First off, you may have noticed a few layout changes on Ye Olde Gay Online Diary. The wonderful and talented
Katitude has presented me with a banner to help spruce up this corner of the interweb. I may be messing about with my blog template some more, but the major and most delightful change is in place.
UPDATE: It appears the banner is visible in Firefox, but not IE. I will have to investigate.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: OK, banner is now visible in both, but I am going to continue messing about.
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Wednesday found me tilty and cursing at my computer, so it was probably a good thing that I had a couple days away from the virtual felt. I've already talked about Thursday, and if you thought that common sense would prevail and that I would take it easy on Cinco de Mayo... well, you just don't know me very well.
On Friday night I went up to Baltimore to attend a friend's Cinco de Mayo bash. I had a great time, knocking back way too many Mexican beers to count. I ended up crashing at 4:30am, after playing a masterful prevent defense on a drunken slapper who decided that a piece of Garthmeister J. was what she required. A scant three and a half hours later I was back on the road, heading back to DC to play a game of Aussie Rules. After which we all headed to a pub for food. And more beer.
You may not be surprised to learn that after returning home I had a lengthy nap. Mmmmm, naps....
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So, poker! After emerging from my nap I was more than itching to fling some chips about.
SoxLover and I jumped into a $10 single rebuy on Stars, a tournament I quite enjoy. I quite like these tournaments because there is a lot of dead money: there are those people who only buy in once, there are those people who aren't able to make it to the first break, and there are those who continue to give chips away once the rebuy period is over. 879 players signed up, and I managed to fight my way through a bunch of them, aided by being dealt AA four times and getting paid off (to varying degrees) each time. I finally went down holding the SuperDonkey (KJ s00ted), when I was unable to improve versus AT s00ted. When the dust had settled I had managed to finish in 17th place, which was worth almost $200.
While we were playing the Stars tournament I realised that
Joe Speaker's favourite
tournament, the 11pm $10 rebuy on Paradise, was about to start. I had long been interested in it, due to his unflattering description of the play he found there. Unfortunately for me I played like a lemur during the first hour, and including the add-on I was into the tournament for 6 buyins. Looking at the payout structure I realised that I would have to go through a whole bunch of the remaining players to finish in the black. With almost the bare minimum of chips I was into the second hour, looking to go as far as possible.
It is always hard to judge the quality of play during the rebuy period of a tournament. After all, trying to judge what is a retarded play versus what is an attempt to garner a huge stack is difficult to do. It becomes easier to judge once the rebuy period is over. And OH MY GOD were these players bad. I can not recall being in a tournament where the play was this woeful.
My favourite player of the tournament was the (at the time) biggest stack in the tournament who sat down on my direct left during the 3rd hour or so. I watched as he proceeded to play almost every hand, loving any draw... and proceeding to hit most of them. I was a smaller-than-average stack at the time, and I began praying for a premier hand to double up with against him. Finally my wishes were granted when I was dealt QQ in the SB. It was folded around to me, so I pushed my chips in, assuming the Big Stack Moron would call me from the BB with anything. I assumed correctly, as I was called down by the premier hand of 92o.
He did not suck out.
That was the last premium hand I saw, as I was delivered a might cold-decking. Nonetheless I was able to dance through the field and its ineptitude. What looked like a longshot at the end of the rebuy period became an eventuality, as I made the money. Despite my cards, I was feeling like I might actually be able to make some money. I hung on, and hung on, waiting for that hand that never appeared. I finally was forced to push with a hand, but was called down and eliminated. Somehow I had made it to 34th of 829 players, though that was only good for $20 more than I bought in for.
I will play this tournament again.
By the time I busted out of the second tournament it was 3am, and it was clearly time to crash. I didn't sleep that well, and I was conscious much earlier than I wanted. At 10am I eventually dragged my carcass out of bed. One of the tournaments I try and hit each Sunday morning is the 11:30am satellite for the 1M Guaranteed on Stars. Depending on the week it is either $53+5 or $36+3, with the top 10% or 15% respectively cashing. I have always felt that this tournament suited my game... and when you factor in that a lot of players in it do not grasp the finer points of cashing in this kind of satellite, I like my chances. Of course that means I have struck out every time I have tried this tournament, but it doesn't mean I don't like it.
SoxLover and I both entered the tournament, and despite dumping half my stack early on I was able to hang in there and make chips off my better hands. My two pair dodged a bunch of outs, as did my flopped straight, and all of a sudden I was sitting on a pile of chips. That is when I went into Operation Squat and Stall. Everytime it was my turn to act I waited until my initial 15 seconds were up before I folded. Didn't matter what my cards were. Stall Fold Stall Fold Stall Fold Stall Fold.
You would think that this kind of behaviour would be obvious to even the dimmest of poker players. Apparently not. At least three times the blinds were folded around to me. I was also able to cherry pick the blinds when I was in the SB and the BB was sitting out a couple of times (again, what the person on the Button was thinking, I have no idea). And thus I was able to coast into cashing.
I contemplated actually playing the 1M Guaranteed tournament. After all, I felt that I was playing very well, and I had won a satellite that would pay for it. But on the other hand, unregistering for the tournament would put $215 tournament dollars into my pocket. As my 180 stats suggest, I would have no problem finding tournaments to spend this on.
At the end of the day I decided to take a nap and bank the tournament chips.
After my nap I finally got around to playing
Veneno in match 4 of our best of 5 series. After V had leapt out to a 2-0 lead I had pegged one back, but I was still facing elimination. As is my trademark, it turned out to be an extended affair. The pivotal hand occurred when Veneno got all her chips in on a J high flop with two diamonds. I was holding AQ s00ted, and two overcards with a backdoor flush draw turned out to be too tempting. I thought Veneno might be on the flush draw, but as her cards flipped over I saw she actually had J9o. For a moment it looked like Veneno would be poisoned herself when an Ace hit on the turn, but the river was a 9 to give her a series win. Congratulations to V! Veneno is now owed a poker-related item, though I informed her that she would receive it once she got around to sending her outstanding bounty to
Weak... I'm not sure how long that bounty has been outstanding, but given
this post it is at least a couple of months.
I rounded out my weekend pokeration by entering one of my beloved 180s. For a while it looked like I might continue my cashing streak, but I was dumped on the bubble when I misread a big stack's play. I was deep in the Red Zone, in the BB, with 21 players remaining. It was folded around to the SB, who merely completed. If he raised I was folding, as my Big Lick wasn't a great holding (hey, that rhymes). The flop came down A-9-x... and the SB checked to me. I read the SB's actions as revealing he doesn't have an Ace. The blinds and antes are worth a lot to me, so I push my stack in to ensure that a card he likes doesn't come later. All sound thinking, except the SB thinks a while... before calling me down with A3o. Well, fuck. No help for me, and I'm done in 21st.
Despite missing against V and in the 180 I still cashed in 3 of the 5 events I played over the weekend, finishing $300 or so to the good. I am hoping that I am going to hit serious paydirt in one of those bigger tournaments sooner or later. Who knows, I might even play the 1M Guaranteed some day soon. Stay tuned.