Live Action & Playing Online Tired

On Saturday night I managed to play a bit of live poker with a loose bunch that don't know the rules well. Shit like raising less than the BB works in this game and I try to not sound like such a picky guy when it happens. One hand I raised a hand (blinds 25/50) to 150 and got reraised to 200... I ask what the hell is that type of raise and the table thinks it is acceptable. 3 callers and it gets back to me so I push. Hate min raisers who can't put in a real raise.... hate calling stations who don't know how to fold unless they think they are against a monster.... they all folded in this case and I turned over my cards which I hadn't looked at... Q7o.

Big hand of the night for me was in a side game of 5 players with winner getting 80% and 2nd getting their money back. 25 minutes into the HU I get all in with my A9o vs. K6o ... the the flop is just beautiful!

Board: Kh Ks 6c
Dead:

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 00.3042 % 00.32% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 99.6958 % 105.98% 00.00% { Kd7s }

Turn is A….

Board: Kh Ks 6c Ad
Dead:

equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 04.5448 % 04.56% 00.00% { Ac9d }
Hand 2: 95.4551 % 95.70% 00.00% { Kd7s }


River is another A. And all is right in the world again!

Played a bit of cash last night on FT with slb and he managed to bubble a Paris Hilton token after stacking me with his runner runner straight. Pushed with AK on a K high board and figured that one of the guys would call with a worse K (other guy in the hand had bottom two pair). I doubt he will have a post on his site with a bunch of ranting from me. Bad read but good result... that happens in poker. Made a few dollars playing the cash tables but I have to work on TPTK vs. 40% of full buy in stacks. Hard to make any bet at all without getting the odds to call the reraise.

DADI: Got Smokkee'd!

Built a good 7k stack early in the DADI due to a player who rebought and pushed all in on every hand. My problem had is when I flopped top two pair with a flush draw on the board. So I bet more than pot and Smokkee called. Turn puts the flush on the board and I bet trying to figure out if he has the flush. Both of us are capable of representing a hand so that makes it even tougher on me to put him on anything. He calls and the river doesn't give me the boat and I end up calling his value bet and there goes my big stack.

Next hand AKs doesn't hit my flush and my stack dwindles some more. Then I end up putting about 6 buyins into the pot and endured bad mouthing from a serious player. Luckily I joined Waffles for some NL25 action and ended up $100 so a plus evening overall.

Blah Blah Blah

Damn I suck at poker right now. Going to only play blogger events and small cash games.... lost over 300 last night playing like a donk... I don't know where the loose passive crap comes from and I know it is wrong but I want to see a flop! The confidence isn't there so I think I will spend more time reading and much less time playing.

To top all of that off I think I am going to try to get to bed much earlier.

SNG Challenge - Suckout night

1st event tonight reraised preflop all in with JJ (my computer was acting up so I couldn't stop and go) vs. AK and K on river. Out 32nd.

2nd event flopped top two pair vs. flush draw with mid pair all on on the flop and flush hits on river. Out 42nd.

WWdN: Not the is going to start soon so I will play another 45 SNG. Lets hope I can win a race in the next one. Or at least let me suckout against MiamiDon in the blogger event! Well donked out of that as well tonight.

3rd SNG lost to another flush draw with TPGK. Amazing how I can't get anyone to fold with a push. I think betting smaller might get a couple more folds.

4th SNG tried to wield the hammer and could not get a guy to fold KQo while reraising preflop.

5th SNG got 18th place when my JJ got up against 88 and he hit his straight on the river.

Ouch .... beat up hard two days in a row.... time to catch up on some sleep.

Donking it up live

Had a blast playing poker with Kat last night. Unfortunately, I was donking it up pretty badly but hopefully they remember that the next time we sit down. The reraising a buddy with junk probably contributed to the situation where getting respect at the tables was difficult. The biggest change playing live vs. playing in the blogger events is the number of calls. Live play usually reminds me of a couple levels lower online.

Of course I made mistakes ... TPTK lost half of a buy-in on that one, flopped two pair and saw the flush hit on turn and straight hit on river (folded to bet), bluff got called (don't bluff calling stations), lost an all in with AQs vs a buddy with 73o (he called me without looking at his cards - he was defending his blinds) and vs. K10 where a pair of 3's is good. That and one last missed flush draw with an overcard and couldn't connect. See you later $300. Get it back next week.

Kat bubbled because she doesn't have any use for cash or something like that! :-(

Looking forward to putting up more points in the SNG Challenge but I won't drop to the $1 tables to get that done!

Bad Start to the Day

I knew I should have ordered this book direct from the author but I wanted it quick.... Grrr.

Order Placed: July 6, 2006
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Pressure Poker : Poker Strategy and Tools to Improve Your Game, Scott Gallant

Updated Shipping Estimate: August 12, 2006 - August 26, 2006

Updated Delivery Estimate: August 23, 2006 - September 12, 2006

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So I guess I will be donking it up until mid-September now. If you haven't ordered yet you might want to get to the front of the waiting list.

SNG Challenge - Slow Start

So tonight I started the SNG Challenge and things were not going my way. In the first tournament I got into a blind war with the chip leader on the final table bubble. When my flush didn't hit IGH in 10th. That was all I could play while little Guin was sleeping.

Later in the evening figure I will give it a shot and put up some early pressure. The donk in me was fighting to be let loose and this resulted in a finish of 30th when I raise 5x bb against an aggro player. K high flop and I drop the hoy only to be called not just by K better kicker but K better kicker which is also 2nd pair!

Third event.... this one was the one that put me on tilt... call a min raise (lots of that in these tournaments) and flop comes down giving me nut flush draw. I push and buddy calls with 2nd pair! Of course that holds and I finish in 45th! How many points do I get for that?!

4th event... 44th place 'enuff said! Grumble.... go tell the wife that I suck and she laughs at me and heads to bed.

On the girlie thing I am chatting with Pres Lee and mention that in the next one I want to finish higher than the 40's or last 10 mins at least. I find if I reset the bar low then it is easier to get off of tilt.

Had a beautiful hand that gave me the chiplead which I had for most of the tournament. Get KQo in MP2 and come in for my standard raise (rounded to the nearest 36 - so instead of 120 which would be 3x bb it was a 136 raise) and get one caller and then the BB min raises me. Call and other guy calls. Flop is AJ10d and I have Kd. So nut straight with nut flush draw. I can't put either on two d's since all face cards except for the Q is accounted for. The min raiser bets out 60 into an approx. 600 pot. The guy was annoying and I figured he had AA that he couldn't laydown so I pushed. It surprised me when both called. Min raiser has KK (okay what a donk!) while the other guy at least has J10 and is drawing to a full house. My hand holds up and they both go home.... 40th and 39th.... my first goal is met and I have a bunch of chips to play with.

So I get to the final table and get over the darn bubble and then start to have some fun. We are 5 handed and I have lost 2 hands to the same idiot calling station that has been able to stick around far too long... So he comes in with a min raise and I reraise him so he will be all in if he calls because I hold the holy grail of starting hands.....

As you can imagine there are some that wouldn't make the reraise play like that but lets see how it turned out:

Took the lead on the flop and that increased a bit of hope for the villian but the Hammer is GOOT! Back in the chip lead and ready for more soul crushing. This move really puts the table on edge because they have no clue what you are holding now.

On the next hand that I have a picture of is where I get min raised (no respect for the min raise - NONE) and flop an OESD so I lead out and end up all in with villian holding Q8o. If they were willing to get all in at that point you figure they could have pushed preflop and I would have folded.

So now I hit and they go home in 4th. In the end (this post is too long and I need to get to bed!) I took down 2nd place. So not bad overall but a few big suckouts for me to do that well. Thanks to all those who spent time cheering for my donk moves. Presdavelee liked watching me push a guy all in on a 10 high board (he reraised me preflop and I called)... somehow he called my raise with KK and I proceeded to turn my 103s into two pair on the turn to send the guy home.

How about my 33 holding up vs. 1010 heads up? The guy did get lucky a little later on when he thought his A4o was good against my AQs. Rivered a K so my kicker didn't count and that would have left him crippled. Oh well win some and lose more!

WWdN Not The Winner Again

Had to settle for third last night when Iakaris finally decided to stop letting me go over the top of him again. I did get a little careless on that one with Q8o vs. his A10o. Good job Iak and Wes for outlasting my push monkey style at the end there. I was playing for first and wanted those 1k of chips to end up in front of me.

Pokerstove results:

Board:
Dead:
equity (%) win (%) tie (%)
Hand 1: 63.6679 % 63.47% 00.20% { AcTh }
Hand 2: 36.3320 % 36.13% 00.20% { Qh8d }

I feel if I actually concentrate I can go far in almost any MTT I am playing in. Last night I don't recall any suckouts and my big pocket pairs held up. Looking forward to the SNG challenge.

Also decided that if I was going to play some cash games then winning some money should be the goal. So 200 hands of NL100 yesterday +$80 and 60 or so hands against the bloggers (plus assorted donks) +$14. So a step in the right direction for a change.

MiamiDon thought I either read him too easily or just misplayed my hand to put him out of the tournament last night. I raise with 33 and call his min raise (I don't fold to min raises Don very often!) and the flop is 9 4 4. At work so I don't have suits but I might edit later with a pic if I took one. I lead out and he raises (he has been playng a TAG style so I have him on high cards and I don't think this flop helped him) so I reraise to put him basically all in. Also of note is that I would still be alive if I double him up so max pressure applied to the shorter stack. He pushes with AJ and I take down the hand. Good read or just lucky?! Let me know.

Going to be trying to get into a bit better shape (couldn't get much worse) and I hope that will help me concentrate longer while playing. Always a poker angle to most things these days but it makes things easier with the wife when I am home more often as well.

Mookie Mookie Mookie

I managed to luckbox my way to the final table last night in the Mookie. At the first break I had a 2k chiplead but then started to get tired. What that means is that I stopped attacking the blinds and stopped defending until about three other people at the table had similar stacks.

Luckbox moment of the night happened with 15 people left and Up4Poker sat down to my right. He proceeded to raise about 3 out of 4 pots and mentioned that he was working on his image to exploit it later. Since we were getting closer to the bubble I figure he will laydown A-small to a reraise especially since my stack was 60% of his stack. He raises again and I assume he is stealing so I reraise all in with K9o (but this is based on the fact that he hasn't seen me play a pot yet and he has been raising the last few hands) and he calls with JJ. I river the 9 high straight and back to 1st in chips overall.

It is at that point that I should and I knew I should tighten up my play. Instead I end up raising with Ax and Mookie comes over the top. I end up folding to his lead out bet on the flop and my stack advantage is gone. So instead of using the luck I was given to a good advantage I end up donating chips away. Eventually I was put between Garthmeister and Hoyazo and it was a blind stealing chipfest at that table. Dnasty13 who eventually won the entire tournament played some awesome poker at that table to stay above water.

Iakaris was bubble boy last night and he stayed very level headed about getting reraised at least 6 or 7 times preflop. He is a tight player and I know he isn't raising with junk like most in the event, so going over the top on him (happened twice last night - showed him JJ the second time) could get a person into a lot of trouble.

CC showed some awesome play that even after I was out of the tournament I wanted to see more of his LAGGY style (only reason for going to the cash table). He sure knows how to committ to a hand and apply maximum pressure.... once I read Doubleas book I should be able to deal with this type of player! slb was unstoppable in the cash game last night (he rivered me again for a few dollars!) which is good because he can crush that level consistently. I learned the hard way that playing calling station with bloggers will get you hurt (one typo cost me a bit as well when I overbet a pot with KK on J high flop $22 into a $3 pot!). MiamiDon is another player that I want to watch closer going forward as he is so solid. They probably wouldn't believe me when I say that I am usually just a TAG style player.

My death in the tournament came with a stupid push with 55. I was going to fold since Up4Poker limped from UTG which was weird (he said he had 55!). In MP and I should have been thinking more about other shortstacks and moving up the ladder a bit instead of pushing. If I limp then Hoy raises big and the BB calls and then I can get away from that hand.... so easy with hindsight. That is the problem of playing tired in that you eventually can't think properly... small pocket pairs try to see the flop cheap. Hoyazo pushes and so did the BB (can't remember who it was) and it was 10's for Hoy holding up to give him a huge chip lead.

Lately, I have been working on the LAG style of play a bit more especially in MTTs. Twice last night I managed to get guys to go all in against me on a flop with nothing but 2nd pair. Nice when you hit a hand that you can get paid off since most think I am donking around by reverse hoying them for the 3rd time in 3 hands!

Double Shootout = Super Token?!!

Well, I played and finished 1st in a Double Shootout (DS or Supertoken from now on) which is a $215 entry to the Sunday Million. I won't be able to play that so I unregistered and they put $215 tourney dollars into my account. Never played against such timid people... stealing blinds was easy to do consistently and led to my big chip stack.

Such a shame that Hoyazo didn't go further in the WSOP ... he will get em next year... hopefully I will be there as well to join in on the fun.

First Two Bounties Awarded

Managed to get the first two bounties out of the way. I don't have a screen shot of Mowenumdown beating JJ with his KQo all in preflop action. I do however have a screenshot of Jk87 taking me out:

On this flop I bet 1/2 pot and get reraised so I go over the top and push hoping to get someone to draw to an inside straight or overplay an overpair like JJ. Didn't expect a call from 2nd pair top kicker!



So I managed to get my money in good and after the turn things were looking good....

And then Riverstars did the rest... this left Mookie, Shadowtwin, Smokkee, and Surflexus feeling a bit left out. Luckily I will arrange to have more bounties in the upcoming weeks.

Jk87 to claim your prize just make a post on your blog and open a myCitadel ewallet. Give it a few days to receive the cash as we are still working out the system to pay the bounties.

myCitadel - A new ewallet to try out

Guys I am going to have a bounty put on my head for future blogger events. If you are interested in claiming that prize, you will have to make a post showing the winning hand (screenshot works), and posting a link back to the myCitadel site (I am working on a getting a small clickable banner). All prizes are paid directly into your myCitadel ewallet (signup for one if you don't have one!).

This is a very progressive company that is working hard to address the needs of the ewallet market. They charge much lower fees (currently zero) to load your ewallet from your bank account versus 8.9% for instacash from Neteller. They are also working to allow you to hold multiple currencies within the ewallet so you can convert when you want (good for those people playing sites with Euros, USD, British pounds, etc.). The SecureSwipe product is also interesting as it will allow people in the US to load the ewallet with a credit card.

They are also working on getting on to more of the poker sites that we use but that is going to take some time. Give them a shot (partially funded by rivering me again slb and shadowtwin!) and I believe you will like it.

In the future they have mentioned that they may fund my entrance to a live poker event to be an ambassador for their products. If you have anything else you want from an ewallet please let me know and I can discuss it with the product development group.

20k Guarantee on FT

Played the 20k Guarantee on FT yesterday and today with great results yesterday and not so great today! Managed to finish 86th while Surflexus finished 11th and showed me what my game is lacking on large MTTs. Super amounts of patience but I can say that I am more patient today than 6 months ago so I am progressing. Just read Hoy's post on goals for the year and I probably should try to come up with a few good ones for the 2nd half of 2006.

The first one is to be more patient and not to worry about getting to be slightly below average stack. MTT's are long but the big cash is top end loaded. Finished 7th out of 421 on Saturday night in a $5 MTT and got $68. I also cashed in the 9k with a top 50 finish but these didn't finish until 4-5 am so I was a bit tired the next day. I was happy with the first final table for me in a large MTT so soon after setting that goal. Surf really inspired me with his play the prior night.

Of course to balance things out I donked off about $60-70 last night while doing some corporate taxes. All things considered that was a small expense compared to the cut the government wants.