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.

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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!!!!!

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