Archive for the ‘poker’ Category

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »
h1

This Week’s Poker Schedule (4/9/2018)

April 10, 2018

Going through one of those stretches where lots of random stuff is filling my calendar instead of playing poker. As I noted last week, I spent this weekend attending a celebration of life for my wife’s parents, so I didn’t play at all Saturday or Sunday*. It’s always interesting gaining a new perspective and experiencing something entirely different from the culture I’ve grown up in. Not to mention actually participating in the process and not understanding anything that is being said and worrying that I might disrespect someone unintentionally because I’m uneducated in their customs, or simply because I’m clumsy in executing them. For instance, you’re supposed to crouch down any time you walk past a monk, which I’m sure I didn’t do a number of times. Then I accidentally cut a monk off when we were walking in the same direction and we both insisted that the other go first. So I went first because I didn’t know if it was worse to cut him off or to try and outdo him in a politeness battle. Either way, I’m pretty sure someone in the room saw this infraction and was shaking their head.

Still, it was a great experience and I’m happy to honor my in-laws and I think it’s amazing that they wanted me involved in the ceremony. Not just involved as in I got to sit with everyone, but involved as in I was part of the inner circle of immediate family that participated in spoon-feeding both my wife’s mom and dad while the monks were chanting!

Here are some photos and a video to give an idea of what it looked like:

*though I did manage to watch every pitch of Shohei Ohtani’s ridiculous outing on Sunday. 6+ innings with a perfect game, 12 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 1 hit? On 91 pitches? After hitting .389 with 3 homers for the week? This dude is INSANE! “As advertised” does no justice to what this kid has done so far this season.

Monday night I played in a $5/$10 dealer’s choice house game and it was a lot of fun. I am happy to play at a third of my normal stakes if I’m playing games I don’t normally get to play. They don’t spread any razz, stud, stud 8, 2-7 triple draw, or badugi in any Washington casinos, so this is basically the only way to gain actual playing experience. I had a pretty good night overall, but ended up -$195 because I made the dreaded mix game mistake of playing a really big pot in a big bet game and setting myself up to get freerolled.

We were playing Big O8 and I started with over $400 and made what had to be a terrible call with a double suited hand that had 8432 in it and no ace from the small blind. To be fair, I have done zero studying of this game, so it’s not too surprising that I could make some mistakes, but that’s why I should just fold everything that doesn’t seem like a super obvious play (like suited A23xx hands) instead of setting myself up to get stacked in a game I have basically no experience in. Well, I called a small raise with this super marginal hand and saw the 433 with two diamonds flop. I checked on the flop, the PFR bet $15, the button called and it was back to me. I had no idea what to do. After thinking I should maybe just take a passive line and keep the pot small, I ended up convincing myself that if I potted it now I would probably just take it down and not have to split with a low (as I have basically no low draw), so I made it $76 and only the PFR calls. The turn is the 2 of diamonds. I am now only losing to 44 and A5 of diamonds for high, but my low draw has been reduced to a live 8. I have now successfully set myself up to get freerolled and I decide to try and pot control by checking, but my opponent is not letting that happen and bets $150. I call and I hate it. The river is an ace and he puts me all in and I don’t see how I can fold now after calling turn and leaving myself with less than $200 behind. I pay it off and I’m expecting to chop the vast majority of the time, but he shows A63xx with nut diamonds for a live 6 low (which beats my live 8) and a rivered boat to scoop everything. Absolutely sickening. I feel like I should have folded this hand preflop, but I have no concept of what I should have done after flopping a full house with very little scoop potential and no redraw to speak of. Keep it small and try to get to showdown? Check-call flop and check-fold turn? I honestly don’t know.

But that pot was my whole night. Instead of winning a few hundred dollars because I played well all night long, I lost a few hundred dollars because I played one hand poorly.

Tuesdays are basically always my day off and I spent it watching A Quiet Place, making dinner, and going to the gym with my wife. Now I’m writing this post and playing a couple online tournaments.

Tomorrow I will likely be playing PLO @ Palace but that doesn’t start until 6 PM and who knows how late it will go.

Thursday I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I’ve been occupied lately, but that hasn’t stopped me from checking in on Bravo and the 15/30 LHE game at Palace hasn’t gone three days in a row. Radio Mike going back to his day job and Joker and I being busy outside of poker lately hasn’t helped at all, but I can’t help but feel that interest in the game is somewhat waning. I hope I’m being dramatic, but there’s some things at play here. There have been multiple times where there have been tons of names on the list and the game just doesn’t go and that kind of sends a message to the players that starting the games they want to play in are not a priority. That’s a good way to make players give up on the game or just go elsewhere. Also, there have been some regulars complaining about the lack of action in the 15/30 game and that it’s not a “fun” game and have been boycotting it and encouraging others to play 8/16 and straddle every hand. I don’t really get that concept. You can straddle and gamble at 15/30 also and do what you can do make the game better, so my only real takeaway is these guys want to splash around at a smaller limit and they are trying to get other players to follow suit. Lastly, this Sunday Palace is going to be spreading 2/5 no limit hold’em for the first time. This is obviously not going to help the 15/30 LHE game gain any traction and it very well could kill it altogether. Who knows.

[Edit: I take that back. There’s a chance that it could help. If 15 people come in to play 2/5 NL and there are only 9 seats, that’s six players that could fill a 15/30 seat while they wait. Shrug.]

What I do know is that I’m not about to go back to playing 8/16 every day, so if I have to start travelling to Fortune to play in bigger games again, then that’s what I’m going to have to do. A daily 15/30 in my backyard is a dream, but I’m definitely starting to get concerned about it.

I’m less concerned about the game going on Friday, but my weekend is going to be dominated by family again. My wife has a cousin from San Diego visiting right now and her family wants to take him to The Met in Seattle and I feel like I should go with.

Saturday I have what I hope to be my final meeting with my CPA to complete my taxes. What an ordeal that has been. I won’t get into all the details, but the amount of money I’m supposed to pay the IRS has been very inconsistent and my CPA teased me with a final number that was so amazing I wasn’t surprised to discover a huge oversight when I checked her work and the amount I owed was actually more than five times what she quoted me. Groan. I am confident now that we have sorted out all the details and everything is in order.

After that, we are meeting up with my parents because my aunt and uncle are in town. I guess tentative current plans are to go to Little Creek Casino, but if I play any poker it won’t be a working session, it will be a I-might-have-to-leave-any-minute session which means I won’t be playing anything worthwhile.

Sunday Palace is having a $225 no limit hold’em tournament that starts at 10 AM. I haven’t looked at the structure too much, but I don’t really care. It should be fun! That’s the same day that Palace will be unveiling the 2/5 no limit cash game. If I have to choose between 15/30 and 2/5 I’m definitely playing 15/30, but if my options are 2/5 or 8/16, I might have something to think about, depending on the lineups.

That’s my upcoming week! I will try to blog on Thursday and probably for the Palace tournament on Sunday as well. You may have noticed that I got my own domain: http://www.batcavepoker.com and I also have access to new features for my blog so I will be working on giving the blog a sleek, new look, but when I will actually have time to do any of that is TBD. I’m also putting the final touches on my WSOP schedule so I’ll be posting that in the next week or so.

Stay tuned!

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

h1

PLO Live Blog (4/6/18)

April 6, 2018

Going to attempt a PLO live blog. Opener coming soon.

6:10 PM: Things are getting off to a slow start here. When I put my name up hours ago, I was 9th on the list, but there are currently only seven players starting the game.

Current lineup: two players I don’t know, an Invisible Man level nit, Mister Magoo, His Airness (super maniac) and a strong higher stakes reg from Muckleshoot. Two spots in the game. I’m not going to grind it out if they leave. $15/$30 game looks pretty attractive if this game fizzles out.

I told myself I was going to play tighter than normal and I already unnecessarily torched chips in a pot. On the other hand, I opened JJ55 with diamonds and put zero bets in on flop and turn on a board of 765d8d8 in a multiway pot before calling Mister Magoo’s $45 river lead and losing to 77. Not a good end result but feels like I lost the minimum.

6:23 PM: Pretty good last couple of days, despite some rather unfortunate circumstances.

Wednesday I won $1706 in five hours of $15/$30, which is nice, but I only played five hours because the game broke at 11:30 PM. I prefer to play 8+ hours and generally want to stay until 2 AM. Games breaking early are what my nightmares are made of.

More good and bad news yesterday. The good news is I booked another $915 win but the game was absolutely terrible and, even though I was planning to play a shorter session, it broke before I was going to leave… at 7:15 PM.

Gulp. The results are obviously good, but the $15/$30 game being weak and dying early? Not so much. Missing Radio Mike already!

6:41 PM: Felted $500. Magoo and Airness limp and I limp along with A9cc77, SB makes it $15 and at least four of us see 984hh flop. Turn is Ad and SB leads $65; Magoo and Airness call and I pot it for ~$275, which is basically all in for me. I already know small blind is raising too many hands pre and the other two yahoos could have anything. Small blind calls and so does Magoo. Okay, no heart please. River offsuit 4. We all check. Magoo tables KQT all hearts… with a 4 dangler. Because that’s what Mister Magoo does – puts his chips in terribad and then stacks the pot in front of him.

7:11 PM: Magoo and His Airness have around $1k each now, so I reloaded for that much.

Players in this game complaining about how bad the $20/$40 LHE game is at Fortune – and that everybody knows everybody there. Whatever that means. What poker room doesn’t have regulars that know the other regulars? I’ve played enough at Fortune to know that the game can be pretty lame at times, but it’s not that bad. Certainly beatable. Then again, I guess I could see how “fun” players would be turned off. But what do you expect? The higher the stakes get, the more serious everyone is. Still, Fortune has plenty of “fun” players and the games can get really good there.

7:54 PM: First, a poker hand: someone opens and there are two callers, I call with Q765 double suited, a hand I should probably be folding. Flop is 664cc and His Airness leads out $70 and I’m the only caller. We are both over $1k deep at this point and he’s super bluffy so I don’t love raising here. Turn is 9c and he checks it over to me. I bet $130 and he snap calls. River is a queen, which basically gives me the nuts. I bet $200 and he snaps again and I have to wonder if I should have sized up.

Second, a baseball story: Radio Mike checks in from Cheney Stadium and asks if I can check the radio broadcast and make sure it’s playing online. I agree, as long as he works a “Dark Knight” into his play-by-play in the next inning.

They come back from commercial and he opens with a reference to last night’s massive rain delay: “A lot can change in one day: yesterday, lots of rain, dark night…” Gotta love it.

Also, he just mentioned that Shohei Ohtani hit his third homerun of the season tonight and said that Ohtani was “sandbagging” everyone in spring training. Spoken like a true poker player!

8:15 PM: Big connection alert!

There’s a raise to $20 and all the important people are in. I call with A4hh55. Flop is a beautiful Q63hh, giving us the nut flush draw and an open-ender. Everyone checks to me and I bet $80 into $120 and I’m quite surprised to get three callers. No worries: 8 of hearts on the turn and His Airness leads right out for $200. God bless him. Player in between folds and he only has $400 behind, so I make it $500, he calls and then check-calls the rest when the board pairs on the river and I’m still good.

Just like that, my -$500 start is now $1000 sugar and the right people are still in the game with decent stacks.

Forgot to mention that His Airness snap-reloaded for $1k.

9:28 PM: Nothing notable to report, other than His Airness busted and left. He is replaced by Hit&Run, whom has already felted his initial buy in, which means we are in no danger of him booking a quick win at the moment. I don’t think I’ve seen the turn since my last update.

10:38 PM: Discontinuing the blog for the night. I’ll post a wrap up on this one when I’m done but I just don’t think PLO cash makes for a very good live blog. It’s been almost 2.5 hours since my last notable hand. I doubt I’m playing super late, but there are still three names on the list for this game.

11:15 PM: A new hand!

Here’s a hand that illustrates how clueless I am when it comes to proper preflop play a) when the stacks are deep, b) a good player is in, and c) my hand will be face up, d) max bet/raise is $300 each time.

The good Muck reg opens under the gun and I’m next to act with AA72 double suited. Here’s how many times I’ve 3-bet today: 0. So I think flatting is my best play. This is a pretty good AA hand, but not super premium. I can make two nut flushes, but my cards are otherwise unconnected. I might as well just call, disguise my hand, and let the yahoos in behind me and spring to life when I flop well.

I flat. Next player makes it $50 and folds back to UTG and he makes it $165. At this point it’s worth noting that the preflop betting is capped – I cannot raise. I call the $165 and so does the other player. There is now $500 in the pot and max bet size is $300.

766 rainbow

The good Muck player leads $300 and we are still like $2k deep and there’s a player to act behind me, so I call. The other guy folds. This is a pretty good spot. His hand looks like a big pair, with good connectors – maybe even AA – and my range looks much larger and can have middle rundowns like 8765 double suited. I am not too worried about being beat here and I expect him to check-fold turn a lot and that’s exactly what happens.

Solid result but I can hardly say if I played it good or not.

Wrap Up:

Forgot to post this when I finished. I basically only played one more interesting pot the rest of the night and, much like every other big pot I played, it is questionable whether or not I should even be in the hand.

I limp in with KQJT all clubs. I think if this hand was a badugi, I would still play it, so the fact that it’s all one suit is pretty much the same thing, but slightly better because even though I have four clubs there is still some flush potential. But should I call a $35 raise in a 7-way pot with it? I’m less convinced that’s a good idea, but it does seem like it will be relatively easy to play after the flop. So with $245 in the pot we see a flop of K96 with two clubs. Well, I don’t see a way out of this one. The question is, how fast should I be playing this hand? Well, I have top pair, a gut shot wrap, and the second nut flush draw. One of the bright sides about having four clubs is that if someone does have the nut flush draw and decides to gamble, I’m blocking it pretty hard and I’m in great shape against someone that wants to do something stupid with two pair and I suspect I’m in okay shape against a set. I’ll check some of these matchups out in a bit. Anyways, it checks to me and I decide that playing my hand like it’s the best is the my optimal line and lead out for $200. The preflop raiser calls and a splashy, fun player makes it $500 to go with a little over $200 behind. Mister Magoo goes deep into the tank and I’m quite deep with him and he runs so pure I’m not sure I want him to get in there. He reluctantly folds and it folds back to me. I don’t necessarily want the PFR to hang around and I’m obviously willing to play for the splashy player’s stack, so I reraise to $800, the PFR folds and we decide to run it one time.
Turn card is a jack, giving me the nut straight, and the river is a ten, which drastically reduces my hand strength (any Qx hand ties me and AQ beats me now). Fortunately, I am up against a naked set of sixes and scoop this monster pot.

Just ran some simulations on this spot and it’s quite interesting. I can’t really imagine any way I can ever fold this after the flop, but heads up against the set, assuming he has no clubs in his hand, I’m the slightest of favorites. In fact, it’s so slight, it’s basically just a coin flip. Mister Magoo claimed to have the nut flush draw and if he had decided to tag along (which is typical of him – even facing $500 cold) then my winning chances drop all the way down to 26% (though still better than Magoo’s chances). Getting it in heads up here is clearly profitable, so I’m okay with my line, but it’s definitely nice to be on the right side of the end result.

All in all, I didn’t think I played amazing and most of the big pots I won were with hands I think I could have justified folding preflop. This session was a good example of why I drastically prefer limit hold’em to big bet games. In general, poker can be a boring game, with a slow pace, and playing solid winning poker requires that you fold tons and tons of hands and spend most of your time sitting out while everyone else gambles. In the big bet games – especially PLO – this is even more amplified. I go through some dry spells in LHE, for sure, but it seemed like I went two hours between every interesting hand I played last night and I think I even played looser than is recommended for my current talent level. I did watch the good player from Muckleshoot play a lot of hands. No one would dare classify me as a tight player (if they actually pay attention) in limit hold’em games and almost all the extra hands I play are entirely to exploit situations and increase my profits. I’m sure this is what the Muck player is doing in PLO, but I don’t think I’m good enough to play loose against multiple opponents with super wide ranges, especially since almost every pot is raised before the flop. But he seems to do it quite well and frequently ends up with some huge results. One day!

Final Result: +$2270

Pretty amazing result considering how card dead I felt. Wouldn’t have guess I’d end the first week of April up $5k after punting $1600 on the 1st, but that’s why you don’t sweat the bad days! It’s just one day.

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Minithon Monday: $15/$30 @ Palace 4/2/2018 (Live Blog)

April 2, 2018

As I figured it was a late start today. We didn’t get back from Bellevue until after noon and I took a nap until about 2:30 PM.

I was thinking of not blogging today, mostly because a friend from Kitsap (The Atom) is coming to play and is liable to talk my ear off and make this a difficult task, but the lineup and list have made me feel like I should be blogging.

Starting lineup: The Tick (he’s back!), FBI Guy, Taz, The River Man, couple loose players, and a Palace reg I’ve never seen play this big.

4:28 PM: Solid start. I raise a bunch of limps with AQo on the button and Taz donks from UTG on A83cc which usually means a strong hand but doesn’t always mean I’m beat. We end up putting in three bets on the flop three ways and I call down on A83x8 runout and outdraw his A3.

Two limps, I raise KJo on button. Flop is AQ9 and only the dude playing up for the first time calls me. He reluctantly check-calls 8 turn and he’s not being deceptive so I fire the third barrel when I miss everything on the river and he folds JJ face up.

5:13 PM: Light bulb moment! 💡A rather new reg that started coming in for PLO and now plays 15/30 regularly finally has a name. I was looking for someone that constantly wanders into danger and always escapes unscathed. This player is always getting in terrible spots in PLO and plays way too many hands at LHE but his results have been quite good even though he doesn’t play well after the flop either. It has been an extended run of good fortune that kind of boggles my mind. He is Mister Magoo (thanks Bad Boy!).

5:30 PM: Here’s a river spot I’m unsure of. I have bet flop and turn with TT on a board of Q98ccs6sQs and I still have four opponents on the river. The repeat queen is obviously nice and the backdoor flush can be made with a pair of mines on the flop. Two players have checked to me and two players are yet to act. I think it’s close and probably closer to a bet, but I check and win the pot.

5:36 PM: I just raised five hands in a row (AQ, AJdd, AJss, KQss, JTo), c-bet all of them, triple barrel bluffed one of them, and lost every single pot. So my image just got a nice boost that could be aided if I can actually make a damn pair at some point in time.

6:22 PM: Well, we started with a pair, but my 88 is < Magoo’s QQ and fortunately the damage is limited as he flats pre, flats jack high flop, bets turn and checks back king river.

Coolered by The Tick: get a free play with QTo and the QQJ flop vs his QJ and more minimal damage as he waits til river to raise me.

Down about $350 so far.

6:41 PM: Weak-tight predictable player limps cut, I raise 95hh on button, both blinds call. Flop 973 rainbow, Sb donks, I raise and we are heads up. Turn ace and I’m bet-folding here but he just calls. River blank and pretty obv check back spot here and he shows A6 of clubs (with no club on flop). 🤦🏻‍♂️

7:05 PM: FBI Guy hit and ran the hell out of this game, winning about $2000 in less than three hours and wasting no time taking it out the door. He is replaced by The Atom, which is a definite downgrade.

7:34 PM: Had to scroll back to see when the last time I won a pot was. Time stamp at 5:30, two hours ago. Solid. Full disclosure: I 3-bet a button straddle and double barreled AQ high and got a fold, but does that really count?

Just double barreled A2dd on J774 and got folds again. I suppose the dry spell is over, but those are hardly pots.

8:11 PM: Magoo opens cutoff, I 3-bet KdQh from small blind, and he caps. We are heads up in 30/60 Overs now. Flop Q66 two diamonds and I debate check-raising but then I remember his soft ass line with QQ earlier and I decide to check-call down. I check-call Jd turn, and check-call king river and end up chopping with his very own KQo.

And then I tipped a dealer I don’t even know personally a $1 for this pot I just won $5 in. In retrospect, that seems a bit unnecessary.

8:35 PM: Geez. Open the AcKh and spike a perfect Ah on the turn after c-betting Q42hh, but I get check-raised by a passive player and wind up paying off unimproved on the river and losing to her flush.

8:48 PM: There’s a raise and a call in front of me and I call 55 on the button. 5-way action to 652 flop and all the bets go in 3-ways. I was really hoping to get heads up with Magoo to activate 30/60 Overs, but Bingo Man is going nowhere. Turn pairs the 6 and Magoo bets, I raise, and now Bingo Man cold threes from the big blind position. Gulp. Magoo calls and I cap, although I’m a bit unsure at this point. Anything less than sixes full feels like an overplay at this point. Maybe deuces full? A naked 6? They both call my cap. I’m unsure what I’m going to do if Bingo Man leads river, but they both check and call and I win a monster. Magoo had AA and couldn’t find his way out of this one – no matter how many times he was told he was crushed.

Tormund Giantsbane (“Game of Thrones” reference) in the game now. He’s a prominent player from the Shelton area that would have beat me in the Muckleshoot Player of the Series if he played at least four events. He also plays in the big mix game at Muck occasionally. He has been showing up more and more at Palace lately for PLO and 15/30.

9:23 PM: Today is blog LEGEND Radio Mike’s last session of the offseason. Offseason, you say? Yes. Starting this week, Mike will go back to his day job as the radio broadcaster for the Tacoma Rainiers, the AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

I have to say, I have really enjoyed playing with him these past several months. He’s become one of my best friends in poker. He can talk shit with the best of them and makes me laugh all the time. Plus, anyone that can keep up with me talking baseball is a huge rarity and a GIANT plus. He prefers to keep his day job private, but he has learned that you can’t play poker with me and not talk baseball and, deep down, I think he appreciates having someone around that’s on his level as far as our favorite sport goes.

Mike is a way above average player in these games, so his absence isn’t going to hurt the games any, but it’s going to suck not having him around the next six months – even if it does signal the return of the best game in the world.

It’s been a pleasure, sir! Go Mariners!

10:58 PM: As expected, Atom has been talking to me a lot making it hard to update and now Tormund is chiming in too with a lot conversation. He’s also struggling to get on my blog on his phone right now, so when you read this later just understand that the first rule of Fight Club is we don’t talk about Fight Club. I’m not always kind about opponent play and I’d prefer these people don’t know I’m writing about them. And yes, I know I’m sort of the one that brought it up!

I’ve made a bit of a comeback but I’ve had some brutal run ins with The River Man in big pots. He’s been all in against me four times and has felted zero times. One time was a big multiway pot where it was capped pre abs obvious post that I had the best hand with 99 on J8462 but he was all in for $20 on the river, I made it $50 after someone else called and got an extra $30 from that player but The River Man produced 75 for a straight. A while later I get a free play with K9 and we get his stack in on A99 and he has…A9.

11:32 PM: A couple of weird spots with KK. First hand I 3-bet button and Tick caps out of position. Flop QJ4. We are now losing to AA, QQ, and JJ. He bets and I raise it anyway. Turn is 8c and he donks. I honestly don’t know what to make of this but it will make sense soon enough. I call and call again on blank river and he shows ATcc. So he turned a double gutter and a flush draw and bet out.

Same orbit, I’m in the big blind with KK again and Bingo Man has opened cutoff and Tick cold-called button. I 3-bet and Bingo caps. I cap with Bingo on Q42ss flop and decide to go into call down mode. I check-call 4 turn and 7s river and I’m kind of surprised to see him turn over AKss for a rivered flush.

I somewhat reluctantly agreed to chop jackpots with The Atom earlier and he just turned over quad threes for $400 and shipped $175 of it my way. Chopping jackpots is just something that’s not really on my radar and I play with people I’m friends with all the time and we never do that, so just kind of caught me off guard, but hey, he helped me inch a little close to even!

Down about $500.

12:58 AM: I have to admit to some punting. First I defend the A6o from a cutoff open from Bingo Man and decide to make a loose peel on 973. The turn is a 5 and I think this is a good card to check-raise against what should be a pretty wide range. He thinks long enough that I think I have some fold potential on river if I brick out, which I do. I fire and he calls begrudgingly with KK.

Another blind defend against a Bingo cutoff open. I have K5o and he just got spanked the previous hand so I thought there was some spew potential here. I check-raise the KT4 flop, but he 3-bets and I’m just calling down now. Oh wait, no I’m not. We just binked a five! I check-raise again, he 3-bets, and I cap it. Hold up. What? I cap it? I dunno… that’s pretty optimistic. I must realize that on the river, which is a queen (a bad card) and check-call and lose an unnecessarily large pot to KT.

1:10 AM: I make an early raise with T9cc – not a standard open for me but mixing it up here. Bingo Man and The Tick call from the blinds. I c-bet the 822c flop, realizing I’m never getting immediate folds here. They both call. Turn is 7c, an excellent card to double barrel; Bingo calls and Tick check-raises. Oh please just let me spike this on him. Hallelujah! The river is a jack and we put in all the bets because I feel like I’m only losing to J2, 82, and 72 and if he has one of those hands he just gets to win a big one. He shows me the 82hh.

More punting or bad luck? Or a little bit of both? 🤷🏻‍♂️

1:25 AM: Feels like I’m running really, really bad (and not playing A-game to boot), but I’m only down around $400. Not too terrible. The game isn’t amazing right now so I’m feeling like calling it a session and going to bed at a decent time.

2:58 AM: Well that was a surprising end to the night. I had decided to play my last orbit and I was all racked up about to book a loss of about $300 when I picked up KK with an early open from Rocksteady and a cold call from Bingo Man in front of me. I 3-bet and Rocksteady caps. Flop is queen high and we go three bets there and I once again get beat into submission holding the mighty pocket kings and go into call down mode. Rocksteady puts the brakes on when the river is a king though and check-calls and shows me that I snapped of his AA.

Very next hand, Tick limps, I raise with A9o and both blinds call. Flop is T8x and Tick donks. I think A9 turns too many good cards to fold here, so I peel one off and spike an ace on the turn. He still leads into me with another player behind and I just call him down and he shows KT. This seems to be a pretty standard Tick line, where he continues to fire when the board texture starts to favor my range more than his. It’s kind of confusing, but he shows up with marginal hands so often in these spots that I wonder if I should be exploiting it more by raising the big bet streets more often when I only have one pair hands. I feel like I’ve built up the kind of dynamic with him where he’s never folding pairs against me, so raising should make me an extra big bet usually.

Here’s another strange hand vs The Tick that illustrates this tendency but doesn’t quite call for a more aggressive approach. He opens from the cutoff and I 3-bet him from the button with Q8hh. He caps. Flop is AKQ and I wind up calling him down unimproved when he fires all the bullets. I don’t have any tangible explanation for this call down because it seems like we are losing so often against a capping range that barrels off here, but there I am on the river calling a bet. I feel like I’m picking up something subconsciously telling me he’s not as strong as he wants me to think he is. Like when he caps pre, it’s done with a force and quickness that wants to exude strength that doesn’t really exist. And the timing and nature of his betting after the flop is giving off faux strength also. I’m not huge on physical tells, but when my instincts are telling me to take lines or make calls that don’t otherwise make sense, I figure it has to do with something I’m seeing – even if I can’t pinpoint exactly what it is. So I call down here and he shows me 88, which kind of boggles my mind. What hands does he think I’m going to call flop and turn with and give up on river?

Anyways, those suckouts with KK and A9 propelled me into the green and peak stack status and I managed to post a decent +$725 in what I felt was a pretty mediocre session where I felt I made more mistakes than usual. Cut that April deficit in half!

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

$540 No Limit Hold’em $200K GTD on Global Poker! (LIVE BLOG)

April 1, 2018

Pretty exciting happenings on this Easter Sunday!

First off, Global Poker is offeringa ridiculous $540 buy in no limit hold’em tournament with a $200K Guarantee. On Easter Sunday. They need 400 entrants to meet the guarantee and there are currently only 152 signed up with about two hours before game time. The tournament has a pretty sexy structure. Everyone starts with 20,000 in chips and blinds start at 10/20 and stair step every 15 minutes for the first several levels before going up every 12 minutes thereafter. So yeah, you start with 1000 big blinds. Extra deep. There is a $70 satellite at 1 PM that I may or may not play. It’s a super fast structure and they give away 20 seats. I might take a shot at it.

I’m currently playing a $110 tournament starting with 10,000 in chips and a decent structure. I have Tizull at my starting table and he’s streaming live on Twitch while he’s playing, so I’m obviously watching that as I’m playing.

The Joker is playing Day 2 of the Run It Up Reno Main Event today. I told him to keep me in the loop so I can post updates here all day long. His starting table has a few good players: RIU vet Albert Ng, tournament grinder Jesse Capps, and notable streamer Jamie Staples. He said Jamie is filming everything, so if you go check out his stream (not sure where it’s live) you can probably catch a lot of Joker today.

Finally, it’s Sho Time! Two way star Shohei Ohtani makes his MLB pitching debut at 1:10 PM against the Oakland Athletics today! I can’t wait to see how he does – especially since he is on two of my fantasy teams!

Anyone that wants to sweat my online play can get on Global and check out these tournaments:

12:43 PM: Welp. I decided to sign up for the $77 satellite for the $540 tournament and then decided not to and got the welcome news that I’m not allowed to unregister. So… I guess I’m playing it!

Also just sat at a 1/2 PLO table with Tizull.

12:49 PM: Update from The Joker: he was moved to a different table and now has Ronnie Bardah (record holder for most consecutive WSOP Main Event cashes) and Twitch streaming legend Lex Veldhuis on his right! Jesse Capps also moved along with him. Not getting any easier!

12:57 PM: Okay, I guess I did unregister the satty. Weird. It said I couldn’t like five times. I guess because I already did! Shrug.

1:18 PM: Just felted a buy in in PLO when my AQJ9 double suited ran into 44xx on J94 rainbow. Goodbye $200! I’m a little below starting stack in the $110 tourney.

The Joker just sent word that they are in the money in Reno. Congrats bud!

1:33 PM: Going well so far! Down 2.5 buy ins at PLO and down to ten bigs in the $110 tournament. But at least Ohtani looks great!

1:36 PM: And we’re felted 3.5 buy ins at 1/2 PLO and done with that.

1:38 PM: Basically doubled in the $110 with A6ss > QJ all in pre. Peaking at 12K.

1:40 PM: It’s all bad. Just lost AQ < JJ and down to 4 bigs. And Ohtani just gave up a 3-run homer. GREAT START TO MY DAY.

1:43 PM: Tilt level is extreme right now. Everything falling apart all at once. I’m watching this stream and watching Ohtani give up that bomb and The Leak is trying to talk to me, asking me if I can help her get plants out of the car, while I’m sitting here with a four big blind stack in the $110. Total input overload. I can’t handle it right now!

Woah. Just jammed 3.5 bigs with Q4hh and got called in two spots by AQ and AK. Flop 942 two hearts. Hello! Queen on turn. King of hearts on river. Triple up! 12.2K at 400/800.

1:54 PM: Good news from Reno: The Joker is chipped up with 370K @ 3000/6000 and 62 players left.

2:00 PM: On break in the $110 and coming back to about ten big blinds. Something really tilting that Global Poker does in cash games is if you bet all in on the river and get called, the reload prompt will show up as soon as they call… like before showdown. It feels something like this: “click – you’re fucked. Would you like to reload? Oh, and by the way, here’s how you lost.”

I played $15/$30 Mix until 3:45 AM last night and I won a measly $100. I was up around $800 at my peak and I wasn’t too thrilled with the game mix. They kept taking out all the Stud games (which I was crushing in) and we played basically all games I’ve only played in this mix (Badeucy, Archie, 2-7 Drawmaha). Of course, my inexperience in these games led to a solid $200 mistake where I kept an ace in Badeucy thinking I had a good badugi and was informed at showdown that the ace is high both ways. I was up about $500 heading to the last game and lost $400 in the last orbit, whiffing everything in Badeucy. Solid! I definitely like playing mix games, but the main reason I want to play mix is so that I can get more experience in games I basically only play at the World Series of Poker, so taking out the Stud is very, very annoying. In fact, I’m not planning to play any events that have Archie, Badeucy, or Dramaha, so cutting all the relevant games out of the mix is really brutal.

Just lost with AQ to JJ again. We are super short again. Back to 4 big blinds. Yawn.

2:27 PM: And I’m out of the $110. Got my last 2.5 bigs in with K6o and get calls from Q7o and J7o. It looks great for a triple up on 8628 but the jack spikes on the river and I get to focus on the $540 tournament starting in one minute.

Only stuck $850+ for the day so far. Not that bad. Sigh.

2:55 PM: Last half hour has been better. Off to a good start in the $540 event, currently sitting at over 23K stack and at a pretty good table with no known crushers, according to Sharkscope and at least one player that seems intent on torching off his stack.

Update from Reno: Joker has 300K with average at 255K and 49 players left.

And Kyle Seager just made up for a bases loaded strikeout by getting a lucky hop over Yonder Alonso’s head for a game-typing RBI single.

And my boy Shohei is currently in line for the win in Oakland. Need him to pitch one more inning for a possible quality start though and he was at 80+ pitches in his first MLB start, so seeing him in the bottom of the 6th seems unlikely.

3:03 PM: Just picked off a big river bluff from the torcher at my table and he vowed to play every hand I’m in from now on. Very next hand I limp with 55 for 60 and he jams 13.5K next to act with four players to act behind him. Folds to me and I type: “how much time bank should I use before calling with AA?” and end up folding. Very next hand… is it possible? A dream come true? I have AA. I limp again for 60 and… he folds. Bad beat! But wait, it gets worse. One other limps, big blind checks and I bet 85 into 210 on J99 flop. Other limper calls and I check-call 190 on king turn. River double pairs the board with another king and we both check and I lose a very small pot to QT. 27.4K @ 30/60.

And Ohtani just pitched a very quick 6th inning! Let’s goooooooooooo!

3:14 PM: Dammit. The player gunning for me and eager to give me his entire stack just got moved to balance tables. Unlucky (or lucky – who knows).

3:17 PM: Sigh. Just lost a big one in the $540. One limper, I make it 4x with 65ss and he calls. Flop is 763 with one spade. I bet 400, he makes it 1100 and we are happy to call here. Turn is a 9 and we both check. River is a 6 and he bets 2000 into about 3000. I feel like my hand is too good to call here, right? But… what do I get called by? Thing is… I think a raise here looks bluffy from me considering the board texture, so I think a decent-sized raise gets paid off by a decent amount of hands I beat. I make it 8200 and he snaps with 33. Whoops. Down to 17.4K @ 50/100.

Well, that was a bit spewy. Why fold and move on to the next hand when you can dust off 33% of your stack with 65? Stupid.

3:33 PM: First break of the $540. Wow. Global met the guarantee. 419 entrants. I really didn’t think that would happen.

Dee Gordon just hit a go-ahead homerun in Seattle. DEE GORDON. He hits like two bombs a year. And Haniger with the 2-run bomb! LETS GO MS!

And I just called off almost 100 bigs pre in a rebuy with 99 vs AA and doubled up with a flopped set. LOL. Rebuys.

3:41 PM: Back to 23K in the $540. Opened Q8ss and got called in two spots. C-bet J76cc flop and they both called. I give up and check ace turn, which checks around. River is a queen and it checks to the button who bets full pot. Small blind folds and it’s up to me. This line seems super bluffy to me, unless he’s floating flop with KT, which is somewhat hard to swallow. Plus, after it checks to him on turn and river, does he really think he’s getting paid off for a pot-sized bet with a good hand? I call and I’m good vs 54.

3:56 PM: Joker picks off a bluff with KJdd on T84ddAhAc to chip back above average. Sick call!

388 left in the $540. $40.2K up top. 54 cash.

4:08 PM: Mariners win! Eddy Diaz with the three up three down three strikeouts save. A Kimbrel! Meanwhile, Angels bullpen is trying to mess up Shohei’s win. Athletics have the bases loaded with the winning run up and one out.

Just doubled in the $11 rebuy. Made it 5.5x with KK and get one caller. Flop is QT9 all hearts. I jam 2600 into 1300 with Kh in my hand and they call with T8dd. Snap bangs the ten on the turn, but ace of hearts on the river to dodge the fuckery.

4:17 PM: Reno update: Joker has 275K with average stack at 400k coming back to 8k/16k blinds. 31 left.

Also, Angels hold on to give Shohei Ohtani his first MLB win.

4:30 PM: Two hours into the $540 and basically nothing has gone right for me. My 1000 big blind starting stack is all the way down to 14 bigs.

4:51 PM: Boom! Doubled in the $540 with AQ > AJ. Back over 20K and 20+ bigs!

5:12 PM: Hanging in with 20 bigs in the $540. Just tripled up with AK > A6 and AJ in the $11 rebuy. 42 left in that one and 27 cash. I’m 18th. $5 Rebuy started at 5 PM and I already tripled with AA in that one. Joker just checked in. He’s at 495k at 10k/20k blinds with 21 left. It’s getting serious!

5:27 PM: Sigh. Just doubled the same player twice seven spots off the money in the $11 rebuy. First time he jams 2.5 bigs from small blind and rivers an ace with A2 after I spike an 8 with 84. Next hand he jams ~7 bigs from button and I reshove with A7o and he spikes a 3 on the turn to beat me with A3. WTF. Now I have less than 7 bigs seven spots off the money. But I do have the button.

5:33 PM: Joker has made the final two tables of the Run It Up Reno Main Event! 578k with average stack at 700k. $56k up top!

I’m currently at 9 bigs in the $540 with 164 left. Four spots off the money in the $11 with no chips.

Just doubled twice in the $11. Back to 20+ bigs two off the money.

Just had KK and TT this past orbit in the $540 and my < 10bb jams did not get called.

5:47 PM: Huge Joker update: he just won two sizable pots to chip up over 1M with 16 players left and average stack at 780k!

Just cashed the $11 tournament myself. Not quite as exciting, but… I am going to make at least $9 in this tournament.

5:57 PM: FUCK. Just busted the $540. Talk about never having momentum after the first two levels. Dwindled all the way to 4.25 bigs and jammed A4 suited and lost to KQ. Wonderful.

Still alive in the $11 and I have a top 40 stack in the $5 rebuy, but there will be no saving this day at this point. I have lost over 1/3 of my online bankroll today. Solid!

6:09 PM: Real Joker update:

Peter Lynn Eliminates An Opponent

6:39 PM: Just final tabled the $11 tournament. Started with 173 players, but I’m struggling to find the joy in the accomplishment right now. Immediately lost a player and I am 5 of 8 left.

Update from Joker, on a crazy hand from Chris Moneymaker: “He 3bets pre and then triple barrels a jack high board shoving the river and the kid folds AJ for 500k shove into about 1.5m. Backdoor flush got there but that’s it. He shows KJo. He goes ‘I had the best. You had QJ or TJ.’ Felt like he has KK at worst. I don’t blame the kid for just check calling down but man.. so gross to have him show you that.”

And that’s how you win the World Series of Poker Main Event folks!

6:52 PM: Sigh. Jam ~8 bigs under the gun with ATo and get called by 77 and we’re out in 7th for $123.20. YAWN. Currently 117 of 157 left in the $5 rebuy and I’m not regging anymore tournaments. Calling it a day and hanging out with The Leak when I bust (or win) this one, but I will post updates from The Joker in Reno when I can. He’s currently on dinner break for an hour.

7:28 PM: I’m in the money of the $5 rebuy and didn’t even realize it. I currently have just over 20 bigs. I sat down in a $0.50/$1 PLO game and it took me less than five minutes to lose a full buy in with a straight plus nut flush draw that gets outdrawn by a bigger straight draw. Sigh. Running amazing in the 4-card game today!

7:46 PM: Cards back in the air in Reno. 15 left. Next jump at 12. Everyone gets $2150 at the moment.

I am 37 of 58 left in the rebuy.

8:14 PM: Ugh. I’m so steamy. Just busted the $5 rebuy in 42nd for a measly $31 when I jammed a little less than 10 bigs with 77 and KK called and held. Holy cow. What an epic bad day. I lost $1566.79 despite cashing half the tournaments I played and even final tabling one of them. Of course, I whiffed the two big ones and got absolutely SMASHED in the PLO streets. I won like one decent pot the whole time I played and got stacked multiple times in quick fashion. Just sickening. I torched off about 40% of my online bankroll today, which is hard to swallow, but it doesn’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. I knew I was playing high variance with the online roll by playing in a $540 tournament, but losing 6.5 buy ins in PLO at stakes bigger than I typically play was the real kicker. Oh well. I’ve been in much worse shape than I just left myself in. I’ll be back!

Time to focus on quality time with my wife, but I will post updates on The Joker’s super deep run in the Main Event here whenever he messages me them and The Leak allows for it. Stay tuned!

9:17 PM: Joker has final tabled the Run It Up main and he’s above average! What a sick run.

10:19PM: 8 left in Reno. Joker has 14 bigs.

10:24 PM: He ladders! 7 left. He’s guaranteed $5600 at this point and I’m pretty sure that’s a career high score for him. Achievement unlocked. Leggo.

11:07 PM: Watching the live stream of the final table now. It’s on Twitch… search for Run It Up and it should come up. Looks like multiple people are hosting it. JOKER!

11:25 PM: I put the jinx on him. I got to watch about 15 minutes live before he got it in with AK vs 33 and lost the flip to bust in 5th. I heard Jamie Staples say he has 17k locked up now, so I’m guessing Joker gets somewhere around $10.5k for his 5th place finish. Sick run, dude! Congrats.

A little post-day wrap up coming shortly.

So March 2017 was an amazing month for me. I had the best cash game month of my entire career and I coupled that with my fourth largest cash ever in a tournament. All in all, it amounted to a net profit that is the second best month I’ve ever had, just behind June 2016 when I had back-to-back $32K+ scores. I did cash the WSOP H.O.R.S.E. for $45k last year, which is my biggest cash ever, but I gave up 40% to my backers, so June 2017 only ranks as my third best month as far as personal net profit goes.

Off to a stellar start in April – already stuck $1500+! I love it. Sometimes it’s fun to start with a nice hole and dig my way out of it. Granted, anything I have on Global Poker started with a $300 deposit, so it all feels like gravy to me anyway and doesn’t hurt my bottom line. It’s kind of silly to play a $540 buy in with a $3500 bankroll, but it’s even sillier to worry about $540 when I’m overolled for that BI size in real life, so… gotta go for it. They’ve only had one tournament like that in the entire time I’ve played on Global so far.

I have a doctor’s appointment at 7:30 AM in Bellevue tomorrow and I probably won’t be home until around noon and there’s no way I’m going to play poker before taking a nap, so no clue what time I will start playing tomorrow or if I even will at all. This weekend my wife’s parents are having a huge celebration that is big in the Cambodian culture and we will be occupied with that all day Saturday and Sunday. It’s looking like I’ll only be playing full sessions on Thursday and Friday this week. I will try to get down to the casino at a reasonable time tomorrow, but I’m not going to push it if I’m not feeling up to. I have to wake up at 5:00 AM and I’m still up now, so my whole day might be screwed up. I’m definitely taking Tuesday off and going to see Ready Player One and I’m signed up for PLO on Wednesday but the way my schedule is currently looking I’ll probably head to the casino much earlier than the 6 PM start time for that game.

That’s all for today. Congrats again to Peter for a spectacular run and a great sweat!

Peter’s Elimination Hand (link here so they don’t get mad at me for sharing the picture below)

Oh man, you can see it all in his face:

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Friday Frenzy: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/30/18 (LIVE BLOG)

March 30, 2018

3:19 PM: A little bit of a late arrival to Palace. We slept in ridiculously late for no good reason.

I ended up taking Tuesday off, as planned, but did play ten tournaments on Global Poker and managed one measly cash.

I also took Wednesday off from live poker but ended up playing on Global again. I got off to a similarly terrible start and was 0-6 while making decent runs in my last two events standing. Well, those ended up very well:

That makes 11 or 12 titles on Global and both of those scores were my best ever on the site. I also won 300 big blinds playing $1/$2 PLO and $0.25/$0.50 PLO cash games. All in all, a pretty great day online which has my Global bankroll at its peak and primed to play in their $200K GTD $540 event this Sunday – with an amazingly deep (1000 bigs to start!) structure.

Last night The Leak and I attended the Seattle Mariners home opener for the sixth consecutive year.

What a game! King Felix was amazing, going 5+ scoreless against a very good Indians team and Corey Kluber’s one mistake to Nelson Cruz was the difference in the game, a 2-1 Mariners win! Great way to start the year, edging out one of the two best starting pitchers in the American League.

3:49 PM: Started off with a $4/$8 warmup and played a fun hand where I 3-bet AQhh multiway from the small blind, call a cap, check-call J98hJ board and shrug-call blank river heads up and win against king high – and then spent the next ten minutes getting berated by that player, before leaving for $15/$30.

$15/$30 starting lineup: lady that had been coming in recently then disappeared for a while, Chief Wiggum, a rather annoying non-reg that Hollywoods almost every hand, a total unknown, a classic maniac, and a couple of nits.

4:50 PM: Nothing too exciting so far. We lost the maniac already, which sucks. I’ve picked off some bluffs and have a little sugar right now.

Dealer is asking me if I have any nicknames for seat four and I don’t. Not because he’s not deserving of one – he is quite special – but just because he doesn’t play much. The dealer suggested “The Pest” or “The Flea” because he super annoying. I won’t say who this dealer was, but it definitely was NOT The Man’s wife. Seriously, I don’t even think she works today.

I think my most interesting hand came against seat 4 when I opened button with QTo. Flop is KTx and we both check. Turn is a blank and he checks, acts like he’s going to fold, and then says, “maybe I can suck out” and calls. River is a ten. He checks and feigns fold again and snap calls when I beat and shows how unlucky he got with K4. Almost played me like a fiddle!

Speaking of fleas, it has been a few weeks since I’ve seen The Tick in here. Please come back! It will turn around, buddy!

5:14 PM: Hmmm… maybe he is The Flea. I open cutoff with JJ, Flea 3-bets big blind and I cap. Flop is ATx, he leads, and I call. Turn king, he bets and I call. River ace, we both check, he turns over K6ss and puts a $1 on his cards to tip the dealer before I do anything – a move straight out of the Douchebag Handbook.

Some wonder how I can have a win rate so high in this game and it’s literally because people go out their way to give me chips.

6:00 PM: I guess Palace is spreading PLO on Fridays @ 6 PM now. When I got here I put my name up, but I thought I was signing up for next Wednesday. Not planning to hop in at the moment, but I may change my mind after comparing the lineups.

I’m a bit of a weirdo when it comes to stuff like this. I came to the casino planning to play $15/$30 LHE and it’s really unlikely I’ll switch gears now and play PLO out of the blue.

But some lineups you can’t resist. There is already one player sitting down that is really good at PLO, so I’m leaning no at the moment.

6:15 PM: Just got back from my second run to the gas station to get The Leak something for her allergies and incoming cold and pick up JJ on my second hand and… go running quads to secure the top High Hand spot with 5.5 minutes left. Leggo!

6:37 PM: Naw. I’m not calling him The Flea. It fits but someone has to be Hollywood and this guy is the biggest actor I come across here.

Hollywood straddles, big defends, I 3-bet QTss and they both call. Flop is Q43 two diamonds and one spade, I bet, Hollywood raises, big calls, I 3-bet and they both call. Turn is 9s, I bet and both call. River is a lovely ace of spades, I bet and Hollywood raises. I reraise and he goes into his whole routine and feigns a muck which I thought meant he was eventually capping it… but then he did something weird… and folded.

Also, ship that High Hand for +$220!

7:33 PM: Couple of tough pots in a row. I have QQ in the big blind and the lead on JT9dd6d (with Qd) in a pot that was capped pre and 3-bets on flop. I get two callers there and the river is an ace. I check, UTG bets, and the cutoff calls. This is also the first street that’s been in Overs, so I’m facing a $60 bet. Kind of painful but I just don’t think I’m ever good here. I fold and AA beats TT. 😮

Very next hand, there’s some limping, button raises, I 3 with the KQhh from SB and all call. Flop is QT6 two diamonds. I bet, Hollywood raises, cutoff cold calls, I 3, Hollywood caps and we all see diamond turn. I check-call. I check ten river, Hollywood checks, cutoff bets, I call, Hollywood raises and I end up folding. Hollywood wins with J9dd.

8:00 PM: It’s always fun when you can sense the whole table rooting against you. Audible groans from people that weren’t even in the hand when I win a pot. Someone turning over an ace high when I give up on the river and someone else not in the hand chiming in with a giddy “that’s good!”

And just now, a “get him” when the third player in the pot folds.

I’m not complaining. I actually really do enjoy it.

🤷🏻‍♂️

8:26 PM: Just ran AQ into 66 on Q64 flop. I am basically even… with the High Hand… which makes the fact that multiple people are openly rooting against me all the more hilarious. I mean… I’m used to it when I’m crushing, but not as much when I’m running really mediocre.

9:40 PM: This place is about to riot because there are 19 players on the list for $15/$30 and they are not starting a second game. There are four $8/$16 games going and basically the whole list is in those games.

I have to admit, if I showed up late and got locked out with 19 on the list and there was no second game in sight… I’d probably just start going to Fortune instead. I’m not making a recommendation but there’s no way I’d be cool with that.

Man, I’ve had this situation where s7 opens from the cutoff and I’m the only caller from the big blind come up about five times and every single time he’s flopped top pair or better. I’ve had top and middle pair a few times and every time I think he can’t always have it and he always does.

And with that latest matchup, I am now stuck… and this game sucks. There are no spewers. No maniacs. No world beaters either, but still.

And as I type that, there’s a straddle and a 5-way pot for three beats each. 😂

9:54 PM: Some odd Overs dynamics: under the gun limp and I reluctantly check the JTdd. Flop is Q99 and I’m actually planning to check-raise, but he checks back. I’m obviously bluffing the turn here but hey, I just made a straight and there’s less than $25 in the pot. I think it’s clear he’s rarely calling $60, so I check again and he checks back. River is an ace and I didn’t take this line to start betting now. I check, he bets $60 and I can’t even contain my grin at the hilarity of it. I raise and he snap-calls and I somehow get him to put $120 into a $22 pot on the river. 💪🏻

10:05 PM: Here it is again: s7 opens cutoff and I defend AQhh heads up. I check-call down on KQ3J6 and he shows KJ.

Every time? EVERY TIME?

I am up less than $100 overall and I’m probably down $500 in this defend vs cutoff scenario alone.

10:45 PM: I am putting on a clinic on how to lose money playing out of position tonight. Two limps, button raises, I 3-bet AQ and they all call. Flop is TT8 with two clubs and I check-call button and three of us see 6c turn. I have Ac so this is an easy check-call. We are heads up and the river is a queen. I think leading has merit but I end up check-calling another $60 and he shows me the T9hh. Sigh.

11:25 PM: The Joker is at Run It Up Reno and just bagged 188k (47 bigs) in the Main Event, which is way more exciting than anything happening at my table. Good luck Pesky!

11:35 PM: Running AWESOME! I’m straddling on the button because this game is trash right now and needs action. Hollywood calls and says “oh, he straddled, I raise!” but dealer won’t let him, someone else raises, I look down at KK and know I can get five bets in without revealing my hand strength so I call and they put the bets in for me. They both check to me on 754 flop and Hollywood check-raises and caps when I 3-bet and the other player is in there too. Turn is a 6 and we all check. River is a 3. A fucking 3. And I have to chop this pot with AQ and KQ. Solid lines from both these champions.

I mean they are both trying pretty hard to torch off their chips here but I think I have to bet the turn. They both raised and reraised preflop and I can have anything, especially straights. That makes this a mandatory turn bet for my range, even if it’s not a great card for my actual hand. Plus, when they both check, I have no good reason to think I’m beat anyway. KQ turned a flush draw but maybe the AQ folds?

The dealer from earlier said she likes The Flea better. She’s right. Hollywood doesn’t even come close to describing how annoying this dude is.

11:56 PM: Small victories! Seat 7 opens cutoff and I defend my big blind with 55. We’ve seen this about seven times already with the same outcome. Flop is 742 and I check-raise… he tanks long enough before calling that I know I got him this time. Turn 3, I bet and he folds! HE FOLDS!

Meanwhile, he has like $130 in front of him, which is goddamn amazing considering I’ve given him $500 of my own chips.

12:02 AM: Well it’s a new day now so they decided to finally start the second $15/$30 game. I’m on the move list because my game is epic bad, but if I move tables I won’t be able to take The Flea’s chips and that’s something I really want to do. It’s a close call. The other game is substantially better. At least three players worse than anyone in my current game.

12:07 AM: My mind is kind of blown right now. I said earlier that I haven’t seen The Tick in weeks. Well, he’s here. And he’s been here since before I got here. It’s funny… I was looking at him earlier and I thought That sure looks like a respectable version of The Tick. But I didn’t think it was actually him. It’s the first time I’ve seen him without a hat on and he’s wearing glasses. And he’s sticking to $8/$16. God bless him.

12:22 AM: Sigh. The good news is I moved to the second game. The bad news is someone I wanted to play with took my old spot. Then, after no one left my previous game for 3+ hours, two other players cashed out and took another player I wanted to play with. 🤦🏻‍♂️

There is still a maniac in the second game. I believe I called him The River Man in my last blog. Plus there’s another player I don’t recognize and that’s always a good thing. The rest of the table is filled out with decent regs, including The Invisible Man.

12:29 AM: Amazing! Another player left and now three of the four players I came over to play with are in my old game. Is this real? Seriously. No one left that game for the last 3+ hours and three people have left in the ten minutes since I switched tables. I swear, sometimes the poker gods just hate you.

12:51 AM: The bad news is The River Man is almost out of chips. The good news is he just doubled up. The bad news is he doubled upthrough me. 🤦🏻‍♂️

12:59 AM: I just saw something crazy. The River Man raised pre and everyone checked Q55. The turn was a ten and the big blind led out and The Invisible Man raised (after open-limping) and the big blind called. River was a blank and the big blind check-called and The Invisible Man shows KJ high. 😮😮😮 A stone cold three big bet bluff! Never seen that from him before. And apparently this detour from his comfort zone was too much to handle because he literally didn’t take another hand and cashed out instead.

1:40 PM: I was eating chicken wings while playing 6-handed so no updates, but Peter “The Joker” Lynn checked in from Reno with a printout of chip stacks after Day 1A of the Main Event:

Joker in 9th and some random with the chip lead.

8:34 AM: Whoops. Forgot to post a wrap up. Not a very good session. Never had any upward momentum. Any time I got ahead I’d lose pots. On the bright side, I didn’t lose pots all day either.

Final Score: -$90

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Minithon Monday $15/$30 @ Palace 3/26/18 (Live Blog)

March 26, 2018

Before I start updating I’m going to see if I can publish and update from an iPhone that is no longer active.

Testing.

6:38 PM: Great success! Blog opener coming soon.

If you don’t like baseball talk, just skip ahead to the next time stamp.

Yesterday I participated in an AL-Only auction fantasy baseball draft and that process basically took up my whole Sunday. It was a blast though and I’m really looking forward to seeing how I do in a format I have absolutely zero experience with.

Today I had another baseball draft. This one is a little different. Six of us draft six MLB teams and whoever has the most combined wins… wins. We also draft four players for homeruns and four starting pitchers for wins and whoever has the best two from each category wins money there too.

My picks (overall rank in parentheses):

  • Indians (2)
  • Diamondbacks (11)
  • Phillies (14) [Gambooool]
  • Athletics (23)
  • Reds (last six draw)
  • Nolan Arenado (5)
  • Joey Gallo (8)
  • Manny Machado (17)
  • Matt Olson (20)
  • Justin Verlander (6)
  • Luis Severino (7)
  • Trevor Bauer (18)
  • Carlos Martinez (19)

After that I went and upgraded to the iPhone X and that’s why I’m just now sitting in a poker game at 6:30 PM on a Monday. I haven’t transferred anything to my new phone so I’m updating from my old one via wifi.

6:54 PM: Starting lineup: Radio Mike, at least three fun action players, and three average regulars.

First hand I post cutoff with Q8dd and there are multiple limpers, one of the fast players raises from SB and everyone calls. Flop is QT7dd an there is a bet, calls, and a raise in front of me. I go ahead and 3-bet and we are 5-handed to the turn. The SB donks again when it’s an 8, everyone calls, and I get to raise again. Three of us see the 5d river and the SB donks again! The other player folds, I raise, and the small blind folds! A line so spectacularly bad and fishy that the third player on the river asked to see the SB’s hand, even though he folded. Hard to blame him – except he knows me and I can’t imagine he actually thinks anything funky is going on. Just bad players doing bad player things. Nothing to see here.

Good start!

7:25 PM: The action players are certainly making this a high variance game. Just lost a big pot where I defend J8 from the big and pop it on the JTx flop because the small blind was the PFR. I end up getting raised by one of the loose players on the 6 turn and Radio Mike had called two bets cold on the flop and the turn, so I’m fully prepared to fold when the river is an ace, since KQ seems like one of his most likely holdings, but he folds and I have to pay off the lunatic and she shows me J6o – the kind of hand you just can’t fold preflop when you’re in middle position.

7:31 PM: New blog nickname: Rocksteady. Rocksteady is a friend and blog reader that seems to have made the jump from $8/$16 regular to playing $15/$30 the last few times he’s been in.

First person to tell me who this person is and why I came up with this nickname gets $5 from me.

7:48 PM: I’m just going to refer to each individual maniac by their seat position. I open utg with KQss, maniacs 9 and 1 call, decent player calls, maniac 4 3-bets, and I cap because my hand plays incredible against this ensemble. Flop is K98 all diamonds and I decide to try and check-call down since so much can go wrong here and my hand isn’t really worth protecting but has showdown value. I check-call flop and turn, but the only reasonable player in the pot fires his third barrel on a final board of K98ddd75 and there are still two maniacs standing, which makes this a pretty trivial fold now. He shows the other two players A7dd.

Very next hand, maniac 9 raises utg and I defend 88 and check-call down on KJ73K and beat his 75o.

8:29 PM: Just broke a huge losing streak vs Rocksteady. My last session we battled in a decent amount of hands and he had me coolered basically every time. I think I went 0-9 against him at showdown on Saturday. Something ridiculous like that. Maniac 4 limps, he raises, I 3-bet AKo on button, 5-way action to ATx two clubs and Rocksteady and Manaic 4 check-call. Turn is Qc (I have no club) and I decide I’m probably going to bet-fold if Rocksteady raises here, but the maniac folds and he check-calls so I feel very comfortable betting the river for value and he pays me off.

8:35 PM: Radio Mike limps, I limp along with A4cc, maniac 9 raises, maniac 1 3-bets, maniac 4 calls, and both Mike and I call. Flop is 653 one club; maniac 9 bets, everyone calls, I check-raise, he 3-bets, and everyone else folds. Wow! I call. Turn is an ace and I check-raise since I should be crushing his range now and I have good outs if I’m not. He calls. River is an 8 and I actually consider checking but there’s no good reason to do it, so I bet and he calls with… 63hh.

10:00 PM: Maniac 4 limp-raises me after I raise QTdd from late position and both blinds call. I love my spot here so I put the cap on it and wind up losing to the big blind’s J7dd on JT8d5d3. Lots of good possibilities there and a terrible river. Maniac 4 also pays it off with A8o.

Things are going pretty well though. I’m up over $1000 and it doesn’t even feel like I’ve been running great.

There are currently four players that read my blog in the game now, which might be a new record. John Kim, Muckleshoot Main Event winner, has joined us and since I used his real name in my Player of the Series post, I guess I’ll continue to do so here. Maniacs 9 and 4 still in with $2000 and $500, respectively. Rocksteady and Radio Mike both still in too.

Maniac 4 is calling Maniac 9 “The River Man,” and having just read multiple books about infamous Puget Sound serial killer Gary Ridgway, I think I will bestow this name upon Maniac 9 on my blog.

10:52 PM: Of course, as soon as I give him a name he cashes out. On the bright side, he has been replaced by Puss-In-Boots!

11:32 PM: Radio Mike has been running brutally lately. So brutal that when he opens cutoff and I look down at KTss, I almost feel bad about having to 3-bet him for the 5th time tonight. He calls. Flop is TT6 with two clubs. He checks and I say “that is a better flop for me than it is for you” but he calls anyway. Board runs out jack and 7 and he check-calls both streets and then shows me the best possible hand he could play that way that I beat: KJ of clubs.

And then he goes home. John Kim also just left. We just picked up an $8/$16 regular that I haven’t played $15/$30 with yet but comes with a great nickname: Bingo Man. Also naming the female maniac Rosanne at the urging of Rocksteady. Trust me, it fits.

12:18 AM: I feel for Radio Mike right now. I’m not sure there’s any worse feeling than getting crushed in a totally juiced game where multiple players aren’t just making lots of mistakes, they are literally hemorrhaging money. There are weak players and then there are legit spewers. My game has at least three spewers in it right now and zero good players. It’s amazing. I was thinking I would leave around 2 AM but this is the kind of game where I feel like I need to dig deeper and take one of the team – even if it renders me useless until late afternoon tomorrow.

12:30 AM: Well, I was overdue to post an actual hand and, on cue: one limp, a spewer raises, I call K9cc because 3-betting never gets me heads up and my hand plays decent multiway. Puss-In-Boots 3-bets from the small blind and seven of us see the A99 flop. It checks to my right and he bets, I just call because I want everyone in drawing basically dead and this isn’t the type of flop texture where they take cards off for all the bets. I keep it 4- or 5-handed and then call again on the turn and Puss-In-Boots springs to life with a check-raise. The turn bettor calls and now I 3-bet because I know I have them both smashed. They both call and can you believe the river is an ace? Cruel, cruel world. Puss leads out, the other guy folds (?), and I lose to AQ. 🤢

1:14 AM: Puss-In-Boots had the courtesy to stay an extra half hour before leaving with all my chips.

And I’ve gone card dead and cold at the worst time!

Palace has a new floorman and his name is Mooski and I absolutely can’t resist the urge to call him Mookie instead.

1:51 AM: Chipped back up with AA in 3-bet 6-way pot and getting a little too much action from J6 on J42dd3d9 – they donked into me on flop and turn and helped me clear the field. I’ve seen this player take this line basically every time he turns some sort of draw so I felt fine raising flop and turn and still betting river.

2:38 AM: Oh, it’s painful but I think I have to leave. There are still three certified spewers in the game but I am super tired and running a little card dead, which can be a bad combo and make you start doing stupid things like opening 44 from the nojack at a loose table (I got folds from everyone but the big blind, but the hand still didn’t end well).

2:47 AM: Six players limp in and I look down at A9dd. I mean I have to raise this, right? Everyone calls and one of the spewers 3-bets from the cutoff. I mean I have to cap this, right? Flop QJ2 one diamond. I check, someone bets, I peel getting like 35-1, and a number of us see the Qd turn and it checks around and I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that. River is another Q and a spewer bets and everyone folds to me. Am I winning with A9 on QJ2QQ more than 4% of the time basically heads up (others left have nothing) against an crazy person? Uhm, definitely. Probably closer to 50%. I call and lose to JT.

Then I pick up KK and get outflopped by AK when they hit their 3-outer twice.

It pains me but I will be racking up and playing my last orbit.

Final Score: +$610

Pretty blah result for a game where it seemed like money was falling out of the sky at times. You look at a hand like that K9 v AQ on A99xA and you can see how much of an impact it has on your overall session. Winning 2.5 racks is substantially sexier than winning 1.2 racks!

I will be taking tomorrow off although I might play a number of online tournaments but mostly I’ll just be playing catch up.

Wednesday I’m probably playing PLO but I’m not committed to it and Thursday we are going to the Mariners season opener (even though we don’t have tickets yet)!

Then back to the LHE grind this weekend.

Posted in poker | 1 Comment »

h1

Friday Frenzy: $15/$30 @ Palace 3/23/18 (LIVE BLOG)

March 23, 2018

3:00 PM: I played over 8 hours of $8/$16 yesterday and broke exactly even – an incredibly rare occurrence. The $15/$30 game didn’t start until I was over seven hours into my session already, so I passed on it and ended up calling it a rather early night.

Just got to Palace a few minutes ago and immediately got a seat in a 7-handed $15/$30 game. There seem to be a ridiculous amount of chips on the table, which makes me wonder what happened before I got here. I think I may have missed out on something special.

First hand I post in the big blind and defend Q7o and flop trip 7s to start my day off with a solid win.

Current lineup consists of two $15/$30 regs without nicknames, Part-Time, two guys I’ve never seen play $15/$30, and a couple other non-regs. There are three players with really short stacks (and one is all in as I type this), so this game needs some serious backup or players willing to play short-handed.

3:18 PM: Fell down to six players for a minute but Curious George is here to save the day!

Strange hand: guy opens, I 3-bet QJhh, he calls. Heads up to KT6 one heart and two spades and he check-raises me. I 3-bet and he folds. Did not expect that.

3:57 PM: Full game now.

Couple of odd hands against the same player. Guy has been coming around for PLO and seems to be a reg now. He plays super loose and makes some interesting plays.

First hand I open TT and get way too many callers. Flop is 532 and I get called in four spots. He raises me on 9 turn and everyone else folds. River is ace and we both check and my hand is good.

Then I 3-bet JJ and he caps from the small blind and check-calls Q98hhd flop. He check-calls 7d on the turn and the other player folds. River is 2d and he suddenly donks out. I call, expecting to lose to AKdd or AJdd but he shows me 43dd instead.

🤤🤤🤤

4:33 PM: 4 of 8 players with $30/$60 Overs now.

4:58 PM: Man that guy owns me. I open QQ, he’s my only caller, so we are playing $30/$60, and I get the KQ6 flop and can’t beat his J9.

5:52 PM: Nothing exciting to report. My big hands are losing to draws pretty consistently. QQ loses to a river king that flopped a flush draw with K3ss. Defend 75 and lose to 65dd on 977dd. Down about $500.

7:05 PM: This has been a boring session. They let me win with KK in a capped pot.

Just had AhQx in 3-bet multiway pot and got the QT3hhh flop and none of the pot. Cap flop. Two bets turn. Brick. I don’t even call cause it’s so obvious. Blah.

8-handed now. Curious George left. Part-Time came back. Not a great game at the moment.

7:22 PM: Hit&Run just sat down and The Joker just walked in and is first up and, by God, this game needs him in here putting people on tilt.

8:58 PM: Still playing.. but done blogging for the day. Obviously haven’t really been into it. Sorry!

Posted in poker | Leave a Comment »

h1

Your Muckleshoot Spring Classic Player of the Series is…

March 22, 2018

…me!

Ship that extra $6000 my way!

But not without controversy.

I’m going to tell this story how it happened, even though it will probably upset some of the parties involved. Because maybe they are going to look bad. But that’s not my fault. It’s their fault.

So heading into Day 2 of the Main Event, I was in first place by myself in the Player of the Series standings. 34 players were returning for Day 2 and I knew that if I didn’t add to my point total by final tabling, there were a couple guys still in that could pass me if they finished in 8th or better. I also knew that if they played down to a single winner, the winner would get 150 points plus whatever participation points they had and that person could pass me also.

Well, I busted out in 29th for no additional PotS points and I didn’t want to stick around much, so I headed to Fortune to kill a few hours playing $8/$16 and planned to head back to Muck when they reached the final table and make sure I wasn’t the victim of any shenanigans. I was messaging Flexx via Facebook and he was keeping me in the loop of what was going on. While I was playing, The Leak messaged me and basically summoned me home, saying she hadn’t seen me all week and she wasn’t wrong, so I decided to go home instead of playing a cash game I wasn’t really interested in and sweating a final table I wasn’t playing at.

So I headed home and Flexx kept me in the loop of what was going on in the Main Event. One of the guys that could catch me busted out in 17th. The other guy that could catch me ended up final tabling and passing me in points, but as I mentioned in a previous blog, you had to enter four tournaments in order to qualify for Player of the Series (more on that later) and he didn’t do that and couldn’t qualify. Ouch for him.

Of course, this was information I was getting from Flexx, not from anyone actually running the series, so while it seemed somewhat reliable I wasn’t exactly banking on it just yet. I would need official word before I got truly excited about it, but my understanding was that the only way I could fall behind on the series leaderboard was if someone that had played in at least four events ended up finishing in at least second place. I suppose if there was an even chop there was some way I could be passed, but it seemed unlikely.

A little before midnight on Monday I got a phone call from Flexx saying they were doing a 4-way chop and that he didn’t want to collude with the points to take first place in the Player of the Series race. I am very non-confrontational, especially when taken by surprise, so I didn’t really know what to say to him. He was acting like he was doing me a favor by not cheating and taking enough points to pass me and even asked me to give him $500 for doing me this huge solid. I was admittedly bewildered and didn’t really know what to make of it. Since when does someone ever intentionally cost themselves thousands of dollars so that someone else can have it? I was taken aback, not able to fully absorb what was happening in the moment and told him I would consider it.

It didn’t take me long to realize it didn’t make any sense and that I should definitely NOT be giving him any of my money. He had mentioned something about he could play it out and maybe win it and pass me legitimately and it occurred to me that that is exactly what he would do if he had any real chance in this tournament still. There’s no way he’d be chopping if his chances of finishing first were greater than his chances of finishing fourth (more on that later).

Anyways, I went to bed thinking that I had won Player of the Series and that I would be not giving Flexx $500. Still, I wouldn’t really believe it until someone from Muckleshoot told me it was true.

Tuesday I went to see Red Sparrow with a friend and before I left my house, I had tagged a Muckleshoot employee in a Facebook poker group and asked him to post the final standings. Someone made a disturbing comment, they said: “[Flexx] won POS … I believe..?” This was on my mind as I was watching the movie and I was having a really hard time paying attention. When my Dexcom warned me of low blood sugar, I used it as an excuse to step outside, get some popcorn, and check to see if the standings were posted yet. That’s when I saw it:

1. K.Seachao 152 points
2. M.Coombs 150 points

WHAT. THE. FUCK.

I was boiling mad. It shouldn’t have been possible. And it was exactly what Flexx had called me the night before to insure me would NOT happen. And yet there it was. He was first and I was second.

When I walked back in the theater, I was pretty relieved to hear my friend say, “it’s still as bad as it was before” and I said “let’s go then.” I could barely concentrate on the movie before but now I was fuming. There was no way I was going to finish watching it.

Time to put The Dark Knight’s detective skills to work.

Adding up the remaining points available for the final four players and dividing by four, I discovered that it was possible that Flexx could pass me. He could get 127 points for the chop plus 25 points for participation. That did equal 152. But the only way this should be allowed to happen was if the prize pool was also divided up evenly. If someone got more money than anyone else, then they were indisputably the winner of the tournament and should receive first place points. Or, at worst, the remaining points should be divvied up by the same percentages that the prize pool was. If this sounds like too much work for the staff, well, boo fucking hoo. There are thousands of dollars on the line and staff laziness shouldn’t be a factor in who wins Player of the Series.

So I asked them to post the payouts and saw that someone got $35k, two players got $30k, and Flexx got $25k. There is no way he should have or could have passed me in points.

I called to protest. I was told that’s how they always divide up the points and I immediately called bullshit. Literally four days earlier when I won the Friday night tournament, I got twice as much money as the other players so I got first place points and they divided the rest of the points up evenly. That makes a lot of sense. I was the clear winner of the tournament so I got first place points. They all got the same amount of money so they all got the same amount of points. Good job, Muckleshoot staff! Now what’s this crap you’re telling me about how this is how you “always do it?” The tournament director was silent for a bit and then said he would get back to me.

I’m happy to report they called me back rather quickly and said that I won Player of the Series. I wish I could applaud them for fixing it in a rather timely fashion, but it’s hard to commend them for not allowing me to be screwed out of $2000. If I didn’t question the final standings, I would have lost $2000. If I accepted the TD’s attempt to dismiss me by saying “that’s how we always do it” then I would have lost $2000.

So no, I’m not exactly grateful about it because I’m not sure that it was an honest mistake. They were either standing by while I was getting screwed over or they need to be more in tune to what’s actually happening. I shouldn’t have to overcome laziness or turning a blind eye in order to win Player of the Series – and no one else should ever have to worry about it either.

After I walked out of the movie, I went to Palace to try and handle this situation and ran into John Kim (more on him later), the guy that ended up taking the lion’s share ($35k) of the 4-way Main Event chop, and he told me a much different story than the one Flexx was trying to sell me. He said that Flexx was doing everything he possibly could to make sure he won Player of the Series. Unfortunately, this sounds more like the Flexx I know than the one that was telling me “I don’t care about Player of the Series” and “I hope you win it.” It makes me think that his phone call to me was an attempt to net an extra $500 in case he didn’t win PotS (note: even after talking to Flexx after posting this, I still don’t get why he thought I should give him $500). John also told me he shouldn’t have made the deal because he had over 3 million in chips, the other two had around 2 million, and Flexx only had about 500k (like I said, Flexx wouldn’t be chopping if he wasn’t on the ropes).

(Note: Flexx says these chip counts are wrong. Maybe they are. I was told what they were and kind of estimated but the impression was John K had lots of chips and Flexx was the short stack by a decent margin so the point remains – no one was doing me any favor).

So am I happy that I won Player of the Series? Of course! It’s an extra $6000! But it does feel a bit tainted since I had to call a referee timeout and get a reversal from New York in order to win it.

Do I think I deserve Player of the Series? Honestly? Not really. The requirement that you have to play at least four events to qualify is absolutely silly. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday tournaments start at noon. How many people with day jobs can realistically make the four tournament requirement without requesting time off from work? Someone could work those three days, win the $500 and Main Event back-to-back and not be eligible for Player of the Series.
That is simply garbage. Perhaps a better requirement is that you have to cash at least two events? It makes sense that in order to be Player of the Series, cashing in multiple events should be more important than playing a certain amount of events. If this was the case, then Flexx wouldn’t have even been in contention to swoop in for a possible win and I wouldn’t have even won it.

John Kim played a better series than I did. He not only won the Main Event, but he also final tabled the $300 event that I won. And the guy played his ass off. He made some mistakes at the $300 final table, but I have no doubt that he played better than I did to get there. He’s an accumulator and I’m a survivor and if I had to pick what style I admire more, I definitely think the accumulators are playing better poker. Plus, after telling me that he regretted his play at our final table, he went out and shipped the Main Event instead. Congrats dude! He also passed me in points and would have won Player of the Series if he had played in at least four events. Not my fault, but it does seem pretty shitty.

Tommy Kivela also passed me in points. He had a sick week. We both final tabled the Little Creek Main Event on Sunday, we both final tabled the Limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament at Muckleshoot, then he was part of another final table chop and capped off his ridiculous week by finishing 7th in the Muckleshoot Main Event. I would have been okay losing Player of the Series to Tommy because he had an amazing week, but he didn’t play in four events either. I noticed that I didn’t get participation points for the Omaha event, so if Tommy missed out on winning Player of the Series because the Omaha didn’t count as an entry, well, then that’s just total crap.

Josh Sepulveda also had a huge showing at this series. I’d never heard of or seen this kid before but I was incredibly impressed with his play. He looked pretty young, probably in his early or mid twenties and if this series was any indication, he has a bright future ahead of him – at least in no limit hold’em tournaments. He played the hyperLAG style to perfection and almost always had a mountain of chips in front of him and any time I saw him lose a big pot, he was right back in the thick of it, winning those chips back almost immediately. Because of his super loose and aggressive style, I was forced to play extremely snug or get into high variance leveling wars with him, and I chose to take the former route and I have to say, at times, it was rather humiliating. Josh ended up chopping with the other three players in the $300 event that I won and he made a deep run in the Main Event, busting in 17th I believe. Josh didn’t pass me in points, but he sure impressed the hell out of me and if I had to say which one of us played better, I’d say he did. I have a feeling he will be doing big things in the near future.

I definitely think the Player of the Series race needs to be tweaked and more closely moderated. The four event qualification should be replaced by a minimum of two cashes and, for goodness sake, if you’re going to have an Omaha event, it should count as an entry and be eligible for points. It shouldn’t be advertised as part of the series if it’s not actually part of the series. Finally, the points should be awarded carefully and consistently. There are thousands of dollars on the line in this race and being wishy washy and hands off about how they are distributed is a good way for something like this to happen. Maybe someone important from Muckleshoot will read this and make the necessary changes or maybe they won’t. If they do, I’ll go ahead and add that they absolutely need to have a pot limit omaha event. It’s 2018 for crying out loud. We are still playing five no limit hold’em events?? Really?

I’m not mad at Flexx for being Flexx. It’s hard to be mad when I have an extra $6000 in my pocket now! I half expect him to read this and think he’s still drawing live at that $500 he asked me for.

Lastly, what a monkey off my back. I can finally stop marking the Muckleshoot Classic on my calendar as my semi-annual donation to the local player pool. The Muck went from being my all-time worst location to… somewhere in my top 5. I have to say I enjoy my tendency of taking my worst locations and turning them around with massive statements. I hope it’s something I can continue to do in the future. Next up: Commerce!

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

h1

Muckleshoot Spring Classic $750 No Limit Hold’em Main Event (Updates)

March 18, 2018

12:20 PM: About to sit down midway through level 1. I think stacks start at 20k with 45 minute levels and 25/50 blinds today. Super deep structure. Best tournament in Washington state.

I showed up 2+ hours late to the $500 yesterday but still sat down with 70 bigs. Ended fizzling out pretty quickly after a few hours when I lost to a 10bb jam with 77 vs QQ and then busted when I jammed 17 bigs with 88 and lost to AQ. All my flip-winning powers were all used up from the day before.

I started yesterday with the point lead for Player of the Series, which I believe is worth an extra $6000, but if they played down to a winner last night (and didn’t chop points) then someone passed me. Also, a repeat final tablist could feasibly pass me. I will know here shortly.

12:44 PM: Someone did get first place points yesterday so they did take a slight lead in the PotS race. I’m still in second but I probably need to at least cash this event to maintain that spot and I think they only pay two people.

My starting lineup looks pretty decent. I have a Palace semi-reg that final tabled the $300 with me (and played really well, but is beating himself up over some of his FT decisions) and someone else that went deep in the $300 that I recognize. The rest of the table looks kind of soft, but we’ll see.

1:41: Flopped a set of 3s, bluff-raised someone on T63hhdTd with 74dd… nothing too exciting so far.

A player I wrangled into coming out today just busted in a 350bb pot where she has TT on 4457 and all the chips are in vs AK and her opponent rivers an ace. Not sure if they had a flush draw or not, but it hardly matters. I saw her leaving the room and messaged her, “I hope that’s just a bathroom break,” and she responded with a “fuck off” and “I want to murder everyone.” 😮😂

I appreciate the sentiment and the honesty of her emotions. That’s how I blog!

I’m sure there are plenty of notables and friends (and foes) in the field but so far I’ve seen Flexx, Bill W, Solomon Grundy, The Joker, Curious George, and Slimer. Plus a Kitsap County player making a surprise appearance.

Joker was standing in the middle of the room, looking around, and finally spotted me and then gave his best ever Joker cackle. Wish I had video of it. It was a perfect supervillain performance.

2:21 PM: 21k first break

3:35 PM: Just bluffed off 4k trying to get someone to fold what I thought was on a ten on a J52T7 board after he check-called me on flop and donked turn and bet small on river, but he basically snap-called me with AT so… really looking to making any sort of real value hand against him.

Down to 19.7k.

3:58 PM: Called 1100 from SB with T9hh after a limp and a raise. Four of us see J85ddh flop. I check-call 2500, so does big blind, limper jams for ~9k, PFR jams for 16k. I have an easy (but painful) fold and big blind folds also. KJdd vs PFR’s AA and the aces dodge all the redraws. I would have rivered the nuts, but obviously can’t call off 90% of my stack here.

On the bright side, the two players I think were the strongest and most dangerous at my table have busted already.

4:43 PM: No ability to accumulate chips today. Missed a draw in a raised pot and down to 6k, which is about 15 bigs. Almost at my comfort zone!

4:48 PM: Open QJdd (taking a different strategy than my 17bb punt yesterday) and I get called in four spots. 🤦🏻‍♂️. I’m committing on any piece and I get a very favorable Q84 rainbow (one diamond) flop and stick my remaining 5k in. Q9 calls and I double.

15.4k on dinner break

5:35 PM: Cards about to be back in the air.

5:43 PM: Call EP open to 1500 with AJdd and jam over a 2500 flop bet on 732dd and get the fold. Back to around peak chip stack.

5:51 PM: Playing at the same table as the legendary Lee Markholt for the first time ever.

6:30 PM: Flat 2200 with KQss in position. Lee along for the ride from the big. Flop QJTccs. We all check. Turn Q. PFR bets 6k. I am actually not sure that I have the best hand here. However, there aren’t really bad rivers for me, so I call and plan to re-evaluate on river, although it would be really tough to get away from. Lee folds. River Q. I am sure I have the best hand now. He checks, I jam for about 2/3 pot and he thinks for a bit and folds TT face up! Lee says to him, “I think he had a queen; he looked really calm.”

Yeah, okay. Get me the hell off this table.

Sick runout though and I like my line, even though getting it in bad would have been a double up.

Peaking at 27k.

Next table to break. 👍🏻

7:01 PM: Sick, sick spot. I open 2100 TT at 400/800 with about 30k, button calls, big blind makes it 6700. Kind of tough spot. I have almost 40 bigs and I don’t want to put them all in yet. I flat, planning to either set mine or get it in on favorable flops. Button ships it, having us both covered. Big blind tanks for a while and mucks. I do some more tanking and decide I’d rather fold and play a 30bb stack a new table than flip (hopefully) in a 90bb pot. If my table wasn’t breaking I would flip here, but the thought of saving 30bb to play with at a possibly much softer table was too attractive. I muck and he shows AK.

My table broke a couple hands later and now I am sitting on The Joker’s immediate right. Of course I am.

7:23 PM: Open AA utg, two calls, c-bet flop and check-jam turn and double vs AQ.

46.7k

First time I open button on Joker’s small blind, he stuffs it on me because, what else would he do? Fold?!

8:00 PM: 59k coming back to 600/1200. About 100 players left and 36ish get paid.

8:05 PM: Player of the Series actually pays four spots so I’m drawing really live at a piece of that.

9:15 PM: Chipped down a bit possibly getting involved in a bit of a leveling war (that may have only involved one person) with a friend and blog reader. Ultimately decided to fold a pair against continued aggression. That guy has 3-bet me twice and Joker has jammed on me twice, so with that much recent history, and both of them in the blinds, I was pretty stoked to wake up with AA on the button folded to me. I made a standard raise and they both folded! What timing.Won a pretty decent pot defending Q9hh and check-calling twice on 972cchKh and getting a free showdown vs 66.Close to peak statusat 55k.

9:34 PM: 65 players left. 34 cash. I have around 25 bigs and and a below average stack. Time to activate some run good!

9:39 PM: Sick hand at my table just now. Joker jams under the gun with 10ish bigs, the guy that’s been 3-betting me jams 40k, and the small blind calls it off. Joker has QQ and he’s up against AKo and AKhh. Door card ace of clubs. Ouch. Followed by two hearts. Double ouch. Joker can’t catch the Qh and AKhh is basically freerolling for it all. No waiting. Flush on turn and he busts both of them.

9:50 PM: Lee Markholt, Flexx, Curious George, The Invisible Man (!), two of the guys that final tabled with me, and someone in the top 10 on the points board are all still in making deep runs.

9:55 PM: Dang, as I was typing that Curious George busted. Good run, man!

10:14 PM: Just defended T9dd and lost a smallish, but significant (for me) pot on QQTxx vs AT.

Down to 14 bigs now. Comfort zone! We are jamming, folks!

10:19 PM: Blinds up and going through me after the break. 11.5 bigs that will be 9 bigs if I forfeit bothblinds.

10:33 PM: Player of the Series payouts and points for today:

So I’m tied for 2nd with 140 points and the leader has 145 (but busted). If I don’t cash, whoever wins this automatically passes me. Three other players in the top 12 or so are still in the Main, all with a decent chance to pass me. The bottom guys would need 8th or better, but the guy in 4th is drawing super live.

There is one caveat that could help me, even if I don’t cash this. The qualification that you need to play at least 4 events. I was just told that the current point leader doesn’t qualify but that is not confirmed.

Pretty decent shot!

Meanwhile, I jammed 12ish bigs with AT and outflopped QQ for a double up.

Peaking over 68k 20 spots off the money.

11:06 PM: Doubled again. Raise AK and get check-raised on A92 rainbow. I jam and hold vs AQ.

125k. Above average with less than 54 players left.

11:55 PM: I made a play so devastatingly bad I don’t even want to share it now. I’ll talk about it later when it might not tilt my face off. 8 spots off money.

4th place in points is busted, so that puts me in great position to finish in 1st or 2nd.

12:13 AM: Missed the nut flush draw vs top pair. I have 12 bigs. 6 off the money.

12:42 AM: Cashed it. Puts me 1st in the points race, but a couple guys still in drawing live to pass me. I’ll be coming back to 37k with blinds at 3k/6k tomorrow and I will be all in the first orbit. 😂😬

**UPDATE**

Cards in the air in three minutes and there’s some good news: there are 9 minutes left in the 2k/4k level so I’m not in as desperate shape as I thought.

9bb UTG+1

Leggo!

5:04 PM: Unreal. Jammed A9cc first hand and get called in three spots. Flop Q42cc. Heads up on the side, two of us all in. One guy bets and other player folds. I’m up against QJ and JJ. Ace on the turn!

More than quadrupled first hand!!!

And suddenly we have 30+ bigs.

😮😮😮

5:26 PM: Ugh. Bad, loose player opens 20k. I jam 130k or so with AK, he basically snaps with 44 and wins the race.

Out in 28th for $1300.

Well, that was about the last thing I expected to happen after that sick quadruple up.

Posted in poker | 1 Comment »

h1

Muckleshoot Spring Classic $300 No Limit Hold’em (Updates)

March 16, 2018

As expected, I didn’t get to sleep until super late Wednesday and then, on top of that, I woke up multiple times throughout the night, so I made the prudent decision of skipping the $200 no limit hold’em tournament yesterday and basically took the day off instead, writing my MLB win totals post and watching March Madness games.

I actually did wind up playing a decent slate of online tournaments on Global Poker:

  • $5.50 $5K GTD NLHE Rebuy
  • $33 $8K GTD NLHE 2R/1A
  • $5.50 $750 GTD PLO Rebuy
  • $55 NLHE (deep)
  • $11 $250 GTD Limit Hold’em
  • $22 NLHE 2R/1A
  • $11 $500 GTD PLO 2R/1A

*note: 2R/1A means two rebuys and one add on.

I ended cashing in 3 of my 7 events, final tabling both PLOs, finishing in 5th and 3rd. I also took 11th in the $8K GTD. I was making a decent run in the $5K rebuy but ran KK into AA for 30 bigs each.

All in all, a small little profit for the day while I was relaxing at home watching basketball.

I honestly kind of hate the Muckleshoot Classic series. It is unbelievable that in the 6+ years I’ve been playing in it they have basically made no adjustments. It is still a five day series that has five no limit hold’em events. Ugh. A little variety couldn’t possibly hurt. It’s probably asking too much to expect them to do an 8-Game tournament or a H.O.R.S.E., but not having a PLO event on the schedule in 2018 blows my mind. You’re telling me a $200 PLO with re-entries event wouldn’t be wildly popular?

Of the five events, I think the $750 Main is the only must play and the only one I actually look forward to. I basically never play the whole series and almost always skip the $500 tournament.

There is the $200 limit Omaha 8 or Better tournament, but they treat it like a bad step child they hope no one notices. It doesn’t get its own day of the series. Instead, it’s buried at 7 PM on the first night and they think it’s so prestigious it doesn’t even qualify for points in the Player of the Series competition. In other words, it’s not really part of the series.

Eh. I don’t expect them to make changes at this point. I asked for a PLO tournament a year or two ago and made a good argument but nothing changed and maybe it never will. I’m sure the no limit hold’em specialists love this series, but I’m close to the point where I may start coming out for the Main Event only.

The Leak accompanied me to the Muck today and this will probably be one of maybe three tournaments she’ll play all year. I asked my CPA if we could write her tournament buy ins off as a charitable donation earlier this week and was informed that we cannot.

Cards will be in the air in about 15 minutes. I will be posting stack updates and some hands here and there.

12:06 PM: We appear to have started with 12k in chips, but I’m not entirely sure because I have 10.5k after triple barreling TT28T with J9 and getting picked off by AQ.

12:18 PM: Woah. The Leak just messaged me saying she doubled up already. Crazy! Details to come.

Puget Sound legends Rep Porter and Lee Markholt making appearances. When I call people legends I’m usually joking but these guys are legit superstars. Rep has three WSOP bracelets, Lee has a WPT title, and both of these monsters are in the top 5 of the Washington state all-time money list.

One seat at my table remains open and I recognize two of my eight current opponents. One is a Muck regular that ranks near me on the Washington state money list and the other is someone that plays at Palace that recently hit a massive Royal Flush jackpot and is someone I want at my table in limit hold’em.

12:33 PM: The Leak tells me she had AA and let her opponent bluff of his stack. No info on board texture or his hand though.

12:40 PM: Everyone asks me why I don’t play more no limit hold’em. It’s because I hate it. The pace of the game… all the posturing… Jesus, can we just get on with it? I know there are some spots that require some real thought, but the guys that take 20+ seconds every time they have anything but a standard fold spot are just terrible humans.

1:01 PM: Forgot to mention this but I ended yesterday’s March Madness action in 31st place of 31 entries in the bracket pool I’m in. I don’t know about you but I find that level of sucking quite impressive.

1:30 PM: 9150 on first break coming back to 100/200. The Leak has a ridiculous 36k stack.

Some other notables in the field: The Riddler, Bill W, Flexx, Slimer, Sandman, Solomon Grundy, decent amount of Palace regulars.

2:10 PM: Sick hand at my table not involving me: JJ vs 22 on J6225. 😮

Probably worth mentioning this now. We spent the first 20 minutes of this level talking about Global Poker and one of my tablemates was trying to sell his conspiracy theory that Global’s software “isn’t rigged,” but that “it’s not random,” and “more bad beats happen there than anywhere else” he’s ever played.

Then this JJ vs 22 hand happened and I said, “yup, that sort of thing never happens in real life.”

2:48 PM: Super card dead for first three hours so this was a nice reprieve: I open 500 with AA and button calls. Flop T98 with three diamonds, giving me the nut flush draw with my overpair. I started the hand with about 9k and there’s basically no scenario where I’m ever getting away from it. I bet 1000 and he calls. Turn pairs the 9, I bet 2500 and he calls. Ace on river relieves any concerns of being beat (not that I thought I was) and I stuff it for 5k. He doesn’t think too long before calling with AT and giving me a full double to 18.5k. Peaking!

3:27 PM: I have about 19k and The Leak has 39k on second break and coming back to 300/600 with big blind anteing an additional 600 each hand.

3:55 PM: One limper, SB completes, and I make it 2200 with QQ and the limper calls. Flop is K82 and I let him bluff off 7k with AJ by check-calling all three streets. He didn’t think about his decisions at all and kept the bets small (2k, 2k, 3k) so it was a pretty easy call down.

4:24 PM: Ouch. My table broke and my new table probably has 5-6 guys that are better than anyone else at my last table. Bad beat.

4:46 PM: When the small blind calls and you look down at QJ suited and think, “well, I can’t not raise this” and then they jam and you’re both 25+ bigs deep. 🤢🤢🤢

5:06 PM: The Leak and I are both in the 26k-28k range heading to dinner break. Blinds will be 600/1200 when we resume in 40 minutes.

6:55 PM: Didn’t play a hand forever and then a flurry of action.

I defend Q8ss, flop top pair on a super wet boar, but only get one street of action.

I open AQ and get jammed on by a short stack with KT and bust him.

Super active and hyperLAG opens to 4500, I flat with ATdd. I would have 3-bet jammed this on him a while ago, but I had chips all the sudden and wanted to take a flop with him. I call 7k on T52hhd and then bet 12k when the 2 pairs and gives me the nut flush draw, prepared to call a jam, but he folds.

7:26 PM: Open 4500 with AK and button calls. I c-bet T82 flop for 5k and he calls. Turn is an ace and I check-call 9k. River queen and I check-call 14k and he shows 33.

Peaking at 98k, coming back to 1200/2400. The Leak has 46k. There are seven tables left and less than 63 players. Can’t see how many cash or how many started.

7:52 PM: The Leak has busted. We are down to six tables and apparently 41 players cash. The money bubble is approaching.

Meanwhile… Virginia is in serious jeopardy of becoming the first #1 seed to lose in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Obviously, they are my champions.

8:24 PM: Down to 5 tables… four spots off the money.

It took 8.5 hours but someone is finally lighting me up for wearing a Blair Walsh jersey in a Seattle casino.

8:49 PM: Hand-for-hand, I’ll have 12 bigs after posting big blind and ante this next hand.

9:03 PM: Cashed it and then snap-doubled with 55 vs AK. Peaking at 105k.

9:20 PM: Freeroll is on. Under the gun opens and I jam 15 bigs on button when AQ and spike a queen vs AK for the full double.

197k now! 😮😮😮

9:36 PM: Four tables left.

9:48 PM: Open 21k @ 4k/8k and 8k ante with AA and someone flats in position. Flop 754 two hearts, I lead 30k (never folding), he jams, and I dodge his flush draw with AThh.

317k!

9:55 PM: Call a 5 BB jam from the big with Qc8. He shows A6ss and turns aces up but I river a four card flush with my Qc to bust him.

389k with 25 left. Average stack is 160k.

10:33 PM: Open 26k with A6cc from cutoff with big blind having 95k behind at 5k/10k. I would actually hate it if the big jams on me because he’s been playing kind of snug, so when that does happen I’m ever-so-slightly unprepared but after doing some shoddy math, I decide I have to go with it. He tables KQo and has a gut shot, flush draw, and two overs on the turn and bricks it all.

519k with 18 left.

The homie Christian is dealing and asked for a shout out and I kind of have to honor that request since he delivered that AQ > AK suck out to set this rush into motion.

A Kitsap County area player (and former softball teammate of mine) is at my table now making a deep run, something he’s done consistently over the past three Classic series. Kudos to him!

11:16 PM: Reshoved over a 10bb jam with AQ and the short stack has KK and doubles through me.

261k. Puts me close to average now with 16 left.

11:25 PM: Defend < 3bb open with A5dd and it checks around on A86hhh flop. I check-call 2.5bb on jack turn and inexplicably get a free showdown on jack river vs… AcKh!

Lost the pot but minimal damage vs his holding.

Down to 180k though.

Players busting all over the place. I think we are down to ten now, on the final table bubble.

Scratch that. 11 left.

11:52 PM: Chipped down in a blind vs blind situation but just made final table with a paltry 116k.

#Team10Bigs

Second final table of the series and third one in the last week? Seems decent for someone that doesn’t really play tournaments. And thank goodness the limit O8 tourney doesn’t count otherwise I’d be in the running for the $6k top prize for Player of the Series. 🤦🏻‍♂️😡

12:01 AM: I’m starting FT with the shortest stack and 2.5 bigs about to go through me. Will definitely be looking to get it in this next orbit.

12:08 AM: Ouch. Blinds went through me and then went up.

But… as I was typing that, I stacked off with ~3.75 bigs with A6cc and doubled through… AT! Christian is my magic dealer! Back up to 200k(10 bigs).

12:39 AM: Sick double with QQ vs AK all in pre with a K66 flop. Queen on turn! Let’s. Go. Back up to around 500k coming back to 15k/30k.

12:55 AM: MP opens to 60k, I flat AJo and we both check on KQ2 all club flop (no club in my hand). Turn is Td and he bets 85k. If he flopped a flush, god bless him but I’m not going to mess around on this board texture. I jam, he snaps. Uh oh. He rolls KJ with Jc and bricks out.

We are chip leading over a milly. Still nine players left.

My opponent mutters something about how trapped I was and I’m thinking “yeah, nice check, buddy.”

1:10 AM: One player busts and then I open A9ss and a < 10bb stack jams on me and I double him up when his AQ holds.

785k.

1:10 AM: Huge double. Flat AJcc and get it in on J54hh vs 98hh and hold in 1 million pot.

1.7 million

6 left.

1:39 AM: Winner. $20k

2:15 AM: Ended up getting $20k with 5 players left. 1st was $24k so it was an easy deal for me to make. One double up for any of them would have drastically leveled the playing field so very happy to lock up the $20k.

Registered for tomorrow and planning to show up in level 3 or 4.

Posted in poker | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »