A Night of Stars

Let’s start with the poker. It’s gonna be a long flight. Please make yourself comfortable.

Not a lot of poker this weekend, owing to the anniversary festivities, but I’ve made a full-time switch from the Party Poker SnGs to those on Poker Stars. The structure on the latter is so much better suited to my game at this point. I played 5 two-table $20 SnGs this week and monied thrice, including a win. The win was one of those times when everything went right. Tripled up at Level 4 when I flopped top pair, the nut flush draw and a gunshot draw. I was behind (to two pair and a made straight), but not very far behind and you know what Doyle says. Turn brought the flush and I was in control. I knocked out everyone at the final table, coming out on the good and holy side in three straight coin flips vs. the small stacks.

And then, heads up, I dominated. I have to thank some folks for that (and I’ll get to it later in the post), because I played my ass off and ran my opponent out of the tourney inside a dozen hands. I would likely have not been able to do that a week ago.

So, Poker Stars is getting all my SnG action for the foreseeable future. Party Poker remains my cash game home, though. How could you ever fully leave such a collection of idiots?

I also played an MTT on Stars yesterday. Finished 167, which is in the money for a tidy profit of $3.44. I will be buying myself sumpin’ purty. I also groused and wallowed over the finish for quite some time. Here’s why:

I had tripled up when I needed it most. I pushed at Level 12 with pocket 5s having only 5x the BB. I got called in two places: AKs and AQo. Flop is 775. WEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

With chips to play with, I set out to do some stealin’. Twice, the player one to my left re-raised me all-in on my steals. Maybe he had something, maybe he just had a read on me, I don’t know. I wasn’t trying it from obvious positions. But I folded, not wanting to risk my stack on coin flips (or worse). I was hoping to catch him later.

And I was patient. A short time later, I got KK in the SB. And my nemesis pushed from UTG. Thank you Jesus. He had me covered by only a couple hundred chips. Doubling up would have put me in the top 15 in the chip count. I called; he had 33.

Sweet revenge is nigh!

Unless a 3 comes on the flop. Godammit.

My dear and patient wife was very proud of how I handled the beat (rising slowly and silently, grabbing a beer and a smoke and heading to the patio to be alone with my anguish). Stuck in my craw for a while. Yeah, I done good. I waited for my spot, didn’t throw all my money in against a maniac until I had him dominated. That I lost the hand seems a cruel twist. It HAD to be that guy.

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The Mrs. also played a $6 SnG yesterday. Actually, make that two. The first one was sort of an aborted attempt, however. Why?

”Honey, what’s Omaha Hi-Lo?”

In her inexperience, she had signed up for an Omaha SnG. And it was too late to get out of it. I have, at most, a passing acquaintance with the rules of the game. With strategy? Absolutely none.

Yet, we held our own for a while. Even swiped an entire pot with a boat and no qualifying low. As the game went on, we sorta figured out good starting hands and such. And here’s the crazy thing: If we didn’t get sucked out in two straight hands on the river, we mighta won the darn thing. I still really didn’t know what I was doing. And I couldn’t even read the hands quick enough at showdown. But I’m gonna guess there’s money to be made online at Omaha if this table was any indication.

The she finished 6th in her NLHE tourney when a guy chased and made runner-runner straight to her flopped TPTK.

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Random quote from the dear and patient wife during the Oscars extravaganza:

"I'm sick of looking at Star Jones' back meat."

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Sticking with poker, I’ve added a few new links. I mentioned some assistance I’d gotten recently in regard to my heads-up play. It came from the good folks at Ship It Poker as part of their Heads-Up Doctrine, especially in regards to raising 80% of the time on the button. Which I did to great effect this weekend. These guys are good. They make me feel dumb. Fortunately, I have no ego and me feeling dumb is not a rare occurance.

Human Head gets a nod of the noggin’ because he’s funny and articulate and, most importantly, one of my best friends’ nickname is “Big Head.” So, call me a Huge Cranium-o-phile.

Lacerated Cards references Slayer in his blog title. Do I really need to say more?

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Stupid Liverpool. They get a dream start against a "struggling" club and instead of continuing to play positively, they sit back, try to absorb the pressure and hit on the break. Which is a crappy strategy. It's Houllier's strategy. It's even worse when your team can't maintain any possession and keep turning it over in the midfield. Chelsea came out of the break and completely dominated the proceedings, getting a deserved win. But I'm totally displeased with the Reds' performance.

There have been some signs of life this year at Anfield. Not so much the middling results, but at least a return to attacking soccer under Benitez, a nice change from the dullness of Houllier. But not yesterday. And the injuries to Xabi Alonso and Cisse are no excuse.

Oh, and Harry Kewell sucks. Long. And hard.

Still, I don't mind paying off America's Wingman. It's not like he can drink it all by himself. I mean, I know he can drink it all by himself, just that he won't. He's a sharer that way.