WSOP Seat Up For Grabs

I've been participating in an online poker league at FloatTheTurn.com since January. First place is a seat in a WSOP $1,000 buy-in, preliminary tournament, three nights at the Rio, and dinner with Jon Little, who runs the site and was also the WPT Player of the Year a couple years ago when he won two World Poker Tour Tournaments and final tabled another.

We play a tournament each month, with the May tourney this Sunday on Poker Stars.

There is a total of six tournaments in the FTT season, and we have completed four. Points are awarded based on where you finish. First is 100 points, second is 90, etc. You get 10 bonus points if you bust one of the coaches on the site and 10 just for playing.

I was fortunate enough to ship the first tournament in January, felting three of the site coaches for 30 bonus points.

In February, I had a fourth for 70 points, but no bonus points.

March was a disaster, as I didn't make the final table. I got it in good twice when I had the Villain covered, but lost both. That left me short-stacked and I was felted when I got it in good again, but didn't hold and limped away with only 10 points.

I shipped the April tourney for 100 points, which gives me the league lead so far with 310 points. My biggest rival is "beerocrat," who won the February and March tourneys and has 290 points.

That makes Sunday's tournament huge! My strategy is to play tight early, make the final table, then open my up my game. I want to be sure I have a good shot at winning the whole thing next month.

There were 34 players when the league began, but most have dropped out once they got to the point where they didn't have much of a chance to win. We now have around 12-15 active players in the league. But all of them are sharks. There are several professionals who will play 16-20 tables at a time, and of course Jon Little also plays. These "Young Guns" are very aggressive. The final table is raise, re raise, push...not for the light hearted. But playing low buy-in, "small potatoes" tournaments, does not allow me to play against such high-caliber players. It can only improve my game.

Right?

And who knows, maybe I'll hang on and whup 'em all! Talk about a huge upset.

Anyway, if you're playing on Poker Stars Sunday afternoon around 4:35 eastern, drop in and say hello. My screen name is Poker Donk3y and the tournament id is 268582356.

Shuffle up and deal!

Bad Beat In Vegas

It seems like some of my favorite bloggers have been writing about bad beats this week. I also joined the whine-fest by including a couple hands I played the other night on Full Tilt.

Now I want to tell you of my all-time worst beat.

It was a warm summer night in Las Vegas several years ago. I was sitting at a $2-4 limit hold-em game at the Plaza, playing some cards, visiting and enjoying a few adult beverages. Sitting in early position, I looked down at pocket threes and called. As is the norm in a low-limit game, there were several limpers before the button raised. Everyone called and we saw a flop of 7c,3d,6c. I bet my set and got a couple of calls, including the pre-flop button raiser.

The turn was the 8h. Once again, I bet my set and it was folded to the button, who raised. I put him on either an over pair or a set of eights and called.

The river was the case three, giving me quads. I bet $4 and the villain raised to $8. I now had him solidly on pocket eights and betting his full house, which was no good. I was absolutely giddy and re-raised to $12.

The dealer then announced that because we were heads-up, there was no cap on betting.

SAH-WEET!

Villain raised again and we went back and forth for quite some time until we had around $200 in the pot. When he finally just called, I knew I had him and tabled my quad threes.

He looked at my hand, then slow-rolled the 4c,5c. Did I forget to mention that the case 3 was a club, giving him a straight flush?

Oh crap! You could hear the whole table go "Oooooohhh."

There could have been a dinosaur walk in the Plaza and take a dump on my shoes and I wouldn't have been more shocked than I was to lose that hand.

In poker lingo, pocket twos are known as "ducks." At the local games I play, in my honor, "ducks" are pocket threes.

There was a happy ending though. I did win a $25 high hand jackpot!

Lucki Duck, TV Star

I belong to a local community service organization named Sertoma, which is an acronym for SERvice TO MAnkind.

Cute, huh?

Our mission is to provide hearing aids to underprivileged children in central Texas. Of course, you need money to support this cause. Trust me, hearing aids aren't cheap and each child usually requires two. We are hosting our Sertoma Kitefest this Saturday, which is our largest fundraiser of the year. Tomorrow I'm appearing on the local noon news to promote the event during a three minute interview.

I've done this type of interview for the event the last couple of years, but I still get nervous because you don't want to look like an idiot in front of that many people. I mean, my family and friends already know I'm a dufus, but I'd like to keep that a secret from the community at large!

So, wish me luck and if you're in the Waco area Saturday, drop by for some fun. The link with directions is below.


Sertoma Kitefest

Full Tilted

A few new friends of mine got together for a couple of sit-n-goes on Full Tilt last night.

Very Josie, G-man, and Frankie (fmarra17) played a couple tourneys, but of the four of us, only Frankie was able to cash, limping in for a third place finish in the first game and shipping the second one. WTG Franco!

I suffered what I call being "Full Tilted" (bad beat) in both games. In the first SNG, I raised from the cutoff with AA and was re raised by the button who had QQ. We got it all-in preflop and an innocent flop left the villain with just two outs. Wheeeee! I'm an 12-1 favorite now, what could possibly go wrong? Turn is a Q... ah, the sluts strike again! Villain had me covered, so that was that.

In the second game, I was short stacked and pushed from middle position with A8 off. I'm called by A7 off and fade the flop. Villain is down to three outs, so I'm looking good as an 8-1 favorite. But alas, the turn brings a 7 and I'm a dead duck after being "Full Tilted."

The odds of losing both of those back to back. Almost 100-1, but I run good like that!

The banter between Josie, G-Man, Franko and myself was much more interesting than the poker. VJ was her usual sharp-tongued self, firing off salvos left and right. I loved it! Then she started talking about being "soft and squishy'" but I don't know if she was referring to her body or her poker game. I've only witnessed one. Here's exhibit A, Your Honor:

Position Username Profit
1 fmarra17 $17
2 Antifermion $8
3 looseygoosey16 $3.50
4 toby148 -$5.50
5 Lucki Duck -$5.50
6 gpjacobs -$5.50
7 chasesavoy -$5.50

8 veryjosie -$5.50

9 HeyMikeyy -$5.50


You be the judge, but I'm going with her game!

A great evening shared with the "Fun Bunch!" I can't wait for round 2!

So, How Would You Play It?

I was going over my last hand in the Tournament Indicator Tournament I played last night. I was in middle position with AKc. Blinds were $800-1600T with a $100T ante. I had an average stack of around 22K. The player to my right, whom I have covered, raises 2.5X. I call to look at a flop before committing all my chips. The player to my left, who has been fairly laggy (loose/ aggressive), pushes. He has me covered. The table folds, including the original raiser, and it's back to me.

What would you do here, and why?

My thought was that he had been laggy and there were only two hands that crush me (AA & KK). I had <10BB and I just couldn't see folding this big a hand here. He could have pocket pair (I was willing to take a flip), but he could also make this move with AQ, AJ, or even napkins. If I win the hand, I'm chip leader with 45K+ with 36 players left and a $600+ first prize. Alas, he shows me KK and the Duck gets shot down.

Sigh.

Tournament Indicator Tourney- Updated!

A few dozen poker players who use the HUD "Tournament Indicator" are entering a MTT on Full Tilt this evening at 7:20 eastern. It's a 3600 player tourney with a couple of bonuses for felting certain TI players. It's only a $5 buy-in, so I'm going to give it a shot, although I've never played it.

I like using TI for my sit and gos. It gives me a wealth of information on my opponents and it's all displayed below the table, which keeps the table from becoming cluttered with too many numbers.

Stop by and join me if you have $5 and some time. The tournament ID# is 155975980. I hope to see you there!

Update: Ran AK clubs into KK. Flopped a flush draw, but didn't improve. Finished 37th out of 486 for an $8 cash. Three hours of play, $3 net profit. That's not quite minimum wage is it?

Ahhhh, good times!

Friday Nite On the Felt

Played in our usual Friday night home game last night. We start with a no-limit hold 'em tournament, $5 buy-in (small potatoes). We generally have 10-15 players, with nine sitting down at the table last night. As players bust, they move over to the cash table, which has a $2 buy-in, with 10 and 20 cent blinds. Again, small potatoes.

I was UTG on the first hand of the tournament and mucked big lick (69 off). Flop is 6,8,9, rainbow. Turn is another 9. Oh boy, I hope that's not a sign!

I still had my most of my starting stack, $100T, when I looked down at AK off in late position. Blinds were still at the $1-2 first level. There was one limper, so I raised 3X plus one for the limper. The original limper called, which is not unusual in this game. Flop is garbage, 4,7,2, rainbow. Limper bets $10T into me and I call. Turn is an 8 and he leads out for $20T. The villain, Josh, is a tight player that will fire one bullet, but not a second unless he has a hand. After judging his body language, I folded, figuring I could find a better spot to go to war. He later told me he had a set, which is what I was afraid of.

Later in the tourney, with blinds at $3-6T, I was in the cutoff with JTd. With several limpers in front, I limped behind. Flop had two diamonds and all under cards. Josh lead out with a small $10T bet with everyone folding to me. I called. Josh checked an innocent turn card, as did I. The river brought a beautiful diamond! Josh checked and I pushed my last $36, which was about the size of the pot. Josh folded and I raked a nice pot.

With blinds at $5-10T, I had built a nice stack of $250T and was dealt 74 off in the BB. I checked behind three limpers + the SB and saw a flop of 2,4,7, with two diamonds. I lead out with half pot bet and was called by Freddy, one of the better players at the table. I put him on a flush draw and bet pot after a non-diamond 8 hit the board. He pushed all-in for $105T. Crap! Guess I read that one wrong. I folded and Freddy showed 65d for the made straight with a straight- flush redraw. Good fold Lucki Duck!

I was able to continue to chip-up and had a huge chip lead when we got ITM. I took out Beverly, a tight passive player when I pushed from the SB with K5 off. Bev was down to one BB and called with Q8d, but didn't improve. The next hand I pushed again with K5s and Freddy called with 97 off. The turn completed my flush and I took down the $25 first prize!. WOOT!

More on the cash game in my next post.

Small Potatoes

Welcome aboard everyone!

I began playing poker in 2003 after watching a season of the World Poker Tour. I know many feel that poker boomed because of the "Moneymaker Effect," but I think that the WPT had as much to do with the boom, if not more.

My first action was at a local bar and pool hall, where it cost $5 to play (to pay the dealers) with no prize money. It was fun, but I soon began playing in a small stakes home game. I currently play in that same game all these years later and have added another home game, so I'm sitting at a poker table two nights a week.

I also play on Full Tilt as "Lucki Duck" and Poker Stars as "PokerDonk3y." I generally play at the $5-6 level and am often told that it's "small potatoes," thus the title of this blog. I prefer the 18 man sit-n-go tournaments, but occasionally will play an MTT.

I hope to share a few poker stories and some hands I've played. Hopefully they'll be interesting!