Got to play the WWdN game last night. I started off like a donkey, but survived to to make the first break looking ok in chips. Ended up 18th of 68 with no real suckouts or spectacular hands. At least I didn’t play like crap.

Then I sat in a $15+1 Turbo SnG. I have played the cheaper $6+.50 ones, but those are true crap shoots. This one is a bit better- it got to heads up and went back and forth for at least 30 hands (and seeing as it is a turbo, about 4 blind levels). I ended up winning it, which is a nice feeling.

This is a full week-plus of solid, cash positive, non-angry poker. Is that even possible for me?

The Mookie is tonight. Named after me no less. Come play, I’ll do my best not to be a total donkey.

First the SnG progress. Not so good on Tuesday where I finished 6th and 6th. My first one on Wednesday ended in 9th when my KK ran into AA. Ooof. The 2nd one was not as bad and I scored a 3rd place finish putting me only down a few bucks for the night. Why not join The Mookie? Well, maybe because these 10+1 MTTs are *huge* -EV for me. Oh well, I have a good time so lets play.

For the first hour I chipped up nicely. Top 5 or 8 in chips most of the way. Felt good and solid. 41 players tonight, 5 pay. That is a tough one but better than 10%, so fair. One of the Stars’ milestone hands was dealt just after the 1st break, and no- I didn’t get my share. The 2nd hour was survival. If you read Mookie’s report, I just got lapped by the field. I never really had better than 10BB. I just kept enough to stay alive. I made the final table (first one in awhile) but was still very much hurting. When it got to the bubble, Mookie and I *combined* had less than an average stack. It looked like one of the two of us was going out 6th for $0 and the other 5th for $32 or something. As a joke, I offered to chop 5th (which really wasn’t a bad deal). Mookie did end up bubbling. Then I ran my KQ into a KT and doubled up timely. I kept chugging away and chipping up. Suddenly I was getting cards again, making the right bets, and quickly moving up. I ended heads up with drewspop and had a 3 to 1 chip lead. I only doubled him up once, but ended up sucking out hitting a 6 outer on the river to take him out. To be fair I was about 30% to win pre-flop 🙂 This is my biggest single cash online, and maybe with live as well.

You want to know how -EV these MTTs are for me? I cashed for 165 or something last night, which puts me $-1.00 over every event I have in PokerTracker (15 or something). That does not count the smaller private events which are counted as single or two table SnGs. It does feel good to have a big night though.

The one skill I have begun to work is using my breaks. Two examples from last night:

TT in mid-position, I bump it to 4BB and get someone in early position to call. The flop is Q-rag-rag rainbow. It is checked to me and I continuation bet about 1/2 the pot. I get raised 3-fold. There are not a lot of hands that beat me, but I start counting them and realize that this is bad money if I call. I fold.

Later in the night I get JJ in early position. Again 4BB bet and Mookie calls. Flop is 998 and I make it a bit more than 1/2 pot. He raises me to put me nearly in. I have to call time on this one, but I fold. He comments on how his raise was too big.

In the past I might jam with either of those two hands, especially the 2nd one. There were plenty of times when my continuation bet took the pot, so it is certainly the correct play most of the time. I just have to watch the re-raise and who is just making a move and who has the goods. Obviously either of those hands might break me and I would not have cashed last night, so it worked out for me there. What was that golden rule? It is better to win a small pot vs lose a huge one. It might be better to say it is better to let go of a small pot vs bust in a large one, but I can be a pessimist.

The big boss from Rational is here today. He is going to screw up Enchelada Thursday, so I am already unhappy.

After a very lackluster performance on Wednesday, I sat down with some trepedation yesterday.

My fears were realized when I was bounced 9 of 9 from my first SnG. I then played two more finishing 3rd and 3rd to squeak out a small profit for the night. That is until I joined the WWdNOT presented by Darval.

It took two hours- but I ended up bubbling, AK s00ted is not match against QQ even when you flop the flush draw. Surflexus took the whole thing down. I did make Jordon my personal whipping post early in the event though. Sorry about that. [Ed: I pooched my first version of the results; thanks for the heads up Mook]

On the plus side, the weather has been amazing with highs in the 80s so I was able to mow my disaster of a lawn yesterday. It only looks a little crappy now rather than like *total* ass. It is finally Friday, and I plan on taking it easy this weekend. It probably won’t happen- but I really want to do a bit of yard work and maybe do some more on my poker table.

Speaking of poker tables, if anyone knows of a source for inexpensive 4″x4″ table legs could you leave a comment? I really don’t want to pay $50 a peice for them.

In my third SnG last night, it got down to four players and one of the two players started tapping on the glass. He mentioned sharkscope to the mouth of the table, and how he is constantly losing money. The only thing the mouth said in response is “cheater”. Which is an interesting, but flawed, way to look at it. I had not said a word the who event- mainly because in the middle I got chips and then donked them off trying to bully without a 4:1 or 5:1 chip advantage. I had two thoughts when these two started mouthing at each other:

1) Why tap the glass? If you know the guy is a fish, just take his money. Knowing his stats via things like SharkScope and PokerTracker give you an advantage, great. Now just play.

2) Is it really “cheating” to know that the big chip leader has an ITM percentage of 10% or a ROI of a negative amount in SnGs? I think this particular fish (according to SS) was just pissed off that anyone knew how much money he has pissed away over his poker career.

Thoughts?

Busted out mid-pack in the Mookie last night. I do know that I donked off some chips on a steal attempt late and was forced to push and didn’t get there. I was hot decked early, and played very solid to be a force and take most of Bone_Daddy84 and Darval’s chips. But then nothing. Oh well. I had fun.

I then decided to continue with my personal SnG challange by plopping down at a 10+1 SnG. I did really well early and took a good size chiplead into a dumbass play where I raised with 99 and called a re-raise all-in to a mid stack. He had JJ. The math was not there, I should have laid it down. I was able to get back up to average chip stack and lost AA to AK to be busted. He hit his two outer on the river to take out the rockets. Grrr.

I gave up poker for the night. If I can’t play smart *and* I get unlucky it is time to save the cash for another day.

Darval is running his WWdNOT tonight. It is a late game for us central time folk, but if I am up I am going to try and make it.

It is very odd to be part of a huge corperation. We don’t have the direct oversight (yet) but you can feel the presence in everything, email, software, badges, POs, the list goes on and on. Oh well. At least I am getting paid through next year.

Played the WWdN event on Stars last night. Well, played is an exaguartion. I was late to show up so I post and folded 7 hands (including QQ doh!). 8th hand: AK sOOOted. Pop to 4x BB. One caller. Flop is KJ5 rainbow. Bet 80, raised to 260. I popped it to 700. Re-raised all in. And here is donkey me! I called. TPTK no good against trip 5s. I hit an ace on the turn to give me a miracle chance. Nope. Out first. Oh well. No more virtual felt last night as I decided it was time to go for my walk and catch up on TiVo rather than piss away money.

At least the guy I gave my money to ended up winning. That is worth something isn’t it?

It is well after midnight, so don’t mind the grammar and spelling…

Results from the last two nights:

Wednesday:
10+1 SnGs: 7th and 6th (oof)
Big O Online: 19 of 34 (AA cracked by AK)

Thursday:
10+1 SnGs: 6th and 6th (note a trend? I am)
This is NOT WWdN: 2 of 18, yipee! (99 cracked by K9)

Today was a winning day, but only because of the higher payouts of private tourneys. Not that I am bitching mind you. I am bit unsure of my play in that event because I came to the final 9 either 1st or 2nd in chips (with Mookie). I pissed them all away to last in chips with 6 remaining then got a bit lucky with some draws to double up twice and bring it into the money. BTW: This event was put on by Darval who is the one who sucked out on me at the end and took the big prize home 🙂

I need to spend more time reading and working out my leaks. My tourney PokerTracker stats have 2500+ hands so I ought be close to reasonable stats at this point. Harrington’s Vol 1 is sitting on my nightstand… so I really don’t have any excuses.

While playing in tonights event I took a photo of my new monitor setup. Dual Dell 2001FP 20″ screens that do 1600×1200. I have a Matrox Parhelia card that can span the desktop, so that is what I do. Have a look:

Played in two $10+1 SnGs tonight. 6th and 1st. Both tables were basically rocks. 74 hands until I was busted in the first one and 129 hands until the end for the 2nd. But I turned a profit tonight. First night in awhile.

FYI: I finished 47th of 78 in DADI 5. 8 paid spots, 39 spots gave POY points.

TripJax and I are going to try our HU match sometime later this week. Hopefully Wednesday or Thursday because I might try and make it to the lake for Lanae’s last gig on Friday.

Edit: Don’t forget Mookie’s weekly online event.

I entered the DADI Invitational 5 last night with a chance to win a $1500 seat to the WSOP. It was a who’s who of blogger poker and quite a challange to make a deep run. I ended up finishing at just over 50% which stinks because the top 50% get POY points. I think I played pretty solid- didn’t get into too much trouble. My busting hand (no bad beat here) was a re-raise all-in with TPTK (A-10) and a backdoor flush draw that was called by pocket jacks. I was at under 20 BB and with a pretty big field remaining you just have to push.

It was a good event with very solid poker- and enough donkey play- to make it interesting. I did end up busting TripJax so I get me a freeroll HU match via a bounty. I’ll just need to find a time when the two of us can duel.

I did win a SnG before the DADI event. I think I am going to spend some time concentrating on SnGs and these smaller MTT (like WWdN and DADI) events. The cash game has not been happy to me of late.