Rake Feeder

Live 1/2 Slow Roll

2010-08-13T23:02:00.001-04:00

I was playing 1/2 at Foxwoods the other night. New player at the table raises to $10 from UTG. It was my straddle, half the table calls $10 so I toss in the additional $6 with 34 crubs.

The Flop is 235 with 2 clubs, giving me middle pair and and an open ended straight flush draw. SB, BB check, I check, new guy bets out $30 into a $70 pot. Miracualously everyone else folds, and I decide to just call with the world for outs. I could have raised on my monster draw, but since the guy just sat down and raised his first hand I give him credit for an overpair, I put him on Queens.

The Turn is a non club 8, I check and he bets $45. For a moment I think maybe he has AK and just fired a second barrel, but I am fairly sure he has QQ. I call $45 like a donkey, still having the world for outs.

The River is a Jack and I check having missed everything and holding a 3 with a 4 kicker that cannot possibly be good. I say "Your Queens are good, I missed my draw", and hold my cards towards the muck waiting for him to flip his over pair.

Now for the slow roll ...

At Foxwoods, you have to show both cards in a showdown in order to take the pot regardless of whether the other player mucks or not. I genuinely dislike the showdown game of flipping one card at a time, and want to move on to the next hand. Normally I will announce and show my cards regardless of position when I know I am ahead, or even think that my hand might win the showdown.

I know that I am beat. He still hesitates so I show my 3 and say "I know this isnt any good". He says what is the kicker, I say its a 4. Then he says show it.

I know that I am not ahead and have all but surrendered, and he is demanding to see both cards. I have told him his hand is good, and showed him all I have is middle pair. Other players are now complaining so I table both cards and wait for him. He looks at me and slowly flips QQ one at a time. What the fuck?

I said thanks for holding up the game by intentionally slowrolling me, you could have just shown your friggan Queens and moved on. Other players at the table told him that it was completely uncool and not called for.

Does anyone agree or disagree with this behavior?

Quads over Quads

2010-08-11T01:10:00.004-04:00

All I can say is ouch ...

Horsey

2010-06-02T04:00:00.001-04:00

Played a couple HORSE tourneys this evening. 5th place in one and chopped 1/2 in the other. 4am is not the time to be playing split pot games heads up.

I am still pondering making a trip out to Vegas; I really need to just pull the trigger on a plane and hotel. Still on terminal leave, I have about 4 weeks left before I have to look at a real job.

Final Tabled Poker from the Rail

2010-05-11T03:56:00.003-04:00

I believe this was my first time at a final table for the BBT5. The Hammer was good to double up when we were 8 handed, 27o > AQ! KOed Astin with T7h for a flush. AJ < QQ = out in 5th.

Listened to Buddy Dank Radio while playing; took the crews suggestion and played in the HORSE tourney. Chopped 1st/2nd with even stacks about 10 minutes into Razz. I must have had 80% of the bring ins. Neither of us saw any point going back and forth.

4am time for bed.

Yikes!

2010-05-10T23:15:00.003-04:00

Put a big hurt on CK with this ridiculousness...

Money went in on the flop

^^ That is about the limit of my live blogging =)

Home Just in Time! .... for the BBT5!

2010-04-18T18:23:00.005-04:00

Not sure how many of the events I will be playing in, but I will reload and see how it goes. Last year I had a TOC seat early on, but did not get to play it. No date set, but I am definitely planning to get to Vegas for a few days while I am on leave.

EDIT: Oh ya, a welcome back invite to the freeroll would be nice =)

Over the Hill

2010-04-08T02:55:00.000-04:00

Went over the hill during demob. Technically we aren't supposed to leave the post, but AC is just an hour and a half away from Ft Dix, and my boss (a LTC) was driving. I would have preferred to finish my demob and go home, but we are stuck until Friday to finish medical.

Checked into Resorts and walked over to the Taj poker room. Kinda dumpy compared to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun imho. The tables seemed really close together, and the room appeared to be well worn.

Table one +550 after about 4 hours of play. Caught a set of 3s early on for a nice pot. Lost top two vs a turned set later on which sucked. Doubled up with an AK 4 flush all in on the flop. Doubled up again with a set of 7s and a rivered boat vs an over pair. Poker is easy when you run good.

Table two earned a few pots with some value bet bluffs and AK vs AQ. Never had a pocket pair larger than 99 the whole night. +450 for a nice +1000 total on the evening.

Tomorrow we have another nothing day and Friday I should be cut loose on terminal leave.

Update

2010-03-18T12:34:00.004-04:00

My time in Iraq is getting short once again. If all goes as planned, I have a couple days left in Ramadi, a few days in Baghdad and Kuwait and then a few more at Ft Dix NJ. My best guess is I that will be back in the States by the beginning of April and on terminal leave by the middle of next month.
I am looking forward to getting home and seeing my family and friends - and of course hitting the poker tables at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun. Last time I was over here my friends went to Vegas for March Madness without me. Where are they this year? In Vegas again without me. Bastards!

A couple of choice pics:

A nice summer day!

This one can apply to playing poker for long hours

My window Christmas Eve 2009

Go Sox!

See you all soon!

Home, Mohegan, and a new paint job for my car

2009-11-28T10:08:00.003-05:00

My R&R odyssey was completed last Saturday in just about the minimum time possible for the mid tour leave program. I would like to say a very big Thank You to the passengers on the Atlanta to Hartford flight who gave up their first class seats for soldiers coming home on leave. We all had spent about 4 days in transit, including a 15+ hour flight from Kuwait to Atlanta via Germany. Your kindness is certainly appreciated.

Saturday afternoon was spent running errands, re-stocking my condo with the essentials, and a new iPhone - yay.

Sunday morning I called Wonka, asking where everyone was watching football, and we decided Mohegan Sun was a good place to both watch the games and play some cards. We arrive about 1pm and get seats at seperate tables after a short wait. I hover between +100 and -100 for a couple hours until I run Aces Full into Aces Full. I had played with my oponnent before, and we both knew it was going to be a split pot on the turn. The board was A3A3 and after a series of value re-raises we both said "Ace" with the intent of moving along to the next hand. Both hands are tabled and there was no more action. Funny thing is neither of us were paying attention, nor was was the dealer. She split up the pot and was about to pass it to each of us when she flipped the river. She was about to muck all the cards when someone from the other end of the table who was not in the hand said the other guy hit his low card and has a bigger boat. -200 for me, ouch.

I take a break and reload up to full buy in. I still had a little over a hundred left, but want to have a full stack to play with rather than play a short stack game.

After the Pats game, Wonka moved over to my table. I had planned on leaving early but a few more hours passed and it was after midnight - 8am Iraq time. I made some good reads vs a couple of AK donkeys building my stack to about 1200. Wonka had been drinking Crown and Cokes all day. I finally dragged him away from the table about 2am, thanks for the nice streak of puke out my window on the highway.

Coming home

2009-11-13T03:38:00.002-05:00

I am coming home on leave for 15 days sometime next week. I should be back for a few days before Thanksgiving, and for a week or so afterwards.

Almost no poker for me where I am at. Managed to walk into a random game with some of the PRT cats a couple weeks ago, but it was very social, and an extremely deep structure. 8 players, 2000 in chips and 1/2 blinds to start. Everybody was seeing every flop and calling the entire way down. 6 players to a showdown, and you can imagine how frustrating that type of play is.

We talk about getting a regular game going with a select group, but never manage to get the game off the ground. Something always comes up - there is still a war going on after all...

I see there is a Winter Vegas event scheduled, but unfortunately I will be back in country by the time it kicks off. Too bad, I am so jonesing for Vegas. I doubt that I will be able to play any online poker while I am home. My house has been closed up and everything shut off. That being said, Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun are both on my target list.

Booom!

2009-08-15T07:32:00.003-04:00

No, not that type of Boom!

Played in the Free MWR game this past week and came in second place. No prize for first.

As expected with no reward and no investment the game was horrendous. I would imagine the low stakes / free online games would play better than this. 30 minutes into the game 4 players call a 4 bet and go to the flop. 872 rainbow. Check around to the 4 better. He pushes (AK donkey), next player pushes (QQ), third player pushes (77), 4th player pushes (22); last player calls (85o). Turn is an 8, river is a 5. The result is me and my linguist friend are now 3 handed versus SGT 85o. Too easy.

Still no poker

2009-07-08T01:45:00.009-04:00

I have not played any poker since the "for fun" game a couple weeks ago. There have have been a few whispers of a game, hopefully I can get myself an invite. Work has been business as usual for the most part over here, although things are definitely changing post June 30th. You wouldn't know it from the media, but the Iraqis are definitely taking the lead and moving forward. Overall this is an entirely different experience than last time I was here.

Broke my camera a couple days ago, the view screen is cracked limiting the functionality of it. I am probably going to get a new one at the PX, I just hate shelling out cash for something that is sure to get messed up in this environment. The sand and dust gets into everything.

. . The Philadelphia Eagles Cheerleaders were here for an appearance.

This is the last photo taken before my camera broke:

Poker in Iraq

2009-06-21T03:51:00.002-04:00

Getting a real game going is probably going to be impossible. There is a Sunday night game at the MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) tent. Last week I walked over there and there were only 6 names on the list and no prize for the winner other than a certificate. During my last deployment the MWR game had prizes such as a $50 PX card or phone card. Not that I ever had time to play.

There is this policy in Iraq called General Order Number One. It prohibits all sorts of activities, including gambling. I am sure there are games going on here and there but the risk is far greater than the reward. I would rather not face a letter of reprimand (or worse) for conduct unbecoming than play in a $5 game.

A few nights ago one of my neighbors had a small for fun only game in his trailer. We had 4 players (which sucks), 2 of whom had never played before. They were all US-Arab linguists, and there was no chance of enforcing the "English only at the table" rule.

One of the players is a regular in the San Diego area card rooms and plays in Vegas on a frequent basis. So he and I were teaching the new players about the game. We played for a couple hours NLHE tournament style. Of course the 2 players who had never played won the games. I did make a nice laydown in a hand vs the experienced players. Action as follows:

I over bet the pot pre-flop with AA in the BB. Everyone calls. Pot the flop JT2 and only the experienced player stays. I look at him and figure he is strong, but lead out for 2/3 on the turn. He says all-in. I tell him his 2 pair was good, and fold my aces face up, he shows his 2 pair JT.

At least I was able to play a little, even if it was just for fun. Maybe I will check out the MWR game again tonight.

Shamal

2009-06-18T09:49:00.003-04:00

For the past few days there have been some minor shamals or sandstorms in the afternoon and evening. Normally the sky would turn orange-ish and there would be a fair amount of sand flying around, just enough to be an annoyance. Yesterday afternoon it seemed a little stronger than the previous days. This picture doesn't do it justice, but from from the time we entered the chow hall and finished eating the sun had been blotted out and you could not see more than 5-10 feet in front of you.

What is normally a 5-10 minute walk took about 25 minutes blind, and everyone was coated with a thick layer of dusty sand. Think about your normal north eastern snow storm and change the nice fluffy flakes to flying beach sand. Some of the local Iraqis said they had not seen one like that for 20 years.

Greetings from Al Anbar

2009-06-17T03:00:00.003-04:00

I finally made it to what could be called home for my second tour in Iraq. So far I have spent a week living in tent city in Kuwait conducting mandatory in country training and briefings. Follow that up with another week in the transient tents at Camp Victory coordinating with higher and waiting on a helo.

Last week I arrived at the place where I can dump my duffel bags out and begin a year of groundhog days. Welcome to Camp Ramadi. This is what it looks like:

All we need is a some neon lights, a few casinos, and someone to hand out flyers for hookers to make this place the Vegas of the middle east!

Welcome to Kuwait

2009-05-24T04:13:00.003-04:00

I have been here for a few days now. Imagine feeling the rush of hot air when you open an oven and that is how it feels all the time here. Over a 100 degrees before 8am.

So far it has been Army business as usual here. Training on various military tasks, much of it death by powerpoint, and of course drinking water like a horse. Everyone is looking forward to heading up north as soon as possible.

This is my new transient quarters:

Tents like this are lined up in every direction.

Does anyone know when exactly the BBT4 TOC is? Will we be auto magically registered for it?

My new pad

2009-04-24T15:54:00.004-04:00

This is my quarters for the next month or so. A stylish 10 x 10 room fitted with 2 double bunks, a couple of lockers and chipped paint peeling from the walls. A first class upgrade compared to the open bay WWII-era barracks I lived in last time. Luckily my roomate has a Sprint Internet card so a crossover cable allows me to leech his bandwidth.

No, I do not have to make my bed.

Justification for my bad play

2009-04-07T22:28:00.002-04:00

As I said in game chat. My apologies in advance for all the gross suckouts I may inflict before I leave this weekend. As Smokkee put it, I have been running like Zeus.

There is never really justification for terrible play but I do have other things on my mind.

In a few days I will be back on active duty preparing for my second tour in Iraq.

I expect to be at Fort Dix NJ for about a month before going overseas. If I can somehow manage a weekend pass, I do plan on heading to AC, since I have never been there.

When I am over there I will try to post some updates within the boundaries of OPSEC.

Got a letter in the mail ...

2009-03-31T19:23:00.004-04:00

You are ordered to Active Duty as a member of your Reserve Component unit for the period indicated unless sooner released or unless extended. Proceed from your current location in sufficient time to report by the date specified. You enter active duty upon reporting to unit home station.

Operation Iraqi Freedom tour of duty number two coming up.

This must be why I have been running like Zeus.

Close but no Cigar

2009-03-25T01:24:00.002-04:00

I have had jury duty all this week. #75 on the list, and the damn lawyers manage to excuse 61 people just so I could be the last one to sit. Lucky seat #7.

In the Skillz game I made the FT but got KOed in 4th place. I managed to put a bad beat on Don when he limped with 33 5 handed. I complete the small blind with 87. Flop 773, and we 4 bet the turn when a deuce comes. It's not like I am folding without a fight here, but the 4 bet had me concerned. Of course I run like Zeus (Thanks Smokkee) and another duece saved me on the river.

It was all downhill after that, though I managed to KO F-train with Ace-rag vs QJ in a battle of the blinds.

Mookie tomorrow (today) night!

The big pot I took off of Wonka

2009-03-18T18:19:00.004-04:00

I wasn't going to say anything, but since Dave asked here goes:

On Thursday of last week, Wonka called me about 7 pm and twisted my arm into going to Foxwoods. At first I said no, but my arm is made of rubber. 23 minutes later we were on the road headed south.

We arrive around 8:30 which is essentially the beginning of prime time for a week night. There is open seating and I pick my table. I am initially in the 7 seat and Wonka is at another table. There are 2 solids to my left, with about $500 each and a big stack with about $1000 to my immediate right. There is a crazian at the other end of the table losing large pots on missed flush draws every other hand. I made the mistake of buying in short for $150 before I doubled up with AK. 5 players to the flop after a $15 raise by me. Flop AK3 rainbow, 3 players call my $40 bet on the flop, big stack pushes on the turn when another Ace comes. Aces full of Kings vs Aces full of Threes. Yay, I now have $400 something instead of $700 something if I had bought in for the full $300.

Wonka moves to my table and the players change out during the course of several hours. We both have chipped up to about $550 for him and $650 for me. 6 limpers around the table to the BB who raises to $12 which of course gets 6 callers incuding me, Wonka, and some nice lady.

The flop is 8h6h2s which fits in very nicely with my 97h =)

Initial raiser leads out for $45 into a $84 pot.

This is normally enough to send all but the strongest of holdings flying for cover at a $1/2 table. People are more than willing to limp-call ten bucks pre flop but unless they have an over pair or smack the flop really hard they fold.

Wonka flat calls $45 <-- He does not flat call $45 without a very good hand. He probably has a set. I should fold.

Some nice lady flat calls $45 <-- she has been calling big bets to the river all night and losing. I was more concerned with the set that Wonka probably had than her.

I had been considering raising the initial bettor until 2 players flat called in between.

Let us see. There is now $219 in the pot, and $45 to me in position with an open ended straight, flush, straight flush draw. Flat calling $45 is not normally in the book of plays I like to make but I am up $500 and decide to peel another card off.

I make the comment of "What is there like $300 in the pot now?" (there was $264) before the turn is flipped.

The turn brings a nice off suit Ten to complete my straight. Initial raiser plays with a stack and a half contemplating leading out again for $150 but unfortunately he checks. Wonka looks and him and says "$300" and puts 3 stacks of reds into the pot. Some nice lady folds, and I look at Wonka and ask how much he has left.

Of course I am going to move in with my straight, and I am actually hoping Wonka will fold (since he is my friend and it may make for a long ride home if I stack him). Initial raiser folds and Wonka makes the call with his set, he still has 10 outs. The river is a brick and I win a $1300 somethingish pot. Sorry dude.

The initial raiser had T8c and said he would have stacked off with top 2 until I re-raised.

Some nice lady said she had a Queen high flush draw but she didn't want to go all in with just a flush draw and one card to come.

KKKK

2009-03-05T21:46:00.002-05:00

Is there a worse Omaha H/L starting hand than this?

Big Game Victory

2009-03-02T01:55:00.004-05:00

I should feel guilty for my lack of posts, but it would feel even more wrong if I didn't post after my Big Game win...

Good game to RecessRampage and Hoyazo, 2nd and 3rd respectively. And thank you to Al, and whomever else is running the BBT4.

Free Rolling Forever at Bodog

2008-11-14T00:41:00.004-05:00

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!

If you were a superhero, what would your special power be?

2008-11-09T02:41:00.003-05:00

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.

HPT Practice

2008-11-08T10:30:00.002-05:00

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!

Bodog Blogger Tournament

2008-10-31T00:12:00.005-04:00

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.

I Love Mohegan Sun

2008-10-19T12:20:00.003-04:00

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.

Rigged!

2008-10-07T12:08:00.004-04:00

Beautiful third hand in a KO tourney this morning ...

Bodog Royal Flush Bonus

2008-08-25T11:29:00.002-04:00

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!

Lack of Posts = Lack of Play

2008-08-16T00:36:00.002-04:00

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.

It has been a while

2008-07-23T11:00:00.002-04:00

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.

Hammer is Good!

2008-07-01T10:09:00.002-04:00

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.

Maniac at Foxwoods

2008-06-27T15:23:00.004-04:00

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.

Foxwoods with Wonka

2008-06-13T00:17:00.002-04:00

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.

Bodog TOC

2008-06-11T00:20:00.002-04:00

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.

Snippet from Foxwoods

2008-06-07T09:12:00.005-04:00

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?

Vegas Trip Report

2008-06-04T20:20:00.001-04:00

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.

I love Bodog

2008-06-04T16:51:00.003-04:00

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.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas

2008-05-17T19:22:00.001-04:00

And some times so does your money. Trip report coming as soon as I decipher my notes.

Leaving for Vegas tomorrow!

2008-05-12T11:43:00.003-04:00

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.

Sunday at Foxwoods

2008-04-14T12:24:00.002-04:00

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.

Going to Vegas Baby!

2008-04-03T12:49:00.002-04:00

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.

Blog Spam

2008-04-03T11:08:00.002-04:00

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."

Foxwoods with Wonka

2008-03-21T15:32:00.002-04:00

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.

Sometimes getting your Aces cracked is OK!

2008-03-06T23:31:00.003-05:00

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.

Big Game

2008-03-02T23:12:00.003-05:00

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.

Connecticut Woods

2008-02-26T12:39:00.005-05:00

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:

Web Gem

2008-02-23T22:30:00.003-05:00

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?

Bodonkey

2008-02-13T18:13:00.003-05:00

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.

Another Royal

2008-02-10T13:01:00.000-05:00

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.

Setup

2008-02-08T21:44:00.000-05:00

Here is a fucking setup if I have ever seen one.

I flop a boat, and lose to runner-runner straight flush!

HPT, Mookie and Blogger Hard Money Game

2008-02-07T00:43:00.000-05:00

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.

Bodog Blogger Tournament

2008-02-05T13:31:00.000-05:00

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.

A-Town Home Game II

2008-02-02T12:29:00.000-05:00

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!

Tuesday

2008-01-29T13:44:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-24T12:08:00.001-05:00

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

2008-01-23T19:04:00.001-05:00

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!

2008-01-23T01:29:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-01-20T22:10:00.000-05:00

Waffles

2008-01-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

I do believe that this says it all:

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

Aces Full not strong enough?

2008-01-16T23:18:00.000-05:00

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

2008-01-04T00:52:00.000-05:00

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!

2008-01-03T18:04:00.001-05:00

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!

Thank You Mookie!

2007-12-08T22:51:00.000-05:00

I would like to send a big thank you out to Mookie for my new banner. I clearly lack the artistic talent to create anything of the sort, so the new logo is very much appreciated.

Edit: Mookie is so cool, that when he noticed the original file was slightly over sized, he fixed it and sent me a new one. I didn't even realize there was a problem. Thanks again Mookie!

RF

H.O.R.S.E

2007-11-30T01:12:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

Poker vs Black Jack

2007-11-20T16:32:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

Nothing New Here

2007-11-14T13:30:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

Foxwoods - Again

2007-11-05T23:37:00.000-05:00

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

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

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

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

The Mook, The Dook, and The Spook!

2007-11-01T11:15:00.000-04:00

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

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

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

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

Playing with your nuts

2007-10-31T17:04:00.000-04:00

This is a hand I was in earlier today:

FullTiltPoker Game #4024283060: Table Miragrande - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 13:26:28 ET - 2007/10/31
Seat 1: human eagle ($156.80)
Seat 2: Gilligan115 ($66)
Seat 3: Pardad ($50)
Seat 4: Coattails ($198)
Seat 5: BestCardInDeck ($51.15), is sitting out
Seat 6: premgolf ($222.90)
Seat 7: Rake Feeder ($219.75)
Seat 8: galaktiko ($100.60)
Seat 9: booboo7911 ($238.20)
Coattails posts the small blind of $1
premgolf posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [8d 8s] <-- I am UTG, but I want to play my small pair.
Rake Feeder raises to $7 <-- Standard opening raise at the 1-2 tables.
galaktiko folds
booboo7911 calls $7
human eagle calls $7
Gilligan115 folds
Coattails folds
premgolf folds
*** FLOP *** [7h 8h 5c] <-- Top set on the flop, but there are flush and straight possibilities.
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder bets $16 <-- Only a pussy would check here, I bet out 2/3 of the pot.
booboo7911 calls $16
human eagle calls $16
*** TURN *** [7h 8h 5c] [8c] <-- Now I have the nuts, unless someone rivers a straight flush.
Rake Feeder checks <-- I check to make it appear I had an overpair and was worried.
booboo7911 has 15 seconds left to act
booboo7911 bets $44 <-- This guy has made a booboo.
human eagle calls $44 <-- Wow, I did not expect 2 bettors, someone must have a boat.
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder raises to $88 <-- I min raise here, thinking someone is going to jam their boat.
booboo7911 has 15 seconds left to act
booboo7911 has requested TIME <-- He tanked really hard.
BestCardInDeck has returned
booboo7911 folds
human eagle has 15 seconds left to act
human eagle folds <-- Bah, what did he flatcall with that he folds to a min raise?
Uncalled bet of $44 returned to Rake Feeder
Rake Feeder shows [8d 8s] four of a kind, Eights <-- I show screaming DQB!
Rake Feeder wins the pot ($201)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $204 | Rake $3
Board: [7h 8h 5c 8c]
Seat 1: human eagle folded on the Turn
Seat 2: Gilligan115 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Pardad is sitting out
Seat 4: Coattails (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: BestCardInDeck is sitting out
Seat 6: premgolf (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Rake Feeder collected ($201)
Seat 8: galaktiko didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: booboo7911 folded on the Turn

On the flop I bet my top set because I always do, and I did not like the straight and flush potential. On the turn I just have to check the nuts. I can understand why one player took a stab at it, but why would the second player flatcall with me waiting to act?

I min raise thinking one of the players must have a smaller set, or maybe the straight. Why not bump it up here on the turn? What could they have bet with or called with that they were not going to look me up?

I could have bet out on the turn, it seems $44 was the right amount. Or I could have just flat called the $44 and then bet out the river. Maybe I was up against pocket 9s and pocket 6's? Overpair and a flush draw?

HPT

2007-10-27T13:39:00.000-04:00

Last night was first first HPT since June. I don't know why there was a 3 month break, something about kids and summer vacations. The fall season kicked off with a whopping 30 players committing resulting in 26 players actually showing up. That is a really nice turnout for a small town home game. Wwonka and Bdidde were in attendance, as were my friends Air Force Steve and Denise. 3 tables, T4000 chips, 20 minute blinds, and an 8 pm start time with hourly breaks made for a late night. It was nearly 2am when the action finally stopped.

I had the toughest starting table, and I know Wonka will agree with me. Around the table from my left were Phil who was wearing a "Players Tournament" jacket from some charity poker event, our host Mike, my boy ScottyDawg who took down one of the 11pm tourneys at Caesars in Vegas last spring, Air Force Steve, Joe the Vet, Ginger his Wife, and the eventual winner the other Mike who was wearing a "No Fold-em Hold-em" baseball cap.

ScottyDawg and Mike the Host were getting into it early on when the Dawg came over the top of Mikes preflop raises 3 times in a row. Mike was visibly annoyed to the point that he warned me about stealing his blind for the second time. I told him that it was his bad luck he was 2 seats to my left, and asked who else was I going to steal from? I was raising from every position anyway, I could have layed off his blind if I wanted to. They finally got it going when Mike raises 4x the BB, and Dawg min re-raises 2x his bet. Mike clearly has had enough and re-re-raises 6x Dawgs raise for a little less than half his stack. Dawg says he has to call, and everyone knows that someone is getting stacked or crippled here. The flop comes AKJ rainbow, Mike checks and Scott bets a minute 200 something like 5% of the pot. Mike check raises all in and is insta-called. Mike shows pocket kings for a set, and Dawg shows the Asian Jew for top and bottom pair. The thing about Dawg is he never thought that he might be behind in the hand. He had AJs, that is a monster right?

I played my normal home game style of alternating between stealing from the blinds and limpers preflop, and stealing orphan pots when nobody seemed interested. I would call weak flop bets then check raise on the turn when a scare card fell. I doubled up short stack Dawg a couple times before finally busting him. In the few times I did actually have a hand, I made sure to show it when people began to question my raises. In all it was a nice way to triple up.

When I moved over to the new table there was a monster stack sitting on 20K+ early on. He must have been responsible for all the busts at his table. I lose some ground and then double up with 99 vs 55 for virtually all his chips. I watch the chip leader bust his wife after he limped with QQ with 4 people to act and then call her all in from the BB. His QQ vs her KK was gold when he spiked a Q on the flop and sent her to get him a beer. I took a big pot from the BB when it was limped around and a board of TTA fell. Everyone checked the flop, so I bet the pot when an 8 comes on the turn. Weak-passive Phil min raises me and everyone else folds. I am holding T5o, and I know this guy is an Ace-rag player so I call. The river is a blank and I bet the pot, which nearly puts him all in. He goes into the tank and considers putting the rest in. At this point I am concerned that he might have a Ten, but I still have enough chips to make a pushdonkey-lucksack-comeback if I have to. He calls showing A8 for 3 pair, a hand that does not beat my trip tens. When we hit the final table I have about 18-19K.

Six of the Eight players from my starting table have made the final table. The other 4 are Wwonka, ultra-aggressor Big Joe O, Football Steve, and LuckSack Phil. When it was limped around to me with A7o in the small blind, I tried to steal Wonkas big blind putting 3000 on top. He re-raises all in for 4500 more and I let him have it. Score 1 for Wonka, I tell him that I am going to push blind anytime it is folded to me again.

My final hand was an all-in with 99 from the SB. The blinds were 800-1600, and action was limped and min-raised in front of me, which I took as a clear signal to come over the top with my pocket pair. I put 13,900 on top of the min raise from the button. Min raiser digs deep for a while, he has me covered by half a blind. He calls with 66. It looks good until he spikes a 6 on the river after calling out the card. I hit the rail in 6th place, 10 minutes too late to get in on the side game. I spend the rest of the night sweating Denise and Air Force Steve at the side game.

In all a disappointing end, but I was happy with my play. I did get to talk shop with Byron for a while, hopefully he can make it down to Foxwoods sometime soon. Go read about his Barry Greenstein Project.

Massachusetts Casino Bill

2007-10-23T04:19:00.000-04:00

...read the fine print!

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has introduced a proposal to the state legislature that would allow three resort-style casinos in the state. Revenue filtered to the government from the establishments would be earmarked towards roads and bridges as well as property tax relief for the state’s residents. Of course, any gambling proposal is polarizing, with strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

Interestingly, and perhaps disturbingly, one section of the proposal that has been getting no mention in the local press seems to outlaw internet gambling. Below is the relevant text, taken directly from the proposal:

(i) Placing, sending, transmitting, relaying wagers to another person prohibited under certain circumstances; penalties.
Any person who knowingly transmits or receives a wager of any type by any telecommunication device, including telephone, cellular phone, Internet, local area network, including wireless local networks, or any other similar device or equipment or other medium of communication, or knowingly installs or maintains said device or equipment for the transmission or receipt of wagering information shall be punished by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 2 years, or a fine of not more than $25,000, or both.
This section shall apply to any person who, from within this commonwealth, transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within or outside of this commonwealth and any person who, from outside this commonwealth, transmits a wager to, or receives a wager from, another person or gaming establishment within this commonwealth.
This section shall not apply to the use of a local area network as a means to place authorized wagers in a licensed gaming establishment, or use of said devices or equipment by the authority in it duties in regulating, enforcing, or auditing a licensed gaming operator.

Thus, internet gambling will be illegal if this proposal becomes law. What this is essentially saying is that unless the state can profit from your gambling, you may not do it. It remains to be seen how the government would ever know and if anyone would ever get sentenced to two years in prison, but it is sad that this provision is in the proposal, nonetheless.

-- Graciously ripped verbatim from PSO

BBT2

2007-10-16T17:07:00.000-04:00

This looks like it will a lot of fun! I was a late arrival for the last BBT and missed half the season, hopefully I can do better this time around.

A-Town Home Game

2007-10-13T13:04:00.000-04:00

I was fortunate to be invited to a home game in Arlington through my friends in the HPT. The hosts were the parents of one of the HPT players, and the participants appeared to be mostly family friends and co-workers. 19 players in total, ranging in ages from 20 something to 80 something provided a wide range of experience and style.

One of the things I noticed is that the host actually had a subscription to Card Player Magazine, not a casino copy but a delivered in the mail copy. This was a home were someone took their play serious enough to read about the game.

2 tables, $50 buy in gets T5000 in chips with a rebuy option for the first hour if you were felted. I knew this game was not going to play like an online rebuy, we only had one person rebuy, and he still was the first able to give full attention to the Red Sox ALCS game in the other room.

I was at table 2 with my friend D sitting to my immediate left. Normally this would be good, but she has really increased her aggression and confidence since we last played. I limped into the first hand with junk K4d and a few others came along. The raggedy flop was checked to me so I bet half the pot and the 80 year old man called me. Check the rest of the streets, he called me with no pair, no draw, and a J4o. Hmm...

A few hands later I flop the nut straight, and bet it since there were 2 flush cards on the board. 2 players call, and we see the turn with brings another flush card. 80 year old leads out so I muck, and the soon to be rebuying player calls. More action on the river and the result was middle two pair vs bottom two pair, nobody had the flush. I am pissed that I gave at least one of them credit for the flush.

The player 2 seats to my left is bumping the action vs multiple limpers, something I like to do. Everyone seems to be calling him anyway, so I decide to limp with the plan of re popping him, and take down a nice pot.

Back to D on my immediate left, she is primarily a 4-8 limit player at Foxwoods. She re-popped my flop bets 3 times in a row, re-stealing from my continuation bets and marginal hands. I have to give her credit, she normally does not chase or show aggression unless she has a strong made hand.

Five handed at the final table the blinds are 600-1200, we are on the money bubble and everyone limps. The small blind is all-in for 1100. I have A7s in the BB, not a very good hand. I border on collusion when I say I should raise here, but I will check it down in order to knock the short stack out with 4 other players in. A raggedy flop and the super donk across the table min bets. I have the 7 paired but there were 2 overs on the board. Well everyone folds and the super donk shows a gut shot. The shorty quintupled up and was still playing after I went out in 4th place. I would have made Aces up on the river. Everyone yelled at the super donk, he said he had a draw and wanted to make money if he hit it.

I find out on the ride home that D had been coached by my friend Air Force Steve who told her to re-pop my continuation bets. Thanks buddy.

Foxwoods Degenerates

2007-10-10T15:03:00.000-04:00

I believe that I may have lapsed into the world of a poker degenerate. I just returned from a 20 hour session at Foxwoods. Several of the players at the late night tables said they had been there for 2-3 days straight.

I played 2 rounds of 1-2 NL sandwiched around a few hours of 4-8 Omaha H/L. My early session of 1-2 NL was marred early on by a flopped boat of 5's full of Aces with my A5s snapped by a donk pushing K8o on the turn to catch the running 8 for 8's full of 5's. What the fuck was that about? I took a break and came back to mix it up with some Omaha H/L. It was a strange game, we went nearly 2 hours without a single kill pot, then had 17 kill pots in a row including some 8 player pre flop caps. One old man miracle chaser would raise hands that should have been mucked, and limp call hands that should have been capped. The regulars all had little clouds above their heads with the letters "WTF ?!?!?!?..." Fast forward to late night and back to 1-2 NL, I managed to rebuild a small profit at the musical chair table that eventually placed 4 buddies at one end, and some nits like me at the other. I was glad to see them change seats to be together, one of them smelled like he had been sleeping in a bathroom stall. After 3 broken tables in less than an hour, I decided it was time to go. I couldn't see straight anyway.

My small victory, bad beats, and eventual turn around is not the story. Red Sox slugger David Ortiz was reported to be in the house, upstairs signing autographs. Jonathan Papelbon showed up around midnight and took a seat at the 2-5 NL tables. He wanted to play a higher limit, but there were no seats open and he did not want to wait. I was going to try to move over, but the 2-5 list swelled to 15+ once word got out that the Red Sox star was in the room. The staff even played a joke calling out "lock it up for Mariano Rivera" at a fictitious open seat. Papelbon's table was surrounded by 4 ever watchful security guards to keep the railbirds at bay. Papelbon tried to sit down with $2000 in chips until the dealer informed him of the $500 max buy-in. On his first hand he gets it all in with pocket Aces and doubles up.

WBCOOP

2007-10-06T16:54:00.000-04:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 5395649

Foxwoods Redux

2007-10-03T12:03:00.000-04:00

I made my first pilgrimage of the month to Foxwoods yesterday, arriving about noontime. Open seating at the 1-2 NL tables allowed me a choice of the 10 seat at one table or the 2 seat at another. Seats #2, #3, #8, and #9 are my favorite. You are on the end, so you get a little more room and you get a clear view of everything that happens. The seats next to the dealer offer limited legroom and a restricted view of half the table, when I get seated here it the first thing I do is ask for a seat change button. Seats #4 through #7 offer a clear view of the board, but not all the players.

Hmm I think I will save smashing my knees into the drop box for another day, and sit in the #2.

Most of the table had average stacks ranging from $100-300, with the exception of the #9 seat that was sitting on $1200-1400. I have seen this player before, he tends to be aggressive vs multiple limpers, chases any draw even if the price isn't quite right, and is capable of bluffing when a scare card hits the board. The biggest piece of information I knew about this player is that every time he loses a big pot, he will make a big pre flop raise on the next hand. He plays poker like it is one of the table games upstairs, increasing his bet size when he has lost in order to gain it back quickly.

Normally I keep this sort of information to myself, but I decide to quietly share with my corner of the table. I plan to keep the focus across the table and away from me. We weren't playing together, but we were certainly playing against him. His stack melted away over the next several hours. By the time he left, he had been felted, re loaded a few hundos at a time and been felted again. His chips were spread out across the table, mostly at my end. About 2 hours after he left the poker room he came back down, and showed me a stack of $8k in chips he had won playing black jack. Too bad there were no empty seats at my table.

Net result for the day: + 1497

Foxwoods Report

2007-09-28T01:44:00.000-04:00

I woke up this morning (yesterday) to the sound of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, ringing through my ears. Actually it was my buddy from Iraq calling me on my cell phone to say he was headed to Foxwoods. Great, I was planning on going anyway and it is always good to see a friend from over there.

Well ...

We both got smoked at the 1-2 NL tables.

There were a few players at my corner of the table who play on Full Tilt and Poker Stars; 1-2 NL guys that mostly play online but mix it up with a few days a month at Foxwoods. We talked about the 12 tabling nits, and how much better it was to play online with rakeback vs live games.

JB is an aggressive player, but I have seen him over play a lot of marginal hands. Net result down 2 buyins after 8 hours play. This is the first time I have seen him leave with less than $1000, chalk it up to variance or donkishness. The funny thing is each time he changed seats, his old seat became a card rack.

I mixed up my play, tight, loose, tight, loose, nothing seemed be working after 8 hours at the tables. QQ and top set loses to runner, runner flush. QQ and flush draw loses to 66 on the river and ties for the side pot vs QQ. AQ chops a QQ5 board with to runner runner boat vs Q2. AJ loses JJx to a KJ boat on the river. Need I say more? I knew I was doomed and even put my name in for the Omaha H/L game to change it up, but after 2 hours only moved from #8 to #6 on the list. Why can't they start a feeder table when there are 12 people on the list? Net result down 2 buyins in 10 hours.

I followed up my Foxwoods debacle with a solid 3 hours of drinking at the Tatnuck American Legion Post where I am a member. I think I will either head back to Foxwoods tomorrow, or perhaps open the Legion and start drinking at noon tomorrow.

A friend is hosting a home game on Saturday night, I am looking forward to that. Wonka will be there, along with a host of drunken donks that should mean an easy cash as usual. The next HPT is a few weeks out, again a good chance for an easy cash.

Never a first

2007-09-27T01:19:00.001-04:00

Played the mookie tonight, and once again I came up short. Fourth place is somewhat respectable I guess, for a blogger donkament... Since I started playing these things when I got home from Iraq, I have had seconds, thirds, fourths, fifths - but never a win. Oh except for the dookie, I won the turbo HORSE a few weeks ago.

Foxwoods is on my schedule for tomorrow (today?). Hopefully I wake up early enough to drive down and make it to the 10am $100 NL tourney.

Home Game

2007-09-23T19:58:00.000-04:00

I hosted a small game this weekend, comprised of a few friends from the HPT game, and few from the more local BCBombers game. Wonka was there of course, and I made every effort to stay out of his way. It's not that I was playing with him, but there are easier fish to fry without getting in his way.

On the second hand of the first game, I have AA in the SB vs an unknown player who raised pre flop. Being the first level, the blinds were 25-25, and the raise to 100 from MP looked rather benign so I re-bumped to 400. MP smooth calls after looking at her boyfriend. The flop comes KQx rainbow, I make it 600, MP makes it 1200. I think for a short moment and then push all in. If she had KK or QQ wouldn't she re-pop me pre flop? I mistakenly put her on AK but she calls with a monstrous top two pair, showing KQo. The board pairs 99 on the river and MP has to rebuy. Bad play by me, but there is little to no chance that I am throwing away AA on the second hand of a game if there is a rebuy option.

Middle of the 1st game I put in a standard 3x raise from MP with 44, BB smooth calls. The flop comes 4A5 with 2 hearts giving me bottom set. Knowing this particular player will chase flushes no matter how expensive, I bet out with a pot sized 1500, and get called. The turn is a blank and I push 1950 into the middle and make an "oh well speech" and get called. BB turns over KQd no pair, no draw, wrong suit. He said he thought I was bluffing because of my speech. Well good read friend, except I wasn't bluffing and even if I were you couldn't beat a bluff.

I go on to take 1st place, and Wonka comes in 3rd.

Second hand of the second game vs same player I got into it with in the 1st game. The blinds are 25-25 and it is raised to 100 from EP, and called all the way around to me in the BB with 67 suited. 5 players see the flop of 779. I check of course, MP bets out 500, and I call with my trip 7s bad kicker. The turn is a 2, I check again MP bets 500 and again I smooth call; there is discussion whether or not I am playing the hammer. The river is a Jack, and I bet out 1200 leaving about 600 behind. She smooth calls and shows pocket Jacks for Jacks full of 7s. Uggh; I wasn't going to get her off the Jacks without an over card on the board anyway.

A few hands later I limp from EP with 78d. Aggressive player on my left bumps it to 100. Everyone folds except for the BB on my right who calls, so I make a loose call. The flop comes 569 with the 6 and the 9 in diamonds. Sweet, I flop a straight with an open ended straight flush draw, this is going to be ugly. EP2 bets enough to put me all in, BB raises, I say all in, and EP1 goes all in. The turn and river are blanks, EP2 shows pocket 10s, BB shows QQ and I triple up. If the QQ in the BB had not called, I might have folded. If he had re-raised, I would have folded.

I end up going out early and playing dealer for the rest of the game.

.... and then a Royal

2007-09-05T23:11:00.000-04:00

If anyone reads my blog, you would know that this morning I flopped a straight flush, a rare event for most poker players. Well tonight I turned a Royal, the rarest of hands!! My last Royal came on July 1st, and according to Poker Tracker it was only 40,000 hands ago.

The odds of getting a straight flush are 1 in 72,193
The odds of getting a Royal are 1 in 649,740

I somehow managed to get 2 Royals and 1 straight flush in 40,000 hands. Pretty sick huh?

Unfortunately, my card rack luck didn't carry over to to the Mookie, and I donked out after committing myself with AKs and calling an all-in vs QQ.

I did buy a lottery ticket today, what are my chances of winning that?

Straight Flush

2007-09-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it is better to be lucky than to be good. Luck in being dealt good cards, luck in hitting flops or catching on the turn or river. In this case, luck in flopping the nuts while each of the opponents also made big hands.

Full Tilt Poker Game #3468525272: Table Revere - $1/$2 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:04:34 ET - 2007/09/05
Seat 1: MrDougTn ($65.70)
Seat 2: DrNotes ($168.80)
Seat 3: Forzzen ($200)
Seat 4: zinger82 ($129.40)
Seat 5: Laak39 ($146.80)
Seat 6: Rake Feeder ($210.85)
Seat 7: pattimac ($470.70)
Seat 8: Hillbilly Jr ($164.70)
Seat 9: RascalKing ($314.20)
pattimac posts the small blind of $1
Hillbilly Jr posts the big blind of $2
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [Qd Jd]
RascalKing has 15 seconds left to act
RascalKing folds
MrDougTn calls $2 <-- Limp from EP
DrNotes folds
Forzzen folds
zinger82 folds
Laak39 folds
Rake Feeder calls $2 <-- Easy limp with QJ sooted
pattimac calls $1
Hillbilly Jr checks
*** FLOP *** [Kd Td 9d] <-- Gin and Juice!
pattimac checks
Hillbilly Jr checks
MrDougTn bets $8 <-- Looks like a probe bet
Rake Feeder calls $8 <-- I flopped the nuts!
pattimac calls $8 <-- Hmm
Hillbilly Jr folds
*** TURN *** [Kd Td 9d] [8s] <-- I hope this helps someone
pattimac checks
MrDougTn checks
Rake Feeder bets $8 <-- Please call me!
pattimac raises to $22 <-- I put him on the flush here
MrDougTn calls $22 <-- I put him on a good piece of the flop
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder has requested TIME <-- I have mad online acting skillz
Rake Feeder calls $14
*** RIVER *** [Kd Td 9d 8s] [5s] <-- Blank, not that it mattered
pattimac bets $38 <-- He thinks this is a value bet
MrDougTn calls $33.70, and is all in <-- Pot committed
Rake Feeder has 15 seconds left to act
Rake Feeder raises to $178.85, and is all in <-- Push for value
pattimac has 15 seconds left to act
pattimac calls $140.85
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Rake Feeder shows [Qd Jd] a straight flush, King high
pattimac mucks
Rake Feeder wins the side pot ($290.30) with a straight flush, King high
MrDougTn mucks
Rake Feeder wins the main pot ($196.10) with a straight flush, King high
MrDougTn is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $489.40 Main pot $199.10. Side pot $290.30. | Rake $3
Board: [Kd Td 9d 8s 5s]
Seat 1: MrDougTn mucked [9c 9h] - three of a kind, Nines <-- Bad timing to flop a set
Seat 2: DrNotes didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Forzzen didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: zinger82 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Laak39 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Rake Feeder (button) showed [Qd Jd] and won ($486.40) with a straight flush, King high
Seat 7: pattimac (small blind) mucked [8d Ad] - a flush, Ace high <-- Ouch
Seat 8: Hillbilly Jr (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: RascalKing didn't bet (folded)
DrNotes: holy crap
Hillbilly Jr: vnh rake
Forzzen: wow
Forzzen: nh
Rake Feeder: good flop for me
pattimac: i couldnt fold
DrNotes: good is the wrong word
Rake Feeder: nothing you can do with that patt
DrNotes: he flopped the nut flush
DrNotes: u had the ONLY cards in the
deck that could beat him
DrNotes: that was just sick

Sunday at the Woods

2007-08-27T14:13:00.000-04:00

I have been Jonesing to get back to Foxwoods for a few days, and finally woke up Sunday morning and just drove down by myself. I have had a very good run at Foxwoods since returning from Iraq, nearly every session has been in the positive, +500, +900, +1200, etc. Sure there were a few sessions that were break even or minor losses, but nothing that bothered me. Until yesterday...

I would like to say that I was cold-decked, but I did get a few premium hands, AAx2, QQx2 (all cracked). Unsuited 5 gappers were the norm and looked like gold. I had QQ cracked by 24o and 34o after making it $40 to go pre-flop. AA was cracked by TT on a flop of KJ8. I had re-raised two $17 pre-flop bets to $65 and one came along. I pushed on the flop, and the TT player was proud to get it in behind claiming he had a straight draw - runner, runner of course!

3 times I got it all in with at least a 4-1 advantage, and every time I was runner runnered for miracle suck outs. Enough of the bad beat stories, nobody wants to read about someone else's misery.

Live poker is rigged.

Bovine Scatology

2007-08-23T22:45:00.000-04:00

This is the kind of shit that Full Tilt has been killing me with:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed)
UTG ($224.70)
UTG+1 ($220.75)
MP1 ($76.10)
MP2 ($201.75)
MP3 ($97.20)
CO ($230.55)
Button ($127.25)
Hero ($200.40)
BB ($49.40)

Preflop: Hero is SB with Qh, Kd.
7 folds, Hero raises to $6, BB calls $4.

Flop: ($13) Ts, 9c, 2s (2 players)
Hero bets $12, BB calls $12.

Turn: ($37) Jc (2 players)
Hero bets $18, BB calls $18.

River: ($73) Ac (2 players)
Hero bets $14, BB calls $13.40 (All-In).

Final Pot: $99.81

Results below:
Hero has Qh Kd (straight, ace high).
BB has 6c 5c (flush, ace high).
Outcome: BB wins $99.80. Hero wins $0.59.

Granted, I did not have a huge hand pre flop, but whatever possessed this guy to call the flop and turn bets with a bad draw? He hand to go runner runner in order to beat my turned straight and rivered broadway. I supposed I could have put him all-in on the turn, but my gut tells me he would have called.

An open letter to Full Tilt support

2007-08-17T17:58:00.000-04:00

Dear Full Tilt,

Please flip my boom switch back to the winning position. I need to catch more sets that turn into boats vs runner runner straights and flushes.

Thank You,

Rake Feeder

p.s. While you are at it, please stop counterfeiting my top 2 pair vs an over pair.

Iron Man Final Table

2007-08-11T20:38:00.000-04:00

Last month I played on Full Tilt nearly every day, qualifying for the Full Tilt Iron Man promotion and entrance into the $30,000 freeroll. When I played in the Gold level freeroll there was quite a bit of dead money, about half the players did not even show up. Such was not the case at the Iron level game, I am sure there were a few no shows, but on my tables every player was present.

With 298 players and a $30,000 prize pool it was essentially a $100 tourney for free! Of course my MGR will take the hit and my rakeback will suffer, but IMHO it is worthwhile to opt-in to the Iron Man promotion.

I was chip leader for quite some time after the bubble broke, up until the final two tables. With 12 players left my QQ was cracked by a donk open pushing UTG with K6o for 17,000 vs my 60,000. The blinds were 800/1600, I understand he was short stacked but there really is no need to push UTG with that kind of hand. The hits just kept on coming, and my stack dwindled to 12k until I doubled up with pocket sixes.

I was talking to wwonka on the phone, when the final table popped, and the very first hand I get AA in the BB with a raiser from LP. I have 24,000 in chips facing a 3x raise to $7,500 with the blinds at 1200/2400. I insta push of course, and he insta calls.

Boom! Aces cracked by KJo. Out in 9th place.

Sure I am happy anytime I get $450 for free, it just sucks to go out like that.

Mookie Donkout, Dookie Win!

2007-08-09T01:01:00.000-04:00

My buddy Wonka called me tonight to remind me about the Mookie. I had spent much of the afternoon and evening drinking beer at the local American Legion Post, of which I am the newest (and youngest) member. There was a small game in the back room, but it was only a $5 buy in, I was not going to waste my time. I was tempted, as I had not played any poker at all since my Saturday pilgrimage to Foxwoods. My live play has been great, but my online cash games at Full Tilt have left much to be desired. I have been getting pounded by runner runner straights and flushes when I flop top set and bet out.

It was clear early on that tonight was not going to be my night at the mookie. In the 1st level I have AA in LP with a few limpers followed up by a 4x raise from Irongirl in front of me. I re-raise the pot and she mucks. I am very happy taking it down a nice little pot without seeing the flop. The next orbit, I have AA again (card rack). There are a few limpers and once again a raise by Irongirl. I re-raise the pot, she pushes, I insta-call and a 9 on the flop gives her a set of 9s and leaves me with only 800 chips very early. She said that she was tilting from another tourney. I tell her it is all good, I knew there must be a reason for her going to the well with pocket nines so early in the tourney. I manage to work back up to a decent stack, mostly due to a suckout with 56s vs AK, followed by a double up off of MiamiDon with KK. I ended up donking it all back to him with AQ vs his AA in the BB. Out in 16th or so.

The dookie was a HORSE event, something that I have very limited experience in. I do not play much limit hold em, my style prefers to take pots down long before the turn and river. I do however enjoy playing Omaha H/L, it used to be my favorite bonus clearing game. Razz and Stud are not in my normal list of games to play either. Net result for the night = +$26, yay.

Weekly Pilgrimage to Foxwoods

2007-08-05T08:50:00.000-04:00

One of my buddies from Iraq lives in CT, he and I have been making a weekly pilgrimage to Foxwoods for a while now. First of all, it is nice to be able to keep in touch with a friend from over there. After an 18 month call up with 12 months deployed to a combat zone you get to know people better than friends you have had for years. It was surprisingly difficult to get a game going over there, General Order #1 prohibits gambling of any sort and although poker games did happen, they were almost always small 4-6 player tournaments with a very low buy in. Early in the deployment we did manage to get into a game with the unit from the 82nd that lived next to us. All of their money ended up in either my pocket or my buddy's pocket and they never let us play with them again. What were you doing with $1000 in the desert anyway? The MWR (Morale, Welfare, Recreation) tent sponsored a tournament once a month, "for fun" with $50 phone card or PX gift certificate prizes. Unfortunately, I never had the time to make it to one of the legal games.

I arrived at the reservation about 930am, and was 10th on the list for the 1-2 NL tables. My buddy had been there for about 30 minutes, and was quickly up about $200 after some aggressive play. I was called for a brand new table, locked up seat 8 and proceeded to the cage to get my chips. On the way back a seat opened at my buddy's table, and the nice floor lady let me move to sit with my friend.

The play was typical for the 1-2 NL tables at Foxwoods; everyone was limping into as many pots as possible, pre flop raises from $7-15 only juiced up the pot, and only large ($25-35) re-raises would take it down pre-flop. I limped with KK UTG, everyone limps around to the button who makes it $10 to go. The blinds fold and I re-raised to $35, big stack from MP calls and the button calls. The flop is K93, I have top set and bet out $40 expecting at least one caller. Both muck claiming small pairs, I show my Kings and my table image earns some credit.

I take down a few pots pre-flop with decent pairs and re-raises from the BB, I build my stack rarely going to show down. After 5 hours I am up $900 and in need of a break. My buddy has lost some ground, a flopped Aces full to a rivered AK bigger boat, and some questionable calls with second pair. He is sitting on about $400 after re-loading a hundo and breaking even. I decide that I am going to take my chips off the table and rat-hole my profits. There is a long list for 1-2 NL, I put my name in before heading to eat. Lunch at the 5th Street Cafe is on me, I have enough player points to cover both of us.

It is about 3pm, my buddy heads back to his table, and I check the list. My name must have been called while we were eating, I have to get back in line. No worries, 1-2 NL is so popular, they seem to have 25-30 tables running and still opening new tables. I get called for a new table, and once again on my way back from the cage I notice an empty seat at my friends table. The floor lets me move and I am back in the same seat. Evidently my replacement had bought in for the minimum twice and spread his chips around the table. Strangely, everyone was glad to see me back.

In retrospect, I should have just left my money on the table and taken my break. I had been successful at the table, had built a good stack and earned a good image. My post break game was not nearly as successful as my morning session. Most of the table has been here all day, with stacks built from the never ending stream of tourists buying in for the minimum 2-3 times, busting out and leaving. I no longer have the stack to move people off of hands. I am card dead for an eternity, re-loading 3 hundos each time I dropped below $200 and considering leaving. At about 8pm I say to my friend that I need to double up soon or I am going home. I have a little more than $300 in front of me, and the very next hand I have AKs in the BB.

Limpity, limp, limp around the table to the button who is sitting on about $1500 raises to $15. The small blind calls $15, and I bump it up to $30 hoping to drive out the rest of the field. It works and we go 3 way to the flop with about $100 in the pot. The flop is an absolute dream for me. K73 with 2 spades. TPTK with nut flush re-draw. The SB checks, I bet out $60 and the button raises to $120. The SB folds and I think about it for a minute. I know the huge stack has a very wide range of hands after 10 hours at the table. I have seen him make this move with KQ before. He knows that I don't have my big stack from the morning session. If I jam, I expect he will call as he has been running very well, he can afford it, and I am short enough to price him in if he has a decent hand. If he had AA or KK, he would have come over the top of my pre-flop bump. I am more afraid of him having 73 than 77 or 33 based on his previous holdings. I push, putting $170 on top of his raise and he calls, showing AKo. Nice! At worst we are chopping and I have the only re-draw. The dealer wastes no time in putting another spade on the board, and after the dust settles I am blessed with nearly $700 in chips, back on top by $100 after my 3 hundo reloads. After the hand he said he thought I might be on a set of 7s, but he couldn't get away from TPTK.

Final tally, 12 hours for $1000 profit. Plus free lunch.

Cash Games, Daily Double, and the Mookie!

2007-08-02T01:42:00.000-04:00

I played in a few tournaments and 1-2 NL cash games on Full Tilt tonight (last night?). I was in my normal 4 table grind and breaking even, until I ran my AA into AA and KK. The action was raised to $8 from MP, I re-raised to $18 from LP, the BB came over the top and made it $40 to go. The MP raiser flat called and I pushed all in. Everyone came along for a nice chop of $131 to each of the pocket Aces.

I played in The Daily Doubles at 9pm and of course the Mookie at 10pm. I was run out of the Daily Double A when my flopped trips and flush draw was beat by a flopped full house. I really should have gotten away from the hand when my flop bet was re-raised. I did manage to cash in the Daily Double B for a whopping $22.44 which nearly covered my buy-in for both games.

My big hand on the final table was a 3 way all-in between me, ScottMc and Mike_Maloney. I had about 15,000 and wake up with QQ UTG. I am looking for action and I put in the standard raise of 3x the blind to 3600. ScottMc goes all in from MP for about 11,000, and Mike_Maloney pushes for 15,000 from the BB.

I was prepared to call one all-in with my QQ, but 2? I easily could have been up against AA or KK in this spot. I pushed and hoped that one of them was on a medium pocket pair, and the other a big Ace. If I have any readers, comments are welcome on my play.

We traded chips around for a while, I sucked out a couple times, and we were finally heads up with a slight chip advantage in my favor. On the first hand heads up my opponent bonehet timed out on the button. He had been having disconnection issues all evening, so when the next hand was dealt, I quickly raised thinking he was disconnected. Yes, it was a cheap play but thats the way it is online. Unfortunately I did not raise enough for the value of my hand AJ, and he returned in time to call my min raise with 53s. The flop was 53J and I was crippled. Oh well bad karma on me. On the next hand he put me all in for 13,000, I insta called with Ace-poop, he showed Q3s and caught a Q on the turn, game over.

Thanks for the radio show to BuddyDank and his crew!

I am Iron Man!

2007-07-27T16:17:00.000-04:00

I did see Ozzy play live back when I was a teenager, but that is not the Iron Man I am referring to...

The Full Tilt Iron Man Challenge promotion has got to be the biggest pain in the ass VIP program of any site. If it were not for the fact that I just got back from Iraq and have not returned to a normal person's daily grind yet, I doubt that I would have the time or energy to qualify.

Last month I had a late start, I did not sign up for Full Tilt until the 5th of June or so, and really did not get going until the latter half of the month. I did qualify for Silver, and cashed in the freeroll. If the Iron freeroll plays anything like the Silver, it should be another easy cash.

Foxwoods has been good to me, variance on Full Tilt has been rough, but I am still ahead for the month. I have begun to spread out my play to other sites; Absolute (yuck) and Ultimate Bet - where I have a rake back account through PSO.

I would like to say thanks for the Kudos to Hoyazo. I think that bullying the short stack with A7s from the CO is an ok play if you can afford to do it and you think the shorty will fold to your raise. Defending your big blind heads up with J9s and 5 big blinds remaining might be an ok play as well.

Friday at Full Tilt

2007-07-21T01:50:00.000-04:00

Friday night I played in 3 tournaments on Full Tilt, the two Daily Doubles, and the Katitude Donkament.

There is not to much to say about the donkament, with only 10 players, it took about 30 minutes to break down to the final table. I finished in 3rd place for the massive payout of $12.60, netting me a $7.60 profit after a couple re-buys and the add-on.

In the Daily Double A, I donked out soon after the first break, AQ vs 44, TPTK vs a flopped set. Oh well.

In the Daily Double B, I managed to survive until 13th. My final hand was 88 vs 33, of course he flopped a set.

FullTiltPoker Game #3011174813: Daily Double - B (22427345), Table 35 - 4000/8000 Ante 1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:44:46 ET - 2007/07/21
Seat 1: shadywestie (134,828)
Seat 3: ejbadger (318,634)
Seat 5: Rorschach (127,490)
Seat 6: j2the6th (331,588)
Seat 7: Rake Feeder (167,168)
Seat 9: apology7 (312,944)
shadywestie antes 1,000
ejbadger antes 1,000
Rorschach antes 1,000
j2the6th antes 1,000
Rake Feeder antes 1,000
apology7 antes 1,000
Rorschach posts the small blind of 4,000
j2the6th posts the big blind of 8,000
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Rake Feeder [8d 8c]
Rake Feeder raises to 30,000
apology7 folds
shadywestie folds
ejbadger folds
Rorschach folds
j2the6th raises to 330,588, and is all in
Rake Feeder calls 136,168, and is all in
j2the6th shows [3s 3c]
Rake Feeder shows [8d 8c]
Uncalled bet of 164,420 returned to j2the6th
*** FLOP *** [2h 2d 3d]
*** TURN *** [2h 2d 3d] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [2h 2d 3d Jc] [7c]
j2the6th shows a full house, Threes full of Twos
Rake Feeder shows two pair, Eights and Twos
ejbadger: wow
j2the6th wins the pot (342,336) with a full house, Threes full of Twos
ejbadger: gg
Rake Feeder: gg
apology7: yow
Rake Feeder stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 342,336 | Rake 0
Board: [2h 2d 3d Jc 7c]
Seat 1: shadywestie folded before the Flop
Seat 3: ejbadger folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Rorschach (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: j2the6th (big blind) showed [3s 3c] and won (342,336) with a full house, Threes full of Twos
Seat 7: Rake Feeder showed [8d 8c] and lost with two pair, Eights and Twos
Seat 9: apology7 folded before the Flop

Nothing new here

2007-07-17T11:45:00.000-04:00

Wow, I have not posted for over a week. Not that it matters, nobody reads this blog anyway. I have played 1-2 NL on Full Tilt every day this month, with no forward progress. My account balance is in constant flux, up $500, down $600, down $1000, and back up to even. Variance is an ugly whore, and she keeps hitting me in the jimmies. I suppose that I really should not complain, most of the big pots I drag are sets vs over pairs, and the big pots I lose are over pairs vs sets and drawn out flushes. Like many players, I find it damn difficult to throw away my premium hands on what appears to be a safe board. Someone teach me the secret to not going broke with AA please.

Yesterday I went to Foxwoods with wwonka and his brother who was home from California. He plays quite a bit of 3-6 Omaha HL in the LA card rooms. We arrived in the early afternoon, and put our names in for the 4-8 Omaha HL with half kill game. I was planning on spending some time with my friends until the 6pm tourney started. Well the list filled up and we sat at what was supposed to be "must move" new feeder table. Unfortunately half the list did not show up, and the table broke before it got going. I decided to just play 1-2 NL since there were more than 20 1-2 NL tables with open seating. I manage to sit near the Omaha table to keep an eye on my friends, just in case I want to switch.

The 1-2 NL game at Foxwoods has changed since I went to Iraq. It used to be $100 max buy in with a $5 time every 30 minutes. How can you beat this game losing 10% of your stack every hour? The new game has a much more appropriate $300 max buy in, and plays much looser than the online games I am used to at Full Tilt. A standard 3-4 times the blind preflop raise entices a family pot instead of raking the blinds. Unless someone opens for $20, half the table is going to come along. Even a $15 pre flop raise would often have 5 players see the flop.

The first table was filled with tourists who should have been playing 2-4 Limit. They like to buy in for the minimum $60, play every hand to the river and reload. There was one big stack bully, who was constantly asking the question "How much do you have left?", which was soon followed up by "I put you all in". He seemed to be playing quite a few pots with opportunistic drawing hands. Suited connectors, suited Ace-poop, and was getting paid by the tourists. I did manage to suck out one pot on him. I raised enough preflop to get him heads up with QQ. The flop was Ace-high, but I bet out anyway and he called. The turn was another Ace which was checked to the river. A beautiful Q came, and I nearly doubled up with my rivered boat. Needless to say he was unhappy to see his A2s trips losing a $200 pot.

The table broke, and I moved to the next table over with about $600. Tourist to my left complained that I was bringing too much money to the table, and asked why I did not have to post the blind or pay the time. He did not understand that I was coming from a broken table.

At the second table, I became a card rack. I think I had Aces full twice and got paid off by AK and trip 10s. I had KK hold up 2 times, and a few small sets good for stacking the minimum buy-in tourists. I did get AA cracked by a set of 4s, but that was only for $60. Two hands later my pocket sixes stacked the same player on a 446 board, he was holding A4s.

Eight hours of play at the tables cost me $80 in time paid to the casino. I cashed out $1300 for a smooth grand in profit. I am planning to head back to Foxwoods tomorrow with one of my buddies from Iraq. If I do well, you can read about it on Thursday or Friday; if not I will pretend it never happened and probably not post for another week.

Foxwoods Daily 10am Tourney

2007-07-05T19:26:00.000-04:00

My friend Scott called me 2 days ago and said that I had committed to going to Foxwoods with him on the 5th of July. I don't recall committing to anything, but sure I was game and made the drive down. The daily $100 ($80+$20) tournaments get about 150 players, T5000 chips and 20 minute levels. Six and a half hours later I finish in 4th place for a $931 payout.

Miracle suck outs can and do occur live just like online. Short stacked on the final table bubble I go all in preflop for T27K with pockets 9s. The blinds are 3000-6000 with a 500 ante. Mega big stack at T150K calls with K9 clubs. The flop comes all clubs giving him a flopped flush. The turn pairs the board, and I call for the case 9 which of course comes on the river. I catch my runner runner boat and double up.

This was my best finish in a Foxwoods tourney. Historically when I go to Foxwoods, I donate my $100 buy in, and then move over to the 1-2 NL game and make my money back. I am quite pleased with a decent live finish.

Blogger Big Game

2007-07-02T02:58:00.000-04:00

Sunday night I played in the blogger big game for the first time, and managed to survive enough races to eeek out 3rd place. I was not going to play, but my buddy Wwonka talked me into it. I had played in a satellite earlier in the day but fell short of a token, and ended up paying cash.

The hand where I accumulated enough chips to make the final table came after the first break when my KK ran into AA and QQ. All the money went in before the flop, but I spiked a King on the turn to knock out smizmiatch and crippled Zeem.

A while later I was one of the big stacks at the table I raise with TT and get called by Smokkee who limps UTG. The flop is 456 rainbow so I bet the pot and he calls. Bells go off for some reason. I am giving him credit for a good hand because he limped from UTG and smooth called my raise and flop bets. The turn is a Q and we both check. The river is another 4 and he bets out 3600, after some thought I muck what turned out to be the best hand, he showed A8h. I felt that at that point in the tournament it was not worth it to lose the chips.

I basically fold my way to the final table going from chip leader to average stack. I took some small pots, nothing of note though.

At the final table I get real short on the money bubble and begin pushing like a donkey in order to stay alive. The blinds were so high I had no choice if I wanted to remain in the game I needed to steal and get lucky. I keep on getting Ace-poop in the SB when it is folded to around and push on Smokkee's blind. I manage to do this 4 or 5 times when he says he will call with any two cards if I do it again. I wasn't trying to pick on him, I was desperate for chips and he was to my left. Well the next blind is folded to me, I push with A5o and he is a man of his word and calls me. He calls with 82 suited and I double up. A5o is gold!

Three-way it was me, Hoyazo and TripJax, what a brutal game. Each of us was short stacked, dead even, or 2-1 chip leader multiple times. My hat is off to Hoyazo and TripJax for a great match.

Royal Flush

2007-07-01T19:41:00.000-04:00

Since poker blogs are a dime a dozen, it is fitting that I post my lame ass Royal Flush. I am playing 1-2 NL on Tilt, hovering a little below my $200 buy in. I have been playing tight, and pretty card dead. My preflop bets are generally getting called by 2-3 people. I open for $7 preflop and get one caller.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, $2 BB (9 handed)

MP3 ($102)
CO ($251)
Button ($189)
SB ($224)
BB ($200)
UTG ($189.90)
Hero ($183)
MP1 ($85.70)
MP2 ($207.85)

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Ks, Qs.
1 fold, Hero raises to $7, 1 fold, MP2 calls $7, 5 folds.

Flop: ($17) 7h, Js, Ts (2 players)
Hero bets $12, MP2 calls $12.

Turn: ($41) 6c (2 players)
Hero bets $15, MP2 calls $15.

River: ($71) As (2 players)
Hero bets $45, MP2 calls $45.

Final Pot: $161

Results below:
Hero has Ks Qs (straight flush, ace high).
MP2 has Ah Jh (two pair, aces and jacks).
Outcome: Hero wins $161.

I figured he had the jack, but I thought that I just might get paid off if I managed to hit my draw. I suppose him having top 2 was why he called, maybe I should have bet more on the river. Anyway it is nice to hit a Royal and get paid when there is no progressive.

For the record this is my 4th Royal Flush. My first was in a MTT on Party a couple years ago, then I had a couple playing Omaha (but they dont really count), and then this one.

HPT

2007-06-30T04:50:00.000-04:00

A good friend of mine began playing in a regular game while I was in Iraq, and hosts a nice home game every month or two. The players are mostly from the town he lives in, a few play online or visit local card rooms on a regular basis. Some are solid players, some not so good; it is an average Joe garden variety home game.

On Friday night the game was a 2 table tourney, 17 players T6000 and 20 minute blinds starting at 25-25. A nice slow structure that lets everyone play for a few hours before becoming beer delivery agents. Wwonka drove out with me, and as usual those of us with the longest drive are the only ones on time and ready to play.

I started at the small table with 8 players, lucky for me two of the better players are to my right. I have played with most of the crowd before, and have a reputation of being Tight Aggressive so I intend to capitalize on it and mix up my play. The general play at my table is weak tight, and I know who to lookout for, so I open up to a large range of starting hands and begin stealing from the limpers. I know they are limping with junk, any ace, two face, so pot sized raises are stealing chips from the passive players.

The table seems to know that I am raising with junk, but I continue to build my stack as they miss their draws and I keep chipping up. Then I wake up with AA in the BB. The action is min-raised to me with 1 other caller. I decide to play passively and smooth call. Yes of course this is dangerous, I check call their min bets all the way down and bet half the pot on the river and get paid off showing my pocket AA.

Flopping a straight with Q9 from the SB on the next hand out adds more chips to my stack, and allows me to continue making moves, nobody wants to play a hand with me. I have more than doubled up only showing down 2 hands.

Once the players says that she knows I am bluffing and asks me to show a bluff so I promise I will show my next bluff. What a better hand to accomplish this than the hammer! I raise from the button with 72o and drive out everyone except my soon to be bluffed friend. A pot sized bet on the flop gets her to fold and I show my hammer. Everyone at the table is pissed but I have a monster stack and nobody can stand in my way.

Air Force Steve limps from the SB and I check my option with 83o. He is a solid player, but like everyone capable of making a mistake. The flop comes 832 rainbow, great news for me! He checks, and I check behind. The Turn is another rag, he bets 1000, and I raise to 3000. He pushes all-in and I call, cracking his pocket jacks JJ with my rags and sending him to the rail. He wanted to get some value for his JJ, and it turned out to be a disaster. I am the overall big stack as we consolidate to one table.

The final table has 6 small to average stacks destined for trouble with the ever increasing blinds and 3 big stacks. The big stacks begin pushing the small stacks around while trying to stay out of each others way.

With the blinds at 500-1000, I raise to 3000 from MP with TT, and a short stack goes all in for 6ooo, Bigstack3 calls a quarter of her stack from the SB, and I call after getting a chip count. The flop is J8T rainbow, the action is checked all the way down. Blank on the turn and another Jack on the river. I value bet 3000 with my boat Bigstack2 calls with QQ. Bigstack3 is now known as Smallstack3 and I have a monster lead. I learn the the guy I knocked out was last weeks winner, and there was a nice bounty that I collected.

The remaining short stacks all get knocked out by Biggestron, and now our stacks are nearly equal as we enter heads up play. Heads up vs Biggestron only takes about 10 minutes. We are close in chips, the plays are raise-fold, raise-all-in-fold, etc. until we both get it all in with my AT vs his KQ. I double up and he has about 8000 left. A few hands later my King-rag spikes the flop to beat his Ace-poop and the game is over.

2nd Post!

2007-06-30T04:27:00.001-04:00

I am new to blogging, though I have certainly spent a lot of time reading other peoples blogs while donking it up. Poker blogs are a dime a dozen, why would anyone want to start a new one, and who would actually read it?

I have recently returned from a tour in Iraq, I was called up in November 2005 and spent 6 months training at Fort Bragg before deploying to the desert for a year. Say goodbye to 575 days of my life, but that is another story...

Maybe writing a blog will help with my self diagnosed PTSD. Since returning, I haven't done shit except play poker. I have gone to Vegas once, and Foxwoods 6 or 7 times during the two months that I have been back. I just started playing online poker again, mostly on Full Tilt.

I am in no mood to go back to work as an IT Consultant, and after a year in combat I deserve a little slack time while I get my life back in order. The nice thing about going to Iraq is there is nothing to spend your money on over there. I managed to save up enough money to fund a modest bankroll and pay the bills for a while.

First Post!

2007-06-14T20:59:00.000-04:00

Coming soon!