Hella Hold'em

Oh, man, this Lemonade Tycoon has me going out of my mind!! I played that game for like five hours tonight!! Somebody stop me, please!

Today started out with a little $10 SnG on Full Tilt (use bonus code: hella for a deposit bonus is ya wanna come play!) I bluffed off a ginormous bunch of my chips on a stupid play. I raised 3xBB pre-flop with K7 suited on the button when it was folded to me. Big blind called. I threw out a half-pot-sized follow through bet on the flop, which unfortunately for me contained no spades and displayed an Ace. I got called, and should have given up the bluff right there. Instead, I pushed again on the turn, and got re-raised a minimum raise, which I couldn't resist calling (despite having no hand and no draw at this point). River went check-check, and I saw that I was up against an Ace with a weak kicker. With my chip stack on life support, I waited for my chance to move all in, when out of the blue, Glyphic arrived! Ahh, my good luck charm. No kidding. I won the first hand I was in when he showed up, and got AA in the pocket immediately following, and won that too. All of a sudden I'm sitting on a very playable stack. It didn't last, though, as a few hands later, I got myself all-in on the button against the big blind chip leader, who had flopped a straight with a ragged gap connector, and slowplayed it on the flop (which conveniently for him, gave me top pair). D'oh! Bubbled again.

Then, it was time to write my paper. You see, I have a few weeks left of this class, the second-to-last in my masters degree. One more class this summer and I'm done. Cannot wait, cannot wait.... anyway, as was the case last weekend, there goes 5 hours of my life I'll never get back! I half enjoyed writing this one though. I don't mind writing papers; what I mind is writing papers on things that do not interest me. This, at least, was half interesting. If you've ever wondered what sort of measures community colleges must take to ensure adequate service and support to undergraduate and post-baccalaureate reverse transfer students, I'm the girl to talk to! OK fine, so it wasn't very interesting. Just more interesting than last week's argument on why college reading prerequisites should be enforced for 100-level courses and how that applies to the Perry scheme of student development. Yeah. Right. Whatever.

Then, I read through the graduation packet that arrived in the mail today, and made phone calls to my mom, sis-in-law, a couple cousins, and random other people to find out who's coming to see me graduate in May.

Next, I completed all of the financial aid crap that's required for me to secure what will hopefully be the last student loan of my life for this summer. Well, maybe not my life, but probably for a VERY long time, because I don't anticipate going for my PhD ANYTIME in the next decade or so. At least.

Then came five hours of that damn Lemonade Tycoon game. It's sick. Seriously.

When I couldn't take the music in that game any more, I decided to wrap up the evening with a $20 SnG on Full Tilt. It seems that during the earlier day and evening hours, it is easier to fill a $10 game quickly, but during the late night hours, the $20 games are the only ones filling. So far, that has been my criteria for which game to sit down at: which one will "go" first. Tonight, it was the $20.

I feel like I really should consider making the $20 games my primary level for SnG's on FTP, because I feel much more comfortable and seem to do much better in them. Of the 5 or 6 $20 SnG's I've played, I've only once not placed in the money, compared to countless bust-outs in the $10 games. I'm not sure exactly why I do better in the $20's. I think it may be because I am more focused on my game, since there is more at stake. Granted, it's only ten bucks, but it feels significant to me. I would say that the play is better at the $20 level, and generally that seems to be true, but there still are the occasional fish at the $20 games. Each table (of the few I've seen) has at least one awful player. That is, however, better than trying to play against several awful players. The fish are a welcome sight at the cash tables and ring games, where the concept of infinity makes it profitable to play against them, but in a tournament, one bad suckout can spell your tourney doom. I don't like to be in games with fish where my poker mortality is at stake.

This particular SnG started out a little rough. One guy was playing absolute junk hands (there's one at every table...), and was catching cards like a madman. Thankfully none were against me, but this guy was awful. Shoved his chips all in time after time with the worst of it, and sucked out on 4 different players at the table. Another player finally got sick of seeing such plays after being on the receiving end of a suckout, and made a comment in the chat about Sucky Guy being the worst player he'd ever seen. Now, here I am, thinking that no matter how bad someone sucks, it's just rude to say things in the chat about it. I kept my mouth shut, though, until Sucky Guy retorted, "Hey, Aztec, isn't that near Mexico?" (The guy's name wasn't exactly Aztec - something similar. Can't remember exactly). Aztec guy replies, San Diego. Sucky Guy proceeds to fire off several more comments about Aztec living only a few miles from Mexico.

I asked Sucky Guy, "Do you have something against Mexico?" and he says, "No, not at all." I replied, "Then what difference does it make how close he lives to Mexico?"

It was quiet for a few more hands, until Sucky Guy actually lost a pot, at which point he started up again, "Damn, I've never played against so many $@#*$ touchy Mexicans in my life!"

Aztec guy made some colorful comments of his own, and I said, "LOL! I'm not Mexican, just not racist." Sucky Guy replies, "I'm not racist, I'm black." He started going on about racism, and feeling no need to defend myself or jeopardize my emotional state over this ignorant chump, I muted him.

If I thought people were rude before, it has been taken to a whole new level. Where do people get off thinking it's acceptable to say these sorts of things? It is truly astonishing to me.

So that wasn't the best way to get started in a sit and go, though I did manage to build a decent chip stack through all of it (while avoiding the Sucky Guy and his miracle suckouts). Eventually, he was eliminated, much to the table's relief.

Monster hands onboard in this game. An example: We're down to four players. I'm in the big blind with AA. Small blind folds when the button (also chip leader) raises to 5xBB. I re-raise all in, about 5xBB more. I was hoping to get the guy after me to jump onboard, as he's got fewer chips than I do. In fact, he calls all-in. Button calls my raise, and all three hands flip up.

Me: AA
Button: KK
Third guy: JJ

Yikes! Nice hands. I'm loving life when the board flops rags, turn comes and undercard, and so does the river. Yes!

But wait..... there's a straight onboard, and we split the pot 3 ways.

Well, that was productive. (The small blind, who wasn't even in the hand, then types in, "That's bulls$#@! I want some money!" OK, Jackass.... Lots of them this week, eh?)

Soon after, I took out Mr. Wants Some Money when my 88 flopped a set against his A8 middle pair. He bet, I raised him all-in, he called, and I won the hand. I couldn't help fearing something I'd read from CJ earlier today about folding bottom sets lest ye be brutalized by a higher set. While it is nauseating to lose a set-over-set hand, I still don't think it's a hand I'd lay down unless there were straight, flush, or boat possiblities on board - and even then, it would be tough. There's just about no way I'm laying down a set with no straight/flush draws or pairs onboard - even if my set is the bottom one. Granted, I can remember just the other day being beat by a higher set in that same situation, but it's so infrequent compared to how many times I've snagged beautiful pots with low or middle sets that I just can't bring myself to officially fear the larger set.

Back to my SnG... In the money! The former button guy was still chip leader, and me and former JJ guy traded chips back and forth for a while. We played three handed for what seemed like an eternity, and it produced quite a headache here on my end. (Or maybe it was the damn lemonade game). On my parting hand, I held KJ with the J of clubs. I raise preflop from the button, 3xBB, and am called by the chip leader. Flop came three clubs, and went check-check between the chip leader and I. (I'm down to about 6xBB at this point). Turn came a Jack, so I've got top pair, top kicker, and a J-high club draw. I'm thinking, I could be up against a made flush, but with any luck, I'm not, or at least can possibly catch a decent flush on the river. I'm also thinking that my chip stack is crippled at this point, and checking it down and surrendering is really not an option. I decide to push all in my remaining 6xBB and hope that my hand is good, or that my opponent folds. Too bad for me, I walked into the nut flush - the chip leader held A8 clubs, and I was done for the night.

I wasn't really disappointed though. I played a good, tight game with no major mistakes (aside from not muting Sucky Guy sooner). I was glad to have made the money, and glad to be free from having to think due to the pounding in my head.

So what do I do? I start writing this blog post. That was exactly 50 minutes ago. Nevermind that I have to get up for work in a few hours. Ahhh well. Time to go do that "sleep" thing, for a little while anyway. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I don't know what has gotten into me, chatty cathy and all.