Congrats Tommy

A guy from my monthly poker club cashes in Foxwoods this week!

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Thomas Cronin Eliminated in 7th Place ($3,560)

Thomas Cronin

Joseph Opie open shoved before the flop for just over 220,000. Behind him, Thomas Cronin called all in for his last 214,000. Everyone else folded and the players turned up:

Opie A♠K♠
Cronin Q♣Q♥

The board ran out T♣T♥3♥4♦A♣ and Opie caught an ace on the river to win the pot and send Cronin home in 7th place for $3,560.

WWJD -What Would Jamyhawk Do? QQ hand results

Click HERE to see the first part of this post from yesterday. 

I cannot believe that NOT ONE person would raise in my position there. UTG limp calls and fires a Cbet and you fold 100% of the time?

A few people advocated a shove could be in order, but NO ONE raises there? Be it for information, for value, or bluffing or whatever you call it, it is the same. I think a raise wins the hand enough of the time to make it worthwhile. A fold is too weak IMO.

I guess that's why I'm a DONKEY. And you all are SHARKS.

I agree with Waffles though, that you NEVER, EVER, EVER call there. NEVER.

In any case, thank you for all the comments. I'm going to have to do this again, because I'm obviously doing something very wrong in my play. I never fold there, so the only option for me is raising.

That being said, here is what happened. I had raised to $750, then the SB shoved. UTG shoved as well and I was looking at $925 to call into a $3930 pot or about 4 to 1 odds. I think a lot of people here say you have to call because of the odds. And maybe I do if we are heads up. But we are in the first level and this is when I figure I'm only ahead of JJ or 1010 and they both have better draws than me.

I used to call this every time. I have an over pair and take my chances that I'm not up against AA or KK. But really, there are a LOT of hands that beat me (see yesterday's pokerstove shots), so I decide to fold. I'm not as confident that I'm way behind after only a cbet from the UTG player. But now, folding is obviously the right choice.

Maybe when I grow up and become a better poker player, I can fold after the cbet.

By the way, I won the tournament. So pfft.

Changes to Online Poker

From Bill's Poker Blog:

But the part that really blew me away was that added features so that you could challenge friends to matches, make last longer bets, and buy a piece of your friend’s action. And it worked so seamlessly. For instance, if I want to make a last longer bet with you, I pick the amount of the proposed wager and send you a request. When you accept the request it enters us both in the same tournament/cash game. It even settles the wager at the end of the bet automatically based on the results. Same goes with buying a piece of your action. I can offer you 10% of my action in a tournament and it if you choose to back me it automatically deducts 10% of the buy-in from your account and if I make the money it credits your account with 10% of the proceeds. 

He didn't identify who is rolling this out but he did say it is NOT Pokerstars. You can read the whole article here. 

How much does this suck after the flop comes? Then the other dude gets hosed by the river.....

WWJD -What Would Jamyhawk Do?

Just wait a minute. Before you all insta-post what donkey move you think I would do, let's rethink the title up there. How about: What would YOU do?

Here's the situation: I bought in to a $22 No Limit tournament on Pokerstars. 73 total entrants. We are in the first level and I am dealt QQ. As Oh Captain recently said: "In the early stages of bar poker, I hate to go crazy to early with hands like QQ." This wasn't bar poker, but the theory still applies. QQ is a premium hand but nobody likes to go home in the first level because you couldn't get away from a premium hand.

UTG+1 limps and I raise 3x the original bet to make it $120. I know this won't scare off many hands early in the tournament but I'm certainly not limping behind here either. The button calls, the small blind calls, and the original limper calls.

Four handed, we see a flop of 8s7d9d. The original limper bets about 60% of the pot. So what does he have with a limp/call/cbet?

Here's the first tricky point. Do you auto fold here? I don't see how you can. That is just too nitty.

Do you call and see where this goes? That provides you with zero information. He fires a bet on the turn, regardless of the card. So what do you know? Nothing. Really, a call here and you are hoping for a Queen on the turn. Nothing else makes you comfortable.

So to find out what he has, let's raise it up. We can't min raise with 2 to act behind us. But a shove is not necessary either. Here is where some "Math Poker" people might disagree with me. I wanted to still have some chips left just in case. But I felt my hand was strong enough to raise here. But you might say "You are pot committed if he shoves. The odds are such that you HAVE to call." But in a freeze out tournament, I think you are never pot committed. Yes, there are times when you should call regardless of your cards. But first round, I think you can build back since I will have 30 BB's left, even if it is only for another 5 minutes. So I raise to $750 or 2 1/2 times his raise.

So what am I raising against? AA, KK, AK, JJ? Or maybe 77, 88, 99? If we figure the cards that would limp call then we can look at Pokerstove for a range of about 21% or this:

This tells me I have 58% equity which almost says "let's shove this hand and move on".

But then I start thinking, what am I really ahead of here? What am I really hoping he has? JJ or 1010? I don't think he has KK or AA. Why not re-raise me pre-flop with those. But there are a lot of hands that dominate me. So if I plug into pokerstove the range of cards I expect him to call my shove with (including the overcard or paired draws), then I only have 23.9% equity.

Now that I've probably completely confused the situation: What would you do?
Fold?
Call?
Raise?
Shove?

Survivor Post #2

Tournament #1 $1 rebuy

The day of the first tournament, we started throwing emails and instant messages back and forth with ideas for the first one off. I suggested we go with Heff’s choice of Numbono if everyone else is good with that. I figure why go against someone in my alliance. If he is voting for Numbono already, why not just throw everyone else in and he can be first one out. And if any blood spills, we can put it on Heff.

Jordan’s idea to vote out the first one eliminated was a great idea, but Heff started it so we were going with Numbono. Everyone agreed, and on we went to the tournament.

I logged in 5 days early so there was no way I could miss it. If the power goes out, I’ll at least blind down and hopefully last a little while. I was trying to install the Teamspeak client software so I could get on buddydank radio as the tournament started, so I almost missed the first hand. In a hurry, I didn’t think to shove with my 26off. I saw someone chat (maybe Katitude) that we should shove no matter what for the first 10 hands. I figured "why not for a buck a shove?"

I was still reading the chat window when my next hand was dealt: AKsooted. Very nice. I shoved all in, then pulled up the Teamspeak software already installing. I had to register, click a few screens and then it started to work. I had to look back at an email I got from Buddy for the settings to get to BDR.

It had been a while since my Fulltilt window popped up. It always pops up when there is any kind of decision you need to make. I pull the table window to the front and see a box telling me I finished the tournament in 22^nd place (first one out). WHAT? WAIT! Oh shit. This is bad. Really bad. The Teamspeak installation didn’t let the fulltilt software pop up in front of it, so I didn’t see the option to rebuy. And I didn’t have the auto rebuy feature selected, so it dropped me out of the tournament. 2^ND HAND. I was out on the 2^nd hand of a tournament where the object was to “survive” the longest. And it was a $1 rebuy for donks sake!

I started firing off instant messages to Jordan, then Kat, Goat and Heff. I didn’t want to sound panicked, but it would be a no brainer to target me for the first vote. I was most candid with Jordan and he assured me I’m fine. I watched the rest of the tournament with nervous anticipation.

As the tournament developed, a story was unfolding that would help sell our planned vote if necessary. Numbono was building his chipstack by eliminating players from his own team. Now any other tournament and I completely understand, but this is Survivor. You have to take that into consideration at some point. If you keep those other teammates and they overplay, overcall, or overbet or even suckout on someone else, you have an ally to help you stay in the game (of Survivor –not the tournament).

Really, I wouldn’t be playing in these tournaments if not for Donkey Island. So… YES, I am going to try to avoid my Teammates or root for them to win pots. I can’t chip dump or collude, but I certainly won’t be putting pressure on them to make tough decisions or steal their blinds.

Anyway, Numbono pushes on and amasses a huge chipstack, but in the end, he cannot outlast Hoy and we are forced to vote. Irrelevant is how he finished, but it will definitely stir up some interesting blog fodder. Our alliance (Goat, Kat, Heff, Jordan and me) voted for Numbono. 

Just before closing my yahoo messenger, Numbono IM’s me: who should I vote for? I stare at the blinking window. I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to lie, but I don’t want tell him the truth. I close the window, the messenger and then my computer. <---Avoidance. May not have been the best choice, but I survived the first tournament. Whew… I certainly hope tournament #2 goes better.

The next day, I decided to have a little fun with a post. Here is what I posted at 11:45pm.

Survivor Votes for me?

from HOW TO FOLD KK by jamyhawk

So I got two votes after the first tournament? For what? Because of a technical issue?

I just posted the day before that I could take down a 91 player rebuy tournament. I surely would have gone deep on Sunday night also, right? Or at the very least, I would NOT have gone out before the rebuy period is up like some people did. I have proven that I could be a very good asset for my team.

I know Numbono voted for me. Bitter as he was, why would he vote for me? I showed nothing. It's like voting out someone who didn't even show up for the tournament. I mean: "come out for the competition, don't forget your shoes, oh, you forgot?, run back and get them. Oops, competition is over by time you got back. I think we will vote you off". WTF? Luckily I picked the right person to vote for. Had I voted for someone else and another person or two voted for me then I would be gone.

But who was the other vote from? Well I saw BrainMC say he voted for Numb on his blog,  so it had to be Muhctim. What the Hell Muhctim? What did I do to you? Did I leave a bad comment on your "2-posts-in-2-years" blog? Did I mispronounce your impossible to read name Muck-tim? Much-tim? Mook-tim? Geez already. In any case, I know who is not on my side...

Team Donkey should easily get immunity Wednesday night so it shouldn't be an issue until later, maybe after the merge. But look out when it is... I have a good idea of who I'm voting for next... 

I laid in bed for a few minutes, and it suddenly struck me that I had to take this post down. I jumped out of bed, fired up my laptop, and deleted the post. I had basically announced my alliance with this post. I didn’t question the votes of Goat, Kat, Jordan or Heff because I knew they didn’t vote for me. I only questioned the others which would clearly identify who was in our alliance.

What I didn’t realize is that once Google Reader grabs your post, it stays there. So the next day Waffles mentioned in his blog that he saw my post and saw it got deleted. BDR even talked about it on the broadcast but they brushed it off as I must have been too nice to want to leave a “mean spirited” post up. Oh yeah, let's go with that. Another idiot move by me. First one out of a tournament and then a blogpost accidentally identifying my alliance. How I was not voted out was amazing.

I had to really start solidifying my alliances or I was surely going to get voted out next. Maybe it was time to stir things up a bit...

Another nice PS score

I hit another nice one on Pokerstars. I am really thinking of pulling everything off Fulltiltpoker and playing only on PS. I've been doing so much better on there lately. What are your thoughts on where to play?

Survivor Post #1

Survivor 2011

Here is my attempt to detail my time on Survivor.

I had been pretty busy at work, so was hardly catching any blog posts and only occasionally posting myself. I don’t know how, but I ran across a blog touting a Survivor based series. Now, I consider myself an A-List survivor fan, having seen every single episode since it inception. I had to find out more.

It had been over a week since the offer to sign up for Survivor had been posted. I went into a panic. I HAVE to get on this. I know every trick, trap and lie that was ever on the show. I would have a real good shot of winning this thing.

I looked on every blog I could but I couldn’t find any news saying that Survivor was full. So I fired off the entry fee to Buddydank just as fast as I could log into my fulltilt account. Hopefully it won’t take but 15 minutes for him to respond. OK, maybe a few hours. By tomorrow? A day or two?

4 –YES, 4 long days later I got the email confirming I was in. Wow. YES! ßfist pump

“So sad” you say? Well, if there was going to be a Survivor, I had to be on it. This was my show. I didn’t care how it was structured or what the rules were, I’d find a way to work around them and win this thing!

Now that I was in, I had to start working on alliances. It’s never too early to work on alliances. But who should I contact first? I’ve traded comments on posts a few times with Heffmike, so why not him?

The first email went like this:

Subject: Re: heff here, what's up?

Survivor. I saw your blog that you don't know a whole lot about it. I actually have some experience with it. It looks like Buddy and Goat set it up to work a lot like the actual realty show.

In any case, it's important to have alliances to go far in the game. I think you and I and Jordan should align together. I can go into more detail later after I hear from Jordan.

What do you think? Want to try to win this thing?

Heff’s reply was:

That's fine by me. I really don't have any fish to fry here. I'm willing to be a lemming.
Other than I will vote Numbbono off every week unless I have a reason to vote for someone else.

I think this will be a lot of silly fun for however long I last.

Let’s analyze this a bit. That’s fine by me ß a whatever type statement. So I know right away he is not fired up about winning this thing.  A good person to align with probably but not a person to make a “Final 2” alliance. What is a “Final 2” alliance? It is the “you and me to the end”, the “tied at the hip”, the “what I know you know”. I needed to find someone motivated to win this thing and someone who knows how to play the game like I do. I’m really hoping Jordan may be the guy. I think I remember he posted something about liking the show Survivor before.

This is still before I had any email addresses from Buddy, so I post a comment on Jordan’s blog to send me an email. He requires author approval before displaying comments so here’s his first email to me:

Hey Jamy. I got your comment, and I wanted to hit you up via email. Is it safe to assume this is in regards to Donkey Island? I didn't post your comment, just in case.

Jordan

I replied

Yes. Donkey Island. I think I remember you are a fan of the show? In any case, alliances are the key to go far. Looking at our team, I think you and I should align. Then bring in Heff and Kat. I already talked to Heff and he is in, although I'm not sure how solid he is (I'll forward you his email). I don't know how to get ahold of Kat.

If we have 4 aligned at least until the merge, we can avoid getting voted out.

What do you think? Me and you, final 2?

I already felt he was on the same page as me because he didn’t post my comment “just in case”. So I’m throwing out the final 2 alliance at him right away.

His reply affirmed it:

J, I'm with you entirely. I actually already got propositioned by the Goat, so perhaps he can be our 4th. I tried to reach Kat by email twice, and she hasn't gotten back to me. She may've changed her email, but I'm not sure. I figure when Buddy sends out the contact info sheet, we should have her correct address.

If it's ok with you, we can lock in you, me and Goat for a clean final 3, and then bring in Heff or Kat (once we get Kat's name). Goat also mentioned bringing in Heff, so that might be the best option.

Incidentally, I think a great strategy will be to vote out the player with the lowest place, provided it isn't someone in our alliance. The longer we do that, the less obvious it is that there is an alliance.

Jordan

So an alliance is formed, and more alliances are added. I should be able to last 3 tournaments at worst with this. A little luck and I can go further.

But paranoia creeps in. What if Jordan is setting me up? What if Goat is the one pulling all the strings and I am being led in to slaughter without knowing it. I could be their pawn all the while thinking I am setting up alliances.

The Heater is done. I actually figured I was on such a heater I should really turn up the stakes to 2-3 times my normal buy in. LOL. Oh well. Move along. Nothing else to see here.

Heater on Pokerstars

I'm posting this to see if I "jinx" myself. But I am on a total heater on Pokerstars. I have been studying some Pearljammer videos lately on PokerVT so would like to think that helps. But time will tell. Here's my sharkscope graph:

For the first time I got "shark" status on Sharkscope. LOL. I laugh because I know it won't last. But hey, I got there once, right?

Some days everything is perfectly clear to me. I mean everything. Where I was, where I am, and exactly where I'm going.

Today is one of those days and I love it!

Do you fold this hand?

I guess I couldn't:

It was about the 2nd hand of the Mookie and I was gone. Oh well.

I flipped over to Pokerstars and did this instead:
PokerStars Tournament #373783235, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00 USD
146 players
$80.00 USD added to the prize pool by PokerStars
Total Prize Pool: $3000.00 USD
Tournament started 2011/03/16 21:45:00 CT [2011/03/16 22:45:00 ET]
Dear jamyhawk,

You finished the tournament in 4th place. A USD 277.50 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

PokerStars Game #59332305534: Tournament #373783235, $20+$2 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXV (1500/3000) - 2011/03/17 2:20:37 CT [2011/03/17 3:20:37 ET]
Table '373783235 12' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: jamyhawk (43224 in chips)
Seat 3: TheChouits (150894 in chips)
Seat 5: jur43 (173951 in chips)
Seat 7: YugiohPro (69931 in chips)
jamyhawk: posts the ante 600
TheChouits: posts the ante 600
jur43: posts the ante 600
YugiohPro: posts the ante 600
YugiohPro: posts small blind 1500
jamyhawk: posts big blind 3000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to jamyhawk [Kh 8h]
TheChouits: raises 6000 to 9000
jur43: folds
YugiohPro: folds
jamyhawk: calls 6000
*** FLOP *** [7d Kd 5h]
jamyhawk: checks
TheChouits: bets 15000
jamyhawk: raises 18624 to 33624 and is all-in
TheChouits: calls 18624
*** TURN *** [7d Kd 5h] [6c]
*** RIVER *** [7d Kd 5h 6c] [3c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
jamyhawk: shows [Kh 8h] (a pair of Kings)
TheChouits: shows [4s 4d] (a straight, Three to Seven)
TheChouits collected 89148 from pot
jamyhawk finished the tournament in 4th place and received $277.50.
TheChouits said, "im so sorry"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 89148 | Rake 0
Board [7d Kd 5h 6c 3c]
Seat 1: jamyhawk (big blind) showed [Kh 8h] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 3: TheChouits showed [4s 4d] and won (89148) with a straight, Three to Seven
Seat 5: jur43 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: YugiohPro (small blind) folded before Flop

I'm still waiting for the cash transfer to my account from TheChouits -you know, since he is so sorry...

Thanks to Numb and Turtle for sweating me through the pokerstars final few tables.

Photo Dump

Some hands over the last week:

Do these count as Quads?

Quads Baby

Big Blind Special

My Donkavatar with two black Kings

Quads again Baby!

Small Blind Special

The Perfect Flop? Not if you want any action...

Crazy Weather

This was what I saw yesterday morning when I woke up. It was 36 degrees and schools were canceled due to inclement weather.

Now here's the forecast for the next two days. In one week we go from Snowed out school day to t-shirt and shorts weather. Crazy weather in the midwest.

Survive THIS MF'er

I can't believe those backstabbing bastards and how they lied and how.....

Wait, that would be the pot calling the kettle black.

I'm out of Survivor. I made it to final 8 but that was it. After getting nervous about Goat scheming to take out Jordan (my original alliance), I planned the overthrow of Goat. It worked but put a huge target on my back. Last night I was betrayed by my alliance as 5 of the 8 contestants left voted for me to go home.

I was way outside of the group there.

Anyway, I have notes from all the conversations and such that may be of interest. There were quite a few twists and turns. I'll start posting my recap of my time on Survivor as the game winds down. Right now there is too much information in there that I don't think would be fair to reveal to all of the players still in the game.

Thanks to Buddydank and Goat for setting this up. If you get a shot to play in the next Survivor, I highly recommend it. And take it seriously, you will enjoy it. Hopefully they can up the stakes a bit for the next one. I think that would make a big difference if you were playing for $1,000 instead of a couple hundred. Not that it would have helped me, but it may have kept people from forgetting to vote sometimes.

If you want to follow the people still left in the game, come out and play. I'll try to make the rest of the games when I can. See you there:

Full Tilt Poker
Sundays (different formats)
Donkey Island Event #X



9:30 PM EST
password: survive

Mookie/Dank
Full Tilt Poker
$10 + $1 NLHE
Wednesdays
10 PM EST
password: vegas1

Why are my kids so interested in poker chips?

Oh yeah,  because it's in their blood....

Another successful Charity tournament! We had 96 players and 27 rebuys. After all was said and done we raised right at $6700 for the Figgtree Foundation.

Thank you to everyone that played, donated, or even pimped the tournament for us.

I'll have pictures up soon.

Survivor Tournament #6

Well finally after tonight, Survivor may get interesting. Team Donkey wins, Team Donkey wins, blah, blah, blah.

Of course, since Team Donkey continues to dominate tournament after tournament where is the suspense? And then people get offended (like Joe C) and..................... oh wait, she's the only Fish that posts anything about survivor.  (What in the world is Horseporn? and how did some 19 year old kid get into this competition?)

Actually, the two teams will merge after tonight (supposedly), so we shall see some interesting twists coming up I'm sure. Or maybe not. 7 Donkeys voting off 3 Fish won't take long. Then maybe a twist. Or maybe not... I'm rambling.

One thing I do know is that I chopped the pot with Numbono last week in the Mookie and I fully intend to be there final 2 again this week. I'll be playing another tournament at the same time, so won't get much chance to chat, but I can still take it down!

smallest remote controlled camera