Sunday, November 22, 2009

Doing the daily grind...

I have been working on my tournament game online and not super happy about my play these past weeks. I have been having a routine the last couple of weeks...I start out in the Daily 30k that starts at 1pm...I usually log in about 1:30 as I feel that there is slight edge in coming in when a quarter of the field is already busted. I then start looking for the $2.20 thru the $11.00 guarantees and usually jump in a few of them....from here...my entire afternoon is dependant what happens with the tourneys. It is what it is...

What else have I been doing besides taking care of my child...

I have never been a person to "live and breath" internet poker, and I am not one of those guys that leaves all the biggest online tournament Final Tables "Replays" on constant play on PC's and Plasmas...But I have been bitten by the Isildur1 Heads up matches that have been jumping off. I have been "Railbirding" the action and the biggest emotion I have felt is fear...complete and utter fear of how could this be happening ...and how did Durrr/Antonius/ClayAiken etc...get soooo damn good. I watch those matches from the rail...and then log into my MTTs...and I am just mystified at how degenerate one has to be to fade those swings...it is truly amazing.

I also feel that it is only a matter of time before Isildur is "out'ed" as there can't be that many people in the world that can show up in this manner and multi-table in the nose bleed sections with Durrr, Antonius and Ivey....all at the same time...simultaneously...no way...there just cant be more than a handful of players in the world that could do this.

The WSOP final table...wow. It only is a matter of time if there will be some type of feedback on whether poker is a skill game or not. Everyone that watched the FT knows that Cada and Moon both luckboxed their way to the HU...there is no doubt. I know Cada is a solid player and would have bet on him when the heads up matched started, but I believe he will admit that he got extremely lucky...how this years WSOP will effect the perception of whether poker is a skill game or not...we will see.

Speaking of Cada...I am under the understanding that it is common knowledge that Sheets and Bax were staking him in the Main Event. I just wonder whether Cada just shipped them half the 8.5 million ...or are they going thru numerous meetings with Lawyers/Tax Consultants...etc to make sure that Cada does not get screwed on the taxes. If they are going thru all these meetings, I would hope that Sheets and Bax would give us some kind of written breakdown on exactly what it takes to "Chop 8.5 million with your stakehorse"...would be very interesting to know just how complicated it could be.

Just listened to the Pokerroad Radio B Team edition pre heads up WSOP...Obviously, Gobbo and Devo ripped Moon's game apart...which they were not as brutal as some other analyzers out there... It is a good listen and I really enjoyed Gobbo's analysis on the entire FT. Obviously they were both pulling for Cada (I think Gobbo and Devo both are staked by Sheets and Bax also) in the heads up match...but just the discussion on Gobbo's input on some basic fundamentals of what each player should do in this heads up match was very insightful. He breaks it down on what chances Moon had ...and how Moon needed to play to get Cada's obvious edge from 85%...to 75%...the best Gobbo and Devo would give Moon is a 25% chance...a good listen overall.

"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life."

Opening lyrics from Green Days "Good Riddance"
(Time of your life)

Saturday, November 14, 2009

What a week...

November 9th was a great day for Poker this year as thats the date that Cada and Moon re-convened to play heads up for the WSOP Championship...It has a nice ring to it as the last few final tabelist have been called the "November 9". I think thats a cool thing that the final table has 9 players, and that the heads up battle begins on November 9th.

November 9th 2009 happens to be the greatest day of my life so far. Julie and I have brought into this world a beautiful baby boy were calling "Ivey" since he is the forth ...after the Roman Numerals "I" and "V". Wow...I cant begin to explain the rollercoaster of emotions that I experienced in that last half hour. I went from Sheer terror and fear...to absolute amazement...to unexplainable happiness and joy. It was amazing!!!!

As far as Poker goes...It has been uneventful. I have been grinding the LL MTTs and SNGs online in the $5.00 to the $35.00 range. I have been making it somewhat deep in these 5000 runner events but unable to make it deep enough for a decent score. I had to skip the IP nooners as we were set to have the baby any day. I did get by there to see everyone and say Hi! I played a nightly 2nd chance and didnt do any good. I did freeroll it though as I had a percentage of one of the choppers (Wild Bill). Some of the sicko hands that I have been losing too are below at the end of this blog...The first one plays itself, but the 2nd one I was trying to get value out of but the guy hit his 2 outer ...give me some feedback if you can

Went to Shorty's last week and went about getting smoked by terrible players...again. 12th hand in and I start with $350.00...I raise from UTG with QhQd to $40.00. I get 3 callers including "Asian Tom" from the BB. I know he would never read this so I can say that he is one of the juiciest fish that swims in that pond...terrible. Tom's range here?...Shuffle a deck for a minute...and pop of the first 2 cards. He could have anything here. Flop comes harmless with a rainbow board of Jd8s2h. I fire out a hundo...everyone folds to Tom who cautiously calls. Im thinking he has a Jack no doubt...the best he could have here is A,K,Q with a J. I feel if I can fade paint im fine. Turn brings the 5d. I shove and he tanks hard....just agonizing. I now know Im ahead. He carves out the money from his stack and puts it aside...and continues to tank. He reluctantly calls and I immediately turn over my cards as you guys know how I feel about slow-rolling...and he nodded I was good...Jack ball on the river and I just put my head down and said "NOOOOOO!!!!"...his hands are shaking...he can barely turn over his J7o. Yeaaaaaaaaa...

I am in the middle of Jon Krakauers book about Pat Tillman "Where Men Win Glory". Great book and a great author. He talks about Pat being that person on baseball team that wants the position no one else wants...the catcher. I too was the catcher on my baseball teams all the way thru ...from little league to Varsity High School. I would say that I have been hit by a baseball in every known imaginable place on my body. I have never had any knee surgery's though...go figure.

I want to say Congratulations to my older sister Danna on here as she was named one of the "Top 100 nurses in the State of Louisiana". Julie and I went to the awards ceremony at the Pontchartrain Center a few weeks ago and we could not be more proud of her. She was on hand to help deliver her little nephew, and I don't know what we would have done without her. She calmed Julie and me, and helped us to understand everything that was happening. She is the Greatest!!!! ...although I think she is secretly loving the fact that I am now going to be forced to grow-up and leave behind my "Peter Pan" complex of eternal youth...LOL

"I'll always love you. Even if it takes months for you to lose this weight" John Krasinski as Burt in "Away we go" ...to his pregnant wife Verona

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To tee this one up...I decided to play some SNGs the other night while watching the baby while my wife slept. The first two I played were $11.00 ones and I got Aces cracked in both. I was going to quit ...and then decided to play one more...the hand below was the first hand in the $5.50.
PokerStars Game #35286908595: Tournament #212109173, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level I (10/20) - 2009/11/13 0:33:17 CT [2009/11/13 1:33:17 ET]
Table '212109173 1' 9-max
Seat 1: GCPGeneD (1500 in chips)
Seat 2: dko289 (1500 in chips)
Seat 3: yankeeo (1500 in chips)
Seat 4: GreenHunger (1500 in chips)
Seat 5: pate333 (1500 in chips)
Seat 6: PLEBINI (1500 in chips)
Seat 7: Vell_Trof (1500 in chips)
Seat 8: S_Cotie321 (1500 in chips)
Seat 9: mykidneys (1500 in chips)
dko289: posts small blind 10
yankeeo: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GCPGeneD [6h 6d]
GreenHunger: raises 60 to 80
pate333: folds
PLEBINI: folds
Vell_Trof: folds
S_Cotie321: calls 80
mykidneys: folds
GCPGeneD: calls 80
dko289: folds
yankeeo: folds
*** FLOP *** [6c 4d Tc]
GreenHunger: bets 120
S_Cotie321: calls 120
GCPGeneD: raises 320 to 440
GreenHunger: folds
S_Cotie321: raises 980 to 1420 and is all-in
GCPGeneD: calls 980 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [6c 4d Tc] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [6c 4d Tc Jc] [8d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
S_Cotie321: shows [Jh Js] (three of a kind, Jacks)
GCPGeneD: shows [6h 6d] (three of a kind, Sixes)
S_Cotie321 collected 3230 from pot
=======================================================
Take 2...this hand was in todays $11.00 "Daily Thirty Grand". I was trying to get Value out of my hand and got smoked when he hit his 2 outer. Should I have folded the Shove?
PokerStars Game #35354208062: Tournament #219010496,
$10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit -
Level VIII (60/120) -
2009/11/14 14:24:36 CT [2009/11/14 15:24:36 ET]
Table '219010496 262' 9-max
Seat 1: @lennoxdog@ (10045 in chips)
Seat 2: 1suus2 (2730 in chips)
Seat 3: GCPGeneD (4780 in chips)
Seat 4: pjmolly (6020 in chips)
Seat 5: Hesekiel (2800 in chips)
Seat 6: > AKANA 06 < (4185 in chips)
Seat 7: spisa (5715 in chips)
Seat 8: klutyfingers (5705 in chips)
Seat 9: suisse zocke (16257 in chips)
@lennoxdog@: posts the ante 15
1suus2: posts the ante 15
GCPGeneD: posts the ante 15
pjmolly: posts the ante 15
Hesekiel: posts the ante 15
> AKANA 06 <: posts the ante 15
spisa: posts the ante 15
klutyfingers: posts the ante 15
suisse zocke: posts the ante 15
> AKANA 06 <: posts small blind 60
spisa: posts big blind 120
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GCPGeneD [Kc As]
klutyfingers: folds
suisse zocke: calls 120
@lennoxdog@: folds
1suus2: folds
GCPGeneD: raises 360 to 480
pjmolly: folds
Hesekiel: folds
> AKANA 06 <: folds
spisa: folds
suisse zocke: calls 360
*** FLOP *** [Ks Qs 3s]
suisse zocke: checks
GCPGeneD: checks
*** TURN *** [Ks Qs 3s] [Kd]
suisse zocke: checks
GCPGeneD: checks
*** RIVER *** [Ks Qs 3s Kd] [4h]
suisse zocke: bets 360
GCPGeneD: raises 720 to 1080
suisse zocke: raises 14280 to 15360
GCPGeneD: calls 3205 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (11075) returned to suisse zocke
*** SHOW DOWN ***
suisse zocke: shows [4s 4d] (a full house, Fours full of Kings)
GCPGeneD: shows [Kc As] (three of a kind, Kings)
suisse zocke collected 9845 from pot