Mrs. Blood > BadBlood

The last 3 nights I've let Mrs. Blood play a $5 SNG at Party since she's shown a real interest in learning to play better. She's also made the effort to occasionally play with me head to head after we put the kids to bed. I'll use any excuse to bring out the table.

I told her she could play however she wanted, but I'd be there to answer any questions or help out in any way I could. She got to see first hand how maniacal the players are at a $5 SNG. There were times when she'd say, "You'd fold this hand, but I'll call." As we all know, sometimes you can get lucky. In her first tourney, she held Q,9 off in the small blind and called. I actually would have too as there were about 5 players already in and seeing the flop would have been real cheap. She flops the nut straight and slow plays it a bit and probably won more in that pot than I would have.

She also learned when the proper time is to go all-in or fold based on stack size and the blinds. She played short-stacked rather effectively in two of the tournaments, in each case finding herself back in the chip lead at one point.

Her results after 3 tournaments: 3rd, 3rd, and 2nd for an impressive 94.4% ROI.

Mrs. Blood can actually claim she's a winning online poker player. I can't say that - I have a bit more to go.

She's having fun playing and spending more time with me in front of the virtual tables - that is a good thing. Hopefully she's learning as well, I think she is anyway.

Oh yeah. After I mentioned to her that I was going to be staying in a hotel room in Vegas with 6 other guys, her first reaction was this:

"Oh God, it's gonna reek. The smell!" Probably a correct assumption, but luckily now with G-Rob heading to Vegas, another room has been procured. Hopefully things will be less odorous.

Bubble Boy Strikes Again

The SNG's on Party, as everyone knows, can easily develop into a crap shoot if the players at your table are relatively decent if not a bit tight. If there are some maniacs, you can usually catch them with some monster hands and double up quickly. If there are mainly solid players, then I tend to find myself right at about average stack when there's 5 or 6 left in the tourney. By then, though, the blinds have increased such that it may come time to push and fold, even for an average stack.

So my last 2 4th place finishes kind of blow chunks and I'm a bit peeved. Would have been nice to place in at least one. My ROI at the $20 SNG's so far is only 43.5% compared to 111.5% at the $10's. Sample size is smaller, so I can't quite make any rash judgements yet. Time will tell.

Shout out to Party Player darknoj who is becomes the 3rd reader to find me on Party Poker. As Gilderoy Lockhart says, "Celebrity is as celebrity does."

Coincidence? I Think Not

So I sit down at another $25 NL table at Party Poker, biding my time as dinner is readied for me at my in-law's house. FYI, Party Poker is pretty responsive on dialup too.

I'm watching for a while as pocket K's get demolished repeatedly. In the span of about 25 hands, it loses three times. I hadn't seen it win, perhaps it had, but it was never shown down.

So I open my big mouth in the chat box:

"i've seen K's go down 3 times since i've sat down"

Then this follows:


Dealt to badblood44 [ Ah Ac ]
Cassidy17 folds.
fatlumps folds.
unruly_matt folds.
silverback_ folds.
RiverJet raises [$2].
Lucky_Limey folds.
badblood44 calls [$1.75].
ephmen2000 calls [$1.5].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 7c, 4d, 3d ]
badblood44 checks.
ephmen2000 checks.
KentRounders has left the table.
RiverJet bets [$3].
badblood44 calls [$3].
ephmen2000 folds.
** Dealing Turn ** [ Js ]
badblood44 checks.
RiverJet bets [$5].
badblood44 raises [$20].
RiverJet is all-In.
** Dealing River ** [ 9c ]
badblood44 shows [ Ah, Ac ] a pair of aces.
RiverJet doesn't show [ Kh, Ks ] a pair of kings.
badblood44 wins $2.75 from side pot #1 with a pair of aces.
badblood44 wins $44.2 from the main pot with a pair of aces.

Funny stuff, just not for the other guy.

Tourney Practice Update

So, in practicing for the WPBT, I've played in a few 2-table tourneys with the thoughts of eventually working it up to 3-tablers. My placements have been 9,4, and 2 which is tough to complain about.

But I can.

It was the tourney I finished 2nd in. Final hand and I'm dealt A,A looking to double up. I limp in the SB for 150 more and the other guy makes it 4700 to go. I go over the top all in and he calls. He has A,Q off.

Here's the flop:

Ah, Ts, 8h

I'm thinking I'm golden and he's drawing dead. He isn't.

Turn is Jd.

River is 9s.

Runner-runnered out of a tournament with A,A. Party is taunting me, asking me who my daddy is...

Barkeep Gimme a Drink

'cause I'm back in the no-limit saddle again.

Never tempt the poker gods pre-flop. I'm dealt AA under the gun and as Mrs. Blood strolls by I ask her to watch me lose with this hand. Flop is 7,T,J rainbow. I check which could easily be classified as "el stupido" as they like to say in Spanish. The turn is a 9. Well duh, BadBlood, now it's time to bet. Not. I'm called. River is a brick and I bet again and am promptly raised. A crying call allows me to see the K,Q that turned the nut hand. Sukie Jones says "Welcome back."

Let's see how else I can mis-play a hand as this night goes on....

A,A again in MP and Mrs. Blood strolls by again. I tell her to please go away (nicely and all, not like she's a jinx or anything - remind me to tell you about our honeymoon playing craps) I raise pre-flop to $2 and the SB calls. 9,6,4 rainbow and I bet $3. SB calls. Me no like. Turn is a 2 and I tell Mrs. Blood I'm putting that foo' all-in. I bet $8. Fold. Some things begin to make a bit of sense again.

Minutes later I get back the $$$ I lost mis-playing AA.

T,3 spades in the small blind and I complete. BB checks. Flop is A,6,7 - 1 spade. Continuing my "I'm representing an Ace with my .25c" call, I bet $1 and BB pauses. Oh no, I think to myself, he's gonna call. He folds luckily for me and my current aggressive image at this table.

I'm wondering if any bloggers will show up on Thanksgiving eve....

perhaps to be continued...

******UPDATE*********

Indeed, MaudieB makes herself comfortable and sits down to my left. Not exactly where I want her. She hangs out to see me shrink my stack from $72 to $33 - part of which is her fault!!! Ok, Ok, it's really my fault. Read on.

I'm dealt A,J in the SB and Maudie's in the BB and I limp figuring a nice slow play is in order. Apparently, I don't learn from my mistakes. That's a sign of something, but I'm not sure what. I think someone told me once, but I can't remember. Anyway, the flop is A high with two clubs and I check. Boy am I a sneaky no-limit player. Maudie bets $1 or $2, I can't remember and I call. The turn is a blank and I check, she checks too. Boy is she gonna be pissed when I bet the river. I ignore the river bringing the 3rd club to the board and bet out $3. She raises to $10. Doesn't she know I have an Ace, with a J kicker no less???? Well, even if she knew, she didn't care as her Q,T clubs takes the pot. Plays like that will get me to the bar with AlCantHang at the WPBT quicker than he can pour himself a shot of SoCo.

******UPDATE*********

As my stack suffers from a George Costanza-like bout of shrinkage, MaudieB pulls off a full house with the hammer. She didn't pre-flop raise with it though. Bad blogger!

Meanwhile, my A,K runs into QUAD 2's and another A,K runs into another A,K such that we split the all-in pot and I actually lose .18 cents. Not going good. Not at all. I don't even know when my brother-in-law is due here....

******UPDATE*********

Found out the brother-in-law is due in at 12:30 am. Joy.

Better news brings Otis to the table for a while where he schools some fish who folded, yes folded, to Otis' check on the river. Man was he pissed, blaming Party Poker for his snafu. Poor fool probably clicked the wrong button. Otis wins a later hand with the hammer the proper way, by pre-flop raising. Nicely done.

******FINAL UPDATE*********

Otis, on what he claims was his last hand of the night, calls my pre-flop raise holding A,6 suited to my A,K suited. Flop is 6,7,8 and I push, he calls, I'm raped, and he leaves. How's that for a nice howdoyado? I jest, I only lost about $6 on the hand, but still, it's the principle. Where are those limit tables again?????

The Votes Are In and Happy Holidays

Ok, looks like I'll be a travelling techno-geek with my laptop, digital camera and iPod all in tow for my trip to Vegas. I guess I had no clue about the weather as BoyGenius indicated it will probably be 52° during the day there. That's Farenheit, right? Doh! Is there an indoor pool?

I spent the last 3 days working off a Party reload bonus at one of the depths of hell known as $1/$2 limit hold 'em. 500 hands later, I turned that $70 bonus into $25 as I accrued a $45 loss over those three days. Oh well, looking forward to getting back into no limit ring games again.

In the "Great Minds Think Alike" category, I was IM'ing w/Otis the other night about practicing for the WPBT tournament by playing the 3-table SNG's. He's already been doing just that managing a 4th place finish in one last night, so I'm obviously behind.

The Good Doctor ("Damnit Jim I'm a blogger not a doctor!") has recommended the Hard Rock for some viewing pleasure. I'll have to add that to my checklist.

Happy Turkey day to everyone if I don't catch you online before then.

Here's a snapshot of the Holiday Hell I'll be going through.

My brother-in-law's family is due to arrive at my house sometime tonight between the hours of 7pm and 1am. That's a nice small window there, what the hell is he, the cable guy? If the arrival time approaches the latter, you know where I'll be.

Then I get to go over to my father-in-law's house tomorrow, before anyone else does, so I can fix his computer. His harddrive died and he wants me to fix it. Of course I'm no data recovery expert, so I'm pretty sure his collection of digital photos that I told him to backup to CDR media is gone. That'll learn him, as we say down South.

Most likely I'll get to install an OS on his machine again. But I'll have to get all the windows updates on disc beforehand since he's on dialup and it's just not feasible to update windows online at 56kbps.

Hopefully I'll get to eat a good meal, watch some football, and pass out with the wine and tryptophan kicking in around 3pm. Funny how my favorite holiday can degenerate into a mass of chaos when you introduce the element of in-laws into the scenario.

Vegas Checklist

I was going to post about my performance in the Grublog II tourney, but busting out 32nd out of 34 players can be best summed up in only a few words.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

With that out of the way, I've been thinking about what I need to accomplish during my first ever trip to Vegas. Here are some mandatory requirements, in no particular order:

* Share a shot of SoCo with AlCantHang
* Place a real live legal gambling wager on an NFL game with BoyGenius
* Play in the WPBT Holiday classic and don't be dumb, dumb, dumb
* Go out drinking with the Brothers McGrupp - Pauly and Derek
* Play in some NLHE ring games with Otis who shall remind me that I'm a late finisher (read: multiple buy-ins)
* Buy Ant MaudieB a drink of her choice
* Play poker at the Bellagio
* Avoid the emergency room and local police station
* Proudly wear my WPBT shirt
* Proudly wear my It's Hammer Time shirt - I'm going sleeveless
* Win a mid-sized tournament, ask to be paid in $1 dollar bills and go to Club Paradise
* Relax at the Excalibur pool and hope it's bikini tops optional day
* Compile a kernel with the Poker Professor
* Find a Razz table and play some with Felicia
* Get Tom McEvoy to sign his book without geeking out
* Meet the other bloggers who can make it so I can put a face to a name

Now for some questions:

* Should I bring my laptop so I/others can blog while there?
* Should I bring my iPod to listen to music while playing poker?
* Should I bring my digital camera? (probably)
* Should I bring a change of clothes?

Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!!!

No Limit Home Game - Volume III

It’s funny how the texture of a no limit home game changes over the course of an evening. Early on, when everyone has the same relative stack size, certain raises are more effective than they are later on when the stack sizes become more spread. Calling a $2 raise with .25/.50 blinds in the first hour or so requires much better starting hand requirements than it does 6 hours into the game.

This week’s edition of the $30 buy-in NLHE ring game brought 11 players to my table. Yes that’s right – 11. The venue was a friend’s house having a small Thanksgiving open house that started earlier in the afternoon. It would devolve into a poker game at about 8pm when many guests who were there for the food had left and many guests who were there for the poker would arrive. I went home at about 7pm and brought back my table. Have table, will travel.

Otis and G-Rob made their required attendance after having received permission from their respective bosses. They brought a guest, The Mark, who hosts his own game on a very regular basis. Both Otis and G-Rob had played several times at the Mark and it appeared that we would need extra players this week. Oh well, so much for needing more players, but from my perspective, the more the merrier.

Initially we were a bit cramped. Fitting 11 players at a table designed for 10 was a bit tough, but everyone accommodated the close quarters quite well. I knew I’d be in for a rough hall when I won the first hand with a weak Ace that came on the turn. I never do well when I win the first hand of the evening.

I made a semi-Hellmuthian laydown not long thereafter. In late position, I’m dealt the Hilton sisters. I raise the BB to $3. Josh, a pretty aggressive player sitting to my left, raises me from $3 to $15. Huh??? The BB calls?!?!?! I’m sensing K’s or A’s from someone so after thinking for a bit, I muck Q’s pre-flop. After all is said and done, Josh shows his Q’s and the caller shows J’s. Although I mucked a hand that would have tied, I’m OK with the laydown. I’ve just seen too many betting patterns like that which are indicative of the higher pocket pair. Damn Hiltons!

Little did I realize that I’d be seeing Nicky and Paris quite a bit. I’m dealt those skanky whores once again and raise pre-flop to $3. My man Otis and The Mark call the bet and I’m greeted with what I think is a lovely AQ9 flop. I’m first to act and bet $6. Otis promptly raises to $12 and The Mark calls. What the hell is going on here, I’m thinking to myself. I’m not buying Otis having A’s so I re-raise all-in which puts Otis in the tank. Since at that point in time he was receiving proper pot odds, he calls with his K,J diamonds matching the 2 that hit the flop. The Mark follows suit and calls as well. Wouldn’t you know that a 5 of diamonds hits the turn. The river brings no help and Otis wins the largest pot of the evening and becomes an early big stack. Can you say “rrrrrrreeeebuy???”

I’d rebuy a few times this evening, at one point cashing in my last $13 dollars giving me $29.75 at the table and hoping I could make a run. I get dealt A,2 clubs and see a modest $1 pre-flop raise. The flop is 4,5,9 with the 4 and 5 being clubs. I’m thinking I got a shot at this one. An early bettor bets out $7 and my man Otis goes all-in. All-in???? WTF??? Now it’s my turn to go into the tank. With the off chance that the original bettor calls, I’m kinda sorta receiving pot odds to call with my 12 outs, 9 clubs and 3 3’s for the gutshot wheel straight. Only because it’s Otis, and only because he got me with the exact same situation earlier, I call. The 10 of clubs hits the turn and there is no help on the river for Otis’ flopped two-pair. I shake his hand and we declare a "truce - we’re even - agreement."

As people began to bust out, we whittled down to 8 players as we passed midnight. Playing with The Mark was very interesting. He built one of the biggest stacks my table has ever seen, amassing easily over $350. Greg Raymer’s WSOP stack would be a bit envious. I realized that entering any pot with him could cost me my entire stack which I’d rebuilt back quite nicely to about $100 even after cashing down $100 to various players who wanted to rebuy.

The Mark bluffed me out of a hand once and I returned the favor once. The Mark attacked my TPTK hand with only bottom pair and luckily I stayed the whole way and called. He got that money back by playing the same way with an overpair to my top pair. He was very sly in limping with K’s and letting me catch a J for top pair. His betting pattern was exactly the same as it had been before which made me call him down. Extremely well played on his part.

Then came Hand O’ The Night.

The Mark pre-flop raises to $2.50 and I call with K,8 diamonds. Again, had this been early in the evening with only about $30 in front of me, I’d have folded. Late in the evening (insert Paul Simon joke here) with about $90 in front of me, it’s an easier call. The flop? Hmm, what was that flop again? Oh yeah, A,9,4….of diamonds. I’m hoping to keep my underwear clean at this point so I simply check the flop. The Mark bets $2 and I act reluctant to throw in $2 more. The turn is a Q of clubs and I check again. The Mark bets $1.25, the most unusual bet I’ve seen from him yet. I laugh a bit and say “Only $1.25? OK.” The turn is the J of spades. No board pair, no straight flush possibilities, I have what is unquestionably called “THE STONE COLD NUTS.”

I’m thinking I need to make a bet that’s both call-able and a bet that might make The Mark think I’m trying to buy the pot after the relatively weak betting. I bet out $8 and The Mark pauses. His stacks are so huge and neat, he doesn’t want to make them messy. But he does anyway, and RAISES me to $40. If there was a camera on me at that point in time, I’m not sure what I would have looked like nor what kind of tell I’d have given off. Did someone just raise me $32 when I’m holding the nuts??? I put in $32 more and of course re-raise all-in. After a bit of deliberation and verbally claiming I wouldn’t slow play a flush like that, he calls. Well, it turns out, I did slow play a flush like that and doubled up against the only person who could have doubled me up. All because I called a $2.50 pre-flop raise.

We all packed it in after one more orbit, everyone having a grand ole’ time. After 3 weeks of this stuff, I’m loving it. It is so much more fun to play live NLHE than online. As the holiday schedules get hectic for everyone, I’m still hoping to have the game on alternating Saturdays and keep this thing going into the new year.

I have to, I’ve got a table.

Quick Update

Not much to report.

No Limit ring game tonight.

Grublog Classic II tomorrow night (pending teh intarweb's speed with neteller cashouts).

Reports to follow. May you all kick ass like the Pacers did.

More Party Poker Weirdness

This is kind of funny in both a weird way and in a "ha-ha" way.

Dealt A,K on the button and there are 4 limpers to the cut-off. Cut-off makes it $2 and I call. Big blind re-raises to $6 and gets two more callers, including the original raiser.

For an additional $4 into a $20 pot, I can see a flop. So I call.

Flop is A,K,6 rainbow.

Big blind checks, MP goes all-in for about $13. Cut-off calls. I'm taking none of that shiznat and double the bet. Big blind folds and the two others go all-in matching my raise.

Turn and river are bricks and ALL THREE of us show A,K for a three-way split.

Totally amazing and totally Party Poker.

Bad Beat Dissection

Just for kicks, I plugged in the first 5 bad beats into some poker evaluation software and came up with the following table:

Me	Opp.	Board	Pot	%win	EV	actual
Ac As	7s 8s	3s Js 4c	$ 49.20	0.671	$ 33.00	$ (49.20)
Ks Kc	Qs Js	2d 9s Jd	$ 43.95	0.769	$ 33.78	$ (43.95)
Ks Kc	Qs 7s	4s 8s 6c	$ 8.75	0.578	$ 5.06	$ (8.75)
Kc Qs	As 9s	7s 5c Qd	$ 28.00	0.830	$ 23.25	$ (28.00)
As Jd	Kd Ks	2d Ah Jh	$ 16.85	0.900	$ 15.17	$ (16.85)
			Totals		$ 110.26	$(146.75)

Interestingly enough, my actual results were over $250 away from my expected results. So finishing the night only down $40 isn't that big of a disaster. I'm looking forward to seeing the other side of that variation in the nights to come.

And thanks SirFWALGMan for the words of enouragement.

The Good 'Ole Bad Beat Post

When does 5 for 5 get you 0 for 5? As I type this, it just became 0 for 6.

Six times I've put people all-in post flop and six times I've been the favorite to win the hand.

I won ZERO times. That'd be a goose egg. Nada. Squat. Bupkus. The last time, the fucker typed "hahaha" in the chatbox. In person, he'd be spitting out some chicklets and I'd be in handcuffs, but smiling.

Someone please prevent that from happening in Vegas, k? K. The bad beats I mean.

***EDIT***

So after my crushings, a certain Mr. Carter came by and sat down for, oh I'd say, 20 minutes. The guy dominated, going from $25 to $117. He busted the guy twice who laughed at outdrawing me. That was fun to watch. Carter played well, but there were hands where people just handed over the cash with such poor bluffs that it wasn't even a challenge for him. Spend my money wisely. :)

All Quiet on the Home Front

The 'rents were in town to see the grandkids this weekend. Add to that the fact that I'm coming down with/fighting a chest cold and I'm just about whipped. Lifting weights when you can't really breathe without coughing is not a good idea.

Got to play a little bit this weekend, Studio Glyphic managed to track me down at a $50 buy-in table. I decided to dip my toes into the higher limit for a bit on Sunday just to see how it went. Luckily I nearly tripled my buy-in to make back some of the downswings the $25 tables gave me.

I hope to have my bi-weekly $30 buy-in NL game again on Saturday. But as the holidays approach, my guess is that attendence will be hard to come by.

Shameless shot of my poker table awaiting the next round of players. Excuse the low-bandwidth of my cable modem.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the poker blog scene really seems to have slowed down a bit with all the old guard on hiatus or vacation. Pauly, Otis, Iggy, Al - I miss the daily or near-daily posts. But I'm a junkie for content in case you didn't realize it.

CTL-ATL-DEL

Sometimes, you just gotta hit the reset button.

I was at my normal dealer's choice ring game last night and we had a full table of 9 people. Normally we have 7 and like to keep it to a maximum of 8, but since my father was in town and wanted to play, the group accomodated. We're good like that.

We had one other new player at the table, a neighbor of the host. And he managed to put me on tilt.

Generally, the group of people we play with enjoy good games of poker. That's P-O-K-E-R. Games with ever-changing wild cards, games with the "drop if you fold, hold 'em if you stay" plays, and their ilk are not P-O-K-E-R. The new guy not only brought these games to our environment, but also managed to explain their rules so poorly that he had the remaining 8 players just staring blankly at each other, all thinking the same "What the fuck are you talking about?" thoughts.

Making matters worse, the new guy was winning. You know how the classic calling-station manages to have a winning session every now and then? Well this was an example of that.

Before you knew it, I was down over $100 and it wasn't even 10pm yet.

That's when I hit the reset button. I folded a hand, got up from the table and took a walk around the house. I grabbed a beer and a handful of snacks and just stood in another room for a few minutes while the hand was played out.

I thought to myself that with 9 players, I'm gonna need a hand. And these guys will pay me off when I get my hands, I just have to wait for them.

Over the course of the next 2 1/2 hours, I made back my $100 and then another $130, finishing up for the night. That walk I took was possibly the best 5 minute investment of time I ever made.

Poker Apparel

I'm not sure how good these will come out, but the one previous time I ordered something from cafepress it turned out to be a quality piece of clothing.

Anyway, with that said, I did some minorly creative artwork and uploaded the image for use on a shirt. I'll be wearing one to Vegas next month:

Hammer Time Shirts

Comments, critiques are welcome.

Statistically Significant

From a comment by SirFWALGMan:

why not a writeup about why 5K hands is statistically nothing in Poker

While I can't give a writeup on this myself, much smarter people have, namely some computer science majors at the University of Alberta.

A decent article/research paper on the development of Loki, their computer A.I.-based poker player can be found here: Using Probabilistic Knowledge and Simulation to Play Poker

The gist of the whole thing is that 5,000 hands is a decent sample size if you're playing against a homogeneous set of opponents. That is just not the case at Party Poker. The above paper recommends 25,000 hands as the cutoff for a statistically significant sample size.

My guess would be that these numbers were not derived theoretically using statistical formulas and the like, but more probably developed empirically through computer simulations. With enough simulations, you can easily determine at which point the number of additional samples yields no statistically different results.

Cool stuff if you're into that type of thing.

Bad Beat Story - How I Brought the Pain

I'm used to being on the receiving end of runner-runner suckouts; but tonight, it's my turn to inflict the emotional damage on others that has been inflicted on me.

I'm sitting in MP2 with Kd, Jh. EP raises from .50 to $1.00 and MP1 raises from $1.oo to $1.50. I think to myself that this in no-limit and these are pretty weak raises. So I cold call the $1.50 and see a flop. That move was questionable, especially given the trouble hand that is K,Jo.

The flop is J,T,4 - all diamonds, giving me top pair decent kicker and the 2nd nut flush draw.

EP checks, and MP1 goes all in. About $50 into a $5 pot. Prior to this hand, MP1 has probably gone all-in and overbet the pot perhaps 10 times in 45 minutes. I'm thinking draw. As I only have about $18 left, I call. Well so does EP.

Here are the hands:

EP: A,5 diamonds - nut flush
MP1: Q,Q - overpair to my top pair
MP2 (yours truly): - Crap on rye

Now let's see how the turn and river slowly improve my hand, 1 step at a time.

Turn: Js - Hey great, now I have trips J's overtaking MP1's QQ but still behind the nut flush of EP.
River: Kc - Sweet - boat.

Crap on rye has just been transformed into $55 dollars in cash money!

In all honesty, I'm not too pleased with my play here. It was less than optimal. But damn, the results sure do ease the misgivings of playing so poorly. Rock on!

Live WPBT

Just a quick post to give a shout out to Dick at BuyitinVegas for his generosity in hosting the live WPBT on December 11th. Not only allowing us to play at Sam's Town Casino live, but also giving us a great deal on room rates is greatly appreciated by this here blogger.

As I was browsing BuyitinVegas, I saw his post on a new poker forum, www.talkingpoker.com. I signed up since it is one of the few forums that currently gets past my corporate web proxy filter and I need even more distractions to prevent me from doing my job. It has an interesting twist where the forum owner will pay you to post. Obviously it has to be real content, but interesting nonetheless.

*****************

I was wondering if anyone else is interested in getting MaudieB's chip design made into a real chip. Preliminary research indicates that it can be done, but would cost roughly $1/chip with a minimum 500 chip order. That's not really an amount I'm willing to go it alone on given the fact that my wife would kill me and nobody would ever see the chips.

I'd be interested in contributing towards, even organizing, a pool of people who want to split up a set. I'm open to any suggestions, they might be neat to have as a chip protector for the live WPBT event.

Can You Hear Me Now?

With the sole intent on giving my newly built poker table reason for being, I hosted another No-limit Hold 'em ring game on Saturday night. During the course of setting up the game during the week, I had ten people confirm their attendence and relegated two others to the alternate list.

When Friday rolled around, two confirmed people and one alternate cancelled out. The second alternate elevated to confirmed and I was planning on having nine.

Only six showed up.

In today's modern world, it's not very difficult to use a phone. They have buttons you can push, you can even program someone's number so that you only have to push one button to call them. Apparently, three people could not accomplish the above in order to tell me they wouldn't be showing up. Kind of rude, right there.

Undeterred, the following six people graced my table with their presence:

BadBlood
Otis
G-Rob
Steve B.
Team Scott Smith
Randy R.

House rules: .25/.50 blinds, $30 max buy-in. Cash downs to $30 allowed.

The play began relatively tight as new players Randy and Steve were relative unknowns. Team Scott Smith had the unfortunate role of multiple buy-in man. Yours truly busted Team Scott twice, once with a set of 10's vs. his TPTK and again with A,T suited vs. 3,3. It must have been the seat, as Otis occupied the same one two weeks ago.

G-Rob was his usual aggressive self, but had to re-buy at least once before his playing style began to build his chip stack. Later in the evening, G-Rob and I traded multiple all-ins against each other. I lost a pretty staggering pot by playing the hammer. You'd think with a flop of 2,7,8 that the hammer had a chance. I was wary of the board pairing and counterfeiting my bottom two pair, but it never happened. What did happen is that G-Rob flopped top two pair with 7,8 and ended up putting me all in after a raise and re-raise. That pot knocked my stack down from about $85 to $15. Ugh.

Otis rebounded from the buy-in fest of two weeks ago and had his share of cards to help him build his stack. He had his share of K,K hands - but had to lay them down twice to flopped A's and betting indicative of him being behind. His hand of the night was A,K vs. Steve's Q,9 suited. The flop came all hearts, A-high which gave Steve 2nd nut flush and Otis top-pair top-kicker. Otis called a big bet from Steve and saw the turn bring another A. Steve properly went all-in and Otis went in the tank. Otis put Steve on a weaker A and called, not realizing he had only 10 outs. The river paired the board, giving Otis the full house and Steve was a bit shattered by the loss. Steve never really recovered and after losing two buy-ins left the game.

Randy, a fellow co-worker of mine, played solid tight poker for much of the evening. It was his first ever cash ring game and I think he played pretty well considering the atmosphere and other players. Randy was up for most of the night, but faltered in the late stages and lost his only buy-in. As Team Scott had busted out of cash earlier, Randy's exit marked the end of the game at about 1am.

I managed to double up a couple of times late in the game and finished up about $89. Otis was most likely the big winner cashing out for $130. I think G-Rob was a winner as well, with Team Scott Smith, Steve B. and Randy R. filling out the loser's bracket.

As I've wanted to do, I'm hoping to make this a regular game, but apparently I need to expand my player list. I'd prefer to have 8 or 9, six is a bit short-handed for my liking. It actually got to the point where I gave Mrs. Blood $20 to sit down and play. Alas, she dropped her buy-in relatively quickly, mainly to me. She can play some limit Hold 'em, but No limit is just not her game.

But, I played the Perfect Tournament

(drunken post follows)

The setting: local hotel - $100 buy-in NL tournament - 17 players
Payout is 60/30/10

Cut to the chase: I finished 9th

I played 5 hands - as any seasoned poker veteran would have.

Hand 1: 1st hand of the tournament, blinds are 1/2, I'm dealt Q,Q. Raise to $7. Two callers. Flop is K-high, but I'm 2nd to act. It's checked to me, I bet another $7 - folded all around.

Hand 2: A,K - I bet 6x BB to $12. 1 caller. Flop is J,J,T. He bets into me. I fold at the river when no help comes.

Hand 3: T,T. I'm kind of short-stacked. Post turn, the board shows 8,4,4,6. I'm all-in. I double up against moron holding 8x when the river doesn't bring him any help.

Hand 4: 6,6. I limp to see a flop - 6,9,T. Two clubs. Pot sized bet yields one caller. Turn is a 4. Pot sized bet - call. River is K of clubs. Caller now bets into me. I call just to see his rivered flush. I'm crippled.

Hand 5: K,K. I'm very short-stacked. All-in pre-flop. Called by A,Q. I predict an A on the flop and am met with my doom. Flop is A,T, 8 and I get no help.

Buh-bye

Down $100 on a tournament basically played as best as possible. Am I fucking pissed?

Yes.

Do the strippers at Nepals give two-shits about how well I played?

No.

Blech!

Variance turned her gaze my way last night, as I dropped 3 buy-in's for the first time in a while.

You ever get that feeling that it's just not happening for you? I had that feeling early, and it kept up.

Both times I flopped a set, I had to fold them on the river due to 4 and 5 - yes 5- card straight draws on the board.

J,J == no good vs. K,K
Q,Q == no good vs. A,A

It appeared to be anti-blogger night at Party since SirFWALGMan, Maudie, and Otis also appeared to be losing.

Live game news: Tournament tonnight, hosting a ring game tomorrow. Results forthcoming.

In Pauly's Absence

With Dr. Pauly on a blogging and poker hiatus, it's only fitting that some Party Poker blogger conventions take place in his honor while he's away.

Tonight at the $25 NLHE tables was myself, Derek, and Aunt Maudie. Much fun was had by all, until I tossed some money to both the other bloggers with some questionable plays (QP's).

QP1: Suited hammer and the flop is J,7,4. It's folded around to me with only Derek to my left remaining to act. I bet $2 and he calls. Bastard. Turn is a Q and I bet $4. He calls. Bastard. The river is an A and I bet $4 more and the bastard calls me w/J,T suited. Ok, maybe it's not fair to call him that since I don't know much about his and Pauly's parents. But damn, give the hammer some love people.

QP2: K,Q off in late position when AntMaudie raises to $1.50. I call and see a T,9,x flop. Maudie checks as do I. The turn is a lovely K or so I thought. Maudie bets $5 and I call. The river is a rag, and Ant B goes all-in. The nerve of this woman, going all in agains me!!! Doesn't she know I'm BadBlood - menace to all that isn't heavy metal and poker??? Perhaps she was listening to my bounty CD and used the powers of Death Metal against me to cloud my judgment. I called her all-in bet with top pair and she showed J,Q for the nut straight. Doh! At least she agreed to buy me drinks in Vegas with it. Shirley Temples? I don't think so.

So after I blog about PGP, I start making QP's. Duh. Damn bloggers.

I also spent some time sweating Otis at a crazy $10/$20 game. Must be nice to have the roll to play at that level. He was playing his usual tight game but didn't seem to be catching any cards.

Also, because I said I'd do it, I'm shouting out to rchamberlin who wondered if I'd blog about me doubling up when my pocket 6's flopped a set. Glad to see a reader find me at the tables, he's officially the second one.

Our Better Halves

Great post from Otis at his site regarding the poker widows some of us have created in pursuit of our poker pastimes.

It does take a special person to put up with us. When broaching the idea of going to Vegas, I realized that I couldn't go in good conscience if Mrs. Blood harbored any ill will towards the trip. Bottom line is that if she or the kids are not happy, I have a real tough time being happy myself.

Here was her response to my email asking her if she minded if I went:

I really, really think you should go. You work very hard at work and for
this family so you deserve some play time for yourself. Don't worry about
me not going - I personally would rather go away somewhere else with you. I
don't want to gamble all day for days. It's just not me. Plus, I liked
Otis! He seems like a nice guy.

Boy do I have a lot of people fooled about that working hard part.

I wonder if Otis has a lot of people fooled too. I'll find out in 38 days.

Shhhhhh!!!!!

BadBlood-to-Vegas-O-Meter:

100%