2008 Action Report.

Sorry this is for playing-notes only. If you were looking for anything deep, romantic, or depressing, read no further.

1st WSOP Satellite: Q-8 limp, BB limps, three-way.

Flop: Q 5 2. 1 bets, BB re-raises, I raise all-in. 1 mucks, BB thinks hard; finally calls.

Notes: BB specialed. Nothing spectacular. Blinds were coming up, and I was playing relatively mute. I just made a move with top-pair.

2nd WSOP Satellite: 8-7. LAG-sub-par player raises a ridiculous raise. 6x blinds. Loose image, has been showing down mediocre hands. I just call because one other guy calls, I have 3 to 1. Why not. 3-way.

Flop: 10 9 x. LAG over-bets AGAIN. I just move all-in. It's a 3,000+ chip pot. Only 900 more to go (the chip-stack ratio I couldn't help). He mulls, knowing I'm tight, and calls. Shows J-9. Turn: 8, which actually gives him a ton of outs now (sigh), river is nothing.

Notes: I guess the way this Satellite is structured is almost like a sit-and-go, TT style. I noticed this other guy I've befriended (seen him both times, he actually won the first Satellite I went to), and he selectively draws for his all-ins, and finds places to push. Moral of story: need to win a pot before the first level is over. I won a minor pot, but by the time the second levels came around, I was basically one of the two lowest chip stacks; everyone else either had a crazy-donkey moment or made moves.


Foxwoods (May 30): Wow, unbelievable.

Highlight of Night: A-K suited. $2-$5 NL. Guy raises $30 to go. I just call.

Flop: A K K. LLamas! I think I was giving myself a hand job after seeing that flop. It even had a cute flush draw.

Opponent bets $60. I count to 15 (Dan Harrington's tip to slow-playing, raises, calls). I look flustered, and call.

Turn: 10. Nothing, checks all around.

River: A. Whiskey, tango. My heart drops when he chirps, "All-in." I look over in disbelief, like "What the hell, this is so lame." I call. He shows A-10.

akldjf.


Hardest hand was actually my SECOND hand of the night. A-9. I just call (three people in front of me call, dubious? This middle-aged Asian guy, a bit tipsy, calls three positions behind me.

Flop is A-9-7. Everyone checks. I check. No flush threat at all.

Turn: 6. Checks all around. Asian dude bets $75. I re-up to $200, sandwiching a caller. I honestly was expecting to take the pot. Asian guy immediately calls, BB folds. At this point, I'm braced to slow it down. Something is not right.

River: 6. I check. He just puts me ALL-in.

Okay. At this point I'm completely befuddled. Pockets? He rarely raises, and when he does it's like a $15-re-pop (the rest of the table was committing $25-upwards....CRAZY pre-flop action with re-raises too). Deep-stack poker.

The sixes had to have helped him. He kept saying afterwards (and a little bit during the hand), that if he had me on a straight. He had me on ASS?? 8-10?

I think by the end of the night, I put him on A-6. or 6-7. My raise immediately signified I held at least A-x. He could've hit bottom pair, following a two-pair on the turn. Or overplayed an A.

Ugh, that hand basically left me in a funk, (and $200 down), and I was in recovery territory for the rest of the night. Sigh. I think the only other sexy hand was a QQ, where I had some cute raise, then I re-raised. Everyone else folded. I kept limping, and calling raises (EVERYONE was raising, it was ridiculous like Jurassic).

The good news is that I'm so hungry to hit the tables. I haven't hit Foxwoods since March, so it's nice to get back on this ice cream van. Going this Friday.

"Misery is almost always the result of thinking."

-- Joseph Joubert.

Pre-Christmas Massacre.

Wow I just got hit by one of the worst runs, ever. -$800+ in less than three hours.

This raises all my previous doubts of whether poker's my competitive advantage, my schtick, my favorite iPod.

What else am I suppose to do. What is my one-hit song? Should I be world's best stone-skipper? Hold the world record for the longest distance an orange has been rolled by my nose?

This is a privately-funded war from within. Like the war on drugs, terror, or obesity, there seems to be no end in sight. My mind never ceases.