A Better Evening

Just an update from earlier...the doctors inserted a new trach a few hours ago, and the Good Doctor Mondo's been stable and reasonably comfortable this evening. In fact, if there's no further signs of trach complications, they expect to begin pushing her back towards further progress tomorrow.

I think that's how you spell relief.

Essentially, as potentially (and very nearly) catastrophic as this morning was, it should ultimately just become another bump in the road. I fucking crater sized pothole bump, but one which, once passed, is truly in the past. Hopefully, we can begin moving forward again in the morning.

As she's been sedated and asleep and stable this evening, I have sat here and played some poker, to some success. I played an $11 sat into Bodog's $215 5k guarantee and took it down. Took the $T instead of entering, since that doubled my Bodog roll. But I'm actually likely to put about $165 of that into one of their $100k guarantees soon. Why? Bad Bankroll Management, to be sure, but I've never played the $100k, and in the end, I'd still be playing it for $11. Actually, $22, because I was in two of the sats. Sadly, I went out 3rd or 4th in the other sat, and came really close to winning two of the $215 seats. Oh well. Seriously, I am untiltable in poker anymore, given the far far more important things in life.

Thanks for your continued well wishes, I know the Good Doctor is gaining strength through them.

Sometimes, Persistence Does Pay

Cool. After who knows how many attempts at this mini-donkerama, and two 2nd place finishes, I was finally able to take one down. My first win in a PokerStars $4/180 20-table sit-and-go. It feels good, and doubly so in that I came into final table as chipleader, and only once had to truly luckbox a hand. When we were down to final three, I was 3rd in chips, picked up AT soooted in the BB, and re-shoved all in to an AJ, Jack on the flop, and caught the runner runner flush on the river. Obviously, HAWKAHOLIC99 hadn't read this guy's views on playing Jackace. Heads-up went back and forth until about 20 hands in or so, at which point I picked up a couple monsters to crush.

I love what this has done to my Sharkscope:

What really made this special was that it was my first victory in any online tournament greater than five tables. I've had several higher cashes, but those were all 2nd and 3rd place finishes in larger tournaments -- this was my first flat out victory other than freerolls.

Anyway, there was really only one notably unusual sequence during the tournament, and I didn't get histories, because the table closed as soon as the 2nd hand in the sequence occurred. At a point during final three tables, I picked up AA in mid position, and put in a standard 3.5x raise (at that point, I had a lowish mid-size chipstack). Player at cutoff or button called, and blinds folded. Flop came Txx, and I checked to caller who made a roughly pot-size bet, and I let the timer come on before I re-raised all in. Players calls and shows ATo, and my AA holds for a double up. Only two hands later, I pick up AA under the gun, and make the same size raise. I am called by the very same player, and again, everyone else folds. Flop comes 9xx, and I check. Player makes roughly pot-size bet, and I again let the timer come on before I re-raised enough to put him all in. You guessed it -- he turns over A9o, and my AA holds up to knock him out, and put me up to about 3rd in chips.

Along the way, I did significantly misplay a hand, which I posted over here without showing results. If you have any thoughts on how this hand was played, please let me know. I did not post the results. Needless to say, I lost the pot, but not in the way you'd think.

Anyway, given the amount of time I spent playing yesterday, I got the "you're not playing any more poker for a while" from the Good Doctor Mondo, so I will likely not be making my Bodonkey debut tomorrow night, after all. To those who are playing bloggerments this week, I wish you all high cards and no suckouts, unless you can rant about them as entertainingly as he can, in which case, may a 72o crack your AA on the bubble (strictly for comedic purposes, of course).

Speaking of which, I would be highly remiss if I did not extend my sincere appreciate for Waffles' having distilled the latest Brandi drama into a version I could actually finish reading on my lunch hour. Oh, the insanity! Good thing the Brit doesn't play cards, I suppose.

As Douglas Adams wrote, "So Long, and Thanks [PokerStars] For All the Fish"

Goodbye to an anti-Beatle

Today is a say day for a lot of fans of relatively obscure garage rock music, myself included.

From Eddie Shaw:"Two days before the birthday of his hero, Elvis -- Dave Day of the Monks suffered a heart attack and massive brain injury. He has been taken off the life support system today. His work is done."

This development truly makes me very sad. I got to hang out wiht Dave Day in Vega$ after their Las Vegas Rockaround set a few years ago, and found him extraordinarily engaging and humorous, and even at his advancing age, at 3am, and after a raucous set, he was still ready to toss down with all the fans. The world is a bit less today. To many, the monks were the original punk band. Comprised of five American G.I.s stationed in Germany in the early 60s, they traversed the gap from playing the standard club covers of the day, to tribally savage and rhythmic feedback-fueled stompers that reflected the angst and antipathy of their time and place.

It's beat time, it's hop time, it...was once...monktime.

Dave Day is actually the second monk to pass away, but somehow, this one hits me a little harder, perhaps because of the sheer uniqueness of an electric banjo punk rocker, and just the constant smile he had when we met.

In extremely minor poker news, I managed to fire up a couple of turbo SNGs last night, to no avail, but got into a $1.10 2-7 Triple Draw SNG, where I managed to get heads up with a 5:1 chip lead and proceeded to lose in about 10 hands. This is not too hard to do once the doomswitch is turned on. Had an 8-6 go down to an 8-5, got dealt 2nd nuts and shorty drew out to the nuts, etc. Ah well. Cash is cash, but being up 5:1 and losing, in a limit game....ack.

I think I played a total of five games, consisting of the aforementioned $1.10 SNG, a $3.40 5-table SNG, 1 $3.40 HORSE SNG, and 2 of the $2.20 4-table satellites to the Stars Sunday Hundo. All were turbos, except the 2-7 TD, and in all but one, my money was in ahead, but random fish seemed all too eager to call an all-in, more often than not with a crap ass ace-rag. I think it's because of the turbo structure of these things.

Welcome to the Funhouse

Playing a bar poker single table SNG, of a real turbo variety, and a lot of 'orrible non-poker playing mofos who like TV shows of people with funny reflective glasses. 11 players, starting stacks of 2000, blinds of 200/400 (with about 5 minutes to 500/1000):

1st hand in, I lose 400 by calling from the SB.

2nd hand, on the button: AA (woohoo!)

FIVE flat calls in front of me (I told you play was 'orrible). Jam 1600 from the button. Only the SB folds. BB reshoves for his 2k stack, and all five of the flat callers call the rereraise. So I'm seeing five cards with AA 7-handed. Sick. I haven't plugged that into the PokerStove, but I'm pretty sure I could not have been more than 30% PF with all those callers. I can't get AA to hold heads-up, much less 7-handed?

I don't even remember the full board, but flop was something like 337, couple more random cards, and yeah, AA held. So two hands in to an 11-player tourney, we're down to 5 players (lost one on 1st hand), and I've got about 58% of the chips. The rest was easy, gg me. Ship the $10 gift certificate to be used on a future Chicken Monterey sammich. (Sadly, I went out of the $300 real portion of the day by calling quads with the raggiest boat I've ever been in.)

Tonight is either more bar poker, or I'll fire up a few 7pm tournies at a couple of the sites. Undecided for now, since I'll be playing the BoDonkey tomorrow for the first time. Yeah, baby.

Oh yeah, these guys are looking for a new bass player. I lurves me some deep wet reverbed surf. In fact, I taught myself bass playing playing Dick Dale surf guitar riffs on an old Fender Mexican Jazz Bass. Methinks there may just be a chance to jump once more into the breach.

If Wichita is for Linemen...

...then Council Bluffs can only be for self-flagellation.

I entered Year of the Blogger with the stated goal of playing one of the $1500 NLHE events at this year's WSOP. In fact, given the emerging details of this summer's McAwesome WPBT Summer Classic 2007 (thanks, Falstaff!), I had everything laid out just dandy. Hit Vega$ for the WPBT, play WSOP Event #15, and sweat the Good Doctor Mondo in the $1000 Ladies event.

But alas, once a hamster gets on a wheel, you just never know what's going to happen. On a slow morning at work I read a thread over on 2+2 (which I can't link to at the moment), and everything changed in an instant. I went into this year willing to take $1.5k off my non-poker bankroll just to give it one shot. The way I figure it, my proper poker bankroll won't get enough play to actually build a buy-in this year, but I'm feeling good about my tourney game, and given good non-poker fortune the last couple of years, I can afford the beat.

That said, I'm not stoopid. Okay. Maybe I am. But I'm not unwise. Okay. Maybe I am. But I'm not unwilling to mitigate a risk, even if I'm foolish enough to take one in the first place. There we go. That nailed it. It hit me in the face like folding QQ pre-flop to a 3rd raised hammer. I may be willing to dump $1.5k tilting at windmills, but if I can spend that on three shots at the sterling silver ring, rather than one shot at the brass ring (or WSOP bracelet, as the case may be), why not take it? That is, because given time considerations, I'm looking at a $300 event and two $500 events, not even the circuit main event, because...well...because that's still a $5k buy-in, and I have to be back at work on the day it starts, anyway.

This means no WSOP for Mondo, though, if I don't make a serious cash whilst playing in the amber waves of grain. It also means no WPBT Summer Classic 2007 , since if I busto in Iowa, I won't be going to Vega$ this summer. The Good Doctor Mondo and I would wait for the Winter Classic instead, now that we've gotten quite used to subzero weather on the high plains.

Anyway, what few readers this blog has...I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Is Council Bluffs a +EV versus the WSOP? I know the weather is massively -EV, and there will be no drunken Pai-Gow at the Horseshoe for me this trip. It should be the softest circuit of all, given that the big rollers will be at the World Poker Open (Borgata) at the time and because....well...because it's freakin' Council Bluffs, Iowa.

And I say that meaning no disrespect to Iowans, or even those across the river in Nebraska, because I've been through there, and it's far far far prettier than the bare soul torturous landscape I spent five years in, in Cheyenne, WY. Yup.

As a side note, I seem to be pushing back half my 2007 goals with this decision, and not playing ring NLHE at all, but am finally starting to find success at STTs, and enjoying the pursuit. Still taking a few too many beats and most of my cashes are 3rds and 2nds, but I'm not losing any bankroll yet, having moved up to $11+1. Maybe a new goal?

Then again, I may just bag the whole thing until I can find a circuit event that's in a nice place, at a time of the year when the Good Doctor can come with, and ratchet up my live tourney stakes more slowly...

Good ideas

Nice post on slb159 poker today, which is giving me lots to think about.

Some of you fellow bloggers are gonna make me turn my Stars account into a $$$ account...not least for the rakeback. (Dumbass that I am, I never knew of rakeback when I started my FTP account, and I have no intention of giving up my player name, just to start a new account. So no-no on the FTP rakeback for me.)

Anyway, the FTP Tier Ones are working well for me this week (5 tokens out of 8 tries). But here's where I could use some advice...I'm losing my tokens in the $26 guarantee tourneys, usually getting close to cash, but falling short. On slb159, there's a discussion about "climbing up through the tier tourneys". For all of you far smarter players out there, would you consider that more of a gamble, or less of a gamble, than continuing to use tokens in the various $26 buy in guarantee tournaments? Does the smaller field size of 2nd tier token tourneys, versus their lower # of places paid make sense for someone in my position (e.g., a dude who isn't successfully maximizing ROI on the tokens won thus far).

Hit me up if you have a thought.

Oh yeah, mucho funno busting my blogger tourney cherry in the Riverchasers last night. Much enjoyment had, but busto in 19th after being near the chip lead the whole first hour. The middle levels of HORSE seem to be my true nemeses...

Happy New Year, and fo'reals, check out these guys: Voxtrot from Austin. Amazing pop band, who are primed to truly break through next yet.