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!!

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!

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!!

Superbowl Bound!

Waffles

I do believe that this says it all:

"SirFWALGMan: im willing to make bad calls and take people out..."

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!

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!

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!