Thursday, July 31, 2008

What to say after you get rivered.....

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Tight is right

In case you missed it from my last post, I bubbled a tournament when I called an all in with JJ. It was "weak", to quote waffles. And I will paraphrase OhCaptain by saying that JJ is either dominated or a coin flip when calling a shove in that situation. Neither one is a +EV on the bubble, especially when you have an average chip stack. And gadzooks64 showed the right move on her blog: Fold, Fold, Fold. Even though she called herself a "pussy" for doing it.

So I tightened up last night, found I could hit the fold button a lot and cashed in 5 out of 8 tournaments I played. No big cashes, but I wasn't playing big tournaments. See below:

The two good nights, I played much tighter. Not quite a rock, but you get the idea. JJ not so OK. At least not on the bubble.

Hope the tables are treating you right.

Football season is kicking in, so there will be all kinds of fun happening soon. I am coaching my 7 year old's team (assisting). My 17 year old starts his senior year of high school. If you remember any of the Friday Night Lights posts I did, this year should be even more interesting. Cal was moved to wide receiver. He won't even play running back at all this year. . . Don't get me started!

Stay patient....

Friday, July 25, 2008

How much do you hate the river?


3 people went out of the tournament on this hand...

early fold


so glad i folded this preflop:

Do you play it?

Question: 45 player tournament down to final 7. You are in 4th place. Cash starts at 6 so you are on bubble now. MP you get JJ. You raise, Button (in 5th place chip count) raises all in. Do you call?

I decided to. He flipped over AA and I went home. I think I make that same play every time. Don't you 7 handed? I put him on Ax. x being just about anything, but most likely Q or K. Maybe that was too much of a coin flip to call.....

Oh well. Most importantly, I am playing the best poker I have ever played. I fold a lot of hands that I used to play, and I have been maximizing my profits on a lot of hands. It is a lot easier to finish in the money in a tournament if you have a very nice chip stack going into the bubble or final table. I fold pocket pairs a lot (which some people may not advocate), but then watch an Ace hit on the flop and feel good about my decision.

But I play pocket pairs a lot as well. It depends on the mood of my table. Everything is about feel and I "feel" like I am playing well now.

I hope the tables are treating you right. I am off to a weekend of fishing with my sons and brothers. I'm watching Conan the Barbarian for the 125th time. I love that movie and soundtrack. Catch up with you next week.

Stay patient....

Saturday, July 19, 2008

55 rebuy score

I decided to try a bigger buy in tournament last night. I rarely buy in to anything for more than $11 unless I have a token, but it certainly paid off last night:

So a buy in for $55 and an add on for $50 got me there. The play was more soft than I thought it would be for a $50+ buyin tournament.

I did manage to fold KK once when I raised pre-flop and got one caller. Flop is Ace high and opponent bet the pot.

I finally downloaded Screenhunter. It is AWESOME! Go Get it! Thanks to Kaja for telling me about it.

Hope the tables are treating you well.... Stay patient...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Some hands from a live game

Last night was round 2 of our 13 tournaments to win a buyin to the WSOP ME. 27 players, once a month, half the money is paid out at the tournament, the other half is paid out as prize packages at the end of the year.

Some notable hands last night for me:

-2nd hand of the tournament, I am on the BB with QQ. 5 limpers to me and I make it 5xbb to stay in. I get 1 caller from the SB: Chasing Charlie. Flop comes Jack high with 2 spades and no straight draws. He leads out for 3/4 of the pot, I min raise him which basically commits me to the pot with the small amount I leave behind (I have no intention of folding; I'm trying to draw him into the pot). I am barely a favorite if he has the A or K of spades soooooted, but well ahead if he has any pair. I think AA or KK reraises me preflop -although in these tournaments, everyone tries to be sneaky and slow play. He tanks forever -keep in mind it is 2nd hand only and finally comes over me all in. I call and he shows KJ no flush draw. He doesn't improve and I double on the 2nd hand.

-A few of hands later, I raise from the Cutoff with KJ soooooted and the SB calls. Flop comes AKJ with no flush draw. SB raises, I reraise him all in, and he insta calls with A8 off suit. My two pair holds up and I am now the chip leader of the tournament.

-I ride this chipstack for quite a while. This is a hard tournament to run over the table because there are very few people that can lay down a hand. So you better be able to beat 2nd pair and make sure your opponent doesn't hit a draw to win a hand. I actually have several hands hold up with top pair to beat draws and this helps me make the final table. I am in the middle of the pack chipwise.

-The final table took what seemed forever for the first player to go out. Every time someone would go all in, they would end up doubling up. My stack went up and down, but eventually I managed to catch a couple of thieves trying to steal blinds and took them out with Ace high hands.

-Down to the final 2, and the chip leader has me 3-1. I begin maximum aggression and go all in almost every hand. She folds to every all in until I have almost a 2-1 chip lead. I go all in with 1010 and she wakes up with QQ. Queens hold and I have to work to chip up again.

-I decide to slow things down a bit and see if I can outplay her post-flop and it works. I see a few pots and bet aggressively after the flop and get the chip lead again. Then on a KQ3 flop, I go all in and she calls with Q9. I show Q6 and drop down again. I managed to get a chip lead again and we both limp in to see a J56 flop. I'm holding 107 and check as she does behind. Turn is a 7 and I move all in. She instacalls with 89: the straight. This pretty much crippled me to 10,000 in chips with 2500/5000 blinds.

-Very next hand, I go all in for 10,000 with A8off, and she calls with 96 off. 9 on the flop and I go home 2nd place. I was disappointed but overall, happy that I did finish 2nd.

-I saw QQ once, JJ once, and 1010 once. I had AK once, AQ twice and several AJ. I won big hands with 33 twice, KJ sooted, QQ, AJ, A5sooted and K2 sooted. I never had AA or KK.

After finishing 2nd and then 3rd last tournament, I am in 1st place in the standings. Only 11 more tournaments to go. Yikes! Gotta stay patient...

Look who is 2 today

Happy Birthday to my baby girl! With 4 older brothers she is sure to be spoiled, but she is also tough as nails. Saturday she will throw one craaaaaaaaaazy party.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Saint Louis at the Final Table

Congratulations to one of my "locals" from Saint Louis: Dennis Phillips. He made the final table of the main event.



No. I don't know him, but I'm sure over the next 16 weeks, I'll find the 6 degrees or less I know of him.

In other weird news, check out this story. Here's a small snippet from the Pokernews website:

"In fact, PokerNews was looking forward to and expected a large number of sponsorship offers from the world's biggest poker rooms – Tiffany's career was about to explode and we could not have been more proud for her. Therefore, we are incredibly disappointed with Tiffany and her agent's lack of respect and professionalism. We are currently seeking legal council on this entire situation and potential damages to PokerNews."

Oh the drama the WSOP brings...

I will say that I couldn't tear myself away from the live coverage of the final 3 tables. Everyone at Pokernews did a great job. And a special congrats on a job well done to Change100 who I know from the blogger tournaments as well. I will definitely look forward to next year's coverage through Pokernews.


I play my 2nd tournament of 13 tomorrow night for a chance to get my buyin for 2009 WSOP ME. Wish me luck...

Stay patient...

Monday, July 7, 2008

taking another break?

I went through a time about 3 months ago, where I got behind on posting and on reading blogs. I was promoted to manager and suddenly had 5 people besides myself that I was responsible for. But after a couple of months, I had everything running smoothly the way I wanted it to, and I had more time to start catching up on my blog and blog reading.

Well now it has happened again. I am being promoted and am in charge of half of my company's sales force. It is definitely a good thing, but it will double the amount of people I am responsible for.

The nice thing is that I know after a couple of months, I will have everything running smoothly again and can get back to reading and blogging. In the meantime, I apologize if I don't comment on your blog often, it may just be that I'm embarrassed to post a comment 2 or 3 weeks after a topic of discussion.

In the meantime, good luck to everyone still in the WSOP. I got a small piece of LJ, but unfortunately, she busted out already. Go check out her blog here...

Stay patient....