It's not about me

Plenty happening in the poker world around me.

Kida has joined the ranks of the real-money players on UltimateBet. The only reason I know this is because he used me as his referral almost a year ago. He has just now deposited some money. Judging by the email UB sent me, it wasn't much money. I'm rooting for him to build up his online 'roll though.

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The PCS's Tim has told me that he'll be taking a trip to Vegas in early June, and is planning on buying his way into Event #2. Yes, the same event that the Irvine poker author, Bobby Bracelet, The Big Pirate, and Juggernaught Joe Speaker have won their way into. Tim believes that he can win half the buy-in early in his trip by playing ring games in Vegas. I've already started prodding Tim to take notes, mentioning that the PCS'ers would love to hear about any sort of attempt to play in a WSOP event. Tim was the first (and only, to this point) person to tell me that he liked my tourney recaps that I posted on the PCS messageboard. While miles short of the quality that Dr Pauly pens, it was nice to know that at least one person liked my write-ups.

Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the bloggers to crowd the final table... but I'd love for Tim to crush the local games, buy his way in, and do well for himself. In my dream world, Joe Speaker's AJ-hearts busts Tim's pocket tens to face Bobby Bracelet heads-up for the WSOP bracelet. Gimme a PCS'er in third and two bloggers finishing one-two.

"Man, the WSOP event was wild. I did really well, then got busted by some well-dressed guy who held AJ. The other guy at the table kissed his biceps when I busted out. I'm pretty sure they were both drunk off of Southern Comfort and Guinness by that time. And all those crazies in the background, hollering about "blogging" and "the hammer". What. The. Fuck. Still, third place money is pretty sweet, and I'll look like the sober guy when ESPN televises it months later."

And perhaps a blogger busting Fillmaff or Matusow with The Hammer. Oh yeeeeaaaaah....

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The "close but no cigar" award goes to Albert this month. He's a regular on the Bodog poker site, which apparently has a lot of gamblers, and huge overlays on guaranteed tourneys. Albert took 2nd in a WSOP Main Event qualifier. With 5 players remaining, this hand drove him absolutely NUTS.

UTG BigStack raised. Reraised all-in. All-in. All-in. Albert folded his big blind, 32 offsuit. Easy fold, then BigStack called. The hands: TT, QQ, KK, and the BigStack's A7-suited. He called three all-in's with ace-seven.

Naturally, BigStack hit an ace and busted everybody but Albert. And the supreme irony of the situation was that Albert would have won the hand with a flopped set of two's. Albert would've been playing for a seat in the WSOP with a 40+:1 chip lead if only he would've called multiple all-ins with 3-high.

The other three stuck around and berated BigStack for calling with ace-seven. Their collective will was not enough to propel Albert back to 50/50 in chips. Albert busted out in second, lamenting that a wild monkey will be running around the WSOP. I personally can't wait for Negreanu to try and bluff Mister Ace-seven off a hand. Good fuckin' luck.

As an aside to the Blogger Community... I think Bodog might be worth a look. Big overlays and generally poor players = Good times.

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Wonderful posts out there in blogger-land recently. I loved DoubleA's post on May 24th about pressure bets. PokerNerd also discusses the topic in his post. HDouble's May 16th post "Poker Wisdom of the Matrix" was a great read, too. I also enjoyed the Poker Pundit's comment on this Up For Poker post. Basically, PP urges you to take your three worst hands and not play them. That's right. Every time you get KQ-offsuit (or whatever), FOLD IT.

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Jefferson chopped first place in my Sunday night tourney. My new roommate, who has been playing poker for all of three weeks, chopped first. The new players (TJ, Sean, Trevor, Miles, and Montana) owned the money finishes in our 12-person tourney, with TJ taking third to Jefferson and Montana's chopped first. The Old Hands were on the outside looking in, with Albert, Kida, and myself on/near the bubble.

After I busted out in 6th, I watched over J's shoulder. For a guy that hasn't played much, he was smart enough to raise with decent hands and not make dumb mistakes. He's got all the makings of a decent poker player.

His heads-up play was excellent. He started as the short-stack, and applied pressure when he had the button. After a dozen hands, Montana started to play (or his cards allowed him to play). My favorite was the 75-offsuit Jefferson raised with from the button. He took Monty's big blind without a flop. (Ok, so I peeked at a few of the cards they were playing while I was dealing the heads-up competition.)

Monty started playing back, reraising preflop, or calling then betting out on the flop. Jefferson switched his game up, and doubled up with K9 against Monty's T8. At that point I knew Jefferson was, to borrow a Southern phrase, plum tuckered out. He had to get up the following morning for work too. As the dealer and tourney director, I proposed a chop. Second place money to both players, and a split of the remaining cash based on chip count. After they agreed, Jefferson pocketed $83 and Monty copped $87.

Afterwards, Jefferson thanked me for playing heads-up with him. He felt our competition was the key to his experience. He had a better handle on short-handed play, and he was able to see a lot of flops and play a lot of hands.