Interesting Day

I don't know what to do: laugh, cry, be happy or upset. The good news, not only did I not bubble today's FTOPS tournaments, but I cashed in both with a final table. I final tabled the PL Holdem event and finished 7th out of 1076 entrants. It had to be one of the weirdest/hardest final tables I may ever have. First of all, I had very poor cards virtually the whole tourney, and the few good hands I got faired average at best or got no action. I had approximately 500 hands during the tourney. I had AA once and got a walk. I got KK four times (which is almost double expected), but I bought the blinds once, doubled up through AJ once, and lost the other two including my KO hand. I only had AK twice, but tripled up at the final table with it once vs AQ and 55. However, everytime I got allin I would win. I doubled or tripled up probably at least 6 times maybe more. From about 25 left until my elimination I was usually in the bottom 5 and often the bottom 3, but one thing you can do is be patient in PL. My VPIP was 12% for the entire tourney.

At the final table I finally started to get cards, but this was more of a curse than a blessing. One of the first hands a guy with 3 BBs shoved in 2nd position. I isolated him with JJ, and he woke up with AA. His range here has to be huge. While he was the short stack, I was short too. It took about 25% of my stack and left me with 150k. I was blinded down to just over 100k when my triple up occurred with the previously mentioned AK. On the KO hand, the UTG potted it, and it folded around to the SB (who was easily the tightest guy left). He repotted it. Now i had KK and can't possibly fold, but I wrote on AIM to my brother I was actually very worried he had AA. Of course he did and I was gone. That guy ended up winning it as he got smacked by the deck from that point on.

The Stud 8 was far less interesting. I placed 78th (just inside the money) out of 645 players. I basically folded for the first hour and a half. At one point, I had only seen 4th street four times in the first 65 hands. I hit one decent rush to get to 24K when the avg was 11k, but then went ice cold again. I still think Stud 8 may be the juiciest EV for a good all around poker player. The vast majority of guys are literally clueless. I've only played five of these where the structure was decent. I've cashed in three. I know this is a small sample size, but man the mistakes I see are unreal.

Anyway, maybe things are finally turning a corner. In 5 FTOPS events I now have 3 bubbles and 2 cashes. I'm not up much money on them for as well as I feel I've played (which can be annoying), but my game seems to be very strong heading into the WSOP. Hopefully now, I can just get something big going to give me the money I'd like to have for it.

3 for 3

Well 3rd FTOPS event - 3rd bubble. This time I got 2nd place on my table in the shootout.

Hard to stay positive

I am as pissed/frustrated as I've been in as long as I can remember. Besides the BS going on in cash games right now. I just got knocked out of the 2nd FTOPS event again on the bubble. I played a very good, if not great tourney, but lost on a 2 outer against a nut for about a 7th place chip stack with 120 left. Here is the hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #6337769425: FTOPS Event #2 (44840197), Table 102 - 600/1200 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:34:45 ET - 2008/05/08
Seat 1: barbwire320 (27,760)
Seat 2: data1123 (10,836)
Seat 3: The_Dean221 (28,995)
Seat 4: Ergodicity (54,072)
Seat 5: Sledj (15,709)
Seat 6: Enyogo (9,413)
Seat 7: Oakmeal (11,961)
Seat 8: PiMaster (35,124)
Seat 9: Captain Donkey (18,256)
Oakmeal posts the small blind of 600
PiMaster posts the big blind of 1,200
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PiMaster [6h 3d 4c 6c]
Captain Donkey folds
barbwire320 folds
data1123 folds
The_Dean221 folds
Ergodicity raises to 3,000
Sledj folds
Enyogo folds
Oakmeal folds
PiMaster has 15 seconds left to act
PiMaster calls 1,800
*** FLOP *** [3s 3h 7d]
PiMaster checks
Ergodicity bets 3,000
PiMaster raises to 10,000
Ergodicity has 15 seconds left to act
Ergodicity raises to 36,600
PiMaster has 15 seconds left to act
PiMaster calls 22,124, and is all in
Ergodicity shows [5d Ah As Jh]
PiMaster shows [6h 3d 4c 6c]
Uncalled bet of 4,476 returned to Ergodicity
*** TURN *** [3s 3h 7d] [Ts]
*** RIVER *** [3s 3h 7d Ts] [Ac]
Ergodicity shows a full house, Aces full of Threes
PiMaster shows three of a kind, Threes
Ergodicity wins the pot (70,848) with a full house, Aces full of Threes
PiMaster stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 70,848 Rake 0
Board: [3s 3h 7d Ts Ac]
Seat 1: barbwire320 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: data1123 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: The_Dean221 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Ergodicity showed [5d Ah As Jh] and won (70,848) with a full house, Aces full of Threes
Seat 5: Sledj didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Enyogo (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: Oakmeal (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 8: PiMaster (big blind) showed [6h 3d 4c 6c] and lost with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 9: Captain Donkey didn't bet (folded)

FTOPS (again already?)

The FTOPS started today, and unlike last time, I have no prop bets. However like last time I made another deep run, but I bubbled it (I think I had 2 or 3 bubbles last time to go with my 5 or 6 cashes) . I'm not sure how many events I will be playing. My weekdays are free but both weekends are full of potential issues (Mother's day and my sister's graduation/softball tourney). My goals will be to cash in 1 out of every 4 to 5 I play, and I want to make at least 1 very deep run. I sure need it for my bankroll going into the WSOP. So I better come through.

Lady Luck

By my brother's recommendation, I am writing this blog.

When lady luck is on your side in poker, it is a wonderful and powerful ally.....but when it turns against you, it is a mean old bitch. I am currently in the midst of a nearly 50K downswing in "luck" (as measured by some software I have) during the past 12 days. Now I am not down 50k in real money because my EV was nearly 30K in the black. However, you can do the math to see approximately what I am down. Normally this would be very frustrating. However, with me in the midst of my WSOP push (so I have the funds I need for the events), this has been very painful. I am now 25K short of my minimum goal I set for myself at the beginning of the year.

Hopefully this blog will turn the tide. If not, at least I tried Matt :)

PiMaster - BlueFlare Style

Tonight I watched Nick play heads up on Stars on my account against a guy named Hyi-Vam. They had as many as 3 games going at once at the 10/20 level. It was perhaps the nuttiest match I've ever seen. Nick owned the guy hard, but the guy had at least 5 suckouts on allin pots of 4k or more. Nick may have had 1, but I honestly don't recall it. To show you how crazy the guy was he called a 4 bet allin by Nick on a flop of T92 rainbow w/ 32. Nick never showed down worse than a strong semi-bluff on any allin (Nick had JT). The hands I recall Nick losing on suckouts were, QQ vs A7 on a 762 board, 4x vs A2 on a 943 board, A8 vs A7 (chopped), QQ vs KQ allin pre (for 2K). There were a couple others I can't remember.

Each of them had 10k stacks at some point, and 2 or 3 times they each had 6K or more on the same table. These matches went on for less than an hour total, and I saw Nick have 1 10K swing each way. In the end, they broke about even (I think Nick made a little), but on an "average" night the way the hands went down, I think Nick easily would have won 12-15K. It was easily the most I've been entertained watching poker in a long time.

The Professional

Yesterday, my daughter Ellie was in her 4th wedding as a flower girl. (This picture is actually from a wedding two years ago.) This marks her as a professional in my book. However she is turning 6 in less than two weeks, and her standing as top notch professional may be coming to an end. Just like a world class gymnast entering her early twenties, she likely has peaked. She still will be good at her job if asked again, but the oohs and aahs and smiles that a 3 to 5 year old preschooler gets, may begin to lose its luster as she "ages". Sadly as a result, I think she has finished this career and may be entering a new field - Junior Bridesmaid. This is still an honorable job, but instead of being Batman's (the bride's) Robin, she will now be more like the chauffer (Alfred). A flower girl is a necessity in any good procession before a wedding. A junior bridesmaid helps get the bride to the promised land, but honestly, the rest of the bridesmaids can do that. A junior bridesmaid is simply too old to be a flower girl but too young to be an official bridesmaid. She can't go on any "real" bachelorette parties.

So in conclusion, yesterday was a somber yet wonderful celebration as the final? wedding as a flower girl for Ellie. She looked beautiful and didn't let the obvious emotions she must have been feeling get in the way of her duties. She was a professional.