Biggest cash yet - $700

Actually it was $760. 5th place out of 91 players. I'll take it (although the $3,300 for first would have been super sweet), considering it was my first final table in a tournament of this size in over a year. I don't play too many rebuy tourney's let alone live tourney's so I am happy with my results. I'll try to recall a few key areas that helped me get to the final 8.

First hour and a half (the rebuy period):
I insta-add on for $25 to double my stack right from the start (not sure why everyone else didn't do it, only three at our table did).

UTG: third hand of the tournament I get AK of hearts... looking back obviously I should have raised... but I call hoping that some one else will raise and I can come over the top... nope. 5 players and the flop comes J-10-9 with two diamonds. Basically I played this hand about as bad as i could have. No one bets the flop, and the turn is a K... ok I have top pair... I'll bet. So I bet the pot which is only at about $100 at this point and Mr. limper to my left (who apparantly is a really good player) raises me all in! I tank and eventually call putting him on a flush draw with some sort of low suited connector... wrong... he had Q-5 off suit... and he takes my stack... add on for another $25 to get my stack back over 1500. At this point I am totally questioning my poker skills and its only about 20 minutes into the tournament. Anyway, I cool off and think of Annie Duke for some reason and a comment she made on TV once about being able to move on and to put whatever just happened behind me. So I did. A few rounds later I double up when I spike an ace on the turn and get my chips back from Mr. Limper when I crack his Kings (he goes out a few orbits later after smoking a J on the break)...Doesn't he know that weed and poker don't mix... so I hear... Ok, now I am ready with enough chips to make some moves.

Funny side story: Mr. Limper's buddy is sitting at our table too (they blazed one together). I call him a maniac because of his super hyper agressive style. He was basically gambling with ridiculous hands like 4-6off, 3-9clubs etc. I call him a maniac and he goes on to tell me that he guarantees that he is the best player that I have ever sat down at a poker table with... I think to myself 'who says that' and say to him "really? well I have played a lot of poker with a lot of good players"... and his response was "I cashed 300th in the Series for over 6 figures"... my response "what's the series??" the table burst out laughing, it was great. He ends up busting out right after they get back from their "break". Good times, see ya!


I add on for $30 (total investment $145) and get another 2,000 chips and sit at about average with almost 5,000 after the first 1.5 hours. This was fine for me as I knew this was where I was going to start to make some moves and accumualte chips. I move tables and tighten up. I raise consistently with Kings and Jacks and steal very little.

Key hand with about 40 players left: I get A-3 off suit and open raise it to 3x BB = 2,400 in late position knowing that the BB has about another 2,000 chips left if he calls the raise... He calls, not good. the flop comes 2-4-9 and he goes all in for his last 2,000. I groan knowing I am behind and he shows A-8... yikes. Well I end up rivering a 5 and hitting a straight for my only suckout of the tournament. A we all know, this type of luck is very necessary if you want to go deep in big tounaments. There were river knockouts going on all over the place. Little did I know this would come to haunt me at the final table...

Middle tourney play: This part of my game really has improved. Previously I would just wait and limp and be so passive it was ridiculous. This time I had a few more chips to sling around and when I moved tables for a second time I really started to play well and make some great reads. I was re-raising and putting guys to the test. I knew that no one wanted to busto with only 20 players left. It was actually pretty easy too. It felt great and I was really focused.

Final table: I am sitting in about 3rd in chips when we get there with about 50,000. I pick my seat and I get the BB right off the bat. Blinds were at 1,500/3,000 with a 200 ante. First hand I fold to a big raise from the chip leader who managed to pick the button to start off... I knew this wasn't going to be easy. Next hand I am in the small blind and it folds to me and look down at 7-7... I really didn't want to see a flop so I push all in... BB calls and I had him covered by about 20K... He shows K-Q and we are off the to races...I really was in shock that he would race knowing that 8th only got $360. he spikes a king on the river and takes half my stack. I am down to under 20,000. So I buckle down hoping that others get knocked out and wait for a big hand. Well that never came. I get my remaining 15K in UTG with K-5 offsuit and Mr. K-Q calls me with As-8h. Three spades come on the flop but I flop a king. No Spades, no spades!! please!! He rivers a spade and I go home packin... 5th place.

Pat myself on the back, move on and work towards that elusive 1st place. 2007 looks like it is going to be a good one and all my studying and hard work is starting to pay off.

Congrats to my buddy Will's brother Andre who placed 8th for $380. Great job dude, very proud of you.


Happy New Year everyone. Be safe.

I'm in... rebuys galor

I'm in for tomorrow's tourney... $65 - 1,000 chips, add on right away for $25 for another 1,000 chips... anytime you are below 1,500 you can rebuy for $25 for another 1,000 chips and the add on is $30 for 2,000 chips ending at the 1.5 hour mark. Then it's a freeze out from then on. Registration is at 3:30, cards at 4. 85 players confirmed up to 96

MTT this weekend? $2,000 would be nice

Can't decide if I should play in this live MTT this saturday. Buy in is $75 with about 75 players so it should be a nice payout. I have played in these before and my best finish was 7th a couple of years ago... I feel pretty good about my game these days so I really think I should give it another run. It kicks off at 4pm, so my night would be pretty much booked since I plan on going all the way.

P.S. - is anyone reading this crap?

Ovechkin highlight reel, great tune too...

can anyone name this tune?

pocket 6's flopped trips twice in five levels

Ok if anyone out there could comment on the following I'd appreciate it. This was a low buyin 18 person sit'n'go.

I raised back in level 3 with 6's in MP and bet out on the flop of A-6-2 rainbow and everyone folded... I know there is more than one way to play trips on a board like this but it happened to me again in level 5 and again... it didn't work out.

PokerStars Game Hold'em No Limit - Level V (75/150) - 2006/12/20 - 22:38:41 (ET)Table '38540214 2' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 3: Schaubs (1450 in chips)
Seat 4: webwilltell (2335 in chips)
Seat 5: binnzy_123 (1220 in chips)
Seat 6: hickman444 (5507 in chips)
Seat 8: lakefolk (2988 in chips)
hickman444: posts small blind
75lakefolk: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to Schaubs [6c 6d]
Schaubs: calls 150 (should i raise? I tried that...)
webwilltell: calls 150
binnzy_123: calls 150
hickman444: calls 75
lakefolk: checks
*** FLOP *** [Ah 6h 9d]
hickman444: checks
lakefolk: checks
Schaubs: bets 300 (maybe I should have just pushed here?)
webwilltell: raises 300 to 600
binnzy_123: raises 470 to 1070 and is all-in
hickman444: folds
lakefolk: folds
Schaubs: raises 230 to 1300 and is all-in
webwilltell: calls 700

Question: was it worth it for "webwilltell" to call? what are the odds here? If he doesn't call then maybe Mr. Flush draw doesn't call either?? Help!

*** TURN *** [Ah 6h 9d] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [Ah 6h 9d Kh] [5s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
LolaLucko15: shows [6c 6d] (three of a kind, Sixes)
webwilltell: shows [Qc As] (a pair of Aces)
LolaLucko15 collected 460 from side
potbinnzy_123: shows [Th 2h] (a flush, Ace high)
binnzy_123 collected 3960 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4420
Main pot 3960. Side pot 460. Rake 0 Board [Ah 6h 9d Kh 5s]
Seat 3: LolaLucko15 showed [6c 6d] and won (460) with three of a kind
SixesSeat 4: webwilltell showed [Qc As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 5: binnzy_123 (button) showed [Th 2h] and won (3960) with a flush, Ace high
Seat 6: hickman444 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 8: lakefolk (big blind) folded on the Flop

Live Tourney, Cash Game

Played in a live tourney on Sunday and finished 3rd out of 17 for a whopping $100 ($40 buyin)... The funny thing was, I never had a single poket pair the entire tournament... hard to believe? Well its true. I've never gone an entire 3 hour tournament without getting a pair. So needless to say, it was tough to take it down. I pushed and pushed whereever possible but still couldn't make it happen. Almost folded my way into second before the guy rivered to stay alive. Oh well, that's poker. I made one great call with my tourney life on the line that I was pretty proud of:

blinds were 50/100 with 7 players at our table. Started with 1500 and i am sitting with about 1800 at the time.

I was UTG+1 holding AQo and raise it to 300. I had a pretty good read on the table so far and felt good about my move here and would have been happy with just a steal of the blinds. Folds around to the small blind who calls. Perfect.

Flop comes A-9-2 rainbow. He checks, I bet out 300, he raises to 600... I tank for a minute and make the call. I was ready to take this guy on.

The turn comes up blank. He goes all in! Yikes, he's got me covered (he just doubled with Kings on the previous hand). So it's another 900 or so to call. I really tank and replay the hand in my head. I love to chat it up with inexperienced players and see if I can crack them verbally. So I ask him "you must have A-K?"... his reply "something like that"... well that was great for me.. I think for about another minute... a set? nope, no chance. I call! He shows: A-J. I felt pretty good about call. It really felt great to make the right decision.

Good times. From then, on I just limped and stole like a mad man and made it to the final three where I finally pushed with A-7 with about 5BB and got insta called by 8-8 and I couldn't catch up. GG me.

Stopped by a cash game at the club last night and they were play mixed .5/1.00 NL. I sit down for a whole 30 minutes and did what I like to call my Hit'N'Go for a whopping $20 profit. I wasn't even planning on playing. I missed out in a $50 buyin 11 person NL so I wanted to see how it turned out. Then I got roped into this mixed cash game which my buddy fronted for me. I actually did pretty well in omaha, but i am still trying to figure out preflop hand strenghts and the odds I need to call an all in of about $20 with another $15 dead already with a hand like 3-3-7h-5h. Lots of work to do there. Needless to say I folded and would have flopped the nuts...

Another omaha hand I held A-A-5-6 and raised preflop on the button. The flop came out with K-K-K!! with 4 players I folded when one guy bluffed an another called... The caller was slow playing his King of course. $60 pot. nice.

Canucks vs. Minny tonight on PPV. Should be a snoozer trapfest.

Lack-o-shopper

I haven't even started shopping yet and there are 10 days left... however I do have a list going which I guess I should get started on this weekend. No poker to report over the last two days being busy doing the usual dinner and drinks with friends after work. I'd like to start getting into a couple of the blogger regular tourney's during the week on stars so I think I'll look into that this weekend. I'm also going to be playing in a live MTT on Sunday with my buddy willy so that should be good. He gets back from San Fran tonight.

Hey - obviously I am still new to this, so I have a question for my limited audience: How do I put in a hyper link to a blog without showing the entire URL?

My blog is slowly happening, and so is my Holdem game

It sure takes time to figure this stuff out... but I'll get there.

BOOM! 5 nothing Canucks right now... finally they get some scoring going, but of course its against the Yotes... oh well, a win is a win is a win.

Speaking of wins, I'm stuck on these 18 player sit'n'gos on stars right now and they seem to be going well. I want to build up a nice bank roll and then really test my skills. Reading about all this +EV (can someone explain what that actaully means?) makes me salivate... Anyway, I have a basic understanding of what it is... but really what I want to do is start playing in the higher buy in S&G's since I hear that the poker is better there, and people actually fold AQs to a reraise...

Took a course on EQ = EM Emotional Intelligence today and I must say that it was probably the best course I've taken all year. More on that later... this is as good a spot as any to reflect... I think I'm getting the hang of this now.

Schaubs

Two Eagles, Two goals all in one day

Last Saturday I decided to play in the "Polar Bear" which is a weekly golf tournament held over at Delta Golf club. The cost is less than $40 and almost half of that goes into skins, deuces, gross and net prizes. We arrived at about 10:45, which was 15 minutes late for our tee time... we were for some reason going to play in a 6some, which in hinsight, was really really the wrong move. These other three dudes we played with (one was a pro) were brutally annoying. But whatever, that is just the way it goes sometimes, you just gotta deal with it. Anyway we teed off the back 9 first so that we could speed things up a little, so I start out just fine two putting the first two greens for pars. Then on the par 5 12th I go driver, 6 iron to about 20 feet. I'm thinkin "this is a skinable hole worth at least $100 if I can just make this putt". So I stand over this 20 footer, right to left up hill, and Matt (CPGA pro) says to me just before I take it back... "it's uphill Schaubs" so boom I hit it a little harder and BAM! I make it for the eagle... woo hoo!! celebration begins as the 6 of us know that usually a 3 is good on this long par 5... NOPE. Some other dude ended up making a 3 as well. 0 for 1. So what do i do the very next hole but hit it in the water, drop, out of bounds, drop, on the green and two putt for a 7 (a quad!!). Back to 2 over. Yadda yadda yadda, I get on the 18th (my 9th hole) and make a good birdie. Make the turn and go driver, 6 iron to 5 feet for another eagle try and another possible skin... BOOM! I make it for my second eagle of the day... and it holds up for a nice $109 win. Birde the next two holes as well to go 5 under in 4 holes, make a few bogies and limp in for a 69 (par 67). Short course, challenging, but making those eagles were easily the highlight. Go to soccer that night and score two goals and we win 9-7. The Canucks lose that night to Colorado 2-1, but the beers were flowin, and it was a great day overall. One I will remember for a while.