Craziness

The last few days have been a complete roller coaster for me in poker and in life. I had one of my worst two day stretches followed immediately by one of my best two day stretches. My daughter broke her wrist (she is fine, but will be in a cast for a few weeks). We had 75 degree weather over the weekend, and then Monday night and Tuesday we had freezing rain, sleet and 6 inches of snow (with more supposed to come later this week).

Random Funny Hand

Reward the idiots............................

Full Tilt Poker Game #5409419804: Table Coral Isle (6 max) - $25/$50 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:55:51 ET - 2008/02/26
Seat 1: Ficus Picus ($1,000)
Seat 2: OneUponAStar ($10,603)
Seat 3: worldsgrtest ($5,075)
Seat 4: kinanika ($872)
Seat 5: doc355 ($2,175)
Seat 6: Bradford III ($1,466.60)
Bradford III has 5 seconds left to act
Bradford III posts the small blind of $25
Ficus Picus posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
OneUponAStar raises to $175
worldsgrtest calls $175
kinanika folds
doc355 calls $175
Bradford III raises to $1,466.60, and is all in
Ficus Picus folds
OneUponAStar calls $1,291.60
worldsgrtest has 15 seconds left to act
worldsgrtest has requested TIME
worldsgrtest raises to $5,075, and is all in
doc355 folds
OneUponAStar calls $3,608.40
worldsgrtest shows [Ks Kh]
Bradford III shows [Kd 7d]
OneUponAStar shows [8h 8s]
*** FLOP *** [Th 9s Qh]
*** TURN *** [Th 9s Qh] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [Th 9s Qh 8d] [6d]
worldsgrtest shows a pair of Kings
OneUponAStar shows three of a kind, Eights
OneUponAStar wins the side pot ($7,216.80) with three of a kind, Eights
Bradford III shows a straight, Ten high
Bradford III wins the main pot ($4,621.80) with a straight, Ten high
worldsgrtest is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11,841.60 Main pot $4,624.80. Side pot $7,216.80. Rake $3
Board: [Th 9s Qh 8d 6d]
Seat 1: Ficus Picus (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: OneUponAStar showed [8h 8s] and won ($7,216.80) with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 3: worldsgrtest showed [Ks Kh] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 4: kinanika didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: doc355 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Bradford III (small blind) showed [Kd 7d] and won ($4,621.80) with a straight, Ten high

House of Pain pwns!!!!

The final two days of the FTOPS were fairly similar to the first ten days: alot of deep runs without any big cashes. The House of Pain Team, Jason, Tom and I, kept putting ourselves in positions to go really deep, but whether it was a crucial mistake, a cooler, or a bad beat, we never had a big score. However, 12 cashes in the 20 events isn't too shabby. In fact, it was more than enough to take down the Pocket 5's contest. Even though some teams had a top ten finish, none came close to our 12 cashes. The second place team had the next most cashes with 8. Furthermore, out of the 18 players in the contest, Jason finished with the 6th best score despite running ridiculously bad for most of the series in my opinion. Tom had the 3rd best score and threw in 4 cashes. I finished with the 2nd best score and five cashes. These five cashes matched the goal I had set for myself at the beginning of the series. However, I did not reach any final table (highest place was 33rd) which was slightly disappionting. Similar to Tom, I dropped just under $4200 during the FTOPS because of the lack of the big score, but with this contest win, I was able to net a little cash for the series.

This win was particularly satisfying because I feel all 3 of us are top-notch tournament players despite being fairly unknown because we mainly focus on cash games. Jason is a fabulous tournament player on the cusp of something huge. Whenever he brings his "A" game he is devastating to opponents, and while Tom and I play a completely different style than Jason, our results have been very strong. I would love to try for a repeat in the next FTOPS Series with these two.

Final Standings:

House of Pain: 2151.64
Team Stu: 2032.70 (interestingly at the start of the contest I set a goal of 2040 pts to win this)
Team Dean: 1968.94
Team AJK: 1955.44
Team USC: 1909.76
Team Intervention: 1535.93

In the other contest, Toph rode a deep run in Friday's 6-handed NLH tourney to the win. We could only pick 10 events (so if you didn't pick the events you used well, it hurt). The final standings were:

Toph 150.42
Nick 119.6
Chris 93.25
Jason 73.39
Tom 68.87

Update

(Friday) Another day of deep runs but not big money runs. However, this was great for the Pocket 5's contest. All 6 of the House of Pain scores today were strong. We had 2 cashes and 4 near cashes. I went deep in the NLH 6 max before bowing out 33rd of 1815, and Tom had a crazy ride in the 7 Card Stud tourney. He finished 38th out of 592. We have opened up a decent gap in the contest, but it is hardly wrapped up with four events left.

In our other contest, both Toph and Nick had cashes in tourneys they counted. However, Toph went very deep in the NLH tourney to take over the lead. Nick continues to play very well, but still has his moments where he BlueFlare's it. He is very close to being deadly though, and the best thing about it is his desire to learn and ask questions to better his weaknesses.

Here are the standings:

Toph 150.42 pts (6 event used)

Nick 119.59 pts (8 events used)

Chris 93.25 pts (8 events used)
Jason 73.39 pts (8 events used)
Tom 68.87 pts (9 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:

House of Pain (us) 2029.49 pts

Team Stu Paterson 1898.98 pts

Team AJKHoosier 1880.88 pts

Team USCphildo 1848.23 pts
Team The_Dean 1649.41 pts
Team Intervention 1207.77 pts

Update

(Thursday) Very good day for the House of Pain. J had a cash in the PL(HO) (half holdem half omaha), and I cashed in the razz. While neither of these netted us much money, they did help us regain the lead in the Pocket 5s contest. However, it is a very tight race and any of the top 4 could win it. Team Stu Paterson is lurking in 4th due almost solely to cane3418. If any of the other two on the team start performing, they could easily gain the lead. Also, both Team USC and Team AJK are within 30 pts of us (basically any cash). In the other contest, I have taken the lead from Nick barely. That is still anyone's game.

Chris 93.25 pts (8 events used)
Nick 82.46 pts (7 events used)
Jason 73.39 pts (8 events used)
Tom 68.87 pts (9 events used)
Toph 31.76 pts (5 event used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:

House of Pain (us) 1862.55 pts
Team USCphildo 1840.77 pts
Team AJKHoosier 1833.56 pts
Team Stu Paterson 1809.67 pts
Team The_Dean 1649.41 pts
Team Intervention 1120.01 pts

Fun with RB's

(Wednesday) Today was a step in the right direction. Nick played his best tourney so far, and he was rewarded with a move into 1st place in our competition because I failed to use this tourney as one of my ten. I cashed, but not very deep. It helped keep our team in the Pocket 5's contest though. We are a fair amount back still, but Team AJK and Team USC doesn't have as much room to improve as us (though any cashes will definitely solidify their chances) because most of their scores are fairly solid.

Interestingly Team AJK has started calling themselves Sleeping Giant Dynasty on the pocket 5s contest page. I guess they read my blog at some point when I called them the "sleeping giant", or else that is a very big coincidence. If you are reading it, hopefully I'll run into you guys sometime out on the circuit (maybe the WSOP this summer). Good luck to you!

Before I post the standings, here are two funny conversations and a strange occurence I had during the tourney:

35 minutes into the FT $300 NLH 6 Handed RB

Wise words from Toph

toph4423 (8:34:37 PM): this structure kinda sucks
vioxc (8:35:14 PM): post rb (rebuy) period it should be decent i think
toph4423 (8:43:33 PM): oh shit
toph4423 (8:43:35 PM): this is a rebuy
toph4423 (8:43:37 PM): i had no idea

Wise words from BlueFlare

MidgetJihad (10:36:25 PM): nice one
MidgetJihad (10:36:29 PM): !!!!!
vioxc (10:36:51 PM): very borderline
vioxc (10:37:02 PM): felt he might do it weak
MidgetJihad (10:37:09 PM): results are what matter

Then I had the ultimate coin flip:

Shortly, after the bubble burst a guy raised to about 3K and I picked up AKs. I shoved for about 12K, and he instacalled with JJ. At this point my internet went down so I had no idea if I had won or not. Finally, I got a hold of Nick and found out I had indeed won. Also, we went into break soon after the hand, and by the time I got the internet back up, it was time to start up again.

and now the standings:

Nick 82.46 pts (7 events used)

Tom 68.87 pts (8 events used)

Chris 47.85 pts (6 events used)

Toph 31.76 pts (5 event used)

Jason 26.69 pts (7 events used)

and in the Pocket 5's contest:

Team AJKHoosier 1833.56 pts

Team USCphildo 1782.38 pts

House of Pain (us) 1739.67 pts

Team Stu Paterson 1647.12 pts (estimate pending cane's finish in current tourney)

Team The_Dean 1559.02 pts

Team Intervention 1027.17 pts

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

(Tuesday) Refer to Monday which refers to Sunday and add this hand for illustration purposes (it basically crippled me from a decent stack):

Dealt to PiMaster [5c Ah 4c Ad]
flyswater 1 folds
spicyroll folds
elhubbo calls 400
peanut2006 folds
Foyanchi folds
Sh00terTSN folds
PiMaster raises to 800
pokerskibum folds
Crisp86 folds
elhubbo has 15 seconds left to act
elhubbo calls 400
*** FLOP *** [Qd 5h 5s]
elhubbo checks
PiMaster bets 400
elhubbo calls 400
*** TURN *** [Qd 5h 5s] [9c]
elhubbo checks
PiMaster bets 800
elhubbo calls 800
*** RIVER *** [Qd 5h 5s 9c] [Ts]
elhubbo bets 800
PiMaster raises to 1,600
elhubbo calls 181, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 619 returned to PiMaster
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PiMaster shows [5c Ah 4c Ad] three of a kind, Fives, for high
elhubbo shows [3s Tc 3d Td] a full house, Tens full of Fives, for high
elhubbo wins the pot (6,562) with a full house, Tens full of Fives
No low hand qualified