Guess I need to shut the hell up sometimes. Posted that last hand which put me up to 28K when the average chip count was 12K. Then promptly lost AK all in vs JJ when board was Ac 7c 3c and he had JJc. Turn club. Then made two big bluffs which down in flames when a guy calls a 2/3 pot sized bet on the river with AK when the board is 23467. Then of course KK< As3s. And in the span of about 45 mins I go from 216th in chips to out in 2613th place. Man that was so stupid.

Really Really Nice read (i think ) in FTOPS main event

Almost streaming....this hand happened 5 min ago...im rolling hard in this event

Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t100/t200 Blinds - 9 players

The Official Hand History Converter



BTN: t14500

SB: t9642

BB: t8232

UTG: t19315

UTG+1: t3125

UTG+2: t2959

MP1: t5105

Hero (MP2): t18980

CO: t15561



Pre Flop: (t300) Hero is MP2 with T K

4 folds, Hero raises to t550, 2 folds, SB calls t450, 1 fold



Flop: (t1300) 3 J J (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t750, SB calls t750



Turn: (t2800) 2 (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t1450, SB calls t1450



River: (t5700) K (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t1500, SB requests TIME, SB raises to t6892 all in, Hero requests TIME, Hero calls t5392



Final Pot: t19484

SB shows 9 9 (two pair, Jacks and Nines)

Hero shows T K (two pair, Kings and Jacks)

Hero wins t19484

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Eek: Definition: to act like a timid mouse and sniff around looking for scraps of food all the bigger, stronger animals leave behind.

Example: $322 Buyin NL Hold'em Tourney FTOPS Event #9.

5370 Entrants - 738 paid spots

729......
730......
731 TheNewMath = $418.86
732.....
733.....

I played this tourney fairly poorly. I was lucky enough to have a very fishy first table but I didnt really accumulate at all until I reached my 2nd table. My 2nd table was actually much more difficult but I flopped the nut flush in a 3 way pot against an aggro player who tried to bluff all in and I started amassing chips. Then I decided to donk off a few making over aggro players after falling back to sub average chips I also decided I wanted to have a 2 or 3 in my hand for numerous orbits while I blinded down. Thankfully, I got mad eek skills and folded some big hands on or near the bubble to eek into the money and then promptly bust on the very next hand all while maintaining an M of 2. Yay!

So I Got Barred from Hustler for 30 Days

Wow.



I am now officially barred from Hustler Casino for 30 days. A dealer was extremely rude to me and I complained to the shift manager about it. After interviewing the dealer and the wife of a player at the table (who is ALSO a dealer at Hollywood Park), the shift manager threatens me before even hearing my side of the story. He then explains that he has corroborating evidence from "numerous" (read: 1 person not in the game) players in the game, the dealer, the floorman, and that all these angles agree I was bullying/abusing the dealer. I explain the situation that occurred which resulted in genuine confusion that had me paying 3 blinds instead of just small and big. When I corrected the dealer he made some rude remarks that I didnt appreciate and then later interrupted a conversation I was having with my neighbor about he situation. I brusquely told him "Just deal" as I was not interested in talking to him or hearing anything he had to say. This came back around as I told him to "Shutup and Deal" and that I abused him.
I spoke with Paulie the floorman after I was barred by Jacob the shift manager and Paul had no idea of what was going on. Therefore, Jacob the shift manager DID NOT have the story of the floorman at the time (I did not call Paul over at the time, nor did the dealer complain to the floor about me) nor did he have any of the viewpoints of the players in the game besides an onlooking off duty dealer (biased? No comment).
As far as I can tell, I broke no rules that should result in a 30 day barring. I did disagree with Jacob the shift manager as to his lying and poor handling of the situation. Obviously, had I not brought up the situation to Jacob in the first place, there would have been no controversy. Richard, the rude dealer in this instance, had not complained of his own accord and merely espoused his grievances only when prompted.
I will be following up on this hopefully with other casino personel that aren't going to be so jaded and heavy handed with their actions.

2nd try....

Full Tilt Poker $11 + $1 Matrix 4x Sit & Go No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t15/t30 Blinds - 9 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter


Hero (SB): t1500

BB: t1500

UTG: t1500

UTG+1: t1500

UTG+2: t1500

MP1: t1500

MP2: t1500

CO: t1500

BTN: t1500

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is SB with 7 7

UTG raises to t90, 6 folds, Hero calls t75, 1 fold


Flop: (t210) 4 7 2 (2 players)

Hero bets t65, UTG calls t65


Turn: (t340) 9 (2 players)

Hero bets t225, UTG calls t225


River: (t790) A (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets t390, Hero raises to t1120 all in, UTG calls t730 all in

HMMM

Ignore that last post....Obviously haven't figured out Hand Converters yet...

TEST POST: Hand converter

Wow... that was a total space waster....got rid of it and figured out to work HTML for online hand postings...WHEW

I Hate Flying Blind

Flying Blind is extremely dangerous as a pilot. (DUH) You can't see what you are dealing with so your choices and direction become either extremely risk averse or essentially flying into the storm and hoping for the best. The same can be true in No Limit Holdem some times. I am back in Los Angeles from my WSOP stint in Vegas, which I may blog about in the future if I find something of interest to say about the trip. So I make my first trek back to Commerce Casino, in which they have instituted a new game. Alongside the the typical $400 buyin game there is now a $500-1500 buyin $5-$10 blind game. So I sit down at a table that looks ok and I get shuffled around for a few minutes as sit changes occur and I view a few hands, nothing much of interest. By the time, the button passes me, I post and get the Kd 5h. A person limps ahead of me, I check, the button limps, the small blind completes and the big blind checks. $50 flop comes down Ks 5s 8c. I flop top and bottom pairs which is pretty strong. Sb, BB, and first limper all check to me, I bet $50 and the only caller is the Small Blind. Although I am a very regular Commerce player, I have never seen this player before. I have been told the 5-15 buyin game has been attracting alot of new faces, some good, some not so the fact that he is an unknown to me is not all that surprising.

Anyway, he is the only caller on the flop. Of course, I know nothing about him and can't really deduce much about him because he is asian, probably thai or phlipino. Before you label me as some sort of ethnic stereotyper, it must be known how asian rich the commerce is. Some are tight players, some are crazy gamblers, some are good players, and some are just outright stupid. So I did not form any opinion of this guy because of all the possibilities. So right now I know nothing of his possible range. Turn comes the 3c putting a board of Ks 8c 5s 3c. He checks and I bet $110 into the $150 pot. He now check raises me to $500 total. I had bought into the game for $1000 and he had $2000+ in front of him. Yay, right back to flying blind. I know nothing of how this guy plays, I have no ranges on him. He could have anything from KK to As4s and everything in between. So I start canceling out all the extreme possibilities. I cancel out KK, AcXc, a dry AsXs, and 33. I think if I include these in my range calculation it will skew them too much in one direction. So now he could have K8, K5, K3, 55 (less likely), 88, 85, 83, 53, Ak, 8s3s, As8s, As3s, some sort of spade/straight draw or club straight draw like 6c7c or 6s7s (clubs would make a bit more sense on the turn check raise but spades are still a tricky possibility) or KcXc. There is also a possibility he could just be trying to bully the new guy at the table with K9 or some random K hand or worse. I also was canceling out total air as a possibility but not an overplayed weak hand like the KJ or something like that. As you can probably tell my hand is a big favorite against this range but the problem remains I have no idea if this is his complete range or if he is the type of player that would only do this with K3+ in which case, my range and equity drop to very small. These situations happen more often than I would like to admit in No limit, where I have to make a disgusting play what ever the result. I figured that I cannot call as that if i call the turn I have to call almost any river given that the pot will be $1150 and if he bets my remaining $450 I would be getting odds of $450 to win $1600 or slight better than 3.5:1.
This boiled down my decision to re-push all in or fold. Folding made me feel sick but in hindsight, it seems it is the more strategically sound play. I chose to push back all in for a few reasons. First off, the mere mathematics of the situations dictate that I most likely have the best hand. Now that usually is not the only determining factor in my calculations but its really all I have right now because as the title of this blog will tell you....Im flying fucking blind. Secondly, I did not want to convey the image of someone who will put a decent amount of money into the pot and then fold to someone playing back at you. I think all players at the table recognize this at least unconsciously and it makes them play a little more comfortably against you, which is a bad thing. I wanted players to feel that if they played against me (assuming I survived the hand) that there was to be no fucking around. Thirdly, and this is probably my undoing, I gave a little too much credence to the possibility that he was just trying to bully the new guy out of the hand. While it is common to find that in deeper bigger games with good players, I had no evidence or reason to believe this guy subscribed to this philosophy.

Long story short, he called and the Ad came on the river and he had K8 and I lost $1000 in 1 hand in 5 minutes and went home.

STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

I guess 4th time is a charm! After playing in the SCCF state championship candidates tournament 4 years in a row and barely missing it each year I finally clinched a spot in the State Championship! I had a great chess tournament as well. My first game I got paired with FM Eugene Yanayt as black but got lucky that he blundered early. Notch me up a win over a 2280. Then, 2nd round I got white vs Gregg Small. If you have been reading my posts religiously, then you may remember I had a couple good games in the past versus him. This one was no exception. He allowed me to setup a nice positional advantage game where he was quite passive. Took me a while to finally break through but I managed to get to a Knight + Bishop + 5 pawns vs Rook + 5 pawns endgame where I ground him down and queened a pawn. Notch me up a win over a 2264.
The next morning I was on board 1 as black vs my friend and sometimes coach IM Jack Peters. I started out with a very poor opening and he was probably beating me in the middle game but then I decided to sacrifice a pawn to get some activity. Jack maybe handled it not the best way and then all of a sudden all my pieces started to fly to good squares and my threats more than made up for my lost pawn. He eventually had to trade off some pieces and let me regain my pawn to stop my threats. We reached a minor piece endgame where I had a Bishop + Knight + 4 pawns vs his 2 Bishops + 4 pawns and objectively I think I was a tad better. We ended up drawing the game though because it was difficult to find a win and I was in time trouble. Notch me up a draw with a 2441. The last round was interesting as it was a logjam at 2.5 points with 7 people and another 6 people at 2 points so it was going to almost certainly come down to tiebreaks to see who snagged the top 4 spots. I got paired as white versus Ron Bruno. We played a very bookish line of the Queens Indian and I obtained a small advantage in space. The downside was that we traded queens and he offered a draw. I went to Randy Hough, the director of the tournament, and asked to see the current tiebreak standings and was delighted to see that I had the 2nd best tie breaks behind only Jack Peters. So I checked out the other games of players in contention and seeing only one decisive looking game, I took the draw. Notch me up a draw with a 2355.
Since our draw was fairly quick at about an hour and half, I stayed and played blitz and just hung out until all games were decided. There ended up being only one decisive games between the 2.5s meaning there was only 1 person with 3.5/4. I was fortunate enough to maintain my second best tie break standing and qualified in the top four spots to go to the SCCF STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!!

Vegas so far: 2008

So I am back in Los Angeles for about a week after spending two weeks in vegas for the beginning of the World Series of Poker. It was pretty hectic as usual and I didn't get off to a good start either. My cash game play was pretty bad at first with a bunch of solid losing sessions then i picked up and got it going in the middle. By the end of the two weeks I was down about 1100 in cash games which isnt as bad as it sounds considering some of the horrible sessions i had. I did not get a chance to play any World Series events yet this year. I did play one Caesar's Palace Mega Stack event. Those tournaments are great, I must say. The structures are incredible. I was doing really well in the mid stages of one mega stack no limit tournament but then i got super over aggressive and decided to bluff 60% of my chips into the nuts. That kind of got me a bit tilty and I was out soon after that. But the tournament has tons of play and I super recommend it. I also played the PLO8 event at the Golden Nugget. Don't really want to talk about that one too much. I started out at a 10 handed table with 1 absolute idiot and probably 7 pro omaha players. It was like pulling teeth to get chips at that table once the idiot promptly busted. I even had to lay down a full house early. It was the blatantly obvious play given the circumstances and I did it but you know you're at a bad table when you have to do things like that. Didn't go very far in that one.

I did get a chance to play one single table satellite for World Series Events. I have kind of a funny story about it, too. We were still 10 handed when 4 people limped in on my BB. The small blind lifted his cards so I could see them, he had J 5 off and called. I had J 8 off and checked my option. The flop came down J 10 6 rainbow. Everyone checked around. The turn was the case J ! Now the SB led out for 300 into the 350 pot. I decided to raise him to 700. Now, I raised because I was possibly afraid of letting in a KQ or 89 for a straight draw as well as trying to get max value off of the J5 while my kicker played. Maybe it was erroneous thinking and I should have just called to try and get more people to call drawing bad. But, of course, he reraises all in and I call in dominant position until the river 5 comes out. Still not sure if I should have just called or raised. The line of thinking that I have more information than my opponent would favor just calling because I can make more profitable decisions than him on further streets (i.e. being able to fold and only lose 300 if/when a 5 comes on the river). That, of course, is only limited to heads up play. But if someone does come in behind me I know they dont have a J so they either have a made boat already, a 10, or a draw. In which, case I could probably fold some scary rivers like a 9, 6, or A if needed. Conversely, there was no rush to get the money in either, as the J5 is not folding to any river. This seemed like an unexperienced player as well as a satellite situation so, like I said, he probably isnt folding even if a straight card does come in. All of these factors probably favor me just calling the turn and hoping a 2,3,4,7, or 8 falls on the river if we are heads up and a non straightening card (i.e. 2 3 4 or 8) falls if we get a straggler behind us to call).

So I am probably going back to vegas in the next week. Most likely going to play the state championships candidates tournament this weekend for chess. Then maybe leave monday or tuesday. There is also a small chance I would skip the chess tournament and leave for vegas tomorrow night. Not quite sure yet.

More updates later.

An interesting Hand

This hand occurred at the Hustler 5 -5 blind NLHE game. I have about $2000 at the beginning of the hand and the villain ( who is reasonably tight) has about $1500.

I am in the Small blind with 3s 5s. UTG limps, 2nd position (villian) limpts, and fold around to button. Button is a tight but predictable guy who raises to $25. I call and so does the villain, UTG folds. $80 flop comes down Js 10d 4s. I check my flush draw and villain leads into the raiser for $20. Raiser sighs and folds and I call with my flush draw. Turn brings the 7h. Now I have a flush draw and now a hidden gutshot straight draw. I decide to lead with a blocking bet and mimic 89 to try and slow down the bettor a bit if he has a J. I bet out $40 into the $120 pot. He promptly and with little thought raises to $140. So he obviously didnt believe me on the 89 and he likes his hand. Since we have so much money behind and I have a hidden straight draw along with my flush draw i figure my implied odds are quite high as I really do not put him on 89 of any variety. So I decide to call this $100.
The river comes the 10s for a final board of 4s Js 10d 7h 10s. I have made my flush so I lead out $250 into the $360 pot. He insta/turbo/without thinking or hesitation moves all in for $1200 +. Sigh....I know that I cant call $1000 for this small pot on this board. I can't really find a hand that I can beat. I can barely hope he bet out into the preflop raiser on the flop with a low straight draw 89 on the flop and is putting me on A10 or something like that but he has to have at the minimum AsXs here.
It was rather stupid of me to lead out into the paired board when my obvious flush hit when I am out of position. HIs range of hands has to be J10, all sets, Aj, AsXs, 89 and maybe KQ. Of those hands, I am beating only KQ and AJ. Neither of which this player would snap raise all in for 4X the pot on the river. So of his possible range I am really trying to value bet the very bottom of his range. Praying for a call from AJ or an oddly played QQ, KK, or AA. I can't put him on a dry 10 to lead into the tight raiser with just second pair on the flop. So in essence, I can't beat anything that he can call me with. So once again, I play a flush badly versus a boat. This time though the session on a positive note although I lost about $450 on that hand.

Danyul

ALWAYS TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!!!

In No Limit Hold'em, all of the great players have developed the instinct to pick up more of a ethereal part of the game that can't always be expressed succinctly after the fact. This is one of those masked qualities that tends to rise out in necessary situations in successful players. I have seen it come about in me at various times. The key is to realize when you have to trust it. Just right now I took a hard knocks lesson as to when to trust myself. A hand will illustrate what I am trying to say perfectly:


6am 5-10 NL game @ commerce casino. Game is fairly loose passive and I start the hand off with ~$750.

UTG limps, I limp in 2nd position with As6s, cutoff and button limp, SB completes and BB checks. 6 way $60 flop comes down Qc Js 2s. Checked to me and I bet out $45. Folded to SB who min raises to $100, BB calls and then folded to me and I call.

Now before I go on, I will say that I have not played with SB very long at all, maybe 10 hands max and I had not seen him win a hand or showdown a hand as he just moved to our table from a broken game with more $$ than me but I had the feeling he was very tight.

The turn card in the 3 way $360 pot came down the Qs for a board of Qc Qs Js 2s. I now have the nut flush. The SB is sweating and twiching now and bets out $100 and the BB calls $100. I decide to raise here for 2 reasons. First, off, I know the BB is a bad player and will pay me off with a worse flush, a bare Q, or maybe something worse. Secondly, I really felt like the SB had Q2. Everything in my gut told me he had Q2. So if he were to reraise me or call and then bet/push the river, I could be sure and easily fold. But, no. He just calls and unfortunately, the BB folds. Now the river comes the 3c. He checks while still being quite twitchy and agitated. Now I am super confused. Is he really pulling this move on me with me only having $350 left in a $900+. Is he really trapping here with me being pot committed and having to call his river value bet? (or so he should have thought)? I thought there was no way this could possibly be the case. Did he have AQ/KQ, a lower flush, a worse Q, J2? Somehow all this clouded my crystal clear read of 10 seconds prior that told me he had Q2. So, of course, this new found bungled thinking bewitched my hand into pushing my last $350 into the pot as a voluntary bet. And, yes, of course, he called and showed me Q2.

I sometimes have the instincts. Now I need to learn how to listen to them.

Addendum to "Absolute Bitch Post"

Adding another serious runner runner beat to the list:


My hand: 9h 9d My opponent's hand: Qd Qs



Flop: 9c 4d 7d (both parties all in) Turn: 2d River: 6d


Sigh......

Hustler Thursday "Deep Stack" Tournament

Tonight, in my continued preparation for the tournaments this summer, I played the $255 buyin Deep Stack tournament at Hustler. It is a pretty well run tournament that starts each player off with 5000 in chips @ 25 -50 blinds. The only down side to this is the rounds are fairly quick at 25 minutes. This edition of the tournament saw a healthy turnout of 113 players. I feel as though that's a very managable number of players as far as my ability to win and have it be worthwhile. Less than 80 players and the prize pool is too shallow to allow anything less than top 2 and more than 300 players (without better structure requirements) requires a much greater luck factor than is indicative to tournaments to begin with.

This tournament, however, didn't go well at all for me. To begin with, my table was full of maniacal idiots. Which is usually a good thing except when you are card dead. I got a bad beat early that lost me 600 in the 25-50 stage. I was in the BB with 10 6 and five people limped in, the SB completed, and I checked. So we saw the 7 (!) handed flop with 350 chips in the middle. Flop comes Js 10s 6h. SB checked and I decided to check because I really felt that even an overbet here would elicit 2+ calls and then I would need a very bricky card to come on the turn for me to push on. I don't want to see an A, Q, K, J, 9, 8, 7 or spade. So I checked. It checked around to a guy in middle position who bet out 175. The guy directly behind him (who I had already learned was a complete and utter dumbass) raises to 575. It folded back to me and I elected to just call here. Again, with 5K starting stacks I think it is better to call here rather than reraise or push. For one thing, its early and my hand is super vulnerable. Secondly, I know I am up against a loose bad player who very well may not lay down his QJ here for a 4200 rereraise. QJ or similar hand is still about 25% against my hand and thats not discounting the original bettor's calling intentions with any sorts of draws. Yes, against more skilled opposition I would be more likely to push here because AJ, QK, or even an unlikely QQ would be able to easily fold knowing they were behind. But against a player who I had already seen demonstrate his lack of understanding there is little upside to taking on more unnecessary risk with a vulnerable hand early in the tournament. I felt as though I could have found better spots to get it all in. For instance, if a safe card comes on the turn then I would feel much more comfortable about getting it all in as all his possible hands that aren't ahead of me (such as J10 or an unlikely 66) now are way behind mathematically with just one card to come that the payoff is now justified for the diminished risk. That being said, I called the 575 and the original bettor called as well. The turn brough the beautiful Jc and I checked, Original bettor checked, and raiser turbo bet out 1500. Of course, I folded my dead 3 pair hand and the original bettor calls. River comes 3h. Original bettor checks and raiser instantaneously goes all in for 2K more and bettor takes 10 seconds to call with AJ on the JJ 10 6 3 board. The all in guy's hand? K 10, of course. I was never really in doubt that I had the best hand on the flop but I was fighting the vulnerability of my holding and the "accidental" equity that the raiser's range held against me. So my first place holding on the flop immediately went to 3rd place on the turn. Surprisingly enough, the J is the only card in the deck that puts me behind both players.

After that hand, I didn't get a hand for a solid hour. I blinded off a bunch and lost a few tiny bets (limping with 33, raising with KQoff and getting reraised 8K over my 300 bet preflop). This was not a table where you could steal or try to win some small ball pots. Every pot was 3+ to the flop and I mean every pot. Not once did we not see a flop. I think the deep stack structure gives people more confidence to play flops. Which is great for me because the people REALLY REALLY sucked after the flop but it required hands. There was such unbelievable value waiting for any hand that made it but no chances to outplay people with marginal holdings appeared. It essentially became a game of patience. Luckily, I had that in spades but I kept getting blinded down without having won a single chip. Then in 2nd position I pick up AsAc. Since I had been folding for the last hour I decided to limp/reraise as my early position raise probably would have been given more credit than I would have liked. The blinds were only 100-200 ante 25 and I was in no mood to just win the 550 out there. So I limped and, of course, tons of other people limped as well giving us 6 people to the flop. Naturally, the 6 handed 1450 pot came out as bad as it could for my hand Qd 9d 5d. It got checked all the way around which was a good sign. The turn was an innocuous 3c and the SB bet out a pithy 500. I only had 2500 left and I decided there was no way he had a flush and I shipped it and prayed not to get called by anyone except QKd which i doubted was out there. No callers. Finally, I won a pot and got almost even with the starting stack. The next hand I get another playable hand!!!! Woohoo. KhQh Under the Gun. I thought about raising here but again, I was going to get 3+ callers and I didn't want to have to show weakness if i missed. It may sound like I am playing timidly in this tournament but I kid you not outside of the last hand this was a showdown poker table. So any continuation bet wouldn't work and I would be forced to make a hand out of position. So I limped and again we got a 6 handed 1450 chip flop. Apparently the dealer had a thing for flushes because the board came out Ks 7s 4s. The two blinds checked and I decided I was going to try and win two hands in a row and bet out 800. I got everyone to fold except one guy who I had observed to play really oddly. The turn came a dispicable Qs. So now the board is Ks Qs 7s 4s and I have KhQh. I checked to him and he made a tiny bet of 700 into the 3050 pot. Getting over 5:1 to call with my 4 out boat draw I called. Turn bricked out the 10h and I checked again. He made the same 700 chip bet on the river. So I had to call 700 to win 5150! Such a huge disparity really irked me. I was getting better than 7:1 but of course his chances of having a flush were so high that I really didn't think he was bluffing. I folded in disgust and of course he showed me the 7d 6h. Obviously, I think I have to call there as only the As or the Js has the balls to bet just 700 on the river begging for a call. The Js can do it because it is quite unlikely that I would have the As and check the river.

Then again, I felt like an idiot folding given that price and would have felt like an idiot if I had called and been shown the As3d. So I was damned if you do, damned if you don't but needless to say, a "bad" call there would have lifted me up to close to 8K which would have been an average (and formidable) stack in the tournament. Instead, I was reduced to a baby stack at around 3100. The blinds went up to 150-300 with a 50 ante and I was getting hit hard quickly with that 50 a hand. I folded for another 1.5 orbits because I couldn't get a hand and there was always a raise or limps before me so I couldn't just push/steal with fold equity. Then I get 3s 6s in 3rd position when I only have 2000 chips left and the pot is 950. I had a super tight image, the blinds were both tight/weak players, and because very few of these people understood Ms or tournament math I felt I could steal this pot and survive another orbit and maybe pick up a few more pots uncontested. Of course, my all in gets called by both AK and QQ and I lose. I busted in 70th place out of 113. The tournament paid out 18 places for the final two 9 handed tables.

The tournament overall I think is a great value as the vast majority of players are so horrible and the stacks are deep enough to be patient. The quick rounds are a bit of a pressure so you have to capitalize in the first 4 rounds to have some buffer chips in order to go far. I will probably play this tournament a couple more times before vegas.

It also didn't hurt that I went and sat in the $300-$500 buyin 5-5 blind cash game and killed it for $1400+. That always makes the soul feel better after a tournament bustout.

HORSE event @ commerce

So last night was the HORSE event of the Heavenly Hold'em Poker series at Commerce. I was really looking forward to this event (and so far has been the only Heavenly Hold'em event I have played) because it is the first HORSE event Commerce has held since I started playing there. The struture was super interesting as well. The original structure that is. See, there were some big problems and even bigger complaints so it had to be restructured on the fly. The original structure had 8 hands of each game being played and then switched and limits raised. But the flop games and the board games maintained the same limits. I know the last two sentences were confusing so I will give you an example.


Ex:

Game Ante Bring-In/SB Complete/BB Limits

Hold'em -- 50 100 100-200

Omaha 8 -- 50 100 100-200

Razz 25 50 200 200-400

Stud Hi 25 50 200 200-400

Stud 8 25 50 200 200-400


Now this all sounds like a phenomenal structure except for the fact that at 8 hands an orbit, we would raise the levels twice every 40 hands (once after 16 hands for the flop games and once every 24 hands for the board games). To compensate for this, the management started us out with a whopping 10,000 in chips! The big problem was a miscalculated attempt
to arrange for everyone to be in the same game concurrently (for table breaking purposes) that after 8 hands each table had to wait for all other tables to finish that orbit. Well, needless to say after the first 8 hands there was a public riot. So, Cheri Doken, the chief TD at commerce decided to make the structure PHENOMENAL on the fly and eliminate the 8 hand rule and make each game orbit a 20 minute level. Combine this 20 minute level with the limits only being raised twice every 5 levels (100 minutes) and the fact that we start with 10,000 chips and you have a super deep, play filled structure.

Unfortunately, I was only able to place 95th out of the 168 entries but I busted 6 1/2 hours after the tournament started. 6 1/2 hours and only 70 people busted! In fact, when I went back up stairs around 4am while I was playing cash afterwards, they were just winding down for the day and they still had about 6 tables (~48 players) coming back for day 2!

My play during the tournament was pretty decent although it had some huge holes. My Limit Hold'em game is atrocious. People are just recklessly agressive in that game and you have to be to a degree with marginal hands in order to get full value. I probably have some residual apprehension from No Limit that is holding me back from playing AJoff for capping betting out of position and the like. I also leaked a ton of chips in Omaha 8/B. While I feel as though I can play that game well, today was not a shining example of it. I just couldn't make a decent two way hand. My lows got counterfeited alot and my draws missed while my weak high hands were either behind or got quartered. My razz game was good as I picked up alot of chips in that. My stud hi game was minimal as I just didn't play many of those hands based primarily on the fact that I only had a few good starting Stud Hi hands and I still have trouble reading hands in that game. I probably made the majority of my chip profit in Stud 8/B and that's just because im in practice with it and most people don't play enough of it to hide their hands. People just play so badly in that game that its easy to make reads.

Right now I am very tired and headed to bed so I don't have any interesting hands from the tournament to share but I might in the near future for an update. But all in all, I REALLY enjoyed this tournament and I will definetly be playing one if not more of the HORSE events in Vegas this summer.

Absolute Bitch Post

I hate to make bad beat posts and I especially hate starting the new blogging year (admittedly 4 months late) off with bad beat posts but this is getting a bit ridiculous. For some reason, springtime (april in specific) does something to people. It could be the extra tax break money burning a hole in their pocket or the spring time hormones fueling their chasing/pushing aggression at the poker table but I get the most and most astonishing bad beats during the spring time. Last year from about March 25-May5 or so I lost about $20K on severe ridiculous beats and the tilting aftermath of them. This year, March has been my best month ever, but April is just sickening. Fortunately, I have been getting all these ridiculous beats at "opportune" times. "Opportune" meaning these beats are turning my winning sessions into break even or small losing sessions for the most part. Alot of the times I will be up in the game when these things happen. It would seem that softens the blow but if you think about it, those winnings were still mine before I get beat.

Here is just a cross-section of some of the ridiculousness, by no means all of.

My hand: 2s 2c My opponents hand: QcQs

Flop: 2d 10d 9c Turn: Kh River: Jh

My hand: 7d 7h My opponents hand: Ad As

Flop: Kd 10d 7c Turn: 5d River: Jd

My hand: Jc Jd My opponents hand: 8c 3h

Flop: 10c 2d 4h Turn: 6c River 5h

And my new best selling favorite ass fuck brand beat of the month:

My hand: 8d 9s My opponents hand: 8c 4c

Flop: 5c 6d 7s Turn: Ac River: 7c