The Bulldogs are Cheating

Poker

One Rainy Evening (Part III)

29 July 2010
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Over the next bunch of orbits I was absolutely card dead. I won the blinds once raising from the button with pocket sixes but that’s about it. I was being not so slowly being blinded off without there being much of anything I could do about it. Amazingly I still snuck onto the final table sitting about 6th in chips but with a pretty massive jump in stack size above me.

The shortest stack at the final table was the Scandi. He had barely more than a BB and consequently went out shortly after the first final table hand. Once he was gone the only player other than the chipleader at the table I recognized was the ice queen, now sitting to my left. On her left was a guy with a Stephen Fry avatar, then the chipleader who had 3x the next closest player. Next up was a dude called Smoky, a girl(?) using a Britney Spears avatar, a guy named Jésus and a guy who appeared to be a Gus Hansen Wannabe (GHW.) Britney and I were the short stacks with everyone else but the CL being at about level pegging.

I knew I had to make a move on the first decent hand I saw. I finally saw pocket nines as the table folded around to Brit. She pushed all in, the GHW called her and with little choice I pushed as well. We flipped em: (click for more)

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One Rainy Evening (Part II)

27 July 2010
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Things were less pleasant as the action continued. The best hand I saw in the next few orbits was a pair of snowmen out of position in a hand that the Eurodonk managed to double up on. At the same time, the Ice Queen was showing why I’d feared her as she snapped up a couple massive pots. She managed to bust one of the more annoying players at the table (a guy that tanked on calls so often you’d think he was timing out) and seriously crippled another

The next time I played a hand, I was in the Big Blind again. Action folded around to the loudmouth (unsurprisingly with a Jersey location) and he 3x-bet, the ice queen folded and the Eurodonk pushed all in for not quite a 3x bet as well. My cards were not amazing (10d-8d) but the loudmouth had been caught once before trying to bluff with nothing after things had been folded around to him. I called with a smile. (read on after the break)

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One rainy evening… (part I)

25 July 2010
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***Warning: Heavy Poker Content***

It’s been ages since I’ve played any poker, either live or online, but I had a rainy evening free this week and fired up my laptop for a little fix. Browsing the tables I found a reasonably small scale SNG that like wouldn’t keep me up too late if I went deep. Little did I know it was going to turn into a roller coaster ride.

The opening few minutes were the usual explosion of push and whiffers. For those who don’t play tourneys online I should explain. In the opening few minutes of these low denomination tournaments(which is all I let myself play online til I’m done school), there is a decent chance you’ll have one or more people who will go All-In on one of their first hands if it’s half decent. These people are either hoping to show early aggression, or in many cases they’re hoping for a call or two and a win in order to start the the tourney off with a decent chip lead at their table. If they lose, they’re only out the buy in. There are a lot of reasons why people think this is a good idea, but I won’t go into them. Suffice it to say that if you’re a normal player, it’s a good idea to stay out of any hands for the first orbit or two unless you’ve got a monster hand. Even by normal standards, this particular tourney was lousy in the opening minutes.

In the first hand across the 10 table tourney, 9 players busted. Within the first 4 hands at my table, 6 people busted including a 4 way all in where the winning hand was a pair of queens. My best hand for the first few orbits was a J-10 suited so I didn’t mind sitting back for a bit. Still it was definitely the fastest I’d ever been moved tables in an online tourney when we were split up after a single orbit. Thankfully things became a little less mental at this point as the more insane among us were weeded out. Over the next few hands I won a few small pots without going to a showdown and made one pretty decent laydown with trip jacks when the opponent in question tabled a straight flush to cripple the former chipleader.

Click onward for the rest of the post…

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A venetian, a roman and a greek walk into a bar…

15 May 2009
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I had high hopes for poker going into this Vegas trip. The stories I’d heard of easy fish (with money to burn) at certain tables in Vegas had me salivating a little, and my practice sessions prior to the trip had gone well. Unfortunately for me, things did not go according to plan and I took a series of bad losses that threatened to put me on the worst tilt of my poker life.

 

My first Vegas poker experience was perhaps not the ideal time to play. It was our first full day in the city and we started off with breakfast just off the strip at the Ellis Island Casino and Brewery. This little joint had been recommended for their off-menu $6.99 steak special, but our first visit was for a solid American breakfast. Chicken Fried Steak, Poached Eggs with Tabasco and some solid sourdough toast later I had my caloric intake for roughly a week and was ready for some action. Unfortunately for my heat-stroke susceptible self, it was unseasonably warm in Vegas for May. A long walk down Las Vegas Boulevard to the MGM grand, combined with a giant margarita meant that after the walk back I was feeling the onset of serious headache/nausea. Since I’d just spend $90usd on a ticket for KA, I figured I’d better fight it off and let the other boys start on the poker.

 

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An uncertain neon oasis…

12 May 2009
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Categories: Poker, Things Toast cares about..., Travel

vegas

 

We are in the middle of a global economic recession. Though I certainly wasn’t in any doubt about it before, I had it systematically reinforced during my recent visit to Las Vegas. Things are bad in Sin City… and getting worse.

 

…more after the break…

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Pre-Holiday Roundup!

1 August 2008
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Categories: Meanwhile... at stately Wayne Manor., Poker, Travel

It’s finally here!

While nowhere near as fun or blog-worthy as my original plan, starting tomorrow I’m still getting out of this godforsaken city til at least the 20th of August. School doesn’t start until the 4th so I really don’t care when I get back.

As a result updates will likely be sporadic since I have no way of knowing if our hotel(s) in nowhere Wyoming and bumfuck Montana will have reliable wifi. I’m hoping our actual destination resort will, but you never know. In any case I’m planning to spend more time white water rafting than on the net but given the total lack of nightlife I imagine I’ll still be online fairly often when I can.

I really hope so anyway as I’ve been having a crazy run at P-stars lately cashing in most of the (admittedly low stakes) tourneys I’ve played in the past week. Made a solid few bucks at the cheapo PLO tables last night too. Probably my best play last night was check raising a guy all in after I flopped a boat.

I was in the bb with a Patrick Roy (3x 3x) to those who aren’t hockey fans. Blind got doubled at 1st position and about half the table called. I matched and we saw the flop. 3x 9x 9x came out (w/ no flush possibilities) and I inwardly smiled. I had to think I was tops. I checked and it went around most of the table before we saw a bet and a double. I pretended to hem and haw for a second then called and the rest of the table folded leaving just me and the raiser. The turn came out with a Jd (and again no flush help) I played it slow and checked to him.

Now this guy had been really aggressive all night, the moment he sensed weakness he pushed hard and never seemed to consider the possibility of someone slowplaying him. I was counting on this and sure enough when I quickly checked to him he put about 1/4 of his (then cheapleading) stack into the pot. I put him on a 9 with a nice kicker as he hadn’t seemed too aggressive until the flop hit (I also suspected the guy that bet on the flop initially had held the other 9 as he’d been playing any suited connectors all tourney. It was possible however that he had a straight draw so I decided to go hard. All-in (to take me to about 2/3 of his total stack. I imagine he suspected he’d been had but he called anyway and we flipped. Sure enough he had Ad 9d and I ended up just short of being the new chipleader.

It was a nice run, as in the next few hands I saw a QQ and Rockets but got no action both times. My cards ran a bit dry after that, but I still managed to hold on til heads up when another pocket pair ran into a low set and I finished in second. Still a respectable payday though.

Here’s hoping I can keep the run going while on holidays and maybe even play some live poker. There’s got to be an indian casino or two in wyoming/montana right?

Shittiest thing about the trip? Having to watch incredibly annoying and biased American Olympic coverage, not an event where a yank has a chance to medal? Good luck seeing even 5 minutes of it, and if one didn’t medal you’re never going to see the podium. Missing CBC’s final olympic broadcast and getting that silly little shiver when I first hear the music will suck too. CTV/TSN’s coverage will never be as good. I can only hope our resort in the mountains gets satellite with CBC, it happened once in the past on a trip there and my fingers are crossed.

Now dear readers, in closing I leave you with the cutest Darth Vader ever.

Luke, I am your gender-confused father.

The World Series of Donkey Liquification

10 July 2008
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I hope everyone who enjoys poker has been following the World Series of Poker the past few weeks. I have no doubt the ESPN coverage will start appearing on TV as soon as they can finish editing it but it’s entertaining to follow along online as it happens. ESPN will never let you know the behind the scenes stories and the less “TV friendly” moments.

So far this year has been “the year of the pro” with professionals taking home a large percentage of the 50+ WSOP bracelets but now it’s Main Event time. For those less than familiar with the WSOP the Main Event is a $10k NLHE tourney (Translation: No Limit Texas Hold’Em with a $10,000 buy-in to play.) This is the event Chris Moneymaker won not so long ago that set off this whole poker extravaganza. It’s the event that ESPN loves to make hay out of and it’s an event with a pretty incredible payout pool.

Over 6800 people started in the main event (and yes, that means there is $68 MILLION in play minus the rake) and after two days 1308 remain. To put that in perspective, somewhere around 1/3 of the total prize money for all 55 WSOP events is in play for just the Main Event. First place will take home just over $9.1 million dollars and just making the final table guarantees you just short of a million. 666 degenerate sinners will cash and make at least double their money back.

A lot of discussion has ensued this year about the downturn in poker and how the organizers had to scrape by last years entrant number by the skin of their teeth. I still maintain that between the government stupidity in the states and the fact that it’s now been a few years since Moneymaker even seeing a moderately significant downturn would have been pretty amazing. Sadly I’ve come to accept that by the time I have 10k to throw away just to say I’ve played in the Main Event we’ll likely be back down to less amazing numbers but it’ll still be one hell of an experience. $1,500 NLHE or something? Definitely in the next few years. It may be stupid, but a nice payday and a Mr. T bracelet would be awfully nice.

Stupidly enough though, the WSOP has decided to delay the final table five months until sometime in November. One can only imagine the backdoor wheeling and dealing that can (and will) happen during that layoff. I missed whatever explanation they had for it but I certainly find it frustrating… I can only imagine what it’ll be like for those actually sitting there.

If you’re interested in following along a good first step is Poker News and you should definitely visit the The Tao of Poker with Dr. Pauly for a more behind the scenes view. One should be aware that the WSOP started at the end of may and some of these folks have been sweating the entire things with at most a couple of days off. The tone of the writing tends to get a little… darker… towards the end of things.

Apologies for any site wonkyness, had to rebuild it right before leaving.

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