In Pursuit Of Mobney

So how do I do this again?

2010-05-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

So how does this work? I just type stuff in this box and then when I click "Publish Post" it shows up on the internet? Are you sure? Ok, I guess I'll give it a try and hopefully it'll all come back to me.

It's been 9 months since I've written a post and for good reason. I think using the label "Poker Blogger" is a misnomer for me. When I write, I'm not going to give you any groundbreaking analysis about how to play KJ or 44 or anything like that. And a lot of times its just to toot my own horn, because frankly its more fun to talk about your successes than your failures. You guys don't want to come here just to hear me bitch about a bad beat or talk about how bad someone else played. So I see myself more as just a guy that plays an occasional blogger tournament, hangs around BDR, and just happens to have a blog collecting dust in its corner of the web. So I guess I'll do what I do best, talk about my good night last night.

I had a hankering for some poker last night and wanted to play the Mookie so I booted up Full Tilt and noticed the first ten MSOP events were listed in the Series tab and they were running satellites. Strangely, they had NL Holdem satellites going for the Omaha H/L tournament. Sat down at one of those for $4.40 and also entered a 135-man $4.40 Rush tournaments. Cruised through satellite and got my seat in that one the cheap way. I was a little disappointed with my finish in the Rush tournament. I was in the top 15% in chips the whole way after winning a 3-way all-in with KK against KJ and TT. I was 3rd in chips with 17 left and lost a dumb hand to really hurt myself and just managed to mincash.

Second set of tournaments was the Mookie and Dookie as well as a $3 6-max tournament that had 622 runners. Those cheap tournaments were the ones I had run crazy good in in October and November last year when I won a ton of money. In the Mookie and the 6-max, I was running good and had this feeling again like last year where I felt like I was on cruise control, that everything was going easy. I was getting my all-ins in good too, with pairs over pairs or like AJ vs AT and stuff like that. I made one bad all-in call with AQ vs KK, but Q on the flop and another on the turn and I knocked the guy out (can't remember who it was).

I just kept going an hour at a time, kept hoping to make it to the next break. I crapped out of the Dookie with some poor play and very little focus on that one. The other two tournaments were a little more important. I managed to make the final table of the Mookie and be in the final 3 tables of the 6-max and just trying to keep my head on straight.

With 8 players left in the Mookie and about 8 BBs, I openshoved with AJ. OSU, who had run like God all night, thought forever and finally called with AT, and I was happy. KQx on the flop. Jack on the turn, and I couldn't spike a Ten for a chop, and I was out in 8th.

I was stunned, but I had to get that out of my head because I was in the top 3 with 3 tables left in the 6-max. I knocked out a couple of big stacks in back to back hands where I flopped sets with TT and 77 on Ace high flops and we got it all-in right then. I flopped sets like crazy too last night, I can't remember the last time I made so many sets, if ever. I made the final table in second with about 300k in chips and 4k/8k blinds, guaranteed $65. The short stack got knocked out early and 5th place was $102.

I got Kings and the short stack moved into me and reshoved to isolate. Got no callers and he had Queens and I thought I was golden. Flop was 567, turn 4, and of course the river was the 3 for a chop. That pot would have taken me up to 500k, still in second but well ahead of the other two. Then my computer crapped out on me and I had to restart. When I finally managed to get it back up and running, I was down to 120k and eventually pushed my last 99k with AKc. Some punk kid that had been talking shit called time, typed "slowroll..." into the chatbox, and called at the end of his time bank with Aces. I was out in 5th for $102. That one pissed me off more than the Mookie loss, that he had the gall to slowroll.

I've played now 4 BBT tournaments, which is a good percentage considering I wasn't invited to the Sunday tourneys. I have other thoughts on that, but I'm just gonna keep my mouth shut. Maybe a Mookie final table will get me in the last one on Sunday, maybe not. Everyone have a good day, I'm out.

Losing Control

2009-08-05T21:03:00.000-07:00

This is why I don't play poker anymore.

I take a beat, and I get mad and go crazy. I get pissed at the other players, my own luck, just pissed off at the world. I lose control of my emotions, my moves, everything when I get frustrated like this.

I tried playing some today, after pushing myself away from the game for 5 or 6 weeks. I just wanted to relax and enjoy myself and have a good time. And I did for a while. I played some 7-Game which was really fun, I like that Full Tilt added that to the rotation and can't wait to watch some of the really big games go. I played a couple of HU SNGs and went 1-1. I played the Daily Dollar and was cruising until I took a nasty beat. It's those beats that make me so mad sometimes, because I can't control them. Guy hits a 2-outer on the river and I'm furious, and I never used to be that way.

Every beat I took today, I kept saying to myself, "This is why I don't play poker anymore." I was so burnt out, after playing 40-some BBT events and 8 miniFTOPS events and 20-some MSOP events, I just couldn't take it anymore. I knew the burnout was coming, I could feel it coming at the end of MSOP. Every little beat felt like I was talking a hammer to the head, just pounding away. 4 months of tournaments, and grinding out points and shit, just wore me out. I spread myself too thin.

It has affected me in every part of my life. June was my last month in the house at Mason City, and I never left the house. I was either playing poker, or drinking, or sleeping. I was just a robot. I rarely went out in the evenings, although I'm not really much of a bar guy anyway. It was just "wake up, start playing poker, eat occasionally (usually ordered in), go to bed". That was my life for the June.

And every little beat made it harder and harder to keep it going. Every time I would get increasingly more pissed, to the point that my mouse took a pretty good beating (still works great amazingly). I just wanted to punch a wall. I felt like I was playing as good as I could, and it wasn't good enough. I always think about poker and golf together just because those are the two sports that I'm interested in and decent at. If I'm out playing golf, and I get a bad bounce or something, I can't let that stuff go either. So frustrating. The difference is that on the golf course, I haven't yet felt like I've played a whole round as well as I can. But that's something for another post maybe.

Everything I can control, I make sure I do. If I'm given a project, I'm all over it, and I'll go at it hard cause it's my thing. This is my project and I'm gonna get it done how I think it should be done. But with poker I felt like I couldn't control anything. Why bother if I feel like I'm leaving it all up to luck? I can console myself with the fact that I got all the money in good, but it doesn't matter if I don't get any of it back.

Nowadays, I'm just down all the time. I just don't care about anything any more, except my golf. I feel like I'm stuck in the mud, like I can't go anywhere or do anything. I haven't cared less about everything ever. I just don't even want to get out of bed in the morning; I want to stay up so late at nights so the morning doesn't come. I'm not even sure I know who I am anymore, what my identity is. I'm supposed to go back to school in a couple weeks to get my 4-year degree in Sports Administration, but I don't really care.

Something's gotta change, but I don't know what or how. I want to get back to playing poker, but I just can't if its gonna be the same way it has been. I love watching it or reading about it, but I don't think I can play for a while. Hopefully, I'll be back, I haven't even bothered withdrawing from FT (not exactly a huge balance, but its nice to have a little). We'll just see how it goes. I just don't know anymore.

miniFTOPS

2009-05-05T12:39:00.000-07:00

Alright people, its time for the miniFTOPS. I will be playing in the following events if anyone is interested in buying pieces of my action.

#1 - May 6 - $22 NLH (6-max)
#5 - May 8 - $22 Stud8
#11 - May 11 - $22 PLO8
#14 - May 12 - $55 HEROS
#16 - May 13 - $22 PLHA
#24 - May 17 - $13 NLH (KOs)

Those are the events I'm for sure playing, the ones I'm already bought into. There are two other events I may play in, but I won't know for sure until probably the day of: #2 - May 7 - $26 PLO (KOs) and #21 - May 15 - $22 Mixed Holdem (6-max). I'm leaning toward playing them but those are both gonna be busy days for me anyway, so I might not be able to.

5% of the for sure six is $7.80. If you want either of the other two, those are $1.30 and $1.10 respectively, and if I'll make my decision on them the day of. If you pay for them and I don't play you'll just get your money back. So there's the numbers. FT is preferable, but Stars is fine too.

I've been playing pretty well lately, especially in NLH, having won a couple tournaments and taken 5th in a $280 tourney for $1500 last Saturday. (I'm working on that writeup currently, more time now that I've graduated.) I want to push myself and was initially looking at playing 12 or 13 events but this is what I trimmed my schedule down to. I know I put in some good showings if I just focus, play tight and aggressive, and not make bonehead mistakes.

I'm willing to sell 40% of myself to whoever is willing to buy or swap (15% already gone). Kitchen's open.

Live-Blog SCOOP 12-L: $22 Stud8

2009-04-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone. I figured this is a good way to get a post out there. I've already played two of the SCOOP events, the PLO8 and the HU NLH. I made it to the first break in the PLO8 but not much after, and got busted out in the first round of the headsup, so it hasn't been real good so far. So this is my third chance at a good performance, with the LO8 coming up later in the week.

I'm going to be focusing on watching people's cards before I make decisions. I have a bad habit of not paying any attention and drawing to outs that don't exist. I think I can put in a good performance here today.

3:39 - Just getting started, 5k stacks and starting at 40/80/8 and 15 minute levels, there's gonna be plenty of play early. I've lost a little bit now, missing a couple nice combo draws.

4:01 - Level is now 60/120/12 and I make a nice 7 lock low against two high boards and pump it full of money. Take half of a nice 3 way pot, but I'm still a little shy of starting stack.

4:36 - Ok first break. I'm down to 4431, average stack is 5094, not a whole of lot of action. It's been pretty boring. One of my friends is in the top 100 so hopefully he keeps going. This looks like it might be an all night thing to go deep. Also, right now is an easy time to pimp out my new project. A couple of friends and I have started a baseball blog, something we hope to update daily. It's over at The Daily Balk. We;re off to a good start so far, so check it out.

4:59 - I river a straight to get up from 3100 to 4500 and then lose it to someone else when I miss a huge draw and three pair's no good. 3500, 120/240/24, average 5341.

5:15 - First big hand of the day. I decided to go prospecting for spades when I start with Q48s, two people come along. By sixth I had a nice 8 low, a gut shot wheel draw, and a Queen high spade draw. The 3 of spades was what I needed to make good on both of those, and that is what I got. I picked the bingo card right out of the deck, just below average now.

5:30 - Won a couple thousand more in chips when I made Aces up and 65 low. I'm at 6209, just above average.

5:40 - Second break, 5549, average is 6711. 1311st out of 2290 remaining. I sat out a little while and hung out with a friend downstairs.

6 PM - A seven high straight is good enough to scoop an 8k pot and I'm up to just over 9000, in the top third of the field.

6:05 - Up to 11k now, when a pair of fives and a 76 low is good enough to scoop. But I fall to back to 7300 when my starting hand of A253d fails to produce ANYTHING.

6:34 - A wheel on sixth gives me a 9k scoop at an important time, only got 10k in my stack, 2k under the average. 1316 left, 520 get paid. That might be a couple hours away yet.

6:48 - Third break, and I'm still hanging around. Average is 14792 and I'm a little below that with 10769. 624th of 1035 remaining. Stats so far:
During current Stud H/L session you were dealt 193 hands and:
- saw fourth street 42 times (21%)
- saw fifth street 34 times (17%)
- saw sixth street 30 times (15%)
- reached showdown 23 times (11%)
Pots won at showdown - 17 of 23 (73%)
Pots won without showdown - 2
I think I'm doing pretty good, although it seems like I'm folding even more than that pre-4th street. Just gotta stay focused, and keep playing smart.

7:12 - Struggling to stay alive. Under 5k stack, limits are 1k/2k/200, so I need to find some cards fast.

7:16 - Out in 792nd. Find hidden jacks, guy calls me with three hearts King high. He makes the Ace-hi straight and I never improve.

2009-03-11T19:46:00.000-07:00

When I get the money in ahead, I get sucked out on.
When I'm in behind, I can't suck out.
I'm getting worse and everybody else is getting better.
I'm basically giving away money.
I'm not looking for sympathy; I just give up.

I owe some people some things...

2009-03-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

... only posts thankfully. I promise I will do a couple of writeup for some people. I owe OhCaptain a nice writeup of his super fun homegames and if I don't take of that soon, I may not get invited back. And I need to do a nice little writeup of Corn-Vegas activities this past weekend as well. I promise I will get to it shortly, but I have tests every day the rest of the week and some other drama to deal with, and spring break the week after. So it looks like it might be spring break before it gets done. Stay tuned.

Corn Vegas!

2009-02-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Stolen From BDR

Join us this Wednesday for the largest blogger gathering ever to hit the mediocre state of Iowa! Corn Vegas! International superstar Joanada will be flying all the way in from Canada for the festivities. Iowa bloggers Numbbono and Jimdniacc will also be making the trek to join us in the newly redesigned BDR studio for the broadcast.
So while you're playing The Mookie tune into the radio or video broadcast to be a part of history.

Temper and Patience

2009-01-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

I have a bit of a temper at the tables, especially live when I'm at the casino. Someone snaps me off on the river, it takes a lot of willpower not to go off on them because of their bad play. I'll bitch and moan about my luck to the floor, the dealers, anyone who will listen. I'll go all Phil Hellmuth, talking about being the best player at the table, when most of the time I'm not. I'm more laid back online, mainly because I'm playing amongst friends. Recently though, I've been working on my temper and how it affects my game.

When I get sucked out on, I get mad. When I'm mad, I play more aggressively, trying to force the issue and get my chips back. When that happens, I either make more mistakes playing too many hands or I notice a lot more that my 86o that I folded would have made a straight and won the hand. And finally when I play too many hands, I get sucked out on more. It's a vicious circle.

So I need to take a walk, take a break. Even at the online tables, when I get sucked out on, I disappear for 5 minutes or so, just to give myself time to cool down. I reset, I refocus, and I get back to playing my best game.

Temper and patience go hand in hand. I cool down, I can sit down and fold away, playing that tight aggressive game I've been working on. I pick my spots a lot more carefully, and my raises get a lot more respect. When I'm mad, I can't bring myself to do that. I want action, go go go, and I won't stop until I've got all or nothing. My ego pops up and I'm the best player in the whole world (in my head).

When I got 3rd in the Mookie a couple weeks ago, I played 9% to the flop. My preflop raises earned me some respect folds, my continuation bets worked more often and I even got away with check-raising the flop when I missed my hand. It worked because I stayed patient and calm. I was too nervous to try any funny business, it's been a while since I've been in that situation.

So that's the basic gameplan, at least for now. I'm going to put some fun stuff in the gameplan as it evolves. Let's call this a rebirth of my game. It might work, it might not. But everyone will get to see the journey.

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Oh yeah one more thing. This one's for Pirate Lawyer. He didn't believe me last night when in the Skillz Game, I bet at him on the river on a board of 22T85. He thought and thought and then asked me if I had quads. He folded and I told him I flopped a boat. He immediately called BS. What is it, am I not an honest guy? For some reason he just didn't trust me. So here's the proof.

I was in the BB. I so love Omaha. Maybe you'll believe me next time sir. Have a good day. :)

Fine, I'm back.

2009-01-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

Well after some chiding from BamBamCan tonight, I've decided to return to writing here after a while away. In September, after a disaster tournament in Omaha, I felt like I needed to step back from my poker and sort of start from scratch. It was so bad I scrapped a lot of my view of the poker world around me and basically started over. I took some time away from the game, focused more on school and work, and had to find a way to feel better about myself. I was pretty down after that so it was much needed time away.

I didn't play a hand of poker for about 6 weeks, didn't even think about it in any seriousness. I wanted back in but after that, time away was real nice. Eventually I ended up playing a little at the casino, really basic tight poker. I've relearned the basics of tight agressive poker, and I'm better off for it. I've still got some of my trapping moves, but I'm smarter in picking my spots. I needed to learn how to change gears more effectively and use image to my advantage.

I came back to online poker last Monday and started fast. I took 3rd in the Tuckfard I and 1st in the Tuckfard II, as well as 5th but just out of the money in the Rambler PLO Dime Rebuy. On top of that I made my way through a field of 50 tough competitors to take third behind LJ and lucko for a nice payday. I played 11% of hands preflop, established the tight image and used it to my advantage. I was near the top most of the way, coming into the final table in 3rd. In the end, my ATo couldn't suck out on LJ's AQ and I was out in 3rd. All the support coming my way was really nice, it was a great feeling.

For the week I made a total of six final tables in blogger events, three cashes, three top threes and one win, my best week of poker in a very long time. On top of all that, I just finished off my title defense of the Tuckfard II winning it two weeks in a row. Switching gears was the key to this one, actually more like keeping the pedal to the floor.

59% of hands isn't exactly textbook Omaha8, but it worked anyway. Well I need to focus on the NY Rambler tonight so I'm gonna wrap this up. It's nice to be back and hopefully I can keep up this mojo I got going. See ya later, hopefully more often now.

Saturday- What a stupid I am.

2008-09-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

I left my house yesterday morning at 8 AM to make the drive from Omaha to Mason City. I just happened to wake up at that point and started on the 4 hour drive. 4 hours in the car without the radio and without my iPod working correctly is very annoying. I make it to the casino exit around noon and there's construction all over the exit. So after making a certain soccer mom angry enough to flip me off (you're welcome), I make it to the property.

This place is huge. I decide its probably better to just follow the signs to parking instead of just finding my own spot, less possibility to ruffle feathers. I pull into the parking garage and find a spot on the third level. Finally made my way into the building and down to the casino ground floor.

The elevators are in a little hallway out of the way, so when you get out you can't see anything. I came around the corner and it was all spread out in front of me now. Holy crap this place is big, bigger than any casino I've ever been in. There are signs everywhere clearly pointing out where all the tournament stuff is going on. I went straight to the Total Rewards desk to get a Horseshoe players card, needed to register for a tournament. Got my card, paid for my entry into the Omaha8, signed the release, and was on my way. I looked down at my card and saw my seat assignment, Table 40, Seat 9. Table 40??? Wow.

That might be the whole theme of the day, just wow. The poker room has 18 tables of which only 7 were running cash games when I got in there around 1 PM. I sat and played a little 4/8 Omaha8 that didn't go so well, left that table down 60 bucks. I have this bad habit of running second nut-second nut into nut high and nut low in three way pots :( .

I make my way into the tournament area, its basically this big concert/bar/specialty gaming area that they cleared out to put tournament tables in. (Side note: All the girls that work in there are smoking hot and dressed exactly like the picture.) Tables 18 through 47 are here so I can see exactly where I'll be sitting. They're using this as the main tournament room, if they need to put tables in the poker room they do, and those are the first tables to break. It's a little dark, but not too bad. There's a final table going from the day before in the middle of the room with an announcer calling the action and a camera to look down at the board. And that's when I realize I made my first mistake.

I went out to the board with the schedule on it and all the structure sheets for all the tournaments and start reading the Omaha8 sheet. Yep sure enough there it is: "Play will continue until there is a final table or 3 AM (whichever comes first). Play will resume the next day at 3 PM." Oops. It's going to be a late night on Sunday, and I have to remember to ask for another night at my hotel, I had only booked for one. 30 minute levels, start with 25-50 blinds and 5000 chips. First break is 4 hours in, breaks after that are every 2 hours.

I walk back in and see my second mistake. "Single Table Satellites here". Duh, I should have tried that first before buying in. I decide I'm gonna try a few to try and earn a buyin to the HORSE next week. $65 gets you 800 in chips, starting blinds of 25-25 with 15 minute levels. Winner takes all, 5 $100 buyin chips and $50 cash, but the people that have been playing those say that almost all of them get chopped up.

The first one doesn't go so well, no hands and I shove with K9 and get knocked out in a three-way all in. There's two seats in a SNG getting ready to start, so the lady who also got knocked out that satellite and I locked them up and sat next to each other in seats 8 and 9. There's a whole bunch of people who are rotating through all the SNGs and they all seem to know each other. I ask her about that, and she says they all just met today through the tournaments. There's another lady there with two guys hitting on her nonstop, one guy offering surf and turf and the best Merlot in the city. I make a few big hands and make it down to three-handed. We've been playing three-handed for a while and we're pretty even in chips, so I offer a save of one $100 chips for all three of us and play for the rest. They agree and we move on. The lady next to me knocks out the kid and we're headsup. She offers me another chip, and I make my third mistake. I thought too long about it and she took it off the table. It was an easy decision to make and looking back I don't know why I even thought about it. I lost a coin flip and walk away with only the 1 chip.

So now I'm stuck with 1 chip instead of 2 which would have been good enough to buy in to the HORSE on Friday. So dumb. Rookie mistake. The plan today is to go try a couple more SNG sats, and hang around watching the foorball games until 4 PM. I'm gonna try to get my Twitter working here in case someone wants to follow my progress. I think I'm also gonna bring a tape recorder a la Gus Hansen at the WSOP. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.

Limit Omaha8 refresher course.

2008-09-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Ok poker questions time, I'm examining my Omaha8 game coming into the big Omaha8 tournament on Sunday. Trying to tighten things up so I can play my best game. Any and all comments are welcome from all skill levels and playing types.

How do you people play A23x unpaired in general? I want to raise because I know if the flop is of that low texture, I'm most likely getting half with the low and on unsuited boards a wheel can be a strong high hand. But lately I feel like I'm just giving away money because I get the A23x and the flop comes all high cards.

Secondly, how hard do you play A23x with a flop of LLx where the low cards don't pair you? Bet the flop, if someone raises you back just call? Check-call if the turn misses?

If you've got like A236, and you get that low flop like 235 rainbow, you're not in terrible shape with second low and bottom pair, but if there's a bet and a raise in front of you, wouldn't it be safe to assume A4xx (maybe even A46x) and that you're in pretty big trouble?

How playable is a hand like 3456? Does it make as big of a difference if its suited? Double suited? I tend to limp with 3456, even though its probably not limping with.

Horseshoe Poker Classic

2008-09-02T15:11:00.000-07:00

Horseshoe Poker Classic flyer (pdf)

Next Sunday at 4 PM, I will be entering in the $200+30 Omaha Hi/Lo event at the Council Bluffs Horseshoe casino. I'm pretty excited and hoping to put up a good showing. It looks like this is going to be a big deal, and I want to do the best I can. I'm brushing up on my tournament Omaha strategy, doing as much reading as possible. I don't know how much interest there will be, but I'm willing to sell pieces of myself if anyone is interested.

I think I have a real chance to evaluate my game and make a good showing. If I play my game, stay sharp, and stay patient and focused, I could definitely cash and do well.

I'm planning on playing the HORSE event too on the next Friday if I get the chance. We'll get into that maybe the next week. But until then I have a question for some of you who may have played the bigger tournaments.

How early should I show up to register? It's a 4 PM start and I was planning on showing up around 1 PM but I'm not sure if that's early enough. I'm gonna be real steamed if I show up and its sold out. Feel free to leave any comments about anything, especially tournament strategy.

Sunday Mornings are the best sometimes.

2008-08-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Woke up entirely too early and couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to try a $7.60 satellite to the $750K tonight. It was a 6-max double shootout, 1 seat into the tournament. I hit a few hands at the right time at my first table and pretty much coasted through the first table.

The final table started off with a bang. KJd on a flop of K45 with two diamonds is really nice. I bet 200, I got two callers. Turn was a third diamond. I checked, guy left of me checked, third guy bet 100, I raised to 300, left of me coldcalls the raise, and third guy calls. I was extremely worried about a slowplayed nut flush. River was a blank, I cautiously checked, the other two checked, I took it down with my second flush. I just didn't feel comfortable with the way the guy left of me played, and he had just the Ace of diamonds.

I coasted my way to heads-up and this was the first hand of headsup.
Full Tilt Poker Game #7875540167: Satellite to $750K Guarantee (59878655), Table 1 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:47:00 ET - 2008/08/31
Seat 3: jimdniacc (3,050)
Seat 5: Villain (5,950)
Villain posts the small blind of 30
jimdniacc posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jimdniacc [Ac Ad]
Villain raises to 120
jimdniacc raises to 360
Villain raises to 600
jimdniacc raises to 3,050, and is all in
Villain calls 2,450
jimdniacc shows [Ac Ad]
Villain shows [8c Th]
*** FLOP *** [Kc 2c 3c]
*** TURN *** [Kc 2c 3c] [8h]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 2c 3c 8h] [Kd]
jimdniacc shows two pair, Aces and Kings
macanme shows two pair, Kings and Eights
jimdniacc wins the pot (6,100) with two pair, Aces and Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,100 | Rake 0
Board: [Kc 2c 3c 8h Kd]
Seat 3: jimdniacc (big blind) showed [Ac Ad] and won (6,100) with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 5: macanme (small blind) showed [8c Th] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights

I was a little worried when the turn came but the Aces held up and I took the lead. A few hands later I got him allin with my KQ against his tens. I flop a queen and its all over...

I am absolutely not gonna play this tournament tonight, we have a family get-together tonight and I'd rather pocket the T$ anyway. It's amazing how frustrating it is when its going bad, and how easy it seems when its going well. I gotta keep the momentum going.

Three Hands 1.2

2008-08-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

Okay number two: final table now, Omaha Hi/Lo round, I'm in a single big blind for 4k with a stack of about 26k. There are 6 people left, big stack is around 40k, and three get paid. It gets folded around to a short stack on the button that has been playing super tight all night. He raises my big blind to 8k which leaves him 5.5k behind. I look down at 9234ds. Raise, call, or fold? Actually I think the real question here is raise or just call, but hopefully we'll see some answers.

Three Hands 1.1

2008-08-06T16:38:00.000-07:00

So I think in an attempt to improve my game I'm gonna start a nice little segment I'll bluntly call Three Hands. Three hands a week, for as many weeks as I can come up with worthwhile hands. Let's begin with this.

I played in a Limit HOE tournament Tuesday night down at Meskwaki. $20 buyin for T3500, if you're at T3500 or less you can rebuy for $20 for T2500. $20 add-on at the first break for T2500 more. I've played this one a few times and the first hour seems like standard procedure: rebuy from the get-go, play supertight during holdem, take their chips during Omaha and Omaha8. I played one hand during H1, turned two pair with A9, check-raised a couple of locals and they both folded. Easy game. O and E went real well, including a nice runner-runner hand to river the nut straight in a capped pot preflop. I would have been chip leader except for flopping three's full of sevens on a board of 377; of course, the guy next to me has to have 77xx. That leads us to hand number one.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2nd holdem round of said tournament. J3o on the BB, blinds 100/200, limits 200/400. Older lady in seat 1 raises under the gun, small blind calls. The lady in seat one has limped every hand so far and called some raises with some crazy stuff. Usually with garbage like that I don't play but I've established a good tight image in the holdem rounds so I call. That's not what we're here to analyze.

Flop comes down 983, bottom pair no draw. SB checks, I check, old lady bets. What now, astute bloggers? Do I believe her that she has a nine or something else that beats me, or should I call?

Football anyone?

2008-07-31T16:08:00.001-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are only 35 days until the biggest sports league in America gets underway. The NFL season is upon us and seventeen weeks of excuses to be at the bar on Sunday afternoon. Well, seventeen NEW excuses. So as the NFL season draws close I would like to announce the beginning of the new Fantasy Football Poker Blogger League co-hosted by Instant Tragedy and I.

We're looking for at least 8 teams or as many as maybe 16 depending on interest. It'll most like be standard scoring, head-to-head, likely on Yahoo, but I'm open to whatever suggestions we may have. If you would like into the league, leave a comment either here or over at Tragedy's sites. First sixteen will get in. If there's more interest than that maybe we'll start two leagues.

As soon as we figure out how many teams there will be, we will get a draft date together. There will be multiple posts here and many other places I'm sure throughout the season. Hopefully, we get a lot of interest. Who wants in?

I am so glad...

2008-07-26T11:23:00.000-07:00

that I got away from home for the weekend.

I took friday off from work so I could register for classes for the upcoming year. I need 20 credits to graduate Liberal Arts AA. I'm focusing so much on graduating that I'm taking the fall off from golf to make sure I pass all 5 classes I'm taking (14 credits). In the spring, I'll be taking my coaching classes as well as what I need to finish up and graduate. Hopefully, I'll be playing golf again in the spring, but its not that important to me right now, despite playing the best golf I've ever played this summer.

As good as all that sounds, I'm a little late to register this summer, and found out that the dorms were already full. Crap. So now I have 3-4 weeks to find a apartment to live in for the fall at least, and when my friends' lease runs up I might be able to move in with them in their townhouse. The bad side of that is I'm probably gonna have to find a job besides grinding at the 3-6 tables.

I took a trip to the casino yesterday, not so much to play but just to catch up on what's been goin on over there. The pit boss recognized me as soon as he saw me, and bought me a beer on the house while we caught up. They brought back the Monday Omaha8 tournament I had so much success in, with some changes. They moved it to Sunday afternoon, and made a mixed tournament PL HO. Two weeks ago it started and they got 11 players which was more than they had in the waining weeks of the Monday tournament.

The poker room is also trying to start a feature game for some of the better players on the weekend by invitation only and I was put on the list. He wants to run an Omaha8 game and maybe some limit rotation game (he mentioned 4-8 TOE or 6-12 OE as the main mixed game). Lately they've also been running a 2-10 spread limit holdem game that has been really popular. I think that might right up my alley, not quite the strict limit game, but not the wildness of a no limit game.

I didn't bother playing in the 1-2 NL game there, I don't think my game is the point where I can play that game with good results. There's usually 3-5 young guys who just play that game every day all day, six or seven hours at a time. It just doesn't feel like its +EV to sit down there.

The blackjack tournament is my weakness: $25, Wednesday night when there's nothing going on (except the Mookie), and it has been incredibly easy to cash. That's the one nonpoker thing I'll probably hold on to now, plus its fun to play with my (newly 21) friends. Those other table games are just too frustrating for me.

I'm really excited for this upcoming year at school. If I stay focused on my schoolwork, stay patient and smart at the tables, and stay cool with everything coming at me, it should be a big year.

2008-07-23T17:10:00.001-07:00

I don't really know where this is going for sure, but I figured I might just get writing again. I haven't really felt like it lately, for any number of reasons, but mostly I haven't really felt like I have anything worth saying or reading. I figure if I wouldn't read it, it might not be worth writing. Maybe I just need to write regardless of whether its worth reading. Sigh.

Poker has been okay lately. I played very little online, and just a few 3-6 LHE sessions live recently. I've been playing the $5 HORSE tourneys on FT and having some success. Got second in one Monday, with Tragedy watching me through the bubble and all the way into headsup. Unfortunately, my headsup LHE game kinda sucks without me knowing it, and I got steamrolled by my opponent. Looks like I've got something to put some work into.

I really learned a lot about my game and final table strategy and how to play smarter from Tragedy. I really appreciate it man. I know there's a ton for me to learn about life and poker and patience and friends and what should be important in my life. There is such an amazing group of people out here, and I am so glad to be of any significance here. Hopefully I'm around long enough in this group to learn everything you have to tell me, be it through emails or IMs or blogposts. I'm here to learn.

I've really been working hard on bankroll management, not only just in the poker world, but budgeting for the future and the present. I have been broke way too many times, and I think I'm done doing stupid shit with the rest of my money. Too many times have I taken a bad beat in some crap tournament, and gone and played angry blackjack for no apparent reason and surrender the rest of my money. Too many times have I had a nice 3-6 LHE session, tried to take a stab at the 6-12 LO8 game and lost it all back at a table full of players better than I. I'm just getting tired of it.

So here's the new plan. The two casinos I go to always have a 3-6 game going, and that seems to be the most profitable. I only bring $200 to the casino for playing money, two separate $100 buy-ins. I am fully prepared to leave if I get up $200 (lofty expectation, yes) or if I'm feeling tired considering most the time I'm at the casino is after work and I don't get there until nearly 6:30. It's probably not a good idea to be driving tired anymore (almost hit a deer the other night).

Playing online is strictly for having fun, the money mostly going to blogger tournaments. I think I've given up trying to grind online. Two weeks in a row I've gotten heads up in the first table of the new MATH shootout. I kinda like the new format; the pay structure is interesting, but I can see why it needs to be the way it is.

I'm done writing for now. Maybe some more later. It'll probably read pretty choppy and slow, but whatever. It's a start. Bye.

MSOP Event #6: $15 Omaha Hi/Lo

2008-06-03T18:26:00.001-07:00

1072 players to start, gonna be a long night hopefully.
Nice hand, flopped top set with AA3Kds, I bet the whole way and scoop with my set of Aces and a live 3 low.
Scooped a decent sized pot with A2s83h, on a board of AhJh7-6-4h, scooped with nut low and 8-high flush.

Hour 1: T3428, 383 of 1008. Definitely gonna be all night. Pretty sure it's worth the $3600 and the watch.

MSOP Event #4: $50 Mixed Holdem

2008-06-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

Back and forth, and back and forth I go, during this event. I'm still having a hard time getting used to the switches between Limit and No Limit in the satellites but we'll see how it goes.

Hour 1: T3400. Not very many interesting hands. I flopped two pair with KJo on a KJ9 board, but had to fold the turn when I got reraised when a Ten hit the board. A few small pots here and there, I'm picking good steal spots in NL.

Hour 2: T1690. 272 of 284 remaining. Next round is 120/240/25 NL, then 250/500 Limit, so I need to get going. I lost a big pot when I missed nut flush and open-ended straight draws that I flopped. I got my 700 all in with AJ against 22 and flopped an Ace to double up. Won a couple more small pots. Already farther than I expected, which is probably not healthy to have such low expectations.

Out in 222nd, fuck.

One Disturbing Chat Log

2008-05-16T20:02:00.001-07:00

Location: Blogger Cash Game during the Friday Night Donkament

MiamiDon: where is waffles?
twoblackaces: playing high stakes
twoblackaces: :-)
weak_player: jacking it to asian porn
twoblackaces: that too
jimdniacc: High stakes world of warcraft?
Julius_Goat: with manna rebuys
weak_player: high stakes jacking?
jimdniacc: that is a disturbing image
jimdniacc: lol
weak_player: i know
weak_player: so sorry
twoblackaces: oh man
Julius_Goat: Gabe Kaplan is the commentator for
HSJ
weak_player: hahahaha
weak_player: i can somehow picture that
Julius_Goat: Matusow does color
twoblackaces: ahhhhhhh
twoblackaces: and the in depth analysis?
MiamiDon: he runs like zeus until it gets HU
Julius_Goat: ow don
Julius_Goat: OW OW OW OW
twoblackaces: geez don
hoyazo: its funny cuz its true
Julius_Goat: no, that's why it HURTS
jimdniacc: serious injury concerns for the participants
weak_player: i am so sorry i started that
weak_player: so so sorry
jimdniacc: not to mention perfromance enhancing
lubricants
jimdniacc: and that's all you'll hear from me on the
matter :)
Julius_Goat: ejected for roughing
jimdniacc: lol
twoblackaces: lol
Julius_Goat: Kaplan: "Now, Waffles is going to go
for two hands here for sure . . ."
Julius_Goat: Kaplan: "What I meant to say was,
he'll try the self-suck"
jimdniacc: Matusow: "Boy he sure loves jackin it,
don't he Gabe!?!"
Julius_Goat: "Well, AJ, these guys are pros
Julius_Goat: "They do this EVERY DAY"
jimdniacc: "Sometimes two or three practice
sessions a day, to get the technique down perfect."
weak_player: "i think he is slowrolling him"

Fuck I Hate IM Spam

2008-05-01T07:09:00.000-07:00

Warning: Non-poker related.

Who are these people that have nothing better to do than bug the shit out of me?!?

[04:29] kelle_babe: How was your day today? well, mine was pretty good . Though, i just went through your lovely profile now at germansinglesonline.com and i'm intrigued. I'll like to learn more about you if you don't mind getting back to me.hope to chat with you soon.bye for now.....kelle.

German Singles Online? I'm not that stupid. There's no effing way I'm on German Singles.

(Relative) Success

2008-04-24T07:46:00.001-07:00

5th in the MATH
15th in the Skill Series
3rd in the Dookie

2 cashes, 1 BBT3 cash, 2 BBT3 points so far this week

It's been a pretty good week so far. I wasn't back from work Wednesday night to get in the Mookie but made it for the Dookie and played pretty well. I've been feeling pretty good lately, staying a good mood as much as possible. I'm coming down the stretch with two weeks left in school before I go home and other places unknown this summer. There will be a lot of changes soon between moving my stuff home, getting comfortable at a new casino this summer, working 40 hours a week, and deciding what my future holds.

I've played tight for the most part especially in the MATH despite some of the beats I've laid on people. I've been fully willing to lay down pocket pairs if I didn't think it was a good time to get involved in a hand. It was interesting playing deep into the MATH Monday night, getting down to push-or-fold time. It's been a long time since I've been involved in that style of play and it took some getting used to.

The HA was fun Tuesday and I hit just enough big hands to keep my stack healthy. In the end, I just didn't get enough cards to get all the way to the money.

I feel really good about my Omaha game lately. I usually have issues going from Hi to H/L and vice versa, but neither game is struggling much now. When I go from playing a lot of H/L to Hi, I have a tendency to overvalue flops that look good, but are susceptible to bigger hands. Many times I've like played a hand like 5678ds and flopped two pair, and then gone on to play it too aggressive and get beat out by flush draws that make it there or other hands. When I go from Hi to H/L, I feel like I undervalue some of the low draws, hands like A25Kds or even folding suited A3xx instead of at least limping and trying to see a flop.

I made a couple of those mistakes playing the H/L blogger cash game and the Hi Only Dookie at the same time. A couple little mistakes was ok but I gave up half my stack in the Dookie so I had to give up the cash game and focus on the Dookie. Once I got my focus back, I played well enough to get to third where I ran into a flopped boat by pvanharibo.

I'm just doin what I can with the tools I got. I should be around tonight for the Riverchasers event tonight Double Stack NL Holdem tonight. We'll see yall out there.

Corn-Vegas

2008-04-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

Who wants to go to Corn-Vegas? This is just a preliminary way of counting up how many people would actually want to come to Iowa and hang out and play poker and drink boxes o' wine. So there ya go.

2008-04-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

So it appears I'll be playing the blogger donkament tonight thanks to a backing from a friend. I might be back in the swing of things as early as next week's Mookie depending on my financial status at the end of the weekend. I had a very nice weekend at the real tables getting third in a tournament Tuesday and then winning a blackjack tournament Wednesday. Those two cashes makes my bankroll much healthier than it has been in in months.

Hopefully I can continue that into tonight but with a bunch of bloggers, you never know. See ya at the tables.

BuddyDank Radio

2008-03-04T21:40:00.001-08:00

Ok so there's a very real possibility that I will be joining BuddyDank and others on BuddyDank Radio tomorrow night during the Mookie and the Dookie. I'm excited and so should you. Join us tomorrow night as I make my debut and try not to make an idiot out of myself. At least do well enough to get myself reinvited. We can only hope. And there will be confirmation to this spot when I get it. So just pray for me. Or whatever your religion allows. Peace.

Hawkeye

2008-02-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

I did have real thoughts, and a real post to produce for my non-readers. But instead I decided that a bottle of Hawkeye, some Mountain Dew, and some Wii Golf would be a better use of my time.

I've been very busy lately. I've joined the Campus Newspaper here. Its alright but I'm a little rusty with writing for a newspaper, as opposed to writing here or for fun. They teach you to write for newspapers by only using two to three short sentences per paragraph.

I had a sociology test today. It's pretty hard stuff if you're not paying attention. Hell, I pay attention in class, and I still had to do a pretty good amount of studying. Time will tell what my grade on that one is.

I've played a lot of blackjack lately, heads up against the dealer when I can find an empty table. I played six shoes the other night on $30 at a $5 min table, and made $50. It was more fun than anything, relearning my basic strategy.

That and I'm trying to figure out if I can make it to SXSW over spring break. I could use the time in the warm weather. That's all for now. Peace.

Temper, Temper

2008-02-07T15:11:00.000-08:00

Exhibit A: Blackjack Tournament

It was the final hand of the quarterfinals, the top two from my table advancing to the semifinals. I was in second place by just a few chips, a couple hundred or so, not much in the grand scheme of things. The third place stack (which will, for the purposes of this story, be referred to as 'G') and I were close and the fourth place guy had no chance. The first place person had bet very few chips, not enough to lose to both of us, but not enough to beat both of us. It was G and I. I bet first enough to cover a both-lose situation. He had the advantage of seeing what I was going to do. I knew what he was going to do. He went all in, and with a win and he had me beat no matter what.

The first place guy got a blackjack, he was in for sure. I drew a 14, him a 15, and the dealer showed a 10. I thought I had to hit: if I hit and get a low card, I'm taking a low card away from him; if I bust, he still has to hit assuming there's another 10 under there. I hit and take a nine, and bust. G thought for two or three minutes (it sure seemed like more than that) and finally stayed. It was such a ballsy move, and I give him all the credit in the world. The dealer flipped up a 6, hit and bust, and it was over. He won.

It was over.

Or not. He was so excited he got up and ran around. Meanwhile, the dealer was still paying him off. And apparently, that's a no-no.

Rule 20: No player shall leave the table until the round is over or shall forfeit the tournament. The round is not complete until all chips are counted by the dealer and winners are officially determined. (Italics added by me.)

First he was declared winner because of passing the previous first place winner by a few chips. The man in fourth place (god bless him) brought up the rule to the man in charge. All the head people huddled together to try and figure out what happened. None of them had seen it well, so they went to security.

G came up to me, at least as close as he could. Security was hangin around trying to calm him down. He was yelling at me from across the table. "You don't even know the rules. I've been to all kinds of these things. I know what I'm doing. You don't have a clue." Sounded a lot like something you'd hear Hellmuth say on TV.

The time passed. Five, ten, fifteen minutes. I wasn't the one stressed out. G was flippin out on security and everyone now. And his wife was worse. She came up to me while I was sitting, waiting patiently for the decision. And she went off.

"Why do you have to be such a sore loser? You're never gonna get anywhere in life with that kind of attitude. You didn't even know the smallest rules during the game. You had to get help from this guy..."

Now at that point, I was kinda tired of getting yelled at. I had two options: either stay calm, or flip out on them. I chose to stay calm. It was probably a wise choice. He probably could have kicked my ass. He was a big guy.

The floor came back 23 minutes after the round was over. I had been paying pretty close attention to my watch. He was disqualified. I was in. I immediately walked away. I figured I probably didn't want any part of the explosion to come.

I could see him from my seat in the poker room. It was a lot of pointing, yelling, a lot of hand gestures. Surprisingly, no birds. I could see him and his wife both yelling and other people playing at the tables staring at them trying to figure out what the ruckus was.

My mom says I have ugly temper. I tend to disagree. Exhibit A.

Blogger Skill Series 1/22/08 LO8 w/Knockouts

2008-01-23T17:28:00.000-08:00

Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, absolutely my favorite game, I was so happy when I found out that this was the game of the night. And for just $13, its a cheap way to get in a bunch of hands. So I sat down with a Dr. Pepper in one hand and my cell phone in the other waiting for a cell call from a certain someone. Now we turn to the notes I've got from last night. I have a hard time remembering hands and times without making some notes.

Starting table had AlCantHang, PirateLawyer, riggstad, ck31, DonkeyPuncher, and whoever else, those were just the names written down. Won a little here and there really no big hands that whole first hour. I remember the conversation was fun, but the hands sucked. 2345o on an A2 flop is always nice but it missed and that was the worst loss of that first half hour.

I won a nice sized pot with nut nut A34x on a board of K6925, the flop was checked which was very helpful. The very next hand I got AQ6x, another checked flop 3TJ, and a 4 brought me a small reason to call one bet on the turn. The river was a bingo offsuit King, it got three-bet and I took it down against a set and finished the first hour with 4630 and in 4th of 48 (everyone still left in). One other note, my team Drake won their 16th game in a row and moved to 17-1 with a win versus Creighton, a nice little boost to my attitude.

Second hour was where it went downhill. I lost a big pot early on with A3TJ on a 45JT board, when there were three allins. Two of them had A2 and the other one iced it showing A22x. To make it worse the turn was a 3, screwing up my two pair (which was good at the time) and giving them the wheel. At one point down to 600, I went on a big rush, knocking out ck31 on a lucky hand flopping two pair with Q3xx against his AAK3, and rivering a Q to boat up. I finished the 2nd hour at 5600, a little about average, with one bounty.

The power of the new Mountain Dew took over and I went on a sick run, winning 8 hands in 10 minutes and climbing to 20k. The big hand involved AlCantHang going allin, swimmom calling, and one other person going allin with a little raise. At that point I rolled the dice with QJd89s, flopped Queens and Jacks, and it held up as no low showed up and I KOed three people.

We arrived at the final table in 2 hours and 37 minutes, with me at 20k and in 4th at the table. I got very few cards before the break but won enough little pots to finish the third hour at 26k, in 2nd of 6, and with enough bounties to make me already even on the night.

The first note I have after that is "pvanharibo is running everyone over", killed everyone and we got it down to 3 people with Rake Feeder and I nearly tied in chips and pvanharibo had a huge lead. From there the notes are pretty fuzzy, but I got quartered one too many times and ran out of steam, busted in 3rd place in my first appearance in the Skill Series for $72 + 15 in bounties for $87.

I played really well, got a lot of really good cards, and am pretty happy with my showing. I'm starting to feel like Omaha Hi/Lo, especially the limit variety, is definitely my best game. Tonight however, its the Mookie and the Dookie, and I'll be livin the High Life drinking those tall blondes. Everyone have a good night.

January 20, 2008

2008-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

So things are looking up in 2008, including last Monday's victory in a limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament at the local B&M. I've got my car back and more mobility to go to the casino whenever I want. With that in mind, I know that I need to keep a discipline about me to make sure I'm not going to the casino to fuck around. I'm there to make money, to work, and I need to keep my eye on that.

I've identified that the tournaments are more +EV for me right now, especially that Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. In 4 appearances, I've gotten two wins, a second, and a 4th. In the Omaha tournament, you start with 1500 chips with 25/25 blinds and 25/50 limits and the option to rebuy any time your stack is less than 1500. It was so wild Monday that I called EVERY unraised hand pre-flop, which is just the way I like it. My strength comes in knowing the numbers (especially in O8 where they're more complicated) and making an appropriate play. I went on a huge run and tripled my stack the first hour and went on to win.

I've come to the realization that to be successful at this, four things need to happen:

1) Set a time for finishing but be flexible if the game is good or if I'm chasing my losses.
2) Be aware that bad beats are going to happen, and be able to adjust or even leave if need be.
3) Stay away from -EV situations, whether it be in the poker room or the whole casino.
4) Practice good bankroll management.

All four things are things I've had an immense amount of trouble with while playing poker both online and live and they all tie into each other. If I've taken a bad beat, a lot of times I'll play much longer than I should be or even been dumb enough to try and win it back playing tilted blackjack.

I'll finish with my list of goals which are very lofty, but if I keep my wits about me, I feel like I can at least approach them or even fulfill them.

1) Win a tournament with a buy-in of more than $100 or a first prize of $2000.
2) Consistently run over the 1/2 NL Hold'em game.
3) Make a run at player of the year in terms of tournaments won at the local casino.
4) Play in and cash in a WSOP event.
5) Always come away with the feeling that I played as good as I could that day even if I came away with a loss.

-Jim

To update...

2007-11-12T09:07:00.001-08:00

I have been somewhat AWOL lately, especially in the BBTwo which is really unfortunate because from the reports it is filled with amazing amounts of dead money. Advertise and they will come I suppose. Monday's I've been playing at my local casino where I've gotten into a nice rhythm of showing up around 3 PM, playing some supersoft 1/2 NL Holdem, taking a little break for supper around 6, and back to the poker room for the 6:30 $40 Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. Boy I love me some O8.

Two weeks of playing the tournament and I've come out of it in 4th and 1st, the latter time being all-in with my big blind with 7 players left, and winning the main pot by rivering eights and sixes on a QJ896 board. The man in the 10 seat said it must be destiny, and from that point forward I didn't lose another hand I played, knocking out four of the other six players from that point.

Add those two results to the $430 cash I made by winning a $25 blackjack tournament on the last hand and you can see why I'm spending more time there as of late. The BJ tournament was the sickest finish ever, more nerve-racking than any all-in I've had lately. In 3rd place I bet 500 of my 1600 and of course I get 8s against a dealer 9. Go big or go home, so I split the 8s making the bet 1000, 6 on the first one, hit the 14, get a 7 for 21. The second one is a 3 for an 11, double down that one making the bet basically my whole stack, and lo and behold a beautiful king for another 21.

SICKEST. HAND. EVER.

So there it is, that's what I've been up to lately in the poker(ish) world. I've got some kind of banner coming for knocking mookie out of his own tournament with aces against the hammer. So maybe some new scenery around here. We'll call it growing pains. Tonight I'll be skipping the MATH to play the O8 tournament. Good luck to all.

Good News, Bad News

2007-10-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

So I didn't do so well in the mookie, and I crapped the bed in the dookie. However, I did manage to knock out mookie and hoyazo, the two big main blogger tournament hosts. And the KO on mookie came with AA against 72o, as the hammer failed to suck out on me. So I got my choice of a Vegas Bet or a banner for the blog. Seems like I'm gonna have to go with the banner, I'm sure it'll look good. That's all for the night, bedtime.

It's October Already!?!

2007-10-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yes welcome to October, where the leaves change color and perennial football powers such as South Florida and Boston College loom the top ten. Maybe not so much the latter, but its getting colder, so that means I'm stayin inside where its warm and making me some hot chocolate and playing more poker.

First, the mookie is tonight, everyone should attend, it's not like you have anything better to do. I'm gonna be trying to make my way onto the money list. I've played four times, and the best I've done was the final two tables. I should be able to change that tonight.

Second, I will be attending the Canterbury Card Club's Fall Classic, and playing in the 200+30 NL Hold'em tourney on October 16 at 7 PM. A couple of friends and I decided to take a stab at it, and it would be nice to get some live experience back under my belt. It'll be my first big tournament of that size, and I'm really looking forward to it. The only thing I'm indecisive about is what my table image should be. I've come down to two options:

1) Hot Shot Young Gun, break out the Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki jersey and a Full Tilt hat and glasses, headphones and the music, maybe bring a sweatshirt so I can easily move from that to the Phil Laak look.

2) T-shirt and nice jacket with lucky blue jeans, try to put across the fact that I'm more of an old school, manners kind of guy.

I really am more like #2 but #1 has its advantages too. Decisions, decisions...

My beloved Cubs lost so I won't be watching any more baseball the rest of the year. Don't get me wrong, I love baseball, I just have no interest in Indians-RedSox or DBags-Rockies.

That's all for now. See yall at the tables.

Welcome Back, Kotter

2007-09-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

Ok folks here's what we're looking at. About a month ago, I decided to take one last swing at the whole online poker thing. So I put some money into Full Tilt and took a swing at it. Now normally that wouldn't be enough to get back to blogging, but I got a nice kick in the butt Monday when I got second in Mondays at the Hoy for a nice $140 profit, and that's only because my AA got cracked by KJc with a river flush. It couldn't have happened to a better blogger, as bdidde of biggestron.com took the $250 dollar profit and put it toward a worthy cause in Leukemia research. If you got anything to spare, this would be something good to put it toward.

So during the final table I had many people ask me if I had a blog and I gave the same answer "I used to run one, but I had a hard time writing a lot." Well I gave it a second thought, and sure why not, lets go at it again. So here I am.

There's gonna be some changes in layout and I'm gonna do my darnedst to write everyday. But now I gotta get back to the mookie. Short stacked is no good way to go through a mookie.

Moved

2006-05-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

http://diesel79.livejournal.com

its better over there anyway

Raving Endorsements

2006-01-06T10:47:00.000-08:00

carbo4u (Observer): without a
doubt you are the luckiest no
talent fkhead on this site

The First Morons of 2006

2006-01-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

I decided to write a little during the Iowa-Florida football game about last night’s poker game. I played in a little house game at a friend’s house, who will from now on go by Whitey. He was sitting across from me with a man named Wills in between us on my right. I had two morons on my left, Moron #1 talks way too much, and Moron #2 doesn’t even know how to play. Neither of them are really important to the poker part of the story, but they give us five to play a $5 buy-in, winner-take-all game. We started with 600 in chips because it was Whitey’s house and it didn’t have to make sense, and the blinds were at 5-10 to begin. We raised blinds every time someone got knocked out.

I played a couple of key hands early on in the first round.

~ I picked up 52o in the big blind, and Wills, Whitey and I saw the flop. The flop came down K55 as I felt dumb luck must be on my side here. Whitey bets 100, I gave him my best “flush draw” act and called. Turn was a ten and there were three diamonds out there now, Whitey checked, I bet out, and Whitey immediately went all in, and I called immediately without even thinking about the flush. He flipped over pocket aces, and the river brought a blank as Whitey promptly rebought.

~ Pocket deuces in the small blind, and I am the only one to call a raise from BA1 (Bad Apple #1). BA1 has been goading us all night about not playing enough hands, playing too tight, like he saw Matusow win the TOC the other night, and said to himself, “Hey, maybe I’ll try that.” So the flop comes down 864 unsuited, I check, he bets 75, and I call thinking I can set him up for a bluff on the end. Turn’s a 4, and I bet 90, trying to get him to think I got a 4. He calls and we see a 10 come on the river. I looked at him and checked, and he bets $2 into me and just stares at me, never took his eyes off me. Everything I’ve been taught tells me he’s got nothing but a couple of overs and I call, fully expecting to have read it wrong. However he flips over KQ and I take it down with deuces.

Between there and when we got down to heads up not much happened, I just played really tight, hanging around until I feel like I can strike. I remember getting a lot of high pocket pairs, and never getting paid off, or raising preflop and not getting any callers.

We got down to three and the two bad apples decided they were going to leave and make a McDonald’s run, I give them a ten and tell them to get me a couple of sandwiches and a fry, and they take off. At this point I know nothing about them, other than they can’t be big time arses because Whitey invited them to play. Everything went smoothly and when we were down to three, this hand came up that sent us to heads up.

~ Wills, Whitey and I are the only ones in and the blinds are up to 40-80. Wills is on the button and goes all in for 115. I look down at J7o and call it for no apparent reason, Whitey calls and we see a flop 9A2, check, check, turn 10, checks, river 8. Now at this point I’m also somewhat shortstacked, so I push all in for 700, Whitey folds, and I flip over the winning hand as Wills mucks.

So we got to heads up, and I was down in the chip count 3300-900 and we made the blinds an even 50-100. (Yes the numbers match up. Whitey rebought twice, so there are seven buyins there of 600 each). I had a pretty good feeling that if I played well and didn’t make many mistakes, I could beat him with good cards. We went back and forth for a while and I got up to 1395 when the tables turned on him; I just love those high pocket pairs.

I had been pushing it all in with good suited aces, pocket pairs, especially on the button, because as I’ve been taught, you always raise on the button heads-up. So I got pocket kings, and pushed all in once again on the button. This time he didn’t think for a second and flipped over JT, grinning his ass off all the way. Well as soon as flipped mine, that grin disappeared real quick. He hit a jack on the flop, but nothing else and I became chip leader with about 2800.

Well all the while we’ve been playing, the two morons have been gone for something like an hour, and it simply doesn’t take that long. We’re all getting suspicious about them, especially since they were earlier smoking pot outside the house, and we didn’t exactly want to get in trouble. They were suspicious guys but it turned out okay, my food was still warm and I was happy. They said good nite and we went on with our poker.

After I was the chip leader we didn’t last much longer and my aggression had helped me get a 5-1 chip lead. The final hand was really an odd hand all around. I got 92 in big blind and we saw a flop come down of T93. I push him all in and Whitey calls with J9. He gets in a hurry and flips over the next two cards without looking and starts counting out chips as I get ready to pay him off. Then I took a glimpse at the board and the turn and the river were both twos giving me the boat and the win. But he didn’t see that and he told me three or four times, I have 700 chips. Finally I simply point at the board and he agonizes when he realizes he was beat by 92.
Results: 1st, +$30 (Well, almost).

This is where the morons come in to play. I reach in the chip case to get my profit and there’s only 15 bucks in there, rather than the 35 that should be there. We find out not only did they take the money out of the box, but they also stole Whitey’s wallet and a portable DVD player. So instead:

Results: 1st, +$10
For the year: +10

I think it’s safe to say that knowing Whitey’s criminal record, they’re gonna get an ass beating for it. And they probably deserve it for stealing from a $5 poker game.

That’s it for now. Check in next time, as I close in on turning 21 on the 11th and try to figure out why I’m in such a funk in Omaha.

Christmas Break is Coming

2005-12-22T10:24:00.000-08:00

Well school is coming to an end before Christmas break and I am stuck in my room studying for a philosophy test and playing PL Omaha8, and giving neither activity the attention needed to do either well. I have class until 4 on the last day of school, I have to be out of the dorms at 6, and I can’t pack anything because my roommate is still asleep at noon. Going home is going to be nice though, as I don’t have much down time between getting home and Christmas. Past years I’ve had two weeks before Christmas and I’ve been ridiculously bored, and have had nothing to do whatsoever, except play videogames and waste away to nothing.

This year is perfect though. I’m back home tonight, Christmas Sunday, then the post-Christmas workouts to try to get back what I lose on Xmas Day. Probably won’t be much poker content here over the next couple weeks, mostly because of the lack of internet access at home but I’ll put up some random blurbs about holidays and what not. Until then, I bid you all adieu.

Late Night O8

2005-12-18T10:44:00.000-08:00

(This was supposed to be much longer but as I published it, I lost everything. So this is version two of this entry.)

I wanted to play some fun poker last night so I decided to fire up the internet and found a nice O8 freeroll, 550 players, 27 people paid and first place a whopping… $1.50. Yeah its not much but just some fun poker. I decided to play kinda crazy, capped everything preflop, and played my best after the flop. I could afford to do it cause it was somewhat deepstacked and ten minute levels gave us some time to work. Donked around for about an hour and a half, picked up some scoops and enough lows to stay aound average.

I hit a really nice hand with about 60 players left that moved me into the chip lead. I came into the hand with a better than average stack and found Kc3c5d5h. It was 3-bet to me and I capped it preflop, not exactly textbook play, but like I said just having some fun. The flop came down A26 all clubs and I can hear Vince Van Patten talking about sugar plum crap dancing around in my head (or something like that, I don’t really watch that stuff anymore.) Turn Jd, river the money card 4c, virtually guaranteeing me 3/4ths of this pot if not all. It was capped on every street, all three callers played every street, and I got to see what they were playing.

-Qc7cJsJh (flopped second nut flush, turned set of jacks)
-AsAh3h4h (flopped set of aces and nut low)
-Ad2d6s8s (flopped three pair)

Through the magic of twodimes.net:

Omaha Hi/Low 8-or-better: 376992 enumerated boards
cards          scoop   HIwin   HIlos  LOwin  LOlos     EV
Kc 3c  5d  5h  33600   82259  293867   9429  96048  0.162
Js Qc  7c  Jd  72964  100824  276168      0      0  0.230
As Ah  4h  3h  68032   90961  285165  87195  74433  0.295
8s 6s  Ad  2d  72787  102082  274845  91398  87813  0.313

Thank you, poker gods for the flop love, despite the poor EV preflop.

I ended up getting counterfeited at the final table, after my straight and 23 nut low, was undone. I came in ninth place loving the eight cents I won. A couple more of those and I can buy a gumball. But it was more about trying out a slightly new style and having some fun. That’s all for now, time for some lunch. Frozen pizza sound good?

The Beginning of the journey

2005-12-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

The fun begins. This is a poker blog. At least for now. I hope I can keep it that way, because other attempts at a poker blog have shown me that I suck at taking notes. The name is a reference to a recent in-game poker chat blunder made by Poker Brat himself, Phil Hellmuth.
I turn 21 in about a month so until then, I get to deal with the holiday brouhaha, and the online poker crap, until the 11th of January at which point I get to dive into live poker headon. So this is the beginning right now, and thats all I got right now so there.