A "D" Lister's Mookie Recap

Well, last night, the bloggers of the Internets gather once again for the Mookie. I love playing this tournament because it gives me an opportunity to play with some very experience players for not so huge a buy-in. With 4 hours of sleep and a whole days worth of working. I apologize for any moments of poor judgement or fractured speech.

I didn't recap last weeks tournament, I meant to, I just really didn't have time. Its been pretty crazy around my life, but the FUD is starting to clear and I'm quickly becoming excited for the new opportunities!

I enjoyed being the underdog again last night. While the picks were going on, only Buddy picked me with the last pick of the night. Which, I have to say, was better than my last deep run.

The guys from BDR were hilarious as usual, but I gotta I do have a bone to pick with them. When we got down to three handed, not sure who, but one of them asks, "Does OhCaptain have a blog yet?" Thanks! I won this thing a month ago, you didn't bother to click the link since then? And the answer is "Yes, I do I have a blog now."

In my morning perusal of Google Reader, found a few interesting posts about the Mookie. Not too surprising to find Hoy is now complaining that he can't win it because the format is gear towards Maniac aggressive luckboxes. Hoy, you need to examine your game. Here's what he had to say:

In my view it takes two main things to have a solid shot to win a Mookie, due to the large fields and due to the low buyin of $11 which means a lot of players who are not the tight-aggressive style normally indicative of the higher-bankroll guys. It takes (1) aggression to get through this big field, and (2) luck, moreso than in the other tournaments due to the large field and large number of passive and loose players.

I think that his impression of the tournament and his arrogance in how poker should be played results in his inability to win the Mookie. Anyone that has played me will probably not call my game lucky agressive. I can be about as tight as they come. I don't have the pedigree of Hoy, but when he says "...a lot of players who are not the tight-aggressive style normally indicative of the higher-bankroll guys." it tells me that he's only comfortable playing players that are TAG. Therein lies his weakness, his inability to adjust his game to different styles.

Come to the table to win. You've got to beat everyone. Don't just play the people that you know how to beat.

The other blogger I found interesting this morning was LJ. I sat next to LJ all evening. She doesn't remember the hand she busted out on. Probably because she busted out on a hand I was shocked at how bad she played. In the course of 2 hands, she went from a comfortable stack to out, handing all of her chips to me. I appreciated the effort! But watching her play last night, I'd have to guess she was very distracted or lacked G.A.S.

Enough ranting. I probably get demoted to the "E" list, but this is my blog.

I settled into my usually Wednesday position. Got snuggled into the couch with a blanket (it's -20°F here...it ain't girly to get cold at that temp). I get the headphones on and fire up BDR. I even get the IM chats going with PokerFool and Bodie25.

My first table include Martyr99, AlCantHang, DaBag, LJ, IlkkaK, Lucko21, OhCountess (relation - the Mrs, fellas). AlCantHang starts accumulating chips with some rather dubious calls and raises. It was apparent to me that he came to gamble.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5060341374: The Mookie (37226882), Table 7 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:08:23 ET - 2008/01/30
Seat 1: Martyr99 (2,985)
Seat 3: AlCantHang (5,925)
Seat 4: DaBag (3,270)
Seat 5: pvanharibo (3,045)
Seat 6: IlkkaK (2,955)
Seat 7: OhCaptain (3,045)
Seat 8: lucko21 (375)
Seat 9: OhCountess (2,805)
AlCantHang posts the small blind of 15
DaBag posts the big blind of 30
AlCantHang: wow. thought i was dead and going to bed <- Hmm...do I sense a bit of self-doubt?? The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [Kd Kc]
pvanharibo folds
IlkkaK folds
OhCaptain raises to 105 <- a simple pot size raise
lucko21 folds
OhCountess folds
Martyr99 folds
AlCantHang calls 90
DaBag has 15 seconds left to act
DaBag calls 75
*** FLOP *** [Qs 7c 3s]
lucko21: i was willing to gambool, i know u rr me light sometimes <-referring to the previous hand. Al had just won a monster pot. I figure he's still rolling from it.
lucko21: nh
AlCantHang has 15 seconds left to act
AlCantHang bets 175 <-This bet seems small. I just raised preflop for 105. I also think about the fact that I'm new, no one knows me. So he's leading into a raiser. I sense a trap, but I seriously doubt he hit a set here. Besides...look at the flop!
DaBag has 15 seconds left to act
DaBag calls 175
OhCaptain raises to 1,015 <--If he's flopped a set, I'm dead here anyways, but if he didn't, he's gonna push all in with AQ, KQ or another pocket pair. I really believe that.
AlCantHang raises to 5,820, and is all in <-- There it is. I think if he has a set, he just smooth calls me.
DaBag has 15 seconds left to act
DaBag folds
OhCaptain calls 1,925, and is all in <-- KK should be ahead. I now need to hope I holds up.
AlCantHang shows [As Qh]
OhCaptain shows [Kd Kc]
Uncalled bet of 2,880 returned to AlCantHang
*** TURN *** [Qs 7c 3s] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [Qs 7c 3s 6d] [5h]
AlCantHang shows a pair of Queens
OhCaptain shows a pair of Kings
OhCaptain wins the pot (6,370) with a pair of Kings <--Sweet Jesus! No aces!

As has been my Mookie life the last 2 weeks, I say here, around 6000 chips for what seemed an eternity. The next time my chip stack made any kind of up or down motion was almost an hour and a half later.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5061353558: The Mookie (37226882), Table 7 - 100/200 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:30:20 ET - 2008/01/30
Seat 1: KillinKegz (8,245)
Seat 2: pokerpeaker (2,415)
Seat 4: DaBag (1,530)
Seat 5: pvanharibo (6,880)
Seat 6: Astin (4,746)
Seat 7: OhCaptain (6,134)
Seat 8: IlkkaK (1,775)
Seat 9: OhCountess (6,815)
Astin posts the small blind of 100
OhCaptain posts the big blind of 200
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [7c 6c]
IlkkaK folds
OhCountess has 15 seconds left to act
OhCountess folds
KillinKegz folds
wwonka69 sits down
wwonka69 adds 1,720
pokerpeaker has 15 seconds left to act
pokerpeaker folds
DaBag has 15 seconds left to act
DaBag calls 200
pvanharibo folds
Astin folds
OhCaptain checks
*** FLOP *** [Ac 6d 6h] <--folks, this is why we raise before the flop. Life only gets worse for limpers.
OhCaptain checks
DaBag bets 500
OhCaptain raises to 1,000 <--I see a lot of people do this weakass reraise with junk, lets see if he bites..
DaBag raises to 1,330, and is all in <--There it is! I've gotta call this. I'll bet he's got an ace.
OhCaptain calls 330
DaBag shows [Qh Ad] <--No one ever listens to me. This is the hand of death. It should never be played. Its is cursed.
OhCaptain shows [7c 6c]
*** TURN *** [Ac 6d 6h] [Qs] <-- OK. That's not funny. Knock it off *** RIVER *** [Ac 6d 6h Qs] [3s] <-- Ahh.
DaBag shows two pair, Aces and Queens
OhCaptain shows three of a kind, Sixes
OhCaptain wins the pot (3,160) with three of a kind, Sixes
DaBag stands up

It was a bit later, that LJ gave gave me all of her chips. I seem to have misplaced the hand histories. She gave them away in 2 hands. One on a steal attempt gone bad, but the last one, that one still makes me thing. We are the only two in the pot. She limps and I'm in the BB. I don't remember both cards, but I do know I had a K. I think I had K6. The flop comes KKQ. Wow...again with the flopped set for a BB special. This time, I checked to her. She did a candy ass raise, I reraised and she pushed all-in. Again, I'm not laying down top set and I have no reason to believe she's got a bigger kicker or QQ. She turned over Q5, I think. I still wonder what she was thinking. At this point, I was still playing rock like and folding almost everything.

After this, my stack reaches 20,000 chips. I loosened up a bit her for a while I also turned up the aggression. It was not uncommon for the table to walk to me in the blinds. I was tournament chipleader and seemingly on a rush.

Full Tilt Poker Game #5061850785: The Mookie (37226882), Table 3 - 250/500 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:14:23 ET - 2008/01/31
Seat 1: heffmike (10,329)
Seat 2: schlepp571 (12,100), is sitting out
Seat 3: MiamiDon (9,495)
Seat 4: OhCaptain (20,303)
Seat 5: CheckinMyAA (6,991), is sitting out
Seat 6: lightning36 (9,270)
Seat 7: Schaubs (4,490)
Seat 8: Donkey Shortz (6,520)
Seat 9: mookie99 (2,710)
heffmike antes 50
schlepp571 antes 50
MiamiDon antes 50
OhCaptain antes 50
CheckinMyAA antes 50
lightning36 antes 50
Schaubs antes 50
Donkey Shortz antes 50
mookie99 antes 50
CheckinMyAA has returned
OhCaptain posts the small blind of 250
CheckinMyAA posts the big blind of 500
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [9c Ac]
lightning36 folds
Schaubs folds
Donkey Shortz folds
mookie99 folds
heffmike folds
schlepp571 folds
MiamiDon folds
OhCaptain raises to 1,950 <--With a walk to me, I raise it up. I know this will look like a steal, but calle me crazy, I like a good suited A9 to go the races with CheckinMyAA raises to 6,941, and is all in <--This is most likely a resteal. But I'm also way ahead in chips. I believe he could do this with any ace or two painted cards, I call.
OhCaptain calls 4,991
CheckinMyAA shows [2c As] <--I love it when a plan comes together.
OhCaptain shows [9c Ac]
*** FLOP *** [Th Tc Jc]
*** TURN *** [Th Tc Jc] [5d]
schlepp571 has returned
*** RIVER *** [Th Tc Jc 5d] [6c]
CheckinMyAA shows a pair of Tens
OhCaptain shows a flush, Ace high
OhCaptain wins the pot (14,332) with a flush, Ace high <--OK Stupid, now whatcha going to do?
CheckinMyAA stands up

I screwed up a hand a bit after this and did something totally stupid. What I remember of it is I made 2 pair on the river. The board has flushes and straights coming out the wazoo. For some stupid reason I raised 6000 on the river. 2 pair was no good.

The time between bubble and 3 way action was not long at all. People were flaming out like crazy. I did my best to just stay out of the way. I was pretty card dead and fools and their money were quickly being parted, but before I knew it, we were down to Surflexus and Mookie.

It was quite clear, I was not the railbirds favorite. Mookie had that. What I had was patience and desire. Apparently not enough, but they were there. We battled for more than 30 minutes. 3 way poker. My observation was that Surf was actually playing tight and Mookie was applying the pressure. I used this too my advantage and decided I was going to selectively attack Mookie. Surf was only entering pots with strong hands, to fight with him could end in disaster. Mookie on the other hand was raising almost every button or LB, but he was also afraid of protecting against the resteal.

With that information, it went like this. Mookie - raise, OhCaptain would steal. Mookie - raise, I fold, Surf Folds. Surf - raise, Mookie and OhCaptain fold. Surf - raise, Mookie call, OhCaptain fold. Small squirmish. Mookie down in chips. Fold, Fold, Fold. Mookie raises, OhCaptain folds Surf calls. Small quirmish, Mookie has chips. Fold, Fold, Fold. Anyone seen if this deck has ranks or suits on them

I battled my way back from the starting size of about 30,000 chips, up to 90,000 chips and the lead. I felt really comfortable, but dang! This was intense poker. We battled and fought until finally I went for a steal of Surf's blinds. I had A4, not a horrible stealing hand, but surf tables A9. I never improved. This brought me below the 40,00 chip mark. I also get dealt a long string of hands with 2's in them. 32, 62, 62, T2...absolute crap. I wanted to get something with a shot at showing down. And when I saw this, I had hope in my eyes again....

Full Tilt Poker Game #5062884601: The Mookie (37226882), Table 3 - 2500/5000 Ante 600 - No Limit Hold'em - 2:04:04 ET - 2008/01/31
Seat 4: OhCaptain (2,656)
Seat 6: surflexus (143,528)
Seat 9: mookie99 (87,816)
OhCaptain antes 600
surflexus antes 600
mookie99 antes 600
surflexus posts the small blind of 2,500
mookie99 posts the big blind of 5,000
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to OhCaptain [Td Ts]
OhCaptain calls 2,056, and is all in <--Yeah...this sucks
surflexus calls 2,500
mookie99 checks
*** FLOP *** [Kh Kc Ks]
surflexus checks
mookie99 checks
*** TURN *** [Kh Kc Ks] [Tc]
surflexus checks
mookie99 bets 5,000
surflexus folds
mookie99 shows [Ad Kd] <--Sweet mother...he flops friggin quads! I'm drawing dead.
OhCaptain shows [Td Ts]
Uncalled bet of 5,000 returned to mookie99
*** RIVER *** [Kh Kc Ks Tc] [9c]
mookie99 wins the side pot (5,888)
mookie99 shows four of a kind, Kings
OhCaptain shows a full house, Kings full of Tens
mookie99 wins the main pot (7,968) with four of a kind, Kings
OhCaptain: gg
mookie99: gg
OhCaptain stands up

Yep. I lost to Mookie's quad kings. Watcha gonna do?

I had a blast! My hats off to Mookie and Surflexus. That was about as much fun I've had short handed!

The Mookie been very good to me

It's early on Thursday morning. Well past my bed time. But it also means that I played the Mookie and if I'm up this late...

Didn't win it this time, but I did finish 3rd! W00T! W00T!

Congrats to Surflexus and Mookie. Mookie!!!! So close!!!!

Well done guys! I gotta be up for work soon...more post tomorrow.

Poker Leage Recap - Home in time to clear the driveway

I usually keep the personal stuff to one of my other blogs, but I think it will help to explain why I've been a bit distracted and tilty lately. You see, I quit my job almost 2 weeks ago.

I'm not an idiot, I did so after getting a new job. This has been one of the hardest decisions I've ever made. This was harder than laying down AA. This was brutally hard.

I've been with my former employer 5 months shy of 10 years. This company has been like my extended family. I started there as a intern while finishing my BS degree and have moved my way to the top programmer in the company. The part I loved about the job is the company was very small. If there are any other programmers out there, you'll know what I mean, but I got to wear a lot of different hats. The owner of the company had an office next to mine for years. We were more than co-worker, but we were friends. Many of my co-workers also became like family to me. I felt like I'm letting them down by leaving.

This was a team decision with my wife and I. I got a fantastic offer from a very large employer in our area. They made a fantastic offer, but I'm not leaving the job for the money. I'm leaving because I've reached a point in my life when I value security more than money. When you work in a small company you find yourself making lots of risky decisions. I'm ready for a break from the risk. The risks seemed smaller when the job market for software programmer was full of openings. Today, the number of jobs is small and the people around to fill those spots are numerous. Columbo, I know your fears. There have been periods in the last year, that no jobs were posted in the area for anything remotely resembling what I do.

With that being said, I returned to poker league tonight sort of ready to play poker.

I got a good night of sleep last night, but I still woke up tired. I think all of this has left me drained to empty. To make things fun, I decided to play tonight loose. Play to my strengths which is reading people.

This worked great for the first half of the night. I cleaned up pots and even got someone to double me up. It got a little hairy at first. Being loose, I was splashing lots of pots with chips, only to come up short and fold to someone actually getting something. But in the end, the game was mine. We went to break and I had 5900 in chips. Almost 3 times the starting stack. in just 3 blind levels. I really felt like I could tell what people had.

After break, the wheels feel off. While in the first part of the night, I was getting fun hands to be loose with. In the next period, I wasn't getting anything even fun to play. I don't know how loose I'd need to be to play J3o out of position with a raise in front of me. The worst part of this, as I kept folding this garbage, I was also completely running out of G.A.S. (def. #6).

I find that it takes a lot of energy and desire to play this style of poker. The best part, I knew the cards the guy had that took me out (AK). I also knew that he'd call every raise. Unfortunately, my initial raise from the button (A3) basically committed me to the pot. Oh well. I still had fun. I really need to get to a casino or a home game and play for money. Right now, points just ain't do it for me.

First break at poker league

We are switching up the game tonight and playing to my strengths. It
appears to be working! 5800 chips at first break!

The Royal Virgin

It was bound to happen eventually. I have read that they exist and dreamed of the day I would get one. According to Poker Tracker, it took 49, 837 hands - I've lost my Royal Virginity!

Would have been cooler to get one against someone who wasn't betting the entire tournament with top pair and a 6 kicker. Oh well, I'll take it!

Poker League - Week 4: The State Tournament Hang Over

Dimitri Nobles, not the real one stupid, but someone playing his style made an appearance last night at poker league. This caused quite a stir. He was hitting his junk hands verses made hands quite regularly and building a huge chips stack. Lucky for me, he didn't start at my table.

My first table had all regulars at it. The cast included Well Manicured Man (WMM), Comic Book Guy, Louis, Virginia, Cal, and Elija Wood. WMM, Comic Book Guy, Elija and Louis were all my left. Yummy!

I started early picking on Louis. Calling him a luckbox and reminding him how many times he's sucked out on people. For him, this seems to bother him. He seemed to want to want to prove me wrong. I took this as an invitation to change my game against him. More on that later.

I started out tight, there was lots of family pots the first few orbits. This seems to be the trend at league lately. Lots of weak action early with people calling everything. I stayed out of this unless I was in position. There is just too much risk.

After the love fest ended, I started raising pots into Louis and Comic Book Guy. These guys like to try and trap, unfortunately for them, I either hit my hand or knew they missed there's. The best part was Comic Book Guy kept calling my continuation bet and then bluffing the river. Louis got flustered with my continuation bets. He's used to my Rock of Gibraltar style and was assuming I had something. I won one hand with pocket 3s. It was an underpair to the entire board. Louis had folded the winning hand to me. Hehehehe.

I kept driving this truck right up to first break, building a stack of about 5000 chips by break. I had amassed this stack one small pot at a time. After break, the wheels came off. Dimitri sat down at the table and I didn't see a hand better than 93o for about a hour.

Dimitri kept goading the table to play more hands. That's his style, he gets people to commit weak hands to the pot and then raises them out. With a reputation to put people all in with complete crap, he gets everyone scared to call a raise, but a lot of people kept limping. I avoided putting any money into the pot. You can't bluff him, you need to actually show down a better hand. I figured saving money now, would pay dividends if I ever got cards again.

Our table got broke up and I got moved to a table with another group of regulars, but I had got blinded down to 2000 chips. I held my own until the blinds were at 300/600. I still only had 2000 in chips. Chris raised it to 2000 from UTG. I knew he was calling me out. I let out a sigh before looking at my hand. A♠8♠. Chris is someone that doesn't really understand the odds that well, so I figured there was a good chance I'd be ahead + I've only got 1400 chips after this and the small blind is next. How low can I go? I called. He tables K♣J♣. Yeah, I'm ahead, but I stood anyway. I don't win these. The J on the flop sealed my fate. And as Chris pointed out...it was coin flip right? One over is a coin flip...right? Plus he was suited...so he might be a little ahead...right? Someday I'll win "a coin flip."

Sigh

Players Only Poker - Freeroll

As is typical for me, when I try out a new poker site, I usually go cheap and try the free stuff first to make sure I can find my way around and actually play some poker. I'd seen enough ads for Players Only Poker to know that it looked to be another poker site. Good or bad, I just don't know.

I'm generally a Full Tilt player. I like their software. The user interface is intuitive and things, for the most part, just work as expected...most of the time. But, I'm not the kind of consumer that doesn't like to check out the grass on the other side of the fence.

The first thing you notice about Players Only, the use a lot of flash on the web site. It looks nice and the babes are hot, but frankly, I hate it when flash makes me wait. Oh well, they have a quick link to the poker software. I downloaded it, installed it and got an account set up pretty quickly.

Much like Full Tilt, the software made it pretty easy to find my way around. I found out pretty quick they are indeed running a "Million Dollar Freeroll". Hmm...that sounded like fun and free on a new site is always good. I signed up for it but was surprised to learn that it wasn't filling all that quick. Most of the time when I think freeroll, I assume I have about 5 minutes to get registered, this, not so much.

When the play started it seemed to have a tournament lobby like Poker Stars and tables like Party Poker. The buttons on the table were easy to use and well labeled. Probably the thing I hated the most was the lobby just didn't seem to refresh very often. In order to get more accurate results in the lobby, I had to close the window and open it back up. The table interface appeared to lose connection numerous times and then BAM! I'm sitting out and missed a hand. There wasn't much feedback for connection problems.

The players in this freeroll were quite possible the worst poker players ever assembled. At first, 70% of the field was sitting out. The 2 live ones I had at the table, were extremely timid. This allowed me to accumulate chips quickly. With so few people on the table, I'd raise preflop with anything and the continuation bet the flop to take it down. My favorite part was how many people would limp with a big pair, and then push after the flop. I'd made the straight, so a call was in order...thanks for playing!

This was pretty much the softest freeroll I have ever played. Most of the ones on FTP usually just consist of maniacs. I met very little maniac but a ton of LP players. The top ten from this freeroll go on to the big one where the money is. I finished 3rd...so I'll probably see if I can play the next tournament.

To sum it up, it seems to be poker software based on everyone else. Nothing really new here, but it did actually work.