FTOPS HORSE

I just started the Ftops HORSE event so I will try to post interesting hands that happen in relatively real time. This may or may not work so lets see

First ridiculous hand: Stud high A perfect trap gone ridiculously bad!

TheNewMath: K K 9___raises

krazylouie: xx xx 5___brings-in___folds

Billy The Croc: xx xx A___folds

takinabeating: xx xx 6___folds

Will_B_D: xx xx 7___folds

beeffrank21: xx xx T___completes___calls

cobrakai111: xx xx T___calls___folds



4th Street - (11.67 SB)



ChasingIdiot: xx xx J 4___calls

TheNewMath: K K 9 K___bets

beeffrank21: xx xx T 8___calls



5th Street - (7.33 BB)



ChasingIdiot: xx xx J 4 J___checks___raises___calls

TheNewMath: K K 9 K A___bets___raises

beeffrank21: xx xx T 8 3___calls___calls



6th Street - (16.33 BB)



ChasingIdiot: xx xx J 4 J 4___bets

TheNewMath: K K 9 K A Q___calls

beeffrank21: xx xx T 8 3 2___calls



River - (19.33 BB)



ChasingIdiot: xx xx J 4 J 4 xx___bets

TheNewMath: K K 9 K A Q 3___calls

beeffrank21: xx xx T 8 3 2 xx___folds



Total pot: (21.33 BB - 2,560)


Hmmm....rough beat there. I called on 7th because there has to be more than 5% chance he would show up with AAJJ or QQJJ rather than 100% having JJJ44 since my up card is not a K or A its not immediately apparent that he understand I made trip Kings so he might be running his Aces up too fast. Granted that is quite unlikely but I bloated the pot so big when I was so far ahead now I have to call the river. If the pot only has 10 BB instead of 20 I think can fold it much more often.

Also, apparently the stud hand converter I am using does not want to put the suits in the HTML code or the .gif pictures arent transferring. Either way, the only important suits to note are beerfrank has the ten of diamonds and the 3 of diamonds which leads me to believe he calls off on a diamond flush draw on the capped betting.



2nd Hand: Omaha HI/Lo 8 or better: How to Quarter someone



Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Event #14 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament - t120/t240 Limit - 8 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter



ChasingIdiot (CO): t3435 M = 19.08

Hero (BTN): t4153 M = 23.07

krazylouie (SB): t4310 M = 23.94

Billy The Croc (BB): t5378 M = 29.88

takinabeating (UTG): t4382 M = 24.34

PrahladF (UTG+1): t4372 M = 24.29

beeffrank21 (MP1): t3097 M = 17.21

cobrakai111 (MP2): t7245 M = 40.25



Pre Flop: (1.5 SB) Hero is BTN with J J 2 A

2 folds, beeffrank21 raises, cobrakai111 calls, 1 fold, Hero calls, krazylouie calls, Billy The Croc calls



Flop: (10 SB) 4 T 3 (5 players)

krazylouie checks, Billy The Croc checks, beeffrank21 bets, cobrakai111 calls, Hero raises, krazylouie folds, Billy The Croc folds, beeffrank21 folds, cobrakai111 calls



Turn: (7.5 BB) 6 (2 players)

cobrakai111 checks, Hero bets, cobrakai111 calls



River: (9.5 BB) J (2 players)

cobrakai111 checks, Hero bets, cobrakai111 calls



Final Pot: 11.5 BB

Hero shows J J 2 A (HI: three of a kind, Jacks; LO: 6,4,3,2,A)

cobrakai111 shows A 2 Q K (HI: Ace King high; LO: 6,4,3,2,A)

Hero wins 5.75 BB

cobrakai111 wins 2.875 BB

Hero wins 2.875 BB


Obviously, this is a tremendously great spot for me. I think just calling on the button is much better than 3-betting here preflop because I do not want to risk isolating myself against any AAxx hand in which case I am a dog even though my hand is pretty. With only an A2 and no low back up my hand is not spectacular without some flop help. That being said, I got one of the best flops I could possibly hope for. Nut low draw, with nut flush draw, and an overpair that has chances of being good against the original raiser (beeffrank) who's an idiot. Then the turn brings in my low and I have the only other player crushed to 6 outs. He has no low insurance to counterfeit my low and he cannot catch the K of hearts or the Q of hearts. But he can catch one of the remaining two aces to crunch me with AK>AJ. But having him dead to 6 outs is a great scenario. The J on the river is only icing on the cake.



ARGRGRGRGGGRGR DONK BLASTED!!!!!!!!!!

So I busted out on an infuriating hand. I accidentally closed the table also so I don't have the hand history to post but I have the relevant action still in my memory. We are playing 250/500 stud 8 and I am shortish with 1950. I am not committed with these chips but I can't really expect to play too many hands without getting them all in. So I pick up (A3)5 off when no Aces are shown and it folds to me, complete to 250. A new player to the table with alot of chips raises to 500 with a K up. Then it comes around to Beeffrank (refer to above two posts!) who then reraises to 750 when he only has another 700 behind and he is showing an 8. I call the 500 more with the best current low draw and most likely a live A, the K then puts the cap on it for 1000 total and we both call. Now the pot is 32-3300 and I essentially cannot fold unless I catch brick on 4th and brick on 5th for one bet. Even then its quite close. So of course, I catch a good 7, the K catches a Q, Donksteak 5000 catches a J, the K bets, donksteak raises all in, I call, and the K calls.

So the boards look like this:

big stacks: xxKQ

beeffrank: xx8J (now allin)

Hero: (A3) 57 where no one has two of the same suit showing.

I catch a 7 on 5 street, KQ catches a brick and bets, I raise the 1/3 bet more that puts me allin. Now here are the boards for the allin:

big stack: KQKQ9

beeffrank: 398J7

Hero: A3577

I catch K 3 for a final hand of A3577K3 or just 7s and 3s no low, beeffrank ends up with Q high I believe and KKQQ scoops the overly bloated pot and eliminates two people.

Thoughts on the hand you ask? Well, my hand is certainly playable. 3 connected low cards with an A is usually a better hand in the long run vs KKQ especially multiway. The problem is I have very few chips. But since the end of the previous razz round the table has gotten manaical. Ever pot was huge and people were just throwing chips around without regard. I was not even able to play a hand in the preceding stud high round because every pot was raised or reraised ahead of me. This was due in no small part to beeffrank's obvious tilt/drunk/idiot/chip dump/cheater strategy. All in all, I was way correct to put my chips into the pot at every point in this hand even when I was all in on 5th street. If you do not believe me you can check out http://tinyurl.com/c2q5fo

Essentially, beeffrank putting all his dead chips in the pot forced the KK to overvalue his hand (which just reveals the KK's lack of knowledge about stud 8) but once he hits KKQQ, he is not going anywhere given the pot size and my chips situation. This caused a chain reaction of me being forced to go to the end as well which invariably made the variance of the numbers from the above website much, much, much higher than they needed to be. Stud 8 is not supposed to be high variance game,in fact, it is theoretically the lowest variance game when you play a strong low-based game because so often you are getting at least half the pot back and sometimes hogging the whole pot. Hence the comment at the beginning of this hand. The donk, beeffrank, got me donk blasted and left me no maneuverability and caused the variance to eat me up. It must be reiterated, though, that my chips WERE below average prior to this hand and I was approaching the danger zone so it is not as though I went from chip leader to rail but I think my point is clear.


END RESULT: 535/703- VERY DISAPPOINTING!

A Small Shift

In an effort to move slightly away from poker and also to hopefully have a more often posted blog, I have decided to add some non-poker thoughts if and when I have them. Essentially, this is an attempt to make my blog a normal blog. Bear with me.

So as some of you may know, I am currently applying for graduate school in financial engineering and/or mathematical finance. I have been more concerned with these topics as of late our economy continually spirals into oblivion. Now this may be my naivete talking, but the #1 goal of Alan Greenspan during the very prosperous golden age of economics during the late 1990s (under Bill Clinton) was to pay down the deficit. Clinton moved quickly on this topic and the deficit was under control quite early in his presidency. From there on out, we had a healthy surplus and the biggest quibbles of the government were how to spend the extra money. A great set of problems to have.

But now, the current national deficit is larger that it has ever been (by far! Debt Clock now) and we are still going to be deficit spending with the new stimulus package not to mention the still mounting war costs of Iraq and Afghanistan. Personally, I agree with Mr. Greenspan in that paying off the national debt is the foundation of a solid, healthy economy. That being said, we cannot start paying off the debt while banks are failing, houses are still being foreclosed upon, and businesses are receiving a fraction of the consumer traffic they need in order to survive. So I look forward to seeing what transpires and how we as a nation can pull our heads out of our asses despite how far the Bush administration's foot has kicked it up there.

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.