All`s Well That Ends Well

I had my internet connection reinstalled today. It`s amazing how much you miss something when you don`t have it for a while. Three days without the net was very annoying, no poker, no forums, no msn chat. I`m extremely glad to have it back.

I had my final chance to win a seat in a live tourney today. For a while it was looking pretty good too. Thirteen players, 1st and 2nd won the seats. After a slightly shaky start I was chip leader or second for a good portion of the game. The final table arrived and I settled down to play some solid poker. We were down to six players and I really wanted to make the top 5 at minimum to pick up a little cash and get my hands on a free i-pod. I`d been pretty card dead for a lot of the time on the final table so I was happy to see AA in the cutoff seat. All I needed was some action and the shortest stack obliged me by pushing all-in from UTG. I had him covered by a couple of thousand and when it came to me I pushed over the top to isolate him, He revealed 33 and of course spiked a 3 on the flop. That was the beginning of the end for me and a couple of circuits later I was out. So frustrating to play solidly and well for two hours only to lose my chance as a 4-1 favourite. My mood was not helped by another player typing "N1". I waited a few seconds before replying "N1?" His answer was "yeah it`s nice to get lucky sometimes".

I`d decided that was my first and last game of the day but I ended up being dragged in to play a league game. I finished 11th from 12. Not tilt, just poor cards and a lost coinflip at the end.

I was seriously tired and crashed out for an hour or so. Fortunately I woke up in time to tune in to Rounders Radio. I`m very glad I did because I picked up a nice consolation prize. Annie Duke had been supposed to be the guest on Pumped on Poker but an illness in the family had led to her cancelling. By way of an apology UB had offered three 300 piece chip sets as giveaways. The question was typed up in the chatroom and having just read Annie`s page on Wikipedia I typed in my answer in lightning fast time and won the first set. As I don`t have a chip set it`s a really nice prize and I can`t wait for it to arrive.

Old News

This post is a little late. Partly because I was too lazy to write it up at the time. And partly because as I write I have no internet connection. I woke up on Sunday and spent quite some time trying to log onto the wireless connection I`ve been using and finally found out that it had been locked. Bad timing for me but it has forced me to get reconnected which is a good thing.

Anyway enough of my internet problems and onto the poker. I played the Poker.com Affiliates tourney and found myself at a table with only one other player who was active. I had ood position on him that allowed me to claim the majority of the free blinds until I was moved. I would have rather had several active players because I hit a large number of excellent hands and only picked up the blinds with most of them. Once I moved tables the decent cards pretty much dried up and I was unable to advance my stack. Nonetheless I made it to the final table and played solid tight aggressive poker and watched as players fell to the wayside. I`d managed to win a few pots and I think we were down to 6 players when from UTG+1 I found myself with AA. The question was how was I going to get some value from the hand? I decided to bet about half my stack and hope someone would take the bait. My hopes and expectations were realised when the next player pushed over the top of me. Great I thought, I should double up with any luck. What I wasn`t expecting was for another player to also push all-in. I called and to go with my AA the first player had KK, and the second had AK. No unpleasant surprises hit the board and I tripled up and took the chip lead. After that we were down to the final three pretty quickly and things were looking very good for me. Unfortunately I bled off my lead trying to take one of the short-stacks out. A-2 vs his K-2 and of course he hit a set of kings to get back into the game. After that we ended up with the three of us pretty evenly stacked. I made it to HU still pretty much even but I wasn`t able to close the deal and ended up taking 2nd place. Disappointing not to take the win but it was an enjoyable game and I played very well on the final two tables.

Friday was the Poker.com Forum League game and it was scheduled for FL Om8b. One of my favourite games at the moment and I was really looking forward to it, as were quite a few other players. Unfortunately they`d cocked up the tournament and it was several hands in before we realised it was standard FL Omaha. I`m not used to playing omaha as a FL game and being annoyed about the mistake I openly said that no one had better bluff me because I really didn`t care too much if I lost. Wether it was that statement or the play it inspired me to I found myself on the final table and ended up HU against Mad4Cards. The lead went back and forth before Mad looked like she was going to steamroller me. I managed to claw it back though and looked on the verge of getting even or even slightly in front when I got my money in ahead on the flop with an over pair and the nut flush draw. Unfortunately she hit runner-runner for a flush and sent me to the rail in 2nd place. Good points for the team but another disappointing 2nd.

My final game report comes from my debut game against some of my old K9 mates. Drader has started his own forum - Hammer`s Hangout and they had a small buy-in at FullTilt. It was omaha but annoyingly it had been set up as NL. My early hands were terrible and the NL format wasn`t helping matters. Fortunately the highly aggressive player managed to get himself eliminated and things settled down a little. There were only four players left after that and one of those was sitting out due to a power loss. Lightning36 went out 4th and in effect I was HU with Philman. I continued to play fairly tight until Drader`s chips had been wiped out and then tried to make an impression on Philman`s impressive stack. I was outchipped by almost 4-1 but I held my nerve, hit a couple of hands and steadily accumulated a few chips. Then just before the break I hit a big hand and managed to reverse the situation so that I had the 4-1 advantage. I was determined that I wasn`t going to let him back into the game and applied pressure for a few hands before calling his all-in and ending the match by hitting my flush draw. A very modest win but one I was pleased with given the chip deficit I`d started the HU with.

Limit . . .ed Success

I`ve been playing quite a few fixed limit tourneys on Vegas 24/7. Not hold `em, Razz, 7 Stud 8b and Omaha 8b. The fields range from 40 to 100 and they`re pretty soft. I`m cashing in them regularly and I`m starting to get a healthy little bankroll built up over there. It would be nice to win one but I`ve no complaints about my ROI at the site. I`ve cashed in the last three I`ve played. Two were Razz, and tonights was 7 Stud 8b. I took 5th place tonight from a field of 100. My $5 buy-in brought me a $36+ change prize and I thoroughly enjoyed playing. There were a few comments made about peoples play tonight but on the whole you don`t see the ill natured comments that are prevalent in NLHE tourneys. I`ll continue to play the odd NLHE games but on the whole I prefer my alternative poker.

Sunday League Game

Managed a solid 9th from 48 in todays league game. Almost made the final table but was rivered by Noky. He was ahead preflop with A-9 vs my K-10 suited so I can`t complain too much.

Had quite a shock when I sat at my first table. Who should be sat there but bullitpete, Poker.com`s resident pro player. Apparently Scotlady had recruited him to spare for her team. I had the pleasure of sending him to the rail when he raised 3xBB from early position, oioimalloy his team mate pushed over the top for a total of 615 and I flat called from the BB with QQ. Pete just called and when the flop came J high I put him in for his remaining 750 chips. He thought for a while and called, revealing A-J. No help on the turn or river and I eliminated 2 Mad Jokers and claimed my first pro scalp.

HAMMERTIME!!!!

I played a sng I`d won a seat at tonight. It was organised by Tony Guerrera as a prize for answering quiz questions on his radio show. There were four players who`d won a seat, Tony and Jon Vorhaus. It was a great game, lots of fun to play, with plenty of banter between Tony and JV.

I ended up finishing 4th after running my JJ into Tony`s KK. Tony took 3rd and JV was second with one of the amateurs winning.

I might not have cashed but I did get to drop the hammer on JV. The action had folded round to me in the SB so I popped it to 3x, JV called and the flop came K-7-2. I probably should have checked but I put out a half pot bet and he folded. Normally I have automuck set but I`d unchecked it just in case so I was able to show my hammer :-)

Not that they`ll read it here but big thanks to Tony and JV for setting it up and playing, it was a blast.

A Crazy Night

I didn`t get chance to play until late tonight. I applied for a post as editor/copywriter at NeverWinPoker forum and had a review and a news article to write up before I could play. I`ve no idea if I`ll get the post but I`m keeping my fingers crossed.

Writing done I decided to play some razz at Vegas. It was an up and down game. I struggled early on then hit some nice hands and was in the top 10 for a lot of the game. In the middle of the tourney I was invited to play a HORSE sng. I declined at first but upon finding out bullitpete was playing I decided to play. It`s not that often a low stakes player like me gets the chance to tangle with a pro player. I didn`t do very well in the sng and it distracted me from the razz tourney. As I`ve said before multi-tabling isn`t usually a +EV move for me. I was very short-stacked by the final table but two of the chip leaders clashed and the loser ended up as the bubble. I clawed back a few chips and it looked like I might pick up a spot or two. I say looked like because I ended up finishing just in the money in 7th place.

As I was clinging on for dear life in the razz my Monday night football league game started. I sat out a few hands and joined in once I`d made the money in the razz. I played quite nicely in the league game before being knocked out in 4th place when I pushed all-in with AK. My opponent xTENSEx had called with A-7. The flop came 7-5-2 and I was left hoping I`d catch my king on the turn or river. That hope was snuffed out when the turn was a 7. It was obliterated as the river brought the case 7. If there`s a luckier player on that site I don`t know who it is. He`d already beaten AA with AQ by making broadway on the river. Truly sickening.

I was going to call it a night but as I went to close Vegas down I noticed another razz tourney. It was just too tempting and I regged. After the first hour I was really wishing I hadn`t bothered. I was pretty card dead and whenever I chose to see 4th street I inevitably either drew a face card or paired one of my other cards. I managed to draw the case card at least twice. I swear if it had been a 7 card stud tourney I would have won easily. I had so many pocket pairs and rolled up cards it was scary. I honestly can`t remember getting worse hands in a razz game. However by some miracle I managed to reach the final table and still be alive as we battled for the honour of bubbling. It was a forty minute battle but somehow I clung on and managed to finish in 5th and cash. That achievement feels something like a win given how unlikey it seemed throughout the tourney.

I`m hoping I can get the entire hand history to browse through. It should prove fascinating reading.

GRRRRRR . . . Damn . . . Woohoo

A post in three parts here as you might guess by the title.

Although I don`t usually bother with freerolls very often these days there was a pretty good one at Rounders tonight. It was being held at Bodog and the top three places paid T$109. I logged into chat at Rounders and got the password then logged into Bodog where I spent a frustrating twenty minutes trying to register for the tourney. Unfortunately their stupid software refused to let me register. I`ve often had to try multiple times to register there for password protected tourneys but I`ve never been unable to get into one before it closed. Unamused to say the least I sent them an e-mail expressing my displeasure.

After that debacle I wasn`t going to bother playing anywhere else. However three hours later and still wide awake I decided I`d play a sng at Vegas. I was pretty card dead but took my chances at the right time to make it to the final four. Unfortunately I bubbled when my all-in with 33 from the button ran into JJ.

I`d also registered for a $5 HORSE tourney at Vegas and for quite a while it looked like my ill fortune was going to continue. By level five, the 7 stud 8b round I was heading for an early exit and had just 133 chips left, with 54 players remaining. I pushed them in with 2-3-7 and made my low hand by 5th street. On 7th street I hit the wheel but only ended up with half of the main pot when another player made a full house. Nonetheless it gave me some hope and from there I was able to slowly claw my way back and eventually finish in the money in 6th place. Not a win but definitely a result given the way the tourney started. The funny thing was two of the other players who made the final table had also been extremely short-stacked at some point in the tourney. One had been down to 150 chips, the other down to 450. Definitely proves the old adage about a chip and a chair.

Great Night

I`ve had a great night tonight. It started off pretty badly with me unable to get a connection so that I could play my first league game but things got better.

Gary Wise had Dan Druff on his show talking about the AP scandal and then the Pumped on Poker show had Phil Helmuth as a guest. He was a great interview, very entertaining, very amusing and even though he obviously has a huge ego he is capable of laughing at himself when he`s away from the table. Quip of the night came when he was talking about his new merchandise and he said he night consider selling some of his sperm, part of the poker prodigy line lmao.

I jumped into the Pumped game on Vegas whilst I was listening. I wasn`t going to bother but I`m glad I did. Not because I won, or even cashed. I finished two spots out of the money in 7th place. I could have gotten away from the hand that crippled me too. I could probably have won the hand with a check-raise on the turn to represent the flush (I`d actually made a straight). Unfortunately I flat called and my opponent filled up a boat on the river. I could have folded there too but figured my opponent for a set of aces. I went out a couple of hands later but it was a great little tourney. It was played in good humour throughout and some amusing observer chat livened things up. I had the pleasure of playing with Murry and a couple of other Rounders regulars and really enjoyed the game. If all NLHE tourneys were like that I`d play more often. Unfortunately the donkey element or the foul mouthed bad losers usually ruins them.

I`m Back

Not that I`ve actually been away. I was offline for a while whilst moving house. At present I`m "borrowing" someones wireless connection. I`ve no idea whosee it is but if they`re going to leave the network unsecured . . . I will be getting my own connection again soon, this one keeps cutting off which makes it a risky proposition to play any tourneys, although it is generally ok at night.

I took a bit of a break from playing tourneys because I was either playing bad or just hitting a run of poor cards. Probably a bit of both in truth. I made a pretty good return on Friday night in the $5 HORSE at Poker.com. I was horribly shortstacked by the second round of HE but hit a few hands and then clawed my way to the final table where I ended up finishing 2nd. I took a pretty bad beat HU or I would have stood a decent chance of taking it down IMHO. A two outer killed me off on the river but that`s poker.

As my connection hasn`t been too great I`ve been playing a few ring games, mainly FL and PL Omaha8b at Ultimate Bet. Only micro limit stuff but I`m just learning how to play rings, or trying to at least. I probably play too many hands which is why I`ve been pretty much breaking even. I may risk moving up stakes a little because that should tighten up my game. I`d love to become a decent ring game player. It`s certainly where the money is. I just hate NLHE rings though, and that`s unfortunate because it`s where the majority of players are at the moment.

I`m waiting for an article I sent in to the Carbon blog to be published. It`s called Alternative Poker and it basically promotes the idea of playing games other than NLHE. I think it`s going to be published, I`m presuming that`s where the coupon that appeared in my account came from. I`ve also got a piece I`m considering putting on Helium, a writers site that I`ve yet to contribute to. It`s a piece about turning pro, giving the pros and cons, mainly cons in fairness.

Anyway that`s about all for now see you soon.