We've all seen it. Four players see the flop in an unraised pot. The turn appears to help no one but it hasn't helped you either. Everyone checks around again and there you sit in late position. No one seems to want this pot but it's going to cost you a big bet just to win two. Is it worth it? Maybe someone is scared to bet that bottom pair and has you beat. Maybe someone is slowplaying a big pocket pair. Maybe a lot of things.
The orphan pot can be a nice way to win some money, or a sad way to lose some. The pots are so small that you will have to take them down 40% of the time to be profitable. That's a pretty high win percentage but these pots are a unique sort of beast. Win that 40% and you will make your 2BB/100. lose it and you'll slowly bleed your bankroll.
As with most plays the more you know about your opponents the better your odds of success. If it's to early to have a read on the players and your in late position when this situation arises. Take a stab at it. If you get a call be prepared to fold the river and if your raised just let it go. It may have cost you a big bet but you've gained some insight into that particular player.
The only time that it really doesn't make any sense to even try this play is when you have a player who almost infallibly slow plays his big pocket pair. This player usually waits for someone to bet into a pot and then check-raises. Just check it around against this type of player. If he/she still checks the river then you may want to try it. I emphasize may because just about any player with an A will call you in this situation. You should have an A with a big kicker before even considering this play on the river.
All this may seem elementary to you but just think back at all the times you've seen this come up and nobody bets till the river, if they bet it at all. The orphan pot is called that for a reason and often the first player willing to adopt it gets to take it home.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Sending Out An S.O.S.
Sadly, I did not win the trip to the WSOP on Saturday night. If I had I would have updated yesterday with an over abundance of enthusiasm. As it turns out I didn't make it past the first break. Recent tournament history has not been kind to me and I lost holding AK. An early position player raised and when it got to me in middle position I was going to be pot committed if I re-raised. The best thing to do in that situation is to go ahead and push it in if your going to play, so that's what I did.
My read on the player ahead of me was that he was holding a middle pair. We had similar chip stacks but he had me covered with about 200 chips left over. I really didn't believe that he would risk a coin flip this early in the tourney with so much at stake. When I pushed it all into the middle the rest of the field folded. With the decision back on my opponent he went into the tank. Having used up almost all his time before making the call I was shocked to see him flip over pocket 3's.
There is no logic to this move. I figured him for a middle pair but with this holding he had to figure he was dominated. Even if I was pushing with the hammer I'd have an overcard to him. He obviously knew more than me though and I never got the help I needed to double up.
With the tournament behind me I went ahead and made the plunge into Full Tilt Poker. The $600 bonus was to much of a lure and I eagerly took the bait. Having been hooked I realized too late that it was going to take an eon to be reeled in. I have never encountered a bonus that releases so slowly. After six hours of two tabling 1/2 I have only managed to clear about $11 in bonus.
I'm sending out an S.O.S. to anyone who has managed to clear the Full Tilt bonus. Any suggestions on what to play to clear the bonus most efficiently will be greatly appreciated. I know O8 is usually a good game for bonus clearing but the only game I've seen going is .10/.25 pot limit. I played it for a half hour and even though it was a profitable table the pots only averaged about $3. And that folks, isn't enough to help clear the bonus.
I'm going to keep at the Tilt bonus but Absolute is offering a 20% reload until midnight tonight. I'm going to hit that one before going back to Tilt. Absolute bonuses clear slowly as well but not at the excruciating pace I've been enduring the last two nights. I'll get Absolute knocked out over the next week and then with a little bankroll cushion I'll head back.
My read on the player ahead of me was that he was holding a middle pair. We had similar chip stacks but he had me covered with about 200 chips left over. I really didn't believe that he would risk a coin flip this early in the tourney with so much at stake. When I pushed it all into the middle the rest of the field folded. With the decision back on my opponent he went into the tank. Having used up almost all his time before making the call I was shocked to see him flip over pocket 3's.
There is no logic to this move. I figured him for a middle pair but with this holding he had to figure he was dominated. Even if I was pushing with the hammer I'd have an overcard to him. He obviously knew more than me though and I never got the help I needed to double up.
With the tournament behind me I went ahead and made the plunge into Full Tilt Poker. The $600 bonus was to much of a lure and I eagerly took the bait. Having been hooked I realized too late that it was going to take an eon to be reeled in. I have never encountered a bonus that releases so slowly. After six hours of two tabling 1/2 I have only managed to clear about $11 in bonus.
I'm sending out an S.O.S. to anyone who has managed to clear the Full Tilt bonus. Any suggestions on what to play to clear the bonus most efficiently will be greatly appreciated. I know O8 is usually a good game for bonus clearing but the only game I've seen going is .10/.25 pot limit. I played it for a half hour and even though it was a profitable table the pots only averaged about $3. And that folks, isn't enough to help clear the bonus.
I'm going to keep at the Tilt bonus but Absolute is offering a 20% reload until midnight tonight. I'm going to hit that one before going back to Tilt. Absolute bonuses clear slowly as well but not at the excruciating pace I've been enduring the last two nights. I'll get Absolute knocked out over the next week and then with a little bankroll cushion I'll head back.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Here We Go Again
After sulking over my meltdown last week I've begun the arduous task of rebuiling the bankroll. If you read the post detailing the debacle you know I was left debating whether to play 1/2 or 2/4. The master plan I finally decided upon was to begin bonus whoring again and multi-table 1/2 so I could clear the hands quicker.
With Paradise offering the superbowl weekend 20% bonus I was in business. The sportsbook end of Pokerstars was also offering a free $50 to play with so I made bets on New England and Philadelphia so I could have the cash. A free $10 prop bet on the coin toss was also included in the deal. I unfortunately couldn't hit my 50/50 chance. I completely blame the 10 year old who did the toss as he flatly dropped the coin to the ground instead of actually flipping it in the air. They should never give a child that much responsibility.
Switching back to poker I've been a cumulative disaster. I cleared the Paradise bonus with a profit, but it was a smaller profit than the bonus. So in essence that was just a nice way of saying I lost. I started out witha big win, then a modest win, then a big loss followed by another big loss, ending with a modest win. Overall I ended down about $50 in five sessions but with the bonus cleared the bankroll still grew.
I'm going to have to search for where the next worthwhile bonus is at. I'm considering the 100% up to $600 bonus at full tilt if it's still available. I've heard it takes a long time to clear though. $600 is a lot of scratch at this point so that may be worth it.
Over the next few days I'll be playing at Absolute. I've got a $10 bonus that needs to be dusted off there and I've got two tournaments to play in. The Pokersourceonline poker league, USA vs. Canada will be in it's second round on Friday and on Saturday I will be playing for a seat at the WSOP. PokerSourceOnline.com is sponsoring that tournament as well so I encourage everyone to go check them out. They have the best signup deals on the net. If you sign up for one of their promos I'd appreciate you using referral code "lifesagrind". They will be giving away several seats to the WSOP this year.
If you want to stop in and offer some encouragement I play under the name "hotlead" at Absolute. The tourney is on Saturday at 8pm central.
With Paradise offering the superbowl weekend 20% bonus I was in business. The sportsbook end of Pokerstars was also offering a free $50 to play with so I made bets on New England and Philadelphia so I could have the cash. A free $10 prop bet on the coin toss was also included in the deal. I unfortunately couldn't hit my 50/50 chance. I completely blame the 10 year old who did the toss as he flatly dropped the coin to the ground instead of actually flipping it in the air. They should never give a child that much responsibility.
Switching back to poker I've been a cumulative disaster. I cleared the Paradise bonus with a profit, but it was a smaller profit than the bonus. So in essence that was just a nice way of saying I lost. I started out witha big win, then a modest win, then a big loss followed by another big loss, ending with a modest win. Overall I ended down about $50 in five sessions but with the bonus cleared the bankroll still grew.
I'm going to have to search for where the next worthwhile bonus is at. I'm considering the 100% up to $600 bonus at full tilt if it's still available. I've heard it takes a long time to clear though. $600 is a lot of scratch at this point so that may be worth it.
Over the next few days I'll be playing at Absolute. I've got a $10 bonus that needs to be dusted off there and I've got two tournaments to play in. The Pokersourceonline poker league, USA vs. Canada will be in it's second round on Friday and on Saturday I will be playing for a seat at the WSOP. PokerSourceOnline.com is sponsoring that tournament as well so I encourage everyone to go check them out. They have the best signup deals on the net. If you sign up for one of their promos I'd appreciate you using referral code "lifesagrind". They will be giving away several seats to the WSOP this year.
If you want to stop in and offer some encouragement I play under the name "hotlead" at Absolute. The tourney is on Saturday at 8pm central.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Strategy Shmategy
Today I want to talk about something that's been swirling around the back of my cavernous cranium. (the preceding sentence was written in honor of the big human head who seems to be one of my regular seventeen readers) That is writing about strategy.
The problem with writing a strategy article, at least for me, is that everyone knows when talking poker, it always "depends". I can think of a concept, work it out and then come up with countless scenarios that would rebuff what I was just thinking.
I assigned a database project to one of my employees and she came to me today with plans that went way beyond the scope of the original vision. I threw out some corrections and to help her get back on track I told her "Don't overthink things." She looked at me sideways for a moment and then replied, "Yeah, that's probably what I'm doing."
Well, that's what I do too when it comes to writing. I've tossed countless ideas out because I overanalyzed to the point where the original thought had lost all meaning. No one can account for every eventuality. Trying to do so will only stall you in a quagmire of self doubt and disillusionment.
It's not easy to think of something to write about and when you place undo pressure on yourself it only helps lead to that dreaded blogger burnout. What I have decided to do for myself, and this may help others, is taking my thought process only to the point where I would in a game situation. With the online clock counting you down you can only run through so many probabilities before being folded. If you take this approach to writing about strategy you will avoid the pressure and the pain that comes from firing to many neural pathways.
Tackle a subject, narrow your scope, and go with it. Will you cover everything? No. Should you? Absolutely not. If you do you'll only lose your reader and any hopes of passing on your hard won knowledge. Obviously I haven't written a great tritest on strategy writing but maybe this tip will help those of you that struggle, just like me.
The problem with writing a strategy article, at least for me, is that everyone knows when talking poker, it always "depends". I can think of a concept, work it out and then come up with countless scenarios that would rebuff what I was just thinking.
I assigned a database project to one of my employees and she came to me today with plans that went way beyond the scope of the original vision. I threw out some corrections and to help her get back on track I told her "Don't overthink things." She looked at me sideways for a moment and then replied, "Yeah, that's probably what I'm doing."
Well, that's what I do too when it comes to writing. I've tossed countless ideas out because I overanalyzed to the point where the original thought had lost all meaning. No one can account for every eventuality. Trying to do so will only stall you in a quagmire of self doubt and disillusionment.
It's not easy to think of something to write about and when you place undo pressure on yourself it only helps lead to that dreaded blogger burnout. What I have decided to do for myself, and this may help others, is taking my thought process only to the point where I would in a game situation. With the online clock counting you down you can only run through so many probabilities before being folded. If you take this approach to writing about strategy you will avoid the pressure and the pain that comes from firing to many neural pathways.
Tackle a subject, narrow your scope, and go with it. Will you cover everything? No. Should you? Absolutely not. If you do you'll only lose your reader and any hopes of passing on your hard won knowledge. Obviously I haven't written a great tritest on strategy writing but maybe this tip will help those of you that struggle, just like me.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
The Question
You hear it every day. Those you like, those you even dislike will throw it out there. They don't want an honest answer and you really don't want to give one. It's innocent and never means anything. But never is not the case this time. This time it means everything. You have to answer it honestly. It is more than just the answer. It is the questions that follow...the questions that must follow if you are ever to make sense of it.
Only two hours have passed. You knew it could happen and you've planned for it. Considered all the possibilities and installed safeguards. Others have planned as well. Hundreds, even thousands have succumed to the pressure but not you. Your infallible. Beyond reproach. When the realization washes over you no explanation is evident. What could have happened? What feasibility was not assessed? You are in control, nothing should have gone wrong. Perhaps nothing is wrong. Yeah, your on course. This ship will be righted and your the one to do it.
"How are you doing?"
There it is, the trigger. The one question that should mean so little, yet carries every implication.
"I'm down."
"You've been down that much before, right?"
"No, not this much."
"You should quit then."
"I'm just going to finish this table."
"OK, I'm going to bed."
"I'll be up in a few minutes."
"Liar! You lying rat bastard!"
That's what she should have said instead of walking up the stairs. Hell, somebody should have said it. You should have even said it to yourself. This wouldn't be the last table. Not even the one after that. It would be a third and several hours before shock would take hold. The realization that the one thing you never really had control of was yourself. The only eventuality you couldn't account for was the human condition. The ability for a human to self delude themselves in such a manner that they are unaware of what is transpiring. They say trauma can cause blackouts and this is one trauma you wish you could forget. But you can't forget. You musn't forget. To forget would be foolish and foolish you are not. You are not a God, you are a mortal and have succumb to mortal weakness.
Numbers don't lie. They aren't bound by emotional attachment and feel no regret. When you thought you were tightening up and only playing when you had the best of it the numbers wouldn't support you. You managed to push the tide back into that vast ocean of loss for a period of time. That was all you needed to conciously believe you were in control. Doing the right things. The reversal of fortune was welcoming you like the warm embrace of a lover. You were in control. When the table turned to a rock garden and they began stoning you from all sides it was just bad luck. When the table was finally shorthanded you were playing scared and the sharks could smell blood. You were folding when you should be pushing, and pushing when you should be folding. But to you they were getting lucky. You have control, and as they say, "control is an illusion".
You had a plan. It was a good plan. After playing for a year and a half you were now in position. It was now time for all those months and hours to pay off. Now that you've left the kiddie pool behind you could start using the money and skill to pay off some of that debt. The plan was to be rid of all revolving debt by the end of the year. That would make you free. Free to enjoy life just that little bit more. That plan was freedom, the plan was the catalyst. You wanted it so bad that defeat was no longer an option. You had finally reached the summit and nothing was pushing you off. Control, yeah it is an illusion. Some call it tilt. I call it stupidity.
It would be nice to say this whole tale was just an exercise in fiction. A little story to entertain the reader. It's not, It's the truth in the guise of a cautionary tale. A tale I lived through just last night. I managed to lose one third of my entire bankroll in five hours. It's left me with some hard decisions. Fortunately my bankroll is completely separate from my living expenses so I'll be able to continue playing but I'm at a crossroads. "The plan" is no longer an option at this point. Play at 3/6 is also no longer viable. In fact my bankroll now falls between the 1/2 and 2/4 levels. The conservative in me says to just drop back down to 1/2 and build back up slowly. The not so conservative says to drop to 2/4 for a few weeks, get the bankroll back up to the 3/6 level and resume the plan. Both are reasonable I'm just not sure which one is correct for me at this point. At any rate I'm taking a few days away from the tables. I'll still play Wednesday in the WPBT but that's just for fun anyway. Shakespeare was right, "To Thine Own Self Be True."
Only two hours have passed. You knew it could happen and you've planned for it. Considered all the possibilities and installed safeguards. Others have planned as well. Hundreds, even thousands have succumed to the pressure but not you. Your infallible. Beyond reproach. When the realization washes over you no explanation is evident. What could have happened? What feasibility was not assessed? You are in control, nothing should have gone wrong. Perhaps nothing is wrong. Yeah, your on course. This ship will be righted and your the one to do it.
"How are you doing?"
There it is, the trigger. The one question that should mean so little, yet carries every implication.
"I'm down."
"You've been down that much before, right?"
"No, not this much."
"You should quit then."
"I'm just going to finish this table."
"OK, I'm going to bed."
"I'll be up in a few minutes."
"Liar! You lying rat bastard!"
That's what she should have said instead of walking up the stairs. Hell, somebody should have said it. You should have even said it to yourself. This wouldn't be the last table. Not even the one after that. It would be a third and several hours before shock would take hold. The realization that the one thing you never really had control of was yourself. The only eventuality you couldn't account for was the human condition. The ability for a human to self delude themselves in such a manner that they are unaware of what is transpiring. They say trauma can cause blackouts and this is one trauma you wish you could forget. But you can't forget. You musn't forget. To forget would be foolish and foolish you are not. You are not a God, you are a mortal and have succumb to mortal weakness.
Numbers don't lie. They aren't bound by emotional attachment and feel no regret. When you thought you were tightening up and only playing when you had the best of it the numbers wouldn't support you. You managed to push the tide back into that vast ocean of loss for a period of time. That was all you needed to conciously believe you were in control. Doing the right things. The reversal of fortune was welcoming you like the warm embrace of a lover. You were in control. When the table turned to a rock garden and they began stoning you from all sides it was just bad luck. When the table was finally shorthanded you were playing scared and the sharks could smell blood. You were folding when you should be pushing, and pushing when you should be folding. But to you they were getting lucky. You have control, and as they say, "control is an illusion".
You had a plan. It was a good plan. After playing for a year and a half you were now in position. It was now time for all those months and hours to pay off. Now that you've left the kiddie pool behind you could start using the money and skill to pay off some of that debt. The plan was to be rid of all revolving debt by the end of the year. That would make you free. Free to enjoy life just that little bit more. That plan was freedom, the plan was the catalyst. You wanted it so bad that defeat was no longer an option. You had finally reached the summit and nothing was pushing you off. Control, yeah it is an illusion. Some call it tilt. I call it stupidity.
It would be nice to say this whole tale was just an exercise in fiction. A little story to entertain the reader. It's not, It's the truth in the guise of a cautionary tale. A tale I lived through just last night. I managed to lose one third of my entire bankroll in five hours. It's left me with some hard decisions. Fortunately my bankroll is completely separate from my living expenses so I'll be able to continue playing but I'm at a crossroads. "The plan" is no longer an option at this point. Play at 3/6 is also no longer viable. In fact my bankroll now falls between the 1/2 and 2/4 levels. The conservative in me says to just drop back down to 1/2 and build back up slowly. The not so conservative says to drop to 2/4 for a few weeks, get the bankroll back up to the 3/6 level and resume the plan. Both are reasonable I'm just not sure which one is correct for me at this point. At any rate I'm taking a few days away from the tables. I'll still play Wednesday in the WPBT but that's just for fun anyway. Shakespeare was right, "To Thine Own Self Be True."
Friday, January 28, 2005
I haven't written about my own play in a while so here it goes. I'd like to first point out that the tag line to the blog has changed. I have removed the word "new" from before the "poker player" because, well, I'm not new anymore. I also removed the word "micro" from describing my limits because I now play 3/6 and can officially declare myself a low limit player.
Upon my return from the trip I continued to multi-table 2/4 and found myself playing on autopilot and getting bored. Boredom brought on loose incorrect play which in turn led to a bleeding bankroll.
Wanting to get back to basics and correct the problem meant for me getting back to one table. 2/4 didn't lend itself to the risk/reward ratio I needed to maintain interest so I made the move to 3/6. The competition here is not all that different but there are a few items that I think you may find useful when moving to this level.
Where 2/4 was full of calling stations meaning you better have the best hand, 3/6 can be full of over betting pots and bluffing. Aggression is the number one issue you will find at this level. The key is that the aggression is often misplaced. I see players all the time laying down what I believe will be the winning hands because another player is willing to raise, or reraise on the turn. With observation it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the players on both ends of this situation. Poker Tracker and Gametime+ can help speed the player evaluation process and it is important to make these distinctions. It may even be in your best interest to push back on the aggressive players when you have nothing more than second pair. This will let them know that you won't be pushed around and that your capable of reading their play. In return this type of player may now lay down to you when you have nothing because he knows you know he probably has nothing. Now that I'm writing this down it seems like a lot of overthinking, but I swear it works.
Table selection has also become more of an issue at this level. I prefer a table with large average pots and thus the high aggression factor I mentioned. It is also possible to find tables full of rocks and these tables will kill my earn rate faster than anything. As a result I find myself table hopping with much more frequency than I had in the past. It would be in the best interest of my growth as a well rounded player to seek these types of tables out once in a while. Perhaps I will in the future. I know that I should just adapt my game to the tendencies of the "Rock". It's just that when it's quick and easy to find a game that already matches my prefered style, I just don't.
Of course why should you even listen to me or consider my advice valid. Yes, I'm a winning player and have been fortunate in that respect, but so what. There are lots of winning players.
Many bloggers write of the poker books they read and which ones are the best. I've read a whole one and half poker books. That's right, a half, I couldn't even finish the second one. I'm not the study a book kinda player. I prefer to observe my opponents and try to get a read on their tendencies. I'd estimate 75% of my poker knowledge comes from table time. The rest is from reading other blogs and reviewing my own play in PokerTracker.
I'd like to say I spend the time to scope things out and do serious research like Poker Chiq does. I've recently been reading her blog since she commented on mine and I'm impressed. But again, that's not me.
I'm also not an entertaining writer, perhaps not even a good one so I'm sure Pauly doesn't read me. :) All that I can hope is to bestow a little knowledge and perhaps a little diversion from the daily grind.
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
Upon my return from the trip I continued to multi-table 2/4 and found myself playing on autopilot and getting bored. Boredom brought on loose incorrect play which in turn led to a bleeding bankroll.
Wanting to get back to basics and correct the problem meant for me getting back to one table. 2/4 didn't lend itself to the risk/reward ratio I needed to maintain interest so I made the move to 3/6. The competition here is not all that different but there are a few items that I think you may find useful when moving to this level.
Where 2/4 was full of calling stations meaning you better have the best hand, 3/6 can be full of over betting pots and bluffing. Aggression is the number one issue you will find at this level. The key is that the aggression is often misplaced. I see players all the time laying down what I believe will be the winning hands because another player is willing to raise, or reraise on the turn. With observation it really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the players on both ends of this situation. Poker Tracker and Gametime+ can help speed the player evaluation process and it is important to make these distinctions. It may even be in your best interest to push back on the aggressive players when you have nothing more than second pair. This will let them know that you won't be pushed around and that your capable of reading their play. In return this type of player may now lay down to you when you have nothing because he knows you know he probably has nothing. Now that I'm writing this down it seems like a lot of overthinking, but I swear it works.
Table selection has also become more of an issue at this level. I prefer a table with large average pots and thus the high aggression factor I mentioned. It is also possible to find tables full of rocks and these tables will kill my earn rate faster than anything. As a result I find myself table hopping with much more frequency than I had in the past. It would be in the best interest of my growth as a well rounded player to seek these types of tables out once in a while. Perhaps I will in the future. I know that I should just adapt my game to the tendencies of the "Rock". It's just that when it's quick and easy to find a game that already matches my prefered style, I just don't.
Of course why should you even listen to me or consider my advice valid. Yes, I'm a winning player and have been fortunate in that respect, but so what. There are lots of winning players.
Many bloggers write of the poker books they read and which ones are the best. I've read a whole one and half poker books. That's right, a half, I couldn't even finish the second one. I'm not the study a book kinda player. I prefer to observe my opponents and try to get a read on their tendencies. I'd estimate 75% of my poker knowledge comes from table time. The rest is from reading other blogs and reviewing my own play in PokerTracker.
I'd like to say I spend the time to scope things out and do serious research like Poker Chiq does. I've recently been reading her blog since she commented on mine and I'm impressed. But again, that's not me.
I'm also not an entertaining writer, perhaps not even a good one so I'm sure Pauly doesn't read me. :) All that I can hope is to bestow a little knowledge and perhaps a little diversion from the daily grind.
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
Sunday, January 23, 2005
In the never thought I'd see that department: I found several copies of All In magazine at a local grocery store today. It is the January/February edition. I didn't know that they had made it past the first issue. Just goes to show you that just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger. . . .
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Cruise Report: Day 3 No-Limit Tourney.
Day three was going to prove to be one the most fun filled days of the whole trip. After another battle with a fabric challenged robe and a room service breakfast I headed down to take my seat in the $100 No-Limit tournament. This was the second of three tournaments being played on the ship and all PSO cruise winners were fortunate enough to have PSO pay our entry fees into this event.
I drew table 14 seat 2 and was given my allotment of starting chips as the field of 120 filled in the surrounding tables. The first thing I noticed after being seated was that all the tables were now 9 seated instead of 10. This helped to alleviate some of the crowding problems we had been experiencing but more changes were going to be needed to cure it. After winning two of the first three hands played, uncontested, I knew this was going to be a long drawn out process as no one wanted to get involved early. By the time we had completed our first orbit the tournament director was stopping play on our table and splitting us up. As our table was the closest to the entrance of the room I guess it made sense to split us up but nobody had been busted out and our table was full.
I was moved to a table against one of the walls and found myself seated in position 6 to the immediate left of a WPT winner. I didn't know it at the time, I'm not even sure if the episode had aired yet but I had taped it and watched it when I returned home. She looked unassuming and aside from the large rocks adorning several of her fingers her appearance was that of a quiet unassuming girl. I am of course referring to Isabelle Mercier. One of the dealers asked her if she was still "attached to that casino in Paris" but nobody else seemed to recognize her or throw any special attention her way. She also looked younger in person than on TV but she has an unmistakable taste in clothing and she performed ad nauseum the same chip tricks as she did in the Ladies Night edition of the WPT. I saw her later in the week with who I am assuming was her mother, and she was wearing this hot pink fur coat thing with fuzzy pink boots. She definitely appears to have a wild side that wasn't evident in the room.
Aside from the player in seat 9 everyone had about the same size chip stacks, well everyone but the 8 seat who had lost a big one to 9. After a few orbits and some loud shouting from other tables as players were eliminated on big hands I began to get a read on my table mates. Most came across as Rocks, including Mercier. On an interesting side note the 8 seat was also from Kansas. I never would have thought I would run into somebody from Kansas, much less someone who only lived about 20 minutes away from me. We struck up conversation and along with the lady in between us we were having a good time chatting in between hands.
As time went by it was becoming easy to steal blinds and if I was met with any resistance I knew I was beat. I managed to hold my own and at the first, and I believe only, break I had more than doubled by starting stack and we were down about half the field. There was no record kept of placings so no one ever knew what position they were in or how many players were left. There was also no structure to breaks. They made it clear they didn't want to have any if possible and the 16 min blind increases were moving the tournament along.
I believe about 5 members of the PSO team were still in it including myself. I wasn't the biggest stack left from our group but I wasn't the shortest either so I felt pretty good about my standing at the time. Upon our return to the tables things began to heat up and the short stacks began falling. Isabelle was trying to put some pressure on a few players at this point but she was running into real hands and was eliminated. After we had lost a few more players I was joined by fellow PSO'er David. He was down quite a bit but doing a good job of holding on. I didn't want to be the one to eliminate him but as fate would have it I took out the only PSO'er left besides myself.
I continued on for a little while but in order to tell you about the hand that I was eliminated on, I have to tell you about this hand first. I was not involved in this hand and the 8 seat raised it from early position. It folded around to the 3 seat who reraised. The 8 seat was still occupied by my fellow Kansan and as he was now short stacked so he rereaisd all-in. The 3 seat called and they showed their hands. The 3 seat had A's and the 8 held 8's. Kansas was dominated but an 8 came on the turn and he doubled up. The 3 seat went into tilt mode and made it very evident that he was peeved.
Fast forward two hands and I'm on the button. I'm chatting with Kansas (mistake one) and when the action gets to me I look around the table in front of me. I don't see any cards on the table so I go for the blind steal (mistake two). I normally make a standard 3 BB raise but since I only had about 6 x the BB at this point I went all in knowing the blinds would fold. They did and I looked to the dealer to push my chips towards me. Instead the 3 seat chimes in "You really stepped in it this time." He pushes his chips in and tosses a pair of A's onto the felt. I know this guy was on tilt and I swear his hands had to be concealing his cards when I looked around the table. At any rate I only held a Kh4h and I got no help from the board. I was eliminated when there were 4 tables still in play so I finished somewhere in between 27th and 36th. This was my first "live" tournament and considering these were card players I believe I did very well. It was a stupid mental mistake that ended my run and I know that sometimes it only takes one mistake, in my case I committed two in one hand.
Later in the night I returned to the card room and along with the rest of the PSO crew we managed to get a 4/8 table started by ourselves. This was a good time but I dropped about $27 by the time we broke up. I then moved back to my stomping grounds in the 2/4 arena and began what would be a journey into stupidity.
At around 9 that night we had assembled a cast of characters that was ripe for the shenanigans that would soon ensue. We managed to band together for the rest of the cruise and spent several late nights playing and closing the cardroom at 3am. The table of foolishness consisted of myself, DuggleBogey, Krager, The "Prosecutor" (a prosecutor from San Diego), and Ray (a former NFL Wide Receiver). Others joined us on various nights but we were the core group. It all started innocently enough, we were playing serious poker and Duggle had just taken down a decent pot. The difference this time was that he held the "hammer" and showed it. Now I know the hammer has gotten quite a bit of "face time" in the blogs recently and I was out of the loop when all this was going on. I don't have a comment on it but in this case it served a very good purpose. It broke the ice. A few hands later the board comes 772. We talk about Duggle's 72 and guess what he was holding. That's right, 72 yet again. At this point we all joined in the craziness and nothing and no one got any respect for the rest of the night. We were no longer playing poker, we were playing cards. It was now a social event and I've never had more fun losing $85 in my life. If they hadn't kicked us out I'm sure dawn would have come with us still slinging chips and any 72o that came our way.
I drew table 14 seat 2 and was given my allotment of starting chips as the field of 120 filled in the surrounding tables. The first thing I noticed after being seated was that all the tables were now 9 seated instead of 10. This helped to alleviate some of the crowding problems we had been experiencing but more changes were going to be needed to cure it. After winning two of the first three hands played, uncontested, I knew this was going to be a long drawn out process as no one wanted to get involved early. By the time we had completed our first orbit the tournament director was stopping play on our table and splitting us up. As our table was the closest to the entrance of the room I guess it made sense to split us up but nobody had been busted out and our table was full.
I was moved to a table against one of the walls and found myself seated in position 6 to the immediate left of a WPT winner. I didn't know it at the time, I'm not even sure if the episode had aired yet but I had taped it and watched it when I returned home. She looked unassuming and aside from the large rocks adorning several of her fingers her appearance was that of a quiet unassuming girl. I am of course referring to Isabelle Mercier. One of the dealers asked her if she was still "attached to that casino in Paris" but nobody else seemed to recognize her or throw any special attention her way. She also looked younger in person than on TV but she has an unmistakable taste in clothing and she performed ad nauseum the same chip tricks as she did in the Ladies Night edition of the WPT. I saw her later in the week with who I am assuming was her mother, and she was wearing this hot pink fur coat thing with fuzzy pink boots. She definitely appears to have a wild side that wasn't evident in the room.
Aside from the player in seat 9 everyone had about the same size chip stacks, well everyone but the 8 seat who had lost a big one to 9. After a few orbits and some loud shouting from other tables as players were eliminated on big hands I began to get a read on my table mates. Most came across as Rocks, including Mercier. On an interesting side note the 8 seat was also from Kansas. I never would have thought I would run into somebody from Kansas, much less someone who only lived about 20 minutes away from me. We struck up conversation and along with the lady in between us we were having a good time chatting in between hands.
As time went by it was becoming easy to steal blinds and if I was met with any resistance I knew I was beat. I managed to hold my own and at the first, and I believe only, break I had more than doubled by starting stack and we were down about half the field. There was no record kept of placings so no one ever knew what position they were in or how many players were left. There was also no structure to breaks. They made it clear they didn't want to have any if possible and the 16 min blind increases were moving the tournament along.
I believe about 5 members of the PSO team were still in it including myself. I wasn't the biggest stack left from our group but I wasn't the shortest either so I felt pretty good about my standing at the time. Upon our return to the tables things began to heat up and the short stacks began falling. Isabelle was trying to put some pressure on a few players at this point but she was running into real hands and was eliminated. After we had lost a few more players I was joined by fellow PSO'er David. He was down quite a bit but doing a good job of holding on. I didn't want to be the one to eliminate him but as fate would have it I took out the only PSO'er left besides myself.
I continued on for a little while but in order to tell you about the hand that I was eliminated on, I have to tell you about this hand first. I was not involved in this hand and the 8 seat raised it from early position. It folded around to the 3 seat who reraised. The 8 seat was still occupied by my fellow Kansan and as he was now short stacked so he rereaisd all-in. The 3 seat called and they showed their hands. The 3 seat had A's and the 8 held 8's. Kansas was dominated but an 8 came on the turn and he doubled up. The 3 seat went into tilt mode and made it very evident that he was peeved.
Fast forward two hands and I'm on the button. I'm chatting with Kansas (mistake one) and when the action gets to me I look around the table in front of me. I don't see any cards on the table so I go for the blind steal (mistake two). I normally make a standard 3 BB raise but since I only had about 6 x the BB at this point I went all in knowing the blinds would fold. They did and I looked to the dealer to push my chips towards me. Instead the 3 seat chimes in "You really stepped in it this time." He pushes his chips in and tosses a pair of A's onto the felt. I know this guy was on tilt and I swear his hands had to be concealing his cards when I looked around the table. At any rate I only held a Kh4h and I got no help from the board. I was eliminated when there were 4 tables still in play so I finished somewhere in between 27th and 36th. This was my first "live" tournament and considering these were card players I believe I did very well. It was a stupid mental mistake that ended my run and I know that sometimes it only takes one mistake, in my case I committed two in one hand.
Later in the night I returned to the card room and along with the rest of the PSO crew we managed to get a 4/8 table started by ourselves. This was a good time but I dropped about $27 by the time we broke up. I then moved back to my stomping grounds in the 2/4 arena and began what would be a journey into stupidity.
At around 9 that night we had assembled a cast of characters that was ripe for the shenanigans that would soon ensue. We managed to band together for the rest of the cruise and spent several late nights playing and closing the cardroom at 3am. The table of foolishness consisted of myself, DuggleBogey, Krager, The "Prosecutor" (a prosecutor from San Diego), and Ray (a former NFL Wide Receiver). Others joined us on various nights but we were the core group. It all started innocently enough, we were playing serious poker and Duggle had just taken down a decent pot. The difference this time was that he held the "hammer" and showed it. Now I know the hammer has gotten quite a bit of "face time" in the blogs recently and I was out of the loop when all this was going on. I don't have a comment on it but in this case it served a very good purpose. It broke the ice. A few hands later the board comes 772. We talk about Duggle's 72 and guess what he was holding. That's right, 72 yet again. At this point we all joined in the craziness and nothing and no one got any respect for the rest of the night. We were no longer playing poker, we were playing cards. It was now a social event and I've never had more fun losing $85 in my life. If they hadn't kicked us out I'm sure dawn would have come with us still slinging chips and any 72o that came our way.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Cruise Report: Day 2
Ahhhh, our first full day at sea. With room service due to deliver breakfast at 8 am I arose at 7:50 and donned the one-size-fits-all robe provided by Holland America. Now the term one-size-fits-all should represent just that, but it doesn't. Apparently there is the petite one-size-fits-all and the normal one-size-fits-all. Our cabin steward thought I would look better in the petite version. I can honestly report that this is not the case. I'm a large guy and this thing barely covered the essentials. When room service knocked on the door I had so seek refuge under the covers to spare myself what I'm sure would be embarrassing cooler talk by the ship's crew.
After breakfast and a little lazy time I headed to the cardroom. Today Cardplayer was hosting it's first of three tournaments during the cruise. This event was a $100 limit hold-em tourney and I chose not to participate as I don't care for limit tournaments. This tournament like all those that followed, used every table in the room. As players were eliminated they would open up live games. As luck would have it I arrived at just the right time and was seated after a short wait.
I was destined to enjoy myself on this trip and my fellow players made sure that would happen. Being seated with some of the same players as the night before I began to pick up on their idiosyncrasies and was taking advantage of it. The deck was also doing it's part and my big hand of the afternoon was another full house, K's full just like the night before. This time however I had the lead from the time the cards were dealt and I scooped a nice pot. I finished the afternoon session up $113 and feeling quite pleased with myself.
Ending on a very good note I went in search of my wife. She had found her own oasis of bliss in the form of the spa. A very nice layout with saunas, massages, workout equipment, everything you'd expect from a spa on land. We had also managed to meet a couple just a little younger than ourselves during the boarding process the night before so my wife had someone to hang out with during my hours of absence.
The dinner was again amazing and after countless desserts we retired to the Vermeer Lounge for a Broadway Review performed by the Ryndam Dancers. It wasn't exactly on par with Broadway but you get what you get when your in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Mexico. It was very obvious that the male dancers were much more talented than the women which seemed just a bit odd. All in all though it was enjoyable and afterward I found my sealegs carrying me back to the cardroom.
I managed to be seated with a player who I had sat with every time thus far. He was almost old enough to be my father and he was there with his parents. In fact his mom was seated at our table. This player had a name in common with a very famous TV deputy so I'll refer to him as deputy from here on out. I wanted to call him deputy on the ship but I wasn't sure he'd find it that humorous.
Anyway this guy was a tilt waiting to happen. Many players throughout the week complained about him but I loved playing with this guy. He was predictable and was more than willing to lay down a winner to the proper aggression, especially if he was already on tilt. Another bonus was that he had a bad habit of telling people what he thought you held on occasion. He had paid enough attention to know that I have tight starting requirements but failed to think that I may change those requirements once I knew he had figured this out. This was a habit many players would mistakenly fall into. (you reading this duggle)
Moving on I was able to use that to my advantage and logged another winning session. Midnight was approaching and I had to be in the cardroom by nine for the no-limit tournament in the morning. I was riding a high with 3 winning sessions and I felt like only good things were going to happen in the morning.
More to Come.....
After breakfast and a little lazy time I headed to the cardroom. Today Cardplayer was hosting it's first of three tournaments during the cruise. This event was a $100 limit hold-em tourney and I chose not to participate as I don't care for limit tournaments. This tournament like all those that followed, used every table in the room. As players were eliminated they would open up live games. As luck would have it I arrived at just the right time and was seated after a short wait.
I was destined to enjoy myself on this trip and my fellow players made sure that would happen. Being seated with some of the same players as the night before I began to pick up on their idiosyncrasies and was taking advantage of it. The deck was also doing it's part and my big hand of the afternoon was another full house, K's full just like the night before. This time however I had the lead from the time the cards were dealt and I scooped a nice pot. I finished the afternoon session up $113 and feeling quite pleased with myself.
Ending on a very good note I went in search of my wife. She had found her own oasis of bliss in the form of the spa. A very nice layout with saunas, massages, workout equipment, everything you'd expect from a spa on land. We had also managed to meet a couple just a little younger than ourselves during the boarding process the night before so my wife had someone to hang out with during my hours of absence.
The dinner was again amazing and after countless desserts we retired to the Vermeer Lounge for a Broadway Review performed by the Ryndam Dancers. It wasn't exactly on par with Broadway but you get what you get when your in the middle of nowhere off the coast of Mexico. It was very obvious that the male dancers were much more talented than the women which seemed just a bit odd. All in all though it was enjoyable and afterward I found my sealegs carrying me back to the cardroom.
I managed to be seated with a player who I had sat with every time thus far. He was almost old enough to be my father and he was there with his parents. In fact his mom was seated at our table. This player had a name in common with a very famous TV deputy so I'll refer to him as deputy from here on out. I wanted to call him deputy on the ship but I wasn't sure he'd find it that humorous.
Anyway this guy was a tilt waiting to happen. Many players throughout the week complained about him but I loved playing with this guy. He was predictable and was more than willing to lay down a winner to the proper aggression, especially if he was already on tilt. Another bonus was that he had a bad habit of telling people what he thought you held on occasion. He had paid enough attention to know that I have tight starting requirements but failed to think that I may change those requirements once I knew he had figured this out. This was a habit many players would mistakenly fall into. (you reading this duggle)
Moving on I was able to use that to my advantage and logged another winning session. Midnight was approaching and I had to be in the cardroom by nine for the no-limit tournament in the morning. I was riding a high with 3 winning sessions and I felt like only good things were going to happen in the morning.
More to Come.....
Thursday, January 13, 2005
Cruise Report: Day 1
What do jellyfish stings, over-crowded seating, and being silly till 3am get you? One amazingly enjoyable Cardplayer Cruise that's what. This was our first cruise ever and it was one helluva good time. I have decided that I could live as a passenger on a cruise ship for the rest of my life.
It all started innocently enough as we awoke at 4am on Saturday the 4th to go to the airport. Ofcourse we didn't finish packing until 1am so the entire time in the air was spent sleeping. Upon arrival the chilly, meaning colder than it was in Kansas City when we left, San Diego air was quite a surprise. Our cab ride to the pier was a short 10 minutes and after clumsily working our way through the preboarding process we were on board at 11:30am. Since the stateroom, ie. closet doubling as sleeping quarters, wouldn't be ready until 1pm we were left to explore the ship. I wouldn't describe the ship as a floating city as we were on a smaller vessel that only held 1,300 passengers, but it was definitely a floating 5-star hotel. The MS Ryndam had all the bases covered with bars, nightclubs, theater, casino, pools, and more.
After getting settled into the room we left for the introductory cocktail party being hosted by Cardplayer. As previously agreed upon my wife and I wore our PokerSourceOnline.com polo shirts so we could find our group and meet everyone. Cardplayer Cruises provided us with some nice welcome aboard gifts including a t-shirt, a nametag/money holder to wear around your neck, and a small waterproof container to hold items while on shore excursions. Each item was very useful during the trip. The actual Cardplayer Cruise constituent numbered around 400 of the overall 1,300 passengers on board. The PokerSourceOnline group comprised of the company owners Mike and Peter as well as Peter's dad Steve and grandfather Nelson. The "players" were myself, DuggleBogey and his wife, Krager, John, and David along with his girlfriend.
Linda Johnson of CardPlayer and WPT fame gave a brief talk about what to expect on the cruise and informed us that hold 'em and omaha would be spread with limits ranging from 2/4 up to 10/20. We were also told that they would accommodate the players and spread any other games wanted but I found out later on that this was not the case.
The ship left port during the cocktail party and afterwards we headed straight to dinner. Since all members of the poker cruise were given the same dining time we were able to eat dinner every night with the PokerSourceOnline group. This proved to be a most entertaining and fun group of people. I truly hope we can all stay in touch in the future.
I don't remember the specifics of most meals on board but the food was generally very good and I remember eating steak for most of them. It in fact became quite a topic of conversation towards the end of the trip as some people were amazed at just how much steak I could eat in a weeks time.
I had no intention of playing cards on the first night but with the wifes permission I ventured to the card room after taking in a comedy show at the ships Vermeer Lounge. The wait list was surprisingly small but the room was jam packed. The "board" was a dry erase board on an easel located at the entrance to the converted conference room, now poker room. I would have thought the poker room would be part of the ships casino but apparently they don't play poker in ship's casinos. You learn something new every day. The Poker room itself wasn't all that big and I didn't get an accurate count of the tables crammed into the room, but if memory serves it was around 19 with 10 seats each. This led to very crowded conditions. You couldn't move in your seat without hitting the person next to you or behind you. My 10 minute wait for a seat was eased by the buffet style spread of snacks that was laid out whenever the card room was open. We were truly treated very well.
Much to my surprise a majority of the players could be classified in the senior citizen category. Since my bankroll for the cruise was going to limit my play to mostly 2-4 I found myself at tables full of mostly older women during daytime and evening hours. This didn't turn out to be as bad as it may sound since most were very friendly and very weak. My game required no adjustment as the tables played very similar to the Party Poker tables I was used to. This meant several callers preflop and action to the end. Most players paid no attention to your play and those that did were usually vocal which really helped out as the week went on.
After displacing half the players in the room just to get to my seat, I sat down very nervously at my first real live poker table. I didn't want to look like an idiot, I'd save that for later, so I was very quiet and tried to stay below the radar on my first night. I did a lot of folding for most of it and was going to finish down about $20 when I found a pair of K's staring at me. My raise sent no one out and others decided to bump it up. We were capped preflop with 4 players and the flop paired the board with a blank. This brought another flurry of betting and we only lost one player. The turn was much more subdued as it was only one bet each. The river brought me a third K for the full house and after capping the river I found that I had dealt out my first bad beat of the cruise as one player had pocket A's and the other had trips. I folded a few more times and decided to call it a night with a profit of $23.
I know $23 is nothing to get excited over but this was my first time playing live in a poker room environment and I had survived. Not only survived but learned a lot. As my week of playing would go on I'd learn that playing live is actually much easier than playing online. Opponents will give away so much and if you press the right buttons without them knowing it, you can really increase your advantage. You lose these nuances online because there isn't that human connection. I walked away with a much greater appreciation, and yearning, for the live game.
I've scribbled on long enough about day one. Day two to come....
It all started innocently enough as we awoke at 4am on Saturday the 4th to go to the airport. Ofcourse we didn't finish packing until 1am so the entire time in the air was spent sleeping. Upon arrival the chilly, meaning colder than it was in Kansas City when we left, San Diego air was quite a surprise. Our cab ride to the pier was a short 10 minutes and after clumsily working our way through the preboarding process we were on board at 11:30am. Since the stateroom, ie. closet doubling as sleeping quarters, wouldn't be ready until 1pm we were left to explore the ship. I wouldn't describe the ship as a floating city as we were on a smaller vessel that only held 1,300 passengers, but it was definitely a floating 5-star hotel. The MS Ryndam had all the bases covered with bars, nightclubs, theater, casino, pools, and more.
After getting settled into the room we left for the introductory cocktail party being hosted by Cardplayer. As previously agreed upon my wife and I wore our PokerSourceOnline.com polo shirts so we could find our group and meet everyone. Cardplayer Cruises provided us with some nice welcome aboard gifts including a t-shirt, a nametag/money holder to wear around your neck, and a small waterproof container to hold items while on shore excursions. Each item was very useful during the trip. The actual Cardplayer Cruise constituent numbered around 400 of the overall 1,300 passengers on board. The PokerSourceOnline group comprised of the company owners Mike and Peter as well as Peter's dad Steve and grandfather Nelson. The "players" were myself, DuggleBogey and his wife, Krager, John, and David along with his girlfriend.
Linda Johnson of CardPlayer and WPT fame gave a brief talk about what to expect on the cruise and informed us that hold 'em and omaha would be spread with limits ranging from 2/4 up to 10/20. We were also told that they would accommodate the players and spread any other games wanted but I found out later on that this was not the case.
The ship left port during the cocktail party and afterwards we headed straight to dinner. Since all members of the poker cruise were given the same dining time we were able to eat dinner every night with the PokerSourceOnline group. This proved to be a most entertaining and fun group of people. I truly hope we can all stay in touch in the future.
I don't remember the specifics of most meals on board but the food was generally very good and I remember eating steak for most of them. It in fact became quite a topic of conversation towards the end of the trip as some people were amazed at just how much steak I could eat in a weeks time.
I had no intention of playing cards on the first night but with the wifes permission I ventured to the card room after taking in a comedy show at the ships Vermeer Lounge. The wait list was surprisingly small but the room was jam packed. The "board" was a dry erase board on an easel located at the entrance to the converted conference room, now poker room. I would have thought the poker room would be part of the ships casino but apparently they don't play poker in ship's casinos. You learn something new every day. The Poker room itself wasn't all that big and I didn't get an accurate count of the tables crammed into the room, but if memory serves it was around 19 with 10 seats each. This led to very crowded conditions. You couldn't move in your seat without hitting the person next to you or behind you. My 10 minute wait for a seat was eased by the buffet style spread of snacks that was laid out whenever the card room was open. We were truly treated very well.
Much to my surprise a majority of the players could be classified in the senior citizen category. Since my bankroll for the cruise was going to limit my play to mostly 2-4 I found myself at tables full of mostly older women during daytime and evening hours. This didn't turn out to be as bad as it may sound since most were very friendly and very weak. My game required no adjustment as the tables played very similar to the Party Poker tables I was used to. This meant several callers preflop and action to the end. Most players paid no attention to your play and those that did were usually vocal which really helped out as the week went on.
After displacing half the players in the room just to get to my seat, I sat down very nervously at my first real live poker table. I didn't want to look like an idiot, I'd save that for later, so I was very quiet and tried to stay below the radar on my first night. I did a lot of folding for most of it and was going to finish down about $20 when I found a pair of K's staring at me. My raise sent no one out and others decided to bump it up. We were capped preflop with 4 players and the flop paired the board with a blank. This brought another flurry of betting and we only lost one player. The turn was much more subdued as it was only one bet each. The river brought me a third K for the full house and after capping the river I found that I had dealt out my first bad beat of the cruise as one player had pocket A's and the other had trips. I folded a few more times and decided to call it a night with a profit of $23.
I know $23 is nothing to get excited over but this was my first time playing live in a poker room environment and I had survived. Not only survived but learned a lot. As my week of playing would go on I'd learn that playing live is actually much easier than playing online. Opponents will give away so much and if you press the right buttons without them knowing it, you can really increase your advantage. You lose these nuances online because there isn't that human connection. I walked away with a much greater appreciation, and yearning, for the live game.
I've scribbled on long enough about day one. Day two to come....
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Test
I have loaded Hblogger onto my new toy, the PalmOne Treo 600, so I'm writing this to test the upload process. If all goes well, Part I of the CardPlayer cruise report will show up in the morning.
I know I've been offline for a very long time....Work has been busy since were in the middle of a regime change and any freetime I've had at home has been spent playing instead of writing.
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
I have loaded Hblogger onto my new toy, the PalmOne Treo 600, so I'm writing this to test the upload process. If all goes well, Part I of the CardPlayer cruise report will show up in the morning.
I know I've been offline for a very long time....Work has been busy since were in the middle of a regime change and any freetime I've had at home has been spent playing instead of writing.
[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Vacation Time
I've been a bad little blogger and I haven't updated when I should. I've been getting ready for my Cardplayer Cruise which embarks on Saturday the fourth. It's seven days on high seas and my excitement is getting out of control.
On the actual poker playing front I've finally made the move to 2/4. It isn't playing any differently than 1/2 and I'm able to 3-table it just as I did 1/2. I've come across a program to replace PlayerView. It's called GameTimePlus and it integrates with Poker Tracker and all of it's supported sites to offer stats overlayed to the screen just as PlayerView did. The huge advantage being that GameTimePlus can be used with all sites where PlayerView was only available for Party skins.
I will make sure to take notes on my poker playing times during the cruise. A full trip report will follow upon my return in a little over a week.
Wish me luck.
Oh, I just realized this was post #100. Century milestone reached. More to come
On the actual poker playing front I've finally made the move to 2/4. It isn't playing any differently than 1/2 and I'm able to 3-table it just as I did 1/2. I've come across a program to replace PlayerView. It's called GameTimePlus and it integrates with Poker Tracker and all of it's supported sites to offer stats overlayed to the screen just as PlayerView did. The huge advantage being that GameTimePlus can be used with all sites where PlayerView was only available for Party skins.
I will make sure to take notes on my poker playing times during the cruise. A full trip report will follow upon my return in a little over a week.
Wish me luck.
Oh, I just realized this was post #100. Century milestone reached. More to come
Monday, November 22, 2004
Corporate America Sucks Ass!
In a brilliant move the company I work for has decided to change all System Managers to an "exempt" status meaning we are no longer eligible for overtime pay. We were already considered partially "exempt" as we were paid straight time for any hours worked over 48 as opposed to the normal time and a half over 40. They have made this retroactive through the last pay period so I am getting fucked out of 43 hours of pay since I worked so many hours two weeks ago. I'm too pissed to write or even think about poker right now.
The family and I are heading to Branson, MO for the Thanksgiving holidays. As this is the case there will be no updates until my return on the 28th.
See how easy it was for me to give you, the reader, an update as to the fact the I will not be updating this site for a week. Yet the company I work for was to chicken shit to afford me the same courtesy about my pay until after I saw my paycheck.
The family and I are heading to Branson, MO for the Thanksgiving holidays. As this is the case there will be no updates until my return on the 28th.
See how easy it was for me to give you, the reader, an update as to the fact the I will not be updating this site for a week. Yet the company I work for was to chicken shit to afford me the same courtesy about my pay until after I saw my paycheck.
Sunday, November 21, 2004
2 Down 2 To Go
The Poker Stars and one of my two Party bonuses are now cleared. That leaves one Party Poker and one Paradise to go.
I downloaded and tried out the PlayerView program last night. I opened up two Party tables and began configuring the PlayerView interface to suit my needs. I have to admit I wasn't paying very much attention to the tables and dropped 25BB's between the two of them within an hour. After settling down with the program in place I found that playing two tables was much easier than it used to be when I would be running the Poker Tracker game time windows. In the past between hands I would spend time updating the windows or looking over stats but with the relevant data superimposed directly onto the tables I had enough free time to open up a third table.
This, as it turned out, was a very profitable event. The third table was bringing me the cards and they were holding up. While I continued to tread water or dip down at the other tables I played during the night this one kept handing me the goods. I was able to amass 47.5BB's in 2 hours at this table and that saved me from what would have been a 35BB loss. Three tables seemed as manageable as two while using PlayerView so I'll continue playing them for the time being.
With the bonuses cleared having the 300BB's for a move up in levels will be here even earlier than I anticipated.
I downloaded and tried out the PlayerView program last night. I opened up two Party tables and began configuring the PlayerView interface to suit my needs. I have to admit I wasn't paying very much attention to the tables and dropped 25BB's between the two of them within an hour. After settling down with the program in place I found that playing two tables was much easier than it used to be when I would be running the Poker Tracker game time windows. In the past between hands I would spend time updating the windows or looking over stats but with the relevant data superimposed directly onto the tables I had enough free time to open up a third table.
This, as it turned out, was a very profitable event. The third table was bringing me the cards and they were holding up. While I continued to tread water or dip down at the other tables I played during the night this one kept handing me the goods. I was able to amass 47.5BB's in 2 hours at this table and that saved me from what would have been a 35BB loss. Three tables seemed as manageable as two while using PlayerView so I'll continue playing them for the time being.
With the bonuses cleared having the 300BB's for a move up in levels will be here even earlier than I anticipated.
Friday, November 19, 2004
Back To Business
The massive work marathon is complete, well has been for a few days, and things are finally getting back to normal. Several items are floating around in my cavernous noggin so I'll just spew forth a few quick thoughts for today.
I believe its time for Absolute Poker and I to part ways for a while. They have done yet another software update and the memory leak problem I've detailed in the past has reared its ugly head again. Muti-tabling has become impossible as my laptop bogs down in the quagmire of FPU overload. They have also in their infinite wisdom decided to start charging a $1 juice for the $5 multi-table tournaments. I enjoyed playing these but I can find others at Poker Stars and UltimateBet that are only charging .50. I know half a dollar isn't much in the grand scheme of things but it's the principal of the matter. I didn't like it when they did it to the single table tourneys and I like it even less when it's the multi-table variety. The poker league ends on December 3rd so I'll play till then and withdraw my funds.
Being the good little bonus whore I've taken advantage of the Poker Stars, and Party Poker reload bonuses. I will also be accepting the new player sign on bonus at Paradise Poker tonight in preparation for the Grublog Classic II on Sunday night. This means my play will be moving from site to site for a few weeks until everything is cleared. With the OIC Challenge at The Gaming Club I put my $50 down and played for one night. I made a few bucks but with all the bonus opportunities I have to clear it's just -EV to continue with it.
Poker Stars has been my site of choice for the last few nights and its been a very, very pleasant experience. The $10 SNG's are very good and with the ability to import the data into Poker Tracker this has become my new SNG site replacing Absolute. The ring games have also been good. I'm playing the 1/2 level and I'm witnessing the same number of people seeing the flop as at Party, but they are much more likely to abandon their hand at or before the river. This makes for more thought out play in my opinion and table image can work to your advantage in much greater ways. In the two days I've been playing I've posted a 41.5 and 21.25BB profit respectively. I almost hate to leave and clear the Party Poker bonus but I can't let that free money go to waste.
Speaking of profits my bankroll will be healthy enough in the next few weeks for a move to 2/4. I'm really looking forward to this. I've really seen the bankroll grow recently and separating my rolls out to separate entities has really helped me focus on a bigger picture of overall play improvement.
On a final note I had a fellow blogger join in on one of my tables last night. The Poker Boss sat down and it was nice to feel like I had a comrade at arms joining me in the battle. We didn't end up in too many hands together and before I left he was doing well at holding his own. If you get a chance go check him out. I'm sure he has more readers than I do as the traffic here is rather anemic but I'll give him the mention anyway.
I believe its time for Absolute Poker and I to part ways for a while. They have done yet another software update and the memory leak problem I've detailed in the past has reared its ugly head again. Muti-tabling has become impossible as my laptop bogs down in the quagmire of FPU overload. They have also in their infinite wisdom decided to start charging a $1 juice for the $5 multi-table tournaments. I enjoyed playing these but I can find others at Poker Stars and UltimateBet that are only charging .50. I know half a dollar isn't much in the grand scheme of things but it's the principal of the matter. I didn't like it when they did it to the single table tourneys and I like it even less when it's the multi-table variety. The poker league ends on December 3rd so I'll play till then and withdraw my funds.
Being the good little bonus whore I've taken advantage of the Poker Stars, and Party Poker reload bonuses. I will also be accepting the new player sign on bonus at Paradise Poker tonight in preparation for the Grublog Classic II on Sunday night. This means my play will be moving from site to site for a few weeks until everything is cleared. With the OIC Challenge at The Gaming Club I put my $50 down and played for one night. I made a few bucks but with all the bonus opportunities I have to clear it's just -EV to continue with it.
Poker Stars has been my site of choice for the last few nights and its been a very, very pleasant experience. The $10 SNG's are very good and with the ability to import the data into Poker Tracker this has become my new SNG site replacing Absolute. The ring games have also been good. I'm playing the 1/2 level and I'm witnessing the same number of people seeing the flop as at Party, but they are much more likely to abandon their hand at or before the river. This makes for more thought out play in my opinion and table image can work to your advantage in much greater ways. In the two days I've been playing I've posted a 41.5 and 21.25BB profit respectively. I almost hate to leave and clear the Party Poker bonus but I can't let that free money go to waste.
Speaking of profits my bankroll will be healthy enough in the next few weeks for a move to 2/4. I'm really looking forward to this. I've really seen the bankroll grow recently and separating my rolls out to separate entities has really helped me focus on a bigger picture of overall play improvement.
On a final note I had a fellow blogger join in on one of my tables last night. The Poker Boss sat down and it was nice to feel like I had a comrade at arms joining me in the battle. We didn't end up in too many hands together and before I left he was doing well at holding his own. If you get a chance go check him out. I'm sure he has more readers than I do as the traffic here is rather anemic but I'll give him the mention anyway.
Friday, November 12, 2004
Day 6 Hour 80
The work marathon continues....
all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy .....
all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy all work and no play makes grind a dull boy .....
Monday, November 08, 2004
A Little Pokah'
Played a little last night after getting home from work. I finished 1st and 2nd in the two sit-n-go's I played and then I saw a WSOP freeroll satellite was starting up so I hoped on. The first 5 finishers in this tournament get an entry into the end of the month tournament. This tournament then pays out WSOP prize packages.
1200 people were signed up and I had an opportunity to triple up very early which then led to folding hand after hand for 40 minutes. I went into the first break with 4600 chips, up from the original 1500. There were only 371 players left so the action was coming fast and furious.
During the second round with blinds at 200/400 I had built up a nice chip stack of 22,500. I found the Hilton sisters in late position and when several people called before me I bet the pot of 2100. An early limper was my only caller and the flop came 66J. EP led out with 3,000 and I instantly put him on a J. I raised enough to just about put him all in and he pushed all in. I called and he showed me his 6cJc, my Q never came. I can't fathom why he even limped in with that hand, let alone called a big raise, but the flop was as perfect as he could get and I was down to 8,600.
When the second break came I had blinded down to 7,395 and 116 players were left.
I played what I believe to be my best tournament ever. Everything seemed to click and I managed to play a nice tight/aggressive strategy. Having said that I did not make the top five. I busted out in 82nd position. After building back up to 17,000 chips I ran into a player who slowplayed his pocket A's. The player in question would bet with the smallest pair on the flop so when I had top pair I pushed him and we became pot committed. I had him covered by about 3,000 but after losing that hand the blinds were to big for me to sustain anything. I pushed in the next hand and just missed my flush.
I left the tourney feeling very good and happy with my play. Take away the two mistakes and I played better than any other time, even the win and money finishes.
1200 people were signed up and I had an opportunity to triple up very early which then led to folding hand after hand for 40 minutes. I went into the first break with 4600 chips, up from the original 1500. There were only 371 players left so the action was coming fast and furious.
During the second round with blinds at 200/400 I had built up a nice chip stack of 22,500. I found the Hilton sisters in late position and when several people called before me I bet the pot of 2100. An early limper was my only caller and the flop came 66J. EP led out with 3,000 and I instantly put him on a J. I raised enough to just about put him all in and he pushed all in. I called and he showed me his 6cJc, my Q never came. I can't fathom why he even limped in with that hand, let alone called a big raise, but the flop was as perfect as he could get and I was down to 8,600.
When the second break came I had blinded down to 7,395 and 116 players were left.
I played what I believe to be my best tournament ever. Everything seemed to click and I managed to play a nice tight/aggressive strategy. Having said that I did not make the top five. I busted out in 82nd position. After building back up to 17,000 chips I ran into a player who slowplayed his pocket A's. The player in question would bet with the smallest pair on the flop so when I had top pair I pushed him and we became pot committed. I had him covered by about 3,000 but after losing that hand the blinds were to big for me to sustain anything. I pushed in the next hand and just missed my flush.
I left the tourney feeling very good and happy with my play. Take away the two mistakes and I played better than any other time, even the win and money finishes.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
I've never posted twice in one day but I finally got around to checking out Daniel Negreanu's newly redesigned Full Contact Poker and he's added a poker blog to the other items at his site. Not a lot of actual poker content yet but he does talk about two days of play. In one sitting he dropped $140,000. It's nice to know even top pros lose sometimes. But Daniel the next time you feel like dropping that kind of cash just send me a check. I could just about pay off my house with that.
128 hours in 10 days
That is my work schedule for the next ten days starting today. That includes having Tuesday off so other than maybe Sunday and Monday night I won't be playing much poker for the next week. I was happy to see that Iggy has posted a large list of new blogs, at least I'll be able to read about poker at work to kill some of the time. I'm also going to work on a post about tracking ones bankroll and I should have time to finish up that Hellmuth DVD series I started on way back when.
Last night was the first PokerSourceOnline.com Poker League tournament. I managed a 12th place finish. Only 41 people signed up so it's not that impressive. The play was excruciatingly tight and no one wanted to give up anything. I don't think the first person was even eliminated until we were 45 minutes in. I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar a few times while blind stealing and I wasn't able to build up anything. Good experience though and I'll know what to expect next week. I'm going to try to play from work so we'll see how that goes.
Last night was the first PokerSourceOnline.com Poker League tournament. I managed a 12th place finish. Only 41 people signed up so it's not that impressive. The play was excruciatingly tight and no one wanted to give up anything. I don't think the first person was even eliminated until we were 45 minutes in. I got caught with my hand in the cookie jar a few times while blind stealing and I wasn't able to build up anything. Good experience though and I'll know what to expect next week. I'm going to try to play from work so we'll see how that goes.
Friday, November 05, 2004
Well There You Are
I didn't fall off the face of the earth, just took a few days off. I've kept playing poker and the limit game is coming along nicely. With the bankroll building and my recent devotion to Multi and Single table tournaments growing I've decided to split my bankroll up.
I believe that my tournament play has gotten to a point where it should be self sustainable. With that in mind, I decided to break my bankroll into three separate entities. I have the main ring game bankroll, a sit-n-go bankroll, and a multi table tournament bankroll. I have no fear of my ring game bankroll running dry but if either of my tournament rolls do, then I will stop playing those games until I have had a chance to fully analyze why it happened and have padded the ring bankroll enough to bleed some funds off.
Just as I instituted this change in bankrolls I decided to move my sit-n-go play from Absolute to Ultimatebet. That decision was a mistake. In the first 10 I played I only managed a third place finish three times. This really cut into my sit-n-go roll and with that I'm going back to Absolute where I know I can beat the games. I'm not saying that the Ultimate games aren't beatable. In all reality if I wanted to spend a few weeks getting the experience in I'm quite sure I could have success, I just don't feel the need to put the effort in yet since I already have games I can beat. Not exactly "growing the skill set" but when I can pad the roll a bit I'll try branching out again.
On the Multi table front I'm breaking close to even but down a little. I've made the money in a few but only enough to barely cover the buyins for those particular events. I'm stuck at a point where I can't seem to break through the first payout level. Last night was a huge disaster as I didn't even make it past the first break in either of the tournaments I played in. I really need a big score before the end of the month so I can actually do things during the cruise excursions. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself and that's leading to performance anxiety. It all comes back to attitude and "Mr. Anonymous" is right again. Mr. Anonymous isn't really anonymous anymore as the author of the comment has revealed himself. It's just more fun to keep referring to him that way.
The ring games are coming along nicely. I think some players are starting to avoid me though. I've been running pretty wild lately and one player who I like to play against because he's a rock, and thus, predictable, has gotten the habit of leaving when I sit down. It might be coincidence but my over inflated ego wants to believe that I scare him, or at the least I'm taking away his action. I had the opportunity to play during the daytime hours on Wednesday for the first time. I'm still playing at UltimateBet to clear the bonus which should be accomplished this week. I have to say daytime play there sucks. The players were so incredibly tight that I couldn't get any action except on the kill games. On these games every time their was a kill the action was so overly aggressive it wasn't worth the money to be in without a monster. This type of play really negates my normal style so I had to leave with a loss and my tail between my legs. Fortunately after busting out of the tournaments last night the games were back to normal and I was able to recoup.
I was happy to hear that a live blogger tournament has been planned. I was unhappy to read the date it was being played on. That is the same day we are due to arrive back in San Diego so I won't be able to attend. I probably wouldn't be able to attend anyway but at least now I have a good excuse.
I believe that my tournament play has gotten to a point where it should be self sustainable. With that in mind, I decided to break my bankroll into three separate entities. I have the main ring game bankroll, a sit-n-go bankroll, and a multi table tournament bankroll. I have no fear of my ring game bankroll running dry but if either of my tournament rolls do, then I will stop playing those games until I have had a chance to fully analyze why it happened and have padded the ring bankroll enough to bleed some funds off.
Just as I instituted this change in bankrolls I decided to move my sit-n-go play from Absolute to Ultimatebet. That decision was a mistake. In the first 10 I played I only managed a third place finish three times. This really cut into my sit-n-go roll and with that I'm going back to Absolute where I know I can beat the games. I'm not saying that the Ultimate games aren't beatable. In all reality if I wanted to spend a few weeks getting the experience in I'm quite sure I could have success, I just don't feel the need to put the effort in yet since I already have games I can beat. Not exactly "growing the skill set" but when I can pad the roll a bit I'll try branching out again.
On the Multi table front I'm breaking close to even but down a little. I've made the money in a few but only enough to barely cover the buyins for those particular events. I'm stuck at a point where I can't seem to break through the first payout level. Last night was a huge disaster as I didn't even make it past the first break in either of the tournaments I played in. I really need a big score before the end of the month so I can actually do things during the cruise excursions. Maybe I'm putting too much pressure on myself and that's leading to performance anxiety. It all comes back to attitude and "Mr. Anonymous" is right again. Mr. Anonymous isn't really anonymous anymore as the author of the comment has revealed himself. It's just more fun to keep referring to him that way.
The ring games are coming along nicely. I think some players are starting to avoid me though. I've been running pretty wild lately and one player who I like to play against because he's a rock, and thus, predictable, has gotten the habit of leaving when I sit down. It might be coincidence but my over inflated ego wants to believe that I scare him, or at the least I'm taking away his action. I had the opportunity to play during the daytime hours on Wednesday for the first time. I'm still playing at UltimateBet to clear the bonus which should be accomplished this week. I have to say daytime play there sucks. The players were so incredibly tight that I couldn't get any action except on the kill games. On these games every time their was a kill the action was so overly aggressive it wasn't worth the money to be in without a monster. This type of play really negates my normal style so I had to leave with a loss and my tail between my legs. Fortunately after busting out of the tournaments last night the games were back to normal and I was able to recoup.
I was happy to hear that a live blogger tournament has been planned. I was unhappy to read the date it was being played on. That is the same day we are due to arrive back in San Diego so I won't be able to attend. I probably wouldn't be able to attend anyway but at least now I have a good excuse.
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