WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 4/1

So I've been a pretty lazy blogger.  I haven't posted since the end of last season.  Quick recap I ended up buying Jason M's seat at the WSOP.  I lasted about 8-9 hours before busting out.  I didn't really have a whole lot work out for me. I was mostly treading water the entire time.

So back to this year.  A couple players have dropped out.  Noah because he's lame, and because his wife will be having twins midway through the season. Also Jason S dropped out as he moved to San Diego and will also be out of the country for four weeks during the season.

Returning is Rich who won season two and did not play last year.

The opening week did not go well for me.

Midway through the second round I got AhQh in early position. I raised and Archie to my left reraised.  The flop was Qd8h2d. I checked and Archie be half the pot.  I called.  Archie likes to be big when there is a flush draw on the board.  I put him on trying to chase a flush away.  The turn is 7h giving me top pair and and a flush draw.  I check and Archie bets half pot again.  Calling would leave us with 5BB left.  I went in the tank and eventually called.  I put him on AA, KK and scared of a flush.  If I didn't have the flush draw I would have folded. Raising would have been pointless, he would have called no matter what and worst case I could go with the whole chip and a chair theory  The river was 3c and we checked down.  I was right he had KK.  While that play crippled my chances in this game I'm not super upset about the play.  At least I'm pretty confident in my reads on Archie now.

I planned on doing a whole lot of folding from then on, but a few hands later I got 99 under the gun.  I went all in for my 5BB  (which was going to be 2BB after the next two hands when the blinds went up).

I got three callers who checked down to the river.  Archie ended up being the only one to connect with the board when his AT turned into a pair of tens.  Out in last place.  Not the ideal way to start.  Definitely need to tighten up next time.  Oh well.


Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/10

This is one of those weeks when I feel like PokerStars was just messing with me.  I got absolutely brutally awful cards all night.  And had I played them I think I would have flopped two pair, or at least made two pair by the turn 87% of the time.

Jasons K and S were no shows again.  I think K has given up, and S is in the process of moving across country.   I hovered around the starting stack size most of the game.  for some reason I was able to see the flop on my BB for free almost every orbit.  So I was able to hang around.  Ultimately when we were four handed I tried to bluff Mark off a pot and he made a great call with bottom pair.  That left me pretty short stacked and then I tried to get cute by reraising all-in with bottom pair, hoping Noah was just trying to steal my blind.  He had top pair and knocked me out.  It was probably an ill-advised move at that point, but I was banking on him bluffing and I was wrong.

In the grand scheme of things is probably doesn't matter as Mark and Jason M were still in it, and they don't need to beat me at this point. They just need to stick around for a while to accumulate enough points to prevent me from catching them.  I'll have to do the math later, but I think I'm mathematically eliminated at this point,

This weeks results are:

1. Noah
2. Jason M
3. Mark
4. Me
5. Archie
6. Greg
7. Aaron
8. Shane
9. Jason K (DNP)
10. Jason S (DNP)

The overall standings are:

1. Jason M (83/82)
2. Mark (80 /73)
3. Aaron (63/59)
4. Shane (53/51)
5. Greg (51/51)
6. Noah (52/50)
7. Me (51/49)
8. Jason S (48/48)
9. Archie (48/46)
10. Jason K(19/19)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/06

Things actually went well this game. For the most part. Although I think the key hand was quite a bit of luck.

Very early on Jason S is the short stack at the table and goes all in. Jason K calls. Jason S has 55 against K's kings. S spikes a five on the flop and halves K's stack. K I'm guessing this puts K on tilt pretty bad. The very next hand I have 88. A couple players limp and I raise. K goes all-in. I call, and he shows 29o. I knock him out and get a decent sized stack in the process.

For most of the rest of the tourney I play tight, and bide my time, picking up some small pots here and there as people knock each other out. I'm never the big stack, but I'm never short stacked either.

Until we get down to three handed. Jason M (seriously, no more jason's allowed in the league) has had more than the rest of the table combined for quite a while. Greg has been bouncing up and down, and I'm holding steady, but getting close to desperation time.

The fatal hand comes after Greg has taken a bunch of chips off Jason. Jason raises, and I look down at A7s. I figure three handed, I'm probably ok. Plus I think a bet of about a third of Jason's stack will scare him off most hands anyway. Maybe I was right about that, but it didn't matter because he didn't have most hands. He had AK. In hindsight, he doesn't raise much so that raise was probably and indication of a pocket pair or high ace. If I had just called his raise, I could have gotten out after missing the flop. I would have been in trouble but I would have lived to fight another day. Instead I'm out in third place. I just barely missed out on some much needed points, and cash. Hopefully this is a trend and I can ride create some momentum to finish off the season strong. Half way through its not looking too good.

The surprise of the year has to be Jason M though. I would have put his odds at making the top two at 100:1. He's cashed in three of the last four tourneys though to take a six point lead overall. I'm not convinced that there isn't a good amount of luck in those finishes, based on some of the hands I saw him play tonight, but you can't argue with results.

Here are this weeks results:

1. Jason M
2. Greg
3. Me
4. Jason S
5. Mark
6. Noah
7. Aaron
8. Archie
9. Shane
10. Jason K

And the overall standings

1. Jason M (50)
2. Aaron (44)
3. Mark (41)
4. Greg (37)
5. Jason S (36)
6. Archie (32)
7. Shane (31)
8. Me (25)
9. Noah (18)
10. Jason S (16)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 03/05

So I've decided I'm no longer any good at poker. In fact I'm pretty terrible. I have no reads on anyone. Every time I try to take a stab at a pot I get raised, every time I'm tentative I find that I was ahead, and get sucked out on. The only thing that ever seems to go right on me is playing 72o. I got it in the BB this time around. The small blind was the only other player in the pot and he limped in. The flop was rags, he bet and I raised forcing him to fold. Other than that. Bad night for me.

I'm incredibly frustrated with my play lately. I think a lot of it has to do with rust, but I don't know how to fix that. Online play isn't an option any more, except for this league, and I don't have time to go to the casino. At this point I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be playing in the WSOP this year unless I can convince a lot of people to stake me. It would take a miracle for me to place in the top two of the league, and I've had a few very large and unexpected house expenses that have made my wallet a bit weepy. I don't think I can justify the full buy in this year.

We'll see.  It looks like there is going to be a large group of people going to Vegas this year so I'm at least going to do that.   Maybe things will turn around by then.

 Here are the standings for this week, and overall.

1. Greg
2. Jason M
3. Jason S
4. Mark
5. Aaron
6. Noah
7. Shane
8. Jason K
9. Me
10. Archie

Over all.

1. Aaron (41)
2. Mark (36)
3. Jason M (35)
4. Archie (30)
5. Shane (30)
6. Jason S (30)
7. Greg (26)
8. Me (17)
9. Jason K (16)
10. Noah (14)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Episode 3/04

So, yeah...

 That stuff I mentioned last post about not playing scared trying to eeek out each point. Nevermind. Still playing like crap.

 Things started out well enough, but after the third blind level I don't think I won a hand. I just couldn't pull the trigger on anything, and I wasn't hitting my flops.

 Weak bad play = early exit for me.

 Here are this week's results and the overall standings

Week 4

1. Aaron
2. Shane
3. Archie
4. Mark
5. Jason K
6. Noah
7. Me
8. Jason S
9. Jason M
10. Greg (DNP - out of town)

Overall

1. Aaron (36)
2. Mark (30)
3. Archie (30)
4. Shane (27)
5. Jason M (24)
6. Jason S (22)
7. Me (16)
8. Jason K (14)
9. Greg (11)
10. Noah (10)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episodes, 3/2 and 3/3 Plus live Poker

I've been slacking on my WSPL-GtV updates. I'm not sure how interesting summaries of small tournies actual are, especially when I'm not to happy with my performance.  So lets talk about my play overall.

In season one I was pretty successful playing a fairly conservative game.  I knew that I could run up a bunch of middle of the road performances, plus a win here and there to advance to the WSOP.  And it worked for me.

In the second season I decided to play more aggressively.  I tried to get involved in more hands and to push my advantage in  the early stages.  I did OK, but often found myself in trouble, losing critical points in the standings with early exists.  I ultimately finished in third place.  The top two consisted of a fairly loose aggressive player and a very measured conservative player.

This year my goal was to play simple, smart, conservative poker, a revival of my season one strategy. My goal was to not put chips at risk unless absolutely necessary.  It the first two matches that led to a boring game where I couldn't get enough chips to stick around very long.  It also lead me to fold a fair number of hands that I think I could/should have won because I was playing scared.

The same thing happened in the live game.   A friend started hosting what is turning out to be a pretty large monthly game.   I'm not a huge fan of the blind structure, and he makes one person be permanent dealer, which I don't like, but other than that, its a good tournament.   I played pretty solid for the first hour, chipping up slowly.  I lost couple pots when I couldn't chase some less than stellar players off of their garbage hands, but I was still in good shape at the break.

Then the blind schedule got aggressive, and it was getting close to all in or fold mode.  I got my aces cracked by the aggressive guy at the table when he flopped two pair.  And while that was annoying it wasn't what angered me about the game.  Looking back at the first hour, while I did have more chips than I started with, I left many opportunities to have even more chips by being overly conservative pre-flop, and not being willing to take a chance with anything other than super premium hands.  Had I played better early on I wouldn't have been in a situation where I had to get all-in and I could have escaped that hand with at least a chip or two.

Back to the only other thing worth noting is that Aaron has gotten super tilty, despite winning the first game.   Its one of the small joys of playing with him, seeing how angry he gets after losing.  Twice when he was in the BB I was dealt 27o.  I raised pre-flop hoping everyone would fold so I could show my hand and tilt him more.  Both times though I was called before it got to him, then hit either trips or two pair on the flop and went on to win big hands.  Good times.

Here are the results from the last two weeks and the overall standings.  We took a break for the Superbowl, but we will be back on this Sunday and every Sunday for the next nine weeks.

Week 2:

1. Archie
2. Shane
3. Jason K
4. Jason S
5. Me
6. Aaron
7. Noah
8. Mark
9. Greg
10. Jason M

Week 3:

1. Jason M
2. Mark
3. Jason S
4. Me
5. Greg
6. Archie
7. Noah
8. Aaron
9. Shane
10. Jason K

Overall Standings (points)

1. Mark (24)
2. Jason M (23)
3. Archie (22)
4. Aaron (21)
5. Jason S(20)
6. Shane (16)
7. Me (13)
8. Greg (11)
9. Jason K (9)
10. Noah (6)

Its going to be a close one this year.  The top 5 are separated by only 4 points, and any of the bottom 5 can get right back in it with a win.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas episode 3/1

The new year brings with it the new season of the WSPL.    This year Rich, our second place finisher from season two opted out since he wouldn't be able to make many of the games.  Our season one winner Greg is back, and we added a new player Jason S.

We now have ten players.  The problem with this is PokerStars has nine player tables, so we play five handed until the first casualty.  Which ended up taking while.

Nothing super exciting happened for me this round.  I was pretty card dead, and wasn't hitting many flops.  I'm also trying to play conservatively this year, to amass as many points as possible, even in games when I don't win.

The one reasonably exciting hand I had I was short stacked and went all in pre flop with ATo.  Jason S, one of the chip leaders called with KQo.  He proceeded to flop a king and hit a queen on the turn.  But the river gave me a jack to complete my straight.

Shortly thereafter though I ran my AK into pocket Aces which left me with $T25 in chips.  I was dealt a pair of threes, but got called by a pair of fives, and I don't even remember.  I do remember spiking a three on the river only to find out that the mystery hand had picked up a straight.

So I went out in a pathetic 8th place.

Mark, last years winner was down to $T100 before all of my exciting hands happened, yet managed to keep doubling up to the point where he was the chip leader by the time there were four left.  He managed to ride that to a second place finish.

Week one standings are as follows

1. Aaron
2. Mark
3. Jason M
4. Jason S
5. Greg
6. Shane
7. Archie
8. Me
9. Jason K
10. Noah

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

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/2

Round two of season two was my worst showing of either season. Things started off well as I won a few small pots, then pushed Jason off of a rather large pot to get a comfortable amount of chips. This week was turning into a haves vs have nots as four of us had over 2500 chips early on and the rest had at around 1000 or less.

I got a little loose with my hand selection and and threw away a bunch of chips hoping to hit a sneaky monster hand, or just bully some small stacks. My big downfall was playing 83s in four way pot. The flop was 38T and Rich made a half pot sized be which I called, and then so did Archie. I should have raised there but I got greedy. The turn was J. Looked innocent enough. I made a decent sized bet and Archie raised. I figured he thought I was trying to steal a garbage pot so I just called, hoping to get more from him on the river. The river was a queen and now I'm in trouble. I bet and he raises. What are the odds he has a nine? He isn't the type of player to chase a straight like that. And I was right, he doesn't. He had 97 and caught the straight on the turn. That left me with less than 5 BB. I tried to steal the next pot to start chipping up, but got two callers and no help from the board.

Terrible play by me. Booooourns.

Archie and Mark did manage to play heads up for at least half an hour before Mark finally won. Archie had a huge chip lead for most of it, but just couldn't finish him off.  Mark kept getting beat down, then he would go all in and double up, then finally Mark go the lead and finished him off a few hands later.

This weeks finish:

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

And  the standings so far:

1. Mark (21)
2. Me (17)
3. Rich (17)
4. Archie(16)
5. Aaron(16)
6. Noah (7)
7. Shane(6)
8. Jason (5)
9. Cookie (5)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes To Vegas Episode 2/1

Week one is in the books. Amazingly we managed to have everyone show up on time. Things started off pretty well for me. I had KK on the very first hand and won a decent sized pot. I won a few more early on to go out to a early lead before going card dead for a long time. I dropped slowly down in the standings until I was just about at the bottom before things started to turn around. There weren't any real dramatic hands that I remember, but eventually we got down to four handed, all of us with relatively even stacks. We were four handed for about half an hour before Mark went out, followed by Aaron and Rich, leaving me as the last one standing in the inaugural event for season two. Now that I've played again for the first time in about a year, some observations on the rest of the players.

• Mark - Mark did reasonably well, he's very loose aggressive.  He also likes to chase hands which gets him into trouble.  I think he'll do well, but I probably not great, unless he works on his fold disipline.
•  Rich - Rich played really well. I would put him as my top pick to win the league.  The exception being short handed play.  He seemed overly conservative when we were down to three handed play, even when he had a monster chip stack.  
• Aaron - Much improved.  He's close to or in the top tier of players in the league now.
• Archie - He's still a good player, but I don't think his game translates well to online.  He's much better at reading people live.  He may have also just gotten unlucky.  
• Jason - I didn't get a good read on Jason. He went out early, and I don't recall anything significant that he did wrong.  It might just have been one of those nights.
• Shane - Didn't play well.  Lost a lot of chips with a weak flush early on.  Then seemed distracted and made a bad call to bust out.
• Noah - Noah also went out early.   I'm not sure what happened to him.
• Cookie - Provided the entertainment.  He was playing Sim City while playing poker with us, and giving us full backstories on the citizens of his town who he was making miserable.  Its nice of him to finance our entry in the WSOP.

Here are the standings so far.

• Me - 15 pts
• Rich -11
• Aaron -8
• Mark -6
• Archie5
• Jason - 4
• Noah -3
• Cookie - 2
• Shane - 1

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 12

Its official. I'm going to vegas to be participate in one of the $1500 NL Holdem events.

Going into the final tourney of our league, the only way I wouldn't advance to the WSOP is if Shane won and I finished in fifth place or worse. That would tie us for the points total and I think he would have ended up winning on the second or third tie breaker.

I got off to a good start though and he got short stacked fairly early. He hovered around 5-10 BB for a while, winning just enough pots to stay alive, but ultimatly he couldn't keep up. I even got to be the one to deliver the final blow.

I managed to finish in second place, with Rich avenging his last heads up battle with me. He went in as th chip leader, and increased his lead a little before I flopped two pair to his straight.

Here are the final standings for the league. Smack and I will be playin in the $1500 event on June 23rd.

Week 12

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

Totals

1. Smack (104 Points)
2. Me (98 Points)
3. Shane (73 Points)
4. Rich (72 Points)
5. Archie (72 Points)
6. Cookie (71 Points)
7. Aaron (64 Points)
8. Noah (54 Points)
9. Jason (48 Points)

Totals minus the worst two games

1. Smack (102 Points)
2. Me (88 Points)
3. Shane (71 Points)
4. Rich (71 Points)
5. Cookie (67 Points)
6. Archie (67 Points)
7. Aaron (61 Points)
8. Noah (52 Points)
9. Jason (47 Points)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 11

Game 11 started off great for me. I'm in solid second place in the standings so all I have to do is make sure the same person doesn't win the last two games to guarantee my making it to the WSOP.

Noah got off to a huge chip lead and used it to bully the table. That was fine by me because he is already mathematically eliminated from a first or second place overall finish. He knocked out Rich in a hand which probably saved me a bunch. I flopped an open ended straight draw with TJo, three handed with Noah and Rich. I checked, Noah bet and Rich pushed all-in. I got out. Noah had top pair, Rich also had TJo. He failed to complete the straight and went out first, eliminating himself from contention.

Aaron goes out shortly after that to also get eliminated. Aaron suffered a few bad beats during the tourney, both involving pocket Jacks. Lets just say he was not happy.

The other players I still need to worry about at this point are Cookie, Shane and Archie. Archie and I are both doing pretty well, Cookie and Shane are going to get blinded out any moment.

A few hands later I have AA in the big blind, and Archie raises preflop to $T240. I pop it up to T$600 and he calls. The flop is Q high. I check, hoping Archie will try to steal the pot. He has about as many chips as the are in the pot, I have about $T1000 more. He goes all in. It was exactly as I would have drawn it up had I been able to plan this hand. There is no way he bets all in if he thinks he's ahead, and if he doesn't think he is ahead, then I have dominated. I insta-call. Except instead of clicking the call button I click the fold button.

I could have just taken the chip lead and knocked out one of the contenders for my Vegas spot all in one move. Instead, I gave him a ton of chips and crippled myself.

A few hands later Archie doubles up again, through Noah when Archie rivers a full house while Noah catches his straight. Noah goes out soon there after. The good news is there are only four of us left, meaning I pick up another point. The bad news is Shane and Archie have huge chip stacks. Smack is of course still hanging around and I am in all-in or fold mode.

I last a few hands before pushing with pocket snowmen. Shane calls with KQ and proceeds to flop two pair, so I'm out in fourth place.


Archie goes out when he and Smack go all-in pre flop.  Archie has 99, Smack 44.  Smack spikes a four on the flop. Archie gets a nine on the turn and the Smack gets the case for on the river.  Archie is now also eliminated, meaning only Shane has a chance to catch me.  Smack of coarse is running away with this.

The heads up battle between Shane and Smack goes on for quite a while, but ultimately, Smack comes out ahead.

Here are the standings after week 11.

Week 11:

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

Totals after week 11:

1. Smack (96 Points)
2. Me (87)
3. Shane (69)
4. Cookie (66)
5. Archie (66)
6. Aaron (62)
7. Rich (57)
8. Noah (53)
9. Jason (45)

Totals minus their worst two performances (Its been a long weekend so there is a chance my math is off here);

1. Smack (94 Points)
2. Me (77)
3. Shane (67)
4. Cookie (62)
5. Archie (61)
6. Aaron (57)
7. Rich (54)
8. Noah (52)
9. Jason (44)

The worst I can do is 82 points since right now one of my two worst is a five pointer. The best Shane can do is 82 points, if he wins next week.  We haven't discussed tie breaker scenarios, but I think I my overall score should be enough to beat him, or maybe we play heads up, in which case I'm reasonable confident I'll win.

The last game is scheduled for tomorrow so we'll know then.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 9

The summary is going to be short this week.  I was way tired and since the weather was so nice I was also having an allergy attack during the entire tournament.  I don't think it really effected the outcome or my play, just my ability to recall much of what happened.

Rich played really well. He was to my left and either had a really good read on me, or just got crazy good cards the entire time.  Every time I tried to steal a pot, or even if I thought I might be ahead he would raise me.  He was the big stack at the table by a long shot so it was tough to fire back when I could only beat a bluff.

Jason hit quads again.  He had wired queens and flopped two more.   Even better he managed to get Aaron to go all in with it. 

Smack was short stacked early on, but managed to hang around long enough to build up a decent stack and ultimately finish in second place.  I partially blame Rich for this because he accidentally created the tournament with $T2000 starting chips instead of the usual $T1500.  I think with only $T1500 Smack would have busted out.  Its probably better for me that he was in though.  At this point I am conceding that he is going to take one of the two top spots so any points he gets are points the people chasing me don't get. 

Here's the results from week 9

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

Totals

1. Smack (80 Points)
2. Me (70)
3. Cookie (61)
4. Archie (54)
5. Rich (53)
6. Shane(52)
7. Aaron(52)
8. Jason (36)
9. Noah (33)

Totals after removing the worst two results

1. Smack (75)
2. Me (60)
3. Cookie (55)
4. Rich (51)
5. Shane (50)
6. Archie (49)
7. Aaron (49)
8. Jason (35)
9. Noah (32)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 8

I think consensus in our group, even amongst those players that aren't doing so well is that the home game league set up is a blast.  Its too bad you can't play for real money anymore.  None the less, if you have a group of friends who you'd like to play with on a regular basis, and can find someone you trust to be the treasurer, I would highly recommend setting up one of these leagues.

That being said, this week was a kind of boring for me.  I was a little over tired and didn't get great cards so I ended up just hanging around for a while until I finally bled out in fifth place.

I registered for the tourney earlier in the week from a different computer than what I usually use to play on.  For some reason I couldn't convince Poker Stars that I had signed out on that computer so  it wouldn't let me play from my office computer.  I ended up having to remote desktop to my other machine to play.  It was mildly annoying, but ultimately not a big deal.  Since I showed up as the tourney was starting and kept logging in and out to get the client running on my office computer I missed half of the first blind level.  I do remember getting pocket rockets in the first hand and over betting because I was flustered to take down a huge $T15 pot.

Some other confusion, our schedule master Rich had decided to increase the starting chip count from $T1500 to $T2000.  He also decided to register and not show up.  I was able to steal his blinds a lot in the first round when they were cheap, but once we merged tables I had Smack to my right and the Noah to his right.  There were very few hands where I was able to act before the pot had been raised.  Couple that with my sub par cards and as I mentioned earlier, I didn't do so well.

There were a couple of misbets that hurt some people and were rather amusing at the time.  In one hand Archie had considered raising, moving the bet slider, then changed his mind and decided to fold.  He accidentally clicked the bet button though, and after using almost all of his time back Aaron decides to call and takes down a huge pot.  Later on with blinds at $T30/60, Noah tries to make a pre-flop raise to $T180 under the gun.  His finger slips off the 8 key though and he hits $T1809 instead.  Everyone folds until Shane in the big blind.  Shane calls and takes down the hand on the flop.  I think he had pocket queens.

For most of the tournament I was just hoping to last long enough to beat Rich.  We decided that he should get zero points for not showing up, but just in case, I wanted to make sure I at least finished ahead of him.  I just barely lasted longer than him. 

Here's the results from this week's game:

• Shane
• Smack
• Aaron
• Noah
• Me
• Jason
• Archie
• Cookie
• Rich (0 Points - No Show)

I think its a fight for the second spot now as I don't see anyone catching Smack.  Cookie going out first helps me a lot, and Aaron not winning was a good thing for me.  

 Totals after week 8

• Smack (69 Points)
• Me (64)
• Cookie (57)
• Shane(51)
• Aaron (50)
• Archie (46)
• Rich (38)
• Jason (33)
• Noah (28)

 Totals after dropping the worst two games

• Smack (64)
• Me (54)
• Cookie (51)
• Shane (49)
• Aaron (47)
• Archie(41)
• Rich (36)
• Jason (32)
• Noah (27)
  

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 7

Into the second half of the season we go.  I didn't take notes tonight because not a lot happened to early on, and I didn't feel like I was going to last long.  Also, I'm lazy.

I managed to find myself all in a lot this tournament, and more often than not, I got in while behind.  A fortunate combinations of suckouts, when I needed them, and a bigger chip size than my opponent allowed me to stay alive for quite a while, despite my efforts to the contrary.

Not a lot of cards for me early on, once again.  I won a few small pots without much of a fight, but that was it.  My first mistake comes in the second or third blind level.  Smack raises, as he does just about every hand, and I call with big slick.  Noah then reraises and Smack bows out.  I'm thinking Noah has a strong ace, or maybe queens or jacks.  Aces and Kings are certainly reasonable here, but I convince myself that he would not be so eager to push people out of the hand with those cards.  I reraise all in, thinking I can get him to fold the range I have him in.  Terrible read on my part.  He turns over aces. He obviously doesn't want his aces cracked going against two players so his raise there is the obvious play in hind site.  Especially since he's been running into some terrible luck for this season.

That knocks me down to around $T500 chips which has me thinking I'm going to be using my first drop game.

Fortunately Smack loves to raise with just about any connected hand.  He often ends up betting enough to force a small stack to raise all-in and obligates him to call.  He usually starts off behind in these cases.  I'm able to double up through him.  Aaron and Shane are not so lucky as they go out first and second.  Aaron rage quits from teamspeak almost immediately after losing the hand.  I'm fairly certain he's still on tilt.

I use Smacks donation to hang around while everyone else eliminates themselves.  I don't remember anything else real exciting happening for me for a while.  I'm pretty sure I sucked out a couple of times, but I don't remember how, or who I was against in the hand.

Noah continues his unlucky streak when he flops two pair against Cookie's pocket kings.  The river pairs the board though and counterfeits Noah's hand, knocking him out.  He is also probably still on tilt from that.

I manage to survive to three players when my luck catches up with me.  I make a  pre-flop reraise all in with pocket jacks, and Archie calls me with AK and pairs his ace on the flop.  After that I'm in all-in or fold mode, and Archie catches me again.

Archie has a huge chip lead against Smack, which is good, because Smack is going to overtake me in the points. If Archie wins it won't be as bad. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the heads up match, but Smack quickly turns things around and dispatches with Archie.

Here are the current standings.  Three of us are pulling away from the pack, but I think most people are still reasonably in the hunt.

Week 7 Results

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

Total Points

1. Me (59 Points)
2. Smack (58)
3. Cookie (55)
4. Archie (43)
5. Aaron (42)
6. Rich (38)
7. Shane (36)
8. Jason (29)
9. Noah (22)

Total Points (After dropping their worst two)

1. Smack (53)
2. Me (49)
3. Cookie (47)
4. Aaron (39)
5. Archie (37)
6. Shane (34)
7. Rich (33)
8. Jason (28)
9. Noah (21)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 6

I don't think game 6 could have gone any better if I had stacked the deck before hand.  Everything seemed to fall into place in the exact perfect outcome that I needed.

To start things off, two of the point leaders, Aaron and Smack get crippled by losing big hands. I didn't see what happened to Smack, I think he got wired queens cracked.  Aaron lost on a board showing three jacks. He mucked his cards when Rich turned over a pair of tens.  I'm thinking Aaron had an ace and was hoping  high card would be good, or maybe he paired something on the board.  Regardless he now has only a couple hundred chips and we aren't even out of the first blind level yet.  Despite winning the previous two games, he is not invincible.

Smack goes out first which is perfect for me.  He's the player I fear most at the table, and he was a top contender for points.    Aaron goes in to super tight fold or all in mode.  I think the only cards he's even willing to push with are AK, or high pairs.  He's obviously trying to hold on as long as he can in hopes of picking up a couple extra points.    Since he's also in contention for the points lead, I feel like I have to beat him this game, especially since he in so much trouble all ready.  Not that my cards helped at all, but I find myself tightening up considerably, not willing to take any unnecessary risks as long as Aaron is still around

My cards are pretty bad for most of this tournament.  The only decent hand I get in the first have is a pair queens, which get cracked when I push Shane all in.  He manages to hit a flush with his KJo.

Noah has been having a terrible season so far.  I would have normally put him as one of the favorites to finish in the lead, but he hasn't done anything.  tonight wasn't really his fault though.  He ends up going all in against Cookie after a flop of KKA, and rags on the turn and river.  Noah had KJ, and was feeling pretty confident up until Cookie's cards were revealed and he shows AK, leaving Noah with 23 chips left to try to cover the $T50 big blind.

Aaron is still hanging around though.  He hasn't played a hand in four or five orbits when suddenly he wakes up with cards.  AK lets him double up when Jason calls.  He doubles up again shortly after that and before you know it he has a decent chip stack again.

Unfortunately for him, his switch to a more aggressive style gets him into trouble almost immediately after he starts bragging about his comeback.  He decides to raise,and call a reraise with KJo and runs into AK.  So after all that work he still goes out third.

My cards are still terrible.  I'm folding a ton, not really feeling confident, just hoping to stay alive.  I keep stealing Jason's big blind, until he says that one of these times he'll have hand.  I retort that one of these times I'll have a hand too.   Originally I'm thinking I'll put him on tilt by insinuating that I've been bluffing every time, but then I start over thinking it and now I'm afraid to bet because I think he'll think I'm bluffing and he'll be more likely to push back.  So I kind of screwed myself.

I end up getting quite a bit lucky, using Cookie's tricks against him.  I have  T2 and try to steal his blinds.  The flop is J27 and I push all in thinking  he just called my pre-flop raise because he's stubborn.  Even if he ha a hand, he probably didn't have a jack right?  Wrong.  He has JT and I'm down to two outs.  Which I hit on the river.

And then, my cards start getting a lot better.  AK and KK in sequential hands move me from the short stack to a comfortable size.  I then double up through Rich on a hand I don't think I played very well  I had J5 in a family pot with the four remaining players.  The flop is J5X all hearts.  I push all in here, for about 3x pot.  My thinking is that chances are someone has a heart, and I don't want them even thinking about chasing the flush.  I'm not sure if this was the right play or not.  If someone already had a flush then I just knocked myself out.  Although I don't know how I can both bet enough to figure out if someone has the flush while pushing out the chasers, without committing all of my chips.  It worked out okay though because Rich called with a Q5.  I think the queen was a heart but I don't recall for certain.  He missed the straight either way.

Shortly after that I have pocket queens again.  Pocket queens have gotten cracked at least twice today so I'm a little nervous.  Its Jason's big blind though, so perhaps the talk of stealing earlier will pay off.  I make my standard pre-flop raise and he calls.  The flop is XQQ.  One of the areas I think I need to work on is value betting, and maximizing my winnings when I know I'm ahead.  I'm often content to bet big and take the pot right away rather than let someone draw out on  me.  I probably save myself some bad beats by doing this, but I also leave chips on the table.  I have the absolute nuts here so I need to slow down.

Jason plays right into my hands by raising my small bet, then calling my increasingly large bets on the turn and river.  He grudgingly calls on the river saying that he doesn't think I have the queen.  Too bad for him, I have two.

I got lucky against Cookie again.  I managed to forget the exact hand, but it involved me catching a flush on the river to come from way behind.  I think I tried to steal his blind originally and he reraised all-in, giving me pot odds to call.

I'm glad Cookie went out before Rich because Cookie was in the points lead, but I'm not thrilled to be playing Rich heads up.  He still plays regularly online, and he plays heads up cash games, so this should be his strength.  And maybe it would have been if I didn't get get crazy good cards.  Not that my hands started out all that great, but both of bet about 3x BB no matter what pre-flop.  I had the chip lead so I called his bet every time, and he was forced to fold some on  occasion.  The flops were fantastic for me.  I couldn't miss.   I think two pair was the worst hand I had by the time we showed down, or he folded.

Ultimately I got him all in with 69s and rivered a flush.  He was not happy, but he had so few chips I would have called with almost anything.   Sometimes you need a little luck to help you out.

Here are the standings so far:

Week 6:

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

Total Points

1. Cookie (51)
2. Me (51)
3. Smack (43)
4. Aaron (41)
5. Shane (34)
6. Rich (33)
7. Archie (32)
8. Jason (23)
9. Noah (19)

Total Points (worst two scores thrown out)

1. Cookie (42)
2. Me (41)
3. Smack (38)
4. Aaron (36)
5. Shane (32)
6. Rich (28)
7. Archie (26)
8. Jason (22)
9. Noah (18)

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

WSPL Goes to Vegas Game 5

Almost halfway through the season.

Game 5 was interesting.  I thought I played pretty well, but the more I think about, the more angry I am with the end result.

I didn't get very many good cards this game.  I was mostly content to let everyone else fight amongst themselves while I jumped in to very few pots.   When I did get premium hands, I was fortunate enough to have people bet into me big.   I had pocket kings a couple of times and had people raise and reraise before it even got to me, which worked out well.  

I also won a huge pot towards the mid to late stages of the game when everyone limped in preflop with me and my K3o in the small blind.   The flop was 332 with two hearts.  I made a small bet, hoping to build the pot and not wanting people to draw to a flush for free.  Cookie raises me to  a half pot sized bet.  There are a bunch of folds and the Noah re-raises about 3x pot.  I went all in, and after much deliberation Noah folds, giving me the chip lead and crippling him.  He was trying to push Cookie out of the pot, and didn't expect me to be involved at all.

I more or less have the chip lead from that point on.  I'm able to bully some of the other players, for a while, and finally when Cookie gets tired of it and fires back, I manage to flop a set to knock him out. 

At that point there are four of us left, myself with aver 7K in chips, Aaron with between 2k and 3k, Shane with under 1K and Smack with just over 2K.  At that point I'm assuming it is only a matter of time for Shane.  I think Smack is probably the best player in our group, and also the only one left that has more points than me, so I'm hoping to bust him. 

Alas it is not to be.  I went against my better judgement and call a pre-flop all-in from him with KQs.  I was hoping he was getting desperate and pushing with any face card and maybe I could catch him.  Unfortunately, he has AQ and doubles up.  I'm still in the lead, but I do the same thing with Shane a few hands later.   Then Aaron starts calling and raising my bets and suddenly I'm on the defensive.

I should make a note here that my daughter is not even two weeks old, and sometime after I crippled Noah and before I knocked out Cookie, she had a meltdown, and so did my wife who was hoping to take a nap during this time.  So I had to step in rescue them.  In an effort to keep my daughter from crying I'm bouncing and rocking in the chair, or pacing back and forth two feet in front of my computer, because that's all the slack I have on my headphones.  Its also really hard to do anything other than call or make a standard raise, because to get to the number pad on my keyboard I have to shift her in my hands, which wakes her up and restarts the screaming at the top of the lungs process.

Not that I'm making excuses, because I made some dumb plays that I knew I shouldn't have and Aaron was playing well to take most of my chips.  That being said, there were a number of bets I made because they were easier than making the bet I would normally have made.  For example I managed to draw to a straight against Smack when neither of us really seemed to want the pot.  He made a small bet on the river and rather than raising I just called and one a smaller pot than I could have had.  It was possible that he hit a runner-runner flush which is what I used to justify my laziness at the time, but I could have done better.

I also think I played more hands than I normally would have at the end because she was starting to fuss and I knew she wouldn't hold out much longer no matter what I did.

As I said before, the longer I think about it, the angrier I am that I didn't win this one. I went out in fourth. There's no way I should have let Shane or Smack beat me as bad of shape as they were in.  And I think I can bear Aaron heads up 9 out of 10 games.   Instead Aaron took first and Smack second.  Aaron has now won two in a row and both he and Smack are ahead of me. 

Here's the results so far.

Game 5:

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

Totals

1. Cookie (43 Points)
2. Smack (42 Points)
3. Aaron (38 Points)
4.  Me (36 Points)
5. Shane (29 Points)
6. Archie (28 Points)
7. Rich (22 Points)
8. Jason (17 Points)
9. Noah (17 Points)

Totals after removing our worst two games

1. Cookie (34 Points)
2. Smack (34 Points)
3. Aaron (33 Points)
4. Shane (27 Points)
5. Me (26 Points)
6. Archie (22 Points)
7. Rich (17 Points)
8. Jason (16 Points)
9. Noah (16 Points)

Its a three way race at this point.  Shane and I can easily get back into it with a good performance next week, and I wouldn't count Archie out either.  The other three are going to need to win soon before they get too much further behind.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com