Say It Isn't So

Filed Under: Poker

I'm going to end the month of May without a tournament win. I had a nice streak going and now it will come to a bitter end. I still have one tourney going right now but I've already had my Kings cracked by Queens so I see the end is near. From a bankroll standpoint it wasn't a horrible month in the multi's. I managed two final table appearances and I'll end the month in the black, but damnit, I wanted a win.

On the bright side I think I've found the softest tournament known to man. It's the Paradise Coral that runs at 9:30 pm central. I've cashed in it the last five times I've played, including my two final table appearances.

PokerStars Blogger Goodness

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

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event
exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Give You A Referral

Filed Under: Poker

I'm looking to sign up for a rakeback program with a PokerRoom Network site. I already have accounts with PokerRoom, Hollywood, and CheckNRaise. I would like to get signed up with another room on the network by the end of this week or early next week with a rakeback plan. If anyone wants a referral I'm looking to sign up. Whoever has the best deal gets my business.

Does It Make A Difference?

Filed Under: Poker

Played the WPBT multi table tournaments tonight and it left me pondering the above question. You see during the first hour of both I played a pretty good game. I was firmly within the top 10 and making proper decisions. The break came and went then things took a slightly ugly turn. In one tourney I continued to play a good game and felt I had a decent grasp on all my opponents. On the other I couldn't make a good decision to save my life.

Once we hit the 1 hour 40 minute mark I managed to get my money in with the worst hand and out I went. In the other (my good tourney) I ran into three straight suckouts and I was out. I finished in 14th and 15th places. Times like that really make you wonder if it matters how you play sometimes.

Tiltabilly

Filed Under: Poker

I was going to answer the questionnaire that's making the rounds but I decided to play poker instead. I would have saved myself a few buyins if I'd just answered the damn questions. If anyone isn't over saturated with answers yet, leave me a comment and I'll answer them too.

I went on what is becoming a more increasingly less frequent bout of tilt last night. What surprised me is what triggered the tilt as I've never experienced it this way before.

Everything began innocently enough but I quickly found myself down two buy-ins. My decision making wasn't flawed (beyond my rudimentary knowledge of the game anyway), things were just going the way of my opponents by the time all 5 cards hit the board.

I dug in for the long haul and had worked my way back to within striking distance of even. That is when a player, seated directly across from me, called me out for sucking out on him in some huge pot. This had presumably happened within the last few days and he just kept hammering away in the chat box. Calling me the usual "donkey", "fish", and "luckbox". I suggested to him that with his hostility level so high, perhaps poker wasn't his game. This didn't deter him though and I finally decided to peruse the Poker Tracker database for proof of his allegations. The only record I had for him were this night, at this table. I decided that he was simply trying to goad me so I'd play back at him since I was one of the two largest stacks at that particular table. He later began in on the chip leader himself so I figure I was correct in my assumptions.

Eventually I was dealt the grandaddy of starting hands in pocket aces. Being horribly out of position (under the gun) I threw out a 5x bet and the only caller was my best friend across the table. The flop came K6J rainbow and being supremely confident I made my standard 3/4 pot continuation bet. A call from him and the turn brings another Jack. I'm a little worried at this point since he would definitely call me with something like QJ in this situation preflop and on the flop.

Again I fired about 3/4 the pot and now he raises about 2.5 times my bet. At this point I make a huge (I did say huge) mistake in the hand and just call. My opponent only has about 1/4 the pot left in his stack and it's obviously going in on the river. My proper play, based on my read, should have just been to fold. Instead I see a second 6 hit the river and I check fold to what he has left.

I feel I really misplayed the hand but then my opponent shows me pocket deuces and asks if the board is good. I know what your thinking... of course you went on tilt. I did not. Not yet anyway. I chalked it up to just being outplayed. He figured he could take the pot away from me and he was right. Granted my confidence was a little shaken but I continued to play relatively well. A few orbits later he leaves the table.

That was the trigger. I'm not entirely sure why. Could be I lost the opportunity to get my money back (I know, once it's in the pot it's no longer yours). Could be that the earlier hand finally got to me. 3o minutes later and 3.5 buyins down from the start I finally forced myself to bed. I still don't know why, but I do know that this morning I was still fuming when I woke up. I'm also not sure if I should play tonight. We have a cub scout fundraiser to go to so I'll decide when we get back.

I'm sure there was something other than my horrible play that I should have learned from this experience. I haven't figured it out yet. If I ever do, I'll let you know.

Nirvana

Filed Under: Poker

I've found a new home. The players at this site are so soft that it's really seemed like taking candy from babies (including the whining and crying). I'll spare you the hand histories but in one table tonight within less than an hour I won 156BB with a set of queens, 172BB with a pair of Aces, 382BB with trip nines, and 57BB with a flopped full house.

Granted those are big hands but these players were more than willing to toss all their chips in even after my betting told them they were beat. Everyone was so afraid of being bluffed they just had to see what I had. After showing them what they already knew to be true they would shout their expletives and leave the room.

You Know Your NOT A Donkey When...

Filed Under: Poker

realizing that your making bad decisions you take a break from the tables for a while. Upon your return you make correct decisions and not only recoup the earlier losses but turn a profit.

You Know Your A Donkey When...

Filed Under: Poker

You flop top two pair, then whisper "Show me your set" under your breath, while clicking on the call button for the all-in bet on the turn.

Back Home

Filed Under: Life

First I want to thank everyone for their kind words. It's nice to know people are out there pulling for your family when things are tough.

It turns out he had two different bacterial infections at the same time. The doctors were a little confused because they had different incubation periods. It was finally decided that he was an asymptomatic carrier of one, then contracted the other. He's back to about 80% now and will be going to school on Monday. Life should be normal again and I'm looking forward to getting back to some poker playing.

Turns out that my daughter did not have strep and it was just a 24 bug. Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Children's Mercy Hospital Rules

Filed Under: Life

I planned a post about how I once again screwed up the chip lead heading into a final table situation. This led to a 3rd place finish in the Coral on Paradise Saturday night.

Instead my days have since been a succession of 3 ER visits resulting in the eventual admission of my 9 year old to the hospital. The doctors can't give us a definitive answer on exactly what's wrong with him other than to tell us they think it's a bacterial infection of his colon. The test results for this won't be back until Tuesday night. We hope one of these comes back positive because the alternative is a disease that he will have to deal with for the rest of his life. Since he's already on morphine for the pain I can't fathom what a lifetime of this type of pain could result in.

In fact just typing that statement sickens my stomach. It's been a frustrating experience because the first ER we visited said it was just a bad case of diarrhea. When his pain didn't go away we visited our pediatrician's office and the on-call doctor prescribed immodium and a McDonalds Happy Meal (because these don't digest easily and will hopefully slow down his bowel). When Sunday came and he just seemed to be getting worse we finally visited the Children's Hospital Urgent Care. They believed it may be appendicitis but wanted a CT scan to confirm. They lacked the equipment onsite so we were shipped to the main Hospital downtown.

After 10 hours of tests and waiting around we were told he would have to be admitted and will be in the hospital for at least a few days. Also it turns out that the pediatrician prescribed the worse possible thing we could have given him.

I have to say that Children's Mercy has been extremely attentive to our entire family's needs. We found out today that the doctor we saw in the ER a few times was actually the Chief of Medicine for the entire hospital. It was nice to know we were in the care of the best they had. I'm not sure how he managed to decide to take our case, it was probably because it presented as so many different things and was difficult to diagnose. It is a teaching hospital and we saw a minimum of 10 different doctors at varying times. Having to recite the entire case history each time is a tedious process that really wears on you.

They won't let siblings stay in the hospital overnight so my wife is staying with him while I stay home at night. To top it off we think our youngest may now have come down with strep. This means another visit to the pediatrician in the morning before heading to the hospital.

Do you smell that?

Filed Under: Poker

That would be the smell of dogshit, which is the best way to describe the way I played tonight. I thought I was all psyched up and ready to play but my head just wasn't in the game. I dropped a buyin in the first two hands I played before the first orbit was even done.

This is what I'm sure sent me a little over the edge. I just wasn't paying attention to chip stacks and who was pot committed. I bluffed way too much and no one ever folded, unless I actually had a hand. I was playing with my hand face up at all times.

When you expect the worse, you always get it. I'm lucky enough that I know when to call it quits now. In the past I would have blown through at least 25% of my bankroll trying to get even. Now I managed to get away with only losing a little over 2 buy-ins.

Flacidity

Filed Under: Poker

Nuts are good... but when they get no action it really just feels like blue balls.

Spoils Of War

The DADI V reward arrived today. It came as quite a suprise that the words every blogger knows were layed out accross the side. Sweet Deal.

The deaf dealing instrument has already been put to use as my wife has decided it's oh so cute. She felt she deserved to receive some of the spoils so I have conceded the device to her. She has been so supportive of my poker playing that she really did deserve to lay claim. (Besides this gave me an excuse to purchase a nano which I've been jonesing for.)

P.S. I decided not to purchase the nano with the PokerStars points. It was just going to take to long to collect that many points. Yet another goal in the crapper.

WPBT Stud Event

Filed Under: Poker

I'm not a stud player. I've played stud, but I'm not a player. My limited experience has involved a few home games where we've done a couple rounds and that's about it. With this rudimentary knowledge of the rules in hand I had zero expectations last night. I cracked open Doyle's Super System 2 in the hopes of learning a thing or two, but the section covering stud involved high/low. We were only playing high. I didn't want to muddy the waters for myself anymore than they already would be so I didn't even bother scanning it. I was fully intending to rely on my reads and hope for the best.

Fortunately it became evident rather early on that no one else seemed to have a firm grasp on the game either. We were a collection of hold em and omaha players trying to make due. It amazed me how often 7th street was deciding the outcome of the hands. I would imagine that this was because of our collective lack of experience. I'm sure experienced players have a tendency to not chase as badly as a lot of us were doing.

Feeling confident in my reads, I was making good decisions. By the time we were a quarter of the way through the field I had a big chip stack. At this point I decided to let that stack do a lot of talking. I became as big a bully as I felt I could get away with and it was working.

Going into the final table my stack was impressive. As has been the case in several of these WPBT events though, I can't seem to seal the deal. Marginal play trying to bust the remaining players left me crippled and I finished in 5th.

Better than I expected, or hoped. This combined with a productive afternoon at the tables made for a very nice day. My finish should move me up a spot or two in the rankings. I'll still be a long ways from the leader but without something to shoot for it wouldn't be fun.