Poke the bully....

I typically dislike sifting through an entire post of nothing but a hand history so here we go...

Every now and then it's a good idea to "Poke the bully" at your table

1) it typically gives you a good read on the strength of your opponents hand.
2) a properly placed raise/re-raise will often let "chasers" know they will have to pay a hefty sum to chase their draw.
3) it can turn a possible big loss into a small one
4) it often entices a big play back at you, and when holding a good hand, that's what we all want
5) it's fun for the entire family

Dealt to ME [Ah Ks]
seat 8: folds
seat 9: folds
seat 1: folds
seat 2: calls 1
seat 3: folds
seat 4: folds
seat 5: folds
ME: raises 1 to 2
seat 7: folds
seat 2: calls 1
*** FLOP *** [8c 4d Kc]
ME: checks
seat 2: checks
*** TURN ***[8c 4d Kc] [Ad]
ME: checks
seat 2: bets 1
ME: calls 1
*** RIVER *** [8c 4d Kc Ad] [Kd]
ME: bets 2 poke the bully bet
seat 2: raises 12 to 14
ME: raises 4.15 to 18.15 and is all-in
seat 2: calls 4.15
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Ah Ks] (a full house, Kings full of Aces)
seat 2: mucks hand

******

seat 4: posts small blind 0.50
ME: posts big blind 1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ME [Tc Kd]
seat 7: calls 1
seat 8: folds
seat 9: folds
seat 1: calls 1
seat 3: calls 1
seat 4: folds
ME: checks
*** FLOP *** [8h Td 4h]
ME: bets 3 poke the bully bet
seat 7: folds
seat 1: calls 3
seat 3: folds
*** TURN *** [8h Td 4h] [Qh]
ME: bets 3
seat 1: raises 3 to 6
ME: calls 3
*** RIVER *** [8h Td 4h Qh] [7c]
ME: checks
seat 1: bets 7.20 and is all-in
ME: calls 7.20
*** SHOW DOWN ***
seat 1: shows [Ad 2d] (high card Ace)
ME: shows [Tc Kd] (a pair of Tens)
ME collected 35.15 from pot

*******

seat 9: posts small blind 0.50
seat 1: posts big blind 1
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to ME [Kh Kd]
seat 2: raises 1 to 2
seat 3: raises 3 to 5
seat 4: folds
seat 5: folds
ME: calls 5
seat 7: folds
seat 8: folds
seat 9: folds
seat 1: folds
seat 2: calls 3
*** FLOP *** [8s Qs Td]
seat 2: checks
seat 3: bets 9
ME: raises 9 to 18 poke the bully raise
seat 2: folds
seat 3: calls 9
*** TURN *** [8s Qs Td] [7c]
seat 3: checks
ME: checks
*** RIVER *** [8s Qs Td 7c] [6s]
seat 3: bets 30
ME: raises 4.90 to 34.90 and is all-in
seat 3: calls 4.90
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ME: shows [Kh Kd] (a pair of Kings)
seat 3: mucks hand
ME collected 119.30 from pot

save me a seat at the final table

THE Tourney

What a blast! That many bloggers in the same tourney (I think that's illegal in 10 states). The banter was priceless.

It's amazing the noise a bunch of bloggers can raise from the rail!

I played well..(for my standards) and looking back at the numbers I played REAL TIGHT (seeing the flop at a whopping 12% clip), which with some of the maniacs sitting in this tourney, looked to be my best shot.

Lesson #1 Part 24,354. Not everyone is pushing you off your blind, sometimes they have a good hand!!! ( I have GOT to get this through my thick noggin).
At least 11th is respectable, ahh screw that, I wanted better.


Now the dirty facts:

PokerStars Game #789692950: Tournament #2868250, Hold'em No Limit - Level XI (600/1200) - 2004/10/21 - 23:41:52 (ET)Table '2868250 16' Seat #7 is the button
Seat1: misterd2u (6640 in chips)
(now you all can take all of those nasty notes off my screen name)
Seat 2: MtDewVirus (19926 in chips)
Seat 3: Johni D. (21700 in chips)
Seat 5: jerge88 (19714 in chips)
Seat 7: humbird (27581 in chips)

misterd2u: posts small blind 600
MtDewVirus: posts big blind 1200

*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to misterd2u [Ac 6s]
Johni D.: folds
jerge88: folds
humbird: folds
misterd2u: calls 600
MtDewVirus: raises 2400 to 3600
(here's where my brain goes numb)
misterd2u: raises 2965 to 6565 and is all-in
MtDewVirus: calls 2965
(here's where I start crying uncontrollably)
*** FLOP *** [7s Ts Td]
misterd2u said, "ugh"
TURN *** [7s Ts Td] [8d]***
RIVER *** [7s Ts Td 8d] [Qd]
MtDewVirus said, "gg"
*** SHOW DOWN ***misterd2u: shows [Ac 6s] (a pair of Tens)
MtDewVirus: shows [Qh Ad] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
misterd2u said, "nh"
(Here's where Ms. Uwannabet wakes up ((from all my sobbing)), walks downstairs and tries to convince me that I should just, "Step down off the chair, put down the bottle of pills, take the rope back out to the garage, and come to bed)

Congrats to MtDewVirus and ToddCommish (you are one funny individual)

save me a seat at the final, err second to final table

Giddy like a school girl......

tee hee hee
Yanks lose (Sorry Doc, everyone hates my Cowboys too)
PokerStars
tee hee hee
Blogger Tourney
tee hee hee
What's Last place pay?
tee hee hee

Would you......

Call a 600 dollar raise (that would represent almost 1/2 your stack) in the second hour of a tourney with 5-5 preflop?

Of course you would.

And then call a 765 dollar bet when the flop has three overs?

Of course you would.

Would you call a 1600 dollar raise preflop with 6-7 off (which is all your stack)?

Of course you would.

Why?? Because you play at Party.

And they will bail you out with the third 5 on the river and the bookends for your 8 high straight.

I'm convinced fish are the #1 reason for:

Premature blogger graying hair.
Premature blogger baldness.
At least one broken monitor a week.
The dog/cat getting kicked for no reason.
One spilled drink an hour.
Countless sleepless nights filled with nightmares.
At least one "I quit, I'm never playing this game again" per half hour.
One broken mouse per fifteen minutes.

ahh that was cathartic.

save me a seat at the final table

You have to close the door!

I had been wanting to play in PS sat to the Sunday 250, it always seems like I'm just missing the start or it won't start for hours. Anywho, Last week I vowed to give it a whirl, starting at midnight, with 721 players. (Will someone fix me breakfast when I'm done???)

Sleep be damned.
My new mantra in tourney play is WWDPDITTS
(What-Would-Dr Pauly-Do-In-This-Tournament-Situation)

I really don't like re-buy tourneys. I understand why it's done, but it brings out a chemical reaction in the brain that makes fish go wild. It's an ugly sight.

It fuels play like...
A-7 off after a raise & re-raise.... I'm all in....lose re-buy. Or even worse they hit a hand with junk and then tout how good they are. Ok you get the idea I dislike re-buys, plus it adds hours to the tourney.

I played good, a little loose in the beginning, hoping to see a few more flops and take advantage of the fishy all-ins. For the most part never getting a good chip stack, just hovering around the average.

Side-note I never played in a tourney while listening to music. Wow, it keeps me focused and makes time fly by. I'm not going to miss any audio tells.

(Guess I'm gonna have to go get a WPT starter kit, sunglasses, iPod, cool card marker and a
kick-ass poker shirt. Oh yeah I'll need a nickname as well..HA)

On last night's playlist:
Afghan Whigs
Lead Belly
R.L. Burnside
Johnny Cash

Onward.
If you keep betting and keep betting with garbage, people will fold. And when they take you to a showdown and you flip k-2 off. I pays off 5x when you actually have a hand. This is the m.o. of one of the players at the table last night. Utter junk, but that never stopped him from betting, and collecting a good size chip stack. Amazing.

I'll save you the blow-by-blow hand details (I get tired of reading them about 1/2 way through).

3 hours and 3 minutes into the tourney, blinds are 1k/2k with a 100 ante, I'm in the big blind and for the first time all night the blinds get folded to me. And it only took 3+hours. Sweet

I'm sitting about 175 out of 229 (or something around that) with about 11k in chips, the
leader(s) are sitting with stacks of 100k, much work to be done.

I absolutely love the stats that are available while playing on PS. I't a great way to pin down your play in an objective fashion. By this gauge I'm playing a little tight, but hell it's a long haul.

After folding, folding, folding, and now I'm in the BB with about 7k left, I catch 10-10.
two limpers, (trigger finger ichy) I drop the hammer with an all-in, and both call, (not what I expected).

Great flop Q-10-X, (hit my set, staring to count my chips) well the second caller decides to drop "Ethel's hammer of pain" and pushes in with about 10k more, and the other guy calls. (I'm getting a bad feeling).

The cards are flipped 10-10 (me), Qh-9h (first caller), A-A (second caller) better than I thought!

Turn is Q (board Q-10-x-Q) sweet, I'm on a luxury boat cruzin to the money.
river A

Man over board, man over board, my 20ft runabout just got capsized by 150ft yaht.

83rd out of 721

The good thing is that for placing 83rd they will be sending me a free copy of
Dr.Pauly's "How to Close the Damn Door and Win one for a change" I think it's in it's third print run now.

save me a seat at the final table

Your thoughts.... the odd buy in.

First off I'll never understand why someone would buy into a .50/1 game with 500. But I saw it the other night, and lord knows how he ever got the 500 in the first place, cuz it wasn't due to superior play (at least not at this sitting). Onward.

Dear Readers (yeah both of you),
I pose a question.....and you must forgive me (I actually read some discussion on a blog about this and can't seem to place who's it was).

Recently, I have been buying into various games with odd amounts (and a little short). I'm not talking only 5xBB short, but in the 10-15 range. Playing like normal and have noticed that some players with a larger stack will push harder with weaker hands. The "mine is bigger than yours" idea.

It seems to be working to my advantage. Am I crazy? is it isolated cases? You thoughts, cards and letters are welcome.

Other fronts, I've fired up Stars in preparation for the......
be-all-end-all-poker-blogger-reader-no-holds-barred-over-the-top-barbed-wire-cage-match

I've got to come up with a good bounty, (after all I should only last one or two orbits).

SirFWALGMan Has been hitting some nice wins in the Aquarium, as a matter of fact, I saw him talking trash to Moshy the fish boy. Funny stuff.

Ahh finally The Aussie Invasion has jumped into the fishpond, settle in and play smart, you'll be making movies in no time. (I just want a bit part)

save me a seat at the final table

Warning I'm crying... bad beats Party style

1/2 first 20 minutes in the game....

AA (me) beat by 3-7 off (straight on the river)
AA (me) beat by Kh-Qh (flush on river)
10-10 (me) flops a set, beat by Jh-5h (flush on river)

I rammed & jammed every pot, no slow-playing here.

and now I'm blinded by rage and expect to tilt off the last of my buy-in by raising pre-flop with 2-3 off, only to catch 2 pair, and have the rest of the table fold.

Ok I feel better, thanks for listening. How much for this therapy session?

save me a seat at the final table

Would you play poker for a stunning broach?

So Mrs. Uwannabet? asks me, " Why are all the awards/prizes for winning so girly?"

Hmmm..........

If you win the Masters you get a green jacket.
If you win the Superbowl you get a ring.
If you win the Derby you get a blanket of roses.
If you win the WSOP you get a bracelet.
If you win the Poker Blogger Tournament should you get some earrings or a stunning broach?

Of course many of the times a big fat check comes along with it or a monstrous, shiny trophy.
It's about the honor, prestige, cash and bragging rights. So the answer to the rhetorical question is YES, I would play poker for a stunning broach especially if it came along with a check for 5 mil. and bragging rights of being the best.

save me a seat at the final table.

Uwannabet?