Why Do I Even Bother With NLHE?

Seriously.

I played my major online session of the week yesterday, and as has been the case lately, most of my NLHE action went for squat. Squidoosh. A big dump. What have you. I ended up playing a total of 25 events yesterday, all for pretty minimum buy-ins, the greatest being of the $10 variety.

Of the Hold'em section on my dance card, I only managed to cash in one two of fifteen events, and basically had my ample ass handed to me throughout the day. Crashed out of both Daily Doubles, and lost a potential really deep run in the Stars $3r when I took a bad river beat and staggered towards a semi-decent, but unfulfiling finish. All of my AA hands invariably seemed to be in the BB and got walks, and in some events, I really didn't play optimally or aggressively enough.

Flavors of Omaha, however, were again quite a different story. I played llll Omaha events yesterday, and managed to make it to the money in four of nine tries. Now, as usual, most of these were relative mincashes, where either decent draws on bustout hands whiffed, or hands ahead, sometimes with redraws, were run down.

However, my only truly deep run yesterday was, again, in an Omaha event, this being the 9:15pm MT PLO event on Full Tilt. It took me a while to get started here, where most of the first two hours found me well under average stacks, but not in any real kind of danger zone. Eventually, I was able to use a key triple up in hour 3 to build a stack, and found myself chipleader entering the final table:



As you can see, I had a decent lead, but not a truly dominating stack. Fortunately, I was able to pretty much stay on top for a while, usually taking pots down before the flop, or on the flop. There was one point where claptonic managed to take out two shorties on the same hand to jump over me, but I got my stack up, and once was as high as around 180k or so, at 4k/8k blinds. As things would have it, we got down to the final four, but that would be my high point of the day, as I began to see a steady diet of hands such as K973 rainbow.

And by the time we got to the final three, I was generally 2nd or 3rd in chips at 6k/12k blinds:



Alas, it was all soon to end, but not quite in tears:



No complaints here, in that I managed to fade 161 of the other 163 runners for a $100 cash on a $5 buyin. I don't think I missed a lot of opportunities in this one, I just couldn't get playable cards at the very end when I needed them.

But my recent Omaha runs have really left me wodnering why do I bother with HE events at the present time? I suppose the biggest reason is that I do like to multi-table, and there's just not enough Omaha MTTs firing up at a given time to let me play 3-5 events at once, especially in my $5-10 buyin range. Still, it wasn't an unsuccessful day on the whole, though it took that final event to be my Saturday saver, of sorts. And really, all of my significant cashes (being a relative word, of course), have come from Omaha, where perhaps antes don't kill me, or perhaps I can see four card possibilities better than two cards, I dunno...and so it goes.

Happy Birthday America, yo.

Good luck on the felt, ya'll.

Has the Worm Turned?

Perhaps, or perhaps not. But the horrendous bankroll slide seems to have stopped for now. "Horrendous" is a strong word, considering how micro I tend to play, but half a roll is half a roll, ya know?

But the last week has ultimately been pretty good. I only played two sessions, focusing mostly on non-HE action of varying types. Lots of HORSE, LO8, Omaha, etc., to a set of pretty good results, including at least three final tables. For once, I didn't go out 9th, 8th, 7th, or whatever. And the greater irony is that my best success this week came on Full Tilt, normally the scene of most of my ugliest crashes. In fact, I managed to nearly triple my FTP roll to get out of the danger zone, thanks to taking 2nd in a Rush PLO tourney, and chopping heads up in a $5.50 LO8 tournament.

No real hands of note there. Mostly, I found good spots, hit draws, and scooped more than I chopped. Though this one felt pretty good, because I was fairly certain I was only pulling the low:




What's the danger zone? Oh, a two digit roll that requires me to play no more than like a $2 buy-in. Or just put the whole damn thing on black.

That LO8 tournament was fun, but perhaps I should have played it out. Got to a 2:1 chiplead at one point before giving half of it back. Nevertheless, it was 12:30am here, and I really wanted some sleep before the Red Sox came to town for a three game set. I'll probably blog about that a bit later, but I managed to attend all three games, and we pulled off a series victory that feels a bit like a loss all the same.

I can only hope this is the start of something better.

Good luck on the felt ya'll.

"Satellite Of Love"

Continuing the short-run of song titled posts...ah, who am I kidding, that could end as soon as I reach the end of my short leashed creativity tether.

But have I mentioned how much I love Bodog's $Ts satellites? Because I do. I do, I tells ya. Yes, yes, they can get quite frustrating at times, when you run 3-4 of them, which typically pay only one or two spots, and you finish 3rd or 4th in all of them. But when you win a couple...wow, certainly makes up for it.

Had a nice run the other day, winning three in a row. Two were $16 buyins, the other a $7r, but the end result of the three was a net gain of around $430T. Sweet. Maybe, just maybe, one of these days I'll take the plunge into the $100k (with juicy overlay) that these satellites feed in to. I think I'd first like to reach a point where the buyin is no more than 10% of my Bodog roll. And no, we're not there yet. Perhaps 2/3 of the way there, but not there just yet.

In the meantime, I'll keep taking a few shots at their $30-50 buyins, but my last two attempts at the $30 3k guarantee have gone down in flames to early donktardo play by villians that have gotten horribly rewarded on the river, such as calling into my PF, flop, and turn all-in bets (with me holding JJ) on boards with nothing but rainbow number cards with KQo, only to hit the Q on the river. Pretty gross, but when you're buying in with $Ts, the loss is easier to chalk up to the value of getting great notes on a fish. Well, sometimes.

On a similar note, I followed my own head, as well as the advice of a couple quality bloggers (as well as Tycou, whose blog I can't find), and cashed out my Sunday Million ticket for the $Ts. Now that I've exhausted the $T216 from that win, I can report that the overall results were...well, let's just say Waffles-like. That is to say, pretty much break even. I'll take it, I suppose...over a series of SNGs, and a decent cash in a $3r 180-man, the tournament bucks became right around the same amount in cold. hard. cash.

So overall, poker's actually been pretty good to me these days. Except on Full Tilt, of course, where I don't think I've cashed since...oh...2002, it feels like.

Taking a hospital night off, and rehearsal's bumped to Thursday. Aaaaand, one of my two blog sponsors re-upped for another 90 days (thus dropping a few $$$ into my FTP account), so I should actually be able to play the Skillz game tonight. Of course, it's on Full Trashmondo Poker, so my money is dead before I even register for it. Tonight it's PL Omatard Hi, which makes the previous sentence triply true. So join in for shenanigans, won't ya?

Blogging Back to the Real World

Another Christmas come and gone...

Great times for the Good Doctor Mondo and myself. We shared a mostly low key holiday weekend full of good food, relaxation, good music, and the like...

Highlights? The New Ben Franklins gig last Friday at the Larimer Lounge. It's been a really long time since I've played in front of so many people. I mean, only about 20 or so actually entered the venue on New Ben Franklins' tickets, but by 1/3 of the way through our set, there must have been 60 or so actually standing by the stage paying attention. I must say, that felt really really good. We play music because we want to, and because we need to, but it's always gratifying to see a crowd get larger as you go. In addition, the Denver City Saltlicks played a blistering set of punk Appalachia, and Brent Loveday's solo stuff was real cool. I missed out on Rosalie, as I'd headed to the end of the block to catch the Mike Marchant/Andy Hamilton set at the Meadowlark Tavern.

Yesterday, I finally got back to some online poker, for the first time in over a week. While it was a down session overall, I had fun, and nearly made a deep run in a $5 rebuy PLO8 event, where I was 17th of 64 remaining (550-something started), when variance finally bit me on the ass on two consecutive hands. At that point, I was 62nd of 62, with less than 1 BB left. Hey, chip and a chair! I then doubled up twice over two hands, when the following took place:

PokerStars Game #23345405722: Tournament #127699547, $5.00+$0.50 Omaha Hi/Lo Pot Limit - Level XVII (2000/4000) - 2008/12/28 17:56:55 ET
Table '127699547 30' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Mondogarage (7692 in chips)
Seat 2: karo1102 (47246 in chips)
Seat 3: axxu73 (27776 in chips)
Seat 4: EVitoy (40564 in chips)
Seat 5: Realtorcraig (36724 in chips)
Seat 6: magawatt (91741 in chips)
Seat 7: Coachmendeal (19519 in chips)
Seat 8: WoosPigs (65110 in chips)
Seat 9: buyingthepot (35920 in chips)
WoosPigs: posts small blind 2000
buyingthepot: posts big blind 4000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Mondogarage [8d 7h Ah Ac]
Mondogarage: raises 3692 to 7692 and is all-in (I think this is a std play here)
karo1102: calls 7692
axxu73: folds
EVitoy: folds
Realtorcraig: folds
magawatt: folds
Coachmendeal: folds
WoosPigs: folds
buyingthepot: calls 3692
*** FLOP *** [6d Jc Qd]
buyingthepot: bets 25076
karo1102: calls 25076
*** TURN *** [6d Jc Qd] [9c]
buyingthepot: bets 3152 and is all-in
karo1102: calls 3152
*** RIVER *** [6d Jc Qd 9c] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buyingthepot: shows [5c 5s Kd Td] (HI: a straight, Nine to King)
karo1102: shows [2s 6c As Kh] (HI: two pair, Queens and Sixes)
buyingthepot collected 56456 from side pot
Mondogarage: shows [8d 7h Ah Ac] (HI: two pair, Aces and Queens)
buyingthepot collected 25076 from main pot
No low hand qualified
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 81532 Main pot 25076. Side pot 56456. | Rake 0
Board [6d Jc Qd 9c Qc]
Seat 1: Mondogarage showed [8d 7h Ah Ac] and lost with HI: two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 2: karo1102 showed [2s 6c As Kh] and lost with HI: two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 9: buyingthepot (big blind) showed [5c 5s Kd Td] and won (81532) with HI: a straight, Nine to King

I can't fault his flop call of karo1102's bet, but damn, you really play that hand preflop? No low draw possible, one low pair, one suit, and no A? Really?

So what was a decent chance at a run at $1500 turned into $26. Got river-raped on Bodog a couple spots before the $$$, and took a min-cash there in another tourney.

Really, the worst beat of all was I was unable to play in the PokerStars Guiness World Record attempt. 35,000 players, and I even tried to register 16 HOURS before the tourney started, and it was already full. I finally had a Sunday to play, and couldn't play in the one tournament I was trying to sign up for. If I hadn't satellited into the Double Deuce (which I busted out of Q high flush to K high flush (cutoff thought he'd play his K4 'cause it was soooooooted), I would have skipped the rest of the day. Sixteen hours is like an eternity in online tournament registration -- I'm utterly flummoxed and disappointed that I couldn't get into that event.

Less than "almost", I suppose, but I did enjoy the play for the most part. I've learned that the play in the rebuy Omaha events seems to get far worse after the bubble than even in the first two hours. That's something like three rebuy Omaha events in a row where I've got taken out in the money by obnoxious "barely have any draw at all" preflop calls in spots where the player making the call can't think they're doing anything but donating chips. If this keeps up, I have to make a deep run in this thing, sometime.

Anyway, it was a fun holiday all the way around nonetheless.

Back to Poker (long), and With A Happy Ending, Even

Before going further, I just want to tip my three or four readers off to CK's great post discussing relative hand strengths in Omaha (aka 4-card Bingo, or alternatively, Omatard) here, especially, how a given hand in Omaha is not nearly as powerful a hand as it is in hold'em. A great analysis on the subject. Thanks for the thoughtful post, CK.

I don't even remember how I went out of the Skillz PLO game. I know I picked up a lot of good draws early, which I had to fold after whiffing and lots of potting by others. Very few premium pocket pairs. I think I ended up going out about 40th or so?

The reason I can't recall is because I was, and still am, on enormous tilt from two things. One is FTP's $10+1 90 runner KO Turbo SNGs. According to Official Poker Rankings, ever since I won my first ever attempt at this thing a few nights ago, I'm 0-fer my last 13. Which still leaves me up in $$$, but that's not the point. The tilt comes not from not cashing, but from the four consecutive events where I was within one craptacular table from the final table (only 9 pay), and in each case but one, got rivered when I was at least 75% or better to win when chips went in, finishing 15th, 16th, 15th, 14th, and 17th. So gross. The fields are, in fact, soft as hell, but those contributed to me going twenty tourneys in a row without a single cash, and this was after moving up to take advantage of my early hit.

But the real tilt last night came from the Bodog Blogger Tournament last night. I really wish I can remember the name of whom I'm talking about, because I'm not familiar with them previous, and they have NO points, as far as I can tell, but I digress. We're down to the last 27-29 players, with 15 getting precious points (my real motivation), and 9 cashing (with the next five getting buyins back), when I raise 3x late position PF. And this asshat calls out of the big blind. Fine. I got a fix for that -- a flopped Broadway (GIN!) No, I don't slow play, but I bet about 1/2 pot for value. As I recall, he shoves. I call. He's crushed. I'm counting my soon to be top 6 chipstack, when he runner runners perfect for the chop on the river.

Ugh. But that's cool, there were antes, picked up a few. The very next hand, I find QJs, and open raise 3.5x the big blind. (Not the strongest hand, but I like open-raising suited Broadway connectors in this spot. Cutoff or hijack, I can't recall. Aaaaand, he calls. Flop gives me four to a flush, and a gutshot, and top pair. Aaaaaand, he goes all in! He's got me covered by a very slight margin. I've got about 35,000,000 outs, so I call, and find he has nothing but three to a flush, and ye olde OESD. Which wasn't really, because the top end of his OESD fills in my higher gutshot.

Naturally, he hits the bottom end. On the river. And IGH. My god, it felt like Riverchasers must every week. All I really really want is a seat in the final Bodog tourney for the ME seat (where asshats like this guy will never be), and I'm denied.

Still -- I almost have to thank you, because your tilt made me money. How? Because I just couldn't leave well enough alone, and I sat for a $3.30 90 player KO, took it down for 2nd. At the same time, I was playing my first ever $5.50 HA MTT (rotation of pot limit HE and PLO), and took it down in 1st:



(pasted for posterity, because 1st places are rare birds, indeed, for me)

And...for the creme de la creme....drumroll for tilt play...

I dumped over 20% of my Bodog bankroll, at 11:30 PM (mountain time), into Bodog's $4.5k guarantee rebuy tourney. Obvious signs of tilt include the following:

1. Staring a rebuy MTT when it's already your bedtime.
2. Playing a rebuy where the initial buyin is 8% of your bankroll.
3. Rebuying after losing your stack, for another 7% of your bankroll.
4. Doing this rebuy when it's already after your bedtime.

But I managed to survive rebuy hour, and in fact, was above average stack after hour 1, which started with 108 runners and ended with about 85, with 18 paid. Naturally, I added on (another 7% of my bankroll).

Here is the part where I say again how much I adore Bodog. You see, the tourney fields here are soft, even at the $20 level, and as I found, at the $20R level, as well (at least late at night). Lots of weak/tight play, certainly enough hands shown down that would embarass me to have to take to the felt. And unlike those fuckers over at FTP and JokerStars, the nice folks at Bodog haven't yet let me know they possess a doomswitch. My hands pretty much play mathmatically correct (e.g. my 81% AA actually hold up around 81% of the time; my draws hit about as often as they should, and my races are actually races, and not blown engines at the starting line).

So I'm heartened by the fact that if I play the cards I know I'm capable of playing, I may not always win, but I'm winning about as much as I should, which is proving to be a +ROI proposition. And once we're down to three tables (1 off $$$), and I finally start catching real hands, even though I'm like 24th of 27, I know it's just a matter of time before good things happen. By the time we sit for final table (at 2:53 in the motherlovin' mornin'), I'm 3rd in chips:



Final table bubble boy was in the chatbox obnoxiously going on about what a bad player chipleader hectk1 was, and as play proved, he was right. Big time. This cat is horrible, yet I won't begrudge him. He took out player after player after player, usually by calling 3-bet shoves with an unsuited A-rag, and either hitting a 3-out A, or a 4-flush, or something obnoxious. But not against me, because this was one occasion where it really only made sense to play big hands, and they weren't forthcoming for a while. hectk1 is the kind of player who, with blinds 3,000/6,000 will open shove over 200,000 chips with 22 or 33. My kinda player.

So we get down to four players, I'm about 3rd in chips, and I pick up AA under the gun. I choose to call. hectk1 raises, I shove, he calls, with something like a sooted paint+rag, and next thing you know, I'm 2nd in chips, and only about 20% behind the fishdonk. Unfortunately, that was as big as my stack got. A couple of hands later, with three players left, I pick up sooted A2 and make a standard button raise, which fishy calls. Flop comes something like 762 rainbow, with one spade. He checks, and I know I'm ahead (because he overbets every time he hits a flop or an overpair, the dude knows nothing about value). I want to see where I'm at, but want to show strength, so I bet about 60% of the pot. And he actually raises me.

Now, I know I'm ahead, because I've sat with this guy for about 50 hands and have him down cold. But I don't feel like I can shove because my hand really isn't strong. And, there's at least some chance I'm behind to a K7, or an A4o, or any of the crap he'd call preflop raises with. So I call. And the turn comes an 8 (not a spade. And he shoves. Gack. Well, here, I think I pretty much have to fold, because there's just too many hands that beat me here. Aaaand, hectk1 flips over T2. He shoved with bottom pair and a gutshot. NH, sir. I folded what would have taken me to a massive chiplead. Mostly because the difference in $$$ between 3rd and 2nd was huge, and folding left me with nearly the same chips as 2nd place.

In retrospect, my mistake was either not raising more PF (since the fish doesn't seem to understand ideas behind bet-sizing), compounded by not betting more aggressively when I knew I was ahead, but only marginally. Maybe the latter's not really that large a mistake. Still, I have to say I was outplayed by the worst player at the final table on that hand.

Anyway, I'm out two hands later. The very next hand, I get AA in the big blind. Donkey calls, small blind completes, and I instashove (trying to sell it as a tilt from the fish showing his previous raggy hand). But no one calls. And the very next hand, I shove K8 soooted from the small blind and, you guessed it, hectk1 (I keep his name in bold so that you can remember to sit down at his table if you see him) calls with his Q7o, and hits QQ on the flop. Funny thing is, I can't really fault his call there, because I'm shoving ATC in that spot.

Nevertheless, my rollercoaster night ended with my 2nd largest ever MTT cash (not even 1st would not have matched my $1800 from a couple years ago). Not even close to Hoy, Lucko, or LJ levels, but still:



Have I mentioned how much I love Bodog?

It's Tooosday, not Blooosday

Tuesday, and you know what that means!

Yup, another edition of the wonderful Bodog Blogger Tournament Series, where those of you who like to write about chip-slinging can work your way into a 1 in 18 shot at a WSOP Main Event seat.



Anyway, the Tournament Leader Board is available at http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ throughout the course of the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series. It will provide the point totals for every player that has played in the qualifying tournaments. The top 30% of players in each tournament will receive points according to finish which at the end of the qualifying tournaments will ultimately determine who will move on to the Final Event. The top 18 players on the TLB at the end of the qualifiers will earn their way to the Final Event.

How To Register
To register for the Bodog Poker Blogger Tournament Series, poker bloggers must first go to http://www.bodoglife.com/promotions/poker/blogger-tournament/ and sign in with their Bodog account information in the upper right hand corner. Once this is completed, they then must click on "REGISTER NOW" to register themselves into the tournament series. Bloggers will each have to do this once in order to play in the series. Once this is done, they then need to find the "Online Poker Blogger Tournament" in the software and register as they normally would each and every week.


I finally managed to place in the points for the first time last week, and am hoping to build on that success. Of course, that could mean unseating this guy, who pulled down last week's top prize and overlay, to move deep into the points.

Yet he continues to whine about his bankroll. I have a feeling, however, that Drizztdj won't be wining after tonight's companion on the bloggerment schedule, Chad's Blogger (No) Skillz Series. Why am I confident in the far northerner? It's PLO, booyah!

Hmm...I might like this one, too. No more whining about Stud, Limit HE, or any of those fake-azz pokerz, this is Pot Limit Omaha, the real deal.



Even you donks out there can't fade me today -- it's 65 degrees, three weeks from PLAY BALL, and the real Purple Mountains' Majesties are rouding into form. The Ventures (one of my original inspirations to play music) are even finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Life is perfect.

Gigli - It's Not Just A Crappy Movie

Gigli - that was my name last night in the Bodog Blogger Tournament. For the first time in my career, I was the first player to the rail in a bloggerment, and I must say, it feels like utter crap. I'm feeling a bit like Pokerpeaker, after whiffing for the third time in three tries in this series (though without the benefit of his great early year run into tons of $Ts).

Funny thing is, the guy who crippled me had the one hand I tried to attribute to him, but couldn't. To set things up, it's early. Damn early. Maybe 10 hands in? I'm dealt AQo either UTG or in 2nd position. I raise 3x the BB, which seems standard, and I'm called by one player on my left. Flop comes QJT rainbow, and I'm feeling good. Top pair top kicker, gutshot Broadway, and pretty sure player behind didn't have AK. Still, I bet, probably something like 1/2 to 2/3 of pot. Aaaaand, he raises.

Did he flop a set here? It's early; I can fold the hand at a somewhat smallish loss and move on. No, he didn't flop a set. Did he flop Broadway? I dunno, I sort of doubt it, as I think he would have reraised preflop, but I could be wrong. Does he have KK or AA? Again, rather unlikely here. But it's a bloggerment, he could have the Hammer, so I call.

Turn comes the lovely Queen. I've got top set, Broadway draw, and certainly a number of outs to a boat. But still, I don't like his flop raise, and I'd really hate to check/fold here, so I bet. I bet big. 2/3 of my remaining stack. And he gooes all in. Sick! No way...he didn't have JJ or TT, did he? If he had the overpair, he's burnt toast, drawing to two outs at most. If he has Broadway, I still have outs - and I have him covered by like 200. I call, he shows JJ (dammit), and I miss my river boat draw. I was behind the whole time. Not sure how I could have played it differently, but eager for guidance.

Anyway, that leaves me with 250, and one orbit later, I pick up AA under the gun. I can't go all in here, I need the chips. I can't call, because I don't want six players seeing the flop, so I bet 3x the big blind. And NOBODY called. Wow. It's as if my cards were dealt face up. Smokkee could only laugh, and I don't blame him.

So the tourney series is only three weeks old, but already, I feel as if there's no way I'm going to finish in the Top 18 for the final tourney. There's already over 30 players with points, and I'm not one of them. However, the $T overlay in this thing is so sweet, I'm obviously going to continue with it.

As for the Skillz Series, I had to fold a big hand early for 25% of my chips, and could never ever get anything going. I semi slowplayed flopped trip kings, and ultimately had to fold on a very ugly board with many straight and flush possibilities, to a large bet that had me covered. Every hand I had with real potential, usually went tits up by the turn. I went out something like 30th, but PLO8 can be an uncaring bitch like that, sometimes.

Which brings me to this...last night was a really fucking weird night of poker. I crashed both bloggerments, got river three-outed a few tables from the money in the Bodog $10k, missed cashes in both PLO tournies I played, and yet managed to break even for the night (except in the sleep departement; I'm fucking exhausted this morning). I did manage cashes in a Stars $4/180, and in the Bodog $3k, but just barely, but in the Full Tilt $1 rebuy, I took a short stack and crashed the final table for a 6th place finish (77 < AKo), turning $4 (two rebuys and add-on) into about $66. I really would have liked a deeper run, but 1/3 of the final table was playing so lagtardy and calling every raise, that I wasn't going to be able to wait for a bigger hand.

This is pretty much the 2nd consecutive session where I had entirely crappy finishes in the vast majority of my events, but cashed deep enough in one to cancel out my losses. Given Peaker's post today, describing the sensation seems appropo, because "The Middle Suck" certainly fits. I can't seem to get off the breakeven, and I'm definitely running in the middle.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly complaining. Running in the middle certainly beats one of the alternatives by a long shot. But much like eating a dry burger without cheese or ketchup, it's just not that fulfilling, and I'm left with more questions about my play. Sometimes, when you completely bollocks up a move, not only are the results obvious (you're broke), you can often identify where you went wrong. But when you're running in the middle, the task becomes seemingly far more difficult. In this case, I have actually managed to make more final tables in the last week or two than I have in a good while. But is that disguising bad play with good luck? Is it simply variance that my deepest runs lately are all in the $1-5 tournies, instead of the $10 tournies? Can the difference in play quality truly be that extreme going from a $5 to a $11? Somehow, I doubt it.

All of these will be questions I attempt to answer over the next couple of days, whilst trying to catch up on my sleep and watching total lunar eclipses with the Good Doctor Mondo, and going to Cowboy Curse shows, instead of playing poker.

Speaking of tits up, I'd like to welcome another Virginia bar poker refugee to the blogger community. Please extend a pint to Evy and her Top Pair, as she starts slinging chips in all the old familiar places.

Loose Ends

Not a ton to report on the poker front -- haven't played much since the Tuesday bloggerments, where I combined playing bad with running bad, but...

Yesterday, I finally saw folks registered in a single table 2-7 triple draw SNG, so I thought I'd give it a go, after my middling run in the 2-7 Triple Draw MTT a couple weeks back. Ended up 2nd for a small cash, after playing fairly solidly, and taking down enough position bluffs to stay ahead of the short stacks. I did make one early mistake -- after taking down the first pot and playing the 2nd, I called down with four to a 7-high, not realizing there were no draws left. GG me, take my chips, please.

Took 2nd in the 50-runner bar poker game on Monday -- ship the gift certificate and Bit burgers.

Highlight of the week for me was Tuesday, though. After donking out of both bloggerments in colossally stuperific fashion, I managed to overcome some early beats to final table my 2nd $5.50 PLO MTT in a row, and with a better finish than last time:



(I was unable to improve and went out 3rd.)

I really do enjoy this particular tourney. Though I don't play it very often, I have managed to cash in it probably more often than I have any other regularly-scheduled MTT, probably 6-7 times over the past year. It's doublestacked, so nits like me can be patient. It's Omaha Hi, so you don't see folks playing stupid with a four-suited A27J. Well, not too often, anyway. I've seen anywhere from 140-200 players on a typical night. And even the final table tends to wind down at an hour where I can still get a good six hours sleep before work.

A small bonus is, I regularly run into this guy playing the same event.

So yeah, the 10:45 PM EST $5.50 DS PLO should be a regular part of your donkament diet, too. It's tasty and nutritious to one's bankroll.

Hoping to play some later today or this evening, but brunch with the Good Doctor Mondo, and my favorite bar poker dealer and his girl will likely keep me away from the Stars $100k.

Oh yeah, today's also the 50th Daytona 500 -- boogity boogity boogity. My boy Jamie Mac's been a relative disappointment, and the Fords truly appear to be Found On Road Dead this season, but he did win the summer race at Daytona last year, so go go go #26!

A Light Weekend (Thus Far)

So far, not much on the poker front. The only tourney I played yesterday was a $3/90 KO over at FullTilt, where I did manage to final table with one KO, but went home 7th. A little bit of low limit Omaha and Razz at the same time, and the Tilt roll is almost up to...drumroll please...a whopping $200. No complaints, it was under $8 at the start of the year, but the fine folks over at FlopTurnRiver set me on my way.

Friday night was far more interesting and fun. One of my favorite local bands, a Britpop-ish outfit called King For A Day, was playing a full night (3 sets) at the Waterloo Icehouse. (For the Austinites amongst you, the Icehouse is owned by the same folks who started and originally owned that legendary institution of great tunage, Waterloo Records.

Anyway, the Icehouse has free wireless, and I thought I'd donk around a bit before the KFAD show, but alas, there was only one table in the entire joint that was near enough to a power outlet for me. So, I stood around for about 110 minutes, waiting for that table, while the couple who'd actually finished eating even before I walked in, spent about two goddamn hours nursing 1.5 drinks apiece, before they would abandon the ONE table I was waiting for. Finally, they bail, and I get my coveted power outlet table, only to have to give it up for the soundman about 20 minutes later, so I move to the front, just before the stage, and the sound and KFAD are so good, previewing new tunes from their upcoming EP, I completely donk off my chips in three of the four tourneys I'm in. But only three -- I'm holding my own in the $5.50 PLO tourney, though scraping the bottom of remaining players.

Eventually, we're down to about 28 left (18 pay), and my battery is at about 18%. Lo and behold, the soundguy is using only one of the two outlets, and has empty space at his table. Go Mondo! Not only does he let me setup shop for the final rounds, he's curious about what I'm doing, and quite friendly, to boot. So, to Tony, I thank you for giving me the juice I needed until I could chip up and stagger into a final table 7th place finish. The timing could not have been more perfect, as the band finished up about 15 minutes later. To the Icehouse, and Tony, and Goose and KFAD, I thank you for a wonderful Friday night's entertainment. Boca burgers, beer, music, and pokerz, yay me.

BTW, downtown old town Louisville, Colorado - don't go changing to try to please us, yer beautiful as you are.

As for today, it's a rare Sunday indeed, when I can actually play donkaments, but Stars is really screwing the pooch today, and as of now (3:15pm EST), it certainly appears as of the $10+1 $100k ain't gonna run. My only chance for three weeks, up in server dust, it seems...

To all my fellow bloggers in FTOPS #8, I wish you all good luck, and large pots.