tp's table talk

    “Announcing your plans is a good way to hear god laugh.”
      – Al Swearengen, “Deadwood”

Not much new happening at the tp table. Played some 25PL last night and had a decent $60 night. But nothing much to write about – though I did hit two more quads, making it three in two days.

What I have been doing is working on a longer post about poker, gambling and addiction. I’ve always been a bit worried about addiction, whether it be alcohol or gambling, because I’ve known a few people who’ve had problems. So, I’ve been working on putting together a bit of a self-analysis/commentary on the subject. And to prevent myself from putting it off too long, I’m mentioning it here to force myself to get it done. Of course, I’m not too worried about having a poker “problem”, but I am becoming a bit concerned about my blog addiction.

Another so-so day at the tables. Thankfully I had an old friend come say hello on IM and had a good time chatting, so it wasn’t a complete write-off. The deck contiues to be cold for me at Pacific 2/4 and I dropped another 12BB there before I gave up and focused on the 25PL at Intertops. I don’t know that I have ever been cold decked quite like this before. I think I won 2 in 2 hours, and they were pretty marginal hands.

My hands at 25PL were a different story. I received back-to-back pocket rockets for the first time ever and though I was able to hit a big pot with the first one, I only managed a few dollars with the second. I would have thought my betting would get no respect just after having the buried aces, but alas, people weren’t even willing to call bets for 2/3 the pot.

I hit another milestone however, as my bankroll now officially sits at 2008.53. That’s keeping to the pace I set in May (or a little ahead) so hopefully I’m looking at another good month. *knock on wood* But I am heading to a cottage for a week later in the month, so I may not reach the same mark. But as long as I continue to play solid poker, I’ll be happy.

With my new purchase, various sports, and a bout with the cold taking up a lot of time, I haven’t spent many hours at the poker tables for the majority of the week.

Thursday I dipped my toes in at the 50PL tables at Intertops. I’ve been running very well at the 25PL tables, so I thought it was time to take a shot. Well, it went extremely poorly as I managed to run through a buy-in and a half due to some bad play and a couple bad beats. But, it did make way for my best session at the 25PL tables when I went back later to make up for some of the loss. I finished the night at $152 at one table, $101 at a second and $36 at the third (which I started late). So, that was just shy of 4x my buy-in of $75 at all three tables. Not so bad, and more than enough to make up for my $80 loss earlier. Unfortunately, I hit sub-zero cards at the 2/4 table at Pacific and managed to pay most of those profits back in blinds. Unlike my usual cold cards, there were no beats, there was just three hours with maybe 4 legitimate starting hands that missed so badly I had to give them up before the river. Usually I get a few bad beats thrown in there when my cards are cold, but there wasn’t even anything to compete with.

My games yesterday were not much more profitable as I finished my hands at Paradise to unlock the last 5 dollars of my bonus. Of course, I managed to lose twice as much as I unlocked in bonus. The site was full of maniacs and few of my hands held up. But, I did get a 1-year subscription to Canadian Card Player out of the deal, so I’ll consider it breaking even.

I also had a completely crazy hand at Poker Stars. I find AA in the small blind and it’s raised ahead of me. I re-raise to try to thin the field further and the big blind caps it. We’re down to three for the flop (the original raiser called the re-raises while the rest of the field decided that the extra two bets weren’t worth calling). The flop comes rainbow rags and I bet out, raised from the big blind, I re-raise, he caps. At this point I start to wonder what he might have. Possibly a set, but I’m thinking overpair is more likely. Suits me fine and when the turn comes out a brick and I bet. Called again by both players. An offsuit ten on the turn and there are no flush opportunities and a couple unlikely straights. So, I bet and am called down again. He had 75s and hit two pair on the flop. I couldn’t even conceive of not only calling 2 extra bets from the big blind but capping with this hand. Oh well, I suppose he’ll be donating to my bankroll in the long run, but I had been anticipating picking up a fair sized pot on this hand. I guess my hand reading skills need work.

I also just finished reading Cloutier & McEvoy’s Championship No-limit and Pot-limit Hold’em. It was alright. Not many new insights although I found Cloutier’s suggestions on playing risk prevention poker in tournaments interesting. Of course, it’s difficult to apply to the crazy world of internet poker due to the sheer amount of poor play, but I have been finding recently that sometimes it is just better not to get involved with some situations because anything short of the perfect flop will leave a lot of questions about where you stand.

When I got in this morning I found a nice hefty box sitting on my desk. I pulled out a handy exacto-knife and extracted my prize. A nice shiny new 300 11.5g Poker Chipset in aluminum case from Poker Source Online that I received for signing up at Aztec Poker (which I won’t link, because there isn’t much to recommend them). Of course, I had no real pressing need for more chips or a fancy case, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. And I ended up with an extra $30 at Aztec to play with. Unfortunately, raked hands at Aztec means hands that were raked that YOU contributed money too, so the 150 hands required took a long time to play. At least they dropped it from 250, as the original terms stated.

But while I can’t recommend the poker site, the Poker Source Online folks were great. There was a quick response to every question I had and they helped resolve any issue I had. I just wish I wasn’t already signed up at Pacific so I could take advantage of their deal for the WPT Season 1 DVDs, since despite the site’s other drawbacks, it at least has incredibly soft games to recommend it. There are probably better deals if you have a lot of money to deposit to take advantage of the various 15-50% bonuses at many sites, but there is something about receiving free loot in the mail (and I’m still expecting a book from my sign-up with Poker Stars, which also took advantage of the 25% back-to-back champs offer). If you do end up signing up via Poker Source Online, you can use my referral code (TravisP).

Ack…my first real shill. Leaves a dirty taste in my mouth. But, I’d already written the post, and if anyone decides to try it, someone might as well get the referral bonus.

Well, it looks like I took notes for the wrong tournament. I went out early in the 15+1.50 $10000 guaranteed tourney at Pacific by managed to make it deep in $250 NLHE freeroll at Intertops. It’s getting to the point where even if I finish first in the $250 freeroll, there’s a good chance I would have made more money playing ring games. But, it is practice, and I can use some of that if I want to keep playing in the multi-table tournaments. After some so-so play in the first two hours, I managed to turn it around, catch some lucky cards, and arrive at the final table with nearly a third of all the chips. I put some pressure on the smaller stacks trying to sneak into the better money (it wasn’t until 4th place that payouts were greater than $20). My luck holds and I end up heads-up with fairly even chips.

The first hand I steal, the second he folds to my big blind. This could take a while and I’m already falling asleep at my keyboard. Then I get 88. I call, he raises, I re-raise him all-in. I want this over with. Unfortunately, he mucks. Next hand I have 77 and I re-raise all-in. I figure he’s not going to believe me doing this twice in a row. He calls with AJ and we have a race. It’s looking good until he spikes a J on the river. Now I’m less than 10% of his stack. So you know what that means. I push all-in with Q9 and he folds. I push all-in with A7 and he calls with JT. Unfortunately, my luck again breaks when he hits a T on the river. I’m out in second place, but I’m grateful that the heads-up confrontation didn’t take any longer, which it certainly could have with blinds at T500/T1000 and our stacks at T80000.

So, I earned $38.75 finishing 2nd of 162. This is the second time I’ve cashed in about 4-5 freerolls at Intertops. And two of those probably don’t count because they were limit tourneys and I don’t seem to have the discipline anymore for a limit tournament. So, not too bad. And combined with some time on the 25PL tables at Intertops and Pacific 2/4, I had roughly a 100 dollar night. Which is a good thing, because I plunked down a good chunk of change on a new toy last night. But more about that later.

Played at Paradise and Stars .5/1 on Sunday to work towards my bonuses. Played 2/4 Pacific for pure profit. The crazy loose players at Paradise continued to smack me around, but I managed to turn a small profit after the bonus there. My afternoon at Stars was about average, but I was hit with the deck in my evening session and managed a nice $67 profit. Pacific 2/4 continued to be an ATM and I managed to pull out 60 bucks between server disconnects.

But the big game was the 10K guaranteed no-limit hold’em tournament at Pacific. 15+1.50 buyin. Actually ended up with 620 entrants, so the overlay was pretty small. When I registered earlier in the day there were only 93, which obviously had me pretty excited. Still, it’s a big tournament and I was interested to see how I can do. 1st-2nd-3rd pays 2300-1400-700. Pretty flat, but it pays $40 out to 60th, so there’s a decent chance at money. The structure is pretty fast, with 800 in starting chips and blinds rising every ten minutes.

10/20
JJ, raise to T50 from EP. One caller, undercard flop with 2 diamonds. I bet the pot and take it down.
Manage to give most of those chips back when I lose the next hand.

15/30
44, try to limp from EP. Big blind raises to T300. I fold. Would have flopped the set and filled the boat on the turn. But, the blind did have 77, so I was a big dog pre-flop.
15 minutes in and we’ve lost our first 100.

25/50
Down to T670 thanks to the blinds and a few disconnects. Pacific has to be one of the flakiest sites out there. Had a bad table move from button to UTG.
25 minutes, down to 417

50/100
Only have T585 left. Still haven’t seen any kind of hand since the 44. Gonna need to make a move soon.
AJs in the big blind, 3 limpers. I push all-in for the rest of my chips. Two fold immediately and the small blind eventually decides to let it go. I’ll take it.
AA and the short stack pushes all-in in front of me. I just call and as expected everyone folds. T403 comes my way when the rockets hold up. Could probably have made a bit more off it if he hadn’t pushed, but I can’t really complain.
37 minutes – 303 players remaining.
Took a few hits, need some more chips.

75/150
Fast structure, hope I get some hands before I don’t have chips to back ’em up.
Lucked out and someone went out passing the BB over me. Don’t know why most sites don’t play with a dead small blind, but I’m not going to complain.
Argh…another disconnect, going to miss my button.
QJ in EP, try to raise to T400, but only double the blind. BB calls. Flop comes 2A9, 2 diamonds. Well, I don’t figure him for an ace, so I push all-in with my remaining T575 as if I’m guarding against the flush draw. He mucks.
Now up to T1173 after being hit with the small blind. Still not much breathing room.
49 minutes, 212 left

100/200
It would be nice to get a hand here. Unfortunately, Pacific is not cooperating and I see nothing this level.
First break, only T873 left. And 191 players. I have a whole orbit before the blinds to try to find the cards to make a stand.

150/300
Two hands before the blind hits me and I fold K2. Flop comes 242. I needed to take that opportunity. Particularly as the buffer I had before the blinds went all-in and busted.
BB with J8o, have to push. Called by KT and my night is over.

Well, that a quick 7 levels of tournament poker. But, I like the buy-in and the stakes. And if I’d held just a couple more hands, I would have had a decent shot at the money. And if I’d had a few chips to play with, it would have allowed me to make a few more moves. Checking the tournament schedule, it seems that Pacific holds these 10K guaranteed all the time, so I’m definitely going to try to take a few more shots at it.

It’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight with the Calgary Flames visitng the Tampa Bay Lightning. I’m cheering for Calgary, but at this point, I think both teams are very deserving and it could go either way. What I do know for a fact is that it’s going to be one hell of a game and I’ll be enjoying it with friends at a local pub.

GO FLAMES!

Went out to watch the Flames game at a bar last night. Was a very exciting match but St. Louis’ goal 33 seconds into the second period of overtime means we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see the Cup hoisted. Of course, a hockey game in a bar means beer, lots of beer. And two periods of overtime means it keeps flowing into the wee hours. Suffice to say, when I came home, I still had quite the buzz going on.

So, I decided to sober up at the poker tables. Maybe not the best idea, but I needed to kill time until I was ready for sleep. I actually ended up at a table with Ash from Casino Gosain last night, or should I say this morning. He identified me under one of my name variants, but he had to drop me a comment here before I figured out who he was. It’s always a great night when you get to chat with a fellow poker blogger at the table. Fortunately he wasn’t around to witness my horrible beats at the other table. I did manage to recover to post a small $1.50 lost on the night as the sun was coming up. Ugh. I’ll have to remember “less beer” on Monday.

Same table, 33 again. I actually call a pre-flop raise. Flop comes 399 rainbow. I call someone else’s bet. Turn is a rainbow blank. I call again. River is another blank and I reraise for a decent pot. Not enough to make up for some of the nonsense I’ve seen tonight, but at least I’m not down nearly 20BB anymore. Ouch…while I’ve liked the larger 2/4 BB when I’m winning, it also hurts a bit more when I’m losing.

33, call from UTG. Flop comes J3J. Check for the possible check raise. Turn comes J. Well, no more dicking around, I bet here. I am called. The river is a 4. I bet and am beat by the 42o that has called all the bets so far. 42o! Someone for the love of god, please explain. *sigh* It’s late. I’m still a bit drunk. And the Flames lost. (all somewhat related) How does that happen? Even more frustrating than starting a table with KK and running into AA (which I’ve also done tonight).