Quest of a Closet Poker Player

The first month of my PokerStars challenge had me in a $700 hole heading into the last two days of the month. I’d closed it to -$150 by Sunday when I hopped down to the pit to grind away.

My challenge was to withdraw any funds over $4k at the end of each month, and after a topsy-turvy September which had me up to $5.2k at one point, I sat at $3,850. I’d played a good bit Friday evening, enough to close the gap as well as get PlatinumStar VIP within striking distance as well. I decided I’d play at least enough to get that for the second month then see where I was. This hand sent me back upstairs as I closed out -$650 for September:

POKERSTARS GAME #12361395791: HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($1/$2) - 2007/09/30 - 16:25:38 (ET)
Table ‘Summa’ 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: csquard ($187 in chips)
Seat 2: SERPENTILE ($279 in chips)
Seat 3: Lambooboy ($215.50 in chips)
Seat 4: smitea ($473 in chips)
Seat 5: JASONMACLEOD ($209.65 in chips)
Seat 6: Camari ($385.35 in chips)
Lambooboy: posts small blind $1
smitea: posts big blind $2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to csquard [Ks Kd]
JASONMACLEOD: raises $6 to $8
Camari: folds
csquard: raises $16 to $24
SERPENTILE: raises $60 to $84
Lambooboy: folds
smitea: folds
JASONMACLEOD: folds
csquard: raises $103 to $187 and is all-in
SERPENTILE: calls $103
*** FLOP *** [8c 5s 8h]
*** TURN *** [8c 5s 8h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [8c 5s 8h Jc] [6c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
csquard: shows [Ks Kd] (two pair, Kings and Eights)
SERPENTILE: shows [Ac Kc] (a flush, Ace high)
SERPENTILE collected $382 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $385 | Rake $3
Board [8c 5s 8h Jc 6c]
Seat 1: csquard showed [Ks Kd] and lost with two pair, Kings and Eights
Seat 2: SERPENTILE (button) showed [Ac Kc] and won ($382) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 3: Lambooboy (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: smitea (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: JASONMACLEOD folded before Flop
Seat 6: Camari folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

I also made a horrible play at this table, calling from the sb with Ad-Qd after a button raise, then check-shoved a turn on a board of As-Ks-Jh-4d (he had Ah-Kc-moronic me). So October hopefully becomes a bigger month for me. I am looking forward to visiting the PokerStars VIP FPP store by the end of the month and ordering the 40″ Sony television. I should get there by the end of the month.

The PokerStars WCOOP Main Event ($2.5k + $100) is still going after almost seventeen hours as I type this. Anna “VietCutie” Wroblewski just busted out in 16th place with Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso one of the top three in chips with fifteen players left. First prize with no deal is $1,378,330.50.

Sweetie and I let The Big Guy (aka hawk, aka our eleven year old) babysit Saturday night as we headed off to Qdoba and a movie. Sweetie was pretty anxious, calling after thirty minutes to check on the boys. They did fine, and we caught Eastern Promises. It is as good as the reviews suggested. We want to see The Brave One but may not be able to make it happen. The Big Guy has his 12th birthday this weekend, and with soccer, in-law’s, and Sweetie’s best friend in town, it should make for a crowded time. Soccer this weekend was good. I ref’d two morning games, iced my bad hammie down at lunch, then coached our two games. All-In had his best game in quite awhile (I think we won that one), and The Big Guy was solid in a 2-2 tie.

The boys cooked their first meal last night as part of our attempt to cut food costs as well as shift more spending to groceries from dining out. We looked at our expenses over the last few weeks, and one of the things we found was that we spent 2/3 of our food costs dining out. If we can flip the ratio, it will cut costs and breed some better family behavior. I signed up to cook one dinner a week, and the boys took Sunday evenings (traditionally a sandwich evening). The Big Guy made South American Pork Soup (found in a cookbook) while All-In made Brownies of Death. We used espresso grounds rather than espresso powder (not sure if this is different-Sweetie said yes, but I couldn’t find it). Definitely had a subtle coffee taste, but they were very good (from scratch). I had All-In deliver them to neighbors to get them out of the house, though. It will be a great exercise for the family to have the boys doing this. I always loved being in the kitchen growing up, although I rarely cooked.

I have a nice busy week as I head outside Pittsburgh for client work Wednesday and Thursday. Have a good day, and thanks for stopping by.

UPDATE 12:13PM

Vanessa “LadyMaverick” Rousso, out in 3rd place ($463,940.50).  Here is the hand (isn’t this a flush about 99% of the time?).

PokerStars Game #12375593404: Tournament #70000023, $2500+$100 Hold’em No Limit - Level XXXIII (125000/250000) - 2007/10/01 - 12:09:11 (ET)
Table ‘70000023 92′ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: LadyMaverick (7909864 in chips)
Seat 6: ka$ino (36081860 in chips)
Seat 9: TheV0id (15968276 in chips)
LadyMaverick: posts the ante 25000
ka$ino: posts the ante 25000
TheV0id: posts the ante 25000
TheV0id: posts small blind 125000
LadyMaverick: posts big blind 250000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
ka$ino: raises 380000 to 630000
TheV0id: folds
LadyMaverick: calls 380000
*** FLOP *** [Ts 3d 6h]
LadyMaverick: checks
ka$ino: bets 880000
LadyMaverick: calls 880000
*** TURN *** [Ts 3d 6h] [7s]
LadyMaverick: checks
ka$ino: checks
*** RIVER *** [Ts 3d 6h 7s] [Js]
LadyMaverick: bets 2000000
ka$ino: raises 32546860 to 34546860 and is all-in
LadyMaverick: calls 4374864 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ka$ino: shows [9s 2s] (a flush, Jack high)
LadyMaverick: shows [3c 6c] (two pair, Sixes and Threes)
ka$ino collected 15969728 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 15969728 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 3d 6h 7s Js]
Seat 1: LadyMaverick (big blind) showed [3c 6c] and lost with two pair, Sixes and Threes
Seat 6: ka$ino (button) showed [9s 2s] and won (15969728) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 9: TheV0id (small blind) folded before Flop

This entry was posted on Monday, October 1st, 2007 at 8:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized.