yay 2009

from Brookhaven, Mississippi, wheeeeeeeeeeeeee...

As I pointed out to the wife and her friends - there's something vicious about growing up in a town like this, where they don't let people buy wine and liquor because it's a dry Baptist county, but there's nine billion pharmacies in every strip mall to medicate everyone... :-)

Don't worry, we're supplied sufficiently for the night - and I fired off some rounds from the brother-in-law's AK-47 earlier today, so I'm prepared for the new year in all aspects...

See you in 2009 - I see there's a new BBT4 to drive everyone nuts... more funfunfun...

Heff

yeah, that's a fitting end for 2008.

yay for WBCOOP freerollaments. I'm better than this, I'm better than 287th of 369. Geez.

Long story short (and this is my 2008 in a nutshell) - I get stuck in some pretty coolerish spots, have to make a really borderline decision, then can't win a flip.

Longer story... at a table with no one I recognize except one player, which becomes important.

First hand of note - Blinds 10/20, basically with 5k starting stacks, I have Ah2h.
Folds to the SB who raises to 80, I call.
Flop Ax6h8h. TPNK with the nut draw. SB checks, I bet 120, he raises to 480, I call.
Turn 8x, he checks, I take the free card.
River K, he leads for 750, I'm pretty sure I'm getting valuetowned, but I do beat or chop with a lot of his range, so I call with aces up.... and see his AA for the turned boat.

Gee, nice case ace on the flop with two hearts. RNG obv hates me.

So I drop below 4K, but then start chipping up when this happens

Blinds 15/30, I have 4060, UTG+1 is the only known for me at this table and covers.
UTG+1 limps, MP raises to 90, I call, UTG+1 calls.
Flop 223r, I check, UTG+1 bets 120, MP folds, I call
Turn 7, completing the rainbow, I check call 330.
RIver K, I check, UTG+1 bets again, this time 1140, more of a pot size bet.
I tank for 20-30 seconds, recall he's a laggy bluffy Brazilian when I've watched him, decide his line doesn't make sense if I'm really beat, and call.
He has Ad5d for the three-barrel bluff, so I'm up above 5800 now.
He later tanked for nearly the full 90 seconds on the river before bluff shoving A8 into a set of aces a few minutes later.

From there, I chip up to 6800, drop a few chips when I hit the big pothole.

Blinds 40/80, I have 6440 behind UTG+1 with AKo.
I raise to 215, MP who has been very quiet reraises to 640 with a 4900 stack.
I decide with 60BB effective to shove instead of call or fold. I get shown KK. I do not spike.

It's 20/20 hindsight, but if I play conservative (or tight-weak) and call OOP, I still have 5500 and only get in trouble if I flop the case K or some insane combo draw.

I forget that I am not playing very tricky people as a rule, and they will only threebet hands against an EP raiser that are basically AA-QQ, with maybe AK and JJ thrown in. They aren't ever threebet/folding preflop, and aren't trying to balance their ranges with T9s or manufacture a fold with some other random holding.

It was just stupid aggressive, and I get what I deserve, I guess. Someone else probably rivers an Ace instead. I'm still not sure which way I should play that preflop, because folding is lol, calling feels weak (although probably proper), shoving seems too much given stack sizes... fourbet instead?

This is one I'm lost with - how shallow do I need to be where shoving AK preflop is standard?

I go into the first break with 1560, realize if I just would have SAT OUT THE FIRST HOUR I'd have 4500 in chips, and just sigh.

I pushbot a bunch in the second hour, finally shove TT into AK that (of course) flops an ace to vanish, gg me.

Yeah, it's a tournament, so variance rules apply - but jeez, to not even get a teeny freebie out of this, not even a step ticket... Just a capper on the year that basically saw me run in place.

I started small, built up nicely until I got completely hosed over a couple of weeks playing limit cash (geez) in the fall, and now am barely ahead of where I was January 1st.

I have pretty decent tournament results but no real time to play them.
I probably don't play enough SnGs to realize any sizeable profit and ROI%
I get fucked every time I try to play cash no matter which way I try to play.

I just feel a little frustrated and am venting right now - seems like the more experience I get, the worse I play and run. I'm heading down to Mississippi for the rest of the holidays, so I'm not likely to be playing any more tourneys this year - maybe an occasional SnG.

So 2008 - OK, way better than 07, but that's grading on a curve.
I really really want something really good to happen to me in 2009.
I'm tired of seeing doom everywhere I look.

Later - Heff

standard night

the usual when I play HORSE tourneys, this time the AIPS finale for the year.

-Play smart for an hour and change, solidly chip up, never get a dominating stack but stay in the top 10-15. Keep getting boned in O8 by making thin value bets in multiway pots on the river with two way hands - and getting nothing with the second nuts both ways.... - but make up for it in the other rotations and keep accumulating chips. However, Tilt's HORSE structure, even in a double stack, gets way way shallow in hour two and you can't afford a bad hand....

-Have some muppet open a way, way marginal hand (8522 UTG in LO8), isolate him, have him call with just a gutterball on the flop, get there on the turn, but only get one more bet out of me after checking the river.

- After dumping half the stack there, go completely card dead without any good stealing opportunities, finally spew into a buried pair of aces in Stud and bounce in 27th. Boo. I just hope someone solid takes this down.

ok, so I'm decent as long as I'm not in for any $$

Good and Bad...

Good - won my seat into the WBCOOP main during the PLO8 satellite tonight - if I had to put money on it, I would have sworn I could easily make the top 72 of a 400-person Omaha tourney - good god, bloggers play PLO8 so bad.

Bad - finished in 55th for no extra goodies, not even a step two ticket, after having a top five stack for most of the second hour.... After about Level 9, I swear I won like two pots and had maybe four hands worth playing, I shit you not. It sucks when you have about 23K with 200 players left - and 8K when the bubble bursts. Bad position, bad plays, bad cards, bleh.
By the way, it's criminal that someone who started stalling 30 places from the bubble just made it in 72nd and ended up 47th **yeah, Pinkypollo from Madrid, you mope, you suck**

More Bad - got completely pwned in the Mookie, Dookie, and anything else I played tonite. All my run goot was in the freeroll. Nothing good happened, no action on any big hands, folded to three bets too much, lost every coin flip.... Yawn.

Oh well, as least I get to chase some decent freebies on Sunday, and freeroll the other sattys if I feel like it.

Whee.

yay and nay

So, while it's not bad to have this WBCOOP set up like it is with all these qualifying satellites, the times are a little difficult... actually times are good, but my schedule is not, lol.
I was a little surprised to see only 450 runners for a PLO tourney Monday.... which isn't a bad ratio for 72 seats. Anyhow, I play PLO bad and bounce somewhere in hour 2 about halfway through the field. I don't know how many more of these I'm going to be able to make, but I'll give it the old college try.

In other "live poker is rigged" moments... five-handed at a free bar poker tournament. Blinds 2k/4k, you have 42K in chips on the button, only the BB covers you.
Cutoff opens for 12K with 12 more behind. You look down at AJo on the button and decide to shove, even though the raise size smells like a better hand. SB decides to call all in. BB decides to shove over top of everyone. Cutoff sighs, mucks TT face up.
SB has AQo
BB has AQs
Board blanks out until a J hits on the river, lol.

Another hand I get to watch.
Big stack on the button min raises. SB minraises back. Button calls.
Flop T74. SB shoves, Button calls.
SB has Aces. Button, T4o.
I call for a seven ball on the turn. Sure enough, 7 on the turn.
River..... 4 for the boat.

You'd swear no one actually shuffles these cards between hands.

oh my....

yeah, well, this wasn't the way I expected the hand to play out in last night's Mookie....

Full Tilt Poker Game #9434258241: The Mookie (71153924), Table 4 - 600/1200 Ante 150 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:54:52 ET - 2008/12/11
Seat 2: IslandBum1 (5,355)
Seat 6: NumbBono (49,479)
Seat 7: heffmike (44,033)
Seat 8: carmensincity (9,615)
Seat 9: HighOnPoker (38,518)
IslandBum1 antes 150
NumbBono antes 150
heffmike antes 150
carmensincity antes 150
HighOnPoker antes 150
heffmike posts the small blind of 600
carmensincity posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [Ks Kh]
carmensincity: nice
IslandBum1: gg
HighOnPoker raises to 3,600
IslandBum1 folds
heffmike: someone running goot at final table.
NumbBono has 15 seconds left to act
NumbBono calls 3,600
heffmike raises to 15,000
carmensincity folds
HighOnPoker folds
NumbBono raises to 49,329, and is all in
heffmike calls 28,883, and is all in
NumbBono shows [Qd Qs]
heffmike shows [Ks Kh]
Uncalled bet of 5,446 returned to NumbBono



*** FLOP *** [9d Kc 7c]
*** TURN *** [9d Kc 7c] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [9d Kc 7c Jh] [Td]
NumbBono shows a straight, King high
heffmike shows three of a kind, Kings
NumbBono wins the pot (93,316) with a straight, King high
HighOnPoker: oh my
heffmike stands up

Oh. My. Indeed.

I mention because at the final table, Numb managed to shove A9 into A8, AQ into AJ, and in the hand just before this one, KK into JJ, and held (big shocker to someone like me) every time. He was definitely catching cards...

So, I'm just 80% preflop, and 98.3% after the flop (yeah, twodimes.net, I checked) to have almost 2/3rds of the remaining chips four handed... Yeah, big sigh.

I almost decided to flat preflop too, or just shove - but even though I'm sort of face up here, I figured maybe I can get someone to make a mistake if I look like I'm making a move/squeezing here and do the stupid threebet... anyway...

Lucky to get there to begin with, as I was the short stack with two tables left and had to suck out against Joanne1111 -- KT (button) vs my AQ (big blind) on a bad stop and go, get it in on a Kxx flop, BINK the A turn -- and LJ -- KQ (small blind) shoves into my A9, K76 flop, turn 8s three spades on board, LJ has the Ks, river BINK T -- before she shoved on me again the next orbit BvB with 75s, and I turned quads with my KK.

So I got to the final table with the chip lead and really felt like I was gonna take down #4 this year... right until that river.

What did I say about those 70-30s and 80-20s?
I forgot to include the 98-2s, I guess. :-(

Heff

maybe I don't hate PLO as bad as I thought,.

anyhow, week 2 of this NYRPS... and it's PLO six-handed, which I've played once in my life.... so surprisingly enough I actually made it past half the field here... for not knowing the game real well, I played pretty decent, probably because I held back my natural aggressiveness and played a lot postflop.

One thing I'm noticing, though - people play... uh, interesting here in Rambler's tourneys.
Much more loosey-goosey than other tourneys, like this bustout hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #9398699648: NYRPS Event #2 (67717866), Table 6 - 150/300 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 23:51:21 ET - 2008/12/08
Seat 1: heffmike (5,870)
Seat 2: twoblackaces (4,061)
Seat 3: Oaklandish (8,556)
Seat 4: mookie99 (12,664)
Seat 5: MiamiDon (4,194)
Seat 6: Zeem (3,280)
MiamiDon posts the small blind of 150
Zeem posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [3s 2s As 8d]
heffmike calls 300 (don't know why I felt like playing it, I guess went back to PLO8 mode, and I'm not limping AAxx every time UTG, so I can convince myself it balances my range, or some bullshit like that...)
twoblackaces folds
Oaklandish raises to 1,350 (ok, w/e)
mookie99 folds
MiamiDon folds
Zeem folds
heffmike calls 1,050 (take a flop, flat call - it's very meh, but I figure I am not raise/folding here when I can flop nice in a sneaky fashion and double through )
*** FLOP *** [3d Kc 3h] (like this. If he has KKxx oh well, gg me, just donk and let him get it in)
heffmike bets 3,150
Oaklandish raises to 7,206, and is all in
heffmike calls 1,370, and is all in
Oaklandish shows [Qc 4h Kd Qh] (uh, yeah. I guess it's not a horrible raise preflop. But post flop, on that dry a board, there aren't many hands you get donked into with that don't beat kings up. Nice to only have to fade four outs, though, and be 80% to double through. I guess that's a good as it gets in PLO on the flop)
heffmike shows [3s 2s As 8d]
Uncalled bet of 2,686 returned to Oaklandish
*** TURN *** [3d Kc 3h] [7d] (90% now)
*** RIVER *** [3d Kc 3h 7d] [Ks]
Oaklandish shows three of a kind, Kings
heffmike shows three of a kind, Threes
Oaklandish wins the pot (12,190) with three of a kind, Kings
heffmike stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 12,190 | Rake 0
Board: [3d Kc 3h 7d Ks]
Seat 1: heffmike showed [3s 2s As 8d] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 2: twoblackaces didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Oaklandish showed [Qc 4h Kd Qh] and won (12,190) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 4: mookie99 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: MiamiDon (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Zeem (big blind) folded before the Flop

Yeah. So that would have got me close to a chip lead, instead I'm out in 12th.

Later I get to watch the same guy raise pot, get threebet by MiamiDon, decide to four-bet shove with KKxx, no suits, and no fold equity... runs into AAxx, of course, but flops a K anyway.

So, yeah, the key is to get it in way behind and spike, obv.

Otherwise, getting into the nasty habit of bubbling every SnG I play when I get it in good and can't fade the 70-30 or 80-20.

Managed to final table a PLO8 tourney, but finished 9th for like no real mobney.

Just one time, I'd like to run normal. If my 70-30s and 80-20s actually ran that way, instead of 50-50 or worse, I'd actually be doing pretty well. Ugh.

yeah, I'm definitely playing meh now.

I'm starting to make these early outs a habit. Must slow down.

25/50, I basically have the 3K starting stack in the Mookie and AQo in the big blind
EP limp, MP raises to 200, all fold to me, I think about threeballing, but with the EP limper and out of position, decide to call, limper calls.
Flop QdTd9h. I check, limper checks, MP pots it. I have a really bad feeling about this, but decide to flat, limper folds.
Turn blanks. With a 1875 pot and only 2100 behind, I decide to lede and basically get it in....

Nope, I don't run into an overpair or set.... just the nizzles, KJo. Nice preflop raise. Sigh.

God, I just suck sometimes. I had that ick sense that I was crushed on the flop, but still decided to play for stacks. I can't be folding TPTK on that flop every time though, especially in these tourneys.

Oh well. Must soul read better next time.

New Series, NYRPS, new beats...

So, I went over to support the new NYRambler series tonite - only 29 runners, but that should grow a bit over time - and had a stupid up and down first hour for a double stack full-ring tourney. Ended up out in 22nd. which was a little silly.

Was quiet at first - was washing dishes and with lilkimmer77 on my left, decided not to get too out of line early. Marked one seat at the table as the definite soft spot within an orbit - and built up a nice stack within the first twenty minutes. Then I hit a few speed bumps.

Blinds 20/40 I have 4260. Open raise QQ from EP to 120, folds around to the short stack (800) in the small blind and I'm praying he gives action. He donks the pot raise button and leaves 380 behind. I just minraise back to 720 instead of shoving because I'm amused. He actually lets the clock tick down to 15 seconds before getting the rest in with AK......
Flop 9JQ - Turn 6 - River T - cmon now.

Next hand, down to 3460. Somehow I open limp Th9h, CO raises to 120, all fold around, I call.
Flop 9s7h4h. Nice, but I fuck this up. I lede for 200, CO raises to 560, and instead of just shoving and going BANZAI!, which I intended to do... - I flat call, because "gee, it's a deep stack tourney, why get silly on the flop with a flip for 80BB?"
Moron, because this is why. Turn Ks, you check, CO bets 950 into the 1420 pot, and you figure shoving is really bad now and fold. I play bad.

Follow that up with making a couple of loose raises and bad bluff bets on the river into villains I know are not folding any piece of the board, and soon I light enough chips on fire to spew down to about 1200 chips.

Chipped up, had a strange hand with lightning 36 where he open limps for 80 UTG, I raise with AK from UTG+1 to 275, all fold, he calls. Flop 982r, he leads for 400, I tilt-shove for 1160 giving him 2-1 to call..... and he folds. Given stack sizes, I don't think I am ever folding this flop whether I have a hand or not without a huge read, so I'm not sure what the lede was for if he's not getting it in when raised...

Anyhow, I'm finally sitting around 1830 when I pick up KK in the big blind, lilkimmer77 opens for 325 UTG+1, all fold, I decide to flat call and get it in on just about any flop.
Flop QhTh3h, I weak lead for 400, he raises to 1800, I snap call and see his AQ.
It probably plays out the same if I shove preflop - I'd be shocked if he folded AQo to a momo like me preflop for 18 blinds.
Anyhow, turn 8h (I have the Kh) river Ace, boobooboo. That sucks.

There's a lot of PLO in the future here, so don't know how much more I'll be playing the series, but I like a lot of the tourneys, so we'll see.

Meanwhile, laugh at a couple of free bar poker hands I play over the weekend...

Blinds 200/400, I have 7700 in the big blind, UTG open limps, three callers behind, I decide to raise TT to... 3000? UTG flat calls (!!!) all fold behind.
Flop AQx, I check, she bets 2K into the over 7K pot, I instamuck.

Blinds 300/600, I have about 14K. I limp in EP with 55. Villain to my left raises to 2400, all fold around, I get sloppy and call off 1800 more because the blinds are in the pot and I'm silly.
Flop 246, all hearts (I have the 5h) I check, he bets a lot of chips, I just say ok and stick the rest of my stack in.
He shows 99 (with the 9h), I show and deadpan "I'm on a straight draw"

Turn blank. River 3. El-O-El.

I tell him how much more I have in my stack to match the pot, after which he starts steaming and talking about how bad I play, like I'm not there. I just say,"You're acting like I think I actually played that good or something...."

He instashoves about 8K the next hand with 84o, gets called and busts.

I think I'm getting into some bad habits playing all these goofball live tourneys.....

Heff