Friggin' nines

f'n mookie. Did the best I ever did in one, which unfortunately was out in 27th (9 away from a cash).

Early near double-up:


Raised from in position; flop was check / bet / check-raise / call; turn check/check; river check / bet / SHOVE / INSTAcall - gg Ikkak. Why insta with a 4-high flush? Because I decided on the turn I'd have to call a shove. I'm either good or I'm gone; also why else would I play suited connectors unless a flush was a possible winner?

This hand I got called a donk for calling an all-in on the flop:

emptyman said "I got rivered," someone said "nh," I said "I think you were beat before the river" and emptyman said something like "nh? I had tptk donk." Hopefully he was not serious, or he was just drunk...

I got outplayed in a hand that dropped me down a bit (I had been in the top 10 - 15 most of the tourny after the first posted hand), raised with 99, called a shove:


This got me shortish. Then there's a late position raise, I have 99 in the sb, I shove for only 1200 more; stack size / pot-size pretty much forced a call from the raiser with 78o. This got me up a bit. Few hands later, AQs in the sb, button shortstack shoves, I reshove, folds: AQ v Q10, I survive and back up to 16th.

I find 99 again in EP; standard raise; button big-stack re-raises. Hoping he's stealing I shove:


I almost folded, as the re-raise seemed smaller than I expected. Oh, well.

9's three times, and twice up against AA.

I'm goin' back to my little cash tables to win my buy-in back...

2-table sit n go's

Started to really dig these. The $5.50 18-person sit n go's are either super-duper-fishy, or I'm simply on a heater. I swear, though, something has "clicked" in my tournament play, and I wish I could put my finger on it. I've cashed in the last 5 or 6 18-seaters I've played, including one win, 2 2nds, 1 4th, and the other 2 or 3 were 3rd. I took one seriously awful beat last night; an uber-aggressive guy holding about 70% of the chips in play was big-betting everything; when I was shortstacked and he shoved in the SB, I figured my J10 was probably already ahead, but either way I couldn't fold at that point. Here's how the hand played out:

Alright, I'll spare ya the details: dude had like 20K, I had like 2500, he bet 3K I called with J10o; he's got 8 3. Hits an 8 on the turn and a 3 on the river (or vice-versa). Thnx, gg.

I've found one of the strategies I use is to basically let people make mistakes, and then capitalize on them. There are so many players that will play and overplay hands like 2nd pair that I just wait for opportunities where they overplay a hand and I take it from them. Bunch of the players around this level don't know how to bluff at a pot: they'll min-bet 100 on the river into a pot of 800; I have anything I'm calling but most likely I'm raising. Too many players over-use the check/raise too, which I'll use to my advantage when I have a big hand and when I have a drawing hand (I swear if every player I played at this level lost the check/raise from their repertoire, they'd get more chips from me - honest! I'm willing to pay a certain amount for certain draws, but if they bet me out they don't stand a chance to take more chips from me on the turn).

Look, I'm not saying don't check-raise: in fact I actually use it slightly more today than I used to (I used to almost never use it), but it's got its places.

Anyway, the poker playing is going well for me lately. Even ventured back into the $10 stt world last night (where I used to almost exclusively play), and took 2nd. As usual, one boneheaded move heads up crippled me, but I was happy with the 2nd. I think I'm ready to tackle the $10 18-seaters next. Just hope I don't run into Riggstad, but I guess that's expected since I think he spends most waking hours in those games.

I'm tired; I'm going to bed real soon. I forgot about the MATH; hopefully one of these weeks I'll remember. Wednesday is The Mookie:
When: Wednesday. 10pm ET
Game: NLHE Deepstack
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

Don't forget to visit my writing blog as well; not much creative-stuff flowing recently but some thoughts (and questions) about Life, the Universe, and Nothing. Comments are always welcomed.

Busto Mookie, Segundo Dookie

So these blogger tourny's I've played in just kinda get me riled a bit. I get tired of ppl making moves that I know have GOT to be steals, yet I just don't have enough to risk against it. Or other such stuff. Tonight I played well I thought. Lost some after the start, gained some back - still below average, but with a healthy stack I picked up AKs in MP, & standard raise. Button, with about half my stack shoves. Folds to me, I call - AQ. Q on the flop seals it for him.

Worst part about this? Afterwards, he says in chat, "Sorry gsw, I had a bad feeling you were going to flip over AK, too." Nothin' like rubbin' salt into the wounds.

Yada yada yada some hands later I've been going backwards, & pick up 10 10 in the BB. Button makes a standard raise (thieving I fiugre), I shove - button calls with KK, thanks gg.

Busted JUST in time for the start of the Dookie HORSE tourny. Give me razz, Stud Hi & structured betting & I can do quite well. As a matter of fact:


For most of the tourny I hovered in the top 5. By the time we got heads-up I was so severely outchipped that it would've taken a miracle. And no miracles tonight, ladies and gents. I was, however, quite happy with a 2nd place finish. Almost all of the 3-handed play I sat back and blinded out; it looked like riggstad was on a mission to bust himself so I figured I'd let him (I got a bit cold-decked too). Last game we played was Stud Hi/Lo which is probably my weakest game, so it was only fitting I should go out on that one.

I may start entering some more stud tournaments actually -- I played one two weeks ago on tilt (their weekend forum tourny, top 3 prizes were $26 tokens, & a little cash for 4-6). For the vast majority of the tournament I was the leader. There's something about that game that makes it that much easier for me to try to pull off bluffs: even if I have garbage underneath, I see the other guy has garbage up and just attack him. Well that tourny I ended up out in 5th (blinds get so high that one bad hand and you're crippled); but it was fun and I played really well. In tonight's Dookie the two games I collected the most chips during were Stud Hi and Razz.

Perhaps it's time to branch out of Hold'em games.