The stretch

My last week as a bachelor....I doubt I will have any time for poker this week. Tonight after work, I have to go pick up the tux. The in-laws are flying into town from NY on Thursday. We are having a reception here in Atlanta on Saturday and another reception in New York the following weekend.
It will be a while before I can get back to regular poker night online. However, next Monday, my new wife and I will be driving from Atlanta to New York for the wedding reception there. We are planning to make a stop-over in Atlantic City. I have never been there but have been doing some research on the nightly poker tournaments that they are running. I would like to stay at the Borgata but their tourneys are usually of the rebuy variety. I am not too crazy about those so I may have to check out the freeze-out tourney that they are running at the Taj Mahal.
I'll be sure to post a complete trip report as soon as I can. In the meantime, wish me luck and good luck at the tables.

Bubbled

I tried out the new 3 table multi at Party last night. I really like the format. The blinds do not go up as fast as the regular sit and go's and you have a better chance of winning if you are a good player. Unfortunately for me, I caught a run of cold cards when the blinds reached 200/400 and I went out in 6th place. One spot from the money.

I'll probably spend a good portion of this weekend playing these on Party. Come say hi if you see me. My name on Party is HIS_Airness.

Got my money back!

My persistence with the Pacific issue did some good. They refunded me my buy-in. It was harder than it had to be, but at least someone there was able to use some common sense.

I played in two sit and go at party last night. In the first one, during the first orbit, I got dealt QQ. Someone in front of me goes all-in. Since people on Party are usually pretty loose in the early stage and will go all-in with less than premium hands. I decided to take a shot and call and maybe double up. Well, he wasn't bluffing because he had KK. However the flop does come down with a Q and I am ahead until the K drops on the river. Oh well...can't feel too bad. He did have me beat pre-flop. Can't complain about a bad beat there.

I did end up getting first place in the second sit and go so that made up for my quick exit in the first. I was outchipped 4 to 1 when it got down to heads-up but my opponent was a pretty weak heads-up player and I was able to quickly finish him off.

Pacific Problem

I am so frustrated with dealing with customer service. Why does it seem like you always get a standard cookie cutter response instead of a real response from a live person?

So I was playing in the 10:00 multi tourney on Pacific last night. I know their software sucks, but there is often such a good overlay in their $10,000 guaranteed tournament that it is hard to resist. About 40 minutes into the tourney, there is less than 270 people left from an original 600. My stack is about average. Suddenly, I can no longer see one of my hole card. My name tag and stack size display is obstructing one of my hole card. After waiting for a couple of hands, the problem persisted. I had no choice but to leave the table so that I can try to restart the software to see if that might fix my problem. Well unlike other sites, where if you leave the table in the middle of a tourney, your blinds continue to be posted until you return, Pacific Poker automatically eliminates you from the tourney if you leave the table. How moronic is that!

Upon logging back on the site...I was expecting the software to take me back to my table. It didn't. I went to the tournament lobby and try to choose "seat me". I get a message that tells me I can't join the tourney. When I look at the player standings, I find that I finished somewhere around 270th place!!!!

Well it's only $16.50, but I decided to send an email to Pacific support to get a response and maybe a refund of my buy-in. Of course, I get some garbage back about checking my internet connection and that "due to popularity of the site", there could be a delay in connecting. Give a me break!!!

What would have happened if I had made it to the final table and that error occurred? Scary just thinking about it!

A new game

After reading an article posted on RGP about how soft the one on one tournaments are online, I decided to give them a try this weekend. I played the $30 + $1.50 buy-in and won 7 in a row before losing my last two. Very nice!! I think I just got too cocky with those last two that I lost. It was unbelievable how easy it was. The players basically fell into two groups....either there were too aggressive and bluffed too much or they were too tight and let me run over them.

I think I will definitely start including more of these in my daily grind. I am trying to make a big score with a multi tourney win, but it would be nice to use these one on one to fund my entry fee into the multis. I love Multis...they are fun and gives me the possibility for a big win but the volatility on your bankroll is pretty huge. Hopefully, these heads-up matches will help even out some of the ups and down.

I have also come to the conclusion that 9-9 is my evil hand....I just can't seem to win with that hand or against it. I have experienced more bad beat with that hand that I care to remember. I am going to have to throw away that hand when I get late into a tourney.

I just read Iggy's blog and I saw that he pimped this blog. Thank you very much sir. Go check out his blog as he has enough poker related content to make your head spin and use bonus code IGGY at Party Poker.

Smarty?

Anyone out there caught up in this Smarty Jones Triple Crown Fever? The horse sure looks tough but I can't pull myself to bet him at such a huge price. If you were looking strictly at the odds, you would think that the race is done and over with and the winner has been determined. Come on people!!!! They still have to go out there and race......No way am I risking so much to win so little.

So if I throw Smarty Jones out, who should I go with? My pick is Eddington. With the great Jerry Bailey aboard....anything can happen. Maybe a little exacta box action!

I am so glad it's Friday. Looking forward to a beautiful weekend here in the Atlanta area. Only 2 more weeks until the big wedding day. Whoa..I just can't believe that I am typing this. If you would have told me a year ago today that I would be married in 2 weeks, I would have layed whatever odds against that proposition. Funny how things change when you meet your soulmate!

Probably won't get to play in any big tourney this weekend, but hopefully I can sneak in one or two smaller tourney. I have been running pretty cold since my small win on Tuesday. Playing the $50 tourney on Ultimate Bet with no luck...can't even make it to the first break before busting out. I think I am going to start focusing on Pokerstars a little more...especially since they have the 25% deposit promo going. With the recent result of the WSOP, I expect more new players to come to Pokerstars and hopefully that will translate into a softer game there. I may also take a couple of shots at the WCOOP qualifiers tourneys that they are running.

Have a great weekend...thanks for reading!

The NBA Finals

Can anyone see the Pistons beat the Lakers in a best of 7 series?
A few months ago, the Lakers looked a lot like the Fakers, but now when things count the most....they seem almost unbeatable. My prediction is that Lakers win in 5 games.

Although I am not really a Lakers fan, it's nice to finally see Karl Malone and Gary Payton (the old school guys) get their rings. Enjoy it because I think the Lake Show will not be the same next year with the shipping of Kobe to the highest bidder.

On a poker note, I played in a couple of multi's last night. Best finish was fourth place in a 30+3 on Ultimate for about $350. Nice profit on the night but disappointing nonetheless since I was chip leader for about the last hour of the tourney before it got down to 4 handed. Blinds were 1K and 2K and I was the short stack but still around 25K. On the button, I pick up a pair of 7's and make it 5K to go. Big blind comes over the top and goes all-in. I am forced to lay it down since at best, I would be facing a 50-50 decision and I felt I could do better. Several hands later, I pick up A-10 suited and make a 10K stab at the blinds and antes....again, one of the blinds shove all in. Since I am basically pot-committed at this point and feel like I am being bullied around, I make the call. He turns over QQ and my tournament is over until the flop comes down with a A and a 10. As you probably guess, the Q comes on the river and now I am truly done. Left a bad taste in my mouth, but $350 is better than a kick in the balls.

Any thoughts on how you would have played those 2 hands?