big picture here...

Played Skillz last night. Love PLO8. Managed to run AAxx hands with a low draw into hands that flopped sets on me twice on drawy boards in raised pots and couldn't back door half to bounce 10 of 10. Icky. -$11.

Ok, that sucked.

Went ahead and switched to Stars, cashed in a couple of SnGs for +$250 profit while chatting with the wife and not even paying attention to shorthanded play.

Ok, that did not suck.

I can take that kind of night.

sometimes the game is funny pt.2

Goofing around at a free bar poker tournament Sunday afternoon.

Effective stacks around 4K. UTG limps for 100, I limp behind with A3o because I don't really care, two callers behind, small blind makes some dopey reraise to 225, all of us call, six to the flop.

Board runs out 56T67, no flush, and it checks around on the flop and turn. On the river, I finally decide to bet 500 because no one obviously has anything unless they just spiked a seven. All fold, but the small blind thinks and calls.

I just tell him, "you're way good" and muck. Because he has to have a pair or Ax with a kicker that plays, right?

He shows KJo, and says, "that's what I thought."

It takes me a minute before I process everything.

-Did I just get called with King high?
-Did I actually muck a winner for the first time ever?
-Did he think I was betting Qx?

Anyhow, I obviously suck at free live poker. Off to the internets with me.

Blogger tourney updates.

*Played the Mookie Wednesday and spite called a flop shove in a bad spot when third pair was good in a raised pot.
*I never play the PokerSlut tour, but stud/8 sucked me in - ran well, made the final table, got stuck in a bad spot with a flush draw/low draw/trips against an open two pair that filled up for most of my chips, and failed to cash.

I wasn't really paying close attention to the stud/8 tourney, because I somehow managed a 40th or something in a 1200-man Stars tourney, the $11 1R1A again, by shortstacking for at least 90 minutes before, through, and after the bubble. I farmed that 10BB stack far deeper than should be possible. Anyhow, still climbing up the bankroll mountain, such as it is.

I am also getting my Handyman degree around the house. Unclogged a washing machine blockage by breaking down the pump - stripped more wallpaper and paneling off bedroom walls - preparing to put in a laminate floor in the basement later this month.

By the way, the family is heading to Hershey Park this weekend.

Can anyone tell me if it's teh suck or teh awesome, pls?

sometimes the game is funny.

I'm short because I ran kings into aces, but I guess I could be reshoving with ten high here...

People play so good sometimes. Bomb that dry side pot with Jack high, sir.

Full Tilt Poker Game #13519861741: $24 + $2 KO Sit & Go (99947451), Table 10 - 40/80 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:35:40 ET - 2009/07/20
Seat 1: Grizzmo (5,370)
Seat 2: crackedclaw (9,060)
Seat 3: bucsballa (2,550)
Seat 4: CATCOE71 (5,160)
Seat 6: HMan62 (5,655)
Seat 7: Sgill (3,900)
Seat 8: heffmike (240)
Seat 9: Hard2Rock (3,885)
Grizzmo posts the small blind of 40
crackedclaw posts the big blind of 80
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [Ks 7c]
bucsballa folds
CATCOE71 folds
HMan62 has 15 seconds left to act
HMan62 calls 80
Sgill calls 80
heffmike raises to 240, and is all in
Hard2Rock folds
Grizzmo calls 200
crackedclaw folds
HMan62 calls 160
Sgill calls 160
*** FLOP *** [7s 3c 4h]
Grizzmo checks
HMan62 has 15 seconds left to act
HMan62 has timed out
HMan62 checks
Sgill checks
*** TURN *** [7s 3c 4h] [4s]
Grizzmo checks
HMan62 checks
Sgill checks
*** RIVER *** [7s 3c 4h 4s] [Ac]
Grizzmo checks
HMan62 checks
Sgill bets 1,040
Grizzmo folds
HMan62 folds
Uncalled bet of 1,040 returned to Sgill
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Sgill shows [Jh 6h] a pair of Fours
heffmike shows [Ks 7c] two pair, Sevens and Fours
heffmike wins the pot (1,040) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,040 | Rake 0
Board: [7s 3c 4h 4s Ac]
Seat 1: Grizzmo (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 2: crackedclaw (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: bucsballa didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: CATCOE71 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: HMan62 folded on the River
Seat 7: Sgill showed [Jh 6h] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 8: heffmike showed [Ks 7c] and won (1,040) with two pair, Sevens and Fours
Seat 9: Hard2Rock (button) didn't bet (folded)

deep runs again....

Had a couple of decent ones.. bubbled the final table in a 190-person Stars 2R1A tourney for about $50 profit - and final tabled the Fifty-Fifty on FTP for about $1100 in profit, woot. Of course, I think I left about 10K on the table, because 10th and 8th are not first or second.

Oh, and in case we need an example of rude chat is, here you go.

420roor's on my left for the last two tables and just manages to notch me every time I open a pot...

*I openraise 77, he shoves 25BB with ATo, I think and call, but he turns broadway. :-(
*I limp A2o BvB, he raises, I shove into his AKs (oops), board runs J9T8...2 and I survive like a donk

heffmike: makes up for AT. it's even
420roor: heff h/u for rollz?
420roor: i talk sh 1t cause i can back it up

*I openraise AKs, he threebets with a 30BB stack, I instashove and he snapcalls with 66 and holds.

420roor: whose your daddy now bi tch
heffmike: you won a flip. you called all in hoping to flip. you are right, you are too good.

*Finally, I openraise AQs, he threebets half his stack (we both have about 25BB), I tank, think about what he's been playing back at me with and decide to shove instead of folding (probably bad), I run into QQ and don't get there to bounce 8th.

420roor: later sucka
Dealer: heffmike stands up
UnbeatableNads: real classy
420roor: he talkin down to me earlier

He can talk all the shit he wants, and invent slights for motivation.

I found it all amusing and if nothing else, it woke me up when I needed it.
It certainly didn't get in my head or throw me off. I make those silly plays regardless... :-)

Now I just need to figure out how to close final tables better...

whipsaw, chainsaw, complainsaw...

Yeah, I thought I was doing well in the AIPS Stud/8 tourney last night. I was invincible for the first 30 minutes.... couldn't lose a pot, made boats twice to scoop in multiway pots - basically had the best of it, made my hands first and held off all the draws - and had the chip lead with over 5K halfway through the first hour.

Then I don't think I won another pot. I kept making hands that got chased down by gutterballs or case cards to get scooped - I had to leave for 25 minutes to go do an unplanned youngster pickup - I get back and drop more pots to monsters (I fold early, smartly) and to rivered scoops (I miss my main draw but pick up just enough to make second best and pay off) and bounce in 61st of 85. Really? At one of my best games? Fuck.

SO so so frustrating. Because one of the worst things in a limit tournament is to run goot in the first hour - because you really need to run goot in hour two and three. Ugh.

Plus, since I had to vanish right around 10pm, I forgot to register for the Mookie. That'll happen.

And I've got some head cold/sinus bug that's really pissing me off. Maybe I'm a swine flu carrier.

And Phil Ivey has been running bad today trying to make that ME Final Table.

At least I'm alive and got a delayed work bonus today. So I got that going for me, or something.

Heff

patience would be nice.

Been a fairly uneventful week... I'm getting in a bad habit of accumulating a big stack in the middle of SnGs or MTTs, then spewing it off when I either

-take too many flips preflop when I don't need to and lose races...
-or, I decide to hero call some postflop bet and pwn myself

Case in point, I'm in a three way PLO8 pot with one allin that's checked to the river when I make the second nut low and meh flush - I donkbet for value (dumb) and get shoved into - and even though it's a protected pot, I have twice the average stack if I fold, and NO ONE ever seems to bluff me when they raise my leads... I call anyway and see nutnut. Sometimes I'm just such a spewtard.

So, I've basically been pretty much breakeven since I hit that FT a couple of weeks ago - and that's my fault. I'm playing well enough to do better but am making some silly mistakes in crucial spots.

I'm enjoying keeping track of the ME... Having Phil Ivey soul-read his way to a final table would be worth watching - which probably means he's getting coolered sometime in the next 24 hours and finish 14th or something.

Anyway, still trying to build and build. I feel good things coming, if I can just not pwn myself on a nightly basis.

I play rotational games ok, but I guess I need to never chat again.

A small Skillz field (9 players) but I winz a blogger HORSE tourney again (forgot a screenshot) Tuesday night. Strange up and down battle heads up with iaatg6296, where I start down 3-1, get up 4-1, then go down almost 8-1, but catch good, basically keep grinding and get there FTW. He made me work hard. It was a good, fun heads up session that lasted almost 30 minutes.

So I'm not sure why he views it differently, as in this post.

Before this hand, I think he hit running pairs twice in the last few Stud hands where I had to fold, so the run goot is obviously going his way - momentum swings happen a lot in Stud.

Total pot 17,000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: iaatg6296 showed [Js Jd 7c 7d 5h Tc 8s] and won (17,000) with two pair, Jacks and Sevens
Seat 3: heffmike mucked [Ah Jh 7s Ac 2c Td 5d] - a pair of Aces

heffmike: un real
iaatg6296: had the jacks and 7s from 4th street :(
heffmike: gee, you think?

He limp/raised third, bet/three bet fourth, and I called down every street like a monkey after that trying to catch up/suck out, so paying him off was my fault completely - horrible play, like I can really beat anything here with a pair of Aces, please - but I knew he had at least two pair on fourth. I just ignored what he was telling me anyway. What really sucked was I was holding a Jack and a seven there myself - I'd rather he do this with (KK)7 and I'd oddly feel better about it :-(

For the most part, I don't care about other people's hands or when they catch cards, so when they tell me something I already know, meh, whatever, that's fine, hand is over with, let's move on and keep playing. I know he's a good player that won't go nuts with just 77 there.

If this chat is really considered that rude, maybe I should just never say anything to anyone ever again in these bloggerments.

I happen to like iaatg - I'm not trying to patronize him - and I'm not sure why this set him off - but no ill will intended. Sorry about that.

Hell, I wasn't even annoyed. I just figured the RNG hates me, obv, what can you do?

Anyhow, another night in the books.

civilization...

Managed to make it back from the Eastern Shore with a minimum of bugbites, just a small redneck sunburn, and no apparent diseases from evil insects, raccoons, or other critters - just a lack of sleep from the loudest snorers I've ever been around in my entire life. Actually walked back to my car to get a couple hours of silence and actual sleep overnite - yeah, it was that bad. Did I mention I had it in stereo, even with shooting range earplugs in?

Anyhow, one amusing thing - as I was trying to get periodic updates on the Main Event Friday via iPhone extended network (gogogo LJ with solid stack entering Day 2) - I noticed a lot of these upstanding, "good kid" Boy Scouts spent a good chunk of downtime playing poker - not every well, of course - but they brought chips, ran out flop/turn/river reasonably well, and even sounded like grumpy old nits when they argued over who should be sitting where... :-)

So, perhaps the future of the game will be OK, despite the efforts of the government to the contrary. After all, if the 4th of July comes down to a basic revolt against momos telling you what to do with your money, what's truly more American than a little poker playing?

Gee, I love oversimplifying things to make a silly point. I'll be on the Mall for the fireworks show, so wave when you see me on TV...