So imagine my dismay when I discovered there was no mook scheduled tonight. Of course I knew it was off this week, I just forgot that I knew it.
Anywho, I took AL’s advice and joined the Riverchasers HORSE event. I didn’t imagine I’d go very far, but I soon realized that some of the competition was looser than a two dollar hoe! So I bided my time and took as many hands off in Stud that I could. I still excel in Razz, OH8 and Stud8 (IMHO) and used those orbits to stay afloat. During the early (first 2 hours) of the tourney I was playing my HU4 matches with NewinNov. I won the first two then got shanghai’d in the 3rd when someone got in before newin. The second hand of which i flopped trips, crippling my opponent. Newin and I played the third match for a very long time, changing leads at least 10 times, in the end I whittled him down for a 3-0 match. This brings my current run in HU4 at 6-1.
And for the HORSE tourney you ask????
wo0t!
On to the Riverchasers…I managed to squeek in to the final table and outlast a few players when I found myself with a respectible stack. Also there at the final table was byron and wwonka It was a fun match down to the end, unfortunately my heads up opponent wiggstad could not stand the onslaught of cards I caught during the razz round and was crushered. good times..
Also I managed to take down the Poker Blogger Fantasy Football League that Kelly ran!!! Did I tell you yet how much I rock?
I hope everyone had (and is having) a great Holiday and have a safe and happy new year.
Stud Hi continues to bug the hell out of me. For whatever reason Stud Hi and Omaha hi gives me fits.
Is it my donkish need to play too many hands?
I’d love to get some insight into hand selection for Stud Hi and OH hi, cause I’m obviously doing something wrong.
I did manage to get 2 2nd places in SNG’s last nite a HOSE and HORSE. I don’t think I’ll play HOSE anymore though. I think Razz is one of my favorite parts of HORSE right now.
Also I came to an interesting finding last night dealing with patience and hand selection overall.
I joined a cheap Stud-8 H/L tournament (415 players) around 8:45 having barely missed the WWDN . I like stud-8 and wanted to get some more hands in on the cheap. About 20 minutes later my wife game home, she decided not to go shopping and just wanted to chill. Fine with me, I left the game open (T2200) and went to watch a movie.
About 45 minutes or so later, I went upstairs to heat up some food and see if I was still in the tourney. I had not lost as much as I expected. I suppose being limit that the orbits last a bit longer. I was sitting at T1600 or so. Of course I decide to play a few hands while my dinner is getting nuked and I manage to win 2 big pots in the span of the 5-7 I saw. I ramped up to ~T5600 and went back downstairs.
When the movie was over (Horribly sappy movie with Peter Faulk and Paul Rieser) the wife wants to read so I can go back to my game. I’m still sitting around T4600 I played for a while longer, but busted with 2 pair and a low draw in the hundreds.
This really got me into thinking about patience. Now, I know there are alot of things different about the games. Limit and Stud makes the game about twice as long as HE, but I think the premise stays the same. I’m playing way too many pots. I hover in the high %30 in most HE tourneys. I think if i can work this down by half over the next month or so that I will see myself lasting longer in even more tournaments, and the last thing you want is me with some chippies at your table.
I’ll be around for the MOOK tonight, I also have a ticket to the 25K at the same time, so maybe I can do some damage in both. I know now why Hoy likes the 25k tournament so much. If you can just show some discipline early on, you can make a run at pretty good money. I played last Friday and managed to cash again in the 150th place range. I feel like I have a chance to win every game I’m in these days, and confidence is a big part of playing well. Just ask DannyN. He just may know a thing or two about successful tournament play.
Oh, and play CC’s Thursday bash and watch me Pauly, Kat and CC battle it out for the big prize.
And now we have 2. I haven’t said a word about it here all season, so I’m sure I’ll jinx myself now. I am in the blogger Fantasy Football Superbowl!!!
Heres the matchup:
I may be taking Tatum Bell out this week for Chester Taylor depending on his injury. Shanahan can’t seem to make his mind up about anything. I picked up Lienard this week, but I could switch him out for Garcia or Big Ben. I don’t really like any of their matchups though. I’m leaning towards Lienard but may switch to Garcia, the philly game just may turn into a shootout.
I’m posting today out of obligation. It’s been a full 3 weeks of doldrums now. I hate it. I need more sleep 4-6 hours doesn’t cut it and it creeps into my behavior. I’m not obligated necessarily to my handful of readers out there (no offense) but obligated to the knowledge that navel-gazing helps me, and I need to post here and get it out.
Tuesday was a blur as I floundered in the WWDN, as of now I don’t remember any hand I played or where I ended up….wait thats right, I didn’t play the WWDN, but I did manage to play a little at FT later and donk away about 3 bills. The thrill of a decent score was in my head and I wanted to turn it into something bigger. Not to be, yet.
Wednesday was a trial in multiple frustrations as I played a decent game at .50/1 covering all my tourney buy-ins, but got my ass handed to me in the blogger games and the 25K guarantee. In all three MTTs I put my money in ahead and got kicked in the junk.
25K 4 hands in get bullets and raise 4x and get a caller, flop comes with garbage and I push, he calls with 99. Turn brings a nine.
Mook : 88 vs AK Qxx on the flop. I’ve already raised pre-flop and called a re-raise by the villain. I firmly put him on Ax or worse. Flop comes and I make a pot sized bet villain pushes and I go with my read. Turn is a K. Good call sir!
Mook2 QJ with a medium to short stack QJx flops and I push, big stack calls (correctly) with KK and turns his set. Yay me.
I did manage to blow some steam off playing low limit horse with Budo, waffles and scottMC. Some retard there kept insisting I was gonna bust when I bluffed him out of a big pot with the waffle (24o). How do you call on every street and a few raises only to fold on the river to one more meager bet???? Somehow I made him do just that…..it was hawesome. I did manage to leave there down about 6 bucks though since I played like every other hand.
I showed up late to CC’s Thursday bash, clearly thinking it was at 10. I ramped up a little but got smoked with a succession of low to mid pairs which I tend to play way too passively. I missed getting points again and need a top 3 in the next tourney to have a chance at scoring some extra cash. I then won my buy-in and then some back playing 25/NL. I promise not to play any more cash above 50/1 for at least 2 months….whew, there…I said it.
I’ll be online at some point tonight, the wife has book club. I have minimal fundage in FT and Stars due to paranoia and a need for some spare x-mas cash. I’ll settle in to some cheap MTT’s and token chases I think. See you around.
It cannot be disputed, don’t get me started.
I gave some thought to my play in the 25K all I can say is that is played somewhat unlike myself…. very fucking tight. Crazy heh, I did manage to get lucky after making a horrible play with AJ sooted with around 160 players left.
I had an above average stack of ~60k and am dealt AJc in 3rd position. I bet 4x and villain in the CU thinks for awhile then min raises. This tells me he has Ax or a mid pair. I make a weak call (should I have pushed here?) Flop comes TT(4?) with one club. Raise checks, I push.
Now why I push her is anyones guess, I can honestly say I’m not sure what I was trying to accomplish. In my defense, I had seen the Villain get beat calling some bad hands. He came to the table as big stack and had taken a few hits with marginal holdings. I suppose I thought I could bully him, I know for a fact that I thought I was behind, and panicked. Bottom line is I thought he would fold to any bet with a scary flop, and I thought thats what I got. Of course he was just slow playing his flopped quads.
I was crippled and down to ~T5000. I told Dusty ‘well 70 bucks ain’t bad’ almost 10x my buy in. The gods had other plans for me that night…as I said in the girly chat, ‘all I need to do is double 4 times and I’m back in.’
That’s exactly what I did, to the tune of ~150x my buy in…..crazy huh? I’m expecting at least one DAS tonight I’ll be in the basement for poker nite with the n’hood donks.
heee haw
It’s 3am….I need to get my 3hrs of sleep before work.
This ain’t bad for $8.
Thanks to The Poker Enthusiast and Joanne for the support!
Hi there guys and gals. I’m really trying to supplant my lack of inspiration with something here….sorry for wasting your time, but I need to push myself through something, and this outlet was made for it.
Anywho, I’ll flush a few things down the toilet and move on.
WWDN was the usual, seems like I can never make thing happen in this tourney, beats me. I wallowed around 3-6th place for a good bit of time last night, but could never get things going. One hand that still bothers me happened about 30 minutes in. I call a 3x raise from VTepes (Sox wife?) with the dreaded AQ off. The flop comes with queen high and 3 diamonds. My diamond is the ace. I make a continuation bet and am raised. At the time I put VT on pocket pairs, possibly AA-KK. So I call and get a blank. Do I really want to check here???
Well I do, practically announcing my hand. VT puts in a pot sized bet in which pressures me to push or fold.
I fold.
I still think its a good fold against a player I don’t really know, and I really wanted to call knowing it was Sox wife. I could imagine him telling her….”he’s got nothing but a flush draw, push” But I gave her credit for the Aces and moved on….still bothers me though.
After that I couldn’t ramp back up, my raises were no longer respected, and its hard enough to get raises respected in the WWDN as it is. I lasted till around mid pack. But as Kat pointed out, I outlasted Pauly! Weeeee, thanks for small favors.
Kat hit me up in the girly chat to bemoan her end of semester grading. I couldn’t imagine wafting through Dozens and Dozens of reports written by 6-12 graders. In fact I think I’d rather eat bleach. Teachers have my utmost respect. It takes a special person.
Newin and I tried to hook up for our 2nd round HU match, but landing in the same $5 table proved impossible on PS. Hopefully we can move to FT as Gracie and I had an easy time getting a table there. I did manage to win the HU game I entered, so that helps.
I also played an 11+1 45 and went home around 15th or so. I’m trying to hit some more MTT’s to get some bankroll relief, but it is having the opposite effect.
I’m looking forward to the Mook tonight though I have a feeling my mind won’t be on the game. I’m in need of some sleep and don’t foresee any anytime soon.
To all the bloggers going to Vegas – I HATE YOU. just kidding. Be safe and travel well. Don’t get arrested, rolled, or injured and all is good!
I’ll be partying late on Friday and Saturday (N’hood Poker, Christmas Parties) so I’m available for DAS!!!! I BETTER at least get calls from KAT and JO!!! CC and weak have my digits as well, use them.
Ok, gotta just jump back on the horse. Writing has been really difficult for me for a couple of weeks now. I’m not really interested in saying nothing, and when your are a not so gifted writer the BS just ends up coming out just like BS.
So I’m just gonna try an go through a little life report and see if it generates some sparks. And for kicks I’ll work backwards.
I’ve been utterly useless today, sleepwalking through another day. Having some bizarre chest/throat/head thing going on is no fun to boot. Combine that with horrible eating habits, an accumulation of 6 hours sleep in the last 2 nights and you have my general state of being somewhat realized. I was fully intending to drop the kids off at the bus stop, turn right around and go back to bed. For some stupid reason I couldn’t make myself do it and found myself at my desk some 45 minutes later.
I really had a great nite playing cards last night, results-wise, meh…up a small bit, but I still feel like I am playing really great. Early in the mook, I lost some chips to a re-raise so I had to be patient. Fortunately (unfortunately as you will see) I woke up with QQ in the cutoff and I had one limper to me. I raise about 4x the blinds to lose the ace/crap play hoping for a fold or a chance to push. I got a call from the BB and the limper folds. JJx comes the flop, and I can’t see checking here. My only option is min raise or push. Being me, I pushed and was called by TT. ..hiiiyyyyyeeeeahhh . I’ll spare you the rest.
Big props to my ATL brethren for getting 1st and 2nd in the mook last night. Way to represent BRAIN and Surf!!
So I sign up for the 2nd chance horse and a 22+2 turbo. I can’t say much about the horse game, I played my usual questionable hands and had some fun. I hate Stud, I have no concept as to how to play this as 2 pairs usually take it down..or so it seems. I freaking dominate the 22 and my head is getting bigger since I knocked Gracie out of HU4 earlier.
Grace and I have been trying to get together a few times, but being the holidays and my lack of playing time over the last 2 weeks we had a tough time getting together. When I sparked up the old poker machine, imagine my delight when I see the little yellow smiley next to peacecorn in the girly chat. So I think to myself, “Self, you might as well bite the bullet and get yourself tore up by a former WSOP player and uber cool lady.
Something happened though about mid way through the first game. I felt goot! I felt in command. I switched up a little from the bet, raise, fold school and took some chances. Go figure, I start catching and rolling.. I made one questionable call in the third game with TPFD top pair flush draw. I held the Q and put Gracie on AQ- QT she pushed the turn and I knew she did not want a call, but I gave it and her trashy 2-pair held up. Other than that, I bobbed and weaved my way to 3-1 fairly quickly. I think we were done with all 4 matches in under an hour, or close to it.
I do not want to give the impression that I somehow outplayed her, I just got cards when I needed them… end of story.
Work has been creating a bit of tilt for me lately as I go through periods of utter boredom to frantic frustrating juggling to finish ‘emergency’ projects. I’m still the guy they come to when they get stuck or can’t figure something out…so as long as there are persons of questionable intellect in my workplace, I’m good. I still have a ‘crossing every finger’ type opportunity that is beginning to look bleak, but I’ll hold up hope till I hear something.
So Tuesday night at the wheetie was a trial in frustration. I made a hammer play fairly early and couldn’t get some donk off Ax soooted. I should have paid attention, since it turns out he was a calling station overvaluing aces on a couple of occasions. Then it just turned into one of those games where i didn’t get paid off when I wanted action, my moves missed completely, then frustration took over.
Its a snowball effect that creeps into MTT’s for me a bit. It seems like I can take a a sequence of hands and roll on up, but if I get beat bad or have a string of plays with decent hands that don’t hit, I get frustrated and things move south. In late stage situations, I usually have chips to lose, and this doesn’t affect me, but early in tournaments a bad hand can ofter spell early destruction for me, as evidenced in both blogger tourneys I played this week.
I’ve been thinking alot about temperament and am not going to continue playing when I am not concentrating. My temperament and my concentration goes hand in hand. Essentially, if I’m concentrating in the moment, my actions are not dictated by my feelings. And all good cash and tournament players that I know are able to remove emotions from the decision making process.
Saturday and Sunday I spent in bed or on the couch as I was overrun with exhaustion and the onset of a cold. The wife was super spectacular at taking the kids away to let me wallow and rest. She was also retuning my favor from Friday when I let her sleep all day….she bounces back in ~24 hrs…..I’m still hacking up pieces of lung and sound like I’ve had my larynx removed 5 days later.
Ahh what else. Turkey day was awesome. I am lucky enough to have most of my family within driving distance and was able to hit up lunch at big bro’s house and dinner at my wife’s aunt’s.
The wife is almost done for the semester and is gearing up for 3 big finals in Constitutional Law, Torts and a 3rd one I’m forgetting, you lawyers out there can feel her pain I’m sure. This means she will be spending a vast majority of her time the next two weeks studying, reading, and sleeping possibly allowing me to concentrate on poker and house stuff.
So that just about catches me up on what I’m not posting about for the past week. I’m looking forward to hitting the virtual felt tonight all hopped up on cold medicine…..yipee!!
One of my buddies sent me this link…HA!
A recent study suggests that parents are often unaware of their children’s drug use. Here are some warning signs parents should look out for:
Higher incidences of sass-mouth
Child begins using slang such as “groovy,” “hepcat,” and “23 skidoo”
Happiness, creativity
Infographic Teen Drugs R
Becomes very jittery when watching Mad Money With Jim Cramer
Displays glazed eyes and sullen mood whenever parents initiate long discussions about the problems with drugs
Tracks used needles all over the house
Son is type of kid who wears shorts in dead of winter
I’ve had a bit of trouble lately posting. I’ve used this place as an outlet in the past and it evolved into…..something.
I have vowed to ‘shit or get off the pot’ in the proverbial sense, but tend to fall back into my all too comfortable routine. Something akin to build, bust, re-buy, I accomplish, lose, reevaluate. On the poker side, I have nothing to reevaluate, I am what I am, but evolving. My main problem, and a theme running through my posts is consistency, and my desire to find some semblance of it.
I have what it takes to be a great player, I think. My shortcomings are in the realm of analytical skills (putting your opponent on a range of hands), bankroll management ( picking the right game and sticking with it), and discipline (not getting lit and playing way above my bankroll).
In my opinion, discipline is the most troublesome, I think it is something very hard to teach or learn…you’ve got it or not. What I’ve got is that little devil sitting on my shoulder saying: ‘Psst, Brian give it a shot…why not? Someone’s got to win right?’
Totally lottery winner type thinking, and I only do that for poker. I’ve taken a bit of a step back in some respects. At the height of my playing I was online EVERY night, up till 12-4AM most nights, sleep be damned. I’ve trimmed it down to once or twice a week, but it hasn’t resulted in more selective play or better decision making. troubling indeed. I’ve just got to figure out what makes this game work..I need to strip it down and make it mine, and I keep telling myself I’m getting there, but seeing the same results. Am I doomed to be a break-even player? I keep waiting for a breakthrough that might not be coming.
So on to other things…. I am constantly impressed by the talent of what I reluctantly consider my ‘peers’. The quotes are there to emphasize that the word peers implies equals, and I am not equal to these guys.
Otis is a constant source of inspiration, he writes with his heart, and cares not for the consequences. His talent lies in his ability to get it out there in such a readable and easily understood manner. He gets things out in his writing that make you want to hear more, to get inside. It’s humbling.
Pauly is so himself it is scary….truly comfortable in his own skin, fully aware, always observing. Luckily for us he is always reporting as well. His latest post struck a bit of a nerve.
“So the next time you get an alumni magazine and you get pissed off that a dumb ass moron that couldn’t even jerk off properly who is all of a sudden a real estate mogul in Macau with a modelesque wife and a private jet, remind yourself that none of this matters.
Like David Mamet said in his play Edmond, “No one is keeping score. No one cares.”
Actually he’s wrong on that. There is someone keeping score and there is someone that cares… and it’s you. And unless you let those notions go, you are going to be living your life in a way that’s not your own. You’d be living a life that is motivated by getting a blurb in your alumni magazine. In short, that’s pathetic.
You cannot read other people’s minds, so stop worrying about what other people may or might not think about you. Most of the time we’re way off base and if someone thinks you’re a loser or asshole… then so what?”
1. Know why you play poker before you play it.
2. Don’t live your life to impress your peers.”
Thanks for that Pauly. I am keeping score, but my problem is that I need validation as well. I think a lot of people have this issue. They carry it without knowing why, or where to get it. I know I’ve sought some sort of validation here with mixed results. But when it comes down to it, who the fuck cares? What difference does it make if I am accepted or not? When it comes down to brass tax I am the ultimate judge.
Why am I doing this? Because its fun. Not good enough, I’m not 20 years old I have to hold myself in a higher light.
What am I getting from this? 3 years of throwing money around trying to prove I belong to something. Sad, poor excuse….get something you can put your fingers on or bail..this is a waste of freaking time unless you can do that.
Sorry this is such a long and winding post…I have more, but I’m tired of typing now. Something big is on the horizon for me and I have to go and get it. My problem is that I don’t know how to get what I want, it has always come to me.
Also, I’ve done some housekeeping on the right hand side here and have added some very excellent blogs to it. Please go check these out if you have not yet.