CARDRUNNERS

So I got a chat warning from FTP.


A few nights ago, I was railing aba vs durrrr hu, and I saw someone in the chat type I JUST FARTED BLOOD

I thought this was hysterical, so me and a few friends just started going crazy in the chatroom. The next day a chat warning from FTP shows up in my mailbox.

What am i 5 years old? I was a little shocked that I got a chat warning for saying words like poop butt and fart. I assumed those were ok since thats basically the entire vocabulary of a 4 year old and you can say them on cable TV without consequence. I sent an email back saying "admit it, you laughed" and didnt get a response. I guess this is no laughing matter.



So I had a bit of a bad run the past few weeks. Still up around 105k from 25/50 this year, but been doing bad in PLO, and down about 65k from my peak at 25/50. I wasnt running so well and didnt feel like I was playing my best at all. So I decided to play lower stakes for a bit. I've been playing mainly 3/6 6max on stars, and i love it. the players are just awful and I am doing very well there the past 2 weeks (up about 10k ish in 12k ish hands, pretty sad that I was down 5k there to begin with)



And wtf is wrong with me at 10/20 6max. Everytime I play there i just get demolished. The first thing im going to do is get the 5/10 full ring into the green, then im going to start working on that 10/20 6max and figure out what the hell im doing wrong there, cause thats just pathetic.


No paint today boys and girls.

So last night a bunch of my friends were getting deep in the stars 320, so I took some time to rail the donkament. My buddy mike martin, martine23 actually ended up taking it down for 44k. Pretty sicko score, but thats secondary to what took place.

When the money bubble hit, i was railing apestyles, but noticed that randallin was still alive. So i double click his name and get to his table. Now I havent railed randal in a while in a tournament, so I didnt know that he changed his avatar. It used to be a picture of ActionJeff drunk, it was pretty funny. Now its just a logo for the red hot chili peppers. So I make a comment in the chat that I miss his old avatar. I didnt notice that Vanessa Rousso was also on the table. Ok, lets backtrack a tad.

Some of you might not have seen my cardplayer interview before the PCA final table, but in it I ramble on for a few minutes about farting and vanessa. She was on my table day 1 at pca and i accidentally limped under the gun because I was checking her out and thought I was the big blind. Here is a link to the interview for those that havent seen it, its the second one, titled "Ryan Daut Before The Final Table":

http://www.cardplayer.com/play...ideos/Ryan_Daut/50958


So anyway, here is the chat followup:


Daut44 [observer]: i miss your old avatar
LadyMaverick: awww sorry daut
LadyMaverick: k ill chng it bak just for u
LadyMaverick: :-)
LadyMaverick: next time ur on chek it out
Kcannon [observer]: How come daut gets special privlades
Kcannon [observer]: privlages
LadyMaverick: hes a sweety



Vanessa also changed her avatar, but I didnt even notice, i was talking to randallin, but she thought I was talking to her. Good thing she did. I guess she saw the interview I made. Nothing says I love you more than talking about someone in an interview on cardplayer.

Too bad chad brown already has his foot in the door. Not that 6'3 225 pound jacked good looking hollywood actors have anything on me. I mean after all I am patrik antonius junior.




I give it a couple weeks before she sees the light.

So last weekend I went to the celebrity invitational. It was a lot of fun, i got to meet/play with a bunch of celebs. Tourney was shitty structure, really fast, started with 50bb, blinds went up every 30 minutes and i just lost every all in i had. oh well, who cares, i got to play with mekhi phifer, timothy busfield and the creator of the simpsons, and got to talk to a bunch of other people.

cash games went shitty, 3rd hand at the table took a 12k 4 outer on the turn at 20/40, didnt bring enough money to play 20/40 after that so i had to grind the terrible weak tight 10/20 games and made a little more than half of it back.

Anyway, CA was fun, got to hang out with lyric, mango, and jonny cosmo, and met some other cool people out there. ok, the rest of the trip is meaningless besides the plane ride back.


So, I get on the plane on monday morning to fly home. Im really exhausted cause I've been up for like 25 hours at this point (didnt go to bed that night). As I'm walking to my seat I see that I'm the luckiest man alive and have the hottest girl on the plane next to me. Man do I run good sometimes.

so i sit down, say hi and dont really say much more to start. She looks really familiar to me, but I just cant place who it is. A couple minutes later she asks if I could get out so she could go to the bathroom. so I move out of the way and she stands up and i see that shes 6'1. then all of a sudden it dawned on me, HOLY SHIT ITS JENNIE FINCH.

for those of you that dont follow sports, jennie finch is like this phenom softball player who was voted the hottest female athlete a few years running back in like 2003 and 2004.

http://espn.go.com/page2/s/hottest/female/finals.html

in this poll she demolished anna kournikova as the hottest female athlete.


her softball achievments (what a sicko):

Anyway I havent heard anything about her in the last couple of years. It turns out shes married and has a kid, which really shocked me, shes only 26. The kid is 9 months old and his name is Ace. Hes going to be pretty much the best pitcher ever, seeing as how both parents are awesome pitchers (dad is on the diamondbacks).

So we got to talking. Shes going to be on a fantasy baseball show coming up in the next few months. Fantasy baseball was like my life for 8 years so i told her everything i knew about it. Then we started talking about what i did and poker came up.



pretty sad. i thought i was in but i blew it.


oh yeah, awesome news. so im getting into backing some really good mtt players in live tournaments with my friend victor (nazgul18 on stars, owns liquidpoker), and last night my boy bodogari won the 300 in AC for 63k weeeee. Ari is the man, hes already cashed in 3 events, only played in 8 for me, hes so sick. We're also going to be backing mig.com and hopefully a few others that im not sure about yet.


ill be at bay 101 in san jose playing in the 2k and 10k events out there next week. hopefully i book another big win.


one last little note. taylor showed me this link about the PPA. check out the video on pocketfives.

http://www.pocketfives.com/FE1...A0DA-C85AC2261B63.aspx

So I just remembered a funny poker story I read. A few years back when a bunch of us were making little poker threads on a starcraft forum, this one guy came in acting like he owned the place and making all these ridiculous posts about hands he supposedly played in a casino. They were always totally outrageous and had weird nicknames for everyone in the hand.

Here is an example of one (it's pretty long but definitely worth reading):

I really love how he doesnt even make a legal raise preflop. Pretty awesome story that is trying to be serious even though its total garbage. I still get a kick out of reading it.

One of the guys on the forum, (i think his stars name is kimjongillin) decided to counter it with the following post, which is definitely the best poker story ive ever seen:





pretty awesome. ive been using the "i raise you your life" line ever since.


and not to go too long without posting awesome paint pictures heres a pretty cool one:

So my friend beth is a vegan, but she has a dog, Daniel, who is like this little hunter. He's killed squirrels, rabbits, woodchucks and even got a beaver once. Now being a vegan, Beth doesnt take kindly to the death of any animal, so she obviously goes apeshit whenever Daniel ends the life of a little woodland creature. So obviously I had to draw a picture about this:



As you can see shes pretty jacked so dont fuck with her. Or the dog for that matter.

Just a quick comment on the hand i posted last time. I talked it over with some very good players and the one who's opinion i consider highest (i wont say who cause he likes anonymity) told me he shoves here cause of stacksizes and folding with that little less on a paired board seems really hard. But if we were a bit deeper he thinks flat calling he could be a very very smart play. I agree with him (assuming we werent too too deep, in which case it would become very hard to get any value out of sets on a flush board).



Ok, so my first full month at 25/50 is over (I got back from pca on the 11th and started playing on the 13th). here are my stats for the month for PLO and NL respectively:






Things went pretty well for my first month at higher stakes, I dont think I ran particularly well or bad, so I hope this is sustainable. Ran pretty bad in omaha at the end there but I still feel I have a pretty significant edge in the games on stars.

ok, so i basically made 150k the past month. Now for the ballerism:
So I called my credit card company earlier because the limit on my card was $1900 a month and I needed it raised a bit for hotels and flying to tournaments and stuff. I'm on the phone with some lady when the following mini-convo comes up:




After that, she asked me if I wanted my credit card limits raised up to 35k, the highest I offer. My mom (also on the phone, it was a 3way call) yelled at me for telling her I made that much and I decided to just raise them up to 6k, enough for hotels/flights/creditcard roulette degeneracy at restaurants.


Oh yeah, one little tiny rant. Pokerstars wont sponsor me for the monte carlo tournament, WTF.

That sort of sucks considering last year's champion is on team stars. I hope the US online stuff clears up. I really wanted to be a part of team stars and bring a young face to some of the tournaments. Oh well, its just donkaments.

My new goal for the year is to have my cash game winnings for the year surpass my PCA win total. I think it's attainable, ill be playing a lot of poker this year, and I basically have to avg 130k a month or so, which is hard but doable if i put him like 40k hands a month.


Ok, thats a fairly long blog entry.

This might not seem as interesting to some of you as it does to me, but I think this is a really interesting situation. I'll walk through my street by street thinking.



POKERSTARS GAME #8370647007: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($25/$50) - 2007/02/10 - 11:54:47 (ET)
Table 'Siri' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: H@££INGGOL ($5000 in chips)
Seat 3: casinocasino ($12644.70 in chips)
Seat 4: alex987 ($2252 in chips)
Seat 5: $tinger 88 ($4997 in chips)
Seat 6: eskimo ($1072 in chips)
Seat 7: Daut44 ($5123 in chips)
Seat 8: arulx ($11040 in chips)
Seat 9: hotmark777 ($5322 in chips)
hotmark777: posts small blind $25
H@££INGGOL: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Daut44 [4c 5c]
casinocasino: raises $100 to $150
alex987: folds
$tinger 88: calls $150
eskimo: calls $150


I'm in the cutoff, have over 100bb effective stacks against 2 of the 3 players already in as well as position, so this seemed like a pretty good spot to see a flop with a suited connector. This is a pretty trivial call.

Daut44: calls $150
arulx: calls $150
hotmark777: calls $125
H@££INGGOL: folds

So we're seeing a 6 way flop. It feels like play money. The potsize at this point is 950.


*** FLOP *** [3h Kc Ac]
hotmark777: checks
casinocasino: bets $900
$tinger 88: folds
eskimo: raises $22 to $922 and is all-in

Hotmark checked, casino bets out nearly potsize into 5 other players, stinger folds and the shortstack pushes for $22 more. This means, if I were to call, casino wouldnt have the option of raising because this is not a legal raise, so he can only call.

Now, there's no way im going to raise and bluff the dry sidepot, and since casino cant reraise all I have to worry about is the 2 players left to act behind me. One of these players is hotmark, who already checked. The other player is not likely to have a huge hand so I dont really have to worry about them. Also, if they do, im only investing 900 here, I can decide to do something later based on their action. So I flat called.


Daut44: calls $922
arulx: folds
hotmark777: folds
casinocasino: calls $22


Luckily the two other players fold. so now, the shortstack is all in and I am hu with casino with a gutshot+flushdraw. the potsize is now roughly 3700.


*** TURN *** [3h Kc Ac] [2s]
casinocasino: bets $1550

Ok, so i turn the nuts and casino bets out kind of weak (about 40% pot). Now here is where the hand really gets interesting. I have 2500 remaining. Most people would consider this a trivial decision, I have the nuts, WITH a redraw, wtf kind of decision do you have here?

Ok, look at the action up to this point. Casino raised utg in an 8 handed game. He then led a 6 way flop with a potsize bet, and then led the turn. Since a player is all in and we have a dry sidepot hes not going to be bluffing at it. So we can rule out QJcc, JTcc and QTcc. Since the A and K on board are both clubs, there are no other strong hand+draws out there.

He also isnt ever bluffing here (dry sidepot). Additionally, theres almost no way he plays weaker aces or middle pair like this ever. That leaves the following hands making up the majority of his range: AA KK AK 33. Outside possibility of A3 and AQ. So lets say 90% of the time he has a set or top two pair here, very very strong hands.

Now, I know if I push he will call, but that isnt the issue. The issue is, is it better to flat call and then possibly save money by folding on a board pairing river?

Consider it this way: If he misses boat and the river isnt a club, he is definitely getting the rest of his money in. If he misses a boat and the river is a club, he STILL may put the rest of his money in, i mean after all the pot would be about 6800, he has 2500 left, and i have position. That makes it really like I get paid off even on a club river. Finally, if the board pairs and he shoves, I still can fold, saving myself money when he hits his boat.

I heavily heavily considered flat calling. But instead, I decided to shove for the following reasons:
1) he always calls
2) he might fold on a club river
3) he might shove a board pairing river with top 2pair and i could fold the winning hand


Obviously if the board pairs A or K ill fold to the shove, he now has a boat no matter what (basically). But if the board pairs 2 or 3 and he shoves, i think I would have to fold, ESPECIALLY if its a club. The reason behind this is he would probably check AK if the river were 2c or 3c, cause now hes not really beating anything (which does mean i lose some value by not shoving the turn if i do indeed check behind here or if he folds to my shove when i bet).

So it seems that reason 3 wont come up very often (1 time in 11 when he has AK), and AK is probably only 20-30% of his hand range.

Reason 1/Reason 2 are related. If the river is any non club he will go all in. Thus, i COULD be losing value 1 in 5 times. This is sort of an issue, but remember that im also saving money 1 in 4.5 tries when the board pairs (and im only folding the best hand maybe 1 in 40).

as for results:

Daut44: raises $2501 to $4051 and is all-in
casinocasino: calls $2501
*** RIVER *** [3h Kc Ac 2s] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
casinocasino: shows [Ad As] (three of a kind, Aces)
Daut44: shows [4c 5c] (a straight, Ace to Five)
Daut44 collected $8102 from side pot
eskimo: mucks hand
Daut44 collected $3713 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $11818 Main pot $3713. Side pot $8102. | Rake $3
Board [3h Kc Ac 2s 7h]
Seat 1: H@££INGGOL (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: casinocasino showed [Ad As] and lost with three of a kind, Aces
Seat 4: alex987 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: $tinger 88 folded on the Flop
Seat 6: eskimo mucked [Qc 8c]
Seat 7: Daut44 showed [4c 5c] and won ($11815) with a straight, Ace to Five
Seat 8: arulx (button) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: hotmark777 (small blind) folded on the Flop


I got pretty lucky there considering the shortstack had a higher flush draw =).

I think this is really really close, but it seems like calling is actually a better play. I'd like to hear the input of others on this. Maybe I'll post it on liquidpoker and 2p2 and ask opinions of friends.

hope you guys enjoyed a poker post for once, next time more randomness!

It saddens me that my blog is only the 2nd best poker blog online.

My buddy byrnesam's blows mine away.


Check out the masterpiece:
http://byrnesam.liquidpoker.net

Byrnesam is pretty much a photoshop master, so his pictures are a little more advanced than my paint drawings :(

My personal favorite byrnesam pictures:

pokerstars last supper with rekrul as judas:


link here in case the whole thing doesnt show up: http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/8681/lastsupperpokerstarstf0.jpg


greg raymer staring down roman (empire2000)



this guy seriously rocks. i feel like rafael nadal trying to beat federer on something other than clay next to this guy. ill just never be #1.


some back story to the pictures so they make sense to the non liquidpoker people.

Ket is aka born2dogbaby on stars. very good 5/10 10/20 nl 6max player. anyway, last year he made the WSOP through the supernova freeroll and busted out in like 25 minutes doing something totally retarded. Note who is the second "person" to join him in the bustout room.

You'll notice a lot of pictures of talentedtom and rainkhan. im sure everyone has seen or heard of rainkhan, and if you havent, just wait till my WPT win is on the travel channel, he is one big, goofy, loud, hilarious dude.

anyway, enjoy the blog that i one day hope to rival.