Wrong Direction, But Who Can Complain?!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
I finished 3rd in The Mookie last night. I really felt good about my game and all my big hands were holding up, so I figured it just might be TOC night for me. Unfortunately I lost my footing once down to 3 and fizzled out rather quickly. Riggstad and Hellory (does he have a blog) played heads-up for what felt like forever and, for some reason, I stayed up to watch when I really should have gone to sleep. I recall my head hitting the pillow at 2:46am.
I don't know Hellory, so I was pulling for Riggstad. He was getting some massive hands heads-up, but Hellory was having nothing of it. It was painful to watch Riggs get no action on his huge hands, then have to dump when raising with air or most likely suspect hands. Regardless it was a good game and I had fun.
My last 3 blonkaments have been
Bodonkey - 1st
Bodonkey - 2nd
The Mookie - 3rd
I'm not liking the direction I'm headed - what's next a 4th place in the Riverchasers - but who can complain with those numbers? The above does not include my 3rd place in The Hoy last week, so that's two BBThree final tables where I was sniffing a TOC and just couldn't get the job done. Then two Bodonkey final tables that finally put me in a better position to hopefully make the 18 seat tourney for a WSoP seat. As for the BBThree, no sense of urgency yet, but I'm really motivated to win a TOC when I'm playing. I just haven't played as many tourneys this go around, whereas I played almost every BBTwo event.
I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone for the well wishes regading ChickJax yesterday. She has actually been feeling much better since I wrote that post, so maybe all the good vibes out there helped. We are looking forward to the docs giving us news that will get her even more on the road to recovery. Thanks again.
Had I known about ChickJax being down with the sickness way back when, I probably wouldn't have planned this...
Depart:
Greensboro to Biloxi
Fri, Mar. 28, 2008
Leaves - 10:24 AM
Arrives - 11:22 AM
With Surflexus just getting back from some tourneying in Biloxi, it's time for me to make my trip and gambool it up for a few days. I am stoked about hitting the casinos with my local gambooling buds. Thankfully, as I mentioned above, ChickJax is feeling better and her and the kids are actually going to spend the weekend with her mom and sister. They are looking forward to the visit. They are also taking a trip to the NC Zoo tomorrow which should be a lot of fun for the whole family. I know KidJax and LilJax are going to love it. Maybe the monkeys will be getting a little bit of dry humping going on like they did last time I took KidJax. That was an interesting conversation to have with the boy.
KidJax: "Daddy what are those monkeys doing?"
Me: "Erm, they're playing son, playing. Yeah, playing. Erm, lets go buy you some Dippin' Dots."
Okay I'm hella busy since I'm trying to get ready for being off on Friday and Monday, so I gotta roll. Don't expect a post from me until probably Tuesday of next week. In the meantime, lets light this candle.
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 11:48 AM,
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Back To Almost Back
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Last week I won the Bodonkey and last night I finished 2nd. I came really close to taking it down, but was outplayed by StinkyBritches heads-up as he wielded a big stick with his big stack. A couple of times he shoved me off of mediocre hands that ended up being best. I had never played against him before, so I wasn't really sure what I was up against.In doing a quick intertubes search this morning, I see he is part of team Bodog, or at the very least, was sponsored by them in playing the 2006 WSoP Main Event. Not sure if he was on the team since he won his seat through BoDog or if he really is one of the pros on their site. Regardless, he played well and deserved the win.
As for me, after nearly exhausting my Bodog bankroll, two strong showings back to back have strengthened the roll and hopefully put me closer to a chance at a WSoP seat through BoDog. I know I still have my work cut out for me, but I definitely feel better about my situation now.
I've started and stopped posts twice this week, but work and life have just taken over each time and I've bagged each post. Even right this moment I'm rushing to get a post up. At work, we just brought over a financial advisor team from another firm, so that is keeping me busy. They have nearly 1/2 billion in assets under management, so you can imagine the headache of trying to transfer all that over.
As for life, ChickJax continues to be down with the sickness and we are all just hoping for the day when she feels better. After lots of reviews, tests and bloodwork by the docs, they have found a very large cyst AND seperate tumor that are of concern. More tests are being done and we are waiting for word on some things, but we are just hoping for the best. It seems her immune system has been really weak lately, which makes it tough with all the bugs that are going around. Not sure if the tumors play a part, but we'll know more eventually. I just want my wife better as it is really tough to watch her go through all this feeling so bad every day.
I missed The Hoy this week and at the last minute chose to unregister from the Skillz game last night. I hope to play The Mook tonight, but I can't make any promises. If I'm there, I hope you'll join me. If I'm not, I hope you win it...
Until next time, may the felt be with you.
posted by TripJax @ 10:28 AM,
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Sweet Mistakes
Thursday, March 20, 2008
We all know mistakes in poker can be rewarded. Just recently I made a mistake in a hand that changed the course of a tournament and helped me make a final table. At times mistakes away from the felt can also end up being a blessing in disguise.
Take last night as an example. I fired up the computer at 9:40pm ready to sign up for The Mookie. I made it to the tourney lobby, but was also watching TV, talking with ChickJax and filling out my Tao Of Poker NCAA tourney bracket. By the time I finished the bracket, I looked at the time and it was 10:10pm. I was confused as my Mook table had not popped up. I went to the tourney to look for my name and it wasn't there. In all the mix of things I was doing, I had not registered correctly. I remember clicking for the buy-in, but I must not have entered the password.
Right around that time, ChickJax was feeling pretty bad. As some of you may know, she's been sick for nearly 6 weeks now. After some tough times and numerous doctor visits, we are headed back to the doctor today for extensive blood work. Hopefully we'll know more soon. As it turned out, it was a great thing that I didn't sign into the tourney. She needed someone to be with her and, after two previous nights of successful poker, it was time to take a break. My registration mistake worked out and I was relieved I wasn't playing poker at that point.
We are headed to the doc soon, but before we go, I want to mention one of the coolest things I've seen hit the intertubes in some time.
Hulu
That site is sure to crush workplace productivity much like Iggy's ubers used to do. My employer is already hip to it though - and blocked it from use - so I won't be enjoying it during office hours. I have, however, been catching up on shows and movies while playing poker at night. Yeah I know that's not optimal poker strategy, but I only have so many hours in the day, so I gotta do what I gotta do. If anything, maybe I can get a few other poker bloggers to watch some shows while playing poker and thus spend less time keeping up with the game. Yeah, that's the ticket, destroying quality poker play one tv show at a time.
Until next time, may the felt be with you .
posted by TripJax @ 9:48 AM,
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BoDonkey Win
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
After my 3rd place finish in The Hoy on Monday, I decided to keep at it by playing in The Skillz series as well as the BoDonkey. I'm not sure why I even try The Skillz game at this point as I'm just not ready to handle those games. I used to read about them, but rarely play them, so right now I'm just a donator. At times it is embaressing as I know I'm making fundamental errors, but I'm just not ready to put it all into place.
The bottom line is I need to spend more time reading and studying the other games before I jump into these things. On the flip side, it's only $12 to get some actual tourney practice so I'm not going to sweat it. I guess that is fair warning, however, that if you see me flame out or suck out in these things, now you'll know why. Hell half the time I depend on my wingman GCox to remind me that the game has changed when we're playing HORSE or HOSE.
As for The BoDonkey, I ended up taking that biatch down. I honestly don't recall any huge suckouts on the night. Granted I do remember running well, but most of the time I think I was catching the right card(s) in the right situation. I lead a good portion of the night, just like in The Hoy on Monday, but the hand I remember that boosted me, and subsequently deflated Smokkee, happened on the bubble. It was - as Hoy would dub it - the classic set up hand.
We're on the bubble with 6 players remaining and only 5 getting paid. I wake up with AA and Smokkee raises. I feel like he's got AK and is willing to run with it so I push. I think his raise was in the 6k range and I want to say I had about 20k behind. Any raise at this point commits me so I just push knowing if he's got a decent hand he's probably coming along for the ride. He instacalls with KK and an Ace on the flop seals the deal for me and leaves him on the bubble. That hand was THE hand that put me in a position to win the tourney.
It's interestng that, while in the chiplead at the final break (prior to the hand I just mentioned above), I almost had to drop out of the tourney. I think I had close to 20k at that point and when the break started I went to check on my wife who has not been feeling well lately. She was already in bed, but I could tell she wasn't doing well. I stayed with her for about 10 minutes before she went back to sleep. I was ready to stay with her to make sure she would be okay, but once she was asleep I didn't feel bad about going back to the tourney. When I got back I was still in the lead, but had lost some ground due to blinds and antes.
The final table was a good one and I didn't lead until that hand against Smokkee, so I know it took some timely action to vault me back into the lead. Poker is so much more fun when you have the most chips. As for the win, I'm happy to finally add the BoDonkey to my list of blogger tourney wins. Now the one that I've come close at before, but still eludes me, is The Hoy. His new format is built for my style of poker, so I'm optimistic I'll take that one down in 2008.
Until next time, may the felt be with you .
posted by TripJax @ 9:31 AM,
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BBThird At The Hoy
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
After missing a number of the BBThree tourneys last week due to work obligations, I decided to jump into The Hoy last night. I've run (or possibly played) real bad so far in the BBThree, so I just wanted to test the waters. I managed to fonk my way into chips at least twice, but used those chips to my advantage for the most part. I took some chances in spots where I thought I was ahead or felt like I could put myself in a position to dominate. I lead the tournament - at times by double the chips - for probably 70% of the tourney. Unfortunately when it mattered in the end, I did not lead the tournament, which matters most in these BBThree event.In the end I managed a 3rd place finish. They - whoever they is - say the real money is in the top 3, so I'm happy, but I loathe getting so close to a BBThree TOC and falling short. In BBTwo I finished in 2nd place in the very first tournament and only made it as close as 4th place in another tourney after that. Whether you fonked your way or played pristine poker from hand one to the next to last hand, all that matters is on that last hand that you are the one with all the chips. Otherwise it's no TOC for you.
Regardless, it feels good to get on the board in the BBThree. And though it doesn't really count for anything, for whatever reason I like seeing my name in the top 10 on Hoy's personal stats, so I'm sure this finish will get me close to 5th or 6th. Woot!
I put a tough beat on Jamyhawk at some point, which was truly my fonk moment. He had just chipped up on recent hands and I had been very active, so when he applied pressure to me, I thought he was just trying to bully a bully. In actuality, his KK was goot against my A8 until the board landed me a full house. If he wins that hand, he has we both have entirely different tourneys, but that's how poker goes. I also fonked Mookie out AA vs my AK sooooted. So I definitely had my moments. I also felt like I put a whoop ass on at times, just couldn't seal the deal. Congrat to DWAL for taking it down.
Until next time, may the felt be with you .
posted by TripJax @ 11:09 AM,
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The Weekly Trip
Monday, March 17, 2008
Labels: if i worked for the onion
posted by TripJax @ 8:46 AM,
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Annette_15
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Last week I was reading cmitch over at O-Poker regarding young pro Annette_15 winning the $10, $100,000 guarantee for a cool $20,000. She posted the entire tournament on PokerXFactor for all to see (must be a member, but free to sign up), which was pretty cool of her to do.
Last Thursday I decided I needed a break from playing poker, so I decided to just watch Annette's replay in lieu of playing the Riverchasers event. After watching about half of her tournament, I looked at the clock and noticed the Riverchasers was 1 minute from starting. I don't know what hit me, but I logged on quickly and with only seconds to spare, I was registered.
I must admit, I was a bit deflated when the first hand started and I had 4 cards. Having watched the replay of the NL Hold'em event, I was excited about tossing some NL hands around, but there was nothing I could do as the Riverchasers was Omaha. It was 5 minutes into the tourney before I realized it wasn't Hi/Lo. Talk about needing to pay more attention. Yeesh.
Since I fizzled in the tourney, I'll just go ahead and tell you about Annette's run. Let's just say she runs goot. She hit so many river cards to win a hand, I was unable to keep up. Granted, sometimes it was a suck, resuck where she was originally ahead, but she still got insanely lucky so many times. And it's not like she was getting crazy lucky with 8+ outs most of the time. Usually it was a 2 or 3 outter situation.
The one thing I really missed out on in the replay was the chat. I can only imagine what some of the chat was when she was nailing some of the cards in huge situations. I'm sure she was catching some love and some serious hate along the way.
This is mind boggling, but in the end, after starting with 3000 chips, she finished with 60,000,000 chips. That's just insane for a pro to enter a $10 tourney with 20,000 entrants and take it down. If you've got two hours to spare, go watch what it is like to run insanely goot.
Until next time, may the felt be with you .
posted by TripJax @ 10:38 AM,
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Bro On Bro Violence
Thursday, March 06, 2008
It's interesting when you look back on a hand and the end result reeks, but your reasoning at the time felt sound. Last night I was probably top fifteen in chips with 40 of the original 117 remaining, when this hand occurred...
In that moment, I felt like he had AK and would lay down to my raise. With his huge stack, his pot bet felt like a power play where he was saying, I can bet this and it won't kill me. However, losing 5000 in the hand as opposed to 1500 would definitely put a dent in his stack, which is where I felt I could take control of the hand. Thinking he had AK, I pushed having a good feeling that I would either take the pot right there, or have a chance at taking down a huge pot with the nut flush draw. Erm, not so much. I obviously completely misread his hand.
Correct reads can make you look like a genius and misreads can make you look terarded. Chalk it up to my big bro reminding me who is the elder sibling. Nice hand bro!
On a side note, 2 of the 4 BBThree tourneys I've played have seen me exit against Quads. Ouch!
On a side, side note, this is good stuff...
Until next time, may the felt be with you .
posted by TripJax @ 12:08 AM,
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Welcome AMookiELIA
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Work is breaking me into particles this week. I've had zero time to write, but regardless I'm trying to spit this post out as quickly as possible. I wish I could say I get home and find peace at the tables, but so far the BBThree is slow going for me. I had high hopes in The Big Game on Sunday, but that didn't go over too well as I fizzled some where in the middle. Then in The Hoy on Monday I ran my full house into quads.
Last night I fonked way too early in the BoDonkey whiffing QQ into AA, then played We Todd Ed in the Skillz Series. I barely paid any attention in the first hour, which is horrible for a game that, A) requires mucho attention and, B) I'm not very good at. I really felt out of place as I just don't play Stud Hi enough to make sense of it all or make the right moves at the right times. After somehow surviving the first hour I decided to really start watching what I was doing as well as the action and, low and behold, I started to play much better. Amazing how that works. Still, I wasn't able to bring home any bacon or points. So far I've goose egged the BBThree leaderboard.
Tonight I will try and right the ship at The Mookie. Speaking of Ze Mook, congrats my friend, and a big welcome to Amelia!
posted by TripJax @ 4:49 PM,
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