500
Sunday June 10th 2007, 3:18 am
Filed under: Live Play,No-Limit Hold'em,Opinionated,PokerStars,S&G,Shorthanded

So…this is post 500 on this little corner of the interweb and I thought long and hard about something (special) to write about for this “anniversary post”, then again why should this post be any different than the other posts and more importantly, what would be the special thing to write about? The WSOP? I don’t think so, there’s people out there that do that much better than I could…cough…Dr. Pauly and Dr. Pauly at Pokernews. Some strategy? Nah.

So…after some deliberation I decided that post 500 would be just like any other post, a post about my daily adventures in the (live and online) poker world.

Since my last post I switch to six handed SnGs almost exclusively. They’re a little less swingy than the HU matches and although I took some sick beats, some in rapid succession, I’m still doing okay. That being said, the results could be better. But honestly, how many wins or what win percentage is (good) enough? Coming back to one of the points I already made in numerous posts: Fact #1 – I want to win every match I play. Fact #2 – That’s impossible. So for the time being, I’ll settle for more wins (or cashes) than losses and that’s exactly what happened over the last few days. Win one, bubble, bust out early, second place, bubble, win, bust out early, bubble, etc…

But enough of online play. Tonight we had a nice little bbq and afterwards we talked poker for nearly two hours. Inspired by all the strategy talk (mixed with some bad beat and crazy hand stories), we decided to play a little SnG. Things looked grim early as I got ugly cards and even uglier flops when I had the chance to look at one. Soon enough my stack was dwindling and I had to make a move – good thing that my AQ held up against AJ and I could double up. After that I made some pressure plays in position and soon enough I had a nice chip cushion. As the blinds escalated, luck seemed to be still on my side, but that changed quickly. Four handed, cutoff folds, button raises 3BB (which are substantial at that point), SB folds, I look down at 88 in the BB and decide to call. Flop comes down 965 with two spades. I check…button pushes…decision time. A call would cost me roughly 40% of my stack and I start to figure out what he could have. Raise on the button could lead to a discount of his hand, but I’m not too sure. After some deliberation I put him on the following range: A9o, AK to AJ (maybe two spades), AA to TT and A5/A6 with the Ace of spades…against that range my pure outs would be two eights and three sevens (and I’m probably dead if another spade falls). So…I think a little more and I decide to let it go, we talk and we both show our hands…he had 66 and got lucky on my ass.

Fast forward a few orbits and “lovely” 62o, 74o, etc etc later and I’m the shortest stack three handed. I look down at presto on the button and push…SB thinks and thinks and finally calls…BB folds. SB 77…flop J57 two hearts, yuck, turn heart….river heart…bad news…neither of us has a heart…so I bubble in third. Oh well…firstly I was short, secondly even if we see a flop the money will go in…thirdly…better luck next time…I’m out…time to catch some sleep before we, hopefully, claim the football championship tomorrow…booze galore…cya on the other side (probably later monday or tuesday ;-))


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