VeryJosie challenge doesn't stop first loser meme...

Cliffs: Very Josie HU challenge ends up 2-2. Best results for a challenger so far, sounds good to me.

Game 1 - back and forth for about 50 hands, I limp KQo at 20/40 down a bit, we see a 987 all spade flop, I have the Ks, and I check/call a pot bet. Turn's a blank, I check/shove into Josie's T6s, no spade - only the flopped second nut straight. I do not get there on the river. Down 0-1.

Game 2 - much quicker, four hands in, I raise AA to 2.5xBB, Josie 3x's that, I flat. Flop comes J77, she checks, I lead, she raises, I wonder, for realz? - and go ahead and shove. Josie calls with AJs, and I hold. Three hands later I manage to get her last 40 chips and even things up.

Game 3 - another quick one, Josie raises her button, I repop with ATo, she calls. Flop 987 with two spades, I check and it checks through. Turn 5c, I check, Josie pots it, and I make an ill-advised jam... right into Ts8s for the flopped straight flush draw with middle pair. I whiff the river again. Down 1-2..

Game 4 - This was the marathon - over 120 hands.. early on I raise JJ and Josie jams, I decide to flip and hold vs. AQo - so I've got her down to 180 chips and this should be OVAR, right...?

Well, I decide to be careful and not double her up too easily - eventually I minraise AKo, get her to shove A3o for 12BB and get fourflushed on the river - and after that, I get into the worst carddead stretch ever. I don't even hold bluffcatchers, I can't make a hand, and she starts climbing back... first to even, and then I'm down 3-1.

To be honest, I'm not sure what I could have done about it. Put it this way, I was fairly sure I was getting outplayed and outflopped. But, maybe I'm starting to learn some patience and not force the issue when things aren't going my way. I waited, waited, and finally got it in good preflop with TT vs. A4s and 77 vs. A8o and held both times to finally even things up at 2-2.

Since things were running so long (it took an hour to play 4 matches) we left things at that, dead even - which is probably for the best... I felt very evenly matched. I didn't even mind losing the two games the way I did, b/c I probably would have tried to get it in on the flop if I was playing more aggressively anyway.

I did change up how I usually play HU, and I noticed Josie changing gears at times as well. Mad, silly credit to her for cockroaching in the last game from T180 to a 3-1 lead. I wouldn't mind doing it again to break the tie - but to be honest, we both should probably be playing other people HU a lot more than each other.

Then I rolled into the Mookie and ended up in the longest bubble ever with some tuff villains - twoblackaces, highonpoker and buddydank. I had to get tarpy with big pairs, manufacture a ton of pots, keep jamming into shortstacks BvB and sucking out - and I finally get HU against Jordan with a decent chip lead - and piss it away jamming an OESD into top two pair on the flop, in a spot where I really didn't need to defend my blind in the first place.

Full Tilt Poker Game #26819874801: The Mookie (206713892), Table 2 - 500/1000 Ante 125 - No Limit Hold'em - 00:44:47 ET - 2010/12/30
Seat 4: HighOnPoker (19,130)
Seat 6: heffmike (25,870)
HighOnPoker antes 125
heffmike antes 125
HighOnPoker posts the small blind of 500
heffmike posts the big blind of 1,000
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to heffmike [Jd 9h]
HighOnPoker raises to 4,000
heffmike calls 3,000
*** FLOP *** [Qc Ts Ad]
heffmike checks
HighOnPoker bets 6,000
heffmike has 15 seconds left to act
heffmike raises to 21,745, and is all in
HighOnPoker calls 9,005, and is all in
heffmike shows [Jd 9h]
HighOnPoker shows [Qd Ac]
Uncalled bet of 6,740 returned to heffmike
*** TURN *** [Qc Ts Ad] [4s]
*** RIVER *** [Qc Ts Ad 4s] [5h]
heffmike shows Ace Queen high
HighOnPoker shows two pair, Aces and Queens
HighOnPoker wins the pot (38,260) with two pair, Aces and Queens
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 38,260 | Rake 0
Board: [Qc Ts Ad 4s 5h]
Seat 4: HighOnPoker (small blind) showed [Qd Ac] and won (38,260) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 6: heffmike (big blind) showed [Jd 9h] and lost with Ace Queen high

Naturally the next two hands I flop a set to no action and another OESD that whiffs two streets to finish FIRST LOSER AGAIN. Would have been nice to get #6 Mook win to close 2010.

At least I feel like I stretched out my poker mind more than I usually do. Maybe if I applied that focus to real SnGs/MTTs, I'd make more money in 2011.

and here we go..

9pm Wednesday for an hour or so.

I try to crack the Very Josie nut Lightning and Waffles whiffed at.

on FTP - rail to amuse yourself as needed.

and so Xmas is upon us again...

Happy Holidays, world!

At least whatever happened to my hip/back/ass is starting to straighten itself out - I can actually stretch everything out fully again and only feel occasional twinges - although no one can tell me yet how or why my body went haywire for a month - but it's good nevertheless because I'm way behind on a ton of house/renovating work that needs to be done between the holidays.

Looks like 2010 will be a barely breakeven year for me - up in tourneys, down in cash - as I never made a huge score this year or a huge deep run in a large field MTT - I only play like 10-15 a month and just ran completely horrible at them this year. As much as I love PLO8, I completely flatlined those SnGs this year after lighting them up in '09 - basically, I smoked the 90-man double stack turbos on FTP for mad profit and was treading water everywhere else. So, there's probably room to reevaluate my game and approach and try some new things out in 2011.

I think I will try to work through my first loser skid by donating to the VeryJosieUniversity if she will let me next week.

I'm actually deliberating whether or not to pull most of my roll offline for occasional live play in 2011 (still have NOT been to Charles Town, Del Park, or PARX) and just leave a couple of hundred on FTP and Stars in 2011, grind the $5 tourneys, and see what happens. Then again, I'd never get to actually go play live but maybe once a month, so maybe spewing it all online is for the best.

Have a good one, everyone...

trend spotted!

So I'm setting a trend here. Played PokerSlut PLO8 tourney. Finished 2/9.

Which was really annoying because 1) I loves me some PLO8 and 2) I actually managed to get a 9-1 chip lead and still not close the deal.

Anyhow, I'm HU with SmBoatDrinks, slightly outchipped but still 30-some BB deep, and say

heffmike: cool we can try and trap each other for the next 30 min.
SmBoatDrinks: lol

which is about how long it took - 70 hands and 30 minutes - and how it went.

AAQ2ss doubles through A853 on a K76r flop fading nine zillion outs, then later I turn a steel wheel to 3/4 a pot, and got him down to 6BB.

But then I can't make a hand hold/get there no matter how hard I try.

-can't beat AAJ5ds with 8442, lol.
-can't hold with K432 after jamming a KJ3 flop when the gutterball Broadway comes on the turn for AT95.
-A322ss doesn't get there vs. KKJ6
-Flop nut flush, wheel draw gets there on the turn for a chop.

I finally lose twice in a row getting it in preflop with suited Ace/wheel sidecard hands vs. AAxx - AQ32ss vs. AA87, AQ73ss vs, AAQ3 - to finish first loser again.

I actually forgot Drinks boned me last week by shipping 40bb when I three-bet him with AKo - and then spiked a deuce on the flop with his A2s - and won that tourney as well.

It was pretty good HU match... but I would rather win one of these every now and again.

Looking forward to random blog posts from the WPBT. This is a good one already...

first loser trends suck, part one billion

so yeah, 2/33 in AIPS HOSE tonight. Third time this year. Arrrgh.

Drifted around for a while and didn't get on a heater until late in the tourney - I basically lost every medium pot and sucked out on all the big ones - I finally got going at the final table once we got shorthanded in the stud rounds... and then I was heads up against a guy (nala1988) I hadn't ever played before in Stud/8, which should have made me really happy...

...and I couldn't get a damn thing going. Spent the entire rotation making up for one hand where I made Queens up to his Kings up on fifth street - we got to LHE basically even with 10BB stacks - and I spewed it off in two hands, jamming bottom pair and a backdoor flush draw into a flopped set.

Yeah, probably not good timing on my part. Best shot at getting banana #4 this year, when I really should have closed the door, and poof.

Also, not very many opportunities to make the AIPS V ToC either. I got three shots left.

This has not been a good year for me in tournament series.

since we all have an opinion (which doesn't matter now, or maybe not)

on Harry Reid's angleshooting backdoor plan to "regulate" online poker, in response to the similarly sneaky UIGEA's passing back in 2006... (gee, and Senators wonder why we think they are scum...)

It just looks like a bad idea. Some regulation is probably coming soon, but this shouldn't be it, shouldn't be what people settle for as "Yes, this is the solution!".

F-Train and Grump probably have the best analysis. Neither is all that excited, which sounds about right.

EDIT: I hate being overtaken by events- http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/policy-racket/2010/dec/08/harry-reid-online-poker-legalization-falls-agenda/

DOUBLE EDIT: because at 4pm, the Sun article said the attempt was D.O.A, and now at 8pm, uh, no never mind. Sometimes I hate being a "journalist" or "mass communications major", or at least hate who I get grouped with under that job description - a job that unlike lawyer or doctor or even freaking electrician doesn't have any licensing guidelines. Sigh.

If it does come down - oh, live games could get very interesting for the next couple of years, and when all the U.S. players can get back online, I can only imagine how silly the games will be.

Anyhow, while I surf the twitters and intertubes to see the latest updates from WPBT this week (and this particular get-together sounds way interesting) - I will try to tool around in AIPS tonite and whatever other silliness I can stumble into.

Congratulate Jordan on running deep at the Atlantic City WSOPC last weekend -

Managed to final table a Rush On Demand this week (3/125 for +400) - but left $500 on the table by punting a chip-leading stack four handed - jamming Q4 into the shortstack's AA for 7BB, then K7 into AK, and 33 into AK again - all against the same guy, all blind v blind, all within 10 hands.

I run so good - especially when I spew and get it in bad like a monkee.

But I'm still having fun.

why the interwebz needs instruktions, #34, w/poll!

Ok, last year I emailed a small company out in the sticks about some firewood prices, but didn't actually buy from them. A couple of days ago I got a random email from some other customer asking if their wood was seasoned.

1) Obviously Mr. Momo Customer, Esq. used the REPLY ALL button when sending his mail. Annoying, but semi-honest mistake.

2) However, Ms. Dodo Small Business Owner is unfamiliar with the BCC addressing function, and sends her announcements trolling for business with regular CC's where everyone sees ALL the email addresses. FML, cmon, man, this is 2010. That's just horrible.

So now I've gotten like 30 emails over the last two days, all of which are people whining about getting spammed and asking to be taken off the email list... WHICH MEANS THEY ARE USING THE REPLY ALL FUNCTION AS WELL!!!.

So, que es the biggest moron?

-Momo Customer.

-Dodo Small Business Owner.

-Muppets who can't use email correctly.

-Me for even posting about this.

Not a total donator tonite.

Moneyed the VeryJosie, 3/10. no shirt for me.

Played fine, but not well enough, too quiet during the second hour while moving the sleeping baby and watching Top Chef because I'm so ghey underneath it all.... ;-)

Got my Rush points in while not doing anything stupid and making 1.5 BI.
I continue to crack KK like it's my freaking job.

Found that prescribed physical therapy >>> chiropractic care for whatever I've got. I still hurt, but at least I am relatively mobile and the stabbing sensation in my hip/ass/leg/calf doesn't make me wish I stepped on a mine. Maybe in a couple of weeks I can actually break a sweat and move my silly self to exhaustion.