Ok

Hit some rings and made more than I lost yesterday. Blah blah blah.

I enjoy heads up play and the last two years I got sucked out on to lose way too early in the CardsChat annual tournament.

Well, tonight I became the first finalist. (Pardon the old bracket)


Games are set up and played by the participants. They just have to be completed by a certain date.
Anyway, I cleared the left side of the bracket and will play one of four possible people in the finals. I know of the quarter final games is Sunday at 5:00. Hopefully I'll be to busy winning the Aruba satellite to watch it. I don't know about the other quarter-final game. And there's no telling when the winners of each of those game will play the semi finals. (The semi-finals + are a best of 3 series, while all earlier rounds are single elimination).

Oh, and there's some money added, giving increasing bonuses to 4th - 1st, so since I'm guaranteed at least 2nd place I'll either get $35 or $75 depending on how the games go.

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

Bloop!

I unlocked the $10 bonus today. It only cost me $11.50.

Early on I got into a blind VS blind hand when my A/Q flopped TPTK and he flopped a set of 4's.
With the aggro betting after the flop, I should have folded instead of putting that last $10 in. I knew better. Oh well. :(

A bit later I had a chance of redemption. When we got all-in and I saw his cards, I started counting the money:

Ugh.
I lose $.70 to the rake.

Then this hand came up and I just knew the river would bend me over and have its way with me:

That guy was aggro (81/63) and was shoving a lot, taking pots without a challenge. I didn't think twice about calling.

Making that $8.14 on the coin flip helped get me back on track, and I whittled my $25 loss down to $11.50.

I didn't even have to use my A-K... I got to say it was a good day!

Yesterday there was a "shooting stars" event where a $5 bounty was put on my head as one of the stars. I put an additional $5 on my own head, and then offered $50 to anybody who declared me the prettiest (posting it in that thread) before the game, then knocked me out.
About half the field admitted I was prettiest.

It was a $5 buy-in tournament so going all-in on me paid nearly 11 times your buy-in. That means that shoving on me with any two cards is a +EV move.

Obviously I wasn't playing coin flips VS people I can lose $50 to so I played pretty tight. I did get it all-in vs people who could have claimed the bounty twice, but I won both.

I had a lot of "raise with A/Qs, get shoved on, then fold" situations. It stunk, and was far less fun than I anticipated.

I was eventually whittled down to almost nothing and had 4:1 to call a shove with my J/6, and I'd be blinded out soon anyway, so I called and lost to two overcards. The guy I lost to did not have a claim on the bounty.

Anyway, that game was a miserable experience. I felt shackled.

Today I slacked around the house all day. I was actually up early (well, 8:00 AM) but I was literally in nothing but my boxers until after 1:00.
I had planned on going kayaking, but I decided not to. I'd gone Saturday and the river was so low I had to carry it more than I liked.

TODAY:
...was a good day. As I stated earlier, at midnight I won some $ and cleared a $5 bonus.

Also...
PokerStars Tournament #193256615, No Limit Hold'em Buy-In: $7.00/$0.50 USD 90 players Total Prize Pool: $630.00 USD Tournament started 2009/09/06 14:46:40 ET Dear SvgePenguin, You finished the tournament in 1st place.

Weeeee!
Well, don't get too excited. It was a satellite, so 20 other people got first place. I won a $27 ticket to a Step 2 game. I've never won one of those. I mean, I've won more Step 2 tickets and some Step 1 tickets from Step 2 games, but I always get sucked out on and can't make it to Step 3. It's a tiny sample size though, so no biggie I guess.

After that, this:


So I'm batting 100% today.
Oh... well... I lost $2 at one of my ring games when I quit after midnight. But if you consider I only got the $5 bonus because I was at that table, that's $2.50 equity right? So 100%. ;)

Anyway, today was better than I deserved.

EDIT: I meant to just quote Ice Cube with the title to this, never thinking that A/K is a poker hand. Come to think of it, I did *not* have A/K all tournament. Weird coincidence.

Looks like I won't be going to Aruba: Link

Update as of September 6, 2009:
UltimateBet has not set up any of the Ultimate Aruba Experience Tournaments as of yet. There have been some problems with the tournament set up, and to be honest, they are refusing to simply communicate with us. We are trying to resolve this issues as best we can, but it is very hard to reach a solution when none of our contacts follow up with us. We have been attempting to fix the issues several times a day for over a week, and will let you all know what the situation is once we hear back from them. As of right now, there are no satellites for the Aruba Events, nor a Freeroll Event, nor the Main Event. We apologize for any inconvenience, but until we hear back from someone at UB, there is nothing we can do.

I'm guessing this means that UB had tentatively agreed to pay for a large chunk (if not all) of the $8,500 prize package ($5,000 +$500 tournament entry, plus $3k for travel/food/hotel expenses) and now that they see that they are going to lose a lot of money on this so they are balking. I'd guess that 300 would play this satellite, and they'd be making $2 in rake on each player. Plus 75 tickets were handed out (I won two). It all adds up to a big loss for UB.

My guess is that this event will not happen. The OFC does a lot of stuff and assuming they continue to operate they'll have to make some sort of amends to the 70-something people who won tickets. I'd be happy with getting some sort of equal value for my two $25 +$2 tickets I won. I don't have a lot on UB so that'd be a nice boost.

Otay

I waited until midnight to two-table and hit my day 5 of the Take 2 promotion.
I figured I'd play pretty conservatively, but on hand #1...


A little while later I tangled with another shorty.

The shove on the flop made little sense unless he had A/K, so I called.
My read was wrong, but I'm not complaining.

Anyway, I got into two iffy pots that I'll lose about half the time and I won them both so I'm happy.

On the second table I lost a little over $2. Nothing really happened there. My big blind middle pair lost me $1 to a top pair/no-kicker and my 7/7 failed to hit after I opened and someone with A/A min-raise-3-bet me and the caller. He showed his vowels after we folded to his flop bet but I figured vowels or K's were most likely.
Anyway, nothing interesting happened on that table.

Today is day 6 of the Take 2 promo, and I missed day 1, so today I unlocked my $5 bonus. I haven't received it yet, but I should have it by the time I wake up tomorrow.

Full Tilt full schmilt!

I decided to participate in the Take-2 promo on FT. It has various levels.
If I two table for 5 days this month, I get $5.
If I two-table 10 days this month I get an additional $10 ($15 total).
If I two-table 15 days this month I get an additional $10 ($25 total).
If I two-table 25 days this month I get an additional $25 ($50 total).

Well, I 4-tabled today. I played three $25NL tables, and one $50NL.
Guess which one I got felted on!

The hand:

Tight player raised to $2 UTG+1.
I call with 7/7.
It's folded to the BB, who calls.
The flop is 3/7/Q, all diamonds.
Opener raises to $4.
I raise to $13.
BB folds.
Opener shoves.
I call.
Opener shows A/A, with one diamond.
Turn 5d.
River Jh.

Ugh. I'm out $50.

At'll teach me to play above my bankroll limit on FT.

I still have $180-something, (and never deposited), but bummer. :(

Yatta yatta

On Monday I played a CC $ added event and got a little too aggro, which put me out in 7th or 8th. I still cashed for a few bucks profit, but I was disappointed because I picked 5 people to make the top 5, and they were all in (including myself) until that hand.

I hit the CC FT freeroll tonight. 144 players.
I played 369 hands and was dealt 7/2 nine times. I think on average I'd get 7/2 4.5 times.
I got A/K twice, which is about half as many times as I should have got it.

I got HU and my K/T hit a T high flop. The turn put a flush draw up and the river put the third spade *and* gave any 4 a straight. I was able to fold when he raised, and he showed the T/rag of spades, so I got out just in time. It still cost me $21k though.

I had about 130k to his 85k. Then I disconnected for a long time.
When I got back, he had 130k and I had 85k. :(

A bit later...
I opened with A/Q of hearts, he min-raised me, I shoved, he called:


I figure that bad beat cost me $20. Oh well. It's not like the game cost me anything but time.

The play in the freerolls isn't very good, but it was a good supliment to the WSoP I was watching on TV.