Friday, August 15, 2008

Ha!

Now I have blogged more this week than my wife has.

I win! I win!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Couple More



Pictures

Since not everyone is constantly jazzed about satellite live blogging, let's go to baby pictures (or is it toddler pictures now?)











Also, I guest blogged (lol at me guest blogging when I barely me blog) over at one of my wife's places today. Yee haw.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

"Live Blogging" a Satellite

I played in a satellite last night for a big two-day tournament in West Virginia (well, my last two-day tournament only lasted one day, but we hope to do better this time).

The satellite paid 1 in 10, 33 people entered. 3 seats, 4th gets 1/5 of a buyin. Notes were taken on my Palm Centro -- I also have a little voice recorder but I left it in the car.



12k in chips after the optional $5 dealer buy. People just don't tip here, so dealer buys have become the norm. Supposed to start at 7, did not get rolling until 7:20 or so.


7:30 -- Got lucky 5-10 hands in (blinds 25/50, but this pot got bigger than I would have liked) -- controlled the betting with trips sure I had the best hand three ways and got it all in versus an underboat. I caught a better boat on the river. I put myself in a bit of a rough spot, but when the turn was a blank I thought I was good and the pot was too big to check fold, so I pushed. Yay river 7 outer.

Incidentally, my push on the turn was called not just by an underboat, but also by an old guy who actually said 'caught me bluffing' after calling. Whu?

Suddenly, I'm at 37 k in the second level (100k or so is enough to coast to a seat).

Nothing happened in the second or third levels.

Time for a brief note -- probably because it's live, probably because it's West Virginia, no one has any clue how to play a satellite. You've got tons of bluffing into side pots, tons of very frantic activity early (yes I recognize the humor of that statement given my first pot blogged) -- basically no patience or cognizance of basic satellite strategy.

I start to get a good read for my table, which is good because I stuck with them for about 3.5 hours. The funniest dude is Camo Guy, so named because he has a camouflaged hat. Also because he was as a calling station disguised as a table captain.

One rule became crucial throughout the night --

NEVER BLUFF CAMO GUY


8:30 I jump to 50k by calling a camo guy bluff in level 4 -- turns out he's a bluffing calling station, as his line made no sense unless he was betting his draw. He missed the draw on the river and my overpair to the board (nines) were good.

9:00 I blinded down to about 44k at the round 5 break. No one respected a raise at this table, which made stealing more precarious since the flop bet would inevitably be the right amount for a short stack to push over with any piece. Despite the fact that I had not played all that many hands (I was getting napkins after my early triple up), the table decided to call every raise so steals were hard.

Corn dogs are delicious.

9:20 -- Busted a shortie first hand back with tens -- back up to 49k.

9:40 -- up to 54k after hitting 2 pair with pair and OESD (86o in the big blind with a board of X6758-- was minraised on turn and beat the worst limped MP Kings ever. Check check on the river, guess I should have made a thin value bet.

The same guy who's Kings I busted showed his true colors -- the master of the hero call. Older gent with a straw hat and white beard. Nice guy, aggressive player, but would also get tricky in way the wrong spots (see above).

However, he is also my personal hero. We consolidated to two tables, and a guy who was sure he was the new sheriff shows up at the table. Before I can remind him that I have all the chips, he gets involved with bearded guy on a raggy flop. He pushes and gets snap called all in (more than pot-sized) with Ace high no draw -- which had his Jack 10 dominated.

9:50 Down to 45k after folding OESD getting 3-1 because I couldn't see the push as a bluff. He had 4 high and was bluffing with said 4 high into a dry sidepot. I either need to fold to the initial raise or call the flop push. Oh well, that pot would have ;let me coast, perhaps being on my toes is better.

10:00 -- up to 61k after same dry sidepot guy bluffs blind v blind into my trips (J9 on a 9 4 9 board, two spades). His Ace high (A5 with the Ace of spades) was not in good shape.

10:15 -- 56k halfway through level 8.

10:30 -- up to 63k with some steals (actually starting to work a bit as people are seeing me show down some big hands), 30BB at blinds of 1k/2k, 10 left 3 pay (4th gets a pittance).

Final tables are delicious.

10:35 -- Down to 20k with Aces, which of course are no good by the turn (he snap called my push on flop with KQ on a Q 7 2 board, and caught trips. Yes, it was Camo Guy, how did you guess?

10:40 -- Up to 49k after a double the next hand with Queens and taking the blinds the hands after that with AKS. Minirush, yay!

10:50 -- turned a boat with pocket nines after raising preflop with them and hitting a set on the flop -- got 2 streets of value out of them (old guy with hat called flop and turn bets) -- up to 80k.

Then another rush began. AK beats QJ, Kings in a blind versus blind, tens versus A10 -- knocked three short stacks out myself, and hit four handed with 40 percent of the chips, around 120-140k.

11:30 -- Stole/value bet some to stay at around 120-140K, then shortstack pushed A10 into QJ and 2 jacks on the flop, BOOM. Thanks Camo Guy for knocking out the last player, and for winning a seat. Hope you're at my table.

Thought about sticking around for cash, but there were no seats at my usual stake and I just got a little bored. Packed up for the 'Burgh at around 12:00.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Regular Posting is For Wusses

I've been playing live about every other week, and online once a week or so (with the occasional quickie online cash game thrown in as well).

Results have been pretty good -- got short in the Million today and pushed an Ace into Kings -- still good for $650, but with first being $162K that feels like a loss. "Beating 4800" does not seem to work for me as a consolation ;)

Friday night I played my first live PLO in about a year. The play was terrible, and if I had caught anything I would have made a mint. As it was I made my losses from earlier in the night back.

Kids are doing great -- got to spend most of the day with them solo, and I felt like I was really beginning to find my daddy groove. Kris still is way better at managing things than I am, but she's a rock star so I am OK with that.

Wish I had some hands to discuss -- thinking about using some winnings to get a little digital recorder so I can keep some more contemporaneous notes (and look like a portly Gus Hansen).

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Oh, and By the Way

They are ELEVEN months old today. Where did the time go.






Well, if the American Association of Pediatrics asks, they're 12 months old already.

I See An Upside

As has become very clear to anyone paying attention, I have opened up my game quite a bit.

A "bit," you say? Sure, why not.

And while I have expressed justified concern that opening too much might result in my becoming too spewy, the change has resulted in some neat results in a place I had not frequented in a long time.

Online poker. Specifically, online poker satellites. I've won a sat to the Sunday million and the Sunday WSOP qualifier in the last week. I even tried my hand at one of the $30 rebuys to the Series (and if it hadn't been for a horrbly timed resteal push with jacks, I'd still be in it with about two tables left). That plus a nice NLHE two-tabling session tonight has resulted in a well-timed virtual bankroll boost.

The two wins in sats means I have enough money to take some shots, and also money I can sell for 95% of its value if I become cash poor. The nice NLHE session means I won't be cash poor for a while.

Am I going to the World Series? Probably not. But it's nice to have some ammo to give it a shot without having to transfer live winnings over.

Am I going to become a hoodie wearing, Internet savvy LAGtard? Definitely not.

Hoodies make me look even fatter.

Looking forward to giving the Mountaineer Saturday tournament another go. Last time I played it in January, I final tabled it and finished 8th. Got a bit short, and had to push A10 into KJ, and couldn't hold up, but if I had won that hand I would have been above par with 8 left and in great shape. I think I can win this thing. Structure is meh -- a bit worse than Foxwoods, better than a fire hall, but in the land of no options what they spread for you is king.

If only there was a local version of the Crackhouse. Ah well.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

West Virginia -- Wild and Wonderful

Had an interesting evening at Mountaineer Gaming last night.

I usually play locally, but Mountaineer was running a satellite for their big end-of-month tournament. I don't want to devote the resources to a big buy-in, so I decided to play in the sat and see what happens.

Usual crap. I lose a bit calling with a straight and flush draw, then bust when my AQ runs into a straight and flush draw of a guy with monster chips. He had to call my push, but he took FOREVER to do it and that sort of nonsense (in a quick tournament, no less) really annoyed me. Theatrics when a decision is trivial and the pot is head's up are a big waste of time and donkeyish.

I don't mind someone "mulling" over a decision with a big draw or acting pensive with a monster if it's multi-way -- sometimes those sort of theatrics will result in an overcall or overpush that can be very profitable. But this kind of "playing to the nonexistent cameras" nonsense is so common in poker these days -- TV has hurt the sportsmanship of the game as much as it has increased its popularity.

I move on to the cash games. I really want to play PLO, but nothing's running -- hold'em it is.

Mid-limit NLHE is an odd game sometimes. Not ten minutes in, I find myself pushing on the turn with top pair, top kicker (AK) and the nut flush draw (A-unconnected rags with three clubs) against a player I read as weak only to have him tank for five minutes and call all in with top pair no kicker. He hits his rag on the river after calling an entire buy-in's worth of betting with three outs.

I reload and have some work to do. Fortunately my new best friend does not vary his play despite his suckout. He bets out strong with middle pair. He raises on bluffs or with top pair with no draw. He just calls with draws -- never raises with them. He's fairly easy to read, but tough to play against unless you're willing to deal with the variance of going with your reads and him sucking out.

I get it all back later when he overplays top pair against my trips. I faced a tough call on the turn, but when he bet the same amount on the river the call felt fairly automatic (he also wasn't a "value bet" kind of guy).

Same thing later with another player -- I raise in late position with 79c. Flop is A 10 8, two spades. I bet about pot, OOP tanks and calls. A red 6 on the turn gives the nut straight, and OOP bets out. I raise him about pot. The OOP caller tanks and calls the raise. At this point, I think he has a big Ace. His play to that point didn't suggest any kind of a flush draw. The river completes the flush and pairs the board (10s). He checks. He has never checked when he hit his hand, ever, in four hours -- he's passive, but hasn't checkraised even once. I decide to make a thin value bet (yes, I thought it was a value bet and not a bluff)-- about half pot. He tanks, and tanks, and tanks, and finally calls. He mucks when he saw my straight -- I don't think he even saw it on the board.

It was that kind of table, but I am a bit too much of a "feel" player right now. My reads are pretty spot-on, but I don't want to become Pittsburgh's "Kenny Tran". Balance will suit me better in the long run, no matter how well I am reading betting patterns and tells.

Made my lost buyin back, the satellite entry back, and a little more. It will do.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Repetitive

These are repetitive from my wife's blog (which is way better than mine and you should read every day!), but they're so darn cute!




Monday, March 31, 2008

Table Image and Luck

I have taken lately to playing a bigger game on occasion because they play is simply terrible. My risk of ruin is a bit higher, but I've only had one losing session in the past couple of months and the play is just too bad to ignore.

Essentially, the trend is that these guys are playing with more money, but that just means they try to bluff bigger (so there is some variance inherent in the game because you may catch a bluff or a well-timed value bet). Knowledge of poker fundamentals is not necessarily any higher than the smaller games.

I am not 100% sure what my table image is at this game, but it must be pretty loose, as I can bet my big hands big and get paid off each and every time (that is also a function of players in this game being willing to "keep you honest" for larger sums as well). I can't bluff as much as a result (I can only semibluff), but it does allow me to engage in my favorite play style -- loose preflop, tight postflop.

And that is a style that a lot of players just don't get.

I remember when I was just starting to play, I believed that I was best served by playing my big hands big and just being angry at folks who played stupid hands to a raise and caught on me. Of course, here's the reality -- they had called a relatively small portion of their stack and my stack, and then allowed me to bet off the rest of my stack drawing very slim. I had read about implied odds, but I didn't really get it. Now that I have a better understanding, my preferred play style is to raise a lot of hands in position, call a lot of raises in position in multi-way pots, and be willing to gamble pre-flop against players who will give me their stacks by overplaying big pairs, AK, etc. Pretty basic strategy, but I'm just happy to have a strategy!

The other benefit of playing like this is that I play a few more hands, which protects me from my innate tendency to get bored -- it keeps me sharp. Unless I hit something, or see an opportunity to bluff, I am done with the hand. All you really need is a couple of players in the game who will overplay their big hands, and this is a profitable strategy.

When you combine that with a bit of luck, however, you get a 4 buy-in night like I had Friday night.

I had started at the smaller game and had played pretty well, but also getting lucky by having a few draws hit to get up a buyin plus (no real hands of note, just getting one pair to call a value bet on the river a few times and winning a race or two).

I was called for the big game, and could get nothing going for about an hour. When I raise I missed the flop, and when I called I missed the flop. I was down a bit, and just staying even with continuation bets.

Part of the problem was the 1 seat -- I hate that seat. I can never see the cards or the action like I would like, and it really messes with my rhythm. When I was able to move to the 5 seat, things vastly improved.

First, I made a semi-bluff raise on the turn in a large pot with the nut flush draw, and got called by a lesser flush draw. The result was me winning a side pot that was larger than the main, and kept me afloat. That was all luck, but I don't hate semi-bluffing the turn there. Based on betting and calling patterns, I was pretty sure that my opponent was on a draw, and I wanted to isolate my all-in opponent. Not sure that was brilliant, but it worked out -- luck is fine, and it fed the table image I was discussing earlier which paid off in two more huge hands.

When I had been playing at the smaller game, I saw a player named "Josh." He has a stylized hat on, and appeared to have a "crew" with him. Unfortunately, while he seemed to be a somewhat solid player, he was very tiltable and could not handle the type of loose that you see at a live cash game (as opposed to the Internet, where it seemed clear he had won some money).

My two biggest scores for the evening I owe to Josh.

Thanks Josh.

He followed me to the bigger game -- he had been ahead of me in the list, but had lost two buy ins and waited until he made some back. At the big game, he was doing pretty well for himself -- he started to make money by playing very aggressively on the flop and after -- he was only raising premium hands, and going crazy with them with bets going forward. And while that's not a bad play style, it became clear that he was not always sure where he was in hands, and became increasingly frustrated with the gunslinging style of the players around him. He actually commented that all of us "would play any two cards," in a very Hellmuthian fashion.

He was in the two seat, and raise 6x. I look down at pocket Aces one off the button. Normally this is an instant reraise for me, especially given my image -- but I was in late position, and I though that if I could get heads up with Josh I could beat him up given the right flop. I knew he had a good hand (99+, AQ+), and I hoped he would pay me off.

The flop is three rags, 6 high rainbow. He did not improve. He bet out pot anyway, so I was sure that he had nines or better. So I raised. He immediately pushed over the top (he had me covered), and I immediately called. His Tens did not improve.

Now I am advocate of not overplaying one pair, but I was very confident of my read. And now that I am reading better, and since I had been playing with this guy for hours to justify the read, I went with it and it paid off.

It also paid off because Josh went absolutely insane. He really went nuts -- he started overbetting preflop, pushing 60x preflop, and just melting down. The only reason he had chip was that when he was called he had the other player covered (like when he got 60x in with 45o against AK).

The result was not just that Josh was losing money, but also that he was working the other players into playing crazy. Which paid off great for me thanks to another bit of luck!

I raise in early/middle position to 6x with AKs, one caller in the SB. Josh reraises all of his chips (27x) out of the BB, and I call. SB, surprisingly, calls. Flop comes rags with two spades. I really want to play the rest of this hand against Josh and Josh alone, as I think he has a small pair or nothing based on his meltdown and his general demeanor. So I push with what I believe to be 15 outs twice (I have twice his remaining stack) -- he checked the flop and I read him for weak.

SB hems and haws, says "All in? Really? Well I 'm ready to go home. OK, I call."

I die a little inside. That kind of a speech must mean a monster, and I am going to have to catch my spade -- somehow I missed my read. BAD PUSH, BAD!!

I flip over AKs, he says "not what I wanted to see" and flips over 910s. What?

Josh indeed had nothing (J7h), and my Ace high takes a 360x pot.

Was I lucky all night? Heck yes. But I also feel like I am learning to play an image and trust my reads. My moves worked out, and I avoided suckouts when my reads were correct.

I will need to calm down with overplaying my big draws in the future -- these guys will remember that next week.....(HAAA -- I said almost the same thing back in August -- when will I learn!)

I sincerely hope I'll always have Josh. I love Josh. Not as much as his crew buddy who kept buying in short to the small game wearing a poker hat and sunglasses, but hey.




And, no, I don't know if I am posting on this thing regularly again. Vegas Year inspired me.