OhCaptain Poker

The Details Are Up! #wpbt

2009-11-09T21:00:00.003-06:00

Poker writing has been a bit absent from my life lately. It's mostly because I have had precious little to do much playing and I doubt anyone comes here for the up to the minute WSOP Main Event news. If you are, why aren't you reading this, or this. Although on that subject, I thoroughly enjoyed the Bluff Magazine live broadcast when Joe Sebok and Annie Duke were doing it. They did a fantastic job of describing the action on the felt. After the dinner break, I missed who was doing it, but they sucked.

So what's up with the title of this post??? The details of the Winter Gathering tournament are up!!! April got the details done and if you haven't already RSVP'ed the YES that you know you want to do, then head over and find out how! Um, did you miss the link? It's right here...http://www.thisisnotapokerblog.com/?p=755

The Main Event is gonna start some time after I fall asleep tonight. Friggin' Pacific Standard Time. Night all!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T08:00:00.000-05:00

Presto is not gold - presto hates me

2009-10-22T09:19:00.002-05:00

I sat back down to the felt on Tuesday night exercising my weekly hall pass to get out of the house unchaperoned by the Mrs and kids. I was still feeling the pain of having played poorly at state and decided before the first hand was dealt, I was going to play a bit unorthodox, well, at least for me. I really just wanted to get my gambool on.

I did just that and I have to tell you, shoving K8o into JJ is a lot of fun, especially when that beautiful king in the door shows it's face.

Normally, at league, I play a very tight and conservative game. I think my record is not playing a single hand in the first hour and a half. Most of the time, this strategy works. The loose/passive play gets into serious trouble when I still have most of my starting stack and double through the likes of Q4h, but I the take away I'm taking from Saturday is I need to be able to switch gears and play a different style when the need arises.

I've been really enjoying the Yahoo Messenger app on the iPhone. Chatting with other donkeys while playing poker can be very rewarding. Waffles was playing online and chatting telling me the stories of being sucked out again for the billionth time that night, all the while, I was shoving 10 3s into a paired board with two spades on it. It was so fun to hit that 5th spade on the turn. The dude that called my all-in flopped two pair with his 10 9. I had to ask, why would you call an all in with pair of 9s and a 10 kicker? He figured I was on a draw, which I was, but failed to realize that while yes, I was drawing to a flush, and a back door straight and had an over card, it's damn near a coin flip and I was getting my gambool on. Cha ching.

By some miracle, I made my way to the final table. I was basically freerolling and enjoying a night away from the grind of tight/aggression. I figured I made it this far, I might as well play good poker now. Chipping up a little more, we whittled the table down to 5 people.

From under the gun, I did a standard 3X raise with the hand of the devil. I know, final table I should just muck AQo, it can't possibly win. The big blind calls. The flop comes J76 rainbow. Looking at the dude, he missed it completely but shoves all in. Me, being pulled by the devil to misplay this hand, knew that since he missed this flop, I must be good...he couldn't have a medium pair...

Unlike Fuel55 (posting soon?), presto was not gold for me but it was, however, gold for the dude holding it across the table from me. Friggin' donkey.

Can't you smell that smell

2009-10-19T15:24:00.002-05:00

Saturday, I headed up to play in the state tournament for my bar poker league. I was pumped, I was psyched and I really had no idea how to play poker once the tournament began. Well, I might have known a little but that's not really how it looked in hind sight.

Curiosity (got a blog yet?) chimed in on one hand that precipitated my decline. She was the "villain" (actually seemed like a pretty nice person, but in forum lingo...she was not me) in basically the first hand I entered from a spot other then the big blind.

Take a deep breath and a step back and let's luck at my plan for the day. My plan was to play the first 190 knockouts as a satellite. The top 20 spots pay the same, so that's a completely valid strategy. To get there, I was going to play tight/aggressive poker like it was my job. Same way I play a token frenzy. Reality was a little different. It's how I played, but I failed to account for two things: 25 minute blinds and mostly passive pre-flop pay.

First problem: 25 minute blinds. This is way more like a turbo then anything. Even with the great Drizz dealing, no way my 10,000 charting chips last long folding like it's my job.

Second problem: really it was an opportunity: passive pre-flop play. There was a lot of people putting money in to see flops. Now, in some tournaments, this would be something of an opportunity to turn on the heat, but this is also a freeroll with a variety of skill levels. Seeing the river is almost a certainty.

I never called an audible and changed the plan. Damn it. I seriously thought about playing more flops from position but I really didn't want to risk chips for later when I would get a better hand, but considering that better hand never came, I'll play for about 4-5 hours for nothin'.

The hand Curiosity was talking about in the comment had to do with a the first big hand I got dealt, KK. A nice hand, even raised it up good pre-flop. Drizz put the Ace out there and I got quite cranky. I knew I was probably beat, but had to know for sure. That value bet on the river was too tempting to not call. It was pretty much how my day would go. Before 1st break, I played a bit more, lost with AK a couple of times to a smaller ace, thus the "Can't beat ace rag..." headline.

These tournaments can be so frustrating, adapting to them has always been a challenge for me. Play too tight, get crazy later, or start a little crazy and stay there. I just never know when to switch.

I stole blinds for quite awhile, hovering right around half a starting stack all day. Never really regaining ground or losing ground.

Much of this post game time has been spent thinking about how I could have improved my game and gotten deeper. Being able to switch gears and finding other spots to gamble would probably be a good place to start. Patience can only get me so far.

My quote of the day came from the lady that devastated my stack. It wasn't so much that she called me, I can see doing it too, but her words just took my breath away.

The blinds were at 600/1200, I'm under the gun. I open raise to 4200 which was just more then half my stack. I think I had around 7700. This bet size had been fairly effective at stealing enough blinds to keep me treading water for a while. It folds around to the little blind. She starts counting out her chips. I'm pretty sure the big blind is just waiting his turn to fold, he can't wait to release.

While counting her chips, she starts talking out loud:

Do I double up now or wait for later. Hm. I know I have you beat because there's no hand you'd raise with that could beat me. I have to be ahead, but do I want you to draw out on me.

If she's got kings or aces, so be it, but what in God's name is taking her so long to do this? Is she slow rolling me with aces?

The fact was she was ahead, I had AKs. All she needs is a pair to be statistically ahead. She moves all-in for her remaining 7,300. I'm not folding here anyways, so I call. Her hand? 55. Presto. The collective jaws on the table hit the floor. The guy on the button asks, "Ma'am, why would you possibly think that no one would raise with a hand that could beat you?"

Her reply, "Ha, this is a pocket pair. Not likely anyone would have anything bigger then this."

Sigh. The poker gods did hate me so, flop came King high. Yep out flopped her, but the 3 diamonds lead to her hitting the turn diamond flush. Poker can be so cruel.

One thing I took away from this was the complete lack of live tournament play over the last year. I don't think I've played a live tournament outside of the bar league Tuesday night game or whiskey club since the Winter Gathering. This has got to change. Anyone borrow me a few hours every week? Sit-n-gos are forming at the casino near me and I need to be there.

Back to the studying this crazy game. Another Tuesday night league is starting tomorrow.

I'm out :-(

2009-10-17T16:41:00.001-05:00

Couldn't win a flip or even a 4:1 favorite to save my life. Better luck next time I guess. Thanks for all the support. It's time for dinner with the mrs.

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

You can't out flop ace rag

2009-10-17T14:08:00.001-05:00

Been pretty brutal so far. Played three hands in 2 hours and have 5550 left. Drizz just can't deal me anything. Ugh. Thankfully, he can't resist the call of the Pai Gow. No dealer after the break. Need some mojo soon.

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Shuffle up and deal

2009-10-17T12:18:00.002-05:00

It's starting a little late but I did find Drizz and um he's dealing at my table. The format is two satellites. We play down to 20 and then play to 9 with the top 9 going to Vegas. As soon as I know the number of entries, I'll be able to do my satellite math.

Time to shuffle up and deal.

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Now, where's Drizz?

2009-10-17T09:47:00.000-05:00

Made to to Running Aces Harness Park. Not a bad drive at all. Gonna walk around and check the place out. Time to relax and find my game face!

-- Posted from my cell phone that starts with the i.

Tomorrow is the big day.

2009-10-16T15:15:00.004-05:00

Back in the day, you know, all of 2 and half years ago, I started this blog with Bodie25. Back then, the idea was to chronicle my rise to poker greatness by winning the Minnesota Poker League state tournament. Yeah, delusions, but delusions can keep us warm at night...just say'in.

So here we are, October and two years older. Yippee ding. My dad always says, "You are only as old as who you feel..." and thankfully OhCountess isn't old yet :-D but maybe I am wiser then I was back then. I've learned a lot about my poker game and the game itself.

Way back in August, I wrote a quick post about winning my bar poker league. Fun times. Tomorrow, I head up to Running Aces Harness Track for the state tournament.

I'm actually feeling fairly confident in my live game right now. To win the league, I did it quite convincingly. Check this out. You get 20 points for showing up. Depending on the number of people (we averaged 32) you get points for placing in the top 30%. Example: for the first week of this league session, there were 36 people. 11 people made the points, 11th got 61, first got 201. I finished the 8 weeks with 798 points, 2X1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th winning the 8 week session by 82 points. The even cooler part of this run, the total promotion was 16 weeks, with two 8 week sessions. The guy that with the most points total for the 16 weeks beat me by 13 points and showed up for every single week. Why is that cool? I missed 5 weeks of the first session and by miss I mean, I wasn't there. Show up for one more night, I win that too.

Rumor has it that this tournament's structure is gonna be a bizarre mix of tournament strategies. All the contestants will start with 10,000 chips and play down to 20 people, at which time, the tournament will be reset and we start over and play to the grand prize. I'm thinking I probably play phase 1 like a satellite and phase 2 like a 2 table sit-n-go. Thoughts?

This is my 3rd trip to the state tournament for a promotion. I think I've learned a lot about these things, I've also played more casino tournaments since then. Normally, I'm quite nervous heading into these. No idea why, but I was. Today, I'm pretty calm and actually mostly just excited to go. I'm really looking for to hooking up with Drizz as this place is right in his Minnesota relative backyard (relative backyard here is a bit larger then other places...). Gonna try me a nice cocktail before it's shuffle up and deal time. I think he's also promised to harass the other people at my table while being an obnoxiously drunk railbird. My guess, he finds a juicy PLO game and cleans the burbs of their milk money.

So, consider this a warning, if past performances are any indication, if my phone is working and with a functioning battery, I'll posting and tweeting up a storm tomorrow. Let's hope it goes on for hours!

What a game

2009-10-07T07:39:00.002-05:00

What a game. My hat goes off to the Tigers, this is probably the most exciting baseball game I have ever seen. I took an absolute ton of pictures and have many stories to tell, but alas, 12 innings and a really long drive home makes me really sleepy and way behind. For the moment, I'll just enjoy the moment.