Just Another Donkey

Welcome, Everyone

2011-04-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my world. Sucks, don't it!

Sincerely,

OG Banned Internet Poker Player

Adventures in Cash Games, Pt. 2

2011-03-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those who commented on my last post. I agree with commentors in that I needed to bet the flop; check-calling gave me no information on whether or not my KK was good. Picking up where I left off, I took the turn check to read that he didn’t have a J, so I bet $45 on the river (less than commentors suggested) hoping to get paid off with AT & KT type hands. BB called and showed QQ instead.

Here’s another hand. Feel free to comment on the pre-flop decision along with flop question.

$2/$5 table. UTG raises to $35. He had about $800 behind. Notes on him during the session; he played his strong hands fairly aggressively, was capable of making good folds (flashed a K that he folded to my flop reraise on a K83 two-spade board, later claimed KJ), didn’t seem to get out of line with his betting. Standard opening raise was $15-$20, $20-$25 when there were limpers (as there often were in this game). Suffice to say the $35 threw me for a bit.

I’m UTG +2 with about $530 behind. Holding JJ, I call. CO calls as does BB.

Flop is 246 rainbow. UTG leads out for $120. If helpful, notes on CO and BB were that they were huge fish/donkeys who both had been stacked at least twice. What’s your action?

Adventures in Cash Games, Pt. 1

2011-02-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

Two poker posts in one month? What is this, 2008?

Went back to Tulalip to play another tournament (summary: finished 14/60 when I shove AK into AA). Had some time to kill prior to tourney so played about one orbit of $1/$3. Curious to get feedback about this hand:

Fold to MP who limps for $3. I'm in SB with KK, I raise to $16. BB calls as does limper. I've got basically zero information on either MP or SB.

Flop is JJT rainbow. I check, BB bets $20. MP folds, I call.

Turn is 6. No flush draw on board. I check, BB checks.

River is a 4. What would you do here?

OMG Actual Poker Discussion?

2011-02-07T12:32:00.000-08:00

Played a tournament at Tulalip Casino last week. This one was structured a bit better than their smaller buy-in tournaments. $130 buyin, 6k in chips, 30 min levels with more intermediate levels & antes instead of straight up blind doubling. That said, it essentially becomes a push-fest late as average stack with 24 players left was maybe 11-12BB (although there were several players who were still willing to raise-fold at this point).

Two hands came up late in the tournament that got me thinking. Curious to see what others have to say about this.

Hand 1
The setup:

Down to 24 players. Table is overall pretty tight - at least half the table has open-folded in the SB and/or folded in BB to raise that they were getting good odds to call. Couple of 2-3 BB stacks hanging on, no one with more than 15-17 BB at 1000/2000/100 level.

In SB with A7s. Folds to button who shoves and has me covered but not BB. Here’s what I knew about him so far:

• He doubled up through me in a BvB battle when he 4b shoved me with K4s. I had AA but he nailed flush on flop; I couldn’t catch a 4th spade.
• I shoved UTG next orbit for 4400 at 300/500 level. Folds to him and he claims to fold 77, saying his stack (around 13-14k) was still too small to call.
• He min-raised then called min 3b on button. KJ8 flop gets checked, then button bet/folds to min-raise from BB on blank turn. (BB shows KK)
• He standard-raised from button at 500/100 then called my shove for 5k more with 77. (my A9s counterfeited him on KKJJ8 board)
• He became a bit more aggressive and open-shoved from button/co on at least 2 other occasions

Do you call off your stack here or fold? Folding leaves you with about 16k.

Hand 2
The setup:

At 1000/2000/100 level, you have about 15k left. Avg stack is 28700, your stack position at table is about 7 or 8 out of 10. 19 players left.

Folds to you at UTG+1. What’s your range for pushing here?

Sad Trombone

2011-01-14T13:11:00.000-08:00

I have NOT registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers AS LONG AS YOU DON'T LIVE IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, so register on WBCOOP to play.

FML.

/end pity party.

Life Support

2010-11-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Let’s face it. This is pretty much a dead poker blog.

When I started this blog, it was for a couple of reasons. Three stick out in particular.

1. I wanted to become a better player and hoped my blog would be a place to discuss poker with others

2. I discovered the blogging community and wanted in

3. I hoped to document my progress on the arbitrary goal of making it to the WSOP this year

I haven’t written for quite some time because I’m no longer nearly as passionate about those three things as I was almost 5 years ago.

So what do I have to offer at this point?

......

Through my blog, I certainly became a better player, but that’s probably more of a statement about how bad I was before I started blogging. I never became nearly as successful as I dreamed I could, but over the past 4+ years, I’ve been able to improve my skill to the point where I’ve been a profitable player each year. Yeah, I dreamed of becoming the next Greg Raymer, or maybe more accurately, the next Steve Dannenberg, but I can say with a straight face that I improve my ability as a poker player by sharing my thoughts on this blog.

However, I hit a point a long time ago where my improvement as a poker player became stagnant for a multitude of reasons, the most important of which is that I was unwilling to increase the time or effort I needed to if I wanted to continue improving. My posts became less about poker strategy and more about poker outcomes or just creative and/or whimsical writing. Add to that the fact that I became less passionate about writing in general and you end up with the current state of my blog.

......

I’m certainly not the only one in this boat. I’ve lost count of how many blogs in this community have died, whether it’s long-time A-listers or one of the handful that pop up for a couple of months then disappear. The community is still there, but in my opinion, it’s no longer about being a community of poker bloggers, it’s a community of people who wrote (or still do write) poker blogs that became friends.

I never really wedged my way into the community in the manner as many of you. There’s still a group of people that I keep in touch with regularly, and I’ve still got mostly all of you on my Google reader (I’ve dropped the more long-winded, pompous ones from my RSS feed ), but it’s hard to call any of you a friend in the sense that many of you call each other friends. I’ve still never even been to a winter gathering (and won’t be able to attend this year as well) and, at this point, I’m wondering if I ever will even attend. It kind of seems too late for me, if that makes sense.

I mean, who even knows who I am anymore? (not meant to be an emo-type statement, just a legitimate question)

I’m happy with the relationships I’ve established and I know it would probably be a hell of a time to end up in Vegas one day and meet so many of you whose blogs I’ve frequently read and infrequently commented on. But at the same time, if I never do, I’m less bummed out about it each year.

......

Speaking of Vegas…

I’ve written at least once or twice that the whole goal of getting to the WSOP was really more of a financial goal of being able to afford the buyin (If I’ve established any kind of identity with my blog, it’s probably “the broke guy who used to write about grinding micro-stakes SNGs all the time”). For years now, I’ve been in the situation of essentially living paycheck to paycheck while I try to work on paying down my massive amount of credit card debt while simultaneously trying to become better with managing money.

As you can imagine, a hobby like poker was sometimes a solution to that situation, other times a contributor to the problem. When I was unemployed, I was able to provide myself with an extra 2-3 months of income from playing poker; the flip-side is that when I ran out and was living off of unemployment checks and increased support from my girlfriend, I was still depositing a couple bucks here and there and finding ways to play. I’d never say that I had a gambling problem, but I’ve definitely had (have) a money management problem. So being able to play the WSOP in 2010 (note that winning or making money wasn’t part of my original goal) was really more about getting out of debt than it was about becoming a better player.

As of today, I’m actually closer to that goal than ever before. I’ve reduced my debt significantly over the course of the past year, and I’m on a plan to have all of my debt (excluding student loans) paid off in the next 12-18 months. I’m actually positioned to possibly play in 2011 if I wanted to delay my debt reduction for a couple of months, but like most other aspects of my poker hobby, the desire to play the WSOP is not nearly as strong. It’s certainly not as strong as my desire to be more secure financially. For this reason, and for the reasons stated above, you can get why my blog had dried up.

......

Here’s the thing – I’m not ready to call this a dead blog yet.

For starters, poker is still one of my biggest hobbies. PokerStars kicked me out since I’m a Washington resident, but I’m still finding ways to play. I’m getting out to home games more and I’ve played more live tournaments this year than probably in all prior years combined. I’m still watching the WSOP on ESPN each week, and I’m still keeping up to speed with most of the same bloggers as well, however mundane your posts are these days. I’ve expanded my relationship with some of you to become Facebook friends, which is pretty much the same thing as real-life friends, right? I’ve had bloggers over to my place for parties where we explained to one of my friends the history of poker blogging. I’ve even done dial-a-shots with Schaubs.

Hell, on a whim, I just cranked out a pretty long, fairly well-written post – not bad for a nearly dead blog, eh?

So yeah, poker is still a huge part of my life. Maybe not as huge, definitely a part of my life in different ways, but it’s still there. And as long as that’s the case, I can’t call this blog fully dead.

Have fun next month in Vegas, everyone. Perhaps I’ll see you there one day.

Matt
(I don’t normally sign my posts – just wanted to remind everyone of my name)

How To Make $1k In 4.5 Hours

2010-05-24T14:23:00.000-07:00

Haven’t posted in quite some time. I suppose a cash in a real live poker tournament should be enough reason to post.

The setup:

After taking 2nd at a home game Friday night for $165, I slept for 5 hours then woke up to play a tournament with my buddy Seth at Snoqualmie Casino. $60, 4k stacks, top 10 pay (usually about 85 runners), 1st place typically around $1400.

The story:

Took out a near equal stack with KK vs AQ on a Q-high flop. Pushed me up to approx 9500.

Relied on my near-impeccable poker skills to double up through chip leader & take out another short stack with KK vs AA and AK. I was in the BB and made the comment that I only need to see 1 hand to call, referring to AA. KK was good enough to call until I saw the CL’s pocket aces. 1-outer on the turn pushed me to nearly 20k and probably chipleader at the time.

Spewed some chips raising with A9c and KJd. Doubled up QQ with the A9 hand, had to fold KJd to PF shove.

Stole some chips from prev AA guy when his minraise wasn’t enough PF and was ruled a call. In BB with 63o, CRAI when he c-bet the A63 flop.

After spewing more chips with K9h, doubled up through AA guy with 66 vs TT when 6 hit flop.

Doubled up to about 45k with AK vs QQ when K hits flop.

Down to two table, grew stack to 70k at 3000/6000 level with hands like 77, 99 and KQ.

Maxed out around 80k when AT held vs KT.

Reached final table in 3rd or 4th place with about 65k, blinds at 5k/10k. CL had maybe 90-100k.

8 people agree to 10-way chop. CL and I decline.

Shrink down to about 35k when I call 24k push with TT. AK hits two aces on the flop.

Shoved K2 UTG, steal some blinds.

Win race with 88 vs AK to get back up to around 70k.

Down to 8, topic of chop comes up again. No one has more than 8BB with blinds soon to double. 8-way chop pays slightly less than 3rd place money, so we all make $530 after buyin.

The epilogue:

While my buddy plays blackjack, I sit down at a roulette table. Within 1 hr, $100 becomes $625 thank to a streak where I hit 6 out of 9 numbers by having at least $2 on the number itself and $10-$20 on the corresponding 2:1.

Summary:

I run good sometimes.

Reload!

2010-02-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

I reloaded for the first time in several months yesterday. Things are not going well. As of two posts ago, I was playing with a bankroll of approximately $350, with a little more than half of that in $T. In the span of less than a month, I've gone through all of it.

Part of it is discipline (Exhibit A). On top of that, I've been taking more shots than necessary at higher buyins at an attempt to accelerate my bankroll growth. Nothing crazy, meaning nothing beyond a $20 buyin. Not the best bankroll management, but then again, what is bankroll management when your bankroll is only $60?

I just need to take a cue from Jamyhawk: stay patient...

HA!

2010-02-20T07:46:00.000-08:00

I took a vacation day Friday to go to Portland for the Blazers/Celtics game. When those plans fell through, I kept the vacation day and decided to make it a poker day.

Went to Tulalip Casino, about 30 mins away. Their website advertised a $75 HA tournament at 1pm.

Does it count as a tournament victory if you get your money refunded back because you're the only person who registered?

VICTORY FAIL.

Intervention

2010-02-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

Dear mclarich,

Please stop playing Rush Poker and SuperTurbos when you’re on tilt.

Warmest regards,
Your Bankroll

Sick Poker Here

2010-02-02T11:12:00.001-08:00

I came down with a slight cold over the weekend. Nothing more than a mild sore throat and some headaches. Enough that I decided to stay home on Monday to rest up and recuperate.

And by “rest up and recuperate”, I mean “spend the day playing poker”.

With the whole day free, I was able to invest as much time as needed for MTTs. I haven’t played a lot of tournaments these days – mostly SNGs – since I can’t start them until almost 8pm on most nights, not to mention that my bankroll can’t really supports a whole lot of MTTs right now. But I found an early starting one that was right up my alley – a $10 superstack tournament.

I held my ground for a while, building my stack to somewhere around 16k a couple hours in, thanks to two hands in particular: catching my flush OOP and getting paid from a set that couldn’t fold & TP2K against AA that turned into quads by the river. However, I got too aggressive and lost a good portion of my chips on a resteal. Here’s where I welcome some comments.

Folds to CO who pops to 720 at 240/120/25. I didn’t have much of a read on him but didn’t think he was too strong – this was the 2nd straight time he’d open-raised from the CO. I try to resteal with J8c for 2300. He calls.

Flop is K43 rainbow. I c-bet for 3300 into a approximately 5k pot. He raises, I fold. He tells me AK; based on later play, I believe him.

I’m trying to improve my aggressiveness and steal more pots – was my mistake here in my read (or making a play without a stronger read) or was it in my execution of the resteal? If he truly did have AK, then obviously he wasn’t folding. However, I put him a range of AK-AT, and pairs JJ>. I fully expected a repop with AA or KK, maybe even AK, so I feel like my c-bet was good considering. Thoughts?

......

The day wasn’t entirely fruitless. I crashed and burned in an O8 MTT when I got moved to a table that decided to play 4-card bingo. Ended up going out when a bigstack felt a call was warranted with JT88 vs 2 all-ins. His straight got there on the river. Woot.

However, I decide to play a superturbo for entry into FTOPS #1 on a whim. Top 3 paid a $216 seat, and I outlasted 55 other pushmonkeys to win one of them. I’m in no shape to play an FTOPS event right now, so I immediately unregistered. The $216 in $T is almost double my bankroll right now, so that’s a nice little pick-me-up. I’ll continue to grind out some SNGs to see if I can turn that into real money without paying 5% commission.

......

I suppose I should join the bandwagon and comment on Rush Poker. It’s cool, but I suck at cash games right now anyways, and even at the lowest buyin, my bankroll only represents about 12-13 buyins. It’s not for me right now – maybe later.

‘til next time.

The Biggest Dead Money

2010-01-11T13:27:00.001-08:00

Hello, I’m back.

I’m still not sure what to do with my blog. For those not aware, I write from time to time on my personal blog, Nothing Special, Really. Although my poker blog is how most of you know me, I’ve maintained a personal blog for longer than I have this blog (I used to blog on MySpace before I moved the personal blog to blogger). So this blog has always been devoted strictly to poker (sometimes Fantasy Football). I intend to keep it that way.

I started this blog 3.5 years ago as a way to further build my skills as a poker play by incorporating some written analysis and commentary. I also started this blog to hopefully integrate myself into a community of people who shared my interest in poker but also seems like really cool people to get to know.

Over the past 3.5 years, I’ve semi-accomplished both. I’m a much better poker player now than when I was started, yet I declare that without any objective measure. I’ve also come to know several of those really cool people that I discovered, although I often feel like I’m nothing more than a long-tenured D-lister when I look at many of the relationships that have been forged within this community.

But overall, I started this blog as a tool to help me achieve a goal I set for myself back in 2006: to play in this year’s WSOP. Don’t ask me how maintaining a blog helps one play in the WSOP – I don’t know either. But that was the goal. It’s even part of my tagline and everything.

It’s 2010. This is supposed to be the year. Yet I severely doubt that I’ll achieve my goal this year. And I’m quite OK with that.

......

My goal of playing in the WSOP this year was a horrible goal to set from the start. It’s a goal that has nothing to do with achievement. The goal is accomplished by doing two things: giving the WSOP the required amount for the entry fee and making sure I’m in Vegas for the tournament. It’s not a goal that’s achieved through hard work and determination but one obtained by financial luxury and a semblance of planning skills.

Had I been able to play in this year’s WSOP, accomplishing that achievement would have still be something for me to be proud of. As I’ve detailed numerous times over the course of this blog, I’ve been handcuffed financially for several years now, the result of poor debt management followed by nearly a year of unemployment. If I were to play this year, and do so in a responsible manner, it would have been the result of diligent financial planning. The truth is I could probably find the money to play this year, but it would hardly be responsible of me to do so.

The other reason it was such a horrible goal is that, should I play in the WSOP, my goal didn’t capture any sense of achievement thereafter. Would my goal feel accomplished if I just bought in and blinded out? Would I be satisfied with an exit only 30 minutes into the tournament? Am I happy with just playing even though I know I would feel overmatched? If that’s the case, there’s surely better uses for the $1000+ I would be blowing by playing instead.

I won’t say with certainty that I won’t make it – I’ve told myself that if I can work my online roll high enough to afford the trip without using a large amount of my own money, I’ll still do it. As of today, I’m sitting on $130 in my account, and the way things have been going, it’s looking pretty improbable this year. I still intend to make it to the WSOP, and play competitively, but I’ve accepted that this year probably won’t be the year.

......

So where does that leave this blog? Well, I’ll still try to have things to post about that doesn’t involve the bad beat I suffered in my friend’s home game Tournament of Champions on Friday (abridged version: KK vs K2.) I’m still playing poker regularly, and even though there’s only so many ways to write about a $5 SNG in an interesting way (zero), it’s not like I’ve abandoned my blog because I’ve abandoned poker.

First, I need to figure out how much time and dedication I want to invest towards improvement as a poker player. I accept that I’ll probably never become as successful of a poker player as I wish I could be, but I should be able to dedicate some time to working on my game. My good looks have charm have gotten me this far but players are more resistant these days.

Second, I need to stop being such a recluse as a poker blogger. Three and a half years and I hardly know any of you. You’re all cool peeps, I’ve just been shy because A) I’m always an initially shy person by nature, and it’s hard to break from that when communication exists solely online and B) I tend to let my confidence in my poker skills (or lack thereof) prevent me from entering most actual poker discussions. This year, I just need to suck it up. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many comments I received in my last post, including comments from bloggers I didn’t know were following me. I’ll try to be more active this year.

Finally, I’ll be playing a lot more live games this year. I’m hosting a home game next weekend and I’ve actually got enough players that I need to get a second table. I’ve also met some people in the area who are also avid poker players, so I’ve got some friends to accompany me to the card rooms around here. Now that I’ve got a steady job and a bit more disposable income, I’ll be able to take a shot at these tournaments every now and then.

The content is there. The desire is slowly coming back. This blog is not dead, yet.

‘til next time.

A Simple Request

2009-12-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

Dear readers,

I've been absent from blogging lately, I know. I have all the intent in the world of maintaining this blog, I just haven't had a reason to post. I'm in the midst of re-evaluating my blogging hobby, which includes re-evaluating who I'm blogging for. So I have a proposition.

If you're someone who's interested in reading this blog in the future, please post something in the comments. It can be a simple "Yes", it can be a passionate plea to keep blogging until I die. I just want to know who's still with me.

Thanks,
Matt

I'm Out

2009-11-18T16:26:00.000-08:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted. I’ve been playing poker off and on for the past couple of months, but nothing interesting to write about. So, what’s so important that it’s prompted me to write on my blog again?

I’m out for the December gathering. Again.

Last year, I was able to blame it on lack of a job and, therefore, lack of the financial means to engage in a weekend of Vegas debauchery. This year, it’s the opposite – it’s my job that’s preventing me from going. Long story short – my company is in the midst of rolling out a new HR system to our entire company. I’m one of only two people who really knows how to work the system, and the other person, our developer, is quitting next week. The Thursday and Friday of the gathering weekend are crucial to making sure the system works, and I can’t be absent.

I’d already booked my tickets and my hotel. There isn’t a flight with Southwest that leaves Friday that I can make, and I’m not in a position to purchase another ticket, one-way on Friday, to force my way there. I just don’t see it happening.

So, for the two of you that were expecting to see me there, we’ll have to find another time. For everyone else there that doesn’t really know me, you won’t notice my absence anyways.

Back to my regularly scheduled lack of posting…..

Lighting A Fire

2009-09-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Wow. I’ve been on a downswing the past couple of days, culminating in a brutal Monday night that saw me down $230 at one point. For many of you, that’s probably just a buyin or two. For me, well, that’s 75% of my bankroll right now.

It started off with a wicked beat in the $32k guaranteed. Yes, a bad beat story is coming. Skip ahead if you like, or I’ll buy you a free beer in Vegas in lieu of $1.

About 30 mins prior to the tournament, I was reading the latest FT email tip, the one about playing big hands early in a tournament (Thanks Erick Lindgren!). 30 mins into the tournament, I found myself in the same spot the email was talking about: a premium hand (QQ) early in the game.

Faced with a pot-size open raise from UTG+2, I elect to smooth call and assess the flop. The CO and Button decide to as well, giving me a 4-way pot in horrible position. Awesome.

Flop is 994. PF raiser bets full pot (600ish), which seems peculiar. I don’t want to raise but I’m not ready to fold either, so I smooth call again. CO and button fold; now I’m fully confident I have the best hand.

Turn is a rag. PF raiser bets full pot again (1800ish) and I push for just 600 something more. Obviously committed, villain calls with…54o. Woot, an early MTT double up is imminent.

Or not. This is a bad beat story, so it’s not hard to guess the ending.

To my surprise, I didn’t really feel like I was on tilt until the end of the evening, when I followed up my sick departure from the tournament by failing to cash in 5 straight O8 SNGs (and one 90 seat KO SNG). Then I got into “recoup my losses” mode, which meant playing Super Turbo SNGs. Luckily, I talked myself down from the ledge (right before I considered dropping the rest of my bankroll into a large Super Turbo), grinded out a couple more O8 SNGs, and ended the night with 2 consecutive cashes.

......

I’ve been playing a lot more lately. I’ve limited my game selection to the following:

1. Primarily O8 SNGs. Despite recent evidence that may prove otherwise, I’ve made some good profit off of these games. I’ve become bored with one table NL SNGs lately, so I try to rely on these as a way to steadily increase my bankroll.
2. 90-seat KO games. These games are really soft. Unfortunately, they often lead to brutal suckouts, but when I hit my groove in these things, I’ve been successful as well. I’ve steadily seen my success rate improve in these, including a 1st place and a 3rd place over my last 10 attempts (approximately).
3. $32k MTTs. The 7pm (PST) $26 donkfest is really the only MTT that works for me, schedule-wise. I’ve yet to cash in several attempts recently, but I’m feeling more confident in my MTT game with each attempt. Once I find a way to avoid 2-outers, I should start seeing the money come pouring in.

The one difference that I’ve made with my recent play is less of a regard for my bankroll. By playing $11 to $36 SNGs, I’m playing well outside what’s appropriate for my meager bankroll, which obviously contributes to the variance in my roll. But I feel the need to do this to escape the “grinder” feeling I get by playing $3 and $5 SNGs. I found little thrill in playing low stakes SNGs in previous years, but my dedication to (and subsequent success at) slowly growing my bankroll kept me plugging away. These days, however, it’s just too boring to play a SNG for 30-40 mins and come away with just $20, especially when I know that I have the skill level to be just as successful at higher stakes. When I’m hot, I can play those stakes and grow my roll from $60 to $1800 in a couple of months. When I’m cold, I’m reloading $60 multiple times in a month. Right now, I feel like I’m steady (assuming this downswing is just a blip and not the makings of a larger cold streak).

As far as goals are concerned, I’ve only got one main goal: a $2500 bankroll by April 30th. The reason is simple; my primary goal has been to play in the WSOP in 2010. However, after reviewing my non-poker related goals, it doesn’t appear I’ll be able to buy-in using my normal means of income. It sucks, because I’ve had my eyes set on the WSOP for years now, but I’ve finally put my priorities in their proper order, and playing the WSOP at the risk of setting me back too far financially is not one of the top ones. Obviously, the WSOP is a financial setback anyway you look at it since I’ll have no realistic shot at cashing. So, in other words, I need to get into a place where I can afford to light $2500 on fire, and the summer of 2010 looks to be too soon….unless that $2500 is solely acquired from poker. In that case, I’ll happily light it on fire next summer since it’s really other people’s money anyways.

Hmm. This post really didn’t turn out how I envisioned when I first started writing it. In fact, it’s about everything but what I really wanted to write about. Oh well, I’ll save that for next time. It’s been a while since I’ve posted, so I suppose a general summary-type post is more appropriate. I haven’t written anything on either of my blogs in quite some time right now, so to put up a post that didn’t feel like I was forcing myself to write is a success these days. Even if it’s just a post talking about how bad I suck.

Nearly Official

2009-09-17T15:38:00.001-07:00

I know my luck too well to declare anything official until it really happens. So I won’t say I’m officially going to the December gathering in Vegas this year.

What I can say is this: I am hell bent on making it happen this year, and to prove it, I’ve already booked my flight.

Arrival: 7:30pm, Thursday, December 10th
Departure: 7:00pm, Sunday, December 13th

Woot.

Next step: find a place to lay my weary, drunken head each night.

Take Two

2009-08-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

I’ve already written this post once. The first version, you’ll never see.

I played the Mookie last night for the first time since the last BBT. It looks like the Mookie is slowly going the way of the buffalo – only 17 runners last night. It’s sad to see such low participation in one of the few remaining blogger games, especially the Mookie. I wasn’t blogging during the WWdN days, so for me, the Mookie has been the standard, it has been THE blogger game. And now – there’s only 17 people, and I still recognized barely half the players.

I played a hand badly last night. Well, OK, probably many hands. One hand in particular resulted in a suckout for me and an elimination for jimdniacc. He took his frustration out on me in the chatbox (although, to his credit, he refrained from calling me names), and for some reason it caught me off guard. It was my first Mookie in months, and I was looking for nothing but a friendly $11 game amongst poker bloggers, and instead, I had to listen to another blogger chastising me for my play. This situation was relatively standard under the weight of BBT4, but for some reason, I figured that it would be different given the circumstances and the low turnout (1st place only got $85 – not even a profile these days!). I should have know better.

So I wrote a post about this already, in more detail, expressing my overall disappointment with that situation in particular, and as part of a larger picture, what this community has become. However, since I had some time between when I wrote the post & when I planned on posting it, I decided to take a look at his blog to see if he had anything to say about the situation. I’ve recognized his name from previous games but I honestly don’t know the blogger.

I’m glad I did. After reading his posts, he seems to be a decent guy, just one with a temper problem when it comes to poker. It doesn’t necessarily excuse the comments he made, but it puts them in a better perspective. It also helped me realized that I was probably being more sensitive to his comments because I was already in the midst of a brutal night. Within that same half hour, I had already busted from the PLO tournament (warning: bad beat story) after 3-betting with my AAxx, flopping top set, betting pot for nearly all my stack, yet still going down in flames against QQ82 who had nothing but a Q-high flush draw that got there on the turn. I also took a huge beat in the $28k when TPTK was no match for runner-runner two pair. I couldn’t cash a SNG to save my life. All in all, his negative comments about a suckout I had no business being part of were just a small part of what ended up being a -$200+ night.

Anyway, the day after, with time to reflect on what happened last night, I realized that it is and it isn’t that big of a deal. Yeah, it sucks that I can’t play a friendly $11 blogger game without having to deal with bloggers lamenting just how bad of a poker player I am, but really, it’s par for the course. I’ve been on the opposite end myself, and just as I would hope that similar things I may have said wouldn’t shape someone’s opinion of me, I won’t let it shape of my opinion of him.

Jimdniacc, my condolences on bad beat. If you’re going to be in Vegas in December, first round is on me.

Hiatus Over

2009-08-18T09:56:00.001-07:00

So, here I am, two months after my last post, a post in which I declared a two-month hiatus. I needed a break to clear my head, figure things out. I wrote that last post with the stress of my health and my finances on the forefront of my mind. Given those circumstances, withdrawal (in more than one sense of the word) seemed like the best idea, and it was.

However, loyal readers of this blog shouldn’t be surprised when I tell you that my hiatus from poker lasted all of three weeks. Yes, I’ve been playing for the past month or so. No, I haven’t posted about it – mostly because even the most talented of writers would struggle to write interesting posts about Super Turbo and O8 SNGs, let alone a lazy, talentless bum like me.

The good news is that the stress I was under in my last post was alleviated sooner than expected. I’m still diabetic, but I’ve learned that I’ve been managing my diabetes a lot better than I thought. I’ve still got room to improve for sure, but hearing that was a huge sigh of relief. Secondly, the bankroll withdrawal was a much needed boost for me financially. Although, in retrospect, I probably could have left a small amount to play with (considering I redeposited a small amount three weeks afterwards), I was able to do some great things with that money that are still paying dividends (not literally though).

Anyway, once again, I’m formally declaring my return as a poker blogger. Until the next time I decide to quit then decide to return then quit then….you get the point.

......

I’ve actually got a lot of content to get out over the next couple of months, just nothing resembling poker strategy or analysis. Not that I’m alone here – it seems like the majority of what I initially knew as “poker blogs” are anything but these days. The truth is that I would actually love to post more often about strategy and whatnot, but before I commit to that, I’ve still got some other things to figure out (which will be fodder for an upcoming post).

What I do know is this: I still enjoy being a poker blogger. I’m still (very loosely) connected with many of you through some sort of interweb device, and even a handful of you through occasional real-life interaction, not to mention the large group of bloggers I still follow on a daily basis. I may post infrequently, and comment on other blogs even less, but I still enjoy being part of this community, even if I’ve never really left the fringe in my 3+ years as a blogger. Your blogs still make up the majority of my RSS feeds, and I still check up on them on a daily basis (although, admittedly, I’m marking many of them as “Read” automatically these days).

Anyway, what I’m saying is this. I’m making the leap this year.

Barring nuclear catastrophe, death, or unemployment, I’m in for the Winter Gathering this year. It’s pretty much set in stone – I mean, I already confirmed on the WPBT Facebook page, so there’s really no going back at this point. I’m in for the tournament (details here) but I’m out for the golf (details here). I’m not much of a poker player, but I’m even less of a golfer.

So yeah, keep checking this blog – it should be more active these days. Either way, if you’re going to be in Vegas in December, I’ll see you there. I’m SO looking forward to this.

Priorities

2009-06-23T20:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-07T19:48:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-28T22:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-30T10:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

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.

What's Worse?

2009-04-27T22:05:00.000-07:00

Playing bad or running bad?

Full Tilt Poker Game #11908576518: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament (88441526), Table 4 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:43:13 ET - 2009/04/27
Seat 1: mclarich (4,050)
Seat 2: Shlee1112 (966)
Seat 3: Astin (2,591)
Seat 4: cracknKK (10,690)
Seat 5: DaBag (3,405)
Seat 6: ElSnarfGrande (4,124)
Seat 8: iaatg6296 (4,752)
Seat 9: STING70 (4,609)
Astin posts the small blind of 40
cracknKK posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [As Ad]
DaBag folds
ElSnarfGrande raises to 240
iaatg6296 folds
STING70 folds
mclarich raises to 640
Shlee1112 folds
Astin folds
cracknKK folds
ElSnarfGrande has 15 seconds left to act
ElSnarfGrande calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Ks 8s Th]
ElSnarfGrande checks
mclarich checks
*** TURN *** [Ks 8s Th] [Kd]
ElSnarfGrande checks
mclarich bets 560
ElSnarfGrande raises to 1,120
mclarich calls 560
*** RIVER *** [Ks 8s Th Kd] [Jd]
ElSnarfGrande bets 2,364, and is all in
mclarich calls 2,290, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 74 returned to ElSnarfGrande
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ElSnarfGrande shows [Ac Kh] three of a kind, Kings
mclarich mucks
ElSnarfGrande wins the pot (8,220) with three of a kind, Kings
mclarich stands up

Either way, this would have been one of those hands that did me in either way, as I'm sure the money's going in on the flop; for some reason, I thought checking the flop was sneaky or something. Of course he hits his two outer on the turn, and his check-raise tells me exactly that. I, however, am not the most disciplined poker player, and all I see is "wheeeee pretty Aces". I even had a chance to save myself half my stack on the river, but instead I put them all in when really the only hand that Snarf could have that I can beat is QQ. Stupid two outer, but even stupider play by me, the second time in as many blogger tournaments that I couldn't fold my overpair despite plenty of evidence suggesting I should.

Three years later, and my blog's name is still just as relevant.

I've Got My Seat

2009-04-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

I guess it was my day today:

At one point, I was down to 565 chips with about 27 people left. Then things started coming together. I doubled up with the only other shorty called my allin with T5s vs QQ. AK held up vs KJ AIPF to nearly double my stack. I tried playing a bit more of an aggressive game today, and it helped that I got the cards to support it.

The hand of the day for me, aside from the final hand, was doubly sweet: I vaulted to the chip lead and took out Lucko at the same time:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11771138015: Brit Blogger Game (87407341), Table 1 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:51:19 ET - 2009/04/19
Seat 2: Julkeus (2,820)
Seat 3: SmBoatDrinks (3,730)
Seat 4: mclarich (9,772)
Seat 5: twoblackaces (7,856)
Seat 6: lucko21 (7,735)
Seat 7: wwonka69 (11,862)
Seat 8: heffmike (4,225)
Julkeus antes 25
SmBoatDrinks antes 25
mclarich antes 25
twoblackaces antes 25
lucko21 antes 25
wwonka69 antes 25
heffmike antes 25
mclarich posts the small blind of 150
twoblackaces posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [As Ac]
lucko21 raises to 800
wwonka69 folds
heffmike folds
Julkeus folds
SmBoatDrinks folds
mclarich calls 650
twoblackaces has 15 seconds left to act
twoblackaces folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Ks 2s]
mclarich bets 1,200
lucko21 calls 1,200
*** TURN *** [2c Ks 2s] [Jd]
mclarich bets 3,300
lucko21 raises to 5,710, and is all in
mclarich calls 2,410
lucko21 shows [Jc Kc]
mclarich shows [As Ac]
*** RIVER *** [2c Ks 2s Jd] [5h]
lucko21 shows two pair, Kings and Jacks
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Twos
mclarich wins the pot (15,895) with two pair, Aces and Twos
lucko21 stands up

Lucky for me, the J fell on the turn and made it nearly impossible for him to get away from the hand. That gave me nearly a 5k chiplead over 2nd place Evil Wonka.

I got heads up against TBA with a 3:2 chip deficit and got all my chips in bad against him with QT vs JJ. IMO, he became more aggressive as the blinds got higher and I started playing back at him with weaker holdings, thinking he was raising with a wider range. In this case, he actually had a hand but I pulled out a Q on the river to take a 3:1 lead.

This was the first final table I've been at in a while, and my HU game was kind of rusty. Plus, being so close to a TOC seat against an accomplished MTT player like TBA made me a bit nervous. I stayed patient and tried to hold on to my advantage as a bigger stack, even folding 22 to one of his shoves because I wanted to find a better spot to get my chips in. I didn't think I would have been able to compete as well if we got to even stacks again.

The last hand was a total setup - we both had trip Queens by the river, but my KQ narrowly beat his QJ, and miraculously, I get to join the handful of lucky donks to play for a WSOP seat.

GG to everyone, especially TBA, who came back from being the shortstack with 5 remaining to one card away from taking it down. It was just my day to be the luckiest donk I guess.

Week In Recap

2009-04-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

The Good:

- Seeing my bankroll triple since my initial deposit, courtesy of the $7 Turbos. I've been away from FTP for so long that I didn't notice until this week that they now have multi-table Turbos as well as PLO turbos. I don't know if I'll ever be able to play a standard game of poker again.

The Bad:

- Busted early in the Mookie when I couldn't fold KK vs against QueensUp on a Q99 flop despite A) my UTG PF raise screaming strength and B) his 3-bet against my flop check-raise. His 89o held up, and I gained yet another example of where I played my overpair two hard despite evidence suggesting I wasn't ahead.

The Ugly:

-Yo momma

I'm shooting for Brit, Riverchasers and Mookie this week. No Big Game due to bankroll, no Skillz game since I have tickets for Thievery Corporation that night. See ya when I see ya.

Cause Hammer-dropping Is So Passe'

2009-04-13T18:50:00.000-07:00

I’m back. And by “back” I mean “donating to blogger tournaments again.

I had every intention of reloading in time to make a decent run in the BBT4 for April. My cat had intentions as well, intentions of getting severely ill and forcing me to use my reload money on getting him better. Despite suggestions to just replace the cat, I played the role of good cat parent, and had to wait until this past payday to get some money on FTP. It wasn’t much but it was enough to get me started and at least allow me to play most of the BBT4 events this week, starting with the Brit Blogger Tournament.

Say what you will about dropping the hammer; what I say is that the more bloggers declare that The Hammer is overrated, ridiculous, or “so 2003”, the funnier I think it is. I don’t play it because I think “tee-hee, I just got you to fold the better hand, sucker!” but because I tend to overplay jokes beyond their shelf life. Plus, I don’t ALWAYS drop the hammer when I have it, but I will drop it when it makes sense. In the case of the Brit game, it made sense to play my hammer the two times I had it, because I couldn’t rely on winning any big pots; the times I had AA, QQ or JJ I got nothing but blinds. Not that the hammer fared any better:

-Hammer No. 1: Blind vs blind, I got some silly limper to fold his SB to me. I flashed the hammer, hilarity ensued.

-Hammer No. 2: After losing a large amount of my stack vs a short NewinNov (AJ vs AQ), I reshoved my own shortstack vs a MP raise. I got half of what I wanted: two live cards vs ATo. But by the end, somehow, my 7 high didn’t hold up against his Broadway. So rigged.

Tonight is Riverchasers. If I can get a token in time, or at least cash a couple of Super Turbos, I might be there.

......

Speaking of Super Turbos….oh, how I’ve missed thee. I got addicted to these last summer when FTP introduced them, and rediscovered them again this weekend. I’ve run fairly lucky in a couple of these (i.e 79c > AA, sucker!) but for the most part it’s been easy money, to the tune of doubling my deposit in just one weekend. Whether or not this run holds up remains to be seen (last time I sang the praises of the Super Turbo, I went on a major, MAJOR downward spiral), but as long as shorties keep folding and holding on to their remaining .5BB, I’ll keep playing.

......

P.S. Kudos to anyone who gets the song I’m referencing in my title post. I doubt anyone will, but you never know. MHG maybe?

One Day, My Balls Will Be Big Enough.

2009-03-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

At least I wasn’t the Gigli last night. Whether or not I should have been is debatable.

So I played the Mookie yesterday after a last minute gesture of graciousness by another blogger. Maybe 5 hands in or so, I go heads up preflop with some random stranger holding KQo.

Flop is AQ5. He bets 77% of pot. I got a piece but I’m drawing to 5 outs at best. But let’s play it differently. What if I hit that flop harder, like 55, AJ or AQ? What would I normally do then, call? So I called.

Turn is a J, also giving the board 2 clubs. He leads out for 60% of pot this time. My 5 outs still might be clean + another 3-4 outs to the straight (Tc might not be good). But can I still legitimately represent a bigger hand than 2nd pair 2nd kicker? I think so. So I raise another 550. He tanks then calls.

River pairs the J. He tanks then checks. I can still tell my story here by betting large. I don’t think he has AQ or AJ; otherwise, the betting on the turn would probably be different (bigger turn bet and\or 3-bet my reraise). AK is a possibility considering his action so far, and the fact that I don’t know if he would fold TPTK right now is a consideration. I’d like to think the he would fold AT or worse to a big river bet, but then again, this is a blogger tournament. But I’m leaning heavily toward a big river bet because I put him on something like Ax. Maybe A5? AT through A8? I really think that if he’s got 2 pair or better on the turn I’m seeing a reraise, and his check on the river tells me AK at best.

But to tell the story, my best will cost me at minimum 90% of my remaining stack, which might as well be the whole thing. Then I start thinking about being the Gigli thanks to a bluff gone wrong, and how many times I’ve bluffed my way out of a tournament (albeit with much worse bluffs than this would have been). Not only that, I would have busted out first from a bluff gone wrong in a tournament that I got into via the courtesy of someone else. All these thoughts start to cloud my mind within the matter of 15 seconds. Maybe if I’m on my own bankroll I fire the last bullet, but in this situation, with 60% of my stack still intact, I think differently. And, despite getting to this point with nothing but 2nd pair and ~~stupid play~~ mega brass cojones, I make probably my biggest mistake of the hand.

I give up and check.

He shows A9 for TP with nut-flush draw on the turn. I seriously hope that he doesn’t call a huge bet there with TP no kicker, and by the time I busted, I saw enough of his play to think that he wouldn’t have. I think anything other than a club or a 9 would have got him to fold to a big bet on the river, and had he not been sooted, maybe even folds the turn. Instead, I spent the next hour trying to claw my way back.

I ended up busting out shortly after the first break after I ran my 33 into PL’s QQ AIPF, which was totally unfair since he had just won a couple hands prior with his own 33 vs someone else’s QQ despite the fact that he misplayed his hand (although, in his defense, QQ misplayed his hand as well). But it was a win-win-win for me since I didn’t have to worry about a much worse scenario: keep fighting as a short-stack only to get stuck playing during Lost yet still end up with no points or no money.

Payday is tomorrow. See you all again next week.

Timing's Just Right

2009-03-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

In poker, timing is everything, right? It’s one thing to pick up AA, it’s another thing when you pick up AA vs someone’s KK, and it’s a totally different thing when everyone folds to your AA in the BB. Sometimes, timing can make or break a single tournament or session.

Speaking in bigger terms, timing and poker have a different meaning for me. As of last night, my combined balance between both of my active poker sites is a whopping $.04. I think it probably costs me more than that just to log in to FTP or PS. About a month ago, I was sitting on a very small three-digit bankroll on PS, enough to keep me active. Then three significant things happened:

- I lost a couple buyins at micro-stakes 08 tables, approximately 25% of my roll. That was just dumb on my part.

- I swapped funds with another blogger to play the Mookie a couple weeks back. After finishing in the middle of the pack, I took the rest of my funds swap on FTP to work up a small bankroll for more BBT4 events. FTP rewarded my return from a 6-month hiatus on their site with their standard setups and suckouts.

- The 08 donkeys that I have been preying on kept calling but started hitting. And calling. And hitting. With A59J rainbow. With Q784 rainbow. It was far from the brutality of my venture into cash games last summer, the one that left me psychologically scarred for a couple weeks at least. But when each buying represents 30% of your bankroll, it doesn’t take a very long string of beats to bust me entirely.

But this is about timing. In the same week that I go busto for the umpteenth time (i.e busto for me includes strategic withdrawals of money, not just complete bankroll decimation), I get a paycheck for the first time in 10.5 months. Just when I have next to nothing for a bankroll, I have a chance to start it up again.

And, speaking about timing, if there was a time to start playing again, it’s now, during the BBT4. I’ve missed nearly each incarnation of the BBT series prior to this. I was completely absent during the BBT3 last year, as it coincided with my separation from my previous employer & ended just when I got my fat severance check. I think I played a couple of BBT2 events but I never made a dent in the points race nor did I win a single event. I’ve wanted to play the BBT series, and now, with a steadier financial situation, I can do that.

The Mookie is tomorrow. Payday is Friday, so unless someone wants to front me a Mookie buyin until I redeposit, I’ll be absent from BBT4 events this week. But, as long as my redeposit clears in time, I should be back at the Blogger tournaments, making a concerted effort at a strong showing in April.

See you at the tables soon.

Question For O8 Players

2009-02-24T15:01:00.000-08:00

Would you play this hand differently, and if so, how? This is from a 1-table SNG but we can pretend it's the first level of an O8 MTT.

PokerStars Game #25288478915: Tournament #143208169, $5.00+$0.50 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/02/23 22:56:23 ET
Table '143208169 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: skpersian (1260 in chips)
Seat 2: kaymarx (1460 in chips)
Seat 3: mclarich (1520 in chips)
Seat 4: srgra (2080 in chips)
Seat 5: patches068 (1970 in chips)
Seat 7: jmurphy69 (1960 in chips)
Seat 8: NeedsaJet (1380 in chips)
Seat 9: dbird_33 (1870 in chips)
NeedsaJet: posts small blind 10
dbird_33: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [2h 3d 3s As]
skpersian: folds
kaymarx: calls 20
mclarich: raises 40 to 60
srgra: calls 60
patches068: folds
jmurphy69: folds
NeedsaJet: calls 50
dbird_33: calls 40
kaymarx: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [6d Ts 4c]
NeedsaJet: checks
dbird_33: checks
kaymarx: checks
mclarich: checks
srgra: bets 100
NeedsaJet: calls 100
dbird_33: calls 100
kaymarx: folds
mclarich: calls 100
*** TURN *** [6d Ts 4c] [2s]
NeedsaJet: bets 140
dbird_33: calls 140
mclarich: calls 140
srgra: calls 140
*** RIVER *** [6d Ts 4c 2s] [Kh]
NeedsaJet: bets 200
dbird_33: folds
mclarich: calls 200
srgra: calls 200
*** SHOW DOWN ***
NeedsaJet: shows [2c 9d Ad 5c] (HI: a pair of Deuces; LO: 6,5,4,2,A)
mclarich: shows [2h 3d 3s As] (HI: a pair of Threes; LO: 6,4,3,2,A)
srgra: shows [Jc Tc Th 6s] (HI: three of a kind, Tens)
srgra collected 930 from pot
mclarich collected 930 from pot

Preflop: I'm OOP but with a sooted Ace and two draws for a low, I raise to build a pot in case the flop comes low. In the early stages of these games, hardly anyone is folding to small PF raises, even with really bad O8 hands.

Flop: I'm still drawing to a made low, but OOP I don't want to A) force anyone out with an unmade low or B) position myself to face a raise OOP.

Turn: I've made my low with a draw to the nut flush, but I'm at best only chopping the pot, at worst quartering it vs a high hand vs another low (although the fact that I have two of the 3's make that less likely)

River: Still only chopping the pot at best.

Considering the draw I have on the turn + a made low, would anyone raise instead of just calling at any point? Obviously if I knew what each person in front of me was betting with I would raise, or if I had been more conscious of the fact that I had two of the threes needed for the nut low. O8 is just so much easier for me when I'm in position.

Wheeeee, Back To Poker Stuff

2009-02-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all for the congratulations you left on my other blog. Suffice it to say that it's a very exciting time for me for many reasons, one of those being the fact that I'll have a legitimate income again to help support this poker habit of mine.

Anyway, let's get back to being a poker blog.

My one and only goal this year has been to improve as a poker player. I haven't developed any way of measuring whether or not I've shown improvement, but over the first two months of 2009, I do feel that I'm at least playing better than when I stopped playing regularly last year. These days, I'm still resigned to play microstakes SNGs, so I'm not really improving by going up against stronger competition. However, I have made some changes to my game that has helped me become more profitable in the short run.

First, and most recognizable, I've become more patient when I play. I first started doing this after I reread HOH2's chapter on zones (i.e. Green Zone, Red Zone, etc.) Prior to this, and especially in multi-table SNGs, if I find myself shortstacked, I've found myself pushing AIPF with a wider range of hands then probably necessary, and doing so earlier than necessary. Usually I'll do this when I fear that my stack size is dwindling so much that I lose significant fold equity, but in the games at these levels, I realized that fold equity is not as important because players just don't know how to fold. When you're able to shove AA AIPF in the first level against a raiser and get called by anything from AJ to 77, being able to induce a fold is more then just somewhat irrelevant, it's nearly impossible. These days, I'll allow my stack to drop a little lower than I usually find comfortable, looking for a chance to A) find a better hand that I can shove with or B) wait until I'm in position to push more aggressively against stacks that don't understand pot odds or M values.

Likewise, in single table SNGs, I've reigned in the aggression considerably preflop and focused more on getting value out of my hands postflop. Instead of 3-betting with a hand like AK or JJ, I'll find myself calling more in various positions and reassessing my hand on different streets. One consequence of this is that I may not get as much value out of my hands as I could by building a pot preflop, but I'm also doing this mostly when I feel that reraising preflop will not induce a fold or thin the field when I'd like. If I can get heads up, then it's a different story.

The side effects of this are notable in two ways. One, I'm basically playing conservative ABC poker. Profitable as it may be at these levels, I feel like I'll definitely have to make some adjustments if and when I start playing at higher levels and\or jumping into MTTs again. Secondly, it's just plain boring. For the past couple weeks, I've only been playing O8 and 8-game SNGs because I've been so bored playing NLHE SNGs. I've had some success, both in terms of profitability and in keeping my interest, but the flipside is that some of these games take FOREVER. In one game yesterday, we played for 90 minutes...before we even got to the bubble! I'll leave you with this hand as an example of what I'm talking about.

PokerStars Game #25098556004: Tournament #141887058, $10+$1 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Level VIII (200/400) - 2009/02/18 19:49:36 ET
Table '141887058 1' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: amhrch (4403 in chips)
Seat 2: robin712 (2616 in chips)
Seat 3: mclarich (3786 in chips)
Seat 6: kelvio (958 in chips)
Seat 7: AA-KK-Man (1737 in chips)
mclarich: posts small blind 200
kelvio: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kh Jc Tc Qc]
AA-KK-Man: folds
amhrch: calls 400
robin712: folds
mclarich: calls 200
kelvio: raises 400 to 800
amhrch: calls 400
mclarich: folds

The chipleader, ahmrch, had been limping a lot of low-Ace hands. Likewise, kelvio was not raising much preflop, so limping with a Hi-only hand was an easy call. I guess I had odds to call once kelvio min-raised but being OOP with a chipleader behind me, I elected to just fold and save an extra 400.

*** FLOP *** [6s 5s 5h]
kelvio: checks
amhrch: checks
mclarich said, "omg a check?"
mclarich said, "really?"

This is where I lost it. Not only did kelvio only min-raise when he was obviously pot-committed, he checks the flop? And amhrch refuses to put him all in? Is either person really going to fold this hand at any point?

*** TURN *** [6s 5s 5h] [7h]

Wait, it gets better:

kelvio: checks

And this is why these games take forever

amhrch: bets 400
kelvio: calls 158 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (242) returned to amhrch
*** RIVER *** [6s 5s 5h 7h] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kelvio: shows [4h Ac 8d 3d] (HI: a straight, Four to Eight; LO: 7,6,5,3,A)
amhrch: shows [6h 3s 9d Ah] (HI: three of a kind, Fives; LO: 7,6,5,3,A)
kelvio collected 1158 from pot
kelvio collected 579 from pot
amhrch collected 579 from pot

Seriously, how fucking retarded do you have to be to A) put only 80% of your stack in preflop with a minraise instead of AIPF, B) check the flop when both players are committed, and C) check the turn with a straight + 2nd nut low?

I don't even think Waffles is that retarded.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

2009-02-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

This is a crossover post from my other personal blog. It has nothing to do with poker directly, but indirectly, it does. Either way, it's my biggest victory in quite some time.

More poker content later. Now, I drink.

A Generous Man Am I

2009-02-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I made another visit to Rascal's casino, a nearby cardroom that holds a nightly tournament with a good structure by Washington standards. It's no deep stack extravaganza, but with 5k chips to start, it's not an immediate shove-fest either. This is the same place where I scored my first live cash the last time I was there, not to mention Cayne's first live tournament victory a few weeks prior to that.

I've adjusted my game the more times I play this tournament. Most of the players are calling stations in the early levels, so despite the quickly rising blind levels, I usually play pretty tight early on. I didn't win a single pot during the first three levels, but not that I had much to work with either. The best hand I saw preflop was A7o OOP, and the only time I called a raise preflop, I missed with sooted connectors.

After the first break, I was entering all-in mode. I took a small pot when I pushed out some limpers with A8 sooted. It wasn't the best hand, but I knew at least one of the limpers was observant, and he mentioned after the hand he would've called someone else in that situation, but not me since it was the first move I made all night. I kept nursing my stack until, at the 400\800 level, I shoved 66 UTG for 5500 total. A shorty called me for 4k, and two of the other stacks agonized over folding AT and KT. I held up vs the shorty's QJ on a T high board. Thanks for the folds, guys!

That hand put me at 10k and at the final table, but I still had work to do with blinds soon doubling to 800\1600. I couldn't find a hand before the blinds hit me, and with 7500 left, I found my make or break hand: AdKd. Unfortunately, I was faced with a UTG limp plus an all-in from the second biggest stack. I knew I was up against a pair, and considering the action, I could very well be dominated, but I couldn't fold a hand this big. Luckily, I was in better shape than imagined. The big stack had TT, and the UTG limped tanked then called with...22. The flop was all unders, but more importantly, all diamonds. No miracle runner-runners, and the flush put me in 1st place with 8 left.

The increasing blinds turned medium stacks into shorties, and I took one of them out with 55 vs QJ when my presto turned into quads on the river, then a few hands later my AK bested a shorty's A4. I was a dominating chipleader, and used my big stack to pressure the rest of the table. Three of the stacks were easily down to M's of less than 3, yet folded nearly any time I raised their blind. It also helped that I was showing some big Aces a couple times to keep giving them the impression I had a hand.

When down to 5 players, everyone started talking chop (actually, the chop take started at 8 players. Everyone at the table wanted to chop for $75 each so they could go play a cash game. Fuck that idea.) With such a big lead and the only one not that affected by the blinds, I held out for a while, then agreed to let 4th & 5th get their buyin back. This knocked first down from $285 to $255, a small concession but I didn't really mind.

Once we were down to 4, the other three started talking about a chop again. I was warming up to the idea because the blinds would soon be increasing to the point where, even as chipleader by about a 2:1 advantage over 2nd place, I would soon be down to only 7BB myself. However, they wanted an even chop, and I wasn't about to split the pot 4 ways when two of the stacks were nearly down to 1-2BBs. I suggested they all take 3rd place money, and I take $200. Two were OK but the woman next to me didn't believe in anything other than an even chop. I felt I was being generous as it was and refused. Not only did I have the bigger stack, but I was easily the better player, and 2nd place was a strong probability for me. I was willing to concede a bit due to the structure, but not that much.

We played a couple more hands then finally came up with an agreement. The suggestion was $190 for me, $125 for her, and $115 for the rest. In retrospect, I should have suggested that her additional $10 should have come from the other two players, but at the moment, I was only thinking about two things:

1. I have no job; $190 is a nice prize at this point
2. I already lost $50 earlier at Pai Gow; I'd hate to play this out and only walk away up $15.

So I caved in, and apparently the extra $10 was enough for the woman to cave in as well. I didn't win the tournament outright, but I ended the game with the most chips and the biggest prize, so it's good enough for me to call the night a victory! I walked out with $110 profit in my second straight cash in a live MTT.

Woot!

Those Crafty Chakos

2009-02-08T22:45:00.001-08:00

Last night was my second foray into merging this fantasy world of poker blogging with the concept that there are real live people behind these things. Simply put: I played poker with bloggers last night.

MHG was kind enough to host the rag tag crew of Seattle bloggers + 1 guy from our moose-loving neighbors up north. I'd had the pleasure of meeting most of them at Cayne's place last year but this gathering got me acquainted with PirateLawyer, Zeem, and The Doc. Add The Wife and the Ambiguously Gay Duo (not confirmed, but I've only once seen them apart. Hmmm?), throw in some drinks and some highly regarded guacamole, and we soon found ourselves in some form of a poker game.

The night started off with a bang when PL became the Gigli only a couple hands in when his 9-high flush couldn't find a one-outer vs MHG's K-high flush. That wasn't the bad beat though; it was MHG not being able to triple up since Zeem somehow found a way to fold his Q-high flush.

Knowing that I was going sober the whole night, I would have no excuse for bad play other than pure donkery, so I tried to play a solid game. I found my 2nd AK of the night, and after The Wife limped UTG, I put in a healthy bet to see where I was at. Once it got back to her, she immediately shoved all-in. I got in a couple of hands against her last year, and I figured her to be a tight player. In other circumstances, I might find a fold here, but in a $10 blogger game, with that radiant face staring back at me (among other things), I matched her bet, fully expecting to find myself dominated against AA or KK, maybe QQ at worst.

Nope. KJo. I caught her trying to make a move on me (very flattered, btw). I paired my A on the flop, but a T also gave her 4 outs to the gutshot. Of course, 2 of those Queens finished out the board, and my stack was devastated.

I fought back my way with a series of pushes, some with good cards (88, AK) some with not so good cards (86 sooted). Luckily, I only got called when I had the good cards, and I somehow managed my way to not just avoid the bitter 3rd place prize of $5 but actually making profit, finishing only behind Cayne.

At this point, others were very much inebriated. Cayne was making equally inappropriate and hilarious jokes, Zeem was confessing to being a 42 year old virgin, The Doc was trying to raise hands he wasn't even in, and I think MHG and The Wife were playing a game of grab-ass in the living room. A lack of sobriety had to be the explanation for all of this, not to mention the reason no one objected to the idea of a limit HORSE game (only more O and no R). I should have spoke up but, well, like most bad ideas, it seemed like a good one at the time.

Starting with the H, I began the game with a pair of Aces UTG. I put in a raise, only to be 3-bet by The Doc. I capped it when it came to me, and I'm pretty sure half the table came along.

By the time we hit the river, my AA never improved, and with a K and a J on board, and with the Doc betting me the whole way, I played it cautiously in case he tripped up. After I called his river bet, he proclaims "nothing" and I flip up my Aces.

"except a straight."

What? The Doc then shows QTo for a rivered gutshot K-high straight. Are you serious? Not only did he donkey his way into the pot by betting with air, but he then proceeded to slow-roll me with it!

A move like that could get one killed in Atlantic City, but at this game, the only way anyone was going to die was via laughter. I'm almost honored to say that, in my first meeting with The Doc, I got slowrolled by his straight and lived to laugh about it. Good times indeed. He later admitted that he didn't realize he made the hand until he actually looked at his cards; either way, it was still hysterical.

I hung around through both of the O games until we got to Stud, where PL tried to put on a clinic. He took down nearly every hand, although I was able to get nearly maximum value when I took my rolled 9s and turned them into a full house by 5th street. Other than that, he was the stud of Stud.

We fought our way through the H and the O's, where I lost a lot of my stack when a short-stacked Zeem doubled through me with Q3, but then I repaid the favor when I jammed my hammer against him and won. Note: I will never use the phrase "jammed my hammer against him" in any context ever again, but I'll leave it in that previous sentence, just to serve as a reminder.

Once we got back to stud, PL took over the table again. I tried to battle him with a couple multi-way draws that never got there, and by the time we were back to the third round of H, he had a pretty commanding lead. I won the sucker prize of $5 when he flushed me vs my overpair & no draws in Omaha. Eventually PL won vs Joshua, but I don't know how it happened, nor did I care. The game was dragging at that point, the drunken natives were getting restless for a cash game (mostly The Doc), and I pretty much lost all interest after the Stud clinic.

In the cash game, I managed to lose my first $8 buyin when The Doc played some kind of mind game against me in Pineapple, blatantly showing me he threw away second pair, telling me he was on the flush draw, and then betting when it got there. I put my last $4 in with TPTK, only to see that he indeed turned the nut flush. Crafty, indeed.

By the time the cash game was over, it was almost 2:30am. I had to be up in less than 6 hours to run a 5k around Greenlake, so I called it a night, as did most others. For the evening, I pulled a Waffles (which, with The Wife around could probably mean a number of horrendous things) and ended the night exactly breakeven. 7 hours of play, no money lost, and too many laughs to count. Blogger poker sounds like the new Pai Gow!

It was great to see everyone, old faces and new, and I hope to be the host of the next game very soon. And, sorry Doc, I won't be killing my cats.

Worst Brag Post Evah

2009-01-27T15:56:00.000-08:00

Who cares about things like Lucko & LJ playing at the Borgata or Jordan freerolling to a $500 satellite victory. Those fools have nothing on this:

Hells yeah.

Truthfully, I am pretty excited about this. If you're a loyal reader, then you know, at least for the time being, not to expect much in the way of brag posts from me. I've been basically slaving away at the micro SNGs since Christmas with little bankroll growth to show for it. I've been playing well, but there's only so much I can do once I get AQ vs QJ AIPF, flop TP yet lose to a turned straight by way of 3 outer.

I mentioned in a previous post that these games were my poker crack. Addictive yet offer little substance. Until, today that is. Sadly, this win represents the biggest field I have ever taken down outright; I've waded through larger fields and won bigger cashes before, but I've never outlasted more than 89 people for an actual victory. So yay me for that one.

Furthermore, the $108 score basically quadrupled my little bankroll, significant only to someone who is currently relying on nothing more than unemployment benefits for income right now. With no way to replenish my roll in the event I go busto, this is a nice little cushion to have.

The last time I built my bankroll from scratch, the catalyst was a victory in the aforementioned 10-table SNG for a similar score. I'm playing a confident game right now, so hopefully this extra cash will be the start of another stretch of cashes.

Anyways, that's the most I can write about a $100 victory. In other brag post news, I ran my first half-marathon last Sunday. For more on that, visit my other blog here. At least that's actually brag worthy.

P.S. Go Lucko, GG LJ, and congrats Jordan.

Back to Basics

2009-01-16T01:39:00.000-08:00

Anytime I've thought about improving my game, I've equated improvement with skills like pulling off sick bluffs, making huge (and correct) hero calls, and an overall hyper-aggressive style. I certainly hope to consistently make those plays part of my arsenal, but one thing I've realized lately is that improvement also means just minimizing my mistakes as much as possible.

I started re-reading HOH2 again lately, and one thing that I've picked up from that is that when I'm struggling, I'm playing too loose. Right now, since I'm playing only micro stakes, there's less value in floating or being too aggressive. Instead, I've refocused myself to playing much tighter, only playing speculative hands in position and\or in limped pots, and working on better pot control.

The results have been better, although due to a series of sick beats the past couple days, my bankroll doesn't reflect that. There's only been a couple of hands lately where I invested too much with lesser hands. I feel like I'm playing ABC poker right now, and I usually have to throw in a O8 or a mixed game every now and then to break up the monotony, but I'm also playing confident and successful poker as well. I may not be impressing anyone with flashy plays all the time, but I'm also playing generally mistake-free poker right now. I can't say that for my opponents.

I mentioned that I've had some bad beats the past couple days. Really sick stuff, like:

AQ vs TT on Q high flop goes runner-runner straight.
AA vs AJ AIPF gives him trips on river
AA vs A6 AIPF goes runner-runner 8-high straight
AA vs 66 loses to flopped set
KK vs TT loses to turned set

I've only had one situation where I got my money in bad (A9 vs QQ goes runner-runner flush even after QQ flops set), and I've certainly had other occasions where I've gotten my money in good with overpairs or dominating Ax hands and they hold up, but the thing that I've noticed lately is that I'm not tilting. Despite the fact my bankroll is extremely volatile right now, with each buyin representing anywhere from 7-20% of my total roll, I'm shaking these kind of beats off fairly well. Part of it helps that I don't have much money invested, part of it is that even 1st place in these things don't represent life-changing money, but the biggest part of it is that I'm able to live better with just getting my money in good. I'm doing a lot of what I need to in order to build my bankroll right now, and more often than not, I'm going to come out ahead. I definitely feel comfortable with where my game is at right now, and I know I'll have the monetary results to back it up in no time.

Do You Expect Me To Hookup With You?

2009-01-09T01:26:00.000-08:00

If you're playing on PokerStars and come across this avatar staring at you:

that's me. Alas, the name "mclarich" might give it away too if you're a loyal reader. But, if you don't know me, one might assume that the above picture is of me (obv it's not: it's a picture of Maura Davis of the band Denali), and likewise, I can understand something thinking I am female (some of my friends apparently make the same mistake when I am in a bad mood). But, without fail, at least a couple times a month, some sleazebag sees this beautiful image, thinks the picture is the player, and tries to spit some game at me:

Mr. Baz said, "why so serious mclarich?"
mclarich said, "?"
Mr. Baz said, "nuice smile with that pretty face would be great"

I understand that some people use chat to shoot the shit with other players, whatever. But trying to flirt with nothing but a picture of a girl at an online poker table? Man, guys are douchebags.

For the most part, I'll ignore it. Every once in a while, I'll tell them it's my girlfriend, but that's usually just another way to ignore it. But going forward, I'm gonna try to have some fun with it, just fuck around with people and see how desperate and retarded these guys are. Who knows, maybe I can use it to my advantage, maybe playing up the part of some lonely girl who doesn't know how to play poker, and bait some people into really bad calls. Always gotta look for that edge, right?

Trying To Put Down The Crack

2009-01-07T15:41:00.001-08:00

My eensy weensy bankroll on PokerStars is sliding up and down each day. I've doubled it then nearly dropped to zero only to bring it slight above what I deposited. I've had a decent cash streak in 1-table SNGs, but most of the cashes have been 3rds. What's kept my bankroll from growing even further have been the stupid 180 seat turbos that PS has.

I can't help but be sucked in by the beckon call of these things. $2, lots of action, and first place is 54x the buyin. I finished 2nd in one of these a while back but the started taking shots at higher buyins too soon and lost most of that profit. I keep thinking that I can take one of these down and give myself a nice jolt to my bankroll, but trying to wade your way through this minefield consistently seems nearly impossible. It's insane what hands these people will go to war with. For example:

PokerStars Game #23644300090: Tournament #132234347, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level VIII (150/300) - 2009/01/06 19:12:33 ET
Table '132234347 10' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: saluki27 (7710 in chips)
Seat 2: cabnben (4635 in chips)
Seat 3: indelat (1812 in chips)
Seat 4: Zaft1 (2705 in chips)
Seat 5: 007hollyrock (4070 in chips)
Seat 6: mclarich (2735 in chips)
Seat 7: evilelvis13 (5878 in chips)
Seat 8: geeman29 (1335 in chips)
Seat 9: rados2312 (3955 in chips)
saluki27: posts the ante 25
cabnben: posts the ante 25
indelat: posts the ante 25
Zaft1: posts the ante 25
007hollyrock: posts the ante 25
mclarich: posts the ante 25
evilelvis13: posts the ante 25
geeman29: posts the ante 25
rados2312: posts the ante 25
rados2312: posts small blind 150
saluki27: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Jd Ac]
cabnben: calls 300
indelat: folds
Zaft1: folds
007hollyrock: folds
mclarich: raises 2410 to 2710 and is all-in
evilelvis13: folds
geeman29: folds
rados2312: folds
saluki27: folds
cabnben: calls 2410
*** FLOP *** [7h Qs 2d]
*** TURN *** [7h Qs 2d] [6h]
*** RIVER *** [7h Qs 2d 6h] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cabnben: shows [Js 8s] (high card Queen)
mclarich: shows [Jd Ac] (high card Ace)
mclarich collected 6095 from pot

Beautiful limp-call here for 60% of their stack. Players fucking LOVE any two sooted cards in these games. Luckily this worked for me here, but this has been far from the norm. An 8 on the river or running spades would have been standard here.

Here's another gem:

PokerStars Game #23641738333: Tournament #132223304, $2.00+$0.20 Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/01/06 17:51:55 ET
Table '132223304 8' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: kloens (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: embo1292 (1490 in chips)
Seat 3: EXALBE (1680 in chips)
Seat 4: VURN (1800 in chips)
Seat 5: Socke24 (1550 in chips)
Seat 6: NDH-SF (1180 in chips)
Seat 7: Rickyp1984 (1400 in chips)
Seat 8: mclarich (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: bonkers5 (1300 in chips)
Socke24: posts small blind 10
NDH-SF: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [8d 4s]
Rickyp1984: folds
mclarich: folds
bonkers5: calls 20
kloens: folds
embo1292: calls 20
EXALBE: folds
VURN: calls 20
Socke24: calls 10
NDH-SF: raises 480 to 500
bonkers5: calls 480
embo1292: raises 990 to 1490 and is all-in
VURN: folds
Socke24: folds
NDH-SF: calls 680 and is all-in
bonkers5: calls 800 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (190) returned to embo1292
*** FLOP *** [7d Kc 8c]
*** TURN *** [7d Kc 8c] [2d]
Rickyp1984 said, "silly poker"
*** RIVER *** [7d Kc 8c 2d] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bonkers5: shows [Jd Qc] (a pair of Queens)
embo1292: shows [Ks Td] (a pair of Kings)
embo1292 collected 240 from side pot
NDH-SF: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
NDH-SF collected 3580 from main pot

I can understand wanting to play fast in a turbo game, but the action here is incredible. A 25xBB raise with KQd? The nice smooth call TWICE with QJo? The limp-shove with KTo? Am I missing something here?

Playing these things, with so many unpredictable players, doesn't fit well with my style of play right now. On the other hand, with so many bad players, I can't resist playing them anyways, even though I don't have the bankroll to handle the volatility of these things. Recent results show that I'm much more successful playing the 1-table games, but I keep coming back to these things. They're so fucking addicting.

Urgh.

2009 Goals

2009-01-02T02:45:00.000-08:00

I guess I better get this up before we're too far into 2009.

It's tough trying to come up with goals for 2009. I'm still jobless at this point, so the amount of poker I can play is limited. I've still a small amount on PokerStars to pass the time, but I'm limited to micro stakes SNGs for the forseeable future. Setting any kind of goal measured by profit or by amount of poker played seems unreasonable right now.

I'm not as concerned with any kind of visibility goals regarding this blog or being a poker blogger either. Eventually, I hope to get back into things like the Mookie or Goat's next Bad Bankroll game, and maybe this will finally be the year I join all you donkeys in Vegas, but otherwise, I'll just let come what may.

Last's year goal of reading all my poker books is still unfulfilled, but it really isn't much of a goal. In fact, setting it as a goal is more symbolic of my own laziness than anything else. However, when I was writing my 2008 recap post, I started thinking about that goal as being part of a bigger goal.

The sad truth is that, despite 2008 being one of my most financially successful years in poker, I'm not really that much of a poker player. Additionally, it seems like any improvement in my game has become stagnant, which really isn't surprising; I can't say I've put any emphasis on improving my game to begin with.

So, for 2009, I've got one and only goal: to be able to say at the end of the year, with confidence, that I am a better poker player than I was at the beginning.

The first part of that, of course, is figuring out where I can improve. I know of a couple things I need to refine (properly applying aggression, playing specific hands OOP, etc), but besides refinement, I think improvement in my case goes far beyond that.

It seems one of my recurring problems has been a lack of focus. There's been too many times to count where I've sabotaged by bluffing in the wrong spots, overplaying a hand too aggressively, or making unnecessary hero calls. I'm beginning to think that these problems aren't due to a lack of focus, but more of a lack of understanding of key principles that I should understand by now. And I think that's where a dedication to really improving my game comes into play. Reading my poker books is just only a small part of that.

Of course, the flip side is trying to improve my game at the stakes I play. At the micro stakes, players are often unpredictable, and I don't mean that as a compliment. Certain plays that may be part of an experienced player's repertoire are less effective against players that are willing to call down with any pair or any draw. Trying to properly identify which plays work against which players, all while playing with a bankroll that I can't easily replace if I go busto, makes playing at these stakes often infuriating. But instead of getting frustrated by the often volatile play, I'm going to focus more on continually playing my best game.

So as it stands, I've got my one and only goal set for 2009. How I measure that or how I obtain that goal is still TBD, not to mention the possible obstacle of not being able to play at certain times during the year, whether it be due to financial constrains or due to the UIGEA finally putting the clamps on online poker. What I do know is this; for the first time in my life, I'm putting an additional focus on improving my play. I've still got dreams of hitting up the WSOP next year, and if I want to have any remote chance of being anything but dead money, it's time to start making some changes.

2008 Goals Recap

2008-12-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

I'm in Corona, CA right now, staying at my girlfriend's sister's place, with the sounds of a crying newborn flickering on and off. 12:18am is still much too early for me to fall asleep. If I was home, I'd probably be in a SNG right now; alas, I'll devote this time to cranking out some posts on a borrowed laptop.

At the beginning of the year, I set myself 5 poker-oriented goals. Some of them I crushed, others I failed at miserably. Nevertheless, it was an exciting year of poker for me, highlighted by:

1. The month of May. I final tabled 3 MTTs within a week or two, adding over $3k to my bankroll almost instantaneously. Although I still never exceeded my single biggest cash ever, the sum of the scores was certainly very close.

2. My first live cash ever. Although it was a chop at a very small MTT, it was certainly a boost to get this monkey off my back.

3. My foray into online cash games. Although this wasn't quite the success I hoped it would be, it was fun while it lasted.

Of course, the year wasn't always full of sunshine and puppies; I had my share of low points too:

1. Self-destruction over the summer. I lost nearly $1500 in a week, due to a combination of tilt, inadequate focus, poor bankroll management, too much gamble, and playing out of my comfort zone. Prior to this, the results suggested I was crushing the tables, but this streak did more than humble me, it severely wrecked my confidence for many months afterwards.

2. Yet another hiatus. Had I been able to find a job as soon as I hoped, perhaps I wouldn't have needed to withdraw my entire bankroll.

3. A failure to improve. I'll explore this statement to greater length in a separate post.

Anyways, like I said, I had 5 goals for 2008. Although most of these are probably better graded in a Pass\Fail format, I think there's some merit in grading them on more of a sliding scale.

1. Build my bankroll to $2k by November. Mission accomplished in May, thanks to that string of final tables. Original expectation was to grind it out to $2k but one fell swoop works as well. Maintaining that bankroll was something else, and beyond that, learning to play with a bankroll of that size while living with several financial burdens. The letter of the goal was accomplished, but not necessarily the intent. Grade: B+

2. Win a Mookie. Done and done, my sole victory coming just before the BBT3 kickoff. Part skill, part final table cardrack (back to back AA for huge pots? Come on!). Doesn't matter, a win is a win is a win. Bonus points for outlasting LJ at the final table. Grade: A+

3. Read all of my poker books. Epic Fail. I breathed on HOH2 a couple times but hardly more than that. At least I didn't spend any money this year adding more to the collection. Grade: F

4. Win a MTT of 300 or more people. This one hurts. Two of my FTs this year qualified, maybe all three. The money sure was nice, but it still stings to get that close yet not finish it off. I'll award myself a bit of a lenient grade for getting so close, but ultimately, a goal like this is measured in victories, not cashes or runner-ups. Grade: C

5. Become a more visible blogger. Kind of a hard goal to measure without defining "visible". Although it seems that more people are aware of me than I think do, I've felt like a D-list blogger, sort of like Kathy Griffin only not nearly as annoying or plastic. I guess I was looking to see some of the relationships I've developed through this blog grow a bit more, but that only happens when effort is put forth, and just putting a bunch of blogs on your Google Reader isn't really effort. So, although I know more of you and maintain some form of correspondence with a handful of bloggers fairly regularly, I can't give myself a fair grade on this blog unless I know exactly what it is I'm expecting when I set a goal like this. Grade: Incomplete.

I'll return before the new year with some goals for 2009. Hopefully you've all enjoyed whatever holidays you may be celebrating this time of year. See you again soon.

I'm In

2008-12-17T23:41:00.000-08:00

I got my 3.5 mile run in with enough time to come home for the PLO8 game of the PokerStars Blogger thingamajig (wow, that word didn't get underlined for spellcheck, weird). I played UBER tight for the first couple levels or so, mostly out of necessity since I had nothing to work with. The most I had were a couple AX hands but I would've been OOP with only average draws.

Finally, I picked up an AA2x sooted hand in decent position, only to get two callers to my raise. Flop was an ugly KQT with one of my suit. I check-called, got a low card of the right suit, and shoved. Ended up against AQQx but nailed my flush on the river to double up.

There's a reason why I gave this blog the title I did.

Got moved to a table with DubsPoke and F-Train. Wavered back and forth with a couple decent drawing hands OOP, then got a decent rush and was about to scoop a couple pots against Dubs. That put me around the 12k mark, good for mid teens, and I basically hovered there for most of the night. A table change put me directly to the right of a loose, aggressive, completely donkish chipleader, who not only played but raised nearly every hand PF, regardless of position. I picked up a small pot off of her to keep my stack decent, but more or less I was on autofold for about an hour.

I went out somewhere in the 40's when I hit trips from the BB in a limped pot. I thought I was clever with my CRAI but instead I was up against trips with a better kicker. Yay me.

Anyways, finishing where I did was really important as it meant I picked up a Step 2 ticket. I probably won't be able to play in the final as I'll be in California visiting friends. Finishing less than 45th would have been a bigger waste of time. Instead, I get the Step 2 ticket for a chance to add to my PS bankroll.

Good luck to all the finalists on Sunday. I'll try to be there but probably won't. Enjoy the chips!

Evy Ain't No Ordinary Ho

2008-12-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

I joined over 500 other blogger donks yesterday for the PokerStars Blogger Championship Cup Series For Bloggers or whatever it's called. Ended up going out somewhere in the 400s when QQ < AA. Came back later to see a couple bloggers that I recognized still hanging around at the final two tables. I tried to rail them as long as I could but my rail support was sidetracked by this guy's avatar image and I had to start cheering him on. I know, I know, bro's before ho's, but you have to understand, right? I mean, it's Evangeline Lilly:

Sorry guys, I have a weakness for her.

Anyways, congrats to Mojo for making the final table. I really want to play the event tonight, PLO8, but might have to miss it in favor of running 3-4 miles. Maybe if I get my lazy ass out of here soon I can be back in time.

Otherwise, not much news to report. Pokerstars bankroll keeps fluctuating up and down. I keep taking shots at the $2 20-table games but can't fend off the the donkeys runner-runnering my ass after limp-calling preflop shoves with KJ. Argh.

WPBT Weekend Recap

2008-12-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

As I imagine most of you know, this weekend was the WPBT gathering in Vegas. This post is not my recap of what happened there since I didn't go. But I don't see any reason why I can't do a recap of what happened to me this past weekend either.

First, fantasy football recap. I'll make it short & sweet.

Fuck fantasy football.

I lost in Skidoo's league, which I pretty much expected when two of my starting WRs were pickups from the waiver wire. Despite being the 2nd seed, I still ended up against the leading scorer in the league, and he dismantled me accordingly. I've still got a shot at 3rd place money, so we'll see how that goes. Good luck to MHG this upcoming weekend as he battles Memphis Mojo for the title.

In my other league, I think I need to win out to cash. My trade of Westbrook for Boldin completely backfired. I traded Westbrook because he was playing hurt and had an unfavorable schedule for the majority of the last 5 games. Boldin was playing amazing, putting up RB like numbers each week. Since the trade, Boldin hasn't given me a single week with double digit numbers. Westbrook, OTOH, put up back to back 30pt weeks. Call me crazy for trading a top RB while I was still sitting at the top, but I saw a chance to separate myself from the pack so I pulled the trigger. Well, looks like I separated myself alright, just not in the direction I wanted to go.

More importantly, since this is a poker blog, poker news!

1. I missed the PokerStars Blogger game today. Wanted to play too, since it was PLO. Alas, I couldn't wake up in time to make the 11am start time. Tomorrow's game starts at 4pm my time so I can probably swing that one.

2. Speaking of PokerStars...I'm hesitant to make a formal declaration since I don't know how long it will last, but as of today, I am back to playing online! My original intent was, as a Christmas gift to myself, to play another tournament at the local card room where I cashed last time. However, when I was checking out the Blogger game, I noticed in the cashier that the minimum to deposit via check was $25. The live game was $30, not to mention maybe another $20-$40 while I waited at the Pai Gow table. Being on such a limited income right now, the choice was easy.

Anyways, I'm not ready to declare my return, as my bankroll was up then nearly almost gone until I took down a two-table SNG to bring me almost back to even. If I can wade through this field of donkeys I'm up against right now (currently 9 of 78 in a $4 20-table game) then I'll feel a bit better.

3. Finally, the girlfriend and I celebrated our Christmas on Saturday night since we'll be in California with her family on the actual date. I woke up from a nap that afternoon to find a huge present near the tree (so big it was wrapped in a bed sheet). When we finally open gifts, I unraveled the sheet to find...a brand new, folding, 10-person poker table!

I already had a table, but it was one of those piece of shit octagonal table top ones, good enough in a pinch but quickly falling apart and becoming useless, so much so that I didn't even host a single game this year because I didn't want to play on it. Now that I have a table I'm not ashamed of, I can start inviting people over to give me their money again!

So MHG, Joshua, Cayne (if you're still alive), Zeem, Mr. & Mrs. Chako, and anyone else in the Seattle area (maybe even some of you BC folk one day?), consider yourself on notice: I'll be sending out an invite for a home game at humble little apartment sometime in the near future.

Meeting December's Quota

2008-12-03T14:39:00.001-08:00

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

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 859789

Good Bye

2008-12-02T22:08:00.000-08:00

Warning: Fantasy Football Content Only

I took care of business this week in Skidoo's blogger league, putting my opponent out of the postseason as well, thanks primarily to another huge effort by Thomas Jones. When I acquired him from Skidoo a couple weeks back, I did so primarily just for that week. I was in desperation mode, needing a victory badly that week, and he had a great matchup against KC. After that, I was going to try to flip him for another WR and go the rest of the way with Addai & Parker. Good thing I held on to him; almost single-handedly he's led me to a 5-game win streak and into the playoffs. But my luck didn't end there.

It was looking like I was going to finish somewhere around 3rd-5th seed with Schaubs and MHG getting a bye next week. Schaubs was clinging to a slight lead against NumbBono, who abandoned his team before the season. However, Bono's default lineup had an outside chance to win this week, needing Andre Johnson to outscore Jacksonville's defense by 12 points or more.

It started off well for me as AJ brought in a TD in the 1st quarter and nearly had 12 points by halftime. Jacksonville's defense wasn't doing much other than one INT, and a NumbBono victory was looking like a possibility. However, by the 4th quarter, Houston focused on running the ball and kicking FGs, which meant no points for AJ but not enough Houston points to put Jax's D in the negative.

Then, along came Steve Slaton, who took off for a 40 yard TD late in the 4th to give Houston 27 points, good enough for -1 point. Add that one INT and they were worth only 1 point in our FF league. AJ finished with 75 yards and a TD, good enough for 13. NumbBono snuck away with a victory, dropping Schaubs into a tie for 2nd place with me and Easycure. However, I had the most points for the season thus far, a mere 10 more than Easycure, giving me the tiebreaker for 2nd place and, more importantly, a bye going into the playoffs. This is HUGE because I was not looking forward to playing this week with Romo vs PITT, Dunn vs CAR, my other two RBs now part of a platoon (Parker & M. Moore) and a shoddy WR corp of Holmes, Ginn, and Mark fucking Bradley, none of whom have steller matchups this week either. Instead, I get to relax this week and wait for my next opponent. From there it's one more victory until the money. Hopefully I've still got a little more luck left.

In my other league, which also features Romo & T. Jones, the Westbrook for Boldin trade looked like it backfired, with Westbrook going for nearly 40 points, while Boldin fumbled twice & finished with less than 2. Nevertheless, Romo & Jones were enough to secure a victory against one of the worst teams in the league. I don't regret the trade, since Westbrook has a tough schedule the rest of the way compared to Boldin, and as far as 2nd RBs, I also have the emerging Peyton Hills to use if needed. This week is another week against a worse opponent, then it's the finale of three straight weeks against top teams. I've got enough depth to take this thing down, I just have to make sure I make the right lineup choices.

Good luck to anyone else playing Fantasy Football this year. Hopefully I can cash in one of these things, put the money into Full Tilt, and turn this blog back into a poker blog.

The Home Stretch

2008-11-19T17:10:00.000-08:00

Warning: Fantasy Football Content only

It's crunch time for Fantasy Football. 6 more weeks left, and in both my leagues, I'm still competitive.

First off, the $100 league. As of this week I'm in a 4 way tie for 2nd, one game behind first place. This league has a bit of a different structure; no playoffs, just best record at the end of the season. I've always preferred this way because, if you get really hot, you can coast to 1st place without concern of losing the title due to a playoff format.

Anyways, with so many teams within 1 game or tied with each other, I felt I had to make a bold move. I was looking pretty good for the rest of the season; my next three games are against some of the worst teams in the league & I've got the highest scoring team. But I wasn't feeling as confident as I liked, and it was due to one player in particular: Brian Westbrook

Steady, reliable Brian Westbrook has been anything but the past three weeks, and in the last 6 games, he has three games against some of the best run defenses (Balt, NYG & Wash). I hated getting rid of him since he was so crucial to my victory last year, in addition to being my No. 1 pick this year, but I didn't feel like I could count on him. Plus, I was able to get someone I felt a little more comfortable with: Anquan Boldin.

Now, my lineup will be Thomas Jones at RB followed by Boldin, Wayne & Roddy White at WR. I lack RB depth (which I'm trying to improve by trading away Cotchery) but I've got a starting lineup featuring the No.2 RB and 3 of the top 6 WRs. Hopefully the move will pay off, literally.

In Skidoo's blogger league, Schaubs was my latest victim as I've used a 3 game winning streak to get back into playoff contention. However, I've only got two more games to make sure I stay there. I've been very active in this league, making more trades and waiver wire pickups than anyone else, mostly due to a poor draft. Some transactions have worked out (picking up Tyler Thigpen, trading Jennings for T. Jones, trading James for Matt Jones), others not so much (dropping Berrian too early, possibly overpaying for Braylon Edwards). I don't have a lot of confidence in my team, but if I can keep up with the luck I've had, I'm confident that I can use my FF skills to sneak into the playoffs and maybe cause some damage.

Bad Beat

2008-11-14T14:40:00.000-08:00

Just because I'm not playing online poker right now doesn't mean I'm safe from losing coin flips:

WHY IS LIFE SO HARD!

Actual Poker Content!

2008-11-09T01:23:00.000-08:00

For someone who is unemployed and essentially broke, I shouldn't be anywhere near a poker table these days. But with the girlfriend out of town, I had no one to convince me that going to the casino for a tournament tonight was a bad idea. However, after playing a $10 home game last night, I couldn't control the itch, so I made the trek back to Rascal's, the same casino where Cayne scored his first live MTT win a couple weeks ago.

I mentioned to Cayne last week at my Halloween party (one of the few conversations I can remember) that I had lost a lot of confidence in my game lately, stemming all the way back to months ago. As excited as I was for his victory, I couldn't help but think that I should be doing that too. I don't mean that as any slight to Cayne; he's certainly a formidable poker player in his own right. I mean that in the sense that, at a game like that, I shouldn't be thinking anything but how I'm going to win the tournament. I took this new approach to Rascal's tonight. Even though I was playing with money I could definitely use elsewhere, I made sure not to play with scared money and just focus on playing a solid game.

For my first actual poker post in a while, I suppose I should give you a proper recap, but I'll spare you the play by play details. Instead, I'll just give a Chako-style bullet point recap:

- Played more tight-aggressive than in previous tournaments, was able to get a couple big aces to take down some pots preflop. I played maybe 2 hands before the CO, and only limped 2 hands preflop that weren't SB hands.
- Focused more on reading people, stole a nice pot on a K77 flop by floating & betting out turn.
- 3 pairs on the night: KK and two QQ. Only one QQ went to showdown, but allowed me to double through a big stack & hit the final table in either 2nd or 3rd place.
- Played 2 hands before the money hit; both took the blinds to keep my stack decent.
- Took 4th place out with QJ vs AJ (AIPF) with a sick runner-runner flush.
- Was slight chipleader afterwards with 68k before 40k stack doubled through 2nd place then took him out in back to back hands.

Down to two, my opponent offered an even chop. 1st paid 340, 2nd paid 180. He had me outchipped nearly 2:1, and with blinds at 10k, it was going to come down to me catching better cards to win. Considering that I shouldn't have even been there, I happily took the chop, and walked away with 260 for my efforts and my FIRST EVER LIVE TOURNAMENT CASH! Certainly not anything to write home about, but at least something to blog about.

Hopefully this is a sign that my luck is changing. Between the home game last night & the 2nd place (if it's an even chop but I'm 2nd in chips, I can't claim 1st place, right?), I feel more confident about my poker game. I know it's only two games, but sometimes, I just need some results for reinforcement. Unfortunately, I'm still not ready to make the jump back into online play considering my employment status. However, I should be hearing back from a company in the next few days; perhaps then I'll know whether or not my luck has truly changed.

Stay tuned....

Last Gasp

2008-11-06T15:22:00.000-08:00

Warning: Fantasy Football Content ahead.

In the blogger league this week, I made my last attempt at shoring up my WR corp, trading Joseph Addai for Braylon Edwards. I threw in Steve Breaston to ease the other guy's concerns about not having another WR for his lineup this week.

I hated making this trade on so many levels. One, I trade my 1st round pick for an inconsistent WR. Two, my new best WR has essentially a rookie QB throwing to him. But in the end, I had to make this trade for the following reasons.

1. I can only start two RBs, and with T. Jones, Parker, Addai, Dunn & M. Moore, I had to trade a RB to get another WR.

2. Of my three top RBs, Addai has been the least productive. All three have fairly comparable schedules. Addai has the best playoff schedule, but I need to worry about getting there first, so he was the one to go.

3. My WRs before the trade were Holmes, soon to be suspended Matt Jones, Breaston, B. Lloyd and Ginn. So yeah, I needed another WR.

4. Friday was the trade deadline, and there were few trade options. Two owners are already done with the season, and of the rest, I saw few owners who could use Addai and have a WR to trade. I might have lost value giving up Addai and Breaston for Edwards, but realistically, I was desperate and there weren't many possibilities to trade.

In my $100 league, I had an unexpected win, especially with my QB (Schaub) getting hammered against Minn. But, thanks to the leg of David Akers & another awesome showing by the NYG's defense, I sit atop the league in first place....with four other teams. A fucking 5-way tie for first place, although I have the best tiebreakers with the most points + a victory against 3 of the other 4 teams.

This week will be tough. I play the "2nd place" team having to rely on Joe Flacco as my QB (in both leagues, actually) as my other two QBs (Romo & Schaub) are unavailable. I like the matchup against Houston but still, it's a Baltimore QB. I'm not feeling very confident about it.

Drunk Bloggers Unite

2008-11-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

The girlfriend and I hosted a Halloween party this past Friday. Tried to recruit most of the Seattle area bloggers. The Chako's had valid reasons for their absence, and Zeem's sudden illness prevented his appearance. Cayne was gracious enough to bless us all with his presence, and his supply of Jager more than made up for Joshua's cancellation. But MHG, where were you? Boo, I say, BOO!

I'll leave Cayne to post any pictures of him at his discretion, but here's some non-Cayne pictures to hold all my readers over during my poker hiatus. My costume this year was Gay Darth Vader, born out of:

1. The lack of resources to go as Dwight Schrute
2. A desire to be a Star Wars character
3. Some random idea I got at the costume store

Anyway, here's some pics. Enjoy.

Before

During

After

......

Speaking of drunk bloggers uniting, I can confirm that my bi-annual absence at the Vegas blogger gathering will continue this go around. The same old refrain applies; no job, no money, no Vegas. I'll have to live vicariously again through all the trip recaps.

A Tale Of Two Teams

2008-10-28T17:06:00.000-07:00

Warning: (mostly) Fantasy Football Content ahead. Some poker content follows.

Losing makes me do crazy things. Even though my blogger FF league is only $20, and I'm 9th out of 12, I've been more focused on that league because I'm losing. My team has been ransacked this year. My top three picks have all lost time due to injury. I've given up on players too early (Berrian) and not soon enough (Holmes). I made one trade that hasn't helped me (E. James for Matt Jones), and was forced to start a lineup of WRs with players like Steve Breaston, Josh Reed, and Chris Henry.

I also made a desperation trade, giving up on my top WR Greg Jennings. I knew this was a week I needed to win, and I needed help at RB. I traded him to Skidoo along with NE's Defense and Donnie Avery for Thomas Jones, TB's D and Brandon Lloyd. I made this trade for the following reasons:

1. Jones played against KC. KC has been allowing RBs HUGE numbers this year. TJ has been on a tear lately. All signs pointed to huge game.
2. Avery had been playing well but I was willing to give him up knowing that I was getting a soon to return Lloyd back.
3. TB's D was a huge upgrade over any D I've started this year.

I took a shot and it backfired huge. NYJ's RBs had a good game but Leon Washington was the biggest benefactor, Avery exploded against NE, and TB didn't take advantage of a struggling Dallas team like I expected. Had I not made the trade, I would have won. I would have been forced to start Avery and Mewelde Moore, who I thought would struggle against the NYG's D. Now, I'm staring at an outside shot of the money.

But all is not lost. In my $100 league I exploded after suffering a two game losing streak. Westbrook went off. Roddy White went off. Schaub went off. And NYG had a huge day defensively (although it was bittersweet since they took down my Steelers). The win A) moves me into a 4 way tie for second place, B) gives me a victory and a tiebreaker against one of the other 2nd place teams, and C) almost broke the record this season for most points in a week, I record I set in week two.

I haven't been as sharp in FF this year as I normally am, and it's shown in my blogger league, but I'm looking good in the league that counts more. As much as I'd like to have bragging rights in Skidoo's league, I'll settle for even 3rd place in my regular league. It's all about the money, and 3rd place pays more than 1st place in the blogger league.

......

I missed out on the impromptu homegame at the Chako's this weekend. A deadly combination of being flat broke and having prior engagements with my girlfriend to go see a play prevented me from joining in the festivities. It sounds like it was a lot of fun; hopefully I can make the next one.

Poker Doldrums

2008-10-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

This time, I'm really done with online poker.

I say that because I've used up nearly every last point on both FTP and Stars the past week or so. I won 11 $T on Stars but failed to cash in both SNGs I played. I used the majority of my points trying to take down a SNG on FTP for a Midnight Madness buyin; finished second for no dinero. I've placed a personal ban on redepositing until I get a job again, but man, wouldn't I kill to just have another $5 on FTP, just to cure that fix.

Like I said on my last post, the itch is getting harder to scratch.

Anyways, I started this post after reflecting on my live MTT play recently, which upon further reflection, is an extension of the last month of two of my online poker play. To summarize: I've been playing like shit for a while now.

I wish I could pinpoint just what exactly has been my problem. I know part of it is mental; whatever confidence I gained from my MTT cashes in May has subsided. It might sound ghey, but I still don't know if I've recovered from the downswing I experienced this summer. I'm not used to those swings, and loyal readers of my blog might recall that it really threw me for a loop.

I know that I'm not a great poker player, and arguably, I might not be a good one either. I may be able to understand certain principles of poker, but my application of those principles is often inconsistent. When I find myself overplaying hands, failing to put pressure on my opponents at the right time, and calling off chips when I can only beat a limited range of hands, I'm not playing good poker.

My last post was a tongue-in-cheek, backhanded way of complimenting Cayne on his recent victory at the casino I've been frequenting lately, but truthfully, the fact that he's 1-0 and I'm 0-5 is bothersome to me. Not in a jealous sense, but in the sense that I should be able to do the same thing. When my game is on, I might not be some mega-skilled poker player, but I do know that I would be the best player in that casino. I just need to get to a point where I'm believing that again. I know there's other things I need to be doing to, like studying and reading more about poker, but I need to work on finding that way to stay confident when things go south for a while.

Anyways, that's my attempt at keeping this poker blog active during these times. Hopefully I'll find a job soon, and I'll get back to posting more poker content. Until then, unless you feel like shooting $5 to this poor bastard...you'll just have to live with my Fantasy Football posts in the meantime.

Ciao.

Ode to Cayne

2008-10-19T20:49:00.000-07:00

The itch is getting harder to scratch.

I played back to back nights at the local card room this week, both times not getting anywhere close to the final table. In the first game I lost a couple small pots then shoved KJo from the BB after a bunch of limpers only to get called by UTG's AJ.

The next night was the double stack game, and after 4 previous unsuccessful attempts, I was able to get Cayne and Joshua to join me. I was assigned a different table so we weren't able to donk it up together.

I lasted about 6 levels before finally having to shove 2nd pair in the BB only to lose to runner-runner. At least I wasn't the first one out. Cayne was still alive, so I played some Pai Gow until he busted.

Fortunately for him, whatever mojo or voodoo he conjured up to win the Mookie the night before was still in full effect, and wouldn't you know it, the bastard took the whole thing down for just over $600. And, in a gracious gesture, he refunded Joshua and I our buyins back to us. I guess those cigarettes he was puffing on during the breaks were of the wacky tobaccy kind.

In all seriousness, it was great to see a fellow blogger and an overall good guy take down the tournament on his first fucking try. In fact, it was a bit inspirational. My tournament game has been shit the past couple of months. I'm playing aggressive in all the wrong spots, and not paying enough attention to reads. I know I can play better. I know this because if Cayne can win it all in his first try, then I can surely win it too.

Anyways, congrats to Cayne on his first live MTT win (as live as a 3-table MTT in the world's smallest casino can be). And a thank you as well, for being an inspiration to me. If he can do it, then anybody can!

Do You Like Pro Basketball?

2008-10-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Odds are, probably not. Most people these days can't stand the NBA. Not that I necessarily blame them either.

Me, I can't help it. I'm a hoops junkie. I can talk pro hoops all day, any day.

Furthermore, I'm a fantasy basketball junkie. Last year alone I played in 7 leagues, albeit for free.

I wonder if there are any bloggers out there sick enough to devote time each day to fantasy basketball; changing lineups, managing max games per week, scouring the waiver wire.

I'm thinking about starting a Fantasy Hoops league. Comment if you're interested. Details to follow, depending on interest.

I Hate Fantasy Football

2008-10-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

I just want to erase this week from my memory.

First, in Skidoo's league, I knew I had a tough time going in, with my top RB facing the Ravens, and his top RB, AP, facing the Lions. I thought I had a chance when AP didn't explode like everyone predicted, but it didn't matter since my RB, Addai, went down in the 1st quarter and finished with 3 fucking yards. Needless to say I'm now 2-4 in that league.

Oh yeah, Romo is out for a month now too. My QB is out, my RBs are beat up, and aside from Greg Jennings, my WRs are shit. I'm pretty much done in this league.

In my $100 league, I made a very costly lineup decision. I decided to start 3 WRs again and went with Wayne, Cotchery, and Breaston, leaving Roddy White on my bench. That didn't really impact me that much because it was between Breaston or White. Regardless, I went with one RB. Normally, it would have been Westbrook, but with him sidelined AGAIN, I had to choose between Julius Jones, Buckhalter, or Thomas Jones. Philly was banged up, and I thought Buckhalter was the least sure thing of the three. In the end I went with Julius Jones, thinking back to his efforts at home against SF and the Rams. I also thought NYJ would air it out more, and since I was already starting Cotchery and Keller at TE, I didn't want so many eggs in one basket.

So much for that idea. I overlooked the fact that Seattle was without their QB, making their offense less effective, and I ended up leaving almost 20 points on my bench because of that decision.

Oh yeah, I'm down by 30 points with NYG's defense going into Monday night. Pretty much impossible for me to win, but would've been close if I didn't start JJ.

And to make things worse, Romo is my QB in that league as well. GG me.

I love FF when I'm winning, but when I'm not, it's so fucking frustrating.

(Edit: Never would I have thought that having my Defense score negative points would feel so good, but thanks to NYG, there's no way mathematically I could have won the $100 game this week. Sucks, but in a way, it makes me feel better.)

Thoughts About Fantasy Football

2008-10-03T14:54:00.001-07:00

Normally, I would be playing poker at this time of day. The weather outside is typical Seattle, and it's still an hour or two before Happy Hour. I guess I'll blog some more.

I made my first trade of the year, in Skidoo's league. Normally, when I make trades, I try to do the following:

1. Trade from depth. I'll give up more value in trade if it means I'm giving up a backup & a starter for a better starter. This usually works better in conjunction with...
2. Focus on bad teams. Most teams don't want to give up their best player, but bad teams have to consider giving up a top notch starter if it means getting two starters in return. Example: If a team is weak at WR, and they are offered Matt Forte & Santonio Holmes for Westbrook, it's at least tempting.
3. Stay away from top teams. Unless I think I can fleece someone with a good team, I don't look at them as trade partners. I don't want to do anything that's going to help their team.
4. Make quality offers. The quickest way to kill any trade chances in Fantasy Football is to make a shitty offer. I may lowball someone to start with but I'm not going to offer them Ike Hilliard, my kicker & Seattle's D for Anquan Boldin, even if the net points is in their favor. I honestly try to make mutually beneficial offers that just happen to be more beneficial for me.

Unfortunately, in Skidoo's league, I had to throw out most of those rules. In a 12 team league, depth is hard to come by. Plus, as I mentioned last week, it's a strict 3 WR, 2 RB league. Without that flex option, WRs are a commodity, and I wasn't confident with a rotation of Ike Hilliard, Steve Breaston or whoever else I find on waivers as my 3rd WR. So I traded Edgerrin James to MattyEbs (who I don't believe has a blog but I wanna say I recognize the name from Jordan's posts for some reason) for Matt Jones. It wasn't the trade I wanted to make but it came down to this:

1. MattyEbs has depth at WR (Roy Williams, Burress, Cotchery as well)
2. I shot for Cotchery first but was declined
3. I was willing to give up on James because I don't think his value will be any higher
4. I have Addai & Parker as starters, and was able to pick up Warrick Dunn & Justin Fargas off waivers to give me a bit more depth.
5. Jones isn't a stud, but he's the Jags top WR this year and has a great schedule ahead (DEN, CLE, CIN, DET).

So although I overpaid points-wise for a No. 3 WR, and I traded my No 3. RB at a time when my No 2. back is injured, I felt this was a necessary trade. I wasn't going to start James this week against Buffalo, and I'm more confident with a future lineup of Romo, Addai, Parker, Jennings, Holmes & Jones than rotating that 3rd WR and keeping James on my bench permanently. I'm 2-2 in the league, just one game out of 1st, but I'm also 4\12 in total points. I've got a good squad but I needed that last starter to round out my lineup. I wouldn't mind tweaking my roster a bit more if the opportunity presents itself but I feel much better about my team now.

In my $100 league, I'm tied for first at 3-1 but could've been 4-0. My only loss was a 54-53 game, the same week that Westbrook went down with his annual injury. It sucks to lose such a winnable game but I'll survive. This league has been much more competitive than in years past, with most of the teams at least making active waiver wire claims. My trade attempts have not worked as well; I tried offering Chris Perry for Marques Colston to a last place team with only 3 RB (Grant, James, F. Jones...ugh) but he didn't bite. This week will be interesting as I go up against another 1st place team & the top scorer thus far. The good news is that it sounds like Westbrook will play against a banged up Redskins defense. Suffice to say this is a pretty big game despite the fact it's only Week 5.

That's all for now. I don't want to turn off all my readers with an overflow of FF content. I'll try to return to more inane poker ramblings ASAP.

Quitsville

2008-10-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

This time, I mean it....until the next time I start playing poker again. If I had a dollar for every time I quit online poker, well, I don't know how much I'd have, but it'd probably be enough to play on FTP again.

The last time I posted about poker on this blog (a post that was made just days after I quit last time) mentioned that I was back up in the $400 range. Thankfully, I didn't blow all of that. Instead, I pulled out the majority of it to help support myself during this extended unemployment. Once the job situation is resolved, I'll probably redeposit and get back into the swing of things.

Anyways, I left myself about $50 and a couple of tokens but blew through that in a couple of attempts to strike it rich. The closest I came was the $3k O8 game two nights ago, finishing 10 spots out of the money despite being a top 10 stack right before my demise when my low got counterfeited and my overpair was no good for top two pair.

So yeah, that's it for a while. Please continue to stop by for fantasy football posts and the occasional live poker recap, as well as my inevitable return to online poker yet again. I'll try to stay an active blogger despite my online absence. I have the intent to pick up some of my poker books again, so there may be some posts from that; it all depends on how much my laziness gets in the way. But then again, it's not like you come to this blog for strategy anyways, so we'll see.

Finally, despite my wishes, it looks like I won't be able to make an appearance at the blogger gathering in Vegas this year. One, due to the aforementioned employment problems, but even if that gets resolved ASAP, I don't think it's going to create a situation where I can afford a trip like that. But then again, the allure of Vegas is strong, so I won't shut the door on the possibility. Just consider it no more than slightly cracked.

Go Steelers!

2008-09-29T15:12:00.001-07:00

Specifically, Santonio Holmes.

I'd love to see the Steelers tonight, but preferably, I'd like to see them win by throwing three 80 yard TD passes to Santonio. That's what it's going to take to beat meanhappyguy in our Fantasy Football league this week.

Ugh, what a fucking horrible week Fantasy-wise. In Skidoo's blogger league, I was without my top 2 RBs (Addai on bye, Parker hurt again), leaving me to start Edgerrin James and Chris Perry. I was fine with James, and he came through OK this week, but trying to win any week without your top two RBs is tough. But I thought I had a chance against MHG, who had a laughable lineup including Hank Baskett and Chester Taylor. Instead, he nearly outscores me with three players: Favre, Lavueradalfsdf Coles AND the NYJ Jets. Talk about a perfect storm: I end up losing to someone who started 3 Jets because he was lucky enough to be scheduled against me when they played the Cardinals. In retrospect, I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. After living in AZ for most of my life, I know all too well about the futility of that franchise. I'll cheer for them when I can, but I'll never get too invested in them because, no matter what happens, they'll always be horrible.

In my $100 league, I was also without my top two backs (Julius Jones & Westbrook) my top WR (Wayne) and my starting defense (Seattle). On top of that, my bye week defense was none other than....Arizona. However, I was able to reap a little bit of benefit from that game since my other WR is Cotchery. Between Cotchery & Romo alone, and in light of AZ's "performance" costing me 8 points, I was able to outscore my opponent 56 to 37. Ugh-ly.

......

It's around Week 4 where I start trying to solidify my roster. I'm kicking myself for my draft strategy in the blogger league; had I paid attention to the fact that our flex player HAS to be a WR, I definitely would have held off on drafting a QB as high as I did with Romo. I do have Greg Jennings, who has been an absolute stud thus far, but I'm left reaching for WR leftovers to fill my lineup each week. I actually used a waiver claim two weeks ago when I thought Koren Robinson was going to play against STL, and this week, I'm adding players like Justin Gage and Steve Breaston.

My RBs leave me much to be desired as well. With Addai & Parker I have a formidable yet inconsistent 1-2 punch. I'd love to be able to trade one of them to shore up my WR front but I'm not ready to roll with James or Chris Perry as my No 2. back. My only other tradeable asset is Romo, but he has an awesome schedule the next couple weeks and I can't afford to give up his consistency.

In my $100 league, I'm looking a bit better. I'll roll with Westbrook and J. Jones, and I've got Buckhalter as a quality handcuff, but I wouldn't mind a bit more RB depth (Sproles, Perry and T. Jones). At WR, if I can upgrade Cotchery I wouldn't mind, but he and Wayne aren't a bad 1-2 punch. Holt and Roddy White are my backups. Holt hasn't done anything but I'm not ready to give up on him just yet. White has put up decent numbers despite a rookie QB but I'm still trying to figure out ATL's offense, especially now that their schedule is going to get a whole lot tougher.

Anyways, this year is proving to be a bigger challenge than in years past, but that's the fun of it. Plus, I'm 3-1 in my big league, and soon to be 2-2 in the blogger league, so it's not like I'm completely out of it either. Either way, it's been fun thus far.

But it'll be more fun if Santonio explodes tonight, as long as it's enough to win. There's nothing I'd hate more than to see him get something like 130 yards and 3 TDs yet I still lose by 5 points. F that.

Rascal's, Take Two

2008-09-29T00:25:00.001-07:00

On Thursday, I made another trip to Rascal's Casino, this time for their $60 Double Stack tournament. Unfortunately they had too many people sticking with the cash game, so they could only use the two remaining tables for the tournament instead of all three (yeah, it's a small place). I don't know if that's the standard or not but I would prefer a bigger tournament.

I didn't have much to work with starting hand wise, and I lost 1\3rd of my stack fairly early when AQ
For the most part, it was a straight-forward weak-tight game: lots of limp-calling preflop, no positional pressure bets or flat out bluffs, most bets represented strong hands. The only time I recall a bluff was when a gruffy man on my right, who was literally limp-calling with K8 to TT, let out a huge sigh on the river. It was one of those classic tells that are beyond obvious. The old man on my left picked up on it too and immediately shoved. With straight & flushes possible, the gruffy man made a crying call with two pair; old man shows down A high. That was the only time I saw anyone making anything that could be considered a move.

After the 2nd break, I was down to 3.5 blinds after mistakenly trying to push out some limpers from the SB with sooted connectors. I didn't hit and had to fold the turn after getting my c-bet called. But luck would turn my way, and I won the next two hands with K4 > 76 and A6 > 99. With 15k in chips, I was alive, and made it to "the final table" shortly thereafter.

Once we got down to 9, I found myself making a tough laydown PF with JJ, after seeing two limpers then a 6k raise by the chip-leader. I could have been up against a smaller pair, but I had played a couple hands with him in the last tournament, and I figured that I would be flipping at best. Plus, most of the players to my left were being extremely tight, so I knew that if I couldn't get my money in better, I could still steal some pots.

In fact, I tried stealing one pot a couple hands later with A6. The BB, the chipleader still, called, and we saw a Q23 flop. I went for the c-bet again and got a caller. I paired my 6 on the turn, giving me some outs, and pushed the rest of my short-stack in, thinking I needed some help. However, the CL states "I've come this far" and makes a crying call with....KTo? The turn is low and I get a much needed & surprising double up. Nevertheless, I still only had about 16 BBs worth of play left.

I made a crucial laydown in the BB with AQ against two even-stacked shorties who showed TT and 77. I would've flopped a Q only to end up four-flushed by TT. The TT, some drunk douchebag, was proud of himself, declaring that "I got him to lay that hand down" with his talk. Instead, what made me lay it down was that the 77 girl had just mentioned that she wasn't getting anything to play with, and that was even after I saw her laydown AQ herself to a PF raise a couple hands prior. Anyways, the math probably said I should call but risking 30% of my stack with two all-ins in front of me told me to wait, and it worked out.

I ended up going out in 6th (4 paid) to the TT douchebag with A5 vs AT. Unfortunately for me, the flop came A24 and I wasn't going anywhere on my board, but I couldn't find the help I needed and left empty-handed again.

I definitely enjoyed the DS tournament since I had a little more time to make some moves, I just had bad timing in most cases. I think I need to loosen up a bit post-flop as I noticed a couple of opportunities where I could have taken some pots with river bets had I still been in the hand.

I'll have a FF post up later: right now, I have to go pray for a huge game from Santonio Holmes to help me escape MHG's onslaught via Favre AND Coles. Lucky fucker.

Back In The Game

2008-09-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

I made a trip tonight to Rascal's Casino just south of Seattle. I'd never been there before but gave it a shot since the new poker room manager used to run Treasure Casino in Renton. He's a goofy fellow, but he runs a tight tournament, and he offers the best low-buyin structure aroundL $5k chips instead of the normal $3k other places offer, and a better blind structure that allows for a little more post flop play.

I got there pretty early, about 45 minutes to spare, to avoid being an alternate. I wasn't sure how popular this place was, but I remember the first time I tried Treasure Casino with Cayne & Joshua, and I was something like the 14th alternate even with a half\hour before the first hand. This time I was definitely early enough, which was a good thing: the casino only has 3 tables for poker. The good news is that they end any cash games to insure that the tournament can reach capacity.

A side note about the casino; although it's in a somewhat sketchy location, the casino is pretty top notch. Brightly lit, friendly staff, decent food...and of course, PAI GOW! I didn't partake in any PAI GOW, because what fun is that all by yourself? Anyways, between the tournament structure and the quality of the casino, I definitely recommend this to any Seattle area players looking for a decent place for tournament play. MHG? Zeem, perhaps? Maybe one of these days I'll even manage to meet The Doc.

So a quick roundup of the tournament. I really only played 4 hands:

1. A9 on the button. Raised after MP limped, bet A-high flop, win pot.
2. 77 in MP. Raise after UTG limps (same guy as last time). Folds and he reraises about 4x. Later he claims to be bluffing when I ask if he had Aces there. It was a rhetorical question.
(Note: He later confirms his donkeyness when he calls in MP after 5x UTG raise, then still calls after BB shove & UTG call..for his entire stack. His hand? QT sooted. Up against TT and JJ, he finds a Q on the flop to triple up. Wheeeeeee.)
3. AQ sooted. Shove in BB after UTG raise; he was a pretty passive player and I figured there was a good chance I was either ahead or racing.
4. KK. Raise UTG, UTG+2 puts me allin. I know he probably has AA but AK or QQ are slight possibilities. Folding essentially leaves me with M of just over 6, but soon to be just over 3 as blinds are going up around the time I hit the button. I call and he shows the AA. IGHN.

Overall, the tournament is very weak: lots of preflop limping or min-raising, a couple of draw chasers, mostly tight postflop with fairly predictable players. On Thursdays, they have a double-stack tournament with even more intermediate blinds; I'm really looking forward to that.

......

So the meaning behind the post is two-fold. Not only was I back in another live game, but I'm back online as well. Even I knew it wouldn't last long, despite my last post.

After that last post, I had a measly bankroll of $7. I tried my hand at some $2 SNGs and busted out of each one, leaving me with $1 and some change, but not even enough for a $1 SNG. I had no intent of reloading, even for $50, so I figured I'd try to cash out my FTP points and pick up some shwag from the FTP store. Only problem is that I didn't have enough points for anything but random shit items. Instead, I found that FTP runs token SNGs for 1800 points, with the top 3 getting a $26 token.

7 tries, 4 tokens. I take a shot at a 90-seat KO and take 6th for $108. I take another shot, this time at a 5-table SNG, and finish 2nd for $270. Throw in a couple random SNG scores, and I end up trading in about 13,000 FTP points for a nice little bankroll of just under $500.

So yeah, I'm back.

77 Cents

2008-09-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

At one point earlier this week, 77 cents was all that was left in my bankroll. At that time, I was in a couple of KO SNGs, so I worked that all the way up to $7.77 before busting in both of them.

Last month, I split the remaining $600 of my bankroll between FTP & PokerStars. The FTP bankroll dissipated pretty quickly, the PokerStars balance held steady. I hit a point where I finally just had enough of online poker, and cashed out what I could from PS to go buy an XBox 360. I burned through the rest of my FTP roll with the intent of taking a long break from online poker until those KOs gave me something to work with again.

Either way, I'm basically done with online poker for an undetermined amount of time. This has been the result of a number of factors, including:

1. The difficulty and\or uncertainty of being able to cash out from poker sites
2. Burnout from increased playing time during this period of unemployment
3. The sudden inability to play without using scared money which coincided with the depletion of my severance package
4. A very long streak of bad beats from which I still haven't completely recovered (the tilt factor is gone but I'm still not playing my A game)
5. A desire to do other things with my time, which has proven difficult for me to manage with my desire to play poker & the ability to do so with more money than I've had in a long time
6. A change of my focus from having fun & improving my game to chasing money & an unhealthy emotional investment in the game

So for now until who knows when, I'll be more absent than before in any blogger events. This blog will still keep going; I've got fantasy football to write about at least, and I still intend to keep up my live game as much as possible. And perhaps that small amount in my bankroll is the beginning of a new bankroll challenge or something.

But right now, there's too much uncertainty in my life to justify gambling with what qualifies for me as a significant amount of money. If I find a new job soon, perhaps things will change, or perhaps I'll find the break refreshing & stay away for a while. Personally, I can't help but be a bit nervous about the difficulties I faced cashing my money out (especially in the state I reside in) as being a sign of things to come. At some point, this online poker thing will come crashing down even further if not changed radically. I don't have a pulse on the industry to know much about it but it seems inevitable to me, and as quickly as the whole Neteller business went about, I'd hate to have a large sum of money tied up if something happened. Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but I'd be less concerned about losing money to something like that when I'm in a better place in other areas of my life.

......

Now, time for some fantasy football content.

First things first: I'd like to point out that I was right about Willie Parker surpassing last year's TD total. I just didn't expect it'd happen in one game. Hell motherfuckin yeah!

Luckily for me, the first week in Skidoo's league didn't count, as I was up against the juggernaut that is MattyEbs, who had both McNabb & Westbrook, along with decent performances from the rest of his team. In my other league, which drafted in time to have the first week count, I eeked out a victory thanks to Tony Scheffler's only catch Monday night, which was a nice little 72-yarder.

Skidoo's league is a 12-team league; I've only been in 10 team leagues for the past couple of years. Had I known this, I would have drafted a bit differently. I mentioned last time about my second-guessing of the Romo pick, but now, what I'm even more concerned about is my WR depth, or lack thereof. I'm fine with Santonio Holmes and Greg Jennings, but I have no confidence in Bernard Berrian as a 3rd WR in a league that starts three.

It could be worse though; I could have been the one to draft Brady.

Fantasy Football, Take 2

2008-09-04T21:33:00.001-07:00

Tonight was (finally) the draft for Skidoo's league, including such esteemed bloggers as the aforementioned commissioner, myself, Schaubs, meanhappyguy, NumbBono, and others (I don't know any of the other bloggers in the league). Since it was a 12 team league, I changed my draft strategy a bit. Overall I'm not completely happy with my team but I think I'll do alright. Here's a recap:

I ended up with the 5th draft slot and was left to choose between Joseph Addai & Stephen Jackson. I chose Addai because I think he'll be featured more in Indy's offense this year & because of health reasons too, despite Jackson being the better receiver.

In the 2nd round, there were still a handful of good running backs around (Jacobs, MJD, McGahee, McFadden, & Parker), most 2nd-tier WRs (Burress, Colston, Fitzgerald), but still one top-3 QB left: Romo. That gives me two leagues, two starting QBs named Romo. I hate the fact that I have to cheer for him every week now but I'll manage.

In the 3rd round, I took Willie Parker over other RBs like Jamal Lewis, Reggie Bush, Michael Turner & Earnest Graham. Lewis is the most proven but I'm not certain he can replicate what he did last year. Bush is still living on potential, as is Turner. I like Graham but chose to go with Parker because I think he'll get the yardage but also more than two TDs with Najeh Davenport out of the picture. Plus, being a Steelers fan, it was a no-brainer.

With two RBs and no WRs, it was obvious what I would have to do in the 4th & 5th rounds. In the 4th round, I chose Santonio Holmes over Roy Williams & Boldin because I think he's going to be the featured WR in that offense (as well as being a Steeler too). In the 5th round, the WR pool was getting thin, and I had to settle with Greg Jennings as my 2nd WR, over options like Roddy White, Chris Chambers, and Lee Evans.

Here's where things got a little bit tricky. This league starts three WRs and two RBs, which still left me short 1 starter in the main positions. However, by round 6, there really weren't any WRs that stood out for me. So, I used back to back picks to add some depth to my RBs with Edgerrin James & Chris Perry. I probably could have waited on Perry as it seems like others had him rated lower than I did.

I grabbed my other WR in round 8 with Bernard Berrian. I still needed a TE, but most other teams had their TEs already, and I was fine with my choice of Owen Daniels, Ben Watson or Tony Scheffler, so I used my next picks to build more depth, selecting DJ Hackett & and a backup\bye week QB in Matt Schaub. I also grabbed my defense in Round 9 with Seattle.

Surprisingly, a couple other teams started drafting backup TEs, so with Watson & Daniels now gone, and one other team still needing a starter, I was forced to grab Scheffler in Round 12. I was hoping to wait another round and grab a sleeper like Chris Johnson, or deepen my WR corps with Drew Bennett or Derrick Mason, but I couldn't wait.

After picking up Ronald Curry in Round 13, I started getting indecisive and grabbed my kicker the next round in Rob Bironas. It was pretty much slim pickings at that point so I didn't really care. Since this was such a deep league, I went for the handcuff and drafted Dominic Rhodes in Round 15.

The last two round were meaningless; I timed out in Round 16 and got a backup TE in Zach Miller (Go ASU!) then added more depth to WR with Shaun McDonald.

So, to recap, here's my roster with starters in bold:

QB: Romo, Schaub
RB: Addai, W. Parker, E. James, C. Perry, D. Rhodes
WR: S. Holmes, Jennings, Berrian, R. Curry, S. McDonald, DJ Hackett
TE: Scheffler, Z. Miller
K: Bironas
D: Seattle

Looking back, I think I might have been better off passing on Romo and going RB-RB-WR. I could have gone Addai-Parker- and Fitzgerald, Housh, or Holt, still grab Holmes or Boldin in the 4th, and go with Big Ben, Palmer or Hasselbeck at QB. I think Romo is still a Top-3 QB this year but the difference between him & the othe QB's I mentioned may not be as big as the difference between those WRs and Greg Jennings.

So instead, my WR corp is thin and lacking a proven scorer. I expect Holmes to improve upon last year, but Jennings & Berrian as my other starters leave a lot to be desired. Since I don't really have any horses I can just run each week, I might have to play the matchups & put Curry or Hackett in there more often than just as bye-week replacements.

The one thing I do like about my team is my depth at RB. I've got a good 1-2 punch at RB with Addai & Parker (I expect Parker will get more than 2 TDs this year) and I have two starters backing them up (although Perry is probably more of a timeshare with Kenny Watson). Plus I have my handcuff in the event Addai goes down, and Rhodes has performed well when plugged in as a starter.

Overall, I'm satisfied but not ecstatic with my team. Maybe I should have let Romo slide, but then again, if he's still there in the 3rd, it's even harder justifying a WR over him at that point, so I won't beat myself up about it.

I've got one more draft, but it's Saturday morning, so I might just let that one run on autodraft. Either way, I won't be recapping that one. Good luck to everyone else in their FF leagues this year (that excludes anyone in Skidoo's league).

Fantasy Football Content

2008-09-01T02:05:00.001-07:00

Sorry, no poker content in this post except a congrats to Jamyhawk for what I think is his biggest score yet. Well done sir!

I had the first of my three FF drafts, this one being the $100 league I've played in for years. There aren't too many old-timers left in this one, just me, the commish & two others, but most everyone else has been around for about two years.

What I love about this league is that it's fairly active but most of the people are clueless when it comes to FF drafts. For example, some of the highlights this year were:

- Reggie Bush going at the No. 7 pick overall
- David Garrard going in the 4th round (and the No. 6 QB overall)
- My favorite pick: Travis Henry going in the 7th round
- The first K was drafted in the 9th round (Gostkowski) and four were gone by the 12th round

I ended up with the two spot out of 10 teams and surprised a lot of people when I chose Westbrook over Adrian Peterson. I think it's a no-brainer; Westbrook may not put up 40 point weeks as often as AP but he also won't give you as many 6 point weeks either. He's a high scorer AND he's consistent, which is exactly what you want from your first pick. In fact, I would probably take Addai over AP as well.

I changed up my draft strategy from last year a bit as the whole idea of going RB-RB the first two rounds isn't necessarily the standard anymore. For someone with my draft position, the difference in quality between a RB in the 2nd round & one in the 3rd or 4th round isn't as big as it used to be. Instead, I focused on trying to get as many elite players as I could. When it came back to me in Round 2, 3 receivers were gone: Edwards, Moss, and Owens (in that order too). With Reggie Wayne the only other elite WR left, I took him with my eyes on Willie Parker in the 3rd.

The only other person ahead of me was thinking the same & grabbed Parker before my turn in the 3rd round. There weren't many No. 2 RBs that I wanted to take (McGahee, J. Lewis, T. Jones, Jacobs, McFadden). There were still some quality WRs left, but there was only one elite player left: Mr. Jessica Simpson himself, Tony Romo. So with my first three picks, I got a Top-3 RB, a Top-3 WR, and a Top-3 QB. So far, so good.

Rounds 4-6 saw a couple players drop much further than they should have & right into my lap: Holt, Maroney, and T. Jones. Each one of those players have some question marks, but as proven starters, they were great value for the No. 2 spots on my team. I had a brain fart in Round 7 and took Julius Jones way too early, especially with Selvon Young & Kevin Smith (and Travis Henry) still on the board. I could have waited on him but I wasn't paying attention.

Rounds 8-11 started seeing a run on Defenses, but they were still going way too early. I was hoping Jacksonville would fall to me in the 12th but they were taken the pick right before mine. Instead, I used these rounds to build depth, again with players who really fell too far. In order, my picks were: Jericho Cotchery, Roddy White, Matt Schaub, and Chris Perry. Decent starters in real-life, perfect for the bench in fantasy.

I still needed a TE, a K and a D, but most of those could wait. Instead, I used my Round 12 pick on my only "sleeper" pick for the year, D.J Hackett of Carolina. He showed good ability when I saw him with Seattle & he could really emerge as a good No. 2 WR with Steve Smith. I finally grabbed my TE in Round 13, the great Tony Scheffler. In hindsight, I probably would have taken Tony Gonzalez over RB depth earlier in the draft (any other "top" TEs were drafted too high for my taste) but I think Scheffler could put up decent numbers in Denver. Really, most TEs are crapshoots anyways; they're too inconsistent to predict, so you just want someone who can catch the ball. Scheffler can do that.

The rest of my picks were made by the commissioner as I had to bail out early to go catch Stone Temple Pilots headlining the 2nd night of the Bumbershoot Festival, just 2 blocks from my apartment. Overall, aside from the Julius Jones blunder, I'm fairly happy with my draft. I might have to play the lineups a little more, rather than just rolling with my horses each week, but I was able to get 3 elite players plus a lot of depth at the key positions. So, for Week 1, here's my roster (starters in bold):

QB: Romo, Schaub. Delhomme
RB: Westbrook, T. Jones, Maroney, J. Jones, C. Perry
WR: Wayne, Holt, Cotchery, R. White, DJ Hackett
TE: Scheffler
K: John Kasay
D: New York Giants

I'll probably put up another FF post later this week, once Skidoo's blogger league draft is finished.

Back Where I Started

2008-08-27T18:14:00.001-07:00

It was fun while it lasted.

I requested another cashout from FTP, a little more than half of my remaining bankroll. Shockingly, the check was delivered within days of the approval. I'll still hold on to it for a couple of weeks in case something wacky happens & the checks bounce.

The cashout was a necessary measure as finding a new job has been a continued struggle. I was in the running for a great opportunity, only to end up the bridesmaid. My unemployment checks are still coming in, but only for the next two months, and some additional income was needed. Additionally, I could sense in the way that I had been playing poker lately that I needed to get the money out of there. I was flip-flopping between cautiously tight & aw-fuck-it loose, and neither of those methods tend to work very well.

So after seeing my bankroll climb to nearly $5k, I'm back to where I started a couple of months ago, just a shade over $300. I was able to work out a swap to move the other half to PokerStars. Aside from blogger games, I think I'm done with FTP right now. The withdrawal issues over the past couple of months have really soured my impression of FTP, so I'm going elsewhere to work on building my bankroll back up.

......

I found my way to another live tournament this past week, the same place where I played a bounty tournament a few weeks ago. $40 buyin, same horrible structure. The first couple of levels allow for a little bit of play, but once it goes 300\500, 500\1000, 1000\2000 then 2000\4000, it quickly becomes a shove fest. I ended up in 15th or so out of 87 when my AT couldn't fade JJ. I could have folded since I was up against an EP push & had a couple players to act after me, but all things considered (an M of 2.5, a fast approaching BB, and the PF shover's intoxication level) told me that this might be my best chance. The structure certainly makes it a high variance game at the end, but I believe the number of horrible players still makes it a beatable tournament.

I think my goal next year will be to incorporate a lot more live play into my game & start phasing out online poker. As a whole, live poker is so much more fun to play than online poker, and I've got plenty of places to play within an OK driving distance. Sadly, few of those places offer tournaments with even a decent structure, and I don't have the flexibility (and probably skill) to sit at the cash tables just yet, but once things shape up elsewhere in my life, I have every intent to start hitting the card rooms a lot more often than I currently do.

Waiting For Aces

2008-08-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

When I first started this blog, I almost gave it that title. Just Another Donkey seemed more appropriate.

I went back to my semi-regular home game for the first time in a while last night, and finally took the whole thing down. $10 buyin with rebuys through 1st 4 levels (30 mins each). And for the first time as well, I didn't have to rebuy, thanks to a fortuitous Q on the river with AQ vs AK (as well as big stack deciding to fold JT only to see a JJ6 flop). From there it was all about getting AA; 3 times within less than an hour, and getting action each time on them. That, combined with much less bluffing & a more tight-aggressive approach netted me $100, which I used to take the lady out to dinner tonight.

Of course, AA doesn't always mean victory, as these two hands (which happened within minutes of writing this post) will illustrate:

AA #1

Full Tilt Poker Game #7776344681: $24 + $2 Sit & Go (59137436), Table 4 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:17:21 ET - 2008/08/24
Seat 1: Little Alaskan (1,485), is sitting out
Seat 2: razz12345 (1,470)
Seat 3: Porn Star 77 (1,500)
Seat 4: binhan111 (1,545)
Seat 5: Pawkit Jaes (1,500)
Seat 6: Seeing Blind (1,500)
Seat 7: JTMYERS (1,500)
Seat 8: NOVAcane81 (1,500)
Seat 9: mclarich (1,500)
razz12345 posts the small blind of 15
Porn Star 77 posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ad As]
binhan111 calls 30
Pawkit Jaes folds
Seeing Blind folds
JTMYERS calls 30
NOVAcane81 folds
mclarich raises to 150
Little Alaskan folds
razz12345 has 15 seconds left to act
razz12345 folds
Porn Star 77 folds
binhan111 folds
JTMYERS calls 120

As you may have noticed by the starting stacks, this is the 2nd hand in

*** FLOP *** [4h Kc 9d]
JTMYERS bets 275
mclarich calls 275

If he hit top pair, I don't want to reraise since his pot bet looks like he'll keep betting into me. I'll wait to get him committed before I repop.

*** TURN *** [4h Kc 9d] [Kh]
JTMYERS bets 925
binhan111 has been disconnected
binhan111 has reconnected
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act

Another pot bet? Now, a K isn't starting to make sense. 99 is definitely a possibility, especially if he puts me on AK preflop. But the whole puzzle doesn't piece together: if I don't have AK, then his flop bet scares me away when he may extract more with a CR or seeing the turn. I really think I'm ahead here.

mclarich raises to 1,075, and is all in
JTMYERS has 15 seconds left to act
JTMYERS calls 150, and is all in
mclarich shows [Ad As]
JTMYERS shows [9c Ac] (lols)
*** RIVER *** [4h Kc 9d Kh] [9s] (motherfucker!)
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Kings
JTMYERS shows a full house, Nines full of Kings
JTMYERS wins the pot (3,075) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
mclarich stands up

AA #2

Full Tilt Poker Game #7776376520: Table Birdwood - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:20:58 ET - 2008/08/24
Seat 1: Big Orange 1 ($52.85)
Seat 2: poopsex420 ($47)
Seat 3: Chesst ($14.60)
Seat 4: ted22ny ($18.60)
Seat 5: bewizz ($86.20)
Seat 6: justimblake ($10)
Seat 7: Dremaway ($64)
Seat 8: nalpniak ($10)
Seat 9: mclarich ($49.25)
Chesst posts the small blind of $0.25
ted22ny posts the big blind of $0.50
5 seconds left to act
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah Ad]
bewizz has 15 seconds left to act
bewizz raises to $3.50
Dremaway raises to $10
nalpniak folds
mclarich calls $10

I smooth-call here for two reasons: One, I've played against Dremaway before, stacking him twice; once when he overplayed AK, again when he bluffed with a gutshot when I held trips. We also split a pot when he called with bottom pair & a gutshot despite my heavy action preflop (the gutshot hit for both of us). Two, I don't want to announce my hand just yet.

Big Orange 1 folds
poopsex420 folds
Chesst folds
ted22ny has 15 seconds left to act
ted22ny folds
bewizz has 15 seconds left to act
bewizz folds
*** FLOP *** [2c Jh 8s]
Dremaway has 15 seconds left to act
Dremaway bets $6
mclarich raises to $12 (same pattern I've done before: he can't resist coming over the top of a minraise)
Dremaway calls $6 (showing some restraint this time(
*** TURN *** [2c Jh 8s] [Th]
Dremaway checks
mclarich bets $27.25, and is all in
Dremaway calls $27.25
mclarich shows [Ah Ad]
Dremaway shows [Jd Jc] (doh, I got played)
*** RIVER *** [2c Jh 8s Th] [8h]
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Eights
Dremaway shows a full house, Jacks full of Eights
Dremaway wins the pot ($99.75) with a full house, Jacks full of Eights
mclarich is sitting out

Hope your AA's are treating you better than they've been treating me lately.

It's Time

2008-08-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's always around this time of year that I start posting from this blog more often. Sadly, it has nothing to do with poker though.

Yes, it's Fantasy Football time.

This year, I'm in four leagues:

1. My standard $100 league that I've been in for several years now, and took first place in last year. You may or may not remember my weekly recaps from last year.

2. A free ESPN league that a former coworker runs. I don't care about this league & didn't make any changes to my lineup after the first game.

3. A Yahoo league with some poker friends from the area. I think I'm still in this, I haven't heard anything since last month.

4. Skidoo's Yahoo League. Schaubs pimped this one to me, and for any bloggers looking for a league to join, I thus pimp it to you. Check out Skidoo's post here for more information. I think we only have 5 right now, so we could definitely use some more players.

Honestly, I haven't done any preparation for any of my FF leagues this year. I'll probably sit down later this week and do some studying, so look for my FF strategy post next week.

......

On the poker front, not much is new. I've blown through most of the $T I won a couple of weeks ago, using them to buy into SNGs. A quick glance shows that I'm probably about even between what I've won from these SNGs and what I could have added to my bankroll if I just converted them outright to real money at 5% commission.

Still donking around at .25\.50 level staked from time to time as well. I've been playing most of these without Holdem Manager; I'm only about 1500 hands deep anyways. Unfortunately, I'm showing a $82 loss so far at this level, although I'd been in the positive if I were to exclude one hand where I lost a buyin at a deepstack game:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7521588602: Table Palos (deep) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:50:21 ET - 2008/08/05
Seat 1: Chaucer11 ($50)
Seat 2: Tarl Cabot ($152.15)
Seat 3: TGalbs ($99.25)
Seat 4: Tilt_Me19 ($50.65), is sitting out
Seat 5: hbeni27 ($34.05)
Seat 6: mclarich ($104.10)
Seat 7: rastarobin ($54.95)
Seat 8: Rodrigo-A1 ($99.50)
Seat 9: Newmy17 ($49.15)
hbeni27 posts the small blind of $0.25
mclarich posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [6h 6s]
rastarobin folds
Rodrigo-A1 folds
Newmy17 folds
Chaucer11 folds
Tarl Cabot folds
TGalbs raises to $1.75
hbeni27 folds
mclarich calls $1.25
*** FLOP *** [6c Tc 3c]
mclarich checks
TGalbs bets $3
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to $9
TGalbs calls $6
*** TURN *** [6c Tc 3c] [Qh]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich bets $16
TGalbs has 15 seconds left to act
TGalbs raises to $50
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to $93.35, and is all in
TGalbs has 15 seconds left to act
TGalbs calls $38.50, and is all in
mclarich shows [6h 6s]
TGalbs shows [Kh Ac]
Uncalled bet of $4.85 returned to mclarich
*** RIVER *** [6c Tc 3c Qh] [7c]
mclarich shows three of a kind, Sixes
TGalbs shows a flush, Ace high
TGalbs wins the pot ($195.75) with a flush, Ace high

......

Sad to say I won't be in the Mookie tonight. I was able to score some Radiohead tickets for tonight's show in Auburn, WA. To mark the occasion, I leave you with some performances from Radiohead that I dedicate to some of you bloggers.

Jamyhawk: Lucky (for the nice run he's on lately)

Instant Tragedy\Buddy Dank: Talk Show Host (LPR represent!)

Schaubs\Pauly: Paranoid Android (for all the stoners)

Waffles (no explanation needed)

Happy Birthday To Me

2008-08-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Woot, I finally got my FTP check. After much patience and delay, it arrived two days after it was cut. Nice little birthday present for me on the day before I hit the big three-o.

It's sad that I'll still be waiting about two weeks before I spend a single cent of it just to make sure there's not any additional problems with the funds.

Not much else on the poker front. Somehow FT'd the Mookie earlier this week but went out first when my UTG hammer was no match for the SB's AKo. Fucking rigged.

GL to everyone this weekend, I'll be celebrating my descent into old age with this, this, and probably this.

Stupid Live Poker Recap

2008-08-12T23:28:00.000-07:00

Skipped the FTOPS Turbo game like an idiot because I thought it was last night. Probably would have skipped it anyways even if I knew it was tonight. In it's place, I decided to drive up to Tulalip Casino to play their $60 Bounty tournament. Never played there before because it's a bit of a drive, but had the time today so decided to treat myself to some live poker.

I should have stayed home. I spent more time driving there than I did in the actual tournament.

I thought it was going to be a good night when the following occurred on the first hand:

1. UTG announced "check" & did so without putting any chips. When the dealer advised her of this, she said "Oh, OK, sorry. I'm used to playing $4\$8."

2. Player immediately to right of me fired out two bullets in a limped pot with a 4-high bluff, getting called down by the button who called all the way with TPTK.

However, I couldn't get any momentum. Raised two hands preflop: AQo and AJs. AQo missed board against 4-high bluffer and had to fold to his turn push with 6789 showing. I made a comment to the effect of "Did your T5 connect?" and he flashed me a T. Raised AJ from CO, got called by button (Mr. TPTK from 1st hand) but check-folded a KT7 flop without my suit showing.

The rest of my chips went to the ultimate luckbox ever. Not necessarily because she was a huge donk, although she was fairly easy to read. But she hit every. fucking. hand. By the time she took me out, I was her 7th bounty within two levels. I think I can remember most of them:

1. AA vs K9 on K-high flop. K9 limp-called preflop, then check-raised her huge bet.
2. 99 vs 75. She took out the 4-high bluffer when he flopped top pair + gutshot to her overpair.
3. AK vs A3. AIPF against mega-shorty; flopped flush draw, rivered a 3.
4. AK vs A9. AIPF after limp-calling a 1700 shove, went runner-runner for flush.
5. 77 vs 66. Took out $4\$8 lady after on 6 high-flop with a river 7. Of course, if the $4\$8 lady didn't min-check raise like a fucking limit donk, the river might never have happened.
6. 89 vs T7. I got bored so I limped UTG with sooted connectors, because raising my better hands wasn't working. Flop came ATT, checked all around. Turn was a 6, I took a stab & she called. River was a T, I'm left with $1k now and didn't feel like playing the short stack with soon to be 5BB or less at next level, so pushed & prayed. She called & sheepishly showed the case T. Luckbox.

But, all was not lost on the evening. I took my last $40 and played my bread & butter game: roulette. As expected, I hit my numbers twice in a row (17 then 3) then won a little bit more when 27 hit and I had $10 on 25-36 to not only recoup my buyin but also replenish whatever gas I wasted on the drive up there, plus a nice little cheeseburger & Diet Coke treat. The MTT is super soft; it just wasn't my night, but any time you can walk away from the soul-suck of a casino with more than you came in with is a victory no matter what.

BTW...happy birthday to LJ. Go Leos! (even though I don't believe in that shit.)

Stupid FTP

2008-08-11T14:24:00.000-07:00

Man, all of you living in states with the cash pickup option available from FTP, consider yourself lucky.

On the otherhand, I am still waiting for a check that I originally requested at the end of June. Originally, they had "issues with their processor" so they had to cancel my check request. Around this time, they debuted the cash pickup option. I was able to get $500 but didn't request more, fearful of tying up so much of my bankroll in this new unknown withdrawal option. Sadly, that was the only time it worked for me before it became "unavailable for my geographic location." So I requested another check after being reassured that the processor issues were worked out.

So much for that. All I got was another apology email from FTP with ANOTHER reassurance that my check would be sent this week.

To their credit, FTP has compensated me for the issues. The first issue resulted in a $100 bonus, the second was just a $100 outright deposit into my account. Of course, all the bonuses & credits in the world don't mean a thing if I'll never get them.

So I'm still waiting on one check while simultaneously considering moving a large portion of my bankroll to PS. As much as I prefer FTP's software, I like being able to play with money that I might one day actually see.

......

After much deliberation, I decided against playing the FTOPS tonight and elected to take the $T instead. One, it's a single-stack turbo format, and I'm not looking forward to playing that. Two, and more importantly, I have a second set of interviews for probably the best job opportunity I've found since getting laid off back in May. So at least I have my priorities straight. As much as I was looking forward to taking a shot in a larger buy-in MTT, it's the right decision. I'll probably use the majority of the $T for other MTTs like the 50-50 or maybe a shot at the late night Turbo Hundo.

......

I've got a birthday coming up on Saturday, and I think I'll probably treat myself to a tournament (perhaps two) this week at Tulalip. If I can find a way to wake up before 11am to make it there, I'll try my best to provide some Jordan-esque recaps.

Who Makes This Call? Part 2

2008-08-04T00:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took me so long to finally finish this post.

The general consensus from the three comments was that the villain was on a draw. It certainly seems like it with general weakness throughout the hand until the huge overshove to my reraise. What I was curious about was the argument for calling this raise even if you have your opponent on a draw.

However, considering the limp, I think we can exclude some of those drawing hands. Most AcXc hands would probably raise preflop, but almost certainly AcTc and better. Ac8c is a possibility. Any two-club hand is also a possibility, with Jc8c, JcTc and Qc8c\QcTc making him a 60% favorite. But his bet is designed to induce a fold, so it's also possible he's pushing with two overs & a draw, like KT or JT, or maybe Ac8s. Two pair, a pair with a draw, or even a straight can't be ruled out here as well. Long story short: even if he's on a draw, it's still a wide range.

The villain had only been at the table for just over one orbit when this happened, and I had no information on him from any prior games, so there's definitely an argument for folding as well. But in the end, two things stuck out in my head the most:

1. The action, IMO, screams "draw", and there's only a few drawing hands that I'm behind right now.
2. It's only the first break, but I have TP2K with a stack nearly 1\2 the size of the average stack.

I felt this was a good opportunity to get my chips with as a favorite and stay in contention for the rest of the MTT. So I called. Here's the hand in the entirety:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7411961375: $24,000 Guarantee (55623099), Table 116 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:49:38 ET - 2008/07/28
Seat 1: ItsOnlyIVIoney (3,256)
Seat 2: FishyLuckbox (7,320)
Seat 3: JohnnyBax (2,375)
Seat 4: Django_M (5,360)
Seat 5: jotan83 (2,550)
Seat 6: mclarich (2,795)
Seat 7: DMC5x (6,165)
Seat 8: jas225 (3,785)
Seat 9: buriedatsea (6,759)
jotan83 posts the small blind of 40
mclarich posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ks 9d]
DMC5x folds
jas225 folds
buriedatsea folds
ItsOnlyIVIoney folds
FishyLuckbox folds
JohnnyBax folds
Django_M folds
jotan83 calls 40
mclarich checks
*** FLOP *** [6c 9s 7c]
jotan83 bets 80
mclarich raises to 200
jotan83 raises to 2,470, and is all in
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich calls 2,270
jotan83 shows [8s Qh] (woo hoo, just as I called it)
mclarich shows [Ks 9d]
*** TURN *** [6c 9s 7c] [5c] (puke)
*** RIVER *** [6c 9s 7c 5c] [Ac]
jotan83 shows a straight, Nine high
mclarich shows a pair of Nines
jotan83 wins the pot (5,100) with a straight, Nine high

So the results show that I got my chips in at about 60\40 favorite. Villain ends up hitting a brutal turn card and nearly knocks me out. Obviously a horrible play by him: there's so many hands I could have in that position that have him even more dominated that K9, but he finds a position needing only 12-outs and picks it up on the turn.

I wanted to post this because so often, there's the refrain, especially amongst bloggers, along the lines of "top pair is gold" (looking in Fuel's direction), but there's also a time when it's a good call to make. I hated putting my tournament life on the line with TP9K on the board, but given the way it was played, I felt there were more hands I was ahead of than I was behind, and it was a good place to "double up or go home" at this stage in the tournament. I was hoping to get some more feedback from other MTT players to determine if that kind of thought process is common, or if those that are more successful opt for the fold here & find a better spot at this stage.

Thanks for the comments everyone, and I look forward to any additional thoughts.

From Bad To Good

2008-07-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

Tried the Daily Doubles tonight. Went out WAY early in DDA when I lost with a flush to a better flush. Lost in DDB when I couldn't get a fold vs JJ despite A) raising preflop, B) calling IP on an 877, 2 spade board and C) reraising allin when the As hit the turn. Donkey found one of the few times JJ is good against me on that board (naked bluff).

Mookie wasn't going too well either. Tangled with BamBam in a BB vs SB hand. Flopped TP, check-raised when turn gave me a gutshot as well but he min 3-bet then pushed the river with a flush showing. Probably a good laydown, but after seeing him call go to felt with a gutshot of his own, then admitting later he was drunk, perhaps not. Wheels fell off from there despite doubling up through sellthekids with JJ vs KK, went out open-shoving button with 8BB and K3o, ran into Numbette's AQ.

Things picked up from there, and I would eventually get revenge on Numbette in the Dookie. She had the best of me for most of heads up, picking off a bluff with 2nd pair, then getting our chips in the middle when we were pretty much even stacked with 77 vs my 66. Turn was a 6 and I eventually closed it out for my 2nd Dookie win ever.

On a whim, I used a $75 token from last night on one of the FTOPS satellites, Event 15. Flopped a set with JJ vs KK for the second time tonight and rode that stack to victory for entry into my first FTOPS:

Debating whether to stay in the tournament or take the $T and use more wisely. Considering I'm in for only $15 I might as well take a shot at it. My birthday is five days prior - is it too much to ask for a 5 figure birthday gift?

Sometimes You Just Know

2008-07-28T23:48:00.001-07:00

I'll follow up on my last post later this week. Just wanted to share this post before I forget.

I've been playing the $10 KO SNGs lately as I've had success in the past at the $3.30 variety. These are super high variance because 95% of the players are uber donks, making for some interesting calls and glorious suckouts. I missed out on a couple pots when AJ lost on a two outer to Q9 AIPF, even with a JJQ flop, then split another pot with the same donk with AQ vs A8. Table was fairly chatty so I joined in out of boredom:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7420915057: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (56433657), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:42:31 ET - 2008/07/29
Seat 1: ribs104 (1,410)
Seat 2: Sapino (6,050)
Seat 3: mclarich (4,585)
Seat 4: mikeg2006 (14,380)
Seat 5: Nuggetplay13 (3,700)
Seat 7: tommyboy1951 (1,995)
Seat 8: 1Diago (2,080)
Seat 9: Bold__Ruler (18,545), is sitting out
Bold__Ruler posts the small blind of 100
ribs104 posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [3c 9c]
Sapino folds
mclarich: i'm destined to lose this one
mclarich folds
mikeg2006 folds
Nuggetplay13 raises to 700
mclarich: 2 outers on river, splitting pots with A8
tommyboy1951 raises to 1,995, and is all in
1Diago folds
Bold__Ruler folds
ribs104 folds
Nuggetplay13 calls 1,295
tommyboy1951 shows [Qd Ks]
Nuggetplay13 shows [7d 7s]
*** FLOP *** [8d 3s 3h]
*** TURN *** [8d 3s 3h] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [8d 3s 3h 5s] [Js]
tommyboy1951 shows a pair of Threes
Nuggetplay13 shows two pair, Sevens and Threes
Nuggetplay13 wins the pot (4,290) with two pair, Sevens and Threes
tommyboy1951 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,290 | Rake 0
Board: [8d 3s 3h 5s Js]
Seat 1: ribs104 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Sapino didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: mclarich didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: mikeg2006 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Nuggetplay13 showed [7d 7s] and won (4,290) with two pair, Sevens and Threes
Seat 7: tommyboy1951 showed [Qd Ks] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 8: 1Diago (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: Bold__Ruler (small blind) folded before the Flop

Very Next Hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7420920041: $10 + $1 KO Sit & Go (56433657), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:43:09 ET - 2008/07/29
Seat 1: ribs104 (1,210)
Seat 2: Sapino (6,050)
Seat 3: mclarich (4,585)
Seat 4: mikeg2006 (14,380)
Seat 5: Nuggetplay13 (5,995)
Seat 8: 1Diago (2,080)
Seat 9: Bold__Ruler (18,445), is sitting out
ribs104 posts the small blind of 100
Sapino posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Jh Jc]
mclarich raises to 600
mikeg2006 folds
Nuggetplay13 folds
1Diago folds
Bold__Ruler folds
ribs104 folds
Sapino has 15 seconds left to act
Sapino calls 400
*** FLOP *** [2s 3c Tc]
Sapino has 15 seconds left to act
Sapino bets 5,450, and is all in
mclarich calls 3,985, and is all in
Sapino shows [Td Kc]
mclarich shows [Jh Jc]
Uncalled bet of 1,465 returned to Sapino
*** TURN *** [2s 3c Tc] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [2s 3c Tc 8s] [Th]
Sapino shows three of a kind, Tens
mclarich shows two pair, Jacks and Tens
Sapino wins the pot (9,270) with three of a kind, Tens
mclarich stands up
ribs104 stands up
Sapino stands up
mikeg2006 stands up
Nuggetplay13 stands up
1Diago stands up
Bold__Ruler stands up
mclarich (Observer): told ya

Why is it that my clairvoyant powers only activate when I know I'm gonna get sucked out on?

Who Makes This Call?

2008-07-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

Played the $28k at 11am local time today. Had this hand came up that I thought was sorta interesting. Considering the action, what hand(s) do you put the SB on and, based on that, do you call with TP2K for most of your stack? This occurred during the first hour of the tournament, average stack size about 4900.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7411961375: $24,000 Guarantee (55623099), Table 116 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:49:38 ET - 2008/07/28
Seat 1: ItsOnlyIVIoney (3,256)
Seat 2: FishyLuckbox (7,320)
Seat 3: JohnnyBax (2,375)
Seat 4: Django_M (5,360)
Seat 5: jotan83 (2,550)
Seat 6: mclarich (2,795)
Seat 7: DMC5x (6,165)
Seat 8: jas225 (3,785)
Seat 9: buriedatsea (6,759)
jotan83 posts the small blind of 40
mclarich posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ks 9d]
DMC5x folds
jas225 folds
buriedatsea folds
ItsOnlyIVIoney folds
FishyLuckbox folds
JohnnyBax folds
Django_M folds
jotan83 calls 40
mclarich checks
*** FLOP *** [6c 9s 7c]
jotan83 bets 80
mclarich raises to 200
jotan83 raises to 2,470, and is all in

Take Two (Hand History Included)

2008-07-24T23:30:00.001-07:00

So much for that idea.

FTP rejected my last two cash pickup withdrawals on the basis that they are no longer available in my geographic area. Seems to be the case for all of Washington. So I'm trying the check option again. One has been approved; I'll wait to see how that goes before I do the other one.

My remaining bankroll originally was supposed to be just under $1k but I've had a decent run lately and have worked it up somewhere just above that. I've mostly been playing the $10 90-seat SNGs. I've had a lot of success at the $3 variety & I'm finding that the players don't improve that much at the higher stakes. Haven't found my way to a first place yet but have a couple of final tables to keep these things fairly profitable. I've also been playing a lot of O8 SNGs as well just for variety.

I did play a couple of MTTs recently, one of those being the Mookie. I had a strong table: Miami Don immediately to my right, LJ two to my left, and Jordan somewhere between those two. And, to make things more interesting, CK and Lucko joined us when the tables broke. I played fairly tight, pretty much surrendering my SB to Miami Don regularly, but slowly worked on building my stack until my 99 lost to LJ's 88 on a 7 high board when she rivered a gutshot. Held tight until I decided to take AK to war against Jordan and his QQ held up. So much for the Mook.

I couldn't really get too much started in the $28k and ended up going out with what I thought was two overs & a flush draw on a 7 high board. Villian flopped middle set with 66 and I couldn't find a third spade.

However, I did have an interesting hand that I wanted to get some feedback on. If you read my blog regularly, you probably know that I like to bluff. Additionally, for better or worse, I like to get creative with my bluffs. One of the easiest bluffs is against a paired board vs a c-bet. At higher stakes, it may be more difficult to detect whether or not the villain has a hand. But at the lower stakes, it becomes a fairly good way to pick up some additional chips.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7349179637: $28,000 Guarantee (55775202), Table 108 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:18:45 ET - 2008/07/23
Seat 1: marshallltd (1,610)
Seat 2: cranmer00 (3,565)
Seat 3: mclarich (2,885)
Seat 4: VVisor (2,895)
Seat 5: dsk403 (7,905)
Seat 6: Petros (3,285)
Seat 7: aisya (8,990)
Seat 8: dame le soldi (5,580)
Seat 9: ramjet12345 (2,690)
aisya posts the small blind of 20
dame le soldi posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [9h 9c]
ramjet12345 calls 40
marshallltd calls 40
cranmer00 folds
mclarich calls 40
VVisor folds
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403 raises to 155
aisya calls 135
dame le soldi has 15 seconds left to act
dame le soldi folds
ramjet12345 calls 115
marshallltd calls 115
mclarich calls 115

I didn't want to invest too much in bad position with 99 so I decided to limp. dsk403 wasn't playing too wildly but had a fairly wide range; a couple hands prior, he min-raised then called a push for 10x more with T9d. His raise was again pretty weak, less than 4xBB with 3 limpers thus far. Once everyone + the SB call, my call is all mathematical.

*** FLOP *** [Jc Jh 7c]
aisya checks
ramjet12345 checks
marshallltd checks
mclarich checks
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403 bets 750

So not only did he bet almost the full pot, he did this very quickly too. (edit: I just realized that he used part of the time bank. For some reason I remembered it being quick. Oh well) He could have something like AJ or KJ, but even the biggest donk would try to squeeze more value out of trips. Add to that the speed of his bet, and it looked like he was just trying to take it down with a c-bet. It seemed fishy to me.

aisya folds
ramjet12345 folds
marshallltd folds
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich has requested TIME
mclarich raises to 1,840
dsk403 has 15 seconds left to act
dsk403: a J or flush draw?
dsk403 has timed out
dsk403 folds
Uncalled bet of 1,090 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot (2,315)

So obviously no one else limped in with Jx. I thought about the story he was trying to tell, and more importantly, what kind of story I could tell:

1. My range is fairly huge considering I limp-called preflop
2. I checked on a paired board to the preflop raiser
3. I check-raise the c-bet, but not my full stack

Once I decided to go with the read that he didn't have a jack, I decided to represent that I did. The other reason is that, considering the preflop action, I didn't put him on QQ or greater, so I figured that he had some kind of hand that he could fold.

I also think it helped that I held a pair here, and very well could have had the best hand. My check-raise pretty much commits me if he pushes. However, I didn't just push all in because I felt that would look more like a bluff with a flush draw. In the event he did push, I was calling in case I was up against overcards; if he had a jack, then well-played by him. But I felt pretty confident that I could steal the pot from him; the next step is improving on my ability to make these kind of plays regardless of what I have.

Making Decisions

2008-07-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

One thing that took me a while to understand about poker is that it's about making the right decisions. Just because you lose doesn't necessarily mean it was the wrong play; conversely, winning doesn't always go hand in hand with making the right play. But more often than not, if you're making the right decisions, you'll become a profitable poker player.

Whether or not I've made the right decisions thus far, I've seen my bankroll grow tremendously since the beginning of the year. I set a goal to build my bankroll up to $2k, and I accomplished that goal by May. Since then, I've spent my time playing poker at higher stakes, with an arguable amount of success. I hit a rough spot recently that forced me to reevaluate some of the decisions I was making, and one decision was to jump down in stakes for a bit while I managed the emotions I dealing with.

Admittedly, the downswing I went through recently was one of the roughest times I've ever had as a poker player. As my bankroll dipped further, so did my confidence in my game. Furthermore, the idea that I had (for me) a large some of money in my account that I was losing at a rapid pace was very troublesome. Despite having a bankroll that was capable of handling bigger swings, I myself was not able to handle that because I kept thinking about just how much money I was losing.

I've alluded to the fact that I've had some financial problems in the past. I've worked hard over the past couple of years to resolve these problems yet still find a way to play poker as often as I'd like. I was lucky enough to balance this conflict by playing all of last year on a $50 deposit I made back in April. Since then, my financial situation started improving; I started making significant dents into my personal debt, including finally paying off my car. But I still have room to do, and having spent the past two & a half months living off unemployment checks, I can't wait until the day that I finally find a new job & start making those dents even bigger.

So the other day, Full Tilt announced a new way to withdraw money - cash pickup. I tried requesting a check for a small amount, which Full Tilt canceled due to processing error. So I tried this new method. I requested a withdrawal late Wednesday night (technically early Thursday morning), and by the afternoon I had the cash in my hand. So that got me thinking....

As it stands today, my bankroll is just a shade under four digits. I've put in two requests for withdrawals, and (if) once they get approved, I will have withdrawn 75% of my bankroll within a week.

And it's probably the best poker decision I've made this year.

When I'm in a better place financially, I can probably deal with the swings that come with higher stakes. I know I'll get back there this year because I have that confidence in my game again. But I also know that, given this opportunity to cash out my bankroll so efficiently, and for such a significant amount, this was the right decision for a debt-laden, unemployed HR professional.

Baby Steps

2008-07-15T01:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry about turning this into one depressing-ass bad beat blog the past week or so. It's probably been the toughest week, week & a half of poker in my life. It seriously felt like I couldn't do anything right, even if I was trying.

I won't say that I've turned the corner or anything, but even just the small string of cashes I've had lately has helped make my poker world a bit cheerier this week. No big scores, nothing ground breaking. I've just been slumming at the $10 & $20 games mostly, slowly & surely building my bankroll back up. And I've been having fun doing it too, which is what's most important.

I've played a couple of tournaments lately too, including a rare appearance in the MATH tonight. I hardly ever play 6-max games, and I ended up being the first one out with overpair vs overpair against TripJax. I could have layed it down to his push, leaving me chips to play with, but I wasn't thinking very clearly.

Despite what I said last time, I have ventured back into the cash games. I've made some adjustments to my play, basically playing a bit tighter. I feel like I may have been relying on Holdem Manager a bit too much, playing the stats instead of the cards or the table. I've toned down my 3-betting a bit, cut back on the open-raising, and focused on playing selectively aggressive. I had a decent session tonight, finishing up just over one buyin, mostly due to 77 vs AK on a 7A9 board. Lost a bit when 33 lost to QT on a TT3 flop thanks to running 5s. Then, there was this fun hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7228495585: Table Cobble Cove - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:50:57 ET - 2008/07/15
Seat 1: iemdavid ($100)
Seat 2: Buckley88 ($106.60)
Seat 3: push on pairs ($132.45)
Seat 4: mclarich ($100)
Seat 5: johnny9x ($45.05)
Seat 6: Zwerk77 ($20)
Seat 7: IScrewINutIBolt ($94.90)
Seat 8: Chris557 ($120.25)
Seat 9: BlackOfSpades ($138.60)
iemdavid posts the small blind of $0.50
Buckley88 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Qh Qd]
push on pairs folds
mclarich raises to $3.50
johnny9x folds
Zwerk77 folds
IScrewINutIBolt calls $3.50
Chris557 folds
BlackOfSpades folds
iemdavid adds $0.50
iemdavid folds
Buckley88 calls $2.50
*** FLOP *** [5c Ad Ac]
Buckley88 checks
mclarich bets $7
IScrewINutIBolt calls $7
Buckley88 folds

I c-bet here because I felt that my UTG raise + bet could represent a ace. If I get a caller, I'm shutting down, but QQ could still be the best hand here with no 3-betting preflop. Sure enough, one caller. Time to check-fold.

*** TURN *** [5c Ad Ac] [Kc]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich checks
IScrewINutIBolt bets $10
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich calls $10

Here's where it got interesting for me. The pot is $23 and he only bets $10 into it. It could be a value bet with AK, but it didn't make sense (no 3-bet preflop, call flop, less than 1\2 pot on turn). It seemed weak to me. I called, not thinking I was ahead, but to steal the pot away, representing AK myself.

*** RIVER *** [5c Ad Ac Kc] [3c]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich bets $35
IScrewINutIBolt: so gay (goodbye!)
IScrewINutIBolt folds
Uncalled bet of $35 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot ($42.75)

Some chatter afterwards:

mclarich: gay?
IScrewINutIBolt: running clubs
IScrewINutIBolt: when i crushed that flop
mclarich: with what, 55?
IScrewINutIBolt: AQ
BlackOfSpades: if he crushed that flop with 55 you think he would of folded?
IScrewINutIBolt: yeh honestly
IScrewINutIBolt: i should have just shut down the turn knowing the club would come
mclarich: club or no club the pot was mine
IScrewINutIBolt: then horrible bet on the river
IScrewINutIBolt: if u had ak
IScrewINutIBolt: or flush
IScrewINutIBolt: if not nice bluff (it was, thank you)
mclarich: sorry, didn't know betting the nuts OOP on the river is a bad move
IScrewINutIBolt: u could bet for value
IScrewINutIBolt: its a new theory read up
mclarich: i will
mclarich: or maybe i just read your turn bet as weak and bluffed you

He claims to have folded AQ, obviously without the Qc. This hand wasn't a case, like the KT hand I posted before, where I wasn't sure where I stood and made a questionable play. I really felt confident that I was going to get a fold. What's funny is that it wasn't the AAK board that scared him but the 4th club. If he was scared of the board, and if he has AQ, he has to put me on EXACTLY the same hand he had, but with AxQc, right? If I'm not bluffing, what clubs does he put me on if I'm UTG raising? QJc? QTc? And I'd have to have the Qc to bet that river, assuming that I'm betting the river with the nut flush on an AAKxx board. So I call bullshit on his AQ; maybe he had an A, but I don't see AQ. Anyways, if he bets the turn any harder, I fold, but I really felt his turn bet was one of weakness rather than of value. For once, I was right.

Anyways, I feel like I've talked myself down off the ledge, for now. I clearly wasn't playing my top game the past several days. Seeing my bankroll tumble down so quickly really did a number on me. I've noticed a difference the past day or two, at least emotionally & mentally. Of course, it helps that some of my hands are starting to hold up again. I don't doubt that this won't be the last downswing I go on, nor am I ready to declare that this one is officially over. But I feel like I'm handling it better, and I'm ready to start climbing back.

Seriously

2008-07-12T02:55:00.000-07:00

I don't know how much more of this I can take. All of this from tonight:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7187787536: $24 + $2 KO Sit & Go (54645794), Table 4 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:35:01 ET - 2008/07/12
Seat 1: eimajedward (5,585)
Seat 2: tough_horns (3,215)
Seat 3: Crab Man 12 (2,190)
Seat 4: PSYCHOPARANOID (1,910)
Seat 6: dv8shand (940)
Seat 7: JaahasPaahas (6,425)
Seat 8: mclarich (6,185)
Seat 9: pokvir (13,130)
PSYCHOPARANOID posts the small blind of 25
dv8shand posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [As Ts]
JaahasPaahas folds
mclarich raises to 175
pokvir calls 175
eimajedward calls 175
tough_horns has 15 seconds left to act
tough_horns folds
Crab Man 12 folds
PSYCHOPARANOID folds
dv8shand folds
*** FLOP *** [5s Kc Js]
mclarich bets 400
pokvir calls 400
eimajedward has 15 seconds left to act
eimajedward raises to 5,410, and is all in
mclarich calls 5,010
pokvir folds
eimajedward shows [7d Kd] (Against TP7K I'm actually ahead)
mclarich shows [As Ts]
*** TURN *** [5s Kc Js] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5s Kc Js Kh] [4d]
eimajedward shows three of a kind, Kings
mclarich shows a pair of Kings
eimajedward wins the pot (11,820) with three of a kind, Kings

Full Tilt Poker Game #7187853917: $20 + $2 Sit & Go (54648093), Table 1 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:47:23 ET - 2008/07/12
Seat 2: mclarich (3,295)
Seat 3: VincentMastro (3,290)
Seat 5: Ffransis (1,350)
Seat 6: MeezySolid (850)
Seat 7: DurtyBurd83 (375)
Seat 9: Zuko27 (4,340)
VincentMastro posts the small blind of 40
Ffransis posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ad Ac]
MeezySolid folds
DurtyBurd83 folds
Zuko27 has 15 seconds left to act
Zuko27 raises to 160
mclarich raises to 560
VincentMastro folds
Ffransis folds
Zuko27 calls 400
*** FLOP *** [7d Js 5s]
Zuko27 has 15 seconds left to act
Zuko27 bets 1,240
mclarich raises to 2,735, and is all in
Zuko27 calls 1,495
mclarich shows [Ad Ac]
Zuko27 shows [Ts Jd]
*** TURN *** [7d Js 5s] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [7d Js 5s 6s] [3s]
mclarich shows a pair of Aces
Zuko27 shows a flush, Jack high
Zuko27 wins the pot (6,710) with a flush, Jack high
mclarich stands up

Full Tilt Poker Game #7187045240: $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (54640748), Table 1 - 200/400 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:30:48 ET - 2008/07/12
Seat 1: Korrea (1,310)
Seat 3: Position 15 (3,130)
Seat 5: geminis100 (1,700)
Seat 6: mclarich (3,420)
Seat 7: gerdim (2,060)
Seat 9: fuzzyiam (1,880)
mclarich posts the small blind of 200
gerdim posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kh Ad]
fuzzyiam folds
Korrea folds
Position 15 raises to 3,130, and is all in
geminis100 folds
mclarich calls 2,930
gerdim folds
Position 15 shows [Ks Jc]
mclarich shows [Kh Ad]
*** FLOP *** [4c 4h 2s]
*** TURN *** [4c 4h 2s] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [4c 4h 2s Jd] [6h]
Position 15 shows two pair, Jacks and Fours
mclarich shows a pair of Fours
Position 15 wins the pot (6,660) with two pair, Jacks and Fours

I'm so close to withdrawing most of my bankroll. A $1500 downswing via $20 SNGs and $.50\$1 cash games is just fucking ridiculous, even for a donkey like me. It's not worth it to me to keep pissing away hundreds of dollars like this; my lifestyle can't support it. Yes, I did have a could hands hold up, and even cracked AA with KJ with a 5-outer on the river, but when it comes to getting my money in with the best hand, this has been standard for about a week now.

I've pissed away a $3000 bankroll once before, a couple of years ago. I'm not letting that happen again. If my bankroll dips to $3100 or below, I'm cashing out $3k and starting from scratch again.

Back To The Grind

2008-07-10T16:56:00.000-07:00

First, let's get the really important stuff out of the way. Congrats to Iggy for making it to Day 4. I wonder if his stack is big enough yet that he can stand on it & see the table. Keep it up!

Anyways, now for the rest of my babble.

There was a time, years ago, when I didn't play poker at all. I still found ways to enjoy life. I caught the bug a couple of years ago, and now poker has become one of my favorite hobbies, if not the favorite.

The last couple of days, evident in my most recent posts, poker has become a soul-sucking grind. With no job to waste my time at, and a fucked up sleep schedule that sees me waking up as late as noon & going to bed as late at 5am sometimes, I've passed the time withering away in my not-very-comfortable chair, clicking away at my surprisingly resilient mouse, watching my imaginary nest egg ebb & flow. Sometimes, I don't even muster enough energy to put on a full set of clothes (although, with all due apologies, you won't be getting any Waffles-esque pictures from me. But please indulge me and keep reading anyways.)

I think I finally realized when I hit that point where I wasn't enjoying this hobby. It wasn't after the session where I pissed away $500 in a flurry of bad beats and unrealized tilt. It wasn't last night (or I guess early this morning) when I ran second best hands into better hands.

No, it was a couple days prior, when I finished second in a 5-table SNG for $200. After reading about Jamy's recent conquest at the $75 stakes, I took the plunge at the $26 level, only to find the fields softer than marshmallow breasts. UTG raises with K7c. Check-raising with nothing but runner-runner draws. Whereas I was used to folding the JackAce to early aggression, I now started agonizing over these decisions, thinking that I may actually be folding the nuts against these players.

That second place finish was my 2nd cash in 6 tried at these games, and that score put my bankroll at just over $4800, the high-water mark for me EVER. Additionally, if I consider that I pulled out $500 less than a week prior, we're talking about a hypothetical bankroll of over $5k for me. Earlier this year, I set a goal of working up to a $2K bankroll. Lofty, but fairly attainable. Now I'm working with a bankroll of more than twice that amount?

This was around the time that the dollar-sign fairies started dancing around in my head. I probably should have felt satisfied with what I had, considering where I've been, but I was craving more. I wasn't even at $5k before I started think $6k, $7k. What about 5 figures? What if, what if, what if.

This streak I'm on, over a $1k downswing, isn't the first for me. A month ago, I worked my bankroll up to $4k during my first foray into the cash games at the $1\$2 level. It didn't take long for me to donk that down all the way to $2600, and yet I was hardly fazed. I was still grateful that I had that much left.

What makes this streak feel so different is that, as I began working it all bank up and then some, I started expecting this to become the norm. The FTP tables were my personal ATM, except that it didn't spit out cash but instead checks that took 10-15 days to get to you and may or may not be cashed (I got an email today from FTP saying that my check wasn't affected but I'm still suspicious). When I started giving money away instead of taking it, it was like I was being told I wasn't IronMan. What the fuck do you mean I'm not IronMan? I've even got the silly little badge to prove it. But I'm not IronMan, I'm not impervious to these downswings, and I'm not going to be able to handle them if I think that I'm entitled to constantly have an ever-growing bankroll.

Which brings me back to my pre-poker life. Kind of.

I don't think it's a break that I need, nor do I think I need to jump down a level (at least, not just yet). But what I do need to do is infuse some of my other hobbies back into my life. I was smart enough to escape Arizona for the wonderful summers of Seattle; why am I spending all my days indoors? How have I not managed to take a single shot on the B-ball courts yet? If I want to sleep all day, why can't I go do it passed out under a tree somewhere? Just because I don't have a job right now doesn't mean I need to convert my biggest hobby into my new job. Especially when it's not necessarily paying very well these days. But that's exactly what I was doing. I was playing with the mindset that I should conquer every table, that I should be finishing every session up at least a buyin, that I was going to piss all over the donkeys at the 5-table SNGs and be rolling around in the money. Or at least rolling around on the floor looking at that number on my monitor.

So that's how I solve this problem, I guess. Get back to treating poker as something I do for fun, for entertainment, not as a way to make money. Sure, I like the money-making aspect of it. That's what makes it relevant, challenging, rewarding. Otherwise, I could jump on the play money tables until my heart's content. But I'm not going to get caught up in how much my bankroll is. It's not important that I make it grow as fast as I can; that's not how I got to where I'm at now. It's about playing smartly with that bankroll and relying on it to sustain my ability to play online.

But I'm going to make a couple changes for now. First, I'm stepping away from the cash games for a bit. I don't think I can handle any more swings right now. I found myself tilting again after getting my money in bad a couple times. I reloaded, then caught myself and sat out. Instead, I sat down at a $22 turbo SNG and promptly took first.

That's the other change; getting back to SNGs. And not the crazy super turbo ones either. Of course, I'm singing a different tune than before, now that my ROI has dropped considerably, which I guess is expected. But for someone like me, who's struggling through a downswing, the last thing I need to do is continually play "push & pray" poker. Instead I need to get back to what got me here in the first place: standard SNGs and MTTs. I didn't set my goal of a $2k bankroll to jump into cash games. I took a shot since I had some money to play with, but SNGs are my bread & butter. I need to find that comfortable place again, so I'm going back to what I know best.

I guess that's the plan. Poker at night, play in the daytime. Tomorrow, I skip the virtual felt and head to the gym to get some miles in as I prepare for my first half-marathon in October. Maybe I'll even head down to a basketball court to start working on getting my shot back. Hopefully the bad beats don't follow me all the way there; otherwise, I may end up like Mr. Two Thumbs.

Seriously, that's one fucked up pinky.

The Junk Kicking Continues

2008-07-10T01:13:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up. This is a really long post. 4 hand histories is probably too much. Oh well.

So this really is a bad beat post, but I'm going to disguise it in the form of a hand history post. Although my bankroll is still very much alive and $300 more than it was after I requested a check from FTP about 10 days ago, It's almost $1k below it's high water mark last week.

My session started off well when someone paid me off when I had nuts.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7160280903: Table Gentle Falls - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:04:21 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: McAuliffe ($173.40)
Seat 2: mclarich ($98.50)
Seat 3: jarred blits ($220.55)
Seat 4: PokerN00B1E ($100.75)
Seat 5: ugly24 ($259.30), is sitting out
Seat 6: britesorb ($62)
Seat 7: Pabst Dry ($109.65)
Seat 8: mazzler ($116.70)
Seat 9: needtoowin ($188.25)
jarred blits posts the small blind of $0.50
PokerN00B1E posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah 8h]
britesorb folds
Pabst Dry folds
mazzler folds
needtoowin raises to $3
McAuliffe folds
mclarich calls $3
jarred blits folds
PokerN00B1E folds

I didn't have any information on this guy, but on the button with a suited A, I decided to see a flop.

*** FLOP *** [Kd 2h 4h]
needtoowin bets $3
mclarich raises to $9
needtoowin calls $6

I figured smooth calling here might seem more like a draw, so I raised instead. If I face a lot of resistance, I probably fold, chalking it up to AK.

*** TURN *** [Kd 2h 4h] [9h]
needtoowin checks
mclarich bets $18
needtoowin calls $18

I make my flush on the turn and stick with the theme that I've got a strong K. Can't see why he's still calling but I don't mind.

*** RIVER *** [Kd 2h 4h 9h] [3h]
needtoowin bets $25
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to $68.50, and is all in
needtoowin calls $43.50

Obviously he's not folding now, must be on the K-high flush.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
mclarich shows [Ah 8h] a flush, Ace high
needtoowin mucked [Kh Jc] - a flush, King high
mclarich wins the pot ($195.50) with a flush, Ace high

That was my 3rd hand at that table - a nice way to begin the evening. But it didn't last that long. Here's the fallout from another table.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7160482364: Table Hauck - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:34:13 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: iluvharisu ($104.10)
Seat 2: LivesUndrBridge ($102.75)
Seat 3: dikemp ($103)
Seat 4: kouun ($124.50)
Seat 5: mclarich ($100)
Seat 6: mazzler ($216.55)
Seat 7: TheWakko ($106.65)
Seat 8: LauraMac9900 ($100)
Seat 9: meatyballz85 ($110.10)
TheWakko posts the small blind of $0.50
LauraMac9900 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ad 8d]
meatyballz85 folds
iluvharisu folds
LivesUndrBridge folds
dikemp folds
kouun raises to $4
mclarich calls $4
mazzler has 15 seconds left to act
mazzler folds
TheWakko folds
LauraMac9900 has 15 seconds left to act
LauraMac9900 calls $3

Again, I decide to see a flop with another suited Ace and end up in position. If I flop the Ace, I'm willing to fold to aggression if I think I'm up against a bigger Ace.

*** FLOP *** [4d 8h Ac]
LauraMac9900 bets $7
kouun folds
mclarich raises to $24
LauraMac9900 has 15 seconds left to act
LauraMac9900 calls $17

Again, I know nothing about this player as well, but it's a hell of a flop for me. There's very few hands that beat me, and I'm probably getting paid off against a bigger Ace.

*** TURN *** [4d 8h Ac] [7c]
LauraMac9900 checks
mclarich bets $72, and is all in
LauraMac9900 calls $72, and is all in
mclarich shows [Ad 8d]
LauraMac9900 shows [4s 4h]

I go for the OBFV and instead find myself pretty far behind. I don't know if I could have found a way to fold this given the way the hand played out.

*** RIVER *** [4d 8h Ac 7c] [4c]
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Eights
LauraMac9900 shows four of a kind, Fours
LauraMac9900 wins the pot ($201.50) with four of a kind, Fours

That last 4 was pretty unnecessary.

I was able to recover about half that loss 2 hands later when AA held up against KK. Unfortunately, I didn't get completely paid since I was up against a tight player who didn't get overly aggressive.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7160503541: Table Hauck - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:37:32 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: iluvharisu ($102.60)
Seat 2: LivesUndrBridge ($101.75)
Seat 3: dikemp ($103)
Seat 4: kouun ($120.50)
Seat 5: mclarich ($100)
Seat 6: mazzler ($219.55)
Seat 7: TheWakko ($107.65)
Seat 8: LauraMac9900 ($201)
Seat 9: meatyballz85 ($108.60)
LivesUndrBridge posts the small blind of $0.50
dikemp posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ac Ah]
kouun raises to $4
mclarich calls $4
mazzler has 15 seconds left to act
mazzler folds
TheWakko folds
LauraMac9900 folds
meatyballz85 folds
iluvharisu calls $4
LivesUndrBridge folds
dikemp has 15 seconds left to act
dikemp folds

The table was playing pretty tight, and I felt that reraising UTG+1 was too obvious. I liked having iluvharisu call; he was a fairly tight player and I would be able to figure out where I stand fairly easily.

*** FLOP *** [7s 5s 8c]
kouun checks
mclarich bets $9
iluvharisu calls $9
kouun folds

I knew iluvharisu was pretty tight with a PFR% of 3 and only one 3-bet in over 900 hands. But he also like to smooth call a fair amount, although mostly in limped or min-raised pots. I probably should have bet more here.

*** TURN *** [7s 5s 8c] [3s]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich bets $20
iluvharisu calls $20

Not the best turn card for me. The smooth call on the turn doesn't really tell me much that I didn't already learn from the flop. I'm perfectly capable of folding to aggression here but harisu won't raise me even with a scare card hitting.

*** RIVER *** [7s 5s 8c 3s] [Qh]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich bets $21
iluvharisu calls $21

OK, here's my reasoning on the river bet. I'm still ahead of a lot of hands that harisu would call down with, but also beat by a couple as well. I figure that if harisu makes a big bet on the river, I have to fold. If she bets small, I'll call. So I bet an amount that I would be willing to call down with. If I'm raised, despite the pot odds, I was ready to fold.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
mclarich shows [Ac Ah] a pair of Aces
iluvharisu mucked [Kd Ks] - a pair of Kings
mclarich wins the pot ($110.50) with a pair of Aces

Shame, because if it was a player who 3-bet preflop, that money's going in on the flop. Probably some issues with bet-sizing again on my part but I was trying to figure out the best way to play cautiously yet get paid off by a lesser hand.

Here's the other hand that did me in. Obviously I could have played this differently and perhaps found someplace to fold but it'd still be tough.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7160630804: Table Hauck - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:58:36 ET - 2008/07/10
Seat 1: iluvharisu ($100)
Seat 2: LivesUndrBridge ($128.85)
Seat 3: dikemp ($111.65)
Seat 4: Wazzamaniak ($17.80)
Seat 5: mclarich ($153.60)
Seat 6: nellie1972 ($101.40)
Seat 7: TheWakko ($109.70)
Seat 8: LauraMac9900 ($218.80)
Seat 9: meatyballz85 ($87.60)
Wazzamaniak posts the small blind of $0.50
mclarich posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Qc Qs]
nellie1972 folds
TheWakko has 15 seconds left to act
TheWakko folds
LauraMac9900 folds
meatyballz85 folds
iluvharisu calls $1
LivesUndrBridge raises to $4
dikemp has 15 seconds left to act
dikemp folds
Wazzamaniak folds
mclarich calls $3
iluvharisu calls $3

Obviously, there's an argument that I should 3bet this from the BB to find out where I'm at. Instead, I play it a bit for deception value, but able to fold if an A or a K hits and there's action.

*** FLOP *** [2s 9c Jh]
mclarich checks
iluvharisu checks
LivesUndrBridge bets $8
mclarich raises to $25
iluvharisu adds $4
iluvharisu folds
LivesUndrBridge has 15 seconds left to act
LivesUndrBridge calls $17

Not a bad flop for me. LivesUndrBridge puts in the expected cbet so I check-raise. The smooth call is a bit of a concern but I figured it would be more likely that if he had me beat, the money would go in here.

*** TURN *** [2s 9c Jh] [7h]
mclarich bets $62
LivesUndrBridge raises to $99.85, and is all in
Wazzamaniak adds $4
mclarich calls $37.85
LivesUndrBridge shows [Ad As]
mclarich shows [Qc Qs]

The turn isn't a very scary card, and I can't see check-folding at this point, so the money goes in.

*** RIVER *** [2s 9c Jh 7h] [7d]
LivesUndrBridge shows two pair, Aces and Sevens
mclarich shows two pair, Queens and Sevens
LivesUndrBridge wins the pot ($259.20) with two pair, Aces and Sevens

For the most part, I don't see how I'm getting away from that hand at any point. That's what makes this losing streak so difficult; sure, there's a handful of instances where I've spewed money playing hands badly, but more often, I'm either getting coolered like above, or sucked out on badly (AJ > AK, JJ > QQ). I know bad beat stories are a dime a dozen, so I won't trouble you with anymore, but suffice it to say that it's been a rough couple of days.

After the mouse-throwing incident, my girlfriend suggested that maybe a break is in order. Perhaps it would be helpful, but I don't really know. I feel like I've been more diligent at the tables and really cut down on some of the mistakes I was making previously. I'm not in the object-throwing mindset anymore, although the beats are still wearing on me somewhat. I feel like I just need to work through this, and sooner or later, the cards will catch up to me.

I'm also wondering if I need to drop down in stakes. Right now I'm just under 40 buyins at the $.50\$1 level. I believe I can still handle the monetary part of the swings a bit longer. I've worked hard to get my bankroll up over $4k, and it does affect me mentally each time I've seen it drop below that, so perhaps I do need to step down a bit, I dunno.

I guess I'm just looking for advice here, whether it be about how I'm playing or the emotional side of it. I know I could be much worse off & be back to grinding it out at $5 SNGs, but it's hard not to get caught up in this. From the middle of May to last week, I've been on a upstreak of more than $2k. I started feeling like I was turning the corner, imagining bigger & brighter things. Right now, it's hard to envision all that as being nothing more than a mirage.

OK, I Guess You Could Say I'm On Tilt

2008-07-07T16:29:00.001-07:00

There's a dent on the wall, just above my monitor. It's new, it happened about 10 minutes ago, when I chucked my mouse at it. It's not horribly big, but it's noticeable. I feel bad about it now, and I'm not looking forward to people asking me about it.

"Hey, how did that get there?"
"AJ lost to 77 when he 4-flushed me."
"Huh?"

I don't know if it's fallout from the $500 lost I spoke about last post or what, but I'm totally off my game in every single way possible. I'm winning small pots & losing big ones. I'm playing hands about as best as possible & as worst as possible. I'm getting tricky when ABC will do just fine, but I feel like I'm also being read like a book. Every continuation bet is being called if it's not being raised, unless I have a strong hand, and then they're just folding. I'm playing big pairs for deception to build a pot, only to let my opponent get a 2-outer, then refusing to fold when the only thing I beat is a bluff.

It's not all bad play though, there's also plenty of junk-kicking going on too (see AJ vs 77 above, plus countless other stories I'll spare you from). The consequence is that my bankroll has taken an $800 dive since the end of last week. Granted, the end of last week was very good, and I'm still up $400 since last Saturday, but that doesn't really provide me much solace right now.

I've spent most of my time playing the $.50\$1 games, and as you've seen from my recent posts, I'm still figuring these games out. I've made some adjustments (including no more limp-calling OOP with weak hands - can't believe I ever thought that was a good idea). One adjustment I still need to make is learning to fold an overpair when I'm most likely beat. It's easier to do when it's 88 or 99 on a low board, but when it's something like KK or QQ, it becomes tougher. I know I need to fold but I'm not doing it.

I know this will change. My hands will hold up, I'll be the once catching the outs, and I'll stop playing hands like a jackass. The first two just have to happen mathematically, that last one is one me. Getting into a different mindset will help. I've let the beats affect me more than they should. I need to look at the positives; my bankroll is still intact & more than double what I set for my goal this year, I'm still showing a good profit at the $.50\$1 level, and I know many of the mistakes I need to correct.

In the meantime, I probably should consider getting a mouse with a cord instead of sticking with the wireless.

Back To Earth (bad beat content)

2008-07-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

It's 4am. Pretty much standard for me these days, with no job to worry about. I'd been riding high the past couple of days, poker wise. I had worked my bankroll up to an all time high. But tonight, that all came crashing down.

Well, I guess it's not all that bad. This isn't some post about going busto. I've still got a very workable bankroll. Tonight has just been my biggest downswing in a while, about 4 buyins. All at the hands of AK.

1st AK: Some guy who's Limp-Call stat was a perfect 100 decided to min raise preflop. He's only about 1\2 a buyin so I just shove. He instacalls with A9s. Flop comes 9 with 2 spades & I can't find a 2-outer.

2nd AK: Folds to button who had been stealing actively. I was feeling frisky so I just shove from the BB. Button shows AA. Not that it would have mattered since the flop came K-high anyways.

3rd AK: VERY next hand. MP raises, 2 callers, I don't have time to reload from the last one so I shove my last $40 in. MP shows AA. Fawk.

4th AK: UTG raises standard. I'm next and I decide to just call for a flop. Flop is KJ9. Bet, raise. Turn is a Q. Check, check. River is an A and he bets 1\2 pot. Can't fold, can I? I call, he shows JT.

It was just a perfect storm. I shove middle pair with nut flush draw into top 2 pair that boats on the turn. I flop top set on spade board after calling BB 3bet in position & call his shove needing to fade a 4th spade against AcQs. River is a spade. Blah blah, bad beats galore.

The good news is that I didn't let myself get tilted once. The bad news is that I let myself play like a donk the rest of the night & started spewing all night. I guess that sounds like tilt, but it's different in my head. I wasn't doing it because I was pissed or because I was in that "win it all back mode". I was doing it because I just didn't give a fuck anymore. I was trying to play hyper-aggressive tonight, but it was more like me being an ATM.

Anyways, it's time for bed. The downswing is close to $500. I think I might just shove my last $30 in randomly and call it a night. I don't know how much poker I'll be getting in this weekend, but I'll probably give myself some time to shake off tonight's losses & regroup on Monday. Have a good weekend everyone, and good luck to the donkeys in the ME.

P.S. My last $30 is gone after 22 < KK. Lame.

Easy Money

2008-06-30T01:58:00.000-07:00

It always sucks when you go on a run of cards and end up with nothing to show for it. Luckily for me, this was NOT one of those times. Instead, this is how I felted the same dude not once, not twice, but THREE times within ten minutes. Suffice it to say, I coded him with the special "Uber-Donk" color with some choice notes.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7028356015: Table Cobble Cove - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:43:37 ET - 2008/06/30
Seat 1: TNN4731 ($108.50)
Seat 2: mclarich ($162.95)
Seat 3: kukko66 ($100)
Seat 4: MYOPB ($27.40)
Seat 5: MoeRon9 ($223.45)
Seat 6: fill_fda ($90)
Seat 7: NineMonks ($18)
Seat 8: UberDonk ($68.60) (name changed to protect my nest egg)
Seat 9: fatharriet ($61.60)
MoeRon9 posts the small blind of $0.50
fill_fda posts the big blind of $1
5 seconds left to act
TNN4731 is sitting out
Time has expired
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah Kh]
NineMonks folds
UberDonk raises to $3
fatharriet calls $3
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to $17
kukko66 folds
MYOPB folds
MoeRon9 folds
fill_fda folds
UberDonk calls $14 (no prior info on him so don't know what this means)
fatharriet folds
*** FLOP *** [5h Qh Qd]
UberDonk has 15 seconds left to act
UberDonk checks
mclarich checks
*** TURN *** [5h Qh Qd] [9h]
UberDonk checks
mclarich bets $14
UberDonk raises to $51.60, and is all in (if he has a boat or better, so be it)
mclarich calls $37.60
UberDonk shows [4h 4d] (ummmmm, what?)
mclarich shows [Ah Kh]
*** RIVER *** [5h Qh Qd 9h] [Jd]
UberDonk shows two pair, Queens and Fours
mclarich shows a flush, Ace high
mclarich wins the pot ($138.70) with a flush, Ace high

Full Tilt Poker Game #7028387976: Table Cobble Cove - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:50:33 ET - 2008/06/30
Seat 2: mclarich ($231.05)
Seat 3: kukko66 ($100)
Seat 4: MYOPB ($33.35)
Seat 6: fill_fda ($100)
Seat 7: NineMonks ($31.20)
Seat 8: UberDonk ($34.10)
Seat 9: fatharriet ($99.50)
MYOPB posts the small blind of $0.50
fill_fda posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [As Ad]
NineMonks has 15 seconds left to act
NineMonks folds
NineMonks stands up
UberDonk raises to $4
fatharriet folds
mclarich raises to $13
kukko66 folds
MYOPB folds
fill_fda folds
UberDonk calls $9
*** FLOP *** [9h Js 6c]
UberDonk has 15 seconds left to act
UberDonk bets $21.10, and is all in
mclarich calls $21.10
UberDonk shows [7c Ks]
mclarich shows [As Ad]
*** TURN *** [9h Js 6c] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [9h Js 6c 4c] [6h]
UberDonk shows a pair of Sixes
mclarich shows two pair, Aces and Sixes
mclarich wins the pot ($66.70) with two pair, Aces and Sixes

Full Tilt Poker Game #7028399944: Table Cobble Cove - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:53:14 ET - 2008/06/30
Seat 2: mclarich ($263)
Seat 3: kukko66 ($100)
Seat 4: MYOPB ($32.85)
Seat 5: La merveille ($40)
Seat 6: fill_fda ($101.70)
Seat 8: UberDonk ($38.50)
Seat 9: fatharriet ($99.20)
kukko66 posts the small blind of $0.50
MYOPB posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Ah Kh]
fill_fda folds
UberDonk calls $1
fatharriet folds
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to $4
kukko66 adds $0.50
kukko66 folds
MYOPB folds
UberDonk raises to $8
mclarich raises to $25.50
UberDonk calls $17.50
*** FLOP *** [9h Ks Td]
UberDonk bets $13, and is all in
mclarich calls $13
UberDonk shows [Ac Jc]
mclarich shows [Ah Kh]
*** TURN *** [9h Ks Td] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [9h Ks Td Js] [3c]
UberDonk shows a pair of Jacks
Weird Turn Pro adds $50
mclarich shows a pair of Kings
mclarich wins the pot ($75.50) with a pair of Kings
UberDonk is sitting out

Also pretty sick is that I had another AK somewhere in there but just played it cautiously from the SB & check-folded a bad flop.

Finished the night just over 3-buyins, my best session yet at $.50\$1. With that, I've officially recouped the losses I spewed at the $1\$2 level, and for the time being, I'm out of the red for NL cash.

Do You Make This Call?

2008-06-25T16:08:00.000-07:00

It's time for another post showing how I played a hand horribly! The truth is, very rarely am I going to showdown with TP no kicker but on this hand, something didn't make sense to me and I felt that I had the best hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6969913152: Table Hauck - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:58:05 ET - 2008/06/25
Seat 1: bradwcryeye ($14.50)
Seat 2: becks911 ($192.45)
Seat 3: 080888000 ($100)
Seat 4: KonstantienOpel ($98.50)
Seat 5: ccsantagado ($30.40)
Seat 6: mclarich ($98.10)
Seat 7: Atari151 ($70.95)
Seat 8: mazzler ($104.40)
Seat 9: sinsincity ($64.95)
sinsincity posts the small blind of $0.50
bradwcryeye posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kh Th]
becks911 folds
080888000 folds
KonstantienOpel folds
ccsantagado folds
mclarich raises to $3.50
Atari151 folds
mazzler folds
sinsincity calls $3
bradwcryeye folds

I know KT is not the strongest hand, but it had been a pretty weak table, and I felt that if I didn't win the blinds outright, I'd be in position; if the CO or button were either 3betting or folding. I get a caller in the SB. I had no information on the SB but I figured the smooth call discounted most of the top hands.

*** FLOP *** [Ks Jc 4s]
sinsincity checks
mclarich bets $5
sinsincity raises to $15
mclarich calls $10

Just calling the reraise is probably a mistake - in most cases, I'm either way behind or my K is good, but here's why I called. The PF calls makes AA, KK or AK very unlikely. I'm behind KQ but I don't really see KQ check-raising this flop. If I'm beat, it's either KJ, JJ, or 44. I could also be up against some kind of draw. I call to see how the turn plays out, but I can also understand the argument for folding here.

*** TURN *** [Ks Jc 4s] [Jh]
sinsincity bets $18
mclarich calls $18

The J on the turn is kind of a good card for me since it makes JJ less likely. I'm beginning to think I'm up against a draw. 44 is still a possibility, and KJ is as well.

*** RIVER *** [Ks Jc 4s Jh] [Tc]
sinsincity bets $28.45, and is all in
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich calls $28.45

Basically a crying call. If I'm beat, then I'm the donk who calls down with TPNK, but I'm getting 3.5:1 odds. I've come this far, don't see how I can fold for $28 more.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
sinsincity shows [6d Ad] a pair of Jacks
mclarich shows [Kh Th] two pair, Kings and Jacks
mclarich wins the pot ($127.90) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
sinsincity is sitting out

Of course, I can also beat a complete bluff. Most of the time I know I'm beat and I'm laying this hand down on the flop. I also should mention that the villain was betting really quickly, which made me think it was more of a semi-bluff. If any straight or spade comes on the turn or river, I probably fold. If the villain has a bigger stack, I probably fold to a bigger bet.

Anyways, this definitely did not sit well with sinsincity, and made for some fun remarks afterwards:

sinsincity: oh my gosh
sinsincity: unreal read...cant imagine what you possibly put me on there...
sinsincity: K10 preflop/postflop/turn/river nuts....HAHAHAHA
sinsincity: enjoy each other's company

It even spilled over to the other table I was on:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6969969753: Table Dronberger - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:02:53 ET - 2008/06/25
Seat 1: siouxtllmn ($28.35)
Seat 2: Dryburg ($107.75)
Seat 3: briancheng ($104)
Seat 4: dfense072 ($99.50)
Seat 5: Goso ($39.90)
Seat 6: KJACK10 ($100.90)
Seat 7: xxNINO BROWNxx ($93.60)
Seat 8: 080888000 ($123.80)
Seat 9: mclarich ($100)
080888000 posts the small blind of $0.50
mclarich posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [9d Qc]
siouxtllmn raises to $2
Dryburg folds
briancheng has 15 seconds left to act
briancheng folds
dfense072 folds
Goso folds
KJACK10 folds
xxNINO BROWNxx raises to $7.50
080888000 folds
mclarich folds
siouxtllmn calls $5.50
*** FLOP *** [Td 5s 7d]
siouxtllmn checks
xxNINO BROWNxx bets $86.10, and is all in
siouxtllmn calls $20.85, and is all in
xxNINO BROWNxx shows [Qh Ah]
siouxtllmn shows [Ts Tc]
Uncalled bet of $65.25 returned to xxNINO BROWNxx
*** TURN *** [Td 5s 7d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [Td 5s 7d 3s] [5d]
xxNINO BROWNxx shows a pair of Fives
siouxtllmn shows a full house, Tens full of Fives
siouxtllmn wins the pot ($55.30) with a full house, Tens full of Fives
sinsincity (Observer): mclarich is uber rock...only willing to play K10 all the way until the end for his stack...

Full Tilt Poker Game #6969979037: Table Dronberger - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:03:40 ET - 2008/06/25
Seat 1: siouxtllmn ($55.30)
Seat 2: Dryburg ($107.75)
Seat 3: briancheng ($104)
Seat 4: dfense072 ($99.50)
Seat 5: Goso ($39.90)
Seat 6: KJACK10 ($100.90)
Seat 7: xxNINO BROWNxx ($65.25)
Seat 8: 080888000 ($123.30)
Seat 9: mclarich ($99)
mclarich posts the small blind of $0.50
siouxtllmn posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [6h Jh]
Dryburg folds
briancheng folds
sinsincity (Observer): lol
dfense072 folds
Goso folds
KJACK10 folds
xxNINO BROWNxx calls $1
080888000 folds
sinsincity (Observer): donk puke is a call station
sinsincity (Observer): just a little fyi for the game
mclarich folds
siouxtllmn checks
*** FLOP *** [Ad Ks 6d]
siouxtllmn checks
xxNINO BROWNxx checks
*** TURN *** [Ad Ks 6d] [4s]
siouxtllmn checks
xxNINO BROWNxx checks
*** RIVER *** [Ad Ks 6d 4s] [7h]
siouxtllmn has 15 seconds left to act
sinsincity (Observer): bet, call down reraise/and another 2 bullets with top pair 10 kicker...lol
siouxtllmn checks
xxNINO BROWNxx bets $2.50
siouxtllmn folds
Uncalled bet of $2.50 returned to xxNINO BROWNxx
xxNINO BROWNxx mucks
xxNINO BROWNxx wins the pot ($2.40)

Full Tilt Poker Game #6969990209: Table Dronberger - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:04:37 ET - 2008/06/25
Seat 1: siouxtllmn ($54.30)
Seat 2: Dryburg ($107.75)
Seat 3: briancheng ($104)
Seat 4: dfense072 ($99.50)
Seat 5: Goso ($39.90)
Seat 6: KJACK10 ($100.90)
Seat 7: xxNINO BROWNxx ($66.65)
Seat 8: 080888000 ($123.30)
Seat 9: mclarich ($98.50)
siouxtllmn posts the small blind of $0.50
Dryburg posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [6h Th]
mclarich: but you're not bitter that I picked off your bluff, right?
briancheng folds
dfense072 folds
Goso folds
KJACK10 folds
xxNINO BROWNxx calls $1
080888000 calls $1
mclarich folds
mclarich: or do you always follow around the person who just felted you
siouxtllmn calls $0.50
Dryburg checks
*** FLOP *** [4s 9c 3d]
siouxtllmn checks
Dryburg checks
xxNINO BROWNxx bets $4
080888000 folds
siouxtllmn folds
Dryburg folds
Uncalled bet of $4 returned to xxNINO BROWNxx
xxNINO BROWNxx mucks
xxNINO BROWNxx wins the pot ($3.80)

Despite what my recently posted hand histories may show, I'm feeling a bit better about my cash game play lately. I'm still learning how to fold overpairs to the board; I've had a couple of unnecessary feltings with JJ vs AA. Hopefully I'll get some hand histories up of hands I'm a bit more proud of.

Poker Crack

2008-06-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

First off, a couple of congrats are in order.

Congrats to IT on winning the Mookie! I know this is late, but better than never.
Congrats to Jamyhawk for working up the token ladder to a four-figure score. Well done!
Congrats to Raising Cayne for getting laid. I think he won some money too.

Anyways, speaking of IT, he had a post up recently trashing what has become my newest addiction - the Super Turbo SNGs on FTP. Yes, they are the epitome of donkfest. They aren't so much about skill as they are about seeing who is the wisest pushmonkey at the table. And I can't get enough of them.

I've played probably somewhere around 100 of these, + or - 10, at the $15 buyin. My ROI to date is approximately 30%. It's not a big sample, but I do think that these can be very profitable. At least for me, they have been so far. They're also very convenient; as I spend many of my days in my neighborhood coffee shop, looking for jobs and doing other assorted internet gazing, it's nice to be able to fire up a game and make money by either pushing or folding.

There's a good percentage of people who play these things horribly. There's no point in trying to play postflop, yet you'll find many people limp-folding to raises preflop, or worse, limp-calling then folding post-flop. There's also a fair amount of people who are willing to push too loosely too early, calling shoves with A2 or QJ within the first level or two.

I've been successful at these games primarily by playing these things preflop only - it's either push or shove. Additionally, whereas many people will push or call with mediocre hands like small aces or two paint cards (KJ, QT, etc.), I limit these mostly to situations where I'm open-pushing & I'm shortstacked. Same thing with pairs 66 & below. Finally, I play the bubble very cautiously when I'm in bad position against bigger stacks. In a regular SNG, I may be willing to bust on the bubble if I'm playing to win, but in these games, there's almost always one or two stacks on the bubble that are down to 2-3xBB that there's greater equity in folding AJ with a bigger stack in front of you to wait out the bubble. I haven't done the math but it works for me.

But be warned. These things are really fucking addicting. In fact, this post is over. I need another hit.

Using Holdem Manager

2008-06-17T15:07:00.000-07:00

So after Recess called me out on my donkish ways, it was obvious that if I am going to continue playing cash games, it's in my best interest to purchase some kind of HUD. I pretty much knew this already; my apprehension to doing so was twofold:

1. I never had the bankroll to legitimately play cash games until now. I wasn't about to pay for a HUD to play at the $.05\$.10 stakes.

2. Although the cost was relatively low, I had a hard time justifying it the past couple of months because I was fiscally restricted (although purchasing it while I am unemployed doesn't really make sense either, but I can justify it via severance pay).

With both of those reasons out of the way, I followed Gnome's advice and purchased Holdem Manager. And so far, it's definitely made a difference. Not only did I make up for the expense with one session, I've nearly doubled my profit at the $.50\$1 levels in just a couple of days.

Obviously, having the VP$IP stats on each player has certainly made a difference. It's helped me identify tighter players and make a couple of easy laydowns that I may have talked myself into calling otherwise. I've also used the Steal statistics to find out who some of the more notorious stealers are, and I've taken down a bunch of smaller pots preflop with some light 3-betting (in position, of course) against these folks.

What I'm still trying to figure out is the best way to use this software. Right now, I've got 6 stats on the HUD: # of hands, VP$IP, AQ, Steal, 3-bet, fold to 3-bet. I'm curious to find out what stats others use on their HUD. There's so much available, and I've only had it for a couple of days, so I haven't really played around with it very much yet.

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to get maximum value out of my hands. I know that I'm not going to always felt someone every time I get a huge hands, and I think that having Holdem Manager will help me improve this, but I also can't help but wonder if I missing out on bigger pots because of how I played the hand. For example:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6811565879: Table Yeager - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:03:27 ET - 2008/06/13
Seat 1: briancheng ($100)
Seat 2: Goso ($20)
Seat 3: Instantdeath101 ($101.35)
Seat 4: kabo9 ($102.15)
Seat 5: luckfactor ($100)
Seat 6: mclarich ($98.45)
Seat 7: horsedrawn ($76.40)
Seat 8: backroadbural ($102.50)
Seat 9: OSUBucks02 ($118.50)
kabo9 posts the small blind of $0.50
luckfactor posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Tc Th]
mclarich raises to $3
horsedrawn folds
backroadbural calls $3
OSUBucks02 folds
Goso folds
Instantdeath101 has 15 seconds left to act
Instantdeath101 calls $3
kabo9 folds
luckfactor calls $2

First of all, I have to add that one change I've made is increased preflop bets. For some reason, I wasn't doing pot bets, or not making big enough bets with limpers as per the suggestion from my last post. So there's one way to increase the pots that I'm winning. With that aside, not too happy to see 3 callers to my UTG raise prefloop.

*** FLOP *** [Qs 5d Td]
luckfactor checks
mclarich bets $9
backroadbural calls $9
Instantdeath101 folds
luckfactor folds

So now I'm a bit happier to see three callers preflop. OOP with a set on a draw-heavy board, I bet 3\4 pot. I'm not really familiar with the one caller but figure him for some sort of draw or maybe KQ.

*** TURN *** [Qs 5d Td] [2s]
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich bets $23
backroadbural folds
Uncalled bet of $23 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot ($29)

So I guess this is a pretty standard hand. Turn doesn't complete any draws, so I bet out about 3\4 again and he folds. Being OOP, I didn't want him to get a free card to any draws or odds to chase with one card left, and I thought that he could call again with TP. I feel like this is one hand where the pot really wasn't going to get much bigger than this, but if anyone sees anything otherwise, let me know. It's a pretty boring hand but it's the only hand I have saved on my gf's laptop so it's what you get for now. I'll try to get some more interesting ones up later.

My Two Cents

2008-06-13T01:39:00.000-07:00

One of my goals this year was to become a more visible blogger. By that, I meant that I wanted to become a bigger part of this community. I became a blogger in the first place because I recognized this group to be, for the most part, a great group of people to know, in some cases for their poker knowledge, other cases for their humor or enjoyable writing, and in a couple of cases, both.

My visibility has always been low because A) I'm not as accomplished of a poker player as others, B) schedule or bankroll issues have prevented me from being a regular in the blogger games or C) my opportunity to contribute to blogging, either by posting or commenting, was severely reduced when my former employer blocked any Blogger.com sites.

After being a blogger for almost two years now, I was looking as this year being the year that I broke out of relative anonymity, even if that anonymity is mostly self-perceived. I'm continuing to establish friendships with a few bloggers, getting to know a couple more, and really noticing an improvement in my game as a result of being a blogger. But nevertheless, I still feel like an outsider looking in sometimes, which is both good & bad.

Anyways, what better way to improve visibility than to comment on blogger drama that doesn't involve you, right? Eh, it's 2am and I'm bored, so why not?

If you're reading this blog, you've probably already read about the drama going on between Hoy, Smokkee, and now Blinders. If you don't know, just click on the links and get caught up. This all coming after CK & Perticelli's posts about their relationships with Donkette.

Aside from a couple of comments on only a couple of those blogs, I've never really had any kind of relationship with any of these bloggers (I'm not even linked up on most of them). So I guess it's not really my place to comment on either situation. Oh well.

Hoy, Smokkee & Blinders drama: What Hoy did was childish. Whether or not he wrote the posts on the ICrushBloggers blog, the fact that it was used to put down other bloggers is just retarded. He's shown in the past that he's perfectly capable of doing it in very snide ways on his own blog. Honestly, I have no personal beef with Hoy, but to discredit Smokkee and his efforts with BoDog the way he did, I can't really think of a better word than childish. It was a dumb idea that caused more ill will than it did a good chuckle. However, I don't consider it any form of cheating or acting unethically like Blinders does. It's not like he's multi-accounting or using someone else's screenname. Even Smokkee changed his name on FT to KillinKegz for a while, and I may be wrong, but I don't think he ever "officially" announced this on his blog. I've read Blinders blog for a while, and it certainly seems like he has a distaste for all things Hoy; this was just another in a long line of anti-Hoy posts.

Donkette & CK\Perticelli drama: It sucks anytime you are betrayed by someone you trust. As Alan mentioned on his blog, I hit him up for some money last December. I did it with the full intent that I would pay it back within a month, as I had withdrawn money for Christmas but was planning to redeposit in January. It was a pretty desperate move, but Alan was kind enough to offer more than I even expected, and because I'm such a badass poker player, I doubled it within a couple days & immediately returned it to him. I don't mean to toot my own horn; I guess my point is that for every Donkette, there's (hopefully) 10 or more good, decent bloggers, and it sucks that this community has to be tarnished by one bad apple.

So that's that. Sorry if you were expecting some more inflammatory opinions. I have commenting on drama that I'm not a part of, so be glad you got what you did. In summary, this community has produced so many good things (the BBTs, the Vegas gatherings, the weekly tournaments, etc.), not to mention countless friendships. So if you're reading this, and you're someone who's sabotaged what a good thing this community has become, stop being a fucking douchenozzle.

-----------------------------------------------

My post yesterday was pretty lame. Despite a couple of disclaimers I threw in there, I guess it did come off as sounding kind of like complaining. Thanks, Cayne, for bringing back to reality. I guess the point that I was trying to relay is the feeling, kind of like a poker hangover, after a big score. I'm not trying to gloat that I have that problem or seek consolation for it. Just chalk it up to a dumb post written by a guy who stayed up to 5:30am last night\morning watching Smoking Aces. Yay unemployment!

-----------------------------------------------

More hand histories! Curious to know how some of you cash gamers would have played this. I'll give you my thoughts, you tell me yours.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6806049541: Table Cabana - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 4:18:34 ET - 2008/06/13
Seat 1: JHORNiGOLD ($113.90)
Seat 2: BulletProof604 ($221.60)
Seat 3: AK SOL JA ($73)
Seat 4: mclarich ($94)
Seat 5: U__IdontLikeU ($123)
Seat 6: RobertoLuongo01 ($23.50)
Seat 7: cessna7277 ($56), is sitting out
Seat 8: ChubbyFinger ($19)
Seat 9: BloodandSoil ($30.95)
RobertoLuongo01 posts the small blind of $0.50
ChubbyFinger posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Qd Qc]
BloodandSoil calls $1
JHORNiGOLD calls $1
BulletProof604 folds
AK SOL JA folds
mclarich raises to $5
U__IdontLikeU folds
RobertoLuongo01 folds
ChubbyFinger folds
BloodandSoil folds
JHORNiGOLD calls $4

Pretty straight forward raise with a bunch of limpers, nothing special so far.

*** FLOP *** [7h Tc 3d]
JHORNiGOLD checks
mclarich bets $5
JHORNiGOLD has 15 seconds left to act
JHORNiGOLD raises to $16
mclarich calls $11

I lead out on the flop thinking I'm good, only fearing a flopped set like 77 or 33 (TT is also a possibility, I've seen plenty of people limp pairs as high as JJ in EP). Because of this, I bet less than 1\2 the pot for two reasons: One, if I am behind, I want to keep the pot kind of small. Two, it makes it seem like AK and a weak c-bet. The villain, who I know nothing about, check-raises me. I don't know if this means set or just a steal, but I'm not willing to dump the hand just yet.

*** TURN *** [7h Tc 3d] [As]
JHORNiGOLD checks
mclarich bets $38
JHORNiGOLD folds
Uncalled bet of $38 returned to mclarich
mclarich mucks
mclarich wins the pot ($42.30)

When he checks the A on the turn, unless he specifically thinks I have AA and just turned trips, I read his check as weakness and take the pot.

What I'm questioning is my flop play. I felt that I was better off taking another card against a player I have no reads or history on rather than going to battle with an overpair on the flop. But at the same time, I can't get into a habit of folding overpairs every time I'm check-raised on the flop. Was playing through the turn the way you would play it or not?

I've said more than enough, I'm going to bed.

The Big Cash Effect

2008-06-12T00:17:00.000-07:00

You figure that, by being unemployed & playing poker most of the day every day, this blog would be a lot more active. You would figure, except that I'm too lazy to put any worthwhile content up here, at least in terms of poker analysis. Maybe one day.

I played some poker tonight. Now that I'm out of school, I finally got back to playing the Mookie, which basically went like this: fold, fold, fold, push AJ into AK and win, fold, fold, fold, push AT into AK and KK and lose. Finished 16th or something, which would be decent if it was a BBT3 field, but with 46 people, that's barely top 1\3rd.

Also played the $24 PLO tournament. Went out pretty early when I limped AA27 - the Hammer Aces - UTG because I knew BB was pretty spewy. Sure enough, he pots from the BB against the limpers and I repot UTG. Flop is J94 rainbow and he calls my pot bet. Turn is a 4s and he pots. I still think my AA is good so I push. He shows Q983 for nothing but middle pair & the 4s gives him like 4th nut flush draw. River is a 3. 3s. 4th nut flush is good. Dumbass.

Last MTT of the night was the 50-50, my first time playing this. Took me a moment to discover that Surflexus was at my table. He recognized me, which took me by surprise because we've never really chatted before, but we took advantage of the blogger recognition to chat throughout the game about the donkeys around us. I worked my stack up decently, hovering above an average stack for most of the first two hours, thanks mostly to this sick hand:

Seat 1: mclarich (4,955)
Seat 2: TwoPointO (10,975)
Seat 3: shipemherenow (7,219)
Seat 4: pkrprov1 (4,908)
Seat 5: surflexus (4,740)
Seat 6: JaSkin (5,395)
Seat 7: zuleh (5,395)
Seat 8: hui (5,896)
Seat 9: rooky07 (5,600)
hui posts the small blind of 50
rooky07 posts the big blind of 100
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [Kc Ks]
mclarich raises to 300
TwoPointO folds
shipemherenow folds
pkrprov1 has 15 seconds left to act
pkrprov1 raises to 900
surflexus folds
JaSkin folds
zuleh folds
hui folds
rooky07 folds
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich raises to 3,100 (only one hand I'm afraid of)
pkrprov1 has 15 seconds left to act
pkrprov1 raises to 4,908, and is all in (guess he has it)
mclarich calls 1,808
pkrprov1 shows [Ad Ah] (doh)
mclarich shows [Kc Ks]
*** FLOP *** [Jd 9d 7d] (worst flop ever)
*** TURN *** [Jd 9d 7d] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Jd 9d 7d 2c] [Kh]
pkrprov1 shows a pair of Aces
mclarich shows three of a kind, Kings
mclarich wins the pot (9,966) with three of a kind, Kings
pkrprov1 stands up

Just your standard one outer, typical.

Anyways, my demise started when I called a push from a small stack with 99, racing against KQ. The call was for half my stack but I was playing for the win and felt that I was most likely ahead. Turn is a K and, just for good measure, river is the nut flush. I couldn't recover, although I lasted long enough to cash and at least eek out a small profit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Anyways, none of that is really about the post title. What I've been thinking about lately is how the effect of a big cash has on how I've been playing poker lately. I'm certainly not complaining about finally getting a big score; I'm much happier with my bankroll now than I was two months ago.

But what I've noticed lately is that I'm no longer content with continuing to grind it out. The intent of my bankroll challenge was to get a big enough bankroll that I could start playing $20 SNGs and MTTs of similar buyins. But the feeling of that big MTT cash has changed that, and I'm not really interested in spending my time in SNGs for $70 a victory.

I've started playing some $.50\$1 cash games, and it's been hit or miss. I've started adjusting better to these games, and while I'm still able to spew money every now & then with TPTK when everything is telling me I'm beat, I've become more patient & been able to log a couple decent sessions recently. But unless I'm able to get up a buyin or more, I'm not content with playing for an hour or two and finishing with $10 profit (or worse, getting stacked).

I guess the point of this post is that, now that I've got this bankroll, what do I do with it? I don't really want to do another "bankroll challenge". Setting a goal is one thing, but really, I didn't hit my first goal because I grinded my way there, it was all just one fell swoop. I really don't want to try to get $5k or so through $20-$30 SNGs.

The other factor is this; it's nice to have a decent bankroll to work with, but that money is definitely better served elsewhere. I try not to think about is as money that I can apply elsewhere, since it's practically impossible to withdraw from FTP, but if there ever became a quick way to withdraw, I would have to give serious thought about taking out a significant chunk of it, even if it meant dropping back down in stakes. I'm not playing with scared money though; it's hard to play with scared money when FTP's withdrawal system makes it seem more like non-existent money. But if I were to incur a significant downswing, it would be tough to swallow.

Ugh. As I'm writing this, I lose AA to 65 blind vs blind. At least he was a short stack and only cost me $30.

Anyways, again, I'm certainly not complaining, I'm just trying to express how it's difficult to get back into the "grind-it-out" mindset. I want to be playing for significant money, but I'm also trying to balance that with continued bankroll management. As greedy as it sounds to say this, I just need another big MTT score right about now.

OK, now you can commence with your flaming.

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Congrats! If you've made it this far, I've got a bonus for you: a hand history!

One of the things I'm trying to figure out is playing sooted connectors at these stakes. For the most part, at full ring $.50\$1, the play is pretty straight forward. 3-bets usually mean AA, KK or AK it seems about 75% of the time, unless its a resteal or some lagtard. It's definitely a much tighter game than I'm used to after playing $5 SNGs for so long. In this hand, I don't know much about my opponent, which means it's probably best to play it safe, but instead I decide to float him with T9 sooted.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6779937251: Table Waterhen - $0.50/$1 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:24:05 ET - 2008/06/11
Seat 1: giveusakiss ($87.20)
Seat 2: concretepear ($38.80)
Seat 3: AAPokerGirl ($98.50)
Seat 4: raisinchips ($134.40)
Seat 5: mclarich ($102.60)
Seat 6: NuggetMaster420 ($200.85)
Seat 7: dbrill ($128.95)
Seat 8: Roon2020 ($80)
Seat 9: willieAA ($40)
giveusakiss posts the small blind of $0.50
concretepear posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mclarich [9s Ts]
AAPokerGirl folds
raisinchips folds
mclarich calls $1
NuggetMaster420 folds
dbrill has 15 seconds left to act
dbrill raises to $4
Roon2020 folds
giveusakiss folds
concretepear folds
mclarich calls $3

Preflop: Of course, I'm out of position but I'm willing to see a flop.

*** FLOP *** [Tc Kh Js]
mclarich checks
dbrill has 15 seconds left to act
dbrill bets $6
mclarich has 15 seconds left to act
mclarich calls $6

Flop: Not the greatest flop for me, and I could be well behind a set as tight as these games are. AQ is a possibility too. It's a dangerous hand, but unless he flopped the nuts, it's the potential for him to be a scary board as well, perhaps. I decide to call and see what the turn brings.

*** TURN *** [Tc Kh Js] [8s]

Turn: I'll get to the action in a moment. So the turn brings the best possible card for me, giving me the flush outs + a OESD both ways (although the Q may not be an out).

mclarich checks
dbrill has 15 seconds left to act
dbrill bets $15
mclarich raises to $47
dbrill has 15 seconds left to act
dbrill raises to $118.95, and is all in
mclarich calls $45.60, and is all in
dbrill shows [Kd As]
mclarich shows [9s Ts]

So the Q isn't an out, but I still have 17 outs: any spade, T or 9 will do.

Uncalled bet of $26.35 returned to dbrill
*** RIVER *** [Tc Kh Js 8s] [Qc]
dbrill shows a straight, Ace high
mclarich shows a straight, King high
dbrill wins the pot ($203.70) with a straight, Ace high

So, was this just a bad way of trying to float someone, or should I have bet the turn harder? If I push the turn, it's a lot harder for him to call off $92 with TPTK on that board. Any thoughts or criticism is welcome.

Cash Game Thoughts

2008-06-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

Since I was planning only to play cash games in Vegas, I figured I would get a little practice in on Full Tilt before I left. I'm admittedly a cash game donk, and I'm sure that within the week or two, several players on FTP have added notes about me confirming this.

It didn't start out bad; in fact, it was quite the opposite. On my first real attempt playing cash games, I two tabled the $1\$2 tables buying in for the max. I dropped about 1\4 buyin at one table but worked the other table up to 2.5 buyins. A couple of hours, $400 earned. I was a cash game king! My bankroll entered uncharted territory - the $4k mark

But it's been all downhill from there.

Since then, my bankroll has dropped to just under $3k, but that's after working it back up from $2600. This is partly due to being a bit too aggressive, as well as not recognizing that my opponents were playing tighter than I'm used to. I started making some very loose calls, and a couple of times played for stacks when I didn't need too. I feel like I've reigned it in and I've started showing a bit of a profit again but I've still definitely got lots to learn.

One thing I've realized is that I'm better off dropping down to the $.50\$1 levels for now. My newfound bankroll isn't quite ready to handle swings at the $1\$2 level yet. Additionally, I know I have a lot of reading to do, especially from many of you cash game bloggers that I haven't paid as much attention to. But I know that I have a couple of issues that I need to figure out before I jump back into cash games:

1. Aggression. Specifically, finding out when to reign it in and when to keep firing. I'm also trying to figure out how to defend against 3-bets when I'm open-raising in LP.

2. Speculative hands & connectors. I'm still trying to learn the proper way to play these. I've had success with playing these hands strongly at times but I'm not sure the proper way to go. I've found myself limp-calling or flat-calling\check-folding more than I'd prefer, but I also haven't found any success in inducing any folds either. Of course, both of these issues are just a bigger part of the next one:

3. Information. Since this is my first time playing cash seriously, I don't have any information on any of these players. Additionally, I'm playing without the use of something like PokerTracker, so I'm certainly up against players who already have more information about me than I do about them.

Anyways, I'll try to get some hands up for discussion as I continue. I know that my losses are about 75% poor play on my part & 35% bad beats or just dumb luck. I'm confident I can flip those percentages the other way or better. Very rarely have I felt outplayed; most of my losses have either been due to controllable spewage or unnecessary aggression.

I never thought I would become a cash game player but I think I might be on to something here. I'm not ready to give up on SNGs or MTTs anytime soon, but I'd like to continue incorporating cash games into my repertoire.

Vegas Recap Part 3

2008-05-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

When I last left you (which was a long time ago, thanks to having out of town guests & a music festival to attend), it was Midnight in Vegas on a Saturday and the four of us were nowhere near drunk. Completely unacceptable. Although Mark was riding high after a $1200 day on video poker, I was still feeling the sting of various gambling losses, including a full buy-in loss at $1\$2 at the MGM Grand.

We needed drinks fast and as cheaply as possible. We all know the solution for this.

PAI GOW !!!!

Mark and I had such a good time the Flamingo that we set off to head there but somehow got lured into Bill's (formerly the Barbary Coast). I think it was just a stop for drinks or something, but we ended up finding a $10 Pai Gow table with enough seats for the four of us.

We started off with a friendly dealer, and within 10 hands, he was dealt Pai Gow at least three times. We were all up a couple bucks, and already had drinks in our hand. Sadly, he got replaced soon afterwards by a dealer who I described as a "reign of terror". All I remember was that she was from Venezuela, never cracked a single smile, and tried her hardest to take all our money. Stuff like holding flushes over KK, etc.

Being at a $10 Pai Gow table on a Saturday night in Vegas at Bill's meant that drink service was very sub par. In fact, it made me do one thing I absolutely hate to do in Vegas: pay for my own drinks. Never mind that I'd already blew more money on gambling than the drinks were worth; it's a matter of principle to me. But we were just barely cracking the buzzed level, so it was time to step up the drink frequency.

We grew tired of the Reign Of Terror and, with our intoxication in full effect, decided to head further down the strip. To quell Mark's desire for cheap casinos and
my girlfriend's & my desire for Subway at 2am, we headed down to Casino Royale.

I ordered my usual from Subway: Spicy Italian, toasted, with cheese, lettuce, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, and mayo. And even though it ended up being a $10 sandwich, at that time of the night, as drunk as I was, it was the best god damn Subway I've ever had. I honestly don't remember much, but I remember sitting down, playing video poker, eating a foot long sub, with lettuce spilling all over me, randomly hitting buttons in between bites of the most glorious sandwich ever. I must have looked like a complete drunken slob but I can tell you that for those 2 minutes, I was in bliss.

We started hitting the wall around 4:30am so we grabbed a cab to head back to the resort.

Sunday

We woke up around 11am, said our farewells to Mark & Becky as they began the drive home to Arizona. We still had some time to kill before our 9:30pm flight, so we headed to Caesar's. Being the Food Network junkies we are, we wanted to check out Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill. But the bad beats just don't stop in Vegas, do they; the place closed for lunch about 10 minutes before we got there. So instead, we had to "settle" for Wolfgang Puck's Spago. I had a pretty fucking delicious pancetta-wrapped meatloaf while my girlfriend went for some pasta dish.

I wanted to get some gambling in on the last day so I settle for some Roulette. I bought in for $60 and worked that down to about $38 when my girlfriend was getting antsy to leave. So I went for gusto on the middle section, putting $20 on the outside and painting the inside with one on each number and a couple corners. I had one chip left so I doubled on 16 since we both have a birthday on the 16th.

Bounce, bounce, bounce, stop. 16

BOOM!!! And just like that, our lunch at Spago was paid for, courtesy of Caesar's.

We headed back to the suite, cleaned up, checked out, and headed to the airport around 7pm. While we were standing in the ticketing line, my girlfriend started feeling ill; cramps, breaking out into sweats, and very nearly fainting. With the help of Southwest Airlines (and in all my life, I never thought I would honestly make that statement), we were able to get checked in while I cared for my girlfriend. We're still not sure what caused that but she rested for an hour and was pretty much back to normal.

But, of course, this is Vegas, and the beats don't end, not even at the airport. Especially not at the airport. First, our flight was delayed an hour. So, to pass the time, we sit down at the slots, where I drop another $60. So much for having that lunch paid for by Caesar's. Please just let me get the fuck out of Vegas soon.

Finally, we got on the plane around 10pm, suffering through a 2.5 flight without an ounce of any good sleep, and made it safe & sound in our bed by 1:30am Monday morning.

Coming up next, how I've lost about $1k at the $1\$2 tables over the past week or so!

Vegas Recap Part 2

2008-05-22T00:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday

I started Saturday off with a series of coughs that woke up everyone in our suite that wasn't already up. The combination of a week-long cold + stale cigarette air did quite the number on me. I finally got up around 9:30am (again, early by Vegas standards) and drank some beers with Mark until the girls got finished making breakfast.

Drinking beer at 10am while the women slave over breakfast in the kitchen. Livin' the dream.

After breakfast, I headed down to the pool with my girlfriend and her sister. Every time I've been to Vegas before, I've never ever been to the pool where I stayed. But the intent of this trip wasn't to gamble & drink until I collapsed, but to find a better balance of debauchery & degeneration. Hanging out in the pool with my girl was probably one of the better moments of the trip, and not just because it didn't cost me anything either.

We got back to the room around 12:30, and Mark & Becky were already napping. The girls decided this was a good idea, but I had other plans. I could have used a nap myself, and I was slightly worried that no nap would mean I would fade out early again, but I knew this was going to be my only chance to hit up some cash games, so I hopped on the shuttle to head to the MGM.

I got in there around 2pm and got seated at a new table shortly thereafter. I bought in for the max and started sizing up the players. I sat down in the 3 seat, giving me the best view to see everyone. Aside from the husky guy with sunglasses in the 5 seat, I didn't feel like I had to be concerned with anyone else. There were a couple of obvious donks (not including myself) bleeding cash, including one in the 8 seat that flipped up his hand on the river thinking it was checked down, showing KJ on a T high board. He grabbed his cards, then the 10 seat bet out pot, and he STILL CALLED. The 10 seat showed top pair and grabbed an extra $15 with that call. The 8 seat looked thoroughly lost the entire time but sadly got felted without sending any chips my way.

About 45 minutes into the game I finally started raking in some nice pots, including:

- KK on a T high board, getting calls until the turn
- AJ where I bet flop, checked turn, and bet river without a piece of the flop, knowing my opponent was on a missed draw
- 56 where I turned the nut straight & check raised an additional $30 on the river.
- AK against a tight old lady who probably had AQ yet still gave me action on an AKxxx board.

There were a couple other smaller pots in there too, but within about a half hour, I was up from $200 to just over $500. Things were looking pretty sweet.

Then I got caught up in a couple hands against a muscle jock from SoCal and ended up sending most of my profit in his direction:

Hand 1. Raise up with QQ. Bet out on J high board. Check-call bet from muscle jock. Check-call bet when T hits the river. He shows JT for the bad beat. I doubt a check-raise would have forced him off the hand on the turn, but either way I didn't really want a fold and chalked it up to a bad river card. If anything, had I thought it over some more, I probably could have saved $50 on the river if I paid closer attention to how confident he was.

Hand 2: Limped with T9. Flop comes J97 and semi-tight younger lady bets pot for $15. Muscle jock calls and I raise to $50 on the semi-bluff. Muscle jock calls. Turn is an A and I lead out for another $50. Muscle jock calls again but doesn't look comfortable. River is a blank and I bet $85. Here's where I make a mistake. I have about $275 behind me and bet $85 into a $220 pot. I needed to bet more to induce the fold. He very nearly folds, even asking if I flopped the straight. He's gotta be on something like QJ at this point. He takes nearly another minute then says "this is probably a bad call but I think I'm committed". He shows KJ and takes down the pot. I blame myself for this hand for the bad bet sizing as well as thinking I could bluff him out of the hand to begin with.

I dropped down to about $175 when I got the hand that did me in. 3 people limp before it gets to me on the button with KK. I raise it up to $21, expecting at least one limper. Instead, I get all four. Flop comes down a pretty decent KJ9 with two spades, but I already feel like I'm in trouble. EP leads out for $50, MP calls, and I push for $155 more. They both call. Any guesses?

EP: 87 sooted for the flush draw + gutshot
MP: The Mookie for the OESD

MP hits a 7 on turn, EP finds a spade on the river, and my set goes down in flames.

I let out an exasperated "Are you serious? So much for winning a hand with skill." and EP has the gall to say that he was getting pot odds to call. To his credit, if he puts me on AK without spades he's not that far behind, but I refuse to give the man any sort of credit for doing that kind of math when he's calling a 10xBB raise OOP with 3 people on position. I shake hands with the guy to my left who made for good conversation then exited with a snide remark in the vein of "I'd wish you all good luck but I think you just used it all up."

So after all was said and done, I lost $260 thanks to the donkeys at the $1\$2 table. I say this because they put me on such tilt that I couldn't work my Roulette skills to an effective degree and lost another $60 trying to chill out. Luckily, my girlfriend & her sister were en route, so they picked me up and we grabbed what was sadly the worst In N Out I've ever had. The beats just never end, do they.

The next 2-3 hours went as such: taught my girlfriend how to play Pai Gow at NYNY, recouped a bit of my losses via Roulette at Monte Carlo (treating me well once again), did some sightseeing at Bellagio, met up with Mark & Becky at Bally's, where Mark was fresh off a $1k score with a Royal Flush on video poker at the Wynn, then headed to Paris to get my girlfriend's sister a cab since she was leaving early in the morning.

I mentioned last time that I swore never to play at Paris again. This stems from the time I went for Mark's bachelor party where I dropped about $300 on Roulette within 20 minutes. This was after I dropped $150 on one of the least attractive strippers at the Rhino (in my defense, I was drunk and she at least knew how to work it). Hence, the reason why I swore off Paris.

But there I was, waiting for the sister's cab to arrive, and I figured I'd spend my time playing Roulette. By the time my girlfriend found me, I was already down another $60. Paris, you're a beautiful casino, but that will be the last of my money you'll ever see.

It was just after Midnight and we caught back up with Mark & Becky at Bally's, where Mark hit some random hand for another $200 at video poker. But we noticed a problem. We were all walking fairly regular (aside from Mark's sprained knee & my pinky toe blister), we were speaking coherently, and we were not speaking with enough curse words. We realized it was Midnight in Vegas on a Saturday and none of us were anywhere near drunk. We needed to find an opportunity to drink lots but keep the gambling going. And there was only one solution.

PAI GOW!!!

To be continued...

Vegas Recap Part 1

2008-05-21T00:40:00.000-07:00

I finished my 10th or 11th Vegas trip with cash still in my pocket but down about $600 in total. I can't quite remember exactly how all that cash was spent but I remember how I lost at least half of it, because I still can't think about what might have been. Anyways, if you make it through this whole recap, you'll soon find out that me & my group of friends aren't exactly ballers, but I hope to keep it entertaining nonetheless.

Friday

We got into Vegas around 5pm Friday & dropped off the car at the Worldmark Resort. It was about 3 miles south of the strip but it was comped to us courtesy of my girlfriend's parents, so we had no complaints. It was just me & two of my friends from Arizona, Mark & Becky. My girlfriend & her pregnant sister weren't due in until around 10pm.

We started off the trip at one of my favorite casinos, the Monte Carlo. It doesn't have quite the flair of other places but it's always been good to me in the past. Within 10 minutes, the Monte Carlo's reputation of good luck was validated when Becky hit 4 Aces with a deuce on video poker for a score of $500. The casino almost let me down after I lost about $120 on Roulette within 25 minutes, but I nailed a 23 with a $3 bet to recoup most of my losses.

Around this time, the urge for Pai Gow started taking over, so we headed to the north end of the Strip to some of the less expensive casinos in search of some $5 tables. We took our chances with the Imperial Palace first. You'd think, of all places, we would be able to find $5 Pai Gow here, but the cheapest tables were $15. We just left $10 Pai Gow at the Monte Carlo behind, so we weren't about to drop $15 a hand at the IP. So our trek continued up the strip, through Harrah's, Flamingo, O'Sheas, until we finally had enough and stopped for some Roulette at the Venetian, where I said good bye to another $100.

(For the record, yes I know that Roulette is a sucker's game. And I know what that makes me. I can live with this.)

Not nearly as intoxicated as we wanted to be, Mark & I finally succumbed to the allure of $15 Pai Gow back at the Flamingo while Becky couldn't escape the siren call of the Roulette table. It was just the two of us, a partly-Asian couple to our left, and an attractive blonde names Maggie to our right.

2 hours & many drinks later, we finally reached a level of intoxication we were satisfied with, and thanks to Pai Gow, we hadn't lost any money (well, that is if we don't could the $250 Mark could have one if he played the bonus when he hit a straight flush). Making things more enjoyable was Maggie, who turned out to be much more friendly & not at all as bitchy as she first appeared to be. It was about 10pm, and even the delight of Maggie's presence wasn't enough to prevent me from missing my girlfriend, so I gave her a call. Turns out her tax accountant sister had to work later and they probably wouldn't be arriving until sometime around 1-2am.

We decided to head somewhere else & somehow decided on Bally's. It was this location where Mark suffered the worst beat of the whole trip, when the walkway to the lobby tricked him into walking down a wall to get back to the sidewalk. When he reached a dead end, he tried to climb over the handrail and somehow got his knee twisted up in the fall, spraining it & nearly knocking him out of commission for the rest of the trip. But he had enough liquor in his body to walk it off, and we headed inside for more drunken times.

We found our way to the Roulette table, where Mark & I each recovered about $100 of our previous losses. Mark was especially hot, hitting numbers twice, including a 20 at the suggestion of the dealer. Mark threw an extra chip on for him right before it hit, giving the dealer a nice $35 tip. I started feeling a bit sluggish as the smoke from the casino was giving me & my attempts at beating my week long cold a nasty sore throat. We cashed out our good fortune, quickly made our way through Paris (which I swore never to play at again, and definitely will uphold that vow after this trip) over to the new Planet Hollywood.

Last time I was in Vegas, this was still the Aladdin. The new version is much more trendier, keeping in line with similar remodels like Treasure Island. But as long as these casino remodels keep adding stripper poles with girls dancing in lingerie, you won't find a complaint from me. Anyways, I scored nearly another $100 in Roulette in a quick sitting when we finally decided, after about 8-12 hours, we needed some food. We hit up a killer sandwich shop, the Earl of Sandwich, for some late night grub. I've been to some amazing sandwich places, and the Turkey Club I got here ranks up with the best.

It was around 2am, early for Vegas standards, when I started losing wind. Additionally, I didn't want to kill myself and make my cold any worse with another day ahead of us, so I talked the other two into heading back to the resort (which we found out was actually a block away from the one we parked at). Finally, at around 3am, we got to the room, where I met up with my girlfriend for the first time in a week, and got some much needed rest.

Coming up next: more Pai Gow adventures, a foray into some cash games at MGM, and the best Subway sandwich I've ever had.

Vegas Prefunk

2008-05-13T18:38:00.000-07:00

I head for Vegas in less than 3 days. I wanted to get some live action in beforehand so my brother & I went to one of the casinos in town for a tournament. I'd rather have chosen some cash games since that's what I'll most likely play in Vegas but the lowest game was 3-6 and it was just limit. Fuck that.

I started the tournament at a disadvantage. It was 1000 chips with a $10 add-on to double your stack. Easy choice. But I was surrounded for regulars who were cashing in points for an additional 3k on top of the add-on. Before the first hand was dealt, I was already the shortstack.

The table was full of old men with deep pockets and an insatiable urge to call everything, so I just tried to play tight. My first playable hand was a pair of 9s in late position. Down to about 1700, I raised a couple of limpers 5x to 500. The old man next to me calls. Flop comes KQ5 and I can either fold or hope for the best. I push but get no respect & the old man calls with QJo. Rebuy!

I triple up to almost 5k a shortwhile later when I push on some limpers again from late position with KQ. Shortstack in the BB calls with 66, rich old man limp-calls with A7 I think, and I nail a Q on the river.

I call two all-ins a bit later with AK and split the pot with another AK against QT. I end the break around 5k, take the $20 add-on for 3k more in chips.

I lose a decent amount with AQ against a shorty's JT after he reraised my UTG+1 raise for 1400 more. I couldn't fade the two tens on the flop and drop down to 5k when I get involved in THE sickest beat I've ever had live.

I'm sitting on JJ in the SB. Reckless old rich man pushes & I think he's got me covered so I announce call. UTG who limped decides to call 4200 more. He's getting about 3:1 on his money but against two all-in, he has to figure he's a bigger underdog than that. But that's also assuming that he can think beyond the two cards in his hand. Anyways, I state this only because I don't know if by declaring "all-in" as well would have chased him off even though it was only 200 more than the initial push.

Flop comes 537. I put my 200 in, he calls & flips over 55. Oh well, time to go home.

Turn is a J.

But you know this is a bad beat story so you can figure out what the river was.

Fuck your presto, Fuel.

..............................................................

Word on the bloggers street seems to say that MGM is the softest place for cash games. I won't go any higher that 1-2 NL, so if anyone else has any recommendations for other places to check out, do let me know. I've thrown out the idea of playing any tournaments while I'm there since I won't have much time to devote to poker.

I'm almost salivating at the fact that I'll be in Vegas for the first time in almost 3 years. I miss being able to hop on a plane for $80 and be in Vegas in an hour, or making the drive through the Arizona desert in just under 5. I miss the strippers at the Rhino (except for the Asian one with insanely long nipples) and I miss the drunken roulette rampages (which are much better than Recess Rampages). And in less than 72 hours, it will be all mine again.

This will probably be my last post until after Vegas, so I'll leave you all with this final thought:

PAIGOW!!!