Tournaments Tonight

Just a quick reminder that the second attempt at the WWdNot the Nomad1539 Invitational is tonight, 22:00 EST at PokerStars. Password is monkey. All are welcome.

CC's Thursday Bash is at 21:30 EST at PokerStars. Password is pokerworks. Bust out of CC's Bash early and come play the WWdNot. Or just play them both.

I played the Mookie last night and had the misfortune of getting good cards early. I say misfortune, because they were cards too good to lay down. Mr. I-always-get-sucked-out-on Hoyazo took pocket kings up against my slyly slowplayed pocket aces and managed to flop a boat, which I paid him for quite handsomely. Didn't get sucked out on that time, Hoy. It seems he put my chips to good use as the last update I read had him making the final table. Not sure how it ended up.

If a tournament fell in the forest...

Apparently 10pm on the night of a major holiday is not a good time to schedule a tournament. Both of us who showed up for the WWdNot last night were disappointed when it was cancelled for not having enough participants.

Even more depressing is the reason I was actually around to try to play. I went back to the Hard Rock in Tampa to play in a $200+$40 MTT that started at 7:30. And this time I actually touched cards and chips.

The tournament started with six tables, but one table shut down pretty quickly so I'm guessing we had about 55 players. The format was decent -- 2500 in starting chips, blinds starting at 25/50, and what I'm guessing were about 15 minute levels. There was no visible clock. The TD just came to each table and announced when the blinds were going up. Play moved at a very decent pace for a live game. Everybody was taking their action in a timely manner. The only delays were for legitimate tough decisions (or what appeared to be such).

I got off to a fairly decent start. The details are a bit fuzzy. I recall slowplaying pocket aces to good effect. I remember flopping trip aces on another hand and shutting off the other guy's flush draw when I raised about 25% more than the size of the pot. He even commented that he needed one more spade, so I felt good about the big raise. I was up over 3500 at one point and thinking this was going to be pretty easy.

There was one hand, I don't recall the specifics, but I had good starters and had called somebody else's preflop raise. The two guys to my left both called. On the flop the guy in the BB, two seats to my left, put in a big bet and it folded to me. As I said, I don't recall the specifics, but I do remember there being a possibility I was beat. I looked over at him and he was sipping his coffee, holding the cup with both hands like a little kid, his arms drawn in as far as he could get them in front of him, basically making himself as small as possible. He was also glancing off into the distance to avoid eye contact. I went with Caro on this one -- strong is weak, weak is strong. He couldn't have looked weaker if he'd tried. The guy to my immediate left called the flop bet, but he folded the turn so I don't know if my read was correct.

Then came my mistake. I get AKo in late MP. Blinds are 75/150. It folds to me and I make it 450 to go. The guy in the cutoff, Mr. I-wish-I-could-be-invisible, pushed all-in. He had me covered. Then the BB, who would be down to about a M of 5 in a few minutes when the level would change, called all-in for 1500.

Now it's back to me. I figured the cutoff for a mid pair. If he had pocket aces or kings I don't think he'd have pushed like that. With the BB making the call, I think getting out of the way would have been the best decision. I didn't read the BB for strong, though I have no idea why. Just one of those hunches. But even if he wasn't strong, just having him in the hand screwed up the odds enough that my call would be pretty marginal. With 450 already in the pot, I was getting 3-to-1 on the main pot and I figured I was probably a coin flip with the big all-in. Of course, I can't say that all this was going through my head in quite so much detail at the time.

I made the call. And my reads were right on the money. The BB turned over AQo and the cuttoff showed TT. I think the all-in was a stupid move on his part. I had shown no inclination toward recklessness so far. Indeed, I hadn't bluffed even once. My 3BB raise is exactly what I would have done if I'd had a big pocket pair, so he was taking a huge chance.

The all-in call from the BB with AQo was even dumber. I'd have no problem with him making the initial push with that hand, but with a raise from MP and an all-in from the cutoff, any reasonable player would figure he was at a significant disadvantage and toss that hand without blinking an eye. I would.

So we go to the flop with me needing some help and one of my outs already in the BB's hand. The flop brings a K and I'm about to cheer (not really) when I see it also brought the cutoff his third ten. Two cards in the deck that help him and one comes on the flop. The river brought a jack, so the BB, who had no reason to be anywhere near that pot, fills a straight to take the main pot, the cutoff and his trip tens take the rest of my chips, and I'm heading to the rail less than 45 minutes after the cards were in the air.

I think my call was marginal but technically not incorrect. Given that I wouldn't have been hurting even if I'd given up my initial bet, I'm thinking I shouldn't have been risking it all on what I figured to be a coin flip (actually me at a slight disadvantage). There was still plenty of time. Vahedi says that to live, you have to be ready to die, but I don't think throwing all your chips in the pot on a coin flip is the way to tournament greatness.

The Hard Rock is doing some remodeling in their poker room and has temporarily moved all the tournament play to a separate room (which they poorly explained, but that's pretty much in keeping with the lack of explanations about poker room procedures). I went back to the main card room, but it was very busy and there were long waiting lists for all the tables. So, once again, I headed back to Orlando, having spent less time in the casino than I did on the road. I got back to my hotel just in time to sign up for the WWdNot that wasn't.

WWdN

The internet access in the hotel was working for a change last night so I got to play the WWdN. I got off to a great start, taking a decent pot from Iggy in the very first hand when his aggressive raise with KJo ran into my AQs and neither of us improved.

Then I seriously overplayed A8o in an attempt to steal the blinds from the button and ended up losing most of my stack. We were only at level 2 and I was down to just 465.

But I didn't give up. My comeback started when I doubled up with K9o against Mean G's pocket 7's. Some would call it a suckout, but I figure I just got lucky on a coin toss. No shame in that.

My comeback was complete when caspernene's hammer play ran into Shizumaru's 88 and my AA. I just called caspernene's raise, hoping to entice someone to make a move at the pot. Shizumaru apparently thought his 8's were good enough to make the move. Neither of us improved and I scooped a 2210 pot. It didn't put me in the lead or anything, but at least I was out of serious danger.

I was all set to almost double up again with my KK vs wigginx's 99 when he brutally sucked out a runner-runner flush and took two thirds of my stack. This left me with a M under 4. A second comeback was not to be.

Overall, I was pretty happy with my play. I clearly made a mistake trying to steal that early pot, but I was patient and worked my way back into contention. If the runner-runner flush suckout had gone the other way I would have been in great shape to finish in the money.

Tonight is The Mookie at Full Tilt. There will be a WWdNot on Thursday. If you're turkey'd out and looking for a little relief from the in-laws, please join us for WWdNot the Nomad1539 Invitational at PokerStars, 22:00 EST, password monkey.

Late weekend update

The internet in my hotel has been out the last two days so I'm late with updates. I'm sure this has caused great concern in the poker world. Of even greater import is that I missed Miami Don's big tournament Sunday night and MATH last night.

This hotel living has started to really suck. The room upstairs has been host to some circus people who liked to train their dancing elephants at 1 AM, the Chinese national gymnastics team who were practicing their floor exercises, and now a large dog who seems to be left alone a lot and relieves the boredom by running around the room every hour or so. In the last week in the room next door have been two separate couples who've had late night fights. The most recent one got physical and I was half expecting bullets to come flying through the wall. I can deal with all that, but when you toss in the internet access being down for two days in a row, it's too much.

Now that that's out of my system, let's get back to the subject at hand. We played poker at work again on Friday so I got to give my new chips another workout. This time somebody else suggested a tournament, which I was quick to encourage, and I even convinced them to play with blinds rather than antes. I think everyone finally got the hang of the blinds, so there's hope that in the future we can do blinds even in the cash games.

The play wasn't much better than last time. Lots of big moves with total garbage. And even with 20-minute levels I don't think we got more than four or five hands in per level. I don't think this game will ever improve much because too many of the players are just there to have fun, and their idea of fun is to toss money in the pot and see what happens. If I hadn't been basically card dead both times we've played I'd probably be totally okay with that attitude. This time I only won a single decent pot, but still managed to take 3rd place.

After getting some dinner and taking a nap (I don't have nearly the tolerance for drinking all afternoon that I once did), I entered a 2-table $20+$2 SnG at Stars. I played a pretty decent game, only making a couple serious mistakes. The final five were all good players and it took a long time to finally get to heads-up.

My opponent was one of those players who like to push all-in whenever they think they have even a slight advantage. I think this style of play indicates a serious lack of confidence in one's ability to outplay an opponent. I suppose if I were up against a real pro it might not be a bad strategy even for me, but I still don't like it.

I tried to be patient and wait for opportunities to outplay my opponent, but the all-ins started coming more often and I eventually had to call with less than I'd prefer. My preference in this regard was well founded. I took 2nd for $105. Not a terrible result by any means.

Tonight is the WWdN at PokerStars, 20:30 EST, password monkey. I'm hoping the internet in the hotel will stay working long enough for me to play.

One of the sweetest A's I've ever seen

I didn't not win the WWdNot last night. We didn't get much of a turnout. Only nine intrepid Not'ers showed up. Not sure if CC is siphoning off players or if it was just the combination of the final DADI, CC's Thursday Bash, and the WWdNot all on the same night. I'm sure the lack of a plug on Card Squad didn't help. I can shout about it to the top of my lungs here and maybe one extra person might show up.

Anyway, even with only nine it turned out to be a pretty hard fought battle. My first big hand occurred after xkm1245 had been moaning about how he couldn't win a race to save his life. So I put him out of his misery... on less than a race. I flopped top pair aces, queen kicker, and four to the second nut flush. I did a hoy and put him all-in minus one on the turn. He tossed in the last chip and turned over JT of hearts for a flopped flush. But the river brought another heart, giving me the higher flush, and xkm went home a bit early. Xkm, at least I carried through on my promise to put your chips to good use.

Nomad1539 pulled out to a decent lead when his pocket queens held up against skeash's pocket sevens. He pulled way into the lead when he flopped quad tens and sent 23skidoo to the rail.

Caspernene took the lead from nomad1539 when he flopped a set of deuces and rivered a full house. He took advantage of his big stack and continued to accumulate chips, at one point having more than five times as many chips as the next closest stack.

Skeash was the next to go when caspernene outkicked him with a two-pair board.

I almost knocked myself out when I fell into the blogger coolness trap and put in a big raise with the hammer. Nomad, for reasons I still can't quite grasp, went all-in with JTo for 121 more than my bet. Getting about 20-to-1 from the pot, I had to make the call. I'm sure nomad was sweating a bit when the flop came 865, but his jack held on, pairing at the river.

That left darval and me competing for who would be the next to the rail. He won. Or lost, depending on your point of view. Down practically to the felt, darval called caspernene's all-in. His J2o inexplicably didn't hold up, and we were down to three: caspernene with 8792, nomad1539 with 1472, and me with 3236.

I dodged a huge bullet when, after raising pre-flop with junk, I luckily hit nothing on the board and was left with no real decision when caspernene bet the river, eventually showing quad fives.

Caspernene took a big hit when we both flopped four to a straight and I caught mine on the turn. I doubled up to 7569 and took the chip lead, at least for a while.

Nomad1539 took a bit from me on the next hand and the chips stacks were more even than they'd been in quite some time. We jockeyed back and forth for quite a while, with the chip lead changing hands several times. Nomad finally put a big hit on caspernene when his AQs all-in vs caspernene's pocket eights flopped a queen.

Caspernene tried to make a comeback, but nomad finally sent him home when he rivered a pair of aces.

So we entered heads-up play, nomad1539 with 12484, me with 1016, blinds/antes at 200/400/25. This figured to be a short heads-up session. But I doubled up on the first hand and won a few more small ones so I got to the point where my ass wasn't hanging out the back of the endzone.

This is already so long I'm sure there's nobody still reading, so I'll just say I managed to combine aggression with decent, not great, but decent, luck with the cards to finally swing things my way. On the final hand, I got pocket aces and decided to play it cagey, checking my blind. The flop came all diamonds and nomad pushed all-in. I had him covered better than 2-to-1 at this point so I made the call. He didn't have the diamonds, but he did have two pair. But the turn brought that sweet, sweet third ace and that was that.

While we didn't get a huge turnout this time, it was a very well-played game with a lot of scrappy comebacks. Thanks to everyone for playing. Congratulations to nomad1539 and caspernene for finishing in the money, and to me for winning!

Please join us next week for the WWdNot the Nomad1539 Invitational.

Blogstuff

A while back I hooked up a statistics thing to the blog here so I could see if there was anyone reading this. Some of the more interesting of the collected data concerns how people arrived here.

I'm guessing some are using the "Next Blog" button to check out random blogs. The previous page visited by some of these readers has been, well, interesting. These pages often have nothing to do with poker, or anything else I'm even remotely involved with. Several have been in languages other than English, which makes me wonder whether these visitors were confused by my page, the one right before it in the blog-ring, or both. Most likely the last.

Even more surprising are some of the Google searches that land people here. I'm sure the person searching for "chips a hoy" didn't find quite what they were looking for.

The one that really kills me is that all my rants about the crappy internet service in my hotel have landed me very near the top of a Google search for "Guest-Tek internet". I'll bet Guest-Tek is real pleased about that. On the even more amusing side is that somebody got here after a Google search for "Guest-Tek sucks". I guess I'm not the only one with that opinion of their service.

So, it is with an eye toward fair play that I must state the internet service in the hotel, while still not remotely close to what I would call "high-speed", has of late been reasonably reliable. I've only disconnected from Full Tilt a couple times in the last week, and I'm not at all convinced that isn't as much the Full Tilt software as it is my internet connection.

Full Tilt really needs to take a close look at how they deal with less than robust connections. Several times I've had to kill off the client when it stopped responding after a lost connection, and when I tried to log right back in it told me I had to wait for some kind of verification, apparently because it hadn't yet figured out I'd shut down and restarted. You really need to fix this, guys. Right after you fix that stupid NL bet slider. Why does everyone think they have to reinvent the wheel? Or the slider?

On a different topic, I wrote a long time back about a gizmo I ordered to allow me to see the very high and poorly positioned traffic lights here in Orlando without requiring a visit to the chiropractor afterwards. I've had the LightInSight on my windshield for a couple months now.

I'm a bit reluctant to post anything resembling a review because I never did install it according to their instructions. They said to clean the window, then wet the glass, apply the flexible plastic LightInSight, and carefully push the bubbles to the edge. I, like probably 98% of their customers, just stuck the thing to my dirty windshield. So, what follows is with that caveat in mind.

The LightInSight does work pretty much as they advertise. It brings an image of the traffic lights high overhead into view without having to bend and twist or even change your normal driving position at all.

The one problem for me is an unavoidable consequence of how it works. It's a Fresnel lens that bends the light, allowing a very wide field of view to be presented in a small area. The consequence is that everything appears rather small through the LightInSight. The traffic lights appear to be a fraction of the size they are when I look straight out the window. It works okay at night because the lights are much brighter than their surroundings, but during the day it can be difficult to detect when the light has changed. I find I have to keep staring right at the light in the LightInSight to be sure I catch the light change. It's better than having to bend over and crane my neck to see the light, but it strikes me as still not quite the perfect solution.

Of course, the perfect solution would be for the idiot traffic enginners to put the lights where they can be clearly seen in the first place. But that would be too easy. I better stop now before I end up posting the rant about Orlando traffic I said I wasn't going to do.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right

I'm not sure how to write this without sounding condescending and Phil Hellmuth-ish. I don't think there is another way. Maybe that's why Phil comes off the way he does.

Idiots. There I said it. There are complete, utter fools sitting at the poker table. Ignorant bastards who have no clue what they're doing, who have no justifiable right to sit at a poker table. Hell, who have no justifiable right to be let out of restraints.

Ordinarily, and as I've done in several of the last few posts, I would rejoice at their presence, but, and I'm sure you know where this is going, last night I got stung by one of these fools. I'm not really trying to rail against their presence at the tables because I know without them I'd have gone broke a long time ago. And I'm not looking for sympathy over a bad beat. No, I'm looking for advice. How do you deal with players who, against all common sense and, indeed, against their own true best interests, will play cards that make absolutely no sense in the situation?

I'm UTG with QQ in full table 2/4 limit. Naturally, I raise. UTG+1, a fairly tight, sold player, reraises. It folds to the SB who calls. I only have about 35 hands on the SB. He seems a bit loose, but not ridiculously so. BB folds. I cap it, the other two call. The flop comes AQ8, all diamonds. Dangerous, but not necessarily a disaster yet. I want to see where I stand so I bet. UTG+1 folds, SB calls.

Turn is a non-diamond T. SB bets. What could he have? TT? Possible. A fairly poor call pre-flop, but still possible. AA? I can't see him slowplaying it like that with all the action pre-flop. AT? Not with the pre-flop action. KJ? Again, not with the pre-flop betting. Two diamonds? Which two diamonds would have caused him to call pre-flop? No, I can't see two diamonds. TT seems the most likely. I'm already counting my newly acquired chips. I raise, he calls.

River is a blank. He checks, I bet, he calls. He turns over KJo for a turned straight. KJo!

What idiot cold calls two raises from the SB with KJo? The rest of his play is fairly rational, though his lack of pushing the straight indicates he figures me for the flush, and that makes as little sense for me as it did for him.

So, how do you combat this? I think my analysis of the hand was correct, but to do a rational analysis of a hand you need players who behave in a rational manner. Looking at a raise from UTG and a re-raise from UTG+1, how can you not think you're way, way behind with KJo? No rational player would make that call. Ever. Not even if he knew UTG and UTG+1 were maniacs. He's down 2-to-1 against the worst of the likely pre-flop holdings from those two positions, and that's assuming he's only going against one of them. Against the both of them his best odds are on the order of 4-to-1 against.

Suggestions welcome.

Uh, nevermind

What I said in my last post about there possibly being something positive to learn from Mr. I've-got-two-cards-so-I'm-in's play, forget I even mentioned it. I went hunting for him last night and found him on a 6-max table. As I mentioned, 6-max limit and I don't play well together, but I did watch as he burned through over $250 in under 30 minutes at a 2/4 limit table. I've had the odd bad run where I've walked away down that much or more, but never on a single table and never in that short a time. 60BB in 30 minutes. That's 2BB per minute. My cat, if I had a cat, could play better than that.

Sadly, my performance at Full Tilt last night, while not nearly as disastrous as his, was not good. I made a few really good plays, even outright stole a few pots, but luck was not with me.

I'm up to 80% on the special bonus, which Full Tilt finally emailed me about, and have cleared $120 of my last reload bonus. I really hate leaving bonus on the table, but short of 4-tabling 5/10 eight hours a day for the next three weeks, there's no way I'm going to clear it all.

Even more encouraging is that combining my initial first deposit bonus chase, this bonus chase, and more than a few hours of non-bonus play in between, I've earned almost enough player points to buy a Full Tilt baseball cap. All those hours of play and I can now almost afford to walk around advertising their business. Such a deal.

I played the Monday's At The Hoy last night. It's probably best that I not say a whole lot about the experience because, assuming anyone other than me is reading this, there might be some hurt feelings. Let's just say much of the play I observed was quite donkerific and leave it at that.

Tonight is the WWdN, PokerStars, 20:30 EST, password monkey.

More Tilting

I'm originally from the Chicago area. While I don't closely follow football like I once did, I do like to watch the Bears whenever I get a chance. So I settled in to watch the Bears play the Giants tonight and completely forgot about the WPBT 'E' event that I wanted to play. Oh well, at least I got to watch the longest runback in NFL history. That was pretty cool. And the Bears came to life in the second half.

Just before halftime I figured I could handle playing a table or two of limit and still follow the game, so I fired up Full Tilt and went hunting for a good table. And I found one.

There was a guy at one table who was playing EVERY... SINGLE... HAND. He at least saw the flop, no matter what his cards, no matter how many raises there were ahead of him. Toward the end of my time there he did start folding before the river if there was a lot of action and he hadn't gotten lucky on the flop, but when I first sat down he was taking every hand to the showdown, regardless of whether he was playing the board or not.

The most amazing thing was the guy was actually up $50 when I left the table after 90 minutes. Unfortunately, I got very few hands that were worth playing. I took a few more chances than I normally would, knowing Mr. I-Don't-Have-A-Fold-Button would pay me off if I hit my longshot, but they never came in. I finally caught a couple winners toward the end and was able to walk away up a few dollars.

Watching this guy play got me thinking about style. I know his strategy, and I use the term loosely, is a big time loser, but it did highlight a few things. He was able to hang in because when he caught a hand the other players were often paying him off, not believing he actually had anything. I even got caught by that right at the end when I raised with pocket tens and he called with J6. The flop came 667 and I called him all the way.

Anyway, a few cheap chases and showing down total garbage at a table with thinking players might not be such a bad investment. Something to think about.

After tonight I'm about 70% of the way toward clearing my $100 special bonus and I've done about $120 of my reload.

Saturday at Full Tilt

I just finished the best limit hold'em session I've had in many months. I don't know if it's the escapees from Party or if there were just lots of drunks on Saturday night, but it was like days of old when the tables regularly had VP$IPs of 35% or more. I felt a bit like a kid in a candy store.

On one table there was a woman -- she was using a female avatar, so I'll make the dangerous assumption -- who I dubbed 'The ATM'. Not a clue how to read the board or figure if the hand she'd made was worth playing. She was a real delight. I don't like playing shorthanded limit. Don't know why, but I've just never quite gotten the hang of it and I get my ass kicked every time I try. I love 6-max NL, but with limit I need a full table. But I stuck around and played 4-handed, even 3-handed for a while, because this woman was still at the table and still had money to give away. I haven't seen anything like it in a very long time. Thankfully, I got a very healthy share of what she had to give away.

Then there was the player who aptly chose the donkey as his avatar. VP$IP over 50%. I have to give him some credit, though, he did have a pretty good grasp of how to apply aggression. At one point when we got shorthanded he was raising every single hand. It worked for quite a while. I knew what he was doing, but I wasn't getting cards that allowed me to do anything about it. Fortunately, that aspect changed. After sending a couple big pots my way, he backed way off on the aggression, at least when I was in the hand.

So, I actually had fun playing limit for the first time in ages. I sure hope the tables stay like this for a while. After tonight I'm back in the black for the first time at Full Tilt.

Full Tilt has apparently started individual bonus promotions. At least this is the first time I've seen one. They offered me $100 for getting 700 player points by December 1st. Since it clears at the same time as my reload bonus, it seems a no-brainer. Nothing to lose, $100 to gain. If you have a Full Tilt account, open the cashier and click on the My Promotions button on the lower right. You might have a little present waiting for you.

(Bubble Boy)**2

I played both the WWdNot the Hoyazo Invitational and CC's Thursday Bash last night and managed to bubble in both of them. I also learned an important lesson about my poker limits -- I can't effectively play two final tables at the same time. I especially can't play two final tables and chat at the same time.

Notable hands for me in CC's Thursday Bash included an early hand where I semi-slowplayed JJ against Iakaris. The betting on the rainbow 553 flop went back and forth until we were both all-in. Iak showed 77. My jacks held and Iak was gone.

I also got very lucky against host CC when I got it all in with JT on a QJ6 flop and CC turned over QT. The turn and river brought 8 and 9, giving us both the same straight and I lived to donk another day.

I was down to the veritable chip and a chair, having less than a big blind plus ante, and managed to hang on for quite a while longer. As CC said, "Loki is like night of the living dead." I eventually built my 212 to a much healthier 4500 and was able to pick up the consolation bubble boy prize when CC rivered a straight against Kat's trip tens and I folded my way into fourth.

In the WWdNot I took a fairly early lead when Speck'sBacon pushed all-in on a 543, two clubs, flop against my A5 suited in clubs. I figured I had TPTK and four to the nut flush, so I made the call. I filled the flush on the turn and that was that.

I was able to use my stack to pick up a number of smaller pots, but HighOnPokr somehow tripled up his original stack and then moved to my table, becoming the new sheriff, a position he knows how to play well. When the second WWdNot table collapsed, I had Jordan two seats to my right on both final tables. I guess it's marginally better than having him on my left, but having him anywhere in the vicinity has generally spelled disaster to my game.

And, in keeping with tradition, Jordan was the one who sent me down the road to ruin. With top pair jacks and a king kicker I thought I was looking pretty good, but the turn brought a third diamond and a strong straight possibility so I gave it up to Jordan's big bet. It was all downhill from there for me.

Congrats to Jordan on the win, CawtBluffin on the place, and S.t.B on the show.

Please join us next week for the WWdNot the CawtBluffin Invitational, PokerStars, 16 Nov, 22:00 EST. Password is monkey.

The WPBT visits the ass-end of the HORSE, stud hi/lo, this Sunday, 21:00 EST, at PokerStars. Password is wpbt72. Poker bloggers only for this one.

I'm also considering another visit to the Hard Rock in Tampa. I figure if I keep saying that I may actually guilt myself into carrying through one of these days. OTOH, there are lots of qualifiers for the FTOPS events this weekend. I wonder if they can outfit Frankenstein's monster in the special gold jersey?

The Mookie

Played in The Mookie last night at Full Tilt. Attendance was down, probably because the tournament was inexplicably scheduled an hour earlier than usual. No doubt a time zone snafu since Mookie is in Vegas right now. If I hadn't logged in to play some limit beforehand I probably would have missed it.

I got off to a real shaky start. Just a few hands in I get T3o in the BB. Four players see a flop of TTQ. It checks around. The turn brings a 8 and makes the board a true rainbow. Lucko21 comes out for 90 (still 15/30 blinds). I do a clever and sinister min-raise to 180. It probably seems less clever and sinister if you don't realize my typical move in this situation is to triple the previous bet. Two folds and lucko21 calls. The river brings a 7. There are a number of hands that beat me, but I think I'm probably still looking good, particularly with the way the betting has gone. I bet 210 into a 480 pot. Lucko21 calls and turns over J9 for the straight. I guess he was afraid of the full house, so it could have been a lot worse.

That took about a third of my stack. I lost another good chunk when big slick didn't pan out. Not even through the second level and half my stack was gone. Things were looking grim.

An apparently good bluff brought my part way back. Then came the big hurt. A big blind special provided a flopped straight, but runner-runner diamonds put four of them on the board and I had to fold to rmbj494's river bet. He showed the ace of diamonds.

I was down to the felt and pushed with pocket eights. They held and I almost tripled up. I picked up a good bit more somehow during a disconnect.

I generally like the Full Tilt software. They need to work on the bet slider, but it's generally pretty good. Except for their disconnect logic. It's terrible. It takes forever for the software to recognize it has lost connection and then it takes even longer for it to establish a new connection. They really need to work on that.

From that point I pretty much got blinded away, eventually running AQo into pocket jacks. I finished 10th. Not terrible considering the bad start and the level of the competition.

Tonight is the WWdNot at PokerStars, 22:00 EST, password monkey.

Weekend and more

This past weekend I had every intention of going back to the Hard Rock in Tampa to try out the newly-smoke-free poker room, but life intervened. There are two things I really hate about living in a hotel. The crappy internet service I've discussed ad nauseum already. The other major drawback is having to schlep the laundry downstairs and pray there's a machine available. There have to be close to one hundred rooms in this Extended Stay hotel, and they have just four washing machines. Three times this week I tried to do laundry, only to find all the machines in use.

By Saturday I was down to the very last of the clean clothes. So, when the opportunity arose for a home-cooked meal combined with doing laundry someplace that wasn't a public facility, the Hard Rock took a back seat. My sister-in-law made a lovely lunch, I did three loads of laundry, and then I virtually used some of my FT $25k winnings to buy ice cream for everyone at Cold Stone.

On Sunday I just wasn't in the mood to drive for a couple hours so I played lots of poker online instead. I continued my run on the Tier One tournament ticket tables at Full Tilt. I swear, you win one or two good hands in these things and you can practically coast into the money.

I'm still trying to decide if I prefer the $8 turbos or the $6 regular ones. For a patient player like me, the $6 ones should work better since there's less of a rush to make a move, but I found myself wondering when the damn thing was going to get over with on the last one I played. The turbos move at a very swift pace, usually taking well under an hour.

Last night, Monday, I actually got involved in another pasttime and didn't play any poker at all. I had intended to do Mondays At The Hoy, but I lost track of time on this other project and before I knew it The Hoy was well under way.

Tonight is the WWdN, PokerStars, 20:30 EST, password monkey.

Full Tilt $25k

I've been listening to hoyazo talk about the FT $20k for so long, now that they've increased it to $25k guaranteed, I just had to give it a try. So when I got home tonight I sat down at one of the Tier One $8+$0.70 turbo satellites which award $26 tokens to the top five finishers. I got a token from the first one.

I'm not really sure what to say about the $25k. I was close to card dead the entire time. A monkey could have played for me. Fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold, fold,... Wait until seriously short-stacked. Push all-in with anything remotely resembling a good hand. Hope for the best. Rinse and repeat.

I went through the hand history and counted. I won 6 pots of significant size the entire tournament. On five of them I pushed all-in. On the sixth I called somebody else's all-in. I picked up about six more of considerably lesser size. In only one of those did I have a really strong starting hand.

Yet, 98% crap cards the whole time, and I still managed to place 74th of 1403 for $64. I'm not sure if that speaks to my ability to pick my spots, to maximize the return from crap, or to just sit back and let the idiots kill each other off.

If I had gotten anything at all in the way of cards I think I could have gone much further. One or two big hands when I wasn't short-stacked and desperate was all it would have taken. So I'm hopeful I can score in this one again. I just wish they'd start it earlier in tne evening. It was past 1am here when I was eliminated. That's getting pretty late for having to work the next day, so I'll probably only play on weekends.

WWdNot the Guinness Invitational

We had a lackluster turnout for the WWdNot last night. With hoyazo's late registration we made it all the way to 12. Perhaps the new starting time along with the change to standard time threw people off. We can only hope.

Congratulations to xkm1245 on a fine tournament and on particularly strong heads-up play against a very tough opponent. xkm1245 and hoyazo slugged it out, toe-to-toe.

I bubbled when I accidently pressed the raise button holding J9o. I was stupidly doing something else and just about to click on another application when it came my turn to act and the "Raise" button popped up right under my cursor. (I got tired of the single-click protection and turned it off. Idiot.) Hoyazo came out with a big bet on the flop. There was a chance my second pair was ahead, but I also thought I could capitalize on my accidental hoy-trademarked min-raise indicating a big pocket pair. I guess hoy remembered the last time I bluffed with that. He called, showing top pair, and I was toast.

Please join us next week in WWdNot the Hoyazo Invitational, PokerStars, 11/9/06, 22:00 EST. Password is monkey.

Patience, Grasshopper.

The Mookie missed the goal of 66 players this week, drawing only 59. It's yet to be seen if this means Al will bring back the big German chick. Still, 59 is a very respectable turnout for these events. I'd be thrilled if the WWdNot ever drew 59 players.

I have commented before that "Zen and the Art of Poker" can be summed up in two words -- "patience, Grasshopper", the latter only lending a pseudo-Zen-like feeling to the former, at least for those who've seen "Kung Fu". My moderate success at The Mookie last night can be attributed largely to that advice.

We were well into things before I took down my first big pot, and even that only brought me back to slightly under average. Another long wait and I returned from the brink of elimination when I doubled through last night's luckbox, Iakaris, my AJo holding against his A9o. Some time later I sent Ike home when his pocket 4's got counterfeited by two pair on the board and I outkicked him. The luckbox finally deserted him. (I mean no disrespect to Ike here. He's a good player. But I think even he would freely admit he got very lucky on several occasions last night.)

This put me in pretty good shape, even taking the table chip lead for a brief time. Along the way from brink of elimination to healthy stack, several times I resisted the temptation to make moves with highly questionable holdings. Patience, Grasshopper, patience.

I was able to hang on until we were in the money, finishing in 6th. Congratulations to FishyMcDonK on the win.

Please join us tonight in the WWdNot at PokerStars, 22:00 EST, pasword monkey.