The Man Tried to Stop Me From Posting This
Well, this sucks.
The fascist place where I work (I won't name names), has added LiveJournal to their list of blocked sites. So now I can't update my blog from work. This really sucks, because they don't keep me busy enough here, and without LJ I don't know how I'm going to get through the workday. It's not just writing, either; I do a lot of non-poker reading on LJ, as I have friends and family who blog here.
So do I move my blog elsewhere or what? There’s no guarantee that they won’t eventually block blogspot and similar sites in the future.
One more reason to consider quitting my job and taking on poker as a career?
I played in the World Blogger Tournament III last night, and let’s just say I didn’t represent LJ as well as I would have liked. There were no hands I would have played differently, but it would have been nice to finish a bit higher.
I don’t remember many names, and since the hand histories at Pacific Poker are not portable, I can’t be perfectly accurate here.
I got off on the wrong foot early on. I had two similar hands in the first level-both times I raised with a strong hand preflop, got callers, and moved on the unhelpful flop for a pot-sized bet. Both times I got raised all-in, both times I had to fold. That put me down to T460 very quickly (you start with T800), and made me the early short stack.
About one orbit later, I raised pre-flop with AKo and got two callers, then moved in on yet another unhelpful flop. This time they showed some damned respect and folded. I was back up to about T760.
One limp-fold and a few blinds later, I was down to T610, and found myself in the big blind with 67o. The cutoff and the small blind limped, and I checked the option. Flop was 8-9-9 rainbow. I thought about pushing in with my draw, but decided that a lone 9 was not and unreasonable holding (especially from the SB), so I checked it. The cutoff bet the minimum, 30, and the small blind folded. While my chips were clearly precious at this stage, I felt that the 4-1 pot odds I was getting plus the massive implied odds made calling here a no-brainer. The turn was a delicious, beautiful 5. The betting went: check (me), bet 30 (him), raise to 150(me), raise to 300(him), all-in (me), call (him). He has T9o for trip nines, and the river did not fill him up, so I doubled through.
Stole a few blinds and a few pots to get up to around T1600, and third place (very briefly). And then a round or so later:
Blinds are 25-50, and I have about T1500. I have 55 in the small blind. Middle position makes it 100, two callers behind, and I decide to take the better than 5-1 odds and call. Flop is 6-2-2, pot is T500, all small stacks in the pot with me (the biggest is T530 or so), and I am first to act. What would you do?
I have to think I’m best here. No (smart) small stack is going to call with a lone 6 or (worse) a lone 2. The only hands I have to worry about are 66, 22, and a higher pair (unlikely unless someone really wants to gamble up their small stack). The 500 would really help my stack. I decide that the potential gain outweighs the risk, and bet the pot. Fold to a late position player, who calls and turns over 66 for the flopped boat. Oof!
So with ~T1000, and the blinds up to 50-100 (MAN they went up fast!), I gave myself two rounds to find an opening. On my very first big blind, I found it: TT. Fold around to the small blind, who doubled the big to make it 200 to go. I moved in behind, he called. I figured I was either way ahead or I had a coin toss hand. Alas, he had AA, an ace came on the flop, and IGHN.
I wanted to stay on and chat it up a bit with the other players, but since Pacific sucks and doesn’t allow it, I just quit for the night and went the hell to bed. Next time, we will be hosting this event at PokerStars if I have anything to say about it.
Otis of Up For Poker ended up taking it down. Congrats Otis! He has a nice real-time write-up on his site, so check it out.
I really had to rush writing this, since I am extra-short on time today. My sister is going to post this for me, and since she is leaving her office shortly, I have to shoot if off to her. I have TONS more to write, but I just don’t have the time right now.
FU, [insert name of company I work for if you know it]!!!!!
The fascist place where I work (I won't name names), has added LiveJournal to their list of blocked sites. So now I can't update my blog from work. This really sucks, because they don't keep me busy enough here, and without LJ I don't know how I'm going to get through the workday. It's not just writing, either; I do a lot of non-poker reading on LJ, as I have friends and family who blog here.
So do I move my blog elsewhere or what? There’s no guarantee that they won’t eventually block blogspot and similar sites in the future.
One more reason to consider quitting my job and taking on poker as a career?
I played in the World Blogger Tournament III last night, and let’s just say I didn’t represent LJ as well as I would have liked. There were no hands I would have played differently, but it would have been nice to finish a bit higher.
I don’t remember many names, and since the hand histories at Pacific Poker are not portable, I can’t be perfectly accurate here.
I got off on the wrong foot early on. I had two similar hands in the first level-both times I raised with a strong hand preflop, got callers, and moved on the unhelpful flop for a pot-sized bet. Both times I got raised all-in, both times I had to fold. That put me down to T460 very quickly (you start with T800), and made me the early short stack.
About one orbit later, I raised pre-flop with AKo and got two callers, then moved in on yet another unhelpful flop. This time they showed some damned respect and folded. I was back up to about T760.
One limp-fold and a few blinds later, I was down to T610, and found myself in the big blind with 67o. The cutoff and the small blind limped, and I checked the option. Flop was 8-9-9 rainbow. I thought about pushing in with my draw, but decided that a lone 9 was not and unreasonable holding (especially from the SB), so I checked it. The cutoff bet the minimum, 30, and the small blind folded. While my chips were clearly precious at this stage, I felt that the 4-1 pot odds I was getting plus the massive implied odds made calling here a no-brainer. The turn was a delicious, beautiful 5. The betting went: check (me), bet 30 (him), raise to 150(me), raise to 300(him), all-in (me), call (him). He has T9o for trip nines, and the river did not fill him up, so I doubled through.
Stole a few blinds and a few pots to get up to around T1600, and third place (very briefly). And then a round or so later:
Blinds are 25-50, and I have about T1500. I have 55 in the small blind. Middle position makes it 100, two callers behind, and I decide to take the better than 5-1 odds and call. Flop is 6-2-2, pot is T500, all small stacks in the pot with me (the biggest is T530 or so), and I am first to act. What would you do?
I have to think I’m best here. No (smart) small stack is going to call with a lone 6 or (worse) a lone 2. The only hands I have to worry about are 66, 22, and a higher pair (unlikely unless someone really wants to gamble up their small stack). The 500 would really help my stack. I decide that the potential gain outweighs the risk, and bet the pot. Fold to a late position player, who calls and turns over 66 for the flopped boat. Oof!
So with ~T1000, and the blinds up to 50-100 (MAN they went up fast!), I gave myself two rounds to find an opening. On my very first big blind, I found it: TT. Fold around to the small blind, who doubled the big to make it 200 to go. I moved in behind, he called. I figured I was either way ahead or I had a coin toss hand. Alas, he had AA, an ace came on the flop, and IGHN.
I wanted to stay on and chat it up a bit with the other players, but since Pacific sucks and doesn’t allow it, I just quit for the night and went the hell to bed. Next time, we will be hosting this event at PokerStars if I have anything to say about it.
Otis of Up For Poker ended up taking it down. Congrats Otis! He has a nice real-time write-up on his site, so check it out.
I really had to rush writing this, since I am extra-short on time today. My sister is going to post this for me, and since she is leaving her office shortly, I have to shoot if off to her. I have TONS more to write, but I just don’t have the time right now.
FU, [insert name of company I work for if you know it]!!!!!