Good Friday and Riverchasers

Apparently, they don’t celebrate Good Friday in Japan because I’m here at work. Therefore, I did a little research to see if the have a deity or son of a deity that was betrayed, beaten, forced to carry his crucifix and left to die only to be reborn 3 day later. And this is what I found.

Shinto has been around forever basically and doesn’t have scripts like some other religions. There is no preaching and when people die the become kami and are revered by their families. The Sun Goddess Amaterasu is symbolized on the Japanese flag.

Buddhism also has a large following in Japan is based on a circle of life. I will not go into a lot of detail here because Buddhism is very complex and I don’t have that much initiative.

So while many Christians are spending time with their families, I’m wasting productivity by writing this junk. I guess I need to get something out of this under paying job.

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I played the Riverchasers event last night that goes along with The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments and chipped up early with some sets but never got anything big going. I eventually got knocked out somewhere in the 20s on a hand that I truly don’t remember. I do know that I lost a lot of chips when I raised from late middle position with kq and folded to a re-raise that would have put me in. I folded and they showed kk. Wait…I remember…I was blinding down and got pushed into by a short stack and was getting short my self so I called with the all powerful A3. A3 is no good vs. k8 and I got crippled. I ws questionable to call but I was on the BB and folding would have left me with no equity.

I played a few SNGs taking 2 2nds and bubbling the 3rd. It’s funny but I’m starting to really understand how hoy feels when someone calls your re-raise with a hand like K10 when you hold AK and he gets rewarded for a terrible call.

I have some funny stuff to write but I want to save it for Monday because we all need a lift on Mondays.

Mooooookie and Dooooookie

Well I ended up playing the Mookie last night and made a nice run. I got very lucky on two different occasions when I got in behind and sucked out big time. The first time was against the eventual champion Miamidon when he raised from middle position. I had been playing tight and was getting short and sitting on the BB with A10 suited. My M is 4 and even though I’m behind I’m hoping for a coin flip. I was actually dominated by AK but spiked a 10 to hold on. Later on I went for a steal when I was on the button. It was folded to me and I raised 4x with Q8. The big blind short stack pushed with JJ but I had to call getting 3-1 and I sucked out with a Q.

Up to this point I really didn’t have much for cards and was very lucky to be in the game. My best hand to this point was pocket 8s and they caused me to lose half of my stack. Well things started to change and I caught some cards. I came over the top of a few raises because I new I could take some pots. My image was tight and I got respect. I had solid hands and chip equity and they helped me move up.

With the blinds at 200/400 with an ante of 50, I get XX suited on the button. My opponent raises to 1200 from UTG and it is folded to me. A call is for 1/3 of my chips and leaves me with an M of 4 point something if I fold after the flop so I push. I know this opponent with raise from this position with less then top cards so I feel I’m ahead. He calls right away with 56 suited, same suit as mine, for 28% of his stack. Now I could have gotten away from this hand easily from the button but I chose to push. I’m playing 13% of the hands to this point. What is my range of hands.

From my view point I’m only raising with very solid hands. My range for the push is prolly 77-AA and AK or AQ. 28 combinations of cards put my over the top. Against 56 suited my AKs and AQs are between 60-40 and 64-36 percent favorites. Lets just say 62-38 for arguments sake. AA-JJ are about 77-23 and 1010-77 are about 79-21. When you put this together you get 66.6-33.4 or 2-1 odds. I don’t have the hand history but from memory he was getting 2.2-1 with a call. Good call. I had AQ suited and he hit a boat to knock me out.

Would I make this call? No because I’m weak and wouldn’t raise UTG with 56 suited. It seemed to be a marginal call, considering my hand requirements, at the time but the math says it’s almost even so well played.

I think I played ok, not my A game by any means but waited for the deck to come back to me. Is pushing with AQ suited in that position the right thing to do? My opponent had a big stack and was wielding like a hammer, trying to chip up. I knew I was ahead and will make that play again.

I also played the Dookie and and got to the final table. I was chip leader for much of the event but went card dead. And in a turbo event it sucks to be card dead when the blinds climb so fast.



I’m gonna try and play the riverchasers event tonight but with Maundy Thursday hitting I don’t think I’ll be back from church. We’ll see.

The Pagan God Variance

Sacred womb, giver of the secrets of felt,
Mother of all that exists in the Universe,
I ask your guardianship on the virtual felt
and your assistance in my degeneracy.
I celebrate your gifts in honor of you.

This is my pagan chant that I will be speaking to try to win influence from the poker god Variance. She is mighty and all-powerful. All hail Variance.

I won’t go into all the things that would threaten to make me turn from our lord and savior. The temptations of the virtual felt have taken my soul and spit it out into the fires of hell. And the lord shall spite me for my sins of poker degeneracy. But mother Variance will bring me up to her random number generator in the sky and give me the power to live a life of degenerate bliss, at her side.

This has been brought to you by the people at Exaggeration of Life and in no way resembles my true feelings.

I will not do a waffles rant because I could not do it with near the gusto he does it with. I will not place a list of the beats that took place last night because it will not help. I will not move on and be a productive member of the blogging community.

Now that that is over, I can tell you that my SNG quest is over. The ability to move up from $5 without a little luck in the beginning is hard to accomplish. I didn’t do it. It not from trying hard. I grinded out a bunch last night but the fonkeys (the word “fonkey” has been used without permission from the creator) prevailed and left me with .87 in that account. I will try again but I think I will attack it a different way.

I had a chat with George about doing an SNG challenge last night. After talking with him I think I’ll start at a higher level and with a deeper but-in requirement because starting with 4 buy-ins was just to prohibitive to success. I think I’ll start with 20 buy-ins at the $2 level and start over. Maybe George and I can put a side wager on the challenge for some extra incentive.

I played a couple of MTTs last night with little success. I made a nice run on UB reaching 12 spots from the money with a better then average stack until the wheels came off. It started when I tried to push a semi short stack off a hand when I held 99. The flop came A73 and I bet 2/3 of his stack. He pushed with his pocket queens. Now I know this is questionable by me but who calls that bet with an ace showing after I had raised pre-flop with my 9s? I know I was behind but I had shown good cards all night. Anyway, he made a good call and I lost a big chunk of chips. I ended up getting knocked out on a steal attempt as I started to get blinded down. Dumb moves by me in that I should have waited for better hands. In the other tourney, I had a good stack but my pocket kings lost a race vs. Ax and went home with about 40 from the money.

I may or may not play the Mookie tonight. I have the final rehearsal before our cantata at church so I may not be home in time. Don’t let that keep you from playing.

Tournament: The Mookie
Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Wednesday. 10pm ET
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

I found my cell phone.

Sometimes...

The end of March showed me something more then a continued run on the poker tables. It gave me some sort of sickness that is kicking my ass. I think I’ve lost 5 pounds of snot as I’ve been blowing my nose constantly for the last three days.

Last night surf gave me a call as I was starting practice for Speedy Enthusiast team. We talked for a couple of minutes and then I started practice for the young ladies. As I was heading home, I called him back because I couldn’t remember anything he said and being that he is so important I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t miss a thing.

That was the last time I saw my cell phone.

I don’t misplace things for the most part. I have a couple of places that I keep my wallet, keys and cell phones, so if they are not in one place then they are in the other. That is until this morning. I feel naked without it.

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No poker last night. This time of year will make big impact on the amount of poker I play. Considering that I’ve cut back already my time will on the virtual felt will be minimal. Looking at practice schedules over the next month and then the game schedules through July, I see games almost every night of the week and many weekends that will be filled with ball. I loved playing the game and truly get just as much enjoyment from watching my children play.

Speedy Enthusiast tried to throw yesterday but her shoulder is still sore. She still took ground balls and did the drills she could but I think she’s still a week away from light throwing.

Baseball Enthusiast had his first practice ever and made a tag play and threw the ball to first for an attempted double play. Considering he is 5, I would say he has a nose for the game.

Softball Enthusiast has the week off from practice so she played catch with a friend and worked on her pitching. She really wants to be the #1 pitcher on her team so I’m glad she’s working on her own to get better.

The Ides of March

March is over but I didn’t achieve the same success I had last month. 8 final tables for the month that paid and a couple of more that didn’t for 10 total. I guess I can see that things were running good last month and for part of this month. Overall my better hands were holding up or I had accumulated enough chips to overcome the beats that hit me.

In the end, I had a return of over 100% in my MTT play for the month and cashed in 21% of the tourneys I played and generally happy with my game. The highlight of the month was taking down a $5 MTT on UB for a $265 payday. This isn’t huge for many of the players out there but a win is a win. That tourney alone covered my expenses for the rest of the month.

I cashed in 5 different types of events over the month including Horse, Razz, PLO and PLO 08. I’m happy with the diversity of my game and I feel that playing these different games help all of my games in different ways. My biggest need for improvement is in stud. I think my game has improve a lot and I’m starting to do a better job of placing players on their down cards but I have a long way to go.

I think one of the areas that I’ve improved is staying away from getting my chips all-in to early in the hand. This has given me the ability to get away from a big hand that has missed a flop. I’m going broke less often and chipping up better. It also gives me an better image when I come over the top. I’m winning more hands uncontested when I re-raise with this method so we’ll se how it continues.

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I grinded out a bunch of SNGs last night as part of my challenge. I had little success but did increase my challenge bankroll to about $12. The juice is killing me so I need to get this up into $23 range so I can have a little room to work. I made one big mistake though when I signed up for a $2 heads up match by mistake. Don’t ask me how I did it because I’m not sure my self. Anyway, a 27% ROI is less then I’m looking for but not bad considering the juice. Another 25 at this rate should get me to the next level.

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As much as I’d like to play all the blogger event that are coming around over then next 3 months, I don’t think I can do it. I don’t have the bankroll to play the $20 hoy events and play the Mookie and/or Riverchaser events. It’s to bad because I’d like to give this a shot. I’ll probably play some Mookie’s and a few Riverchaser’s but I can’t fit the whole thing into my bankroll.

Play With Pain

Speedy Enthusiast is out of here sling and feeling much better though she still has pain. I worked with her to lift her arm up to see her range of motion and she gets parallel to the floor before the pain hits. I’ll probably wait until next week before I start her on some physical therapy to help her along.

Now I’m not a doctor but I have had my share of injuries during my career as a ballplayer which includes surgery to repair a torn labrum on my right shoulder. I went through therapy the year before the surgery in hope that I wouldn’t have to get the repair job done and it did help. The problem was that all the pain return at the start of the next season so I had to start all over again with the workout routine. It helped again but after consulting with my orthopedic surgeon and having some test done it was determined that I needed to get it fixed if I wanted to play without pain. So do I quit playing the game I love or fix my bum shoulder for a few more years of adolescent like activities? Fix it.

More rehab and it feels much better. The arm numbing pain is gone when I fire the ball abut is replaced by a general weakness that bothered me for years after. It didn’t bounce back like before and I had to live with a small amount pain every time I threw the ball for the next 8 years. That is until It finally dawned on me that I need to keep exercising those muscles all year long. Then it went away.

So I played with pain for 8 years after the surgery when I could have done a little work throughout the year and played relatively pain free. During that last 3 years I’ve been able to use my arm again and now I’m to old and out of shape to play as much as I used to play.

What all this really means is that I don’t want this injury to my daughter to have any long term issues. And even though she isn’t a die hard ballplayer like her sister, she plays the game and it isn’t fun for a 10 year old girl to have to play in pain. I would never expect her to have to go through the things I went through to play. It just isn’t that important. What I can do is guide her back into well being and that is what I will do.

Creating a New Focus

Yesterday started out with a quick jaunt to work before heading up north to a customer with one of the sales guys. We ate lunch at a place called Qdobe that was uninspiring and got to the plant around one o’clock. An hour of plant tours and discussions went smoothly as they make a transition that could double our sales to them. We got to the office just in time for me to head home so over all it was a great day at work.

From there I headed to church for Wednesday service followed by choir practice. We are doing a 25-minute cantata next weekend so we spent 2 hours rehearsing this interesting piece of music. We have it all but licked and will be ready by game time.

I didn’t get home until after the start of the Mookie so I didn’t get to play but I did watch as Don dismantled the field. He caught a big hand when he flopped a full house to newin’s straight to take a huge chip lead at the final table.

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Smokkee and Waffles have had their sng challenges and even though I like sngs, I don’t think I want to be forced to grind that many out. But, what I’m going to do is put $5 into my old account and try a little low level grinding. It will have to go well early or the huge rake that FT charges for the $1 sngs will kill me. I think I’ll do 20 and reevaluate where I’m at. When I get to 15 buy-ins at a level then I will move up to the next level. Additionally, I will drop down if I go below 15 so that I can stay in bankroll management mode. Ultimately, I want to see if I can build it up to the $5 level within 100 sngs. I think this is doable. In the end, I will keep track of how many it takes to reach my goal and then try to beat it later.

I’ll also continue to play some tourneys as these are truly my passion. My MTT game has come so far that it would be a shame to just push it aside for a little quest. The difficult part will be doing this with the time constraints I have. I have cut my playing time in at least half, more like a third during the last few months so trying to grind out these sngs and still play tourney will be difficult. I suppose I could just bit the bullet and take one night a week and bang out 15 or 20 sngs but I’m not sure I want to do that. We’ll have to see how it works out.

As I re-read this, you can see, I’m trying to accomplish a focused goal with this sng challenge but my resolve is wavering. I don’t want to give up the MTTs. I don’t know, do I scrap the idea or just do it and ignore my desires?

Tell me what you think.

Focus

Focus is one of the key ingredients that you need to be successful. I know this is not a new idea but it is fully true. All aspects of life require different levels of focus to attain the desired results you are looking for and thus worthy of a post.

When I was younger, I had a friend who was a very good dart player. He would school me whenever we played and it pissed me off. He would keep the game just close enough that I felt I had a chance and then he would slam the door shut and leave me feeling incomplete. Therefore, I went and bought a nice bristle board and a good set of darts and started to practice. Our game of choice was cricket so I would throw at a particular number; let us say 20, for 15 minutes and then move on to the next number. I did this almost every day for months until I felt that I could beat him. I did.

During my fastpitch softball career, I had the ability to raise my game when I needed to. As I look back at the glory days, I can still feel the emotions that I felt then. Coming through with a clutch base hit or making diving catch to end the hopes of the opposing team became almost routine at times. One of the main reasons I quit playing wasn’t because of the pain I played with but the fact that I couldn’t make some of the plays that I was used to making.

From 7th grade through high school, I was always a runner. I didn’t get tired or should I say I didn’t allow my self to be tired. I ran my first 10K (6.2 miles) when I was in 7th grade and finished in 38 minutes. That is a pace of 6:08 per mile. I never trained for that race other then the running I did in soccer practice and I can still remember parts of the race even though it was 26 years ago. The part I remember most is mile 4. It was between two cornfields in the middle of nowhere and I wanted to stop. I thought that each step would be my last because of the utter feeling of loneliness I was feeling. I resolved to get to the next water station and picked up my second wind and the rest is history. As I came around the last turn and headed to the finish line some 300 yards away, I picked up my pace and was at a full sprint when I crossed the finish line.

There is one thing that each of the stories has in common. It is the ability to focus on the goal at hand. The difference between success and failure is as small as a little focus at the right time. In each case, I used focus in different ways. For example, in softball I used my focus for many small periods of time. My focus was at its peak when the pitch was thrown and would return for the next pitch. During my dart exploration, I had to maintain focus for months at a time to achieve the goal I had set.

So where does poker fit into this. Poker has many layers of focus that need to be sustained depending on the goals you set. True focus cannot be attained if you don’t have goals that are both a challenge and attainable. The challenge is needed to feel fulfillment but focus will diminish if goal cannot be attained.

I find my self having to re-evaluate my goals for many reasons. A good example of this goes back to mid December. I was floundering in my game and giving away clumps of money on the tables after months of building my bankroll. I stepped back, looked at my original goals, and realized that I had lost focus of my goals. I started playing in events that were bigger then I was used to playing and quit playing the ones that I had been successful at. I readjusted my goals and have won back almost everything that I gave away.

Since that time, I’ve been playing well. I had 12 final tables in February and have 7 so far this month. But where do I go from here. The last time I was at this point I went on a terrible run and lost most of my bankroll. I don’t have a way to easily get my money off of the poker sites I play so I have to come up with a new plan. I am afraid I have reached the wall and now I need to focus to fight through the pain so I can pick up my pace on the other side.

Fear is not a good thing in poker and fear is like nervousness. Now is the time for me to put up or shut on the poker tables. When I played ball I learned to change my nervousness into focus and that is where I’m starting to struggle. I think I’m playing a little complacent right now and need to get back the focus that I had.

Kat's Tourney, Slowing Down and Having Lunch With a Pro

Tournament #15387473, Katitude's Poker Night
Password: martini
Date: Friday, March 30
Where: Full Tilt Poker
Time: 9:00 EST
Buyin: $10+ $1
Game: NLHE

You must play this on Friday if you have a chance. From what I hear, Kat is having a birthday on that day so I’m sure it will be a good time.

Yesterday JJ posted about slow playing during sections of a HORSE tourney to get by a section, such as stud, to reduce your –ev during that orbit. I thought about this a little bit and like to throw my thoughts out there.

Now one of the context that he was using was to wait out a shorter stack so that they will be all-in near the money bubble. This type of thing happens all the time and though it slows the game down I think that it would be stupid for a short stack to ignore the use of the time bank. But when the bubble breaks I think the shorty should return to normal playing standards until the next bubble line. This is frustrating but a good strategy for the bubble dwellers.

Another idea that was brought up was slowing down in HORSE when there is a game that you don’t play or understand well. Actually, if you don’t understand the game then you shouldn’t be playing but what if you are deep in a tourney and near a final table. Is it ok to slow down during limit hold’em because you are a great stud player? Well it could be a +ev action. If you reduce the number of hands you see at a game you don’t play well then it has to improve your chances. Now I don’t agree with letting your time bank run out but I think it is OK to give each hand a thoughtful look. Even if I have no intention of playing a hand I think it’s ok to take 5 or 10 seconds to make a decision.

There are drawbacks to taking longer. The blinds start to increase to a level that playing the game becomes more luck then skill. A good player wants more hands to be played while the novice wants to push any small edge for all of there chips. Hell the novice just wants to push because they know they can’t beat the better player. So slow playing a weaker game may be a negative depending how far in the tourney you stand. Playing a game like stud hard can win uncontested pots and build your stack. And the average skill level of a hold’em player is higher then the average stud player. Increasing your play at the least skilled games is a positive if you have any skills at all.

So I guess I think it’s ok to slow down at times but learning the games that you struggle with is a better option.



Yesterday I went to my buddy’s restaurant for lunch. This nothing new because I’m over there a couple of times a week. Anyway, the extremely tall guy walks in and I’m thinking he looks familiar. After a few minutes I realize it is former Cubs pitcher Dave Otto. He is currently doing a show on tv so I’m sure I recognized his face but what made me sure was his voice. Cool stuff. He has been coming there for a long time and my buddy, a Cubs fan, never realized it.

I didn’t call attention to the fact because most of these guys, though friendly, are out having lunch with friends and don’t want to be disturbed. I mean, if you were having lunch with a buddy and A-Rod came up and interrupted your meal you’d be pissed.

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I played the $26 token frenzy last night and lucked my way into a token. At one point the blinds were climbing and I looked at my 1K chip stack and I pushed with 107. I had not played a hand in forever and was just trying to steal the blinds. I get called by the button who held 44 but I win the race when I hit a 4 flush. One play starts to give me crap for the move but I don't see the point. How good is 44 in this situation. For the most part the only hands that he is clearly ahead is 22 and 33. It just so happened that my coin flip came in. The best part was this move gave my opponents the chance to pay me off with my good hands. Later I catch AK and get called down by K10 and when I caught AA and re-raised a big stack he pushed with K10 and I doubled again. At one point I had Gcox25 at my table and I saw Buddydank and Garth in the field.

I played a couple of MTTs but didn't do well. I went out in the middle of the field in HORSE and RAZZ and made the decision to play one more NLH tourney. I was completely card dead but kept my stack near starting level with some steals. With the blinds getting to the 100/200 level I get AQ in the BB and push over the top of a cutoff raise. He insta calls with KJ for 1/3 of his stack and hits a jack to send me home.

I played one sng after that and cashed to end the evening at even.

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I'm working on a post about focus that I hope will be ready tomorrow so stayed tuned.

Emergency, Emergency

Friday night was a night like any other. I logged on to play some poker and I see that Chris Ferguson is signing up for some $5 tourneys on Full Tilt like Horse, PL Omaha and Razz and since I like these events I jumped on. The fields quickly swell into the 300+ people range so I’m excited about the chance to go deep in one of these. Horse kicked off first and I was card dead for the first hour. I think I was sitting just below starting stack when Razz hit the second time and I chipped up a little. Stud was my friend as I hit a boat and a straight to gain significant chips. I moved into stud hl and won a little more and by the end of the second hour I was sitting great. By the time I got to the end of Stud hl in the 3rd hour, I had a top ten chip stack of 13K and we were just off the money. I know I’m going deep and with this bigger field the final table pays much better then most nights. The it happened. I lost Full Tilt.

My connection started going crazy I was in and out of the action and couldn’t do anything about it. Waffles was playing some Razz and he said he was having no issues. I got on the girly chat and tried to get in touch with slb and http://jacksrok.blogspot.com/ but neither were around the computer. I gave surf a call on the phone but he didn’t answer, he was playing live at kurokitty’s, and then my savior answered back on the chat box. Slb came to the rescue as I gave him my password so he could continue the tourney for me.

All this time I’m trying to get back on Full Tilt but I get nothing. Only that stupid little connection screen you get before you sign on is showing up. Slb then logs out of the girly chat and I can’t get him back. Visions of my miniscule bankroll disappearing run through my head as I waited patiently for his reappearance. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he logs back in and sends me a message. “I had to reboot”. Relief is what I felt and he takes over the game with 27 players left and sitting in 17th place. My chip stack was down to 7K and I start to think about what could have happened if I didn’t lose my connection.

So here I am, sitting with my laptop, unable to see what’s going on. I want updates every second but I eventually just sit back and wait for the reports. The he posts in the chat “pokerenthusiast collects 10K from the side pot, pokerenthusiast collects 48K from the main pot”. He had moved us into top 5 with 14 left. From this point on he gained some chips and lost some chips but he got us to the final table.

At this point I tried to log onto Full Tilt again and did so with an old account and watched the final table from the side lines. I took a few screenshots of “our” success for posterity and at the end of the 4th hour we were in 4th place with 5 left.





At this point I asked him if he wanted to finish the game or hand it back to me. I honestly didn’t care if he wanted to finish but he let me take it back. I signed back on and outlasted the short stack.


At this point, nobody had an M much greater then 20 and mine was around 10. It was really a time to catch some cards. In the end, I took a hit when I played back at the big stack on my right and got caught. I was then virtually crippled and got my chips in the middle with Ah4 vs. Kh5 and the flop came with 3 hearts 457. Of coarse my better starting hand gets out flopped but I do have the nut flush draw. It doesn’t come in and we go out 4th.


I can’t say enough about slb. I put him in a tough position by asking him to take over in a game he doesn’t play. He came through with flying colors so I honor him today with a shout out. I offered to split with him but he said a split wasn’t needed. We all know that wasn’t true.

You can go to his recap of the event here.

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Yesterday Speedy Enthusiast decided to fall and separate here shoulder. She’s ok but a late night visit to the ER and a sling later means no PE class for a week. She was at a friend’s house on a trampoline and landed on here back with her arm behind her. I can feel her pain.