WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/7

Week 7 was interesting. For the first hour or so, the short stack couldn't lose an all in.

 It took over 35 minutes before our first casualty.  Aaron and Shane went out around the same time, then it was another 45 minutes before we lost another player.

At one point Jason lost an all-in, leaving him with 7 chips.  The antes at the time were 10.  He won the next four or five hands in a row, and went up to over 1500; A few orbits later and he was at over 4000.

I went out in sixth place. I was short stacked for a while then by the rules of the night doubled up a few times to get be consistently 2nd in chips.  I lost a reasonably big pot chasing a flush draw, then lost everything when I though I  hit a big blind special.  I had J6 and the flop was 55J.  Unfortunately for me Mark had Q5 and over an hour into the tourney and I only got 4 points to show for it.  Archie and Rich dropped out shortly after I did. Leaving Mark, Jason and Noah.  At this point it looks like Mark is taking one of the spots, so I'm rooting for him , or Jason to win. Jason is near the bottom with little to no chance of competing.   Noah on the other hand  could get back in the chase with a strong finish.

Noah and Jason teamed up to take Mark down, and then Noah ground out the win.  Earlier on Noah made a comment that he had won every time he made it to the antes stage of the tourney.  Unfortunately that is still the case.

Here are the standings for today, and overall

1. Noah
2. Jason
3. Mark
4. Rich
5. Archie
6. Me
7. Cookie
8. Shane
9. Aaron

And the overall standings

1. Mark (64/54 dropping worst 2)
2. Rich (59/50)
3. Noah (53/52)
4. Me (49/45)
5. Jason (40/35)
6. Aaron (36/31)
7. Archie(35/33)
8. Cookie (26/23)
9. Shane (19/18)

Noah moved back into contention for a spot, I'm barely still in it.   Jason has quietly had a nice run,with two thirds and a second place finish in the last three.  I would say Shane, Cookie, Archie and Aaron are out of it, unless they manage to win at least three of the remaining games.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/6

Much to say this week.  Not that I have much to say most weeks, but I was watching the Illini/Miami game while this tournament was going on, and I'm a bit disappointed that Illinois didn't pull it out so I'm going to make this short and sweet.

I will point out however that while Rich monied again, he is 0-4 heads up.  Also, I need to play better.

This weeks results:

1. Mark 
2. Rich
3. Jason
4. Archie
5. Me
6. Aaron
7. Cookie
8. Shane
9. Noah

And the overall standings

1. Mark (56)
2. Rich (53)
3. Me (45)
4. Noah (38)
5. Aaron (35)
6. Archie (30)
7. Jason (29)
8. Cookie(23)
9. Shane(17)

Looks like Mark and Rich are starting to pull away from the field.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/5

To say week 5 went poorly for me would be an understatement.  My computer crashed just before the tourney kickoff so I started out alone at the second table.  Shane, then Jason that Archie got added one by one, and each of them took a bunch of my chips.  I played a bunch of pots and missed hitting every time.  I tried pushing people out of hands but no one would fold.  Nothing went right.  And then when I decided to switch to super tight only ultra premium hand mode I would see the flop hit the hands I folded nine times out of ten.

The only thing that went right for me is that Cookie managed to bust out before me.  He was simultaneously playing poker, sim city, and doing a major system update for a client.

I made my final push with JTs and ran into Rich's KK to make it a quick night.  The worst part is that Mark, who was in second place at the start of the day lost a huge hand just before I went out.  And I told myself that I could wait him out.  At least for an orbit or two.

Bad Impatient Poker today.  Angry.

Time to fill out some NCAA brackets.



Here are the standings for this week.

1. Noah
2. Rich
3. Jason
4. Archie
5. Aaron
6. Mark
7. Shane
8. Me
9. Cookie

And the totals

1. Rich(42)
2. Mark (41)
3. Me (40)
4. Noah(37)
5. Aaron(31)
6. Archie (24)
7. Jason (21)
8. Cookie (20)
9. Shane(15)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/4 - The curse of Daylight Savings Time.

So week four was weird.  I don't know if it was the daylight savings time switch that threw everyone off, but something wasn't right.

First off, only five of us made it by the tourney start. Archie and Shane didn't make it all.  Cookie was a few minutes late and Mark just barely made it before the first blind and late registration period was up.  By the time he did make it, Rich and I were already in bad shape.

I've mentioned before that Noah has severely under performed my expectations.  Well if it was because he was card dead these last few weeks (seasons?) he made up for it tonight.  I think that he was hitting at least a straight on every hand he played.  If he had less than A6 as a starting hand the entire time I'd be amazed.

Speaking of A6 the hand that crippled me early on was against him.  I had QQ and made my standard raise. Noah called. The board was 6AA and I figured he probably didn't have another A, so I played it kind of hard, but he didn't fold.  The turn was another 6 and the river inconsequential.  We checked down on the river and he turns over an ace.  I don't know why he didn't make some sort of bet on the river. I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to fold.

That left me in bad shape, but I was able to hang around while other players knocked each other out.  Mostly I mean Noah knocked people out.  He had pocket aces at least two more times, and managed quads on anther hand.

Down to five players, Aaron is short stacked and raises, Noah calls.  I have AQs and the second most chips at the table so I push. Both call. Aaron has JJ and Noah AA.  I think I hit a queen but it doesn't matter.  I end up in fourth place.

On the plus side, Mark goes out next when his AA fall to Cookie's KXo.  Cookie caught a king on the flop, and the turn, and then again on the river just for good measure, so I'm still a point up on Mark.

This weeks's results are:

1. Noah
2. Cookie
3. Mark
4. Me
5. Aaron
6. Jason
7. Rich
8. Archie (DNP)
9. Shane (DNP)

And the standings:

1. Me (38)
2. Mark (37)
3. Rich (31)
4. Aaron (26)
5. Noah (22)
6. Cookie (19)
7. Archie (18)
8. Jason (13)
9. Shane (12)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 2/3

Game three is in the books, and I have now one two of them and sit atop the leaderboard.   It looks like it is going to be a three way battle for the top two spots, although it is still pretty early.

I played a fairly vanilla game tonight.  I was about third in chips for almost the entire way, except for a few minor hiccups here and there.  Once we got down to three players, I jumped out to a lead and never looked back. Its the other two players that I want to talk about.

First is Mark. Mark is the new guy in the group and I hadn't played more than a few hands with him before the league started.  After three games, I think I have a good read on him.   He's a pretty solid player especially when the table is full and there are few fish for him.  He plays fairly loose and pretty aggressive.  It seemed like he was in just about every pot, and no one ever seemed to pick up a hand against him.  He had a big chip lead early on and maintained it for much of the tourney.  His downfall is that no one ever seems to play back at him, at least early on.  Once we get deeper into the tourney the passive players have been eliminated, or forced into all-in or fold mode, so the pots that he normally steals he ends up having to fold, or lose.

For the most part I avoided hands with Mark. I'm getting used to his style but plays a wide range of hands that I don't want to have to try to figure out, especially when he is the big stack.  Much better to bide my time and wait for him to either get into trouble or knock other players out for me.

Once we get down to four or five players, I  don't have much trouble with Mark. He tends to over value his hands if he hits anything, but I can also get him to fold a fair amount of the time.   He's definitely a force to be reckoned with, and may be filling the role of Smack this year, but I'm not nearly as intimidated.

Next is Rich.  I think Rich may be the best player in the group.  At least until we get to two or three handed. Once there he turns into this weak overly passive player which I just don't understand.  I'm even more confused because I think he plays or played a lot of heads up online, so I think he should be really good at it.

When I play heads up, I will raise with just about and two cards, unless I think my opponent thinks I'm doing that and is likely to push back.  Against Rich I get him to fold 3/4 of the time.  On the other side, he flat out folds about half the time.

He survives for a while because I end up taking five or six minimum sized pots from him, then he reraises me big and wins a big enough pot to cover the ones he lost.  I think if he would play a few more pots he would steal them from me and better disguise his big hands when he get him.

This marks the third time in two seasons that we've met heads up, and I've won all three.  The first time I may have sucked out on him pretty bad, but who's counting?

Other notable performances for this week.

Noah was a no-show.

Aaron got short stacked early and battled to stay alive, placing in fifth.

Archie busted out first (but he still gets two points thanks to Noah).  I still think Archie should be contending for a top spot, but he just doesn't seem to do well online.

here are the standings:

Week 3

1. Me
2. Rich
3. Mark
4. Shane
5. Aaron
6. Jason
7. Cookie
8. Archie
9. Noah (DNP)

Totals:

1. Me (32 Points)
2. Mark (29)
3. Rich (28)
4. Aaron (21)
5. Archie (18)
6. Shane (12)
7. Jason (9)
8. Cookie (8)
9. Noah (7)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com