Playing Poker Wasted... the Sunday $750K on FullTilt... another MATH / another bubble... a quick Mookie exit, and attempting to repeat the Dookie!

No post since last week. Lots to catch up on...

So last Friday night... went to a wedding in downtown Tacoma. LAME event all around, as I felt entirely out of place at the celebration. (It was a colleague's wedding, and I had nothing in common with any of the small group attending.) But, it was an open bar, so I stayed long enough to catch quite the buzz, and offend a few women. Anyway, made it home just before midnight and had been thinking about poker all night, so got online for some SnG play. BIG MISTAKE! ...
I was so excited to get my laptop on for some poker, I didn't even consider the fact that maybe I was drunk, and just maybe I shouldn't be playing cards!?! I wasn't even thinking about anything but playing the game I love, and didn't even consider NOT playing. Being home alone with an hour or two to kill, it was an AUTOMATIC conclusion that I was playing poker. ... I plan for the decision 'to play or not to play' to always be a conscience one from now on! ...
I compounded the EFFup, and registered into FOUR $20 SnGs of various sizes, (a 6seater, 2-9seaters, and a 45.) This $88 committment all at once is a bit above my bankroll when my game's in top form. It's ridiculously dumb when I'm at all out of my element, as I was completely on Friday night. I was so uncomfortable, it was funny: I couldn't get a single read... Multi-tabling was all of a sudden WAY faster and harder than ever before... I kept finding myself rationalizing dumb calls... making ignorant moves at big pots... over-valuing hands pre-flop... etc... It was just altogether lame. I was simply over matched at all four tables. given my lack of attention span in a drunken state. And sure enough, didn't even come close to cashing in any one of the four games, as deserved.
As hard as it may be to believe, I swear, I managed to have an epiphany while hammered! Okay, so it's not hard to believe considering "DON'T PLAY POKER DRUNK" isn't exactly an amazingly insightful revelation. But still, lesson learned nonetheless. Yes, this should be common sense, but it took my experience Friday night for me to REALLY realize I cannot afford to make such a dumb mistake again. I have NEVER felt so uncomfortable playing poker before, I just knew I was going to lose. ...
I plan for the decision to play or not to play to always be a conscience one from now on!
... anyway, ...
Played the FullTilt Sunday $200+$15 $750k guarantee tournament... (WARNING: bad beat story coming...) ... managed to play great for the first 3 hours and had a healthy stack with 1200 of the the original 4,000 remaining (top 500 some cashing,) when:
I look down at AA in the small blind. ... UTG MIN-raises... gets THREE callers before the button re-raises substantially... I realize there's so much action ahead of me that I have to try to get SOME people to fold, so holding bullets, I push my whole (significant) stack; a large over bet of the pot. ... BB folds. ... The UTG player (who is table chipleader, was playing uber-aggressive, and whom I had a great read on) INSTA-calls for 80% of his stack... 3 folders and the button goes into the tank for awhile before calling for his whole stack. ... Cards are flipped over, and it's: my AA vs. UTG's KK vs. button's AA. ... And of course, K on the flop and I'm drawing dead! F***!!! F***!!! I lose my top 100 stack DEEP in a big money MTT when holding AA all in pre... F***!!! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Played the MATH the next night and F***ING bubbled! 4th place for $0 when my AKo couldn't improve vs. GCox's 99. SECOND Bloggerment bubble in under one week, as I JUST missed the cash in the Mookie last week as well. F***!!! After donkin' off the majority of my bankroll drunk, then getting sucked out on from a possible decent score, I managed to get my hopes up to cash in another blogger event and recover some bankroll... just to EFFING BUBBLE!!! F***!!!!! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Just got knocked out of this week's Mookie on a REALLY bad play, SUPER early (vs. Donkey Puncher.) My Q9 vs. QQ all in on board of Q952. A very demoralizing hand, drawing DEAD when the money got in. I suck! REALLY poorly played as there was NO reason for me to ever think I was ahead in the hand. I suck! I don't know why I play this stupid game.
...
Gonna try to repeat as winner of the Dookie for a little redemption. I'm going to go google "Stud hi/lo." ...

...I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

DOOKIE!!! ... FullTilt Sunday $750k... (and the F*%$#@' Mookie.)

Played the mookie tonight... fucking bubbled! Got 6th place when the top 5 paid. I feel I played alright, but made a stupid move to lose. EXACTLY the same as the MATH two nights ago, I called one of Hoy's final table all-ins with a piss-poor hand that I thought was within his range. Tonight I called my small stack off with KTo against Hoy's push of all in with 99... 9 on the flop kills me. The MATH I final tabled and called Hoy's push with ATo to see his AJo and a J on the flop. Fool me once, shame on Hoy... fool me twice shame on my dumbass! I have NO idea why I made the same eff up twice in a row. I knew Hoy's range was big both times, but AT and KT???!!! WTF?! They're not hands 6seated!!! Lesson FINALLY learned, I hope.

GG ALL! Hoy didn't take this one down, fallin' out in 4th, right after Bayne... katiemother and leftylu are heads up now, with VinNay taking 3rd... leftylu ended up taking it down. Thanks BuddyDank for the entertainment! The radio show again kicked ass.

But enough about my mistakes in tournaments... I played 'The Dookie' for the first time tonight, and WON!!! a $5 blogger TURBO LIMIT HORSE tournament. Took 1st place out of 19 for a net $42 gain. I like HORSE... evidently. Never played the game before, but knew the games involved. Feel I played great, knowing when I had the odds to call, push, or fold correctly. I might have to give the HORSE tourneys a chance.

And on another poker topic... I won myself a seat at my first FullTilt Sunday $750k guarantee last night!!! Took 1st out of 49 in an $8 satellite to win me a seat. Lookin' forward to the tournament. Not to get ahead of myself by any means, but my first satellite win into the PokerStars Sunday Million six months ago netted me my biggest score ever (18th place for ~$6k,) so I'm really hopin' my beginner's luck streak continues this Sunday. Wish me luck. Until then...
I'm a talkin' donkey,
RaisingCayne

Mid week musings

Wednesday evening... playing the Mookie. Pessimistic about my chances given the reigning champion and always tough MiamiDon is directly on my left. Although, I was able to chip up to 5k in the first hour given my AJ held up vs. 99 when the money got in on a Jack-high board. So, we'll see. I'd love to keep up my nice record in these blogger events, but I've yet to cash in my 3 attempts at the Mookie.

Had a crazy busy day at the office, and an even more hellish one on the calendar for tomorrow. I'll save the boring details... it's just frustrating leaving the office with uncompleted tasks and knowing I really should've stayed a few more hours, to make tomorrow less stressful. Fortunately I've got a nice weekend planned I can look forward to... leavin' work at noon Friday for the company's annual Golf Jamboree. It's always good times; a chance to get hammered with the higher-ups while chasing my errant drives all over the course. And, I've got a bachelor party Saturday that involves 18 (more) holes of golf, and a little home poker game in the evening (that I expect to be muy +EV.) And Sunday I've got pretty vanilla plans to lounge around the house and donk it up at the virtual felt. Which happens to be my favorite flavor Sunday!

On a sidenote though: WHO THROWS A BACHELOR PARTY WITHOUT STRIPPERS!? I MEAN SERIOUSLY? The groom-to-be is a real conservative friend of my roommates, and I'm really not looking forward to the day, save the poker portion of the evening. I'm a perpetual bachelor myself, so my opinion's are a bit biased, but I just don't understand a bachelor party without strippers. I mean, 'when in Rome...'? What's the deal? I thought that was the point of the event.

Picked up Madden '08 for the PS3 yesterday... provides quality entertainment in between my SnG play. Excited for the NFL Season to get underway. ... Go Seahawks!!!

I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

Madden Day

No poker this evening... just got off work and picked up Madden '08 for the PlayStation3. Busy.

Bellingham... and The MATH win

Had a crazy wild weekend up North. Following our the Cliff's notes...
Took a friend up on an invitation to reunite with the old college gang near the alma mater (Western Wa U), and drove up to Bellingham with some friends from the Portland area. Went up late Friday night, arriving after midnight. Had a long day Saturday enjoying the area and the company of old friends. Walked downtown, visited the campus, hung out at the beach, watched a friend perform at a theater in the evening, ate like a king, and partied like I was 22 again.

College was bar none the best time of my life thus far, and I found myself in a good mood just being in the ol' stompin' grounds. There's somethin' to be said for that town; filled with beautiful people, and a real friendly vibe. Walkin' by the average person on a sidewalk one is more likely to see a smile worn, rather than the perpetual frustration on the face of the average schmuck on the street in most other places. I could see myself retiring in a town like that.

Anyway... On the poker front, I actually did get a tiny bit of play in this weekend. Funny enough I was able to pick up a random wireless connection with my laptop from my buddy's place in B'Ham, and like an addict, I got on for a half hour of PLO high. Won a buyin at the puny dime-quarter tables for $25. Came home Sunday evening (after the M's game) and took 4th place in a $10 PLO high event that netted me $93. I like that game. :-)

And... I JUST took down the MATH tournament! :-) Netted myself just under $300 for the first place finish. MUCH needed personally after the weekend I just had, and I'm actually withdrawing the majority from the bankroll. I think I got Astin's card rack somehow as I was dealt MANY premium hands throughout the tournament, and had a lot of flops go my way. Was able to recoup from donking off most of my stack on one stupid hand close to the first break. Recovered from having just 1600 chips in the second hour. After coming into the final table with an average stack, I had a big lead by the time we approached the bubble, and could afford to keep up very aggressive play onto a decent win.

Congrats to columbo for finishing 2nd and Mike_Maloney for taking 3rd. HighOnPoker lost out on the bubble in 4th. Mike entered the final table with a nice chiplead and would've had a huge advantage 3seated if it wasn't for some real tough beats. GG all! And thanks to Buddy Dank for again providing quality entertainment throughout! See everyone Wednesday at the Mookie!

I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne

Another hit of MATH

Played in the MATH tonight. Finished 5th with the top 3 paying out. Another good tournament as I love the deep stack structure. I feel I played well, albeit again probably a bit more tight than optimal. Starting 5seated the 4th place stack had me outchipped 3:1. I was able to suckout on Hoy when my Kd8d outdrew AQo with the chips all in preflop. Then ten or so hands later, Hoy was able to finish me with another AQ, this time vs. my A8: I raised from the button and Hoy in the big blind raised me back all in. I took it for one of those 'resteal' attempts I've read so much about, so I made the (stupid call)... and didn't suckout.

Railing the final four: I see jeciimd is the short stack on the bubble. After being the bubble boy at the last blogger tourney I played, I'm pullin' for him to at least cash here. And would like Hoy to do well too, as that's where all my chips went. ... But, after a LONG 4 way battle Hoy is knocked out on the bubble. 3 seated is jeciimd now with the chiplead, with bartonf and PokerBrian322 also in the cash. jeciimd knocks out Brian real quick and has a little lead going into heads up. But, after a pretty long heads up battle, 'bartonf' is the winner! Good game all!

I'm a talkin' donkey,
~RaisingCayne

My First Friday Night Blogger Donkament...

Played in the Friday Night $1 rebuy Bloggerment. And true to its reputation, it was quite the donkarama, as the rebuy period was nothing short of crazy. Every hand had at least three people all in for the first half hour. Fortunately I was able to chip up very nice and held a chip lead for awhile. Kept a healthy stack throughout and made the final table in the top three. Unfortunately I had Waffles two to my right. But, this time he was nice enough on one hand to fold his bottom pair to my overpair, and let me stay alive.

Lost half my stack on a poorly played hand to Fishiswa... let him catch two pair with 57 against my A3 on a flop of A82. ... He had just min raised my big blind from the button, I call and catch top pair, but check like a pansy. (?) He bets the whole pot, and I make the right read that it's a bluff... and JUST call (?). The turn's a seven. And I again check l(?) and he checks behind. River's a 5 and I bet 1/2 pot (?)... he calls and I witness my idiotic play cost me half my stack.

Figure the whole table has me marked as weak after seeing the hand play out. And, I'm the short stack with 6 remaining. Top three pay. ($214 in the prize pool for just 24 players in a ONE dollar tourney! REBUY FRENZY!!!) But I was able to double back through Fishiswa when my JJ holds vs. AK. Then took him out when my 88 held up vs. hisA8. Now 5 seated. Similar stack sizes all around. My money's on Waffles to win, as I've already assumed he'll be getting all of my chips shortly. I may refer to him as a 'nemesis' in a derogatory manner, but he's no doubt a more-than-worthy adversary. In fact, he knocks Buddy Dank out in 5th, and we're on the bubble. With me as the short stack. Then my AT doubles through chipleader jeciimd's KT on a ten high flop. And the bubble burst when I take out jeciimd with KT vs JQ. ... I made the cash! 2 for 3. Congrats to Waffles and butchhoward for cashing. Tough break jeciimd.

3 seated... somehow I take the chiplead from Waffles when my cards run hot for a little while. Butch is a bit short, and I'm able to take him out with Ax vs. his KQ. ... AND, for the 2nd time out of 3 blogger tournaments I'm heads up against Waffles!!! (And remember, he stacked me at Riverchasers, and went onto cash... he's running hot.) But this time I hold the chiplead going into heads up. And... long story short... I WON!!!

Heads up I took most of his stack when he chose to represent the Ten (that I held) on a board of TT55x... he again "lol"s when he knows I caught him bluffing after I push him in... but this time he doesn't have outs and can't call to catch up with a lucky river card. A few hands later I'm able to finish him off, with the exact same situation that I was able to stack jeciimd with... my AT vs. KT on a T-high flop. Ship it!

Good game all! Another very entertaining blogger tourney, and more beginner's luck. Thanks for hosting Katitude! 'Til next time...
...I'm a talkin' donkey!
~RaisingCayne