It was with sadness and regret that I read of the demise of the progenitor of the blogger tournaments, the WWdN. I was most regretful that I hadn't read of this until this morning, after the final tournament was over.
The WWdN was the tournament that got me interested in playing tournaments, and certainly was what lead to me playing other blogger tournaments and eventually to starting this blog.
For a while there I made an effort to revive the Thursday West Coastie WWdN by hosting the WWdNot. But, alas, it never really caught on.
All things pass. Some are mourned more than others. I haven't been playing the WWdN in a while -- it eventually suffered somewhat from its own success -- but I'll still miss it.
Wil has mentioned there will be a couple memorial events in the coming weeks. Maybe the Tournament Of Champions will finally happen. I will definitely be keeping a closer watch on Wil's blog so I won't miss the memorials.
06 June 2007
05 June 2007
My MATH is improving
I played in the Mondays At The Hoy tournament last night for the first time in quite a while. Also for the first time in I don't remember how long, I did pretty well in a non-SnG, giving my FTP bankroll a very much needed boost. I finished 4th of 51 for $130-something.
Through much of the first half of the tournament I did little but fold. I kept my head above water by stealing the blinds when the situation was right.
My first big hand of the night came with the blinds at 40/80. I got AKs in the BB. Columbo, from UTG+1, raises to 200. In days of old I would have looked at AcKc, figured I had a monster, and pushed a bunch more chips in the pot. These days I tend to look at it more as nothing but a good drawing hand, so I just called Columbo's raise.
Flop is AK2 with two diamonds. Ordinarily I'd be doing cartwheels, but I was a bit concerned Columbo might have pocket aces. I play it cagey and check. Columbo bets 260 into a 440 pot. I come back with the dreaded min-raise. He calls.
The turn is a dream card, the Ks. If he doesn't have AA, I've got a lock. I bet 640, slightly less than half the pot. He calls.
The river is the 9c. Clearly no help to anyone. Here is where I thought I made a mistake. I want the rest of Columbo's chips and figure if I check he might take the whole hand as me trying to bluff my way through and finally giving up. I check, he checks. Damn! Turns out from looking at the hand history that he was on a diamond flush draw the whole time. There was no way he was going to put any more chips in the pot. Why couldn't it have been the 9d on the river? Oh well, shouldn't be greedy.
I mostly stole blinds for a while until my QQ held up against an all-in from Alceste with K9s. Bad timing on his part. That brought me up to 5660 with blinds at 80/160.
In here somewhere I had a few stretches where I was stealing the blinds with abandon. Three, four hands in a row I'd put in a normal 3BB raise and everyone would fold. Either many folks were playing to make the points (this was another of the BBT tournaments) or I got lucky that everybody was card dead. Mostly I was raising with decent hands, but after a while I started wondering if I shouldn't just keep raising every hand. You wouldn't think a bunch of bloggers would let somebody get away with that, but it sure looked like I could have.
The next big pot was a bit of a nail-biter. I had KK in the SB, blinds at 150/300 with 25 ante. Lester000 from the button raises to 600. I min-raise back, he calls. Flop is AJ7, rainbow. I'm thinking to myself, "It's never easy." I check, lester000 checks. Turn is a blank. Check, check. River is another A. I figure there's no way he checked an ace this long so I bet a bit less than half the pot. He calls. He didn't have an ace so I win. I'm up to 7225 now.
Somewhere along in this stretch I went card dead and my stack dwindled. I was down to 5170 with blinds at 400/800 ante 100. Definitely push or fold territory. I get 22 and decide it's now or never. AlCantHang has even fewer chips than I do and calls with KJs. My pair would have held, but just to add insult to injury, the remaining twos showed up on the board. Quack, quack, quack, quack. I get quads and Al goes home. Sorry, Al.
Then came the hand where I got kind of lucky. It was getting a bit late and my attention wandered. I was dealt 88 and figured I'd push if there was no action ahead of me. I started reading some web page and then it was action to me. I clicked "Max" and "Raise". Then I noticed mtnrider81 had put in a 3BB raise ahead of me. Crap. I'm not sure if I would have even called had I noticed the raise. I certainly wouldn't have pushed all-in behind it with just a mid pair. Mtnrider81 thought about it a while and made the call. He showed AQo. The board made it interesting, showing TK39 by the turn. He had ten outs on the river, but it paired the board and moved me from deep trouble to not so much trouble.
We moved to the final table and I hit another long stretch of crap cards. I'm down to M=5 and get KQo. Best cards I've seen in ages. Mtnrider81 raises to 3BB and I push all-in. (Maybe it was this hand where I had the lapse in attention. Or maybe I was just more desperate than I remember. They both look like pretty iffy plays in the light of day.) It folds around to mtnrider81 who again thinks for a long time and finally makes the call. He shows 66. The flop brings a K and a Q, so he's down to two outs. No luck for mtnrider81 and I move from in pretty big trouble to the chip leader in one hand.
Then the cards completely dried up. My stack got blinded and anted from 31,000 down to 13,000. In the meantime we moved down to the final five. An uncalled all-in stemmed the flow for an all too brief a time.
Finally, with the blinds at 1000/2000 ante 250, my stack at 9000 and only four of us left, I had no choice but to push with A2o. HighOnPoker called with A7s and filled his flush on the river. I finish in fourth.
Given my finish position, this was a tournament with comparatively little fireworks for me. A couple big hands, a couple coin tosses that went my way. I think the key was that, other than the lapse of attention or two, I didn't make any big mistakes. There were no big hands where I went to the showdown a loser, other than the last, of course. All in all, I was pretty happy with my play, especially considering I've not played all that much in the last couple months.
And just so this isn't all about me, I have to say I was very impressed with Hoyazo's play. Not so much that he pulled a bunch of clever stunts, but that he showed incredible patience and discipline. I don't know how many times I saw him make a move at a pot, get played back at, and give it up. For a good player, I think play like that takes a lot more guts than just pushing all-in in response to the re-raise. Very smart poker. Good luck in the WSOP, Hoy.
Also, congrats to VinNay on the win. Well played.
Sorry for this being so long and being mostly a boring play-by-play. I'm a bit rusty with this blogging thing too I guess.
The next BBT event is The Mookie on Wednesday. I guess tonight is the WWdN. Probably won't play that one. Maybe The Mookie.
Through much of the first half of the tournament I did little but fold. I kept my head above water by stealing the blinds when the situation was right.
My first big hand of the night came with the blinds at 40/80. I got AKs in the BB. Columbo, from UTG+1, raises to 200. In days of old I would have looked at AcKc, figured I had a monster, and pushed a bunch more chips in the pot. These days I tend to look at it more as nothing but a good drawing hand, so I just called Columbo's raise.
Flop is AK2 with two diamonds. Ordinarily I'd be doing cartwheels, but I was a bit concerned Columbo might have pocket aces. I play it cagey and check. Columbo bets 260 into a 440 pot. I come back with the dreaded min-raise. He calls.
The turn is a dream card, the Ks. If he doesn't have AA, I've got a lock. I bet 640, slightly less than half the pot. He calls.
The river is the 9c. Clearly no help to anyone. Here is where I thought I made a mistake. I want the rest of Columbo's chips and figure if I check he might take the whole hand as me trying to bluff my way through and finally giving up. I check, he checks. Damn! Turns out from looking at the hand history that he was on a diamond flush draw the whole time. There was no way he was going to put any more chips in the pot. Why couldn't it have been the 9d on the river? Oh well, shouldn't be greedy.
I mostly stole blinds for a while until my QQ held up against an all-in from Alceste with K9s. Bad timing on his part. That brought me up to 5660 with blinds at 80/160.
In here somewhere I had a few stretches where I was stealing the blinds with abandon. Three, four hands in a row I'd put in a normal 3BB raise and everyone would fold. Either many folks were playing to make the points (this was another of the BBT tournaments) or I got lucky that everybody was card dead. Mostly I was raising with decent hands, but after a while I started wondering if I shouldn't just keep raising every hand. You wouldn't think a bunch of bloggers would let somebody get away with that, but it sure looked like I could have.
The next big pot was a bit of a nail-biter. I had KK in the SB, blinds at 150/300 with 25 ante. Lester000 from the button raises to 600. I min-raise back, he calls. Flop is AJ7, rainbow. I'm thinking to myself, "It's never easy." I check, lester000 checks. Turn is a blank. Check, check. River is another A. I figure there's no way he checked an ace this long so I bet a bit less than half the pot. He calls. He didn't have an ace so I win. I'm up to 7225 now.
Somewhere along in this stretch I went card dead and my stack dwindled. I was down to 5170 with blinds at 400/800 ante 100. Definitely push or fold territory. I get 22 and decide it's now or never. AlCantHang has even fewer chips than I do and calls with KJs. My pair would have held, but just to add insult to injury, the remaining twos showed up on the board. Quack, quack, quack, quack. I get quads and Al goes home. Sorry, Al.
Then came the hand where I got kind of lucky. It was getting a bit late and my attention wandered. I was dealt 88 and figured I'd push if there was no action ahead of me. I started reading some web page and then it was action to me. I clicked "Max" and "Raise". Then I noticed mtnrider81 had put in a 3BB raise ahead of me. Crap. I'm not sure if I would have even called had I noticed the raise. I certainly wouldn't have pushed all-in behind it with just a mid pair. Mtnrider81 thought about it a while and made the call. He showed AQo. The board made it interesting, showing TK39 by the turn. He had ten outs on the river, but it paired the board and moved me from deep trouble to not so much trouble.
We moved to the final table and I hit another long stretch of crap cards. I'm down to M=5 and get KQo. Best cards I've seen in ages. Mtnrider81 raises to 3BB and I push all-in. (Maybe it was this hand where I had the lapse in attention. Or maybe I was just more desperate than I remember. They both look like pretty iffy plays in the light of day.) It folds around to mtnrider81 who again thinks for a long time and finally makes the call. He shows 66. The flop brings a K and a Q, so he's down to two outs. No luck for mtnrider81 and I move from in pretty big trouble to the chip leader in one hand.
Then the cards completely dried up. My stack got blinded and anted from 31,000 down to 13,000. In the meantime we moved down to the final five. An uncalled all-in stemmed the flow for an all too brief a time.
Finally, with the blinds at 1000/2000 ante 250, my stack at 9000 and only four of us left, I had no choice but to push with A2o. HighOnPoker called with A7s and filled his flush on the river. I finish in fourth.
Given my finish position, this was a tournament with comparatively little fireworks for me. A couple big hands, a couple coin tosses that went my way. I think the key was that, other than the lapse of attention or two, I didn't make any big mistakes. There were no big hands where I went to the showdown a loser, other than the last, of course. All in all, I was pretty happy with my play, especially considering I've not played all that much in the last couple months.
And just so this isn't all about me, I have to say I was very impressed with Hoyazo's play. Not so much that he pulled a bunch of clever stunts, but that he showed incredible patience and discipline. I don't know how many times I saw him make a move at a pot, get played back at, and give it up. For a good player, I think play like that takes a lot more guts than just pushing all-in in response to the re-raise. Very smart poker. Good luck in the WSOP, Hoy.
Also, congrats to VinNay on the win. Well played.
Sorry for this being so long and being mostly a boring play-by-play. I'm a bit rusty with this blogging thing too I guess.
The next BBT event is The Mookie on Wednesday. I guess tonight is the WWdN. Probably won't play that one. Maybe The Mookie.
01 June 2007
Riverchasers
I played in the Riverchasers/BBT event at FTP last night. Very lackluster performance. The cards weren't kind and tank-full-of-sharks events like this require huge brass ones to steal many pots. I took a few, but not enough. The best I could do was make it into the top half of the field to pick up a few points on the leaderboard. I went home when two overcards paired the flop against my all-in with a mid pocket pair. At least it was cheap.
29 May 2007
Long time no poker
It's been over a month since my last blog entry. I've mostly been staying away from poker and other active (i.e. requiring movement beyond occasional rotation on the sofa to avoid lividity) leisure time pursuits in favor of pure vegetation in front of the TV. Having seen every episode of "Stargate: SG-1" at least three times, I found myself firing up a poker client or two over the long weekend.
I'm still working on a bonus at Stars, so I multi-tabled 1/2 limit for a while. Uncharacteristically of recent history, I didn't lose my shirt. One session down about $10 and another up about $20. The points cleared rather slowly, but they always do at Stars. Another couple hours of three-tabling and I should have my bonus finished.
Also played a couple of those tourney ticket tournaments at FTP. Busted out of the first to a horrible suckout. Won the second one running away from the rest of the field with more than double the chips of the next closest player. It's a nice feeling to know you can lose an all-in to any player at the table and still be the chip leader.
About 20 minutes before it started, I got an email reminding me of the WPBT event Sunday night. Since I'd just won that ticket tournament and was in the mood to play, I figured I'd give it a shot, even though 7-stud is not exactly my game of choice. I don't think I played that badly, but I just couldn't get anything going, ending up the fourth or fifth player eliminated. Can't say I was real thrilled about the cackles over the suckout that sent me home either. I've obviously set my sights too high, expecting more gentlemanly behavior of fellow bloggers.
I'm not sure if this weekend was a rekindling of my poker fever or if I'll go back to vegetating. Time will tell.
Oh, one more thing that is only marginally related to online poker. Please learn from my experience. Do NOT under any circumstances buy a D-Link wireless router. When I moved into my house I went to CompUSA and bought the cheapest wireless router they had, assuming they were all about the same at the lower end of the price scale. The D-Link I got was less than worthless.
For months I thought I had a neighbor whose cordless phone was interfering with my wireless connection, causing it to periodically drop. I finally ran a network cable to my usual computer position, but found that I was still losing the connection a couple times a night. Upon further investigation I discovered the router was rebooting itself for no apparent reason.
I bought an older model Linksys (WRT54GL) that runs Linux, reburned it with one of the open source firmwares (I used Tomato), and haven't had a crash since. I'm going to take a hammer to the D-Link and mail all the tiny pieces back to the manufacturer.
I will never buy another piece of D-Link gear. I strongly suggest you follow my lead on this. Spend the few extra bucks to get the good stuff. It's money well spent.
I'm still working on a bonus at Stars, so I multi-tabled 1/2 limit for a while. Uncharacteristically of recent history, I didn't lose my shirt. One session down about $10 and another up about $20. The points cleared rather slowly, but they always do at Stars. Another couple hours of three-tabling and I should have my bonus finished.
Also played a couple of those tourney ticket tournaments at FTP. Busted out of the first to a horrible suckout. Won the second one running away from the rest of the field with more than double the chips of the next closest player. It's a nice feeling to know you can lose an all-in to any player at the table and still be the chip leader.
About 20 minutes before it started, I got an email reminding me of the WPBT event Sunday night. Since I'd just won that ticket tournament and was in the mood to play, I figured I'd give it a shot, even though 7-stud is not exactly my game of choice. I don't think I played that badly, but I just couldn't get anything going, ending up the fourth or fifth player eliminated. Can't say I was real thrilled about the cackles over the suckout that sent me home either. I've obviously set my sights too high, expecting more gentlemanly behavior of fellow bloggers.
I'm not sure if this weekend was a rekindling of my poker fever or if I'll go back to vegetating. Time will tell.
Oh, one more thing that is only marginally related to online poker. Please learn from my experience. Do NOT under any circumstances buy a D-Link wireless router. When I moved into my house I went to CompUSA and bought the cheapest wireless router they had, assuming they were all about the same at the lower end of the price scale. The D-Link I got was less than worthless.
For months I thought I had a neighbor whose cordless phone was interfering with my wireless connection, causing it to periodically drop. I finally ran a network cable to my usual computer position, but found that I was still losing the connection a couple times a night. Upon further investigation I discovered the router was rebooting itself for no apparent reason.
I bought an older model Linksys (WRT54GL) that runs Linux, reburned it with one of the open source firmwares (I used Tomato), and haven't had a crash since. I'm going to take a hammer to the D-Link and mail all the tiny pieces back to the manufacturer.
I will never buy another piece of D-Link gear. I strongly suggest you follow my lead on this. Spend the few extra bucks to get the good stuff. It's money well spent.
16 April 2007
I have nothing to say
But I wouldn't be a blogger if I let a little thing like having nothing to say stop me from posting.
I don't know exactly what's up, but I've kind of lost interest in poker. When I used to work with darval (I'd link to his blog, but he hasn't posted in ages so there's little point) we would talk poker on a daily basis and almost always spend our Sundays playing for nickels and dimes. Even after I was no longer employed at the same place, we'd regularly exchange emails about poker, railbird each other in tournaments, and we still played pretty much every Sunday afternoon and evening. Poker was a huge part of my life.
When I moved to Orlando, I lost the Sundays of poker. Our poker emails grew fewer and further between. I haven't found anyone here who's remotely as interested in poker as I am/was. Darval got sucked into some other online pursuit and pretty much stopped playing. I don't know that I'm following in his footsteps, but the lack of someone to regularly converse with about poker strategy, bad beats, and general poker goings on has resulted in me slowly but steadily losing interest. I'm not even watching poker on TV anymore. The thought of watching another "Poker After Dark" makes me want to throw things at my TV.
I've gone back and forth on the blogger tournament thing. During one stretch that was about all I was playing. Then run-ins with a few donkeys in those made me realize there was little to recommend playing in these tournaments. The competition is generally tougher, but there are still enough donkeys that you can't expect everyone to play in a reasonable and intelligent manner. I figure if I have to put up with the donkeys, I might as well do it where there's lots of dead money.
The combined blogger tournament leader board thing piqued my interest again at least briefly, but this last week I just didn't have it in me to play in any of them. Having missed a number of events I've probably lost any opportunity I may have had to get into a decent position on the leaderboard.
I don't know, maybe I just need a break. But this is the second break in the last couple months. That's not a good sign.
For right now, I'm going to just take each day as it comes. If I feel the urge to play poker, I'll play. If not, so be it.
I don't know exactly what's up, but I've kind of lost interest in poker. When I used to work with darval (I'd link to his blog, but he hasn't posted in ages so there's little point) we would talk poker on a daily basis and almost always spend our Sundays playing for nickels and dimes. Even after I was no longer employed at the same place, we'd regularly exchange emails about poker, railbird each other in tournaments, and we still played pretty much every Sunday afternoon and evening. Poker was a huge part of my life.
When I moved to Orlando, I lost the Sundays of poker. Our poker emails grew fewer and further between. I haven't found anyone here who's remotely as interested in poker as I am/was. Darval got sucked into some other online pursuit and pretty much stopped playing. I don't know that I'm following in his footsteps, but the lack of someone to regularly converse with about poker strategy, bad beats, and general poker goings on has resulted in me slowly but steadily losing interest. I'm not even watching poker on TV anymore. The thought of watching another "Poker After Dark" makes me want to throw things at my TV.
I've gone back and forth on the blogger tournament thing. During one stretch that was about all I was playing. Then run-ins with a few donkeys in those made me realize there was little to recommend playing in these tournaments. The competition is generally tougher, but there are still enough donkeys that you can't expect everyone to play in a reasonable and intelligent manner. I figure if I have to put up with the donkeys, I might as well do it where there's lots of dead money.
The combined blogger tournament leader board thing piqued my interest again at least briefly, but this last week I just didn't have it in me to play in any of them. Having missed a number of events I've probably lost any opportunity I may have had to get into a decent position on the leaderboard.
I don't know, maybe I just need a break. But this is the second break in the last couple months. That's not a good sign.
For right now, I'm going to just take each day as it comes. If I feel the urge to play poker, I'll play. If not, so be it.
03 April 2007
Idiocy at Party Poker
I've never been a fan of Party Poker. The only reason I ever played there were the bonuses. And even with that it was marginal as to whether I actually profited anything. The schooling of the fishes was something I had great difficulty overcoming. When Party withdrew from the US market, I took out all the money they'd let me, and figured good riddance.
Last night I get an email from Party. It seems my account has been "inactive" for 180 days and their terms say they can deduct an administrative fee because of this. The fact that they've completely declined to take my action is apparently beside the point.
Those of you who've been reading here a while know that I'm generally pretty level headed. I might whine about this or that injustice, but you don't generally see me calling people names or using especially harsh language. I'm not saying I'm above that sort of thing, but I tend to control my tongue (even if only virtually) in public settings. When dealing with customer service reps I always keep in mind that I'm talking with someone who's just doing their job. I'm not bashful about letting them know when I'm displeased, but I do it in a civil manner and if I'm particularly irked I'll let them know ahead of time that I don't mean it personally.
With Party Poker, I made an exception. Here is my response.
You refuse my action because you haven't the backbone to stand up to the ridiculous laws passed by the US Congress, the actual regulations for which do not even exist yet, and now you have the unmitigated gall to charge me an administrative fee because I haven't logged in to see if you've come to your senses? Have you lost your mind? Are you purposely trying to totally piss off the few remaining US players who might think of Party Poker as victims of circumstance rather than spineless bastards who really don't give a damn about their players? I'll tell you what, take whatever is left in my account, turn it into paper money, fold it five ways and stick it where the sun don't shine. Idiots.
Not exactly the strongest of complaints. I'm sure the reps at Party have seen far worse. But, for me, this was going way over the edge.
To my great surprise, they responded in a very timely manner. I guess all those CSRs don't have quite as much to do as they did a few months ago. Here is their reply.
Thank you for contacting us.
I have located your account and I can confirm that an administration fee of $0.26 was deducted from your account due to inactivity. This is management decision as laid out in the Terms and Conditions.
As your account balance is now $0, there will be no further fees
deducted from your account. You may use your account to access our Play Money games.
In case you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to help you.
Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!
In other words, yes, our management are complete idiots who haven't clue one about customer relations, and we're proud of it.
Well, Party, I hope you choke on my 26 cents. And, please, feel free to continue deducting any fees you want. I assure you, regardless of what may eventually happen with online gaming in the US, that 26 cents will be the last of my money you will ever see. May you all rot in hell you greedy bastards.
On the more normal poker front, I played the inaugural event in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments. Mondays At The Hoy, freshly moved to Full Tilt, was the first of 40 tournaments which make up the complete battle. It appeared from the action that some people were maybe a bit too anxious to do well in this tournament. These blogger events tend to have a slightly lower than normal attrition rate compared to open tournaments, but last night I think we pretty much met the average open tournament elimination rate.
I got off to an early lead when willwonka and I got it all in, me with a flopped set of fours and he with a flopped straight. One of these days I'm going to learn to judge holdings based on the betting and not on the apparent likelihood of someone actually holding specific cards. The flop was A45. I figured the odds of somebody holding 23 were pretty slim, so I bet. The turn brought a 6. This upped the odds of a straight, but I still thought 23 or 78 an unlikely holding, particularly after I'd bet the flop. I bet, willwonka raises, I push, he calls. I got lucky and caught one of my ten outs, doubling up while still in level 2.
I weak played my way into losing a quarter of my stack with AA. The turn paired 3's on the board and I was afraid weak_player may have had a 3, so I checked it and let him fill his straight on the river. Stupid move on my part.
On the last hand before the break it folds to the button, who calls. I complete from the SB with T9 and SirFWALGMan, the BB, checks. The flop comes KQJ, giving me the second nut straight. I bet and SirFWALGMan raises. I figured if SirFWALGMan had AT he'd have raised into the weak action before the flop, so I figured him for top pair, maybe KJ or QJ at most. He bet slightly less than the pot when the turn brought an inconsequential 3. I raised all in and he called, showing, you guessed it, AT. As I said before, maybe one of these days I'll learn to evaluate the situation based on the betting, not on what would seem to be logical holdings based on early action.
I finished 24th of 47, just barely making the points. At least I'm on the board.
The next BBT event is Wednesday's Mookie, 10PM EDT at Full Tilt, whose bet slider sucks, regardless of what hoyazo says.
Last night I get an email from Party. It seems my account has been "inactive" for 180 days and their terms say they can deduct an administrative fee because of this. The fact that they've completely declined to take my action is apparently beside the point.
Those of you who've been reading here a while know that I'm generally pretty level headed. I might whine about this or that injustice, but you don't generally see me calling people names or using especially harsh language. I'm not saying I'm above that sort of thing, but I tend to control my tongue (even if only virtually) in public settings. When dealing with customer service reps I always keep in mind that I'm talking with someone who's just doing their job. I'm not bashful about letting them know when I'm displeased, but I do it in a civil manner and if I'm particularly irked I'll let them know ahead of time that I don't mean it personally.
With Party Poker, I made an exception. Here is my response.
You refuse my action because you haven't the backbone to stand up to the ridiculous laws passed by the US Congress, the actual regulations for which do not even exist yet, and now you have the unmitigated gall to charge me an administrative fee because I haven't logged in to see if you've come to your senses? Have you lost your mind? Are you purposely trying to totally piss off the few remaining US players who might think of Party Poker as victims of circumstance rather than spineless bastards who really don't give a damn about their players? I'll tell you what, take whatever is left in my account, turn it into paper money, fold it five ways and stick it where the sun don't shine. Idiots.
Not exactly the strongest of complaints. I'm sure the reps at Party have seen far worse. But, for me, this was going way over the edge.
To my great surprise, they responded in a very timely manner. I guess all those CSRs don't have quite as much to do as they did a few months ago. Here is their reply.
Thank you for contacting us.
I have located your account and I can confirm that an administration fee of $0.26 was deducted from your account due to inactivity. This is management decision as laid out in the Terms and Conditions.
As your account balance is now $0, there will be no further fees
deducted from your account. You may use your account to access our Play Money games.
In case you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to help you.
Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!
In other words, yes, our management are complete idiots who haven't clue one about customer relations, and we're proud of it.
Well, Party, I hope you choke on my 26 cents. And, please, feel free to continue deducting any fees you want. I assure you, regardless of what may eventually happen with online gaming in the US, that 26 cents will be the last of my money you will ever see. May you all rot in hell you greedy bastards.
On the more normal poker front, I played the inaugural event in the Battle of the Blogger Tournaments. Mondays At The Hoy, freshly moved to Full Tilt, was the first of 40 tournaments which make up the complete battle. It appeared from the action that some people were maybe a bit too anxious to do well in this tournament. These blogger events tend to have a slightly lower than normal attrition rate compared to open tournaments, but last night I think we pretty much met the average open tournament elimination rate.
I got off to an early lead when willwonka and I got it all in, me with a flopped set of fours and he with a flopped straight. One of these days I'm going to learn to judge holdings based on the betting and not on the apparent likelihood of someone actually holding specific cards. The flop was A45. I figured the odds of somebody holding 23 were pretty slim, so I bet. The turn brought a 6. This upped the odds of a straight, but I still thought 23 or 78 an unlikely holding, particularly after I'd bet the flop. I bet, willwonka raises, I push, he calls. I got lucky and caught one of my ten outs, doubling up while still in level 2.
I weak played my way into losing a quarter of my stack with AA. The turn paired 3's on the board and I was afraid weak_player may have had a 3, so I checked it and let him fill his straight on the river. Stupid move on my part.
On the last hand before the break it folds to the button, who calls. I complete from the SB with T9 and SirFWALGMan, the BB, checks. The flop comes KQJ, giving me the second nut straight. I bet and SirFWALGMan raises. I figured if SirFWALGMan had AT he'd have raised into the weak action before the flop, so I figured him for top pair, maybe KJ or QJ at most. He bet slightly less than the pot when the turn brought an inconsequential 3. I raised all in and he called, showing, you guessed it, AT. As I said before, maybe one of these days I'll learn to evaluate the situation based on the betting, not on what would seem to be logical holdings based on early action.
I finished 24th of 47, just barely making the points. At least I'm on the board.
The next BBT event is Wednesday's Mookie, 10PM EDT at Full Tilt, whose bet slider sucks, regardless of what hoyazo says.
02 April 2007
The Weekend
This weekend I continued trying to clear my free $50 Full Tilt bonus. Like every FTP bonus I've ever chased, it's clear this one will expire long before I get close to clearing it all. I've cleared $20, just about breaking even in the process, so this has been my best FTP bonus chase ever.
I continued pursuing the bonus at the 6-max NL tables. The going was incredibly slow at the $25 buy-in tables, so yesterday I decided to move up to the $50 tables. I had a couple great hands, though my winnings had dwindled by the time the table broke up. I still walked away up $10, so it was a good session. That's five winning NL sessions in a row. And the one right before that would have been a winning session too if not for two bad beats. I'm thinking I've found my niche.
I tried another of the Tier One ticket tournaments that get you entry to a $24+$2 tournament for $8.70. I've done quite well at these. I was doing great last night too -- second place with 3400 in chips and ten players remaining. Then I get dealt AA in the BB. It folds to the SB, who completes, and I raise to 900 (3BB). He calls. With 75o. Pocket aces aside, what kind of nutjob calls off over a quarter of his stack with 75o? The flop comes T76 and he pushes all-in. I'm already looking for tournaments to enter with my new ticket. Adding his 2500 to my 3400 means I can fold my way to a win. Naturally, he catches a 5 on the river. I bust out on the next hand.
The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments starts tonight with MATH, which has allegedly moved to Full Tilt for the duration of the battle. I still haven't decided whether I want to participate in this thing or not. But I'll probably show up if only to delay the decision of longer term commitment.
I continued pursuing the bonus at the 6-max NL tables. The going was incredibly slow at the $25 buy-in tables, so yesterday I decided to move up to the $50 tables. I had a couple great hands, though my winnings had dwindled by the time the table broke up. I still walked away up $10, so it was a good session. That's five winning NL sessions in a row. And the one right before that would have been a winning session too if not for two bad beats. I'm thinking I've found my niche.
I tried another of the Tier One ticket tournaments that get you entry to a $24+$2 tournament for $8.70. I've done quite well at these. I was doing great last night too -- second place with 3400 in chips and ten players remaining. Then I get dealt AA in the BB. It folds to the SB, who completes, and I raise to 900 (3BB). He calls. With 75o. Pocket aces aside, what kind of nutjob calls off over a quarter of his stack with 75o? The flop comes T76 and he pushes all-in. I'm already looking for tournaments to enter with my new ticket. Adding his 2500 to my 3400 means I can fold my way to a win. Naturally, he catches a 5 on the river. I bust out on the next hand.
The Battle of the Blogger Tournaments starts tonight with MATH, which has allegedly moved to Full Tilt for the duration of the battle. I still haven't decided whether I want to participate in this thing or not. But I'll probably show up if only to delay the decision of longer term commitment.
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