CardRunners

No tournaments to complain about this weekend as i have been ill - however i did manage to drag myself out to the Poker Million party on Friday and to Smartieparty at Scala (a nightclub in Kings Cross) on Saturday.

The Poker Million party was basically a three course meal served in the ballroom at the Metropole whilst the live final is projected on screen around you with the always entertaining Norman Pace as compere, and was very enjoyable. Marty Smith sealed the 2008 Award for Running Better than God (or Roland de Wolfe), coming back from 15k chips after an early loss to amass all 1.6 million, in only his third Poker Million final in three years, in which time he has also won another TV crapshoot event, a bracelet and the Irish Open.  Despite having a worse structure than a $5 sitngo it still went on four about five hours and ended with average stacks of about 12bb, but fortunately I was sat at table Dennis (publishing) where the time was merrily spent on Omaha coinflips and gawping towards the adjacent Table (Danielle) Lloyd and Table (abi) Titmuss. 

Ive also managed to put a few sessions in at Badugi and won 3-4k playing $10/20 so hopefully there are bigger games soon. And im the weekly CR interview on the home page! Nice to be on the other end of an interview for once... maybe i should become more self-promoting and get on some of these tv things in 2009 but Ive played a couple in the past and the problem is that the open events tend to have no added money, film at ungodly hours and have to be over in a couple of hours so you dont get much for play, and you dont get invited to things like poker million without being known from other touney results or winning a qualifier online, which is very time consuming. So maybe more grinding away online it is. At least i can watch Entourage whilst doing that ;-)

Nothing momentous in the tournies this weekend except a couple of cashes and a very big stack in the $300fo that was built through other peoples bad play and lost through five consecutive allins that went the wrong way. I did however run very well in the sngs, scoring a 412 in one leaderboard, meaning i ran at about 100% and setting up nicely for the next weeks challenge too. I had flu last week and didnt play much, but have got a bit of TD and NLH cash (which i have barely played recently) in. Im still going through Danny Ashmans NL book and am looking forward to a copy of CTS's ebook, so maybe they can reinvigorate me. I did play a bit the week before, starting at $3/6 (which the new £ to $ conversion rate make about the same as $4/8 a couple months back) but losing every all-in is very discouraging, and the games seem to be increasingly dry at the higher limits. Maybe i will have to start playing at the vic more at this rate! Or start sports betting - Liverpool are now 5.6 to win the premiership (4.6-1) after drawing with West Ham and going a point ahead of Chelsea. Even without Torres until just before Xmas, Im seriously considering betting a large chunk...

Being ill has given me the chance to catch up on some TV though. Ive watched a ton of One Tree Hill whilst playing on weekends which i now have a grudging admiration for even though i always though it was a little hokey. They have done an impressive job of balancing the basketball/jock side with arty/music/literary side. I also caught up with Smallville as Lex is such a great character (similarly in Paradise Lost the devil is the interesting one) and Spooks/MI5 which non-brits may enjoy and i think is awesome for anyone living in London or interested in the intelligence world. Im looking forward to getting the box set of The Wire to rewatch and seeing entourage from the start. I dont know what it is with British TV, but there is a distinct lack of cutting edge drama, and all the US shows seem to appear on minor networks.

Not much to say about the tournies this week except that I played well and didnt run very well, but won the losses back elsewhere. I also played the Barry Greenstein Masterclass and bubbled. It wasnt much of a masterclass since the whole thing a bit of a crapshoot that was over in about 90 minutes and Barry said about 3 things throughout, but he was chipleader HU and so it will probably make good replay viewing. I got stuck in one massive Stud pot with a flush draw that missed and couldnt make a hand in TD to save my life and that was that! On a more positive note however Badugi on Stars seems to be taking off (I even won a $50 sng the other day!!!) so if they can add weekend tournies in that and TD (which is missing for some reason) I will be very happy.

I am trying to keep busy with stuff in the daytimes since there is not much to do now its winter (although I am solving this by getting up mid afternoon!) and will be doing some last minute editing on Danny Ashman's Secrets of Short Handed NLH this week and next. Im also considering doing a second book at some point since the first has gone so well (soon available in the PokerStars VIP store if you havent got one yet...). Someone i know bought a house in Vegas so I may go out there for a bit, although i dont travel much nowadays due to health problems that make it difficult. Its not so bad though as Ive realised that I have everything i need here and there isnt much point going away for the weather as it still gets dark early in most places (unless you can do 20hrs on a plane to Oz). So basically Im gonna hunker down, play some poker, watch some films, go clubbing occasionally for a while and see what happens. Hibernation ftw...

Im loving the new saturday schedule but i still seem to be stuck in repeat mode of losing at both tournes and sitngos on that day. On saturday i think i played 8 mtts, going out in the $200 PLO with 72% equity all-in three ways, losing AK v AQ in the $300, and a couple other flips. Again i came close in the $200 5 card draw, but petered out at the end and nothing went right in the $500 HU or $300 6 max. I did however final table in the $200 PLO8 for about 4k which at least more than paid for everything (and had a win at triple draw), although ironically i was barely paying attention to it as everything else had finished and i had someone come round. Today i played the warm-up and 100r to no avail but did well in the sngs to end up a bit too. Im getting on a winter sleep schedule now so hope to put in lots more hours and see some results.

The book seems to be doing well, with mostly positive comments and a couple dissenting ones, although in these cases no-one seems quite able to spell out what they think is missing from it and its kinda hard to prove a negative on my part. I guess all i can say is that i have managed to consistently beat $200+ sngs for years and that i have tried to put most of the ideas involved in this into the 60000 or so words that the book comprises with relevant examples and other information (and that I and the publisher are very happy with the result). Beyond this anyone wanting to succeed is still going to have to put the hard work of playing thousands of games and applying ICM calculators and their own brains to each individual situation that comes up which they are unsure about. There is no 'magic bullet' folks!

I just saw Recount, which is the dramatised account of the 2000 Florida electoral debacle that saw GWB steal his way into the White House. It was on TV about a month ago here, but I didnt really feel like watching it until everything was over. Then i watched some of the election night footage back from last week, as if it were possible to just fast forward through everything inbetween. Hopefully the next eight years can be compensation and then some for the insult and injury of the last eight...

Its an indescribable relief to see that the Bush (and wider republican) era is well and truly over. I gained rather than lost respect for John McCain throughout the presidential campaign however it seemed self-evident by the end that he both represented a morally bankrupt party and ran into a transformative opponent in the shape of Barack Obama. I followed the election process feverishly from early on and stayed up most of the night on tuesday watching the news channels (as i did eight years ago) but it is still sinking in really.

Of course with the state of the country after eight years of Bush it will be very hard to turn things around but Obama is certainly in the mould of a FDR or JFK - a 'post-racial' president who will be able to symbolise the healing of some divides and a genuinely sharp guy for tough times. God knows what he said when Bush told him to 'have fun and enjoy himself' as president since for Bush this meant sleepwalking through 9/11 and turning America into a reviled police state, invading Iraq, and leaving office as a 'Conservative socialist rather than a social conservative' but already the transition team are acting to overturn things like drilling in Utah and stem-cell research bans as well as curtailing last minute actions so hopefully there will be no Iran invasion before January.

Anyway, i just watched Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing, a peon of a racially divided Brooklyn which is supposedly the film Barack and Michelle Obama saw on their first date in 1989 at the dog-end of the Regan era, and was moved by the sense of genrational change we are witnessing today. Morrissey wrote only a few years ago that America would have 'nothing to say, until the president was black, female or gay' which seems as good a summation of this as any- so congratulations to everyone who voted Obama last week, lets hope the nightmare of the last eight years can finally be put behind us.

Nothing much to report since the live tournies ended in London... have been playing a lot of PLO at 3/6 and 5/10, with occasional 10/20 and 25/50 thrown in. Also got copies of the book through! It should be available on Amazon.co.uk soon and on Amazon.com in a couple weeks. Its funny that i wrote it 6-12 months ago and its only appearing now as it all feels like ancient history...!

Managed to break the final table drought coming an uneventful 8th in the 100r yesterday. Stars have a new weekend schedule that even makes a mtt grinch like me excited so i expect to be playing them 1-2 days a week over the winter and mixing in sngs where possible too. My schedule will look something like the following, with the later events getting thrown in as i move onto American time for the winter. Hopefully they will add 2-7 FL triple draw and badugi at some point too!

Sat

5.30pm - 200 PLO; 6pm - 300 FO; 6.30pm - 200 PL 5 Card Draw; 7pm -100r; 7pm - 200 PLO (FTP); 7.45pm - 200 PLO8; 8pm - 300 6 max (FTP); 8.45pm - 200 FLH; 9.30pm - 200 8 game

Sun

5.45pm - 200 Warmup; 6.45pm - 200 Razz; 7pm -100r; 7pm - 240 Brawl (FTP) ; 8pm - 150 (FTP); 8.15pm - 200 NL single draw; 9pm - 150r (FTP); 9.30pm - 200 Sunday mill; 10.15pm - 200 Mixed Holdem; 10.15pm - 200 HU; 10.30pm  - Sunday 500; 11pm - 500 (FTP); 11.30pm  - 200 2nd chance; 12.30am  - 100r; 12.45pm  - 200 HORSE

Ive been pretty much obsessed with PLO for the last couple weeks and havent played anything else... it really is a fun, exhilerating and complex game (or a stupid, frustrating and high variance one depending on how you are running.) Ive manly been playing 3/6 and 5/10 where i dont really care about flipping for stacks every 5 minutes and taking shots at 10/20 and 25/50 when there are good games. I think Ive been running bad in general 60/40 type all-in spots but fortunately people are happy to put the money in worse often enough that Im still doing OK. I hope to experience the much taked of but elusive PLO heater at some point. Couple of fun hands below...

I also played some live poker last week, by accident of course. Typically I always have two working laptops so that there is a <1% chance of ever being without the internet (which i know from growing up without is living in the dark ages), however one died last month from general misteatment and the other was not doing so well so i ordered 2 new ones, which were due in on Friday. Naturally the second died at around midday on Friday and i was like haha im so super organized ill be back up in no-time, until Business Post called to inform me they had been sent to Aberdeen by accident and would be delayed till Saturday. However the sun was shining so i got a nice walk along the Thames in followed by a trip to the first day of the WSOPE where i played a boring bit of NL cash and a crappy crapshooty live satellite having fortunately missed the opportunity to spunk £1500 in the first bracelet event. I was going to play the HORSE at one point too, but a hangover and it only having 60 runners when i called on Mon lunchtime made me reconsider. As you can see I am not down with the church of the spinup and think bracelets are for girls...

60% equity 3 ways...

PokerStars Game #20684855841:  Omaha Pot Limit ($3/$6) - 2008/09/25 13:42:11 ET
Table 'Aegle II' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Fibear ($805.60 in chips)
Seat 3: Omus7 ($157.70 in chips)
Seat 4: ugribugri ($788.15 in chips)
Seat 5: Skjervøy ($729.95 in chips)
Seat 6: Jackal69 ($674.30 in chips)
Jackal69: posts small blind $3
Fibear: posts big blind $6
kipa58: sits out
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Jackal69 [Ac Ah 7d 8d]
Omus7: folds
ugribugri: raises $12 to $18
Skjervøy: folds
Jackal69: calls $15
Fibear: raises $54 to $72
ugribugri: calls $54
Jackal69: raises $216 to $288
Fibear: raises $517.60 to $805.60 and is all-in
ugribugri: calls $716.15 and is all-in
Jackal69: calls $386.30 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($17.45) returned to Fibear
*** FLOP *** [9d 8c Tc]
*** TURN *** [9d 8c Tc] [Ad]
*** RIVER *** [9d 8c Tc Ad] [4s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Fibear: shows [Kd Qh Kc Qs] (a pair of Kings)
ugribugri: shows [Ts Ks Kh Jh] (a pair of Kings)
Fibear collected $113.85 from side pot
ugribugri collected $113.85 from side pot
Jackal69: shows [Ac Ah 7d 8d] (three of a kind, Aces)
Jackal69 collected $2020.90 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $2250.60 Main pot $2020.90. Side pot $227.70. | Rake $2
Board [9d 8c Tc Ad 4s]
Seat 1: Fibear (big blind) showed [Kd Qh Kc Qs] and won ($113.85) with a pair of Kings
Seat 3: Omus7 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: ugribugri showed [Ts Ks Kh Jh] and won ($113.85) with a pair of Kings
Seat 5: Skjervøy (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Jackal69 (small blind) showed [Ac Ah 7d 8d] and won ($2020.90) with three of a kind, Aces

39 outs baby!

PokerStars Game #20693287140:  Omaha Pot Limit ($25/$50) - 2008/09/25 19:19:13 ET
Table 'Ida' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Jackal69 ($4150 in chips)
Seat 2: ktrieu ($8963 in chips)
Seat 3: spence79 ($2376 in chips)
Seat 5: arbianight ($4850 in chips)
Seat 6: Menace_star ($7037 in chips)
ktrieu: posts small blind $25
spence79: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Jackal69 [Qh 8h Js Jc]
arbianight: raises $50 to $100
Menace_star: calls $100
Jackal69: calls $100
ktrieu: folds
spence79: calls $50
*** FLOP *** [3d Jh 6c]
spence79: checks
arbianight: bets $300
Sirens joins the table at seat #4
Menace_star: folds
Jackal69: calls $300
spence79: folds
*** TURN *** [3d Jh 6c] [Kc]
arbianight: checks
Jackal69: bets $1000
arbianight: raises $3023 to $4023
Jackal69: calls $2750 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($273) returned to arbianight
*** RIVER *** [3d Jh 6c Kc] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
arbianight: shows [6s 6h As 7d] (a full house, Sixes full of Kings)
Jackal69: shows [Qh 8h Js Jc] (a full house, Jacks full of Kings)
Jackal69 collected $8523 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8525 | Rake $2
Board [3d Jh 6c Kc Kh]
Seat 1: Jackal69 (button) showed [Qh 8h Js Jc] and won ($8523) with a full house, Jacks full of Kings
Seat 2: ktrieu (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: spence79 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: arbianight showed [6s 6h As 7d] and lost with a full house, Sixes full of Kings
Seat 6: Menace_star folded on the Flop