Christmas Bonus

Merry Christmas to all blog readers. One day late anyway. I know that some of the people from the poker forum actually read this thing, and I've talked to enough other random people to know that there is a group of people that actually read this thing. For whatever reason. So Merry Christmas.

I was in Lansing yesterday, but left to get back to Chicago since I had a wedding to go to tomorrow. So with nothing else to do on Christmas night, fired up a few poker tournaments, finished 2nd in the AP 30r. Truthfully I wasn't really even paying that close of attention to it until there were about 30 people left, but clearly I run good. The level of play in the AP 30r was pretty atrocious last night. My favorite was the guy who being determined to take a stand in the bb against the big stack, called off half his stack with 52o. And then flopped three deuces. WP sir.

But otherwise I continue to run good for the month of December, up about 11 grand or so at the moment. I'm not sure if I'm done for the year or if I'll try to sneak in one more day on Sunday. On Monday I'm flying down to Florida, and hanging out for the week with my parents and grandfather. In an RV. That's going to be an adventure.

Something that occurred to me last night after I made a particularly horrific river bluff after betting the turn: I need to learn when to slow down when I've taken a shot at the pot that hasn't worked. Particuarly when the range of hands that are calling on the turn and folding on the river is particularly low, which was the case last night. Felt I was better than the player I played against last night, but that one bluff really cost me. Still, even with high blinds, tried to play small ball, gradually chip up, and as a result had chip lead when we got it in for a tournament defining flip for most of the chips. Which I lost. 2nd it is.

That's it for now. Year wrap up to come, as well as goals for next year. There will be many.

Last Full Day?

With my travel/holiday/wedding schedule upcoming, today is probably my last full day of poker of the year.

It certainly won't be my last day, I'm sure I'll sneak in some tourneys here and there, especially when I'm at home. But I'm playing from now until I get busted out of the nightly tournies today. Snuck into always donktastic Cake 30r just now, many more to come.

It'd be nice to go out on a good note, not a "I played all day and I'm down a grand" note.

Ah So Close

Finished 12th in the Stars Nightly Hundred Grand a few nights ago. Finished 4th in the Cake 109 last night when I was the CL four handed. Ah being a multi player is a life of prepetual disappoinment. Except for those times when you feel really good.

The Cake end result was annoying. I was just rolling along, there was another fairly aggro player with the second big stack, but he was on my right, and I was occasionally three betting him with air essentially. Then there were two short stacks. Then ran QQ into KK into the other big stack. Now he's got about 500K chips, I've got 100K chips, and the two short stacks have about 50k. At this point, it takes on a little bit of a SNG dynamic, and I'm looking to raise the short stacks with anything decent and stay out of the big stacks way. It was another 1600 I think if I could move up to second, and only 1000 more for first. That may not be exactly right, but it's close. But I pick up 77 utg and 3k/6k, decide that's too good to just fold outright because I'm really only afraid of the big stack picking up a hand. Who of course had JJ. Sigh.

I think that tilted me a bit, because I played a little loose the rest of the night. Ah well. Still having a pretty good month overall.

Snow has totally taken over Chicago. I'm enjoying it really. I don't even mind that it's cold.

Ship 20K, Other Thoughts

Shipped 20K DS on Monday to get the month going. Some hands.

Stage #1349647478 Tourney ID 2111543 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $4000 - 2008-12-09 01:16:43 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 1 - MRQUIETSTRM ($81830.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - WAWA711 ($152343.50 in chips)
Seat 4 - CMB8757 ($243535.25 in chips)
Seat 5 - IMPROVED ($127797.75 in chips)
Seat 6 - BZIMZIM ($80146 in chips)
Seat 7 - DZ00NUTS ($219343 in chips)
Seat 8 - SPUNKMONKEYB ($60004 in chips)
MRQUIETSTRM - Ante $400
WAWA711 - Ante $400
CMB8757 - Ante $400
IMPROVED - Ante $400
BZIMZIM - Ante $400
DZ00NUTS - Ante $400
SPUNKMONKEYB - Ante $400
CMB8757 - Posts small blind $2000
IMPROVED - Posts big blind $4000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Qc Qh]
BZIMZIM - Raises $10100 to $10100
DZ00NUTS - Calls $10100
SPUNKMONKEYB - Folds
MRQUIETSTRM - Folds
WAWA711 - Folds
CMB8757 - Folds
IMPROVED - Folds
*** FLOP *** [Qd 8d 8s]
BZIMZIM - Bets $16000
DZ00NUTS - Calls $16000
*** TURN *** [Qd 8d 8s] [4s]
BZIMZIM - Checks
DZ00NUTS - Bets $8000
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $53646 to $53646
DZ00NUTS - Calls $45646
*** RIVER *** [Qd 8d 8s 4s] [4c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Shows [Qc Qh] (Full house, queens full of eights)
DZ00NUTS - Shows [Qs 8c] (Full house, eights full of queens)
BZIMZIM Collects $168292 from main pot

DZ is a AP tourney regular, but he was doing this a lot where he was calling preflop with a lot of marginal hands in this tourney, flatting from the button from 76o and the like. I remember him calling a little more playing against him before, but nothing like this. I'm not sure what he was doing frankly. And then of course the flop was absolutely filthy. But these are the moments you need in tournaments to win them.

Stage #1349656817 Tourney ID 2111543 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $4000 - 2008-12-09 01:25:40 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 1 - MRQUIETSTRM ($65030.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - WAWA711 ($287262 in chips)
Seat 4 - CMB8757 ($241535.25 in chips)
Seat 6 - BZIMZIM ($261322 in chips)
Seat 7 - DZ00NUTS ($109850.25 in chips)
MRQUIETSTRM - Ante $400
WAWA711 - Ante $400
CMB8757 - Ante $400
BZIMZIM - Ante $400
DZ00NUTS - Ante $400
CMB8757 - Posts small blind $2000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $4000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [As 8h]
DZ00NUTS - Folds
MRQUIETSTRM - Folds
WAWA711 - Raises $12000 to $12000
CMB8757 - Folds
BZIMZIM - Calls $8000
*** FLOP *** [2c 6c 4h]
BZIMZIM - Checks
WAWA711 - Bets $16000
BZIMZIM - Calls $16000
*** TURN *** [2c 6c 4h] [Ad]
BZIMZIM - Checks
WAWA711 - Bets $36000
BZIMZIM - Calls $36000
*** RIVER *** [2c 6c 4h Ad] [Kh]
BZIMZIM - Checks
WAWA711 - Bets $52000
BZIMZIM - Calls $52000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
WAWA711 - Shows [Qd 5d] (ace high)
BZIMZIM - Shows [As 8h] (One pair, aces)
BZIMZIM Collects $236000 from main pot

Speaking of the moments you need in tournaments, you have to have the one hand where the other guy calls you a donkey. Haha. Wawa had been raising a lot from the button, so I feel like I'm ahead of his range, so decide to flat here, which I like to do some with a variety of hands (suited connectors, medium strength hands like this one, monsters) once we get shorthanded. The call on the flop was what I took crap for. I felt like there was a good chance I was good, given how I perceived his range preflop, but didn't want to unleash a c/r, cause what am I representing on that board? So I call, wanting to see what he'll do on the air, and willing to c/r with air if I feel like I can take it away. Instead the A pops off the turn. Now I feel like I'm good, obviously, easy check and call for value, plus I want to control the pot in case I have run into a better ace. The river may be a value bet, bet there's certainly no folding as soft as I've played the hand. Ship.

Stage #1349675522 Tourney ID 2111543 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $5000 - 2008-12-09 01:44:16 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 3 - WAWA711 ($107331.50 in chips)
Seat 4 - CMB8757 ($361396.25 in chips)
Seat 6 - BZIMZIM ($496272.25 in chips)
WAWA711 - Ante $500
CMB8757 - Ante $500
BZIMZIM - Ante $500
WAWA711 - Posts small blind $2500
CMB8757 - Posts big blind $5000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Qc Kd]
BZIMZIM - Raises $12600 to $12600
WAWA711 - Folds
CMB8757 - Raises $37200 to $42200
BZIMZIM - Calls $29600
*** FLOP *** [Jh 8s 6h]
CMB8757 - Bets $55000
BZIMZIM - Raises $135000 to $135000
CMB8757 - Folds
BZIMZIM - returned ($80000) : not called
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Does not show
BZIMZIM Collects $198400 from main pot

I've been raising from the button wide. I expect to get 3 bet decently wide. I find a hand I can call with here with KQ and take a flop in position. I raise here with air, er, two overs, and obviously I've gotten myself in big trouble if he shoved. But he knows I'm priced in with a draw and can't make me fold. Basically if he reshoves, the only thing I can think about folding is total air. So in a sort of reverse thinking, that actually makes him more likely to fold I think. And to shove here, he really needs an overpair a J, or maybe second pair or a mid pp if he just doesn't believe me at all and puts me on a draw. Basically I think he has to fold a lot of his wide three bet range here. And I just didn't read strength. And there's a good difference between second and third and he's still got a good deal of chips on the short stack if he folds. So overall it's a good play. I think. That was my reasoning behind the move anyway. Worked that time.

From there mostly cruised to first place. Needed that to get going after I didn't play much the first week of the month. I didn't even have anything going on except I was sick. I remember playing on the first Monday of the month and at one point thinking, wow, I'm playing terrible. So it was a light week. I played big days Monday and Tuesday this week, and I'll get in a full night session tonight. Second half of the month will be much busier, so trying to get hours in now. For the moment up 5500 for the month. Let's see if I can get it going tonight.

I'm on the Northwestern football mailing list, because I bought tickets to the Ohio State game through them once. They're going to the Valero Alamo Bowl to play Missouri, and the email I got says the Alamo Bowl: "For all the glory." I can promise Northwestern that there's no glory in the Alamo Bowl. Also they're probably going to lose.

An ESPN columnist wrote another "this is a big bowl season for the Big 10" column. It's true to a degree, because every bowl season becomes a measuring stick of the conferences. But why just us? It isn't a big bowl season for the horrid Pac-10, awful Big East or the consistently medicore at best ACC? Why don't those conferences have to prove anything? For that matter, if Ole Miss is the third best team in the SEC, they weren't really that great either. Whatever. Meanwhile, the top two teams in the Big Ten play the two best teams in the country that aren't in the title game. Yeah I'm not optimistic.

Time to go to work.

November Wrap

Not bad at all for a light volume month.

Month: +$5438

Year: $74,832

Now just have to close the year out strong, and I feel like I've succeeded for the year. Look Ma, I can make it as a poker player and all that. I was still somewhat disappointed in the showings I had at final tables this month, I was one breakthrough away from having a significantly better month. I still feel like I'm due for a big cash here at some point.

I was playing the Cake 30r, as I often do, and RespectMGame, who's a tourney regular there, said hi and actually knew my name. I can't remember if I told him (that I can recall) or if he got it from some other source. Or if I know him from another site. Hmm. Interesting.

It appears I was jumping the gun a little bit on the death of some of those AP tourneys. The nooner 20r returned after only one day, apparently by popular demand. The $109 at 10:30 is gone though, I always ran well in that tournament. Also gone are the $55s that I couldn't turn down just because they were free money cause the play was so horrific.

Obama just introducted Hilary as Secretary of State. It looks like reaching out, when in reality he now totally controls her destiny. It's brilliant. He's proven his politically savvy; now I just hope he has the will to pursue a liberal agenda aggressively.

Ohio State basketball starts for real this week with Miami (FL) and Notre Dame. Football team should get a BCS bid. Lakers are rolling. The Bengals are an embarassment to the sport of football.

Back to Chicago today, sometime, hopefully when it stops snowing.

The Death of AP

Four years ago I put 30 bucks on a little site called Absolute Poker. Somehow that took me down a path to where I now play poker for a living. AP died today, and will be missed.

Of course that's not really quite right, it's combining with Ultimate Bet to form Cereus. Annoying note number 1: instead of just combining our accounts, we have to pick a new sn for our UB account. I picked bzimzimm. I'm clever. But then, since I only had about 2 grand in there anyway, I promptly withdrew all the money from it save about two dollars, and I'll just use my AP account as my Cereus account. I just don't think I could part with the Ohio State logo I've had up for about three years, and the random hecklers it brings out.

One way AP does seem to be dying is that Cereus seems to be adopting what is primarily the UB tournament schedule. Today I woke up and there was no 20r at noon (11 ct). It was kind of sad. This was the defining hand from the last AP 20r ever:

Stage #1328615593 Tourney ID 2112826 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 - 2008-11-24 14:30:35 (ET)
Table: 15 (Real Money) Seat #7 is the dealer
Seat 1 - TCB21 ($11785 in chips)
Seat 2 - MIKECHR23 ($16155 in chips)
Seat 3 - EMPHORROR ($18673.50 in chips)
Seat 4 - CARWA78 ($8515 in chips)
Seat 5 - JP106623 ($17275 in chips)
Seat 6 - SHUNYOK ($45697.50 in chips)
Seat 7 - DOUBLET8 ($45585 in chips)
Seat 8 - BZIMZIM ($11565 in chips)
Seat 9 - BILLCARD15 ($9947.50 in chips)
TCB21 - Ante $100
MIKECHR23 - Ante $100
EMPHORROR - Ante $100
CARWA78 - Ante $100
JP106623 - Ante $100
SHUNYOK - Ante $100
DOUBLET8 - Ante $100
BZIMZIM - Ante $100
BILLCARD15 - Ante $100
BZIMZIM - Posts small blind $500
BILLCARD15 - Posts big blind $1000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ac Qh]
TCB21 - Folds
MIKECHR23 - Folds
EMPHORROR - Folds
CARWA78 - All-In(Raise) $8415 to $8415
JP106623 - Folds
SHUNYOK - Folds
DOUBLET8 - Folds
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $10965 to $11465
BILLCARD15 - Folds
BZIMZIM - returned ($3050) : not called
*** FLOP *** [8s 2d 9s]
*** TURN *** [8s 2d 9s] [Js]
*** RIVER *** [8s 2d 9s Js] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CARWA78 - Shows [Ad 8d] (One pair, eights)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ac Qh] (ace high)
CARWA78 Collects $18730 from main pot

So it goes.

Otherwise having an ok month, I've been playing a lot when I have time so it hasn't been quite as low a volume as I feared I might be. I was CL at FT of Stars 20 1r1a yesterday and finished sixth. I continue to run bad (play bad?) at final tables. Played a big pot with AQs on A64 flop with flush draw as well, other guy had set. Still wondering if I should have slowed down a bet, we were sort of deep, and I felt like I was up against a set. Meh, I don't know. Here's a good read I made to get the CL in the first place.

PokerStars Game #22335974289: Tournament #122500787, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIX (3000/6000) - 2008/11/24 19:19:11 ET
Table '122500787 38' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: DibicDave (173256 in chips)
Seat 2: achillezzzzz (143861 in chips)
Seat 4: JJ_69UK (329612 in chips)
Seat 5: Ice B (301513 in chips)
Seat 6: Snabel_Tann (67486 in chips)
Seat 7: GrandPrixGT (85025 in chips)
Seat 8: bzimzim (507924 in chips)
Seat 9: larryc123 (119928 in chips)
DibicDave: posts the ante 600
achillezzzzz: posts the ante 600
JJ_69UK: posts the ante 600
Ice B: posts the ante 600
Snabel_Tann: posts the ante 600
GrandPrixGT: posts the ante 600
bzimzim: posts the ante 600
larryc123: posts the ante 600
Ice B: posts small blind 3000
Snabel_Tann: posts big blind 6000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bzimzim [As Ts]
GrandPrixGT: folds
bzimzim: raises 9100 to 15100
larryc123: folds
DibicDave: folds
achillezzzzz: folds
JJ_69UK: calls 15100
Ice B: folds
Snabel_Tann: folds
*** FLOP *** [Jd Qh Ad]
bzimzim: bets 24000
JJ_69UK: calls 24000
*** TURN *** [Jd Qh Ad] [6h]
bzimzim: checks
JJ_69UK: checks
*** RIVER *** [Jd Qh Ad 6h] [4h]
bzimzim: bets 36000
JJ_69UK: raises 253912 to 289912 and is all-in
bzimzim: calls 253912
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JJ_69UK: shows [Jh Ks] (a pair of Jacks)
bzimzim: shows [As Ts] (a pair of Aces)
bzimzim collected 671824 from pot

I'd be playing with that guy for awhile, had a read on him pretty good and thought the odds he was making a move were very high. Just couldn't put him on a hand unless he backdoored that flush.

I've been running good just donking around four tabling 1/2 NL cash, been an easy way to make a couple quick hundred. Think I may start throwing in an hour or two of cash before I start playing tournaments for the day, both for some easy money and to improve cash game skills.

So I set up an account on Doyle's Room but apparently they won't let me access it because I'm in Illinois. I don't know if Illinois has some specific law that makes them more cautious, but I haven't heard anything about it or had any problems on any other sites. That's an interesting red flag with the regulations coming out for the anti-online gaming law, I don't know if those two are related.

42-7 is a beautiful score. My God Michigan is a horrible football team though. Just awful.

Another work day today before I head to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving via Lansing. RIP AP rebuys.

I Run Like a God on AP

FT of both 30r and 8k last night. The 8k only had 66 people, so a little overlay, which is nice. Unfortunately that tourney keeps shrinking field-wise. I worry that AP will keep making the guarantee smaller or just do away with it altogether at some point. There used to be a $109 4.5K on AP 1 ct, the field was so small it almost wasn't worth playing, since it was mostly AP regulars without your usual AP mix of total donkeys.

Ended up heads up with foolishgolf in 8k, had 2:1 CL, aipf two hands in a row, 77>99 and TT>AK. Ah well, foolish is a nice guy. Also I'm a lot less annoyed if I got two outed then when I play badly, as I did at a couple FTs earlier this month.

Ran like crap everywhere else yesterday, couldn't win a flip on any other site to save my life.

Up 2100 for the month, now I have to try to find time to play for the rest of the month.

Very Annoying Bubbles/Some Terrible Play

So this is an entry I was going to write before I went to Middletown, but never got to it. Before I left, I was in the Stars Super Tuesday, right before the bubble when this happened:


PokerStars Game #21206295502: Tournament #113525268, $1000+$50 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (500/1000) - 2008/10/14 23:55:40 ET
Table '113525268 6' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: gregior (9783 in chips)
Seat 2: BabyGrand (13111 in chips)
Seat 3: g0lfa (77699 in chips)
Seat 5: HopeUfold (7675 in chips)
Seat 6: poker_lord76 (18432 in chips)
Seat 7: ael1979 (7444 in chips)
Seat 8: bzimzim (36961 in chips)
gregior: posts the ante 100
BabyGrand: posts the ante 100
g0lfa: posts the ante 100
HopeUfold: posts the ante 100
poker_lord76: posts the ante 100
ael1979: posts the ante 100
bzimzim: posts the ante 100
ael1979: posts small blind 500
bzimzim: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bzimzim [Ac Ks]
gregior: folds
BabyGrand: folds
g0lfa: raises 1355 to 2355
HopeUfold: folds
poker_lord76: folds
ael1979: folds
bzimzim: raises 5255 to 7610
g0lfa: raises 69989 to 77599 and is all-in
bzimzim: calls 29251 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (40738) returned to g0lfa
*** FLOP *** [6c Js 7h]
*** TURN *** [6c Js 7h] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [6c Js 7h 3h] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bzimzim: shows [Ac Ks] (high card Ace)
g0lfa: shows [Qs Qc] (a pair of Queens)
g0lfa collected 74922 from pot

And out for 46th and the bubble.

Obviously, this is extremely annoying on several levels. First, I'd qualified in, so the $1200 for 45th meant something to me, as opposed to normally where I don't care at all if I bubble out playing to win. I had a top ten stack at the time of this pot, so it was unexpected for sure. Would have had a top three stack if I'd won the flip though. With 70K for first, that woulda been a good flip to win.

The hand itself was interesting, because the chip leader opened, and I expected to be able to take it away fairly easily with the 3 bet. Instead he just shoved. Well that caught me be surprise. But I wondered if it was because he thought I was 3 betting weak because he'd been opening so much. In the end he showed down a real hand, nh, gg.

I can't seem to find the HH, but I flipped for another top 3 stack with AK in the UB 80k the next day, K on flop, T on river against TT. Out in 42nd and another bubble (well practically). That was just annoying. Only 20k for first in that one, but still, I win too many flips in small tourneys. I'd trade them for a few in a row in a big tourney. Been awhile for me and a big score.

Since being back from the Obama victory, I've been at a couple final tables and played horrifically. Played terrible at AP 30r a few nights ago, 4 betting 8s into QQ pre. Then I was big CL three handed in Cake 25r the other day, and managed to finish third, with some plays I'm too embarassed to even type. Not exactly taking advantange of my opportunities this month. Pretty annoyed at myself.

Back to work tonight.

October Wrap

This month pretty much redefined a "low volume" month, compared to all the other months that were low volume months. I didn't play at all after October 16. For that matter I've only played one day so far this month. That'll change today. But at least for October, I wasn't being lazy, I was helping to save my country. So that's a pretty good reason.

Month: +$2239

Year: +$69,394

Trying to crank it up the rest of this month, but I'll be out of town this weekend to Champaign, then probably to Columbus the week after for the last two Ohio State games. No excuse not to finish 10-2, with a BCS bowl being extremely likely if that happens. Also go Sparty. Anyway, then I'll be travelling to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving, so I'm going to have to take it while I can get it on poker this month. Maybe I'll just ship the Super Tuesday or something and call it a month. But barring a big score (which is always possible), it looks like the 100 grand goal I once proclaimed is looking more like a long shot. Ah well. I do need to spend more effort on improving my game though.

Work day today and tomorrow. MSNBC is on in the background, and told me that when Bush and Obama meet today, there will be some "joshing around". I remember why I don't watch news networks now.

Back

And I'm back! Went to Middletown, Ohio for two weeks to help out before election day. So it's been awhile since I've played poker. Night session tonight. How about that.

Also I'm about four entries behind, which I'll make up in the next couple of days. One about the week before I left, Oct Wrap, Middletown, and goals for the rest of the year.

Just Because You're A Professional Poker Player, Doesn't Mean You Can Beat 1/2 NL

Seriously. Apparently it doesn't.

So I went to the Horseshoe Casino, intending to play poker for ten-twelve hours and donk around at 1/2 NL. By the way, the Horseshoe itself is actually really nice. The poker room is much nicer than at Majestic Star or Ameristar. Anyway, so early on, wasn't hitting flops, then finally picked up 8s with only like 100 behind at that point. Raise, got like 5 callers. Gotta love cash games. Flop was 664, 2 hearts, bet like 25, everyone except bb folds. BB was a very good player. I put him on a draw, shoved, he beat me into the pot, oops. Reload time one. The shove was probably pretty bad.

Reload time two, pick up JJ in bb, bunch of limpers, button raises to 5 (whatever), I repop to 20, everyone else mucks, button calls. Flop is QQ3. I bet 30, button calls. Turn is a brick. I check, button immediately fires 100. Then he immediately starts staring at me intently in that "I'm looking strong but really want you to fold" kind of way. I put him on a mid pair and shove, he beats me into the pot. That needs to stop happening. He shows QJ and I'm drawing stone dead to the river. Jeesh. Also apparently I need to work on reading people.

So some of that was understandable and some of that was bad play. But I really wasn't too phased at this point. I was planning on being here for awhile, and the players around me weren't very good (or were typical for 1/2 NL). But what happened after that (you know, to lose the next 500) was one of the those "the poker gods are conspiring against you" days. I flopped top pair twice all day, and didn't win either pot. I had KK, QQ, JJ, and didn't win any of those pots. I was gambling some on preflop calls because there were a lot of decent pots built pre and just never hit anything. And then the final curse disguised as a gift was the psycho guy at my table who sat down. He raised to 20 dollars 90% of hands. The other 5-10% he raised bigger, $30, $50. He was just out of his mind. So I started calling with decent hands, because he'll inevitably stack off if I could hit a flop. But I couldn't. And I couldn't bluff, because he was never folding and therefore unbluffable. I kept making sure I had $200 behind for when I did hit. But I never did. Finally I picked up KK. I limped, with the intent to let psycho make a big raise. Except someone else raised to $12, and psycho just flatted. I put in $40 more, and psycho folded, the only time he ever folded pre.

The next hand I picked up AJ, and was just like screw it, I'm doing the same play, I'm guaranteed to be ahead of him. So I limped, he raised to 30, I put it another 100, which was pretty much what he had left. He called. The board came J75, 8, 6. And I thought, oh God. AJ, I called out. He showed down...J4o for a straight.

So at that point I only had 80 left, decided I was done reloading, I'd double it or go home. Bunch of limpers, button raises, I pick up AQ. He had KK. NH sir. I burned through $900 in four hours.

Anyway, I'm going back to the Horseshoe soon to change the karma of that place.

I am 27 today. Also 99 days until Bush leaves office. Party all around.

I'll be back to work for a full day tomorrow.

Pwning FT Nooner Like It's The AP 30r

A funny thing has been happening lately. I've been winning on Full Tilt! I don't know if this is evidence of the apocalypse, or just that God likes me a little more than I thought he did. Been playing day sessions all week (until today anyway), so I've been playing the FT $109 that starts at 11 central, and I've finished third and second for a very solid week. Throw in a third in the Stars $22 1r1a, and I'm on about six grand heater over the past three days. Can't complain about that.

The one thing I can complain about is my play at the end of the Stars tournament. When it got to be three handed, I was catching absolutely nothing in the way of cards. Picked up 5s in the sb, raised, donkish bb called. Flop came T97, all hearts, I have 5h. I bet about 3/5 pot, bb calls. Turn is a 9. I have basically one pot sized bet left. Put it in here, or c/f? The call on the turn didn't tell me much, could be pair or draw, and the guys a donkey anyway. I decide to shove, and get looked up by K7 with Kh. So I'm dead to two outs, and then gone. Shoving bad here? That hand got me muttering to myself, but I think I've convinced myself my play was actually ok (or at least not awful) given the wide range he was calling with on the flop. Frankly, I'd expect him to raise that flop, and then I would have been gone. Oh well, whatever. I'm done thinking about that hand.

The FT $109 I finished third in was unfortunate, was CL in the tournament and couldn't fade a straight draw with no overs against second chip leader three handed. Then next hand got it in JJ against TT against same player, T on the flop. Had a won either of those pots no doubt I win that tournament for an extra 2.5K or so. On the other hand, I kind of ran like a God in that tournament while behind, so I can't really complain. The poker gods giveth, and taketh away.

So it's the 9th now, and I'm up 5300 or so. Very solid start to the month. Can't complain about that.

JohnnyBax was playing on Cake the other day in an afternoon 25R I was in. Or at the very least someone using his screen name. But I'm assuming it was him. He had like 50K in chips. Does this mean real players are going to start playing on Cake? That would be terrible! Leave my donkeys alone! I found 'em first! Plus some of the AP regulars seem to be making their way over there too. I guess you can't have that big a fishbowl without people finding out.

Terrelle Pryor is the truth.

Casino Day! Gonna go hit the new Horseshoe over in Indiana. I still haven't been there since it opened, which is completely unacceptable. So today is the day. I will, as usual while playing cash games, probably just donk around at 1/2 NL, be social and have a good time. Also I live a pretty good life.

After that it'll probably be a light weekend for playing. My birthday is Monday, so I'm having a get together on Saturday of, well, whoever exactly it is that shows up. Cooper's at 9, at Belmont and Racine, if you're interested coming, random blog reader. Whoever it is exactly that reads this thing (hi Mom?).

But yeah, may play Sunday, may not, depends on my mood. Once I clear my birthday I'll be back in full working mode.

September Wrap

Back on track.

Month: +$7730

Year: $67,155

Didn't play really at all in the last week. Once again I'm content to coast when I get ahead for the month. That's a terrible long term thing to be doing, and I need to stop.

I'll try and get it back ramped up this week, but going to Madison this weekend so that might make it difficult. Need to get some day sessions going in order to get enough hours in.

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right

Can't get that Dylan song out of my head.

Figured I'd write an update since I hadn't written in a bit. Though really there's not much to update. Won a small $55 tourney on AP (clearly running like a God on AP right now). Otherwise have spent the rest of the month giving some back. Haven't been playing all that much though relatively. Been too consumed by pennant race and such. I think I'm down to up 7800 or so for the month at this point.

Three days to go in the Mets season. Or at least regular season. Maybe. Or the whole series might get rained out. Gonna be an interesting weekend.

Ship AP 30r Redux (Almost)

Wow two in a row! That doesn't happen very often. Got to three handed, here was the key pot against DZ00NUTS:

Stage #1278132961 Tourney ID 2070670 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $20000 - 2008-09-17 02:45:51 (ET)
Table: 19 (Real Money) Seat #8 is the dealer
Seat 6 - DZ00NUTS ($294100.79 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($426193.86 in chips)
Seat 8 - CHANCECHACE ($150205.35 in chips)
DZ00NUTS - Ante $2000
BZIMZIM - Ante $2000
CHANCECHACE - Ante $2000
DZ00NUTS - Posts small blind $10000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $20000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
ealt to BZIMZIM [Jd Jh]
CHANCECHACE - Folds
DZ00NUTS - Raises $50000 to $60000
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $404193.86 to $424193.86
DZ00NUTS - All-In $232100.79
BZIMZIM - returned ($132093.07) : not called
*** FLOP *** [Qd Ad 9c]***
TURN *** [Qd Ad 9c] [10c]
*** RIVER *** [Qd Ad 9c 10c] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DZ00NUTS - Shows [Ac 7c] (Flush, ace high)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Jd Jh] (One pair, jacks)
DZ00NUTS Collects $590201.58 from main pot

Er, wait. Never mind.

But did hang on to finish second. And it's hard to complain about how I've been running, haha. I've pretty much taken over the AP 30r. I've played it four times in the last week, and I've finished first, second, and fourth. I love the AP 30r. Also thanks to the AP 30r, on like a 7k heater over the last two days. It's a relief to be in such a good position midway through the month. Currently up 9200. Also, my 100k yearly goal, which went in the tank with the last two months, might be back in the realm of possibility if I can get some more done this month. But hell, I play multis for a living anyway. I could theoretically make nothing for two months and make thirty grand in a day (hey I made 25). So who knows.

Also qualified for Super Tuesday on Stars yesterday, but three outed for most of my stack. Ah well.

Odds are I'm taking today off, watching some Champions League, playing some soccer tonight. Probably wander around outside some, it's gorgeous out. Gonna be a good day.

Ship AP 30r

Hey, that's better! I like that title for an entry. Just when I get annoyed at 2 outers, etc, there comes that tournament where I run like a God, and then I love poker again. I was actually down to 2000 chips at 500/1000. Shove KTo, up to 7200. Then three hands in a row:

Stage #1277352078 Tourney ID 2070669 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 - 2008-09-16 00:31:58 (ET)
Table: 10 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 1 - Z06FANATIC ($11653.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - TRACKER2TR ($34967.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - GETINITIN ($12303 in chips)
Seat 4 - YACHRED ($8071 in chips)
Seat 5 - BZIMZIM ($8019.50 in chips)
Seat 6 - ACESJAMMI111 ($15457 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCECMC ($4368.50 in chips)
Seat 8 - ZOOTEDJAY ($10005 in chips)
Z06FANATIC - Ante $100
TRACKER2TR - Ante $100
GETINITIN - Ante $100
YACHRED - Ante $100
BZIMZIM - Ante $100
ACESJAMMI111 - Ante $100
BRUCECMC - Ante $100
ZOOTEDJAY - Ante $100
BZIMZIM - Posts small blind $500
ACESJAMMI111 - Posts big blind $1000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Qd Qs]
BRUCECMC - Folds
ZOOTEDJAY - Folds
Z06FANATIC - Folds
TRACKER2TR - Folds
GETINITIN - Folds
YACHRED - All-In(Raise) $7971 to $7971
BZIMZIM - All-In $7419.50
ACESJAMMI111 - Folds
YACHRED - returned ($51.50) : not called
*** FLOP *** [10c Js 10h]
*** TURN *** [10c Js 10h] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [10c Js 10h 2s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
YACHRED - Shows [Jd 7d] (Two Pair, jacks and tens)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Qd Qs] (Two Pair, queens and tens)
BZIMZIM Collects $17639 from main pot

Stage #1277352771 Tourney ID 2070669 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 - 2008-09-16 00:32:58 (ET)
Table: 10 (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 1 - Z06FANATIC ($11553.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - TRACKER2TR ($34867.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - GETINITIN ($12203 in chips)
Seat 4 - YACHRED ($51.50 in chips)
Seat 5 - BZIMZIM ($17639 in chips)
Seat 6 - ACESJAMMI111 ($14357 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCECMC ($4268.50 in chips)
Seat 8 - ZOOTEDJAY ($9905 in chips)
Z06FANATIC - Ante $100
TRACKER2TR - Ante $100
GETINITIN - Ante $100
YACHRED - Ante $51.50
BZIMZIM - Ante $100
ACESJAMMI111 - Ante $100
BRUCECMC - Ante $100
ZOOTEDJAY - Ante $100
ACESJAMMI111 - Posts small blind $500
BRUCECMC - Posts big blind $1000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Jd Qs]
ZOOTEDJAY - Folds
Z06FANATIC - Folds
TRACKER2TR - Folds
GETINITIN - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $10000 to $10000
ACESJAMMI111 - All-In(Raise) $13757 to $14257
BRUCECMC - Folds
BZIMZIM - Calls $4257
*** FLOP *** [Jh 10c Js]
*** TURN *** [Jh 10c Js] [3d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 10c Js 3d] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
YACHRED - Shows [7c 9d] (Two Pair, jacks and nines)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Jd Qs] (Three of a kind, jacks)
ACESJAMMI111 - Shows [Ad Ah] (Two Pair, aces and jacks)
BZIMZIM Collects $29853.50 from side pot-1
BZIMZIM Collects $412 from main pot

Stage #1277353300 Tourney ID 2070669 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1200 - 2008-09-16 00:33:44 (ET)
Table: 10 (Real Money) Seat #5 is the dealer
Seat 1 - Z06FANATIC ($11453.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - TRACKER2TR ($34767.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - GETINITIN ($12103 in chips)
Seat 5 - BZIMZIM ($33547.50 in chips)
Seat 7 - BRUCECMC ($3168.50 in chips)
Seat 8 - ZOOTEDJAY ($9805 in chips)
Z06FANATIC - Ante $125
TRACKER2TR - Ante $125
GETINITIN - Ante $125
BZIMZIM - Ante $125
BRUCECMC - Ante $125
ZOOTEDJAY - Ante $125
BRUCECMC - Posts small blind $600
ZOOTEDJAY - Posts big blind $1200
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [3s Ah]
Z06FANATIC - Folds
TRACKER2TR - Folds
GETINITIN - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $10800 to $10800
BRUCECMC - Folds
ZOOTEDJAY - All-In $8480
BZIMZIM - returned ($1120) : not called
*** FLOP *** [9h Jc 5h]
*** TURN *** [9h Jc 5h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [9h Jc 5h 2h] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Shows [3s Ah] (One pair, fives)
ZOOTEDJAY - Shows [Kd Qs] (One pair, fives)
BZIMZIM Collects $20710 from main pot

Two hands later, won a 28k pot against Z06 after three outing him, AQ v. AK aipf (sorry Z). Clearly I run like a god. From here I went into aggro mode, and stole a lot of blinds and antes without getting in too much trouble. Got down to 6 handed and it was me, norcalsurf and 4 of the worst players I've ever seen. Norcal got three outed out of the tourney. I caught a three outer all in to double up. And that was pretty much the tournament. Once I became chip leader I just raised like crazy, and for the most part no one else wanted to play. I've never seen an entire table go into playing for second place money mode so early. It was kind of embarassing. By the time it was four handed I raised essentially every unopened pot. And had a damn lot of fun doing it. By the time it got HU I had like a 9:1 CL, and it was over in one hand. Good times.

So now up 6500 midway through the month. Hey this month doesn't suck. It is excellent not to be digging out of massive hole this month. Now I'll see if I can really get it going and post a big number.

Buckeye Therapy Session

Three things that need to change before we can get back to being an elite program:

1. Talent

I think this game clarified the talent difference between us and USC. USC is more talented than us at virtually every position. Of course USC is the most talented team in the country as well. But if we want to win championships, national championships and not Big Ten ones, the talent level has to improve. Nowhere is this more obvious than on the offensive and defensive lines. One scout referred to our O line after the game as having "four Ohio projects." Only Boone was a highly rated recruit. Well obviously that's not getting it done. Our offensive line came out OK, but in the second half they may as well have not even been there. It's not like this is new. The questions about our offensive line have been building and building. Right now, they just aren't very talented. That's solved through recruiting, and to be fair, with bringing in the national recruits last year, the makeover of the offensive line is underway. It also means if there's a player like Marcus Hall in Ohio, a national O line recruit in our own backyard (not just that, he goes to fucking Glenville, our main feeder school where Ginn is the coach!), we absolutely can't afford to miss on a player like that. Long considered an OSU lock, everyone feels less confident recently. USC still hasn't offered, and I pray to God they don't. But there's just no short term answer there on the O line. Not talented enough.

The same could probably be said about our WRs right now, though we didn't provide enough protection to really find out. Hartline actually said he thought he and Robiskie were running open after the game, so maybe that wasn't the problem. USC blitzed a lot (read: basically anytime Boeckman was in), so it's not surprising there was space out there. Still, the criticism of them is that they aren't game breakers, which I think is correct. The wide receiver who looked like he belonged out there was Ray Small, who was recruited by USC and was a national recruit. He's long been an enigma, but no one doubts his talent. He actually played well too. That's something I can add to my good list. But again, more game breakers needed. True freshman DeVier Posey is going to be a star, and I think he'll play more and more as the season goes on. I love Dane as the possession WR. I'm less concerned about the future of the WR position, we've got guys with the ability, especially if Small is finally going to get his shit together.

The RBs were OK. I thought Boom ran hard for what the O line gave him. That said, it's obvious there's only one star player on this offense right now. And he didn't play. Would he have made the difference between winning and losing? Of course not. But the effect on this offense when he's not out there is hard to miss. And Beanie will be gone next year. We'll be awful young at RB next year, with Boom probably starting, Saine hasn't figured it out. He's a track champion, but he plays tenative and slow. National recruit Jamaal Berry is coming in from Florida, and given the lack of depth he'll probably get touches right away.

I'm not going to pile on Boeckman, everyone's favorite punching bag. He is what he is. Frankly, I kinda feel bad for him. He has one million people in Columbus saying Todd Boeckman sucks. I think if he could stand back there in the pocket and take a nap like Sanchez, he'd be pretty good too. There aren't a million people in Columbus saying Bryant Browning sucks or Ben Person sucks, even though frankly that's the bigger problem. That said, obviously he hasn't progressed like we're hoping. He's just not very good, and he's clearly lost his confidence. This is another position where obviously I'm not worried about the future of the talent level. Pryor is going to play more and more throughout this year. I love Pryor so much already. He has the ability to be a legend. I don't use that word lightly. Legends don't need last names. Archie is a legend. Eddie is a legend. Florida not withstanding, Troy is a legend. People will forget (or at least forgive) about the one game. Hell, Eddie's teams played in the Citrus Bowl every year, but he couldn't be more beloved.

The defensive line: not even close to good enough. Our defensive tackles, on the national scale, just aren't very good. On our 2002 championship team, that was the unit that won us the game. More talent, better recruiting needed. That's hard position to recruit, especially because Ohio produces so few quality DTs. That's a position we need to go national on. Sometimes there were holes in our line that we may as well have been Virginia, or like that USC-Nebraska game a couple years ago. It obviously wasn't like that on every play, but there were plays where it did look like that. I still think we have talent at DE, but didn't play very well. Waiting for the light to go on to go to the next level for Heyward, Gibson.

The LB performance is obviously tied to the DTs, who were getting absolutely worked. That said, anyone still taking JL over Rey? I wouldn't. And I've been a Cushing doubter, but I was very impressed. On our side, not so much. Our LBs are not great at getting off blockers. Technically precise, good in space, but not mean and/or playing with an edge.

The corners were fine. We'll miss Jenkins when he's gone. Chekwa's a good one. I hope Washington gets his shit together. We need him. I thought the safety play was horrid. Anderson Russell, yikes. I forgot Kurt Coleman was on the field. On the other hand, they controlled the point of attack so much they didn't really need to throw that much. And we didn't get much pressure. It's possible I'm being way too hard on the safeties.

Overall, sort of like the Florida game, the defense wasn't good, but it also was screwed all day. Our offense accounted for -4 points and the USC offense almost always had good field position. It's hard for any defense to function in those circumstances.

2. Coaching

After the Florida game, the Florida players made comments about knowing exactly what was coming. I mostly dismissed it. Then LSU said the same thing. And then Sanchez basically said the same thing yesterday. I was slow to come around, but clearly something is wrong on the coaching front, and the schemes that we're running are way, way too predictable. Our passing game in particular is not inventive and has a total lack of sophistication.

What's particularly frustrating about this is that Tressel doesn't seem to acknowledge that anything is wrong. Is this going to be the plan? Every time we get thumped we just say, well, we have no earthly idea what happened. But gosh, we'll go out and try hard next time. What does it take for something to have to change?

3. Mental Toughness

This is the most discouraging thing of all. What has made Tressel's teams so formidable under his tenure is that they were always so mentally strong. 2002, national title, overtime, 4th and 14, Krenzel throws a strike to Michael Jenkins, first down. In fact, for the entire first six years of Tressel's tenure, those teams were always mentally tough. And then Florida. We scored first, they punched back, we folded. Same against LSU. Same against USC. What happened? Where is the leadership on this team? When did we become the team that folds, that's psychologically fragile? When did we turn into Michigan State?

At this moment this is just not a very mentally strong team. I'm not optimistic about going at Wisconsin right now. What happens when Wisconsin hits back? Cause they will. That's a good football team. I don't think we're done losing games this year. But worse than that is that the program has assumed the identity of everyone that hates us. We really do just fold in big circumstances. That's maybe the hardest thing. How do you change that identity back? Until we do, we are what everyone thinks we are.

2nd Cake 30r; Some (Ineffective) Bluffs

Played full day Monday. Day of frustration ended on a good note with a 2nd place finish in the Cake 30r. Still haven't won that tournament like a swore I would, but I'm sure I will. Otherwise had finished 13th with 12 qualifiers in a satty for the 1K WCOOP event on Sunday, and was annoyed, and took some beats in some big pots the rest of the day. But hey things happen. At least the day ended on a good note. Now up about 2.5K to start the month, so at least I won't spend the entire month feeling like I'm digging out of a giant hole.

Here are three hands that had a big impact on deciding the outcome of the Cake 30r. RespectMGame is a Cake regular that plays fairly TAG (for a multi player anyway, which is a sliding scale). As a result I tried to control the action, as I had done for the rest of the tournament, but got burned a couple times. Here's hand 1, still three handed:

Hand #16182CA330002761: $25,000 GUARANTEED!! - R&A
Seat 3: Resp*** (656465.00 in chips)
Seat 4: bzimzim (416814.00 in chips)
Seat 8: VoxM*** (351221.00 in chips)
RespectMGame posts ante of $1,000
bzimzim posts ante of $1,000
VoxMan posts ante of $1,000
VoxM***: posts small blind $5,000
Resp***: posts big blind $10,000
Dealt to bzimzim [ Kc Jd ]
bzimzim: raises to $26,000
VoxM***: folds
Resp***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 3c 6c 5h ]
Resp***: checks
bzimzim: checks
# # # TURN # # # [ Qc ]
Resp***: bets $20,000
bzimzim: raises to $60,000
Resp***: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ Qs ]
Resp***: checks
bzimzim: bets $70,000
Resp***: calls***
SHOW DOWN ***
bzimzim: shows [ Kc Jd ] (Pair of Queens )
Resp***: shows [ 3h Ad ] (Two Pairs, Queens and Threes )
Resp*** wins $320,000 with Two Pairs, Queens and Threes

I'd been cont. betting a lot, but hard to represent that flop, so happy to take a card off. Pick up the flush draw on the turn and raised, he called. I didn't put him on much. Queens paired on the river, and I bluff in a way that attempts to look like a value bet. He tanks and eventually calls. NC. I still like the way I played it. He had to put a lot of chips in with bottom pair.

Now heads up:

Hand #16182CA330002775: $25,000 GUARANTEED!! - R&A
Seat 3: Resp*** (925065.00 in chips)
Seat 4: bzimzim (499435.00 in chips)
RespectMGame posts ante of $1,200
bzimzim posts ante of $1,200
Resp***: posts small blind $6,000
bzimzim: posts big blind $12,000
Dealt to bzimzim [ Ts Kc ]
Resp***: raises to $29,000
bzimzim: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ Js 4c 3d ]
bzimzim: checks
Resp***: bets $30,200
bzimzim: raises to $85,000
Resp***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 9c ]
bzimzim: bets $120,000
Resp***: raises to $300,000
bzimzim: folds
Resp***: returns uncalled bet $180,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Resp***: mucks
Resp*** wins $470,400

I interpreted his bet as a standard c-bet and c/r with air. He calls. Here I get stubborn and fire again, which I hate in retrospect. If he's calling the c/r, he's probably going with it. Plus he'd try to pick up pots with smallish bets in relation to the pot a lot of the time, I might have been able to see a cheap river. I don't like my play here.

Final hand:

Hand #16182CA330002793: $25,000 GUARANTEED!! - R&A
Seat 3: Resp*** (861730.00 in chips)
Seat 4: bzimzim (562770.00 in chips)
RespectMGame posts ante of $1,200
bzimzim posts ante of $1,200
Resp***: posts small blind $6,000
bzimzim: posts big blind $12,000
Dealt to bzimzim [ Th Kd ]
Resp***: calls
bzimzim: raises to $35,000
Resp***: calls
@@@ F_L_O_P @@@ [ 9h 9d 8d ]
bzimzim: bets $42,000
Resp***: calls
# # # TURN # # # [ 5c ]
bzimzim: checks
Resp***: bets $42,000
bzimzim: raises to $134,000
Resp***: calls
&&& RIVER &&& [ 2h ]
bzimzim: is all in 350570.0000
Resp***: calls
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bzimzim: shows [ Th Kd ] (Pair of Nines )
Resp***: shows [ 8c 6s ] (Two Pairs, Nines and Eights )
Resp*** wins $1,125,540 with Two Pairs, Nines and Eights

Again, I'm not sure I actually mind my play in this spot. I'm representing big here. My c/r on the turn is something I'll also do with a big hand. Again, I put him on a marginal holding, and I actually thought he might have had a draw, in which case my shove wins it for sure. Instead he calls with a weak 8. Another good call. Sometimes the other guy just plays better.

The only thing I wonder about in retrospect is whether I played too aggro against this guy in general. clearly he was willing to call me light, and had the impression I could put chips in without much of a hand. Which I could obviously. But maybe it would have paid to be a little more solid and attempt to get paid. On the other hand, if the key to no limit is to force the other guy to a decision, I did plenty of that. Just didn't work out this time.

3 days until Ohio State-USC.

Full Day Today

Last week was a relatively light week, and nothing much to report from it. More or less even for the month to this point. Going to ramp it up this week, play at least some every day with some full days in there. Today is full day number 1, let's go. Feeling good about my play and ready to pwn some donkeys.

Five days until OSU-USC. Yesterday I was absolutely terrifed. Today I'm a little more excited. But still a lot terrified. I actually feel comforted though that everyone in the country, in the words of Peter King, thinks it'll be over by halftime. The "nobody believes in us" card is cliche, but it's a great motivator.

August Wrap

August: $1894

Year to date: $59,425

Despite posting an even lower number than I did last month (slightly), I feel a lot better about it. Probably because my major emotion about the month could best be described as "relief".

I'm going to be traveling a decent amount in the next month and a half, so I'm really going to have to work to keep my hours up. Which I'm determined to do, since I'm particularly determined to have a good month this month, after two disappoinments in a row.

I do feel like I was playing significantly better by the end of the month. That's the level of play I'm hoping to maintain.

Month Saver

So finished third in Stars $109 $50k for $5600 to save the month. Hey I'm actually in the positive! It's a miracle. Definitely took a couple of breaks to get there, but fought I played well in the tourney. I wonder if I was a touch too aggressive three handed actually, since there was an overwhelming chip leader and the dynamics became slightly SNG-like with another two grand for whoever lasted to finished second, and only an additional three for finding a way to overcome the big chip deficit and finishing first. Shoved K8 into 99. I'd post some hands from it but I have a headache right now and that's making me lazy.

But anyway, I'm just glad the month isn't a disaster anymore. Might just be done for the month. It hasn't been a high volume month, partically because of some traveling, and partially just because I was in such a poker funk there for awhile. I'll be happy to turn the page to September.

16 hours 'til the Buckeye opener. Go Bucks.

Decisions, Not Results

12 tournaments played yesterday, 3 cashes, none of significance=further in the hole. But I have to say, I played a lot better. I felt in rhythm and got my money in while ahead, or in spot where I was destined to be behind. $55 on stars, 1040 in the field, finished 40th when I ran kings into aces. AK into KK in AP 30r. Stuff like that. Ugliest finish of the day was when I got my stack in with a set of 9s on a 9 8 6 board. I bet out, villain shoves and shows...AJ. 7, 10. OK, that one hurt.

But I'm trying to keep a positive mindset. If I continue to play like that I'm going to be profitable. I know I will.

Finding hours to play is going to be a struggle for the rest of the month though, between people visiting and the various times I'm leaving town.

Back To Work

Took my scheduled three days off, back to work today. Sat down in the $75 3 pm on FT (I'm playing on Tilt because I like losing clearly), flopped a set of 7s, shoved the turn on a K 7 5 4 board into...a mp limper with J6s for a straight draw, flush draw. You can guess the rest lol.

Ah it's good to be back, haha. It's early in the day; I'm keeping my sense of humor.

Anyway, should be a full day. Who knows how much I'll be down for the month by the end of today. See there's that dark humor again. I'm hilarious. I've got 30 Rock running in the background to improve my mood.

I finally bought my new TV! I'm getting it tomorrow. 46" Samsung for $1120ish with the discount my friend got me. Pimp. Nothing feels good while losing money like spending money.

Alright, let's see how this goes.

Break Time

“I want to get a job as someone who names kitchen appliances. Toaster, refrigerator, blender.... all you do is say what the shit does, and add 'er'. I wanna work for the Kitchen Appliance Naming Institute. Hey, what does that do? It keeps shit fresh. Well, that's a fresher. I'm goin' on break.”

So yeah, I'm goin' on break. I have six cashes this month. Six cashes. That's almost not even possible, given the number of tournaments I've played, which is...well I refuse to count. But it's more than six. Of course if they were really good cashes it wouldn't matter. But they weren't. I had one fourth for a grand, that's it. I also refuse to calculate how much I'm down for the month. So I'm taking the weekend off. I think I'm going to the beach this afternoon to read a book and be outside.

In news that doesn't make me want to vomit in my mouth a little, Comcast finally has Big Ten Network! 15 days 'til the opener. We'll obviously cruise against Youngstown State, but USC-Virginia, Michigan-Utah, Mich. St.-Cal and Illinois-Mizzou will all be interesting for various reasons. Also I looked at the Big Ten Network schedule, and for the next week they'll be showing Ohio State-Illinois from last year, OSU-Wisky from 2003, and OSU-PSU from 2001. So thanks a lot assholes.

But they are replaying App. St.-Michigan. My DVR is set.

Tilting, Acceptance of Medicority

Clearly I've been neglecting this blog; I haven't posted anything since my wrap that comes at the first of the every month.

Partially this has been due to neglect of my poker game in general, since I went out four nights last week in my attempt to be a mini-alcoholic. Also it's just a lot easier to write this entries when things are going well compared to when things are going poorly. When I can title an entry "Ship *****", writing the entry is a lot more fun.

But it occurs to me that writing entries like this one is part of why I started this thing in the first place: so that I could write through the bad times rather than the good. So here goes.

At the moment I'm down about 2 grand for the month. That's becoming a familiar position. Last month, after shipping the UB 3or, I recovered quite well, and then gave a good deal of it back before the close of the month. That slide has continued into August.

Of course, all of these things are cyclical, and I'm trying to be less concerned with results and more concerned with making good decisions. The problem is that I haven't been particularly good at that lately. I've made some 3 bets lately based on some reads that were absolutely terrible, and if I was listening to the voice in the back of my head when I made them, I sort of knew they were terrible. I've just been pressing and let that get to me.

I've actually felt my game tighten up recently, and think that has worked pretty well when I've implemented that strategy. There was a time where you could just run over tables by being the most aggressive. Now it feels like everyone plays aggressive, though to varying degrees according to the sites. I remember donking around with my friend Randy and watching him play a big field 10r, and he was just playing practically every hand and steamrolling. I remember just sitting there and thinking "Oh my god, I need to be playing much more aggressively." And for awhile I did that, but players adjusted to me, and players adjusted in general. Finding the correct degree of aggressiveness is difficult, but I think my current game is working better when I play a bit more solidly. The other benefit is that if you play tight you can play off that image, giving yourself resteal opportunities that are situation-based rather than card-based that you could never pull off playing like a LAGGY maniac.

My real problem, as I said, is when I've stepped out from that solid play and pressed. I've been pressing a decent amount. It's hardly ever worked. Combine some life tilt with some poker tilt in a wonderfully mutual recipricating relationship (sarcasm on), and it hasn't gone well.

I'm sure I've written about this before, but part of this is just a battle in my mind for how good a poker player I want to be. This isn't a silly question, though obviously on the surface I want to be the "best poker player I can be." But that doesn't really answer the question. Becoming great at something requires sacrifice, and sacrifice isn't really my strength.

I was always very gifted at math. Through elementary school and middle school, I cruised through my math classes with virtually no effort. In high school, my classes took a little more effort, but I was still able to get by, until I reached calculus. I took calculus my junior year, and I didn't get it. I fundamentally didn't understand the concepts being taught, so whenever I had to prove anything, I was totally lost. The real problem wasn't I couldn't "change gears" so to speak and get myself to try a lot harder. I was used to it coming easy, so I just got frustrated and angry. The end result was not good for my grade in calculus.

I almost feel like my poker "life" has taken a similar path. When I first started playing, everything came pretty easy. I deposited $30 and built it up into a bankroll relatively quickly. Not to be arrogant, but I'm fairly bright, so I understood and was fairly good at the mental skills that came with analyzing hands. I also had a good math sense when that was required. And to this point, I've coasted on my natural abilities really. Not that I haven't worked to improve my game. I have. It's just that haven't had to dig in and improve or face total failure. I could succeed without committing to my self absolutely.

But just like at math, I may have reached the limit of how far I can go. I am a naturally good poker player. I am not a naturally great poker player. If I want to take my game to the next level, to play with the truly best players at a consistent level, I'm going to have to work harder. A lot harder. At this moment, I'm not sure if that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I don't have to, to be fair. I've proven I can at least survive on my abilities as they are. But if I'm going to do this for a prolonged period of time, will that be enough? Or will I want to move on and do something else? I truly don't know the answers to those questions.

In other news, the Horseshoe has opened up in Indiana. I'll try and get over there in this week or the next.

July Wrap

Ugh.

July: +$1998

Year to date: $57,531

Worst month of the year. Nothing good to say. Didn't run well, and at times just didn't play well.

It's alright though. I'm feeling a big month in August, I'm well overdue for a deep run in a big tourney.

Struggle/New Forum Ad

Well, gave back a good portion of my month after the UB 30k win. The trend has been to have one big cash per month, and then sort of end up even for the rest of the month. This month I didn't end up even for the rest of the month. This will be my worst month since January, unless something changes tonight, and I'm not even sure if I'll play tonight.

Here's a hand from the Stars 20r:
PokerStars Game #19184898704: Tournament #98176371, $20+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (300/600) - 2008/07/28 - 23:33:44 (ET)
Table '98176371 5' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: ziggy47 (22410 in chips)
Seat 2: up4breakfast (8690 in chips)
Seat 3: Betudontbet (131788 in chips)
Seat 4: pkb6786 (17006 in chips)
Seat 5: USCphildo (14080 in chips)
Seat 6: jlewis10748 (29535 in chips)
Seat 7: bzimzim (44700 in chips)
Seat 8: imthelizard (17085 in chips)
Seat 9: mlagoo (14370 in chips)
ziggy47: posts the ante 50
up4breakfast: posts the ante 50
Betudontbet: posts the ante 50
pkb6786: posts the ante 50
USCphildo: posts the ante 50
jlewis10748: posts the ante 50
bzimzim: posts the ante 50
imthelizard: posts the ante 50
mlagoo: posts the ante 50
ziggy47: posts small blind 300
up4breakfast: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bzimzim [4h 2h]
Betudontbet: folds
pkb6786: folds
mlagoo is disconnected
USCphildo: folds
jlewis10748: folds
bzimzim: raises 1000 to 1600
imthelizard: calls 1600
mlagoo has timed out while disconnected
mlagoo: folds
mlagoo is sitting out
mlagoo is connected
mlagoo has returned
ziggy47: folds
up4breakfast: folds
** FLOP *** [3d 7h Qd]
bzimzim: bets 2500
imthelizard: calls 2500
*** TURN *** [3d 7h Qd] [6d]
bzimzim: bets 5000
mlagoo is disconnected
imthelizard: calls 5000
*** RIVER *** [3d 7h Qd 6d] [7d]
bzimzim: checks
imthelizard: bets 7935 and is all-in
bzimzim: folds
Uncalled bet (7935) returned to imthelizard
imthelizard collected 19550 from pot
mlagoo is connected
imthelizard: shows [Ks Jh] (a pair of Sevens)

Well. It's hard to get pwned much harder than that. I almost fired that last bullet too, but I just couldn't imagine he wasn't calling. I just generally played like shit in that tourney all around, didn't 3 bet when I should, missed what I think should have been a call when CO opened and button shoved and I woke up with 9s, since both were aggro players. And I even failed at my Gus Hansen moment. It was discouraging. Otherwise just a totally unproductive two days, ran AK into 98o in AP 30r with three tables, obv that didn't go well. Apparently I need to get vikes to teach me how to play multis, he's killin' everything right now.

Haven't played much this week. Tonight is probably less than 50/50, going out to dinner with my parents but possible later. Won't play at all probably this weekend, Lollapalooza in town, I'll be there Saturday and Sunday, should be sweet. Monday=back to work, and try to get August going and leave July behind.

Also, though I'm sure many (or perhaps most) of my readers are well aware anyway, the AP Forum is dead, but those of us left have started a new poker forum, currently located at http://thecrew.darkbb.com/index.htm. Come and hang out with Rags (Go Bucks), Deal (Michigan still sucks), Monti, Buchs, Kim, Glo, FJ, Jakz, Vikes and too many other internet legends to mention (my cop out since I know I'm forgetting people but I'm lazy). Always lively poker talk (like, how can we get Ohiocity to stop limping late in multis, and can we bitchslap him if he doesn't?) and lots of OT as well. Fun place. Stop by.

Ship UB 30r, 100k thoughts

Officially got the month turned around after shipping the UB 30r last night. I'd post some hands, except the UB HH is extremely broken up and I seem to have only about half the hands from the tournament. Annoying imo. Still, first for $5400, so certainly no complaints. Got Bertrand13 HU, had about a 2:1 chip lead, but ran AT into AQ, then aipf again 6s v. AQ, boom Q on the river. Excellent card. $2200 card. Then got it in A high against K high and it held. Obv the blinds were pretty high, wasn't a lot of play left at that point. We were five handed for what felt like forever, trading blinds and antes back and forth. Excellent FT to play, all the more so since I won :)

I was glad I won that one, cause wow did I implode on a tourney on stars last night, I was third in chips with about 40 people and finished 37th. Yikes, hehe. Played a big pot where we both had trip 9s in the blinds and I was outkicked, and went a bit into meltdown mode from there. Also finished 15th in AP 30r last night. And someone managed not to cash in Cake 30r. Which is almost impossible, unless you lose a big flip somewhere there. Which I may have. I honestly don't even remember that tournament.

Qualified for the 100k through a $55 qualifier, which was pretty sweet. The tournament itself was not that sweet. Very aggro table as to be expected, and didn't pick up a lot of cards when the blinds got up. Was cruising along fine with about 16k, had resteals with 86o and K5o off playing off what surely looked like a tight image since I had no cards, when I ran 7s into 10s for half my stack, made a shove with like 7 high and donked out against AK, tried to pick a couple more spots to get aggro, none of which worked, then finally shoved 10 2o into AT in the BB. Whoops. So that didn't really work out.

Poker swingaments: thru July 14, -$3600. July 15-present: +$8100. Ah the life of a poker player. Good times. I'm very pleased today, in good shape to still make my 5k this month as per my monthly expectation.

So life is good, Mets are winning again, and poker is no longer terrible. On the other hand, my mechanic is holding me up for ransom. I'm pretty sure I owe him eleventy billion dollars. He may have just made those parts up that needed to be replaced, like the Seinfeld about needing a new Johnson rod. It's just like that, except I'm the one that's paying for it, so it's not actually funny. I suppose I could learn something about cars, and that would solve this problem, but that's not likely to happen. On the list of things I'd like to learn more about cars is way down that list.

Won't play today, not sure how much I'll play this weekend.

Hey, Unstuck!

Thanks to AP 20r win earlier this week, shipping AP $55 afternoon tourney yesterday (plus $150 bounty on Liv, which is what counts for a bounty on AP these days), and fourth in Cake 30r, actually unstuck for the month! In fact, +$1250. I'm a superstar. I'm pretty sure I offended the poker gods when I wrote that I should expect to make 5k a month, and the poker gods said "oh yeah? Take a $5.5k downswing you arrogant prick."

But yeah, I run like a god on donk sites. If I ran that way on Stars or Tilt, I'd be rich. Seriously why do I even play Tilt? Why bother to get it in with top set? Jeesh. My lifetime ROI on Tilt is probably atrocious.

What's really funny is that during my 3 day hot streak, I can think of three hands that I just played terribly, two in the Cake 3or and one in the AP 30r. Apparently the donk sites bring the donk out in me. In the Cake 30r last night I decided to take a read four handed that was just horrible. Decided to bluff a calling station for my whole stack the night before. That went about as well as you expect. I also took a read in the AP 30r the night before and stacked off with top pair bad kicker into a set of jacks. Whoops.

So to some up, I'm running good right now, but I still suck. But still, gonna get to +$5k this month. I've decided. Suck it poker gods.

Won't be playing at all this weekend, two cities, two Mets games, two softball games and one music festival. Gonna be a busy weekend. Back to work Monday.

Best AP 20r Win Ever

I'm not joking. I'm perfectly serious. Big chip leader three handed when the fun started:

Stage #1228206108 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $5000 - 2008-07-15 15:46:47 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($152166 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($123500 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($291834 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $500
JDAWG217 - Ante $500
BZIMZIM - Ante $500
JDAWG217 - Posts small blind $2500
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $5000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [4d Ac]
JAG101555 - Calls $5000
JDAWG217 - Folds
BZIMZIM - Checks
*** FLOP *** [7c Ad 4h]
BZIMZIM - Checks
JAG101555 - Bets $14000
BZIMZIM - Raises $43000 to $43000
JAG101555 - Calls $29000
*** TURN *** [7c Ad 4h] [Js]
BZIMZIM - Bets $50000
JAG101555 - All-In(Raise) $103666 to $103666
BZIMZIM - Calls $53666
*** RIVER *** [7c Ad 4h Js] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JAG101555 - Shows [Kd Kh] (Three of a kind, kings)
BZIMZIM - Shows [4d Ac] (Two Pair, aces and fours)
JAG101555 Collects $307332 from main pot

Stage #1228208287 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $6000 - 2008-07-15 15:50:39 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($273132 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($134900 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($159468 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Posts small blind $3000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $6000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ks As]
JAG101555 - Folds
JDAWG217 - Raises $15000 to $18000
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $152868 to $158868
JDAWG217 - All-In $116300
BZIMZIM - returned ($24568) : not called
*** FLOP *** [6d 3d 10d]
*** TURN *** [6d 3d 10d] [5s]
*** RIVER *** [6d 3d 10d 5s] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JDAWG217 - Shows [Ac 5c] (One pair, fives)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ks As] (ace high)
JDAWG217 Collects $270400 from main pot

That was the about the point I broke my computer, given how I've been running lately. Also didn't cash in two other tourneys today and got 4 outed for a $500 pot in a cash game on the river. So yeah, bitter. Then rally time...

Stage #1228208582 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $6000 - 2008-07-15 15:51:09 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($272532 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($270400 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($24568 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Posts small blind $3000
JAG101555 - Posts big blind $6000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ad 10d]
JDAWG217 - Folds
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $20968 to $23968
JAG101555 - Calls $17968
*** FLOP *** [10s 6d 2s]
*** TURN *** [10s 6d 2s] [Jh]
*** RIVER *** [10s 6d 2s Jh] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JAG101555 - Shows [9c 4h] (jack high)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ad 10d] (One pair, tens)
BZIMZIM Collects $49736 from main pot

Stage #1228209352 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $6000 - 2008-07-15 15:52:31 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($243764 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($259600 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($64136 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Posts small blind $3000
JAG101555 - Posts big blind $6000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Qd Qs]
JDAWG217 - Raises $16999 to $16999
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $60536 to $63536
JAG101555 - Folds
JDAWG217 - Calls $46537
*** FLOP *** [Ah 6s 2h]
*** TURN *** [Ah 6s 2h] [3h]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 6s 2h 3h] [7s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JDAWG217 - Shows [Jh 10d] (ace high)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Qd Qs] (One pair, queens)
BZIMZIM Collects $134872 from main pot

Was sure a heart was coming there...

Stage #1228211840 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $6000 - 2008-07-15 15:57:05 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($283364 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($175700 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($108436 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Ante $600
BZIMZIM - Ante $600
JDAWG217 - Posts small blind $3000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $6000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Jh 9s]
JAG101555 - Folds
JDAWG217 - Raises $15000 to $18000
BZIMZIM - Calls $12000
*** FLOP *** [9d 7d Jd]
JDAWG217 - Bets $18900
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $89836 to $89836
JDAWG217 - Calls $70936
*** TURN *** [9d 7d Jd] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [9d 7d Jd 6d] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JDAWG217 - Shows [Js 7h] (Two Pair, jacks and sevens)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Jh 9s] (Two Pair, jacks and nines)
BZIMZIM Collects $217472 from main pot

Stage #1228214923 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $8000 - 2008-07-15 16:02:55 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 2 - JAG101555 ($197644 in chips)
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($87740 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($282116 in chips)
JAG101555 - Ante $800
JDAWG217 - Ante $800
BZIMZIM - Ante $800
JDAWG217 - Posts small blind $4000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $8000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ac 6s]
JAG101555 - Raises $16000 to $16000
JDAWG217 - Folds
BZIMZIM - Calls $8000
*** FLOP *** [4s As 6d]
BZIMZIM - Checks
JAG101555 - Bets $38400
BZIMZIM - Raises $92800 to $92800
JAG101555 - All-In(Raise) $142444 to $180844
BZIMZIM - Calls $88044
*** TURN *** [4s As 6d] [8d]
*** RIVER *** [4s As 6d 8d] [7c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JAG101555 - Shows [Ah 10s] (One pair, aces)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ac 6s] (Two Pair, aces and sixes)
BZIMZIM Collects $400088 from main pot

Stage #1228218384 Tourney ID 2037901 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $10000 - 2008-07-15 16:08:39 (ET)
Table: 7 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 4 - JDAWG217 ($185280 in chips)
Seat 7 - BZIMZIM ($382220 in chips)
JDAWG217 - Ante $1000
BZIMZIM - Ante $1000
JDAWG217 - Posts small blind $5000
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $10000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ah 7d]
JDAWG217 - Raises $25000 to $30000
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $371220 to $381220
JDAWG217 - All-In $154280
BZIMZIM - returned ($196940) : not called
*** FLOP *** [8c 3h Ac]
*** TURN *** [8c 3h Ac] [10h]
*** RIVER *** [8c 3h Ac 10h] [4d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JDAWG217 - Shows [Kd Qd] (ace high)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ah 7d] (One pair, aces)
BZIMZIM Collects $370560 from main pot

Ship.

So for the month I'm, well, still stuck. But less stuck. And I feel better about it.

Going out tonight, but should be a full day tomorrow.

Mission Accomplished

Got to Gary, Ind., about 5:30 last night, and played poker til 3:45 am, with the exception of a dinner break. Just what I needed. Passed on a tournament to just sit there and donk around at 1/2 NL, talked with everyone at my tables, had fun, drank a couple beers. Finished up $440 for the night. 1/2 NL players are terrible. Alright, that's not exactly news. Plus it makes for some really entertaining beats, as long they're not happening to you. Also, you can get a poker rate of $49 Monday-Thursday at Resorts (apparently now renamed Ameristar), which is pretty cool if I don't feel like driving back to Chicago. I couldn't actually do that last night since they were full, but still, good to know.

I did glance over at the 5/10 game and wondered how I'd do at the game. One step at a time probably though. I'm not a cash game player, at least not yet. Maybe I'll play 2/5 next time and see how much difference there is in skill level between the players.

But anyway, feel great about poker again. I feel recharged. I'll get it going again on Sunday.

This Should Be Fun, Right?

Playing poker for a living should be fun, shouldn't it? Most of the time it is, even while it's intensely aggravating at the same time. Haven't been having as much fun lately in the now $5k+ plus downswing (I took out the auto sum from my spreadsheet, just to stop looking at it). So today, once the Mets wrap up this win (hopefully), going to the casino to go play 1/2 NL, donk around for low stakes, raise suited connectors, probably drink a beer or two, and just generally have fun. It's gonna be a good day.

Personal Bad Beat Forum

I don't like to do this very often, but I'm stuck and annoyed so here we go. This was in the UB 30k:

Hand #55049001-215 at S30Kguar9pm-006 (No Limit tournament Hold'em)Started at 09/Jul/08 00:45:40
davedopeman is at seat 1 with 9660.
Jagz7 is at seat 2 with 112125.
vanGoghDali is at seat 3 with 22065.
surefirenutz is at seat 4 with 22395.
TlMEX is at seat 5 with 27405.
fustus is at seat 6 with 46435.
bzimzim is at seat 8 with 25455.
LongIslander is at seat 9 with 13830.
The button is at seat 8.
davedopeman posts ante (100).
Jagz7 posts ante (100).
vanGoghDali posts ante (100).
surefirenutz posts ante (100).
TlMEX posts ante (100).
fustus posts ante (100).
bzimzim posts ante (100).
LongIslander posts ante (100).
davedopeman posts the small blind of 500.
Jagz7 posts the big blind of 1000.
davedopeman: -- --
Jagz7: -- --
vanGoghDali: -- --
surefirenutz: -- --
TlMEX: -- --
fustus: -- --
bzimzim: Qc Qh
LongIslander: -- --
Pre-flop:
vanGoghDali folds.
surefirenutz folds.
TlMEX folds.
fustus folds.
bzimzim raises to 2600.
LongIslander folds.
davedopeman folds.
Jagz7 re-raises to 9500.
bzimzim goes all-in for 25355.
Jagz7 calls.
Tournament all-in showdown -- players show:
Jagz7 shows 5h 6s.
bzimzim shows Qc Qh.
Flop (board: Tc 4h 8c): (no action in this round)
Turn (board: Tc 4h 8c 7s): (no action in this round)
River (board: Tc 4h 8c 7s 8d): (no action in this round)
Showdown:
Jagz7 has 5h 6s 4h 8c 7s: straight, eight high.
bzimzim has Qc Qh Tc 8c 8d: two pair, queens and eights.
Hand #55049001-215 Summary:
No rake is taken for this hand.
Jagz7 wins 52010 with straight, eight high.

That guy was a huge chipleader, and just decided he could run over the table. But of course I knew that, and wouldn't have raised in that spot without a hand. So that was out for 25th. Then 5 minutes later in AP 30r:

Stage #1222816004 Tourney ID 2034582 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $1000 - 2008-07-09 00:32:17 (ET)
Table: 1 (Real Money) Seat #1 is the dealer
Seat 1 - FUTUREPROQQ ($27642.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - STIND ($20667.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - BZIMZIM ($69650.36 in chips)
Seat 4 - GOLDSPIKE ($34461.25 in chips)
Seat 5 - KISSER11 ($40796.78 in chips)
Seat 6 - SGTMAYNE ($12604 in chips)
Seat 8 - FLASH47 ($15144.44 in chips)
Seat 9 - MIKEDADUTCH ($28532.50 in chips)
FUTUREPROQQ - Ante $100
STIND - Ante $100
BZIMZIM - Ante $100
GOLDSPIKE - Ante $100
KISSER11 - Ante $100
SGTMAYNE - Ante $100
FLASH47 - Ante $100
MIKEDADUTCH - Ante $100
STIND - Posts small blind $500
BZIMZIM - Posts big blind $1000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Jd Kd]
GOLDSPIKE - Folds
KISSER11 - Calls $1000
SGTMAYNE - Folds
FLASH47 - Folds
MIKEDADUTCH - Folds
FUTUREPROQQ - Folds
STIND - Calls $500
BZIMZIM - Checks
*** FLOP *** [4d Js 6d]
STIND - Checks
BZIMZIM - Checks
KISSER11 - Bets $4000
STIND - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $13000 to $13000
KISSER11 - Calls $9000
*** TURN *** [4d Js 6d] [4h]
BZIMZIM - All-In $55550.36
KISSER11 - All-In $26696.78
BZIMZIM - returned ($28853.58) : not called
*** RIVER *** [4d Js 6d 4h] [6s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Shows [Jd Kd] (Two Pair, jacks and sixes)
KISSER11 - Shows [6c Ad] (Full house, sixes full of fours)
KISSER11 Collects $83193.56 from main pot

Yeah, nc, wp. Jeesh. That was for a big chip lead in that tournament. Ended up making ft anyway (kisser, shockingly, was not there), and actually put a brutal beat on dominant there shoving K2 into KK and getting a chop with a straight, but didn't matter anyway, called an aipf with AQ and ran into AK, finished 7th. Think I played ok yesterday really, one horrific call of an all in on Stars earlier in the day aside. So having got this post out of my system, I'll be back at it today, aspiring to get back to even for the month.

Stuck So Far For July

Qualified for the Tuesday $1050 on Stars to start the month. I've been trying to qualify for more $1000 entry tournaments, can play for big money without the monstrousity of a field. Finished a disappointing 47th. Man did I get hit with the deck in that tournament. But thanks to one resteal gone horribly, horribly wrong, ended up fairly short at the end when I made this call:

PokerStars Game #18521709827: Tournament #93862934, $1000+$50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2008/07/01 - 23:06:01 (ET)
Table '93862934 19' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: RooBunny<3 (15997 in chips)
Seat 2: Sir_DonaldRM (22802 in chips)
Seat 3: tdw9750 (12405 in chips)
Seat 4: Domce (23873 in chips)
Seat 6: slammedfire (10689 in chips)
Seat 7: jle90 (15320 in chips)
Seat 8: agriffrod (3664 in chips)
Seat 9: bzimzim (8006 in chips)
RooBunny<3: posts the ante 40
Sir_DonaldRM: posts the ante 40
tdw9750: posts the ante 40
Domce: posts the ante 40
slammedfire: posts the ante 40
jle90: posts the ante 40
agriffrod: posts the ante 40
bzimzim: posts the ante 40
agriffrod: posts small blind 200
bzimzim: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bzimzim [Ac Jd]
RooBunny<3: folds
Sir_DonaldRM: folds
tdw9750: folds
Domce: folds
slammedfire: raises 10249 to 10649 and is all-in
jle90: folds
agriffrod: folds
bzimzim: calls 7566 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (2683) returned to slammedfire
*** FLOP *** [Jc 2h Ad]
*** TURN *** [Jc 2h Ad] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 2h Ad Qh] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bzimzim: shows [Ac Jd] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
slammedfire: shows [4s 4d] (three of a kind, Fours)
slammedfire collected 16452 from pot

Standard? Too loose? That guy had been shoving a lot, and I really wouldn't have been surprised to see A9 or something there, and was willing to gamble in a coin flip situation due to a relatively short stack at that stage. Brutal river IMO. Just felt like I missed an opportunity in general, don't catch cards like that in every tournament. Very frustrating.

On a sort of funny note, Hevad Khan was at my opening table, and one or two people were typing "BULLDOZEERRR!" That made me laugh.

Things have not gone well since then. Overplayed KQ into KK on Q high flop against some donk in the 150k, much to my annoyance. Shit I can't even beat a 1/2 NL cash game right now. So taking today off, soccer game anyway. I'll get back to work tomorrow. Down about 2100 for July at the moment, and about 4k down swing overall. Annoying.

Think I'll hit the casino one day this week and go donk around. Also the Heartland Poker Tour is coming back to Majestic Star. Maybe that'll go better this time.

June Wrap

June=lowest volume month yet? I feel like I write that almost every month. That can't be good. I did crank it up the last week, and still a respectable month money-wise.

June: +$5448

Year to date: $55,533

I've kind of established $5k as the baseline for what I expect in a month at this point. Only in January was I under that total, back when I was stumbling in the dark as a poker player. My poker career is pretty much divided into before the 100k and after the 100k. Since that tournament I've played with much more confidence.

Actually I was taking the El down to the South Side for Cubs-White Sox, and I started talking to someone who had been a professional poker player as well (I was wearing a "I knocked out a pro on FT shirt" was how the conversation got started). It was only about a two minute conversation, but he did say, "You know, if you think you're gonna run well, you'll run well." Few statements are more true than that.

$48.56 in rakeback this month. Hey free money.

I was reading articles on pocketfives the other day, and there was this one about how to have fun in Vegas: http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-articles/enjoying-las-vegas-during-wsop-3021552. Of particular interest to me was this part about bottle service at nightclubs: "Tip the bouncer $50 when you first get there and learn his name. He is your best friend for the next 4 hours. He will also remove girls from your booth if things are not going your way. Just tap him on the shoulder, tell him you are going to the rest room and you want your booth cleared of the lame girls before you get back. Don't watch the removal happen, the girls are shocked and it is ugly."

Yikes. I pretty much don't do nightclubs anyway, but there's a glimpse into a world I've never been a part of and don't have any interest in. Guess I'll never really be a baller. Oh well. I do find it funny that p5s has apparently strayed from poker advice to "advice on how to be the biggest douchebag possible." At least present it in poker terms. Like, the cuter the girl + the drunker she is + the chances she's put out=+EV (and the higher the expected value, the less likely you'll have some bouncer tell her to get the fuck away from your table and stop drinking your booze for free). See, that was classier.

If Obama runs to the middle in faster, he's going to have a wind-aided world record. He's running there just as fast as my enthusiasm for his campaign is dwindling.

Going to do Mets-Cardinals Wednesday and Thursday in St. Louis, so full day today! Let's get the month going right. Should get going here soon.

One More FT, End of Month Regression

Made one more final table in a row, made it basically 4 in 4 days with UB 20k. Finished fourth, not sure I really played well. Then proceeded to give back about two grand over the last couple days, after being up about 7.5k for the month after the UB tourney. Now up about 5.5K. That might be it for the month, playing softball today and soccer doubleheader tomorrow, along with going to the South Side for the Cubs-White Sox game tonight. I'm at least pleased I got in some volume at the end of the month, though the end wasn't what I hoped.

Played the FT $322 six handed yesterday, lasted for say, six minutes. Here's the hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #7006291974: $90,000 Guarantee (51450846), Table 8 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 15:15:58 ET - 2008/06/28
Seat 1: Sudco (2,745)
Seat 2: bakitako (2,735)
Seat 3: Chat Off (2,690)
Seat 4: bzimzim (3,260)
Seat 5: The Universe112 (3,495)
Seat 6: TheKoalabear (3,075)
bakitako posts the small blind of 15
Chat Off posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bzimzim [6d 6s]
bzimzim raises to 90
The Universe112 calls 90
TheKoalabear folds
Sudco folds
bakitako calls 75
Chat Off folds
*** FLOP *** [8s 3c 6h]
bakitako checks
bzimzim bets 210
The Universe112 calls 210
bakitako folds
*** TURN *** [8s 3c 6h] [5h]
bzimzim has 15 seconds left to act
bzimzim bets 450
The Universe112 calls 450
*** RIVER *** [8s 3c 6h 5h] [Qc]
bzimzim has 15 seconds left to act
bzimzim bets 1,000
The Universe112 raises to 2,745, and is all in
bzimzim has 15 seconds left to act
bzimzim has requested TIME
bzimzim calls 1,510, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 235 returned to The Universe112
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The Universe112 shows [7h 9h] a straight, Nine high
bzimzim mucks
The Universe112 wins the pot (6,640) with a straight, Nine high

You know those calls you talk yourself into? This was a call I talked myself into. Part of the calculus was that he badly overplayed top pair with a nothing kicker before, making a big bet on the river that was clearly a value bet (except he was behind). And I was getting better than 3:1, and I thought well, he could have etc. But really, what else could he have here? Another set maybe. I just don't think I'm going to see hands I can beat enough to make this call here. I saw exactly the hand I expected to see; and if that's true, why am I calling in the first place?

The 150k was a shove fest by the beginning of hour three yesterday thanks to the new awful blind structure. Supposedly they've changed back. God I hope so, that was atrocious. I wrote an angry email to AP support, they say my suggestions are "well received" and my email has been forwarded to the Programmers Team. But if I had some part in them doing something about it, I'm happy. The worst part was that it was intentionally deceptive, starting at 5/10 and then still providing less play than before.

World Series is going on. Eric "jakz" Crain finished 13th in an event, good showing. Wasn't really one of my goals to make it out there this year, more concerned with getting myself established playing online poker and paying rent then trying to qualify for big tournaments. But next year, making it out to Vegas for the WSOP will definitely be on the list of goals I think.

Ohio State recruiting class is basically already wrapped up, 23 recruits committed, which is sick. Euro Final today. The Mets still suck. College football season, and in particular September 13, is still too far away.

Ship 8k; Poker Week

Well I was getting annoyed after blowing a bunch of chips at final tables at Stars 20r and Cake 30r, being in the top two in chips at final table and finishing seventh both times. Did I play too aggressively? Still need to review those. But got the monkey off my back by shipping AP 8k last night for essentially 2.5k. Actually my first shippage of the month, though the big cash was finishing second before. It was weird because when we were down to two tables my table went ballistically aggro, and I wasn't picking up much, but managed to pick spots and hang around well I think. But I had a sort of "Am I on AP? What's happening right now?" moment as the table went nuts around me. Then the final table was much more standard, just lots of shoving by me, with the added bonus that I was able to go into run over people mode with the CL with 3 people left since they were clearly interested in trying to make an extra $700 by finishing second.

Hey it's poker week! After being totally derelict in my poker duties for most of this month, ramped it up this week. I did not play any tournaments from the 4th to the 18th. Wow. I work hard at my job. Anyway, got it going now, with the result being 3 final tables in four days (and really 3 in 3 days, only played one tourney Monday after I got back from soccer). Tonight? Why I think I'll play some poker. Feeling a big shippage coming.

Pokerstars now has rakeback. Sweet. I still have not heard about Cake. It was supposed to take 3-5 days. That was a month ago. Maybe I'll just attempt to sign up again.

Alright back to laundry, then what should be an awesome Euro semi between Russia and Spain. And then poker.

This Post Couldn't Have Less To Do With Poker

Although I will say, finished 4th in the 1r1a $55 Stars tournament this week, had big chip lead with four left than lost it all, at some point I'll go back and decide if that goes in the category of "didn't catch cards, unlucky" or "totally epic fucking collapse, I suck". Probably somewhere in between.

Anyway, I don't normally watch Sunday morning political shows because they (politicians, hack commentators like George Stephanopoulos) feed us such drivel, but I happened to catch the "Commentary" by Bob Schieffer at the end of Face the Nation. What followed was, I thought, hilarious, but then again I have a weird sense of humor. In case you don't know, Schieffer is 100 years old. I might be rounding.

"Finally, today, I'm just back from two weeks in France. I hadn't been there in awhile and I'd forgotten just how beautiful Paris can be. But there was a little culture shock and it took me a day or two to figure it out. Then it hit me; I was seeing something on the boulevards of Paris that I hadn't seen lately in America, at least not in the Northeast: couples. Boys and girls paired off, men and women holding hands, strolling, talking, sitting in sidewalk cafes, immersed in each other as the world passed by. Stroll down an American street in the early evening and what you see are not couples but groups of young women going off to see Sex and the City or some such, and then gangs of guys heading for sports bars. Late in the evening, or so I'm told, they eventually meet up at clubs or other gathering places where everyone, for wont of a better word, gets plastered. Long ago, I moved from participant to consultant observer status in such matters, and it is none of my business of course, but based on my boulevard observations, here is my thought on all this. American guys would do well to start talking to the ladies much earlier in the evening before the drinking starts. Those French guys seemed fascinated with what their dates were saying, and from what I could tell, things were moving along just fine."

Top three moments in that speech:
3. All French guys are "fascinated" by their dates.
2. Referring to any group of guys as a "gang", and he had a little bite in his voice when he said it.
1. Eventually everyone meets up and gets plastered. I suppose I can't argue with this, but hearing Schieffer say it in his advanced age was awesome.

Also, unlike the other morning shows, Face the Nation is only a half hour. Are we really setting aside two minutes so Schieffer can lecture us young whipper snappers? Of course, this is the same network that still allows Andy Rooney to talk, despite the fact that he makes less sense than your average person in a mental asylum. So maybe I shouldn't be surprised.

Back From California!

And refreshed, and ready to get to work!

Went to my friend's wedding. It was in a winery in Calistoga, or outside of Calistoga, and it was great. Wineries are definitely an excellent place to get married, especially if you can incorporate wine into the ceremony. Also, funny story. Al Jazeera was at the wedding. Well, kind of. The minister who did the ceremony is also doing gay marriages, so the reporter was covering him with gay marriage going legal that week. Turns out he was more of an independent contractor really, but still thought that was funny.

Alright, haven't done shit so far this month, but I'm ready, time for some afternoon poker.

Lethargy

I can't remember a week that I've played less. There are some legitimate reasons for that: I usually play big on Sunday but went to the Chicago Blues Festival instead, plus I'm not playing during the Finals games so I can watch the Lakers lose (that's turned out to be a lot less fun than I was hoping). I've also been sucked in by the Euro. Still way too much coasting lately. I go to California tomorrow, back Tuesday night. I will rededicate myself to putting in the hours in the second half of this month.

Some Hands; Almost Ship

In AP 20r, played three hands in a row, opponents had aces three times. Never had that happen before. Cracked 'em twice. Even I want to run like me:

Stage #1195322451 Tourney ID 2019047 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $300 - 2008-06-04 13:48:29 (ET)
Table: 13 (Real Money) Seat #2 is the dealer
Seat 1 - VLAD5873 ($18797.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - ILLFUUP ($17717.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - BZIMZIM ($10000 in chips)
Seat 4 - JD38 ($13690 in chips)
Seat 6 - KUDOS72OFF ($8910 in chips)
Seat 7 - MPITTSBURGH ($11865 in chips)
Seat 8 - ICECRUSHER ($10380 in chips)
Seat 9 - SPOTUPJ ($16720 in chips)
VLAD5873 - Ante $25
ILLFUUP - Ante $25
BZIMZIM - Ante $25
JD38 - Ante $25
KUDOS72OFF - Ante $25
MPITTSBURGH - Ante $25
ICECRUSHER - Ante $25
SPOTUPJ - Ante $25
BZIMZIM - Posts small blind $150
JD38 - Posts big blind $300
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Jc Jh]
KUDOS72OFF - Raises $800 to $800
MPITTSBURGH - Folds
ICECRUSHER - Folds
SPOTUPJ - Folds
VLAD5873 - Folds
ILLFUUP - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $2350 to $2500
JD38 - Folds
KUDOS72OFF - Calls $1700
*** FLOP *** [6c Qd Jd]
BZIMZIM - Bets $3000
KUDOS72OFF - All-In(Raise) $6385 to $6385
BZIMZIM - Calls $3385
*** TURN *** [6c Qd Jd] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [6c Qd Jd 6d] [Qh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Shows [Jc Jh] (Full house, jacks full of queens)
KUDOS72OFF - Shows [As Ah] (Two Pair, aces and queens)
BZIMZIM Collects $18270 from main pot

Stage #1195323027 Tourney ID 2019047 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $300 - 2008-06-04 13:49:47 (ET)
Table: 13 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 1 - VLAD5873 ($18772.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - ILLFUUP ($17692.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - BZIMZIM ($19360 in chips)
Seat 4 - JD38 ($13365 in chips)
Seat 7 - MPITTSBURGH ($11840 in chips)
Seat 8 - ICECRUSHER ($10355 in chips)
Seat 9 - SPOTUPJ ($16695 in chips)
VLAD5873 - Ante $25
ILLFUUP - Ante $25
BZIMZIM - Ante $25
JD38 - Ante $25
MPITTSBURGH - Ante $25
ICECRUSHER - Ante $25
SPOTUPJ - Ante $25
JD38 - Posts small blind $150
MPITTSBURGH - Posts big blind $300
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ac Jc]
ICECRUSHER - Folds
SPOTUPJ - Folds
VLAD5873 - Folds
ILLFUUP - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $800 to $800
JD38 - Calls $650
MPITTSBURGH - Calls $500
*** FLOP *** [4h 2h 6h]
JD38 - Checks
MPITTSBURGH - Bets $2575
BZIMZIM - Folds
JD38 - Calls $2575
*** TURN *** [4h 2h 6h] [Kc]
JD38 - Checks
MPITTSBURGH - All-In $8440
JD38 - Calls $8440
*** RIVER *** [4h 2h 6h Kc] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JD38 - Shows [Ah As] (Flush, ace high)
MPITTSBURGH - Shows [8c 6c] (Two Pair, kings and sixes)
JD38 Collects $24605 from main pot

Stage #1195323565 Tourney ID 2019047 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $300 - 2008-06-04 13:51:04 (ET)
Table: 13 (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 1 - VLAD5873 ($18747.50 in chips)
Seat 2 - ILLFUUP ($17667.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - BZIMZIM ($18535 in chips)
Seat 4 - JD38 ($26130 in chips)
Seat 8 - ICECRUSHER ($10330 in chips)
Seat 9 - SPOTUPJ ($16670 in chips)
VLAD5873 - Ante $25
ILLFUUP - Ante $25
BZIMZIM - Ante $25
JD38 - Ante $25
ICECRUSHER - Ante $25
SPOTUPJ - Ante $25
ICECRUSHER - Posts small blind $150
SPOTUPJ - Posts big blind $300
*** POCKET CARDS ***Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ah Kd]
VLAD5873 - Folds
ILLFUUP - Calls $300
BZIMZIM - Raises $1200 to $1200
JD38 - Folds
ICECRUSHER - Raises $3450 to $3600
SPOTUPJ - Folds
ILLFUUP - Folds
BZIMZIM - Raises $10350 to $11550
ICECRUSHER - All-In $6705
BZIMZIM - returned ($1245) : not called
*** FLOP *** [2h Js 8h]
*** TURN *** [2h Js 8h] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [2h Js 8h 7h] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ah Kd] (Flush, ace high)
ICECRUSHER - Shows [Ad Ac] (One pair, aces)
BZIMZIM Collects $21360 from main pot

But what goes around...

Stage #1195342549 Tourney ID 2019047 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit $600 - 2008-06-04 14:26:55 (ET)
Table: 4 (Real Money) Seat #3 is the dealer
Seat 2 - CLUBMASTER48 ($15203.50 in chips)
Seat 3 - GLOWGREEN ($35744.50 in chips)
Seat 4 - NEWDADDY30 ($13857 in chips)
Seat 5 - ALID ($33262 in chips)
Seat 6 - BZIMZIM ($28590 in chips)
Seat 7 - HAIRYAREOLA ($11140 in chips)
Seat 8 - SIDNEYFALCO ($11650 in chips)
Seat 9 - BBIRD300 ($4492.50 in chips)
CLUBMASTER48 - Ante $50
GLOWGREEN - Ante $50
NEWDADDY30 - Ante $50
ALID - Ante $50
ZIMZIM - Ante $50
HAIRYAREOLA - Ante $50
SIDNEYFALCO - Ante $50
BBIRD300 - Ante $50
NEWDADDY30 - Posts small blind $300
ALID - Posts big blind $600
*** POCKET CARDS ***Dealt to BZIMZIM [Ad Ah]
BZIMZIM - Raises $1600 to $1600
HAIRYAREOLA - Folds
SIDNEYFALCO - Folds
BBIRD300 - Folds
CLUBMASTER48 - Folds
GLOWGREEN - Raises $5000 to $5000
NEWDADDY30 - Folds
ALID - Folds
BZIMZIM - Calls $3400
*** FLOP *** [6d 10s 8s]
BZIMZIM - Checks
GLOWGREEN - Bets $9000
BZIMZIM - All-In(Raise) $23540 to $23540
GLOWGREEN - Calls $14540
*** TURN *** [6d 10s 8s] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [6d 10s 8s 7s] [6h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
GLOWGREEN - Shows [Qs 9d] (Straight, six to ten)
BZIMZIM - Shows [Ad Ah] (Two Pair, aces and sixes)
GLOWGREEN Collects $58380 from main pot

I'm not normally one to knock people's game, because I like when people play badly cause it makes me money and I just generally don't care that much. Plus it annoys me when people berate people to make their own ego feel better. And hell, it's not like immune from playing badly, God knows it's happened. But I did notice that Glowgreen actually won a WSOP main event seat. And honestly, I have no idea how that happened. I'm putting the over/under at how long he'll be in the tournament at, say, six minutes.

Or he'll win the tournament. Nothing in between.

Got headsup in 15k $109 on Stars, turned down a chop for $7k and play for the rest to play it out cause I was better than the other player imo. But couldn't getting anything going, then ended on this:
PokerStars Game #17918941742: Tournament #90369539, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIV (8000/16000) - 2008/06/04 - 19:27:48 (ET)
Table '90369539 35' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 5: bzimzim (322340 in chips)
Seat 8: Chris-nana (865660 in chips)
bzimzim: posts the ante 1600
Chris-nana: posts the ante 1600
Chris-nana: posts small blind 8000
bzimzim: posts big blind 16000
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to bzimzim [Qd Qh]
Chris-nana: raises 22880 to 38880
bzimzim: calls 22880
*** FLOP *** [2h 5h Js]
bzimzim: checks
Chris-nana: bets 32880
bzimzim: raises 47120 to 80000
Chris-nana: calls 47120
*** TURN *** [2h 5h Js] [Ah]
bzimzim: bets 201860 and is all-in
Chris-nana: calls 201860
*** RIVER *** [2h 5h Js Ah] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
bzimzim: shows [Qd Qh] (a pair of Queens)
Chris-nana: shows [Jd Jc] (three of a kind, Jacks)
Chris-nana collected 644680 from pot

Tried to get tricky, may as well have reraised it was all getting in there anyway. Oh well, what can you do. Still, almost $6k cash, good way to start the month. Especially since I only have three cashes so far this month for the rest of the tournaments. And they were both rebuys, and in both of them I still lost money for the tourney lol. But only need one cash if it's the right one.

Also lost a flip for big chip lead at FT of AP 9k, that was annoying. Had great potential, there were only 45 people in the tourney that day because there was some sort of problem with registering, I wasn't able to register til the minute before. Overall, was hoping for a really big day but suppose I can't complain. I run good when I play 13 hour days, which is what I did Wednesday.

Won't play much this weekend I don't think, Chicago Blues Festival going on and friend's birthday, plus I think I'm buying a new TV because my current one is cracked and annoying the hell out of me. And because what the hell, should spend my money on something.

Speaking of money, it takes Bodog for fucking ever to send checks. I ordered two over a month ago and I still haven't got the first one yet. I did get one from AP already that I ordered three weeks later.

I've made $33.75 from rakeback so far. I'm rich.

Still mad about the Lakers losing Game 1 last night. If you can go from "I need carried off because I can't walk" to "I'm fine" that quickly, you should be in Euro 2008, not the NBA Finals. Just sayin'.