tp's table talk

I’m feeling horrible this morning. I knew yesterday when I was noticing that my throat was starting to get sore that I was probably coming down with something, but it was confirmed this morning when I woke up feeling even worse with a nice little cough to boot. But the doctor’s advice is a little poker blogging, or it might have been if I consulted a doctor and they knew what poker blogging was.

Last night was my bi-weekly pot limit Hold’em tournament. I’ve been putting these on for the past two months and have an average turnout of about a dozen guys. Buy-in is 20+2 for 1000 in chips. We had twelve last night and started at two tables of six, with a merge at eight. I got a lucky draw and ended up at a table half filled with our traditional dead money boys. But, they managed to surprise us this night.

Everyone was playing much tighter than usual. Often we see a few people limp to see the flop, but this there was a lot of folding going on. Except for Mr. Dead-Money himself, who started the night very aggressive, stealing the first 3-4 pots. He continued to play aggressive and picked up small pots throughout the first level. I wasn’t too concerned because I didn’t have the cards to call him down, and I knew I could outplay him later, even if he had the chip lead.

The first player (3s) busted out at our table during the second orbit. He had made an ill-conceived call a few hands earlier. The board was KQQT and he had put in a sizable bet (I figured him for a Q) and was called. I wasn’t sure what his opponent (1s) had, but was thinking probably two pair. The river came a K and the 1s put himself all-in for a good chunk of the 3s’s remaining chips and most of the pot. I was convinced that the 1s had Ks over Qs full, but the 3s thought for a good long while and eventually called, putting himself in terrible chip position. Now, I asked him afterwards what he thought the 1s had and he said was hoping he had the other Q. I told him that it probably wasn’t worth risking most of his chips just to split the pot, which would only have earned him a couple hundred in chips. A light went on in his eyes and he spent the rest of the night cursing the call.

My first hand of interest was QTo on the button, blinds were 20/40 I believe. There were two folds and Mr. Dead-Money limped. Since I was in position, I doubled his bet. The blinds folded and Mr. DM saw the raise. Flop came AJ6. Mr. DM bets and I have to figure him for an ace. But, I know that I intimidate this guy, so I decide to play. Besides, I have the inside straight draw. I raise his minimum bet 100$. He calls and we see the J turn. He checks and I think perfect, he doesn’t have the J, probably has the A. I represent a J myself with a 200$ bet. He thinks and he thinks and finally calls. Now I’m a bit nervous, he may be too invested at this point to fold. I pray for a K but the river comes a 9. He checks immediately and I start fingering my chips. I don’t want to put myself all-in because I’m pretty sure he has me beat. But I really think I can bluff him off the pot. I put in a 200$ bet and sit back waiting for him to act. He starts squirming in his chair, looking for some sign from me. Of course, I don’t quite have my emotions in check for live games yet, so my heart is pounding and I really hope he doesn’t see too much of my nervousness. Then again, I am nervous with both good and bad hands, so he probably wouldn’t know what to make of it. Eventually he mucks his cards, showing A3. He tells me he figured me for an A with a bigger kicker, which wasn’t really such a bad call. Of course, he forgets that later when he calls me with a pair of tens, 2 kicker, when he should have figured me for at least tens, which were second pair.

The bluff hand brought up a bit of a dilemma. I had brought a notepad to take a few notes, but I couldn’t very well write that I bluffed this guy, particularly while sitting at the table. I ended up just scribbled some poorly written notations that hopefully I’d be able to interpret later, but that was the last chance I had to take any notes between playing cards and handling my tournament director duties.

The good news was that the two-time defending champ when out second on the night, followed by a player who had busted me out in third a month back.

The next few levels were pretty forgettable. The fourth player busted out and we merged to one table. The big surprise was that Mr. Dead Money and his friend - who was wearing sunglasses in a hilarious attempt to improve his game - had made it to the final table. And even more surprising, Mr. Dead Money was close to the chip lead.

Even though Sunglasses was severely shortstacked, he managed to survive long enough for the 7s to go all-in with his 2-pair vs. a set a queens. Apparently at the other tables queens had been cursed and had done a lot of damage to different players. This would hold true throughout the night.

Sunglasses fell soon after, but then the table tightened up a bit. The two chip leaders were hemorraging chips and I was stealing pots left and right. Mr. Dead Money was the next to go, followed by equally dead that had started at the other table. They had come to the table with the chip lead, but their style of “Well, you never know” sunk them quickly. Fourth place went to a pretty decent player who went all in with pocket rockets and was called by presto. First card flopped was a 5 and no help came.

Then I had a couple more memorable hands. I was stealing pretty often, but I had cards enough that it might hurt when someone decided to call me down. Blinds were 200/400 and I had about 3700 in chips. In the big blind with A9o, I raise to 1000. I get called by the small blind and we’re going to see a flop. It comes 873. He checks and I bet 1500, figuring the flop didn’t hit him, but when he comes back over the top of me to put me all in, I figure maybe he a pair in the hole. I’m certain that I am beat at this point, and I don’t want to go all-in on a draw, so I fold. Immediately on folding I realized I had made a mistake. I should have called just based on the horrible chip position I was now in. If the turn or river hit, I was in great shape to win and as it was with my short stack, I didn’t have much chance at anything but third. I eventually learned that my opponent had A7, so I would have been drawing to the one card, so it was probably just as well, but I still think it was the wrong play.

Two hands later I am on the button with 77 and decide this is it. I put in my last 1000 and I am called by the big blind. He flips Q2 and I’m feeling pretty happy about doubling up. Of course, I had forgotten about the curse of the Q, and the flop slaps me in the face. No 7 on the river or turn and I’m out third. I already had a third and fourth place finish in the first three tournaments, so I was really hoping for a higher finish, but thems the breaks I suppose.

Heads up play went on for a while until J3h went all-in against Q9, and well, the Q reared her ugly head one more time to finish the tournament. It had been an impressive comeback as the winner had lost most of their chips 10 hands earlier on a bad suckout. But, his aggression against his notoriously tight opponent brought him the victory - though I’m not sure what notoriously tight was doing going in with J3. All in all, it was another successful tournament. And now I’m collecting fees to pay off my recent purchases for the game, so it’ll be nice to have that cash back.

The good: - my aggression at the final table. - intimidation play early.

The bad: - too much aggression with premium hands at the final table scared people off. - bad fold on a huge pot.

The ugly: - busting out in third … AGAIN.

The highlight of the night was our new table. One of the guys who showed up at our last tournament makes his own tables and offered to build us one for cost of materials. A week later he sends me an email that he is moving to California and is looking to get rid of one of his tables. He offers to bring it to our next tournament so we can give it a test drive. He dropped it off yesterday morning and the table looks and feels great. I host our game at my office (with permission) and we usually use the lunch tables to start and then we play on the pool table when we merge. It’s not the most comfortable table to sit at, but playing on felt makes up for it. And the pool table is so old and mistreated already, we aren’t too worried about doing more damage to it.

But what a difference the new table makes. The rails were perfect and finally we didn’t have to worry about hitting our knees on the pool table. Now I just have to find out how much it’s going to cost me.

Anyone else have trouble coming up with titles for their blog posts? I usually try to think of something at least halfways clever, but sometimes nothing comes. So “Thursday” it is.

I just got the password for the Poker Blogger World Poker Tour II from Iggy, so I guess I’m officially going to be donating to playing in the tournament this time around. I have no illusions about my chances at making the final table, but I am looking forward to being at the same table as some of the great poker bloggers out there.

Geek that I am, I was just poking around the webstats for my site and I noticed that the hits on this site have rocketed (relatively) over the past week or so. I figured that being mentioned over at Iggy’s site would increase my traffic I bit, but I think I can thank Jeremy at Love and Casino War for a lot the new hits. Since many of the browsers hitting the site show up as Syndirella, I think being included on his great poker blog collection is probably my biggest source of new readers.

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I managed to get some time in at both Empire and Party last night. I played a lot of good poker (and some bad), but a handful of bad river suckouts left me down on the night. Having my connection to the internet drop mid-hand didn’t help much either. But, I’m going to try follow Felicia’s advice and not spend too much time focusing on results from one table or one session. I do have Poker Tracker and a handrolled Excel spreadsheet that I use to track longer term results, but it’s still hard not to get excited about a good night. That being said, I’m not letting bad sessions get me as down as I was, so that’s a step in the right direction.

Only a few hands of note last night. After some frustrating losses, I peeked at my cards and decided that the 72o I saw there was good enough to play. That’s right, I had The Hammer and chose to use it to smite my opponents. Of course, I was really just on tilt and a bit desperate for something to turn my luck around. The flop came A73 and I bet into it, hoping that the A was not out there (did I mention I was tilting?). The turn was another 7 and I just keep right on betting. I’m heads-up going to the river where a blank falls and my opponent folds to my bet. Unfortunately I forgot to uncheck the muck cards box and the other appropriate etiquette for playing The Hammer, but it still brought a smile to my face and helped me shore up my play afterwards.

It also helped that shortly thereafter, my A7h in the big blind turned into the nut flush on the flop (it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen a made hand on the flop). Unfortunately, there were only two other players still in the hand. But I still slowplayed it, getting the bets and flat calling the flop and turn before check-raising (and capping - I believe he thought I was bluffing with the check-raise and wanted to push me out) the river. The 16BB pot was the biggest I’ve seen in a while. Every time I’ve tried to grow the pot with a good hand recently, a miracle card hits an opponent on the river and it slips through my fingers. Or everyone folds early, which was what I was worried about with this hand. I wish I’d have had a better read on the two players in with me so I could have judged whether they would have kept betting into my raises.

I have some notes on a few other hands I was going to write about, but they make me look pretty stupid, so I think I may just skip them. (sure, my trip tens looked good, but when the almost made straight showed on the river with 6 people in the pot, maybe I should have been more cautious - for the record, I didn’t even see it, but I’m not sure if that makes it better, or worse. And with a K88 flop, who would think that the turn 5 gave someone a boat 5s over 8s.)

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Tonight I have my bi-weekly home PLHE tournament. I’ve changed the buy-in to 20$+2$, so I can pay off the chips and cards I recently bought to upgrade the game. And a buddy that is moving to California just dropped off a homemade poker table that he wants to sell to me before he leaves. It is very well-made, and I’d really like to buy it off him, but it’ll take a while to pay off with the 2$ tournament fee. We’ll see how nice it is to play with tonight.

The last game was my first out of the money, so hopefully I’ll revisit the final table again tonight. And I’m going to try to take some notes if at all possible so I can put together a good trip report, even if the trip is to my own home game.

I had a great dinner last night at a Portugese restaurant with an old friend I hadn’t seen in far too long. The BBQ chicken, roast potatoes and rice was pretty simple, but the hot sauce it comes with to dip is to die for. I’m looking forward to going back in the summer when they have the patio open and apparently they have BBQ pig on a spit that they serve while you are waiting for your meal. And I have to order some of the other delicious sounding things on their menu.

I came home late and sated and decided to forgo poker for the evening, so no poker tales today (for which my friend Chris is probably grateful. Instead, I’m going to update my link list to the right with a few more of the great poker blogs that I read on a regular basis. I still haven’t listed everything yet, but I’ve got most of my favourites up. Of course, davidross doesn’t have an official blog of his own, but I love his weekly updates over at 2+2.

I played in my Tuesday night Ultimate game last night and we won handily. Of course, the other team was short a player, so it wasn’t much of a contest. But it was good to get the female players some more action. They were making a lot of good catches and throws and were learning how to move to space.

Because of the game, I didn’t get home until a later in the evening. At first I was going to forgo poker for the evening, but when I saw that I had my cashout confirmation from Empire, I decided that maybe I would test the waters at TruePoker. From what I had read from other bloggers, I was looking forward to the experience.

Unfortunately, when I got it installed, I saw that the lowest real money stakes were 1/2. I’ve always promised myself that I wouldn’t move up a limit until I hit 200BB, so I decided I would just play around on the play money tables to familiarize myself with the interface. I played for a good 2-3 hours (losing 10BB or so) and I’m still not sure that I like it. I went from enjoying the novelty of it to disliking all the extraneous features to a comfortable satisfaction. I’ll have to put in some more time before I decide if I want to put some money in when I get my bankroll to the 200BB mark. I’m also going to have to check out what the formula is for unlocking the 20% sign-up bonus.

Of course, with that 200BB goal looming over me, I started up a table at Empire so I could try to make some money while getting used to TruePoker. Of course, it didn’t quite work out like that. I was 12BB down before I knew it. I shouldn’t have started up another table when I was paying so much attention to the TV and already distracted by a foreign table. I was down at 2$ of my 20$ buy-in at one point but managed to claw my way back up to 15$ with some solid play with some pretty unspectacular cards. Unfortunately, I fought a little too hard to get back up to even and ended up at 5$ when the table broke. If it weren’t for my bad play at the start of the session (which cost me 12$ and an additional 3-8$ when I went to the felt on a good flop) I would have posted a small profit on the night. Instead I’m another 15$ distant from the 200BB mark. Hopefully I’ll be able to hit the nice run I’m about due soon and I’ll finish off the difference quickly. Then I can move to squeaking out small profits at a slightly higher limit. Still, I’m averaging 6.5BB/hr according to Poker Tracker, and that’s not accounting for me huge wins when I first started playing online before I realized I could request hand histories.

My volleyball team handily won our game last night, so I was in a pretty good mood when I got home. After a quick shower I decided to play the rest of the hands I needed to unlock my Empire bonus.

Things started off pretty poorly. I had QQ cracked early when an A fell on the flop, but I didn’t waste any money pursuing it. I actually went 25 hands or so before I found some cards. And even then it was a small pot as no one wanted to bet into me when I slowplayed my flush.

After 40 hands of this, I started to bluff at some pots, as I am wont to do when cards are running cold. Though my first play worked out, my second attempt ran into the hand I was trying to counterfeit sitting immediately to my left on the button. So much for my profit from the first bluff. But all of this was giving me a bit of a better read on the rest of the table. There were a few individuals who would call my aggression all the way to the river only to fold when they didn’t hit their cards. I was able to use this to my advantage to steal a couple 8-10$ pots. Unfortunately my cards continued to run cold, and what few cards I did see were ruined by some bad turn cards. I bounced between 10$ up and 10$ down, finally calling it quits with a 2$ profit on the night.

The good news was that I had played the required hands and 30$ had been added to my account. I pulled my 300$ rebuy back out and I’m going to use it this week to chase a bonus at a new site, probably TruePoker as I’ve been hearing advertisements for it on the radio when I listen to the Senators games online. (and wth? Tampa Bay is leading the Eastern Conference? How did that happen)

It seems a bit silly to be spending so much time playing at such low limits (and more strangely, writing about it), but I want to progress slowly (well, I want to progress quickly, but I figure slowly is smarter0. I’ve only really been taking the game seriously since New Year’s, with a few books under my belt and a couple months of online play. I’ve been playing in a home game regularly for a few years, but I haven’t even played in a live poker room (yet!). Still, I like that I am learning more and more about the game each time I play, and winning money doesn’t hurt either. The money isn’t everything though, as I am only using it to finance my bankroll at higher limits, none of it is finding its way back into my pockets. But most importantly it has been a bit of an impetus to resume writing on a regular basis, something which I enjoy immensely, but which I have neglected in recent years.

Wil Wheaton just posted the fourth part in his four part (1 2 3 4) serial story about his experiences at a underground poker tourney. It’s really a great read and comes complete with a relatively happy ending. The characters you meet in a live game tend to make much better fodder for poker blogging than simple online play. And it doesn’t hurt to have a published writer behind the keyboard either.

I have my bi-weekly PLHE tournament this Friday and I’m going to try to take a few notes to see if maybe I can put together a more interesting post. I just hope that no one there stumbles across my blog. Or at least I hope that the dead money at the game doesn’t stumble across it. Or maybe I just hope that I’m not the dead money.

Of course, since I was watching the Oscars, I decided I should play some more poker, when I couldn’t devote my full attention. I figured the servers would still be wonky, but at least I would have tried. If you have no interest in poker, please skip the next paragraph to read my thoughts about the Oscars.

As is always the case when I tell myself it’s ok if I don’t get to play, I get on quickly. Another 40 hands towards unlocking my bonus and another 7BB of profit. I would have kept going, but I knew I was going to be completely useless as soon as they got to the important categories. The one hand that netted me most of my winnings came when I was dealt TT one off the button. I limped along with 7 others - I have to mention that I love the hand replay feature in Poker Tracker, I had half of these details wrong when I first wrote this up. The flop came 4T6 rainbow and I prayed for someone to bet. Second off the blinds obliged me and the next three players see the bet. With three players to bet, I decide to slowplay and call. Unfortunately, the button and big blind fold. But, I figure there are still two or three players who may see the next bet. The turn comes Kc, completing the rainbow. The same player leads off the betting and the table folds around to me. Here’s where I made a mistake. I raise thinking that it’s down to the two of us and I might as well try to grow the pot. Of course, I almost instantly realize that a single bet may have kept the small blind in. And in addition, the initial bettor may have lead off on the river. Unfortunately, I only get the 1BB call on my raise, and second 1BB when my bet is called on the 5h river. I lost a likely 2BB by a bad play. At least I was able to spot my mistake afterwards.

Starting this post a little early. Just watching Tom Cruise announcing the Oscar for Best Director. I’m a bit worried after the landslide Lord of the Rings has won so far.

YES YES YES! Peter Jackson was probably the most deserving director for the past three years. I would have been devestated if he had not been recognized for the last part of the trilogy. Part of this is my inner-geek speaking, but it is mind-boggling to imagine how they were able to bring Middle-Earth to life, particularly in a way that can satisfy life time fans and Tolkien noviates alike. My only disappointment was not seeing Sean Astin nominated for best supporting actor. I don’t know that I think he should have won, but I really would have liked to have seen him nominated.

One of the thing that is really strange to think about is the level of Peter Jackson’s (and cast and crew) accomplishment. To be acknowledged by all these awards, they had to not drop the ball for 5+ years of the movie’s development. If the second or third movies had failed, the incredible achievement of Fellowship - which is still probably my favourite of the three films - would have gone unrecognized.

Fast forward 20 minutes and I’ll echo my previous sentiments. YES YES YES! I am so glad that the fantasy stigma did not prevent the academy from recognizing the best film of the year, and really, one of the best films ever (yes, I fully acknowledge my inner-geek). It’s great to see everyone up there on the stage. And it’s great that the movie tied the record for Oscars for one movie. And if you consider the three films as one, as I tend to, that record has been blown out of the water. I really don’t want to have to listen to Barry, but I guess the night can’t be perfect. Boy, the half of the stage that wasn’t in Lord of the Rings doesn’t look quite as happy to be there. Well, except for Charlize, her smile is radiant. And now I get to go to bed feeling happy and satisfied.

It’s hardly even worth posting about, but since I’ve given up on poker for the day, I decided to keep my promise and make a poker post. Immediately after my previous post I hopped on Empire to try to finish off unlocking my reload bonus. I needed 100 hands or so. Unfortunately, it looks like the DOS attacks are still playing havoc with the servers and I was only able to get 21 hands in before everyone at the table ended up disconnected. I tried to get into another game, but after five minutes with no success I decided to give up for the day.

Unfortunately there wasn’t much interesting in my -1BB session. A flush draw that backdoored into the nut straight won me a decent pot early, but I managed to throw most of it away trying to make some fancy plays. Why would I try to make any plays at .5/1? Beats me. Why would I think I’m even capable of making fancy plays at all? Hmmm…perhaps that’s a better question.

Hopefully the sites will be a litte more stable during the week.

I just got back from visiting some friends in Cambridge and instead of taking the nap I meant to, I took a quick shower and sat down at my computer. First thing I do is start the poker blog tour, catching up on the weekend’s posts. Since I took Friday off from work, I was anticipating a bit of a backlog, but I didn’t get any farther than checking the first poker site listed to the right. Iggy at Guinness and Poker is probably the king of poker bloggers, and a strong supporter of the blogger community. But, today when I visited, I didn’t even get through his first new post.

There it was, near the end of Thursday’s post, a link to my very own small weblog. I had hoped that one day I might get mention on Iggy’s popular blog, but I didn’t expect that it would happen already. In fact, I’m not even sure how anyone would even have found this site, as it’s been up only a few weeks and the only people who know it’s here were the few friends that I mentioned it to.

Of course, getting added to the blogroll at Guinness and Poker merely helps to reinforce my unworthiness of mention. So, it’s time to put the WPT on the TV (CityTV, a local station, bought the rights to rebroadcast the first season) and finish earning my reload bonus at Empire. Then maybe I’ll have some good poker to write about.

Again tonight I only sat down at the tables briefly, but I had some decent cards that held up that I played for maximum value and managed to walk away from the table 17BB up after just half an hour, and it would have been more except for the AQ split pot I shared with an identical hand. I also unlocked another 5$ of my bonus money. Of course, I probably should have stuck around to try to ride my streak a little more, but I also shouldn’t have been sitting down at the table so late, so my decision probably wasn’t too costly.

I stole a little time at the poker table and was running very lucky. Unfortunately Empire is still being rather flaky, so it was too painful to play for very long. But in 30 hands (6$ of unlocked bonus, which was 10% instead of the 20% I thought it was) I managed to be up 18BB. Of course, that put me back over the 300$ hump, and is the first winning session of more than 10$ in a few weeks, so that contributed to my decision to call it a night early. Didn’t have too many interesting hands, but I really should have played according to Brunson and respected my rush, as my 8-2 would have turned into quad 8s against a couple boats. That would have really made my night. Of course, the title of the post is “Back on track”, but really, 30 hands is only a lucky run, but since I felt that I’ve been playing well over my losing streak, it feels pretty good.

Well, I’ve taken a bit of a break from poker playing - and keeping up with my blog, apparently. After the weekend, I was under the 300$ mark, giving me a loss of 100$ from my maximum bankroll. That’s still 300$ profit, but it has been disheartening taking so many losses recently with only a few 5 dollar wins. But, a lot of it has been the cards, as many sessions I’ve ended up with a 3-4% winning percentage. Not much I can do with cards like that. And of course, I’m not disciplined enough not to start tilting after a while, playing marginal hands. And it’s been bad enough that I’m having problem extracting maximum value from my winning hands. And I can’t remember the last time I hit one of my flush draws.

Also, I had pulled out my starting 300$ from Empire last week and this week I got an email with a deal for a 20% reload bonus, so I guess it’s probably going straight back in to earn another 60$. I was thinking about starting a Pokerstars or UB account, or maybe even a TruePoker account in a vain attempt to get in on the next Poker Bloggers tournament after reading about the first one hosted by Grubby. Of course, to do that I’ll need to start playing and posting a bit more regularly. But with the 60$ bonus to earn at Empire, I imagine that won’t be difficult. I just have to make sure that I don’t lose the 60 in trying to earn it.

So, Saturday afternoon I was looking for a break and decided to download the 7-day trial of the Horizons for a little MMORPG action. Now, my SWG account is still active, but I haven’t played on it for months now. I really should just shut it down and save myself 20$ every month. But, I always think maybe I’ll try it out again after all the fixes they’ve made, say hello to a few people. But I will probably give up the ghost soon, as people are planning on jumping ship to City of Heroes or Worlds of Warcraft.

I actually had quite a lot of fun in my play time. There is a ton of quest content and the crafting system is a lot of fun. And the early level progression is fairly painless with a lot of earned abilities. Only problem is I started in on all the basic craft schools and have been running to many low level missions to earn formulas. I think I may refocus on combat and try multi-classing my warrior with a little cleric to reduce my downtime between fights. That is if I don’t end up playing poker in my free time.

Friday night was the third EPT 20$ buy-in pot limit Texas Hold’em tournament that I’ve organized. We had 13 people show up, which is a new record. But I think we will smash it in two weeks at the next one.

We also had our extra chips (50 green) arrive at long last and I bought a set of 2 KEM decks off someone who had picked up some extras off eBay. So we were loaded for bear and ready to go. Everyone bought in and received their 1000 in chips. No buy-ins, no add-ons, just elimination play with the top 4 taking home money.

I drew the short table and had a good balance of experienced players and dead money. One of the new guys actually plays 5/10$ on-line and has a fair amount of live experience in both home games and casinos. Thankfully he never really had the cards to be too much of a threat. The hand of my tournament was early on, a free play off the BB solo against the SB. I had Q9o I think, and the flop came 932. I figured I was good and bet 100$ into the 100$ pot after the SB checks. SB calls and I put him on a couple of overcards. The turn comes another 3 with no real flush possibilities. The SB checks again and I decide to try to take the pot down here instead of of giving him a chance at catching one of his overcards. So, I bet the pot back at him and he flat calls. The river is a 4, which he checks. I check figuring I am not going to get any more money from him. Of course, he has K3 for the set and I’ve just lost a large pot, putting myself in very dangerous chip position, at risk of going out first in the tournament.

But, I batten down the hatches and try to find an opportunity to double up. I can’t remember the cards I had, but I managed to double through once and pulled a sizable chunk on another pot so that I was around 300. I had some decent hole cards, but I kept missing the flop and was being forced to put a large percentage of my chips in to see more cards. Eventually I end up with A5 in late position. I forget the exact sequence that isolated myself against one opponent, but I figured him on two high cards, but no ace. So, I figure that now is a good a chance as any and re-raise all-in back to steal his bet (and the blinds) He’s in decent shape chip-wise, so he calls. We turn our cards over and he has KJo like I expected. So, I am the favourite, but not a big enough to feel very comfortable. The flop comes 74T rainbow and I’m feeling much better. I figure myself to be about a 2-1 favourite at this point. The river is a blank, but unfortunately the river brings a J and I’m out in 11th. And quite annoyed.

Unfortunately, the night ended with someone winning their second back-to-back tournament. He’s played pretty well, but he tries to make plays from position, but will keep following up on the plays even if the situation doesn’t warrant. He was bailed out a few times this week and last when behind to pull some big pots after his big pre-flop raises. Oh well, I suppose that is the way it goes. I was just unhappy to not only miss the money for the first of these three tournaments, but to miss the final table completely.

We played some dealer’s choice afterwards and though I managed to win a hefty 20$ pot early on, my chips proceeded to bleed away the rest of the night as I kept going in with quality hands to turned out to be second best. Ended up down 13$ in the dealer’s choice to put me -33 on the night. I was hoping for something a little more positive after the way my online play has been going, but I am looking forward to getting to play a bit tomorrow while watching the Sens game.

I love my company. Tonight the glee club had arranged an outing to go curling at the Leaside Curling Club. Not many people knew how to play so I ended up skipping one of the teams, but we all had a lot of fun. We managed to win 6-1 over the other team on top of that, and we had free beer and pizza afterwards, so all and all, it was a great night. Of course, when I realized it was only 10pm when I got home and I’d have a little time to go online for some poker, even though I was a little toasted and should have known better. But, fortunately I was in and out and pulled a 5 dollar night. (which works about to a 6BB evening) Of course, I managed to drop 40$ last night, but with a winning percentage of 3%, I’m pretty sure it was the cards. And without any kind of cards, there was no way I was going to win the 3 SNGs that I entered.

Fortunately, tomorrow is my home hold’em tournament. For the last month, I’ve held a 20$ buy-in pot limit texas hold’em every second friday and it’s been a lot of fun. We had 12 people the first night and 11 the second. I finished 4th and 3rd respectively, so it’s been pretty good, but I’m looking for a 1st place finish. I just hope that the weather holds out tomorrow so that we don’t have any cancellations.

Well, at 7:30 yesterday, we gave up our 20+ hour quest to finish Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. It began at 11am Sunday morning and ran pretty much through until Monday evening with a few stops for food and 7 hours of sleep. Unfortunately, with only 3 players left, we couldn’t get by what we assumed was the end boss. We kept getting paralyzed and bombed repeatedly while trying to get off the cures and lifes that would have kept us in the game. Looking back at it, I should have taken cure, life and one attack spell, filling my last 2 slots with phoenix downs. This would have given me better odds to resurrect the other two. Also, we should have used our deaths to set up some additional phoenix downs for when we were revived, as there was no one to get them on the run. Ah well, hopefully we’ll get another chance.

Running time is 12 hours and 45 minutes and my thumb is killing me. But my Yuke is spell slinging with the best of them. *sigh* I think this solidifies my geek status.

Of course, instead of going back to another tournament, I decide that maybe I’ll try 2 tables of .5/1. I was holding my own, winning a few small pots to keep up with the blinds. But I was getting bad cards and I started losing patience folding everything before the flop. And we all know what that means. Well, it didn’t look too bad to start with, but then I ran into a few people who drew out on me. I don’t know what they were still doing in the hand, but I suppose that’s a familiar refrain. This didn’t do much for my patience and I continued to hemorrage money. Then I started throwing money at my nut flush draws, saying to myself “I haven’t hit a flush in hundreds of hands, I’m due” like that had some effect on the probabilities. In the end I dropped 30 bucks before I took a break to do some chores.

But, I’m currently back at a 10+1 LHE SNG and just took the chip lead on a big bluff.

I had told myself I was going to call it a night, but after a bit more tidying up, I ended up back at the tables for another 10+1 LHE SNG. I figured I had to make up some of the loss today since I won’t be able to play for the next few days.

Jumped into the chip lead early and managed to keep building on it. Unfortunately, when I hit 2300, I could not get any support to start throwing my weight around. But, I’m trying to play patiently, and aside from a few attempts early to feel out the table, I just sat back to wait for some cards.

Unfortunately, it didn’t matter how many times I promised myself to be patient, I continued to play aggressively, stealing with every opportunity. Fortunately my plays were scaring people off, and I had the cards when someone decides they want to see what I have. I regain the chip lead with 3700. They are 5 left and the blinds are up to 100/200. I make a mistake staying in to to try eliminate two players and drop 1000. Then I manage to take it back on the next hand betting at low pair, which would likely have held up, but the other player folded on the river. Then 2 hands after that, pocket TT holds up and I pull a 2900 pot. I’m in a commanding chip lead and start bullying the table, knocking someone out to bring it down to 3.

At 5200 in chips, I quickly donate 1200 trying to run someone out. The hand after that, the two other players clash and one drops. It’s now heads-up and the chips are even. I kept hitting decent down cards and keep betting. My opponent is running scared - though I will allow that they probably didn’t have cards - and kept folding the blinds to me. After a handful of steals, I finally call in the BB to see a wonderful flop. 5A8 rainbow to my 58o. I bet hoping against hope to be up against an ace and I smile when I am raised. I re-raise and after the call, my opponent has only slightly more than one bet left. The turn is a Q, which is a bit worrisome, but this is my chance, so I bet here and put him all in after the K river. Thankfully he had only A3 and I took first place and the 50 bucks. That leaves me at -3 for the day and the temptation to hit a ring game for a quick 5 bucks is pretty strong. I start watching the third period of the Vancouver game and try to resist the sirens call.

Of course, even though I know I shouldn’t sit at a table if I don’t intend to spend some time there, I can’t resist the temptation to try to eke out a small win on the day. Of course, what do I do on the first hand? I chase an open-ended straight. But, it was a big multi-way pot and the big stack of chips was too tempting to resist. So, instead of 3$ to be up, I need 6.

I few hands late I have 55 and limp in to see the flop. It comes 5Q3 and one of the 4 other players in the hand bets into me. I raise, and all but one call (I love Party sometimes) . The turn comes 6 and someone bets into me again. I’m slightly worried about the straight here, knowing some of the crazy hands people will see the flop with. I still raise, since the odds are still good for me. The river comes a lovely offsuit 3 and I’ve filled a boat. People still see my bet and I take down a 13.5$ pot. That puts me up for the day, so I play out the blinds that just hit me the next hand - I hate winning a big hand and then leaving without paying the blinds that were just coming around to me - and watch the next orbit for irresistable cards. I’m grateful when nothing shows up and I finally call it a night. It’s much later than I intended to go to bed, as I have some guests showing up at 10am tomorrow morning. But, at least I brought back my -53 from a few hours ago to a +5 on the day. And even with all that poker, I managed to get my place cleaned up pretty thoroughly, minus vacuuming and washing the floor. I’ll probably vacuum when I get up tomorrow, but I think the floor washing may not happen. And for the topper, my Sens won 5-3.

Just busted out in 5th at the tournament. Some bad plays were the main reason. I just need to find some more patience playing in these tournaments.

Just finished a 10+1 LHE SNG. Things started well as I slowly pulled the occasional pot to climb into the chip lead with 3000 in chips. I was able to coast to the last 4 players on the back of my large stack. I really should remember the next few orbits better, but all I know is I put out the 4th place player and took a bad beat from my 5K stack when I ran into a river flush coming over my straight. I really should have bet it out instead of being scared of the nut straight being out there. I keep playing aggressively though and just barely missed putting someone out in third. Then I found pocket KK just as the table was starting to catch on to my rampant stealing (blinds were 150/300). Perfect for me. I’m in the BB and the SB raises into me trying to steal and I raise right back at him. The button folds, SB calls and we see the flop. It comes up Jc7c10s. SB bets and I figure he might be on a straight or flush draw, but figure it’s more likely he’s just bullying with his big stack, knowing I’d been stealing left and right. Fine by me, I raise another 270, putting me all in. My opponent calls and it’s on to the turn. Another K…oh wait, it’s the Kc, he has the flush, doesn’t he? Sure enough, the river comes quickly and I’m out in third to the Ac6c. Well, that’s twice I went in as the favourite against that guy and managed to lose about 5000 in chips between the two beats. Still, I couldn’t really fault my play (well, the no bet of the low straight was a mistake, but still) and managed to make up half the money I lost earlier in the afternoon before cleaning my apartment. I’ll probably head back in for another tournament while I listen to the Sens game.