I saw a rare Mets win last night in LA. They beat the Dodgers 6-1, and it was a fun game. They’re still in second to last place, and have a losing record, but there’s still plenty of season left (for them to get worse). I don’t think I’m going to be heading down to San Diego this weekend to see them play there. I’d like to, but I just have too much to do (read: poker and bowling tournaments).
After the game, I played at Party for about an hour after I got home. I said I wouldn’t do it again, but I played four tables. Things started off pretty badly:
Party Poker 1/2 Hold’em (10 handed) converter
Preflop: penner42 is MP1 with Q♠, Q♥.
UTG calls, UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 folds, penner42 raises, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button folds, SB folds, BB calls, UTG 3-bets, penner42 caps, BB folds, UTG calls.
Flop: (10.50 SB) 2♥, Q♦, 2♠ (2 players)
UTG bets, penner42 raises, UTG 3-bets, penner42 caps, UTG calls.
Turn: (9.25 BB) 5♣ (2 players)
UTG bets, penner42 raises, UTG 3-bets, penner42 caps, UTG calls.
River: (17.25 BB) J♥ (2 players)
UTG bets, penner42 raises, UTG 3-bets, penner42 caps, UTG calls.
Final Pot: 25.25 BB
Main Pot: 25.25 BB, between UTG and penner42. > Pot won by UTG (25.25 BB).
UTG shows 2♣ 2♦ (four of a kind, twos).
penner42 shows Q♠ Q♥(full house, queens full of twos).
Outcome: UTG wins 25.25 BB.
Talk about an action flop. I flop queens full, and he flops quads. I don’t think there’s any way I could have played this differently. He limp-raised, preflop, UTG, with pocket twos. There was no way I thought he had a 2, and even if he did, I thought I still won. Nice way to lose 12BB (the maximum possible) on the first hand. If it was no limit, I would have lost my whole buyin on my first hand. I recovered nicely, and finished that table +9BB, and overall for the night +30BB. I’m due for a nice losing session again soon, like the -35BB one I had early last week. Overall, my Party bankroll has been growing pretty fast.
This weekend, I’m going to try to get to the two tournaments (limit on Saturday, no limit on Sunday), and the Saturday night bowling tournament in Lompoc. Hopefully, my insane bowling will keep up, and I won’t beat on a 5 outer and a 4 outer in the poker tournaments, like last week.
I just found the Next and Previous in Category MT plugin. Previously, to separate my photoblog from the main one, I had been doing something similar to this. Unfortunately, that padded my entries by about 80k each of PHP code. That’s all gone now.
For poker, I’ve mostly been playing the ring games at Party (affiliate link! get 20% bonus up to $100 for signing up, or use bonus code GEEKNPROUD), instead of the sit and go tournaments at Stars lately. It just seems like much easier money that way, plus I’ve had some pretty bad suckouts on me in the past few I played, which are easier to deal with in a cash game, I think.
Tuesday night, I was playing 4(!) 1/2 tables at the same time. I don’t think I’m going to do that again for a while, and I don’t think I played very well doing it. I just about broke even, but played enough hands to unlock the $95 bonus I had in there from the two 15% deposit bonuses they just offered. Last night, I stuck to only three tables, and finished at about +20BB. I’m amazed how fast my Party bankroll has grown since I’ve moved up from .50/1 to 1/2. I’ve almost got it to the point where I can move it up to 2/4, but I think I’m gonna stick at 1/2 for a while.
Tonight, I’m gonna go watch the Mets lose to the Dodgers in LA, but at least I’ll get to go to a Mets game. It will very likely be one of only two or three I go to all year (I’m not going to San Diego this weekend, and I’ll go see them in San Francisco in a game or two later this year.) I get to see Jae Seo pitch against Jeff Weaver. At least there will be some offense tonight.
Party Poker has two reload bonuses going this month. Both are for 15%, up to $100. Yesterday, I cashed out some, and redeposited 15 minutes later for a $30 bonus (when I play 210 raked hands, which I will do.) I’m going to do it again today, but for my whole bankroll there, instead of just part of it. As long as I can play break even poker (and, at Party at least, I play better than that), I make money.
I’ve had two pretty amazing sessions there lately, playing 1/2. Both were under an hour, an both I finished better than +50BB. I played fairly well, but also got the best cards when everyone else got good cards (in other words: I got pretty lucky). You have to be lucky to make 50BB/hr. I’ll just give a few of the hands from these sessions.
I get dealt A♣2♣ in the small blind. UTG calls, someone in MP calls, I call, big blind checks. Flop comes A♠7♦A♥. I bet, everyone calls. Turn is the 2♥. I’ve made Aces full. I bet, BB calls, UTG raises. We lose the MP player, and it gets capped. River is 5♥. It gets capped this round, with all three of us left staying it. I show my aces full, the other two players muck. BB had K♥6♥ for the flush, UTG had 2♠2♦ for the little boat. I take down a 27BB pot.
A few other nice ones:
I get 77, try to limp in, and it gets raised behind me. The small blind makes it three bets, and I call. I hit my set on the flop, we’re capped every round, and I beat AA and T4o (who, lucky for me, flopped two pair). The AA (small blind) checkraised me every round, and every time I raised him back. Took down 32BB pot.
I get 65s in MP. As I’m clicking the box to call, someone raises, and I accidently call the raise. It gets capped behind me, and the pot’s too big to fold at this point. The flop comes 667. I bet, the two preflop raisers call. Turn 4, I bet, two callers. River 8 for my straight to go with my trips. I bet, same two callers. I flip my straight, they muck AA and KK. Like I said, I was getting lucky.
It almost makes up for the bad luck I had Friday and Saturday at Chumash. I’ll save my bad beat stories for later.
After staying at Chumash all night Friday and well into Saturday, I decided to go watch the qualifying round of the Masters tournament at Zodos. (In case anyone’s confused, I’ve moved the topic on to bowling now.) It was fun to watch, and a bunch of my friends qualified for the tournament. After the qualifying round, I decided to get some bowling in. I had been bowling terribly now for a few months, but I came right out and shot a 244. I think it must have been my first game over 240 in 6 months. My next game, I shot a 254. The lanes must have just been easy. Or not: third game was a 133. I finished off with two decent games and then another 243.
After oversleeping, and missing the Sunday morning tournament at Chumash, I went back to Zodos to watch the bowling tournament. Again, I bowled afterwards, this time an insane 22 games (with a two hour break in the middle). I shot another few 240s, and several more over 200. I don’t know what happened, but as soon as my leagues ended, I started bowling well again. At this point, I decided I was going to bowl in the handicap tournament they were having Monday night.
I show up Monday night, and after a bit of a rocky start in the first game, I finish it off strong for a 214. Then I go nuts and throw a 241 and a 240, for a 695 series for the first three games (my new high)! I’m a bit annoyed, since I left a 4-6-7-10 split in the 9th frame of the third game, killing my 700 series, and what could have been a 279 game (until that frame, I had all strikes, except for one solid 9 pin that I picked up). Then, I started the last game with four open frames in a row. The first one was a tough pickup, but the next three was easy spares that I should have made. I moved left one board, and then threw four strikes in a row, and finished the game with a 183, for an 878 scratch series, and 1026 handicap.
1026 was good enough to win, by ten pins. I took home $115 for first, and three $33 sidepots (my 241, 240, and series sidepot), for a nice $179 profit. The money’s nice, but I really just wanted to win. I will very likely be going up to the tournament in Lompoc this Saturday, and hopefully my luck (or skill?) will hold.
Hard to believe this is only my second entry this month. Basically, I’ve just been playing poker too much at parhaatrahapelit-netissä, and not had any time to write anything here. I’ll try to write more (probably all about poker, or maybe some baseball), but I don’t know if I’ll succeed.
I’ve been playing a little bit for play money again, over at Full Tilt Poker, while it’s in beta testing. I’m sure I’ll put some money in once it’s ready to go. The interface is pretty good, and it has some nice features, plus it has a good lineup of professionals backing it (and they’ve been playing there, at least so far). If you’re interested in playing for some play money, you should check it out. I don’t know how the referral system will work, but I’m penner42 there (and everywhere I play poker) if you want to put my name in there.
A week and a half ago, I played in a $60 NLHE tournament, with first place getting a seat in a $1500 buy-in bracelet event at the World Series. I didn’t do all that well, but it was really my first live tournament. I busted out probably in the mid 50s (top 40 paid), but lasted over two hours, and was pretty happy with it. With the tournament entry fee, I got coupons for $30 in free chips in the live games, so it was really only a $30 tournament (and I made more than that back at $2/$4 afterwards). I will very likely be playing in it again this Sunday, even though I can’t actually go to the WSOP event if I win. It’s the same weekend as my brother’s wedding.
Now, one poker hand from this week. Not a bad beat, as I was behind the whole way, but a tough one to laydown (and I didn’t). Playing $1/$2 at Party, I get dealt QQ on the big blind. By the time it comes around to me, it’s at three bets, so I cap it. We’ve got four people seeing the flop. The flop comes KQJ, with two clubs. I bet out, get raised, reraise, and get called. We lose one player. At this point, I think I’m in the lead, because if someone had AT for the straight, they most likely would have reraised me. The turn is another K, giving me queens full. I bet out again. I get raised, and we lose the first player. At this point, I know I’m beat. I’m sure the guy who raised me (and the first raiser preflop) has pocket kings. I’m drawing dead, with no straight flush possibility. I call his raise, and then check and call on the river. He shows his four kings, and I show my queens full. I lost $13 on that hand, but still came out with a winning session. I’m guessing the guy who called on the flop had a flush draw, and threw it away when the board paired.
I love this game.
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