Another close finish

Played in another of the weekly bar tourneys... $25 buyin, 2 rebuys, 1 addon. 20 people (not much), but almost everyone took full advantage of the rebuys and addons, bringing first place to a cool $520. I had the chip lead through most of the first half... wasn't playing a lot of hands, but all the good ones held up and seemed to connect on the flop. The second half was a different story. No hands whatsoever. About 2 hours after the break, I finally pick up AQ suited, and raise it up in middle position (8 people left). The guy directly behind me pushes over the top for 3x my raise, and gets a caller before it comes to me. I fold. The guy after me flips up QQ, and the last guy shows AK. An ace hits the flop, and QQ goes home. I think that was a good fold on my part. Usually, I would call.... and I suppose, most times it would be good. *shrugs*. I ended up busting out in 5th, on the bubble. I'll get 'em next time.

Stay tuned.

Which cartoon are you?

You are drunk Elmo. You love to have fun and you
drink to lower your inhibitions and allow
yourself to cut loose a little more. You are
always hyper and happy and most people find you
to be very annoying, especially when you're
drunk.


What drunk cartoon are you? (PICS)
brought to you by Quizilla

Time off

I get 4 days off this weekend.

Tonight my girlfriend and I are going to a Children of Bodom concert (metal).

Tomorrow, it's Turkey Day.

'Nuff said.

Another good night

Bought in for $20 in a .25-.50 PL game, and walked three hours later with $130. I love it when variance works in my favor. Now all I need is another tourney win and I'll be ready for full time online play ;)

More coming soon.

P.S. Harry Potter is out today! Who's going to see it?

A modest tourney win

I played at a live tourney here in town last night. It was pretty small... only 12 people. However, they had unlimited rebuys for the first 2 hours, and an addon at the break. I managed to chip up from the starting stack (1k) to 6k by the half, then
purchased the addon for an additional 2k in chips, making me a solid chip lead.

Noteable hands

8:05: I've been folding religiously. We're still at 2 tables (shorthanded, 6 per table). I get AK suited in MP. I raise it to 800 (BB is 200), and 4 people come along for the ride. Flop: AA4... UTG checks to me, I bet 500, everyone calls. Turn K. UTG
checks again, I bet out 1k... guy after me folds, button pushes, UTG folds. I call. He flips up.... QQ? Hahaha. Drawing dead. I win.

8:30: T14,000, 200-400 - First hand at the final table. I draw the dealer seat, and deal myself cowboys. UTG folds, everyone else limps. I make it 1400 to go. 2 callers. Flop is 333. Checked around to me, I bet out 1k. first guy folds, other calls.
Turn 4. He thinks for a while, then checks. I bet 2k. He calls immediately, then instachecks when the river brings an ace. I check behind him. He has pocket 9's. I win.

9:10: T20,000 300-600 - Pocket 3's. I limp in to see a family pot, flop comes 359 rainbow. Short stack pushes, everyone folds, I call. He has pocket 5's. I don't improve, and he doubles up.

10:00 T17,000 500-1k - We're 4 handed, and people are basically in all-in/fold mode. I'm still trying to play a little more poker than that, but I'm running out of room to play my way.

10:15 T15,000 500-1k - AT suited in the big blind. folded to the SB, who has been repeatedly going all in every time I'm in the big. I call. He flips over KT. The ace on the flop lets me breathe a little easier, and the 2 on the turn seals his untimely fate. Down to 3.

10:20 T26,000 2k-4k - I fold UTG and the other two get all in. The shortstack had pushed on the BB and was called with K9. He turned a straight, and we were heads up.

10:22 26,000 2k-4k - I'm big blind. First hand heads up, I get pocket tens. Other guy raises it to 10k, I push, he calls with QT. Nothing hits and it's all over.I made $520 last night, from an original investment of $40. This marks my largest cash in a tournament to date.

Keep 'em coming!

Comfy niche

I think I've found my comfort zone.

"What is that comfort zone, Chris?"

I'm so glad you asked. It's $1-2 NL. There's a very distinct possibility that $2-4 and $3-6 NL may also be well within my mental comfy area, but they're certainly not so for my bankroll. So for now, it's just $1-2. What a wonderful game! I headed over to my regular game last night, only to discover that we didn't have enough people even to make a standard shorthanded table. So instead, we decided to try out yet another local bar that hosts a $20 MTT every Tuesday. As the people drop out, a NL cash table starts up on the side (also $1-2) I bought in for $80 and basically just became a rock. On my second orbit, I hit two pair on the flop after checking the big blind, and relieved two people of their stacks.

None of these guys (with the exception of the two guys I came with) were paying any attention whatsoever, and after folding for an hour, when I raised it up to $12 UTG with pocket rockets, I got 5 callers (blinds both folded). The flop came with my beautiful ace, but there were two hearts on the board, and that ace was one of them. I checked it, UTG+1 bet out $20, called around, and I raised it $50. 2 callers. The turn reveals the Ten of hearts. I check, UTG+1 bets out $10 (Trying to milk me?). I call. River.... Ace!!!!!! I made quads. I bet out $100 into a $300 pot and the guys pushes for another $40 on top of my bet. I call him and he shows pocket tens.

Victory is sweet.

Live Tournament

Man, I hate live tournaments. No, let me rephrase that. I hate local live tournaments. There are probably about 10-15 various bars scattered around town that host holdem tournaments throughout the week. Some are rebuys, some aren't, some are $20, some are $100. They have every flavor. The only problem is, almost all of them are crapshoots. How would you like to start with 1k in chips, with the blinds getting bumped every 15 minutes (starting at 25-50). It's ridiculous. I brought this up today and all my buddies kind of started laughing before they realized I was dead serious. I actually ran into one of the tournament directors last week at Albertsons, and was happy to give him a piece of my mind. Not being a poker player (WTF?!?!), he wasn't aware that the structure was bad. I assured him that if his tournament corresponded to a smell, it would be a mix between a partially decomposed body, and runny dog shit.

/end rant

Car trouble

It's been a long week... way too long. And it's only Monday. *sigh*

I had to take my car in for a tune-up / new radiator. I had been planning on waiting for the tune-up until at least January, but I didn't have much of a choice, seeing as my radiator randomly began belching up gallons upon gallons of coolant. Guess where the $800 came from to fix it? Yeah, you guessed it. Straight out of the bankroll. So now I'm left with just shy of $200 to play poker with. Good news is, I get paid on Thursday. At which time I have to get new insurance, christmas presents, and various other expensive things. So... broke again! Yay.

Sooner or later I'll get this bankroll up and going. I plan on doing a month long SnG challenge. Maybe I'll set it at 300 SnG's spanned over 5 day periods, for a month. That would be 15 per day (75/week). I'd be interested to see what my ROI for something like that would be.

More posts coming soon.

Titan Single Table Jackpot Tourneys

I'm still attempting a recovery from that horrific beat the other night. Pretty hard to get my spirits up after something like that, but I'm trying.

Onto other news

Titan Poker is insane. God! The play is ludicrous. I've never seen people play such shitty poker. I'm seriously beginning to think that all the mental hospitals in the country are now encouraging their patients to play poker online. These people are just.... wow. They'll raise with anything, call with anything. It's FUCKING AWESOME.

Gonna play in a series of the $2 Jackpot SnG's. 6 consecutive wins pays $1k. Also gonna check out the $1k guaranteed and the $5k guaranteed.

More updates to come.

**UPDATE**

The $2 Jackpot SnG's now only require 4 consecutive wins for a prize of $2k! Ehhhhh.... I'll take it.

Why me?

"In confessions of a winning poker player, Jack King said "Few players recall big pots they have won, strange as it seems, but every player can remember with remarkable accuracy the outstanding tough beats of his career." It seems true to me, cause walking in here, I can hardly remember how I built my bankroll, but I can't stop thinking about the way I lost it."
Mike McDermott (Rounders)

The $1-2 NL game. It's a home game I go to here in town. Always full and always fishy, Without fail. I bought in for $150, and started off playing fairly tight, trying not to get involved in as many hands as I find myself playing when I sit down for $.25-.50 PL. A quick outline of the first 3 hours:

$1-2 NL (Started at: 9:00 PM)
7 handed.

9:30 ($140)- Red cowboys UTG. I make it $8 to go. Folds around to the CO who re-raises to $20. Button cold calls, blinds fold, I jam for $125 more. CO has me covered and calls immediately. He flips over QQ. Flop comes with a Queen, but I spike one of my two outs on the river to double up.

9:45 ($290) - I stay in with 9Ts and flop the nut straight. LAG in EP check-raises me *evil grin*, so I call and let him lead out on the turn. When he leads out with a pot-sized bet, I put him all in.. He calls with top pair. He doesn't catch his miracle cards and I'm up to $500.

11:00 ($450) - Pocket 8's, we get a family pot and the flop is all small rags. I lead out with a pot-sized bet and get called by two people. Turn brings my wonderful 8 and I take down another large pot.

I'd like to insert a note here. This next hand was the last hand of the night for me. It has a lot of significance for me, since it represents the largest pot I've been involved in to date. I'm a little sore that I lost so much money here, but I got it in when I was the favorite and that's what matters.

1:30 ($650) - I have JJ on the button. 2 people in EP fold, everyone else limps to me, I raise it to $10. 2 callers. Flop comes J 4 8. Checked to me, I bet the pot. Both call. Turn is a 4. MP player bets $100 (pot bet), player behind folds, I jam for the additional $500, he calls and flips over pocket 8's.

[J 4 8]
[J 4 8][4]
[J 4 8][4][8]

Yup. He caught a 1 outer to take me down. The only consolation I have was the look on his face for the 2 seconds before his miracle card appeared. That pot ended up being just over $1100.

I have no doubts about the quality of my play, or my skill as a player. Still, this is hard to take... my confidence is shattered. How can skill stack up to luck?

I went home and stared at a wall for three hours.

Feeling: Stunned and depressed

Insurance is a bitch

I bought my car in June of this year, from my girlfriend's brother. It's an automatic (yuck!) 1997 Acura Integra LS. Not exactly my dream car, but it gets the job done. I hadn't had insurance since August '03, due to a HORRIBLE streak of bad luck. Basically, I was living in Southern California, up in the mountains near Big Bear. I drove up to Oregon in July to visit my parents, and had mailed a check to the insurance company before I left. A week later, I return. I'm weary from all the driving, but wired from all the uppers I've been taking to stay awake. Bad combination. I'm at a red light in Lakewood (right next to Long Beach) at 2am, and I see a car coming up behind me, perhaps 50 feet back and moving FAST. I don't know where in the hell it came from, but I had no time to act. I frantically revved the engine and simultaneously dumped the cluth. I actually managed to move about a quarter inch before the car rear-ended me doing 40 MPH (Keep in mind, I had a Bronco at the time). The result? 1 Honda accord, pancaked. 1 Bronco with a severely bent bumper and muffler. 1 puppy, who briefly became Superman and flew directly into my stereo deck (She was not seriously hurt). And 1 irate 16 year old female driver (otherwise known as bitch), yelling at me about checking my blind spot. Yes, that's right. I'm at a red light, and she's screaming about blind spots.

As luck would have it, my check never reached the insurance company. My insurance had lapsed at midnight (2nd of August), and the accident occurred exactly 2 hours later. Not being aware of this at the time, I traded insurance information with the girl's mom, and spent the next 4 hours jumping up and down on my exhaust pipe trying to bend it back into shape.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I racked up $800 in cellphone charges consulting with lawyers and the insurance companies. It was looking pretty bad for me. I had a fucked up Bronco, a disconnected cell-phone, and an insurance company breathing down my neck, saying that the girl had hurt her neck. Apparantly, their story was that I changed lanes without signaling as she was attempting to pass me.

I received a court summons in the mail. The family was now suing me because of the $18k Honda that had been totaled. I was still in shock about the whole thing, wondering how there could even be any debate over what happened. I mean, it was pretty obvious. There were rubber marks ALL over the road where she hit me, and the investigation had revealed things that put the case heavily in my favor. Even with that, the fact was that I had no insurance. The most I was entitled to was payment from their insurance company to cover the damage to my car. No medical treatment (if it had been needed), and no pain and suffering. At this point, I wasn't even trying to get money out of it, I was just trying to escape unscathed by the devilwoman.

I show up in court. The judge comes in, reads the file for a few minutes, then frowns at a part of the paperwork, and takes out his reading glasses. He stares at something for a few minutes (I'm sweating buckets by now), then looks up and stares at the girl After a moment, his gaze slides over to me.

Judge: "You're 21?"
Me: "Yes, sir."
Judge: "How long have you been driving?"
Me: "2 months shy of 7 years, if you count when I had my permit."
Judge: "Any other traffic infractions?"
Me: "No sir."

The judge looks over at the girl.

Judge: "And you. You're 16?"
Girl: "Almost 17."
Judge: "And you've had your license for how long?"
Girl: "8 days."
Judge: "8 days??!?"
Girl: "Yes."
Judge: "I assume you've had no other infractions."
Girl: "Um... (gulps) I got a speeding ticket yesterday."

Judge stares at her for a solid minute. Once again, he looks over at me. And.... he smiles. His eyes dart back to her.

Judge: "You are clearly unfit to drive. You have been involved in two completely separate incidents, both of which could have killed somebody. Not to mention that you were driving past midnight by yourself, which is strictly forbidden for the first 6 months you retain a license. I am going to revoke your license until the age of 18. Case is dismissed."

-----