Razzle-Dazzle

I'm pretty sure this will take place at 8:00PM instead of the advertised 9:00PM.......

2nd place in the Wheatie....details tomorrow

Last nights WWdN: weekly NLHE tourney (what happened to the name bounty?) was crazy. I saw the eventual 3rd place finisher get a royal flush...not sure about the specifics because I could only stare in awe of the royal. I've seen two in the last week in different tourneys. BTW I post these second and third place finishes because I haven't won an MTT in a long time. The last time I actually came in first was last year for a satellite tourney on Full Tilt. I doubled up halfway through the tournament with A-Jo....After my steal was called and a flop of Ax-Kx-Jx.....runner runner J's fell and I was on my way. Anyway, there was one key hand that got me a big chip stack. My As-Ac versus Soxlovers Kh-Ks I think. We got it all-in before the flop of course....and a Kx-Qx-9x fell on the flop. I was dead to either an ace of runner-runner straight cards. Ad on the turn and I was good to go. Besides the royal flush...that was the biggest hand in the tournament (Sorry Sox !) as he was in the top five for a good hour and a half. ISS Spock (usually a big stack or out early) stayed in first for most of the tournament. He had my number for the whole of the final table. Every time I tried to steal he paired the board or had a better hand. I stayed away from him until we got down to three. I doubled though him when I flopped top pair...he had second pair and pushed. I thought for a while and called. So I had the chip lead for a short time and of course....Spock with his Vulcan mind tricks took it back. The second to last hand heads up was a glimpse of some bad play by me. I flopped second pair with a 10d-Ad. Spock flopped top two pair Q's and 10's and called my small feeler/blocker bets. He raised on the river and me being stubborn called and lost. I only had about T13,500 at this point. The last hand I had Ac-8h and pushed. He called with pocket 3's and took it down. This tournament is such a mine-field. I just can't stop playing it.....

Crazy hand at foxwoods

I played for about 4.5 hours on a 1-2 NL (300-max buy-in) table at Foxwoods. That's about half the time I usually play when I go there overnight. I left down about 50 and all things considered...could have been a lot more. I got out of a hand that was the craziest I've ever seen.
There were five people in the hand pre-flop....and four including me at the flop. I had 10x-10x. There were no flush draws or flushes at the end so I won't include suits. I was under the gun with my pocket tens. I raised it to 12 which was standard for the night. There was a guy two seats to my left (later found out to have K's) called. Another guy called with something like Ax-8x late position (Pocket K's were cracked countless times...I was bluffed off of them when a flop of Ax-8x-8x fell. I checked because the guy called my raise of 13....had to have an ace right? He said he had pocket J's so that was one hand I should have bet after the flop. But seriously I saw K's get cracked about 6 times in brutal fashion). Guy in the SB calls....and then the guy in the BB calls as well. The was at 60 and a flop of Ax-Kx-10x falls. I checked my set of tens. Guy to my left bets 15....guy in late position calls 15....guy in SB (pocket J's) thinks for a while and goes all in for about a total of 60. The guy in the BB insta-calls for about his last 45. The pot is now at T195. I fold. Guy to my left with Pocket K's calls for 60. Guy in late position folds. and with both the blinds all in and one other person with chips the pot was at a total of 255. Everybody flips over their cards and the BB flips of Jx-Qx off suite....Big Blind Special! The turn and river were a Jx and and an 8x....I guess the guy that went all-in with Pocket J's was all pissed off. I mean why would you go all-in on a flop of Ax-Kx-10x with pocket J's? The BB was loving it until I later cracked his K's with a full house of 9's full of 5's. Anyway a flopped Broadway straight over a set of K's and a set of J's...and if I didn't fold my hand a set of 10's as well. That was definitely the most crazy non-tournament hand I've ever been involved with.

Misc....

Reading Tao, Hoyazo (one wordy MF...lol), and Iggy is enough to kill at least half a day at work. BTW it's great to the Iggy back at GuinnessandPoker. His blog was the first that started me on my way to becoming a very unproductive office worker/IT guy.....in a good way though. I am going to be haunting the 'Mookie' tonight...and probably the Second Chance as well. See if I can avoid an Hoyazo suck out special...I remember this one from a WPBT event last year (not that it was a suck out per se..but one of the worst beats ever online). I have the next couple of days to Donk it up down at Foxwoods starting tomorrow night.....yeahaahahaaa! Did anybody see this....I know I've posted the link already but DAMN!

R.I.P

Rest in Peace Brad Delp. You will be missed as one of the creators of some of the most incredible music in Rock and Roll history. If anybody graduated high school from '76-on they surely have had 'Boston' playing in the background as a soundtrack to life. Simply put...if you didn't own an 8-track, record, tape, or CD of the seminal 'Boston'....you probably didn't like Rock and Roll. Here is a local newspaper article on the 'local' himself....

If you think you've seen it all....

You haven't seen bad play until you've been to a charity poker tourney. It's basically impossible to pull off a bluff...let alone make a steal. You better be prepared to go all in if you raise or bluff. I have done quite well at these in the past but this is the first one I've played in a while. I didn't get a pocket pair the whole time. I'm actually amazed I lasted until 30Th!
Anyway....I made the final table and cashed in the Riverchasers NL tournament last night. I was double-tabling CC's Thursday bash and the Riverchasers tournament. I hit trip 2's and quad 2's to triple up with about 20 left. I turned a straight while heads up with some dude. He goes all-in with 3-10 of hearts...because there were two hearts on the board..and he rivers the flush. 10-high.....pretty pathetic...but I still made the final table you fucker!!! Here is an odd picture of both my PStars and FT avatars...with the same exact chip counts. Even thought the tourneys started a half hour apart...I thought i could final table both!

A Schedule only a Donkey could love

My Poker Schedule the next two weeks.

Sporadic Full Tilt blogger tourneys and STT's or MTT's for tourney tokens.
Sporadic PokerStars blogger tourneys and STT's.....maybe an MTT or two...I can't resist.
Charity/Benefit tourney at Kitty's (It's a restaurant in my old hometown ya dirty-minded bastards!)
Foxwoods on Thursday the 15th overnight to the 16th....woohoo....(wife's request for birthday!)
How am I going to say 'no' to that?

I played the WWdN : invitational last night and got knocked out 12th. I had Aces dealt to me 4 times in the tournament and I just couldn't amass any good sized pots with them. I tried mixing it up with slow play and big bets and big raises but.....the caliber of player was tougher than usual last night. Some of the invitational tourneys have great play like last night...some don't. I'll have to try the Mookie again tonight!

This is also something worth posting.....enjoy.....huh-huh...I said posting....

CC's Thursday Bash

As you can see I didn't win...but 2nd place ain't bad.
CC played like a monster and just for good measure got hit in the face with monster hand after monster hand. This is the first CC Bash that I've played and probably not the last. The play is very different than for instance...the WWdN. It is similar to the Mookie....which I played for the first time this week also. I think Hoy talked about the difference in play between the blogger tourneys.....and he's right. Not that I won't play the WWdN anymore...but....these other tourneys have better play overall. I'm not at the point where I could play MATH every Monday but I may get there soon. There are just too many options now....every night during the week. I hope it all doesn't come to a crashing halt this summer....

Anyway, I raked some great pots with my K's this time. CC
was absolutely crushing it......the only time I made a dent was with my Quad Kings....on the river. I had Kx-Kx heads up and decided to do a little slow play. A King on the flop had me excited but I decided to check. CC bet and I decided to go all-in on the turn.....then a K falls on the river and I doubled to T9,000 or so. CC was still stacked at T21,000. The next hand was a disaster for me and my K-Jo. I don't know what he had but the board was too much and I couldn't force him out with a bet on the turn. I was doomed as my stack was down to T4500. to his T29,000. I don't even recall the last hand and obviously he had a slightly better hand. So I say...NH CC. I'll be sure to check you blog more often. PokerPeaker was tough with the short stack and almost made a ridiculous comeback at the end. I had some fun with both in the chat box. GG's and see you at the Bash again soon.

Poker is evil....especially in Pakistan

Check this out.

Weekend tournaments

Had a pretty good weekend.....except in the WPBT PLOmahaaaawwwwwwww. I'm a Donkey at PLO (and probably most games if you ask anybody I've played against) as evidence I submit the following hand. I had Ax-7x-9x-Xx....the flop was Ax-7x-Xx-Xx....then a 7x on the turn. Then I committed the cardinal sin of PLO....I bet the Pot on the non-nut full house. I was called with the full house of course...Aces full of sevens. I was short stacked for the rest of the tourney. My fate was sealed when I pushed with the short stack and my Qx-Qx-Xx-Xx. I was called by Schaubs who had Jx-Jx-Kx-10x. He had all four cards working together and caught a J anyway. I'm such a Donkey! I've been mixing in some Sit'n'go's again with the MTT's. I think its time to start up my STT cycle (build bankroll by using STT's for lack of a better description) again. I'm just a sucker for those 5.00-26.00 dollar MTT's. I've played a few lately and cashed because of the 26.00 tournament tokens that I won by playing those 18 player Sit'n'Go's. I'm probably going to scale back the MTT's to blogger type events. I mean....there is one every night of the week now! There may be a possibility of my going to L.V. for the WPBT summer event. My close friends don't play poker like I do....so I would have to go solo. Still a good possibility though.
A weird thing happened last week. I let my cat 'Bruin' out the front door on Monday the 19Th. It was one of those 30 degree plus nights. It's not unusual for him to disappear for the night and show up the next morning. He showed up on Friday the 23rd! There were some sub-zero nights there. How the F did he survive for 4 nights and 5 days of freezing whether.......That's one tough Pussy!!

The Party Poker Effect

The full migration of donkeys have finally made it to PokerStars........from PartyPoker. The tournament donkeys....that is...
I'm not going to go into detail about the Donk-itis that is happening at PokerStars but it is in full effect. Calling Station central has now arrived at 'all' of the low buy-in (lets just call them 1.00-20.00) tournaments. I thought it was bad on PartyPoker but I'm astonished at the bad play at PokerStars. Don't get me wrong....I've played here and there for three years at various sites and I've had my donkey moments. Am I the only one that has noticed? I've been playing a lot on Full Tilt and the play seems a little better there. I've suffered bad beats there as well (as we know everybody has) but the level of play is or seems to be so much better in general. FWIW.......
One place the tournament level has actually increased is the 'blogger' tourneys. Much fun to be had at these tournaments and plenty of tough/tricky players. I am looking forward to these almost on a nightly basis now but I can't play every weeknight....it's just not good for your health. I like to drink some beers while playing but too many beers and lack of sleep will quickly catch up with anybody. I'm looking forward to the PLO tourney on Full Tilt this Sunday....should be fun. Is everybody printing out the same articles on PLO strategy or what? Seems to be good restroom material for work.
I feel like I've had a cold for 3 months now. After reading Waffles blog I realize I have the same symptoms that he has for various shit....what' up with that.....pregnant....feels like it....I never felt my whole chest hurt when I coughed...maybe its a Northeast general sickness. Then again, we're all sick for paying this much to live in Massachusetts. Hmmmmmm what else.....I've been stressed out lately trying to re-finance my condo in North Conway (This is not due to Poker or any gambling BTW! So all you skeptics can go obsess over Baldy Spears or Anna Nicole Tits or Barbaro the great). It's like trying to coordinate the special Olympics or something.....not that there's anything wrong with that (for all you politically correct Nazis out there....well...then again fuck off! It's a joke...who the fuck am I kidding nobody reads this anyway...LOL) but it's an exercise in futility. It should be complete this weekend after a month. Party Time! I'm going to foxwoods in a couple of weeks. It will be a Thursday night in March.....I think the 15Th. I will be haunting the 1-2 NL (now 300.00 capped buy-in) and try a few of those ACTI STT's. I'm probably going up to play a couple of tourneys at Rockingham park this weekend also. I have to break through the bubble on that re buy. I'll probably contact one blogger to meet up. Although if there's any problems with the re-finance I won't go. Speaking of Bloggers....what' up with this...one of my favorite reads is in stealth mode......WTFC? Don't forget the WPBT on Sunday the 25Th!

Bad Storm=Bad Commute=Road Rage Dave

It wasn't the 8-10 inches of snow....it wasn't the inch of solid ice on top of said snow....it wasn't my daughter being sick with a cold....it was my damn commute to work. You would think that this

would be enough to take a day-off from work. But no, I live far away from work unlike most of the the office grinders here. I left yesterday from work at 4:30....early for me....it took a good two hours to get home (thank god for my 4-wheel drive XTerra....if it burns a few gallons of gas then so be it...it's been the best purchase EVER!). I get up this morning and luckily my wife's work cancelled (public school) so she stayed home with my daughter....who is sick with a cold. That gives me at least some comfort...but I didn't realize what I was in for this morning on my way to work. A new low for me....a 2.5 hour commute to work. Then I get to within a few miles from work and every snow plow and geriatricdriverwhowheresahatanddoesn'tusesoundjudgementanymorebuthastobeouttogotothelocalDunkinDonutstomeetwiththereothergeriatricfriendssotheycanbitchabouthelatestbodypartthataches........ decides to get in front of me. At this point it's unhealthy to be in front of Dave after a 2.5 hour hell ride. If it wasn't for the 6 CD changer that I have in my XTerra and the soothing sounds of TheWho, TheDoors, The Allman Brothers, and various Classic Rock I just may have done something stupid....well I guess I have....I kept my commute to a job I don't like anymore....or haven't liked since 2004. That my friends is a recipe for a disaster of mythic proportions. They say that an adult changes his career/occupation many times during their life. I wonder if a day like today is the catalyst that makes me finally change mine....

Get your tourney token!

Miscellany

Barbaro is dead.....Anna Nicole is dead.....who's next? Phyllis Diller? They say that death comes in threes. I'm not in any dead pool but Paula Abdul might be a good bet in the future. Just kiddin'....don't want to sound morbid or anything. I made a final table on a non-satellite or 180 player Multi! It was only a $2 rebuy on Full Tilt....but hey....I'll take what I can get. I went out 4th for $114.00 or something like that. After the beatings I've been taking at PokerStars it's actually a good payday for me. I tried a last minute 26 token entry STT for last nights FTOPS but that didn't go so well. I'm liking those $6.60 18 player tournaments for the 24+2 tokens. I got my entry to the last WPBT tourney through that as well. I will get a few more chances with last nights tourney cash. One thing I have noticed is the tournaments on PokerStars have been getting tougher. The number are down for players as well....down to about 90,000 instead of 100,000 plus. I'm starting to take more notes on players....I never really did that before. I think it does help quite a bit if you play the same tourneys often. I would really like to place in an FTOPS tourney.....I think that will be my goal this week.....well....I do have to qualify for an entry first! One tournament I do play often is the WWdN: Invitational...last Tuesday I placed 3rd for the second time in a month or so. Not too bad. I'm looking forward to the PLO tourney for the WPBT but I was hoping for PLO Hi/Lo. Those $5.00-$5.50 MTT's on PokerStars and Full Tilt are great. Good practice for some of the bigger buy-in tourneys. I'm not satisfied with NL Hold'em tourneys only.....ya have to mix it up. I didn't 'do so well on the 'Hammer-Day' tourney. I think Lucko slapped me out with his pocket J's....I had A-Qo. I figured he had either 10's or J's so I took a chance on the two overs to no avail.

This looks like a bit of fun.....
I'll be haunting the WWdN tonight also....