Late Sunday Sundries

World Series of Poker November Nine final table starts tomorrow night. Woot! I've taped and watched all but the last installment before tomorrow's big day, so I'll need to find time to watch it before the action kicks off. Like the past few years, I will probably stay up as late as my eyelids allow, and then hit the record button to catch any late night action. Watching the shows thus far this year, I have to say the play has been very impressive. Yes, I know they edit for TV and air only the big and exciting hands, but some of the preflop action and reads have been fantastic. I'm also learning a few things about live tells that that I've been looking for on the telly. Good fun. The only (kinda) disappointing thing is the guy I previously thought I wanted to root for to win it all: Mark Newhouse. While I credit his amazing feat making back-to-back final tables, and he's clearly very skilled, the guy kind of comes off as a too-cool tool in the off-table interviews. Too bad, too, as there are only four Yanks in total to root for at the final table, and this guy is one of them. Billy Pappas and Dan Sindelar tie for my vote as to whom I want to win. But if I were a betting man--and you know that I am!--my money is on Felix Stephensen from Norway. He's second in chips and just comes off as a really solid player. Can't wait for the action to kick off manana.

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Been back in town for a few days and I'm finally settling back into "normalcy." Am even planning on playing Wednesday night in a local live tourney. Last time I played there was over five weeks ago, so I'm itching to get back on the felt and splash some pots.

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Got knocked out of the WRGPT "Glaciers" tournament in the practice round this week. Had a busted straight draw on the river and bluff shoved into two players who were calling my bets on all streets. One of these guys was Flyboy, which made my shove a high-percentage play, as he is way too solid to call off without the near nuts or better there, which I knew he didn't have given the earlier street action. Alas, the other player in the hand called with a lone pair and I was sent packing. Good thing it was all for practice. The real tourney should be heating up soon...

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Despite all the travel I've been on, Le Monsieur and I continue to make slow but steady progress on the lessons. We're transitioning to situations where you're facing preflop action from one or more villains....

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...which reminds me of a terrible, terrible, terrible call I saw on tonight's penultimate WSOP broadcast. One of the two remaining first-time amateurs at the table called off his entire stack with KQo against a preflop 4bet. He ended up facing AKs and got knocked from the tourney when there was no reason to do so. Now, don't take the wrong message from this; shoving with KQo there would have been fine and dandy, but calling off your stack when you're not short? No way. Remember, it's far, far, far better to fire the gun then dodge a bullet in poker. Fold to live another day in that situation. Even this bug knows that!

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Went pretty deep in an online 600 player tourney the other night in my hotel room on Bovada. Busted in 22nd place when my KK ran into AA preflop. Then yesterday I lost a huge stack in cash when my KK ran into another AA preflop. Then today I lost another monster stack preflop when I held the AA and my opponent setted up with his KK on a K-5-2. That's poker, but coolers suck, too.

All-in for now...
-Bug

Sunday Sundries

The annual WRGPT (a.k.a. "Glaciers") online tournament by email is warming back up, with registration underway and the practice round just a week or two away. I registered a couple days ago for this free, very fun, very educational event. If you're at all serious about poker, I strongly suggest you do the same. This will be my fifth year playing in the event, and every time I get even more excited about the tourney than the previous time. Sign up here: http://www.wrgpt.org/registration. You won't regret it!

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As part of the process of developing Le Monsieur and my ABC training app, I've been noodling around a lot with starting hands, equities, hot-and-cold numbers, etc... The goal is to not only give a newbie safe and reasonable recommendations for starting hands, but to explain the why, too... which actually turns out to be fairly difficult. It sounds simple, but doing all the math properly to determine when a hand should or shouldn't be opened from different positions is tough, and if anything, I'm now a bit more confused than when I started... Lots of books and online guides give starting hand chart recommendations (and many of these contradict each other), but the confusing part is there is basically zero analysis of "why" a hand like KTs should be opened in MP. I'm doing all manner of analysis, and probably spent five hours on it yesterday alone.

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And speaking of starting hands, I watched an Ed Miller video on $2/$5 live poker earlier this week, and his recommendation was to treat the first five seats at a nine-handed table exactly the same, and to play no more than 15% of your hands in any one of those seats. Specifically: 66+, AXs, K9s+, 76s+, J9s+, AJ+, KQ. Then in cut-off seat, open raise: K7s+, 43s+, 53s+, J8s+, A9o+, KT0+, QJo. And really open up your game on the button... Seems a little extreme, but EM is the man, so he's got me thinking...

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Been on a bit of a downswing in cash games the past few weeks. I think I'm playing fairly well, so it's just variance at work. I'm getting sucked out on left and right by incredibly bad players. The bad (good?) news is I recently cashed out a large chunk of my bankroll, so my (now) small online 'roll is, well, even smaller. Looks like I will have to drop down a few levels to build it all back up again...

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Went deep in a big-field online tourney on Bovada yesterday. Starting field was 1078 runners, and I finished in 35th place after five hours of play. Was seventh in chips when I got it all in with a fifteen out straight flush draw and over cards holding KhQh on a Jh-Th-3s board. Villain snap called holding 9s8s for the idiot end of the straight draw. I had him covered by 30% or so. Of course he turned an eight and the river bricked, leaving me one of the shorties at the table. The rest of my money went in a few hands later with AKs and I was sent packing. Sigh.

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Am enjoying the Sunday night WSOP broadcasts, even with the ever annoying Norm on the microphone. Episodes #3 and #4 were particularly fun to watch, with an obnoxious amateur getting under the skin of a professional at the table with his incessant table talk. Lesson to be learned: don't wrestle with a pig. You both will get covered in mud, but the pig will enjoy the experience.

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Non poker news: I have a marathon set of biz trips coming up, starting this week. Will be gone 18 of the next 25 days. Ugh. Posts may be even more sporadic than they have been recently.

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Other non poker news: Watched this little guy in my backyard this morning for about 30 minutes. Cats will be cats, regardless of type:

All-in for now...
-Bug

Another Close-But-No-Cigar Tournament...

...four hours of nearly perfect poker, followed by...

...one boneheaded call on the final table bubble (I open raised on button with AJo to 3x with 25 big blinds. Got re-shoved on by so-so player in SB who had about 15 bigs. I snap called without thinking. Arghg. He turned over KQs and flopped the nut straight)...

...followed immediately by me shoving my remaining 10 bigs with AKs. Got snap called by same player holding 44. I don't improve....

...and bubble the final table of yet another tourney....

...sigh....

All-in for now...
-Bug

Nice Start to the New Year

Took down a solid 100-player MTT on Bovada today. I got lucky once (TT over JJ), and won a couple of flips, but the main reason I believe I did so well was serious aggression, and even more serious chip accumulation (see New Year's Resolution #5 here). I also attacked the bubble like a madman, especially when there were two or more short stacks left to act and the action was on me. Went into the final table with a decent chip lead and never looked back. Woooooooooooooooot!

All-in for now....
-Bug

So close, yet so far....

Went pretty deep in a 99-person $20 buy-in deepstack event this afternoon. Took a bad beat near the end with my KK 3bet all-in getting called by 55. Then it was push-fold mode with my tiny 4BB stack for the remaining ~10 hands or so. Not really complaining, but... well, sigh.

All-in for now...
-Bug