Drunk Dialing

Not much poker recently; I did play in "a great game" according to a friend, which was a full UB 80-160 game, where I did not win a single hand, for 2 hrs... hmm sounds like a great game. Also played a little on Full Tilt a site where I manage to flop a set about 50% of the time, tough to stay away with odds like those.

My favorite hand recently was vs an opponent that managed to pretty much destroy me heads up, but I did have "my moment of glory." On Full Tilt the button is in "proper" position, (ie opposite of party). He limps on the button, I check in the BB with 72. The flop came AAk 2 diamonds, I bet out, he raises I 3 bet he 4 bets! I know (or think I know) he has a flush draw now. The turn is a small card, I check and call, the river is another random small card/ non diamond, I checkraise, and after a few seconds with his screename blinking he realizes that I must "have it" and he folds his hand. Ahh Life is goooood.


Wby ? Why do I (there are probably many others doing the same), think that the best time to call (or start text messaging) people is the middle of the night after a few brewski's ??? Pretty strange. I dread waking up looking at my extensive call history. My phone may be staying at home in the future .... nah, who am I kidding.

Heading to Foxwoods in a few hours, might try to get some daytime poker in before a night of mischief with some friends...

Home Sweet Home

After crawling through another day 1 main event, I was unable to get much going on day 2. I doubled my 12K stack early on, when my 66 beat out AK, but didn’t win another pot from that point on. My final hand AQs vs AK and AA, there was a brief hope when I flopped a flush draw but didn’t get there. This has been my recent trend in these things, making it through day 1 with a average or slightly below average stack then busting out on day 2. Maybe my day 1 game plan needs to be changed to give myself a better chance at making it deep in these top heavy payout structures. Something for me to think about.

Once out of the Main event Friday at 5pm, I immediately looked for the first non-stop flight from Long Beach to Boston. I was out of LA by 9pm and home in Boston by Saturday morning. The first weekend back in the city was completely poker free. Had a good time at a friend’s party Saturday night. Then Sunday was a long day of drinking, red neck style, for the Daytona 500. Who even knew I liked Nascar ?? But daytime drinking with some good friends is always a fun time!!

Im thinking about getting back into an online schedule of poker this week, but still a little burned out from all the poker the past month.

Main Event and Playing Extremly High

The last couple days there has been a 600-1200 game going, and decided there was great value in the game. Some fairly bad players for a game that size. Since this is twice as high as I have ever played I only had a percentage of myslef in the game. Played for 10hrs tuesday and 6 hrs wednesday. Ended up a small loser, -10k, in 2 days. Pretty much breaking even playing at these stakes. With a couple breaks going my way we could have booked a solid 30 or 40k win. Anyway it was a ton of fun to be raising someone to 2400 on the turn on a semi bluff or 3 betting preflop to 1800.

Today is the first day of the Main Event. It starts in a couple hours. The action should be updated on a regular basis on http://www.pokerwire.com.

The End is Near

With the third week in cali under way, I am pretty much ready to return to the snowy east coast. The tournaments are winding down here, the only 2 events left that I will be playing is the tag team event tomorrow, and the main event on the 16th.

A few days ago I made it to the final table in the 2500 limit holdem event. I was about average in chips the whole way then when we got down to about 15 players, I lost a critical pot with AA, that left me short stack fighting to make the final table. Once at the 10 handed final table it was a battle, only paying 9 spots, no one was willing to give up. I ended up finishing 7th when my JJ lost to Q10.

The next day was the 2500 NL event, I somehow managed to get my original stack from 5k to 30k in the third level. A pretty sizable stack at the blinds we were playing. But when my flush draw + overcards ran into a full house, I lost 7500 chips, and still had plenty of chips but for some reason in these NL tourneys when my stack takes a hit, I do not bounce back the way I should. I ended up bleeding my stack down to the final 6 or 7 tables before busting.

Then the biggest event here besides the Main Event was the 1500 Limit Holdem with rebuys. There were over 400 players, and first prize over 500k. I made it through day 1, and the final 57 players returned to day 2. I was slightly below average stack starting the day and could never get anything going, ended up finishing around 40th.

Heading into the city now to grab some food before going to the Jazz Lakers game. Should be a good time.

Super Sunday and a Lil' Holdem

SuperBowl Sunday was day 2 of the 300 + rebuy NL Holdem event, Shaniac was 2nd in chips with about 25 left. A few of us watched the end of the football game before we were able to head into the tourney room and see the massive amount of chips Shane had accumulated. When the the final table began, Shane was a commanding chip leader, with about 800k of the 2.5million in play. He systematically knocked out player after player building his stack to 1.6 million before taking the lions share of the 3 player deal and earning himself a cool 215k, nice work Shane!!!!

Not having a huge interest in either side of the Super Bowl we decided to watch the game in my room with a couple people and play the "Sunday Circuit" of online tourneys, this week it included a 215 stars, 215 party, 216 Full Tilt, 200 Paradise, and 33+30 Satallite to the main event in LA. I had a great day in these tourneys, making 3 final tables! The satalite I came in 4th out of about 200 people, only giving away 1 seat so this is was all for not, on FTP I came in 8th, and Dise came in 5th. Its good to make it deep in these but the money is soo top heavy you really have to win.

My favorite live game hand of the past couple days actually cost be a bunch of money, but I dont think I have laughed this hard at a poker table in a long time. We were playing 300-600 holdem, with 1 main bad player in the game, as soon as he was out of money the game was over. He is a Mexican Surgeon, one of the nicest guys I have played with, but clearly does not play Holdem well and does not care about the money. If you slow down in a hand or refuse to reraise him he calls you a chicken... a very very funny situation. Now he raises my BB and I call with 89 offsuit, the flop comes Q92, I check he bets I call, the turn is a 8 I bet into him, he raises I 3 bet and he calls. At this point I think he has a big pair or some Q, when the river comes a 10, I dont like it but pretty sure my hand is still gold, I bet and he calls ?!?! I must win if he cant raise...I show my hand 89 two pair and he then shows me 3 tens !!! This is when the funny part starts, at the same time, about 3 people, start mocking him, yelling "chicken, chicken, you're afraid to raise, chicken." Anyway he takes down the 6800 dollar pot and I cant do anything but laugh with the rest of the table. A good time had by all.

Meatball Soup

Not much intersting happening in the city of angels. The tourney tally is now up to 4, 2 dinner breaks and one early exit, with no cashes. I plan on playing in a bunch more, so hopefully things will get better.

Cash games have been the equivelant of running in quicksand. Win a day lose a day, no real progress. Online I have still been running real well in the party games, although the swings are kinda gross at times, the overall end results have been great. When playing in these games the players tend to play in an "overaggressive manner" that can often be exploited with the "river checkraise," one of my favorite moves. I have decided to try to carry this over into the live games so far there has been mixed results. Two check behinds, and 3 times betting, twice calling the raise. But all three times the players were not very pleased to say the least. My favorite example:

I have just lost a series of pots and cant seem to flop a pair, when I am dealt AQ in first position and open for a raise, the next player, a middle aged asain, who plays real well and seems like the nicest guy in the room 3 bets me. I am a little skeptical he might be picking on the kid losing every hand, but pretty confident he has a big hand. The flop comes A-10-2 I check and call, the turn is a 4 I check and now he checks behind, a pretty sure indication he has a pocket pair. The river is a 2, making the board A-10-2-4-2, I check it to him again and this time he cant help himself but making the value bet, when I river checkraise him, he begins frantically studying me, and finally calls, shows me his two kings, racks up his chips and leaves without even playing his free hand. He clearly did not like being checkraised on the river, oh well ...

As far as the food goes, I feel spoiled here. Not that it takes much, but the raisin bran, english muffins, salmon, and chicken will do it!!! The best random thing, was the soup of the day a couple days ago, meatball soup, having never had meatball soup before, I figured it was exactly what it sounded like, soup with meatballs ...hmmm...and to make my day, it was exacty that !!