Still Have My Eyes

Even though I claimed the need to gouge my eyes out after my bad beat exit from the MATH last night, I did not follow through. Wanted to, just couldn't put my family through it.

I can't say I played as well last night as I did the night before, but I was still playing pretty good poker. I was well on my way to the final table when some player I've never seen before decided to make a monumentally stupid move that worked out for him by way of a three outer on the flop. Run on sentence withstanding this player was a pretty easy read. One of those players that was aggressive for the sake of being aggressive. Wanted to resteal at every opportunity and defended their blinds when it was completely unnecessary.

At any rate I went out in 14th and I can take solace in the fact that I played pretty well for the most part.

How To Lose $1,000

Before last night I hadn't played a MTT since August. Beyond that I hadn't seen action in a blogger tournament since June. (I did play the Pokerstars coop event for bloggers but I'm not counting that.) I expected a very rusty and poor performance but I can't actually remember when I had played better.

Everything was clicking for me yesterday. I decided to play one token satellite to gain my entrance for The Big Game. I won the token.

When the tournament started everything progressed well and I managed to be among the chip leaders throughout most of the event. By the time the final table started I was the chip leader and I continued to build my stack from there. Within a few orbits I had a 2:1 chip lead over my closest competitor. I truly felt this was my tournament to lose.

As play continued I took a back seat to the action and tightened up. I saw no need in giving anything away and I watched on as TripJax began to make a big move. As we reached the final four he and I would swap the lead several times.

This is where things went horribly wrong. Four handed and in the SB TripJax raises to 4,200. Button folds and I decided to take a flop with A6d, the BB folds. Here it gets interesting as the flop brings 345 rainbow. I have the open end straight draw and an Ace for a possible 11 outs. I figure this is a good spot to take the pot down since if I get called I have plenty of outs, and if he is stealing the blinds with say KQ or so he will have to let it go. I make a pot sized bet of 10,400 and Trip goes into the tank for a few moments. When he decides what to do he fires back at me with a bet of 23,000.

I know I'm looking at an overpair at this point. The thing is I was really only dead if he had 22, 77, or AA. I believed I was left with only 2 choices, fold or push. Folding left me with 36,000 chips and second place, but just barely. It also would have made TripJax a very big stack and he was the one player I didn't want to have chips. His bet was also an odd amount. If felt a bit like a "go away I don't want to invest anymore money" bet. I believed that a push could be enough to make him fold if he felt vulnerable. After all, with that flop I could have a lot of big hands if I'm willing to push.

So push I did. He goes into the tank and then calls showing me one of the three hands I really didn't want him to have. The 77. I can't hit one of my remaining 9 outs and I'm sent packing in fourth place. To say I was pissed would be an understatement. I didn't stick around to see who won, although if TripJax didn't win something went horribly wrong.

I had already spent the first place money in my head. I need a new laptop and I was going to take that money and get one. I'm calmed down now but I have to admit that loss bugged me for hours.

The one positive out of all this is my passion for the multi's in rekindled.

See you at the tables.

Championship Bust

I'm out of the WBCOOP in 924th place. The hand that did it?
Enjoy

PokerStars Game #12626266672: Tournament #63028692, Freeroll Hold'em No Limit - Level V (200/400) - 2007/10/14 - 16:09:08 (ET)
Table '63028692 132' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Warnosh (8625 in chips)
Seat 2: lifesagrind (14950 in chips)
Seat 3: sijht.nl (11500 in chips)
Seat 4: draconid (14800 in chips)
Seat 5: 66Buffalo66 (23525 in chips)
Seat 6: StrangePP (13525 in chips)
Seat 7: cwebb1977 (25575 in chips)
Seat 8: polyballer9 (8150 in chips)
Seat 9: DodgerPL (23875 in chips)
StrangePP: posts small blind 200
cwebb1977: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to lifesagrind [4s 4d]
polyballer9: calls 400
DodgerPL: folds
Warnosh: folds
lifesagrind: calls 400
sijht.nl: folds
draconid: folds
66Buffalo66: folds
StrangePP: calls 200
cwebb1977: checks
*** FLOP *** [8c Ac 4h]
StrangePP: checks
cwebb1977: bets 1400
polyballer9: folds
lifesagrind: raises 1800 to 3200
StrangePP: folds
cwebb1977: calls 1800
*** TURN *** [8c Ac 4h] [9h]
cwebb1977: checks
lifesagrind: bets 5200
cwebb1977: raises 5200 to 10400
lifesagrind: raises 950 to 11350 and is all-in
cwebb1977: calls 950
*** RIVER *** [8c Ac 4h 9h] [As]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
cwebb1977: shows [9d Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Nines)
lifesagrind: shows [4s 4d] (a full house, Fours full of Aces)
lifesagrind said, "lol"
cwebb1977 collected 30700 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 30700 | Rake 0
Board [8c Ac 4h 9h As]
Seat 1: Warnosh folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: lifesagrind showed [4s 4d] and lost with a full house, Fours full of Aces
Seat 3: sijht.nl folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: draconid folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: 66Buffalo66 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: StrangePP (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 7: cwebb1977 (big blind) showed [9d Ah] and won (30700) with a full house, Aces full of Nines
Seat 8: polyballer9 folded on the Flop
Seat 9: DodgerPL folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Tru Dat

Remember when shortly after Neteller shut out US players, PokerStars began the process of offering the Tru Card Prepaid Visa Card. They offered early signups for the card to select players and since Pokerstars wasn't supporting ePassporte yet I signed up and took one. I never did use the card and I'm not even sure Pokerstars ever officially utilized it as a deposit and withdrawal method. The card has sat in my desk drawer since the day I rec. it and then today this came via email.

Dear payTru Member:
Please be advised that you will not be receiving a replacement card for your current payTru card once it has expired. Please examine the expiration date on your payTru card and check your balance at www.paytrucard.com. Please plan the use of your card accordingly as it relates to point of sale purchases and ATM withdrawals. Remember that all transactions carry a nominal transaction fee which is deducted in real time, so please plan for this when performing your transaction(s).
Your card will not be accepted at merchants or ATM machines once it has expired.
This is not a result of your use of the card and does not effect your credit rating in any way. We will advise you in the future if there are changes to this policy.
Thank you for your membership patronage.
payTRu Card Services

Seems odd that they would just be canceling my account since I've never used it. Sounds more like they may be closing down for good.

My Turn

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: 2864930

Iron Man Medal... Not So Special

One should always read the fine print. When I checked my Iron Man Status page and saw mention of a new Iron Man Medal, I thought, how cool. I was going to be rewarded for 12 months of consecutive Iron Man Status with a little token of my accomplishment.

Imagine my shock when I logged on to play last night and saw a few other players with medals. Then I found out that anyone who had qualified last month got one. That was completely sucky.

Since it's just a promotion tool for Full Tilt and not a real recognition of accomplishment I'm going to have it removed from my avatar.

A positive spin on the whole thing is that now I can tell who plays a lot when they sit down at the table.

My apologies for a disjointed post.

A Cold September

Sadly September was a losing month. When it comes to losing months though, this is the kind I would choose to have. I ended up down a grand total of 72 cents. That's right $0.72. When I receive my rakeback for the month it will be profitable but I don't like to count that as actual poker winnings.

On the SNG front I managed to finish the month with two good sessions which saved me. A total of 152 played for an ROI of 0.4%. Better than a negative ROI I suppose.

Having just completed my 12th consecutive month of Iron Man status at Full Tilt I'm not going to give up now. After this month my avatar will recieve the "Iron Man Chip" addon. Although I play with avatars turned off it may look cool. (Haven't actually seen one yet)

In order to maintain I'm going to keep playing the $24 turbo SNG's each day, but only four of them. If I want to play more after that I'm going to switch to NL cash games. My NL record has sucked this year and I want to put some time in to see if I can end the year in the black on these.

In other news; I've had a WoW (World of Warcraft) account for months but have never spent much time in game. I've finally found a character I like to play though so that is all changing. With renewed interest I will more than likely be spending my free time leveling up instead of doubling up.