Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Would you believe another final table?

Out in 4th when the only man i had to fear called with 5-7 and spiked a 7 to send me home 4th.

Again got it all in good with A-2 on a 2-3-4 flop, actually counting his outs i realize i was a dog, and lost to the turn 7.

So now again the drama is how close did Heff catch up to me with his 2nd place finish? Can i final table the freakin skillz to seal the deal?

Turn in tomorrow at 9:30pm EDT.....

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Final Table the Brit Blogger, come away empty again

Its pretty sick how horrible I race at the final table.
A-9 vs Q7
A-Q vs 10-10
10-10 vs A-K
A-K vs 9-9
A-Q vs 9-9
K-7 vs K-J <--- All in on flop after k hit
K-K vs A-Q

Only 1 time there am i in a position where im dominated, and yet every single time i lost. I dont want to sound like im whining as its more frustration then anything else.

Good news is I hit the points where the rest of the top 5 did not point up. The suspense will be did I get the 51.2 points to pass Will125?

2 More tourneys to go....

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Getting Away for the weekend




First off, huge thanks to TJ for the honors. Even just a little bit of appreciation from your peers makes you feel good.
Also thanks to everyone who left a nice message along the way so far this month, I only hope I can finish strong.

Al updated the rankings for March: BBT4 Leaderboard

After the mook last night and Will125's 11th place finish, I am 50 points behind in second. Also a whole slew of people including Bone Daddy, Shabazz, and HeffMike are on our trail.

So to refresh for the most important 3 poker tournies of my life, Im heading to the Great White North! Thats right boys and girls im heading to the Fallsview Resort and Casino to remove Canadians from their money in loonies/toonies NL!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll see you at the Brit Blogger Game on Sunday 4pm sharp.

Luck finally ran out

No final table tonight, no points either. The one day I might be actually on the top of the BBT list, it didn't get updated. Ain't that a kick in the head?

So as it got closer to the points ad my stack dwindled from lack of cards and a dumbass sitting to my left, i folded 10s to a re-raise instead of pushing for a possible race, and I got AQs twice. First time Buddy calls K-K and i spike an A to double. Second time Jamyhawk calls with K-K. I call shennanigans!

Anywho, when they update the leaderboards i fully expect to be 3rd or lower as Heffmike, will125, shabazz, and newinnov were all in the points.

Gotta say this feeling right now feels like i was just kicked in the nuts repeatidly

3 games left....

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

ANOTHER final table ANOTHER early exit

To be fair I did nothing all night that would lead me to believe I was worthy of being at that final table tonight.
I would venture a guess that I played less than 20 hands total all night.

However i did get a semi-respectable chip stack, and i managed to get all my chips in the middle with AKss and for the 2nd time i could not catch vs 9-9. 9 on the flop left my outs to 9 and i could not catch a spade.

Just gotta keep plugging away, all the final tables may eventually add up to a player o the month WSOP bonus...

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Another RC/PPI Another Final Table

Came in 3rd on this one, my streak of not finishing out the games is at 5.

Going into the last break i was 3rd in chips, 29k behind 2nd.
I get K-7ss and pot it, Tuckfard calls.

K high flop and I pot, he puts me all in, and he obv has K-J and IGH 3rd.

Good news is though that depending on how many points I get, I could hurdle my way into 2nd, however, my toc seat alludes me again.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Start Week 4 of BBT

Thought I might have some luck on my birthday but I only had enough for 1 suckout with J-9 vs A-Q (rivered a straight) and my 10s held up against Mike Maloney's Q-9cc.

Did come in 11th which is good enough for some more points but with lightning36 and NewinNov both still in the game when i was trounced, I probably wont make up any ground, might move into 5th if lucky.

Im having real trouble at the poker league I go to every Sunday, I cannot get my game on at all. The format is a little odd as they start with 40 chips total (1 chip =s 1 chip) and the blinds are stating at 1 chip/ 2 chips until someone gets knocked out and the blinds immediately raise to 2/4 and increasing every 30 mins.
The 1/2 part im ok with because 20BBs gives me some play, but if someone gets knocked out the first hand (which has happened) you immediately drop to 10BBs...
And throw in one guy who sees any two cards above 10 (and sometimes just one) and he is ready to commit and im struggling.
Last week I pushed short with A-J into said person A-K, not much i can do there. But this week i had a weird encounter with him.

I get 9s UTG, raise to 12 (3x BB) and he re-raises me to 20 (should have been 24 but i didnt call him on it since with the lax rules they have i figured doubling the bet was not a rule, but i later learned it is) and i called. Flop is 10-8-6. I check to see what he does and he bets 20 again. I have 28 chips left and im studying him to see if i can catch anything.
He looks real nervous and was gulping etc etc all things that were telling me he must have A-J, A-Q, or even A-K. So I push knowing he has to and will call. He turns over K-10 and I get busted.

The hand bothered me a lot because I just had no idea why he would re-raise an UTG raiser with K-10o....so as I watched the game unfold I saw that he REALLY just loves any 2 face cards (called an all-in for 90% of his chips with A-10o and he was up against K-K.)

Just have to be cautious and only value bet him, no bluffs....still 12 weeks to turn this ship around.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Friday At The Sun

Went to Mo last night and didnt have the night I hoped for.

Signed up for a $75 SnG. Table was fairly loose (all-in pre K-K vs A-3cc) and I got knocked out 2nd.
I'm on the button with 9 people left, and every single person limps t200. Gets to me and I have K-K, so with 1700 in the pot and my chip count at 2k I push. SB folds. BB takes his time, looking like he is straining, UTG also takes his time and calls, everyone else folds.
Turn over my K-K and UTG tells me I'm not going to like him much. A-A of course, and yes he did limp UTG with A-A. Flop is Q-J-10, good for me. K on the turn, which is bad.

Went to try 1/2nl for a bit and bought in for $145. Lost 40 fairly quickly over a few hands to an gressive older lady who also managed to be extremly annoying as well.
Made most of my money back on one hand: Raise to $12 with A-K off and pickup one caller. Flop is all low rags and I bet out 25, he calls. Turn is another low card. Bet 35, he calls. Flop pairs a low card and I push. He tanks for a bit and folds K-J face up, making me think wtf? On top of that he only had $9 left behind and he didnt put the rest in. I found out later that he was mumbling to the guy next to him that I had nothing and I was playing like an idiot.

After awhile i left $10 up and went to do another SnG. The table was a btter table than the first one cept for the chick directly to my right. First thing I noticed was the size of the rock on her finger. Huge. Huge doesnt even do it justice, ginormous is better. The second thing i noticed was that whomever taught her how to play poker basically said "throw a bet out there everytime it checks to you" and she did and people folded. Oh and she also had no idea what she was doing. She took one guy out by calling her entire sack with A-4o vs q-q. Not much later she again called an all in with K-8 vs 9s. Both times hitting her card. Next she called an all-in with a board of Q-J-9-x-x with pocket 3s, all-in just happened to have A-K.
So i knew i couldnt bluff her, i just tried to avoid her as much as possible.
I was hanging in there with the chip leaders until I made a bonehead mistake.
Old guy who had been raising a lot raised 3x BB on the button. Me in the BB had K-Jdd and I called. Flop was J high, I check he bets. I REALLY thought I should raise this bet here to see how good he is, but I just called. Turn was an A and he bet out again with me calling, River was a blank and he went all-in. I thought about it a bit and tried to rationalize he might have a lower pair than Js, and my call would still leave me with 2k in chips, so i called and he flipped up A-10. Bad moove...

So the next few orbits were me pushing all-in to secure some chips. I finally got called when I had Q-10 vs 8s and I snagged a 10 to live on. Again I was doing great avoiding the idiot chick but when she made another stupid call and doubled up her dwindling stack I couldnt avoid her as she was calling every hand. I just checked on the BB.
Flop comes down 7s-6s-7x and I push. Folds to idiot chick who almost threw the hand away but says 'i gotta call' and shows k-qss. Only 13 outs, so she finally made a smart call but knowing how she had been playing previously I know that counting outs probably wasnt a tool in her repitoire. Anyway turn is a Q and im a loser. IGH literally.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Hey New Englanders

Hey i noticed there are a bunch of people out there in the MA/CT/NY area who make at least a semi-regular trip to Foxwoods or Mohegan.

I was thinking maybe we could set a date and meet up at a casino (preferably Mo Sun) where we could either take over a 1/2 NL table or get our own 120 SnG running.

I would say Mo Sun would be our best bet as they seem to accomodate players more than Foxwoods, but I wouldn't be opposed if majority wanted Foxwoods instead.

If you are in interested shoot me an email at slapinsky22 AT yahoo DOT com and i'll post if we get enough peeps or not.

OR

If you are interested in my monthly home game, usually first Sat every month, we do basically $10 SnGs over and over again till everyone goes home just let me know we always have room for more.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Leftover thoughts from last night's Mookie

I think one thing that I can attribute my recent successes to is patience. Harking back to a hand in thr RC game on Monday:

Im in the BB with A-3o. SB limps, I check. Flop is A-2-2. I check, Button bets pot, and I raise 3x his bet. He tanks then pushes.

Previous to about 3 weeks (when ive noticed my play improving) I would have called off my stack here because its unlikely he slowplayed an A in a blind battle and I think its unlikely he has a 2.
In this instance I folded and had 2.2k left. The patience play turned into a 5th place finish whereas before I would have been eliminated before then.
Patience has to be the most underated poker skill out there in the present "be ultra-aggressive" poker world.

Areas I still want to improve upon are blinds play as I mentioned last night and I'm still trying to play for stacks (races or dominations).

Thankfully i get a few days off to rest and go to bed before 1am!

3rd Final Table of The Week

4th place finish, this time A-K cant hit vs 9s.

I may win a race yet at the final table...

That should put me firmly in the top 10 of points again.

Dealing with steal attempts from the SB, Button or CO

In the blink of an eye I went from almost out to chip leader to middle of the pack.

After losing half my chips to Miami Don when he snagged a boat, the next time my BB came around I knew he was gonna do the same thing.

Picked up A-Q and bumped his raise, he pushed and I call. He flipped up A-J and I crippled him, next hand he pushed and I had AA to bust him.

A few hands later as chip leader im in the BB with A-J. JoeSpeaker pushes all-in for 5k from the SB. I'm pretty sure this is a blatant steal attempt so I call and I was right, he had 8-3o. However he did catch a 3 to double up through me.

This seems to be where I struggle, Im pretty sure I had the right read and then I lose the race and I second guess myself. I win there and I have a huge chip lead.

Any suggestions on what to read about Blinds play?

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

When I think of Waffles...

I think this: Jon Lajoie


NSFW just in case...

Ride off into the sunset...

HORSE sucked. Was on the top 10 leaderboard early and it went all downhill from there.

Mook tomorrow.

Won the prop bet with PL.

Prop Bets with Skillz

PL at the final table last night was offering i think 3:2 or 3:1 prop bets.
I offered an even money straight up last longer for $10. I know what you're thinking, big bucks, but I was in the mood for a lil gambool.

Checked out the BBT leaderboards and I moved from 16 to 8th. Not too bad. Need to keep up the final table appearances.

RC/PPI

5th in RC/PPI. Again I raise with AQ and someone snap-pushed with 10s and yet again I cannot hit one of my 6 outs.

Only NewinNov was left on those ahead of me on the BBT board.

Trying really really hard to be TJ's POTW.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Catch Up

5th in Britt Blogger game.

Out 5th in the weekly poker league.

I can see clearly now...

Maybe its just me but I feel in the last 2 weeks its like the poker fog has lifted from my thoughts and I can actually play poker like I know I should.

I wont lie and say its all been good (10s into Buddy's A-Q on a q board & snap call with AQdd vs UTG 10s), but in the grand scheme of poker playing I've been in the zone both live and online.

I recapped my ouster in last Wed's Mook vs Buddy, since then I've been taking down SnGs left and right online, winning 26 buck tokens and even live at Mohgean last night I took down 1st in a $120 SNG.
The Brit game is in break atm so things could still change but IM hanging on...

not bitching about a bad beat because i tilt called LJ afterwards...

but glance over this hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11156664527: Brit Blogger Game (83023388), Table 6 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 16:35:28 ET - 2009/03/15
Seat 1: lightning36 (1,110)
Seat 2: jeciimd (1,010)
Seat 3: STING70 (1,335)
Seat 4: 1Queens Up1 (1,790)
Seat 5: Drizztdj (2,330)
Seat 6: mookie99 (2,570)
Seat 7: tgrazz (1,290)
Seat 8: TheCloserX5 (1,785)
Seat 9: NewinNov (970)
Drizztdj posts the small blind of 30
mookie99 posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 1Queens Up1 [As Kc]
tgrazz folds
TheCloserX5 folds
NewinNov folds
lightning36 folds
jeciimd folds
STING70 raises to 120
1Queens Up1 raises to 360
Drizztdj folds
mookie99 folds
STING70 has 15 seconds left to act
STING70 calls 240
*** FLOP *** [Th Ad 4d]
STING70 checks
1Queens Up1 bets 480
STING70 has 15 seconds left to act
STING70 raises to 975, and is all in
1Queens Up1 calls 495
STING70 shows [Td Js]
1Queens Up1 shows [As Kc]
*** TURN *** [Th Ad 4d] [Tc]
*** RIVER *** [Th Ad 4d Tc] [Ts]
STING70 shows four of a kind, Tens
1Queens Up1 shows a full house, Tens full of Aces
mookie99: ouch
STING70 wins the pot (2,760) with four of a kind, Tens
tgrazz stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,760 | Rake 0

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

40 and out

PLO is not my game at all. 40 mins and out.

a late night and coming close

1:45am is when I finally shut the laptop down and began the process of letting go.

I played a heck of a game prior to the final 18, almost like I was poker player. Never got my money in behind and made timely raises on suspected steals. My major leak was getting rock tightwhen as chipleader I should have been getting looser.

So I made it to the final as chipleader when I busted blinders. And I held on to the chip lead as late as 5 left when I busted MiamiDon with AKcc, but I was overmatched champsampson and lucko ran me over with their play, I was paralyzed into nit when I knew my raises would be met with a push.

The penultimate hand was: champ folded, in the sb I raised pot to 10k with a9o . Lucko thought then pushed. I looked at my remaining chips and I had approx 30k left. My gut was saying that I think I have an over here, and since I was playing nitty, a shove with atc is not out of the relm of possibility.
I called and he flipped q7dd, hit my 9 on the flop and he rivered a q. Igh 3rd. No toc seat.

Depressing but not as bad as losing heads up with a chip lead to bdiddie in the hoy last year.

Thanks to those who railed me or sent support specifically tragedy and poker enthusiast.

Now onto the skillz and PLO. Bayne I would think to be the fav tonight, ill see how long I can donk around.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Quick Update before the Riverchasers

Mookie: 20th out of 105. 2nd after 1st 2 breaks, chip dumped to aggro guy who limped-pushed with 10-10. Since he had done that a few times so far, I decided if he did it to my AQdd I was calling, did and did not win the race. 2 away from cash. Made points.

Brit Blogger Game: 17 out of 54 Didnt get squat all game eeked my way to the top 2 tables as it was. No points, no money.

Poker league: Knocked last week's winner out on the first hand when my flopped 2 pair with a-6 beat his a-q. Later made a stupid stupid stupid call with A-Q. Finished 4th, total of 9 points good for 6th place...

Seeing a pattern with me playing A-Q?

Riverchasers in 5. Good luck, folding all A-Q tonight I swear...

EDIT: UPDATE 2nd hand in Scottc pushed all in on me with K-K and I called with A-A, doubled up. And I broke my own rule, raised with A-Q once....

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Weekend recap

Saturday night was the Ante Up Connecticut game.

Ended up taking it down when I amassed my 3rd 2:1 chip lead heads up I offered JLBSox a chop. No rebuys for me in the tourney so it was $155 profit. Lost $10 in the cash game followed mostly because of playing Juarez....

Got revenge on Cosenza for last years nut flush draw win over my Q-Q by calling his shove with 9-9.

Sun night was the start of the poker league and i ended up being bounced 2nd when the host caught his 3 outer on the river naturally.

A Sad start to my BBT4 chair

40th out of 73 in Stud8. Tormented by Wolfshead all night.

Made some miracle catches even to just stay in the tourney (2 to be exact)but felt i played pretty decent otherwise.

Bust hand was a-3-5 caught a 4 on 4th and bet all the way while going 10-J-K. Wolf called me down with Qs to knock me out.

An auspicious start to say the least.