Friday, June 29, 2007

Seeking Tournament Success

Poker, to me anyways, is oh so cyclical. If you followed this blog for any amount of time whatsoever, you'll notice the same patterns repeating over and over again: Me loving Poker playing 1k hands for 14 straight days followed by me being bored with Poker and barely playing a hand in a month (ditto for posting here). Can't really help it, I've been like that all my life.

My recent switch to NL cash games has propped up my interest in the game again. I'm motivated and really looking forward to sit at the tables and get some hands in on a daily basis. The results have been more than acceptable, so that obviously helps a whole bunch.

The biggest difference this time is that I really crave playing tournaments. I don't really know where it came from but something just clicked and I keep daydreaming about making some kind of big score. We're NOWHERE near that yet but at least I'm playing in these things so that's a first step.

I went fairly deep in the Daily Double A on Tuesday, outlasting 667 of the 757 entrants before I pushed my queens into kings to send me home packing. The payout was laughable, 20$, not even breaking even since I registered for both events. Note to self, win tokens and play tournaments where actual money is being handed out.

The 14K on Monday was a bit more disappointing. I was really looking forward to playing this event since it's a double stack and the cost is a modest 26$ token. That thing was a grind from beginning to end. Couldn't catch a card to save my life and my steal attempts kept getting re-popped to the point that I was steaming and impatient. I met my demise shortly after the first break when my all-in re-steal with KJs ran straight into the BB's kings. Fun times!

All this to say that you can now expect to see me in the player's list of many of those 14k+ guaranteed tourneys on Full Tilt (ID: Papi Justify). Hey, I'm just some kid having big dreams of making a big score in this game. I'll probably play a bunch on Sunday and Monday (Although I'll be missing the Big game due to other obligations, lame I know) so hopefully we get to sit together at a final table! One can only hope...

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Candy Canes is Gold (Part 1)

(6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Papi Justify [7h 7d]
Papi Justify raises to $1.75 from MP
SB raises to $5.75
BB calls $5.25
Papi Justify calls $4

If the BB doesn't call this raise, I'm folding since the SB is clearly reprensenting a big pair. As it is, the BB's call gives me the implied odds to try and flop my set.

*** FLOP *** [Jh 7c 9h]
SB bets $12.50
BB raises to $25
Papi Justify raises to $41.80, and is all in

SB is obviously betting his over pair here. BB's raises throws me off a bit. What is he raising with here that would call a raise AND a re-raise preflop? Pocket 9's or Pocket J's maybe? Slowplayed a pair of aces or kings?

I push since I'm a donkey who can't fold a set to save his life.



SB raises to $59
BB calls $34

Ok, what the fuck is going on here?

*** TURN *** [Jh 7c 9h] [5c]
SB $0.60, and is all in
BB $0.60
SB [Qc Qd]
BB shows [Tc 8c]
Papi Justify shows [7h 7d]

Wow. SB is clearly clueless, how on earth could he ever think his queens are good after all that action on the flop? Oh, and gotta love that preflop call from the BB, I mean isn't pretty standard to call a raise and a re-raise with 10-8s preflop?

I obviously need help here so...


*** RIVER *** [Jh 7c 9h 5c] [7s]
SB shows two pair, Queens and Sevens
BB shows a straight, Jack high
BB wins the side pot ($35.60) with a straight, Jack high
Papi Justify shows four of a kind, Sevens
Papi Justify wins the main pot ($139.65) with four of a kind, Sevens
SB is sitting out

Ship it!!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Falling flat on one's face

Well, things didn't really turn out the way I would have hoped so.

I was SOOOOO excited to play the MATH for the first time in well over a year that failing so miserably left quite the bitter taste in my mouth.

1. I knew things were not going to be easy when I saw how tough my starting table was. (Smokkee, Colombo, Jordan, Huge Junk, C-mitch are the ones I can remember right now)

2. I definitely wasn't prepared to play this event properly. This is a double stack event, I played it like a single stack donkfest. Raising in early position with marginal holdings (and subsequently, folding to many re-raises), making loose calls from the blinds with crap cards, dumb continuation bets out of position with danger cards all over the place, etc. Definitely not my finest showing. I'll be back next week, making the necessary adjustments and hopefully making a run at the final table. Gah!

Btw, Cmitch, who busted me early in the tourney (I don't think I lasted an hour, which is pretty sad in a big stack tourney) ended up winning the whole thing. Now, I don't really keep count of these sort of things but people who knock me out of these blogger events tend to win them like a lot. It doesn't matter if it's first hour of final table, it seems going through me guarantees good results. So you now know what to do in the future; put a big fat giant target on my back and try to take me out early.

Oh and kudos to Jordan for making it all the way to third place. When I busted out, he was, I believe, the only player that had even less chips that I had before I was sent packing. Seems like that boy is running hot right now.

I wish I could say my night of disappointments ended there but I unfortunately decided to blow off some steam on the cash game tables. That was a mistake. I didn't play poorly, it was just fairly obvious that last night was not my night and the computer should have been off after the MATH.

The end result was a 3 buy in loss. The cash tables were pretty much a continuation of the earlier tourney. Missed flops galore, second best hands all over the place, etc. It's kinda sad, especially since I had position on a bunch of horrible donkeys that were hitting their magical cards left right and centre. I got stacked twice. The first time I pushed my queens on a flop of under cards and was called by another player holding pocket 10's who turned his freakin' set. *Sigh*. The second time was purely a tilt hand where I pushed my TPTK (Pair of nines with an ace obv) into some ‘I see 85% of the flops' monkey who had flopped two pair with 9-5o. Yeah, it was that kind of night.

So when did I finally call it quits? After then entire table limps in, I make it 5$ to go with aces on the button. Sb and UTG call. The flop comes out 9-7-2 rainbow. Utg leads out for half the pot, I really don't like it so I pot to find out where I stand. SB pushes, Utg pushes behind and I lol before folding my hand in disgusts. Sb's hand: Pocket 2's. Utg: Pocket 7's.

Like I said, just that kind of night.

Monday, June 18, 2007

About to play the Hoy!

Man, it's been awhile. In what was probably the longest Tier one Sng in the history of Full Tilt Poker, I managed to bag a 26 token that I've already used to book a seat in this week Monday at the Hoy tourney. The Math, along with theRiverchasers tourney, are the two blogger events that I've played the least. I think I've played one Math tourney (Wayyyy back in the day when it was held on Pokerstars) and I have yet to pop my Riverchasers cherry. Now that I have somewhat of a bankroll on Full Tilt, I'm glad that I'll be able to play more of these events in the future.

The Unlimited Hold'em cash games have been kind to me this weekend I'm happy to say. After a nasty stretch of breakeven play (About 5k hands) it was nice to land on the positive side of things. There's really no secret recipe to obtain success at 50$ NL tables. Basic ABC poker will get the job done. It's a nice grind so I can't complain for now, but I can't wait to actually some real poker when I reach the 1$ tables.

Well, my MATH table just popped up so I guess that's it for me. Hopefully my next post will be all about me besting 50 odd blogger for a nice 500$ payday. One can only hope!


Later