But I had fun

I dipped my toe into tournament poker again today. Played a simple $8 tourney on Full Tilt. Ended up 26 of 158. Final two paid.

I tried to be patient at times. I did an amazing amount of folding and got paid off in some spots. But it was my AA going down to KQo that took the wind out of my sails. Though I fought back from there I may have gotten a bit too loose.

In the end, my JJ went down to QQ. For once in a long time I played without being disappointed in my bustout. I felt I played pretty damn good for once. If I had gotten lucky just one time I could have made the money at 18.

But I had fun for once. That is a feeling I hadn't had in a while.

Closing time BBT5

Last BBT5 freeroll is on. I have Full Tilt pros at my table. Plus there two other guys they know. I am thinking this could be a rough one.

Now that I take a look, I see there are 8 Full Tilt pros in the tourney. I have 2 at my table but neither is Michael Buffer? What a rip off!

I am not hitting any flops early on. Getting a couple small pairs or AJ. Only pot I drag is with a raise of A 7 spades and the flop is A high but all clubs. Otherwise I am not getting close to having a solid hand.

There have been a lot of suited flops. I am tempted to start playing any two suited.

I finally win a nice sized pot. With A Qo I raised from the SB when it folded around. To my surprise, DDyonysus raised me back. I wonder if he thinks I was stealing? I just called. Flop is all low, with 2 hearts. I checked. He checked as well. The turn was 10 spades. Now there were two spades and two hearts out there. I bet just under half the pot an was called. The river was the Q of hearts. Seeing that I had just over the pot I pushed. If he had some hearts he would have bet. He folded and it was shipped to me.

From there I go back to calling with pairs and folding to flop bets. That will need to change if I am going to do anything.

That may be some bad advice. I called a raise from the BB with K Js. Flop is all one suit but hearts. I have spades. It is K high so I check with the intention to call a bet and make a move on the turn. But the pro just checks. Turn pairs the board with 7s. I bet half the pot and get called. River is a rag so I bet about 2/3 of the pot. I really don't want a call because that means he has A K. Sure enough he does call and show A K. That sucks. I lost half my stack there.

Soon I would donk out when I tried to make a play with A Q. I ran in to KK and couldn't be like every other player that sucks out an ace.

Thanks again to Al and Full Tilt for setting up the BBT5. Good luck to everyone in the tournament of champions.

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Hey, its a Mookie

Due to my lack of underwear management, I had to scrap my usual plans to get some laundry done. The combination of being at home and having won a buy-in to the Mookie from CK's Twitter challenge, it made sense to play.

The action is slow to start. I take a small pot with pocket jacks but give it back when I chase a flush from the BB. A Ko can't get me anywhere and I drop to 2300.

AKo does me no good again. Worse yet I try to bluff the river and drop to 500. I suck at this game. Two hands later I am out.

A true waste of time for me.

F me!

I was still at a bar when my reminder on the phone went off. I hadn't expected to still be out at this time but I was having a good time. Watching baseball and drinking beer, hey I was in my zone. So I finally got home and started the BBT5 50 minutes late. That meant I was in a hole from the get go. I needed to make it up and quick. I needed to make sure I did it in a smart manner. Easier said than done.

I played one hand before the break and blew it. Made a loose call and folded with nothing. Right after the break I raised with KQs and had one caller. I had overcards and made the continuation bet. But the huge stack to my left went all in on a huge re-raise. Again, I hate this kind of play and had to fold. It was a good thing I got a beer during the break because i needed to keep my buzz going. Especially with the Spaceman on my right.

See, Jason was being aggressive. He has been on a good streak during the the Mini FTOPS making some money along the way. I am hoping to take advantage of it. So I raise with any decent hand I have. Not the best hands but good hands. That helps me get back to where we started.

From there I bounce around a bit. I feel good until I get kicked in the junk. With K K under the gun I raise. I get a raise immediately on my left. SWEEEEEET! I push and he calls showing A K. I should be gold here, right?

The flop is A A K. You have got to be kidding me! Really? I go straight from having hope to getting back into the game to consulting a ball doctor. So not right.

Time to drown my sorrows in alcohol.

WSOP Bloggers Roundtable, Part 1 : Poker News : Poker

Great article by Short-Stacked Shamus at Betfair. There are some really good stories from Pauly, F-Train, Spaceman, and Otis among others.
WSOP Bloggers Roundtable, Part 1 : Poker News : Poker

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I can't help but have one question for Michelle Lewis. You mention the hallway antics but don't give any love for lime tossing?

SCOOP

Thanks to PokerStars for giving me the chance to freeroll a SCOOP tourney for playing online. I likes that. Though the thought of outlasting 8000+ players seems daunting. I don't think I have enough beer in the house to go that long. I am already 4 into a 6er of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA so this should be interesting.

Made a nice double playing .25/.50 Badugi. Yes, it amounts to an $11.35 profit but it is a double. Damn I am no Badugi expert but most people have no clue how to play.

After a couple of hand I just realized this is like major deep stacks. 10,000 with blinds of 25/50? I really don't have enough beer on hand. At least get some chips early by raising with AQs and get two callers. They fold on the continuation when an A hits the flop. At least I wasn't involved in the hand where guy hit quad aces. Damn!

Did I say 8100+? It ended up over 14000+ and with late registration still going on, it will be over 15,000. I really don't have enough beer.

I am weirded out by the pics of Dr Honeydew (of Muppet fame) and the guy with a face carved into his bald head. Must get beyond that. A bluff on a 2 2 J board helps. Also the beer is doing its job.

Wait, did I say 8100+? It is over 15,000 with late registration still going on. I really don't have enough beer in the house. May have to run to Berts during a break.

I get a moment to laugh at my Indian friend to my right. Ok, I guess he is Indian by his name. But I had a feeling he would raise from the SB. He has been aggressive that way. I re-raised with my AQs (is this a trend?) and he called. The flop was a bunch of rags but two of the diamonds I needed. He folded to my bet. Soon I would get AKo and re-raise from the button with 2 people in before me. Wait, did that make sense? Action was call, raise, call, me re-raising fold fold fold call call. Flop was K high. The initial raiser bet 60. 60? Don't insult me! I popped it to 1200 to spit on him. I am still hurt.

For my listening pleasure I have Shaw/Blades playing. The Influence album to be exact. Give it a listen people. I will buy you a beer if you can honestly tell me you don't like it. As for the game, this is my kind of table. It allows me to pick up pots with boards that look scary.

Ftrain just told me to expect a 12 hour game. If that happend it would mean I stayed up all night and we be late for work tomorrow. With what I have consumed so far and what I intend to imbibe, 12 hours of poker won't work. Even though I just chipped up nicely with A7s . This table loves the suited and suited connector hands. They are playing loose money game rules early. Just like me.

It is 7:40 and I can't find the Red Wing game on TV. I see they are ahead but those Sharks are tough. They could go all the way. The Wings need to play their best to get past them. Yes April, I said that.

Just got a nice pot sent my way when I raised with 10 10 and then called a re-raise. Flop was J 4 4 with 2 spades. I call the flop bet because it was only a 3rd of the pot. I want to see if he will continue if another spade hits. One does hit the turn. I take some time before checking. He checks behind. I am now willing to bet the river if a rag hits. I doubt he has a higher pair. It is a K on the river. Crap. I check. Surprisingly to me he doesn't bet the river. I know this pot is mine. He had A Q. A little rambunctious with it if you can't fire 3 times.

It is 7:57 and we are on break. Guess I have time to get another beer. My Dogfish Head is going to be gone soon. BTW I am listening to Sixx AM now. Good stuff but I won't buy you a beer if you don't like it. Still, I tell you to listen to Shaw/Blades.

The last bottle of Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA has been poured. After this I am going to have to consume some Christmas ales that were bequeathed to me. Okay, I just wanted to work bequeathed into this post. As for the SCOOP tourney, I have been folding since the break ended.

Antes just kicked in. I don't mind. They have to keep it going. A good river bluff gets me a good pot when I flop an OESD that doesn't get there but a board that shows both a flush and trips will scare my weaker opponent away. I have a good feel for these players. So different than how I felt on Sunday.

And then I was done. I raised in late EP with A 5s hearts. I had one caller in the highjack. Flop is all diamonds including the 2 and 4. I check and he bets a third of the pot. I call. Turn is the 3 of clubs. I check and he bets big. I raise and he pushes. I was in a hand with him before and he was bluffing. I push and he calls showing J 9 diamonds. Fug! Bad luck and I am done.

I still think my read was right. Am I wrong to think he got lucky? It doesn't matter since I am out in like 14600 position. But I had some fun with it. That is what matters to me since I had no intention to be playing for 12 hours.

Again thanks to the crew at PokerStars. The PokerStars blog is fantastic.

Help Nashville

Jason, the Spaceman, is watching him town of Nashville succumb to the flood waters of the Cumberland River. Sadly this story is being mostly ignored by major media and they aren't getting the help they need.

Please give what you can. Here are the charities you can give to:

Middle Tennessee Red Cross: Donate online atwww.nashvilleredcross.org, or by phone at 615-250-4300. Remember, the Red Cross is not a government agency and is funded solely by donations.

Second Harvest Food Bank: Provide monetary donations to Second Harvest HERE. The Second Harvest offices are located in Metro Center and are currently inaccessible, so monetary donations are the best bet right now.

Salvation Army: Monetary donations are preferred and can be made online HERE or by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: In partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management, donate online to the Metro Nashville Disaster Response Fund and/or the Tennessee Emergency Relief Fund HERE (checks can be mailed to P.O. Box 440225, Nashville, TN, 37244).

Payback is a bitch

Taking another crack at the Battle of the Blogger tournament on Full Tilt tonight but it isn't going good. I spent the first 30 minutes of the game searching for baseball tickets for a Brewers game in St. Louis. Thus I have little to talk about for that time span. I just know Maigrey was generous enough to stake me to a quickly 900 when my A Q stayed good with the Q high flop. From there I bled chips as I paid little attention to what was going on around me.

Then when Maigs got busted I was moved to a new table. They plopped me right in between Otis and Iggy. Oh boy! Will need to tread carefully.

I chip back up again burt then go on a slight bit of tilt. With 8 8 I raise from the button only to see the BB go all in. WTF? Why can't I have aces or kings when someone does that?

At the first break I am just north of 3500. I have noticed a problem with my game. I believe it to be a result of not playing much. I don't seem to have a plan. Making some loose calls and just trying to get lucky. Last time I checked that wasn't a way to win.

Well this post is going to hell. My friend calls to check on getting the tickets again. I end up not paying attention as I go through Stub Hub again. I dribble chips away. Once again the blinds come and go and I am finally given my chance. On the button I am dealt K K. After bitching about not getting a hand to fight with against someone who goes all in preflop in the BB, I now have to worry about him calling. I raise and he pushes. YES! A 7 and I need to dodge an A. I catch a K on the turn and fill up on the river. Finally!

Now I will probably lax off as I look at hotels. This should have been done weeks ago but he said he knew people and could find us a place to stay for free. I now realize he don't know jack.

Each time I take down a good pot I give it back with weak play. I am barely thinking about the hand I am let alone what I should do if I get called or raised. I sure am not in this game. Its the little moments where I focus that have me fooled.

Have I missed something? Is pushing to any raise preflop the thing to do now? I dumped A J because I am not sure what range they would be pushing with. If it had been the other one I probably would have called.

I can't believe my eyes. I get another chance to get back at a preflop monkey. I raise with AKs and it goes around to the BB. But they fold. Damn!

Blinds come around and I try to do some smaller raises. Now they fold to them. Hmm... maybe I have found the pattern. Not much has changed as we head into the second break. I am alive but that is a mere technicality. 37 out of 116 still banging heads though.

The highlight of the night is a hammer bluff. Min raise from MP and I call. He doesn't bet the flop so I figure I can bet half the pot on the turn cuz he is scared of the Ace on the board. Hammer bluffs feels good for 3 seconds. That's all.

I can feel the flame out coming. I can't stay above 4000 when the average is 11k. I am getting frustrated by my bad play. Going to be go long or go home soon. Wait, I am already home.

I keep pushing with my small stack from the BB with these pockets pairs. Can't get a call though. First time was AA, second was 88.

Blinds are 200/400 with an ante and I still need to do something. 88 again so I push. No callers. In the BB I get A 4 with Otis completing. Flop is A high and I bet 400. He calls. Turn is a second diamond. I feel I should bet pot or push here. Instead I bet 900 into 2000 and he calls. River is another diamond. He pushes. I feel I am screwed but he could be bluffing. He isn't. Funny thing I did that to him earlier in the game.

They are right. Payback is a bitch.