BBT3 - Game #36 Skilzl Limit Stud Hi

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I only played this game to torture myself. I have no patience for limit games, yet I play anyway. Again, it's my way of giving back to the community. :-)

Congrats to Surf on the victory, and scoring the TOC seat.

I've been playing a 50/30/20 split lately between tournaments, HU sng's and cash games. I have been doing ok, and will show a nice profit for this month. It of course would have been better, had I not had some of the cooler's I've been dealt, but I suppose that's part of the evil side of variance.

I have been playing at the 2/4 level mostly, and hope to put in another 10k hands, before deciding if I'm ready to move up to 3/6.

Here's a hand from 2/4, where my opponent couldn't get away from JJ. I think he definitely knew he was beat, but it's this part of the game you must conquer, if your going to be a profitable cash game player. Of course, you must also get to know your players too, which isn't too difficult since most of the players at whatever level your at, are regulars. That and using tools like pokertracker of course, are only going to help you stay on the positive side of the scale.



Tonight is Mookie night, as the BBT3 concludes it's second month. I haven't done the math, but I noticed that George finished higher than Waffles last night, so he may still have a chance at the month end prize. Good luck to both of you.



2BA

BBT3 - Game #35 MATH & the latest deal of the century

Well the TOC for the BBT3 continues to get tougher. Big congrats to Cmitch for taking down the MATH last night, albeit in another chop situation with pokahdave. Cmitch made the steal of the century for himself, as the money he gave up in the chop, is no where near the value for the seat. Seems like BBT3 will be remember as the tournament of chops!

I flamed out early as his been the theme for me in April, but I did have a nice run in the 50/50 last night, busting out in 52nd place, when my QQ couldn't barrel through KK. Nevertheless, it was nice to get deep in a tourney again.

Tonight is the Skillz game, Stud Hi Limit. I'll probably play, but only to torture myself, and maybe a few of my fellow blogger mates. :) password is skillz, 9:30 EST on Fulltilt.

2BA

Catching up

Haven't had too much time to post lately, adjusting to parenthood as most of you know, has it's challenges. I have been sneaking in some cash game, sng's, and a few tourney's, in between the naps, feedings, etc.

I had been jounaling all the BBT3 games that I played in, the day after. My memory isn't all that good, so for games #29 - #34, I don't have much to say. I played a few of them, and other than getting some points in the Mook, not much going on. I sort of knew going in that I wasn't going to be doing much, with all that was going on, but it served as a good 'other' thing to do, which is also important, in the sense we all need some kind of break of the real things going on in life. Congrats to all who have cashed in and won TOC seats for those games.

Last night was #35, Miami Don's Big game. I had carved out some time to actually try and focus, and play well. However, had another ho-hum effort, and busted middle of the pack or so. I believe Wormsu won, and if so it's his 2nd. Nice going! By the way, I'm sure most of you know this, but the absolute easiest way to get the $75 token for events such as this, is to play the $26 2 table SNG, where the top 5 get tokens. You can be brain dead and make the top 5, the game is that easy. I don't know why I don't play them more often, I only seem to do it for the Big Game, but if you dedicate yourself to that game, I think anyone with half a game can definitely be on the +EV side of the scale in that game.

Leading the BBT3 April race, is none other than everyone's favorite poker player, Mr Waffles himself. After last nights 3rd place showing, he should be able to cruise to April's WSOP 2K seat prize, unlike your's truly how crashed in burned after leading the March race for most of the month. Nice work Waffles, you da man!

Now for some poker musings from the weekend.

This first one is from a $55 SNG. It doesn't happen often, but isn't it a great feeling when you have a bet and a raise in front of you, and your holding the mortal nuts? ! :-)



That's equivalent to hitting that perfect golf shot, right on the sweet spot, stiff as can be, and dancing the mambo! Keeps ya coming back for more, eh?

Now from yesterday's $750K, a little blogger humor, although I don't think I recognize this guy as one of our players or partime players:



He LOL to my comment, so either he knew what it meant or was just messing with me, either way, it gave me a good chuckle.

Now from the 'what the hec was this guy thinking' file, here's a guy who CALLED on the river with ....well see for yourself:




And fnally from a cash game, the 'cooler' of the weekend:



Tonight is Monday at the Hoy, as the BBT3 rolls on. Password as always is 'hammer', and it's good ole 6 max NL Texas holdem.

2BA

In a moment, back to our regularly schedule program

Hey all, as I mentioned in the comments on my last post, I want to thank everyone who left kind and wonderful sentiments, my wife and I truly appreciate it.

I've been camped at the hospital since Wednesday, we are hoping to go home today, but perhaps not until tomorrow. There were some complications which have extended our stay, but I am happy to say my wife is feeling a billion times better, and she is recovering nicely.

As for my little girl, she's doing great, eats well, and has me changing diapers like they are going out of style! :-) But it's all great!

Thanks to some free wireless here at the hospital, I was able to get a few late night sng's and cash games in. In fact, I'm up very nicely, and have made a dent into what will be my 20% of the bill.

Even got a little DQB action:



Thats all for now, good luck to everyone vying for BBT3 TOC seats.

2BA

Welcome Juliette! 2029 WSOP Champ! :-)

BBT3 - Game #28 Skillz 'what skillz?'

I think this graphic can sum up my performance from last night:



My way of giving back to the community! :-) Big Congrats to Senor Hoyazo for taking it down in a huge way, and earning the TOC seat.

So since that was over before it started, I played some other tourny's and heads up cash matches.

This one is from the 32K last night. It's my daily vice tourney. The play is pretty horrible, especially early on. If presented with a good situation where I can get a huge stack, I'm willing to gamble it up. Check this guy out, 'trapping' me with his flush:



Here I figured to have the best hand preflop, and was willing to gamble it up to get a huge stack. Unfortunately, it didn't work out:



And fellow bloggers and readers, 'the final hand:'



By the way, this was the 2nd Straight flush of the night against me, what are the odd's???

2BA

BBT3 - Game #27 MATH & Epassporte alternatives

Busted out of the MATH early last night, so not much to talk about there. Skidoo took it down, and wins the TOC seat, so congrats to him on the victory.

Tonight BBT3 rolls on with Skillz, I think it's going to be limit stud h/l.

As many of you may have heard, Epassporte is no longer a funding option for U.S. based online poker players. I ran across this post, which lists some alternatives.

The only real impact it has on me, is that I used Epassporte as my $$ portal between FT and Stars. So I'll have to figure out some other way to do it, although my play on Stars is minimal, given they have no rakeback program (that I am aware of at least).

2BA

Sunday Satty's & Donkament record confirmed

First things first...Kat has confirmed my donkament record. And OhCaptain has confirmed his gratitude! :-) So from now on, I'll let someone else be the nutso to try and break that record, but as you can see in the previous post, the only thing two things required is button mashing skills and FTP's 45 fully cooperating! Really simple!

So Sunday turned out to be Satellite day for me. And it was a good day to say the least. I managed to win a $500 seat to the main event tourney and also won a seat to the 750K. I played the latter (with no luck) and cashed out the T$'s on the former.

I then happen to notice with about 2 minutes to go, that the $26 buyin to the Monday night 1K only had 25 or so signed up. So I giddyuped ala Kramer, only to notice that another 15 had the same idea! Oh well, shit happens:



Pretty nice, considering I was major leagued outchipped when we got 3 handed. I had a little help from this hand to put me in position to contend:



Sweet win considering the buyin, of course, I cashed out the T$'s. For one, it's a very tough field, and I'd pretty much be dead money. Second, I may have to scado0dle at any moment with Mrs 2BA being overdue now, and I'd be between the proverbial rock and hard place! (just kidding honey!)

BBT3 resumes tonight with Mondays at the Hoy, $24 bucks gets you in, password is hammer!

2BA

BBT3 - Game #26 Riverchasers & Donkament Donkery

So I failed to make the points again in the Riverchasers, although I think I am playing well, the cards are just not falling for me right now. I had a hot March start, but April has been pretty cold, as far as the BBT3 goes.

For this tournament, the only interesting thing was that PirateLaywer, had some really huge hands in the Big Blind. IIRC, Aces 2 or 3 times, Kings and Queens 1 each, but had the misfortune of running into quads, with one of the aces, and the table gave him a walk on the others. The queens was a hand against me, in a Sb Vs BB situation:




I have absolutely no idea where my head was in this hand. Most of the time, I'm raising this hand preflop, yet I completed. . And my river action has me scratching my head. It worked out obviously, and even though I'm sure PL has beat himself up about how he played the hand, I think I was really the one out in LALA land, and just got dumb lucky. Oh well, it happens.

Friday night, I Donked it up in the Donkament once again. Other than the last 3 hands, I played every hand...as in I pushed every hand. I've been doing this trying to break the record of most rebuys, which I think is 54. Well I had 73 plus the addon! However, that may not be good enough, as PokahDave was doing a good job of keeping up, so I don't know how many he had, but thats my posted number. I took a snap of the stats too:



So that was alot of fun, and OhCaptain was the benefactor of my donkish play.

I've been donking it up also in some heads up sng's....I enjoy playing them because they are fairly quick. Sometimes one is all that is needed. At any rate, good ole 45 keeps me in check, no matter what I play.



I'm going to try and get into the 750K today, maybe I'll see some of you guys out there.

2BA

BBT3 - Game #25 Mookie & PushFest Snafu

So we had a real nice thunderstorm last night in the North Dallas area, and my notes on last nights's play got zapped when I found my notebook restarted this morning. Wonderful, eh? What was even more unsettling was that the hospital where Mrs 2BA is going to deliver our daughter, lost power! Wanna see some chaos, go to a hospital with power issues. Good thing baby girl didn't decide to come last night.

Ok back to poker.....played the Mookie last night, and actually was doing ok. I think I got bounced around the middle of the pack when IIRC we were in a 3/4 way limp pot, and George decides to move in from the BB. Limpers in front of me fold, and I had TT, and decided he was making this play in that hand with a smaller pp, so I called. He flips 99 and hits a set on the flop, and I am crippled, and go out shortly thereafter. That's poker, and in the 'long' run of the game, he was due to pay me back, as I do recall coming from behind once or twice during the BBT series against him as well.

Congrats to the so called 'worst player' on the victory last night, Waffles takes (and dishes) a lot of crap from/to many folks, all hopefully in good jest, but all in all, I think he's a pretty good guy, and very decent player.

I also hopped into the blogger cash game last night, but other than losing 30 or 40 bucks, not much happened. I have a ways to go to play at the same level as these guys, but I'm always up for the challenge, and will continue to play as long as we don't go up higher in stakes.

I also hopped on board the PushFest train again, and this time we played $3 90 player tournament. I think this is much better than the 50 pts tourney format we were running. We played two, and in the 2nd one, I got hit by the deck about as hard as you can. I mean I was sucking out left and right, and amassed some ridiculous lead, which on normal days would have been enough for the win. However, Bayne also did very well, and when I was at my high point of 55k or so, he had 35k or so, and next person was below 10k. It was at this point where I somehow got folded at my table. I got dealt the cards, but when the action came around to me, instead of allowing me to play my action, the software folded my hand. Now I have had this happen to me before. At least on my machine, the FT client is a hog. Even though I have 2 gigs of ram, sometimes the client freezes up on me for a second, and if it happens right at the time it's my action, the dang software folds me. It's pretty frustrating, as this has happen with me holding KK's, AA's only to see the hand get folded. I can dig up the hh, but I am certain that the person in 2nd place at my table didn't have more than 5 or 6k at the time, and so losing a hand would not have had a material impact on my stack, given I still would have had a large lead. At any rate, Bayne popped in an offered me a chop, and in all fairness with the snafu just occuring, I accepted. Although I suppose by the letter of our rules, I should be DQ'd. If the general consensus is that I should, I'll be happy to live with that, at this point, I believe Bayne did send me the chop bucks. So do chime in if you disagree, but at this point I'm incline to send Bayne the $$'s.

It was certainly alot of fun though, and the chat comments by the other player's are absoultely hilarious. It's a storm that hit's them real good, and there is no cover! KaBoooooom!!!!

2BA

BBT3 - Game #24 Skillz HORSE & some cash game hands

Last night skillz game was HORSE. I left the party early on, I don't know why I even bother, I hate limit games, and just don't have the patience. Is it possible to play PL/NL HORSE? ;-)

Congrats to Loretta8 on the win, and earning the BBT3 TOC seat.

So I decided to jump into a couple of 2/4 cash games, and had very good results. Mostly on these two hands, which gave me a nice profit for the evening:





Nice to be on the right side of these kind of hands for a change. Tonight is another installment of The Mookie, as the BBT3 rolls on. See you all there.



2BA

BBT3 - Game #23 MATH

Bubbled the points last night in the MATH, although I was lucky to even get that far. Early on I was down to about 1000 chips, and had to hit some cards (read:suckout)to survive, and eventually move up. The first hour I played like a maniac, I was raising like a madman almost every hand, but to my left was Tuscaloosa John, Schuabs, Julius Goat, and collectively, they weren't have any of that, and repopped me plenty of times. The only one that let me get away with it, was Hoy, who was there but not there.

One fun little hand I had, was getting to the lay the hammer down. I've done it many times before, but I always forget to uncheck the automucker, but yesterday I paused (which should have been a tell), and got away with it:



Fun times!

2BA

BBT3 - Game #22 Riverchasers & Bloggerdom drama thoughts

Congrats to KatieMother for taking down Riverchasers and the coveted BBT3 TOC seat. I was at her table for a while and we had a little 'tete a tete' going on. Probably a little leftover biz from our recent play in the 50/50.

Probably for 3 or 4 orbits, she was raising my BB, and then even though I was in early, I had been raising up her BB. She didn't know this of course, but I had Aces each time. It was so weird, I had AA in her BB at least 3 times. The last time, I suppose she finally got fed up and appears she either decided to play a Stop N Go on me, or perhaps she had a hand. Check it out:



Obviously she made a good laydown, I really thought at the time, she had AJ or some kind of Ace, maybe even the flush draw (KQ?), and thus put out the blocking bet, altering the plan if she indeed was thinking about the S & G. At any rate, she could have spewed some more chips obviously, and the tournament may have had a different outcome. Good play on her part.

On another note, I was way behind on the news, and last night was catching up to find there's some drama going on in bloggerdom. I remember when I first started playing with the bloggers, I had many 'comments' directed at me, which were very unfriendly.
I attributed that to the fact that I was not a blogger, and that I was in some way 'intruding' on the community. I did at one point recall, maybe it was in Hoy's blog, that the blogger tournaments welcomed reader's as well. Frankly, I think it's good to have it an 'open' event, and given you still need the passwords, I think it gives good advertisement to the overall poker blogging community, and in the case of the BBT3, a nice increase in the prize pool. Nevertheless, the only thing that seems amusing to me, is that any person who throws out an insult in the chat, whether it was a bad beat, or a bad play, a stupid call, a donkey call, etc.....has not only done it him/herself, but has done it on MANY occasions! Right??? Present company included. If your going to throw out the barbs, under the premise that your own play is perfect, hence somehow justifying the comment, is beyond ludicrous.

So I hope really hope that in the interest of sportmanship, we all take the friendly banter with a huge grain of salt, let's just not make things personal.

I really don't think there is a need to take it there.

2BA

BBT3 - Game #21 The Mookie

Played the Mookie last night, and was fortunate to make another final table. I wound up busting in 6th, when Mr Julius Goat hit a two outer on the river. Of course, he only needed that because I outflopped him, being behind with KQ vs A5. Here's the hand:



Last night also saw another blogger cash start up, this time .75/1.5 deep stacks, with most buying in for the max $300. I'll have to verify on my tracker, but I think I basically broke even. I managed to win back most of my losses on one hand where I flopped a boat with 77, and managed to get paid off by Bayne who made a straight on the turn, but with a paired board checked called all the way.

Initially the guys had started up at $2/$5 deep stacks, but didn't get many customers, so it seems that the smaller stakes were in more people's comfort zone.

Tonight the BBT3 continues with the River chasers game:

Tournament: Riverchasers Online Tour
Where/when: Full Tilt, Thursday 21:00ET
Game: ???
Buyin: $10+1
Password: riverchasers

2BA

BBT3 - Game #20 Skills Series Omaha 8/B

Skills game last night open up a new month of BBT3 action, and another 2k seat is up for grabs for the overall monthly point leader. The game was Omadraw 8 or better, and 90 runner's showed up. I started off fairly well, but fizzled in the middle of the pack, when I was gunned down by some interesting callers who hit their draws on the river. So not too hot of a start, but frankly I don't expect to be much of a factor this month. I will try and play as many events as I can, but with Mrs 2BA less than 2 weeks from delivery, my time will be directed on more important matters. :-)

The guys got another blogger cash game going last night, so I jumped in. Friendly game with $60 max buyin, and .15/.30 blinds. I managed a leave about $40 winner, but it was just more about playing and having fun with the bloggers. Fuel was playing some $5/$10 game, so that was interesting to watch as well, and then it appears he jumped to a $25/50 table, which on his blog he blogs about a sick hand against Matusow...although I thought at first it may be an April fools joke? but nevertheless, if it did happen, it was a hec of a pot.

There was also another PushFest last night, and wouldn't you know the first time I get seated at a table with No Bloggers, I get AA on the first hand, only to see everyone fold! Drats!!! and DoubleDrats!!! At any rate, those are fun, and watching the chat of the regular player's is a hoot and then some.

Tonight is Mookie night, and back to good all NL holdem donkery!

2BA

BBT3 - Game #19 Math

Well I crashed and burned on this hand, and for good measure at the hands of the guy I had to beat, TuscaloosaJohn. Congrats to him for taking the 1st monthly WSOP seat.



Right or wrong, I played this hand exactly how I wanted to. I went with my gut, and in this instance, I suppose I was wrong. My flat call with the AK of prophet's raise, was to either reraise anyone (esp John) who repopped, or if they all folded, I had position on prophet to play the hand. As you can see, Andrew came for the ride sweetening the pot, and John raises 25% of his stack, leaving 3k behind. Given that we both knew our position's last night in the BBT3 standings, I felt a push was even better because I didn't think he'd call with anything other than kings or aces, and I thought the setup was good enough that he would be making that raise with a pp he could get away from. Well he had qq's, and went with them and won the flip. Ce la vie. Truly a disappointment given I had the lead for the better part of the month.

I suppose the super 'cooler' doesn't know his own strength either. (Big Grin Waffles)



2BA