Hella Hold'em

What Your Shamrock Says About You

You are brilliant, analytical, and somewhat of a perfectionist. You are ultra competent and knowledgeable. At times, people find you intimidating. You can be a bit sarcastic and harsh. You don't really consider yourself a lucky person. In your view, people create their own luck. You are creative, innovative, and complicated. You definitely have a unique spin on the world.

Oh, and I've been losing my ass in SnG's lately. w0rd.

I finally finished watching Heckler's Week on Poker After Dark. (Yeah, I'm a bit behind on the TiVo. Haven't been watching much TV, since nothing has been on due to the writer's strike). I've been meaning to ask - what happened to Shana Hiatt? Well, I googled it, so I don't need the answer anymore. Wikipedia says Shana left Poker After Dark because she's pregnant. You go, girl!

Is it just me, or was Gavin Smith the most reasonable and intelligent sounding player at the table that week? Color me impressed. I've always liked him, particularly for his support of the charity auctions For Peyton, but watching how he conducted himself at the table really impressed me in that game. I guess I'm just used to seeing snippets of him on poker shows with less "verbal" formats.

And, what makes Shawn Sheikhan a good poker player? I see no redeeming value in the guy, from my perspective as a consumer of poker entertainment. When Hellmuth told him that the "push or fold" strategy is appropriate for less skilled players who feel they're weaker than their opponents, but that no great players employ that strategy, I think that was a very strong point.

I just won me a SnG on Full Tilt Poker. Sweet.

I've traditionally been content to take the "ignorance is bliss" approach to the footprint I leave on the environment with my consumption and disposal of goods, but since I've started watching birds and interacting a bit more with my natural environment, I'm beginning to see the importance of the natural resources and the environment around me, with all its wildlife and beauty.

This isn't your typical "go green" propaganda video. It paints a very clear picture of how we got to where we're at, and the core of why we need to change. It's worth 20 minutes of your time. I promise.

The Story of Stuff

I had quads 3 times in the last SnG I played a few minutes ago on Full Tilt Poker, and still managed to bubble.

Ran my AQ into AK. (AK limped in, we both flopped our Ace, and I played the aggressor thinking AQ was good). Don't you hate it when it actually crosses your mind that a certain situation might be happening, and you dismiss it only to find out that your gut was right?

I had no reason to think this guy would slow play. He hadn't at any other point in the tourney.

Oh well. I'm in another SnG right now - probably my last for the night. Took 2nd in one earlier today.

Yeah, fine, so I couldn't come up with a clever title. The name of the game is just begging for one, though. How about: Trojan Wars: I Sucked

The strangest thing about that game was that I did not go to showdown with a losing hand - not one single time - except of course for the hand that knocked me out. Not one bad showdown! If you asked me if that was possible, I'd probably have laughed and deemed it an impossibility. I saw a decent number of flops, and either connected with them and won, or missed and folded.

With that in mind, I can't think of anything I'd change about the way I played. Scott had early criticisms for me with regards to not getting enough value from a good hand (I had something like 10-2 in the big blind and flopped trip deuces). I check-called all the way down with a kid at the other end of the table betting 3/4 of the pot at me the whole way. He was betting enough that I figured, I was happy to win it, while simultaneously cutting my losses if he had my 10 outkicked or worse, flopped a bigger set. It was early in the game, and I had no clue how this kid played, so I had no choice but to play the cards. I wouldn't do it any differently today - unless maybe I had unlimited rebuys in my bankroll, which was not the case last week.

I went out bubble + 1 - made the final table of 10, and 5 places paid. I went out 7th out of 30. There's no dramatic story to tell of a stack-crippling hand or anything like that. The blind structure of this game increased EXTREMELY quickly (much more quickly than I prefer), and by the time we were down to 10 players, literally 3/4 of the final table sat down with fewer than 8 big blinds. At that point, it's a crap shoot, and the game disintegrates into a luck fest.

I'd love to see a game with a more conservative blind structure hosted by Ryan. Playing at his house is like walking into someplace off of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. The house is gorgeous (which, yes, is totally unrelated to poker - but I will never complain when surrounded by marble and fine woods and to-die-for floor plans!), and the food and open bar are always fantastic (though I tend to stick to diet cokes). The best thing, though, is the comfort level of the chairs at the "final table" table. Nothing - and I mean nothing - makes for a more miserable poker experience than an uncomfortable chair. I am a girl that really appreciates a comfortable chair.

Thanks to Ryan for hosting another great game (now titled, The Trojan Wars). Sorry I couldn't stick around for the cash game. Funds are kinda tight around here. It looked like one wild night, though!

I hear Scott's next Diamond game will be in March, and I have yet to host my "housewarming poker game." (Let's just pretend I haven't been living here for a year and a half already). Pencil in a weekend after Tax Day. I'll host a spring poker game.

Poker!!!

I've got a date tonight with the glorious game that so birthed this wonderful blog.

Ryan, a frequent attendee of Scott's Diamond games, is hosting the second instance of his own game, from now on affectionately referred to as the Trojan Wars. You see, Ryan hosted this game last year, but I had made such a donkeriffic move in that tournament that I never got around to naming the game. In a combination of verbal and written discourse that I could never do justice to by explanation alone, Ryan mistakenly referred to his game as the Diamond game, much to the dismay of Scott (who has been running the Diamond games for years).

Suffice it to say, when I received the Trojan condom in the mail along with the official papers declaring Ryan's game as the Trojan Wars, I just about lost it in hysterical laughter.

So, I'm heading off to the Trojan Wars tonight. Randy will be joining me, and I expect to see a few familiar faces from the Diamond games. I haven't seen the guys in a while, so I'm looking forward to that (aside from looking forward to actually playing poker).

I think this is a rebuy NLHE tourney, though I only have enough scratch to walk in with one buy-in. The proverbial "money is tight around here" complaint hasn't changed a single iota. I'm flying in on a wing and a prayer for a little luck, and the wisdom not to do anything completely stupid.

I don't have a game plan, really, in terms of playing. I've had a tendency in the past to play entirely too weak-tight after a long stretch without poker, so I suppose my initial emphasis should be on shaking off the rust and avoiding my timid tendencies.

There are rumored to be 25+ people attending this game, so the prize pool should be ripe. If anybody's got any luck to spare, I'm humbly but gladly accepting donations!

Can you tell I'm catching up on my reading?

Thank you, Gracie, for your post about tilt-shift miniature faking. It goes quite well with my photography hobby. I love your shrunken dogs!!! Now to shrink my felines, mwahahaha.

If I have any success, I will be sure to share.

I don't know why, but every time this chick pops onto the radar, it's like I'm driving past a car wreck and have just GOT to look!

Cliff's Notes for Brandi's latest, by Waffles

This here blog turned 3 years old the other day. Ringing in the new year is always a time to reflect on the previous year and look forward to new possibilities.

My 2007 Year in Review begins with the first few sentences from the first post of each month of 2007:

January: Tomorrow, this blog turns 2 years old. The cliche thing to do around this time of year is to draw up some resolutions for the new year. I thought I'd first look back at last year's resolutions, and see how many came to fruition.

February: Empress has live poker again!

March: Chances are slim that I'll play poker tonight. I'm sitting at Empress right now, on the list for 5/10 holdem. Ninteenth on the list.

April: No posts

May: Learned an interesting lesson last week at a poker game. NLHE, hosted by Ryan (a regular attendee of the Diamond games).

June: If you haven't watched the WPT Mandalay Bay episode yet, or don't want to know what happens, stop reading now! Spoilers ahead!

July: "Run over" does not begin to describe the past hour or so I've spent on Full Tilt. 4 SnG's. Four 8th or 9th place finishes. Ouch.

August: Welp, it took a while (5 hours or so), but I doubled my buy-in tonight at Majestic. If ever there was a session that qualified for the label "grinding out a win," this was it.

September: I'm back to an empty tank in terms of my bankroll. I spent what I'd won in July on fantastic weekends seeing Dave Matthews Band in Indianapolis and in Milwaukee (close enough). I pulled out most of my Full Tilt money to pay off the October Vegas trip that I charged.

October: Ever had one of those yawner sit n go's? You know, the kind where you're fold fold folding because your cards suck THAT bad, but nobody else is doing anything?

November: I drank the Apple Kool Aid.

December: I hope you're all enjoying Vegas! Wish I was there!

And thus went 2007 in my world. Let's see how I did with my 2007 resolutions:

My poker goals for 2007:

• Reseed my B&M bankroll and continue playing $5/10 limit holdem - Nope. Never got there.
  
• Learn to play the player and not just my cards. - Still working on it.
  
• Make it out to Vegas at least once this year. - I did, but it wasn't a poker trip.

Last year, I wrote that "Sometimes, life, family and work have to come before poker - but that doesn't diminish my love for the game." That holds true today.

As I look forward to 2008, poker remains a hobby, though it is no longer my primary passion. 2007 saw me add photography and birding to my list of hobbies, and one of my goals of 2008 is to add meteorology and weather photography to the list. I still intend to play poker each chance I get, but like last year, my financial situation doesn't lend itself well to seeding the bankroll I'd need to play poker seriously. And I'm OK with that. I spent a chunk of change on new toys in 2007, and I'm going to spend 2008 enjoying them (and paying them off!)

I may not see as much live poker as I'd like to in 2008, but I still get my fix via the TiVo :)

I suppose my resolution for 2008 is to continue to enjoy and improve my skills in ALL of my hobbies - including poker.

Here's to a happy, healthy 2008, and the hope that everybody finds something to love and enjoy and feel passionate about.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, and Happy Holidays to all!

I hope you're all enjoying Vegas! Wish I was there!

I keep on keeping on letting blinds see free flops when I'm heads up against them with AA and I keep on keeping on losing.

However, both times this week that I did that (including tonight), I went on to win the next SnG I played.

Coincidence?

I will have a definitive answer as to whether or not you'll see me in Vegas by this weekend. I have no bankroll but I really really want to see everyone!

Stay tuned.

You would think I'd learn.

Literally, every time I'm in this particular situation, the same outcome results, yet I keep making the same choices that keep leading to the same unsavory outcome.

I'm in the small blind with AA. It folds to me. My only opponent is the big blind. I flat call and slowplay preflop, then come out betting on the flop. My opponent pops me back on the turn, and on a seemingly innocuous board, I go to the river to see I've been beat with 2 pair, 10-4.

While the deciding hands differ, my fate is the same. I let a junk hand see the flop cheap, and paid the price. That 10-4 should have never seen the flop, and even if I raised and he called, the fault would at least be on him for making an awful call than on me for trying to get tricky against the donkeys of the world.

If you haven't heard much about the Hollywood writer's strike, this movie will help.

It is definitely worth the watch (even though I already sided with the writers before watching it). Its value is two-fold: it makes their point, and in a damn amusing way (a fine display of their talents).

I suppose I'm live-blogging this SnG I'm playing in on Full Tilt - except that I'm not recounting the hand by hand action. So, is blogging while playing without specifying each and every hand that I fold still considered live blogging?

Everyone is posting their Vegas plans. I went to Vegas last month, and since it was not a gambling (aka poker) trip, I spent way too much money. That may sound ironic, but typically I can play poker well enough to offset or completely negate the cost of the trip. This was more of a clubbing trip. If you're on my Flickr friends list, the damage to my liver and thusly my wallet is evident.

I told California April a few months back that I'd make the trip out in December. Now, I'm not sure if I can. Of course, money is the reason. But, you say, you bought that camera over the summer and have spent all kinds of money on toys this year! Yeah. I have. I'm now in debt up to my eyeballs. Wise? No. Fun? Absolutely. Vegas, though, requires liquid cash, and I've got a shortage of that. I'm still trying to think my way through this and find a way to do Vegas on the cheap. I tried to do Vegas on the cheap last month, and it definitely was not cheap.

Damn it. I just folded pocket 3's to a ridiculously large preflop raise, and a 3 flopped.

Holy hell. The river was also a 3. I sure have no timing whatsoever.

Pocket 5's. Can presto be gold? Two flopped sets in a row: highly unlikely. Did flop a boat though. And won with my pot sized bet. w00t!

I haven't played any live poker in a while. I had a run at it out of my last income tax refund, and alas, the deck was perennially cold. I'll make another run at it this winter, assuming I get some money back from Uncle Sam. The other 2 things on my tax refund wish list: new glasses and contacts, and a digiscope for bird watching (and photographing).

Part of the reason I finally invested in a decent dSLR camera this past summer was to shoot wildlife, particularly birds. Since then, I've started getting into bird watching, through my back yard feeders and trips to local nature preserves. I've spec'd out a digiscope setup that is reasonably priced and will work with my camera (Canon Digital Rebel XTi). When I bought the camera, I also got a nice 70-300mm telephoto lens, but without the magnification of a digiscope, it's tough to get a nice frame-filling picture of a bird.

Speaking of birds, I've started a bird blog to chronicle my bird watching: My Avian Friends. It's brand new - not much there yet, but when my Project FeederWatch welcome packet arrives, you can be sure I'll have some bird goodness to post!

Hey, my first inclination was to call myself Poker Geek back in the day, but that moniker was already taken! :)

I'm down to <10 BB. It's getting to be push-or-fold time.

Did I mention that I switched to Mac? Yes, I drank the Apple Kool-Aid. (Now that I repeat that phrase, I have a feeling I did post about my Mac switch, but I'm too lazy to go verify). The new iMac is part of my glorious debt, and yes it is gloriously worth it. I'm in love with Leopard.

Yesterday at work, I booted up XP as per usual, and literally scowled at it as an involuntary "Ewwww..." escaped my lips. I've officially crossed the line. Somehow - and I can't say exactly what it is - but Windows is offensive to me. Repulsive, even. I still must work with it quite regularly, as I do some tech support as part of my job, and we're a Windows-mostly shop, but... Ewwww. It's like that. Visceral, almost.

Another hobby making a resurgence in my life lately is astronomy. I was into taking photos of the moon when I first got my camera, and then took photos of the total lunar eclipse over the summer. Last week, I got shots of Comet Holmes, and all of a sudden, I find myself asking my brother if he still has my dad's old telescope. I know - all I need is another blog!

Folded my big blind to a raise with Q9o. <6 BB. Cards are sucky.

I've also decided what I want to do with my life. Well, I mean, in addition to what I already do. I'm generally happy in my career, and it being a union position that pays financial dividends based more on longevity than quality of work, the longevity alone is starting to inch me to a point where it would be silly to leave. I was having thoughts of changing careers or going back into industry over the summer.

I've sorted through most of those thoughts (with some help from the What Color is Your Parachute? book). I'll likely stay in my current career for the foreseeable future, but I'm starting to take courses in photography and meteorology. I'd like to photograph weather... maybe chase some local storms. I don't know that either topic will ever aspire to anything career-worthy, but maybe career-enhancement-worthy? I don't know. All I know is that since I've made the decision to start taking classes, I'm devouring everything weather and photography related that I can get my hands on, and am loving it immensely.

I took one photography class this fall - a sort of field survey class, made up mostly of on-location photography shoots (nature and urban photography). I got an A in the class and had one of the most highly praised photos in my final portfolio. That got me really excited.

I've been a point-and-shoot photographer since I was a little kid (with the occasional instances where my dad let me try his "good" camera). Since I got a dSLR, I've been completely immersed in photography. Part of it might be in the honoring of my dad's memory. He was an avid amateur photographer. It was a hobby of his, but a very serious hobby. I'm very glad and proud that I can carry on that tradition.

We may even start taking family photos on the holidays again. I plan to revive that tradition at Thanksgiving dinner next week.

Still at 6BB. Pushed a few times and the field folded. Only one player has more than 7BB. We're all hovering around death. If I can wait out these few people pushing... maybe?

Yes! 2 more knocked out. 2 to go till the money.

Hey - it can be done. Last week, I was down to less than 2 BB after a harrowing loss, and hung on long enough to make the money after a guy pushed and ran into bad luck. His bad luck was my good fortune!

I need some good fortune fast, though, as I'm down to 3BB now.

Folded Q5o UTG. I'll take my chances with the big blind.

34 of hearts. Here goes. Vs ATo. Yay, a pair of 3's! I win!

6BB.

One more out.

WOOHOO in the money with 4BB left!

LMAO :)

All in AK spades. Flopped K. Chance to triple up. Both opponents are in. Oy the one guy is disconnected. Yawn. The disconnect timer is SO out of control on FTP. It seems insanely long.

Wooo, I win, another out. Heads up! BRB

Yay, I won!! Patience, my friends. Patience. Flopped boats also help.

And now, I sleep.

Leopard:

Time Machine is friggin fantastic.

Spaces is the best thing since sliced bread.

I love the dorky reflective dock.