Friday, December 29, 2006

Another Final Table in Razz 2000K




I played the 2000K Razz tourney with Waffkes and we both went deep. Waffles got knocked in 12th after going KKK on 5, 6, 7th street and then seeing a guy hit runner runner to eliminate him. I on the other hand stayed alive with bad cards and doubled up at the right times to see the end. In the end I was card dead when I needed a hand and pushed all my chips inwith A3J. I was ahead until 7th street. I was a nice run but top 4 would have been nice.





I also did well in a HORSE tourney bubbling but playing well. The best part was hitting this.

There is nothing like scooping a pot in Stud hl and then add a straight flush. I got knocked out by another short stack when a call was being pot commited. 7th street knocks seem to happen in Razz and my made 8 lost to a 7 when he caught a 7.

I'm really liking these games and have hit the RAZZ cash tables with some success. I doubled up in a 20 minute session while playing with Waffles playing 2/4. I thought the play would be better but I saw a lot of chasing. I'm hoping this is the norm because I will clean up.

By the way, have a Happy New Year.

Also, I will be married for 14 years come Sunday. My wife and I got married on December 31, 1992, on New Years Eve.

Non-creative Post About The Poker Enthusiast

I’m not the brightest star in the sky. This isn’t a funny analogy, it’s the truth. I have trouble with creativity at times and so I bring this post. I’m borrowing an idea from a few other bloggers who posted about the previous year so here it is.

I went through some of the post throughout since the beginning of The Poker Enthusiast and decided to bring a few of them back. I don’t know why I picked these. They are just some that I enjoyed either writing or rereading.


This is the story of meeting my wife

The daily home game I played at one of my jobs

A story on life’s passions

A road trip story

A Nemo reference

I just liked this one

A story from the past

A poker story

A response to CC

The Story of my termination

Dealing with my future

A story from my younger days

A rant

A poker ideal

A story from the past

The second installment

Another youth story

More poker ideals

My win at the Mookie

Some poker thoughts

A run at a big score

Something about my life


So there you have it. Have a Happy New Year everone.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

2006 Review

The end of the year is at hand so I would like to discuss some of the things I did poker wise this year.

The start of my existence in the poker blogging world started at the end of February, 2006. It started as a whimper in that I received $5 on Noble Poker for filling out a survey. I spent a lot of time grinding ultra micro limit hold’em and moved into a comfort zone in the $20 + bankroll in short work. From this point I started grinding different levels of SNGs and playing occasional tourneys in an attempt to hit a bigger score. I eventually hit a few final tables and won a couple and moved my bankroll into the $500 range.

Now even though Noble seemed to be a great place to play, I felt restricted in that the traffic was slow so I opened a Neteller account and deposited $300 at Poker Stars. This was about the same time as (middle of May) that I lost my job and proceeded to tilt off the hard work I had put into the game. Even though I had much more than my starting money, I felt at a lose for a while.

I eventually got my self right and moved back to Noble for most of my play and started my climb again. By the time I started my new job in September, I had moved my bankroll into the 1100 dollar range and created an account on Full Tilt and culminated this run by winning the Mookie back in October.

November was a struggle for many reasons. I had so much to do for work and I was trying to work toward the bronze or silver level on Full Tilt. I went to Japan for a week in the middle of this and destroyed my bankroll during a bad run and some donkey play.

December has turned around the slid for the most part but I’m still struggling to stick to the parts of my game that keeps me winning. SNGs and tourneys under 600 people seems to be where I thrive and yet I continue to through away money at the large field events.

My goals as stated in February were and how I did relative to what they are:

1) Move up levels in LHE staying within my bankroll
This was achieved but abandoned during the course of the year. As I moved up a went away from playing limit because of the grind. I will look at this as a goal for next year.
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
I stayed within for the most part. Early on it was not possible to do this and I made a few attempts at higher levels during the year but didn’t play much of this over the last 6 months.
b) Stay within buy-in limits
Now that I look at this goal it is really part of the one above.

2) Play SnGs as bankroll allows
I stick to this plan. I will take a shot at a higher level now and then but not very often.
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
See above
b) Stay within buy-in limits
See above

3) Play MTTs as bankroll allows
I love playing MTTs but find myself playing higher then I should. This has caused much of the erosion of my bankroll.
a) Need 30 buy-ins for each level
See above
b) Stay within buy-in limits
See above

4) Win a MTT
I’ve 4 smaller buy-in MTTs during the year. I’ve also final tabled many other tourneys so I will set higher goals for next year.

5) Prove to my wife that poker is an investment, not gambling.
This will not happen.

6) Achieve a bankroll of $3000.
I made a dent into this but will change this for next year. I could have done this if I had been more focused with my play but bleeding money isn’t painful all the time. Sometimes you have to see the pool of blood before you realize you’re hurt.

So overall I achieved many of my goals. Looking back I realize that I didn’t have any real goals for the most part other than bankroll management goals. Now bankroll management is essential to staying solvent but I’m looking for more concrete ideas for next year. We’ll see what I come up with.

*************************

I played some last night and donked out of the $3 turbo before the money. This is twice in a row that I could have cashed but went out trying to chip up. I have no problem with the decision I made in either event because folding to the money would have left me way to short to make a run. Winning either hand would have allowed me to go deep.

I also played in the $4000 HORSE tourney. I was doing well sitting in the top 35 when I had a terrible run of cards that saw me miss every draw I had for the rest of the night. I had three nut draws with made 7s and 8s in RAZZ that got rivered as well as two A234 in STUD HL that didn’t give me the straight or the low in the end. If I hit two of these hands then I go much deeper but it wasn’t to be.

I’m looking at a RAZZ tourney tonight and maybe HORSE. We shall see.

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Three Final Tables This Week

Christmas came early as I got another final table this week. There seems to be a trend in that they are smaller events and not hold'em events. This last one was HORSE again. Back to back HORSE final tables must mean that I have a well rounded game. This one had 144 runners so it was smaller put the field was better.

There were a few bloggers in this as well and another at the final table in Poker Poison. She ended in 3rd. High Plains Drifter, Drizz, GCox, SLB, and Love_Elf were also in on the fun. HPD tried to get into the money but just missed after a battle for his life.

JJ also made a final table tonight playing Razz.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Happy Holidays and Poker

It is the Friday before Christmas and the office is dead. They gave the choice of taking today or Tuesday off from Christmas Eve so I took Tuesday. Anyway, I hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday season.

Not a whole lot today. As you could see from my late night post I did well in the Riverchasers HORSE tourney last night. The thing that I n noticed is that while many of the players were decent hold’em players, many of them had no idea how to play the stud events. I made most of my chips playing RAZZ and STUD and held my own in the other games. I guess this makes sense considering so many players want to play the TV game and don’t realize how playing these other games will make them a better overall player. I believe that it would be dumb to ignore this fact and I will continue to play more RAZZ and HORSE tourneys to exploit this situation. Well exploit is a strong word coming from me so I guess I should say try to exploit.

I played a $1 sng last night to kill some time and played it aggressively. With 4 players left the SB made a move on my BB with a 3x raise. I had chips but I knew it was a steal so I pushed with my 47 off suit to get him to fold. He calls with K5. Great call buddy cuz the only person you’re ahead off is a bluffer. Anyway, I spike a 4 and a 7 and knock him to about 100 chips with my great hand. That but me in the money and where I got knocked out pushing with A4 and getting called by AQ. So, between my 2 games I made $1.45 after getting my buy-in back. It’s always about +EV.

I found this for JJ. It’s something he can look forward to in the future.











Again, Happy Holidays to everyone.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Riverchasers

I played for 3 and a half hours and made a final table for this.
I made 90 cents for my hard work. Thanks Al for a good time and dropping one round of drinks into the prize pool. Made some good plays but got knocked out when I got it all in with two pair vs. a flush on 5th street. I had 4 outs but didn't come in. I never actually made it to the final table because a shorter stack got eliminated on the same hand and so it went from 9 to 7 players.
That's it for now

A Little Fun

Last night was a waste as I signed up for the Mookie 2nd chance shortly before it started. I figured all request for my time had been filled and thus could play. A few minutes into it my wife asked me to give her a hand with some thing so I got super aggressive with an A9 off suit and dumped my ships to SLB. I figured I could sit out for a while if I doubled up and still have chips when I got back. Oh well.

So after I get back to the poker machine I fired up an SNG and won for the big prize of $22.50. At that point it was late so I turned it off for the night.

I was looking some previous post and came across this from back in August. At that time I was nearing the end of my job search and ready to go back into the work world after a summer of doing little if anything constructive. So go here to read this past post and tell me what you think. It is about Bloom’s Taxonomy and how I relate it to poker.

I’ll be playing in the Riverchasers event that is brought to us by Al. He said this:

Cheap bastards rule. I have a Riverchasers cheapy HORSE tourney setup for next Wednesday night. Since I wasn't sure familiarliar those guys with this variation, I decided to set up a HORSE freeroll tonight. I threw $50 at it and let it go. 24 hours later and there are 140 people signed up at this point for a piece of change that wouldn't cover one round of drinks on a slow night.

I’ve played this one other time when there was a mess up and it became a heads-up tourney. Waffles is playing in it and it is a HORSE free roll with a $50 prize pool so I could spend 4 hours trying to win .75. That’s OK cuz it will be fun regardless.

I’m trying to go play a live tourney this Saturday at Worldpoker05’s place. He’s having a parents only party and we’re having trouble find a sitter so maybe we won’t be going. It would be too bad because I’m really itching to play against people and not avatars.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

A Reply From Full Tilt and my Razz game

Hello The Poker Enthusiast,

Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Customer Support.

Unfortunately, this raffle promotion was an attempt by a third party to
extort money from our players. We currently do not have any raffle
promotion running. We are investigating this issue and these players are
no longer welcome on Full Tilt Poker and their accounts have been
closed. Our fraud investigators are currently tracking this case, and
you will be compensated for funds lost due to this scam. Please note
that we can only issue compensation once the investigation has been
completed, which may take some time, so we ask for your patience.

In the future, please remember than anything said by a player will
display in blue, observers are in brown, and any communication made by a
member of Full Tilt Poker Support will be in green.

If you are ever suspicious of any promotion, you can confirm all of our
current promotions on our promotions page:
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/promotions.php

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this
investigation. Best of luck, and thanks for choosing Full Tilt Poker!

Regards,

Heather
Full Tilt Poker Support

I’ll be more than happy to get the $10 back. I think I put a $10 bounty on my head the next time I play the Mookie because I don’t deserve the money based on my stupidity.

I’m going to have a hard time playing the regular Mookie because of church commitments but may be able to play the 2nd chance event. We shall see.

After waking up this morning, I reflected on my game last night as I drove into work. I had a couple of big hands that mad a big impact on the end result. About 10 from the money, I raised with a marginal hand trying to steal the blinds and get called by a 6 while I held a 5 with 7,10 behind. 4th street gave me a 7 and my opponent an 8. I bet and he called. I get a 4 on 5th street and get gets an 8. He checks and I check. At this point I’m sure he just bricked and if I get anything good I will attack. I catch a 2 and bet out and he tanks before folding. This hand moved me into the top 10 and eventually was my savior as I had the bring in bet 7 of 10 hands shortly after. The other big hand was when I was the bring in with a 10 up and A2 behind. My opponent had a 7 and tried to push me off. 4th street gave him a 10 and me a 7 for a tied hand up. I have to be ahead so I bet and he raises and I call. 5th gives me an 8 and he gets a 7. I bet he calls. 6th gives me a 2 and him a 6. Now I’m not sure here but the 2 had to scare him if he bricked. He checks and I bet smelling weakness and he folds. This hand put me in second place in chips and allowed me to raise at will vs. the smaller stacks who wanted their money back.

The bubble took forever to break and a short stack got lucky 4 times in a row at the final table bubble before eventually failing in his quest to survive.

The final table was un eventful as I chipped up and pushed the medium stacks off there hands when I was strong or at least strong looking. One guy made a comment about the deck hitting me in the face when in reality I could have lost many of the hands if my opponents didn’t play so passively. With 7 players left I held almost 50 % of the chips. This is when I went on another bring in string that just shouldn’t happen with 7 players left. Before it was over I posted a 13,000 chip drop and continued to be card dead. I waited and waited for my chances and got paid when they finally came. The game lasted a long time with 3 players left as the other 2 kept passing their chips back and forth. I wont recap the end but I will repeat that is was a fun time.

Who is the Razz King

Waffles claims to be the RAZZ KING but now I’m not sure after this.














I hit some big hands early and kept the pressure on Lucko style. After watching Waffles play a few of these I followed his aggressive play and ran over the table for the most part. Players were week/tight (lol, just like bloggers) and didn’t want to call raises unless they had a good low. It was really an example of playing their cards and not my own. Surf railed for a while but it was a strange night in that nobody was around. SLB did give me a pat on the back per say but no love for the most part in my loneliness. But I kid.

I needed the boost. I had lost some confidence with some late game loses but when it got to crunch time I pushed hard. It was a great time but I got crippled when I had 3467 vs. 9763. We each hit J’s on 5th street and I pair my 3 on 6th while he catches a 10. I have odds to call but catch another J on 7th and lose to his made 10. I still like my chances there considering the number of outs I had. Oh well.

I’m tired. Good night.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

More of the Same

I guess the utter gall that an ass monkey like FTPROMO1217 employed during his life fulfilling dream of scamming people for $10 a crack still pisses me off. Who knows how many people got hit with this but with around 30,000 players online at the time, 1% of the crowd would get him $3000. I guess in some ways it’s pretty ingenious if he could get the money off quickly. I’m sure he’s laughing this off as his account gets closed after dumping the money in heads-up sngs.

As a matter as fact, I saw this #%&^%%^ on a heads-up table right after the chat message went out. He was calmly dumping his chips to a friend or to himself in a $20 game, getting knocked out very early and typing “GG” in the chat box when it was over. I didn’t ridicule him for fear of tipping him off. I know the money is gone and that’s fine. The real issue is that he is probably still playing under his real name after acquiring his ill obtained funds.

Go Be Rude had an encounter last week with someone stealing his sign-on and emptying his account. This would be a travesty for anyone who keeps their bankroll on a poker site and goes much deeper then a penny ante scam artist. I personally wonder how that can happen if you have control over your passwords unless your computer isn’t protected or there was a compromise in the poker site security system. I guess one wrong access approval when a Norton pop informs you of a threat could do it.

Anyway, I guess we have to remember that though there are many great people out there playing poker, there are also many low life SOB’s that will try to cheat you out of what you have because the don’t have it. Why earn it when I can take from someone.

End rant.

Monday, December 18, 2006

Doh

One of the drawbacks of being a relatively honest person is walking through life with blinders on. One can’t imagine the low life deceptive but obvious attempts to defraud hard working Americans out of their money. A great example of this surfaced last night as I silently watched Kat make the money in her 5 + .50 tourney last night. FTPROMO1217 placed a chat message stating some promotion and I thought “cool” As I went through the prescribed actions I thought to my self “self, this is a transfer, not a promotion.”. And as I realized this was a scam I when to close the window and but low and behold I paid off the scam to the tune of $10. Immediately I contacted FT and informed them of the scam and their response was typical. They will investigate.

Now I know that I will be mocked for stupidity but I don’t want anyone else to be a moron like me. I don’t expect to g the money back and that’s fine. Life lesson learned.
I can hear Waffles laughing at me now as the KING OF RAZZ reads through his daily blogs.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Not the SNG Machine

Before I start please take time to fill out my survey on the right side of my blog under the heading “The Poker Enthusiast Survey”.

It’s hard to believe that so many players out there continue to dump money into their losing game. As an example I went to shark scope and checked the SNG results of 5 players I faced last night (you get 5 free searches per day) and saw that 2 different players had played over 400 SNG’s and showed a negative ROI in the range of 15-17 percent. Now I know that variance has an influence on results but I would think that playing that many SNG’s as a loser would make me re-think why I’m playing. Now you can go look at my stats and see donkey loser imbedded into my results but that’s not the point. The point is that there are still many players dumping money into our pockets.

As for my results at Full Tilt, the low buy-in events ($5 or less)are less than what I would like but very positive. My $10 buy-ins are negative ROI while the $20 buy-ins are around 18% or so. Not the greatest in the world and much less than my historical data but positive overall. Those damn $10 SNG’s killed me.

Historically speaking, my ROI for SNG’s sits around 38% with a good mix of 5, 10, and 20 dollar games. It has dropped about 5% over a given period of time so I guess I’m wondering if it is coming to a leveling off point or a down swing. This being said, returning to the $5 SNG’s will bring this level back up and allow me to work at improving my game.

The frustrating part of all of this is that I haven’t seen a huge difference in skill from my opponents at any of these levels. For the most part, the $5 games have maybe 2 solid players, the $10 games have 2 or 3 and the $20 games have 3 maybe 4. I guess I think I should be doing better at Full tilt.

Played 8 SNG’s last night and cashed in 4 and bubbled twice. Best hand of the night was hitting a set of jacks on the flop and having two players push in front of me after the flop. One player had second pair while the other had a gut shot draw.

Not much more except that I will be playing live if things work out next weekend. Worldpoker05 is having a gathering and thus a game will break out. That last time we did this we caught a kid doing a bad job of stacking the deck. He pulled a card from the bottom to give himself trips and gave the other guy the nut flush. We didn’t make a huge deal out of it right there but we did make him understand the problem with trying to cheat 8 other guy who are all bigger then him. He said he was sorry.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

No Poker Last Night

I had a meeting until after 10:00 last night so I didn't get home until late. I could have play a little but I thought it would be better to stay away for the night.

I have added a survey link that is just for fun. It's something I created and will update from time to time. It is over here.
=============================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================================>

I'm going to try to play tonight but will be out on the virtual felt Friday for sure.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Not as Good as I'd Like

This is a look at some recent results of my tournament game minus the Mookie win. I’m not sure what I’m seeing here other than I’ve played a few of these. I’m cashing in about 17% of these so I think this number is good but it appears to me that I’m holding on for a cash and leaving my self unable to get deep. More aggression earlier may lower the % of cashes I get but should allow me to get deeper.

I played 8 SNGs last night cashing in 5 of 8. Not to bad but at low stakes. I also played a token race that saw me knocked out when K10 is gold vs. my aces. I guess I can’t fold aces pre-flop, even in a token race.

In all I had Aces cracked by K10 and 86 on the night. Kings were also of no use as they got beat by 33 and A6 when the flop dropped a pair of 66s for my opponent. So I guess it could have been a really good night if my percentages hold up.

UB gave me $10 because I hadn’t played there in a long time. I gave it right back to them in a few hours of donkey poker. I do like the tourney structures but man do they take forever to finish.

I’ll probably grind some more SNGs tonight but I’m starting to think a week off might be good.

Monday, December 11, 2006

A Weekend Without

With the WPBT event going on in the sin city the weekend chat fest was a little slow. Never the less, on-line poker continued to be played regardless of the missing bloggers.

JJ and hooked up and played the midnight madness Friday while I was playing a HORSE MTT on FT. We both made nice runs in the MM with JJ getting well into it before a huge suck-out crippled him and sent him to the rail. He was on his game and had a really nice stack but it wasn’t to be for him. I wasn’t very disappointed about getting knocked out of the MM because I was making a run in the HORSE tourney. I held the chip lead from about 50 players left and stayed in the top 5 until about 20 left when I missed all my draws in the Omaha h/l portion of the tourney. I held AKQJ double suited and saw a flop of 10, 9, 5. I held the nut flush draw, the nut straight draw and many over cards so I pushed on the only guy left in the hand. He came back at me and we eventually got all are money in the middle. Now if I count my outs I have any club (9) any 8 (3) any jack (3) any queen (2) and any king (3). That’s 20 outs twice. He held 94AA. Now if my math is correct I’m a huge favorite here even though I’m behind on the board. Anyway, I get no help and I’m back to the bottom half of the field. I held on and chipped up some when I got AKJ in stud suited. I hit the Q on 4th street and then the 4th spade on 5th street and eventually lose to a pair of 2’s when nothing comes in. I don’t have a problem with how I played either of these hands but did I play them right. I think the Omaha hand played it self but how about the stud hand. I was trying to get in a position to win and had a great draw compared to my opponents board who didn’t show much of anything. Anyway, I ended up in 13th but missed the final table again.

Saturday night I plat the MM again and made a nice run and was sitting with average chips with about 160 players left. I got KQ in late position and made a 4x raise. The button pushes me all-in. The question I have is that I was getting 2.5 to 1 to call with that hand. I’m only afraid of AK, AQ, and the big three pocket pairs. Should I make this call. It was a newer table so I didn’t have a great read so I folded. SLB suggested I play the “TV hand” but I wasn’t sure. I still hade some chip equity with the fold but eventually got knocked out some where in the 150 range when my opponents 3 outer hit. What do you think?

Being an idiot I didn’t stick with my plan to raise my bankroll by $250 before playing tourneys again. I have no further comment on that.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Good Luck Everyone

With the WPBT event ready to start I would like to wish each of my blogging brethren good luck on the felt this weekend.

I’ve made a decision that I probably won’t keep, to stay away from tournaments until I can increase my bankroll by $250. It’s a decision based on focus and goal setting that was missing during my down turn. Setting this goal and achieving it will allow me to get back much of what I dropped and help me regain the focus I lacked. Looking back, I realize that even though I ran badly for a while I started to chase loses instead of grinding back to maintain my bankroll level. I’m not a huge winner at Full Tilt t all. In fact my ROI is terrible there. It is positive but not at the level I’d like. Overall, on all sites I’m at 38% so I know from history I should be able to achieve my goal in about a week of limited play. If I do I will reevaluate and decide if I should continue for an additional $250 of to take some more shots at some bigger tourneys. Realistically, I can easily make $100 a week or $5200 a year if I stay with the same games but that’s really a grind. Playing these low level SNGs can be tough when you do them over and over again.

I guess I need to be more structured in my approach. I know I have the ability to take down a big tourney but continuing to take shots at bigger buy-ins can have a negative impact on the bankroll unless you’re hitting some final tables.

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Ever Been to a Waffle House

I got through my ISO audit without any non-conformances. You have no idea how relieved I am at this since my company has never had one in the past.

I played a few limit SNGs last night ending up the night in the positive. I was disappointed in my results in a $10 SNG since I had my opponent down to 1800 in chips and couldn’t put her away. A double up and then missing on few flops gave her about 5000 chips when I flop an OESD and the second nut flush draw. I pushed her hard and gave up a lot of chips when I missed both draws to her small pocket pair. I eventually went in with a marginal hand and caught a piece that wasn’t big enough and got knocked out.

These limit tourneys are actually faster then many of the no limit tourneys that I’ve played. I’m also seeing that good decision making will pay you off in the long run. You have to make more reads on your opponent and push on those willing to fold in either game and take advantage of the smaller stacks that are trying to stay alive as the blinds increase. I’ve noticed that people are just as willing to fold as the bubble nears in limit and let you steal the blinds. Now these are limit SNGs but the strategy is quite similar. A suckout doesn’t hurt nearly as bad and playing strange hands doesn’t cost you as much.

I also watched and chatted with this guy while he played a 2 table SNG.

We talked about SNG strategy and some of his donkeyness as he hit runner runner for a flush.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Feeling Better

Nothing much today other then I lasted deep into a $5+.50 on FT the other night. I was a nice run that saw may advantages hold up. I could have lasted longer except for the push I made with 77 from middle position after UTG mad a small raise. He had a large stack and was buying lots of pots and I wanted to push him off his hand. The button called my all-in and UTG folded. I had the right read but on UTG guy but the button called with 88 and I didn’t improve. I had chip equity at the time and could have lasted into the top 15 or so but I wanted to be in a position to win. A double up would have put me above average in chips and a good shot to the final table. Oh well.

I was going to make an attempt to play more limit hold’em but made an amendment to the decision. After talking with worldpoker05 and surf, I am taking the best of both worlds and playing limit SNGs. With limit I will not lose all my chip when I get sucked out on and determine if I’m truly making the right reads on players. Right now I’m going to play any limit SNG as in LH, O h/l, HORSE or Razz. I’m going to stay at the 5 and 10 dollar level for now until I get a better feel for the results. So far I’ve played 7 of these and cashed in 6 with 5 wins and a 2nd. The players are week and will to give their money so I’ll give it a try.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Legs of the Horse are Steady

I missed the start of the Mookie last night but did watch it and the second chance tourney until virtual conclusion. It was fun watching but I would rather have been playing.

So instead of just sitting there while railing the tourneys I played a couple of SNGs. The first was un eventful in that I didn’t do much and got knocked out with pocket 10’s vs AJ near the bubble. I was one of three short stacks vs 2 big stacks and pushed to by the blinds. No big deal.

The second SNG went much better as I chipped up early before giving much of my stack to a lose caller. I raised with KJ suited from middle and got called by the big blind. The flop was Qxx. I made a 2/3 pot continuation bet and the BB calls. The turn is x and I take another stab of 2/3 only to be called by the BB. At this point I know I’m behind and will fold to any bet. The river is x and we both check. BB flips over Q7 and takes the pot. I question the player passive method of playing this hand but cannot question her results. Anyway, I doubled up a little later when I flop trips and then knock out another when I get another big pocket pair. When we get down to 5 players things got slow. Nobody wanted to give up position so blind stealing was the name of the game and I continued to chip up. We eventually got down to three some time into the second hour. I eventually knocked out the Q7 player and got heads up with a passive heads up player. I pushed him around and took a nice chip lead until I flopped top 2 pair and he flopped trips. From the short stack I moved back to almost even until I ran into his pocket pair when I tried a re-steal with AK. I didn’t improve and take second place. It was a good game and I played the game that I know I can play. I’ll play a few more of these before I move back up to the more interesting levels.

I think that I’ve figured out the cause of my resent failures. I withdrew some of my bankroll from FT and put it in Neteller. The curse of the withdraw showed it’s ugly head and made me shrink in fear. I have remedied the situation and expect a complete return to normalcy.

Work has been a bear since my return from Japan. I have all the thing that I learned from the trip and others as well to put into place. I also have an impending ISO 9000 external audit that will take place next Tuesday. All together I have no time to complete any of the things I need to get done but have to do them anyway. I know, cry me a river.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Back on the Horse

I jumped back on the horse last night, kind of. I played a $3 turbo MTT and an SNG to try and get it going again. The SNG didn’t go well in that I bubbled but I play my game with minimal fear. The turbo went well in that I played my strong hands aggressively and didn’t back off when I smelled weakness. The best part of the night was coming over the top of 5 limpers a couple of times only to see them lay their hands down. A player at the table mad a comment about this move and I responded that I had only played 8 hands(out of 80) to that point and that if he thought I was stealing to go ahead and call. I was well above average as the bubble approached but the blind were getting big and my hands were on the ugly side. After the bubble broke I was a little below average when I looked at pocket 10s. I pushed from early position since a 3x raise would have all but pot committed and got called by queens and AK. No luck for me and I’m done. I’m not upset with this as these turbo require a more aggressive style and was willing to flip a coin to double my stack.

I also played some .25\.50 full ring limit hold’em. I haven’t sat at one of these tables in a long time, so with the encouragement of surflexus I hit it for about 30 minutes ending up about +$5. small change but I need the confidence right now.

I also railed surf as he ran to 26th place in the 25k on ft. He had a great run of cards at the right times and laid down a few good hands. Good job man. Probably no Mookie tonight but we shall see.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Wow It's Going Bad

I'm not crying, well I guess I am but luck was not my friend over the weekend. I got knocked out of 14 tournaments when my opponent had 6 outs or less on the river. Now I understand that this will happen but I would rather make a bad decision and get knocked out of a few of these then be so far ahead in each of these only to get kicked in the junk. I cashed in three of these events but didn't go deep enough to make a contribution really. The killer was getting knocked out of the 25K on FT when my pocket kings see a flop of K23. My opponent pushes and I call and see his JT off suit. AQ on the turn and river give him the straight and knocks me out. winning that hand would have put me into the top 10 with 150 players left. I would give you a dollar because of the bad beat story but I don't have enough left in the bankroll. Anyway, I think I may take another day or two off before I get back on the horse so that my stressed out mind can refresh.

Worldpoker05, my old boss went to Vegas a week or so a go and played a tourney a Ceaser's. He bubbled in 6th when the short stack went on a tear and doubled up 4 out of 5 hands in a row. When he got to the final table he was one of the chip leaders but lost two pots when his opponent hit bottom pair. Tough breakes.

Good luck in the Mookie on Wednesday but I don't think I'll be playing as I want to re-evaluate mu game to see if I was the cause of some of my down-turn. And since the Mookie is full of good players I think that it wouldn't be a good thing to invest at this time.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Japan

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

1600 players at the 25,000 on FT

I think that the grim reaper has taken hold of me with his icy touch. Death would be welcome compared to how I feel today. Life will move on.

I played the 25,000 on FT last night and made a nice run considering the land mines that were in place. 1600 plus players with a prize pool of 40,000 is always nice. Anyway, I stayed tight and doubled up with flopped trips before catching AK suited in middle position. UTG calls and I make a 4x raise with the button calling. UTG pushes for 800 more and I call, button folds. He flips over pocket kings. I still have a nice stack but I wanted to bust him for slow playing kings from UTG. He eventually gave all my chips to other players. So I chip back up some when an early position player makes a min raise. I look down at J9 suited in the BB and call. The flop is J high and I’m pretty sure it’s good here. The early position player is short stacked so I check to him hoping he bets and he does. I come over the top but not enough to put him all in hoping he’ll push them in and he does. I call and he shows AK. King on the river and I’m back down to 2200 chips. I really like this play because I’m going to win about 75% of he time but it wasn’t to be. I stayed afloat until there were around 450 players left. 261 were getting paid so I needed chips. A large stack raised from middle position and I push with KJ suited hoping he was stealing or on a pocket pair. His AJ was good and I’m done. The morale to this story for me is that suited cards sucked last night. A good run but I still could have waited a little longer to make a move.

I might play the Mookie tonight but I’m not sure. Being sick and playing poker don’t always go together well so we will see.

Monday, November 20, 2006

An Ever Changing Game

I watched the FTOPS main event for much of the evening last night and watched Lucko and Poker Gnome make a good run by making it into the money. Iak did well but was eliminated about 300 spots from the cash. The interesting thing I note from the event was the amount of post flop play. There wasn’t any for the most part as it was raise and fold action with many re-steals happening. There was much bad play from many of the players and some very good play from some. It was really a question of guts at the end as short stack tried to stay alive and big stacks played the bully as the final table got near. When the bubble finally burst I figured there would be a couple of quick eliminations coming from the short stacks but to my surprise the field evened out and the players jockeyed for position. This was the point that I could no longer stay awake so I went to bed. I have no idea how it ended.

I looked back on my run from Saturday night and realized I did have some luck along the way. I pushed with JJ and got called by AK. The flop showed a K but a J on the river kept me alive. This was short of the money but propelled me to a higher level. I also had a number of coin flips go my way at critical times against smaller stacks. These instances help the chip stack grow and keep you advancing toward the end.

In addition to the 4th place finish, I cashed in 3 other MTTs along the way. In each case I made lay downs of strong hands based on the betting patterns I faced. I’ve really begun to understand that TPTK isn’t always good. I’ve also made some adjustments to my game that includes giving value to my opponent in situations that may induce a call. This sets up the same play when I’ve missed the flop and turn but feel I can take it on the river. Many players will lay down a good hand if you give them a really good value late in a hand after calling there earlier bets. They smell a trap and get away from the hand. I’m finding this useful later in the tourneys when they are trying to gain a bigger payday by lasting longer. The key is having a good read on the player.

That’s it for now other then I’ve had 11 hours of sleep since 9 pm last Thursday. Jet lag is killing and I have meeting each of the next two nights. I will be playing the Mookie on Wednesday though.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

A Final Table at Full Tilt

Iak has been telling me for a while that it will come and it finally did. Also, I wan't to say thanks to 23skidoo and carmensincity for railbirding the end for me. It was a lot of fun and I don't think I could have played much better.

It was really an uneventful tourney. I put one beat on two guys when I was ahead preflop with kings and after the flop with trip kings. I got my chips in and the turn gave one guy a flush and the other guy a straight. The river paired the board and I'm on my way.

The bubble was tough as I got short stacked after being top 20 for a good part of the tourney. After the bubble broke I got aggressive and eentually got into a postion of 10 of 16 remaining. I ran into some bad luck when my A10 split the pot with A9 and later had my AK split vs AJ. Those chips would have put me into a much better position but I battled on.

As the final table bubble approached it became a tight game with most preflop raises being respected by all. This allowed me to move up some before we got to the final table.

Two players were knocked out on the first two hands and I'm sitting 5 of 7. It became a game a steals and I had to work to maintain my chip stack. Whith two big chip stacks and 5 medium stacks, the field changed postion many times until we got down 5 players. I made the possible mistake of not raising raising from the BB after UTG big stak called. The flop was 8h Ah 6d and I made a 2/3 pot bet. UTG pushed and I eventually folded. I still had position and the short stack so I felt this was the right move. I still had 3x the stack of the shorty. The next hand saw the shorty go all-in so I called from the SB and the BB checked. I hit a pair on the river to take the pot and move me up to fourth.

Just before the end I doubled up through the medium stack When my A7 suited hit a flush on the turn to get me back to even with the third place player. On my final hand I raised with A9 suited and got called by the chip leader. The flop comes 6s Kd 3s giving my the nut flush draw. I pushed in all my chips, about half the pot, and hoped for a fold or a spade. BB calls and shows AQ. My spade never comes and I'm out in 4th. I wondered about his call here but in retrospect I think it may be OK. He was trying to take me out and he did. The bigger pay day would have been nice.

I'l try to put up a trip report soon but I'm swamped so we'll see what happens.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

I'm in Japan!!

Not much right now but I will give some details later. Here are some pictures I took during my flight.

It's 5:45 am on Monday here and 2:45 pm on Sunday back home. I'm feeling good right now but we'll see how the jetlag goes.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Is this a Good Omaha Hand?

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Mookie Night


Play the Mookie tonight if you have a chance. It is a fun time and we are trying to reach a new high for attendance. Also, more people playing means more places paying and we’d like to pay the final table.





I’ve played no poker during the last few nights. It started with my trip to New Mexico on Monday and continued with a meeting that got over at 10:30 last night. With all this time away from home I feel that I should spend as much time with the family as I can before I leave for Japan on Saturday. So tonight and Friday night should be my only attempts at poker I will see until my return on the 18th.

That’s all for now. This may be my last post until my return. Good luck until I make it back.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Bubble Boy

The title accurately reflects my recent play as I’ve been just out of the money in a few of the MTT’s I’ve played. Friday night wasn’t really a bubble but I did get pretty deep in a Omaha h/l limit tourney I played in. Traumapoker made it deep and drizz also cashed but talk of three bloggers at the final table didn’t materialize. Actually, the fact that I made it as far as I did was amazing. For the most part I was card dead and when I did catch a good starting hand the flop was terrible. The difference was catching both nuts on consecutive hands during the later stages of the tourney to give me a chance. This was about the time I started to catch good hole cards that would miss the flop. If I catch one of these I money and could have made a run at the final table.

My big bubble was a Saturday evening tourney that saw 63 players being paid and me taking 64th. I was the true bubble boy. It was an uneventful tourney in that I stayed tight and got chips through patience. I had one double up before going on a terrible run of cards. I tried to make plays to put my self in position to go deeper but pocket pairs saw big over cards and my over cards saw pocket pairs. At the bubble I was on the big blind with 8, 5 and all-in. My opponent shows AJ but the flop hits me with 85A. Of coarse the turn is a jack and I’m done. Overall I was happy with my play other then being passive as the bubble approached. I should have made a stand a little earlier just because I still had fold equity.

I also played the 25,000 on FT and made a nice run into the final 300. 216 paid so nothing for me there. The tourney was a great example of patience as I waited for opportunities to double up. Early on I raised with AQ suited from early position and folded to a push from the BB. I would have been getting about 1.6-1 on my money so I let it go. I figured at best I was a coin flip and at worst I was dominated. I still had chips so bye-bye hand. He showed jacks and started talking about how good a player he is. I took notes. Later on after chipping up some I get JJ in the same early position. I make a 4x raise and the same BB pushes. From his previous play I’ve noticed his tendency to push with medium pairs in this scenario and with me getting 2.5-1 I make the call. I’m only afraid of 3 hands here and I’m sure I’m ahead. He flips over 8s and I double up. The very next hand I get JJ again and make the same raise. A middle position player pushes over the top and the action returns to me. Now I’ve just shown that I raise with strength and this guy pushes. I have a nice stack and I’m getting 1.3-1 on my money. It’s a great spot to double up but I fold because the read I have is a big pair. I tell the table I’m folding JJ this time and the guy who I crippled previously can’t understand the fold. I started to explain but then realize I want him to not understand.

Do you think that folding JJ at this point was a good move? Blinds were 50/100 at the time.

I withdrew a bunch of my online money in an attempt to refocus my game. I left my self with 20 buy-ins at the $10 level to achieve this objective so hopefully I will stay on my game. So far I’ve cashed in each of the SNGs I’ve played in since that decision. We’ll see where it goes.

I played an uninspired game at the blogger big game and got knocked out around 15th give or take a spot or two. The beginning of the end happened when I made a re-raise with a strong hand vs. smokkee who then pushed. I eventually folded and was all but crippled. I chipped back up over time and pushed over the top of smokkee with 55 and he calls with 1010. It was a questionable move but I needed a double up and would have taken the coin flip. A 4-1 underdog is not a coin flip.

Wednesday may be my last Mookie for a couple of weeks. I’m heading to Japan on Saturday so playing it will be hard. The Mookie on the 15th will be at noon on Thursday the 16th for me so maybe I can rail it while I’m there. We’ll see.

Friday, November 03, 2006

More Poker Fun and The Whole List of 100 Stupid Things About Me

I’m finding that my game struggles when I don’t hit any cards. This sounds like a stupid statement but my game is struggling to adapt right now. Maybe the influx of new players is causing some of this distress because they call raises with marginal hands and hit parts of the flop that I miss. It’s adding to my frustration as I’ve been leaking some bankroll lately.

To combat some of this I played the 15,000 on FT last night and gave an uninspired effort. One example of the donkeyness that is killing me right now is me raising from the button with JJ and getting called by the BB. The flop if Q,10,2 and the BB checks. I continue with a pot size bet trying to find out where I stand. The BB calls and I’m worried. The turn is a 3 and the BB pushes. I figure he has a queen, hit two pair or flopped trips so I fold. He shows pocket 3s for turned trips. I guess I don’t understand the logic of calling a big flop bet with big over cards on the board in hopes of hitting my 2 outer. More of the same ensued and I get eliminated in the middle of the pack.

I also played a 5+.5 Omaha h/l tourney but with different results. I cashed in this one and was sitting in the top 6 with 18 remaining before the eventual demise of my game. I played well and capitalized the couple of times I had the nut high and nut low. In the end the blind structure caught up to all of us and it became a game of pure luck as chips flew back and forth. Short stacks would triple up over and over again until I was in the short stack position. I tried to play my good hands strong but weak flops that completely missed were the norm for me. I ended the night in 13th.


*********************

1) I was born in a town smaller than the subdivision I now live.

2) I was adopted.

3) I went to a World Series game 1980. The Kansan City Royals beat the Phillies and I instantly became a Royals fan. Some of you may remember that was the year of George Brett and his hemorrhoids.

4) I played the clarinet from 5th grade through my junior year in high school.

5) I took Spanish in college. The significance of this is that I got a C in the class and didn’t learn a thing.

6) I played soccer from the time I was little until my 2nd year in college. I received honorable mention for region 4 after my freshman year for my play as a goalie on a team that won two games. The next year we made it to the region finals with a 14-5-3 record and I didn’t get a vote.

7) I’ve played fastpitch softball for over half my life.

8) In 1996, I was statistically 1hit away from being the leading hitter for the ISC world tourney. I was 5 for 9 and needed one more at bat with a hit to be the leading hitter that year. My 4 out were strikeouts and I had 4 walks.

9) I was in the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie” during my senior year in high school. I played a few small parts with my only line being “He’s coming, he’s coming….Conrad Birdie’s coming”. This was quite comical for a 17 year old kid in the mid 80’s.

10) I spent an hour in jail for driving with a suspended license. Back in 1983, I got a speeding ticket and didn’t pay for it. In my infinite wisdom I didn’t realize I had to. Anyway, I eventually paid for it but didn’t apply for reinstatement. 3 years later I got pulled over and arrested. I was fun being picked up by a paddy wagon and handcuffed. All charges were dropped after I applied for reinstatement and showed proof at court. Of course the court cost was something like $500 but it isn’t on my record.

11) I was married on New Years Eve in 1992.

12) I bought my first home 6 months before I was married and lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my second home. I lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my third home. I have five more years in this house before I must move.

13) The only time I have been to Las Vegas was in 1990. The ASA “B” Nationals was held there that year. The team I played on consisted of almost all 22 and 23 year old guys and I’m not sure if I ever went to sleep. In reality, I got maybe 12 hours of sleep in the 4 days I was there.

14) I want to go to a WPBT event but can’t afford it at this time.

15) I have three children that consume much of my time and I would have it no other way. There is nothing I love more then being involved with there events and helping guide them through life.

16) I love science fiction and have spent a large amount of my free time reading Sci-fi books. The first book I read was The Hobbit when I was in high school and have read hundreds of books since then.

17) One of the most exciting days of my life was when I heard that Lord of the Rings trilogy was being made. And even though I love the movie version, I was disappointed that so much was left out.

18) I played D&D from 6th grade up until my sophomore year in college. It was a blast living a life of make believe with magic and swords. To me a great time was spending a weekend playing this game non-stop from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Man I was a geek.

19) I was a tweener in that I was a jock, and a good one and also a band geek. I was in both the math club and science club but used much of my free time playing sports. In some ways I think I had no identity because of my lack of affiliation to a high school click.

20) I spent many Friday and Saturday nights hanging out with my friends and getting drunk while in high school. Much of this was induced by peer pressure and trying to fit into a culture that I wasn’t comfortable with.

21) You can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been drunk in the past 5 years. It takes two hands for the previous 10 years. It would take a computer to count the times before the age of 30.

22) I have no grandparents left alive.

23) One of my favorite rides at Disney World is the Buzz Light-year ride.

24) One of the worst days of my life was when my wife and two daughters were in a car accident. I got a call at work that said they were at the hospital and that they had no more information. When I arrived I saw a little girl that was severely injured and my thoughts were “poor thing, I hope she’s all right”. Minutes later I found out it was my oldest daughter. She had a broken leg and a skull fracture to go along with having a few teeth knocked out. She was later flown to Loyal Medical Center and spent 4 nights there before being sent home. My other daughter was bruised and battered but ok. My wife had a lacerated spleen and was in the hospital for a week. She could go back to work for a month and could do nothing that involved physical activity. It was a frustrating time in the life of my family.

25) While in Milwaukee for a college soccer trip, a group of us players found a car with the keys in while walking back from downtown to our hotel. It was 3:30 in the morning and we were drunk so we borrowed the car and drove to our hotel.

26) In an act of kindness, I let a cocaine addicted friend of mine stay rent free for a couple of months while he went through out-patient rehab. Hr was without a job and living in a car when I took him in. He has been sober for 8 years now.

27) I’m the Moderator of the church I attend.

28) I drove 4 hours to watch one fastpitch softball game, that started at 9:00 at night, and drove home when it was over so I could go to work the next day.

29) I have played soccer in Germany.

30) I have played fastpitch softball in Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. I almost added the Czech Republic but plans fell through when I had a family wedding to attend.

31) I love fishing but I’m too cheap to get a fishing license. The good thing is that I have relatives that own a 40 acre lake thus no need for a license.

32) I will still vote for Denny Hastert for the House of Representatives.

33) It is an honor to use the right to vote but very hard to find someone worthy to vote for.

34) I find it funny that some of the people we now hang out with are people we probably wouldn’t have talked to in high school.

35) When I was younger I felt that I would be dead by the age of 35.

36) I think that being a stand-up person is as important a thing as anyone can be.

37) I should thank my wife every day for putting up with me because of the idiot I am.

38) I should also thank my wife for making me go back to college and finishing my degree.

39) I don’t do either of the things in 37 and 38 nearly enough.

40) I know that I could have been valedictorian of my high school class if I would have had the drive. I was easily in the bottom half as far as grades go.

41) My main goal in high school was to stay eligible for sports, drink as much as I could get away with and to get as much action as I could. I had success in all areas but not to the extent that I would have preferred.

42) Back in my early 20’s, I would drive up to Milwaukee to see a girl I thought I was in love with whenever I had a chance. The feeling was not mutual.

43) I would much rather sleep until noon and make much less money then get up every morning and go to work. And yet I still get up.

44) I question my ability in all things that I do and thus grow.

45) I enjoy the new cyber friendships I have gained and wonder if I will ever meet any of you.

46) I regret some of the stupid things I’ve done and said to all the people I’ve hurt in my life. But not all of them.

47) I was ready to fight a co-worker who made a derogatory remark that I construed was about my wife. It was at a company meeting in from of the chairman of the board and I didn’t care. I can always find another job.

48) I find that this exercise of making a list is deeply comforting in some ways.

49) I have chewed Skoal for over half of my life and it scares me to think that it may cause my demise.

50) I quit chewing for 1 year back in 1998-1999. I started again when my Organic Chemistry teacher told me how nicotine helps the synapses fire during recall memory exercises. I am an idiot. I did ace the final though.

51) Going back to school at the age of 30 was the best thing that I could have done. I got much more out of it and had a 3.87 GPA after I returned. That’s twice what my high school GPA was.

52) One B that I got was during the time my son was born. School was not all that important but I drove through it. I didn’t get another B the rest of the time.

53) I love cooking on the grill. In the summer I cook 75% of the meals we eat on the grill.

54) I will do nothing if given the chance.

55) I find that stereo typing people pisses me off unless it’s me being the one doing the stereo typing.

56) I will play an entire season of any sports game on the computer without playing any of the games myself. I’ll let the computer play both teams.

57) I enjoy being with my wife’s side of the family at least as much as my own side.

58) I enjoy singing in my church choir just about as much as anything else I’ve ever done.

59) I have called in sick to work because I wanted to play poker on the internet.

60) I really want to go to Las Vegas for the WPBT in December. Did I say this already? It‘s worth repeating.

61) Another of the worst days I’ve had was the day my oldest was born. While being one of the greatest days of my life, she had many health problems and stayed in the hospital for 12 days after she was born. When we finally got to take her home we didn’t know what to do because the nursing staff had taken care of her for virtually all her life.

62) The joy I see in my children’s eyes makes me cry at the weirdest times.

63) I have cried during a chick flick.

64) I was never emotional until the car accident that my wife and kids were in.

65) I still have a hard time letting my wife know how I feel because it isn’t manly.

66) I fly off the deep end at stupid things when understanding is needed.

67) I think that living the life I grew up in has had a negative impact on how I treat my family.

68) I battle constantly to keep ahead of the idiocy that wants to manifest itself in me.

69) I used to think my mother was an idiot when I was younger. Now I realize it was me.

70) I would much rather do something tomorrow if I can put it off until then.

71) I’m envious of many of the relations that have been built through a stupid blog. Friendships that occurred because of a common interest. In some ways these friendships that many of you have are better then I have with the people I see everyday.

72) I miss my friend Paul and wish he’d move back here.

73) I have the ability to lose 15 pounds in a month yet would rather be over weight the work out.

74) Some of the most enjoyable times in my life have been coaching my children’s teams.

75) I was the manager of a team that tied for 5th place in the 2003 ISC II Tournament of Champions. We got knocked out by the eventual champions in a game that saw a total of three hits. Two by them and one by us.

76) The next year we didn’t advance to bracket play. In our must win game, we held a 5-0 lead when our pitcher fell a part. By the time I got him out of the game, the momentum had change and it was over.

77) In 2005 we lead in every game and went 0-4. Then I retired.

78) I find that dealing with grown men is much harder then dealing with children.

79) If I was single I would move to Las Vegas and try not to lose everything that I have.

80) I love playing the blogger tournaments because of the level of competition they provide.

81) I ran track in high school because we didn’t have baseball. I didn’t like track but it was better then going home or working.

82) I could run the 1600m in under 5 minutes and the 800 in 2 minutes.

83) When I was in 7th grade I ran a 10k in 36 minutes without training for it. I was too young and dumb to realize that running over 6 miles in 36 minutes was good. I was mad because 15 people beat me. The fact that most of them ran these events all the time and were very good didn’t matter. I should have won, lol.

84) When I came around the last turn and had maybe a ¼ mile left to go I broke into a sprint until the finish line. That was a failure in my eyes because I had too much energy left.

85) The best time I ever had was 32:36 when I was in high school. It was the last time I ran one of those.

86) In 2002 I went to a GI boot camp to get into shape. I lost 35 pounds and was in better shape then almost any point in my life. I had made the decision to run in the Chicago marathon because I was already running 20-25 miles a week and could easily start the training regiment. Then I tore cartilage in my knee playing ball and have not run another step.

87) I’ve gained 40 pounds since I quit running.

88) I enjoy the company of my high school friends much more now that I don’t see them as often.

89) I had a girl friend in high school that died on the way home from a basketball game. She was a good friend and is missed by everyone who knew her.

90) I had a friend that died from AIDS. He eventually came out of the closet after he was diagnosed with the illness. We all new anyway and we didn’t care.

91) Did I say that I want to go to the WPBT event in December?

92) I played goalie in soccer for all but one year in my life. During my senior year I played mid-field and was second on the team in scoring.

93) During my 3 varsity seasons playing soccer, we won over 75% of the games we played. We were a disappointment for the school because we had a history of making it deep into the playoffs in addition to many state finals. We didn’t live up to expectations.

94) We made it to the state finals in basketball during my junior season. I think I played 20 minutes the whole year but I was still a part of the team. We lost in the quarter finals to the eventual champs.

95) The first time I smoked pot was with my degenerate step sister. It was a wonderful experience that could have led me down the wrong path. She’s in jail now and I’m writing this. I guess I got back on the right one.

96) One thing that I really don’t like is going to the dentist. It makes my blood pressure rise just thinking about it.

97) I can still play the clarinet without much trouble. I will even play the piano now and then even though it’s been 30 years since my last lesson.

98) I can get lost in front of the TV if I’m not careful.

99) I was a DJ for about 3 years before I met my wife. My buddy Paul and I would play clubs and weddings and parties almost every weekend that I wasn’t playing ball.

100) I find that writing at times is a hard thing to do. The times I write the best are the times when an inspiration hits and the words flow. It doesn’t happen much for me but there are a couple of posts in the archives that meet the description.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

The Mookie and 25 Stupid Things About Me

I played in the Mookie last night and got bounced by ski early after the 1st break. My demise happened just before the break when I tested a bigger stack and gave away half my chips. I had top pair after the flop and made a continuation bet but his min re-raise caused me to fold for fear of a trap. So with around 1000 chips left I get AQ in middle position and push only to get called by ski’s AK and I’m done. I play a solid game and won a nice pot when I flopped trip 7s and check re-raised another player. For the most part I spent time trying to keep my head above water.

The Mookie 2nd chance was better… On the first hand I was dealt pocket 9s in the SB and called fuel55’s raise. I hit the flop when 10, 9, 3 hit the board. Now how do I extract chips? Hoy has talked about betting for value with flopped trips so I make a half pot bet and Fuel calls The turn is x so I make what is to be a weak looking bet of 300 into a pot of around 800 and he calls.
The river is a 3 giving me a boat. I put out the same weak bet out there and he pushes. I call and double up on the first hand as his 7s were no good. The bets part of this is that I know he is an aggressive player and will attack weakness so semi passiveness seemed to be the right idea. If I check raise him then he may drop his hand so I think this was the right line. Anyway, with these chips I maintained my stack and won a token vs. the bloggers. It was a good time as usual.

I do have to agree with some of my fellow bloggers though in that I would rather paly a token vs. the other players on the site. It is tough to win a token with the quality play of bloggers involved. I like the cash idea better.

I also think that maybe we can get a token blogger event that uses the $26 token. It would raise the stacks a little and is partially funded by players we have beaten already. Just an idea.

********************

Here is the first installment of 100 stupid things about me. If there are other tings you want to know just ask and I'll include them.

1) I was born in a town smaller than the subdivision I now live.

2) I was adopted.

3) I went to a World Series game 1980. The Kansan City Royals beat the Phillies and I instantly became a Royals fan. Some of you may remember that was the year of George Brett and his hemorrhoids.

4) I played the clarinet from 5th grade through my junior year in high school.

5) I took Spanish in college. The significance of this is that I got a C in the class and didn’t learn a thing.

6) I played soccer from the time I was little until my 2nd year in college. I received honorable mention for region 4 after my freshman year for my play as a goalie on a team that won two games. The next year we made it to the region finals with a 14-5-3 record and I didn’t get a vote.

7) I’ve played fastpitch softball for over half my life.

8) In 1996, I was statistically 1hit away from being the leading hitter for the ISC world tourney. I was 5 for 9 and needed one more at bat with a hit to be the leading hitter that year. My 4 out were strikeouts and I had 4 walks.

9) I was in the musical “Bye, Bye, Birdie” during my senior year in high school. I played a few small parts with my only line being “He’s coming, he’s coming….Conrad Birdie’s coming”. This was quite comical for a 17 year old kid in the mid 80’s.

10) I spent an hour in jail for driving with a suspended license. Back in 1983, I got a speeding ticket and didn’t pay for it. In my infinite I didn’t realize I had to. Anyway, I eventually paid for it but didn’t apply for reinstatement. 3 years later I got pulled over and arrested. I was fun being picked up by a paddy wagon and handcuffed. All charges were dropped after I applied for reinstatement and showed proof at court. Of course the court cost was something like $500 but it isn’t on my record.

11) I was married on New Years Eve in 1992.

12) I bought my first home 6 months before I was married and lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my second home. I lived there for 6 ½ years before buying my third home. I have five more years in this house before I must move.

13) The only time I have been to Las Vegas was in 1990. The ASA “B” Nationals was held there that year. The team I played on consisted of almost all 22 and 23 year old guys and I’m not sure if I ever went to sleep. In reality, I got maybe 12 hours of sleep in the 4 days I was there.

14) I want to go to a WPBT event but can’t afford it at this time.

15) I have three children that consume much of my time and I would have it no other way. There is nothing I love more then being involved with there events and helping guide them through life.

16) I love science fiction and have spent a large amount of my free time reading Sci-fi books. The first book I read was The Hobbit when I was in high school and have read hundreds of books since then.

17) One of the most exciting days of my life was when I heard that Lord of the Rings trilogy was being made. And even though I love the movie version, I was disappointed that so much was left out.

18) I played D&D from 6th grade up until my sophomore year in college. It was a blast living a life of make believe with magic and swords. To me a great time was spending a weekend playing this game non-stop from Friday night until Sunday afternoon. Man I was a geek.

19) I was a tweener in that I was a jock, and a good one and also a band geek. I was in both the math club and science club but used much of my free time playing sports. In some ways I think I had no identity because of my lack of affiliation to a high school click.

20) I spent many Friday and Saturday nights hanging out with my friends and getting drunk while in high school. Much of this was induced by peer pressure and trying to fit into a culture that I wasn’t comfortable with.

21) You can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been drunk in the past 5 years. It takes two hands for the previous 10 years. It would take a computer to count the times before the age of 30.

22) I have no grandparents left alive.

23) One of my favorite rides at Disney World is the Buzz Light-year ride.

24) One of the worst days of my life was when my wife and two daughters were in a car accident. I got a call at work that said they were at the hospital and that they had no more information. When I arrived I saw a little girl that was severely injured and my thoughts were “poor thing, I hope she’s all right”. Minutes later I found out it was my oldest daughter. She had a broken leg and a skull fracture to go along with having a few teeth knocked out. She was later flown to Loyal Medical Center and spent 4 nights there before being sent home. My other daughter was bruised and battered but ok. My wife had a lacerated spleen and was in the hospital for a week. She could go back to work for a month and could do nothing that involved physical activity. It was a frustrating time in the life of my family.

25) While in Milwaukee for a college soccer trip, a group of us players found a car with the keys in while walking back from downtown to our hotel. It was 3:30 in the morning and we were drunk so we borrowed the car and drove to our hotel.

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Taking a Look at My Game

Looking at my result as of late I see a weird thing. Over the last month, I have a negative return on my $10 sngs but a 48% return on my $20s. My sample size for both is small because I haven’t been playing as many sngs but it shows how variance can influence short term results. Now I knew that I was unlucky playing the $10 games but I didn’t realize the extent of the junk kicking I was taking. Overall, my historical return is around 40% for sngs but what a mess that run of bad luck was. I dropped over $100 in a span of 15 sngs playing the $10 level.

Last night was a a nice night in that I cashed in 3 of 4 $20 sngs and won a $75 token for the Blogger Big Game. The importance of the evening was not the results but a minor revelation I had after a suck-out I put on another player. I held AK on a board showing AJ10 and made a ¾ pot bet. My opponent pushes and I’m screwed. I know that I’m behind and prepare to fold when I did the stupidest thing. I called and my opponent shows AJ. The revelation I got after a Queen hit the board is that I was giving up on the game because of my misfortune. I knew I had a superior starting hand and got unlucky so instead of folding I gave it up only to get lucky. I had lost some focus and the ability to throw away a big hand. I eventually cash in that game and used this new found skill to finish the night without a loss during the rest of my play.

What I don’t understand is why I can play good poker for a long time and then fall back into donkey play. What do I have to do to maintain the level of focus needed to take my game to the next level? Winning the Mookie a few weeks ago charged me up and let me know that I can compete at a high level of play. But I think that in my own way I let the victory sway my thinking and feel that I will always make the right play, even if it is the wrong play.

The token race was nice and the triple up early was nice to. Pocket queens hit trips with an ace on the flop and two players paid me off. From that point on I stayed un involved unless I had a monster and made it easily into the top 5. I did have an interesting situation that saw me get pocket queens in consecutive hands and then get pocket aces on consecutive. What are the odds of this?

I’ve been playing at FT for about a month and a half. In that time I’ve never put the time in to qualify for any of the free rolls that they offer for loyal customers. Now at this point I can’t qualify for the November free rolls but I’m going to go for the Bronze level next month. The only problem is that my trip to Japan is going to get in the way. So basically, I will have to earn 50 points a day 20 of the 22 days I’ll be able to play. That comes to 4 $20 sngs a day if my math is correct. That is a commitment but doable.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Another Weekend of Futility

Another weekend of futility as I dropped a chunk of theoretical money. It was theoretical because I played with tokens for the most part.

I had built up my token count and decided to play some token tourneys. It started with the satellite for the 250,000 on FT. The events to come were a premonition of things to come for the night. As I approached the bubble and the ticket for the quarter million guarantee, my big pocket pairs in consecutive hands were called by AK or AQ and saw ace high flops. Of course I had queens when the other guy had AK and kings when he had AQ. Thank you for playing and have a nice day.

The 30,000 went well until I got kings again. As I sat with a better then average stack I made a standard 3x raise and get one caller from the SB. The flop is KQ6 and the SB checks. I make a continuation bet trying to build the pot and he pushes all in. I call and he shows KJ. Running cards end my happiness. Two hands later I flop top two pair and get all my money in to lose to runner, runner again.

Time for a token race and my only win for the night. I got short stacked early and held on with some good luck to win. Nothing all that great just a moral victory.

I also played a $75 token race and got knocked out when my Queens lost to AK when my opponent called my river push and hit his ace.

I drop another token playing Omaha H/L just short of the money when my second nut flush lost to the nut. In my defense, there were 5 clubs on the board and three in my hand. I really didn’t think that one player would be holding 2 out of the last 5 clubs let alone Ax of that suit.

So that was my Friday night. In retrospect, I made solid decisions so I’m not really complaining. I know that I will be ahead in the long run.

Saturday was an SNG night and it continued to go bad. Unlucky would be a term that I could use to describe the night. I won’t go into the details but it was frustrating.

I finally turned it around a little while playing some cash games on Sunday morning. Nothing spectacular but positive numbers are always good. I also cashed in my only SNG so good things happen to those who wait I guess.

**********************

Later on I’m going to show some of the results that I track. I don’t know how significant they are but I would be interested in knowing what you think.

Have a great day.

Friday, October 27, 2006

I Hate When This Happens

Frustration and aggravation are a couple of words that would describe my feelings as I lost my connection last night. I was playing a Razz tournament with JJ last night when all of a sudden nothing. I give a call to my ISP and they confirm the outage and inform me not to expect it to be fixed for 4-6 hours. Thank you and have a nice day. I did have a brief period that it came back on but only for about 2 minutes. When I woke up this morning I found out I ended in 12th place.

I played a token race with worldpoker05 and won another one. That’s 4 for my last 5 in this donkey laden affair. It is truly incredible the way some of these players play these things. Weak aces pushing all-in and KQ calling big raises. Fuel55 made a comment about this the other night and I totally agree. But I guess I want these people to play this way because it is +ev for me in the long run.

Anyway, on the bubble, I was sitting ok when I see pocket 5s in late position so I pushed figuring for the steal. The small blind called with aces but a 5 on the flop saved the day. It wasn’t the smartest move but I took it. Is guess I should have looked at the stacks and made my decision based off that but I only wanted the blinds. And at this point in these tourneys I should have expected to get called by a strong hand.

It’s Friday so I will be playing tonight. I’m looking at the 20,000 and the $26 qualifier for the 250,000. Both of these should be fun and can turn a small investment into a nice cash making enterprise. Right now my average cost per token is around $15 so it is a nice way to play the higher level tourneys at someone else’s expense. I’ll probably play a token race for a $75 token for the next big game, so if you want to contact me for one of these on the chat box, feel free to do so. In the end I plan on spending 7 or 8 hours playing tonight.

That’s all for now so have a nice day.