My Saturday at Skyline

   Skyline Country Club was the venue for Berkshire Poker's most recent charity tourney benefiting the Lanesborough Tree & Forest Committee. The buy-in was $75 and 25 people showed up to play. To say that I was card dead at this one would be a gross understatement. To be dead one must have been alive at some point. Didn't happen on this day. In 2 hours of play, I played a total of 2 hands. In the 3rd hour, hanging on for dear life, I doubled up with A-J vs K-Q. Even with that double up, I was still short-stacked. I just never got going. Eventually, with just 2 big blinds left (2000/4000) I picked up A-2 and ran into A-A! Ouch! Really not much to write about here. Sometimes you just don't get any cards, and there is simply nothing you can do. Despite the dismal run, I still managed to finish 11th. Imagine how well I could have done if I actually got a hand or two! I was happy with how I played, but I made one crucial mistake (not that it would have mattered) on the hand right before the 2nd break. I picked up 6-6 on the button and was contemplating whether or not to go all-in, when the moron to my left went all-in out of turn. He acted out of turn 3 times in fact! I folded my 6's and would have flopped quads. Nothing pisses me off more in poker than when people act out of turn. If it happens once it's fine, but when it happens more than that, it's inexcusable. I'm not blaming this cesspool of idiocy for my misfortune, but c'mon man! Pay attention!!!


   Anywho, my next planned tourney is the $10,000 guarantee at Mohegan Sun the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Buy-in is $120. Stay tuned for the results! Till then...

Bloody Mohegan Sunday

 

   My hopes were high as my friend Matt and I descended upon Mohegan Sun yesterday for their 5pm $120 super-stack No-Limit Hold 'Em tourney. Starting stack was 20K with 20 minute blinds. A much better structure than what I'm used to playing which favors the patient more conservative players. My mindset going in was to play small-ball in the early levels, then open up my game as the blinds increased. Deep into level 3 (75/150), I picked up Q-Q two seats to the right of the button. There were two limpers in front of me so I decided to raise it to 600. The button called as did one of the two limpers. The 3 of us saw a flop of 2-3-4 rainbow. The limper checked and I bet 1200 only to be raised by the button to 6025. The limper folded and it was decision time for me. Calling his bet was out of the question. I was out of position and I didn't want to get bet off the hand on the turn. I took a few moments to try and figure out what he had. K-K and A-A seemed unlikely. He probably would have re-raised pre-flop with those two hands. A set of 2's 3's or 4's? Maybe, but why raise on the flop? He probably would have smooth called my 1200 bet to entice me to bet more on the turn or river (at least that's what I would do). A-5 or 6-5? Again, why raise with the straight on the flop? You smooth call there to try to get more moola in the middle. There were no flush possibilities, so my final conclusion was a pair of 5's or 6's or A-K or A-Q. His raise seemed fishy to me like he wanted me off the hand cause he didn't know where he stood. I decided to raise all-in. My opponent snap-called with (if you guessed it you get a gold star!) 6-6! Ha! I had him right where I wanted him! Until the 5 hit the turn and I was out in 49th place out of 50. Felted again! Ugh! For the record, Matt finished 12th making another one of his patented deep runs. 8 were paid. His bust-out hand came when he moved all-in with K-J from the SB only to be called by the BB holding K-Q. (His sting wore off quickly however when, on our way out, he bet a $100 chip on black in roulette and it came up 15 black).

   This sparked a debate between the two of us at lunch this afternoon. If you're gonna bust out of a tournament, would you rather be ahead and get sucked out on? Or would you rather be behind the whole way? Basically, which one of us should be more frustrated? Now, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a very positive person, and for those of you that do know me, stop laughing. :) In all seriousness, the first 12-24 hours of a bust-out, I'm a terribly woeful and negative person, but after the natural frustration wears off and I've had time to honestly assess my play, reality sets back in. This is my thinking on it. I would MUCH rather be ahead and take a bad beat than be behind from the beginning. Bad beats hurt a lot more in the short-term. No doubt. But being behind from the start means I made a play that I shouldn't have, or wouldn't have had I known my opponent's hand. If someone had told me before I went all-in that my opponent had 6-6 to my Q-Q, I STILL would have gone all-in! Right play wrong result is better than wrong play. I think the reason my frustration level is so high when I go broke, is that I'm (almost) always AHEAD when it happens! At least at the end of the day I can feel comfortable blaming the "Poker Gods" for my loss, rather than myself. And that will always keep me coming back for more.

NBA Fantasy Results and more

Well readers the NBA is back and so is my 2012-13 fantasy team Benny's Ballers. No money on this one. Just a standard Yahoo! public league. I picked 7th out of 12.


Round 1- Josh Smith (Atl- SF,PF)
Round 2- Brandon Jennings (Mil- PG)
Round 3- Paul Pierce (Bos- SF)
Round 4- Joe Johnson (Bkn- SG,SF)
Round 5- Roy Hibbert (Ind- C)
Round 6- Carlos Boozer (Chi- PF,C)
Round 7- David West (Ind- PF)
Round 8- Jose Calderon (Tor- PG)
Round 9- Lou Williams (Atl- PG,SG)
Round 10- Brandon Bass (Bos- PF,C)
Round 11- Andre Miller ( Den- PG,SG)
Round 12- Dorell Wright (Phi- SG,SF)
Round 13- Jamal Crawford (LAC- PG,SG)

You won't see too many of these guys highlighting Sportscenter (other than Smith and Pierce), but it seems like it should be a decent playoff team. It's tough picking from the middle. Last year it got me 4th place.

In other fantasy news, the NFL team sits at 4-4 in a two-way tie for 1st in the division. I've earned $70 back on it so far. Long way to go though.

And still in other news, I'm playing in the $120 buy-in tourney at Mohegan Sun this coming Sunday. Sandy kept me from going Monday night and the itch to play is unbearable. Also, next Saturday (11/10/12) I'll be playing in a Berkshire Poker charity tourney benefiting the Lanesborough Tree & Forest Committee. Stay tuned to my blog for results! Till then...