Do I play tonight?

What to play? For some reason I never seem to do well on Tilt so that to play there I usually have to deposit. I have winnings on about 6 other sites but can’t seem to build a bankroll on Tilt. So now do I deposit a few more bucks to play the PFTR tourney tonight? I know I’m playing the Mookie this Wed. (and it is the fucking Mookie damn it, no matter what anyone else thinks. It amazes me that people are actually agreeing with Waffles.) but do I play in the VeryJosie tourney also. Maybe that’s my problem on FT, I don’t multi table much. Trying to concentrate on one online table usually doesn’t work out for me.

The good news is that I seem to be coming out of the bleak mood I was in last week. I finally finished the online story I was reading that I mentioned at the end of my last post though I haven’t gotten around to critiquing it yet. Still feeling too frikkin lazy to do a whole lot of mental work. Today I picked up a book I hadn’t read in years and started on it though if I’m playing tonight I have to make sure I put it down a couple hours early to give my eyes time to refocus.. If I’m reading I’m in much better shape as books have always been a major part of my life. If I’m neglecting them I’m in a really foul funk. Another good sign is that I’m starting to feel like playing poker again, another main vice. I played both BBT5 games last week but that and a couple of PA forum special games were about all I played and wasn’t really into them. Haven’t even played many league games. Have to take a short break every so often.

Yesterday I played some ring on Power and a tourney on AP to kill some time. Results were so-so. The tourney was HORSE. Main reason I played it was that except for the occasional league game that shows up don’t get to play much HORSE and I like it. This one actually had enough people registered to make it interesting, around 45-50 runners, so I jumped in. Poker gods obviously didn’t like me playing it however. Was doing ok in the top 7 or so in chips until the bets were up there and I pissed away all my chips in Razz. I learned quickly in the first round that this group chased because there was always one guy with two face cards up to my 9 high board who would keep calling me down. Bluffing wasn’t going to work with this crowd. Somehow I blew all my chips on two hands, a 7 high then a 6 high, almost back to back. Now someone has to be really pissed off at you to get trashed in Razz twice like that in that short a time. Ring however was a bit better. Played a bit of .10/.20 NL and picked up about $22. Hit one good hand, boat over flush, but mostly it was lots of small pots just adding up. That and avoiding the one big chip dump that usually kills me in NL ring no matter how good my session before it. Table was fairly soft, if anyone had anything they bet, if not they checked and a bet into them could usually take it down. Not even any calling stations. Picked up another $10 this morning, same type table but gave it up. It was so tight that even the small pots were too small to be worthwhile. Again hit one good hand, boat over trips this time, and some small ones but gave it up as too hard. I’m not that back in to the game that I can do that kind of grinding.

Reading Schaubs and Waffles blogs on the no shows at the Invitational and have to agree with them. Al spends a lot of time arranging this thing and Tilt is posting some great prizes and people can’t be bothered to show? C’mon, there are hundreds of us out here that would kill for invites and you guys are just blowing them off? Way to go people. Hope Al’s keeping a list and checking it twice. Come to think of it, dye that hair and beard and he might make a passable Santa though what the kids would make of the SoCo I don’t know. For that matter would he be able to tolerate the milk that goes with the cookies? Don’t know about you but I hate sitouts at online tourneys. It’s one of the features I appreciate at AP/UB. If you don’t hit the take my seat screen they pop up at the start by the end of the first level you are then removed from the tourney. That way you aren’t fighting the inertia of a dead table. They seem to be the only sites that do it however. Anywho, I know Sunday evenings can be a busy time for folks, especially the nice ones we’ve been having, but still think folks would jump at the chance to play these games. Of course I’m just a crippled up old fart with a lot of time on my hands so my point of view my be skewed. Either way, get with the program people.

Hey look, a whole post and no mention of Josie. Thanks or the listen.

Another Mookie done done

Played the Mookie, and it is the Mookie, last night though wasn’t feeling the greatest. Even worse I had spent the previous couple of hours reading and when I do that my eyes go out of focus on the computer screen. That means I have to full screen the table to even see my chip count and tell the difference between a 6 and an 8. Given this there was absolutely no chance of any live blogging the game or even keeping a running tally of the table action to post later. Even worse there was no possible way to see, let alone participate in, the damned chat box so that the trash talk that makes this game so much fun wasn’t happening either.

I do remember a few things that happened. Was at ck’s table but she didn’t last long enough for a cup of coffee. Seems she got a bit aggressive against Blaargh and shoved a flopped mediocre top pair, 9s I think, into his pocket Ks. Early night for the Black Widow. Right after I told her she was getting to be as big a luck sack as Riggs too. Just had to go and make a liar out of me didn’t ya. I almost followed soon after and would have if I hadn’t won a small pot earlier. This time I was the one with the K-K and got trashed when Cracknaces gambled his tourney life on two over cards to the board and a flush draw when he raised my pot bet then called my shove on a 2 club, 10 high flop with K-J of clubs. As ck would say damned crubs. That left me sitting with about 250 chips while still at the first level. Somehow I was able to hang in and actually rebuild my stack up to around 2500 chips at one point but that point was somewhere after the first break so it wasn’t exactly a great stack by that point. Mainly a lot of shoves a couple that got calls here and there and hands holding up until my final shove with A-Qs came up dry against J-J. Would have been nice to make a deep run after being down that low early but it wasn’t meant to be. Used up that bit of luck when I pulled it off Monday night in a game amongst members of the Poker Analysis players when I went from an early mauling to tourney winner. Can’t expect that to happen too often.

Something I’ve been wondering about over the last couple of weeks is what gives with Josie? Don’t get me wrong Josie, it ain’t about you as such, you write a good blog, seem to be a decent person and don’t look half bad either if that is really you in that picture. However it seems every blogger with a dick is tripping over it in trying to make nice with you. C’mon guys, haven’t you ever dealt with a woman before? I mean Waffles I can understand, it’s entirely possible that he hasn’t if the rumor mill is correct but there can’t be that big a drought out there in blogger land.

Speaking of Waffles he seems to be desperate to get people on this change the name of the Mookie to the Dank bandwagon. Reading his blog I see he has Hoy listed as someone who is calling the Mookie by either The Dank or the Buddy in his effort to get others to do so. Hoy? Hoy? Now I don’t know what goes on between those two but from reading Waffles blog it sounds like Waffles would be the first guy to give Hoy a drink if he were in hell. Of Tabasco. Yet after reading nothing but trash talk from the aforementioned blogger he now cites him as an example. Oh the depths some people will sink to in pursuit of their agenda.

Damn, how did I live without all this fun when I took that hiatus? Donning my asbestos earmuffs. Thanks for the listen.

Tonight's Mookie

Gonna try something different tonight. Am going to try live blogging of the game, as far as I'm concerned at least. May go further after I get KOed but not committing to anything. Hell, might not be able to keep it up as far as my participation goes but we'll try.

It's 15 minutes to start and 95 runners at the gate so far. Will we break 100?

We start with 114 runners and I find myself at a table with Josie and Riggs for familiar names

A lot of folding early but Josie has lost about half her stack to NYRambler.

Lose my first hand of playable cards to Riggs. Lousy flop so not a lot of damage

Seems Waffles is at the table and I just recovered some of my chips thru his good graces (hah)

Seems Waffles donated again. I'm going to get ripped if this keeps up.

Tough fold. Raise in position and get reraised by niktak. Flop gives me TPTK but niktak bets out fairly strong. Too early to push, overpair probable.

Riggs scores double KO, including Josie when he turns a set of Ks

Pick up some chips from Mattazuma when my A-Q turns out better than his K-Q on a A-K-J-x-x board

KK, gets no action from a 3xs raise. Oh well.

Waffles has just informed me he has a feeling I'm going out before him. Hey, anything is possible.

Just split a pot with Jamyhawk. PP9s lead all the way until we both river a straight. Called down with A-9. I then get called by Waffles on a J-8-8 flop with A-K. Doesn't anyone believe me when I bet?

Well, it's better than Monday night. I made first break and even have some chips. At least the poker gods ain't playing tricks tonight (except that split pot) On the whole the cards just suck so I'm folding a lot.

NYRambler just dropped the hammer on me with a reraise to my raise. Thing is, I wasn't a whole lot better.

Damn, K-K again, in SB, and all fold. BB folds to raise.

Take some chips off MaggieO. She minraised my BB and I call on general principle and smack the flop. She calls flop and turn bets and folds to value bet on river. Was I called down by another A-x?

Waffles shoves and called by myself and Jamyhawk. I hit the flop and bet and am called. Turn brings a 3rd spade and even tho I have top pair with nut flush redraw I check and Jamy shoves. I fold, he has Q-Q, Waffles A-T. River a 3 and Waffles is gone, so much for his feeling tho it was almost a draw. I lose half my stack.

Jamyhawk just takes out VinNay. He's on a roll. Called VinNay's shove of his raise with A-8 to VinNay's 3-3 and caught a straight.

I'm out. A-K shove with about 11 BBs. MaggieO had raised and Chippy McStacks called and both called my shove. MaggieO, with Q-J catches a J and Chippy with 7-7 and my A-K go begging.

I find CK has taken my seat and as she is live blogging, and does a much better job at it than I, I guess I'll shut down for the night.

Thanks for the listen.

The BBT is back

Al’s at it again. No, not destroying some bar’s supply of SoCo but organizing the BBT., the Battle of the Bloggers, a set of tournyes over the next few weeks that offer a great set of prizes, courtesy of Full Tilt and Al’s effort. Full details can be found on Al’s site here. Come out and trash talk your favorite bloggers and see if they are as good, or bad, as they think they are. The BBT starts tomorrow, Sub., April 17th with The Invitational, an event I am only going to be able to rail as I am a mere Z-list blogger but I will be participating in some of the opens on Mon and Wed as long as my senility doesn’t kick in and make me forget starting times. Will probably rail tomorrow nights Invitational for a while to see who is playing but I have 2 fairly big tourneys on the personal calendar for tomorrow, the forum wars I have discussed in previous posts and a 35K guarantee sniper that I won an entry to last month, both on AP, so I will be a bit distracted,. Hopefully I last log enough that is. So, see you at the BBT. Thanks Al.

More poker

Playing some more online poker Saturday. Now that I’m back behind the wheel AC ain’t in the far too distant future but until the arm hardens up a bit, online is still where it’s at. I still need practice with MTTs and my Tilt bankroll could use a little stiffening so I decided to play a deep stack there. Things started looking up fairly quickly when I caught a 6-8 in the BB and the flop hit 6-7-8 rainbow. Led out with a half pot bet to see where I stood and got 3 callers. The turn brought another 8 and I’m doing flips of joy figuring at least one of those callers was drawing to the straight if they weren’t already slow playing it. At one time I would probably have checked that turn giving the chasers a free card hoping to get paid off on the river but getting maximum return on my big hands has been a problem for me, a definite hole in my game, and I have decided to try some different things to try and fix that. Figuring that one of those callers might already have made the straight, and given the tendency of players at this level to chase open enders if the price isn’t too bad I decided to lead out with a bet a tad bigger than my flop bet. This way I pick up a few more chips if the river totally bricks. It worked as I got a caller. The river was beautiful, a 10. I decide if he caught his straight he’s going to have problems letting it go. He’s got to think he’s getting a chop at worst and that maybe his hand might be good if I’m playing a low end straight or if he’s playing a J-9 and has the over card so I pot it. Like a trout to a fly he’s all in and I’m right behind him. He turns over K-9 and I double up.

The next hour I’m up and down between 10 and 15K. Picked up another decent pot when I’m OTB with A-A and I get the player’s dream in that situation, a raise and reraise in front of me. I pot it, first raiser folds and reraiser shoves. I call and the As hold. Gotta love when you can get it in good and get paid. Next hand I pick up As again and again a raise in front of me. This time though the pot bet brings a fold. This guy was a pain in my butt, having a habit of raising oop with marginal hands, forcing me off some hands and sucking out when I actually had something that I could play with. Just couldn’t get a hold on him and it cost me big time a bit later. I was up to about 16K and pulled ppJs. It limps around to me and I raise with one caller, the pain in my butt. Flop comes 9 high with straight and flush draws and I bet out and he calls. The turn bricks and I go pot and he shoves. Warning bells go off but he only has about 2K more and he has been pushing with crap at times so I call and he shows 9-9 for the set. Cost me about half my stack. We go on and I get my stack back up to about 16K again when I spike a small set against A-K and he shoves the A on the flop. Couple of orbits around and I drop a couple of thousand chips in blinds and a failed bet or two. Then Mr. Pain gets generous and decides to give me my chips back and then some. When he shoves his Ts into my Qs and the Qs hold. A few small pots and I’m up to about 30K sitting around tenth or so with about 100 players left of the 600 + that started. Was starting to think I might actually win enough to buy into the Riverchasers game Monday or maybe even the Sunday night game in the BBT when I got smoked.

I get A-Ts, raise and get called by the BB. Flop comes T-8-3 giving me top, top and BB bets about half the pot. He didn’t strike me as the type to bet a set into a preflop raiser so I figured him for either hitting middle pair or having a big A and trying to force me off the pot. I come back with a pot sized bet and he calls. Turn comes a J and he shoves what’s left of his stack, about 4K and I call. He has K-Q for an OESD but hits the Q on the river to suckout and leave me short. He then goes on to boast about have a pair of solid copper ones and then makes a remark about me not being afraid of the overcard and potential flush. Hell, there is already over 32K in the pot at that point and I’ve committed around 16K. I’m going to fold for a 4K bet? By then the 4K made no difference one way or another. I eventually doubled back up but by then the blinds were high enough that I still only had about 10 BBs left and when I shoved my mid pair pre they lost to A-K with the flopped A and I fell a tad short. So much for my adventure on Full Tilt. The site hasn’t been very kind to me lately. AP now has been a much different story but more of that later.

I’m starting to bore myself let alone my loyal reader or two, I mean massive fan base (I’m talking you Hank) so we’ll wrap this one up for now and Thank You all for letting your eyeballs wander around here.

Some poker content

Have to start this off with two of the weirdest plays I have seen, both on the same night. In the first instance was playing a tourney on Full Tilt. Guy flopped quads and then proceeded to check them all the way down. In position yet. I can understand checking the flop, maybe even the turn but when your opponent checks the river how do you not throw something out there? Later, on AP, I watched another guy raise his A-A by 4 preflop and then proceed to check them down to two callers. WTF were these guys thinking? How do they think you accumulate chips in these games? Just when you think you’ve seen very bone headed move in the book.

Speaking of bone headed I’ve been playing the low limit 4 card hold em tourneys on Full Tilt lately. Nominally they are supposed to be Omaha games but I can’t call it Omaha when you have raise, reraise, all-in with 4-5 callers preflop. At the showdown you see one guy actually have an Omaha hand worth playing to the raise and everyone else has a pair of somethings. Been getting some small cashes but most nights are like last night where my pot sized bets on the flopped nut straight was called on both flop and turn by someone holding a pair of kings who winds up backdooring a flush. Or the guy who feels his trips are worthy of a repot with a suited board and of course rivers his boat. That was the two Tilt games. The one I play on AP the cards just sucked. Those guys are almost as bad but not quite though almost every hand is raised pre. That game is a turbo however so you eventually have to make a move and hope you catch. Tonight Omaha was a tad better to me. Played a $1 satellite PLO8 to a much bigger game and although I didn’t get the seat I came in second and picked up 20 some bucks, just a few less than the satellite buy in was worth. Couple more people and I’d have had the seat but the cash is cool. My AP bankroll growing a bit which is cool considering I’m still playing with freeroll money.

Speaking of AP and my bankroll it picked up a healthy addition last night playing standard 2 card hold em. Playing the Shark Tour home game on AP last night, $4 buy in .that added another $70 to the bank. I like these games, kind of like the blogger games. Lots of chatter, mix of players and donks, fun in other words. Fact I seem to do well in them don’t hurt. Will admit I got lucky heads up last night. Went in to H2H severely outchipped but caught one of those hands you need to in a situation like this. Holding A-J in the BB the SB raised and I shoved, he called. He had A-7 and when the J hit the flop I was back in the hunt. It helps when you even out the chip stacks head to head. Slows down the bully factor. There were a couple of hands that pissed me off in that game and one I pissed myself of on. Twice I flopped a flush and had someone bet into me on it so rather than push I just smooth called. When the turn paired the board I bet into the check and got called. When the river double paired it and the guy bet out I had to trash the flush. Not once but twice dammit. That sucks. The hand I got angry at myself over was a preflop all in by the button with a call by the SB and since the button was short and it was not quite a 3x raise I called with K-Q. I was involved in a hand on Tilt at the time and basically just checked down with the SB. What I didn’t notice was the 4 clubs, including A, on the board with my K giving me the nuts. If I had seen that I would have thrown out a river bet just to see if I could get a few more chips. At the showdown I noticed the SB had the J of clubs so more than likely would have called a value bet there. I started mentally kicking my arse but luckily those extra chips were needed. Wanna thank Mojo for the railing even though AP doesn’t allow comments from observers at the final.


AP being good to me right now. Playing a $4 sniper, a KO tourney as it were for those who are used to FT terminology, as I write this Have already made a buck over the buy in in KOs and am itm though not deep as of yet. Sitting about middle of the pack right now, maybe slightly better. No matter what I’ve added another couple of bucks to the bank roll. Right now I’m a bit on the tired side so I’m not going to put it past myself to make a stupid mistake. Sooner rather than later. We’ll see.

Update

it wasn't sooner nor was it really a mistake but again I go down before the decent bucks. Went out 20 something when I ran my A-K against a small pair and thought I hit the K on the flop he siked his set. Neither one of us was in great shape, about the same amount approx 10 BB left. With that much left I probably should have shoved his 4x raise but don't think it would have made a difference as he was pretty well committed anyway though in these tourneys you never can be sure. People will sometimes try and hang on to the last chip but you could say I did make a mistake there by not shoving. It's a hole in my game that I recognize but tiredness and habit won out last night.

Well I’m boring myself now and I can barely keep my eyes open as it is so I will thank you for your visit and wish everyone a good day or night or whatever it is when they read this.

Pay it forward

For the help this community gave me getting thru some tough times hope this helps someone else. It's late but just ran accross it. Hope Dr. Pauly forgives me for lifting this from his post.

You can help out this Wednesday, Nov 12th.
Here's the details:
When: 9pm ET on 11/12
Where: Full Tilt - Tournament #67971755
Buy in: $10+$10
NLName: Bad Beat on Kidney Failure
Password: CailtyssRulien

Hope to see you there. So much for my early night.

Addendum: Well early night anyway, out on the first hand.