Oh What a Night

Early May back in 2007. I love that song, but this blog is about having more balls than brains. After being flush with cash for the first time in a long time at Full Tilt, I decided to screw around a bit and enter some higher entry fee satellites. So, what do I do? Go out and win the first one for an entry into a $150 tourney, which I actually can't play due to upcoming travel. So, $163 in $T. Then, I decide to REALLY gamble it up and play a Super turbo satellite on FT. That is one of those that you get 100 chips and blinds are 15/30 to start and go up every 3 minutes. Since I run bad, I end up in the BB on the first hand where I see 5 people push ahead of me. Oh, by the way, did I mention that this sat is Omahahahaha, of which I know very little. Well, I look down at my 4 cards and nothing seems to match or look very good, so I fold. One guy wins and 4 guys are knocked out. Ok, that works. Next hand, I get xKKx. Push baby and I take it down.

Get AAxx 4 hands later and bust someone else. Down to 2 people and this guy just keeps berating me for my bad play. Now, a couple of things about that. Do I suck at Omaha? Sure I do. But, can you really tell anything about my skillz during a super turbo satellite? I don't think so. Well, this donkey won again giving me a nice score of $216 T$. Pay the fat kid.

So, onto the cash games. I donk off a couple of buy ins at Bodog when I decide to get adventurous at FT and play big. And I mean big...at least for me. I sit down at a $5/10 NL table. Not just any $5/10 table...a deep stack one meaning you can buy in for $2k. Here we gogogogogogo!

I tread water for a bit, then lose a pretty big hand with KK with an A on the flop. I am down to $1500 and decide if I ever get back to my original $2k I am done. So, I build it up to about $1900 and then start to fall back again when this magical hand comes up.

FullTiltPoker Game #6343761774: Table Fay (deep 6) - $5/$10 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:15:26 ET - 2008/05/09
Seat 1: KrakenOut ($500), is sitting out
Seat 2: Nevrborn ($2,380)
Seat 3: OutPlayAsians ($500), is sitting out
Seat 4: kmoneyk10 ($2,148)
Seat 5: Abby17 ($1,625.50)
Seat 6: HONKYdonky ($2,009)
kmoneyk10 posts the small blind of $5
Abby17 posts the big blind of $10
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Abby17 [5d 4d]
HONKYdonky folds
Nevrborn raises to $35
kmoneyk10 folds
Abby17 calls $25
*** FLOP *** [2d 7d 7c]
Abby17 checks
Nevrborn bets $50
Abby17 calls $50
*** TURN *** [2d 7d 7c] [9d]
Abby17 checks
Nevrborn has 15 seconds left to act
Nevrborn bets $150
Abby17 raises to $625
Nevrborn has 15 seconds left to act
Nevrborn raises to $1,770
Abby17 calls $915.50, and is all in
Nevrborn shows [Kd 5h]
Abby17 shows [5d 4d]
Uncalled bet of $229.50 returned to Nevrborn
*** RIVER *** [2d 7d 7c 9d] [9s]
Nevrborn shows two pair, Nines and Sevens
Abby17 shows a flush, Nine high
Abby17 wins the pot ($3,254) with a flush, Nine high
Nevrborn adds $1,245.50
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $3,256 | Rake $2
Board: [2d 7d 7c 9d 9s]
Seat 1: KrakenOut is sitting out
Seat 2: Nevrborn (button) showed [Kd 5h] and lost with two pair, Nines and Sevens
Seat 3: OutPlayAsians is sitting out
Seat 4: kmoneyk10 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Abby17 (big blind) showed [5d 4d] and won ($3,254) with a flush, Nine high
Seat 6: HONKYdonky didn't bet (folded)

Ok, so what in the world was this guy doing? K5? He beats....ummm, he beats nothing. He likely doesn't even beat anything but a huge bluff. Even then, I might have A high. I guess he was thinking I might fold here, but wow, if the play is always this bad at 5/10, I might have a new home. I saw someone call a 4 bet all in pre flop in blind vs blind with AT. WTF?

So, all in all, it is shaping up to be a great May - i have almost all of April's losses recovered and working on putting up my best month since 2005 on my $10k tourney score.

Finally

Ok, what is the most likely thing to happen when you are in the midst of your largest downswing in the last few years. A MTT win, of course. How bout Daily Double A on FT last night. To the tune of $2185.

What started out as a tourney to just blow off some steam and maybe get to bed early turned into a late night success. Dropped about 500 chips early pushing edges that just weren't there, and then doubled up with AQ on a Q high flop to some donkey with 55. So, it was off to the races. Actually, no it wasn't...it was about 4 hours of hovering at or below average constantly with my stack at risk. It was only when it got to about 100 ppl left that I had a decent size stack. I was in 3rd with 90 to go and no worse than 9th all the way until 2 tables left. Then, the fun started. I sucked out in grand style twice on my way to victory. QQ and TT were no match for my donktastic AJo that perfectly flopped an Ace. That gave me a super size stack that I proceeded to donk down to small levels with 5 left. Then, my super poker skills made A2s a much better hand than AK. And it was down to 4. From there, I stole, I believe, 4-5 pots in a row each time adding 40-50k to my stack. I busted #4 and #3 which put my HU with almost identical stacks. 1.2MM for me and 1.1 for my opponent. I proceeded to play my usual game of bad HU poker and he ground me down to about 650k without working up a sweat. Then, my A8 beat his K7 all in pre flop and I suddenly had a lead and a new found focus. I got my stack up to about 1.6 versus his 700k when my new favorite hand, Q9 beat his Q8 on a Q high flop.

So, pay the man his money!!!

I am still horribly in the hole for April and May, but this is a nice cushion.

If only Bodog would get me my checks, life would be good.

Bleh Bleh Bleh and Bleh

So, AI decided to go off for 35 in the Nugget's blowout win over the Rockets which propelled Frank to the fantasy basketball title and a disappointing second place finish for me. I hadn't lost a game since the second week of JANUARY. Very frustrating. But, it does come with a payout of about $450 so that will help.

Another bad day of poker yesterday with a roughly $150 loss. Mostly due to losing the following:

AA loses to 43s
KK loses to JJ
AA loses to JJ

AQ loses to AK
AJ loses to AQ
QJ loses to KQ

The last three all included flopping top pair of course. Somehow, on the last three, I probabyl managed to lose the minimum, which in actuality scares me because it shows how passively I was playing.

But, oh well, here is to another week.

Good luck me!

Big sports day

So, plan on spending the day watching the final round of the Masters and a bunch of guys that no one thinks will do anything but choke. I think 5 shots is too much for Tiger to overcome, but if Immelmann does not play the first 4 in even or better, I will take Tiger.

Made the complete comeback last night in my fantasy basketball final. I start the day up about 11 pts and have 3 guys playing today, including Lebron. Best bet is TMac against the Nuggets, because they actually look to play less defense than the Bulls. Frank has 6 of his 8 playing today. Best bet is this will be decided by some extraordinary performance...sure hope it comes from one of my guys.

Also, had a $100 winning day last night to make it 3 in a row. Finally had a good run at HU at FT. Made 3 BI's there and lost a bit at the $200 at Bodog.

Back to back winners and a long comeback

Posted another winning day yesterday...grinding out an $80 win for the night. Big hand was a complete suck out by me when I had QQ and got it all in against AA. Q on the river FTW!!

Fantasy basketball - my team, after being down 130 pts on Wed, has pulled to within 15 with 2 days to go. My best bet for improvement is Boozer or Miller. And Frank has Iverson at 89...and he has 2 games to play. Hopefully, the back to back will take its toll on him. At least I have made it close.

Attitude means everything

Spent the evening listening to 2 videos as well as playing 1 table of $100 NL at Bodog. Amazing what a clear mind can do. About 2 hours and there was not one tricky decision. Up 2 BI's for a good night. Still a long way to go, but a good start.

Abby17

Deuces Cracked

Just signed up for it. Doing the month by month with no initiation fee. My goal is to watch at least 2 videos per week and also, if I ever start winning again, or get up my FT pts high enough, I am going to get a video iPod to play the videos on.

Only fell to 27th in the Bodonkey standings. Not bad for a second to last finish. I look to be 1 final table away from the Top 18. My guess is some of the bottom feeders will drop out as this goes on, which will make it tougher to earn enough points for those 5th and 6th places finishes that I am famous for.

Looking to possibly sat into some of FTOPS VIII. Now that you can turn that into $T at FT, I am guessing the sats are going to be pretty soft.

Abby17

Bleh

2 sessions last night. First was a disaster as most have been lately. Dropped 8, yes eight, BI's to one guy playing HU. First was unlucky in flush vs flush. Second was not hitting a big draw. The rest was complete and utter spewage. That game is so damn tilt inducing.

Second session was at Bodog playing the 100s. Back to normalcy. I won about $50 which isn't great, but any win right now feels good. My plan is to play that until BR gets back to $2k, then mix in some $200.

I think I might do the Bodog reload. An extra $500 wouldn't hurt.

Almost forgot

Almost forgot about my completely forgetable performance in the weekly Bodonkey. My rivered str8 was no match for my opponent's turned boat. Nothing like hitting your "gin" card only to find out you were drawing dead. That has actually become somewhat of a theme in the last week or so. I have chased a bit too much only to hit what I think is a great card on the river and am forced to call a big bet and find out I was totally screwed.

Wow

Going through the worst 8 day stretch of my poker career, money wise. I have had 4 days this week where I have been down $1000 or more at some time in the day. This has made for a real strain on my Bodog bankroll. Better hope that everything I have in the works is ready soon.

Did roll a guy for 3 BI's HU last night at FT. Again, the douchebagginess of people is just unreal. We played about 30-40 hands with not one word of chat, which is fine with me. Then, we ended up getting it all and I had QTs vs his J5s for a higher flush. And he starts out with the lucky f@#$r and just railing on me.

So, next I ended up putting myself in a tough spot where I was getting about 3.2:1 to call with my flush draw and gutshot. So, not really enough odds but after the douchiness, I decided to call and hit the gutshot for the win.

So, the endless stream of crap continued until I ended up getting it all AGAIN with a higher flush that came in on the turn. All in all, a profitable time at FT, but I think I am going to make a concerted effort to try and eliminate talking crap and just start reporting people. I have had enough. I am just going to write down hand numbers and get FT to ban their chat.

Bad start to my fantasy basketball final. West and Boozer were just bad, but Noah was outstanding. I was painfully disappointed early in the evening when Mohammad has 17 and 8 at HALF. But, he finished with 17 and 8. How does that happen? I need TMac and Lebron to have huge weeks or it will be a 2nd place finish.

Abby17

Talking trash and poker

One thing I am finding increasingly annoying in my old age is the proliferation of duochebags on the internet, especially in poker rooms. I know this subject has been beaten to death, and I don't want to come across as some "holier than thou" Bible thumper, but what ever happened to both common sense and some civility. Couple key points:

1. From a strictly financial point, it is rarely good (<1%) to berate the bad play of someone. With poker being a less than zero sum game, the only way we make money is to make it regularly from bad players. So, even if money is not your overriding goal, you obviously still like to play poker, and without these people, poker doesn't exist. So STFU.
2. Am I just too old to appreciate good trash talking? I know I did some growing up, but it was ALWAYS against someone I knew already...a buddy or at least acquaintance. Not some random stranger that just played J4o UTG. Seriously, who's your mama?
3. And finally, this is to all of those really defensive people out there. Just because I make a comment about my bad luck at the table, this does NOT mean I think you are a donkey. Perfect example from last night: I flopped second pair, decent kicker (KT) after betting pre flop on a board of JTx 2 suited. Pretty good hand and the guy behind me reraises me all in. Having played with him before, this is almost 100% a flush draw. So, now I am looking at him likely having 9 outs to the flush and maybe an overcard. So, I called with the stacks being what they were. He ended up having KQs which amounted to WAY more outs that I thought he would have. Now, he plays Axs or Kxs here exactly the same way, so, in the end it was unlucky. But, even still, he turned a brick and then hit his flush on the river. So, I typed "God...I run bad for you to have that hand". Now, this guy and I have played a ton and he didn't say anything, but someone else starts railing on him for being a donkey, drawing fish. No no no. That isn't what I was saying. I was saying that I can't seem to win any meaningful races lately and just that "I run bad" for a couple of reasons. First, he happened to have the hand he did; second, I flopped something decent; third, I had played with him enough to have a VERY good read that I was ahead here and he was drawing; fourth, I get teased by him bricking out the turn; fifth, he hits his card on the river (of which, he had a TON of outs). If any of those things weren't true, I likely don't lose a stack. Therefore, I run bad.

End of rant.

Ok...made the finals of my fantasy basketball league...so here is a little trash talk. FU Frank...I am gonna kick your ass.

That is why they play the games

Ok, we all thought that Memphis's bad free throw shooting would eventually catch up to them in the end. Well, at least we all did going into the tournament and also after their second round game against Miss St where they shot 20 for 39. But after watching their next 3.9 games, most of those doubts were erased; at least, I thought they were. Then, CDR decides to become Shaq. Wow.

That actually leads me nicely into the Masters - undoubtedly the best week in golf. I believe that the Masters provides the best theater for the showcase of exactly what pressure is all about. You have a golf course that at times can look pretty tame with reachable par 5's at both 13 and 15. But, yet, almost without fail, watching these multimillionaire pros come down the stretch on Sunday, it is all about not making mistakes - and they make em by the dozen. Seeing the unbelievable pressure that is on them for the simplest (not for me) of tasks such as 4 ft putts and watching their nerves catch up with them is a fantastic way to spend a weekend. But, in the end, give me Tiger and you can have the field.

Nearing the end of an era - I don't talk much about Baby Abby17 here, but we have her kindergarten orientation and registration tonight. Of course, The Spouse is begging off as because they are out of town, so I get to manage this life milestone by myself.

Bodonkey tonight...I better not forget again. I only lost a couple of spots in the ranking as I am now 25th. Any good showing tonight should position me nicely for the Top 18.

Later all.

Abby17

Getting increasingly frustrated

Spent the entire night last night getting 3 bet and c/r. Made a couple huge mistakes - the biggest being NOT getting up from the table. Once your table image is shot, it is really hard to get it back. I got rivered in a few huge pots, then played too tentatively.

Made a lifetilt push on a guy that was screaming AA, which happened to be exactly what he had. Unfortunately for him, it was no match for my KQo, which flopped 2 cowboys. That was quite possibly the only highlight for the good guys.

Only other good thing: I have made it to the finals of my fantasy basketball league, which means I believe I am guaranteed about $300 in profit right now. Frank and I will battle for another $450 this week. I am coming off a string of, I believe, 5-6 weeks of having the highest score in the league, so I would be really disappointed if I lose. Another good thing is I can bring back the entire team next year and give it a great run. I will throw McGrady and Lebron back, but can likely get them at the same prices next year. Boozer, Ellis, Miller, Noah, West, Murphy will all come back. So, I will have about $55 or $60 to get 5 guys, including 3 bench players.

I ended up betting a bunch of props on Bodog for the Final Four and had a fantastic run. If only UCLA/Mem had been "under", I would have swept just about everything. I still do have Kansas over Memphis tonight getting 7:1, so as much as it pains me to say this, go Jayhawks.

Later for now.

Abby17

Meh

So, my buddy Neff told me he is planning on moving up to the $100 NL HU games because he feels like he is one of the best at the $50. Now, that does not surprise me because I think his feel for the NL game is one of the better ones around. What does surprise me is how fast he did it. Less than 2 months and he is ready to roll. I know I still feel lost often playing NL against any aggressive opponent, so I would love to feel like he does. Maybe soon.

Played some HU this morning against the most ABC player I have ever seen. I worked really hard to trying to discover patterns and this guy was a wide open book. He checked ANY flop that didn't hit him and bet pot on any that did. Needless to say, I took him for 4 BI's.

Won a bit more on Bodog, then donked off almost $100 in dumb donkaments including a flip fest on FT. They run these super turbos which are $29 and you only get 100 chips. Blinds are 15/30 and 3 minute rounds. I passed for the first round and there were only 5 left. I ended up with all my chips in the middle with the hammer. It failed to live up to it's reputation, so that $29 was down the drain.

I have a long way to go to hit April goals, but I do know I will get the hands in. With The Spouse out of town, I have most nights to myself for the month, so hopefully, they will be good nights and I can turn this early April debacle around and charge toward my yearly goals.

I really want to be "up" enough by the early part of June to take part in 1 or both of FT and PS massive WSOP satellites. Both are around $5-600, so if I am above my goals by a grand at that point, I am going to do it.

Did you hear about this? This WSOP is thinking about having the final table of the ME televised "live" 90 days after the tourney...kinda like Survivor, Biggest Loser, etc. After thinking about it, I think it is a great idea. It has proven to be a ratings bonanza for TV in the past, so why not try it. I know that now that I am more in tune with blogs and 2+2 and all live poker updates, I didn't look forward to ESPN's 2007 WSOP coverage near as much as 2006 or 2005. So, this works for me. They are going to have to dress it up a bunch as there is a LOT of downtime at a poker tourney, but I think this has potential. Knowing that they are going to have to be on a delay gives them some flexibility to put in the fluff pieces about people at the final table and still not worry about time constraints. If they find the right time for it, hopefully, they can block up enough hours to do it. Maybe bring ESPN2 into this.

Interesting post here from Leatherass. Gets you thinking about what you want to accomplish in poker. I am pretty sure I don't know yet for me.

Later all

Abby17

The new Roller Coaster

So, played a bunch today in 2 distinct sessions. In the first, I played really well and ran better. Up about $100 at FT and another $450 at Bodog. Really needed that to make up for some of the disaster of the last couple of days.

Session 2 was crazy. How bout -1200 to +200 to -400 to even. Actually up $50. I think this was likely a bit more of some bad play, some stubbornness on my part with my unwillingness to fold, and then getting lucky in a couple HUGE pots. This is the largest pot I have ever won at $200 and actually 4th largest at any limit. In addition, I had 2 other hands that are now in my Top 20 in terms of net $ won.

For 2 nights, I have had over $1000 at one table. Good thing tonight was it was mostly profit as opposed to yesterday.

Bodog History for Hand #1179326364
Hold'em No Limit ($1.00/$2.00) - 2008-04-04 22:41:28
Table 'High Chapparral (max 6)' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: fov ($200.00)
Seat 2: TAKOMAN ($69.28)
Seat 3: Haruki ($269.50)
Seat 4: Blur_Status ($184.00)
Seat 5: Abby17 ($661.50)
Seat 6: GILLJR ($326.50)
------------------------------
NEW HAND
Blur_Status: posts the small blind $1.00
Abby17: posts the big blind $2.00
TAKOMAN: posts the big blind $2.00
--- DEALING POCKETS
Abby17 is dealt [Qh,Qs]
GILLJR: raises $7.00 to $9.00
fov: folds
TAKOMAN: raises $19.00 to $28.00
Haruki: folds
Blur_Status: folds
Abby17: raises $57.00 to $85.00
GILLJR: calls $76.00
TAKOMAN: goes all in $41.28
--- DEALING FLOP [Th,Jc,2h]
Abby17: bets $240.28
GILLJR: calls $240.28
--- DEALING TURN [2d]
Abby17: bets $2.00
GILLJR: goes all in $1.22
$0.78 is not called, return back to Abby17:
TAKOMAN: shows [Ad Kc]
Abby17: shows [Qh Qs]
GILLJR: shows [Ac Qd]
--- DEALING RIVER [2s]
Abby17: shows [Qh Qs]
GILLJR: shows [Ac Qd]
TAKOMAN: shows [Ad Kc]
Hand 1179326364:
Abby17: wins side pot($512.31)
Hand 1179326364:
Abby17: wins main pot($207.97)

As for the Final Four tomorrow, let me step out on a limb and take a couple of #1 seeds :)

I will take Memphis and NC. May even bet them so I have reason to watch.

Abby17

Good god

Ok...the first 1000 downswing sucked...how bout another one back to back? This one actually doesn't hurt as much for some strange reason. Probably because it was over 1800 at one point and I whittled it down to 500 then dropped another 500 to make it an even grand.

Enough poker. Anyone seen this site? It is crazy funny. I live for sports and this is just totally hilarious. My guess is everyone already knew about this site, but I am last on the bandwagon. Listening to some of the dumb things that announcer say is priceless.

Am I the only one that worries about the power of ESPN? They are everywhere and yet rarely if ever break any stories or do any hard reporting. They live for softball questions and have a bunch of so called experts that give a ton of fluff. But, yet, they continue to grow and morph into one of the biggest powers in the media.

Well, it is back to the grind tomorrow. I plan on playing a bunch on FT - both HU and some tourneys. Wish me luck!

That is all for now.

Game Set Nintendo

The Good, Bad and Ugly

First things first, I am an idiot. I FORGOT about the Bodonkey. Now sure how that is possible other than I didn't even open Bodog tonight.

The good - First double cash in the Daily Double. Woo Hoo

The really good - 6th in DD A - $409 for the good guys.

Bad - 2nd overall for best finishes. That just blows. Coulda been another $800 or so.

Played well, ran well, now too juiced to go to sleep.

Also, played $100 HU for the first time. Just ran over a guy for $170 profit. So, all in all a damn good night. Over 35% of my way to April goal on the first damn day!!

Abby17

Bodonkeyness Tonight

Looking to follow up on my pro-busting this week with what I am sure will be a specatular flame out in the blogger tourney at Bodog. 8:05 PM CDT. Come join the hilarity. Quite possibly one of the tightest tournaments in the history of the interweb.

Looking to move up from 23rd into the Top 18 so I can play in the final 18 person SnG and likely finish 2nd and jump off a bridge.

Abby17

Out like a lion, urr, a lamb

So, yesterday being the last day of March, I wanted to get a bunch of hands in to try and hit my March goals. Well, I ended up playing only for about 90 minutes with some moderate success. Up a bit less than $100 for the night; which isn't bad, but didn't get my goal.

So, on to April. Good thing about April is that I have RB coming from my friends at www.rakerecovery.com. They are great to work with...Beanie and the boys. So, that amount alone is over 10% of my April goal.

Big plans for Saturday. Going to likely play in a Bodog WSOP sat. Being home alone should help me focus and who knows, maybe I will be the next Jamie Gold. Gotta shoot for something.

Wish me luck

One day to go

To reach my March goal of $1500. Had a pretty good night last night - winning about $220 with little to no stress. Had 2 Bodog tables going up about $90 on each quickly. Then, fired up a FT HU and won a BI. All tempered by a ridiculously early flame out in a $26 sat on FT where my KJ had no chance against AT on a flop of KQJ. Blah. My second half of March tourney results have not been good as I don't think I have been concentrating enough on them. But, as long as the cash thing works, I am all for it. So, need to get the last $100 tonight to hit March and then start in on April.

Funny that I am now ahead of all of 2007 with regard to poker winnings. And playing so much better with less stress and less tilt. Now, if my Bodog check would get here, it truly would be about stress free. Looks like I am going to be requesting April's check before I even get March's.

Final Four thoughts - 4 #1's. Bleh. Should be good games, but the lack of at least some sort of Cinderella has taken it down a notch for me. Now, all I truly need is for Kansas to lose. I hate that c@#$sucker.

Abby17

2 days left

And I need to make about $330 to make my March goals. I took last night off to get drunk with my wonderful spouse. Lots of vodka sodas in the comfort of our own basement. Nothing beats a night like that.

Gonna go out to watch Texas hopefully kick Memphis's ass today. More important, I would sure like to see a good game as this tourney seems to be lacking a lot of excitement.

What does it say about college basketball when 2 big goofy white guys are dominating all the discussion? Kevin Love and Tyler Hansborough.

Planning on playing a bunch tonight at Bodog. Come join the fun.

Abby17

That didn't take long

So, there goes the non-losing session streak. It ends at 16. Lost about $30 this morning at FT playing HU. I need to go back and see how I played. I know I did a great job of getting my money in with the worst of it a few times. But, I did get in trouble through some bad luck as well. I hit 2 different hands runner runner when I was drawing dead on the flop. So, I hit exactly what I want, only to have had zero chance on the flop. So, I end up making a decent river bet and calling the raise. Bleh!

But stacked a guy's AA when he had to figure I had him beat. Board was something like 88694 with 3 clubs. I had 89 and bet it on every street. Dude, AA just ain't winning this.

So, hopefully, I can make up that $30 tonight and continue the non-losing days streak alive.

Also, did you see that the Bodog WSOP semi final had a FIVE THOUSAND DOLLAR overlay. 27 went to the post for $250 a pop. One $12000 seat guaranteed.

There is another one of these tournies tomorrow at 1:15. I think I may just have to give it a shot.

All depends on tonight. First goal is to hit my March goal of $1500. I need about $360 more to stay on pace for 2008.

Later all

God Bless Texas

What a boring night of basketball. 4 games and 4 blowouts with the only saving grace being Texas advancing easily, which insures a profit for the Auction 2008. Maybe this fiscal responsibility thing has some merits as it sure feels nice to know that I don't need some team to make or win the finals to make money. Poor Ozzy and Neff are set to take a pretty good beatdown unless UCLA runs the table.

So, onto poker and the wonder that is Bodog. Actually, the games were not great last night and I ran a bit of a roller coaster. Started up $100 as I won a couple of decent pots on the turn. Then, lost a $300 pot when villain and I both flopped trips. On Bodog, that is almost a guarantee to get it all in.

So, then I opened up another $200 NL table and played all the way until about 1am. Spent those 4-5 hours anywhere from down $80 to down $450. Things were looking pretty bleak until I ended up in 3 big pots at the end of the night. One that I folded was probably the difference between a winning and losing night.

So, here is the hand...I am curious to get everyone's thoughts. Villains stats over about 300 hands are 27 VPIP, 6 PFR, 3.7 TAF, and 72% cbet.

Bodog History for Hand #1170171632
Hold'em No Limit ($1.00/$2.00) - 2008-03-29 00:55:44
Table 'High Chapparral (max 6)' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: True RiverHater ($334.60)
Seat 2: 75deodorant ($216.50)
Seat 3: Heather ($314.00)
Seat 4: MeGaBet888 ($324.00)
Seat 5: floppynutz0724 ($107.33)
Seat 6: Abby17 ($210.50)
------------------------------
NEW HAND
floppynutz0724: posts the small blind $1.00
Abby17: posts the big blind $2.00
--- DEALING POCKETS
Abby17 is dealt [Kh,Qs]
True RiverHater: folds
75deodorant: folds
Heather: folds
MeGaBet888: raises $5.00 to $7.00
floppynutz0724: folds
Abby17: calls $5.00
--- DEALING FLOP [Kc,4d,5s]
Abby17: checks
MeGaBet888: checks
--- DEALING TURN [3h]
Abby17: bets $12.00
MeGaBet888: calls $12.00
--- DEALING RIVER [3d]
Abby17: bets $32.00
MeGaBet888: goes all in $305.00

This villain had shown zero propensity to do this type of thing, and my image was fairly spewy here as I was down probably about $400 on this table.

So, what do you think are the likely holdings here. I am guessing either AK or KK, but who knows.

Well, after I folded that hand, I ended up stacking 2 guys where I flopped sets to their AK or AQ with an A also on the flop.

So, up about $50 for a long night's work.

Another question for the class: What is the most sessions and days in a row that you showed a profit? I am running 12 days and 16 sessions right now and have not had a streak like this in at least the 14 months that I still have detailed records.

Texas and the NBA

Here is hoping for a big win by Texas tonight. I bought them in the annual auction and they are my last team standing. A win tonight guarantees a profit for me.

And, please God, let my fantasy basketball team run this hot for 2.5 more weeks. No score less than 480 in a month and a half. High score 4 weeks running. Couldn't possibly be hotter. One time. Pay the fat kid his $850!!!

Not much poker

Played a small amount of HU last night at FT. Lucky that I run good. I start out just playing way too passively against a pretty good, but overly aggressive villain. He takes about a half BI from me with me just doing check/call, check/fold over and over. I hate when I get in those ruts as I often struggle to get out of them.

Then, I get AA in position. I raise pre and he 3 bets me as has been his tendency over and over.

Flop A63 rainbow. He bets, I have a choice here, but based on my history with him, it is pretty easy. I have played at least 3 hands in the last 10 horribly where I called, called and folded on the river. Just bad. So, I am pretty confident he will bet out on the turn as well.

So, I call. Turn is a 9 completing the 4th suit. He bets again. I think and call.

River J. He bets 75% of my remaining stack. I push and he calls with JTo. Thanks for playing and thanks for the AA, because my donkiness was likely the sole reason he got stacked there.

Next villain showed the power of making good notes. He is the first guy that I have played twice HU at FT and I took great notes on him the first time. He was a fold/3 bet guy that never just called my pre-flop raises. If he was playing, it was for 3 bets. So, I was able to 4 bet him pretty light early in the match and he isn't a reloader, so he ended up with a small stack pretty quickly and then quit me with about half stack left.

At that point, I was watching basketball and enjoying the ride of my (bought them in the auction) Western Kentucky team. Too bad they couldn't shoot in the first half. Valiant ride! And quite the ROI for me. $85 profit on my $16 investment.

Running crazy good.

Probably lots of Bodog playing this weekend. Need to finish March on the right note. $370 to my March goal. Which keeps me on pace for 2008 goals.

Now, if I could just catch up to Neff.

Abby17

New spot for blogging

Ok, I figured I would attempt to move my blog from Cardrunners over to blogger as I let my CR membership expire. Also, this will be a good spot to track my ongoing quest for the Bodonkey Blogger WSOP seat. I had a great tourney on Tuesday, busting Josh Arieh as well as finishing in 3rd overall. So, my $11 investment returned over $270...not a bad ROI.

I have moved up to 23rd in the standings, which isn't too bad considering I have flamed out really early in 4 of 6 tournies. I likely need to focus a bit more for the last 10 as an 18 person freeroll for a WSOP seat is crazy good.

Also, is this a brag or beat? My poker income in 2008>poker income the entire year of 2007.

Next stop: Beat 2005...should happen by end of April.

I am running crazy good on Bodog with a $1500 upswing in the last week. I often wonder why I even try to play at other places. The cards that I see at showdown at Bodog are often beyond belief. I had a guy CALL my all in for over half his stack with JJ on a AKQx board. Ummm...wtf? Dude, BEST case scenario gives you 6 outs. But, thanks for playing.

Played the $300 NL game last night, but was crazy tired and only played 12 hands (2 rounds). Won $120. LOL Bodog.

That is all for now.