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!!!