the week ends, the week begins

ah, a pleasant weekend....

- Saw Dave Matthews Band over at Datsun/Nissan Pavilion Saturday night - I'm sure it's a band that gets a lot of eyerolls from people at times, but hey, I have a soft spot for a group that was slogging away in Charlottesville the same time I was working at WXJM over in Harrisonburg as your average college radio DJ - they did headline a small benefit show for us back in the day that may have drawn a few hundred people.. and now they can easily fill an amphitheatre with 20,000 people...

Say what you will, but when you see a DMB show, especially in their backyard, you are guaranteed full effort and full value for your ticket - they still play a very tight, energetic live show... and on a wonderfully clear, non-humid Virginia night, that definitely works...

-Ran semi decently at our weekly bar poker tourneys... Of course, Jenn came out last week after missing a few sessions and won, naturally, because she crushes.... I picked up a third place this week.... since we start out with 7K in chips at 100/200, it's not deep stacked at all, so between this and all the recent SnGs I'm working on, I've gotten really, really good at pushbot poker with 8-12BB - that's all I can really do there, because it's so, so hard to pick up pots without a hand, and after an hour or two, there really isn't any room for play past the flop.

One interesting hand this week.

Seven handed, folded around to me in the SB, I have about 30K at 1K/2K, I barely cover the BB who is a known tight player. I complete with 97o, she checks.

Flop QQ9. I check, she bets pot, 4K, I call.

Turn 9. I like it, but check - can't think of anything she calls with that isn't Qx if I lede - she checks behind. 

River 4. I check intending to call a bet. She only bets 4K. Now I start thinking, there's no way she has a Queen with that bet and decide to move in. She instacalls, I instasay, "shit."

She has 44 for the rivered underboat. MHIG, strangely enough.

I don't think I'd ever do that in a real money situation. Line's pretty meh, right?

Anyhow, one week from a vacation of sorts. mini-woot.

Heff

AIPS drought

Almost forgot the AIPS Razz tourney was last night... decided not to play Riverchasers and concentrate on getting kicked in the nutz instead.....  finished 35th of 81, out just after Cosenza himself.. I've played so bad this year in AIPS, not even close to one cash - I try too hard to run over people and end up spewing chips like crazy.

I ended up wiffing every 7-low draw in the first hour, drove myself nuts - made a 65 on fifth street, led into a guy who spiked a 64 on sixth, and he never raised, just called down with the second nutz. After that, yeah, I got the Razz tilt going. Ended up folding a pot on seventh to leave myself with just 125-odd chips, but somehow managed to win every pot I play from there to get above average by the first break.
Second hour, more card deadness, catch bad when villains catch good on every fourth street - finally go down when I can't beat a ten low after starting (A5)7A.as a short stack - but honestly, I was bringing a C game to a tourney where most of the players actually play and like Razz, so I'm lucky I wasn't 81st.

Anyhow, what's more vital is that these guys are leaving the place I used to draw a check from to go off and do their own independent thing - I hope it works out, just like for another guy - this poker economy is still pretty fluid, and I really want everyone to find a profitable, successful niche they can be happy with...

Anyhow, GL, fellas.

Heff

the weekly mook update, deja vu

out in 11th (again, I should just call it the Heff) getting completely coolered.. I have 8K at 250/500/50 at a six handed table in the cutoff. DrewFours open shoves for 7K, I reshove, NYRambler reshoves again for 9k
.
DrewFours - QQ
Me - AK
NYRambler - KK
Flop - A.. K... who cares, I'm toast, gg me.

Win the pot, become a chip leader. Lose, buh-bye

That'll happen. Almost made enough in KOs to pay for the tourney, though. Very first hand, stack LJ, although she had other fish to fry final tabling MSOP 44 at the same time.

She openraises to 90, I call on button with T9. blinds fold.
flop QJx, she c-bets 2/3 pot, I call in position with the draw.
turn K (cool), she leads, I reraise, she tanks and shoves, I call, board doesn't pair for her KK.

Run a stack up to about 7500, then donk if off to twoblackaces....

Open raise AQ in MP at 50/100 to 300, TBA calls in the BB.
Flop AK8r, he donks into me a pot size bet... I think - no, a big hand doesn't bet pot here, he's got a K or meh A trying to see if I'll lay down. I reraise half his stack, he shoves, I have to call and see his K8s and I'm smoked down to 2200.

Nice line, actually, by him. I can't pay him off unless I have a hand, might as well take a strong line, lede, and induce a raise, because he's getting it in the middle every time on that board if I let him. ALMOST flatted the flop to see what he'd do on the turn (fold if he bets, flip a coin on WTFto do if he checks) but convinced myself he didn't have twopair/set enough to fall into the tarp. I freaking pay him off FAR too much when he outflops me.

Short stack ninja my way around for the next hour, win a race with when I shove 66 over an AK raise and hold...but otherwise standard poker until I dust off my stack. Always fun to play the Mook, even when the host is in LV..

Which reminds me, we're solid for a Beau Rivage stay in Biloxi next month, so we'll see how the time charge at 1/2NL treats us....

Oh, and PL... I had complete crap on the QQ hand. Open raised A3o in EP.
Just screwing around - not a complete nit.

Heff

mook time.. and we have a rule violation!

fun as usual, almost final tabled, out in 11th.... I need to run better in all in pots.

open raise to 210 at 30/60, Da ImPacTt cold calls with only 1080 behind, I ship 5K with AK, he calls allin with 33 and holds.

UTG raise to 500 at 80/160, Da ImPacTt cold calls on the button, I ship 1750 from the blinds with 99, UTG folds, Da ImPacTt calls with AQo, I win the flip (see, I don't lose every time....)

EP shove for 650 at 300/600, Da ImPacTt cold calls (notice a pattern), I raise to 4000 with AKs, all folds around, he ships for 5200 total, I call off the last 1200. his KQ turns and rivers a Queen.

Finally, I open shove 14K at 400/800 five handed in the cutoff  with A6s. Evy35 tanks in the SB (good for me) then reshoves 17K (bad, this is never a weaker ace) with A8o. flop A8x, gg me.

BUT, Evy violated the number one rule of late night tournament play in the process.

Evy35 has 15 seconds left to act
Evy35 raises to 16,980, and is all in
InstantTragedy folds
Evy35 shows [8s Ad]
heffmike shows [6s As]
Evy35: im so tired...need sleep
Uncalled bet of 3,124 returned to Evy35
*** FLOP *** [4s 8c Ah]
Evy35: %%#@
*** TURN *** [4s 8c Ah] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [4s 8c Ah Ts] [7c]
Evy35 shows two pair, Aces and Eights
heffmike shows a pair of Aces
Evy35 wins the pot (29,012) with two pair, Aces and Eights
heffmike stands up
Evy35: god dammit

Never, ever try to leave a tournament when you are tired and want to go by shoving your chips all in. Raise/fold every pot. Just sit out and shut off the computer and get blinded off.

Because, when you shove your chips in the middle and say you're tired and want to go, you are guaranteed to win the pot.

That must have been a level - Say you want to go so the RNG smacks you in the head, even when you're getting it in as a 70/30 favorite... Hey, I know someone who can give you pointers on playing the Mookie only being awake every other hand.. :-)

It's a completely standard spot anyway, so it doesn't matter...  and as I type this Evy's fourth in chips going to the third break with five players left, so no sleepy anytime soon, haha - although it looks like she finally checked out after the break and is automucking her way to fourth....

Anyhow, a mellow evening, boo no money, though. I gotta start grinding SnGs again and making some bank, I'm falling behind on my $T conversion after the Stud/8 fiasco Tuesday.

Oh, forgot to give the shoutout to LJ and Iggy for actually surviving the Sunday satellite minefields and getting ME seats. woot!

Later - Heff

rinse and repeat.

yes, played the MSOP #33 Stud/8 last night. slightly different verse this time. I'm starting to believe the key in these tourneys is win one or two huge pots by sticking your money in behind on every street and rivering some 10% chance to scoop, then start gambooling with your luckboxed big stack and take every thin edge you can, because, gee, you can't lose every pot, no matter how hard you try..... sigh. Anyhow, story is...

-Run ridiculous hot first hour, double thru in chips, top 10% stack.
-Go cold in second hour, drift back to middle of the pack.
-Get on a little heater again in hour three, stay around top 30 in chips. See some of the usual split pot suspects, LJ, Lucko, djhomeschool, predator06, bounce out....
-Get a table change, get absolutely hosed on every big hand, have people drive me batty by bringing-in, then TANKING on whether or not to call a completion with (KK)3 heads up, supposedly, before folding. Head asplodes as in a heads-up pot on third street in Stud/8  there's a decision that demands a time bank like MAYBE 1% of the time. Play or don't play, but don't waste our time.

In hour four make some silly, thin value bets on seventh when checked to that 1) get called and 2) I actually get scooped on, oops. Finally get (A3)7 capped all-in on third against (87)8, make two pair no low on the river as villain rivers a flush, out in 45th, 32 pay.

This is getting very tiresome, as I keep going carddead late in tourneys around bubble time, where if I can just win one big pot, I'm in solid shape, but if I lose that pot I'm barely alive. Every time in these limit tourneys, I end up on a knife edge in hour three: I can't just run over the table and bet people off of hands, I've got to bet for value, get to and win showdowns to stay alive.  I'm just really pissed off to spend over three hours to bubble more than anything else, while I watch people that play ok, but make really bad decisions that luckily pay off, get deep....

Unlike the Skillz game, where I played like a muppet and waslucky not to finish 17 of 17 - I like HOE. I like it better when I don't get rivered or outflopped every other pot, and play horribly the other half of the time. It was enjoyable despite that, because I really don't care if I get hosed or not in these tourneys post-BBT3 and am happy to talk about lines and situations in blogger tourneys where I wouldn't go there under other circumstances.  Out in 14th or 15th, but I honestly wasn't paying that much attention after I got short, I was focused on the other tournament I was wiffing Tuesday night.....

Sigh. Tonite was just a waste of time and money. Boo.

ah, what a wonderful day...

instead of trying to sweat a ME seat on the ridiculously huge FTP and Stars satellites, spent the day with the wife at the place we got married a year ago downing a lovely bottle of Virginia sparkling wine/champagne... :-)  Going to take my pop to a Nationals game with money seats for a belated Father's Day gift in a couple of weekends, and I have a rare day off tomorrow. So life is goot..

Catching up on the ridiculous blogger drama in the wake of the BBT3 and the BoDog TOC, all I can say is, there's probably a very good reason I'm a lurker in this society that comments occasionally, but hasn't actually met another poker blogger in person - I have enough drama in my life as it is, and for the life of me, I could give two shits about what anyone says or does in cyberspace. To paraphrase Bad Religion, it's only entertainment.....  unless money's involved, then everyone better watch their ass, period.

It is a little disappointing to see all the wacky behavior - hell, it's even disappointing to see most of the big winners choose to pocket their winnings instead actually buying into WSOP events, which was the original intent of these series to begin with - but you know, it's their money, they won it, they can do what they want with it.

Maybe everyone's an angleshooting rat.
Maybe everyone's just a good egg and are simply misinterpreted.

I often wonder if it's worth my time and effort to split some hairs and discern the difference.

So, all I'm going to do is play some cards and try to enjoy myself sans drama. Who's with me?

Heff

nothing notable, but posting anyway

- yeah, ran the MSOP HORSE tourney last night - ran nowhere first hour, great second hour, then (as usual) played a loose rotation in the third hour to dump all my chips, out in the 200s....  Not really looking good schedule-wise to play many more of these -  which is probably good, since I keep managing to run into monkeys that luckbox and put me on megatilt every time in these limit events. Which naturally means I'm interested in next Tuesday's Stud/8 tourney...

Otherwise, grinding on schedule with that T535. Final tabled the Mookie last night with nothing notable happening on the way to finishing fifth for a small cash. Smaller field as a double stacked knockout tourney is teh nutz.

Heff

freerollz and a change of plan...

  Played the BBT3 freeroll today - somehow managed to chip up to 9K in the first hour for the chip lead by getting hit with the deck, winning races and getting moved to tables with absent players.

  Somehow managed to dump the entire stack in hour two by open raising and running into AK three times, flopping a flush draw twice, and never getting there any time to bounce somewhere in the 20s. I hate poker, people flatting AK in position with less than 15BB, yaddayaddayadda. I suck anyway.

  Which brings me to thought two today after chatting with the wifey.... The WSOP ME coincides with the best time to head down to Mississippi to see her family and her new nephew, run the kids down to their father for the summer, etc, etc. Really, the only reason I'd go out to LV this summer is for that tournament - and making it happen logistically sucks, even if I got struck by lightning and was among the lucky 3-5% to win a seat in next week's satellites. I would have put up with the headaches if I ran good on Saturday, but it's these two guys' problem now...

 So, I'm going to forget that for now, unregister from the 150 seat guarantee, and turn that T535 into something useful by grinding the appropriate tourneys and SnGs, unless I get lazy and feel like giving FTP 5% juice on cashing it in. I think I can make something happen if I just run normally and have my 70/30, 80/20 hands hold up as they should.

  The summer plan is, while we are down in Mississippi, take a junket for a day or two down to the Beau Rivage...Also, some time over the summer a Borgata trip will probably be in the mix.  Otherwise, some online grinding in order to boost up the bankroll, maybe an MSOP event or two as appropriate. Yay me.

GL to all - Heff

23rd is not 4th, or 3rd, or 2nd, or 1st.

and it ended with a whimper.

I have 2500 in chips at 120/240/25 and open shove 88. Cmitch reshoves in the BB with KK. See ya in 23rd.

Then again, given these stats, I'm surprised I made it this far. Maybe I have tightened up too much, but I swear I literally never had a real hand and started open-raising pretty liberally after I figured out NOONE was ever calling me preflop.

Statistics for 185 Hands

Street    Saw    Saw/Total
Flop             8     4%
Turn             3     2%
River            2     1%
Showdown    2    1%

Street         Won    Won/Saw    Won/Total
Pre-flop         18          10%    10%
Flop               1          13%    1%
Turn               0           0%    0%
River              0           0%    0%
Showdown      0          0%    0%

I don't think I've ever played 180 hands of ANYTHING and saw only 8 flops and 2 showdowns. It sucked that bad. If I didn't raise preflop, I never hit a thing but one time. And I hosed myself on it....

Full Tilt Poker Game #6733573569: Battle of the Bloggers TOC (50343409), Table 6 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:35:16 ET - 2008/06/07
Seat 1: DDionysus (2,470)
Seat 2: RNallin (2,940)
Seat 3: bdidde (3,065)
Seat 4: ShipFaced12 (3,100)
Seat 5: Martyr99 (2,970)
Seat 6: heffmike (2,300)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (3,605)
Seat 8: Loretta8 (4,983)
Seat 9: cmitch (3,375)
bdidde posts the small blind of 25
ShipFaced12 posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [Jc Ac]
Martyr99 folds
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike raises to 150 (standard)
RecessRampage folds
Loretta8 folds
cmitch calls 150 (can be calling wide here, but might actually have something goot)
DDionysus folds
RNallin folds
bdidde: you need to go old school and put it in a box in the closet
bdidde folds
ShipFaced12 folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Ah 4d]
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike checks (prolly not good, I've gotten in too much of a habit, not leading A-high flops from out of position when I hit and letting people bang into me on a couple of streets)
cmitch bets 150
DDionysus: or...buy another pc for the wife
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike calls 150 (small bet, he can be betting wide here)
*** TURN *** [Kd Ah 4d] [8c]
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike checks (pot control check, prolly a mistake, but I really don't put him on a flush draw, so I can't think of what pays me off when I bet that I can beat, and getting raised here sucks. I really think he's drawing thin here....)
cmitch checks
*** RIVER *** [Kd Ah 4d 8c] [6d]
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike checks (already planning on check calling a decent bet, he can rep a flush here w/o having it., even though he really can't be valuebetting that thin here, he prolly has AJ beat if he bets - I polarized his range enough to suck me into calling)
cmitch bets 425
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike calls 425
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cmitch shows [6s 6c] three of a kind, Sixes (sigh. pwned. I suck)
heffmike mucks
cmitch wins the pot (1,525) with three of a kind, Sixes
The blinds are now 30/60

It did get worse after that. I didn't get any action over the next two hours with QQ and AA -  standard raises preflop - restole shoved with AK and AJ and got folds, but NEVER got above 3500 in chips. The one mistake I made wasn't really one, but jeez it cost me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6733747280: Battle of the Bloggers TOC (50343409), Table 6 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 17:50:08 ET - 2008/06/07
Seat 1: DDionysus (2,050)
Seat 2: RNallin (3,000)
Seat 4: ShipFaced12 (3,300)
Seat 5: Martyr99 (1,970)
Seat 6: heffmike (1,755)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (4,055)
Seat 8: Loretta8 (5,253)
Seat 9: cmitch (4,065)
cmitch posts the small blind of 40
DDionysus posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [8h 8c]
RecessRampage: does loretta work for fulltilt??? lol
Loretta8: thats what they do when you bust a pro
RNallin folds
ShipFaced12 folds
cmitch: i was really hoping to show it off at the wsop  :)
Loretta8: and they ask for your t-shirt size
Martyr99 raises to 240
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike folds (I really, really thought about threebetting with my nitty image, but I just had a feeling I was beat here. I would normally flat here with a normal stack - 2500-3500 - - but I didn't have it because of my prior screwups...)
RecessRampage folds
Loretta8 folds
cmitch folds
DDionysus calls 160
*** FLOP *** [4d 8s 7c] (FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK)
DDionysus checks
Martyr99 bets 320
DDionysus raises to 640
Martyr99 raises to 1,730, and is all in
DDionysus calls 1,090
Martyr99 shows [Tc Td]
DDionysus shows [4h 4c]
*** TURN *** [4d 8s 7c] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [4d 8s 7c 6c] [Ah]
Martyr99 shows a pair of Tens
DDionysus shows three of a kind, Fours
wwonka69 (Observer): gg
DDionysus wins the pot (3,980) with three of a kind, Fours
Martyr99 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,980 | Rake 0
Board: [4d 8s 7c 6c Ah]
Seat 1: DDionysus (big blind) showed [4h 4c] and won (3,980) with three of a kind, Fours
Seat 2: RNallin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: ShipFaced12 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: Martyr99 showed [Tc Td] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 6: heffmike didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: RecessRampage didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Loretta8 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 9: cmitch (small blind) folded before the Flop

Could've had 5200 at 40/80 and been able to make some plays. Ugh. That's what I get for making the "smart" play.

GL to all, will be interesting to see who makes the final four.

Heff

MSOP 10. people suck. that's it

Played the OE tourney tonite. 128 of 626. 64 pay.

I swear, the dumbest motherfuckers play these limit O8/Stud 8 games. It was a 50/50 shot at a table that the big stack either was completely in control and knew what they were doing, or they were a total lobotomized drooling donk. People just toss chips around with the shittiest starters hoping to flop perfect or catch runner runner runner.....

Anyhow, had a meh opening table with a couple of horrid players that were ATMs for me when I could isolate them in a pot.. .got up to the top 10% in chips a couple of times., but spent the last hour and change of the three hour tour just trying to stay average in chips.. Finally played a couple loose pots in level 15 (O8 800/1600, I only had 11K) and dumped the stack away to some 9623 hand that played a threebet pot from UTG multiway,

L
O
L
Z.

That is all until Saturday.

ok, plan B is in place

At least I have two shots at a Main Event seat..... same tourney treated me well in 2006...



Best T75 I've spent so far, at least it only took me one shot to do this. Ran good, built up a big stack early and picked my spots from there - 34 players in a standard MTT structure, so it's good practice for Saturday.

I was so busy doing this I forgot about Skillz - HORSE is such a favorite of mine, and it would have been fun to play it without the BBT3 hanging over it.... shit. Oh well. Prolly Mookie tomorrow, we will see.

aoljpictureUpload, aoljpictureUpload_1

quarter boy

OK, so I ended up 25th overall, 80 points outside of 20th, or about 1 more points finish. Sigh.

25

heffmike

1

6

12

7

47

937.9

727.43

19.96

Hey, at least I got better from month to month. Hell, maybe I'll have a huge June :-)

72

heffmike

3

1

15

166.9

18.26

11.13

44

heffmike

2

3

2

13

234.7

134.85

18.05

5

heffmike

1

4

6

4

18

536.3

574.32

29.79

Too bad the wifey couldn't play more, she did really well in a limited schedule.

101

photojenn

3

4

3

10

290.5

137.40

29.05

Anyhow, a little more mellow this week, don't know if I'll be playing any blogger events outside the Mookie. I am interested in the MSOP #10, a 27.50 OE tourney, just to give it a shot, and I may be satellite boy this week by trying to get into the huge ME satellites Stars and Tilt are both running on the 15th.

We'll see how it goes.

it's finally over

Yay - final tabled the Big Game, played really well and ran good, just rolled through the first 2 1/2 hours with a huge chip lead.
Boo - kept getting three outed at the final two tables (86 vs. Shabazz Jenkins' K8 in a limped BvB pot, all in on 86x flop, K turn for a third of my stack, went out in 7th shoving AJs over top of a preflop raise by maneki_neko's ATo, got called, T on the flop), finished 7th for only $193 instead of the $1600 out there for first.

The formula is so heavy I don't know if it was enough to get top 20 overall or not, I have a feeling I'm 21st.. :-). I knew during the final two tables I couldn't catch anyone for May's leaderboard even with a win, so that was kind of a bummer. Still, at least I leave the BBT3 on a high note heading into the TOC.

Also turned a token into T$216 tonite, so it was a pretty good night overall... but geez, I should've gotten deeper.

Thanks to Al, Hoy, Chad, Mook, and Miami Don for hosting all this stuff.

It sucked for me at first, but it was a nice ride at the end....

Heff