House Work

Besides all of the intense situations with daughter/granddaughter, they have begun work on our house this week.  First step is a new roof, scaffolding being put in place.  After that the replacement of the logs and eyebrow roof between floors put into place.  New windows, skylights, etc.  Looking forward to a less stressful time.

Complications

This has been a very hectic and stressful week.  Our daughter Meg has suffered some complications from childbirth.  She had an emergency c-section a week ago Monday and was becoming sicker by the day.  Yesterday they performed surgery to correct a twisted bowel but gave her a throat spray which caused a reaction affecting her oxygen supply.  The operation was successful and she is doing well today.  We have been crazy over this whole situation.  Eva is still in the hospital as well, finishing antibiotics due to an infection she had at birth.  We will be very grateful to get both of them the heck out of that hospital and home where they belong.  Vinay has been a rock and very supportive, sleeping and staying at the hospital the entire time.  We are grateful for our son-in-law.  There are just tons of things to think about besides poker I have come to realize. 

Blackjack Anyone?

A very long time ago (and I apologize if I have written about this before) a winning player explained to me that if you just play good blackjack hands then you are playing the right starting cards.  If you think about it these are the hands:

All pairs (some are better than others and you must be able to fold them at the right times)
Hands that add up to 20 or of course 21.  These are:

Any two face cards
Ace/face


Marginal blackjack hands are:

19, 18, 17  The combinations that make these are:

face/9
face/8; 9/9 (previously mentioned)
9/8

Only one double down hand is sometimes o.k.

6/5

I am becoming convinced that you cannot go too far wrong by playing "only" these hands, judiciously adding suited connectors and suited aces in the correct positions.

 

Beaten By Bigger

It occurred to me that one of the most frustrating times in poker is when you are beaten by a bigger hand when you make the hand you are trying to make.  Some examples that I thought about are:

Set over set
Straight beaten by a bigger straight
Flush beaten by a bigger flush
Full house beaten by a bigger full house
Top pair beaten by either a bigger kicker or a worse kicker that pairs

Probably the most frustrating to me is the bad kicker that lucks out.  Today, playing online I shoved under the gun with AA and the big stack overshoves with AQ, then another big stack calls with Q8.  A queen hits the flop and the turn is an 8.  Unbelievable!!!

In another tournament I raise with JJ and called by big stack.  Then another player shoves, I over shove and play him heads up when the big stack folds.  He has A10, hits a 10 on the flop and another on the turn.  I am now a fairly short stack.

Busted out of two tournaments online tonight.  The first one, I shove a fairly short stack with 3/3 and am overshoved by K/4 who is then called by A/5.  Good till river when a 4 hits.  Unbelievably bad play rewarded.

Next tournament 8/8 shoves, I call with A/A and another short stack calls with 6/8.  A flop of 5/9/x gives hope to the gutshot, but only a one outer can save the 8's.  He hits it on the river.  Unbelievable!!!

Back home tonight after two lightning trips to Seattle.  Mother & daughter doing o.k., Meg was readmitted to the hospital but seems to be recovering.  New granddaughter is beautiful, looks a lot like her dad.  Eva Venkatachalapathy is a sweetie!!! 

Thirsty? Have a Cooler.

Wow, playing well in a couple of online tournaments.  Enough chips to coast to the cash (one was a qualifier to an I-Pad tournament) when these situations came up.  The first one a big stack to my immediate right was raising nearly every blind.  Irritating.  Finally, he raised fairly big from the hijack (he was raising there too) and I called "BS" on him with my 6/6 by re-raising all-in.  He calls with K/K and I am bubbled out.  Not smart, but probably ahead of most hands he was raising with. 

The second one, there are 13 of us left and 10 get entry into the tournament for the I-Pad.  A big stack shoves and I wake up with Q/Q.  Instacall.  Oops, he has A/A.  Oh, well.

My day has been going like that.  The morning tournament I call a small bet from 10/9 with my 8/9 on a 9/7/5 flop.  Turn is my dream card, an 8.  He shoves and I call.  River is a 6 giving him a 10 high straight when he hits his gutshot.  Cash game a disaster.  Aces cracked twice, 2 flush draws came in on the river in big pots and set of queens busted by a rivered straight.   

Quick Seattle Trip

Yesterday while shopping at Fred Meyer we received a phone call from our son-in-law.  Our daughter, Meg was headed for the hospital.  She is 8 3/4 months pregnant so this is not unexpected.  However, she was very sick and felt "funny" but not having contractions.  They made the decision to perform a caesarean section as the baby was experiencing some stress.  We immediately drove home, packed and hit the road.  Baby Eva was born at around 2:00 while we arrived around 7:00 to see them.  Amy, our oldest daughter arrived earlier from Portland.  We are now getting geared up to visit this morning.  Mother & daughter are doing fine, she is a tad over 6 lbs. and is 18" long (I think).

Playing Too Late Online

Friendly tip to all you online players out there.  If you plan to be sharp the next day don't enter a tournament that begins at midnight.  Played in a tournament for a seat in the "Battle of the Generations".  The winners of the satellite tournaments (a few every day), will play for a big $500 prize in September.  There are representatives from each generation, boomers, gen x, etc.  I was just floating along, not many chips but hanging in there.  A few hands later I find myself on the final table.  Ultimately I end up heads-up and outchipped about 4 to 1.  Usually this is a death sentence, but the other player was unusually unagressive and I was able to get to about a 3/1 disadvantage when this hand happened.  I raised all in with 7/7 and was called by A/10 suited.  My 7's held up and now I was the chip leader.  Strangely, cause we had gone back and forth for at least 45 minutes the other player typed "too tired, posting blinds and going to bed".  Sure enough, they folded every hand and I won.  The time of completion?  Glad you asked.  3:00 a.m.  I am TOAST today!!!!

Don't Nag!!!

Horrible Week of Poker

This week has been an expensive poker week for me.  Starting on Sunday, very bad day.  No outstanding hands, just tons of bad beats, runners catching me, horrible calls (by the villains), draws failing to come in.  I should have seen the handwriting on the wall when very early in the game I raised to $12 and "Mr. Bling" (Mauro) calls me with A/2 vs. my JJ.  Flop is 2/2/6, I bet $20 to protect from over cards.  Ended up costing me about $70.

Yesterday was bad, but better than Sunday.  Playing in tournament had every bad beat imaginable from one horrible player.  Example:  Raised preflop with QJ.  Flop is Q/J/8.  I go all-in, called by the same donk chasing a flush draw to river for 1/2 his chips (he caught it) with K/9 suited.  He hits his 10 on the river to knock me out.  Only satisfaction was watching him bubble out.  Cash game no good.  Raised in late position with 6/7 suited and 5 callers.  Dream flop is 8/9/10 with two of a suite.  I bet $20 and am raised by Andrew.  I call.  He usually does not bet me heads up but does so when a queen hits on the turn.  I fold.  Later, talking with him he said he flopped the higher straight and raised to let me know where he was.

Today started much better.  Playing in the morning tournament after playing some on line tournaments to warm up (won or cashed in 2 out of 4 and hit a king high straight flush), I was confident the cards would turn in my favor.  Finally cashed with a 2nd place finish to Hal who caught a 6 with his K/6 suited call of my AQ shove.  The win was worth $140 (less $25 buy-in and $12 tip).  for a $108 win (including my $5 freeplay win).  Sitting in the cash game for an hour to get the free lunch I also won $57.  So, with some make up from my losses I now have to get busy and get to work. 

Stuck. A Buck. Just my luck.

Arriving late to the Legion tournament last night I was asked to deal as the usual dealers were not playing.  There were two tables set up with chips and another set up with no chips or chairs.  I thought that they meant the #3 table which probably would be used when a few more players arrived.  Not so.  With a packed 11 per table I was assigned to table 1, the final table.  Crud, that means I am here to the bitter end, with or without chips.  They hand me an envelope containing $20, which was the dealer tips from a few weeks ago when I dealt table 2.  Sweet, only stuck $20 pregame.

As a dealer I seldom give myself good cards, and this was no exception.  Got involved in a few hands with giant draws (straight and flush on one) and found myself short stacked.  Raising in late position with A/J, am called out of a blind by K/J.  The flop is J/10/3 and Gary leads out for about 2/3 of my chips.  No problem, I am "all-in".  Naturally, I deal him running kings to knock me out of the tournament and give him the high hand of the night, worth $44.  Shitty dealer!!!!  3 outer catches 2 outs.

Luckily, the tournament ended at a decent hour, about 10:30 and the tips were good, my share was $39, thus with my $40 buy-in, stuck a buck!  With my $20 from the last dealing I went home $19 richer than when I arrived.

Too Funny Picture

Yet Another 2nd Place Cash Finish

Played last night, way too late only to come in 2nd in a $10 cash tournament.  Took some incredibly bad beats, well make that lost coin tosses when I had a 3/1 chip advantage.

Example 1:  9/3 vs. 3/4  He hits his 4
Example 2:  QJ vs. 10/10  lost coin flip
Example 3:  You get the idea

I am just curious to see how they pay me the $10 bucks.  Check?  Money Order? Change?  It is not the money so much as the competition for me.  There were 164 players in this particular one, so 2nd place in a real tournament of this size would be a big win.  Quality of competition, well, you got me there.  Some real donks, but also some quality players.

Example of donks, playing in a $2000 qualifier round with 10 qualifying, we are down to 11 players and one guy just keeps shoving.  I am in #8 position, so am folding everything.  Finished in 7th place to win a seat.....the donk finished 10th.  Also won a seat, but could have turned out very bad for him. 

What Bugs Me

"Frogs get to eat what bugs them".

Having a discussion in the car with my wife today.  I have several (related) pet peeves.  I mentioned one, and in all fairness she has heard this many times so understandably she was not interested in hearing about it.  So, here is what bugs me:

1.  People taking too much time leaving their parking space when they see that you are waiting.  This is what set me off today, but it was a guy ahead of me getting gas at Costco.  With lines at every pump he took his sweet time loading two containers of gas, fishing keys out, chatting with attendent, and slowly pulling out.  There was a study done by a psychology professor about the parking phenomena of people taking longer when there are people waiting.  As I remember, it was something about territorialism.  It was shown that on average people take more time when there is a waiting person than when not. (update note:  see this study: 
http://scientopia.org/blogs/scicurious/2011/03/04/friday-weird-science-its-not-your-imagination-that-guy-really-is-taking-a-long-time-to-buckle-his-seatbelt/

2.  Folks meandering across the street while you wait in your car.  To me, if someone is waiting, you need to walk briskly, not stroll.  Today a lady hustled across the marked crosswalk when I stopped for her.  Thank you!!!!  This particular thing is really bad when the pedestrian is jaywalking.  WTF do they think they are doing?  On a related note, back in high school we used to do this to a jaywalking slow pedestrian.  You shift your car into neutral, rev your engine, and lock your brakes simultaneously.  This sounds exactly like a car wreck and I will guarantee that no matter how "cool" the stroller is, they will jump a foot off the ground.  First time my buddy Ron did this the guy almost crapped his pants. LOL!

3.  In general, this applies to items 1 & 2, I do not appreciate people who are oblivious to others and think only of themselves.  Thinking of how this applies to poker, how often do you see the guy who is waiting for the action to come to him and is placing an order for food or drink, making the whole table wait for him?  Talking too much?  Ditto.

Time for a poetic quotation.

Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel’s as others see us!

Robert Burns, 1759-1796

$25 Freeroll

Yes, I know the stakes are pathetic, $25 freeroll with only one top prize (points for tournament entries to top 20).  Over 400 entries, my expectations are very low.  Watch a guy at my table become the chip leader late in the tournament by calling multiple all-ins and winning with junk (J/8 took out 3 players).  Unbelievably, I hang in there only playing super premium hands and limping with less desirable hands in blinds and button.  We are down to 16 players (I am #12) when I pick up JJ and shove.  No takers but pick up blinds and antes.  Very next hand 5/5, shove again (only had about 10 big blinds).  One caller with A/Q.  I lose the flip and come in 15th.  Two hours of play for nothing but lousy points to try again.

I feel that I am playing very well as shown by my last 3 finishes and am super anxious to get in the tournament mix soon for real money!!!! 

Online Poker Wins

Playing in two qualifier tournaments last night on cardplayer.com, my new free poker site.  The first one was a direct qualifier into a $100 freeroll.  There were about 80 players.  Monster flop for me on the first hand.  I took out the first 4 players and became the chip leader.  Limping with A/10 of spades and at least 6 people seeing the flop, I flopped broadway with a K/Q/J flop and two diamonds, one spade.  The betting went:  100 from 7/9 of diamonds, call by K/3, call by K/J, and call by Q/Q.  I then raised it to 300 and all players flat called.  The turn was an 9 (of spades) giving me the flush draw as well as the made straight.  Again the flush draw bet 100 and everyone flat called to me.  I then shoved (starting stack of 2000) and unbelievably, all 4 players called.  I dodged the many bullets (K,Q,J, diamonds, 9) and suddenly had over 10,000 chips!  I coasted along, losing a couple of big pots but comfortably finishing 4th with top 10 qualifying for the freeroll.

Tournament #2, $500 freeroll with over 400 players.  Played tight, no huge hands that I remember and finished 4th with top 5 getting a seat.  Now the challenge is remembering to sign in when the big tournament runs.  

Don Poker in Maricopa

Had the opportunity this week to pay a short visit to my high school buddy, Don.  We had originally planned to play in a big tournament, but it began too soon after we arrived.  It is my mother's 85th birthday on Monday so that was the reason for my trip to Phoenix in the heat of summer (was well over 100 every day).  So, anyway, was able to squeeze a couple of hours away from family to see Don & Penny.  We had a nice, but too short visit and made some plans to do better next time.  It was great to see him and Helene later commented that we had the same passion for poker.  I really appreciate Don's thoughtful approach to the game and think we can help each other play better.  On a side note, the big tournament that I missed turned into a small win for Don, a couple of hundred dollars.  Would have really enjoyed being there and playing......gotta plan better next time for that.