Author: glyphic

Oh, I almost forgot. The same table that quadrupled my buy-in also featured Grubby’s evil twin:

Party Poker No-Limit Hold’em, $ BB (9 handed) converter

MP3 ($10.2)
CO ($25)
Button ($24.25)
SB ($59.15)
BB ($32.15)
UTG ($43.17)
UTG+1 ($16.4)
MP1 ($25.2)
Hero ($24.25)

Preflop: Hero is MP2 with Qc, As. SB posts a blind of $0.25. BB posts a blind of $0.5. CO posts a blind of $0.5.
UTG calls $0.50, UTG+1 calls $0.50, MP1 calls $0.50, Hero calls $0.50, MP3 calls $0.50, CO (poster) checks, Button calls $0.50, SB (poster) completes, BB raises $3.50 to $4, UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 calls $3.50, Hero calls $3.50, MP3 calls $3.50, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds.

Flop: ($18.50) 2c, 5s, 6s (4 players)
BB bets $9, MP1 calls $9, Hero folds, MP3 folds.

Turn: ($36.50) 2h (2 players)
BB bets $7, MP1 raises to $12.20 (All-In), BB calls $5.20.

River: ($60.90) 4c (2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $60.90
Main Pot: $60.90, between BB and MP1. > Pot won by MP1 ($60.90).

BB has 2d 7s (three of a kind, twos).
MP1 has 6d 6c (full house, sixes full of twos).
Outcome: MP1 wins $60.90.

Wow. I mean, really, wow! Not only did he pull a Pauly with the Hammer, but his hand was almost good!

So why Grubby’s evil twin? Not only did he play the hammer, but he insisted that he should have won, had luck not interceded:

studioglyphic: hammer
BB: 27 almost good
MP1: 27 wow yu ok
BB: thought i was in driver’s seat
BB: no?
MP1: yu drunk or moron
BB: it’s real simple, you don’t flop 6’s i win pot
MP1: luv yu refil
BB: do you call the flop bet w/out 6 on board
BB: answer that
BB: hello, your answer
MP1: refil need action players
BB: your like Bush, can’t honestly answer a question
MP1: need the fish
Dealt to studioglyphic [ Ah As ]
studioglyphic: eff Bush!
BB: i love you week principled people
BB raises [$2].
BB: weal
BB: *weak
MP1: 27??
MP1 calls [$1.75].
BB: answer the question
BB: go ahead
BB: u can’t can you
studioglyphic raises [$4.5].

And yep, the two people involved in the hammer hand were also in the hand where my assrapers picked them clean.

I love no limit. Wow, what a run:

#xxx: studioglyphic wins $26.60 from side pot #1 with a pair of aces.
#xxx: studioglyphic wins $19.85 from the main pot with a pair of aces.

My AA vs TT vs AJs, with the other two guys all-in pre-flop. Yeesh. The assrapers held up and I was $26 richer.

#xxx: studioglyphic wins $80.70 from the main pot with a straight, ten to ace.

My AQs vs AKs. I raised to steal, but got re-raised. I called and flopped top pair with a gutshot draw (AJT). I bet half the pot and got re-raised. I called and turned the gutshot while slick made two pair (AJTK). I bet half the pot and got called. Slick pushed when the river paired the ten (1/6 of the pot) and I called (AJTKT).

#xxx: studioglyphic wins $41.35 from the main pot with a straight, ace to five.

Flopped the wheel with A5 and took out the BB who thought his two pair was a BB special from God.

Yeah, I know, a lot of it is just luck, but when you quadruple your buy-in in less than 23 hands, you can’t help feeling that the sky is bluer, your whiskey is sweeter, and everything is gonna go your way.

I ignored those feelings and quit. Time to get back to homework.

Ignatius of Guinness and Poker AKA Party Poker Blogs is making that great leap to professional poker playing. He’s been playing poker at B&Ms and online for years and years, and he’s finally going for it:

This is truly crazy stuff. Hell, I might get bored in a month and end up taking another job, who knows? I’ve discussed this ad naeseum with the wife and a few others and it all comes back to the same thing: I’m open to the Possibilities. I’m now recalling the classic dialogue from the movie Risky Business:

Miles: Joel, you wanna know something? Every now and then say, “What the fuck.” “What the fuck” gives you freedom. Freedom brings opportunity. Opportunity makes your future.

Who am I to argue with 80’s cinema, much less Booger, Curtis Armstrong?

K, enough about me for now.

What the fuck indeed.

Iggy also reports that Mr. Wil Wheaton will be joining us in the Poker Blogger Tournament. There are now 49 players registered. It’s sure to reach 51 before the day is out. You have two days left to join in the fun.

Perhaps I have no discipline, as some have suggested, but I really can’t deal with the whole school/work/poker thing. So aside from the Poker Blogger tournament, and short of an amazing bonus offer, I’m swearing off online poker (again) until winter break or I quit my job, whichever comes first.

By the way, anyone know any good sites for Omaha 8 strategy?

All the reasons for cashing out of my online poker account remain true. But that Empire reload bonus tipped things in the right direction for me to make time for poker. I’ve only played just over a hundred hands, but so far I’ve made a few big bets here and there, playing 1/2 and $25 PL, and I’m 1/25th of the way to my rake refund. I checked PT to see how much I’ve paid in rake, and it’s a whopping $700+ since I started keeping track back in mid-March. The way I see it, Party/Empire/Multi owe this to me.

Tonight I got more than my fair share of playable hands–oh yes, I’m being set up (once again) for the fall. But while you’ve got the advantage, you’ve gotta push it as far as it will go. That said, the 1/2 table I spent the most time at tonight was tough. Some good players there, which is not usually the case at the Party skins. But this late at night, I’ve tended to notice the limit tables are full of maniacs or sharks. I won some big pots, but I also paid a lot into some pots I didn’t win. After a few of those, I decided to change gears and move on to the pot limit tables. There I did much better, offsetting my short-run losses at the 1/2 table. The two big pots I won were those where my victim flopped the nut straight or flush draw and decided to raise on the draw that never completed. My gut tells me that this is not a good strategy. And as HD will tell you, at a low-limit table on Party (or any aquarium), with a family pot at stake, this is definitely not optimal strategy. Of course, I was playing PL and after the drawfish raised, it became heads up. So all you poker strategists out there, if you have any thoughts on semi-bluffing with a raise in PL or NL where you’re unlikely to get more than one or two callers, let me know. Since you have a greater range of what the bet could be, this certainly does open up possibilities. I suspect that these will depend heavily on your read of the other guy’s hand and betting style.

This brings me to the last thought of the night. I really need to mix up my play. Not to the extent where I find myself severely short stacked, but every so often I need to throw in something the table hasn’t seen before.