Changing Things Up
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Things have been changing for good ole J-bird's online play lately. I've re-entered the world of NLHE cash games, dipping my big toe in the guppy-infested waters at Bodog. Naturally, I'm still playing with an unhealthy portion of my bankroll, but I am still playing in lower stakes than usual and I keep enough of my bankroll in reserve in case I lose a buy-in.
It's an interesting proposition, re-entering the world of online NLHE cash games. Bodog is a great place to start, given the horrible play there. Even so, I have been mostly playing $50 max and leaving the table up $10-20, as opposed to several buy-ins. The key to my re-entry has been patience in the early-goings. Once I identify the donks, I can loosen up a bit, but for the most part, patience has paid off. This is nothing new, but its nice to be able to get back into the game with a 'fresh' start.
The 'freshness' of this new start is predicated on the fact that, generally, I prefer online tournaments to cash games. Live is another story, but online, I find something very satisfying about playing SNGs and mid-sized MTTs. No 1000 player MTTs for me, though. As much as it may seem like fun to win 500x your buy-in, the bare fact is that I cannot find the time or patience to play online poker for 5+ hours at a stretch.
Meanwhile, I've made a conscious decision regarding the blogger tournaments. My new favorite is the Bodonkey for obvious reasons.
I cashed again in the Bodonkey tournament two nights ago, taking 4th place and some small amount of money. Interestingly, I've played this tournament maybe three times so far, and I've cashed twice. It's nothing particularly special. This week, I happened to have been dealt great cards and used them and my image to my advantage. But the prize is fantastic. As I've said, it's only a "small amount of money" for fourth place, but the real value-added is the T$109 given to the top five players. In a very real way, I see this tournament as just another token race. My play this week did not reflect that, since I was able to accumulate a big chip lead relatively early (I think I busted Chadwith my AA to his KK and then never looked back), but once I make it to one of the top 5 spots, I consider it almost equivalent to winning the tournament. Granted, I just did the math, and the difference between 4th place and 1st is $100, approximately the same difference as between 6th (the bubble) and cashing, but there is some odd satisfaction I get knowing that I am able to earn a piece of that juicy overlay.
Also, congratulations are in order for lightning36 for winning the Bodonkey for the 4th time, and Peaker for making a stellar comeback from T65 at the final table to 2nd place.
On the other hand, last night after a long drive home from Binghamton, I decided that it would be foolish to play in the Mookie. I got nothing but love for Mook, himself, and lately I cannot get enough of blogger poker tournaments, but I think I might have to retire from the Mookie. Plain and simple, the Deep Stack structure, larger field, and quality of blogger play leads to a tourney that can last easily past 1am, EST. Last week, this caused me to make a poor play with AK because of the encroaching 1am hour. Jordan needs his beauty sleep, damnit!
The Hoy, on the other hand, will stay on my short list of favorite tournaments. The 6-max structure makes for a quicker-paced game more suited for my style, and for some reason, the crowds are thinner (the buy-in, perhaps?). Whatever the case, I love the Hoy, and I'm still holding the #3 spot on the leaderboard after a whopping 4 weeks, so I've got that goal for me too.
That's all for today, look for me to not be at the Riverchasers tournament later tonight or, for that matter, for the next 7 weeks or so, as I will be tied to the TV watching Lost. Oh, and for those Lost fans out there, let me offer some sage wisdom. I am way too informed about entertainment news, so let me warn you well in advance that you will probably feel disappointed after the 8-episode half-season is over. Unlike Heroes, who were able to adjust their plotting (for better or worse) to respond to the writers' strike, the folks at Lost didn't change a thing. Naturally, in any show like Lost, the second half of the season has most of the payoff. So, while we may all wish that we were watching 8 episodes of amazing revelations, the reality is that we are going to be watching 8 episodes that set up the amazing revelations that we should end up seeing sometime in 2009. That's not to say that you shouldn't watch; you should. Even though the show got a bit shitty in the beginning of seasons 3, the finale with the flash-forward really reinvigorated the show. Also, look for tonight's episode to have more flash-forward goodness.
Until next time, make mine poker!
posted by Jordan @ 2:20 PM,
4 Comments:
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At 3:56 PM,
Hammer Player a.k.a Hoyazo said...
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Oh man Jordan I do not know if I can handle another two months of disappointment after the last ten years of waiting for this season to begin. I thought I read somewhere that they were trying to rejigger some of the last show or two this year to make it more of a "cliffhanger" type of ending that they would normally have as the finale to a full blown season. Did that never end up happening?
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At 4:48 PM,
smokkee said...
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Bodog is the shizzz
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At 5:26 PM,
said...
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Have no fear...The Mookie is moving to 1,500 stacks next week.
Playing till 1:15am CT last night was pretty rough. -
At 5:40 PM,
Jordan said...
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Hoy, in a recent interview in Wizard Magazine (a comic-industry magazine), one of the writers or producers or something stated that they did not have the time to change the storylines. In any event, every episode of Lost has a cliffhanger, and I'm sure the 8th episode of the planned 16-episode season had a particularly strong cliffhanger to keep midseason interest. Even so, the interview also said that a lot of the reveals were written for the second half of the season.
Smokee, too true. Thanks for getting me back to Bodog. I kinda loathe publicizing it, since I like the small fields, but I have to do my part to help out my fellow bloggers.
Mook, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. With 1500 stacks, I can effectively tilt off my stack in under 1 1/2 hours. Hurrah!
