Yesterday was great... Today, not so much

I don't know why I keep forgeting how bad the players are on PokerStars. And how they all too often win with their stupid play.

A few examples:

I actually took 2nd in a $30 SNG. I was going to win but my QQ ran into the following hand:





I lost shortly after. Oh well, that's life. Right?

I played Mondays at the Hoy (MATH) and I really can't think of anything good to say about my play. That Guinness guy has me all figured out, too.

I played several other MTTs including the 20K on Full Tilt Poker where I was doing all right until the blinds started getting crazy. I ended up pushing with A6s and ran into KK and IGH in 150th out of over 1000 players. Which is too bad since 117 places paid.

But the real donkfest was over at PokerStars. First exhibit is me as a donk. Second hand of the 180-seat $4SNG I ran into AA with my KK:



If anyone can explain why these idiots CALLED my turn and river bets, please leave a comment:




The next one I couldn't really understand until I posted it here. I guess this guy figure that calling my all in on the turn gave him, let's see, 9 spades for a flush and 4 jacks for a straight for a total of 13 outs. That's about 4-to-1 vs the pot odds that were about 2-to-1. Maybe I make that crying call myself. Crippled me and IGH next hand:




Another great player called on the flop with 55 vs my 99 with two overs on the board:



Last but not least, donkey call with A3 against my AJ pre-flop. Result:



So what's my point? These are amazing examples of some really poor play. Some got rewarded while some rewarded me. I guess that's pokah, right? Whatcha gonna do?

Do I take this as a sign that I should continue to play these donkeys and get my money into the pot with the best hands? Do I go play somewhere else? Do i take a break? What to do, what to do?

I'm going to have to take a break soon anyway as the familia is going on a 2 week vacation to visit the rest of the familia. No way I get to see a single dealt hand during that period. Could be a good idea as far as clearing my head...

Big Game Results

Second place. Barely. I survived the relentless aggression of lucky lucko21. Sure, I got lucky a couple of times, but I also got unlucky a few times. I started heads-up about a 20-to-1 underdog.
I doubled up a few times to the point that I could get lucko21 to fold to my raises. But I decided to push with 87o and that was that:



Still, this is a huge payout - $603.06 is not too shabby:




Only 38 players showed up and top 5 spots paid. I guess my patience paid off as I was able to keep my stats in the range I like. 261 hands, 20.3 VPIP, 32% went to showdown and 75% won at showdown:



I was actually in the lead for quite a while when we were down to 25 players. But then I suffered the following beat:





Thanks again to MiamiDon who set this up. I really had a lot of fun.

Oh, and on the flipside. I managed to blow my entire bankroll at Bodog after playing their Super Stack $25K guaranteed, $10K guaranteed and a $10 buy-in NLHE. But the second place makes up for it, so I'm cool. I get to go to bed without having to think about the big bad beats.

My bankroll has crossed the 2K mark for the first time.

And I get to sleep.

Good Night!

Hoyazo Special

This one is for Hammer Player. Short stack goes all in and 4 people call:





Too bad nobody had a pocket hammer or this could have been classic.

Limit Donkey, Tier 1 Win, Royal Flush, Tier 2 Donkey and CAP

I started out playing some 2/4 LHE over at Full Tilt Poker. I figured two tables will be enough for me and I sat down with $200 at each. I played very tight and very aggressive and ran into some awful beats to idiot donkeys. Aces cracked by runner runner flush to 10-7 suited. I just could not win anything. I lost about $150 while playing almost 200 hands. That hurt. I need to rethink playing cash games or playing LHE in the first place.

Not that I am such a superstar when it comes to tourneys. I decided to try and win some tokens and played in a Tier 2. Even when I get lucky I eventually can't capitalize on it. I played A9s and made two straight flushes on the river. Figure it out yet? Check out the hand below:








I didn't get the call. Other guy had a made flush but did not like the Q on the river. He figured I had the Ace and was he ever right! Couple of hands later I gave away my chips by playing Ace Rag from the SB against the BB who had AQ.

So needless to say that didn't end well. But I was also playing a Tier 1 Turbo which I won:




I went on to try a Tier 2 and another Tier 1 again. I actually ran into Aces at the same time:




So both of those ended badly as well. I actually ended up in 13th out of 18 in both.

On a bright note I decided to try out the CAP games. I sat down at a .10/.25 CAP NLHE which means that the maximum pot can only be $7.50 for each hand. Interesting concept. I think you should try it. I didn't play very long. Just enough to release $20 from my pending reload bonus.

So I bought into the "Big Game" with cash. See you there tomorrow.

I need sleep

I went out of town this week and as I usually can't fall asleep easily anywhere but my own bed, I play online poker late into the night. I arrived late and started playing around 1am. It wasn't a bad night and I ended up 4th out of 60 in a $1,250 guaranteed $25 buy-in at UltimateBet. I won $150, but the funny thing about all this was that places 2 and 3 were sitting out. So I was basically playing head's up. I was a huge underdog and I missed a nut flush club draw. After I was gone the winner just blinded the other two players out:



I played a few other tournaments over at Full Tilt Poker. I don't know what I was thinking but I registered into a $50 buy-in (which I have never done before). Turns out there are donkeys at all levels, myself included. I played alright and got short stacked after a couple of bad plays and suckouts. I used what I learned from Howard Lederer about pushing with a non Ace-Rag hand when short stacked to double up twice. Once with 10-9 suited and once with Aces:




I was eliminated shortly after. The really money was made at the 1/2 limit game though. I played two tables and quickly saw I should focus on one of them. Reason? Two total idiots who probably only had a raise button show up on their poker client. I love Poker Tracker and PokerAce HUD. I can quickly figure out who the loose fish are at the table. These two were sooooo lucky. River after river after river. With total junk, too. So I waited around until I could make my moves and I busted them both eventually. Here are some sample hands:




Last night I played the $30 buy-in at PokerStars and cashed in 41st place out of 759 players. What was amazing about this tournament was my discipline. I really stayed away from the trouble hands that have been devastating me lately. At the first break and the second break I had won 100% of hands that went to showdown. I had only 15% and 17% of hands that I played that actually went to showdown but I think the 100% won is a huge stat for me. It means I did not lose a single showdown:




All good things must come to an end and I lost most of my stack when I read a shorter stack who pushed to be on a weak Ace. I called with A-Js in clubs and he turned over K-Qs also in clubs. Flop K. River Q. I am a very short stack. I managed to chip up a bit and then found JJ. See the chain of events below:










So IGH in 41st place and win about $80 instead of taking down the top prize of almost $6K.

I also played the WWdN Invitational last night for the first time in a verrrrryyyy long time. Only 15 players showed up which was a bit disappointing, but it was still a lot of fun. I got lucky when Hoyazo gave me a couple of free cards to catch a King on the river against his pocket Qs. I saw him raise 3xBB a few times and once even with QQ. I didn't put him on Queens this time and was just waiting to see if I make the nut flush. When the King came on the river I had to take a stab at it and made a pretty weak bet that he could call. Which he did:



I was humming right along pretty well when I lost half my stack to Iggy. My SB of A4o flopped two pair while Iggy's BB of 35o flopped a wheel. Awesome! IGH in 7th a few hand later.

On the bright side, I found out that a bunch of ATL bloggers are getting together to play a home game next month. Visit 23skidoo's blog for details. I might join these guys, but won't be sure until the very last minute.

I am going to be out of town again next week and that will include a lot of sleepless nights playing online. I am going to try to make the "Big Game" on Sunday:

More cleaning

More sites that have been eliminated from my drive:

1) ESPN Poker
2) Everest Poker
3) MidAtlantic Poker
4) PokerChamps
5) All-in Poker
6) BetED Poker
7) Five Dogs Poker
8) Golden Riviera Poker
9) Poker 333
10) Poker World
11) The 3D Poker
12) Wild Jack Poker
13) SBG Poker
14) Sinful Poker
15) Dead Man's Hand Poker
16) Live Action Poker
17) Poker Playdium

Wow! That was a serious load of crap taking up space on my drive and probably adding all kinds of spyware. I feel so refreshed. I guess my days of freerolling and bonus whoring are over. I still have a lot more sites to delete, but they're just going to have to wait a bit.

Cleaning House

I love to clean house and throw out junk. So since the monkey at 1600 Penn. Ave. signed his bill yesterday I have a great opportunity to erase all those sites that either no longer exist, or the ones that "don't accept real money bets from my jurisdiction":


So let's go through my junk pile together (feel free to download any of these if you don't live in the US):

All iPoker/Playtech sites:
1) CD Poker
2) Poker770
3) Titan Poker
4) BetFred Poker
5) Kiwi Poker
6) Fair Poker
7) Noble Poker
8) Poker Ocean

9) Pacific Poker
10)Paradise Poker>
11) Party Poker: This one gave me the most joy of all, I think. SInce I qualified for the 1M Monthly Monster Freeroll I got to convert that entry into $350 and cash out to Neteller. They even have the nerve to try to ask for a donation to the PPA. Seriously.

12) Empire Poker
13) PKR
14) InterPoker
15) JetSet Poker - Closed shop.
16) PokerChamps
17) Pokers Castle
18) Pokers Golden Palace
19) Banner Poker

B2B sites (they don't even start when you click their icon:
20) i4poker
21) MetroPokeri
22) 4Kings Poker

Tribeca Network (Doyle is personally guaranteeing that it's business as usual, but I figured I should just get rid of all the others):
23) VC Poker
24) BoS Poker
25) Sly Sharky Poker

26) Poker Pasia
27) Team Holdem Poker - doesn't work anymore.
28) Bullhorn Poker
29) Belmont

Action Network:
30) Action Poker
31) Superior Poker
32) Nine Poker
33) Island Poker - I actually have $4.10 in my account which I need to use before Nov. 13th. The minimum withdrawal is $25 so I might try to win a multi-table tourney and cash out.

I had a list of 10 more that I erased from my drive today, but Blogger decided to die on me in the process and I don't remember what was on the list.

Support the sites that support the US players:

Full Tilt Poker - 100% inital deposit up to $600 and 50% reload bonus.
UltimateBet - Were not going to go anywhere.
PokerStars - Decided to stay with us and deserve our support.
Poker.com - Have a special USA only freeroll for depositors.
Absolute Poker - While I personally didn't put any money in the site, they still support the US.