Hand #1 Results And Hand #2

Thanks to the people that commented on my last hand. It looks like all were in agreement that this should be check-folded, and that's basically what happened.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2693777482: Main Event 100 Seat Guarantee (16050138), Table 256 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:08:16 ET - 2007/06/17
Seat 1: kaellinn18 (2,985)
Seat 2: styleWcash (3,735)
Seat 3: wouldman (2,820)
Seat 4: ASTON DBS (2,705)
Seat 5: FollowMyRuin (3,105)
Seat 6: tireman1234 (3,565)
Seat 7: BigSteveEli (1,185)
Seat 8: Bonaparte9 (3,930)
Seat 9: MadMaestro (2,970)
Bonaparte9 posts the small blind of 15
MadMaestro posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kaellinn18 [Js Ad]
kaellinn18 raises to 90
styleWcash calls 90
wouldman folds
ASTON DBS folds
FollowMyRuin has 15 seconds left to act
FollowMyRuin is sitting out
FollowMyRuin has timed out
FollowMyRuin folds
tireman1234 folds
BigSteveEli folds
Bonaparte9 folds
MadMaestro folds
*** FLOP *** [9c Qd 6d]
kaellinn18 bets 150
styleWcash calls 150
*** TURN *** [9c Qd 6d] [2h]
kaellinn18 has 15 seconds left to act
kaellinn18 checks
styleWcash checks
*** RIVER *** [9c Qd 6d 2h] [5d]
FollowMyRuin has returned
kaellinn18 has 15 seconds left to act
kaellinn18 checks
styleWcash checks
*** SHOW DOWN ***
kaellinn18 shows [Js Ad] Ace Queen high
styleWcash shows [8s 9s] a pair of Nines
styleWcash wins the pot (525) with a pair of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 525 | Rake 0
Board: [9c Qd 6d 2h 5d]
Seat 1: kaellinn18 showed [Js Ad] and lost with Ace Queen high
Seat 2: styleWcash showed [8s 9s] and won (525) with a pair of Nines
Seat 3: wouldman didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: ASTON DBS didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: FollowMyRuin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: tireman1234 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: BigSteveEli (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Bonaparte9 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: MadMaestro (big blind) folded before the Flop

I felt I was beat in this hand with his call on the flop, so I just checked it down. The flush card came on the river, but he actually just had a pair of nines. I'm not sure I would have been able to push him off of 2nd pair on the turn at any rate, as he had already called a few people down in the previous hands.

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Hand #2

This is a lot more interesting than the first hand. Here's how it went down.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2693877801: Main Event 100 Seat Guarantee (16050138), Table 256 - 20/40 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:19:47 ET - 2007/06/17
Seat 1: kaellinn18 (2,220)
Seat 2: styleWcash (5,090)
Seat 3: wouldman (3,020)
Seat 4: ASTON DBS (2,095)
Seat 5: FollowMyRuin (3,225)
Seat 6: tireman1234 (3,355)
Seat 7: RunninBad (3,020)
Seat 8: Bonaparte9 (3,850)
Seat 9: MadMaestro (4,145)
wouldman posts the small blind of 20
ASTON DBS posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kaellinn18 [8c 8h]
FollowMyRuin has 15 seconds left to act
FollowMyRuin folds
tireman1234 folds
RunninBad folds
Bonaparte9 calls 40
MadMaestro folds
kaellinn18 calls 40
styleWcash calls 40
wouldman calls 20
ASTON DBS checks
*** FLOP *** [5s 6s Qh]
wouldman checks
ASTON DBS checks
Bonaparte9 checks
kaellinn18 checks
styleWcash checks
*** TURN *** [5s 6s Qh] [Qs]
wouldman checks
ASTON DBS checks
Bonaparte9 checks
kaellinn18 checks
styleWcash bets 160
wouldman folds
ASTON DBS folds
Bonaparte9 folds
kaellinn18 calls 160
*** RIVER *** [5s 6s Qh Qs] [8d]
kaellinn18 has 15 seconds left to act
kaellinn18 bets 350
styleWcash has 15 seconds left to act
styleWcash raises to 880
kaellinn18 has 15 seconds left to act
kaellinn18 raises to 2,020, and is all in
styleWcash has 15 seconds left to act
styleWcash has requested TIME
styleWcash: flush no good?
styleWcash folds
Uncalled bet of 1,140 returned to kaellinn18
kaellinn18 mucks
kaellinn18 wins the pot (2,280)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,280 | Rake 0
Board: [5s 6s Qh Qs 8d]
Seat 1: kaellinn18 collected (2,280), mucked
Seat 2: styleWcash (button) folded on the River
Seat 3: wouldman (small blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 4: ASTON DBS (big blind) folded on the Turn
Seat 5: FollowMyRuin didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: tireman1234 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: RunninBad didn't bet (folded)
Seat 8: Bonaparte9 folded on the Turn
Seat 9: MadMaestro didn't bet (folded)

Question 1: Do you limp with the 8s in the cutoff or do you raise with the limper in front to show strength and try to isolate?

Question 2: Do you bet this flop when it's checked to you? There is only one overcard, but the board is fairly coordinated for a limped pot with the 5s6s so you can almost be guaranteed at least one call.

Question 3: Do you fold to the 75%-ish bet on the turn. The 2nd queen makes it less likely that anyone else has a queen, but it did complete the flush. However, the only person to bet was the button, who may have just been betting a scary board with a high spade or one of the small pairs. In retrospect, I think this was arguably a pretty loose call by me.

Question 4: Do you push all in to the raise on the river? Do you honestly think you're beat and flat call here? I really don't see how the button would be playing Q5, Q6, or Q8. QQ would most definitely have raised preflop. I'm pretty sure I left chips on the table by pushing all in. I think I should have made a smaller raise. It was still pretty early in the tournament, though, and I was a bit jittery still so I think I panicked.

Hundred Seat Guarantee: Hand #1

I'm going to run a series of hands over the next few days that I played during the 100 Seat Guarantee last Sunday. I would like to get your input on these hands to see if I should have maybe played them differently. So, without further ado, here's hand #1.

Circumstances: 8th hand of the tournament. The guy to my left (styleWcash) has already proven himself to be a somewhat loose player and has chipped up a bit in the process.

Full Tilt Poker Game #2693777482: Main Event 100 Seat Guarantee (16050138), Table 256 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:08:16 ET - 2007/06/17
Seat 1: kaellinn18 (2,985)
Seat 2: styleWcash (3,735)
Seat 3: wouldman (2,820)
Seat 4: ASTON DBS (2,705)
Seat 5: FollowMyRuin (3,105)
Seat 6: tireman1234 (3,565)
Seat 7: BigSteveEli (1,185)
Seat 8: Bonaparte9 (3,930)
Seat 9: MadMaestro (2,970)
Bonaparte9 posts the small blind of 15
MadMaestro posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to kaellinn18 [Js Ad]
kaellinn18 raises to 90
styleWcash calls 90
wouldman folds
ASTON DBS folds
FollowMyRuin has 15 seconds left to act
FollowMyRuin is sitting out
FollowMyRuin has timed out
FollowMyRuin folds
tireman1234 folds
BigSteveEli folds
Bonaparte9 folds
MadMaestro folds
*** FLOP *** [9c Qd 6d]
kaellinn18 bets 150
styleWcash calls 150
*** TURN *** [9c Qd 6d] [2h]

Question #1: Does anyone fold AJo UTG? It seems like a pretty nitty play, especially this early in the tournament. Just curious if any one would fold it.

Question #2: Does anyone fire the second bullet on the turn? Or do you check here? He could most definitely be on a flush draw at this point, and I would think he'd have raised it with a Q in his hand. It's also possible he had some kind of straight draw that whiffed on the turn as well.

I will post the results of the hand as soon as I get some feedback.

The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth, Part II

Matt: I'm glad your girl finally wised up

Matt: final table was oh so good

Mookie: told you i'd put in a good word :)

Matt: I appreciate it

Matt: you're a good friend

Mookie: lol

Matt: she was everything I thought she would be and more

----


That's right everyone, I FINAL TABLED THE MOOKIE!!

FINALLY!!!

Life Tilt

I was excited at the chance to play in my first MATH tournament last night. I had specifically spent some time Sunday afternoon winning a token and pre-registering for it so I wouldn't blow it on something else. My confidence in my game was high after my deep run in the 100 Seat Guarantee. I get home last night, and I start surfing the web, checking on some blogs, and generally trying to pass some time before the game.

I'm online for no more than five minutes when my internet connection goes out. Nice. I've had some problems with Comcast before, but usually it's because of some router connection or other that died because some squirrel decided to break into a cable box and take a dump on all of the electronics. I get up and walk into the living room to check the TV. That's strange... no TV either. Usually it's just the internet that goes out.

I'm about to call Comcast at this point when my wife gets home. She opens the door, and before I can even say hello she asks, "Did you see the wires outside?" Wires? What wires? I follow her outside to see that someone had pulled the cable lines out from behind their cover. They then proceeded to disconnect the source lines from the building lines and attach their own black coax line. This line then runs around the entire front of our building and back down the side where the other end is just laying in the grass.

Some fucktard actually thought they were going to be able to steal our cable. I don't know how they could have possibly thought they would get away with this. Let me list the various problems with this super-brilliant plan:

1) All the cable lines are UNDERGROUND. People are going to notice a huge-ass 300 foot cable line running from the FRONT of the building all the way around the side. I live in a condo with 12 units. At least 30 different people walk into and out of this building on a daily basis.

2) The dumbass didn't even reconnect existing lines. He killed the service of three units in his misguided attempt to watch the next season of American Idol. If you are going to steal cable, at least put a freaking SPLITTER on the line so that we will be none the wiser.

3) We're in a very busy neighborhood. Lots of families and lots of kids. If you try and pull this crap, someone is going to see you, and you are going to get caught. The Asian guy that lives above me said he saw someone, but he doesn't speak very good English, so he is not much help.

Anyway, all idiocies aside, you'd think that I would be able to just reconnect the lines and everything would be ok. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I reconnected everything, and the guy on the third floor got his service back, but mine and the guy's above me still don't work. So now I have to wait until Wednesday for a "technician" to come by and tell me that he can't fix it so that they can send a REAL line technician on Friday to fix the problem.

So, my ability to join the blonkeys in a friendly game of poker ended up being sabotaged by some half-wit with a Teletubby fetish. I at least had enough time to call up a friend of mine and have him unregister me. I guess I will have to wait until next week to take down a MATH tournament.

One very minor plus side: I took the idiot's 100+ feet of coax cable and kept it. He is either out around $50 or the time he put in stealing it. I can now wire the entire rest of my condo if I want. Thanks for the free stuff, bitch!

And if I see this guy nosing around outside my building, I will not be calling the cops. So help me, I will beat his ass down, tie him to a chair, and make him watch reruns of the Rosie O'Donnell show. I may be crossing a line here, but some people just have to learn the hard way.

Not Meant To Be, I Guess

I finished 256th out of 3338 in the 100 Seat Guarantee. I felt I played pretty well, but may have been a little to timid folding to some re-raises in the end game. I will post some hands to ask questions about later, but right now I'm just going to dump my notes. It's not so much as post as just saving my stuff in case I ever want to go back and look at it. It's mostly just a live-blog of who went out when and where I was at the breaks. I think Paul Wolfe was the only Red Name left in the game when I busted. Feel free to skip it.

6:56 I outlasted Eric Lindgren!

6:58 I outlasted Steve Brecher, whoever he is.

7:00 First break. I am sitting ok with 3830 in chips, +830 from the starting stack. We are down to 2630 people from the original 3338, which is just ridiculous. Checking on the other bloggers I know are in this tournament, I see that cmitch has dropped a bit to 2310. He was up above 4000 at one point, so he must have hit a few bad hands. Chad is sitting at 2725. Every time I've checked his stack it's been around that point, so he must not be getting much to work with early on. Time for a little walk.

7:12 I've outlasted Michael Craig and JJ Liu

7:20 I've outlasted Lynette Chan

7:20 cmitch busted in 2307th place :( Also, I outlasted Aaron Bartley.

7:46 I outlasted Lee Watkinson.

7:49 I outlasted Chip Jett.

8:08 I didn't know oossuuu754 was in this game, but I just noticed that he busted out as well. :\

8:10 Second break. We're down to 1618 players. Right now I'm sitting on a stack of 4340, up a little bit from where I was at the last break. The average is at 6185, so I'm a good bit lower than I'd like to be. The fact is, I've gotten very little to work with in the last hour. However, what I did get, I was able to use to stay alive and chip up a little bit. Chad is still struggling at around 1705. He must be getting even worse cards than me! Time for another walk.

8:16 I outlasted Stuart Paterson.

8:19 Chad went out in 1557. I think I'm the last blogger in here. I will try not to let everyone down!

8:25 I have outlasted Karina Jett.

8:39 I've outlasted Allen Cunningham.

8:51 I've outlasted Keith Sexton.

9:00 There are less than 1000 players remaining!

9:16 Third break. My stack has grown a decent bit to 8470. Unfortunately, the average is 12,332, still a good bit above my stack. There are 812 players remaining now. I've felt pretty confident about my game thus far. I just hope I can catch the cards I need to stay alive. I can play the short stack with the best of them, but I'd rather it not come to that.

9:23 cmitch tells me that Loopy is still in this thing and sitting at 5k.

9:26 I've outlasted David Grey.

9:33 Less than 700 people left now.

9:59 I think Loopy busted in 501st. Maybe now I'm really the last one. It's down to less than 500 people.

10:06 I've outlasted Farzad Bonyadi. I don't know who he is either.

10:21 Fourth break. I'm more comfortable with my stack now, but still not where I need to be. I have 20640, and the average is 25545. We're down to 390 players. There are 139 seats being awarded. I think I still have a pretty good chance!

11:10 I busted in 256th place when my A8s didn't hit against JJ. The end.

The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth

Matt: The Mookie better start putting out. Riverchasers gave me final table goodness the first time.

Matt: I'm just sayin'

Mookie: ha ha

Mookie: The Mookie isn't a little whore like riverchasers that puts out that easy :)

Matt: yeah, except we've been on like 50 dates

Mookie: The Mookie is saving herself for marriage

Matt: I'm tired of being teased dammit!

Mookie: lol

Matt: you and I both know that The Mookie has been with TONS of other guys

Matt: girls too, I bet

Mookie: lol

Matt: you don't have to lie for her, man

Mookie: ha ha...but i'm her best friend

Matt: I guess it is your duty as a friend to try and protect her

Mookie: yea

Matt: Just let her know that I'm not like all the other guys. I'll be there for her. If she'll let me.

Mookie: lol...i'll let her know

Matt: thanks, bud

Mookie: maybe next week she'll give you a chance

Matt: you really think so?

Mookie: you never can tell with her

Matt: yeah, she's a fickle one

Matt: I'll keep my fingers crossed

I Just Can't Win. At Least I Moneyed.

The Mookie sucks. Riverchasers rules. Full Tilt can KISS MY ASS.

I played in my first ever Riverchasers event last night, and not only did I not bust on the final table bubble, I also made the money. And when I made the money, I was in first place. But Full Tilt hates me so bad.

I lost the majority of my stack when Garth limped UTG. I figured him for a monster hand, so I just called with my 88 and huge chipstack to see if I could outflop him. A couple of others came along for the ride. The flop came 8 high, and Garth pushed. I raised to isolate, and he flips over QQ. He hits a Q on the turn, and my nuts are kicked up into my lower intestines. No, wait, they were already there from last night. I think they are now somewhere near the esophagus.

Three hands later it's folded around to the short stacked small blind who pushes all in. I call with A3d. He flips 89o. 9 hits the flop, and I lose even MORE chips.

The very next hand it folds to me in the SB, and I look down at A6. I push my short stack all in, and the BB wakes up with 99. No help for me, and IGHN. What a horrible turn of events. But like I said yesterday, as long as Full Tilt gets this BS out of its system before Sunday, I will be forgiving. If I get busted with this crap on Sunday, someone will die. I still can't believe that string of hands.

I now refer you to Matt's Musing #1:

"If I would win the damn hands when I'm ahead, I wouldn't be forced to push when I am behind."

Words to live by.

Screw The Mookie

I'm seriously considering not playing this tournament anymore. The number of final table bubbles I have experienced is insane, and I have yet to cash in the damn thing. Last night was another repeat experience with another freaking three-outer. I hope Full Tilt gets this crap out of its system before Sunday. I'm going to be severely pissed if I bubble the 100 Seat Guarantee because of some dumbass call and stupid luck.

UPDATE: Of course I will keep playing the Mookie. Just blowing off steam...

Brief Update And Brain Dump

Not a whole lot has been going on with me poker-wise. I've been playing the cash games semi-regularly and doing well there, and I've won a couple of tokens. I used the tokens to play a couple of tournaments that didn't materialize into any winnings, the most recent of which was tonight's $19k Guaranteed. I busted from this about halfway through the field when I got coolered: my trips lost to higher trips. Oh well.

I'm anticipating and dreading the arrival of this Sunday. I'm both excited and nervous about playing in the Main Event 100 Seat Guaranteed tournament on FTP. This will, by far, be the largest buy-in tournament that I have ever played in. The buy-in isn't really what makes me nervous, though. I mean, I'm in this thing for a grand total of $14. The payout, however, is beyond anything I've had the possibility of winning before. I've made so many plans in my mind for some of the money if I win it, but I have to keep reminding myself that this is still a pretty big IF.

I consider myself a good tournament player, especially in deep stack tournaments, and I feel that I will be able to go deep in this thing provided I don't get kicked in the nuts. I guess that's the other thing that makes me nervous about this tournament. It doesn't really bother me (TOO much) when I get three outered in a $26 tournament or whatever. But when $12,000 is on the line, I'm pretty sure that getting a horrendous bad beat laid on me is going to sting. Bad. And Full Tilt has never been a site to shy away from dishing out some pretty awful ones to me.

I guess, when it comes down to it, all I can do is to prepare myself, show up, and play my A-game. Que será será. To anyone else playing in the tournament, I wish you luck. If I can't take down a seat, I hope one of our blogger brethren is able to at least. I will do my best not to drop the ball!