A HORSE by Any Other Name is Still a HORSE

4th hand of the tournament I lose a big chunk of chips when I held QQ. UTG had aces and the button caught trip 10’s on the river. The sad thing is that I thought the one guy might have had aces and I raised him anyway. A stupid play that cost me a lot of chips.

I lost ground in Omaha hl and then Razz comes in. First hand I get 2JA and I complete with 2 limpers in front. This may be questionable but I figured they were not strong or they would have raised. I get a 4 on 4th street and take the pot when they all fold with high cards. I lose some back when my 64A3 only improves to a 9 and my opponent hits an 8 to put me down to 700 chips.

By the time stud hits I’m down to around 600 and I’m down to 500 quickly. With 473 left in my stack I get AA8 in stud and get my chips in the middle. I hit a boat to beat a 6 card flush to chip me up to 1043. I lose a little in high low with a flush draw and a good low draw that doesn’t hit to put me back at 718.

We finally get back to Hold’em and I have around 650 chips left. The blinds say that I try to get them all in when I make a move so I tried. In the BB I get 6J suited and call a middle position raise getting good odds. I flop a flush draw and decide that I will call anything at this point. Middle position guy min-raises and I call with the SB. A heart on the turn gives me the flush so I check hoping that they will put their money in. It’s checked around the river puts a straight draw on the board. The small blind raises and I push reraise. The middle guy folds and the SB calls. His JJ was no good and I move up to around 1500 chips. I fold to the end of the first hour to be just under starting stack.

It didn’t take long to lose some of the chips I had left. I get dealt JAJK double suited and raise it to eliminate some of the field. 4 of us see the flop and I end up having to fold on the river when my trip jacks see a flush draw. I’m now down to 900 chips and have to make a move. That’s when Razz hits again.

Razz my baby doll honey bunch come to me and put me back up near the top please. First hand I get 452 and complete it to 120 and all fold. 978 chips in my stack at this point. 4 hands later I complete with 522 and all fold. I have 1098 in chips. In the end she didn’t help much and I get to stud with 938 chips.

After numerous folds and no cards I’m sitting on 488 after stud is over. Time to pick a hand and go.

The 3rd hand of stud hl comes and I have JJQ and I complete to 200. I have 198 back and raise after 4th street. My jacks hold up for the high and I’m back to 901. A few hands later I get 9QQ and reraise eventually getting my chips all-in. I split and double to almost 1900 chips.

The next round of limit was uneventful until I looked at 77 UTG and raised it to 500 with one caller the flop came ace high so I bet hoping to push my opponent off and it worked. The next hand I get JQ suited on the SB and see a cheap flop. The flop comes 3J8 and I check raise the BB and get called. The turn is a 10 and I raise he calls. The river is a 4 but gives a flush draw and I bet he fold. I may have been behind here but the flush cards may have scared him away. I now have 3600 chips just in time for Omaha hl.

First hand I lose some chips to a shorty that hit and split the big pot. Down to 2200. The next hand I get A34A suited in clubs and raise with one caller. The flop is 1083 and I bet with my AA, he calls. The turn is an Ace and I bet he calls and the river is a K with a bet and call. I take down a big pot to move to 4700 chips. From this point I fold the blinds until Razz.

Come on my baby…help me out. I need you now. This part of the tourney gets tight as many players will not play marginal hands so steals can build your stack. Second hand and A23 takes the pot uncontested. I want action. Next hand I get 56A and call a raise. She pairs and I bet the on the 2 and take it down. Up to 5600 now. 5JA takes another pot when I catch a 2, 4, and 3 by 6th street. Up to 7700 chips. I made a mistake calling with 834 and not being aggressive after the flop. My opponent looked to have a better hand so I checked it down and he caught on 7th street to beat me. It wasn’t a big lose but I felt he may have folded if I bet aggressively. I win another pot with 374 to take the antes and end razz collecting a big pot with a made 7 on 6th street vs. a made 8 on 7th. I’m at 12,000 chips. Not long before I was on the felt. Razz I love you again.

My big hand was getting 101010 in stud and hitting a boat with two others going to 7th street with me. I moved to 23,400 and the chip leader. I lost a few and won a few to get back to hold’em with 22,300. I won a nice hand with 1010 and moved up to 25,500.

In Omaha I lost a few and made some more and moved to 30K plus before dropping to 27K when my lady Razz came back. But she is fickle and gave me no love. When stud started I was down to 20K and looking to get some back. I lost a big hand when I held 10s behind and folded on 5th to pressure. He showed trip 6s. two hands later I get Aces behind and I get one caller who is showing a 3. He reraises me with a jack on 4th street and we get our chips in the middle. He had trip 3s from the get go so I was drawing to two outs from the start. I go home.

It was a good game but I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get further. I made a good laydown just before the end but I didn’t make the one I needed.

Full Tilt, The PPA, and Work

I’m preparing for the quarterly Management Review that will tale place on Friday. I’m almost done with my part of it but I am waiting for others to give me the information they are required to present. I need to put it all into a presentation so that it looks good for the external auditors that will be back in the fall. Fun times.

One of my co-workers will be giving his two weeks notices later today. This is the guy I went to Japan with and have work closely with from the beginning of my employment here. He will be missed and I’m sure I will have to carry some of the load. This will be the second person to leave so far this year and it is making things harder. I had to pick up part of the first person’s work load and really don’t need anymore crap to do. Hopefully I’ll have something else in the near future so I can jump ship with the rest of them. I actually like my job but they don’t seem to be interested in replacing the people that leave. And I don’t want this to interfere with my poker.

And I got this letter yesterday.

Dear pokerenthusiast,

You should be outraged.

You should be outraged that the U.S. government is infringing on your personal rights and telling you how to use your hard-earned money. You should be outraged by the fact that a minority of legislators passed the UIGEA, which impacts your ability to play the great game of poker on the Internet. They did this by slipping the language into a completely unrelated port security bill that went to the floor just minutes before Congress took its break for the mid-term elections. The bill passed without any Congressional debate or opportunity for you to object.

Although many legal scholars would argue that online poker should not be affected by the UIGEA, we believe the law's lack of clarity can only harm the game unless an express exemption is granted under the UIGEA. You should be outraged that, in a rush to passage, poker did not receive the objective review it deserves, and did not already get this express exemption while lotteries, horse racing, and fantasy sports were all given free passes. We demand that Congress address this grievous oversight now.


The PPA's primary goal for 2007 is to get an express exemption for online poker from the UIGEA and we want to ensure that the PPA's message is heard loud and clear by Capitol Hill. By mobilizing 1 million online poker players to join the PPA they will listen, because a million voices can't be ignored! Sign up for any PPA membership before Monday, March 5th and we'll enter you in a PPA Freeroll tournament where you can win one of 18 personalized Full Tilt Poker jerseys like the ones our pros wear.
Step up and make a donation to the PPA before Monday, March 5th and you'll be eligible for a cash bonus of up to $1,000.

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Outrage is good, but outrage without action is useless. Stand up for your rights and help protect the great American game of poker by joining the PPA today.

Sincerely,

Full Tilt Poker

I have enough trouble clearing a bonus so I will not upgrade but for many of you this could be good.

Poker and Me

Back in October I won the Mookie. It was a highlight for me as I realized I could play with all you poker bloggers out there. It also put my bankroll at an all time high. I was ready to take down the online poker world and now had some money to do it with. But then some thing funny happened. I went on a cooler.

The rest of October saw me in 26 tourneys with 2 cashes. November saw me play 29 tourneys with 2 cashes. December up until the 27th saw me play 24 tourneys and 3 cashes. That’s 8.9 % for those of you who don’t know how to figure that out. I had been historically at 17% with a random final table thrown in so this run almost crippled me. The worst part was that I started to chase the loses and would buy into bigger events knowing I had the game to do well but continued to be smacked in the face.

December 28th arrived and a refocusing of my game ensued. I went back to playing smaller events and walked right into a Razz final table. I ended December 1 of 7 but with the final table came the new realization that this could happen again and that I wasn’t just lucky.

January saw 40 tourneys and 9 cashes along with 3 final tables. But was this just variance just evening out? A ten week cooler has to come back around in your favor at some point but I wasn’t sure. February to this point has seen me play 20 tourneys with 8 cashes and 6 final tables in three disciplines, NL Hold’em, HORSE, and RAZZ.

In my analysis of the phenomenon I see a few possibilities. The first is that variance has come back to even out over the long haul and that this string of good finishes will normalize back to the level of six months ago. This theory may have some truth to it but it does have flaws. I will get back to it. The second hypothesis is that I’ve truly improved my game such that I can sustain this level of play over the long run. It might be true but I will get back to it. And finally, getting back to tournaments with fields that are consistently under 500 players has gotten me back to the size field that best fits my game. Though I’ve had some success with bigger fields, these smaller sized tourneys require less long term focus then some of the bigger ones.

I think all three of these things play into each other to give an overall picture of how I am doing. Variance kicked my but for a two month period and had to swing back if my game had not changed. That will account for some of what is going on. I also see signs that my game has improved. I’m reading my opponents better and I will make decisions now that I couldn’t make in the past. And field size does improve a player’s chance of going deep. The land mines are still there but just not as many of them to avoid.

So playing better at a level that fits my style and getting a little help from the god of variance has helped me so far this year. I’m in the positive for tourneys for the year and work at continuing the trend. I have cut down my play a little to let me focus on the ones I am playing and staying away from shot taking for the most part.

I had around $1200 in my bankroll back in October and hit a low of $70 just after Christmas. The trend is moving up as I’m now back to $300 right now and ready to keep on climbing. I doubt if I will reload if I bust so I have to make a go of it.

I posted a while ago that I didn’t know if I wanted to keep playing.

I love poker.

Not Much of a Weekend

I didn’t really play this weekend. Sure I fired up FT one numerous occasions to check on various bloggers but for the most part stayed off the tables. The on play I saw was firing up two sngs on Saturday when the wife and kids were out. 10 minutes later I got a call from my wife’s biological brother (yes my wife was also adopted and was contacted my members of her biological family) and we are now going to meet him in 15 minutes for dinner at a local pizza place. Ultra aggressive mode starts and I chip up huge with the passive plays from my opponents. The problem is that I know someone will catch a hand and they did and I get bounced in both. It was a lot of pushing and reraising and if I had more time I could have slowed down and taken both of the sngs but nope….I had to go.

It was fun talking to him again. We had been getting together with them on a regular basis but life got in the way a little. He and his family only live ½ an hour away I we like them a lot so maybe we’ll start getting together again.

L had a birthday slumber party last night and if you remember this post from last year then you can sympathize. It really wasn’t that bad because the basement became their home for the night and other then intermittent loud noises they were well behaved.

I have an ultra busy week ahead of me and will be heading to Detroit next week so I may not have any poker goodness to distribute to the masses of people who flock to this corner of the blogging universe.

I would like to say way to go to all the bloggers who had success during FTOP this last week and instead of listing them all, just check out this blog links to the right and have a look around.

Sickness and Playing Poker

My throat is raw but the drugs in my system have reduced the fever so that I can work coherently today. Yesterday was a day of lost focus and meandering thoughts that were time eaters. That must mean it is a good time to play poker.

I bubbled off a final table on UB with a 70% favorite but a short stack. The brutal part of the tourney happened late in the first hour. I had chipped up early when my KK beat out QQ and JJ for a triple up and I bought a few pots to put my at 6000 plus chips when I see 1010 in late position. A middle position guy raised it up and I called wanting to see a flop. Q10Q is what I see so I’m good to any hand except pocket queens. He makes a pot size bet and I min raise to get some more in the pot. He pushed and I call. He has AQ and he needs the case queen or to pair the turn card or his ace to win. 7 outs on the river and he hits an ace. A few hands later I get KK and raise with one caller. The flop is K77 and he pushes. I call and see his quads. Just before the break I get AA and get it all-in pre flop vs. JJ and lose to a flopped J. I’m now down to 780 chips. I went super aggressive until I had a starting stack back and then waited for hands. They cam at the right times and I moved up the field. I never fully regained the chip stack I hand % wise but did get back to 17000 or so. Near the bubble one bad hand on a steal attempt took away a large chunk of my stack before I was forced to push or fold. That was my game.

I also cashed in a couple of other tourneys but nothing really big.

And this wouldn’t be one of my bragging posts if I didn’t talk about RAZZ. I final tabled my biatch again in classic style. I stayed very tight and one a few big pots with big hands. I ended up 7th when my made 8 lost out on 7th to a 7. His down cards were good and he did have to make the call because he would have been all but out with a fold.

I have a busy weekend ahead of me so probably no poker. I’m thinking about a breakdown of my results so far this year so look for that in the near future.

I Spent Valentines Day Playing Poker With My Wife's OK

I continue to be bothered by the sickness that has been jumping through the family. My fever is sitting around 102 right now with the delirium helping me to lose focus from time to time. Must be a great time to play a cheap tourney on UB.

It was Valentines Day yesterday so Enthusiast wife and I did our normal thing. She got me a small bag of candy and I got her a huge coffee cup for her morning pick me up. After 14 years of marriage we don’t have to get all crazy with mush and lovey dovey showy affection. In the end I had freedom to play poker last night.

I started off with a HORSE tourney FT. It was a $5 donk fest that run every evening and it went well. I chipped up early with AA and AK that each held up. Omaha was uneventful for the most part and Razz did nothing for me. The stud part of Horse got me going when I won a nice pot and then launched into the tournament lead when I scooped a huge pot with the wheel in HL. I lost some chips when I put a short stack all-in when I held AQ but he hit a 4 and doubled up. So at the end of the first hour I had more then double the starting stack.

The second hour saw me chip up in Razz and then some more in stud only to give it back in HL. I hit a nice pot with KQ in hold’em before giving some back on a flush draw while Omaha treated me like a red-headed step child. At the end of the second hour I was down to 2200 chips and needing a hand.

Razz is my mistress and she was there for me. I doubled early when I hit a 7 and a guy with an 8 chased me down. When we hit the final table I was the short stack but sitting within a few thousand of the leader. I went card dead for a while but caught Aces in stud HL and scooped a big pot. I ended up taking 6th when my pocket 9s got beat in a race vs. AK.













I also went deep in the Daily Double A by taking 27th place for a nice run. I could have held on for a few spots but got caught on a steal. I held QJ suited on the SB and it was folded to me. I pushed and the BB called for 90% of his stack with the all powerful A5. I got two of my suite on the flop but couldn’t get the third to end my night. I got very lucky at one point when I thought a big stack was stealing and I pushed over the top from the BB. I had AJ suited and he had QQ but I spiked an ace to stay alive. At the time I was the short stack of the tourney so it was go time. He gave me crap but he eventually got knocked out making a similar move.

So overall, three tourneys and two cashes and a final table. I’ll take it.

Just Life

I’ve been trying to get hold of my dad for a few days. I call his house and get a busy signal each and every time I call. So yesterday my sister calls me and says she is having the same problem and asks if I’ll run over to his place. No problem. The wind is blowing snow all over the place and I have an hour + drive home anyway but I’ll be glad to drive way out of my way to check on him. Now I really have no issue with going over there because I am worried about him but the time just sucks.

The traffic wasn’t too bad and I made good time driving through the blizzard like conditions with idiots on the road. As I pull into his driveway I can see it has been shoveled so I’m sure he is OK but there is no answer at the door. I have a key but I know that he has to be down at the club.

I see his van and they let me into the AMVETS via the intercom system and there he is…sitting at the end of the bar. I don’t go there very often. The stench of stale cigarette smoke and old people who have given up on life fills the room with an appalling aura. No my father doesn’t fit into this category but for the most part this not a stereo typical remark. The average age of the people in the room is some place north of 65 and they go there to forget how they treated their families and brag about the glories of days past.

Dad and I sit together and talk about things that are going on in our lives. As a matter of fact I need to give him $1 for the bad beat I talked to him about. Anyway, a cold beverage with dad is always a good thing. The worry I felt when I could contact him was replaced with the joy of just talking about anything that came along.

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The Enthusiast wife is under the weather. She contracted the sickness that enveloped M last week and is trying to fight through it now. I now have a slight fever and my throat is like sand paper. I don’t know if it was caused by sickness or the smoke filled room I spent so much time in last night.

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It is Wednesday which means the Mookie but there is no Mookie tonight. I may play a little tonight but being Valentines Day, I may keep off the tables. If I play I’m going to play some NL cash games and maybe some RAZZ tourney action.

Let it Snow

It wasn’t a terrible drive this morning but it was slow and slippery. The forecast says it will continue to snow all day so I’m sure the drive home will really suck.

So with the wintry weather coming, I left the house 30 minutes early to make sure I had plenty of time to make it to work. It only took a little over an hour for the 23 mile drive so I was very happy with the commute. That is until I tried to open the front door to the building. You see, last week when it was really cold, we had a pipe burst. The water ran out the front door and settled between the pavers by the front door. Now if you understand what freezing and thawing does you will know that the bricks moved and thus the door doesn’t open more than a foot. A great start to the morning.

The other day I thought playing a stud SNG would be a great way to work on my stud game. In theory I was probably right but OMG. That had to be one of the worst experiences in my poker life. That game is more suited for cash games in my opinion. And the quality of play was terrible, including mine. It’s one thing to play this in a HORSE tourney but another to do it all the time.

And finally, Doyle didn’t get arrested yesterday. That is terrible news because we all know the kind of menace a man his age can be. I’m sure there are many of us much more deserving of hand cuffs then him.

Air Hockey, Poker and Ball

I put together the airhockey table on Saturday so the basement id basically done. But what a chore that was. These tables are heavy and trying to get it into the basement sucked big time.

I played a little poker on Friday night and made a final table in Razz again. I bad thing was that the field was smaller than I had ever seen. The good part was that the number of paid spots wwas smaller so the payout was better. Most nights this event pays 16 spots but only paid 8. One more player and 16 make the money.

I also went kind of deep in another event but got stupid near the bubble. I had a stack to get me through to the money and was trying to chip up. I tried a steal and eneded up calling a re-raise when I held A9. He held the golden A3 suited and knocked me out when a 3 hit on the turn.

I also played so NL cash games and had success. I was card dead o0n both tables for the first hour and then stacked a guy when my QQ improved to trips and he hit TPTK. I had a few other samll wins to keep me around starting stack for most of the night. It was a great table as 6 players VPIPs at 35% or higher. with 2 obove 50%. The chips flew back and forth until someone ran out and was replaced by a rock. It's great being able to see this information right in front of you instead of keeping track on paper. When it turned into a rock garden I got off and moved to another table.

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I pitched bunting pratice for the girls on Saturday. It was fun to throw hard and not worry about a shot back up the middle. Anyway, these kids are doing so much better then last year. Now granted, 5 of the girls are in there 2nd year of travel ball but most of the others are not far behind. Some of the basic tools are being refined while the experienced players are being challenged with new and deeper drills. There is no question in my mind that this team will get to a championship game at some point this season.

Sunday came and the pitchers had the chance to throw together for the first time. Three of the girls, my daughter included look much better then last year with one of the girls moving up into the 3rd spot in the pitching rotation. She may even be ablt to move into second with the way she throws strike after strike. SHe throws a little slower then the two others but throws hard enough if the defense plays well. L and the other girl did well with L throwing a little harder and equally well throwing strikes. If she can get her change up over the plate she will have a great year.

Fry Day is Here

Not much to say today. It’s one of those days that makes you weary because of the never ending list of things that needs to be done is growing faster then you can complete it.

I played soccer again last night after my time off from an injured thumb. We had another goal keeper there so I played in the field and had a blast. During my first shift I blocked a shot that deflected off my thumb that made me say %$^#&%. But eventually the pain subsided and I am suffering no ill affects today. When the game started I had flashbacks of my injury because we were playing the same team. Visions of the pummeling I took in the net raced across my mind like the reruns on the history channel of the space shuttle Columbia tragedy. We ended up losing the game but it was well played and we had plenty of chances to take control. Our downfall was some loose defense and bad passes across the middle of the field.

Well Friday is here so that implies poker playing on my part but tonight may be an exception. I have a little work to do when I get home so I will only play if I can get done. Hopefully I’ll be playing the donkey game of Razz at some point but we shall see. I think I’ll stay focused and only play 2 or 3 tourneys. This seems to make a difference in how deep I go but we shall see.

My daughter turned 13 the other day. That means 3 years and she can drive which will bring a whole different meaning to family tilt. No she is probably mature enough to drive now but we all know that kids lose some sanity between the age 13 and some point in their early 20s. Then the sanity starts to return and they can actually become intelligent.

Well have a good weekend everyone. TTFN