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.