Wednesday, March 26, 2008

I run goot, cont'd

Another session.. Another staggering series of hands.

The best of the night were a double heads up token sat. The guy has an OPR of < 1%, making him one of the worst ranked players on there. He makes it very clear early that he's willing to go all in with anything. So when I pick up TT, I raise, he min reraises, I shove, and he calls, turning over about what I expect: J3cc. The flop comes T-rag-rag, both rags are clubs, the turn of course completes his flush and I miss the reverse 9 outter for an early exit. NH sir.

The other was a 8$ 18 player token sat... I raise AT in LP and the button calls. We see a T74 flop with two diamonds. I lead, he minraises, I shove. He takes a while, but makes the call with 99. Nice call, sir. Turn in an 8, river is a 9.

It's nice to know that there's still fish in the sea, but man has it been a while since I've been able to take their money. After my 9 for 10 streak in token sats, I'm currently mired in a 1 for 7 slump, only two of which I would attribute to making poor plays.

I run goot. Often.

Lack of mojo is -EV

Played my first decent session in a while last night with pretty much no success. I ran into a card rack in one of the heads up 6.50$ double heads up token sats and couldn't get past the first round for the first time in 4 attempts. Then I went out of a 18-man turbo token sat in a hurry when I ran out of room and shoved AT into KK. I bubbled the tokens in the non-turbo equivalent when I couldn't beat out the 2nd shortest stack's AQ with my AK (and then lost when I shoved A6 into AQ and couldn't return the favor).

I also tried the 28K. Got a decent start in the first half hour but didn't see a damn thing until late hour two when I open shoved 97 with 10BB in the CO and got snapped off by SB's TT.

I also went 0/3 in races, 0/2 when I got it in as a 75/25 favorite, and didn't record a single suckout. AK once, no AA, KK, but one QQ that flopped quads and won a small pot. No JJ, TT, and AQ/AJ were missing every time. One of those nights where you just have to shrug your shoulders and hope you run better the next time.

I'll probably play some tonight.

On the home front, ex is officially moved out, so I'm staying at the old place until Saturday when I move to my sweet new digs. I've actually had encounters with 3 different girls since we broke up, but none have resulted in anything worth bragging about. Hopefully that changes this weekend.

Out for now.

* Not saying "thanks for reading" at the risk of losing my #1 traffic generator *

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Lack of Updates

Hey everyone... Just a quick note to apologize for a lack of updates. The last week has been pretty close to hell for me, revolving mostly around the procedings of breaking up with a live-in girlfriend and some trips to the hospital when she tried to OD on sleeping pills shortly after. It's a mess, but I'll be up and running soon enough. I've missed the last 3 bloggaments, and I'll be missing the MATH tomorrow in leiu of St. Patty's day. Hope to be back for Mookie on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading,
- Ken

Monday, March 10, 2008

Good (frustrating) showing in the MATH

Played my 3rd MATH tonight. Got off to a decent, but slow start.

I got moved to a tough table in hour 2.



A little bit later, my first big hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5586956424: Mondays at the Hoy (41405322), Table 11 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Holdem - 23:56:00 ET - 2008/03/10
Seat 2: TripJax (7,667)
Seat 3: a104l9 (2,790)
Seat 4: hoyazo (6,465)
Seat 5: columbo (18,281)
Seat 6: CheckinMyAA (5,899)
TripJax antes 25
a104l9 antes 25
hoyazo antes 25
columbo antes 25
CheckinMyAA antes 25
a104l9 posts the small blind of 150
hoyazo posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [6c 6h]
InstantTragedy (Observer): Aussie Aussie, HOY HOY HOY!
columbo has 15 seconds left to act
columbo raises to 1,000
CheckinMyAA has 15 seconds left to act
CheckinMyAA raises to 5,874, and is all in
TripJax folds
a104l9 calls 2,615, and is all in
hoyazo folds
columbo calls 4,874
CheckinMyAA shows [6c 6h]
a104l9 shows [Ac Ks]
columbo shows [Kh Ah]
*** FLOP *** [Qd Jd 6s]
*** TURN *** [Qd Jd 6s] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Jd 6s 7d] [3c]
CheckinMyAA shows three of a kind, Sixes
columbo shows Ace King high
CheckinMyAA wins the side pot (6,218) with three of a kind, Sixes
a104l9 shows Ace King high
CheckinMyAA wins the main pot (8,720) with three of a kind, Sixes
columbo: nh
CheckinMyAA: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
a104l9 stands up

From there I ~coasted into the money. And then I started getting card racked late. I had KK twice for decent pots w/o a showdown, and then Presto busts one of the shorties.

Then my nemesis shows up...


Full Tilt Poker Game #5587679684: Mondays at the Hoy (41405322), Table 12 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Holdem - 0:56:58 ET - 2008/03/11
Seat 1: jmathewson_III (31,596)
Seat 3: DaBag (14,686)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (34,833)
Seat 6: lucko21 (52,956)
jmathewson_III antes 150
DaBag antes 150
CheckinMyAA antes 150
lucko21 antes 150
lucko21 posts the small blind of 600
jmathewson_III posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [Qd Qc]
DaBag has 15 seconds left to act
DaBag raises to 4,800
CheckinMyAA raises to 34,683, and is all in
lucko21 folds
jmathewson_III folds
DaBag calls 9,736, and is all in
CheckinMyAA shows [Qd Qc]
DaBag shows [Ah Th]
Uncalled bet of 20,147 returned to CheckinMyAA
*** FLOP *** [9h Td 6c]
*** TURN *** [9h Td 6c] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [9h Td 6c Qh] [4h]
CheckinMyAA shows three of a kind, Queens
DaBag shows a flush, Ace high
DaBag wins the pot (31,472) with a flush, Ace high


Yuck. That puts me almost in the chip lead if I win it.


A few hands later, sucko busts me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5587694749: Mondays at the Hoy (41405322), Table 12 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Holdem - 0:58:22 ET - 2008/03/11
Seat 1: jmathewson_III (29,346)
Seat 3: DaBag (29,372)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (18,647)
Seat 6: lucko21 (56,706)
jmathewson_III antes 150
DaBag antes 150
CheckinMyAA antes 150
lucko21 antes 150
CheckinMyAA posts the small blind of 600
lucko21 posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [8s Qh]
jmathewson_III folds
DaBag folds
CheckinMyAA raises to 18,497, and is all in
lucko21 calls 17,297
CheckinMyAA shows [8s Qh]
lucko21 shows [5s 5d]
*** FLOP *** [3h 9h 8d]
*** TURN *** [3h 9h 8d] [5c]
*** RIVER *** [3h 9h 8d 5c] [Qc]
CheckinMyAA shows two pair, Queens and Eights
lucko21 shows three of a kind, Fives
lucko21 wins the pot (37,594) with three of a kind, Fives
lucko21: gg
CheckinMyAA stands up


Good for an 8th place finish worth 62$, which ain't bad considering it cost me 8$ to get in. Bust still, with so much on the line (600+ for first, and of course the blogger freeroll, it's hella frustrating.

I got my money in bad once vs Katitude, who was lots of fun to chat up. We were "dancing partners" and at first I was nice, twice doubling her with KQ < Ax and TT < Q4 (bleh), but then later at another table we were reunited and my AT got there against her AJ all in preflop. Every other time I got my money in, I was at worst a race. So pretty happy with how I played.

I know some of you are probably thinking it... I think my shove in that 66 hand was warranted, even though columbo opened UTG. He'd been ~active and he'd raised a few times in EP and been bet off the pot. Maaaybe still sketchy? You tell me...

Out for now.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

8$ Token SNGs are My Bitch

Seriously, I'm destroying these things the last week and a half. I'm 7 for 8 (with no 6th places), and I haven't broken a sweat in any of them. It didn't take long to adapt a very, very simple strategy.

When people say the play in these things is attrocious, they're really not kidding. When we got to the FT, there was one guy with a huge stack. I OPR'd the table, and he was ~10%. He showed why pretty quick. With almost twice the chips of the next player, in 4 hands he went busto.

Hand one: 22. He raises, BB calls. BB shoves QJx flop, and he CALLS?? Loses to KQ
Hand two: K3. He limps, a ~small stack shoves in the blinds and he CALLS?? Loses to AK
Hand four: KJ. He limps along OTB, BB (new big stack) shoves, and he CALLS?? Loses to JJ.

Just gross. He shoulda just gone for a walk and hit "Sit Out".

Friday, March 7, 2008

Beating the Home Game (Part 3) and Hand Conclusion AND +1 Membership

Lots goin' on today!!

+1 Membership!
First off, I'm a proud new member of the +1 forums. Apparently it was lucko that nominated me for being "drafted". Pretty flattering for a microdonk like me. I must have made some improvements from when I first showed up at Cardplayer because I had a new asshole torn for me a couple times early on. Cool stuff.

Hand of Interest Results:
So a couple posts ago I showed you guys a hand that I wasn't thrilled about. Some of you are in the fold the turn camp, others are in the shove the turn camp. Personally, I'm more inclined to side with latter. In this particular hand, it turns out I played it "perfectly", but not "correctly".

Results: Villain had A6o, no flush draws, nothin'. Just an unimproved ace. I won the hand, and I'm certain he would have folded if I shoved the turn - but that still doesn't excuse me from playing it the way I did. I went on to take first. I also took first in 2 out of 3 SNG's last night (once in a 20$) for a gross of $135. That was nice too!

The Home Game
The home game had another good turn out. Again I won both games - not for a lack of trying to lose (the second game). The first game was fairly standard. I didn't win many hands until we were 3-handed. I have Q5 in the BB and we see a cheap flop. It comes Qxx, my opponent in the SB check/calls a large bet. The turn is a 5, but it completes the flush draw. I shove, and he calls, showing a baby flush. I'm calling for a 5 on the river and sure enough....booom. I hit my 4 outter and double up. I don't remember the hand that won the first game, but I know I was ahead.

The second game was a walk. The hand I 'tried' to hang myself on was this. We're 5 handed with one guy nursing a tiny tiny stack.

Blinds 200/400
Hero (UTG) ~5000
V1 (OTB) ~5300
V2 (SB) ~5800
BB ~1200

Hero gets A9o, raises to 1000. V1, V2 call. BB folds.

Flop: A K T, rainbow.

Hero checks, OTB bets 1500, SB calls, Hero shoves, both players instantly call.

My thinking was one of them HAD to at least have a better ace or KT or SOMETHING. But:
V1: A3
V2: A6

The turn and river rag and my 9-kicker plays, and I cripple both of them and take a rediculous chip lead. I never looked back after this hand and ended it when I flopped a flush with Td9d vs J7 or something. He turned two pair, but I dodged the 4-outter that saved me in the first game, and that was that.

There was a lot of moaning about how lucky I am and such - and I won't lie, I certainly did get lucky. Every game it's getting easier and easier to play against these guys, so next time I'm going to voluntarily sit out and just deal for my buddies and let them play. The 120$ I won today puts my leaderboard profits at ~350, with the next closest person at ~140. I feel pretty bad...

But looking at this pile of 20's cheers me up :)

Thanks for readin!

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Good run in the 11,500 KO

Built up a nice stack early and bounced around a bunch towards the middle of hour 2. Two back to back beauties.

Villain is 50/40/3 over 20

Full Tilt Poker Game #5533176725: $11,500 KO Guarantee (41380072), Table 31 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Holdem - 0:57:34 ET - 2008/03/07
Seat 1: La Jolla Shores (7,216)
Seat 2: CheckinMyAA (10,007)
Seat 3: chirchy (15,730)
Seat 4: jdd5p (20,385)
Seat 5: cheesemonster (13,966)
Seat 6: popotito (10,944)
La Jolla Shores antes 25
CheckinMyAA antes 25
chirchy antes 25
jdd5p antes 25
cheesemonster antes 25
popotito antes 25
chirchy posts the small blind of 150
jdd5p posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [Qd Jh]
cheesemonster folds
popotito folds
La Jolla Shores raises to 791
CheckinMyAA calls 791
chirchy folds
jdd5p folds
*** FLOP *** [7c 2s Jd]
La Jolla Shores bets 1,221
CheckinMyAA calls 1,221
*** TURN *** [7c 2s Jd] [Td]
La Jolla Shores has 15 seconds left to act
La Jolla Shores bets 5,179, and is all in
CheckinMyAA calls 5,179
La Jolla Shores shows [Qs Kc]
CheckinMyAA shows [Qd Jh]
*** RIVER *** [7c 2s Jd Td] [Ac]
La Jolla Shores shows a straight, Ace high
CheckinMyAA shows a pair of Jacks
La Jolla Shores wins the pot (14,982) with a straight, Ace high

Followed by the shorty busto vs the table maniac who runs 85/72/1

Full Tilt Poker Game #5533184493: $11,500 KO Guarantee (41380072), Table 31 - 150/300 Ante 25 - No Limit Holdem - 0:58:20 ET - 2008/03/07
Seat 1: La Jolla Shores (14,982)
Seat 2: CheckinMyAA (2,791)
Seat 3: chirchy (15,555)
Seat 4: jdd5p (20,060)
Seat 5: cheesemonster (13,941)
Seat 6: popotito (10,919)
La Jolla Shores antes 25
CheckinMyAA antes 25
chirchy antes 25
jdd5p antes 25
cheesemonster antes 25
popotito antes 25
jdd5p posts the small blind of 150
cheesemonster posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CheckinMyAA [9d 9s]
popotito folds
CheckinMyAA: nc..
La Jolla Shores raises to 757
CheckinMyAA raises to 2,766, and is all in
chirchy folds
jdd5p folds
cheesemonster raises to 13,916, and is all in
La Jolla Shores folds
cheesemonster shows [7s Ac]
CheckinMyAA shows [9d 9s]
Uncalled bet of 11,150 returned to cheesemonster
*** FLOP *** [6h 4c 3s]
*** TURN *** [6h 4c 3s] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [6h 4c 3s 3h] [As]
cheesemonster shows two pair, Aces and Threes
CheckinMyAA shows two pair, Nines and Threes
cheesemonster wins the pot (6,589) with two pair, Aces and Threes
CheckinMyAA stands up


Did get 5 KO's though. Sick way to go out though. If he bricks his 11 outs in that first one, I'm back into the top 30.

Oh well. Still had fun. slamjam came by to give me props early on which was cool. Thanks for the support dude, wish I coulda done the deed for ya.

Keep the comments coming on the previous post! I'll post results in my next post.

Thanks for reading