yeah, I'm not happy right now.

I'll keep this short because I'm still frosted.

Caps lose Game 7 in the most frustrating way possible.

I donk up and down in the Mookie, probably don't get full value for my big hands, get up over 6K again in hour one anyway, but have yet another disaster hour two where I spew with wonderful live hands like QTs and 65o into players I know won't, can't and will never fold given spots and situations to bounce 48 of 87.

I am not exhibiting any kind of patience whatsoever in the middle portion of these tourneys and am busting myself, which is the frustrating part. No one is pwning me that hard, despite what I say.

Like the Caps, who insisted on the futile strategy of banging away from the point and trying for pretty goals instead of mucking around in front of the net, I am insisting on shoving in really stupid spots and trying to force something to happen, instead of tarping and letting people spew into me like I'm supposed to.

Although, if I ever catch any kind of hands, I will be doing quite well.

Roach is here, hello!

On the one hand, I finished 26 of 75 in Poker from the Rail tonight, so in four BBT5 tourneys so far, I've got one mincash and nothing else to show for it - except I've made it to the first break every time.

On the other hand, considering I was down to 1200 chips about 30 minutes in tonite, the fact I even made it to the final three tables and hour three is a sort of accomplishment. Either people were spiking everything or making the worst postflop bluff bets in history - not that it mattered, I never had anything to bluffcatch with anyway...

I basically short-stack ninja'd/CHAINSAWED my way through for 90 minutes by timing the jams just right once an orbit, making a lot of "attaboy" folds, and letting other bloggers spew preflop in front of me, which saved me from taking a flip I was going to lose multiple times...

I'm reading situations better, although I'm not playing the way I want to yet in BBT5 - still not as free and loose as I should be, like I play everything else.

Sounds silly, but I really feel like I'm one big pot away from a serious run here.

Oh, when you jam this much, there are no real interesting hands, but these two back to back summed up the night.

Full Tilt Poker Game #20389098419: Poker from the Rail Tournament (156499993), Table 5 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:36:43 ET - 2010/04/26
Seat 1: DaveMcCarthy (6,567)
Seat 2: AgSweep (16,986)
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (3,445)
Seat 4: wolfshead (3,930)
Seat 5: MUfillmaff (8,314)
Seat 7: MiamiDon (3,490)
Seat 8: thegroupie (3,960)
Seat 9: heffmike (1,606)
DaveMcCarthy antes 25
AgSweep antes 25
Shabazz Jenkins antes 25
wolfshead antes 25
MUfillmaff antes 25
MiamiDon antes 25
thegroupie antes 25
heffmike antes 25
MiamiDon posts the small blind of 120
thegroupie posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [7c 8c]
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike raises to 1,581, and is all in
DaveMcCarthy folds
AgSweep folds
Shabazz Jenkins raises to 3,420, and is all in
wolfshead folds
MUfillmaff folds
MiamiDon folds
thegroupie calls 3,180
Shabazz Jenkins shows [Qd Ah]
thegroupie shows [Ad Kc]
heffmike shows [7c 8c]
*** FLOP *** [7d Jc Qh]
*** TURN *** [7d Jc Qh] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [7d Jc Qh 2c] [Qc]
Shabazz Jenkins shows three of a kind, Queens
thegroupie shows a pair of Queens
Shabazz Jenkins wins the side pot (3,678) with three of a kind, Queens
heffmike shows a flush, Queen high
heffmike wins the main pot (5,063) with a flush, Queen high
heffmike: wow
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8,741 Main pot 5,063. Side pot 3,678. | Rake 0
Board: [7d Jc Qh 2c Qc]
Seat 1: DaveMcCarthy folded before the Flop
Seat 2: AgSweep folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins showed [Qd Ah] and won (3,678) with three of a kind, Queens
Seat 4: wolfshead folded before the Flop
Seat 5: MUfillmaff (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: MiamiDon (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: thegroupie (big blind) showed [Ad Kc] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 9: heffmike showed [7c 8c] and won (5,063) with a flush, Queen high

Full Tilt Poker Game #20389110404: Poker from the Rail Tournament (156499993), Table 5 - 120/240 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:37:20 ET - 2010/04/26
Seat 1: DaveMcCarthy (6,542)
Seat 2: AgSweep (16,961)
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins (3,678)
Seat 4: wolfshead (3,905)
Seat 5: MUfillmaff (8,289)
Seat 7: MiamiDon (3,345)
Seat 8: thegroupie (515)
Seat 9: heffmike (5,063)
DaveMcCarthy antes 25
AgSweep antes 25
Shabazz Jenkins antes 25
wolfshead antes 25
MUfillmaff antes 25
MiamiDon antes 25
thegroupie antes 25
heffmike antes 25
thegroupie posts the small blind of 120
heffmike posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [8h 8d]
DaveMcCarthy folds
AgSweep folds
Shabazz Jenkins folds
wolfshead calls 240
heffmike: shove bad and get there
MUfillmaff folds
MiamiDon folds
thegroupie raises to 490, and is all in
iaatg6296 (Observer): the story of online poker
heffmike raises to 5,038, and is all in
wolfshead folds
heffmike shows [8h 8d]
thegroupie shows [Jd 5c]
Uncalled bet of 4,548 returned to heffmike
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5h 3h]
*** TURN *** [Jh 5h 3h] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 5h 3h 7d] [Ac]
heffmike shows a pair of Eights
thegroupie shows two pair, Jacks and Fives
thegroupie wins the pot (1,420) with two pair, Jacks and Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,420 | Rake 0
Board: [Jh 5h 3h 7d Ac]
Seat 1: DaveMcCarthy folded before the Flop
Seat 2: AgSweep folded before the Flop
Seat 3: Shabazz Jenkins folded before the Flop
Seat 4: wolfshead folded before the Flop
Seat 5: MUfillmaff folded before the Flop
Seat 7: MiamiDon (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: thegroupie (small blind) showed [Jd 5c] and won (1,420) with two pair, Jacks and Fives
Seat 9: heffmike (big blind) showed [8h 8d] and lost with a pair of Eights

I do wish I had time for some FTOPS. The $216 PLO8 Monday would have been sweet if it wasn't at 2pm and I didn't have work/baby/life in the way...

The Caps/Habs series is really starting to piss me off. Game 7 on Wednesday will probably put me in a bad mood for the Mookie... until then...

Highlights of BBT5 Invitational Week 2:

**Benjo plays like a Frenchman - or someone without a care in the world, no surprise either way.

I threeball his opens a few times until he fourbets me pre when I do it with the Hammer to make it all even.

I flat his UTG raise with 88, check a three-way pot all the way through to the river (K3359) and somehow talk myself into paying off a river value bet - he shows 96 FTW.

But, then he limps his button for 100, I raise to 475 from the blinds with QQ, he snap jams for 2700 effective with 33 and I fade it for the double. Later he jams 64s for less than 10BB, I iso shove with another big pair and hold to get over 6K.

** I seek out flips far too much..

The table tightens up a LOT with three dead stacks, and because of that, and the fact we're effectively playing six-handed, I smoke myself here...

Folds around, button raises to 600 with a 4100 stack, I cover and decide to repop with AJo from the small blind to 1725. He tanks and finally jams, I don't really want to call but need to getting 2 1/2:1 and love to see I'm up against 88... Until the 8 flops and my gutterball doesn't get there. 8K pot poofs away and now I'm down to 7 blinds.

After that, it's a couple of jams later until I run JJ into AK and the ace flops, and I'm done 52 of 108. I'm a little annoyed, because I aggressively courted a flip situation when I didn't really need to, but w/e, it happens, gotta get chips sometimes, blahblahblah. -I'm forgetting how much everyone tends to value pocket pairs - don't think it's right or wrong, it just is - and I need to keep it in mind when evaluating what I want to do in a hand...

The flip side of this is, I've tried to put people to the test in raised pots with Ace-rag hands two tourneys in a row where I'm in a lot of trouble when called - been looked up - and not gotten there. - Yes, if you don't get it in bad every now and again, you're not getting it in enough, but this may be a little too light for this series.

** The important thing was it was great to see a nearly-full roster of BBTers who have played and supported the series over the years.

Of course, I did decide to go play in PokerSlut Razz and manage to dust off $5.50 in 30 minutes and be the first one out because a seven draw is never good when I play it whether I get there or not.

So the run goot is not in my corner at the moment. Visit soon, k pls thx?

working on the weekend...

Missed out on AIPS today because I was out at a youth lacrosse game and then went on a junket to the favored Virginia winery... barrel tastings FTW.

But I am now added to the BBT5 rolls for the second invitational Sunday night, so at least I've got somewhere to be... probably will only play PokerSlut Razz if I bounce out early, as you actually have to pay attention in stud games a little bit...

second flight, not so much...

out 77 of 122 in the Mookie (man, that's a large field) because I

* get bluffed when CK shoves with the hammer and fourth pair on a dry board and I fold top pair.
* check shove on a J53 two heart flop and she calls with 99 no heart and I don't spike my crap with Ax2h.

Did I mention she had the button both times, I openraised in EP, and I basically got pwned postflop both times because I'm a dumbass playing OOP?

God that was LOLBAD, especially because I played the first hand weak intending to induce a shove, I got what I wanted, and I still folded. Very Hellmuth-like.

I hate playing stupid.

EDIT: At least I turned a couple of Step 2 tickets to Step 5's for FTOPS and went +++ in PLO8 again, so $$$ wise a decent session. I still suck at the Mook, however.

first flight is reasonably ok...

So there were 85 runners for the first BBT5 open event, which is a pretty good turnout for a $26 tourney. I was reasonably pleased with my play, although I ended up putting my nitty TAG hat on and got pwned in a couple of spots playing some solid players postflop.

I ran silly good early to get the chip lead in the first hour.

Blinds 20/40, I basically have 3K and cover the relevant players.
UTG+2 minraises to 80, I flat on the button with T9s, blinds come along, four to a flop.
Flop K87r, blinds check, UTG+2 pots it to 320, I elect to flat and the SB comes along, three to the turn.
Turn Jd for the nizzles with no flush draw, whee! Both players check, I bet 3/4 pot, they both shove?
I snap call, UTG+2 has AA, SB has 87o, I hold for an 8K pot.

The rest of the tourney was a big effing grind. Spiked again when I openraised with 99 and called a shove from JJ, but I flopped a set and rivered quads to get over 10K.

Beyond that, I ground my way around, lost a flip with TT vs. AQo, then won one with ATo vs. 66 to get past the bubble, before twoblackaces got me when his AQo spiked the flop on my JJ and I finished 16 of 85 for like $11 in profit.

So while that won't pay for the rest of the BBT open run, at least it's a solid start. I didn't feel like I was playing horribad, so that's something to take moving forward.

hey, Rocky V wasn't bad either....

More freerolls, more FTP moneys!



Looks like I'm starting my run Monday night, see you all there...

refresher class

We re-learned a number of things tonight:

-People min-reraise with the nuts, or at least what they consider to be the nuts.
-I read far too much in most people's play postflop. A black pot is a black pot. A value bet is a value bet.
-Every session I don't play PLO8, I'm burning money.

Only lasted six hands in the VeryJosie. First out to the host.

She opens 3x to 90 in EP, I reraise to 275 with JJ on the button, she flats.
Flop 742r, She check-minraises the flop, and I don't know enough about her to figure out if this is a nit-minraise with a set/AA or a wildly drunk minraise with A7 or 88.

The smart play is to fold with 70BB and move on.
The Heff play is to jam anyway and get shown KK.

Mookie wasn't much better. Let's just say I know villain is pretty terribad: I can see him spewing with a bunch of holdings I beat, but against normal opponents this should be a reluctant fold.

Putting him on the flopped nizzles would be LOLOL, but obviously, I need to widen his range like a lot.

UTG limps at 25/50, I flat UTG+2 with AQo, BB checks.
Flop AQJr, BB checks, UTG leads 100, I raise to 300, BB folds, UTG calls.
Turn 8h, putting up two hearts with the Ah. UTG check, I bet 525, he minraises, I jam, he snaps with KsTs and I don't fill up.

But again, in the interim, I play a couple of PLO8 SnGs, make about +140 in profit, and have a good night overall, so long as I play against randoms and not bloggers.

That may bode ill for the next few weeks. We shall see.

the answer brings up questions...

just got done timeshifting this: (hey, you get busy with a baby... then Glee is on.)

http://30for30.espn.com/film/no-crossover-the-trial-of-allen-iverson.html

And I'll admit, I'm biased for a ton of reasons here.

-I'm a Virginia native, grew up across the water from the Peninsula in Virginia Beach, just a couple of years older than Iverson.

-I always liked Iverson on the court. A ridiculous force of nature that had his moments, but tried too hard to make everything happen to the point of being counterproductive. The tats and all that cosmetic stuff, I never understood why people got so aggravated by it, when they should have saved their energy and really gotten mad over the practice attitude and other classic "no I in TEAM but there is a ME" moments AI displayed over the years.

-Steve James, like me, is a JMU grad. He brought Hoop Dreams in for a screening when it premiered in 1994 to Harrisonburg (off campus) and it still remains one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Not sports documentary. Documentary, period.

-Like James, I was away from the area during the trial and subsequent controversy in college, but I tried to keep up with it from afar. I have pretty much believed the same thing since 1993: yeah, Iverson screwed up and did something stupid, but no one gets sentenced to 15 years on three felony counts for a basic brawl where no one is seriously injured unless someone's making a point.

Michael Vick didn't get that much time for killing dogs.
Leonard Little and Donte Stallworth didn't get that much time for killing a HUMAN BEING with their cars.
Big Ben isn't going to get any time for his borderline rape/sexual assaults.


The whole situation was complete overkill, and anyone that doesn't understand that just isn't seeing the world properly, including a lot of the people interviewed in the film.

Strange how Iverson's legal troubles seem so simple and quaint compared to current athlete issues...

-I worked in the area as a photojournalist for a while (strange to see a fellow shooter who covered the trial being interviewed, hello Joe Fudge!) and still maintain that the shady areas of Hampton/Newport News are among the sketchiest places I've ever been in, period.

-On the flip side - the recruitment tidbits were GOLD, especially when Iverson tells his lawyer, WTF am I supposed to do with this Malcolm X book Mike Jarvis gave me, and the lawyer points out all in all, you're actually not making out too bad in this incarceration spot on a work farm... Also, it is sad to know how many people STILL didn't want to talk about this almost 20 years later, and how much all this race and class and privilege shit still cleaves between people and blows everything out of proportion to this very day.

This was 1993. Not 1953, or 1893. Unbelievable how it all got out of hand.

Basically, it was an incredibly fascinating and compelling program about a completely enthralling and exasperating professional athlete.

Iverson's no saint, and he's made his life harder every day with all the ridiculous shit he's pulled over the last 17 years since the brawl... but I really think that kind of experience at age 17 will screw with your head in more ways than anyone can really figure out. He's shown too much depth and self-awareness in brief glimpses to NOT understand what the world's viewpoint toward him is, and how he's more responsible for that than he really will ever admit.

If you ever paid any attention to The Answer - or even if you didn't - take 90 minutes and watch.

in case anyone wondered, gee, why don't you play home games?

this would be why...

Of course, it figures that it's a bunch of suburban Maryland jagoffs that come across the river and botch up these games in my county.

I'll play a friendly low-stakes game, but beyond that, I'm not sitting around someone's dining room with 3K on the table.

Charles Town can't open its room up soon enough: then everyone can just get rolled in the parking lot like they're supposed to....

wow, that's a lot of stuff to juggle in one night..

After some fairly quiet times in pokahland, all sorts of stuff to write about this week.

NAPT - Since she runs so good against me, I bought a piece of LJ for NAPT Mohegan Sun. Hopefully in a few days I will be bathing in dollar billz from my investment.

AIPS Badugi - I don't play Badugi as much as I should, but I play triple draw enough to have a decent feel for it.

Only 40 runners, and I again build up to a top 10ish stack early in hour one only to bounce in hour two in 24th - mainly because everyone plays Queen-high and Jack-high Badugis from early position like the nuts, and I can never make a three-card 6 or 7 get there.

I know you really shouldn't be drawing in Badugi, because it's so hard to get there (about 40/60 in those spots if you call down for all three draws) - but when you KNOW you'll be good if you get there, it's hard to let it go. Chalk it up.

To boot, with all the back-to-back winnings lately, I think a couple of guys also have three bananas now while getting on some insane freaking rush - which means I need to get off my ass, adjust to these fields, play these fucking AIPS tourneys better and get my fourth banana. The second place last month notwithstanding, I haven't played well in this series in over a year and it's time to basically cut the bullshit out.

Mookie - so I actually managed to get up over 8K in chips and hang out in the top 5 for most of the first hour - then I managed to go completely carddead, and every pot I opened got like 20 callers, 4 all ins, and everyone showed down a huge pocket pair.
Finally started pushbotting in hour three and jammed QJs into AKo and despite flopping a flush draw and live cards, could not get there. 15 of 38.

BBT5 - I must admit, I was shocked to see this tweet from AlCan'tHang Tuesday, because I had figured he was so burned out on the series it was never coming back. I'll be really curious to see how this gets configured - I just have a feeling it will be a lot more different than anyone expects - but I'm notoriously bad at being Nostradamus...

Very Josie - Waffles decided to give her valuable linkage, but I ended up skipping the deal because 1)I actually thought I needed to focus about AIPS - #FAIL, and 2)babygirlheff was in her ornery mode where 80% of what you do makes her cry, and 20% makes her smile. Looks worthwhile to add to the mix if I'm playing that early on Wednesdays.

Super-Turbo-Blogger-Blitz - Oops for forgetting that I normally filter SuperTurbos out of my lobby, so I couldn't find the damn tourney until it was already running. Another FAIL on my part.

Another FAIL was forgetting to play like 3 minutes of Rush Poker before midnight and missing out on a free $20 from a Take 2 promotion. Moron I am.

I did take down a SnG, so it was a nicely profitable night overall - but I HATE playing badly in MTTs. I feel so scummy afterwards.

I really need to get that game in shape like yesterday. Too many tourney series, satellites, and other juicy stuff coming up I need to get in on and get my fair piece.

offseason champs, pfft

WTF.

Donovan McNabb is a marginal upgrade on Jason Campbell at this point.
Kind of like how the new and improved Domino's is a marginal upgrade over the old shit.
Better is not necessarily good.

I'm sure PhillyFan has a better perspective on this, but all I see is a maddeningly inconsistent performer that is on the opposite side of the bell curve at this point.

But hey, with Portis/LJ/Parker/McNabb, look out league! Get that Coke Zero time machine, turn it back to 2004, and watch out!.

I had a meh feeling about the new Shanahan era because he was such a horrible GM during his last few years in Denver. This offseason does not put any of those worries to rest - unless the Danny is still running things, ggggggaaaacccckkk.

I guess the Eagles are so confident/arrogant in their organizational approach that they think they can roll any young momo out on the field in any spot and go 10-6 and make the playoffs.

We will soon find out - they do have some talent, more than the Skins, that's for sure.

Skins will probably STILL not draft any line help, though.

Most infuriating pro franchise of the last 15 years, definitely.

hey, it's an actual MTT on Wednesday night!

nice to see 62 runners for the Mookie, some familiar faces, and some new ones... could one dream of 80+ next week for a jersey?

nice to see the Lucko bink in full effect for the first half hour - must've been AI 5-6 times in the first twenty hands and kept surviving until the wifey photojenn actually had the best hand hold to take him out.

not so nice to basically play meh, then bounce in 33rd when I jam 88 into AK for 20BB and lose the flip.

and I keep running ugh in every satty for FTOPS/SCOOP I play.

At this point I should just try to hit a heater in SnGs/MTTs and pay for buyins that way.

Anyhow, sometimes trying to recapture the past isn't such a futile thing...