Category: Poker

A big congratulations goes out to…

Poker Nerd, who took first in a $11 NLHE rebuy tourney on Stars. The Venetian owns.

Poker Geek, who took first in a $10 Razz tourney last night on Full Tilt Poker before the IHG to follow on his third place finish in another Razz tourney two nights ago. The secret to his success? “I’m throwing away any starting cards higher than xx8. Unless i have A2 or A3 or something.”

I have a working assumption when I play micro-limit Razz. The other guy is always paired (or double-paired) or has a face card (or two) down, so don’t worry if you get a brick on 4th or 5th. Cocky, I know, but true more often than not!

Joe Speaker, who took third in a $20 NLHE MTT on Stars late last night/early this morning. Joe was a potential alternate for the IHG, but I think he was better off resting up and kicking ass for a much bigger prize pool.

Sean (Anisotropy), who took second in a $14 Satellite for tonight’s 50k Guaranteed tournament on Full Tilt. Also at stake is a piece of Jennifer Harman’s action. Geek ought to send him a little mojo for this one.

I finally made it out to the infamous home game, as Joe calls it, for a $20 two table tournament with fhwrdh, the Geek, Absinthe, HDouble, HDouble’s buddy, and special guest Mrs. Double. An extra $5 went towards your bounty and $5 more covered the cost of food and drinks. These games are worth hitting up just for the cash games afterwards, as the WPT wannabes are plentiful.
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But I can’t since Full Tilt doesn’t really have that many games going, and that’s where most of my money is at the moment.

Lost $120 today playing 2/4, 3/6, $5 and $10 SNGs, and $100 NL Hold ‘Em.

The NL cash game was whatever–I wasn’t catching flops and occasionally I’d make a play at a pot that would get re-raised significantly. Was I outplayed? Maybe, but I didn’t think my holdings were strong enough to continue.

There were definitely some suckouts in the limit cash games–if I play back at you on the flop/turn because I know you’re full of shit, why are you calling me down with bottom pair or ace high?–but nothing too unusual. Sometimes it’s not enough to have over 30 outs when the other guy’s got 2 or 3.

No, the thing that’s really gotten me feeling antsy, wound up, and irritated is the run of SNGs. On 5 or 6 occasions I was ahead preflop or on the flop, and got brutally beaten on the flop, turn, or river. I seriously don’t know how all you people can stand to keep playing these SNGs. I mean, yes, I want these calls each and every time, but when I got outdrawn and knocked out, I feel incredibly frustrated. Sure, it’s only $5 or $10, but it still pisses me off to no end.

So. Am I doing something wrong here? Should I raise more than 3xBB in the first few levels with my big pocket pairs? Should I not risk so much of my stack when I flop a set? Should I just stay away from these fucking things because I’m clearly unable to deal?

CardPlayer’s got live updates from the WPT tourney Wil’s in:

God fucking damn it. Wtf?!

You might have missed this at WWdN if you skipped the comments (I usually do), but I wanted to see what names I recognized in the comments (Badblood and CJ, for instance), and noticed there’s a link to his audioblog entry briefly recounting Day 1.

Sounds like a damn good time.

Not to mention the fact that he hung out with Lee Jones and had dinner the night before with Greg Raymer, which made me think, “Wil’s not a regular guy after all.”

This, of course, is a testament to the openness of his storytelling and daily blogging. When you first read WWdN, you think, “Hey, this guy who was a Star Trek actor sounds like a regular guy. In fact, he’s got pretty cool taste in music and I like his politics.” Okay, so maybe the second sentence only applies to me. Still, you get the picture. WWdN rounds out the idea that is Wil Wheaton with all the mundane details that make him real (somewhat similar to the detailed scar makeup Wil got on the set of CSI–those details you don’t see make the whole more believable). So when these actor/celebrity things pop into the frame every so often, they sometimes seem out of place to me.

Though I have no idea why hanging out with poker players seems more out of place than being in a tv show or hanging out with some celebrity somewhere.

Anyway, regular guy or no, I hope he makes the final table. That’d make for some rad stories.