One day, I'll write something worth reading.

Somewhere, there's a cool post, jumbled in my brain. It involves a guy named Bruiser, football wagers, sit 'n goes, and the LA Poker Classic.

I'd write, but I'm really tired now.

Oh, and mad props to Yosoy, Smokkee, and Love Elf. I thoroughly enjoyed the drinking and cards. NL razz rocks!!

Quickie

Bruiser's coming over early to play on Full Tilt, so I figured I'd take this brief time to update.

It feeels like I'm the bubble king in smallish MTT's. I've finished 21st and 20th in two recent $4 180-man sng's, losing a three way race (first in vigorish with KQc!) against 55 and 99, and then running queens into rockets. But I'm playing well, so that's nice. Oh, and I monied in a $5 LO8 rebuy tourney on Stars for $25. It feels like I have a good grasp of that game, and excellent results as far as getting into the money. In this particular tourney, Skip sweated my play and we concluded that I play the turn way too aggressively when I'm in position. I need to slow down a little. ITM and a lesson learned? Nice.


~~

The Badugi tourney this past Sunday was fun, for me at least, even though I bubbled. Our Sunday tourneys are seasonal. We play three regular season NL tourneys, have a limit HORSE tourney, then three more regular season NL tourneys. Whoever has the most points at the end of the first six NL tourneys picks the next non-NL tourney. This season, it was me.

After the last Championship tourney where I busted out early, Bruiser, Skipper, Forty and I played a Badugi limit sng. I won, and we had fun. I thought a PL Badugi tourney would be interesting.

Cruel is more like it. It's a sick game, with plenty of action, and huge pots contested at low blind levels, even pot-limit. I took one dumb risk, attempting to bust Albert with two draws to a five-low against his obviously made hand. I double-bricked, and he ended up cruising on those chips to HU with Yosoy, who fought gamely, but couldn't overcome.

~~

The big upcoming event is TonyD's $50 Deepstack tourney this Saturday. I'm gonna be late, but Yosoy, Smokkee, and Love Elf will be playing. I might just bring a notepad to watch Smoke in action. I imagine that his style is nothing like mine, and I know I can learn a few things.

~~

Oh, and I signed up for pokersourceonline's instant bankroll for Absolute poker. When I spoke to the PSO rep on the phone, it sounded like I wasn't going to be able to get the free bankroll, as I had done the same with Titan. I reminded the rep that Titan no longer accepted US players. He spoke briefly with his supervisor, then gave me the go-ahead. Free money, it's-a nice!

Now is the time for a bunch of retarded shit

It's 2am, and I'm a bottle of Sangiovese deep.

I love poker, in part, because I tilt far less than the average player. I consider myself mentally stronger than the average player. I'm looking specifically at Skipper, a teenager from my homegame. The same guy that taught me the basics of limit holdem, tilts like you would not believe. And I can't believe the situations that set him off.

For the longest time, I've tried to provide him with some Tilt Control. My mantra is "That Bad Player just tried to give me a large chunk of chips. The river card favored him, so he failed in his quest. So long as I keep putting myself in a good position, I will continue to give the Bad Player opportunities to give me chips. The mathematics of poker dictate that eventually, the Bad Player will succeed in giving them to me."

Last evening, Skip and I played in the same 180-man sng on Stars. I ran up a nice stack to start with, and had a few hands go against me as play proceeded. I used my HoH knowledge to play intelligently. Eventually, I had to jam my 6xBB stack with KQ-clubs. I was called by a stack almost as small as mine, then reraised by the table chipleader. I was against 55 and 99. I figured that was as nice as I could've hoped for. I still bricked, and finished 20th when 18 paid. Mister 55 was the bubble boy.

I had played the tourney well, but wasn't too out of sorts by my bustout.

Skip remained, and prospered. I advised him, and kept his head right when he got outdrawn.

He made it to heads-up. $4 tourney, and he's got $140 in his hand, playing for $210 or something.

He lost the HU matchup, against a player who wasn't very good.

He tilted off $50 in a cashgame right after that.

I can't quite get my head around his tilt, even though I've seen it on numerous occasions.

~~

Future post: In my Sunday seasonal tourney, I am the points leader. In six tourneys, I've finished 8th, 7th, 1st, 1st, 3rd, and 2nd. With 10+ per tourney, that's a pretty good string. I'm the host and banker, so I keep stats on the tourneys. This season, I decided to tally the rebuys. After six weeks, I'm the leader in total profit, and rebuys. Me. The tight guy. Apparently I'm incredibly easy to stack in the rebuy phase, but insanely tough to stack afterward. Or the cards have gone my way, repeatedly, after the first hour.

~~

If anybody is looking for me, I'm HP Drifter on Full Tilt, and Statham on Stars. The fun part... if you see HPD on Full Tilt on Thursday or Sunday, in the early evening, it's probably not me. Some of the guys from my homegame have taken to showing up early for my game, paying me cash, and playing $22 and $33 sng's under my name on Full Tilt. Chill and Bruiser are currently positive for my account.

I do this because I'm nice, and because I figure those two aren't very good at sng's. They pay me in cash, which I keep if they lose. If they win, I pay them in cash.

Last Thursday, for instance, Bruiser showed up at my place more than an hour early, drunk. This is not new for Bruiser, who hasn't had a 9-5 job in a long time. He put his case of Sam Adams in my fridge, and started playing on my account on FT.

His results: first, second, fourth, eighth, fourth. In between, he donked off two buy-ins at my cashgame. At the very end, he wanted to move up to the $33 sng. Had he not monied, I would've been slightly up, cash on hand. He ended up winning it, and I had to pay him out $140 or so.

I just won a single-table, and double-table sng, on FT, which inched my account up over a grand for the first time ever.

If this keeps up, I'll be partially cashing out of FT.

Tilt-tastic

I was invited to a shorthanded game last night at Jesse's place. This is the same Jesse that still owes money to some of the people from my homegame (Derek and Russ, if I recall correctly) from our Vegas trip in July.

Word to the wise - don't loan money to jobless people when in Vegas. Sorry, Mr Subliminal.

Tim busted out, Steve tripled up and took a nap, leaving a half hour of heads-up goodness.

Me, the OC's rock of Gibraltar, versus Jesse, who never met a hand he didn't like. When we started, I had $16, with blinds at 25/50 cents. When it ended a half hour later, and I had $42. I had a chance to stack him for a $16 pot, my ATo vs his 65o. He flopped a pair, I turned a better one, he rivered two pair.

Somewhere in the middle, as the frustration mounted for him, he asked "Do you even know how to play heads-up?"

"Nope." (another pot goes my way)

It's very nice to beat somebody soundly, heads-up, who doesn't respect your style of play.

Ok, fine, a poker post

Ok, it's time for an actual poker post.

First order of events... I'm going to miss the Blogger Vegas Thingy, and I'm sad about this. At the time I needed to request off of work, my company was in turmoil, and I was broke. Now that the Thingy approaches, I have almost enough money to take a weekend off (and miss my prime money-making shifts), but I can't request the days off, nor get replacements for my shifts (nor probably a decent room at the inn).

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Seriously, I have a plan to update my blogroll. There are awesome people I read on a regular basis, but I've never mentioned them. If you're reading this, you've probably read them.

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Smokkee and Blinders are probably brilliant Orange Co. poker players, and I've never played their live tourney. I need to correct this. If Speaker can drive for hours, 15 mph at a time, I can make the trek.

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In the last three Sunday homegame tourneys I've hosted, I've finished first, first and third in fields of 12+. Naturally, my best play came in the tourney I didn't win.

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In sorta-poker news, I took a few weekdays off next week. Six weeks ago, I thought my brother would be out at Mammoth by now. Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. He's the family's Mysterious One. Doesn't answer email, has no cell phone. Fairly nomadic existence, too, and I'm pretty sure he likes it that way.

Why is this poker news? If my brother doesn't call me tomorrow, I might be spending Tues-Thursday at Hawaiian Gardens or Commerce, attempting to beat bad players at low limits. $100 NL, $4/8 limit, and/or $3/6 Omaha/8. Oh yeah!!