Happy New Year

Hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable new year. As per usual, wifey and I are staying home. The in-laws will be on a plane having spent a few days with us (which was great) and we generally can't stand the whole "let's go out and overpay for a terrible night" thing any more.

Took down sixth in the $33 PLO last night. Would have been better if villain hadn't hit a two-outer on the river. Sick.



Granted I was fairly behind preflop:

Omaha Hi: 500000 sampled boards
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Ks Kd Jd Td 190542 38.11 309458 61.89 0 0.00 0.381
As 4c 4d Ah 309458 61.89 190542 38.11 0 0.00 0.619

But after the flop and turn...

Omaha Hi: 40 enumerated boards containing Qs 3c Jh Th
cards win %win lose %lose tie %tie EV
Ks Kd Jd Td 32 80.00 8 20.00 0 0.00 0.800
As 4c 4d Ah 8 20.00 32 80.00 0 0.00 0.200

Bummer. At least I'm one better than my usual finish!

EDIT: I'm dumb, he had more than two outs. Any queen (3), any three (3) and any of the two remaining fours (2) = 8 outs.

Nemesis - Have you got one?

I do.

And the disappointing thing, is that I probably won't see him again. I checked his stats, and they're very noob. He's never cashed in a PLO game, yet here he is, playing against me in tonight's $33, and he's winning with Godawful cards. Just terrible. I make a snarky comment about how awesome A238 unsuited is a monster. He now is chasing me around to each table commenting on how low my stack is, which is fine. I made some comment when he donked off half his stack with trash. Whatevs. I can't wait to see him crash and burn, which is inevitable based on his style so far. He pots nearly every hand he gets into. Now that he's off my table, he's been seated next to a guy I know is very good, who has him easily covered. It could get ugly.

I never really get into it at the table, but once I got a look at his stats, and his brash attitude came out, I really detested the guy.

Oh God, now he's up over 28k and in fricking first. HATE.

Tell me I'm not the only one to get into these moods.

I'm starting to notice a pattern...

That's another 7th in the same tournament. WTF?

So Close...

137th of 300-something in the blogger final. Kinda sucked to get so close to at least garnering another ticket, but it was a pretty fun tournament. Extremely tight play, and I only had one race - the one that ended it. JJ vs. AKo. Got it all in pre, and just couldn't beat it. I'm beginning to think that my NLHE game is getting a little soft.

I also donked off a buy-in today at the cash table, when I couldn't get a guy to fold second set on my flopped straight. I knew he was chasing and he got there on the river, making a boat. I was hoping that by potting the river that he'd think I had been betting top set the whole way. No such luck. Never mind that all the calling along the way was a terrible way to play, IMO. I really hate flopping the nuts (and potting it all along) only to have someone suck out.

Getting close to the holidays (I'm already off) and can feel my back starting to go already. It always gets all messed up whenever I have time off. Hard to explain, but I think my back likes stress.

Merry Christmas all!

Cardinal Rules of PLO

So, you know how every once and awhile you don't listen to yourself, and that mistake costs you? Happened tonight. I'm playing an Omaha game over at Full Tilt (waiting for one to start on Pokerstars) and running pretty good. Sitting top 15 with a healthy stack. Going well, feeling it, and see a flop with A5510. Speculative at best, I know. Only two others in the pot and it comes 10, 9, 5 with two hearts. Early position guy puts out a pot sized bet. First thing I figure (and this is where I should have been listening) is that he's set protecting against a flush draw. I think nah, there's no way he's got a set, and I re-pop it. Well, we get it all in and yes, he's got trip tens. Blurg. In PLO, bottom set is essentially useless, and I learned the hard way.

Still fun though. Doing something fun tomorrow, playing in the WCIIHGADJHJHFJKPP Bloggers Championship at 3pm. And I'm playing a live HORSE tournament at the same time at my buddy's place. Should prove interesting, as I tend to do well when I multi-table live & online. ;)

Bloggerz Usuck!

Well, that was an easy way to make the Finals! PLO is (was) an easy way to get a ticket. Even after we got to the top 72 (which get a ticket to the Finals on December 21st) there were still a bunch of Step tickets up for grabs if you made it past 45th spot. So many donks are pushing with afc, and I found myself cruise to an easy top 20 finish. My goal was qualify, then once that happened, my goal switched to FT. Did my best but shortstacked late, there wasn't much I could do and was outdrawn.

*********** # 1 **************
PokerStars Game #22951213409: Tournament #124189658, Freeroll Omaha Pot Limit -
Level XXIII (2000/4000) - 2008/12/15 18:06:21 ET
Table '124189658 29' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: BurnleyJoe (31862 in chips)
Seat 2: mattythatguy (14370 in chips)
Seat 3: Wallyayay (36575 in chips)
Seat 4: Tom Bayes (40870 in chips)
Seat 5: snowsharkpe (31927 in chips)
Seat 6: Diffler (60700 in chips)
Seat 7: bojanika (132923 in chips)
Seat 8: blahdy (59294 in chips)
Seat 9: Imric_est (53920 in chips)
BurnleyJoe: posts small blind 2000
mattythatguy: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattythatguy [Qh Td 9d Ts]
Wallyayay: folds
Tom Bayes: folds
snowsharkpe: folds
Diffler: folds
bojanika: folds
blahdy: folds
Imric_est: folds
BurnleyJoe: raises 8000 to 12000
mattythatguy: raises 2370 to 14370 and is all-in
BurnleyJoe: calls 2370
*** FLOP *** [2d 7d Jd]
*** TURN *** [2d 7d Jd] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [2d 7d Jd Th] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BurnleyJoe: shows [8d Qs Qd 6d] (a flush, Queen high)
mattythatguy: shows [Qh Td 9d Ts] (a flush, Jack high)
BurnleyJoe collected 28740 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 28740 | Rake 0
Board [2d 7d Jd Th 6s]
Seat 1: BurnleyJoe (small blind) showed [8d Qs Qd 6d] and won (28740) with a flush,
Queen high
Seat 2: mattythatguy (big blind) showed [Qh Td 9d Ts] and lost with a flush, Jack high
Seat 3: Wallyayay folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: Tom Bayes folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: snowsharkpe folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Diffler folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: bojanika folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: blahdy folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Imric_est (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

The good news is, I won a Step 3 ticket as well as my Finals ticket. Woot! Although I haven't seen that step ticket in my account yet...

WCOBUOTIPP!

World Championship of Online Bloggers Unite On Teh Intranets to Play Pokah!

So P* is sponsoring some freeroll for teh leet bloggerz like myself. I decided to sign up, mostly thanks to a new CT blog, Josh Dalton's Burro Puro. Thanks for the headsup Josh! Here's the required Pokerstars signage:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 684566

I suggest we get a little last-longer going between all the CT bloggers. Y'all game?

All Quiet-ish

Not much to update with really, except that I took a huge risk over the weekend that *almost* paid off. I bubbled the $215 PLO weekly on Saturday. It all ended with this terribly played hand:

PokerStars Game #22268651936: Tournament #120442095, $200+$15 Omaha Pot Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2008/11/22 14:58:33 ET
Table '120442095 9' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: shine (54180 in chips)
Seat 2: dapalma150 (39593 in chips)
Seat 3: TurnRiva (15907 in chips)
Seat 4: 8oggo8 (8655 in chips)
Seat 5: Riverloser (21435 in chips)
Seat 7: Ronenon (18697 in chips)
Seat 8: GHand69 (25205 in chips)
Seat 9: mattythatguy (11630 in chips)
TurnRiva: posts small blind 400
8oggo8: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattythatguy [Ad 8h 7c Ac]
Riverloser: folds
Ronenon: raises 1600 to 2400
GHand69: calls 2400
mattythatguy: calls 2400
shine: folds
dapalma150: folds
TurnRiva: folds
8oggo8: folds
*** FLOP *** [2s 4c 2c]
Ronenon: bets 6400
GHand69: folds
mattythatguy: raises 2830 to 9230 and is all-in
Ronenon: calls 2830
*** TURN *** [2s 4c 2c] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [2s 4c 2c 6d] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Ronenon: shows [6s 7h 6c 8d] (a full house, Sixes full of Deuces)
mattythatguy: shows [Ad 8h 7c Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
Ronenon collected 26860 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 26860 | Rake 0
Board [2s 4c 2c 6d 9c]
Seat 1: shine folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: dapalma150 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: TurnRiva (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: 8oggo8 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: Riverloser folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Ronenon showed [6s 7h 6c 8d] and won (26860) with a full house, Sixes full of Deuces
Seat 8: GHand69 folded on the Flop
Seat 9: mattythatguy showed [Ad 8h 7c Ac] and lost with a flush, Ace high

I couldn't believe my terrible preflop play in retrospect. RAISE PRE-FLOP WITH ACES!!!!!

There's a decent discussion going on over at Chiptalk, check it out!

I took a 4th place last night in a $33. Yay-ish. If I had have stopped and thought about things on the last hand, I could have walked into 3rd easy, and maybe even 2nd. It was one of those hands where I raised pre with an excellent starting hand, and then totally missed, and felt like I was committed so went all the way with it. I should have realized that the guy in front of me was calling/chasing, and I should have shut down. Oh well. Lesson learned. FT still boggles my mind some times.

Woot!!!!!!!!1111one

Not really a brag, as I'm nowhere near the caliber of some of the other players on CT, but I took second in that PLO tournament from yesterday.


Headsup was impossible. He had me outchipped 5 to 1. I still managed to make it interesting and got to a 2 to 1 disadvantage. He literally hit every single flush draw though, which sort of made it hard to beat him. I didn't feel too bad losing against him though, as his results are very impressive.

I've started to find that I'm running into the same people over and over again in this specific tournament. Not a lot of US players in these. Far more Europeans and Canadians are playing PLO methinks. To that point, I wish that I could easily run some sort of HUD. Is it worth it for Omaha? That's something I'd like to figure out. The numbers returned must be completely different from those returned for HE. Since starting hand value is so much higher, it'd be interesting to see the breakdown. Does pokertracker support Omaha?

Okay, I was wrong.

And happy to admit it. Raising with AAxx is smart, especially when you can get it all in pre-flop. I'm literally astounded that people will call off HUGE stacks with medium/junky hands. This was a serious WTF moment, and I'm still not sure what was what.



Does this make sense to anybody? Here's how the hand played out:

PokerStars Game #21949175712: Tournament #119387159, $15.00+$1.50 Omaha Pot Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/11/11 13:11:32 ET
Table '119387159 18' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Boss121 (3210 in chips)
Seat 2: Ayers Rule (4070 in chips)
Seat 3: Oswaldo (2590 in chips)
Seat 4: tgsundling (2625 in chips)
Seat 5: The Dad (1960 in chips)
Seat 6: cityspirit (3665 in chips)
Seat 7: uctavi (1965 in chips)
Seat 8: mattythatguy (8215 in chips)
Seat 9: Archaic (5415 in chips)
Oswaldo: posts small blind 25
tgsundling: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattythatguy [Ad 6c Jd Ac]
The Dad: folds
cityspirit: folds
uctavi: folds
mattythatguy: raises 125 to 175
Archaic: calls 175
Boss121: calls 175
Ayers Rule: calls 175
Oswaldo: folds
tgsundling: raises 900 to 1075
mattythatguy: raises 2700 to 3775
Archaic: folds
Boss121: folds
Ayers Rule: raises 295 to 4070 and is all-in
tgsundling: calls 1550 and is all-in
mattythatguy: calls 295
*** FLOP *** [4d 6s Js]
*** TURN *** [4d 6s Js] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [4d 6s Js Jc] [Jh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mattythatguy: shows [Ad 6c Jd Ac] (four of a kind, Jacks)
Ayers Rule: shows [Qs Th 9h 5s] (three of a kind, Jacks)
mattythatguy collected 2890 from side pot
tgsundling: shows [4c Ks 3d As] (three of a kind, Jacks)
Ayers Rule is sitting out
mattythatguy collected 8250 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 11140 Main pot 8250. Side pot 2890. | Rake 0
Board [4d 6s Js Jc Jh]
Seat 1: Boss121 folded before Flop
Seat 2: Ayers Rule (button) showed [Qs Th 9h 5s] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 3: Oswaldo (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: tgsundling (big blind) showed [4c Ks 3d As] and lost with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 5: The Dad folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: cityspirit folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: uctavi folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: mattythatguy showed [Ad 6c Jd Ac] and won (11140) with four of a kind, Jacks
Seat 9: Archaic folded before Flop


Yesterday, I did something I haven't done in well over a year. I took a day off work. Wifey and I went to the museum and spent a few hours there poking around. We hadn't been since they refurbished it last year, and I was very pleased with the job they did. After the museum, we went for a wine & cheese snack in this cute little place in Yorkville. Fantastic selections on both - I let Wifey do the ordering. She has a very good palate.

We shopped a bit, decided against a $1500 espresso/coffee maker and ordered take-out sushi from our favourite place. I figured that days like these are just about perfect, and it would be ideal if I were independently wealthy, so I could do this any time I wanted.

In PLO, no one is a Donkey.

Pre-flop raising in PLO is stupid. Nearly anybody who does it has one of two hands. Either AAxx, or KKAx.

If I call with a speculative hand in that spot and hit, invariably that person will pot it, with a naked pair of aces. At least at the levels I'm playing (10¢/25¢). You could argue that raising is just building you a bigger pot, but I dunno. I've seen it not work out enough that I don't think there's much point.

I wish that I had Pokertracker (for Mac - hurry up already) so I could see some of my stats over the last few thousand hands. But I suspect that I've won more by NOT raising preflop when holding big hands.

Which is where the Donkey comment comes in. If I happen to make a loose-ish call when I suspect someone is raising with the typical holdings, and flop something good, and win at showdown, I get called a Donkey. Is that fair? Starting hand value is so close that raising isn't really going to force anybody out. They can't really fault me for calling. PLO is a game of suckouts and bad beats, that's just how it works.

I think being good at PLO strengthens your NL game. By constantly getting it in with the best of it (and losing) it prepares you for the volatility of NLHE. It doesn't sting as much for me anymore. Plus, it really makes you look at all the angles.

Win with the Ace High.

That doesn't happen to me very often. That triple-up (and the subsequent hands) propelled me from the basement to the bubble in the CT game.

Wow. The CT game gets moved to Wednesday for the first time since it's inception over three years ago, and we get the biggest turnout of the year! 47 CT'ers donated to the Seitz333/cdnmoose fund.

As bait, a few of us added extra prizes to sweeten the deal if we got over 40 players. I agreed to pay the bubble entry to next week's game, and it snowballed from there. I was lucky enough to bubble, thus winning myself my own money, and $5 from jojo. I joked that the next time, I should offer a add-on to the winner (so I can win).

I'm thrilled to see the numbers shoot up for this quarter, let's hope that the trend continues, and that moving the game to Wednesday's was a good move. Welcome to all the new faces that came out to play, I hope to see you again.

Also, if you're new to CT, you should check out Seitz's website to view the all0time stats for the CT games, so you know who not to bluff (jojo)!Tournament Stats

Tilt-ish

Just finished playing the MMN game on CT. Let's just say that in HORSE, I hate the RSE part. I was also playing a PLO tourney on FTP, and was actually doing quite well, especially after this hand:


Things were going swimmingly, until I got cute with Aces double suited, and just called a PF raise from the button. The flop seemed harmless, and I bet, he repopped it and I should have folded. But I continued with the hand. Turn brings an offsuit 7, and I check, he fires again, and I just call. What a donkey. I gave him half my stack and actually got tilted. It hasn't happened in awhile, but it really hurt when I saw his total crap J, Q, 7, 2. Might be time to take a little break from PLO.

Redeeming hand from earlier today:


Yes, I sucked out pretty huge here, but this is why you shouldn't play 2285 to a pot-sized raise preflop. Seriously, WTF?

Royal Cup

I played an awesome live tournament this weekend. Cdnmoose recruited me and a few other chiptalkers to play on his team, and it was easily the best time I've had for $50 in a long time.

The game consists of teams of 8, playing a mixed bag of games over the course of 12 hours. PLO or 7Stud, followed by a LHE, NL, and Headsup SnG. All spots are awarded points for their respective finish. I finished 2nd in PLO (which was my preferred game of PLO & 7Stud), 4th in LHE (which I royally suck at), 1st in the NL game (Woot!), and a bust in the Headsup. My team captain told me that the guy I was headsup against was extremely aggro and would raise with any two cards. I took him at his word, and after the guy limped, I raised with AQs, he re-raised 1/3 of his stack, and I decided to push. He insta called with bullets and that was it. Ouch. As it turns out, if I had won that headsup match, we would have finished in 2nd overall in points rather than 3rd. Oh well, there's a lot of "woulda coulda shouldas" in this type of tournament.

I had a blast and would easily do it again.

I got verbally berated by BigMike (CT) because of my flat call from the button with pocket threes after it had been three bet PF in Limit. I deserved it. Bad move on my part!

Here's my busto in PLO. We got it all in on the flop. What a heartbreaker river card!

PLO Cash - Woot!

By the time I had taken care of dinner and watched a few shows, there were no good PLO tournaments running, and I didn't feel like waiting an hour to start one that I knew wouldn't get me to bed before 1am. So I sat down at two 10¢/25¢ PLO tables and set a one and a half hour limit for myself. I had a big day at work today and didn't want to overdo it, knowing that I needed to be on the ball.

It was a good night, bought in for $15 on each table and managed to profit $68. It was magically delicious. There were no real notable hands, but I think that people are drastically overvaluing their hands at this level. Lots of PF raising with AAxx unsuited. It's so obvious that I found myself calling with nearly any four cards that connected in some way, just to see if I could outflop them. I even once called with 777K just to see a flop. Unraised preflop from the SB with four limpers made it easier to call as well. Flop comes 335 rainbow, I check, BB bets 1/2 the pot, which seemed weak, so I call. Turn is the case 7. Woot. Needless to say, the bettor was not happy when I stacked her (she had 328K). Yes, playing 777K is pretty stupid, and I'd never do it in a tournament, but for shits and giggles in a cash game, why not?

Anyway, there was a lot of swearing and anger. I never really go there, but for those of you who play at higher stakes, is there more or less of the berating?

Lucksacks.

Ever had a game where you can do no wrong? Ever had a game where you can do no right?

Thursday was the last game of the quarter for the weekly CT game. Yes, I handily qualified for the QTOC, but I wanted to at minimum cash again. Things were looking a little grim late into the final table, but managed to make a few hands work for me. First one is a desperation push:


So I figure that the big stack is playing big stack poker and making a raise with a weak ace. I decide to put him to the test and push, hoping to get lucky. He takes a long time, likely 25 seconds of his time bank before ultimately calling. He must have thought that my range was SUPER wide to make this call. I was pretty amazed that he did, but, having a stack size like his, I can't fault him. Nice that it worked out for me.

Exactly one hand later:


It's like a dream come true! He makes exactly the same move, so this time I'm giving him more credit for maybe a pocket pair, but not higher than Jacks. I happily re-pop it again, and he pushes. Okay, so we're not thinking Aces, so I happily call. What an odd move. We just played a hand, that played exactly the same, and he's not giving me any credit for a hand. Now, if he pushes and loses, he's crippled. Bizarro world push I guess. Oh well, the good news is, is that the villian didn't cash. Muahahahahahaaa!

Work has been busy as stink lately. Good projects with good people make it all worthwhile though. Something new to me, is the concept of the editor going to set to pre-viz some of the effects and to show a proof of concept for some of the edits. I'm going to recommend that I always go from now on. Especially on multi-day travel jobs! I'm really thrilled lately with how well things are going at work. Ever since I became a partner, my outlook has changed, and there's a sense of rejuvenation. Good times. Now, if only I could learn to take all my vacation time...

By the way, who remembers "Waaasssuuup!", the Budweiser spot? Check out this fantastic spoof with all the original cast members. Classic.

LOL Donkaments

So I'm playing at jdunford's monthly "Donkament". Yes, he actually calls it that. I'm feeling good, as I just got out of the gym and was playing some good poker. It's pretty donkish, so as long as you play decent cards and have some sort of read, you can usually cripple people easily. There's a lot of strange betting patterns, but the people are pretty easy to read. Except a few of the regulars, I'd say I could do well.

Anyway, I'm telling the story of Queens vs. Queens that happened over the weekend, and mid-story, I look down at Queens. I raise an early raiser, get a caller, then it folds around to him, who pushes. I look at him and say "If you show me Jacks I'm going to be upset!" to which he replies, "Do you have nines?" Odd. Anyway, I call and the person who called on my left folds AK of spades face up. Yay! I feel like I'm way ahead as the numbers of probability are running through my head. He flips Queens. Hilarious. But not really.

I end up cashing (3rd) and profit a whopping $10. Which I proceed to lose very quickly in the cash game. My two pair gets cracked by a bigger two pair on the turn. My flopped top pair gets crushed by a runner runner flush. My set of tens gets busted on the turn by fricking 98o. I end up down over $100. Terrible luck. I don't know why I bother with cash games, I absolutely suck at them.

By the way, don't forget - if you're 90 years old and haven't bought a TV since you were in your 70's, it's time to make the upgrade!

Politics. The last you'll hear from me.

I really like it when people take soundbites and edit the best bits into new bits.



Did you hear that Obama is using the Xbox 360 to advertise? Many of the EA games provide dynamic billboards in their games, and Barack is using them to reach the younger, cooler? potential voters. Hope it's working.

PLO (LOL) Donkaments

Played a $4.40 Turbo PLO tournament last night and took it down. I'd love to say that it was all skill, but I'd be lying. In a turbo, there are so many situations where you get your money in with less than the nuts and hope that you can dodge a few bullets. What I DO like about this style of game, is the speed in which it's over. I don't have to stay up for hours on end. This was perfect, less than two hours for 291 players.

The biggest thing I noticed about last night, was my level of focus. No music, no TV, no lights, nothing. I felt completely and utterly absorbed by the game.

The new Macbooks and Macbook Pro's came out yesterday and I'm thrilled with the new design. The Macbook is essentially just a smaller Pro model, and would probably run Final Cut Pro quite handily, making it an easy decision for my next toy. Plus, get a little VMware fusion running on that puppy and I can finally start to try some of these other poker sites. I'm interested in Bodog and maybe even trying out this new SpadeClub. I've been doing a little research on the latter, anybody got any inside info?

Canadian Thanksgiving

Was out west over the weekend visiting the wife's family. My father-in-law took me to one of his favourite hangouts, the Cash Casino. Yikes. What. A. Dump.

Eight tables, two cash games of 1/2 going and a $180 holiday tournament. Nice slow blind structure and capable players. Also some of the worst luck I could imagine. Late into level four and I'm sitting on the average chipstack. I look down at A10o in late position (one off the button) I 4x it to 800. Button folds, SB folds BB calls. Flop comes Q, 10, 8 with two hearts. BB bets 1000. I call. Turn is a J of hearts. BB pushes. I fold. Likely should have folded on the flop.

Next hand I look at pocket Queens. I 4x it again. Guy to my left calls, BB calls. Flop comes 7, 8, 7. BB pushes all in. I have him covered and want to isolate, so I push. I'm thinking to myself, he's got an overpair, no credit for a seven. Worried about guy on my left, and even more worried when he starts to chuckle and turns over pocket eights for a boat. He says "Hurr, I've got the Nuts!" lol. m'kay. And bb turns over pocket Queens! Drawing dead, I leave in fricking 30th place. There went $180. Actually, There went $360, because my father-in-law didn't bring enough cash with him, as he thought it was a $40 rebuy tournament. Sigh.

New Macbooks and Macbook Pro's today. Might have to buy myself a present!

Cashed again.

Made it to 97th of 3780 in yesterday's $30k Guaranteed. Only good for $50-something. One interesting thing did come out of the whole thing though. I actually used one of the tools Pokerstars provides in a way that I think it was actually meant to be used.

The Hand Replay feature allows you to go through past hands at the table and replay them slightly faster than real-time. It starts with the outcome, and with one click, you're reliving the hand.

I raised from early position with A10o, hoping to really just steal the blinds and antes. I get a push all-in from mp from a player I remembered that had made some bizarre moves before. I madly clicked through the Replayer and looked for any hands where his hole cards were exposed. Saw that his range was pretty wide and made the call.



Looking at the numbers, I'm getting the right price to call, so mathematically it made sense, but sometimes it's good to have a little more info. I don't use Pokertracker or any sort of HUD, so this replayer is actually quite valueable to me.

CT game tonight. I'm still in the top ten, but need to perform well tonight in order to solidify my entrance to the QTOC.

Meh.

So I cashed yesterday. 78th of 1836. Not bad. Made a few mistakes but also managed to make an informed call.

See below:


It just seemed to me like total bullshit that he'd have a King, and a rather weak play if he did. If he pushes and has a King, what are the chances I'm calling? Pretty low I'd say. If he wants to get any kind of value here, he checks and hopes that I bet. If he had a King he would have had the deck pretty crippled, so I didn't think that'd be the play. I didn't even think he had a pair to be honest, at best Ace high.

A few hands later, I was crippled when my flopped set of jacks ran into a flopped set of Aces. Horrible. Not five hands later, the same guy flops a set of Aces again vs. a flopped set of Kings. So sick. He ended up finishing 15th.

I didn't bother playing the Monday night CT game. Razz is by far my favourite of the Stud games, but I still hate it and couldn't bring myself to waste any money on it.

On a completely unrelated note, I watched "Aftermath: The World Without Us" a documentary based on the book of the same title. Very interesting to watch a program that does a good job of succinctly summarizing a novel. Good photography and effects made it all seem very believable. They spent a lot more time on what would happen to the animals than the book did, but it seemed to work. Nothing on the fact that this history has repeated itself a number of times with former empires, but given that it was only two hours long, that can be forgiven. I recommend either the book or the show. Book is obviously much deeper.

What a weekend of garbage.

I went completely O-fer this weekend. Not a single cash in 8 attempts. Completely horrible performance. The best thing I did this weekend was clean the house. So sad.

I wouldn't say that any of plays were terrible, but as I approached the bubble, comfortably looking at an easy cash, and likely even better, I seemed to have a Matusow-style blowup. There was a PLO tournament that I was killing, but it went severely south after this:

PokerStars Game #20954955119: Tournament #110965747, $10+$1 Omaha Pot Limit - Level X (300/600) - 2008/10/05 17:00:41 ET
Table '110965747 10' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: KP666 (69854 in chips)
Seat 2: Racing CdeM (5156 in chips)
Seat 4: mattythatguy (12225 in chips)
Seat 5: formalberto (22614 in chips)
Seat 6: Chakuza4 (11636 in chips)
Seat 7: 1 Sexy Cat (5500 in chips)
Seat 8: chucky11x (5580 in chips)
Seat 9: Muppinger (8292 in chips)
mattythatguy: posts small blind 300
formalberto: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattythatguy [8s 7c Kd Ad]
Chakuza4: folds
1 Sexy Cat: folds
chucky11x: folds
Muppinger: calls 600
KP666: calls 600
Racing CdeM: folds
mattythatguy: calls 300
formalberto: checks
*** FLOP *** [6c 9d 5d]
mattythatguy: bets 2400
formalberto: folds
Muppinger: folds
jdog42 is connected
KP666: raises 7200 to 9600
mattythatguy: raises 2025 to 11625 and is all-in
KP666: calls 2025
*** TURN *** [6c 9d 5d] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [6c 9d 5d 9c] [Ts]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mattythatguy: shows [8s 7c Kd Ad] (a straight, Six to Ten)
KP666: shows [Jd Qd 5c 5h] (a full house, Fives full of Nines)
KP666 collected 25650 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 25650 | Rake 0
Board [6c 9d 5d 9c Ts]
Seat 1: KP666 showed [Jd Qd 5c 5h] and won (25650) with a full house, Fives full of Nines
Seat 2: Racing CdeM (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: mattythatguy (small blind) showed [8s 7c Kd Ad] and lost with a straight, Six to Ten
Seat 5: formalberto (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 6: Chakuza4 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: 1 Sexy Cat folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: chucky11x folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Muppinger folded on the Flop

This is sort of run of the mill when it comes to PLO, as so many things can change from hand to hand. But it still sucks when you're so far ahead in a hand, only to be absolutely crushed on the turn. This sort of thing happened over and over again the whole weekend. I couldn't get people to lay down weak pairs on boards that I was betting aggressively. I'm not sure if I'm giving something away, or if Pokertracker is telling people something. I really wish they would ramp up their development on the Mac side.

I'm sure I'll bounce back.

EDIT: Gah, it just happened again, only this time, I have nobody to blame but myself.

PokerStars Game #20975997487: Tournament #112085930, $15.00+$1.50 Omaha Pot Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2008/10/06 13:44:56 ET
Table '112085930 11' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: mattythatguy (5770 in chips)
Seat 3: Eaglee- (3090 in chips)
Seat 4: 101SOLO (12110 in chips)
Seat 5: Wine Pusher (4760 in chips)
Seat 6: SenorRisto (3235 in chips)
Seat 7: ElViSaRaTa (2045 in chips)
Seat 8: BillyGoatGrf (1557 in chips)
Seat 9: BonScott80 (4615 in chips)
101SOLO: posts small blind 75
Wine Pusher: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to mattythatguy [8c Ac 7c 7d]
SenorRisto: calls 150
ElViSaRaTa: calls 150
BillyGoatGrf: folds
BonScott80: folds
mattythatguy: calls 150
Eaglee-: folds
101SOLO: calls 75
Wine Pusher: checks
*** FLOP *** [6c Tc 5c]
101SOLO: checks
Wine Pusher: checks
SenorRisto: checks
ElViSaRaTa: checks
mattythatguy: checks
*** TURN *** [6c Tc 5c] [5h]
101SOLO: checks
Wine Pusher: bets 300
SenorRisto: folds
ElViSaRaTa: folds
mattythatguy: raises 550 to 850
101SOLO: folds
Wine Pusher said, "TT?"
Wine Pusher: raises 2450 to 3300
mattythatguy: raises 2320 to 5620 and is all-in
Wine Pusher: calls 1310 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1010) returned to mattythatguy
*** RIVER *** [6c Tc 5c 5h] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Wine Pusher: shows [Ts 2c 5s 2h] (a full house, Fives full of Tens)
mattythatguy: shows [8c Ac 7c 7d] (a flush, Ace high)
Wine Pusher collected 9970 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9970 | Rake 0
Board [6c Tc 5c 5h 8s]
Seat 2: mattythatguy showed [8c Ac 7c 7d] and lost with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: Eaglee- (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: 101SOLO (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: Wine Pusher (big blind) showed [Ts 2c 5s 2h] and won (9970) with a full house, Fives full of Tens
Seat 6: SenorRisto folded on the Turn
Seat 7: ElViSaRaTa folded on the Turn
Seat 8: BillyGoatGrf folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: BonScott80 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


All things considered, he's likely calling any flop bet with his awesome two pair, so chances are I'd be dead again. If he thinks I've got tens, then he raises and I push, wouldn't you consider letting the inferior fh go? I dunno.

Blew it.

I totally sucked in the weekly CT game. Couldn't get anything going at all. Didn't really understand the last hand either. Just look at how it played out:

Not really sure I could have made a bad play there, just didn't pan out. Oh well.

The weekend is upon us, and I plan on playing many tournaments. I hope there's good news to report on Monday.

Also signed up for that Pokerstars affiliate program, but I can't for the life of me figure out to get the damn thing set up. Did this do it?

Chiptalk

So not only do I love poker, I LOVE poker chips. They are easily the best part about gambling. Holding them in my hands, throwing them into the center, scooping a huge pot of them - it's awesome, and a very addictive sub-hobby of poker. I'm a member/moderator at Chiptalk, mecca for many collectors of singles and full sets of retired casino, and custom poker chips.

I got into the whole collector hobby back in 2005, and have been hooked ever since. It's an excellent community of very knowledgeable members. If you have any questions whatsoever, it's THE place to be. The Chipboard is quite good as well, but I can't stand the format of their forums.

I personally own three sets of custom chips, and am always in the market for more.

Anyways, not only is it a site dedicated to chips, there's a heckuva lot of poker strategy discussion. Many of the members are ridiculously good players. We've got at least one pro, and many semi-pros. One of which just took second place in the WCOOP 8-game final. He won $46k for his trouble. Not bad...

To that point, we have weekly private tournaments, on Mondays and Thursdays on Pokerstars. I'd say that I'm one of the more consistent players, always in contention for the quarterly tournament of champions. By almost pure fluke, mixed with a lot of luck and very little skill, managed to win the yearly tournament of champions last year. Super fun, and also very entertaining to play with the same die-hard group every week. I'd love to set something like this up live, but getting people to commit is hard.

Another member started running a Heads-up Tournament and I'm happy to say that I won the first match. Now I'm up against Dr. Lecterrr and I can't say I'm too happy about it. I know that he's aggressive, unpredicatble, and willing to push if he's shown any weakness. Wish me luck, and check out Chiptalk if you have any interest or questions, you won't be dissapointed. Your wallet might be...

PLO

I think I've found where some of the money is online. PLO (and to a lesser extent PLO8) is a great place to find the cash. I've been playing a couple of tournaments daily, when time permits and the results speak for themselves. Not always a HUGE cash, but cash nonetheless.

I really like Omaha. It forces me to think a lot more than I did when I played Hold'em, and I'm finding that it helps my Hold'em game as well. I still think that I tend to play a little too much Sheriff on the river when the board pairs. Drives me crazy that someone will stick around for 5th street when it's been potted on fourth. Can anybody run the numbers for filling up on the river when you have a pocket pair down?

Most of the people playing these tournaments don't really know how to play Omaha. I don't claim to be an expert, but I know enough to fold a set on a scary board. I've seen a lot of people go broke with a pair of aces down, and three to a straight, or three to a flush on the board. Aces aren't nearly as strong in Omaha. There's just too many cards out there that can crush you.

Fucking rain.

This weather is seriously getting me down. It doesn't help that the markets have gone to rat shit either. Wifey's pretty worried about the retail market here, as it's pretty much tanked and nobody's buying anything and is seriously affecting her business. Canadians are generally a pretty thrifty people, and when there's financial issues, they tend to get even more so.

I'm the opposite though, when things get out of whack like they are now (thanks for buying those houses you couldn't afford, America), I do my best to keep spending. I'm not sure if it helps, but I hope it does, even if in some minor way.

I was supposed to go to the gym today, but I just couldn't do it. I feel pretty crappy, as I'm pretty sure I got the cough going around the office. Sucks.

Played three tournaments last night, busto in all three. I was doing so well, but all it takes is one mistake and you're pooched.

Ah, that feels better!

For those that don't know, Potomophobia is an intense fear of rivers. You guessed it, I'm a poker player. It's not my job, but I still take it pretty seriously. I've read a ton of books on the subject and I'm always trying to improve. It's been four solid years since I started playing. I usually find that I do better when I've set a goal for myself. Otherwise I tend to just blow my money in stupid, stupid ways.

Right now, my only goal is to beat one of my online buddies in a prop bet that we set up. I have to place higher than him in the $30k Guaranteed $10+1 multi-table tournaments that Pokerstars runs twice a day. Since the bet started last week (bet runs for a year) my best finish is a staggering 390th of 3438. I'm still in the lead with those abysmal numbers because Gene hasn't started playing yet. I'm at a slight disadvantage if history has anything to do with it. He's finished as high as 15th (but it was before we started this bet) and I think he could easily do that well again.

I've been reading a lot of other people's blogs to get the courage to start writing my own. I hope that I can keep this up. I'm already finding it to be quite therapeutic.

I should mention that this WILL NOT be just a poker blog. There's plenty of those out there, that will be much more interesting than this one.