ANOTHER DEEPISH CASHLESS RUN

Not much to report here...the title kinda says it all: points yes, cash no. With nary a playable hand and a huge stack to my left--an alarmingly consistent fact of my life I've found--I had to revert back to the check-fold survival strategy. The "make-or-break" hand may have been right on the points bubble when I found pocket aces in the SB. With blinds of 100/200 and a stack of about 2600 the action went as follows:

cmitch minraisese to 400 (at least i think it was cmitch)
smokkee calls on button for 400, pot now 1100
Both have me significantly outchipped by a factor of about 3--perhaps more.

So my options are to (A) smooth call and hope i don't get outflopped.
(B) Reraise and commit to playing out of position against at least one caller
(C) Push and hope one of them puts me on something like AK/AQ and decides to call with a medium pair or better. Or even better, they put me on a smaller pair and figure to chip up with one of those hands.

The first option I don't like so much because despite the fact that I'm holding the momentary nuts, a lot of boards would be reasonable for them to play to a showdown. With a small stack and worst position, I'm at the mercy of the cards, and I've given them dirt cheap odds to crack my aces. My thinking on the second hand was similarly based on our relative stack sizes. Im seeing this hand through to the end, so even the raggiest of draws could lead to a suckout. After all, it is online poker.

In the end I elected to push and hope one of them thought i was being cute with a squeeze or one of the hand scenarios described above. After cmitch folded, smoke did the right thing and released and i made it into the points continuing my turtle-sque quest for blogger supremacy. My evening ended when I got allin with AK suited vs. JJ and QQ. No help came, and I go home lucky number 13.

Heh...who knew smokkee's screen even HAS a fold button? I'll have to adjust my notes.

See y'all at the Wil.

IRONY AND A CONTEST OF SORTS....

Irony. An inconsistency between what you think should happen and what actually happens. For example, a well-educated guy who in the real world seemingly never shuts up finding himself at a loss for anything to put on paper....or a blog. Sad really. Because with each passing day the block gets thicker and thicker and i find myself in danger of becoming "that-guy-who-only-has-a-blog-to-justify-playing-in-blogger-only-tournaments-but-never-really-posts-anything-on-it." A horrible state to be in, let me tell ya, not only because of the tremendously cumbersome title, but also because, quite simply:


I DON'T WANT TO BE THAT guy.


But I think I've come up with a solution. As I've struggled to get this blog off the ground I've become more and more impressed with the die-hards who can crank out thoughtful, interesting posts on a daily basis. And while I recognize that daily posting is probably not within my capabilities, being interesting and thoughtful oughta be. But like I said, I need a little kick-start. So beginning this week, I will be soliciting suggestions for blog-topics from the community. Just throw out an idea in the comments section of this blog, and if I turn it into a post--I'll buy you into a blogger-tourney of your choosing (Mondays at the Hoy, The Mookie, Riverchasers....heck I'll even swing over to Pokerstars and buy you into the Wil if you like). I do also reserve the right to respond to criticism by others--and that in and of itself doesn't warrant a buy-in, no matter how pathetic your cries for help may be. So good luck, and thanks in advance.



Moving right along to the Big Game last night, I abandoned my check-fold strategy in favor of some actual poker playing. Unfortunately the results were eerily similar--i.e. deep run, points, no cash. But I did have fun with this hand:

At the time I thought I had played the hand pretty well; imagine my surprise today when I learned that I had mistaken boredom for another shining example of Waffles' D-caliber play. OOOOPS! My bad. You see, as of late, Sir Waffles has decided to take pot-shots at my play. Im not sure why, exactly, but I can't help but relish the irony. Because make no mistake about it--pointing in each of the BBT tournies without cashing is a dubious accomplishment--but then again so is luckboxing your way to one blogger tourney win in 8 months. My record speaks for itself, and no amount of verbal diarrhea can change yours.

So Waffles, if you're out there, let me leave you this thought to ponder. A 13 week tournament series is kind of like a golf tournament. Winning requires several rounds of consistent play with a few big shots thrown in at the right time. To win the big prize you have to be within striking distance when it gets to crunch time -- 7th place through 6 events does just that. I know this, Tiger Woods knows this, and YOU should know this: you don't want either one of us to even be able to sniff the lead come Sunday.

See y'all at the tables.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE

As bloggers go......it appears that I am not very good at posting on a regular basis. I mean, if you--the reader--are going to take the time to read something I've posted, the LEAST I can do is make it worth your while. Problem is, I've been having difficulty coming up with anything earth-shattering to share. Because really, who wants to read about this:




Or this.......



Incidentally--kudos to Wil for being at the forefront of tournament innovation with his bold selection of "Heads-Up Pot-Limit Omaha" for this week's second chance Tuesday tourney. Unfortunately No-Limit GUTS was not available as an option, so we'll have to make do with Pot-limit O8 for next week. (SEE??? even the jokes are lame!!!)

Thank God the Big Game's coming so I can check-fold to the money and still have nothing to write about. See y'all then.