Poker Dorks

So the JGPL has started back up, and last weekend was a roller coaster for yours truly. The opener was standard NLHE, which follows basic WSOP rules but with some accelerated blinds to speed up the play.

I was running fairly well, and I had some good reads when the following hand happened. Hero – BB, Villain – SB, we have almost the same stack size at just over 12k. Blinds are 200/400 with a 25 ante. It is folded around to the Villain who limp calls, and I look down to
,
and I decide to check (I know, bad play). The flop comes
, ,
and the SB checks. I decide to lead out with a 800 bet to a 1025 pot, in the hopes of just going ahead and taking it down. The Villain raises me to 2400…. at this point I don’t think he has an ace at all, and that he is maybe on the 9 and thinking I don’t have the ace. He is a good player and more than capable of betting strong with second pair on a dry board that was uncontested preflop. With that read I decide I am going to make him play for it all and shove. He snap calls and flips up
, . Wow? Ok about 80% of the time those hands will chop the pot… that is until the

comes on the turn. Ugh. I started rooting for a paired board (other than the 2 of course) and I get no such luck. I go from 12,300 in chips to 300 in chips. Bleh.

But not all is lost! I shove blind the next hand as I could not even complete the blind and I double up. Then I shove blind on the button and double again. At that point I was 10th in chips with only 10 player remaining and they consolidate the tables. I get the button again (yay) and I shove blind again. I get called by the Villain that has almost felted me and look down to a great sight, cowboys
,
The villain shows
,
and then we are off. The flop is horrible with
**
and that gives a possible gut shot to the villain but I know I am still way ahead. I fade all of his outs and double through again. Now I have a decent chip stack and I can play some without feeling like I have to keep doubling. I wind up pushing all the way up to 4th so I can’t really complain… I was free rolling on the final table.

After that we started another tournament, Omaha Hi/Lo Limit and it was yet again another crazy ride. I’ll skip all the hand descriptions since it is Omaha we are talking about and just go to the fun stuff. They were only paying top 3 in this one and I was 4th in chips with 1 1/2 big blinds! I am first to act and fold with crap and was worried that the next hand would see me out of the tournament… but fate had other plans. The table went crazy, and some how the two stacks right in front of them were all in and lost! That put me heads up and a major disadvantage, what with my crazy small chip stack. I am of course all in blind again since it really doesn’t matter what my cards are at that point. We chop back to back with me taking high once and low once. Then I scoop a pot, and I scoop another pot (double double!). Then I scoop a third (triple double?) and once again I have a chip stack to play with. By that point we were all very tired though, from a long day of good food and fun poker. I chip up some more and have a pretty good chip advantage at that point and I offered up a chop with my buddy instead of playing the whole thing out. I am pretty sure with my momentum I would have taken the whole but I was so tired with an hour drive ahead of me so chop chop is good.

I am hoping for a fruitful season in the JGPL again this year and it looks like I am off to a good start

** it looks like I have having some formatting issues with this latest plug in. Hopefully I will get it fixed soon or I’ll just stop trying to post cards.

The season is over for the Janitors League. I finished 5th in points for the season, and that was missing one tournament completely due to our Hawaiian vacation

Going in to the Championship game I had a good stack. The Championship game is set up to be a long game, deep stacks with small blind increases. I came in with ~55k in chips with blinds being only 25/50 and the five largest chip stacks were on the same table… but even with that we had an all in and a call in the first 15 minutes of play with one player knocked out really early. Aces up with Queens against a flopped straight, and that set the pace for the rest of the day. We had another early out on our table about 30 minutes later, so that made two out on our table and one /giant/ stack. We were in for a rough one for sure.

I got second stacked in the tournament before the third break, the long one, but then I went completely card dead with some very aggressive players which sucks. I chipped away until the final table and commented to the TD that I was going to fold my way to first. It almost came true I finished third in the tournament and I can’t exactly be upset about it. I feel much more confident in my game now… my reading ability has increased dramatically, and my bluffing is getting much better.

Anyway I want to play the WSOP this year but work might keep me away from it. I am going to try to work something out.

Ok I haven’t updated lately, so sue me

I have been very active in one of my leagues lately. So far I have a 7th, 4th, 2nd and a 1st! The first place was awesome as it was the “hardest” tournament of the year. It was in a game that is kind of like HORSE, but they call it SOLaR (Stud, Omaha Hi/Low, Limit, Razz). I played very well in that tournament but I didn’t expect to win it. I went in to heads up at a serious chip disadvantage but I played smart and made moves when I should. Razz saved me and gave me the win. Overall I am very happy with my results this year, I feel like I am playing better and much smarter than I have in the past.

I honestly don’t know what I have done to make my adjustment, it just happened and I will take that.

This adjustment has spilled over in to my cash game too. I have been crushing the limit game I play, and my no limit is looking strong too. Let’s hope this continues. If it does I will certainly be going to the WSOP this year!

This weekend there is a limit tournament… I will post a review of my play from that shortly afterwards.

So I have decided I need to step up the amount of poker I am playing if I can reasonably expect to get better at this game. In order to do this I have entered in to two different poker leagues in my area. One I played in last year, and is called Piranha Poker. There are some great players in that league and this year looks to be their biggest yet. Hopefully we can send a lot of people to the WSOP to represent us.

The have had two tournaments this year but I have only played in one due to scheduling conflicts with the other league. My first outing this year wasn’t great, but I can’t exactly be upset with the outcome. We had 56 people that played the tournament and I went out 17. I didn’t get any points for it, but at least the guy that took me out when on to win the whole thing so I have that going for me

The second league is one I have been wanting to play in for a few years now. It is a limited size and basically you have to wait until someone leaves. Since the fiancee and I both play we were waiting until they had two spots open up for us. That happened this year. This league is called the Janitors Game Poker League, which is a play off of the Soprano’s Executive Game from the early seasons. These guys are sharks, every one of them. We had our first tournament this past weekend and the “Rookie”, that would be me, posted a good opener. I finished up 4th over all with one of the most rollercoaster take outs I have ever experienced. This is the one hand that I will talk about:

We are four handed and I am third in chips. There is one monster stack on the table, which is who I got tied up with. The blinds are 3k/6k with a 500 ante. I have about 34k total, but 6k of it is in my big blind. The monster stack does a min raise to 12k and I look down to 5s/5h. My choices are limited. Either fold or shove, I can’t call as that is going to put a giant dent in my stack. I decided I needed to either double up at that point or it was going to be over quick. I shoved. The monster stack thought about it for a couple of minutes and called. He flipped up As/10c and we are off to the races.

The flop was a gut shot to me… 4c-6c-10s. Ugh he took the lead. The turn made me happy with 5c. Yay! Trips for me! River is… Ac. bleh. Back doored the flush and I am out just like that. I think I played well most of the day and made some really good lay downs after a couple of strong reads.

I will try to make some regular updates as the seasons go on. I hope to make big points in both leagues and hopefully go to the WSOP this year

This is out of the norm for the poker blog but here goes anyway:

So I am sitting at home being sick and miserable and I came across this great list. I guess it will be old to some of you but to me it was new and I thought I would share it. The idea is you are supposed to bold the things you have done and share it with others. I still have a lot of things to do in my life

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies (kind of hard for me to do)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar.
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House. (only stood outside of the gates though)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (and just about every other childhood disease)
89. Saved someone’s life (yes, if an animal’s life counts)
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

I’m playing in a charity event tomorrow for the Jimmy V Foundation. A poker acquaintance of mine is hosting it at the Grand Sierra in Reno. There are going to be some celebrities there and a few well known poker pros. You can find out more about the event here. I am going to just play for fun, but I certainly would love to be able to take this down.

I will post an update after the event.

A few posts back I mentioned that Scotty had said he was going to either win 4M in the 2009 WSOP or he was going to quit poker. I said at the time that I didn’t think he would win the 4M and I didn’t think he would quit poker. I was right on both counts.

Scotty only placed once this year, 11th in Event 37 the World Championship Seven Card Stud H/L-8 for 33k. He was no where near his stated goal. He also hasn’t given up poker as he went to play the EPT in Barcelona just recently. He did not place in the money there.

Maybe it is time for Scotty to sit back and regroup. I know he is a very active player, and I know he is a good player. Maybe he needs to reassess his personal life some in order to get his poker life back on track.

I haven’t posted lately due to work being so busy right now. I had one post sitting in Edit that I just posted… it is a bit old. Work sent me to Vegas last week so I had some time to get my gamble on. I played a lot of craps and a bit of poker. I had some pretty good sessions in poker though, but the final hand that I played just hurt. After reading this post and my previous post I think I have decided that I am going to fold AA pre flop from now on.

Here is the set up. I’m on a 1/3 no-limit cash game. The buy in is generally $200-300 on this table and I came in at $200. I had been playing for a couple of hours, getting good cards and good reads the whole time. My stack was $735 at the time this hand went down. There are two stacks bigger than me on the table, one guy had around $1500 the other had around $1200, most people are around the $200 range as we had several people busted out.

Here is how the action went down.

I am second action with AhAd and raise for the standard $12 that the table seems to prefer. The two big stacks act after me and both of them have been very aggressive, so I’m hoping that one of them re-raises so I can get some good action… no such luck. Everyone folds to the button who is the second big stack and he just calls. Both blinds fold.

Flop comes:

10d
A2
7h

Yay! I hit top set and there is no easy flush draw, although there are two possible (realistic) straight draws. I figure since I am in this with an aggressive player I’m going to let him bet so I can either raise or lay the trap. I check and he bets $35 in to a pot of $28. Odd sized bet, but he has over bet the pot several times that I have seen. I decide that he doesn’t have the draw, based off of previous show downs, so I put him on either stealing or two pair and trying to protect them from the likely draw. I just flat call.

Turn is 2c. Great turn for me, and I decide to continue down the trap path. I hesitantly check it to him. He bets $150 in to a pot of $104. Wait, what? Another big over bet to this pot. Does he really have the draw and is just over playing it? Does he have two pair? Does he maybe have a set too? I decide I’m going to go ahead and spring my trap so that if he is drawing he is going to have to think hard. I raise him to $400. He insta all-ins. I, of course, almost beat him in to the pot. He shows me 10c 10s for the second set. I’m feeling pretty damn good about my trap and how I played this… until the river.

River is 10h. WTF?! Really? REALLY? The only card that could beat me and the dealer flips it up. Wow. That sucked hard.

First Full Tilt gives me insane bad beats and now it is following me in to real life. Did I pick up the WSOPA curse or something? Bah.

So does anyone think I played this wrong? Should I have done something different? Is there any different potential outcome if I had bet differently? Someone find me a witchdoctor to remove this curse

I am sure I am not the only one that has experienced a bad beat online. I am sure I am not the only one to experience a bad beat on Full Tilt. But I sure do feel like it happens a lot to me on Full Tilt. Last night may be the bad beat that broke the camels back, as I don’t think I’ll be playing FT again any time soon.

The set up. This is a 18 person, $5 SnG. While I know the stakes aren’t high it still matters to me. We have made it to the final table and there are eight people left. I am second big stack on the table and the “big” stack only has $900 more than me. I have $5430, big stack has $6285… most people are around $1500-2000. The blinds are only 25/50 (fast tournament!) when the following hand happens.

I am UtG with AsAh. I min raise hoping that someone thinks it is a weak raise and tries to push me out. Next action raises all in for $1105. Big stack flat calls. Everyone folds around to me and I decide that I want to shut it down to a heads up with the first all in and I’ll take the big stacks dead money. So I go all in for $5430. This gives a pot of $7625 and odds for the big stack to call of 1.65:1. He insta calls me. Wow he must have a strong hand right? KK-AK-QQ I am assuming. No. Here is what turns up.

hero As Ah (76%)
first all in Ad Ks (not a bad move from him) (7%)
villain 8h 3h (17%)

WTF is the big stack doing here? Really? No odds to make that insane call and he is seriously drawing thin… but this is Full Tilt we are talking about, and my draw out curse is in full effect.

Flop 2d 8s 3c

wow… did that really happen?

turn Qd

river 9d

and I am out. Just like that. Either I have the absolute worst luck in the universe (and I don’t doubt it right now) or Full Tilt has some ‘splainin to do.

Well the WSOP 2009 is almost over, and the final table to the main event has been set. The final table is set to play out on November 7th. I don’t like the delay of the table as it kills momentum and gives people time to study the other players in depth.

If I was one of those players on the final table you had better believe I would be getting in touch with the big pros that aren’t on the table and people like Joe Navarro to help me review tape on the other players. This hurts the game in my opinion. Eh, either way it is what it is.

So who made the final table this year? Here is the list and the chip counts of each.

1. Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
2. Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
3. Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
4. Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
5. Joe Cada – 13,215,000
6. Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
7. Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
8. Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
9. James Akenhead – 6,800,000

Two names of note there, Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman. First the “controversy” with Jeff Shulman, the COO of Card Player magazine. He has publicly stated that if he wins the main event he will throw the bracelet in the trash. Card Player and Harrahs have a bit of a feud going on, with Card Player decrying the treatment of players by Harrahs and Harrahs shutting Card Player out of coverage.

“Some people are reporting that I’m upset because the World Series canceled a media deal with Card Player,” he (Jeff Shulman) said.

“My comments have nothing to do with that, and everything to do with my disappointment in how the World Series is run. It used to be run by people who loved and really cared about poker, and had the players in mind, first and foremost. That mission’s been derailed by a few executives who now head the Series.”

Phil Ivey on the final table?? This should be fun to watch! Will this be the year that the Main Event title goes back to the ranks of the big professionals? I seriously hope so as it has been a drought of big pros on the final table since Moneymaker took out Sam Farha, so I hope Phil can represent them well. The rounds are long and the chip stacks are still deep and Phil has enough chips to be dangerous so it should be interesting. Expect some good play come November 7th.