Do You Make the Call and the HOYand SNG Wiz News

I want to start off by thanking everybody on their comments on the hands from my previous post. I do appreciate and I plan on pulling the original hands this week and comparing them to what I really did to what the advice was. It was really good and that is exactly what I needed as I re-learn No Limit.

Also, I meant to put a little thing about the upgraded SNG Wizard. As most of you know, SNG Wizard is a tool that helps you look at your SNG play and judge whether or not you played it correctly. One of the problems (if you can call it that) is the hand ranges that SNG Wizard bases it calculations on. They are not always spot on. With the latest release, he is asking to be able to collect the actual hand histories of your SNG to help with the average opponent hand ranges. There is a 2+2 Thread all about it. All of this is done in the back ground once you open up that particular SNG. It is an option and you need to explicitly turn it on. There are alot of people that don't want to share their data and so there is some discussion on the pros and cons. I, personally, don't mind and it if helps with the program in later releases, I am all for it. We'll see what happens.

As it was Monday, I did decide to play in the MATH last night knowing that I am just donating my money. Recently, I have been in the close by no cigar category as I bubbled once and came within 5 of the money (I think). As far as I know, I have never made the money in this thing. While I have enjoyed some success in the Mook winning it 2 times, I have not fared so well in the MATH.

The MATH had 65 players last night and paid 8 players. Again, I was able to make it deep into this tourney as I do like the 6 max format. OK, to make a long story short, I find myself in 9th place out of 9 people. Am I destined to bubble again? Stay tuned.

By the way, I did play a token race with 24 people getting tokens. I finished 26th. Dang!!!

First I want to talk about my cash games that I had going during the tournaments and then I want to discuss set ups. The hands that I want to talk about are AA hands and whether or not
you make the call?

AA Hand #1

In this hand, I do not have a read on the opponent yet.

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BB: $50.75
Hero (UTG): $63.30
CO: $19.55
BTN: $78.00
SB: $50.00

Pre Flop: Hero is UTG with A A

Hero raises to $1.75, 2 folds, SB calls $1.50, 1 fold

Flop: ($4.00) 2 Q 5 (2 players)

SB bets $3, Hero raises to $8, SB raises to $28, Hero ??????

After playing with him, I find out that he is about a 33/10 guy. Does that change your call?


AA Hand #2

Again, no reads on this guy which is why deciding on what to do is hard.



Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

CO: $131.90
Hero (BTN): $55.90
SB: $48.95
BB: $79.25
UTG: $48.05


Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with A A

UTG calls $0.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $2.25, 2 folds, UTG calls $1.75

Flop: ($5.25) T 6 J (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $5.25, UTG calls $5.25

Turn: ($15.75) T (2 players)

UTG checks, Hero bets $10, UTG calls $10

River: ($35.75) J (2 players)

UTG bets $15.50, Hero ????

This one seems a little bit tougher as I probably have odds to call?

What did I do? I layed them both down. Weak?

OK, one more Question? As I was really stuck on what to do? I ended up doing the wrong thing; but please give me your thoughts?


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 5 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (CO): $90.85
BTN: $50.50
SB: $49.95
BB: $55.00
UTG: $70.35

Pre Flop: Hero is CO with J J

UTG raises to $1.75, Hero raises to $5.50, 1 fold, SB calls $5.25, 1 fold, UTG calls $3.75

Flop: ($17.00) 9 J T (3 players)

SB bets $9.50, UTG calls $9.50, Hero raises to $85.35 all in, SB folds, UTG calls $55.35 all in

Turn: ($156.20) 5

River: ($156.20) 4

Final Pot: $156.20

Hero shows Jd Jc (three of a kind, Jacks)

UTG shows Ks Qs (a straight, King high)

UTG wins $153.20

(Rake: $3.00)

Given stack sizes, is this a bad push. It seems that the only thing that calls me here is perhaps KQ or a flush draw. Should I exercise pot control here? Certainly, I can't give up on the flop with the FH redraws?


Now, here are a couple of hands for your viewing pleasure. So many times (especially in NL) you find that guy that is willing to stack off with the worst of it. You just play it patiently and you know it is going to work and then afterwards you can quote Hannibal from the A-Team and say that you love it when a plan comes together.

I had two such hands.

The first hand, this guy was pushing all in every hand since he sat down. About the 5th hand, this is what happened.


Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

MP: $77.00
CO: $92.40
Hero (BTN): $50.20
SB: $23.35
BB: $65.65
UTG: $54.60

Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with K K

UTG calls $0.50, 2 folds, Hero calls $0.50, SB raises to $23.35 all in, 1 fold, UTG calls $22.85, Hero raises to $50.20 all in, UTG calls $26.85

Right on cue, he goes all in again. Any thoughts on the KK limp?


Flop: ($124.25) 8 7 T

Turn: ($124.25) Q

River: ($124.25) A

Final Pot: $124.25

Hero shows Kd Kc (a pair of Kings)
SB shows Td Qd (two pair, Queens and Tens)
UTG shows Ah Jc (a pair of Aces)

DANG!!!!! I don't even get the side pot as that Ace came on river...



Hand #2

AGain, just waiting for this guy to overbet...

Full Tilt Poker $0.25/$0.50 No Limit Hold'em - 3 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

Hero (BB): $47.55
BTN: $76.90
SB: $42.95

Pre Flop: Hero is BB with T T

BTN raises to $1, 1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN raises to $76.90 all in, Hero calls $44.05 all in

Got him!!!!

Flop: ($95.35) 2 8 4

Are you kidding me???

Turn: ($95.35) 3

River: ($95.35) K

Final Pot: $95.35

Hero shows Tc Ts (a pair of Tens)
BTN shows 8d 8s (three of a kind, Eights)
BTN wins $94.35
(Rake: $1.00)


Fun stuff eh? I ended up losing a little over 2 buy ins. I was down over 4 at one point. Also, running KK, QQ and TT into Aces didn't help either. Some body hitting a FH with 73o on the river when I hit my flush on turn... blah, blah, blah...

That should to it for today.

Oh wait, the HOY. I did end up getting my much needed double up and actually made it into the money. Things were pretty typical as blinds were being stolen and things were changing quite a bit. Again, I find myself shortstacked. I steal the blinds. Next hand, Astin was on his typical roller coaster and this particular time, he had chips. He raises to 6600 and I push All in with AK for 15572. He calls with Q6s and as usual, he hits his Q and I am out in 5th place. I'm obviously a little disappointed how it ended; but at least now I have broken the curse of not cashing in the HOY.

I ended up 47th on the BBT3 leader board for the first month. I only played 9 of the 19 events so I guess not too bad.


One final thing. I ended up playing 6,826 hand of NL in March. I made a profit of $33. It feels terrible as I was up $500 at one point; but had the disastrous session that wiped most of it away.

I only played 999 hands of limit and finished down $130. So yes, another losing month. Not really if you count rakeback; but you know what I mean.

We'll keep giving it the college try.

Have a nice day!!!

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

In an earlier post, I spoke as to how I grind myself up with a few good sessions and tend to give it all back in one. Any guesses on what happened last night?

Originally, this was going to be a TV night with Mris Wonka as we were going to watch the finale of Celebrity Apprentice.. Good vs Evil; but she fell asleep while putting Toddler Wonka to bed. So to begin with, I just fired up 4 Turbo SNGs as I figured it may take her 30-45 minutes to read books and put her to bed. I didn't fare to well as I had a 3rd, 4th and 2 6ths. I should have seen the foreshadowing as almost every time it came down to push/shove time and I shoved (correctly, I think. I have not reviewed with SNG Wiz); but ran into TT, KK and AA. One hand with QQ I ran into both KK and AA. After those 4 SNGs, that left me down around $33 ($12 Turbos).

Oh, btw, a little SNG Wiz news; but I will throw that in at the end. I will be curious to see othere opinions on this.


I decided to fire up 2 Micro NL tables with the mindset that I wanted to make up that $33 and then go watch TV with Mrs Wonka or at worst go watch NCAA Basketball. It wasn't too long before I reached the $33 and was getting reading to shut down when I was dealt good hands on both tables. Of course, neither them worked and now I was below my $33.

I decided to keep playing. About now, it was becoming obvious Mrs Wonka was gone for the night so I decided to settle in, if necessary to a night of degenerate activity.

A couple buy ins later, I decide to add another table to help with make up my losses. I'm not sure that I regret this decision as 3 tables is really not that many and certainly within my comfort level.

All in all, I finished down a whopping 7 Buyins down after about 1,000 hands. Perhaps I tilted some of it away; but for the most part, I did not. I may have loosened up a bit and tried to see a few more flops; but never went crazy. Some of my big mistakes were open raising from button and not folding to some 3 bets; especially from some tighter players.

For the most part, I was not getting paid for my big hands, people were obviously drawing out against me and I wasn't hitting flops. Typically, I have been seeing 23-25% of flops. I was around 31% last night which tells you that I was getting cards; albeit, not pocket pairs but hands like AK-AJ and mid pocket pairs. I'll spare you the bad beat stories this time.

I can't remember too many specific situations situations; but want to throw some general ones out there.

Situation #1

You have 88 on button, it is raised before you and you 3 bet and they call. The board puts 3 of one suit out there; but you hit your set. Other person leads out about a little under the pot; but it more or less committs them. What do you do?

Situation #2

KQ from button and you raise and get reraised from BB. Flop KK8. Checked on Flop. You raise on turn and get raised all-in. Any way to get away from this hand?

Situation #3

I raise in LP with AQ. Fairly tight player three bets me. I call. Flop gives me a gut shot broadway and I raise the flop. He take his complete time and even all of his time bank and pushes all in. I am gettin almost 4-1 to call? Do you call knowing most likely that you are beat?

If needed, I will supply more information once I reivew hands.

I used to be a fan of stop losses; but haven't been recently. At some point, though, I need to figure out that it is just not my night.

Have a good weekend!!

Willwonka attempt at Live Blogging

I see a lot of others doing this so I will give it a try...

9:00 I am not listening do Buddy Dank as I should be but I have thrown on an old Cranberries CD (To the faithful departed).

Good luck all..

9:01 Stole blinds with first 2 hands. I also have 2 tables of Micro Limit up. After 126 hands, I am running at 19.64 bb/100

Starting table at Mook a good one:

Drizz
on_thg
Schaubs
OhCaptain
KillingKegs
BudHorseman
Mookie himself
morrdt

Good Luck Again..

9:10 Sick hand alert... on_thg limps UTG with JJ. Mookie calls in LP with 66 and call from SB with J8.. Flop comes J6T with 2 hearts.. I check with Top Pair.. on_thy suspiciously leads out
and Mook Raises... they get it all in and on_thg wins with set over set... Jacks over Sixes.. Tough, tough break Mook

9:13 On_thg vs Mook Part Deax... Mook pushes QJs and gets called ON with 52s... Flop comes 225... GG Mook... Tough Tough.. At least he wasn't first out..

9:17 I can already tell this is going to be harder than it looks with the Mook and 2 Cash game tables.

9:18 Qwackers joins table... I'm at T2625

9:23 Took a pretty big put w/o showdown against BudHorseman. Top pair with gutter is good... hopefully... Stole blinds also... T3450

9:37 on life support with AQ and BvsB battle and QQ all going down in flames T1195

9:41 OUT.... so what for live blogging... my fault limped utg with ATs and and SB and BB limped.. flop comes 7JT 2 diamonds.. my suit... Qwackers check raises me and I push... of course he limped with JJ and I don't hit my diamond. This makes the 2nd tourney in a row where somebody has limped with a big pocket pair. OH well...

Also just lost in cash game with AA to Q2.. nice call preflop dork!!! OH well .. that's it for now.. finished around 94th.

I finished out my cash game in unspectacular fashion...

Just a 5.77BB /100 with 486 hands.

My stats still look pretty close to the same as usual.. 26.13/16.87/2.59

I made one really bonehead play on a blind vs blind deal when I had AA. The SB was somebody seeing 60% of flops. He called from SB and I popped it the size of pot. He called. The flop came QQx and he checked and I tried the overbet for value as this guy was calling anything. This time, unfortunately for me, he had a Q. Luckily he was fairly short at the time.

And even worse, I did not get a chance to get my chips back as he left about 15-30 minutes later.

----------

Didn't agree with the Chikezie getting voted off tonight. Enough said


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Another strike against big business. I won't write about this as it makes me mad just thinking about it; but please take a look at this link to CNN to see how Wal-Mart needs to rethink their priorities.

Have a nice day!!!

No Skillz and Idol

Mrs Wonka was out to dinner with some family members with birthdays so I decided to punch up the Skills Series. Tonight was Razz. I'm obviously no expert in Razz but have a deep enough understanding where I can at least hang around for awhile.... or so I thought.

83 Runners and a less than stellar finish at 79th. To say that Surflexus was hitting his river cards tonight would be a huge understatement. He took a couple of large pots off of me as well as others to take a pretty big table lead along with somebody else that I can't remember.

The sad thing is and I really hate this is that he didn't take my chips and put them to good use as he went out in 44th.

I wonder how many BBT points I get for 79th? Oh well.

------------

I hate to admit it; but I gave American Idol another shot tonight once Mrs Wonka returned. Again, I have to say that this program is just not my thing. I do, however, love music and appreciate what these people are trying to do. I find myself agreeing with this Simon guy which is there for shock value; but I think he must know something about the music business. At least I hope so. Kidding. Obviously he does.

Something happened on this show that I thought I would never happen. I uttered some words that didn't even sound remotely plausible just a few short hours ago. Some guy (from Missouri by the way) sang a Michael Jackson song and just absolutely nailed it. The song was Billie Jean; but it was a much better version as I believe the arrangement was put together by someone from SoundGarden. It was pretty good. We actually rewound the DVR and listened to it again. He is now my favorite to win this thing taking over for this Brooke girl that I liked earlier. I think the fan favorite is this 8 year old looking guy; but he is down on the list for me.

Wow, I can't believe I even spent 2 minutes talking about American Idol. The things you do for your wife.

----------

Only played about 400 hands of NL tonight with mixed results. I was about break even when my wife got home. After watching the show, I came back and my very first hand from the BB was AQ on an Ace high board. Unfortunately, the villain had AK; but at least he slowed down after my check raise on turn and I got a free showdown. The 2 tables that I was playing seemed to be very aggressive and it is frustrating when you finally do get the hand and you have set it up perfectly in earlier hands and they don't follow through with their typical aggression.

Oh well, I ended the session up 7BB/100. By the way, I could mention dollar amounts that I am up or down; but for now, I want to measure in BB/100 which I believe will help for comparisons sake at a later time if and when I move up in stakes. Right now, I am happy working off my rust playing 25c/50c. I just need to be careful not pick up to many passive habits down here.

I watched a video today from Stoxpoker of Stox playing two tables of 10/20 NL and they had 3 or 4 of the Stoxpoker team reviewing the session with Stox. It made for some interesting conversation. I'm going to try to watch a few more NL videsos to see if they are in line in quality as with Bryce and Stox on their Limit videos.

That's it for now... not much to say.

Have a nice day!!!

Hoy Curse

We have read about many curses out there in blog land. I believe I might need to add one more. This isn't a curse about winning the Hoy. No, this goes way deeper than that. I must have a curse to even cash in this thing. I realize that I don't play in it much; but recently, I have made a couple of deep runs ending in.... nothing, zilch, the big goose egg, nada, no soup for you, zero. I guess you get the idea.

A couple of weeks ago, I fought through a field of 83 only to finish exactly on the bubble. Last night, things seem to be going just right. I lost chips real early; but then began my chip gathering and by the first break, I was in the lead. I stayed in the lead for a while; but lost it close to the second break; but I was still top 5.

Things were just going right. I employed a little of my SATM strategy since I had chips. Again, this is something that I am not very good at; but will keep on trying to improve on.

Anyway, 75 runners, 8 get paid and I didn't bubble; but close enough as I finished 11th. So, again, a deep run at the MATH; but nothing to show for it. I'm pretty sure that I can't get away from the last hand.



Full Tilt Poker Mondays at the Hoy No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t300/t600 Blinds + t75 - 6 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
BB: t7891
Hero (UTG): t16868
MP: t27372
CO: t8065
BTN: t21430
SB: t22638

Pre Flop: Hero is UTG with J A
Hero raises to t2550, 2 folds, BTN calls t2550, 2 folds

Flop: (t6450) K A 9 (2 players)

Hero checks, BTN bets t6450, Hero raises to t14243 all in, BTN calls t7793

Turn: (t34936) 3

River: (t34936) 5

Final Pot: t34936

Hero shows Jh As (a pair of Aces)
BTN shows 9c 9s (three of a kind, Nines)
BTN wins t34936


Any thoughts?

One could say that JackAce from UTG is not the best thing to play; even 6 handed. For sure, the check on the flop was bad as perhaps if I led out and he pushed, I could get away from it. I doubt it though. As we all know, it just really stinks to go deep and not even cash.

Also, at the time, there was a clear break between the top 8 people and the bottom 3. There was a bunch of us huddled at around 17K and then the bottom 3 were around 8K. With the Blinds at 300/600 75, does that change anything on the above hand?

Congrats to corron10.

OH well. Maybe next time.

I did play about 600 hands of the micro limit NL again last night at a clip of 17.75 bb/100 so the good news is that I am continuing to run well there. Hopefully, things will continue on with that.

I'm still trying to figure out what are good stats or should I say normal stats for NL 6 max. Last night I was 25/15/2.48 which is pretty close to what I have been all this month in my 2700 hands ( 25.83/15.72/2.41). Any thoughts on those stats?

That should do it for now.

Have a nice day!

S A T M

S.A.T.M explained my playing style in a live tourney that I played Friday night. We'll get to that in a minute.

I'm still dabbling with Micro Limit No Limit so far. I'm still not playing near as much as I used to. This weekend was due to Basketball and Easter. We had two Easter Dinners (both with Mrs Wonka's side of the family). They are so much joy. To make things worse, they had the Cardinal Spring Training game on at one of the houses. YIKES!!! OK, truthfully, I had no problem with it as it was Mrs Wonka's 90+ year old grandmother. Who am I to deprive her of something that she enjoys?

Anyway, I've only played 2,000 hands of NL; but I am still seeing a profit. I would say that I am in the 13bb/100 range. I will stay at this limit for a while because as always happens to me, I will play well or at least have positive results for a few days/weeks; but then give it back in one session. Of course, I will try to avoid that this time.

The beauty with this limit is you almost always find somebody that thinks he is Doyle Brunson and can just take control of the table and our whopping $50. So far, it has been fairly easy to pick these guys off; but we all know that these guys will eventually hit their needed cards and it will be oh so important to stay calm.

Remain calm, you say? Well, that didn't happen this weekend. Now, I didn't go ballistic or anything; but I was in a 21 person home tourney. The buyin was $30. We are down to 11 or 12 people. I'm not in the best of shape; but I still have time to be patient. They play in this home game is generally not great. A lot of limpers wanting to hit hands before they donate chips. To my left was one of those guys. He called most flops regardless of what he held. This particular hand, he limped UTG. I was in the BB with a little over T2,000. Blinds were 100/200. There was another limper from the SB. I looked down with AQ and immediately knew what I was going to do. With 600 chips in middle I of course pushed all in. Both limpers called. One had QQ and one had 66 and I did not hit my Ace and was sent packing.

I guess the moral of the story is that you really need to adjust to the tables that you are playing.

There was another small game playing with 7 players. This one only $10. It was just beginning when I went out. I came over and said that I would play; but I would be in Super Aggressive Tilt Mode (S A T M). I went on to tell my story of course getting no sympathy as they all had similar stories.

I've got to tell you, this may be the most enjoyable tourney that I have ever played. As a guy that always play tight aggressive poker, it was fun just to spew chips for the sake of stealing pots. It was working really well until others caught on. On one occasion, somebody pushed back on a flush board with AQ with the Q being the flush card. Luckily, I already had a flush and was ready to take a huge lead.... until another heart came on river which severely crippled me. A few hands later, it came to me and I barely had enough to cover the blinds and for whatever reasons the whole table went in blind to cover my blinds. I ended up winning that hand and then getting really hot. I started hitting river cards, I was able to bluff people off of hands. Again, the most enjoyable tourney ever for me.

The final hand came down to me and Fluff. I was really looking forward to a nice heads up match as in my opinion, he was really the only other good player left. My buddy Iceman also played; but he was the recipient of one of my river cards to knock him out. Anyway, Heads up didn't last too long unfortunately.

I raised with T2 and he called with 52 which is just the way things role when heads up. The flop came something like 22J and we checked it down to the river where he went all in. Of course I called and that was that. We were probably even the hand before where I hit a straight when he had top pair. He made a very good laydown and then got rewarded with a cooler hand. Such is poker.

I just might have to try this S A T M poker more often.

Have a good day!!!

Sooo Yesterday and You can't have it both ways and Sick Hand

Yet Another Wednesday and yet another Mook. Of course, there was another nice turnout as we are right in the middle of BBT3. My starting table was pretty tough:

Emptyman - 57th in BBT standings
DNasty
Hoy - 30th

I finished 67th out of 106 tonight; but that is not the point of my post today.

There are many things that are funny or cute at first; but then really get old after a while. Kind of like other fads, they just need to go away. What I am talking about in particular is the use of "the hammer" in blogger donkaments; but here is the thing. You can't have it both ways and I address this statement to myself.

The tourney was going fine and we are close to the first break. I am well above average. I look down and see the old 72o while I am UTG and as any blogger might (I stress might) do, I raise it up and steal the blinds. Of course I show it and boast about nothing better than an UTG hammer steal; but my sentiments changed drastically a few hands later. And to be fair, I have definitely grown tired of it and do not raise with it much anymore. The exception being that if it is early in a tournament or I have some chips to try and push around shorter stacks. While we were fairly early in the tournament and I had above average chips, neither one of those conditions apply to me raising the hammer from UTG. Seems more like poker suicide.

Well, a few hands later (8 to be exact), I am again in early position and see AQo. Again, I do have some chips and I feel OK with raising from EP with AQ where I can fold to pressure, if need be. It folds around to none other than Hoyazo himself. Hoy waits a bit and I know what is coming. A rereaise for sure as he is the big blind and I have just showed that I can raise from EP with nothing. He not only raised; but pushed all in after eating up most of the clock. While he was thinking, I was already deciding what my play would be if he re-raised. Now, Hoy may or may not admit this; but a reraise from him here does not necessarily show strength. Anyway, while he was doing the obligatory wait; I was ready to commit all my chips on this hand. I thought it was going to be a re-raise to 3 bet; but since he pushed, I pretty much insta-called. Again, it wasn't really an insta-call as I had been thinking about my move throughout the hand. Of course, the rest is history and he turns over 72o, spikes a 7 on the flop and IGHN. BTW, this is NOT the sick hand that I reference in Subject Title. Although I was a big favorite preflop, anytime you have 2 live cards you can easily win the hand. I believe it is something like 60/40. OK, it was a little more as it was about 67/33 or basically 2 to 1 after checking it out.

OK, I know that this is his hand of choice of many bloggers; but this is really getting old. Especially from someone who loves to rant on all the alleged donkeys playing blogger poker (myself being included on one of his rants). I can say with fairly high certainty that pushing is never the right move here. If he thinks he can get me off of the hand, then a re-raise would do the trick. Again, it is just getting old and it needs to stop. Of course, it never will; but as of today, I vow to never raise with the hammer just for the sake of raising with the hammer. There will be times, however, when it is necessary to raise with ATC which of course could include 72o. Anybody that knows me (which aren't too many that read this blog), I can be pretty stubborn about these things. For example, I still have not watched a Major League Baseball game since I boycotted them around 8 years ago.

So there you have it. It is what it is. Bloggers will continue to boast about playing the hammer; but this here blogger has put his foot down and won't do it anymore.

Finally, I at least thought that Hoy could then take those chips and make a run at winning his FIRST Mook; but of course that would never happen as he went out not too much later in 54th. I'm sure that he will go off on some blogger for playing some hand badly etc... etc... And of course we know that he just needs to look in the mirror.

BTW, for the record. No hard feelings. I didn't even throw anything or yell at my monitor. I'm making progress ;-)

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That's enough of that. I had a couple of tables of Micro NL open again while playing the Mook. There was one guy 2 seats to my left that was constantly calling preflop only to raise on later streets. There is nothing wrong with this if you have position and you can sometimes showdown a winning hand. I guess that doesn't even really matter. I caught him a couple of times; but never pushed. I always ended up just calling him down. I think this is from my Limit game as that can be standard operating procedure on those type things. I even wrote a note on this guy to start pushing back more on this guy when need be.

This guy, who wasn't a maniac or anything as his stats were only something like 37/6/2.2 with his aggression factor being higher as the hand moved along. Anyway, he was involved in just a sick, sick hand. Someone finally pushed back. I think I am just going to paste the HH:

FullTiltPoker Game #5705327021: Table Stardust (6 max) - $0.25/$0.50 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:18:32 ET - 2008/03/19
Seat 1: chuunk ($52.40)
Seat 2: fluoro ($56.40) ...
Seat 3: ChrichriB ($49.35) ... VILLIAN
Seat 4: bobbymacs ($4.50)
Seat 5: willwonka ($87.95)
Seat 6: Runner60 ($47.45)
fluoro posts the small blind of $0.25
ChrichriB posts the big blind of $0.50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [Th 8d]
bobbymacs folds
willwonka folds
Runner60 folds
chuunk folds
fluoro calls $0.25
ChrichriB checks
*** FLOP *** [2d 7c 6h]
fluoro has 15 seconds left to act
fluoro bets $1
ChrichriB raises to $3.50
fluoro raises to $11.50
ChrichriB raises to $19.50
fluoro raises to $27.50
ChrichriB raises to $48.85, and is all in
fluoro calls $21.35
ChrichriB shows [8h 3s] .... HE DID ALL OF THAT WITH 83o.. YIKES... MAN, I WANTED THOSE CHIPS
fluoro shows [6d 7d]
*** TURN *** [2d 7c 6h] [4h]
*** RIVER *** [2d 7c 6h 4h] [5d] OUCH!!!!!!!! RUNNER RUNNER
ChrichriB shows a straight, Eight high
fluoro shows two pair, Sevens and Sixes
ChrichriB wins the pot ($95.70) with a straight, Eight high

Man oh man. Something is definitely wrong when the RNG Master pays off a guy who plays the hand that way.

I was just aching to get in a pot with this guy. I got my opportunity a few hands later. The guy between us was sitting out so it ended up being a blind vs blind hand. He min raises from SB. I look down and have AQ. Our stacks are both about equal at about $95 in this 25c/50c NL game. OK, this may be the hand and I reraise it to 2.75 and he immediately raises to $10.50.

What do you do? Obviously, this guy has shown that he will push with nothing as witnessed above. He has pushed all in many, many times and usually has not got called.

I decided I wanted to see a flop. I don't think this is a bad move; especially against a guy like this. The flop comes Js7cQh and I know that I am ready to get the chips in. He immediately bets $66 into me and don't waste too much time pushing all in and of course he had to call the $16. Any guess as to what he had?

He actually had a hand this time and turned over AKo. He had 7 outs twice so I was a little worried; especially after what I had seen earlier with him and with my hand with Hoy. The turn was the 3s and the river was 4h and I scooped a pretty big pot for these stakes. So, yes, I sucked out on him; but I can't feel too bad.

He sat out for a while and then bought back in; but it was already 10:45 here and I was already calling it a night. I still need to watch some basketball yet tonight. Go Illinois State. BTW, did anybody watch that incredible comeback by Creighton last night. 17 points down in second half and about 11 points down with 4 minutes. They hit a 3 at the buzzer to win. Anyway, it was not a hit and run as I had played almost 200 hands at that table.

I know that I will be on the short end of those type things in the future. Lord knows that I have been in the past. In fact, tonight with AK, I rivered the nut flush or should I say the Ace high flush only to find out that the river card gave my opponent the card he needed to fill his gut shot straight flush. That one hurt so I took my bumps this evening as well.

There you have it and there you are.

Have a nice day!!!!

WASTE!!! and PAD

I did something that I have never, ever done last night.

Have you ever done something that lasted about 45 minutes and then afterwards knew that it was one of the biggest wastes of time that you have ever spent? Well, I did last night.

With the upcoming basketball tourney and home poker tourneys, I told Mrs Wonka that I would spend some time watching her shows. Well, last night her choice was American Idol. Now, I have never, ever watched this show except for bits and pieces when I happen to be in the room when she was watching.

Last night they did something where they all sang Beatles songs. Apparently, this was the second night of doing this. Now, I don't know about you; but being a guy in his 40s grew up listening to the Beatles... not necessarily live as they were a little before my time; but the Beatles were a big part of what I listened to and to see these wannabe singers pretty much destroy their songs made me almost angry.

All I could keep on saying to my wife was these guys and girls were not the Beatles. Actually, it made me appreciate the Beatles even more. I think I do need to say that I am in no way saying anything against their singing ability as most of them seem to have very good voices; but some things should just be left alone or at least not changed too much when you are going to cover a song by the Fab Four. But change they did and it kind of... sort of.. ok actually disgusted me. Of course, I know that they just can't sing the song without changing as they are judged on their creativity along with their singing; but when it comes to the Beatles. DON'T... just DON'T.

The only saving grace for me was that we watched it on DVR and took the 2 hour show and watched it in 45 minutes; but even still, it totally felt like a waste of time. I will watch tonight's show just to see who got voted off; but they should only take a few minutes as I won't waste any time watching the first part of the show.

OK, that is it. Sorry, no poker content which also may be another first, a blog post without poker content. WAIT... stop the presses. I just realized what I just said. I now have to throw some poker content in to justify my above rambling.

Hmmmm what do.. Got it.

There isn't too much poker on TV right now so really the only that I am DVRing is Poker After Dark. I am beginning to like this show less and less. I love the idea of getting superstars and playing a 20K buyin winner take all SNG. The theme weeks that have are good. I like that idea; but watching this show is painful.

Let me explain. I believe they show every hand and they can be considered slow and dry for some folks. Not me. I love that aspect of it; but the actual play is simply terrible SNG play. Now, they are very deep stacked and the structure is not the structure of a Turbo SNG that we see on Full Tilt. I also know that these guys love to play after the flop. I only keep 5 shows on my DVR so they are constantly getting deleted and re-recorded; but there was a hand with I believe Patrik Antonius, John Juanda and Daniel Negreanu. Unfortunately, I don't recall the whole hand; but between the three of them, they AK, JJ and KTs (not positive on this last one) and preflop this was limped in. Come on now, somebody needs to be raising here. Juanda ended up flopping a set; but losing to Broadway on the river which I might add that he laid down. These guys are good, no doubt about that.

Anyway, too much limping for my taste which takes a way a little from my enjoyment; but for the most part it is still worth recording for me to listen to their chatter; but overall, not the best poker on TV.

Have a nice Day!!!!

Hoy, If you Can't Beat Them and More Enough is Enough

It's hard to believe but I didn't play any poker this past weekend. Oh wait.. I did play 4 SNGs late Friday night. Nothing too exciting. 2 out 4 with a 1st and 3rd. Instead the weekend was all about basketball and spending some time with Mrs Wonka. During kids naps and after they went to bed, we actually watched the whole season of Celebrity Apprentice or at least the whole season up to now. I've always enjoyed the Apprentice; but I was a little leery of this one. I guess that is why the whole season continued to sit on my DVR. After watching them, it has been a very interesting season. I gotta pull for the country star. Not that I'm a country fan. In fact, I had never heard of him before this show; but he seems like a stand up guy and is really giving it his all for his charity. It looks like it might be a good vs evil in the finals. We'll see on Thursday.

I did play in Hoy's MATH tonight for the second time in as many weeks. I really do like the 6 max format. I didn't play quite as long as last week (where I bubbled); but the end result was the same. Zero dollars. DOH!!!! Nothing exciting tonight. I chipped up a little bit and then missed some flops and gave it all back. Ultimately, I raised from UTG with TT and got raised all in by KngOKngs who had a sooooted Big Slick. What would be a pattern for me tonight, I lost the race on the turn when he spiked a King. What I really hate is that he also rivered the unnecessary Flush. Come on now, Enough is Enough. Just kidding. I hope he uses the chips to good use. DOH!!! I just looked, he was out in 26th. That's a fine how do you do although that is a bit better than my 64th. Oh well, there is always Wednesday and the Mook.

I'm continuing to play micro NL cash games (6 max). Nothing real exciting. I've only played about 1,600 hands at about a 9BB/100 clip. I just need to take a break from limit which was handing it to me again this year. I do believe I will get back to limit some time soon. So while I am positive in my results in No Limit my Win $ at Showdown continues to be under 50%. Tonight, as usual was brutal although could have been worse as I ended up splitting 2 pots where I was a pretty big favorite when the chips went in.

Hand #1

I'm in BB with JT. mini raiser and 4 of us see a flop of 9d8cKd giving me OESD. Very LAGgy guy gets it check to him and hi bets pot. This guy had done this over and over again mostly with air. I called. Maybe not the best move with 2 people to act behind. Anyway, they both called. Turn came 7s giving me the nuts. I checked again and this time UTG bet out and got 2 callers. I did the arbitrary wait a bit while I decide. Oh yeah, I'll go all-in. I only get called by one guy who has KsTd making me a 93% favorite. J on the river splits the pot.

There was another hand where I ended up splitting but I can't find it.

The one that hurt was where a I flopped a set and turned a boat only to lose to quads on the river. The chips went in on the turn. Dang!!!

Throw in 3 lost races and there you have it. Of course, I had my share of fortunate events.

So, I have to believe that the appropriate W$SD is over 50% as it is with limit. Cash game players, do you agree? We'll see how it goes.

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More Enough is Enough.

It was funny, my last blog about Exxon was linked on the Google Finance Page for XOM. I got plenty of referral links from there. Anyway, I'm now moving on to excessive Government spending which of course can never be alleviated; but this one case is just way over the top. Let me say this as a preface. I don't know who originated this idea. This is not a political blog or statement against anyone or any political party in particular.

Anyway, having said that, I want to talk about the IRS rebates that we will be getting in May. I have pros and cons as to if we actually need a rebate and will it really stimulate the economy; but that is neither here nor there. My beef is with the letter they will be sending us in the upcoming weeks. See this news story for more info.

The basic gist is that at a cost of approximately $42 million dollars, the IRS is going to send 110 Million households a letter explaining to them that they will be getting a rebate later in the year and apparently explaining the purpose of this check. Here's a bright idea. Send that letter with the darn checks, pass the word to the news stations and newspapers so that they can report on it. We don't need a letter to tell something that we already know. And if by chance there is information that we need to know, again, a letter with the check would surely suffice.

I just keep thinking of the possible things that the government could do with $42 Million dollars. Without much thought about it, how about:

1) Not spending the money at all.
2) Sending $42K to the 100 inner city schools that could really use that money to better educate students.
3) Find some worthwhile charities such as families of fallen American soldiers.
4) Don't spend the money at all. Oh yeah, I said that one already.

OK.. I think you get the point. Our deficit can't continue to take hits like this over and over again. My stomach just gets in knots when I see this (similar to how it felt when I started adding up all the Disney trip expenses.. OUCH!!!) kind of irresponsible spending whether it from our government, family members, friends, myself, etc...

Oh well, what can you do. We'll see what happens.

Have a nice day!!!!

Mook, The Wire, Enough is Enough

Quick post today.

Another Wednesday, another Mook. Again, things started out nice for me as I was even the chip leader just before the 1st break; but Lucko, I am not. I am, however, a Lucko wannabe. Especially when it comes to re-raises. I would have to say that is my weakest part of my game, re-raising with position. Maybe one of these days I will learn the secret. Certainly, raising with the big chip stack is a little bit easier; but I still do not have that down; but when it raised before me, I back down like a scared little chicken that I am. I keep telling myself to wait for better spots. OK, maybe he got a little lucky (very lucky) this time around; but he definitely knows how to use the big stack.

I believe there were a little over 100 players tonight and I managed to make the top 25%; but ironically lost with the same hand that cost me on Monday, ATs. Part or should I say a lot of my stack went to Emptyman who definitely had the push all in from the Blinds down to a science. I believe he re-raised me All-In 4,342,321 times .... give or take and I folded. Finally, it got to me and I called his all in with ATs and similar to Monday, I couldn't suck out on his AK and finished 25th. 18 places paid so again, close but no cigar.

So back to the drawing board with special emphasis on the middle game.

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Similar to the BlogFather, I am deeply saddened to see HBO's "The Wire" come to an end after 5 seasons. This has truly been one of the best shows (to me) off all time. I still think that I am putting Sports Night as the best and Dexter definitely has potential to get there after 2 seasons. The Wire was just spectacularly written and acted and touched on so many things that it is mind blowing. I really encourage anyone to get out rent. Start with Season 1 and enjoy.

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When is enough, enough? For the most part, I am a very even keeled kind of Wonka. I can let things go with no problems; but I think I am going to start throwing in some things where enough is just enough. My current beef is with the oil and gas companies. Gas today in St Louis is $3.09. I know it is much higher in other areas and it just enrages me to no end? Why? Without going into a lot of detail as this is a poker blog, Exxon/Mobile announced their quarterly earnings back in early February. That earnings release included 40.6 Billion dollars in Revenues which translated to 11.7 Billion in Profits which were of course record profits. Now, I am all for free enterprise and market demand and get what you can get; but this is freaking ridiculous. While people are losing their homes, unemployment is going through the roof, we are sinking closer and closer to recession, companies like these (yes, I'm not just picking on XOM) just continue to rake in the profits.

Again, this is OK, if it doesn't have too many trickle down effects... such as gas over $3 FREAKIN DOLLARS!!!! Too put it another way, this article said:

"Suppose Exxon Mobil decided to return the favor and buy you a tank of gas. Then again, why stop there? The oil giant turned a profit last year fat enough to buy a fill-up for every car, truck and SUV in America -- four times"

To me that is more than crazy. Things like this (and don't even get me started on why we are not using alternative energy more) cause so many economic problems that cause things like economic stimulus packages. Yes, go spend your rebates!!! Take a trip. Maybe you can drive across the city and back. Let's spend our money to make the rich richer. I'm sure XOM CEO, Rex Tillerson, is all worried about this type stuff as he collects his $6.3 Million dollar salary (money and stock).

And no, I'm not suggesting that we do any silly boycott day of buying gas as that maybe this dumbest thing I ever heard. Ok, we don't buy any gas and really stick it to the oil companies. What about the next day? Guess What? You still need gas. Nice Plan, Sherlock.

Of course, I don't have the answer; but somewhere somehow, we need to resolve this ever increasing disaster. Does the buck lie with our government? I think to a great deal, yes!!! and I am not picking on any specific party as this has been a problem for many decades. Yes, we as individuals can also do our part by car pooling, using mass transportation, riding our bicycles, etc... etc... Something.

Anyway, that is all I have for now. I'm sure that I will come up with more "Enough is Enough" subjects in the near future.

Have a nice day!

Hoy, Drake and No Limit

Wow, this basketball stuff is really getting in the way of my poker playing. I'm averaging getting to the virtual tables only once a week, maybe twice if I'm lucky. Speaking of lucky, yesterday was one of those weeks where I have now played twice in a 7 day stretch.. wahoo....

Given that there is a minor tourney challenge, I decided to give the MATH for the first time in ages. It has probably been a year. Mrs Wonka wanted to watch some where are they now thing for the Bachelor and I had to put my foot down. So I bought in and things went OK.

Fast forward to bubble time (something like 83 runners and 10 get paid). Lucko is just abusing everybody with his big stack (as well he should). As always, it came down to a couple of hands. I believe we are on the actual bubble here and I am going from 8th to 11th as blinds are going and being stolen.

The first hand, I am in late position and look down with AQ; but what happens, zeroluck001 is also on the bottom of things and pushes. At this point, he does have me out chipped. There is not much I hate less than calling with whatever hand and being knocked out of tourney; especially on the bubble. Of course, if you a big pair then maybe; but I always look to be putting on the pressure rather than calling. Since Zero was UTG (I think), I chose to sit this hand out and folded. Bad play? What is his range? I would not say ATC; especially when coming from EP.

The final hand is really an uneventful, I don't think anybody plays it different. I am in SB with ATs. Lucko raises again and Push. Unfortunately BB had pocket kings and I could not hit an ace nor hit my inside straight draw on river and I bubbled. I have now bubbled the Mook and the MATH within 2 weeks. Good Times!!!

Speaking of MOOK. He actually sat down at one of my cash game tables. I guess sleep really is overrated as he finds time to play poker. LOL. I know what you are thinking. Why is Mook playing limit poker? The answer, he wasn't. For whatever reason, I decided to dabble with high stakes NL poker. OK, so maybe 25c/50c NL is not high stakes. He sat down right in time to see me get all in preflop with Aces vs Queens. Gold star for anybody that guesses what came on flop. Anyone???? Bueller???? I also got to see my Kings ousted by a set of 4s. I saw my own set of 4s ousted by runner, runner flush. So, different game, same results. I was down around 3 buyins; but was fortunate enough to finish off well and be up for the day a grand total of $1.15 (not counting Tourney).

Basketball.

This marks the first year in probably a decade or more that I did not go down to watch the Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Tourney; although I did watch every game on TV. It wasn't terrible as watching on TV does have its advantages; especially when watching with a DVR. One note. Watch out for Drake. They can definitely win a couple of games this year. They will probably get a 5 seed which is always scary playing one of those last teams in games; but they play a style unlike any team. The one big problem is that they aren't big as their tallest guy is 6'8". We shall see. Hopefully, Illinois State will also get in from the Valley; but that might be wishing for too much. Right now, most people have them in.

Have a Nice Day!

Vacation and new Home Game and Reign on Me

Just a quick update as I am still in catch up mode from going on vacation for a week. The wife, kiddos and in laws spent a week in sunny Florida. It was the first time that I have been to Disney World for a long time. To be precise, the last time I was there, they were getting ready to open Space Mountain. I don't know how long that has been; but I do know that it has been a while.

For the most part, it was a good time. It did get a little chilly towards the end so we never did get in any swimming which is more or less OK for me; but the little Wonkas would have enjoyed it.

We get home to St Louis only to enjoy a nice 75 degree day. Gotta love it. You find out that you actually have neighbors as everybody comes outside when the weather is nice and you have been cooped up in the house during the winter. Well, it didn't last as it went from 75 degrees over the weekend to 5 - 10 inches of snow on Tuesday (depending on what part of St Louis you live in). Talk about your back to reality checks. What a bummer. Good news is that it is March and the warmer weather is just around the corner.

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I need to put a February update together. In summary, not good. My goal to be a winning limit player took a big hit in February. More on that later in the week.

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Got back from vacation just in time to try a new home game. This is a home game that I came across from fellow blogger Jamyhawk. It was really nice because it was only just 5 minutes from my house. I have to say that whenever you go to a tourney where you don't really know anyone, it can be kind of intimidating; but I must say that everyone was as cool as could be. It was especially nice meeting Jamyhawk and talking about the poker blogging community. I am proud to be a part of the community even if it is just a small part.

On to the tourney, 21 runners with a $50 buyin + $5 for bounties. One thing that I really look at when I go to new tournies is how they are run. I, obviously, run my own home tournies and work hard to make them run smoothly. So, from the get go, I could tell that this was a well run tourney and that was a big relief.

I was able to chip up pretty quickly at the beginning which was good enough to bring me to the final table which was either 9 or 10 players. I lost a pot with A7s on a Ace high board that I easily should have gotten away from; but luckily got out of there pretty cheaply as AK checked both the turn and river when the board paired. Ironically, my tourney more or less came to an end with the same hand that Jamyhawk had... and unfortunately, it was NOT a bad beat; but I wouldn't mind some thoughts.

I am the dealer with blinds around 150/300 (maybe 100/200) and we are still 9 handed. I am sitting with a relatively big stack compared to others with about 3500. We get one early limper and then the cutoff raises to 800. I have pocket tens. What do you do?

I actually took a little time on this. I was not worried about the early limper and I was pretty sure I could push the Cutoff raiser off of his hand with a raise. So at this point (top 4 pay) do I want to raise to isolate or take it down or play it passively and hopefully see a flop. Truthfully, I wanted to flat call with my button position and see a flop; but I ended up pushing all in to isolate and hopefully take the blinds, limper and raiser which would have increased my stack by almost 30%.

Well, it went bad from there as the SB went all in as well. This was the tourney organizer so I know he had a hand as he was a pretty good player. To make thing worse, a little earlier again when I was the button and this time a tried to steal he called and ended up with quads. He was a lot shorter stacked then and I had to call with air. Dang!!! Anyway, everybody else folded and he of course turned over pocket Aces and more or less took me out. I pushed a few hands later with Ace high and lost to T3 when they paired their 3. The T3 was in the BB I believe and it was an easy call. I may not of even had enough to cover BB.

So the question of the day was what to do with that TT. I'm obviously trying not to be results oriented. Anybody just call with position there? I know I could have easily layed down my Tens to a push preflop... OK, maybe not easily.

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I watched Reign on Me last night with Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle. I loved the premise of the movie and I thought Adam Sandler did a fantastic job (I wonder what the critics said). It's a no brainer to say Don Cheadle did great as I believe he is one of the best actors out there (not to mention a pretty good poker player). I just found that the movie dragged in too many parts. I still think it is worth watching; but it is not going to get my movie of the year or anything.

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finally, I did play a little poker last night as I have played none (other than the Mook) in the last few weeks. I decided to just play 4 SNGs. 2 3rds, 1 1st and a 6th. Not terrible.

Have a good day!