This helps the cause a little

I've been deep in Bodog's 6k Guarantee a few times before, bubbling just before the final table. This time around I ran pretty hot when we got down to 3 tables and was able to carry it thru to a win. But it wasn't easy.

I got HU against a maniac on my left that was giving me trouble at the final table. He had a 2-1 chip lead but i just waited for some good spots to trap and knew he'd pay me off.

I won a huge pot with A-3 vs 10-5 on a A-3-4-10-3 board to double the first time. Then i picked up the mightee Q-8 on the button and limped. He minraised, which he was doing a lot HU. He either would minraise or shove. The flop came Q high, he bet i called. turn was an 8 and it all went in. He turned out to have J-3o and flopped 2p but i turned a higher 2p. Poker is ez when you can get lucky in a few critical spots. Crazy thing is i never saw A-A or K-K the entire tournament, pretty sick.

Although the screenshot says 1st paid out $1270, that didn't include the overlay. The difference in payouts between 1st & 2nd was $600. 1st paid $1650.

what a crappy week

I haven't done shit in BBT4 except tilt since my mOOkie win. in fact, i've been running pretty bad as of late. i decided to see if i could put together some profit by playing a bunch of $15+1 STT's after reading what this guy did.

did i say guy? i meant machine.

To say i'm in the middle of a pretty horrific run in these over the last week would be a nice way of saying i'm running like ass, just fugly really. I should put in some real volume but i feel like a 'Stars ATM whenever i sit down.

I also won a sat into PokerStar's Turbo Takedown. but like a donktard, i forgot to fire up 'Stars yesterday while i was playing the BritBloggament and the OFC "FTP Payday" Poker Forum Challenge. I finished 6th in the challenge (boat over boat/standard) but the cool thing about it was in addition to the $2k overlay, they were paying out $250 per month for 3 months for 1st/$200 month for 2nd-3rd/$100 mo for 4th-5th and $50 mo for 6-10th. 1st prize cash payout was over $1300 so with the additional 3 months of $250 is was worth over $2k. Not bad for a $5 buy-in MTT. It wasn't a terribly huge field with just over 600 runners. Keep an eye on their site for upcoming events.

Lastly, make sure you follow Bodog Girl's twitter for news and updates.

back to the junk kickings...

white belt or orange belt???

although i found a way into the TOC, apparently i still like to torture myself in BBT tournaments and somehow the TOC is getting stacked. it's not gonna be an easy field to maneuver. i expect to get tilted at my table draw from the get go like last time around.

question of the week:

have you been donked by a white belt or orange belt?

either way is pretty standard during the Bad Beats and Tilt series. pick your poison kiddies.

Mookie BBT4 win recap (uberpost)

My starting table consisted of (going clockwise starting on my left) Iakaris, Scottc25, NZGreen, Kalspeed, Dueyv9, Muhctim, Bayne_s and SmBoatDrinks. It turned out to be a pretty tough table with NZGreen and Kalspeed on my left picking up some chips early and raising / reraising quite often. I bled off some chips early set mining with 66, 77 and 33 also whiffing the flop with AKo once after calling a pf raise. I had less than 2500 chips at the 1st break.

After the break, I was down to less than 2200 in chips and picked up A9o in the CO. Action folded to me and I shoved. NZGreen woke up with JJ in the BB and called. I got super lucky flopping top 2p to double thru. This was one of three bad beats I laid the entire tournament (one was HU with a 2-1 chip advantage).

The next orbit, I picked up AA on the button, it folded around to me. I made a standard raise and took down the blinds. I picked up AA exactly three times the entire tournament. Twice I got no action and just picked up the blinds. The third time was at the final table and knocked out Cmitch with his KK.

Later I pick up AhQh and raised Bayne’s MP limp, he flatted. Flop came K high, he checked, I bet he called. Turn brought a Q, he checked, I bet again and he folded. This put me up to around 5000 chips.

With the blinds at 100/200, SmBoatDrinks raised from the CO to 600. He had about 2100 behind. I look down at 10-10 on the button and reraised to 2100. It folded back to him and he folded.

I win my first flip. With blinds at 120/240, Kalspeed makes a standard raise from EP. It folds back to me and I picked up AKo in the BB. I shove just under 4600 chips in and he snap calls with QQ. I whiff the flop/turn but bink a King on the river to double-thru. This gets me up to almost 10,000 chips.

A while later, SmBoatDrinks open shoves about 2000 chips UTG. I pick up the mightee JackAce right behind him and flat call. It folds back to him and he flips QdJd. He spikes a Q right away on a 9-Q-10 flop but, the turn brought a K giving me Broadway. The river paired the board with another Q. That brought me up to over 12k in chips. After the hand, Kalspeed chimes in that he folded 9-9 which would have given him the entire pot busting both of us. But I doubt he would slow play that flop, who knows. I guess you could say I dodged another bullet there.

A couple of orbits later I pick up 10-10 in the BB and everyone folds around. nits

After a few more orbits I bleed down to about 10,000 chips and pick up A-rag in the SB. Mookie was on my left after getting moved to my table a little while earlier. It folds to me and I make a standard raise, he 4-bets and I fold. This got me back down to 8700 chips. I bleed down to 7100 chips after a couple more rounds and pick up K-To in the BB. Action folds to Alceste in the SB and he just limps. He did this once before and we checked the board down. He showed down 8-3o. So, I figure he was just limping with garbage again and shove. He snap folds and I’m back up to 8300 chips.

Shortly after that hand, I get moved to a new table with JoeSpeaker, WillWonka, 1Queensup, Alceste, Cmitch, Heffmike, Shabazz Jenkins and mOOkie. It appears things aren’t going to get much easier. With the blinds at 300/600, and 7400 in my stack, Shabazz raises from MP to 1600. I ship it in with AQo and he thinks for quite a while before folding. He had about 11,000 chips to start the hand. After I took down that pot, I was back up to over 10,500 chips. I pick up AA the same orbit and make it 1600 to go. No takers and I pick up the blinds/antes putting me up to almost 12,000.

I pick up 9-9 on the button and shove into Heffmike’s 3x pf raise of 2400. He calls with 5-5 and the board bricks out giving me a much needed double up to 22,000. I pick up the blinds/antes a few times after that and work my stack back up to over 26,000. We were down to less than two tables at this point.

After a couple of orbits I make my biggest mistake of the tournament.

I’m at around 23k and pick up Jd8d in the BB with the blinds at 500/1000. We’re 6-handed at this point on the final table bubble. Action folds around to Cmitch on the button who makes it 3000 to go with another 10k behind. I flat call (mistake #1). The flop comes 7h-10c-6c giving me a gutterball draw plus an over to the board and decide to bet out 6000 (mistake #2). My thinking here was he probably didn’t hit that flop and couldn’t call my bet without committing his stack. Well he shoved for another 4k and I had to call. He flips J-To, the board bricks out and I double him up. I don’t think I could’ve fucked this hand up any worse. My best action would either be to fold to his pf raise or shove putting him to a decision for his tournament life on the final table bubble. Instead, he flops top pair and doubles through leaving me with less than 10k in chips.

A few hands later we get to the final table with the blinds still at 500/1000 and I’m the shortest stack with just under 10 BB’s. I start the FT in the SB so I have an entire orbit to hope for a hand I can double with. BTW, mOOkie did a good recap of all the final table bustouts. I shamelessly stole this pic of the final table from his site. :)



Before I get into my play at the final table let me preface it with this, get to the final table with close to 10 BB’s and you have a chance to win regardless of how severely out chipped you are. You just need good timing and the ability to win every race when it’s for your tournament life. Poker is easy.

On to the final table…

I pick up Ah8h in the CO and shove into WillWonka’s BB after it’s folded to me. I get no callers and I’m up to over 11,400 chips. Later, I pick up Ah-5d in the BB and action folds around. I get a walk and now up to over 13,000 chips. It took over four entire orbits before we busted our first player which happened to be WillWonka. Meanwhile, I bled down to around 8800 chips patiently waiting for a hand I was willing to race with.

I pick up 8-8 in the BB with the blinds at 800/1600 and about 6200 behind after posting my BB. Cmitch being the big freakin bully he is raises my BB to 4800 from the CO+1. Kalspeed flats and I really have no choice but to shove into 2 other players whom I expect to at least call. Cmitch calls and Kalspeed folds for only less than 2k more (????), Kalspeed had 94k behind. I really don’t understand his play there at all. Anyway, Cmitch shows Ah6h and I bink an 8 right on the flop giving me a set and leaving him pretty well hosed in the hand. I scoop a 22,700 pot. This puts me about middle of the pack with 8 players left.

I fold for a few more orbits and we finally lose another player, Julkeus who ran his JackAce into Heffmike’s A-TsOOOted. Obv, a 10 pops right off on the flop and Julkeus is done. We’re down to 7.

With the blinds at 1000/2000 sitting on 17,000 chips I put another hurt on Cmitch when I picked up KQo in the CO and open shove. He woke up with JJ and we were off to the races again. The flop came 2-Q-10 putting me way ahead but a J hit the turn making Cmitch the favorite then a beeyooteefull 9 hit the river giving me a straight. This crippled Cmitch and brought me up to over 36k in chips. Cmitch more than tripled up a couple hands later shoving KJo from the SB into two other players. He ended up with a K-high straight. He doubled up again running A7o into Kalspeed’s BB who held K3o.

Then I get super lucky again. With the blinds still at 1000/2000, I pick up A-A UTG and mistype my initial bet making it 9000 to go. Not sure how I could’ve typed a 9 instead of a 6 but it worked out because Cmitch woke up with KK in the CO and shoved. I call and the flop comes A-K-10 drawing to a one outer. My hand holds and I scoop a massive pot of over 66,000 sending Cmitch to the rail, brutal way to go.

I pretty much ownd Cmitch in every race (88 vs Ah6h, KQo vs JJ and AA vs KK). Sorry dude, but not really :)

We’re 6 handed and I finally have a stack I can pick up the blinds/antes with. I work my stack to over 73k when this hand comes up. Action folds to Kalspeed on the button and he makes it 6200 to go (blinds are 1000/2000 still). I wake up with AKo and decide to over shove making it look to him like a monkey shove resteal. He has about 40k behind and calls showing 7-9o (wtf ???). Anyway, I bink a K right on the flop and he gifts me his stack. He said something to the effect it was getting late and he had to get up early in the morning. I have over 120k now with 5 players left.

I start leaning on the table whenever I can with 125Will being the next closest stack at just over 40k. Heffmike and TBA both had around 20k and QueensUp had less than 40k. Players are shoving their stacks in pretty often now though, so I try to be careful not to do something stoopid and double anyone up.

With the blinds at 1000/2000, I pick up KhJh UTG and raise it to 6000. Heffmike insta-shoves for another 18k, I call. He shows AKo and I lay my second bad beat of the night flopping top 2p. I’m up to over 150k now with 4 left. 125Will is still sitting at around 40k, TBA has 25k and QueensUp has 30k. Unless I get super unlucky, I really don’t see how I can fuck this up. This tourney is mine.

Unfortunately, I double up 125Will with AQo vs JJ after calling his shove and bricking the board. This puts me back down to 112k in chips with 125Will at over 80k. 125Will starts picking on the other two shorties and gets up to 98k. QueensUP is the next to go losing a flip with AKo to TBA’s pocket 9’s. We’re 3 handed with me at 107k, 125Will at 98k and TBA at over 40k.

125Will ends up taking out TBA with AQ vs AJ and we’re HU with Will at 140k and me at 107k. Even though he had a slight chip advantage, I still felt I could take this down. In my mind, there was no fuckin way I was gonna finish 2nd twice this month in a BBT tournament. A runner up finish was not an option.

We traded small pots back and forth for a while. Then I started 3-betting his pf raises to try and gain some momentum. I ended up losing a 22k pot with 2-2 after the board ran out 6-10-3-10-9. He took it down with K9o. This put me at 99k and him at 150k, back to the grind.

I work my way up to 122k when I pick up AK in the SB. With the blinds at 1200/2400 Will makes it 7200 pf, I bump it to 19,200 and he flats. Flop comes K-J-8 rainbow and I bet out a little over half the pot. He folds and I’m up to 122k with him at 127k. We’re almost even in chips now.

We trade some more small pots around until I end up losing a pretty big pot with 10-10 vs his KJo. This put him back up to over 163k and me at 84k. I started to feel the match slip away at that point and felt like I needed a double up soon. A few hands later, I shoved into his pf raise with A3o and he called with KQs. He never connected but I river an Ace anyway and had my double up. Stacks were now reversed with me at 168k and him at 80k. I really start leaning on him at this point. He began folding his SB to me and when he did raise I just started calling with any two hoping to hit or take the pot away post flop.

Finally with him sitting on 63k and me at 184k I raise the button with A2o, he shoves and I call. He shows up with 88 and an Ace pops right out on the flop to give me my seat to the BBT4 Tournament of Champions.

It feels really good to get that out of the way early in this series. GL to everyone fighting their way into the TOC.

finally made my way out of BBT purgatory

some things change and some remain the same

I drove down to Oceanside Saturday to try a few sats into Ocean's 11 30k guarantee on Sunday. That turned out to be a big waste of time. i whiffed 3 sats losing 4 out of 5 aipf races. I have not run good the last few trips down to O'11, not even avg. I'm starting to rethink the whole satellite thing, at least for live tournaments. I whiffed 2 sats into the Venetian deepstack tourney last month. including those, all 5 sats cost me $440 total (cue flushing sound).

I won an online sat Friday night into Bodog's 100k thru their $4r tho ($8 invested). But, I decided not to play it because i run so bad in that tournament. I plan to use the T$ for several other low buy-in tourneys this week instead.

I played the cheapo $5 BBT4 BritBloggament and again got deep. I was chip leader or near the top for most of the last 2 hrs of the tourney but, couldn't win a crucial coin flip vs. that fish mOOkie (99 vs AQo obv). I also ran AJo into ElSnarfe's AQo blind vs blind while 4-handed. He put my chips to good use and took it down. I finished 4th.

FML

Back to my old donking grounds

Ocean's 11 has a $30k guaranteed tournament this Sunday with satellites running Saturday. The direct buy-in is $300+30 with $60 single table satellites. The single table satellites start 10 handed with the top 3 spots getting paid ($330/$110/$90). I played my very 1st live tournament at Ocean's 11 and used to be a weekend warrior there in '05/'06.

Their 30k is a deep stack tournament, which to Ocean's 11 staff and players is no joke. The standard Sunday tournament structure starts with $3500 chips and 20 min levels. The 30k structure starts players with $7500 chips and 30 min levels during the first 6 levels then they move up to 40 min levels. But like most tournaments, I expect nothing less than stellar play during the first few levels especially with so many satellite players. They ran satellites last weekend also.

Tina's got a mid-term to study for so this is a good time for me to get outta the f'n house this weekend.

From the pretty F'n cool dept

Topps introduces Topps 3D LIVE augmented reality BB cards for 2009.



My brother and I grew up collecting BB cards. I have a complete set of '78 Topps and several HOF rookie cards, including Koufax, Steve Carlton, Jim "Catfish" Hunter, Tony Perez, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and later picked up Clemens and Puckett '84 Fleer Update Rookie cards.

I can't wait to get a hold of these new Topps 3D LIVE cards and show them to my nephew.

uuggghhhhh !

so damn close.

Bodog posts props for NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship

Yesterday, Bodog posted props for the 2009 NBC HU Poker Championship.

ESPN ranks the players in this year's field of 64. Ranked in the top 5 by ESPN (including Bodog props) are: Chris Ferguson (22-1), Phil Ivey (25-1), Ted Forrest (35-1), Andy Bloch (20-1) and Allen Cunningham (35-1).

NBC's HU Championship is hosted Friday-Sunday 3/6-3/9/09 at Caesar's Palace starting at 12pm PST. Follow the action at PokerNews and CardPlayer.

After seeing the NBCHUPC tournament bracket draw i took Ivey, Greenstein and Benyamine.

smokkee.com picked the winner of the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

just sayin'

good times playing pokah with bloggers

huh? Bad Beats & Tilt 4 surges forward leaving dead blonkeys in its wake four nights a week. i even got donkeypunched in the mOOk when some fishee thought his ATsOoted might be good on a J-high flop and called off his remaining stack. i guess he knew he'd bink an Ace on the rvr leaving me short-stacked. i ended up jamming the rest of my chips in with AJ and ran into AQ. board comes K-T-x-x-J. standard

I heard on BDR some bloggahfishees were donking it up at a $25 HA and a 1 cent/2 cent NL cash table so i sat. i won a few bucks right away at the HA table while donking it up hard in the penny game. I eventually lost a buy-in overplaying A-A-K-Q on a scary flop in HA. some guy flopped broadway. but, I was up over 4 buy-in's at the penny stakes. i doubled thru ScottyMac in the HA game later when he paid off my DQB with his straight. then lost what i had at the penny game after calling Numboner's EP shove of QQ into my KK. obv two outer was imminent.

I had some fun before that getting other players to fold to 20/30 cent bluff bets on the river. i think it's funny that bloggers are willing to fold for 20 cents but, bet their tourney life on Ace high after whiffing the flop.

I had a really good time playing last night which was a nice change from my normal grind. Congrats to BoneDaddy (wtf happened to his blog?) for taking down the mOOk.

get off my lawn !!

Tonight's edition of Bad Beats & Tilt 4 brings us Stud hi/lo. An exciting game of limit poker and chopped pots.

meh...

i'm just not feelin' it. I'll be back in rotation Wednesday for the mOOk, enjoy kiddies.

Bad Beats and Tilt 4 is off and running...

I got relatively deep in the Brit Bloggament finishing 14th when my 88 did not hold against 6-7o. Sitting on 5,240 in chips with the blinds at 120/240, action folded around to a player in LP and he raises to 720 with the mightee 6-7o. I reraise it up to 2,640 and he flat calls over half his stack (LOL). He started the hand with 4,175. Anyway, the flop comes 6 high with 2 clubs. I shove, he snap calls and binks a 7 on the turn for 2p. i shove my remaining chips in with A-rag the very next hand and run into KK. gg

The funny part is after my 88 gets outrun by the guy's 6-7o he pops off with "don't play junk !!" in the chat box. good times.

I will mention i did get lucky in a hand earlier when I reraise/shoved all-in from EP with AQs and ran into the Button's QQ. I spiked an Ace on the river for a much needed double up. Otherwise, i would've gone out earlier.

I went out very early in the Big Game in a blind vs blind battle. This hand is almost as redic as the 88 vs 67o hand. Sitting on 5000 chips and the blinds at 25/50, action folds around to the SB who makes it 175 to go, I wake up with Q-Q and repop to 575, he insta-ships. I mean he couldn't get all his chips in quick enough. I think for a few seconds but who am I kidding. Even though it's a deep stack tournament, i'm just not good enough to fold Q-Q heads up in a blind vs blind confrontation so i call and he flips A-Ko. A King hits the flop and I am done. I'm not sure why someone would ship 100 bb's in pf with AKo that early in a deepstack tourney but whatever. Later I saw this same player donk shove K-5s from the button into the BB's A-A after a raise/reraise and hit the rail.

Blogger tourneys are just plain comical.

Congrats to Shabazz Jenkins for taking down the Brit Bloggament and RakeFeeder for piling up all the chips in the Big Game. Honorable mention goes to Lightning36 for final tabling both tournaments.

Bluff Poker Challenge kicks off March 1st

The Bluff Poker Challenge: Players start with a $200 BR and have 31 days to build the biggest BR playing only SNG's and MTT's.

The winner gets featured on the cover of Bluff Magazine.

Participants include:

JEFFERY ROMANO (DURALAST)
BRETT JUNGBLUT (GANK)
ERIC LYNCH (RIZEN)
GARRETT BECKMAN (GBECKS)
DAVID CHICOTSKY (D CHICOTSKY)
JAMES WORTH (KRAZYKANUCK.)
ESTHER TAYLOR (E~TAY)
KEVIN SAUL (BELOWABOVE)
JEFF WILLIAMS (YELLOWSUB)
SOREN KONGSGAARD (KONGSGAARD)
RUSSELL CARSON (RDCRSN)
MARIA HO (MARIAHO)
TIM WEST (TMAY420)
BRANDON CANTU (BRANDONCANTU)
MARK KROON (P0KER H0)
TOM WEST (SBROUNDER)
ALAN "ARI" ENGEL (I AM ARI)
BRENT HANKS (YOURCREEPY)
PHILIP COLLINS (USCPHILDO)
BRIAN HAWKINS (SNO0OWMAN)
SHAUN DEEB (SHAUNDEEB)
ADAM JUNGLEN (AJUNGLEN7)
BRYAN DEVONSHIRE (DEVO)
CHRIS MOORMAN (MOORMAN1)
MATTHEW VENGRIN (PLATTSBURGH)

It'll be interesting to see how many go busto within the 1st week. $200 is not a lot to work with and i'm sure a few of them will be swinging for the fences early.