Sympathy River

Tonight was a prime example of why online cash games typically make me want to fall face first onto the corner of my coffee table. I get really bored playing them for extended periods of time. I've sat at the same $25 table tonight for almost 4 hours and I've yet to get over $30ish bucks at any point. To summarize it has been - stay even, lose a little, win a decent pot, lose a slightly bigger pot not long after the win, grind up a bit more, win a decent pot, lose a slightly bigger pot again right after the win.

Finally it's 5am, I've busted out of the deepstack $3 tournament I was playing alongside this cash table and I'm down to $10. Maybe I should have left a few times when I was at $15 and cut my losses. It never seemed at any point like I was on the fast track to double up. I can stand to lose $25 in one session bankroll wise but I certainly would be irritated with it, especially considering it would be about half of my recent 90 man 2nd place profits. But at this point I figure: "So what if I lose it? Who cares? I have no major complaints about they way I've played."

Then I play this hand with a guy who's sat with me for almost 150 hands:

Full Tilt Poker Game #14901417279: Table Ash (6 max) - $0.10/$0.25 - No Limit Hold'em - 5:53:13 ET - 2009/09/24
Seat 1: spotDEspot ($25)
Seat 2: Laugo ($53.42)
Seat 3: Dray ($10.82)
Seat 4: conics1234 ($30.29)
Seat 5: jumsoon ($4.50)
Seat 6: duffmanbluffman ($29.94)
duffmanbluffman posts the small blind of $0.10
spotDEspot posts the big blind of $0.25
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [9c Jh]
Laugo folds
Dray has 15 seconds left to act
Dray raises to $1
conics1234 calls $1
jumsoon folds
duffmanbluffman has been disconnected
duffmanbluffman has reconnected
duffmanbluffman folds
spotDEspot folds
spotDEspot adds $0.25
*** FLOP *** [7c Jc 8s]
Dray checks
conics1234 bets $1.25
Dray calls $1.25
*** TURN *** [7c Jc 8s] [7d]
Dray checks
conics1234 bets $3.50
Dray has 15 seconds left to act
Dray raises to $8.57, and is all in
conics1234 calls $5.07
Dray shows [9c Jh]
conics1234 shows [Js Ad]
*** RIVER *** [7c Jc 8s 7d] [Th]
Dray shows a straight, Jack high
conics1234 shows two pair, Jacks and Sevens
Dray wins the pot ($20.90) with a straight, Jack high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $21.99 | Rake $1.09
Board: [7c Jc 8s 7d Th]
Seat 1: spotDEspot (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: Laugo didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Dray showed [9c Jh] and won ($20.90) with a straight, Jack high
Seat 4: conics1234 showed [Js Ad] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Sevens
Seat 5: jumsoon (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: duffmanbluffman (small blind) folded before the Flop

I'm still playing at this table and have yet to get above $30. I'm still sitting with the initial buyin of $25. Maybe NOW I should quit break even...but dammit if I don't still want to either bust or double up because this is BORING!!!!

ANYWAY

I'm going to play a tournament tonight in Round Rock with a group I've never played with before. It's a group Herby usually plays with on Thursdays. $30 buyin with WSOP structure, of course what really matters is how fast the blinds go up. Yesterday was my birthday so I can justify spending a little $ but lately it's been tight. This may be one of my last live poker appearances for a while before Aubrey arrives and Kristina and I both become immersed in "baby land". :) I sure hope the game is pleasant and the people are a) nice b) not annoying and c) not jerks or poker ego trippers. Because if the last two are true I at least want to make some money off of them.

Another deep run tonight.

Last night I played 2 tournies, a $3.30 deep stack and a $5.50 bounty 6 max. I went deep in both, moreso in the 6 max. 19/368 players and claimed 7 $1 bounties altogether. It was a pretty crazy rollercoaster towards the end where I was putting some pretty bad beats on people. I really thought I'd end up final tabling just because of that, but alas feel short. $12 profit altogether. I had chips in the $3.30 for a while but didn't end up cashing.

My sleep schedule was all out of wack today because I was up all night, slept for 4 hours and then got up to go to my wife's doctor's appointment. We also went grocery shopping too, and rather than take a nap I wanted to stay up so I could watch the season premiere of Fringe - one of my FAVORITE shows on TV. The only thing I don't like about Fringe is that there's never any resolution! :) They just keep things hanging all the time. So we both crashed out after the show and I woke up at 2am and jumped into the same $3.30 deep stack tourney. Instead of the $5.50 I opted for another $3.30, a turbo deep stack bounty sng, for my 2nd table.

I got 2nd in that one and for the first time used the new "make a deal" feature that full tilt FINALLY implemented after years of there being no way to do that. It's really easy because they do all the math for you, the default I guess is chopping it up based on ICM (Independent Chip Modeling). I know I'm going to botch this explanation but that calculates your equity for the prize pool based on your chip count. I really don't understand this math side of poker very well, but to make things simpler - the deal basically got my an extra $9. The difference between 2nd and first place was $20 essentially and since we had nearly even chips, we halfed that $20. If he had me 3-1 in chips then I probably would only have gotten and extra 2 or 3 bucks. In which case making a deal probably wouldn't have really mattered. But overall it was a $50 profit and as Jules and Vincent would say in Pulp Fiction: "We Happy."

I cashed 28/377 in the $3.30 deep stack as well. It was sick at the end I ran into Aces TWICE with my big playable hands on the bubble. LOL so for a 3 hour game I made less than $2.

But hey, I'm pretty amazed that I've had 4 pretty deep tournament runs this month with the small sample size I've put in. Even though tournies don't pay much until the end, I still think they're more exciting than cash games. It just seems I get so bored in cash games for whatever reason. Tournaments always have the element of excitement and anticipation which I've always liked, even if you can make more money from cash games.

So anyways I'll probably be up for a few more hours, I go back to work tonight. :( I will leave with a movie recommendation, and that is Vicky Cristina Barcelona starring Scarlett Johanssen Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, who most people will recognize as the villain from No Country For Old Men. Cruz won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in it this past year. It's a Woody Allen movie, romantic comedy but not your typical Matthew Mcconaughey or Jennifer Aniston style blockbuster formula.

It's a story of 2 friends, Vicky and Cristina, who go to Barcelona for the summer and have 2 completely opposite views on love. Vicky's engaged to be married - values committment and stability. Cristina is passionate and free spirited - she knows what she doesn't want (typical accepted relationship standards), but she also doesn't know WHAT she wants. They meet a painter (Bardem) who's known for his publicized fiery split with his ex wife (Cruz) and he invites the girls to fly with him to a small Spanish town to go look at sculptures. It really just takes off from there - but I just think that the script is great and there are lot of great interactions between the characters and a LOT of really funny moments.

So yeah, I recommend it. LOL

Oh snap he's posting a lil something

It is my Friday "night" right now. I should be in bed so I don't wake up all late, but I'm not. I'm up, 2 cups of coffee in me and playing on Full Tilt. I've really been enjoying the WSOP coverage. I'm finally caught up with the Main Event episodes. :) I got to spend a little time watching some of it with my buds Bruce and Eric last week which was nice.

So anyways playing some cash this morning and just had this big hand I thought I'd share. The guy had some pretty bad stats on display and I'd seen him make some overbets at pots frequently. I thought about raising the flop because scare cards could hit the turn, but I couldn't call a 3bet so I opted to call and see the turn. When he bet the turn quickly I really didn't think he had a big pair, but I did think he could call me with a draw, and to do that on the turn he's probably pretty far behind. Turns out I was in even better shape. :)


Full Tilt Poker Game #14734218947: Table Gaeta (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:54:34 ET - 2009/09/16
Seat 1: Dray ($16.19)
Seat 2: Meazymoney ($5.67)
Seat 3: Tilt-Shunyata ($11.78)
Seat 4: galapagos06 ($8.97)
Seat 5: chp0k ($10)
Seat 6: stinker1978 ($10)
Tilt-Shunyata posts the small blind of $0.05
galapagos06 posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [9d Kc]
Dray has 15 seconds left to act
Dray raises to $0.40
Meazymoney folds
Tilt-Shunyata folds
galapagos06 has 15 seconds left to act
galapagos06 calls $0.30
*** FLOP *** [2s 9h 2h]
galapagos06 bets $0.90
Dray calls $0.90
*** TURN *** [2s 9h 2h] [8c]
galapagos06 bets $1.70
Dray has 15 seconds left to act
Dray raises to $14.89, and is all in
galapagos06 has 15 seconds left to act
galapagos06 calls $5.97, and is all in
Dray shows [9d Kc]
galapagos06 shows [9c Th]
Uncalled bet of $7.22 returned to Dray
*** RIVER *** [2s 9h 2h 8c] [Qc]
Dray shows two pair, Nines and Twos
galapagos06 shows two pair, Nines and Twos
Dray wins the pot ($16.99) with two pair, Nines and Twos
galapagos06 is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $17.99 | Rake $1
Board: [2s 9h 2h 8c Qc]
Seat 1: Dray showed [9d Kc] and won ($16.99) with two pair, Nines and Twos
Seat 2: Meazymoney (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Tilt-Shunyata (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 4: galapagos06 (big blind) showed [9c Th] and lost with two pair, Nines and Twos
Seat 5: chp0k is sitting out
Seat 6: stinker1978 is sitting out