Yes, I've succumbed to the evil empire and am starting to add friends. I haven't verified my account yet so it's tossing me the two-word verification box. For April's, it tossed me "shipped" and "$600".
In her dreams. Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Donking Your Way to Fun and Profit
Long-time readers of this blog know I have a healthy aversion to a certain starting hand in no-fold'em-hold'em, that being A-Q. While there are times that I'll play the hand as if it was aces, I've had so much bad luck with it, like Doyle Brunson, that I just won't play it hard a lot of the time. (It's about the only thing Doyle's game and mine have in common, by the way.)
But last night, I donked my way to victory with it.
'Twas the $2,500 Guarantee at Merge, a habitual stomping ground of mine. I've played very little overall the last two months; though I've always had decent success here, my sum total of poker on the network in the last three-weeks-plus has been six MTTs and a single paltry sit-'n'-go. No cash play whatsoever. Busy times.
Last night, though, I found myself with a couple of free hours and fired up the old $2,500. I was fortunate to double up early, then did nothing for at least an hour as a good chunk of the field passed me by. With the top ten cashing, I found myself bouncing between 13th and 17th and in desperate need of a double-up. It turned out I picked up not one but two double-ups as the final table approached, getting the chips in good both times and having the hands hold up.
Once in a while it's nice to run well.
I got to the final table fourth or fifth in chips and in no huge hurry, with an aggressive leader captaining the table and two or three extreme short stacks in need of departure times. Then I picked up pocket kings and dispatched one of the not-short stacks, who had pushed from the under the gun with pocket tens. My kings held and I was near the lead, and I stayed there, swapping the top spot with zgfjsh, the earlier leader, until we were down to four. Then he took a big pot to move out in front, and when we got down to three I was narrowly in third place, though not in terrible shape. Zgfjsh was on my right and MK-something was on my left, and they'd both shown a tendency to push hard at perceived weakness. I used that against the MK-something guy when I found another monster pair and let him get it all in on a 9-high flop. Soon enough we were down to two of us, me and zgfjsh.
I had perhaps 70 big blinds, zgfjsh 60 or 65, when the final hand arrived. I was on the bottom and found A-Q, my long-time nemesis. I raised three times zg's big blind, and he called. He had shown a tendency to three-bet with his big hands so I was pretty sure he didn't have a monster, but instead had something he wanted to see a flop with it.
The flop came 7d-Jd-Qc, I believe. (It was definitely two-suited though I forget which suit.) He checked, I bet about pot, and he check-raised me for about two-thirds of his stack.
Hmmmm, what does he have? I don't think he has an overpair, and I don't think he'd check-raise me on the flop with a set, so again, what's he have? To me the options are total air, a strong semi-bluff hand such as two diamonds or K-10 or 10-9, a hand I beat or tie such as A-Q, K-Q or A-J, or possibly two pair. He's aggressive enough to check-raise with total air, so that's a factor here. Given that I've ruled out the set, two pair is the only holding that beats me. I hate A-Q, and top-pair/top-kicker is foldable with as many chips as we have. And yet... I figure I'm ahead of his likely range. The pot-commit bet of his is as likely to be a ruse as not, too. I'm pretty sure it's the flush draw, so I jam... and he of course calls, being pot-committed.
Turns out I was wrong. He shows J-7 for bottom two and my A-Q is in trouble. It's okay, though, since the turn is a five and the river another five, and I donk out a better two pair and the victory.
See, you don't have to be good all the time. Being lucky after coming to the wrong decision works once in a while, too.
But last night, I donked my way to victory with it.
'Twas the $2,500 Guarantee at Merge, a habitual stomping ground of mine. I've played very little overall the last two months; though I've always had decent success here, my sum total of poker on the network in the last three-weeks-plus has been six MTTs and a single paltry sit-'n'-go. No cash play whatsoever. Busy times.
Last night, though, I found myself with a couple of free hours and fired up the old $2,500. I was fortunate to double up early, then did nothing for at least an hour as a good chunk of the field passed me by. With the top ten cashing, I found myself bouncing between 13th and 17th and in desperate need of a double-up. It turned out I picked up not one but two double-ups as the final table approached, getting the chips in good both times and having the hands hold up.
Once in a while it's nice to run well.
I got to the final table fourth or fifth in chips and in no huge hurry, with an aggressive leader captaining the table and two or three extreme short stacks in need of departure times. Then I picked up pocket kings and dispatched one of the not-short stacks, who had pushed from the under the gun with pocket tens. My kings held and I was near the lead, and I stayed there, swapping the top spot with zgfjsh, the earlier leader, until we were down to four. Then he took a big pot to move out in front, and when we got down to three I was narrowly in third place, though not in terrible shape. Zgfjsh was on my right and MK-something was on my left, and they'd both shown a tendency to push hard at perceived weakness. I used that against the MK-something guy when I found another monster pair and let him get it all in on a 9-high flop. Soon enough we were down to two of us, me and zgfjsh.
I had perhaps 70 big blinds, zgfjsh 60 or 65, when the final hand arrived. I was on the bottom and found A-Q, my long-time nemesis. I raised three times zg's big blind, and he called. He had shown a tendency to three-bet with his big hands so I was pretty sure he didn't have a monster, but instead had something he wanted to see a flop with it.
The flop came 7d-Jd-Qc, I believe. (It was definitely two-suited though I forget which suit.) He checked, I bet about pot, and he check-raised me for about two-thirds of his stack.
Hmmmm, what does he have? I don't think he has an overpair, and I don't think he'd check-raise me on the flop with a set, so again, what's he have? To me the options are total air, a strong semi-bluff hand such as two diamonds or K-10 or 10-9, a hand I beat or tie such as A-Q, K-Q or A-J, or possibly two pair. He's aggressive enough to check-raise with total air, so that's a factor here. Given that I've ruled out the set, two pair is the only holding that beats me. I hate A-Q, and top-pair/top-kicker is foldable with as many chips as we have. And yet... I figure I'm ahead of his likely range. The pot-commit bet of his is as likely to be a ruse as not, too. I'm pretty sure it's the flush draw, so I jam... and he of course calls, being pot-committed.
Turns out I was wrong. He shows J-7 for bottom two and my A-Q is in trouble. It's okay, though, since the turn is a five and the river another five, and I donk out a better two pair and the victory.
See, you don't have to be good all the time. Being lucky after coming to the wrong decision works once in a while, too.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Long Time No Post
Little to report on from my ever-rare excursions to the felt, hence the momentary downtime in spewing pixels. I tried the first of the BBT events a couple of weeks back, but went out early after getting all the chips in good against Missy Hoy early on. I flopped a straight while he flopped top set, and the chips went in on the turn. He then caught a queen on the river for quads and used my chips as part of his rush to riches.
So be it.
February pretty much sucked for me that way, pokerwise. I took a few shots, both live and online, and... nada. My Stars account went into a rough stretch as well, with a tough run in turbos, MTTs and cash games causing an overall 25% drop in my bankroll there last month. More, actually, if you count a nice coupon that I took one of those shots with, and went nowhere.
The last week to ten days, then, has been a process of grinding it back up. And so I have, returning to those 18-player turbos where I have a consistent edge. I fire up three or four at a time and replace as needed, usually with a TV or something on in the background. The result: I should be able to sample a few SCOOP events as time allows.
I've noticed, though, that the tight focus on the smaller turbos often takes just a bit of my edge off in some of the larger MTTs. Between the time demands of late for the work stuff, and perhaps just a bit of tilt, I hadn't been showing the patience needed to run deep in anything with a big field. Big MTTs can require giving up big hands once in a while, and I've been way too willing to donk it up with TPTK of late. In the small turbos that's generally a hand to go to war with, but not necessarily so in MTTs, at least not until the average stack drops below 20 big blinds or so and it's reduced to one- or two-move poker.
I've noticed a fresh surge of bad players of late, populating the turbos. I've also noticed an uptick at lower and mid levels of a certain type of turbo player, who plays ultra tight early on, not getting into any hands in the first three levels or so without a veritable monster. In addition, if they do play anything early on, they're coming in for a raise of eight or nine times the big blind, with an example being open-raising 250 at the 15/30 level. With starting stacks of 1,500 in these things, what they're trying to do is induce chasers with hands such as middle pairs and A-Q and A-J and the like, all while denying proper post-flop odds in most circumstances to crack a monster pair. Sooner or later, of course, someone will look them up, and if it turns out they've been overraising with the suspected monster, it's note time.
I make that special note whenever I see one of these players, because if they're willing to lay out their early game plan so plainly, I can take chips from them. I'll show them due respect later on in the turbos, but whenever I know what they're up to, I have the edge. Edge means chips, chips mean money. Easy formula.
So be it.
February pretty much sucked for me that way, pokerwise. I took a few shots, both live and online, and... nada. My Stars account went into a rough stretch as well, with a tough run in turbos, MTTs and cash games causing an overall 25% drop in my bankroll there last month. More, actually, if you count a nice coupon that I took one of those shots with, and went nowhere.
The last week to ten days, then, has been a process of grinding it back up. And so I have, returning to those 18-player turbos where I have a consistent edge. I fire up three or four at a time and replace as needed, usually with a TV or something on in the background. The result: I should be able to sample a few SCOOP events as time allows.
I've noticed, though, that the tight focus on the smaller turbos often takes just a bit of my edge off in some of the larger MTTs. Between the time demands of late for the work stuff, and perhaps just a bit of tilt, I hadn't been showing the patience needed to run deep in anything with a big field. Big MTTs can require giving up big hands once in a while, and I've been way too willing to donk it up with TPTK of late. In the small turbos that's generally a hand to go to war with, but not necessarily so in MTTs, at least not until the average stack drops below 20 big blinds or so and it's reduced to one- or two-move poker.
I've noticed a fresh surge of bad players of late, populating the turbos. I've also noticed an uptick at lower and mid levels of a certain type of turbo player, who plays ultra tight early on, not getting into any hands in the first three levels or so without a veritable monster. In addition, if they do play anything early on, they're coming in for a raise of eight or nine times the big blind, with an example being open-raising 250 at the 15/30 level. With starting stacks of 1,500 in these things, what they're trying to do is induce chasers with hands such as middle pairs and A-Q and A-J and the like, all while denying proper post-flop odds in most circumstances to crack a monster pair. Sooner or later, of course, someone will look them up, and if it turns out they've been overraising with the suspected monster, it's note time.
I make that special note whenever I see one of these players, because if they're willing to lay out their early game plan so plainly, I can take chips from them. I'll show them due respect later on in the turbos, but whenever I know what they're up to, I have the edge. Edge means chips, chips mean money. Easy formula.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Looking for Solutions
One of these days, I'm a-gonna recapture my magic at the table. I thought I had turned the corner earlier this month, but an extended downswing in the last week has me right back to square one.
I'm also going to switch up the sites I play on, although its been rare of late when I've had the chance to play. Since I'm on this slide at Stars and Merge recently, and I'm saving my meager Tilt 'roll for some of those BBT4 thingies, I plan on sampling several poker tournaments at Bodog in the near future. As always, the overlays there are nice, and there's something to be said about factoring in overlay existence as part of proper game selection.
I'm also going to switch up the sites I play on, although its been rare of late when I've had the chance to play. Since I'm on this slide at Stars and Merge recently, and I'm saving my meager Tilt 'roll for some of those BBT4 thingies, I plan on sampling several poker tournaments at Bodog in the near future. As always, the overlays there are nice, and there's something to be said about factoring in overlay existence as part of proper game selection.
Friday, February 13, 2009
There Comes a Time
The poker world is quite volatile. I'm sipping a few beers this evening, playing a couple of SNGs out of boredom. Not really enjoying them. For the first time in my life, I really don't want much to do at the moment with poker. Dreaming of other things, because somewhere over the last however long, it just became the gig.
I had thought about moving out to Vegas. I've decided against that for now, in the midst of a lot of the economic hardships facing the world. It's not a good town for me anyway; I tend to walk around with a low-grade agitation usually exacerbated by the workers who treat their customers' money with a sense of entitlement. In five days in the Gold Coast, I walked out on two different would-be meals and a drink due to utterly non-existent service. It's their loss, I figure, because if I get even halfway decent service, I tip really well.
It's still one up on last year when my meal at Ping Pang Pong featured a side of Chicken Fried Hair.
This year's stay featured three days of intermittent internet due to a broken cable, but at least they were good enough to make a bill adjustment. Better than the fuckknobs at Budget Rent-A-Car. I'll share the best scam ever with y'all here. I ordered a special debit card for use with my rental car, and I received the card I was pleased to discover that it had rental collision insurance, allowing one to escape (without penalty) the $23-and-change Budget wants to pad the daily bill with.
So I try to decline, and I'm then handed a special $39 "downtime" daily charge that Budget has instituted in Vegas and four other cities, which allows them to bill for time a car is disabled and unable to be rented. This fee, of course, is waived if you buy the $23 insurance from Budget and not use your card waiver.
Can you say "scam"? I thought you could. Interesting that this special downtime charge is not mentioned anywhere on the Budget website.
I looked at a few apartments while there and was pretty disinterested with what I saw. The one-bedrooms within a couple miles of the Strip are crap and the better ones farther south are expensive. Yet another incentive to not move there.
I was disappointed at how few people I ran into that I knew. I met up with Schecky and Harold Check on Friday at the Bellagio, and I guess Michalski saw me playing at some point. I ran into Michalski two days later at the WSOP Academy when I bopped over to say hi to the folks I know there -- Brandon and Alex and Mark. Had a nice chat with Michalski but that was about it for the weekend.
The best angleshoot I saw on the weekend was from an Aussie guy named Graham in Thursday's event. He tried to run a bluff but ran into a rivered flush from a guy who wasn't going away. This Graham guy bet the river, was called, said "You win," mucked his hand, and convinced the newbie that he indeed had to show his hand (7-5 of the flush-making hearts) to claim the pot. LOL that. He called the clock on me in a different hand a little later, after about 60 seconds of pondering in a big hand, flashed his aces at me after I folded, then had the audacity to ask what I'd folded.
Nice try, sir. Try that somewhere else. I had a pure math question since I'd seen the flop with 7-7 and the flop came 8-6-5. It was a close decision but a correct fold, which I noodled out about the same time he clocked me. Doubly correct considering the weaker players at the table.
So I waited most of the minute anyway. He turned out to be a decent enough guy to talk to but I was secretly pleased when he went to the rail in a 50,000 pot the next day, when we ended up at the same table again. All in preflop, his aces were cracked by A-K. Karma that, baybee.
I had thought about moving out to Vegas. I've decided against that for now, in the midst of a lot of the economic hardships facing the world. It's not a good town for me anyway; I tend to walk around with a low-grade agitation usually exacerbated by the workers who treat their customers' money with a sense of entitlement. In five days in the Gold Coast, I walked out on two different would-be meals and a drink due to utterly non-existent service. It's their loss, I figure, because if I get even halfway decent service, I tip really well.
It's still one up on last year when my meal at Ping Pang Pong featured a side of Chicken Fried Hair.
This year's stay featured three days of intermittent internet due to a broken cable, but at least they were good enough to make a bill adjustment. Better than the fuckknobs at Budget Rent-A-Car. I'll share the best scam ever with y'all here. I ordered a special debit card for use with my rental car, and I received the card I was pleased to discover that it had rental collision insurance, allowing one to escape (without penalty) the $23-and-change Budget wants to pad the daily bill with.
So I try to decline, and I'm then handed a special $39 "downtime" daily charge that Budget has instituted in Vegas and four other cities, which allows them to bill for time a car is disabled and unable to be rented. This fee, of course, is waived if you buy the $23 insurance from Budget and not use your card waiver.
Can you say "scam"? I thought you could. Interesting that this special downtime charge is not mentioned anywhere on the Budget website.
I looked at a few apartments while there and was pretty disinterested with what I saw. The one-bedrooms within a couple miles of the Strip are crap and the better ones farther south are expensive. Yet another incentive to not move there.
I was disappointed at how few people I ran into that I knew. I met up with Schecky and Harold Check on Friday at the Bellagio, and I guess Michalski saw me playing at some point. I ran into Michalski two days later at the WSOP Academy when I bopped over to say hi to the folks I know there -- Brandon and Alex and Mark. Had a nice chat with Michalski but that was about it for the weekend.
The best angleshoot I saw on the weekend was from an Aussie guy named Graham in Thursday's event. He tried to run a bluff but ran into a rivered flush from a guy who wasn't going away. This Graham guy bet the river, was called, said "You win," mucked his hand, and convinced the newbie that he indeed had to show his hand (7-5 of the flush-making hearts) to claim the pot. LOL that. He called the clock on me in a different hand a little later, after about 60 seconds of pondering in a big hand, flashed his aces at me after I folded, then had the audacity to ask what I'd folded.
Nice try, sir. Try that somewhere else. I had a pure math question since I'd seen the flop with 7-7 and the flop came 8-6-5. It was a close decision but a correct fold, which I noodled out about the same time he clocked me. Doubly correct considering the weaker players at the table.
So I waited most of the minute anyway. He turned out to be a decent enough guy to talk to but I was secretly pleased when he went to the rail in a 50,000 pot the next day, when we ended up at the same table again. All in preflop, his aces were cracked by A-K. Karma that, baybee.
Saturday, February 07, 2009
Slip Slidin' Away
Some days are rough. Yesterday was a real bad one and today's likely to be about the same. I've enjoyed playing in the DSE the past two days but it's an omen of greater things -- my luck is clearly nowhere at the moment.
The first day I had a table with at least five horrid players, and a couple of those were replaced as they departed with still other easy marks. Alas, my card distribution was just too poor to overcome. In nearly six hours of play, I saw exactly one pocket pair over eights -- kings, which got no action -- and found A-K exactly twice. I scrambled and stole and picked spots and played hard with no chips all day, and finally went out in Level 9 (40-minute levels) when, in the small blind with a measly 9,000 in chips, I correctly picked off a button steal from a woman with a suited 5-3. (She could play, but was in the minority here.) I had A-8 off so it was a likely call anyway, but I thought it was good all along. Of course, the big blind then wakes up with kings....
Yesterday, I had better cards but a much tougher table, filled with visiting internet pros and tough young locals. I hung around for two hours essentially at par, moved up to about 20,000 shortly after the first break, made an overaggressive play and got picked off for about 5,000, got short-stacked, doubled through, picked off an even shorter stack, then, on my third table of the day, got bad-beated to the door when some really fat slobby donkey tried to push me off my big blind with J-6 suited (clubs). I'm fat, and this guy had me by a good 150. He jammed, I had 10-10 and snap-called, and watched the board flop a jack, the turn bring a ten (clubs), and the river the stupid four of clubs to knock me out.
This was some kind of clown, in the sense it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to be married to him. He had a half-full water bottle and a used kleenex in my drink holder. He fetched his water bottle -- after I requested he move it -- but left the kleenex behind. So I banged the cup holder free from underneath the table, dumped his snotball catcher with a bit of a show and moved on; he's not tilting me if that's his intent, but I don't mind him thinking that if that's his plan.
It was about a lap later when he crapped out his flush. Still, I take one grain of solace. I'd peeked early that hand, as I'm wont to do about one hand per lap after listening to Joe Navarro's seminar about reading other opponents. No way Mr. Snotblubber makes a move on me if he gets a read I'm sitting on an auto-play hand.
As for the cards themselves, not much I can do. And it was again Level 9, by the way. I finished something like 95 or 100 out of 295.
But a real bad mood for me -- no more poker for sure this trip. It's just general life tilt. When I get real real down certain songs come to mind, and I'm reminded this morning of a passage from Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away":
"I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been"
One of the best songwriters of our time. Exuent stage left.
The first day I had a table with at least five horrid players, and a couple of those were replaced as they departed with still other easy marks. Alas, my card distribution was just too poor to overcome. In nearly six hours of play, I saw exactly one pocket pair over eights -- kings, which got no action -- and found A-K exactly twice. I scrambled and stole and picked spots and played hard with no chips all day, and finally went out in Level 9 (40-minute levels) when, in the small blind with a measly 9,000 in chips, I correctly picked off a button steal from a woman with a suited 5-3. (She could play, but was in the minority here.) I had A-8 off so it was a likely call anyway, but I thought it was good all along. Of course, the big blind then wakes up with kings....
Yesterday, I had better cards but a much tougher table, filled with visiting internet pros and tough young locals. I hung around for two hours essentially at par, moved up to about 20,000 shortly after the first break, made an overaggressive play and got picked off for about 5,000, got short-stacked, doubled through, picked off an even shorter stack, then, on my third table of the day, got bad-beated to the door when some really fat slobby donkey tried to push me off my big blind with J-6 suited (clubs). I'm fat, and this guy had me by a good 150. He jammed, I had 10-10 and snap-called, and watched the board flop a jack, the turn bring a ten (clubs), and the river the stupid four of clubs to knock me out.
This was some kind of clown, in the sense it's hard to imagine anyone wanting to be married to him. He had a half-full water bottle and a used kleenex in my drink holder. He fetched his water bottle -- after I requested he move it -- but left the kleenex behind. So I banged the cup holder free from underneath the table, dumped his snotball catcher with a bit of a show and moved on; he's not tilting me if that's his intent, but I don't mind him thinking that if that's his plan.
It was about a lap later when he crapped out his flush. Still, I take one grain of solace. I'd peeked early that hand, as I'm wont to do about one hand per lap after listening to Joe Navarro's seminar about reading other opponents. No way Mr. Snotblubber makes a move on me if he gets a read I'm sitting on an auto-play hand.
As for the cards themselves, not much I can do. And it was again Level 9, by the way. I finished something like 95 or 100 out of 295.
But a real bad mood for me -- no more poker for sure this trip. It's just general life tilt. When I get real real down certain songs come to mind, and I'm reminded this morning of a passage from Paul Simon's "Slip Slidin' Away":
"I know a woman
Became a wife
These are the very words she uses to describe her life
She said a good day
Ain't got no rain
She said a bad day's when I lie in bed and think of things that might have been"
One of the best songwriters of our time. Exuent stage left.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
A Tough Way to Earn a Bottle of Tokillya
Not much poker content in this one, in part because I've been too busy working of late. The sum total of my poker of late is a handful of small online tourneys and a single trip to Hammond Horseshoe, where I partook of one of their $110 Thursday tourneys of late. I just barely cashed in that one -- 14th of 14 of 110, but at least it's three-fer-three in terms of cashing at tournaments at the Horseshoe.
Next week I'll try my hand at one of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza tournaments, as I'll be in Vegas for parts of Feb. 4-9. In so late on the 4th it'll really be the 5th, but that's fine.
So much for the poker stuff.
I went to gas up my car earlier today and drop off a latent lottery ticket that was worth a few bucks that had been sitting on a dresser for... at least a couple of months. I'm not big on lottery tickets, by the way; too -EV for my tastes. But there are two gas station within three-fourths of a mile of my apartment. One of them is a cheesy Citgo with pumps that barely work and a mini convenience mart with a roof that leaks so bad that on a heavy rain day there's four or five plastic buckets occupying the aisles. (Thank god the snack treats are sealed in plastic.) The Citgo's also the closest station to a low-income housing development just off the opposite way, so the clientele one stands in line varies between dicey and scary.
I fit right in, come to think of it.
The other choice is an upscale Mobil super gasmart up the same road where it intersects with Route 25. High-end pumps, brightly lit, stylin' canopies.... Last time I bought gas there the bastards double-billed my credit card.
So I use the Citgo. The staff there is friendly, and it feels like real folks to me.
Tonight I pulled in the midst of weather today that's been right at the freezing point. Gassed up, grabbed the window squeegee to scrub off some of the salt that was dimming my headlights, tossed the squeegee back in the rack and started to step around the end of the gas-pump island to head inside and pay. With the glare and the wet pavement, I didn't notice that there had been some significant drip-down from the canopy off the end of the island, which had frozen into a nasty patch of black ice where it reached the ground. I figured it out when my right leg was horizontal and my left leg was joining it in mid-air.
I have pretty quick reflexes, even at my advanced age. While falling, I saw I was going to land across the edge of the island, which was built up much like a sidewalk curb, and I managed to pull in my wrist just before it would have landed across that edge. At that angle, it would have been a snapped wrist. As it was, the wrist literally scraped through and my elbow and forearm took the brunt, losing a largish chunk of skin (and a bit of blood in the process), this despite the fact that it was through the sleeve of my winter coat that the impact occurred. It still hurt.
I climbed to my feet, wincing, checking to make sure nothing was broken. A car pulled in just then and the woman driving must have seen my wipeout, because she jumped out and asked if I need help. I flexed the arm and fingers -- nope, nothing broken. Not much she could do.
I walked inside and the woman at the counter, who's worked there as long as I've been in this area, must also have been told of my wipeout by another customer inside. She was upset by it, and yeah, before I go on, I get the whole insurance angle of all this. But if there's nothing broken, it's not the type of thing I'm that worried above -- we as humans don't live forever and a little bit of skin will grow back in a few weeks. The asshole that hit me with an errant drive (with a driver) off an irons-only golf range a decade or so was much worse, and though I was quite literally laid up for a weekend on that occasion thanks to a golf-ball bruise on my spine, I let his insurance company off with buying me a new bicycle.
Here, it was a woman I knew who had sincere concern, and I was in pain but not with any long-term injury. She ushered me behind the counter where the band-aids and sink and towels were, and then she said, "You need a shot." This being the non-high-rent district, the Citgo has a whole rack of those two-shot sampler bottles of various boozes behind the counter, not to mention a refrigerator full of chilled Mogen David and Boone's Farm just a few feet away.
I knew full well that she was feeling mighty bad about my wipeout, and it's very likely that spreading salt is one of her duties and she was both scared shitless that I was seriously hurt and relieved that I wasn't too bad off when it could have been worse. She kept insisting, "Shot? Beer? It's on me."
And so, fine. People that screw with me, they need to watch their backs. People that are nice to me and treat me right and are just trying to get by in life, I'm not going to screw them. That's my ethos. Fuck with me and you have need to be concerned, but I'm loyal and protective of those who treat me right.
I rarely drink hard alcohol. But on rare occasions.... "I'll take the shot of Jose Cuervo," I said.
She reached up and grabbed the larger size, the six-ounce bottle. "It's on me."
Whatever, I figured. She's not the owner of the station and I figure she paid that hour's wage into the till because of the incident, and while I didn't care about the tequila, I also know that in her own way, she needed to do that. She then followed me outside with the salt and left her other customers just waiting, just to make sure the stuff was taken care of.
Good peoples come in all flavors, sizes and wealth. There's your life lesson for today.
As for me, I'll have a sore arm for a few days. But it'll heal.
Strangely enough, as I picked myself up from the pavement, I noticed a dime next to me on the ground, and it was one that didn't come out of my zipped-up purse. Darned if despite the pain, I didn't reach down and pick it up. I thought of my very broke maternal grandparents and the hard life they lived through the Great Depression and for many years beyond, and I remembered my grandma saving her change, and picking up any pennies she would happen to find on her daily walks, saving them up in a tiny manila envelope just so she could give them to my sister and me. Little rubber-banded envelopes with 17 or 31 pennies bundled inside.
I think I remembered something about karma and life from seeing that dime and picking it up. Yeah, I could have been a big pain in the ass, and yeah, the pain in my arm is certainly going to be significantly more than the value of a six-ounce bottle of Cuervo.
Now ask me if I care.
Next week I'll try my hand at one of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza tournaments, as I'll be in Vegas for parts of Feb. 4-9. In so late on the 4th it'll really be the 5th, but that's fine.
So much for the poker stuff.
I went to gas up my car earlier today and drop off a latent lottery ticket that was worth a few bucks that had been sitting on a dresser for... at least a couple of months. I'm not big on lottery tickets, by the way; too -EV for my tastes. But there are two gas station within three-fourths of a mile of my apartment. One of them is a cheesy Citgo with pumps that barely work and a mini convenience mart with a roof that leaks so bad that on a heavy rain day there's four or five plastic buckets occupying the aisles. (Thank god the snack treats are sealed in plastic.) The Citgo's also the closest station to a low-income housing development just off the opposite way, so the clientele one stands in line varies between dicey and scary.
I fit right in, come to think of it.
The other choice is an upscale Mobil super gasmart up the same road where it intersects with Route 25. High-end pumps, brightly lit, stylin' canopies.... Last time I bought gas there the bastards double-billed my credit card.
So I use the Citgo. The staff there is friendly, and it feels like real folks to me.
Tonight I pulled in the midst of weather today that's been right at the freezing point. Gassed up, grabbed the window squeegee to scrub off some of the salt that was dimming my headlights, tossed the squeegee back in the rack and started to step around the end of the gas-pump island to head inside and pay. With the glare and the wet pavement, I didn't notice that there had been some significant drip-down from the canopy off the end of the island, which had frozen into a nasty patch of black ice where it reached the ground. I figured it out when my right leg was horizontal and my left leg was joining it in mid-air.
I have pretty quick reflexes, even at my advanced age. While falling, I saw I was going to land across the edge of the island, which was built up much like a sidewalk curb, and I managed to pull in my wrist just before it would have landed across that edge. At that angle, it would have been a snapped wrist. As it was, the wrist literally scraped through and my elbow and forearm took the brunt, losing a largish chunk of skin (and a bit of blood in the process), this despite the fact that it was through the sleeve of my winter coat that the impact occurred. It still hurt.
I climbed to my feet, wincing, checking to make sure nothing was broken. A car pulled in just then and the woman driving must have seen my wipeout, because she jumped out and asked if I need help. I flexed the arm and fingers -- nope, nothing broken. Not much she could do.
I walked inside and the woman at the counter, who's worked there as long as I've been in this area, must also have been told of my wipeout by another customer inside. She was upset by it, and yeah, before I go on, I get the whole insurance angle of all this. But if there's nothing broken, it's not the type of thing I'm that worried above -- we as humans don't live forever and a little bit of skin will grow back in a few weeks. The asshole that hit me with an errant drive (with a driver) off an irons-only golf range a decade or so was much worse, and though I was quite literally laid up for a weekend on that occasion thanks to a golf-ball bruise on my spine, I let his insurance company off with buying me a new bicycle.
Here, it was a woman I knew who had sincere concern, and I was in pain but not with any long-term injury. She ushered me behind the counter where the band-aids and sink and towels were, and then she said, "You need a shot." This being the non-high-rent district, the Citgo has a whole rack of those two-shot sampler bottles of various boozes behind the counter, not to mention a refrigerator full of chilled Mogen David and Boone's Farm just a few feet away.
I knew full well that she was feeling mighty bad about my wipeout, and it's very likely that spreading salt is one of her duties and she was both scared shitless that I was seriously hurt and relieved that I wasn't too bad off when it could have been worse. She kept insisting, "Shot? Beer? It's on me."
And so, fine. People that screw with me, they need to watch their backs. People that are nice to me and treat me right and are just trying to get by in life, I'm not going to screw them. That's my ethos. Fuck with me and you have need to be concerned, but I'm loyal and protective of those who treat me right.
I rarely drink hard alcohol. But on rare occasions.... "I'll take the shot of Jose Cuervo," I said.
She reached up and grabbed the larger size, the six-ounce bottle. "It's on me."
Whatever, I figured. She's not the owner of the station and I figure she paid that hour's wage into the till because of the incident, and while I didn't care about the tequila, I also know that in her own way, she needed to do that. She then followed me outside with the salt and left her other customers just waiting, just to make sure the stuff was taken care of.
Good peoples come in all flavors, sizes and wealth. There's your life lesson for today.
As for me, I'll have a sore arm for a few days. But it'll heal.
Strangely enough, as I picked myself up from the pavement, I noticed a dime next to me on the ground, and it was one that didn't come out of my zipped-up purse. Darned if despite the pain, I didn't reach down and pick it up. I thought of my very broke maternal grandparents and the hard life they lived through the Great Depression and for many years beyond, and I remembered my grandma saving her change, and picking up any pennies she would happen to find on her daily walks, saving them up in a tiny manila envelope just so she could give them to my sister and me. Little rubber-banded envelopes with 17 or 31 pennies bundled inside.
I think I remembered something about karma and life from seeing that dime and picking it up. Yeah, I could have been a big pain in the ass, and yeah, the pain in my arm is certainly going to be significantly more than the value of a six-ounce bottle of Cuervo.
Now ask me if I care.
Dabbling
I've decided to give ChipMeUp a try. I'm still figuring out the various bells and whistles so it may be a bit before I'm up and running on it properly. Anyone interested can e-mail me for details.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
No Poker Content
Just happened to be spinning the TV dials this morning and was reminded again of why Bobby Knight is and has always been the biggest jackass in the coaching world. "Mr. I Guy" was at again, translating what was supposed to be a live tribute to recently deceased NC State women's BB coach Kay Yow (who passed after a decades-long battle against breast cancer) into yet another who-gives-a-damn tale about his own coaching battles against Digger Phelps.
From the bottom of my heart: Fuck you, sir. One would think that such a widely acclaimed "leader" would someday pick up a clue as to what life is really about, but Kinght's in what now, his mid 60s? He'll remain eternally clueless and an embarrassment to everything he touches.
From the bottom of my heart: Fuck you, sir. One would think that such a widely acclaimed "leader" would someday pick up a clue as to what life is really about, but Kinght's in what now, his mid 60s? He'll remain eternally clueless and an embarrassment to everything he touches.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Thank You, John
It was with considerable sadness that I learned of John Caldwell's decision to step down as Editor-in-Chief of PokerNews. John's stewardship of the PN site grew ever more impressive to me as I learned more and more about the operation, and the strengths that John brought as EIC were, I believe, things that all poker editors, writers, and poker media in general should strive for... even as the rest of us generally fall far short of those standards.
John's work ethic is legendary, as is his CrackBerry addiction. (Pauly's dream of a CrackBerry-free lunch with John, as noted over at the Tao of Poker blog, is a big funny. Prop bets?) John also shied away from the spotlight as well as any editor or writer I could name, always mindful that he wasn't the story -- it was just his job to cover it. And, no matter what stresses of the moment were at hand, you can always count on John to stay focused on the big picture.
Among other things, he's been a great mentor to all of us at PN, and he deserves my thanks and appreciation for that. So, thank you, John.
John's work ethic is legendary, as is his CrackBerry addiction. (Pauly's dream of a CrackBerry-free lunch with John, as noted over at the Tao of Poker blog, is a big funny. Prop bets?) John also shied away from the spotlight as well as any editor or writer I could name, always mindful that he wasn't the story -- it was just his job to cover it. And, no matter what stresses of the moment were at hand, you can always count on John to stay focused on the big picture.
Among other things, he's been a great mentor to all of us at PN, and he deserves my thanks and appreciation for that. So, thank you, John.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Oh, Yeah, It's 2009
Rumors of my demise have been somewhat exaggerated, though i did field a couple of e-mails of late wondering where the heck I was. "Busy times" is the short answer. I've desperately needed to spend some hours with friends and family of late, and the online poker swongs had eased a bit but were still trending generally downward.
I did finally arrange to get a few dollars back onto Full Tilt there, so I may play some of the blogger events under my supersekrit screen name there that no one knows, and maybe see if I can tilt Waffles. I did final-table the Daily Double B a week or so ago, which ain't really worth mentioning except for that at one point about an hour in, I was down to 75 chips with the blinds at 25/50. Yeah, I ran a bit better after that.
Stars has been a slowly ebbing trend but not enough to panic over; I've learned that online ranking services are widely inaccurate for all but the highest-volume players. In the past year, for example, OPR has shown my three-month ROI percentages as high as +93% and as low as -30%. That just tells me that the variance in my game exceeds their standard tracking period, and if does so for me, it must be similar for lots and lots of other players as well. Given, of course, that I've been back down to Bronze Star level on Stars since September or so, simply from not having the time to play. Maybe this month I can at least make Silver.
Maybe.
I've played at Bodog barely at all, and over at Merge I'd seen my biggest swongs, not helped by the fact that the bad-beat jackpot has grown so large that it's been worth dropping a few buy-ins to chase. But my bread and butter there, the smallish nightly guarantee MTTs, had been treating me... rather rudely. This week, though, I finally managed to not only make two final tables, but to take both of them down.
Maybe I'm due for an upswing.
Maybe you'll see at me a table in the near future; maybe not. As the saying goes, only time will tell.
I did finally arrange to get a few dollars back onto Full Tilt there, so I may play some of the blogger events under my supersekrit screen name there that no one knows, and maybe see if I can tilt Waffles. I did final-table the Daily Double B a week or so ago, which ain't really worth mentioning except for that at one point about an hour in, I was down to 75 chips with the blinds at 25/50. Yeah, I ran a bit better after that.
Stars has been a slowly ebbing trend but not enough to panic over; I've learned that online ranking services are widely inaccurate for all but the highest-volume players. In the past year, for example, OPR has shown my three-month ROI percentages as high as +93% and as low as -30%. That just tells me that the variance in my game exceeds their standard tracking period, and if does so for me, it must be similar for lots and lots of other players as well. Given, of course, that I've been back down to Bronze Star level on Stars since September or so, simply from not having the time to play. Maybe this month I can at least make Silver.
Maybe.
I've played at Bodog barely at all, and over at Merge I'd seen my biggest swongs, not helped by the fact that the bad-beat jackpot has grown so large that it's been worth dropping a few buy-ins to chase. But my bread and butter there, the smallish nightly guarantee MTTs, had been treating me... rather rudely. This week, though, I finally managed to not only make two final tables, but to take both of them down.
Maybe I'm due for an upswing.
Maybe you'll see at me a table in the near future; maybe not. As the saying goes, only time will tell.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Funny is Where You Find It
Among the elements of my daily grind is a sweep through Google News for items related to poker. I noticed this just today, as Google's compendium of popular search terms connected to poker:
If that's really the top six, words fail me.
If that's really the top six, words fail me.
Friday, December 19, 2008
And Off to a Sunday Million
While I've been a bit preoccupied of late, and have therefore missed two of the four WBCOOP qualifiers so far, there were the other two. In the first one, I ran well early and survived to get that Step 3 ticket, as mentioned last post. In the second one, I ended up at a table with both Irongirl and Bayne, but none of us seemed to be in much of a chatty mood. I was catching up on the news while playing, which semi-sorta explains my quietitude.
Not that it mattered. A Eurodonk -- :-) -- ran over the table, catching every draw, and I was out soon enough. The eight-game mix is today and I like my chances in that against a random selection of bloggers, anyway.
But, there was the matter of that Step 3 ticket....
After crashing out of the WBCOOP heat, I decided I'd give a Step 3 a whirl. I registered for one that had seven seats already full, and yet it still took another ten minutes for it to fill. Might it have had something to do with the lineup already seated?
Mayhap. I need to pay closer attention to that in the future, but in the short term, I'm stupidly willing to mix it up against just about anyone. After all, the cards can run well.
Two seats to my left I had "THAY3R" (Thayer Rasmussen), and there were two Stars Supernovas in seats to my right, plus two other screen names I recognized and suspected were also Novas or Supernovas, but like Rasmussen, were just not showing their accolades.
Steps get tougher up the scale, and they show a couple of distinct trends. The action tends to be slower early on at the higher steps, but once the blinds build a bit, it's war, with a lot of bluffing and aggro play.
Case in point, THAY3R. He was not one of the two who jumped out to early advantages once the first couple of wars finally unfolded; nor was I. I play the Step 3's a bit different than the 1's and 2's, because in the Step 3's the top two move on to Step 4, while spots 3-5 return to Step 3. So in my mind the Step 3 becomes a very reactive sit-n-go, wherein if a couple of players are willing to donk themselves out early, it's not necessarily a bad EV move to consider playing for the renewed Step 3, and hoping for a freeroll for the top two spots and the Step 4 ticket. Besides, perhaps you'll be one of the fortunate recipients.
I'm also a believer in first impressions. Against presumed tough opponents who probably have marginal records of my play, I don't mind folding in some crap spots early if it makes others think I might be overly weak-tight. I am a bit weak-tight by nature, but I consciously let a bluffer type two to my right swipe my blinds twice while also folding my button twice (also with crap) to THAY3R's big blind. Sometimes, after all, a plan comes together.
Unfortunately, none of the players wanted to go out early, and a pre-flop raise usually took down the pot, right from the outset. I didn't see much for cards early, and as I said, the situation didn't warrant pushing it. Soon enough, though, two players had been bounced while two others moved up to around 3,000, with the others, me included, all bunched between 1,300 and 1,700.
Then Rasmussen tried an all-in steal from the small blinds, with the blinds at just 25/50. He got called, by the big blind, one of the two leaders ... who showed K-6 off. Wow at that call. Wow again when it turned out he was ahead to Rasmussen's Q-5. Rasmussen, however, caught a five to double through to the lead.
Think he slowed down? Nope. With the blinds not yet even at 50/100, everyone was opening by jamming the pot. Into what type of aggro-fest had I stumbled?
The pushes kept coming. It turned out that the aggro switch had been tossed in four straight players, starting with Rasmussen's seat, and even though we were still at seven, the chips were going in light. Very light. Rasmussen got caught again on another pot-buy (one that seemed unnecessary to me), when he tried to pilfer with 10-5 or something similar and gave back half his stack.
I wasn't seeing any cards anyway. Didn't mind watching it to see if carnage would develop. Still, while there were three or four collisions, the short stack kept winning, and ten or twelve minutes later I'd paid another round of blinds and we'd only lost one more player, and we clicked over to 100/200.
Well, I'd been patient long enough. You can't back into the pay spots against this level without taking some risk somewhere, so when I found a suited A-7 from the cutoff, I jammed with it. Folds all around. I'm happy with buying the blinds, of course. The next hand I find 9-9 and do it again, and again it's folded around.
First impressions paying off?
I don't care -- my stack is near 2,000 and a couple of players are down around 1,000 and 1,200. If one of them goes away, my Step 3 refund is assured and I'm freerolling. Meanwhile, the player three to my right seems to be out-aggressing even Rasmussen; he's in there way weak twice, and manages to win to move out to the lead. I'm thinking that all I need to do is catch a wonderful hand and have it hold up....
And, just a few hands later, with six players still in the running, I find K-K. Blinds 100/200 and I have 1,840.
I jam. Seems like the money play if someone is getting suspicious of my newfound swiping ability. Rasmussen calls with A-Q... essentially, just what I wanted. For once, my kings hold up. THAY3R's gone and I'm in second in chips.
Just three hands later, with blinds still at 100/200, the super-aggro player pushes all-in for almost 5,000. I have 3,400 or so. I also have Q-Q in the small blind. I call, and he shows a suited Q-4.
Lovin' life, I am, when I double through to nearly 7,000.
But this guy just keeps shoving, and he manages to double up himself and swipes enough blinds to stay around. He's still there when we're down to three, and while I've lost 1,200 despite getting it in good against a short stack, I'm still ahead. Second place is to my left and has about 4,600; the aggro player has the rest. We're finally up to 200/400.
My big blind, and he shoves on me. I have A-4 of diamonds. Not much of a hand to call with, but this player hadn't shown an off switch yet, so I call real light. And... he's in there even lighter, as I'd guessed, with K-4. My hand holds up again, and we're down to two. It's a Step 4 ticket for me... meaning a regular-entry Sunday Million at some future date.
It's the best thing poker-wise for me in a month. I am pleased.
Not that it mattered. A Eurodonk -- :-) -- ran over the table, catching every draw, and I was out soon enough. The eight-game mix is today and I like my chances in that against a random selection of bloggers, anyway.
But, there was the matter of that Step 3 ticket....
After crashing out of the WBCOOP heat, I decided I'd give a Step 3 a whirl. I registered for one that had seven seats already full, and yet it still took another ten minutes for it to fill. Might it have had something to do with the lineup already seated?
Mayhap. I need to pay closer attention to that in the future, but in the short term, I'm stupidly willing to mix it up against just about anyone. After all, the cards can run well.
Two seats to my left I had "THAY3R" (Thayer Rasmussen), and there were two Stars Supernovas in seats to my right, plus two other screen names I recognized and suspected were also Novas or Supernovas, but like Rasmussen, were just not showing their accolades.
Steps get tougher up the scale, and they show a couple of distinct trends. The action tends to be slower early on at the higher steps, but once the blinds build a bit, it's war, with a lot of bluffing and aggro play.
Case in point, THAY3R. He was not one of the two who jumped out to early advantages once the first couple of wars finally unfolded; nor was I. I play the Step 3's a bit different than the 1's and 2's, because in the Step 3's the top two move on to Step 4, while spots 3-5 return to Step 3. So in my mind the Step 3 becomes a very reactive sit-n-go, wherein if a couple of players are willing to donk themselves out early, it's not necessarily a bad EV move to consider playing for the renewed Step 3, and hoping for a freeroll for the top two spots and the Step 4 ticket. Besides, perhaps you'll be one of the fortunate recipients.
I'm also a believer in first impressions. Against presumed tough opponents who probably have marginal records of my play, I don't mind folding in some crap spots early if it makes others think I might be overly weak-tight. I am a bit weak-tight by nature, but I consciously let a bluffer type two to my right swipe my blinds twice while also folding my button twice (also with crap) to THAY3R's big blind. Sometimes, after all, a plan comes together.
Unfortunately, none of the players wanted to go out early, and a pre-flop raise usually took down the pot, right from the outset. I didn't see much for cards early, and as I said, the situation didn't warrant pushing it. Soon enough, though, two players had been bounced while two others moved up to around 3,000, with the others, me included, all bunched between 1,300 and 1,700.
Then Rasmussen tried an all-in steal from the small blinds, with the blinds at just 25/50. He got called, by the big blind, one of the two leaders ... who showed K-6 off. Wow at that call. Wow again when it turned out he was ahead to Rasmussen's Q-5. Rasmussen, however, caught a five to double through to the lead.
Think he slowed down? Nope. With the blinds not yet even at 50/100, everyone was opening by jamming the pot. Into what type of aggro-fest had I stumbled?
The pushes kept coming. It turned out that the aggro switch had been tossed in four straight players, starting with Rasmussen's seat, and even though we were still at seven, the chips were going in light. Very light. Rasmussen got caught again on another pot-buy (one that seemed unnecessary to me), when he tried to pilfer with 10-5 or something similar and gave back half his stack.
I wasn't seeing any cards anyway. Didn't mind watching it to see if carnage would develop. Still, while there were three or four collisions, the short stack kept winning, and ten or twelve minutes later I'd paid another round of blinds and we'd only lost one more player, and we clicked over to 100/200.
Well, I'd been patient long enough. You can't back into the pay spots against this level without taking some risk somewhere, so when I found a suited A-7 from the cutoff, I jammed with it. Folds all around. I'm happy with buying the blinds, of course. The next hand I find 9-9 and do it again, and again it's folded around.
First impressions paying off?
I don't care -- my stack is near 2,000 and a couple of players are down around 1,000 and 1,200. If one of them goes away, my Step 3 refund is assured and I'm freerolling. Meanwhile, the player three to my right seems to be out-aggressing even Rasmussen; he's in there way weak twice, and manages to win to move out to the lead. I'm thinking that all I need to do is catch a wonderful hand and have it hold up....
And, just a few hands later, with six players still in the running, I find K-K. Blinds 100/200 and I have 1,840.
I jam. Seems like the money play if someone is getting suspicious of my newfound swiping ability. Rasmussen calls with A-Q... essentially, just what I wanted. For once, my kings hold up. THAY3R's gone and I'm in second in chips.
Just three hands later, with blinds still at 100/200, the super-aggro player pushes all-in for almost 5,000. I have 3,400 or so. I also have Q-Q in the small blind. I call, and he shows a suited Q-4.
Lovin' life, I am, when I double through to nearly 7,000.
But this guy just keeps shoving, and he manages to double up himself and swipes enough blinds to stay around. He's still there when we're down to three, and while I've lost 1,200 despite getting it in good against a short stack, I'm still ahead. Second place is to my left and has about 4,600; the aggro player has the rest. We're finally up to 200/400.
My big blind, and he shoves on me. I have A-4 of diamonds. Not much of a hand to call with, but this player hadn't shown an off switch yet, so I call real light. And... he's in there even lighter, as I'd guessed, with K-4. My hand holds up again, and we're down to two. It's a Step 4 ticket for me... meaning a regular-entry Sunday Million at some future date.
It's the best thing poker-wise for me in a month. I am pleased.
Monday, December 15, 2008
At PLO, Yet
Had a couple of hours to kill Monday afternoon so I fired up the first WBCOOP event, which was PLO. It's perhaps my weakest game, but it had a great entry fee -- free (thanks, Stars!) -- so in true what-the-hell fashion I gave it a go.
I had some good cards early, getting it in ahead a couple of times and having the lead hold, and then I just kind of worked it in toward the guaranteed seats, which were the top 72 out of something like 460 entries. We were almost there when I realized that we were actually playing for more than just qualifying seats for the final; there were some pretty nice prizes for the final-table players, in particular.
I didn't make it that far, bowing out in 24th at the hands of this dude. He'd better win after sucking out on me to bounce me, not that I had any chips left at that point. Go get 'em, Tom. I also saw that I was being railed by this blogger late, who I'm not sure I know. But in any event, thanks for the rail. I'm happy enough with the Step 3 coupon and the guaranteed seat in the final.
Best of luck to all of you.
I had some good cards early, getting it in ahead a couple of times and having the lead hold, and then I just kind of worked it in toward the guaranteed seats, which were the top 72 out of something like 460 entries. We were almost there when I realized that we were actually playing for more than just qualifying seats for the final; there were some pretty nice prizes for the final-table players, in particular.
I didn't make it that far, bowing out in 24th at the hands of this dude. He'd better win after sucking out on me to bounce me, not that I had any chips left at that point. Go get 'em, Tom. I also saw that I was being railed by this blogger late, who I'm not sure I know. But in any event, thanks for the rail. I'm happy enough with the Step 3 coupon and the guaranteed seat in the final.
Best of luck to all of you.
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