top + nut flush draw on an ace-high all club board. He calls me down with A5o - no clubs, my flush doesn't hit, he spikes a 5 on the river and my AK is no good. I add a hundo to bring me back to 200. For a while nobody can play since there is a lot of action at the other end of the table, seats 1,2,3 and 4 are trading big pots back and forth with crazy asian building up to about 1200. Seat 4 changes out to a new regular kid with about 300, and with the exception of seat 7 the table remains the same for about 5 hours. I build up to 300 or so and then get stacked with 57s. The board was 7c4s3s. Top pair, gutshot and baby flush draw, I lead out for about 35 on the flop with 2 callers. A 6h on the turn completes my straight and half my stack goes into the pot. Again 2 callers, the river completes my flush and it is set vs flush vs bigger flush. Change 300.
The table dynamics finally change with several of the bigger stacks racking up and leaving. New regulars take the empty seats and I consider calling it a day and licking my wounds, or changing tables. I take a break and look at the 4/8 Omaha Hi/Lo Kill game but it is the same 10 people that are always at that game. My Army buddy has to go, and I (being the degenerate that I am) decide to stick around out for a few more hours.
With new blood at the table, I earn several decent pots with scare-card re-raises and aggressive play. Since I can't possibly be catching that many big hands I get paid off when I do actually have a hand. New young aggro-dork sits down to my right and gets stacked twice within 20 minutes. He has been making it 20 to go with nothing in the pot with craptastic hands like KTo. I make the call with 88 as does my regular friend W across the table. J82 rainbow on the flop, aggro-dork bets 30 which I call and so does my regular friend. Ace on the turn is my money card, W bets out 30, kid calls and I put 100 on top. W calls leaving about 100 behind, and the kid folds. The river is a Q with the board J82AQ, W puts the rest in and I of course call. He has A8s for 2 pair on the turn and I take a nice pot. The kid would have hit his gutshot.
I manage to get away from QQ pre flop on the cheap. Seat 6 limps UTG (it is as common for everyone to limp as it is for everyone to call 15 at this table). Agrro-dork goes all in for 37, new guy to my right calls 37 leaving about 65 behind. I was going to raise to put them both all in, but decide to call the 37 and it folds around to seat 6 who puts 100 on top. New guy puts the rest in and I consider my options for a minute or so. I have been playing with him for about 9 hours now, and his stack has gone from 150 to 1400 and now is back down to about 400. Since I am nearing the end of my session, finally unstuck and in the profit zone I decide that now is not the time to stack off against someone who can hurt me. My QQ hits the muck and seat 6 flips AA (of course). Seat 6 later says that he was initially going to raise, but he noticed aggro-dork moving his chips in so he limped instead.
Final tally, +180 after being stuck 500 early on. It could have been worse.
Seat 1 is old-old-regular-guy sitting on 1k, Seat 2 is bald-glasses-guy with about 800, seat 3 is crazy-asian-old-guy with about 250 (isn't there always a crazy asian guy?). Seat 4 is young-regular-kid with about 800, seat 5 is a regular with about 1200, seat 6 is a player from New Hampshire with 300, seat 7 is the cursed chair with a steady stream of play a hundo, lose it, reload and then lose it and leave players. Seat 8 is a 2/5 regular who says he is grinding back after getting stuck 1800, but he is sitting on about 1k, I am in seat 9 with 200 (shorty), and seat 10 is New Hampshire player #2 with 300.
Early on I get into it with the big stack old guy with top top + nut flush draw on an ace-high all club board. He calls me down with A5o - no clubs, my flush doesn't hit, he spikes a 5 on the river and my AK is no good. I add a hundo to bring me back to 200. For a while nobody can play since there is a lot of action at the other end of the table, seats 1,2,3 and 4 are trading big pots back and forth with crazy asian building up to about 1200. Seat 4 changes out to a new regular kid with about 300, and with the exception of seat 7 the table remains the same for about 5 hours. I build up to 300 or so and then get stacked with 57s. The board was 7c4s3s. Top pair, gutshot and baby flush draw, I lead out for about 35 on the flop with 2 callers. A 6h on the turn completes my straight and half my stack goes into the pot. Again 2 callers, the river completes my flush and it is set vs flush vs bigger flush. Change 300.
The table dynamics finally change with several of the bigger stacks racking up and leaving. New regulars take the empty seats and I consider calling it a day and licking my wounds, or changing tables. I take a break and look at the 4/8 Omaha Hi/Lo Kill game but it is the same 10 people that are always at that game. My Army buddy has to go, and I (being the degenerate that I am) decide to stick around out for a few more hours.
With new blood at the table, I earn several decent pots with scare-card re-raises and aggressive play. Since I can't possibly be catching that many big hands I get paid off when I do actually have a hand. New young aggro-dork sits down to my right and gets stacked twice within 20 minutes. He has been making it 20 to go with nothing in the pot with craptastic hands like KTo. I make the call with 88 as does my regular friend W across the table. J82 rainbow on the flop, aggro-dork bets 30 which I call and so does my regular friend. Ace on the turn is my money card, W bets out 30, kid calls and I put 100 on top. W calls leaving about 100 behind, and the kid folds. The river is a Q with the board J82AQ, W puts the rest in and I of course call. He has A8s for 2 pair on the turn and I take a nice pot. The kid would have hit his gutshot.
I manage to get away from QQ pre flop on the cheap. Seat 6 limps UTG (it is as common for everyone to limp as it is for everyone to call 15 at this table). Agrro-dork goes all in for 37, new guy to my right calls 37 leaving about 65 behind. I was going to raise to put them both all in, but decide to call the 37 and it folds around to seat 6 who puts 100 on top. New guy puts the rest in and I consider my options for a minute or so. I have been playing with him for about 9 hours now, and his stack has gone from 150 to 1400 and now is back down to about 400. Since I am nearing the end of my session, finally unstuck and in the profit zone I decide that now is not the time to stack off against someone who can hurt me. My QQ hits the muck and seat 6 flips AA (of course). Seat 6 later says that he was initially going to raise, but he noticed aggro-dork moving his chips in so he limped instead.
Final tally, +180 after being stuck 500 early on. It could have been worse.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Hammer is Good!
This morning I have a strange urge to play some SnGs on Full Tilt. I generally don't play many SnGs, and most of my play has been at Bodog for the past few months. At 9AM most of the players at my tables are Europeans. Some of the play makes me want to vomit.
At one of my tables I decide to punish the plethora of limpers by raising pot from the button with AKs. Late position frenchy-limper decides to call. K82 on the flop, frenchy checks I bet pot and he calls. The turn gives me a flushdraw to go along with my top-top, I bet about 3/4 of the pot and frenchy calls. The river is a seemingly blank 7, frenchy decides to bet out half the pot. I of course make the call and lose the pot. He then typed "Hammer is good!" into the chat box, which I thought was quite amusing. The Hammer is a raising hand, not a limp-call, check-calling hand.
At one of my tables I decide to punish the plethora of limpers by raising pot from the button with AKs. Late position frenchy-limper decides to call. K82 on the flop, frenchy checks I bet pot and he calls. The turn gives me a flushdraw to go along with my top-top, I bet about 3/4 of the pot and frenchy calls. The river is a seemingly blank 7, frenchy decides to bet out half the pot. I of course make the call and lose the pot. He then typed "Hammer is good!" into the chat box, which I thought was quite amusing. The Hammer is a raising hand, not a limp-call, check-calling hand.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Maniac at Foxwoods
For the past 3 weeks, Wonka and I have been making the trek down to Foxwoods on Wednesday night and playing until the sun comes up. I have been either running bad, playing bad, or I just plain suck at poker for a couple months now. Variance is a bitch. Finally this week I was able to book a nice win.
I have taken up buying in short early in my session, then topping off to full after a while if I like the table. I do it as somewhat of a stop-loss measure as well as a way of getting used to everyone at the table. Early on I call the standard $10 opening raise that is seen 7 ways with 67c. A pair and a flush draw, turn 2 pair, and get rivered by a larger 2 pair. Down half of a half a buyin, but I like the table so I reload to full.
Wonka manages to get stacked with the ass end of a straight flush and moves over to my table. I tell him that there is nothing he can do about that, he had the nut flush and the guy caught a one-outer that gave them both straight flushes. You cant get away from a straight flush. He catches a set vs my over pair and turns quads against me. Thats ok, he payed my quads off last week when the board was boated.
Later in the session a full fledged maniac sits down and proceeds to double up just about everyone at the table. He buys $500 in chips and puts $200 in the drink holder so he can top off as needed. This guy doesn't see any hole cards that he doesn't like, and fires double barrels on every street regardless of position or if he connected with the board. I turn a King high flush and he calls my all in drawing with a Queen. Double up number one. A few hands later I flop the nut flush and he moves all in when I check to him. Double up number two. Then in a 3 way pot I flop Broadway + Flush draw and gutshot Royal draw for double up number three. He played nearly every hand, always for a big pot if he could manage to get his chips in the middle. By the end of the night the guy had about $4000 of his money spread around a 1/2 table. I think we had the well re-filled 3 times because of him.
I have taken up buying in short early in my session, then topping off to full after a while if I like the table. I do it as somewhat of a stop-loss measure as well as a way of getting used to everyone at the table. Early on I call the standard $10 opening raise that is seen 7 ways with 67c. A pair and a flush draw, turn 2 pair, and get rivered by a larger 2 pair. Down half of a half a buyin, but I like the table so I reload to full.
Wonka manages to get stacked with the ass end of a straight flush and moves over to my table. I tell him that there is nothing he can do about that, he had the nut flush and the guy caught a one-outer that gave them both straight flushes. You cant get away from a straight flush. He catches a set vs my over pair and turns quads against me. Thats ok, he payed my quads off last week when the board was boated.
Later in the session a full fledged maniac sits down and proceeds to double up just about everyone at the table. He buys $500 in chips and puts $200 in the drink holder so he can top off as needed. This guy doesn't see any hole cards that he doesn't like, and fires double barrels on every street regardless of position or if he connected with the board. I turn a King high flush and he calls my all in drawing with a Queen. Double up number one. A few hands later I flop the nut flush and he moves all in when I check to him. Double up number two. Then in a 3 way pot I flop Broadway + Flush draw and gutshot Royal draw for double up number three. He played nearly every hand, always for a big pot if he could manage to get his chips in the middle. By the end of the night the guy had about $4000 of his money spread around a 1/2 table. I think we had the well re-filled 3 times because of him.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Foxwoods with Wonka
Yesterday afternoon as I was settling into my evening session on Bodog, Wonka called saying he had that Foxwoods feeling. My rubber arm was easily twisted and 20 minutes later we were on the road. There is open seating at about 15 1/2 NL tables when we arrive so I walk around observing tables seeing who was there and pick a table with a 1400 stack. I decide that I am going to play a short stack game and buy in for $150. Within 25 minutes I get felted twice. Both with KK, once to a flopped set, and once to someone who flat called a 3 bet of $40 with T8o and flopped top two. Ouch.
I move over to Wonkas table and take a seat in the 10 seat promptly banging my knee on the drop box, he is in the 6 seat. We begin a ten hour all night odyssey grinding it out and patiently waiting for the right spots. My stack fluctuates, but I average 300 on the table while being stuck 400.
Late night I 3-bet with the hammer twice and take down nice pots with c-bets on the flop and show both times. In a limped pot with Q6h from the BB, the flop is 566 and I lead out for $10 hoping my hammer credit earns me some action. Two callers see the turn which brings a very nice Queen to fill me up. I check and one player bets out for $25 while the other player folds. I bump it to $75 and get called. The river is a blank, and the other plays says "I thought we were friends, you can check." I tell him we are friends but not that good of friends and I don't think I can check. He calls my value bet of $100 showing 67d and I am finally unstuck for the first time of the night. The sun is up and we decide to leave at the next dealer change over.
I move over to Wonkas table and take a seat in the 10 seat promptly banging my knee on the drop box, he is in the 6 seat. We begin a ten hour all night odyssey grinding it out and patiently waiting for the right spots. My stack fluctuates, but I average 300 on the table while being stuck 400.
Late night I 3-bet with the hammer twice and take down nice pots with c-bets on the flop and show both times. In a limped pot with Q6h from the BB, the flop is 566 and I lead out for $10 hoping my hammer credit earns me some action. Two callers see the turn which brings a very nice Queen to fill me up. I check and one player bets out for $25 while the other player folds. I bump it to $75 and get called. The river is a blank, and the other plays says "I thought we were friends, you can check." I tell him we are friends but not that good of friends and I don't think I can check. He calls my value bet of $100 showing 67d and I am finally unstuck for the first time of the night. The sun is up and we decide to leave at the next dealer change over.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Bodog TOC
Well, I finished the Bodog Blogger Tournament finals in the same position that I finished most of the tournament the past few weeks. Out in 5th place. My dreams of winning a 1 in 18 shot at a WSOP package were crushed, and I settled for the T$109.
Early on I was hit with the deck, at one point I had QQ, AK, AK, TT, AJ all in a row. My card rackery probably gave me an over aggressive image to the point where a couple players began to look me up. KK vs Ace-rag and I double up Drizz when his low card hits runner runner straight. That was the first gross suck out of the evening. I recover when my AK beats AQ and I am back in good shape heading to the final table.
At the final table short stack Drizz limps from EP with AA, and I check my blind with 78s. 782 rainbow is the flop, which I check and he bets out half the pot. I check raise and he jams, of course the board pairs deuces and again I double him up. Dirty hand number two. Scottmc is short and jams from the the small blind with K5o. I call with 77 and he catches runner runner straight. Ugly suckout #3. I cant blame him, he was short to the point where he was pushing ATC.
I would like to say a big thank you to Bodog, Nadia and $mokkee for hosting the event. Please host another one soon. Congratulations to GoldenHammer who took it down.
Early on I was hit with the deck, at one point I had QQ, AK, AK, TT, AJ all in a row. My card rackery probably gave me an over aggressive image to the point where a couple players began to look me up. KK vs Ace-rag and I double up Drizz when his low card hits runner runner straight. That was the first gross suck out of the evening. I recover when my AK beats AQ and I am back in good shape heading to the final table.
At the final table short stack Drizz limps from EP with AA, and I check my blind with 78s. 782 rainbow is the flop, which I check and he bets out half the pot. I check raise and he jams, of course the board pairs deuces and again I double him up. Dirty hand number two. Scottmc is short and jams from the the small blind with K5o. I call with 77 and he catches runner runner straight. Ugly suckout #3. I cant blame him, he was short to the point where he was pushing ATC.
I would like to say a big thank you to Bodog, Nadia and $mokkee for hosting the event. Please host another one soon. Congratulations to GoldenHammer who took it down.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Snippet from Foxwoods
This is 1/2 donkery at it's finest. A new player sits down on my right, plays a couple hands and whispers to me that he caught the crazy Asian guy across the tables tell. I humor him and ask what it is and he says that he makes an open C with his thumb and index finger when he is bluffing and it is a closed circle when he has a hand. Hmmm, someone must have just watched Rounders. I tell him thanks for the information and continue with my game. The man is friendly, but he has this extremely annoying habit of singing along with his Ipod. If he were not such a frequent re-loader I would have changed seats due to his annoying sing along habit. Maybe Karaoke-Poker exists in some casinos, but I don't plan on playing there.
About two hours into the session, he limps from MP and calls the standard 10 dollar raise. The flop is A-2-3 with 2 diamonds. Check around to the initial raiser who bets 15, crazy Asian makes it 30 to go, and the singer/tell-spotter raises to 80 leaving about 160 behind. Original raiser flat calls the 80 and the crazy Asian goes all in for about 300 total. Singer/tell-spotter guy tanks really hard, and appears to be counting outs or odds or maybe he is just babbling. He shows me his cards, 45o - he has flopped the wheel. He tanks to the point where other players want to call time, I think he must be acting since he flopped the nuts, but then he proceeds to muck his hand. Original raiser calls the 300 and shows AKo (of course), and crazy Asian has A5o - neither man has a diamond. AKo wins, the flopped wheel would have held up and I asked him why on earth did he he fold his hand? He replied that it was his last 160 and he was afraid of the flush draw. WTF? Why play 45o and not get your chips in the middle when you flop a straight?
About two hours into the session, he limps from MP and calls the standard 10 dollar raise. The flop is A-2-3 with 2 diamonds. Check around to the initial raiser who bets 15, crazy Asian makes it 30 to go, and the singer/tell-spotter raises to 80 leaving about 160 behind. Original raiser flat calls the 80 and the crazy Asian goes all in for about 300 total. Singer/tell-spotter guy tanks really hard, and appears to be counting outs or odds or maybe he is just babbling. He shows me his cards, 45o - he has flopped the wheel. He tanks to the point where other players want to call time, I think he must be acting since he flopped the nuts, but then he proceeds to muck his hand. Original raiser calls the 300 and shows AKo (of course), and crazy Asian has A5o - neither man has a diamond. AKo wins, the flopped wheel would have held up and I asked him why on earth did he he fold his hand? He replied that it was his last 160 and he was afraid of the flush draw. WTF? Why play 45o and not get your chips in the middle when you flop a straight?
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Vegas Trip Report
This is long over due ...
Tuesday Day 1 - I have an early morning flight out of Hartford, and need to be at my friends house 0500. That means being up at 3am getting ready and an hour drive. I elect not to sleep and play cash games on Bodog all night long. I can generally sleep on airplanes, but United managed to put my fat ass next to someone that makes me look skinny. No sleep for me. ScottyDawg and I land about noon Vegas time, and are expecting the limo driver to be waiting at the bottom of the escalator with our names on a sign. All the other limo drivers are there holding signs, but ours decides not to show up. We call the limo company and are put into what seems like an endless hold loop and finally 45 minutes later get a human that apologizes and sets us up with the next available car. The entire point of arranging for a car in advance is to avoid the 45 minute queue at the cab stand. Oh well, at least we did not have to take a van.
After checking we head to the strip to get a late lunch and then play some cards. Dawg picks the Flamingo and after a short wait we both get seated at different tables. I played here a bit last year, and it is definitely a touristy room. There were three 1/2 NL tables going and some 2/4 Limit. After a few hours I run my Aces into Queens all in pre flop (he pushed over my 4 bet) and the villain catches a Queen to stack me. Dawg is more fortunate and in less than 2 hours catches a couple sets vs over pairs and is up about 5 hundo. I am down about 2 hundo.
Dawg want to see how far his winnings will take him at the Rhino and we somehow stay for 4 hours. Needless to say his +500 poker win does not put a dent in his Rhino loss. I finally convince Dawg to leave and ship him back to the hotel while I go play at Harrahs until 8 am. After an early stacking AA vs TTT I manage to grind it out back and even make back what I lost at the Flamingo earlier.
Wednesday Day 2 - I sleep until mid afternoon when housekeeping bangs on my door. I had been working on 48 with no sleep, and need a few more hours before the next session. Based on CK's recommendation, we head over to the Venetian (Thanks for the emails CK!!!) I really am impressed by the Venetian poker room. Even though it is only 1/3 the size of Foxwoods, it really puts their room to shame. Nice comfortable adjustable chairs, extra wide drink holders. We both get seated at different tables and I begin what would eventually become a 15 hours losing session. My first table was friendly, there were a couple of good players but it was mostly tourists. I bought in short for 200 and was up to 450 a few hours later when the table broke. Dawg had enough and headed back to the hotel. He did actually have to work the next day. The new table was the beginning of my demise. My 4 bet pre flop with KK loses to a runner runner 4 flush vs a drunk tourist's A3o with the 3 catching the flush. I suppose that I got the match up that I wanted. A drunk playing A3o happened to get lucky.
The 450 that I had brought over from the broken game is now down to about 120, so I add 2 hundos and begin to grind it back - nobody complained about me being slightly over the max. I stayed even at this table and eventually in the wee hours of the morning it broke, and I moved to my 3rd table of the night. I had KK cracked 3 more times at the new table, again with top set to a flush, and twice to Ace-rag. Oh well. Jennifer Harmon walked through the room somewhere around 11am - yes I was still there. My final hand was a flopped nut flush vs bottom set that went runner runner boat. Again nothing I could do there. He thought I was drawing at the flush when I jammed over his re-raise. The final count was me being down 3 buyins, which really sucked. About 1pm I drag myself back to the hotel and take a nap until dinner time.
Thursday Day 3 - I am exhausted and pissed off about my Venetian session. Dawg wants to go out early so I am only working on about 4 hours sleep when we head out. He does not want to go back to the Venetian, saying the players were too good and would prefer a more touristy location. So I take him back to Harrahs and see some of the same players as the other night. There was only a single 1/2 game going but we are first and second on the list. There is a list of interest for 1/2 HORSE, and eventually a bunch of locals all sit. I was tempted to sit for a while, but two seats opened up and we both sat down across from each other, the table was nearly all tourists. One of the players is a regular from Foxwoods in town visiting friends. He doesnt stay too long and leaves after getting stacked. A very nice Asian girl was sitting to my right - a local. She introduced her self as Bee - as in buzz, to which I replied my name is Rob - as in steal. She was a good player and we both stayed out of each others way. I catch quad 2s from the BB and stack a guy who jammed 77. I end up cashing out +500 or so, but that did not cover my loss from the night before.
Anyway, that is my belated trip report.
Tuesday Day 1 - I have an early morning flight out of Hartford, and need to be at my friends house 0500. That means being up at 3am getting ready and an hour drive. I elect not to sleep and play cash games on Bodog all night long. I can generally sleep on airplanes, but United managed to put my fat ass next to someone that makes me look skinny. No sleep for me. ScottyDawg and I land about noon Vegas time, and are expecting the limo driver to be waiting at the bottom of the escalator with our names on a sign. All the other limo drivers are there holding signs, but ours decides not to show up. We call the limo company and are put into what seems like an endless hold loop and finally 45 minutes later get a human that apologizes and sets us up with the next available car. The entire point of arranging for a car in advance is to avoid the 45 minute queue at the cab stand. Oh well, at least we did not have to take a van.
After checking we head to the strip to get a late lunch and then play some cards. Dawg picks the Flamingo and after a short wait we both get seated at different tables. I played here a bit last year, and it is definitely a touristy room. There were three 1/2 NL tables going and some 2/4 Limit. After a few hours I run my Aces into Queens all in pre flop (he pushed over my 4 bet) and the villain catches a Queen to stack me. Dawg is more fortunate and in less than 2 hours catches a couple sets vs over pairs and is up about 5 hundo. I am down about 2 hundo.
Dawg want to see how far his winnings will take him at the Rhino and we somehow stay for 4 hours. Needless to say his +500 poker win does not put a dent in his Rhino loss. I finally convince Dawg to leave and ship him back to the hotel while I go play at Harrahs until 8 am. After an early stacking AA vs TTT I manage to grind it out back and even make back what I lost at the Flamingo earlier.
Wednesday Day 2 - I sleep until mid afternoon when housekeeping bangs on my door. I had been working on 48 with no sleep, and need a few more hours before the next session. Based on CK's recommendation, we head over to the Venetian (Thanks for the emails CK!!!) I really am impressed by the Venetian poker room. Even though it is only 1/3 the size of Foxwoods, it really puts their room to shame. Nice comfortable adjustable chairs, extra wide drink holders. We both get seated at different tables and I begin what would eventually become a 15 hours losing session. My first table was friendly, there were a couple of good players but it was mostly tourists. I bought in short for 200 and was up to 450 a few hours later when the table broke. Dawg had enough and headed back to the hotel. He did actually have to work the next day. The new table was the beginning of my demise. My 4 bet pre flop with KK loses to a runner runner 4 flush vs a drunk tourist's A3o with the 3 catching the flush. I suppose that I got the match up that I wanted. A drunk playing A3o happened to get lucky.
The 450 that I had brought over from the broken game is now down to about 120, so I add 2 hundos and begin to grind it back - nobody complained about me being slightly over the max. I stayed even at this table and eventually in the wee hours of the morning it broke, and I moved to my 3rd table of the night. I had KK cracked 3 more times at the new table, again with top set to a flush, and twice to Ace-rag. Oh well. Jennifer Harmon walked through the room somewhere around 11am - yes I was still there. My final hand was a flopped nut flush vs bottom set that went runner runner boat. Again nothing I could do there. He thought I was drawing at the flush when I jammed over his re-raise. The final count was me being down 3 buyins, which really sucked. About 1pm I drag myself back to the hotel and take a nap until dinner time.
Thursday Day 3 - I am exhausted and pissed off about my Venetian session. Dawg wants to go out early so I am only working on about 4 hours sleep when we head out. He does not want to go back to the Venetian, saying the players were too good and would prefer a more touristy location. So I take him back to Harrahs and see some of the same players as the other night. There was only a single 1/2 game going but we are first and second on the list. There is a list of interest for 1/2 HORSE, and eventually a bunch of locals all sit. I was tempted to sit for a while, but two seats opened up and we both sat down across from each other, the table was nearly all tourists. One of the players is a regular from Foxwoods in town visiting friends. He doesnt stay too long and leaves after getting stacked. A very nice Asian girl was sitting to my right - a local. She introduced her self as Bee - as in buzz, to which I replied my name is Rob - as in steal. She was a good player and we both stayed out of each others way. I catch quad 2s from the BB and stack a guy who jammed 77. I end up cashing out +500 or so, but that did not cover my loss from the night before.
Anyway, that is my belated trip report.
I love Bodog
I would feel remiss if I did not give Bodog a little pimpage. I have migrated a good portion of my cash game play over to Bodog, and have been quite happy with the results. As a low limit donkey (200NL) there is plenty of action to keep me going.
The Bodog Online Blogger Tournament is winding down, and it looks like I managed to eek out a seat to the finals in 10th place over all. That means I will have a 1 in 18 shot at the WSOP package. Well maybe. There are some very tough players in the finals. Although I am primarily a cash game player, I really liked the structure used at the Bodog Online Blogger Tournament. Nice small blinds early lets you be patient and not have to rush for chips or be short stacked at the first break. I could play my cash game style early and not burn through my stack. Although I never actually won one of the weekly events, I managed to play consistent for the past few months, making the final table week after week - much better than my performance in the BBT3 events. I certainly hope that Bodog offers another one of these events.
The Bodog Online Blogger Tournament is winding down, and it looks like I managed to eek out a seat to the finals in 10th place over all. That means I will have a 1 in 18 shot at the WSOP package. Well maybe. There are some very tough players in the finals. Although I am primarily a cash game player, I really liked the structure used at the Bodog Online Blogger Tournament. Nice small blinds early lets you be patient and not have to rush for chips or be short stacked at the first break. I could play my cash game style early and not burn through my stack. Although I never actually won one of the weekly events, I managed to play consistent for the past few months, making the final table week after week - much better than my performance in the BBT3 events. I certainly hope that Bodog offers another one of these events.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas
And some times so does your money. Trip report coming as soon as I decipher my notes.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Leaving for Vegas tomorrow!
Since I have a nearly free trip to Vegas this week, I doubt that I will be back in June when everyone else is going. My buddy Dawg has a tradeshow / convention or something work related, all I had to do is get a plan ticket. The Hilton is not my choice hotel for Vegas, but the price was right. I went on the same trip last year, which was a few days after returning home from Iraq. Dawg has been referring to Vegas as "the good desert" meaning of course that Iraq was the bad desert...
Last year I played a couple tournaments at Caesars and spread my cash games out on the strip. From what I have been told, the Venetian has a nice room and some good tournaments, I will definitely check it out this time. Any recommendations on preferred room are welcome.
Last year I played a couple tournaments at Caesars and spread my cash games out on the strip. From what I have been told, the Venetian has a nice room and some good tournaments, I will definitely check it out this time. Any recommendations on preferred room are welcome.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Sunday at Foxwoods
What started as a "field trip" for my monthly HPT game evolved into a chance meeting of a couple other bloggers. The HPT crew was mostly there for the 11am $100 tournament, some of the early birds played in the 9am $60 turbo as well. Wonka and I arrived shortly after 9am and took seats at 1/2 tables waiting for the tourney to start. Byron opted not play in the tournament and played cash all day. None of us did well in the tournament; I went out 27th and Dave went out 22nd, both short of the money - 200 entrants payed out 20 places.
After busting I sat at a 1/2 table with Wonka and CK. She and F-Train were in town for the Sox-Yankees game but the ticket holder ended up not making it so they stayed at Foxwoods. I did not get to spend much time with F-train as he was playing 10/20, but CK was 2 seats to my left so we were able to chat quite a bit. PokahDave moved to our table later, so we had 4 bloggers passing around chips.
The nice thing about the 1/2 tables at Foxwoods is so many players try to play tournament style poker in a cash game. The guy on my right was clearly trying to buy pots all night. I have a very good read on him, he claimed that he was playing "power poker" by making large bets into small pots with air, so I waited for the right moment to trap him. He bets $50 into a $6 pot, and I know he has nothing so I flat call. He bets $50 on the turn, again I flat call. $100 on the river and I call, he says "I have an Ace!" showing A8o for Ace-High, to which I reply "I have two!" showing AA. He goes on super tilt saying that I should have known my Aces were no good on that board the way he was betting, I tell him they were good because of the way he was betting.
I of course wanted to stay for another dealer or two, but everyone was leaving so I rack up and call it a day. CK and F-Train it was a pleasure to meet both of you.
After busting I sat at a 1/2 table with Wonka and CK. She and F-Train were in town for the Sox-Yankees game but the ticket holder ended up not making it so they stayed at Foxwoods. I did not get to spend much time with F-train as he was playing 10/20, but CK was 2 seats to my left so we were able to chat quite a bit. PokahDave moved to our table later, so we had 4 bloggers passing around chips.
The nice thing about the 1/2 tables at Foxwoods is so many players try to play tournament style poker in a cash game. The guy on my right was clearly trying to buy pots all night. I have a very good read on him, he claimed that he was playing "power poker" by making large bets into small pots with air, so I waited for the right moment to trap him. He bets $50 into a $6 pot, and I know he has nothing so I flat call. He bets $50 on the turn, again I flat call. $100 on the river and I call, he says "I have an Ace!" showing A8o for Ace-High, to which I reply "I have two!" showing AA. He goes on super tilt saying that I should have known my Aces were no good on that board the way he was betting, I tell him they were good because of the way he was betting.
I of course wanted to stay for another dealer or two, but everyone was leaving so I rack up and call it a day. CK and F-Train it was a pleasure to meet both of you.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Going to Vegas Baby!
A good friend of mine has a convention in Vegas next month, and offered me a free room. I went on the same trip last year, which was about a week after getting home from Iraq. I have been procrastinating at making my reservation for a couple months now, but finally took care of it this morning. May 13-16 I will be in Sin City.
Last year I played a couple tournaments at Caesars, and spread my cash games around the strip. I am open to recommendations for favored poker rooms if anyone has any.
Last year I played a couple tournaments at Caesars, and spread my cash games around the strip. I am open to recommendations for favored poker rooms if anyone has any.
Blog Spam
I have been getting an increased amount of spam posts on my blog. While annoying, I don't want to enable moderation and be forced to approve every comment. (Not that I get many comments anyway). Is everyone else getting bullshit spam comments such as this?
"Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the SPAM. I hope you enjoy. The address is http://SPAM.blogspot.com. A hug."
"Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my blog, it is about the SPAM. I hope you enjoy. The address is http://SPAM.blogspot.com. A hug."
Friday, March 21, 2008
Foxwoods with Wonka
Yesterday I was awoken by my cell ringing 3 times and not catching it quick enough. Damn you Wonka, I had finally crashed and was getting some desperately needed sleep. No message and then your phone is out of service when I call back, WTF? Anyway I call back a few hours later and we make the connection for a trip down 395 to Foxwoods later in the day. He says upfront that he wants to leave by 2am, I plan on making him stay until the sun comes up in the morning anyway since I am driving. Haha.
I get seated in the 10-hole and immediate smash my knee into the drop box, give me the seat change button please! I recognize the guy on my right, he is a regular that I have played with and talked to several times before. This is good, he has some really good reads on people and likes to talk quietly while observing the play. While waiting to post I watch a $600 pot get pushed AA vs AQ. TPTK vs the over pair. The play is surprisingly tight for a while, and I lost a stack to a set over set. My set of 5s is beat by a set of Aces. Oh well.
Wonka's table breaks and he moves over to my table. I don't mind having a friend my table, and he is seated on the far side of the table. The dynamics change when 2 Jersey guys get back from a long dinner break, 3 dealer changes. Now the action is getting bumped and re-bumped - and they are both moving their stacks in. Both of them have been stacked, re-loaded and then doubled back up with marginal hands. My regular friend decides to move across the table next to Wonka, and I take his seat to give my knees a break.
Set of Aces old guy has spewed half his stack away, and I finish him off with a turned nut flush in a 3 way pot. $15 pre flop was seen 5 ways, $60 on the flop was seen 3 ways. His all-in on the turn was flat called by the player in the middle and I decide to re-raise all in. I could have flat called, or min raised -- but I was trying to look weak and push for value at the same time. Middle guy opted not to play and I take down a nice pot. Old guy is pissed but he reloads anyway. In retrospect I should have flat called the all in, and then value bet the river.
I take a quick break at the 5th Street Cafe and use my points to buy some chowder. Jersey guy #2 make a retard raise in a very much limped pot to a whopping $5 and I repop to $27 with QQ - he calls. The flop is KTJ -- I don't really like it, but at least I am open ended. He checks, I bet $35 and he jams for about $200. WTF? I flip my Queens face up and look at him. The pin head dealer begins to deal the turn and I have to stop her saying I did not call yet. I fold my Queens and he shows me KTo.
My stack has been fluctuating, from a high of about $700 to a low of about $300, and I am stuck for about $200. A new player sits and proceeds play large pots 3-4 times with TPTK. AK, AQ, AJ, AT nonsense. His hands shake every time he bets, and I know he will eventually dump his stack with one pair.
About midnight I move over to an open seat next to Wonka, he wants to leave but I convince him to stay. A regular sits down two seats to my right and begins to punish the plethora of limpers. He got sucked out on a couple times by Mr Shaky and is on tilt. I have talked about limping with AA UTG before, but I do not like to make this play at the Foxwoods 1/2 tables. There are just so many multi-way limps that it is usually a recipe for disaster. I wake up with AA UTG and limp knowing that he is going to raise from the blind. He makes it $25 to go and I re-pop to $100. He goes all in for about $150 more and I of course make the call. He flips over A9d and I am back in the profit zone.
As we are nearing 2 am Wonka really wants to leave. The new dealer comes and I say fine we can leave when the time light comes on. I get dealt a shitty T5c in the SB but limp anyway -- this is going to be the last hand, so I might as well see the flop. Wonka raises to $20 and I am pissed. I wanted to play one more hand and he has to raise me out. I know Wonka has a good hand or he would not have made it $20 to go pre flop. There are a couple callers, but I make the well disciplined fold and toss my crap into the muck. Of course the flop comes T55 and I am livid. Wonka checks, Mr Shaky bets like $40 and Asian guy calls as does Wonka. The turn is a King and again Wonka checks, Mr Shaky bets $100, Asian guy folds and Wonka goes all in for $200 more. This is the hand that I wanted to get into it with Mr Shaky, damn you Wonka! Shaky calls and flips AKo, Wonka flips TT. Wow! We both would have flopped full houses and played Mr Shaky to death. The river brings the case 5, I nearly explode and Wonka drags a $900 pot. We rack up and cash out. Although I am pissed that Wonka rightfully raised me off my craptastic T5c, flopped boat and rivered quads, I am happy that one of us was able to punish Mr Shaky.
I get seated in the 10-hole and immediate smash my knee into the drop box, give me the seat change button please! I recognize the guy on my right, he is a regular that I have played with and talked to several times before. This is good, he has some really good reads on people and likes to talk quietly while observing the play. While waiting to post I watch a $600 pot get pushed AA vs AQ. TPTK vs the over pair. The play is surprisingly tight for a while, and I lost a stack to a set over set. My set of 5s is beat by a set of Aces. Oh well.
Wonka's table breaks and he moves over to my table. I don't mind having a friend my table, and he is seated on the far side of the table. The dynamics change when 2 Jersey guys get back from a long dinner break, 3 dealer changes. Now the action is getting bumped and re-bumped - and they are both moving their stacks in. Both of them have been stacked, re-loaded and then doubled back up with marginal hands. My regular friend decides to move across the table next to Wonka, and I take his seat to give my knees a break.
Set of Aces old guy has spewed half his stack away, and I finish him off with a turned nut flush in a 3 way pot. $15 pre flop was seen 5 ways, $60 on the flop was seen 3 ways. His all-in on the turn was flat called by the player in the middle and I decide to re-raise all in. I could have flat called, or min raised -- but I was trying to look weak and push for value at the same time. Middle guy opted not to play and I take down a nice pot. Old guy is pissed but he reloads anyway. In retrospect I should have flat called the all in, and then value bet the river.
I take a quick break at the 5th Street Cafe and use my points to buy some chowder. Jersey guy #2 make a retard raise in a very much limped pot to a whopping $5 and I repop to $27 with QQ - he calls. The flop is KTJ -- I don't really like it, but at least I am open ended. He checks, I bet $35 and he jams for about $200. WTF? I flip my Queens face up and look at him. The pin head dealer begins to deal the turn and I have to stop her saying I did not call yet. I fold my Queens and he shows me KTo.
My stack has been fluctuating, from a high of about $700 to a low of about $300, and I am stuck for about $200. A new player sits and proceeds play large pots 3-4 times with TPTK. AK, AQ, AJ, AT nonsense. His hands shake every time he bets, and I know he will eventually dump his stack with one pair.
About midnight I move over to an open seat next to Wonka, he wants to leave but I convince him to stay. A regular sits down two seats to my right and begins to punish the plethora of limpers. He got sucked out on a couple times by Mr Shaky and is on tilt. I have talked about limping with AA UTG before, but I do not like to make this play at the Foxwoods 1/2 tables. There are just so many multi-way limps that it is usually a recipe for disaster. I wake up with AA UTG and limp knowing that he is going to raise from the blind. He makes it $25 to go and I re-pop to $100. He goes all in for about $150 more and I of course make the call. He flips over A9d and I am back in the profit zone.
As we are nearing 2 am Wonka really wants to leave. The new dealer comes and I say fine we can leave when the time light comes on. I get dealt a shitty T5c in the SB but limp anyway -- this is going to be the last hand, so I might as well see the flop. Wonka raises to $20 and I am pissed. I wanted to play one more hand and he has to raise me out. I know Wonka has a good hand or he would not have made it $20 to go pre flop. There are a couple callers, but I make the well disciplined fold and toss my crap into the muck. Of course the flop comes T55 and I am livid. Wonka checks, Mr Shaky bets like $40 and Asian guy calls as does Wonka. The turn is a King and again Wonka checks, Mr Shaky bets $100, Asian guy folds and Wonka goes all in for $200 more. This is the hand that I wanted to get into it with Mr Shaky, damn you Wonka! Shaky calls and flips AKo, Wonka flips TT. Wow! We both would have flopped full houses and played Mr Shaky to death. The river brings the case 5, I nearly explode and Wonka drags a $900 pot. We rack up and cash out. Although I am pissed that Wonka rightfully raised me off my craptastic T5c, flopped boat and rivered quads, I am happy that one of us was able to punish Mr Shaky.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Sometimes getting your Aces cracked is OK!
This time, I elected not to limp under the gun with my AA, and made a pre flop raise to $8 with 4 callers coming along for the ride. I certainly did not like it when my pot sized bet was called and then raised. However the other 2 players involved where short enough to just get it all in for another $25.
This is a Full Tilt Web gem if there every was one.
This is a Full Tilt Web gem if there every was one.
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Big Game
There were 105 players in the opening event for the BBT3, MiamDon's Big Game. Limping UTG with AA is a play I will make nearly every time in a cash game. Unfortunately it did not work out and I hit the rail in 85th. Limp UTG with AA, pot bet on the flop, half pot on the turn. He raised to 3600, I push the remainder of my 7K stack and the heart on the river leaves me crippled. I can't blame Goat for making his play, he had a nice flush draw on the flop and picked up an open ender on the turn. I probably would have doubled up or gone broke in his position.
No complaints from me on the hand, I certainly did not like the hearts on the flop, and I liked the Ten on the turn even less. Oh well, that's poker.
No complaints from me on the hand, I certainly did not like the hearts on the flop, and I liked the Ten on the turn even less. Oh well, that's poker.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Connecticut Woods
Made the trek down to the Connecticut Woods yesterday, which is about an hour drive for me door to door. Nothing but easy money to be had at the 1/2 tables. Lets see, I lost the nut flush to a boat for a large pot where he check-called me all the way down, and did not raise (or see for that matter) when the board paired. I also lost half a stack to a mid position limper with KK vs my Big Blind Special top 2 pair on the flop when he rivered a set. How can I put a mid position limper on pocket Kings in a 6 way pot? I still managed to make money, although I had to grind it out much longer than planned. After a short wait on a 20 person list, a new table opened around 2pm and I did not leave until 6am. My theory is if I stay past midnight, I might as well stay until the sun comes up and drive home with natural lighting. A bad hourly rate for sure, but a win is a win. My favorite hand was a raised straddle with 66 on a 345 rainbow board. A deuce on the turn gave AA and AQ the wheel and 2 large stacks to me.
I should be playing in these two tournaments tonight:
I should be playing in these two tournaments tonight:
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Web Gem
Full Tilt Poker Game #5374260245: Table Arlington Bridge - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 20:54:05 ET - 2008/02/23
Seat 1: JksRbetter ($398.70)
Seat 2: Rake Feeder ($202.55)
Seat 3: weightAAroom ($533.60)
Seat 4: full_tilting ($339.85)
Seat 5: Colonel Mustard ($248.65)
Seat 6: Astropaul ($200)
Seat 7: zmen1 ($199.40)
Seat 8: YES_FEARME ($89)
Seat 9: cml99 ($180.60)
weightAAroom posts the small blind of $1
full_tilting posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [7s 6s]<-- Limp on the button with suited connectors
Colonel Mustard folds
Astropaul calls $2
zmen1 folds
YES_FEARME folds
cml99 calls $2
JksRbetter folds
Rake Feeder calls $2
weightAAroom calls $1
full_tilting checks
*** FLOP *** [Ks Ts 4h]<-- Nice, a flush draw
weightAAroom has 15 seconds left to act
weightAAroom bets $6
full_tilting folds
Astropaul calls $6
cml99 calls $6
Rake Feeder calls $6<-- Call the $6, see what happens
*** TURN *** [Ks Ts 4h] [8c]<-- Double gutter + spade draw
weightAAroom checks
Astropaul checks
cml99 bets $26<-- He must have a King
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder has requested TIME
Rake Feeder calls $26<-- Plenty of outs, plus I can stack someone
weightAAroom: odd
weightAAroom has 15 seconds left to act
weightAAroom has requested TIME
weightAAroom folds<-- He later said he folded AK
Astropaul folds
*** RIVER *** [Ks Ts 4h 8c] [5c]<-- Boom shaka laka!
cml99 bets $44
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder raises to $168.55, and is all in<-- Push for value
cml99 has 15 seconds left to act
cml99 has requested TIME
Astropaul adds $8
cml99 calls $102.60, and is all in
Uncalled bet of $21.95 returned to Rake Feeder
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rake Feeder shows [7s 6s] a straight, Eight high
cml99 mucks
Rake Feeder wins the pot ($376.20) with a straight, Eight high
cml99 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $379.20 | Rake $3
Board: [Ks Ts 4h 8c 5c]
Seat 1: JksRbetter didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Rake Feeder (button) showed [7s 6s] and won ($376.20) with a straight, Eight high
Seat 3: weightAAroom (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: full_tilting (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Colonel Mustard didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Astropaul folded on the Turn
Seat 7: zmen1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: YES_FEARME didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: cml99 mucked [Jh Kh] - a pair of Kings<-- WTF KJ?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Bodonkey
The Bodog Blogger Tournament has to be the best kept secret in the poker-blogo-sphere. Where else can you play for a 1 in 18 chance of winning a WSOP Main Event Package? I almost don't want to post about it in order to keep the field as small as possible. Anyway I came in 6th last night, just short of the T$109 bonus money for a $36 payout. I was lucky, and became the big stack very early on by flopping sets vs overpairs and having straights hold up vs smaller straights and flush draws.
The 1/2 NL cash table that I played on was insanely bad. I watched 8 players see the flop after an UTG raise to $8. I also saw 7 limpers min-raised by the BB, and then min-raised by UTG. Then it was checked all the way down to the river. Was this 1/2 LIMIT? I played a single cash table while in the tournament and cashed out +611 when the table broke. If I only had rakeback on Bodog, I might play there more often.
The 1/2 NL cash table that I played on was insanely bad. I watched 8 players see the flop after an UTG raise to $8. I also saw 7 limpers min-raised by the BB, and then min-raised by UTG. Then it was checked all the way down to the river. Was this 1/2 LIMIT? I played a single cash table while in the tournament and cashed out +611 when the table broke. If I only had rakeback on Bodog, I might play there more often.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Another Royal
This one was limped before the flop, min bet on the flop, check-checked on the turn, and then he checked to me on the river and folded to my measly $12 value bet. I thought about over betting for value here but there was only $12 in the pot. If he had any sort of hand he should have called.
This is my 3rd Royal since I got home from Iraq. One came back in July, and then another in September. Good karma I guess.
This is my 3rd Royal since I got home from Iraq. One came back in July, and then another in September. Good karma I guess.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Setup
Here is a fucking setup if I have ever seen one.
I flop a boat, and lose to runner-runner straight flush!
I flop a boat, and lose to runner-runner straight flush!
Thursday, February 7, 2008
HPT, Mookie and Blogger Hard Money Game
Wednesday night I started out playing in the HPT online game, which is essentially a weekly-ish version of a home game that I play in. Wonka took down first place, and I took down second.
I started the Mookie out well, doubling up on the 3rd hand with AA vs WilWonka's QQ. AA UTG = limp and re-raise. I am not one that likes to get into big pots early in a tournament, but with a smaller starting stack this week, I pushed my Aces and it worked out. Later on I got involved in a hand with Astin, and of course he flopped the nuts. TPTK + nut flush draw and broadway draw is no good to his flopped straight flush. I really didnt care, I called knowing I was beat and he had the nuts, and was a willing participant in his card-rack-ness. I pushed the hammer on the next hand and went out 50-something. I was much more interested in the big cash game I was playing anyway.
On to the Blogger Hard Money Game. I had not planned on playing in this thing as it was way beyond my bankroll. I normally play 4-6 tables of 1/2 NL on Full Tilt, and I play 1/2 and 2/5 NL at Foxwoods. The 4/8 NL 1600 max buyin did not hurt too much, but I certainly did not want to get stacked. There were some very experienced players at the table including Fuel55 and Recess Rampage. Add in the lineup of other bloggers and it was a scary table to say the least. Early on in the game I played tight to the point that cmitch actually mentioned it at the table. With Waffles at the table there was quite a bit of action in hands he was involved in. To his credit he out lasted the over in the prop bet side action. I was pleased to be the one who busted him with AQ vs his 77, Ace on the flop and he hit the rail. This is where I should have racked up my chips and left the table.
The hand I want back the most was SB vs BB myself and the Gnome. I raised preflop with AQ and he smooth called. I really have not been picking on his blind, but of course he is going to defend. The flop comes QT2 with 2 clubs. I lead out, he raised, I re-raised, then he pushed all-in on the flop and my AQ hit the muck. There is no way I am putting my entire stack in with just TPTK. He later said that he hit top 2 with QT, and I feel a little better about my fold. The next orbit I dropped the hammer on him and took back a small pot. I spewed off some chips here and there, quite a bit to both Recess Rampage and Fuel55. There simply is no way for me to out play these guys with scared money. There were several hands where I believe I had the best hand, but I was way out of my comfort zone. If we had been at the 1/2 tables or in a live game at Foxwoods I would like to think the results may have been different. These guys are serious players, hopefully they will post some hands on their blogs.
I started the Mookie out well, doubling up on the 3rd hand with AA vs WilWonka's QQ. AA UTG = limp and re-raise. I am not one that likes to get into big pots early in a tournament, but with a smaller starting stack this week, I pushed my Aces and it worked out. Later on I got involved in a hand with Astin, and of course he flopped the nuts. TPTK + nut flush draw and broadway draw is no good to his flopped straight flush. I really didnt care, I called knowing I was beat and he had the nuts, and was a willing participant in his card-rack-ness. I pushed the hammer on the next hand and went out 50-something. I was much more interested in the big cash game I was playing anyway.
On to the Blogger Hard Money Game. I had not planned on playing in this thing as it was way beyond my bankroll. I normally play 4-6 tables of 1/2 NL on Full Tilt, and I play 1/2 and 2/5 NL at Foxwoods. The 4/8 NL 1600 max buyin did not hurt too much, but I certainly did not want to get stacked. There were some very experienced players at the table including Fuel55 and Recess Rampage. Add in the lineup of other bloggers and it was a scary table to say the least. Early on in the game I played tight to the point that cmitch actually mentioned it at the table. With Waffles at the table there was quite a bit of action in hands he was involved in. To his credit he out lasted the over in the prop bet side action. I was pleased to be the one who busted him with AQ vs his 77, Ace on the flop and he hit the rail. This is where I should have racked up my chips and left the table.
The hand I want back the most was SB vs BB myself and the Gnome. I raised preflop with AQ and he smooth called. I really have not been picking on his blind, but of course he is going to defend. The flop comes QT2 with 2 clubs. I lead out, he raised, I re-raised, then he pushed all-in on the flop and my AQ hit the muck. There is no way I am putting my entire stack in with just TPTK. He later said that he hit top 2 with QT, and I feel a little better about my fold. The next orbit I dropped the hammer on him and took back a small pot. I spewed off some chips here and there, quite a bit to both Recess Rampage and Fuel55. There simply is no way for me to out play these guys with scared money. There were several hands where I believe I had the best hand, but I was way out of my comfort zone. If we had been at the 1/2 tables or in a live game at Foxwoods I would like to think the results may have been different. These guys are serious players, hopefully they will post some hands on their blogs.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Bodog Blogger Tournament
I had this email waiting for me this morning:Bodog Introduces Poker Blogger Tournament Series
Bodog is proud to host the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series opened to any Online Poker Blogger. Join up and challenge other Poker Bloggers each week in our Bodog Poker Room and live to tell about it. Earn points and work your way up the Tournament Leader Board for a spot in the final tournament for your chance to win a $12,000 World Series of Poker* prize package and be a part of Team Bodog 2008.
How it Works
The Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series is composed of a series of 18 qualifying tournaments that run weekly beginning Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 to Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008. The top 30% of finishers in each qualifying tournament will earn points based on their finish. These points will be used to rank players over 4 months of qualifying. At the end of the qualifying series, the top 18 players on the Tournament Leader Board will play in the Final Tournament on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 with the first place finisher winning a $12,000 WSOP* prize package!
Prizes
Weekly Tournaments
Buy-in: $10 + $1
Prize Pool will be distributed as per Bodog's standard multi-table payout table. In addition, the top 5 players each week will also win T$109 to be used to buy-in to the $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament held every Sunday at 4:00 PM ET. The top 5 bubble players each week will win a free buy-in to next week's Weekly Tournament. (T$11 will be credited to these players' Bodog account within 24 hours after the completion of the tournament)
Final Tournament
Buy-in: $0 + $0 (must finish in the Top 18 on the TLB to be invited)
Grand Prize: $12,000 WSOP* Prize Package with Team Bodog
2nd place: T$540 to be used to buy-in to (2) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal
3rd place: T$379 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal and (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament
4th: T$270 to be used to buy-in to (1) World Series or Players Choice Semifinal
5th: T$109 to be used to buy-in to (1) $100,000 Guaranteed Tournament
It looks like an even sweeter deal than the normal weekly blogger overlay.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
A-Town Home Game II
Last night was the second installment of the A-Town home game, hosted by Big Al and his family. I had been fortunate enough to be invited to this game before, my friend and fellow HPT player D is Al's daughter. Unfortunately the New England weather did not cooperate and only half the field showed up. We had enough for one full table, 6:30 pizza delivery and by 7:00 the cards were in the air.
The first game was NLHE, $50 + re-buy for the first hour, and a nice T10,000 starting stack. This "re-buy" was nothing like the craziness one would see in an online re-buy, I think there were only 2-3 re-buys in all. The players included fellow bloggers wwonka and bdidde, and of course my friend D and her father Big Al. Early on there was quite a bit of limping with deep stacks, and 5 players to the flop was common. I was short stacked early on when my Aces were cracked by Jacks and Byron was forced to rebuy after his Kings were cracked by Ace-poop on the river. Nearing the end of the re-buy period I stepped it up and pushed on the limpers to get back to a full stack. Big Al had a massive chip lead with nearly 40k. Late in the second period I called an all-in by the short stack with AQ, and D called out of the big blind. The flop was AAx, and I pushed hoping that she didn't have AK. For some reason she calls with KK, and is drawing dead when the case Ace came on the turn and I send 2 players to the rail. DQB-baby! If she had pushed pre-flop I probably would have gotten away from the Ace-Ho. In the interest of time, wwonka and myself ended up chopping heads up so we could play another game.
The second game was a $20 sng with T5000 stacks and 6 players. Byron and myself just had the discussion of not risking your tournament life in the first level when he pushes with TPTK and I call with a disguised 2 pair. To his credit, he said that he thought I would be able to let a hand go this early in the game. I believe that he wasn't pushing on the value of his hand, rather he was making a play giving me credit for having the ability to fold. Sorry bro. The other players dropped quickly and again in the interest of time, wwonka and myself chopped so everyone could play another. We got a good laugh when we chopped, it was a good night for the Worcester boys.
The third and final game was another $20 sng. Go read Chad's post about getting lucky in tournaments. Granted this was only a single table sng, but some of it applies. Early on I over played a marginal hand and was crippled, down to only 200 in chips. The next hand I was all in for less than the blind and quadrupled up with a 5 high flush. The following hand I was all in for the blind and tripled up with KK vs AJ and AQ. Still critically short, I doubled up again and then took the blinds with my fourth no look push. After that things settled down for a while, nobody wanted to get involved in hands with me and my recockulous luck sackery. I mentioned that I had bought a lottery ticket earlier in the day and Byron wanted to buy a piece of me. Of course I blew up and was knocked down to only 400 in chips. Again I mounted an against all odds come back, tripling up, doubling up and I went on to win the tournament.
On the way home my luck finally ran out, and I was awarded a $220 speeding ticket, ugh!
The first game was NLHE, $50 + re-buy for the first hour, and a nice T10,000 starting stack. This "re-buy" was nothing like the craziness one would see in an online re-buy, I think there were only 2-3 re-buys in all. The players included fellow bloggers wwonka and bdidde, and of course my friend D and her father Big Al. Early on there was quite a bit of limping with deep stacks, and 5 players to the flop was common. I was short stacked early on when my Aces were cracked by Jacks and Byron was forced to rebuy after his Kings were cracked by Ace-poop on the river. Nearing the end of the re-buy period I stepped it up and pushed on the limpers to get back to a full stack. Big Al had a massive chip lead with nearly 40k. Late in the second period I called an all-in by the short stack with AQ, and D called out of the big blind. The flop was AAx, and I pushed hoping that she didn't have AK. For some reason she calls with KK, and is drawing dead when the case Ace came on the turn and I send 2 players to the rail. DQB-baby! If she had pushed pre-flop I probably would have gotten away from the Ace-Ho. In the interest of time, wwonka and myself ended up chopping heads up so we could play another game.
The second game was a $20 sng with T5000 stacks and 6 players. Byron and myself just had the discussion of not risking your tournament life in the first level when he pushes with TPTK and I call with a disguised 2 pair. To his credit, he said that he thought I would be able to let a hand go this early in the game. I believe that he wasn't pushing on the value of his hand, rather he was making a play giving me credit for having the ability to fold. Sorry bro. The other players dropped quickly and again in the interest of time, wwonka and myself chopped so everyone could play another. We got a good laugh when we chopped, it was a good night for the Worcester boys.
The third and final game was another $20 sng. Go read Chad's post about getting lucky in tournaments. Granted this was only a single table sng, but some of it applies. Early on I over played a marginal hand and was crippled, down to only 200 in chips. The next hand I was all in for less than the blind and quadrupled up with a 5 high flush. The following hand I was all in for the blind and tripled up with KK vs AJ and AQ. Still critically short, I doubled up again and then took the blinds with my fourth no look push. After that things settled down for a while, nobody wanted to get involved in hands with me and my recockulous luck sackery. I mentioned that I had bought a lottery ticket earlier in the day and Byron wanted to buy a piece of me. Of course I blew up and was knocked down to only 400 in chips. Again I mounted an against all odds come back, tripling up, doubling up and I went on to win the tournament.
On the way home my luck finally ran out, and I was awarded a $220 speeding ticket, ugh!
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Tuesday
My Bodog account has been dormant for over 2 years, but at the suggestion of wwonka, I have finally reloaded and will probably be playing in these things on a regular basis now.
Last week was the first of the skillz series that I played in, and because of my stellar performance in O8, I will most likely play it again this week.
Kudos to my friend ScottyDawg who came in 5th place in the 10am tournament at Foxwoods this past Sunday. I went out early, but not as quickly as this donkey, who earned the gigli on the very first hand. I don't really mind getting knocked out before the first break. I was paid the same as some of my friends who played for 5 hours and missed the money. That is 4 more hours at the cash game for me!!
Last week was the first of the skillz series that I played in, and because of my stellar performance in O8, I will most likely play it again this week.
Kudos to my friend ScottyDawg who came in 5th place in the 10am tournament at Foxwoods this past Sunday. I went out early, but not as quickly as this donkey, who earned the gigli on the very first hand. I don't really mind getting knocked out before the first break. I was paid the same as some of my friends who played for 5 hours and missed the money. That is 4 more hours at the cash game for me!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
DQB vs Hoy and the HPT
I honestly feel bad for Hoyazo who has a penchant for getting coolered in this particular blogger game. With the blinds at 50-100, I opened with an easy button raise to 350. Hoyazo and WillWonka called and the three of us see the flop. At this point I know that I am beat and need a miracle. I am pretty sure that Hoyazo is slow playing an over pair, and I have no idea what WillWonka is holding, but I put him on a medium pair. The flop comes 868 with 2 flush cards, perfect for me. These are the flops you dream about. I like to lead out when I hit flops like this out of position, I generally bet my sets and boats if they are disguised, so I c-bet half the pot expecting action. Hoyazo pushes with his over pair, WillWonka thinks for a while and I am hoping he has 66 or a flush draw but he folds what he later says to be pocket 77s. I of course call Hoy and he is crippled. Note that I am not beating my chest or anything with how I played the nuts. Hoy knows that if he re-raised pre flop I would have folded. The only value for him would be in effect a re-steal. I would have been happy to take down the blinds and move on to the next hand, but Full Tilt had other plans with this setup. He played his pocket Kings fine, he wants all the money going in on the flop without an Ace.
Moving on to the first ever HPT online tournament, which I hope becomes a weekly or at least monthly event. The HPT is a group of Boston area players hosted by a very good friend of mine Ittolm. He and his lovely wife host a monthly home game featuring a 3 table deep stack freeze out and is attended by several Boston area bloggers. We are actually having a field trip this coming Sunday, and will be playing in the 10am $100 tournament at Foxwoods. 15 players signed up tonight, more than I had hoped for and it was a lot of fun! There was a $5 last longer side bet between myself, wwonka, ittolm and hilltopper. I also put up a $5 bounty on wwonka, trying to juice things up a bit on the other table. There were some players with 80% VPIP, though they went home rather quickly. I final table bubbled when my TT ran into Ittolm's AK and he flopped the nuts. He had been picking on my blind, and I had layed down some big hands to him when he was first in so I decided to go with my pocket 10s against his pre flop jam. Oh well, I hit the rail and immediately put up a $10 bounty on Ittolm, seeking vengeance. Mr. R knocked out wwonka and earned the bounty, nice job Al! The heads up battle was between Bdidde and Ittolm, a re-match of last months live game. They battled back and forth with huge stacks for nearly an hour then decided to chop. I certainly hope we can make this online home game a regular event!
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Full Tilt Year End Bonus
Full Tilt was kind enough to grant me this nice $550 bonus for my semi dedicated play this past year. Half a year actually, since I was in Iraq for the first half, and did not open my FTP account until June 2007. The icing is that this bonus does not affect my rake back deal with PSO, so I am in effect double dipping. I am not going to do the exact math, but it worked out to about $400 in rake back while clearing the bonus, adding up to $950 in free money. If you don't have rake back, you are definitely missing out.
Oh yeah, don't forget the Mookie tonight!!
Blogger Skillz!
1:30 am and the Blogger "Skillz" game is finally over. The 3 handed game pitted myself and jimdniacc each with 20K stacks vs LJ and her 90k stack. With the blinds high and split pots, the two "short" stacks fluctuated between 10k and 40K with LJ always maintaining the lead. Finally it was heads up with LJ holding a 2-1 chip advantage. The card rack finally hit me on a pot where I flopped trip Queens and rivered a boat to take a slight lead. We went back and forth a few times, and finally decided to chop rather than play forever heads up in a split pot game. $144 to each of us, good game LJ!!
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Waffles
I do believe that this says it all:
"SirFWALGMan: im willing to make bad calls and take people out..."
"SirFWALGMan: im willing to make bad calls and take people out..."
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Aces Full not strong enough?
This is a ghey hand I was in this afternoon:
Full Tilt Poker Game #4885277530: Table Stonewater - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:25:33 ET - 2008/01/16
Seat 1: OLE BILL ($150.90)
Seat 2: s_twentyone ($176)
Seat 3: BP ($195)
Seat 4: Rake Feeder ($272.50)
Seat 5: YATittle14 ($188.15)
Seat 6: Cohete Punch ($199.60)
Seat 7: AAvKK ($229.80)
Seat 8: rean1mator ($154.25), is sitting out
Seat 9: Shabambu ($262)
Shabambu posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [4d Ad]
OLE BILL folds
s_twentyone folds
BP calls $2
Rake Feeder calls $2
YATittle14 folds
Cohete Punch folds
AAvKK calls $2
Shabambu checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 5h Ac]
Shabambu checks
BP checks
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder bets $5
AAvKK folds
Shabambu folds
BP calls $5
*** TURN *** [Ah 5h Ac] [2h]
rean1mator has returned
BP checks
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder checks
*** RIVER *** [Ah 5h Ac 2h] [4c]
BP bets $18
Rake Feeder raises to $40
BP calls $22
s_twentyone adds $24
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rake Feeder shows [4d Ad] a full house, Aces full of Fours
BP mucks
Rake Feeder wins the pot ($95) with a full house, Aces full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $98 | Rake $3
Board: [Ah 5h Ac 2h 4c]
Seat 1: OLE BILL didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: s_twentyone didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: BP mucked [As 2s] - a full house, Aces full of Twos
Seat 4: Rake Feeder showed [4d Ad] and won ($95) with a full house, Aces full of Fours
Seat 5: YATittle14 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Cohete Punch didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: AAvKK (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: rean1mator (small blind) is sitting out
Seat 9: Shabambu (big blind) folded on the Flop
What does it take for the guy to re-raise me? He had Aces Full, why didn't he re-pop me? I can understand being cautious with a weak ace, but he was full!! He should have re-popped me and gotten stacked!
Full Tilt Poker Game #4885277530: Table Stonewater - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:25:33 ET - 2008/01/16
Seat 1: OLE BILL ($150.90)
Seat 2: s_twentyone ($176)
Seat 3: BP ($195)
Seat 4: Rake Feeder ($272.50)
Seat 5: YATittle14 ($188.15)
Seat 6: Cohete Punch ($199.60)
Seat 7: AAvKK ($229.80)
Seat 8: rean1mator ($154.25), is sitting out
Seat 9: Shabambu ($262)
Shabambu posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [4d Ad]
OLE BILL folds
s_twentyone folds
BP calls $2
Rake Feeder calls $2
YATittle14 folds
Cohete Punch folds
AAvKK calls $2
Shabambu checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 5h Ac]
Shabambu checks
BP checks
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder bets $5
AAvKK folds
Shabambu folds
BP calls $5
*** TURN *** [Ah 5h Ac] [2h]
rean1mator has returned
BP checks
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder checks
*** RIVER *** [Ah 5h Ac 2h] [4c]
BP bets $18
Rake Feeder raises to $40
BP calls $22
s_twentyone adds $24
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rake Feeder shows [4d Ad] a full house, Aces full of Fours
BP mucks
Rake Feeder wins the pot ($95) with a full house, Aces full of Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $98 | Rake $3
Board: [Ah 5h Ac 2h 4c]
Seat 1: OLE BILL didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: s_twentyone didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: BP mucked [As 2s] - a full house, Aces full of Twos
Seat 4: Rake Feeder showed [4d Ad] and won ($95) with a full house, Aces full of Fours
Seat 5: YATittle14 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Cohete Punch didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: AAvKK (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: rean1mator (small blind) is sitting out
Seat 9: Shabambu (big blind) folded on the Flop
What does it take for the guy to re-raise me? He had Aces Full, why didn't he re-pop me? I can understand being cautious with a weak ace, but he was full!! He should have re-popped me and gotten stacked!
Friday, January 4, 2008
Riverchasers
Just finished up in the Riverchasers Thursday night game. Three and a half hours and out donking 89 of the 92 players results in a 3rd place finish for me. A 1st place would have been nicer, I just can't seem to crack the top spot in these blogger games. My final hand was 88 vs big stack Loretta8 holding T6c. My set came on the turn, however it completed Loretta's flush. Good game!
I am extremely pleased to note that my good friend and HPT director Ittolm came in second place. He chipped up early on and managed stay at the top of the pack until the very end. Nice Job!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
A good start for the New Year!
I took most of December off from both posting about and playing poker. Sure I still played in a couple home games and enough to qualify for Iron Man Gold on Full Tilt, but I had not been to Foxwoods since late November.
Four of us made the trip down to Foxwoods yesterday morning in order to play in the 10am $100 tourney. Myself and wwonka have played in enough of these things to know that we need to ask to be placed at separate tables when we register or risk being seated next to each other. Full Tilt seems to have the knack of seating me and wwonka next to one another, even in large fields. Thankfully the staff complied and we were all spread out. Only 111 players had registered, much less than the 220 players they were getting last week. The top 20 would get paid.
Early on I played fairly tight, and watched my position. I held a few suited connectors, and some small pairs. A flopped set of 8s vs an aggressors c-bet yielded a nice pot when he hit runner runner Ace Jack to make top 2 pair. At the first break I was doubled up to about T10,000. During the second session I raised from the button with 78s, both blinds came along. Check, check to me with an Ace on the flop I c-bet about half the pot. The small blind folded and the big blind flat called. I do pick up a backdoor flush draw on the turn, again he checks to me and I check behind. The big blind puts all his chips in the middle before the river is flipped, which conveniently completes my flush, and the table says goodbye to Mr. All-in In the Dark.
With 24 players left, I look around and 2 of my friends are still in the game. I am not exactly sure where wwonka went out, but we definitely gave him a hard time for not making the money like the rest of us. After a long bubble period, it finally popped with 3 of us making it. Nicely done I have to admit. The short stacks disappeared quickly, and we were soon at the final table with me and my friend BC still in the game.
I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing some rude behavior at the final table. The big stack whom had been bullying on the other tables finally lost large pot. He raised with T8o from MP, and the big blind called with A7s. Action back and forth on the flop and all the money goes in with the bully showing a top pair 8s with T kicker, and the other guy showing second pair 7s with A kicker and the flush draw. This was a monster pot dropping the bully to an average stack when the flush hit on the river. The bully screamed "Mother Fucker" loud enough to turn heads several tables away -- he could have been warned or penalized but nobody complained. While matching up stacks he intentionally toppled over the stacks sending chips rolling around. Again there were no complaints or warnings.
Several hands later the ex-bully raises to 10k from UTG, I was in the small blind for 2k and my buddy BC was in the big blind for 4k. Not exactly a large raise, and BC was very short stacked with T9500 total. He will be all in for sure, and with pocket deuces I make the call. A deuce on the flop goes check - checked to the turn. The ex-bully looks frustrated, so I decide to make a side pot on the turn and bet 10k when it is checked to me again. He instantly goes all in and I of course call with my set. The ex-bully has A7o, no pair, no draw and I knock out 2 players, sorry BC. Everyone at the table congratulates me for knocking out the immature punk with a foul mouth.
I eventually get knocked out when I open push from UTG with KK and get called by TT and AA, with the pocket Aces holding up. We all had about the same stacks, but TT had 2k more than me so I am out in 6th.
I am pleased with my play, it is nice to be off to a good start for the New Year!
Four of us made the trip down to Foxwoods yesterday morning in order to play in the 10am $100 tourney. Myself and wwonka have played in enough of these things to know that we need to ask to be placed at separate tables when we register or risk being seated next to each other. Full Tilt seems to have the knack of seating me and wwonka next to one another, even in large fields. Thankfully the staff complied and we were all spread out. Only 111 players had registered, much less than the 220 players they were getting last week. The top 20 would get paid.
Early on I played fairly tight, and watched my position. I held a few suited connectors, and some small pairs. A flopped set of 8s vs an aggressors c-bet yielded a nice pot when he hit runner runner Ace Jack to make top 2 pair. At the first break I was doubled up to about T10,000. During the second session I raised from the button with 78s, both blinds came along. Check, check to me with an Ace on the flop I c-bet about half the pot. The small blind folded and the big blind flat called. I do pick up a backdoor flush draw on the turn, again he checks to me and I check behind. The big blind puts all his chips in the middle before the river is flipped, which conveniently completes my flush, and the table says goodbye to Mr. All-in In the Dark.
With 24 players left, I look around and 2 of my friends are still in the game. I am not exactly sure where wwonka went out, but we definitely gave him a hard time for not making the money like the rest of us. After a long bubble period, it finally popped with 3 of us making it. Nicely done I have to admit. The short stacks disappeared quickly, and we were soon at the final table with me and my friend BC still in the game.
I had the unfortunate experience of witnessing some rude behavior at the final table. The big stack whom had been bullying on the other tables finally lost large pot. He raised with T8o from MP, and the big blind called with A7s. Action back and forth on the flop and all the money goes in with the bully showing a top pair 8s with T kicker, and the other guy showing second pair 7s with A kicker and the flush draw. This was a monster pot dropping the bully to an average stack when the flush hit on the river. The bully screamed "Mother Fucker" loud enough to turn heads several tables away -- he could have been warned or penalized but nobody complained. While matching up stacks he intentionally toppled over the stacks sending chips rolling around. Again there were no complaints or warnings.
Several hands later the ex-bully raises to 10k from UTG, I was in the small blind for 2k and my buddy BC was in the big blind for 4k. Not exactly a large raise, and BC was very short stacked with T9500 total. He will be all in for sure, and with pocket deuces I make the call. A deuce on the flop goes check - checked to the turn. The ex-bully looks frustrated, so I decide to make a side pot on the turn and bet 10k when it is checked to me again. He instantly goes all in and I of course call with my set. The ex-bully has A7o, no pair, no draw and I knock out 2 players, sorry BC. Everyone at the table congratulates me for knocking out the immature punk with a foul mouth.
I eventually get knocked out when I open push from UTG with KK and get called by TT and AA, with the pocket Aces holding up. We all had about the same stacks, but TT had 2k more than me so I am out in 6th.
I am pleased with my play, it is nice to be off to a good start for the New Year!
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