Sick Bubble Play and Some Random Bits

I had a long post typed out but realized pretty quickly that it sucked. There has been some good discussions going on at Cardplayer's Forum again. Fritzmania is back and has the forum "fish" salivating with virtually every response. It's kind of nice to see the members oooh and aaaah over knowledge that is "common" to Fritz. Even better is that Lucko seems to take the opposite approach from Fritz's nurturing and it makes me laugh. Not to say that what Lucko is giving them isn't INCREDIBLE advice, it's that they don't seem to understand the aggression and Lucko just isn't going to wait around while they figure it out.

Speaking of which, Lucko was the source of some very heavy debate of a recent bloggers tourney (I wasn't involved, I'm not part of that community). Lucko had entered this MTT with an absolute SICK chip-lead and played bubble poker like I've never seen it played before. One of the things (and there have been MANY) that Lucko has taught me is the importance of bubble play (I've closed a LOT more SNG's and got ITM a LOT more based on some simple principles he's given me, thanks kev). Basically, Lucko was accused of colluding with the short stack because he was doing what appeared to be "soft playing" the short stack. It turns out this is EXACTLY what he was doing, however, the "why" portion wasn't what everyone thought.

Lucko was folding to the short stacks jams and aggressively applying pressure to the other players. To the "other players" this appeared as though Lucko was a personal friend of the short stack and wanted to keep that person around. In reality, Lucko had never met the short stack but DID in fact want to keep that person around. Why? Because with the short stack remaining AND with his massive chip lead he could EASILY take advantage of the "patience" of the two medium stacks. See NO ONE wants to bubble, it sucks. Even worse is bubbling with a short stack present. So in order for the medium stacks to play a hand they wanted to have a hand worth playing. They wanted to have a hand that they could be almost certain they wouldn't/couldn't lose. Leaving them only playing QQ-AA at WORST. How many times do we expect to see AA, KK or QQ? Not many, not enough. So the blinds and antes were Lucko's on almost every hand.

This is a part of the game where you must walk that fine-line. It seems to me that the concept of picking up the blinds and antes at bubble time is lost on most players. They try to take too many risks thinking that their opponents understand this concept AND they attempt to make these plays without the proper stack.


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This leads me to another short topic (like I keep anything short), I see too many players on these forums that expect too much from their opponents. They learn concepts like above and attempt to apply them without a true understanding of the mechanics of these plays. The idea of "adding weapons to your arsenal" is NOT simply to have "more weapons to fire" it's to have the right weapon at the right time. Sometimes these concepts can only be used in specific situations. They tend to deviate from good solid ABC poker in an attempt to get "creative" only to leave money on the table or open themselves up to a trap (or worse) later.

A member at Cardplayer's Forum was asking how he should go about teaching an intelligent raw new player the game. He had devised a lesson plan for this player without knowing the basic MOST important piece of information he needed prior to proceeding: "what does she hope to accomplish, what are her goals?". Simple obvious question, right? Maybe not. Did you ask YOURSELF that before you began?

I see so many players question this play and that play on the different forums but never see them question their goals and assess their "level". Can you be honest with yourself about where you are in relation to the game? How about versus your opponents?


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We've begun playing a weekly home game two weeks ago and I'm really looking forward to that. It's a nice group of players and a handfull of players that I would consider solid and suprisingly NONE that I would consider totally inept. Live poker is just something I could do 24/7, online not so much. Something about holding those cards in your hand and even shuffling the deck yourself that I just love.

Hopefully, I'll have enough success for a little more spending cash and hopefully my live roll will be back so I can spend some Friday's at Aztar. Barring anymore medical set backs from me or the family.

Live "Home Game" Tourney

We had our first annual Gashaus Gorillaz Poker Tourney this weekend and I guess it's only fitting the founder was the winner, yours truly. It was a GREAT time. I met Robb and Al at "the farm" around 10:30am just after Al had begun the smoker (GREAT stuff BTW, Al, MUCH appreciated). I was shocked to see that everyone else trickled in shortly after and we hit capacity at approximately 1pm.

After losing a quick game of washers I dug the poker table and chips out of Robb's Explorer and attempted to gather players for a small cash game. We had room for eight players and it wasn't hard to fill that quota. I wanted to play a $10 max game but settled for $5 max with blinds at $.05/$.10. I wanted to make it a bit higher, obviously, but we had a big mix of players and we figured it was better to have limits too low vs. too high to encourage participation.

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POKER BEGINS:

The play was a little loose as was expected but nothing ridiculous. I stated before that we had a mix of players, there was also a mix of style. There were a few players that played serious, a few more that played somewhat serious and the rest were recreational players. Tom (a good friend of mine whom I've played with a LOT) really got the action going but it there wasn't anything of interest to me until I got involved in a hand much later. I kept getting nothing but trouble hands (K-J, Q-10, etc.) and missing flops.

I sat with my same $5 (which was suprising as I was NOT playing tight I just wasn't getting the right spots) for several orbits, give or take a few small pots. Finally I got involved in a pot. I got heads-up with T-dub (a friend and plus one member). I called a pre flop raise from another player that I was confident I could out-play post with KQ only to also have T-dub in the hand, not what I wanted. The flop came: K-9-10 rainbow. I put a raise out there, opp calls and T-dub pushes the rest of his chips in. I was certain the opp would fold the hand at this point to T-dub's raise as he'd been rather easy to get out of pots (but would see almost ANY flop). With T-dub's all-in I loosely calculated that I was getting the correct odds on just about any hand he could hold except for AK as I was getting almost 4.5-1 at that point. Even AK might have been laying me the right pot-odds to make the call here except that the several beers and lack of calculating math in my head left me unsure but looking back AK was NOT giving me the odds.

I reluctantly call fully expecting him to show me the AK. T-dub turns over 9-10. This made my "K" live and me very happy as I was clean to any J-Q-K. 10 outs run twice. The turn came up blank but the river netted me the J for the straight. I double and T-dub lets someone else sit in his seat. I was actually shocked that "tight-bastard" allowed himself to short in this cash game and not protect his stack. Btw, after playing a little X-box he was back.

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Another key hand in the cash game was when we finally got our maniac. We'll call him Buddy, because that's his name. Buddy had played pretty tight and solid for a few orbits and then got aggressive, very aggressive. He was making raises of 10x the bb in a game where the buy-in is only 50bb. After several hands of him making big bets pre and getting it all in the middle on most flops I figured I'd see a flop with my KQ (again with the KQ) and see if I could pair either of my cards or better. I had to figure I was in either a 50/50 situation or 60/40-40/60 against his range of hands. With his bets I may not be getting the correct pot-odds here but the implied odds, while not tremendous, were obv there.

Soooo, Buddy makes his standard $1 bet with a $.10 bb. Flop A-J-10. (HOLY SHIT!!). Out-of-Position to me I am fairly certain that he hit that flop, not hard or as hard as me but he hit. So I check setting up the check-raise. Perfection. Check. Bet. All-in (me). Call (him). Sweet (me). As he emphatically announces A-9 I quietly lay down my cards and announce "broadway".

Shortly after this hand we bust up and head into the house to play the "Main Event". there were some interesting hands in that one and I'll get into them later. Including flopping a flush only to lose to a PP when the turn paired the board and the river brought the case 8 to fill him up (he had 88 pre with an 8 in an opponents hand). A backdoor flush draw and falling behind approximately 7-1 after holding the CL for quite sometime and still coming back to win.

Can't Sleep

Since I've been taking my pain pills for my back I have had a hard time sleeping. Add to that fighting off either a cold or some sort of sinus infection and I think I'm going to cough up a lung; that makes it hard to sleep too.

A lot of the +1 guys just got back from an AC trip. Seems like a good, drunken time. The gathering was for Hellory's bachelor party, poor bastard, and from the trip reports it seems that waking up as the sun set was the norm for the weekend. Fuckers. I was too poor to attend, but maybe next time. Indy will be a definite.

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The Caesar's event is approaching quickly and barring some miracle, anonymous donor, or a MUCH larger commission check I will have to sit this one out. Probably not as bad a thing as I think, although I was REALLY looking forward to some soft ring games.

I attended last year and played as an alternate, the format was horrible and the staff handle the larger than expected field rather poorly, staying around much longer than I should have with a dangerously low starting stack. Sitting with T1500 and blinds 75/150. I managed to outlast approximately 2/3 of the field before losing AK vs. JJ then insta-jamming with 6bb with KQ vs. A10 (was stoked I was 60/40 as the "caller" made an isolation raise).

The play the night before was what was attrocious. I played a SNG for a T500 WSOP chip and was amazed at how truly poor the players were. It was re-inforced when I set up a CR w/ K-10 from the bb on a flop of K-10-X, getting two callers. One with K-8 (drawing dead) and another with 5-6 (of hearts with one heart on the board). He, of course, back-doors a flush. Oh well.

I might try to make a trip over to Louisville during the Circuit events, but it's in "depends" mode. I am REALLY jonesing for some live poker tho', some REAL live poker.

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Speaking of which, my softball team is hosting a poker tourney to raise some money for some uni's next season, man I hope the back is straightened out. It will take place this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it too. There haven't been many home games or I just haven't been actively seeking them out as before.

Having that second kid and my new position at my "real" job is really cutting into my poker time. Add to that so much other stuff going on like: daughter's soccer, in-laws flood problems, back pain, Colt's games, etc. It's been rough.

Anyway, that's my goal. I'm setting up a weekly poker game in lieu of our weekly bowling league that I was in the last few years. Hopefully that will provide some entertainment, cheap beer and possibly a "live" roll to take to Aztar.

That's something I've had a hard time holding on to and not spending, my "live" roll. I always plan on working on this and enacting some discipline but I think it'll be easier now, I've got a little bit of disposable cash.

In addition to the weekly game and the upcoming softball fundraiser, I am going to try to play a lot more of the local church tourney's. Fundraiser's for local churches, usually catholic, that usually have a decent pay structure and several VERY poor players. I am also going to make an effort to play in a local weekly tourney just north of town that is a $17 rebuy tourney. I've played this only three times and finished third for a little over $300 and 14th to finish out of the money, used to be about 70-ish entrants. These local "home" games actually have a mix much like I've seen at the local casino. Maybe better actually.

I'll try to update and get some stories regarding these games and maybe post a few hands if I can remember them.

What a Week....

Both personal and poker wise. Not sure where to even start....

The news of the week/day/weekday is the new act on online gaming. There's so much info coming from so many different sources I'm not sure what to read, where to start or what to do. Seems from my limited knowledge that if the sites don't buckle to the pressure the act has no teeth. It seems that there is some confusion as to WHAT the bill actually limits and how/if it can be inforced. Which, to me, is not really that different from where we were at before.

Prior to the new bill I was under the cloudy impression that online "gaming" was illegal in the US. So now it's more illegal? Obviously, the new "act" takes it a bit further and my understanding (again, limited) is that the US gov is pressuring the banks to block transactions from these sites. Thus limiting the ability to "deposit or withdrawal" directly from a checking account (via debit card) or credit card transaction. Again, my knowledge of ALL of this is limited and I'm waiting until the smoke clears to deduce what the truth is.

Those w/ some serious amounts of cash online, aka the "pros", are the ones that truly worry. Not that those w/ "recreational" funds needn't worry, it's just the impact won't be as far reaching. I know of two that are currently looking at moving closer to a region w/ live B&M poker. One w/ a family, so there is some major impact to players and possibly the games. Not to mention, these players have several thousand dollars in a few accounts (upwards of $10g +) compared to my measly $150+. That's impactful and cause for some to worry. Imagine having the site close or not have the ability to get to $10,000 of YOUR money?

I believe that some sites have already caved to the pressure and are closing up, I heard (rumor!!!) that Titan was one. I have not played Titan, nor do I know of anyone (personally. maybe a few forum members perhaps) that play or deposited w/ this site; but it may be something to look into w/ the site you play. Full Tilt has issued a response and appears to be standing up to this act. Notifying it's players via email (this from a forum post where a letter was copied/pasted).

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Finally, I won a $5 sng on UB last nite. Wow! I've gotten bad. It seems like an eternity since I've had a win (not ITM but a WIN) but looking back over my Excel spreadsheet it apparently hasn't been as long as I had thought. At least not between wins, it's been about a week but that's mainly due to an inability to find the right time.

I've REALLY focused on making sure that I am in the right frame of mind to sit and play. Therefore, I am usually prepared for a longer cash session than playing a SNG. I've also been playing a few $1 games the times I've "had a few" or am tired. This minimizes my potential loss and/or allows me to just "quit" if I get too tired w/out any damage to the ol' BR.

The other thing I noticed and "fixed" last nite was that I hadn't been playing "position poker". I've been playing too many marginal hands out of position. Marginal hands CAN be played out of position but they make for some difficult decisions and too many of these open yourself up for MORE mistakes or potential for mistakes. That's important in this game, as ONE bad decision or mistake can either cripple or bust you in a tourney or destroy hours of "building" in one hand.

These make it even harder as a players natural reaction is to "get back in there". One SHOULD but you really need to re-evaluate your mental state prior to reloading or jumping into another SNG. TILT. I Tilt WAY more because of a bad play or mistake on MY part than I do from the "bad beat".

Anyway, I as I state previous, I was able to take down a little $5 sng last nite. Big deal, right? The point is that my confidence had been shaken and my game had gotten a little loose. It's like getting your car back after getting new tires or some "aftermarket" addition, it seems to look better, ride better, etc.

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Blog P1MP. NFulton, poster at Card Player's Forum's, has re-entered the blogging community. He previously kept a "journal", a diary w/out the gay terminology, but didn't keep it updated. Like anyone keeps their "blogs" updated. Fulton's a player I've played w/, chatted w/, played live w/ and just hung out w/. He's probably the best 12 year old gay poker player I've ever seen. Not to mention he's a GREAT "railbird" he's showed up to rail me (not in a gay way) on the rare occasion I've actually FT'd he's been there to "cheer" me on; on in some cases annoy my opponents.


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And last but not least, I have taken today (Friday 10/6/06) to take the kiddies down to the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival. It's the 2nd largest open-air street festival in the US, behind Mardi Gras. Nothing but fried foods, brain sandwiches (of which I do not partake), rides, parades, games, etc. All but two of the 100+ food booths are non-profit organizations and all the money raised by the "host" group, West Side Nut Club, goes to local west side organizations. Schools, churches, civic and civil groups, and other charitable organizations around Southern Indiana as fit. I can't fathom the actual dollar amount generated from this event each year but I believe that some booths make upwards of $10-$20 grand for their organization. If you live in the region, it's definitely a must see.