skitch-o-rama: FreeRollin' Idiot

Ahh, finally, a moment to breathe, relax, read some blogs, and punch out my own post. Last I was here, the kids and I were getting ready to fly off to New York city. It was a great trip: got to see two Broadway shows, had the full the NY taxi-cab experience (the 7-yr old even almost got creamed by one!), and visited all of the major Manhattan tourist attractions - Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, WTC site, MoMA, Central Park, etc.

Didn't get a chance to make it out to any of the cardrooms, but that didn't matter, because the most important part of the trip was getting to spend some quality time with the wife. :)

:)

:D

AAAnd, I'm spent.

Anyways, last week was obviously a hectic week, as it always is when I'm out of the office for 3 days and since I don't really have a backup in the department. And my evenings have been pretty much tied up working on finishing up a database project. Not easy to do when the SQL server is down for most of the night and then running at half speed after that. But server downtime == online poker time! Managed to squeeze in my four hours at PokerBlue and then couldn't resist the $500,000+ BBJ tables at Party.

Tried playing at all three levels I could comfortably afford (2/4, 3/6, 5/10) and it seemed I was the only one taking the bad beats, and unfortunately they weren't bad enough for the jackpot. Dropped over $400(!) over the course of the week, as well as another $50 or so bubbling out in a few SnGs. Put quite a dent in my already tiny online bankroll, but at least it's all been someone else's money I've been playing on (yea yea, I know, a bad gambler mindset to have). Oh, I did make about $30 via the new Blackjack and Sidebets. Go -EV!

Fortunately, I had a really good weekend at the casinos and am currently carrying around a fat wad of $20s. No amount of virtual low-limit table winnings come close to the feeling of lifting off 3-1/2 racks of white chips and lugging them over to the cage to cash out. :) Was supposed to meet up with EasyCure for an evening of fishing, but I decided to treat the kids to a night out at the movies instead with the winnings.

Sunday rolled around real quick, and I took my last shot at PokerBlue's $12,000 Package freeroll. Only 185 people in this one, and I could only make it down to #30. :( I was at about T7500 with the blinds at 300-600, and there was an EP short-stack All-in for T1500. I figured he had any pocket pair or Ace/rag so I went over the top to isolate. Didn't cost me that much to try to take someone out. Then the guy behind me with just about T9000 calls! With AQ!!! What a horrible call, except it turned out to be a good one when two more Q's hit the board. Didn't I just read somewhere, "It's all about making the wrong play at the right time."

I also got called an idiot earlier on in the tourney... I had just recently doubled up with AK versus AQ (oh, the irony) and was sitting on T4000 with the blinds at 75-150. Not a bad position to be in. There was a min-raise UTG so I called with Pocket Dueces. Flop it or drop it, or maybe pull a move if it was a low raggedy board. Flop comes 233 and the PFR leads out. I figure I'll let him hang himself and just call. But the Turn is another 3, pretty much killing my hand if he had a bigger pocket pair. We check it through and he shows AJ and I take down a small pot (compared to what I might have gotten had that 3rd Trey not fallen).

So I say, "Whew, that turn killed my hand, thought you had a bigger pocket pair."

A guy not even involved in the hand says, "So why'd you call a pre-flop raise if you thought he had a bigger pair? Keep chasing your two-outers, idiot. You'll learn..."

What? I replied, "Hey, it was a min-raise and I had chips and position. Flop it or drop it, and I f'in flopped it! If he had a bigger pocket pair and caught it on the turn or river, then he would have been the one that two-outer'd me."

I held back from pointing out the fact that the guy calling me names only had T900. Unfortunately, I doubled him up a few hands later when I had KK and he had AT and caught the Ace. "There," I told him, "You have some chips now so quit whining."

If nothing else, playing these big-prize winner-take-all Freerolls have made me think about aspects of my play... overvaluing hands and getting all-in when I don't need to be. I'll take it all as preparation for next week's PokerStars Freeroll. Should be an interesting mix of good players, political bloggers, and me - the two-outer chasing idiot!