The Marathon

Today was supposed to be the publishing date for "Harrington on Hold 'em: Expert Strategies for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. III--The Workbook", which I pre-ordered, but my shipment now has an estimated delivery date of June 10th. This especially annoys me because I ordered 4 other books at the same time and accidentally chose "ship together".

...

I will never forget the time I ran a marathon. At the end I swore I would never do it again, and I can safely say that my word has remained good, and I have no reason to believe I will ever break that vow. 26 miles is about 6 miles more than the average body can handle, which is of course the point.

Starting Saturday night and carrying through most of Sunday, I played live poker for 26 hours straight.

In the hopes of conditioning myself for the WSOP, and just to see if I had what it takes, my original plan was to play poker for 24 hours straight, and then enter a tournament to see if I could still play well. I made it 2 hours into the tournament, but just didn't get the cards to finish. I did, however, learn a lot, and I will be posting more on the topic soon.

When it was all over, I'd lost just shy of $400. I was prepared to lose $1000 before calling the attempt a failure, so I partly feel like I came out ahead, but it would be a lot better to have actually won. A large part of my losses can be attributed to getting stuck playing 2/4 limit 6 or 7 handed for about 6 hours of the night due to it being the only table open.

You can't beat that game.

-Tommy

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PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

Yeah, yeah, me too.

Funny, I completely forgot about the last one of these. Good thing I was out playing in two live tourneys, cashing in the first, and taking down the second for a considerable amount more than staying home would have garnered.

I'm really going to try to make it to this one though. Should be easy to remember since it's the day after my live freeroll out at Sam's Town.

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

At least I had enough sense to choose the only banner that doesn't flash.

-Tommy

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God Hates You

All those bad beats you've been taking lately?

Apparently, that's because you're a bad christian.

"At the end of the day the Christian is the only one who really knows how Texas Hold-em works. So next time you suck out on the river be sure and thank the one who did it, the Poker God- the Triune God, the only true God."

Whodda thunk it?

-Tommy

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Just Another Day in Pokerland

While searching for a rare copy of "Applications aux Jeux des Hazard" by Emile Borel, I ran across this recently completed thesis titled "Pseudo-Optimal Strategies in No-Limit Poker" by some guy named Rickard Andersson. If you're at all interested in game theory, poker, and/or computer science, it's definitely worth a read.

If by some weird twist of fate you're reading this and you aren't interested in any of those things, I'm worried about you.

...

I think I was the first person to bust out of the American Poker Player Championship No-Limit Hold'em w/ Bounties $500 + $50 Tournament on Friday morning. I didn't bother to ask, as I was in no condition to talk to anyone after what happened. There won't be anything else of real interest to read in this post, so don't continue if you don't want to hear yet another bad beat story. I won't be offended.

After about 30 minutes of play, I had a small dent in my starting stack from the only hand I'd gotten involed in when I ran my AJ into a QQ on a Jack high flop. It was fortunately a small dent because I was playing rather tight, and didn't have plans on busting out with top pair, and fortunately, neither did my opponent. I wasn't really catching cards, but I wasn't letting it bother me either.

I was UTG on the 3rd orbit when I got 6h 7h, and decided that since the rest of the table was playing fairly tight as well, I'd limp in hoping to see a flop. There were 4 other limpers behind me, checks from both of the blinds (still at 25/25), and the flop was dealt 5s 6s 7d.

Both blinds checked, and so I bet about 2/3 the size of the pot hoping to run off anyone chasing either a flush or straight draw. The player acting immediately after me called without hesitation, and everyone else folded. I was somewhat concerned, until the 7s came on the turn, giving me the full house.

I realized even then that it was possible that my heads up opponent had the straight flush, but I assumed that if he had just made it, then he would have already flopped a straight, and with 3 guys acting after him, raised my initial bet instead of just calling. I had him on a flush draw, a shaky call, but not necessarily if he had the Ace and thought his call would sweeten the odds for those behind him. After a second of thinking about it, I checked and he pushed all-in. I called since it was exactly what I'd wanted in the first place.

When he turned up the king high flush I was very happy with myself, though somewhat confused about the lack of an ace.

"Well, at least you have an out." said the chatty middle eastern guy wearing the gaudy Evlis glasses.

... Huh?

I didn't understand what he was talking about or who he was talking to until the dealer illustrated it for me with the 8s on the river. My opponent's kicker was the nine.

I was seated at the furthest table back, and had to make the longest "walk of shame" possible. I didn't pay attention to the size of Spaceman's stack as I passed him on my way out, but I hope he played well. I regret not hanging out to watch for a bit, but my head just wasn't in it at the time.

-Tommy

P.S. Later that night I placed in the money in both tournaments out at Sam's Town, so I recouped my $550 and a little extra, but regardless, my memory for the day is overwhelmingly of a huge loss.

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First Big Win

Sure, it may not be that big of a win to everyone, but after 6 hours of play and 13 cans of Coke, I cleared a field of 2382 players to take first place in the Party Poker $40k Guaranteed NL Hold'em tournament last night, for a prize far larger than any I've won so far.

Man, what a rush. Going to bed was impossible, and even now at work I'm functioning off the high as if I'd had a full nights sleep instead of the three hours I spent laying in bed trying to stop thinking about it.

We cut a deal at the end, with 5 players remaining. I had 35.6% of the chips in play, and using the "auto chop by chips" option, my cut came out to $6,728.08. If we were to play it out, first would have paid $10k, second $5k, and 3rd through fifth obviously less. The other 4 players agreed, and my bankroll is now considerably bigger than it was this time yesterday.

I'd like to say that I was playing really well, but there was some serious luck involved. For instance, I was the large stack going into the fourth hour of play, and remained so due to being dealt pocket Aces twice, and pocket Kings six fucking times.

Yes, that's 8 pocket Ks or better in one hour.

And not only did they all got action, all but one held up. The one that didn't hold up was against a stack so short he'd have been blinded out in two orbits anyhow.

How did I get to be the big stack going into the fourth hour? I raised UTG with pocket 3s, and some tourist smooth calls me with pocket As from the button, and immediately raised me allin on a rainbow flop of 732. So funny

I did eventually get to display some skill at the final table. I was 6th stack coming onto it, and quickly took charge, making some amazing calls on two key bluffs which would have killed me if I had been wrong... but I wasn't.

Not a bad return on $22.

-Tommy

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Overcooked

My brain is officially toasted. I have been playing for shit all weekend, and honestly, have been for about two weeks. I've decided not to make the run at first place overall, but instead take a few weeks off to relax, and read some more books.

In the interest of forcing myself to be honest about my skills (or lack of) as a player, I'm posting my spreadsheet for the 39 live tournaments (Once daily, Twice on Fridays and Saturdays) I've played during the month of April.

I was suprised at the results, and thanks to my spectacular lack of performance these last few days, I'm finishing in the red. I probably over-tipped (at least, according to Caro), and I was definitely surprised to find out just how high the tourney fees were ($18 @ 7pm, $13 @ 11pm), but in the end I know I'm red because I made too many mistakes, the main being that I played long after I was mentally capable.

So enough whining, here are the numbers:

Date	Time	Entry	Won	Tips	Profit	Placed	Points	Notes
01-Apr	7pm	$103			($103)	30th	0
01-Apr	11pm	$126	$440	$40	$171	Chop 3	2	Rebought as alternate.
02-Apr	7pm	$103	$50		$118	10th	1
03-Apr	7pm	$103	$60		$75	8th	1
04-Apr	7pm	$103			($28)	13th	0
05-Apr	7pm	$103	$550	$50	$369	Chop 3	2
06-Apr	7pm	$103			$266	16th	0
07-Apr	7pm	$206	$50		$110	10th	1	Rebought as alternate.
07-Apr	11pm	$63			$47	16th	0
08-Apr	7pm	$103			($56)	20th	0
08-Apr	11pm	$63	$650	$50	$481	Chop 3	2
09-Apr	7pm	$103			$378	26th	0
10-Apr	7pm	$103	$495	$50	$720	Chop 3	2	Only 20 entrants. Top 3 paid.
11-Apr	7pm	$206			$514	14th	0	Rebought as alternate.
12-Apr	7pm	$103			$411	17th	0
13-Apr	7pm	$103			$308	24th	0
14-Apr	7pm	$103	$435	$40	$600	Chop 5	2
14-Apr	11pm	$63			$537	15th	0
15-Apr	7pm	$103	$170	$10	$594	5th	2
15-Apr	11pm	$63	$60		$591	7th	1
16-Apr	7pm	$103			$488	16th	0
17-Apr	7pm	$103			$385	4th	2	Only 23 entrants. Top 3 paid.
18-Apr	7pm	$103			$282	15th	0
19-Apr	7pm	$206			$76	30th	0	Rebought as alternate.
20-Apr	7pm	$103	$260	$25	$208	4th	2
21-Apr	7pm	$103	$170	$10	$265	5th	2
21-Apr	11pm	$63			$202	?	0
22-Apr	7pm	$103			$99	?	0
22-Apr	11pm	$63			$36	?	0
23-Apr	7pm	$103	$100		$33	9th	1
24-Apr	7pm	$103	$150	$20	$60	4th	2
25-Apr	7pm	$103			($43)	21st	0
26-Apr	7pm	$103	$600	$60	$394	Chop 5	2	$600 for 1st.500 for 2nd - 5th.
27-Apr	7pm	$103			$291	13th	0
28-Apr	7pm	$206	$100	$10	$175	7th	1	Rebought as alternate.
28-Apr	11pm	$63			$112	19th	0
29-Apr	7pm	$103			$9	29th	0
29-Apr	11pm	$63			($54)	26th	0
30-Apr	7pm	$103	$60	$10	($107)	10th	1
Totals		$4,132	$4,400	$375	($107)		29

I have more thoughts on the matter, but am not in the mood to write them up just now.

Time for another intermission.

-Tommy

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