Catching up

Oops, I've neglected my poker blog for a while.

In the words of Iggy, an überpost. I might not ramble as much or paste in outside content, so let's call it eine mittelpost. Unterpost? Ganz klar?

Let's see. Biweekly homegame tournament: Second place with seven players and no less than seven rebuys, total (I made one). Two newcomers and one of them won.

Played a little at Full Tilt Poker (use signup code MARTILT for a 100% bonus up to $600) and also watched the pros. They have quite a few; Chris Ferguson, Eric Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey and others, who have to play a while each week. The tables they're at are highlighted in red in the lobby. Seen Phil Ivey sitting lonely and forlorn at a $500/$1000 table one time, but a while ago I saw a lot of action at the table, $50/$100 NL THE, where he was sitting. Looots of railbirds wondering "Hey Phil can you stake me?", "Hey Phil, that hand at WPT Thingy Mastership in North Southwood, why did you raise with A8 hearts?". Luckily you can turn off Observer chat. Saw him take a heavy blow for a few thou (I say with a casual voice) but definitely not fatal when he had TT and the flop came ATx. Opponent had AA, so he was happy. Phil made it back quickly. Btw, saw him in a WPT event on TV this Saturday. He looks ANGRY! Arr, arr, rawr!

The site I mentioned in the last post, where I got $12, well, I'm up to $130 now. Heeere fishy fishy fish. And if I should be outdrawn at the microlimit NL THE tables, just go to the Limit 5 Card Draw for a while and grind a buyin back.

Tournament in our local poker club Sunday. Blergh, not good. Buyin, one rebuy (when I had two pair or a set and was all in. Opponent didn't have many outs, the most prominent one being a six to fill his gutshot straight. The river is... a six. I felt like kicking and punching the dealer, but in that hand it was... me.) and the addon. And I'm out at 12th place of 13. Had A7s, the board is K7xKx. Two pair K7 with Ace kicker. I thought and gambled at that the opponent who put me all in maybe tried to bully me out with a bare Ace or scaring me off/making a continuation bet for an unfulfilled draw, but nope, he had a King.

Home, James.

Played a cheap Sit'n'Go at Full Tilt. When we were three left, in the money, I pulled a fast one. Quite even in stacks. I get 27o (The Hammer) in the small blind. Minimum raise. Big Blind thinks a little and then says "27o" and folds. I show my 27o, and hilarity ensues. Uhm, OK, I got a "lol" in the chat window. But it was fun and appreciated. KJo, hit a K on the flop and all in. Nope, he had AA. Third place.

On to the freeroll at PokerBlue (Signup code: Marthyn). Play for four hours and you get entry into the Sunday freeroll, which nowadays is a $6000 prize pool to the top 20. It was in one of PokerBlue's freerolls I won a seat in WSOP Main Event 2006. The four hours are easily done, it isn't four hours played, sorta, it's total. So play two tables at the lowest fixed limits ($0.25/$0.50) for two hours, or four for an hour and you're ready.

After some technical difficulties, it starts. Good or bad thing, but they remove inactive (not logged in) players after the first fifteen minutes, and then we were only 84 (eightyfour) left. Btw, I placed 697 of 2480 in a $25,000 freeroll at another site without even playing (got called away). 220 paid but I placed better than people who actually played actively.

I see one player make a fantastic recovery, he hit a semi-bad beat and was down to 10 (ten!) in chips, with blinds 10/20, we start with 1500. At that level, many just call call call so it mounts up. And he wins, wins, wins the all ins he's involved in and fifteen minutes later he's up to 900 (and later 1900).

I'm far down on the leaderboard. When I raise I get no callers. When I get playable starting hands I get a large raise or all in before me and I chicken out, or a reraise. Lost count of the number of K8o I got. Obviously I won some hands since I'm still alive but nothing remarkable. Hey, players are dropping off. Im 30 of 33. 25 of 30. I'm 22 of 24 with blinds 200/400 and I have T$1325. Up a bit to over $2000 with semi-bluffstealing the blinds once, twice or thrice. Play it cool and nearly max out the timer to allow other tables to knock someone out, we're now 23 left (I'm in 22nd place) and it's 20 players paid. And I'd rather be blinded off than taking a wild chance and going out on the bubble with Fancy Play Syndrome.

Oooh, hey. In the money! 19 of 21, 17 of 18. I have to make a move. A3 clubs, all in with not even 2 times the big blind. One caller. I hit the Ace on the flop! But nope, so did the opponent and he had a Q kicker. Why couldn't he have had QQ, KK, QK, or some measly pocket pair without hitting anything?

16th place, $75 to me. 1st place $2500, 2nd $1000. Not a huge win but good for my level of play and bankroll. Never play with money you can't afford to lose, so I'm not taking any wild chances "Hey, I'll take a shot at this $500 tournament, I know I can play well". Not sure if I mentioned my $100 win (1st place) in a $5 Fixed Limit Tournament.

Heard of a horrible bad beat from the poker club forum. X was playing online, cash game, with $5000 at the table and so had the other players. He loses a small pot (I think) and then in the next hand, in the small blind, he gets AA. And four other players before him go all-in. So does he. The pot is approximately $25,000... Cards flipped over. Think it was 88, 99, JJ, his AA and 23. 23? We'll get back to that.

Flop is A23. Yay, a set (three of a kind) for him. The turn, a 3. Full house, all the others are now drawing dead, almost. There's Mr. 23 with threes full of deuces, beat. If you have any experience in reading poker hands and thinking of outs you see what's coming next. So, he's got AA. Set. Full house. The river is... 3... Four of a kind 3 (beats Aces full) to the IDIOT who goes all in with about $5000 holding 23. Maybe they were suited.

Someone crunched numbers with PokerStove and mentioned that "yada yada, with that kind of action AA only wins 48% of the time" and so on but I and many others would have done the same with that huge a pot and AA preflop, unless huge buyin tournament life, all your and your family and friend's money or your actual physical life was on the line. And then seeing it just getting stronger and stronger and finally getting sucked out like that on a ONE-outer. On the river. So he writes about it on the club's Internet forum and "and that's why I won't play poker anymore".

Sure, it can happen, has happened, will happen and could happen. But man what a bad beat.