Courtesy post here, since I've been rather busy with holiday and family stuff the last couple of weeks. Poker play has been rather solid the last couple of months online - that is, except for my tournament game. Going through the worst stretch of my life in SnG's right now, on while I can chalk a lot of it up to variance, it's still maddening to go through.
Can't seem to win a race whether I'm ahead or behind, other times I get AQ vs. A5 and get hit with straights/flushes/3-outers hitting - even worse than the Monday night donkaments at Dino's, actually. The HORSE games, however, are going beautifully - right now I've graduated to playing 2-3 tables of 1/2 (versus mostly .50/$1) consistently on Stars (and this is WITHOUT a bonus to work off of, go figure - anyone who knew me from pre-IUGEA days would be shocked at that statement), and at least I can say with a straight face that my HORSE/Stud-8 winnings are more than making up for tourney losses.
Despite this bad SnG run lately, however, since November I am up over $400 (excluding the $100 bonus I earned) from Stars because of cash games - I really need to discipline myself and stick to cash games, though, especially if I want to move up to 2/4 in a few months like I want to do.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Monday Zaniness at Dinos
So against my better judgement I decided to head up to Dino's on Monday for my free poker tournament - with the holidays and Jack Bauer soon to be coming up, I don't think I'll be heading back up there too often after the first of the year...so this may be my last time out for a while here. Hopefully this will be a long night here.
24 players today, and many new faces - hard to get a read on someone I've never played with before. On my table I have Stevo to my direct left, Dave (loves to bluff a lot), 2 new cats I've never seen before, and Ronnie.
First hand I pick up A-Q in BB, decide not to re-pop a family pot since raises aren't respected anyways, and see a solid Q-10-9 flop. After I bet out 30 into a 60 pot, down to just me and Dave. Turn brings out an 8, and I bet out 50 this time, since I'm not convinced Dave has anything. He quickly calls, and a king hits the board - after I bet out 100, Dave reraises to 300 - I take my time, think about how the hand played out, consider how he's played similar hands in weeks past, and make the call. Dave insta-folds without showing the bluff off - good read, me!
Nothing exciting happening for a while, as crap cards come up. I did limp-in in UTG with 8-8 and hit a set on flop, but with Ronnie only person in pot, I knew I wasn't gonna get paid off in any way here. Only big hand that Stevo and I noticed was New Guy and Ronnie getting involved in a big pot, and the 2 of us debating whether it was 2 high pocket pairs involved, or just 1 pair and and A-K type hand - my 1 pair/A-high read ended up being correct, but both of us had them nailed for big hands pre-flop.
Dave busts out early to New Guy when New Guy called his all-in on a flush and straight draw heavy board with 8-2 (hit pair of 2's somewhere on flop or turn) - pair held up despite all of the outs - save that for future reference.
Stevo and I get involved in a pot, and after flopping middle pair on a 3-club board, a 4th club came out - hit 2 pair on river, but got away from hand after some debating internally on what Stevo had - since I didn't have even 1 club, couldn't really call here.
A couple of hands later, I think I got pushed out of the pot by New Guy on river after he made a huge bet to put my pair of 9's to the test on a 3-heart board with 3 overs. After his 8-2 call earlier, I thought maybe he might have a small pair, but I just didn't feel comfortable with a call - was close to 50/50 as far as me calling.
Got short-stacked, open-jammed with J-10 UTG to steal the blinds - another new player layed down K-Q after thinking for a bit on it.
Couple of hands later, at 100/200 level, I'm back down to 1000 chips in the SB, and I see A-4. After Ronnie and New Guy limp into pot, I jam rest of chips into pot. Stevo quickly reraises himself all-in, then New Guy insta-calls - My A-4 is versus Stevo's A-Q and New Guy's A-K - King on flop, no help to Stevo and I, and we're both out early.
The 2 of us, along with PJ and Scott (after all making early exits) play a spirited game of euchre while they wait for the cash game to start, and I'm home about 11...yay. :-\
At least Marquis Colston got me my 8 points (did he ever!) I needed to win my fantasy football playoff game...something went right that night. Might be just some politics, worldly events, and online poker posts for a few weeks now until I find a new game...or until I decide to blog extensively about the wholesomeness that is Jack Bauer.
24 players today, and many new faces - hard to get a read on someone I've never played with before. On my table I have Stevo to my direct left, Dave (loves to bluff a lot), 2 new cats I've never seen before, and Ronnie.
First hand I pick up A-Q in BB, decide not to re-pop a family pot since raises aren't respected anyways, and see a solid Q-10-9 flop. After I bet out 30 into a 60 pot, down to just me and Dave. Turn brings out an 8, and I bet out 50 this time, since I'm not convinced Dave has anything. He quickly calls, and a king hits the board - after I bet out 100, Dave reraises to 300 - I take my time, think about how the hand played out, consider how he's played similar hands in weeks past, and make the call. Dave insta-folds without showing the bluff off - good read, me!
Nothing exciting happening for a while, as crap cards come up. I did limp-in in UTG with 8-8 and hit a set on flop, but with Ronnie only person in pot, I knew I wasn't gonna get paid off in any way here. Only big hand that Stevo and I noticed was New Guy and Ronnie getting involved in a big pot, and the 2 of us debating whether it was 2 high pocket pairs involved, or just 1 pair and and A-K type hand - my 1 pair/A-high read ended up being correct, but both of us had them nailed for big hands pre-flop.
Dave busts out early to New Guy when New Guy called his all-in on a flush and straight draw heavy board with 8-2 (hit pair of 2's somewhere on flop or turn) - pair held up despite all of the outs - save that for future reference.
Stevo and I get involved in a pot, and after flopping middle pair on a 3-club board, a 4th club came out - hit 2 pair on river, but got away from hand after some debating internally on what Stevo had - since I didn't have even 1 club, couldn't really call here.
A couple of hands later, I think I got pushed out of the pot by New Guy on river after he made a huge bet to put my pair of 9's to the test on a 3-heart board with 3 overs. After his 8-2 call earlier, I thought maybe he might have a small pair, but I just didn't feel comfortable with a call - was close to 50/50 as far as me calling.
Got short-stacked, open-jammed with J-10 UTG to steal the blinds - another new player layed down K-Q after thinking for a bit on it.
Couple of hands later, at 100/200 level, I'm back down to 1000 chips in the SB, and I see A-4. After Ronnie and New Guy limp into pot, I jam rest of chips into pot. Stevo quickly reraises himself all-in, then New Guy insta-calls - My A-4 is versus Stevo's A-Q and New Guy's A-K - King on flop, no help to Stevo and I, and we're both out early.
The 2 of us, along with PJ and Scott (after all making early exits) play a spirited game of euchre while they wait for the cash game to start, and I'm home about 11...yay. :-\
At least Marquis Colston got me my 8 points (did he ever!) I needed to win my fantasy football playoff game...something went right that night. Might be just some politics, worldly events, and online poker posts for a few weeks now until I find a new game...or until I decide to blog extensively about the wholesomeness that is Jack Bauer.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
An epiphany, of sorts
I fully realize that I need to stick to playing HORSE cash games and $15+1 SnGs. A small buzz while doing it doesn't hurt, either. That is all.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Final tourney at Dino's - fall season
Last night was our final tourney at Dino's for the fall season, and with work getting ready to start kickin' my ass, along with the holidays coming up, probably my last live game for a few weeks here.
For some reason, we have 11 players at our final table instead of 10. I think there was a 3-way tie for 10th, and with one qualifier not showing up for the last few weeks (Duma, apparantly, thinks he's better than the rest of us, as evidenced by his stiffing the bar on a tab recently), so we have Jay, Nicole, and Dennis joining Scott (regular season points leader), PJ, Stevo, Andy, Vic, Pat, Ronnie in conspiring to stop me from winning this thing. Errrr, or something like that.
Ronnie to my direct left, and Pat on his left is good news for me - if I choose to pick on their blinds I'll get no resistance. Jay on direct right, with Dennis and Andy 2 spots over, is good, since very little pre-flop raising from these guys will be happening.
First level I take 2 pots down - one with 10-8 out of the big blind when I flop 10's, hit second pair of 8's on turn, and another a few hands later with A-K after calling a raise from Scott preflop - took 2 decent pots off of him on these hands. The first level also saw me dump Jay's beer while trying to pass him his chips that he won off a hand - serves them fukkers right for actually letting me have a Bud prior to playing last night. That's because I never, ever, and I mean (as this guy would say:)
...EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVER drink alcohol before playing.
Course, Jay dumps his own beer a couple of hands later, and only has himself to blame this time. Keep your drinks off the table, guys!
2nd level, I took down 2 more decent pots with the same hand: 5-2 of clubs. Limped in UTG+1 and had a 4-way pot, and get an okay flop of 6-4-3 rainbow. 8 and 10 are no help to Scott, and after saying that my overpair was good while folding, I flip over 5-2 as a sarcastic "Nice read!" message.
Couple of hands later in the BB, I win the second pot against Jay on a board of A-9-J-J-6 - I totally whiffed on my flush draw on both turn and river, but after Jay checked both the turn and the river, I threw a bet of 200 into a 300 pot, and Jay says that my 9 is good while folding - this time, I flip over my bluff, and Jay's totally confused now.
I have about 4000 chips (we started out with 3000 each) when our first casualty, PJ, is knocked out by Stevo when AQ runs into AK - Stevo is happy for the bustout, since PJ has busted him 2 weeks in a row. Good time to do it. Scott, meanwhile, manages to survive an all-in when his pocket 7's hold up against Dennis's AK. Scott folded a hand early in the night against Dennis after Dennis overbet the pot showing a made flush, and Scott folded a set of 5's...rabbit cam showed that a 5 on the river would have actually made a straight flush for Scott...wow!
At start of 200/400 level, Scott raises to 1000 UTG, and after it's folded to me I jam 3400 into Scott with pocket 10's - after a couple of minutes of thinking, Scott folded KQ face-up, and I'm back in business a little bit more.
The next 3 players out are Jay, Nicole, and Dennis. Jay has AA cracked by Ronnie's KJ a couple of hands prior, and in the SB (200/400 level now), Jay tries to run a bet of 900 on me in the BB...I call with A-6 almost instantly, and Jay sheepishly flips over 10-5...Ace on flop, no help on turn to Jay, and he's out. I take Nicole out a few hands later when I raise UTG+1 with AK, and she jams with QQ - Ace on flop, no help to Nicole, and she's gone. Dennis is out after Scott hits a flop, and all of a sudden Scott has chips, which he likes to be aggressive with.
Stevo and I get involved in only 1 pot of note, and both times he hits a set of aces on flush-draw heavy flops to get me out with my rags. I was hoping to heads-up with him, if only for blogging purposes.
Ronnie gets taken out by Scott next to finish 7th, and, and soon afterwards Pat is our final female player taken out after she allows herself to be blinded out - at the 300/600 level, Vic (UTG) calls 600, after folded around to me I call 300 without looking at my cards, then chicken myself out of betting blind after 3 hearts hit the flop...J-high would have been good enough to take Pat's 10-high out, but Vic's pair of 3's take it down.
Now here's a goofy hand here, and I think the players who saw this will be giving Andy shit for, well, quite a while after this one. Folded around to Andy, who calls 600 bet out of SB - I raise with A-6 to 2000, and Andy (realizing that if he calls is pot-committed) insta-folds 5-5 face up! Like a true donkey, the "let's see what the flop would have come" request from Andy comes out, and 5-5-4 hits the board...oh well, no guts, no glory, Andy. Everyone (including me) is shocked that he didn't make a move with that hand.
A couple of hands later, I decide to mess with the family pot and raise 2000 (300/600) with KK in the BB - Scott and Vic both fold A-9/A-J hands after thinking for a couple of minutes each here.
Some blind-trading goes on for awhile, then Vic doubles up through me when his QQ hits runner-runner flush for the resuckout after my A-4 hit the ace on the flop. Shortly after that Vic decides to jam A-7 against Scott after an A-high flop, but Scott hits top 2 pair with his A-10, and Vic is out in 5th.
Big hand of the night comes a couple of orbits later when Steve gets jiggy with middle pair against Scott's made 2-pair...Scott takes a commanding chip lead after Stevo is gone. I have about 5-6K at this point (500/1000 blinds now), and Andy has about 3-4, Scott has the rest.
Scott eliminates Andy after some short time here, and with about 6K against 27K I get to HU. We go a few hands...open jam (with 6BBs left, push or fold time here) with any paint, and even one time with 5-7 offsuit....finally, I look at A-5 in BB. Scott raises to push me all-in - I think I may be beat, but at this point, not gonna blind myself down and out like some do, so I make the crying call, only to see Scott flip over A-Q. Q on flop, no help on turn, and it's over.
2nd place in the final yet again - 3 times in a row this has happened. I also know I have been a 4 or more to 1 chip dog each time, which makes it harder to win. Just didn't get that one big hand I needed versus a big stack to go all the way through, but congrats to Scott for taking it down last night.
So, uh, yeah...got me and the Mrs. a nice, big phat bottle of red wine - even though I don't drink wine, and she doesn't drink red wine. And a couple of "Moon River" or Moon-Something t-shirts, hats and shit. Whatever, free shit is free shit, right?
For some reason, we have 11 players at our final table instead of 10. I think there was a 3-way tie for 10th, and with one qualifier not showing up for the last few weeks (Duma, apparantly, thinks he's better than the rest of us, as evidenced by his stiffing the bar on a tab recently), so we have Jay, Nicole, and Dennis joining Scott (regular season points leader), PJ, Stevo, Andy, Vic, Pat, Ronnie in conspiring to stop me from winning this thing. Errrr, or something like that.
Ronnie to my direct left, and Pat on his left is good news for me - if I choose to pick on their blinds I'll get no resistance. Jay on direct right, with Dennis and Andy 2 spots over, is good, since very little pre-flop raising from these guys will be happening.
First level I take 2 pots down - one with 10-8 out of the big blind when I flop 10's, hit second pair of 8's on turn, and another a few hands later with A-K after calling a raise from Scott preflop - took 2 decent pots off of him on these hands. The first level also saw me dump Jay's beer while trying to pass him his chips that he won off a hand - serves them fukkers right for actually letting me have a Bud prior to playing last night. That's because I never, ever, and I mean (as this guy would say:)
...EVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVER drink alcohol before playing.
Course, Jay dumps his own beer a couple of hands later, and only has himself to blame this time. Keep your drinks off the table, guys!
2nd level, I took down 2 more decent pots with the same hand: 5-2 of clubs. Limped in UTG+1 and had a 4-way pot, and get an okay flop of 6-4-3 rainbow. 8 and 10 are no help to Scott, and after saying that my overpair was good while folding, I flip over 5-2 as a sarcastic "Nice read!" message.
Couple of hands later in the BB, I win the second pot against Jay on a board of A-9-J-J-6 - I totally whiffed on my flush draw on both turn and river, but after Jay checked both the turn and the river, I threw a bet of 200 into a 300 pot, and Jay says that my 9 is good while folding - this time, I flip over my bluff, and Jay's totally confused now.
I have about 4000 chips (we started out with 3000 each) when our first casualty, PJ, is knocked out by Stevo when AQ runs into AK - Stevo is happy for the bustout, since PJ has busted him 2 weeks in a row. Good time to do it. Scott, meanwhile, manages to survive an all-in when his pocket 7's hold up against Dennis's AK. Scott folded a hand early in the night against Dennis after Dennis overbet the pot showing a made flush, and Scott folded a set of 5's...rabbit cam showed that a 5 on the river would have actually made a straight flush for Scott...wow!
At start of 200/400 level, Scott raises to 1000 UTG, and after it's folded to me I jam 3400 into Scott with pocket 10's - after a couple of minutes of thinking, Scott folded KQ face-up, and I'm back in business a little bit more.
The next 3 players out are Jay, Nicole, and Dennis. Jay has AA cracked by Ronnie's KJ a couple of hands prior, and in the SB (200/400 level now), Jay tries to run a bet of 900 on me in the BB...I call with A-6 almost instantly, and Jay sheepishly flips over 10-5...Ace on flop, no help on turn to Jay, and he's out. I take Nicole out a few hands later when I raise UTG+1 with AK, and she jams with QQ - Ace on flop, no help to Nicole, and she's gone. Dennis is out after Scott hits a flop, and all of a sudden Scott has chips, which he likes to be aggressive with.
Stevo and I get involved in only 1 pot of note, and both times he hits a set of aces on flush-draw heavy flops to get me out with my rags. I was hoping to heads-up with him, if only for blogging purposes.
Ronnie gets taken out by Scott next to finish 7th, and, and soon afterwards Pat is our final female player taken out after she allows herself to be blinded out - at the 300/600 level, Vic (UTG) calls 600, after folded around to me I call 300 without looking at my cards, then chicken myself out of betting blind after 3 hearts hit the flop...J-high would have been good enough to take Pat's 10-high out, but Vic's pair of 3's take it down.
Now here's a goofy hand here, and I think the players who saw this will be giving Andy shit for, well, quite a while after this one. Folded around to Andy, who calls 600 bet out of SB - I raise with A-6 to 2000, and Andy (realizing that if he calls is pot-committed) insta-folds 5-5 face up! Like a true donkey, the "let's see what the flop would have come" request from Andy comes out, and 5-5-4 hits the board...oh well, no guts, no glory, Andy. Everyone (including me) is shocked that he didn't make a move with that hand.
A couple of hands later, I decide to mess with the family pot and raise 2000 (300/600) with KK in the BB - Scott and Vic both fold A-9/A-J hands after thinking for a couple of minutes each here.
Some blind-trading goes on for awhile, then Vic doubles up through me when his QQ hits runner-runner flush for the resuckout after my A-4 hit the ace on the flop. Shortly after that Vic decides to jam A-7 against Scott after an A-high flop, but Scott hits top 2 pair with his A-10, and Vic is out in 5th.
Big hand of the night comes a couple of orbits later when Steve gets jiggy with middle pair against Scott's made 2-pair...Scott takes a commanding chip lead after Stevo is gone. I have about 5-6K at this point (500/1000 blinds now), and Andy has about 3-4, Scott has the rest.
Scott eliminates Andy after some short time here, and with about 6K against 27K I get to HU. We go a few hands...open jam (with 6BBs left, push or fold time here) with any paint, and even one time with 5-7 offsuit....finally, I look at A-5 in BB. Scott raises to push me all-in - I think I may be beat, but at this point, not gonna blind myself down and out like some do, so I make the crying call, only to see Scott flip over A-Q. Q on flop, no help on turn, and it's over.
2nd place in the final yet again - 3 times in a row this has happened. I also know I have been a 4 or more to 1 chip dog each time, which makes it harder to win. Just didn't get that one big hand I needed versus a big stack to go all the way through, but congrats to Scott for taking it down last night.
So, uh, yeah...got me and the Mrs. a nice, big phat bottle of red wine - even though I don't drink wine, and she doesn't drink red wine. And a couple of "Moon River" or Moon-Something t-shirts, hats and shit. Whatever, free shit is free shit, right?
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