Tuesday, March 18, 2008

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds"

Thanks for the quote, Mr Emerson. In case you were wondering, this is my way of explaining that (once again) I made the points in the Hoy, but flamed out in the teens. This time it was shoving over the top of BuddyDank with AJo. He thought and called with 99, no help, and boom.

So, HOSE tonight. Let's see if I can increase that batting percentage (currently hitting the points in 6 of 7 tournaments), with the extra joy of cashing.

Either that or I'll crash early. We'll see.

Monday, March 17, 2008

UPDATE: March Madness Report

I didn't blog about this at the time, but when Deadspin's Will Leitch swung into the District for a book signing for his latest bookie book, I actually turned up, asked a question during the reading (I am a total nerd), and had a good chat when I got my book signed. I then went home to get my passport before the after-signing drinks (long story)... and ran into Will as he was entering the drinking establishment. And saw Kissing Suzy Kolber's Big Daddy Drew (who, btw, is fucking tall, and I'm 6' 3"), and got fucked up drunk with Unsilent Majority as we talked about Chelsea (the soccer team). And then ran into Will when I was walking home and he was waiting for his late night greasy food.

What I'm trying to say here is: nice guy, good book. But promises are promises.

LEITCH, I WARNED YOU!

For those who don't wish to click through...

'Can George Mason be this year's "George Mason?"'

March Madness Report

The next person (whether they are a member of the media or not) I hear say the following: "Who do I think will be this year's George Mason? Well, what about George Mason?!" gets a kick in the face from me.

Consider yourselves warned.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Best Footy Clip of All Time

It's that time of the year, folks. Tomorrow morning I strap on the boots for the first Aussie Rules game of the season, one of our intra-club affairs that we use for training. For those of you wondering exactly what this game is, let me give the opportunity to watch the greatest set of Aussie Rules clips I have ever seen. I love YouTube.


For those of you can't see it, go here and enjoy.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Second Verse, Same as the First

I have a real knack for this: cruise along in a tournament, hit the points threshold of top 25%, explode. Last night it was the Hoy, and I managed to blow up in 17th of 86. I'm not too distraught , even though there were at least two people ahead of me in the standings alive when I departed (Columbo and Tuscaloosa Johnny... and Johnny had a serious number of chips). I played well, in all, though I made one horrendous call early (KJ < AQ vs Jeciimd) which was summarily punished.

When the points bubble approached I had one of those situations where I was low on chips, and needed to make a move. I managed to double up when my 9s beat out JQo, and the very next hand I got all my chips in with AQ vs KJ... against Jeciimd. Unfortunately my AQ couldn't hold, and I was back to where I started. A few hands later and my AQ couldn't beat A2, and I was crippled. I couldn't fight back from there, though I made a go of it.

I don't think there is too much I would do to change up my game for 6-max (except for, you know, trying not to make horrendous calls). 6-max gets dicey when the blinds and antes start to get large, so I'm going to have to think if there is anything I need to tweak there. Overall though, if I continue to put myself in a position to make a move I have to think a deep finish will come eventually... I just have to hope I keep getting into that position.

I am 4 for 4 for making the points, which is something, but only 1 for 4 in actually cashing, and 0 for 4 in making any real noise.

Apparently tonight is PLO in the BBT3 series, so we'll have to see if my form holds in that discipline. I plan on playing, if circumstances eventuate. I'm still thinking about my BBT3 strategy here. I'd love to be able to snaffle one of the monthly prizes, which I think is more likely than either getting into the top 5 overall (due to the length of the series) or getting into the TOC and snaffling one of the prizes there. Right now I'm playing as many events as I can in March - if it looks too bleak for April or May I can always cut back on events, or bow out altogether, but for right now it's full speed ahead.

Monday, March 10, 2008

BBT3 Thoughts: The Story So Far

Here we are, one week into the Historic (I'm going to claim it's Historic, just work with me, OK?) Battle of the Blogger Tournament Series III - so important, and as we have already established, Historic, that I have bequeathed it roman numerals.

OK, I think I side-tracked myself there, so let me start over.

BBT3: it's happening.

I have been able to make three of the first five tournaments, a strike-rate of blogger event attrendance that I have not approached in a looooooooong time. I was unable to make Tuesday's tournament because... well, because I was busy getting drunk with All-Star. Wednesdays are bad for me in general, since I have my writing group, and now might have footy training that night (which means Tuesdays might look a bit iffy, if we move the writing group, but I digress).

So far my story has been one of consistency, but ultimately disappointment. I satellited my way into Miami Don's Big Game, and managed to make it to the final two tables, busting in 11th (or maybe 12th). I suffered a couple of beats late; nothing outrageous, but the kinds of 60-40s that have to hold when the blinds are so massive in terms of your stack size for you to do much damage. I then got my money in a little earlier than I would have liked in the wash-up. The cash was nice, however, given the buy-in and the fact I managed to satellite into the event.

The first Hoy event of BBT3 was interesting; I don't play much 6-max (either cash or tournament), but I seem to do alright in them, taking into account the small sample size. Second hand in I watched Mike almost double against NumbBono with set vs overpair on the flop, while I chipped up a little early with some aggressive play. This allowed my to double through Mike (crippling him in the process) with my own set vs overpair on the flop. From this platform I was able to stay in the top few positions of the leaderboard for most of the way through the tournament, when I slipped to the middle of the pack, when I managed to trick someone into gifting me their stack. This put me in third with 22 remaining, with 12 cashing.

I busted in 17th.

I had made the points, but was again unhappy with the finish, especially given the position I found myself in late.

On Thursday I logged into Full Tilt for the Riverchasers tournament, fully expecting it to be NLHE. Not to be! PLO was the name of the game, and similarly to my 6-max NLHE game, PLO is something that I have not much played in tournaments (or cash, really), but have had some good results. I do have a strategy for playing PLO (essentially it's as follows: see as many flops as possible as cheap as possible, try to flop a monster, get as much money in as possible; once the blinds get high, open-raise much more often to try and take down the blinds and antes, play AAxx in particular fast and furious before the flop), which I followed diligently, and allowed me to coast along before building a decent stack. I was sitting pretty, with 10 people left and a couple of shorties at my table, when I pulled a very questionable and out-of-position mostly-bluff-re-raise on the flop against the monster stack. It takes a lot of skill to get that much wrong, people! Strangely this move didn't work, and I busted on the money (and Final Table) bubble. Again I was in the points, but didn't get anywhere near as deep as I hoped.

So after it is all said and done, my consistent play has got me into 9th place on the BBT3 leaderboard. I'm in the mix right now for the "end of month" prize, but I either need to keep being uber-consistent, or to at least take down a tournament, both which are easier said than done. Factor in work blowing up for me, and things become even murkier. Thankfully, given satellites and such, I am also in the black for the tournament series so far, which is also an aim I have.

The most interesting wrinkle for me so far has been the appearance of Scott Fischman. I noted his registering for the first event, which he duly took down after apparently sucking out against half the field. In his defense, from what I saw of his play, he was playing a lot of flops and taking down a lot of pots there and then, which built his stack up enough for him to play his draws and such hard and make a lot of questionable calls against short stacks. Again, people who played against him for longer may have a better impression, but that's what I saw happening. Despite playing in every event so far, Scott has not hit the points again, and it will be interesting to see if he keeps up his attendance.