Still Alive

It has been quite a while since my last post. I have been following everyone on my blogroll but have stayed away from commenting or posting. If I posted it would've meant that I had to think/write about how bad I was feeling about poker. I had high expectations for my Vegas trip and after another bad year I came home pretty disappointed and depressed. I used most of my online bankroll for the trip and my run-bad continued online. I couldn't even get myself to post a Vegas recap blog. I didn't want to come off as the guy who blames his downswing on bad luck and bad beats and everyone else. I started questioning my game and wondered whether or not I knew how to win anymore. Every decision I made seemed like the wrong one. This made me start playing differently and making more bad decisions to the point where I was way off my game. I kept making small deposits whenever I could, but couldn't build a roll with the small amount I was depositing....until Friday night.



I don't have any screenshots or hand histories to post but I spent most of the tourney short stacked and unable to find any good spots. I was all in several times with under 10 bbs. I stayed alive and made it into the money. I had some very weak tables and knew if I could catch some cards I would be able to make a deep run. At one point I made a big (and correct) laydown with aks pre vs 2 players. When we were down to 4 tables I opened them all up and observed each table. I stayed short stacked until we were down to 2 tables when I doubled up with QQ vs. AQ. At this point the table tightened up and I started I started taking control of the table. I went into the final table 5/9 and had very good reads on the players. I applied pressure whenever I could and was the chipleader with 4 to go. 3 handed I was still the chipleader and had a chance to take out the shorter stack with 99 when he shove over my button raise w/8To but he hit a ten on the flop. This hand put me in 2nd place. Same guy raised my bb from the sb and I had k4 sooooted. Flop comes AK2 with one heart. He bets and I decide to flat and re-evaluate the turn. Turn is a lovely 4. He shoves and I snap call. He shows AJ and blanks on the river. This gave me a small chip lead heads up. I felt I had a big advantage but it was 8am and decided to chop it.

I have been working ten hour days and alot of overtime, so haven't been able to stay up to play the mookie. Good luck at the tables.

The Real Tiger Woods Apology - Funny aniboom Animation

Thank you Al and Full Tilt

Unbelievable opportunity.....but I couldn't get anything going. One of those tournies where I always had 2nd best hand. I picked good spots and was able to stay around my starting stack for the first 2 hours or so with few good starting hands. With around 35 bbs left I picked up qq and reraised rambler. He just had a big hand to knock out pvanharibo. He 4 bet, essentially putting me all in. I'm 99% sure his range here is AA or KK so I folded and he told me later he did have kk. Then I picked up KK and Maigrey called my raise and an A flopped. I cbet and she shoved instantly so had to fold there. Got it all in w/kjo vs. 55 and turned a gut shot and flush draw and couldn't get there.
Going in, I had a good game plan, had a lot of notes on the players, and wanted to make sure my early and mid tourney decisions weren't affected by the prize pool. Hard to do with this much on the line, but I didn't want to have any regrets. I guess I'll just have to stick to the Venetian Deep Stack events in a couple weeks. Congrats to the winners.

TOC seat #2

Short post, I gotta get to bed. I was able to make a comeback being the short stack with 4 left and take down the Poker from the Rail tourney. I didn't have AA or KK the entire tourney and when we were heads up, I got both within 3 hands.

TOC seat

I haven't been playing very well lately and have been pretty frustrated. There was an incident at work a couple weeks ago and I think that may have something to do with it. Let's just say I was almost "rivered" by 69000 volts. Since then, I have been playing with an awefuckit attitude. Calling and shoving when I know I'm beat and pushing draws at the wrong times. Tonight I got my head right and played a solid tourney from start to finish.




I came to the final table 5th in chips. I got lucky here when my AK held and I doubled through KimLovo.



I was able to take out babaghanoush in a B vs B when I flopped top pair and he shove my flop bet.



I made a big laydown when I raised utg w/TT 5 handed. Blinds were 1500/3000 (i think). Smokee shoved all in from the button and I decided to wait for a better spot. We lost kimLovo and usaf_trevor and were down to 4 handed when I picked up TT again in the sb. Dave shoved from the button and I my TT held.



Once 3 handed, lightning was able to maintain his stack while smokee and I (mostly me) were up and down. We played 83 hands 3 handed and on the 84th hand smokkee shoved with his pair and flush draw and lightning called with his top pair.



Smokkee is one of the first bloggers that I started reading. I have had his tourney table up observing his play many times. I hate to root against someone whose game I respect so much, but I am definitely glad to have a TOC seat. GG smokkee!

Congrats to lightning for winning his seat and also congrats to ddionysus for a great tourney.

BBT Final Table

I can't find the words to describe how bummed I am right now. I ran great in this tourney and couldn't get the TOC seat. I came to the final table with the chip lead, took out a short stack's AK w/KJ, and it all went to shit after that. Whenever I made a raise with a marginal hand, I was reraised. When I had a hand, my raise was called and I totally missed and they hit. There was one spot where I'm not sure if I made the right play.

6 players left. I have 52k or so.
Blinds were 1200/2400
All in at 420 rs to 6000 from the cutoff.
Button folds
Ftrain pushes all in from the small blind for 54k
I have 52k in the BB w/TT.......and fold

I'm questioning myself here. 420 was raising a lot of hands which would open Ftrains shove range. Looking back, I think that I should have called. I was definitely shoving over 420's raise but hate to be the caller w/TT. Winning that hand would've put me back in the chip lead and maybe a run to the final 2. Any thoughts?

Invitational Freeroll Thoughts

Just wondering what it takes to get an invitation. Are the blogger invites going to be the same every week or will more bloggers get the opportunity to play subsequent weeks?