2007 - Year In Review

Wow, I haven't posted anything on this blog in over a year. Writing a blog about something you do everyday, even though you may like it a lot, can quickly become tedious. There is also an issue of not wanting to educate my opponents, especially as the games have gotten somewhat tougher since the UIGEA. I do, however, think that posting about my hands, in the absence of being able to discuss them with people who's opinions I trust and respect, really helps me with my play, so when I am up for it I will post hands and/or thoughts from time to time.

The past year has been incredibly trying, both in life and in poker.

I lost two of my six siblings months apart after having been out of contact with them for more than ten years. Watching a loved one die is not something you get over quickly, and though it happened in June it's still as though I was in that hospital room just hours ago. It may or may not be related, but after shaving my head at least once a week for about 12 years straight, I decided to let it grow out so I could actually have a functional haircut and discovered I am already going grey. I'm 27 ferfucksakes.

On the poker side it was an ok year. There were some extended periods of running bad which led to bad play and I don't feel I've grown much as a player, but I can only believe that 2008, in both life and poker, will be a better year.

One thing that has definitely gotten worse in regards to my poker play is bet sizing. I've playing pretty much 100% on Full Tilt the last three months and the 'Bet Pot' button has resulted in much laziness, which has caused sloppy play and goofy bluffs when I easily could have won the pot by betting smaller on previous streets. MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY!!! No more bet pot button for me.

BOOMSWITCH

Very small sample obviously, but it's difficult to log tons of hands on party when there is only one $200 PLO table going at any given time on Party and I have hardly played this month. Check out that monster VP$IP. The games are so loose passive that it is profitable to play almost anything. Other than opening and 3 betting, I didn't make a single pot sized raise preflop over the course of these hands. Mostly I'm raising 3-5BB with some pretty speculative hands, bluffing occasionally and getting super super paid when I smash the flop. I guess I busted pokertracker because no, my WTSD is not 141%. PFR should be quite a bit higher, around 40%. but it dipped drastically over the last 250 hands or so of my session tonight when the table became infested with shortstacks.

Tonight was the swingiest session I've had in a long time. At one point I was stuck $1600 between $200 NLHE and PLO, none of it due to tilt. Within a couple hours I rebounded and booked a $1200 profit, which is good, because I am fiending to buy a Wii. I don't know why but I wannnnnnts it.

This is how good the games are on party right now: (Thank you Bill Frist, you sack of donkey cum)

***** Hand History for Game (?) *****
$200 PL Omaha - Wednesday, November 15, 01:53:57 ET 2006
Table Table 126336 (No DP) (Real Money)
Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 3: diplopia ( $99 )
Seat 4: Hero ( $442.85 )
Seat 9: jamboree12 ( $537.60 )
Seat 1: dboy88 ( $447.28 )
Seat 10: ruallinyet2 ( $122.20 )
Seat 8: JEMAPA ( $52.50 )
Seat 5: RJT0408 ( $287.77 )
Seat 2: Muzuri ( $95.14 )
Seat 6: Asonev ( $0 )
Seat 7: lucol ( $449.73 )
ruallinyet2 posts small blind [ $1 ].
dboy88 posts big blind [ $2 ].

Holecards:
Dealt to Hero [ ]
CALL Muzuri, $2
diplopia folds
RAISE Hero , $9
CALL RJT0408, $9
lucol folds
RAISE JEMAPA, $41
CALL jamboree12, $41
ruallinyet2 folds
dboy88 folds
Muzuri folds
CALL Hero , $32
CALL RJT0408, $32

Flop: (Pot: $169)
[ ]
BET Hero , $166
RJT0408 folds
ALL-IN JEMAPA
RAISE jamboree12, $332
ALL-IN Hero
CALL jamboree12, $69.85

Turn: (Pot: $736.85)
[ ]

River: (Pot: $736.85)
[ ]
jamboree12 shows [ ]three of a kind Sevens .
Hero shows [ ]three of a kind Sevens .
JEMAPA doesn't show [ ]two pairs, Aces and Sevens.
Hero wins $780.70 from side pot #1 with three of a kind Sevens with Ace kicker .
Hero wins $200.50 from the main pot with three of a kind Sevens with Ace kicker .

Omaha Only

90% PLO this month so far. The rest Limit Omaha H/L (at which I have finally accepted I suck) and a tiny bit of NL. It has been a lot of fun playing omaha again even if the swings are tough on the stomach. I had two days last week where I was stuck in the neighborhood of 10 buyins only to finish + on the day. Anyway, here are my midmonth Omaha stats for bragging purposes I suppose (click on pic). I am lazy and ok with that. I am going to try to ramp up how many hands I play for the rest of the month. I ordered a digital camera and a ipod with my FPPs today though. Very nice.






Also, here is a hand where my opponent, who is a 19/10 solid type TAG made very confusing flop and turn calls. I would almost never play AAxx this way FWIW and I would hope he would know this. Strange!

PokerStars Game #6982414733: Omaha Pot Limit ($5/$10) - 2006/11/11 - 14:47:05 (ET)
Table 'Gliese' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: BuklaH ($1337.75 in chips)
Seat 4: beset7 ($1137 in chips)
Seat 6: kappa124 ($1626 in chips)
Seat 7: BMryan ($1005.65 in chips)
Seat 8: pierre507 ($1589.50 in chips)
Seat 9: regista8 ($690 in chips)
regista8: posts small blind $5
BuklaH: posts big blind $10

Holecards:
Dealt to beset7 [ ]
RAISE beset7 , $25 to $35
FOLD kappa124
CALL BMryan, $35
CALL pierre507, $35
FOLD regista8
FOLD BuklaH

Flop: (Pot: $120)
[ ]
CHECK beset7 :
CHECK BMryan:
BET pierre507, $117
RAISE beset7 , $351 to $468
FOLD BMryan
CALL pierre507, $351

Turn: (Pot: $1056)
[ ] [ ]
BET beset7 , $634 and is all-in
CALL pierre507, $634

River: (Pot: $2324)
[ ] [ ]

Showdown:
beset7 : shows [ ] (a pair of Aces)
pierre507: shows [ ] (a straight Five to Nine)
pierre507 collected $2321 from pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot $2324 | Rake $3

Board:
[ ]

+160k Month

I took second in the Sunday Poker Stars Million for 140k (3-way chop at the end leaving 40k on the table) and had a good month in the cash games to boot.

In the tourney, I ran hot when it mattered and played solid poker. Most amusing part of the day for me was that I registered for the tournament in an act of tilt after a seemingly never-ending downswing playing 2/4 and 3/6 PLO. Then, I almost un-registered at the last minute because I had forgotten I needed to pick up my wife--but, I was too late as they were already seating for the event. So, I called her a cab and settled in to see if I could build up a stack.

I was average in chips, picking up medium sized pots and doubling up a number of times, winning a number of coinflips as well as cracking KK with AK all-in preflop, well into the money. I got my money in bad on one other occassion but was saved from being more or less crippled when the board made a straight.

Then, when there was around 70 people left I went on a major heater, going from about 175k in chips to 1.3 million over 20 hands or so. Then I stole blinds like crazy building it up to about 3 million and the chip lead. I was moved to a very tough table on the final table bubble and lost a lot of chips and showed up at the final table 8th in chips. Then, I ran pretty well and got lucky that some of the other players were in a hurry to bust. When it was down to 3 players, we were roughly equal in chips and after some haggling did a 3-way chop leaving 40k on the table. I made it to heads up and then got ran over by the deck and a LAG opponent. It would have been nice to take down that extra 40k but I'd say I am content. Huge score for my family and puts us in a nice position as I prepare to retire from professional poker in May 07.

Thanks to everyone who sweated me, especially Bugstud who provided me with a lot of good tips. I have played very few MTTs and even the most basic end-game problems confuse the fuck out of me.

And now for a public service announcement...

What is best in life? THE MOTHERFUCKING WIRE.

I am a huge media whore. I probably have somewhere around a 1000 books, 3000 comic books and graphic novels, 8 magazine subscriptions, a 60GB Ipod that is all full up, every currently available video game system and I madly download just about every decent television show on a regular basis. I would give up every single one of these cherished items just to watch a single episode of the Wire. Fuck that, a single motherfucking scene.

The Wire has been claimed by many to be the single best television show of our generation. They are not reaching far enough. It is the best fucking anything ever. Better then your first blowjob, your last cigarette, or the first time you scooped a $2000 pot.

What is The Wire? It's a cop/gansgta drama set in current day Baltimore. The viewer, through five seasons, has follow the day to day lives of police, bangers, politicians, junkies and all of the people they cross paths with. The Wire examines the entire American system, from drugs laws to education reform, at a microscopic level.

Plus there's this badass motherfucker named Omar that I would love to be when I grow up, except for the whole gay thing. That's Beset's ambition.

The following is quoted from the very first episode of season 1, and I think it's a pretty good indication of strength of the acting, direction and writing on The Wire:

The episode opens with Detective McNulty questioning a homicide witness in the street, sitting on the curb a few feet away from the body.

McNulty: "So your boy's name is what?"
Banger: "Snot"
McNulty:"You call the guy snot?"
Banger:"Snot Boogie, yeah"
McNulty:"Snot Boogie... he like the name?"
Banger:"what?"
McNulty:"Snot Boogie... this kid, who's momma went to the trouble to christen him Omar Isiah Betts... you know, he forgets his jacket, so his nose starts running, and some fucker, instead of giving him a kleenex, he calls him Snot."
McNulty:"So he's Snot forever. Doesn't seem fair."
Banger:"Life just be that way I guess."

McNulty:"So... who shot Snot?"
Banger:"I ain't going to no court. Mothafucka didn't have to put no cap in him though."
McNulty:"Definitely not."
Banger:"I mean he coulda just whipped his ass like we always whipped his ass."
McNulty:"I agree with you"
Banger:"Gonna kill Snot, Snot bein doin the same shit for I don't know how long... kill a man over some bulllshit"
Banger: "Look, I'm saying... ever friday night, in the alley behind the cutrate, we rollin bones, you know, I mean all them boys from around the way and we roll till late."
McNulty:"Family crap game right?"
Banger: "Like every time, Snot, he fade a few shooters, play it out till the pots deep, then snatch and run."
McNulty:"What, every time?"
Banger:"Couldn't help himself."
McNulty:"Let me understand you... every Friday you and your boys would shoot crap, right? And every Friday night, your pal Snot Boogie, he'd wait until there was cash on the ground, then he would grab the money and run away? You let him do that?"
Banger:"We'd catch him and beat his ass, but ain't nobody never go past that."
McNulty:"I gotta ask you... if every time Snot Boogie would grab the money and run away, why'd you even let him in the game?"
Banger:"What?"
McNulty:"Well if Snot Boogie always stole the money, why'd you let him play?"
Banger: "Got to."
Banger: "This America man."


The series is currently in it's 4th season and I think episode 6 just aired in the US. In one of the greatest piracy coups ever, someone managed to get the entire 4th season online in the last week. I have now watched the entire season well ahead of the actual release dates and I am fucking fiending for more.

Get out there and buy the DVD's. Download the show if you have to but make sure you spend some cash on this show at some point. These people deserve your money. Do not, I repeat, do not, watch the series out of order. It is incredibly densely plotted, with plot points from the first season paying off in subsequent seasons.
If you don't like the first episode, keep watching. What seems simple and possibly boring at first will come to fascinate you as the plot unravels. Pay attention. This is not a show you can watch out the corner of your eye while playing 360 or jerking it to the latest Lohan nipple slips.

MUST... PLAY.... HANDS....

I am too busy playing a gazillion hands in between (barely) taking care of my other responsibilities to post on this Blog. That being said, I am deeply saddened by the recent legislation--I am, however, committed to taking it easy and watching how things pan out. It is clear that for the dedicated player playing online is not going to be impossible once the banking regulations are promulgated. What is more frightening is the effect the changes will have on the games. We shall see. In the mean time, the Party Poker NL and PLO games have gotten a lot softer over the last week as many of the conservative; TAG regulars have done the prudent thing and cashed out. I, however, will be 6-tabling when they turn out the lights. I will post graphs once Bush puts pen to ink and initiate my last Party Poker cash-out. I feel like I have been fired from a very high paying job.

September Results Post

+3k live and +1500 from rakeback and -1100 from PLO (like 900 hands) for roughly 16k for the month. I'll take it! Click above pic for graph of online hold em' results.