Work Tilt = MEGA TILT

Sorry for the lack of post this week but I have been extremely busy. In fact the last day that I had off was Easter. Now granted I don't have to go into the office on the weekends but I am on call 24/7 and the fact that my phone can and will ring at anytime can be quite tiresome. Couple the work load with the fact that my boss is a XXX Micro Manager who basically is under qualified for the position, and I am on a major work tilt that has my whole life screwed up. I can't get anything right, especially in poker. I had a glimmer of hope on Sunday during the Riverchasers HORSE event which I took 2nd, and I flash of brilliance in the early stage of the MATH on Monday when I jumped out to huge lead, only to tilt that off after I made a bad call against Bayne_S just because I thought he was trying to bluff me. I am getting know where fast. I so glad the BBT is ending because that now is becoming a grind, as you can tell by my early exit in last nights Riverchaser event. I have now matched my lowest place (5th) on the BBT Leaderboard since the it started. I am truly disappointed with my performance because I felt like I could really put together a good run here the last few weeks, now I am just hoping to hang on to the final 5th position come Sunday during the "big game"

Finally there is something coming up next weekend that I am really looking forward to. That is right it is my VACATION! No cell phone, no email, no pain in the Ass Boss, no one bitching at me because I cant get their products made, oh and I almost forgot I get to play in the WSOP ME. Pretty sad that I am looking forward to being away from my job more than playing in the WSOP.

I am sorry about how whiny this post is but I need to vent and after all it is my blog.

I promise Alan I will put together a That Just Wrong next Wednesday, then I leave you with this tidbit.

Cash Craziness / Live Win

TGIF!

I finally booked a winning day on the virtual felt for the first time in a long time. I decided that I needed change it up, so I fired up some cash tables. Now I will to be the first to tell you that I am a cash donk! It is part of my game that I just hadn't worked on. About a month ago I bought PokerTracker and PokerAce HUD (yes I know welcome to the 20th century) with the goal of trying to improve my cash stats and plug some leaks.

Yesterday the programs paid for themselves. I had a few hours to kill before my weekly home game started and I didn't want to run the option of getting stuck to big so I bellied up to a big ol .50/1 NL 6 Max table on FullTilt (Bonus Code OSU). Now I dont fish for juicy tables but I do look at the chip stacks and players per flop as a guage. I dont and wont set down at table with a bunch of short buyers, my ideal is several people at the hovering around the max buyin and maybe one or two big stacks. The table I chose had had the following stacks at it: 2 people $100, 1 person that had $150, one at about $75, and one big boy at a little over $300. I had stats on most of the guys especially daddy warstacks whom pokertracker had auto rated as a "Tight Aggressive Aggressive" so I want to be leary of him, so I thought.

Within 10 minutes I had double through Mr. TAA when he pushed JJ into my AA preflop. So far so good, I continued to play for about 30 minutes with my chips hovering around $200 when the following hand came up. I was in the BB with 3d3c, Mr TAA is on the button and makes it $4 to go, the SB calls (no stats on him but he had about $60 in chips) so I call for implied set odds. Flop is Ah3hX and I know that Mr. Tight has more than like just paired his Big Ace (thanks to my Poker tracker and PokerAce Hud, I see that he will play aggressive after the flop), SB checks, I check to give Mr TAA a chance to define his hand. Just like clockwork he fires out $12 and then the SB goes allin over the top for about $55 more. WTF is going here, no way am I folding a set here. I cant worry about set over set, so I put him on two pair or a flush draw but I then wonder if I can get Mr. TAA to come along for the ride. So I min raise the to $90 leaving myself about $90 and to my surprise and joy mr TAA pushes all in and I insta call. The cards are revealed and SB was indeed on the flush draw and MR TAA risked his whole wad on TPTK with AK. All I have to do is dodge a heart to win the huge main pot but at worst I should win a very big side pot that will issure some profit on the hand. The turn is 4c and the river is a heart, the 4 of hearts. So I rake a pot of over $575 and decide to take the money and run to finish up almost 5 buyins in about 45 minutes.

Later that night I am playing in my weekly home game. We do a $50 freezeout with $1/2 after the tourney. We normally have about 20 people show up for the tourney, with highs of 30 people lows of 14. last night I think we had 19. I was card rack early, I caught KK twice, AA and AK all with in the first 5 levels, so I hit the final table as the predominant big stack. We played down to about 6 people when this interesting hand came up. I was in the BB (800/400/50) with 9s7s and UTG + 1 open pushes AI for 3300, MP calls off his last 3000 and then I decide with 3:1 odds I have to call off about 25% of stack. Both players flip up KQ off (yes I play with donks) and I am golden on the flop when it comes 6810. As Fuel would say flopped straights are gold. When we got down to 3 handed it became push monkey time, won a huge pot with A7 vs KJ and had about 70% of the chips, we decided on a chop gave me 85% of first place money.

Have a safe weekend.

That is Just Wrong -Drinking Gone Wrong

We have all been there. Maybe had one or ten too many. I present to you this weeks that is just wrong

One Hand

In every poker tournament there is usually "one hand" that defines your fate, good or bad. The good hand can be getting someone to commit themselves to TPTK when you flopped a set, or when you totally misread your opponent but go runner, runner for the suckout. If it is the bad hand it doesn't have to be the bustout hand and it doesn't have to necessarily be a bad beat, just a hand that eventually lead to your demise.

Yesterday in the FTP 100 WSOP ME, I got off to a good start. I flopped a set within the first 5 hands and played it to perfection with a hyper aggressive player who bet enough to pot commit himself but somehow managed to laydown an allin check raise by me on the turn with the pot laying him 4:1.

I also flopped a boat but couldn't get the same hypo to bite, and got several mid to big pairs. The first hour was pretty good and I was in the top 25% of chip leaders.

Sometime during the second hour my table broke and I was moved to a different table with one of the chipleaders. The average chipstack was may 4.5K this person had almost 30K and was on my left three people away. This guy was limp/calling every hand, calling any bets on the flop and betting enough to put the person all in on the turn. So needless to say I was not getting to see many flops but was still in top 50% of chips. It was about 15 minutes till the 2nd break when the "one hand" that defined my tournament played out. I was in the SB with a 4h6h and $6K in chips, the Monster Stack decided that he would not play in MP and 4 people limped I called and we saw a flop five handed. The flop was 4s8d6d, now I have bottom 2 and I am first to act. With all the possible draws there is no need to get cute, I over bet the pot $1200 into $1000 pot and get smooth called in 2 places. The turn was the ugliest card I could have ever seen.

I am not going to go broke with 2 pair when both a flush draw and straight draw just completed. I have no choice but to check fold and watch 1/3 of my chips get shipped. I didn't tilt necessarily, but I just somehow felt that this was an omen. The next hand I pick up an AJ on the button, I make a 3x raise not realizing "Monster Stack" had limped UTG, he calls and we see XXX flop rainbow and Monster checks, what do you do? Now I have $4.5K which is avg, there is $4K in the pot, If I check I am dead even if an ace comes because I he could have anything, so I decided that I was going to throw out a Cbet bluff that looked like I wanted a call and would pot commit me of 2.5K. I felt like I had to gain information and this was the only way I could. Monster stack goes into the tank and lets his timer run down and then even uses his time extension for a little more theatrics before re raising me just enough to set me in. Now his performance convinced me I was drawing dead to either a set or AA and I laid my hand down getting 4:1, maybe it was a bad lay down but I still had a couple chips. I busted out shortly later when my KQ ran into AK on K high board.

I don't know how I feel about my performance, I am disappointed but not defeated. See ya at the MATH tonight.

O'fer

O'fer 3 this week in the BBT events. I must admit Bayne_S is putting on clinic, I am not conceding yet, but man his performance has been impressive. As for me, Mookie and MATH I was pleased with the way I played but the cards didn't go my way. That's Poker!

As for my performance in the Riverchasers, lets just say it is damn near impossible to play in a live tournament and online at the same but I tried last night. Busto in fifteen minutes in the Rivershasers, took 2nd out of 30 in the live $50 tourney.

Wish me luck I am playing in FullTilt's (Bonus Code OSU) 100 seat ME Give Away this weekend since I qualified for it almost 3 months ago and hopefully can snag my 2nd seat. Lord know my BR could use the $12k.

Have a great weekend and to all the dads out there enjoy your day but mostly enjoy your kids.

That is Just Wrong - Tattoos Gone Wrong

Now don't get me wrong I am not against tattoos. I have one on my leg of my college mascot, but you just got to wonder what some of these people were thinking. WARNING IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED PLEASE DON'T LOOK ANY FURTHER AS SOME OF THESE COULD BE CONSIDERED NSFW EVEN THOUGH NO NUDITY IS SHOWN. FOR NEKIDNESS GO TO THE WICKED CHOPS BOYS AND CLICK ON THEIR LINKS. I present this weeks:




Speaking of Animals

Speaking of Trim


Speaking of pubic areas

Speaking of Rednecks

Speaking of hairy backs


Speaking of Disturbing

Speaking of Butt Holes





Dont forget about the M00K tonight, see ya there.

Would you do it again the same way if you could do it over?

This is the question I ask it to myself when I bust out of a MTT. If I am more inclined to answer yes then I feel I have succeeded. Did I get my money in with the best hand, did I give myself the best chance to win the tourney? Ect.. If the answer is no time to re-evaluate and find the leaks. Why did I push when he had no fold equity, why did I not pick up the warning signs from his betting patterns, ect..?

After last night's MATH I pondered this question over and over, but before we get to my conclusion lets set up the problem. We had 36 runners and my table was you typical Blonkament Table with LAGs to super LAGs. During the first 13 hands I picked up KK early but no action so my stack was just were I started 3K.

_________________________________

Yesterday I skipped lunch and decided to read a little more of the Full Tilt Tournament Guide, after all it is one of my goals this week. I read the interesting chapter that Quiet Lion wrote about online MTTs and one of the key points he drove home was that in the early stages of MTTs are all about implied odds. In other words the first few levels (specifically the first 3 levels in a deepstack)you can make some questionable calls if you feel that implied odds justify them. Hmmm very interesting stuff.

After Lunch I perused Hoy's archive of the Anatomy of the slowplay 1-3, Hoy states his goal when he slowplays a monster is to get every chip period, and he went into great lengths to explains the various methods how he gets his opponent to commit all their chips to a play where he is the favorite. Hmmm very interesting stuff.
_________________________________

Hand number 14 started off very interesting, I am in the BB with KdJd and UTG makes it 70 to go, now believe it or not more time than not I will let this hand go, especially in a HU situation with the original UTG raiser. Most time if I am going to play KJ suited I would like a multiway pot. But I read something early today about implied odds... hmmmm....... I think I might just call and see a flop.

Well the flop slapped me right in the face Kc8dJd, top pair decent kicker, 9 outs to the second nut flush and backdoor straight. This a monster, but how can I get all of his chips ....... hmmm... I think I read something earlier today about slowplaying a monster ...... I think I will check and see how much he likes his hand. So cefredmd fires out a little over 1/2 pot, standard Cbet and then re-raise him 2.5 his bet just to keep him interested, when ...................... wham he shoves all in. So should I be happy or mad, happy that I got what I wanted which is an opportunity to stack him or mad that I am probably behind to either AA, KK or AK. My action was made as soon as I saw the flop but lets look at the odds of the 3 hands before we get to the results, for simplicity we will assume that my opponent doesn't have a diamond.

Against AA, I am favorite 51%

Against AK I am 47.27%
And against KK I am 30.91%
So all in all I am not that bad shape and pots odds compel me to call my last $2K for a $6K even if against a set. So we get in and I am somewhat please to see that I am against AhAd but I am disappointed to see he has the Ad

Here a the odds now that I know I am against the AhAd - 45.96%

And here is the board offering no help!


And the Gigli goes to:

Now to answer the question would I do again? Yes, because of few circumstances. It is BBT tourney and I wanted and needed to win the tourney not just slide into the points in order to have a shot at Bayne_s on the leaderboard. I need to book a win or decent showing because of the motivational factor I need going into the WSOP. I actually felt really good about this decision because I made the plan and stuck with it even thought it didn't have the desired outcome.

Weekend Update for 6-9-07/Goals for the Week

Played a little this weekend with no good results. Here are the lowlights.

In $15K Silver Iron Man Freeroll I lost to TPTK, we he open shoved 7x the pot on Jd8c6d flop with 2 diamonds, I had Ad8d and called with what I thought was 14 outs twice but realized I only had 11 outs. Hindsight bad call by me but I stuck with my read and went with it.

Won a MTT satellite into the $50 Super for the $400K. I really like this tourney since it offers a 1 in 4 shot into the $400K. Well no excuses, I blew it. I finished about 100 short of the payday when I probably could have folded my way into. I didn't play for the prize and I should know better then to try to play big stack poker in these push monkey type tourneys. So no $400K for me.

As for my Goals for Last week let recap

• Apologize to Waffles for the Riverchasers Tirade -- CHECK
• Make the Points in Both BBT Tournaments this Week -- CHECK
• Final Table on the BBT Tourney -- CLOSE BUT NOT REALLY SEE MATH RECAP
• Win a BBT Tourney -- HAHA
• Finish Reading FullTilt Tournament Guide -- DIDN'T GET TO READ MUCH THIS WEEK SO 1/2 WAY THERE
• Walk with the Family in the Evenings -- SOME BUT NOT ENOUGH

I give myself about a C on the goals report card. I will try to finish up the uncompleted goals and add a few more.

• Make the Points in all three BBT Tournaments this Week
• Final Table a BBT Tourney
• Win a BBT Tourney
• Finish Reading FullTilt Tournament Guide
• Walk with the Family in the Evening
• Win 2nd Seat on FullTilt in the 100 WSOP ME Giveaway on Sunday

In the words of Curley -- "If at first you don't succeed, keep on sucking till you do suck seeds"

See ya tonight at the MATH

M00K recap 6-7-07

I cant say much except made the points and made the best of the hands that I was dealt. With only 1500 starting chips you have to start out early with a bang and that is something I didn't do. I lost over half my chips early when my top pair and pot sized bet (25% of my stack) was called by a gutterball draw that made a bigger top pair on the river.

I was able to chip back up to about average stack when I was dealt my 1st pair rockets and was able to get a shorter stack to commit to his pair after the flop.

So at the end of the first break I was just about par, but unlike the trends of past BBT events the bustouts were happening quickly which meant there were some very big stacks starting to appear around me. Shortly into hour number 2 we hit the points bubble. Now since Bayne_S had busted out early I knew that I was going to gain some ground on the BBT but if I wanted to make the most ground up I was going to need to go really deep so I put on my GAMBOOLin hat. First gamboolin hand was this hand. My 88 against a limped 1010.

That took a big chunk of my chips but shortly after that I picked up the Hammer but I chickened out and oh how Fulltilt mocked my decision.

For my lack of Hammer Faith I was only awarded the blinds with my rockets deux.

With the blinds climbing to 100/200/25, A9 sooted was good enough to make my stand with my last 1300 chips against Elf's allin push preflop, her range was huge and I honestly liked my called given that fact. She was able to hit her set on the turn after I jumped the lead with an Ace in the door and then just for the added humiliation Fulltilt (Bonus Code OSU) slapped with two pair on the river. GG me out in 20th.

The Dookie was just wild. First of all it was a $25 freeroll and secondly it wasn't a Turbo. Jeez it took for ever (1:00 AM) because there were several Ghost playing that just wouldn't die. Schaubs was ghost that survived 2 or 3 allins in the blinds, then Schaubs signed into FTP and got to play one hand before he was eliminated. Lucko even made the final table as Ghost. I had a big chipstack at the final table so did Bayne_s but to be honest with you with on 3 places getting paid and only $12.50 going to the winner it was hard to get excited about although it was fun because the railbirds were going crazy and RadioDank was shooting out some crazy chiat. I double up a couple people with AQ vs AK and Bayne_s deliver the death blow with AK vs my Ax 5 handed.

Overall I cant complain about my performance this week in the BBT, I made the points in both events had the chips to make a final table on the MATH but donkey barfed them away. This weekend I am playing in the IronMan Silver Freeroll were 1/4 the field will get a payday and I want to play a few of the MTTs. Hopefully I can satellite into the 400K and make a score.

Good luck to all the Bloggers in Vegas this weekend I will hoist a shot facing westward your way. Be safe this weekend and my you have many success on the felt.

Ode To Waffles / Thats Just Wrong Wednesday

Since I didn't play any poker last night I thought it would be a great opportunity to take a shot at everyones favorite target. I present to you an ode to Waffles.

Oh an I think I know why Wafles computer crapped out on him. I think it is time for an upgrade.
Speaking of Upgrades I present to you this weeks That is Just Wrong.

Worlds Worst Album Covers. Enjoy!

Don't forget about the M00K tonight see ya then.