This is where the apple meets the pie

The title to this post is a saying my dad always uses when it is "crunch" time. My BBT3 May lead has dwindled to a mere 6 points. Fischman got 294 points for his season opening big game lucksackery...so I imagine anyone in the top 14 places or so could pass me. Hopefully I can go deep whilst TJ and Wonka69 get bad beated. My two biggest blunders this month have been unregistering from the Hoy the week wonka69 won planning on rerigstering with a token instead of cash. I thought I had done this...but when my tourneys for 10pm popped up, only the 2 daily doubles and the 10pm $26 buyin guaranteed popped up. That really sucked. Then in last weeks Mookie, I thought I had calculated that I was already in the points and was getting shortstacked...so I open shoved 46off into Baynes QJoff and went out 3 people shy of the points. I forgot BBT was top 25% and was caclulating off Bodonkey 30%. Damnit Damnit. Speaking of the Bodonkey, I have slipped all the way down to 21. I basically must get 10th or better in this last event or I can forget the 18man shootout tourney for the 12k package. Time to find out what kind of game I have when the pressure is on in both events. May your boats be full and your soots connect.
JD

pokerweblogs freeroll

Pokerweblogs is hosting a freeroll tourney for members on Pokerstars 5/18/08. Put a link to www.pokerweblogs.com and let them know about it. Email the linked page location to support@pokerweblogs.com.

Freeroll is at Pokerstars, May 18th, 15:00 CET

RAZZLE DAZZLE

Got home from work Saturday morning and didn't have time to play any tourneys (told my wife I would meet her and my boys down at the beach + had to get a few hours of sleep before having to work another night shift and head straight to church Sunday a.m.). Anyway, decided to play some high stakes razz on fulltilt for a little bit before I headed to the beach ($30/$60). Sat down at the short handed table and could not believe the play. I will call with a marginal door card in a multiway pot sometimes due to situational observation (board exposure, stacks in play, % of time person always raises when showing a strong door card, etc.) but a couple of the guys that sat would routinely bring in with a K, then call a completion raise by one person showing anything from A-8. Bringin player would then catch something like a 9on fourth and call another bet from original preflop bettor that caught another strong card on 4th. 5th street would bring a brick for original bettor and bringin player would finally catch a good card. Action would be original preflop bettor would bet 5th and bringin player would raise??? This was a common scenario. Anyway, I had one guy that was just betting, raising and reraising anytime he had a strong door card showing. This setup a hand where I won my biggest cash pot to date. I had a made smooth eight on 5th and action was 3 way and capped the whole way till then. On 6th, one guy dropped and other guy just called with his board of 6/8/2/10. I catch perfect with a 4 on 7th giving me the wheel and he calls my last bet for a huge pot. Hope to play some tournaments late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night (HU blogger tourney a possibility...but I suck at HU matches so we'll see). Wife is maxing out on patience with amount of poker I have been playing though, so I don't know how much I'll play. See you on Monday for the Hoy. Need some points there for BBT3 purposes and definitely need a score in the Donkey Tuesday night as I currently sit in 17th spot with only 18 qualifying. Out.
JD

BBT3, FTP Double B, and more

Well don't know if I'll be figure out how to post screen shots or not...but I have been on a miniature heater of late. Nothing Luckoesque or anything, but big for me. I won the Mookie Wednesday after having won the Skillz event the Tuesday of the week before. That has enabled me to currently hold the top spot on the BBT3 Leaderboard for May as of now. Narrow lead though over Tuscaloosa John who has been red hot and final table machine EVY. Anyway, I decided to use some of the winnings from the Mookie to play in the Thursday night daily double $75 10pm tourney on Full Tilt. I was running well in both, but busted in the A near the payout bubble. Got a decent stack in the B and was very active preflop once the the blinds and antes got up there. Got paid on flopped quads, 2 flopped sets, and a flopped nut flush. No action on any of my big pairs preflop. But the other wins were big enough to carry me. Had AK holdup allin preflop on the last hand of heads up and was able to take it down. Payout was $3900. Also took 2nd in the Bodog $100 buyin the other night for a $2K payout. Got heads up there against a player "The Maven" who I frequently see make it to final tables. I was able to comeback from a heads up deficit of 2:1 in chips to him and took a 3:2 lead...but he ended up getting the Win for the $3k. Didn't play much Friday...but did get a 2nd in a 90man $26 knockout tourney. Ride her until she bucks you.
I am not currently able to get the screen shots to work for the above claims. However, click this link to see a picture of my 2 boys playing with a 2 or 3 day old fawn in our back yard that must have gotten separated from his mama. This donkey's son is in the back ground.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?Uc=nvqi0jd.652l5vgt&Uy=-9ds0ks&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=907882432743_135350474605&mode=fromshare&conn_speed=1

Good luck.
JD

Thank you for not playing

I would like to thank everyone for not playing the BoDog 100K guarantee on Sunday. The buyin was $109 and the guaranteed payout was 100K. Guess how many people signed up including satellite qualifiers? Less than 680. That's right, Bodog took in 68K (+the juice) but paid out 100k. I also played in the 10K guarantee $11 buyin that started 1/2 hr later...guess how many signed up? About 670. That's is right, in both of these tourneys, about 1/3 of the total prize pool was overlay. This is just awesome. Luckily, noone reads this blog, so I expect more of the same next week. The other sweet thing about the tourneys was that instead of only paying out 10% of the field with the bottom feeders that make the money just getting their buyin back...these tourneys paid 90 spots out of less than 680 entrants each. First payout for the 109 buyin tourney was $250 and first payout for the $11 tourney was $25. I made the money in both, but unfortunately made the minimum on both. Pushed JJ in to KK in the $11 tourney to bustout in about 80th place...and in the 100k I had 11k stack in BB with avg stack 24k; 67 players left and action folds to SB who I have covered by all of 417 chips; he shoves with J4off and I call with 99. He flops a jack and I go out next hand via forced allin sb unable to cover the sb and ante. I felt good about my play this tournament with the exception of 1 big mistake. I had about 14K in chips and open raise 3x bb from mp...button has been very active and reraises me but small ( I believe I had made it 1250 and he rr to 3200)...I have to call 1950 in to a pot that has about 6k with blinds and antes...I decide it is worth a look (villian had position and had me covered in chips) and end up having to check fold the whiffed flop. I honestly think that even though I was getting 3:1 on the call and we were deep enough to give me implied odds, in the end it is just spewage at this stage of the tourney. Of course some people could have just stop and go shoved there because they knew that if the turn didn't bring the 5, then the river would. Oh well, I definitely need to get better on my reads (i.e. quit 6 tabling), and amp up my aggression factor. Still pleased to have cashed in both of those tourneys (needed it since I am getting schelled on FTP). See some of you donkeys tomorrow in the hoy and some the next night in the Donkey and Skillz. Wish I wasn't too piss poor to play some of those FTOPS events but oh well. Avoid the suckouts.
JD

BBT3 razz victory in the skillz event and points in the donkey.

Last night had a decent run in the blogger tourneys. I had over 15K in chips fairly early in the Bodonkey (when avg was only about 4k). I then imploded by shoving 66 over Miami Don's button raise (he had KK and took about 5k of my stack). Later, I get KK allin pre against I Crush Bloggers 88 and he rivers a straight (and would go on to take the tourney down). About 4 or 5 hands later, I raise with QQ from the button and cbags shoves from the sb with A9. Ace on the flop and one on the turn to boot and I am now the short stack. I hung on long enough for a few people to bust and squeeked in to the points. I only moved up one spot on the leaderboard though because even though I moved past 3 people, 2 others moved past me (I Crush and Instant Tragedy). Miami Don, Donkette, Lightning, Numbono, and TripJax are all right there as well...so 15th is not safe. Definitely either need to get points in at least 2 of the remaining events or get 1 deep score.
The skillz event this week was razz. I love razz because the worst hand wins...and I am master of getting the worst hand. I decided I was going to play very aggressively if I could build a stack and go after the shorties. I started out slow but got going after about the first hour. I got a bigstack but JD Schellnutt HATER built up an even bigger stack. I know he is king of cash nlh...but there are scenarios where razz hands that appear to be junk or a big dog are actually a favorite or at the very least a coin flip. Fuel may know that a flopped oesfd is actually a slight favorite to a flopped top 2 pair...but might just not appreciate that there are times when the "obvious" currently "best" hand is actually a dog in razz. You must watch the whole table's board cards relative to outs. If 4 or more of your mathcing hole cards have been duped on the board and there have been 1 or no dupes of your opponent's exposed board cards, he may have you dominated in terms of current low, but you would likely be a the favorite. Anyways, I had many starting hands with an 8 or nine up to open that I would play based on board dupes of my hole cards and no dupe aces on the board to an open raiser showing an ace that would get me there by 7th due to increased likelihood of Ace raiser bricking and my decreased likelihood of bricking. Not saying I wasn't uber lucky. Just saying things aren't always as they seem. I would catch good and be an idiot to Fuel, yet an opponent might have 4K7K on his board and catch 7th good to beat my made rough 8 on 5th (betting it hard the whole way) and Fuel would comment that it was a "balls" call by said opponent. No big deal. I've been called worse many times and will be called worse many more. I know I am not top calibre, but am comfortable in my own skin. I might even idiot my way to a cash in the TOC now. Get paid or get laid and enjoy.
JD

nothing new

Not much new happening lately. Still with poor results for the most part. I have been able to get big stacks mid way in my tourneys...then bust just in or just out of the money. One final table in a BBT3 event...one in a Bodog rebuy...one in a Bodog freezout...and final tabled bodonkey last week going out TTAA hitting one outer as 8 of hearts would have completed flush for AA). Anyway, up to 16th in the Bodog rankings with only 5 weeks remaining...figure I will need 3 more points finishes to secure a spot or one very deep finish to get breathing room. I'll take 18th going in the as 18th=1st once the battle begins. Might play the 100K on Bodog today if my wife doesn't bust my balls for it. May the felt be with you.
Jerkoff Donkey