Happy Thanksgiving!

I haven't been playing much.
I'll play a free Sunday game each week (9:36PM) and I'll play my weekly team game.

We're 33/50 games into the season and my team the PengWins is doing well.
Out of the 45 players in the league, my team has 4 (of 5) in the top dozen. We are sitting in 1, 2, 11, & 12. Yeah, it's a temporary stat, but it's still cool.



If I win MVP again this year, it'll be 5 in a row. Again, nobody else has ever won twice, let alone two in a row.
I enjoy the run, but I'm sort of ready to hand off the title to someone else.
I won't throw a game to do it, but I think someone else will enjoy the title more than I will at this point.
My teammate is right on my tail, so he has a good chance of taking it. That'd be nice.

In non-poker news, I'm still dating the same woman.
She's been taking me hunting, which I really enjoy. I've dragged a dear through the woods and helped process it.
Butchering a deer isn't rocket science. You pretty much just feel out each muscle and cut it out.
Oh, and you cut off all the shiny stuff that coats each muscle.

Today I made a deer burger for lunch, out of a deer that was harvested in my back yard.
It was good!
It was meat that was raised in a humane manor, and is 100% free of hormones and all that other stuff that farmers inject into their livestock.
Harvesting deer also keeps the population down, which is necessary since all wild mountain lions have been eradicated from the state and bears have been eliminated from most places.
In places like Frankfort there are unhealthy numbers of deer because you can't discharge a firearm in city limits. The animals have little food in the winter, and are apt to spread disease to each other.

I've been looking at getting a new rifle and I think I've settled on the Henry .44. It shoots .44 Magnums (a'la Dirty Harry), but without the kick that the .44 Magnum handgun has.
It also shoots .44 Specials, which is just a shorter version of the same bullet.

Machu Picchu

I thought I'd post a few pics from the Machu Picchu backpacking trip.

Our group was composed of 2 guides, and 9 tourists (besides the 10 or so porters who carried all of the tents, food, and equipment).


There were only two or three small tunnels along the 4 day, 3-night trip.


The trails were incredible, especially when you consider that they were first made hundreds of years ago by people who didn't have metal tools.


Of course, the highlight of the trip was Machu Picchu.
I didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. I mean, I'd seen several television shows on the site, so I thought it was going to be boring, but there is a huge difference between seeing it and being among the walls.


We had a speech about the site, then we were free to wander around on our own.

Machu Piccho has a visitor center, that has a bus that goes to a small down called Aguas Calientes. From there we took a long train ride to another town, and then a shuttle back to Cuzco.

I had a blast, and I would totally do this trip again.

Long time no see... or poker

I did not join the CardsChat Spring 2011 League. I got a new girlfriend and poker was a much smaller part of my life so I decided not to sign up.

A couple weeks in I missed the one game a week, so I signed up as an alternate.

Poker's Black Friday hit and nuked real money games in the United States, which caused people to drop from the league and I got picked up by a team in middle position.

The team ended up getting 1st place, and I won league MVP for the third season in a row. (Nobody other player has won twice, let alone three times in a row)

I felt obligated to play in the Summer 2011 league, and am doing well in it (3 wins, and 2 2nd places over the 5 games I've played so far).

I made a chart showing my finishes for the individual games over the past 4 seasons:

Those stats are laughably high. 17 first places in 38 games is crazy.
I still have 4 more games to play this season, and one guy is right on my tail, so my good finishes this season by no means lock me for a 4th MVP title.

I'm watching a teammate play a game right now, and the conversation at the table tickled me.
You start with 3,000 chips and 10/20 blinds. Early in the game the conversation went something like this:

DM - I'm so card dead this game. It's frustrating.
SP - You're card dead over what, maybe, 20 hands???
CK - 19!
DM - Ha ha! Yeah, I get frustrated if I don't see K/K or A/A within the first five hands.
CK - If you're so card dead, how come you don't have 2,900 chips?
SP - LOL!

DM had 1,850 chips instead of the 2,900+ chips he'd have if he just folded every hand.

I have a tiny bit of money on Carbon (and a friend generously doubled it) but I just don't have the urge to grind it. I think I have $1,400 or so on Full Tilt that I never expect to see again and I have a few hundred on UltimateBet that I can almost guarantee I'll never see, so building a bankroll on Carbon has lost it's appeal.

March Madness

The Winter League is over. My team (CardSchat) was in the lead going into the final game, but I failed to do well. In my final hand I opened on the button, the SB 3-bet, and I shoved with my Q/Q. He had A/K and failed to pair. However, a 2/3/4/5 came on the board, without the saving 6. Oh well. The Team MVP player ended up winning (he doubled up early to someone who stacked with less than top pair/top kicker. However, I was pretty much a lock for MVP going into this game. (I'd have been a lock, but dmorris68 substituted in for another player so if he got first and I tanked he could have passed me). I won MVP. Boo-ya! Out of 45 players, I was the only person in the top 10 last season to finish in the top 10 this season. Poker-wise, I'm in a bit of a funk. This week, 3 times I was getting short and shoved an unchallenged pot in late position with a drawing hand (Q/Js and such) and ran into vowels (A/A). On Sunday I had the day free, so I blew $15.50 in a $5.50 rebuy, then $11 in a CC by-in. Then I played a $5.50 CC game and won $35 (I think). But I played a few tiny games, cashing in one and failing in two, and basially finishing the day about even. Non-Poker: Intersting stuff going on. Work is going okay. More hours would be good. I had a promising first date with someone on Saturday. She's really witty, intelligent and seems really stable, but lives farther away than I'd prefer. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. I'm cautiously optimistic. In poker jargon, this person has really good stats on many levels. I have not been doing my push ups as I'm still hurt. I think it's a tendon thing, not a muscle thing. I think I've been sitting weird, and using the mouse with a crooked arm, so it's straining the tendon by my elbow. The pain has been dissipating, but I've decided not to start push ups again until after my backpacking trip this June. The Trip: I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I'll be going on a backpacking trip to Machu Picchu this summer. I'm excited! The backpacking trip is 4 days, 3 nights. We'll visit other ruins along the way. We'll have guides and porters so it won't be roughing it too much. On Day 4 we arrive at the ruins early, a guide will give us a tour of the ruins, and then we hike down to a bus which takes us to a train which takes us on a loooong train ride back to civilization. The next day we fly back to L.A., and the next day I fly back to KY in the AM. So I'll be traveling a lot. When booking tickets, a trip to Peru from KY had a travel time of 22 hours, and cost a lot. Tickets from L.A. to Peru cost quite a bit less, and had an 11 hour travel time. Tickets from KY to L.A. were *less* than that difference, and had a 6.5 hour trip time. Yeah... do the math. I can travel alone for longer and for more money, or I can travel with my loved ones for less time and for cheaper. I'll fly into L.A. a few days early so I can visit my Mom. Then my brother, father, and I will fly to Peru a few days early so we can adjust to the altitude.

Nom nom nom! I haz all your chippies!

I won a fairly big tournament on Sunday. I played their freeroll on Saturday and went out early, but my fortunes changed soon after. That night (Saturday night) a bunch of us played a "Last Player Standing" game where we put $1 into a pool and whoever finished best in a 90-player S&G kept the pool. Not only did I win the pool, but I won the tournament.

Then, of course, I won the GGE money-added game.
I just floated along at first, taking opportunities as they arose. I IM'd with a buddy who was playing another table and he told me that a good player we know was doing well, so I kept tabs on that guy.
Then I had Q/Q on a K/K/Q flop and stacked a guy who had K/T, which put me in the top 10% of players.

When we were down to 5-6 players the other people were really tight. I stole a lot of pots because nobody wanted to fight back. I became chip leader, with only one guy on my right having enough chips to really hurt me. He was smart too, so I was glad to have position on him.
Position there won me the game. Had he been on my left at that point it would have been a different game. But as it was I could stay out of his way and bully the rest of the table. (Most people don't think about this sort of stuff when talking about wins, but who-sits-where is a big part of the game.)

Eventually it came down the smart guy and I.
I'm goo heads up, but this guy was pretty good as well. There wasn't much for me to exploit.

I was HU forever. 50 minutes! I KO'd the 3'rd place finished at 19:42:56 to put me heads up. Then HU ended at 20:33:39
The game started at 15:00 (but I couldn't get on until 15:14) so that's a 5:34 game where.... what... 15% of the game was heads up. Wow! Patience patience patience.

I had good and bad luck HU. I had two pair a couple times, when the guy turned a flush. But both times the river put the 4-flush on the board to scare us both.

In the final hand *he* had the two pair, but I rivered a set. I shoved, he called, and my tiny chip lead was just enough to end it there.




Good times! I'm playing really well and making some really good reads.

Check out this video I made of me talking to myself last Friday.

And check out this hand history. I typed out a comment, and hit send the second it was called, before the hands were revealed.
I highlighted the important part in red:

PokerStars Home Game #58015845187: {Iggysdady's Weekly Game} Tournament #366486361, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level II (20/40) - 2011/02/20 20:51:23 ET
Table '366486361 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 5: kozlo6pack (1755 in chips)
Seat 6: sachpas3 (960 in chips)
Seat 7: DSOReilly (2405 in chips)
Seat 8: Iggysdady (1875 in chips)
Seat 9: SvgePenguin (1135 in chips)
kozlo6pack: posts small blind 20
sachpas3: posts big blind 40
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to SvgePenguin [Qd Qc]
DSOReilly: calls 40
Iggysdady: folds
SvgePenguin: raises 80 to 120
kozlo6pack: calls 100
sachpas3: raises 120 to 240
DSOReilly: folds
SvgePenguin: calls 120
kozlo6pack: calls 120
*** FLOP *** [Ad Ah 9s]
kozlo6pack: checks
sachpas3: checks
SvgePenguin: bets 100
kozlo6pack: calls 100
sachpas3: calls 100
*** TURN *** [Ad Ah 9s] J♣
kozlo6pack: bets 560
sachpas3: calls 560
SvgePenguin: folds
*** RIVER *** [Ad Ah 9s Jc] 4♠
kozlo6pack: bets 160
sachpas3: calls 60 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (100) returned to kozlo6pack
SvgePenguin said, "I have to fold. I think JJ for Koz, and KK for Sach. Let's see if Im right"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kozlo6pack: shows [Jd Js] (a full house, Jacks full of Aces)
sachpas3: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
kozlo6pack collected 2300 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2300 | Rake 0
Board [Ad Ah 9s Jc 4s]
Seat 5: kozlo6pack (small blind) showed [Jd Js] and won (2300) with a full house, Jacks full of Aces
Seat 6: sachpas3 (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Seat 7: DSOReilly folded before Flop
Seat 8: Iggysdady folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SvgePenguin (button) folded on the Turn


I'm just on my game recently.
Granted, there is a ton of luck and I know I'm on a hot streak, but it feels good.

Upswing

Hey, it's my brother's birthday. I need to call him.

Anyway...
I've been playing the Hold'em Freaks nightly tournaments. I was running cold and they were playing a lot of non-hold'em games so I took some time off from playing. (The running cold part was the killer) I've been running cold everywhere.

Anyway...
I'm captain of a new team. Honestly, I wasn't able to pick my team so the woman in charge picked for me. She was able to get two of the people who I had last year, and two pretty good rookies, so I am pleased.
Early yesterday we were in 2nd place, 11 games into the season. I don't know where we're at today because we had a low finish, so I'm guessing we're in 3rd (of 9).
I had a lousy 6th (of 9) place finish in my first game but I won Friday's game.


I didn't play any more poker until Sunday, when I won a $200-added game with the best poker forum, CardsChat.

They're giving out some sort of prizes for whoever knocks the most people out (out of two games, the second being played Sunday... but I'll be at my mother-in-law's celebrating her birthday for the second game). One guy finished with 5-KO's to my 4. He and I went heads up (for the 5th time in the past 6 months) and I beat him for the 5th time. :) He's a good player, but predictable.

Yesterday I played one super turbo thing on Ultimate Bet, as I haven't played on the site for months and I wanted to give it a try. I got KO'd in 7th of 9 in a standard SB vs BB play.


Then I played the Hold'em Freaks high hand early game. I paid $1 to be entered into a pool, where the player with the highest hand wins the $. You have to win the showdown and use both of your hole cards to win. I've made the mistake of betting the river with monsters (quads and such) and not getting called, thereby not being eligible for the high hand pool.
Well, yesterday I made a bad bet on the river too:

Fortunately he made an even worse call. :)
So yeah, I won the high hand pool.
Then I went on to get 2nd place in the game. I had 9k, he had 7.5k, and I 3-bet him with 7/7 and he called with Q/T. He rivered the Ten win. I was unable to come back. But 2nd place is good! :)

An hour later was the second high-hand game, and this one was $2 instead of $1.
This coin flip lead to me winning the high hand in that game as well:

Oh... and then I won the tournament:


So I've had quite a streak. One loss on Ultimatebet, and a string of victories.
1st, 1st, fail, 2nd& bonus, and 1st & bonus.

--------------

In non-poker news...
I'm getting out of the house more. Even when home, I'm hiking in the woods.
My social life is expanding.
I'm still doing my push ups, but I'm not following the plan. The tendon in my right arm is getting better, but slowly. I don't want to move up to the feet-on-chair push ups for fear of agitating it, so I'm just doing the standard sets. Well, instead of 14/10/6 I'm doing 15/11/7.
I have a new Droid phone with a data plan, so I can hook it to my computer and get 3G on my home computer. :) That's exciting, but I'm afraid that I'll go over the 5Gb limit.