InternationalI guess I wasn’t the only one who didn’t make it
I just noticed in Thunder Bob’s blog that only five players made the tourney tonight. I wasn’t one of them. We got a satellite dish installed on Saturday (first time we have had tv in 14 years), and the family made too tempting of an Oscar-themed dinner not to indulge in food and tube.
My wife and son teamed up on homemade “Benjamin Button” pizzas (with tomato slices for buttons), “Slumdog” Skewers (grilled chicken marinated in Indian spices), “milk” and cookies (Newman’s oreos in memory of the departed great actor and humanitarian), and “heath” bar crunch ice cream, for the obvious soon-to-be-winer of the Supporting Actor Oscar. Even tastier than it was clever.
Should have had a bookie to bet with on the outcomes, as I picked the winners of every award across the board.
Earlier in the day, I participated in the Poker Stars (click on left to get an account with them) version of “Who Wants to be a Hundred-Thousandaire”, the million dollar turbo takedown. I started out in a severe state of card death, going three orbits without playing a single one of my 9-2 on average hands. I then stole a couple with my newly-developed table image, but was getting chopped down a bit when my pocket eights were presented with a board with three overcards, and I had to fold.
At 50-100, I was down to 2,400, and decided to call in the cutoff with A-4 suited, after having a previous cutoff steal-raise re-popped all-in by the button. SB called and the BB raised to 300, which I called and the SB folded. The flop was 7-3-2 rainbow, and BB bet 900. My instinct had told me his initial raise was made with K-Q (don’t ask me why, but it felt like a crucial hand from the beginning and my senses were heightened at this time), and I decided that an all-in raise would push him off the hand. He called my bet instead, and showed:
K-Q. For good measure, I turned the wheel, and suddenly had some chips to play with.
Fortunately, I started to get some cards, and wound up doubling up twice with K-K (both times against lower pocket pairs). Heading towards the money bubble, I got as high as 330th out of 4,500, with about 13,000 chips. I ran into some whiffed flops against bigger stacks, and was down to a little over 8,000 when the bubble burst. As the blinds had now accelerated to 500-1000 with a 100 ante (M of 3 for me), and the next money break wasn’t for another 2,000 players, I looked for a hand to push with, and got 4-4 in middle position, which was called by A-Q, who flopped two more queens. Overall, I thought I played well, and 90 bucks is 90 bucks, but I had really wanted to go deep in this one, and looked to have a good shot for a while.
BTW- The Clearspine review of a new book on low-limit high low Omaha is up on the site here. Enjoy it!
German
French
Spanish
Italian
Hungarian
Hroatian
Dutch
Brazilian
Romanian
February 23rd, 2009 at 9:18 am
Congrats on the cash, even if it wasn’t as high as you would have liked. I enjoyed your review of the Omaha book and may track that down.
I missed the HORSE tourney too, but I had played in a $4.40 180-player SNG all afternoon and lasted to 3rd, so I was pokered out. I hope to make the next one!
February 24th, 2009 at 8:57 am
There were 10, five on each table. Do you spend an hour on the treadmill everyday? With all of that fine fare and your super appreciation of it, remember the old adage, “Once across the lips, forever on the hips!” Well maybe that doesn’t apply to guys on the hips thing but… We missed you!
February 24th, 2009 at 11:36 am
The key for me is that I basically eat one big meal each day (lunch on workdays, dinner on weekends). Other than that, I don’t eat very much, and avoid snacks. And I do a LOT of walking, and some weekend warrior stuff with the kids.
And yestbay, good job on the sng. Look forward to seeing you at the next game.