A Star is Born

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the shining light of the GOP...Governor Sarah Palin.

http://wonkette.com/404207/sarah-palin-thought-africa-was-a-country-not-a-continent

Bwaaa hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

The 2008 Phillies in a single quote

I give you Matt Stairs:

"You've been here for a month and you want to get that one big hit where you really feel like you're part of the team," Stairs said.

"Not that I don't feel like I'm part of the team, but when you get that nice celebration coming in the dugout and you're getting your ass hammered by guys, there's no better feeling than to have that done."

FOX News doing what it does best

Highest of high comedy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTkqosRiyYo

AIPS 6-Max

Christ am I pissed off right now.  I played well in the first hour, got the chip lead at one point, and was in the Top 10 for most of the hour after that.  But I was completely card dead in hour #2, and as my stack started to dwindle, the big stack was on the button when I had the BB - he kept betting into me, most assuredly with air, and I had NOTHING to play back with.  NOTHING.  Christ, QTo would have been ahead of his range.  Immensely frustrating.  And when it was my button...Q3o, 94s, 38o...rinse...repeat.  The table was playing a bit loose with quite a few calls and I'll be damned if I'm going to commit with absolute trash. 

Then I'm down to about 3k with 150/300 blinds and I wake up with JJ.  I shove.  Get called.  He has QQ.  Of course he does.  But wait, I flop a J.  Beeyooteeful.  Turn Q.  Good night.  $2 profit for my efforts.  Full Tilt returns to thoroughly fucking me after a good night last night. 

Sunday Thoughts

* A fine job by the Mets bullpen.  And lookie here...the Phils are back knocking on the door.  Hey, at least there's the possibility of the wildcard now as well. 

* Well Jim Nantz is back on NFL coverage again, and he's still calling a first down "the first".  Never one at a loss for words, Jim has somehow lost the second word in the very simple-to-say phrase "first down."  I suggest you find it again, Jim.  Soon.  You're driving me nuts.

* The Chargers got thoroughly fucked by referee incompetence and equipment incompetence.  And yes, I am pissed enough to say it to Hochuli's face if I ever had the chance.

* Stepped up to a $20 SNG tonight.  Had the joy of running top pairs and overpairs into THREE flopped sets.  Thanks for coming. 

Super Donk

Sat down at a $.10/$.25 pot-limit table last night.  Lost a buy-in when I ran a set of 6s into some guy's two-pair, and saw him turn a boat.  So this table breaks up and I buy back in at another table. 

Oh my God.  There's a guy at this table that, if he didn't play EVERY hand, he played well over 90% of them.  And he would call just about anything down to the river - sometimes just overcards, sometimes bottom pair, he'd even call with a busted draw. 

I turned my $20 buy-in into $85 at one point, mostly thanks to him, then went completely card dead and ended up at about $65.  And it could've been better.  I was just waiting for any hand to sting this guy with.  I see a free flop from the big blind with A5 and the flop is A52.  Bingo.  I bet it, the clown raises me, and we get it all in (I have him covered).  He flips over A9.  The turn is a 4, the river is a 3 and we chop the damn pot.  Grrrrrr.

I won tons of moderate pots off of him with hands like 33 that completely missed a flop - but would outpace his crap like 9 4 offsuit when he never hit a 9 or a 4.  If you had *anything*, it was worth just calling him down.  If you had the goods, you just shove your chips in and he'll call you.  Incredible. 

Usually at these tables, the average pot is about $3-4 per hand.  The average pot at this table was over $11. 

Usually at these tables, if they're not full, there's maybe one person waiting to get in.  At this table, there were as many as six people waiting to get in. 

So finally this guy leaves.  Immediately, the entire table collapses.  Everyone stuck around just to take his money. 

He's a welcome addition to my "friends" list. 

Doocy on Palin

She (Palin) does know about international relations because she is right up there in Alaska, right next door to Russia. 

-- Steve Doocy, Fox News. 

No.  Really.  He actually said this.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I have no problems whatsoever with Fox News.  Two reasons:
a) If the far right wants to have a media outlet, so be it.
b) Stooges like Doocy are the gift that keeps on giving

WPA

I love me the WPA graphs.  Especially when they look like this:

http://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2008-08-29&team=Marlins&dh=0&season=2008

Tee hee. 

Ayala damn near gave me a heart attack in Bot9. 

Posnanski on Beijing and Bruce

...and it all fits together so wonderfully. 

If Joe's Blog isn't in your Google Reader, then my God, get it in there.  He stands alone as the best sportswriter out there - quite possibly the best ever.  . 

The Big One

Probably a small one to many people who might stumble upon this, but a big hand for me.  And it reverses the recent trend of losing quite often with AA, KK and AK. 

Some background on this.
a) I'd taken a couple of sizeable pots off the player to my right earlier in the session.  For one, on a 2TT flop, I was holding AT while he had T9.  All the money got in on the river, and the board never brought a 9 or a pair outside of the 10s.

b) I had lost fairly big pots in this orbit, with AKo on an A-high rainbow board vs. a flopped set, and then on the very next hand with AKs where I folded on the turn when the guy to my right led out aggressively on the flop and turn. 

There's no interesting decisions to this hand, really, other than deciding on the correct amount to raise.  But I think the background facts here helped this hand play out the way it did. 

Oh, BTW, I have absolutely no fucking clue what the SB thought he was doing. 


Full Tilt Poker Game #7652066068: Table Laveta (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 23:25:17 ET - 2008/08/14
Seat 1: jake2332 ($19.75)
Seat 2: djm182 ($20.95)
Seat 3: hanssens ($15.35)
Seat 4: donjuan1028 ($17.15)
Seat 5: Michael2010 ($24.95)
Seat 6: yugffut ($9.75)
hanssens posts the small blind of $0.10
donjuan1028 posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [Ad As]
Michael2010 folds
yugffut has 15 seconds left to act
yugffut folds
jake2332 raises to $0.50
djm182 raises to $1
hanssens calls $0.90
donjuan1028 has 15 seconds left to act
donjuan1028 folds
jake2332 raises to $2
djm182 has 15 seconds left to act
djm182 raises to $5
hanssens has 15 seconds left to act
hanssens calls $4
jake2332 raises to $19.75, and is all in
djm182 raises to $20.95, and is all in
hanssens calls $10.35, and is all in
djm182 shows [Ad As]
hanssens shows [3c 4c]
jake2332 shows [Ks Kh]
Uncalled bet of $1.20 returned to djm182
*** FLOP *** [9h Jh 3d] <This two-heart flop including a 3 made me cringe.
*** TURN *** [9h Jh 3d] [Jd] <Sigh of relief
*** RIVER *** [9h Jh 3d Jd] [Ac] <BIG sigh of relief.
djm182 shows a full house, Aces full of Jacks
jake2332 shows two pair, Kings and Jacks
djm182 wins the side pot ($8.35) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
hanssens shows two pair, Jacks and Threes
djm182 wins the main pot ($44) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
jake2332 is sitting out
hanssens adds $5
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $55.10 Main pot $46.30. Side pot $8.80. | Rake $2.75
Board: [9h Jh 3d Jd Ac]
Seat 1: jake2332 showed [Ks Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Jacks
Seat 2: djm182 (button) showed [Ad As] and won ($52.35) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
Seat 3: hanssens (small blind) showed [3c 4c] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Threes
Seat 4: donjuan1028 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Michael2010 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: yugffut didn't bet (folded)

Borgnine on the Secret

Ladies and Gentlemen...Ernest Borgnine. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I_PeLNzxNQ

Postings

Yep.  Uh huh.  Dead nuts on. 

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/local_idiot_to_post_comment_on

Ch - Ch - Ch - Changes

While the new job means more scratch and more title, it's also quickly come to mean:
a) less free time
b) less blogging
c) less poker
oh, and d) much more evening/weekend work. 

Net/Net, it's all for the good.  I'm very much digging being back in the financial saddle.  The old job had a lot of near and mid-term stagnation, with a glimmer of massive upside.  I think the role I'm in now has a much more stable, predictable future associated with it. 

But I do miss the freedom.  I missed AIPS today, although it was for family reasons and not work.  And I wish I could play lots more because I've been cleaning up in the past couple weeks. 

* 6th in an 18 person token race, which misses the token but gets me some cash
* Got the token next time around
* A few good SNG performances
* A CHIMPScyber-bracelet in Stud (of all games) on Tuesday. 

The hilarious thing is that while Stud is a game that demands memory and concentration, I somehow won this while working AND going on tilt because the Metsbullpen blew a huge lead right in the middle of the final table.  Chalk it up to being a lucktard, I guess.  I don't have the hand history near me, but some key hands included making a crying call of someone's short-stacked naked bluff, getting dealt rolled up aces against the aggressive guy to my right, and then being a card rack late. 

* Also I've done well in the few cash games I dabbled in.  Last night was a great example.  I played about 30 hands, never saw an Ace better than AQo, never saw a pair higher than 99.  And I walked away with slightly more than 2x my initial buy-in.  Flopping a set of 4s in a semi-dangerous board against a loose passive guy (mid 80s VP$IP !!) and a calling station helped.  While there were straights out there by the river, and four board cards higher than the 4, neither of them had anything more than a pair.  I had a VP$IP in this session <20% which is small for 6-max, but I won most of the pots I dabbled in, never was down more than like $5 and thought I was playing sharp.  When you're playing against a table that plays tons and tons of hands, just wait for a hand and you'll get paid off.

Tonight is the home game.  It's been a while.  The thought process is to mix it up for the first three levels, then pick my spots thereafter.   I'm expecting some LAG play early on as we haven't played in about 6 weeks. 

I will bluff, at least early, but I will walk away if someone plays back, and I will value bet the hell out of made hands, because this group WILL pay you off.  Fingers crossed. 

CHIMPS Multi-Table

I rarely if ever multi-table - my ADD mind can't really handle it.  But multi-tabling three SNGs against a good field, well why the fuck not. 

Table 1: 9PM.  I chip up early, make a MP standard raise with KK.  One of the blinds shoves and I call.  He has AQ, flops an A and I'm crippled.  Soon thereafter, I have 84o in a free multiway pot from the BB.  It checks around on the flop.  The turn gives me an 8 for top pair, POS kicker, but I shove.  I get called by K6 and he rivers a K.  0-fer-1.

Table 2: 9:15PM.  I make a raise from the CO w/ A9o and get two callers.  The flop is 669.  Unless the blind who came along had a 6, I figure I'm golden w/ TTP TK.  The turn blanks, we get it all in and the blind had AA.  Oy vey.  I'm uber crippled here and disappear even before the third event starts.  Nice night. 

Table 3: I chipped up.  Got tired, made a donk call of a reraise while holding 55 (vs. 88) and that was that.

Tough Times...and we're NOT going to pull through

I will ALWAYS remember the speech given by one of the finance higher-ups at Ford Motor back when I worked there in the early part of the decade.  9/11 had just happened, the economy was in a pretty strong downturn (though not a fullblown recession).  But more importantly, the "foreign" automakers now had a full lineup of trucks and SUVs to compete with the "Detroit" offering.  This wasn't just a rough patch in the economy, it was a fundamental tipping of the see-saw.

The finance big shot is speaking to a room of finance grunts like myself when he says "Tough times are ahead, but we'll pull through it and be stronger than ever" or something to that extent. 

Here we are, seven years later, and look at this - the Blue Oval is in debt up to its eyeballs. 

Selling Jaguar, Land Rover, and potentially Volvo will only keep the ship afloat just a little bit longer. 

I wonder if the following speech is being given somewhere in Dearborn today.  Given the ownership structure of the shares, it's probably not:
"Tough times are ahead.  And we're not prepared to deal with what will happen.  We need to do something now that's in the best interests of our shareholders."

Lucksack

The villain here had been playing a little tricky - and I honestly thought he may have had a set or two pair.  Anything is possible in the BB.  But to aggrodonk his way through the hand like this AND hit the four-outer on the river...my God. 

Full Tilt Poker Game #7102994113: Table Quimby (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 23:18:34 ET - 2008/07/05
Seat 1: SaltyDog2952 ($2.75)
Seat 2: Clos8828 ($24.10)
Seat 3: djm182 ($12.20)
Seat 4: crymeariver13 ($4.35)
Seat 5: MoBrasil ($12.80)
Seat 6: derkui ($11)
SaltyDog2952 posts the small blind of $0.05
Clos8828 posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [As Qc]
djm182 raises to $0.35
crymeariver13 folds
MoBrasil folds
derkui folds
SaltyDog2952 folds
Clos8828 calls $0.25
*** FLOP *** [7h Qs 4s]
Clos8828 checks
djm182 bets $0.50
Clos8828 raises to $1
djm182 calls $0.50
*** TURN *** [7h Qs 4s] [5d]
Clos8828 bets $2.75
djm182 calls $2.75
*** RIVER *** [7h Qs 4s 5d] [6h]
Clos8828 checks
djm182 bets $8.10, and is all in
Clos8828 calls $8.10
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djm182 shows [As Qc] a pair of Queens
Clos8828 shows [Ad 8s] a straight, Eight high
Clos8828 wins the pot ($22.45) with a straight, Eight high
djm182 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $24.45 | Rake $2
Board: [7h Qs 4s 5d 6h]
Seat 1: SaltyDog2952 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Clos8828 (big blind) showed [Ad 8s] and won ($22.45) with a straight, Eight high
Seat 3: djm182 showed [As Qc] and lost with a pair of Queens
Seat 4: crymeariver13 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: MoBrasil didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: derkui (button) didn't bet (folded)

AIPS: Razz

Disclaimer: I know full well that the play in these events is going to be, um, less than stellar.  I expect wacky things to happen.  That's why I specifically laid out a strategy to help me avoid as much wackiness as possible and hopefully capitalize on the poor choices of others.  The strategy is as follows.

a) Play nothing with a 9 or higher in it to start
b) Play nothing with an 8-6 or 8-7 in an early spot
c) Run from any and all bricks on 4th street unless the opponent(s) bricked worse
d) Play good hands hard.  Punish people for trying to come at me with crap
e) Always remember that it's better to get the eff out of a Razz MTT early than stick around and be the bubble boy.  My priorities are 1) win, 2) get KOed very early, 3) anything else. 

Got all that?  Good.  Then here we go. 

15 minutes into the festivities I'm down to 1410 in chips and am dealt [3 6]5.  There are two 4s, two 5s, and a 7, 8, and 9 showing, not a great board, but I'll see another card.  A 4 completes in front, I call and it's heads up. 
4th st: The 4 gets a J.  I get a K.  He bets and I call...surely not the wisest call, but I still have three babies, and I've seen some pretty aggressive play from this guy so far.  He lands a T on 5th while I get a J.  Buh bye. 

Five minutes later, I have 1295 chips and see [5 A]6 to start.  I complete it, and the bring in (J) calls me.  Lovely.  On 5th street, he has J 8 6 showing vs. my 6 9 7.  I'm still ahead, I'm still betting every street, and he's still calling.  Uh oh. I pair my 7 on 6th street while he picks up an Ace.  He leads out and may have just made an 8-6.  At this point, I know where three of the deuces and all of the threes and fours are - hidden (either in the deck or buried cards).  I've got lots of outs here.  Well I get a 8 on 7th street for a measely 8-7.  He checks, I check behind and he made the 8-6.  The hand history shows he had [3 3]J.  I'll assume that FT reshuffled it for display, but my God, even with [2 3]J, that's some sketchy play. 

Now I'm down to 1000 chips.  A few hands later, I get [A 4]5, complete it, get called by the same guy.  Then I get a Q on 4th and release.  950 chips.

This one really irked me.  I'm now anted down to 900 chips and start with [4 8]5.  There's a dead 2, 3, and 6 so this isn't ideal, but I need to get some chips - even via stealing.  It folds to me, I complete, and yet again the bring-in (T) calls.  Long story short:
*** 6TH STREET ***
Dealt to Seitz333 [Tc 3h 7s] [2c]
Dealt to djm182 [4d 8c 5h 7c Kh] [9c]
Seitz333 bets 100
djm182 folds

684 chips left.

Then for 25 straight hands, I release on 3rd street.  Thank you very much for coming.  384 chips left.  At long last, with [6 7]A, I complete early, and get called by two other ace door cards behind.  They get a T and J respectively on 4th street.  Good news, huh?  Not when I get a K.  The T properly leads out and I release.  Down to 289 chips.

And I release the next dozen hands on 3rd street.  Only 84 chips left behind now and we're 45 minutes into this.  THIS IS NOT HOW I PICTURED IT!!!

Now here is the hand that sets me over the edge.  With 84 chips left I'm dealt [6 4]2.  I'm second after the bring-in and I complete it for all I've got.  It folds around (damn) to the bring-in who calls with

...wait for it...

[6 Q]Q. 

What an unabashed prick.  Fittingly, he makes quad Queens on 5th street and I triple up to 258 chips. 

Two hands later, I see [8 2]4.  A 6 in front of me completes, I raise and we get it all-in on 3rd.  He has [A 2]6.  I peel off trip 8s by 5th street, followed by a T and a J and that's that. 

Just a completely fucking brutal session, highlighted by a bad run of cards and some horrific play into me that was inappropriately rewarded.

The good news?  I made the whole buy-in back and more in about 45 minutes of Micro PLHE.  I never thought cash games would subsidize my SNG/MTT play, but that's the case lately. 

Ramblings...and a tangent

If Simmons can do it, why can't I?

* Besides the NBA, there is no more overhyped, overpublicized, and underwhelming event than the College World Series.  I can't believe anyone watches this crap.  Aluminum bats...bad pitching...scores like football games.  I can't imagine what it was like before the television coverage took a dramatic turn for the better. 

* Why would the Weather Channel build a big HD studio and only use it for some shows?  Are the Mets only planning on playing divisional games in CitiField next year, relegating other games back to Shea?  This makes no sense. 

* Dr. James Dobson goes off about Obama "distoring the bible."  I don't even have a joke here.  People like Dobson are the reason I have less and less interest in religion with every passing day. 

* Here's Matthew Berry with some great anecdotes about the late and great George Carlin.  If you ever want to know what kind of person a celebrity really is, you see what they do off camera.  I'll never forget the Senior Players Championship that I volunteered at in Dearborn.  Tom Kite led going into Sunday, played poorly and got passed by Raymond Floyd.  After the round is over, they do the trophy presentation on #18.  When that wraps up I began to head for the car.  As I'm walking toward the clubhouse, there's Kite *still* signing autographs between 18 and the locker room.  Mere minutes after blowing a major championship, Kite signed every autograph.  That's the kind of stuff great people are made of. 

* "I'm just so, so thrilled."  Those the words of Ana Ivanovic after barely winning her second round Wimbledon matchup.  In response to this, the entire male population of the world was heard saying "whew, I'm glad we get to see her play another match this week."

* Here's a gem.  Glenn Beck on conservative values.

So what are my core values, the things that I refuse to compromise on? To figure that out, I decided to try to define what I think a conservative really believes.

A conservative believes that our inalienable rights do not include housing, healthcare or Hummers.

I agree...with the last one.  But why on Earth is some level of healthcare for our citizens - even the most basic care level - not an inalienable right?  Nobody has ever sufficiently explained this to me, but it's clear that the rich don't want to pay for it.  

A conservative believes that our inalienable rights DO include the pursuit of happiness. That means it is guaranteed to no one.

Blah blah blah...

A conservative believes that those who pursue happiness and find it have a right to not be penalized for that success.

Correct.  Instead, penalize the less successful - fuck them all.  They don't need homes or healthcare either.  Fact is, dickwad, that the existence of government is critical because there are certain things only governments can pull off.  And with our infrastructure crumbling, the government needs more revenue (i.e. taxes) to pull off said things.  

The root cause of all these problems is wasteful government spending.  It's not the sources of the tax dollars - it's the USAGE of the tax dollars. 

A simple analogy for your simple mind, Glenn.  Say you have a kid in college.  The kid loves him the booze.  Spends a TON of money on it.  What do you do to correct the problem?
a) If you're a conservative, you give him less and tell him to get by with it. 
b) If you have a brain, you educate him/impose restrictions on him/discipline him so that the money he has is not spent as wastefully. 

Attack the problem, don't put a band aid on it.

A conservative believes that there are no protections against the hardship and heartache of failure. We believe that the right to fail is just as important as the chance to succeed and that those who do fail learn essential lessons that will help them the next time around.

A conservative believes in personal responsibility and accepts the consequences for his or her words and actions.

These two are both very true.  

A conservative believes that real compassion can't be found in any government program.

A conservative doesn't believe in real compassion.  That's my observation.

A conservative believes that each of us has a duty to take care of our neighbors. It was private individuals, companies and congregations that sent water, blankets and supplies to New Orleans far before the government ever set foot there.

True, but only the government was *capable* of properly dealing with the Katrina disaster.  Now they royally fucked it up and that is well known.  But no disorganized group of volunteers, private individuals, congregations, etc. could adequately pull off the recovery effort that was needed to rescue New Orleans.  Government could pull this off.  It didn't, but it's the only kind of entity capable.  To fix this, we don't abandon government, we fix it, monitor it, and kick the asses of those within it who continue to screw up.

A conservative believes that family is the cornerstone of our society and that people have a right to manage their family any way they see fit, so long as it's not criminal. We are far more attuned to our family's needs than some faceless, soulless government program.

What faceless, soulless government program would this be?  Seriously, I haven't a clue.   When did government try to interject itself into how people manage their own families?

A conservative believes that people have a right to worship the God of their understanding. We also believe that people do not have the right to jam their version of God (or no God) down anybody else's throat.

Fine.  Everyone has the right to worship or not worship.  I wholeheartedly support the second point.  And I'll add a third - I reserve the right to question the entire concept of religion (not the concept of God - but the bureaucracy and bullshit that accompanies religion) without being branded as an evil person.  

A conservative believes that people go to the movies to be entertained and to church to be preached to, not the other way around.

Conservatives also believe that people go to restaurants to eat and to laundromats to wash their clothes, not the other way around.  Seriously, WTF is the point of this?

A conservative believes that debt creates unhealthy relationships. Everyone, from the government on down, should live within their means and strive for financial independence.

Smartest thing he's written - perhaps ever. 

A conservative believes that a child's education is the responsibility of the parents, not the government.

True, though EVERY child is entitled to the right to go to school.   

A conservative believes that every human being has a right to life, from conception to death.

There are just SO many grey areas in here.  I'll just say this - I believe that everyone who isn't 100% ready to parent a child ought to exercise birth control.  It ain't that expensive.  

A conservative believes in the smallest government you can get without anarchy. We know our history: The larger a government gets, the harder it will fall.

Moderately true.  But as I mentioned above - if you starve a government, you get nonsense like the Katrina response.  You get deteriorating infrastructure.  You lose the ability to have a military presence that we need.  You lose the kinds of things that only government can provide.  There's a balance in here, and the way to best achieve the balance is to continue to fund the government AND hold the government accountable for what it does.  The latter surely hasn't happened in our last 7.5 years - perhaps it hasn't happened in decades.  Government has come to mean entitlement for those in it - not responsibility to those who fund it.  Therein lies the problem.  

Those are the things a conservative believes in, and they're the things that I believe in. Now, if only I could find a candidate to match.

Keep searching, ol boy.  I've found mine. 

* When you have 57 suited in the BB, see a free flop of 3 5 5, what could possibly go wrong?  Well when you try to trap an aggressive player and said player flopped a boat with 35...'nuff said.

* "Kobe, how my ass taste."  Brilliant. 

* Woo hoo, Jerry Manuel yelled at an umpire.  Who the hell cares?  Win some damn ball games and get back into the NL East race first, then I'll start to worry about the little things like team fielding exercises and argued balls and strikes.  That's not an indictment of Manuel - it's a prioritization of what needs to happen. 

The Joe Morgan Backstory

...as only Posnanski can. 

Just Observed

An actual overheard quote from the driving range, mere minutes ago.

"Yo, are those m*****f****** signs in yards?"

Epic. 

Oh and thanks to the kind folks who decided to put the ropes on the *downslope* of the grass tee.  Nice job, fellas. 

Oh the calls that we make

In total, it was a good night of online play for me.  Something triggered me to sign up for a $5 45-player SNG.  While it was coming together, I sat at a micro PLHE table.  I quickly doubled up my stack with good-but-not-great hands against a table full of fair-but-not-good players that didn't know how to fold.  I would've done better here except for an AA<QQ hand later on.  I shut this down at the first break in the SNG up a buy-in - so I'm freerolling in the SNG. 

The SNG played amazingly passive.  I kept stealing early on with all sorts of stuff.  I lost one big pot with something like AQ losing to A9, but quickly recouped that stack and more.  I held the chip lead for a while and made it to the final table in good position - either 1st or 2nd in chips. 

At this point, there were a couple of short stacks but mostly 6-7 equally sized stacks and we were rapidly approaching the 10BB level.  I folded lots, watched a fair amount of people get their chips in questionably, and finally made the bubble (after I called a short stack shove where my AQ actually beat A9). 

Here's where it sucked.  With three players left, I had about 38k of the remaining chips.  One player had about 8k, and the third player had the balance.  I'm dealt A6 in position, and see a 534 flop.  The aforementioned third player shoves his ~20k stack in.  I have two overcards, a OESD, but nothing else.  Yet for some reason I felt compelled to call here.  He turns over 52 which hurts - he has a hand, he too has an OESD, and his 2 takes away one of my outs.  Plus any 6 or A now kills me. 

Needless to say, this was a terrible spot:

http://twodimes.net/h/?z=4824402
pokenum  -h 5h 2s  - ac 6d  -- 5c 3d 4s 
Holdem Hi: 990 enumerated boards containing 4s 5c 3d
 cards  win   %win  lose  %lose  tie  %tie     EV
2s 5h  712  71.92   257  25.96   21  2.12  0.730
Ac 6d  257  25.96   712  71.92   21  2.12  0.270

He rivered the straight, not that he needed to, but that made me a distant second.  In the very next hand, I'm the BB and see 44.  The button folds, the short stacked SB shoves and I call.  He tables Jc6c - as if he had an ounce of fold equity.  The bastard rivers a J and now I'm down to one BB.  I move in with K5 the very next hand and so ends my night. 

Why on earth did I call with that OESD?  Really the only time I got chips in bad all night but I had to do it at the end. 

Patience.  Slow down.  When will I learn?

CHIMPS H/U

And to think I was *thisclose* to blowing this one off.


Of course, a first round bye helps things.

In the second round, after being down to 1220 in chips, I flopped bottom two on a 7s Qs 8d board. I check-called the flop, led out on the turn when an A landed, got called and shoved the rest of my stack in on the river. He had a naked A, and now I had the lead. Six hands later, my 88 held up against his A8 and on we go to the semis.

I took a small chip lead in the first hand and never trailed here. Made a questionable call in the last hand. I button raised 3x with 77. He shoved his 4300 chip stack in, and I made the call with my 7600+ stack. He flipped over A9o and I dodged all the bullets.

After a long wait and what looked like one heck of a back and forth battle in the other semi, we started the finals vs. ReedMoney. He came out firing with both barrels and I was quickly in the hole. Whiffed a flop with A9o but tried to represent something and quickly I was down 15.4 to 8.6k chips. Yeeowch. Four hands later, I have AKs. Reed made a 3x button raise which he did often. I min-raised that and he made a big reraise over that. Well I'm not folding this so I ship the rest of my stack in and he has 10s. I flop an A and now I take the 16.5 to 7.5k lead.

Trying my best to nurse this lead, I piss my stack down to 14.4k when I get frisky from the BB w/ J8s, and c-betting on an A-high flop. Whoops. But PS came to my rescue two hands later and this is how it ended:

PokerStars Game #18210159583: Tournament #92414506, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round IV, Level II (120/240) - 2008/06/17 - 22:57:13 (ET)
Table '92414506 1' 2-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: ReedMoney (9720 in chips)
Seat 2: djm182 (14280 in chips)
ReedMoney: posts small blind 120
djm182: posts big blind 240
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [As Ac]
ReedMoney: calls 120
djm182: raises 480 to 720
ReedMoney: calls 480
*** FLOP *** [Kd 6d 7d]
djm182: bets 720
ReedMoney: raises 1200 to 1920
djm182: raises 11640 to 13560 and is all-in (God bless him if he has the flush already.)
ReedMoney: calls 7080 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (4560) returned to djm182
*** TURN *** [Kd 6d 7d] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 6d 7d Ah] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
djm182: shows [As Ac] (a full house, Aces full of Sixes)
ReedMoney: shows [4s Qd] (a pair of Sixes)
ReedMoney said, "gg"
djm182 collected 19440 from pot

About damn time I got me one of them CHIMPS virtual bracelets.

Recap

Thoughts since I've last blogged...

* We shot 62 in a scramble at Hiland last Thursday.  Went -10 over the last 13 holes.  I hit the driver pretty well, but never struck a solid iron or a good chip shot all day.  Heck of a finish though and I can't wait to return the 15 yellow pro staffs I won in a raffle.  Sigh.

* Had the home game on Saturday night.  This one should be called the barn game - it was actually played in a barn.  The Cliffs' Notes version is that I wasn't dealt much - 44 was my biggest pocket pair in 3+ hours, and I had AKs once, AQs once and AQo once.  Did the best I could - until I got down to heads up and even-stacked with an aggressive player.  When dealing, I dealt K6 to myself and threw in a K6 raise.  He went all-in.  Earlier on he had run me off of hands that I had come in on with marginal holdings.  Thought that just maybe he was trying to do it again so I called.  He had ATs and flopped a T to close me out.  Bad move on my part - not just that particular hand but not figuring out a strategy for the situation.  The right way to play would be to see every reasonable flop and trap him.  I firmly believe I could outplay him heads up but I took myself out of that chance right out of the gate. 

* Tiger.  Wow.  People still don't realize how great he truly is.  He did this with just a week or two of practice after a long layoff and a surgery, and he did it with quite a bit of pain.  Hats off to Rocco, who I was pulling for for sentimental reasons - not the least of which is that he's 45 and likely will never have this shot again.  All that said, I'd sure like to see Tiger with his A-game again.  I don't think we've seen the A in some time now, but his B or C game is still better than everyone else's A. 

The playoff was amazing, only to end in very anticlimactic and depressing fashion. 

The Hybrid Myth

Here's a great article debunking the myth of Hybrid vehicles.  In short, your payback period to recover the higher purchase cost of a hybrid is at least six years - meaning that if you buy a hybrid, be prepared to look at it in the garage for a LONG time. 

Mediocrity

Ladies and Gentlemen, the New York Mets, as described by ESPN.com's Rob Neyer:

Speaking of consistency, over their last 162 games the Mets are 82-80. Yes, it's cherry-picking. While 162 is not an arbitrary numbers, it's little more indicative than 142 (72-70) or 182 (90-92). But you know, 182 games is a fair number of games. The Mets are two games under .500 in their last 182 games. That means something, doesn't it?

Bad luck? Maybe. But over those same 182 games the Mets have scored 868 runs and they've allowed 869 runs. Exactly the profile of a .500 team. Over 182 games. That means something doesn't it.

And yet the organization just rolls merrily along with the same manager and the same general manager. If I were a Mets fan I would be leading a revolt in the streets. (Actually, I would be hoping that someone else would lead a revolt that I could follow, at a safe distance.)

As described by yours truly, this is a team that's good at jumping out to early leads, then watching its offense go dormant while a decent to even slightly above average bullpen tries to hold on for dear life.  Sometimes they do, other times they don't. 

I have no hopes of this team winning the East or anything else this year.  The Phillies are too good and you can't call yourself a credible threat when Tatis, Chavez, and Easley are getting as many ABs as they are getting.  It's a punchless offense when Reyes, Wright or Beltran don't have big games. 

Katrina on the blocks

Here we go again.  Don't you DARE ever say anything bad about Detroit - even if it might be true. 

While I didn't watch enough of the Cup to say whose fans are better than whose, I do know that there were good seats available for at least some early round playoff games at the Joe.  Heck, when I lived there, you couldn't get seats for any game.  And Pittsburgh fans have always been good vocal fans - despite having to root for a moribund Pirates franchise and the perpetually threatening-to-leave Penguins. 

A local sports reporter who stands behind her opinion - good for her. 

PLHE Struggles

I multi-tabled (i.e. 2-tabled, which is a lot for my ADD mind to handle) micro PLHE 6-max tables last night.  The results were, um, positive, I guess.  In hindsight, I felt like I was limping a lot more than would be optimal.  On the other hand, I was largely dealt crap and when you're battling with a lot of limpers and calling stations, it's best to wait for something to hammer them with. 

I kept hitting bottom or middle pair on weak flops and having to lay down hands to strong turn/river bets.  I called a few of these and did pick up a bluff or two, but probably bled more chips than I gained from that strategy.  Once with a decent pocket pair (99) on a board with all undercards, I kept getting called on each street by a guy with a ridiculous VPIP.  The river peels off an ace and he leads out into me.  I type "Ace-rag wins again" and fold.  Of course, I'm then called a whiner, an idiot, and clever and all that.  That's fine.  Say what you want, just stay at my table please.  I'm also thoroughly convinced that I was right. 

I never hit a straight or a flush all night.  Flopped one set that turned into quads but only got marginal action.  Had KK later on and saw a K44 flop, and I led out from EP with a probing bet that I thought someone might play back on.  Nope. 

There was a lot of "hit and run" at these tables.  Guys would show up, try to chip up quickly, and if they won a big pot they'd bail.  Some idiot shows up, flops sets twice in four total hands played, then takes the money to a table with 5x the stakes.  Jerk. 

Long story short, after being stuck for around a buy-in, I finally clawed back to a marginal profit. 

Me thinks this is almost as bad as it can get at these tables. 

Bet she regrets all those personal loans now

Hillary: in it for the cash. 

Posnanski: Why I Cannot Stand Aquaman

This one kills me. 

Why I Cannot Stand Aquaman

via Joe Posnanski by Joe Posnanski on 6/2/08

And then, there was Segment 3. This could feature any number of guest star Superheroes … it could be the Green Lantern, Hawkman, the Flash (my favorite … I loved the concept that a guy could be a Superhero just by being really fast — Miguel Dilone, if he had applied himself, could have been a super hero), the Atom, etc. I can remember sitting there in front of the television during those aluminum siding commercials (Garfield 1, 23-23, Garfield 1, 23-23), and I would be nervous because I could not wait to see which superhero it would be. Would it be Hawkman? The Flash? Maybe Flash Kid …

Uh, no. The commercial would end and nine out of 10 times, the "special guest hero" would be: Aquaman.

Man, I hated Aquaman. Still do. That guy was no superhero. Please. Oh, he could swim fast. Great. So could Mark Spitz. He could also talk to fish. Great. So can my father in law. I mean, seriously, you could not have a weaker collection of powers than that.

Plus there was this simple issue: THE GUY WAS UNDERWATER. I mean, seriously, is underwater crime that big a problem in society today? Is there a lot of deep sea bank robbery going on? Saltwater extortion? Marine money laundering? It used to drive me absolutely crazy watching the Superfriends because they always felt like they had to give Aquaman equal time, even though he wasn't contributing a thing. Superman, you go fly up to the moon and see if you can destroy the anti gravity machine. Wonder Woman you hop into your invisible plane, slip past the hypnotized and undead Mongolian Army and capture the Evil Hypnotist. Aquaman, um, you go gather a school of hammer fish and, uh, go hammer something.

And that's another thing … as I understand it, Aquaman could only TALK to fish. He had no POWER over the fish. So apparently we are supposed to believe that whenever Aquaman needs help, these fish will drop whatever they're doing and rush over just because they like him. Sure. My kids like me. I can't get them to put on their shoes when we're leaving the house for something THEY WANT TO DO, but this guy can send out a few soundwaves and get swordfish, sharks, blowfish and octopi to swim over from the other side of the ocean and risk their fishy lives. Oh yeah.

So, no, I don't like Aquaman. That's why he's not in the poll.

SNG Struggles

I played two of 'em last night.  The first was Turbo PLO8, and I'll be damned if I didn't pick up a viable starting hand.  I charged after one hand with AK3x ss and took it down on a ragged flop.  In the second, I started w/ A45J all clubs, raised from the cutoff and got called from the button.  I picked up a gutshot (36x was the flop) w/ a backdoor and a shot at the nut low if I could get a deuce to fall.  I shoved my short stack in, bricked out and that was that.  Why do I keep subjecting my tight style of play to a format where you MUST land a quality hand in a short period of time? 

So on to a regular old NLHE SNG.  At one stretch, I was dealt AQo, QQ and AKs in back-to-back-to-back hands.  I won the first two, lost the second when AKs < A5s.  Later on after I had tripled up to get back to a playable level of chips, I got it all in against a short stack w/ AJo vs AJs.  He rivers the flush.  Finally I get in push-or-fold mode again, lose with KJs to 77 when he flops a 7, then with 2/3 of my stack in as the BB, I call a SB raise with J5o.  He has 66...flops a set and rivers quads. 

I'm curious to see what it's like to have a horseshoe jammed up my ass.  Lately it's only been someone else's foot.

Rachael's kiffiyeh

Because, as we all know, it would clearly be in Rachael Ray's AND Dunkin Donuts' best interests to deliberately introduce a subtle yet poignant display of their support of terrorism into their advertising campaign.  Thank God we've got the Michelle Malkin's of the world to root out such heinous attempts at influencing the American Idiots.  After all, that's Malkin's job (among others). 

I won't link to it because it doesn't deserve to be cross-referenced anywhere - even in a blog as trivial as this one - but the thing that's even scarier than Malkin and her anal-cranial clouded viewpoints is the mindless sheep that flock to her and buy into her line of crap.  Same goes for O'Reilly, Hannity, Fat Deaf and Drugged up Rush, and the always and forever #1 on the list of bitches I'd love to hate f*ck - Laura Ingraham.

More Rebuy Madness

14 Entrants in CHIMPS so we start seven-handed.  These people must view me as a complete and total rock, as most of my raises/shoves were met with nothing more than quick folds.

Other than one limp from the button, I don't play a hand for the first seven minutes.  Meanwhile, people are picking up hands and getting callers.  The player three to my left has 10k chips before I've even made a move.

The painful summary of a lot of key hands is below.  I walked away from this with a few thoughts:
1) There seemed to be a LOT of UTG raising - especially from warrendc and rascony.  Food for thought. 
2) It shocked me the number of times I went into a pot and had the entire table stick their tail between their legs - particularly in the rebuy period.  I took advantage of this a few times, but not nearly enough. 
3) I continued playing a bit too tight as I started to get short.  Granted, you'd love to wake up w/ a monster and get action, but theres' times where TP will do.  I need to think through these better as they come.
4) The ideal strategy here is to chip up big early and just secure a big stack for the post-rebuy period.  Short of that, you have to get action. 

-----

Here's a summary of my action in the rebuy period.
* Shove from button w/ 88, UTG raiser folds (WTF are you raising with UTG and then folding when you have a 5:1 chip advantage?)
* 4x raise very next hand from cutoff w/ 99.  Everyone folds.
* Shove from UTG+1 w/ JJ a couple hands later.  UTG limper and everyone else folds.
* An interesting hand w/ Snuffy where I read the situation right, made a tough but correct call, got sucked out on...and then resucked on the river.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6590995840: CHIMPS 3 - Event #3 (48190880), Table 1 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 21:14:16 ET - 2008/05/27
Seat 1: djm182 (2,055)
Seat 2: warrendc73 (1,865)
Seat 3: gadzooks64 (1,895)
Seat 4: khanwoman (10,725)
Seat 5: rascony (2,000)
Seat 6: SmBoatDrinks (730)
Seat 7: scottc25 (2,730)
scottc25 posts the small blind of 20
djm182 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [Ts 9d]
warrendc73 folds
gadzooks64 folds
khanwoman folds
rascony folds
SmBoatDrinks folds
scottc25 calls 20
djm182 checks
*** FLOP *** [Th Ac 4d]
scottc25 checks
djm182 bets 80
scottc25 raises to 250 <<He's raising from SB if he has an Ace
djm182 has 15 seconds left to act
djm182 raises to 2,015, and is all in
scottc25 calls 1,765
djm182 shows [Ts 9d] <<Nice
scottc25 shows [Tc 7h]
*** TURN *** [Th Ac 4d] [7c] <<Three-outer
*** RIVER *** [Th Ac 4d 7c] [As] <<Counterfeited!!
djm182 shows two pair, Aces and Tens
scottc25 shows two pair, Aces and Tens
djm182 wins the pot (4,110) with two pair, Aces and Tens

* Seventeen minutes later, I make a pot size raise UTG+2 w/ AQo and get no action.
* A non-descript hand where I check the BB, river a gutshot, and try but fail to extract a value bet.
* 38 minutes in, I raise UTG+2 w/ JJ and get re-popped by the BB.  I come over the top of that and he has QQ.  Oooof.  From 3900 down to 1900.
* 43 minutes in, I wake up w/ AK in the SB.  With a pot-size raise in front of me, I shove and get two callers, including the original raiser.  AK up against AQ and TT, and I flop an A to triple up.  Sweet.
* The very next hand I get frisky and button shove w/ A4s.  No takers.  Again.
* Right after that I cutoff shove with AQo.  Seriously, isn't someone at least starting to think I'm playing like a maniac here?  Guess not.  All folds.
* At 46 minutes in, this one hurt.  I limped UTG w/ AJ - probably a mistake.  On an AT8 rainbow flop, the SB leads out, after having limped preflop.  I put him all-in and he calls w/ AK.  Dammit, that's my play - limping from the blinds w/ AK.  Grrrrr.  Back down to 3500 chips.  More importantly, the rebuy window is closing fast and the big stacks are now playing like complete rocks.  I really need to double up before the window closes.
* The very next hand w/ JTo in the BB, the SB limps, I repop it and take it down there.
* 48 minutes in, I have KK UTG+1.  I tease a 4x raise out there hoping and praying to get action.  Again - nothing.
* Three hands after that, I have 88 in the BB.  UTG goes all-in for about 2500.  It folds to me.  I sit and think and finally muck, respecting the position of this move.  Mistake?  Probably.
* Then I get AQo in the button.  Hopefully a 4x raise might look like a steal.  Nah.  All folds.
* Now it's 50 minutes in and I have JJ UTG.  I shove and gawdammit it folds around.
* Ah, wait, 53 minutes in it's AA UTG.  Once again a 4x raise hoping to induce action.  All folds.
* 55 minutes in, I screw up.  I have Ad8d OTB.  UTG+1 makes a 3.5x raise and I just call.  The flop is Ks 8s 5h and he leads for 400 - a smallish bet.  I think and call.  The turn is a blank but he makes a pot-size bet.  I'm either shoving or folding and I can too easily see him having a K or a pair > 8s so I fold and am down to 3k.  Not the short stack at the table, but much shorter than I'd like with the window closing fast.
* Two hands later I shove w/ 88 in MP.  Again, no action.
* 57 minutes in I have AK in the SB.  The button calls, I raise it from 100 to 1000 - hoping it looks like an odd bet.  Fold.
* 58 minutes in it's KK UTG+1.  I shove.  Everyone.  Just.  Folds.

And that's it.  After the rebuy period, I have a pittance of 3452 chips. The good news is that I never rebought - just did the original max buy-in plus the add-on.  The bad news is that I'm short stacked into the deep stack portion of the event.

At 18 minutes into the 2nd hour, with AK UTG+1, I got no action.  Five minutes later, same story with AQ from the cutoff.  After that I raised w/ J9o from the button.  Again.  Nothing.

It took until 10:35 to finally get something going:
Full Tilt Poker Game #6592077896: CHIMPS 3 - Event #3 (48190880), Table 1 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:34:56 ET - 2008/05/27
Seat 1: djm182 (2,582)
Seat 2: warrendc73 (8,028)
Seat 4: khanwoman (10,006)
Seat 5: rascony (10,380)
Seat 6: SmBoatDrinks (8,880)
Seat 7: scottc25 (3,624)
rascony posts the small blind of 100
SmBoatDrinks posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [Kc Ks]
scottc25 folds
djm182 raises to 700
warrendc73 calls 700
khanwoman folds
rascony folds
SmBoatDrinks folds
*** FLOP *** [8c 2h 9h]
djm182 bets 1,882, and is all in
warrendc73 calls 1,882
djm182 shows [Kc Ks]
warrendc73 shows [9s As]
*** TURN *** [8c 2h 9h] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [8c 2h 9h 3s] [2s]
djm182 shows two pair, Kings and Twos
warrendc73 shows two pair, Nines and Twos
djm182 wins the pot (5,464) with two pair, Kings and Twos

For the life of me, I don't understand why I did what I did in this next hand.  I'm in the BB w/ QTo and see a free flop of T86 rainbow.  I check to see what the UTG preflop caller will do.  He makes a pot sized bet at it...and I fold?  WTF??  Top pair w/ a decent kicker when I need the chips.  I can't kill myself if I go out on this hand if he's got a monster.  Bad play. 

And now the antes kick in and they're quickly killing me.  We're playing five handed for most of this time and the ever increasing blinds are racing around the track quite fast.

At 10:47 I pick up 44 in the BB.  It folds to the SB (now SmBoatDrinks) who makes a 3x raise.  This wasn't the first time. I shove, he thinks and thinks and folds.  He probably had two overs at worse - maybe a better pair. 

Then I pick up a couple of smallish pots and am back to 6500 chips at the 150/300/25 level.  I turn a free flush draw from the BB w/ 72s, connect on the turn and take a decent pot thereafter to get up to 7200 chips.  I'm *thisclose* to being back in business. 

Then with 78 in the BB, I see a free 3c 5s 7c flop.  I check-call a standard bet.  Turn is a K and I get called this time.  We check down the river and he hit the K.  Grrrrr.  Back to 5k chips.

Finally I get it in w/ a flopped 2nd nut flush draw, but it never connects.

Full Tilt Poker Game #6592445409: CHIMPS 3 - Event #3 (48190880), Table 1 - 200/400 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:02:37 ET - 2008/05/27

Seat 1: djm182 (4,209)

Seat 2: warrendc73 (14,255)

Seat 4: khanwoman (4,861)

Seat 5: rascony (10,450)

Seat 6: SmBoatDrinks (9,725)

djm182 antes 50

warrendc73 antes 50

khanwoman antes 50

rascony antes 50

SmBoatDrinks antes 50

SmBoatDrinks posts the small blind of 200

djm182 posts the big blind of 400

The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to djm182 [Kd 5d]

warrendc73 folds

khanwoman folds

rascony folds

SmBoatDrinks calls 200

djm182 checks

*** FLOP *** [4d Jd 9h]

SmBoatDrinks bets 1,050

djm182 raises to 3,759, and is all in

SmBoatDrinks calls 2,709

djm182 shows [Kd 5d]

SmBoatDrinks shows [8h 9d]

*** TURN *** [4d Jd 9h] [8c]

*** RIVER *** [4d Jd 9h 8c] [Kc]

djm182 shows a pair of Kings

SmBoatDrinks shows two pair, Nines and Eights

SmBoatDrinks wins the pot (8,568) with two pair, Nines and Eights

djm182 stands up

PLHE Strikes Back

More appropriately, the idiots playing PLHE. 


Full Tilt Poker Game #6565286715: Table Tomsik (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - Pot Limit Hold'em - 22:50:25 ET - 2008/05/25
Seat 1: WJP84 ($3.75)
Seat 2: dubie318 ($1.90)
Seat 3: double5 ($3.85), is sitting out
Seat 4: djm182 ($6.50)
Seat 5: esmal ($15.75)
Seat 6: B-flat Major ($5.80)
B-flat Major posts the small blind of $0.05
WJP84 posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to djm182 [Ks Ac]
dubie318 folds
djm182 raises to $0.35
esmal folds
B-flat Major folds
WJP84 has 15 seconds left to act
WJP84 raises to $0.70
djm182 raises to $2.15 (Yeah it's just AK, but I see this guy as being pretty weak)
WJP84 has 15 seconds left to act
WJP84 raises to $3.60
djm182 raises to $6.50, and is all in
WJP84 calls $0.15, and is all in
djm182 shows [Ks Ac]
WJP84 shows [Qs Jd]
Uncalled bet of $2.75 returned to djm182
*** FLOP *** [7s Qd 8c]
*** TURN *** [7s Qd 8c] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [7s Qd 8c Qh] [8h]
djm182 shows two pair, Queens and Eights
WJP84 shows a full house, Queens full of Eights
WJP84 wins the pot ($6.80) with a full house, Queens full of Eights
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $7.55 | Rake $0.75
Board: [7s Qd 8c Qh 8h]
Seat 1: WJP84 (big blind) showed [Qs Jd] and won ($6.80) with a full house, Queens full of Eights
Seat 2: dubie318 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: double5 is sitting out
Seat 4: djm182 showed [Ks Ac] and lost with two pair, Queens and Eights
Seat 5: esmal (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: B-flat Major (small blind) folded before the Flop

AIPS Rebuy

I don't have much to say about this because the sooner I strike it from my memory, the better.

I chipped up quite nicely early on when I saw a flop w/ JsQs, and what a flop it was: AKT.  EP bet, I raised and we got it all in.  He had AK.  Ouch.  I slowly built that stack until about the :40 minute mark when I made a horrific play.  With a standard raise in front, I called w/ 77.  Late position shoved.  The EP leader folded.  Now the LP guy had openly expressed amazement at some of the play so far - clearly not familiar with a low $ rebuy format.  I should've put him on something good, but instead I prayed he had AK or something.  He had QQ and I was down to <2000 chips. 

I went broke soon thereafter, rebought, got it back up over 3k chips.  Then the hand of the night that ruined things.  I can't recall if this was late in the rebuy period or early in the post-rebuy period, but I had AKo in EP.  I don't remember the action, but two short stacks behind me got it AIPF and I came along as well.

Me: AKo
SS1: 4c5c
SS2: AcTc

And the flop puts an A AND a K out there.  Wooot!!  Only one problem.  Two of the cards are clubs.  Are you effing kidding me?  The turn is a third club, and I go from a good double-up+ opportunity back to a short stack. 

Then I go on a ridonkulous run of starting hands.  Actually, the first hand back from break, I just barely made it to the seat in time to see the ticker counting down, and AA staring me in the face.  I made a 3x raise from the cutoff, prayed to God that I'd get action, but only got a call and then a check/fold from one of the blinds.  Thanks, Sharkey. :)

After that, I never saw a big ace.  I only saw three pocket pairs - 44 which I folded to a big reraise, 99 which I shoved with and had it fold around, and 77 which I shoved with from EP when I was real short, got called by the big stack loose bully with Ax suited, and he rivered the Ace to finish me off. 

Every other hand in this period was 94, K2, J3, T7, etc.  The only marginally playable hands all fell to me in EP.  I probably missed a resteal opportunity or two, but I was so short so quickly that I felt I had to at least have something.  Only that something never came. 

Out, I believe, in 30th of 101.  Eh.  The last 90 minutes or so were just immensely frustrating.  I kept waiting and waiting for my double-up and it never came. 

More PLHE Goodness

I sat at a 6-handed PLHE micro table again last night, and after one ugly beat early on, left up with a slight profit in about 90 minutes worth of play.  Two to my left was a very interesting player - his VP$IP was perfectly in line at around 20%, but if this guy saw a flop and connected with it in the slightest, he was NOT folding. 

Case in point: I had him targeted, and when he min-raised from UTG+1, I called from the BB w/ K5s.  The flop was K-high (KTx, I believe) with only one suited card for me, still I felt I was ahead of him.  I checked and he bet pot.  I re-popped it for pot again which put me all-in - surely an aggressive (at best) move, but I'd seen this guy constantly C-bet and he can't have it all the time.  Well his timer starts ticking down and now I know I'm ahead.  All of a sudden he calls and turns over AJo - for a gutshot with an overcard.  The turn blanks but he rivers an Ace and I have to dip back into the piggy bank.  I asked him what he was thinking and he responded "I just said #(@% it."  Indeed. 

No worries, as now this guy has some more chips and he's probably not going anywhere. 

I ended up taking two pretty sizeable pots off of him - the latter that felted him with a play that I wouldn't make versus anyone who I hadn't IDed as a Grade A mook.  I had 99 UTG and made a pot size bet.  He re-pots it as next to act.  It folds around to me and I call.  The flop is 7 3 2 rainbow.  God bless him if he has TT+, but I think he's more likely to have some naked ace.  I bet pot and he comes over the top for a bit more, going all-in.  I instacall and he turns over....wait for it....KQo.  Brick, brick, and now I gots all the bastard's chips.  Yum.  Sadly, he got up and left right then and there, and since it was late and since the blinds were about to pass through me, I did the same. 

I turned on RealTime for the first time in, well, a long time.  It's a pretty rudimentary but useful tool.  Give me simple stats on pre-flop raises, VP$IP, aggression, etc. and it makes it so much easier to focus in on your targets.  Late in the session, a player with VP$IP >70 sat to my right.  I was never able to take a big pot off this fish, but given enough time to sit there, it could've been a payday. 

Tonight is AIPS NLHE Rebuy.  This should be verrryyyy interesting.  Hopefully the turnout is strong, hopefully nobody bails within the first hour, hopefully I make it deep, and hopefully it doesn't take half the night.  With 100+ participants, an hour worth of cheap rebuys, plus a one-hour add-on, there should be a bajillion chips in play.  I don't think it's a turbo either.  Yikes. 

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Sounds like heads may soon be rolling in Flushing.  I have no idea who a possible replacement could be, but right now I think just about any change is warranted.  This team is lifeless, the pressure clearly got to Willie with his racism comments, and ownership cannot justify this kind of performance with a roster with that kind of talent.  Yeah, they're probably a 90-win roster at best, but dropping 6 of the last 7 divisional games is sad, sad, sad. 

The post Memorial Day 2007 - 2008 Mets

Faith and Fear sums it up *perfectly*

"you have to give the 2008 Mets credit: No team does a better job confounding any attempt to figure out what they're really made of. The team's obviously terrible -- can't do a damn thing against a horrible Nationals team that might actually recruit pitchers by taking the guys turned down by the Dallas police after responding to the ads above the urinals in the upper deck. Well, no -- they beat the Yankees in convincing fashion, working counts, having smart at-bats and running up the score. So they're actually pretty darn good, right? No -- after an off-day they come out and play 18 innings of prairie-flat baseball, marked by giveaway at-bats, dimwitted baserunning, indifferent fielding and lousy pitching.

It's easy to be average -- just plod along and win some and lose some. But that's too simple for the Mets of late -- they have to be average by yo-yoing from bad to good and bad again at a truly fearsome velocity. It's no easy thing to be at once fundamentally mediocre and completely exhausting, but they're managing it."

Commitment

Here's something that pisses me off.  Let's say a bunch of people make some noise and want something.  Someone then picks up the ball, runs with it, and delivers more than anyone could have ever expected - a completely awesome solution.  In addition to the work the guy puts forth - voluntarily - to set this up, he routinely maintains what he's created, sends out reminders to make sure people are up to date with the latest, and keeps more than enough variety in it so that it will never get stale. 

And then people decide they really don't want what he's offering.  So they just stop coming. 

People clamored for the return of the Ante Up poker night.  It used to be nothing more than a bunch of people meeting in flash chat and finding some tables/SNGs to sit at.  It never had any organization and kind of died off.  Then the masses spoke up and wondered what happened to it.  Snuffy comes along and sets up a 2-3 month long series of events - all affordable - crossing the breadth of available games.  People show up.  It's fun.  It's challenging. 

And now the crowds have thinned.  Yeah, maybe it's summer or maybe there are other valid reasons, but the change in the turnout the last few weeks is quite disappointing.  What a shame, because it's the best routine, affordable option to play tournament poker against quality opponents. 

For me, last night's PLO was just more of the same.  I chipped up a bit early, then played tight - perhaps too tight as I NEVER got action with a preflop raise, and just held on for dear life as I got a horrendous string of cards once we filled out the full table.  I cashed - finishing third - and went out in the worst of ways, shoving into the nuts.  I had some middling connected cards, made a small raise and got called by Snuffy.  The flop was three middling diamonds giving me a flopped straight.  I shoved my short stack into the nut flush.  Happens. 

But, as always, it was fun.  The play was, by and large, very very good.  There was a fair share of rivered suckouts, but that's PLO. 

After bouncing out, I sat at a micro PLHE table and pulled down about 1.5x my buy-in in profit in under an hour and said good night.  Me thinks it's time to bump up a level in the table stakes. 

Tuesday Thoughts

This is a very funny, yet spot on take about the lapel flag pin controversy that just inexplicably keeps popping up. 

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A couple weeks back, we took the boys to see the circus in the TU Center.  Same ol' circus - validated by the fact that the lower bowl of the arena was maybe 3/4 full and that the upper level was blocked off.  What was most shocking was the concessions.  We've all seen $7 beer, $3 water etc.  But a single slice of plain generic pizza was $6.  SIX dollars.  Makes me miss the day of New York Pizza for a buck a slice even more.

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I hate the chat functionality in Full Tilt and Stars for so many reasons.  But when my top pair gets outkicked, and someone types "no cigar :)", it just makes me want to reach through the modem and strangle the bastard on the other end. 

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Not many things piss me off more than having some aggrodonk take my chips in a cash game - and then immediately leave the table.  Get back here you fucker. 

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The Mets, fresh off a bitch-smacking of the Evil Empire, now head to the house of horrors for four games.  Let's hope they can at least get a split out of this. 

Bizarre Weekend

* Two rounds of golf, both ended up with decent scores, both saw me play better on the back than on the front, and neither had me hit the ball particularly well.  I did come alive the last 5 holes on Sunday and hit some good shots.  My misses are at least straight.  I just need to trust the changes.  Finding a repeatable putting stroke wouldn't hurt either.

* Played some PLHE cash Saturday night while generally screwing around on the net at the same time and while overtired.  Why I keep playing in situations like this escapes me.  Anyway, I just ran very cold for the longest time - getting no premium pairs, and having every big ace miss a flop.  I bought in for $5 and added on enough to be committed in total for $10.  Then I'm dealt AA, raise it big and actually get a caller.  The flop is 4 5 T rainbow.  I bet pot and he calls.  Turn appears to be a blank.  I pot it again and get another caller.  Now I only have pennies behind so I shove on the river and he calls.  He had 36s for an OESD that never got there.  Wham-o, now there's $12 in front of me and I'm up.  This is when I should've left, but I saw too much soft play at the table.  And it came back to bite me. 

Minutes later I'm dealt 77 and get to see a garbage flop with an overcard and two unders.  A LAG guy bets out at it weakly, and I call.  He makes a bigger move on the turn and I raise him up pot.  I've got him on a big ace that missed.  He raises that, and I'm committed.  He had 99 and neither of us ended up pairing.  This took about $6 out of my stack.

Then I get dealt Ah2h in EP and decide I'm going to play this like a donk, so I limp in, it gets popped by a guy behind me and the first thing that came into my head was that he had KK.  One guy calls and I finish the action.  We see a flop of A2x - all clubs.  I pot-it.  The initial raiser comes along and the other guy does as well.  I am now all-in with top and bottom pair against KK (knew it) and some trash.  Alas, one of the kings was Kc and he rivered the flush.  Thank you and good night.

* On Sunday night I sit for a $10 HORSE SNG.  Second hand in I have AQo in EP and raise it.  It's reraised by MP to 90, I believe the button calls and I call as well.  The flop is 8 T J giving me a double gutshot.  It checks around.  Turn is another T.  I check and the MP reraiser bets out.  I call.  The river is the 9 completing my straight.  I bet, he stews and calls and flips over AKs.  He then berates me in the chat, which I find hilarious - dude clearly missed the flop, so the T on the turn didn't help his cause, and I've got a two way straight draw and possibly the best hand anyway. 

Things went along just nicely from there - I made a great hand in Stud Hi first go-around when I started with (QxQd)5d, then turned two more diamonds and represented the flush.  Kept getting called.  6th street gave me a third Q and 7th street paired a 4 that I already had for the well-hidden boat.  When it got to the second trip through razz, my stack was still strong, though not far above average.  The BI is two to my left with a K showing.  It folds to me with [J 4]A and I'm completing this 100% of the time.  The guy in the middle is squeezed out but the K calls.  He gets an 8 on 4th st, and a T on 5th st and keeps calling me.  I check 7th street after making a J7 and he ended up with an 86.  He started with K8 + some other low card.  My God where do these people come from?

This got me short, and when it got to Stud, I had < 2000 chips.  Down to 1600 or so I call a bet with Qd showing and two more diamonds underneath.  4th street gives me my 4th diamond.  There are three people left in the hand, and it's bet and raised in front of me.  I can either fold and be down to ~1200 chips or repop it and pray.  And I ain't folding, so I reraise it.  Both come along.  One guy had [KK]xx.  The other had [QQ]88.  I'm in decent enough shape, with only one diamond burnt.  These two jamokes each bag a diamond on 5th and one of them steals another on 6th.  Interestingly, the KK guy went runner runner runner 5 on the last three streets to take it down.  I never improved and have to go to the rail watching the aforementioned loudmouth, the razz moron, and these two jamokes play on while I wrap it up in 5th. 

But I'll be back.  The play is just too bad to stay away. 

I'm onto something

Picked up 1/2 of a buyin through maybe 30 minutes of PLHE last night.  It always helps to have a maniac to your right.  Just fold...fold...fold...fold and watch him raise/reraise from any position with any marginal hand.  Just be patient.  Then when he pops it, you repop it with JJ, flop top set, and watch the chips fall into your lap.  Sadly, the table broke too early for my liking.

Then I took down a $10 HORSE SNG.  I've only played a couple of these, but they're strikingly similar to the $5 events.  There are at least a couple of people who have no clue.  There are a couple of strong players.  Last night was made extra special by the presence of an aggrodonk who got tilted in Stud8 when his low draw never connected, and the guy who scooped the pot simply typed "wow" into the chatbox.  Aggrodonk went on a rant and predictably busted out when...wait for it...he played a Stud Hi hand as if it were razz.  Focus a little more on the board and a little less on the chatbox, slapnuts. 

I notice that I'm *Far* more patient in these events than most other participants, and that I'm a bit better of a O8, Razz, and Stud8 player than most others.  The real key, though, is patience.  So many people see so many flops/4th & 5th streets and have to chuck their hands.  If you sit back and wait for the right spots - against the right opponents - you can easily turn profits on these. 

Of course, when you get to heads up as a 5:7 dog in chips, it helps to flop quad 3s in O8 and have your opponent bet into you every street.  It helps to nail some good razz hands too.  We started to slowplay the razz hands as we both were frustrated as hell with the bring-in - complete - fold nature of EVERY razz hand we played.  Until the last one, where I ended with a pair on 5th street, but with all five cards 8 or lower.  I had to call him and he turned over a made 97 which never improved for him.  Mine did, and now the bankroll is back at a healthy level.  More importantly, I think I've finally found a couple of niches that I can exploit for more consistent results. 

On Second Thought...

...this actually kept me up a bit last night.  I played the hand that crippled me (AQ vs. KK) poorly.

UTG raises 3x in this hand.  It folds around to me on the button.  At the time, my thought process was that said player is a bit loose and aggressive at times.  I thought about it, didn't like the fold, sure didn't want to just call off 1/5th of my chips.  So I shoved. 

In hindsight, I definitely didn't pay enough attention to the position of his raise.  Also, his aggressiveness is post-flop.  He will often bluff and/or check-raise on draws. 

I think this should have been a fold.  It's hard to just release AQ like that, but against an UTG raiser, I had to assume a pair of paint cards or maybe AK.  I'm likely behind to a good chunk of his range. 

Poor play by me.

CHIMPS III Kickoff

Quickly because I'm tired and bitter after this one.

My KK < Villain's AQ
Villain's KK > My AQ
I'm short-stacked...my A7 < 79.  Rivered straight. 

Not much more I can do other than smile and say that I played VERY well.  Seriously.  I made the most out of the situations I was in.  Only one hand that I regret where it folded around to Turley on the button.  He limped.  I limped from the SB and Gambit put on the squeeze play from the BB.  Should've seen that coming.  Otherwise I got aggressive in spots where I normally may not have, stole in a lot of spots, and just never hit a big hand. 

Uneventful Homegame

The highlight, arguably, was that I was able to muster up the energy to stay up for this.  Not a heck of a lot of lowlights either.  I played looser and chased a few more hands with drawing potential.  Only hit one of them and, net-net, I had to lose out on that experiment.  I still firmly believe that there's only one or two people in the game whom you can bluff.  Your options are pretty much to pick up hands - and at the right times and against the right people. 

I think a realistic goal is to make it past the 3.5 hour mark, given our structure.  My thought all year is to not take myself out of an event yet.  I haven't done that, but I also haven't really put myself in a spot to go real deep either. 

I hit a few good hands early, and won a fair amount of small pots in the second hour to get up to an average or slightly above average stack. 

I hit top pair/good kicker too many times - even folded a bunch of hands that would've flopped hard.  Seemingly every time I put a probe bet out w/ the best hand, it would induce folds.  And when I put it out speculatively, it would trigger calls or raises.  I must have a tell either in my betting patterns (though I try real hard not to do this) or in my behavior. 

I made one weak call from the BB to a minraise when holding K2s.  The flop brought an ace and I bluffed at it, got minraised, and chucked those cards as fast as I could. 

In one hand, I flopped a gutshot, called a fairly sizeable bet from a good player, then landed the gutshot on the turn, checkraised myself all-in and it held up.  Horrendous play on my part.  Then again, when in Rome...

As the blinds shot up, I went on a streak of wretched cards.  Many steal opportunities were snuffed out by raises/calls by big stacks in front of me.  Finally at the 1k/2k level, I'm the SB w/ 5300 chips behind.  It folds to me and I take a meaningless look at my cards - I'm shoving with anything here.  It was hard to conceal my disdain when I looked down at 92o, but I shoved.  The BB thought and (properly) called with pocket 3s and I was through just like that - on the bubble.  Hey, that's two events in a row where I didn't go out on a brutal suckout. 

The highlight hand of the night - an UTG raise from the host, a pretty loose player.  It folds around to the SB who calls.  Flop is AKx.  SB bets at it, UTG raises (all-in, I believe) and gets called.  SB had AT while BB had a set of Kings.  SB is now 97% to lose the hand.  I think he had a runner runner flush possibility, a runner runner straight possibility, or the two case Aces.  Well he hit the straight.  Phenomenal. 

Once again, the short-handed play in the game was very passive.  I believe that I just need to get there and that I can make some hay. 

I'm still trying to catch up on sleep and get my strength back from last week's ordeal, which is now topped off by this week's sinus infection.  Hopefully I can get some more good shut eye tonight.  CHIMPS III begins tomorrow.  In the summertime, I'm no more than moderately interested in this.  Plus I'm more and more interested in pursuing my PLHE cash game experiments.