short break...

so I'm managing to try to get out of my funk in the best way I know how... grind PLO8 as much as I can.

I had bunch of SnGs the other night after I crashed out of the WSOP satellites where I really had to concentrate and survive just to cash, then finally started catching cards and spots to take the damn things down - which was a good confidence boost...

Then today I decided to late register into the MSOP#41 tourney because it was PLO8 and I'm a sucker for any large field four-card MTT.

24th of 1400. Almost five hours for only $70 profit. Yay, I guess?

I mean, PLO8, for me, is a matter of finding good spots to make people drop hands, and value betting your nizzles b/c some donk will pay you off chasing a three-out scooper almost everytime. So I never remember that many difficult or sketchy spots - usually it's like, there's a raise and reraise in front of me, I have a sketch hand like AQ36 one suit and drop it after a few seconds.

Any way, I roached for a few hours until I finally got above average near the bubble, hit a high water mark of about 100K right before I busted. To be honest, even with three tables left, most of the rest of the field was LOL meh.

I need to play more of these things. There's definitely value left, not everyone's solid. :-)

reset button, pls.

There's something about having dreams which is great - but unless they're within your grasp and achievable, they're just fantasies.

Sunday I ran both of the massive WSOP ME satellites, and barely lasted two hours in either one.

Now, I can say I ran bad, or got coolered, or whatever - but the reality is, I played bad enough to deserve going busto early in both, even though I managed to build up a decent stack in the first hour each time.

In one, I openraised, then threebet, then folded to a instajam getting 4-1 in a button v. blind confrontation for 30BB effective.

I'd been opening my button quite a bit while at the same table for about 90 minutes, but otherwise was barely playing a hand.
I open to 225 at 40/80, SB tank raises to 640, I tank reraise to 1600, villain snapjams for 2500 total and I tank fold.

Yeah, I put half my stack in preflop and never saw a board.

I tried to make a move with said image and rep a monster just in case I was getting played back at light - but when villain jammed so quick after we both tank/raised in the hand - I figured I was drawing to three outs if I was lucky, and never should have repopped in the first place with A9o.
If he had A8/KQ/77/cheese, well, OK, I got pwned hard - after all, who folds pre in that spot, villain wanted to play for stacks... but it's my own fault to begin with for getting too cute.

Naturally I picked up aces the next hand and got no action.

I finally busted openjamming for 12BB with Q9s from the button and getting TANK CALLED with TT from the big blind. Yay getting nitrolled.

In the other, I raised QQ UTG with about 25BB. The big blind flatted, then checkraised a 964r flop.
We checked through a 9 turn that completed the rainbow, and when he openjammed the J river for about 3/4 pot - well, there's nothing I can beat but TT or some clowny 87/57 busted draw

- so I ended up tank calling off my last 12BB anyway and seeing AA, of course.

I've just had a really horrible month. I can't make anything happen in SnG/MTTs, my yearly dip into cash games has been a BP-level disaster again, like it usually is, and mentally I'm in a spot where I'm thinking just badly enough to play breakeven at best.

A brief break might be good at this point. Either that or splashing around in a bunch of $3.40s just to get this funk out of me.

WSOP sweat, hello!

yeah, guess we're all going to have to do a virtual sweat Friday night..


Lucko be going deep for a nice five or six-figure cash...

PokerNews or teh twitters will probably be the best way to keep track...

EDIT: damn, that was quick :-(

I would like to NOT see threeouters hit all the time.

Ok, so the $700 WSOP satellite was NOT as soft as I thought it would be.

Pretty much every player at my tables was a lifetime winner for +five-figure profits at $100 and above MTTs. Of course, the two largest stacks I saw were the two biggest donks of the 360 runners.

Spewed a lot early when I kept running top pair meh kicker into junk flush draws that got there and valuetowned me on the river. But, stayed patient, got a double up with 87 vs AK on a 752 flop, then had someone shove 30BB on me BvB with JTs and I snap called with the jackace and survived a AxxTJ board.

Then, after I iso-jammed a 3x open for 25BB with AQs, had the BB wake up with JJ but spiked an Ace on the river, I had like 15K and a top 20 stack with 100 players remaining for 18 seats, so I was in decent shape.

I never won another pot.

K6o jams for less than 10BB, I iso-raise with QQ, K on flop, K on river.
I raise ATo, shorty jams for 12BB, I feel priced in and call, see 99, 9JJ flop.
I limp QQ BvB, BB jams with A6, I snap call, A on the flop.

15K and above average to out in three orbits, 72/360. Sucks.

At least I think I had a good feel for what was a much tougher field than usual for a FTP tourney. I'm really only out $50, which is what it cost to get this Step 6 ticket.

Maybe it all bodes well for next Sunday, when the monstrous satellites on Stars and FTP run. Probably lighting money on fire, but we will see, and hope.

EDIT: More unbelievable clownishness.

Play the 32K guarantee as well while this satellite is going on.

Get from 3K to 40K by doing nothing special three hours in except getting it in with the best hand and holding.

Bubble breaks, I check/jam KK on a Jxx board and get called by AJ in a HU raised pot for 55K.
Turn A. River J.

Two hands later, I raise/jam AQ for 14BB into AQ and KK, done for a mincash 207/2509.

I would still have an above average stack if I just folded every hand the last 10 minutes.

PPPPPPPPPFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTT.

hey ladies...

Ah, much of a hubbub Friday on the twitters, boards and blogs about Ladies-only tournaments.

Because I like to weigh in on topics every now and then..

-Personally, I think any xxxx-only event (Ladies, Seniors, Gingers, et.al) based on identity you can't control is stupid.

I'm half-Okinawan.
Can I get a BananaKid tournament for all the other mulatto halfblood gaijin and exclude all the purebred whiteys and Japs?
ROR!

The only restrictions on registering for a tournament should be this:

1) Do you have the buy-in?
2) Is there an available seat?
3) Is this a ToC-style tournament where it's a series championship with qualifying winners? (basically, a shootout in concept)


Otherwise, all invitationals/xxx-only events suck a fatty, because by their very nature, they're exclusionary - and poker is supposed to be about ANYONE being able to play if there's a seat open and they have the $$$.

-That being said, I can understand the promotional value in a WSOP Ladies Event - although I'm not so sure it doesn't ghettoize women into playing women-only tournaments more than it entices them to step forward and play open events. (Bonus for the WSOP for keeping an identical structure with the other 1K donkaments - most other Ladies tourneys have accelerated structures/smaller starting stacks to get them over with quicker, but at least players are getting equal value here.)

But it's not worth my time to sit there and rail against it for more than this post, or to do anything as drastic as enter and play in a Ladies event, whether dressed normally or in drag...

-But for those men that choose to enter and play - well, that's just how it goes. If you're trying to make a logical point/protest, no one will get it over the noise and hubbub of controversy. It's hard to piss uphill and upwind without blowback....
If it's a stunt, or a lark, or some kind of mean insult - well whatever dude, your life. FTrain's Lebowski quote is true...

Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
The Dude: No you're not wrong.
Walter Sobchak: Am I wrong?
The Dude: You're not wrong Walter. You're just an asshole.

Punishment/banning the villains is even dumber and just makes the whole situation even more of a clusterfuck.

Societal disapproval (the tsktsk factor) is far more effective a deterrent than anything a TD can do to nip this in the bud.

-Unscientific survey: asked the wifey if she would play in a Ladies event over an open event.
Photojenn: "No, I really don't want to sit at a table with all women."
She understands a very true fact. Nine women at a table can be far more dangerous and annoying than one woman and eight men.

Now when I play live or go to a bar poker tournament - I'd much rather play with women at the table for a number of reasons...

-table is much looser, more talkative, and overall more friendly.
-dopey men tend to stay in line more and behave better.
-and yeah, in general, women tend to play more predictably, I'm not going to lie.

But to be honest, I find playing a strong woman player a wonderful challenge. Sure I might get pwned, but not like that doesn't happen all the time...

In a nutshell, there's NOTHING about poker that's truly sex-dependent.
If women play badly as a rule, that's an experience and societal issue, not an X chromosome problem.
So why bother to segregate based on something that's as relevant as ethnicity or sexual preference?

/end soapbox

Other news.

-Geez, jjok has the best freaking attitude ever about all of this. Apparently still heading to the ME too...

-Play the OhCaptain charity tourney next Wednesday. I'm deadstacking since it's my third wedding anniversary, so enjoy me blinds...

-I picked up a satty win into the Stars big 200-seat guarantee tournament on the 20th, so I've managed to get almost T$1800 of WSOP ME entries for about $150 in real dollars. I'm going to let it rip this Sunday and next and see what happens...

soooo-pppuuuurrr-genius

I just have this doom switch lately once I get deep in a tourney or SnG where I just can't close anything out and I channel Wile E. Coyote, supergenius.

Anvils fall on my head.
Bombs blow up in my face.
I fall off of cliffs.
I keep whiffing flops with no pair/no draw.
Everyone keeps flatting me pre and donking into me post on WTF boards.

* I waste my time on AIPS LHE, which is a game I hatehatehate almost as much as Stud, b/c I'm no Terrence Chan and can't read minbet games and hands that well at all - manage to get up to 9K and a top 5 stack with about 15 players to go, but all the ACME gear starts breaking, I can't buy another pot and keep getting donked into in silly spots - finally bubble off the final table, 10/44.

* I did final table the Mookie again - although with 22 runners, not exactly a difficult feat - and I basically got runover again where I only get played back at when I don't have anything. Finally ended up jamming AJs into AK and watched the board run out AxxJK to go out 7th. Got to watch the wife bubble in fourth, too. Obviously I even screw up her mojo.

I hope I'm saving my rungoot and playgoot for the weekend.
Because right now I'm can't play dead.

obviously losing my edge

A rare doubleshot of Stud8 tourneys last night - MSOP #15, a $109 tourney with 300 runners, and PokerSlut, a $5.5o tourney with 12 runners.

I cashed in one.

Anyhow, I'm not sure if I have no idea what I'm really doing in Stud8, or if everyone else just has the "station and hold/get there" strategy mastered and I'm screwing up by betting big high-equity two-way draws that whiff three streets.

Anyhow, I got up to T4700 from the starting 4K stack in MSOP, then whiffed a huge low into split aces that wasn't folding, then somehow managed to lose half my stack in an orbit where every hand I hand just went to shit by sixth street while trying to make a bed.

Got all the way down to T1000 before the dead cat bounce to a starting stack (requisite suckout, jam one pair into trips that hit on fifth, hit a running flush to double up) before I run a wheel draw into a seven draw that makes a pair while I whiff everything, then run (QQ)5 into (KK)J and a (55)A that made aces up, gg me, 176/302, just an utter disaster where I light a c-note on fire.

Pokerslut, I actually ran really good right until we got three-handed, which is where I started busting out in the other tourney. I basically got pwned in my usual way, play an OK hand, catch just well enough to pay off a better hand. Thought I was going to get right back in it here, but this is how I run nowadays.

Full Tilt Poker Game #21426017102: PokerSlut Tour XVIII (147857174), Table 2 - 300/600 Ante 50 - Limit Stud H/L - 22:52:28 ET - 2010/06/06
Seat 2: predator06 (6,834)
Seat 3: ELM22 (7,753)
Seat 7: heffmike (3,413)
predator06 antes 50
ELM22 antes 50
heffmike antes 50
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to predator06 [Td]
Dealt to ELM22 [Qd]
Dealt to heffmike [As Qs] [Ts]
predator06 is low with [Td]
predator06 brings in for 100
ELM22 completes it to 300
heffmike raises to 600
predator06 folds
ELM22 calls 300
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to ELM22 [Qd] [6d]
Dealt to heffmike [As Qs Ts] [Kh]
heffmike bets 300
ELM22 calls 300
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to ELM22 [Qd 6d] [2h]
Dealt to heffmike [As Qs Ts Kh] [Jd]
heffmike bets 600
ELM22 calls 600
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to ELM22 [Qd 6d 2h] [6h]
Dealt to heffmike [As Qs Ts Kh Jd] [Ah]
ELM22 checks
heffmike bets 600
ELM22 calls 600
*** 7TH STREET ***
Dealt to heffmike [As Qs Ts Kh Jd Ah] [Kc]
ELM22 checks
heffmike bets 600
ELM22 raises to 1,200
heffmike: unreal
heffmike raises to 1,263, and is all in
ELM22 calls 63
*** SHOW DOWN ***
heffmike shows [As Kc Ts Kh Jd Ah Qs] a straight, Ace high, for high
ELM22 shows [6s 5c Qd 6d 2h 6h 2d] a full house, Sixes full of Twos, for high
ELM22 wins the pot (6,976) with a full house, Sixes full of Twos
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6,976 | Rake 0
Seat 2: predator06 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 3: ELM22 showed [6s 5c Qd 6d 2h 6h 2d] and won (6,976) with HI: a full house, Sixes full of Twos
Seat 7: heffmike showed [As Kc Ts Kh Jd Ah Qs] and lost with HI: a straight, Ace high

Regardless of how the down cards are mixed up, I make Broadway on fifth against maybe a running two pair/no low, or more likely one pair with only a running low draw, and don't hold. Pfft.

But hey, 3/12 makes up for 176/302. OK, probably not.

Definitely will run the WSOP Satellites on FTP the next two weekends - mainly because I can't do anything else with a Step 6 Ticket, should have stopped at Step 5 where there are all sorts of $216s to run - so I can dump another $1400 in equity and really make my stats look bad for the year...

Good Times! Smiles everyone smiles!

was I playing?

I am notoriously bad at freerolls because I just can't get myself to give a shit and play properly.

Today is a wonderful example.

I remember the BBT5 freeroll is on a couple minutes before it starts (really, make it a time that doesn't match any other BBT tourney ever and one that's never used?) - log in, manage to never get action with anything decent, pot-control hands where I flop a pair/draw and get shown a better holding that wouldn't fold to raise anyway - finally spew by raise/4B/calling off with AQo for almost 70BB when I know I'm running into an obvious overpair and don't spike, Gigli time 20 minutes in! 76/76.

By the way, the value FTP puts in these promos? There were at least 4-5 SNs I saw that never played a BBT tourney, they must have just put up the badge, sent the email and got an invite. Now that's perfectly cool, the rules were up for anyone to see, follow, and enter - but you, Mr./Mrs. Poker Blogger, are just as important to FTP as a random off the street. Remember that.

Anyway, I'm bobbing up and down between O8 SnGs and LO8 tables lately.

For whatever reason I can't buy a first to save my life this week, I must be 0-5 heads up - and keep spiking too many 3rds and bubbles.

I forgot just how bad the play at the cash LO8 tables are - from 3/6 to 10/20, doesn't matter, the same fools keep trying to play unconnected junk pre in raised pots and spike their draws on the river to scoop. It's great to play against peeps like this - but when they hit those scoops a couple of times, ugh variance.

Deciding whether or not to run a WSOP Step 6 satellite this Sunday or next. I have a ticket, so need to pick one day or the other before the monster sattys on the 20th. Maybe I can spew with AQ there too.

back to normal

so I run the Mookie last night, which ends up being a 18-man SnG, and have a ridiculous wild ride.

-go up to 4K doing nothing special
-run KQ into QJ in a limped BvB pot on a QJx rainbow flop, (dumb me) drop to 1500.
-run AK into QQ and JJ very next hand AIPF - hit ace on flop, triple up.
-decide to call down three streets on a 654JQ board for 2/3rd of my stack, see a set of sixes. Not smrt at all. Donk down to 20BB.
-short stack ninja a while, get back up over 30BB by just playing poker, snap call a limpshove BvB with jackace, hold v A3 and have a big ole chip stack again.
-get a huge hand with QQ v. the jackace on a AQx flop, now up to 17K and a nice chip lead seven handed with almost 60BB.

And so how do I manage to finish sixth?

*UTG+1 open jams for 15BB with JJ, I call with AK, don't win flip.
*I raise JTs next hand, button flats. I flop a flush on a A53 board, I check/shove into his AxKd and the fourth diamond comes on the turn, down to 11BB.
* I hang around for an orbit, steal a few times, get no action on aces, finally shove A3s into JJ and watch a AxxJx board roll out.

So in actually, it was a pretty standard Mookie for me over the last year.

I basically lose all the chips I steadily accumulate on coolers and flips. GG me.

-Play OhCaptain's tourney in a couple weeks.

-Jim Joyce can apologize all he wants - baseball fans don't trust umps to make the simplest, most basic calls correctly anymore. The credibility, and competency gap, is astounding.

-This Stanley Cup Finals will probably be more entertaining than the NBA Finals, I have a feeling.

-Grinding Steps can be so annoying when you get coolered on bubbles. boo.