Priorities

Around this time last year, I was unemployed. I was living off of a combination of unemployment benefits and a severance package I received in May. It was probably around this same time of year that I had more money in my online bankroll than I did in my bank account. Admittedly, that bankroll was in the $4k range thanks to a couple of tournament scores and a decent showing in my first attempt to seriously play cash games. Technically, I wasn’t a professional poker player since I was actually receiving unemployment checks, but it was probably the closest I’ve been to being “pro” since I was relying on my poker earnings for financial support. After a major downswing, I cashed out my remaining bankroll to make sure I could pay my bills.

......

Unless you also follow my other, more personal blog (which I update just as infrequently), it’s doubtful that you know this, but I am a diabetic. I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes almost 2 years ago. It was a long time coming – it runs in my family and it’s an effect of poor dieting and exercise practices. It’s a blessing and a curse that it’s happened at such an early age for me (I was diagnosed when I was 29); it’s disheartening that I lived so poorly that it emerged so early, but at least I’m still able bodied enough to do the right things to manage it.

.....

Newly employed as of three months ago, I redeposited $60 on FTP at the beginning of April. I was just excited to be able to play again, even if all it meant was a micro SNG or two and an occasional Mookie. I never anticipated that, through a couple of tournament victories and many SNG cashes, I would be able to turn that $60 into over $1800 in just over 2 months. I had a workable bankroll again, and at the beginning of June, I felt like I was ready to seriously focus on improving as a poker player.

That was two weeks ago. I’m now back to zero on FTP, again.

......

Unless you’ve play online poker in a cave, you know about the latest scare to the online poker community – the Feds’ seizure of $30 million from the online sites’ bank accounts. Aside from occasional screams that the sky is falling, online poker has hardly been affected.

Yet, I can’t help to see the writing on the wall. This can’t last forever, can it? Online poker has survived many blows; the downfall of Neteller and the UIGEA were some of the biggest, but it’s still here. It’ll survive this one two, but it has me wondering how many more blows it can take. What I do know is, at this point in my life, I don’t want $1800 at risk when the final blow is landed, whenever that may be.

Anytime I go to Vegas, I give myself two rules – only take what I can afford to lose, and don’t worry about losing it all. If I take $1000 to Vegas, I don’t go with the intent that I will lose it all; I go with the intent that should I happen to lose it all, I’ll be OK.

Although I’m steadily employed right now, I’m not planning any Vegas trips anytime soon (although I will mention that I’ve already got the December gathering planned for in my personal budget. Mark my words – I will be there this year). So I’m left to wonder – if I’m not planning on taking any money to gamble anytime soon, then what am I doing with $1800 in my online bankroll?

Is my online bankroll really a top priority?

......

So yeah, I’m busto again, but this time it’s for the right reasons. I had already cashed out $300 over the course of these two months, and I requested a check for the rest sometime last week. I feel confident that it will get here eventually, and I know it was the right decision. I experienced the stress of playing poker with larger sums of money last year. The uncertainty of being able to withdraw it in a timely manner, combined with the thoughts in the back of my head telling me that money has better uses elsewhere, stressed me out more than I care to handle (looking back, I’m sure that stress directly contributed to the downswing that forced my last big withdrawal).

When I do get my check (and when I’m positive it’s cleared), I’ll have $1500 to put towards more important things; things like paying off credit cards or seeing the dentist. Things like paying for a vacation to Chicago or summer camping trips. There’s a reason I’ve budgeted these things before planning a trip to Vegas or a tournament at a local cardroom. The difference is that, now, I’m of the belief that online poker falls into the group of lesser priorities, not the group of greater ones.

......

But why the whole bankroll? Why not leave another $60 to work on building up again? Rinse and repeat, what’s the harm in that?

Again, it’s about priorities.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a diabetic. Of life-threatening diseases it’s not necessarily the worst to have, but nevertheless it is also one of our nation’s biggest killers. Of my immediate family, 2\3rds of us our diabetic, and sadly, that’s not as far from the norm as one might think. It’s a disease that’s manageable with proper diet and exercise, but without proper management, it can lead blindness, loss of limbs, kidney disease and\or death.

My own diabetes could be called “mild”. I’m not insulin dependent, I’m only one one medication, and for the most part, I’m able to maintain non-diabetic levels of glucose in my blood. There are probably thousands of people suffering from this same disease who would like to be where I’m at.

However, with diabetes, there’s always room for improvement, and the best way to accomplish this is via diet and exercise. Since January, I’ve paid less attention to these two components, and recently, I’ve noticed the impact. It’s nothing immediately serious – I’m 10 pounds heavier than I was and my glucose levels are still good, just a bit higher than normal. But it’s not hard to notice the trend.

Unfortunately, there are no studies that conclude that sitting on your ass for hours playing online poker is a form of treatment for diabetes. Just as an online bankroll is not necessarily the best use of my cash right now, playing online poker a couple hours a day, a couple days a week is not the best use of my time.

So I’ve withdrawn, and I’m going on hiatus until at least my birthday (August 16th – mark your calendars). I’ve even thought about self-excluding from FTP but I decided against it for two reasons. One, I want to make sure my check clears and two, this is about something I want to do, not something I’m forcing myself to do. If these are priorities I really care about, I’ll have no problem staying away.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances (e.g. death, either for me or for online poker), I’ll be back in a couple of months. I still have plans of the WSOP in the future, and I’m still just as serious about wanting to focus on improving my poker skills, especially given some recent developments (I’ll talk about those in my next post).

Right now, it’s just not a priority.

I’ll be around…

The Day After

So, obviously, I didn’t take the TOC all that seriously yesterday. I got incredibly sloshed at a beach party right before, didn’t show up until about 30 minutes in, and busted out in the middle of the pack shoving an OESD into Hoy.

Considering that (all things equal) I had a 1 in 22 chance at winning the ME seat, one could imagine that there’s a hint of regret that I basically wasted what might be my best chance ever to play in the Main Event. As drunk as I was, I feel like I was actually playing pretty decently and was far from out of the tournament before my final hand. I even told myself earlier in the day that if I had any chance to win, I would have to reign in my bluffing tendencies a bit. Sadly, I forgot to remind myself of that after nearly a fifth of Maker’s.

But I have no regrets. As I mentioned before, I doubted my ability to make it to Vegas this year if I somehow luckboxed my way into one of the prizes, especially the ME seats. Of course, if that actually would have happened I would have tried everything in my power to make it happen, but knowing it would be tough anyways put me in the mindset weeks ago that I probably wasn’t going to take this tournament seriously. When I got word on Thursday that one of my good friends was planning a beach BBQ for his birthday celebration, I had a choice to make: go sober and put forth a solid effort in the TOC or get plastered and try my best anyways.

It’s obvious by now what my decision was but, in all honesty, I don’t know if my chances were really that damaged by the amount of alcohol in my system. Yesterday wasn’t the first time I ended my tournament life by overshoving with just a draw, and unless I start putting serious effort into my game, there’s no doubt that it won’t be the last. Nevertheless, I made the decision that I was going to enjoy my time at the BBQ, and if it meant that I lessened my chances at winning a seat, oh well.

So, all in all, yesterday was still a success for me. WSOP or not, it’s hard to find regret in a warm Sunday afternoon at the beach with your best friends and plenty of booze.

GG me.

GG CK and jjok too (good choice in not giving me those chips I kept begging for). GG to the other two winners. I have no doubt that the four of you will represent us bloggers better than I ever could.

How I Played The TOC

After losing with TP 2nd kicker to a 4-outer, I decided to end my run in the TOC with this hand.

Donkey call or soul read? Either way I went out of the TOC to a call with 2nd pair 7 kicker:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12684305694: Battle of the Blogger TOC (93186563), Table 4 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:23:47 ET - 2009/06/07
Seat 1: Shabazz Jenkins (4,599)
Seat 2: cracknaces (4,503)
Seat 3: VinNay (14,077)
Seat 4: hoyazo (24,592)
Seat 5: mclarich (5,520)
Seat 6: pvanharibo (13,345)
Seat 7: asphnxma (7,710)
Seat 8: jjok (12,360)
Seat 9: BuddyDank (3,943)
Shabazz Jenkins antes 25
cracknaces antes 25
VinNay antes 25
hoyazo antes 25
mclarich antes 25
pvanharibo antes 25
asphnxma antes 25
jjok antes 25
BuddyDank antes 25
hoyazo posts the small blind of 120
mclarich posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [6s 7d]
pvanharibo has 15 seconds left to act
pvanharibo folds
asphnxma folds
jjok folds
BuddyDank folds
Shabazz Jenkins folds
cracknaces folds
VinNay folds
hoyazo raises to 720
iaatg6296 (Observer): limpfest 2009 wsop edition
mclarich calls 480
*** FLOP *** [8h 9s Kc]
hoyazo has 15 seconds left to act
hoyazo checks
mclarich bets 1,200
hoyazo calls 1,200
*** TURN *** [8h 9s Kc] [Kd]
hoyazo checks
mclarich bets 3,575, and is all in
hoyazo calls 3,575
mclarich shows [6s 7d]
hoyazo shows [9c 7s]
*** RIVER *** [8h 9s Kc Kd] [2s]
mclarich shows a pair of Kings
hoyazo shows two pair, Kings and Nines
hoyazo wins the pot (11,215) with two pair, Kings and Nines


It doesn't matter either way. I entered the TOC drunk and I left the TOC drunk. Either way, I am a winner.

Gooooooo heffmike or smokkee or jamyhawk or CK!

Kind Of A Long Post

I tried my hand at another TOC seat last night in the Mookie. My demise was courtesy of the second best starting hand I had all night: ATo.

I raise the standard from the CO. Lucko calls on the button. Actyper shoves for about 1700 more.

Normally, I’m not the type to reshove ATo for all my chips, but I thought there was a strong possibility that he was squeezing light. Folding left me with 20BB; obviously workable but I was tired of folding. So I went with my read and reshoved.

Actyper shows T4. Woohoo, I made a stellar read!

Oh yeah, Lucko anticipated the squeeze and called too with JJ and it held. Bleh.

Oh well, I suppose I can’t complain too much. At least I already have a seat. SUCKAS!

(note: in case actyper reads this, my comment in the chat box of “stupid squeeze play” wasn’t personal. It was more in the vein of a Homer Simpson comment, like “stupid sexy Flanders ”. But, yes, my call with ATo was pretty great, eh?)

......

Intermission: for a vomit-inducing hand, see Jamy’s latest post from a 5-table Super Turbo we both ended up in. It’s not every day you get KK and be absolutely drawing dead on the flop. Stupid super turbos (again, think Homer Simpson).

......

Back to TOC talk and, consequently, WSOP talk.

It’s crazy to think that I’m one tournament victory away from being able to play in the WSOP. It’s crazier to think that I’ve even got a chance to win given the competition in the TOC, but I’m in so I’m saying there’s a chance. Nevertheless, I’m realistic of my chance and I’m not anticipating a trip to the WSOP this year. Next year though, that’s a different story.

When I first started this blog, I did it with the primary intent of somehow wedging my way into the group of poker bloggers that I was reading on a regular basis. This was almost three years ago. Back then, I was a bigger donkey than I am now; it might be hard for some to imagine that I’ve actually improved as a player, but I certainly see it when I read my older posts.

I didn’t have very many goals back then. I wanted to improve but didn’t really know where to start. I wasn’t looking to “go pro” or even start playing higher stakes, but I at least wanted to be more competitive at the levels I was playing. But I did establish one goal back then, a goal that I still think about regularly, a goal that’s stated in my blog’s tagline:

“The WSOP...in 2010.”

It’s kind of a funny goal if you really dissect it. My goal has nothing to do with winning or making money, usually a common denominator for a poker-oriented goal. My goal is just to play. In simpler terms, my goal is really about being able to spend a large amount of money on a poker tournament. Thinking about it that way, it makes a lot of sense.

I doubt I’ll ever take poker very seriously. Sure, I want to be good at it and play competitively, but the time & dedication needed to accomplish that is something that I can’t accommodate. Even if any other competing priorities were eliminated, I don’t know if I have the desire to make that investment. I’m interested in improving but I also accept that there’s a certain ceiling that I’ll hit if I’m not willing to make certain sacrifices elsewhere in my life. Additionally, I’ve set certain financial goals in my life, and those goals have demanded at times that A) I set aside a limited amount of money for poker and\or B) that I dip into my bankroll to help achieve these goals.

So although my one main goal can be simplified as a goal of just spending money, for me, it’s still an achievement. Truthfully, I’m much closer these days to being able drop down that cash than ever before. I’m employed again, in a position that is both as stable as one could ask for these days & paying me enough to make some of those financial goals happen sooner. Additionally, although it’s waned a bit since I started this blog, my passion & enthusiasm for poker is still very strong and the allure of the WSOP is still exciting to me.

Each year, hundreds of poker head into Vegas this time of year hoping to be the next Chris Moneymaker; the next rags-to-riches donkey with a bracelet on one arm and loads of cash under the other. I’m hoping to be the next Moneymaker as well, but my sights are set on being the version that starts the tournament: an unknown, casual poker player in his first WSOP, just happy to be there. For me, that’s an accomplishment, and anything else beyond that is really just gravy.

......

About that gravy.

Yeah, sure, it’ll be wonderful to play the WSOP, and I know that when I do, I’ll be dead money in the eyes of many there. With that said, the goal is to play in the WSOP, not just sit there and consciously hand my chips over and bounce out in the first level. Just like with the TOC, I’m not crazy enough to think I’m a favorite to finish first, but I don’t think it’s unrealistic to think I can be somewhat competitive.

This year, the TOC is part of that gravy. If I happen to get one of the WSOP prizes, it’s very unlikely that I’ll end up making the trek. It’ll be nearly impossible to take the time off from my new job, not to mention that I’ve already got two vacations during this year’s season that are solidly booked. One of the smaller packages is a bit more likely, but if I end up with a ME seat, the odds of me actually playing are just as slim as they are of me winning it.

That doesn’t mean that the prize would be a waste. There’s other steps I want to take over the course of the next year to be better prepared for my first WSOP, and having a nice chuck of change online would be a benefit, even if it’s $10k in T$ or whatever happens if you don’t take the seat. I’m still mapping out everything I need to do, but over the course of the next several months, expect this blog to be a lot more active than it has recently. Most of it will be some form of bland drivel, maybe a few bad beat stories, hopefully many more hand histories to discuss. I’m still figuring out just how much dedication I can put into this, but I have the intent to at least step it up between now and this time next year.

‘Cause I’ve got a goal to accomplish.

Good luck to all those playing the WSOP this year (hopefully it doesn’t happen via knocking me out on the bubble during the TOC); I’ll definitely be seeing you there next year.

Finally

After playing online poker for four and a half years now, it finally happened. I've had bigger cashes than this, I've won countless SNGs, and I've taken down a blogger tourney or two.

But today, I finally stopped finishing second and took down a (non-blogger) MTT:

















And in NLO8 of all games. Crazy. There are far better O8 players than I, but this is proof that there are far worse players as well.

After debating between this and the Double Deuce, I signed up for this on a whim because I figured if I was going to take down an MTT, I'd like to do it in under 5 hours (the DD is still going as I write this). It wasn't even until 20 minutes in that I realized it was NL, not PL.

I doubled up early when I scooped a pot against a very loose caller with a fortuitous deuce on the river:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12142403417: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 4 - 15/30 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 17:00:53 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: UF_man3 (4,395)
Seat 2: sarcel (3,640)
Seat 3: IN_DA_WIND (3,330)
Seat 4: holdmyown31 (2,835)
Seat 5: mclarich (2,880)
Seat 6: marie1953 (1,265)
Seat 7: jb 0624 (1,725)
Seat 8: BJ824 (3,900)
Seat 9: nibiru (2,880)
IN_DA_WIND posts the small blind of 15
holdmyown31 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [3c Ah Th Ac]
mclarich raises to 120
marie1953 folds
jb 0624 calls 120
BJ824 folds
nibiru calls 120
UF_man3 folds
sarcel calls 120
IN_DA_WIND folds
holdmyown31 folds
*** FLOP *** [6c Ts 2h]
mclarich bets 390
jb 0624 calls 390
nibiru has 15 seconds left to act
nibiru calls 390
sarcel folds
*** TURN *** [6c Ts 2h] [7c]
mclarich bets 1,230
jb 0624 has 15 seconds left to act
jb 0624 folds
nibiru has 15 seconds left to act
nibiru raises to 2,370, and is all in
mclarich calls 1,140, and is all in
nibiru shows [7d 5d 6h 3s]
mclarich shows [3c Ah Th Ac]
*** RIVER *** [6c Ts 2h 7c] [2d]
nibiru shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes, for high and 7,6,5,3,2, for low
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Twos, for high and 7,6,3,2,A, for low
mclarich wins the high pot (3,218) with two pair, Aces and Twos
mclarich wins the low pot (3,217) with 7,6,3,2,A

I lost some chips later against an anonymous frequenter of blogger tournaments who called my reraise with A359 all diamonds and flopped nut-nut against my AA48 on a 254 flop. Amazingly, I still had outs to chop & to scoop with the 3h; not surprisingly, I didn't get there.

About an hour in, the pushmonkeys started thinning out, and we were able to actually have some post-flop action. I was the victor of an unlucky setup hand for the other guy here to chip up some more:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12143878359: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 15 - 80/160 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 18:12:00 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: tbone5700 (8,743)
Seat 2: HOKIE ACES (6,413)
Seat 3: VictoRev (2,131)
Seat 4: mclarich (11,553)
Seat 5: RASN_Player (4,738)
Seat 6: assblaster4000 (7,489)
Seat 7: 24fan48 (2,435)
Seat 8: Zed Corleone (786)
VictoRev posts the small blind of 80
mclarich posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Jc Js 2c Ks]
mikethemiz1800 sits down
mikethemiz1800 adds 2,830
RASN_Player folds
assblaster4000 calls 160
24fan48 folds
Zed Corleone folds
tbone5700 folds
HOKIE ACES calls 160
VictoRev has 15 seconds left to act
VictoRev calls 80
mclarich checks
*** FLOP *** [9d 7s Jh]
VictoRev checks
mclarich bets 480
assblaster4000 folds
HOKIE ACES calls 480
VictoRev folds
*** TURN *** [9d 7s Jh] [Ac]
mclarich checks
HOKIE ACES checks
*** RIVER *** [9d 7s Jh Ac] [9s]
mclarich bets 1,120
HOKIE ACES has 15 seconds left to act
HOKIE ACES raises to 2,560
mclarich raises to 8,480
HOKIE ACES calls 3,213, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 2,707 returned to mclarich
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mclarich shows [Jc Js 2c Ks] a full house, Jacks full of Nines, for high
HOKIE ACES mucks
mclarich wins the pot (13,146) with a full house, Jacks full of Nines
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 13,146 | Rake 0
Board: [9d 7s Jh Ac 9s]
Seat 2: HOKIE ACES (button) mucked [6h 9c Kc Jd] - HI: a full house, Nines full of Jacks
Seat 4: mclarich (big blind) showed [Jc Js 2c Ks] and won (13,146) with HI: a full house, Jacks full of Nines

Even more chips were sent my way when some clown shipped me 2\3rds of her stack with nothing but the nut flush draw:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12144652239: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 5 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 18:49:25 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: skotina (9,787)
Seat 2: patti8989 (30,243)
Seat 4: mclarich (20,627)
Seat 5: WTFseeB8 (2,053)
Seat 6: SergioHilel (5,067)
Seat 7: Mr Hi Rollller (6,789)
Seat 8: ntngu (1,708)
Seat 9: martukemun (4,113)
skotina antes 50
patti8989 antes 50
mclarich antes 50
WTFseeB8 antes 50
SergioHilel antes 50
Mr Hi Rollller antes 50
ntngu antes 50
martukemun antes 50
mclarich posts the small blind of 200
WTFseeB8 posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Tc Td 6c Qd]
SergioHilel has 15 seconds left to act
SergioHilel folds
Mr Hi Rollller folds
ntngu folds
martukemun folds
skotina folds
patti8989 calls 400
mclarich calls 200
WTFseeB8 checks
*** FLOP *** [Th Kd 3d]
mclarich bets 800
WTFseeB8 raises to 1,603, and is all in
patti8989 calls 1,603
mclarich raises to 4,800
patti8989 calls 3,197
*** TURN *** [Th Kd 3d] [9h]
mclarich bets 15,377, and is all in
patti8989 calls 15,377
mclarich shows [Tc Td 6c Qd]
WTFseeB8 shows [Ks 5h Kh 5d]
patti8989 shows [7c 4c 4d Ad]
*** RIVER *** [Th Kd 3d 9h] [3c]
mclarich shows a full house, Tens full of Threes, for high
patti8989 shows two pair, Fours and Threes, for high
mclarich wins the side pot (37,148) with a full house, Tens full of Threes
WTFseeB8 shows a full house, Kings full of Threes, for high
WTFseeB8 wins the main pot (6,409) with a full house, Kings full of Threes
No low hand qualified

That moved me into the top 3 with 4 tables left.

I got horribly lucky here when I miscalled this guy's OBFV. I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize he shoved until it was too late; I thought I was only calling a small bet at first. Luckily the river gave me the scoop:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12145878243: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 12 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 19:53:31 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: mclarich (44,013)
Seat 2: sunbirdflying (32,536)
Seat 3: garfield86 (21,934)
Seat 4: krazy kdub (106,144)
Seat 5: miller2009 (96,717)
Seat 7: whadaplayer (23,880)
Seat 9: CallmeDee (20,252)
mclarich antes 200
sunbirdflying antes 200
garfield86 antes 200
krazy kdub antes 200
miller2009 antes 200
whadaplayer antes 200
CallmeDee antes 200
sunbirdflying posts the small blind of 800
garfield86 posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah 9s 7d 2d]
krazy kdub calls 1,600
miller2009 folds
whadaplayer calls 1,600
CallmeDee folds
mclarich calls 1,600
sunbirdflying calls 800
garfield86 checks
*** FLOP *** [5d Kd 8c]
sunbirdflying has 15 seconds left to act
sunbirdflying bets 30,736, and is all in
garfield86 folds
krazy kdub folds
whadaplayer folds
mclarich calls 30,736
sunbirdflying shows [Kc Kh As 5s]
mclarich shows [Ah 9s 7d 2d]
*** TURN *** [5d Kd 8c] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [5d Kd 8c Th] [Jh]
sunbirdflying shows three of a kind, Kings, for high
mclarich shows a straight, Jack high, for high
mclarich wins the pot (70,872) with a straight, Jack high
No low hand qualified

Still in the top 3 but separating ourselves from the rest of the pack, I get a huge double up through the chipleader here who outflopped me for the high but I get runner-runner for the low then the scoop:

Full Tilt Poker Game #12146210849: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 12 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 20:12:29 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: mclarich (77,049)
Seat 2: Emrald (24,595)
Seat 3: garfield86 (19,734)
Seat 4: krazy kdub (102,469)
Seat 5: miller2009 (80,917)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (78,231)
Seat 7: whadaplayer (26,480)
Seat 8: marie1953 (27,001), is sitting out
Seat 9: CallmeDee (22,752)
mclarich antes 250
Emrald antes 250
garfield86 antes 250
krazy kdub antes 250
miller2009 antes 250
dreamer86 antes 250
whadaplayer antes 250
marie1953 antes 250
CallmeDee antes 250
Emrald posts the small blind of 1,000
garfield86 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kh Ah 3c As]
krazy kdub calls 2,000
miller2009 folds
dreamer86 has 15 seconds left to act
dreamer86 folds
whadaplayer folds
marie1953 folds
CallmeDee folds
mclarich raises to 10,000
Emrald folds
garfield86 folds
krazy kdub calls 8,000
*** FLOP *** [Js 6h 2c]
krazy kdub checks
mclarich bets 14,000
krazy kdub raises to 92,219, and is all in
mclarich calls 52,799, and is all in
krazy kdub shows [4h 2d Ad Jh]
mclarich shows [Kh Ah 3c As]
Uncalled bet of 25,420 returned to krazy kdub
*** TURN *** [Js 6h 2c] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [Js 6h 2c 7s] [7h]
krazy kdub shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens, for high and 7,6,4,2,A, for low
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Sevens, for high and 7,6,3,2,A, for low
mclarich wins the high pot (79,424) with two pair, Aces and Sevens
mclarich wins the low pot (79,424) with 7,6,3,2,A

I build my stack some more, getting to the final table with a sizeable stack vs the rest of the table:

Seat 1: BIGSTICK1952 (61,546)
Seat 2: miller2009 (18,756)
Seat 3: bennynick1011 (101,950)
Seat 4: marie1953 (4,301)
Seat 5: CallmeDee (38,622)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (90,222)
Seat 7: superiorbath (86,206)
Seat 8: Mr Hi Rollller (38,400)
Seat 9: mclarich (270,997)

Within the first couple of hands, I use my stack to start bullying the table, including this hand against the 2nd place stack:


Full Tilt Poker Game #12146689864: $10 + $1 Tournament (90699743), Table 25 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Omaha H/L - 20:36:12 ET - 2009/05/10
Seat 1: BIGSTICK1952 (57,346)
Seat 2: miller2009 (17,556)
Seat 3: bennynick1011 (100,750)
Seat 4: marie1953 (3,101)
Seat 5: CallmeDee (37,822)
Seat 6: dreamer86 (100,522)
Seat 7: superiorbath (83,506)
Seat 8: Mr Hi Rollller (32,700)
Seat 9: mclarich (277,697)
BIGSTICK1952 antes 400
miller2009 antes 400
bennynick1011 antes 400
marie1953 antes 400
CallmeDee antes 400
dreamer86 antes 400
superiorbath antes 400
Mr Hi Rollller antes 400
mclarich antes 400
BIGSTICK1952 posts the small blind of 1,500
miller2009 posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kc As 9h Ah]
bennynick1011 has 15 seconds left to act
bennynick1011 raises to 14,100
marie1953 folds
CallmeDee folds
dreamer86 folds
superiorbath folds
Mr Hi Rollller folds
mclarich raises to 117,000
BIGSTICK1952 folds
miller2009 folds
bennynick1011 calls 86,250, and is all in
mclarich shows [Kc As 9h Ah]
bennynick1011 shows [Jh Ad 8s 3s]
Uncalled bet of 16,650 returned to mclarich
*** FLOP *** [2c 2h Kh]
*** TURN *** [2c 2h Kh] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [2c 2h Kh Tc] [Kd]
mclarich shows three of a kind, Kings, for high
bennynick1011 shows a pair of Kings, for high
mclarich wins the pot (208,800) with three of a kind, Kings
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 208,800 | Rake 0
Board: [2c 2h Kh Tc Kd]

Unbelievable that he gets all this way just to call off his stack with no pair, no A2. At least he was double sooted, but still.

At that point I had just over half the chips in play with 8 people left and almost a 4:1 lead over 2nd place. Even better, the table REALLY tightened up, allowing me to build my stack to almost 500k without seeing a showdown. By the time we got down to three, victory seemed like an inevitability:

Seat 5: CallmeDee (54,704)
Seat 7: superiorbath (43,034)
Seat 9: mclarich (613,262)

And it was. My stack never dropped below 530k from that point forward, and I wrapped up the win just a couple hands later.

......

I was absent from the online game for the past several months, but I have to say I've made quite the return. One month ago to the date, I redeposited on FTP just enough to play around with. $60 to be exact. Suffice to say it's been a pretty good month; between this cash and a good run in the Super Turbos, I'm back up to a four digit bankroll again. Add to that the seat in the TOC that I luckboxed my way into...it's hard to ask for a better return to online poker.

Mookie Recap

Three things:

1. I suck at bluffing, still. Too bad Heffmike couldn't put those chips to better use.

2. I think my avatar winks every time I have a big pair. Considering some of the ridiculous action I saw with suspect hands, how did I not get more out of my three AA or my one KK & QQ?

3. Congrats to Mr. ACH on the undisputable victory. Well deserved for too many reasons to list.

Free Poker Advice

Strategy post time!

Q: What is the optimal way to play Stud Hi\Low?

1. Play mostly to scoop pots with 2-way hands
2. Play to split pots after building them up vs multiple callers
3. Keep calling until you have all 7 cards, then make your decision

Trick question: the answer is 4. Don’t play at all.

Once upon a time, I actually enjoyed playing Stud, albeit Stud Hi. I was probably not as good as I thought I was (somewhere in my archives are some ill-fated attempts at putting up a strategy post or two about Stud that I’m too lazy and\or embarrassed to link up again), but more importantly, I was at least better than those I was playing against. I mostly played Stud SNGs on Party; back then, it didn’t take 2 days to fill up one small stakes SNG. It was my first successful foray into non-NLHE games, and by successful, I mean that I recall actually eeking out a small profit in those games.

Last night, on a whim, I played the Skillz game. I got home with plenty of time to register but decided against it because it was a Stud H\L blogger game. I don’t know what it was that caused me to change my mind & register shortly after the game began, but it was probably the worst decision of the night (and believe me, considering just the hands that I saw, there were plenty of bad decisions last night). In hindsight, I would have been more satisfied if I used the same $11 for the buyin to instead clean up my cat’s puke.

The game started off just splendidly. The very first hand I had (22)AA by 4th street against NewinNov & two cards showing for a low by 6th. He called all the through 6th then 2-bet me on 7th. The hand? A flush draw, no low, through 6th street that got there on 7th. Later on in the game, he had to clarify what qualified for a low. Wonderful.

It didn’t get much better than that. The only other notable hand was when I started with rolled 8s that made quads by 5th street against Heffmike. I misplayed the hand since I missed out on an opportunity to squeeze another bet out; my plan to check-raise 6th street was foiled by his check. Nevertheless, that hand got me to my highest chip stack, somewhere in the 5k range.

The rest of the night consisted of me playing mega-draws that just could never get there. Why is that

A) when I was calling down with draws I couldn’t hit, but everyone else was

B) when I was betting with mega draws, I still didn’t hit, but everyone else was

The hand that killed me was when I started with a high OESD, got 4 cards to a flush by 5th street , yet my bets couldn’t deter cemfredmd from calling through 6th street with (xx)35KT when I had J9Ax with three hearts showing. He did have three clubs showing, but it's hard to put him on two clubs underneath as well. I couldn't hit anything on 7th and had to check-fold yet again.

All this donkey-calling made put me on mega-tilt, and it seemed like pretty much everyone else felt the same way. The game lacked the jovial atmosphere of the Mookie or any other NLHE blogger game. I was pretty much pissed off before I started, semi-tilted after the very first hand, and ready to kill myself when I realized I lasted for almost two hours of that trash with nothing to show for it.

Congrats to CK for lucksacking her way to the title. I don’t say this to imply that she is a lucksack or is devoid of any Stud H\L skills; I say this only because I am convinced, after last night’s game, that any Stud skills are rendered useless by the donkey calling in a blogger game, and it really only becomes survival of the luckiest.

(keep in mind that last statement comes from someone who probably just sucks at Stud anyway)

......

At least the entire night wasn’t a loss. When I wasn’t taking the Skillz game seriously, I was taking some more hits from the pipe that is the Super Turbo. These had been a source of my recent bankroll surge so, even though I know that my success in these probably wasn’t sustainable, I keep going back for more. The surge kind of died down over the last couple of days until the final game last night, where I outlasted all but two monkeys in one of the 5-table super turbo monkey games, upping my meager bankroll to it’s highest in months.

On a side note, I would REALLY love to see the results after 10,000 of these multi-table turbos between A) an experienced & successful turbo player and B) an I-drink-my-own-piss monkey. I’m convinced they wouldn’t be drastically different if the monkey doesn’t just crush the other guy.

......

Mookie tonight. I’ll be there. Hopefully I won’t have to bring-in on 5 consecutive hands late in the game again.