No, I'm not dead..

It is kind of hard to believe it has been 6 weeks since I last posted. However between having no internet at home for about a month, it took me a little while to get back into using the internet at home again.

Apparently a lot changed in the online poker world since I last posted anything. I won't make much of a comment about it other than to say that I closed out my pokerroom account (thanks to them wimping out) and still am playing at pokerstars.

I haven't played much poker tho. I played a couple tournies over the last couple weeks and managed to actually make the WWdN: Not last week. So this week I decided to play again (that is actually more of a choice than it sounds - I just haven't been into poker much lately). Of course while I was waiting, I discovered CC's Bash.

I hadn't played last week in it, and in fact didn't know much about it other than it appeared to have some of the regular crowd there so I signed up. So while waiting for the tourny to start (actually both of them since I was also signed into the WWdN: Not) I noticed that the Bash was Limit! Awk! I don't like limit, don't do good at it and limit tournament seems just painful. Unfortunately it was already too late to unregister.

So I fumbled my way along for the 1st half hour, then the WWdN: Not started. Now it got confusing - playing limit in one window and NL in the other. I struggled on.

We seemed to play in lockstep which each tournament - 8 players in one window, 8 in the other.. Then 7 and 7, 6 and 6, etc.. It was eerie. I couldn't follow the conversations in each chat window - I had trouble clicking on the fold/bet button at time.

As an aside, I have no idea how people actually play multiple tournament at the same time - my hat's off to those who do it successfully.


Through nothing more than pure luck on my part, I managed to break the bubble on the limit game and make it into the money. I moved up and before I knew it, I was heads up with the Doctor himself. I actually managed to come back and have a huge chip lead and force him all-in a couple times before my cards turned cold again and he returned to trounce me. We did manage to beat on each other for what felt like half an hour (it was probably 5 minutes).

Somewhere in the intensity of it all, I managed to be the bubble boy on the WWdN: Not tourney - not bad for really not paying too much attention.

Anyway, it was a great game CC and Pauly. I will certainly try to come back next time and add to my points (now that I have some). Please try not to make it limit again tho. ;-)

Staying in touch..

After last weeks adventures, I figured I was all done. But oh, no, there is more to come.

As I discovered last week, my EVDO card which I use for internet access didn't like the area I was living in. That should have been all fine and fixed up when I returned to my normal location last Sunday. However, I found that a problem I was having with the EVDO card last week was the precusor of more problems to come. I managed to get connected once on Sunday and after that, it gave up the ghost. To the point where the computer doesn't even recognise it as a PC card anymore.

Of course I went to the Sprint store on Monday, and after spending 1 1/2 hrs "helping" the support guy realise that I really did know what I was talking about when I said it was dead - he insisted on having me bring in the laptop, uninstall the software, reinstall the software, etc.. All to get to the same conclusion I had. He then went on to say that since it was out of the 30 day warantee (and I didn't pay for the insurance), I would have to contact the manufacturer to have it replaced under their warantee. The card is about 60 days old.

So I am now in the process of waiting for an RMA number, so I can send the card in and wait for a replacement - regardless it means probably at least another week+ before I get internet at home again.

Huh? What do you mean the government banned online gambling? I guess I won't know anything about that til I get my internet back at home and I try to get to any of my regular sites. Amazing what happens when you lose your internet access for a couple days.

Anyway, I obviously won't be there again this week for the WWdN: Not, but if yesterday's WWdN turnout was any measure, we may have record crowds. I would be there if I could, but since I can't, now is the time to set the record! Good luck everyone!

Long time gone

Amazing how time flys when you are having fun. I have to admit that poker has been pretty far from my mind that last couple weeks - and other than trying to set a record for the most consistent first person outs, I have played little poker.

I have not received much in the way or logos for the WWdN: Not. I am not a huge fan of the "knot" image - but it does seem fairly popular. Keep sending me logo suggestions and I will post something and then let people vote in comments. At the current rate, there wouldn't be much voting.

On a completely different note, this weekend was moving weekend for me. When my wife and I came down here to Southern California 2 1/2 years ago, we brought our 5th wheel trailer with us as a place to live. With only the two of us and our dog, this is more than enough room for us and it has the benefit of allowing us to live in park (fortunately not one of those parking lot type RV places).

The downside is that the place we are living is a county park, and every 7 months we are required to leave for a week - to prove we are not permanent or something. That was this weekend and we move back in next weekend. Now that wasn't enough - oh no.. The place we stay when we take our week out is nice and close, so it is a quick move. This time however, they are having power problems and the park is generally closed to RVs. Unless you have a reservation, and then there is no power there. Well, we did have a reservation and decided it was actually cheaper to buy a generator, than pay for some of the other alternative locations.

So yesterday morning, we get on the road and moved into the new park. Get the generator going and everything seems to be chugging along happily (literally - the generator chugs along..). The next problem I discovered was Sprint doesn't have as good of EVDO coverage as Verison and my internet access was down to 10 minutes at a time (at best). So I don't think I will be playing any online games this week - including poker. Oh well, beer drinking doesn't need internet to work good.

So while drinking beer and listening to the generator for about 4 hours, the generator started to sound really funny - it seemed unable to idle consistently and when under load, it couldn't handle it at all. I headed out to the truck (the generator is in the back of the truck) and noticed gas running out of the truck bed. About this time, the generator quits and with some small investigating I find the fuel line has come off the carb. I suspect it was loose to start with, and the vibration finally released it. With a little persuasion, I get it all hooked up and look at the air filter (which is soaked with gas). I wring it out and let it dry, then put it back together and fire it up. Back in business and back to the beer and tv. After all, what else can go wrong?

Well about 9 pm, the generator starts to run rough again - I am seriously starting to doubt this plan at this point. I head out with the flashlight, expecting to find fuel all over the place again. The generator sputters to a stall, but no fuel to be found. In fact I seriously figure, that was the problem - with the leak earlier, I ran out of fuel. No problem, I have another 5 gallon container, all ready to go. Except, it is one of those new fangled spouts which for the life of me, I can't figure out. It is supposed to prevent spills, which I suspect it does, since I couldn't get it to pour anything. At this point I considered pouring without a spout at all, but given the arrangement, I figured that would make my earlier fuel leak look like nothing at all. We decided that it could wait til today, in daylight, when we could get a proper funnel and just remove the spout and pour into the funnel..

So if you are actually still reading this, I have no idea why. Thanks tho, just in case I did have anything worthwhile to say. So this will be a noisy, week for me, with only internet at work. Enjoy the MATH, WWdN, Mookie and WWdN: Not, and I will try to keep up with the events during my lunch hour at work.

To logo or not to logo, that is the question.

Mookie recently pimped our favorite tournament and he included an logo which I assume he created. It raised the question for me as to whether we should have a logo contest of some sort.
(Blogger won't let me upload the image right now)

And of course the obvious question 'Who is the woman?"

So since I really suck at creating logo type banners and such, I will make the following offer.

Send me your logos (for the WWdN: Not) and I will make a post in a couple weeks with all the received logos. Whoever has the most popular one (vote in the comments), will get a free entry into the following WWdN: Not.

You can send the logos to me (rgduff) at my favorite email place. (gmail).

See you all tonight!

A little late?

Alright, I was tired Thursday night - L0K1 and I raced to see who could go out first. And we had Wil !!! there for the first time in quite a few games. He played very well and unfortunately managed to be our bubble boy for the night.

Now I admit that I cheated and didn't actually stay around to watch the end. I do know that our final 3 were playing a very strong game for as long as I was around. It was interesting that both Mungo36 and mookie99 were the ones who took out L0K1 and I, giving them a very early head start - and we all know how important that is.

Anyway, a little late, but congratulations to Mungo36 for winning and more importantly L8Bloomer for NOT winning. mookie99 rounded out the top 3.

Stay tuned for next weeks WWdN: Not The L8Bloomer Invitational!

Time flys

It seems like just a day ago when I took off for Pechanga for the weekend. Time flies when you are having fun I guess. I did discover they have a nice structured, cheap to enter, tournament there. Apparently it is a regular 10am thing, with $20+5 entry fees and $4000 in guaranteed winnings on Saturdays. Might have to go back for that again.

Anyway, even tho I didn't make the WWdN: Not last week, I wanted to make sure everyone was thinking about this week. Come join us tomorrow for it!

What: WWdN: Not The hacker59 Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, September 7th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 31053234
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

I knew it was going to be an interesting night...

... when I decided to play in The Mookie. I used to play 3 regular tournaments a week - the WWdN, the Mookie and of course the WWdN: Not. I got to a point where it just seemed too much (or perhaps too much poker in general was the problem), so I cut back. Over the last month or two, I have only been playing the WWdN: Not, and the occasional other game - nothing regular.

So I decided this week that since I wasn't going to play in the WWdN: Not tomorrow (I am going away for the long weekend), I would play in the Mookie instead. The first hand I was dealt I had pocket 5s. I called and the button, SB and BB all join me. The flop comes 10104 and I bet out 40 - a test as much as anything. I get two callers and one fold. The turn comes a 5! for my baby boat. It is checked to me and I bet 40 again. The button (willwonka) raises 80 to 120 and the SB (surflexus) re-raises 160 to 280. I think about it and decide to push. willwonka folds and surflexus calls. Surf shows Q10 for trips. The turn is a 3 and that is it for both surflexus and the late registration (which ends when the first person is eliminated). 2:18 minutes! Sorry about that one Surf.

Anyway, it was the start of an interesting night for me - mainly because I actually managed to get cards often enough that I never really was hurting. Oh I had dry spells, but never long enough to seriously hurt my stack.

The first break came and I was doing well - the second came and I was competing for chip lead.
When we finally broke that damn bubble, we were at about 2:30 hours in. We played for a few more rounds after that and someone suggested we chop the pot. The chop was a good deal for everyone but 1st and 2nd place, but since we were all pretty close in chips, we all agreed to chop the money and play on for the title. This is my first time I have ever chopped a pot - kinda neat actually.

I am not sure everyone was playing as serious after that, but it certainly didn't last long and we finished in less than 3 hours with yours truly in 1st place.

I do have to say that winning this is actually much more important to me that most the MTTs I play. I have a lot of respect for most the regular players, and winning something like this is worth more to me than the money in any sense. I certainly would like to thank mookie for all the effort he puts into this every week and I am sorry to see him move it to Full Tilt. I don't have an account there and am not prepared to create one at this time. I hope everyone continues to have a good time and I wish it all the success.

-------------------

Don't forget, even tho I am not here tomorrow, you still need to come play the WWdN: Not The Anithri Invitational.

What: WWdN: Not The Anithri Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 31th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 30611882
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

A little poker for a change

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have been playing a lot less poker over the last month or so. I can't really say why other than I needed to do something with my life other than play poker 5 nights a week and on the weekends.

I decided to play in a $10+1 tourny on Sunday at PokerRoom. PokerRoom has always had a sweet spot in my heart as I have made my best wins there. The biggest was a $1600 win earlier this year (I think it was this year).

Part of the attraction, I think, is the level of play is not quite as good as PokerStars. This makes it slightly easier to do well.

Anyway, as I was saying, I got into a 518 person, $10+1 tourny there on Sunday. I wasn't really getting any cards, and I usually play reasonably tight in those circumstances. I made it past the 1st break with less than average chips. As the game progressed, I was slowly getting chipped away at until I got to that point where you have to stand up and be counted, one way or the other.

I actually survived that phase and when we crossed the 100 people remaining boundary, I was in around 30th place or so. Unfortunately my cards turned a little better. You know, when you are getting bad cards, it is easy to play tight and avoid any confrontations. You only lose big, when you have big cards (and the other guys has bigger).

In this case, I had AQo - not great, but certainly better than what I had been seeing. The bad guy raises to 3 or 4 BB and I call. The flop comes Qxx rainbow and I bet out about pot sized (realising that I was pot committed if he called). He raises enough to put me all-in and I call. He turns over JJ and my Queens are looking really nice. Of course the turn comes a Jack and I am out in 90th place. The money started at 60th place.

This is not a bad beat story (it only sounds like it). I was quite happy that I had made it that far and lost to a 2 outer. (well, I wasn't THAT happy).

I took a small break, and then tried another tourny with much, much worse results (but it took a lot less time).

So that was it for Sunday. I got home yesterday from work and after a couple beer, decided I would look for more poker (I am not sure that is a good idea). Around 830pm, I found a $20+2 tourny about to start. There was 128 people to start, so it looked easier than the 518 from Sunday (hah).

Like Sunday my cards sucked and I chipped away at my starting stack. Nothing spectacular by the 1st break. I was in 17th out of 42 remaining . Nothing scary by this point, just a little blind (and pot stealing) and playing it tight.

The game tightened up considerably and somewhere in this hour, I found myself with pocket Kings. This was my best starting hand in a long, long time and I decided to play it fairly cool with a 3BB raise. I was in fairly good standing with lots of chips (2nd at my table) and not overly threatened by anyone. One player decides to call. The flop comes xQA rainbow. The other guy bets about 1/2 his stack (which I think was less than pot sized) and I think about it for a second then I clicked all-in! Oops - serious brain fart or something as that was not the way I wanted to play this. Of course he had an Ace, which held up and I was now hurting. We were at that point of the tourny where you can go from last to first and back again without trying hard. I was now in 17th out of 18. Because of the tight play, and big blinds, everyone was really close in chips and any move was significant.

I did however manage to squeak out some more steals and grind my way back to 4th out of 13th place standing at the break. Only the final table paid and we were in hand for hand play trying to break that bubble.

The tight play continued past the bubble and finally we were in the money (not that it was that much). I was about middle of the pack with 2-3 players with less than me when I called an all-in by the short stack with A9o. I figured he was desperate and it "seemed" a good idea at the time.
One of the big stacks called the all-in after me. The flop came 97x and I checked on the big stack bet 4k. Given this was 2/3 the pot, and it would definitely pot commit me if I called, I thought about it and decided to fold (cursing the big that he had better have this guy beaten). It turned out that they both ended up with the same straight and split. So at this point, I was the only loser and now the new short stack.

The next hand, I got JQ and decided that 2 face were as good as it was going to get before the blinds (at 1k-2k) were going to get the money anyway. I pushed and was called by an AQ. I don't recall what happened other than I didn't improve and went out in 7th for $128. Not bad, but it just seemed very disappointing in that I didn't play as well as I had hoped.

Oh well, it was fun. ;-)

---------

On another note (if you are still reading this far down), don't forget the WWdN: Not this week.

What: WWdN: Not The Anithri Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 31th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 30611882
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

No Threepeat tonight, but

a good try none the less. TROPHYHUBBY went out in 6th place of a nice 18 person turnout. NOT a record by any means, but a good turnout for a great game. slb159 managed to hurt me enough that I went out slightly afterwards in 8th place. BlkBltJones who won the tourny two weeks ago went out in 7th.

The fight for the bubble appeared to start with 6 left with everyone being pretty evenly split except for hoyazo who had about twice the stack of his nearest competitor. Anithri hurt slb159 and the final blow was delivered by L0K1 to take them down to the real bubble.

L0K1 raced with his 66 against Anithri's all-in AK to lose out when a K came on the flop. He managed to fight back with another 66 against Anithhri's AQ to win this time and get back in the game. The fight for the bubble was fun to watch, but finally L0K1 sacrificed himself to let the remaining players make it into the money. Of course no-one plays this for the money, but the right to say they are most capable of NOT winning in Thursday nights.

Congrats to the final 3, hoyazo, Anithri and NewinNov and we hope you will all come back next week for the WWdN: Not The Anithri Invitational!

Next week, I will be away for the long weekend and not here to contribute money to the game. It will be set up tho and hopefully we can find someone to report on it so I can see how everyone did.

Time flys

I have been busy this week, away from my office doing some training. In fact this is my first computer use in 14 hours - which may not be a record, but it is a little unusual for me.

L0K1 is off HORSE'ng around and writing about his experiences. One of these days I will have to give it a try and see how I can do. I have only managed to play one game of poker since last week, and that was with my usual lousy results. I am going to head down to Pechanga at the end of the month, so maybe I will see if I do more in person.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure I mentioned the WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY Invitational tomorrow night. This is the first time someone has NOT managed to win two weeks in a row, so I thought it was worth special mention - we won't want to let that happen three times or anything like that.


What: WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 24th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 30188246
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

A quick one

Tonights tourny was quick, with only 9 people showing up. My partner in crime, L0K1 sacrificed himself on the bubble to enable surflexus, TROPHYHUBBY and slib159 to finish in the money. suflexus was on fire and it allowed TROPHYHUBBY to be our first double winner (or is that loser?) with TROPHYHUBBY Not winning twice in a row.

So stay tuned next week for the WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY squared Invitational!

It's time again

Hmm.. Quiet week for me - at least in terms of blogging and poker. I don't think I have played since the last WWdN: Not tourny. Last night I got distracted by the Mrs who wanted to go out for dinner. She actually had the audacity of using the fact it was our 26th wedding anniversary as an excuse.

So when I logged into blogger today, they had a link up about trying out the new beta version, will all new bells and whistles and such. I am still looking for those, but at least it seemed to have moved my blog over to the new servers without problems. If you notice anything different or weirder than normal, let me know and I will look into it.

And finally, more than anything else, go get signed up for the WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY Invitational:

What: WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 17th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 29778434
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

aNOTher fun game

Just a short note tonight. We had about our average turnout (18 - 2 full tables) and the game was fun as usual. Hoyazo went out early and was not impressed. We got live updates from Jules as she watched the PPV from the ME final table. The rest of us kept reloading Pauly's pages so we could get his updates. Congrats to BlkBeltJones, TROPHYHUBBY and my friend Quatloos for making it into the money in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. BlkBltJones told me this was his first WWdN tourny - nice way to start. I didn't have the heart to tell him this was NOT the real thing. Stay tuned next week for the WWdN: Not The TROPHYHUBBY Invitational!

The Big day in Pokerdom

Today is the day that we will probably see a person who is reasonably unknown ascend to the throne of Pokerdom and be crowned the new King. (There is also a good chance that poker pro Allen Cunningham will make it too -- here's hoping).

We couldn't get the coverage that those of us who can't attend demand if it wasn't for the famous (or is that infamous) Dr. Pauly has been presenting us. Unlike some coverage, he cuts through the BS and gives us a great view into all aspects of the WSOP. My hat's off to you Pauly. We can all show our support to him by linking his blog and seeing if we can set some sort of view record for him during his coverage today.

--------------------

On a much more normal note, I hope everyone plans to attend tonight's WWdN: Not, even if Kat isn't around to defend her title:

What: WWdN: Not The Katitude Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 10th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 29328119
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

NOT again

My last post about suckouts and what is a suckout and what is not actually got my friend Jay/L0K1/Patch to make a post on his new blog about it. It is interesting that everyone has a slightly different definition and they all tend to be colored a little by the level of tilt that the victim is feeling at the time.

I have said before that I play a small, nickel and dime, game on Sundays. Basically if we can get three people together, we play. We do $5 buy-ins and it tends to get a little crazy at time, but usually in the end, not a lot of money changes hands. Well, yesterday, we had a friend from Canada visiting and of course my wife, Sherry, and I made him our 3rd so we could play poker. He had certainly played before as he spent a year down here working on a contract with a local company.

It was getting later into the evening (we play outside and the sun was pretty much set) and the following hand came up. At this point I was down one buy-in, but probably had enough chips to be considered break-even. Sean was not having a good day and was down about $20. Sherry obviously was doing good with all our money. I had 910h and called a 2BB raise. It was a family pot and the flop came 6s7d8s. I bet out 5BB (which was just over 1/2 the pot) and got two callers. You have to understand the level of bluffing that goes on in this game - so no information was given or gained by this play. The turn comes a 5h. I am happy so far with the nut straight and just bet out the same 5BB (deliberately underbetting). Sherry calls and Sean raises it to 15BB (almost 1/2 his remaining stack). Hoping to stack and isolate him, I call all-in. Much to my surprise (well, maybe not), Sherry calls the all-in with her stack. At this point Sean thinks about it and realises there are serious pot odds if he thinks he can win. So he calls. Everyone turns and they both have a 9 kicker and my 9-10 is in the lead. We look at everyones cards and try to figure out the remaining options. Sherry's cards are both spades, so she has a flush draw. A 10 on the river will give us a three way split.

We wait for the river, and as expected, it is an 8 of spades, giving Sherry the flush and everyone's money. Now given the way Sherry plays, I would call this a suckout. I seriously doubt she looked looked at the flush draw as a possibility. On the other hand, she's got my money and in theory, could have thought we all had 9s, and was going for the split with the flush draw as backup.

At that point, we decided it was a good time to quit for the night. I ended up down $10 and Sean was down $25. (But we all had a good time and that is really what it was about)

--------------------------------

On a completely different note, don't forget to get signed up early for this weeks WWdN: Not The Katitude Invitational. Even if the star herself will not be available to defend her title.

What: WWdN: Not The Katitude Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 10th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 29328119
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Suckout or NOT?

I had never played any 45 SnGs because it always seemed you had to wait too long before they started. Then I signed up for the 45 SnG Challenge and discovered another reason for not playing them. I apparently suck at it. The closest I have gotten to the money is a 8th, 9th and 10th place finish. Oh well, I will plug away at them some more and see if I can avoid being in bottom place of the 20 people in the challenge.

The following hand was my finale in a 45 SnG yesterday. I was pretty much short stacked (blinds 200/400) with 1985 in chips. I was dealt KK and pushed. One caller called with AsJs. The flop came 3dQs4s, the turn was a Jd and of course the river was a spade (10s). Of course I went home in 9th place and just missed the money (again).

We see this kind of hand happening all the time and usually we listen to the loser complain about how they were sucked out on. Pokerstars is often refered to as Riverstars as it seems to happen all the time.

I certainly agree there are many times when suckouts occur, but I believe people often think that hands like the one I described were a suckout. I certainly didn't like the hand, but it was NOT a suckout. Especially in a case where the decision was made preflop. The caller in this case had two good cards, we were on the bubble and he had me covered 4 times over. The fact the cards were suited added to this decision. I would have probably made the call even if they weren't suited given his opponent (me) was so short stacked.

My point is the fact the cards were suited added value (I am not the math guy - they can tell you how much value). This value was based on the odds of 3 cards having the same suit out of the next 5 cards dealt. The fact the last card that matched happened on the river doesn't make it a suckout. Even if he would have had to go runner runner suited to get the flush, it would not have been a suckout because he made his choice before any of the cards were seen.

Now I used a simple example (although painful for me) with a flush and the decision being made preflop. But the same thing occurs whenever someone makes a one way choice (going all-in, or even getting pot commited). If the choice they made was based on getting certain cards and it was a valid choice, the fact the cards happen to come out on the river, or even turn and river, it is not a suckout.

Now this isn't to say that suckout don't occur. They do - all the time even. It is important to remember that it isn't a suckout if the decision made by the player included odds on remaining cards filling their hand. Of course nobody should be depending on runner runner odds to make their hand and if they did, you can call them a donkey instead.

Not a record, but a good turnout for us

We had 22 intrepid bloggers and readers out tonight for a good game. The game was obviously too hard for me, so I went out in 16th and joined some of the others in playing a cheap cash game.

I shoulda quit that while I was more than doubled up, but I still managed to quit ahead enough to pay for the NOT tournament.

Anyway, back to the main event, as usual it was a feisty game and those who were knocked out or just late, railbirded (is that a word?) for those still in.
I had high hopes for fellow Canuck Guin, but he managed to be the bubble boy and allow last weeks bubble boy slb159, fellow Canuck Katitude and rspr41 finish in the money. rspr41 went out next with slb159 going on to win the event. Hmm.. There seems to be a Canadian theme going here.

Kat managed to NOT win, so next week you will all have to come congratulate her for NOT winning in the WWdN: Not The Katitude Invitational!

New blogger!

I'd like to welcome my friend, and co-host on the WWdN: Not, Jay to the world of blogging. I know for a fact he has a lot to say about poker (not that you judge by the original post on his blog) and now all we have to do is get him to write about it on his blog. Feel free to head over to his blog and welcome him. You could even try asking him about his opinion on some poker, but look out if he is in a curmungeony (is that a word) mood.

With a little luck he will remember to play tonight at the WWdN: Not. Let's see if we can get the numbers back up to the 25 or so level. If we don't, I might just have to win it again.

What: WWdN: Not The chipperdh Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 3rd, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 28896393
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

More NOT this week

As mentioned in the last post, slb159 and chipperdh have slightly different versions of what happened last week. Quatloos has managed to post some screen shots of various stages of last week's game as well.

Let's see if we can get back to breaking our record this week (although I don't really mind the smaller games - especially when I win).

What: WWdN: Not The chipperdh Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, August 3rd, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 28896393
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

NOT a great turnout, but a GREAT game

Well everyone else might not agree, but I actually like the smaller format. We only had 10 people show up to play, although a few more showed up to railbird a little. We very quickly moved on to a single table when L0K1 took out waffles in what had to be the first or second hand. I managed to hang in there for the 1st half hour, then I went on a bit of a rush (well actually a huge rush) and took out a few people.

I can't take credit for talking out slb on the bubble tho. The credit for that has to go to our next tournament's namesake, chipperdh. Slb has quite the rant going on about it, so you can check his blog for that. surflexus did a great job of fighting with me for the lead and in a great hand I managed to sucker him when I had pocket queens and he doubled me up to take the lead. Of course he may not agree it was a great hand. ;-) He didn't have a chance after that and chipperdh and I were heads up.

This left me with a dilemna. If I went out in 2nd place, I would have to name the next tournament after me and I figured people might not understand that. The only solution was to go ahead and finish in 1st so we could have the WWdN: Not The chipperdh Invitational next week. It was a little harder than that, but in the end I won my first tournament / MTT / SnG in quite a while.

Overall it was a great game, suckouts, hammer falls and all.

Just a reminder

Just a quick note to remind everyone to keep the WWdN: Not The A'arab Zaraq Invitational on their calendar this Thursday at the regular time:

What: WWdN: Not The A'arab Zaraq Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 27th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 28483571
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

We tied the record

We had a great turnout, tying our current record of 25 players. Not the kind of turnout that the other regular blogger and bloggee tournaments get, but I am happy with our little Thursday night game attendence. Congratulations have to go to shadowtwin, A'arab Zaraq and NewinNov for finishing in the money, and of course A'arab Zarab gets special recognition for Not winning. There was some mighty sucking out going on to make that final money showing, but it was very entertaining (as usual).

Once I managed to donk out in 22nd, and Guin managed to finish in 20th, we decided to go try a joint 45 SnG to continue with the challenge. Unfortunately this wasn't our night there either and we went out in 23rd and 18th respectively.

After I finished that, I went back and watched the final table of the WWdN: Not. Needless to say the railbirding and trash talking is part of what makes this so much fun. Stay tuned next week for the WWdN: Not The A'arab Zaraq Invitational.

Trying for more records

Tonight is your chance to help Wes Not win the WWdN: Not The Boobie Lover Invitational. Go get yourself signed up right now, in case you are a little late arriving tonight.

What: WWdN: Not The Boobie Lover Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 20th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 28090247
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

In other news, I tried another one of those 45 person SnGs again last night. I got down to 3 tables and limped in with KJ suited in the cutoff. The button and blinds completed for a total of 4 to the flop. The flop came KJ2 rainbow and it was checked to me. I decided to just slow play, checked, and the button bet $300. The other two players called the bet and with only ~T1000 left into a ~T2000 pot, I pushed all-in. The button calls and the other two fold. The button turns over wired 2s for 3 of a kind. They hold up and I go home.

I didn't think my play was that bad (always open to comments tho) but I didn't get as far this time as last time (when I bubbled out in 8th). Oh well..

45 SnG Challenge and the Boobie Lover Invitational

I signed up for the 45 SnG Challenge that drewspop is running over here. It looks like fun, although my first attempt yesterday ended in a 19th place finish. I figure I have a month, so I will take my time and see how it turns out. The biggest challenge is waiting for the damn game to fill up most times.

Just a reminder that the regularly scheduled WWdN: Not is trying to break its current record turnout of 25 on Thursday. Come help Wes Not win again!

What: WWdN: Not The Boobie Lover Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 20th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 28090247
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

No records tonight

But we did have our regular 15 or so turnout. Congrats have to go to Iakaris, Boobie Lover and Mungo36 for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes - in the money. I actually felt I stood a chance for a short while, but was dissuaded when Wes sucked out on me and my final all-in with the hammer didn't stand up.

So stay turned next week for WWdN: Not The Boobie Lover Invitational!

WWdN: Not The tonight

So much for my WSOP 150 challenge last night. I took a muscle relaxant for some shoulder problems and promptly fell asleep. I don't think it helped my shoulder much, but I will keep the medicine around in case I need help sleeping.

Other than that, just a reminder about the WWdN: Not The mowemdown Invitational tonight, same time and place as usual.

What: WWdN: Not The mowemdown Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 13th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 27691916
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Patience

They say patience is an important part of playing poker. I actually agree whole heartedly and am usually a fairly patient player.

Well tonight I wanted to make another attempt at the WSOP 150 at Pokerstars, but sat outside enjoying the cooling evening a little too long tonight and when I came in, there was no interesting tournaments starting for at least 30 minutes.

Given I didn't have the patience to wait, I found one in the regular tournament tab which was about to start. I figured I could afford it as it cost a grand total of $1.10. I like to occasionally play the cheaper tournaments because they usually have a larger field and it makes for a different game than the smaller tournies.

We are now on the 3rd break, and if I went out right now in 23rd of 773 players, I would win a grand total of $3.41 (minus my costs for a net of $2.31). That isn't what this is about tho. It is about having the patience to out last 750 other players. The break is about over, so we will see how long I last after this.

At just about the 4 hour point, I was the serious short stack and on the final table button. I had A7o and the flop came 568 rainbow and I pushed figuring high card and an outside straight draw. My caller had A5 for the baby pair and it held up. That was it for me in 10th place for a grand prize of $8.12.

Overall I was lucky to get that far - back to that patience thing I guess. I had really lousy cards for a lot of it and the crowd at this level were pretty agressive. I played real tight (lousy cards helped) and when I finally got something I usually doubled up (and needed it at that point). Eventually that luck had to give out. I'm happy enough - now only if that had of been a $10+1 instead of $1.00+0.10.

Trying for the WSOP 150 at Pokerstars

So I read my email and I decided I would try to win myself an entry into the WSOP 150 giveaway this weekend at Pokerstars.

I took a look around, hoping for one of their double shootouts that I like so much, but all they had were various flavours of freezeout and rebuy events. I decided I would give a $3+0 rebuy event a try - the main reason was the more expensive events didn't pay as many positions (less people playing, etc). Sounds kinda backwards typing that, but generally the cheaper events have more payout (and a bigger crowd to fight).

So I battled my way through the 1st hour, rebuying more than a few times (I think I spend $15 or so) and finally a more normal game started to appear. The advantage was that most these types weren't that quick at switching from the all-in fest of a rebuy, (especially a cheap one) to a more normal game and they were quickly eliminated.

The disadvantage of this format tho was there were only 16 seats to the Sunday tournament, and 610 players. The other disadvantage is the rather long slog to make it into the top 5% which is all that won anything (top 25 positions actually).

If you're still reading this, now you know what it feels like to play this. We are now down to 43 players and we have been at it 3 hours and 43 minutes - it seems like forever. I also just discovered that the player chat is disabled for some reason - I assume there was a problem somewhere and pokerstars disabled it? I have never seen that before, but I know the chat worked earlier.

I am not sure I can make it now. The blinds are up to $3000/6000 + 300 and before I finished typing this, I got sucked into an all-in (my M was about 4) and I was in the big blind. I had the great hand, 53o and the flop came 599. I was pretty pot commited so I pushed and the other person in the hand called and turned over KK. I never improved (I had a 2 outer) and I went out in 33rd. Which kinda sucks after playing for 3 hours and 53 minutes and do not even make the money.

Oh well. I am happy with the way I played, which is an improvement over a couple of weeks ago. I plan on trying this every night this week except for the WWdN: Not night (and if I go out early there, perhaps that night as well).

WWdN: Not The mowemdown Invitational

Here's everyone's chance to help break the record for next week by registering early. Come join us to see if mowemdown will Not win again next time:

What: WWdN: Not The mowemdown Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 13th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 27691916
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Record turn out tonight..

I was amazed that we got 25 people to come out to try to dethrone MiamiDon tonight. I expected a slightly less than usual turnout, given the mad rush to get to Vegas and all. In the end, Mookie succeeded, taking Don out in 6th place and then after taking some bad beats goes on to finish in 1st place!!! As usual, congrats have to go out to Mookie, mowemdown, and hacker59 for their 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishes (in the money). Next week, stay tuned for the WWdN: Not The mowemdown Invitational!

Last Chance

For those who haven't headed to Vegas yet for the big party, tonight is your last chance for a regularly scheduled blogger event. The winner from two weeks ago was our favorite knight, Sir Waffles and because we do it the way we are Not supposed to, this weeks event is named after the 2nd place finisher, MiamiDon. For those who aren't going to Vegas, here is your chance to win a tourny while all the others are out playing live games.

What: WWdN: Not The MiamiDon Invitational
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 6th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 27048121
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Blah (redux)

Over the last month or so I have been playing really lousy - perhaps more than just the last month - whatever. This is not a case of the cards treating me bad, but rather just my play being way off. I find I am making mistakes that I know I shouldn't make. I don't have the patience I know you need. I could make a list, but it is not relevant.

I don't play as often as most the people I play regularly with (all you bloggers and blog readers) but I still play more than enough - certainly many many times a week. I orginally wrote this about a week and 1/2 ago. Right after the last WWdN:Not. And never posted it.

I did however take a little time off and missed out all the fun this week.

I played one of those double shootout tournies to the Sunday Millions on stars last week and still managed to make a donkey move to go out in 3rd when I called an all-in with Ax (lousy kicker) against a flopped set of 7s on a Ax7 flop. Oops - donkey isn't gone yet. I continued to stay away some more and then played a $5+0.50 MTT on Pokerroom last night and did alright. I finished in 61th place of 381 (top 40 payed) but at least I felt I played right and knew what I was getting into when I went all-in, shorted stacked with AQo. The chip leader, who called my all-in had 99, so I was happy with a race at that point. (Of course he flopped a 9 which he didn't need, but at least I was happy with my play.)

So other than my regular Sunday live nickel and dime game, I have only played twice. I plan to continue at this rate til Thursday when I will rejoin you to celebrate the WWdN:Not the MiamiDon Invitational!

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, July 6th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 27048121
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

I hope everyone has a fun and safe July 4th long weekend!

WWdN: Not for me

Once again I manage to do good at the beginning, then donk the chips away in stupid moves and crash and burn. No matter, we had our regulars turn out for the WWdN: Not and everyone had a good time. Congrats have to go out to SirFWALGMan, MiamiDon and surflexus for their top 3 finishes in the money.

There will no WWdN: Not next week as the DADI 7 is running at basically the same time.

So the next WWdN: Not will be in two weeks, named after MiamiDon for finishing 2nd in tonight's event. See you at the WWdN: Not the MiamiDon Invitational.

This week in poker

I decided not to play the Blogger event on Pokerstars yesterday. Not because of Father's day, but because I had a few people over and we decided to play poker in person. I managed to get to 789th place or something in the blogger tournament without even being there tho.

I also got an email from TripJax telling me about the upcoming DADI 7 tournament and the fact it was going to be on a Thursday night. I told him that I thought the best idea would be to not have a WWdN: Not the tournament that week. So we will have one this week and the person who finishes 2nd will get the tournament in two weeks named after them.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 22nd, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 26730122
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

And the following week, we will all have fun at the DADI 7 instead.

Not results

Once again I manage to start off weak, get real strong in the middle, then blow it (usually with donkey moves). Oh well, it is great fun every week anyway and this week it is about slb159, valencia, and mickdog who finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the money.

We had a good (for us) turn out tonight - I was a little concerned with mookie's gang away and I wasn't sure how it went last week. I was thinking that we need to start naming these things like the "other" blogger tournies. So starting with the week after next, the tournament will be named after the person who finishes 2nd next week. In other words, place second next week, and we will name the tournament after you.

Why second you ask? Because this is Not the way you normally do it. ;-) Call it a consolation prize for letting some other slacker beat you.

Comments, as always, are welcome.

I'm back

We got back Sunday afternoon having driven a total of 3680 miles in less than 10 days. The trip was a great success, but that is way too much driving. I now need a week long vacation to recover from my vacation.

I did manage to actually play a little poker, but a lot more slot machines at several of the places I stayed. The problem with playing poker was the limited choice of tables, so I fed the slot machines and watched the stupid video games they build into them these days.

So it is time to get back into my "normal" poker routine with the WWdN tonight, the Mookie tomorrow night (is there a mookie tomorrow night?) and the WWdN: Not on Thursday. Info on the WWdN: Not is below:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 15st, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 26231098
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

On the road

I am currently passing through Scipio, Utah with my wife driving up I-15. The road just turned to shit and is bumpy as hell. Very hard to type.

I am using my Verizon cellular EVDO internet card and if it wasn't for the bumps and the hard to see display in the sunshine this is quite useable. Last summer when we tried a similar road trip, the internet didn't work as well.

I don't know if this will mean any more blog updates, but it is a cool experience riding down the road, checking your email and surfing the net.

Note: Do not attempt this while driving!

Just an update

The WWdN:Not is over for this week and Hoyazo, trying hard, was unable to make it a threepeat. Mungo36 dominated the end game with both GScottW and MacDaKnife finishing 2nd and 3rd. It wasn't a record turnout (unlike the Mookie last night) but it was a great game (as usual).

With a little luck, someone will post the results next week so I can see how everyone did.

Miscellaneous Ramblings

With deference to our favorite Mad Man, Waffles posted a great interview with Hoyazo about his recent winning ways. It goes into some depth of his thought process and has a few gems about playing blogger events. He evens talks about the genesis of the "Hoy" and "Reverse Hoy"!

On a related topic, I have been contemplating the Hammer lately. It started a few weeks ago when I observed a few bloggers calling an all-in with the hammer. Short of going out in a blaze of glory, or being so short stacked that it didn't matter, or just hoping to suckout, this did not make any sense to me. To me, playing the hammer was all about using it to bluff in a scary situation when the other guy doesn't have the nuts. Make him/her lay down the second best hand, only to show off the hammer and try to tilt that person. Obviously others opinions differ.

My most recent run of hammer luck went completely wrong on me tho. Last Tuesday in the WWdN, I managed to get up to a nice T4500 or so when I was dealt my first hammer of the night. I raised preflop, bet on the flop, got raised and put the other guy all-in. Unfortunately he called on a straight draw (I think) and managed to fill the thing while my hammer withered.

Ok, so that happens. Within a hand or two, I get another one. At this point I figure it has to work, so I go at it again. This fails just as miserably. At this point I am down to scant hundreds of chips and manage a few rounds before I am out. I think I am going to swear off the hammer for a while because certainly my luck with it is currently on a down swing. Silly concept anyway. ;-)

Don't forget the WWdN: Not the tonight:
What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 1st, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25596231
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

And the following week, I am on a 3500 mile road trip and won't be around. The tournament is already set up for it though, so I hope all the regulars have a great time and someone can report on the results for me.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 8st, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25599892
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

That's it for poker content. For anyone interested, we (my wife and I) are driving from SoCal to Calgary/Edmonton Alberta and back over the next week and a bit. The plan currently is as follows:

• Friday (tomorrow): Get as far as Mesquite Nevada
• Saturday: Butte Montana
• Sunday: Calgary Alberta (about 1550 miles to this point) - meet up with yongest son who is also driving in.
• Monday: Pick up oldest son at airport in Calgary, meet with my sister who is organising this.
• Tuesday: The reason for all this is a family reunion/surprise birthday party for my mother who turns 80 in June. Surprise! Hopefully no heart attacks.
  
• Wednesday: Family visting time
• Thursday: Drive 200 miles north to Edmonton to visit more family and friends (and back to Calgary that day)
• Friday: Head south to Butte again
• Saturday: Back to Mesquite (if we make it that far)
• Sunday: Home again

All I know is I will need a vacation when I get back from my vacation. I doubt I will do much blogging, or poker playing during this trip, however I am staying at a casino in both Nevada and Alberta. Anything is possible.

Its been a long long weekend

But a good one. We had our regular Sunday game and actually managed to have up to 6 players at once. Unlike last time, my cards weren't that good (and I played like a donkey as usual). It was fun tho and that is what THAT game is all about.

I managed to get sucked into a tourny today at PokerRoom and was forced to play it for 3+ hours, only to have the cards turn lousy (as in I had good cards and the other guy has better) when I made the final table. I hit the 3rd break at 2nd place and finished in 6th. Not a bad finish if I didn't know I could do much better.

Then tonight, I play in the DADI on stars, get off to a good start and end up with my pocket 8s hitting a set on the flop. I decide to slow play (1st mistake) and the turn comes a 3rd club. Surflexus goes all-in and I understand he is representing a flush. I also know we have played enough to consider that it might be a bluff - so I call. (2nd mistake). I am now at T110. I managed to actually grow it back to pretty much the starting stack. I then flopped another set and watched it grow to 4 diamonds. I was bet into and I folded. At this point I was crippled again and never recovered. It was fun, with the same crowd as usual.

Speaking of usual. The WWdN: Not this week is set up:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 1st, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25596231
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

And the following week, I am on a 3500 mile road trip and won't be around. The tournament is already set up for it though, so I hope all the regulars have a great time and someone can report on the results for me.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, June 8st, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25599892
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Its all over including the crying

Although we managed to leave a few players behind with the new/old time for the WWdN: Not, we had a reasonable turnout and a good game. L0K1 and I managed to go out real early, but the regulars continued on to a great finish with Sowbug bubbling, drewspop finishing 3rd and smokkee and hoyazo going at hit heads up for quite a while. After much interesting play, hoyazo finished off for a great finish.

I went on to try my luck in 180 SnG and after 2 hours of play, I went out slightly pre-bubble in 25th place. It was fun, but disappointing to get that close and not make the money.

Oh well, maybe next time..

Mookie's over, WWdN: Not is next

The Mookie is over for me tonight (15th place, mainly through suckouts), so this is a reminder for the WWdN: Not tomorrow night. In particular, it is now an hour earlier, so let's see some more Central and Eastern time zone folks come have a good time.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 25th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25198207
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

Oh yeah, apparently there was a bounty on Mookie's head tonight and I managed to prevent him from getting his haircut tonight. I wonder what I won?

Online Poker Blogger Tournament

Played in the WWdN tonight and managed to get my TPTK busted by slow played Aces. Oh well, it was fun (as usual). Then I discovered this:

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

This should be a given for our regular blogger crowd. ;-)

Same place, new time

I still can't beat mookie it seems, but by popular demand (or lack of complaints), we have moved the time up an hour.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 25th, 7:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 25198207
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

1st place!

Or how I spent my weekend.

I started my Saturday applying an old fashioned wax job to my new car. I am not in good shape for the elbow grease required and in the shade it didn't look very different. But in the sunshine, wow, it just glowed. For a short while there, I didn't think it was worth the effort, but it made a huge difference (which means I will have to get in better shape by doing this more often - and no, I will not do any one elses cars to stay in practice).

After all that hard work, I had to drink a beer or two (I do admit I lost track) and never got around to look at my computer at all on Saturday. In fact I am not sure what happened to the rest of Saturday.

So I got up Sunday morning (stiff and slow moving) and decided my comfy chair was as far as I needed to go. I decided to crack open the laptop and see what was happening out there in poker blog land. I do have to admit the TripJax meme is certainly making it's way around. I don't normally do that kind of thing, but I found it interesting to read what everyone had to say.

I then headed over to Pokerstars to see what was happening. I noticed I missed the 5 billionth hand, so all the juicy fishness that came with that was probably dried up. I then looked for an interesting tournament or S&G to play and didn't find anything starting soon (it is the instant gratification thing coming into play).

I decided to fire up the Pokerroom client - I haven't played there in a little while and tend to switch back and forth between that and Pokerstars. Wandering through their client, I found a MTT about to start. It was a $30+3 which is normally above my bankroll, but I figured I would give it a shot.

When it started there were 178 people signed up. Because this is less than 200, they only paid out the final table. The good side of this is the prize money was higher (less to share it with), the bad side is you have to get into the top 10 to get in the money.

At the first break, I was at about 5k. Slightly better than average, but hanging in there.

At the second break, I was on a roll and in 2nd place with about 46k in chips.

The 3rd hour was very much a rollercoaster with the blinds increasing like crazy and all the short stacks going all-in. This was a juicy environment to chip up in, but you still need to be lucky to survive the suckouts. I got hit a couple times and actually went into the 3rd break at 22k. The good thing at this point was we were down to the final table (and in the money). The bad thing was I was in 7th of 7.

I managed to squeak through a couple hands, do a little blind stealing and watched number 7 and then 6 go out. The blinds were big enough and everyone was in the 30k range, so every hand, people seriously changed position. At this point I went on a mini-rush (I love these) and personally took out number 5, then 4 and was now the chip lead. With the chip lead and the momentum I had built from the mini rush, I never looked back and in the time blurred recall of the event, it seemed like seconds later, I cleared out the two remaining opponents and the game was over.

The nice thing with this was I was in first and I won a record (for me) $1602.

Wow. That was nice.

I figured that was it. I had just burned off all my poker luck for the day, week, month etc..

Now I normally play a small home game on Sunday afternoon/evening. And I mean small. It is usually 3-4 of us and we play high stakes. It is a cash game and $5 will buy you $50 of chips. Our blinds are $0.50 and $1, so we are effectly playing nickel and dime.

Unfortunately it clashed with the WPBT event (which looked interesting) but one has to do what one has to do.

We started at about 2:30 in the afternoon and other than a break for dinner, played through to 10:30 at night. I admit I was playing a little crazier than normal (well, maybe not), but at one point I was into my 4th buy-in ($20 invested). But I truely was lucky yesterday and managed to work that investment back up to end the evening with $600 in chips. After paying back my buy-in, I was up $40. Which is a great way to end your day when you are playing nickel and dime poker.

How was your weekend?

WWdN: Not times

Waffles just suggested we look at the time we start the WWdN: Not and consider starting an hour earlier. Some points pro and con:

The original WWdN:West Coast Warmup that Wil started for the west coasters was at 7:30 (Pacific) to make it easier for those who have to fight LA traffic to get home after work.

A significant partion of the players who show up are from further east and making it easier on them may help attendance.

Hmm.. Those points are both pro changing it.

So I would like to get some comments from those who will or have attended about changing the time to an hour earlier. Any west coasters who this will cause a problem for need to speak up!

"Not" my night

Well that sucked. I swear I only played 5 minues (3 minutes and 21 seconds to be exact) and I managed to call an all-in with TPTK and be beaten by a straight.

Regardless, it was a great game (for everyone else) and we had a good enough showing to make it a fun game. I was really worried at the end that surflexus was going to win again. I think it is great he is doing as well as he is doing, but it is more fun to spread the wins around. (This was the real reason I donked off early - to give someone else a chance.)

Congratulations have to go to hoyazo for a great game and a nice finish, knocking out surflexus in 2nd place. Out own Waffles finished up in the last money place fighting hoyazo all the way. Well played guys.

I did manage to end the night up $23 in a 100NL ring game, so I am net positive for the night.

Twice beat

I am slow this week on writing anything here. I had plans to write someone about the use of the hammer in blogger events (and still may). However I noticed I have now been beat by both mookie and surflexus in announcing the WWdN: Not The this week.

Same time, same place as last week:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 18th, 8:30PM PT
Which: Tournament: 24776895
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

And as usual, I will be playing the WWdN tonight and the Mookie tomorrow night.

Its "Not" time again

Once again we have our regularly scheduled WWdN: Not The tournament. The turnout was slightly better than last week and once again I have to thank all the advertising for it from the readers out there.

I have to give a big shout out to SURFLEXUS who has managed to win the Mookie back to back and has now followed up with a win here tonight. I tried my best but he cleaned up on me heads up, even though I had a 2 to 1 chip advantage when we went heads up.

Thanks to all who came out to play (or to railbird), it was fun - as usual. See you all next week at the WWdN, the Mookie and, of course, the WWdN: Not.

I got lucky tonight!

Where's your mind at? This is a blog about poker. ;-) I played in my new Wednesday standard tourny, The Mookie, and managed to hang on long enough to make it to 30th place. This is not the part where I got lucky (although it is fun). I will be there again next week.

So I decided to play one of my favorite shootouts. This plan was short circuited by the wait for another one to start. I was impatient (not a good trait playing poker), so I decided to play the turbo version of the shootout. Given the 5 minute blinds, I figure I should try to at least attempt to limp into just about any hands - I needed all the lucky flops I could get. This actually worked pretty well, but alas, not well enough. I went out around 30 something again, so this is not the part where I got lucky.

I still wanted to play something different, so I figured I would try a $20+2 single table SnG. This is above my normal SnGs where I play at the $5 or $10 games. This game seemed to be going pretty well until this hand came up:

Poker Stars
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t10/t20
9 players

Stack sizes:
UTG: t1400
UTG+1: t1400
MP1: t2040
MP2: t2280
MP3: t940
CO: t1580
Button: t1430
darval: t1490
BB: t940


Pre-flop: (9 players) darval is SB with Qc Qd
UTG raises to t60, 4 folds, CO calls t60 (pot was t90), Button calls t60 (pot was t150), darval raises to t190, BB calls t180 (pot was t390), 2 folds, Button calls t140 (pot was t570).

Flop: 5s 6c 4s (t690, 3 players)
darval bets t500, BB folds, Button calls t500 (pot was t1190).

Turn: 7c (t1690, 2 players)
darval is all-in t790, Button calls all-in t730.
Uncalled bets: t60 returned to darval.

River: Ac (t3150, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t3150)

Results:
Final pot: t3150
darval showed Qc Qd
Button showed 3d 3s

Well that sucked. Here I am, 12 hands in and down to t60 after a stupid all-in bet. I didn't figure the guy for a 8 or a 3 and obviously I was way wrong. I took the approach that this was just a new challenge (albeit a potentially short one) and tried to see how far I could get with my 60 chips.

Now I got lucky. And lucky and lucky again. Then when there was no luck left I started to play smarter and kept going. Once again, luck had a role, but 50 minutes later, I got this in my email:

PokerStars Tournament #24536393, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
9 players
Total Prize Pool: $180.00
Tournament started - 2006/05/10 - 23:21:52 (ET)

Dear darval,

You finished the tournament in 1st place.
A $90.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.


Congratulations!
Thank you for participating.

Now that was a nice way to end the night. ;-)

Mookie beat me too it

I was going to post something like I did last week, with a list of tournament which I planned to play in, but Mookie beat me to it. Regardless, I plan on the playing the WWdN tonight, The Mookie tomorrow and of course the WWdN: Not The on Thursday. I will see what else fits my schedule.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: Pokerstars
When: Thursday, May 11th, 10:30PM CST
Which: Tournament: 24388333
Cost: $10+1 NLHE
Password: monkey

See you there.

I love double shootouts!

Pokerstars has these regularly scheduled double shootout tournaments, which cost $10+1 and lead to two entries in the Sunday Million Tournament, or $215 in tournament dollars (which can be used for anything but cashing out).

I have played these before and tonight was the second time I have won it. In almost all of these games I have played tho, I have the feeling that I am dominating the other players. They can get lucky (and do) but I just feel it is an easy game. I am not complaining about it - in fact I will use it to work on my bankroll.

Tonight was interesting. I had just signed up when I called an neighbor and asked him about something for tomorrow. He invited me and the wife over for drinks, etc. I said I would check and wasn't sure. Then I remembered the tournament and, of course, the unregister time had just past. So I told my wife we could head over as soon as I blew through this tournament. I decided to play loose and agressive and I assumed I would not be long for this game.

I played at least 70% of the hands, in a lot of cases with any two cards. My extreme agression got me a lot of pots and the few times I was called I managed to suckout with some really bad cards. This made for a lot of pissed off players - especially the ones who lost to this kind of play. You can't imagine the things they were calling me. ;-) Needless to say I wiped out the last person in the first match with another suckout. That person was nice enough to tell me that I would never get anywhere playing that way and I needed to learn to play better. I thanked them.

Of course I now had a 40 minute wait til all the other tables finished - apparently when you don't play crazy like, the game actually takes longer to finish.

By the time we started again, I had already decided to not go visit, so the play on my part was much more normal. I still had the same feeling that if it wasn't for their luck I would clean up. When we got down to 4 players, I had 8000 in chips and I don't think anyone had more than 1800. We moved around a little when we got down to 3 players and with one guy severly short stacked, it was pretty quick until we got rid of him and ended the game.

I cashed my tournament entry in for some more tournament cash, but I do like those shootouts. I highly recommend them to others who play in the blogger tournaments - if you can play well in those, you will love these.

Definitely more of these on my agenda.

SoxLover Rulez

We just finished this week's WWdN:Not tournament and congratulations has to go to SoxLover. Althought he played a really solid game, suckouts and bad beats almost changed the outcome. In the end, consistent good play (and nice deck with good cards) allowed him to finish in a dominating position.

We had a good turnout tonight (compared to a couple weeks ago) but didn't quite make the attendance from last week. Thanks to mookie99, 23skidoo, CarmenSinCity, SirFWALGMan, bdidde, smokkee, yosoyveneno, and DuggleBogey for playing and making the game a fun one. Special thanks to L0K1 for setting it up for us.

For those who's blog didn't get linked above (or I got them wrong), let me know in a comment and I will correct it.

WWdN: Not The tonight

After last weeks huge (well, it was relatively huge) turnout, don't forgot to come by tonight and see if we can set a new record.

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, May 4th, 8:30 PM PT
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

My poker week

This week is shaping up to be a regular tournament type week. We have the regular Tuesday Night WWdN Tourny:

What: WWdN: IlliniFan Invitational
Where: PokerStars.
When: Tuesday, May 2th, 8:30 PM ET
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

I plan on following this on Wednesday with Mookie's:









And then on Thursday, I haven't decided whether I want to register and then show up late for this (it starts a little early for those of us on the west coast and have to work):










But I will certainly make it for this west coast friendly (we really need a cool graphic):

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, May 4th, 8:30 PM PT
Tournament: 23665235
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Please spread the word and see if we can get maximum attendance at all of these events.

Thinking about the stool

I have been thinking a bit lately about my 3 legged stool. I was trying to understand why I don't tend to see myself sucked out upon as often as some people. I think it comes down to how much you are trying to maximize your profit vs. how much variation you are willing to withstand.

I tend to be quite aggressive when I get starting cards. In many cases I will continue to push hard with my bets forcing the other player out of the hand. The advantage of this two-fold:

• Much less suck-outs
• Reveal very little of your cards

The disadvantage of this is you aren't really maximizing your profit.

Or are you? If you mix in a fair amount of bluffing in the above scenerio and develop a reputation as a tight, aggressive player, you can make profit in places that normally weren't possible.

Fundementally this is based on the idea that it takes better cards to call aggression than it does to bet/raise with them. By seldom revealing your cards, and always being aggressive with them, it takes really good cards for your opponent to call.

I think what I like best is even when they know you are doing it, it is still a hard call to make. Of course sometimes they make it and you actually have the cards you are representing. You can milk that play for the rest of the time you are at that table after that. ;-)

Of course you also have to mix your play up a little - it is really easy to stop being aggressive when you aren't really getting the cards - you just back off a little. If you are getting the cards, you have no reason to not continue the aggressive play.

The caveat here is you have to play with players who will actually recognise that you might have a hand - playing this way in a school of fish might not work as well. I suggest you try it when playing with bloggers - especially if you have the Hammer. ;-)

Obviously the devil is in the details and how much and when you do this makes a big difference. I adjust to the table I am playing with, the day of the week and lastly the phase of the moon. It appears to work fairly well for me.

Tell me what you think?

WWdN: Not The lives!

Thanks to Biggestron, Surflexus and Mookie, we managed to get a record 360% attendance at tonights WWdN: Not The tournament. We even managed to get our favorite geek and namesake to show up and enjoy the game with us. I also want to thank Jay (L0K1) who I keep asking to set these things up for us.

The event was attended by a regular whos-who of the blogger community.

In the style of many blogger tournaments, the Hammer was spotted on many occasions. This particular occasion was just a little stressful to me.

darval: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to darval [2h 7d]
Gilain: raises 150 to 200
darval: raises 300 to 500
Gilain: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Th Kc 8c]
darval: bets 500
Gilain: calls 500
*** TURN *** [Th Kc 8c] [9s]
darval: bets 2260 and is all-in

Really long delay - sweat drips onto my eyes and I can't see.

Gilain: folds
darval collected 2025 from pot
darval: shows [2h 7d] (high card King)
Gilain said, "damn it!"
Garthmeister said, "HAMMER!"
Quatloos said, "ya!"
darval said, "now that is way way too stressful.."

After what seemed like an awful long game - personally I think these bloggers are wimpier than they claim to be - we finally managed to get past the bubble. I would like to thank all those who arranged for me to win the tournament in appreciation.

Stay tuned for the same thing, same time next week. Thanks once again for playing.

The Big O and the WWdN: Not The

Last night I decided to check out the "The Big O" tournament on Pokerstars. I had heard about it before but hadn't played since I thought it was a private tournament. I think we had about 34 players with a large portion of familiar faces(?) from the regular WWdN and other WPBT tournaments. The game was a lot of fun and I managed to place 7th, final table, but out of the money. I plan to make it a regular part of my poker schedule.

I was thinking about playing in the next WPBT event (which is Stud) on Pokerstars this Sunday but my wife figures I should take her out to dinner instead (it is her birthday after all). I may have to skip this one for the sake of domestic bliss.

Lastly a reminder. There are only two of us signed up for the WWdN: Not The at this point. Time to go get yourself signed up if you are interested:

What: WWdN: Not The
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 27th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23734651
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

One more time

I admit it, we are beggars for punishment. We are going to try one more time for a Thursday night, left coast friendly, WWdN wannabe tournament. Hopefully with the support of some more bloggers we can break our all-time high attendance record of 5 players.

What: WWdN: Not the
Where: PokerStars.
When: Thursday, April 27th, 8:30 PM PDT
Tournament: 23734651
Password: monkey
Buy-in: $10+1

Spread the word, pimp it up.