Will be taking the family on a mini vacation to visit family. So no online poker, and maybe some live, if I can squeeze it in between family visits, etc.
Since my little princess was born, she hasn't met alot of her family, and friends. So we'll be taking care of that on this trip. My little princess has grown so much! She's now 4.5 months old, and getting cuter by the day! (Proud Papa...can ya tell? :-) )
Hope you all have a great 3 day Labor day weekend, and good luck on the felt!
At least I cashed, but I really had build up a nice stack, getting as high as 3rd with about 100 left. I unfortunately made a bad read against a guy who had been fairly active. I had about 40k at the time, when this guy opens again for the upteenth time from middle position. He had about 20k total, so I moved him in, thinking he'd get away from his Big Ace. Unfortunately, he had bullets, so I doubled him up, and I dropped to 20k. That helped him big, as he finished 3rd.
In the end, I got hit hard in the junk on this bust out hand. Mr Big Cheese is a very good tournament player, and he was playing his stack well. This hand was about the 4th or 5th consecutive hand he had open raised. So I figured to be well ahead of this range, and I was. My favorite FullTilt employee had other ideas obviously.
The last two poker playing days leading into the 32K, could be described best by 3 words.
Bad Beat Central.
The Doom switch was alive and well my friends. I could go and post to you the absolutely ridiculous beats, but since you all know how it's like, I'll spare you.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm mainly playing cash games lately, but on weekends, will still try and hit some of my favorite tournaments when possible. The 32K has always been a 'can't miss' for me, but since my day job responsibilities have grown, I am not able to play it during the week. Last night's tournament was relatively uneventful. I managed to somehow avoid the usual coolers, although in the foreground of my mind was how awful I was running, and that the Doom switch was still locked in the ON position.
However, after this hand, which took a really bad turn (pun intended), I thought maybe the tide was turning:
That hand put me in good shape, and was able to use my stack effectively, all the way to the final table. Unfortunately, my bust out hand reminded me of exactly how things had been going:
Funny thing is that as the cards are coming out, my mind is only processing how it is that my opponent will beat me. Byproduct of when the cards are running cold. Didn't even notice I made trips on the turn, which if ever there was a time I didn't want to make trips, this was it, given the outcome.
All in all, I'm happy that these last few days of Bad Beat Central, were made up for with this finished and then some.
Many thanks to all who stopped by and wish me well, especially the red-hot LJ, who I see FT'd the Fiddy again last night, on the heels of winning it the night before!
So as I've mentioned before, I've been only able to play cash games during the week, since my day job has gotten somewhat complicated, and my time for poker is limited to some evening cash sessions. Which kinda sucks, since what I really enjoy is playing tournaments. Although it's probably my biggest leak, nevertheless, it is what I enjoy the most.
This is also affecting my participation in the blonkaments, which I had been a steady regular in. But with most starting pretty late, and double stacks making for longer tournaments, I'll only really be able to play when I see it's single stack, or turbo's (hint hint). I may play the Mook tonight, but it will be a game time decision.
The cash games have been up and down. I've been screwing around with buying in short lately, and have had some moderate success. I remember reading on one of the blogs, that busting short stacks is like eating Chinese food, as your still hungry for more! That one stuck with me, but I got to tell you, there are guys who are 'specialist' in the short buy arena. One guy at 1/2, has (that I've seen) as many as 10 tables going. If you look at their HUD stats, you know if they are serious 'specialist' or not. They will have played about 5 % VPIP, and when they go in, it's for stacks (haha). Their goal is simply to double up. Sometimes they leave, and rebuy again, others hang around for one more double up. Their range is pretty narrow obviously, big pairs, maybe AK sooted, but thats it. Personally, I am too Laggy, but I suppose if you fire up 1o+ tables, you can play pretty tight. Don't know, may try that as an experiment too.
Ok, thats it for now.......I'll leave you with this crazy hand, which as you most know, is pretty 'standard' on FT. About the only thing that would have made it even crazier, would have been if I had stayed in, and the 3 of diamond hits the river.....which would still have made this 'standard'!
Actually, I did hit a couple of nice hands....albeit in one this one, I hit a 1-0uter, which for me, happens once in a blue moon. I made a nice OBFV leading the river:
Not playing too much lately, work tilt getting in the way. So I play a little cash game action to relax, from the stress at work. Only problem is, I get stress from the stinking cards too!!!
Is it just me, or are these German NL Holdem players about the loosest, craziest bunch ever??? Talk about stats....VPIP is high and very consistent across most of them.....is it in the water? Oh yeah, and man do they chase....I mean, if there is ANY chance they can hit, they ain't going anywhere!!!
Here's a good example....limp pot, I'm in the SB...all the money went in on the Turn:
This guy's VPIP was over 80%, with about 400 hands in my DB. He played ANY 2 sooted cards, and WOULD NOT FOLD! Of course, this is what we want...but the fucker kept hitting!!!
So frustrating!!!
I was listening to a pod cast, where this exact topic was being discussed. The pundits did bring up the fact that these guys are mostly Pot Limit Omaha players, who are just crossing over to NL holdem. Makes sense....but just beware, they are a GAMBLING LUCKY BUNCH!
As I mentioned, I was out of town last week, so I am way behind on bloggerworld news. I did not until the 11th hour, know that Hoy had retired the MATH. I did a search on his name, and it led me to the newly form LivePokerradio game. I got lucky to find the password with moments to spare...as I told IT last night, I bet I was the last person to sign up.
I'm running short on time, but suffice it to say, that the win was aided by moments of complete and down right donkery, and good ole fashion suckouts, including the cracking of aces with some rag hand against Iakaris, where I made a lucky st8 on the river.
Thanks again to Sean and his crew for picking up the Monday slot, and hope to play in many more.
I've talked with several folks live and online today. All agree I played this like a fish, and got very lucky. I guess when your running good, even being a fish doesn't matter! ;-)
So as you saw in my previous post, it was a good weekend at the cash games. So I decided last night to take some of the profit, and take a shot at a $5/$10 game. I used Fuel's Tip regarding Table Finder, and found a table that was playing pretty loose. So my approach was to play tight, wait on some quality hands and take it from there. Well, as can happen in any session, I didn't really get any cards. The best was AQ twice, and I had to lay that down both times post flop. I was able to make some plays from late position, and was up a small amount. I did have this, one big hand:
Table is very loose, and I'm sitting on the button. BB and I both had about $1170 stacks.
Villian is BB. He's $1/$2 regular, also taking a shot? don't know, but his stats are very laggy. CO open limps for $10, I call OTB with 66. SB folds, and BB raises to $99. CO folds, I flat call. (Yeah/Nay on flat call? what range are you putting him on?)
Flop is 7J5 all clubs. BB leads for about half the pot ($125).
What's your move? at this point, pot has $348...BB has $950 behind after his lead. One of my 6's was a club.
So had not played for the last 3 days, and decided to fire up some 1/2 cash games last night, to get back in the game.
On this table, I had managed to chip up about a C note, when this hand came up...kinda a Big blind special gone haywire:
So that put a damper on things, but not for long, as these 3 hands put me back on top...BIG!
1st hand I get a dude who was happy to get it all in preflop (after limping) with AK...with me holding bullets in the BB...guess he thought he was trapping..har har:
Then on this hand, I was somewhat distracted, since I was on the phone with my BIL, but on auto-pilot it's a no-brainer to open on the button with a suited ace. But my lights lit up on the flop, and then the action was incredible....check this out:
Yeah, TPTK on that board, nice way to go broke!
Finally, this hand came up while I'm still on the horn with my BIL, so I may have to pay him a commission, just for the great luck!
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