I've Got a Cadmium Ticket

Finished in 118th in the WBCOOP 8-game tournament last night, good for an $11 SCOOP ticket. Never could get any traction to climb higher.

Tonight's the totally rigged 4th annual CPMG Chili-Cookoff, a competition I failed to win in two previous tries. Nearly decided to boycott this colluded contest con carne.

I wasn't put on this Earth to please judges who apparently live life taste bud-challenged. My chili's the best, dammit! The best!

Cash ExPLOsion

My PLO experience and a window of opportunity allowed me to play Dr. Pauly's PLO tournament yesterday. Semi-luckboxed my way to a second-place finish. Ran well and (ahem) think I played pretty well. I was down a big chunk at the start of HU, but quickly crippled chitwood with a set of 7s v A-A (all-in on the flop), but then doubled him up with K-K v A-A.

He chipped back up some more, but I still had the lead when we got it AI on the turn when the jack gave him a set and me Broadway. The river paired the board, putting me in bad shape. It ended a short time later with short-end of the straight v his big end. At Pauly's thoughtful suggestion when he pimped the tournament initially, I gave a portion to the Haiti Fund, which PS matched.

I had plans to head to Dave's for the weekly CPMG tournament and $3/$6 8 game but the tourney took longer than I anticipated and I had promised to make pizza for supper. I could have made it in time to buy in around the 3rd level, but while the mind was willing, the body felt sluggish. It's nearly an hour drive and I typically find myself walking in the door around 5 a.m. Instead, I entered the $27.50 and $3 rebuy on Stars. Bottom money in the rebuy and 42nd in the $27.50 (1,300+ runners).

And, fr some insanely stupid reason, I decided to fire up a .50/$1 PLO table after I'd made the money in the $27.50. I was tired and knew I wasn't sharp. It didn't take long for me to spew a little over a full buy-in when I repopped a solid player with A-A-x-x and repopped him again on a 10-high flop. He held A-10-10-x. How fucking stupid of me.

I still have much to learn about PLO. I'm too tight and too passive for 6-max, limping and calling way too much. My reading skills have improved some, but I still too often don't know where I am in hands. It's been costing me.

For the time being, I'll continue playing what I think is a lower variance kind of game until I figure out how to correctly ramp up the aggression. I managed to do it playing 6max LHE and I'm hoping that I can figure out PLO as well.

But I need some knowledge first. This seat-of-the-pants approach is not working. It's time to hit the books (and the forums).

Put those FPPs to work for a good cause

Pokerstars is matching whatever contribution you choose to make to Haiti relief. You can make a cash transfer to "Haiti Fund" or purchase a contribution using FPP. For example, 3,100 FPP "buys" a $50 contribution, which PS matches.

If you've got some FPP sitting around, put them to work for a good cause. You don't need another hoodie, anyway.

The Big Sleep

Got home from the basketball game last night after watching our hometown high school heroes get run out of the gym by a bunch of short, extremely talented white kids and decided to play some poker. With the PS account back down hovering in the low two-digit range (where's my bailout, Mr. Obama?), I chose to enter the $5.50 PLO8 tournament at 2140.

It quickly became apparent that any online poker would be a mistake. I was dog tired after a long week and found myself struggling to stay awake. But the other button-pushing monkeys out there, unaware of my altered consciousness, decided to gift me a bunch of chips, so many that by the time the bubble broke three hours later, I had a top 5 stack. (654 runners/99 paid.)

My good fortune could not overcome the need for sleep, however. With about 60 monkeys left, I went from nodding off for a few seconds to a deep REM state. Perhaps an hour later, I woke up to discover that my stack had been eroded to the point where I was in 12th place with 15 players remaining. (I went from around 100K to 55K, not a huge loss.) It was now 2:30 a.m., but I did feel refreshed.

Long story short, I nursed what remained of my chips, made the final table with the shortest stack of about 6BBs and ended up finishing 4th for a $240 profit.

It's a welcome boost to the bankroll, having grown tired of reloading every couple of weeks to pay for my latest addiction -- 6max PLO. I'm not too good at this game yet, but I'm breaking even after about 2,500 hands and am having fun learning the game. I just need to make sure I remain awake.