General Malaise and Indifference

Describes my feelings toward poker of all forms right now, just dont excited about the game like i use to. I could say the same about video games too, just not feeling the silly pastimes that made me who I am.
I think one of the things that has really bugged me specifically about poker is the people who have hit a certain level of success and now look down or outright mock those who are not as successful or time committed as them.
When I started playing poker there were a few reasons:
1. I wanted to win money
2. Poker is a fun, social game when you a have a decent group of people.
3. I liked the aspect of being able to go toe to toe with a doctor, or a lawyer, or some snot-nosed kid and trying to outthink them.

While I still want to win money, that aspect has trumped all other reasons, and once that happens its no longer a fun little hobby or side-venture...its a job. And you know what? I already have one job and Im not that fond of it as it is, and so Ive been playing poker less and less.

I didnt play the mookie last Wednesday, but I did notice Lightning36's post that explained his reasons why he did what he did, and if you have seen it he got pretty much lit up in the comments. That is just head-scratching to me. He didnt have to post his reasons for his play and he explained himself very well but there are people out there who made comments as if Lightning is some idiot who doesnt have a clue what hes doing, and I think thats pretty shameful.
If you think hes a fish then why are you tapping the glass?
If you think he has faulty logic, but offer no advice or you offer some advice with a side of admonishment without recognizing the pyschological thought process he put into it as being a rational decision that a sane person would make during the course of a tournament then I think you may just be a poker snob.

Lets refer to this era of poker as the "2 PLUS 2" or Hellmuthian age.

So anyway what have I been doing?

Enjoying the Flyers miraculous playoff run that hopefully includes a Stanley Cup appearance and win.

Watching lots of baseball, purchased MLB.tv so I can watch every Phillies that I can this year, haven't been able to do that since 2001.

Trying to survive work, lately just seems more stressful between customers who have taken too much of the crazy juice then calling us up or could be the soon to be seperation of bank and insurance operations with us offering an IPO.

Busy next couple weeks, friend's wedding this week with a trip to Foxwoods. Home game the week after, and then my Bro's wedding the week after that.

So good luck to the TOC winners, hope you use that 10k well and win the ME.

Workin My Way Back to Myself

It has definately been more of a grind this year than the previous 2 years for me. 5 weeks in, and the best I could muster so far was one cash and 0 final tables. That will hopefully be fixed soon.


Mookie tomorrow night at 10pm EST pw: vegas 1, lets try to get that player count up over 100 again!

Finally crack the money board

It took 5 BBT events (4 played) but I finally cracked the money board with a 14th place finish last night in the Poker From the Rail series.

Got in good position when IT jammed the turn on me after I flopped the nuts and somehow I faded quads and a paired board to double up.
Little later on in a weird hand, I held Qs-Jx on a As-Ks-10s-X-10 board. Vinnay checked the river and I bet pot approx 1800. Vinnay, then shoved for another 2k more to put me at my tourney life. I replayed the hand in my head and the action didn't make sense to me, so praying I didnt just run into a boat I called and he showed ducks.

I chipped up to a high point of about 18k and everything else was downhill from there, costliest mistake was raising 10-10 from EP, shorty pushes in on me (which i was hoping for) and then another shorty Astin pushed over the top of him. I figured Astin's range was still pretty wide here as he only had about 5k in chips, and I had in the neighborhood of 12-13k. So I called, shorty flips up 9-9, Astin has K-K and flops a set.

The rest of the time was spent scratching for the money bubble which I eventuall hit and was ousted when my A-9 couldnt catch against Hoy's J-J.

"We Can Build On This!" - Herm Edwards

2/3 in busting before first break

I havent been playing live or online well lately. Usually my night ends with me shoving into some kind of made hand already, and I kick myself for being too aggressive (STAG).

Tonight I lose 1/3rd of my stack figuring I will let Schuabs hang himself with an underpair or weak K on a K high flop, and I let him see a river which gives him trips to beat my TPTK.

Then the below hand occurs which stands as the reason I have stopped playing almost all forms of poker:

Full Tilt p0ker Game #20358123589: BBT5 Invitational Event #2 (155898195), Table 3 - 30/60 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:38:04 ET - 2010/04/25


bayne_s posts the small blind of 30
TexansBaby posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***

USAF_Trevor has 15 seconds left to act
USAF_Trevor raises to 135
1Queens Up1 calls 135
*** FLOP *** [As 2c 2d]
USAF_Trevor bets 120

1Queens Up1 raises to 360
USAF_Trevor raises to 3,001, and is all in
1Queens Up1 calls 1,345, and is all in (gonna have to show me the nutz here buddy)

USAF_Trevor shows [5d Ad]
1Queens Up1 shows [Jh Ah]

*** TURN *** [As 2c 2d] [5s] ighskjfdfhlkjefhklegfhilewgfulaegfeagaeghfahlfgahgfaslgflewgflkewagfwlk
*** RIVER *** [As 2c 2d 5s] [9c]
USAF_Trevor shows two pair, Aces and Fives
1Queens Up1 shows two pair, Aces and Twos
USAF_Trevor wins the pot (3,770) with two pair, Aces and Fives

BBT5 Take 2 - The BuddyMookieDank

Lasted longer than the first time around. Chip count high was 4200. Actually got a mix of decent hands and outstanding flops, just could not get any action on strong hands and got loads of action on my weaker ones.

Ended up pushing 4-4 on a 6-3-2 flop and top 5 stack thought and called jam with 10-6hh. GG me.

Did get some good news, Al setup me to be entered into Sunday Invitiaional. My bankroll thanks him very much! Need to start cashing in these things...dont have 3 months like last time...

Poker From The Rail: Probably Safest Place For Me To Be

Started my BBT5 off with Chad at my table, 27 minutes later I finished it off by shoving my 3k stack into JuliusGoat's set turned quads.

If I keep that performance up, I will absolutely not make it through the entire series. Wish I knew where Ive gone wrong...

From March to Vegas in 09 I was playing some of the best poker of my life, and since then I cant figure out how to get out of my own way.

Lately Ive been noticing the fish at the table is me...

BBT 5 and looking back on BBT4 & Vegas Trip

First let me give you the scoop on the upcoming events:

Tournament: Poker From the Rail

When: Monday, April 19th through May 24th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 (or token)*
Password: 2010WSOP


Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday, April 21st through May 26th starting at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1*
Password: vegas1


*Winner also receives ToC entry


Tournament: Battle of the Blogger Tournaments Invitational
When: Sunday, April 18th through May 23rd starting at 19:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Restricted freeroll**


**$2,000 Prizepool + 1st and 2nd place receive ToC entry



Tournament: Blogger Battle Royale
When: Sunday, June 6th starting at 14:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: Freeroll for BBT participating bloggers

So as the BBT5 is set to start in less than 90 minutes with the first of the invitational series of tournaments, your BBT4 overall leaderboard champ and player of the month for March is sitting on the sideline waiting for his crack at winning one of those 10k seat prizes.

I think most of us were surprised when Al tweeted just a week ago that he had secured 40k in prizes for a BBT5 after he successfully had convinced the entire blogger community BBT was done for good, but here we are about to duke it out once again!

For myself, I didnt have any WSOP plans this year unless some promotions happened within the household, or I got lucky with some Full Tilt tournies.

Vegas was great, got to meet a bunch of fellow bloggers like SmallBoatDrinks, TuscaloosaJohn, LJ, and even Al himself. For my bankroll it was another story, won't repost any of it but if curious go back through my July posts.

So good luck to all those participants and maybe a blogger can win a WSOP event this year!