The Rant

How 'bout that economy?!?! For all the people who don't think Congress needs to pass this so called "bailout bill" because it would just be helping the people who caused this problem, I have news for you. If they don't pass this bill, our current economy may look heavenly compared to what it could turn into. Sad to say, but true. Our entire financial system could easily come crashing down. A Great Depression scenario is definitely possible if something drastic isn't done. Furthermore, while we (the taxpayers) would be footing the bill (maybe as much as $700 billion!!!), it is very likely that all of the money, if not more, will be recouped.

I don't want to go into intricate details about how this bill will work. The simple version is currently their is a huge credit crunch. Defaults on homes are at historical highs and many banks that got lax in their lending standards are bankrupt or in danger of being bankrupt because they can't get short-term funds to get them through their financial obligations. Banks won't lend money to other banks because of fear that they won't get the money back, and thus banks aren't loaning to regular Joe's either. This extends not just into home loans, but also cars, small businesses, etc. What this bill will do is buy up the questionable loans from many banks. Right now these loans are virtually untradable because no one wants to touch them. However, they have some intrinsic value. The government will go in and buy them at greatly discounted values. This will free up most concerns for the banking system, and it should get money flowing again. When this happens these loans that were bought up will evenutually start to trade again at a "true" value, and the government can sell them off at a profit. There are many other details of the bill that are being debated, but this is the crux of the problem that will be fixed.

Why am I writing about this? Because their are several polls that have shown a majority of Americans do not support this bill. The main reason - Americans don't want to pay for Wall Street and our government's mistakes. They don't think it is their problem. It shouldn't be, but it unfortunately is. If we don't do this, we will pay for it anyway and it will be far less pleasant.

In the Immortal Words of MasterJ.....^%%@#%#@^

The WCOOP is over for me. I went out in the main event on this hand:

PokerStars Game #20588389315: Tournament #200800033, $5000+$200 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (100/200) - 2008/09/21 17:41:57 ETTable '200800033 222' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: 100189 (27155 in chips)
Seat 2: Shifty1768 (33425 in chips)
Seat 3: who's bad (39850 in chips)
Seat 4: Dyzalot (20745 in chips)
Seat 5: PieOhMy (32950 in chips)
Seat 6: ministerborg (16230 in chips)
Seat 7: gregior (24900 in chips)
Seat 8: PiMaster (18370 in chips)
Seat 9: Hero-BS (17725 in chips)
Shifty1768: posts small blind 100
who's bad: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to PiMaster [Ts Ks]
Dyzalot: folds
PieOhMy: folds
ministerborg: folds
gregior: folds
PiMaster: raises 300 to 500
Hero-BS: folds
100189: folds
Shifty1768: folds
who's bad: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Js 3s 9s]
who's bad: checks
PiMaster: bets 650
who's bad: raises 1200 to 1850
PiMaster: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [Js 3s 9s] [7h]
who's bad: bets 4200
PiMaster: calls 4200
*** RIVER *** [Js 3s 9s 7h] [Kd]
who's bad: bets 9250
PiMaster: raises 2570 to 11820 and is all-in
who's bad: calls 2570
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PiMaster: shows [Ts Ks] (a flush, King high)
who's bad: shows [As 8s] (a flush, Ace high)
who's bad collected 36840 from pot

I'm not sure there was much I could do on the hand besides save my last 2500 by not going allin. In a cash game obviously you go allin, but I should have saved my last bit just in case because the extra 2500 in the scheme of things isn't worth it. The only good news is I satellited in for $2800.

For the series, I was down about $3100 despite the 7 cashes in the 28 events I played (I do still have 3% of TheMasterJ33 as I write this). That's what happens though when you never finish better than 54th place.

Major Disappointment

So I was kicking ass in the $500 NLH 6-Handed w/ Rb's. I was chip leader or top 5 for about 3 hours straight. I was playing well and getting Jamie Golded. Then 3 hands took me from near the top to out in a fairly short time.

Hand 1) 350K for me - I raise with QJc from the SB. The BB calls. QJ2 flop two hearts I think. I cbet and he just calls. K on the turn. He bets 27K (about 60% pot), I shove his last 100k in. He insta calls with T9.

Hand 2) 250K for me - I raise 9800 w/ AQ UTG. DuckU reraises me from the BB to 36K leaving himself 70k. I had been really active and he was steamed at the time. In either case for 25 BBs I think its a fairly easy shove. He tanked and called with 99. He won the race.

Hand 3) 130K for me - 5 handed active UTG raises to 10K. I call from button. T44 flop two diamonds. He bet 18k I raised to 55K (half my stack). He shoved me in w/ QT. I miss.

I finished a respectable 56th in a very tough field, but another low payday is hard to take when I was in a great position for so long. I now have 7 cashes in 27 events, and I think I am roughly down $500. GROSSSSSSS!

WCOOP Update

I cashed in both events today for a small profit (again). I now have 6 cashes in the 17 events I've played. This already is almost to my goal of 7 cashes. However, I am no where near my goal of assuring a profitable series because I keep failing to get real deep. Here is a run-down of my cashes:



Event #2: 5 Card Draw - 93rd of 1024
Event #4: Limit Holdem - 91st of 2258
Event #5: No Limit Holdem - 54th of 7351
Event #14: Stud - 74th of 627
Event #17: Pot Limit Holdem 6 Max - 99th of 960
Event #18: HORSE - 102nd of 2091


I've netted about 4k on these events (not counting satellites - I haven't looked at these to see if I'm up or down), but I still have roughly 14k in entry fees left for the series. I feel like I keep putting myself in good positions, but the cards aren't falling right at crucial times. Hopefully, a big break through is right around the corner. I would like to cite the "due factor."

Past 2 Days

0-4, nothing noteworthy. I am 3-11 in the series now with the $200 NLH w/ RBs and $300 Stud today.

On a somber note, my best friend's grandmother died over the weekend. She had been in poor health for a while. So it wasn't totally unexpected, but it still is difficult for their family. She was one of the sweetest persons I knew. When my daughter was a baby, she gave her gifts a couple different times. I mention this because I probably hadn't seen her but once or twice in the years following college. Yet, she went out of her way just to do this simple act of kindness.

The funeral is today. Hopefully, everyone celebrates her life in the way she deserves.

Bubble Burst

I went into yesterday with some (unjustly?) high hopes. I know I was short in day 2 of Sunday's event, but I felt with one double up I could have gotten right back into it, and the other two tourney's of the day were two of my favorites.

Needless to say, I didn't see a hand in the day 2 tourney for about 25 straight to start the day. I came over the top once and bought a pot. Then I reshipped AT against a late position raiser and got called by ..... AT. We chopped. Then I got 99 in middle position thinking there is no way I can't be shipping this for my 12 or so BBs, but the 2nd pos guy or somewhat short stack opens (I'm still going with it). Then the next guy on a similar stack reraises 2.5x and about 25% of his stack. Now maybe I'm being nitty folding on my stack size with a fairly premium hand, but I can't figure I'm in good shape here very often. The second guy likely has me, and the first may even though I was willing to risk it against him. Anyway, I go another round without a hand before picking up 54h (this is how ugly they've been, 54 looked pretty sweet) in MP with 8 BBs. I ship and get called by the BB's AK. I finished 54th.

This wasn't the end of the disappointing day. I proceeded to bubble the other two events - 391st in the PLO (360 paid), and 182nd in the Mixed Game (168 paid). In the latter tourney I was among the chip leaders about half-way through before going cold. I also felt in it I gave some chips away with some loose play. This bothered me as much as anything because my whole strategy in this tourney was to sit back and let everyone else make mistakes. Hardly anyone in the tourney knew how to play all 8 games well (or likely even 4 well).

Time to forget about yesterday. I still have 3 cashes in 7 events for about +$5000. There are, however, some very expensive tourneys coming up. My anticipated remaining outlay is still about 19-20K. Today's two events are NLH 4-max (which should be just a crazy tourney) and Razz. Obviously I like my chances in Razz.

Weekend at the WCOOP

Overall it went pretty well, and it has the potential to be great if I can get hot.

On Saturday, I cashed in the LH event in 91st out of 2258. It was alot of work for not too much cash, but it's better than nothing. I also was one of the first out in the 2 to 7 Triple Draw. All I can say about that is that I kept getting good hands beat by better ones, and in no time I was gone.

In bigger news, I am still alive in the Sunday $500 2-day event. 7351 entered it, and with 72 left, I am sitting in 64th. I've locked up $5500 so far, and I've cashed in 3 of my 5 events so far. I have 450K in chips with the average around 1 million, and the blinds will start at 12.5K/25K with a 2500 ante. So with 18 BBs, I will have to pick my spots well and hope for an early double up. I am really pumped about this one because within the first hour, I fell to about 2300 from 10K starting stack. I grinded it for about 2 hours before I even got above 5k. I never had over 15bbs between level 3 and 5. Then I hit a decent rush combined with some big calls and bluffs. I've run pretty good, but not great. I've had 2 big pot suckouts (although only one for my life), and I've lost 2 huge pots w/ QQ vs AK.

Anyway, I need some sleep. It starts back up tomorrow at 3:30 cst. I also have the PLO 6-max and the 8 game mixed tourney. So it will be a very busy day hopefully.

5 Card Draw Rocks!

Well day 1 of the WCOOOP is done for me. I cashed (somehow) in the 5 card draw tourney - 93rd of 1024 for $430.08. I don't know if I played well or poorly, tight or loose, etc. I don't particularly enjoy the game, and I think it has to be my worst game. However, I play it once a year in the WCOOP. It has to be my first ever cash in this game. WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! In addition, with the cash I am officially up $0.08 in the series.

I didn't get in any of the bets on pocket 5's with J. We never found a third. That was a little of a downer for me. Especially after J cashed in the NLH 6-max and I had my cash. Oh well.

WCOOP

Friday starts the best online series of the year, the WCOOP on Pokerstars. It is the biggest, longest, and best structured series anywhere on the net. It lasts 17 days, and has 33 events (including 3 10k+ events - which I likely won't be playing). However, I do plan on playing most, if not all, of the other 30 events.

Jason and I are still looking for a third for a pocket 5's contest. I'm not sure if we will find one we like by tomorrow afternoon. As a result, I may get in the individual contest instead. I would rather do the team one though.

I have some tough goals for the series.

1) Play in at least 28 events as well as most of the 2nd chance events
2) Cash 7 times (not counting 2nd chance tourneys) and be profitable
3) Make a final table

#1 should be easy for me to get barring outside issues.
#2 will be somewhat difficult, but I think with these structures, I have about a 33% chance (last year I had 5 cashes in something like 25 events.).
#3 is also in the 33% neighborhood I think.