$70 Up, $300 Down
Thursday, July 20, 2006
It's not as bad as it sounds, people. The $300 is actually the $260+40 Shootout event at the Foxwoods in the fall. I was toying with the idea of making my first foray into live casino tournament poker beyond the usual under $100 buy-ins to which I've grown accustomed. Unfortunately, the date of the event is Tuesday, October 31st, aka Halloween. I didn't anticipate this to be a problem. After all, Halloween is on a Tuesday so most celebrating would be done on the weekend before. But wifey Kim thought differently, and, frankly, she is worth a whole lot more than $260+40 and she rarely hands out bad beats. So, those plans are thwarted and replaced with the plan to probably hit Foxwoods the weekend after, circa November 4, to meet up with some fellow bloggers like Bone Daddy and Drewspop, and play in some of the side cash games. Maybe I will even gather my balls and go for a satellite into the $1200 event, but that is yet to be seen.
Onto the up $70. Nine.com is one helluva site. The traffic is light, but there is always two 2/4 Limit games going, although rarely are they both full. I like to jump into the one that is more empty and just wait for the fishies to announce themselves. They usually do it pretty quickly, calling someone down with K-high only to go runner runner flush or the like. Once that is done, I settle into Make Money Mode and its been working out quite well. Last night, I took $47 off a table in about 10 minutes. It's mostly ABC poker, but I play more hands and I play most hands pretty hard until I sense resistance. Then, I'll generally slow down, but not to the players who I've seen re-raise bluff with crap cards. Okay, sometimes to them too, but only because I know I can make that money back in no time.
Once again, bonus whoring is paying off big time. Not only am I working on a $150 bonus, but I've also got the VPP bonus coming my way. Add to that the fact that I found a new room with soft action that I would otherwise never know about, and it's a great thing. A great thing, indeed. I'm more than halfway through the VPP bonus. Next stop on the bonus whoring tour will likely be back to PSO, since I have ran through all of the VPP bonuses. I thought I had one more to go, but alas, it looks like they've removed one of the rooms from their list. Fortunately, PSO has added Dream Poker. Ever hear of it? Me neither. But I'm sure the fishies have!
Hey, and while we are on the topic, remember that Reader who I sent the bonus whoring guide to? Yeah, well, he finished the first promo in 7 hours and has finished his second promotion already. At this rate, he will have enough for an iPod nano compliments of VPP in 2-3 weeks TOPS! It's great to see, since amassing this bonus whoring knowledge took months of trial and error. I might not be able to use the info I learned to my advantage (fully), but I'm more than glad to pass it along.
After the $47 win, I took some time off to spend the evening with wifey Kim. Earlier in the evening, we met a coworker and his girlfriend over at Butter, a trendy restaurant in the East Village which recently hosted a private Prince concert, with guests like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. The food was adequate. The atmosphere was nice. The company was good. The check had a 20% gratuity included. Now, it's Restaurant Week in NY, so a bunch of the nicer restaurants are offering $35 price fixed menus. But, come on! Four people and you are going to include the tip on the bill! Tres tacky!
But back to poker. At about 9:55pm, I decided to go for the Mookie. Wifey Kim had settled into some Live with Regis and Kelly and was nodding off. I jumped into a shark-filled table, including CJ from Up for Poker. Throughout my tenure here at High on Poker, CJ has always been a good guy. Up for Poker is probably one of the premiere poker blog sites. One of the sites most creative features is how it shows what blogs in the blogroll were recently updated. Aside from that, it hosts a triumverate of great writers and poker players. CJ particularly has popped into High on Poker to drop a comment or give his take on how I misplayed a hand (we all enjoy that, don't we?). Well, I thank him for it, because he's not a sheep following the masses (and by that, I mean his comments are generally more than, "Yep, I agree" or "NH!") and I respect his luckbox of a game and writing skills immensely.
But why am I talking about CJ? Well, it should be of no surprise to any of you that I love action. So as soon as I saw the luckbox, I offered an $11 last longer bet. He agreed, and I went about playing some poker.
Overall, I played a solid game. I made, what I would deem, a very impressive play early on in the tournament. I had 83d in the small blind and limped in. A loose player in the BB decided to raise. I don't remember the player's name (sorry), but I was watching the game carefully and saw that he was in a lot of pots and was willing to steal. So, I made the call, hoping to flop big. Many of you are groaning right now. Groan away. It was a ballsy play, considering the last longer bet, but there comes a time when you have to leave the rule book and make your own path. I saw something and I went for it. The flop was 872, rainbow. I now had top-pair weakest possible kicker. But I was fairly confident that the original bettor did not have a pocket pair, so unless he held a better kicker or lucked out with two low cards, I was ahead. I bet, hoping to take down the pot. I believe the pot was at 180 and I bet 120. The short-stack (but not desperate) Original Bettor decided to push. I believe he had 565 more. I thought for a moment, and decided that he was probably on two overcards. Whatever the case, I wasn't buying what he was selling and I decided to make the call. He showed 62o, for bottom pair, terrible kicker. I waited for the turn and river, and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't catch up. And then they moved me. Fucking A! I make a sweet call and then they move me? Sweet Jesus!
So, I'm at a new table, and I'm trying to stay afloat. Whereas I was one of the big stacks at my old table, this new table is packing a lot of punch. I play a bit tighter and are able to steal a bit. But I'm also not getting any cards. My KK is folded to. Otherwise, I think my best pocket pair was 88 (I folded it to a big preflop raise from early position) and 66 (ditto). I held AKs once and made a strong play in the BB when Will Wonka in MP/LP raised from 100 to 900. I was probably at about 2700 to 3200 and decided to re-raise to 900. He laid it down preflop and I breathed a sign of relief. On the next hand, he was busted by DNasty, when Wonka's 99 lost to DNasty's AK when they both were all-in preflop. AK was not good for WW.
For a while, I stayed the shortstack at the table, scraping by as best I could. I was able to make up some ground with aggression when blinds and antes were in the 100/200/25 range, but I was still short, without a doubt. We were down to 11 when Veneno was moved to my table on my left. She was the uber short stack with about 1k after blinds (in the particular hand she was the BB and I was the SB) to my 1800 to 2400 (somewhere in that range). The table folded around to me, and I virtually look down to 49o, a real monster! Now, if Veneno has two unpaired cards, I'm really not too far behind. Plus, if I can bet her off of the pot, I can win an easy 600 or so, so I bet 600 (we were still at 100/200/25). She contemplates and then pushes. Well, that's just another 450 or so, so I figure I've got to call. Hell, I was willing to go all in on her anyway. At least I wasn't the shorter of the two stacks. She flipps over A2o, but I wasn't the least bit worried since online poker is rigged to make shortstacks lose. I was about a 60/40 dog until the flop came with a glorious 4. The turn and river lacked Aces, and I busted the V. She thanked me for trying to gift her some chips, but we all know better, don't we. Some might question this play, but I needed chips to make it into the decent money spots and I was willing to risk it on a weighted coin toss (I refuse to call 60/40 or anything short of 51/49 a coin toss).
In a few hands, we were at the final table, and I was maybe second to last in chips. I stole some, and eventually found myself in the top 6, still as short stack. In MP, I decided to push all-in with 2700 or so and 200/400/50 blinds. The other shorter stack called and I had to show my Q8s. I'm sure people were scratching their heads, but you just have to try to steal here and there, and what better target than the other shorter stack. Of course, he had JJ, so I was sent packing. In the end, I made $32.50 in profit, thanks in part to outlasting CJ, who held on to about 16 or so. He was on the shortstack for a while and just didn't bust. But eventually, his A-high faced KJ preflop and the K came out, ensuring my victory.
That's a lot of poker content.
I want to play live desperately. I have dinner plans with el Jefe and J-Dubs, two of my close buddies and former college roommates, tonight, so Genoa is out. But I'm looking for opportunities, and as soon as one arises, I shall make my return. Until then, make mine poker!
PS- Is it just me, or is Wavy Word getting harder? I mean, can't they give me 4 letters? Everything has 18 letters all of a sudden, and they usually are indecipherable. I'll need a computer program just to read Wavy Word if this keeps up. Hrumph.
posted by Jordan @ 10:04 AM,
8 Comments:
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At 10:49 AM,
Pokerwolf said...
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If the satellite to the $1200 is anywhere around $300 (or less), you should go for it.
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At 10:51 AM,
WillWonka said...
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Nice going last night. For the record, I layed down AQs so yes, Big Slick was my nemisis (sp) last night.
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At 11:34 AM,
CJ said...
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Actually... my A-high doubled through Kx to get me close to you. Then my QQ went down in flames to A8o. Yep, A8o.
I hate poker. -
At 12:03 PM,
MHG said...
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O/8.
Game on.
Do you play short-handed or full ring games usually at O/8?
Nice run in the mookie, missed it by about 20mins. -
At 12:46 PM,
Jordan said...
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MeanHappy, I play whatever. What stakes? Generally, I'm not bankrolled for anything about 100 max buy-in, but I'll gladly go lower to 50 max. 25 max is ok too, but below that, I'm just not able to care as much. Hit me up on the girlie yahoo IM if you have it: highonpokr, leave out the E for +EV!
And CJ is correct. Now I remember. I had CJ's table open and he pushes and someone calls and I'm praying, just praying that CJ is behind, even though I know that he is not. The cards flip and I see CJ's QQ v. A8 and I think, "Please Jesus, I know I'm Jewish, but just this once." The turn was an Ace, and I won the bet. I wanted to say somehting, but I'm not going to celebrate my win and CJ's loss right after he busted. That wouldn't have been cool. Anyway, thanks CJ. He paid immediately, which is no surprise, but is always a pleasure. -
At 12:55 PM,
Eric a.k.a. Bone Daddy said...
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I have to say the foxwoods tourney is not laid out like the one in the Spring, it is very unfriendly to the bank roll. last spring that had a $600 2000 person donkey fest, so many dopes play these tourniments you would be amazed.
I was eyeing the $1200 nlhe, but I would be just as happy donkig away my chips in a couple of satalites to the big dance. See you there. -
At 12:56 PM,
Eric a.k.a. Bone Daddy said...
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hey, i'm coming up at the end of my current bonus at full tilt, any recommendations, I haven't done PSO, should I?
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At 4:51 PM,
MHG said...
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25-50max is good for me, although I actually play fixed limit more than pot limit. Don't ask me why...
No girlie chat for me, I'll find you on pstars sooner or later.
