another 4 figure score

finished second in the 32k last night for 4600. obv disappointed i couldn't take first. the guy wasn't that good, but first he rivered two pair on me, then he hit a gut shot on me and i paid him off w/ middle pair, and then i shoved 98o into his JJ. oops. :-( special thanks to nyrambler, who gave* me some chips in the middle of the tournament.

i played like an aggro maniac when we were down to about 3-4 tables and it paid off, cause i chipped up a ton before getting to the final table. unfortunately i couldn't get it done in the end, but i think considering my shit cards toward the end of the tournament i played well and can't be too unhappy w/ 2nd. it also made up for lasting about five hands in the 65k before running KK into AA all in pre. :-(

* i reshoved A9o w/ 17 bbs from the button after he raised from the co. he had AK, but i suck out good and hit a straight, w00t!

moooooookie

this def helps the prop bet v. waffles. i'm tired and have to wake up early for a funeral service, but thank you mostly to KJ, for twice busting AA (once horrible overshove v. hoy who i'm convinced was sitting watching his cards until he raised button w/ AA and once when i got flatted pre and flopped second nut flush). i played super aggro/retarded for most of the tournament, and was down to 700 chips early when i made a terrible call w/ ATss. lost my fair share of flips and such, but somehow came away w/ it. yay!

bah

i nearly cashed in four fiddys in a row, but effed up big time on the money bubble last night. i didn't realize how close i was, and w/ 10 bbs i made a terrible shove over an all in player w/ A8ss and ran into AA. it was an easy fold in that spot, and cost me a cash and who knows, maybe another final table.

i don't think i got over 20 bbs the whole tournament, and was happy with how i played. it's just frustrating to play great for over an hour or however long and then have your brain freeze and do something stupid to mess the whole thing up. that's poker, i guess. mistake free poker is still hard for me, but part of the reason i love it so much is the challenge.

i played a few games of madden last night and kicked ass, but the real test will come when i can rematch lucko, who owned me the other night. a few blowouts v. the computer are no match for 15 years of madden experience, but i can try.

tonight is one of my ff drafts. schaubie luckboxed his way into second pick, but i've got 10th in the 12 team league, sigh. i had my first live draft this past weekend. it was pretty fun, although my guess is live drafts are more fun when you already know everyone in the league, a point backed up by bayne. our team is pretty bad, but that's mostly cause it's a keeper league. we took over for another team and our two keepers are parker and boldin, lol. hard to believe someone bailed from that team. :-)

i'm already stoked for this weekend. i'd like to see pineapple express at some point, and plan to play online poker on saturday. monday i'm off to see rutgers pwn fresno state. it's only my second college football game ever, and i'm excited!

close

but not quite. i final tabled the turbo fiddy on saturday night (although technically sunday morning, i guess) and again last night. saturday i finished 7th after losing this flip in ugly river fashion. it was for a 300k pot and the massive cl. the guy went on to win the tournament.



i ended up going out 7th after shoving A9hh all in pre and losing to TT again on the river :-( i took a picture of that, but sadly forgot the lobby.



i also lost a flip last night to finish 4th. the turbo fiddy is such a crap shoot, i definitely won my share of flips to get there, but just frustrating to get close to having a stack to be in a position to win and not being able to close it down.



i did remember to get a screenshot of this one.



i also finished 4th in another hu tournament, although it was smaller than the stars one, but was kinda proud of that.

aside from poker, weekend was good. managed to slather on enough sunscreen to sit out at the beach and avoid getting burned. the water was gorgeous and i had a blast jumping waves for awhile. went out a bit and learned that my pool game is nowhere near where it was back when i was a 1L, but on the bright side i run good at funky monkey.

i also saw tropic thunder, which i didn't think was quite deserving of all the hype and praise it's been receiving, but it definitely wasn't bad, and i chuckled a decent amount.

looking forward to a holiday weekend, only five more days!!

ship the turbo fiddy

i've played this tournament a lot, and have maybe only cashed once or twice before. it definitely gets tough late, b/c everyone has between 10-25 bbs and you have to take some chances. i doubled early when i had AA and a guy overplayed his AJss on a 995 board, and for the most part things just went my way. i spent most of the time when we were down to two tables at 10 bbs, but i picked good spots and doubled and almost tripled without a showdown. the field definitely seemed weaker than i'm used to in the fiddy but i'm not complaining.

winning two tournaments two nights in a row feels pretty good, esp one of them being heads up. i've worked a lot on my hu game lately, and i think it shows in my results. my hu match in the fiddy was short, i think only three hands. the first i raised AQo hoping he'd shove his 20 bb stack, but he folded. he limped the second hand and i folded to his cbet. third hand i completed w/ JThh, he checked, flop was something like 973 w/ two hearts. i bet, he raised, i shoved, he called and showed 74. i hit a T on the turn and it was over.

i'm off to the shore again for the last time this summer. sadly no more buck hunter for me, as my hands have been killing me. the game has not been good for my tendinitis. :( i did buy trophy bucks last night along w/ the wii zapper, so i'm excited to give that a shot when i get home. i also bought madden '09 after playing it briefly in the game stop. i played madden way back in '99 on the playstation and sucked, but i figured it would get me in the spirit of football season, plus everything is more fun on the wii.

have a great weekend!

frustrating night

it was a ~ crappy night on many fronts, including poker. i ran big hands into bigger hands, none of my steals worked, and i feel like i've been playing way too passively -- calling too much, and not raising enough. i know there's an equilibrium, i'm just not there yet.

i'm on a bit of life tilt, with some minor annoyances stressing me out, but trying to remember the good in everything and keep in mind that my problems, while major to me, are minor overall in the greater scheme of life.

this was the bright spot of my evening. i played on a whim, and had a blast. i can only remember one big suckout post flop, and then there was the delicious first hand of one match where i flopped a set w/ 66 and got it all in to see that my opponent had an overpair w/ KK.

dedicated to cmitch

this guy at my 3r table shoved almost every other hand from 9-14 bbs, and when he shoved w/ 15 i decided to reship my 40 bb stack w/ ATo. nobody else called (phew) and he showed up w/ A5. he obv hit 5, and after missing w/ AK a bit later i busted running 88 into AA.

i texted back a friend who was drinking in my hood, but then realized i was still in a step 2. so the next hand i decided i would try to bust:

PokerStars Game #19751707974: Tournament #103189752, $25+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/08/19 - 23:29:40 (ET)
Table '103189752 1' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: jrhyno (1350 in chips)
Seat 3: keystoner (1180 in chips)
Seat 4: sportingimag (1470 in chips)
Seat 5: princeharibo (1420 in chips)
Seat 6: crunch555 (1680 in chips)
Seat 7: erigel (2325 in chips)
Seat 8: MSKITTY6969 (2620 in chips)
Seat 9: One in Black (1455 in chips)
sportingimag: posts small blind 25
princeharibo: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to princeharibo [Tc Qd]
crunch555: folds
erigel: folds
MSKITTY6969: folds
One in Black: raises 100 to 150
jrhyno: calls 150
keystoner: folds
sportingimag: folds
princeharibo: raises 1270 to 1420 and is all-in
One in Black: folds
jrhyno: folds
Uncalled bet (1270) returned to princeharibo
princeharibo collected 475 from pot
princeharibo: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 475 | Rake 0
Seat 1: jrhyno folded before Flop
Seat 3: keystoner (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sportingimag (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: princeharibo (big blind) collected (475)
Seat 6: crunch555 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: erigel folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: MSKITTY6969 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: One in Black folded before Flop

no dice. oh well, next hand is just as good. except...i run good

PokerStars Game #19751722540: Tournament #103189752, $25+$2 Hold'em No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2008/08/19 - 23:30:25 (ET)
Table '103189752 1' 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: jrhyno (1200 in chips)
Seat 3: keystoner (1180 in chips)
Seat 4: sportingimag (1445 in chips)
Seat 5: princeharibo (1745 in chips)
Seat 6: crunch555 (1680 in chips)
Seat 7: erigel (2325 in chips)
Seat 8: MSKITTY6969 (2620 in chips)
Seat 9: One in Black (1305 in chips)
princeharibo: posts small blind 25
crunch555: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to princeharibo [8h 8d]
erigel: folds
MSKITTY6969: folds
One in Black: folds
jrhyno: folds
keystoner: folds
sportingimag said, "nh"
sportingimag: raises 100 to 150
princeharibo: raises 1595 to 1745 and is all-in
crunch555: folds
sportingimag: calls 1295 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (300) returned to princeharibo
*** FLOP *** [8c Kd 8s]
*** TURN *** [8c Kd 8s] [4s]
princeharibo said, "lol"
*** RIVER *** [8c Kd 8s 4s] [Jh]
jrhyno said, "call the fight"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
princeharibo: shows [8h 8d] (four of a kind, Eights)
sportingimag: shows [9c 9d] (two pair, Nines and Eights)
princeharibo collected 2940 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2940 | Rake 0
Board [8c Kd 8s 4s Jh]
Seat 1: jrhyno folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: keystoner folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sportingimag (button) showed [9c 9d] and lost with two pair, Nines and Eights
Seat 5: princeharibo (small blind) showed [8h 8d] and won (2940) with four of a kind, Eights
Seat 6: crunch555 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: erigel folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: MSKITTY6969 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: One in Black folded before Flop (didn't bet)

the best part was the chat after the hand. i went back into my hand history but for some reason can't find it.

basically the guy i busted said something like, i'm going to write about that on my blog. i didn't recognize the name and asked who it was, and that's when i learned that sportingimag = cmitch. um, ooops. he's running so bad that even when i try to unwittingly gift him my stack he can't win.

if i'd been paying attention at the table chat i would already have known this, b/c i saw the following when i went back into my hand history:

sportingimag said, "hello"
sportingimag said, "do u know who i am?"
sportingimag said, "LJ - its mitch"

i played half seriously once i doubled, and ended up with another step 2, so it wasn't a total bust.

last night i also played rambler's poker series along with the four other people who showed and somehow finished 2nd. next tuesday is the big NY RAMBLER POKER SERIES MAIN EVENT, so win a token or shell out 26 bucks and take a shot at immortal glory (ok, maybe ~ hyperbole). next tuesday, august 26th, at 9pm, password is epicfail. if you have trouble finding it you can stalk me on ftp cause i'm already registered (pvanharibo). my little lion king friend set up a pretty good poker series, most of them w/ $5 buy ins, and it would be great to get a good turnout for the last one. /end pimp

extremes

lately i've noticed that i have serious work to do on playing both really deep stack and really short stack. i definitely overplay hands when deepstacked (it's happened recently in both tournaments and cash, and yes, the obvious joke here is that i overplay hands not deep stacked also, haha) and i am also never really sure what hands are shove-worthy when i've got 8-11 bbs.

i've also been frustrated lately by two things -- 1) getting fairly deep in medium tournaments only to lose to a cooler or bad beat and 2) running into KK behind me anytime i rr an ep/mp raiser who i'm fairly certain i have beat.

i'm still playing more sngs and 45 mans and enjoying them. my mtt game was drooping there for awhile, but i played a few today and even though i only cashed in one i def felt like i was getting back into the groove and making good decisions. the times when i made bad decisions i had a nagging voice telling me that i was making a stupid move, and now if only i could listen to it on a consistent basis.

i read a poker blogger recently who talked about how much he thinks working out is helping his game, and how much better he feels playing on days he works out (i have too many blogs on bloglines, but if i figure out who it was i will link). i have also been finding this to be true, and from now on whenever i need motivation to hit the gym (which is often) i will think about the relative success i've had lately on days when i work out.

wii fit was definitely a helpful motivational tool in my rather recent fitness kick. even though i joined a gym around march, i only went for the first time last month. i don't do many of the aerobic exercises on wii except hula hooping (and now boxing, although i haven't quite figured it out) and my living room isn't big enough for many of the strength exercises, but the balance ones RULE. my balance has been off since the ankle surgeries, and the balance and yoga exercises are great for that. plus they're all so fun!! i am still terrible at slalom, ski jump and that stupid bubble thing which i've come w/in about 2 feet of finishing, but they keep me coming back.

wii fit was pretty much pure genius on the part of nintendo, kudos to them. hopefully i can keep this fitness thing up and get into a regular routine, something i've struggled with ever since i stopped playing soccer.

the last week has been nothing short of awesome, due largely to five bday dinners and some fun nights out. yes, five, even more reason to work out. :-) the best gift i received was a trip to san francisco, which i haven't been to in about two years. two of my closest friends from college live there, plus the awesome gift giver has never been, so i'm excited to be a tourist for a little and party w/ friends. i plan to visit a few of my favorite restaurants while i'm there. also in the works is a trip to pac bell (at&t, wtf???) park to see giants v. dodgers w/ this guy, who hopefully will bring along famed "wife" and "daughter."

i should finally make the mookie after a two week hiatus, and plan to play rambler's tournament and skillz tonight. sadly it looks like rambler deleted his old, non-poker blog, where i learned he likes martina mcbride songs and the lion king.

good luck at the tables, except to waffles in the mookie tomorrow. :-)

weekend poker

warning: long post

i played the 2k at the borgata this past weekend. i made it to day 2 (for my first time ever in the 5 or so multi-day tournaments i've played) which was awesome. not so awesome was busting around 200 or so running AQ into AK w/ 25 bbs. a couple observations:

i was utterly amazed at how bad some people playing a 2k tournament were. my first table was a dream, but unfortunately i couldn't capitalize.

i moved tables a ton, and i think i got really unlucky in this respect. in two levels on day two i was at three different tables, and was at four total for the day. every time i got a new table draw it was one or two numbers below the table i just left. each table i had worse position than the one before (oh look, the huge stack has moved from my right to my left, lucky me!).

people raise super big live. i saw one guy make a 5+ open raise, and most people raised 3.5-4.5x, which i was not used to.

people tank retardedly. this one guy at my table on day 1 raised from ep pre, a guy behind him 3bet him, and he thought for a bit then called. the pot was prob about 10k. ep guy bets out on the flop (K97 rainbow) about 15k, well over pot, and the re-raiser who was in position thought for a bit, then shoved all in for about 65k (though i'm not positive bout stack size here). ep raiser had lp re-raiser covered, but prob only by 8-10k. ok, let's break this down. you've called a rr pre flop, and you lead at the pot. not only that, but you overbet the pot. why the hell are you doing this if you're not instacalling or folding a shove. how have you not decided with your bet what you plan to do if it gets called or raised. if you're going to make such a retarded overbet, i would have at least thought you had a plan and were either a) planning to fold if shoved b/c u got the information (haha) you were looking for or b) planning to call b/c you bet that way to induce a shove.

no, this guy TANKS. and TANKS. and TANKS. i would guess for about 5 minutes, though 5 min is probably a conservative estimate. he finally (looking extremely pained) calls with A SET OF 9s. other dude starts laughing as he flips over his AK, asking why the guy slowrolled him, and the whole table looks around at one another, completely bewildered by how this guy was tanking for so long. i mean, wtf!? you're really considering, for that long, folding the second nuts b/c there is a chance the other guy has KK?

there was some craziness regarding an all in when a guy had no cards, great 2+2 thread here. i didn't see it, but the story was definitely making the rounds at the tournament.

i played w/ chris bell! this has no real significance except that i know a guy named chris bell and think it's funny that this poker pro has the same name. he has a massively strong southern accent, quite unlike the chris bell i know.

people think girls play tight. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

online has been so-so. i've been doing ok at 45 mans, finally won one on sunday, and finished 2nd in one on friday. i was playing $75s and def think i'm capable of winning them, but have dropped down to $26s. even though my roll is bigger than it ever was, for some reason i get annoyed when i lose 5 $75 45 mans in a row, and prefer the variance associated w/ $26s. still enjoying chippies, though i haven't yet stopped to figure out my results. i'd be shocked if i wasn't positive in them, but i'll download tourney mgr sometime this week. haven't copied all my hands over from my mac, but i think i was up 5-6 buy ins in hu cash. i'm pretty green and am def making some mistakes (sometimes sucking out too, yay!) but i'm loving the format. busted the million losing a flip w/ QQ v. AK.

i crashed and burned in all the ftops i've played so far. i think one problem i'm having is not trusting my reads enough, both with calling and folding. i also don't feel like i'm bringing my "A" game out every time i play, and i sometimes get complacent when multi-tabling. i did cash in the 40k on sunday, and sucked out twice big time on the toilet. weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. once was when he completed from the sb and i shoved on him. he had tarped me w/ his AJ, but my T8o sucked out. second time he opened and i decided to three bet him w/ 99. i've been flatting much more these days w/ 99/TT, since i always seem to get in trouble w/ them, but he'd been opening a ton, and i figured his range was wide and 99 was likely ahead. he shoved and i called. we were about 30 bbs deep and in a lot of spots i might fold to a shove there, but against him i had already decided i was going to call a shove, b/c i def think he's capable of shoving w/ worse hands. he had AQo and i won the race.

AQ ended up losing me a huge pot a few tables later, though, and it was one of the tougher tournament spots i've been in. i start the hand w/ 80 bbs. hijack open raises w/ 15 bb stack. i'm on button w/ AQdd. sb has about 50 bbs, and is deep, and bb has 20 bbs. i am happy to get it in w/ AQdd v. both the short stacks, but it's the sb who i'm really worried about keeping out of the hand. i three bet the hijack's raise, hoping to keep out the sb, and figuring i'm getting it in v. either the bb or open raiser. to my dismay the sb flat calls. then the bb shoves, however it's a min shove, and i don't even have option of isolating. initial raiser calls, and and even though i know i am beat by one or more hands i'm getting a retarded price (10k into a pot of about 70k at this point, plus 10k more if the sb calls, which he obv does). flop comes Q high rainbow, and sb shoves his last 36k. with all the money in the pot i didn't really think too hard about folding top pair, but obv he has QQ and i lose massive pot and go from 3rd in chips to bottom of the barrel.

i was talking w/ some random cash players who were friends of friends about the hand, and one guy said i should have folded pre, even with the price i was getting. i did get in w/ the worst hand of everyone, but i'm not sure what else to do there. if i flat AQ suited with only two players to act behind me i'm pricing them in with way worse hands and/or giving either player a great squeeze spot. i would love to say i should fold once there is a flat and a shove behind, but folding for 10k more into 80k pot just seems like bad poker. i can say i should have folded on the Q high flop, b/c sb had shown huge strength by flatting pre and then shoving, but i think he does the same thing w/ AK and w/ AQ. i'm not sure how i get away from this hand, and it's been super frustrating to think about.


no mookie for me once again this week, so another free shot for waffles to win our bet. so far he's been capitalizing well -- i think it's pretty inspiring to see what the motivation of winning a few bets has done for his mtt game (at least in the mookie). i'm going out to dinner later tonight, but if i make it home in time and full tilt decides to start working, i'll probably play the turbo ftops.

rant post

warning: non poker content, will probably contain rambling

my physical therapy place (madison avenue physical rehabilitation and wellness) is driving me INSANE. i really like the woman who i've been seeing there (jennifer) but good lord their office is a nightmare.

backstory: awhile back i went for my regular checkup, and mentioned all my neck/shoulder problems. the doctor said they have a physiatrist who i should see. yeah, i didn't know what physiatry was either. they have a physiatrist in their little network of doctors, so i go to see the one recommended. he is very nice, and gives me a prescription for physical therapy and mentions that a few days a week he works out of a different office, and they also offer physical therapy, and recommends them.

i start going, and don't have any problems. then i'm out of town on business, but my shoulders are killing me when i get back, and when i call to make an appointment i'm told i need to see the doctor again. i call the doctor and explain the situation, and am granted amnesty for another month to see the physical therapist.

then i miss about a week and when i call again for an appointment i get told the same thing, i have to see the doctor again. i explain that i'm still having all the same problems, and there is nothing this doctor will see that hasn't already been looked at, but that is the rule.

ok, so i go in to see a different doctor this time, since he's the only one available that day, and the entire visit takes approximately 2 minutes. this is not counting the time in the waiting room where i had to listen to him (at the time i did not realize he was about to be my doctor) talk to a couple who had just seen him for TEN FUCKING MINUTES about the school districts in westchester. i finally get called in and he asks me what is wrong, i tell him, he does 1 minute worth of testing my strength and says, yes, you need to continue physical therapy. um, yeah, thanks moron, i ~ knew that. at the time i asked him if regular massages would help and he said yes, definitely.

ok, so i continue seeing jennifer, and one day a few weeks ago i realized that my flexible spending plan will reimburse me for massages, so i ask the front desk to please ask the doctor if he can just write me a prescription for massages (you know, that thing which he recommended i get). i get a phone call telling me that the doctor won't write prescriptions for that, since they don't offer the service at their office. i was dumbfounded. not only did he already recommend them to me, but it's a FUCKING FORMALITY. what the hell does he care if they offer the service??? you're telling me he never writes a prescription for medication, b/c someone might have to go to a pharmacy??? (coincidentally, she was silent when i asked her to explain that reasoning when i called back to follow up).

so i haven't been in the past week due to being busy, but my shoulders have once again been killing me, and this morning i called for an appointment. once again i was told my month expired, and i need to go see the doctor again. once again i explained that there was absolutely nothing he was going to tell me since i JUST FUCKING SAW HIM, and he told me i def needed phsyical therapy. i was told that my insurance company requires that i see the doctor once a month.

this is a load of shit. when i was going to physical therapy for my ankle i saw them for close to a year without needing a new prescription for insurance purposes, and my insurance covered every single visit. when i speculated that this was in some way a scam for them to make more money on doctor's visits she got a little huffy (ok, i guess i can't totally blame her for that) and insisted that it's their office policy.

so, i asked, if i go to see a different doctor, not part of madison ave. pr&w, and he writes me a prescription for six months, does my insurance still require that i go back once a month. no, i was told, that overwrites their "office" insurance policy. TOTAL BULLSHIT.

no joke, these people are running a scam to make way more money off of their patients than they are reasonably entitled to. there is no justifiable medical reason for me to have to go in for a two minute visit with the doctor once a month so he can look at me and tell me what i already know: I NEED MORE PHSYICAL THERAPY

ADKFJASDKFJAKLSDJFKLASDJFKLASDJFKLASJDFKLDSAJ

as much as i like jennifer i don't think there's any way i can go back to these people. i will have to find myself another doctor who will write me a prescription for a reasonable amount of time, and hopefully he will recommend a phsyical therapist who is as good as the one i've been seeing. sigh.

anyway if you live in new york and happen to find this, do not go to new york physical rehabilitation and wellness.

/endrant

wii fit rules

it drives me nuts that i'm not completely owning the soccer heading game, but omg wii fit is awesome.

lol, had to update w/ these. thanks to maloney for sending me the first link.

i have no title for this post

i played in live poker radio's inaugural tournament last night, and sucked it up big time. i think i got in with the worst hand at least four times and won them all (K3dd v. KQ is my favorite, although pretty sure it was button v. a shortie blind). i lost a big flip w/ AJdd v. 77 when we were down to 4 for the chip lead, and then i played the patient short stack for quite awhile. eventually i made a very stupid move, shoving over tba's raise and losing w/ A2cc v. AQ. i had been playing really well (and uber tight) up until that point, and chose a very bad spot w/ a very bad hand. oh well, congrats to him for taking it down.

i'm getting really excited for the borgata tournament this w/e. last time i played i went out about a half hour before day 1 ended, but apart from overplaying JJ in one hand i thought i played well. if nothing else it's good deep stack tournament experience.

i played a bunch of sunday tourneys this past weekend, pretty sure i only chased in one, ironically a six max, which is a format that gives me some trouble. i am never sure how much to open my range.

i can't make the mookie tomorrow night due to a work wii party, giving waffles a good shot to move up the leaderboard. i will be playing pauly's five year anniversay tournament tonight, though, see you there.